COLIN POWELL ENDORCES OBAMA

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told NBC's Meet the Press he backs Barack Obama "because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he's reaching out all across America, because of who he is."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

By John Amato, from Crooks and Liars:
"McCain calls Obama a Socialist, but McCain voted for the Bail Out and wants to spend government money on the mortgage crisis."

Um, sure, makes sense to me....

YOU THINK AYERS IS BAD...

From Liberaland, via Crooks and Liars:
It appears that John McCain’s transition chief worked for Saddam Hussein.
Murray Waas reports:
William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

This is the same William Timmons who earned $260,000 this year representing Freddie Mac before its lobbying activities were halted by the government bailout.
The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.
During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.
Timmons' activities occurred in the years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism. His dealings on behalf of the deceased Iraqi leader stand in stark contrast to the views his current employer held at the time.
John McCain strongly supported the 1991 military action against Iraq, and as recently as Sunday described Saddam Hussein as a one-time menace to the region who had "stated categorically that he would acquire weapons of mass destruction, and he would use them wherever he could."

WHY DO THE PALINS HATE AMERICA?

From Barry Eisler's Heart of the Matter:
"Imagine the reaction if Michelle Obama had belonged to a political party that advocated secession from America, a party whose founder ranted, 'The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government... And I won't be buried under their damn flag... I'm not an American... I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.'
"And imagine if Barack Obama had attended that party's conventions, even after swearing his oath of office to uphold the Constitution.
"But wait, this has nothing to do with the Obamas -- it's all about the Palins! For seven years, Todd Palin was a member of this party -- the 'Alaska Independence Party' -- and Sarah Palin repeatedly attended its annual conventions, even after she had been sworn in as Alaska's governor. The quotes above are from the party's founder, Joe Vogler.
"So where are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Peggy Noonan, the ardent defenders of America from the radicals who hate our freedoms and attack our values? Maybe these patriotic pundits just haven't heard about the Palins and their connection to the Alaska Independence Party? Because if they knew, I'm sure they'd be upset.
"I hope someone will tell them so they can expose the Palins for the America-hating radicals they are -- terrorist appeasers who pal around with people who despise our country and hate our freedoms!
"Please cut and paste or otherwise forward this message to every patriotic, country-first, red-blooded American you know -- I'm sure they'd want to know that the Palins have been palling around with people who hate America so much they want Alaska to be a separate country."

LIBERALAND HATE MAIL

From Alan Colmes' Liberaland Hate Mail:

From: Raven
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 10:25 PM
To: Alan
Subject: YOU ARE………………………………………………….

ALLEN COLMES,

YOU ARE THE MOST DUMBEST SON OF A BITCH IN THE WORLD!!!!!

NO I WOULD KILL MY SELF IS I WAS KIN TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU NEED TO GET OFF OF THE SHOW, AS YOU DUMB BASTARD,CAN NOT EVEN
ASK A QUESTION WITHOUT MAKING A FOOL OF YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU AND OBAMA AND BIDEN NEED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY TOGETHER AND
GO TO RUSSIA AND LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE SEEN DUMB PEOPLE IN MY LIFE, BUT YOU TAKE THE CAKE !!!!!!!

EVERY TIME I TRY TO WATCH THE SHOW, WHEN YOU TALK I GET SICK,
YOUR VOICE SOUNDS LIKE A QUEER TALKING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO OBOMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE DON’T NEED TO LEARN TO SPEAK RUSSIA..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALLEN, I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, AND I LOVE MY FREEDOM!!!!

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS FOR KEEPING OUR FREEDOM, AND GIVING YOU THE
RIGHT TO ACT LIKE A DUMB BASTARD ON TV. AND RADIO…
GET OFF THE SHOW PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ECO DRIVING

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No matter what you drive, you can reduce carbon dioxide and save money - right now. Here's how to start.

HANDY LATIN PHRASES

From Excused Lame, for the "Elitists" who visit this blog:

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.
It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

Di! Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit!
God, look at the time! My wife will kill me!

Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?

Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
The designated hitter rule has got to go.

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.

Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?
Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?

Sona si Latine loqueris.
Honk if you speak Latin.

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes
If you can read this you're over-educated

Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.
Excuse me. I've got to see a man about a dog.

Raptus regaliterRoyally screwedSi hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!

Gramen artificiosum odi.
I hate Astroturf.

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.
I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult.

Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo.
Don't call me, I'll call you.

Fac ut gaudeam.
Make my day.

Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur!
Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!

Visne saltare? Viam Latam Fungosam scio.
Do you want to dance? I know the Funky Broadway.

Re vera, potas bene.
Say, you sure are drinking a lot.

Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!
May barbarians invade your personal space!

Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!
May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!

Radix lecti
Couch potato

Quo signo nata es?
What's your sign?

O! Plus! Perge! Aio! Hui! Hem!
Oh! More! Go on! Yes! Ooh! Ummm!

Mellita, domi adsum.
Honey, I'm home.

Tam exanimis quam tunica Nehru fio.
I am as dead as the Nehru jacket.

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.
Go with the flow.

Totum dependeat.
Let it all hang out.

Te precor dulcissime supplex!
Pretty please with a cherry on top!

Magister Mundi sum!
I am the Master of the Universe!

Fac me cocleario vomere!
Gag me with a spoon!

Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?

Prehende uxorem meam, sis!
Take my wife, please!

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.

Vescere bracis meis.
Eat my shorts.

Fac ut vivas.
Get a life.

IS JOHN McCAINCIENT REALLY OUR FRIEND?

By Erica Jong on the Huffington Post:
"My day began with Ben Bernanke putting the American public to sleep with his woolly explanation of the financial 'rescue' package. I tried to understand his logic but with my 401(k) halving then quartering, my concentration was hardly the best. George W. Bush performed the coup de grace on the Dow and the NASDAQ, making it clear to me that my husband and I would be working well into our nineties. What excellent preparation for the Obama/McCain debate!
"Why are these debates so incredibly boring? Is it the questions framed by committee? Is it Tom Brokaw trying to exude gravitas? Is it John McCain telling us constantly he is our friend while he grimaces in a way that is friendly to no one? Or is it Barack Obama keeping his cool despite all the idiotic lies and provocations?
"My admiration for Obama has grown. Not only for his lucid intelligence, his excellent preparation, his understanding that eight years of deregulatin' dudes (as Sarah Palin might put it) has accelerated this financial mess, but also his amazing ability not to grunt, sigh or punch his opponent. When McCain lies with a straight face and pretends he has never had anything to do with the GOP, I'd slug him. But Obama is a prince among debaters. He just smiles elegantly and awaits his chance for a reasonable response. His calm blows me away. I'd hate to debate him. I'd be raising my voice and tearing my hair (as we did at Jewish dinner tables on the Upper West Side when I was a kid) but he'd be cool as the proverbial cucumber. He will make a great president. His temperament is superb.
"McCain looks old and ill to me. He seems to have no circulation under his papery white skin. He always looks like he is suppressing a fart. He has no cool at all. Even though he tried to correct his curmudgeonly reputation tonight, he was unconvincing. It seemed as if he had taken a Valium and it was wearing off. I wouldn't trust him to look into Vladimir Putin's eyes anymore than I trusted George W. Bush. He's the bomb-bomb King, no question. Erratic and rageful, condescending and insincere, he seemed to be auditioning to play Simon Legree in an antebellum bodice ripper.
"And why did he run from the stage while Michelle Obama and Barack greeted the folks? Was he afraid of retribution? Or possibly a hair transplant?
"Or maybe I just mistrust men with comb-overs."

POCK-I-STAHN

By Steve Benen in The Washington Monthly:
"ONLY ELITISTS CARE ABOUT PRONUNCIATION.... Barack Obama pronounces 'Pakistan' correctly, with a soft 'a,' just like a lot of people who know what they're talking about, including Gen. David Petraeus. Apparently, having completely run out of compelling policy arguments to make, some high-profile conservatives have decided to make this their latest campaign hobbyhorse.
"This came after the National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez posted an email that argued, '[N]o one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying.'
"The inanity of what the right decides to whine about never ceases to amaze me. That Obama's pronunciation is accurate is irrelevant. Mispronunciation apparently makes some conservatives feel better about themselves, and raises doubts about candidates who care to get this right. 'Elites' care about country names; real Americans don't."

THE PALIN DEBATE FLOW CHART

From the Daily Kos, via Cynical-C:

SO, McCAINCIENT WANTS TO FIGHT DIRTY...

By Ari Melber, from The Washington Independent:
"When the McCain campaign announced this weekend that it would start attacking Sen. Barack Obama via guilt by association, peddling smears about people he barely knows, I thought the tack would lead to the Keating Five. But I didn’t know it would happen this quickly.
"The Obama campaign swung into action immediately. By the time the Sunday news shows were taping, Democratic surrogates were hitting McCain with opposition research on his associations with extremist, racist groups (Begala) and the Keating Five (Emanuel). Today, of course, camp Obama is pushing a new Keating Economics website, which begins streaming a documentary about McCain’s Keating problem at noon.
"Obama’s campaign has never pushed the Keating button before, so this attack carries an original punch–and is clearly salient given the current financial crisis. Because the scandal involved McCain’s actions in public service, it is more likely to arise during the remaining two debates.
"McCain’s dredging up of Bill Ayers, in contrast, is not only old news but has no link to anything Obama has done in public life. Patrick Ruffini, a Republican operative who worked on Bush’s reelection campaign, said today that McCain’s Ayers attacks are so old that airing them now 'appears desperate.'
"Desperate and risky — given the corrupt skeletons in McCain’s closet."

ANN COULTER CALLS BIDEN A COOTY-HEAD

From Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:

"Ah yes, Republican maturity...!

VP DEBATE

After watching the first half-hour of the debate, I had to get out of the room for a while - I was getting such a headache. One can only listen to the canned Republican mantra for only so long.... Senator Biden did very well, and came across as a very knowledable, likeable man.

QUIRKY? ME?

This is one of Zorro's mommas. I have been tagged by Jen, at My Life with Dogs, to list six quirky things about myself. Hmmm. Where to start....
1. (not necessarily in order of quirkiness) Rearranging items into a certain order or into alignment. Each item on my living room coffee table has a designated spot on the table; if they get moved around, I have to rearrange them. When I take out our vitamins and pills in the morning, each bottle has to be facing the front so one can see the label. Doesn't everyone do that?
2. Not plugging or unplugging any electrical item that does not have an on/off switch (and even a few that do - if the item looks old or worn).
3. Locking my car doors when the car is in the driveway or right outside my office. Hey, it only takes a few second for someone to walk up and take something! Of course, many people tell me that if the car is locked, people will walk up and literally break a window to get in, instead of just opening the door to get in. I guess I'd rather the person have to make at least a little effort to take my stuff.
4. One of the people who started this whole quirky tag game said she picks at her toes. Well, I pick at my the cuticles and skin around my fingernails. I do it more when I'm stressed; so one can really tell what mood I'm in, or how my life in general is going, by looking at my fingernails.
5. I guess one could call me somewhat addicted to The Weather Channel. Hey, I could be addicted to worse things! But I don't like storms - particularly ones with lightning, close lightning. One hears too many freaky stories about how horribly unpredictable lightning can be - and how dangerous. So, when the "screen is green" (or worse, yellow or red) in our area, I unplug everything: TV's, computers, etc. We haven't lost anything to a lightning strike yet!
6. I think this quirk will seem like the least quirky thing to you, but it's a huge thing to me. In 2004, after 30 years on NPR (where he was incredibly popular among both listeners and critics), Morning Edition host Bob Edwards was demoted to "senior correspondent" (whatever that BS means). NPR said that it wanted someone to take the morning show in a "different direction" (more BS).
Shortly thereafter, Bob left NPR. Soon, XM Radio offered Bob his own morning show on the satelite radio network; he remains there today, bringing "his reassuring and authoritative voice" to many listeners around the world each day. When Morning Edition won a George Foster Peabody Award in 1999, the Peabody committee lauded Edwards as "a man who embodies the essence of excellence in radio.... His is a rare radio voice: informed but never smug; intimate but never intrusive; opinionated but never dismissive. Mr. Edwards does not merely talk, he listens."
I have not listened or contributed to NPR since.

McCAIN'S INTEGRITY

From Andrew Sullivan, for TheAtlantic.com:

Editor's Note: Historically a John McCain supporter, conservative journalist and blogger Andrew Sullivan takes on the issue of John McCain's integrity as he strives to win the presidency. - vh/TO

"For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?
"So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush's war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country.
"And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil.
"He capitulated and enshrined torture as the policy of the United States, by allowing the CIA to use techniques as bad as and worse than the torture inflicted on him in Vietnam. He gave the war criminals in the White House retroactive immunity against the prosecution they so richly deserve. The enormity of this moral betrayal, this betrayal of his country's honor, has yet to sink in. But for my part, it now makes much more sense. He is not the man I thought he was.
"And when he had the chance to engage in a real and substantive debate against the most talented politician of the next generation in a fall campaign where vital issues are at stake, what did McCain do? He began his general campaign with a series of grotesque, trivial and absurd MTV-style attacks on Obama's virtues and implied disgusting things about his opponent's patriotism.
"And then, because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That's all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base. This is pure Rove.
"Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this country's national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time.
"McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no one else - has proved it."

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, JORDAN!

Jordan has been with us since Labor Day weekend, in 1998. The day was very hot, and he was very thirsty. My mommas gave him water, and looked him over. He's a very handsome boy.
He and my brother, Grover, became bestest friends. When I came to live with my Mommas, Jordan was good to me, but he wasn't pals with me like he was with Grover. Jordan is now close to 12 years old; he's as handsome and good and gentle as ever. Jordan is a friend to all animals and people.We love you, Jman, and we're glad you're part of our family.

PALIN: WRONG WOMAN, WRONG MESSAGE

Opinion piece by Gloria Steinam, in the Los Angeles Times:
"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
"But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
"Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
"This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.
"Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, 'I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?' When asked about Iraq, she said, 'I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq.'
"She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on 'God, guns and gays' ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.
"So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain."
Click here to read the rest of this Los Angeles Times article.

ANDREW SULLIVAN ON PRESIDENTIAL JUDGEMENT

From Andrew Sullivan of TheAtlantic.com:
"We have had two big presidential decisions from both candidates - the first time we can clearly judge their decision-making skills. Obama's (vice presidential decision) was prudent, cautious, thoroughly vetted, and serious about governing. McCain's was impulsive, rash, barely vetted and decided at the last minute by a small coterie that left everyone else gasping.
"We are at war. Another 9/11 is possible. Israel may attack Iran. Pakistan may go up in smoke. Putin may invade another country. Who would you rather have as president?"

OBAMA PICKS JOE BIDEN

From The Huffington Post:

Barack Obama named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential running mate early Saturday, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."

HAPPY BARKDAY, GREG!

Today, August 23, is my brother Greg's barkday. He is a good brother to me and the other kids. He's a good son to my mommas. He a good husband to Jen; and he's a great dad to Peanut and Swanny Jr.

We all wish Greg the happiest birthday ever!