GOP Ties To Bush Kill Chances

With 23 Republican Seats up for grab this November, polls are showing GOP candidates are plummeting. The likelihood of the Democrats getting a 60 seat majority looks very possible. Best news I’ve heard in eight years.

Rasmussen Reports show that Bruce Lunsford (D) is leading Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) 49-44 for McConnell’s Kentucky seat. Kay Hagan (D) has been leading Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) is the North Carolina race. These two races in particular are going to be close; but the Democrats seem to be gaining steadily every week since the economic meltdown.

Democrats have now polled ahead or within the margin of error in 11 Republican-held seats, as polls conducted in recent weeks show openings in second-tier targets including Mississippi, Texas, and in other states.

“I don’t know whether to put too much stock or too little into one given poll; each poll is a piece of data,” DSCC spokesman Miller said. “But those certainly aren’t the only polls that show these incumbents in trouble.”

Democrats have also polled ahead in at least some of the polling in Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Virginia, polling substantial leads in the latter three. They have also been within the margin of error in Minnesota and Oregon.

If these leads hold or continue to grow the Senate race this year could be the most important change we have seen in a long time. The magic number is 60, the closer the Democrats get to that, the more political strength they will have next year to make the changes this country so desperately needs.

A Maverick’s Lament

H/T Crystal Gayle, “Don’t it make my brown eyes blue”

Don’t You Turn My Red States Blue

I don’t know when I’ve been so blue
Ever since I joined with you
You think you’re so new
But don’t you turn my red states blue

You were too dumb to go on
Made me cringe all night long
Now I’m really screwed
And now you’ve turned my red states blue

Told Joe “you betcha”, told lotsa lies
Gave them no reasons, just gave alibis
Said I’m a mav’rick but can’t tell them why
So incoherent, oh just say goodbye

The press was “mean” to treat you bad
I Didn’t know how little you had
But honey now I do
And don’t it make my red states
Don’t it make my red states
Don’t it make my red states blue

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From a distance – Calling the race for Obama, or maybe not just yet ?

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The underlying conviction of the British newspapers about the Presidential Election seems to be, Obama will win the race. They just don’t dare to say it out loud. In a way it is understandable, there have been so many surprises in this overlong campaign, so why not another momentum change in the last four weeks? Personally, I do not think there will be another upset, if only because the McCain surprises have lost almost all of their charm. His first one, the nomination of a woman as running mate could have been a real game-changer, had he made a wiser choice. By all means the perfomance of Sarah Palin is painfully inadequate. Whatever the pundits say, she was an abject failure in the debate. She so obviously skirted the questions to spew forth her talking points it was an embarrassment to watch. I am not an American, but I am a woman and really, to me this is insulting. John McCain’s second attempt at mavericking the race by theatrically suspending his campaign, racing to Washington to “fix it”, was another failure. So what on earth can he think up now that will change a race that has Obama leading 264 to 163 in electoral votes (111 votes toss up with Obama leading in six of the eight remaining toss-up states). Going dirty is the only remaining option, William Kristol has already done the “journalistic” groundwork for that and the McCain campaign has already gone there, but my guess is that people have moved on and mostly made up their minds. Barack Obama will win this race.

But then, who am I? Let’s have a look what the big boys and the big girls in journalism have to say:

Starting with The Times there is Daniel Finkelstein, who essentially says the race is over. Holly Watt is traveling the South and is detecting early warning signs in Georgia:

The Peach State has already begun early voting, and it will not have lowered Republican blood pressure one little bit. 30% of Georgia’s voters are African-American, but that group has cast 40% of the votes so far.

U.S. Spending $300M For Propaganda In Iraq

The DOD has decided to drop $300 million to produce news stories and public service advertisements in Iraq to support pro-America messages and themes. The pentagon has awarded three year deals to private U.S. contractors-last week to four companies- which means this could last long after our withdrawal from Iraq.

This will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls “information/psychological operations” in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and U.S. troops have begun drawing down.

The military’s role in the war of ideas has been fundamentally transformed in recent years, the result of both the Pentagon’s outsized resources and a counterinsurgency doctrine in which information control is considered key to success. Uniformed communications specialists and contractors are now an integral part of U.S. military operations from Eastern Europe to Afghanistan and beyond.

Iraq, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on such contracts, has been the proving ground for the transformation. “The tools they’re using, the means, the robustness of this activity has just skyrocketed since 2003. In the past, a lot of this stuff was just some guy’s dreams,” said a senior U.S. military official, one of several who discussed the sensitive defense program on the condition of anonymity.

See the Pentagon is trying to compete with the propaganda market dominated by al-Qaeda, as Secretary Gates puts it “We’re being out-communicated by a guy in a cave.” So basically, the government is admitting that anyone with a Web site is doing better than they are at spinning their doctrine. Psst..that might not be a good thing to tell the American people.

Rachel Maddow breaks down what Palin said..

Maddow followed with breaking down Palin’s discussion during the debate of expanding VP powers.. She interviews Jonathan Turley.

At least they have a bowl…

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
John Cole, Scranton, PA Times-Tribune

Knock knock…

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Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Palin’s excellent debate technique **wink**

ph33r and loathing

The truth is that Palin didn’t answer any questions she didn’t want to tonight, and she said she’d do exactly that at the start of the debate. She had a hand full of index cards and a brain full of buzz words, and it was her job to say them all in front of the camera. Actually, it was her job to say them while looking at Joe Biden for five seconds, then looking at the camera for five seconds, and then looking back at Biden to start over again. It was like she was on a timer. One of the many things she’d probably been coached on after the whole flap about McCain not looking Obama in the eyes.

HT:  Exit Stage Left

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Great Expectations..

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian

Saturday Open Thread

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

Groucho Marx

Stages..

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.

What’s Cookin’

I’m having cobia this day. Anybody else cooking anything of interest?

“Doggonit..”

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Melissa Kelley, Melissa’s Mind Sweeper

Round and round and round we go..

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist

And the answer is … ?

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
John Cole, Scranton, PA Times-Tribune

Letterman & Brian Williams: “I’m a Maverick”

Brian Williams and David Letterman discuss the Vice-Presidential Debates.  Williams notes the serious issues voters should think about when considering a Vice-Presidential candidate.  Brian Williams delivers a great line when he walks onto the show “I’m a Maverick, and I may not answer the questions tonight.”  David Letterman had so many funny one-liners throughout their discussion.  One particular line, that Palin used in the debate that Letterman took issue with was, “Can I call you Joe.”  He felt that was a cheesy, cheap set up by Sarah Palin.

Bill Maher: VP Debate, Palin, McCain & Bailout

Bill Maher weighs in on the Vice-Presidential Debate, Sarah Palin, John McCain and the Bailout.  He talks about the Vice-President shouldn’t sound like she is hosting “Romper Room.” Maher makes fun of all the winking Palin did during the debate-calls it ”very corny.” Bill Maher had a funny line on Real Time: “The good news is that Sarah Palin can complete a sentence-the bad news is that we have to listen to it.”

Palin Whines On Fox News – “Couric Annoyed Me”

               

Cenk from The Young Turks, has part of an “interview”, I use that term very loosely, to whine about her performance with Katie Couric. What she wanted to do was use the talking points of the McCain Campaign to spread more lies. Here are the talking points she mentioned in her propaganda talk with Fox and I used FactCheck.org to show the facts for each issue Palin mentions…

1.) Palin said that Obama had accused American troops of doing nothing but killing civilians, a claim she called “reckless” and “untrue.”

FactCheck.org – Obama did say that troops in Afghanistan were killing civilians.

The Associated Press fact-checked this one, and found that in fact U.S troops were killing more civilians at the time than insurgents: “As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can’t be attributed to one party.” Afghan President Hamid Karzai had expressed concern about these civilian killings, a concern President Bush said he shared.

Conclusion: Obama stated a proven fact and Sarah Palin called it a lie. Palin on this issue is a LIAR.

2.) Palin said: Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year. That’s a lot of middle income average American families to increase taxes on them. I think that is the way to kill jobs and to continue to harm our economy.

FactCheck.org – Obama did not in fact vote to increase taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 per year. What Obama actually voted for was a budget resolution that called for returning the 25 percent tax bracket to its pre-Bush tax cut level of 28 percent. That could have affected an individual with no children making as little as $42,000. But a couple would have had to earn $83,000 to be affected and a family of four at least $90,000. The resolution would not have raised taxes on its own, without additional legislation, and, as we’ve noted before, there is no such tax increase in Obama’s tax plan. (The vote took place on March 14 of this year, not last year as Palin said.)