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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of October 31, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 6,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
We hope you will forward the link to your own e-mail list.
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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
- The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,
- 640 Barret Avenue .
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McConnell has refused to return $13,500 in political contributions he has received from Stevens;
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McConnell continues to refuse to call for Stevens' resignation from the Senate;
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United States Senator Ted Stevens
of Alaska, one of Mitch McConnell's contributors and
This comes as no surprise. Earlier this year McConnell and Stevens were once again named to the list of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
On Tuesday, November 4th we will have the opportunity to bring real change to the United States Senate. We have the chance to elect a candidate who will stand up for the middle class.
Bruce Lunsford wants to let the Bush tax cuts for the top 1% of incomes expire and target tax cuts to hard-working middle class families; Mitch McConnell wants to extend the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.
Bruce Lunsford wants to reverse Mitch McConnell's 2005 bankruptcy law, which has contributed to the current economic crisis by making it more difficult for working families to reorganize debt and pay off mortgages.
As we move toward winter, we have Mitch McConnell to thank for the thousands of families who won't be able to heat their homes because Mitch McConnell voted 11 times against the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), including a vote earlier this year that denied nearly $35 million to low-income Kentuckians to help with high energy costs.
Please help do whatever you can for the next week; please talk to ten people this week and tell them why we need Bruce Lunsford in the United States Senate. It is time once and for all for Kentuckians to finally "Ditch Mitch."
Sincerely,
Jennifer A. Moore
P.S. Please help us this last week to elect Democrats. You can make a one-time contribution or join our new PLEDGE TO WIN program, where you can make an automatic monthly contribution using your credit or debit card. |
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Paid for and authorized by the Kentucky Democratic Party PO Box 694, Frankfort KY 40602 • (502) 695-4828 • www.kydemocrat.com Contributions or gifts to the Kentucky Democratic Party are not tax deductible. |
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friends,
was convicted yesterday of failing to report more than $250,000 in
gifts. Yet, McConnell is standing by his convicted crony.
That's
not the type of leadership Kentuckians need in Washington.
This just in - Mitch McConnell finally treed after 24 years of running from his record - See the new television ad!
Click HERE! To view the new television ad!
Race
is keeping McCain in the ring,
By
BERRY CRAIG
Why is the presidential election “far closer than it should be?”
Newsweek’s Howard Fineman asked the question in a recent posting on MSNBC.
He didn’t answer the question, but added that Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat, must “if he is lucky enough to win.”
A President Obama, Fineman also wrote, would “have to address--and allay--the fears and doubts about him that have to be lurking out there somewhere.”
What “fears and doubts?” Fineman didn’t elaborate.
But Fineman, like most other pundits, mainly keeps rope-a-doping around the issue that’s at least keeping Sen. John McCain, the Republican, in the ring. It’s racism. A lot of white people won’t vote for Obama because of his skin color.
What else could be it be?
We’re facing what might be the biggest business bust since the Depression. Polls say most Americans soured on the Iraq war long ago.
Who’s most to blame for our troubles at home and abroad? Polls say Bush and the Republicans. “Maverick” McCain has backed Bush’s bills close to 90 percent of the time. Polls say most Americans believe McCain will continue Bush’s policies to one degree or another.
So the Arizona Kid ought to be flat on the canvas. He is only on the ropes.
Meanwhile, several GOP House and Senate candidates and incumbents are down for the count. There is talk the Democrats may even win a filibuster-proof 60-seat edge in the Senate.
Some of the Democrats’ congressional hopefuls who are comfortably ahead in the polls are as liberal as Obama. So if it’s not race that’s making McCain at least competitive, what is it?
To be sure, McCain is not Big Jim Eastland or Lester Maddox or George Wallace. He doesn’t overtly race bait. Even so, he and his running mate are playing the race card, but close to the vest. They are using code words. The white folks waving the McCain-Palin signs get the message.
Palin called rural, small-town North Carolina “the real America.” She was at a rally deep in Jesse Helms country. The white people whooped it up.
Supposedly, McCain’s in trouble in the Tar Heel State’s northern neighbor. Not to worry, said a top McCainite, her man can still win Virginia.
McCain has strong support in the “real Virginia,” sections of the Old Dominion far away from “metro D.C.,” she added.
The white folks understood what she meant: “Metro D.C.” is code for “black-majority D.C.”
She did say “real Virginia,” means “more Southern in nature.” In the South, when whites say “Southern in nature,” they mean “white in nature.”
Joe McCain, stumping for his brother in Virginia, resurrected the Red Menace. He said a pair of Democratic-leaning areas in the northern part of the state (which adjoins “metro D.C.”) is “communist country.” He apologized, but everybody was clued in and laughed.
In the 1950s and 1960s, white Virginians and other white Southerners who fought integration, with or without hoods and sheets, often called civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, “communists.” (They also said labor unions, in which everybody is equal, were “communist.” “…The labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth,” King observed.)
Meanwhile, a California Republican group sent out a newsletter showing Obama on a $10 food stamp eating fried chicken, watermelon and ribs. The white woman who sent the newsletter claimed she didn’t know it was racist. She said she was sorry, but only because a local newspaper broke the story.
In Ohio, a man brought a little toy monkey to a Palin rally. He had wrapped an Obama bumper sticker around its head.
When somebody pointed a video camera at him, he pulled off the sticker, threw it away and handed the stuffed animal to a kid.
Now right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh and George Will – both draft dodgers -- are chorusing that Gen. Colin Powell, Bush’s former secretary of state, endorsed Obama because he and the senator are African American. “They always stick together,” some white people still say of African American people in my part of the country. Usually, they don’t say “African American” or even “black.”
Oh, the official McCainites never use the “n-word,” but some of their Kentucky faithful do. A Democrat in my hometown suggested to a Republican – one of those neo-Confederate nut-jobs who worships his Rebel ancestors -- that Palin might not be qualified to be president should something happen to McCain. “I’d rather have her than a n-----,” he replied.
Meanwhile, McCain and Palin rallies have been punctuated by shouts of “terrorist!” and “kill him!”—meaning Obama. For a long time, mum was the word from McCain about the hate mongers.
Finally, he bestirred himself to admonish the faithful, “Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.” They booed.
But, afterwards, in the third debate, McCain bristled and said he was “categorically…proud of the people that come to our rallies." Categorically? Did he mean to include those who yelled “terrorist!” and “kill him!”?
For the record: I am not saying everybody who is voting for McCain is a racist. Some Republicans have condemned the bigots who show up at McCain-Palin rallies. Maybe the party of Lincoln and Liberty at least has a pulse in some places.
So will the votes of white racists give the election to McCain in a squeaker?
McCain apparently has the Bluegrass State in the bag. But Kentucky is one of the reddest of the Red states. Besides, Obama can win without Kentucky.
But Obama-Biden yard signs are sprouting among the McCain-Palin signs in Mayfield. Are they signs of the times? If Obama is gaining ground in Kentucky, is he doing likewise in the battleground states?
When I visited our local Democratic headquarters the other day, I watched a steady stream of people – all of them white – take home Obama-Biden yard signs. Some of them volunteered to work for Obama.
One of the sign seekers left in a Chevy pickup truck with a Dale Earnhardt Jr. license plate on the front bumper – so much for the NASCAR fan stereotype. Also for the record: I’ve been a NASCAR fan since Junior’s granddaddy raced stock cars, and I’m for Obama, too.
Yet before I left, a headquarters volunteer rekindled the worry in me. She said somebody swiped her Obama-Palin yard sign and left a racist tract in its place. She showed it to me. It looked like Klan literature.
“From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election,” Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times. “Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes.”
Meanwhile Julian Carroll, a Democratic state senator and former governor who is for Obama, told the Lexington Herald-Leader “he fears that his candidate could be in trouble in Southern states, including Kentucky, because some people aren’t ready for a black man for president.”
"I actually had one friend who said, 'I can't vote for a black,'" the paper quoted Carroll, who is white. He says he challenges bigots by telling them they are not being Christian. “I'm hopeful that by the time they get into the voting booth, their faith will overcome their prejudice," he told the Herald-Leader.
This fourth-generation member of Mayfield First Presbyterian Church fervently shares Carroll’s hopes.
Exxon-Mobil Profits Up 250% Since 2000, American Worker Wages Stagnant
The winners and losers of the Bush years are now clear.
Exxon-Mobil announced third quarter profits of $14.83 billion, the most profitable three months of any U.S. company in history.
These profits represent annual profits over 250% of the levels at the beginning of the Bush years. Over the same period, real average wages for the American worker have stayed essentially flat, growing only 2% over eight years.
Real median household income was lower in 2007 (last data available) than it was in 2000, after growing 13% from 1992 to 2008.
These huge oil company profits come even as the American economy has shrunk 0.3% and slides into recession.
John McCain’s plan to solve this crisis? A budget busting tax plan that would give a $1.2 billion tax break to Exxon-Mobile ($4 billion for America’s largest oil companies) and give nothing to over 100 million Americans.
Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, are planning to spend most of their time in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, and Indiana, all states that Republicans had entered the campaign thinking they could bank on...Republicans and Democrats said there were signs that two states that had once appeared overwhelmingly Republican — Georgia and South Carolina — were tightening, in part, because of surge of early-voting by African-Americans.
What's so remarkable about this is how arrogantly self-confident the McCain camp was about most of these red states just a few months ago, when they bragged about not spending money on television or hiring any staff or mocked the Obama camp's efforts and joked about their voter registration efforts.
We'll have plenty of time to dissect this pig after November 4th, but I wanted to get a head start on some of the most egregious acts of political malpractice I have ever seen at this level of politics in my life. The rest of the story
Evangelical Leaders Using God Like a Hired Gun, Christine Wicker
They tried branding Obama the anti-Christ. They tried linking him with Islamic terrorists. They've implied that unknown powers bought his allegiance by financing his education at Ivy League universities. They've used their pulpits to endorse McCain, hoping to spur a fight with the I.R.S. that would rouse their troops.
None of these tactics has brought their errant minions under control.
So using God like a hired gun to terrorize the town's people, the evangelical Christian mullahs are declaring that Obamageddon is at hand, using that very word and asking as the Religious Right/Republican Townhall magazine did in a September headline, "Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?"
Evangelical publisher James Strang answers the survival question by warning his readers that people who hate Christianity will take over the country once Obama is elected.
In fact, "life as we know it will end," Strang writes.
Last week Focus on the Family's
James Dobson added his own doomsday
predictions with a 16-page rant about evils that will befall the United
States by 2012 if Obama is elected. A British commentator
dubbed Dobson's list of a parade of horrors.
As a warm up Dobson blames misguided young evangelicals for putting Obama in office. It's them he's hoping to scare most. But they and emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren, who endorsed Obama, have broken ranks and won't be coming back. He's truly delusional if he thinks they're listening to him.
A great mass of other evangelicals, who never followed the evangelical mullahs and never will, are also going for Obama. Maybe Dobson thinks they'll listen to him.
Not likely. They're using tried-and true-evangelical tactics on behalf of their own cause.
Seattle's Jim Henderson, a former Pentecostal preacher and head of Offthemap.com, is trying guilt.
He recently sent a mass email urging his friends to support Obama because he has the character and bearing to be president, and because his election gives Christians the opportunity to transform historical wrong.
The enslavement of Africans contributed greatly to our nation's wealth and has never been addressed directly and concretely by our leaders, Henderson wrote. Linking that lack of repentance to the country's $13 trillion of debt, he told his friends that our current troubles are a matter of reaping what we've sown. He then cited the chance to elect Obama as an example of "God's mercy - as a way through this historic dilemma and one that will do for our national character what reparations never could."
He and his ilk won't be convinced by Dobson's scare tactics. They're more likely to agree with a new bumper sticker popular in Colorado, where Focus on the Family is based.
It reads, "Focus on your own damn family."
So which evangelicals are left? Oh, I know. How could I have left them until last? The true faithful. The ones who always listen to Dobson.
He's going after evangelicals who may stay home on election day because they paid too much attention to his reasons for refusing to support McCain earlier in the year.
At that time, thinking that he was powerful enough to quash McCain's
nomination, Dobson chastised fellow evangelical Gary Bauer for supporting the
senator from Arizona.
"The Senator," Dobson said in a
press release from Focus on the Family, "is being touted by the media as
a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his
first wife, and was implicated in the so-called Keating scandal with four
other senators. He was eventually reprimanded by the Congress for the
'appearance of impropriety.' The Senator reportedly has a violent temper and
can be extremely confrontational and profane when angry. These red flags
about Senator McCain's character are reminiscent of the man who now occupies
the White House."
The man who now occupies the White House? Oh yeah. That guy. Isn't he the last president the Religious Right elected?
But let's forget about that. Many of God's men have fallen. God's people move on.
Dobson's jeremiad against McCain also noted the senator's love of alcohol and gambling, as well as his acceptance of support from Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group.
Pretty strong stuff. All true. But let's forget about that.
The Republicans anointed McCain anyway.
When Dobson saw that threats to take his toys and go home didn't keep McCain from winning the nomination, he forgot his previous scruples. Now Dobson sees McCain as God's man. It's Obama who's the devil. And under God's direction, as he always is, Dobson is speaking out again. But this time he is no longer dealing in truth.
As he notes in the letter's preface, Dobson is now imagining things, things that could happen if Christians don't unite behind McCain and give that adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, bought-out-by-the-homosexuals drinker and gambler the most powerful elective office in the world.
In the letter Dobson imagines Boy Scouts disbanding rather than allowing gay scout leaders the complete license they will get if Obama is elected. He imagines the Pledge of Allegiance being banned in schools. He imagines Communism gaining new power. He imagines doctors killing children just minutes before birth. He imagines Americans forbidden to own guns. He imagines television and radio stations forbidden to preach the Bible. He imagines ministers, lawyers, doctors, social workers all being punished for following their consciences.
Dobson may have gotten his letter idea from Christian radio's Janet Porter who wrote an imaginary "Letter from a Future Prisoner" last year. She was fear mongering over the idea the Hillary might be elected. If that happened "thought crimes" would be instituted. Christian books would be banned. Christian speech would be called hate speech.
Porter, an even bigger drama queen than Dobson, imagined herself in prison doing hard labor merely for defending her faith. And who does she imagine in the cell next to her?
No, no. Not Jesus. Don't be ridiculous.
It's a home-schooling mother weeping inconsolably because her innocent children have been put in foster care. All because they loved Jesus.
All because that adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, bought-out-by-the-homsexuals drinker and gambler didn't win the presidential election.
It's enough to make Mickey Rooney weep.
Here are some steps you should take to protect your vote. First, avoid the November 4th minefield. Voters, wherever possible, should vote early and in person. Where feasible, avoid mailing in your ballot, many are rejected for flimsy reasons, and first time voters in many states must include a photocopy of ID. However, if you have a mail-in ballot, don't throw it away. Follow directions, use the correct postage (that's an error that cost a hundred thousand votes last time) and, if possible, walk it in to your elections office.
At the polling station, should you find yourself one of the 2.7 million purged, or your ID rejected, then do your best to resist a "provisional" ballot--one third of which are not counted. Return with proper ID, or call 1-800-OUR VOTE for legal assistance. And never just walk away discouraged. That's just what they want you to do.
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Another day, another lie from the McCain campaign. Or, as the mainstream media would put it, another “distortion.”
But this time, the mainstream media, in the form of CNN, is part of perpetuating the lie.
In a speech yesterday, Sen. John McCain falsely asserted Sen. Barack Obama planned to take away workers’ right to vote by secret ballot when deciding whether to join a union. CNN’s “Fact Check” then went on to assert McCain was correct.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions. The Employee Free Choice Act will not take away the secret ballot election process. Instead, it would add another option: majority sign-up (card-check). Workers thinking about whether to join a union could pick either option. The ballot process, overseen by the federal labor board, gives employers lots of time to harass and intimidate workers. Under majority sign-up, if 51 percent of workers sign up to join a union, they have one.
McCain’s comments are the latest in seemingly desperate attempts to win the election. McCain was against tax cuts for the wealthy. Now he supports Bush’s tax giveaway to the rich. McCain was once a campaign finance reformer and now is a candidate whose campaign is run by lobbyists. McCain flip-flopped from opposing torture to voting to allow water boarding.
McCain pushes his health care plan as benefiting the middle class, when analyses of his plan have found it could push 20 million of us out of our employer-based health care coverage while cutting Medicare and Medicaid by $1.3 trillion.
And although McCain says he supports military veterans, his claim of a “perfect voting record” on veterans’ issues is contradicted by the Disabled American Veterans, which gives McCain only a 20 percent rating, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which gives McCain a “D”—a sorry distinction the group granted to only four other senators. In contrast, the IAVA gives Obama a “B,” and the DAV gives him an 89 percent rating.
So much for straight talk.
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Unless you run in the same circles as Cindy McCain—who was decked out in more than $300,000 worth of designer clothes and jewelry at the Republican National Convention—the $150,000 Sarah Palin wardrobe makeover had to seem more than a tad excessive, especially for a self-described “hockey mom.”
A playful new website from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) shows just how extravagant the Republican National Committee (RNC)-funded $150,000 Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue shopping spree was.
DressLikePalin.com allows you to click on the top-of-the-line Valentino jacket and discover its price tag equals a month’s salary for the typical teacher. Or how about that exclusive Louis Vuitton handbag, the price tag of which equals the cost of uniforms for 32 auto mechanics or 33 painters—some of whom may be named Joe.
The $22,800 the RNC spent on Palin’s makeup, for example, would pay for 224 mammograms, 651 flu shots, or provide a supply of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor for one person for nearly 14 years.
Geri Jenkins, RN, co-president of the CNA/NNOC, says the bill for the entire RNC shopping spree would outfit 15,000 RNs in scrubs.
How disgraceful at a time when so many Americans are struggling to pay their medical bills or keep their homes.
CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro says, “Real working people live and dress far differently.” She adds, in what is surely one of the Top 10 lines of the campaign:
There’s been a lot of talk about Marxists in this campaign, but the real Marxist is in the McCain camp—she’s just a Neiman Marxist.
Comments:
- Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them, Ohio Republicans still are trying to use computer mismatches to challenge voter registrations. At the request of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), the White House asked the Department of Justice to look into whether 200,000 new Ohio voters must reconfirm their registration information before Nov. 4.
- In Florida, election officials found that 75 percent of some 20,000 voter registration applications from a three-week period in September were mismatched due to typographical and administrative errors. Florida’s Republican secretary of state ordered the computer match system implemented in early September. Also in Florida, according to Ari at Oxdown Gazette, some officials are planning to challenge the vote of anyone whose name is on a home foreclosure list—a move that has been successfully challenged in Michigan and Ohio.
- In Wisconsin, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen sued the state’s election board after it voted against a proposal to implement a “no-match” policy. The board conducted an audit of its voter rolls and found a 22 percent match failure rate—including for four of the six members of the board. Van Hollen’s lawsuit was dismissed late last week.
- In Montana earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy issued a scathing ruling denouncing the state Republican Party’s effort to challenge the registration of 6,000 voters. “The timing of the challenges is so transparent it defies common sense to believe the purpose is anything but political chicanery,” Molloy said. The Montana Republican Party and its leaders, he wrote, “are abusing the process.”
DAILY GRILL
"I am innocent." -- Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK),
10/27/08
VERSUS
"Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in
a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska's political
patriarch in disgrace." -- AP,
10/27/08
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"[W]e don't torture, and we don't." -- President Bush,
9/6/06
VERSUS
"Army Col. Stephen Henley said [U.S. detainee] Mohammed Jawad's statements
'were obtained by physical intimidation and threats of death which, under
the circumstances, constitute torture.'" -- AP,
10/28/08
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"Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value,
not an American value." -- Right-wing radio host Dennis Prager,
10/28/08
VERSUS
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
-- Declaration of Independence,
1776
Quotes of the Day
Michael Moore: No More Socialism for the Rich!
Recent Senate Votes
NOT IN SESSION
Recent House Votes
NOT IN SESSION
HUMOR
"John
McCain may be behind but the man is a fighter. He doesn't know the
meaning of the word quit. He used to, but it was stored in the same part of
his brain that remembered to
vet his running mate." —Stephen Colbert
"He just needs to do something to prove that he has the judgment to lead and
knows where this country wants to go. You know what, I've got it. Senator
McCain, you really need to endorse Barack Obama. That would really
make you look like a 'maverick.'" —Stephen Colbert (Watch
video clip of Colbert endorsing Obama)
"And how about last night on all the major television networks,
Barack Obama has a half-hour
infomercial TV special.
I mean, thank God. It's about time this guy got some media coverage, don't
you think?" —David Letterman
"They now say that there may be some
friction between John McCain and
Sarah Palin. Staffers suspected there was something wrong when McCain
started referring to Sarah Palin as 'that
one.'" —David Letterman
"Although the press continues to say there are problems between John McCain
and Sarah Palin, today Palin denied there was any dissension between her and
McCain. And she said she has also agreed to
keep him on the ticket." —Jay Leno
"Today John McCain campaigned in the Ohio town of Defiance. Next comes
Anger, then finally Acceptance." —Jay Leno
"John McCain said that Barack Obama is already measuring the
drapes in the White House. That's what he said. I understand
Sarah Palin is already driving McCain around to look at assisted living
facilities." —Jay Leno
"It was on this day in 1846 that the Donner party left for California. As
you know, everything went wrong and they wound up eating each other — kind
of like what's going on right now in the McCain campaign." —Jay Leno
"I guess there seems to be some trouble brewing between Sarah Palin and John
McCain. McCain aides say that Sarah Palin is 'going
rogue' and not taking advice or notes from the McCain campaign. They say
it is hard to keep her from going off script and making statements that hurt
the campaign. It's gotten so bad, her Secret Service codename is now 'Joe
Biden.'" —Jay Leno
"McCain staffers are saying Sarah Palin has turned into a
diva and is making diva demands. Here's what they're talking about. A
couple of days ago, Lenscrafters had to stay open after hours so Sarah could
shop alone. Today, she hit a speech writer with her cell phone." —David
Letterman
"Earlier tonight Barack Obama aired a half-hour infomercial to attract more
voters. Apparently, if you watched the entire infomercial, Barack threw in a
free set of Ginsu knives or a Bedazzler." —Conan O'Brien
"(Obama's) whole campaign is like the craziest movie premise ever: 'Barack
Obama has five days to spend $150 million.'" —Jon Stewart
"Barack Obama gets a half-hour on TV. Big deal. I've done 470 of these
things. Where's my presidency?" —Stephen Colbert
"One week to go. One week from today, the election. As a matter of fact,
earlier this morning, they, down in Florida, unloaded the
crooked voting machines.
So they are in midseason form." —David Letterman
"A presidential term is four years, the campaign has lasted six. And of
course, you know, when they have the election next week, the winner of that
election meets
Hillary in the finals." —David Letterman
"Here's how it works. Election is Tuesday. And then Wednesday is the first
day of
Sarah Palin's 2012 campaign." —David Letterman
"Do you like John McCain and Sarah Palin together? It's fun to see them.
They remind me of a couple of cruise ship grifters. McCain looks like the
old guy taking his secretary to Las Vegas, doesn't he?" —David Letterman
"Sarah Palin made three campaign stops today: Saks, Nieman Marcus and
Bloomingdales." —Jay Leno
"Republicans are warning voters right now that if Barack Obama is elected
president, the Democrats will control all three branches of the government.
That's what they're saying, yeah. John McCain said this would be dangerous,
Dick Cheney said it would be expensive, And Sarah Palin said, we have three
branches of government?" —Conan O'Brien
"John McCain has, for some reason, decided to build his final push around
Joe the plumber. Now, this guy Joe, we learned last week, is not a
licensed plumber and his name isn't even Joe, but that didn't stop the
McCain campaign from naming him their unofficial mascot. Why they'd name a
plumber a mascot for a campaign that's down the toilet already, I don't
know." —Jimmy Kimmel
"Alaska Senator
Ted Stevens has been convicted on seven counts of fraud, corruption. And
Republicans are relieved, because at least it didn't involve an airport
men's room. But Alaskan authorities were tipped off by
Russians, who had been watching with binoculars." —David Letterman
"Yesterday, in Washington, I don't know if you heard about this, the Secret
Service arrested a man who climbed over the White House fence. True story.
Yeah, the Secret Service told the man, 'Get back here,
Mr. President. You have two more months.'" —Conan O'Brien
MEDIA -- NYT FALSELY REPORTS CAPAF CEO
PODESTA HAS ALREADY WRITTEN OBAMA'S INAUGURATION: On Saturday, the
New York Times published an article sensationally claiming that Center for
American Progress Action Fund founder and CEO and the head of Sen. Barack
Obama's (D-IL) transition team
John Podesta "has been mapping out the transition so systematically that
he has already written a draft Inaugural Address for Mr. Obama, which he
published this summer in a book called 'The Power of Progress.'" Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ)
seized on the claims, claiming that Obama has decided "it's time to move
forward with his first inaugural address." "Maybe Barack Obama will even
have his first State of the Union address before you head to the polls,"
McCain told a crowd in New Mexico. Unfortunately for McCain, the New York
Times story is wrong. Podesta's
book was in the works for over a year. There is a sample inaugural
address at the end of the book, which Podesta explains he used as "a
literary device" to "sum up the arguments in the book." In fact, the
sample inaugural address was submitted to the publisher in March, when
Podesta was still supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) candidacy. On
Sunday, the New York Times's
Caucus blog fact-checked its own reporters, noting that Podesta's book
was written while he was a Clinton supporter, while the LA Times rightly
labeled the report an "erroneous
New York Times story." Rhis morning, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported that the
Times "confused a sample speech in a book by John Podesta, Obama's
transition director, a former Clinton supporter,
written as advice for whomever gets the nomination."
ECONOMY -- KYL SAYS BUSH IS BLAME-FREE IN FINANCIAL MESS: Yesterday on CNN's Late Edition, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) claimed President Bush's economic agenda had nothing to do with the current financial crisis, insisting defiantly that Bush "doesn’t run the economy." "George Bush doesn't run the economy. He didn't create this problem," said Kyl. The current financial crisis is a direct result of Bush running the economy. Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy have contributed to record inequality and historic deficits and debt. The administration gutted several "specific regulations" of the financial system, helping plunge Wall Street into the mess it is facing today. Embracing a common conservative talking point, Kyl tried to lay all the blame for the crisis on the lack of regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As Alan Greenspan, SEC Chairman Chris Cox, and former Treasury Secretary John Snow -- along with the Wonk Room -- have explained, this is false. Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly has noted that for the past eight years "we have papered over the fact that American consumers do not have the purchasing power to sustain economic expansion" The reason for this is that Bush's policies have done nothing for the majority of Americans.
A jury convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) on all seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure form regarding $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts he received from an oil contractor. "The verdict, coming barely a week before Election Day, added further uncertainty to a closely watched Senate race," where he is facing a tough reelection campaign against Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. Stevens was accused of accepting $110,153.64 in materials, labor and other renovation expenses to his home in Girdwood, Alaska, as well a $2,695 massage chair for his home in Washington, D.C. "Other gifts prosecutors said he accepted include a new tool cabinet with tools, a new professional Viking gas grill and a stained glass window." Stevens' conviction is the latest shoe to drop in the wide-ranging investigation into corruption in Alaska, which has already seen 11 people -- including former Veco Corp. head and Stevens' close friend Bill Allen -- charged, convicted, or pleaded guilty. Leaving the court house, Stevens defiantly declared, "It's not over yet!" He plans to resume his reelection campaign on Wednesday.
PALIN WON'T CONDEMN STEVENS:
Reacting to the verdict yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) vaguely condemned
a "culture of corruption" in Alaska, and said she was "confident" Stevens "will
do the right thing for the state of Alaska" -- without naming what that
"thing" might be. She has studiously avoided condemning the senator; when
asked in September whether she would endorse his reelection, she said, "we'll
see where [the trial] goes." "Palin wants to be a reformer, but
seems to have a hard time distancing herself too much from Stevens," ABC
News reports. In fact, the two have a long and close history. During her
2006 gubernatorial race, Palin featured Stevens' endorsement of her in a
campaign ad. Just this past July, "Stevens and Palin held a joint news
conference,
denying that there was any political distance between them." After his
indictment, she refused to call for his resignation, and in turn Stevens
provided political cover for Palin by declaring that that she "was
never really behind" the Bridge to Nowhere. Even before she was
governor, Palin served as one of three directors of a political 527 group
called "Ted
Stevens Excellence in Public Service."
ALASKA CONSERVATIVES CIRCLE THE WAGONS:
In a written statement, Stevens blamed his conviction on "the repeated
instances of prosecutorial misconduct in this case" and declared, "I
will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have."
Alaska's entrenched conservative power stands strongly behind him. Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-AK) insisted Stevens "is an honorable, hard-working Alaskan,"
and said of Stevens' pending appeal, "I
look forward to having justice served." Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who is
facing legal problems himself, insisted "this was not a jury of his
peers" and said Stevens was convicted of "a trumped up charge." He heartily
endorsed Stevens' reelection campaign, calling him "the
best thing...for the Senate." Senate conservatives, however, seem to
have had enough of Stevens' courtroom drama. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), head
of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declared Stevens' career
will now "end
in disgrace." Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, "As a result of his conviction, Sen.
Stevens will be held accountable
so the public trust can be restored."
Though Stevens faces up to five years in prison for each of the seven
counts, he is unlikely to serve any jail time and could legally return to
the Senate if he is reelected. Two-thirds of the Senate would have to
vote to expel Stevens, something that has never happened before.
Otherwise, he could continue as the
longest-serving Republican senator in history.
MEDIA -- FOX NEWS'S BRIT HUME CLAIMS HE IS 'A JOURNALIST FIRST AND A CONSERVATIVE SECOND OR THIRD': Soon after the election next Tuesday, Brit Hume, the Washington D.C. managing editor for Fox News, "will step down from the anchor desk and his long-running show, Special Report." Discussing his impending departure, Hume said yesterday that one of the reasons he is retiring is because the "whole general tone of politics in this country has turned so sour and so bitter and so partisan." At the same time, Hume decried increased partisanship, he defended Fox against claims that it is biased in favor of conservatives, saying that he and his colleagues constantly think about their "own biases." "I'm a journalist first and a conservative second or third," he claimed. But not everyone believes that Hume has successfully checked his biases. "Brit Hume injected his supposedly straight newscasts with an almost pathological conservative bent," Media Matters spokesman Karl Frisch told the Politico. In the past, Hume has said that Democrats "are kind of embarrassed by patriotism" and are "invested in our losing" in Iraq. He has also repeatedly pushed factually-challenged global warming skepticism.
Think Fast
President Bush "has remained almost invisible as the Republican figurehead, primarily attending smallish and closed fundraisers in safe GOP areas." He has raised just over $80 million raised for his party, "about 35 percent less than he raised in 2006."
The securities industry still has $20 billion to pay in bonuses, Bloomberg reports. "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, both still on track for profitable years, have set aside about $13 billion for bonuses after three quarters." Some at Lehman Brothers "will get the same bonus they received a year ago."
The Fallujah wastewater treatment plant -- meant "to be the centerpiece of an effort to rebuild Iraq" -- has now cost $100 million and run three years late, according to an Inspector General report. "The project was so poorly conceived that there is no reliable electricity to run pumps and purification tanks, and no money left to connect homes to the main sewer lines, which now run uselessly beneath Fallujah's streets.
Politico reports: "Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement’s most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive" the party. The meeting will include a "who's who of conservative leaders."
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan now believe they need about 20,000 more troops to battle a growing Taliban insurgency, the Washington Post reports today. The recent troop requests reflect the struggles that the military is facing in the country, where overall attacks "are up about 25 percent from January to October this year, compared with the same period last year."
"In a study conducted in Florida, researchers found that drugstores in the poorest areas charge more, on average, for four widely used prescription medications than do pharmacies in wealthier neighborhoods."
According to Democratic aides, there is "a good chance" that Sen. Joseph Lieberman will lose his only committee chairmanship next year" on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, perhaps replacing it with a subcommittee gavel.
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