On to Tampa Bay

Happy, happy, joy, joy

In Jon Lester we trust.

Boston Globe Photo Gallery: Game 4

Boston Globe Photo Gallery: Celebration: Red Sox Advance to ALCS

LATimes Photo Gallery - ALDS Game 4

The winning run, scored by Jason Bay State, RBI to Jed Lowry. Neither were on the roster on opening day. In Theo we trust, too.

The Real John McCain is Anti-Choice

73% of female pro-choice McCain supporters in battleground states do not know McCain's position on abortion. 1 in 4 believe he is pro-choice.

In the Senate, John McCain has cast 119 votes on abortion and other reproductive-rights issues. 115 of the votes were anti-choice.

Why the Rich Love McCain's Tax Plan

In a nutshell, because under George Bush, 31% of the tax cuts were given to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Under McCain's plan, 58% of tax cuts will go to the wealthiest 1%.

Endorsements for Obama

Senator Hagel's wife Lilibet Hagel has scheduled a news conference for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow to announce her support for Barack Obama (she will be accompanied by Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower).

In the Charlotte Observer, Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America endorses Obama.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Anti-abortion scholar Nicholas P. Cafardi, a law professor and the former dean of the Duquesne University Law School.

The Alien endorses Obama in the Weekly World News. Victory is ours! The Alien has correctly backed the winner in the last four Presidential elections.

McCain is pissed.

John McCain's Losing Pisses Me Off Express

Angry, angry, angry:



McCain laughably claims that Obama gets touchy or angry when his credentials or policies are questioned, but of course the person who really does that is Ragin' John McCain. Just read this editorial by one of the editors of the Des Moines Register, who sat in on John McCain's clenched-jaw performance last week:

Basu: Is McCain too thin-skinned for presidency?

John McCain is angry.

You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling.

McCain's volatility has been written and whispered about by staff and Senate colleagues: the mercurial temper, the quixotic outbursts of reproach, then jocularity. But those alleged episodes were behind the scenes. The combative, prickly McCain we saw was seeking the Register's endorsement. He already got it in the caucuses.

He took frequent offense at questions, characterizing them as personal viewpoints of the questioners rather than legitimate topics. True, he was asked some tough, pointed questions about his running mate and his honesty. But America is having those discussions, and you'd expect he'd be ready, not defensive. It takes a thick skin to be president.

McCain says he is angry because "people are angry." But his behavior suggests it's more than that. Maybe it's because his poll numbers are falling, his running mate is being ridiculed and his attempt to play fixer on the bailout failed to launch. Or maybe, a more worrisome prospect, this is the real McCain - who can't deal with stressful situations without feeling attacked, who lashes out when he feels threatened.

McCain Will Slash Medicare and Medicaid

How does John McCain plan to pay for his horrible, no good health care plan? By making huge cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, according to this article in today's Wall Street Journal.

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.

[]

...Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.

In other words, John McCain, wealthy beyond belief, plans to balance the budget by slashing medical care for elderly, poor and disabled Americans.

Millionaire guts medical care for peopole who can afford it the least. Who in their right mind would vote for this guy?

Tax Cheat/Tax Cheat '08: That's McCain/Palin All Right

McCain is cheating on his taxes by not reporting his gambling income, or losses. Doesn't matter which, by law he has to report it.

Palin is cheating on her taxes by not reporting her per diem income. When you charge your state's taxpayers to live in your own home, that's taxable income to you. Dope.

Somehow I don't think George W. Bush's IRS is going to go after them, but they should. Cheating is cheating, no matter how rich or powerful you are. They're cheating the rest of us who play by the rules and pay our taxes.

John McCain and His BFF Charles Keating: The Real Story

From the new Obama website KeatingEconomics.com

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: October 6, 2008

yahoo: A protester holds a sign outside of a fundraiser for Republican vice presidential Nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in Dallas, Texas October 3, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
In a stampede to come clean, seven state employees who failed to appear for testimony after being subpoenaed in the Troopergate investigation in Alaska had a change of heart after a judge rejected their challenge to the subpoena. Now they've agreed to testify in the investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of the state's popular Public Safety Commissioner.

You want to talk about associations? 20 years ago while John McCain was palling around with his soon-to-be-a-felon BFF Charles Keating, Barack Obama was in an airport giving a complete stranger enough money to be able to take all her bags to Norway. A leader's character is revealed in everyday situations.

Speaking of character-revealing actions, read the 5-page article in today's Washington Post about the marriage of John McCain and his first wife Carol, which ends with these devastating concluding grafs:

At the Republican National Convention this summer, the family came together to celebrate McCain's triumphant moment. "Everyone," says McCain's old friend and lawyer Bud Day, "was there and jovial."

Everyone except Carol. She declined to join her children and her ex-husband.

It was probably just as well. The buildup to McCain's acceptance speech included an eight-minute video that celebrated his life, work and family. At its conclusion, delegates in the convention hall erupted in applause.

Carol McCain, the woman who stood beside McCain through triumph and tragedy, was never mentioned.

The LATimes gets in on the McCain-revealing action with this article: Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator. The subhead for the article is:

Three crashes early in his career led Navy officials to question or fault his judgment. A Times review of his record suggests he was cocky, occasionally cavalier and prone to testing limits.

Ouch!

More good news for Barack Obama: Bluegrass legend, 81-year-old Ralph Stanley has cut a radio ad [listen to the ad here] for Obama in Virginia. Ralph Stanley is the guy who sang "Oh Death" on the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

The Stanley Brothers in their heyday; Pete Seeger is the guy sitting, listening:

"[T]he McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking."

And Paul Krugman is terrified:

Paul Krugman, NYTimes: Health Care Destruction

Mr. McCain [] wants to blow up the current system, by eliminating the tax break for employer-provided insurance. And he doesn’t offer a workable alternative.

Without the tax break, many employers would drop their current health plans. Several recent nonpartisan studies estimate that under the McCain plan around 20 million Americans currently covered by their employers would lose their health insurance.

As compensation, the McCain plan would give people a tax credit — $2,500 for an individual, $5,000 for a family — that could be used to buy health insurance in the individual market. At the same time, Mr. McCain would deregulate insurance, leaving insurance companies free to deny coverage to those with health problems — and his proposal for a “high-risk pool” for hard cases would provide little help.

So what would happen?

The good news, such as it is, is that more people would buy individual insurance. Indeed, the total number of uninsured Americans might decline marginally under the McCain plan — although many more Americans would be without insurance than under the Obama plan.

But the people gaining insurance would be those who need it least: relatively healthy Americans with high incomes. Why? Because insurance companies want to cover only healthy people, and even among the healthy only those able to pay a lot in addition to their tax credit would be able to afford coverage (remember, it’s a $5,000 credit, but the average family policy actually costs more than $12,000).

Meanwhile, the people losing insurance would be those who need it most: lower-income workers who wouldn’t be able to afford individual insurance even with the tax credit, and Americans with health problems whom insurance companies won’t cover.

And in the process of comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted, the McCain plan would also lead to a huge, expensive increase in bureaucracy: insurers selling individual health plans spend 29 percent of the premiums they receive on administration, largely because they employ so many people to screen applicants. This compares with costs of 12 percent for group plans and just 3 percent for Medicare.

In short, the McCain plan makes no sense at all....the McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking. And I’m terrified.

I'm Loving This

Another website put up by the Obama campaign:

JohnMcCainRecord.com

It's on. Take that, Old Spice.

It's The Economy, Stupid

PDF file, Phoenix Sunday Gazette, September 13, 1993
Charles Keating III and McCain, than a member of the U.S. House, celebrate their August birthdays [McCain's 51st] at the Keatings' beachside estate at
Cat Cay in the Bahamas [1987 photo]

Obama takes the gloves off and launches a new website: KeatingEconomics.com: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis. The website will have a 13-minute documentary on McCain and the Keating Five, available at noon tomorrow. Can't wait.

McCain is trying to smear Obama with guilt by association.

McCain and Charles Keating is guilt by guilt. Charles Keating gave John McCain over $100,000 in campaign contributions between 1982 and 1988, went into business with Cindy McCain, wined and dined the McCains in the Bahamas: and John McCain tried to keep his friend and benefector from being stopped by federal regulators. American taxpayers ultimately lost at least $130 billion in the 1980s S&L scandal.

And John McCain has heedlessly championed deregulation ever since. This time it's going to cost taxpayers a trillion dollars.

Here's a preview:

Sarah Palin in 30 Seconds

New DNC Ad: "Negative Attack Ads"

Great usage of McCain himself decrying negative attack ads during the 2000 Republican primary. He also looks much younger and healthier in the 2000 clip.

Israelis for Obama

Must watch video.

Racist Moron Reveals Self In Print

Republican Party of Buchanan County, Virginia: The one and only. . .Bobby May [right] with [Virginia Attorney General, current candidate for Virginia Governor] Bob McDonnell [left].

Bobby May, your white sheet is showing.

The chair of the McCain campaign in Buchanan County, Virginia has written a racist, reprehensible column in the Buchanan County Voice claiming that these are the "positions" of Barack Obama:

REPARATIONS TO BLACK COMMUNITY: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge. Condemnation of homosexuality from the pulpit will become a Class 1 Felony.

HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE: Raise taxes. And coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA membership fees.

DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base.

ABORTION: Anywhere, anytime, for anyone for any reason up to 9 months and send taxpayers the bill. Encourage Partial Birth Abortion.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Keep buying foreign oil and sending billions to Muslim countries that hate us and want to destroy us. [Wait, isn't that the Republican platform?]

2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens, Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide.

THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint for graffiti.

THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the “Black National Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson. And raise taxes.

U.S. FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for “real patriotism,” will henceforth be banned. And raise taxes.

U.S. MILITARY: Confiscate all weapons, substitute water pistols, pea shooters and bows with suction cup arrows. Replace U.S. flags on uniforms with peace symbols changing uniform color from green to pink and abolishing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, replacing it with “A queer in every foxhole and a camouflage sex toy in every backpack” requirement. Condoms will be issues instead of bullets and brotherly love will be encouraged. Barney Frank will be the new Secretary of Defense (renamed Secretary of Peace and Love) and Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Lindsay Lohan, and Rick Boucher will all be made 5-star generals. And raise taxes.

He claims in the LATimes that this is not racist. Claiming Obama will paint the White House black is not racist? He thinks we're stupid. But we're not, and we see Bobby May's KKKolumn for what it is.

Bobby May will be out of the campaign by tomorrow night, but this is a window into the racism that permeates opposition to Obama. They don't see Obama. They see the scary black man.

Bobby May, Buchanan Courier: The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama (pdf)

LATimes: Frank talk of Obama and race in Virginia

dailykos: McCain Spokesman Writes Racist Column

firedoglake: Macaca Squared

New Obama Ad: "This Year"

I would have called this ad "Erratic".



Offense wins headlines, but defense wins championships. While defensive, this ad also aggressively paints McCain as erratic and out-of-touch. Two thumbs up from me.

I love the shots of McCain coming down the walkway of his private plane, or riding in the golf cart with George H.W. Bush.

Sarah Palin is George W. Bush in Lipstick Part 2

Just listen to her pronounce "nuclear":

Vice Presidential Debate on Saturday Night Live

Tina Fey once again skewers Sarah Palin on last night's Saturday Night Live. Bonus appearance by Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill.

Q: How would you solve the financial crisis, being a maverick?

A: You know we're gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it, and then we're gonna ask ourselves, what would a maverick do in this situation? And then you know, we'll do that.

Bruce Springsteen For Obama -- Yesterday In Philly