RNC spends 150K on Palin 'accessories'

Sarah Palin is no Barack Obama. I'd have to agree with her own assessment: Sarah Palin really does see America a bit differently than Barack Obama does.

While Obama walks all over the country talking to voters, wearing his shoes out and occasionally re-soling them, Palin is out shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue.

From Politico:

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

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

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

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

The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission's long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.

And yet another Palin scandal -- campaign cash used to purchase personal accessories. But then, that's Sarah's modus operandi. She runs for newer and better offices so she can take trips using taxpayer money, and buy herself and her kids bigger and nicer presents.

I can only imagine what she'd be like in the White House. First they resurrected Joe McCarthy... now the RNC has resurrected Marie Antoinette! Brilliant strategy in these hard economic times!

Can we safely say that this is just a bit more extravagant than John Edwards' haircut?

Still more video footage from St. Paul

After reading about the Texas beach front land grab, and watching yet another video of stormtroopers in black body armor bullying bystanders in a park... well its kind of ridiculous, but I can't seem to get a song out of my head. (Didn't we used to sing this when we were little kids?)

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

I looked up the lyrics of the song and discovered something I didn't even know... it was written by Woody Guthrie!

And here is the rest of it; the part we didn't sing in kindergarten:

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)

Guess Woody tried to warn us -- but his song was censured.

Democrats Launch a New 'Lie Counter' Site

I wonder if they will be posting a special 'lie of the day' section -- perhaps like a 'quote of the day,' that we can post on our blogs and websites. Or maybe they can run polls where we can vote on the strangest, most outlandish, nastiest and stupidest lies... I can see some real possibilities here.

Personally I'd like to see a contest, where everyday Americans can challenge each other and try to out-lie the great Karl Rove. I'd like to match wits with our American Goebbels some time. He's starting to slip a bit; some of these lies are just too easily debunked by anyone with Google.

From the Washington Post:

The site, "Count the Lies," will go live Monday, targeting what the Democratic National Committee says are falsehoods coming from Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party.

The total so far, according to the Democrats: 51 since McCain wrapped up the GOP presidential nomination in February.

McCain has been criticized by independent groups and the media over a recent and significant uptick in the number of unsubstantiated claims in his ads.

Seizing on those reports, the new Democratic Web site sports a "Lie Counter," which the DNC says will increase every time McCain or his surrogates offer what it regards as an untruth.

Jon Stewart will have fun with this one.

Garrison Keillor weighs in

I laughed out loud when I read the second sentence; classic Keillor.

GOP: it's just like high school

By Garrison Keillor
In print: Wednesday, September 10, 2008

So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They've been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves.

They are coming out for Small Efficient Government the very week that the feds are taking over Fannie and Freddie, those old cash cows, and in the course of a weekend 20 or 50 or (pick a number) billion go floating out the Treasury door. Hello? We didn't just fall off the coal truck.

It is a bold move on the Republicans' part — forget about the past, it's only history, so write a new narrative and be who you want to be — and if they succeed, I think I might declare myself a 24-year-old virgin named Lance and see what that might lead to.

Read more

Jon Stewart tackles the GOP 'Change' platform

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Wait for it... wait for it...



Perhaps Huck can explain it? (I wish McCain has picked Huckabee for his running mate. I'd be a lot less worried.)



(Pssst... Huck... the reason Congress is polling so abysmally, is because they won't impeach George W. Bush.)

Nice comments about the Internet. I'm guessing Huck is the only GOP former-candidate who feels that way (empowering the people? Ha! Not on Cheney's watch!)

Eisenhower (now an Independent) endorses Obama

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Susan Eisenhower has become an Independent! (Welcome to the 'Constitutional Middle!')

Great interview with Eisenhower on the Colbert Report:

The Daily Show: Nailed it

Jon Stewart is a national treasure.

I too remember the 'former but now reformed maverick,' John McCain. So sad to see a once respectable man flipping and flopping through current issues, like a beached flounder.

Of course, Jon is always standing by with a fishing net.

Every segment tonight 'nailed it,' so I'm just going to post em all. If you experience sound problems with any (or all) of these videos, click here to view them in a separate window/tab.

Nothing like the smell of fresh coffee and tear gas in the morning


Jon goes after that 'Change' Platform. Heh heh.


And now... about that 'maverick' thing.


Moment of Zen

Will the real John McCain please stand up?

Never mind. Its too late.

Dispatch from the Angry Middle:

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
- Abraham Lincoln

Tonight, while trying to watch a baseball game, I saw my first GOP attack ad.

There was no mention of a GOP platform... of what the McCain campaign actually stands for or intends to do for us if elected. It was simply a lowlife, nasty attack on Obama; endorsed by John McCain.

As someone who used to live in Arizona and who used to respect this man, I am horrified.

Senator McCain... how far you have fallen. And what a terrible shame.

I used to believe you really were a non-partisan maverick. When you attempted - with Senator Feingold - to reform election campaign finance, I thought you meant it. When you appeared on "Why We Fight" and referred to Eisenhower's warning about the Military Industrial Complex, I lauded your willingness to speak the truth out in the open. You seemed so unlike your lock-stepping, meanspirited, hypocritical GOP counterparts.

Apparently I was wrong.

I had never intended to say anything negative about you during your election run; there was no reason to speak ill of you, even if I don't agree with your... you do have a platform, don't you? There was no reason to speak ill of you as long as you remained a candidate of substance.

But I cannot sit by and watch you smear Barack Obama in such a sleazy fashion, while offering nothing of substance yourself.

Have you become nothing more than a Rovebot now? Will you literally do, say or endorse anything to get elected? Didn't you once find this kind of dirty, gutter politics disgusting and undignified when Rove used these very same tactics against you?

And yet you are willing to hire Rove and to adopt his sleazy tactics for your own 2008 campaign. My... how cynical.

That ad was an embarrassment. Your party will never understand that; but I once believed that you did. That was the very statesmanship that made you such a maverick in the political world.

When you said - was it really only last night? - that you planned to heal partisan divides in this nation, I am recalling that one George W. Bush said the very same thing. Right before stuffing the government with Bushies and denying Constitutional rights to anyone who didn't agree with him, or share his warped ideology.

I wondered when you hired Rove to be your propagandist, if you had gone over to the dark side. Perhaps you've simply always been there, pretending to be something other than what you are.

You are either not what you once were... or you never were that 'maverick' at all. I can't decide which reality is true. But one thing is painfully obvious; you're not the John McCain that I thought you were.

Attack ads are a sign of weakness, not of strength. They are a sign that the attacker has nothing of value to offer... and so he must pull another man down in an attempt to lift himself up. You have obviously given up every realistic - and popular - stand on the issues we care about. You've lost the Independents, but you don't appear to care. I guess your only option now - you can't attack the man you once were - is to attack the candidate who now represents the straight talk platform you abandoned.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
- Abraham Lincoln

I am ashamed for you. Gloves off.

Ultimate Irony: 2 Fox reporters detained by police at RNC protests

Dispatch from the Angry Middle:

If this isn't the ultimate irony. Yes I'm laughing as I type.

This from Lubbock Texas:

Media Arrested With Protesters on RNC's Final Night
2 MyFox Journalists Detained, 1 Arrested

ST.PAUL, Minn. (MyFox National) -- Two MyFox journalists were among several media professionals detained or arrested Thursday night on a bridge where about 200 protesters were taken into custody enroute to the site of this year's Republican National Convention finale.

MyFox national editor John P. Wise and MyFoxDFW.com editor Alice Kalthoff were reporting on the protests. Police set off smoke bombs to disperse the crowd after which protesters were directed to head toward the bridge. That's when the protesters, along with the journalists, were stopped by police on the bridge and told that they were all under arrest.

It turns out that 19 news media journalists were detained and/or arrested while covering the RNC protests, including journalists from FOX, the AP, and Minneapolis' own KARE-TV. Many said that their press credentials were ripped off or ignored.

Local coverage from Minneapolis/St. Paul's KARE11:

ST. PAUL -- Police in St. Paul and Minneapolis made more than 800 convention related arrests during the four-day run of the Republican National Convention.

Nearly 400 of the arrests came on Thursday - the convention's last day. A large share of those took place Thursday evening on the Marion Street Bridge, several blocks west of the Xcel Energy Center.

Police used flash-bang grenades, smoke, pepper spray and tear gas to herd scores of protesters and several journalists onto the bridge.

Dressed in riot gear, police then blocked both ends of the bridge before ordering protesters and journalists to drop to the ground and place their hands on their heads.

My favorite part of the local coverage was the link embedded in the middle of the story:

Click here: Was hosting the RNC worth it?

Two more AP journalists arrested at RNC

Dispatch from the Angry Middle:

Two more journalists were arrested while covering the protests at the RNC on Thursday. Amy Forliti and Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press, who were assigned to cover the story, were ordered to sit on the pavement with their hands over their heads, before being led away by police.

They join AP photographer Matt Rourke (also on assignment to cover the protests earlier in the week,) who was arrested and detained on Monday. Unlike Amy Goodman and her producers, and undoubtedly due to strong backing by the AP News Wire, Rourke was released without being charged.

Kudos to the AP for doing your job, even in the face of the violent and un-Constitutional behavior of local police. This is the work of real journalists: not simply regurgitating press releases, but covering real news as it happens, no matter the physical or political consequences.

The GOP: Party of Change (from themselves?)

Dispatch from the Angry Middle:

Realize that I refuse to watch hours of partying delegates... and so I must rely on second-hand convention coverage for blog-fodder. I avoid firsthand contact with conventions to preserve my own sanity.

My favorite source of convention coverage is Jon Stewart; he digs right to the heart of the hypocrisy, er, issues while at the same time making me laugh. That is a rare talent.

I was astounded last night to see (while watching 'Indecision 2008,') that the GOP is actually packaging themselves as the 'Party of Change,' no doubt as a lame answer to Obama's platform of change.

One Daily Show clip even showed Laura Bush advocating change. What - change from her husband's own policies?

I learned long ago that logic has no place in GOP politics, or even political discussions with Fox-brainwashed Republicans. As soon as you pull out the logic card, they immediately start shouting, attempting to intimidate... or they simply 'cut your mic.' Republican politics and logic simply cannot co-exist.

The GOP is now offering us the most illogical party platform in recent memory: We are 'the Party of Change... from ourselves.'

The party that has ruled over the 'great decline' of the United States is now trying to convince everyone that our 'job shedding' national economy, the wildly expensive and deadly invasion of Iraq based on lies, the Bush Administration's botched response to Katrina, the outsourcing of corporate oversight to corporations, out of control partisan hiring, and the ruling GOP party's willful attacks on our Constitution are problems that only they are qualified to fix.

GOP: The Party of Change. Change from 8 years of GOP policy.

Huh?

Even the Washington Post is today beating the 'GOP Change' drum.

Washington Post:

'Change Is Coming,' McCain Says
Accepting GOP Nomination, Veteran Senator Calls For Putting Country's Interests Before Party Loyalty

Heh, right. Since when?

Now that we are facing an election year and nearly everyone in the country is angry, McCain says he wants to fix damage that he himself caused (he voted with Bush over 90% of the time during 8 years of blatantly partisan rule.)

Is anyone really falling for this?

Could it be that Mr. McCain (who I once greatly admired but now fail to recognize) will say literally anything to get elected? Not that I wouldn't be desperate too, if I was trying to win an election while the country unravels at the seams.

If Rove pulls this off, even the great propaganda master Joseph Goebbels would be impressed.

The RNC: Brought to you by Mace

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The Daily Show: Gender Card Double-talk

Hypocrisy on Parade

What would we do without Jon Stewart and his extensive video clip library?

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Caught on tape

John McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan were caught on tape (below) after an NBC interview, expressing their real opinion of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's running mate.

Whoa... such truthiness. Guess they didn't realize the mic was on!

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TRANSCRIPT:

Mike Murphy, former McCain advisor: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: It's over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

NBC's Chuck Todd: Don't you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too (inaudible)

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political [B.S.] about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

Daily Show: Give Us One More Chance

The GOP: Give Us One More Chance

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Michael Moore responds to Joe Lieberman

And now if I may, I'd like to respond to Michael.

If you haven't noticed already, I don't watch the conventions. I didn't watch the DNC and I'm certainly not going to poison my spirit by watching the RNC. The Democrats may have mostly forgotten their ideology (think Roosevelt,) but the GOP is now tilting wildly in the direction of fascism. And their product stinks.

My response to Michael Moore? The reason Joe Lieberman and McCain, and every other Republican bash you in public is because you have the nerve to uncover holes in the 'product.' You are successful when you comment on the fact that their product doesn't deliver. They've spent millions in advertising to promote their product and conceal its true crappiness, and they aren't going to let you walk in off the street with a movie camera and reveal the truth without a strong counter-attack.

The product is in fact, garbage. You reveal the fact that it doesn't work, has never worked (despite the advertising,) and that the money-back guarantee was always bogus. You are discrediting their product, and so they are now working hard to discredit, or marginalize or harrass you -- all tested corporate battle tactics.

The GOP is so obsessed with corporate business and the market, that they have literally become a corporation themselves, with a name brand and a product. Their product is terrible (for everyone but the top 1% of the economic pyramid,) but they keep selling it to the struggling masses through a carefully crafted advertisement plan. That, and a whole lot of intimidation.

The long term goal is to run their competition out of business; or simply buy them out - Joe Lieberman being an excellent example - so that their lousy product is the only one on the market.

They've already bought the media, so as to keep their advertising campaign on the air 24/7, while subtly bashing anything that threatens their product under the guise of 'covering the news.' If the actual news of the day shows their product in a negative light, they simply withhold this news or make up an alternate reality. Spin is in.

Its just business, Michael.

But Michael... you just won't play. You don't like their product, and you won't join their corporation. And so of course they see you as The Competition. The Competition must be hit and hit hard, at every opportunity.

You are actually advocating something that isn't even a product; a dangerous (to their product) mindset that they hope to eventually stamp out with their corporate world view. Democracy.

Again... what country is this?

Protester in St. Paul tries to hand the police a flower. Protester is sprayed in the face with something that appeared to really hurt.

A flower. She was obviously a terrorist. Obviously a threat to national security. I can see why the dude in the body armor felt threatened.

These marching robots in black look like something out of Star Wars (Darth Vader's guys.) They also remind me of old films depicting Nazi storm troopers. Creepy. I suppose they'll be shooting infants next. That usually follows.

I guess if your face is completely hidden from view, and you're a really tough dude dressed in black armor (in the proud tradition of Klansman hiding their faces under sheets,) you feel empowered to assault a woman holding out a flower.

Very manly. Very American, patriotic and... are we sure an alien army isn't invading us? I'm confused. You say this was Minnesota? Really? I always associated Minnesota with Garrison Keillor. Remind me not to visit any time soon.

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Don't you imagine our troops in Iraq wish they could get such nice body armor? They're actually being shot at, and every day. Ah, alas for national priorities. Our government is much more threatened by Americans carrying flowers.

The canary in the mine: pre-emptively held at gunpoint

Our tax dollars are paying for this?

"I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault rifles, pump action shotguns," said Bruce Nestor, the president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who is representing several of the protesters. "The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint."

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Faux hurricane compassion

Love that faux GOP compassion. Leave it to Jon Stewart to nail them for it. (If you have any trouble with this video - sound or otherwise - please click here.)

Daily Show: Hurricane Gustav Relief

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