Fox News Sunday

I'm watching Fox News Sunday, where Bill Kristol is making the argument that McPalin should let Sarah Palin be the closer for the last 10 days of the election. I'm all for it... put her out there! The more they send Sarah Palin out to excite the fundie base, the more she will turn off the indies. She's not a uniter... she's just another divider. Preaching to the choir is not what leadership is all about and she proves me right every time she opens her mouth.

BTW, it's no surprise that Kristol is so rabid about Palin... he's the one who discovered her while on one of those Weekly Standard cruise events. They stopped at Alaska, Gov Palin met the ship, they hung out for a day, and Kristol identified her as the next empty vessel to front the neocon movement. He's been the powerful force behind her ascent. Just for fun, think for a moment how well it worked out for America the last time an empty vessel was tapped to front the neocon movement.

Albuquerque

New Mexico is a battleground state so I'm pretty sure these are all real Americans (45,000). I love the pic of the kid... that's something Ryan would do if he was bored and had a bunch of stickers.

No, Really?

I've said, like, a thousand times that we need to quit treating capitalism like a religion. It's an economic system, no more... and no less. The whole idea that greed is meant to result in some kind of moral good is patently absurd.

"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."

Greenspan, 82, who relinquished leadership of the Fed just two years ago, said the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage industry -- and the vast, mostly hidden trade in derivative financial instruments it spawned -- exposed a "flaw" in his categorical reliance on free markets.

Over the last two decades, fortunes have been made and lost parsing Greenspan's Delphic declarations, but there's a breathtaking example of ideological blindness embedded in that first sentence. Does Greenspan really believe that banks, brokerages, rating agencies and insurance companies act of their own accord? Even he has to understand that the people who run them decide how they respond, even to market forces.

There are no autonomic reflexes in finance. Did Greenspan really believe that the people in power, presented with a chance to make a killing, would put the interests of their institutions and stockholders ahead of their own?

In the end, greed is just greed, and capitalism is just as good (or bad) as we allow it to be.

Funny Ha Ha

The Mormons of Utah are suddenly so concerned that marriage should be between one man and ONE woman that they're massively funding the campaign to change the California constitution via Prop 8?

The Mormon church, whose members have emerged as the leading backers of a ballot measure to end same-sex marriage in California, is scaling back its Utah campaign operation but will continue to support the initiative.

Church members will no longer be making phone calls from Utah to California voters, Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a prepared statement Friday.

At the request of the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, church members in Utah had been enlisted to make calls on behalf of the measure.

"However, the church has since determined that such phone calls are best handled by those who are registered California voters," Farah said.

Opponents of the measure have criticized the church's involvement in the campaign.

The Courage Campaign, a liberal advocacy group, plans to deliver a petition to a Mormon church in Los Angeles next week demanding the church stop funding the Yes on 8 campaign.

But a spokesman for the church, which holds traditional marriage is a sacred institution ordained by God, said the church continues to support the measure despite curtailing its Utah phone bank operation.

Church members have been the biggest contributors to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Now that's funny!

The Defectors

Sarah Palin seems to have become the catalyst for the Great Republican Divide.

After my initial Palin outrage subsided I began to notice that only a certain type of Republican voter seemed to be excited about her. I first noticed this in my Republican voting friends, several of whom were turned off by Palin, waffled, and then became apprehensive Obama supporters. I then noticed this trend among the punditocracy, when a few regular Republican supporters were openly critical of Palin. And finally, when a host of conservative ideologues (I call them the intellectuals) started jumping ship, I knew for sure something was going on.

The Republican party is splintering... a divide between the ideological conservatives (paleo-cons) and the religi-social populists that's been a long time coming. I couldn't be more grateful -- or more fascinated. I was not politically inclined back when Democrats went through something similar... it's history in the making.

I've written about some of the public defections that have caught my eye. There have been others, like Ken Adelman, but I've been busy and I can't blog about every little thing I read (nor would you want me to, I'm sure). But Charles Fried, the most recent defector, isn't just another Republican... he's a McCain advisor.

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

Fried is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially noteworthy.

...

UPDATE: Fried writes to TNR: I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a vote that I was not prepared to cast myself. So it was more of an erasure than a public affirmation--although obviously my vote meant that I thought that Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper option.

Fake Virginia

Obama rally in Leesburg, which, sadly for all of those people, is in the fake part of Virginia.

On Sunday I'm traveling to the fake part of Virginia that is Herndon, where I'll fit right in with these imposters (my American creds being somewhat in question since, despite the fact that I'm from the part of Illinois that is NOT Chicago, I have a known affection for sushi and lattes and Obama).

Hoax

Turns out the McCain staffer attack was a hoax.

I'm absolutely sure the McPalin campaign had nothing at all to do with this -- and yet -- their continuous attempts to rouse the lowest part of our humanity (fear, prejudice) probably helped spawn the strange, made-up story of the 6' 4" black man taking out his rage on a defenseless white woman. Isn't that what it's been insinuated we should fear, that 4 years of Obama will include revenge on whitey?

Karma has a way of finding you and kicking your ass when it's due and I have no doubt that this story -- which spread like wildfire after the pied piper of the right, Matt Drudge, posted it on his site -- will be unhelpful to McCain in the end.

Possible Vs Plausible

The "blame the victim" crowd generally pisses me off... I've got a hyper sense of empathy and it doesn't take much to trigger it. And I do believe that there are very bad people out there, even among those who share my political passions. That said... does anyone else find this story somewhat lacking in credibility?

When I first read about the McCain campaign worker being "mutilated" by a psychotic Obama supporter I was horrified. OMG... mutilated!! A "B" carved into the poor woman's face by some monster with a freaking knife!! And then I read the part about how she refused medical assistance and I thought, "huh?" She was attacked and had her face carved up and she refused medical assistance... that seems odd. What about her face? What if she has a concussion from having her head punched?

And then I saw the picture, above. I'm not sure that looks like a knife carving to me. Why is it backwards? It's plausible that her attacker was dyslexic, or that he was standing above her head when he was carving it... but if he was standing above her to carve it, assuming it required two hands to both hold her head and hold the knife, and assuming she was then able to fight him with her arms, wouldn't it be more jaggedy? That nice roundy B seems kind of deliberate and artful... it's hard to believe it's the result of some frenzied, crazy freak on a public street. It occurs to me that the B looks more like fingernail scratching, like the kind my sister and I used to leave on each other after some childhood fight. It could have been done with the edge of a knife but again, even if the poor woman was in shock and not struggling at all, how could the attacker have gotten that B so smooth without breaking the skin at any point? I couldn't carve the skin off of a potato that evenly.

It also seems weird that he got his money and let her go and then noticed a bumper sticker on her car and went back to inflict some personal damage. This looks like a well lit public street in a populated area... an attack could have happened that way but it seems odd that it would.

All of this is not to say it's impossible her story is entirely true... certainly it could be. It just seems more probable (to me) that it's only partly true. Obviously she got that black eye somewhere. Quite possibly she was robbed. Quite possibly she was robbed by a viscous Obama supporter. But that B... something about that just seems funky to me.

At any rate, we hope the best for the woman, whatever the circumstances may be.

As an aside: Why didn't the Pittsburgh police take a photo of her face? That seems like very sloppy police work given the type of attack.

Fake Americans

Indianapolis, yesterday.

Local Election Thoughts

• In light of the "ACORN dramz vs systematic voter rolls purge" game, I wonder if it's a good idea to encourage people to vote early (both Dems and Repubs). I voted early in 2004 due to travel plans and it went very smoothly. That way if anyone should encounter any issues, at least they'll have time to cast a provisional ballot.
  

• As usual, I'm struggling a little with my State Rep vote. I will probably end up voting for Manzullo again despite the fact that I can barely stomach his social positions and rhetoric. In the end I favor him because his longevity has given him clout, and clout means favor for my district. Same with Winters. Let's face it, with what's looming ahead for local municipalities, we can use a little clout. Show me the money!

• I'm taking a closer look at Democratic county board candidate Paul Gorski merely for the fact that he has picked up on the county's atrocious zoning behaviors and is making it an issue. Zoning has become my local hot button issue. His take on funding golf courses through usage fees instead of property taxes also appeals to my common sense.
  

• Mental note to ask my mom about the States Attorney race... I may have to defer to her opinion on this as I have no freakin' clue. 17th Circuit will be Fernando Engelsma and... Mom, help?
  

• I'm voting against the concealed weapon carry. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I just know I'll be out some night shooting pool, having a few drinks, and manage to spill a beer on the angry drunk guy carrying a gun under his jacket. So... no. Or as Jeff would say, oh hell no...

• Remember: If offered a choice, go with paper ballots!!! As someone who has spent the past 15 years in information technology, you're going to have to trust me here -- sometimes good old fashioned paper really is better. There are two basic problems with computers... 1) they break, and 2) they can be programmed. Seriously. Stay away from the electronic ballot machines.
  

Huh?

So let me get this straight... Palin's favorability numbers are already low among Indies and Dems but it took a $150K clothing expenditure to spark some outrage among Rep voters?

Apparently they don't care that she abused the power of the office of the Gov to settle a personal score, don't care that she falsified her expense reports, don't care about the blatant lies she's told about her record and qualifications, and they don't care that she doesn't know what the constitutional limits of the VP office are. They're upset because the RNC spent $150K on clothes for her campaign?

Honestly, I will never understand these people.

Differences

As someone facing grandmotherhood someday (hopefully, and hopefully not too soon!), I can't help but see this photo and wonder what it's like to have a grandchild who looks a little like you but still so very different. Obviously your heart sees past the difference -- I'm a thousand percent certain mine would -- but I wonder if, in our natural state of egocentricity, it ever feels weird.

Maverick

You know what this would get me? Fired.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

Spreadin' That Wealth Around, You Betcha

As usual, John Cole says what I'm thinking but with more flair:

Not socialism:

Welcome to the People’s Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state’s Republican governor. That’s $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin’s. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.

Socialism:

Among the more prominent elements of his tax proposal, Senator Obama would end the Bush tax cuts and allow the top two tax rates to return to 36 and 39.6 percent.

As with all things McPalin, I guess it's OK if you're a Republican.

Cute

I expect we'll probably see more of this kind of thing.

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Police at Western Carolina University and wildlife officials were investigating the discovery early Monday of a dead bear cub draped with a pair of Barack Obama campaign signs.

Leila Tvedt, associate vice chancellor for public relations, said Monday night that maintenance workers found the 75-pound bear cub shot to death in front of the school's administration building at the entrance to campus. The Obama yard signs were stapled together and placed over the bear's head, Tvedt said.

The bear had been shot in the head, Tvedt said.

One More Before Bed

My mind has been very busy today but I've got one more thought to drain out before I go to bed.

Here it is: I am sooo sick of this whole Joe the Plumber thing. What about Me the Project Manager?

I have quietly listened to the Joe thing without comment, appreciating the exchange between Joe the Citizen and Obama the Candidate. To me, this is what democracy is supposed to be about. When is the last time a presidential candidate went out into the wilderness where they might have to actually encounter someone who hasn't already signed a pledge to agree with them?

So what did Obama do when he encountered a skeptical Joe... did he ignore Joe and scurry away like a frightened little titmouse? No, he engaged with Joe... he listened to him and then tried to persuade him. They exchanged their ideas. In the end Joe wasn't convinced but I LOVED that he had the opportunity. Do you suppose McPalin would engage with Me the Project Manager at a rally event? Hell no! To them, Me the Project Manager isn't even part of the "real America". They have personally -- McCain and Palin -- attacked my values and questioned my patriotism. Say what you want about Obama but I have yet to hear him personally comment on the American creds or patriotism of the people who choose not to vote for him.

And I have to say, I didn't find a damn thing wrong with Obama's response to Joe, either. It seemed pretty obvious to me -- especially in the context of Obama's position toward the middle class -- that he was talking about the gross concentration of wealth in the top tier of the country that has occurred over the past decade (yes Mr. Clinton, I said decade) at the expense of the middle class. Am I really supposed to believe that a round of tax breaks that for a change favor me and pretty much all of my hard working friends, family, and neighbors should be considered "welfare"?? Am I supposed to believe that trying to rebuild and strengthen the middle class while not pretending it can be done for free is a bad thing?

Well I don't.

Here's the facts, jack: The fat cats have left this country on the verge of economic ruin. We have achieved the Clinton/Bush dream of transforming the US into a nation of bankers instead of a nation of producers. Hooo-ray. Well for those who are experiencing buyers remorse, I've got news for you: this ship ain't going to turn around over night.

Forget the myth of trickle down economics. Even if it was real (and it wasn't), it has never been less relevant than now with our CONSUMER ECONOMY being entirely Keynesian in nature. If the middle class isn't spending money, there will be no small business opportunities for Joe. Trust me Joe, take the tax cut (which apparently he qualifies for under Obama's plan). And take the cheaper health care, too. I'm one of the people who pays for (and cherishes) that "gold plated Cadillac" insurance McCain wants to tax. Just thinking about it pisses me off.

There's a couple of other things Joe might want to consider. First off, until the cost of American labor is on par with the rest of the world, corporate tax cuts will net us exactly zero new jobs. Zee-roh. It isn't just tax rates or health care or union wages that are contributing to our plight... it's real wages. If they can pay a guy in China to do the same job for $13,000 that we'd pay a guy over here to do for $70,000 (and without any pesky environmental laws), where do you think that job is going to end up? But fear not, Joe... American wages have been stagnating for years now while wages in the BRIC countries have been rising. In a few short decades we'll have this whole wage disparity thing licked.

Our goal during this period should be creating and marketing new energy. Beyond economic stability and national security, this is maybe our next best chance to create a foothold from which to climb in the new world order. "Drill, baby, drill" is what oil people say when they want the party to last for a few more familiar years... it is NOT what visionary, forward thinking people should be saying.

Obama is also smart enough to know (coming from a state legislative body, perhaps) that federal government has a role to play when times are tough and it's not just about bailing out banks. Most economists seem to agree that infrastructure spending will be the key to keeping the national economy lubed, to keeping money flowing through the local economies in a downturn. Otherwise, what exactly does everyone think is going to happen when the municipalities are cash-strapped in a prolonged recession? And it's not just about saving schools and pensions and public transportation, either. Hopefully everyone knows that the term "crumbling infrastructure" is not just a work of rhetorical art... I think about it every time I drive over a bridge. It's as necessary an investment as a new roof or new windows on a house... not sexy and not cheap but the cost of NOT doing it will cause you to lose whatever you were trying to save (and then some).

So go ahead, Joe... vote against your own interests in the name of ideology. You won't be the first and I'm sure you won't be the last. I'm just a little bothered by the idea that your vote goes against my interests, too.

Powell Is An Elitist

Photo by Platon

Colin Powell, the elitist (h/t Politico):

I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim,and he might be associated with terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

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

Beautiful Day

Yikes:

I'm in southwestern Ohio, Cincinnati. It's been a fascinating Sunday.

Next door to me, two young white women got into a bit of an argument with my neighbor. They were Obama canvassers seeking his vote. He's an Italian immigrant and very dear friend and neighbor, but I had to go outside when my dogs started barking and I heard their altercation. The women were very nice, and I've never heard my neighbor sound like this before.

My own dear neighbor yelled at me, "I CANNOT TALK TO YOU!" How bizarre. I gave the young women each a can of Pepsi and thanked them for their courage.

About an hour later, as I was watching my beloved Bengals getting spanked by the Steelers, another woman knocked on my door. A middle-aged African-American woman. Canvassing for McCain. I told her my mind is made up for Obama but wished her luck and thanked her for what she was doing today. She also accepted a can of Pepsi; it's a beautiful, sunny day here in Ohio and she's working hard.

Strange days, indeed. I've lived here on this street for seven years and have never seen anything like this before!

KK's Homecoming

Isn't she beautiful?!?!?!

It's Getting Ugly Out There

In Caledonia, WI:

Police in Caledonia are investigating the assault of a campaign volunteer as she was canvassing for Senator Barack Obama Saturday afternoon.In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”The man eventually stopped and the Caledonia police were called. Takehara was asked if she needed medical assistance, but she was not seriously injured. Instead, she says she was shaken up by the homeowner’s reaction.“This negative stuff has to stop,” said Takehara. “We’re all Americans. This is all about protecting our democracy, not about attacking each other.”

Takehara was encouraged when she had a message waiting at home from the candidate she is fighting for. Takehara called back and she and Senator Obama talked one-on-one.Takehara said, “Senator Obama understood… it was wonderful. It made me feel wonderful. It made me feel connected to this government again.”The Obama campaign did not want to comment on the incident at this time.

Police tell 12 News they are still investigating the case and will forward the complaint to the Racine County District Attorney’s office after it’s completed.

I wish this was the first time I'd read something like this but it's becoming all too common... I'm starting to sense a trend. McPalin has done everything possible to incite exactly this kind of behavior... this is what happens when you go out of your way to appeal to people's fear and prejudices. I'm sure they did not expect it to manifest in the form of physical attacks but I have seen so much ugly video, read so many nasty reports, read so much ugly, ignorant online commentary that I'm actually starting to doubt that Obama would make it out of a presidency alive. Seemingly normal people -- the kind of folks you run into at the grocery store or a kids sporting event -- turn into foamy mouthed lunatics with their ACORN, Ayers, terrorist, Muslim paranoia. It's scary... very scary... to think about how some of these crazier people might vent their anger if Obama actually wins.

UPDATE:
John Cole has similar thoughts:

The violence will not be anything that the National Guard can suppress. It will be big Republican guys beating middle aged volunteers, vandalism, potshots in the night. Like they did in the 90’s, super-patriots will wall themselves off in little clans. If they feel the need to act, they will follow McVeigh and Rudolph’s example and bomb something.

You cannot ‘put down’ festering bitterness like this. It will become a part of life like bad weather and dog crap on the sidewalk. It’s pretty easy to avoid, but we’re past that point now. John McCain decided to lose ugly. The party, always captive to the whims of the top of the ticket in the best of times, eagerly followed suit. Clever people at the top of the party are saying things that can only lead to violence if simpler folks in the ‘base’ take it seriously.

To illustrate my point, you can’t find a simpler bunch of base minds than rightwing blogs. When Republicans lose huge, let’s see what fraction honestly tries to account for the GOP’s failures and come up with a strategy to fix them. If more do that, as Kos did to the dismay of conspiracy theorists on the left, then I will never be happier to be wrong. But I seriously doubt that will happen. Most of the none-too-sharp rightwing bloggers will egg on the evil Democrat/ACORN conspiracy story, and their even dimmer readers will take the next logical step.

Improving?

It's probably going to be rough seas for a long time but maybe -- just maybe -- we have staved off a systematic economic meltdown. I won't pretend I understand what Calculated Risk is monitoring with these indicators but they seem to be saying we're at least only circling the drain instead of diving through it.

The yield on 3 month treasuries: 0.79% up from up from 0.40% (BETTER)

The TED spread: 3.59 down from 4.11 yesterday (BETTER)

Activity in the Treasury's Supplementary Financing Program (SFP). This is the Treasury program to raise cash for the Fed's liquidity initiatives. If this program slows down borrowing, I think that would be a good sign.

Here is a list of SFP sales. No announcement today have to wait for progress.

The A2P2 spread is 4.49 for Thrusday up from 4.4 for Wenesday. slightly worse.

Industry contacts. I'm tracking some financing deals there are being held up right now. If these deals complete that would be a good sign (I'll post something when this happens). No improvement yet.

The two year swap spread from Bloomberg: 122.2 down from 138.38 BETTER

I'll add a couple more indicators, but this is progress.

Bad News / Good News

The bad news: Tens of thousands of Iraqi demonstrators marched in the streets of Iraq to oppose a pact that would extend the US presence in Iraq for 3 more years.

The good news: Muqtada al-Sadr had actually requested a million demonstrators.

Elitism

Elitist Republicans come out against the dirty, below-the-belt robocalls coming from McPalin:

Two Republican senators facing reelection battles in states also seeing presidential campaign attention are speaking out against anti-Obama robocalls from John McCain's campaign and the RNC.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins expressed her dispeasure first on Friday.

“They don’t serve John McCain well,” Collins told PolitickerME. “This kind of campaign call does not reflect the kind of leader that he is."

And today Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign issued a blanket statement condemning negative ads and phone calls.

"I call on Al Franken, the DNC, the RNC, the DSCC, the NRSC and any other organization engaged in negative attacks on any candidate to bring them to an immediate end," Coleman said in the statement.

Asked if this included McCain's campaign, Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich replied: "The senator is calling on everyone."

Quid Pro Quo

Obama raised $150M in September... that's freakishly amazing, although I must take some credit for it since we gave him $50 during the Palin-Biden debate soundbite exchange.

Obama is now in our pocket with a grand total contribution of $90. Quid pro quo, man!

Real Americans

McPalin keeps insisting that they've got the corner on "real America" but these sure look like real Americans to me.

100K show up to hear Obama in Mo.

Not Here

The story of the six year old Las Vegas boy abducted by the Mexican mafia in retaliation for his grandfather's double-dealing drug scheme has completely torn at my heart. Thankfully Cole Puffinburger has been released unharmed.

I've heard that involving family members in personal disputes is wide spread in Mexico and Central/South America but it's not generally something that has happened here in the U.S. I have to believe if the news media had not taken this story national, if this story had stayed in obscurity, it might have had a very different ending. But Americans have an unparalleled sense of fair play, and while we may not care so much if drug dealers want to pick each other off, innocents caught in the cross-fire will not be tolerated. Whatever those Mexicans thought they were going to get away with here, they way underestimated the shitstorm they invited when they kidnapped little Cole.

Looks like they figured it out fast... and I bet they won't be trying that again any time soon.

I Had A Dream

I had a dream last night in which I was babysitting Sarah Palin's son, Trig, and did not want to give him back. In my dream I was aware of his Down Syndrome challenge and was quite protective. It was very vivid, to the point where I could feel the weight of him in my arms.

I can't even begin to explain that one! He is a cute little baby, though.

Endorsements Starting To Flow

Colin Powell just gave a whopper of a press conference after revealing on MTP that he's endorsing Barack Obama for prez. I hope I can find the transcript.

Speaking of endorsements, the Chicago Tribune, which hasn't endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate EVER in its 161 year history, endorsed Obama last week. Here's a snip but, in fact, the Trib wrote almost 2 full pages:

Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama. He's pretty new to them.

We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.

The change that Obama talks about so much is not simply a change in this policy or that one. It is not fundamentally about lobbyists or Washington insiders. Obama envisions a change in the way we deal with one another in politics and government. His opponents may say this is empty, abstract rhetoric. In fact, it is hard to imagine how we are going to deal with the grave domestic and foreign crises we face without an end to the savagery and a return to civility in politics.

And here's another new endorsement today, this one from the Houston Chronicle, which hasn't endorsed a Democrat since they endorsed LBJ in 1964 (go figure). Here's a snip:

After carefully observing the Democratic and Republican nominees in drawn-out primary struggles as well as in the general campaign, including three debates, the Chronicle strongly believes that the ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden offers the best choice to lead the United States on a new course into the second decade of the 21st century.

Obama appears to possess the tools to confront our myriad and daunting problems. He's thoughtful and analytical. He has met his opponents' attacks with calm and reasoned responses. Viewers of the debates saw a poised, well-prepared plausible president with well-articulated positions on the bread-and-butter issues that poll after poll indicate are the true concerns of voters. While Arizona Sen. John McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have struck an increasingly personal and negative tone in their speeches, Obama has continued to talk about issues of substance.

Atrios Makes A Point

If you moved, would you remember to contact your elections board and ask to be removed from the voter rolls? It has never even occurred to me to do that. I mean, when I get to wherever I'm going it has eventually dawned on me to register anew but there's no way I would think to have myself removed from the old roll. In fact, now I wonder if I'm doubled registered anywhere?

Atrios makes the point:

A lot of Democrats in this state now, though I really want to flag this sentence for a hint of what's to come.

In Philadelphia, the number of registrants, 1.1 million, actually exceeds the census count of the eligible population. The city has identified 58,000 "duplicate" registrations, and the actual number of eligible voters on the rolls is probably closer to a million, said the election board's Bob Lee.

They trotted this one out in '04, too. Since the media (not this article, really, but generally) has decided that playing stupid on these issues is the right way to go, let me offer a wee rebuttal of the inevitable. When people move, most do not bother to contact their local elections board and ask to be removed from the voter rolls. When people die, most do not bother to contact their local elections board and ask to be removed from the voter rolls. Philadelphia has about 10 trillion polling places, and if you move 50 feet in this city you likely end up having to renew your voter registration. Philadelphia also has a lot of old people who sadly occasionally die.

Note to my kin: If I die, please remember to purge me from the voter rolls to prevent my good name being sullied by fraudulent registration.

Noonan

I have never cared much for Peggy Noonan or her sentimental style but she's captured one of my revolving thought fragments and put it to paper quite nicely here:

Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.

No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don't, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.

In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

I gather this week from conservative publications that those whose thoughts lead them to criticism in this area are to be shunned, and accused of the lowest motives. In one now-famous case, Christopher Buckley was shooed from the great magazine his father invented. In all this, the conservative intelligentsia are doing what they have done for five years. They bitterly attacked those who came to stand against the Bush administration. This was destructive. If they had stood for conservative principle and the full expression of views, instead of attempting to silence those who opposed mere party, their movement, and the party, would be in a better, and healthier, position.

As an aside: "...she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine." Doesn't that seem a tad melodramatic?

Defining The "Real" America

Even the Republicans on Fox News have become too elite to suit the "regular folks".

On his radio show today, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh toed the McCain campaign line and lashed out at the Fox All-Stars panel for their criticisms of McCain. He noted that during their post-debate analysis, the All-Stars — including Bill Kristol, Nina Easton, Mort Kondrake, and Juan Williams — were somewhat critical of McCain’s performance. “The Fox All-Stars, they’re not America,” Limbaugh concluded. “They have become elites”:

LIMBAUGH: You don’t know how hard this is for me to say folks, Roger Ailes is one of my closest friends. … Saw him this weekend, I spend a lot of social time with him. It is really hard for me to tell you what I really think about the Fox All stars reaction to this debate was last night. … The Fox All-Stars have become elites too.

Welcome to the elitist crowd, Fox All-Stars! Those of us who habitually form independent thoughts and then string words together to form complete sentences in support of those thoughts are always happy for company (although I never thought I'd be saying that to you!).

Another Bogeyman Of The Right

Like Cadillac driving welfare queens, gays taking over the world, and The War On Christmas, ACORN has become the latest bogeyman produced by the right. These people are masters of the craft: find a seed of something real but relatively insignificant and blow it completely out of proportion to manufacture outrage and create a politically convenient [trap, wedge, movement].

I don't understand why people continue to fall for it. Sure, you can dislike ACORN for a variety of reasons (I personally find the idea of paying for voter registration insulting -- we should not have to entice people to perform their civic duty). But come on... ACORN is not a huge threat to democracy or anything else.

Why can't people see through ploy this by now?

But McCain's voter fraud worries – about Acorn or anyone else – are unsupported by the facts, said experts on election fraud, who recall similar concerns being raised in several previous elections, despite a near-total absence of cases.

"There's no evidence that any of these invalid registrations lead to any invalid votes," said David Becker, project director of the "Make Voting Work" initiative for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Becker should know: he was a lawyer for the Bush administration until 2005, in the Justice Department's voting rights section, which was part of the administration's aggressive anti-vote-fraud effort.

"The Justice Department really made prosecution of voter fraud of this sort a big priority in the first half of this decade, and they really didn't come up with anything," he said.

"We're chasing these ghosts of voter fraud, like chickens without a head," said Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Barnard College in New York who has researched voter fraud and fraud claims for most of the past decade. "I think it's completely overblown, I think it's meant to be a distraction."

"This stuff does not threaten the outcome of the election," said Minnite. "How many illegal ballots have been cast by people who are fraudulently registered to vote? By my count, it's zero. I just don't know of any, I've been looking for years for this stuff."

...

Even the non-partisan truth-in-politics Web site FactCheck.org called foul on McCain's alleged possible conspiracy, noting that a Republican prosecutor handling a key Acorn registration fraud case has said there's no evidence indicating the group was involved in vote fraud.

"This scheme was not intended to permit illegal voting," said King County, Wash. Prosecutor Dan Satterberg in a 2007 statement, after a federal-state investigation found seven Acorn workers had submitted over 1,700 bogus voter registration forms.

And The Winner Is...

Wowser... the snap polls have it for Obama again. I thought it might have been tighter based on CNN's little lines during the first 30 minutes but these polls aren't even close. I suppose if you're going to have a good run, make sure you do it at the end of the debate.


I'm telling you, McCain is going to lose a lot of women with that women's "health" sneer. It was as close to naked contempt as anything I've ever seen from a man, whether he meant it that way or not. Bill Clinton could leave DNA on a thousand little blue dresses and there'd still be no comparison.

Things You Won't See On Drudge: Part 4

Bad judgement.

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.

During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.

Things You Won't See On Drudge: Part 3

John McCain was for ACORN before he was against it.


From Politico:

The beleaguered Democratic-leaning community group Acorn sends over this photograph: John McCain, in March of 2006, sitting beside Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek at an event Acorn co-sponsored in Florida.

The immigration event, which other photos show was packed with red-shirted Acorn member, was co-sponsored by the local Catholic Archdiocese, the SEIU, and other groups.

McCain, still spiting much of his party on immigration at the time, was the headliner.

Bertha Lewis, Acorn's chief organizer, said in a statement that came with the photo, “It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans."

”We are sure that the extremists he is trying to get into a froth will be even more excited to learn that John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with ACORN, at an ACORN co-sponsored event, to promote immigration reform," she said.

Deep Thought

I wonder if Sarah Palin or John McCain will go on Keith Olbermann's show or Rachel Maddow's show the way Barack Obama went on Bill O'Reilly's show.

If not, what are they hiding?

The Great Debate, Part 3

I did not get to watch the entire debate tonight... only the last 30 minutes or so. (sadness) While I was on my calls I did have CNN on mute in the background, though, and tried to follow the infamous little lines.

So, by the lines: It looked to me like McCain might have had the upper hand in the first half. The second half definitely looked more favorable to Obama. I'm not sure if either of them gained any ground over the other... by now it probably looks like a Rorschach test to most of us.

There was one moment that I struck me pretty hard. Now, ya'll know I'm not a fierce pro-choice, feminist kind of person. I thought Obama did just fine on his Roe v Wade position... he represents me well on that topic. What struck me was when McCain sneered his statement about the life of the mother. What the hell was THAT? If a Youtube video pops up, I'll post it for posterity.

P.S. I just realized how often I rush to change the channel when Bill Bennet comes on CNN. I find him so repugnant that he makes me feel physically ill.

Best Thing I've Seen All Week

I've been sitting on conference calls until 9:00 every night this week so I am happy to find some comic relief on the intertubes. This exchange between Matt Taibbi and Byron York (he of National Review fame) is priceless.

Before I get into the substantively interesting dialogue, check out the first bit of bizarrely twisted logic from the "conservative" mind of Byron York:

M.T.: You don't think the unregulated CDS market was a major factor in the current crisis? Were you watching when AIG almost went under? Were you watching the Lehman collapse?

B.Y.: I think that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were also major factors. And I believe that many of the problems in the mortgage area can be attributed to the confluence of Democratic and Republican priorities: the Democrats' desire to give mortgages to people, particularly minorities, who could not afford them, and the Republicans' desire to achieve an "ownership society," in part by giving mortgages to people who could not afford them. Again, I believe that if you are suggesting that the financial crisis is a Republican creation, or even more specifically a McCain creation, I think you're on pretty shaky ground.

Got that? It's a set of different but confluent priorities... Democrats want to give mortgages to minorities who cannot afford them, while Republicans were trying to achieve an ownership society by giving mortgages to white people who cannot afford them. See the difference?!?! I swear to gawd I about busted a gut laughing when I read that but I'll give him points for admitting that Freddie/Fannie was a joint venture.

The rest of the interview is equally amusing but for different reasons.

M.T.: Oh, come on. Tell me you're not ashamed to put this gigantic international financial Krakatoa at the feet of a bunch of poor black people who missed their mortgage payments. The CDS market, this market for credit default swaps that was created in 2000 by Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act, this is now a $62 trillion market, up from $900 billion in 2000. That's like five times the size of the holdings in the NYSE. And it's all speculation by Wall Street traders. It's a classic bubble/Ponzi scheme. The effort of people like you to pin this whole thing on minorities, when in fact this whole thing has been caused by greedy traders dealing in unregulated markets, is despicable.

B.Y.: I was struck by the recent Senate testimony of James Lockhart, who is head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, about the sheer recklessness of Fannie in recent years. Despite "repeated warnings about credit risk," Lockhart testified, Fannie became more reckless in 2006 and 2007 than they had been in the scandal-ridden tenure of Franklin Raines (who departed in 2004). In 2005, Lockhart said, 14 percent of Fannie's new business was in risky loans. In the first half of 2007, it was 33 percent. So something terribly wrong was going on there, and it became a significant part of the present problem.

M.T.: What a surprise that you mention Franklin Raines. Do you even know how a CDS works? Can you explain your conception of how these derivatives work? Because I get the feeling you don't understand. Or do you actually think that it was a few tiny homeowner defaults that sank gigantic companies like AIG and Lehman and Bear Stearns? Explain to me how these default swaps work, I'm interested to hear.

Because what we're talking about here is the difference between one homeowner defaulting and forty, four hundred, four thousand traders betting back and forth on the viability of his loan. Which do you think has a bigger effect on the economy?

B.Y.: Are you suggesting that critics of Fannie and Freddie are talking about the default of a single homeowner?

M.T.: No. That is what you call a figure of speech. I'm saying that you're talking about individual homeowners defaulting. But these massive companies aren't going under because of individual homeowner defaults. They're going under because of the myriad derivatives trades that go on in connection with each piece of debt, whether it be a homeowner loan or a corporate bond. I'm still waiting to hear what your idea is of how these trades work. I'm guessing you've never even heard of them.

I mean really. You honestly think a company like AIG tanks because a bunch of minorities couldn't pay off their mortgages?

B.Y.: When you refer to "Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act," are you referring to S.3283, co-sponsored by Gramm, along with Senators Tom Harkin and Tim Johnson?

M.T.: In point of fact I'm talking about the 262-page amendment Gramm tacked on to that bill that deregulated the trade of credit default swaps.

Things You Won't See On Drudge: Part 2

Not that I care much if the GOP wants to waste precious time obsessing about ACORN in the last few weeks before the election but it does seem pitifully, almost insultingly, manipulative.

It's like this: every election year we're treated to a GOP frenzy over voter registration fraud (funny how it never translates into actual voter fraud, no matter how hard they try to make the connection) and then, after the election, we're treated to the flip side argument... a Dem frenzy over vote suppression (slightly more proven). Doesn't anyone ever... um, you know... pick up on the trend? We're going to be subjected to this during every election cycle. It's just the way it is.

Anyway, for your reading entertainment:

There are also even more nuts and bolts facts that need to be understood to fully grasp how insane the furor that's erupted over ACORN truly is:

ACORN flags and turns in three kinds of cards, those that it can verify, those that are incomplete, and those that it flags as problematic. It turns those in labeled in a special way and are very conservative in terms of what it flags as problematic. It has stacks of problematic cover sheets. [...]

The Lake County Board knew about the questionable registrations today because ACORN flagged them for the board. For example, the Jimmy John’s card is one that a caller had flagged and labeled as problematic. ACORN can get that caller to talk to the press.

According to Regina Harris, the Director of Registrations for Lake County, (Indiana) this claim checks out. "It's certainly true. They did have three batches separated." she told me this morning. "There was a pile they knew were good, there was some they said had missing info -- like no voter ID number or a missing birthday -- and another batch they called 'suspicious.' "

Why would ACORN submit registration forms it had deemed "suspicious"? Because under most state laws, voter registration organizations are required to turn in all the forms they receive. In a phone conversation today, ACORN press coordinator Charles Jackson confirmed that this is the case in Indiana.

So, there you have it. ACORN is required in most states to turn in all the registration cards it receives, even those it believes to be fraudulent. In response to this, ACORN makes the effort to separate out the cards in three categories, calling attention to those forms which are most problematic, a fact that is confirmed by an Indiana Director of Registrations. So, unless conservatives are arguing that ACORN is both attempting to commit massive voter fraud, while also reporting this fraud to the proper authorities, then there's really no case here. Just typical election year bluster. In fact, these cries of massive voter fraud are practically an annual tradition for the GOP, and perhaps no president more than Bush has made such aggressive efforts to find the wily and elusive fraudulent voter. And just what have they found? Not much:

Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.

Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.

120 cases of voter fraud in a nation where more than 100 million voters turn out for presidential elections does not tip the scales, nor imply any voter fraud conspiracy. In the meantime, those very same conservatives who are claiming to be horrified by ACORN's non-existent corruption of the voting system are turning a blind eye to the very real problem of states illegally purging voters from the rolls. While ACORN's imagined crimes require a massive conspiracy beyond the simple delivery of bad voter registration cards, purging voters from the rolls prevents those eligible voters from exercising their rights -- no massive conspiracy needed.

Things You Won't See on Drudge: Part 1

The Palins hang out with people who hate America!! Everyone knows it, nobody wants to report it. Why?

He's Dead To Them Now

Wasn't it just a few months ago that conservatives were publicly mourning the death of their intellectual Godfather, William F. Buckley? He was a bit before my time, really, but I enjoyed their remembrances of the acerbic old gentleman.

I recently wrote about Christopher Buckley, his son, and his excoriation at the hands of his own party following his vote against McPalin. Now there's some dramz!

Call me crazy but it seems perfectly reasonable to me that folks who haven't fallen for the "Obama is secretly a terrorist!" meme might prefer him to McPalin for a host of logical reasons. And it certainly doesn't seem like Christopher is a rebellious youth looking to cast himself out of his father's shadow. So why the public stoning? And why would these people presume to know better than his son how his father would have judged his position? Nevermind... that was a rhetorical question.

My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman. One of his closest friends on earth was John Kenneth Galbraith. In 1969, Pup wrote a widely-remarked upon column saying that it was time America had a black president. (I hasten to aver here that I did not endorse Senator Obama because he is black. Surely voting for someone on that basis is as racist as not voting for him for the same reason.)

My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much. My father was also unpredictable, which tends to keep things fresh and lively and on-their-feet. He came out for legalization of drugs once he decided that the war on drugs was largely counterproductive. Hardly a conservative position. Finally, and hardly least, he was fun. God, he was fun. He liked to mix it up.

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

Read the whole thing here.

Bill Bennet was on CNN this morning mocking the intellectuals (i.e. the ideologically principled) of his party for their dislike of Sarah Palin. He alternately praised the "regular folks" for their support of her. It really is like being in Upside-down-land these days, where conservatism now means exactly NOTHING. I have said repeatedly that, despite my differences with ideological conservatives, I can at least understand and respect most of their points. They're consistent, their thoughts are logical and linear, and their ideas have withstood the test of time. But these "regular folk" conservatives are all over the map... twisting their beliefs with every political meme and social / religious bias.

I feel sincerely sad about the demise of actual conservatism, not the least of which because I think liberalism needs a proper check. But this... this... thing masquerading as conservatism is scary to me... it's like fucking mob rule.

All ACORN, All The Time

McPalin has been hitting ACORN hard over the past few days. Sounds like Fox News is doing their bit, too:

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, making the case that the charges against ACORN aren't relevant, called them a "smokescreen" and a "permission structure" for attempts to disenfranchise voters.

"This is just the start of what is going to be a very deliberate and cynical attempt to create confusion, to challenge people inappropriately," he said.

The amount of time the GOP is spending driving a message about ACORN is, indeed, striking — any day that's about ACORN isn't about experience, or Obama's associations, or McCain's biography, or the economy. So far, it hasn't been met by a legal effort to challenge voters on the ground, though that could change.

Plouffe, in any case, noted the focus on the conservative message machine: "We understand that Fox News Channel is turning themselves into the 24-hour ACORN channel," he said.

The truth is, McPalin is overworking the ACORN story exactly to appeal to the kind of people who will latch on to it with disproportionate wrath (readers can answer the question of "why" for themselves). In the relative, relevant scheme of things, ACORN barely registers a blip in any of their lives... socially, financially, whatever.

The truth is, Obama's campaign is brilliantly designed to run on people like me and thee (well, those of you who support Obama). It is not dependent on made-up voter registrants and neither is his lead in the polls, since, I assume, the made-up voter registrant demographic aren't answering their phones.

The Base can channel their Obama outrage into The War on ACORN all they want (The War On Christmas being kind of stale anyway) but I think the 30,000 polls out there that have Obama in the lead are for reals and neither ACORN, nor ACORN haters, are going to affect that.

What The Fuck?

They've really got this down to a science now. Palin:

Despite the Obama campaign’s rebuttal, Palin insisted that there is more to the story than is being reported by major media outlets. The Alaska governor said that like Obama’s association to 1960s radical Bill Ayers, there is still “too much ignorance and ignoring of his association” with the group.

The formula goes like this: Make broad accusations that cannot possibly be proved untrue and then claim the accused is hiding something when they're unable to provide satisfactory "evidence" of their innocence.

I can't believe people fall for this... it's so timelessly, fuckingly blatant.

I remember learning in grade school about the Salem witch hunts. I remember hearing the old "if you're innocent of committing witchcraft, you'll die when we drown you" logic and thinking that those people must have been total and complete morons.

Prove you don't secretly hate your country.
Prove you aren't really a muslim.
Prove William Ayers didn't write your books.
Prove you're not a Manchurian candidate.

The whole thing is so stupid it hurts.

Watch Out, Frum -- You're Next

David Frum, who I thought was pretty interesting and provocative in his criticisms of Rachel Maddow (who I happen to like quite a lot) on her show last night, is getting pummeled by his conservative brethren for his negative thoughts on McPalin.

He responds to them via his National Review Online column as they accuse him of selling out:

Do my correspondents (and now my Corner colleagues) truly believe that - but for my pitiful media and social ambitions - nobody in America would have noticed that Sarah Palin cannot speak three coherent consecutive words about finance or economics?

In the past month, Sarah Palin's unfavorability ratings have risen by 12 points. She briefly boosted the McCain ticket, but that effect subsided by the end of September. Blue-collar white women (!) now reject Palin as unqualified for the presidency 48-43, according to the Wall-Street Journal/NBC poll.

It's flattering to be told that my eagerness to clink glasses with the Washington social elite is the driving cause behind the shriveling public support for the Alaska governor. Flattering - but not very convincing. Tens of millions of people have tuned in to watch Sarah Palin field questions from Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric, and then to share a stage with Joe Biden. If Palin's public support is now collapsing, it is her own doing.

Possibly it is bad form for me to acknowledge this reality. As one of my correspondents wrote this very morning:

PLEASE KEEP YOUR REMARKS TO YOURSELF! Nobody but Democrats wants to hear them.

Well he may have a point.

Perhaps it is our job at NRO is tell our readers only what they want to hear, without much regard to whether it is true. Perhaps it is our duty just to keep smiling and to insist that everything is dandy - that John McCain's economic policies make sense, that his selection of Sarah Palin was an act of statesmanship, that she herself is the second coming of Anna Schwartz, and that nobody but an over-educated snob would ever suggest otherwise.

Who knows? Perhaps if I do that enthusiastically enough, somebody somewhere might even pour me a free drink or invite me onto the airwaves for a 3 minute Monday morning sunrise interview. And after all: What else could I possibly want?

Conservative creds... easy come, easy go.

Sinning, Conservative Style

It seems conservative Christopher Buckley, son of William F., has committed the penultimate sin: not only is he not endorsing McCain, he is planning to vote for Obama.

I am—drum roll, please, cue trumpets—making this announcement in the cyberpages of The Daily Beast (what joy to be writing for a publication so named!) rather than in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column. For a reason: My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker, recently wrote in National Review Online a column stating what John Cleese as Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”: namely, that Sarah Palin is an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that. She’s not exactly alone. New York Times columnist David Brooks, who began his career at NR, just called Governor Palin “a cancer on the Republican Party.”

As for Kathleen, she has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster. There’s Socratic dialogue for you. Dear Pup once said to me sighfully after a right-winger who fancied himself a WFB protégé had said something transcendently and provocatively cretinous, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Well, the dear man did his best. At any rate, I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is he’s no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first.

As to the particulars, assuming anyone gives a fig, here goes:

Read the whole thing here.

We know Christopher Buckley must be punished for this act of crazed intellectualism, and so, now, he has:

Christopher Buckley, author and son of late conservative icon William F. Buckley, last week surprised readers of the magazine his father founded, the National Review: “Sorry, Dad, I’m voting for Obama” was the headline on The Daily Beast blog.

Tuesday in a phone interview with the Austin American-Statesman he revealed another surprise: After NR readers raised holy heck over his perceived betrayal of the right, he offered to resign his column - and it was accepted.

“It upset a great number of people - a huge number of canceled subscriptions, apostasy, the whole thing,” he said from Washington.

When he offered his resignation to the magazine’s editors, “I was sort of hoping for, ‘Well, let’s think about it,’ ” Buckley said. “But to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.”

Buckley, the author of numerous humorous political novels, most recently “Supreme Courtship,” is booked to appear at the Texas Book Festival in Austin Nov. 1. “It’s too bad,” Buckley said. “I’m not looking to crap all over NR, but it’s too bad.”

Too bad, indeed.

Proud To Be An American

Deep Thoughts

There's something about you I don't like but I can't put my finger on it. Prove to me you aren't a militant radical terrorist Manchurian candidate.

The Transition

In today's American Conservative, Daniel Larison blogs the following (emphasis mine):

There are simply too many similarities between the traits that her admirers praise in Gov. Palin and the traits that they once praised (still praise?) in Mr. Bush, and I don’t see how anyone who looks back on the practical consequences of Mr. Bush’s time in office can look at Gov. Palin and her thin record and not see that by cheering her on so enthusiastically they are repeating the same blunder they made before. The claim that Gov. Palin’s character shows that she will be a good leader and would, if the occasion demanded, be capable of serving successfully as President seems to depend heavily on an assumption that Mr. Bush has also been a successful President, which at this point must appear even to his previous supporters to be an indefensible proposition.

All of the clues that Mr. Bush was the incurious, uninformed governor with few accomplishments to his name are presented before us yet again, and once more we are treated to strained apologetics on behalf of anti-intellectualism, down-home folksiness and the candidate’s way of life as superior or at least sufficient qualifications. We are seeing a repeat of Mr. Bush’s mangled syntax, trite talking point-laden statements and numerous blunders in interviews and public remarks, and we have been seeing the same aversion to talking to the press to avoid making more blunders, so how is it unreasonable or unfair to conclude from what little we have heard from Palin that she will prove to be an equally underwhelming leader once in office?

Short answer: It's not.

The same people who failed to recognize any of the 1000 signs that Bush would be a disaster, who voted for him twice, somehow now believe, without the slightest sense of irony, that they have correctly judged McPalin as worthy to lead (using the same measuring stick they used with Bush, no doubt). Um, yeah... sorry if I don't trust their opinion. These are the same people who chose Bush over Gore because they'd rather have a beer with him; the same people who chose Bush over Kerry because Kerry was easy to mock.

It used to be that you could at least respect conservative principles (whether you agreed with them or not). In fact, for years conservative principles were steadfast and constant while liberals flailed around, pathetically courting this special interest group or that, contorting themselves into some unrecognizable form, sounding like a bunch of whiny little bitches. Now the roles have reversed themselves completely.

Remember when conservatives used to detest and deride identity politics? Now apparently they only detest it when it's the identity of someone other than themselves.

Conservatism has become a vanity symbol; a shallow cesspool where the folksy folks can stand around and gaze lovingly at their own reflection. Conservatives now reject outright the same concepts of meritocracy they used to embrace; the world they want to live in is one where they never have to feel inferior for being lesser informed, lesser educated, lesser accomplished. Mediocrity is encouraged because it validates their position in life. They accuse people of being elite like they used to accuse people of being communist. And perhaps saddest of all, if you have the temerity to question or challenge them then you've automatically cast yourself against them.

Poor Larison... it must be a painful transition. He has good company in conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, though, who found out the hard way what happens when you go against The Herd:

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a Dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.

Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.

Who says public discourse hasn't deteriorated?

The fierce reaction to my column has been both bracing and enlightening. After 20 years of column writing, I'm familiar with angry mail. But the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening. Some of my usual readers feel betrayed because I previously have written favorably of Palin. By changing my mind and saying so, I am viewed as a traitor to the Republican Party—not a "true" conservative.

Conservatism is dead. Long live conservatism.

Strange Bedfellows

Larry Hunter:

I'm a lifelong Republican - a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I served on Bob Dole's presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp's Empower America.

This November, I'm voting for Barack Obama.

When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies - this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.

Taxes, economic policy and health care reform matter, of course. But how we extract ourselves from the bloody boondoggle in Iraq, how we avoid getting into a war with Iran and how we preserve our individual rights while dealing with real foreign threats - these are of greater importance.

John McCain would continue the Bush administration's commitment to interventionism and constitutional overreach. Obama promises a humbler engagement with our allies, while promising retaliation against any enemy who dares attack us. That's what conservatism used to mean - and it's what George W. Bush promised as a candidate.

Works for me.