Category: Politics & Elections

Watershed II

Every day NewMexiKen gets snail mail from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce (the fun of registering Independent).

And every day I laugh and think, “Pearce, I sure hope you’re spending your own money on this trash.”

And every day I rip it half and toss it in the waste can.

As Kos says, if you know a pro-Bush Republican in danger of going under this election cycle, throw ’em an anvil.

What historians call a watershed

Helen (Babe) Walker, seventy-three years old, who lives in the Appalachian mining town of Glouster, Ohio …, writes:

“I think that the residents here in Glouster are getting accustomed to the fact that we will be having a black president. They think it is not a bad idea.”

And Roger Catt, the retired Wisconsin farmer who told me that “McCain is more of the same, and Obama is the end of life as we know it,” will be voting for the end of life as we know it.

George Packer

Social Security: we have always been at war with Eastasia

“But even in the middle of all that, it never occurred to me that a future presidential candidate would invent out of thin air a completely false story about how the privatization push failed.”

Paul Krugman amazed at John McCain’s bizarre fabrications.

Does McCain just not know what he’s talking about, or is he purposefully lying?

And again I say, there’s no difference between this McCain and old McCain. Being a maverick always meant he just did his own thing without regard to consistency, party or fair play. He is and always has been an “it’s all about me” ass.

The ‘I have a dream’ vote

A story of early voting from a medical student in Evansville, Indiana, as told to Ben Smith – Politico.com:

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn’t think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

The Hockey Mom from Saks and Nieman’s

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Politico.com

Reformer, yeah right

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.

— AP via Yahoo! News

About time someone said this

Now, I understand what politics is all about.  I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good.  But I think this goes too far.  . . . 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 seven-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 terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) on Meet the Press

More from Powell:

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.

Amen.

Strong words from historically Republican voices

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation’s most powerful office, he will prove it wasn’t so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama’s name to Lincoln’s in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

Chicago Tribune

We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama’s critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.

Los Angeles Times

Plenty of blame to go around

Award-winning reporter Charles Duhigg of The New York Times on This American Life, October 11, 2008:

The blame for this is absolutely bipartisan. Both parties deserve a great deal of blame for what happened with the subprime mess. And to try and pin the blame on one party or the other really muddies the issue. A crisis like what’s going on right now, can’t develop without everyone fueling it. I mean we’re looking at the biggest crisis in a century. That only happens when basically everyone drops the ball. So there’s enough blame to give to both parties here.

Fannie and Freddie were part of the problem, but not the cause of the problem.

Neither McCain nor Obama have any particular claim to doing either right or wrong.

(We know Duhigg is good because he’s a native New Mexican.)