DownWithTyranny!: McCain's latest stunt backfires...badly. Some observers believe the real motive for the Psychogeezer's latest gimmick is to keep Sarah Palin from spending another moment of unscripted time in public. But count on McCain - if he shows up for the debate - to try and work his surge-centric attack on Obama's judgment into every answer, no matter what the question. Some of us remember a time when McCain always called for withdrawal of troops.

Bob Geiger:Bush asleep while Iraqi fraud funnels millions to al-Qaeda

David E's Fablog: Albert Brooks explains it all for you

The Satirical Political Report: Cheney asserts a link between Saddam and Mortgages of Mass Destruction

LAist: Michael Moore is giving away his new movie

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Minnesota Independent, Youtude, Women's Lens, Just a Moment of Miscellany,

Beat the Press: Questions on the Bush bailout package

JOHN MCCAIN: Criminally Stupid, "Exaggerating Wildly", Willing Dupe, Dangerous Demagogue, Shameless Hypocrite, Pathological Liar, Clueless Warmonger, Not Qualified to be President

The Hill: Sarah Palin won't say whether veep is an executive post. I'm sooo sick of these fringe-dwelling asshats and their disdain for democracy.

Shakesville: Speak out against the Bush Dept.of Health and Human Services' latest assault on birth control and reproductive freedom.

MediaBloodhound: A closer look at the NYT/CBS poll

Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons

C&Ler Jim sent this response to Kudlow after he blamed " Liberal guilt consciences" for the mortgage meltdown.

Cudlow, Cudlow, Cudlow [sic]... you are not stupid. You are, however, a conservative, republican hack. You know good and g*damn well that this crisis was precipitated by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, pounded through by Senator Phil Gramm, that was tucked into an omnibus spending bill at the end of Clinton's last term that included, amongst other things, a treasury authorization and Medicare/Medicaid bill that could not be vetoed. This Act excluded any swap transaction from the reach of the CEA and also amended the Securities Act to exclude swap agreements as being defined as securities.

Therefore, these instruments were left unregulated. Hence, we are now reaping the whirlwind. You have put yourself on record as blaming liberal guilt and poor people for this crisis. This is not just intellectually dishonest, it is a factual lie. As a member of the f*&king intellectual elite (I have a law degree, a guitar, and a car) I challenge YOU to bring McCain and Palin on your show and have them explain their version of these events. I bet you won't... Love, Jim.

P.S. I might also add that the notion that the sub-prime crisis was caused by liberals wanting to put poor, first-time buyers into homes is disproved by the fact that most of these loans (over 60%) were not first time home buyers, but refinances. This is because investment firms and banks were selling the idea that people should treat their primary residence as an investment like a stock: borrow on the equity (leverage) like any other asset and bet on the value to rise. This is contrary to traditional conservative thought that the homestead is not to be put at risk. But you guys never thought about that because you were too single-mindedly interested in the up-side. It never occurred to you that the downside was families without homes. Therefore you put unsophisticated folks with children in the same boat with Ivy league 20 something geniuses who walked away with millions, while the families walked away with a trailer. It truly is sickening.

Once again, Love, Jim

(Just a reminder. I will print emails from C&L's massive inbox)

Probably because she doesn't have any. At all. Well, not unless you count the proximity of Alaska to Russia. Sarah Palin made her first unscripted appearance Wednesday at a town hall meeting with John McCain and proved exactly why the McCain campaign has tried their damnedest to keep her as far away from those things as possible. In this clip, a questioner throws up a softball about national security cred and Palin can't remember her talking points about being able to see Russia from some remote island or that she's the "Commander-in-Chief" of the Alaska National Guard.

Download | play Download | play

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Palin, there has been quite a bit of discussion about your perceived lack of foreign policy experience. And I want to give you your chance. If you could please respond to that criticism and give us specific skills that you think you have to bring to the White House to rebut that or mitigate that concern.

PALIN: Well, I think because I'm a Washington outsider that opponents are going to be looking for a whole lot of things that they can criticize and they can kind of try to beat the candidates here, who chose me as his partner, to kind of tear down the ticket. But as for foreign policy, you know, I think that I am prepared and I know that on January 20th, if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we'll be ready. I'll be ready. I have that confidence. I have that readiness.

And if you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and you can ask me. You can even play stump the candidate if you want to. But we are ready to serve.

Turns out the town hall was pre-ticketed and she still couldn't answer the question coherently. Sheesh.

McCain town hall style meetings are generally open to the public where anyone may wait in line on the day of the event and come in without an advanced invitation.

However, at tonight’s 3,500 person townhall in Grand Rapids, Michigan–the first time Palin is taking questions from the public– only ticketholders are allowed in.

After yesterday, is anyone surprised?

You know I'll miss ya.

Today, McCain economic adviser Carly Fiorina bluntly stated that neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin were capable of running a major corporation (she said the same of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden). A top campaign adviser said Fiorina will be punished for her candid opinions:

"Carly will now disappear," this source said. "Senator McCain was furious." Asked to define "disappear," this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while - but remain at the Republican National Committee and keep her role as head of the party's joint fundraising committee with the McCain campaign.

Fiorina was booked for several TV interviews over the next few days, including one on CNN. Those interviews have been canceled.

McCainpedia: Count the Lies

The Existentialist Cowboy: When the Sea Walks Over the Land

Talking Points Memo: Keeping the smears straight

CQ Politics: Sarah Palin on Israel: Frightening

collateral news: Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a Governor

The Satirical Political Report: Sarah Palin to put McCain up for sale on eBay

Take action! Email the moderators of the upcoming presidential and VP debates and demand "The Debate We Need"

Yes, we can do some good here. I posted about Eddie Burke's cowardly act yesterday when he called the Alaska Women Reject Palin--maggots and exposed their personal information so they would be attacked.

Today I found out that he has been suspended:

Anchorage AM radio host Eddie Burke has been suspended after broadcasting the phone numbers of women involved in organizing a protest rally against Sarah Palin over the weekend, his station manager said Monday.

In a statement, KBYR-AM 700 station manager Justin McDonald said broadcasting the numbers last week was "breaking station policy." Burke will be suspended for one week without pay, he said.

"Though I do not agree with some of the comments he made, as a licensee, we attempt to respect everyone's First Amendment rights, including Eddie Burke's, our listeners' and our nonlisteners'," McDonald's statement said. "That does not mean I condone inciting violence or harm in any way to people wanting to voice their opinions with peaceful protest."

Acting like Michelle Malkin does have some consequences after all.

Politics in the Zeros: Spread the meme. Republicans are the party that wrecked America. John McCain's long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely 'qualified' to speak to the current crisis.

AlterNet: Yet again, the United States appears to be siding with violent right-wing elements to undermine a Latin American democracy.

Mugsy's Rap Sheet: If you think Hillary is doing a great job of supporting the democratic ticket, don't read this post

BAGnewsNotes: The Picture of Deception

Connecting.the.Dots: The Palin attackers' crystal ball

Our friend, Alicia Morgan of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville has a new book, The Price Of Right, about what conservatism is costing America. It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Economist's View: Bankruptcy for Lehman, Merrill Lynch sells to BofA, AIG in serious trouble. It looks almost certain that this week will be the one where we see the financial implosion in U.S. banking and brokerage that many have been expecting for some time.

distributorcap NY: The irresponsible, shoddy and pedestrian way the pundits and media use the results of polls to represent news, directly affects the tenor of the campaign.

No Rest For the Awake: A Native Alaskan perspective on Palin

Pruning Shears: This Week In Tyranny

The Mahablog: Teh Stupid, It Runs Our Country. More atrocities below...

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: MSNBC's Brewer aired McCain attack ad without mentioning it was full of lies...Rachel's first exclusive...Frameshop's, Jeffrey Feldman on Bill Moyers...Try and put lipstick on these losers...Old habits die hard...Balz in the tank for the Psychogeezer, but a couple other WaPo reporters noticed the lies...More NYT false equivalence...Even Hactacular Howie is fed up with their lying...George Will attacks firefighters on 9/11, yesterday pretended that, like Palin, he doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is...FUAX scrapes bottom...Lou Dobbs just loves to spread a little hate...NPR cannot find any pessimistic economists but push the GOP agenda on oil drilling...I thought James Carville was supposed to be a Democrat...It helps when you've got your own network

Pam's House Blend: The 'values' at the Values Voters Summit - Obama as a Muslim Aunt Jemima

Firedoglake: McCain/Palin Lies Of The Day Watch...Update

We are respectable negroes: These bloggers have written an ingenious series of posts based on an alternate reality in which 'O'Bama' is a white, Reagan Republican, while Democrat McCain is a womanizing, foul mouthed traitor of low moral character. Sarah Palin is a black welfare queen. Scroll down and read 'em all.

unbossed: "Stop blogging! Stop blogging right now!"

The Opinion Mill's Weekend Bookchat: Robert Stone sees greatness in a book about the war on terror, William Gibson sees an embarrassment of riches and the Great Orange Satan sees ways for activists to use the Internets. And dare you take the Junot Diaz geek test?

WTF is going on?: If elected, Obama's first act as president should be to end the Pentagon's ban on pictures of the coffins of fallen soldiers.