An independent survey conducted by SurveyUSA for Roll Call has Martin Heinrich leading Darren White 51% – 46%. Martin is over the crucial 50% mark and his lead is outside the margin of error. [per the Heinrich campaign] (Yeah!)
Republicans are the Party of Change
Small change, chump change, pocket change and — most importantly — a change for the worse.
In 2000, the GOP went wild over a dim-witted and mean governor from a big western state. Where’s the change in 2008? The GOP can’t sweep that mistake off the stage fast enough in their rush to make the same mistake again.
If you think a guy who voted 90% of the time with Duhbya — after all the abuse BushCo heaped on McCain in their do-anything-to-win campaign — is a change agent, I’ve got a Bridge to Nowhere for you. Note that with McCain’s record of differing with Bush 10% of the time, he represents the Republican concept of a maverick. (A maverick is the term they use for their friends. Traitor is what they call the rest of us.)
Meanwhile, Palin must think Duhbya is from the Rockefeller branch of the party — too damn liberal, if you ask her.
If you think McCain promises safer, surer change than Obama, recall McCain’s temper, and note the temper of his running mate. These two represent a shocking move to the Far Right and Wrong — is that change you can live with? And if McCain dies in office, President Palin will nominate the next 3 Supreme Court Justices.
peace,
mjh
Gallup Daily: Obama Hits 50% for First Time
PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 30 through Sept. 1, finds Barack Obama leading the race for president with his highest share of support to date. Fully half of national registered voters now favor Obama for president, while 42% back John McCain.
From the Archives
www.bushinbox.com has picked up something I wrote three years ago. (Thanks, Jon.) See http://www.bushinbox.com/rove/289/ .
For more in this vein, see http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/category/nada/dump-duhbya/ and http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/category/election/
peace,
mjh
Contempt of Cop
ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer
APD arrested 517 people for “refusing to obey” charges in 2007, according to a recent Journal investigation. Seventy percent of the cases were thrown out.
Local defense attorneys derisively call the refusing to obey charge “contempt of cop” and claim APD routinely violates residents’ first amendment rights.
Police Chief Ray Schultz says some encounters could have been avoided if officers had explained their actions.
Schultz has said he is looking into customer service training for his department.
ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins
PS: The Journal pats itself on the back today of its new UpFront series (camelcase — that must have given the editors fits), which gives extra prominence to some old standbys. Kudos for including a couple of women. Perhaps Version 2.0 will feature someone under 40, black, Native American, or more than one native New Mexican. It is interesting that a feature that runs 7 days a week doesn’t have 7 authors — or 14.
Dan Herrera, Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal writes, “One reader said that UpFront was like a blog in print. Actually, we print people have been doing it quite a bit longer. [mjh: Therefore, we have nothing to learn from the blogosphere.]
“And, unlike most bloggers, our columnists travel the state doing original research, and not in their pajamas.”
Ouch! Hey, Dan, I don’t wear pajamas.
PPS: I mostly enjoyed Leslie Linthicum’s column on the big cheese, regardless of how she dressed while writing it, although her coming back with pictures of boxes that might have been empty or full of guns disappointed me. Will we see Glanbia ads in the paper starting next week? (As occurred with another major advertiser a few years ago after a huge gushing “they’re coming to town!” article appeared on the front page, above the fold.)
Paleocons for Palin
Richard Viguerie’s Conservative HQ | show
Richard Viguerie: Sarah Palin is the perfect choice
August 29, 2008
Viguerie: She’s perfect
VP pick “gives McCain the opportunity to unite the GOP,
gives conservatives a stake in the election, and puts a real reformer on the ticket”
Minneapolis – The selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running-mate unites the Republican Party and energizes its conservative base, Richard A. Viguerie said today. “McCain has chosen to balance his ticket with a principled conservative.
“Governor Palin’s life story is one of sticking to principle. She is living proof that a person can take on the corrupt political establishment – including corrupt leaders in her own party – and achieve great things.”
Viguerie added: “There’s an old expression in politics: Go along to get along. Not this time. The selection of Sarah Palin is one big kick-in-the-pants to the corrupt establishment in both parties.
“Congratulations to John McCain for hearing and responding to conservatives. Conservatives, the base of the party, have been listless. But, now, nearly all will work enthusiastically for the McCain-Palin ticket. In fact, this is the most enthusiastic conservatives have been since the era for Ronald Reagan.”
He added: “This is a grand-slam home run. Conservatives’ feet haven’t touched the ground since this announcement.”
Richard Viguerie’s Conservative HQ | show
Sarah Palin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. She threatened a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears’ habitat off Alaska’s northern and northwestern coasts. She also called unreliable the climate-change models cited by Kempthorne and environmentalists that predict melting of Arctic ice and has asserted that her administration believes listing them as an endangered species is premature and not the appropriate management tool for their welfare at this time..[36]
Sarah Palin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[hattip to walkingraven]
PS: Wikipedia reports Palin is “a prominent member of Feminists for Life.” Feminists?! That must go over great with Lush Limbaugh, who coined the term “feminazis.” Goes to show Republicans and drowning men will clutch at anything on their way down.
FUD You, Jim Scarantino
updated 8/29/08
Obama the War President: Will you fight his wars? By Jim Scarantino – The Real Side
Look up ad hominem on Wikipedia and you won’t find Jim Scarantino’s picture. For that, you’ll have to look up “fucking ridiculous.” I know Jim considers himself one of New Mexico’s great bloggers, way up there with Joe Yawnahan (and his Graphics Monkey), another of our gifts to the blahblahblahgosphere. The pressure to perform must be getting to Jim because his latest Alibi column is far from The Real Side. Kinda like the Republican Party these days.
To the extent that Jim’s latest is about anything, here it is: Obama supporters who aren’t in uniform are hypocrites. I don’t quite see the difference between this and the earlier assertion from the Radical Wrong that if you aren’t serving in Iraq, shut the fuck up about the Great War Without End. Don’t you love it when people take every opportunity to say “freedom isn’t free.” I thought we consider freedom a gift from god that even pacifist-atheists like me get to enjoy. No, if you’re not on active duty, a vet, or related to a vet (can I count my Dad and brother here?), you got nothing worth hearing. Hug a soldier and thank god he doesn’t throw you in Gitmo!
So, per Jim, not only are peaceniks deceived by Obama, but we can only prove our loyalty to the Great Deceiver by joining the military. What did Jim do, search and replace “Bush” in an old column? Cribbing from Huffington Post, Jim? Trying for a spot as a McCain speech-writer?
I’m still struggling with this. If you support Obama, join the military. For two-thirds of his column, that’s all Jim has to say. Isn’t that like saying, “If you support DUHbya, sell your oil stock”? Or “if you support McCain, take ecstasy and go to a rave”?
(Blog rhetoric notwithstanding, active duty soldiers are donating more to Obama than McCain. Obama has veteran support, as well. Soldiers have a choice — I think a clear one — but peaceniks don’t need a choice: we have Obama.)
The goal of Jim’s column is quite simple: Divide and Conquer. There is an old saying in AmeriCo: FUD you. Yes, Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt have long been the Republican weapons of choice. Fear consumes them.
Lest I be accused of being as unspecific or pointless as Jim, here are a few points to consider:
* “Obama, the War President!” Puh-lease every single one of us knows that Obama is not a war monger, which is precisely what Duhbya, Cheney, and the rest of BushCo are. War Mongers, Jim, fucking War Mongers.
* “The media and adoring masses were more fascinated with fist bumps than the details of Obama’s Iraq strategy.” Huh? The people who were fascinated with fist bumps were the Bewildered Right who are so out of touch that they didn’t recognize a common urban, young, athletic greeting. Scarethemtino’s cohort referred to the alarming gesture as “terrorist fist bumps.” Clueless. Utterly clueless.
* “Obama forsees no substantial change in mission.” Come on, Jim. I know you want us to believe that, but do you have someone other the Tom Hayden to back you up? While I believe that 4 years down the road there will be no difference between a hypothetical Bush plan, a McCain plan or Obama’s inevitably revised plan, that’s only because reality would force Bush and McBush to come around to Obama’s plan, as is already happening.
* “They righteously humiliated Republican ‘chicken hawks’ who wouldn’t put themselves at risk for Bush’s wars.” Humiliated? I wish. As far as I can tell, the reality of the CHICKEN hawks never came home to roost. We were demagogued into an needless war by a VP who hid out from the Vietnam war in a tiny state (and hid under his desk on 9/11) and a POTUS who hid out in a champagne unit, getting high in more ways than one, whose high point in office was strutting across an aircraft carrier. Plus assorted minor crooks and an SOS who’s Russian education might finally be worth something. The only person I saw humiliated — humbled — was Colin Powell, who I don’t see rallying around McCain.
The bottom line is this: Who is more likely to wage new war: John McCain or Barack Obama? McCain is a notorious hot-head. McCain moved closer to the Neocons to win the nomination. McCain embodies the failed past.
Obama will shock the world. Obama has gifts — that I sorely lack — for bridging gaps. (Don’t hold my support against him. He deserves better.) If Duhbya hadn’t already shit all over the concept of a uniter, one might suggest Obama is the real deal. McCain isn’t ready. peace, mjh