Developing Story ... McCain Camp May Have Candidate's Mother Fall Ill

Can't Allow Obama To Gain Family Value Advantage; McCain May Suspend Campaign, Monitor Mother By Phone

Sources tell The Garlic that the inner circle of the McCain Campaign is weighing asking the candidates mother to become ill, so they can match the actions of their Democratic opponent, who is leaving the campaign trail on Thursday for Hawaii, to visit his seriously ailing grandmother.

According to the Chicago Tribune, "Barack Obama will suspend his presidential campaign for part of two days this week to return to his native Hawaii to be at the side of his gravely ill grandmother, a campaign aide said Monday."

Madelyn Dunham, 85, was released from a hospital late last week and returned to her home in Honolulu with a health condition the aide described as "very serious."

Obama's decision to cancel campaign events "underscores the seriousness of the situation," senior aide Robert Gibbs told reporters during an evening flight after a campaign event in Orlando.

As the Illinois Democrat recounted in his memoirs, Dunham, his maternal grandmother, acted in many ways as a surrogate parent.

The plan, which may come over the next day, or two, will come on a moments notice, when John McCain will announce that he is suspending his campaign once again, to rush off to visit his ill mother.

"We can't allow Obama to have an upper hand, with a Family Value issue, this close to the election.", it was reported Campaign Manager Rick Davis barked.

Davis also was said to have told his staff that a PR campaign, including robo-calls, will be mounted, noting that Obama hasn't apologized or repudiated his grandmother's illness, which amounts to his smearing McCain's ill mother.

"He wants to spread around sickness and illness, along with all that wealth he's going to steal from people like Joe the Plumber", will be included in the robo-calls.

The illness of the elder Mrs. McCain will not be disclosed, and the campaign is in the process of lining up another interview with Katie Couric, that the Senator will detour to, before leaving for Arizona, to be with his ailing mother.

No word if a second interview, or talk show appearance will be set, so that he can blow that off for the Couric interview.

Once in Arizona, staffers have told The Garlic source, McCain will use the same successful strategy he employed in solving the Wall Street Meltdown Rescue Package, and closely monitor his mother's condition via telephone.

He will then emerge from the second campaign suspension, declaring that he cured his mother, with a deregulated, private healthcare plan, and accuse Obama, and some of the doctors and medical staff, of wanting to let her die.

McCain's running mate, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, will stay on the campaign trail, and add to her stump speech that Obama is "pallin' around with doctors who would rather let their patients die, then allow them the freedom of choosing their own, private healthcare plan."

More as this story develops ...

Bonus Links

Everything He Learned?

That One!

Alaskan Lie

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Real Virginia ...

For Joe The Plumber

This Date ... On The Garlic

21 October 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At The Voter Value Summit

The Savvy Girls of Summer

Of Sports, Politics, Constitutional Crises and Yesteryear ... I'd put my money on Sam Ervin ...


21 October 2006... On The Garlic

World Series Prompts More Baseball Letters


21 October 2005... On The Garlic

Congress Passes Gun Shield Law; NRA Planning 'Fire Away' Marketing Campaign; Promo Aimed At Boosting Sales; Florida Seen As First Test For Ads Pushing 'Stand Your Ground'

Top Ten Cloves: How David Stern Will Enforce New NBA Dress Code

Retro Garlic: As The Aspen Turns ... Judy Miller Goes To Fox!

I would venture to predict, the folks over at Faux News are not going to press Judy Miller for her sources.

In fact, I speculate, they would prefer that she didn't have sources, and adopt the company policy of just making shit up

Jeralyn, over at TalkLeft gets the nod for the most humorously, ironic headline;

Ex-NYTimes Reporter Judith Miller to Join Fox as Free Speech Expert

And, just for you wise guys out there, she is not, repeat, she is not joining the Fox production of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?".

I guess, they don't want to put too much pressure on her in the beginning.

From Joe Strupp, over at Editor and Publisher;

Miller, who left the paper in 2005 after 28 years, spoke as word spread of her latest new job, as a commentator for Fox News. Miller said she will be on air and on the Web site part-time discussing First Amendment and free speech issues, as well as foreign policy and national security.

"I get to spout my views, I will NOT be joining the news team," she stressed. "I care about First Amendment issues and free speech and I will talk about that and foreign policy if and when we ever stop talking about the economy, which is going to be going on for a while."

Since The Scooter got his "Get Out of Jail Card" last year, can we breathlessly wait for a possible pairing?

Yeah, right ...

It will be programmed, set in the schedule to follow on the audience of that other new show, "Domestic Policy, with Joe the Plumber".

The Retro Part;

Miller To Leave 'Times' With Movie Deal In Hand; Signs On To Star In Memento Sequel; Not Sure If She Will Continue Freelancing For Bush Admn.


Bonus Judy Miller Kisses

Libby Trial Update - It's Miller Time!

Woodward Said To Be Jumping To The New York Times

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Scooter Libby Gave Judith Miller Okay To Reveal Source and Testify

Libby Trial Update - The Scooter and Cheney Show Theme Song

Good Post Alert: Esquire Endorses America, 2008

Just in case you missed the wall-to-wall coverage on cable news, or haven't been out surfing the World Wide Web in awhile, Esquire Magazine is riding to your rescue.

Esquire Endorses America, 2008

Whether you think this election is a "change" election or not, one thing is for sure: it is an epic fight for the future of our country. 482 races. 482 decisions. Here, we make a choice in every race. Now it's up to you.

Yes, it all there, and quite humorous, and with a sharp eye, in many of their descriptions.

Naturally, they go with endorsing Barack Obama for President, noting, pointedly, "We thought this election would be a serious fight over the future of this country, but only one candidate showed up."

There's all the Congressional and Senate races to go through, as well.

And, then, there's the fun.

The 10 Worst Members of Congress

We'll only give you the Top 3 here, to give you a feel for how it goes.

Senator Joe Lieberman (I), Connecticut

Inherent in politics is the fact that someone always loses. Some lose gracefully, some lose poorly, and, as in the case of Joe Lieberman, some lose their minds. Since being defeated by an antiwar candidate in the Democratic primary in 2006, Lieberman (who was subsequently reelected as an Independent) has pursued his campaign of revenge against his former party, thinly disguised as an act of principle, replete with the quavering sanctimony that no country should have to put up with from anyone, much less from this small man.

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R), Georgia

Chambliss is a senator today by sole virtue of the fact that in 2002 he attacked incumbent Max Cleland -- who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam and earned Silver and Bronze stars -- as soft on defense and lacking in patriotism. Where was ol' Saxby during the war? Home, of course, claiming a "football injury." How you get elected reflects your character, and Chambliss should never be allowed to live down the shame of what he did in 2002. Never.

And, not surprising, the third worst member of Congress happens to be our Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-Week.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), Minnesota

One gets the impression that if, in the name of "traditional values," Bachmann could rescind the vote for women, she would. Her vacant, wild eyes recall a doomsday prophet, or one of Charlie Manson's girls. Equal parts religious hack and party hack, she's got spunk and not much else.

H/T to Bob Geiger, who wrote a good post on it, as well.

Check out Esquire Endorses America, 2008

Ignorant Dolt-of-the-Week Follow-up ... Censure Michele Bachmann!

Just a little follow-up, on our Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-week, that we posted last Friday (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised).

I half expect, for McKKKain and Palin, aided mightily by the Right Wing Freak Show, to turn around Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's both-feet-in-mouth call for a McCarthyism-inspired expose to weed out those in Congress who are Anti-American and blame it as a left-liberal witch hunt, with tentacles tying in ACORN going out and registering Pet Rocks to vote, and the type of thing that will be a daily occurance if Barack Obama is elected.

Just so everyone is clear on this, here is the full interview of our Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-Week (IDOTW), with Tweety on 'Hardball'

McCarthy's back: Bachmann on Hardball



The first volley of it being the above-referenced witch hunt comes from the IDOTW, herself;

The McCarthyist Liar: Bachmann Denies Saying What She Said

But Wait!

As it turns out, the IDOTW has turned herself into a fund-raising machine - FOR HER OPPONENT!

Minn.'s Bachmann Dials Down Obama Criticism

The comment by the first-term Republican fueled a surge of campaign donations to her opponent, Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg. His campaign says Sunday evening that he has raised $640,000 since she made it.

Bachmann appeared on a WCCO-TV show earlier Sunday to say she isn't saying that Obama's views are anti-American. She says, "That was a misreading of what I said."

Here's a heart-felt post of thanks from Elwyn Tinklenberg, last Friday evening, last Friday evening, as the "anti-Bachmann money started to roll in.

Something tells me, she is going to run the risk of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, from the considerable amount of dialing back she's going to need to do.

And it's a good thing IDOTW has one of the "gold-plated-Cadillac" health plans, for there's always the chance, in attempting to walk this back, she trips and falls.

Maybe, she'll need to go into full battle-mode, and carve out a bunker to work from, say, something like adopting the McKKKain hack Nancy Puss'n'Boots policy, and announcing that she's in the "Real Minnesota".

For the flak has been flying, aimed squarely at IDOTW.

Like Colin Powell, yesterday, in his endorsement of Obama.

And this juicy morsel, "The Republicans have lifted the lid off their rightwing id", from Michael Tomasky, at The Guardian;

Before we go any further - who is this Bachmann? She's a first-term backbencher from exurban Minneapolis who says the Lord told her to run for Congress. She declared herself "a fool for Christ" in 2006 when she announced her candidacy. By all accounts she's down with the whole rightwing Christian package: immigrants bring disease and pestilence, homosexuals want to indoctrinate straight children, and so on. Republican leadership undoubtedly pushed her out on to television because she is, as you Brits say, a looker - at least by the standards of Congress.

The call for an investigation into the beliefs of every federal lawmaker, and an exposé of those found wanting in their patriotism, certainly takes us into deeply creepy territory. I would not call Bachmann herself a fascist. Odd as it sounds, to do so would be to grant her far too much credit. For one to embrace an -ism, even a repugnant one, one needs to have read a certain amount of history and political philosophy. Bachmann is just an idiot. She wouldn't know Edmund Burke from Billie Burke (she played the good witch in the Wizard of Oz), and she obviously has no idea that, in her rejection of the two bedrock American principles of separation of church and state and freedom of thought, she is the one who is as anti-American as they come.

Oh man, you could spend the day teeing off on IDOTW like this ...

But there are better things to do, and better ways to slap down IDOTW.

Like joining the nearly 50,000 folks who have signed the petition for having Congress censure IDOTW;

Tell Congress to Censure Michele Bachmann

You can also visit, and get more info on the IDOTW, over on Dump Michele Bachmann, which boasts "Michele Bachmann is Minnesota's Answer to Florida's Katherine Harris. This blog is here to chronicle Michele Bachmann's antics."


Bonus IDOTW Riffs

David Neiwert: Michelle Bachmann gives voice to the right's darkest impulses

TChris: You're Either a Republican Or You're Anti-American

The Jed Report: McCain and Palin Resurrect McCarthy's Attacks

Eric Kleefeld: GOP Rep. To Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved The Planet

Nicole Belle: Michelle Bachmann is one crazy person

This Date ... On The Garlic

20 October 2006... On The Garlic

For The Congress Today, A New Song - Bush's Place (Or C-Jam Blues)


20 October 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Tactic Changes Generals Plan On Telling President Bush He Has To Make In Iraq


20 October 2005... On The Garlic

Breaking News! Senate Panel Digs Deeper Into Miers Questionnaire; "Look's Like President's Handwriting"; Inadequate and Incomplete Answers Spark Investigation; Experts Brought In To Compare Penmanship of Miers, Bush

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard On Donald Rumsfeld's Visit In China


Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington-Duke's Place

One For The Film Buffs ... Max Ophuls

One of the highlights of my early years, teens, into twenties, was working at the legendary Brattle Theatre, in Harvard Square.

The Brattle made it's mark, in the 1950's, bringing in the films of Ingmar Bergman, and later, the French New Wave.

And, of course, its' Bogart Festivals.

It opened a whole new world for me, movies from all over the world, new and old, comedies and dramas.

With friends, when rattling off lists of favorite films, I would often be gazed upon as if fitted with three heads, naming films that they never knew existed (and, likely, will go through life never viewing).

Included in those are two from the French director Max Ophuls, "The Earrings of Madame de..."and "Lola Montès" (I can still hear Peter Ustinov, eerily, almost menacingly, looking up and saying "Are you ready, Lola", before she takes her acrobatic jump; Watch the trailer for Lola Montès here).

Wikipedia notes of Ophuls "All his works feature his distinctive smooth camera movements, complex crane and dolly sweeps, and tracking shots, which influenced the young Stanley Kubrick at the beginning of his filmmaking career."

Which brings up to the point of this post.

Mark Feeney's The man who made the camera move; Discs celebrate Max Ophuls, master of the tracking shot.

The Criterion Collection last month released three of Ophuls's best-known films as uniformly packaged separate discs: "La Ronde" (1950), "Le Plaisir" (1952), and "The Earrings of Madame de . . ." (1953).

Max Ophuls, Max Ophuls . . . - for those of us besotted with the glories an ambulatory camera offers, the name itself verges on poetry. In fact, James Mason, who starred in Ophuls's "Caught" and "The Reckless Moment" (both 1949), actually did write a poem about him:

A shot that does not call for tracks

Is agony for poor old Max,

Who, separated from his dolly,

Is wrapped in deepest melancholy.

Once, when they took away his crane,

I thought he'd never smile again.

Perhaps no other filmmaker has ever used the camera with such grace, such sensuousness, such intricate choreography. One trembles to think what Ophuls might have done with a Steadicam. Given a pilot's license, Icarus might still be aloft.

Next time your renting, be brave, take a different path and check out any of those noted above, for you will be rewarded.

Bonus Links

As Time Goes By...100 Years of the Brattle

Rififi Director, Jules Dassin, Blacklisted, Dies at 96

Swedish Film Icon Ingmar Bergman Dead at 89 ; Police Depressed, Working Through Emptiness, Not Ruling Out Foul Play

This Date ... On The Garlic

19 October 2007... On The Garlic

You Gotta Love It, Friday Edition, Dateline: Burma


19 October 2006... On The Garlic

Developing Story: White House, CIA Start Selling ‘Defeat The Threat’; With New Detainee Bill Signed, White House Fires Out RFP’s For Secret Prison Franchises; Program, Once Stalled, Primed To Flourish Legally; Renditions Downgraded From “Extraordinary” To “Standard”

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons President Bush Stressed Defense In New National Space Policy

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Real Virginia ...

Uhhh...what did she just say?? Miss Teen South Carolina 2007



Oh! ... I'm sorry, I meant to post this video;

McCain advisor on the "real Virginia"



What is with these people?

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!

From Joe Sudbay, over at Americablog.com;

Here's the transcript:

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.

Amazing!

This comes within the 36-48-hour window of The Wasilla Whiz Kid shooting out code at one of her mob rallies, indicating how she likes to travel to the pro-American parts of the country (versus, by implication, those pallin'-with-terrorists, Anti-American parts of the country), and, of course, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's "flush'em-out-call-to-arms" of bringing back McCarthyism and purging Congress of those with Anti-American thoughts.

Now, we know that Stumblin' Bumblin' Fly Boy has no capacity for pulling up Google, or using a computer, but does it extend to the entire staff?

Being in, and/or, talking about Virginia?

What happened in Virginia, just a short two-years ago?

Here's Lowell, from Raising Kane, if Puss'n'Boots wanted to go to a lifeline;

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."

And, as Steve Benen points out;

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.


Bonus Nancy Puss'n'Boots Paw-in-Mouth Riffs

ABC News: McCain Adviser Says Northern Virginia Not "Real" Virginia

Think Progress: Pfotenhauer Insults Virginians: ‘Real Virginia’ Is Only Where McCain Is Winning

NPR: Nancy Pfotenhauer: McCain and the Faith Community

Crooks and Liars: Shuster refuses to be spun by Nancy Pfotenhauer

This Date ... On The Garlic

18 October 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Military Recruiters Didn't Realize They Were Recruiting Gays


18 October 2006... On The Garlic

Minced Garlic - Keith Olbermann New Special Comment On 'Beginning of the end of America'


18 October 2005... On The Garlic

Breaking News! - Miller To Leave 'Times' With Movie Deal In Hand; Signs On To Star In Memento Sequel; Not Sure If She Will Continue Freelancing For Bush Admn.

Top Ten Cloves: What Karl Rove May Do If He Is Indicted

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised



It will, in all likelihood, be Tivoed, YouTubed, Podcasted, iPhoned, and splattered all across the cable television spectrum.

Man, there be some strange, disturbing, frightening, and just crazy shit going down today.

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain kicked it off, shouting out the clarion call the other night, during the debate;

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.

Quickly, the Republicans jumped on it, the FBI started investigating it, and, as sure as the debunked Maverick can say "William Ayers", or Mommy Moose "pallin' around with terrorists", ACORN offices were the hit with violence, some staff threatened.

But Wait!

BREAKING: Obama Campaign Calls For Investigation Into DOJ/McCain Collusion On ACORN Smears

POW! ...BAM! ... SMACK!

Obama taking on Rove, and the Republicans, head-to-head.

Check this out, Keith Olbermann interviewing Obama Campaign attorney, Bob Bauer;

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.

And this, coming on the heels, earlier today of;

SUPREME COURT REJECTS GOP ARGUMENT ON OHIO

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".

Now, while all this is going on, the Dead Campaign Express is pumping out extremely toxic, smearing robo-calls, and Fly Boy, after blatantly exploiting that nitwit, Joe The Plumber, is out on the stump blaming Obama for all the media attention he's been sucking up, as well as the attending scorn (The Right Wing Freak Show, led by Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin, is adopting the phony plumber as this weeks' Freak Show hero).

But Wait, There's More ...

The Wasilla Whiz Kid keeps on truckin', expanding her Hate Speech to take a bigger swipe at everyone who isn't like her.

Palin: I Love To Visit "Pro-America" Parts Of Country

From The WAPO;

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".

Ah, but we save the best, for last ...

If we had a weekly award going on here at The Garlic, say, something like "Ignorant-Dolt-of-the-Week", than Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), would win, hands down, running away with it, like Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes.

Appearing on Hardball, with Tweety this evening, she was wailing about - what else - William Ayers and Obama - but then, it got very, very interesting;

Bachmann Calls For McCarthy-Like Investigation Into Anti-American Activities Of Liberals

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.”

Bachmann called on the media to conduct investigations into the anti-American activities of members of Congress, similar to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s discredited House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s. “I think people would love to see an exposé like that,” she claimed.

Here's the video of it.

Here's Katrina Vanden Heuvel, almost shaking, responding

There's a rallying cry for the RNC to ride up to November 4th;

Vote McKKKain and Palin - They'll bring back the the HUAC Hearings

"Donate, or turn in your neighbors!"

How far fetched?

Wasn't it at the Republic Convention that the Stumblin' Bumblin' Fly Boy, all red in the face, waving his fists, shouting';

"I will make them famous ... You will know their names ... You will know their names"

And I thought, with it being Friday, it was going to be a low key, cruisin', easy day.

Help Me Mr. Wizard!

Top Ten Cloves: Things John McCain Can Do To Get Over Embarrassment of Joe The Plumber

News Item: Over Joe

10. Beef up his credibility - Get the AP's Liz Sidoti to bring Joe The Plumber a box of donuts

9. Bring in Bobby Jindal, to do an exorcism on him

8. Stash him away in one of his seven houses

7. Finally, sit down with campaign staff and redo their vetting criteria

6. To get him away from media, see if he'll take a crack at McCain's Electric Car Battery contest

5. Assign Joe Lieberman to Joe The Plumber

4. Battle Stations - Peel off from the Palin Truth Squad a new team for the Joe The Plumber Truth Squad

3. Bite the bullet - Go out and do an all-day news conference on the difference between Shiites and Sunnis

2. Put a call out to Rick Warren, and have him ship that Cone of Silence to Ohio

1. Go Maverick with a major game changer - Replace Palin on ticket with ... Joe The Plumber!


Bonus Links

Barry Crimmins: Plumbing the Depths

Martin Lewis: Meet The Real Joe-The-Plumber!

The Jed Report: McCain's Lame October Surprise: Joe, The Right-Wing Loon

Todd Gitlin: Joe the Ringer?

Steve Benen: THEY WERE LAUGHING AT HIM, NOT WITH HIM...

For Joe The Plumber

Debate Results: Flintstones vs. Jetsons Pt. III

This Date ... On The Garlic

17 October 2006... On The Garlic

Vatican Discounts "Bonfire Pope"; Says Flames "Not Hunched Over Enough"; Late Pontiff's Bend Was Measured "Religiously"; Never Used Contingency "Roller Skate Gloves"

Top Ten Cloves: Things Michelle Malkin Will Do Now On Friday Evenings, Since She's Off The O'Reilly Factor

Extra! Extra! Barry Crimmins Nabs Hillary For Rare, Candid Interview!


17 October 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Some Of The Lobbying Techniques White House Is Using To Aid Guatemala Gaining U.N. Security Council Seat


17 October 2005... On The Garlic

Iraqis Pause Vote Count To Celebrate Chisox Pennant; Many Remember '59 Disappointment; Believe This Is The Year; Will Bring Team To Baghdad With Series Win

Top Ten Cloves: Things The Iraqi's Are Doing To Prepare Country For Democracy and Having A Constitution

For Joe The Plumber

His 15-minutes ...

Barack Obama And The Plumbing Business Owner

His 16th-minute, ad nauseum ...

Joe the Plumber Reacts to debate - Katie Couric Interview

Bonus Links

The Jed Report: McCain's Lame October Surprise: Joe, The Right-Wing Loon

Think Progress: Fact-Checking ‘Joe The Plumber’

A.J. Liebling: No Mo-Joe for McCain

BooMan: McCain Took an Ass-Whooping

SilentPatriot: Obama to McCain: "Your attacks say more about your campaign than they do about me"

Thers: The Plumber?

Debate Results: Flintstones vs. Jetsons Pt. III

Sad News ... Legendary Composer, Arranger Neal Hefti Passes Away

Shortly before last evening's debate, I descried various news articles and posts that gave me a heavy heart.

No, not that I would have to endure, yet, another debate (and, the angry Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain), but that one of my Jazz heroes died.

Neal Hefti, long associated with the Count Basie Band, Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, and a bevy of other greats.

From the NYT Obit;

Over the years, Hefti, first known as a jazz trumpeter in the 1940s and 1950s, was much admired and much in demand as an arranger, conductor and occasional record producer; he worked with Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett, among others. He also led his own bands, and he was active as a player until 1960.

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."

From The Times On-Line UK;

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?”

From The Independent (UK);

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.

NPR: Neal Hefti, Big Band Trumpeter, TV Theme Composer, Dies

Washington Post: Composer Neal Hefti; Jazz Master Penned Theme for 'Batman'

Los Angeles Times: Neal Hefti dies at 85; former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer

Neal Hefti on Wikipedia

Since it is mentioned above, and also, one of my all-time favorites ...

Lil' Darling - Count Basie

This Date ... On The Garlic

16 October 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overhead While The Nobel Peace Prize Committee Reviewed Rush Limbaugh's Nomination


16 October 2006... On The Garlic

Breaking News! Back To The Drawing Board For Security Council; New Problem As Jong Il Issues “Korean-Style” Signing Statement To Invalidate U.N. Sanctions; U.S. Irate But Must Abstain Due To Conflict of Interest; North Korea Also To Start Page Program For Potential Scandal

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At “Liberty Sunday” Last Night


16 October 2005... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Debate Results: Flintstones vs. Jetsons Pt. III

Here's a hint of how things went.

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.

Joe the Plumber, who had an exchange with Obama on the campaign trail (You can watch the video of it HERE; As, or after watching it, imagine the debunked Maverick talking to him about the same thing - Snoozer!).

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.

Obama did hit him, though, calling him out over the rabid Palin mobs, saying, to McKKKain's face, the calls at those rallies of "terrorist" and "Kill him".

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.

More tomorrow ...


Bonus Debate Links

Bob Cesca

The Jed Report

Think Progress Live Blogging

FiveThirtyEight Live Blogging

The Reaction: Ambitions of empire: Live-blogging the third Obama-McCain debate

Crooks and Liars Live-Blogging

Debate Results ... The Flintstones vs. The Jetsons

Debate Results ... The Flintstones vs. The Jetsons Part II

VP Debate Results: Kick The Can




Hat Tip to Bob Cesca for the pitch perfect photo

Everything He Learned?

If there are any Chief Petty Officers in the debate audience this evening, word-to-the-wise, keep a low profile.

As you may recall, at the last Presidential Debate, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain got a lucky roll-of-the-dice, when one of the audience questioners happened to be a serviceman, a Navy man, a Chief Petty Officer.

Transcript of second McCain, Obama debate

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.

Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator; Three crashes early in his career led Navy officials to question or fault his judgment

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.

If may be safe to say, that if it were not for Fly Boy having a Dad and Grandfather that were big muckity-mucks in the Navy, perhaps McKKKain may have had a career in KP duty, if not drubbed out of the service completely.

You look at this article, the record of crashes, and you can see that things haven't changed much.

It's now his campaign that he's driving into the ground.


Bonus Clyde Crashcup Riffs

Quincy Adams: McCain's judment and veracity as an aviator

Melissa McEwan: Crash Bandicoot

Libby Spencer: Things I learned from Atriots

Ted Rall: Puffing up John McCain, POW

Lowell: George McGovern takes a "dig" at John McCain