Department of READY ON DAY ONE

Okay everybody, on a count of three, let's make fun of George Bush for going to bed early and getting up at 5:30.

This is what you can get with a New World Order of Hopey-Changitude:



Important factoid: By the time Senate Foreign Relations Committee meetings get underway, Madmood Ahmadinnerjacket has been up for hours.

TAKING TIME OUT

from playing with itty-bitty grandson,
tossing a LITTLE YELLOW FOOTBALL
on beautiful California beaches

TO SEE WHAT LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS
has on offer

Well, here's some archival footage we can all enjoy:
The Revered Obama on the Reverend Wright (ca. 1995)




And over at THE DAILY BEAST:

Surprising stories from surprising sources:

Former Democratic speechwriter Wendy Button says "So Long" to the party of The Annointed One.

Democrat and former Ms. Magazine editor Elaine Lafferty says Sarah Palin is a Brainiac
Who knew? (Well, some of us did.)

In the late late night and the early early morning,

TWO BLUE-RIBBON POSTS
AT HUGH HEWITT

Late Sunday night:

Today marks the 41st anniversary of the day John McCain was shot down over Hanoi.

Beldar provides a snippet from the story of that "filthy, crippled, broken man," John McCain, prisoner in Hanoi, who found that "...all I had left of my dignity was the faith of my fathers. It was enough." Beldar sums up:

Now, I don't doubt that Barack Obama loves America, nor that his own very different experiences and such challenges as he's faced have shaped his character. But gentle friends, I have also read Barack Obama's book, "Dreams from My Father." And in it, you will search in vain for any chapters containing feelings or epiphanies about America that are remotely comparable to what I've just quoted here.

Monday morning, present day:

Duane Paterson has a few words about polling, as done for public consumption by news orgnanizations, versus that done for private consumption, by contractors hired to find out what's actually going on (like, for instance, political campaigns, who are known to do "internal polling" separate from what the public hears about, which sometimes leads a candidate to make moves that the conventional wisdom considers odd -- like campaigning in states that they are thought to have a lock on). This comes from a pseudonymous contributor to the VirginiaVirtucon blog, but it's food for thought. (Or are we just kidding ourselves? We'll know in another week.) The contributor relays the findings of...

...a statistician for a well-regarded private polling company, ...retained to do a few Presidential polls for targeted states on behalf of a union...

They did Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Missouri. After mocking the hell out of the voter id spreads used by Rassmussen, Zogby, etc. (and this is coming from a committed Dem who will be voting for Barry O) she said the results of their polling lead her to believe that McCain will definitely win FL, OH, NC, MO and NV. She says Obama definitely wins New Mexico. She said that Colorado and New Hampshire were absolute dead heats. She said she thinks there is a 55% chance Obama holds on in Pennsylvania and a 75% chance McCain wins Virginia. She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing Obama leading Virginia...

...her companies [sic] conclusion is that the election will come down to Colorado, New Hampshire and the Republican leaning district in Maine, which in her opinion might very well decide the Presidency...

She said she has very little doubt that the public polling is part of a “concerted voter suppression effort” by the MSM. She said IBD/TIPP was the only outfit doing public polling that was “worth a bucket of warm piss”.

Do we dare pin our hopes on the "inside story" as provided by somebody who can't spell "company's"? Come November 5, remember where you heard this first-- then laugh, cry, scream, upchuck, or whatever seems to be appropriate.

SATIRE ALERT

Over at Iowahawk, where satire reigns (and rains) supreme, all 6' 7" of our correspondent slams into surprisingly diminutive (5' 7" according to his mug-shots) bomb-boob Bill Ayers.

But first you have to read one of Iowahawk's rare moments of no-B.S.-or-funny-stuff rants on the Politics of Personal Plumber Destruction to which Ohioan Joe Wurzelbacher has been subjected. Iowahawk is NOT AMUSED, nor are his loyal readers, who volunteered some pretty cool graphics to convey their solidarity in the "I AM JOE" movement.




By contrast, Iowahawk believes that bomber Billy deserves to be pasted, and so he is, right here. Laugh till you piddle -- and then pay it forward, or whatever.








By a mile, my favorite slice of video from this election year:




GOOD NEWS

MURTHA'S GOIN' DOWN?

I've made my contributions to this election very selective, equally divided between the presidential race and one congressional seat in Pennsylvania. It's taken a long time for any polling data to surface, and not all of it (any of it??? the perennial question) has been reliable. But as of this moment, it looks like my guy, Lt. Col. BILL RUSSELL, USAR (ret.), survivor of the September 11 Pentagon attack and veteran of both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, might just pick off that fat-assed sad-sack, war profiteer, Abscammer, slanderer of his fellow-Marines Congressman John"Mad Jack, Pork Rind" Murtha.

At age 75, it's time for Mad Jack to take up his sizeable spot on the front-porch swing at the home, drink Aricept cocktails, and contemplate his sins.

Please, dear God, in 2008, one point for the good guys.

QUICK REMINDER:

WHO REALLY LOSES IF OBAMA WINS


...the fetus or child, as -- as some might describe it... still temporarily alive outside the womb....

Whenever we define a previable fetus as a person... what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a -- a child, a nine-month-old child that was delivered to term.... I mean it -- it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute... this essentially says that a doctor would be required to provide treatment to a previable child, or fetus, however way you want to describe it...

...As a consequence, I think that we will probably end up in court once again, as we often do, on this issue. And as a consequence, I'll be voting Present.

Illinois State Senator Barack Obama
March 30, 2001

Full transcript here.

Full picture of Mr. Obama's record here.

This photo and Cardinal Egan's message here.

THE FILE ON ALLEGED DONATION FRAUD
AT THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN
JUST GETS THICKER [UPDATED too]


We thought it was just a couple hundred million bucks in illegal foreign donations, but apparently it's even easier than that: looks like all the online safeguards have been disabled, and this kind of stuff can happen [from an email to Jonah Goldberg at NRO:

So I went to the Obama website this afternoon and clicked on the "Donate" button. I used my real MasterCard number (but was not asked for the 3 digit security code).

Used the following information and it was accepted...

First name: Fake
Last Name: Donor
Address: 1 Dollar To Prove A Point
City: Fraudulent
State: AL
Zip / Post: 33333
Email Address: allmyinfoismadeup@mediabias.com
Phone Number: 2125551212
Employer: Mainstream Media
Occupation: Being in the Tank

And incredibly, my $5 donation was ACCEPTED!!!

I then went to the McCain site and used the exact same information (and WAS asked for the 3 digit security code for my MasterCard). There, my contribution was rejected with the following message: "Your transaction was not approved for the following reason(s): Invalid data", and then: "We have found errors in the information that you have submitted. Please review the information below and try again."

I have screen shots and printouts of all of this as well.

Please tell me what I can do with this information? Is this a violation of FEC law by the Obama Campaign? How do we publicize this???

Thanks for all you do.

Then there's this, via Powerline:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn't ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and... "Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift."

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it's donors. Also, I don't see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn't allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn't match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

[Our reader was not yet done. He tried the experiment on the McCain site: "I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn't allow the transaction." He then repeated the experiment at the Obama site:]

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

So even if he wins, we have to wonder if he really won? And this time, Al Gore, we won't be making it up out of dangling chads.


--I TOOK A POLL, AND DECIDED TO PUT UP
THESE ARTICLES ABOUT POLLS

(1) Michael Barone
[hat-tip/RealClearPolitics]

(2) DJ Drummond


--UNEXPECTED PROPS FOR THE PREZ,
FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE:
SIR BOB 'BOOMTOWN RAT' GELDOF

Good on ya, Sir Bob.


--THE EGGHEADS' LAMENT: SEND IN THE CLOWNS
(All the way from Alaska, or maybe Kentucky)

City Journal's Michael Knox Beran at National Review


--CLASSIC MOVIES, RIGHT HERE:



And then there was this:




Apparently Professor Obama failed to read this.


--Department of Separation of Church and State:
THE OBAMESSIAH TELLS THE CROWD HE
FEELS "A RIGHTEOUS WIND" BEHIND HIM

Good thing no Republican was caught saying that, because it would be a clear sign of the coming theocratic tyranny. Phew.





--Department of QUELLE SURPRISE:
Pouting Pillsbury Doughboy SCOTT MCCLELLAN
WILL VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA

That'll show 'em, Scotty -- BOY will you show them! They won't have Scott McClellan to kick around any more! They'll be sorry they didn't let me come up into their treehouse and be a member of the secret club!! No more West Wing Wedgies for me, by golly!!!!


CNN makes the report, and closes off the posting with "File Under: Barack Obama". That pretty much says it.

This is only slightly less earth-shaking than the Colin Powell announcement. Which was considerably less earthshaking than the David Brooks Palin-slam, and less entertaining than the Christopher Buckley announcement.

SO I'M WATCHING FOX NEWS AND SEAN HANNITY IS YIP-YIP-YIPPING ABOUT BARACK.....

Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, and ACORN, and Tony Rezko, and the Daley machine, and Fannie/Freddie money, and oh, there was probably something in there about his broken pledge to take public money, or his Veep's promise of a "generated international crisis" in Obambi's honor.....

And nobody even managed to get around to Barack Obama and Islamist machete-man Raila Odinga or Obama and Rashid Khalidi [a story so deeply buried that the PUMA's at the Hillary Clinton Forum had to link to Hugh Hewitt to find it].

SO I FLIP OVER TO CNN, AND WHAT'S THE BIG STORY BEING ANALYZED BY DAVID RODHAM GERGEN?

SARAH PALIN'S AIRFARE and WARDROBE BILL

"With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we're spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," said McCain spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt, who has been traveling with Palin. "It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign."

No kidding.

The Associated Press report also references the controversy about John Edwards' $400 haircut, without mentioning that the story there was about unmanly vanity rather than straight dollars and cents. As a multimillionaire, presumably Edwards came with a closet full of high-priced suits and shoes in addition to his champagne-taste grooming habits. Sarah, on the other hand, came to the stage with (I suspect) off-the-rack duds from J.C. Penney's or the like, so she needed a quick style update -- and a very successful one, I must say, which could not have been achieved if she didn't have a confident sense of her own personal style. If there are objections to, or even a modicum of interest in, this expenditure, it should originate with the RNC donors, and remain their problem. And if they never found out about it, the sun would happily rise again on a world uncorrupted by Sarah's cute little jackets.

As to her travel budget, the First Family of Alaska understandably tries to move together on government business and the campaign trail when they can, and airfare for the Governor's minor children is a matter of no public interest outside of Alaska. How grateful we all must be that his Gergen-ness pronounced the "scandal" to be a tempest in a teapot. Phew.

If only the MSM were as interested in the Marxist, terrorist, Hamas-loving, vote-stealing, mortgage-puffing, school-screwing, radical-chic fellow-travellers of Barack Obama, as they are in the raven-haired, bright-eyed half-pint Palin daughters fellow-travelling with their mom and dad.

Please.

How can a candidate who has hauled in $600 million in donations (a third of which may be illegal?) give a rat's rump about a $20,000 travel bill -- even having the nerve to see something ironic in after Palin got rid of the governor's private jet. Are we supposed to believe that these limousine liberals don't know how small a dent $20k would make in a private jet's annual fuel bill? What does "Air Force O" cost per junket? How about hangin' with the Hollywood Gulfstream set?

Please.

OBAMA INFORMS HIS
OVERSEAS CONSTITUENTS
OF HIS CABINET CHOICES
(AND MAYBE HIS OVAL OFFICE DRAPE MEASUREMENTS)

The Times of London seems to have been handed the Red Box containing President-elect-but-not-yet-elected's plans for his new administration, scheduled to begin on November 5, ten weeks before inauguration day.

Beldar (Bill Dyer) at Hugh Hewitt has it covered:

For Secretary of Defense, The One is is looking to the Republican whose own bad judgment most closely duplicated Sen. Obama's own in fervently opposing the Surge and demanding that we surrender in Iraq on a strict timetable: Sen. Chuck Hagel. In January 2007, Sen. Hagel was quoted as saying that the surge would be "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."

And for the National Leader of the International Mother-May-I Team — excuse me, Secretary of State — Sen. Obama's leaking the name of Sen. John F. "Global Test" Kerry. Sen. Kerry, you'll recall, has splendid foreign policy credentials, having left behind in a Massachusetts closet his uniform as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1970 (and perhaps again in 1971) so that he could travel to Paris and meet secretly and in mufti with our Viet Cong and North Vietnamese enemies. John McCain and his fellows were still POWs when young Kerry returned to urge — yes, you've got it — an immediate American surrender and withdrawal without preconditions from South Vietnam, which by the oddest of coincidences was exactly the same "peace plan" being preached at that very moment by our enemies themselves.

The only potential glitch in this plan is that Kerry may be re-classified as a WMD — specifically, a wide-area narcoleptic weapon.

Shocking. Brazen. Insanely dangerous. The geopolitical decisions of a naive child, choosing deputies who are demonstrably more naive than I feared even Obama himself was.

This is most of it. Read the rest here.



What's that thing they call the secret nuclear codes? -- the "football"?

SHOCK!!

I'M SHOCKED!
WE'RE ALL TOTALLY SHOCKED!!

Now that Democrat Barack Obama has been holding a solid lead of 6-10 points over Republican John McCain for several weeks, the debates are over, and nothing but one uppity plumber stands between Obama and the Oval Office,

COLIN "General Teflon" POWELL

ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA

FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED RACE , er, STATES




Am I dissing Mr. Secretary and Joint Chiefs Chair for endorsing the Obamessiah? No -- he can endorse anybody he wants. It just don't impress me-- and that's nothing new. I lay claim to breathtaking consistency, in that I have never really had any use for Colin Powell, one of these men who, ya know, just can't "commit." Specifically, commit to

--rooting out reports of possible atrocities in Vietnam;*

--coughing up the facts on his (admittedly tangential) involvement in Iran-Contra;*

--adequately arming our troops in Somalia because he didn't approve of the nation-building exercise;

--taking out Saddam Hussein after the First Gulf War because it would have been, I dunno, rude?;

--working for action to follow his much-touted 2004 declaration that genocide was being perpetrated in Darfur. We all remember those inspiring words:

Mr. Chairman, some seem to have been waiting for this determination of genocide to take action. In fact, however, no new action is dictated by this determination. We have been doing everything we can to get the Sudanese government to act responsibly. So let us not be preoccupied with this designation of genocide. These people are in desperate need and we must help them. Call it a civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide. Call it 'none of the above'. The reality is the same: there are people in Darfur who desperately need our help.

I seem to recall that "none of the above" ended up ruling the day.

[*notice how extremely liberal are the publications linked here -- bet they're singing a different tune today]

And then there's Powell's unconscionable silence while Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were interrogated to shreds, in the guise of finding out what prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and Colin Powell both knew from the get-go of the Valerie Plame Name Blame Game: that it was Powell's deputy and bosom buddy Richard Armitage who was the source of the non-criminal "leak" of Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.

Powell, Buddha-like, maintained his impassive expression and his "what-me-worry" detachment while innocent men were hounded over and over again, until one of them finally screwed up and contradicted himself. This matter alone should have made Powell too ashamed to show his face in public again.

So now we have Powell's ringing endorsement of the most fit man to be president. Here are his latest inspiring words:

I know both of these individuals very well now. I've known John for 25 years as your setup said. And I've gotten to know Mr. Obama quite well over the past two years. Both of them are distinguished Americans who are patriotic, who are dedicated to the welfare of our country. Either one of them, I think, would be a good president...

... I have watched him over the last two years as he has educated himself, as he has become very familiar with these issues. He speaks authoritatively. He speaks with great insight into the challenges we're facing of a military and political and economic nature. And he is surrounding himself, I'm confident, with people who'll be able to give him the expertise that he, at the moment, does not have.

... I think we need a transformational figure. I need--think we need a president who is a generational change. And that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. Not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain.

[emphases mine]

Wowsers.

Can I just make one comment, as someone who has lived most of my life in an outpost of the British Empire?

Americans do not elect a "figure" to the office of President -- they elect a politician, a policy-maker, an executive, a military Commander-in-Chief. The Queen of England is a "figure" -- she has no direct executive or policy-making authority. She does not "rule" or even "govern" in any real sense of the word (despite the fact that the majority party in Parliament is referred to as "Her Majesty's Government" -- that's an epithet of loyalty, not one of obedience or even "consultation" in any real sense of the word).

Are we clear? If Secretary Powell wants a "figure" he is free to emigrate to someplace where such is considered necessary to the state. On the plus side, monarchies have a built-in "generational change" -- after the aged Elizabeth's reign is over, her place will be taken by her outstanding son (gack). Or, if God is indeed an Englishman, the crown will pass right on to her far more appealing (and probably more intelligent and slightly more calcium-enriched) grandson Wills.

Go for it, General Teflon. British Airways has these cool bed-thingies in Business Class.

Apparently Secretary General Teflon has taken such a very long time to make his endorsement decision because he has been working diligently to inform himself about the candidates' stands on all the iss-yews. That's how he learned all about the man that young Barack Obama shared an office with for three years (in what Powell calls "this very, very limited relationship"!) :

I have no truck for William Ayers. I think what he did was despicable, and to continue to talk about it in 2001 is also despicable. But to suggest that because Mr. Barack Obama had some contacts of a very casual nature--they sat on a educational board--over time is somehow connected to his thinking or his actions, I think, is a, a terrible stretch.
[emphasis mine -- for gawdsakes buy a paper, Colin!!]

Well, I may be in a minority among Republicans, but Powell's endorsement of Obama has done nothing to diminish my respect for the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. 'Cuz my opinion of him weren't so very high to begin with.


Department of Keep Your Friends Close,
and Your Enemies Closer:

WITH ENDORSEMENTS LIKE THESE,
WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

Over on Planet Biden, after both Presidential candidates received a preparatory FBI briefing on national security matters, Old Joe apparently soiled himself, promptly went out on the stump and produced this series of gems:

Mark my words. it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate. And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.

Gird your loins. We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy.

Joe said all this. Literally. Between him and Powell, anybody getting nervous yet? Remember where you heard it first, folks -- his vice-presidential running-mate and his highest-profile endorser have, within a 24-hour period, both let us know that Barack Obama is not, at this moment, quite up to the job. But he'll learn. He's got "steadiness" and curiosity" (yee-ha), not to mention that:

... because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities--and we have to take that into account--as well as his substance--he has both style and substance--he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.

It's called "tripe."


RANDOM MEDIA NUGGETS AND THOUGHTS:

MSM indifference to the hottest stories of the year continues unabated. Is there going to be any interest in Obama's massive possibly illegal foreign contributions between now and a special prosecutor? Anybody got some steadiness or curiosity about this?


It seems to be important to the MSM that Joe the Plumber Wurzelbacher practices plumbing without a license. I wonder why they don't have much of a problem with the fact that a bajillion illegal immigrants have no license to even be in the country, much less to work at jobs like Joe's, but they're doing it anyway, with no end in sight, and a whole lot of flak being flung at anyone who suggests that this situation should not stand.


In the same vein, reading the transcript of Colin Powell's interview on Meet the Press, one can't help but come away with this question: Why is all-but-retired old Republican appointee hack Colin Powell subjected to far more pointed and uncomfortable questions about his career (except, mystifyingly, on Iraq and the surge) than Democratic candidate Barack Obama has ever been asked by any mainstream reporter, ever, ever, anywhere, anytime, at all??? Huh?


Wonder-boy Mark Steyn produces another laugh-a-minute skewering of the media bloodhounds who have ripped Plumber Joe's unremarkable private life to bits, while having no apparent interest in the public life of the Man They Would Make President. Had me chucklin' the whole way through. Favorite exchange:

We need you down here checking out this Joe the Plumber," editors barked to journalists.

"But I'm this close to wrapping up the Wasilla Town Library banned-book investigation!"

"Forget it! The Atlantic Monthly is claiming Joe the Plumber is Trig's real father. We can't get behind on this. Get to Minneapolis Airport. Joe the Plumber was seen in the bathroom with Sen. Larry Craig."

"Yes, but he was installing a stopcock."

"Look, you went to Columbia School of Journalism. This is what we bold, courageous journalists do. We're the conscience of the nation. We speak truth to plumber."

Videos Worth A Look

There's a site with a set of simple and straightforwardly presented videos that all lead to one proposition: what will life be like under an Obama administration? Let's "Never Find Out." Here's a good one:



And here are some words of encouragement for those Baldwins and Streisands and Sarandons and other mutable moonbats who keep threatening to move away when Republicans win elections, but never actually go through with it. Hey, you! Pack up your troubles in your Gucci kit bag, and point the limo north! It's easy -- here's how:


What did Canada do to deserve this?

[hat-tip David Warren]

NEWSFLASH!

SCRAPPLEFACE EDITOR ENDORSES OBAMA --
FOR JUNIOR SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS

Mostly 'cuz he's COOL. He's so cool that:

--At a recent concert and political rally, when Bruce
Springsteen got ‘The Fever’, he skipped the Tylenol, because his friend Barack was there. When The Boss sang ‘I’m on Fire’, Sen. Obama extinguished him.

--When pondering the fate of an aborted infant, accidentally born alive, he can dispassionately discourse on whether the mother’s right to privacy, under the Roe v. Wade amendment to the Constitution, should continue until the baby’s first, or second, bounce on the delivery room floor.

Now that's cool. Read the rest here.

Updated! Here a Joe, there a Joe, everywhere a Joe!
And guess what: it's not unusual for the ones with employees to make over $250K. I'm just sayin'. And so are they.

IN THE MOVIE OF THE SAME NAME....

THE PART OF JOE THE PLUMBER















WILL BE PLAYED BY MICHAEL "The Shield" CHIKLIS














Am I right or am I right?

JOE THE PLUMBER -- KIND OF LIKE "SPRINGFIELD"

HE'S EVERYWHERE: WHITBY, TOLEDO, KNOXVILLE

Knoxville's Joe the Plumber weighs in -- not surprisingly, he's voting for McCain:

Shanks likened the decision to a homeowner in need of a plumber - would you hire the guy who just got his trade license, he asked, or a seasoned professional?

Let's hear from some more Joes in some more cities. This could be the start of a major third party! Like the man said,

...three, can you imagine, three people walking in, singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day , walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out... And friends, they may think it's a movement!

Update: It begins!

What could be...

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF JOURNALISM
THIS ELECTION SEASON

George Will on Gettysburg

Money quote:

Ours would be a better nation if boys and girls of all regions, and particularly the many high school and even college graduates who cannot place the Civil War in the correct half-century, could be moved, as large numbers of Americans used to be, by the names of Gettysburg battlefield sites, such as Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, instead of being like the visitor here who said it is amazing that so many great battles, such as Antietam and Chickamauga and Shiloh, occurred on Park Service land; and another visitor who doubted that the fighting here really was fierce because there are no bullet marks on the monuments.

And this sterling observation:

Recently, a Gold Star mother finally visited Gettysburg, after driving by it often en route to visit the Arlington grave of her son, who was killed in Iraq. She was especially moved by these words from a Gettysburg newspaper published four days after the battle: "Every name . . . is a lightning stroke to some heart, and breaks like thunder over some home, and falls a long black shadow upon some hearthstone." Gettysburg still stirs, but not as it used to, or should.

Updated: More new White House decor

THE WISDOM OF JOE THE PLUMBER

There's a lot to be learned from Joe, not least of which is that maybe the education system in Toledo, Ohio is less broken than it is in other places. Joe, meet Todd. Todd, this is Joe.




ONE MORE LIE

The crazed right-wing storm-trooper who yelled "Kill him!" upon hearing the name Obama at a McCain/Palin rally is, in fact, a figment of fevered media imagination. Hoax. Never happened. Zerio corroboration. Zilch. Bupkus. Check it out.

Maybe "lie" is too strong a word. Barack probably believed it to be true. After all, he read it in the paper. And Keith Olberman said it too. What more evidence is needed?

But those conservative crazies -- they are so scary. Good thing the left remains above such low-rent tactics, as Michelle Malkin reminds us in a very abbreviated round-up. Wonder how the country will look when ACORN succeeds in putting these people in charge?

Good thing Obama promised us last night that William Ayers will not be part of his administration. We'll hold him to that. I love The Messiah's habit of countering charges that were never made, as opposed to giving an answer to those that have been.

Knock knock. Who's there?


Not an undergraduate dormroom. Bill Ayers' office door.

Not forty years ago -- today.

Can't wait to see the new decor scheme in the Obama White House.



Obama-Biden administration fridge magnets:





























More rich people [gross receipts over $250K] likely to be socked -- maybe ruined -- by the Obama tax plan, reporting in just now to Laura Ingraham:

Landscaper

Construction company owner

Small manufacturer with 22 employees


THIS JUST IN:

INMATES RUNNING ASYLUM , EH?


Canada may have just voted in the Conservatives again, but that's no insurance against outbreaks of bleeding heart lunacy:

Multiple murderer awarded $6,000 because prison 'dragged its feet' on buying him his New Balance running shoes.

FINAL DEBATE

LITTLE WEIRD STUFFS:

1) The economy of the past eight years: you would never know there was a devastating attack on the financial center of the country seven years ago, that all stock trading and transportation was shut down for a week, and that this alone could have plunged the country (and therefore the world) into a depression had it not been handled carefully and wisely. Then there were two wars. John McCain should not be ashamed to talk about them and how we have managed to wage them without spending anywhere near the proportion of GDP spent in WWII.

2) The mopey-faced conclusion of the Fox News dudes and dudesses is that Obama has won all three debates, due, as much as anything, to his presidential-looking calm and coolness. I'm not sure I agree on that. I found him smug and smirky (not as bad as Gore eight years ago, but worse than Kerry four years ago), aloof, and BORING.

"Calm" is one way to put it -- I think it's something more disturbing than that. I'd call it sangfroid. It might have more to do with this, from Jim Geraghty:

I think it was Dean Barnett who noted that Obama likes to think of himself as a bridge-builder... To be a bridge-builder, you have to stand in between two opposing groups. You can't pass judgment, or denounce, or conclude that one side has crossed the line. You have to ignore the provocations of a side, urge people to forget past wrongdoing, and convince wary and hurt combatants take leaps of faith in trusting the other.

If you can really build a bridge between two groups that hate each other, God bless you. It's one of the world's toughest tasks.

But sometimes, both sides aren't equally at fault. Some folks deserve to be judged and denounced. Sometimes, provocations can't be ignored, past wrongdoings shouldn't be forgotten, and leaps of faith are exercises in naivete. Sometimes, you just can't build a bridge with someone.

In Ayers, as well as Wright, Rezko, and the ACORN shenanigans, we see that Obama repeatedly tolerates the intolerable. He's the opposite of quick to judge; he refuses to judge until long after it would do any good. Long after everybody else has figured out the character of his associates, Obama is left lamenting, "This is not the Jeremiah Wright I knew" or "This is not the Tony Rezko I knew" or "This is not the Jim Johnson I knew." And on and on. Obama is always giving people with well-established track records the benefit of the doubt, often to his own detriment; as President, he'll bring that same judgment to decisions that affect the country.

If you want to build a bridge with Iran, you can't denounce Ahmadinejad. If you want to improve relations with Venezuela, you can't put the spotlight on human rights abuses. If you want a successful summit with Syria, you have to pretend they weren't building a nuclear reactor on that site Israel bombed.

William Ayers is one mislaid wire away from being Timothy McVeigh, and remembered as one of America's most bloodthirsty terrorists and unforgivable traitors. There's no indication that Ayers' history of building bombs that claimed lives caused Obama a moment's hesitation.

That's what their relationship teaches us.

[emphasis mine]

To make a long story short, Obama doesn't endorse terrorism, he doesn't endorse Wright/Pfleger racism and America bashing, he doesn't endorse Rezko fraud, he doesn't endorse ACORN election-stealing and bank-busting. He doesn't really wish any harm to infants struggling for life after botched abortions.

But he doesn't really mind any of it either.

As he floats along on the candy-floss river of messianic momentum, Obama just doesn't give a crap who's on the boat with him as long as it takes him where he wants to go.

Under the circumstances, it's easy to look calm. And cool. Very, very cool. Sangfroid.


3) Sometimes it's stunning which tidbits of homework McCain either hasn't done, or can't call up when the crunch comes. That's how Obama gets away with the usual gaggle of bald-faced lies. Here's a tasty selection:

--No connection with ACORN beyond legal representation on one case.

--Not implicated in approval of Ayers' murderous radicalism.

--Did not vote in favor of raising taxes on those earning over $42K.

--Did not launch his political career in Bill Ayers' livingroom.

--"Ten years ago [Ayers] and I served on a school reform board." Their active collaboration began no later than 1995, possibly much earlier, and continued until 2004, through a succession of board memberships.

--100% of McCain ads have been negative.

--Did not support the deliberate infanticide-by-neglect of children born alive after failed abortions. [This is the LIE OF THE NIGHT. Every word he uttered about his record on this issue was a demonstrable lie.]

There were probably others. I wasn't writing them down.

This is someting else you can get good at if you're calm. And cool.


4) Cool-guy euphemisms:

--Ayers engaged in "despicable acts" with a "radical domestic-- group."
translation: he planned and carried out terrorist bombings of public buildings and private homes which killed people -- one planned bombing did not occur because the bomb-makers accidentally blew themselves up -- their target was a military dance, with many civilians, and the death toll would have exceeded the Oklahoma City bombing.

--Ayers' bombings took place "forty years ago, when I was 8 years old"
translation: this makes it sound like Ayers is a mellowed old dude who is no longer a threat to anyone. If you believe this, read what the guy has been up to in the last forty minutes, in pursuit of destroying young minds and perverting the education system beyond recognition, in the name of revolution. Start here.

5) Joe the Plumber.

[No, not that guy on the right, from Whitby, Ontario.]

By far the best thing to come out of this debate is the elevation of yet another normal guy (in addition to the Palins) to the national spotlight. Joe Wurzelbacher is an Ohio plumber who dared to suggest that perhaps the Emperor Obama's tax plan had no clothes -- at least not for him, as he had worked hard and was hoping to buy his own business, a move that would thrust him into Obama's category of rich people who will see their taxes raised.

Obama was all sympathy for poor Joe, and assured him it wasn't personal -- "It's not that I want to punish your success; I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they've got a chance to success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Marx couldn't have said it better. Joe was not amused.

This guy on the right.


God love ya, Joe. Welcome to your 15 minutes.

THIS IS RICH

OBAMA VOTERS IN HARLEM SUPPORT
MCCAIN POLICIES--
THINKING THEY ARE OBAMA'S

THEY ALSO SUPPORT OBAMA'S VEEP PICK, SARAH PALIN

And we learn this courtesy of HOWARD STERN!!!
Who'da thunk it?!



[hat-tip, Small Dead Animals]