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Friday, October 31, 2008

Studs Terkel Dies


I hope we are as lucky and fortunate as Studs - that we live as long and with as much fervor, conviction, concern, involvement, and humanity.

CNN: Acclaimed author Studs Terkel dies at 96
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, radio host and activist Studs Terkel died in his Chicago, Illinois, home Friday at the age of 96.

TPMtv for October 31

Attack Of The Robo-Calls

Republican Ken Duberstein Endorses Obama

CNN: Former Reagan adviser endorses Obama
Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.

"Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

Gallup: Obama Ahead By Even Wider Margin

As you know, just a few days to go before we have a new president.

According to Gallup, Obama is still in the driver's seat and gaining.

Gallup: Obama’s Lead Widens Some on All Bases
Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 28-30 shows him (Obama) with an eight percentage point lead over John McCain among traditional likely voters -- 51% to 43% -- his largest margin to date using this historical Gallup Poll voter model.

Monster Mash

Happy Halloween!

Rasmussen Predicts An Obama Win

Conservative pollster Rasmussen has come forward with a prediction that Obama wins the election for President of The United States.

Rasmussen has Obama winning with over 2/3 of the electoral votes. This would represent a landslide.

Rasmussen does not predict a fool proof Senate, with Democrats only picking up 7 or 8 seats.

Rasmussen also predicts that Democrats will gain between 26 and 35 seats in Congress.

Rasmussen: The Last Word--Almost
Obama - 364 electoral vores

McCain - 174 electoral votes

The Market On Friday

(addendum - At the close the DOW was up today. I was wrong, I expected a small drop. Its a good way to be wrong though....)

World stocks are falling today. What's going to happen on Wall Street.

Mildly educated guess here is that not much will happen - anticipating a probable loss. However, with the price of oil now in decline compared to a few short weeks ago, most of the basic things that we buy and use will be priced lower for a period of time. This would be gas and food. We are not quite as vulnerable to inflation in this next economic quarter.

On the other hand the recession is taking a toll on employment and our assets, including housing prices. So, people are less interested in spending and more interested in preserving what remains. Even though inflation will be in check in the foreseeable future and using terms that I have disdain for - consumer spending which is the driving force in the economy is down.

Reuters: World shares head for worst month ever
Shares in Asia and Europe fell on Friday, heading for their worst month ever, while the low-yielding yen surged as Japan's interest rate cut failed to erase concerns about the deteriorating global economic outlook.
Reuters: Who shrank the economy? Food prices dent U.S. growth
Inflation ate deeply into U.S. consumer spending in the third quarter, doing more harm to the economy than either slumping car sales or housing, but recent commodity price falls may support growth going forward.

But the subsequent decline in prices for food and gas could support growth in the fourth quarter, provided households can shrug off worry over job security and restore their spending.

An Idiot Wind



Palin-McCain are going to extreme limits in the final days of the campaign to smear Obama.

The latest effort surrounds Rashid Khalidi an American born, professor and one time negotiator for the Palestinians. Equating Khalidi to a terrorist is beyond understanding.

McCain's organization has donated over $400,000 to a group founded by Khalidi. Yet they are attacking Obama on ties to Khalidi. Palin-McCain truly deserve to lose at this point.

The smear relies on the lack of knowledge and Muslim fear that Palin-McCain supporters have. This is a very sad thing to witness as Palin-McCain drum up hatred, misunderstanding, and fear to an intense fever pitch.

As the campaign has progressed, my dislike of McCain's tactics, personality, and policies has greatly increased. This is a great disappointment. At one time I thought he had something to offer.

Washington Post: An 'Idiot Wind'
...Sen. John McCain has suddenly discovered a new boogeyman to link to Sen. Barack Obama: a sometimes controversial but widely respected Middle East scholar named Rashid Khalidi. In the past couple of days, Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have likened Mr. Khalidi, the director of a Middle East institute at Columbia University, to neo-Nazis; called him "a PLO spokesman..."

For the record, Mr. Khalidi is an American born in New York who graduated from Yale a couple of years after George W. Bush. For much of his long academic career, he taught at the University of Chicago, where he and his wife became friends with Barack and Michelle Obama....But to compare the professor to neo-Nazis -- or even to Mr. Ayers -- is a vile smear.

Everybody Knows

Leonard Cohen

Thursday, October 30, 2008

TPMtv for October 30

Yet To Come


The economic news was gloomy today. The GDP dropped into negative territory. Two of these negative quarterly puppies in a row and we are in an official recession.

The financiers are giving mixed messages on the meaning of the new GDP report. The range is quite noticeable. Some foresee a long drawn out recession lasting through 2009 and beyond, the more optimistic are pointing to the recent stock market rallies saying that the market always upticks before the country officially moves out of recession.

One thing we do know is that bad news sells.

This is how it works in the MSM. So the articles listed below all have basically the same headline, "The Worst Is Yet To Come." Yet they are roughly one and a half years apart.

One thing to gain from this is simply to be aware that drawing on bad economic news is a very good way to create a distressed emotional response in a large body of people. When we are in fear and distress, we are ripe for suggestions.

From October 30, 2008 - AFP: US economy shrinks in quarter, worst may be yet to come
The US economy contracted in the third quarter as panicked consumers slashed spending, data showed Thursday in the first downside leg of what analysts say could be a deep and nasty recession.

In its first reading of gross domestic product (GDP) in the July-September period, the Commerce Department said output of goods and services fell at a 0.3 percent annual pace amid a sharp retrenchment by consumers and businesses.

Citigroup's Steven Wieting said it could get even uglier: "Production and employment declines, credit tightening, and wealth destruction are clearly more severe in the current (fourth) quarter, which should show shrinkage in GDP in excess of the 3.0 percent decline posted in consumption last quarter."
From May 27, 2008 - Huffington Post: U.S. Economy: The Worst is Yet to Come
We are facing the prospect of millions losing their homes, their jobs, their retirement savings, their health insurance, and their livelihoods.

This serious economic situation greatly raises the stakes of the 2008 election. What will the government do to help the victims of economic mismanagement, to provide health insurance, and to restart the economy? Is it really more important to spend billions each week on the occupation of Iraq?
From June 20, 2007 - Bloomberg.com: The worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market.

Vote

Great Photo

John Stewart With Obama

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama Widens Lead


The Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll has Obama gaining ground over McCain in the last few days.

Recall that this poll has been one of the more conservative polls from the point of view of Obama's lead over McCain.

One might wish that at this juncture McCain and company would back off the smear campaign in order to create a slightly less contentious and emotionally charged ambiance to this voting process which has shown a few ugly notes. Yet the divisive heat is on full tilt. How sad is this.

We noticed that Obama did not refer to his opponent in his infomercial. Instead he chose to lay out in general terms his agenda for the country. We did not get socialism out of this, we got tax cuts for 95% of the population and a resumption of the tax level for the remaining 5% as it stood during the Clinton administration of the 90s.

Corporations did rather well in the 90s, most were not complaining. So powerful are these interests that their mouth pieces are promoting the crazed notion that Obama is either a Marxist, socialist, or communist. Its amazing how loathsome and ludicrous their attacks have become.

What exactly is the Palin-McCain agenda for the country, does anyone know at all except that its going to look a like the Bush agenda. McCain has done an amazing job of not talking about his own agenda instead choosing to attack Obama most of the time. John, you didn't show us anything except your nastiness, what are you thinking. Bush was a failure, we don't like what he did to the country. You don't get it buddy.

Reuters: Obama takes 7-point lead on McCain
Obama leads McCain by 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, building on his 5-point advantage on Wednesday.

Reuters News Clips

The Market On Thursday

The day does not look like it going to be hideous. I suspect gains will be mixed. The reasonable news seems to be that we are in a minor few day rebound period yet the world economy and the recession still looms in the background ready to send things crashing again.

The rebound seems to occur because world governments are actively injecting cash into their banking and some corporate systems. Investors have willingly stuck a foot into the chilly waters.

I still maintain that the DOW hovers between 7500 and roughly 9500 or so for the foreseeable future. So we're not expecting a busting boom for some time to come.

Reuters: Global stocks, euro rally on emerging market gains
World stocks and the euro rallied on Thursday, driven by bargain-hunting and sweeping gains in emerging markets after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and opened swap lines to four developing economies.
Reuters: Japan, Germany to spend billions to ease recession
Japan, the world's second biggest economy, unveiled a 5 trillion yen ($51 billion) package of spending measures to support its economy and Germany planned a range of steps worth up to 25 billion euros ($32 billion) to boost business.

Happy Together

The Turtles

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Obama Infomercial

The Daily Show

An Ocean Of Choice - Hardly

The Reuters articles traces several strains of thought surrounding the undecided voters. They are highly prized people sought after by both parties.

It would be hard to believe that those who are "decided" are going to change their minds in the next few days.

I "decided" back when Bush won in 2000.

Reuters: The mystery of the undecided voter: who and why?
"It's not that I don't have enough information, it's that I don't particularly like either one of them..."

Dumb Dumber Dumbest

We are following the tectonic Republican divide erupting under the possible earth quake loss by Palin-McCain.

Palin curiously emerges as the more popular figure, according to the larger than McCain's crowds that she commands.

Many Republicans now see Palin as their party's future.

Oh dear.

We will have to contend with this woman possibly in the near future with a McCain win, and probably in the distant future as Palin herself runs for president.

After all according to some Republicans she has all the qualifications just like George Bush has all the qualifications.

Are they kidding us?

No.

CNN: Palin's future causes Republican rift
In one corner are some conservatives who believe the Alaska governor has been a detriment to John McCain's presidential bid and threatens to lead the party astray for the foreseeable future.

"She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? It's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just ... says things," conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal column.

Got Gun

Gun sales are up in Florida. This is because Obama may become the next president.

The rise in gun sales makes very little sense to me as well, but that's the way it is.

TPMtv

Obama Ahead In 8 Swing States


Obama is favored all over the place including a few states won by George Bush in the previous election.

The interesting thing is that this poll comes from the AP which is notoriously right wing and recently revealed the results of a poll that had the race practically tied. Is this a mea culpa.

Perhaps the AP fears they will be viewed with keen suspicion after the election, especially if Obama handily wins.

The states that are catching everyone's attention are Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

As we know, Arizona, McCain's home state, is showing McCain with a slight 2 point lead and with Obama rising in that state. It is conceivable that Obama might take Arizona.

Still no one is taking McCain lightly as he is clearly showing great fortitude in the last week. Palin's dramatic popularity and affect has completely faded. The election seems more focused on the main candidates as it should be, but Palin is still a liability from the general population's perspective.

Breitbart.com: AP Poll: Obama now leads in 8 crucial states

The Market On Wednesday

Futures are down, so its likely that the market will follow and open down as well.

There is an announcement scheduled for 12:15, where the Fed may call for another interest rate cut. The cut is expected to happen.

The cut could generate a small period of gains, we shall see. Recent cuts have not done much to hold back the day's activities especially if the trend is downward.

Reuters: Stock futures point to decline; Fed rate cut expected
Shares are set to fall on Wednesday, with futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq down between 1.9 and 2.4 percent.

Pew Research: Obama 52% - McCain 36%

Pew has Obama leading McCain by 19% on early voting results.

I don't recall seeing a poll that has the race this far apart.

Pew: McCain Support Continues Downward Spiral
Barack Obama leads John McCain by a 52% to 36% margin in Pew’s latest nationwide survey of 1,325 registered voters. This is the fourth consecutive survey that has found support for the Republican candidate edging down.

For The Love Of Money

The O'Jays

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Solid State Survivor

Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) circa 1980

Bouncy dance synth band out of Tokyo. The music has not aged especially well in my opinion, but its still interesting.

McCain Supporters In Pennsylvania

You have to see this to believe it.

Political Gossip

All the juicy tit for tat stuff is over a Politico.

Its amusing to read this. Its all very similar to the kinds of things that we read movie stars saying about one another. Wait a minute, this is not right.

Polico Playbook
- The Republican National Committee buys TV time in deep-red MONTANA and WEST VIRGINIA, a sign the party is scrambling to stave off a historic landslide a week from today. “Tough environment,” one Republican official says sardonically.

- a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description (of Palin), calling her “a whack job.”
Its heartening to hear this description of Palin coming from a McCain insider. Not all Republicans have the tunnel vision blinders on.

John Stewart - McCain's Newest Smear

Politico Predicts


Unless I read this wrong, and I don't think I did, all the pundits at Politico predict an Obama victory.

Pretty much all pundits say Obama wins with the medium to high 300s range of electoral votes. McCain gets under 200.

Many are predicting that Obama takes Montana, what a shocker that would be.

Not all are pleased with this result, but those not liking the predictions seem resolved in their thinking. That would include a couple of neo-cons.

Politico: First Politico Arena Election Prediction Challenge-2008

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Duel

We offer this as a metaphor for an unbelievably long and drawn out election campaign.

Confidence Down

Browsing the web for a sense of what's going on, what's in the air as it were, we see the week shaping up to be as bumpy as it gets. Its positively whacked.

The Palin-McCains are out there trash talking their damnedest and drumming up fear like it was popcorn at a concession stand. Obama's allegedly a communist. I mean a communist? What happened to terrorist, at least terrorist is more contemporary. When did we go back to communism, I didn't get the memo.

Does anyone else recall McCain going before the country and railing against the dangers of a Republican President, Congress, and Senate back in 2000. McCain ran for president in 2000 in a time when the lucky Republican trifecta was happening. If he is so concerned about party hegemony then why did he even campaign back in 2000.

One of the screwiest things though are the threats and the ghost digging. I read a story about McCain allegedly killing someone by car accident back in 1964. It seems like everyone running for president or their wife was involved in a car accident that killed someone. What is up with this?

I am going to go out on a limb and say don't go there.

Why do our candidates have to be lying, thieving, murdering thugs all the time.

Breitbart.com: US consumer confidence sinks to record low
...consumer confidence index plummeted to 38.0, down from 61.4 in September.
The Conference Board: The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™ Plummets to an All-Time Low
Consumers' appraisal of current conditions deteriorated sharply in October. Those saying business conditions are "bad" increased to 38.3 percent from 33.4 percent, while those claiming business conditions are "good" declined to 9.2 percent from 12.8 percent. Consumers' assessment of the labor market was also much more negative. The percentage of consumers saying jobs are "hard to get" rose to 37.2 percent from 32.2 percent in September, while those claiming jobs are "plentiful" decreased to 8.9 percent from 12.6 percent.

More On The Real Costs Of War

Although sexual trauma does happen to men, by far its women who suffer the most in the military.

We've seen reports on this in the past. We have heard some of the stories coming out of Iraq and from bases.

Women have it rough in the military and we need to consider that this study suggests 15% of all men and women. So if you needed to make the number or percentage smaller, you would include both sexes right. Truth is if you just include women, the percentage is said to be in the vicinity of 30% of all military women are sexually assaulted. So three in every ten women in the military face sexual assault. This is very bad.

Reuters: Sexual trauma afflicts 15 percent of U.S. veterans: study
Most veterans who were affected were women, with more than one in seven women seeking health care services of some sort also reporting sexual trauma. Just under 1 percent of male veterans also reported military sexual trauma.

Savy Buying

When the stock market is low, investors finally yield and start to buy up everything at bargain basement prices. Right now we are in almost the recent bottom point again with the DOW hovering just above 8000.

Basically if you examine the corporation for management, assets, contracts, projections, this sort of thing, and then factor in dividends, although it might be chancy, it could be highly profitable in the long run.

Reuters: Bargain hunting after losses boosts world stocks
"It's no real surprise that bargain-hunters are coming into these markets, despite the fact that expectations for the economy are tumbling and the outlook on the corporate front is gloomy," said Henk Potts, strategist at Barclays stockbrokers.

O Sole Mio

Andrea Bocelli

Monday, October 27, 2008

Palin Palling Around With A Convictd Felon And Perjurer


Oh dear, Sarah Palin is palling around with a convicted felon. How can we possibly trust a Vice Presidential candidate who is so care free and shows a complete lack of discretion in the people that she pals around with.

As we know, if you want to see a candidate's character, simply look at the people they pal around with.

As governor of Alaska, Palin palled around with and even worked on legislation with fellow Republican and now convicted felon Stevens. Its disgraceful.

Imagine a convicted felon working hand and hand with Governor Palin in order to cook up all kinds of schemes that hurt the good people of Alaska.

This is bad palling around, if you ask me.

Reuters: Sen. Stevens found guilty of corruption
Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted of corruption on Monday, a verdict that could endanger the Republican's political future and help Democrats expand control of the Senate in the November 4 election.
Listen to Stevens endorse Palin for Governor a short 2 years ago.

Sarah Palin wasn't 8 years old when Senator Stevens became a convicted felon. We understand she pals around with Stevens 24/7.

This can only mean that Palin is just like a convicted felon.

The Chocolate News - Wigger Intervention

MSNBC - Electoral Votes Tip To Obama

The Cat Came Back

Another Plot

This story is making the rounds.

What can we say. Racism is big in America and Obama will be a focus of that form of hatred.

This is America. Violence is just a paper thin membrane below the surface. We don't even have a decent word for the absence of violence, we simply say non-violence. Unfortunately the word violence is still present in this term. The implication is that our reference is violence and not its absence.

Reuters: Skinheads held over Obama death plot
Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday.

Gallup: Obama Ahead - Stable Race

Starting into the final week, Obama's lead seems stable according to Gallup.

Gallup: Race Stable With Obama Leading
Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Friday through Sunday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain, 50% to 45%, in the presidential preferences of likely voters using Gallup's traditional model. He enjoys a more ample 10-point lead, 53% to 43%, using Gallup's expanded model.

Manjushri

The Buddha Manjushri helps to cut through ignorance.

This could be helpful at this point in time.

Playing With Bush Turf


As the campaign has progressed, we know that many red states are at least in play in this election.

States that Republicans assumed would go into the Republican column are not sure fire certainties

The NY Times presents a nice summation article on this development.

What strikes me here though is a quote from a least favorite politician of the staff and deep operatives from jcsande.blogspot.com - The Newtster.

NY Times: End of Battle Centers on Turf Bush Carried
“Any serious Republican has to ask, ‘How did we get into this mess?’ ” Newt Gingrich, the former Republican house speaker, said in an interview. “It’s not where we should be, and it’s not where we had to be. This was not bad luck.
Gingrich is having an epiphany.

He is at the beginning of a long and difficult challenge to rearrange his thinking about the world.

At present his thoughts are still rather undifferentiated and clumsy. He at least recognizes that its not simply "bad luck." This is his springboard into a long and difficult opening process.

What is next for Gingrich. We can't answer that but I suspect that in another year or two we might get a Gingrich admission that - "something went wrong."

Talk About Attracting A Crowd


Obama spoke to a crowd of over 100,000 in Denver on Sunday.

Here's an excerpt of his remarks:
Colorado, in just 9 days, you’ll have the chance to elect your next President. And you’ll have the chance to bring the change we need to Washington. That’s the good news. But we’re going to have to work, and struggle, and fight for every single one of those 9 days to move our country in a new direction. We cannot let up. And we won't.

Because one thing we know is that change never comes without a fight. In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over. We’ve seen it before. And we’re seeing it again today. The ugly phone calls. The misleading mail and TV ads. The careless, outrageous comments. All aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change.

Well, this isn’t what we need right now. The American people don't want to hear politicians attack each other – you want to hear about how we're going to attack the challenges facing middle class families each and every day. So what we need now is honest leadership and real change, and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for America. The economic crisis we face is the worst since the Great Depression. Businesses large and small are finding it impossible to get loans, which means they can’t buy new equipment, or hire new workers, or even make payroll for the workers they have.

Just 8,000,052 E-Z Payments At A Low 222% Interest Rate


Holy crap, you thought 7.9% interest rates were high, take a look at the new "The Easy Shop Card" offered by home credit firm Provident Financial.

This is happening in England.

Its aimed a poor people, of course.

Is this a result of the world economic crisis, yes. Will we see this sort of thing in the USA - need we ask.

Considering we just bailed out banks to the tune of $700Billion, massive interest rates seem fair to me.

The Independent: Payment card charging 222% branded 'wicked'
A payment card aimed at low income consumers that charges a 222.7 per cent APR was branded as being "wicked" today.

The Easy Shop Card is offered by home credit firm Provident Financial in a tie-up with catalogue shopping group Argos.

Footage Of Our Strike On Syria

Spreading The Pain

The financial pain is felt worldwide. This includes relatively new power houses like India, China. and Russia.

If McCain's analogy holds up, call it "pain socialism."

Yahoo: World markets slump; Nikkei at 26-year low
World stock markets slumped again Monday with the Nikkei index in Japan closing at its lowest in 26 years as the financial crisis drove up the yen, piling the pressure on the country's exporters.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed down 6.4 percent to 7,162.90 — the lowest since October 1982. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 12.7 percent to 11,015.84, its lowest close in more than four years and biggest daily decline since 1991.

Monday - Stocks Set To Open Lower

The best indicator of the stock market - "futures" - are down today.

This is bad news. Expect to see stock prices fall at today's open. Hopefully at some point in the day there will be a rally.

Reuters: Futures point to falls as recession woes deepen
Shares are set to fall on Monday, with futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 3, 3.9 and 3.7 percent, respectively, at 5:54 a.m. EDT.
Definition of futures from Wiki -
In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract, traded on a futures exchange, to buy or sell a standardized quantity of a specified commodity of standardized quality (which, in many cases, may be such non-traditional "commodities" as foreign currencies, commercial or government paper [e.g., bonds], or "baskets" of corporate equity ["stock indices"] or other financial instruments) at a certain date in the future, at a price (the futures price) determined by the instantaneous equilibrium between the forces of supply and demand among competing buy and sell orders on the exchange at the time of the purchase or sale of the contract. The future date is called the delivery date or final settlement date. The official price of the futures contract at the end of a day's trading session on the exchange is called the settlement price for that day of business on the exchange.

Rove Nay - Early Voting Yeah

Yes, Rove is saying he is responsible for the success of the Democrats up to this point.

Whatever.

The interesting part of the article identifies how extensive the early voting actually is.

Its far greater than what I had imagined. Its going to be hard to shift the election in the next week if the majority of voters are already accounted for.

The Australian: Rove tips hat to Democrat imitators
The electoral map on Rove's own website shows pivotal states such as Ohio, Virginia and Colorado, which voted for Bush in 2004, tumbling to Obama. According to his projection, if the election were held tomorrow, Obama would win 306 electoral college votes to McCain's 171, with 61 too close to call.

Nearly a million people have cast their votes in Georgia and more than 600,000 in Florida. It could be a sign of a coming "electoral tsunami" for Obama, according to Rove - or merely proof that reliable voters have cast their ballots early.

In North Carolina, formerly a solidly Republican state, 210,000 African-Americans registered as Democrats have already voted, compared with a total of 174,000 registered Republicans of all races. Blacks have made up 31 per cent of early voters so far, even though they form 21 per cent of the population.
Story Tools

Never Say Never

Romeo Void

Sunday, October 26, 2008

What About Iraq

Patrick Cockburn points out the effect of the surge and the present state of Iraq. Cockburn contradicts the message of McCain and Palin on an imminent victory.

ZNET: Iraq – Violence is down – but not because of America’s ‘surge’
As he leaves Iraq this week, the outgoing US commander, General David Petraeus, is sounding far less optimistic than the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, about the American situation in Iraq. General Petraeus says that it remains "fragile", recent security gains are "not irreversible" and "this is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not a war with a simple slogan."

If McCain wins the presidential election in November, his lack of understanding of what is happening in Iraq could ignite a fresh conflict. In so far as the surge has achieved military success, it is because it implicitly recognises America's political defeat in Iraq. Whatever the reason for President George Bush's decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003, it was not to place the Shia Islamic parties in power and increase the influence of Iran in the country; yet that is exactly what has happened.

TPMtv for October 26

Palin's stump speech - forget clothes, let's talk accessories!

US Military Attacks Inside Syria


Recall how right after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that there was a rumor floating surrounding invading Syria.

The idea of invading Syria is long time desire of neo-cons.

We've had excursions and missile strikes into Pakistan, allegedly we have special forces in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq are in full war mode, and now Syria.

Its as if the entire breadth of the Middle East is now under siege. Not too many countries are missing from the equation. To say there is Middle Eastern instability is insufficient. Its wall to wall war.

Breitbart.com: US special forces launch rare attack inside Syria
U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression."

The government said civilians were among the dead, including four children.

Gallup: Obama Up By 5 to 8

Heading into the last 10 days of the campaign, we are going to see the campaign rhetoric, attacks, and poll swings, go off the hook.

Gird your loins and prepare for a hell of a roller coaster ride this week. It will be dizzying. Keep the ginger ale, alka seltzer, and pepto close at hand. Its going to get uglier, and uglier.

We expect some new attack ad surprises from McCain. They need to settle on socialist or fascist because these two are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Its confusing to even me.

Gallup: Obama Continues to Lead McCain
Gallup's likely voter estimates continue to show Barack Obama with a significant lead over John McCain. The traditional model estimates Obama with a 50% to 45% advantage in Oct. 23-25 polling, and the expanded model has Obama leading by 52% to 43%.

SNL - A Message From Michelle and Barack

Guarantee

What can we say about McCain's guaranteed victory.

It does fly in the face of all polling. It confirms our fear of a fixed vote count. It also goes with our sense that American voters may swing to McCain. Who knows.

One thing though, this is a strange statement. If we apply a simple test and reverse the situation. We imagine Obama saying this. We find it unhelpful and irritating.


Politico: McCain guarantees victory
“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race, and I believe that I'm going to win it,” McCain told interim "Meet" moderator Tom Brokaw. “We're going to do well in this campaign, my friend. We're going to win it, and it's going to be tight, and we're going to be up late.”

The Daily Show - The Real America

Republicans Are Facing Their Own Music - They Wrote It, Now They Have To Dance To It

Many Republican elites are very worried about the immediate future of their party.

Put simply, the party is over.

They expect huge losses in Congress, the Senate, and probably the Presidency. Many are terrified of an Obama landslide.

Its curious, the Republicans have treated the results of 8 years of Bush mis-leadership just as they have treated the economy - they seemed clueless that at some point the merde hits the fan. They expect business as usual when the walls are falling down, the floor is waist high in water, and the roof is blown away. They seem completely lacking in any kind of foresight. Many of these people would gladly take another 4 years of Bush and Cheney, not the Palin - McCain as Bush - Cheney, but the actual Bush and Cheney.

Their new tactic is to scare people with the idea of a united Democratic Party in the Presidency, Congress, and Senate. The problem is this, its difficult to find more than a few Republicans in power who deserve re-election, say a Mitch O'Connell or a Larry Craig, hardly.

Guess who emerges as a unifying leader for the Republicans, win or lose. Its Sarah Palin. That is how screwed up they are.

Telegraph.co.uk: Republican fears of historic Obama landslide unleash civil war for the future of the party
Aides to George W.Bush, former Reagan White House staff and friends of John McCain have all told The Sunday Telegraph that they not only expect to lose on November 4, but also believe that Mr Obama is poised to win a crushing mandate.

They believe he will be powerful enough to remake the American political landscape with even more ease than Ronald Reagan did in 1980.

"Cutting personal tax rates is not the answer to everything. The Bush years were largely prosperous but while national income was up the numbers for most individuals were not. Republicans find that a hard fact to process."

Mr Frum thinks that Mrs Palin's brand of cultural conservatism appeals only to a dwindling number of voters.

He said: "She emerges from this election as the probable frontrunner for the 2012 nomination. Her supporters vastly outnumber her critics. But it will be extremely difficult for her to win the presidency."

Head On

The Jesus & Mary Chain

Saturday, October 25, 2008

We Forgot - Communist Also

Your challenge - follow the "logic."

CNN's Hughley At A Right Southern Rally

Palin Under Fire

Lets see. She appoints unqualified donors and friends to high level jobs.

She pulled strings so that state contracts went to donors, and the result was of no public value.

Now who does this sound like, oh yea, George Bush.

One last thing, explain to me how someone with that actual record, that factual record, is going to change the culture in Washington DC for the better, and for the betterment of the American people. Explain it to me one more time.

LA Times: Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show
100-plus jobs went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-subsidized loans for business ventures of dubious public value.

8 Years Later

Socialist, Islamo-Fascist, Terrorist, and Non Citizen

Uh oh, it looks like some advocate liberal judge has sided with socialists and Islamo-fascists to throw out a perfectly legitimate and valid lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship.

Or, could it be that the right wing in its extreme desperation to change the direction of the election away from Obama is willing to try anything imaginable to cast doubt.

Breitbart.com: Judge tosses lawsuit challenging Obama citizenship
Internet-fueled conspiracy theories question whether Obama is a "natural-born citizen" as required by the Constitution for a presidential candidate and whether he lost his citizenship while living abroad.

Rasmussen: Obama 52% - McCain 44%

Rasmussen: Poll for Saturday shows Barack Obama attracting 52% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%.

Temper Temper


The McCain campaign is already engaged in an internal battle. In the possible event of a McCain defeat at the hands of Obama, McCain's handlers and Palin's handlers will spread and distribute the blame. Let's call them the campaign's emotional and defeat socialists.

Allegedly, Palin is upset at McCain's handlers, McCain insiders are upset at Palin, and the makings of an odd couple meltdown are germinating.

It couldn't happen to a more deserving couple.

Alas, nobody has won anything yet, and never underestimate the power of the American people to snatch stupidity from the jaws of intelligence.

Politico: Palin allies report rising campaign tension
"These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves," a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, whose sometimes painful content the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.

The Couric interview — her only unstaged appearance for a week — was "water torture," as one internal ally put it.

Bush's Reign Of Error


Whoever becomes the next president will inherit a long list of problems constructed under the misguidance of America's worst president, George Bush.

Bush is not in the news lately. Everyone is relentlessly focused on the campaign, with good reason, we can't wait to rid ourselves of this guy and get a breath of fresh air.

No doubt there will be an onslaught of discoveries and revelations regarding a massive library of misdeeds and violations of Bush and company. Its all too late of course, we are reaping its negative bonus and will continue to reap it for a long time to come.

Bush will become an ex-president with all the privileges and honors that the role embodies. We still will see this guy, commenting on issues, making speeches, going to other countries serving up good will and democracy.

I think one reason why I ditched my TV during this last 8 years was because I couldn't stand to listen to his inarticulate phony Texas accent voice. You would have to be a complete fool to not recognize that Bush was an empty suit, a joke of a leader with a minuscule grasp of issues and polices.

One thing America does not possess is a short term memory. There never was any long term memory, even Bush knows little American history, of course.

So the race may tighten. McCain will challenge Obama to the wire. Its a stunning development. McCain offers nothing new from Bush, the same war and more war, the same economic misguidance, the same list of divisive crazed advisers, the whole nine yards. Its simply mind boggling.

Gulf News: Adieu to Bush's long reign of error
George W. Bush's 8-year reign of error has left the country drained, with an ailing economy, a troubled health system, an erratic immigration policy, a woeful energy and climate programme and, abroad, two wars and a catastrophic decline in America's global image, along with a host of other foreign policy issues from Iran to North Korea, Palestine to Pakistan.

Those are the kind of problems you inevitably would inherit from a president with the intellectual acumen of a gnat who had allowed himself, during his disastrous tenure, as America was progressively losing its ability to exercise moral leadership around the world, to be led around the nose by scamming neocons, men imbued with a blinkered ideology and imperial hubris.

Key Word Is Rcession

The bail out is now being expanded to help out some insurance companies that do business in the bond and mortgage sectors. Please don't call it socialism though, unless you're attacking Obama.

Anyone watching Wall Street this week knows that it is extremely unstable and that an aura of diminished value has set in.

The DOW won't go down to 0, but it may very well go below the predicted 7500.

The sobering reality that a harsh recession is on the world's back is clear.

This reminds me of the old Chinese slogan - "Be pessimistic in times of plenty, and be optimistic in times of famine."

Reuters: Political alarms ring as panicked markets dive
The Treasury, which has already committed half that sum ($700Billion) to nine of the largest U.S. banks, was studying how it could give relief to bond and mortgage insurance firms under the programme, two sources familiar with the deliberations said.

Washington may also bail out the car industry. General Motors has intensified negotiations to buy Chrysler's auto operations, but intends to seek U.S. government support for any deal, people familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Baby, Now That I've Found You

The Foundations

Friday, October 24, 2008

Olberman On Carve-gate

John Stewart - Gaffe In

Pathetic Part 2

Now the plot is beginning to thicken.

A McCain official pushed the phony beat and carve the "B" story.

This is the outcome of a vicious campaign run by a hostile candidate under the direction of a Karl Rove wannabe. This is adding loathsome to loathsome.

This is disgraceful conduct. McCain needs to drop the hate campaign and start acting like the honorable person he once was.

TPM: McCain Communications Director Gave Reporters Incendiary Version Of "Carved B" Story Before Facts Were Known
...is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time.

Pathetic

And ridiculous.

We are into the anything goes, whatever you can imagine will happen, phase of the campaign.

With Obama leading the right is having hysterics.

Breitbart.com: Police: McCain volunteer made up robbery story
A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday.

Housing Sales Up In September

Housing sales were up in September. We know that housing is a big part of the American economic foundation.

The article does not get into the specifics but we might suspect that many of the sales are foreclosure units sold at rock bottom prices. Again, is this good news? In a way its profiting off the increasing distress or misfortune of somebody else.

So, its good news based on a tragic situation. America is back.

Reuters: Home sales gain biggest since July 2003
The increase in sales was spurred by a rise in foreclosure and other 'distress sales' in regions of the country hard-hit by the ongoing housing downturn...

What Clothes?

Chicago Tribune: Sarah Palin talks about wardrobe flap, double standard for women and special education
"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race," Palin said. "Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double standard."
Here we have Palin equating herself to Hillary Clinton.

There is a type of reverse ignorant discrimination that happens with Palin's statement. The problem is that she forgets quite noticeably that Hillary Clinton actually has a vast command of the issues. Clinton is completely superior to Palin in her mastery of all policy. Most noticeably, Hillary Clinton can articulate all of this mastery, Palin cannot because she has no mastery or understanding.

Palin is attempting to latch onto a sympathy because she is female and tries to use her chromosomal similarity to Hillary as her springboard.

On appearances yes she is female. However as a political candidate compared to Hillary Clinton she is a baby in $150,000 diapers.

Palin does not get to compare herself to Hillary Clinton simply because she is female. This demonstrates a mind filled with undifferentiated noise and fodder.

CBS/NY Times Poll: Obama 52% - McCain 39%


The country is now desperate for a change. We are expecting to see the race tighten as the last week comes around, in fact Obama's lead might widen to a staggering landslide. It is possible, and with the market expected to tank big time today, everyone's 401K goes to 101K value.

Seriously, we've already seen a 60% reduction in some portfolios, then a lift up to 50% reduction. A repeat is possible with even steeper losses.

This will hopefully have a positive effect on the GOP in the long run. The party somehow needs to move away from its two pronged base of right wing x-tians and neo-cons. The GOP is now structured to support those that believe we are in the "end times" and those that promote war and corporate growth at all costs, witness Bush for the last 8 years.

Turns out Bush is nothing more than tissue paper on top of a boiling tea kettle. He has no authority, no governing ability, no stewardship even within the marginal constraints of a "Republican" presidency where the president is required to look the other way as often as possible. The heat has gotten so high that not only is the water boiling, the kettle is starting to melt.

CBS: Obama Maintains Double-Digit Lead
Obama now leads McCain 52 percent to 39 percent among likely voters nationwide, roughly the same lead he held last week.

Karl Rove Blames Obama For The Economic Crisis

That's right, Rove blames Obama. You see the Republicans with Bush are sweet angels of prosperity and peace, emoting their little hearts out for your benefit, always thinking about how they can best serve you.

Wall Street Today - Down She Goes

Hang on to your hats, we are going into free fall today.

Hopefully a more sober emotion other than all out fear and panic can take hold at some point today.

Reuters: Stock futures frozen after steep plunge
Stock markets were in freefall around the world as panicked investors moved to liquidate risky positions.

By 7:00 a.m. in New York December Dow Jones futures were down 6.3 percent...

Nice Dream

Thom Yorke




They love me like I was a brother
They protect me, listen to me
They dug me my very own garden
Gave me sunshine, made me happy

Nice dream, nice dream, nice dream

I call up my friend, the good angel
But she's out with her ansaphone
She says she would love to come help but
The sea would electrocute us all

Nice dream [x7]

If you think that you're strong enough
If you think you belong enough
If you think that you're strong enough
If you think you belong enough

Nice dream [x4]

Thursday, October 23, 2008

SNL - Bush and Palin

John Stewart - Palin's Wardrobe

Early Voting

Follow the link to a clip on early voting.

Right now early voting is favoring the Democrats, also it prevents any last minute or late in the game strategies from affecting the outcome.

BBC: Early voting 'boosts Democrats'

Florida Is Turning O Town

What can we say about Florida. The voting structures in Florida are as rigorous and solid as melted ice cream.

Its seems like the perfect state to create voting chaos, as in 2000.

Will they get it right this year, who knows. If Obama was up by 30 in the polls, it would not be surprising to see a McCain victory in Florida.

Politico: Obama up 7 in new Florida poll

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama 52%, McCain 40%

The polls continue to show Obama with a healthy lead.

Steady as she goes.

Reuters: Obama lead on McCain grows to 12 points
"Obama's expansion is really across the board," pollster John Zogby said. "It seems to be among almost every demographic group."

Proving The Media Wrong - No Matter What

This ABC talking head is saying that the American public will want to prove the media wrong and therefor will vote McCain in as president.

We are glad that he is expressing his utter contempt for the American people as he suggests we are all a group of third graders with a serious case of the contraries.

I know that whenever I study the policies carefully and come to conclusions about who I want to vote for that as soon as I see pollsters telling me who is winning, I say, boy do I want to mess with that pollsters' head. I think I'll just vote 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

They actually pay someone to do this on TV. How freaking un-creative can you get. The guy is out of material.

Typical Saks Dressed Hockey Mom


The clothes are great. I thought the knee high boots made her look a little gestapo-ish, but the red leather jacket, appropriately Republican in color.

The irony is distressing, and we imagine our Republican brethren having merde fits.

This $150,000 shopping spree is gathering more attention than a Bill Ayers hand grenade. We can only imagine the expletive laced fury of McCain when presented with this information and its implications.

Here McCain is trying to deal with the economic crisis and his running mate goes on a fantasy land shopping spree in the most exclusive department stores with the RNC's blessing. Should we send Joe the Plumber some $50 designer briefs - you know plumbers and their unintentional mooning.

Nobody in McCain's camp is thinking about these things too carefully. We want a president who has advisers that are willing to tell the president that he has mustard on his chin. They must be terrified of McCain.

This was a huge mistake and its getting more traction than Powel's endorsement which is even more amazing.

Examining the right wing blogs we are seeing no problem with Palin's wardrobe, no problems with the economy, and lots of Bill Ayers still- as if everything Ayers ever did or wrote is the same as if Obama did it.

Breitbart.com: McCain has terse response on Palin shopping spree
News of the purchases...contrasts with the image Palin has crafted as a typical hockey mom.

Poking Fun At McCain's Attack Ads

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Obama 52.2%, McCain 40.3%

If the election were held today, it would be a massive blow-out. Clearly we have 12 days to go, and things do change.

Its good to see that Palin in the event of a blow-out, will be dressed to kill as she gives her concession speech. No one likes to see frumpy in a concession speech, big no no.

Zogby: Obama's base is solid; McCain's is showing cracks
Democrat Barack Obama has slowly built a 12-point lead over Republican John McCain, consolidating support among young voters, Hispanics, and independent voters while McCain's support, even among his Republican base, is fading heading down the stretch, the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking poll shows.

US Election Polltracker

The BBC has a nice interactive graph which shows the various polls together with a major events timeline. Fortunately it does not show the skewered AP poll.

Obama is way out in front.

Reading the comments in a well known right wing blog yesterday, I saw that the reaction to the AP poll was quite good. The consensus seemed to be that all other polls were wrong and advanced by a biased liberal media. It was even suggested that McCain is likely ahead by 10 points.

US Election polltracker

Thursday's Market Outlook - Oh Dear

Think of it in bank terms. We are all "gaining negative growth" to our investments.

CNN: Stocks headed for a dip
At 8 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were lower. Futures measure current index values against the perceived future

851,000

The mortgage crisis coupled with the recession are wiping out home ownership at a rate of one small city a month.

We know that homelessness is up and this is a reason why.

We shall soon find out how the $700Billion bailout and the "infusion" of money into the credit market affects foreclosure. I would suspect that the environment is even stronger to pursue foreclosure since the bailout.

CNN: 81,312 homes lost to foreclosure in September
The housing crisis still has a choke hold on America: In September, 81,312 homes were lost to foreclosure according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties.

A total of over 851,000 homes have been repossessed by lenders since August 2007.

The Flawed AP Poll

When I first saw the new AP poll I was shocked. All other polls had Obama up by 5 to even 14 points. This one had it virtually tied, 44 to 43 favoring Obama.

The results of the AP are being parsed. The results indicate that it is highly flawed.

The specific flaws are coming to light.

The fact that AP is in McCain's corner explains a lot as well.

America Blog: New flawed AP poll claims McCain and Obama are tied.
But, the poll doesn't make sense on many levels. Here's one example: 45% of this poll's respondents are evangelicals or born-again Christians...

The problem? In 2004, evangelicals/born-again Christians made up 23% of voters. But that same group makes up 44% of likely voters in AP's poll released today. That's almost double the number - it's totally implausible.

But, the AP brain trust loves McCain. It's not just Sidoti. Remember, AP's Washington bureau chief almost went to work for McCain. He's in that donut video, too.

Chris Matthews Talks With The Campaign Handlers

Modern - Live

Yoshida Brothers - 4 **** stars - Sande

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Conservative Ben Stein On Palin

Listen to Stein express his fear of Palin on matters of policy, but applauds her down home Wal Mart clothes buying persona.

Stein very succinctly states the problem with Palin.

One might assume that Stein as a conservative is expressing the feeling that many conservatives have about Palin. The rah rah rah behind her now is a lot of baloney. They are putting on a front. This is very double edged, its both tragic and humorous in a dark way.

The Chocolate News

John Stewart - The "S" Word

McCain Responds To High School Student - "Are You Too Old?"

Watch to the punchline...

McCain Campaign In Disarray

Watch the clip, at the end there is reference to a need for some kind of good news for the McCain camp.

Then look at the preceding AP poll which shows the race almost even.

According to column commenter GK, AP is a right wing managed corporation. Its as if they saw this clip, and issued a poll that answered the discussed need for McCain.

Yet Another Poll: This One Says Its Even

This is the first poll I've seen that has it virtually tied.

What do we make of this in the light of a 5 to 8 point lead by Obama in virtually every other poll.

One thing is certain. This poll will energize the right.

AP presidential poll: All even in the homestretch
The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Gallup Daily

Anti-Robocall Robocall

Obama's Robo-call

Attempting To Citizen Arrest Rove

Banksy

From a deep operative -

From his show running in New York.

The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill - Leopard

Rep. Robin Hayes Knows Liberals Hate America!

CNN: Congressman admits saying, 'Liberals hate real Americans'
A North Carolina congressman (Rep. Robin Hayes) locked in a tight re-election race admitted Tuesday to recently telling a crowd of John McCain supporters that "liberals hate real Americans," the latest in a string of comments from Republicans that appear to question Democrats' patriotism.
Please contribute to the campaign of Larry Kissell. He is running for Congress in North Carolina's 8th district against Robin Hayes. Haven't we had enough Robin Hayes types. Lets help dump him.

Palin's Wardrobe

Now you would think that I would be here excoriating Palin on this mega wardrobe expense.

I'm not going to.

The wrath should get directed at the RNC and only a small amount of wrath goes to Palin.

This PR problem looms wide in a period of economic turmoil. The bumper sticker "I'm not wealthy enough to vote Republican," seems appropriate.

Palin loses lots of points for being so plucky and ready to jump on the VP bandwagon. She loses points for thinking that she is qualified enough or even has the qualities to lead the country. On the other hand the religious right thinks she is all that and more. We have to accept that. She outdraws McCain at rallies.

Its looking like they lose, Palin - McCain doesn't get past the halfway mark. Who knows maybe they win on massive electoral fraud, its a distinct possibility. Regardless Palin earns some new clothes. If it costs $150,000 in spumoni to get her out of the picture, fine. Fortunately I never contribute to the RNC, but one has to wonder if these funds are government matching funds, in which case - I want my damn money back.

Politico: RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion
The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.