POWAY for OBAMA!!!

Transition

Poway for Obama — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:47:49 EST

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!

Poway for Obama — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:02:42 EST

John Sherffius

Tom Toles

Ben Sargent

Pat Oliphant

Mike Luckovich

David Horsey

Steve Benson

Jack Ohman

Thank you, everyone!!!

Poway for Obama — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:52:03 EST

Thank you all for your hard work, your time, effort, dollars, and everything that you put into this campaign. Yes, WE DID!!!!

Poway folks -- party at my place this weekend. Email me if you're interested for address and specifics -- 6 pm, Saturday....

Dogs for Obama!

Poway for Obama — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:13:50 EST

NYC t-shirt pics via Watertiger

Poway for Obama — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:27:41 EDT

Remember: GET OUT THE VOTE!!!!!!

Let's do this thing!

Went walkabout in the real world yesterday.

I mean, if you consider NYC the "real" world. Did see these t-shirts:

Campaign sign of the day

Poway for Obama — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:17:13 EDT

Palin Fails to Understand Basic Science Research

Poway for Obama — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:31:10 EDT

Memo To Palin: Fruit Fly Research Has Led To Advances In Understanding Autism»

This morning, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) gave her first policy speech urging the federal government to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), “a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.” In the speech, Palin cited the need to do more for children with disabilities such as autism:

For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information. Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference.

Palin claimed that the amount that Congress spends on earmarks “is more than the shortfall to fully fund IDEA.” She then ridiculed some of the projects — such as “fruit fly research” — saying they have little or no value:

Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.

Palin did not specify what fruit fly research earmark she was referring to (presumably a grant for olive fruit fly research), but she is apparently unaware that scientific research with fruit flies has led to valuable discoveries that have boosted autism research, as a study at the University of North Carolina demonstrated last year:

[S]cientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.

The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.

The study of fruit flies has also been used for other autism research and “revolutionize[d]” the study of birth defects.

Watch REAL PLUMBERS on Larry King tonite!

Poway for Obama — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:14:02 EDT

hursday, October 23rd, 2008
Michael Moore on Larry King Live Tonight!

Tune in tonight as Michael Moore will be Larry's sole guest for the majority of the hour. Michael will be interviewed live on location with a group of plumbers who support Barack Obama.

Don't miss Mike with "Plumbers for Obama" on Larry King Live tonight (Thursday, October 23rd) at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT on CNN (replay at midnight ET/9:00 PM PT and 3:00 AM ET/midnight PT).

Tune in tonight and plumb the vote on November 4th.

Webmaster
MichaelMoore.com

150K for this?!

Poway for Obama — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:15:46 EDT

LOL!!!! Oh, Sarah! Are you on our side after all?! Great wardrobe choice, RNC!

Polar Bears for Change

Poway for Obama — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:20:18 EDT

http://soggytoast.livejournal.com/125831.html

More asininity from those supporters McCain is "proud" of

Poway for Obama — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:41:05 EDT

McCain supporters heckle early voters.»

On Sunday, the Washington Times’s Christina Bellantoni stopped by a polling place in North Carolina, where she reported that a “group of loud and angry protestors” — almost all of whom were white — were shouting and mocking voters — nearly all of whom were black. Bellatoni noted that people “were shouting about Obama’s acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word ‘terrorist.’ They also were complaining that Sundays are for church, not voting.”

Video available at the link....

Last Thursday and Friday, more than 200,000 voters went the polls in the first two days of early voting in North Carolina.

Humane Society Legislative Fund Endorses Obama-Biden

Poway for Obama — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:45:14 EDT

Humane Society Legislative Fund Endorses Obama-Biden

October 18, 2008 by Rochelle Lesser

Senator Obama is featured in book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with this photo of him holding Baby, the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation.

Press Release: Humane Society Legislative Fund Endorses Obama-Biden

One of the guiding principles of the Humane Society Legislative Fund is that we evaluate candidates based on a single criterion: where they stand on animal protection policies. We don’t make decisions based on party affiliation, or any other social issue, or even how many pets they have. We care about their views and actions on the major policy debates relating to animal welfare.

It stirs controversy to get involved in candidate elections. But we believe that candidates for office and current lawmakers must be held accountable, or they will see the animal protection movement as a largely irrelevant political constituency. In order to have good laws, we need good lawmakers, and involvement in elections is an essential strategy for any serious social movement, including our cause.

While we’ve endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, WE’VE NEVER BEFORE ENDORSED A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party’s candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.

I’m proud to announce today that the HSLF board of directors — which is comprised of both Democrats and Republicans — has voted unanimously to endorse Barack Obama for President. The Obama-Biden ticket is the better choice on animal protection, and we urge all voters who care about the humane treatment of animals, no matter what their party affiliation, to vote for them.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a solid supporter of animal protection at both the state and federal levels. As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-sponsored multiple bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and federal laws to combat animal fighting and puppy mills.

In his response to the HSLF questionnaire, he pledged support for nearly every animal protection bill currently pending in Congress, and said he will work with executive agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to make their policies more humane. He wrote of the important role animals play in our lives, as companions in our homes, as wildlife in their own environments, and as service animals working with law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. He also commented on the broader links between animal cruelty and violence in society.

Obama has even on occasion highlighted animal protection issues on the campaign trail, and has spoken publicly about his support for animal protection. In reaction to the investigation showing the abuse of sick and crippled cows which earlier this year led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, he issued a statement saying “that the mistreatment of downed cows is unacceptable and poses a serious threat to public health.” He is featured in Jana Kohl’s book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with a photo of Obama holding Baby (shown above), the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation, and his political mentor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), is the author of the latest federal bill to crack down on puppy mills.

Importantly, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has been a stalwart friend of animal welfare advocates in the Senate, and has received high marks year after year on the Humane Scorecard. Biden has not only supported animal protection legislation during his career, but has also led the fight on important issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

McCain's health plan hurts elders, boomers, and women

Poway for Obama — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:54:44 EDT

McCain’s Health Plan Puts Baby Boomers At Risk

In the short term, if you’re healthy and wealthy, you can use Sen. John McCain’s $2,500/$5,000 health care tax credit and enroll in a low premium/high deductible health care plan in the unregulated individual health insurance market. Once you get sick, you may lose your coverage to another round of medical underwriting … see your costs increase astronomically … have certain conditions exempt from coverage … the list goes on and on.

But for the 56 million Americans with employer coverage today who have a chronic illness, who are women or who are ages 55 to 64 — three groups of people who pay more for health insurance in the individual market — McCain’s plan to shift Americans from the employer-based insurance market to the individual market is more than an inconvenience, it’s a net loss.

Because while insurance companies require older and sicker people (or those who simply use more care, like women) to pay higher premiums, McCain’s plan doesn’t offer them a higher tax credit.

In fact, according to a new report from CAPAF, “the flat $2,500 credit will cover less than 48 percent for older Americans and more than 48 percent for younger Americans”:

Specifically it would cover 84 percent of the premium for an 18-to-24-year-old, but only 23 percent of the premium for a 60-to 64-year old…The McCain plan gives people ages 60 to 64 a tax credit that is 53 percent lower than one that adjusts for premium variation by age.”

What’s more, boomers — who make up 17 percent of non-elderly adults but account for 26 percent of those with at least one chronic illness — will have a hard time finding coverage in a market which tries to maximize profit by insuring only the healthiest Americans. But if they go uninsured, Medicare costs will skyrocket. In fact, a recent study found that “chronically ill people turning age 65 who were previously uninsured had lower spending than insured people prior to Medicare. Yet once on Medicare, these uninsured Americans spent 50 percent more than previously insured Medicare beneficiaries who also had chronic disease”:

If, as one study suggests, being uninsured increases spending by 50 percent…having 2.4 million more chronically ill Americans join Medicare as uninsured rather than previously insured could raise its costs by $2.4 billion per year in 2005 dollars.”

Thus, under McCain’s plan older and sicker Americans — and in fact all Americans — pay more for less. Read the full CAPAF report here.

Country First?

Poway for Obama — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:53:21 EDT

Looks like John and Cindy first, to me....

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/20/cindy-cap-gains/

The McCains Would Receive $55,000 A Year In Tax Breaks From McCain’s Capital Gains Proposal»

Our guest blogger is Michael Ettlinger, Vice President for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

On Friday, the McCain campaign released Cindy McCain’s 2007 tax returns. Sadly for the McCains, Mrs. McCain shows over $1.8 million dollars less tax return income in 2007 than 2006. Of course, she still reported over $4 million of income ($4,197,028) which — when added to the Senator’s tax return income in 2007 ($405,409) — brought their total to over $4.5 million ($4,602,437 to be precise).

A large source of income for the McCains came in the form of capital gains. This is an example of how, though many people have capital gains income sporadically throughout their lives, the wealthy have them quite consistently and they constitute an important source of income. In 2006, the McCains reported a total of $743,476 in capital gains. In 2007 they reported $746,395.

Last week, as part of his new Pension and Family Security Plan, Sen. McCain proposed temporarily cutting the capital gains tax from 15 percent to 7.5 percent. The proposal — had it been in effect in these years — would have reduced the McCains’ taxes by $55,761 in 2006 and $55,980 in 2007 (a two-year total of $111,740).

This is on top of the more than $350,000 that they would have saved in 2006 due to McCain’s other tax proposals.

One other note: the campaign refuses to release anything but Mrs. McCain’s 1040 tax form, which provides only a fraction of the information that she is reporting to the IRS. Most of the McCains’ decline in income between 2007 and 2006 was in “Schedule E” income. Schedule E is a form where income from a wide variety of sources is reported - including trusts and a type of closely held (often family owned) business.

There is a great deal of income legally sheltered from taxation in the machinations underlying the schedule E. Without having Mrs. McCain’s complete records, it’s impossible to know for sure whether the McCains actually did better or worse in 2007 than in 2006 - their accountants may just have had more ways to legally shelter income.

GO VOTE!!!!

Poway for Obama — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:48:56 EDT

Go vote! October 18th, 2008

What about Joe the Plumber's health care?

Poway for Obama — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:21:12 EDT

How ‘Joe The Plumber’ Is Hurt By McCain’s Health Care Plan

Responding to conservative claims that progressives would raise taxes on middle-class Americans like Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (a.k.a. ‘Joe the Plumber’) and undermine the success of small businesses, today’s Progress Report argues that a progressive tax policy is exactly how millions like ‘Joe the Plumber’ can realize the American Dream. The same is true for health care policy.

‘Joe the Plumber’ has himself experienced the consequences of rising health care costs. After St. Charles Mercy Hospital filed a lien against him in 2007 for $1,261, ‘Joe the Plumber’ joined a long-line of Americans who are squeezed by growing costs.

Nationally, costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and most of those who go bankrupt because of medical problems have health insurance. Total health care spending has doubled between 1996 and 2006, and without reform it is expected to double again in the coming decade.

But the change that Joe’s preferred candidate for President, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), offers would do very little to reduce Americans’ health care debt; in fact, it may add to it. Sure McCain speaks a good game about controlling health care costs, but his health care plan merely shifts the costs of insurance from the employer and the government to the individual. McCain controls cost by providing less care.

In McCain world, Joe is responsible for negotiating with a health insurance company and finding affordable coverage for himself or his children. Should he be lucky enough to find insurance in the individual market place (and only about 10 percent of applicants do), high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses would bankrupt the plumber, should his family become sick and actually need care. Since McCain’s plan undermines existing consumer protections, the insurance company could exclude certain conditions from coverage, deny medical claims, and increase premiums. In time, McCain’s $5,000 health credit would depreciate in value, raising Joe’s taxes, and forcing him to pay more for his health insurance plan.

Unfortunately, since ‘Joe the Plumber’ is no ‘Joe Millionaire,’ McCain’s health care plan would do little to help him afford health insurance.

John McCain, stop the hate

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:35:19 EDT

These are the supporters you're so proud of, John?

Come on, stop the hate and end your abusive campaign that inspires nothing but hatred and anger, John. In the words of John Stewart, "Stop Hurting America", John McCain!

Death threat, vandalism hit ACORN after McCain comments Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: October 17, 2008 03:51:00 PM

WASHINGTON — An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

Attorneys for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division of the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for the group.

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended."

A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.

McClatchy is withholding the women's names because of the threats.

Separately, vandals broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.

The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."

McCain's comments provoked a response from ACORN.

"I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence," Kettenring said, "but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish. We would call on Senator McCain to tamp down the fringe elements in his party."

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kettenring said that ACORN had received growing amounts of hate mail in recent weeks, but "the campaign debate sort of tipped it over to a scary point, where raising allegations of voter fraud went from a cynical campaign ploy to really inciting racial violence."

Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, he said.

The e-mail to the Cleveland employee was traced to a Facebook Web page in the name of a Baltimore man. It featured a photo of a McCain-Palin sign.

Kettenring said that the bulk of the e-mails had been either "flat-out racist" or had racial overtones. Most of the group's 400 members and about 80 percent of the 13,000 voter-registration canvassers are African-American or Latino.

It's unclear whether the alleged threats violated federal law, but Jonah Goldman, the director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that battles discrimination, argued that the Voting Rights Act should apply.

"A real concern is the impact that these terrible acts have on the people who registered through these registration drives," Goldman said. "Legitimate, eligible voters who sign up through these registration drives may be understandably intimidated and choose not to show up at the polls, and the Voting Rights Act prevents voter intimidation."

Palin Plumbing for Donors

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:23:24 EDT

Palin Talks Joe the Plumber With Donors

Elizabeth Holmes reports from Greensboro, N.C. on the presidential race.

Sarah Palin didn’t want to talk about Joe the Plumber.

At a fund-raiser here Thursday, Palin said she “begged our speechwriters” to give her a reprieve from mentioning the Ohio man made famous at Wednesday’s debate.

“Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches,” the GOP vice presidential candidate said she told her staff. The Alaska governor relented, she said, because of the sentiment that the man inspired.

“We know what Joe the Plumber was talking about when he was confronting Barack Obama and saying, ‘Wait a minute, aren’t you going to take my money, take my earnings and give it to somebody else who maybe hadn’t worked as hard as I have worked?’” Palin said.

The hypothetical questions kept coming. “What about this reward for strong work ethic, isn’t that what capitalism is all about? Isn’t that what the American economy should be based upon?” she asked.

Her remarks to the crowd, roughly 500 people who raised a total of $800,000 for the Republican National Committee, were filled with motivational talk.

“Being here encourages me because I know that I’m not alone,” Palin told the crowd gathered here Thursday evening. “At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it’s easy to get a little bit discouraged.”

Palin said the campaign had seen some good news in recent polls. “We even saw today, thank the Lord, we saw some movement,” she said, looking upwards and making a fist when she said “thank the Lord.”

Palin then said what many people are thinking this election cycle: watching cable news can be depressing.

“Sometimes, you do get depressed watching what it is that they’re reporting and the spin and some of the distortion of what our message is and what we stand for,” Palin said, adding that it “gets draining.”

Unlike most fund raisers, where the guest of honor is whisked away afterwards, Palin worked the crowd like she would any rally rope line. The scene was like most rallies, with people climbing over each other, sticking their digital cameras in the air and standing on chairs just to get a glimpse. Except this time, it was a mob of wealthy donors in suits and heels.

Palin stuck around for nearly 30 minutes after the speech, despite two different urgings by the hosts for the crowd to disperse. “You will have an opportunity to get signatures from Gov. Palin in the back,” one man said, butPalin was among the last to leave the tent.

Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/17/palin-talks-joe-the-plumber-with-donors/trackback/

The World Against McCain

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:05:27 EDT

Foreign Poll Favors Obama Eight leading foreign newspapers conducted a poll that finds overwhelming support for Sen. Barack Obama in the United States presidential election. He would win by a landslide in every country surveyed.

Canada: Obama 70%, McCain 14%

France: Obama 68%, McCain 5%

Switzerland: Obama 83%, McCain 7%

Poland: Obama 43%, McCain 26%

Japan: Obama 61%, McCain 13%

Mexico: Obama 46%, McCain 13%

Great Britain: Obama 64%, McCain 15%

Belgium: Obama 62%, McCain 8%

The poll also shows that America "can no longer count on the friendship even of its closest neighbours and allies after eight years of the Bush presidency. Only a minority in the countries surveyed describe relations with the US as friendly."

Joe the Plumber would get Obama tax cuts

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:51:37 EDT

‘Joe The Plumber’ Comes Clean: ‘I Would Be Receiving Obama’s Tax Cuts’»

As ThinkProgress and many others noted yesterday, the premise of Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher’s complaints about Barack Obama’s tax plan was ill-informed. Contrary to Wurzelbacher’s claims, “neither his personal taxes nor those of the business where he works are likely to rise if Mr. Obama’s tax plan were to go into effect.”

As CBS News reported, even “Joe The Plumber” acknowledges this fact now:

So today, Joe, who said he makes much less than $250,000, reluctantly admitted Obama would lower his taxes.

“I would, if you believe him, I would be receiving his tax cuts,” Wurzelbacher said.

Bloomberg reports that “one other problem in making Wurzelbacher a symbol of the overtaxed” is that — even if he did earn an adjusted gross income of $280,000 — “he would pay just $773 more in taxes under Obama’s plan than McCain’s.” That amount would hardly deal a crippling blow to his potential small business.

Last night, Sarah Palin said she didn’t want to talk about Wurzelbacher. “I begged our speechwriters, ‘Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches,” she said. After failing to properly vet Wurzelbacher’s situation, the McCain campaign is apparently now throwing him overboard and moving on.

The campaign is holding a conference call today with Russ Deker, an individual the McCain camp is calling “a Missouri ‘Joe the Plumber.’”

Regular Joe

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:50:20 EDT

Regular Joe

0
Posts
A KELOLAND businessman paid special attention to Wednesday night's presidential debate. That's because his name is "Joe" and he's a plumber.

Joe the Plumber is the Ohio man who gained national attention questioning Barack Obama about his tax plan. And the two presidential candidates dropped his name early and often during last night's debate. Joe the Plumber has become the "everyman" of this election. His story rings true for others who share his name and profession.

The plumbing industry has tapped into the turbulent whirlpool of politics. And this Joe goes with the flow.

"It's what I do, I'm mainstream America, I ain't the only Joe the Plumber in the world."

Joe Turbes of T & H Plumbing and Heating has been a fixture in front of the TV watching the presidential candidates posture over plumbing.

"Me and my wife have sat down and watched the last couple of debates and I think Joe the Plumber came up once or twice before, but last night McCain really hit home on everything about Joe the plumber and then pretty soon Obama was talking about him too."

Turbes can relate to that "other" Joe the Plumber, having started his own plumbing company based out of Luverne, Minnesota three years ago.

"I'm a working-class American, I've got a family, I get up every day and do my share to try to make ends meet."

Turbes hopes the candidates' attention on Joe the Plumber will keep the economy from going down the drain.

"I've got a buddy that works construction in Florida and he's only worked one day since July and it's hurting other parts. Maybe it will eventually hit here, but as of right now, it hasn't."

But he's concerned "Joe the Plumber" will become an overused catch phrase on the campaign trail.

"It's kind of a joke between them I think right now at this point."

Still, Turbes is pleased that regular Joes are finally getting showered with attention.

Turbes says he's leaning toward voting for Barack Obama, based more on Obama's tax plan, rather than the Joe the Plumber rhetoric.

Al the Plumber supports Obama!

Poway for Obama — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:45:14 EDT

Al the Plumber supports Obama!

Download | Play Download | Play

Plumbing must be the most popular profession in the United States today after no less than two dozen references last night to John McCain's new BFF, "Joe the Plumber." NBC's Milwaukee affiliate, TMJ4, caught up with another plumber who has what I believe a more realistic view on the election.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average income for a plumber is around $43,000. There's no question that any plumber making that much money (or 5x that amount) is better off under Barack Obama's tax plan. Furthermore, middle class folks are more likely to add that extra bathroom or redo their kitchen when they finally get some relief. In the case of "Joe the Plumber", as the Senator articulated last night, he will get tax credits for the new jobs he creates. Also, and this is something I fault Obama for failing to mention, his health care plan will help to dramatically reduce costs for employers whereas McCain's "plan" will levy an additional tax. In other words, taxes can't simply be viewed through the prism of income taxes. There are other areas where Barack will cut taxes that will, in the end, be a net gain for someone in "Joe's" position.

Real Deal on Plumber Reveals New Slant

Poway for Obama — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:41:46 EDT

Real Deal on Plumber Reveals New Slant J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

Joe Wurzelbacher, a national figure after Wednesday’s presidential debate, learned Thursday that fame has two sides.

By LARRY ROHTER Published: October 16, 2008

One week ago, Joe Wurzelbacher was just another working man living in a modest house outside Toledo, Ohio, and thinking about how to buy the plumbing business where he works. But when he stopped Senator Barack Obama during a visit to his block last weekend to complain about taxes, he set himself on a path to becoming America’s newest media celebrity — and as such suddenly found himself facing celebrity-level scrutiny.

As it turns out, Joe the Plumber, as he became nationally known when Senator John McCain made him a theme at Wednesday’s final presidential debate, may work in the plumbing business, but he is not a licensed plumber.

Thomas Joseph, the business manager of Local 50 of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics, based in Toledo, said Thursday that Mr. Wurzelbacher had never held a plumber’s license, which is required in Toledo and several surrounding municipalities. He also never completed an apprenticeship and does not belong to the plumber’s union, which has endorsed Mr. Obama. On Thursday, he acknowledged that he does plumbing work even though he does not have a license.

His full name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher. And he owes back taxes, too, public records show. The premise of his complaint to Mr. Obama about taxes may also be flawed, according to tax analysts. Contrary to what Mr. Wurzelbacher asserted and Mr. McCain echoed, neither his personal taxes nor those of the business where he works are likely to rise if Mr. Obama’s tax plan were to go into effect, they said.

None of that is likely to matter to those who see Mr. Wurzelbacher as a symbol of the entrepreneurial spirit they hope to foster with tax cuts, but even Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was shocked by all the attention.

“I’m kind of like Britney Spears having a headache,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Everybody wants to know about it.”

Just five days ago, Mr. Wurzelbacher, 34, lived in anonymity in Holland, Ohio, a single father who, as he said on national television, worked all day and came home to fix dinner and help his son, 13, with his homework.

But he became the hero of conservatives and Republicans when he stopped Mr. Obama, who was campaigning on his street, and asked whether he believed in the American dream. Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was concerned about having to pay higher taxes as an owner of a small business.

“I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 to $280,000 a year,” he told Mr. Obama. “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”

That encounter wound up on YouTube and led to appearances on the Fox News Channel, interviews with conservative bloggers and a New York Post editorial, all of whom seized on a small part of Mr. Obama’s long reply. “I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Mr. Obama had said.

Mr. McCain invoked Mr. Wurzelbacher in Wednesday’s debate as a way to criticize Mr. Obama’s tax plan and wealth-sharing argument, and picked up the theme again on Thursday.

“You know what Senator Obama had to say to Joe? That he wanted to spread his wealth around,” Mr. McCain said at an event in Downingtown, Pa. “America didn’t become the greatest nation on earth by spreading the wealth,” he said. “We became the greatest nation by creating new wealth.”

After some version of “Joe the Plumber” was mentioned two dozen times during the debate, Mr. Wurzelbacher found news crews outside his home and Katie Couric on the phone.

Mr. Wurzelbacher told reporters that the company he works for, Newell Plumbing & Heating, has two full-time employees: himself and the owner, Al Newell.

Neither Mr. Newell nor Mr. Wurzelbacher responded to telephone calls. And Mr. Wurzelbacher has provided only vague information on his and the company’s finances since talking to Mr. Obama. But if the plumbing business remained a two-person company and the net proceeds — after deductions for business expenses — were shared by the two men, both incomes would most likely fall well below the top tax brackets on which Mr. Obama wants to raise rates, as would the company itself.

Both, in fact, would probably be eligible for a tax cut, said Bob Williams, senior research associate at the independent, nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, though the cut would probably be greater under Mr. McCain’s tax plan than Mr. Obama’s.

According to public records, Mr. Wurzelbacher has been subject to two liens, each over $1,100. One, with a hospital, has been settled, but a tax lien with the State of Ohio is still outstanding.

In his interview with Ms. Couric, Mr. Wurzelbacher, who voted Republican in Ohio’s March primary, said that his encounter with Mr. Obama had been prompted by his desire “to ask one of these guys a question, and really corner them and get them to answer a question for once instead of tap dancing around it. And unfortunately I asked the question, but I still got a tap dance.”

He added, “He was almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.”

Liz Robbins contributed reporting.

McCain discovers plumber no ordinary Joe

Poway for Obama — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:06:20 EDT

McCain discovers plumber no ordinary Joe
By: Carrie Budoff Brown and Amie Parnes
October 16, 2008 09:59 PM EST

NEW YORK – John McCain hung his final presidential debate performance on an Ohio plumber who campaign aides never vetted.

A day after making Joseph Wurzelbacher famous, referencing him in the debate almost two dozen times as someone who would pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, McCain learned the fine print Thursday on the plumber’s not-so-tidy personal story: He owes back taxes. He is not a licensed plumber. And it turns out that Wurzelbacher makes less than $250,000 a year, which means he would receive a tax cut if Obama were elected president.

McCain likes to say that he isn’t George W. Bush – and in this case of bungled public relations, it is clear he is not. The famously-disciplined Bush campaign operation would likely have found the perfect anonymous citizen to illustrate a policy proposal, rather than spontaneously wrap itself around an unknown entity with so many asterisks.

While the arc of Wurzelbacher’s breakneck trip through the news cycle – from private citizen to insta-celebrity to political target – offers a curious insight into the political media culture, it also appears to offer a glimpse into the McCain campaign’s on-the-fly decisionmaking style.

A McCain source said Thursday that the campaign read about Wurzelbacher on the Drudge Report, while another campaign aide confirmed that he was not vetted. Senior McCain adviser Matt McDonald told Politico after the debate that Wurzelbacher was not aware that he would become central to the candidates’ third and final showdown, although Wurzelbacher told reporters Thursday that the McCain campaign contacted him earlier in the week to ask him to appear with the candidate at a Toledo rally scheduled for Sunday. (He may not make it, now that he's scheduled to be in New York for TV interviews.)

“Joe, if you're watching, I'm sorry,” McCain said Thursday, referring to the press attention that the Ohio man had received, during a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman.

McCain said he has not spoken to Wurzelbacher yet. Aides have reached out, hoping to get him on the stump at some point.

By Thursday evening, though, the McCain campaign had tied itself even closer to Wurzelbacher than the night before.

His campaign released a web ad titled “Joe the Plumber.” McCain opened his rally in Downingtown, Pa., with a shout-out to Wurzelbacher.

“We had a good debate last night. I thought I did pretty well, but let's have a little straight talk: the real winner last night was Joe the Plumber,” McCain told 1,000 people. “He won and small businesses across America won, because the American people are not going to let Senator Obama raise their taxes in a tough economy.”

For a few moments, the crowd chanted, “Joe! Joe! Joe!”

“Joe’s the man!” McCain yelled back.

Obama veered from his prepared remarks in Londonderry, N.H., to question McCain’s use of Wurzelbacher, saying the Republican senator’s tax plan would do more for corporations and wealthy individuals than, say, a plumber.

“He is trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he’s fighting for,” Obama said told a rally with 4,100 people. “How many plumbers do you know making a quarter of a million dollars a year?”

Obama’s remarks echoed those of his vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, who criticized McCain for “the notion of this guy Joe the Plumber.”

“I don’t have any Joe the Plumbers in my neighborhood that make $250,000 a year that are worried,” Biden said on NBC’s Today show. “The Joe the Plumbers in my neighborhood, the Joe the Cops in my neighborhood, the Joe the Grocery Store Owners in my neighborhood – they make, like 98 percent of small businesses, less than $250,000 a year. And they’re going to do very well under us, and they’re going to be in real tough shape under John McCain.”

'Joe the plumber' isn’t licensed

Poway for Obama — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:47:42 EDT

'Joe the plumber' isn’t licensed

Local man focus of presidential debate

Springfield Township resident Joe Wurzelbacher answers questions from the media on his front porch.

( THE BLADE/LORI KING )
Zoom | Photo Reprints By LARRY VELLEQUETTE and TOM TROY
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
"Joe the Plumber" isn’t a plumber — at least not a licensed one, or a registered one.

A check of state and local licensing agencies in Ohio and Michigan shows no plumbing licenses under Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher’s name, or even misspellings of his name.

Last night, his name, "Joe the Plumber," came up about two dozen times in the debate between Mr. Obama and Republican nominee John McCain.

Since last night Mr. Wurzelbacher who lives alone with his 13-year-old son has been besieged with local and national news media, willingly granting interviews.

Mr. Wurzelbacher told reporters Thursday morning that he worked for Newell Plumbing & Heating Co., a small local firm whose business addresses flow back to several residential homes, including one on Talmadge Road in Ottawa Hills.

According to Lucas County Building Inspection records, A. W. Newell Corp. does maintain a state plumbing license, and one with the City of Toledo, but would not be allowed to work in Lucas County outside of Toledo without a county license.

'JOE THE PLUMBER' SPEAKS

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he works under Al Newell’s license, but according to Ohio building regulations, he must maintain his own license to do plumbing work.

He is also not registered to operate as a plumber in Ohio, which means he’s not a plumber.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was hired by Mr. Newell six years ago and that the possibility of him eventually buying the company was discussed during his job interview.

He said it’s his understanding he can work under Mr. Newell’s license as long as the licensed contractor works on the same site.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he is working on taking the Ohio plumbing contractors’ license test.

Mr. Wurzelbacher’s notoriety has raised the ire of Tom Joseph, business manager for Local 50 of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters, and Service Mechanics, who claimed that Mr. Wurzelbacher didn’t undergo any apprenticeship training.

"When you have guys going out there with no training whatsoever, it’s a little disreputable to start with," Mr. Joseph said. "We’re the real Joe the Plumber."

Mr. Joseph said Mr. Wurzelbacher could only legally work in the townships, but not in any municipality in Lucas County or elsewhere in the country.

"This individual has got no schooling, no licenses, he’s never been to a training program, union or non-union, in the United States of America," Mr. Joseph said.

The association has endorsed Barack Obama, according to Mr. Joseph.

Questions were raised Thursday morning whether Mr. Wurzelbacher is a registered voter.

Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4 of this year, registering as a Republican.

Ms. Howe said that the name may be misspelled in the database.

Mr. Wurzelbacher, 34, acknowledged during an interview at his home late Thursday morning that he knows he’s "a flash in the pan," after his fame spread for an impromptu debate he had in front of his Springfield Township home with Mr. Obama last Sunday.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he objects to Mr. Obama’s plans to raise income taxes on incomes above $250,000. He said he makes no where near that much money but he would not say how much he makes or if he ever expects to make $250,000. Court records from a divorce show Mr. Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006.

He said, "Is it right to take someone’s money because they work a little harder? It’s taking away from someone’s hard work."

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he disagrees with the idea of people being taxed at a higher rate because they earn more.

"They’re going to take more of your money because you’ve been more successful," he said.

In January, 2007, the Ohio Department of Taxation placed a lien against him because $1,183 in personal property taxes had not been paid, but there has been no action in the case since it was filed.

Mr. Wurzelbacher was playing football in his front yard with his son, Joey, on Sunday afternoon when Mr. Obama made an unscheduled stop to go door to door greeting voters and asking for their support.

In his conversation with Mr. Wurzelbacher, Mr. Obama tried to justify his plan tax breaks to 95 percent of Americans and raise taxes on incomes above $250,000.

Mr. Obama said his plan would improve the economy for other people trying to get a start in small business, and "spread the wealth."

The phrase was quickly picked up by conservative bloggers and commentators saying it reveals a desire to redistributed wealth on the part of Mr. Obama.

During that same conversation, Mr. Wurzelbacher advocated a flat tax to Mr. Obama under which everyone would pay the same rate of tax which was a feature of Mike Huckabee’s unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination this year.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised by the spread the wealth phrase.

"That’s a pretty socialist comment. Two-fifty ($250,000) is his number now. When is it going to be one fifty ($150,000), when it’s going to be one hundred ($100,000)?"

He continued: "If you believe him, I would be receiving his tax cut," adding that he would not want the tax cut.

He won’t say who he will vote for on Nov. 4, but did say he likes Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

He said he was born in the Toledo area, lived until he was 13 in the Florida Panhandle area, went to Springfield High School, and then entered the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at an Air Force base in Alaska from 1992 until 1995. He said he was honorably discharged.

Mr. Wurzelbacher also said he lived in Arizona from 1997 until 2000.

Sam the Plumber?

Poway for Obama — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:43:36 EDT

Come join us at "Plumbers for Obama" and post your plumbing stories!

--- Donna the Plumber

Sam The Not-Officialy-A-Plumber

16 Oct 2008 04:14 pm

(I.e., Joe The Plumber's name isn't Joe, and he's not officially a plumber. Discuss.)

Actually, he's "Sam The Guy Who Does Plumbing," technicallly.

"Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher."

His voter registration application misspells his name, btw. ("Worzelbacher.")

Patrick Levine Rose, an election attorney and appellate law specialist in East Lansing, MI asked these questions on Rick Hasen's election law listserve:

Wouldn't it be ironic if Joe the Plumber lost his vote due to this mismatch in how his name appears in the voter database?

It could not have been the GOP's goal to challenge Joe the Plumber's vote?

I'm still amused by everyone's real person fetish fulfillment of the day, but you've got to hand it to the McCain campaign: they've found a way to get people talking.

On the other hand, every mention of "Joe" includes the fact that his taxes would get cut under Obama's plan.

Right in the heart of a Republican bastion

Poway for Obama — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:54:24 EDT

Oh, yes, we can! October 15th, 2008

Even here in the heart of ultra-Republican Poway!

Millionaires for McCain!

Poway for Obama — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:53:10 EDT

Two thirds of McCain tax cuts go to millionaires

As part of his new economic outline - The Pension and Family Security Plan - Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has proposed cutting the tax rate on long term capital gains and dividends to 7.5 percent in 2009 and 2010. The current tax rate for these capital gains is 15 percent.

Today, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center (TPC) released an analysis showing who would benefit from this cut. Like the rest of McCain’s tax cuts, this one overwhelmingly aids the wealthy, with two-thirds of the benefit going to those making over $1 million:

In 2009, under a plan that lowers taxes on both gains and dividends, those making $1 million or more would get two-thirds of the benefit, and an average tax cut of more than $72,000. Those making less than $50,000 would get, on average, nothing.

As the TPC pointed out, “75% of the benefit of low taxes on capital gains and dividends already go to those making $600,000 or more. Half goes to those making $2.8 million or more.”

In fact, as the Wonk Room noted when McCain first toyed with including this provision in his economic plan, under the current 15 percent rate, 93.9 percent of the benefits go to the top 5 percent of taxpayers, and 84.8 percent to the top 1 percent. The other 80 percent of taxpayers see only 1.7 percent of the benefits of today’s rate.

The McCain campaign claims that the cut will “strengthen incentives to save, invest, and restore the liquidity of markets.” But given the current economic situation - one in which “people do not have an awful lot of capital gains” - this measure will do nothing to stimulate the economy.

Furthermore, The Street noted that McCain’s cut “might have unintended consequences,” like encouraging investors “to make one-time sales to capture lower capital gains and increased tax write-offs,” which “would facilitate capital flight.”

Truth on Taxes

Poway for Obama — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:47:40 EDT

The Truth on Taxes • Obama: Tax cuts for 95% of working families
• McCain: NO tax cut for 100 million Americans
• Most would get a larger tax cut from Obama

This tax calculator approximates your tax bill under each candidate's plans.

Calculate YOUR Obama tax savings!!

Barack Obama and Joe Biden: Change We Need | Tax Calculator

Obama-Biden Tax Calculator

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as John McCain and Sarah Palin. The Obama/Biden plan provides $1,000 of tax relief for workers and new tax benefits to help families pay for college, childcare and save for retirement.

Here’s my tax savings:

Obama tax savings
$1109
McCain tax savings
$224

Plus, under Obama, you may be eligible for

* $4000 tax credit to pay for college expenses
* 50% tax credit for up to $1000 for retirement savings

Vote Your 401K

Poway for Obama — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:58:12 EDT

Bulls, Bear, Donkeys and Elephants

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.

The Shadow Governor

Poway for Obama — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:47:41 EDT

Shadow Governor

In the Palin administration, Todd appears to have had an unusually strong role, the extent of which remains unclear. He is not on the state payroll and was never elected -- but the First Dude has crossed over from the standard-issue supportive political spouse to something far more influential, weighing in on policy and political matters in ways that few observers seem to understand. His apparent influence in his wife's administration -- some in Alaska have referred to him as the "shadow governor" -- has raised questions about whether a Sarah Palin vice-presidency would hand the same type of backstage power to Todd, and what that might mean in the running of the U.S. government. --from: Sarah Palin's powerful "First Dude" (Salon)

Recently, I was clicking through WAPO's slideshow of the day and found two shots of Todd Palin dated April '07. The first, the one above, showed Palin meeting with the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. training coordinator to discuss the organization's labor development programs in Anchorage. The second photo -- which I've been unable to locate again -- showed Todd meeting with the Alaska International Brotherhood of Electoral Workers statewide training coordinator to discuss that union's training programs.

On the surface, this activity would seem fairly benign. His Wikipedia says Todd Palin "advises the Governor on workforce development issues." In early May, The LAT related how "Palin has been asked to champion ... young Alaskans toward jobs in the oil and gas industry." Sarah Palin related Todd's agenda as "... passing information on to me and participating in getting workforce development programs up and running in Alaska.”

In reality, however, the First Spouse's supposedly nominal role in his wife's administration has been contradicted by the facts. Todd's training agenda was expansive enough, for example, that a couple of mining companies interested in digging in Alaska flew him around the state in late '07, the cost of which the first couple expensed as gifts. And of course, the "Troopergate" report released Friday detailed how Palin spent more than 50% of his time in the Governor's office, had his hands almost everything, and one the labor issue specifically, was privy to emails dealing with the state's union matters.

There are innumerable images of husband, and snowmobiler, and fisherman Todd floating around the web. Curiously though, there are precious few pictures capturing "First Dude" functioning as a self-assumed agent of the state and the governor's office. Well, here's at least one.

The Todd!

Poway for Obama — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:08:39 EDT

"And believe me -- Sarah won't make

a decision without my input when we get to D.C."

My Own Private Focus Group

Poway for Obama — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:49:43 EDT

So come on Colorado Springs and Pueblo folk -- get us to 40 per cent!

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/my-own-private-focus-group/?ref=opinion

My Own Private Focus Group

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — I didn’t hook up people to electronic monitoring devices, nothing to measure leg trickles and blood-sugar spikes in response to off-key talking points.

I had no magic maps, no demographic weighting formulas. I simply went to the heart of one of the fastest-growing, most Republican counties in the land — as red as rib-eye steak on the e-coli side of raw — and wandered aimlessly, like John McCain in Tuesday’s debate.

Here in Colorado Springs — the Vatican of evangelical political power, home to the Air Force Academy and a community where optimism usually matches the sunrise glow at the base of Pikes Peak – you can see what will happen in less than a month.

My friends: it’s not good for Senator McCain.

“As a small business owner, it’s very hard to watch a lifetime of hard work and savings just wither away in the last two weeks,” said Jan Martin, a native of this more-than-mile-high city, and a lifelong Republican. “The debate on Tuesday night has, if anything, bolstered my opinion.”

So Jan Martin, who also serves on the city council, will cross party lines in less than a month and vote Barack Obama for president, she said. She’s not leaving the Republican party – she’s deserting the nominee.

But…but…what about Bill Ayers? That radical! Obama served on some charity boards with him – he must be a terrorist sympathizer! And what about Sarah Palin’s claim, with a knowing wink, that Obama “is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.”

The sludge of insinuation is loose, but has no more staying power than the Chicago Cubs in a playoff series. (And I like the Cubbies.) All the desperate demagogues of talk radio and Fox News, summoning the kooks and fringe lunatics for one last blast of scary Barack Hussein Obama talk, are melting in 2008’s bonfire of economic vanities.

You want scary? How about this: two trillion dollars. That’s the amount that Americans have lost over the last 15 months in their retirement accounts.

“The financial crisis is point number one,” said Pastor Brady Boyd, head of New Life Church, 250,000 square feet of concentrated Christianity. “These attacks against the candidates are just irrelevant right now. Why are you all attacking one another when we’re dying out here?”

The pastor oversees a mega-church with 10,000 members. When I was here four years ago, Pastor Ted Haggard, the onetime head of the National Association of Evangelicals, boasted of his conference calls with Karl Rove and his deep affection for George Bush.

But then, Pastor Ted was a very bad boy, caught up in a meth and male prostitute scandal. He left New Life and went off to get rehabbed at some place that was supposed to make him right in the head.

Pastor Brady Boyd is a different breed of evangelical. His political suggestions this year, delivered in a sermon on Sunday and repeated in our interview, were simple.

“The only advice I give is pray, fast and vote, and that can be for any political party,” he said.

This year, the church hasn’t even heard from the McCain campaign. “What’s happening to us is less allegiance to the Republican party, and more to our core principles,” he said.

Which gets us to the second message to come from Colorado Springs: on election day, there will be no repeat of 2004, when people woke up to the surprise that “moral values” was the leading issue of the campaign, according to exit polls.

Down the road, Focus on the Family is still in a bit a of dither over what to do about John McCain. James Dobson, the founder of what is essentially a political action committee for evangelicals, had said earlier this year he would never vote for McCain. Never. Not under any circumstances.

Now he’s changed his mind. Sort of.

“While I said I will not endorse either candidate this year, I can say I’m now supporting John McCain,” he said in his October newsletter. However, “the senator continues to embrace issues that concern me.”

Dobson’s Web site contains outdated-looking scare alerts with headlines like “American Airlines extends special benefits to homosexuals.”

Dobson is yesterday. Boyd is tomorrow, saying that the environment, the poor, and helping those in his church who’ve lost a job or a house are things that matter to his congregation.

Abortion? Homosexuals? Bill Ayers?

“To be focused on those things at a time when people are hurting would really be to the detriment of families,” said Boyd.

Obama will not win Colorado Springs. John Kerry got just 32 percent of the vote in this county in 2004. But if Obama gets 40 percent – which is what Democrats expect based on the surge of newly registered voters and independents who are following Jan Martin’s path – he will win this state, and the election.

That leaves the circus of Sarah Palin and the sad specter of a snarling John McCain fading as they embrace the slippery bonds of the last century.

Mavericks

Poway for Obama — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:35:05 EDT

Colorado ballot measures -- from Ken Gordon

Poway for Obama — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:05:14 EDT

from

Ken Gordon
Colorado Senate
Majority Leader

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

I know you're not actually dummies. That's why I'm sending this to you. This e-mail contains a brief discussion of the statewide ballot measures. I try to give enough information so that you can decide how to vote for yourself, although I will tell you where I stand so you can take my recommendation if you’d like. My recommendation is at the beginning of each section, right after the Amendment or Referenda number. Where possible, my recommendation is a link to a website with more information about each measure.

Don't skip the ballot measures and just vote for candidates. These ballot measures affect the schools your children attend, the roads you drive on, the air you breathe, the water you drink, your civil rights, and the welfare of Colorado's disabled citizens. When ordinary citizens don't participate, they create a vacuum that is filled by special interests who try to make a profit at your expense or advance an ideological interest that does not reflect your values.

On the inside cover of your Blue Book, there is a page that you can use to note your votes. You can take this with you to the polls. I urge all of you to vote early, or by mail. The ballot is long, and the turnout is expected to be huge. By voting early, or by mail, you take some of the pressure off of Election Day, and you may save yourself from having to wait in a long line.

Initiatives and referenda are two of the tools of direct democracy put into the Colorado Constitution during the Progressive Era at the turn of the last century. The people of Colorado felt, with reason, that their legislature at that time was controlled by the railroads and eastern trusts, and they wanted a way to create laws on their own. They did not want to have to rely on what they felt was a corrupt legislature.

This ballot contains fourteen initiatives, numbered 46 through 59, and four referenda, L through O. Referenda are referred by the legislature. That is how you can remember, referenda are referred. Initiatives arrive on the ballot without any legislative action, by petition. You have seen people collecting signatures at supermarkets. That is for initiatives.

Amendment 46: No This is a proposed Constitutional Amendment which will prevent Colorado government from using affirmative action programs. Its intent is to prevent universities or other government programs from considering race or gender when granting admission, a contract, or other benefit. Conservatives generally support this amendment, and those on the left side of the spectrum will generally vote "No." Since affirmative action programs in Colorado are narrowly tailored to correct the effects of past discrimination I will be voting no.

Amendment 47: No This is a proposed Constitutional Amendment that will prevent unions from bargaining for something called a "union shop." This proposal is called "Right to Work," and if it passes, it will make it very difficult to organize a union because every employee will get the benefit of the unions' collective barganing whether or not they support the union. There is no incentive to pay union dues. "Right to Work" has been proposed numerous times in the legislature and has never passed. Employees tend to earn less money and have fewer benefits in "Right to Work" states. The unions call it the "Right to Work for Less."
On October 2nd labor and the mainstream business community announced an agreement that labor would withdraw Amendments 53, 55, 56 and 57, and most of the business community has agreed to oppose 47, 49 and 54. I feel that labor and the mainstream business community acted as adults, ending a game of "chicken" that would have been bad for Colorado, so I am supportive of the agreement. The Governor and the mainstream business community asked the proponents of 47 to withdraw it when labor withdrew the amendments that the business community opposed. They refused. I believe they were excessively ideological and rigid, not caring sufficiently about the welfare of Colorado. Most of the business community does not feel that the balance between labor and business in Colorado is problematic, and they did not feel that 47 was necessary.
Amendment 48: No This is the proposed "Personhood" Constitutional Amendment. It says that as soon as an egg is fertilized by a sperm it becomes a "Person." The intent of the proponents is to create a test case in Colorado to challenge the US Supreme Court case "Roe v. Wade," which allows a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy. The proponents want this to be considered murder. I think the proponents have gone too far for their own good because under the provisions of this amendment, there could be no allowance for a pregnancy caused by rape or incest. Additionally, many kinds of birth control prevent a fertilized egg from implanting on the uterine wall, so this birth control would also cause the death of a "person." What is a woman who has an ectopic pregnancy supposed to do, and what is the doctor supposed to do with excess fertilized eggs after an in vitro procedure has been successful? The Amendment is extreme and will not make for a sympathetic case to take to the Supreme Court. If you take the position that a woman should never have the right to terminate her pregnancy, no matter what the reason, you should vote for this.

Amendment 49: No This Amendment is part of the package that the business and labor community agreed to oppose on October 2nd. The Amendment would prohibit public employee paycheck deductions for any purpose other than those listed in law. The purpose is to prevent union members from choosing to have their union dues automatically taken as deductions. This measure has consistently failed in the legislature.

Amendment 50: No recommendation This measure allows gaming communities to vote to raise their hours, stakes, and to add additional games. Increased tax revenue will go to community colleges. I'm torn. Community colleges certainly need the money, but I generally don't like to fund state services through gambling. I'm leaving you on your own on this one.

Amendment 51: Yes Colorado does a very poor job of funding services for people with disabilities (46th among the states). This statutory amendment raises state sales tax from 2.9% to 3.1% in order to provide these services. That is two cents on a ten dollar purchase. In terms of reducing human suffering, this is the best value you can get for your money, and it makes sense as an investment as well. Additional services provided at an early age to people with conditions like cerebral palsy, autism and Down's syndrome will significantly reduce the number of tax dollars that will be needed for long term care. These services can vastly improve the lives of our disabled population. Anyone with a heart should vote "yes" on this measure. The Rocky Mountain News editorialized in favor of this measure.

Amendment 52: No This amendment will take some of the current stream of severance taxes (taxes paid for the privilege of severing-or extracting-minerals, oil, and gas from the earth and selling them for private gain) and divert them to highway construction. Some of the losers, if this passes, are water projects, wildlife conservation, and low income energy assistance. We do need more money for highway construction, but this does not provide enough and takes away from other worthwhile projects.

Amendment 53: This measure has been withdrawn. It will appear on your ballot, but the votes will not be counted.

Amendment 54: No This measure will prevent labor unions and other contractors from making campaign contributions to political candidates under certain circumstances. I actually feel that money in politics does have a distorting effect and is one of the reasons that our governmental institutions tend to arrive at results that too often favor wealthy special interests. This Amendment, though, seems to take a disproportionate shot at labor unions and has very little effect on businesses. If we are going to try to reduce the influence of money, it should be done across the board and not be an attempt by one group to reduce the contributions of another while maintaining their own.

Amendment 55, 56 and 57: These measures have been withdrawn. They will appear on your ballot, but the votes will not be counted.

Amendment 58: Yes Currently Colorado has one of the lowest tax rates on the production of minerals and oil and gas of any of the eight large producing western states. Wyoming, for instance, has a tax rate twice that of Colorado and uses the money from this tax to send all of its graduating high school seniors with good grades to college. If Amendment 58 passes, it will raise about $300,000,000 for need-based college scholarships, development of renewable energy resources, wildlife habitat, transportation, and clean water projects. You need to know that the oil industry is spending millions of dollars on misleading advertising opposing this measure. The Amendment does not raise any tax that any ordinary Colorado citizen has to pay. The only contributors to the "No" campaign are oil and gas companies, and they are writing million-dollar checks. It is only fair that Colorado's citizens receive some of the benefit of this natural resource. Before too long it will be gone. It is appropriate for us to put some of the current proceeds into human capital by educating our young people, and to also support the next generation of energy. Governor Ritter is one of the proponents of this measure, and he has been taking quite a few shots for his position. We should support him and this measure because it is in all of our interests... unless you own a big oil and gas company (the small ones are exempted.).

Amendment 59: Yes This ballot measure is referred to as SAFE (Savings Account for Education). If SAFE passes it will put the money from future TABOR rebates into the State Education Fund. Colorado does a poor job funding education, and SAFE will help with this funding in future years. TABOR rebates only occur when the economy is in boom times, and the state collects more taxes than it spends, so there are no rebates expected in the next few years. However, in my view, the passage of SAFE is very important to Colorado's future. TABOR preserves the right of voters to vote on tax increases. If you believe that skimping on education is not a good strategy as we try to compete in a global market, then you will vote "Yes" on Amendment 59, SAFE.

Referendum L: Yes This measure reduces the age requirement for serving in the state legislature from 25 to 21. Many states do this, and the only people of this age who will end up serving are people who can convince a majority, first of their party that they deserve the nomination, and then of the general electorate that they are the best candidate. It might inspire young people to pay more attention to politics.

Referenda M and N: Yes These measures remove obsolete portions of the State Constitution. They are not controversial.

Referendum O: Yes This measure will decrease the number of signatures needed to put a statutory initiative on the ballot and increase the number of signatures needed to put a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot. It also increases the number of votes necessary to change a statutory initiative by subsequent legislative action. The idea is to channel more of the initiatives into statutes rather than the Constitution. Since a Constitution is supposed to be a document that expresses big, general principles rather than detail, I think this is a step in the right direction.

As always do not hesitate to write back with comments or questions. Please forward this email to your list and feel free to republish it in whole or in part in any format. If you know people who you think would like to receive these emails, send us their email addresses and we will add them to our list.

Sincerely,

Ken Gordon
Colorado Senate
Majority Leader

Mini Bush

Poway for Obama — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:02:58 EDT

Lipstick

Poway for Obama — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:00:24 EDT

Why Obama

Poway for Obama — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:41:56 EDT

Why Obama

What makes this photo by Callie Shell, taken six days ago in Fredericksburg, Virginia, feel so defining?

To me, at this point in time, given the problems raining down on the country and with what the country has come to see of the candidates, this photo articulates why Obama is pulling away and will likely be the next President of the United States.

In Obama, I believe a majority of the electorate has found the right balance between electricity and the ability to weather the storm.

Bailout Mania

Poway for Obama — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:22:46 EDT

Many more here....

Rap Obama!

Poway for Obama — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:05:28 EDT

Good one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83lum1XcOug

Bailout Blvd.

Poway for Obama — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:15:22 EDT

McCain vs. McCain

Poway for Obama — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:43:34 EDT

er 26th, 2008

EPIC FAIL

Poway for Obama — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:53:46 EDT

A demonstrator holds up a sign behind U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (L) and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke (R) during a hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee September 23, 2008 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The Bush administration officials were testifying about a proposed $700 billion bailout that they hope will stabilize the faltering U.S. financial system. (Getty | Chip Somodevilla)

Let Me Get This Straight....

Poway for Obama — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:38:00 EDT

Why you should hate the treasury bailout

Poway for Obama — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:34:17 EDT

naked capitalism: Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal September 21st, 2008

I urge everyone to call your congress creatures and let them know this bailout plan is absolutely unacceptable. Paulson is nuts if he thinks anyone with a brain is going to agree to this. We need reasoned, rational, LEGAL control over this banking crisis, not a Treasury Secretary who thinks he is above the law. This entire Bush administration seems to be guilty of this, and I for one am damned sick of it. PLease go to the link and read the entire post — well worth it.

naked capitalism: Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal

A mere two weeks ago, the Fannie/Freddie rescue was called the mother of all bailouts by some commentators. If the plans of the Administration come to fruition, it will shortly be surpassed by the $700 billion mortgage rescue plan proposed by Hank Paulson late last week.

The increase of the request from the initial $500 billion and the release of the shockingly short, sweeping text of the proposed legislation has lead to reactions of consternation among the knowledgeable, but whether this translates into enough popular ire fast enough to restrain this freight train remains to be seen.

First, let s focus on the aspect that should get the proposal dinged or renegotiated regardless of any possible merit, namely, that it gives the Treasury imperial power with respect to a simply huge amount of funds. $700 billion is comparable to the hard cost of the Iraq war, bigger than the annual Pentagon budget. And mind you, $700 billion is not the maximum that the Treasury may spend, it s the ceiling on the outstandings at any one time. It s a balance sheet number, not an expenditure limit.

But here is the truly offensive section of an overreaching piece of legislation:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

This puts the Treasury’s actions beyond the rule of law. This is a financial coup d etat, with the only limitation the $700 billion balance sheet figure. The measure already gives the Treasury the authority not simply to buy dud mortgage paper but other assets as it deems fit. There is no accountability beyond a report contents undefined to Congress three months into the program and semiannually thereafter. The Treasury could via incompetence or venality grossly overpay for assets and advisory services, and fail to exclude consultants with conflicts of interest, and there would be no recourse. Given the truly appalling track record of this Administration in its outsourcing, this is not an idle worry.

But far worse is the precedent it sets. This Administration has worked hard to escape any constraints on its actions, not to pursue noble causes, but to curtail civil liberties: Guantanamo, rendition, torture, warrantless wiretaps. It has used the threat of unseen terrorists and a seemingly perpetual war on radical Muslim to justify gutting the Constitution. The Supreme Court, which has been supine on many fronts, has finally started to push back, but would it challenge a bill that sweeps aside judicial review? Informed readers are encouraged to speak up.

Bridge to Nowhere

Poway for Obama — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:13:33 EDT

Blocking Care for Women

Poway for Obama — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:06:20 EDT

Blocking Care for Women By HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON and CECILE RICHARDS

LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women’s rights and women’s health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it’s a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way with medical services they find objectionable.

Laws that have been on the books for some 30 years already allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.

Health and Human Services estimates that the rule, which would affect nearly 600,000 hospitals, clinics and other health care providers, would cost $44.5 million a year to administer. Astonishingly, the department does not even address the real cost to patients who might be refused access to these critical services. Women patients, who look to their health care providers as an unbiased source of medical information, might not even know they were being deprived of advice about their options or denied access to care.

The definition of abortion in the proposed rule is left open to interpretation. An earlier draft included a medically inaccurate definition that included commonly prescribed forms of contraception like birth control pills, IUD’s and emergency contraception. That language has been removed, but because the current version includes no definition at all, individual health care providers could decide on their own that birth control is the same as abortion.

The rule would also allow providers to refuse to participate in unspecified “other medical procedures” that contradict their religious beliefs or moral convictions. This, too, could be interpreted as a free pass to deny access to contraception.

Many circumstances unrelated to reproductive health could also fall under the umbrella of “other medical procedures.” Could physicians object to helping patients whose sexual orientation they find objectionable? Could a receptionist refuse to book an appointment for an H.I.V. test? What about an emergency room doctor who wishes to deny emergency contraception to a rape victim? Or a pharmacist who prefers not to refill a birth control prescription?

The Bush administration argues that the rule is designed to protect a provider’s conscience. But where are the protections for patients?

The 30-day comment period on the proposed rule runs until Sept. 25. Everyone who believes that women should have full access to medical care should make their voices heard. Basic, quality care for millions of women is at stake.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic senator from New York. Cecile Richards is the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

_____________

Took a bit of research to figure out how to comment on this, but here it is:

You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to
http://www.Regulations.gov or via e-mail to consciencecomment@hhs.gov. To submit
electronic comments to www.Regulations.gov, go to the Web site and click on the link
“Comment or Submission” and enter the keywords “provider conscience”.

White women, no way

Poway for Obama — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:02:44 EDT

White women, no way Once pro-Obama, but now swoon for McPalin? Who the hell are you?

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Friday, September 19, 2008

Every white woman I know is positively horrified.

Wait, that's not exactly true. It's more accurate to say that every thoughtful or liberal or intuitive or open-minded white woman I know worth her vagina monologue and her self-determination and two centuries of nonstop striving for equal rights and sexual freedom and exhaustive patriarchal unshackling is right now openly horrified, appalled at what the addition of shrill PTA hockey-mom Sarah Palin seems to have done for the soggy, comatose McCain campaign -- that is, make it not merely remotely interesting and melodramatic, but aggressively hostile to, well, to all intelligent women everywhere.

Truly, among women in the know and especially among those who fought so hard to bring Hillary Clinton to the brink of history, nausea and a general recoiling appear to be the universal reactions to Palin's sudden presence on the national stage, stemming straight from the idea that there's even a slight chance in hell such an antagonistic, anti-female politico could be within a 72-year-old heartbeat of becoming the most powerful and iconic woman of all time.

They say: You've got to be kidding me. They say: This is what we get? This could be our historic role model? Two hundred years (OK, more like 2000) of struggle, only to have this nasty caricature of femininity try to hijack and mock and undermine it all?

It cannot be true, they say. The universe must joking, would not dare dump such a homophobic, Creationist evangelical nutball on us, this anti-choice, God-pandering woman who's the inverse of Hillary, this woman of deep inexperience who abhors birth control and supports abstinence education and shoots exhausted wolves from helicopters and hates polar bears and actually stands for everything progressive women have resented since the first pope Swift-Boated Eve.

But now, the truly bizarre part. Despite this defiant outcry, a great many pundits and reports have suggested that, just after the Palin VP announcement, a sizable chunk of predominantly white women nevertheless abandoned their tentative support for Obama and leapt into the lyin' arms of McCain, presumably simply because of Palin's gender and PTA momhood.

And thus did the harrowing wail go out: WTF? Could it be true? Are cadres of formerly Obama-leaning white women really so enchanted by Palin's gender and motherhood status that they openly ignore the fact that she basically wants to shove women's rights back about five decades? Can it be so simple, crude, sad?

Let us analyze. Let me, being a straight white male and therefore only capable of gazing in awe at the spectacle that is the indecipherable female intuitive response, foolishly attempt to decipher some of it anyway, and explain why in hell some women might jump to Palin, despite the fact that she essentially hates them. Shall we begin?

"She's one of us." This was the resounding quote from many deer-in-the-Palin-headlights fans, a bizarre, dangerous sentiment that echoes the blue-collar Midwest's blind love of George W. Bush, simply because he came across as the kind of simple-minded aw-shucks guy you'd want to have a beer with, never you mind that giant silver spoon sticking out of his mouth or that giant daddy's-boy chip on his droopy shoulders.

Is this all it is? Does "one of us" merely mean white women really believe Palin could, if McCain didn't survive his first term, effectively lead the most powerful, flawed, complicated nation on the planet merely because she's a hard-workin' mom with moxie, that she's managed to raise a gaggle of strangely named kids who hunt and don't believe in evolution and get pregnant before they're old enough to buy a pack of Marlboros?

Or does it mean they agree with Palin about not giving a damn for equal pay, or honest sex education, or separation of church and state, or alternative energy, or a woman's right to choose, or their own daughters' rights if they get knocked up after being raped or incested? Nah, that can't be it.

Maybe we're just not used to seeing the female voting demographic depicted this way. Truly, it's usually men who are the knuckleheaded ones, who will flip their vote merely over a single inconsequential issue ("I like everything about Obama except he supports gun control, and I love my guns, so I guess I gotta go for McCain"). Women, according to the eternal mythology, are no such dupes, and choose more wisely, from deeper intuition, instinct. Right?

Wrong. Maybe this is our simple summary, the blaring headline we should be reading in the wake of recent events. "Easily duped Palin supporters prove: Some white women are just as dumb as men." Is that all it is? Maybe so.

Ah, but there is good news. It appears the bloom is already off the McPalin rose, the baby bump she gave McCain is already gone, as everyone from here to Wasilla is sick to death of hearing about her. Every day that goes by it comes clearer that the Sarah juggernaut is no juggernaut at all but merely an increasingly disturbing PR stunt, and a bit of a disgrace for John McCain himself, whose once-noble aura of integrity and class has essentially vanished.

A potent backlash is coming fast. Actually, it began almost immediately, just after the Republican National Convention, when the GOP cheerfully announced they'd raised a whopping one million bucks in the 24 hours following Palin's speech, so inspired was the heavily drugged conservative base by her teleprompter-reading skills (she didn't write a single word of her own speech, of course; it came from a former Bushite, well before she was the VP pick).

Well, gosh. Really? A million? Wow.

But then Obama's campaign issued a statement of their own. Turns out they'd raised a bit money in the exact same time frame, a rather impressive outpouring of cash from all those on the left who could be heard screaming "oh my God no way in hell" to their TV screens as Palin's finger jabbed at the heart of all that's right and good with the world. The amount Obama raised in the same 24 hours? $10 million. Well now.

How much of that staggering amount came from the newly galvanized, infuriated female populace from the left who see right through Palin's shrill charade and damn well recognize an imposter in their midst, it's impossible to tell. But I think it's a damn safe bet to assume, they are legion.

And let me tell you, they are pissed.

McCain's finanical lobbyists

Poway for Obama — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:57:40 EDT

McCain Attacks Wall Street Greed—While 83 Wall Street Lobbyists Work for His Campaign

In the past few days, as the economic crisis has deepened, Senator John McCain has been decrying the excesses of Wall Street. At a campaign rally in Tampa on Tuesday, he vowed that he and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, if elected, "are going to put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption, and unbridled greed that have caused a crisis on Wall Street." He noted that the "foundation of our economy...has been put at risk by the greed and mismanagement of Wall Street and Washington."

He blasted CEOs who "seem to escape the consequences." He denounced Wall Streeters who "dreamed up investment schemes that they themselves don't even understand" and who used "derivatives, credit default swaps, and mortgage-backed securities" to try "to make their own rules." He excoriated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for gaming the system. And he slammed financial industry lobbyists for misguiding members of Congress. "I can promise you the days of dealing and special favors will soon be over in Washington." On Wednesday morning, after the federal government committed $85 billion to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG) insurance conglomerate, McCain again assailed irresponsible corporate executives. "We need to change the way Washington and Wall Street does business," he proclaimed.

McCain has been quick with fiery, populist-tinged speeches. But one thing has been missing: any acknowledgment that McCain's own campaign has been loaded with the type of people he's been denouncing. (The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment; we will update the post if they do.) As Mother Jones previously reported, former Senator Phil Gramm, McCain's onetime campaign chairman, used a backroom maneuver in late 2000 to slip into law a bill that kept credit default swaps unregulated. These financial instruments greased the way to the subprime meltdown that has led to today's economic crisis. Several of McCain's most senior campaign aides have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And the Democratic National Committee, using publicly available records, has identified 177 lobbyists working for the McCain campaign as either aides, policy advisers, or fundraisers.

Of those 177 lobbyists, according to a Mother Jones review of Senate and House records, at least 83 have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks. These are high-paid influence-peddlers who have been working the corridors of the nation's capital to win favors and special treatment for investment banks, securities firms, hedge funds, accounting outfits, and insurance companies. Their clients have included AIG, the newest symbol of corporate excess; Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday sending the stock market into a tailspin; Merrill Lynch, which was bought out by Bank of America this week; and Washington Mutual, the banking giant that could be the next to fall. Among these 83 lobbyists are McCain's chief political adviser, Charlie Black (JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America); McCain's national finance co-chairman, Wayne Berman (AIG, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac); the campaign's congressional liaison, John Green (Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Icahn Associates, Fannie Mae); McCain's veep vetter, Arthur Culvahouse (Fannie Mae); and McCain's transition planning chief, William Timmons Sr. (Citigroup, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group).

When cable news shows air footage of McCain railing against greedy execs and the lobbyists who rig the rules for the benefit of Wall Street dealmakers, there ought to be a crawl beneath him listing these lobbyists. (Talk about a fair and balanced presentation.) Short of that, here's the list of the McCain aides and bundlers who have worked for the high-finance greed-mongers McCain has pledged to take on. So far, it seems, none of them have been cast out of the campaign. If McCain were serious about his outrage, he might throw these money-changers out of his own temple.

(full list of lobbyists in extended post)

Wall St. Bail Out

Poway for Obama — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:25:13 EDT

I think the Fed should buy up pizza chains instead -- at least then we could all order free pizza! What are we gonna do with mortgage and insurance companies? Does that mean we can all stop paying our mortgages and insurance fees now?

The Bush McCain economy

Poway for Obama — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:47:45 EDT

6.6 out of 10 economists agree...

Poway for Obama — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:52:27 EDT

This is according to a new survey of 523 economists who are U.S. citizens and members of the American Economic Association. See a Powerpoint with methodology and detailed results here .

Click here for our list of Obama economic advisers and prominent economists who support Obama.

McHoover

Poway for Obama — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:50:49 EDT

(Cartoon by my good friend John Pierce, who really needs a job. Over a year now without work in Los Angeles... you don't even want to know his opinion of the economy! )

Please read Barack Obama’s excellent speech on the economy today…. click on the link for full text.

Over the last few days, we have seen clearly what’s at stake in this election. The news from Wall Street has shaken the American people’s faith in our economy. The situation with Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions is the latest in a wave of crises that have generated tremendous uncertainty about the future of our financial markets. This is a major threat to our economy and its ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills, save for their future, and make their mortgage payments.

Since this turmoil began over a year ago, the housing market has collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America’s five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11. We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations. Yet Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

…So let’s be clear: what we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed. And I am running for President of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered any more. It’s time to put an end to a broken system in Washington that is breaking the American economy. It’s time for change that makes a real difference in your lives.

…Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn’t offering them more tax cuts. His call for fiscal responsibility would be believable if he wasn’t for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and more of a trillion dollar war in Iraq paid for with deficit spending and borrowing from foreign creditors like China. His newfound support for regulation bears no resemblance to his scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement. John McCain cannot be trusted to reestablish proper oversight of our financial markets for one simple reason: he has shown time and again that he does not believe in it.

What has happened these last eight years is not some historical anomaly, so we know what to expect if we try these policies for another four. When lobbyists run your campaign, the special interests end up gaming the system. When the White House is hostile to any kind of oversight, corporations cut corners and consumers pay the price. When regulators are chosen for their disdain for regulation and we gut their ability to enforce the law, then the interests of the American people are not protected. It’s an ideology that intentionally breeds incompetence in Washington and irresponsibility on Wall Street, and it’s time to turn the page….

Bridge to Somewhere?

Poway for Obama — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:28:06 EDT

The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin II: The Bridge To Nowhere

15 Sep 2008 10:41 am

In her speeches, Sarah Palin routinely and repeatedly uses the phrase: "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere." In the McCain-Palin ads, the claim is that she "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."

These are, again, demonstrable lies. Again I will cite Wikipedia, since it's the fairest summary of the facts of the case, and includes all the links for you to see for yourself:

In 2006, Palin ran for governor on a "build-the-bridge" platform,[101] attacking "spinmeisters"[102] for insulting local residents by calling them "nowhere"[101] and urging speed "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."[103] About two years after the introduction of the bridge proposals, a month after the bridge received sharp criticism from John McCain,[104] and nine months into Palin's term as governor, Palin canceled the Gravina Bridge, blaming Congress for not providing enough funding.[105] Alaska will not return any of the $442 million to the federal government[106] and is spending a portion of the funding, $25 million, on a Gravina Island road to the place where the bridge would have gone, expressly so that none of the money will have to be returned.[101] Palin continues to support funding Don Young's Way, estimated as more than twice as expensive as the Gravina Bridge would have been.[107]

Paulson and McCain say don't worry, be happy!

Poway for Obama — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:47:03 EDT

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Henry M. Paulson Jr. said that consumers should remain confident about the soundness of the American financial system.

“Remain Calm! All is well! All is well!!”

Lipstick

Poway for Obama — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:22:17 EDT

Hey, Big Spender!

Poway for Obama — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:30:38 EDT

Here's John McCain's big plan for the budget: make a whole lot of noise about eliminating of the piece of the budget pie representing earmarks (and remember that most earmarks simply mandate where monies will be spent, they don't create any new spending):

[Note: The OMB estimates earmarks to be 16.9 billion in 2008. Current federal expenditures for 2008 are not yet available, so the chart uses the 2007 value of 2880.5 billion from the BEA (the ratio is approximately one half percent, i.e. 0.59%). Since federal expenditures for 2008 will exceed those of 2007, this means that the area for earmarks shown in the diagram is overestimated, i.e. it is larger than the true value. The NY Times also notes that "earmarks ... make up less than 1% of the federal budget."].

All the recent controversy over McCain lying about Palin's earmark requests, as he did most recently on The View, is noteworthy for what is says about McCain's (lack of) character, but more generally it is misdirecting us from more important issues. Earmarks are only a minor part of the overall budget, and issues such as health care reform are much more important since rising health care costs will absolutely dwarf any savings from earmarks.

Here's the centerpiece of McCain's economic plan: drill for oil, then pretend like it will help at the pump:

[via]

I can't even see the sliver of yellow until after 2015, and even after that it's not much of a contribution. That's supposed to lower gas prices?

With such a solid foundation for the policy proposals - a couple of slivers of pie - I can't imagine why the McCain campaign would resort to lies, deceptions, misdirection, and misleading characterizations to sell these "big" plans.

Lie, lie, lie -- it's all they've got

Poway for Obama — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:10:32 EDT

So-Called Energy Expert Sarah Palin Doesn’t Know How Much Energy Her State Produces

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) defended Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s “experience does she have in the field of national security” by asserting that “she knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.” McCain’s claim to Palin’s expertise was undercut the next day, however, when Palin severely overstated Alaska’s energy production in an interview with ABC News’s Charlie Gibson.

Challenged by Gibson on her “national security credentials,” Palin cited her experience as the governor of a “state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy” as a credential that she “brings to the table“:

PALIN: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

Watch it:

But, as the non-partisan FactCheck.org points out, Palin’s claim about Alaska producing 20 percent of America’s domestic energy supply is “not true. Not even close.” In fact, “Alaska’s share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent.”

Palin would have been closer to reality, but still incorrect if she made the claim specifically about oil production rather than energy supply:

Palin would have been correct to say that Alaska produces just over 14 percent of all the oil produced in the U.S., leaving out imports and leaving out other forms of power. According to the federal government’s Energy Information Administration, Alaskan wells produced 263.6 million barrels of oil in 2007, or 14.3 percent of the total U.S. production of 1.8 billion barrels.

But Alaskan production accounts for only 4.8 percent of all the crude oil and petroleum products supplied to the U.S. in 2007, counting both domestic production and imports from other nations. According to EIA, the total supply was just over 5.5 billion barrels in 2007.

Furthermore, Palin said “energy,” not “oil,” so she was actually much further off the mark. According to EIA, Alaska actually produced 2,417.1 trillion BTUs [British Thermal Units] of energy in 2005, the last year for which full state numbers are available. That’s equal to just 3.5 percent of the country’s domestic energy production.

Palin’s incorrect facts appear to be rubbing off on McCain. As FactCheck.org notes, McCain made the same claim in a separate interview with Gibson on Sept. 3. “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply,” McCain told Gibson.

McCain flip flop challenge -- 42 flops

Poway for Obama — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:33:15 EDT

McCain Issues A Challenge: ‘Nobody Can Name’ An Issue I Have Flip-Flopped On»

On ABC’s The View today, host Joy Behar complained to John McCain that “you used to be more of the Maverick, then you sort of turned.” “In what way?” McCain asked. “You became much more lockstep, I think, with your party, with George Bush’s policies,” Behar answered, adding, “I don’t see the old John McCain. … I understand why — you want to get elected.” McCain issued this challenge in his defense:

I’ve been through this litany before, where I say, “ok, what specific area have I quote changed?” Nobody can name it. … I am the same person and I have the same principles.

McCain argued that on issues — “whether it be spending, whether it be climate change, whether it be the conduct of the war in Iraq, whether it be torture of prisoners” — he is “the same guy.” Watch it:

ThinkProgress has gladly taken up the McCain challenge. We’ve compiled a document that lists the policy areas on which McCain has changed his position.

The flip-flop document notes that McCain has changed his position even on the four areas he cited — spending, climate change, the war in Iraq, and torture of prisoners:

SPENDING: The McCain campaign has said that it will balance the budget by the end of McCain’s first time. But chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said McCain would balance the budget by the end of his second term.

CLIMATE CHANGE: In 1999, McCain opposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling, saying that it was just the “special interests in Washington” that advocated it. In 2008, McCain announced that “there are areas off our coasts that should be open to exploration and exploitation.”

IRAQ CONDUCT: He said in 2004 that Donald Rumsfeld was doing “a fine job” and was “an honorable man.” But by 2008, McCain was arguing that he was “the only one that said Rumsfeld had to go.”

TORTURE: In 2005, McCain pushed President Bush to sign a bill that would prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of anyone in U.S. government custody. But in 2008, McCain voted against the Intelligence Authorization Bill, which requires the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and bans waterboarding.

See our full document here. Steve Benen has compiled another flip-flop list here.

Why does Michael Kinsley hate Sarah Palin?

Poway for Obama — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:29:23 EDT

Must be a sexist or somethin'.... ;^)

Yeah, I think we should ALL get that $3000 from the oil companies, hmm?

Tuesday, Sep. 09, 2008 Sarah Palin's Alaskonomics By Michael Kinsley

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.

Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said, "No, thanks," to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said, "Yes, please," until this project became a symbol and political albatross.

Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

View photos of Sarah Palin here.

Under the state constitution, the governor of Alaska has unusually strong powers to shape the state budget. At the Republican Convention, Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you, the people, against it, the government, could find in wasteful spending under her control.

One thing Barack Obama and McCain disagree on is an oil windfall-profits tax. McCain is against it, on the theory that it is a tax and therefore bad and also on the theory that it would discourage domestic production. Obama is for it, on the theory that if oil companies can make a nice profit when oil sells for $50 per bbl., they can still make a nice profit when it sells at more than $100, even if the government takes a bit and spreads the money around to those who are hurting from higher oil prices.

Although Palin's words side with McCain in this dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They're more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin's Alaska.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html

Why does the WSJ hate Sarah Palin?

Poway for Obama — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:27:04 EDT

McCain and Palin to the WSJ: "How dare they print the truth about her? Wah! Wah!"

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB122090791901411709.html

Record Contradicts Palin's 'Bridge' Claims By ELIZABETH HOLMES and LAURA MECKLER
September 9, 2008

The Bridge to Nowhere argument isn't going much of anywhere.

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government "thanks but no thanks" to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.

The McCain campaign released a television advertisement1 Monday morning titled "Original Mavericks." The narrator of the 30-second spot boasts about the pair: "He fights pork-barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere."

Gov. Palin, who John McCain named as his running mate less than two weeks ago, quickly adopted a stump line bragging about her opposition to the pork-barrel project Sen. McCain routinely decries.

Getty Images Republican presidential candidate John McCain (right) and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, at a campaign rally in Lee's Summit, Mo.

But Gov. Palin's claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.

A year ago, the governor issued a press release2 that the money for the project was being "redirected."

"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," she said. "Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened."

On Monday in Missouri, Gov. Palin put it this way: "I told Congress thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere. If the state wanted to build a bridge we would built it ourselves."

Senior adviser Mark Salter pointed to her role in killing the project while in office and allocating the money elsewhere. When pressed further that it was actually Congress that stopped the earmark, Mr. Salter said: "She stopped it, too. She did her part." Mr. Salter added that he welcomed a fight over earmarks with the Obama campaign.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama used a town-hall style event in Flint, Mich., to attack Gov. Palin over the "Bridge to Nowhere" debate. He accused the vice presidential nominee of lobbying for the bridge and then hiding her initial position when she ran for governor and the project became unpopular.

"You can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. The American people aren't that stupid," he said. It's like "being for it before you were against it," Sen. Obama said, a reference to a damaging statement John Kerry made in 2004.

Why is this one issue such a big deal? Sen. McCain's anti-earmarks stance has been paramount to his campaign. The Arizona senator has blamed everything from the Minneapolis bridge collapse to Hurricane Katrina on Congress's willingness to stuff bills full of pork barrel spending.

As such, Gov. Palin's image as a "reformer" is part of the storyline the McCain campaign needs to complement the top of its ticket. Her quip about passing on the bridge and "building it ourselves" has been a staple of her stump.

But she's drawn considerable fire as result. Sen. Obama's campaign released an advertisement3 pointing out her original support of the bridge. And on Monday, an Obama staffer emailed a photo of Gov. Palin holding up a T-shirt that was made shortly after the bridge caught national attention. It reads "NOWHERE ALASKA" and "99901," the zip code of Ketchikan.

The McCain campaign jumped back with spokesman Brian Rogers calling the attacks "hysterical."

"The only people 'lying' about spending are the Obama campaign. The only explanation for their hysterical attacks is that they're afraid that when John McCain and Sarah Palin are in the White House, Barack Obama's nearly $1 billion in earmark spending will stop dead in its tracks," Mr. Rogers said.

At a rally today, Sen. McCain again asserted that Sen. Obama has requested nearly a billion in earmarks. In fact, the Illinois senator requested $311 million last year, according to the Associated Press, and none this year. In comparison, Gov. Palin has requested $750 million in her two years as governor -- which the AP says is the largest per-capita request in the nation.

Whole Lotta Shakin'

Poway for Obama — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:11:59 EDT

Palin economic gaffe -- hit on this hard, Obama team...

Poway for Obama — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:33:02 EDT

The Obama team needs to hit hard on these economic gaffes -- this along with McCain's "Don't know much about the economy" gaffe on tape would make a great ad.

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."

Added Andrew Jakabovics, an economic analysts for the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress: "It is somewhat nonsensical because up until yesterday there was sort of no public funding there. Even today they haven't drawn down any of the credit line they have given to Treasury. 'Gotten too big and too expensive' are two separate things. The too big has been a conservative mantra for a while and there is something to be said of that in that they hold about half of the mortgage guarantees that are out there. And in the last year they have been responsible for roughly 80 percent out there. The 'too expensive to tax payers,' I don't know where that comes from."

Even conservative analysts acknowledged that the statement simply did not hold true.

"Heretofore, if the treasury had a balance sheet there would have been a liability but there was never a taxpayer payment before [the bailout]," said Gerald P. O'Driscoll, an economist with the Cato Institute. "[Fannie and Freddie] were not taxpayer funded. They had taxpayer guarantee, which is worth something, especially in the stock market..."

The Palin misstatement comes as Fannie and Freddie are set to be placed under control of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, created by President Bush in late July to help regulate the two housing giants. Both presidential candidates have been critical of Fannie and Freddie but neither is opposed to the government's plans for the companies. The treasury is hoping that the government's role will help stabilize credit markets and incentive more mortgage lending.

"With the takeover they will be taxpayer funded," said O'Driscoll. "As I understand it they get to withdraw funds with permission going forward."

How politically significant a "gaffe" it is remains to be seen. The major concern about Palin's position on the ticket is that she lacks the economic and foreign policy wherewithal to serve as vice president. This certainly doesn't help on that front. At the same time, the remark went almost entirely unnoticed over the weekend and discussions on the developments of the housing market can be difficult to process for even the most attuned voter.

There are varying explanations that could be offered for Palin's defense. As O'Driscoll noted, both Fannie and Freddie "were hybrid institutions because they had private ownership but... an implicit government guarantee which people thought at the end of the day was explicit." Meanwhile, as Baker noted, as of July the two lenders were being offered low market interest rates by the fed again, theoretically, at the taxpayer's expense. But, he added, "I kind of doubt she had any sense of that."

Maverick!

Poway for Obama — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:38:03 EDT

Nope, nothing sexist here at the RNC

Poway for Obama — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:32:24 EDT

Republican National Convention Play Slideshow

Photo Gallery Sheesh....

Fun with the green screen

Poway for Obama — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:02:51 EDT

Makes more sense now.

Things I learned watching TV last night

Poway for Obama — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:09:04 EDT

My dog Darwin absolutely loves "Greatest American Dog"!

Oh yeah, there was also some whiny lady on giving some speech...

Palin Pork -- Reform we can believe in?

Poway for Obama — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:18:16 EDT

And she still managed to leave the city $20 million in debt -- wow!!

Palin on Earmarks: ‘We Did Well!!!’ addthis_pub = 'washingtonindependent'; By Mike Lillis 9/3/08 7:38 PM

<< BACK TO POST

Palin on Earmarks: ‘We Did Well!!!’ addthis_pub = 'washingtonindependent'; By Mike Lillis 9/3/08 7:42 PM

Digging through Wasilla’s municipal records is a lesson in the very essence of tedium. You’ve got pages of proposals to rename streets, assess sewers, build skateboard parks, buy lawnmowers, rent “pop” machines, carve snowmobile trails, congratulate high school football teams — the kind of stuff that makes small towns run, but leaves you glad that someone else is running them.

Every once in a while, though, something pops up and grabs your attention. Take, for example, Wasilla City Council Informational Memorandum 99-62, prepared on June 14, 1999. This little gem outlines some of the state-funded projects that Wasilla City secured that year, including $1.2 million for storm water treatment and $605,000 for pedestrian pathways.

Then, slapped in the margin, former Mayor Sarah Palin — reformer extraordinaire — scribbled the following message:

FYI This does not include our nearly one million Dollars from the Feds for our Airport Paving Project.

We did well!!!

Sarah Palin: Earmark Queen Of The Earmark State

In 2000, Sarah Palin, as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla, hired a Washington lobbyist to secure federal earmarks for her community.

This is not totally atypical in her state. Alaska’s government receives more money per capita in federal earmark money than any other state, despite being the only state in the union with no income tax and no sales tax. They fund their government primarily with petroleum money, and recently distributed oil profits to its citizens in the form of rebate checks.

But even in her heavily earmarked state, Sarah Palin was the earmark queen.

From 2000 to 2003, she secured over $27 million in earmarks, averaging $6.7 million in federal money every year for her town of about 6,700 people.

An analysis of the databases of Taxpayers for Common Sense by Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Scott Lilly puts these numbers in perspective.

He notes the following amounts:

–$50: The amount the average state received in earmarked funds, per capita in 2008
–$506: The amount received by Alaska’s citizen per capita in 2008, represented by the Senate’s earmarker in chief, Ted Stevens, ten times the national average
–Over $1000: The annual amount received per capita in Wasilla between 2000 and 2003, twice the 2008 Alaska state average

Some of these earmarks drew the scorn of Senator John McCain. The LA Time reports that, “three times in recent years, McCain’s catalogs of ‘objectionable’ spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time — Sarah Palin.”

As Scott Lilly writes, “Palin has advertised herself as a reformer and a skeptic of earmarking while maneuvering to become the earmark queen of the earmark state.”

$20 million in debt for a town of 6000?

Poway for Obama — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:50:35 EDT

As Mayor, ‘Hard-Core Fiscal Conservative’ Sarah Palin Left Wasilla $20 Million In Debt»

The campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is presenting his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), as a reformer, fiscal conservative, and “tough minded budget cutter.” Other conservatives have latched onto this image - Phyllis Schlafly calls Palin “the total package” with “fiscal conservative credentials.”

Palin embraces the title, labeling herself a “hard-core fiscal conservative,” whose “agenda was to stop wasteful spending.

However, as mayor of Wasilla, AK, Palin “was not always the fiscal watchdog she has since boasted of being.”

During her term in office, Palin cut property taxes and other small taxes on business. But as the Anchorage Daily News points out, “She wasn’t doing this by shrinking government.” During her tenure, the budget of Wasilla (population 5,469 in 2000) “apart from capital projects and debt, rose from $3.9 million in fiscal 1996 to $5.8 million.”

Palin also successfully pushed through a sales tax increase in Wasilla, which went to fund a $15 million sports complex. However, a land dispute over the sight of the complex led to “years of legal wrangling” and cost Wasilla almost $1.7 million, “a lot more than the roughly $125,000 the city would have paid in 1998 if it had closed a deal to buy the property outright.” Wasilla is still facing budget shortfalls from the case today.

When Palin left office in 2002, Wasilla had “racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt,” or roughly $3,000 of debt per resident.

But Palin’s approach actually brings her in line with McCain, whose own “massive tax cuts” “would recklessly exacerbate the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration” and cause the largest deficit in 25 years.

Bread and Circuses

Poway for Obama — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:39:21 EDT

The Republicans have become America’s Circus this year while the Democrats continue to try and get everyone Bread.

They ought to put down straw for their convention, set up three rings and pass out the peanuts. They’ve already got the elephants!

Ringmaster Rove can put on his top hat and amuse us all with his rap routine.

From the Heart of Colorado

Poway for Obama — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:50:40 EDT

August 28th, 2008 Pueblo, Colorado

Housing Crisis

Poway for Obama — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:20:50 EDT

McCainopoly!

Poway for Obama — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:45:10 EDT

It would make a great VISA ad...

Poway for Obama — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:49:42 EDT

Or a great Obama ad, no?

This summer John McCain is traveling in style. He has worn a pair of $520 black leather Ferragamo shoes on every recent campaign stop — from a news conference with the Dalai Lama to a supermarket visit in Bethlehem, PA. The Calfskin loafers, with silver-tone "Gancini" buckles, are imported from Italy.

In response to Barack Obama's foreign tour, McCain spent much of his energy last week emphasizing his focus on domestic issues. What better way to show his American pride than to tour the country in Italian leather?

Arriving in the loafers at Bakersfield, CA

Detail of above photo

Salvatore Ferragamo 'Pregiato' Moccasin [Neiman Marcus]

Ferragamo loafers: $520
Dolce & Gabbana blazer: $1,700
Battistoni custom-made shirt: $700
Galliano trousers: $1800
Fooling American voters into believing your opponent is an elitist: PRICELESS

__________

With the music of course -- Crowded House's "Italian Plastic"....

Italian Plastic (Paul Hester)

LYRICS

I bring you plates from Rome
You say they look fantastic
I say we're having fun
Nothing like that Italian plastic
I bring you rocks and flowers
You say they look pathetic
You pick me up at night
I don't feel pathetic

When you wake up with me
I'll be your glass of water
When you stick up for me
Then you're my Bella Bambina

I say we're on a trip
Looks like we're on vacation
I say we're having fun
In our little constellation...

Hey McCain, forget how to get home?

Poway for Obama — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:48:43 EDT

Or just forget which one you're living in today?

It must be so confusing.... poor old guy...

Hey, here's a reminder, John! Oh, but wait, you'renot actually living in that one? Huh. No wonder it's so confusing.

Really, when you have to ask your staff how many houses your wife owns that she lets you live in? Come on...

Well, must go clean my one little house today -- I don't have the money to have seven sets of servants!

Unforgettable (But Already Sold!)

At first we thought this spread in Architectural Digest was about the ranch/estate in Sedona with the multiple homes. But it's actually the home in Phoenix, which I think isn't even the primary home. That's the condo in Phoenix, which you can see here.

Late Picture Update: We thought these pictures were from the Sedona estate, but they're from the Phoenix mansion ....

Hard to Keep Track Update: It now seems like the McCain's stopped living in the Phoenix mansion in 2006 when they sold it. The place is now back on the market for more than $12 million and Inside Edition has this look at the place ...

Late Memory Hole Update: The McCain campaign actually had Youtube videos up on their site of a Fox News Greta van Susteren report on the McCain Manses. But they appear now to have removed them from Youtube.

It's the Economic Stupor....

Poway for Obama — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:08:08 EDT

But then when you think "The Rich" are people who make over $5 million, what can we expect?

McCain: ‘I Still Believe The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong’

On her radio show today, conservative talker Laura Ingraham asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) what he believed should be done to address the struggling U.S. economy. Ingraham listed several economic indicators that have declined in recent years to make her point. McCain dismissed the premise of Ingraham’s question, saying, “I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong”:

INGRAHAM: And now look: the dollar’s weak, we have serious competition from abroad, government is running a deficit. … What are the Republicans going to do if China ultimately overtakes us economically and does that matter?

MCCAIN: I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong. We’ve got terribly big challenges now, whether it be housing or employment or so many of the other — health care. It’s very, very tough times. It’s very tough. But we’re still the most innovative, the most productive, the greatest exporter, the greatest importer.

Listen here:

It’s not clear which fundamentals McCain is referring to. Eight years of conservative management have left the economy with something other than “strong” fundamentals:

- Inflation is rising. The U.S. economy is currently experiencing “the worst 12 months of inflation in almost three decades.”

- Real wages are declining. Americans are experiencing a “de facto pay cut.” “Almost everything costs more, even as [Americans] have less money to pay for it.”

- Unemployment is increasing. Americans have experienced “seven consecutive monthly declines in employment.”

- Cost of food is rising. Food prices are quickly increasing and even school lunches across the country will be more expensive in the coming year.

- Optimism about economy is declining. “Optimism in the U.S. economy among CEOs of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies” is at a 16-year low. Americans are similarly pessimistic.

- Foreclosures are still increasing. Home foreclosures were up 55 percent over last year in July and “17 [percent] of all homes for sale in the U.S. are repossessed properties.”

McCain’s economic policies are promising more of the same. As Paul Krugman writes, McCain offers a “combination of irresponsibility and double-talk” that promises to be nothing short of “Bush made permanent.”

Portrait of a Campaign

Poway for Obama — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:53:47 EDT

It says so much...

McCain and Obama as a Pile of Words

John Schwenkler wrote an interesting short piece for the Boston Globe by putting together profiles of the US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, drawn from the most-used words from their respective blogs:

It’s nothing major: just a use of Wordle to pull out the most prominent words from the official McCain and Obama campaign blogs, and then some brief analysis of a few of the most interesting ones. But it is sort of fun, and I do think it’s genuinely revealing of at least some important aspects of the state of the debate.

It’s interesting to note that in both McCain’s, and naturally, Obama’s, blogs the most often used word is "Obama," but the tone of McCain’s blog is decided more negative.

Great job, Iowa!

Poway for Obama — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:55:42 EDT

Great site, awesome videos -- we should do this for EVERY state!!!

http://www.mccainvsiowa.com/

McCain vs. Iowa is your one-stop website to learn about Senator McCain’s positions on the issues important to Iowa.

Iowans have an important decision this November and they deserve to know where the candidates stand on the issues. McCain vs. Iowa will cut through the spin and give Iowans the facts.

Below you’ll find information on Senator McCain’s opposition to many issues critical to Iowa’s economy.

Does John McCain have a serious health care plan to address the issues facing Iowa’s rural communities? Watch the video, read his record, and know the facts.

Because 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq were just small potatoes

Poway for Obama — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:31:48 EDT

McCain: Georgia conflict is the ‘first serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War.’»

Speaking at the Aspen Institute in Colorado yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that recent Russian aggression in Georgia is the “first…serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War.” McCain seemingly ignored the Gulf War, 9/11, and the Iraq War, to name a few:

My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War. This is an act of aggression.

Watch it:

In July, McCain said Iraq was the “first major conflict since 9/11,” leaving out Afghanistan. Matt Yglesias has more on McCain’s inflated rhetoric on Russia. (HT: Politico)

Unbelievable comment from McCain

Poway for Obama — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:15:42 EDT

An unbelievably stupid comment from a former P.O.W. -- and absolutely inexcusable. Shame on McCain for forgetting how horrible those years were. Shame, shame, shame.

McCain: Gitmo is ‘one of the nicest places in the world to live in.’»

During a question-and-answer session with Walter Isaacson today, Sen. John McCain said Guantanamo Bay is “one of the nicest places in the world to live in.” Later in the interview, McCain was asked about the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Boumediene v. Bush declaring that Gitmo detainees have a right to challenge their detention in civilian court. McCain had previously derided that decision as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country,” but today stepped back from that comment:

ISAACSON: But you called that the worst decision in history?

MCCAIN: No I didn’t. No, no– Sometimes I’m given to a little hyperbole.

In 2003, McCain said, “A serious process must be established in the very near term either to formally treat and process the detainees as war criminals or to return them to their countries for appropriate judicial action.”

Poodle and Wheaten Terrier Neck-and-Neck

Poway for Obama — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:51:23 EDT

Poodle and Wheaten Terrier Neck-and-Neck in
Race for the White House

The American Kennel Club reports a tight race between the Poodle and Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier in their poll to determine America’s breed of choice for the Obama family. But, with just a few days until the polls officially close, the Miniature Schnauzer and Bichon Frise are still in the running. Cast your vote at www.presidentialpup.com before August 19, 2008.

Swift-Boating Obama

Poway for Obama — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:46:59 EDT

Tomorrow's Swift-Boating Of Obama, Today! By Greg Sargent - August 13, 2008, 9:35AM

Jerome Corsi, the writer of "Unfit for Command," which provided the basis for the Swift-Boat-Vets attack on John Kerry, is out with a new book that has the same lofty goals, but this time, the target is Barack Obama.

Today's New York Times has a run-down on the book, and the paper reports that Corsi is planning to work with some conservative groups to run Swift-Boat style ads against Obama, and the wingnut noise machine is already going full throttle, with talk-show hosts promoting the heck out of it. The chief editor of the publishing house behind the book is GOP operative Mary Matalin.

The Times piece offers a glimpse of several of the specific lies in the book that will no doubt be used on the Illinois Senator when the Swift-Boating gears up. Here's a quick rundown of the lowlights:

• Corsi's book says that Mr. Obama had "yet to answer" whether he "stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug usage extended to his law school days or beyond." Corsi even adds, "How about in the U.S. Senate?" But as the Times points out, Obama has written his memoir that he "stopped getting high" in the early 1980s. That's lie number one.

• Corsi's book, amusingly, uses Newsmax.com as a source for the falsehood that Obama was present at a sermon in July of 2007 where Reverend Jeremiah Wright faulted "the 'white arrogance' of America's Caucasian majority for the world's suffering, especially the oppression of blacks." In fact, Obama wasn't at that sermon. Even conservative columnist Bill Kristol issued a correction after trafficking in the same falsehood. That's lie number two.

• Corsi says that Obama failed to dedicate his book "Dreams From My Father" to his family, an apparent effort to suggest that Obama lacks family values. But The Times reports that Mr. Obama did dedicate the book to several family members in the introduction. That's lie number three.

At any rate, these are some of the lies we'll be hearing this fall. Oh, and not to hit you all with something so depressing first thing in the morning, but Corsi's book is set to hit the Times best-seller list this weekend. The non-fiction one.

Late Update: Media Matters did a nice job knocking down the book's multiple falsehoods. (see extended entry)

MudCain

Poway for Obama — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:42:00 EDT

Barackrolling!

Poway for Obama — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:08:50 EDT

Barack Roll

(YouTube link)
Better than Rick Rolling, you’ve just been Barack Rolled! -via Digg

McCain vistis his base

Poway for Obama — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:10:37 EDT

Some call you capitalist pigs... I call you "my base"....

The Wrinkly White Haired Dude

Poway for Obama — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:55:11 EDT

G.O.P. -- The Party of Stupid

Poway for Obama — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:05:26 EDT

Because being intelligent and thinking things through is so elitist. Even Paris Hilton is smarter than McCain...

Krugman today:

...

Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.

Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”

It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.

What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.

Why were the elite so hawkish? Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.

All this is in the past. But the state of the energy debate shows that Republicans, despite Mr. Bush’s plunge into record unpopularity and their defeat in 2006, still think that know-nothing politics works. And they may be right.

Sad to say, the current drill-and-burn campaign is getting some political traction. According to one recent poll, 69 percent of Americans now favor expanded offshore drilling — and 51 percent of them believe that removing restrictions on drilling would reduce gas prices within a year.

The headway Republicans are making on this issue won’t prevent Democrats from expanding their majority in Congress, but it might limit their gains — and could conceivably swing the presidential election, where the polls show a much closer race.

In any case, remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen — not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.

If you're not rich, Obama's your best economic choice

Poway for Obama — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:20:52 EDT

Bushonomics = McCainonomics: Corporations Win, Families Lose

In a new report from the Center for American Progress, Senior Fellow Scott Lilly chronicles the “extraordinary transfer of wealth that took place between ordinary households and the extremely well-to-do” during the past eight years under President George W. Bush.

Under Bush’s mismanagement, workers’ real wages have declined even as corporate profits have skyrocketed, bountiful surpluses have been squandered into deep deficits, and the real engine of sustainable American growth — the middle-income American family — is straining under household debt, record gas prices, and the spiraling costs of health care.

Check out these charts from Scott Lilly’s report:

- Household incomes are down:

- Corporate profits are up:

- The richest 1% of Americans experienced the greatest income growth:

And yet, McCain wants to double Bush’s tax cuts for corporations and the richest Americans, increase the deficit with budget busting tax breaks, and burden middle class families with a flawed health care scheme that would raise taxes on many and deliver worse coverage to most. For American families, Senator McCain would do a heckuva job.

Lieberman attacked from the rear by a cake

Poway for Obama — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:40:41 EDT

Oh, the Straight Talk Express smashup just gets better and better!

Birthday cake hurled onto Lieberman

A little more to that Miami traffic accident yesterday involving Joe Lieberman aboard the Straight Talk Express: Turns out the impact sent a staffer's chocolate birthday cake with thick white frosting smack into the Connecticut senator

"At the moment of impact I was sitting in a booth ... right in front of counter right where the cake was. The cake went all over me. That was the end of my suit,'' he said, apologizing for the lack of suit for a taping of "Political Connections" on Bay News 9. "I always wondered whether sometime a political protester would hit me with a pie in the face. I never thought a friendly birthday cake would attack me from the rear."

Lieberman, who might just be spending more time in Florida than Barack Obama Florida co-chair and MD homeowner Robert Wexler, also brushed off Wexler's suggestion that he's a different person than he was seven years ago.

---Adam Smith

j"The fact is that iI have not changed. The Democratic party has changed from what it was under Bill Clinton, particularly on foreign policy, trade and economic policy,'' he also talked up his environmental credentials before hopping into a McCain volunteers black Hummer and heading to the next event.

"We're just Humming along. This campaign is Humming now,'' Lieberman said, brushing off our offer to check the tire pressure.

Let's just have McCain debate McCain

Poway for Obama — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:55:49 EDT

Flashback: In 2007, McCain said, ‘Paris Hilton is the kind of issue that gets more attention’ than it deserves.»

The McCain campaign’s “celebrity” attack ad against Barack Obama, linking him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, recently provoked a response ad from Hilton herself. The McCain campaign has now politicized and embraced Hilton. But in September 2007, John McCain told MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews that Paris Hilton is “the kind of issue” that seems to “get a lot more attention than maybe some of us think” it deserves:

MATTHEWS: Here’s a hard call for you. Given everything that’s happening out in Vegas right now, and Clark County, and you know what’s going on in the news with O.J. — and let me put this in the language of the streets, can the Juice get a fair trial?

MCCAIN: I don’t know. I would not know about that. The last time a lot of people were surprised that he got at least what was in his view a fair trial. But, honestly, I have not been keeping up with it as much as I should have maybe, because it’s certainly — this and Paris Hilton are the kind of issues that seem to get a lot more attention than maybe some of us think they deserve. [MSNBC Hardball, 9/17/07]

Is McCain incapable of holding an actual press conference?

Poway for Obama — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:38:39 EDT

We don't need another puppet president who has to be carefully scripted and told what to say.

McCain's Freewheeling Days With Media Curtailed

Reporters traveling with Sen. John McCain haven't gotten a chance to ask the Republican presidential hopeful a lot of questions this week. Instead of open-ended news conferences, McCain has been offering up carefully scripted statements.

It's part of a deliberate strategy by the campaign to keep the press corps — and the candidate — on a shorter leash between now and Election Day.

The Arizona senator used to wear out reporters with his wide-ranging question-and-answer sessions, shifting from campaign strategy to international affairs to baseball, and back again. When a nervous press aide, Brooke Buchanan, would call time, McCain invariably responded, "Let me do one more."

There's been none of that freewheeling back and forth this week. Instead, for three straight days, McCain has approached a microphone, spoken for five minutes or less and then walked away without taking a single question.

Ducking questions would be nothing new for many politicians. But it's very much at odds with McCain's reputation and the unconventional image he's touting in a new campaign ad that boasts, "He's the original maverick."

McCain owes much of his maverick reputation to the virtually unlimited access he gave reporters during his first presidential campaign eight years ago. It's a style he reverted to last summer, after his more formal campaign nearly collapsed under its own weight.

As the writer David Foster Wallace noted in a 2000 Rolling Stone profile, reporters marvel at McCain's willingness to engage in back-and-forth conservation because they've been trained to associate it with vulnerability, when in fact it's McCain's strong suit. Give and take, rather than scripted speeches, is where he shines.

"There's no question in my mind that John McCain enjoyed that back and forth with the press that characterized his early 2000 campaign," said Dan Schnur, who was McCain's communications director at the time. "My guess is that he regrets that he's not able to have that same kind of relationship with the media covering him. But the realities of modern day media and modern day politics are such that no candidate, Democrat or Republican, can grant that kind of access and expect to survive."

McCain himself didn't even survive the primary in 2000. Now that he has made it this far, and stands on the doorstep of the nomination, the campaign feels a different media strategy is needed.

"Obviously, every campaign has to get out there, and every day you get up and you've got a certain thing you want to say," said senior adviser Mark Salter. "And if you spend a lot of time talking about things other than what you want to say, it often gets diluted or you guys don't report it."

Even though he's not mixing it up with the traveling press corps, McCain is hardly invisible. He's still granting plenty of local interviews. And the campaign is staging colorful photo ops. Wednesday, McCain delivered a couple of pizzas to a fire house in Chillicothe, Ohio. And he dropped by football practice at Marshall University in West Virginia.

From now on, the candidate famous for his improvisational style is going to stick closer to a professional playbook. "It's the NFL now. We have to up our game a little bit," Salter said.

He insists McCain will still be more accessible to reporters than Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama. McCain has scheduled one opportunity for reporters to ask questions this week — late Friday afternoon in Bentonville, Ark., just as the Olympics get under way.

More here on Mark Salter. Is he the puppetmaster?

Straight talk express not so straight anymore

Poway for Obama — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:20:03 EDT

The misfortunes of the McCain Bus continue this week.... the Straight Talk Express is getting a bit bent out of shape...

Bus Carrying Lieberman Involved In CollisionCollision Occurred After Lieberman Recorded Interview At Local 10POSTED: 5:14 pm EDT August 6, 2008MIAMI -- A bus carrying U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman was involved in a collision after leaving Local 10 on Wednesday.Lieberman was traveling in presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's bus, the "Straight Talk Express," when it collided with a van at the intersection of 54th Street and Biscayne Boulevard.The collision occurred after the senator from Connecticut recorded an interview with Local 10's Laurie Jennings.
Lieberman, who is backing McCain's bid for the presidency, is best known for being the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2000.Nobody on board was hurt.

Seriously, this thing is just bursting with metaphors. And it wasn't just a fender bender either.

Does this thing go to 11?

Poway for Obama — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:16:18 EDT

Activity Index?

Boo. What does that even mean?

It was fun moving up in the ranks. Now it's just boring. Pout.

"You rotten kids! Get off my bus!"

Poway for Obama — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:50:36 EDT

Those Damn Kids!!!!

Fiscal Conservatives leave big deficits

Poway for Obama — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:20:44 EDT

The Leesburg Grid

Poway for Obama — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:45:59 EDT

That is what Republicans call this, and they use it. It's how they all organize their talking points and end up all saying the same thing, putting out the same messages.

Learn it, Democrats. Use it. Here's the key phrase: "That'snot the issue. The issue is..." and switch back to your story. Pretty simple, really.

Drew Westen:

There is a simple fact about elections that has eluded Democrats in every presidential campaign they have lost in the last 40 years: that as a candidate, you have to focus first and foremost not on a litany of "issues" but on four stories: the story you tell about yourself, the story your opponent is telling about himself, the story your opponent is telling about you, and the story you are telling about your opponent. Candidates who offer compelling stories in all four quadrants of this "message grid" win, and those who leave any of them to chance generally lose.

Obama Incites Republicans With New North Carolina Black Voters

Poway for Obama — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:09:27 EDT

Very sad that we still have to fight Republican racism.....

Obama Incites Republicans With New North Carolina Black Voters
By Heidi Przybyla

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The North Carolina waterfront community of Elizabeth City witnessed an early skirmish in a high-stakes political battle over registering new black voters, which may help decide the outcome of the presidential election.

Republican voter Richard Gilbert last year challenged the eligibility of several students at historically black Elizabeth City State University to vote in a municipal election. The local elections board dismissed Gilbert's complaint that students are only temporary residents in the town of about 20,000 people.

Similar fights over voter qualifications will be waged this year, particularly in Southern states, as Democrat Barack Obama's drive to register hundreds of thousands of new black voters clashes with Republican suspicions that get-out-the-vote efforts recruit people who aren't eligible to cast ballots.

``If the Democrats are to have any chance at all of carrying this state, it will only be because of a much larger-than-normal and completely united black vote,'' said David Rohde, a political science professor at Duke University in Durham.

The North Carolina NAACP in May asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether the Elizabeth City complaint was aimed at discouraging lawful voting by black students. ``We challenged that because it could have a ripple effect across North Carolina,'' said the state NAACP President, Reverend William Barber.

Gilbert said race played no role in his challenge, which stemmed from his opinion that the students had ``no stake'' in the town and were being used as ``political pawns.''

Boosting Turnout

Republicans reject the notion that monitoring voter qualifications amounts to intimidation, saying election fraud is a concern when waves of new registrations pour in.

``Some of the outside groups that will come in and register voters are not familiar with North Carolina law,'' said Brent Woodcox, assistant legal counsel for the North Carolina Republican Party.

``They don't have a lot of oversight from the Democratic Party,'' he said. ``We're going to be vigilant through the election cycle that all the rules are followed.''

Republicans scored an election-year victory in April, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's law requiring voters to produce photo identification. Democrats had challenged the measure, saying photo identification requirements in Indiana and other states discourage voting by the elderly and the poor.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, Democrats want to register at least 120,000 new black voters to help efforts to end a string of seven Republican presidential victories in the state, said U.S. Representative G.K. Butterfield, who coordinates daily with Obama's campaign.

Obama has set similar goals in other Southern states, including Virginia, Florida and Georgia.

Throughout those areas, Democratic registration drives will run into Republican-backed efforts to police voter eligibility.

Georgia in 2006 imposed new voter identification requirements. In Louisiana, the Republican secretary of state started an investigation of registration drives after getting complaints about duplicate or invalid applications. In Florida, new registrations must be turned in within 10 days, a requirement that's had a ``chilling effect'' on voter sign-ups, according to the NAACP.

Raising Stakes

Democratic activists and civil rights groups say many new rules will suppress voting by blacks and other minority groups that historically favor Democrats. While voter-eligibility clashes have happened before, Obama's registration push raises the stakes and the intensity of this year's contests.

``Almost every one of those provisions that have been sponsored at the state and national level have been sponsored by Republicans, and almost uniformly opposed by Democrats,'' said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, Voting Rights Project. ``It is an incredibly poisonous partisan environment.''

In North Carolina, ballot battles started during this year's primary elections. The NAACP filed a complaint with the Justice Department charging that members of a group called Women's Voices Women Vote called black citizens who were already registered, falsely telling them they needed a registration packet to vote. The packets never arrived, the NAACP said.

``It apparently was successful'' in leading many people to believe they weren't registered, said Stella Adams, a North Carolina voting rights activist. ``Their tactics, if they're not properly punished, will be repeated.''

Washington-based Women's Voices Women Vote, which promotes voting by unmarried women, released a statement saying members never intended to suppress black voters.

Primary Participation

Ed Turlington, a former adviser to presidential candidates, including former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, said he expects more eligibility challenges as Obama seeks record black voter turnout.

``The other side is going to throw everything they can to stop him,'' Turlington said. A high level of participation in the May primary may cut down on the effectiveness of those efforts, he said. ``Many people participated in the May primary and will not be susceptible to the smokescreens.''

The Obama team already has several lawyers in North Carolina, Butterfield said.

``There are going to be a lot of issues that spring up,'' said Ben Ginsberg, a Republican strategist and lawyer who played a central role in the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election. ``The degree of caffeination of the lawyers involved in this, at least on the Democratic side, is higher than I've ever seen it.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net.

Is Miss Buffalo Chips a celebrity?

Poway for Obama — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:47:54 EDT

Or was McCain the biggest boob at this boob fest?

Happy Birthday, Barack!

Poway for Obama — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:27:00 EDT

Happy Birthday, Barack! So how are you celebrating today? Oh, working, I see:

Senator Obama just concluded a major speech in Lansing, Michigan where he addressed our current energy crisis and described our addiction to foreign oil as "central" to all of the major challenges facing us today....

Well, try to have some fun later, ok?

___________

Hmmm, wonder how McCain celebrates his birthdays? Oh, yeah.... partying with the Prez while Katrina destroyed NOLA. Now I remember!

President George W. Bush joins Arizona Senator John McCain in a small celebration of McCain's 69th birthday Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, after the President's arrival at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.

McRove

Poway for Obama — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:22:11 EDT