Gobsmacked

What does it say about a campaign when they're willing to invent a portion of their own grassroots movement out of whole cloth?

This is the first I've ever heard of such a thing, but I'm not willing to rule out the possibility that this is common practice in the political realm. As it stands, however, this looks deplorable, unseemly and entirely cynical.

Tuesday In The Tank With Hank

Bruno and The Professor's Matski was probably goofing when he announced the caption contest for this picture:



I say take him up on it: Go here to submit your entry.

The Hottentots Arrive For McCain/Palin

To be perfectly honest, since the economy started dominating the political talk, the Right’s attempts at addressing it have been more than absolutely ludicrous, barely worth mentioning; except, of course, as a means of showing just how outrageous and duplicitous their stance is. Tom Tomorrow’s weekly comic This Modern World nails the particulars, as usual; and BATP's Matski should be lauded for pointing that neoconservative W has now found himself introducing fiscal socialism to the realm of how government deals with the private sector. Amazing.

What has been interesting about all of this folderol, is how the Right has used this fiasco as a means of distancing themselves from their various stances, most notably the notion they’ve actively scorched the earth in supporting: The unlimited/unchecked power of the Executive Branch above the Legislative and Judicial branches of government. Glenn Greenwald does a stellar job of spelling it all out.

Meanwhile, Senator McCain continues to exhibit just how deaf an ear he has for the majority of domestic issues, which Obama has done a great job of hammering away at. Take this ad, for example:



Being pro-deregulation not enough of an indictment? Okay, what about McCain’s statement in Detroit that he’s been buying American automobiles for the entirety of his life? Guess what? Another lie. Maybe McCain is inadvertently proving that he has no idea what the internet is all about, otherwise why would he lie so blatantly about something that will be fact-checked and distributed nationally within a matter of seconds?

Again Obama has not hesitated in taking a jab when the opening presented itself. Considering how impossibly close the race is right now, it is important that Obama’s campaign take up these matters themselves, instead of letting the media do all of the work. If they don’t, then the media will ignore it instead of actually doing their job of doggedly reporting the facts to the people. (More on the media in a separate entry.)

Where is La Palin, other than being interviewed by Right wing shills? Being protected from any outside intrusion, almost to the point of detriment. The campaign seems perfectly willing to let her be painted however the media wants, and the picture isn’t pretty. From David Talbot’s borderline series of slam after slam (today’s piece, which thankfully uses no anonymous sources, merely describes her as a political Mean Girl who parasitically climbs up the career ladder by exploiting the “old boys’ network” and then usurping the carcass of whoever she’s latched onto), to the Politico’s revelation that out of the 578 days (19 months, or 397 workdays) Ms. Palin served as Alaska’s governor, she was actually present for 85 of those days...Palin will soon only appeal to the Republican base and that’s it.

All of this still doesn’t really address the state of full-on higgledy-piggledy that marks the McCain/Palin campaign heading into the first Presidential debate, not that heartland voters are noticing. Maybe they will be taking notice soon: Traditional and respected conservative voice George Will came out with an editorial comparing McCain to Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts. When you’ve been abandoned or harshly criticized by your own party this many times, one probably starts to get twitchy.

This twitchiness can only be amplified when his foreign policy credentials come into question this week during the debate. Here’s something else Obama should be hammering away on: The neocon strategy of focusing on the Middle East to the exclusion of everything else, along with McCain's own hard-line posturing over Georgia, has led to Russia's becoming a player once again in the Latin American theater.

Lies from/of the Liberal Press

The whole Liberal Media nonsense? It's purely a gut thing. It ties into and co-justifies the other narratives that people who use that label believe. It is true because it feels true to them, and, as with all cases of faith, they aren't going to let rational analysis get in the way.

Let's just imagine it's true, that the media is made up of nothing but Card-Carrying, Bleeding-Heart, Secular-Humanist Liberal Elite. Would not Obama be their man? Would they not take every chance to cast him in the best possible light? Perhaps even to the point of distorting truths in his favor?

And yet, the Liberal Media insist on complicity in distorting Obama's tax plan. Again. Already. Huh? Liberal? Really?

(Ahh, cognitive dissonance. I think the Right rides it like a daily caffeine buzz.)

CBS failed in an almost pardonable way in setting up their coverage of the Obama and McCain tax plans. In classic "lies, damn lies, and statistics" style, they posed as representative three income levels that were actually skewed high. Quibbling, maybe, but clearly the way an analysis like this is framed, through the choice of example, will affect the outcome.

But this right here slays me:

"The network asked an accountant identified as Matt Yuskewich of Columbus --who, CBS didn't inform its viewers, is also the treasurer of the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee--to “[run] the numbers” for these families' tax bills..." (emphasis mine)

So, let's again imagine, in our fairytale land of rainbows and bubblegum, that the Liberal Media is not a myth. Wouldn't the Liberal Media have to be some motherfucking hapless dupes to choose a Republican campaign worker to "run the numbers."

Now, again, this is where we have to stand up and be the ombudsmen that proud media outlets once had, and have since sent out to pasture. When a major network again tries to drag the middle to the Right, call them out, make sure that the watchdog groups like FAIR and Media Matters for America have too many echoing voices to be labeled as lunatic fringe.

And the next time taxes come up in a conversation with anyone but one of the top 5% of richest Americans, tell them, clearly and in short, declarative sentences, to get their facts straight. Don't allow the empty narrative that "Obama will raise taxes!" to pass unchallenged.

FAIR: CBS Cheats on Tax Coverage

Time To Foment Change

Pretty even-handed piece in Monday's Salon, about what's going on in the mind of the average small-town resident. I wanted to pull out this paragraph for what it says about identity politics.

Charles Kempf, 65, a retired maintainence worker, and Judy Kempf, 61, a retired office manager, are both lifelong Democrats from Mesquite, Nev. They said Palin's "eloquent, intelligent and down-to-earth" way of speaking reminded them of Bill Clinton. Former Hillary Clinton supporters, they strongly dislike Obama and said they were resigned to not voting at all this year. But now they might vote Republican for the first time: "[Palin] kinda relates to us commonfolk ... she's got a family, she's got problems," as opposed to Obama, who "just talks above and is nothing but a script reader." They don't like Palin's strong pro-life stance, Charles Kempf said, but "you're not going to agree with everything, so you've got to overlook a few things."

Here are a couple of lifelong Democrats who are thinking about switching their party this year because they identify with the person who they believe closely resembles who they are. Nevermind that on top of being a repetitive liar, Palin is more of a script reader than Obama is; to them Palin is an eloquent lady that relates to commonfolk like themselves, and though they acknowledge that their stance on abortion rights is diametrically opposed to hers, they're willing to overlook a few things.

How do we reach these people? And why should we, considering that they're not likely to listen?

To put it crudely, in this election season, we have to divert a number of the lemmings away from the cliff before they end up pulling the rest of us along with them.

Which is not to say that all of these citizens are mindless, instinctual beings who go along with other similar beings despite of where it may lead them, just that enough of them, with raised awareness, may be willing to step away from the throng.

Call me a crazy optimist, but I'm willing to bet the Kempfs may think for a few seconds after learning that under Palin's Wasilla, AK, rape victims were forced to pay for the evidence gathering kits.

Would that be enough for them change their minds? Who knows, but it got them thinking about it. It is through using truth combined with a gentle strength that minds can be enlightened and changed.

No need to argue, or get into internecine flame wars with the belligerent; some of these "commonfolk" are rational thinking people, they're not all mindless zombies. All you need is to get them to think "maybe they don't reflect me, after all," and, hopefully, handful by handful, we can change enough minds to make a difference this year.

Media Hate

I don't plan to make a habit of posting the same thing to both my blogs, but I thought this one was appropriate. I have a regular feature I started a couple of months ago on my main blog where every Monday I rant about the the things I'm hating at the moment. It can be anything from dog poop on the sidewalks to the mole on my neck and range from just one thing to a long list of a half-dozen or more. Sometimes I want it to be tongue-in-cheek, other times I'm really pissed. It has for obvious reasons been political at times, especially with the election season really going now.

Anyway, this is my Monday Hate post today. Which I titled Monday Newsman Hate.

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I've got just one thing I'm hating today, besides my mother. (Don't even get me started. I found out she believed and forwarded that awful email going around lying about what was in Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis, basically accusing Mrs. Obama of being a "black power" racist. It is one of the most disgusting things I've seen in all of the awful slander being thrown at that family. It looks like something written by the KKK)

But bitching about my mother will do none of us any good at this point, so I'll just stick with one item for today's hate list, which I'll also post over at my political co-blog.

Here's who I'm really annoyed with today:

Scott Pelley. The hiring of Pelley as a correspondent for 60 Minutes marked a low point for the news magazine, at least until they tragically let the fluffy Katie Couric sit at the adults' table.

Pelley's interview last night with John McCain was infuriating. He doesn't lob softball questions, he gently arcs badminton shuttlecocks at perfect spiking level.

As to be expected, McCain made sure to take every opportunity, no matter what the question was, to: a) Bring up his five years in a prison camp in Hanoi and: b) make false accusations about Barack Obama's record and his own record.

And what does Pelley do, especially when McCain tells lies about Barack Obama? He moves on to the next topic.

It's not like McCain said anything new that Pelley wasn't able to check on right away. McCain came out with all the same stupid talking points he's been saying for weeks now, stuff that Pelley could have easily had follow-up questions to challenge McCain on his claims.

McCain claims that Obama has never reached across the aisle to to work with the other party, despite there being a mountain of evidence to the contrary for both his time in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate. Pelley says nothing.

McCain says Obama is the most liberal Senator based on "his voting record." It should have been pointed out that Obama was called that by a right-wing magazine attack machine, the same one that called Kerry the most liberal in 2004 (gee, what a coincidence), and that their survey has been easily discredited due to the fact that they just pick and choose which votes to count in the survey.

Hell, you wouldn't even have to go through all of that. Just mention that the U.S. Senate still includes both Bernie Sanders, a self-described Socialist, and Ted Kennedy to make the point that it is kind of a silly accusation.

But did Pelley do either?

Even in his own record McCain tells really big lies and Pelley can't bring himself to challenge the Senator. He asked McCain how his administration would be different from Bush's and two of the things he mentioned were torture and the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

Did Pelley then ask him why, if that were true, he has either voted "no" or not even voted every time the 9/11 Commission recommendations came before the Senate and that he also voted against the bill banning torture?

Do I have to answer that question for you?

The "Interview"

In case you missed the hard-hitting interview of Sarah Palin by that champion of journalistic integrity, Sean Hannity, I have written a summary of the interview to save you some time. For you types that liked to just read the Cliff's Notes in high school to get straight to the point, here is the whole interview, in a nutshell:

Hannity: Governor, you are just so cool aren't you?

Palin: Yes Sean, I rock.

Hannity: That tax-loving, Muslim, Arugula-eating, elitist Barack Hussein Obama just sucks doesn't he?

Palin: He sure does, Sean.

Hannity: Thanks for coming and answering all my tough questions, Governor.