A No Holds Barred Weep-A-Thon

America’s supplies of tissues must have been exhausted during Barack Obama’s 30-minute election broadcast late on Wednesday night. It had been billed as a “closing argument” by the Democrat’s seemingly unstoppable campaign. In reality, it was an all-out, no-holds-barred weepathon with a feel-bad factor pitched somewhere between the third act of Schindler’s List and the slaughter scenes in Watership Down. I emerged from my TV room sodden-eyed and legs trembling, wishing that Iran would just drop the bomb and get it all over with.

It began, as these things so often do, with a flugelhorn. Then pictures of wind-rippled cornfields. Then footage of children and old people smiling — the tape slowed down a little, to make their happiness appear somehow tragic.

When Obama, made his entrance he was wearing a sombre black suit (pictured right) and standing in what appeared to be a log cabin. You could practically smell the coffee roasting. This was Obamaland, where everything is safe and warm, where Big Brobama loves you and keeps the evil profit-doers at bay. You, too, could go to Obamaland, went the subtext, just so long as you voted for the man with the “D” next to his name. But in case Americans didn’t realise what was at stake, Obama set out to demonstrate what a God-forsaken, economically devastated shell of a nation they now live in. So we cut to a harried mother named Rebecca, from North Kansas City, Missouri, who complained that her husband Brian, who works at a tyre plant, has to stand up all day, even though he has a dicky knee. We were treated to a glimpse of Brian slumped on his sofa, looking fed up. He had planned to have surgery in June, said Rebecca, but because of the rising cost of living he couldn’t afford it. We then saw Rebecca rationing the food in her fridge, balancing her cheque book, and driving her humungous SUV in the moonlight.

From this purgatory we emerged again into the comforting fuzzy goodness of Obamaland. “We measure the strength of our country not by the number of billionaires we have,” he boomed, “but by whether a waitress who lives on tips can take the day off to look after a sick kid without being laid off.”

Then we were back in the wasteland of He Who Must Not Be Named — the dark wizard Bush (whose dead half-brother, McCain, has been exhumed to carry on his dastardly work). This time we were in Sardinia, Ohio, with an elderly African-American woman named Juanita who needs 12 different medications each day for rheumatoid arthritis. Her husband Larry lost his health insurance when he retired, so he took out a loan to pay for the pills, and now, at the age of 72, he has been forced to work as a salesman at Wal-Mart. We saw him putting on his name-pin with an expression of sadness and contempt.

Then Obama brought up his dead mother. It was enough to make you pine for the wit and intelligence of a Sarah Palin debate. I had hoped for goosebumps and that swollen feeling you get in your chest when you know that something good might happen. But instead I just felt downbeat; not only because of America’s obvious problems but also because of Obama’s willingness to exploit them so mawkishly.

Republicans have always used fear to their advantage. Now it seems that the Democrats are just as skilled with self-pity. It’s a measure of just how poorly McCain has run his campaign that Americans seem to be buying it.
I'm moving to England

Wink, Wink

Samhain

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a wisper wispering.
I heard a wisper wispering,
Upon this fine fall day...

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a laugh a'laughing.
I heard a laugh a'laughing,
Upon this fine fall day...

I heard this wisper and I wondered,
I heard this laugh and then I knew.
The time is getting near my friends,
The time that I hold dear my friends,
The veil is getting thin my friends,
And strange things will pass through.

author unknown

Hillary Clinton Supporters And Women For McCain Leadership React To Barack Obama's Attack Ad "His Choice"

Here
ARLINGTON, VA -- McCain-Palin 2008 today released the following statements from former Hillary Clinton supporters and Women for McCain leadership in reaction to Barack Obama's sexist attack ad "His Choice":

VIRGINIA
Judy Black, National Co-Chair, Women for McCain: "Enough is enough! Senator Obama has stooped to a new low in his constant attacks on Governor Palin with his new ad titled, 'His Choice.' Barack Obama's choice has been to attack, demean and ridicule women, first Sen. Clinton and now Gov. Palin. American women do not need any more of Obama's sexist choices or attacks. John McCain made the choice to put a strong leader with a proven record forward as his running mate. As a woman, I am outraged by the over-the-top treatment of Gov. Palin and I urge all women to reject the double standard put forward by a man who was just a state senator in Illinois three years ago by voting McCain-Palin this Tuesday."

Patty Denton, Washington County Republican Chairwoman: "We, as a country, should be past the days in which women were treated as inferior. Women are the backbone of this country. It's disappointing for Senator Obama, who has proclaimed change' as his mantra, to disregard the monumental progress women have made in this country. Governor Palin is an exceptional leader and has fought on the side of all Americans, regardless of race or gender. These types of ads show that the Obama campaign is willing to do anything to score a few political cheap shots at the expense of women. On November 4th, women will go to the polls and demand respect for themselves and their daughters from the type of negative attacks perpetrated by Senator Obama."

MISSOURI
Representative Jo Ann Emerson: "With more executive experience than Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined, Governor Sarah Palin holds her own on the national scene and embodies the values that Americans want in those who will lead our country. This ad is just one more example of the constant attacks from the Obama-Biden campaign. With each attack, they attempt to dismiss the intelligent, qualified, and experienced woman who will soon become our next Vice-President of the United States."

Sharon Barnes, Missouri State Chair Women for McCain: "These attacks on Governor Sarah Palin show the desperation of the Democratic Party to try to stem the overwhelming support for the maverick Republican team of John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin - a team dedicated to bringing about the right kind of change for the people of this country. The voters of this great nation will not be fooled. Gov. Palin is a proven leader and serious reformer with experience in economics, defense and foreign policy that the Democratic candidate for president can only wish he had."

CALIFORNIA
Shelly Mandell, President of Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women: "I am outraged by the new ad put out by Barack Obama. It is sexist and demeaning to women. These tactics started with Hillary Clinton and continue, growing even more disgusting with Gov. Palin. I was a Hillstar for Hillary and an avid supporter. Trashing two women clearly in a sexist manner in one election is an outrage and must be identified and stopped. There must be consequences. Let female Obama supporters take a good look at this and still believe their candidate supports women's rights and women's dignity."

Prameela Bartholomeusz, DNC Platform Committee Member: "I am once again stunned at the personal and sexist attacks by the Obama campaign against Gov. Palin. This latest ad is sexist and offensive. The Gov. of Alaska has been managing and balancing a budget of $10 billion; I think she knows a bit about economics. Sen. Obama never spoke up against sexism during the primary season, and is not speaking out against misogyny during this phase of the election season -- he is contributing to it. I have no confidence that Sen. Obama will fight for women's issues if elected. This sets women back decades."

PENNSYLVANIA
Christine J. Toretti, PA Women For McCain Co-Chair, PA National Committeewoman: "Vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, is an experienced public servant. As governor of Alaska and as mayor of Wasilla she proved to be an effective leader and businesswoman. Senator Obama's baseless attack on Governor Palin is preposterous. God forbid a leader is not only competent, but beautiful and wears a skirt!"

Bernie Comfort, Pennsylvania Women for McCain State Chair: "Senator Obama's ad simply mocks Governor Palin. The real truth is Gov. Palin has experience dealing with the economy as an executive running the state of Alaska and as a business owner. She is the experienced leader we need to lead this country with John McCain."

Stephanie Bressler, Ph.D, Hillary Clinton supporter, University of Scranton women and politics professor: "It's a sexist example of reducing a woman to an object - a wink - and denying her a voice. Her lips are actually moving, but she's not allowed to be heard."

OHIO
Barbara Rosier-Tryon, Member of the Warren Republican Women's Club: "This is yet another sexist cheap shot on Gov. Palin's image from the Obama-Biden campaign. Sarah Palin's record of reform and experience as governor of Alaska and commander of the state's National Guard is more distinguished than Barack Obama's one and only term in the U.S. Senate."

NORTH CAROLINA
Martha Jenkins, North Carolina Women for McCain State Chairman: "Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to make up for his own lack of foreign policy expertise. He has absolutely no reason to criticize McCain's pick of Palin. Gov. Palin is infinitely more qualified than Barack Obama. In running this ad, Obama is acknowledging that Gov. Palin is an effective and a positive part of John McCain's candidacy; otherwise, why focus on her at all? Barack Obama is using this ad to divert attention from the fact that the American public is realizing that Obama is just as radical as his associates, and that he lacks the experience and judgment to be President of the United States."

FLORIDA
Albert Chang, Regional Director of Citizens for McCain, a group that includes Democrats and Independents: "We look forward to winning Tampa and the surrounding counties for McCain-Palin. This ad is a distracting personal attack on an experienced executive and the voters of Florida will see through it. This campaign will remain focused on issues impacting the everyday lives of Floridians and Americans."

Mary Calderon, Tampa, former Senator Clinton supporter: "I'm disappointed that Senator Obama has resorted to personal attacks at this point in the campaign. Would any male candidate for vice president of the United States be afforded similar treatment by the Obama campaign? I would say not."

INDIANA
Judy Singleton, Indiana Women for McCain Co-Chair: "Obama seems to have a problem with strong, smart women. Ask Hillary. Running an ad like this is an affront to talented women everywhere. To imply that Gov. Palin doesn't understand economics because she's pretty and winks is ridiculous. As a governor, she's proved she understands the economy better than Barack Obama, who hasn't completed his first term in the Senate, does. All one has to do is look at her record of leadership on economic development and then look at his."

NEW YORK
Amy Siskind, Ambassador for Hillary: "When Senator Hillary Clinton was demeaned and degraded during the Presidential Primary, many of us of, myself included, vowed 'never again'. The treatment of Governor Palin by both the main stream media, and now the Obama Campaign, shows that the misogyny fest is alive and well in our country. There has been a complete and utter smear job of our fellow citizen, Sarah Palin, who is only trying to serve her country."

Obama's Compassion

Found in a rundown Boston estate: Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango
Barack Obama has lived one version of the American Dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story.

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.

A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.

Ladies, Start Your Engines

According to John Zogby on C-Span this morning, Obama has the women's vote sewed up. Yes, ladies, he knows that no matter how misogynist and sexist his campaign was, no matter how many Obots have threatened to kill you, no matter how much you understand that this was the most corrupt campaign ever, you are going vote for The One.

It probably was that Bush-like infomercial that convinced us. Oh, yeah, and someone should run over and tell Wendy Button.

Why Early Voting is a Bad Idea

1. The political landscape can change after you’ve voted. What if the vote on Henry Paulson’s bailout had occurred after your early vote, and your congressman’s or senator’s vote was the opposite of what you expected? Want your vote back? Sorry, too late.
2. Candidates often reveal their less-than-desirable sides in the stressful runup to Election Day. Do you think any early voters might want their vote back (possibly going in either direction) as a result of Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” statement to Joe the Plumber?
3. Unpleasant or pleasant truths about candidates that should legitimately affect voter opinion sometimes arrive in the final days. A 2006 congressional candidate in Ohio was charged with domestic violence 80 days before the election. What if the arrest had occurred just eight days before Election Day, and you had already voted for her?
4. Candidates can abuse early voting if they get into disputes over their residency or voter registration status. In April 2006, Ohio Second Congressional District residents learned that candidate Bob McEwen had illegally voted absentee in Ohio for at least six years while legally residing in Virginia. Later that year, based on his ownership of a condo in Columbus, Buckeye State gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland’s eligibility to vote in the eastern Ohio’s Columbiana County where he was registered became an issue. Both McEwen and Strickland avoided pending litigation over their eligibility by voting early — something they could not have done under the strict absentee restrictions that had been in place the previous year.
5. Early voting by mail corrupts the secret ballot (sorry, Washington State: where all voting in 37 of 39 counties is by mail, you have no assurance that you have representative government). Because the ballot is readily available to people besides the voter, a child, for example, can ensure that his infirm parent casts it “correctly” through coercion or deception. The child can also promise to mail the parent’s ballot and not do so if the parent voted the “wrong” way. But at the polling place, an unaccompanied person can freely vote his or her conscience with no “help.”
6. There is no way to verify that only duly registered voters cast ballots (i.e., a person can use someone else’s ballot to vote).
7. There is no way to absolutely safeguard ballots against loss or alteration. Ballots cast sit around for weeks, and are thus subject to destruction and/or alteration.
8. It’s much easier for someone who wishes to vote in multiple states to do so.
9. Boards of elections will want to start counting the votes before Election Day. In fact, that has already happened. In 2006, a Cuyahoga County, Ohio judge allowed that county’s board to begin counting at 7 a.m. on Election Eve, creating huge security issues over preventing election counters from telling outsiders about specific results.
10. It’s even possible, because of the previous item, for an elections employee to determine whether or not a person who promised to vote early for a given candidate has actually voted. They can then communicate that information to a candidate or party, who can then redouble their efforts to round up that person. If that person really didn’t want to vote, that should be their right, free of harassment.
Read it here

Egregious

Via Cannonfire

The Department of Veteran's Affairs just admitted that 15% of female veterans experienced sexual trauma during their time in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

The study, which included 100,000 veterans and covered a six year period, (good sample size, if you ask me) also found that 0.7% of male veterans suffered sexual trauma as well.

Go read it.

Murtha Meltdown

The Real Palin

Elaine Lafferty, the former editor in chief of Ms. magazine (and a Democrat) on what she learned on a campaign plane with the would-be VP.

For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I'm just a country lawyer"...Yup, Palin is that smart.

Read the rest

Is Obama's Progressive Crown Slipping?

By Alexander Cockburn, who co-edits counterpunch.org, the US left-wing website, and is a columnist for ‘The Nation’ and ‘The First Post’ by way of Liberal Rapture

Whatever drawdown of troops in Iraq that does take place in the event of Obama’s victory will be a brief hiccup amid the blare and thunder of fresh “resolve”. In the event of Obama’s victory, the most immediate consequence overseas will most likely be brusque imperial reassertion. Already, Joe Biden, the shopworn poster boy for Israeli intransigence and Cold War hysteria, is yelping stridently about the new administration’s “mettle” being tested in the first six months by the Russians and their surrogates. Obama is far more hawkish than McCain on Iran.

After eight years of unrelenting assault on constitutional liberties by Bush and Cheney, public and judicial enthusiasm for tyranny has waned. Obama has preferred to stand with Bush and Cheney. In February, seeking a liberal profile in the primaries, Obama stood against warrantless wiretapping. His support for liberty did not survive for long. Five months later, he voted in favour and declared that “the ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool”.

Every politician, good or bad, is an ambitious opportunist. But beneath this topsoil, the ones who make a constructive dent on history have some bedrock of fidelity to some central idea. In Obama’s case, this “idea” is the ultimate distillation of identity politics: the idea of his blackness. Those who claim that if he were white he would be cantering effortlessly into the White House do not understand that without his most salient physical characteristic Obama would be seen as a second-tier senator with unimpressive credentials.

McCain-Palin Closing In..Obama's Lead Shrinks to 2.8 Points

IBD-TIPP, the most accurate pollster of the campaign season, has Obama's lead now down to within the margin of error.

read more | digg story

Media Bias? Say What?

CNN's John King
You know media bias has reached epic proportions when journalists are criticizing their own colleagues for a lack of professionalism in covering Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin.
In an interview with South Carolina ETV set to air on “The Big Picture” Oct. 30, CNN chief national correspondent John King criticized his colleagues’ coverage of not only Obama and Palin, but the overall election. But he also found time to criticize McCain on the economy.
King said the media were too focused on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic nomination that they failed to properly vet Obama.
“I think there’s some very legitimate criticism that we did not treat all of the candidates in the Democratic race, but particularly the top two or three equally, because of the Clinton obsession in the national media,” King told host Mark Quinn. “It is a very fair point. We need to learn that lesson.”

Biden Bites Again

Via Gateway Pundit. Go there to read it all, with updates.


The Obama Camp Sent Out the Goon Squad Again--
Joe Biden had another difficult interview about Obama's economic policy last week and he's so upset he's banning this station, too.

Biden actually said that he was upset because "he was expecting to talk about the Phillies" with the Pennsylvania channel!
(Sheesh... It must be really rough to be a Democrat in today's corrupt media environment.)

After the interview the Obama goon squad flooded the station with emails for daring to question Biden on Obama's plans to redistribute wealth.
Unreal.
Someone pinch me... Is this the US or some tinpot dictatorship?

Let Your Voice Be Heard - Action Alert!

by BudWhite
At the end of the Democratic Primary season, this was the situation:

Popular Vote
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: 17,857,446, (48.04%)
Senator Barack Obama: 17,584,649 (47.31%)

Pledged delegates
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: 1,730.5 (39.17%)
Senator Barack Obama: 1,747.5 (39.55%)
(source)

Then, for no apparent good reason, in June Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi decided THEY, not the delegates chosen by the electorate and not the super-delegates appointed via proper party procedure, were going to decide who would represent the top of the ticket for the general election. Now that same leadership wants YOU to legitimize their undemocratic and unprincipled methods by putting their selected candidate into the White House on November 4.

But WE can say no to the subversion of democratic principles within the Democratic Party. We can say no with our votes and by urging our fellow Democrats to pay attention to the particulars of the candidate Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi selected to represent the Democratic Party.

Help put this ad on the air and let America know that our voices count.



Over the next 24 hours and across the internet, we as a community will urgently be raising money to run edgy and persuasive ads made by Democrats in key battleground states. Generous contributors have pledged $500 in matching funds. Your voice counts. Please contribute now

CLICK ON ROSIE TO DONATE:



Or go to Democrats For Principle Before Party - The Denver Group's general election website, where you can view other ads the group is running:

In the final days of this election - Lest We Forget

I AM LEAVING THIS POST AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG UNTIL AFTER NOVEMBER 4TH, LEST WE FORGET.

Clinton Popular Vote - 17,857,446 (48.04%)
Obama Popular Vote - 17,584,649 (47.31%)

Clinton Delegate Vote Hard Total - 1,730.5 (39.17%)
Obama Delegate Vote Hard Total - 1,747.5 (39.55%)

Clinton Democratic Convention Floor Vote - 341.5 (7.73%)
Obama Democratic Convention Floor Vote - 1,549.5 (35.07%)
See it all here

If you need any more convincing, you may want to reread Tom in Paine's HOW DEMOCRATS CAN DEFEAT OBAMA, SEE McCAIN WIN, STILL GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT AND RESPECT THEMSELVES IN THE MORNING.

Illinois New Party and Barack Obama

I've been hearing lots of noise about Obama being a Socialist and I just figured it was a political moniker that was being used by Republicans in an effort to discredit him (as if the things we actually know about him aren't bad enough).

It turns out that Obama was a member of and ran on the Illinois New Party line in 1996. What is the New Party? Well, from what I read at New Zeal it is a political party that was strong in the mid to late '90s and an electoral alliance dedicated to electing leftist candidates to office-often through the Democratic Party.

Two organizations formed the backbone of the New Party-the Democratic Socialists of America and the US's largest radical organization, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

Click the link here and see what you think. I don't believe Obama ever disclosed this on his thin resume...

Is America Really Going to Do This?

By Melanie Phillips of The Spectator

The impact of the financial crisis on the American presidential election has somewhat obscured the most important reason why the prospect of an Obama presidency is giving so many people nightmares. This is the fear that, if he wins, US defences will be emasculated at a time of unprecedented international peril and the enemies of America and the free world will seize their opportunity to destroy the west.

Personally, I don’t give any credence to the ‘support’ for one candidate over the other that has been expressed by the enemies of civilisation (Iran and Hamas ‘support’ Obama, while an al Qaeda blogger ‘supports’ McCain). Their agenda is simply to sow confusion and promote American recriminations and disarray. Nor do I set much store by many of the remarks made by either candidate during the latter stages of this election campaign, since under this kind of pressure both will now say pretty much anything to win it. The New York Times has run a useful analysis of the candidates’ foreign policy campaign statements which shows how Obama has carefully tacked to the ‘hard power’ agenda while McCain has in turn nodded towards ‘soft power’.

No, the only way to assess their position is to look at each man in the round, at what his general attitude is towards war and self-defence, aggression and appeasement, the values of the west and those of its enemies and – perhaps most crucially of all – the nature of the advisers and associates to whom he is listening. As I have said before, I do not trust McCain; I think his judgment is erratic and impetuous, and sometimes wrong. But on the big picture, he gets it. He will defend America and the free world whereas Obama will undermine them and aid their enemies.

Here’s why. McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America’s original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor.

Read the rest here

Watch Biden Squirm

You've got to watch this. One on One with Joe Biden

H/T to No Quarter commenter Sarracuda In So Cal.

Obama Timeline

The Obama Timeline: 1961-2008
The following is an attempt to present the relevant aspects of Barack Obama’s life, from birth to the present. Every attempt has been made to present accurate names, information, and dates. If errors or significant omissions are noted, please free to contact the author at colony14@gmail.com. Please keep in mind, however, that it is incredibly difficult to pin down the Obama campaign on specifics regarding the candidate’s past. His staffers have released very little documentation, and requests for clarification go unanswered, or are answered in different ways by different staffers.

Biden Gaffe is Likely a Warning That Obama Impose the Draft

What do you think?
WOODRUFF: Senator Obama, one of the, of course, enormous consequences of 9/11 were the wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. In the wake of those wars, today, the United States military is facing enormous challenges. Junior officers are leaving the Army in record numbers. The recent graduates of West Point leaving the Army.

What would you do as president to make serving and staying in the military more attractive to young men and women?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, as commander-in-chief, my job is to keep America safe. And that means insuring that we’ve got the best military on Earth. And that means having the best persons in uniform on Earth. We have that right now, but as a consequence of these wars, they have been strained incredibly. I think it’s important for us to increase the size of our Army and our Marines so we can reduce the pace of tours that our young men and women are on...

But it’s also important that a president speaks to military service as an obligation not just of some, but of many. You know, I traveled, obviously, a lot over the last 19 months. And if you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centers. And I think it’s important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some...

And by the way, we will deploy you in some difficult areas, but that’s part of what it means to be an American and to serve and to sacrifice...

And so, I think a president who is consistently asking for young people to reach for something higher, something bigger than themselves, I think, will get enormous response.

Read it here and here is a summary of a National Service forum held at Columbia University.

Policing Sarah Palin's Wardrobe

So, in this campaign of many shockers, we now have the New York Times headline: “$150,000 wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image.”

I guess that if reporters wish to pursue this rich vein of inquiry, there’s a whole series of investigative stories waiting to be written on the sartorial side of politics. It’s certainly more entertaining than digging into curious real estate deals, unreleased school transcripts, radical associates and millions dispensed in troubling ways (see this latest from my colleague, Andy McCarthy, on Obama’s “Social Justice” education expert).

Here

Today's What the Fuck Moment

Weighing the vote
Here’s something I’ve found myself speculating about recently: could the obesity epidemic have a political impact? In particular, could obesity in a pregnant woman influence the eventual political outlook of her child? I came to this question after mulling over a number of facts.

First, according to a report published last month in the journal Science, strong political views are correlated with distinct physiological responses to startling noises and threatening images. Specifically, the study found that people who support warrantless searches, wiretapping, military spending and so on were also likely to startle at sudden noises and threatening images. Those who support foreign aid, immigration, gun control and the like tended to have much milder responses to the stimuli. (The study only included people who described themselves as having strong political opinions; the physiology of apathy has not been looked at.)

I shit you not.

FashionGate or Obama Throws the Kitchen Sink

I think I've found the reason behind the well timed article concerning Gov. Palin's clothes. Maybe this had something to do with it - a speech held the same day as the aforesaid article concerning the amount of money spent on Palin's wardrobe. Typical Obama Camp bob and weave. When you can't control the conversation, throw as much diversion as possible at the people who actually get it right.

Palin was joined on stage by five women who endorsed her candidacy, including two members of the Democratic National Platform Committee, two leaders of chapters of the National Organization of Women, and a former editor of Ms. Magazine. Lynn Rothschild, a Democratic National Platform Committee member and prominent supporter of Sen. Clinton, had endorsed the McCain-Palin ticket in September, but had not appeared publicly with Palin. Prameela Bartholomeusz also served on the Democratic Platform Committee. Palin was also joined by Linda Klinge, the current vice president of the Oregon Chapter of the National Organization for Women. Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, also appeared in Henderson, and had previously endorsed Palin at a public rally in Carson, CA earlier this month.
Source

"When it came time for choosing, somehow Barack Obama just couldn't bring himself to pick the woman who got 18 million votes in his primary, and that seems to be too familiar a story isn't it?" Palin said at a rally in Henderson, NV yesterday. "How it is for so many American women that the qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes?

"You've got to ask yourself why was Senator Hillary Clinton not even vetted by the Obama campaign?" Palin continued. "Why did it take 24 years, an entire generation from the time Geraldine Ferraro made her pioneering bid until the next time that a woman was asked to join a national ticket?"

"In the long history of our country, 74 people have held the position of President or Vice-President, and why have the major parties given America only two chances to even consider a woman for either office?" Palin asked. "This glass ceiling, it is still there, but it's about time that we shattered that glass ceiling once and for all."

"Out on the stump he talks a good game about equal pay for equal work, but according to the Senate pay roll records women on his own staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get," Palin said of Obama. "That's 9,000 dollars less every year that he pays the guys. Does he think that the women aren't working as hard? Does he think that they are 17 percent less productive?"

"The working women of this country, those who work inside the home and outside of the home, they're overlooked by politicians in Washington, and Barack Obama hasn't given us a single reason to believe that he would be any better."

"When we make laws in Washington...they need to serve the mothers who are taking care of their families," Palin said. "To make all this happen, working mothers need an advocate, and they will have one when this working mother is working for all of you in the White House."

"I've been very, very blessed to have a husband who's supported me along the way. He's a great dad who doesn't disappear at bath time or run from diaper duty, and I appreciate that," Palin added. "But a lot of women have it much, much harder than I’ve had it. And they need child care, which today can cost some families a third of their household budget. And they need reforms in labor laws that allow greater flexibility in the workplace, including more tele-commuting. And they need a tax code that doesn’t penalize working families."

"Women of my generation were allowed finally to make more of our own choices with education, with career, and I have never forgotten that we owe that opportunity to women, to feminists who came before us," Palin said. "The belief in equal opportunity is not just the cause of feminists, it's the creed of our country -- equal opportunity."

Palin said that if elected, she would seek to spread that opportunity to other women around the world, especially for those in countries facing persecution where women are "murdered in honor killings, places where women are sold like commodities in the nightmare world of the sex trade, and places where baby girls are unwelcome as a matter of state policy and their mothers are forced to have abortions."

“Now no one person, no one leader, can bring an end to all of those ills, to all of the injustices inflicting upon women,” Palin said. “But I can promise you this, if I am elected, these women, too, will have an advocate and a defender in the 47th vice president of the United States.”

"Our opponents think that they have the women's vote all locked up which is a little presumptuous since only our side has a woman on the ticket," Palin said to strong applause.

When Experience Counts - Gliding Towards Nuclear War

Soaring, cryptography and nuclear weapons

This is a long, sometimes tedious, but extremely thought provoking article by Mark Hellman, professor emeritus of electrical engineering, Stanford University. The renowned mathematician is best known for inventing public key cryptography, the basis for secure transactions over the Internet, among others. Hellman has worked for over 25 years to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons and his current project is described at NuclearRisk.org. He is a glider pilot with over 2,600 hours in the air.

The entire article is posted at Asia Times. While US news is reporting about the unequaled campaign contributions to The One, some news outlets, mostly foreign, are actually doing their job. You won't find this article at MSM and I urge you to read it through to the end.

History shows that people have tremendous difficulty envisioning both negative and positive possibilities that are vastly different from their current experience. Therefore, even if I had a crystal ball and could predict the sequence of substates (steps) that will take us to the state of acceptable risk depicted in Figure 4, very few would believe me. As an example of the difficulty, imagine the reaction if someone, prior to Gorbachev's coming to power, had predicted that a leader of the Soviet Union would lift censorship, encourage free debate and not use military force to prevent republics from seceding from the union. At best, such a seer would have been seen as extremely naive.

I had a milder version of that problem in September 1984 when I started a project designed to foster a meaningful dialogue between the American and Soviet scientific communities in an attempt to defuse the threat of nuclear war, which was then in sharp focus. I was aware of the limitations that Soviet censorship imposed, but believed there still was some opportunity for information flow, primarily unidirectional. It had been eight years since my last trip to the Soviet Union and this visit was an eye-opening experience. While I did not know it at the time, I was meeting with people who were in the forefront of the nascent reform movement which would bring Gorbachev to power six months later, with some of them directly advising him.

Censorship was still the law of the land, so the scientists with whom I met could not agree with those of my views that contradicted the party line. But neither did they argue. I sensed something very different was brewing, but on returning to the US. I was often seen as extremely naive for believing that meaningful conversations were possible with persons of any standing within the Soviet system.

The steps leading to a truly safe world in Figure 4 would sound similarly naive to most people today. It is therefore counterproductive to lay out too explicit a road map to that goal. But how can one garner support without an explicit plan for reaching the goal? Until I realized the applicability of risk analysis, I didn't see how that could be accomplished, but risk analysis provides an implicit, rather than an explicit map. No single step can reduce the risk a thousand-fold, so if the risk analysis approach can be embedded in society's consciousness, then one step after another will have to be taken until a state with acceptable risk is reached. Later steps, which today would be rejected as impossible (which they probably currently are) need not be spelled out, but are latent, waiting to be discovered as part of that process.

The first critical step therefore is for society to recognize the risk inherent in nuclear deterrence.

Voter Fraud

H/T to campskunk at Alegre's corner.

The Coming Backlash

I don't agree with everything Mr. Buchanan has to say in this article, but he does make some very valid points. I am sorry to say that prior to turning off the MSM, Buchanan, at times, did make more sense than political pundits from the left.

America may desperately desire to close the book on the Bush presidency. Yet there is, as of now, no hard evidence it has embraced Obama, his ideology, or agenda. Indeed, his campaign testifies, by its policy shifts, that it is fully aware the nation is still resisting the idea of an Obama presidency.

In the later primaries, even as a panicked media were demanding that Hillary drop out of the race, she consistently routed Obama in Ohio and Pennsylvania and crushed him in West Virginia and Kentucky.

By April and May, the Democratic Party was manifesting all the symptoms of buyer's remorse over how it had voted in January and February.

Obama's convention put him eight points up. But, as soon as America heard Sarah Palin in St. Paul, the Republicans shot up 10 points and seemed headed for victory.

What brought about the Obama-Biden resurgence was nothing Obama and Biden did, but the mid-September crash of Fannie, Freddie, Lehman Brothers, AIG, the stock market, where $4 trillion was wiped out, the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that enraged Middle America -- and John McCain's classically inept handling of the crisis.

In short, Obama has still not closed the sale. Every time America takes a second look at him, it has second thoughts, and backs away.

The rest of Patrick Buchanan's article is here

Intelligence & Humility: JFK on Tape

Bud White via No Quarter

Obama's IAF

Full article here

MeShall Obama on Poverty

Click to enlarge

Via Freepers

Stone Her

Via Violet. This is the second "if you only read one thing this year, this should be it" feminist post in one week.

The answer, in a word, is yes. Yes, women will stand by. They’ll watch Sarah Palin be stoned. They’ll even throw rocks themselves.

That’s how woman-hating societies work, and lord knows, if we’ve learned anything this election season, it’s that we still live in one. It’s tempting to say Barack Obama’s campaign has set women back by 30 years, but I suppose all that’s really happened is that the mask has been ripped away.

Patriarchal domination of women is at least 50% brainwashing, as any feminist who knows her chops will tell you. It’s not enough to simply create laws limiting women’s rights and freedoms; you have to get inside their heads. Make them believe the whole patriarchal line about good women and bad women. Encourage them to identify with the “good” women — the ones who follow the patriarchy-approved rules — and give them pats on the head when they obey. Convince them that “bad” women deserve to be raped/beaten/stoned because, after all, those dangerous “bad” women didn’t play by the rules. Above all, don’t ever let them figure out that the whole goddamn thing is a system designed to keep all women under the boot.

Have at it!

Looky Here. Caption your very own Obama poster. Here's mine.

McCain the Standup Comedian!

Who knew? From Bud White, via No Quarter

Obama's Lying Eyes (and Ears)

Remember the hoopla over the "kill him" comment supposedly shouted in Pennsylvania during a Palin campaign event? And the gnashing of the teeth over the fact that Palin didn't call the commenter down? Lies, lies, lies. At least, accordingly to The Times Leader

The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.

The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its Web site Tuesday and then again in its print edition Wednesday. The first story, written by reporter David Singleton, appeared with allegations that while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd and mentioned Obama’s name a man in the audience shouted “kill him."

News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.

Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.

If You Read But One Post This Year

Let it be The Lady Killers by Anglachel posted here

A brief preview:
That female identification with Hillary and later Palin has been dismissed as either irrational (vagina voting) or actually a sign of secret racism exposes the ease with which misogyny is mobilized to try to belittle, badger, and dominate. Its very ubiquity makes it unremarkable and difficult to problematize. Our arguments and explanations on how we perceive our interests to be best served are trivialized as the whines of “bitter knitters” instead of serious challenges by engaged citizens. Insisting that we be heard garners a mix of aggressive bluster and wide-eyed faux-innocence.

Misogyny deniers try to focus on just a few figures, and explain away broad actions as being reasonable responses to these despicable, polarizing broads. No, no, it’s not that we are kicking women down; it’s that Hillary’s a cold bitch! We’d like someone else. But not Ferraro, that racist, shriveled up old hag. And Chelsea is really just letting herself get pimped out. Then we defend teenage sexuality, except for that wanton slut, Bristol Palin, and her bigger slut, the mother I’d like to fuck (MILF), Sarah.But then how to explain the fury expressed at women who do not support Obama?

Too many doing this, male and female alike, will not accept that the modes of attack “work” because they rely on a background of bigotry and denigration that attaches itself to all female bodies. They can laugh at images of a fist smashing into Palin’s face until her bones a re broken and her teeth are knocked out because that is an excusable, if not precisely acceptable, way to treat women in this culture. The shirt “Bros before Hos” with Obama and Hillary’s faces on it was a giggle fest for most of the left wing blogs ( at worst a “tsk, tsk, that’s childish” objection) but “works” because women are whores and we brothers have to stick together against those greedy bitches. We all know women are just out to bleed you dry, just like your ex-wife did. The current pop hit “Whatever You Like” is little more than a sugar-coated version of a man asking to buy access to a woman’s body, but the bro/ho relationship is clear.

McCain Talks Economy with Hillary

Clinton aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said she is still smarting over her loss, but is gratified Obama and McCain have carried parts of her agenda. And they say she’s downright tickled that McCain, a lifelong crusader against government spending, is getting in touch with his inner Hillary to woo her white, working-class base and female voters not sold on Obama.

Here

Hank, Jr.

Deadenders has a post up about Michele Obama's meltdown over questions concerning her husband's affiliations.

My husband and I know that there is no law that will stop him from becoming the president, just because some American white racists are bringing up the issue of my husband’s adoption by His step father.

Get over there and read the rest. And, here is the source.

Call It Out!

Are you sick and tired of women bashing other women?
C’mon, ladies:
Issues are fair game. Sexist or other degrading attacks are not!
The New Agenda plans to speak out against these personal attacks.
We’re starting a new initiative…

BOO: When we observe women making personal attacks on another woman, we will call her out and provide her email address for all of us to contact her and ask her to stop!

YEAH: When we see a woman agree or disagree based (appropriately) on issues, we will also speak out to commend her.

Our hope is to open eyes and minds to the fact that personal attacks—sisters on sisters—must stop! Stay with the issues!

Read the rest at
The New Agenda

$2 Trillion Deficit by 2009

Analysts believe the US annual deficit will rise to $2 trillion by 2009 from taxpayer-funded bailout attempts by the government--that are designed to combat the financial crisis. Analysts now say the $700 billion bank- rescue plan passed by Congress last week may have to be significantly larger. The national debt could easily exceed 70% of GDP.

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Breaking Story: Rezko gives Obama up to federal prosecutors

The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later.

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Fed program to transfer $40B of bad debt/mo to tax payers

Bloomberg.com: Federal regulators directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start purchasing $40 billion a month of underperforming mortgage bonds as the Bush administration expands its options to buy troubled financial assets and resuscitate the U.S. economy, according to three people briefed about the plan.

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If You are a Woman

and this doesn't piss you off, please tell me why.

October Suprise

Astrology 101

From Modern Vedic Astrology

I believe that Obama and the Democrats will once again move into the lead in the polls by early October.

But at that point, Obama's campaign will stumble, perhaps fatally, on or around October 15-16 as Mercury stations on the 6th house of the campaign chart at the same time that Mars conjoins the descendant. This is really a very negative pattern that speaks to conflict, misunderstandings, and stress. Since this occurs near the time of the last debate on foreign policy, it may reflect a poor performance by Obama. Since this is the last debate, a bad showing there could be difficult to come back from. Obama will have to be in the lead before this debate in order to have any chance of winning on election day. He is almost certain to lose some popularity as a result of events of Oct. 15th. If he goes on to win, it likely won't be by a wide margin.

The exact Saturn-Uranus opposition on election day promises an election unlike any other. We already know it will be historically significant in some way depending on if Obama or Palin are elected. But I think the extent of the energy and tension of that day will exceed the symbolic nature of the outcome. It promises to be one very wild ride.

A Bridge to Somewhere

From Cleveland Plain Dealer via Make Them Accountable

There is a bridge to somewhere, but can we cross it?
Or instead, prop-politics? Paperdollitics?
The voting booth is a very private place.
It’s been said that this is not a race about race.
But of course it is, and it’s about our bodies,
our partners, the earth and our faiths (plural),
As well, or are those just props, too?
Is the flag an accessory?

The One is That One

Dear Miss Manners:

I've been skipping around the blog-o-sphere today and find there is a great deal of irate-tion (I made this word up for lack of a better one) from the Kool Kidz. It seems that McCain called "The One" "That One". You know, instead of "The One" as in "The One We Have Been Waiting For", as I believe was originally opined by the Odious Oprah.

When he called "The One" "That One", it was a horrible, horrible faux pas. One that violated the Kool Kidz sense of, well, you know, manners. How could anyone possible confuse "The One" with "That One" and think he could get away with it! The raw nerve of John McCain has set people to hand wringing and gnashing of the teeth.

But I digress. Getting back to my question, could you please explain the difference between calling "The One" "That One" and a Purposeful Snub? Specifically, if calling "The One "That One" rises to the level of snubbing a Senator who is running against you in a primary by turning away when she has the grace to come over to your seat in the Senate and offer her hand to you?

Thank you, Dear Miss Manners. I shall not be able to sleep until I receive your reply.

October 7 market update

The real story. The stock market has lost 15% in the three days since the bailout. The last time the market lost 15%, it took a year. Lots of information in this video, some of it hard to hear.

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Savana's 4th

Cindy for Congress

Contribute here

Stop Sharia Law in Britain

Stealing the Election in Ohio

Michelle Obama book tells of her discontent at Chicago law firm

Quincy White, the partner who helped recruit Michelle and who headed the marketing group, remembers finding her a challenge to manage. White, who is now retired from the firm, says he gave her the most interesting work he could find, in part because he wanted to see her advance, but also because she seemed perennially dissatisfied.

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Today's What the Fuck Moment

From Uncorrolated - Obama - The Children's Book. An inspiring story of Dear Leader for your children available at Costco.
A snippet of the story: "Sometimes it was a lonely journey. WHAT AM I DOING HERE? He often wondered, with the cold Chicago wind in his face slowing him down, pushing him back. But he didn't give up.

For somehow his journey had led him to Trinity Church, surrounded by the people from his neighborhood including many he had helped. And there, swept up in the waves of their singing with tears on his cheeks he knew why he was there. He knew who he was, and where he belonged."

I kid you not.

UPDATE: Wait - there's another!!

Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Product Description:
Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held on to Hope. Even as a boy, Barack knew he wasn't quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to Hope and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together.

This is the moving story of an exceptional man, as told by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Bryan Collier, both winners of the Coretta Scott King Award. Barack Obama has motivated Americans to believe with him, to believe that every one of us has the power to change ourselves and change our world.

And, you can purchase both at Amazon for $23.78.

This scares the hell out of me.
Cross posted at Alegre's
corner

Five Things You Need to Know: Bailout Passes, Stocks Limp

The bottom line is that despite the bailout, risk in owning stocks has increased, not decreased. So take your money out of the market now because bankrupt companies stock does not come back!

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Message from Obama's teleprompter

Lou Dobbs, Alone in MSM, Reports on Ohio Early Voting Abuse

The State Supreme Court there ruled that absentee voters could register and cast their ballots on the same day. As Kitty Pilgrim now reports, that new law could lead to massive election fraud in that critical swing state.

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Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Democrats are the party of the people, right? They care about the less fortunate among us, right? WRONG! Not only have the Obama's donated considerably less than the Clintons, but Biden, a 35 year member of the Senate, a bleeding heart liberal, donated less in the last 10 years than the Palins donated in one year.

from The Hill Palin gives more to charity than Biden

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made considerably less money than rival Sen. Joe Biden, but the Palin family gave more to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight combined, according to Palin's tax records released Friday afternoon.

Palin, the running mate of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and her husband Todd reported meager earnings from 2006 and 2007, at least by presidential-politics standards.

In 2006, the Palins paid $11,944 in taxes on $127,869 in income. In 2007, they paid $24,738 on $166,080.

But in 2006, they donated $4,880 to charity, and in 2007, they donated $3,325.

By contrast, Biden (D-Del.), Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's running mate, has donated a total of $3,690 since 1998 despite his higher Senate salary, according to an analysis posted by National Review.

The timing of the release of the Palins tax records has become something of a tradition. Campaigns wait until Friday afternoon, when the news cycle slows to a grind and reporters are focused elsewhere — in this case, Congress's passage and the president's signing of the financial rescue package.

Just another instance where Democrats say one thing and do another. Take a look at Obama's income and charity donations here.

Why Women Hate Other Women

Via Dr. Lynette Long's blog

I've decided to post Ms. Luscombe's article in its entirety. I've been very distressed during this campaign season over the hatred towards Hillary and now directed at Sarah Palin. Hatred from women I know, women I love and admire. It has been very difficult for me listen to intelligent, loving, vibrant women trash one of their own.

By BELINDA LUSCOMBE - Time Magazine
Some polls are suggesting that after gaining an initial bump, McCain's campaign is being hobbled by Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy. The voters who are deserting her fastest, some of whom are even calling on her to withdraw, are mostly women.

Ah, women, the consistently, tragically underestimated constituency. What the Democrats learned during the primaries and the Republicans might now be finding out the hard way, I learned at my very academic, well-regarded all-girls high school: that is never to discount the ability of women to open a robust, committed, well-thought-out vat of hatred for another girl.

Women are weapons-grade haters. Hillary Clinton knows it. Palin knows it too. When women get their hate on, they don't just dislike, or find disfavor with, or sort of not really appreciate. They loathe - deeply, richly, sustainingly. I do not say this to disparage my gender; women also love in more or less the same way.

When men disagree, the steps to resolution are reasonably clear and unsophisticated. Acts of physical violence are visited upon one another's person or property, and the whole thing blows over. Women? Nu-unh. We savor the discord. We draw it out. We share our contempt with our friends, like a useful stock tip, or really good salsa. And then we all go hate together: a mutually encouraging group activity for when the book group gets quiet.

The hatred women have for Sarah Palin, and others had for Hillary before her, is not necessarily about politics. Anybody can run the numbers on how many people Palin's pro-life, pro-gun, socially conservative policies will seduce and how many they will alienate. Rather, the test that the McCain campaign failed to put her through was the Abbotsleigh Ladies College test. (Named after my high school. Go, green and gold!). It's a simple three-point pass-fail exam: Will the other girls like her?

Here's why Palin doesn't make the grade:

1. She's too pretty. This is very bad news. At school, pretty girls tend to be liked only by other pretty girls. The rest of us, whose looks hover somewhere around underwhelming, resent them and whisper archly of their "unearned attention." So, if everyone calls your candidate "hot," you're in a whole mess of trouble. If the Pakistani head-of-state more or less hits on her, well, yes, she'll get a sympathy vote, but we're in Dukakis-in-the-tank territory. It's an admiration vaporizer. (Of course a candidate can't be too ugly, or it will scare the men, who are clearly shallow as a gender.)

2. She's too confident. This also bodes ill. Women have self-esteem issues. But they also have other-women's-esteem issues. As almost any woman - from the head of the Budgerigar Breeders association to Queen Elizabeth - can attest, it's almost impossible to get confidence right. Too timid and you're a pushover. Too self-aggrandizing and you're a bad word unless it's about a dog, or Project Runway's Kenley. Or Michelle, my best friend until 9th grade, after she won that debating prize and got cocky.

3. She could embarrass us. History is not on Palin's side. Every time a woman gets a plum job, be she Hewlett-Packard's ex-boss, Carly Fiorina, or CBS's Katie Couric, there's always that whispery fear that people will think she got the job just because she's a woman. So if things don't go well - and a couple of YouTube clips have suggested that they're certainly not going well for Palin - women are the first to turn on her for making it harder for the rest of us to louse up at work.

The fact of the matter is once a female decides it's over with another female, it's like an end-stage marriage. No matter how seemingly benign, every attribute becomes an affront: the hair, the voice, the husband, the moose-shooting, the glasses, the big family, the making rape victims pay for their own rape test kits.

I know, I know. With all this extra baggage a female candidate has to bear, the chances of finding a woman whom other women won't hate seem skinnier than last year's jeans. But don't despair, if all else fails, we could just do what we always do and just vote in some guy. It's worked so well for us in the past.

Exclusive: Barack Obama is 'aloof' says British ambassador to US

Barack Obama is a "decidedly liberal" senator "who was finding his feet, and then got diverted by his presidential ambitions", according to a frank verdict delivered to Gordon Brown by the British ambassador to the United States.

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Todays What the Fuck Moment

From Delilah Boyd, The Obama Channel
Channel 73 on the Dish Network is now The Obama Channel.

Obama's media buying strategy has been marked by a willingness to work the angles and to try to pick up a few votes at the margins. The decision to go to everything from extensive radio buys to odd-hour infomercials reflects the fact that the campaign media buyers spend a lot of time thinking about how much persuasion any given dollar can buy, and given a very cheap format — late night cable channels that need filler, for instance — will settle for a thimblefull of persuasion.

The satellite channel is the latest of these marginal gambits: Three readers from different parts of the country email that Channel 073-00 on the Dish Network is now labeled OBAMA. ("What is up with Sen. Obama having his own channel?" asks a St. Louis reader.) The channel plays his two-minute ad laying out his economic plan on a loop, over and over.

The only explanation: The media buyers think they can reach enough people per dollar to make it worth the odd buy.

The channel's appearance has provoked scorn and alarm on conservative blogs, though, and some discussion on a forum for Satellite TV aficionados, where one user writes that a Dish Network executive e-mailed to reassure the user that it "is paid advertising by the Obama campaign and is not an endorsement of Sen. Obama by DISH Network" and will broadcast through Nov. 4.

"DISH Network Channel 73 is paid advertising by the Obama campaign and is not an endorsement of Senator Obama by DISH Network. DISH Network made the same offer to the McCain campaign, an offer that remains open," Dish Network spokesman Parker McConachie emailed Politico.

UPDATE: Thursday, viewers said, the Obama channel started airing a wider variety of Obama content than just his two-minute ad, including other ads and the video that introduced him at the Democratic National Convention.

Tom In Paine: HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BURY OBAMA, SEE McCAIN WIN, STILL GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT AND RESPECT THEMSELVES IN THE MORNING.

Tom In Paine: HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BURY OBAMA, SEE McCAIN WIN, STILL GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT AND RESPECT THEMSELVES IN THE MORNING.

Dr. Lynette Long interview on Al Jazeera

Time Out

Fury at $2.5bn bonus for Lehman's New York staff

Up to 10,000 staff at the New York office of the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers will share a bonus pool set aside for them that is worth $2.5bn, Barclays Bank, which is buying the business, confirmed last night.

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The Truth About the Bailout.

The Truth: $700 Billion American Taxpayer Dollars to go to Foreigners! You must read this if you have been following this farce.

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Sign seen on Wall Street

Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds $99,000 for rent, utilities, accounting fees

One word for this. Hypocrite

Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill - which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee - banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also "indirect compensation," such as payments to companies that employ spouses.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.

Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history.

The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone - eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.

Lawmakers' frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work. Read the rest here

Why Bail?

I've heard lots of phony stories. Much of the country's political and economic leadership has been running around raising the prospect of the Great Depression and a breakdown in the banking system (I actually had taken the latter seriously). These stories are absolutely not true.

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