I'm Sorry, Mr. McSame Is No Longer At This Address

Et tu, Palin?

At a boisterous Sarah Palin rally in Polk City, Florida on Saturday afternoon, one name was surprisingly absent from the campaign décor — John McCain’s.

Looking around the Fantasy of Flight aircraft hangar where the rally took place, one could see all the usual reminders that it was a pro-McCain event. There were two large “Country First” banners hung on the walls along with four enormous American flags meant to conjure the campaign’s underlying patriotic theme. Many of the men and women in the audience wore McCain hats and t-shirts.

But on closer inspection, the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.

So, when will McSame be relegated to Viagra commercials like Bob Dole? McSame lost because he wasn't a hard-core wingnut like Palin, you see. That's now the official excuse.

The Sarah Palin 2012 campaign officially began today over John McSame's political corpse...three days before the 2008 election.

Citizens On Patrol

Want to serve the Peach State? Georgia's Republican Secretary of State wants YOU to help keep undesirable people from voting!

Add Georgia to the list of states where Republican officials are actively engaged in voter suppression efforts.

In the midst of a record turnout for early voting in Georgia, that has led to long lines, discouraged voters and exhausted poll workers, Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, has claimed federal law ties her hands, preventing her from extending early voting hours.

With just days to go to the election, Democratic politicians demanded yesterday that Handel step in and extend early voting hours -- as has been done in both North Carolina and Florida.

But in an opinion piece published in the AJC on Thursday, Handel blamed her inaction on the issue on federal law which requires Justice Department approval to change voting law.

Ironically, it is Georgia's history of discriminatory voting practices that puts it on a federal "pre-clearance" list, mentioned in Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965.

While the DOJ can take up to 60 days to review any change that is submitted, it has the power to grant expedited review in emergency situations -- and Georgia's situation would certainly seem to qualify, Gerry Hebert, a former acting head of DOJ's voting-rights section, told TPMmuckraker.

"Georgia has asked and been granted expedited review by the DOJ in the past, so to say because of the voting act, we can't do this -- that's not really accurate," Hebert said. "The DOJ has done this in as little as 24 hours. . . so to use Section 5 as an excuse that this isn't possible, that's someone that really doesn't want to make the change."

But here's the best part:

As first noted by the blog, Facing South, in an interview Wednesday with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Handel took pains to remind voters that any voter can challenge another's qualifications to cast a ballot by notifying a precinct poll manager. According to Handel, that voter then would be given a challenge ballot and would have to go before the election board.

How many folks will be disenfranchised in Georgia because of this, I'm wondering?

Remember folks, 600 votes was the difference in Florida in 2000.

Those 600 voters disenfranchised by Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris were the difference between Bush and Gore.

The thousands of African-American voters in Ohio disenfranchised by Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in 2004 were the difference between Bush and Kerry.

The efforts this year are far more insidious, vile, and widespread.

They will stop at nothing to win. Do not take your right to vote for granted, especially if you are a minority voter in an urban area.

Bring Me His Head On Dry Ice

Wow.



(h/t Steven D at the Frog Pond)

Just think on this. We had a President who was, in effect, an unaccountable warlord, ordering the decapitation of his enemies. The "leader of the free world" was a man every bit as barbaric as the worst Islamic jihadist. And McCain would continue those same policies which Bush put in place. He jokes about bombing Iran, as if the murder of innocent Iranian civilians would be not only an instance of acceptable, "collateral damage" but the height of hilarity.

The Republicans chose George Bush. And they chose John McCain to continue what Bush started. McCain, a so-called man of "honor" who has sullied his reputation forever by running an even nastier negative ad hominem attack campaign against his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, than Bush and Karl Rove ran against John Kerry in 2004. I cannot imagine a more disgraceful act on Tuesday than to cast your ballot for John McCain, the nominee of a party who, while they controlled Congress, enabled the most corrupt, the most power mad, and the most barbaric President in our history.

As he says, this illustrates nicely why the current batch of neocons can never be allowed near the reins of power again. Ever.

Really Early November Surprise

The gang at TPM Muckracker have the goods on how the story on Obama's aunt came out a convenient three days before the election.

The leaking of information about the immigration status of Barack Obama's aunt appears to directly violate guidelines for confidentiality laid out in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by TPMmuckraker.

As we reported earlier, ICE has begun an internal probe into the leak to the Associated Press, which revealed early this morning that Obama's aunt "is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago."

Surprise surprise! Somebody in a Bush-controlled Federal agency most likely leaked the story to help McSame in the last weekend before the election.

Still, from the available evidence, it appears ICE is the most likely source. And Dan Kowalski, a leading immigration law expert, told TPMmuckraker that there's "no question" the leak violated ICE's guidelines as laid out in the memo.

And he identified for TPMmuckraker some additional, pertinent questions, asking:

1. Did the leaker know it was a violation? 2. Was the leak politically motivated? 3. A solo action, or conspiracy of 2 or more? If the latter, who is the boss?

We'll be working to bring you answers...

Schmucks to the end.

How To Know When You're A Right Wing Douchebag:

You think a check into Joe The Plumber's background is a "chilling glimpse into the future" of an Obama administration, despite the fact you have no problem with President Bush wiretapping millions of Americans illegally.

You then think the same kind of check into Obama's Kenyan aunt living in Boston, revealing she's appealing her denial of asylum request, is perfectly fine and you see no problem with it.

This makes you a complete douchebag, Malkinvania.

That is all.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition

• Oprah's early vote cast on an electronic touch screen system may not have been counted.
• It's the end of the road for "King of the Hill".
• Liddy Dole unleashes a second "Godless Americans" attack ad in North Carolina.
• Even "Madden" video game maker Electronic Arts is having to cut jobs in this economy.
• Gas prices are approaching the $2.50 a gallon mark and falling.