In one of the more astonishing videos that I’ve seen in a long time, McCain supporters actively protest and heckle early voters in North Carolina. These folks have absolutely no shame.

From HuffingtonPost.com:

At a John McCain rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, three people handed out “Obama for Change”
bumper stickers with the Communist sickle and hammer and the Islamic crescent, saying Obama was a socialist with ties to radical Islam. Several moderate McCain supporters, Muslim and Christian alike, struck back - relentlessly bombarding the group distributing the flyers until they left the premises.

While this doesn’t change my opinion of the McCain campaign, it does at least show a decent side of his supporters, which is something his campaign needs following all the negativity at the McCain/Palin rallies. A big “thank you” to those supporters who stood up to the ignorance and intolerance!

I wonder if it’s physically painful to lie this hard.

From Talking Points Memo:

Back in this blog’s heyday, if it ever had one, I did quite a bit of blogging in support of gay marriage, opposing both a Constitutional Amendment banning it, and even opposing half-assed “civil union” legislation. See, back in 2003 & 2004, gay marriage was the wedge issue du jour, and while the buzz surrounding it has quited down for your average American, the subject is still very alive and in need of discussion. States like California & Florida have introduced Propositions & State Constitutional Amendments to ban gay marriage this year, which will surely get social conservatives, who will also vote for John McCain, out to the polls.

Over at All Spin Zone, Daniel has an amazing write-up about why California’s Proposition 8 should be rejected by voters:

If society is akin to the palette of an artist, then it is essential that all the colors remain…lest we become a canvas absent contrast…imbued with the blandness born of banality. America may be the proverbial melting pot but our greatness results from the soup we serve from that pot…a complex soup that maintains an array of distinct flavors…all perfectly blended such that each maintains its identity and each is enhanced by the presence of the others…not overwhelmed or masked such that the independent flavors are indistinguishable.

The need for acceptance is no stranger to trepidation. How one responds to that anxiety may define the degree to which the achieved acceptance is authentic or, conversely, it may define the distance one has traveled from one’s authenticity in order to obtain enough acceptance to mitigate the trepidation. The distance between the former and the latter may well describe a journey of betrayal that is predicated upon the need to extinguish discomfort at the expense of preserving identity.

That which is authentic need never become inauthentic to achieve acceptance. Any society that expects as much becomes a faceless, colorless canvas which consumes itself while feeding upon its fears. The same is true of any subset of that society which would accede to those expectations.

The issue of gay marriage is an excellent case in point. Marriage has become the gauntlet upon which the war for acceptance of homosexuality and the associated authenticity of our existence and our relationships is being waged. I reject that premise. So long as we allow marriage to define the legitimacy of our relationships, we enable the opposition to defile us.

…

One’s love for humanity requires no higher being, no promise of salvation, no threat of damnation…it should be unconditional and absolute. It need not elevate nor annihilate those who are similar or dissimilar. It honors humanity simply because it is humanity. It seeks no special treatment nor does it require one to adopt any specious identity in order to find acceptance. We humans share the same origin but we also possess different identity’s…which is as it were intended. We mustn’t forget.

I simply can’t say it any better than he can. Please take a visit to his site to read the entire post. You will not be disappointed!

As a California native living in Philadelphia, I had the unfortunate experience of watching the Dodgers get removed from the playoffs by the team in my new home. It was a painful reminder of when I had to watch the Oakland Raiders get dismantled by the Buccaneers while living in Tampa. I congratulate the Phillies for their victory, but I’m opting to maintain my status as the most unpopular guy in the office by supporting my (2nd hometown) Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 2008 World Series.

So, sorry Philadelphia, maybe next year you can play some AL team I despise (like the Yankees) and I can root for you.

If you’re looking for the embodiment of every flaw that America has, Minnesota’s 6th District (Benton, Sherburne, Stearns, Wright, Anoka, and Washington counties) has decided that it needs a seat in our Congress. Some of you may have recently been introduced to her when the perpetually-surprised-looking Bachmann appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and called on the “news media” to look into the members of Congress and determine whether or not they may be “anti-American”:

Defending the McCain campaign’s automated phone calls attacking Barack Obama’s judgment and character, Rep. Michele Bachmann on Friday said Obama “may have anti-American views” and called for a news media “exposé” of the views of members of Congress.

Bachmann’s comments came in a 13-minute interview on MSNBC, during which she asserted that Obama has a close connection to 1960s radical William Ayers, a theme of the phone calls and recent remarks by McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

“Barack Obama didn’t have a mild association with Bill Ayers,” Bachmann, a Republican, said. “He had a very strong association with Bill Ayers.”

Later, when asked by Chris Matthews whether she believes that Obama may have anti-American views, Bachmann replied, “Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.”

Bachmann also said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, both Democrats, have “far-leftist views.” When asked whether she considered members of Congress anti-American, she said, “The news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America or anti-America.”

Read more »

What would happen if Sarah Palin ended up in the Oval Office? It might look something like this.

From philly.com:

Authorities are trying to find out who sent a threatening letter containing a suspicious substance to one of Barack Obama’s South Philadelphia campaign offices.

The office at 15th and Christian streets was evacuated for less than an hour after the discovery about 5 p.m. yesterday.

Police say a volunteer brought in the mail and opened a letter that contained the unknown substance. Officials evacuated the office, took the letter outside and called police.

A hazardous-materials crew responded, but investigators say initial tests determined that it was brown sugar.

So what food stuffs would you send to the McCain campaign as an equivalent?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about ACORN… and almost all of it has been misleading, if not flat-out false. The organization, which has been a force in the “get out the vote” effort for both Republicans & Democrats, has come under fire for supposed “voter fraud”, with most of the accusations surrounding falsified voter registration documents. ACORN employees, hired to help register new voters and paid by the number of registration forms they get completed, have turned in hundreds, possibly thousands, of fraudulent forms in some states, leading to the current media storm and the creation of a new boogeyman for the McCain campaign to connect to Barack Obama.

There’s a lot here that isn’t being reported by the mainstream media:

ACORN is often required by law to submit ALL completed voter registration forms. In many states, it is a felony to throw out ANY voter registration form. It is the job of the Supervisor of Elections’ office to decide what registrations are fraudulent & which are legitimate. For example, an ACORN representative who filled out numerous forms on their own or convinced a citizen to fill out more than one with fraudulent information would give them to ACORN to collect their pay. ACORN, unable to officially make the determination between a fake & authentic registration form, then submits them to elections officials. ACORN does often flag forms that they suspect to be falsified, but the state officials are ultimately responsible for their fate.

Fraudulently-registered voters don’t exist, so they can’t vote anyway. This should be a no-brainer, but we have to consider the audience. If I submit a registration form that states that I, Mortimer Mouse, am a Democrat living in Sandusky, Ohio, I will generally have to provide some sort of identification at time of registration or at the polls. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 states:

HAVA requires any voter who registers to vote by mail and has not previously voted in a Federal election show current and valid photo identification or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter. Voters who submit any of these forms of identification during registration are exempt as are voters entitled to vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

Moritmer Mouse would be required to prove who he is with valid identification. If I submit a falsified registration document that is either lacking information or the ID info given (ID or Driver’s License #, for example) doesn’t match the name on the form, my registration will be either returned or deemed fraudulent and destroyed.

Unfortunately, the McCain-Palin ticket is looking for any tactic to hit Obama with, and conservative pundits are shoveling out article after article about the Obama-ACORN “connection”, attempting to convince readers that the Obama campaign is somehow going to benefit from ACORN submitting fraudulent voter forms that won’t get fully processed in the first place. This whole thing is a drummed-up controversy, created to erode away at Obama’s position in the polls, and in the event of an Obama win, provide McCain supporters with a scapegoat to blame for the loss. The entire idea is pretty despicable, especially when part of the goal is to discredit an organization with a long record of fighting predatory lending, pushing for better conditions for low-wage workers including the institution of a living wage, and promoting education reform in low-income neighborhoods.

I’m actually surprised that the McCain campaign hasn’t given this a shot yet.