Teabagging For Dummies

HuffPo: "The American Taxpayers Are The Jews For Obama's Oven" reads one sign in Chicago--Tony Ramao.

Or as I like to say, This Is Your Brain on Republican - Dope!
Tea parties got lots of coverage yesterday although they were about the size of a brown bag classical concert. Here's a great summary of how stupid these people really are:

Ellis Weiner, HuffPo: Life in These Untied States+

So, to sum up:

1. People who make far less than 250K per year, whose tax rates will be cut, spent yesterday out in public demanding that Obama stop increasing their taxes. They proudly marched and defiantly yelled and etc., etc., insisting with waved signs and shaken fists on their opposition to something that is not the case. They have made it their business to prevent something from happening that was never going to happen in the first place--and they mean it!

2. These same people, whose economic and physical well-being are a matter of supreme indifference to the richest families in America, have been persuaded to insist on policies that will only benefit the richest families in America. There is a term for these people, and it isn't "right-wing" or "conservative" or "patriotic" or even "Republicans." The term is "sucker." These people are suckers. They have been tricked and manipulated into working against their own interests and for the interests of people who could literally not care less about them. Their patron saint isn't Barry Goldwater or Thomas Paine or Ronald Reagan or Jesus H. Christ. It's P.T. Barnum.

3. People who would be forced into bankruptcy by an attack of appendicitis, who have no idea what "socialism" is or how it differs from "communism" or "fascism," were to be seen yesterday out in force, self-righteously pissed off and calling Obama a socialist, a communist, and a fascist, often interchangeably. And what are their ideas about how to deal with the worst economic crisis in eighty years? "Let them go bankrupt!" Ignorance and indignation: it doesn't get any more American than that. Each of them--proud, free, unafraid to speak stupidity to power--is like a homeowner whose house is on fire and yet who refuses to let the fire fighters turn a hose on the flames because "it'll get my stuff all wet." And when the fire chief ventures the suggestion that the fire is a) going to destroy their stuff anyway, and then b) spread to other homes, he gets shut down with such wised-up, common-man arguments as, "I pay your salary!"

Read the rest, it's a hoot.

Jon Stewart Whacks John Sununu

NOW they're fiscally responsible, after they drove us into the ditch?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

John Sununu

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A Modest Proposal

From John Cole:

A Bailout Plan the GOP Can Support

We need to invade Michigan and rebuild the state from the ground up. We will be greeted as liberators, we have clear supply lines, and we can easily rebuild the auto industry with the kind of money we spend on other countries we invade. Hell, our new Secretary of State, Hillary of Clinton, spent the better part of the past year fighting for the rights of average folks from Michigan, so think of the good will we have with the public. This is very doable. Just tell Congress we will give KBR no-bid contracts to fix Detroit.

Irrelevant

Crooks and Liars: "Irrelevant"

Rightwing dopes, in pictures.

Two of a Kind

Bush = McCain, Palin = Cheney

Former McCain Adviser Charles Fried: Sarah Palin Is "Ignorant and Inexperienced"

Charles Fried, Ronald Reagan's Solicitor General, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, current Harvard Law Professor and, until this week, McCain adviser.

More on Charles Fried's endorsement of Barack Obama by the conservative legal scholar and former McCain advisor. It's all about Palin.

HuffPo: Conservative Legal Icon Charles Fried Elaborates on His Obama Endorsement

In a letter to the McCain campaign, he asked that his name be removed from their legal advisory committee, explaining that the key reason "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

I asked Professor Fried to elaborate on what, if anything, this says about Obama and abortion. He responded to me with this email:

"There are many issues facing the country that are more important than what the President says or believes about abortion. I suspect that there are a great many things that Obama believes and will do with which I will disagree -- starting with his judicial nominees, but in a time of economic and foreign policy crisis I found the risk of promoting to the presidency a person as ignorant and inexperienced as Sarah Palin -- natural political talent though she is -- unacceptable."

There's not enough lipstick in the world to cover up vast ignorance and inexperience.

McCain-Palin Rallies: Document the Atrocities

Wow.

Denver, Colorado, October 24, 2008:



Kids pretending to be monkeys, calling Obama a monkey, Obama wears a turban, is a Muslim, a socialist, a communist. Your modern Republican Party.

Thanks, George W. Clusterfuck

Worst President Ever in Louisiana, October 20, 2008 (image via BAGNewsNotes)

Thanks for destroying our economy.

Thanks for destroying our reputation around the world.

And a serious thanks, for destroying the Republican Party in our time.

NYTimes: U.S. Stocks Dive After Rout Overseas

WaPo: Wall Street Falls After Slide on Global Markets

GOP "Goner" List

The House Republicans are circulating a "goner" list of House members who will lose their races:

Running for reelection, expected to lose:

Reps. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
John R. Kuhl (R-N.Y.) [aka Randy Kuhl, NY-29, running against Eric Massa]
Don Young (R-Alaska
Tim Walberg (R-Mich.)

Republican rep has retired, seat loss expected:

Rick Renzi of Arizona,
Jerry Weller of Illinois,
Jim Saxton of New Jersey,
Mike Ferguson of New Jersey,
Vito Fossella of New York,
James Walsh of New York and
Tom Davis of Virginia.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I agree! Vote Democratic.

Forget the Constitution, she doesn't even know the symbol of her own party.

Republicans for Obama

Interesting interviews with life-long Republicans and conservatives who are going to vote for Obama. via dailykos.

Congressional Updates

1. Eric Massa, Democrat trying to take NY-29 from crazy mofo Randy Kuhl, is up in the polls (yeah) and is getting a little help from his opponent, who said this

I firmly believe the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt so that they can make some political gains at election time and I think that's wrong.

and now Markos Moulitsas, of dailykos, is asking dailykos readers to contribute to Massa's campaign. You can, too. Eric is a good guy, served under Wes Clark, very smart and very progressive.

Eric Massa for Congress

P.S. If you live in New York, check your voter registration status. New York has purged 1.6 million names from the voting rolls this year; mistakes have surely been made. Make sure your vote counts. If you find out now that you've been purged, you may be able to avoid voting by provisional ballot on election day. They can fix it now; they're not going to have the time on election day.

2. The national Republican Party has pulled all its funding from the race of Joe McCarthy-channeling Michelle Bachmann (MN-6). Ha. Guess she will have to investigate the un-American members of Congress by herself - from home after she loses her seat.

3. The Rethugs are also pulling out the races of Tom Feeney (FL-24) and Marilyn Musgrave (CO-4). I only wish Angie Paccione, who lost a close race to Musgrave two years ago, was her opponent this time; but Democrat Betsy Markey seems likely to win this seat.

Election Protection News: Michigan Republicans Admit Scheme to Steal Foreclosed Homeowners Right to Vote

emptywheel: MI Republicans Admit to Illegal Foreclosure Scheme, “Surrender” to Democrats

This is from the statement issued by the Michigan Democratic Party:

An agreement announced today by Obama for America, the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party, the Michigan Democratic Party, the Macomb County Republican Party, the Macomb County Democratic Party, and plaintiffs Duane Maletski, Sharon Lopez, and Frances M. Zick protects the voting rights of foreclosure victims. The settlement acknowledges the existence of an illegal scheme by the Republicans to use mortgage foreclosure lists to deny foreclosure victims their right to vote. This settlement has the force of law behind it and ensures that Republicans cannot disenfranchise families facing foreclosure. [emphasis added]

Republicans deny that the settlement acknowledges the vote suppression scheme. I will link to the settlement agreement if and when it comes online.

Chicago Tribune: GOP, Dems announce settlement in foreclosure flap

DetNews.com: Dems, GOP settle foreclosure lawsuit; debate over plan continues

How John McCain Ended Up With Caribou Barbie

They met her on a neocon cruise and she wowed them with the grace she said before lunch. Really!

Jane Mayer, The New Yorker: The Insiders
How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin.

Shortly after taking office, Palin received two memos from Paulette Simpson, the Alaska Federation of Republican Women leader, noting that two prominent conservative magazines—The Weekly Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—were planning luxury cruises to Alaska in the summer of 2007, which would make stops in Juneau. Writers and editors from these publications had been enlisted to deliver lectures to politically minded vacationers. “The Governor was more than happy to meet these guys,” Joe Balash, a special staff assistant to Palin, recalled.

On June 18, 2007, the first group disembarked in Juneau from the Holland America Line’s M.S. Oosterdam, and went to the governor’s mansion, a white wooden Colonial house with six two-story columns, for lunch. The contingent featured three of The Weekly Standard ’s top writers: William Kristol, the magazine’s Washington-based editor, who is also an Op-Ed columnist for the Times and a regular commentator on “Fox News Sunday”; Fred Barnes, the magazine’s executive editor and the co-host of “The Beltway Boys,” a political talk show on Fox News; and Michael Gerson, the former chief speechwriter for President Bush and a Washington Post columnist.

By all accounts, the luncheon was a high-spirited, informal occasion. Kristol brought his wife and daughter; Gerson brought his wife and two children. Barnes, who brought his sister and his wife, sat on one side of Governor Palin, who presided at the head of the long table in the mansion’s formal dining room; the Kristols sat on the other. Gerson was at the opposite end, as was Palin’s chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, who is now working for Senator Stevens’s reëlection campaign. The menu featured halibut cheeks—the choicest part of the fish. Before the meal, Palin delivered a lengthy grace. Simpson, who was at the luncheon, said, “I told a girlfriend afterwards, ‘That was some grace!’ It really set the tone.” Joe Balash, Palin’s assistant, who was also present, said, “There are not many politicians who will say grace with the conviction of faith she has. It’s a daily part of her life.”

[]

[In July of 2008 on] “Fox News Sunday,” Kristol again pushed Palin when asked whom McCain should pick: “Sarah Palin, whom I’ve only met once but I was awfully impressed by—a genuine reformer, defeated the establishment up there. It would be pretty wild to pick a young female Alaska governor, and I think, you know, McCain might as well go for it.” On July 22nd, again on Fox, Kristol referred to Palin as “my heartthrob.”

Hey, maybe McCain wouldn't have been stuck with Sarah Wingnut if she'd used my favorite grace: "Good bread, good meat; Good Lord, let's eat!"

Powell Decimates McCain Campaign

A compilation by Jed Lewison of dailykos, with Powell's statements contrasted with the Republican behavior he is decrying.

McCain-Palin Rallies: Document the Atrocities

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, October 11, 2008:

McCain Recycling

Yesterday McCain recycled his speech in favor of electing George W. Bush at the 2004 Republican Convention. Very green of him. As a matter of fact, he's recycling Bush, as he selected George W. Bush in lipstick as his running mate .

Racist McCain Backer Is Out

On Sunday we wrote about a racist newspaper column by McCain County Chair Bobby May of Buchanan County, Virginia. We predicted he's be out of the campaign by Monday night; it took a little longer than that, but he's been dropped like a hot potato.

LATimes: John McCain backer dropped from Virginia campaign team due to racially tinged column

John McCain's campaign has denounced and rejected a racially charged, anti-Barack Obama newspaper column written by one of the Republican campaign's organizers in Virginia,and has removed the author-activist from his post as a member of the candidate's statewide leadership team.

The column by Bobby May appeared in a southwestern Virginia newspaper,The Voice, and drew attention after it was cited in a Sunday Los Angeles Times report about how voters in that mostly white region were reacting to potentially electing the country's first black president.

May, who in July was named his county's Republican representative on the McCain statewide campaign team, offered a spoof of Obama's platform and plans in his recent column.

[]

McCain spokeswoman Gail Gitcho, in a written statement announcing that May was being dropped from the campaign team, said the attempts at humor "are offensive, insulting and have no place in political discourse. Mr. May's comments in no way reflect the views or opinions held by John McCain or his campaign. The McCain campaign wholeheartedly disavows Mr. May's column."

McCain would prefer to attack Obama indirectly; "Who is Barack Obama" is coded racism.

Election Protection News, October 9, 2008

The New York Times reports today on vast purges of eligible voters from the voting rolls. Although the Times concludes that the purging does not appear to be coordinated by one party, since Republicans are always the party in favor of vote suppression, I doubt that this is just a coincidence. The Democrats have registered millions of new voters, and Republicans are carrying out a sustained campaign to disenfranchise as many as possible.

NYTimes: States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

[]

States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and remove the names of voters who should no longer be listed; but for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows.

The six swing states seem to be in violation of federal law in two ways. Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote.

Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters.

In addition to the six swing states, three more states appear to be violating federal law. Alabama and Georgia seem to be improperly using Social Security information to screen registration applications from new voters. And Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of voters after the federal deadline for taking such action.

Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social Security database to check a registration application only as a last resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases, like those for driver’s licenses or identification cards.

The requirement exists because using the federal database is less reliable than the state lists, and is more likely to incorrectly flag applications as invalid. Many state officials seem to be using the Social Security lists first.

In the year ending Sept. 30, election officials in Nevada, for example, used the Social Security database more than 740,000 times to check voter files or registration applications and found more than 715,000 nonmatches, federal records show. Election officials in Georgia ran more than 1.9 million checks on voter files or voter registration applications and found more than 260,000 nonmatches.

Election Protection News

A coalition of civil rights and voting rights groups has filed a motion to intervene in the Wisconsin Attorney General's suit against Wisconsin election officials. AG Van Hollen sued to force election officials to purge voter rolls if the election list does not match exactly with other databases, like those for driver's licenses and social security numbers.

The AG's suit would force election officials to remove someone from the list for typographical errors or minor differences like middle initials or titles.

For extra credit, guess the political party of Wisconsin Attorney General van Hollen? (First two guesses don't count; of course, he is a Republican!)

Alternet: Wisconsin Attorney General Sued To Stop Voter Purge

PDF: Amicus Brief, Van Hollen v. Government Accountability Board, et al., Case No. 08-CV-4085

The Campaign Legal Center