A true witch

From Michigan, a McCain/Palin supporter who refused to give out candy to four year olds whose parents support Obama.  She didn’t need a witch costume.  She really is one (h/t GovGap):

This is all I’m gonna say …

… about that prank call to Sarah Palin by the Canadian radio host pretending to be Nicolas Sarkozy:  she has one flippin’ bad staff.  Basic rule:  vet the phone calls.  What sorry staffer doesn’t know that?  Robert Gibbs from the Obama staff:

I’m glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama.

Campaign 101.  If you want the audio, go search YouTube.  It’s too painful.  I can’t put it here.

Obama Ad: His Choice

This is a great new ad from the Obama campaign and is their first overt swipe at Palin.  Check it:

Olbermann on spreading the wealth

More reasons to love Keith Olbermann:  he’s dug up some “spreading the wealth” rhetoric out of the hockey mom’s mouth.  Check this, from Keith:

Okay, you remember Sen. Obama telling J.T. Plumber that it would help the country to “share the wealth”—a sentiment with which anybody not receiving $150,000 in free clothes would probably agree?

So you went off in Des Moines, remember this?

“See, under a big government, more tax agenda, what you thought was yours would really start belonging to somebody else, to everybody else. If you thought your income, your property, your inventory, your investments were, were yours, they would really collectively belong to everybody. Higher taxes, more government, misusing the power to tax leads to government moving into the role of some believing that government then has to take care of us. And government kind of moving into the role as the other half of our family, making decisions for us. Now, they do this in other countries where the people are not free.”

So Gov., Obama’s not just a socialist? Not just a re-distributionist re-distributor? Maybe not just a totalitarian? Maybe not just a dictator, he may be a communist?

To paraphrase you in Des Moines, Governor, Obama wants to set up, unlike other candidates, collectively owning the resources. By sharing that wealth and those resources. Collectivist sharing’ the wealth socialist communism, I’d say.

And still none of that sounds familiar to you, Governor?

“And Alaska – we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”

Who said that, Governor?

Who was the collectivist share-the-wealther, who was boasting to the reporter visiting from “The New Yorker Magazine,”of having been able to send a check for $1,200 to every man, woman and child in the state since, quote “Alaska is sometimes described as America’s socialist state, because of its collective ownership of resources?”

Why, you said that, Governor! You’re a share-the-wealth, collectivist, Almost-Socialist-Governor, Governor! Who also believes that income, property, inventory and investments, collectively belonging to everybody else, leads to a misuse of power, and government making decisions for us, turning countries into places where the people are not free.

Places like,  Sarah Palin’s America! Governor, all sorts of choice words apply here: hypocrite, double-talker, snake-oil seller, socialist. But let me stick with just one, with which to bid you goodbye. You, governor, are a fraud.

Beyond outrage

Up until this … before this outrage … I have thought of Sarah Palin merely as a joke.  Yes, she’s unqualified.  Sure, maybe even a little dangerous.  But all in all, I have considered her more a sick joke played upon the electorate by a cynical Republican party than the outrageous, hateful, despicable and dangerous politican I see her as this morning.  I’ll grant you that I’m running on almost no sleep and am prone to fits of hyperbole, but this from the Brian Williams interview has truly put me over the edge:

Brian Williams: Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition?

Sarah Palin: (Exasperated sigh.) There’s no question that Bill Ayers by his own admittance was one who thought to destroy our U.S. Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. There is no question there. Now others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to, I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word “terrorist” there.

In a diary on Daily Kos, Meteor Blades put it best:

Under the pre-Patriot Act definition of the law, William Ayers and many of his compatriots in the Weather Underground certainly qualify as terrorists. Unlike the abortion clinic bombers and assassins, however, subsequent to the townhouse explosion in which three Weathermen blew themselves up in March 1970, the Weathermen gave advance warnings of their attacks.

The anti-choice terrorists didn’t warn Dr. Barnett Slepian and Robert Sanderson (killed in 1998) or Dr. Jack Fainman  and another unnamed physician (wounded in 1997) or Dr. Hugh Short (wounded in 1995) or Dr. John Bayard Britton, James H. Barrett, Shannon Lowney and Leanne Nichols (killed in 1994) or Dr. Garson Romalis and five others (wounded in 1994) or Dr. David Gunn (killed in 1993) or Dr. George Tiller (wounded in 1993).

Nor did they give warnings in most of the more than 200 clinic bombings and arsons since 1993, the most recent an unsolved case in Albuquerque, N.M., in December 2007.

During the interview, as you can see above, John McCain sits with his hands folded. So does he agree with Palin? Does he interrupt and say anti-choice assassins and bombers are definitely terrorists? No. Can he not use the word “terrorist” when it comes to these murderers? No. Which should come as no surprise, because, 15 years ago, when he was still supposedly a maverick, he twice voted against a law to prohibit blockades, bombings and arsons at abortion clinics.

<snip>

Many Americans oppose abortion and want Roe v. Wade overturned. They have pursued lawful means to obtain their ends. Extremists have pursued other means, willingly murdering and maiming in their crusade to crush women’s reproductive rights. Most law-abiding anti-choice Americans have condemned these extremists. But neither Sarah Palin nor John McCain will call them what they are. Palin is, in effect, giving these terrorists a wink and a nod. Pro-life, my ass.

I couldn’t agree more.

 

John McCain advisor Charles Fried votes for Obama

Citing the Sarah Palin pick, a now former John McCain advisor has absentee voted for Barack Obama.  From TNR:

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision “is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis.”

Fried is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially noteworthy.

–Cass. R. Sunstein

UPDATE: Fried writes to TNR: I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a vote that I was not prepared to cast myself. So it was more of an erasure than a public affirmation–although obviously my vote meant that I thought that Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper option.

The “Update” means that Fried’s vote is not an endorsement, per se, but just that … a single vote for the Obama – Biden ticket.  We’ll take it.  And we’ll add it to the running tally of those jumping ship over the Palin pick.

Bush endorses McCain: The SNL Version

h/t E&P: Here’s last night’s SNL reminder that a vote for McCain is a vote for Bush. Hey, whose side are they on?

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Bush endorses McCain: The SNL Version“, posted with vodpod

 

The Palin makeover, courtesy of the RNC

You may have heard by now that the RNC has dropped some major coin on revamping Ms. Sarah’s look (and apparently that of her fam, too).  Jeanne Cummings at Politico reports that they’ve paid $150,000 to high end department stores, including Neiman Marcus (at least $75k) and Saks Fifth Avenue (at least $49k).  The Politico also reports that the RNC spent $4,716.49 on hair and make-up … just in September.  Wanna bet that’s more than Joe the Plumber has spent at the barber in his lifetime? 

There are several angles we could explore on this:

1.  The RNC is walking the edge of legality on this one.  FEC rules prohibit these kinds of expenditures.  Now that they’ve been called on them, they’ve issued this statement from spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt, courtesy of the same Politico piece:

With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses.  It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.

I have to call bullshit here.  Would “all of the important issues facing the country right now” include such pressing topics as Bill Ayers?  Including whether or not Colin Powell’s endorsement was racially based?  With “all of the important issues facing the country right now,” it would seem that McCain would want to define himself instead of trying to redefine Obama over and over and over again.  Silly me.

2.  The expenditures provide a rather glaring contrast between the two campaigns.  As Politico reports:

A review of similar records for the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee turned up no similar spending.

You’ll recall that Michelle Obama shops at the Gap and White House / Black Market, where she purchased the $100 dress she wore for her appearance on The View.  Now, I’m not suggesting that Michelle doesn’t buy designer, but the DNC doesn’t do it for her.  And then, of course, there’s this famous pic of Barack:

Surely he’s gotten some new shoes by now.  But they clearly weren’t paid for by the DNC.

3.  Even if it were legal for the RNC to remake its candidate to be more marketable (and its absolutely not … no spending of campaign money on items for personal use allowed), it ought to be completely out of bounds to spend campaign cash … especially publically financed campaign cash, I should think … on members of the candidate’s family:

The entries also show a few purchases at Pacifier, a top notch baby store, and Steiniauf & Stroller Inc., suggesting $295 was spent to accommodate the littlest Palin to join the campaign trail.

An additional $4,902.45 was spent in early September at Atelier, a high-class shopping destination for men.

4.  Final question for Palin:  Is this how “real Americans” shop?

The Sarah Palin Game

Just because I think it’s funny.  And my four year old made me press the red phone over and over and over and over and over again (“make her say, ‘uh-oh’ again”).  Just click over and then click on random stuff.  Y’all enjoy.

The Sarah Palin Game

Palin booed on ice?

You make the call:

From The New York Times hockey blog:

When Sarah Palin dropped the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers’ opener on Saturday night at the Wachovia Center, she was greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos.

From FoxSports:

The City of Brotherly Love gave Palin a mixed welcome — some fans booed, some stood and cheered — at the Wachovia Center before the Flyers started their season against the New York Rangers.

By the by, how long do you think it will be called the “Wachovia Center?”