The Palin albatross

McCain insiders are increasingly coming clean with their real assessment of Sarah Palin, and her (lack of) readiness to assume the presidency should the need ever arise.

One top McCain adviser has referred to Pain as a 'diva;' and another has openly called her a 'whack job.'

In the latest slam (of McCain's judgment, and of Palin herself) has now come from one of McCain's touted 'Secretary of State supporters,' former Republican Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger:

Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.

"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office.

Meanwhile McCain has been openly bragging about Eagleburger's endorsement (and so has Sarah Palin) in a campaign that grows stranger and more dissonant by the day.

In an interview on CNN, McCain downplayed the importance of Colin Powell's Palin criticism by accusing Powell of failing to grasp Palin's "political gravitas" (this quote from Huffington Post, but I find it hilarious.)

"I especially disagreed when he said the comments that he made about Governor Palin," McCain said. "And I hope that sometime General Powell will take time out of his busy schedule to meet with her. I know she'd be pleased to meet with him."

Perhaps Eagleburger, too, should sit in on that meeting.

The Daily Show: Goin' Rogue

Even Fox's Shep Smith is doing it!

Indiana just says NO

Sarah Palin would do well to note Hoosier values. Because these are the people the GOP are losing - by the truckload - in the 2008 election. Good people. Hard-working people. Friendly people. People with real values.

And apparently, McCain/Palin couldn't pay or threaten them into making hate-filled robocalls to their fellow Hoosiers. 40 of them walked off the job in Hobart, Indiana rather than be a part of this nastiness.

Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama

By Greg Sargent - October 27, 2008, 5:18PM

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.

"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."

The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."

And I am not the slightest bit surprised to hear this.

Indiana has been hit very hard by the economic downswing. Jobs have been leaving this state at an alarming rate, with factory after factory moving overseas. But integrity isn't for sale here. Its just not how we were raised -- any of us.

What hate has wrought

Senator McCain and Sarah Palin: look upon your creation. This is your hate-child; the viper you have raised in the heart of America.

Take a good, hard look. These are your people. This is your base. This is the fruit of your hate-filled, racist rhetoric.

Now tell me again - go ahead - tell us all how much you love your country.

ATF disrupts skinhead plot to assassinate Obama

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The Daily Palin: What will she say next?

The McCain campaign is now (purportedly) complaining that Palin has gone 'rogue,' and is no longer speaking at the direction of the main campaign. How interesting... a rogue VP. We sure haven't seen that before.

Her latest crazy claims? An Obama presidency will be a dark descent into communism.

Communism? That is so 80s. We aren't at war with communism anymore, Sarah. Our biggest 'trading' partner and debtor is Communist China. (Someone needs to get some new, updated talking points into this woman's hands.)

Sarah Palin is... almost breath-takingly ignorant.

Daily Palin Scandal: AP Special Investigation

I have to hand it to the AP: they took on the job of vetting Sarah Palin, and they have yet to run short of scandals to break. Ten more days of this and we'll discover she was once married to the Unibomber...

From the AP:

Palin pipeline terms curbed bids

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.

"We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets," Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.

In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:

_Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group — the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.

_Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

_The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.

_Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

Read the rest here...

Thanks to the AP for doing the job most American journalists aren't willing to do (actual investigative reporting.) Sarah Palin has proven (to me at least) that she's ready to be the next Dick Cheney.

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?

Another Palin scandal? You betcha

Kudos to the AP for running with this; and Newsweek for highlighting it:

(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

What do we call this one... 'Mommy-gate?'

The Daily Show: Real Americans

It was impossible to pick just one of these videos: every one was a classic.







Well I certainly watch the Daily Show, so I'm very obviously not a 'real American.' Hmm... this could have some advantages (tax advantages especially.)

Perhaps some new lyrics to that annoying 'Proud to be an American' song are in order; for all of us who have been kicked out of the Real America:

Guess I'm proud to be un-American
Sarah Palin set me free
All this time I thought I lived here too
And the word applied to me
Now I'm glad to stand up, free and clear
Much relieved to finally say
That its not my fault... its gone to hell...
And the debt's not mine to pay!

Keith Olbermann Special Comment

Shouting 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater

The Hate-talk Express reaps dark rewards

It has begun. As we knew it would. As we warned it would.

McCain/Palin would not stop. They spewed their hateful accusations and dark innuendos; they declared that Senator Barack Obama was 'palling around with terrorists' and that, by virtue of his middle name, must himself be a Muslim (he isn't - but what if he was?) and a terrorist.

Imagine... calling a fellow senator a terrorist!

And so they reap their dark rewards. And - unfortunately - so does all of America.

This is the GOP 'leadership' that will inspire a nation? This is all we can expect from a former war hero? This is their Christianity -- inciting American jihadists?

In Little Rock, Arkansas:

Little Rock police are investigating an early-morning home invasion that has left a KATV morning anchor hospitalized.

According to authorities, Anne Pressly, 26, is in critical condition at a Little Rock hospital after being found in her home with what police call “severe wounds.” Early reports said Pressly had been stabbed or cut, but Monday afternoon investigators confirmed the injuries occurred from blunt force trauma to the head and upper body.

-- snip --

Recently, Pressly landed a small role in the new Oliver Stone movie, “W” which opened in theaters last week. (She played Ann Coulter.)

Update from Arkansas Times Blog:

The crime had earmarks of a targeted act against a single person. The police have told the local neighborhood association, however, that patrols in the area will be increased until a suspect is arrested.

Pressly has a small role in the current movie, "W," Oliver Stone's portrayal of George W. Bush. She played commentator Ann Coulter in the movie, much of it filmed in Shreveport.

Update from Under the Dome:

She was on her Facebook page last night at 9:51 thanking those who went to see her 30 second part in the movie "W." Pressly has been with KATV since June, 2004.

In Ashville, North Carolina:

A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.

Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.

"It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head," Johnson said.

In Hays County, Texas:

In western Hays County, Texas, at around 8PM Sunday night 19 October, thugs trashed my car while I was having dinner with some friends.

Out in the country. Miles from anywhere.

My "Obama 08" bumper sticker was torn off the right rear bumper, a 20-lb rock was dropped through the back window, 2 stolen Obama yard signs were shoved through the gaping hole in the window, and a cryptic almost "OBAHA" (or something...) was scrawled in orange spray-paint on the drivers side front and back doors and windows.

In Jackson, Mississippi:

Government employees in a north Mississippi county were told not to use public property for political activity after a comptroller used a work computer to forward a chain e-mail asking people to pray for Barack Obama's defeat, a county official said Wednesday.

DeSoto County Administrator Michael Garriga said Comptroller Tom Arnold sent the message, titled "Pray, Pray, Pray," sometime in the past few days to at least 35 addresses on the county's e-mail user list. He said Arnold could face disciplinary action as a result.

"We don't need to be expressing any political or religious views when we're at work or when we're using county resources," Garriga told The Associated Press in an interview.

The e-mail implies that Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is Muslim. Obama is Christian.

"We have the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak (sic) Obama from leading our country to who knows where with his message of 'change'; a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals, and away from Christ, and further away from one nation under God to one nation under Allah," the e-mail said, according to portions published Wednesday by The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn.

In Chicago, Illinois:

Two supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found handwritten death threats in their mailboxes Thursday and reported them to Villa Park police.

A 74-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man with Obama signs in their front yards near the 600 block of South Villa Avenue received similar letters that had a Villa Park Village Hall return address. "Get the Obama signs off your property—now," the letter reads. "Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members." Both residents said they will not remove their signs, though the man, who had voted Republican for 25 years before switching parties this year, said his wife is worried about letting their 7-year-old son play alone outside.

In Princeton, West Virginia:



In Richmond, Virginia:

On Friday night, a large Obama sign was stolen on Bailey Bridge Road. It was replaced with something that has shocked the community.

In the sign's place was a confederate flag.

"I was kind of upset and shook up," said Reverend Leroy McLaughlin, the signs owner.

Rev. McLaughlin does not hold back when he describes the culprits.

"...evil folks, mean and got the devil in them."

Stolen campaign signs are a problem every year around election time but Rev McLaughlin says this act crossed the line and seems racist.

In Fayetteville, North Carolina:

Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

Many of the damaged vehicles were parked on Wilkes Road. Representatives from Obama and Sen. John McCain’s campaigns said they were unaware of the acts.

Susan Lagana, the North Carolina communications director for Obama, said it was extremely disappointing and unfortunate that “people would have to experience something like that.”

Mario Diaz, communications director for McCain, did not respond to a call late Sunday.

Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

In Columbus, Ohio:

Ohio's elections chief said the state's Web site is running on limited capacity after several security breaches.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said in a statement Monday that the site has been partially disabled to protect state records and data. A spokesman said he is unaware of any personal records being accessed.

The state highway patrol is investigating the breaches.

The statement said officials are also investigating other security threats, including a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and containing an unidentified powder that was mailed to Brunner's office last week.

The statement said the office has also been inundated with death threats in e-mails and telephone calls.

Brunner's office has been embroiled in controversy over Ohio voter registration rules.

In Caledonia, Wisconsin:

In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.

“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”

The man eventually stopped and the Caledonia police were called. Takehara was asked if she needed medical assistance, but she was not seriously injured. Instead, she says she was shaken up by the homeowner’s reaction.

“This negative stuff has to stop,” said Takehara. “We’re all Americans. This is all about protecting our democracy, not about attacking each other.”

Where will it break out next?

This domestic terrorism isn't going to stop. Not until the instigators, John McCain and Sarah Palin stop inciting it.

Who is the terrorist now, John McCain? No really -- because the only people I see "palling around with terrorists" right now, are you and your running mate.

I fail to see how I am expected to believe that you love America as much as I do. Your words and your actions say otherwise. "By their works you will know them." I wonder... do you even remember who said those words?

Colin Powell comments on Obama smears

Classy words from a classy man.

The truth about ACORN

Daily Show: 10,000 McCainiacs

Hatetalk Express rolls into Ohio

How embarrassing. Europe... Asia... please avert your eyes. We're not all this ignorant.

Filmed by Al Jazeera:



Didn't any of these people hear that Barack's mom is White (and from Kansas?) Barack has within him a little bit of all of us. He is - even genetically - the great uniter. And his words bring people together, instead of tearing them apart with hatred and ignorance.



But of course, there are always going to be those (McCain and Palin) who will attack anything that unites us as a people.

If we had any reliable national media in this nation, these people would be informed by now. The rest of the planet knows more about Barack Obama than these American citizens.

How embarrassing. How shameful.

Abuse of power: Palin proves she's ready!

The reports of ethical breaches and abuse of power just keep rolling in. Perhaps she's simply proving once and for all that she's ready to step into George W. Bush's shoes, should the need arise. She certainly has the 'abuse of power/ethical lapses' cred for the job.

JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- An Alaska state investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin includes more ethics complaints than just those of the "Troopergate" probe, state documents show.

In the recently concluded Troopergate investigation, the Alaska state Legislature concluded that Palin, the Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee, was within her rights to fire state Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, but abused her power and violated ethics in joining her husband to push for the firing of state trooper Mike Wooten, who was once married to the governor's sister.

-- snip --

The newspaper said there are two known additional ethics complaints against the nominee. One is from an activist who says hiring practices were circumvented for a Palin supporter, and another in which the Alaska state police union claims Wooten's personnel file was illegally breached by state officials.

John Cyr, the union's executive director, told the Daily News he plans to amend the complaint to include "harassment" of Wooten as well.

Oh -- but there's more!

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Palin's first try at statewide office, after six years as mayor of Wasilla, was an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002. To raise money, she improperly used her City Hall office and equipment, city records show. A year later she would make headlines by blasting a fellow Republican for, among other things, improperly using his government position to boost his campaign.

Then, in 2006, Palin won the governor's race with a vow to reform state ethics. But in less than two years, she has repeatedly taken actions that violated her own stated standards for ethical behavior — if not state law. In the process, the Republican vice presidential nominee has become much like the old-school politicians she attacked during her rise to power.

Some examples:

_She pummeled opponents for giving oil companies and other businesses too much control of state government. Yet she appointed the founder of an engineering firm that received $6.8 million in state business as head of the transportation department.

_She has accepted dozens of gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars since taking office, including two free trips last year that she failed to report on disclosure forms, despite criticizing state legislators for the gifts they take.

_She is under another investigation, accused of misusing her office to campaign against a voter referendum calling for tighter mining regulations. Her husband, Todd, has accepted free trips from a mining company to look at their proposed new site.

_Another ethics complaint, unresolved, accuses her staff of finding a state job for a friend and campaign contributor.

People in glass houses...

This is getting ridiculous.

McCain and Palin's insistence on running an entire campaign based on personal attacks against their opponent, Barack Obama - while having no real and substantial platform of their own - is about to backfire in technicolor. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. This is especially true of politicians with - actual - ties to terrorists.

McCain and Palin have been insisting 24/7 that Ayers (now a professor with many connections in both the Democratic and Republican parties) is still a 'terrorist,' and that Obama is 'palling around with him.' This is a ridiculous claim in and of itself, because Obama barely knows the man - Ayers certainly isn't a part of Obama's campaign - and Ayers is by no means the same guy he was in the 1960s. Apparently this is the only cover McCain and Palin can find for the fact that they have no real platform; no real plan for how to lead this country out of its current economic woes.

And so the lady pitbull does the only thing she knows: she attacks. Unfortunately, she chose the wrong bait. It turns out that she herself has some rather dark skeletons in her closet - skeletons that might easily be construed as terrorist in nature.

The latest fauxpas from the McCain campaign came to light today, when it was announced that McCain has chosen lobbyist William Timmons to head his transition team (and after all of his talk about how he was going to run the lobbyists out of Washington. Might want to start with your own campaign, eh John?) Timmons isn't just any lobbyist: he lobbyed on behalf of Saddam Hussein (yes, the REAL Hussein) in attempts to ease sanctions against his regime.

Now... want to tell me again who is actually 'palling around with terrorists' here? Imagine for a moment that you are running for president, and the best guy you can find to head up your transition team is not only a lobbyist, but a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein. The comedians are going to have a field day with this.

Even more damning to the McCain campaign are Sarah Palin's ties to an Alaskan pro-secessionist group called AIP. Todd Palin was a full member, and Sarah Palin has maintained close ties with this very fringe, very radical American-government-hating group. She even gave the opening speech for 2008 AIP convention (from the governor's mansion) and stated that she 'shared their party's vision.' She also attended the convention herself in 2006.

So obviously Palin has been... palling around with secessionists? Not just secessionists, but a group that freely admits to hating our government. Great choice for VP, McCain. You've really lost it.

Lincoln is rolling in his grave. Again.



CNN is finally covering this story... but I find it amazing that McCain and Palin had the nerve to even mention 'terrorist' when they each had so very much to hide. Did they somehow think we wouldn't find out?




And now the McCain campaign is expressing its outrage (that this is being covered on CNN) and insisting that Palin is being smeared. Smeared by the truth, eh?

Funny how they can smear Obama night and day with statements that are patently untrue, and all the while stirring up racial hatreds; but pull a few unsavory truths out of their own closets and they run screaming 'UNFAIR! UNFAIR!' and stomping their feet in outrage.

I just can't take these people seriously. And I certainly wouldn't entrust our nation's future to them. Much too unstable, and frankly unhinged.

(Glass houses are a bitch to keep intact, aren't they?)

Holding McCain and Palin responsible

I think it is time we all -- as a civilized nation -- tell McCain and Palin in no uncertain terms that we will hold them personally responsible for any violence that results from the hatred they are deliberately inciting at their campaign rallies.

We have seen this before. We are not going back there.

Republican Andrew Sullivan (with more bipartisan voices joining every day) warned McCain to back off the hate rhetoric:

McCain and Palin have decided to stoke this rage, to foment it, to encourage paranoid notions that somehow Obama is a "secret" terrorist or Islamist or foreigner. These are base emotions in both sense of the word.

But they are also very very dangerous. This is a moment of maximal physical danger for the young Democratic nominee. And McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies - not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.

For God's sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first.

Republican Frank Schaffer wrote an angry OP-ED that ran today in the Baltimore Sun:

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever.

We will hold you responsible.

Yes we will hold you both responsible, although I greatly fear that scenario (and McCain - if he really loved this country - should fear it too. Palin is probably too ignorant, too much the religious intolerant to truly grasp the danger in her words. McCain knows better -- and apparently doesn't care.)

This nation will explode like a powder keg if anything happens to Barack, or if there is any violence at the polls. People are already so angry and anxious that it won't take much for everything to dissolve into violence and chaos. To deliberately incite such behavior is reckless and very dangerous.

As a lifelong student of the Civil War, I can't think of anything worse than 'neighbor vs. neighbor.' And I condemn anyone who would deliberately stir that pot. Shame is too mild a word. Can someone who deliberately incites violence be labeled a 'terrorist' himself?

Is that what you want Mr. McCain -- for this entire nation to dissolve into violence? Are you willing to risk the destruction of our entire nation just to get elected?

And to think I once respected you!

Just STOP. It's not simply shameful and unbecoming -- you are endangering your political opponent and our nation.

If you are indeed losing this election, then for God's sake lose with at least a little moral dignity - dignity befitting a Vietnam vet and former POW.

Nation before party (and certainly before your own political power-trip.)

Obama: Its easy to rile up a crowd

Biden's answer to Palin: This is wrong.

Biden speaking in Tampa about McCain/Palin's dirty campaign tactics:

"This is beyond disappointing," Biden said. "This is wrong."

Biden urged voters not to be distracted by the attacks, saying that McCain is taking the "low road" because he's part and parcel of President Bush's failed policies.

When you vote with Bush 95 percent of the time, it's not surprising that nearly all of McCain's ads are negative, Biden said.

Reeling off a one liner, he declared, "You can't be a maverick if all you've ever been is a sidekick."

As Jon Stewart would say: "Check and mate."