Is it in the water they drink? ... The air quality at the Dead Campaign Express HQ? ... Are they working from a "How-To-Run-A-Presidential-Campaign-for-Dummies"?
I happened to be watching MSNBC when this interview occurred, and it was a jawdropper.
McKKKain flak Nancy Puss'n'Boots actually dismissed Northern Virginia, pointed to the "southern part" as the "real Virginia" and then, when given the opportunity to correct herself, reiterated it!
KEVIN CORKE: Okay. You’re talking about winning this year, but that's going to require that you win states like – well, like Virginia, for example. And as someone who is now in northern Virginia, we're both right here, we get it. Northern Virginia is increasingly strong in the state. They have more political clout. Democrats have won the statehouse; Jim Webb’s surprising victory in the Senate. It would seem to me that there could be a tipping of the balance there. Would you agree with that? And that maybe be – you know, maybe that's where he has to focus his energy now.
NANCY PFOTENHAUER: Well, Kevin, I certainly agree that northern Virginia has gone more Democratic. You know, as a proud resident of Oakton, Virginia, I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into northern Virginia. And that's really what you see there. But the rest of the state, real Virginia, if you will, I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain’s message. And remember that, you know, you’ve got places in other states like northern Wisconsin, the iron range of Minnesota, south-central and southeastern Pennsylvania, the St. Louis suburbs and the rural areas of Missouri that are very responsive to our message. And again we're taking it to them in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. He’s having to fight to defend there, as you can tell because he's deployed people like the Clintons out in Pennsylvania. And every speech Joe Biden gives, he says, “I’m from Scranton.” You don't know what else he's going to say, but he sure gets that line in.
CORKE: Hey Nancy, I’m going to give you a chance to climb back off that ledge. Did you say "real Virginia"?
PFOTENHAUER: I did say outside of north – well, I mean real Virginia, because northern Virginia is where I’ve always been, but real Virginia I take to be the – this part of the state that is more southern in nature, if you will. Northern Virginia is really metro D.C., as you're aware, Kevin.
CORKE: All right. I’m just going to let you -- you’re aware of that one. I’m just saying.
My god, how stupid can these McCain people be? First, they call Arlington and Alexandria "communist country." Then, Sarah Palin talks about how only the rural, "small town" (like Wasilla?) parts of America are "pro-America." Now, McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer channels George Allen's "macaca" moment, when among other things he welcomed S.R. Sidarth - a lifelong resident of Fairfax County - to "America and the real world of Virginia."
Hmm. Virginia is a key swing state, with 13 electoral votes, and recent polling showing Obama with a modest lead. The state's two most populous counties -- Fairfax and Prince William Counties -- are both in northern Virginia.
And the McCain campaign keeps insulting them.
If there's a clever angle to this strategy, it's hiding well.
They really must be strivin' for that Rovian Utopia, of a 50.1% - 49.9% mandate.
We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. The same front outfit organization that your campaign gave $832,000 for "lighting and site selection." So all of these things need to be examined, of course.
Oct. 17: In a sort of counter-suit, the Obama campaign has requested that the Attorney General’s special prosecutor add to his review of fraud charges against ACORN a review of any involvement by Justice Department and the White House officials in supporting the McCain/Palin campaign and the RNC’s spreading of bogus fraud charges. Bob Bauer joins Countdown to explain the Democratic position.
Ohio Republicans, spurred by a manufactured ACORN controversy, want state officials to compare the 666,000 newly registered voters against data collected by the state DMV. According to the Secretary of State's office, about 200,000 of the new voters show at least some kind of discrepancy -- out of nearly two dozen categories -- some as minor as the misspelling of a name.
The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.
The justices overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.
I guess, the SJC has it in their heads not to get dirty on this one (or, they're sick of the RNC and their bullshit), a, kind of, "Fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice, shame on us".
The upshot? The District is neither "real America" nor "pro-America." Other parts of the nation? It's unclear, but if you live in a small town, you're probably patriotic from Palin's point of view.
"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."
Joe Biden, almost immediately, offered some his experience to the former second-grader.
Oh, and by the way, it's been reported that the Secret Service is serving Mommy Moose, by assisting the Dead Campaign Express in keeping the Media from going out into the Flaming Masses at her Mob Rallies to interview any of the screamers.
Why don't they just be done with it.
The two minuscule mavericks can tattoo "William Ayers" on their foreheads, walking around wrapped in American Flags, and just cut the stump speeches down to "You're either with us, or against us".
Appearing on Hardball, with Tweety this evening, she was wailing about - what else - William Ayers and Obama - but then, it got very, very interesting;
She then went further, suggesting that all liberal views — held by people such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, professors, and all Americans who identify themselves as “liberals” — are “anti-American.” When host Chris Matthews, stunned by her remarks, asked Bachmann how many people in Congress hold anti-American views, she responded, “You’ll have to ask them.”
But his greatest sphere of influence was as an arranger and composer for other jazz artists. His early travels with jazz bands took him to New York, where he was mesmerized by the bebop playing of Dizzy Gillespie, and joined the Herman band — known as First Herd — in 1944. He was influential in moving that band from its swing roots in the direction of bebop.
"If it wasn't for Neal Hefti, the Basie band wouldn't sound as good as it does," Miles Davis said in 1955. "But Neal's band can't play those same arrangements nearly as well."
Away from the world of Hollywood Hefti will be remembered as the man who shaped the sound of the postwar Count Basie Orchestra, and who also produced dozens of skilful, well-crafted arrangements for Woody Herman and Harry James.
When Basie eventually re-formed his full orchestra, Hefti became one of his principal writers. The album The Atomic Basie remains the best work that the group did in the 1950s, playing entirely Hefti’s arrangements.
He had started writing for Harry James in the late 1940s, but in the 1950s Hefti furnished James with numerous compositions, designed to feature the leader’s trumpet and the band’s star drummer Buddy Rich.
Nevertheless, Hefti was by this time writing in a similar style to that which he used for Basie, giving rise to the apocryphal story that when the two bands met on a television show, Basie drily asked James: “Are you going to play our arrangements first, or are we?”
It is grotesque that Neal Hefti, one of jazz's greatest orchestrators, should be best remembered for a 12"x12" picture of an atomic bomb exploding. The album The Atomic Mr Basie (1957), for which Hefti wrote all the music, was an embarrassment for him and Count Basie, both in its title and the cover picture, but it made a fortune for them and for the record company and remains one of the most memorable big band albums of all time. Hefti's beautiful ballad "Li'l Darlin' " from that set stuck in the public's memory and the Basie band played it regularly in concert ever after.
It's also sad that too many newspapers and websites will present this news, highlighting that Hefti wrote the theme songs for televisions' "Batman" and "The Odd Couple", then presenting his illustrious Jazz career as a side note.
Obama consistently framed answers with a little sprinkling of pixie dust, a whiff of history, citing, that we're in the greatest economic crisis since The Great Depression, and then laid out this program, or that, in detail.
Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain(who went from "Grumpy McKKKain", to "Angry McKKKain", almost right out of the gate) brought up, and kept going back to, and going back to, and going back to Joe the Plumber.
They could use clips of McKKKain and his new best buddy, Joe the Plumber, on one of those breezy, dancing eHarmony commercials.
And it won't surprise me if Joe the Plumber comes out on top of some of the post-debate polls.
And, after all the hype, the endless hours of the Cable TV heads pontificating about it, the cries for blood from the Right Wing Freak Show, John McKKKain IS A PUSSY!
It was like a pillow fight, with foam, rather then feathers.
McKKKain did bring up William Ayers (and ACORN), in virtually the same exact manner he has brought him up over the past two-weeks-plus.
He dredged it up with his standard stump speech, not anything new, no new, or direct, questions ... No grilling ... Standard Stump all the way.
McKKKain, being the straighter shooter he consistently refers to himself as, defended, angrily, of course, the crowds at his rally, without saying a word about the ugliness of those type of chants and threats.
Maverick, my ass!
There was a question about the qualifications of their opponents running mates as President, and, my first reaction to seeing Obama say nothing but nice things was he blew it (McKKKain, in his answer, tossed a bone at Biden and then nit-picked some issue that was a yawner), however, in hindsight, if he dissed the Wasilla Whiz Kid, it would be days of more grief, blaring headlines; It was almost an 'Eddie Haskell' compliment, so better to let Mommy Moose sink her own boat.
While starting off like he was pumped full of "electrolytes", however, quickly, the anger seeped in, and continued to grow the rest of the night.
There were a few times, I half expected for his head to explode.
And it showed, over and over (at one point, McKKKain called Obama “Senator Government,” in an angry rush to hit back at him, but did correct himself).
After dissing Obama about something, and as Obama responded to it, McKKKain would be stuttering, interrupting, making faces and noise, as Obama spoke (at one point, having to be scolded by Moderator Bob Schieffer).
Obama, cool, calm and collected, driving home the need for a new direction.
McKKKain, all but foaming-at-the-mouth, blabbing out standard Republican speak (including the "Abortion/Roe v. Wade" segment, in which he will be creamed and skewered for his answer).
Post-debate, it appears, Obama sweeping all the snap polls, some by extremely large margins (by 2-1, in numerous cases).
Right Wing Freak Show will, undoubtedly, spin how Angry John McKKKain kicked ass and "the race is on".
Trouble is McKKKain and Palin is their ticket, so it only gets them to the next gaffe or fuck-up.
No game-changer here, and we can all exhale, as the debate season is, finally, over.
Well, thank you, Terry (ph). And thank you for your service to the country.
I want to say, everything I ever learned about leadership I learned from a chief petty officer. And I thank you, and I thank you, my friend. Thanks for serving.
Perhaps Chief Petty Officer Terry hadn't see the newspaper, the Los Angeles Times that day, or likely he would have had a rebuttal for for the debunked Maverick, maybe a different question, for I don't think he want to own that for the legion of Chief Petty Officers out there, past and present.
As a presidential candidate, McCain has cited his military service -- particularly his 5 1/2 years as a POW. But he has been less forthcoming about his mistakes in the cockpit.
In today's military, a lapse in judgment that causes a crash can end a pilot's career. Though standards were looser and crashes more frequent in the 1960s, McCain's record stands out.
Naval aviation experts say the three accidents before McCain's deployment to Vietnam probably triggered a review to determine whether he should be allowed to continue flying. The results of the review would have been confidential.
The Times asked McCain's campaign to release any military personnel records in the candidate's possession showing how the Navy handled the three incidents. The campaign said it would have no comment.
Well, we have another debate this evening, the last of this long presidential primary and campaign season (I believe it is around 41 debates, total, that we have had to endure).
Being that Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain is in this one, speaking publically, we remind you to clean, oil and test out your "My Friends" counter.
He's down, and free-falling in the polls, so it could be a blizzard of "My Friends" tonight.
Also, there will be held breath and anxious nerves, awaiting to see, as the minutes click off, if the debunked Maverick employs "That One" again.
And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.
The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.
With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke.
Ouch!
Those starburst are really starting to fade, aren't they Richie?
"Matthew Dowd was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, so it came as something of a surprise to see him eviscerate John McCain today a panel at the TimeWarner summit."
"They didn't let John McCain pick the person he wanted to pick as VP," Dowd declared during the Time Warner Summit panel. "When Sarah Palin got picked instead of Joe Lieberman, which I fundamentally believed would have given John McCain the best opportunity in this race... as soon as he picked Palin, that whole ready versus not ready argument was not credible."
Saying that Palin was a "net negative" on the ticket, he went on: "[McCain] knows, in his gut, that he put somebody unqualified on the ballot. He knows that in his gut, and when this race is over that is something he will have to live with... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot and he put the country at risk, he knows that."
Oh man, go ahead cry, if you want ... We know, it's gotta hurt.
We know, with McKKKain sinking in the polls like the Titanic, you're probably too distraught to write another gushing post, to gather your thoughts, to express yourself properly, to come to grips with the wink-less life you have to face.
So, we're giving you some help.
You can sing this, over-and-over, to help cleanse your heart, and sweep all those starbursts out the door.
In fact, everybody .. C'mon, everybody pitch in and help Little Richie sing this tune ... It's classic and you all know, so let it rip ...
Alaskan Lie
A long, long time ago... I can still remember How that wink used to make me smile. And I knew if she had her chance That she could make the GOP base dance And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.
But October made her shiver With every paper that was delivered Bad news on the doorstep; She couldn’t make one more wink hep.
I can’t remember if I cried When I read about her Ethics slide But something touched me deep inside The day the Winkin' died.
So bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
Did you write the book of Ethics, And do you have faith in God above, If the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in Shock and Awe, Can Rev. Murthee save your mortal soul, And can you teach me how to wink real slow?
Well, I know that you wanted to fire him `cause I saw you winkin' in the gym. You both kicked off your shoes. Man, I dig that Rovian ruse.
I was a lonely Corner broncin’ buck With a pink carnation and a pickup truck, But I knew I was out of luck The day the Winkin' died.
I started singin’, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
Now for ten weeks we’ve been on our own And ice grows fat on a frozen stone, But that’s not how it used to be. When the McCain sang for the rabid mob, And you jumped in cause it was your job And a voice that came from you and me,
Oh, and while the Maverick was looking down, You stole his ugly racist crown. The Legislature was adjourned; The Ethics verdict was returned. And while Obama rang up good marks, The Right Wing Freak Show practiced in the park, And they sang dirges in the dark The day the Winkin' died.
We were singing, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
Helter skelter in an economic swelter. Investors flew off to an island tax shelter, Eight hundred Points down and falling fast. Mac's crowd was foul, even crass As he tried to make forward pass, Before racist crowds that had amassed
Now the half-time air smelled of flop and doom While the cable anchors sang Mac's marshall tune. We all got up to wink, Oh, but we never got the chance! `cause the issues tried to take the field; The talking heads refused to yield. And only nonsense was revealed The day the winkin' died.
We started singing, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
Oh, and there we were all in one place, A electorate lost in space With no time left to start again. So come on: Sarah be nimble, Sarah be quick! Sarah spin that Ethics trick Cause lying is the devil’s only friend.
Oh, and as I watched her on the stage Her fans were seized in fits of rage. No spin doctor born in hell could quell her awful smell And as the rhetoric climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite, I saw Rove laughing with delight The day the winkin' died
He was singing, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
I met a girl from a state that is now blue And I asked her for some happy news, But she just smiled and said it had just turned that way. I went down to the McCain store Where I’d heard the smears years before, But is was still the only music they would play.
And in the streets the Mob did scream, The critics cried, and the pollster creamed. But not a word was spoken; The church bells all were broken. And the three pols I admire most: Dubster, Dickie and Reagan's ghost They caught the last hearse for the coast The day the winkin' died.
And they were singing, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
They were singing, bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie. Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra But the wolves, they did hide And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died. "this’ll be the day the winkin' died."
It's been one of our most fervent wishes the past two-years, that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is plagued by nightmares.
A Tim-Burton-on-acid-meets-Disney-type nightmare, of being trapped in a store.
A table store.
Big, thick butcher block's man the exits, forcing the Bush Grindhouse enabler to travel the maze-like aisles, small end-tables nipping at her ankles, all the other tables stamping their legs, chanting "No Nancy, put it on the table ... No, Nancy, put it on the table ... No Nancy, put it on the table ..."
Wouldn't it be fantastic if the Dem who gets handed walking papers was the one who, speaking from a position of high authority, promised that any chance of impeaching the criminally barbarous Bush was "off the table" immediately after 2006 Congressional elections that were all about public disdain for Bush? From there that person went on stand down as our liberties were being assailed at home and as our addiction to foreign wars continued apace abroad. Then this millionaire helped spearhead a gargantuan bailout of people already awash in more cash than any of us could ever imagine. No question about it, it would be tremendous if she found herself out on a street full of Republicans on the morning of Nov 5.
Not only should Cindy Sheehan win but she really could if an influx of progressive support infuses her campaign right now. So get off your diverse buts San Francisco and get to work for Cindy Sheehan. And lefties around the country, it's time to cough up whatever you can for Cindy Sheehan. Imagine if on election night (voter suppression and ballot-rigging permitting) the Republicans get trounced from coast to coast and then the last big story of the evening is Cindy Sheehan's upset win over Nancy Pelosi.
Imagine how great November 4 will be (voter suppression and ballot-rigging permitting) if we seriously repudiate the R's and then knock off the Vichy Dem who so compromised the electoral gains of 2006 by replacing her with the legendary woman who wiped the smirk off W's face?
