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From Blogger Interrupted:

It’s no wonder that the slightest incitement from Sarah Palin or John McCain will turn one of their rallies into a lynch mob.  Just talk to the folks who attend.

My camera was rolling for literally seconds before people happily said to me, on camera, that Barack Obama is a terrorist.  If I hadn’t spent most of my time at the event inside, waiting for the candidates to show up, I could have gotten dozens of these people on tape.

The McCain-Palin mob in Strongsville, Ohio

Anthony Fossaceca of BlueOhioan:

These people will stop at nothing to further spread the lies and hate that surround that campaign. Bill Ayers, Osama bin Laden, Muslim terrorists, Hamas, PLO, Arab - all things we heard in connection to Barack Obama in yesterday’s crowd line at the Strongsville McCain rally.

Hate First

The one of the things that strikes me in these videos is how ill-informed these people are, and how hateful.  These people want John McCain and Sarah Palin in office because it will allow their magnificently tiny worlds to go on existing in their heads.  I got news for you people, the future is coming and you my sad pathetic creatures are the dinosaurs.

The other thing that really gets me is how these people just seem to think that, well, how well do we really know Barack Obama? And I think, how well do you really know John McCain?

Well, let me tell you, he known to be unethical. He cheated on his first wife (who was disabled due to a car accident in 1969) with his soon to be second wife, he was involved in the Savings and Loan Scandal in the 1980’s and was known as one of the Keating Five. I don’t care that he’s expressed remorse for these acts - it shows that he is capable of them and reflects on his character.  The fact that John McCain is veteran of the Vietnam War and was a POW does nothing to bolster my faith in him.  I’ve know a lot of ‘nam veterans and everyone one of them is unstable and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t war heroes and it doens’t mean their bad people but if we need a “steady hand at the tiller” then John McCain certainly isn’t it.

McCain and Palin’s allegations toward Barack Obama are, if you bother to look at the facts, completely unfounded, and are being used to create a boogey-man out of Obama.  To his credit Obama has remained very steady and unlike McCain has stayed focused on the issue which is what you as citizens should really care about!

There seems to be a strange attraction to the right wing of the political eagle in this country of the very wealthy and the ignorant despite the rather large gap between the two.  It’s as if being a dumbass has now become some sort of badge of honor for the right.  This is something I am going to have to write about in a follow up post, so be on the look out for that.

At this point Sarah “Pit-Bull” Palin’s campaign rallies have apparently degenerated into some sort of neo-nazi pseudo-pogroms against the media and Barack Obama.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote:

Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!” This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. “This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America,” she told the Clearwater crowd. “I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.” The crowd replied with boos.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama’s former pastor, the Rev.Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: “I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more.”

Worse, Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

Palin says, “This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.”  You’re right Sarah he doesn’t see America the way you see it, he sees it the way our founders saw it.  He sees it as Benjamin Franklin saw it when he wrote: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

She goes on to say, “[Obama] is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.”

In February 2008 (long before it even became a “topic” of the McCain campaign), Obama spokesman Bill Burton released a statement from the senator about the relationship between the two: “Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.”

CNN’s review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the non-profit projects in which the two men were involved. Internal reviews by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, The Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The New Republic “have said that their reporting doesn’t support the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship”.

That’s a lot of news sources saying the same thing for them to all be wrong.

Oh, and, dear Sarah, your interview with Katie Couric went off so awfully because you are an idiot.  You think the mainstream media is liberal but you are wrong, if anything in their attempt to be impartial they favor the conservatives because of the Right’s over vocal attacks.  In this case I am referring to the fact that if the McCain campaign attacks Obama the media will generally not look into facts but will rather just say, “Oh, well here’s the equivalent attack from the Obama campaign.”  That’s not journalism, that’s equivocation.

Meanwhile rallies that McCain himself attends the crowd is no better.

Greg Sargent from Talking Points Memo writes:

After John McCain delivered the central question of his speech today — “Who is the real Barack Obama?” — the first, and loudest, supporter seems to yell:

“Terrorist!”

McCain listens as his planted crowd member yells terrorist

That’s what John Aravosis and Marc Ambinder heard, and it does sound like it.

Who is the real Barack Obama?  Are you really asking?  Who the fuck is the real John McCain and what have you done with him?

This really pisses me off to no end.  I hate smear tactics, and have no tolerance for people who are so desperate for their power grab that they will sink to these depths, demonstrating their obviously racist bent using typical fascist tactics of scaremongering and party supporters planted in the crowd to whip them into a frenzy.  What will the McCain/Palin campaign October Surprise be?  A black man committing a domestic terror act?

A Diebold Election Systems, Inc. model AccuVote-TSx DRE voting machine with VVPAT attachment.

It may be crazy — or then again maybe not.  I guess we will see come November 5th when all the “votes” are in.

New Spoonamore Interview - E-voting Machines are a National Security Threat

Last week, Velevet Revolution interviewed GOP Cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the upcoming election and his testimony in the new Ohio litigation to take depositions of Karl Rove and others.

The video is posted in full below with ten short clips for You Tube viewing. This interview is so important and explosive that we urge everyone to watch it.

Spoonamore says that the GOP wanted e-voting to steal elections but now foreign governments will be hacking and the winner will be determined by the best hackers. He says that if the GOP wins the hacking competition, McCain will win 51.2 percent with three electoral votes over Obama, and it will be a stolen election.

Spoon also makes a crucial point about the people who have been implicated in much of the election theft: “They are religious extremists.” He names those who know about stolen elections, and he insists that the only way to protect this election is with paper ballots, hand-counted.

Check out this extraordinary interview after the jump.

Complete Stephen Spoonamore Interview

Found on reddit and written by marko34. I don’t think I could have summed this up more concisely.

Smash Patriarchy?

I think you have to consider the CONSERVATIVE (not Republican) mindset.

Conservatives are interested in what’s called a “strict father” mentality. In this mentality, the strict father makes all the decisions, and whether or not you agree, or are familiar with the reasons behind the decisions, is beside the point. These are the decisions, live with them. Hence, “I’m the decider.”

This is why Conservatives go along with whatever their leaders tell them. They vote in their leaders/”fathers” based on personality & identification, and basically “trust” them (the leaders) to do whatever they think is right. If they (the voters) agree, great. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter. The voters granted their trust on election day, and that’s it.

From this, it follows that Conservatives aren’t interested in their candidate showing depth or competence. Look at George W. Bush! As long as s/he speaks to them in their “gut”, or if they personally identify with their candidate, that’s all that matters.

Following further on, in their view the press also can’t be trusted. It’s the “liberal media” remember?

So in absence of the press being important, or even relevant in their view, all that matters is speaking engagements. The more places that Sarah Palin can speak, the more she can rile up the base, and the more she can deliver those applause lines that speak to the “gut” rather than the brain, the better. Hence the Bush-like “loyalty rallies.”

This in no way has anything to do with her being a strong leader. It’s all in service of propping up her “image” to the base, and speaking to their mindset. I can assure you, the McCain campaign will do NOTHING that isn’t necessary that will risk shattering her image to the base (which would basically be putting her in a position which she might demonstrate weakness or lack of certainty, like answering unpredictable press questions).

It’s only the rest of us, the reasoning, thinking people, that these things are important to.

It remains to be seen, then, if the independents are going to buy into this, if they’ll react to the “strict father” authoritarian mentality, or if they’ll be convinced to think differently.

You can make a difference, btw, by writing to a news outlet of your choice and DEMANDING that they ask her questions. Put pressure on the news outlets, not the candidate. She ain’t listening.

[NOTE: By "Conservative" I am referring to a subset of the Republican party. Not fiscal or social conservatives, but a radical authoritarian wing and its followers that has gained control of the party over the past few years/decades. They call themselves "Conservatives", having stolen the term from true conservative people. So that is the term I use. It also contrasts philosophically with the term "Progressive". Just in case this is still on the front page tomorrow and people are curious about my use of terminology. If you know a better term, for example Robert Reich uses 'radcon' to mean "Radical Conservative", I'm all in favor of it.]

[NOTE 2: Yes in some ways this can apply to some members of the Democratic party, as well. Or ANY party, really. We all have the "strict father" mentality hardwired into our brains somehow. I am merely attempting to explain why Republicans/Conservatives are largely ok with it, because it is their primary active framework, and why, contrary to our intuition, it works for them.]

[NOTE 3: Credit where credit is due. These ideas are based on the brilliant work by George Lakoff, whose book "Don't Think of An Elephant" is a far better and more in-depth exploration of these topics.]

Looks like it’s a nice sucker’s buy in to the patriarchal Judeo-Christian mindset.

Alexis de Tocqueville

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

“The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.”

– Alexis de Tocqueville

How appropriate in these financial times.

Which One is the Elitist Again?

Talk about fucking ridiculous.  The GOP continues to make Obama out to be an elitist and yet he lives relatively humbly while McCain can’t even remember how many homes he owns at times.

Seriously, McCain is a disgusting pig whose sanity is questionable and is unfit to lead anything.  Palin is gold digging political opportunist who doesn’t know jack about national, not to mention international, politics.  McCain has totally abandoned the issues (and in fact he is incapable of handling questions about most of them) and his campaign tactics have switched to manipulative name calling, outright lies and even thinly veiled racism.  McCain calls Obama an elitist but, as is often the case, he’s the true elitist: White, Rich and Protestant.

Obama may not be the perfect candidate but I think he’s pretty honest for a politician and at least he seems to have a degree of integrity.  I generall like Biden and he is certainly fully knowledgeable in foreign affairs.  I do think his campaign is not aggressive enough toward McCain/Palin.

If I was hiring the president and vice-president based on their educational backgrounds the choice would be even more clear:

Obama - B.A. Political Science from Columbia University, J.D. of Law (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School
Biden - B.A. History, B.A. Political Science from University of Delware, J.D. of Law from Syracuse University College of Law

McCain - Graduated from the United States Naval Academy
Palin - B.S. Communication-Journalism from University of Idaho (after attending five different colleges)

Educationally they come out of the wash as Obama/Biden representing Diplomacy, Community and Order while McCain/Palin come out at Marketing and War.

So if having a good education makes you an elitist then everyone should want to be one.

Palin's True Nature?

I can’t help myself - I have to say it.  Anyone, anyone at all, who votes for McCain/Palin is either blind to the truth, utterly clueless when it comes to their claims or mentally disturbed and living in a universe where supernatural entities exist.

The two of them are out and out liars.  Neither is a maverick.  How can McCain be a maverick and about change and reform when he’s been a Washington insider for more than 20 years?  He certainly doesn’t represent the everyman and everywoman - only those who can afford multiple houses.  Even his choice for running mate isn’t a maverick concept - the democrats already did that 24 years ago.  Palin a maverick?  Hardly she bellies up to the pork barrel bar just like any other self-serving politician does.

The best we could hope for if they are elected is four more years of the same.  In all likelihood it would be worse - much worse - for everyone.  Oh, the evangelical armegeddonists would be happy.  I could only hope that China would tank the dollar at that point - not something I really want to see happen but better than letting the end-timers have their wet dream become a reality.

If McCain/Palin are elected the chances of Palin assuming the mantle of president are unfortunately too high what with McCain being as old as he is he is liable to expire while in office.  Do you really want someone with so little regard for others, so inexperienced (yes, far more inexperienced than Barack Obama), so extreme in her religious views to be president?

Anyone swayed by the insubstantial drivel McCain and Palin spout is a sucker.  And I’ll gladly argue with any McCain/Palin supporters who think I’m full of it.  And yes, if you support McCain/Palin I do think I’m smarter and wiser than you because only the ignorant would fall for their bull shit.

Palin Comes Out of Nowhere

Here are some nice untruths and outright lies that that GOP is trying to fool people with.  Sarah Palin is ambitious to be sure and I certainly am glad to see that this years nominees are a partially a change from the past but I think she is a poor choice and in all likelihood will besmirch the good name of Michael Palin.

Joe Lieberman (who really should stop claiming to be a Independent Democrat at this point) and his former Senate colleague Fred Thompson both made misleading claims about Obama in their prime time GOP convention speeches on Tuesday. We’ve heard two of them before – many times.

• Lieberman said Obama hadn’t “reached across party lines” to accomplish “anything significant,” though Obama has teamed with GOP Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Lugar to pass laws enhancing government transparency and curtailing the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons.
• Thompson repeated misleading claims about Obama’s tax program, saying it would bring “one of the largest tax increases in American history.” But as increases go, Obama’s package is hardly a history-maker. It would raise taxes for families with incomes above $250,000. Most people would see a cut.
• Lieberman also accused Obama of “voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield.” But Obama’s only vote against a war-funding bill came after Bush vetoed a version of the bill Obama had supported – and McCain urged the veto.

Sarah Palin’s much-awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night may have shown she could play the role of attack dog, but it also showed her to be short on facts when it came to touting her own record and going after Obama’s.

Rudy Giuliani, who introduced her, to be as factually challenged as he sometimes was back when he was in the race. But Mike Huckabee may have laid the biggest egg of all.

• Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.
• Palin’s accusation that Obama hasn’t authored “a single major law or even a reform” in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.
• The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain’s false claims about Obama’s tax program – but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.
• Giuliani distorted the time line and substance of Obama’s statements about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. In fact, there was much less difference between his statements and those of McCain than Giuliani would have had us believe.
• Giuliani also said McCain had been a fighter pilot. Actually, McCain’s plane was the A-4 Skyhawk, a small bomber. It was the only plane he trained in or flew in combat, according to McCain’s own memoir.
• Finally, Huckabee told conventioneers and TV viewers that Palin got more votes when she ran for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did running for president. Not even close. The tally: Biden, 79,754, despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Palin, 909 in her 1999 race, 651 in 1996.

Here is some bonus fact checking:

McCain’s campaign launched a TV ad touting his running mate, Palin, and offering a comparison to Obama. Some of its claims are off the mark:

• It says Obama “gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways,” citing his votes for a 2005 energy bill. But the bill slightly raised taxes on the oil industry overall.
• The ad plucked a positive blurb about Palin from an Associated Press article that, in fact, was very much a mixed review. The AP said she “brings an ethical shadow to the [Republican] ticket,” for example.
• The ad says Obama is the “most liberal” Senator. But the National Journal rated him the 16th most liberal in his first year and the 10th most liberal in his second. It rated his votes “most liberal” only in 2007, when he was busy campaigning and missed one-third of the votes on which the rating is based.

And there you have it - the GOP in all it’s unsightly glory.

McCain's $520 Shoes

From Crooks and Liars

I think Chris Hayes gets this just right.If I were a right-wing blogger, and I found out that Barack Obama was wearing Ferragamo loafers that cost $520, I would spend about 50% of my waking hours making sure everyone knew this. I would mock him for being an out-of-touch elitist and make jokes like, “If you think that’s a lot, you should see how much his purse costs ” I would send the link to Drudge and wait for Instapundit to pick it up, and then watch gleefully as Fox News ran segments about how Barack Obama’s $500 loafers vitiate his entire economic platform.

But of course, I’m not a right-wing blogger. And the $520 shoes belong to John McCain. And frankly, I don’t think how much his shoes cost matters one whit for how he’d govern the country.

Put it this way — if Barack Obama paid $520 for a pair of Italian loafers, every voter in America would know about it. Every media outlet would report it and every Republican would talk about it.

I’m reminded, of course, of John Edwards’ $400 haircuts. Last year, that story was everywhere, with the Washington Post writing multiple articles about it. “How could Edwards relate to regular folks if he has that kind of lifestyle?” the media asked, over and over again.

Indeed, the media seems to go to great lengths to look for evidence to bolster the far-right meme that Obama is some kind of outsider. From bowling to orange juice to arugula, reporters love to characterize Obama as something less than a “real” American.

Well, McCain has a half-dozen homes and spends on shoes what some families spend on rent. All the while, he advocates more tax cuts for millionaires, opposes increases to the minimum wage, and tells Americans their economic problems are in their heads.