Repooplicans.com

You know it’s going badly for your campaign when your own volunteers horribly botch a fake mugging to frame your opponent’s supporters.

Meet Ashley Todd:

Ashley is a McCain/Palin volunteer from College Station, Texas who had traveled to Pittsburgh, PA (Go Steelers!) to help with the Republican campaign. This morning, Ashley reported that she was the victim of a brutal assault by a “6′4″ black male” who, robbed her while she was using an ATM, but then became enraged after seeing a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on her car and proceeded to repeatedly beat her, carve the “B” on her cheek, and sexually assault her.

The only thing is, it’s all a lie. (Be sure to watch the video available at this link as well in order to see the original televised report)

Todd told investigators today that she “just wanted to tell the truth” – adding that she was neither robbed, nor attacked.

“She indicated that she has prior mental problems and that she does not remember how the backward letter B got on her face,” Richard told reporters today.

That’s right, she made it up. All of it. And now she’s probably going to jail.

The thing is, I’m not surprised. When I first saw the story this morning, the thing that stood out immediately to me was that the “B” that had been carved in her face was backwards. Criminals are stupid, but that stupid? Come on. This looked more like an idiotic mistake someone would make disfiguring themselves while looking in a mirror. The other thing was that the letter seemed a bit too perfect. I have to imagine that you would not lie calmly and still on the ground while a knife-wielding lunatic began carving up your face like a jack-o’-lantern. You’re going to fight back, thrash around, scream, etc., and by doing so, would make it impossible for someone to monogram your face.

The biggest issue here, as I see it, is the speed at which we are now able to send and receive information. This is especially true during the highly-emotional and partisan-laden times of presidential elections. There has always been a drive to be first when it comes to disseminating information. Newspapers and radio and television stations have a long-running war in this arena. The game has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, though. The Internet has made it possible for anyone, not just the major media outlets, to get the word out almost immediately to anywhere from dozens to millions of people. Even the major news organizations publish their stories and videos online before they hit the air or show up in print. It’s so easy to get access to and gather the information, that people, professional reporters included, are forgetting more and more often to check their facts before going live. It’s also this same ease and immediacy of distribution that also makes it all too easy for the people consuming the information to be duped.

Just look at what happened to Apple earlier this month when a now-identified teen anonymously reported on CNN’s iReport “Citizen Journalist” section of their website that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the hospital after suffering a major heart attack. The story was false, but:

Although Apple was quick to squash the rumor, the damage had been done: The company’s stock dropped to $94.65 per share from $105.04 per share, equaling a loss of $9 billion in market value.

How long do you suppose you get grounded for making one of the largest computer companies in the world lose $9 billion in market value? Yikes.

This is the exactly what happened with the Ashley Todd story as well, though, and it got all the conservatives up in arms and foaming at the mouth. Just look at the list of links from registered readers of conservative columnist, Michelle Malkin, posted on her site as examples of right-wing outrage over the alleged attack. Worst of all, it turns out that McCain/Palin staffers had a hand in politicizing the alleged attack, by promoting “details” before the facts were known. Michelle, to her credit, was initially highly skeptical of the story, waiting for more facts to come to light before jumping to conclusions. That’s something Matt Drudge might want to think about next time, considering the fact that the Drudge Report broke the story. I really wish I had a screenshot of his front page from earlier today to show everyone how intensely he was pushing the story, but it looks like I’ll have to wait until Google’s next round of cached pages hits the web.

Drudge got punk’d. Ha ha.

–Gordy

Election

It just never seems to end with Sarah Palin. I think I’ve made it clear that I’m not a fan. I’ve made several points regarding the fact that she is utterly unqualified to fill the position of VP. But one question that seems to be continually raised by Democrats and Republicans alike is why did McCain choose her in the first place? As it turns out, his decision may not have been based on all her executive experience, time spent as the Commander-in-Chief of the Alaskan National Guard, or all that time she’s spent managing the (not so) huge supply of U.S. fuel/energy coming out of the state of Alaska.

No, his selection may have been based mostly on her looks.

McCain had actually only met Sarah Palin once prior to selecting her as his running mate. The second time he met her, was four days prior to the convention. He had no history working with her, and there’s no evidence that McCain was even really up-to-speed on any of the happenings in Alaskan state politics prior to his selection. According to conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker:

McCain didn’t know her. He didn’t vet her. His campaign team had barely an impression. In a bar one night, Draper asked one of McCain’s senior advisers: ‘Leaving aside her actual experience, do you know how informed Governor Palin is about the issues of the day?’

The adviser thought a moment and replied: ‘No, I don’t know.’

Now, before anyone goes off on me for being sexist, I need to make it clear that I feel it is very sad that our country has not yet had a woman elected to the nation’s highest office. I believe there is definitely a double standard in the media, and the minds of some Americans, when it comes to the treatment of female politicians. I feel female politicians are held to a higher, and sometimes unfair, standard than their male co-workers. Just look at the enormity of the fuss being made over Palin’s wardrobe. Yes, spending $150,000 on a wardrobe for someone claiming to be an average hockey mom is obscene and was an absolutely horrible decision by the McCain campaign, but would the same stink be made if that were McCain’s own wardrobe expenses?

I believe all that, and yet I still think Sarah Palin is a joke and John McCain is guilty of a monumental failure in selecting her, as well as in the way his campaign has treated and used her. Kathleen Parker agrees in more from her column:

One does not have to be a psychoanalyst to reckon that McCain was smitten. By no means am I suggesting anything untoward between McCain and his running mate. Palin is a governor, after all. She does have an executive resume, if a thin one. And she’s a natural politician who connects with people.

But there can be no denying that McCain’s selection of her over others far more qualified — and his mind-boggling lack of attention to details that matter — suggests other factors at work. His judgment may have been clouded by … what?

Science provides clues. A study in Canada, published in New Scientist in 2003, found that pretty women foil men’s ability to assess the future. ‘Discounting the future,’ as the condition is called, means preferring immediate, lesser rewards to greater rewards in the future.

More evidence that this may in fact have been the top reason for her being selected came to today with the revelation that the highest paid member of the McCain staff for the two weeks of October was Palin’s makeup stylist. Amy Strozzi was paid $22,800 in the first two weeks of the month alone! That’s about 2/3 the annual salary of the average plumber for all you Joe fans out there, and also eclipsed the salaries (during the same period) of McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser as well as his senior communications staffer.

I think the saddest part about all the attention being paid to this is the fact that Palin doesn’t need it. She is an attractive woman, with or without $11,400 weekly makeovers. Don’t get me wrong, no amount of attractiveness can make up for the fact that she’s dumb as a rock and pure evil, in my humble opinion. But she is attractive and you have to give her that. Why the campaign thinks the 44-year-old (almost) beauty queen needs the uber-makeover treatment, however, when they’ve got a 72-year-old former POW cancer survivor running for the top office is beyond me. I mean, seriously, have you ever really looked at John McCain up close? It’s rather horrifying, and trust me, this is definitely not the worst of the photos I could have selected:

John McCain, in selecting Sarah Palin, has set the clock back 25 years for female politicians. The amount of hard work and effort put forth by serious, aspiring women to achieve respect and equality in politics that has now been wasted by his stubborn, irrational decision-making absolutely disgusts me. Watching McCain and his staff twist and invent facts, as well as outright lie, over the last month in an effort to lend some credibility to Sarah Palin has been both entertaining and sad. Any rational person looking at the issues and examining her record can see she’s not ready. Not by a long shot. To think what we might see if she were actually to serve as VP or, worse yet, president, is frightening indeed. There a dozens of reasons that I want John McCain to lose on November 4th, but this issue is rapidly climbing to the top of my list.

I came across this wonderful piece which pretty much sums up my feelings on this issue. 100% partisan. 110% genius.

John McCain didn’t vet Sarah Palin. He didn’t even know her. He gambled on the fact that Americans would be as smitten as he was with her good looks and folksy, “Joe Six Pack” style. To a certain extent, he was right judging by the fact that she has pulled larger crowds to rallies than McCain himself. Unfortunately for him, it’s not going to translate into the needed 270 electoral votes on November 4th and history will recall his gamble as the self-induced blunder that cost the Republicans the election.

For a man with McCain’s temper, that is going to be a hard reality to face.

–Gordy

Election

I think Repooplicans.com may be the 247th blog/website to comment on this photo, but I just couldn’t let it go. Honestly, I was hoping this was some really good Photoshoppery, but (not so) sadly, it doesn’t look that way. The scarf has the word, “Vote,” on it and, yes, those really are Democratic donkeys. Unfortunately for Sarah, however, there isn’t a single GOP elephant:

Since everyone else seems to have covered how dumb she must be, how ignorant she is, how could she possibly make a mistake like this, etc., etc., I wanted to come at this from a slightly different angle. Sarah Palin has done more than enough on her own to establish the fact that she’s completely unfit for the office, so my question is this: Where the hell was her staff??? Who dropped the ball and let her walk out with this thing draped around her neck? I have to believe it is someone’s job to inspect her from head to toe, literally, before she makes an appearance in front of people or cameras. Or should I say it was someone’s job? A gaffe like this is akin to Mickey showing up wearing a Red Sox hat…and if you know Mickey, you know that would never happen.

Next up, Barack Obama earrings? If only we were that lucky.

–Gordy

Election, Funny

Talk about an instant classic. Just watch Cindy’s face while John McCain is at his fumbling, bumbling best:

Reminds me very much of another oldie, but goodie:

–Gordy

Funny

The Confederate flag. For some, a symbol of heritage. To others, a symbol of racism, slavery and oppression.

When most of us think of the Confederate flag, we probably think of these guys:

or maybe these freakkks:

Regardless of which images come to mind, however, I’m sure we can all agree they probably aren’t ones that would lend support to an African-American running for president. I’m happy to say, in spite of the ugliness we’ve seen coming from McCain/Palin supporters in recent weeks, there are now cases showing up where support for Barack Obama and the Confederate flag appear to be peacefully co-existing.

Meet Clinton Slagle.

A little background on this man from North Carolina who made his own signs in support of Barack Obama via The Field:

The guy who created these signs is named Clinton Slagle. He’s got a confederate tattoo on his arm. He strolled into our headqtrs back during the primary looking for a sign, saying Obama was the only person who made any sense to him….

Ok, but surely this is an isolated occurrence, right? That’s what I thought until this morning.

There’s a house in Vantuckycouver that I drive/ride past every day on my way in to work. They’ve had a Confederate flag hanging in the window for as long as I can remember. Today, I nearly wrecked my truck when I drove past and saw this:

Listen, I’m not naive. I know not everyone who flies the Confederate flag is racist, as well as the fact that, unfortunately, racism is still alive and thriving in certain parts of our country. Could these two examples, though, be signs that we are a more open-minded and accepting nation? To sum up my feelings about that question, I’ll borrow one word from the Obama campaign: Hope.

–Gordy

Election

By now you’ve probably all seen the crowd of 100,000 Obama drew at a rally in St. Louis over the weekend:

Not to be outdone, John McCain visited Columbia, MO on Monday afternoon.

McCain arrived at Columbia Regional Airport and was greeted by the standard group of local campaign officials and volunteers:

Airport security, however, had a difficult time managing the people gathered outside the fence who had shown up to give their support to the Republican presidential candidate:

Ok, not really. Seriously, folks, that’s it. “A crowd of about 15 people” showed up to welcome McCain to Columbia.

Besides the hilarity of seeing 15 people referred to as a “crowd”, the part I enjoyed the most was watching the video and seeing that McCain neglected to even interact with the few people that had shown up. The McCain caravan pulled away as the helpless supporters waved their support from afar:

The (minuscule) size of the “crowd” wasn’t lost on some supporters:

Phillips, who also saw John F. Kennedy at the Joplin Airport in 1962, said she was upset at the small size of the crowd gathered to see McCain.

McCain campaign volunteer Jane Stuart agreed. In 2000, when then-Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush visited the airport there was a much larger crowd, Stuart said.

Be sure to watch the video on the Columbia Missourian’s website so you can also see the throng of 30 or so people…some of whom were members of that “crowd” at the airport…who turned out in support for McCain after he dined at Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Q.

Obviously, Columbia, MO isn’t going to decide this election, but I think the turnout there on Monday points to a much larger issue for the McCain campaign right now. A mere two weeks out from the election, a presidential candidate should be able to draw several hundred supporters, at a minimum, regardless of where they go and/or how little notice is given of their arrival. If they can’t even manage that, then I’d say their chances of winning are likely to be bleak.

–Gordy

Election

Fox News is steaming pile o’ shit. Yeah, I know, not a huge surprise to anyone. I read/watch Fox News quite a bit and, even though my doctor has said that it is not good for my blood pressure, I feel it’s important to know what these guys are up to. In keeping an eye on things, I have determined that Fox News has now reached a new low in covering the presidential race. Having exhausted their supply of baseless lies and innuendo, they’ve now turned to attempting to put a negative spin on even the most positive aspects of the Obama campaign.

Over the weekend, an estimated 100,000 people filled the grounds near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO to hear Barack Obama speak. Eclipsing the record crowd of 75,000 earlier this year in Portland, OR, the awe-inspeven in Missouri looked like this:

An incredible sight. Even more so considering the red nature of the state of Missouri. 100,000 people gathering in the same area and yet:

St. Louis police said there were no major disturbances or arrests at the rally

I’d also like to point out to John McCain and Sarah Palin, since no one else in the media seems to want to, that there were no reports of anyone calling anyone a terrorist, yelling to kill anyone else, etc. In other words, 100,000 Americans gathered together peacefully to hear Barack Obama speak about why he will make a great president.

Since the event did not produce any controversial, headline-making occurrences, the story Fox News chose to run with (pulled from the AP), closed out with the following:

One uncomfortable moment was when Obama supporters shouted the candidate’s name loudly, and repeatedly, as they walked past supporters of the anti-abortion group, Defenders of the Unborn, who were holding signs bearing photos of fetuses.

An “uncomfortable moment”? WTF? THIS is an “uncomfortable moment.” Notice that the reporter writing the article could not bring themselves to directly compare this incident to any of the threats, slurs and epithets being used at McCain/Palin rallies. I’m glad the Obama supporters shouted “loudly” because I get so sick and tired of the rally goers who shout quietly. Seriously, if this is the way the media is now going to find fault with Barack Obama and his supporters, they really need to hire some better writers.

But wait, there’s more!

Today, Fox News has chosen to headline the fact that Obama’s campaign has now broken the $600 million mark in fund raising. The front page of the election section of Fox News shows Barack Obama exiting his campaign’s plane, with a headline further down the page detailing McCain’s budget for October:

With this news, of course, comes more whining from John McCain:

“I’m saying that history shows us where unlimited amounts of money are in political campaigns, it leads to scandal … this is the first since the Watergate scandal that any candidate for president of the United States, a major party candidate, has broken the pledge to take public financing. We enacted those reforms because of that scandal,” McCain said.

It’s interesting to note that McCain’s quote above is displayed in a different font and larger than the other text in the article on FoxNews.com. Surely, just another harmless and unintended coincidence for the nation’s only fair and balanced news organization. And as for McCain’s fear mongering over “unlimited amounts of money” being dangerous in politics, he should know.

So where exactly did all the money raised in September by the Obama campaign come from?

Obama’s September take was made possible by more than 630,000 new donors, who contributed an average donation of just under $100, according to the Obama campaign.

630,000 people donated money while the economy in our country was shitting the bed. Who here doesn’t think it was difficult for many of those people to choose to donate money to the campaign rather than use it on other needs during the tough economic times? Yet they did it anyway. Fox News, however, chose to make a game of the amount of contributions, detailing several things that the money could be used to purchase. No, the list didn’t include mortgage payments, education or health care, but instead…

For $604 million, the Obama campaign could buy all the shares of La Salle Hotel (with $58 million left over) and almost all the shares of Papa John’s Pizza (with a market cap of $606 million).

The La Salle Hotel and Papa John’s Pizza? Apparently, these must be companies in which Murdoch holds a large stake for them to be even mentioned in this article.

The campaign could also buy almost all the shares of the Cheesecake Factory (market cap of $640 million) and more than 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s outstanding shares (market cap of $1.016 billion)

Nice, and extremely subtle, dropping of the Fannie Mae name. Unbelievable.

For the average American, the figure could buy 25,036 Ford Tauruses and more than 140 million gallons of milk.

Ok, the milk I can get behind, but who the hell is thinking about buying a new car right now? Seriously. Besides, these are just the crappy base models they’re talking about here, the ones with manual windows and door locks, no A/C and a tape deck. We all know those of us in the “Democratic elite” wouldn’t be caught dead in a Taurus, let alone a base model. Hell, not even the McCains have a Taurus among their fleet of 13 cars.

An individual making $50,000 a year would have to work 12,080 years to earn $604 million.

12,080 years from now, after the polar ice caps have completely melted and, like Kevin Costner, we’ve all grown gills through evol…err, intelligent design…$604 million will likely be less than most kids will receive for allowance each week. Hey, it’s just as plausible.

It may not be directly related to campaign financing, but instead of breaking out their calculators to determine the number of crazy ass things $604 million could buy, why doesn’t Fox News point out that the average American now needs to work 113 days each year just to get ahead of their taxes? I’m sure Joe the (not really a) Plumber would like to know, seeing as how he doesn’t pay his.

–Gordy

Election

Then again, I don’t look nearly as cool as Keith in a suit. To quote Mickey, who shared this video with me, “Oh my.”

This is the same kind of reaction we should be seeing from the Republicans who disagree with the current McCain/Palin campaign strategy. You can bet your ass they’d be demanding it from the Democrats if the tables were turned. Then again, maybe they’re just waiting to quietly show their disapproval with McCain/Palin by voting for Obama on November 4th.

–Gordy

Election

Sorry to follow something humorous up with something, well, so disgusting, but I couldn’t not share this video with everyone. Please pass this along. The interviews in the video are with attendees at a Palin rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio. Getting as many people as possible to see videos like these is the only way to bring the McCain/Palin lies fully into the spotlight and help strengthen the movement to put an end to this kind of hate and racism in this election.

More than being angry, I feel sorry for the people in this video. Their ignorance is staggering.

Thanks (I think) to Garrison for sharing this video.

And just because I didn’t want to end everyone’s day on such a downer, here’s the cover of today’s Willamette Week for everyone to enjoy:

UPDATE: Print-quality PDF is available to download for free here. You can also buy t-shirts, mugs and even a thong with the Nope image here.

–Gordy

Election

Yet another reason why the Internet is AWESOME: Palin as President. Roll your cursor over and click on everything. Also, be sure to open/close the door three or four times.

Thanks to Mandi and Kristin for sharing!

–Gordy

Funny