Sarah Palin Caused Obama Death Threats

Governor Sarah Palin caused death threats against President-elect Barack Obama: That's the opinion of the United States Secret Service.

In a Newsweek history of the campaign various damaging allegations have surfaced about the campaign, many regarding Sarah Palin.

It has been alleged that her 'palling around with terrorists' and other similar attacks against Obama's patriotism were launched without approval from John McCain. Apparently Palin made these decisions herself, which caused staffers to refer to her as a 'diva' and a 'whack job.'

By mid-October with Palin's continual racist attacks, death threats against Obama had spiked, prompting the first lady to be to ask an aide, "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

Crowds at Palin rallies were whipped into anti-Obama frenzies with copious gasoline poured on the fire by Sarah Palin. Secret Service described the result as a 'near lynch mob mentality.'

John McCain became so concerned about the direction she was taking, he eventually ordered her to tone down the campaign message she was putting out.

And to think this spiteful nasty woman has hinted at a future run at the White House. Maybe she should run for Grand Wizard of the KKK instead.

Goodbye John McCain

John McCain was sent a historic and clear message last night. A message that divisive racist and negative campaigning is the path to defeat. And not just any old defeat, but a crushing defeat.

Americans rejected the old school politics of yesterday, and turned their back on a man who disgraced himself by running a horrible campaign of hate and division.

John McCain should be ashamed of himself. Not just for the dishonor of his campaign, but for the racists, liars, and smear artists he surrounded himself with.

Let this be a lesson for Republicans going forward. America is built on hope, not on fear and hate. The politics upon which George Bush built his presidency died last night, and while many may try to resurrect it in the future, it will always be the path to failure.

This is my last post in this election on John McCain. Let us hope that all Republicans will learn from his mistakes.

If The World Could Vote

I found an interesting web site today. It measures online votes from all over the world, and tabulates the results.

As of now they have close to a 850,000 votes from 213 different countries.

So far the result is 87.3% for Barack Obama, and 12.7% for John McCain.

No Joe No Supporters

Last week we shared the embarrassing moment when John McCain called to his buddy "Joe" The "Plumber" at a rally, only to discover that Joe wasn't there.

But it seems that Joe wasn't the only person with better things to do that day.

It turns out that support for the event was so lackluster the McCain campaign bussed in a bunch of local school children to stand in the crowd and pretend to be supporters, despite the fact most were too young to vote.

6,000 supporters showed up, but of those 4,000 were local school children, who had no choice but to be there. And after John couldn't find Joe, he told them to all stand up because THEY were all Joe the Plumber.

Way to inspire the kids.

McCain "Jazzed Up"

Old man McCain announced today that he was "Jazzed Up" about the possibility of making a historic comeback this weekend.

He went on to say he was going to wind up his gramophone, slip on a smoking jacket, and do the Charleston until he couldn't dance any more. Then he was going to take the little lady down to the talkies, before a quick drink at the local speakeasy on the way home.

"Joe" the "Plumber" Goes Rogue

Will the real Joe The Plumber please stand up?

He was supposed to attend a rally with old man McCain yesterday, but apparently McCain's staff were too incompetent to arrange it. And irritated by the lack of professional courtesy, Samuel The Diva decided to stay home, leaving McCain to look embarrassed and then declare that the entire audience was Joe The Plumber.

A more in depth report can be found here.

Revenge of the Killer RoboCall

It seems the McCain RoboCall has gone rogue. Latest reports now show McCain using his team of maverick robots to call his lies into Washington State, a state he is losing by some 17 points.

WTF?

Have the robots gone crazy or has McCain?

A Question For McCain

In the second Presidential Debate, John McCain made this statement:

"I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it. "

Now apparently this magical solution has evaded President Bush for the past seven years. So the question is, why has McCain not helped his Republican friend out by sharing with him the secret of finding Osama bin Laden?

This question has been asked before, most recently by David Letterman, and I've yet to see a good answer to it.

McCain Running Scared

John McCain has demonstrated just how insecure he is about this election in his latest move of campaigning in his home state of Arizona.

In a state that should be a slam dunk for the Senator, he has decided to invest some of what is left of his campaign fund with more of his sleazy robocalls.

The message of hope he shares with voters is as follows:

I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.

If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

John McCain: Latest Sleaze Attack

John McCain and Sarah Palin continued this week with their sleazy campaign, this time trying to link Barack Obama with Rashid Khalidi, a person with a foreign sounding name (probably a terrorist then) who they allege was a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

They claimed that Obama palled around with him, and made the usual series of infrences we have come to expect from a campaign desperate to find traction (and racist connotations) any place they can.

Unfortunately this bit of slime didn't stick. In fact like a news boomerang it came right back and hit the McCain campaign squarely in the teeth. Because within a very short time of admonishing the Los Angeles Times for not providing them with a video tape that proved Obama's link to Khalidi, it was discovered that McCain had even closer ties.

See it turns out, embarrassingly enough, 15 years ago Khalidi founded a group called the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, and John McCain chairs a group (International Republican Institute) that has donated over $800,000 to them.

So I guess the question for John McCain is, if Khalidi is such an evil terrorist, why is a group you chair giving his organization all that money?

100,000 Strong For Obama

Barack Obama held a rally in Denver Colorado on Sunday. Police estimated that well over 100,000 people showed up to support him; the largest crowd of his campaign so far. He later had another smaller rally attended by 45,000 people.

By contrast old man McCain had two rallies on Sunday too. The total head count for BOTH rallies combined was 7,000.

Perhaps McCain needs to switch his message of personal attacks and lies, and focus on telling the country in a positive way why we should vote for him. The clock is ticking for John McCain, in more ways than one.

John McCain: Straight Talk Express?

Polls: Sarah Palin Hurting McCain Campaign

Three polls out today have found that Sarah Palin is a considerable liability, rather than an asset to the McCain campaign.

An NBC poll found that 34% of voters did not believe Sarah Palin was qualified for the job. Leading the second big problem for McCain which is that 23% believe he will continue failed Bush policies.

She now is the only candidate to have a net negative favorable / unfavorable rating of 33%/47%.

A Pew poll found that there are, "Growing Doubts About McCain's Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct."

And finally an ABC poll discovered 52% of people now believe that McCain's selection of Palin for VP shows a lack of good judgment.

As Sarah Palin continues to blunder around the country, telling us who the 'real' Americans are, she appears to be losing more popularity each time she opens her mouth. Which would perhaps be why McCain keeps a muzzle on her most of the time.

Ironically, it seems that McCain's master plan to pick a woman for the ticket has backfired horribly. One wonders how the polls would be looking had he picked a highly qualified Republican for the ticket, rather than going for a cheap political trick to woo Hillary voters.

Joe The Plumber: The Saga Continues

I recently had a disagreement with a friend of mine. Sadly that disagreement was over "Joe" the "Plumber."

In response to this post on his blog, I had quite a lot to say, and felt that it merited an entire post in itself:

Obama did not go knocking on the guy's door. Samuel (his real name), went looking for Obama. You can do the research yourself. The media was originally mistaken on that front. Samuel even admitted in a later interview that he went looking for Obama, to have a specific confrontation. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a random chance meeting. And given the overzealous exploitation of the man by McCain in the debate that followed, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a plant.

The issue I have with the man, I have outlined in my blog already. But what it boils down to is that the man is essentially really selfish, and somewhat misguided. If you really listened to one of his interviews all he talks about is ME ME ME.

What if I buy this business? What if I make more than $250K? Why should I pay more, even though I can afford to?

Because someone has to.

George Bush has taken all the money and given it to the rich. He has charged his war and mismanagement of the economy on the American credit card. Someone has to pay for it. If we continue down the path that George Bush has started, we will bankrupt our nation and everyone will suffer.

We've been giving tax cuts to the super rich elite now for the past eight years. Money to rich CEOs and corporations that don't need it.

Obama is merely suggesting that the poor and middle class could use a break. The average family could probably do better if they were not taxed as much.

He is suggesting that people who make over $250K a year could afford to pay a tiny bit more in taxes, so that relief could be given to working families.

Even though this would benefit people like Samuel, there are those who would vote against their own self interests, on the pipe dream that one day they will be making $250K a year, and they'd like to hoard a few extra dollars rather than pay it in tax.

There's nothing wrong with the dream of being rich (although spiritually, that could be a different ball game). But the Ebenezer Scrooge concept of hoarding money away and demanding that the government tax the poor instead, is simply unfair.

Under Bush the rich poor divide has grown considerably. If 95% of America is to have a better quality of life, then the top 5% need to pay a little more. And the beauty of that philosophy is that if you are super rich and you have to pay an extra $10,000 a year in taxes, it doesn't matter. Super rich people will not have to shop at WalMart because of it. They will still be just fine.

As for Samuel. If he voted for Obama, maybe his taxes would go down. Maybe he could pay off his back taxes, and get the lien off his home. Maybe Obama would allow him to afford health care again so he could pay off that hospital bill. Perhaps even with more money in his pocket, he could afford to obtain that plumbers license so he didn't have to work illegally, and could one day have a shot at that dream of owning the business.

Let's face facts here. Samuel is basically supporting the trickle down economics of the past eight years, and the very similar plans of McCain to continue with the same. But these philosophies haven't really worked out all that well for Samuel so far have they? Still can't afford to get his license after ten years. Still no closer to buying the business and realizing his dream. Struggling to make ends meet, and falling further and further behind with his bills.

Samuel needs help NOW. In fact he's been needing help for the past eight years. Yet no one was willing to give him that helping hand. He keeps slogging away, year in year out, hoping for the chance at his dream. But despite his hard work, he is no closer to achieving that now, than he was when Bush came to office.

Unless people like him, making a middle class income get some help, they will NEVER have that shot at the big time. However, if Samuel does well thanks to Obama, gets licensed, buys the business, and starts to make over $250K a year. Perhaps then he should be less selfish and willingly pay the few hundred dollars in extra tax, so that the next generation of Joe the Plumbers can have a shot at the chance that he had.

Samuel has lived through the past decade of doing that job without a license. He has nothing really to show for his effort. An income so low he can't afford his tax. Medical bills so high he can't afford to pay them. Credit crisis so bad he can't borrow the money to buy the business. Working from week to week without the time or money to obtain his license, meaning that his career growth is stunted.

Perhaps it is time to change. Perhaps it is time to accept that trickle down economics don't work. Perhaps it is time to accept that society needs to help Samuel and others like him realize their dreams.

But Samuel will never move forward while we keep taking his money and giving it to the richest people in our society. These elite rich people can afford to give back, and it's time they did.

Joe The Plumber or Sam The Con Man?

In the final death throws of the McCain election campaign, Joe The Plumber has been used by McCain and Palin as what they hope will be the magic bullet to turn things around.

Unfortunately those pesky facts keep cropping up that detract from the lies they are trying to sell to the American people.

They have tried to paint Joe The Plumber as a good old working man, who is frightened of Obama's radical plan to pay for stuff, using taxes. Perhaps they prefer the Bush approach of simply borrowing money from foreign countries, not paying them back, and bilking poor people out of as much as they can get off them. Thus continuing to widen the gap between rich and poor.

So now that Joe The Plumber has had his 15 minutes of fame, this is what the media have discovered about him:

• Joe The Plumber is not a plumber. In so far as he doesn't have a license to be a plumber (despite over a decade in the industry). Until he obtains one, he would not be able to buy a plumbing business and operate it, as he described in his fantasy to Barack Obama.
• Joe The Plumber is not called Joe. His name is in fact Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. Not quite as catchy as Joe The Plumber.
• He told a conservative web site that trying to catch Barack Obama off guard was his intent, it was not just a chance meeting, he had a specific agenda.
• It turns out that his worries about tax may go beyond the story. Because apparently he has underpaid his own taxes by about $1,200. In fact this matter is so serious, the state has put a lien on his home.
  
• It seems he could also benefit from some Obama help with health care, since he owes $1,200 to a hospital, and has not paid them.
• When it was first discovered he was not a licensed plumber, Joe The Plumber claimed he worked under his bosses plumbing license. But under Ohio building regulations Joe The Plumber cannot do plumbing work without getting a plumbers license. So Joe The Plumber may in fact be working illegally.
  
• Although he is now a registered Republican, he was up until 2007 registered with the Natural Law Party.
• Comic Bill Maher pointed out, in his 15 minutes of fame, Wurzelbacher has already done more interviews than Palin.

So it seems that the McCain campaign vetted Joe The Plumber about as thoroughly as McCain vetted Palin.

This guy they are trying to elevate to hero status, is clearly no hero. But he is a tax dodging con man who masquerades as a plumber, but in fact breaks the law if he does any actual plumbing.

Joe The Plumber isn't even close to his fantasy of earning in the top 5% of Americans. He is sadly using the same old logic that causes millions of poor people to vote for the Bush and McCain's of this world. The belief that if they vote against their own interests for long enough, they will get lucky and get rich. At which point they can be a part of the 'trickle down' theory that Bush and McCain support.

The fact is, Joe The Plumber would have benefited from Obama's policies, had they been in effect for the past few years. Maybe with lower taxes he would not have run up that tax bill that now sits as a lien on his home. Maybe with better medical coverage he wouldn't owe that hospital $1,200. Perhaps with the other initiatives Obama has suggested, he could have obtained his plumber's license, so he didn't have to break the law.

John McCain stated that the winner of the last presidential debate was Joe The Plumber. Let's hope that's true. Let's hope that the Joe The Plumbers of this country begin to see that they are making a mistake by electing someone who wants to copy Bush's fiscal policy.

UPDATE: According to this article, it has been suggested that Samuel The Fake Plumber actually makes somewhere between $40K and $70K, and so would face a tax cut under President Obama not the tax hike he fears.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2006 National Compensation Survey, pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters nationwide made an average of $23 an hour, or about $46,000 annually for a typical 40-hour workweek.

John McCain, owned on Meet The Press

McCain vs. McCain

President Obama Wins Second Debate

Like many people, I watched the Presidential debate last night. And as the BBC said, it was hardly a fair fight.

Believing that a Town Hall Meeting was his strong suit, McCain was expecting to win in this kind of format. He imagined he would have the advantage. But sadly, simply because the expectation was set, even a draw was a loss for John McCain.

However, what we saw was a decisive win for President Obama. He was clear and articulate as we have come to expect. Whereas John McCain was seen lurching around the stage like an escapee from an old people's home.

When McCain was speaking President Obama sat, or stood in the background looking at ease with the situation. Presidential if you will.

When President Obama was speaking, McCain shuffled around, scribbled notes, sat down, stood up, paced about like he was lost.

When McCain was speaking, he managed to constantly turn his back to the camera and move uncomfortably from one spot to another. Trying desperately to frighten the American people as conservatives seem to like to do.

As an aside, I thought the moderator was an asshole. You can't keep admonishing the speakers for going over the time, when it was clear that the timers were not working properly for the one minute sessions, only the two minute sessions. And even so, you don't talk to presidential candidates in that manner.

In any case the McCain Palin ticket is over. An old man and a bimbo just isn't going to cut it with the American people. I think that the only people who are going to support John McCain are those who always vote Republican, the terminally stupid, and racists. And even then, I don't see the turn out being that high.

Unless President Obama releases a rap album about killing cops, pimpin' and smokin' crack, I think he has this one in the bag. And I can't wait to see him in action.

McCain-o-nomics

Sarah Palin - Hiding From Justice

If anyone was in any doubt that McCain is the next George Bush, this story from the Associated Press tells you all you need to know.

In what seems to have become standard modus operandi for GOP tactics we have watched one of the most divisive campaigns in history. One smear after another. Lies, boasts, and a distinct lack of truthiness. A campaign that Karl Rove has stated is, "one step too far."

The latest move involves protecting the public from finding out facts about Sarah Palin by sending a 'truth squad' to manage what information is discovered by the news media. The team includes politicians and lawyers who seemingly are willing to do anything to hide the facts that might upset the public were they to find out.

One of their current missions is to stall the 'troopergate' investigation until after the election.

Basically, the allegations are that while governor, Sarah Palin abused her powers to try and get her ex-brother in law removed from his job as State Trooper. She ended up firing the guy who refused to fire her ex-brother in law.

Originally Palin was all set to cooperate with the investigation. But now a team of Republican lawyers are deliberately stalling the investigation until after the election. Palin herself has chosen to flip flip on the issue (to put it in Republican terms). While she was once going to cooperate, it seems she is now 'too busy' to answer for her alleged crimes.

It really is sad and scary that some old guy can pluck a random person out of her life as a hockey mom, make her a vice presidential candidate, and suddenly the law no longer seems to apply.

At the end of the day, if this woman is truly the best candidate for the job, why is so much effort being made to suppress the truth? How can a woman with so little political knowledge and experience have so many skeletons in her closet? How can a man who claims to have what it takes to turn this country around, be so politically inept that he would pick this woman for VP?