Health wealth and...and...I forget what the other one is...

Welcome to a very special health care edition of ME's Political Rant.

So, this is how I know that it's time for a political rant -- when I'm standing in front of the TV SCREAMING at CNN and the monologue goes something like this, "What the $^&*!!^% are you talking about, you &*$$*%! ?/&*!%^!&*!! Why don't you ask that ??%!@&^&%@ #$ &*&^ %^$! what he'd do if his OWN !?#$%&# daughter were #&*^!#%^*$ sick and he didn't have his &^%?!$% precious Congressional health care ???? Are you a MORON????"

Now, far be it from me to take a reductionist view of a complex and byzantine issue, but can I just point out that nobody is getting ANYwhere right now? The truth is that I've had a hankering to put out a rant for a while, but now my blood pressure is up, my throat is sore from yelling at FOX news idiocy and yesterday I almost put my middle finger through the TV screen. Clearly, the time has come.

There's a lot to cover here, but I'm gonna put this right at the top. You wanna know what's in H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, or the Health Care Reform bill? Here it is, in its 1018-page glory. Yes, that sounds like a lot, but consider that it's 80 pages shorter than Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (paperback edition) and it's double-spaced and in a larger font.

So the beauty of the Internet is that you can find anything you want if you just look long enough. As this bill wends its way through committees it obviously gets revised, and you can track the changes on Govtrack.org.

A Little Bird Told Me....

I think there should be a new rule: you may not be on TV, you may not be quoted, you do not get to talk about health care, if you are going to use the phrase "I've heard that..." as in "I've heard that grandma will be called up in front of death panels under this health plan....I've heard that kids under the age of 21 with bad acne and frizzy hair will be sterilized under this health plan...I've heard that Barack Obama wants to recycle old people into Soylent Wafers under this health plan."

The "I've heard that" impulse-- which I readily admit is hard to fight-- accounts for so much of the hysteria out there, like this frustrating email that you may have seen around the net:

On Page 425 of Obama's health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes... They are going to push SUICIDE to cut Medicare spending!!! And no, I am NOT KIDDING YOU! So those of you who voted for Obama have now put yourself and your own parents in dire straights... Congratulations!

If you check on the famous page 425, you can read for yourself what it says about Medicare paying for-- not forcing people to talk about -- a consultation about end of life care with a doctor. Anyone can read it for themselves.

If you're like me (or like Jon Stewart) you howled when there appeared to be hedging on the idea of a public option ( a government -run insurance plan similar to Medicare). I think it was all a ploy to get the rest of us SOOO riled up at the prospect of the public option being taken off the table that we'd get on the horn, and so here I am, on the horn to you, my friends. (Jeez, I sound like John McCain.) I'm sending out this rant with some special resources on who and how to contact in Congress, so please feel free to pass it on through the same channels we used last year at this very time...

Should there be health care for crazy people?

Wow, I guess in principle I'm for mental health coverage in this reform bill, but there are obviously a lot of Crazy People (Sarah Palin) out there barking at the wind (Sarah Palin). People (Sarah Palin) who really need to schedule those 20 visits with a mental health professional.

Yes, I'm talking about Sarah Palin's Death Panel fiesta. By the way, in case you missed it, it was conservative Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) who put the so called "death panel" clause into the health care lottery. His comment on Palin's Death Panel crack? "How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up."

Not content with dissing that bastion of socialism, Canada, the misinformation storm has now swept up Britain too. To the point that they're finally hitting back, after watching their NHS system pilloried in the news, e.g. "Oh God, Americans would NEVER want SOCIALIZED medicine disaster like that SOCIALIST REGIME in BRITAIN forces on its people. They would have KILLED someone like Stephen Hawking under a system like the British." Except that Stephen Hawking LIVES in BRITAIN -- and he's not dead. Yeah. Um... yeah. Says Hawking to The Guardian newspaper: "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS." Moving on.

(All figures are for 2007 except for Japan, which is for 2006)

The White House has a website rebutting some of the claims that drive me insane (How many times do you think Obama is going to have to say, "You will be able to keep your own health insurance if you like it"?) But you can also read the excellent Consumer Reports Health Reform blog for up to date and well-researched information -- one of the better reads out there. It's part of their larger website covering Health Care reform, which has other good resources on it.

Consumers Union health policy analyst, Steven Findlay also had an editorial in USA Today back in June that laid out the basics with an historical persepctive pretty clearly. "Socialized medicine. Government-run health care. Rationing. Bureaucrats in charge. "Cookbook" medicine. Waiting lines. It'll break the bank. Welcome to the health care debate 2009. Sound familiar? These notions aim to instill fear. And once again, they bear no more relation to the reality of what is being debated in Washington than was the case when the Clintons had a go at health reform in the 1990s. Don't be misled this time. In fact, far more bipartisan agreement exists on many core elements of reform than you might think... What would be new is that people who don't have access to such coverage (and some who do) would be able to get coverage through insurance "exchanges." They'd be able to choose from a batch of private plans and policies that would have to accept all comers, offer comprehensive coverage, and be barred from "cherry-picking" only healthy people."

Has anyone else noticed that in fact, under he current system, someone-else-who-is-not-you is already making the decisions for us? When your employer gives you a "choice" of either a low-budget, it-would-be-great-if-you-never-get-sick coverage from Kaiser, or pay-through-the-nose-$800-a-month-Blue-Shield-PPO plan, you think you have choice? When insurance companies decide that they don't want to cover someone with a pre-exist, that they don't cover mental-health care, that they don't cover chiropractic, you think you have the power to make choices?

As Consumer Reports observes in their August 2009 issue,

Private health insurance already comes between you and your doctor. And because each company sets its own rules, it’s hard to imagine a more bureaucratic system. Some insurers decide which doctors you can see, which hospitals you can visit, and what drugs you can take and still be covered. And they may require copious paperwork before approving a treatment you and your doctor want. Health-care reform would standardize claim procedures to cut down on all of that. And it would protect you from other abuses, like being rejected for coverage or paying exorbitant premiums if you get sick.

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The LA Times' Noam Levey had a good summary of where everything got left as Congress went on break.

Where does the healthcare overhaul legislation stand?August 2, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Amid a flurry of activity on healthcare legislation, the House left Friday for its monthlong summer recess. The Senate will take off at the end of this week. The break comes as Democratic leaders are working to cobble together complex healthcare bills to bring to the floors of each chamber for votes this fall.

Here is an update on where the debate stands in Washington:

Has Congress agreed on how to ensure that all Americans will be able get health insurance?
The two major bills that have cleared committees in the House and Senate would establish insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, through which individuals and small businesses could compare a variety of plans that meet basic standards to be established by the federal government. The exchanges would include private plans as well as a government insurance program, which advocates say would pressure commercial insurers to lower costs and improve quality. The government would provide subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people afford the insurance.

Does that mean there will be a government plan?
Not necessarily. The government plan faces opposition from some who fear it could ultimately drive private insurers out of business. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, which is charged with evaluating the effects of legislation, has projected that would not happen. But because Republicans and some centrist Democrats object to a government plan, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate Finance Committee is trying to develop an alternative. That might be a system of health insurance cooperatives owned by consumers.

Will these exchanges really control the cost of healthcare?
Not by themselves. The two major bills include other provisions designed to encourage Americans to be healthier, such as eliminating co-payments for some checkups and other preventive care. Many believe that will ultimately save money. The House bill also contains several pilot programs in Medicare to encourage hospitals and doctors to deliver care more efficiently. For example, one committee inserted a provision to reward programs that provide care to chronically ill senior citizens in their homes to prevent costly hospitalizations.

Will that be enough?
Many business groups, labor unions and others believe the legislation must put even stricter limits on Medicare spending to curb unnecessary and inefficient care. The head of the CBO also has testified that the bills do not do enough to slow the growth of healthcare spending. Senior Democrats have pledged to adjust the legislation to do that over the August break.

Would that mean that Congress won't raise taxes to pay for this healthcare overhaul?
That's still not clear. The House bill would assess a new surtax on individuals who make more than $280,000 and couples who make $350,000 a year to raise $544 billion to help offset the cost. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has indicated that she might move to raise those cutoffs to $500,000 and $1 million. In the Senate, where there is little support for a new income tax, lawmakers are talking about other proposals, including taxing some health benefits or assessing fees on insurance companies. Senior Democrats plan to work on those details over the summer.

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Now, who do we need to call...

So here we are again -- are you up late at night scanning CNN and HuffPo? Are you railing at your TV? Are you seething with undirected rage? Here's my thought -- make up a little form letter that encapsulates how you feel and send it to members of Congress. Send a supportive email to the ones whose views you back, send an irate one to the members whose views make you mad. I don't care which is which, but get in there. Attached is a handy list (in Excel Format) with names, phone and fax numbers and email links -- feel free to use it liberally... Thanks to the visi.com site which keeps this sort of thing updated regularly.

The Roll Call of Shame (please feel free to call, fax or email your rants to these guys, click on his or her name to go to a link to email them directly.)

• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” "We're about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy."
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): "I don't know for sure, but I've heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumour, being 77 years old as opposed to being 37 years old, if he were in England, would not be treated for his disease, because end of life – when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems." Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
  
• Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ): Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.” "The Arizona senator rejected the suggestion that Republicans were to blame for any "scare campaigns" designed to derail healthcare, stating that the party instead is simply reflecting public sentiment."
• House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA): “If it is just another name for government takeover of our health care, I’m not going to be for that,” said on CBS’s “The Early Show.”
  
• Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chair of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, “Patients should be wary of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
• Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of seven senators involved in Finance Committee negotiations, left the bipartisan talks. Hatch informed Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Wednesday afternoon that he couldn't continue to particpate because there were too many aspects of the bill that he could not back, including the employer mandate, individual mandate, Medicaid expansion and tax increase...Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): George Stephanapolous reports, "Graham told me that the U.S. Senate will not "go down the government-run health care road" despite a new poll showing 72 percent of Americans want a government role in health care -- and are willing to pay higher taxes for it. "The reason you're not going to have a government run health care pass the Senate is because it would be devastating for this country," Graham told me Sunday in an exclusive "This Week" interview.
• Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.): Former big league pitcher Jim Bunning says he won't run for a third term as U.S. Senator from Kentucky. Bunning says his Republican colleagues have been doing "everything in their power" to dry up his fundraising. Bunning, who is 77, had a narrow win in 2004 and has been clashing with GOP leadership...Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho): Crapo sits on the Senate Finance Committee, whose members are instrumental in writing what is expected to be the dominant Senate version of the health care bill. Earlier this month, Crapo signed an op-ed in the Washington Post with 12 other senators calling for bipartisan solutions to the nation's health care crisis. He has expressed dissatisfaction with one of the current Senate bills, saying that it fails to provide affordable coverage for people who don't have it without affecting those who are happy with their existing coverage. Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.): opposes "rationed Health Care"...Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. John Ensign(R-Nev.): Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, a leading conservative mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a woman who was a member of his campaign staff....Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.): Congress should approach health care reform in steps, instead of trying to put together a comprehensive package...Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas): Nine Republican senators are urging President Barack Obama to facilitate more inclusive reform of America’s health care system and say the creation of a public insurance option would “inevitably doom true competition.”

And now, Arf Arf: The so-called Blue Dogs (Contact these guys, they need to know how we all really feel!)


Who are these people and why are they doing this anyway? "So far this year, the Blue Dog Political Action Committee is on track to shatter all its fundraising records; in fact, the total for the first six months of 2009 — more than $1.1 million — is greater than what was raised in the entire 2003-04 fundraising cycle. Furthermore, according to analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of CQ MoneyLine data, the energy, financial services, and health care industries have accounted for nearly 54 percent of the Blue Dog PAC’s 2009 receipts (up from 45 percent in 2004). These contributions poured in as President Obama and the Democratic Congress have been making a major push to reform health care, develop a new energy policy, and restructure oversight of the banking sector. Clearly, these Dogs are having their day."

Any other questions on why the Blue Dogs are stalling health care reform?

Updates on what they were up to this week from the RollCall.com site. Are you represented by a Blue Dog? CALL him or her!!!

• Jason Altmire (PA-4)
• Mike Arcuri (NY-24)
• Joe Baca (CA-43)
• John Barrow (GA-12) voted against the health care reform bill last week in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Melissa Bean (IL-8)
• Marion Berry (AR-1)
• Sanford Bishop (GA-2)
• Dan Boren (OK-2) Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.) didn’t plan to hold town halls following a Congressional delegation trip, according to the Oklahoman, but he has now scheduled three meetings for Tuesday.
• Leonard Boswell (IA-3)
• Allen Boyd (FL-2) "I cannot support this bill in the version it is in now," he said. "We can do better. We can make it better."
• Bobby Bright (AL-2)
• Dennis Cardoza (CA-18) In California, almost 200 supporters and opponents of health care reform gathered outside the Modesto office of Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D) to demand a meeting with the lawmaker, the Modesto Bee reported.
• Christopher Carney (PA-10)
• Ben Chandler (KY-6) In Kentucky, some of Rep. Ben Chandler’s (D) constituents brought their complaints to a dummy likeness of the Congressman at a town hall in Lexington, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
• Travis Childers (MS-1)
• Jim Cooper (TN-5)
• Jim Costa (CA-20)
• Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
• Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-3) one of the few Blue Dogs to meet publicly with her constituents this weekend. On Saturday, she tried to “to separate fact from fiction” in Sharon, Pa., according to the Herald in Mercer County. “I’ve read the bill and it does not in any way promote euthanasia,” she told them. “It gives you the ability to sit down with your doctor and talk about end-of-life issues such as will-writing and hospice care, and the doctor will be reimbursed. Before, they weren’t reimbursed for that.”
• Lincoln Davis (TN-4)
• Joe Donnelly (IN-2)
• Brad Ellsworth (IN-8)
• Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8) (AZ Daily Star editorial)I support reform that allows Americans to keep their current health-care program, keep their doctors and keep their hospitals. I support reform that creates competition through a strong public option that lowers everyone’s costs and competes with private insurers. I support reform that allows Arizonans who lose their jobs to afford insurance so they can get back on their feet without fear of getting sick. I support reform that will slow the growth of health-care costs and does not impose new taxes or burdens on our nation’s most valuable economic contributors, small businesses. I support reform that would allow this father to keep his insurance so his daughter and wife don’t have to go without proper care.
• Bart Gordon (TN-6) Overall, the typical Blue Dog has received $63,000 more in campaign than other House Democrats over the past two decades, according to the CRP analysis. The top three recipients were Rep. Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), with $1.5 million, and Tennessee Reps. Bart Gordon and John Tanner, both of whom collected over $1.2 million from the industry and its employees, according to the data.
• Parker Griffith (AL-5)
• Jane Harman (CA-36)
• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-AL), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
• Baron Hill (IN-9), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
• Tim Holden (PA-17)
• Frank Kratovil (MD-1)
• Jim Marshall (GA-8)
• Jim Matheson (UT-2) voted against the health care reform bill last week in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Mike McIntyre (NC-7)
• Charlie Melancon (LA-3), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications, voted against the health care reform bill last week in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Mike Michaud (ME-2)
• Walt Minnick (ID-1) Blue Dogs are choosing to speak with constituents over the phone
• Dennis Moore (KS-3) Blue Dogs are choosing to speak with constituents over the phone
• Patrick Murphy (PA-8)
• Glenn Nye (VA-2) Blue Dogs are choosing to speak with constituents over the phone
• Collin Peterson (MN-7)
• Earl Pomeroy (ND-AL) Overall, the typical Blue Dog has received $63,000 more in campaign than other House Democrats over the past two decades, according to the CRP analysis. The top three recipients were Rep. Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), with $1.5 million, and Tennessee Reps. Bart Gordon and John Tanner, both of whom collected over $1.2 million from the industry and its employees, according to the data.
• Mike Ross (AR-4) "The committees' draft falls short," the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose. Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.
• John Salazar (CO-3) There will be a hot time in the old town hall meetings when John Salazar returns to his district for the August recess. Traditionally a time for elected federal officials to touch base with constituents, public meetings this year will be dominated by health care reform. Like The Daily Sentinel as stated in their “Blue Dog Salazar quiet on health care reform” editorial, many voters would like these meetings to “give representatives a chance to learn what their constituents have been reading about the measure and allow for a give-and-take about political, medical and moral choices within the system we have now and any kind of reform that might take place.”
• Loretta Sanchez (CA-47)
• Adam Schiff (CA-29-Pasadena) During much of the time when Schiff and others spoke, there was yelling from crowd, with individuals calling Schiff a liar and demanding he be recalled. Supporters, meanwhile, repeatedly yelled at the opposition to quiet down. The panel Schiff assembled included a representative from Kaiser Permanente, a consumer advocate, and representatives from smaller health-care groups. All professed some level of support for a public health care option.
• David Scott (GA-13)
• Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip: addressed 24 questions in a call-in on Thursday night, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. He also answered two written questions at the Henderson County Democratic Party’s picnic on Saturday, the Times-News in Hendersonville noted.
• Zack Space (OH-18)
• John Tanner (TN-8) Overall, the typical Blue Dog has received $63,000 more in campaign than other House Democrats over the past two decades, according to the CRP analysis. The top three recipients were Rep. Earl Pomeroy (N.D.), with $1.5 million, and Tennessee Reps. Bart Gordon and John Tanner, both of whom collected over $1.2 million from the industry and its employees, according to the data.
• Gene Taylor (MS-4)
• Mike Thompson (CA-1)
• Charlie Wilson (OH-6)

Fight the Good Fight!! (If you like what your Senators and Reps are doing, contact them too to tell them to to keep up the good work.)

• Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Nichols, a health-care economist with the New America Foundation, said he believed that Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Republicans' most influential voice on health care, was the "linchpin." If he supports the cooperatives as proposed by Obama and Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus - the Finance Committee chair, with whom Grassley has been working for a bipartisan bill - criticism from the far right will lose much of its power and a bipartisan bill will likely pass, Nichols said.
• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) In an effort to defuse the most explosive issue in the debate over comprehensive health care legislation, a top Senate Democrat has proposed that any new government-run insurance program comply with all the rules and standards that apply to private insurance.(May 2009)
  
• Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) an early supporter of health care, due to his own ailing health he hasn't been vocal in the debate.
  
• Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) Frank lashed out at protester who held a poster depicting President Barack Obama with a Hitler-style mustache during. "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked the woman, who had stepped up to the podium to ask why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy. Frequently, Frank was interrupted by boos. A man in the back kept calling the congressman a "liar". Frank responded by saying "Disruption never helps your cause. It just looks like you're afraid of rational discussion."
• Sen Arlen Specter (D-PA) Specter also told reporters that he still favored the so-called "public option" for a national health care system, despite reports that the Obama administration might be shifting its support to some kind of "co-op" plan. Under the public option, the federal government would act an insurer for many Americans. Under the cooperative alternative, the government would fund start-ups of new types of coverage that could eventually function independently.
• Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., accused Republican leaders of trying to hinder bipartisan progress to deny Obama a political victory.

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Wanna see a Town Hall for yourself? Here's the updated list of upcoming events -- pull out that oak tag and staple gun that puppy to a stake, then head out and shake it in front of a CNN camera please...

And TOMORROW, Thursday, at 2:30 EDT (11:30 PDT) Obama will be hosting an online forum on the Health Care Reform proposal. Details are here as to how to watch online, or you can Twitter questions to @BarackObama (tag with #hc09).

Special bonus for you Palin watchers out there. Ahh, the good old days of the campaign....

CONTINUE READING...

Financial Crisis Update

You thought I'd given up on the financial crisis, didn't you?

The Dow dropping AGAIN by the hundreds hardly even seems like new anymore. "It all took place one year to the day after the Dow closed at its record high of 14,164. Since that day, frozen credit, record foreclosures, cascading job losses and outright fear have seized the market and sapped 39 percent of its value.Paper losses for the year add up to an staggering $8.3 trillion, according to figures measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which tracks 5,000 U.S.-based companies representing almost all stocks traded in America."

A friend of mine confided that her husband finally bit the bullet and looked into their 401(k). They hadn't had a lot in the account-- just $7500, but it was down to around $3000.

Here we go, new ways to parse the phrase "Nationalizing banks": "The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in a number of U.S. banks as one option it might use to deal with a serious credit crisis, an administration official said Wednesday. This official, who spoke late Wednesday on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return....Asked about the British approach, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did not reject the idea but said he did not want to speculate on which of the new powers would be employed. 'We have a broad range of authorities and tools,' Paulson told reporters. 'We've emphasized the purchase of liquid assets, but we have a broad range of authorities. And I'm confident we have the authorities we need to work with going forward.'"

Bet that sent a cold chill through Cindy McCain's cold heart.

And after AIG execs took a relaxing spa trip to the St. Regis in Monarch Beach, The Fed decided to bestow another $38 billion on AIG beyond the $85 billion they already got. They were going to have another "va-cay" to celebrate in Moss Beach, but, decided against it. I guess the manicures are so recent that they're still holding anyway.

In a continuation of the crazy up-is-down month, Iceland is going down. But Spain is going up thanks to Banco Santander's shrewd banking regulations. There's that word again. "Regulations." "Analysts are praising the role that Spain's regulators have played. After a financial crisis in the 1970s and another in the 1990s, Spain's central bank encouraged lenders to build up reserves and warned them away from high-risk assets. Currently 70 percent of Banco Santander's loans are backed by its own customers' deposits, but Spanish banks are still feeling the squeeze, says Manuel Romera, a finance professor at Madrid's IE business school. 'It's not that Spanish banks are doing well; it's just things are worse for those American and European banks that are in trouble,' Romera says. 'The priority now is that customers continue having faith in the banking system.' In a videocast to a meeting of international bankers in London this summer, the 74-year-old chairman explained how Santander stayed out of the subprime mess.'If you don't fully understand an instrument, don't buy it,' Emilio Botin said. 'If you will not buy for yourself a specific product, don't try to sell it. If you don't know very well your customers, don't lend them any money. If you do all these three things, you will be a better banker, my son.'"

In the mean time, GM stock is down to $5.42, its lowest point since 1950, Christopher Hitchens (Hitchens of all folks!) dubs the US a "Banana Republic." And now, Minorities to blame for the financial crisis? "Let me get this straight. Investment banks and insurance companies run by centimillionaires blow up, and it's the fault of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and poor minorities?" Daniel Gross at Newsweek sets the record straight. Jeez, people.

By the way, if you;'d like to take another stab at understanding Credit Default Swaps, Paul Solman at the Lehrer Newshour has explanations -- along with cartoons for you. "As of last year, according to an industry group, there were not $62 million, not $62 billion, but $62 trillion worth of credit default swaps out there. That's more than four times as much as the GDP of the entire U.S. economy.But what are these things? In essence, they're just insurance contracts that pay off in the event of a disaster, a credit default..."

CONTINUE READING...

The Lesions of History

History, history! We fools, what do we know or care?

--William Carlos Williams

Sad News from CNN: Joe Biden's mother-in-law, Bonnie Jacobs, died on Sunday. Biden, who had been conferring with doctors as to her care shortly before the bailout vote last week, had already canceled his campaign appearances this weekend to be with her and his wife Jill. Indiana Senator Evan Bayh filled in for him on stops in Virginia.

In Newsweek, Joe Biden talks about that choked up moment during his debate with Sarah Palin: "in the moment, he 'could picture Beau in the bed' after the 1972 car accident that killed Biden's first wife, Neilia, and their baby girl and critically injured his young sons. Now Beau, the 39-year-old attorney general of Delaware, was off to war, a judge advocate general traveling to obscure regions of Iraq, where the road isn't exactly the safest place to be. The memory of being a single parent mixed with worries about Beau to create 'a lot of bundled emotions. It surprised me. I was hoping nobody noticed.' Only 70 million or so did."

The Lesions of History

You've probably already noticed this, but sometimes when I type too fast, odd things appear. At the moment, my "s" key only works if I SMACK it, which you would think wouldn't be a problem, given the way I've been madly pounding away at my keyboard on a violent tear about...well, just about everything. But as I become more and more upset in my ranting, my typing gets worse-- much worse. Occasionally though, I produce unintentionally humorous results. When I typed the headline above, I intended to say "The Lessons of History," but it came out as the "Lesions of History." I decided to leave it.

Okay, let's start with Palin. Her disturbingly blithesome reply during Thursday's debate, to the question, "Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that he and his army of Necromongers and Quasideads must hold sway over the Universe and all it contains?" has sufficiently moved the NY Times to write in an editorial Saturday, "It is hard to tell from Ms. Palin's remarks whether she understands how profoundly Dick Cheney has reshaped the vice presidency — as part of a larger drive to free the executive branch from all checks and balances. Nor did she seem to understand how much damage that has done to American democracy. Mr. Cheney has shown what can happen when a vice president — a position that is easy to lampoon and overlook — is given free rein by the president and does not care about trampling on the Constitution.Mr. Cheney has long taken the bizarre view that the lesson of Watergate was that Congress was too powerful and the president not powerful enough. He dedicated himself to expanding President Bush's authority and arrogating to himself executive, legislative and legal powers that are nowhere in the Constitution." (Thanks Helene, btw for that photo -- I love it!)

Thank God for people with memories longer than mine. In his NY Times blog, Paul Krugman takes us back to the Reagan quote that Palin invoked at the debate: "It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free." Krugman notes: "When did he say this? It was on a recording he made for Operation Coffeecup — a campaign organized by the American Medical Association to block the passage of Medicare. Doctors' wives were supposed to organize coffee klatches for patients, where they would play the Reagan recording, which declared that Medicare would lead us to totalitarianism."

On Meet the Press' roundtable this morning, Gwen Ifill had some observations about the debate (after watching a clip from SNL's sendup of the debate --more on that below). Ifill laughs about Palin's averred plan to ignore the moderator's questions, "She blew me off, I think is the technical term..." David Gregory notes that Palin "made a decision to be rhetorical and not substantive on the issues. Her primary job was to excite the conservative base. Joe Biden made a decision not to take her on." It's not on this particular clip, but during the same discussion, Peggy Noonan observed, "I think she showed that she is a woman of great and natural competence about the show-business of politics, if you will: the ability to look over the camera, to think that the camera is your friend, all of that stuff. But there are questions about other areas." The whole episode was pretty interesting, so if you have time, it's worth a watch.

Palin, Footloose and Fancy Free

So I ask you, if YOU were from Alaska would you find Palin's display embarrassing or what? "Sarah Palin may be making new friends as she campaigns the nation, but at home, she's making new enemies. She better get elected vice president. If she returns to Alaska as governor, the reception will be frosty -- and not because winter has arrived. In the last month, Palin has become something inconceivable during her first two years as the state's chief executive: A polarizing figure rapidly emptying the storehouse of good will she accumulated."

In an interview with Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron, Palin claimed that Couric's questions -- which produced a series of staggeringly embarrassing responses -- put her in a lose-lose position. "The Sarah Palin in those interviews was a little bit annoyed," she said. "It's like, man, no matter what you say, you are going to get clobbered. If you choose to answer a question, you are going to get clobbered on the answer. If you choose to try to pivot and go to another subject that you believe that Americans want to hear about, you get clobbered for that too."

Sarah was annoyed, huh? Wow, that's an interesting coincidence, because the Mary Ellen watching those interviews was a little bit apoplectic...

Back on the trail, Palin headed onto some dangerous ground by going back again to the nature of Obama's connection with the Vietnam War-era domestic terrorist William Ayers of the Weather Underground. Douglass Daniel at the AP notes that it may backfire on the McCain campaign. "By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is 'palling around with terrorists' and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign. And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret."

And the gaffes just keep coming. I think it's sorta just a habit for them now. "Palin regaled the cheering crowd with a story about how she was reading her Starbucks mocha cup yesterday, which featured a quotation from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 'Now she said it, I didn't,' Palin said of Albright. 'She said, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women."' The crowd roared its approval, but according to several sources, Albright actually said, 'there's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women.'" As usual, Palin gets the key point wrong. That's right, Sarah, let me help/support you...right to the exit.

Albright replies: "This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women."

I think I'll help/support Campbell Brown, who is fast becoming my favorite TV news anchor: "As journalists, and certainly for me over the last few years, we've gotten overly obsessed with parity, especially when we're covering politics," Ms. Brown said. "We kept making sure each candidate got equal time — to the point that it got ridiculous in a way. So when you have Candidate A saying the sky is blue, and Candidate B saying it's a cloudy day, I look outside and I see, well, it's a cloudy day," she said. "I should be able to tell my viewers, 'Candidate A is wrong, Candidate B is right.' And not have to say, 'Well, you decide.' Then it would be like I'm an idiot. And I'd be treating the audience like idiots."

Oh Campbell, treating us like we have brains and all, how dumb do you think we are?? Maybe the question is how dumb is the McCain campaign, which popped out with this little bizarre item last week:

(I'm not making this up, you know. Some days this stuff just writes itself...) "Sen. John McCain's senior foreign policy advisor cites a steamy romance 50 years ago with a Brazilian babe among the things that illustrate the candidate's decades-long interest in Latin America. Speaking at an Americas Conference panel discussion Friday on the next U.S. president's Latin American policy, McCain advisor Richard Fontaine started out by mentioning an old Brazilian flame of McCain's, who recently emerged in the press." From the photo she's holding, looks like Maria Gracinda used to be a ballet dancer--and you know about ballet dancers...

''Talking a little about his personal experience, he was famously born in Panama and has traveled all over the hemisphere for many years.'' Fontaine said. ``In fact, I saw, I guess it was last week, that his old girlfriend in Brazil has been found from his early days when he was in the Navy and was interviewed. She's a somewhat older woman now than she was then, but it sorta speaks to the long experience he has had in the region -- in the most positive terms.'' Asked afterward about whether he was suggesting that McCain's fling with a Latin hottie counted as Latin America foreign policy experience, Fontaine said: ''The only thing I was trying to convey was that his experience goes back a long way,'' Fontaine said. ``He was born in Panama, which illustrates a lifetime spent in Latin America. He has known a lot of people. The thing about the Brazilian girlfriend was in his first memoir, and it stuck in my brain. Look at the two candidates and contrast his extensive experience. That's the only point I was trying to make.''

Wow, I guess that means that guy who makes the Girls Gone Wild Ultimate Spring Break DVDs, Joe Francis has TON more experience in foreign policy. Maybe HE should be running for President. Oh, no wait, he's too busy doing his "community service." Ah the irony.

And, of course, "enquiring minds want to know"... when are Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston tying the ole' knot? Apparently, it's not in October, as much as Mommy and that funny Senator McWeird might want it to be...."The two have been considering getting married next summer, 'but that could change,' [Johnston's mother] said during a short interview outside her Wasilla home. The baby is due in late December.'


Sunday Morning Quarterbacking

A round up of some of the best commentary and humor from this weekend:

At the top of the list, as always, Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey should be Palin's biggest fan, seeing as how Fey can expect another Emmy for playing the Contestant #8 to such excruciating perfection. SNL has hit video gold with Palin:

LATIFAH AS IFILL: "Senator Palin. Address your position on global warming and whether you think it's man-made or not."

FEY AS PALIN: "Gwen, we don't know if this climate change hoozie-what's-it is man-made or if it's just a natural part of the 'End of Days.' But I'm not gonna talk about that I would like to talk about taxes, because with Barack Obama, you're gonna be paying higher taxes. But not with me and my fellow maverick. We are not afraid to get maverick-y in there and ruffle feathers and not got to allow that. And also, too, the great Ronald Reagan."

And tell me we're still playing the Drinking Game! Fey, as Palin, finishes up with: "I liked being here tonight answering these tough questions without the filter of the mainstream gotcha media with their 'follow-up questions,' 'fact-checking' or 'incessant need to figure out what your words mean and why ya put them in that order.' I'm happy to be speaking directly to the American people to let them know if you want an outsider who doesn't like politics as usual or pronouncin' the 'g' and the end of words she's sayin' I think you know who to vote for. Oh, and for those Joe Six-packs out there playing a drinking game at home -- Maverick."

• I love YouTube mashups. Sarah Palin meets Francis McDormand in Fargo. You betcha, yah. You think I have too much time on my hands?
• Letterman also gives us Palin...in her own words.
• Bill Maher notes that Pakistan's president Zardari got into hot water for gushing over Palin and hugging her, "The people in his home country of Pakistan, the Islamists, they issued a fatwa on him for being too flirty. And when Sarah today was told that Zardari had gotten a fatwa because of her, she said I know I felt it when he hugged me."
• Maureen Dowd at the NY Times has another go at translating Palin's mushy-mouthed Frontier Baroque back into English: "Sometimes, her sentences have a Yoda-like — 'When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not' — splendor. When she was asked by Couric if she'd ever negotiated with the Russians, the governor replied that when Putin 'rears his head' he is headed for Alaska. Then she uttered yet another sentence that defies diagramming: 'It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there'... She dangles gerunds, mangles prepositions, randomly exiles nouns and verbs and also — "also" is her favorite vamping word — uses verbs better left as nouns."
• And then there's Frank Rich, "After the debate, Republicans who had been bailing on Palin rushed back to the fold. They know her relentless ambition is the only hope for saving a ticket headed by a warrior who is out of juice and out of ideas. So what if she is preposterously unprepared to run the country in the midst of its greatest economic crisis in 70 years? She looks and sounds like a winner.You can understand why they believe that. She has more testosterone than anyone else at the top of her party."

It's true, Palin does have her appeal to the people that love her. This debate review, from Rich Lowry at the National Review, reminds me of that episode of the Partridge Family, the one with that gorgeous blonde girl who can't sing a note, but all the men in the room think she's fantastic. (The family has to stage an intervention, Keith finally hears her on tape and he realizes that when he isn't looking at her, she's a horrible singer. With Palin, it's the same effect you get when you read her transcript.)

"A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it."

I hope your girlfriend smacked you upside the head, Rich.

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Author, Author

So I've run into several people now who actually believe that Obama has never authored legislation in the three years he's been in the Senate. It was a crack made by Sarah Palin at the RNC back in early September, if you recall, so one might wonder why ANYone would believe something Sarah Palin said. John McCain should have CRINGED because Obama has co-sponsored legislation with him in the Senate. But the question of authoring legislation actually came up much earlier in the year, during the primaries, and oddly enough in an email forward supporting Obama and levelling an attack on Hillary Clinton's record. Nevertheless, more than one person now has said to me, "Oh, Obama's never written any legislation," and I feel it's up to us to get the truth out there circulating. Again.

While it's true that Obama has not been in Congress long enough to have a list of enacted legislation as long as McCain's or Biden's or Clinton's, he has an extraordinarily impressive and prolific track record. In just three years in the US Senate, Obama was the sole original sponsor of 129 bills and co-sponsored an additional 427.

Newsweek and FactCheck.org covered this issue fairly thoroughly back in February during the primaries, so I'm only including a shortlist of legislation Obama has authored--you can look up a complete list of co-sponsored bills at the Library of Congress. (For convenience, I'm also creating a wallet-sized version--feel free to print it out, fold it up and carry it with you.) Charles Peters in the Washington Post also examines how Obama developed bipartisan support at the state-level for a controversial law mandating videotaping for police interrogation.

A shortlist of 59 out of the 129 bills Obama has authored or sponsored:

1. S.114 : A bill to authorize resources for a grant program for local educational agencies to create innovation districts
2. S.115 : A bill to suspend royalty relief, to repeal certain provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal certain tax incentives for the oil and gas industry
3. S.116 : A bill to authorize resources to provide students with opportunities for summer learning through summer learning grants
4. S.117 : A bill to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, to improve benefits and services for members of the Armed Forces, veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, and other veterans, to require reports on the effects of the Global War on Terrorism, and for other purposes
5. S.133 : A bill to promote the national security and stability of the economy of the United States by reducing the dependence of the United States on oil through the use of alternative fuels and new technology, and for other purposes
6. S.433 : A bill to state United States policy for Iraq, and for other purposes
7. S.453 : A bill to prohibit deceptive practices in Federal electionsS.674 : A bill to require accountability and enhanced congressional oversight for personnel performing private security functions under Federal contracts, and for other purposes
8. S.692 : A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a Hospital Quality Report Card Initiative to report on health care quality in Veterans Affairs hospitals
9. S.713 : A bill to ensure dignity in care for members of the Armed Forces recovering from injuries
10. S.737 : A bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 in order to measure, compare, and improve the quality of voter access to polls and voter services in the administration of Federal elections in the States
11. S.767 : A bill to increase fuel economy standards for automobiles and for other purposes
12. S.768 : A bill to increase fuel economy standards for automobiles and for other purposes
13. S.795 : A bill to assist aliens who have been lawfully admitted in becoming citizens of the United States, and for other purposes
14. S.823 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to facilitating the development of microbicides for preventing transmission of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and for other purposes
15. S.906 : A bill to prohibit the sale, distribution, transfer, and export of elemental mercury, and for other purposes
16. S.976 : A bill to secure the promise of personalized medicine for all Americans by expanding and accelerating genomics research and initiatives to improve the accuracy of disease diagnosis, increase the safety of drugs, and identify novel treatments
17. S.1067 : A bill to require Federal agencies to support health impact assessments and take other actions to improve health and the environmental quality of communities, and for other purposes
18. S.1068 : A bill to promote healthy communities
19. S.1084 : A bill to provide housing assistance for very low-income veterans
20. S.1151 : A bill to provide incentives to the auto industry to accelerate efforts to develop more energy-efficient vehicles to lessen dependence on oil
21. S.1181 : A bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation
22. S.1222 : A bill to stop mortgage transactions which operate to promote fraud, risk, abuse, and under-development, and for other purposes
23. S.1271 : A bill to provide for a comprehensive national research effort on the physical and mental health and other readjustment needs of the members of the Armed Forces and veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and their families
24. S.1306 : A bill to direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to classify certain children's products containing lead to be banned hazardous substances
25. S.1324 : A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuel sold in the United States
26. S.1389 : A bill to authorize the National Science Foundation to establish a Climate Change Education Program
27. S.1430 : A bill to authorize State and local governments to direct divestiture from, and prevent investment in, companies with investments of $20,000,000 or more in Iran's energy sector, and for other purposes
28. S.1513 : A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize grant programs to enhance the access of low-income African-American students to higher education
29. S.1574 : A bill to establish Teaching Residency Programs for preparation and induction of teachers
30. S.1713 : A bill to provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Rosa Parks
31. S.1790 : A bill to make grants to carry out activities to prevent the incidence of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among teens in racial or ethnic minority or immigrant communities, and for other purposes
32. S.1811 : A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to assess and reduce the levels of lead found in child-occupied facilities in the United States, and for other purposes
33. S.1817 : A bill to ensure proper administration of the discharge of members of the Armed Forces for personality disorder, and for other purposes
34. S.1818 : A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to phase out the use of mercury in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda, and for other purposes
35. S.1824 : A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a Hospital Quality Report Card Initiative under the Medicare program to assess and report on health care quality in hospitals
36. S.1873 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to establish demonstration programs on regionalized systems for emergency care, to support emergency medicine research, and for other purposes
37. S.1885 : A bill to provide certain employment protections for family members who are caring for members of the Armed Forces recovering from illnesses and injuries incurred on active duty
38. S.1977 : A bill to provide for sustained United States leadership in a cooperative global effort to prevent nuclear terrorism, reduce global nuclear arsenals, stop the spread of nuclear weapons and related material and technology, and support the responsible and peaceful use of nuclear technology
39. S.1989 : A bill to provide a mechanism for the determination on the merits of the claims of claimants who met the class criteria in a civil action relating to racial discrimination by the Department of Agriculture but who were denied that determination
40. S.2030 : A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require reporting relating to bundled contributions made by persons other than registered lobbyists
41. S.2044 : A bill to provide procedures for the proper classification of employees and independent contractors, and for other purposes
42. S.2066 : A bill to establish nutrition and physical education standards for schools
43. S.2111 : A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and schools to increase implementation of early intervention services, particularly school-wide positive behavior supports
44. S.2132 : A bill to prohibit the introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of children's products that contain lead, and for other purposes
45. S.2147 : A bill to require accountability for contractors and contract personnel under Federal contracts, and for other purposes
46. S.2202 : A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to increase the renewable content of gasoline, and for other purposes
47. S.2224 : A bill to require a licensee to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the State and county in which a facility is located, whenever there is an unplanned release of radioactive substances
48. S.2227 : A bill to provide grants to States to ensure that all students in the middle grades are taught an academically rigorous curriculum with effective supports so that students complete the middle grades prepared for success in high school and postsecondary endeavors, to improve State and district policies and programs relating to the academic achievement of students in the middle grades, to develop and implement effective middle school models for struggling students, and for other purposes
49. S.2330 : A bill to authorize a pilot program within the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development with the goal of preventing at-risk veterans and veteran families from falling into homelessness, and for other purposes
50. S.2347 : A bill to restore and protect access to discount drug prices for university-based and safety-net clinics
    
51. S.2392 : A bill to direct the Secretary of Education to establish and maintain a public website through which individuals may find a complete database of available scholarships, fellowships, and other programs of financial assistance in the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
    
52. S.2428 : A bill to direct the Secretary of Education to establish and maintain a public website through which individuals may find a complete database of available scholarships, fellowships, and other programs of financial assistance in the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
    
53. S.2433 : A bill to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day
    
54. S.2519 : A bill to prohibit the awarding of a contract or grant in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold unless the prospective contractor or grantee certifies in writing to the agency awarding the contract or grant that the contractor or grantee has no seriously delinquent tax debts, and for other purposes
    
55. S.3047 : A bill to provide for the coordination of the Nation's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education initiatives
    
56. S.3077 : A bill to strengthen transparency and accountability in Federal spending
    
57. S.3142 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to enhance public health activities related to stillbirth and sudden unexpected infant death
    
58. S.3358 : A bill to provide for enhanced food-borne illness surveillance and food safety capacity
    
59. S.3506 : A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the credit for purchase of vehicles fueled by natural gas or liquefied natural gas and to amend the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to reauthorize the Clean School Bus Program of the Environmental Protection Agency
    

In addition, Obama has also cosponsored:

Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (which became law), Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act (which became law) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (passed the Senate) 2007 Government Ethics Bill (which became law) and the Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill (In committee).

In 2005, he co-sponsored the "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" (which John McCain should recognize, because he introduced it!) He later added three amendments to the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act", which passed the Senate in May 2006, "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in September 2007. Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act", Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill, Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

By the way, if you're looking for more info on any bill in Congress past or present, the Thomas.loc.gov site is a terrific resource, but you can also use OpenCongress to actually track bills with RSS feeds. You can even tag them with your vote to remind yourself that your opinion is part of this too.

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Buh-Bye

I love stuff like this: the NY Times points out the obvious, that Obama is gaining ground and playing a better game than McCain. "By using his fund-raising advantage to compete in so many places, Mr. Obama has forced Mr. McCain to spend money to hold on in what had been viewed as safe Republican states, like Indiana and Missouri, while limiting Mr. McCain's ability to play offense on Democratic turf." Republican candidates all over the country are worried for their own campaigns. WaPo points out that "Republicans are trying to defend at least 18 House seats in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, economic trouble spots that double as election battlegrounds. Rising unemployment, the meltdown in the housing market, and a credit crunch besieging consumers and manufacturers alike were factors in Sen. John McCain's decision Thursday to pull campaign resources out of Michigan. The McCain campaign's exit from the state leaves a pair of vulnerable Republicans, Reps. Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg, with a weakened party infrastructure heading into Nov. 4."

Over at HuffPo, some voters are feeling a little more than just pleased. "Maybe in the last Presidential election there were voters who were swayed by the fact that they liked George Bush -- by the fact that they wanted to have a beer with him. But not in this election. This time around, just liking someone is not gonna be enough. At least not in Michigan."

In Florida-- where Obama has actually been LEADING 3 to 8 points in the latet polls-- the economic crisis has certianly helped focus the race, but the NYTimes sounds a few warnings about a repeat of the 2000 election shenanigans, "Add to the mix a new voting system that lost 3,000 votes in a local election this summer, rumors that new laws to prevent voter fraud will lead to long lines or legal battles... and the Sunshine State starts to look cloudy."

Even KARL ROVE gave Obama 273 electoral votes on his website. I think I'm going to throw up..with joy.

With all the good news for Obama, it's utterly unsurprising to learn that McCain's camp plans a new series of unimaginative attacks, as I mentioned above, that will try to revive the Obama connection to William Ayers of the Weathermen. Over the weekend, Palin referred to a NY Times article on the topic by saying Obama "was palling around with terrorists" although she didn't mention Ayers by name. (Hey, Sarah! Enough is enough with your ticket, on constantly looking backwards.)

Unlike John Kerry, who seemed blindsided by the SwiftBoating in 2004, the Obama campaign looks alert and is pre-emptively striking with a new ad, "Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject."

For god's sake, John McCain, you used to deplore the culture wars--isn't this election more important than this? Our economy and the world of finance is in a shambles, and a recent survey by The Economist found that out of 142 economists, a substantial majority believe Obama has the better economic plan and 80% felt that he has a better grasp of economics. We have a war on terror being fought in the wrong countries. The climate is changing and we've got torrential storms and snow in October in Europe. The world is falling apart and this is what you want to talk about???

Frankly I'm feeling a little bipolar with all the alternating euphoria and then worrying over polling that I've been doing lately. I'm finding large amounts of my own hair in the shower drain. Judith Warner captures a particular feeling that I've been trying to identify during this whole financial blowup in her editorial "Waiting for Schadenfreude" (there's that word again...). The current financial crisis has, I think, proven to be a similar sort of emotional Rorschach test. People who felt impotent feel even more powerless. Those who felt lied to see new levels of conspiracy. Demagogues are engaging in even more demagoguery. And those of us who felt, well, like losers, are feeling like even bigger losers, as we shove our unopened 401K or (if we're double-loser freelancers) SEP-IRA statements into bottom desk drawers and wait for a cathartic burst of schadenfreude that simply refuses to come."

Helpful tip: When you're feeling desperate, look at the map at ElectoralVote.com. And there's always donation therapy-- when you hear some infuriatingly untrue remark about Obama's personal, legislative or policy history, send $5 to his campaign.

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FYI, TUESDAY October 7, 2008 is the next Presidential Debate, at Belmont University's Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Tom Brokaw, special correspondent for NBC News. This debate will have a town-hall meeting format.

Only 30 days to the election, folks! Reminder again that time is running out--for many states, you must register to vote well in advance of the elections. RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. Here are some upcoming dates--forward this on to your friends in the appropriate states (swing states in bold):

• Monday, Oct 6: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
• Tuesday, Oct 7: Illinois, New Mexico
• Wednesday, Oct 8: Missouri
• Friday, Oct 10: New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma
  
• Saturday, Oct 11: Delaware
  
• Tuesday, Oct 14: Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon
  
• Wednesday, Oct 15: Massachusetts, West Virginia, Wisconsin
  

If you're voting absentee, you may have to get your ballot in weeks before the Nov 4th Election date. Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot. Ohio, your absentee ballot program is now open for business.

CONTINUE READING...

Palindrome

Betcha thought we'd never get here.... Yes, it's Thursday, and I am offering a Very Special Sarah Palin Salute to Schadenfreude.

But First, the News...
I have to crow. ElectoralVote.com this morning has Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia in Obama' corner, PLUS Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico! AND McCain is losing ground in Indiana and Missouri! Even Georgia, Mississippi and TEXAS? Oh, baby...

Over at Real Clear Politics, the more conservative estimator, the news is even BETTER: If you go to the scenario with no toss-up states, they give 353 electoral votes to Obama.

The Princeton Election Consortium show Obama with a "safe" 273 electoral vote today, and Obama is retaining his 6-point lead at Gallup Daily tracking is holding.

I'm barely breathing.... I do hasten to remind everyone that Obama's been at this level before, over the summer. And we've seen this kind of lead take a dip. However, we are only 33 days out from the election, AND in sme states millions of people have been voting already by absentee ballot -- to avoid the problem of impossible lines at the polls on election day. Most people assumed this would be an advantage to McCain, but I'm not so sure...

Sittin' Here on Capitol Hill

Well, the Senate passed it. The bill -- the BILL. And they passed it with such little drama that you wondered if everyone. Here's the Roll Call. [Dusts off hands] Done. What? That's it. Just vote, pass, done? Where's my haranguing? My filibustering? I want my high-drama reality show! House Republicans? Over to you.

France figures, if American's are going to try it, maybe the Europeans might buy it too... "France heaped pressure on Gordon Brown last night by floating an ambitious plan for a 300 billion Euro (£237 billion) bailout fund to rescue crippled banks across Europe. As the world held its breath on the fate of America's $700 billion bank bailout plan, President Sarkozy was seeking the backing of European leaders for his own lifeboat...Amid the confusion and bickering between governments, France denied at first that it had put forward a proposal for a fund at all and then, after admitting that it had done so, denied that it would cost ¤300 billion. Paris said that the figure had come from the Dutch Government. Officials in The Hague said that they had no idea what the French were talking about."

Debatable, Part Deux

So McCain's new strategy is to discredit Gwen Ifill -- really? Gwen Ifill??? "On the eve of Thursday's vice-presidential debate in St. Louis, the McCain campaign is voicing confidence in moderator Gwen Ifill's professionalism while simultaneously sowing doubts about her ability to be fair after learning that she is working on a book about a new generation of black leaders called, 'Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.'" For her part Ifill responds somewhat slyly--maybe it's the painkillers for her broken ankle talking. "Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama. 'Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?' said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, 'I don't know what it is. I find it curious.'"

================================

The Long and Winding Road....

You know, I'm quite amazed when I think that a month ago we barely knew Sarah Palin. Now we know more than we could ever possibly want to know about Sarah Palin. Think of all those brain cells we've had to waste on her. I know I know, she shouldn't be the focus in this very important election, she should be beneath focus, but obsessing over her is like a good, juicy trash-novel-- I know I shouldn't waste the time, but it's a nasty, delicious indulgence. Talking Points Memo did a nice 5 minutes "Greatest Hits" video which is disturbing and I think has damaged my eyeballs.

I thought on this day, of all days, it might be fun to recall how much we've learned about Sarah Palin. A little trip down Memory Lane.

July, 31 2008: The Prologue

• "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" says Gov. Sarah Palin, in an interview with CNBC's "Kudlow & Co."
• Draft Sarah Palin for VP. No...really, John, this person ISN'T your Vetting Team.
• "When they were vetting her for this job, like three seconds ago, she said, quote, I'm not making this up, 'What is it exactly that the VP does every day?' Let me field that for you, Sarah. They start wars, they enrich their friends, they subvert the Constitution, and they shoot people in the face. That's what the vice president does." –Bill Maher

August 29: Who?

• 

  Ken Layne--who coined Sarah Palin's moniker "America's Hottest Governor"--asks why McCain has "dragged this nice lady he doesn't even know into his doomed campaign...Already the TV commentators and op-ed writers are calling her a dimwit, an amateur, a hapless tool. McCain is such a cruel creep that he's making Sarah Palin debate Joe Biden." (Political Machine)
• McCain calls Palin "partner & soulmate":
  ME: Is anyone else creeped out? Some guy you met once at a convention gets your number and six months later calls you up and says you're his "partner and soulmate." (Politico)
• Never mind Sarah Palin, Erik Ose asks ,"Is John McCain mentally fit to be president?" (HuffPo)
• Snap! Folks in Alaska aren't sure is Palin is ready for the national ticket. Even Palin's mother-in-law still hasn't decided which way she'll vote: "I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative." (NY Daily News)
• Little Known Facts about Sarah Palin There's so little out there about her, that helpful, civic-minded Netizens are filling in the gaps for her. (Did you know it was actually Sarah Palin's voice singing "Ode to the Motherland" at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing?) (Wonkette)
• Sarah Palin's newborn son Young Trigg scrubs her Wikipedia entry. Isn't that just the cutest? (Wiki)
• The first-term Alaska governor told reporters she was having fun in her new role. "It's great to see another part of the country," she said. (USA Today)
• Maureen Dowd is in "sheer heaven." (NYTimes)
• Robert Elisberg lays out why Palin is a horrible choice. (Huffpo)
• And so does Jonathan Alterman: "She is a far-right conservative who supported Pat Buchanan over George W. Bush in 2000. She thinks global warming is a hoax and backs the teaching of creationism in public schools. Women are not likely to be impressed by her opposition to abortion even in the case of rape and incest." (Newsweek)
• Visit Wasilla, Alaska and see the town where Palin got her vast experience in governance.
• Ted Stevens endorses Palin: "Whoops, gotta get that off the campaign site!" (Youtube)
• Did ANYone vet this woman? (NYTimes)
• Humorous take on a Theory of Proximity/Absorption Intelligence Design, i.e., Sarah Palin governs Alaska which is close to Russia, therefore she has foreign policy experience. I recently ate Chinese food, which makes me an expert in US-China relations. Try it at home, kids! (Daily Kos)
• "Alaska Gov. Sarah Pallin is John McCain's choice. Here's what we know about her: her name is Sarah Palin." --Jay Leno

Sept 1: Getting to know her... getting to know all about her...

• On Friday we said, "Who the heck is Sarah Palin?"
  On Monday we said, "Dang. I know WAY too much about Sarah Palin now."
  On Tuesday, it's: "Okay, I know all I need to know about Sarah Palin..."
  • Palin fired Wasilla Police Chief and Library Director for not supporting her campaign. (Anchorage Daily)
  • Palin under investigation for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan when he refused to dump her sister-in-law's ex-husband. (KTUU)
  • Palin directed a 527 for indicted Alaskan senator Ted Stevens. (Wash. Post)
  • Palin plays no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations. (HuffPo)
  • More on Palin's "command" experience??? Bonus: Campbell Brown goes after a McCainite on air like an attack dog. (CNN)
  • Maybe they mean "Commanding Alaska's secession from the union." (Daily Kos)
  • Palin got her first passport in 2007. (NYT)
  • Palin initially supported the Bridge to Nowhere. (Sydney Herald)
  • McCain advance team never even checked the Wasilla town newspaper archives for any possible problems during the "thorough vetting process." (HuffPo)
• Early Gaffe Alert: Palin also confused on the Pledge of Allegiance: "If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me," she says of the Pledge, written in 1892. (Daily Kos)
• YouTube daggers:
  • A HILARIOUS Sarah Palin vlog. (YouTube)
  • Vlog Part 2: On qualifications (YouTube)
  • Vlog Part 3: On cats (YouTube)
  • Vlog Part 4: Reveals a terrible secret (YouTube)How McCain popped the question (YouTube)
• What do mothers think about the Palin pick? (IHT)
• "Dick Cheney told reporters this week there's no reason why Sarah Palin cannot be a successful vice president in the McCain administration. In fact, not only can she shoot a lawyer in the face, she can field dress him." -Jay Leno

Sept. 2: Family (De-)Values

• Why is there disbelief and speculation about Trig Palin's parentage? Palin's own account of the birth: she says she sensed her water broke while she was in Texas the morning before an important speech. Although she was aware the baby had Down Syndrome and she was then only eight months pregnant, she gave her speech and then made a 12 hour trip from Houston, Texas to Wasilla, Alaska. With two flight connections. I suppose that's to show us how tough she is? Humorous Palin decision map.
• Palin, seven months pregnant, in the photo at right... You tell me. (And no, I will not let this go.)
• 
• Sarah Palin announces that her 17-year old unmarried daughter is pregnant. "Bristol Palin is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. (UK Independent) 'Cause,see, that PROVES that Trig couldn't be Bristol's baby...
  
• THIS is 7 months pregnant. To the right, Demi Moore --seven months pregnant-- in a Vanity Fair cover shot by Annie Lebovitz. (No, I will not let this go! )
• McCain's aide says statement should refute internet speculation that four-month old baby Trig is actually Bristol Palin's child. (Daily Kos) Update: The Kos link has been scrubbed and is no more. Read Gawker for more.
• Levi Johnston, aka Bristol Palin's fiance, to appear at GOP convention.
• "Speaking of Sarah Palin, she said she's a life-long member of the National Rifle Association. Which may explain why she's in favor of shotgun weddings." --Conan O'Brien

Sept 3: Conventional

• Republican National Convention, America's Favorite Small Town Barracuda, Sarah Palin, who's such a maverick and a reformer that she's reading a speech written by Matthew Scully, former speechwriter for George W. Bush: "I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone... Here's a little newsflash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion." (NYT/MSN)
• HuffPo says: "Here's a little newsflash for Sarah Palin, to paraphrase her speech: The media isn't writing about you to seek your good opinion — they're writing about you to serve the people of this country." (HuffPo) See Liberal Media above.
• How Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and Republican Wall Street Journal columnist Mike Murphy really talk when they think no one's looking: "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives. Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and that's not what they're good at, they blow it." (HuffPo) The morning after, Noonan evaluates.(WSJ)
• "Earlier tonight, I don't know if you saw it, Sarah Palin gave a tremendous speech to the Republicans, though some are claiming it was actually her daughter's speech." --David Letterman

Sept 8: Gaffe-talk Express takes off

• According to the Washington Post, Palin has billed taxpayers $16,951 as a "per diem" for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging for the allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. (WaPo)
• Palin was apparently unaware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were privately run companies. "Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had 'gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.'"
• "For some reason, the Secret Service revealed that Sarah Palin's Secret Service code name is 'Denali.' Turns out 'Denali' is an old Eskimo name that means Dan Quayle." Jay Leno

Sept 9: Have you seen the little piggies...?

• 

  It seems after Obama made a remark about McCain's "change" slogan being like "putting lipstick on a pig," McCain's camp immediately presumed he was referring to Sarah Palin, since she's the only one on a major party ticket who wears lipstick (Are you quite certain about that?) and they got their knickers in a twist (whoops--is that going to offend John, who is obviously the only one who would wear "knickers"?). (ABC)
• Barack was just quoting Johnny Mac himself, who said the exact same thing about Hillary's healthcare plan. (YouTube)
• Barack fires back about the Piggy Lipstick nonsense. "See it would be funny, it would be funny except, of course the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday. The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future." Watch the video on MSN.
• "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull?
  A pitbull would make a better vice president." -Mike Ball

Sept 12: Media Access

• And speaking of the Palinista--SHE SPEAKS! Palin finally answers questions from what McCain was really, really, really hoping would be a sympathetic and softball Charlie Gibson on ABC. I know, Most of you don't even want to watch-- you can read the excerpts.
• Was Charlie tough enough? Ehn, coulda been more. Did Sarah stumble? She made Charlie a little testy, it's true, but she also had her lines pretty well memorized. Still there were some obvious bumps in the road. She kinda declared war on Russia (calling the Georgian invasion unprovoked--um, those Georgians are nice and all, but....even I wouldn't say "unprovoked"), couldn't figure out what Bush's doctrine was, and yes, she STILL says "nukular."
• Gloria Steinem compares the Palinista to Phyllis Schlafly. But she also reminds us "the culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine." (LAT)
• If you watched TV last night, you know that Charlie Gibson did something John McCain has never done: interviewed Sarah Palin. --Jay Leno
  

Sept 13: TIna Fey Leads the Multimedia Goldrush

• Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL. Frightening it is, how much Palin looks like Fey, and how Fey has got those Palinisms pretty much nailed. (Wired)
• Tina Fey strikes again with another pitch perfect "Sarah Palin" in an interview with Katie Couric. The wacky thing is that she's not really parodying Sarah Palin, she's just quoting her.
• Is this ad from the Defenders of Wildlife, helping shift voter perception on Sarah Palin? Maybe according to Media Curves. On a personal note, I find the ad horribly hard to watch, mainly because I can't bear to watch the wolves being shot, but if the polling is to be believed, I'm not the only one.
• Even Alaskan Malamutes think Sarah Palin is insane. (I'd be careful Baron-- you look a bit like a wolf...keep your eyes on the sky for aerial hunters... After she gets crazy African healer Pastor Muthee to dispell your doggy demonic spells of course.)
• "I see they're selling Sarah Palin action figures. Sad incident at Toys R Us today -- a Sarah Palin doll shot My Little Pony." -Jimmy Kimmel

Sept 17: An EXPERT on Energy Policy

• Heard at a town hall meeting, Grand Rapids, MI--from Sarah Palin's lips:"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."
  

Sept 20: Speed Dating Diplomacy and Delusions/Illusions of Grandeur

• Maureen Dowd refers to Palin's recent rush through Top World Leaders plus a bonus Henry Kissinger Round as "speed dating diplomacy."
• Sarah Palin, suffering delusions of grandeur, calls it the "Palin-McCain" administration. Ummm, note to Sarah, you're not at the top of the ticket! (YouTube)
• Is the Palin nomination is actually helping turn swing voters in Florida towards Obama. (St. Pete Times)
• Palin is rapidly losing political support in her homestate of Alaska. (LAT)
• "They asked her if she would be able to explain how she once lobbied Washington for earmarks, and she said, 'W'll cross that bridge to nowhere when we come to it'" -Jay Leno

Sept 23: Free Sarah Palin!

• Relations with the press have totally deteriorated for the erstwhile "Straight Talk Express," McCain's folks decided today that they wanted the world to see photos of Palin looking presidential-like while meeting with world leaders at the UN, but they didn't want any pesky reporter-types actually asking her questions or going editorial about her meetings. So they banned the editorial pool reporters from covering the event, and planned to allow only a cameraperson.The Media, who've been kept on a short leash around Palin, finally rebelled. CNN (who had the designated pool cameraperson) threatened to pull their crew entirely before McCain's campaign relented. (NYT/HuffPo)
• Palin worked her way up to answering FOUR whole questions from the press.
• Campbell Brown goes OFF on the McCain camp's sexism in shielding Sarah Palin from the Big Bad Media: "Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment...you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now."
• Even Fox News reporters are starting to get testy about the Palin Media Shutout.
• Though we saw an awful lot of Joe Biden after the debate, commenting on how Barack Obama did, where was Governor Palin weighing in with her commentary on her running mate's performance ?
• The National Review's blog "The Stump" quotes Wolf Blitzer on CNN: "We've been getting some emails from viewers out there wondering why we spent some time interviewing Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee and not Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. We would have loved to interview--we'd still love to interview Sarah Palin. Unfortunately we asked, we didn't get that interview...We're hoping that Sarah Palin will join us at some point down the road."
• Why does Sarah Palin wear skirts whenever she's campaigning? Because all her pants are on fire.

Sept 24: Mean Girl

• 

  And not that we didn't know this about Sarah Palin, but David Talbot at Salon recounts how Palin's mayoral election in Wasilla took on tones of nastiness that echo the current campaign. "According to some political observers in Alaska, this pattern -- exploiting 'old-boy' mentors and then turning against them for her own advantage -- defines Sarah Palin's rise to power. Again and again, Palin has charmed powerful political patrons, and then rejected them when it suited her purposes."
• Oh, and in case you're not outraged enough about Palin's utter insensitivity as a human being, note that while Palin was mayor in Wasilla, the town began charging rape victims for the costs of their own rape kits.
• Sarah Palin Troopergate Update: The Plank pointed out that even the AP newswire is getting snarky, putting out this lead in a story covering the investigation: "Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire."
• The National Enquirer, which we never believed, until they nailed the John Edwards story, releases the next "-gate" on Governor Family-Values: an affair with her husband's business partner.
  
• Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic sticks to his guns on the Twelve Lies of Sarah Palin. "Just for the record, I asked an intern to go back and double fact-check the twelve documented lies that Sarah Palin has told on the public record. These are not hyperbolic claims or rhetorical excess. They are assertions of fact that are demonstrably untrue and remain uncorrected."
• Craig Ferguson pointed out that it is very strange that Sarah Palin had a tanning bed installed in the governor's mansion, because the Republican Party is usually focused on making their candidate as white as possible.

Sept 25: Ow. Hurts Brain.

• The BIG interview, with Katie Couric of CBS playing "Stump the Candidate." Particularly delicious is the moment when Couric asks Palin to cite "specific examples in [McCain's] 26 years [in the Senate] of pushing for more regulation."
• More of Katie interviewing Sarah Palin: COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that? PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters-- COURIC: Mock? PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah. (HuffPo)
• Here's the special irony: Alaska's governors DO often enjoy more contact with Russian officials because Anchorage is the base for the Northern Forum, an organization representing leaders and sub-leadership from countries around the Arctic Circle including Russia, Finland, Iceland and Canada, Japan, China and South Korea. The Seattle Times reports: "Yet under Palin, the state government — without consultation — reduced its annual financial support to the Northern Forum to $15,000 from $75,000, according to Priscilla Wohl, the group's executive director. That forced the forum's Anchorage office to go without pay for two months. Palin — unlike the previous administrations of Gov. Frank Murkowski and Gov. Tony Knowles — also stopped sending representatives to Northern Forum's annual meetings, including one last year for regional governors held in the heart of Russia's oil territory." Great. Twenty years of glasnost down the drain. Plus, she doesn't even have the brains to mention that this organization exists when the Russia question comes up.
• The LA Times reports: "Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said." That's TOTALLY true. I saw it on TV once.
• Sarah Palin, going for the all-important Sleestack vote. It's paying off: McCain is now polling at 52% among Sleestacks likely to vote.
• Is Sarah Palin qualified?" poll on PBS NOW's website. I sent it out, and many of you have sent it to me. Well, the poll, which only ran a week in early September on PBS' homepage, became the single most viewed page on their entire site, even though nothing links to it now that the homepage link is gone. But it's remained so popular via email that PBS was moved to post this notice. As many people noticed, voting "da Chicago way" seemed to be entirely possible, and apparently was until yesterday, when they embedded cookies so you can only vote once per computer.
• "Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has many views. She says she's opposed to same-sex marriage. Did you know that? Yeah, Palin says everyone knows marriage isn't for gay people; it's for pregnant teenagers." --Conan O'Brien
  

Sept. 26: Out of the Tank for Palin.

• 

  Even the National Review's Kathleen Parker, once "in the tank" for Sarah Palin, now says, "As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion."
• Over on Leno, Wanda Sykes goes OFF on Sarah Palin. "They say, 'Oh, she's meeting with the world leaders.' But there's no reporters. I'm like, is she meeting with the world leaders, or did you take her to the Epcot Center? Let her drink around the world? You know, because I've done that. Maybe I should be Secretary of State..."
• "Well, it's a very strange political campaign. I mean, out on the campaign trail, John McCain and Sarah Palin are talking about how they stood up to the Republican party, they fought the Republican establishment, and they battled Republicans. Their message: vote Republican." --Jay Leno
  

Sept 28: Point/Counterpoint

• Whoopsie. McCain appeared on George Stephanopoulos' show on Sunday on ABC, and um... had to retract the statement his esteemed running mate made the night before: "Saturday night, while on a stop for cheesesteaks in South Philadelphia, Palin was questioned by a Temple graduate student about whether the U.S. should cross the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan. 'If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,' Palin said."
• Hmmm, that sounds familiar... wait, what was it Barack Obama said during Friday night's debate? "If the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out."
• At that point, McCain, you might remember, said testily, "Now, you don't do that. You don't say that out loud. If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government."
• McCain, gently corrected Palin's statements: "She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest," McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos of Palin. "In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's—that's a person's position… This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin."
• Palin is still PERKY [read, "adorably catty"] saying of Thursday's debate with Biden. "I'm looking forward to meeting him, too. I've never met him before, but I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, second grade.''
• Joining in on the growing chorus of aghast conservatives, Ron Dreher, the Crunchy Conservative, says, "Palin is mediocre, again, regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. Palin's just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero"
• "Palin and McCain are a good pair. She's pro-life and he's clinging to life." - Jay Leno

Sept 29: Pre-Debate

• McCain and Palin, together again, fighting Gotcha Journalism
  
• Palin is safely tucked away prepping for debate someplace in one of the McCains' three or four homes in Sedona, AZ out of the ten McCain homes
• In the Wall Street Journal they report that "the McCain campaign aims to halt what it sees as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls." "'It's time to let Palin be Palin -- and let it all hang out,' said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist."
• McCain' spokeswoman saying essentially that if Gwen Ifill comes up with questions that are 60% foreign policy and 40% economy that it's unfair to Palin.
• Mitt Romney joins in with a backhanded defense: "Look she wasn't selected by John McCain because she's an expert on foreign policy." [Yeah. We got that.] "John McCain's the expert on foreign policy..." [Um...he is? John, can you say "Ahmadinejad" one more time?]
• And for flat out sputtering outrage, watch Cenk Uygar go off on Palin's answer to Katie Couric regarding Hamas. Cenk--who's admittedly on the biased side, like me--is convinced Palin has NO IDEA who the Hamas is, and dontcha know, I'm inclined to agree. He also suggests that if you put a map in front of her, she couldn't tell you where the Gaza Strip is. Entirely possible. Cenk wishes selecting a VP candidate were more like gymnastics where you get a big ZERO score if you flub your vault. Don't we wish.
• Still, Andrew Halcro, who debated Palin in the governorship race in Alaska, warns ,"she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality."
• Governor Sarah Palin began preparing Saturday for Thursday's vice presidential debate against Senator Joe Biden at Washington University in St. Louis. She has no intention of coming in second. This time she's going to wear a two-piece swimsuit.

Sept 30: She's An [Nearly Illiterate, Below-Average] American Girl (but she plays flute)

• As part of their "media blitz" this week, Palin went on the radio telling America about how she's just average working class..."Todd and I, heck, we're going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don't like the idea of just an everyday working class American running for such an office.
  
• As HuffPo notes, it was the bastion of conservativism, The Washington Times, that pointed out that Palin is hardly working class: "A check of financial records, though, shows the Palins live anything but a common life when compared with their fellow residents of their hometown of Wasilla. Their combined income of nearly a quarter-million dollars last year was five times the median household income for Wasilla's 7,000 residents. They own a single-engine plane, two boats, two personal watercraft and a half-million-dollar, custom-built home on a lake that is worth three times the average of other homes in town. For the future, they also have a 401(k) retirement account compliments of Todd Palin's years as an engineer with oil giant BP." Hmmm, that wasn't what I meant by "above average."
• ANYway. Yes, it's true, just by reading my daily rant, YOU can become More Qualified to Be Vice President than Sarah Palin. From HuffPo: "Asked what newspapers and magazines she reads, Palin - a journalism major in college - could not name one publication. "I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media," she said at first. Couric responded, "What, specifically?" "Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years." "Can you name a few?" "I have a vast variety of source where we get our news," Palin said. "Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, 'wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America." Vast variety,eh? No, honey, _I_ have a vast variety of sources. You have People Magazine.

• But with all the trash-talking about elitist media, Palin had a little problem embedded in that question (besides the obvious problem of being completely incurious about anything):
  

• She can't say she reads NY Times after Steve Schmidt blasted it as having no "journalistic integrity."
• She can't say she read the Washington Post, because Howard Kurtz has been dogging her for weeks.
• The LA Times reports how even Alaskans are angry that the McCain campaign was shielding Palin.
• Time? Nope, home of the conservative libertarian Mark Halperin who called for them to "Stop the Madness!" and said on CNN, "if a core part of their message is something that every journalist -- journalism organization in the country has looked at and says it's demonstrably false, again, we're not doing our jobs if we just treat this as one of many things that's happening."
• Newsweek has the Jonathan Alterman problem.
  
• Forget the Atlantic, home of Andrew Sullivan, who once supported McCain but now enumerates the Twelve Lies of Sarah Palin.
  
• And even the National Freaking Review's Kathleen Parker says, "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."
  

• See, the problem with being your kind of maverick is that you don't have any friends now--no lifelines, no one to help you, no one whose name you'd be allowed to mention. Hoisted with your own petard.
• But Sarah IS musical...ish. Musical-ish. Ah, that beauty pageant footage... I know there's more out there, people, cough it up... "Ladies and Gentlemen, Contestant Number 8, Sarah Heath."
  

Oct 2: Gotcha.

• 
• Katie Couric again, this time with a simple question "Other Supreme Court Decisions you disagree with?"Joe Biden can answer the question. Palin...can't come up with one specific "in the great history of this country."
• Fred Thompson on CBS' Early Show says Sarah Palin couldn't name a Supreme Court case that she disagreed with because she had yet to be given a "list of cases to see." Oh, why don't you just go field-dress your head, Fred.
• And McCain's spokeswoman Nico Wallace whinges about how she's "shocked personally at how brutal many of the women in the media have been." Hey, baby-doll, what did you think this was? A beauty pageant??
  
• By the way, about "seeing" Russia from Alaska. That's true, but there's only one place in Alaska that you can do that from: Little Diomede island in the Bering Strait. Gary Tuchman on Anderson Cooper 360 visited it --which Palin has never done. "No American mayor resides in a city closer to Russia than Andrew Milligrock, and he says being two miles from Russia doesn't give him any foreign policy expertise."

Post Turtle

• While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.
  
  The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.
  
  The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.'
  
  The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain.
  
  'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'

====================================

Memories...hurt the corners of my mind...

Beyond the Palin

ABC's recent poll indicated that 60% of Americans think Palin does not have the experience needed for the job. 46% think she "understands complex issues," while 49 percent think she doesn't. Who--WHO are you, you 46% who thinks she understands complex issues???? Even in her home state, America's most popular governor is slipping, as everyone begins to figure out that she's ignorant AND obnoxious. "McClatchy reports today that her approval rating in her home state has tumbled to 68% -- still high but surely not the country's best. The poll by a local firm that works for both parties was taken Sept. 20-22."

One more time before we go... I just LOVE looking at that electoral map.

It occurs to me again, and with greater force how well Obama has picked his team and how poorly McCain has chosen his. In the last four weeks, Obama has sent his wife Michelle Obama to Allentown, PA with Jill Biden, to Saginaw and Clinton townships in Michigan, to Greensboro, NC. And of course, while he and Joe Biden have been campaigning together in Virginia, he's also sent Joe out to major swing states by himself -- because he can. I haven't seen Sarah Palin (forget Todd) or Cindy McCain out there in Wisconsin stumping for John--I don't think the campaign could possibly trust any of them out by themselves.

So actually, it's no surprise (although it is really, really pleasant to see) that Obama is opening leads in key swing states. As reported yesterday, he's over 50% in Ohio, Pennsylvania and FLORIDA according to Quinnipiac, but new polls from CNN/Time reflect the same trend.

• Florida: Obama 51%, McCain 47%
• Minnesota: Obama 54%, McCain 43%
• Missouri: Obama 49%, McCain 48%
• Nevada: Obama 51%, McCain 47%
• Virginia: Obama 53%, McCain 44%

Plus, Obama is polling at his highest ever in the CBS/NYTimes poll: 49% to McCain's 40%. This is the first statistically significant lead he's taken in that poll. "The election cycle is entering a time when voters historically begin to make final judgments; this year, in fact, many of them are actually beginning early voting in states."

33 days to the election, folks! Reminder again that time is running out--for many states, you must register to vote well in advance of the elections. RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. Here are some upcoming dates--forward this on to your friends in the appropriate states (swing states in bold):

• THIS Saturday Oct 4: Alaska, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington
• NEXT Monday, Oct 6: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
• NEXT Tuesday, Oct 7: Illinois, New Mexico
• NEXT Wednesday, Oct 8: Missouri
  

If you're voting absentee, you may have to get your ballot in weeks before the Nov 4th Election date. Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot. Ohio, your absentee ballot program is now open for business.

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