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Monday, October 13, 2008SF Chronicle Election Fact Check PageCampaign check: Lies and half-truths outed and surprise, surprise, most of them are attributed to statements made by the McCain/Palin ticket.Of course, the GOP apologists are screaming about unfairly pointing out their sides lies while overlooking the vast sea of lies allegedly spoken by the Obama campaign. Only there really isn't any vast sea of lies from the Obama/Biden camp. They've stayed pretty close to reality, stayed up above the mud slinging ridiculousness and stayed on the messaging this is actually important to the people of America to hear. Here are some choice debunkings: Statement: In speeches and elsewhere, McCain said: "I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place." Distortion: He signed onto GOP legislation in 2006 AFTER a federal oversight report ripped Fannie Mae. But Politifact.com said that for McCain to link his comments then to the current crisis "strikes us as quite a stretch." Quite a stretch can be de-PC'ed to mean an outright, bold faced crock of shit lie. Statement: Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Obama was "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," a reference to Bill Ayers, a 1960s radical who is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Distortion: An Illinois state senator hosted an event at Ayers' home in 1995 to introduce Obama to the community. The two served together on an educational board, and Ayers donated $200 to Obama's state Senate run in 2001. Obama has condemned Ayers' actions as a member of the Weather Underground. "There's no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles," Politico said. Translated: The smear and fear attempt is baseless but that won't stop Sarah Palin from her continual parroting of this lame diversion. Here's a hint, Sarah, the people won't solutions to their current problems not some ridiculous association smear from 13 years ago, most especially when you yourself have just last week been found to have breached the code of ethics in your Troopergate scandal. Statement: In a McCain TV ad called "Dangerous," it is alleged that Obama said U.S. troops in Afghanistan are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians" and that "congressional liberals voted repeatedly to cut off funding to our active troops." Distortion: This quote is taken out of context and "recycles a misleading, 14-month-old charge that Sen. Barack Obama disrespected U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan," according to FactCheck.org, which added that the votes "were in favor of bringing the troops home and ending combat." Which is to say, the McCain/Palin camp has nothing to offer of their own so they will spend their campaign dollars trying to knock the other side down to their level in the gutter. It is because of the instant factcheck-ability of the internet that McCain's smear and fear campaign is failing. Oh yeah, that and a competely tanked economy due in no small part to his and Bush's pet war in Iraq while allowing the true attackers of 9/11 to roam free and continue to plot against the US and our allies. But, being a hardline GOP supporter means never having to thing twice about past actions, inactions or lies. Obama Locks Up the 2 Year Old VoteTake that, Grumpa McCain! You don't get adorable little kids stumping for you, do you? That's because you're a great big fat doodyhead! Thursday, October 09, 2008Can You Relate to Sarah Palin?Jay sent me a link to a column on Anderson Cooper's site, Palin’s female fans: Why they can relate and the article is all puff but the comments are gold.Have a read and get an idea of how appalled much of America is with her selection for this incredibly important and demanding possible position. Here, here's a taste of the well written dismissals that await you: He could have chosen a competent woman, but instead chose this incompetent, dishonest, ignorant, narrowminded, religious fanatic. I have nothing against religion. What I am against are people like Sarah Palin that have the same exact views as terrorist leaders. They believe that the ENTIRE country should abide by their own religious rules. This is wrong and this is exactly why Religion and State must be kept separate.or how about this one? I find her calculating, cunning and ambitious but sorely lacking in basic intelligence and analytical skills and reasoning. She is ignorant, pure and simple. Her views on abortion are repugnant to me. The very idea that this woman thinks that abortion should be banned even in the case of rape or incest, shows her blatant insensitivity and callousness. Her belief in creationism and rejection of scientific fact is another reason for me to disrespect her.Solid quality smackdowns of the worst vp candidate in the history of our country (and yes, that includes Dan Quayle). Enjoy! And don't forget to check those poll numbers. Labels: politics, Sarah Palin Debate Number 2 Wrap & NotesI watched the debate from the start to the end, I listened to each candidate's answers, I watched each candidate's body language, comfort level, knowledge and candor. And, in McCain's case, I watched for signs of barely contained rage.I don't think McCain is aware of how much he speaks down to people. His can't-possibly-be-wrong attitude fails to impress given reality, fact checks and my own memory. Combined with his awful and annoying "My friends" schtick (he doesn't do folksy well, at all) and the incredibly, incredibly bad jokes that flew about as well as a wet waffle and you have an uninspired performance. Not terrible but nothing close to what he needed to start to close the gap. The post debate polls gave a decisive victory to Obama on the economy and presence and McCain won out slightly on terrorism and foreign policy. What alot of it comes down to is which candidate would you want representing you? The young idealist with a head full of good ideas and plans to repair the harm done to our nation by 8 years of Republican idiocy or the old grumpy condescender who appears ready and willing to say anything to get a vote. I find it bizarre that McCain/Palin keep bringing up accusations against Obama but they are the real perpetrators of the "crimes". Palin keeps bringing up past associations of Obama when her own history is full of far more relevant and far, far more questionable associations and beliefs. McCain keeps talking about straight talk while he flip flops around on economy issues and what we need to do to fix our ailing nation. McCain is more of the same policies that have gotten us here. Obama is a change, he will remove the stranglehold that the special interests have on our country, he will root out the corruption in Washington, he will hold golden parachute CEO's to task, he will not give billions of dollars to big business in the hope that some of it will trickle down to the middle class. McCain's trickle down theory essentially involves the rich pissing change on the poor. It is a failed economic concept that has been demonstrated again and again to not work in practice. The middle class needs direct assistance and not once did I hear John McCain say he had any interest in helping the middle class (no wait, that's not entirely correct, he did have the decently good idea of renegotiating mortgages at the lower assessed value of the house, not sure how the economics of that work out but it appears to be a good idea). Obama was presidential, gracious, articulate and engaging. McCain was testy, condescending, factually wrong and stilted though he did get better as the debate went on. In the end, Obama won again. McCain's numbers will continue to sink and Sarah Palin will increase her increasingly hateful and racist attacks. And Obama will continue to act presidential and rise above the pathetic personal attacks because he knows it serves nobody but the GOP to get down into the muck with them. Friday, October 03, 2008Nonsense Posing as Logic: The Sarah Palin Interview GeneratorNeed to get a handle on how off-the-handle Sarah Palin and her bizarre combination of lack of knowledge and eagerness to disprove that lack of knowledge and the ability to parrot talking points almost as well Elizabeth "Forehead as big as an aircraft carrier" Hasselbeck on The View.Go and Interview Palin to get some penetrating insight into just how shallow her knowledge runs. Found via the ever-entertaining Oliver Willis. Labels: politics, Sarah Palin Debate Rundown with CorrectionsThink Progress has an excellent live-blogged rundown of the debate as it happened including debunking falsehoods.Give it a read if you're interested in learning how much of Sarah Palin's obviously rehearsed talking points were factual and which were based in fantasyland. The important information is right near the top: 11:14: Yglesias points to the CBS instapoll showing that undecided voters watching the debate thought Biden won by 46 percent, compared to 21 percent for Palin. (UPDATE: CNN poll on “Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?” Biden 51% Palin 36%) Joe Biden made an honest effort to answer the questions he was asked, Sarah Palin did nothing even remotely close to engaging the questions. She had her talking points and stuck to them regardless of how little they had to do with the questions. She didn't debate, she recited. Either way, the debate won't be the turning point of the campaign. Palin did well enough to not get skewered, Biden didn't insult or demean her, there were no really nasty gotcha moments. There were some heated exchanges where Palin was factually incorrect but kept parroting her talking points anyway. And Joe wasn't absolutely spot on in every case but he was far, far, far more knowledgable and vice presidential. And, if I'd been playing the Maverick drinking game, I would have been drunk pretty quickly. I loved when Joe Biden verbally rebutted one of the many times Palin claimed McCain is a maverick with specifics. There were some good moments but no meltdown and no explosions. Palin lost but not by the crushing annihilation that some (myself included) were expecting. It doesn't really matter in any case, the McCain/Palin Smoke and Mirrors Express is having a harder time convincing Americans that they are anything but another Bush administration with one angry face and one deer in the headlights. Friday, September 26, 2008How Would You Fare Under McCain or Obama's Tax Plan?Plug in your numbers at ElectionTaxes.com and see who's tax plan keeps more money in your pocket.In my own instance, I save around $150 a year under Obama's plan than under McCain which is pretty much what I expected. Who's plan is better for you? I'm guessing Obama's plan will be a better solution for you as well. Tuesday, March 06, 2007Coulter Loses Advertising on Latest Idiot Remarks Companies to pull ads from Coulter's Web site in the wake of her most recent hateful bile she spewed about John Edwards. Verizon, Sallie Mae and NetBank have all responded to emailed complaints about supporting the agenda of hate and stupidity that Coulter appears to champion. They've had their ads pulled from her site and I'm sure more will follow. Now, I don't write about Ann Coulter anymore, there's just no point. She says what she says because she wants a reaction, she wants to piss people off and she wants to upset any potential political discourse. What she brings to any discussion is nothing but unsubstantiated and unsupported idiocy. The sole reason she gets airtime is because the GOP knows how much the rest of the universe reviles her (and because the GOP secretly laughs when she gets everyone in a tizzy about another stupid thing she's said). But it appears that she's paying some small price for her ugliness. I'm sure plenty of hardcore supporters will step in and fill the breach with ads for Little Green Footballs, Powerline and Free Republic but that's fine. Those ads make it easier to recognize what a hate-spewing harlot she really is. Oh yeah, nice photo up there too, Ann. Were you going for a scrawny goth look because that's what you got. Bleh, she's just nasty all the way around. Labels: advertising, ann coulter, politics, repercusion
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