Palin staff keep journalists locked inside press
area to prevent them from writing ‘negative things.’

post from Think Progress on 06 October 2008 08:32:00 PM. © Think Progress

During Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) speech in Florida this morning, campaign staffers kept the press locked out of the park and away from supporters attending the speech:

Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn’t permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, “Can I help you?” and turn the person around.
When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.

Palin has still yet to give a single press conference since being tapped as Sen. John McCain’s running mate on August 29.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/06/palin-press-lockdown/

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Militia "Could Reappear" as Hostilities Grow

post from IraqSlogger.com on 06 October 2008 08:31:51 PM. © IraqSlogger.com

Some Iraqis in the sprawling Sadr City district anticipate a possible resurgence of the Mahdi Army militia as relations deteriorate between Iraqi Interior Ministry forces and the residents of the district.

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http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/6433

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Miers And Bolten Can Kicked Down The Road

post from Firedoglake on 06 October 2008 08:30:13 PM. © Firedoglake

The opinion by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in the Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten subpoena matter has just been issued. The court has granted the stay requested by the Bush Administration; which, by all appearances, will effectively end the litigation[...]

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/10/06/miers-and-bolten-can-kicked-down-the
-road/

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Free Advice

post from American Street on 06 October 2008 08:20:00 PM. © American Street

Senator McCain:The time to define your opposition under your terms has long past.Remember when all your buddies were wondering why you were wasting time after you’d clinched your party’s nomination and the Clinton/Obama factions were in a fight to the death? Remember how they said you should take advantage of that time to define your [...]

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/10/06/free-advice/

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Late Afternoon/Early Evening Open Thread

post from Daily Kos on 06 October 2008 08:18:37 PM. © Daily Kos

Thirty seconds of Sarah Palin:

video details and more

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/Hu9C9nOFu0M/621308

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John McCain on the state of his campaign

post from Jesus' General on 06 October 2008 08:17:00 PM. © Jesus' General

It's late. Sen. McCain is pounding on my door. He sounds angry. Should I get it?

Oh shit. He just used Joe Lieberman to break the window. I'm out of here.
--The General

Type, Joe, type! Type electric typing intertubes pamphlet. Just what I say! Ass kisser!

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. My turn, god dammit.My presidency! Fuck! Go away! Get off my campaign turf, fucking kid!

Black! Scary! Negro! Fuck! Implosion! Why? Why? Why?

POW god dammit! Hero god dammit! Maverick! Maverick! Maverick! POW! Fuck!

My turn! It's mine!

Suspend! Suspend! Suspend! Convention! Campaign! Reason! Get Palin! Fuck! Fucker Dobson!

Sarah! Stupid! Crazy! Hot! Hot! Hot! NO!!!! Cold! Cold! Cold! Spend! Spend! Spend! Intertubes Viagra! Cold! Cold! Cold! Fuck! Fighter Pilot! POW! Hero! Maverick! Beer money! Vice Presidency! God dammit! Cold! Cold! Cold!

Cunt!

Obama scary! Knows people! Fuck people Scary! Black! Negro! Terrorist! Fuck! Run away, run away, run away!

Get off! My campaign turf! Fucking kid!

Houses! Fuck! Houses! Fuck! Houses! Fuckity fick!

Keating! Keating! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! No, not Sorry! Not wrong! Fuckers out to get me! Maverick! POW! Hero! It's mine!

Obama wants my preciousssssss. No! It's mine! My precioussssssssss. My beautiful preciousssssss. Mine! Mine Mine! My precioussssssss. Fucker!

Read The Full Article:
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-mccain-on-state-of-his-campaign.html

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Economics is Politics

post from Reality Frame on 06 October 2008 08:14:00 PM. © Reality Frame

The Political Nature of the Economic CrisisBy George FriedmanAre the resources of the United States sufficient to redefine financial markets in such a way as to manage the outcome of this crisis, or has the crisis become so large that even the resources of a $14 trillion economy mobilized by the state can?t do the job?Classical economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo referred to

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/VVct/~3/413584991/economics-is-politics.h
tml

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The Priorities of Our National Life

post from Everyday Citizen on 06 October 2008 08:04:22 PM. © Everyday Citizen

The stock market plunged again today and world markets are now in trouble. Interestingly enough[...]

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http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2008/10/the_priorities_of_our_national.html

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A President for a Time of Panic

Barack Obama and John McCain will be debating tonight as the inertia that has always given American society stability, albeit at the price of slow social change, is endangered by a sudden plunge into economic turmoil and uncertainty. Ironically, neither of the voters' possible choices is designed to calm them.

Not since 1932 has the electorate been so roiled by fear of the future and so hungry for change. Yet, in Obama, they face someone relatively new and unfamiliar and, in McCain, an all-too-familiar connection to policies that have failed and, to compound their worries, a volatile temperament.

In the Depression, Republicans tried to tar Franklin D. Roosevelt as a radical who would raise taxes, as they are picturing Obama now but with the added edge of distorting his positions on issues such as health care and questioning his patriotism.

The rougher attacks are coming from the gee-whiz he-pals-around-with-terrorists lies of Sarah Palin, but McCain is hitting similar notes with such innuendo as today's "What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama?"

Obama himself is pointing out the desperation of these personal attacks yet sadly but understandably responding with an on-line reprise of McCain's Keating Five lapses.

But public panic requires something more and better than that. Obama should be visibly and vocally rallying the best minds--the most respected economists and the real-world experts such as Warren Buffet, Mike Bloomberg et al--to start working on a long-range plan with measures to implement in January that would start lifting America out of its fiscal abyss.

He doesn't have to give it a name like the New Deal, but he should be telling voters in as clear and strong a voice as FDR did that he is ready to use nation's best brains to ease their pain and get the country working again. That's what they want to hear.

Read The Full Article:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2008/10/president-for-time-of-panic.html

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McCains Macaca Moment

mccain angry number 55 aa_4ecf9.JPG

In March of 2000, Katie Hong, a Korean-American woman who worked for the Washington state government, wrote an article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about Senator John McCain?s remark to reporters on his campaign bus.

He said, ?I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.?

Although he attempted to explain he was referring specifically to his Vietnamese prison guards while he was a POW ? his habitual justification for just about everything he does or says ? he refused to apologize for his use of a racially offensive epithet generally regarded as applicable to anyone of Asian background. Ms. Hong was not only hurt by his comment, having committed to serving her country as a place where equal opportunity and justice for everyone regardless of their skin color could become reality, she was disturbed by how little reaction his remark generated from the media.

It is eight years later, and McCain?s second run at the White House. In that time, he?s dropped numerous F-bombs, called his wife the C-word, and used racially charged language in his campaign to refer to his opponent. There is no reason to believe that his attitude toward ?gooks? has changed all that much, either. McCain?s unmanageable irritability and use of inappropriate and offensive language has generated serious questions ?whether he has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States.?

But a deeper and far more troubling uncertainty concerns me. This particular McCain Macaca Moment is not excusable just because he was a POW, and it?s disconcerting that McCain himself is incapable of seeing it, saying, ?Do I insult anybody or fly off the handle or anything like that? No, I don?t.? But far more importantly, this is indicative of a dangerous and intransigent racism that not only offends a large percentage of American citizens ? and not all of them need be Asian to be offended ? it has no place in a presidency that may well be called upon to negotiate with the aforementioned ?gooks?, some of whom have nuclear weapons and others who own a good deal of our national debt. To ?hate the gooks? is bad enough, but to declare ?I will hate them as long as I live? demonstrates a pig-headed obstinacy that is antithetical to anyone aspiring to hold the most influential and powerful office in the country, if not the world.

But just how many more McCain Macaca Moments is it going to take?