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Obama’s Firewall: Commie, Unpatriotic, “Fake” Virginia

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So let me get this straight: All those civil servants and employees of the military-industrial complex living in northern VA are Communists.

They are unpatriotic and anti-American.

And they are not "real" Virginians.

I get that the McPalin campaign is all-but conceding that they cannot win the votes of those who know government best, including many many members of the military and national security community. I might ask why they’re conceding that, why they seem to admit they can’t gain any resonance with these voters, but whatever–I guess they’ve seen the polling.

What I really want to know, though, is how this is not, effectively, a concession for the entire race. McCain has admitted he needs to win all the Bush states that are currently still toss ups: FL, NC, MO, IN, CO, NV.

And VA.

(IA and NM, in which Obama holds big poll margins right now, would bring Obama to 263; VA has 13 electoral college votes.)

Yet his campaign seems to be pursuing a strategy designed to offend the largest chunk of Virginia’s population.

Sugar Momma? Did You Buy John a Lead on Intrade?

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Congressional Quarterly confirms something Nate Silver pointed out some time ago. Someone has been trying to game the online market Intrade to make it look like John McCain was winning.

An internal investigation by the popular online market Intrade has revealed that a single investor’s purchases prompted “unusual” price swings that significantly boosted the prediction that Sen. John McCain will become president.

Over the past several weeks, the investor has pushed hundreds of thousands of dollars into one of Intrade’s predictive markets for the presidential election, the company said, resulting in repeated monetary losses through a strategy that belies any financial motive.

“The trading that caused the unusual price movements and discrepancies was principally due to a single ‘institutional’ member on Intrade,” said the company’s chief executive, John Delaney, in a statement released Thursday. “We have been in contact with the firm on a number of occasions. I have spoken to those involved personally.”

After an extensive investigation into the suspicious trading patterns, Intrade found no wrongdoing or violation of its exchange rules, the company said. [my emphasis]

CQ goes on at some length to explain what a stupid "investor" this person was and how much money she (or he) wasted telegraphing to other investors when she (or he) would be dumping large sums into the market and paying extra because she (or he) invested exclusively in this market. Whoever was doing the market manipulation, CQ concluded, had to be trying to influence appearances, not make a buck.

So who would dump money on a transparent (well, at least to Nate Silver) attempt to make John McCain look more successful than he was?

Honestly, there’s absolutely no reason to think it really was McCain’s Sugar Momma buying off the market. This person is, for the moment at least, just an anonymous someone willing to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into make the failing McCain campaign look better. Though Intrade completely discredits itself as a market by refusing to state whether McCain’s fan was associated with his campaign.

Citing privacy policies, Delaney would not elaborate on who the investor was or whether or not that investor was affiliated in any way with a political campaign. [my emphasis]

But just so you know, Intrade still wants you to believe that they’re "generally more accurate" than polls.

Intrade. Where all the fashionable trophy wives go to buy their men a lead.

What about McCain’s Terrorist Sympathizer Pals?

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I know Gordon Liddy, he’s paid his debt, he went to prison, he paid his debt, as people do. I’m not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy.

Frankly, I’m underwhelmed with David Letterman’s performance last night. Yeah, yeah, Letterman actually put McCain on the spot about his ties to Gordon Liddy. But Letterman didn’t have the proper rejoinder to McCain’s claim that Liddy has paid for his crime–that (like Ayers) Liddy has no remorse for those crimes.

Does he regret burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and setting in chain the resignation of a President? A vein twitches angrily on one of his scales, but he replies in a level voice, "No."

Letterman should also have pointed out that the only reason Ayers didn’t "pay his debt" is because the federal government was engaging in the same kind of illegal surveillance that McCain has supported under the Bush Administration and so couldn’t convict Ayers.

But since Letterman did bust McCain for Palin’s claim that Obama "palled around" with terrorists, plural, it’s probably worth pointing out the number of terrorists McCain pals around with. 

The media has already talked about McCain’s ties to John Singlaub and the US Council for World Freedom, which had ties to Nazi collaborators and right-wing death squads. McCain claims to have resigned the board in 1984–though he remained supportive until 1986. And he attended the group’s events after the time, in 1984, when Jack Anderson (whom Gordon Liddy plotted to kill) exposed the group’s ties to far-right radicals.

A news article and two documents tie McCain to the council in 1985, a year after he says he resigned. The group’s Internal Revenue Service filing in 1985, covering the previous year, lists McCain as a member of the council’s advisory board. In October 1985, a States News Service report placed McCain, Rep. Tom Loeffler, R-Texas, and an Arizona congressman at a Washington awards ceremony staged by the council.

This was McCain palling around with right-wing extremists who served as a front to supply funds to terrorists. 

And then there’s Carl Lindner, the CEO of Chiquita during a period when it was knowingly providing material support to terrorists in Colombia, first FARC and then AUC. Read more →

The Iseman Cometh

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vicki-and-john.jpgOnly, she says she didn’t. Ahem.

Now, after more than seven months of silence, [Vicki] Iseman, who just turned 41, has decided to speak out and aggressively defend herself. In a series of interviews and e-mail exchanges with National Journal, she said she and McCain had a "strictly professional" and cordial relationship.

"I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain," she said in a three-hour interview last month in a seventh-floor conference room in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. "I never had an affair or an inappropriate relationship with Senator McCain, and that means I never acted unethically in my dealings with the senator."

I love how Iseman believes the only unethical thing she could have done with McCain is to have fucked him–rather than to inappropriately influence him with gifts and money.

Curiously, though, Iseman knows precisely who might leak a story that she asked McCain to share a blanket with her once.

Iseman told National Journal that [John] Weaver was the unidentified aide who The Times‘ story said flew back to Washington on Paxson’s corporate jet with Iseman and McCain after the Florida fundraising event in February 1999. She says that The Times had asked her, in an e-mail, about an incident on the plane in which she reportedly asked McCain to share a blanket with her. Only Weaver, she says, could be the source for that allegation, which she heatedly denied. The Times did not publish the allegation, and Weaver strongly denies being the source of that information. [my emphasis]

This is what I don’t get. If she’s certain that only Weaver could be the source of the allegation, doesn’t that suggest she knows he–the only aide on the plane–was witness to something that only he would know? If she hadn’t asked to share her blankie with McCain, couldn’t anyone be the source for the allegation?

But Iseman doesn’t deny several other allegations the NYT made about her in its story. For example, she makes it quite clear that she plied McCain with money.

One of her principal assignments in the lobbying firm was to work the Senate Commerce Committee — and work it, she did. Read more →

McCain to Embrace ANOTHER Unqualified Nut Tied to Scandal

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Scott Horton explains that the McCain camp and Bill Kristol are in such a tiff because McCain’s loyalists are pissed at Kristol for sticking them with Palin.

SH: Right. And if you look just in the news cycle from the last 48 hours, I would say the anger and irritation between a number of the senior people in the McCain camp and Bill Kristol has become really acute. I mean, it’s flashed and Kristol again, saying basically that the entire campaign team should be fired, and they respond in kind criticizing him, saying he was mouthing Obama talking points, and so on. What is the touchiness that underlies all of that? They view this man as the guy who gave them this albatross, Sarah Palin. I think there’s a lot of real anger about it. There’s also recognition that it’s too late to do anything. They can’t replace her, they can’t drop her, they’re stuck with her right now. And there’s also some suspicion, as one of the McCain advisors raised with me yesterday, there’s some suspicion that they had dumped McCain, that basically they’re now just proceeding to develop Palin as their candidate, as somebody they want to bring up in 2012, as the neo-con favored Republican. And I think that really has some of the McCain old school advisors bristling right now. [my emphasis]

I have a hard time feeling sorry for these people. After all, even I knew that Palin had an abuse of power scandal about to burst, and I hadn’t claimed to vet her.

Plus, they’re about to make the same mistake again. 

The Toledo Blade is reporting that Joe the Plumber is actually not licensed. But that, combined with his apparent tax lien, isn’t lessening McCain’s ardor.

[snip]

“I’m probably going to call him this morning," McCain said. "I thought he would probably be up late. I heard that his — that his phone lines were pretty well flooded. But I think we’re going to be spending some time together.”

So let’s review.

Joe the Plumber is not actually a plumber.

He lied when he said he would be making enough to have his taxes raised under Obama’s plan. 

He’s prone to racist statements.

He claimed to be uncommitted, though he’s a Republican who registered to be able to vote in this spring’s primary.

Read more →

The Illegal Wiretappers in John McCain’s Backyard

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The WaPo reports on yet another example of how John McCain has abused his position on the Commerce Committee and his stable full of telecom lobbyists to make sure he got cell phone coverage in the desert.

Early in 2007, just as her husband launched his presidential bid, Cindy McCain decided to resolve an old problem — the lack of cellular telephone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, nestled deep in a tree-lined canyon called Hidden Valley.

By the time Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid was in full swing this summer, the ranch had wireless coverage from the two cellular companies most often used by campaign staff — Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Verizon delivered a portable tower know as a "cell site on wheels" — free of charge — to Cindy McCain’s property in June in response to an online request from Cindy McCain’s staff early last year. Such devices are usually reserved for restoring service when cell coverage is knocked out during emergencies, such as hurricanes.

In July, AT&T followed suit, wheeling in a portable tower for free to match Verizon’s offer. "This is an unusual situation," said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia B. Jones. "You can’t have a presidential nominee in an area where there is not cell coverage."

Over the course of the past year, Cindy McCain had offered land for a permanent cell tower and Verizon embarked on an expensive process to meet her needs, hiring contractors and seeking county land-use permits even though few people other than the McCains would benefit from the tower.

Ethics lawyers said Cindy McCain’s dealings with the wireless companies stand out because Sen. John McCain is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission and the telecommunications industry. He has been a leading advocate for industry-backed legislation, fighting regulations and taxes on telecommunications services.

Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if McCain’s people were evenly split between AT&T and Verizon. I’m not surprised that the McCains were looking for coverage on these two networks.

But at the same time, I can’t help but remember that AT&T and Verizon are the two companies who–according to reports–collaborated most enthusiastically on Cheney’s illegal warrantless wiretap program. Sure, Jello Jay and even Barack Obama have given those telecom companies immunity. Still, I can imagine there are reasons–aside from just wanting to schmooze up a Senator on the Commerce Committee–to stay on the good side Read more →

Debate Prediction: Schieffer Raises Ayers

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picture-46.pngIn tonight’s debate, will McCain have to choose to retain his manhood (by raising Bill Ayers, as he has promised to do), or his honor (by pretending to be above the vile insinuations his campaign has resorted to)? I predict, with Bob Schieffer’s help, he won’t have to make that choice.

I predict Bob Schieffer will direct Obama to speak about Bill Ayers, thereby resolving McCain’s dilemma of whether or not he should raise it himself.

You see, in spite of the right wing worries that Gwen Ifill would throw the debate to make sure her new book sold tons, and in spite of real concerns that the guy who was NBC’s special liaison to the McCain campaign was moderating a debate, the moderator with the real objectivity problem is Bob Schieffer.

Schieffer loves McCain. More specifically, Schieffer is in love with–and still propagates–the myth that McCain is a man of honor above the fray of Washington politics.

Schieffer has consistently bought McCain’s most outrageous baloney–most recently his claim that he had suspended his campaign, for example, or that Sarah Palin had opposed the Bridge to Nowhere.

But the most instructive example, I think, is the way Schieffer let McCain off the hook for having had two of his convention speakers attack Obama for serving as a community organizer, even while setting up McCain to talk about what an exceptional man he is.

SCHIEFFER: We heard Rudy Giuliani talk about Barack Obama being a community organizer, and he sort of did it in a sort of denigrating way.

Sen. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.

SCHIEFFER: And the audience sort of giggled when he said that. And then we heard Governor Palin talk about being a mayor, and she said, "That’s being a community organizer with responsibilities." You know, I know a lot of people who think being a community organizer’s a pretty good thing to do. I know in your speech, at the end, one of the parts that I liked most was when you called on Americans, "If you want to make things better, enlist in the military, teach, help somebody that’s hungry." Why would they use that term in that way?

Sen. McCAIN: I think, Bob, first of all, I meant every word of my speech, that people who serve causes greater than themselves are the happiest in the world. And you and I have known some very wealthy people that aren’t very happy.

SCHIEFFER: Mm-hmm.

Sen. McCAIN: And we’ve known some people who are out there every day helping others who are the happiest. So I admire and respect all public service. I think what happened was it was a reaction to the Obama campaign saying and denigrating the fact that she had been mayor of a small town. Now, that was an attack that immediately was launched against her, which I–obviously, the fact that she’s most popular governor and knows more about energy than anyone else in America at that level, in my view. But, so I think it was a reaction to the denigration of her role as mayor. Read more →

McCain’s One Consistent Stance: Admitting the Danger of Erratic Behavior

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I noted on Friday that the McCain campaign had argued that it was okay to carry out a paranoid vendetta against someone who had exhibited erratic behavior.

But did you know they rationalized their concern by describing Mike Wooten’s–Sarah’s former bro-in-law–"long history of unstable and erratic behavior"?

Although the report describes Wooten as a separate issue, the McCain campaign goes into great detail about the "rogue" trooper and his "long history of unstable and erratic behavior."

So in case you’re wondering, the McCain camp agrees that the guy with the long history of unstable and erratic behavior is a menace to society.

Today, they’ve repeated their warnings about erratic behavior, suggesting that erratic politicians can’t be trusted to handle your money.

Investors are always responsible for their investment decisions, but the hard earned savings of Americans should not be penalized by the erratic behavior of politicians.

See, they’re consistent about one thing! You shouldn’t elect people who have the kind of erratic behavior exhibited by their campaign. 

McCain’s Impotence, Lynch Mob Edition

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Apparently, McPalin rallies have been replaced by lynch mobs because John McCain is an impotent old man. Roger Simon, who after last week’s debates did back flips to claim that McCain had won, explains that crowds at McPalin rallies are getting dangerous because that evil woman Sarah Palin has hijacked McCain’s campaign.

Forget that an independent legislative panel found Friday that she had abused her power and violated ethics laws as governor of Alaska. Forget that with the possibility of Palin being a heartbeat away from the presidency, McCain gives up the argument that his ticket represents experience and a steady hand on the tiller.

The real problem for McCain is that Palin is running a separate — and scary — campaign that does not seem to be under anybody’s control.

She storms around the country saying: “Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

She also says: “This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.”

Get the drift? Obama is not only different, not only an alien incapable of loving his country, he is an actual friend of terrorists who would attack America. [my emphasis]

McCain, however, is not going to hide behind some woman’s skirts. Nuh uh. He’s going to hide behind Obama himself.

Here’s how McCain excuses his plan to bring up Bill Ayers at tomorrow’s debate (and Greg Sargent’s read on it, which I entirely agree with).

The key news in the interview — which was flagged by Mark Halperin and which you can listen to here — is that McCain is already laying the groundwork to blame Obama for his apparent decision to confront Obama over Ayers tomorrow.

Asked by his radio host if he’ll bring up the former Weatherman, McCain says:

"Oh, yeah. Y’know, I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised for me to have the guts to do that, because the fact is that the question didn’t come up in that fashion. So, y’know, and I think he’s probably ensured that it will come up this time. And, look Mark, it’s not that I give a damn about some old washed-up terrorist…"

It’s Obama who has "probably ensured" that McCain will bring up Ayers. Read more →

Yes

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This morning I asked,

Did McCain Reverse Course on His New Economic Plan to Wait for Obama’s New Plan?

 It appears the answer to that question is, "yes."

On a conference call just now, McCain policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said that Sen. McCain would address the economy tomorrow — "he never intended to speak about the economy today," according to Holtz-Eakin.

"He will in fact talk about economic conditions and those harmed most deeply harmed by them," Holtz-Eakin said.

And he’ll unveil new proposals.

I guess McCain just needed to take a peek at what the smart kid had answered before he finished his own take-home test.