Friday, October 24, 2008
With The Election Winding Down We Are being Confronted With Some Seriously Irrational Hysteria Rhetoric And Actions…Calm Down America!
Posted by ed. dickau at 5:26 PM
With The Election Winding Down We Are being Confronted With Some Seriously Irrational Hysteria Rhetoric And Actions…Calm Down America!
Dangerous and Getting More Dangerous: The Delicate Situation between the United States and Iran
Sam Gardiner, Colonel, USAF (Ret.), The Century Foundation, 10/22/2008
Reluctant in its waning months to launch a full-frontal assault on Iran but convinced of its leaders’ incorrigibility, the Bush administration has advanced, and its allies in Congress have proposed, a variety of escalating pressures against the Islamic republic. Among them, argues Col. Sam Gardiner in a new paper for The Century Foundation, are covert operations through proxy groups inside Iran. How well matched are U.S. goals to the various means planned or in place? And how do these new pressures expand or limit the choices of new leaders taking office in Washington—and perhaps Tehran—in winter and spring 2009.
The Snapshot
The Public Rejects Conservative Approaches to Taxes
Ruy Teixeira | October 24, 2008
We’ve heard a lot from conservatives lately about how progressives are seeking to redistribute wealth with their “socialist” tax policies. But so far this critique doesn’t seem to be getting far with the public. There’s a good reason for this: The public actually agrees with progressives’ stance on taxation and rejects the conservative approach.
Taking Note Blog
The White Working Class and the 2008 Election
Ruy Teixeira | October 23, 2008
This spring I published a paper with Alan Abramowitz on "The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper Middle Class." That paper and others covering:
In an October 23 blog post on FoxNews.com's The Fox Forum, Fox News executive vice president John Moody wrote of the alleged violent attack against McCain campaign volunteer Ashley Todd: "It had to happen. Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it." Moody wrote that the incident involving Todd "could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election," then made the following baseless assertion, with no explanation or elaboration: "If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator [Barack] Obama, not because they are racists ... but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee." That assertion was followed by another baseless claim: "If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator [John] McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."
Moody's October 23 FoxNews.com post in its entirety:
It had to happen.
Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it.
Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain's presidential campaign, says she was mugged at an ATM machine in Pittsburgh (my hometown) by a big black man. She further says he threw her down, then disfigured her by carving the letter "B" into her face with a sharp implement when he saw that she supported McCain, not Barack Obama.
Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama's campaign is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party's presidential nomination.
That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans, and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.
If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha [D-PA]), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
For Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to shape American history over the centuries, another moment of truth is at hand.
THE ANSWER | THE TRUTH
OOPS!
Police: Campaign Volunteer Lied, Injured Self
Ashley Todd told investigators today she "just wanted to tell the truth" -- and was neither robbed, nor attacked.
Todd, 20, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police
MORE:
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker; now she's facing charges.
At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that Ashley Todd's injuries were self-inflicted.
Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.
Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect began beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.
Investigators asked Todd to return to the police station today for more questioning and to help them release a composite sketch of the suspect.
When she did, police say she admitted that she made the whole thing up and that it snowballed out of control.
Todd told investigators today that she "just wanted to tell the truth" – adding that she was neither robbed, nor attacked.
"She indicated that she has prior mental problems and that she does not remember how the backward letter B got on her face," Pittsburgh Police Spokeswoman Diane Richard told reporters today.
Todd told police that while she did not remember how the backward "B" got on her face, she may have done it herself since she was the only one in the car.
According to police, Todd said she thought of Barack Obama when she saw the "B" in her rearview mirror.
Officials say they do not believe any other people were involved; and Todd's friends believed the story about the attack – encouraging her to call police.
Palin Polar Bear Killer
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/606862690?z00m=17445021
Sarah Palin: the Empress Has No Clothes!
McCain has no moral compass whatsoever.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200810240012
NOTE CINCINNATI IS A TOWN THAT IS A SHADE BRIGHTER RED THAN BARN PAINT! THE AIRPORT THERE IS RUN LIKE A PRISON CAMP AND THE ENTIRE TOWN SMELLS OF FASCISM!
SO DON’T THERE YOU SAY! I DON’T!
Cunningham falsely claimed Hill quoted police chief warning of possible riots by Obama supporters
Summary: Referencing an article in The Hill, radio host Bill Cunningham falsely attributed to a "police chief" the claim that "[i]f [Sen. Barack] Obama is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot. If, on the other hand, Barack loses, there will be another larger group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him." In fact, the quote that Cunningham read from the article was not attributed to a "police chief" or any other law enforcement officer, but was from Bob Parks, whomThe Hill described as "an online columnist and black Republican candidate for state representative in Massachusetts."
After reading from an October 21 article from TheHill.com headlined "Police prepare for unrest" during the October 22 broadcast of his radio show, Bill Cunningham falsely attributed to a "police chief" the claim that "[i]f [Sen. Barack] Obama is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot. If, on the other hand, Barack loses, there will be another larger group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him. ... This will be an opportunity for people who want to commit mischief." In fact, the quote that Cunningham read from The Hill article was not attributed to a "police chief" or any other law enforcement officer, but was from Bob Parks, whom The Hill described as "an online columnist and black Republican candidate for state representative in Massachusetts." Moreover, none of the law enforcement officials or spokespeople quoted in The Hill article singled out Obama supporters as the reason they were concerned about Election Day security.
Furthermore, after stating that the "undercurrent of" The Hill article is "there's gonna be rioting on Election Day," Cunningham falsely suggested that the article claimed that "civil authorities are scared to death that all hell's gonna break loose and maybe 100 cities are going to burn." The Hill did not quote anyone asserting they are "scared to death that all hell's gonna break loose" should Obama win or lose or claiming that "maybe 100 American cities are gonna burn."
Later in the broadcast, Cunningham asserted: "[P]lease note that great Americans like myself are not saying that rioting is gonna take place. Police chiefs, police departments, the Drudge Report, they're the ones saying it ... Even if you're black, I anticipate you will act responsibly, even if your candidate loses." As Media Matters for America hasnoted, Cunningham himself made the baseless claim that "there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses" on the October 10 edition of his show.
Cunningham also simply asserted that Cincinnati police Lieutenant Mark Briede was referring to "blacks" when he said, according to The Hill: "We've seen it on the Internet and we've heard that there could be civil unrest depending on the outcome of [the election,]" and "We are prepared to respond in the case of some sort of unrest or some sort of incident." Of Briede's comments quoted in The Hill, Cunningham said:
CUNNINGHAM: So that's Lieutenant Mark Briede getting prepared for blacks in the city of Cincinnati to riot if Obama loses, or if he wins. It could be time to free the hot dog vendor of some buns or to steal some nice big high-definition TVs from the local appliance store, in celebration of Barack Hussein Obama's victory, or if he loses, God -- may God save over the Rhine in Avondale should Obama lose this election. Of course, it'll be stolen
From The Hill:
"If [Obama] is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot," said Bob Parks, an online columnist and black Republican candidate for state representative in Massachusetts. "If Barack Obama loses there will be another large group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him..... This will be an opportunity for people who want to commit mischief."
James Tate, second deputy chief of Detroit's police department, said extra manpower would be assigned to duty on Election Night. He said problems could flare whichever candidate wins.
"Either party will make history and we want to prepare for celebrations that will be on a larger scale than for our sports teams," Tate said.
He noted that police had to control rioters who overturned cars after the Tigers won the 1984 World Series.
"We're prepared for the best-case scenario, we're prepared for the worst-case scenario," he said. "The worst-case scenario could be a situation that requires law enforcement."
But Tate declined to describe what the worst-case scenario might look like, speaking gingerly like other police officials who are wary of implying that black voters are more likely than other voting groups to cause trouble.
From the October 22 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:
CUNNINGHAM: TheHill.com, which is the daily newspaper on Capitol Hill by Mort Kondracke and others, have a posting today that says "Police prepare for riots": "Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest."
CUNNINGHAM: Police chiefs are quoted in here from Detroit and Oakland, all of them say that they're concerned if Obama wins or loses. If he wins, it's gonna be celebratory rioting in the black community, and if he loses, there will be serious rioting in the black community, according to the police chiefs of Detroit, Oakland, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Unbelievable.
One police officer described -- declined to describe what the worst-case scenario might look like. Other police officials are wary of implying that black voters are more likely to riot than other voting groups? Have I missed something the last few decades in America that there's a concern that Sarah Palin may lose the vice presidency, will you ladies then riot? Have I missed large numbers of suburban and neighborhood areas going up in smoke when something happens to a woman?
But the -- you see, ladies, they have to include you in this to be politically correct. The undercurrent of this is there's gonna be rioting on Election Day. If he wins, it'll be celebratory, which might be like a World Series team winning the World Series like in 1984 in Detroit when the Tigers won. Or, if he loses, then the civil authorities are scared to death that all hell's gonna break loose and maybe 100 American cities are gonna burn. Wow. We live in very unusual times.
CUNNINGHAM: I guess celebratory rioting would not be as severe as a Obama defeat, but the city of Cincinnati I guess is prepared for civil unrest, according to Lieutenant Mark Briede, who said, quote, "We are prepared to respond in the case of some sort of unrest or some sort of incident," unquote. "We've seen it on the internet and we've heard that there could be civil unrest depending upon the outcome of the election."
So that's Lieutenant Mark Briede getting prepared for blacks in the city of Cincinnati to riot if Obama loses, or if he wins. It could be time to free the hot dog vendor of some buns or to steal some nice big high-definition TVs from the local appliance store, in celebration of Barack Hussein Obama's victory, or if he loses, God -- may God save over the Rhine in Avondale should Obama lose this election. Of course, it'll be stolen. According to one police chief, "If Obama is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot. If, on the other hand, Barack loses, there will be another larger group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him. ... This will be an opportunity for people who want to commit mischief."
CUNNINGHAM: And please note that great Americans like myself are not saying that rioting is gonna take place. Police chiefs, police departments, the Drudge Report, they're the ones saying it. Jeff Pennerson and I stand with those who anticipate that everyone's gonna act responsibility, even if you're black, according to Matthew Steinmann.
Even if you're black, I anticipate you will act responsibly, even if your candidate loses. But these news reports are all over the country about police departments beefing up security because of a fear of Obama losing or fear of him winning. So, we'll see what happens and I'll simply report to you objectively the truth -- however the truth might be.
Addendum Post
Ohio SOS Draws Line on GOP Polling Place Challenges
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, just issued a rule banning the GOP's main strategy for suppressing votes
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat and former judge, Thursday issued a directive -- which has the force of law in Ohio elections -- telling local election officials that they cannot stop a person from voting on Nov. 4 if their voter registration information did not match a state or federal database.
The Ohio Republican Party -- as well as Republicans in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania -- are seeking to have voters whose registration information did not match federal Social Security records or state motor vehicle databases -- set aside, or given a provisional ballot which would have to be validated before being counted. The Social Security Administration has said that their records can have a 28.5 percent error rate when used this way.
The order, Directive 2008-99, says:
This Directive clarifies that judges of elections (poll workers) may not challenge a voter on Election Day based solely on the fact that the person offering to vote has been the subject of a data discrepancy between computer records maintained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (including data originally obtained from the Social Security Administration database) and information provided by the person on his or her voter registration application and/or entered into the Statewide Voter Registration Database (SvVVRD) by the board of elections.
Brunner's directive explained why the no-match standard could disenfranchise legal voters.
The information used to "match" a registrant with preexisting databases often results in a data discrepancy or "non-match" based on circumstances as common as a data entry error or a blank field for last four digits of a social security number when a match has already been attained with the provided driver's license number. In addition, Ohio driver's licenses contain a number located above the picture that is often mistaken for the driver's license number.
Brunner said there was no requirement in Ohio law that forced election officials to give voters with "no-match" problems a provisional ballot.
Therefore, in the absence of an independent statutory basis for requiring a voter to vote a provisional ballot, voters whose names appear in poll books or poll lists as unflagged registered voters must be provided the opportunity to vote a regular ballot. There is no statutory support for requiring registered voters whose SvVVRD records indicate a data discrepancy to vote a provisional ballot on that basis alone or to be challenged on that basis alone. A copy of this directive must be included in the poll worker packets distributed to all poll workers."
You can expect Ohio Republicans to loudly protest this directive, but so far they have lost most of their challenges in court to Brunner.
Summary: On October 24, Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson baselessly linked a woman's allegations -- since recanted -- that she was attacked by a black man in retaliation for supporting Sen. John McCain to a report that Fox & Friends aired the day before of police concerns of possible violence if Sen. Barack Obama loses the election.
McCain Aides Aggressively Pushed Mutilation Hoax
The "Todd The Fraud" Story Thickens.
Was Drudge just trying to prove our point?
About how his influence has cratered during his campaign cycle? And how, since the Wall Street meltdown began six weeks ago, his brand of shallow, partisan, GOP gotcha attacks have been completely ineffective?
Well, yesterday he went all in on the very hard-to-believe tale from Pittsburgh about the McCain supporter who was mugged and whose assailant carved a "B" in her face after becoming enraged about her GOP loyalties.
It was The Drudge Report that posted blaring headlines about the story, and it was The Drudge Report that tried to push the story into the mainstream media, perhaps in one last attempt to leave its mark on the campaign.
Well, Drudge did leave a mark. Just not the one he wanted.
The Pittsburgh story has now officially been declared a hoax by the police, leaving Drudge right where he was at the beginning of the week; an irrelevant bystander in the campaign season.
McCain Staffer Threatens to Arrest Journalist for Exposing Paid 'Volunteers'
Video the McCain campaign doesn't want you to see.
Class Warfare
In recent weeks, conservatives have ramped up their name-calling and accusations, telling voters that progressives such as Barack Obama are “socialists” who want to take money from the middle-class and give it away to the poor. According to John McCain, Obama “believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.” McCain claims that progressive tax policies will raise tax rates on small businesses and “hard-working families to give ‘welfare’ to those who pay none.” Sources
* Conservatives are the real redistributors of wealth. Under the Bush Administration, the incomes of middle-range households have stagnated. Workers with earnings in the lower range have lost ground and, taking inflation into consideration, on average they now earn less than they did in 2000. All the income these workers lost went directly to the top 20 percent of households, the only group whose share of income rose over the last eight years. Income inequality in the United States has skyrocketed since Bush took office, making America the world’s third-most economically unbalanced country, behind only Mexico and Turkey. Sources
* It’s the wealthy, not working Americans, who avoid taxes. Conservatives like John McCain claim that “more than 40 percent [of Americans] pay no income taxes right now.” He suggests that it’s low-income workers who are skipping out on their tax responsibility, but that isn’t true. The wealthy enjoy most of the income generated by capital investments—and that income is taxed at a lower rate than the income middle-class workers earn. Warren Buffett pointed out that it is unjust for him to pay taxes at a lower rate than his secretary does. Sources
* Progressive tax policies benefit all of America; conservative policies have failed. Conservatives accused President Clinton of “tax and spend politics” when he raised income taxes on the very wealthy to pay for investments in economic development, education, and new technology. But Clinton’s policies yielded 23 million new jobs—nearly five times more new jobs than Bush created with his tax cuts for the super-rich. Sources
* Conservative tax policies contribute to the extreme inequality we now face—and they want to make it worse. Instead of giving everyone an equal tax cut, John McCain promises to give the richest people in America a cut five times as big as the one he’s promising to Americans in the middle class. John McCain’s tax policies are even more unbalanced than George W. Bush’s: Bush gave 31 percent of the benefits of his tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent, but McCain would give them 58 percent of benefits. Sources
* A progressive tax proposal is the best bet for small businesses. Less than two percent of small-business owners would face a tax increase under a progressive tax plan such as Barack Obama’s, and many more would see their tax bill reduced. In fact, one of the tax credits John McCain rails against—the Earned Income Tax Credit—is claimed by 14 percent of small-business owners. Obama’s plan to strengthen this credit would help seven times as many small-business owners as would McCain’s plan to decrease tax rates for the richest Americans. Sources
Progressive Solution
We need to restore fairness to the federal tax code. It’s time to eliminate Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and ensure that all Americans pay their fair tax share. Our tax code should reward Americans who work hard and help our nation grow, not those who collect dividend checks or run companies that ship jobs overseas.
Making Sense Alerts and Fact Sheets:
For Class Warfare, click here.
For The Truth About Waste in Government, click here.
For Time To Rebuild America, click here.
For others on education, energy, health, taxation, trade, social security, and more, click here.
Penn. senators urge national housing rescue program
Reuters - USA
Arlen Specter and Robert Casey held a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Philadelphia to hear how the city was able to prevent foreclosure of about 80 ...
-McCain Finds Americans No Longer Buying into the Politics of Dread
By Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
But that won't stop him from trying, his latest Haily Mary bomb comes equipped with a nuclear warhead.
McCain and Palin: No Chemistry, No Trust, Possibly No Chance
By Sam Stein, Huffington Post
"You do wonder, is John McCain starting to blame her for things? Blaming himself? Is she blaming him?"
Flashback: McCain Said Campaign Cash for Clothes 'Erodes Public Confidence'
By Ryan Powers, Think Progress
McCain supported an amendment to restrict use of campaign funds on 'clothing purchases.'
An Unexpected Twist: Palin's $150,000 Wardrobe Doesn't Add Up
By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
It seems like the RNC's receipts aren't matching up with those of the stores' ... and here I thought the story was odd enough before
How the McCain Camp Came to Pick Palin
By Digby, Hullabaloo
"The way you pick a vice president is, you get a frame of Time magazine, and you put the pictures of the people in that frame."
Retired Sen. George Mitchell Slams Karl Rove for Smear Tactics
By Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
The end of Rove-Style politics.
Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, Iraq in Hell
The Roman historian Tacitus famously put the following lines in the mouth of a British chieftain opposed to imperial Rome: "They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace."
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