Political Theatre category archive

Via ASZ.

Dick Polman:

. . . One of the most prominent, of course, is his claim that the community group ACORN is “maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” There’s no need here to debate whether ACORN’s sporadic screwups during voter signup season actually constitute a clear and present danger to the body politic, since McCain’s hyperbole has already been dismissed by some noteworthy Republicans, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and his Republican secretary of state. Suffice it to say that, on the belly laugh scale, McCain’s heavy breathing about ACORN ranks just below Meg Ryan’s heavy breathing in the fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally.

James Tobin’s indictment really puts this ACORN episode into perspective – simply as a reminder that, when it comes to the actual practice of messing with actual signed-up voters on election day, nobody does it better than the backstage folks at the GOP. When one reviews the facts that underpin the Tobin story, the party’s fake tears about ACORN become all too apparent. So let us take a quick stroll down memory lane, to demonstrate how true fraud actually works, and how actual Republican operatives have recently served actual jail time for their crimes. It’s a story too few readers probably know about, and it’s all available in sworn court testimony.

I wasn’t there when she died, but I visited her frequently during the year in which her mind gradually left home.

Fortunately, I did not have to deal with heartless bastards questioning my motives:

Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Jerome Corsi suggested or asserted that the true purpose of Sen. Barack Obama’s current trip to Hawaii is not to visit his ailing grandmother, as Obama claims, but rather to address rumors — widely debunked — that Obama has failed to produce a valid U.S. birth certificate. However, in addition to FactCheck.org and a Hawaiian Health Department official, even Corsi’s employer, the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, has reportedly determined that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign is authentic.

Wingnuts–proof that it is possible to be sick, evil, stupid, and cruel, all at the same time.

Via Atrios.

Here.

In other news, NPR assembled a focus group of voters in York, Pa.

I listened to this report tonight. After stating that she was not voting for Senator Obama because she was afraid of how black persons would react if he won and following the obligatory disclaimer that “I am not prejudiced,” one of the persons interviewed came out with such a torrent of bigotry that I nearly choked.

And I’m sure she really believes that she is not prejudiced. I’ve only met one bigot–and, frankly, he was a really likable guy–who would look you straight in the eye and say, “I’m a bigot.”

It’s sort of like the panhandler who hailed a friend of mine on the streets of D. C. one day and said, “Can I have a quarter? I’m saying up for a bottle of wine.”

My friend gave him $5.00 for being honest.

Follow the link to listen to it yourself.

Don’t do it right after a heavy meal.

Even in these tough times, some persons still have standards.

Via TPM.

Harry Shearer’s extensive research answers the question:

ASZ has the story.

This appears to be the real thing, unlike the ACORN stuff, and, natch, it’s a Republican thing.

About the lyingRepublican (okay, I admit that “lying” and “Republican” are redundancies) robocalls:

ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Rigel Anderson report: Embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins is calling on Sen. John McCain to stop paying for automated phone calls which describe Sen. Barack Obama as having “worked closely” with “domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.”

“These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics,” said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. “Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately.”

Via TPM.

Stands for post mortem.

Here’s Dick Polman’s pm of last night’s debate.

I’m not going to try to excerpt it or summarize it. It’s too tightly written and too well expressed.

Just please go read it.

Phillybits is working on a collection.

Like this and this and this.

It is, natch, a Republican thing.

All seriousness aside, they got nuttin’.

Nuttin’ but hate and fear.

America is better than them.

Bennet Cerf once told the story of the radio station that wanted to do a story about wild youth, so one Friday night they set about calling households to ask the parents whether they knew where their teenagers were.

Twenty-five per cent of the calls were answered by teenagers who didn’t know where their parents were.

Via Mithras.

Letter to the Editor in its entirety from today’s local rag:

Of course Philadelphia fans booed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (“Palin hears plenty of boos,” Sunday). We booed Santa Claus, and he is more qualified to be president than Palin. Don’t forget, the North Pole shares a border with Russia.

Terry Gross investigated the “voter fraud” fraud in three segments on Wednesday’s show.

Check it out here.

Addendum, 10/13/08:

Josh Marshall sums it up:

Vote registration fraud is a limited and relatively minor problem in the US today. But it is principally an administrative and efficiency issue. It is has little or nothing to do with people casting illegitimate votes to affect an actual election. That’s the key. What you’re hearing right now from Fox News, the New York Post, John Fund and the rest of the right-wing bamboozlement chorus is a just another effort to exploit, confuse and lie in an effort to put more severe restrictions on legitimate voting and lay the groundwork to steal elections.

Abuse of power is a wingnut thing.

From MarketWatch:

The Republican nominee for vice president violated the state’s Executive Branch Ethics Act by repeatedly trying to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed from the Alaska State Police and then for firing Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan after he refused to let Wooten go, according to a report from investigator Stephen Branchflower, who was commissioned by a joint committee of the Alaska legislature.

As my mother would have said, “Honestly . . . .”

Eric Alterman & George Zornick in The Nation (emphasis added):

On issue after issue, and from every side of the journalistic political spectrum, a campaign of deception and distortion has helped to ensure that McCain’s extreme positions and politically inspired flip-flops remain far from the consciousness of the average voter. Just as the media-promoted notion that George W. Bush was the kind of guy with whom one might enjoy a few beers managed to obscure the predictable catastrophes that lay in store for this nation once he became President, so too can the deep-seated media denial of McCain’s extremist policies and addiction to political expediency mask the fact that his victory in November would result in a continuation–and even, in some instances, an expansion–of the very policies that have brought the nation to the brink of irreversible disaster.

According to an extensive Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll taken in early May, only 27 percent of voters have positive views of the Republican Party, the lowest level for either party in the survey’s nearly two-decade history. A clear majority of voters in the same survey said they wished for a Democratic President. And yet, in what the Journal reporters termed a “remarkable” finding, McCain remained in a dead heat with Obama and Clinton in head-to-head match-ups. The authors’ explanation: “McCain’s image is trumping negatives such as the war and the economy.” More recent polls continue to show McCain running well ahead of any generic “Republican” candidate. It’s true that before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright became the most famous man in America, coverage of Obama had been extremely favorable. And McCain’s easy ride has seen some speed bumps in recent weeks, regarding both his army of conflicted lobbyists/advisers and a poorly received speech on the night Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. But decades of devotion to McCain’s causes and character are not likely to be erased overnight, even in the event of an unlikely U-turn on the part of most of the MSM.

If it’s old news, shouldn’t it be referred to as “olds” (it’s an AP story; all you get is a summary):

Bushies prefer political loyalty over competence.

And this surprises us how?

Meanwhile, the Demon Princess points out that, in the Bush World, the wages of virtue is demotion:

Daniel Levin once worked for Alberto Gonzales’s Department of Justice ~ until he wrote a memo disagreeing with Bushco’s torture policies, whereupon he was asked to step down. “Too independent,” it was said, after he had himself subjected to waterboarding while researching the Bushco predetermined party line that waterboarding isn’t torture.

From ASZ:

I’m not sure there is any other way to look at it. Gordon Smith has served the citizens of Oregon since 1992, and has served in the Senate for nearly 12 years. He’s up for election in trying times for the Republican Party. Smith, it appears, has decided to deny that he’s a member of the GOP. At the very least, just check out the Gordon Smith for Senate web site. Do you see the word “Republican?” Nope, not on the first page. Take a close look and the word “Democrats” is there, though. But there’s more in the last couple days to show that Gordon Smith is running from the Republican Brand as fast as he can. Like a new advertisement where he tries to link himself with Barack Obama.

Follow the link for the links to the evidence. Or something like that.

I was fresh out of Publishers Clearing House brochures, but I figured the RNC could use some flyers from Haband.

The Booman asks a good question.