You Fucking Lost!

The more time I spend with my mother, the more I realize that John McCain Muttley is struggling with dementia.

Former presidential rival John McCain expressed disappointment on Friday that President Barack Obama has not negotiated with Republicans over a huge economic stimulus plan and said he is working on an alternative package.

Speaking to Reuters, Arizona Sen. McCain said the alternative plan would include what he described as "more effective tax cuts, such as a payroll tax cut" and spending on projects aimed at immediately creating jobs.

"A group of us Republican senators are working on coming up with an alternative package that I would hope would have some elements to it that Americans would support," said McCain, who lost the November 4 U.S. election to Obama, a Democrat.
"One, we have to have an alternative and two, we still hope that the administration -- although time is running out -- that the administration will sit down and do some serious negotiating, which they have not done," he said.

STFU already.

Douche Bag Of The Week: Joe The Plumber

This douche bag doesn't understand his 15 minutes of fame are over.

Joe Wurzelbacher lashed out at former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, the man who made Wurzelbacher famous as “Joe the Plumber.” Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he felt “dirty” after “being on the campaign trail and seeing some of the things that take place.”

Asked why he didn’t leave McCain’s campaign if he was “appalled” by the candidate, Wurzelbacher said, “honestly, because the thought of Barack Obama as president scares me even more.”

While Wurzelbacher was critical of McCain during the interview, he had nothing but praise for his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal,” he said.

Does he think Anastasia is going to ask him to be her VP running mate in 2012? Hey, it could happen.

Obama Notches A NH Landslide!

I just spotted this over at The Bum who found it at CNN:

Dixville Notch has spoken: It's Obama in a landslide

DIXVILLE NOTCH, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerged victorious in the first election returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

People in the village in New Hampshire's northeast corner voted just after midnight Tuesday.

It was the first time since 1968 that the village leaned Democratic in an election.

Obama's rival, Republican John McCain, won 6 votes.

A full 100 percent of registered voters in the village cast ballots. And the votes didn't take long to tally.

Is this a sign of things to come today?

The Beaverhausen Chronicles: Redistribution Of Wealth

This, hopefully, will be my last post ever in the Beaverhausen Chronicles series.

Sometimes I sit and seethe when I watch the candidates giving their stump speeches. Over the past week, the McCain/Palin Muttley/Beaverhausen campaign used the "distribution of wealth" talking point to capture the votes of independents.

Yet, they don't seem to see their hypocrisy. Or do they, but they know that most Americans are sheep and believe what people tell them rather than thinking for themselves?

• The GOP tax cuts reduced the tax rates for those earning the most — shifting more of the tax burden to lower income ranges. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth?
• The GOP champions tax credits for oil companies while these same companies are reporting the highest quarterly profits in history. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth?
• The $700B financial rescue plan, which takes working-class contributed tax money from the federal government and bails out the investor class. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth?
• Alaska takes way more from the federal government than it pays. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth?
• Alaska has a windfall profits type tax on the oil companies that is passed on to residents. Isn't that a redistribution of wealth?

I am so ready for this whole thing to be over.

McCain, And Obama, Are Amazing

This report made me think of the grueling schedules that McCain and Obama have been keeping for the past weeks, months, years.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday he is suffering from exhaustion and two allies said he was suffering under the strain of his job, in a rare disclosure apparently designed to combat rumors the hardline leader is more seriously ill.

Regardless of my distaste for McCain's policies, ya gotta give the 72-year-old guy some credit.

The Single Take Away From The Latest Debate

Because it's easier to believe that someone is a secret radical Islamic terrorist if you continuously hammer that they're less than human. Subtle and not-so-subtle cues like calling someone "that one" ... not even "him" which would at least be a human pronoun. It reeks of the 1930's.

H/T to Joe.My.God for the graphic.

The Beaverhausen Chronicles: Resumes

I found this over at roblog (I modified it a bit):

We have two leadership teams to choose from, which would you hire?

FORMAL EDUCATION [1]

Barack Obama
• Occidental College, 2 years
• Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations
• Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joe Biden
• University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science
• Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Muttley John McCain
• United States Naval Academy

Anastasia Beaverhausen Sarah Palin
• Hawaii Pacific University, 1 semester
• North Idaho College, 1 year
• University of Idaho, 1 year
• Matanuska-Susitna College, 1 semester
• University of Idaho, 1.5 years - B.S. in Journalism

EXPERIENCE [2]

Barack Obama

Obama, 47, has been a U.S. Senator for Illinois for the past four years. Prior to that, he was a state senator for eight years, from 1996 to 2004. He also was a civil rights attorney for four years full time, and he practiced law part time during the eight years he was in the state legislature.

Obama also taught law school part-time and wrote a couple of best-selling books. Right after college, Obama spent three years working as a community organizer.

Community organizer: Three years.

Professional/legal experience: Four years full-time and eight years part-time.

Teaching experience: 11 years part-time.

State legislative experience: Eight years.

Federal legislative experience: Four years.

Joe Biden

Biden, 65, was elected to the U.S. Senate representing Delaware at the young age of 29. He was not old enough to hold the office on Election Day, but he turned 30 before it was time to take the oath of office. This means Biden has been a U.S. senator for close to 36 years.

Prior to his service in the Senate, Biden was a member of the New Castle County Council for two years, and he was an attorney in private practice for four years.

Professional/legal experience: Four years.

County government experience: Two years.

Federal legislative experience: 36 years.

Muttley John McCain

McCain, 72, has been a U.S. senator from Arizona since 1986, for a total of 22 years. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Congress for four years, from 1982 to 1986. He also served for 22 years in the U.S. Navy.

Federal legislative experience: 26 years.

Military experience: 22 years.

Anastasia Beaverhausen Sarah Palin

Palin, 44, was elected governor of Alaska in 2006 and will have served two years by the end of 2008. Prior to that, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, for six years, from 1996 to 2002. She was on the city council for four years before that.

When she was in her 20s, Palin spent about two years as a TV sports reporter from 1987 to 1989. She has also been part-time small business owner with her husband while she held office in Wasilla. The Palins had a commercial fishing operation and a snow machine, watercraft, and all-terrain vehicle business.

Reporter: Two years.

Small business co-owner: Nine years, part-time.

Municipal legislative experience: Four years.

Municipal executive experience: Six years.

State executive experience: Two years.

CONCLUSION

In the business world, you would hire the more educated, knowledgeable and experienced of the two teams. But in the political world, being highly educated and knowledgeable results in right-wing ideologues branding you as an elitist.

[1] Wikipedia Obama, Wikipedia Biden, Wikipedia McCain, Wikipedia Palin

[2] Politifact.com Truth-o-Meter

Whenever I hear people say that Palin is more qualified than Obama to lead the country, I just want to scream.

I keep hearing women say that she's qualified because she's such a great mother. Being the parent of five children, while admirable and something I'm not sure I could do myself, does not qualify you to be the president of the U.S. It means you're fertile and don't use birth control. Ummm, like your daughter. (Meow!)

How many people in your life have a lot of children? Would you consider them presidency-ready because of it?

Letterman Trashes Muttley

I found this clip over at Joe.My.God.

John McCain Muttley canceled his appearance on Letterman, personally phoning Dave to say he was rushing to the airport in order to get down to Warshington and solve the financial crisis.

Half way through the clip, Letterman busts Muttley sitting down to do an impromptu interview with Katie Couric.



Letterman disses Sarah Palin Anastasia Beaverhausen, too, implying she isn't capable of stepping up and filling in for Muttley on the campaign trail.

There's something fishy going on.

Reading Roundup

I've been cutting back on the amount of political news I'm ingesting. Frankly, I've already made up my mind, and there really isn't anything that Muttley/Beaverhausen can say to sway my vote away from Obama/Biden.

However, despite my serious efforts, I can't get away from the news completely because I'm a current affairs junkie. I always tear out the pages of periodicals or print out web pages and then circle the critical points to emphasize their importance. The clippings then sit on my desk and I end up trashing them as the news cycle moves on to the next topics.

I'm clearing off my desk, and here's what I've found that's still worth mentioning.

---

From Newsweek magazine's Letters column, September 22, 2008 issue:

"I couldn't believe that Anastasia Beaverhausen Sara Palin ridiculed Barack Obama's years of work as community organizer during her convention speech. The suffragists who earned Palin the right to vote were community organizers. So were the feminists who agitated to improve job opportunities for women and made it possible for Beaverhausen Palin to play high-school basketball. Abolitionists who fought against slavery, workers on the underground railroad guiding slaves to freedom and civil-right workers were community organizers. So are union organizers who help improve the lives of workers. Finally, we owe the very existence of our country to a dedicated group of community organizers, more commonly know as our Founding Fathers.

— Jane Cameron, Piscataway, NJ

Eight years ago the GOP noimated a short-term governor of a large, oil-rich state to be president. They described him as a regular guy and said his lack of international experience wouldn't be a problem Now it has nominated a short-term governor of a large, oil-rich state to be vice president and see no problem with her inexperience. For me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

— Hilton Weiss, Rhinebeck, NY

You can always count on interesting perspectives and getting a feel for where the country is at by reading the letters to the editor.

---

From Newsweek magazine's Perspectives column, September 22, 2008 issue:

"Until...the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference...it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment."

— McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, on why vice presidential candidate Anastasia Beaverhausen Sara Palin is giving so few interviews to the press

She's going to be one heart beat away from being president. Gee, if she can't handle the U.S. press corps, how is she going to handle our relationships with Putin, Ahmadinejad, and Chavez. They aren't going to show up to the White House bearing candy, roses, and a Miss Universe sash.

---

From Time magazine's Verbatim column, September 29, 2008 issue:

"Maybe he thought he was going to have a more folksy ride."

— Barbara Walters, cohost of The View, after Cindy McCain accused the show of attacking her husband during an appearance.

See my comments on the Beaverhausen clip above Ditto here.

---

Now my desktop is ready for next week!

Just When You Thought You Were Free Of 'Nucular'

Honestly, I'm a pretty easy going guy. But when I hear President Bush say "nucular," it's like fingernails on a chalkboard, and I want to go all nuclear on his ass. What makes it even worse is that he knows it's wrong and says it anyway. Then again, that's completely in character for him, isn't it?

About a week ago, Mike reported that Anastasia Beaverhausen says nucular, too.

As if that isn't bad enough, Muttley keeps saying "Warshington." If I have to listen to Warshington and nucular for eight years, I'm going to go all apeshit on the "English is the official language of the United States" crowd.

Programming Note

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to be on The View Monday morning and View cohost Joy Behar will be on with Larry King Live Monday evening. An LKL teaser says Behar will be dishing on the Muttley interview 10 days ago.

Muttley Throws Cox Under The Bus

Muttley's looking for a Wall Street scapegoat and he found one in my former Congressman from Irvine, CA.

John McCain, buffeted by criticism about his response to Wall Street's financial problems, said he would fire the SEC chairman and create a special trust to help strengthen weak institutions.

In all but calling for the firing of SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, McCain turned on a fellow Republican and former 17-year House member who served on committees overseeing investor protection and U.S. capital markets. President Bush appointed Cox in 2005.

My question is, "Why did it take a market crash and the road to an economic depression in order for Muttley to speak out?"

Is New York State In Play For November?

This gives me a stomach ache.

Seven weeks until Election Day, the race for President has tightened in New York, with Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain 46-41% among likely voters, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll.

Obama’s five point lead is down from eight points in August, 13 points in July and 18 points in June, when he led 51-33%.

On a series of six questions concerning current issues in the campaign — economy, Iraq, terrorism, health care, America’s position in the world, and education — likely voters believe Obama will do a better job on four. Conversely, out of six attributes voters often look at in choosing a candidate – compassion, patriotism, experience, integrity, intelligence, and leadership – NY’s electorate gives the edge to McCain on four.

See the full Siena poll here. There are a lot of questions about Governor Paterson, too.

Olberman On Muttley

At the risk of being political today, I spotted this over at This Boy Elroy. I wasn't sure what to post...I've been mostly in a funk and decided not to even mention 9/11.

Then I saw this and Adam asked that it be posted far and wide. Here it is, and it makes me feel angry, frustrated, and helpless.

Conservative Media Bias

When it was wall-to-wall Obama during his trip oversees, there was a clamor of mainstream media bias. Where are those people now?

Maybe McCain Is One Of Triplets

Muttley Is McCain's Long Lost Twin

As you've read, I have decided to refer to vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as Anastasia Beaverhausen...acknowledging her resemblance to Karen's alter-ego on Will & Grace.

My brother has taken to referencing John McCain as the cartoon dog Muttley. I think it's McCain's laugh and shrugged shoulders. (Yes, I know they are shrugged because the Vietnamese kept dislocating them.) Still, I've decided that, from now on, Muttley will be my new nickname for him.

Very Scary Electoral Math; New Poll In Sidebar

Note that I have placed a new icon in the right sidebar. It is a real-time map of the U.S. showing the status of the November elections based on polling. If you click on the graphic, it will take you to a site with more polling data than you can imagine. I will leave this in place through the November 4th election.

Source: Charles Babington, AP Writer

Keep your eyes on Pennsylvania and Michigan.

There are battleground states in the presidential election, and then there are these two, looming larger than most others because they offer such a rich opportunity for John McCain and potential peril for Barack Obama.

What worries Obama, and gives McCain hope, is that both states have hundreds of thousands of white, mostly working-class Democrats who seem wary of Obama. In the PA primary they gave Hillary Clinton a big win over Obama, and now McCain is wooing them hard.

—SNIP—

If McCain carries either state, he could lose several states that President Bush won and still claim the White House. For Obama, a loss in either would put him in a deep hole, forcing him to win numerous states that have voted Republican in recent elections to have any hope of prevailing on Nov. 4.

—SNIP—

There are plenty of other vigorously contested states: Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Virginia, to name a few. But Michigan and Pennsylvania are different.

John Kerry and Al Gore carried both in their losing campaigns in 2000 and 2004. So they form an almost must-win minimum for Obama. He would start with the base those two men had, and then try to pick up enough Bush-carried states to put him over the top.

—SNIP—

To be elected, Obama must win 18 more electoral votes than Kerry did four years ago. If he loses PA, his deficit jumps to 39 electoral votes. If he loses MI instead, the gap is 35.

Those are big numbers, because the Bush-won states that look most promising for Obama tend to be small, with few electoral votes.

The possibilities and math can get complicated.

When you look at it like this, the electoral map makes Obama's campaign an uphill struggle from the beginning.

What Do Alaskans Think?

Here's interesting perspective written about Anastasia Beaverhausen on the Alaskan blog Mudflats.

Shocking News Out Of Will & Grace

Anastasia Beaverhausen could be one heart beat away from the presidency.