Republicans fear long exile in the wilderness

 

In America's conservative heartland the talk now is not just of a win for Obama. With the Democrats poised for gains in the Senate and the House, moderate Republicans fear a wipeout that would leave their party in the grip of evangelicals increasingly out of touch with the public. Could the country be on the brink of change as deep as that ushered in by Reagan?

by Paul Harris

 

Some Republicans believe John McCain should adopt a more positive approach to campaigning. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Voting for a Republican president runs in the blood of places like Gainesville. The pretty little town of 15,000 sits in north Texas ranch country and it is safe to say that Barack Obama has few fans here. Certainly Jim Farquhar, who works in the justice system, has taken to heart warnings that Obama has links with dangerous radicals, such as former 1960s militant Bill Ayers.

'Obama scares me. He has all these friendships. You just don't know how that might effect him once he gets into office,' Farquhar said as he stood outside Gainsville's sturdy old courthouse. 'I'm voting for John McCain.'

Such worries are increasingly not shared by many other Americans. Weeks of relentless attacks on Obama by McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin have not succeeded in denting Obama's lead. Instead it has strengthened. Across America, battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania are falling into Obama's column and southern states such as Virginia and North Carolina are going from red to blue. Some Democratic insiders are even whispering about the prospect of a landslide.

The flipside of that is a potentially devastating Republican loss. If current polling holds true, the party may be reduced to its core support in the solid red heartland that runs through Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia and other southern and western states. That would trigger a profound crisis for a party that just three years ago was basking in the afterglow of a convincing presidential win and dreaming of creating a 'permanent majority'.

Now that same Republican party could face a prolonged period in the political wilderness, working out how to appeal to an American public that seems prepared to send a pro-life, black senator from Chicago to the White House and reject a conservative Republican war hero.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/26/uselections2008-republicans

My Own Private Sarah Palin Love Doll

By Susannah Breslin

Today, I received my Sarah Palin inflatable love doll in the mail. I'd heard about the "This Is Not Sarah Palin Inflatable Love Doll" a few weeks ago, and when Topco Sales marketing director Desiree Duffie offered to send me one, who was I to say no? This morning, I missed the FedEx delivery; thankfully, he left the box behind a potted plant. In my apartment, I removed the product from the packaging. From the cover, a busty brunette with an updo, wearing glasses and a blue business suit with the front falling open, stared back at me. "Cross party lines with your own inflatable running mate!" the copy read. On the back, a list of key points informed: "She makes sexism sexy." When I removed the deflated doll, I found the inflatable Palin doesn't look much like the real one. And it takes forever to inflate. But one question remained: Why is America so sexually obsessed with Sarah Palin?

From male fanatics to Alec Baldwin's come-on, an adult video spoof to Palin-inspired erotica, the ways in which the public sexualizes the Republican vice presidential candidate are never-ending. Some blame her for sexualizing herself -- her look is nothing if not sexy librarian goes to Washington -- while others blame misogyny; Feministing is conducting a "Palin Sexism Watch" and has declared the Palin love doll: "So disgusting." But is it? These days, this blog and its sister sites in the blogosphere are as obsessed with Palin as a man would have to be to order an inflatable version of her. Because of the complicated message the so-called VIPILF sends out, politics and sex -- and sexual politics -- are at the fore like never before, and for the first time in a long time, the debate isn't about male sexuality (Spitzer, Clinton, Vitter), it's about female sexuality. 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/10/21/my-own-private-sarah-palin-love-doll.aspx

Pro-America

Jack-O-Palin

Al-Qaeda Leaders Root for McCain

 

By Robert Parry

Gloating over the U.S. economic crisis, al-Qaeda strategists are telling each other that a John McCain victory is crucial if the slide of their American enemies is to continue and possibly accelerate.

With McCain struggling in the polls, some al-Qaeda operatives even are discussing the possibility of a new terrorist attack timed before the Nov. 4 election to rally the American people to McCain's candidacy.

"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," declared one commentary on a password-protected site, al-Hesbah, which has been linked to the terrorist organization.

The commentary argued that a last-minute terrorist strike could galvanize American voters behind McCain's hard-line positions and bring about a McCain administration that would follow the "failing march" of George W. Bush. [Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2008]

This al-Qaeda logic is something that U.S. intelligence agencies have long understood, that Bush's tough-guy strategies often have played into al-Qaeda's bloody hands by exacerbating anti-Americanism in the Islamic world.

For instance, CIA analysts recognized that al-Qaeda's "October Surprise" for Campaign 2004 – a videotape of Osama bin Laden denouncing Bush that was released on Oct. 29, the Friday before the election – had the predictable effect of driving American voters to Bush.

"Bin Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President," said deputy CIA director John McLaughlin in opening a meeting to review secret "strategic analysis" after the videotape had dominated the day's news, according to Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine, which draws heavily from CIA insiders.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/102208.html

This Year's Hanging Chad

by Froma Harrop

Once again in Ohio, the presidential polls are tied and its 20 electoral votes up for grabs. Such scenarios generally don't lend themselves to gentle politics.

Ohio Republicans have been raging at what they claim is a raft of phony voter registrations by Democrats. (Rush Limbaugh has been whipping up passions on his end.) They've put a face on their wrath, and it belongs to Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's secretary of state and a Democrat.

"Eight different actions were filed against me in just a month," Brunner told me. This being Ohio, Brunner said she expected election-related suits, but she "was assuming eight for the whole election season." She's also received death threats.

Here's the issue: Federal law requires states to check new registrants against databases at their motor vehicle bureau or the Social Security Administration. Any mismatch is flagged for later examination.

Ohio has had 660,000 new registration applications, and the information on as many as 200,000 did not match that on one of the databases.

The Ohio Republican Party demanded a list of all flagged names. Brunner refused, fearing that partisan poll workers would use the information to challenge thousands of voters on Election Day. Her worry is chaos at the polls and long lines that would discourage many from participating.

These non-matches are common and usually reflect computer error or a bureaucrat's sloppy typing. In some states, 30 percent of the names didn't match, according to the Brennan Center at the New York University Law School.

Complicating matters, Ohio's motor vehicle bureau has often (and unnecessarily) used the Social Security database after getting a perfect match from a driver's license. That opened new avenues for discrepancies.

Among Ohioans flagged as mismatches is Joe the Plumber — Toledo's Joe Wurzelbacher, made famous in the third presidential debate. Another was Jon Husted, the speaker of the Ohio House and a Republican.Both cases involved a misspelled name.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/froma-harrop/this-year-s-hanging-chad.html

Geezer Dingbat

San Francisco weighs decriminalizing prostitution

Prostitute Patricia West, 22, poses for a photograph in front of City Hall... San Francisco Ballot Measure Would Prevent Arrests for Prostitution

By EVELYN NIEVES   SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In this live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair celebrates sadomasochism, prostitutes could soon walk the streets without fear of arrest. San Francisco would become the first major U.S. city to decriminalize prostitution if voters next month approve Proposition K—a measure that forbids local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex. The ballot question technically would not legalize prostitution since state law still prohibits it, but the measure would eliminate the power of local law enforcement officials to go after prostitutes. Proponents say the measure will free up $11 million the police spend each year arresting prostitutes and allow them to form collectives. "It will allow workers to organize for our rights and for our safety," said Patricia West, 22, who said she has been selling sex for about a year by placing ads on the Internet. She moved to San Francisco in May from Texas to work on Proposition K. Even in tolerant San Francisco—where the sadomasochism fair draws thousands of tourists and a pornographic video company is housed in a former armory—the measure faces an uphill battle, with much of the political establishment opposing it. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93V4U0O0&show_article=1

Where did the "capital" go?

Report from the Socialist International Conspiracy

By Barbara Ehrenreich

Surely you have heard by now of the imminent socialist takeover of America, and if you find the prospect unlikely, ask yourself: How many socialists do you know who lost millions in the recent stock market crashes? Just as I thought—none—and that's not only because you don't know any socialists. The truth is that we, the Socialist International Conspiracy, not only saw this coming, we are the ones who made it happen.

The plan took shape during a particularly intense criticism/self-criticism session at our 2000 annual convention in a booth at an Akron IHOP. We realized that we'd been recruiting no more new members per year than the Green Bay Packers and that, despite all our efforts, more Americans have been taken aboard UFO's than have embraced the historic promise of socialism. So we decided to suspend our usual work of standing on street corners and hissing, "Hey, how'd you like to live in a workers' paradise?" Instead of building socialism, one worker at a time, we  would focus on destroying capitalism, hedge fund by hedge fund.

First, we selected a cadre of crusty punks from the streets of Seattle, stripped off their Che t-shirts, suited them up in Armani's and wingtips, and introduced them to the concepts of derivatives and dental floss. Then we shipped them to Wall Street with firm instructions: Make as much money as you can, as fast as you can, and as soon as the money starts rolling in, send it out to make more money by whatever dodgy means you can find – subprime loans, credit default swaps, pyramid schemes – anything goes. And oh yes: Spend your own earnings in the most flamboyantly gross ways you can think of -- $10,000 martinis, fountains of champagne – so as to fan the flames of class resentment.

These brave comrades did far better than we could have imagined, quickly adapting to lives of excess and greed punctuated only by squash games at the Century Club. But we could not have inflicted such massive damage to capitalism if we hadn't also planted skilled agents in high places within the government and various quasi-governmental agencies. When all this is over, Phil Gramm, for example—the former senator and McCain economics advisor -- will be getting a Hero of Socialism award for his courageous battle against financial regulation. That's the only name I can name at this moment, but I will tell you this: If you happened to have been in a playground in the suburbs of DC any time in the last few years, and noticed an impeccably dressed elderly man poking around under rocks, that was a certain Federal Reserve Chairman, looking for his weekly orders from the central committee.

http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/

Joining the War Over the Constitution

The new president and Congress need something to help make this America again. They need you.

By Nat Hentoff

Two months after the 9/11 attacks, 25 teachers, retirees, lawyers, doctors, students, and nurses—none of them professional civil libertarians—formed the Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Northampton, Massachusetts. They knew the Bush-Cheney war on the Constitution had begun.

That October 25, the White House had terrified Congress into rushing the Patriot Act into law. In the Senate, only Democrat Russ Feingold—accurately predicting the continuous rape of the Bill of Rights—voted against it, disobeying Democratic leader Tom Daschle, who desperately wanted to avoid the Republicans tarring the Democrats as unpatriotic.

The unintimidated 25 citizens of Northampton convinced more than 1,000 of their neighbors to sign a petition that, by the following May, motivated the Northampton City Council to unanimously pass a resolution mandating local police to inform the people when federal agents of Attorney General John Ashcroft were enforcing the Patriot Act in the town and its environs.

In the spirit of this nation's founders, the resolution boldly directed: "Local law enforcement continues to preserve residents' freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and privacy; rights to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings; and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures even if requested or authorized to infringe upon these rights by federal law enforcement acting under the . . . Patriot Act or orders of the Executive Branch."

General Ashcroft was later to tell the House Judiciary Committee: "The last time I looked at September 11, an American street was a war zone." Anyone on those streets could be the enemy.

As additional Massachusetts towns and the city councils of Ann Arbor and Denver took Northampton's lead and passed similar resolutions, BORDC founder and director Nancy Talanian put together a masterful website to synchronize a growing national movement—bordc.org (on which I click every morning to find out the cities, towns, and states creating new committees)—and news stories from around the country on further administration raids on the Constitution. By now, more than 400 cities and towns—and eight states—have passed BORDC resolutions and continue to monitor local and state police and their congressional representatives.

This truly grassroots movement is a 21st-century revival of the Committees of Correspondence started in Boston by Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty in 1767, which became a news network throughout the colonies.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-22/columns/joining-the-war-over-the-constitution/

The last card

The Hyped Panic Over 'War of the Worlds'

By MICHAEL J. SOCOLOW

Frank Stanton sensed trouble. Sitting in his living room on the night of October 30, 1938, the young CBS executive tuned in to catch Orson Welles's adaptation of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds. The program sounded crisp and engaging — but a bit too realistic. Stanton grabbed his coat and headed back to CBS' headquarters on Madison Avenue. Pushing his way through chaotic hallways jammed with reporters, police, and network employees, he reached his desk and telephoned his friend Paul Lazarsfeld.

Stanton and the sociologist Lazarsfeld set out to measure the panic as quickly and accurately as possible before it subsided. Their basic results would spur a remarkable conversation that reverberates 70 years later in social psychology, media theory, federal regulation, and other fields.

The "War of the Worlds" broadcast remains enshrined in collective memory as a vivid illustration of the madness of crowds and the deeply invasive nature of broadcasting. The program seemingly proved that radio could, in the memorable words of Marshall McLuhan, turn "psyche and society into a single echo chamber." The audience's reaction clearly illustrated the perils of modernity. At the time, it cemented a growing suspicion that skillful artists — or incendiary demagogues — could use communications technology to capture the consciousness of the nation. It remains the prime example used by media critics, journalists, and professors to prove the power of the media.

Yet the media are not as powerful as most think, and the real story behind "The War of the Worlds" is a bit more complex. The panic was neither as widespread nor as serious as many have believed at the time or since.

Nobody died of fright or was killed in the panic, nor could any suicides be traced to the broadcast. Hospital emergency-room visits did not spike, nor, surprisingly, did calls to the police outside of a select few jurisdictions. The streets were never flooded with a terrified citizenry. Ben Gross, the radio columnist of the New York Daily News, later remembered a "lack of turmoil in front of CBS" that contrasted notably with the crowded, chaotic scene inside the building. Telephone lines in New York City and a few other cities were jammed, as the primitive infrastructure of the era couldn't handle the load, but it appears that almost all the panic that evening was as ephemeral as the nationwide broadcast itself, and not nearly as widespread. That iconic image of the farmer with a gun, ready to shoot the aliens? It was staged for Life magazine.

So what accounts for the legend? First — and perhaps most important — the news media loved the story, and Welles loved the news media. The panic became a global story literally overnight. Even the Nazis could not resist commenting, noting the credulity of the American public. Americans certainly appeared gullible, but they were not alone. The news media, handed a sensational story of national scope, reported every detail (including fictional ones) about Welles, the program, and the reaction.

Welles's greatest performance that evening wasn't in the studio; it was in a hallway, at the improvised news conference, when he feigned a stunned, apologetic demeanor.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=fwn6zpjwm6trlsgy8kjcr6lxrhxffm1w

20 Billion Barrels: Another Gamechanger for Cuba

For those of us arguing for a change in U.S. policy towards Cuba based on a realist calculation of American interests, Cuba's announcement that the geology in their territorial waters could contain up to 20 billion barrels of crude oil certainly tips the scales. Whether the estimate is accurate or not, the sooner we change course, the better.

Consider the situation. Last month, Cuba was devastated by three hurricanes that ripped up the island's housing, infrastructure, and destroyed one-third of its crops. It was the worst hurricane season in memory, with more than a quarter of the population displaced at one point. Based on an internal food security assessment that I recently completed, the Cuban people are now surviving on Government rations which may run out in December, well before Cuban agriculture bounces back by February or March. While some ministers of the Cuban government have denied the possibility of a mass famine, others have been steadily preparing for the worst. While I now discount the possibility for an October surprise, it is still more than possible that on January 20, 2009 televisions in Miami will have a split screen: one watching the new U.S. president sworn in while the other chronicles severe hunger in or even mass migration from Cuba.

http://thehavananote.com/2008/10/20_billion_barrels_another_gam_1.html

Choice?

A Teen Who Got Pregnant as a Result of Rape has a Message for Governor Palin

Palin still doesn't grasp role of VP

by Nick Juliano and David Edwards

Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene out of nowhere a couple months ago when she became the Republican vice presidential nominee, but the Alaska governor seems to still not fully understand the details of the job she is applying for.

In an interview with a local Colorado TV station, Palin said the vice president is "in charge of the United States Senate" and "can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes."

Palin's statement seems to betray a fundamental understanding about the nature of the vice president's job. As regards the Senate, the vice president's official role is to serve as presiding officer, although those duties are traditionally handled by the president pro temproe. Only in the event of a tie can the vice president cast a vote, and such a scenario seems unlikely as Democrats are expected to pick up anywhere between three and nine seats in November.

If Palin didn't want to break out the copy of the Constitution that is presumably gathering dust on a bookshelf somewhere in the governor's mansion, she could have simply looked to pop-culture for some easy to follow guidance. The Emmy-winning HBO mini-series John Adams featured a memorable scene of the country's first vice president being reminded of the lack of authority his position entailed.




Download video via RawReplay.com

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/John_Adams_laments_VP_role_in_1021.html

F is for Failure

The Bush Doctrine in Ruins
By Tom Engelhardt

On the brief occasions when the President now appears in the Rose Garden to "comfort" or "reassure" a shock-and-awed nation, you can almost hear those legions of ducks quacking lamely in the background. Once upon a time, George W. Bush, along with his top officials and advisors, hoped to preside over a global Pax Americana and a domestic Pax Republicana -- a legacy for the generations. More recently, their highest hope seems to have been to slip out of town in January before the you-know-what hits the fan. No such luck.

Of course, what they feared most was that the you-know-what would hit in Iraq, and so put their efforts into sweeping that disaster out of sight. Once again, however, as in September 2001 and August 2005, they were caught predictably flatfooted by a domestic disaster. In this case, they were ambushed by an insurgent stock market heading into chaos, killer squads of credit default swaps, and a hurricane of financial collapse.

At the moment, only 7% of Americans believe the country is "going in the right direction," Bush's job-approval ratings have dropped into the low 20s with no bottom in sight, and North Dakota is "in play" in the presidential election. Think of that as the equivalent of a report card on Bush's economic policies. In other words, the Yale legacy student with the C average has been branded for life with a resounding domestic "F" for failure. (His singular domestic triumph may prove to be paving the way for the first African American president.)

But there's another report card that's not in. Despite a media focus on Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the record of his Global War on Terror (and the Bush Doctrine that once went with it) has yet to be fully assessed. This is surprising, since administration actions in waging that war in what neoconservatives used to call "the arc of instability" -- a swath of territory running from North Africa to the Chinese border -- add up to a record of failure unprecedented in American history.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174992

Dumb and Dumber

Don't share the wealth

Undecided? Really?

Who the hell are you? Are you evil? Are you Jesus?

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

 I'm told it is sometimes helpful to project outside yourself, to mess with your own ideological boundaries, to attempt, however exasperatingly and however much it makes you want to hose yourself down with the cool fire of intellectual clarity afterwards, to enter the minds of your enemies, or those with whom you merely disagree, or -- perhaps most challenging of all -- with those whose mental gyrations you simply cannot fathom in the slightest.

Behold, the Undecideds. Have you heard of this bizarre, nefarious group? The millions of faceless, slow-blinking, mentally unattached Americans who are, right this minute, with mere days to go before the most historic election in our lifetime and when faced with what seems to be the most glaringly obvious divisions of attitude and perspective you could possibly imagine, still "on the fence" about Obama or McCain, love or hate, country or disco, Paris or Fresno, oil or water, Porsche or Pinto?

Do you know anyone from this group? Those who have the uncanny ability to stare straight at the biggest issues and most momentous decisions of their very lives, and shrug?

Odds are very good you do. Because they are, apparently, legion. And pivotal. And they are, it must be said, one of the most baffling groups in world history. Impenetrable. Unnerving. As such, it is perhaps a worthy experiment to try to enter the Undecided mind, to examine what might be going on -- or, as the case may be, not going on.

What we risk: instant madness, increased frustration, screaming. What we stand to gain: perspective, empathy, more screaming. Shall we?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/10/22/notes102208.DTL

The choice

McCain is having second thoughts about his pro-life stance

October 23rd, 2008 Hi Michael Dare!  With this news of the shopping spree making waves, McCain wondered if it would be possible to abort a 44-year-old running mate. Also, Bin Laden took credit for an attack and Christian Bale is upset he can't be the Joker for Halloween. I want to be the Joker for Halloween too! by Christian Bale My rejected SNL sketches by Sarah Palin That Trader Joe's warehouse fire was no accident by Osama bin Laden Is it possible to abort a 44-year-old woman? by John McCain Suck it AIG by Jim Cramer Obama, forgive me--I knew not what I'd done by Samuel L. Jackson Regards, The News Groper Editors www.newsgroper.com

News Groper is a network of fake parody blogs. Address: News Groper LLC, 18 Bridge St., Suite 2E, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA. Unsubscribe from News Groper's weekly newsletter Copyright © 2008 News Groper LLC. All rights reserved.

The Late American Space

by Hervé Kempf

MacLean "describes for us, with neither animosity nor complacency, how America has changed in a generation, spreading everywhere the tentacles of a life based on the car, which ends up eating space even as it isolates human beings. (Photo: Alex MacLean / "Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point")

    Alex MacLean
    "Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point"
     Abrams, New York: October 2008
     336 pages

    We regret to inform you that the American myth has given up the ghost. It had been fashioned by the anxious wonder of generations of Europeans discovering this unexplored continent, unlimited space just made for every kind of adventure. That has vanished, devoured by shopping centers, golf courses, residential areas, parking lots, hangars, factories. America was empty; now it is full. It was infinite; now it's restricted. It was open; now it's divided into grids.

    One felt this conclusion ripen over the course of trips, as one looked at pictures, like a proof the contours of which slowly emerge in the developing bath of a photo lab. Now it's achieved the stage of final clarity, that is, of revelation.

    The agent for this operation of elucidation is Alex MacLean, an aerial photographer by trade, whose simultaneously superb and surgical snapshots draw up the death certificate for the naive age of the United States. His book's title, "Over" is as clear as its double meaning: "over" as in the photographer covering his subject as he flies over it and "over" as in "the game is over." What game? That of the infinite, of the inexhaustible horn of abundance, of the pioneers' wagons traveling across the plains at a slow mule's pace, of cars rushing by for hours across the desert, of the solitary meditations of Thoreau and Abbey, of the solar wanderings of Kerouac or Lolita.

http://www.truthout.org/102208E

Always Were, Always Will Be

George Will, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, are bigots.  Deep down inside, or bubbling unbid to the open in the face of having nothing else in their bag of tricks, they believe that America means conservativism and conservatism stands for the preservation of an America perpetually dominated by wealthy white males.

Attacking the messenger is predictable fodder this close to an election, but when the messenger is someone as distinguished and respected as Colin Powell, especially in Republican circles, there's not a who heckuvalot of ammunition available, not when he says something like this, what Juan Cole calls his "finest moment."

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.'

People, it's common knowledge that the GOP is a sanctuary for racists.  Argue if you must, but it is merely a side-effect of political correctness that we never discuss in polite company just why they don't attract minorities or better educated constituencies, and are left with bed-wetting nutbags. 

Birds of a feather . . .

http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/10/20/always-were-always-will-be/

I plan on bein' rich!

Voting Machines Switch Votes; Officials Blame Voters

By Kim Zetter

Voters using touch-screen voting machines for early voting in two West Virginia counties have complained that when they tried to vote for Democratic candidates, the machine registered their vote for other Republican candidates instead.

At least three voters in Jackson County, West Virginia, complained that when they tried to cast a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the machine recorded a check in the box for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

One of the voters reported the same problem in the governor and state senate races. In each case, the voter tried to cast a vote for a Democratic candidate, but the machine marked his vote for the Republican challenger instead. Another voter who tried to cast votes for two state Supreme Court candidates said the machine cancelled one of her choices twice before it finally accepted her selection.

Three other voters in Putnam County say they had the same problem.

Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright blamed voters for not touching the screen properly and said that 400 other voters had cast ballots on the machine with no problem. But he agreed to recalibrate the machine's screen after the Secretary of State's office contacted him.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/voting-machine.html

More W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes

 

In six cases, Democratic votes flipped to GOP

 

WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week. This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

 

By Paul J. Nyden

WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated.

They also blamed voters for not being more careful.

"People make mistakes more than machines," said Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright.

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way.

 

Election Integrity Filmmaker Sees Own Vote Flipped on ESS Touch-Screens in TN

Blogged by Brad Friedman

 

 

David and Patricia Earnhardt Report Their Problems During Early Voting in Nashville

Obama Vote Won't Register, Then Flips to Other Candidate, as Similarly Reported Recently in WV...

Now comes the vote-flipping on touch-screen machines in Davidson County (Nashville), TN, where early voting has also begun. This time, the problems occurred for David and Patricia Earnhardt, the director and executive producer of the award-winning election integrity documentary, Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections which details the history of problems with electronic voting across the nation and some of the whistleblowers and EI advocates who've helped to bring the matter to light. [Disclosure: The BRAD BLOG is prominently featured in the film.]

The Earnhardts' story of what happened to them last Friday when, among other things, Patricia's attempt to vote for Obama on the ES&S touch-screen wouldn't register at all, and at one point, with a poll-worker trying to help, had actually registered a vote for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney --- five rows away from Obama on the screen --- follows below.

The first reports of vote-flipping on touch-screen machines (we expect many more, as we saw in both '04 and especially in '06) came in from two counties last week in West Virginia, which also uses ES&S touch screens across the entire state.

The machines in both TN and WV need to be taken out of use and impounded immediately. So far, it's been Democrats, again, who are being affected by these problems, while votes are flipping from Democratic candidates to others. While the DNC and the Obama campaign ought to be raising holy hell, so far they are not...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6540

Action alert: help get the word out about confusing North Carolina ballots

An Online Magazine in the Reality-Based Community.

by: jonpincus

NOTE FROM PAM: Early voting in NC has been a roaring success, with long lines of people eager to cast their ballots, but it's all for naught if people are not aware that in the Tar Heel State "straight ticket" votes don't count for Presidential candidates or judges. There are signs but new voters are particularly vulnerable to missing this key information. If in doubt, voters can learn more at the N.C. Center for Voter Education. Below the fold is a sample NC ballot. In a classic example of confusing ballot design, a "straight party" vote in North Carolina does not include the presidential contest.  If you want to vote for a president, you need to make an additional mark in the presidential contest even if you've chosen a straight party vote.  (See detailed instructions in the first comment.) This policy has been in place for over 40 years (added by Dixiecrats in 1967), and historically has resulted in at least a 1% "undervote" -- people not choosing a presidential candidate.  With huge numbers of new voters this year, there's a lot of concerns that it could be even higher.  While there are signs up in polling places, and many (most?) poll workers give instructions as they give the ballots out, there are already many reports of people mis-voting. This is exactly the kind of situation where we hope the Voter Suppression Wiki can add a lot of value, supplementing the other educational efforts.  So let's give it a try, and help get the word out!

 

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7656

Endorsements

War erodes respect of press freedoms: media group

 

by Tamora Vidaillet Tamora Vidaillet

 

Reuters – Press photographers 'embedded' with the U.S. Navy work on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft …

PARIS (Reuters) – The United States and Israel, despite their democratic credentials, fall down badly in their respect for press freedoms in conflict zones, a media group said on Wednesday.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the U.S. had slipped to 119th in respect of press freedoms outside its own territory in an annual ranking of more than 160 countries, from a joint ranking at 111 in its previous annual report.

Israel, whose armed forces killed a Palestinian journalist this year for the first time since 2003, was 149th on the list for press freedoms beyond its frontiers, compared with 103rd place in RSF's 2007 rankings.

Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed in April by a shell packed with darts fired from an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip. Israel's senior military lawyer said troops could not see whether Shana had been operating a camera or a weapon but were nevertheless justified in firing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081022/wl_nm/us_france_media_1;_ylt=AupKWtTu0hbWITjY0g_4zHSek3QF

McCain/Palin: Putting Japan First

by Kagro X

"Drill, baby, drill!" "Sell out to the Japanese, baby, sell out to the Japanese!"

The Republicans have just spent a month going completely frothy over the need to drill for oil and natural gas in every backyard in America, claiming it'll lower gasoline prices at the pump.

But did you know that in the meantime, they've been preparing to secret all that natural gas out of the country and sell it to the Japanese?

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) did:

               September 2, 2008

The Honorable Samuel W. Bodman
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Secretary Bodman,

    On June 3, 2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major integrated oil companies – ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – to export 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries.  This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher.   The Administration is trying to have it both ways – arguing that we need to drill everywhere because we don't have adequate energy supplies, while finding that we have so much energy that big oil companies can export it overseas and keep prices here at home higher than they would otherwise be.

Well, well, well. Energy prices going through the roof in the U.S., supposedly because we're not drilling enough, and the Republicans are selling what we are drilling out the back door! Wish I could say this was a surprise.

And sakes alive! Who'd have guessed it'd be Slick Sarah Palin and the Alaskans selling it off? We're all paying through the nose for our energy needs down here, Republicans are wetting themselves over the supposed need for more drilling, and Slick Sarah and her cronies are hawking their America's wares to overseas bidders. Which, not coincidentally, has the effect of hiking the prices Reg'lar Hockey Moms^TM pay to, say, heat the seats in their new boondoggle hockey rinks, and, it seems, boosting the dividend checks paid directly to... Alaskan families like Sarah Palin's, who received $3200 per head this year. Wow! I haven't seen a scam this blatant since yesterday, when we found out Slick Sarah was charging Alaska taxpayers $60 a day to sleep in and munch those mooseburgers in her own kitchen.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/10/105137/798

Hollywood Director Attack Ads

John McCain turns to famous Hollywood directors for help with his attack ads.