"We'll all be dead by sunrise..."

John McSucker?

Did Obama trick him in Pennsylvania?

The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 67

The John McLiar campaign is finally coming clean about the Sarah Palin debacle:



Sorry, but I don't find much virtue in all of this. This isn't "honesty." This is scapegoating. Not that I feel sorry for Sarah Palin for a second. Nope, that witch deserves her fate. But at the same time, I'm sure as hell not going to give McSwine and his crew any "credit" for telling us the truth about Sarah after the fact.

True, McCain's concession speech, from what I've seen and from all I've read, was as classy as his campaign was classless. Nevertheless, they lied to us for over two months. And to paraphrase the McCain campaign itself: underneath a pretty speech is the ugly truth - John McCain is a dishonorable liar.

Stay Classy, McCain Supporters

McCain's speech was gracious. Andrew Sullivan sums it up well:

It was very classy, very moving, and finally worthy of the man we once thought we knew. Alas, his crowd was as ugly as he was gracious. I fear what will now become of the GOP.

Obama Wins...

the Dixville Notch and Hart's Location vote over John McCain, 15-6 and 17-10 respectively! That's 32 to 16 so far... Just over 100 million people to go!

Unfortunately, the New Hampshire early vote is not exactly predictive.

Where's the Joe?

Update: McCain campaign can't manage to summon one particular individual to crucial Ohio rally. It appears Joe the Plumber didn't know he was supposed to go.

What would Jesus do?

So, the mother-in-law called last night. She was upset by a phone call she had just received from her sister. She had called to urge her to vote for McCain. Apparently while the mother-in-law spent the weekend at the O'Toole's, spending time with her new grand daughter, Baby O'Toole, she missed the preacher at her church urge the congregation to vote for McCain. His reasons......not the failing economy, not the war, but because Republicans display better morals than democrats. He basically then went on to argue "it's what Jesus would do!". Over the past few weeks, using the candidates positions on issues and issues that the mother in law felt were important to her, we had shown her Obama spoke for most of her issues. However she hadn't expected Jesus to endorse McCain. So now she is confused and upset at the prospect of being struck down as she places a vote for the anti-Christ.
Remember...... November 4th, don't vote on policy, the state of the nation, or the war. Just know that any vote for anyone other than McCain is a sin. You are morally redundant and should be ashamed of yourself. When you die you will burn in HELL!!!

Brilliant...

The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 65

A fascinating look into the McCain-Palin internecine war.

As a footnote to this, I saw McCain flack Nicolle Wallace on David Gregory's show last night, and having previously seen her on other television shows strenuously pushing the McCain party line, I could tell something about her performance was "off." I don't know that I'd go as far as to say she was mailing it in, but certainly, she had lost the fire she displayed in the days after the Palin pick. I remember in particular watching her reject a journalist's suggestion that Palin should face press questions by dismissively stating, "Why should she talk to you? She's going to talk to the American people." Of course, I hated her answer and found her loathsome, but clearly she was passionate about her candidate.

Last night, not so much. I'd call it resignation to fate. It reminded me of this report and Wallace's quote in it:

Wallace declined to engage publicly in the finger-pointing that has consumed the campaign in the final weeks.

"I am in awe of [Palin's] strength under constant fire by the media," she said in an e-mail. "If someone wants to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most graceful thing to do is to lie there."

Like that moment I had during Hardball where I felt sorry for Nancy Pfotenhauer as Chris Matthews took her apart, I am starting to feel sorry for yet another Republican Stepford fembot. I must be getting soft in my anticipation of the impending Obama electoral victory.

As encouraging as the McCain-Palin implosion has been, I still wonder if it will make a difference to voters. It should. We've had eight years of dysfunction, incompetence, and self-righteous idiocy. Time to turn the page.

I'm a Georgia voter...

The scene at the Dekalb County, Georgia, early voting location at Lianne Levitan Park at Brook Run in Dunwoody, Georgia, was, in two words, calm & steady. Not many people spoke to one another; some talked on cell phones; many read books. All tried to stay warm in the hour-long line on a 36-degree morning. Although people weren't overly talkative, their faces communicated mouthfuls. The telling voter visages could, by my account, be divided into thirds.

One-third were people not giving off an ounce of emotion, maybe too afraid to draw the ire of a rival party supporter or the ire of a party mate they'd turned on, or maybe they were just trying to bear the frigid temperatures.

One-third grimaced, seriously, seemingly under the impression that their vote was an individual attempt to defend REAL AMERICA from certain takeover by ____________ (fill in the blank with Muslims, terrorists, blacks, gays, liberals, socialists, or atheists). I could taste the fear on their faces. (Update: after re-read, this must have been the part of the morning that I was licking peoples' faces in an attempt to cheer them up)

The final third beamed of hope. One black woman in her mid-to-late-20s exited the building and crossed through our line. She smiled ear-to-ear as she looked down at the "I'm a Georgia Voter" sticker which she literally was caressing.

The interesting thing about the racial make-up of the thirds was this: looks of demise could really only be seen on faces of the old guard, white people who looked conservative in appearance and who looked like the ones from McCain/Palin rallies.

On the flip-side, hope, relief, and elation could be seen on a mixture of races and ages, likely indicating, too, a mixture of creeds. And since Americans in 2008 ARE this heterogenous group, it is clear which candidate is capable of uniting America.

Today, I was very proud to be among the group that is turning the page on fear and division in favor of hope and optimism, and I burned into my brain the image of the voting machine screen when my fingertip illuminated an "X" next to Barack Obama and Joe Biden for President and Vice President of the United States of America.

The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 62

Smackdown: McCain v. Palin!

It's happening. Palin may be as dumb as a post when it comes to national public policy, but give her this: she is a shrewd politician. Those skills actually do translate to the national stage.

There was a trickle of stories coming out about her clashing with the McCain campaign and positioning herself to emerge as the new party standard-bearer after the McCain candidacy fails, as it surely will. Those stories are becoming a steady stream. And you can bet post-November 4th, it's going to be a flood. There's going to be a lot of finger-pointing.

My favorite account (so far) comes from a "second anonymous" McCain staffer, who said of Palin:

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

"Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

No shit - you think?

Next time, dumbasses, try vetting yout VP pick. You've created a fucking monster who is going to split your party in two.

Breakin'

Unbelievable McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off - Watch more free videos

Terrorists for McCain

Al-Qaeda gives its influential endorsement to McCain. No shit.

For those of you keeping score at home, significant endorsements in the last 7 days are as follows:

Obama: Colin Powell
McCain: Al-Qaeda

Quote of the Day

Ezra Klein (again):

Is anyone surprised that in the final weeks of the race, when they're trailing by 5-10 points, the McCain campaign is "reconsidering" their refusal to make an issue of Jeremiah Wright? And why wouldn't they? What could be more mavericky than first adopting a principled refusal to deploy Jeremiah Wright then reversing course and using him as part of a straightforwardly racist effort to close the gap in the final days of the election?

If the candidates were trains...

Thanks to Cosmic Variance for the lead, originally posted at fark.com

Colin Powell Endorses Obama, Calls Palin Unfit

After seeing TTT headline, Palin reportedly enrolls in a Pilates class.

Campaignin' with the Hot Rod

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Study Explains Why I Have Such Incredible Expertise in Accurately Judging Others

A new study reveals why I'm so sharp when it comes to labeling others. The report explains:

Rejection can make a person more intuitive. New research suggests individuals who have faced the cold shoulder can more easily spot phony people.

The ability to spot a fabricated smile, exhibited by test subjects who had suffered rejection, could be a relic of our past, the researchers said.

"This seems to be a skill we've acquired through evolution," said researcher Michael Bernstein, a doctoral student in social psychology at Miami University in Ohio. "Living in groups several hundreds of years ago was extremely important to survival. Being kicked out of the group was like death, so they became very good at reading facial expressions and social cues."

However, it appears that Americans of all levels of training have been able to spot these phoney smiles.

Desperation Is A Stinky Cologne.

I guess if you invent the BlackBerry, you get your own personal cell towers...

According to WirelessWeek:

Verizon installed a temporary cell phone tower at the Arizona ranch owned by Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his wife Cindy McCain and AT&T followed suit, the Washington Post reported today. Both companies deny any ethical wrongdoing, stating that cell coverage is essential wherever there’s a presidential candidate.

In Verizon’s case, the McCains sought to get a permanent tower installed several months before the U.S. Senator was a viable candidate. Whether that process involved special favors is a matter of dispute, the newspaper said.

Verizon said the McCains applied for coverage at their property just like any customer would, however, industry sources told the newspaper that no wireless carrier would normally install an expensive tower – whether permanent or portable – for an area so sparsely populated.