Another meaningless Heath Haussamen poll

Up today at his Republican leaning blog is another of Heath H's unscientific polls. This one's title is "In the health-care reform debate, which of these ideas do you support?".

Please have at it!

In the health-care reform debate, which of these ideas do you support?
	A public option
	Non-profit co-ops
	Neither
	I don’t know
Free polls from Pollhost.com

A "Tell" from Heinrich's chief of staff

From Wikipedia:

A tell in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand.

Outside of poker a "Tell" is an inadvertent release of information while discussing an issue.

In this case the Tell occurred during last night's Third Thursday meeting. The topic was of course health care. There were representatives from Heinrich, Bingaman and Udall. Steve Haro, Martin Heinrich's chief of staff, was probably the most talkative of the three and the source of the Tell.

During an exchange where he was asked if Martin would join the 60 other members of the House that had signed a pledge promising not to vote for a Health Care Reform bill without a strong public option he challenged the fact that such a list existed and then came the "Tell" when he said that if such a list existed Health Care reform was already dead.

Tells are always tied to a hidden piece of information - in this case the inference is clear - the public option won't be part of the bill and if there are indeed 60 members of the House that won't vote for it without a public option the bill is dead.

We can only hope that this is true - what Baucus & Associates (the Gang of 6 including our very own Jeff Bingaman) are crafting will no doubt be worse than the present situation. Better to do nothing than enact a bill written by and for the health care industry.

There was one amusing aside - Haro thanked us for his job. Sad to say it but the way things are going he needs to enjoy it now because he won't have it for long.

Ruh! Roh! There goes Whole Foods!

Wow, via JUSIPER and then OpenLeft looks like the CEO and founder of Whole Foods, a.k.a. Whole Paycheck, stuck his foot is some of Scooby Doo's doodoo when he published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal blasting the whole ideal of Health Care Reform. Seems all we have to do is free Mr Market from its shackles, let Insurance Companies do anything they want and everything will be hunky dory over night. Sini at JUSIPER feels a boycott of Whole Foods in in order. Fine with me, I can do without listening to announcements like "Phone call for Natural Living" over their PA system, but I will miss their bakery - its the only decent one in town.

Bingaman has turned his back on New Mexicans

For several weeks now I and others have become increasingly upset with Senator Jeff Bingaman and his work with the Gang of Six to torpedo health care reform. This felling only grew after his interview with the Albuquerque Journal last Saturday.

For whatever reason Jeff Bingaman has decided to "negoiate" with 2 fellow Democrats (M. Baucus & K. Conrad) and 3 Republicans (C. Grassley, O. Snowe & M. Enzi) to come up with a "bipartisan" bill to shove down out throats. The leaders of this special gang of 6 are Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley. They are both notable for how much money they have received in political contributions form the Health Care Industry and how strongly they oppose the "Public Option". Just to get the numbers straight:

- Senator Max Baucus Senate Finance Committee chairman and recipient of "$3 million from the health and insurance sectors from 2003 to 2008" (about 20% of the total donations from that sector)

- Senator Chuck Grassley - he's gotten about $2,000,000 from the same folks since 2003

Those are indeed large numbers. Certainly they are both bought and paid for representatives of the Health Care Industry. But, as they say, it only gets better! Now it turns out that not only is Jeff Bingaman sitting at a table with Health Care Industry flacks but also a "Deather" and that's no other than Senator Chuck Grassley, his partner in these "bipartisan" negotiations. From the Iowa Independent

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”

That should end the charade of Grassley's bipartisan concern for Health Care. Grassley got up and lied in front of a group of folks in Iowa and knew it when he did so. How can anyone take his "bipartisan" concerns seriously now?

Its time for New Mexico's senior Senator to stand up and condemn Grassley for his lies and Baucus for his corruption and end the charade that this little gang of 6 has any bipartisan concern for Health Care Reform at all. Jeff - as my dearly departed granny used to say "birds of a feather do flock together!"

Birther nonsense

This simply can't be seen enough! Bill Maher deals with the birther nonsense.

Enrique Ortez Colindez talks about Obama and the US

This is way too funny.

As the US State Department turns its back on Democracy and negotiates with the illegal government in Honduras the "new" Honduran Secretary of State gives us a taste of its mindset. One has to hand it to them though - even the most right winged racist Republican on the planet would never ever use the term "pickaninny" to refer to Obama but here we see a Honduran "Official" throwing it out without a moment's hesitation. One wonders if the US State Department will ever learn.

Tim Kaine's record on Gay rights -

I wondered if DBY in the post below had been fair to Tim Kaine, former Governor of Virginia and current head of the Democratic Party. On Google I used the search phrase/words:

         Tim Kain gay record

What you find below is from the results of the first half of the first page of that search. You decide -

From Rod 2.0:Beta when Kaine was being considered for VP:

The icing on the cake is Kaine's woeful record on gay rights—against gay adoption, partner benefits, discrimination legislation, and ,of course, against same-sex marriage and supported the amendment that now bans gay marriage in the Commonwealth. The Virginia governor also has the distinction of running one of the more creative gay-baiting campaigns in recent history, branding his anti-gay Republican opponent "having a gay sounding voice."

From a Washington Blade article titled "Va. House approves gay marriage ban amendment":

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said that the governor-elect will sign the bill to call for a referendum. Kaine supports the amendment and opposes civil unions, she said. She added that he is interested in discussing measures “to make sure people can still be able to contract with each other.”

From a 2005 post to Sic Semper Tyrannis, a Virgina blog, we get an analysis of Kaine's statements showing how he moved over time to support Virgina's constitutional amendment banning both recognition of Gay Marriage and Civil Unions :

"I think the institution of marriage is fine. I don’t believe we need to create an alternative," Kaine tells Style. "Gays and lesbians should not be discriminated against in housing, or employment. When the question came up in the debate I said I support changing the state discrimination laws to [include gays]."

.....

"I have never said I supported gay civil unions, gay marriages," Kaine told the AP last Friday. "I do believe that people shouldn’t be kicked out of their jobs or discriminated against because of who they are."

.....

"Marriage between a man and a woman is the building block of the family and a keystone of our civil society. It has been so for centuries in societies around the world. I cannot agree with a court decision suddenly declaring that marriage must now be redefined to include unions between people of the same gender.

"Virginia defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and I strongly support that law. Regardless of the court ruling today in another state, I am confident that there is nothing in the Virginia or federal constitutions that would require Virginia to alter its longstanding policy about marriage."

.....

The Democrat [Tim Kaine] also insisted that he opposes gay marriage and gay civil unions but supports contractual rights for gay and lesbian Virginians.

Kilgore said he favors a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which Kaine opposes.

.....

Kilgore and Kaine said they support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages. Both said they disapprove of adoptions by gay couples.

But Kaine said that when he was a missionary in Honduras, he witnessed orphans who were treated "hellaciously." As a consequence, he would favor allowing individual gays or lesbians to adopt, so long as they create a loving environment, he said.

I could go on but its clear that Tim Kaine opposes gay civil unions, gay marriage, and adoption by gay couples. The good news is that he doesn't support beating up gays and lesbians because of their sexual orientation. I guess we should be glad for that.

Remember that Barack Obama appointed Tim Kaine as the head of the Democratic Party and considered him for the VP slot. As DBY says the signs were clearly there early on - either Barack Obama is a homophobe or simply doesn't care about LesBiGay rights. Sadly we put hope before reality now we must accept and deal with our mistake.

DBY gets it right - the Democratic Party isn't a friend to the Gay Community

Comments are great things to read. Sometimes they get to the bones of a problem faster than any series of articles could. The comment below is a perfect example of that. From a comment to an Editorial titled Don’t Let Our ‘Leaders’ Give Cover to Obama published in the NewYork Blade DBY describes the problem the LesBiGay Community is having with the Democratic Party perfectly. DBY says:

Welcome under the bus, my fellow gay Americans! Some of us have been here for a while. I started realizing something was amiss with Obama when he stood side-by-side with Donnie McClurkin, James Meeks, Mary Mary early in the primaries. And then refused to be interviewed by gay publications for most of the Democratic primaries. And then refused to have his picture taken with the (heterosexual!) Gavin Newsom. And then refused to attend the Chicago Pride Parade last summer. And then had Douglas Kmiec, major opponent of gay marriage, campaign for him in CA just as Prop 8 heated up. And then came Rick Warren. And the snubbing of Bishop Robinson. You see a pattern developing, don’t you? But even for someone who’s been paying attention to Obama’s homobigotry as much as me I was stunned by the DOMA-DOJ brief. The Administration sunk to a new low. And it’s time to stop making apologies for Obama’s actions. Let’s look reality in the eye and take our rights, even if they refuse to give them. The idea that we must “wait our turn” is absurd. We didn’t start asking for our rights last month!

The problem, sadly, is bigger than just Obama and his Administration. It is also the wider DNC. Tim Kaine, head of the DNC, is a rabid homophobe. And let us not forget that Donna Brazile famously declared that comparing gay rights to civil rights is an “affront to the civil rights movement.” Nancy Pelosi says she wants Congress to stay out of gay marriage. Harry Reid says he wants to see DADT addressed “Administratively.” Obama says his hands are tied and he can’t do anything! Excuse me, but so-called “Democrats” are controlling all three branches of government and nobody wants to touch gay rights with a 10 foot pole? Everyone likes to run around screaming that Bill Clinton gave us DOMA. Actually, the President doesn’t write legislation. Congress does. Congress wrote DOMA and passed it. Have you looked at the vote? House passed it 342-67. Senate passed it 85-14. Look at those numbers! I wish President Clinton vetoed the bill, but those numbers are not only veto proof, they wipe the floor with the Presidential veto. That’s a lot of Democrats voting for DOMA. Many of those same Democrats are still in Congress today. Let us not kid ourselves that Democrats are any better on this than Republicans. When Darth Cheney is to the left of Democrats on gay marriage….we have a serious problem on our hands! And the problem won’t go away until we ask for payment upfront from Democrats from now on. Not “We’ll help you now if you help us later.” No, DNC has to do something for us first. No more “I owe you’s!”

New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

An endorsement - Greg Solano for Lt. Governor
because
New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

Thursday night at Bernalillo County's monthly Third Thursday meeting many of us meet Greg Solano, Sheriff of Santa Fe County, for the first time and were won over. In fact I was so impressed I just made a small donation to his campaign via Act Blue. You can find his campaign's web site here and page for donations here.

From a practical political point of view he's new, has a fantastic life story, free of all the mess, corruption and political infighting in the Democratic Party and knows how to work a crowd. I walked out of the meeting a happy political camper knowing he has the stuff to go the distance and would be an asset to the Party who will work with Diane Denish to win next year. As far as I am concerned we have our candidate for Lt. Governor. Now its time to move on.

Obama's Plan for Gay Rights

before the sun sets on this administration

Well the Obama Admin trotted out John Berry, their highest ranking gay guy to talk to the Advocate - find the brief interview here.

Here's the money quote from Berry:

We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you’ve got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I’m going to list them in an order but it’s not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we’re hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We’re going to try, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively “don’t ask don’t tell,” and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Now, I’m not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date. The pledge and the promise is that, this will be done before the sun sets on this administration – our goal is to have this entire agenda accomplished and enacted into law so that it is secure.

So folks "before the sun sets on this administration" they will try to get something done.

Looks like we have just been thrown back under the bus by yet another Democratic Administration.

Blogs for DOMA updates

Since the Daily Kos and others only function in the current Obama DOMA mess is to say the LesBiGay Community needs to calm down and everything is just wonderful here's a few sites that are letting folks know what's happening and what it all means:

AMERICAblog
Pam's House blend ...always steamin'!
hunter for justice
WordInEdgewise
The Volokh Conspiracy

Others will be added as I find 'em!

Update - 061909, 10:04 PM
WhoRunsGov.com - The Plum Line
the widdershins
Washington Blade
New York Blade

Its becomming clear - Obama is no friend to the gay community.

As I have looked around today on liberal blogs its has become clear that if mentioned at all there is not much concern about Obama's DOJ defending DOMA. In MyDD Josh Orton first seems concerned then in less than an hour added an update where he pronounced it was no big deal. Most of the comments on his posting seemed to express the same view. Nowhere did anybody ask about Obama's track record on gay rights.

To me the real basis of the uproar is very simple - its not about DOMA per se its about Obama's record or rather lack of a record on gay rights since coming to the White House. To date he has done nothing to repeal DOMA or Don't Ask - Don't Tell, end the travel ban for HIV positive individuals or support gay marriage. In fact his view on gay marriage closely reslembles those of leading Republican homophobes.

The Liberal community will excuse us while we make a bit of noise while we throw a fit - we are just realizing Obama was a major mistake.

Obama's betrayal to the gay community continues -

Everybody is all over this - seems that Obama's Dept. of Justice has decided to trash the Gay community while it defends the homophobic DOMA bill signed by Bill Clinton. For the latest and greatest on this see Andrew at the Daily Dish, Pam at Pam's House Blend and a host of others.

For a good round up go to John Aravosis' post at AMERICAblog.

So much for Obama's promises to the LesBiGay Community. Seems the invite to Rev. Wright was more of a harbinger of things to come than even I thought.

Summit on LGBT Rights

Well the secret is out -



The only reason I know about it is because I walked out the door of a meeting at just the right time to overhear a conversation about the upcoming 'Summit".

We will see if we can slow the domestic partnership freight train. Why "they" want to agree to a second class status for Lesbian and Gays is really beyond me.

Update: Please note that the flyer only invites representatives of Organizations not members of the Community to the "Summit" (see the first sentence below the red line). Also, the next sentence is quite telling - its seems the discussion will be aimed at building support for the "next steps" not determining what the "next steps" will be. It seems that we, the little people, need a lecture about what the "next steps" should be.

Dead Meat?

While the main focus of the post was on the NM Democrats State Central Committee meeting Peter St. Cyr dropped a bit of a bomb at the end. It appears that Senator Linda Lopez, the person who voted with Republicans to elect Tim Jennings as President Pro Tem of the NM Senate, the main proponent in the Senate for the Suncal TID (SB 249), one of the Senators who voted to allow sleazy politicians to sue nonprofits (SB 652), the former Bernalillo Democratic Party County Chair who was thrown out because she was so obnoxious is running for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor.

This is gonna be interesting. While I'm sure the folks at SunCal are thrilled who else cares? The progressive wing of the Democratic Party dislikes her imensily and generally distrusts her. I really wonder what she is thinking.

Stick a fork in it - this candidacy was dead before it began.

I'm pissed!

In an article by David Alire Garcia titled "N.M. Catholic Church, gay activists seek compromise on domestic partnerships" some the internal controversy in the Lesbian and Gay Community that has surrounded these talks starts to erupt. Having been a part of that conversation and knowing that my views and those of other I respect were being ignored I decided to repurpose one of my emails as a comment and throw some fat publicly on the fire.

I fear that there is much more furor about these negotiations in the LesBiGay Community than Ms. Seigal suggests. As she readily admits she is a "professional" and her job is to get a deal done and move on. Those of us that remain in NM will be left to deal with the aftermath of her skills as a "professional lobbyist".

As I have said elsewhere, to Ms. Seigal and others, my problems with these negotiations starts with the fact that my rights are the subject of negotiations with religious leaders that I do not support nor believe have any right to cast me into the pit of second class citizenship. Everything that I have heard since the initial news of these discussions supports my fear that these unappointed and unelected representatives of the LesBiGay community have little interest in its feelings or opinions.

As I understand it these negotiations are aimed at dealing with the Church's objections to use of the word marriage in the Domestic Partnership (DP) bill. They disliked the fact that the DP bill used the word marriage and said that Domestic Partners had the same rights as a married couple. This appears to be based on the fact that the Church opposes the use of the word "marriage" in any way, shape of form that may connote some dignity to a lesbian or gay relationship. Hence all we need to do is yank the word "marriage" out of the DP bill and all would be well.

My underlying problem with this effort is that it simply reeks of the old ploy by the Southern segregationist - separate but equal. I, as a child of the 50's, who grew up in Alabama knows what this means, how it turned out back then and am not excited about revisiting it again. Its as if all the NAACP needed to do was sit down with Bull Conner and change a few words on their signs and in their songs and everything would be just lovely.

Certainly the folks at Legislative Services have their work cut out for them. To enumerate a list of all the rights and responsibilities of marriage while never mentioning the sacred word will be a massive task and its almost guaranteed that "things" will be left out. Whether these will be sins of omission or commission history will never now. I certainly look forward to reviewing this list and wonder how the Bishops will respond to it. Surely the production of the "list" will eviscerate the spirit of the original bill. Under this scheme our "partnerships" will never equal marriage, frankly they won't even equal a Domestic Partnership - they will just be a list of things to be negotiated like how many dozen eggs you get for a dollar or the cost current of an indulgence. Here Lucifer lies with the details. When it lists that a LesBiGay couple has the right to adoption what will the "Church" say? When the howl from the fundamentalist comes up will the Catholic Church be silent, join in or will they defend our rights to adopt children? Wanna make a bet what "they" do?

Moreover and from a tactical viewpoint probably much, much, much worse - this legislation will quickly be seen as a "list", as Seigal herself says, of our rights and responsibilities to be picked apart and ridiculed by our opponents. The production of such a "list" violates the basic principles of Politics 101 and is an out and out disaster. It makes me wonder about the political skill set of those that are suppose to be representing "us".

Once the "list" is produced then the real negotiations will begin in Santa Fe and I don't expect us to fare well by them. We will be whipsawed from stem to stern and rights will disappear or be limited all along the Legislation's tortuous path from when our "representatives" prostrate themselves before the Catholic Church to seek their indulgence to the numerous and sundry Legislative Committees that the bill will have to move through. Since we will have agreed to tying our basic human rights to a "list" subject to negotiations every Committee that has some jurisdiction over some component of that "list" will have to have its say. Surely adoption will be the topic of some heated hearings. No doubt it will be the first to go or to be "studied later" then other things will follow. All the while what our opponents cannot remove they will poison so that ultimately the "list" dies as a cruel joke or, even worse, we will have our "marriage-less", meaningless "list" passed and be signed into law - a disaster for all to see.

I have no doubt that those running the other side's negotiations understand perfectly what the production of this "list" means and worry that we are fundamentally out gunned at the negotiating table. This added to the fact that the Governor and our negotiator wants a bill passed, any bill will probably do, makes me fear the outcome of these negotiations.

In closing I must ask - why the rush to cement our status as second class citizens in New Mexico? Its quite possible that this bill will be worse than no bill at all. Time is on our side - sometimes the best thing to do is wait.

Vote now! Mary should go!

Heath Haussamen has a poll up at his blog "Heath Hausamen on New Mexico Politics" asking - "Should Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinosa challenge Secretary of State Mary Herrera in next year's Democratic primary?"

Duhhhhhhhhhh! Please go there and vote Yes now. How can she be any worse than Mary "the hair" Herrera?

One question we should all be asking is why hasn't Mary certified more than one voting machine company? Expiring minds want to know.

The war within

Nearing the end of the 2009 Legislative session its time to pull out the crystal ball and make some predictions re: the State of the Democratic Party. The main prediction is obvious to anybody that has been to any Progressive gathering - it is divided and things are moving from bad to worse. Its really easy to sense the absolute rage that Progressives are feeling toward the establishment Democrats in the Senate. The main topic of discussion is how to transform these feelings into actions. The fact that its getting easier to hear and see what happening during Legislative sessions only makes matters worse. From votes on Domestic Partnership to TIDDS, Ethics and Health Care Reform the incredible corruption, homophobia and outright stupidity of members of Democratic Party is horrifying.

What Progressives will do isn't clear today. As a start expect more work to Primary sitting members of the House and Senate and some direct actions against them to shine light on their actions.

Hispanos Unidos - run for cover the Mexicans are comming!

Just saw this ad and its really, really bad - it totally misrepresents what that law would do -

The ad suggests that bus loads of folks, no doubt evil Mexicans, will be showing up at the polls to vote for the nasty Anti-American Democrats.

The truth is that while you can show up and vote you will cast a provisional ballot that won't be counted until you are legally registered as a voter. Now the ad doesn't say this but truth is not the issue here. This ad is meant to scare folks not inform them.

Since there are existing laws that deal with voting illegally anybody that cast a fraudulent ballot would be facing prosecution and jail time for their efforts.

Of course the ad doesn't tell you this but again truth isn't the issue here.

The ad is just an extension of the usual Republican refrain that there is massive voter fraud in New Mexico and all the Democrats want to do is make things worse. It would help the Republican's cause if they could point out a bunch of cases where illegal voting actually had occurred over the last few years but since they can't they just keep the drum beat going.

So what is Hispanos Unidos up to? And frankly who are they? From their web site the Organization's Mission Statement says it exist to:

"To educate citizens about the perils of big government and to support candidates whose platforms include minimization of government interference in the daily lives of Americans."

Below that it goes on to say:

Welcome to Hispanos Unidos, a non-partisian Political Action Committee dedicated to the belief that better government means less government.

I really love the "Non-Partisian" part! Wanna make a bet!

Martin Heinrich does as AIPAC tells him -

Sadly, one of Martin Heinrich's first acts in Congress was to support Israel's war on the Palestinian People by voting for Rep. Howard Berman's (D-Calif.) resolution expressing unequivocal support for the Israeli attack on Gaza. The resolution makes it very, very, very clear that without question and without doubt all the blame for the war and all responsibility to end it rests with Hamas. Ultimately, it encourages Israel to keep up the good work! To Martin it seems that Israel is incapable of doing wrong.

While the real reason for the Israeli attack on Gaza was to continue the Iron Wall Policy in effect since the 40's (essentially a long-term policy to subjugate the Palestinian People to Israeli will, for more on this see Another War, Another Defeat by John J. Mearsheimer) the supposed cause of this round of genocide was the 6,000 or so rockets that Hamas has fired at Israel over the last several years. These rockets resulted in the deaths of approximately 10 Israelis. Since the Gaza carnage began Israel's military has to date killed more than 1,300 Palestinians. No doubt Martin would approve the kill ratio for this excursion - a bit over 100 to 1. One wonders how Martin feels about Israel's habit of killing defenseless Palestinians - the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) seem to especially enjoy culling young Palestinian schoolchildren as an especially effective means of ethnic cleansing.

Ultimately, Martin looks to be yet another mindless tool of AIPAC. Certainly he is not alone - see Glen Greenwald's article Unanimous Consent in the Jan. 26th, 2009 issue of The American Conservative. It appears that AIPAC owns both parties and both houses of Congress which now supports the consensus view that the Palestinians are just another sub-human race best left to the tender mercies of Israel's Government. Sadly, on this point, I doubt Martin will stray too far from the fold in the future.

Certainly, one thing is for sure - it didn't take Martin long to get blood on his hands.

Something real to do about Rick Warren

Finally something to do besides bitch about Obama's choice of the homophobe Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration.

Please go to Turn Back Hate and sign the petition.

This is certainly an excellent starting point for the Progressive Community. Hopefully more ideas and actions are on the way.

Obama's obscene pick, the homophobe Pastor Rick Warren to do the invocation for the Inauguration

Back again!

So Obama has gone and gotten himself the out and out homophobe, Pastor Rick Warren, to do the invocation for the Inauguration. If you don't know much about the good Pastor well YouTube and CNN will inform!

Lets see - a gay relationship is like beastiality, pedophilia, pologamy and then he laughs when someone suggest he might be a homophobe.

What should we do - how about holding alternatives to the official homophobic Inaguration all over the country morning what could have been and asking for better? Above all we shouldn't be quiet about the fact that we are pissed and have been fundamentally insulted.

Albuquerque Republican Journal endorses Darren!

Well this is a shocker! ((Not!))

This morning, Albuquerque's Republican paper, the Journal endorsed White for CD1, Tinsley for CD2 and Lujan for CD3. They have followed their old, established pattern - they endorse Republicans except when the Democrat is gonna win by a huge margin. The same will hold true for the Senate and Presidential races - expect an endorsement for Udall and McCain. Udall because he is fixing to trash Pearce and McCain because that is just who they are.

The fact that the Albuquerque Journal is a Republican paper isn't a surprise to anybody interested in NM politics. They work hard to get Republicans elected and to keep them in office - proof of this comes easily from a quick review the coverage they gave/give Heather Wilson and Saint Pete. Their reporter in DC routinely gushed all over himself in praise for the pair. Beyond this coverage headlines and articles were routinely constructed as setup pieces to unfairly tarnish their opponents. Heather has made heavy use of them in the past. Who can forget all those advertisements over the years that have featured Journal articles to slam her opponent.

For the life of me I simply can't understand why any Dem subscribes to the Journal. Its a filthy rag and we can only hope that one happy day it will disappears and die. Who needs another spokesperson for the Republican Party? They already have Fox News.

Where are the Albuquerque Journal endorsements?

The title says it all - where are the endorsements?

We are a bit over 8 days or 201 hours till the polls open Nov. 4th and the Journal still hasn't endorsed anybody? My bets were on:

McCain
Udall
White

They would endorse Udall because they knew he would win and Pearce is dead meat. The other two are just the default choices for the Journal. They always endorse Republicans except when they are really, really hopeless - for example Pearce.

Maybe they don't like their choices - guess its not a good year for a Republican paper.

La Raison d'entre for the bailout bill

So, the Bushies lied once again - that's to be expected. Nobody but the perma stupid crowd should be surprised.

From yesterday's NYT, found via TPM, an article by Joe Nocera gives the real reason for Paulson's bailout bill - it's to finance the consolidation of the US financial industry into a few large chosen banks. As Nocera notes:

In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans.

Here "the money" refers to the money contained in the bailout bill.

All was revealed during an Oct. 17 conference call for JPMorgan Chase employees when the following question was asked:

“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”

Amazingly, one of the executives actually answered the question honestly:

“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”

Nocera goes on to explain:

Read that answer as many times as you want — you are not going to find a single word in there about making loans to help the American economy. On the contrary: at another point in the conference call, the same executive (who I’m not naming because he didn’t know I would be listening in) explained that “loan dollars are down significantly.” He added, “We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side.” In other words JPMorgan has no intention of turning on the lending spigot.

It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, Treasury wants banks to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round of bank consolidation. As Mark Landler reported in The New York Times earlier this week, “the government wants not only to stabilize the industry, but also to reshape it.” Now they tell us.

Indeed, Mr. Landler’s story noted that Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax expert, Robert Willens, put it: “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.”

Friday delivered the first piece of evidence that this is, indeed, the plan. PNC announced that it was purchasing National City, an acquisition that will be greatly aided by the new tax break, which will allow it to immediately deduct any losses on National City’s books.

As part of the deal, it is also tapping the bailout fund for $7.7 billion, giving the government preferred stock in return. At least some of that $7.7 billion would have gone to NatCity if the government had deemed it worth saving. In other words, the government is giving PNC money that might otherwise have gone to NatCity as a reward for taking over NatCity.

Next Nocera says:

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel as if we’ve been sold a bill of goods.

Well that's two of us.

Nocera then concludes with a conversation he had with Senator Chris Dodd:

Late Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve. “All I can tell you is that we are going to have the bankers up here, probably in another couple of weeks and we are going to have a very blunt conversation,” he replied.

He continued: “If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay.”

Let’s hope so.

Its nice to think that "There will be hell to pay" but, based on previous experiences, I seriously doubt it. The Washington establishment, both Dem and Republican, are way too owned to ever do much about another big bank atrocity.

Sweet Home Alabama - welcome to the surreal state

Perhaps the ultimate version of this song. Its really, really real - love the "dos", the shoes, and the chicks on stage. Checkout the expressions of the choir members, they either seem to be simply amazed or amazed and yucking it up at the same time. Also, don't miss how the lead singer and choir pronounce "AlaBama" - very cool.

The Leningrad Cowboys backed by the Red Army Choir.

While I'm not sure what Lenin or George Wallace would think I'm absolutely sure Lynyrd Skynyrd would approve.

Found via naked capitalism.

"their God is bigger than you"

Here you equals the Christian God
From a McCain rally in Iowa, found at TPM. This has to be watched to know how sick these people really are.

Here's my transcript of this clip:

"I'd also add Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November because there are millions of people around this World praying to their God, whether its Hindu, Buddha, Allah that his opponent wins for a variety of reasons and Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation because they are gonna think that their God is bigger than you if that happens. So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens between now and the election day."

This is so wrong and so sick I can't even begin to dissect it. From my brief readings of the King James version of the Bible I am reminded of the following:

• Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

These people are using God for their purposes not following the Bible to achieve its purposes. One wonders who exactly they are worshiping these days!?!

A P.S. on this - I never realized that God had an ego - its news to me that that God cares one way or the other what anybody thinks. That's a concept that should put the Theologist into a tailspin for years to come!

Truth!!!!

Truth and from a Republican no less .......

From Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican:

"It forces innocent taxpayers to bail out government policies and Wall Street mistakes. It asks the American people to take a leap of faith and trust people who have consistently misled them, ..."

raping america

Guess its just one indignity piled upon many others but what the US Senate did tonight makes me sick.

The Bushies have succeeded in taring the Democrats with the same shit that has covered the White House for so long. To make matters worse the Democrats were willing participants. The Dems have no excuses now - they along with their Republican friends are blameable for all that will come. May Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other Democratic Bush sycophants that so willingly came to Wall Street's aid burn in hell for what they have done to the United States and the Democratic Party.

Anybody that actually believes the citizens of the United States will ever see more than a few pennies out of that 700 billion that the American people will soon owe is simply out of their minds. Wall Street has already figured out 7,777 different ways to steal it all.

Below is a list of the filthy bastards that have helped Wall Street rape the USA yet again. I'm sad to see Obama on that list - guess he's just another shill for the corporate world after all.

Akaka
Alexander
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Byrd
Cardin
Casey
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Dodd
Domenici
Durbin
Ensign
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inoye
Isakson
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson, NE
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Schumer
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse

Wall Street to handle our Social Security?

When will the Dems start screaming about McCain and the Republicans who want to privatize Social Security? They want the same crooks, creeps, and thieves that brought us the mess on Wall Street to save Social Security. All the Streeters will do is steal every cent the average person has -

So why haven't we gotten that attack? Its simple and sad - the Dems are just as owned by Wall Street as the Republicans so they won't attack the criminals on Wall Street. That's the Real Reason we won't get an attack on the Republicans about Social Security Privatization.

love the ad - hate the ethanol policy

While I certainly wish Scott Kleeb well in his run for Senate, think his recent ad is great however his love for corn based ethanol leaves lots to be desired.

she should know ..........

Carly Fiorina, a women who knows and personally demonstrated how not to run a large Corporation, does the old foot and mouth routine about Sarah Palin and then goes on to extend the idiocy to McCain in the clip below.

I'm so glad McCain has friends like her - he certainly deserves them.

Clinton sycophants at it again-

I'm furious.

I always wondered how long it would take the Clinton sycophants to crawl out of this toilets and try to sabotage Obama's candidacy once the going got rough. Well obviously not long.

Over at Huff Po we are treated to the post "Why Replacing Biden With Hillary Makes Perfect Sense for Obama" by Andy Ostroy saying Obama should trash Joe Biden to replace him with the sainted one - Hillary Clinton - and all will be well. With friends like this Obama needs no enemies.

Over at Another White Female for Barack a newly minted web site that seems intent on doing what it can to support this "swap" and elect John McCain we find more of this nonsense. The blog's second post "Maybe this Hillary/Biden Swap Idea Isn't Crazy" focuses on this idea. My comment on that post is below:

This is amazing.

Obviously you want to destroy Obama's candidacy - I don't know if you are some crazed reverse sexist Clinton sycophant or a Republican operative.

Doesn't really matter - the damage you are doing is the same.

If you are another Clinton creep please understand that she lost - she couldn't even run a successful campaign against a young black guy. She had the money, she had the connections and she still lost. Now you want to do everything you can to make sure Obama looses so the perfect one, Saint Hillary, can try again.

Please leave!

Told you I am pissed.

By-the-by, need to add this to my list of reasons why its perfectly OK to hate the Clinton's. I expect Obama will win in November but if he does loose we all need to remember the treachery of the Clinton's and their supporters. They are not our friends - they care nothing about the issues and God knows the Clinton's have never cared about the Democratic Party. Its just a tool to use for their personal glory.

Power versus Governance

For quite a while now it seems to me that the campaign goals of the Dems and Repubs have differed. The Republicans run for power the Democrats run to govern. That difference explains much of what has happened and what will happen in the 50 or so days.

Why the Republican excitement -

Being essentially a snoop I couldn't help but overhear the following conversation between two heavily religious Republicans, lets call 'em he and she.

he to she - "Well, what do you think?"
she - "I haven't been this excited in a while, I think we really have a chance"
he - "I know I heard her speech."

After hearing this and reading that McCain is a flop on the stump without "her" its clear that the Republican religious base has adopted Palin as their own. I seriously doubt any of the negative news about her will diminish that. Remember their support is "faith based" so the more negative the reality the stronger their faith in her will be.

Let's all hope that the same won't be true for Independents and those white female Democrats that are toying with voting for the McCain ticket.

The parodies begin

They were inevitable -

More and better parodies are coming because Sara Palin is such a great target -

Sarah Palin and the Third Wave

As reporters continue to explore Sarah Palin's life and views its clear that her fundamentalist religion is at the base of what she says, thinks and does.

Below are excerpts from an article at Huff Po about the focus of Wasilla Assembly of God, the main Church were Sarah Palin chooses to worship. While its well know that followers of the "End Times" theology have long been "insiders" in the Republican Party if Palin and McCain are elected they will will move into the Vice President's Office and possibly the President's Office. They also show how heavily involved Palin is in the activities of her Churches and how they have supported her bids for public office.

"Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world."
...........
"Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate. Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday.""
...........
"The Wasilla Assembly of God church is deeply involved with both Third Wave activities and theology."
...........
"The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form "Joel's Army" to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.

While segments of this belief system have been a part of Pentecostalism and charismatic beliefs for decades, the excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000. The beliefs and manifestations of the movement include the use of 'strategic level spiritual warfare' to expel territorial demons from American and world cities. Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably."
...........
"Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard -Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of 'Holy Laughter' around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival. Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship."
...........
"The Third Wave, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around C. Peter Wagner, founder of the World Prayer Center. This center, which was built in coordination with Ted Haggard and his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ." Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about the World Prayer Center which is often referred to by those familiar with the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.' It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare."
...........
"Wagner's top leaders often conduct spiritual warfare campaigns against the demons that block the acceptance of their brand of Christian belief, such as 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997. Several of their top prophets and generals of intercession spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation. (The "Great Harlot [or 'whore'] of Mystery Babylon" theme also figures prominently in the sermons of Texas megachurch pastor and Christians United For Israel founder John Hagee, former endorser of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.) Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church."

I just started laughing when I read this -

Wandering by the Washington Monthly this AM I just started laughing. In the South "Upitty" was always part of the racial slur "Uppity Nigger" - just go look at the interviews CBS, NBC, ABC did in the South in the 60's or any of that period's history and you will see that the second word always traveled with the first one. Its there and pardon the pun, its there in spades.

A few days ago U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia's 3rd Congressional District called the Obamas "Uppity". When questioned later by the Atlanta Journal his representative said he had no idea it was a racist slur.

Really?!? Westmorland was born April 2, 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia. How could he not know that "Uppity" is a loaded term? Wikipedia has an entry covering the life and times of Rep. Westmoreland. From this entry some of the wonderful things he has done while being a member of Congress are:

"In 2005, Westmoreland received criticism for spreading a memo to fellow House members that consisted of auto-industry talking points, verbatim, even using the same font as the auto-industry document. An aide defended him, saying, "such behavior is standard practice.""

"As a U.S. congressman, Westmoreland cosponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Westmoreland also sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting."

"Westmoreland led a group of congressmen who opposed the 2006 renewal of certain provisions in the Voting Rights Act that require nine Southern states and a number of counties (mostly in the South) to obtain Federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue."

Thankfully, Steven Colbert has Westmoreland's number and shows him to be the buffoon he really is (the interview starts about 1:40 into the clip) -

Real reporting from the AP

Instead of the usual pro-McCain stuff we see from AP here's some number crunching that often gets overlooked in the polls - below are a few sections from an article by Julie Pace & Stephen Ohlemacher:

CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — Five days a week, Linda Graham trolls tattered neighborhoods of this once thriving steel city outside Pittsburgh for unregistered voters she can sign up as Democrats — one of thousands of unknown volunteers whose work outside the limelight has already altered the basic arithmetic of the November election.

The epic nomination battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton helped put millions more Democrats on the voter rolls while Republican registration declined. Now Graham, 45, has taken three months of unpaid leave from her job at Pittsburgh's Central Blood Bank in the hope of adding to those gains before the presidential vote.

She's encouraged by the response here. "They're all feeling the crunch" of lost jobs and a sagging economy, Graham said. "But people are feeling empowered. They're feeling like, you know what, I hold a little bit of power in this."

To counter this effort, the Republicans are counting on a formidable, high-tech get-out-the-vote operation that has helped them win the past two presidential elections.

Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states.

The Democrats hope their voter registration efforts can boost Obama to victory in competitive states like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida and perhaps even give him a shot at winning traditional Republican states like Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Both Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, are fighting for independent swing voters, and many of the new Democrats had been unaffiliated voters.

The number of unaffiliated voters dropped by nearly 900,000 since 2006. Many joined the Democratic Party to take part in the primaries and caucuses, and now they will now be targeted by an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign.

.....................

Nationwide, there are about 42 million registered Democrats and about 31 million Republicans, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.

The Democrats have posted big gains in many competitive states, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Florida. They have also been targeting historically Republican southern states.

Since 2006, the Democrats have added 167,000 voters in North Carolina, while the Republicans have added 36,000. The Democrats' biggest voter registration goal is in Georgia, where the Obama campaign hopes to register 500,000 voters before the election, said Dean, who has spent the past month traveling the country on a voter registration bus tour.

"The Obama folks are serious about Georgia," Dean said. Georgia has added 337,000 voters since 2006, but the state does not identify them by party affiliation.

In Pennsylvania, the Democrats have added 375,000 voters since 2006 while the Republicans have lost 117,000.

America Votes, an umbrella organization, coordinates voter registration efforts for more than 40 groups in Pennsylvania, including unions, the NAACP and the Sierra Club.

.....................

Graham finds a potential voter at the first house she stops at. Justin Webb, a father of two, is unregistered, but tells Graham he has serious concerns about the economy.

"We need more jobs," said Webb, 28. "If we had more jobs, we would have more opportunities to better ourselves."

It takes Graham less than five minutes to register Webb as a Democrat.

What "Classic Republicans" think about Palin

We know the Republican Party's new owners, the religious right, love her but I've been wondering what old line Republicans think about Palin since McCain chose her as his wing-nut wing-woman last week. We know she was chosen to placate the religious waco's that form so much of the Party's base but what about the long suffering, old line Republicans? Well, here is what former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan and John McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy said when they thought the mikes were off during an interview with MSNBC:

Sad they won't say it publically - Peggy Noonan has already run for cover.

However, "Classic Republicans" may be dealing with the religious ownership issue in a more basic way - as a Aug. 5, 2008 NY Times article titled "G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States" shows they are taking Ronald R's advice and voting with their feet - either re-registering as a Democrat or as an Independent. Wondering if anybody at the RNC is actually watching?

Sarah Palin is here to stay -

There seems to be rumblings on the web that McCain will toss Sarah now that the warts are starting to show. Well its to late for that - those two are tied at the hips and he's got her no matter what. Poor John he's owned now - both by the religious right that controls the Republican party and by a beehive wearing right winged waco that long ago violated the Peter Principle.

This could turn out to be one of the great political train wrecks of all time - stay tuned.

Steve Pearce is toast

Great news - even the Republicans know that the right wing wacko Steve Pearce will loose and now they are letting their dollars do the talking -

From TPM:

Republicans' Senate campaign arm called off television ads Tuesday that were to air in New Mexico in the run-up to Election Day, an indication that it's leaving the GOP candidate there to fend for himself as the party braces for losses.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee's decision to cancel the New Mexico spots reflects its priorities during a tough year for the GOP, with the party lagging badly in fundraising and resigned to losing seats in the Senate.

The committee wouldn't comment Tuesday on the change of plans, but TV station managers in the state confirmed they had gotten word of it last week.

"The actual cancellation came today," said Bill Anderson of KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque.

For Steve P. it sounds like the fat lady is singing even now, early in September.

An Alaskian blogger on Sarah Palin

Via HuffPo - more on Alaska, Sarah Palin, and John McCain's though process at Mudflats, Tiptoeing Through the Much of Alaskian Politics.

From that post, a photo of the town where Sarah Palin got much of her executive experience - Wasilla, Alaska



Don't know about you but it doesn't give me lots of warm and fuzzy feelings -

Will Conservative women condem Palin?

As I wander around the web I'm seeing one idea pop up - many women, mostly conservative, question Palin's role in a campaign when they hear she has a child with Down's Syndrome.

This will be interesting to watch.

Palin poster

I want a poster that says:

With Sarah Palin rapist win!

Sorry if this offends anybody but based on Palin's view that a woman shouldn't have the right to an abortion even after being raped the act of rape becomes a means for the rapist to procreate. From an evolutionary/population biology standpoint it makes simple sense. Rape becomes a way to spread around the rapist's genes.

All absolute beliefs have unforeseen consequences and Sarah Palin needs to face the fact that her belief that there should be an absolute ban on abortion has consequences which punish the victim and reward the rapist.

It would be a horrible poster or bumper sticker to see but that doesn't make it any less true.

As an aside - perhaps Governor Palin doesn't believe that a woman can get pregnant after a rape so this just isn't an issue. If so she won't be the first Republican to hold that view. At any rate we will know one thing for sure - we will have a wacko on our hands.

More Palin goodies ....

From the Politco:

— Palin didn’t back McCain in the primary. She stayed neutral in Alaska’s January primary — perhaps on account of McCain’s opposition to drilling in ANWR. “A lot of us are sitting back and waiting to see if there will be new players in there," she said in 2007. "That’s probably why that box that says ‘none of the above’ is so popular right now."

— Mayoral performance. Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla — that amounts to $3,000 per resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements.

— Stevens and Young, redux. Palin has distanced herself from the state’s two most popular politicians, but both appeared at Palin fundraisers during her 2006 gubernatorial bid.

— The environment. As governor, Palin vetoed wind power and clean coal projects, including a 50-megawatt wind farm on Fire Island and a clean coal facility in Healy that had been mired in a dispute between local and state governments.

— And, maybe, censorship. According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla’s library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said that Palin asked her outright if she "could live with censorship of library books.” Palin later dismissed the conversation as a “rhetorical” exercise.

I think her veto of the wind and clean coal projects are a great place to start an attack. I can see the Obama advertisement now and expect we will all see on the air soon.

Ultimately, if she doesn't blow up in the next couple of weeks she may make it but the wolves are loose and if there is anybody in Alaska that has an axe to grind and wants a little "pay back" their time has come.

Anderson Cooper 360

It seems that on Anderson Coopers 360 show tonight there is a lively debate about the Palin pick and lots of post on his blog about the subject. My post, which was a few minutes too late:

Lets see - for a start she's a Creationist and thinks it should be taught in school, believes abortion shouldn't be legal even for a raped woman and doesn't believe that humans cause global warming.

Doesn't sound to moderate to me -

More fundamentally - McCain's claim that Obama isn't ready just flew out the window because he appoint her as his VP pick and Obama's claim that McCain doesn't have the judgement to be President just got supported.

Right now the press is in a feeding frenzy - lets see what else it uncovers.

Some of the more interesting opinions on the blog:

From Teri: Palin was picked because no other Republican wanted to join the Titanic , the metaphor for McCain’s campaign. My real worry is if something happens to McCain

From Lidna Harter: As a woman, I am distressed and insulted to think anyone would think that women are so one deminstional that we would vote for a woman regardless of her policies. McCain and Palin support none of the issues that concern the majority of women. McCain has just proved that he has poor judgement. He certinaly has read the American woman wrong, wrong, wrong. For the first time in my life ,I will actively and passionatley work for the election of an American president - Barak Obama,

From Carol Goodson: When I first heard about this, I thought it was a brilliant strategic move on McCain’s part, because I knew nothing about her…. but when I saw her talk on CNN tonight, I was appalled. THIS FLAKE is the person who could very possibly become President if the elderly McCain suddenly dies!??!? I am TERRIFIED. Don’t even talk about the fact that she has a 4-month old Downs Syndrome baby at home… why is she even Governor? Does this woman have any sense of responsibility AT ALL?
I am also a Hillary supporter. This McCain pick is insulting!!! OMG! Vote Obama! With if this chic becomes Pres. if McCain doesn’t make it? (sorry for the morbid thought)I can’t even imagine…..Please God! Let Obama win!!!

From vic nashville,Tn: How democratic party talk about former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience when they have community organizer top of the ticket

Plain approval rate as a governor 80%
9 % approval rate for congress

Obama long time experience is 20 years with Jeremiah Wright

Life long democrat and Hillary strong supporter will vote for Mc Cain
Hillary 2012 /Mc Cain/Palin2008

From rich: I’m an Alaskan. I know Palin. She is a winner. Strategically, McCain could not have made a better choice. When America gets to know her, they will wonder why she is not at the top of the ticket…someday…in the mean time, I hope she pushes for as many VP debates as possible - she steals the show in that venue. This will change the race as much as Clinton’s focus on the economy vs Bush 1. She is the best representative women could have. This is not a political hail mary, but a shrewd and wise choice for VP. It fundamentally changes the nature of this race, and makes the Obama/Biden call for ‘change’ look superficial and weak. Palin is the real deal and is not being taken advantage of, McCain is lucky to have her…that’s why Obama said, “the race is about McCain” in response today…hmmm…I think Obama is about to get Obama’ed…by a very capable woman.

From Mike In Ohio: what does it say about McCain’s judgement when he picks someone after meeting them onetime? Also, he just lost his best arguement against Obama, experience. I think its hillarious that even Orielly agrees that he just blew it.

From kornelia new york: Mc Cain have age related dementia . Who will like to have president without experience with 5 children / read problems/ She clearly have postpartum depression …..living her children for politics!!!Down sydrome is 24 hour job that child needs mother …she is pro life? what kind of life?

and finally probably the best observation from the center or right, from jeff layton: My view is that moderate MALE voters, like myself, who may have considered voting for a McCain/Romney or other ticket that might have represented something in the way of reasserting america’s image around the world will instead stray away from the funny talking Alaskan lady who presides over a State that has nothing to do with reality in the lower 48.

She is John McCain’s version of Harriet Miers–she’s some version of a “maverick,” but in the final analysis she’s SIMPLY NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Obama’s experience might have been a close call, but Palin’s choice by Obama’s loudest critic who INITIATED THE QUALIFICATIONS DEBATE, proves McCain is turning his back on this Country.

McCain is the OLDEST to ever run, and she’s the LEAST QUALIED since Agnew. When you add that up, it simply doesn’t compute.

the right responds.......

Ever since I heard about McCain's choice of Palin as his VP choice I wondered what the established right would say -

As always NRO delivers - Here's what David Frum has to say:

Friday, August 29, 2008

Palin

The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.

John McCain wanted a woman: good.

He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.

He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.

And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one."

Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.

Here's I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign's slogan is "country first." It's a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

And here's a link to my National Post column on the choice.

08/29 08:36 PM

The National Post article cited above is a must read for his views on the Palin pick.

Well one thing for sure and for certain McCain's laughable attack on Obama as unqualified is now once and forever gone. On the other hand Obama's question about McCain's judgment is strengthened. Sarah Palin better be a quick study because the axes and knives are headed her way and she ain't seen nothing yet.

Sarah Palin

On first thought it hits me that McCain is simply bat shit crazy. Not sure if I've had my second or third though yet. Certainly its a "Hail Mary" move on McCain's part but it will take time to know if its inspired or simply nuts. Right now my vote is its nuts.

However, it needs to be said that she has her supporters - there is even a blog titled Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President that began Feb. 26, 2007. Its founding author, Adam Brickley, said this in a posting titled Why Sarah Palin?

This blog is the result of about a month worth of research on potential Republican Vice-Presidential candidates for the 2008 election. I had been considerably less than thrilled with all of the early speculation, mostly swirling around second-tier presidential candidates, so I decided to see if there was anyone better suited for the job that I hadn't been hearing about. So, I developed the following profile for the perfect VP candidate (using Rudy Giuliani as my presumptive presidential candidate):

1) A energetic, young, fresh face who will energize the electorate
2) Not connected to the current administration
3) Pro-Life
4) Pro-Gun
5) A woman or minority to counter Hillary or Obama and put to rest the idea that America only elects white males

One of the first names I found that fit these qualifications was that of Sarah Palin, the recently elected Governor of Alaska. I knew that I had stumbled upon a fantastic candidate for national office, but I kept looking in the hope that I could find other potentially viable choices. However, after looking at every GOP governor, senator, and congressperson, I found that Palin had only become more appealing.

She was certainly energetic and young, having become governor at only 42 years of age. Watching her speches and campaign ads, I discovered that she was definitely a new kid of leader, coming off more as a spunky soccer-mom than a stuffy career politician. As for abortion, she was staunchly pro-life; and as a lifetime NRA member she was the most pro-gun candidate in the country. Furthermore, her experiences in rural Alaska provided a perfect complement to the big-city credentials of candidates like Giuliani. Her moderately libertarian positions on most other issues also match up perfectly to Giuliani.

There was thing about Palin that initially worried me - "lack of experience". She had only been elected governor in 2006, and her only previous experience was as a two terms as a city councilwoman and two more as mayor in Wasilla, AK (population 8,471 in 2005) followed up by a failed campaign for lieutenant governor and a brief stint on Alaska's Oil and Natural Gas Conservation Commission. This didn't seem very appealing at first, but then I took the time to look closer at Palin's history. What I had failed to realize was that she had habitually knocked of powerful incumbent opponents and was a quick learner on the job. In the 2006 gubernatorial election, she rolled over scandal-prone incumbent Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary, then went on to defeat former governor Tony Knowles in the general election - pretty impressive. Further back, she had knocked off an entrenched incumbent to become mayor of Wasilla, then developed a reputation as a hard-nosed, effective mayor. Her performance in Wasilla got her elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors and earned her the nickname "Sarah Barracuda".

In the end, I decided that Sarah Palin had actually compiled a rather astounding record of achievements in her 42 years, and was more than capable of making the jump to the national level. So now I ask you who you would rather have as your Vice-President. You could accept conventional wisdom and choose from the lineup of old men currently being bantered about, or you could choose an inspiring leader like Sarah Palin. As for me, I'm going with "Sarah Barracuda", a candidate who will help us win the election and then deliver solid results.
Posted by Adam Brickley, aka "ElephantMan" at 2/26/2007 12:07:00 AM

More reasons to hate the Clintons - their supporters.

With the Dem Convention in full swing the Clinton sycophants are running wild. Tonight is all about Hillary worship. Tomorrow praises Bill. Even with giving both Tuesday and Wednesday nights to the Clintons their head monkey, Howard Wolfson, is doing what he can to hurt Democratic chances in the Fall. His latest screed in the New Republican Republic says that Obama has some real grovelling to do before the perfect one, Bill Clinton, to make amends for Bill's racist statements in South Carolina (see my post from January for more on this).

David Sirota asks a great and relevant question on HuffPo "Does it always - ALWAYS - have to be about the Clintons?".

As far as the HillBill show goes the answer is obviously - yes it does.

Biden it is .....

Now, please go and rip John McCain's face off - rhetorically/politically speaking of course.

Bill Clinton's Epitaph?

Now that it appears that the Obama Campaign has asked Bill Clinton to speak its interesting to think about what he will say and how he will be viewed in the long term.

On the latter point its anybodies guess but I just ran across a reader's comment that may be the basis of Bill Clinton's epitaph over at washingtonpost.com. Found via HuffPo.

Bill Clinton has become the Michael Jackson
of the Democratic Party. Everything he now
does is an embarrassment. The mask has
finally been ripped off, exposing for all
the world nothing more than a spoiled, whiny, mamma's boy who throws a hissy-fit
when he doesn't get his own way.

My god, what a way to end your career...

Posted by: JIM WHITTAKER, Hemet, CA | August 8, 2008 2:42 PM

Exxon McCain 08

Finally the DNC gets its act together. The Exxon McCain 08 Campaign.

The Yard Sign:


The Bumper Sticker:


The Button:



Hopefully they will all be available soon at the NM's Democratic Party State Headquarters - 1301 San Pedro, NE.

A quick look at an anti-Obama, pro-Hillary grassroots web site

For your examination is the following site: Just Say No Deal an umbrella site that list other independent anti-Obama sites across the web. In their own words "we are a coalition of millions with one thing in common: NObama".

Navigating from this site to many others it lists I get the feeling of moving through one big circle of web sites each looking a bit different but still essentially the same. A complaint on one was repeated on most of the others. Not much served to separate them save layout and color scheme. Another thing that hit me was the real lack of names that show up anywhere on these sites. The one glaring exception is the Media page on Just Say No Deal - for contacts we find:

East Coast:

Will Bower (PUMA)
Cristi Adkins (Clintons4McCain.com)
Diane Mantouvalos (HireHeels.com)

West Coast:

Robin Carlson (HillaryGrassRootsCampaign.com)

To Arrange Interview or Focus Group
Please Contact:

Andonia Public Relations: (617) 416-4897

Please note that Cristi Adkins is one of the backers of Clintons4McCain.com and involved with Allen Media Strategies. Catch this clip from Cristi on Fox News -

Curious that a group supposedly fueled by the grass roots has not one but essentially two Public Relations Company working for it. A quick search of "Andonia Public Relations" shows that it is headed by Diane Mantouvalos and it has specialized in attacking Obama and the Democratic Party for not worshiping Hillary Clinton. She's also a favorite on Faux News -

You have to wonder how much of this grassroots groundswell is real and how much a setup by the Republican Party using a pair of Media Relations firms that have loud mouths for sale.

Poor Heather, wrong again

What possessed the late, great Heather Wilson to send this, see below, to the NY Times escapes me save the need to cause a bit of trouble and aid the Republican establishment's plan to alienate Hillary's supporters from Obama.

Op-Ed Contributor
Hermione Clinton
By HEATHER WILSON
Published: June 8, 2008

The Democratic nominating system favors the most liberal candidate — in this case, Barack Obama. But there is a second reason Hillary Clinton lost that some are reluctant to openly acknowledge: a latent and lamentable sexism. She lost because the superdelegates — the Democratic establishment — went against her.

She became a caricature: too smart, too strong, too assertive, too rational, too competent. Think how the young Harry Potter and his male friends initially reacted to Hermione Granger and you get the idea.

— HEATHER WILSON, a Republican representative from New Mexico.

To think that Heather Wilson would say that Hillary Clinton was "too smart, too strong, too assertive, too rational, too competent" makes me think that this must have been submitted after she lost the primary last Tuesday. Based on this you would almost expect Heather to come out of the closet as a Hillary supporter. Certainly that string of compliments wouldn't have done her much good with the Republican base in the primary election. But then again it might not have mattered - we all know that this, like everything else in her political career, isn't real. Its just an illusion - another instance of Heather's famous "Crocodile tears" that's she's used so well to confuse the electorate and keep herself in office.

hcsfjm.com - is it real or is it Republican?

Found today via HuffPo a new site devoted to the evils done to Hillary during the campaign. Its called the "National Organization of Hillary Clinton supporters for John McCain". To save you grief and prevent more hits on their visitor counter here's the intro screen.
Click here for a larger view.

Like the website the whois entry from Network Solutions, listed below, really doesn't tell you too much.

Registrant:
Contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA

Domain name: HCSFJM.COM

Administrative Contact:
contactprivacy.com, hcsfjm.com@contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
+1.4165385457
Technical Contact:
contactprivacy.com, hcsfjm.com@contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
+1.4165385457

Registration Service Provider:
Homestead Technologies, Inc, hostmaster@homesteadsupport.com
800-797-2958
650-364-7329 (fax)
http://www.homestead.com

Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 06-Jun-2008.
Record expires on 24-May-2009.
Record created on 24-May-2008.

Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.MDNSSERVICE.COM
NS2.MDNSSERVICE.COM
NS3.MDNSSERVICE.COM

Domain status: clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited

Leaving out all the boiler plate here's the remaining tidbits:

Current Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
IP Address: 209.157.71.50 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-COLORADO-ENGLEWOOD
Lock Status: clientTransferProhibited
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Web Site Title: index
Meta Description: Hillary Clinton supporters for john mccain. We will never vote for obama
Meta Keywords: clinton hillary john mccain supporters
Data as of: 14-Jun-2005

A quick nsloookup confirms the ip address.

Besides the name, Ed Hale, there really isn't any info about who is behind this site. We have no clue who Mr. Hale is, if he exists, or where he lives if he does exist. Neither do they list the names of their members or supporters. The only other information is they they are not asking for any donations at this time. However, we will set up a "527" to run ads in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan and other swing states.

I've gone to contactprivacy.com and sent a message to those behind the site. I doubt they will respond. My guess is that's it another Republican dirty trick web site but we will see.