The Essence of Cluelessness

This one is just too good to pass up. It's from last night's Countdown.

Be sure to pay attention to the headlines as they change throughout the video clip.

HT: AmericaBlog

Montreal Comedians Prank Call Sarah Palin

Montreal's Masked Avengers made a prank phone call to Sarah Palin, convincing her she was speaking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Masked Avengers have a regular show on Montreal radio station CKOI.

Postcard From Sarah and John's Non-Socialist World

Flummoxed Fumbrage*

This is absolutely brilliant.

McCain hack Michael Goldfarb, who writes posts for McCain's blog, was interviewed by Rick Sanchez on CNN today about McCain's latest bizarre attack on Obama.

It starts as follows:

SANCHEZ: Now, is the -- I need to parse this out as best I can from you, Michael. The fact that John McCain's organization gave $448,000 to this group that was founded by Mr. Khalidi, is there no reason for some to be critical of as well just as some might be critical of Barack Obama for being at a meeting with some girl who read a poem for example?

GOLDFARB: Look. You are missing the point again, Rick. The point is that Barack Obama has a long track record of being around anti-Semitic and anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric.

SANCHEZ: Can you name one other person besides Khalidi who he hangs around that is anti-Semitic?

And then the fun begins. Watch the little weasel make a complete fool of himself.

*Fumbrage

Deflating Fumbrage

In the midst of a widespread attempt to keep low-income and minority voters from the polls, Republican fumbrage is reaching new heights.

Fumbrage

After the latest news about the cost of John McCain's makeup artist, Sarah Palin's wardrobe, and Alaskan taxpayers bearing the cost of flying Palin's children around , I saw the following on Countdown this evening.

And then I remembered how the Republicans had such a hissy fit about John Edward's $400 haircut.

And all of this brought a new word to mind ... Fumbrage ... a combination of "fake" and "umbrage."

Indulging in fumbrage is the only thing the Republicans have been able to do well during this campaign.

We just won't tell them that it's just not terribly convincing. [chortle]

Vlad and Boris Love Sarah

Hating For John and Sarah

From Mock, Paper, Scissors

Well, I can't say that this surprises me. The photos below are of a Hays County Texas car sporting an Obama sticker after some supporters of McCain and Palin got ahold of it. Hays County, BTW, lies between San Antonio and Austin. It is the former home of Ralph the Swimming Pig (for those of you who remember the old days on CompuServe).




More pictures at Mock, Paper, Scissors

McCain Keeps On Inciting Hate

John McCain's attacks on ACORN reached a new level this week when he claimed before a national audience Wednesday that ACORN is “maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” In the following days the ACORN's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized, and at least one employee received a death threat.

Right Wing Watch has received copies of voicemails and e-mail and published some of the. The following is an uncensored transcription of one of the voicemail message. The rest of them can be found on the Right Wing Watch site.

“Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He's a fucking nigger, and he's a piece of shit. You guys are fraudulent, and you need to go to hell. All the niggers on oak trees. They're gonna get all hung honeys, they're gonna get assassinated, they're gonna get killed.”

Note to John and Sarah: I place the blame for this squarely on your shoulders.

Sarah Palin Booed At Hockey Game

McCain Reaps What He Sows

Like virtually everyone I've spoken with over the last few weeks, I have been appalled by the hatred being stirred up by John McCain and his attact dog, Sarah Palin. They have been playing to the Republican "base" (pun unintentional), and the members of the "base" have been emboldened and are more willing to show their true colors. Huffington Post has a good summary of what has been going on at McCain/Palin rallies. The video below is one of the latest examples.

Now the polls are telling us that Americans do not respond well to McCain, Palin, and the "base." (pun in intentional this time)

And in the last month — as the McCain/Palin campaign began spewing their bile — Obama’s favorability rating has increased (57% to 60%) while his unfavorability rating has declined (36% to 34%). By contrast, McCain’s favorability/unfavorability ratings have plummeted during this same time (60/33 to 53/40), as have Palin’s (54/27 to 47/42). Standing next to Sarah Palin in that debate has turned Joe Biden — Joe Biden — into a wildly popular politician in America, with a 57/29 favorability rating.

In sum, the more Americans see of and hear from Sarah Palin and are exposed to her filthy smear politics, the worse she looks to them. And the more the McCain/Palin campaign attacks Obama with ugly, despicable smears, the worse McCain/Palin look, while Obama’s popularity with Americans continues to solidify and even gradually increase (Americans believe Obama is “trustworthy” by an overwhelming margin of 60-32%) (Fox 36).

Faced with this information, McCain has put himself into the position of having to attempt to reverse the trend he and Palin have started, and yesterday the "base" (pun intentional) booed him for doing so.

God save us from "base" Republicans!

November Express

Chrissy and Sarah

A number of years ago some friends of ours got an adorable miniature Dachshund puppy during the holiday season and named her Chrissy (for Christmas). Chrissy had the daunting task of filling in the space left by their matron Weimaraner, Madge, who has passed on earlier that year. Chrissy had no trouble at all, and performed her task brilliantly.

As the years went on, Chrissy developed some back trouble and eventually some nerve damage that has left her with the predicament of being fecally incontinent. Our friends came over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and told us about this new development in Chrissy's health. They left an indelible image in my mind when they described how poor little Chrissy just drops little bits of poop at random as she walks around the house.

And then along came the Katie Couric interviews with Sarah Palin.

Palin keeps reminding me of poor little Chrissy. Every time she opens her mouth, little bits of ... er ... something ... just keep dropping out at random.

So while you're watching tonight's debate, do take a moment to think about adorable little Chrissy and her current troubles.

Right Wing Legal Group Helps Palin With Troopergate

Hello friends, I'm sort of back up and running after the move. I think it all went rather smoothly. The house seems to be coming together. And one of these days I'll stop feeling so exhausted!

Two items came my way yesterday I'd like to share. The first is the cartoon I found on Joe.My.God

The second is a report from Kyle at Right Wing Watch.

Right-Wing Legal Group Comes to Palin’s Defense

The AP reports that “five Republican state lawmakers filed suit Tuesday to end the bipartisan investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's” role in the “Troopergate” scandal and buried near the bottom of the article is this little tidbit of information:

"There is no nonpartisan reason to complete this investigation until after the election," said Anchorage attorney Kevin G. Clarkson. "We just want to take the politics out of it and bring fairness back into it."

Clarkson said he and a nonprofit legal firm in Texas, Liberty Legal Institute, were donating their work on the suit.

If the name of Clarkson sounds familiar, it’s because he showed up in a post from a few weeks ago explaining how, back in 2006, he personally assured Focus on the Family that Palin shared their views – and he’d know since he was providing legal counsel to her on the Alaska Supreme Court’s ruling regarding benefits for partners of state employees:

Clarkson explained that it was a convoluted process that led to the veto. Acting as legal counsel, Clarkson advised Palin to veto the bill that he said, because of confusing legislative machinations and existing court challenges, would've had the opposite effect and locked in benefits for all couples.

Clarkson said he had to explain the whole decision to Focus on the Family to put minds at ease.

Clarkson appears to be something of a free-lance right-wing lawyer, as in the earlier article he was listed as affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund and is now listed as working with the Liberty Legal Institute, which just so happens to be run by Kelly Shackelford who was an early backer of Mike Huckabee and was recently hobnobbing with Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer and James Dobson on Dobson’s radio program where they cooed over Palin and Shackelford detailed his role in drafting “the strongest pro-life platform ever in the history of the [Republican] party."

Two Must-Read Sarah Palin Articles

Sirus OutQ talk host Michelangelo Signorile has put up two absolute must-read blog posts about Sarah Palin.

The first is about her attempt to ban some books from a public library and then her subsequent attempt to fire the librarian who refused. Do not miss the letter from a woman who helped defend the librarian.

The second is about her church its anti-Semitic "Jews for Jesus" activities as well as its advocacy of the so-called "reparative therapy" to change sexual orientation. He has a video of Palin preaching to the church as well.

He had quite a week covering the Republican Convention. There are lots of other interesting entries in his blog regarding some of the wingnuts he managed to interview. One can only hope that other journalists would call them on the lies like Michelangelo does.

All You Need To Know About Sarah Palin

1. How she feels about the duties of the Vice President of the USA.

2. What John McCain likes most about her (watch his eyes).

3. McCain's staff assures us that she can learn on the job and that McCain will still be alive after four years of this on-the-job training.

From the New York Times:

Mr. McCain’s advisers said Friday that Mr. McCain was well aware that Ms. Palin would be criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, but that he viewed her as exceptionally talented and intelligent and that he felt she would be able to be educated quickly.

“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,” said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May.