Not that I care, but...

I thought getting married AFTER the baby is born was anathema to right-wing Christian types like Sarah Palin. I honestly don't care if her daughter has a child out of wedlock, but then it shouldn't be any of Sarah Palin's business what I do with my life. It seems family values only go one way with the Republican party. Just ask Senators Vitter (hooker), Craig (bathroom foot-tapper) and McCain (adulterer). Read More......

Why don't McCain's tax returns report gambling revenue?

Interesting analysis by a tax attorney over at Huffington Post.

Gambling has tax implications. According to IRS Publication 17, "Your Federal Income Tax", 2007 edition, page 89 "Gambling Winnings. You must include your gambling winnings in income on Form 1040, line 21. If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you can deduct gambling losses you had during the year, but only up to the amount of your winnings." In other words, you can't subtract your losses from your winnings and just not report. You have to report the winnings, and then claim the losses.

But McCain's tax returns say nothing about gambling winnings or losses.

As a casino gambler, McCain is likely to have lost more than he won. But by not reporting his winnings, the different percentage calculations built into the tax calculation are thrown off, and if he gambled much at all, he has underpaid his tax. The amount of understatement of tax may be minimal, but that's not the point.

The real purpose of preparing his tax return and omitting the gambling winnings is so that people would not know how much he gambled. If he won $200,000 playing craps in Las Vegas, it would make a difference in the way voters viewed his suitability as a presidential candidate....

I think we are looking at tax returns calculated to hide an aspect of the candidate. My 35 years of experience in taxes tells me these tax returns are wrong, and we do not know the true scope of McCain's gambling or of his potential obligations to gambling enterprises.

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Before the debate, only 10 of the women believed Palin was not ready to be VP or president; by the end of the evening more than half of them (21)

From TIME:

Last night in Colorado (one of the key swing states we have our eyes on), the Democratic polling group Greenberg Quinlan Rosner brought together 40 undecided women voters to watch the vice-presidential debate....

Before the debate, only 10 of the women believed Palin was not ready to be vice-president or president; by the end of the evening more than half of them (21) shared that concern.

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ABC: Palin lied last night about supporting divestiture from Sudan

You know, she just might make a great conservative presidential candidate in the future. Intellectually lightweight and a serial liar to boot. Would you trust this woman with your 401k?

From ABC:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fought to protest atrocities in Sudan by dropping assets tied to the country's brutal regime from the state's multi-billion-dollar investment fund, she claimed during Thursday's vice presidential debate.

Not quite, according to a review of the public record  and according to the recollections of a legislator and others who pushed a measure to divest Alaskan holdings in Sudan-linked investments.

"The [Palin] administration killed our bill," said Alaska state representative Les Gara, D-Anchorage. Gara and state Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, co-sponsored a resolution early this year to force the Alaska Permanent Fund  a $40 billion investment fund, a portion of whose dividends are distributed annually to state residents  to divest millions of dollars in holdings tied to the Sudanese government.

In Thursday's debate, Palin said she had advocated the state divest from Sudan. "When I and others in the legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars [of Permanent Fund investments] in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars," Palin said.

But a search of news clips and transcripts from the time do not turn up an instance in which Palin mentioned the Sudanese crisis or concerns about Alaska's investments tied to the ruling regime. Moreover, Palin's administration openly opposed the bill, and stated its opposition in a public hearing on the measure.

"The legislation is well-intended, and the desire to make a difference is noble, but mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens' financial security is not a good combination," testified Brian Andrews, Palin's deputy treasury commissioner, before a hearing on the Gara-Lynn Sudan divestment bill in February. Minutes from the meeting are posted online by the legislature.

Gara says the lack of support from Palin's administration helped kill the measure.

"I walked out of that hearing livid," Gara recalled of the February meeting. Because of the Palin administration's opposition to the bill, "We could not get a vote in that committee," he explained. At no point did Palin come out in support of the effort, Gara said.

I guess by "barracuda" they meant "liar." Read More......

Is Palin against Medicare?

See, this is what happens when you pick a lightweight to be the possible next president of the United States. She gets out her thesaurus and proceeds to make a fool of herself. From Paul Krugman:

Unbelievable. Sarah Palin finished her closing remarks by quoting Ronald Reagan:

It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.

When did he say this? It was on a recording he made for Operation Coffeecup — a campaign organized by the American Medical Association to block the passage of Medicare. Doctors’ wives were supposed to organize coffee klatches for patients, where they would play the Reagan recording, which declared that Medicare would lead us to totalitarianism.You couldn’t make this stuff up.

At some point, Republicans need to stop equating feistiness with competence. Though honestly, I don't even think conservatives care about competence. It's all about selecting the next best figurehead. The man or woman who will make them feel young again, convince them that America's best years are ahead of her. It doesn't matter if their candidate is an idiot who will actually make America worse off. In conservatism, you don't have to make America great, you just have to say it. Kind of like their views on the Constitution and the flag. Much better to revere the symbol than the actual substance. Read More......

John McCain voted to raise taxes 477 times

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Gwen Awful

National Journal compiles a number of blog reactions to Gwen Ifill's awful performance during last night's debate:

Yglesias: "I'm not sure if Gwen Ifill was cowed by the rightwing mau-mau brigade or what, but I thought Ifill's handling of the debate was pretty disappointing. Palin was clearly operating with a game plan that involved simply refusing to answer certain questions in order to drift over to her pre-prepared text, and Ifill didn't ask any followups or challenge either candidate to address the questions she was asking. Indeed, at times Ifill was barely even asking questions -- just suggesting topics."

Open Left's Matt Stoller: "Palin was able to filibuster and repeat talking points without being pressured by Gwen Ifill. I suppose the mau-mauing worked."

The Atlantic's James Fallows: "Ifill [was] terrible. Yes, she was constrained by the agreed debate rules. But she gave not the slightest sign of chafing against them or looking for ways to follow up the many unanswered questions or self-contradictory answers. This was the big news of the evening. Katie Couric, and for that matter Jim Lehrer, have never looked so good."

AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay [I actually wrote this, not Joe]: "Gwen Ifill got bought off by McCain before this debate. He played her and she rolled over. What a sad excuse for a reporter. I've always liked Ifill in the past, but what has she done tonight that a 5th grader couldn't do? She read questions. That's it. Palin doesn't answer them, Ifill moves on to the next question."

Obsidian Wings' publius: "[Ifill]'s been absolutely awful. Her questions are terrible. And more importantly, she's let Palin ignore every single question. Just flat out ignore them. They got in her head."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan: "There was only one loser: Gwen Ifill. She was intimidated, peripheral, neutered. The rules didn't help. But Ifill put in a dreadful performance."

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McCain Decries Partisanship And Attacks Obama In Same Sentence

Do we need more proof that there's something wrong with this guy?

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How is it not sexist to suggest that Sarah Palin gives conservatives an erection?

Seriously, I know the Republicans are desperate. But suggesting that Sarah Palin gives conservative guys an erection - and tell me that isn't what this post is about - is probably the most sexist review ever of a vice presidential candidate's debate performance in the history of American politics. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that most women don't like the idea of being picked for the vice presidency because they make Republican guys hard. It's simply disgusting. We are talking about the future of our economy. The future of our life savings. The future of 150,000 American troops risking their lives in Iraq. And a top conservative leader says that what really matters is that Sarah Palin makes guys hard, (a day after John McCain says he loves doing townhalls with women because they're so "emotional"). Beyond disgusting. Beyond sexist.

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Congress approves bail-out, Bush signs it, Krugman says all not well

From AP:

With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush who quickly signed it....

[T[he Dow Jones industrials, up more than 200 points at the time of the House vote, ended the day down 157.

The final vote, 263-171 in the House, capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act. There were 58 more votes for the measure than an earlier version that failed on Monday.

Krugman asks, "Has the bailout already failed?":

OK, I know that’s premature. And I place no weight at all on the fact that the Dow plunged after the vote.

But it is interesting that short-term Treasury yields are down — only 0.13% on one-month — suggesting that the flight to safety continues unabated. Against this, John Jansen reports some signs that money markets are unfreezing, slightly.

We’ll learn more next week. But I have a prediction: well before January 20, Congress will be asked to vote on bailout 2.0.

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How about her, HHEHHH?!?!

ROTFL!

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McCain's Latin American experience includes 'dating' a Latin American in the 1950s

Yeah, I'll bet he went to her repeatedly for foreign policy advice too. Seriously. That's what McCain's campaign said today. His experience in the region includes, um, "dating" a Brazilian. Yes, well, I've "dated" a Brazilian too. Does that make me a Latin America expert?

In fact, I suspect this is ongoing damage control from McCain recently thinking Spain was in Latin America, and that Venezuela (which is in Latin America) was in the Middle East. But seriously, there's nothing physically or mentally wrong with McCain. Lots of Latin American experts confuse Spain and Venezuela with Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

It's also damage control for rising concerns over McCain's physical and mental health. Apparently, pointing to some Brazilian woman McCain "met" 51 years ago somehow shows how virile he is today. Yeah, we get it, he liked girls half a century ago. And this saves my 401k how? Read More......

Sarah Palin: "John McCain knows how to win a war."

What war was John McCain involved in that we won?

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Wow, just watch these

Sorry, I wasn't clear. These aren't really debate snippets. They're musicals. And funny. Watch them.



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Another doctor weighs in on McCain's health

Again, remember, John McCain has been acting erratic for months, and now is showing regular facial ticks or convulsions, followed by confusion, that his campaign doesn't feel the need to explain.

Worse yet, the public has not been given adequate access to his medical records. John McCain is 72 years old. He has had 4 bouts of skin cancer, and his specific cancer, melanoma, is the worst, the most deadly. Yet, the media was given only ten second a page to review over 1,000 medical documents (and conveniently, the pages were all jumbled). If John McCain won't give the public sufficient details to ensure that a McCain victory doesn't turn into a Palin presidency, then we are forced to have real doctors speculate on the evidence we do have. One such real M.D. wrote me the other day...

RK, who is an M.D., writes:

No one really knows the extent of McCain's melanoma problems. What I do know is that of the more common cancers, melanoma and pancreatic cancer are the two most frightening to have. I do not personally know of a single case of melanoma that has survived more than a few years that was not apparently localized at the time of excision. McCain has had "four" surgeries for his cancer, so it would seem that it has spread. Why else would he have had follow up surgery? AND WE HAVE NOT A CLUE AS TO WHAT OTHER TREATMENT MODALITIES HE HAS BEEN SUBJECTED TO.

I think it is quite possible that amongst other areas of spread, he could have brain metastases and this could account for the neurological events we have witnessed. If such be the case...

I can not be absolutely certain of his condition as, not only have I never met the man, I have never seen his medical records, but neither has anyone else.

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Brokaw led the cheers for the McCain campaign last night

Tom Brokaw is the moderator of the next debate. He's already NBC's ambassador to the McCain campaign, you know, to let the McCain campaign know they'd "get a fair shake from NBC News." Last night, Brokaw was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the McCain/Palin campaign:

NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "I think they're wolfing it up in Alaska tonight and all the parties across the country for the McCain campaign. In terms of our theatrics and personal style out there, you can see why she's such a successful politician in Alaska." Palin "did herself a lot of good and probably her ticket some good as well."

Keep in mind, the American people didn't share Brokaw's view per post-debate polling. Read More......

Des Moines Register's Rekha Basu: Is McCain too thin-skinned for presidency?

As Joe has pointed out before, the Des Moines Register endorsed McCain in the primaries. He was on friendly turf. And he still flipped out.

Des Moines Reigster columnist:

John McCain is angry.

You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling.

McCain's volatility has been written and whispered about by staff and Senate colleagues: the mercurial temper, the quixotic outbursts of reproach, then jocularity. But those alleged episodes were behind the scenes. The combative, prickly McCain we saw was seeking the Register's endorsement. He already got it in the caucuses.

He took frequent offense at questions, characterizing them as personal viewpoints of the questioners rather than legitimate topics. True, he was asked some tough, pointed questions about his running mate and his honesty. But America is having those discussions, and you'd expect he'd be ready, not defensive. It takes a thick skin to be president.

McCain says he is angry because "people are angry." But his behavior suggests it's more than that. Maybe it's because his poll numbers are falling, his running mate is being ridiculed and his attempt to play fixer on the bailout failed to launch. Or maybe, a more worrisome prospect, this is the real McCain - who can't deal with stressful situations without feeling attacked, who lashes out when he feels threatened....

Newspapers regularly put candidates in the hot seat. Some playfully disarm the questioner. Some deflect the question. The confident relish the chance to make their case.

McCain seemed put out.

The presidency requires a special temperament. It demands statesmanship with foreign leaders, persuasiveness with Congress and calm assuredness with the public. If McCain is so flustered in an editorial meeting, how would he guide a nation in crisis?

McCain is a warrior. When confronted with a problem, or a crisis, he declares war. It's in his nature. And it is extremely unsettling. Unless of course you want four more years of war with Iran, Syria, North Korea and everyone else who looks at John McCain the wrong way. At some point, the presidency - America - has to be about more than simply declaring war as a solution to every problem. Read More......

Krauthammer concedes, Obama is probably going to win

Leading conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer pretty much threw in the white flag this morning. He did a little slash and burn first, trying to mislead his readers into thinking that Obama has only been working at the federal level for 19 months - cute, but a lie - but still, even Krauthammer had to then concede that Obama is probably going to win. Now, don't get your hopes too high - we can still lose this. But the fact that people like Krauthammer are already publicly lamenting McCain's loss, one month before the election, is a very good sign. It means Republicans are pretty much convinced it's over. And that's golden.

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Stephanopoulos: Top Official Says House Has Enough Votes to Pass Bailout Bill

From ABC:

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: A top House official is confident House leaders have enough votes to pass the financial rescue package, which is expected to be voted on later today.

A top House official tells ABC News they have at least 230 votes for the bailout package - 150 Democrats and 80 Republicans.

The House of Representatives needs 218 votes to pass the bill.

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Sarah Palin debate flow chart

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House plans second vote on bailout

AP:

After a week of tumult on Wall Street and Washington, the House moved toward a final vote Friday on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, an unprecedented government intervention designed to steady an economy on the brink.

Congressional leaders expressed quiet confidence they would have the votes to send the measure to President Bush for his signature by day's end, four days after an earlier version was rejected....

The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. That came on top of Thursday's Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by four percent. And the government reported Friday that employers slashed 159,000 jobs from payrolls in September, the most in five years.

Eight more years, eight more years! Read More......

Biden: John McCain is no maverick

Biden: Can I respond to that?

Look, let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And again I love him, he's been a maverick on some issues but he's been no maverick on things that matter to people's lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget which put us half a trillion in debt this year and over three trillion in debt since he got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing healthcare for people. He voted against including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan in the United States Senate.

He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He's not been a maverick on the war, not been a maverick on virtually anything that generally affects the things that people really talk about around the kitchen table.

Can we get mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester. We can't make it. How we gonna heat the house this winter? He even voted against what they call LIHEAP, for assistance for people with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So a maverick he is not, on the important critical issues that affect people at the kitchen table. Read More......

More negative jobs growth announced this morning

The Bush-McCain policies had caused almost 700,000 job losses in 2008 and now this. Economists were forecasting 105,000 job cuts (20,000 more than an already terrible August), but the number is higher than expected:

Employers cut 159,000 jobs in September, more than twice as many as in August or July, the Labor Department reported. It was the biggest decline since 2003, when the economy was still losing jobs in the wake of the 2001 recession.

Economists had been expecting a loss of about 100,000 jobs in September.

The new number was especially worrisome because the government conducted its survey during the week of Sept. 8, before the credit crisis took a new turn for the worse on Sept. 17.

McCain has no idea what to do. He continues to tell us that tax cuts for the wealthiest, most privileged Americans - his country club friends - is what we need. If only he was joking, but he's serious.

The forecasts weren't even close and it's even worse news. Job losses for 2008 are now over 850,000 and could even cross 1,000,000 for the year. More of the same is not an option.

UPDATED: Here's Obama's statement on the job losses:

“Today, Americans woke up to the sad news that 159,000 jobs were lost last month alone, making September the ninth straight month of job loss. With three-quarters of a million jobs lost this year, and millions of families struggling to pay the bills and stay in their homes, this country can’t afford Senator McCain’s plan to give America four more years of the same policies that have devastated our middle-class and our economy for the last eight. Instead of Senator McCain’s plan to give tax breaks to CEOs and companies that ship jobs overseas, I will rebuild the middle-class and create millions of new jobs by investing in infrastructure and renewable energy that will reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East. I also call on Congress to pass an immediate rescue plan for our middle-class that will provide tax relief, save one million jobs, and save our local communities from harmful budget cuts and painful tax increases,” said Senator Barack Obama.

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Biden won the debate because the American people actually care about issues this year, while the pundits are focused on image

The pundits are stumped. Sarah Palin was a superstar in their eyes last night. So many of those talking heads on the t.v. have no clue about just how out of touch they are. The American people, according to independent polls, think Biden won the debate by wide margins. This morning, Chuck Todd seemed to grasp that, this year, the American people are concerned about issues. It's the political media types who care about style and image.



Not sure any of Todd's fellow pundits will grasp what he said, but he's right. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

I have the sense that people are scratching their heads today asking: What the hell was Palin talking about? If you get a second, watch some of the videos that have been popping up. This one, for example. She makes no sense. Now, most of the pundits had allowed the McCain campaign to set such low expectations that by walking on the stage and winking a few times, Palin won in their eyes. And, I know that debates aren't ever about substance. But seriously, what the hell was she talking about last night. I defy anyone to find a truly coherent, well reasoned answer to any question.

So, that's over. The House votes today on the bailout bill. The arm-twisting is probably pretty intense up there. Word is the vote won't even happen til the leaders know it will pass.

Never a dull moment...thread the news... Read More......

Schwarzenegger seeks $7 billion from Paulson due to credit crisis

Once again showing that this crisis is well beyond just Wall Street. Business, individuals and even states are not receiving loans because the credit system has dried up. Even here in France, which has a radically different banking system and is less impacted by Libor rates, many businesses are unable to get loans these days. We are going to have to make some big changes to the system in the very near future and letting bank executives cash in on bogus paper being bought and sold has to be scrapped. Congress still needs to revisit the Wall Street execs who walked away with hundreds of millions and hold them accountable for this widespread disaster.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, alarmed by the ongoing national financial crisis, warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.

The warning comes as California is close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans that it typically relies on to remain solvent.

The state of California is the biggest of several governments nationwide that are being locked out of the bond market by the global credit crunch. If the state is unable to access the cash, administration officials say, payments to schools and other government entities could quickly be suspended and state employees could be laid off.

Plans by several state and local governments to borrow in recent days have been upended by the credit freeze. New Mexico was forced to put off a $500-million bond sale, Massachusetts had to pull the plug halfway into a $400-million offering, and Maine is considering canceling road projects that were to be funded with bonds.

California finance experts say they know of no time in recent history when the state has sought an emergency loan of this magnitude from the federal government. The only other such rescue was in 1975, they said, when the federal government lent New York City money to avoid bankruptcy.

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China filtering and blocking Skype messages

Who would ever guess that China is blocking "sensitive" words as dangerous as "Tibet" and "milk powder" in Skype text messages? Next thing you know someone is going to tell us that the US is also snooping on those calls.

On Wednesday, Nart Villeneuve at the University of Toronto revealed that a Chinese version of Skype's application is being used for wholesale surveillance of text messages.

The software is distributed by Skype's Chinese partner, Tom Online Inc. Skype has acknowledged since 2006 that this version looks for certain sensitive words in text chats, and blocks those messages from reaching their destination.

What Villeneuve found was that the Tom-Skype program also passes the messages caught by the filter to a cluster of servers on Tom's network. Because of poor security on those servers, he was able to retrieve more than a million stored messages. The filter appears to look for words like "Tibet," "democracy" and "milk powder" — China is in the throes of a food scandal involving tainted milk.

This directly contradicts a blog posting on Skype's Web site, which says that the software discards the filtered messages, and neither displays nor transmits them anywhere.

A Skype spokeswoman was not available for comment Thursday. Skype has earlier given contradictory statements on the eavesdropping issue.

It has told The Associated Press that it "cooperates fully with all lawful requests from relevant authorities." But when asked by CNET's News.com in June whether it could accommodate a wiretapping request, it said it could not, because of the way its system works: Skype calls are encrypted, and only the two computers at each end have the keys to decrypt them.

Yet both Schneier and Simson Garfinkel, an associate of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University who has studied Skype's security, believe it would actually be trivial for the company to listen in on conversations.

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Bank mergers point to higher fees, lower service

And that's not even touching the issue of creating even bigger monsters that are too big to fail. Once this phase settles (improvement won't happen any time soon) Congress needs to address the larger problem so consumers have more choices and we're not once again stuck in a "too big to fail" situation.

The big banks consistently charge the highest fees and service? Well, if you're doing millions upon millions of dollars in business you can expect service but for everyone else, not so much. You will also probably pay lower fees if you're in the big leagues as opposed to a normal retail client. Once again, what some believe is free market capitalism is plain old favoritism for those who have the best army of lobbyists, free market, be damned.

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said account holders should pay careful attention to the paperwork they receive from their new banks. Existing accounts at the banks that are taken over will be converted into new accounts at the parent, he said. "And most of the time the new account has higher fees and fewer features."

It's also important for consumers to keep track of online banking, direct deposits and other electronic transactions, because there have been cases where two banks had difficulty merging their computer systems, Mierzwinski said.

"It's turned out in many mergers there were a lot of burps involved," because the computer systems were not compatible, he said. "If your account number changes, your whole electronic banking world could have trouble."

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US factory orders plunge more than expected

And it wasn't even close to the forecast.

Government data show orders to U.S. factories plunged by the largest amount in nearly two years as the credit strains are hitting manufacturing with full force.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that orders for manufactured goods dropped by 4 percent in August, compared to July. That's a much worse performance than the 2.5 percent decline that economists had expected. It was the biggest setback since a 4.8 percent plunge in October 2006.

The weakness was led by big declines in orders for aircraft, down 38.1 percent, and autos, which fell by 10.6 percent, the worst performance in nearly six years.

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Chris and I talk about the economic crisis

I thought it would be interesting to get Chris' take, in person, so to speak, on what's going on with the economy right now.

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Sarah Palin's 18 lies tonight

SARAH PALIN’S 18 LIES TONIGHT

1. FANNIE MAE/FREDDIE MAC: Palin said “it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures,” but fact checkers say that’s “Quite A Stretch” And “Barely True,” and that McCain was a “latecomer” to the discussion.

2. FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRONG: Palin tried to say “John McCain saying our economy was strong” but McCain has used the phrase “The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong” At Least 16 Times This Year.

3. PARTISAN POLITICS: Palin said McCain is “known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done,” but he has voted with Bush 90% of the time in the Senate and bragged about his support for Bush on important issues.

4. TAXES ATTACK: Palin repeated the attack that Obama voted for higher taxes 94 times, which the New York Times says is “false,” CNN says is “Misleading,” and FactCheck.org says is “inflated.”

5. TOBACCO REGULATION: Palin said to “look at the tobacco industry” as an example of McCain pushing for even harder and tougher regulations. But McCain opposed expanding the SCHIP children’s health insurance program for 5.8 million children because it would increase tobacco taxes.

6. SPENDING INCREASES: Palin said Obama is is proposing “nearly a trillion dollars in new spending,” but didn’t mention that he has also proposed cuts to balance it out, an attack CNN has already debunked as “misleading” and that ignores the far larger cost of McCain’s tax cuts and spending hikes.

7. HEALTH CARE: Palin claimed Obama’s health plan is “government run” which has been widely debunked as a “canard.”

8. HEALTH CARE. Palin says taxes wouldn’t go up under the McCain health care plan, a fact even his own campaign has acknowledged isn’t true.

9. TROOPS: Palin repeated what the AP called the “highly misleading” attack that Obama opposed funding for the troops, and Factcheck.org notes that the same methodology would lead to the same conclusion for McCain.

10. GLOBAL WARMING: Palin said “I don’t want to argue about the causes” for global warming, when she has clearly taken the position that she doesn’t not believe it is man-made.

11. MCCAIN IS CONSISTENT: Palin said McCain” doesn't tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group,” when that is exactly what he has done on immigration, telling Hispanic leaders he was for comprehensive reform instead of the enforcement focused approach he has taken with conservatives.

12. MCCLELLAN NOT MCKIERNAN: Palin referred to the US commander in Afghanistan, David McKiernan as “McClellan.”

13. MCKIERNAN ON “SURGE:” Palin said that [McKiernan] did not say a surge wouldn’t work in Afghanistan, when just yesterday he said “The word I don’t use for Afghanistan is ’surge,’ ” McKiernan stressed, saying that what is required is a “sustained commitment” to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution

14. KILLING CIVILIANS. Palin said “Obama had said that all we're doing in Afghanistan is air raiding villages and killing civilians and such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment again hurts our cause. That's not what we are doing there.” Unfortunately, the Associated Press says that Obama was right in discussing a critically important point about avoiding civilian casualties.

15. TEACHING: Palin said we need to make sure “that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line,” when McCain has repeatedly favored tax cuts for the wealthy over funds for more teachers and class size reduction.

16. PARTISAN APPOINTMENTS: Palin said “You do what I did as governor. And you appoint people regardless of party affiliation. Democrats, independents, Republicans, you walk the walk, don't just talk the talk” when she repeatedly appointed friends and supporters to positions for which they weren’t qualified.

17. FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Palin falsely claimed that she was the first governor to form a climate change subcabinet, when at least 28 states had already taken action.

18. DARFUR DIVESTMENT: Palin claimed that “when I and others” found out that the state had money invested in Sudan that “we called for divestment,” when the reality is that Palin’s appointees worked to kill a Darfur divestment plan. Read More......

Sarah Palin revels in being unqualified

Obama has noted this before, as has Jon Stewart - the fact that Republican politicians admire stupidity and ignorance. They wear their lack of education, their incompetence, their failure as a badge of honor. And it's certainly an American tradition, having disdain for intellectuals. But when push comes to shove, do you really want bubba, or bubba with lipstick, in charge of your 401k and your life savings? At some point America has got to get over its love affair with stupid. Or the mistakes of the last eight years, when we elected stupid to an art form, will continue to repeat themselves. Here's tomorrow's editorial in the New York Times about the debate:

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: she can learn her talking points and make a good impression under controlled circumstances. But Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice when he picked someone with far too little experience or evident knowledge for the post. That choice shattered the image that Mr. McCain created for himself as the tempered, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. Picking Ms. Palin was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

The ensuing weeks cemented those images in our minds. Ms. Palin initially injected some energy into the McCain campaign, especially among members of the right-wing Republican base, who never liked or trusted the Arizona senator — and still do not. Then, she began lurching from one embarrassing public appearance to another, culminating in her shocking performance in interviews with Katie Couric. In those exchanges, Ms. Palin was inarticulate and shockingly unable to answer the most basic questions about government policy and even her own political philosophy.

The Republicans have tried to present the negative reaction to Ms. Palin as a matter of liberal elites sneering at someone who does not share their privileged backgrounds. That is a distraction. The problem with Ms. Palin’s candidacy, which she underscored in her appearance at the debate on Thursday night, is not that she didn’t attend a fancy school or go backpacking in Europe after college. It is her disdain for knowledge, education, experience and contemplative leadership.

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More on CBS's poll. Biden won over undecideds far more than Palin

Very interesting results.

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Palin blames the "toxic mess" on Main Street for affecting Wall Street. And she's a Main Streeter.

Okay, watch this video. What the hell is she talking about? Palin just strings non-sequiturs together. But, in one answer tonight, Palin blamed Main Street, actually blamed the "toxic mess" on Main Street, for affecting Wall Street. Most people, including John McCain, blame Wall Street for Main Street's woes. But, Palin should know. She's a "Main Streeter." Does that mean she's a toxic mess?:



Does anyone understand what the hell she said? Seriously, it's worse the second time you watch her. Read More......