It was a tough choice this week ... Liddy Dole, clearly, took the early lead, with her soon-to-be-campaign-folklore "Godless" campaign ad, but Mommy Moose came charging down the home stretch, with her stunning interpretation of the Constitution, seeking free passes from the media for throwing slime balls, but in the end, the vast soullessness of Liddy Dole won the day.
Why risk the eternal ridicule, Liddy?
I mean, charging your opponent, State Senator Kay Hagen, with being "Godless" is one of the lowest roads you can travel down, especially down there in bible-thumpin' country.
And hiring someone, to tag the end of that "Godless" ad, someone that, maybe, maybe not, sounds like Hagen to say "There is no God", that is way, way beyond the pale - paler than you must look before slathering on your make-up (which brings to mind a killer Barry Crimmins riff, from his "Prevarication Nation", when he hits Mrs. Bob Dole with "Liddy Dole (R- Mayberry) looked great, said little and kudos were again in order for her mortician, a true pro when working with a few gallons of rouge and an airbrush.")
You hired someone to fake Hagen's voice and say the words "There is no God".
This, with the knowledge that Hagen was a Sunday School teacher?
As if the rest of Ad wasn't specious enough - your deliberately lied in it.
This ad is something else, an attack on a Christian woman's faith against all evidence to the contrary. It is wrong. It may well backfire on Dole.
It has no place in N.C. politics. Unless she admits this egregious, shameful mistake and acts appropriately, Elizabeth Dole has no place in N.C. politics, either.
You're probably a little lucky there, Liddy.
If this was 50, or 100-years ago, being Tar Heel country, you'd probably would be tarred-and-feathered for such a hideous and very un-Christian-like charge. Hmmm ... Maybe it is time to honor some of those old school traditions ...
A new Rasmussen poll, taken Wednesday after the Dole ad began airing, showed Hagan ahead of Dole 52-46. A new survey by Civitas, taken Monday through Wednesday, showed Hagan up by a smaller margin.
And sometime around the point at which the non-Sarkozy says" "I love the documentary they made on your life -- you know, Hustler's "Nailin' Paylin"?", it seemed pretty clear to me that she had caught on. (That said, I do think she should have known the name of the Prime Minister of Canada.)
Hunting: "Like we say in French, on peut tuer des bebe phoques" -- trans.: we could kill some baby seals.
The song Carla allegedly wrote for Palin: "Le Rouge A Levres Sur Un Cochon", or: Lipstick on a pig.
Here it is. Play it and you won't be able to stop from smiling.
A new world is comin' people... and it's gonna need a new kind of entertainment.
It's called Humanitainment... and here's how we make it: We start with the goal of raising consciousness, then we sprinkle in some wit, creativity and a healthy dose of in-your-face attitude. Stir it all together... bake... and voila!
We're gonna blow the doors off the stigma that socially-relevant content can't be cool--
And yes... we're aware that stigmas don't have doors. We're idealistic, not crazy!
No (but, boy, could they sure use him), however, we have seen the increased conversation about the infamous "Bradley Effect" creeping into the cable news election talkathons.
For a good time, I always thought the "Bradley Effect" had something to do that the former Mayor, and Edward G. Robinson, were long lost brothers, separated-at-birth, perhaps.
Ah, but we digress.
Today, Barry Crimmins has a monster post, "Eat Jim Crow!"(which followed a monster post, and extremely funny the day before, Sis! Boom! Blah!), which peels back most of the chatter and babble you've been hearing from the TV Talking Heads. From "Eat Jim Crow!";
Anyway, the pundits seem unconcerned that that election was 26 years ago and even less concerned that many of those who voted against Bradley now have something in common with him.... since they are dead, too. I'm certain race played a factor in that contest but I'm also wagering that Bradley had nothing going for him that even mildly approached Obama's vaunted ground game. Besides, Bradley wasn't running to replace the worst president in American history. But most important of all, a quarter of a century later voters are much less likely to vote against their own best interests because they fear/hate the thought of an African-American leader.
I think something akin to the Bradley Effect is still around but severely diminished because we're a more integrated society these days and integration works. Why do you think so many young people can't get their heads around all the racial hubbub that's accompanied this election? I'd say it's because they have grown up in a world where seeing black kids in school or on Sesame Street is just part of everyday life. (Granted we have a few million more miles to go but the improvement is hard to miss.)
And this;
Then there are the people who are just sick of racists. They may suffer these jerks in silence but given a chance to really, really bum them out by casting a vote for Obama provides an opportunity for the most eloquent rejoinder of all. As far as the pollsters getting it wrong by not allowing for the Bradley Effect, isn't it just possible that some people tell pollsters they aren't voting for Obama because they are speaking within earshot of bully racists who live in their homes? How many long-suffering wives who have spent decades listening to their blowhard husbands spew bigotry are just waiting to pull the curtain shut to click a big "fuck you" to a racist spouse? No one can say.
Ignorant and stupid doesn't begin to cover the latest ramblings from The Wasilla Whiz Kid.
Now, it seems rather obvious, that Mommy Moose was tossing a shout out to the Base with this "both-feet-in-mouth" view of our First Amendment, you know, get'em riled up that a severe injustice is being perpetrated against her, and the Stumblin' Fly Boy.
It's actually a "twofer", bashing both Barack Obama and the media.
ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.
"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."
WTF!
Is this what she really thinks, and/or, believes?
I suppose, if the Dead Campaign Express is successful, and they do win, Palin can, as the Vice President who runs the Senate, can just have the whole gang to roll up their sleeves, and get to workin', and fix that little nasty First Amendment, darn good, so she, and future Republicans can run smear campaigns, worry-free, from getting any negative press, or, for that matter, merely asked about it.
If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.
According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. In the Palin worldview, the First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials such as herself would not be "attacked" in the papers. Is it even possible to imagine more breathtaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?
So, if she wants to play this game, I believe we can trump her on it.
It is documented, overwhelmingly, in both the media, and in polls, it has been absolute torture seeing, and hearing Mommy Moose on the campaign trail.
Her Hockey Mom BS, the winking (sorry Rich Lowery, we know you go to heaven with it), the "gosh gollies" and "gosh darn its", the unabashed, complete naked, out-and-out lying, the obfuscation, the gutter-based smears, the fraud, the ignorance ...
Torture, pure torture.
Worse than fingernails scrapping down a blackboard.
Waterboarding, sans the water, as one's breath is stunted, stopped, labored, watching her on the campaign trail.
In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), Justice Brennan wrote, "There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual'."
The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity," especially torture. "A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion." "A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society." "A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary."
As you can see, the GOP Clothes Horse, out, in public campaigning, hits, at minimum, two of these four principles, the "A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion," and "A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society."
You can also argue, which numerous REPUBLICANS have, that "A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary," as the debunked Maverick should have chosen someone other than Palin, someone with a minimal amount of intelligence, so her being on the ticket is certainly "patently unnecessary".
If you looked at the papers today, you would see that a majority of the country believes that to be true
All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.
While a majority viewed Ms. Palin as unqualified for the vice presidency, roughly three-quarters of voters saw Mr. Obama’s running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, as qualified for the job. The increase in the number of voters who said Ms. Palin was not prepared was driven almost entirely by Republicans and independents.
So there, Mommy Moose, are these people that took part in the poll infringing on your First Amendment rights?
I think it's supposed to be, in the final days of campaign, that you "get out the vote", not, as it appears the Dead Campaign Express is employing, "get the voter the hell out of here".
Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting.
Lara Elborno, a student at the University of Iowa, said she was approached by a police officer and a McCain staffer and was told she had to leave or she would be arrested for trespassing.
“It was a very confusing, very frustrating situation,” Elborno said. “I said that I had a right to be there, I wasn’t doing anything disruptive — I was sitting, waiting for the rally to start.”
She said McCain staffers wouldn’t tell her why she was being asked to leave and when she got outside, she saw “a group of about 20 people” who had all been asked to leave.
Despite repeated attempts, McCain’s campaign could not be reached for comment.
Kicking people out of your own rally?
I'm not sure that's in too many campaign playbooks.
But, those were just regular people, Joe-and-Josephine Six-Packs.
A McCain-Palin campaign official snubbed the president of Penn State University who inquired about attending a campus speech Tuesday by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, university officials told ABCNews.com.
"I welcome eminent visitors to our campus everyday, including lots of Republicans, but [the McCain-Palin campaign] didn't want me to greet her or even attend the event," said Spanier.
Some might say that makes it an odd time to snub the president of the state's largest university. The school enrolls 40,000 students and counts a quarter-million alumni living in Pennsylvania alone.
Spanier says he does not appear on stage or introduce candidates but is always eager "to officially welcome visitors to our campus."
"At a time when both campaigns are appealing to independents and people of the other party in our state, it seems like a strange decision," Spanier said.
I would suspect, that in leaving, the Palin Mob stomped and kicked the Nittany Lion mascot, as, probably, it is also a "Big Democrat".
And just think, The Wasilla Whiz Kid could have added another name to her roll call, like "Tito the Builder" and "Nancy the Nurse", she could have given a shout out to "Graham, the College President".
What's pissing off a potential quarter-million voters?
We could make jokes about Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain, and his sidekick, The Wasilla Whiz Kid, going out today, dressed as a couple of mavericks, however, I doubt very many would drop candy in their bags, not finding the pair credible, the costumes really low rent and cheesy, yet, we will lay low on that.
Rather, instead of any tricks, we'll give you a treat.
Some say, the legendary drummer, Philly Joe Jones was a huge fan of Béla Lugosi, and then there is this account as well;
If that weren't enough, he was, in addition, an entertainer with unusual presence and great ability as a mimic and comedian. I commend to your attention his now famous Bela Lugosi/Count Dracula imitation (Blues for Dracula - Philly Joe Jones Riverside, OJCCD-230-2). He did it so accurately and with flair that he might well have intimidated comedian-commentator Lenny Bruce, whose Lugosi impressions inspired the multifaceted drummer to this a part of his act.
In any case, our treat for you today is (drumroll, please); Blues For Dracula
Where have you gone, Joe the faux Plumber, Our Campaign turns it's lonely eyes to you. What's that you say, John, the Maverick Man. Revoltin' Joe has left and gone away, Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea!
Update - McCain staffers tell ABC News that it was "a simple mix up" and Joe "will join the campaign at a Thursday evening event."
Update - Dana Bash updates:
McCain aides called it a “miscommunication,” but once I got on the bus I called Wurzelbacher myself and asked him what really happened. He told me that he had hoped to come to the morning rally, but that no one from McCain’s campaign ever called him back to confirm, Bigger ooops.
Well, that kind of diamond-drilling precision sure ought'a rope in more votes.
I mean, they just couldn't get enough of that, entertaining themselves, so smug that they were pinning something on Obama that would surely sink his campaign.
It was all kittens-with-a-ball-of-string, those heady, "celebrity" days.
"By the way…shouldn’t we hear from our celebrity Joe, just a second, Joe Wurzelbacher?”
"All right guys, I didn't prepare anything," Wurzelbacher said. "The only thing I've been saying is just get out and get informed. I mean really know what you're talking about when you're talking about it. Don't take everyone's opinions. I came to my own opinions by research. Get involved in the government. That way we can hold our politicians accountable and take back our government.”
"Our celebrity Joe"
Someone needs to check, were these people the model, the inspiration, for the film "Idiocracy"?
The longer this interview goes on, the more Faux News host Megyn Kelly, talking (or we should say, "freaking out") with Bill Burton of the Obama Campaign, melts down. Megyn Kelly Loses It
As noted in the video, the fru-fru tizzy that has Kelly with, proverbially, Loony Tune steam coming out of her ears. is a Matted Sludge/Dead Campaign Express smear-of-the-week, pointing to a YouTube of a radio interview Barack Obama did over seven-years ago.
You click and you link to a YouTube clip titled "Obama Bombshell Redistribution of Wealth Audio Uncovered". The clip consists of some audio - with misleading extracts of text - to a 2001 Chicago public radio interview with a very studious Barack Obama in law professor mode discussing the limitations of the court and his belief that the legislative process is the appropriate way to pursue economic justice. (Which if memory serves - accords with the conservative preference to eliminate judges who legislate from the bench.)
This clip isn't as boring as watching paint dry. It's MORE boring. It's like watching paint PERIOD.
The phrase "Clutching At Straws" does not do justice to this very limp attempt by Drudge to erect something he can put up against Barack Obama. Alas - as Drudge is all too aware - it just won't stand up any more.
Naturally, the Right Wing Freak Show has been in a lather over it, ostensibly, to point fingers at to say the Stumblin' Bumblin' Fly Boy is right, he is a Socialist, with Faux News right there, with their fire-engine-red megaphone.
Now, in fairness, you can almost understand why Megyn Kelly melted down, on camera.
It's the final week of the campaign, and, to be cautious, things aren't looking good for the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds.
They're getting nervous, jittery, snapping at shadows, not sleeping well, irritable, knowing the party is coming to an end.
Afterall, if the Democrat's ticket wins, they, in all likelihood, won't be getting the daily talking points from an Obama White House, they way they have from the Bush Grindhouse.
But they also may be worried for another reason.
An Obama White House may just knock Faux News off its' perch, to be nothing more than an annoying infomerical.
During his speech at the Al Smith dinner last night, Barack Obama once again mocked Fox News, boosting an effort to destroy the power and influence of the conservative media networks, an effort that I consider to be every bit as significant as the destruction of the modern Republican party. As noted by Kos, this continues a theme for the week where Obama mocked Fox during the debate last night and then again in the upcoming New York Times Magazine in an article by Matt Bai. This is also the continuation of a recent theme for the Obama campaign: Robert Gibbs famously ambushed Sean Hannity after the last debate in Nashville, David Plouffe recently called them the "24-hour ACORN channel" and Bill Burton has been all over their network embarrassing them over and over.
Let's consider the strategy of this for a second, because it is really smart. Obama is laying the foundation of delegitimizing Fox as a respectable news network and openly making the case that Democrats and others in the news media have been afraid for so long to say out loud, that Fox News serves the sole purpose of Republican and right wing propaganda. While this may certainly sound like an obvious point to many of us on the left, it is something that has become a bit of a taboo for people to say out loud to mainstream audiences out of fear. For Democrats, the fear is that Fox will train their sights on them and further alienate them from Fox's core Bubba audience. For the rest of the media, it is a well documented fear of the Fox's heavy handed media relations machine that intimidates other journalists from writing critical stories about the network, leaving the only critical voices about the network to come from the left from filmmakers like Robert Greenwald.
The difference with Obama is that he is not afraid of Fox. Given the platform and opportunity to take them on, he is using it, unlike the Democrats on the past. In addition to the candidate and his campaign openly mocking the network, we know that Obama knows no fear of Fox because consistent with his moral code, he let Murdoch and Ailes know he didn't respect them directly to their face as Micheal Wolffe recounted in Vanity Fair.
Yes he did.
Murdoch was said to be livid that Obama didn't come in and kiss his ring.
After others intervened, Obama did, finally, go to meet Murdoch and Ailes
Then, after he said his piece, Murdoch switched places and let his special guest, Roger Ailes, sit knee to knee with Obama.
Obama lit into Ailes. He said that he didn’t want to waste his time talking to Ailes if Fox was just going to continue to abuse him and his wife, that Fox had relentlessly portrayed him as suspicious, foreign, fearsome—just short of a terrorist.
Ailes, unruffled, said it might not have been this way if Obama had more willingly come on the air instead of so often giving Fox the back of his hand.
A tentative truce, which may or may not have vast historical significance, was at that moment agreed upon.
Scroll back up and watch the video again.
It can appear that Bill Burton is having fun, getting Megyn Kelly blustering and blabbering, and watching her melt down.
Leave it to the Dead Campaign Express, to generate more of those "final-week-of-the-campaign" headlines, just about all other campaigns would go out of their way to have spikes rammed into their eyes, rather than be humiliated as such.
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."
The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.
Already behind in the polls, with just about every pollster that steps on television, you can see the clothes pins through their shirts, attached to their nipples, to keep them from saying the word "landslide", and that the race is over, he wants to add to the long odds, offending people, forcing them to walk off their jobs, because they think he, and the campaign, is repugnant.
File that brilliant piece of strategy away, for 2012.
Keep in mind, robocalls are illegal in Indiana, forcing the McCain campaign to rely on these call centers to spread their smears. If more states passed similar laws, maybe we'd have more call-center-worker rebellions? And ultimately fewer loathsome Republican attacks over the phone?
Typically, I would quote a passage, or two, for the piece, however, I think it will read better if you just jump on over there and check it out.
Particularly, the second and third "Ashley" referenced, can, succinctly, stand in for the elevator pitch, or Reader's Digest version, for a quick snapshot on the differences between Barack Obama and Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain Go read "The Three Ashleys"
I have had a hard time locating a video, or transcript, of the Morning Joke Show today, so my transcript of it may not be 100% accurate.
Still working on my first cup of coffee, they babbled on, and among the talking heads was that former Today Show host, Tom Brokaw, sprinkling his wisdom about the studio, and all were pontificating around the pending Obama victory, and how he will govern.
Mister Swinging Hipster (you know, he's penning those books, chronicling the 1960's; Just what we need, the 60's through the filter of Tom Brokaw) pronounced that, if Obama wins, he was going to need "Republicans, to give him creditability, internationally".
Then, he drops the big winner;
"I've been waiting for either candidate to say that they are going to have a coalition government ... Names ... If you're the Democrat, you say James Baker, here's my number, give me a call ... If you're the Republican, Sam Nunn ..."
Why-on-earth would Barack Obama reach out to that old Reagan hack, the chief thug, the ringleader who spearheaded stealing the 2000 election away from Al Gore!
Slime Bucket Baker, who's in bed with the Bin Laden Family, the Carlyle Group, Enron, Big Oil, and probably half the countries in the Middle East.
Jesus, Brokaw, have you been asleep through this campaign?
Baker would be, should be, the last person for President Obama to listen to, for I don't gather from what Obama has campaigned on, that he's looking for a compromised, unethical, sleazebag, fixer.
If this is what Brokaw has to say in the wee hours of the morning, I can't wait for Election Night.
