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The Associated Press looks at Rielle's final $14,000 payment from the Edwards campaign in April '07. After the $100,000 he'd already paid her for 15-20 minutes of amateurish video. Question for those few remaining "It was just sex!" holdouts: Do you really think the contributors to the Edwards campaign appreciate the idea that they might have helped him pay for it?Ouch.
"Democrats should take a deep breath and realize that there are a group of voters who won't make up their mind about a candidate until deep in the fall," said David Plouffe, Mr. Obama's campaign manager. "And there are 18 states that are battlegrounds for a reason, and they'll be decided by 2 to 4 points. I don't care about national polls."Yeah, you wanna bet 18 states are within the 52-48% range on Nov. 5? I mean, seriously, Georgia?
"The polls will change, but we know we need 200,000 new voters to be competitive in Georgia, and now is when we have to get them."OK, I was born in Atlanta, lived there until 1997, still have lots of friends and family down home, and I will guaran-damn-tee you Obama won't win Georgia. Let's look at the facts, shall we?
One of the big claims of Team Obama, has been that their candidate will run a "50-state strategy" (the pet idea of David Sirota). He is, they say, a "map changer."Probably Team Maverick expects Obama to announce huge numbers for July, and so they wanted to get ahead of the story by putting McCain's numbers in context of the large RNC/state GOP fundraising operation.Prophetic powers vindicated:
Sen. Barack Obama raised $51 million in July, falling short of his one-month record, but raising enough to end the month with $65.8 million in the bank -- a formidable number for the middle of the summer.By the way, somebody want to explain to me again how Republicans are "the party of the rich"?
Michelle Malkin detects the scent of bovine manure exuded by St. Hopey's promise of "first come, first served" tickets to his mile-high apotheosis at Invesco Field:[I]t appeared the ticket give-away wasn't as advertised but because the campaign perpetuated the idea that the vast majority of passes would go to regular people of all backgrounds and political beliefs.Prediction: By this time next week, prime tickets to the Obamatheosis will be going on Craigslist for $200 and up. Just because Democratic bigwigs rant and rave against greedy capitalists doesn't mean they'll pass up a chance to make a quick buck.
Instead, several of those who missed out said they suspect the bulk of the tickets were passed out to people who worked for -- or gave money to -- the campaign.
"It just makes me angry," said Katherine Thayer, of Denver. "If they're going to go out and say it's first-come, first-served and then turn around and reward people who volunteer or gave money, then they ought to be up front about it."
"The polls will change, but we know we need 200,000 new voters to be competitive in Georgia, and now is when we have to get them."
George Feigley's words:"I require total devotion to my desires. You may not have a will nor desire of your own which do not project my wishes. I expect this complete commitment from my wives, my concubines and my children ... Make yourselves my delight. If there is discord among you, I will have you whipped."
Feigley wielded fear like a conductor's baton. He forced the children to obey his commands for sex with him and other cult members, often with onlookers and to be photographed using sexual devices.
The fact that all three lawyers -- those for Edwards, Hunter and Young -- contacted the Enquirer within days of the publication of her being photographed pregnant on December 12, and that Edwards' lawyer told them that Rielle was going to deny the paternity allegation, suggests to me, as a lawyer, it was a joint strategy.Well, of course, it was a joint strategy. What boggles my mind is (a) Young's willingness to be the fall guy for his boss, and (b) Hunter's failure to realize that she's being played.
Unlike the right wing bloggers covering this who may just be gleeful to see John Edwards, a prominent Democrat trashed, it bothers me for a different reason. . . .OK, first, the "glee" thing: Speaking as a right-winger, I never thought Edwards was anything other than a phony, and let me explain why. That "son of a poor mill-worker" stuff was pure bunk, if you actually know anything about life in Southern textile mill towns. (My grandmother worked for years in the mills in LaGrange, Ga., where my uncle and cousins still live.)
On one level I'm angry because I supported both Edwards and Hillary between October and December. I covered them equally in Iowa and spent hours attending his campaign events and writing about them. I would have endorsed Hillary much earlier had Edwards not been in the race. As a blogger, that matters to me.
"They weren't quite as humble as Edwards makes it sound,'' says Pat Smith of Robbins. "Wallace was a very important man at the mill. ... They weren't rich, but they weren't struggling poor."In fact, Edwards' father's life story was a classic American bootstrap tale of upward mobility, and for Edwards to poormouth his childhood and imply that his family lived hand-to-mouth was an insult to his father's hard work. As someone whose own parents were of the same hard-working middle-class type -- my dad worked 37 years at the Lockheed plant in Marietta, Ga. -- I've never been tempted to poormouth my upbringing in some pathetic attempt to aggrandize myself by belittling my own parents.
My column at Pajamas Media:Informed political observers have realized since June that Hillary Rodham Clinton won't be Barack Obama’s running mate. As Obama prepares to announce his vice-presidential choice, however, it will be worthwhile to watch the reaction of the ill-informed and unobservant — which is to say, the independent "swing" voters who will ultimately decide the election.
Especially for those swing voters who voted for Hillary in the Democratic primaries, it may come as a brutal shock to learn that the former First Lady won't be on the ticket in November. The shock will be amplified when those voters learn that Obama's choice was the result of an ABC ("Anybody But Clinton") process that excluded Hillary from serious consideration months earlier.
It is still theoretically possible that Obama will shock everyone by offering Hillary the second spot, and perhaps equally possible Hillary will launch a coup, if enough super delegates abstain in the first roll call vote, in order to throw the voting open on subsequent ballots.
If you're Obama, why not choose a VP who strengthens you all over and consolidates a source of weak support? Who has been thoroughly vetted? Whose selection would be a surprise and galvanize support for the ticket?
If Bill Clinton can be sent to Tahiti for the next 80 days, it just might work.
Ruffini's prediction makes perfect sense to me. Nothing else will solve The Obama's Democrat deserter problem.
Picking her would indicate that Obama thinks he has a bigger problem with Democrats than with independents and needs to purchase "unity" even at the expense of alienating centrists and handing McCain a gift-wrapped GOTV angle. . . . Is the sore-loser PUMA contingent really so huge within the party that he genuinely fears it's going to cost him the election?Answer: It's not PUMAs, it's mainly older independent women who are at stake here. They voted for Hillary in the primaries, but haven't paid much attention to the "inside baseball" chatter since Obama clinched in June and did those "unity" photo-ops with Clinton. In their cluelessness, they figured an Obama-Clinton ticket was the common-sense solution, and when Obama picks someone else -- it's Bayh, I tell ya -- they're going to feel that this is a high-handed insult to the former First Lady. It's all about the arrogance meme, see?
There is a secret Republican campaign staff training school where staffers are taught this technique of making sure that reporters are treated as mortal enemies and allowed as little access to the candidate as possible. The same training school also teaches Republicans to complain constantly about bias in the media.A reporter tried to ask McCain about a new anti-Obama book, to which McCain responded cryptically "gotta keep your sense of humor." McCain staffer Brooke Buchanan then stretched her arms in front of her boss, saying "we're not doing that," and escorted reporters to the door.
Reuters featured a piece by Matthew Bigg, titled "When it comes to race, U.S. politicians talk in code." . . .Limbaugh sees this as intrinsic to liberals' sense of "self-anointment as moral paragons," and this pretense of paranormal perception -- claiming to see racial "code" where normal people see only the regular give-and-take of politics -- makes sense in no other way.
Biggs says that references to Obama's alleged inexperience (alleged?) and perceived arrogance (perceived?) "could also be seen as subtle racial digs," according to unnamed commentators -- probably meaning Biggs himself.
How do the unnamed clairvoyants infer racism from these legitimate criticisms against Obama?
I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.Old-fashioned, like I said. I'm also reminded that on June 6, 1944, the 4th Infantry Division landed in Normandy, only to discover that they'd landed a full mile south of their objective. They were on the wrong beach. What to do? Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. declared, "We're going to start the war from here!"
German-based DHL announced a deal that could result in 8,200 lost jobs in Wilmington, Ohio. And McCain did in fact oppose an amendment that would have kept DHL from buying Wilmington-based Airborne Express. . . .This is how Democratic Party and labor union goons exploit fear and economic ignorance, and except for banning international trade, I don't know what could ever satisfy them.
[T]he Teamsters union praised the merger at the time, saying that it would lead to more jobs. And at first, more jobs indeed followed.
The ads also imply that the DHL merger is a direct cause of the job losses in Ohio, which we find to be both unlikely and unsubstantiated. Airborne Express had laid off 2,000 employees before the merger, and analysts at the time said that the struggling carrier would need to make expensive investments in its international infrastructure to remain competitive. . . .
The AFL-CIO mailer is the most explicit, saying that "McCain helped cut a deal that sent over 8,000 jobs to a foreign-owned company." Obama's television ad, which began airing on Aug. 14, charges that "John McCain helped pave the way for foreign-owned DHL to take over an American shipping company."
Since Obama's hubris in Berlin, he has lost almost every cycle of this campaign, and lost all of them quite badly. I'm not sure his campaign gets how far they have sunk, and how ineffectual and passive Obama has seemed these past few weeks.This is basically a reiteration of the "why don't they get tough?" meme, where liberals claim that Democrats lose because they refuse to take the gloves off. As if accusing Bush of plotting 9/11 as part of a conspiracy to gut the Bill of Rights, steal Iraq's oil and funnel profits to Halliburton didn't constitute an "attack."
"Well, I don't know a lot about John McCain's family history, I do know, however, that as recently as last week I think it was, the Senator made a comment in South Dakota regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest which is this topless deal and if she were to enter she would probably win it and my personal opinion and based on my understanding of the Christian faith, that's not not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make," said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell. "I don't know if that is a perfect case in point, but it surely does help to juxtapose the DNA of Senator Obama, if you would, versus the DNA of Senator McCain."What part of "lighten up" doesn't he understand? Here's the obvious joke at the Sturgis rally:
Caldwell, a close personal friend of President Bush who supports Obama for president, is the senior pastor at Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. Caldwell made his comments on a conference call with reporters sponsored by the Matthew 25 Network, a liberal Christian Group. Matthew 25 is planning to air a pro-Obama ad on Saturday during the Rick Warren forum with Obama and McCain.So, a pro-Obama pastor is engaged in pro-Obama politics. Not surprising. The story, as written, is misleading.
Republican JokesContinued on Page 213
About Homeless,
Transgendered,
Scandinavians
By Jake Tapper
GOP and McCain campaign officials yesterday denounced a right-wing Internet site that advocates violence against the homeless and Scandinavians.
"We absolutely abhor these ideas," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. "Senator McCain has many friends in the Scando-American community, and several of his former top campaign staffers are currently living
under bridges in cardboard boxes, so the Senator deeply appreciates the plight of the homeless.
The controversy ensued after complaints about an Internet blog site known as Ace of Spades HQ, whose Republican proprietor has repeatedly made comments about "beating up hobos," having sex with "Latino trannies," and has used terms like "lutefisk gobblers" to demean Scandinavians.
"We consider the term 'hobo' to be profoundly offensive to the homeless-American community," said Maureen O'Shaunessy, spokesperson for the National Alliance for Housing. "This kind of language constitutes an assault on the dignity of the millions of innocent people who suffer this plight as the result of the housing crisis."
Attempts to contact the pseudonymous proprietor of the Ace of Spades site were unsuccessful . . .
As it happens, most of the counterfeit purses, sunglasses, and some other shlock are sold by West Africans, most of whom are here illegally. In recent days, around the city I have noticed a new addition to their wares: rows of baseball caps with an "Obama" logo. No McCain caps — ever. If you ask, they laugh in a none too friendly way.For pointing this out, Ms. Schiffren is accused of being anti-capitalist. Myself, I'm all in favor of unauthorized, bootleg, tax-dodging, sidewalk capitalism in New York. Anything that cheats the Bloomberg bureaucracy out of a nickel is a good thing. The more the underground economy booms, the greater the likelihood the city's deficits will force the city to lay off some of the subnormal parasitical scum they call "public school teachers."
I think most, if not all, of you want to build bridges. And if you don't want to build bridges, I'm not talking to you!Beyond parody . . .
The convention should be about the economic problems facing the nation overall and Michigan specifically, Brent Colburn, Obama’s Michigan campaign spokesman said.Translation: Democratic Party bigwigs told Kwame to shut up and skip the convention, or else his corrupt party cronies might not be too generous with those legal-defense-fund contributions.
"Many Michigan families are struggling as a result of the failed policies and old politics that John McCain wants to continue. The focus of our convention to people back here in Michigan should be on Barack Obama and how the party intends to get America back on track, not a distraction involving the troubles of one individual," Colburn said in a statement released this afternoon.
Later today, Kilpatrick issued a statement calling Obama's nomination "a historic event, however I'm focused on running the city, and I don't want anything to distract from that extraordinary moment. The focus should remain on uniting the party and leading our great nation in a different direction."
The invitation came at short notice, and I assumed it would cover their fundraising numbers for July. Calling a press conference to announce it indicated that they either had good news, or needed to explain bad news.Probably Team Maverick expects Obama to announce huge numbers for July, and so they wanted to get ahead of the story by putting McCain's numbers in context of the large RNC/state GOP fundraising operation.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit last week to help get Barr a place on the ballot. Unfortunately, the intransigence of state election officials has been compounded by mixed messaging by some supporters of the ACLU lawsuit - especially Phillies himself.Phillies and certain other hard-core LP activists basically resent the effort of Barr's supporters to expand the Libertarian Party beyond its current status as a philosophical debating society and make it a party of major political significance.
Almost immediately after Barr secured the nomination, Phillies told Reason magazine that the Massachusetts Libertarians might hold a state convention to nominate a separate candidate. "Nominating this man," he is quoted as saying of Barr, "is the equivalent of nominating an Imperial Wizard of the KKK to lead a party of African-Americans." He repeated a variation of this statement on the state party's website shortly afterward.
But the [1912 Republican] convention itself was one for the ages, as delegates scuffled and Taft floor whips vainly tried to control what soon got out of control. Noted Kansas editor William Allen White . . . wrote as he surveyed the proceedings that he was looking down "into the human cauldron that was boiling all around me." The tension was palpable between TR's progressives and Taft's regular Republicans. And when most of Roosevelt's delegates abstained at TR's request to protest the raw deal, Taft waltzed off with the nomination.Frankly, the Republicans bear most of the blame for the vanilla-fication of conventions. In 1972, Richard Nixon's campaign led the way by orchestrating the Miami convention as a made-for-TV spectacle, with absolutely zero spontanaeity. Reagan's re-election campaign in 1984, and George Bush's 1988 campaign, did the same thing. The Democrats emulated the superior stagecraft of the Republicans and began organizing their own scripted snoozefests.
Gorious. 'Tis a shame we live in such a time where Vanilla is the preferred flavor of politicians and Rocky Road is banned from our convention menu.
Edwards certainly is adept at reading stupid women, or as his campaign called them, "the base."Ouch. There's another 700 or so words where that came from, so read the whole thing.
Hillary's name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver:During the Denver gathering, Democrats will officially choose Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall, but the state delegations will do a traditional roll call for their nominee's vanquished primary opponent as well. . . .If Obama and his DNC allies had sought to deny Hillary a roll-call vote, it would have been a most un-democratic convention. Score this a victory for the PUMAs.
The two sides made the announcement Thursday in a collegial joint statement.
"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," said Obama, an Illinois senator.
Five days after Edwards flat-lined on "Nightline," I am still embarrassed by how badly I misjudged him both in print and in my personal feelings. . . .Shapiro then draws this "moral to the story":
My wife (a magazine writer who developed her own friendship with Elizabeth) and I had several off-the-record dinners with the Edwardses. . . .
I naively believed that I knew Edwards as well as I understood anyone in the political center ring. Yet I never saw this sex scandal coming -- partly because I accepted the mythology that surrounded the Edwards' marriage and partly because I assumed that any hint of a wandering eye would have come out during the 2004 campaign.
If we stopped expecting would-be presidents to be paragons of marital fidelity and shining examples of religious faith in the public sphere, we would not set ourselves up for constant disappointment at human frailty.No, the real lesson is far more simple: Don't trust politicians . . . especially millionaire lawyer politicians.
Conservatism is an organic expression of the business community, which is the most powerful element of American society.Eh? Russell Kirk, Whittaker Chambers, Richard Weaver -- just shills for the Chamber of Commerce?
Robert Stacy McCain is too easily swayed and frightened by polls. While John McCain may be slightly behind or even tied with Obama in the polls the good news is Obama isn't doing as well as his Democrat predecessors at this time in the election cycle."Frightened by polls"? I'm not frightened. I was just including a "state of the race" assessment in a feature article about McCain's appearance in Pennsylvania when I wrote:
That the result on Nov. 4 could hinge on Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes is an optimistic forecast for a candidate who continues to trail his Democratic rival in recent national polls. No Republican presidential candidate has carried Pennsylvania since 1988, and recent statewide polls show Sen. Barack Obama leading by more than 7 points. . . .While polls are flawed intruments, they are the only evidence we have to assess voter support for the candidates at this point. It's certainly possible that Obama's support will collapse in the next 82 days, but to assume such a collapse is to go beyond the available evidence.
One of the 14 girls who will compete on the new season of America's Next Top Model -- which returns to The CW on September 3 -- is transgender.This kind of PC gesture is only a gesture. "Isis" will not become a "top model," and the entire purpose of her inclusion is to give TV time to an "underrepresented community."
"My cards were dealt differently," Isis, a 22-year-old former receptionist, tells Us Weekly. . . .
Will she be a role model?
"I like to help people, but I'm here to follow my dreams," she tells Us.
The inclusion of Isis is being hailed by GLAAD president Neil Giuliano as "an unprecedented opportunity for a community that is underrepresented on television.
"We applaud Tyra Banks and The CW for making this historic visibility of transgender people possible," Giuliano said.
Johnson was fired from his job in Conway before the shooting Wednesday.So he got fired from Target, but several sources say that he used to work for the Gwatney family's auto dealership.
Conway police were called to the Target just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, because of some anti-target graffiti he had written on the wall. Employees there say he was irate, but he left the scene before officers arrived.
After the suspect avoided spike strips and a roadblock along U.S. 167 near Sheridan, police rammed his car, spinning it, said Grant County Sheriff Lance Huey. He got out of his truck and began shooting, and state police and sheriff's deputies fired back, striking him several times, he said.The police spokesman seems to discount the disgrunted ex-employee angle:
Hastings said investigators found at least two handguns in the suspect's truck.
ID on the suspect:At a late afternoon news conference, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said Gwatney was shot multiple times in his upper body. Hastings said there is no known connection between Gwatney and the gunman and police have not commented on a possible motive.
He has now been identified as Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, of Searcy. A sister who lives in Sheridan identified him, police said.UPDATED & BUMPED (AGAIN): Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney has died after being shot by a man who was apparently a disgruntled former employee of Gwatney's auto dealership. The gunman was 51 and died of a gunshot wound, which may have been self-inflicted.
Johnson had no prior police record, according to the Little Rock police and a motive was still unknown. "This is one of those where we may never know," said Police Lt. Terry Hastings.
Moments before the Democratic headquarters shooting, a man with a gun threatened the building manager of the Arkansas State Baptist Convention headquarters seven blocks east. It wasn't known if the incidents were related.UPDATE IV: The party chairman was shot three times; details of the police pursuit of the gunman:
Dan Jordan, the denomination's business manager, said the building manager asked the man what was wrong and that he said "I lost my job."
According to police, officers chased the gunman down Interstate 530 toward Pine Bluff, until he was forced off at the Sheridan exit. They caught up with him in Sheridan and a gun battle ensued in which the gunman was captured after he was shot by police. He was taken by MedFlight air ambulance to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. Lt. Terry Hastings of the Little Rock police reported on Wednesday afternoon that the gunman had died.
UPDATE V: Disgruntled former employee of the party chairman's auto dealership?
Sources say they are working to confirm tentative information that the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. News reports are identifying him as Tim Johnson, 50, of Searcy. He reportedly was a body shop worker at a Gwatney dealership in Sherwood.
Allah suggests this might be another "garden variety wacko," rather than politically-motivated terrorism.
Very disturbing news:A gunman entered the Arkansas Democratic Party headquarters Wednesday and shot the party chairman, who was hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said. The gunman asked to speak to the party chairman, Bill Gwatney, and fired three shots at the office near the state Capitol. . . .Will update as further details become available.
The suspect was chased into Grant County, south of Little Rock, and apprehended after being shot, the police spokesman said. The suspect's condition and motive were not known.
Sarah Lee, a sales clerk at a flower shop across street from the party headquarters, said that around noon Gwatney's secretary ran into the shop and asked someone to call 911.
Lee said the secretary told her the man had come into the party's office and asked to speak with Gwatney.
When the secretary said she wouldn't allow him to meet with Gwatney, the man went into his office and shot him, Lee said.
She said the secretary described the man as in his 40s and white and drove off in a blue truck.
Hope, comrades!A broad multiclass, multiracial movement is converging around Obama's "Hope, change and unity" campaign because they see in it the thrilling opportunity to end 30 years of ultra-right rule and move our nation forward with a broadly progressive agenda. . . .(Hat tip: JWF, LGF.) A "broadly progressive agenda" isn't exactly "death to the bourgeois oppressors," but it's close enough for CPUSA.
The struggle to defeat the ultra-right and turn our country on a positive path will not end with Obama's election. But that step will shift the ground for successful struggles going forward.
With less than two weeks to go before the start of the presidential nominating conventions, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has disappeared. Pew's latest survey finds 46% of registered voters saying they favor or lean to the putative Democratic candidate, while 43% back his likely Republican rival. In late June, Obama held a comfortable 48%-to-40% margin over McCain, which narrowed in mid-July to 47% to 42%.Perhaps they forgot to poll in Berlin. Obama's very popular there, I'm told.
With two weeks before the convention, Obama needs a momentum reversal, and he needs it quickly.Ed ignores the raaaaa-cism, but let me suggest something else that's being ignored: Many Hillary primary supporters have (falsely) assumed that she would be Obama's running mate, and haven't paid attention since. When Obama announces his (white male) running mate, he will lose support among women.
These voters quite naturally assume that, after such a close-fought contest, Hillary has earned the right to be on the ticket. They haven't noticed Obama's comments and furious vetting efforts that show he's seeking an ABC ("Anyone But Clinton") running mate, with most speculation centering on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. And when it is finally announced that Hillary won't be on the ticket, it's going to be a huge jolt, one that many will perceive as a purposeful insult to the former First Lady.Like Cagney and the grapefruit:
This kind of racism aimed at Barack Obama's candidacy for president should not be tolerated as we approach the most intense phase of the election cycle.The CCC is not "interconnected with the Republican Party," and does not take its marching orders from the GOP or from John McCain. (I'm sure CCC chairman Gordon Lee Baum would laugh at the very suggestion.)
This kind of white supremacy, interconnected with the Republican Party . . . should require clear and repeated denunciations from John McCain.
And now The ENQUIRER has uncovered that Edwards' political operatives are still paying his mistress Rielle Hunter -- and she was whisked away on a private jet two days before he confessed their extramarital affair on national TV!Private jets, mistresses, secret trysts at the Beverly Hilton -- in which one of the two Americas does this stuff happen? Like I said, once they figure out you're never gonna sue for libel, the tabloids can print anything.
The ENQUIRER has also confirmed that Edwards secretly visited Rielle and their love child three separate times at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles this year -- a fact that proves he is still lying to America and his wife.
