Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Alaska's Biggest Newspaper Endorses Obama

2008-10-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

...

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

The Republican voter fraud hoax

2008-10-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

Guardian UK:
Barack Obama and the Democrats are stealing the election. Massive voter fraud is being carried out, even as we speak, by their henchmen, known by the innocuous sounding Association for Community Organisations for Reform Now, or Acorn. Clever bastards.

The only problem? Despite the screaming wall-to-wall coverage of "Democratic voter fraud in 11 swing states" as seen on Fox News and even the once-respectable CNN, none of it's true. None of it.

Behind the GOP's voter fraud hysteria

2008-10-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

Salon:
As Republicans warn of catastrophe at the polls, an expert on election fraud explains the real partisan hoax -- the suppression of Democratic votes.

Anchorage Daily News: Palin’s response to Troopergate report is ‘downright Orwellian.’

2008-10-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
Over the weekend, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) reacted to the Troopergate report by claiming that she did “nothing unlawful or unethical.” “I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing…any hint of any kind of unethical activity there,” Palin said on Saturday. Today, Palin’s home state paper, the Anchorage Daily News, calls out her lie:

Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation. … Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

In plain English, she did something “unlawful.” She broke the state ethics law. […]

Palin’s response is the kind of political “big lie” that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False

2008-10-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

ABC News:

On Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin twice spoke to reporters about the so-called "Troopergate" scandal and the investigative report on whether she had abused her power in trying to get her sister's ex-husband Mike Wooten fired as a state trooper, and for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan one year after she, her staffers, and her husband Todd began unsuccessfully pressuring Monegan to let Wooten go.

Palin spoke on the phone with Alaska reporters about the report. The McCain-Palin campaign only allowed one question per reporter. The journalists came from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. No follow-ups were allowed.

The call can be heard HERE.

"Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing," Palin said, "any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

That's just not the case.

TIME Mag: Troopergate Report Shows Palin Administration "Shockingly Amateurish"

2008-10-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Time:

Did Governor Sarah Palin abuse the power of her office in trying to get her former brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, fired? Yes.

Was the refusal to fire Mike Wooten the reason Palin fired Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan? Not exclusively, and it was within her rights as the states' chief executive to fire him for just about any reason, even without cause.

Those answers were expected, given that most of the best pieces of evidence have been part of the public record for months. The result is not a mortal wound to Palin, nor does it put her at much risk of being forced to leave the ticket her presence succeeded in energizing.

But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.

Flirting her way to victory

2008-10-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Guardian UK:
At least three times last night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience. Had a male candidate with a similar reputation for attractive vapidity made such a brazen attempt to flirt his way into the good graces of the voting public, it would have universally noted, discussed and mocked. Palin, however, has single-handedly so lowered the standards both for female candidates and American political discourse that, with her newfound ability to speak in more-or-less full sentences, she is now deemed to have performed acceptably last night.

Embarracuda

2008-10-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

Time (Joe Klein):
I'm of two minds about how to deal with the McCain campaign's further descent into ugliness. Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: "Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting..." which, of course, only serves to get your perverse message out. I really don't want to be a part of that. But...every so often, we journalists have a duty to remind readers just how dingy the McCain campaign, and its right-wing acolytes in the media (I'm looking at you, Sean Hannity) have become--especially in their efforts to divert public attention from the economic crisis we're facing. And so inept at it: other campaigns have decided that their only shot is going negative, but usually they don't announce it, as several McCain aides have in recent days--there's no way we can win on the economy, so we're going to go sludge-diving.

But since we are dealing with manure here, I'll put the rest of this post below the fold.

It is appropriate that the prime vessel for this assault is Sarah Palin, whose very presence on a national ticket is an insult to your intelligence. She now has "credibility," we are told, because she managed to read talking points off notecards in the debate last week with unwitting enthusiasm.

Make-Believe Maverick

2008-10-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone:
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

The GOP Blames the Victim

2008-10-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Wall Street Journal:
Two weeks ago, I wrote that the breakdown of the nation's financial industry was undeniably a self-induced injury; that it would finally force conservatives to own up to the wrongheadedness of their deregulatory project; that they couldn't possibly blame the disaster on any of their traditional bogeymen.

But I had forgotten about conservatives' extraordinary instincts for blame-evasion. This is a movement, after all, that blandly recasts its greatest idols as traitors once their popularity has crashed; that routinely sloughs off responsibility for . . . well . . . anything since, by its logic, conservatism has never really been tried in the first place. Consider in this respect Mitt Romney's remarkable speech to the Republican convention a few weeks ago, in which he rallied his party against Washington -- a place his party has controlled, to one degree or another, for nearly three decades -- by listing the city's various institutions and crying, "It's liberal!"

Or consider the way the House Republicans torpedoed the bailout bill a few days ago. The real reason they did it was almost certainly to evade responsibility for an unpopular measure but the announced reason seemed designed to convince the nation's 7-year-olds -- because Nancy Pelosi said something mean.

McCain Transition Head Lobbied for Freddie Mac Before Takeover

2008-09-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg:
The lobbying firm of the man Republicans say John McCain has chosen to begin planning a presidential transition earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies McCain blames for the nation's financial crisis.
Timmons & Co., whose founder and chairman emeritus is William Timmons Sr., was registered to lobby for Freddie Mac from 2000 through this month, when the federal government took over both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Steering the McCain Campaign, a Lot of Old Bush Hands

2008-09-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Washington Post:

When Gov. Sarah Palin flew home to Alaska for the first time since being named the Republican vice presidential nominee, she brought along at least half a dozen new advisers to conduct briefings, stage-manage her first television interview and help her prepare for a critical debate next month.

And virtually every member of the team shared a common credential: years of service to President Bush.

McCain's Campaign Manager Made Nearly $2 Million Defending Mortgage Giants From Regulation

2008-09-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

NY Times:
Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing.

McCain Owns 13 Cars, Obama Owns One

2008-09-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

Newsweek:

When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, NEWSWEEK looked into the candidates' cars. And based on public vehicle-registration records, here's the score. John and : 13. Barack and : one.

McCain's Plan For Health Care Reform: Let's Make It More Like The Financial Industry

2008-09-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

NY Times:

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

Conyers: 'GOP Must Stop the Voter Suppression'

2008-09-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

Brad Blog:
The U.S. House Judiciary chairman has sent a letter to John McCain demanding he immediately cease recent voter suppression efforts such as the reported GOP scheme to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters in Michigan, and apparent "caging" letters akin to those sent to Democratic voters in Florida. He has also called on AG Mukasey to begin an investigation into these activities and has announced hearings on the matters in a statement released today.

The lying game

2008-09-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

Salon:
Like George W. Bush, McCain and Palin have to lie. Because if they told the truth about their policies, they'd lose the election.

McCain's propensity to lie has become what political junkies call a meme, an idea or behavior that runs, seemingly unstoppably, from one media outlet to another. Some bloggers offer daily counts of how many falsehoods McCain tells while others wonder why the Democrats do not respond in turn. Even the mainstream press has gotten into the act. One of the pleasures of the 2008 campaign -- I admit they have been few and far between -- is watching all those who once admired John McCain for his truthfulness realize the true depths of his moral depravity. When McCain is linked to Palin, moreover, as he so frequently wants to be, lying experiences something of a multiplier effect. These candidates lie so much that they have taken to lying about their own lies.

Before we get carried away with enthusiasm about all this, though, we should keep two things in mind. One is that we are so quick to label McCain a liar that we tend to forget how much, and with what horrendous consequences, George W. Bush possessed the same character flaw. The other is that Republicans lie so frequently, not because the party just happened to settle upon one serial liar after another to run for high office, but because the form of conservatism to which they all adhere demands that if they are to win they have no choice but to lie.

McCain Now Claims He's For Regulation After Years Of Pushing For Deregulation

2008-09-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Washington Post:
A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth...

In 2002, McCain introduced a bill to deregulate the broadband Internet market, warning that "the potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation." Three years earlier, McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.

Just Thinking

2008-09-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

TPM:

Let me get this straight. John McCain's top economic advisor, former Sen. Phil Gramm, is the guy who authored the deregulation law that most agree is the ultimate cause of today's financial meltdown. Tomorrow's and probably next week's too. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, which swirled into brokerage oblivion today, is one of McCain's top economic advisors too. And now McCain says he's going to clean up the mess by putting in tighter regulations and oversight even though he's always supported lax oversight and his top economics guy is the one who loosened the rules in the first place.

McCain Blasts Wall Street Failure, Neglects To Mention His Adviser Helped Cause It

2008-09-16T04:58:00.000-07:00

Mother Jones:

As the news broke of the Lehman Brothers meltdown and the rest of the latest financial crisis, John McCain, speaking at a campaign rally in Florida on Monday, angrily declared,

We will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. This is a failure.

And in a statement released by his campaign, McCain called for greater "transparency and accountability" on Wall Street.

If McCain wants to hold someone accountable for the failure in transparency and accountability that led to the current calamity, he should turn to his good friend and adviser, Phil Gramm.

As Mother Jones reported in June, eight years ago, Gramm, then a Republican senator chairing the Senate banking committee, slipped a 262-page bill into a gargantuan, must-pass spending measure. Gramm's legislation, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists, essentially removed newfangled financial products called swaps from any regulation. Credit default swaps are basically insurance policies that cover the losses on investments, and they have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown because they have enabled large financial institutions to turn risky loans into risky securities that could be packaged and sold to other institutions.

Pathological

2008-09-14T12:50:00.001-07:00

TPM:
As many reporters noticed, Gov. Palin dropped her "Bridge to Nowhere" lie from her stump speech during her trip to Alaska last week, presumably because too many locals knew about her actual role as a major supporter of the project. So I'd been wondering whether the line would return once she returned to the lower 48. Sure enough, today in Carson City, Nevada, she's back at it.

McCain Camp Lying About Crowd Sizes

2008-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Blooomberg:
Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29. Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

Video: Palin Met By Over A Thousand Protesters In Anchorage

2008-09-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Huffingtonpost:
Despite overcast skies and a forecast for rain, there was a rally here today. Oh man, was there! In fact, it was by most accounts the largest protest rally in the history of Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News wrote that the rally drew an "estimated" 1500 people. Let me be clear: the organizers used a hand-clicker and counted at least 1,483 Alaskans, mostly women, who showed up to say that Sarah Palin does not speak for them.

You can see the video here

More video here

GOP campaign downplays Palin book-banning inquiry

2008-09-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

SF Gate:

The McCain campaign is defending Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-criticized inquiry into banning books at her hometown library, saying her questions were only hypothetical.

Shortly after taking office in 1996 as mayor of Wasilla, a city of about 7,000 people, Palin asked the city's head librarian about banning books. Later, the librarian was notified by Palin that she was being fired, although Palin backed off under pressure.

Palin's alleged attempt at book-banning has been a matter of intense interest since Republican presidential nominee John McCain named her as his running mate last month.

New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams

2008-09-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Huffingtonpost:
Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.

Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.

Palin's Dangerous Saber Rattling on Russia

2008-09-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ilan Goldenberg, the Policy Director of the National Security Network:

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

"No sane American or European leader would ever ever ever give an answer like that. You do not get into hypotheticals about nuclear war. You just don't. Palin references the Cold War. The only reason the Cold War stayed cold is because our leaders understood the stakes of getting things wrong and saying things that could lead to catastrophic nuclear war. During the Cuban Missile Crisis every word, every public statement, and any message that the Kennedy administration sent to the Soviets was checked, double checked, and triple checked to make sure it was sending precisely the right signal. This is what you are forced to do when you have thousands of nuclear weapons and so does your opponent. The stakes are simply too high. And yet there is a nominee for the vice presidency of the United States who may one day have her hand on the button and she is casually talking about potential catastrophic nuclear war.

Barack Obama would never give that answer. Joe Biden would never give that answer. They would say that we don't discuss those types of hypotheticals. That might sound like a cop out, but think of the Palin alternative and what kind of alarm bells that sets off in Moscow. Prescisely the type of alarm bells that could one day lead to mushroom clouds.
Saber rattling matters. Words matter. We've learned that from the past eight years. When George Bush said "With us or against us" it mattered. When he referred to a "crusade" it mattered. When McCain jokes about war with Iran, calls our allies "vaccous and posturing", says that Iraq is building a weapons assembly line for al Qaeda, it matters.

And when Sarah Palin, a first term Governor with no national security experience or expertise, talks about hypothetical nuclear war it really matters. It reflects badly on her and her readiness. It reflects even worse on John McCain who thought that she was qualified to be Commander in Chief."

McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin

2008-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

LA Times:
Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate.

Out of bounds! McCain misstates Obama sex-ed record

2008-09-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

McClatchy:
Throw the flag against: The McCain-Palin campaign.

Call: Unsportsmanlike conduct.

What happened: A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach "'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

Why that's wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.

But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

ABC: Three of four Palin friends won't commit to voting for her

2008-09-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
In the short period since she was announced as John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin's personal attitudes and beliefs have remained something of a mystery. In search of insights, ABC News sent Lisa Fletcher to Wasilla, Alaska to speak to "the women who know her best."

Fletcher interviewed four of Palin's closest friends, members of a group who jokingly call themselves "the Elite Six." The six women, including Palin, met 15 years ago at an aerobics class and started getting together after class as well

You can watch the video here

McCain Wanted To Shut Down Dept. Of Education In '94

2008-09-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

TPM:
In Obama's ad hitting McCain on education this morning, there's this throwaway line:

"He even proposed abolishing the Department of Education."

What's the basis for this charge? It turns out that in December of 1994, McCain said: "I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well."

Here's the full context of a CNN interview on December 11, 1994 (via Nexis), when Newt-mania was gripping the land:

FRANK SESNO: Senator McCain, would you favor doing away with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Department of Energy?
Sen. JOHN McCAIN: I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well. HUD had experienced many failures under both Republican and Democrat administrations and I would certainly want to revamp it from the bottom up, because, clearly, public housing in America is almost as big a disaster as the welfare program...

What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick

2008-09-09T07:19:00.001-07:00

Salon:
A theocrat is a theocrat, whether Muslim or Christian.

John McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the "transcendent challenge" of the 21st century, "radical Islamic extremism," contrasting it with "stability, tolerance and democracy." But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”

2008-09-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

LA Progressive:

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.

But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.

No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.

Friedman on ‘drill, drill, drill’: It’s like someone chanting ‘IBM Selectric typewriters’ during the IT revolution.

2008-09-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress.org:

On NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman criticized the chanting of “drill, drill, drill” and “drill, baby, drill” at the Republican National Convention last week, saying that’s just what Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria want to hear Americans focusing on. “They’d be up there leading the chant. They would be saying, ‘this is great, America isn’t sitting there saying, invent, invent, invent new renewable energy,’” said Friedman. Friedman added that he isn’t opposed to offshore drilling, but we shouldn’t be “making that the center focus”:

FRIEDMAN: I’m actually not against drilling. What I’m against is making that the center of our focus because we are on the eve of a new revolution, the energy technology revolution. It would be, Tom, as if on the eve of the IT revolution, the revolution of PCs and the internet, someone was up there standing and demanding, “IBM Selectric typewriters, IBM Selectric typewriters.” That’s what “drill, drill, drill” is the equivalent of today.

Watch it:

Sarah Palin the ‘Earmark Queen’ of AK Left Wasilla $20 Million in Debt

2008-09-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

C&L:

In 2000, Sarah Palin, as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla, hired a Washington lobbyist to secure federal earmarks for her community.

This is not totally atypical in her state. Alaska’s government receives more money per capita in federal earmark money than any other state, despite being the only state in the union with no income tax and no sales tax. They fund their government primarily with petroleum money, and recently distributed oil profits to its citizens in the form of rebate checks.

But even in her heavily earmarked state, Sarah Palin was the earmark queen.

From 2000 to 2003, she secured over $27 million in earmarks, averaging $6.7 million in federal money every year for her town of about 6,700 people.

When Palin left office in 2002, Wasilla had “racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt,” or roughly $3,000 of debt per resident.

FactChecking McCain

2008-09-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Factcheck.org:

McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs" and would put "a bureaucrat ... between you and your doctor." In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.
McCain attacked Obama for voting for "corporate welfare" for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative fuels.
McCain said oil imports send "$700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much." But the U.S. is on track to import a total of only $536 billion worth of oil at current prices, and close to a third of that comes from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
He promised to increase use of "wind, tide [and] solar" energy, though his actual energy plan contains no new money for renewable energy. He has said elsewhere that renewable sources won’t produce as much as people think.
He called for "reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs," but as in the past failed to cite a single program that he would eliminate or reduce.
He said Obama would "close" markets to trade. In fact, Obama, though he once said he wanted to "renegotiate" the North American Free Trade Agreement, now says he simply wants to try to strengthen environmental and labor provisions in it.

McCain Nomination Greeted By Economic Collapse

2008-09-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the current Top Headlines at Bloomberg:

Payrolls in U.S. Fall More Than Forecast; Jobless Rate at Five-Year High
Mortgage Foreclosures in U.S. Rise at Fastest Pace in Almost Three Decades
U.S. Stocks Decline After Unemployment Rate Unexpectedly Increases to 6.1%
Merrill Lynch Cut to `Sell’ at Goldman; Credit-Market Writedowns May Rise
Gabelli Says Investors Have Good Reason to Worry About Earnings Next Year
McCain Vows to Change Washington, ‘Restore’ Republican Party’s Principles

Most US women voters 'unimpressed' by McCain's VP pick

2008-09-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
Most US women are unimpressed by Republican John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, and have thrown their weight behind the Democratic ticket in the race for the White House, a national poll showed Wednesday.

Palin Fails by Her Own Standards

2008-09-04T06:59:00.001-07:00

Alternet:
Palin went on attack Wednesday night, deriding Democrats, mischaracterizing Obama and insulting Americans, who she must think won't know any better.

Joe Klein Goes After McCains Attempt to Blame the Media

2008-09-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Time:
The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized the candidate--and especially those of us who enjoyed good relations with McCain in the past--have been subject to off-the-record browbeating and attempted bullying all year. But things have gotten much worse in recent days...

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Palin cut $1.1 million from funding for teen moms in need

2008-09-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

This week has been a mine field of irony for the Republicans.

Rawstory:

The Washington Post revealed Tuesday that Alaska Governor and McCain vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, whose 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant outside wedlock, earlier this year used a line-item veto to cut $1.1 million (22%) in funding which would have at least partially benefited teen moms in need.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," Palin said in a statement. "We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy, as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

Covenant House Alaska, the affected organization which serves to assist homeless and runaway youth, runs Passage House, a transitional living program with 24-hour support staff that provides housing, along with up to eighteen months of assistance in building parenting, money management and job skills, with aims to help teen parents prepare for the "real world."

Palin’s weak grasp on history

2008-09-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
In 2006, the Eagle Forum Alaska sent a questionnaire to all the state’s gubernatorial candidates, including Sarah Palin (R). From Palin’s response about the Pledge of Allegiance:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

However, as Hunter points out, the words “Under God” didn’t appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954; the founding fathers had nothing to do with them. The Pledge itself, in fact, wasn’t even written until 1892.

Hurricane Politics

2008-09-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

NY Times:

“On the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall three years ago, President Bush helped Senator John McCain celebrate his birthday with a cake that melted on a blazing hot airport tarmac, just as the president’s approval ratings would in the weeks to come.

This time around, the party’s off. Or at least it is for Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, who on Sunday sought to focus attention on efforts to prepare for Hurricane Gustav at the expense of carefully laid plans for this week’s Republican National Convention.
Salon:
Operative words? “This time around.” As Salon’s Eric Boehlert reminds us, on the eve of George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election bid the Bush Administration had bodies and supplies and other forms of support lined up in advance of the hurricane season in Florida, the state that put Bush over the top in 2000 and one expected to be close again that fall. A year later, once the votes were in, the nation witnessed the Administration’s lagged, pathetic Katrina-style response and the McCain-Bush cake-cutting revelry. Clearly, the Republicans can do a heckuva job when they want to.

Executive Experience

2008-09-01T07:13:00.001-07:00

CBS News/TPM:
With a push from the McCain camp, the conservative blogs are suddenly aflutter with claims about Sarah Palin's "executive experience" and readiness for the presidency based on her six years as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska ...

McCain VP pick laughed as radio host called Alaskan Senator a 'b*tch' and a 'cancer'

2008-08-31T02:47:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
On January 15, 2008, McCain VP nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called into a radio talk show and laughed as the host questioned Alaska Senate President Lyda Green's parenting, and then further attacked the cancer survivor calling her a "bitch" and a "cancer."

At 7:11 in the audio of the program, the host says "Governor, you can't say this, but we can. She is a cancer and she is nothing but a very jealous woman."

Then again at 10:12 in the audio obtained by Raw Story from the Bob and Mark Show, the host says to Palin, "Well, I'm going to say what I wish you could say...Lyda Green is a bitch, and she needs to go away because she is a cancer on the progress of the state of Alaska."

You can listen to the interview here

MORE: 2 Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness

Top 10 Reasons Why Palin is Wrong for America

2008-08-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

Dkos:

TOP TEN REASONS SARAH PALIN SHOULD NOT BE ELECTED VICE PRESIDENT

#1: Palin opposes a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body, opposing the right to an abortion even for rape victims.

#2: Palin believes that Creationism should be taught in public schools, which runs both counter to well-settled evolutionary science, and to the Constitutional separation of church and state.

#3: Palin is a global warming denier, who (as with her views on evolution) has expressed skepticism about the well-settled science.

#4: Palin opposes listing polar bears as an endangered species, because it means oil and gas companies might have to be just a little bit careful out there.

#5: Palin is rabidly dedicated to drilling in the Artic wildlife refuge, known as ANWR.

#6: Palin is in the midst of a growing ethics scandal, involving the alleged abuse of her gubernatorial power to punish a State Trooper who is her sister's ex-husband, firing a State Commissioner who refused to go along.

#7: Palin called Hillary Clinton a "whiner", even as she cynically tries to woo Clinton voters to the McCain ticket.

#8: Palin has very little experience for the Vice Presidential job, serving less than two years so far of her first term as Governor of a state with fewer residents than Fort Worth, Texas. (Previously, she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, pop. 8,500.)

#9: Palin has no foreign policy experience at all, so little in fact that her supporters are reduced to citing Alaska's proximity to Russia.

#10: Palin is virtually untested, unvetted and unknown to Americans, a fact which throws into relief the hypocrisy of the many unfair criticisms leveled at Barack Obama during this campaign.

BONUS REASON, #11: Palin only recently said that she doesn't even know what the job entails, saying on the CNBC show Kudlow and Co. that:

"[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?" (July 2008)

A Take on Sarah Palin from an Alaskan Blogger

2008-08-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.

“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image. (cont.)

McCain’s VP Choice Is Under Ethics Investigation For Abuse Of Power In Alaska

2008-08-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
In Dayton, OH today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will announce that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be his vice presidential running mate. Palin, who entered office in 2006 after running as a reformer, is touted by conservatives as being “a politician of eye-popping integrity.”

But Palin’s reformer image took a hit last month when she was accused of attempting to get a state trooper fired. That state trooper was her former brother-in-law who had gone through “a messy divorce” with her sister. After the trooper’s boss wouldn’t act on the governor’s request, she fired him. Though Palin says she doesn’t “have anything to hide” and she “didn’t do anything wrong there,” an investigation has found that one of her aides pushed the firing: (more)

McCain: Iraq Is ‘A Peaceful And Stable Country Now’

2008-08-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

HUH? The idea that McCain is completely out of touch is wholly supported by his statements in this interview.

Thinkprogress:
Today, Time Magazine published an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that it conducted aboard McCain’s campaign airplane. Reporters James Carney and Michael Scherer described McCain as “prickly” and “at times, abrasive” during the course of the interview.

Carney and Scherer noted to McCain that the Iraqi government is calling for a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq even though McCain’s previously stated definition of “victory” — “a peaceful, stable, prosperous democratic state” — has not been achieved. The Arizona senator dismissed their characterization of the situation, saying that Iraq is “a peaceful and stable country now”:

Q: Some members of the [Iraqi] government have made it clear in the last month or two that they might want to withdraw before complete stability, before totally secure borders, before some of the completeness of victory as you described. Is there any change, do you think there is some wiggle room there because what you described with Petraeus was an end point that was rather complete — a peaceful, stable country.

MCCAIN: Its a peaceful and stable country now.

It’s Not Just McCain, It’s Republicanism

2008-08-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

C&L:
In an op-ed at Murdoch’s London Times, associate editor Anatole Kalestsky writes that America must give the Republicans “a good kicking” to reassert the most important facet of democracy - not just to elect good governance but to get rid of bad governance. It’s an op-ed that is highly critical of the Democratic party’s choice - Murdoch’s UK papers preferred Clinton - and of Dem tactics to date. But it really gets the message across on McCain and the GOP.

Whether or not Mr McCain would continue the policies of President Bush (and much of the evidence suggests that his would be a Bush presidency on steroids), he would keep in power the coalition of interests that the Republican Party represents: the energy and military-industrial lobbies, the religious conservatives, the anti-environment interests and the neoconservative think-tanks. These groups - which have gained enormous influence, both financially and intellectually, under President Bush - are as responsible for the blunders of the Bush Administration as Mr Bush himself, arguably more so, given the President’s notorious lack of interest in the details of any of his own policies.

If a Republican is again elected president, these same centres of power will continue to dominate Washington. However many wars they encouraged, however high the price of oil rose, however many tax dollars were redistributed in their favour, the neoconservatives and Pentagon contractors and religious fundamentalists and oil and Wall Street lobbies would conclude that there would be no political price to pay for failure. They would be justified in concluding that there is no longer any democratic check on their ambitions.

It is only by ejecting the Republicans from the White House that American voters can send the message that they are still in charge of their country and that gross government incompetence will not go unpunished. Accountability - not personality or rhetoric or colour or age or gender - should be the overriding issue in this election.

"America, We Are Better Than These Last Eight Years"... Targets McCain And Bush... "Change Is Coming"

2008-08-29T04:01:00.001-07:00

AP:
Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president.

"America, now is not the time for small plans," the 47-year-old Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all working-class families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, "John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time," a scathing indictment of his Republican rival on health care, education, the economy and more.

You can watch Obama's speech here

Putin accuses U.S. of orchestrating Georgian war

2008-08-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

CNN:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

McCain Adviser Sums Up Health Plan In 2 Words: Emergency Room

2008-08-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

TPM:
This is starting to get more and more attention today: In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, a health care policy adviser to John McCain appeared to suggest that anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has health insurance.
The adviser, John Goodman, who is not paid by the McCain campaign but is widely quoted as one of the campaign's advisers and an author of McCain's health care policy, offered the following solution to the health care crisis to the paper:

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American -- even illegal aliens -- as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

The problem with this analysis, according to an expert quoted in the article, is that people without insurance are less likely to seek non-emergency-room care, which ultimately drives up the cost to the health care system.

Despite CNN Distortion, Americans Prefer Obama Tax Plan

2008-08-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

C&L:

As ThinkProgress reported, CNN on Tuesday showed a deceptive chart which wrongly suggests that John McCain’s tax plan provides more Americans with greater savings than that offered by Barack Obama. But CNN’s upper-crust income brackets, which start at $161,000 and represent only 5% of taxpayers, conceal the inescapable truth that Barack Obama’s proposals offer working and middle class Americans steeper tax benefits at every income level up to $110,000. And according to a new Gallup poll released this week, that truth isn’t lost on American voters.
By 48% to 43%, Americans surveyed by Gallup say Obama would better handle the issue of taxes than John McCain. And with good reason. As the Washington Post detailed, an analysis by the Tax Policy Center showed:
“Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.”

80 percent says United States is on the wrong track.

2008-08-26T06:55:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds, “Eight in 10 say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the USA, and even more rate the economy as ‘only fair’ or poor. Seven in 10 say it’s getting worse.”

The Daily Show Welcomes Republicans to St. Paul

2008-08-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

C&L: As seen on the I-94 greeting motorists arriving from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, home to the Republican National Convention

Buchanan accuses 'McCain's neocon warmonger' of treason

2008-08-22T12:11:00.001-07:00

Rawstory:
According to conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, Sen. John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a 'dual loyalist,' 'neocon warmonger' involved in activities that 'none dare call treason.'

In his recent history, Scheunemann was a key member of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which lobbied President Clinton for war with Iraq for years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was also a signatory on a letter to President George W. Bush, just days after the terrorist attacks, demanding an invasion of Iraq and threatening political consequences if the president did not comply.

I Spent Years as a POW with John McCain, and His Finger Should Not Be Near the Red Button

2008-08-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

Military.com:
A fellow Vietnam POW of McCain's warns of the candidate's "quick and explosive temper" and suggests McCain is exaggerating his imprisonment.

John McCain is a long-time acquaintance of mine that goes way back to our time together at the U.S. Naval Academy and as Prisoners of War in Vietnam. He is a man I respect and admire in some ways. But there are a number of reasons why I will not vote for him for President of the United States.

McCain Tied to Last Two Financial Meltdowns

2008-08-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

TPM:
One story that needs to be told by the MSM and hammered on by Obama is McCain direct connections, through close personal friends and associates, to the last two serious financial meltdowns in the US economy.

The first time was the Savings and Loan Crisis in the 80's & 90's, when McCain was implicated in the Keating scandal for influence peddling. The failure of Keating's Lincoln S&L meant the loss of life savingsfor the 21,000 depositors, many of them elderly, who were swindled byLincoln. McCain's close buddy, Charles Keating, was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. Keating was a close personal friend of McCain's and McCain took unreported (until he was caught) vacations at Keatings luxury vacation homes. The S&L crisis contributed directly to the recession of the late 80's / early 90's and the government was required to bailout the bad decisions of McCain and his friends.

More recently, McCain is directly tied to the current US financial meltdown. Until last month the Chairman of McCain's campaign was none other than Phil Gramm, the former Texas Senator, Vice-Chairman of banking giant UBS and chief proponent of financial deregulation when he was in the Senate (Gramm stepped down from the campaign after calling the US a nation of whiners). UBS, not coincidentally, was one of the largest promoters of sub-primemortagage backed securities that have played such a significant role inthe recent financial meltdown.

McCain campaign throws Social Security’s birthday cake in the trash.

2008-08-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
In honor of the 73rd anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act, the New Mexico Democratic Party attempted to sing “Happy 73rd Birthday to Social Security” outside of a McCain campaign office, “only to have the birthday cake thrown in the trash by the campaign”:

While McCain supporters screamed, “Obama sleeps with a Teddy Bear and a night light,” staffers approached the Democratic group, yelling, took the 20 inch sheet cake that said “Happy Birthday Social Security” and threw it away.

Conchita Cruz, the press secretary for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, called the cake trashing a “perfect metaphor” for McCain’s approach to Social Security policy.

Russia: Blame Cheney for Georgia Crisis

2008-08-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

UK TimesOnline:
Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States.

When you look at this, in addition to the fact that McCain's senior policy advisor happens to be a paid lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia, things start to look fishy:

"John McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann’s personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue."

John McCain on Russia: Angry, Bellicose, Belligerent and Extreme

2008-08-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Hill:
John McCain needs to calm down, stop telling the world he speaks for the American people, stop escalating his warlike rhetoric almost by the hour, and stop the phony tough talk that makes a bad situation worse and would only heighten the danger at a dangerous enough moment.

McCain takes too much advice from a lobbyist who makes money paid for by Georgia. He takes too much bandwidth making threats that neither he nor President Bush nor any American president can back up without creating even more damage to American security and more danger to world security.

John McCain should stop talking as though he is the president, and Americans should and I predict will take note of the dangers he would bring, if he ever is the president.

McCain's new ad touts "renewable energy," but his energy plan offers little to support it.

2008-08-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Factcheck.org:
A McCain ad shows pictures of wind-driven turbines while the narrator says: "Renewable energy to transform our economy, create jobs and energy independence, that's John McCain." But, in fact, his energy plan doesn't specify any new federal spending for renewable energy and says only that he'd "rationalize" existing tax credits to provide incentives. In the past, however, he's opposed extending such tax credits when paid for by tax increases elsewhere.

The ad also insinuates that Obama would bring "higher taxes" for "your family," another in what has become a pattern of misrepresentations of Obama's tax plan. Obama actually proposes to cut taxes for all but the most affluent families. He wants to restore tax rates to pre-Bush levels only for those making over $250,000 a year.

Linked to 'big oil,' incumbent Tenn. GOP congressman loses primary

2008-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
Being linked to "big oil" turned into a big problem for Tennessee Republican freshman Rep. David Davis, who became the first congressman from that state to lose in a primary in more than four decades.

Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe beat Davis by a 500-vote margin Thursday in the solidly Republican 1st District in the northeastern corner of the state.
Roe's victory came after a bruising campaign in which he accused Davis of selling out to "big oil."

CONSERVATIVE OBSTRUCTION ON ENERGY

2008-08-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Center for American Progress:
House conservatives are not looking for any fix to gas prices: They are intent on drilling and drilling only -- and simultaneously filling Big Oil's coffers. These same conservatives have voted to block legislation that would have released oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, block legislation banning price gouging, and block legislation requiring oil companies to first drill on the land already leaded to them. Conservative leaders have blocked or voted "no" on eight different energy bills aimed at addressing rising prices, including bills that raised vehicle fuel efficiency, provided tax incentives for renewable energy, invested in energy efficiency, required a 15 percent renewable electricity standard, and expanded commuter rail and bus services while reducing transit fares. Opening new offshore sites to drilling is a boon only to Big Oil companies, and they have responded to conservatives' efforts by opening their wallets. Just in the last year, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), one of the leaders of the floor standoff, has received more than nearly $100,000 from the oil and gas industries, with $20,000 from Chevron alone.

Former FBI Official: After 9/11, White House Told FBI To Blame Anthrax Attacks On Al Qaeda

2008-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
The New York Daily News has a new twist in the administration’s attempt to peg the anthrax attacks to its own bellicose aims. Immediately after 9/11, the Daily News reports, “White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda,” according to a former FBI official:

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was “beaten up” during President Bush’s morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.

“They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East,” the retired senior FBI official told The News.

As the Daily News noted, similar to its efforts with Iraq, the White House on multiple occasions suggested that the anthrax attacks were tied to al Qaeda operatives abroad (cont.)

Suskind: Bush ordered fake letter linking Iraq to 9/11

2008-08-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Politico:
A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

Report: McCain Received $881,450 From Big Oil Since He Announced Support For Offshore Drilling»

2008-08-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has made his complete reversal on offshore drilling a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, insisting that expanding offshore drilling into protected areas would lead to more oil supply on the market “within a matter of months” — regardless of the Energy Information Agency’s projection that oil would not reach the market for nearly a decade and “would not have a significant impact” on oil prices.

The report notes that these enormous contributions represent a seven-fold increase in donations, compared to McCain’s 2000 campaign

RAND Study: Military Is Not Well-Suited To Countering Terrorism

2008-07-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

AP:
The United States can defeat al-Qaida if it relies less on force and more on policing and intelligence to root out the terror group's leaders, a new study contends.

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests there is no battlefield solution to terrorism," said Seth Jones, the lead author of the study and a Rand political scientist.

"The United States has the necessary instruments to defeat al-Qaida, it just needs to shift its strategy," Jones said.

Rice Adviser: Iraq Invasion Was 'F*cking Stupid'

2008-07-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

Huffingtonpost:
Over at the Washington Independent, Spencer Ackerman continues his enlightening "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series with "A Counterinsurgency Guide for Politicos." The Indy has obtained a copy of a forthcoming manual on counterinsurgency strategy written by David Kilcullen, a "former Australian Army officer who is now an adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."

More bluntly, Kilcullen, who helped Petraeus design his 2007 counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, called the decision to invade Iraq "stupid" -- in fact, he said "fucking stupid" -- and suggested that if policy-makers apply the manual's lessons, similar wars can be avoided in the future.

"The biggest stupid idea," Kilcullen said, "was to invade Iraq in the first place."

Snubbing Wounded Troops?

2008-07-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

FactCheck.org:
A McCain TV spot falsely insinuates that Obama canceled his visit because "the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras."

Police: Man Shot Churchgoers Over Liberal Views

2008-07-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

ABC News:

Knoxville's police chief says the man accused of a shooting that killed two people at a Tennessee church targeted the congregation because of its liberal social stance.

Chief Sterling Owen IV said Monday that police found a letter in Jim D. Adkisson's car. Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a "stated hatred of the liberal movement."

Adkisson is charged with first-degree murder. Police say a gunman entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church during a children's performance Sunday. No children were hurt.

The church is known for advocating women's and gay rights and founding an American Civil Liberties Union chapter.

UPDATE: Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list

Mayer: Top DOJ Lawyers Spoke ‘In Codes’ For Fear Of Being Wiretapped By White House ‘Lunatics’

2008-07-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:

Last night on PBS, Bill Moyers interviewed investigative journalist Jane Mayer and mentioned that in Mayer’s new book, she notes that FBI agents refused to participate in the CIA’s interrogation of terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay because they determined it to be “borderline torture.” Moyers then asked, “Who were some of the other conservative heroes, as you call them, in your book?”

Mayer remembered one top Justice Department lawyer and “very conservative member of this administration” who said that after participating in White House meetings authorizing torture, he believed that “lunatics had taken over the country.”

Mayer said two other top DOJ lawyers had to develop a system of speaking codes because they feared they were being wiretapped while others described an “atmosphere of intimidation,” mainly from Vice President Dick Cheney:

MAYER: There was such an atmosphere of intimidation. … They felt so endangered in some ways that, at one point, two of the top lawyers from the Justice Department developed this system of talking in codes to each other because they thought they might be being wiretapped…by their own government. They felt like they might be kind of weirdly in physical danger. They were actually scared to stand up to Vice President Cheney.
You can watch the interview Here

A Full Tank of Nonsense

2008-07-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

FactCheck.org:
McCain ad says Obama's the guy to thank for emptying our wallets at the filling station. We say that's ridiculous.

McCain's new ad accuses Obama of keeping gas prices high, all by himself. That's absurd, and McCain knows it – he has said repeatedly that our current problems were "30 years in the making."The ad also tells us that gas prices are high because "some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America." Not true. The federal government's estimate is that if the moratorium on offshore drilling were lifted today, it would be 2030 before we'd see a noticeable effect on supply and prices. For the same reason, it's simply not true that drilling more now will "rescue our family budgets."

John McCain's Disaster Economics

2008-07-22T06:34:00.001-07:00

NY Times:
If voters got a fair presentation of John McCain's economic plan, the idea of him winning the White House would cause mass panic

GOP cyber-security expert suggests Diebold tampered with 2002 election

2008-07-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections...

Some critics of electronic voting raised questions about the 2002 Georgia race even at the time. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss in polls taken a week before the vote, lost 53% to 46%. Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who led challenger Sonny Perdue in the polls by eleven points, lost 51% to 46%. However, because the Diebold machines used throughout the state provided no paper trail, it was impossible to ask for a recount in either case.

Hearing-Gate Exposed! McCain Has Worse Afghanistan Hearing Record Than Obama

2008-07-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

ABC News:
The McCain campaign criticism of Sen. Barack Obama's hearing record on Capitol Hill led us to put the shoe on the other foot.

It turns out that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has attended even fewer Afghanistan-related Senate hearings over the past two years than Obama's one. Which is a nice way of saying, McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, has attended zero of his committee's six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years.

American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

2008-07-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Independent UK:
The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.

The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners.

Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.

VIDEO: Red Cross finds Bush administration guilty of war crimes

2008-07-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
In a secret report last year, the Red Cross found evidence of the CIA using torture on prisoners that would make the Bush administration guilty of war crimes, The New York Times reported Friday.

The Red Cross determined the culpability of the Bush administration after interviewing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, according to the article.

Prisoner Abu Zubaydahwho said he had been waterboarded, "slammed against the walls" and confined in boxes "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position."

President George Bush: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'

2008-07-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

No question should remain regarding whether our current president is a complete douchebag in addition to being a total embarrassment to the nation.

Telegraph UK:

George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Book Cites Secret Red Cross Report of C.I.A. Torture of Qaeda Captives

2008-07-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

NY Times:
WASHINGTON — Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

MCCAIN'S TOP ECONOMIC ADVISER: AMERICANS NEED TO STOP "WHINING" ABOUT THE ECONOMY

2008-07-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

Huffingtonpost:
In an interview with the Washington Times, McCain's top economic adviser Phil Gramm tells America to suck it up and stop complaining about the economy:
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

Gramm, whose extensive ties to Enron proved problematic during the firm's implosion several years ago, was serving as a lobbyist for the international banking and subprime mortgage giant UBS until April. As Mother Jones documented, Gramm played a key role in the subprime meltdown during his time in the Senate.

Just yesterday, McCain himself said "I would imagine that we are" in a recession. But he and Gramm are still on the same page: in April McCain said "a lot of our problems today are psychological."

McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too

2008-07-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Wired:
If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday.

McCain's new tack towards the Bush administration's theory of executive power comes some 10 days after a McCain surrogate stated, incorrectly it seems, that the senator wanted hearings into telecom companies' cooperation with President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, before he'd support giving those companies retroactive legal immunity.

Value of Dollar has Dropped 41% During Bush's Term

2008-07-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg:
When President George W. Bush went to his first Group of Eight summit in 2001, a dominant issue was the dollar -- the strong dollar, that is. The U.S. currency was on a record-setting streak, and the free-marketeering president wasn't going to stand in the way.

On the eve of Bush's last G-8 appearance, the dollar's gyrations are again in the crossfire. This time, it is a weak currency, upended by slumping growth, a housing recession and record gas prices, that is gnawing away at the world economy.

Obama Outraising McCain Among Military Personnel

2008-07-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

TPM:
That Obama attracts support from some in the military is evident in dollars and cents: Among people who have donated at least $200 to a presidential campaign this election cycle, Obama has collected more than $327,000 from those identifying themselves as military personnel, while McCain has collected $224,000, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The Associated Press.

Gallup Poll: Majority Worry McCain Would Be Too Much Like Bush

2008-07-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

Gallup:
PRINCETON, NJ -- A recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds about two in three Americans concerned that John McCain would pursue policies as president that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued. Nearly half -- 49% -- say they are "very concerned" about this.

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

2008-07-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

Alternet:
In 2003, the Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad investigated Americans' knowledge of world affairs. The task force concluded: "America's ignorance of the outside world" is so great as to constitute a threat to national security.

Tennessee Trade Group Scaring Employees into Voting for McCain

2008-06-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dailykos:
We'll see lots of businesses trying to scare their employees into voting Republican this fall. This email is from a local Tennessee chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group, and instructs its member companies to do just that.

From: Robin Collier [mailto:RCollier@abctennessee.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:42 AM
To: ABC Members Subject: ABC Mid-TN - President's Message
By Pete Dickson, President
Last week, ABC National held their annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. ABC members from across the country, including Mid-TN Chapter members, came together for one purpose - lobbying Congress.
There has never been a time in our industry when the slogan, "Get into Politics or Get Out of Business", applied more. During our visit with members of the TN Congressional delegation, it became very clear that the Democrats are increasing their efforts to oppose most every bill that would benefit or protect our industry and seek passage of legislation which would harm our industry. The greatest example is organized labor, with the help of the Democrats, is attaching amendments to most any bill to expand the use of Davis-Bacon wages.
The main topics of discussion with members of Congress, including Davis-Bacon expansion, Immigration, Union Only Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Protect the Rights to a Secret Ballot, Salting Abuse, and removing the 3% withholding tax on business. Last but not least, the fuel crisis. When communicating with Congress, ask them to support a House Resolution to "Expand American Refining Capacity on Closed Military Installations". This should assist in reducing the price of gasoline and diesel by streamlining the refinery application process and by requiring the President to open at least three military instillations for the purpose of housing new American refineries.
In the past, you may have felt your voice wouldn't be heard in regard to political issues and elections. It's a new day and you must take the time to join with other ABC members to let your Representatives and Senators in Congress know your position on these issues.
You also must talk to your employees about the Presidential election. You are not allowed to tell your employees who to vote for but you can express your thoughts on the best candidate for our industry and the protection of their jobs. ABC has resources to assist you in communicating with your employees regarding politics.
The Democratic candidate has indicated he will work closely with organized labor if elected. There is "A Clear Choice" for our industry in regard to the Presidential election.
We must elect John McCain! Get involved! Don't wait!
"GET INTO POLITICS OR GET OUT OF BUSINESS!"
Please contact ABC @ 615-399-8323 if you need additional information or materials for your employees.
ABC Mid-Tennessee Chapter 1604 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37210 Phone 615-399-8323 * Fax 615-399-7528 www.abctennessee.com

"Tennessee Democrats have really gotten embarrassing and offensive"

2008-06-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Indeed!

Political Salsa:
Will someone please step forward and rescue the Tennessee Democratic Party before or soon after the 2008 general election?

And that someone needs to be former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell in announcing his intention to run for governor in 2010. Start collecting the campaign donations. Get the bumper stickers printed. Create a website.Or else.

Things with Tennessee Democrats have really gotten embarrassing and offensive. Every state should have at least a strong two-party system to offer voters a choice. But all that's available in Tennessee is Republican conservative and a Democrat with a prominent elephant's trunk.

Democrats Have Legalized Bush's Crimes

2008-06-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

Consortium News:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap "compromise" is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.

In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush's theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

Kristol says Bush might bomb Iran if he thinks Obama will win

2008-06-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

C&L:
KRISTOL: I think honestly, if the president felt John McCain were going to be the next president he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out. I do wonder with Sen. Obama, if president Bush thinks Sen, Obama win does he somehow think that, does he worry that Obama won’t follow through on the policy…

WALLACE: So, you’re suggesting that he might in fact, if Obama’s going to win the election, either before or after the election—launch a military strike?

You can watch the video HERE

Obama vows to close 'McCain adviser's Enron loophole'

2008-06-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

AP:
Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday said as president he would strengthen government oversight of energy traders he blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil.

The Democratic candidate's campaign singled out the so-called "Enron loophole" for allowing speculators to run up the cost of fuel by operating outside federal regulation. Oil closed near $135 a barrel on Friday — almost double the price a year ago.

"My plan fully closes the Enron loophole and restores commonsense regulation as part of my broader plan to ease the burden for struggling families today while investing in a better future," Obama said in a campaign statement.

Bush 'war crimes conference' to convene in Mass., plan prosecution of admin. officials

2008-06-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
On September 13-14, 2008, Lawrence Velvel, the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, plans to convene a 'convention' at the school's facilities; the attendees of which will plan strategies to prosecute members of the Bush administration for war crimes.

"This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," stated Velvel in a press release. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth.

"We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice.

ENVIRONMENT -- ADMINISTRATION REPORT LINKS EXTREME WEATHER TO POLLUTION, CLIMATE CHANGE

2008-06-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Center for American Progress:
Yesterday, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program released a 162-page report revealing that "changes in weather and climate change" have been and will continue to be "the biggest impact of global warming." The report, which synthesizes the findings of more than 100 academic papers, also warns that increases in extreme weather are "among the most serious challenges to society." The assessment finds that manmade global warming has caused an increased frequency of heat waves, droughts, severe rainfall, and fierce hurricanes, and that there is a 90 percent likelihood that the frequency and intensity of such harsh weather conditions will rise. Thomas Karl, co-chairman of the report, said the recurrence of the type of flooding witnessed in Iowa will continue as "time goes on and global temperatures increase." In definitive terms, carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, contributed most to global warming in the last century, the report concludes. NASA climatologist James Hansen cites the report in stating that "the next President and Congress" must exert leadership in order to take "responsibility for the present dangerous situation."

Constitutional expert: FISA bill 'is an evisceration of the Fourth Amendment'

2008-06-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Rawstory:
"Never appease political bullies, President Bush admonished at the Israeli Knesset," MSNBC's Keith Olbermann opened. "Oddly, House Democrats chose to ignore him on the subject of dealing with him."

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley sees a "very frightening bill" in a proposed "compromise," currently in the House, that would update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to effectively grant immunity from civil lawsuits to telecommunications companies that agreed to spy on their customers as part of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, starting shortly before the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. If the White House asked a phone company to spy with its assurance that it was legal, the measure says, that's enough to dismiss a case.

Congressional Democrats, Turley went on, knew about surveillance and torture programs, but were politically unable to oppose them at the same time they were touting themselves to the public as defenders of civil liberties. The bill, he said, is part of a campaign of collusion between Congress and the Bush administration, immunizing not only the telecommunications companies, but the administration and any members of Congress, on either side of the aisle, that may have been involved.

Tennessee Democrat Who Called Obama A Terrorist Says New Comical Thing

2008-06-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

Wonkette:
We all remember Fred Hobbs, the proud member of Tennessee’s Democratic Executive Committee who recently confessed that he thought Barack Obama was “terrorist-connected.” He has been apologizing all week, and in a letter to colleagues he explained what was running through his mind: his comments “did reflect questions I had after what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly.” Fred added that he also doesn’t know how to drink water or walk without falling sideways, or whatever it is the human beings are doing these days.

Ok, how does a Democrat not know to question anything and everything they see on Fox News? Just as a general rule, all people this clueless should be banished from the Democratic Party.

Ex-State Dept. official: Hundreds of detainees died in U.S. custody, at least 25 murdered.

2008-06-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

Thinkprogress:
At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides:

NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?
WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.

You can watch video of the testimony HERE

Countdown: McCain, Oil and The Enron Loophole

2008-06-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

C&L:
How can you tell if John McCain is lying to you about how drilling in ANWR will help save American dollars and bring down the cost of oil? Phil Gramm’s lips are moving.

Keith Olbermann looks at the infamous “Enron Loophole” and how McCain Senior Advisor Phil Gramm is neck deep in policies that screwed the public for the gain of the almighty corporate dollar.

You can watch this special report Here

General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes

2008-06-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

McClatchy:
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.

TN Redneck Democratic Leaders Call Obama Terrorist

2008-06-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

Wonkette:
One of the funniest, tragic outcomes of Obama’s takeover of the Democrats is how certain factions of the party — white, rural “yellow dogs” or “blue reds” or “purple assholes,” depending on the current lexicon — cannot, at all, give support to Obama, for fear of losing support in their red-leaning districts. This comprises 10-25 Democratic members of Congress and virtually all Southern branches of the party. Now, silence is one thing. But when they start literally calling him a terrorist — as some Democratic leaders in Tennessee are doing — to distance themselves, then that might be a modest form of overkill.

Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member representing part of Davis’ district, said he understands why Davis is not endorsing Obama and is “skeptical” of the Illinois senator himself.

“Maybe [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to — I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him,” Hobbs said when asked why he thought Davis wasn’t endorsing Obama. “He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be.”

Lincoln Davis and Fred Hobbs should be run out of the party on a rail. This kind of ignorance and racism shouldn't be tolerated in the Democratic party.

Obama The Preferred Candidate Around The World: Poll

2008-06-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

AP:
WASHINGTON — People around the globe widely expect the next American president to improve the country's policies toward the rest of the world, especially if Barack Obama is elected, yet they retain a persistently poor image of the U.S., according to a poll released Thursday.