Barack Makes Calls In Missouri

Inspiring video from Kansas City, MO when Barack Obama stopped by his local campaign office. Like talking to a friend. His campaign never gets enough credit, truly historic.

The Candidates

A simple visual primer.

McCain Steered Reporters Toward HOAX Attack Story

Not only was this a hoax-in-the-making from the start, but

"the McCain campaign steered reporters’ attention to the story yesterday. John McCain even called the 20-year old woman. Sarah Palin called her family."

Fanning the flames of a perceived race-related attack was what Charles Manson was trying to do in 1969. Just saying.



NBC News' Brian Williams reports:

The Other McCains

The other McCains of Mississippi, descendants of the slaves owned by McCain's forefathers. The ending is a classic.



John McCain's family comes from Mississippi, not Arizona. That's where his rich second wife is from. McCain's forefathers owned slaves and amassed great wealth in Mississippi. They eventually became a military family.

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

"The Vet Who Did Not Vet". A Dr. Seuss style telling of the McCain and Palin tale.



"Hasn't happened yet."

SCAM: McCain Volunteer's "Mutilation" Story Made Up

Wrong on oh-so-many levels. Hey Ashley Todd, your "B" was scratched in reverse because you were using a mirror. Idiot.

McCain supporters have got to be proud of this one. They have their own Tawana Brawley now.

Recall Fox news executive vice-president John Moody's prescient statement from yesterday:

"If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Source: HuffPo

Obama: Under The Radar Website

Cool site launched by Obama to track the McCain Campaign and its allies who have begun an unprecedented nationwide negative campaign that use robocalls, direct mail, and other techniques to quietly poison voters' information with lies and fear tactics.

Go to the site, click on a City or State, and learn the inappropriate McCain/Palin smears - all of which are approved by the McCain campaign or its Republican partners.



Source: http://radar.barackobama.com/

Palin: The Shark Has Been Jumped. It's Now Dead And Rotting

your weekly make-up artist fee: $11,400
your wardrobe costs you bill to the RNC: $150,000
playing the hockey mom "joe-six-pack" BS while running up these massive luxuries: priceless

Rebranding the U.S. With Obama

I have been using this argument for a while, now Nicholas Kristof of the NYT has written about it. Barack Obmama, as a brand, is what America needs around the world. Bush was 9/11, fake wars, terror, anti-science, bumbling, obnoxious: all things that made our image around the globe suffer. McCain, old and spiteful, would pretty much carry on that negative tradition.

Obama on the other hand, despite how the conservatives short-sightedly use his overseas popularity as a negative, is what we and the world are in need of. A re-branding of the US with "change" and "hope".

Kristof writes today:

"We’re beginning to get a sense of how Barack Obama’s political success could change global perceptions of the United States, redefining the American “brand” to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality. This change in perceptions would help rebuild American political capital in the way that the Marshall Plan did in the 1950s or that John Kennedy’s presidency did in the early 1960s...A 22-nation survey by the BBC found that voters abroad preferred Mr. Obama to Mr. McCain in every single country — by four to one over all. Nearly half of those in the BBC poll said that the election of Mr. Obama, an African-American, would “fundamentally change” their perceptions of the United States. Europe is particularly intoxicated by the possibility of restoring amity with America in an Obama presidency. As The Economist put it: “Across the Continent, Bush hatred has been replaced by Obama-mania.”

It's like the Wizard of Oz, "ding-dong- the wicked witch is dead" scene. The house, pun intended, has crushed Bush and Republicanism. It's time for all of us to move on down the yellow brick road.

Source: NYT

NYT: Barack Obama for President

NYT endorses Obama.

"As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States."

Source: NYT

Ferrell And Fey As Bush And Palin

SNL did it proper bo this Thursday. Will Ferrell as Bush. Tina Fey as Palin. Classic. A must see.

Greenspan Admits Mistake. Will Only Cost Trillions

The first of many trillion dollar mistakes from the Bush years. I like the way he uses a natural disaster term to describe man-made disasters.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, describing the current financial crisis as a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami” acknowledged Thursday that the crisis has exposed flaws in his thinking and in the workings of the free-market system.

Greenspan told the House Oversight Committee that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had been proven wrong by the current crisis. He called this a “mistake” in his views and said he had been shocked by that.

Greenspan said he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks in operating in their self-interest would be sufficient to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

Greenspan called this “a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

via 1115.org:

"If I’m not mistaken, Alan Greenspan, High Lord of the Free Market Worshipers, just admitted that unrestrained capitalism doesn’t really work. Kind of a big deal when regulation and accusations of socialism are being bandied about in a Presidential election."

Source: 1115.org

Bono Signs Deal With NYT

U2's Bono will be writing six to ten op-eds over the next year for the New York Times. His salary: free.

"The man who rose to fame singing about how he "can't believe the news today," will soon become a regular Times contributor, editorial-page editor Andrew Rosenthal told a group of Columbia University Journalism School students last night.

Before you start whinging about his politics, you'll be surprised to hear:

"Saint Bono won't be using this platform to opine on his pet issues of AIDS, African debt relief, global warming, and assorted other world ills — instead, he's actually been assigned to write about music."

Source: NYMag

McClellan Backs Obama

Another Bushie backs Obama, this time Scott McClellan. Most conservatives will publicly throw Scott under the bus, but they know deep inside that Scott is right.

"From the very beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama and clapping,"

Source: CNN

Why Barack Obama Is Winning

A glimpse of what a real commander-in-chief is like.

via Time:

"General David Petraeus deployed overwhelming force when he briefed Barack Obama and two other Senators in Baghdad last July. He knew Obama favored a 16-month timetable for the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq, and he wanted to make the strongest possible case against it. And so, after he had presented an array of maps and charts and PowerPoint slides describing the current situation on the ground in great detail, Petraeus closed with a vigorous plea for "maximum flexibility" going forward.

Obama had a choice at that moment. He could thank Petraeus for the briefing and promise to take his views "under advisement." Or he could tell Petraeus what he really thought, a potentially contentious course of action — especially with a general not used to being confronted. Obama chose to speak his mind. "You know, if I were in your shoes, I would be making the exact same argument," he began. "Your job is to succeed in Iraq on as favorable terms as we can get. But my job as a potential Commander in Chief is to view your counsel and interests through the prism of our overall national security." Obama talked about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, the financial costs of the occupation of Iraq, the stress it was putting on the military.

A "spirited" conversation ensued, one person who was in the room told me. "It wasn't a perfunctory recitation of talking points. They were arguing their respective positions, in a respectful way." The other two Senators — Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed — told Petraeus they agreed with Obama. According to both Obama and Petraeus, the meeting — which lasted twice as long as the usual congressional briefing — ended agreeably. Petraeus said he understood that Obama's perspective was, necessarily, going to be more strategic. Obama said that the timetable obviously would have to be flexible. But the Senator from Illinois had laid down his marker: if elected President, he would be in charge. Unlike George W. Bush, who had given Petraeus complete authority over the war — an unprecedented abdication of presidential responsibility (and unlike John McCain, whose hero worship of Petraeus bordered on the unseemly) — Obama would insist on a rigorous chain of command."

Source: Time

In 2004 Bush Campaigned For Re-Election On The Backs Variable Rate Subprime Mortgagaes

Don't forget how we got into this mess. Worst. President. Ever.

Bush's "reform agenda" loved variable rate subprime mortgages. His "ownership society" was based on owning all your responsibilities: home, healthcare, education, retirement. He boasted about how more Americans own their home under Presidency, but he now fails to take credit now that the sham has crushed the world economy.

"President Bush during his first term aggressively sought to loosen mortgage loan qualification standards for first-time homebuyers, seeking to reduce or even eliminate down payments for those who might otherwise have trouble affording their loans."

Source: Roll Call

via ThinkProgress:

"During the 2004 campaign, President Bush declared his pride in making America what he called “an ownership society.” He promoted expanding home-ownership as the best way to ensure a strong economy, campaigning constantly on the idea:"



"Further, the quest for an all-encompassing ownership society led to the policies that have created the crisis. From dramatically low interest rates to ignoring the warnings about predatory lending to quashing state regulations that would have helped prevent such massive Wall Street investment in subprime loans, Bush and his allies built an economy on a house of cards that was bound to collapse."

Source: ThinkProgress

As George said recently, “There will be ample opportunity to debate the origins of this problem.” If Republicans are going to stand tall for an unregulated market, then let them embrace ALL the excesses of that market, as well:the exaggerated losses as well as the exaggerated profits.

An unregulated market will not work for long, because it’s perfectly suited to reward fraud and corruption in the short term. Then there is no long term because an unregulated market will not last until the long term comes to be.

“The market” is not some abstract mechanism like the celestial spheres of Ptolemy. It’s a complex interaction of society, economics and even psychology. It should serve the society, not the other way around.

Ron Howard's Call For Obama

Ron Howard backs Obama. Pretty funny use of Andy Griffith and Happy Days sets.

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die