Good Guys 4, Losers 0

A sweep! Obama simply CRUSHED McCain in the final debate, sealing the Republican fraud master's doom. McCain tried every lie, threw every false argument, tried every trick. None of it worked. Barack mopped the floor with him. Here's a summary of the good news here:

Over at CNN, a separate poll of several hundred debate watchers again favored the Democrat by large margins: 58 percent for Obama to McCain's 31 percent. Perhaps more importantly, McCain's favorable rating dropped 51 to 49 while his unfavorable rating increased from 45 percent to 49 percent. Obama ended up with 66 percent favorable rating.

Digging into the details the news is even worse for the Arizona Republican.

Asked who "expressed his views more clearly" 66 percent said Obama, 25 percent said McCain.

"Who spent their time attacking his opponent:" 80 percent said McCain, seven percent said Obama. "Who seemed to be the stronger leader:" 56 percent for Obama, 39 percent for McCain. And who was "more likeable:" 70 percent for Obama to McCain's 22 percent.

Ha ha! And Obama even won the Fox News focus group. Oh, that's gotta sting!

Three debate victories out of three for Obama. A decisive debate victory for Biden. Four and Oh, Baby!

Keep working! Keep contributing! Keep the pressure on! Go for the landslide! 

The Democratic Party is on the march!

An Important Public Service Announcement!

Jon Stewart Reaches New Heights of Brilliance

More on Palin, the WORST Major Party Candidate in Modern History

Ah, bless the people over at Sarah Palin's Skeleton Closet for their thoroughness in gutting, and I mean GUTTING the record of my least favorite right wing dictator-wannabe. It's a treasure trove, an embarrassment of riches! Let's look at some, shall we?

Cronyism - Hiring Unqualified Friends for High-Paid Government Jobs

As both mayor and governor, Palin immediately fired lots of highly skilled, experienced staff and replaced them with "her people." What that means in practice is that Alaskan government now has tons of Wasilla residents, high school friends of Palin and members of her church in high positions, in $80,000 -$120,000 a year jobs, despite minimal or no qualifications.

For example, she named Franci Havemeister (a high school friend) as director of Alaska's Department of Agriculture at $95,000. Asked for her qualifications, the former real estate agent said that she loved cows as a kid.

[And much more]

Abuse of Power

Sarah Palin is extremely vindictive. In a unique twist, she attacks not only her own enemies but even people who have divorced her friends. The most famous case of course is her sister's ex-husband, Mike Wooten (an Alaskan state trooper). Palin's pursuit of him (and her husband Todd's pursuit) is somewhere north of abuse of power and just south of flat-out stalking; she and aides following her orders may actually face criminal prosecution for actions such as opening confidential Workers' Compensation files to use against him.

A bipartisan investigation issued a 263-page report - with a confidential 700 page appendix -- meticulously documenting how Palin and her husband abused power by using the governor's office to hound Wooten. 36 times, Palin, Todd or one of their staff members contacted the office of the chief State Trooper to express anger that Wooten was still employed. They even found out he was going to appear in costume as "Safety Bear" at the Alaska State Fair and got him removed. When a year and a half of this did not get Wooten fired (he was protected by a union), Sarah Palin fired Wooten's boss, and claimed Wooten was not the reason. (But when her staff called his successor, and then interviewed him, they asked about Wooten each time and didn't mention any of the other 262 troopers.)

[And much more]

Liar

I know, I know, "every politician lies." Well, no, that's not true. All politicians spin things to sound good for them, leave out inconvenient details, and make promises that they don't actually keep. But very few will flat-out lie to your face, when it's easy to prove that they are lying, and keep doing it even after they have been caught. Sarah Palin is that kind of liar. The most famous example is the "Bridge to Nowhere" but there are many. In her debate against Joe Biden, she said she and McCain supported letting bankruptcy courts restructure homeowner's mortgages (a lie) and repeatedly said Biden supported John McCain on Iraq until he was chosen as Obama's running mate (a flat-out lie. In fact, Palin also attacked Biden for opposing the surge, which he did, so she herself proved that she was lying). Palin also claimed that her administration fought to divest Alaska's investments in Sudan, because of the genocide in Darfur. That's also a lie. Her administration actually opposed a divestment bill, killing it. (At the very end of the session they said they support it, but too late get it passed.) In any case, she has the power to divest today, without any legislative action, but the state still holds $22 million of investments. When Katie Couric asked for an example of McCain pushing to regulate Wall Street, she said "I'll get back to ya on that" when she clearly had no intention of doing so (and of course didn't). There are dozens of examples. These aren't mistakes -- they are full, knowing lies.

The Bridge to Nowhere lie was amazing because, even after being caught lying, she kept repeating it every day for 10 days. It was as if she thought she could outlast the press, because if they kept pointing out that she was lying every day, it would look like they were biased against her. But, of course, when a candidate blatantly lies and keeps repeating the lie, that is in fact news. Most politicians either quietly drop the lie, or find weasel words that make it not exactly a lie. Palin kept repeating "I killed that Bridge to Nowhere and told the federal government, 'Thanks but no thanks. If we want a bridge, we'll build it ourselves.'" Except that Alaska (and Palin) DID want the bridge, and fought for it for years. She officially ended the program only after they lost the fight to get the feds to pay for it. And not only did Alaska (with NO taxes and billions in surplus oil revenue) not pay for it, they actually KEPT the federal money and used it for other projects -- including a $26 million road to nowhere on that same island, that stopped in a cul de sac right where the bridge would have been.

Feathers Her Own Nest

Sarah Palin claims to be a reformer who cleaned up the corrupt Republican political structure in Alaska, and she is definitely cleaner than the many Alaskan officeholders indicted or convicted for accepting bribes and other crimes. But "not a convict yet" isn't the same as being honest.

The most blatant abuse is that Palin pocketed $17,000 in government travel expense payments for food and lodging for the 312 nights she slept in her own house. She also pocketed over $40,000 in travel allowances for both her and her husband Todd, who is not a government employee, got him a state-paid Blackberry, and took her daughter to stay in a luxury New York hotel on the state's dime. Her excuse? She didn't take as much travel money as her predecessor Frank Murkowski. True, but she was only elected because Alaskans were so disgusted with him, so that's not saying much.

[More]

Ties to Militant Right Wing Party

The Alaska Independence Party is a radical group registered as a political party in Alaska. It calls for Alaska to leave the United States (to enjoy its oil wealth, no doubt) and claims that the Alaskan statehood vote was illegal. But that doesn't begin to describe the AIP's extremism. Its founder Joe Volger said "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won't be buried under their damn flag." Volger is dead but still celebrated on the AIP website. He died in 1994 when a blackmarket deal to buy plastic explosives went bad. His body was found in a gravel pit east of Fairbanks, wrapped with a blue tarp and duct tape.

Official voter registration records show that Palin was never an official member, but her husband Todd was, from 1995 to 2002, and Palin attended several of their meetings and conventions. (The McCain campaign confirms that she attended their 2000 convention; AIP officials add that she also attended in 1994 and 2006). Several officials of the party thought Sarah Palin was a member before she became Wasilla mayor, and said so publicly. (One of them went on to say that members should "infiltrate mainstream parties.") As recently as this year (2008), Sarah Palin taped a special video for the AIP's convention, saying "we have a great promise to be a self-sufficient state" and "Keep up the good work and God bless you."

And the right wing assholes at her mini-Nuremberg Rallies shrieking "Kill him!" (in reference to Obama) just love her. She is one of the most dangerous, criminally dishonest politicians in America, and she needs to be not only wiped out on 4 November, but she needs to be turned out of office in Alaska so she can never threaten our dear Republic again.

The Voice of the Republican "Base": "TRAITOR! TERRORIST! KILL HIM!"

I'm sorry if it offends you, but the people who say this garbage--including Palin--are just radical right wing scum.

These are the people from whom a potential assassin of Obama would come. And these are the people who would cheer if Obama were murdered.

THE TIMOTHY McVEIGH WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

Sarah Palin's ASTOUNDING Lies

This woman is one of the most dishonest people I have EVER seen in public life, and that includes people like "Dick" Cheney and Cockroach Man, aka Tom DeLay. Her lying is simply amazing in its brazenness.

Todd Palin and the Traitors of the Alaskan Independence Party

Todd Palin, husband of pathological liar and right wing radical Sarah Palin, was a registered member of the Alaskan Independence Party from 1995 to 2002. Documentation here.

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, said Todd Palin twice registered under the Alaskan Independence Party — in 1995 and 2000. Some members of the party have advocated secession from the United States, though that is not a goal listed in the party's platform.

Not a goal listed?!?  Then what are we to make of this? From the website of the Alaskan Independence Party:

ALASKA FIRST!

Until we as Alaskans receive our Ultimate Goal, the AIP will continue to strive to make Alaska a better place to live with less government interference in our everyday lives.

The Alaskan Independence Party's goal is the vote we were entitled to in 1958, one choice from among the following four alternatives:

1) Remain a Territory.
2) Become a separate and Independent Nation.
3) Accept Commonwealth status.
4) Become a State.

The call for this vote is in furtherance of the dream of the Alaskan Independence Party's founding father, Joe Vogler, which was for Alaskans to achieve independence under a minimal government, fully responsive to the people, promoting a peaceful and lawful means of resolving differences.

And who exactly was Joe Vogler? Check these quotes out:

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

"And I won't be buried under their damn flag," Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. "I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

At another point, Volger advocated renouncing allegiance to the United States. In the course of denouncing Federal regulation over land, he said:

"And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska."

So let's see if I have this straight: Todd Palin, husband of the Republican candidate for president, was a member of a political party that is frankly pushing TREASON against the United States, and this isn't a problem with the right wingers? And perky little Sarah has been playing footsie with these traitors, too.

Now why in the hell would you videotape a welcoming message to a party of anti-American traitors? Whatever happened to "Country First", the bullshit slogan of the McCain-Palin campaign?

Oh, and one other thing: Joe Vogler was being sponsored by the government of Iran. Check it out here:

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, “When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.”

This quote is from “Coming Into the Country,” by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska’s remote gold mining country with Vogler for his 1991 book. The violent-tempered secessionist vowed to McPhee that if any federal official tried to stop him from polluting Alaska’s rivers with his earth-moving equipment, he would “run over him with a Cat and turn mosquitoes loose on him while he dies.”

Vogler wasn’t just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 — an impressive figure by Alaska standards — and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.

Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States “tyranny” before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

That’s right … Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.  [End of excerpt]

What in the hell is going on here? Republican idiots at Palin rallies are screaming "Kill him" and "Traitor" and "Terrorist" in reference to Barack Obama, while the Palins are associated with actual, real-life traitors and secessionists. And the Republicans have the g-d damned nerve to question Obama's loyalty?

As I said, just what in the hell is going on here?

Stripping the Klan Hood Off of the Political Right

Democratic Strategist has the goods here. Right wing Republican hate propagandists and their cretinous listeners and readers are spreading the lie that "minorities" are responsible for the economic crash because of all their defaulted mortgages. Naturally, Neo-Nazi Ann Coulter is leading the charge. The spectacularly vicious lies these people are telling reflect their deep seated hatred and stubborn racist attitiudes. 

Republican political consultant Lee Atwater was right:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can't say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger".

And now, the Republicans have their new variation on "nigger, nigger, nigger"--the economic crisis is all their fault. The Republican-led elimination of regulation in 1999 and 2000 had nothing to do with it--it's all the fault of the lazy, shiftless, welfare-queen Negroes. (And don't forget the Latinos--some right wing cretin on Lou Dobbs this week said that 5 million illegal alien mortgages have failed, a figure which he has pulled out of the deepest regions of his ass.)

The hard-right conservatives will NEVER change. From their opposition to abolishing slavery in the new Constitution to their starting of the Civil War to their Jim Crow tactics and lynching to their ferocious opposition to civil rights in the modern era, they will never change. Well, almost never. Because you see, as far as the right wingers are concerned,  everything that's wrong isn't just the fault of the "niggers". There's the "spics", too.

BTW, Coulter is trying to spread the bullshit that McCain was "exonerated" in the Keating Five scandal. The truth of the matter is here.

John McCain is Mentally Unstable and Is Not Fit to Be President

More damning evidence:

Ahh, the Glorious Republican "Base"

They're pretty damned base, all right. Check this out:

MY VERY DEAR RAMPANT READERS:

I will be out of town starting Sunday morning and I won't be back until Friday. I have a very, very special request of you. Please consider contributing to my Personal Barack Obama Contributions Page here.

Why? Because this election isn't won yet.

Because McCain is desperate and will slime and smear Barack Obama relentlessly in the last 30 days.

Because Sarah Palin has a 1 in 5 chance of being president if McCain somehow wins.

Because in order to bury the right wing lunatics that are killing our nation's future, we need to win BIG.

And that takes money. I know times are tough, but it's kind of interesting--the more you give now, the better off you'll be later.

Think of it as a good investment.

PLEASE GIVE ANYTHING YOU CAN,  $5, $10, ANYTHING AT ALL.

The Country You Save May Be Your Own.

Yes, McCain Wants to TAX YOUR HEALTH CARE BENEFITS!

This needs to go VIRAL! Help us out! Pass it on!

McCain's SHOCKINGLY Anti-Veteran Voting Record and His APPALLINGLY BAD JUDGMENT on Iraq

Check both of them out here, courtesy of VoteVets. The record is nothing short of astonishing. Highlights:

Voting Against Veterans

Veterans Groups Give McCain Failing Grades. In its most recent legislative ratings, the non-partisan Disabled American Veterans gave Sen. McCain a 20 percent rating for his voting record on veterans' issues. Similarly, the non-partisan Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a "D" grade for his poor voting record on veterans' issues, including McCain's votes against additional body armor for troops in combat and additional funding for PTSD and TBI screening and treatment.

McCain Voted Against Increased Funding for Veterans' Health Care. Although McCain told voters at a campaign rally that improving veterans' health care was his top domestic priority, he voted against increasing funding for veterans' health care in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. (Greenville News, 12/12/2007; S.Amdt. 2745 to S.C.R. 95, Vote 40, 3/10/04; Senate S.C.R. 18, Vote 55, 3/16/05; S.Amdt. 3007 to S.C.R. 83, Vote 41, 3/14/06; H.R. 1591, Vote 126, 3/29/07)

McCain Voted At Least 28 Times Against Veterans' Benefits, Including Healthcare. Since arriving in the U.S. Senate in 1987, McCain has voted at least 28 times against ensuring important benefits for America's veterans, including providing adequate healthcare. (2006 Senate Vote #7, 41, 63, 67, 98, 222; 2005 Senate Votes #55, 89, 90, 251, 343; 2004 Senate Votes #40, 48, 145; 2003 Senate Votes #74, 81, 83; 1999 Senate Vote #328; 1998 Senate Vote #175; 1997 Senate Vote #168; 1996 Senate Votes #115, 275; 1995 Senate Votes #76, 226, 466; 1994 Senate Vote #306; 1992 Senate Vote #194; 1991 Senate Vote #259)

McCain Voted Against Providing Automatic Cost-of-Living Adjustments to Veterans. McCain voted against providing automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments for certain veterans' benefits. (S. 869, Vote 259, 11/20/91)

McCain Voted to Underfund Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain voted for an appropriations bill that underfunded the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development by $8.9 billion. (H.R. 2099, Vote 470, 9/27/95)

McCain Voted Against a $13 Billion Increase in Funding for Veterans Programs. McCain voted against an amendment to increase spending on veterans programs by $13 billion. (S.C.R. 57, Vote 115, 5/16/96)

McCain Voted Against $44.3 Billion for Veterans Programs. McCain was one of five senators to vote against a bill providing $44.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, plus funding for other federal agencies. (H.R. 2684, Vote 328, 10/15/99)

McCain Voted Against $47 Billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain was one of eight senators to vote against a bill that provided $47 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs. (H.R. 4635, Vote 272, 10/12/00)

McCain Voted Against $51 Billion in Veterans Funding. McCain was one of five senators to vote against the bill and seven to vote against the conference report that provided $51.1 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as funding for the federal housing, environmental and emergency management agencies and NASA. (H.R. 2620, Vote 334, 11/8/01; Vote 269, 8/2/01)

McCain Voted Against $122.7 Billion for Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain voted against an appropriations bill that included $122.7 billion in fiscal 2004 for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and other related agencies. (H.R. 2861, Vote 449, 11/12/03)

McCain Opposed $500 Million for Counseling Services for Veterans with Mental Disorders. McCain voted against an amendment to appropriate $500 million annually from 2006-2010 for counseling, mental health and rehabilitation services for veterans diagnosed with mental illness, posttraumatic stress disorder or substance abuse. (S. 2020, S.Amdt. 2634, Vote 343, 11/17/05)

McCain opposed an Assured Funding Stream for Veterans' Health Care. McCain opposed providing an assured funding stream for veterans' health care, taking into account annual changes in veterans' population and inflation. (S.Amdt. 3141 to S.C.R. 83, Vote 63, 3/16/06)
McCain Voted Against Adding More Than $400 Million for Veterans' Care. McCain was one of 13 Republicans to vote against providing an additional $430 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs for outpatient care and treatment for veterans. (S.Amdt. 3642 to H.R. 4939, Vote 98, 4/26/06)

McCain Supported Outsourcing VA Jobs. McCain opposed an amendment that would have prevented the Department of Veterans Affairs from outsourcing jobs, many held by blue-collar veterans, without first giving the workers a chance to compete. (S.Amdt. 2673 to H.R. 2642, Vote 315, 9/6/07)

McCain Opposed the 21st Century GI Bill Because It Was Too Generous. McCain did not vote on the GI Bill that will provide better educational opportunities to veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, paying full tuition at in-state schools and living expenses for those who have served at least three years since the 9/11 attacks. McCain said he opposes the bill because he thinks the generous benefits would "encourage more people to leave the military." (S.Amdt. 4803 to H.R. 2642, Vote 137, 5/22/08; Chattanooga Times Free Press, 6/2/08; Boston Globe, 5/23/08; ABCNews.com, 5/26/08)

Cheerleading for War with Iraq--While Afghanistan was Unfinished

McCain suggested that the war in Iraq could be won with a "smaller" force. "But the fact is I think we could go in with much smaller numbers than we had to do in the past. But I don't believe it's going to be nearly the size and scope that it was in 1991." (CBS News, Face the Nation, 9/15/02)

McCain said winning the war would be "easy." "I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women." (CNN, 9/24/02)

McCain also said the actual fighting in Iraq would be easy. "We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we're not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies." (CNN, 9/29/02)

Continuing his pattern, McCain also said on MSNBC that we would win the war in Iraq "easily." "But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily." (MSNBC, 1/22/03)

McCain argued Saddam was "a threat of the first order." Senator McCain said that a policy of containing Iraq to blunt its weapons of mass destruction program is "unsustainable, ineffective, unworkable and dangerous." McCain: "I believe Iraq is a threat of the first order, and only a change of regime will make Iraq a state that does not threaten us and others, and where liberated people assume the rights and responsibilities of freedom." (Speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, 2/13/03)

McCain echoed Bush and Cheney's rationale for going to war. McCain: "We're going to win this victory. Tragically, we will lose American lives. But it will be brief. We're going to find massive evidence of weapons of mass destruction . . . It's going to send the message throughout the Middle East that democracy can take hold in the Middle East." (Fox News, Hannity & Colmes, 2/21/03).

Now, it's bad enough that McCain spits in the face of the American people by his constant lies. It's even worse that he wants to foist an empty-headed right wing clown like Sarah Palin on a dangerous world. But it's really the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty when McCain says that he "loves" veterans. BULLSHIT. And it's just a damned lie when he talks about how "right" he was about Iraq. ALSO BULLSHIT.

I am convinced the only way this lying, vicious, callous human being can win is by cheating. With only 4 and one-half weeks to go, I am convinced this is EXACTLY what he will try to do.

Democrats, don't let this veterans-hating fool steal what is rightfully yours!!

The Republicans Explain Why Palin Can't Hold a Press Conference

Er, so I guess that rules out Meet the Press, This Week, and Face the Nation, too.

CNN Post-Debate Poll Says It All

Is Joe Biden qualified to be president?

87% say yes.

Is Sarah Palin qualified to be president?

42% say yes.

Details can be found here.

She Still Doesn't Know Squat

Fred Kaplan explains here.

I'll say it again: Palin is a fraud, a lying, dangerous ignoramus whose elevation to high office would be a disaster for America.

The Winner By a Country Mile--JOE BIDEN!

In tonight's debate, Joe Biden poured out a lifetime of service to America.

Preening fraud Sarah Palin regurgitated talking points crammed into her.

Joe Biden's answers came from a distinguished career, one in which he has made enormous contributions to our country, and from his deep and profound experience.

Sarah Palin's "answers" (she avoided almost all questions) came from briefing books she had studied for a week.

Joe Biden showed genuine humanity.

Sarah Palin was shallow and phony.

The American people saw the truth. The surveys taken after the debate (CBS, CNN, MediaCurves) showed an OVERWHELMING VICTORY FOR BIDEN.

Change is coming to America.

Count on it.

(Photo hat tip: Al Rodgers)

McCain Camp: All Palin Has to Do Is Be "Joe Sixpack"

I mean, who really gives a rat's ass whether she actually knows anything?:

It was the ultimate setting of expectations -- a political get-out-of-jail-free card should Palin stumble this evening. And it wasn't an isolated incident. Over on Fox News, Chris Wallace was relaying a conversation with a McCain "strategist" in which the metrics for debate success were once again defined in strictly personal terms.

"They say they want to show that she is plain spoken, that she relates to Joe Six-Pack and embrace the contrast her to a smooth-talking Washington insider like Joe Biden," Wallace reported. "I said: 'But what if she does not know some of the answer to something?' They said, 'Look, she should not be embarrassed by that. She should say 'I'm not a Washington insider. I'm going to learn about that but I was a reformer in Alaska and I shook things up.'"

Earlier in the day on Fox News, McCain aide Meg Stapleton was also playing up Palin's "Joe Six-Pack" attributes, even arguing that Palin's "experience as an ordinary American" qualified her to be "one heartbeat away" from the Oval Office... "god forbid.

Yes, these are the "patriotic" Republicans, people are ready to place an ignorant, radical right wing clown in the Oval Office, the well-being of America be damned. Never in my life of following American politics have I seen such ruthless cynicism and such utter disregard for the well-being of our country. John McCain's utter contempt for the rest of America could not possibly be any clearer. And by the way, it doesn't matter if Caribou Barbie manages to get through the debate this evening without completely melting down. If you want to see the real Palin, check this out, if you can stand it--in all honesty, I can't watch all of it:




IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY CRAM HER HEAD FULL OF SOUND BITES AND ZINGERS AND BUZZ WORDS. SHE STILL HAS NO FREAKING BUSINESS BEING NEAR THE WHITE HOUSE, EXCEPT ON THE VISITORS' TOUR.

I just wanted to be clear.

I Have Nothing to Add

NO "LOWERED EXPECTATIONS" FOR PALIN

In the first presidential debate in 2000, Al Gore made George W. Bush look like a complete idiot. Gore had a total command of facts and logic. He spoke brilliantly. Bush spoke like a semi-coherent, bumbling fool. I was more than happy at the end of it. If it had been a prize fight, the referees would have stopped it. It was that one sided.

Imagine my shock and disbelief when the major media outlets declared that Bush had won the debate. And how had he supposedly pulled this off? He had exceeded expectations. Since Bush had neither fainted, wet himself, nor vomited, he therefore had "won the expectations game". I was amazed. But that's how the debate was presented, and Gore's campaign was hurt by it. It's part of the reason the Republicans were able to get the election close enough to steal in 2000.

Now, we are hearing about low expectations for Sarah Palin in her Thursday debate with Senator Joe Biden. We are hearing that if Palin "exceeds expectations" she will be the winner.

I only have one thing to say to that:

BULLSHIT.

Anyone who has been able to force himself or herself to watch Palin's interviews with Katie Couric has to have come away with the absolute conviction that Palin is a dangerous, shockingly ignorant know nothing.  She cannot name a SINGLE publication she reads on a regular basis. She cannot form a coherent sentence about the financial crisis. She knows absolutely NOTHING about any major national issue. She still thinks proximity to Russia equals foreign policy experience. (!!) She lies habitually. In short, she is wretchedly unprepared to be Vice President, or, GOD FORBID, President should the need arise. Hence the lowered expectations for her debate performance. But nothing could be more dishonest, and nothing could be more harmful to America's future, than to let Palin gain political advantage from her own lies and ignorance. 

PALIN CHOSE TO TRY TO RUN WITH THE BIG DOGS. She could have turned McCain down when (after having met her on one occasion!) he offered the Vice Presidency to her. But she didn't. She accepted it, eagerly. In her ugly speech to the Republican HateFest, she embraced the role of attack dog with enthusiasm. She has put herself into the national spotlight. The fact that her glaring deficiencies are now being mercilessly exposed DOES NOT GIVE HER A FREE PASS IN THE DEBATE. If she can't even do more than simply repeat canned answers that have been drummed into her, then why is she entitled to be declared a debate "winner". SHE MUST BE HELD TO THE HIGHEST STANDARD. She is seeking, in effect, the presidency, for God's sake. If she can't measure up there, she won't have the benefit of "lowered expectations". She'll simply fail horrifically.

And take everyone else in America with her.

No lowered expectations, by God! If she can't think on her feet and do more than give laughable sound bites in response to serious questions, then there will be only one word for her:

LOSER.

If McCain Wins, There is a 1 in 5 Chance That Palin Will Become President

Yes, one in five. Those are the actuarial odds for a 72 year old man with a history of cancer.

Yes, Sarah Palin could end up in the White House.

Yes, your votes are crucially important in stopping this tragedy from happening.

But your money is needed, too.  

PLEASE GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN HERE:

Our nation's future depends on what each of us does now. The election is 5 weeks from tomorrow.

You'll thank yourself when McCain has to go back to the Senate, and Palin has to crawl back to Alaska with her tail between her legs.

THANK YOU FOR WHATEVER YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE!!

The Official Symbol of the McCain Campaign

McCain (Once Again) Falls Flat on His Face

The Wall Street bailout bill has failed in the House. Sixty per cent of the House Democrats voted FOR it; 67% of the House Republicans voted AGAINST it. McCain was, idiotically and prematurely, crowing about how his "leadership" (ha!) had gotten the bailout done, and then the House Republicans torpedoed the bill. Now McCain is trying to blame Obama and the Democrats for the collapse.  My God, what a complete loser this clown McCain is.

BTW, the Republicans voted against the bill BECAUSE IT DIDN'T ABOLISH THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX AND IT DIDN'T WIPE OUT ALL GOVERNMENT REGULATION. Their opposition had NOTHING to do with the interests of ordinary Americans. NOTHING.

Wall Street is getting clobbered today. The real adult in this crisis, the real leader, the truly presidential figure here, Barack Obama, is working to get a bill through that will both ease Wall Street's financial worries and protect the interests of working Americans. The contrast between Obama's calm, mature judgment and McCain's craven, lying childishness, is overwhelming.

There really is only one choice for America's future.

Hey! Where Was Palin in the Post-Debate Spin?

Doesn't the party's VP candidate usually go on all the TV news shows and go on and on about what a great job the presidential candidate did? Palin was nowhere to be seen. Why, it's as if the McCain campaign is hiding her. It's as if they're embarrassed by her. It's as if they're ashamed of her. It's as if they don't think she can string two coherent sentences together at once. It's as if they're afraid that she'll come off like an utterly ignorant, completely unprepared, totally unqualified radical right wing airhead.

Have you EVER seen such a wretchedly bad Republican ticket? Pathetic. Simply pathetic.

In Memory of Paul Newman

A great actor, a great man, a great activist who devoted himself to progressive causes and the well-being of other humans generally. Paul will always have a place in my memory, and he will always be remembered as one of the artistic giants of his time. He will definitely be missed. (You can find a good summary of his life here.)

He will ALWAYS be the coolest.

The Clear Debate Winner: Obama

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

No, McCain DID NOT "Suspend His Campaign"

His commercials are running, his headquarters are all busy, and his surrogates are telling outright lies on national TV even as we speak. He's also speechmaking, as well. In other words, all that talk about suspending his campaign was lying BULLSHIT.

Oh, and McCain has screwed up the bailout deal by demanding MORE deregulation and other perks for the grifters that caused this mess. He's a one man bubonic plague epidemic in the U.S. economy.

I thought Bush and Cheney made a wretchedly bad team. They look like Founding Fathers next to McCain and Palin, the two worst candidates any major political party has ever offered for national office.

PLEASE GIVE TO OBAMA!

My contributions page is right here.

No, by God, No!

Pathetic Sarah Palin is AGAIN trying to convince us that proximity to Russia=knowledge of Russia. Her latest absolutely idiotic contention? Since Russian political leaders sometimes fly over Alaska, this adds to her knowledge of Russia. She ACTUALLY SAID THIS to Katie Couric.

Is this nation turning into an insane asylum? How can this election still be relatively close? How can Obama and Biden not be 30 points ahead? Palin is not only a pathological liar, she's one of these frightening ignoramuses who doesn't realize how ignorant she actually is. She has a sort of Bold Idiocy, a completely unwarranted confidence in her own abilities. She's also buddies with a demented African preacher who prays that she will be protected from witchcraft. FROM WITCHCRAFT, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

No. Hell no. By God, no. I will not accept this woman as a national leader. If by some grotesque turn of events she ends up in the Oval Office, I will be part of a national movement to remove her from it. I'm drawing the line here and now.

To paraphrase the French at Verdun, SHE SHALL NOT PASS!

By the way, I speak some Russian, I have visited Russia, and I have studied Russian history and politics. That makes me one hell of a lot more qualified than Caribou Barbie, the Alaska Disasta!

YEAH! A Marine's Mom Tears the Guts Out of McCain!

It's in all its outraged power and glory right here. She's mad as hell and she lets McCain have it. Excerpts:


I'm talking about Blue Star Families for Obama, an energetic group of active-duty military families who, although they respect the military service and sacrifice of John McCain, nonetheless believe passionately that Barack Obama is a far better choice for commander-in-chief.

http://www.bsf4o.com/

The decision to support Obama for president by many military families is not an emotional one. It is based on careful study of his long history of supporting legislation that provides the best care and opportunities for our nation's veterans and those still in service. A comparison of Obama's senate voting record with John McCain's by major veteran's groups is not even close. He has voted in favor of veteran's benefits and attention to the troops something like 80% of the time in comparison to McCain's 20%. A case in point, as we all know by now, is the recently passed updated version of the G.I. Bill....

...as a Marine mom who has sent a son to Iraq to fight twice, and three nephews four other times, I know the question I would like to see asked of John McCain, because I never see anybody else ask it of him.

But then, why should they?

Less than one-half of one percent of our nation's population has been asked to fight two wars over the past seven years. They've been asked to fight it over and over again.

They've been dragged out of physical rehab from war wounds and sent to fight it again. They've been pulled away from suicide-watch and shipped off to fight again. They've been sent to fight it, spent a year or more there risking their lives daily, and then, while in line to catch the plane for glorious home at last--been pulled away and told to remain in-country another month or two, during which time, more than a few of those who'd been ready to catch the plane home wind up doing so in a flag-draped casket.

This army has been abused in ways I've never seen in my lifetime, and their families have paid a crippling price. Divorce, spousal abuse, child abuse, suicide, cases of PTSD--every single measure of extremely high levels of stress available shows dangerously high levels of it in the military. Junior officers and non-commissioned officers, those lieutenants and sergeants who tend to be combat platoon and squad leaders and absorb some of the worst horrors of war when they not only risk their own lives, but feel responsible for the lives of everyone under them--are fleeing the service in such large numbers that a serious shortage has resulted.

Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have expressed grave worries of the strains on our nation's military to their commander-in-chief.


Not that he [McCain] cares or has listened.


The question she wants answered is this:

Just where does McCain intend to get the troops for all the wars he intends to fight?

She wants an ANSWER and she wants it now.

So do I.

The McCain Campaign Has Been Exposed for the Fraud It Is

Senator McCain has called for the postponing of the first presidential debate on Friday. He says all of his efforts must go into "solving" the financial crisis.

What a joke. It was McCain's allies who triggered the crisis by working behind the scenes to repeal the regulations that had kept some semblance of rationality in the financial markets. It was McCain himself who spoke out in favor of deregulating financial institutions. It was McCain's candidate for Secretary of the Treasury, Phil Gramm, who is more responsible than any other person for this mess. And Johnny Boy says he's going to help fix things? What a crock. By the way, just what exactly can he do in Washington? He hasn't shown up for his job since April. He's missed many, many key votes. The only thing he's going to do in Washington is pose for photos and act like he's doing something. Truly a farce.

Why is he really "suspending" his campaign and calling for a postponement of the debate? It's simple:

HE'S LOSING. AND HE KNOWS IT. 

This is just a ridiculous stunt, and one more sign of the McCain campaign's bottomless contempt for the American people. He thinks Americans are stupid and inattentive, and he thinks he can lie to them a thousand times and they'll buy it. He's wrong.

And meanwhile, the most sickeningly unqualified candidate for vice president in our history is sealed tightly in her media cocoon. After having made a fool of herself talking to ABC's Charles Gibson, she has limited her "interviews" to a laughable infomercial on Fox "News" with greasy little punk Sean Hannity. She will not submit to a news conference because the McCain campaign knows the truth: Her selection was nothing more than a gimmick, designed to try to sucker women into voting for a woman who is against all major women's rights. Palin is now sinking like a stone in public opinion polling, and deservedly so.

Finally, I'll say this, and some of you may vehemently disagree: if Barack Obama were a white male named John Smith he'd be 15 to 20 points ahead and the pundits would be talking about this election in Johnson-Goldwater terms. But he isn't. He's an African American with a strange name. I can think of no other reason that this election is even close (although Obama is now clearly in the lead.) We have in the Democratic presidential candidate a brilliant, insightful, thoughtful, knowledgeable, enormously talented man, a true LEADER in every sense of the word, backed up by the U.S. Senate's top foreign policy expert, Joe Biden. In the Republican presidential candidate we have an emotionally unstable, corrupt, lying, ethically bankrupt man

who has amazingly little to show for a 26 year career in Congress, backed up by a right wing fanatic with no real knowledge or expertise on any issue, someone who argues that she has "foreign policy" knowledge because her state is close to Russia!!  As I said, if Barack were white, this thing wouldn't even be close.

Seldom has our choice been so clear or so stark. We can go with the modern day FDR, or we can go with Herbert Hoover McCain, one of the principal architects of the utterly unneeded war in Iraq and the terrifying economic crisis with which we are now confronted. In Obama we have a steady hand, a sound mind, excellent judgment, and a capacity for greatness. In McCain we have a violent temper, shockingly bad judgment, and a craven desire to win at any cost. He is a dishonorable man in every way.

Whether our country has a fighting chance or whether it continues to swirl down to its destruction now depends on you and me. I fervently hope and pray that we make the right choice. We may not get another chance.

Despite McCain's LIES, His Campaign Manager Was a Mortgage Lobbyist

And right up until last month, too. The New York Times has the irrefutable truth right here.

If this lying son of a bitch McCain and his equally disgusting, lying running mate Caribou Barbie get elected, we can kiss honest and decent government in this country goodbye--for keeps.

Howard Dean Tells the Truth (Yet Again)

"A Prescription for Disaster"

Again I ask: Is John McCain Dying?

And is he putting the entire world at risk with the choice of someone for vice president who thinks the earth is 7,000 years old, who thinks dinosaurs and humans lived together, whose church believes that Alaska will be a haven during the coming near annihilation of the human race, and who believes that she is personally directed by God?

This could not possibly be any more serious a matter.

Is Phil Gramm, McCain's Architect of Disaster, Helping to Shape the Bailout?

Seems that FOREIGN BANKS, like UBS, might be getting U.S. taxpayer money, too. That wasn't part of the original deal. Suddenly, it is.

Phil Gramm is the vice chairman of UBS's American division and a major lobbyist for the bank. In fact, UBS stands to gain BIG if foreign banks are part of the deal.

And ol' Phil is the McCain advisor who is, more than any other person, responsible for the deregulation that led to the financial collapse.

Josh Marshall has the story here.

I smell the stench of insider influence--again.

McCAIN'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER WAS A MAJOR LOBBYIST FOR MORTGAGE GIANTS!

That would be Rick Davis. Seems Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paid him TWO MILLION FREAKING DOLLARS to fight regulations. The New York Times has the story here. Excerpt:

...several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said.

Mr. Davis’s role with the group has bubbled up as an issue in the campaign, but the extent of his compensation and the details of his role have not been reported previously.

You know, folks, with McCain, you don't know what to be more angry and disgusted with: his constant, brazen lying, his sickening hypocrisy, or his seeming assumption that Americans are so stupid and gullible that they'll simply swallow his BS. This latest revelation is just another in a long line of incidents that reveal the McCain team's dishonesty and McCain's utter unfitness for office.

Is John McCain Dying?

A specialist in the generation and assembly of medical records speaks out here. Key excerpts:

Last week, when I got the letter from Robert Greenwald talking about John McCain's refusal to release his medical records to fair scrutiny, the fact that there are 1,000 pages of them (I create medical records for a living, 1,000 pages is EXTREME), and the news that he has had malignant melanoma, deep primaries with removal of lymph nodes, my immediate thought was "Then he's dying." If he were to be elected, he'd have an almost 2 out of 3 chance of having a recurrence if he doesn't have one already. This is not the kind of cancer you count on escaping from. This is not Stage II, as it has been reported: Stage II by definition does not have lymph node involvement. By definition, it must be either Stage III or Stage IV.

And she concludes:

If he is in fact a Dead Man Walking, then the choice of Sarah Palin as Vice President also becomes more than a Hail Mary pass intended to destroy any bounce from the wildly successful Democratic Convention. It becomes reckless in the extreme: Choosing an heir apparent who lies, engages in petty revenge, wants to know how to ban books, faithfully attends a church which believes dinosaurs were around 4000 years ago and Jews are punished by God for not believing in Jesus, has less foreign policy experience than a Delta flight attendant, doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is, and has less than two years experience governing a state with a population less than that of Wichita, Kansas or Raleigh, North Carolina.

We know that the secret cabal, the Council for National Policy, who hopes to replace American democracy with religious rule (THEIR religion, not yours), are the people who investigated Sarah Palin and "chose" her for McCain as his VP. Since he accepted their decision, fundamentalist organizations have thrown themselves behind his campaign in a way they had not before. It raises the question of a deal. What would a dying man have to offer power brokers in order to have their backing for the U.S. Presidency?

Quite the deathbed request that would be.

Are you as alarmed as I am at the moment?

Andrew Sullivan RIPS Palin (and McCain)

McCAIN LIES: On Alternative Energy

Lying fraud John McCain claims to be a friend of the environment and a proponent of alternative energy. Both of these are incredible falsehoods. Joseph Romm in Salon has the story here:

Recently the Associated Press noted that "McCain has not shown up for eight Senate votes last year and this year to extend [renewable energy] tax credits, which expire at the end of this year. The last such vote was July 30." Yet at an Aspen Institute meeting in August, when McCain was asked about those missed votes, he simply lied to the audience.

"I have a long record of that support of alternate energy," McCain said. "I come from a state where we have sunshine 360 days a year ... I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote."

In fact, on Dec. 13, 2007, the Senate was considering a bill to spend $13 billion on renewable power over five years. The cloture vote to allow the amendment to be brought to the Senate floor required 60 votes; it received 59 for, 40 against, and one senator absent. Yes, you guessed it: No McCain. A spokesman later said he would have voted to block the bill.

Again, in February, the Senate tried to include in a stimulus package an extension of the renewable tax credit, plus nearly $3 billion more for alternate energy. The cloture vote again failed 59-40-1. And again, McCain's absence didn't kill an unpopular alternative energy bill -- it stopped a popular bill from even coming to a vote.

Yet McCain continues to insist: "I have not missed any crucial vote." He would seem to be either a practiced liar who can fake sincerity, a pathological liar who believes his lies, or a man with simply no memory of key events several months earlier.

As for McCain's "long record of that support of alternate energy," consider the votes on renewable energy funding and a federal "renewable portfolio standard" (RPS) that he did show up for this decade:

Tax credits for clean energy R&D (2001)
Require a 20 percent RPS where utilities buy 20 percent clean energy ('02)
Reduce 20 percent RPS requirement ('02)
Waive 20 percent RPS if utilities balk ('02)
Increase clean energy R&D funding ('05)
Clean energy incentives ('05)
An RPS to require utilities [to] buy some clean energy ('05)
Tax oil companies windfall profits to fund clean energy ('05)

In every case, McCain voted against renewables, as did Sen. "Global warming is 'the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people'" Inhofe. On the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the biggest congressional effort to push alternative energy in more than a decade, McCain voted against it along with just 11 other senators. Even Inhofe voted for it.

Yes, McCain's record on alternative energy is as bad as the worst anti-environment demagogue in the Senate, James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Oh, and don't forget:

Caribou Barbie, AKA Sarah Palin, is utterly, totally, completely in the pocket of Big Oil right down to the core of her being. Her state gets huge revenues from Big Oil and she's able to hand out big bucks to Alaska's residents because of it--money that comes from the pockets of the other 49 states' residents. Her state government has a symbiotic relationship with the oil industry. 

When McCain argues that he is a strong proponent of alternative fuels, the record is clear:

HE'S LYING.

Rampant Readers: You Want to Help? VIRALIZE THIS!!

Delusional Economic Idiot McCain Wants to Do for Health Care What He Did for Banking!

In other words, completely deregulate it and presumably let it collapse, just as the financial sector is doing. Here is the quote:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

And this imbecile wants to be president?!?

The Republican Double Standard in a Nutshell

Reprinted from Taegan Goddard's site, here.

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 250,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Once Again: McCAIN'S CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR IS THE PERSON MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MELTDOWN

This particular weasel is a crook named PHIL GRAMM. He was the one who did the most to push through the disastrous deregulation of the financial industry in 1999 and 2000. (He was also involved in the 80s S & L scandal and later the Enron swindle.) Check it out here. Excerpt: 

Gramm is responsible for the rise of the wild and woolly $62 trillion swaps market. And he was chairman of the McCain campaign and a top economic adviser for McCain--until he dismissed Americans worried about the economy as "whiners." After that comment, McCain dumped Gramm. But was Gramm truly excommunicated from McCain land? Last month, he attended a meeting of McCain's top supporters in Aspen, Colorado. And at a dinner that day, McCain singled out Gramm for praise. Last week, failed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul revealed that Gramm, now an exec for Swiss banking giant UBS (which also lost billions of dollars due to subprime loans and swaps), had recently called him as part of a McCain effort to win Paul's endorsement. Paul turned Gramm down. (Both Gramm and Paul are Texas Republicans.) Gramm's Paul-courting effort seems to indicate that the fellow who has done much to cause the current financial troubles (and who was once considered a possible Treasury secretary should McCain win the White House) is back in the good graces of the McCain campaign.

Shortly after McCain promised he would "clean up" Wall Street, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, his running mate, appeared at a Colorado rally on Monday morning and proclaimed that "John McCain and I will put an end to the abuses in Washington and Wall Street that have resulted in this financial crisis." She promised a McCain administration would "reform the way Wall Street does business." (She was short on details and spent more time discussing Colorado sports stars from Alaska.) What neither she nor McCain has explained is how they plan to be able to reform Wall Street when they are being assisted by 177 lobbyists and the guy who greased the way to the current crisis with a backroom legislative maneuver. If McCain and Palin are serious about never putting America "in this position again," they ought to consider seriously writing down any economic advice they get from Phil Gramm

McCain and Caribou Barbie? Serious about helping ordinary people? That's a joke, right?

BTW, here is more about this amoral, unprincipled BFF of all white collar criminals, Phil Gramm.

THIS is what Leadership Sounds Like

This is what a PRESIDENT sounds like.

Obama's Tax Plan: For Us. McCain's Tax Plan: for the Top 1%

(Click to enlarge)

McCain: Enemy of Working and Retired Americans

The AFL-CIO lays the lumber to him here. Highlights:

McCain Voted for Bush’s 2006 Social Security Privatization Plan. In 2006, McCain voted for the Social Security Reserve Fund. The proposal would shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be converted into risky private accounts. [SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06; SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06]

In 2000 McCain Wanted to Divert Social Security Money to Private Accounts. The Wall Street Journal reported that “[a] centerpiece of a McCain presidential bid in 2000 was a plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts, much as President Bush proposed unsuccessfully.” The plan would put workers’ retirement money into the risky market and reduce the amount of Social Security payments they would receive from the government. The plan would undermine the Social Security system. [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

McCain STILL Proposes Privatizing Social Security—Despite What His Website Says. McCain told the Wall Street Journal he still backs a system of private retirement accounts that he supported in 2000 and President Bush pushed unsuccessfully. The Journal reported he “disowned” details of a proposal on his 2008 campaign website that says he would “supplement” the existing Social Security system with personally managed accounts. But when asked about the position change he denied it and promised to change the website to reflect his true position. “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts… As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it—along the lines that President Bush proposed,” McCain told the Journal.[Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08; Campaign Website, accessed 3/3/08]

McCain Might Raise the Retirement Age and Reduce Cost-of-Living Adjustments. “[T]he McCain campaign says the candidate intends to keep Social Security solvent by reducing the growth in benefits over the coming decades to match projected growth in payroll tax revenues. Among the options are extending the retirement age to 68 and reducing cost-of-living adjustments, but the campaign hasn’t made any final decisions. ‘You can’t keep promises made to retirees,’ said Mr. Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic aide.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

Let the people in Florida, Arizona, and everywhere in America know!

Calculate Your Obama Tax Cut!

It's right here. It's fun and easy.

Remember, if anyone tells you Obama will raise taxes on people making under $250,000 a year. they are:

A. Lying
B. Misinformed

If the person telling you this is John McCain, he is:

A. Lying

THIS is What a REAL Vice President Sounds Like