Author: idredit

Breaking News: via Huffpost:

Updates below.

The other shoe drops.

CNN is told the McCain camp is proposing the VP debate be postponed or rescheduled. U of Miss says Friday’s debate IS On. McCain says No Bailout deal, No debate on Friday..Developing.

The original McCain ploy.

McCain Ask To Postpone Friday Debate Due To Economic Crisis

NEW YORK — Republican John McCain says he’s directing his staff to work with Barack Obama’s campaign and the debate commission to delay Friday’s debate because of the economic crisis.

In a statement, McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation’s financial problems.

McCain also said he wants President Bush to convene a leadership meeting in Washington. Both he and Obama would attend the session.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain met Wednesday with a panel of business executives to seek their opinions on the Bush administration’s proposed $700 million bailout of U.S. financial markets.

McCain said he wanted to discuss “how we can make sure that the American people regain confidence on Main Street so that they can regain their confidence in Wall Street and in Washington.”

McCain renewed his insistence that the bailout deal have greater transparency, oversight and CEO accountability to make it acceptable to voters.

“Most Americans feel very strongly this isn’t their fault. It’s Wall Street and Washington and the cozy insider relationships that have caused a great part of the problems,” he said.

Soon, in another  two weeks, McCain will request the election be postponed canceled.

[UPDATE:]

ABC NEWS McCain: Scrap Friday Debate for Bailout; Obama Camp: ‘The Debate is On’

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and Rick Klein report: Sen. John McCain on Wednesday said he would “suspend” his presidential campaign to come to Washington to help negotiate a financial bailout bill, a dramatic move designed to seize a powerful issue.

However a senior Obama campaign official said Obama “intends to debate.”

“The debate is on,” a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News. [.]

[UPDATE 2]

CNN:McCain says No Bailout deal by Friday No Debate. The University of Mississipi and Obama campaign says the Debate IS on

A presidential campaign that has already seen its share of twists took another one today: Republican candidate John McCain said he was suspending his campaign to deal with the nation’s economic crisis. McCain also said he would not attend Friday night’s debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama unless an economic bailout deal is reached by then. developing story

but we learn via Andrew Sullivan the other shoe drops McCain camp to propose postponing VP debate

From CNN Correspondent Dana Bash

Biden and Palin are set to debate October 2.

(CNN) — McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there’s no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis.

In this scenario, the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin would be rescheduled for a date yet to be determined, and take place in Oxford, Mississippi, currently slated to be the site of the first presidential faceoff this Friday.

[.]

What has happened to this country?

BOHICA  – bend over, here it comes again.

But. We’ve gone too far.

Steven Waldman provides this high noon must read piece.

“Doug Kmiec is a conservative Reagan administration official and leading pro-life legal scholar. Despite his strong anti-abortion views, he recently endorsed Barack Obama on the grounds that Obama cared more about the full range of “life” issues – including poverty and human rights – and because Kmiec believes that Obama’s “abortion reduction” agenda will have more impact on abortion in the short run than the traditional battles against Roe v. Wade.

He was attacked by conservative Catholics and Republicans and was even denied communion from his church, a moment he describes here in an excerpt from his new book, Can a Catholic Support Him?:”

Here’s Douglas Kmiec’s account of his being denied communion because he publicly stated his intent to vote for Barack Obama (H/t: Andrew Sullivan)

The Day I Was Denied Communion for Endorsing Obama, by Douglas Kmiec

April 2008. On that day the children were not with us [at church]. It was only my wife Carol and myself. I turned out to be the subject of the homily. Without warning or prior conversation, this blue-collar kid from Chicago had somehow given offense not just to this priest who stood before me, but in my memory, which was now running at top speed, to all those watchful religious eyes: to the good Franciscan sisters who watched the Kmiec brothers play basketball beneath the convent window; to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who instructed us in black-and-white from the old 6″ Philco as we sat upon the living room couch; to my school days pastor who, on May 7, 1959, distributed Communion to me for the first time; to the Bishop whose hands confirmed my membership in the body of Christ in 1963; to Brother Konrad Diebold, F.S.C, the Christian Brother who led us in prayer in high school chapel….A litany of saints, these splendid women and men of the cloth. …

Until that evening, when all was revoked.

Suddenly the life-long chain of liturgy was broken into pieces. The priest–the priest who had just joined with us in the prayer of the Rosary was now red-faced shouting. I thought. Talking about me. I had cooperated with evil. I had?….

My wife held my hand tightly. We looked at each other in disbelief. Here was someone in the vestments of the priesthood who had called us to have our prayers be heard, who recited the Kyrie with us, asking the Lord’s mercy upon us, now seemingly merciless, telling me and the many there assembled that I was unworthy. I was to be publicly shunned and humiliated. My offense? Endorsing Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.

The irony of ironies was that my motivation for the endorsement was entirely Catholic. No, Obama doesn’t share the Catholic faith, but he certainly campaigns like he does. As reflected in his book, the Senator is focused on the human person, on the common good, on the social justice of economic arrangement. All is so very Catholic.

[.]

It was time for Communion. Notwithstanding the indictment of the homily, I did not think of myself as unworthy of receipt of the sacrament–at least no more so than pre-Obama endorsement. Communion in the Catholic tradition is indeed sacred….

But I was not to receive the Eucharist that evening. The couples who stood in line before my wife and myself received the body of Christ in their hands or on their tongues and returned to their seats. My wife received. My hand outstretched, the priest shook his head from side to side. Was that a no? It was Judgment Day, and I hadn’t made it. LSAT Insufficient. Inadequate GPA. Do not pass GO…go directly to Hell.

[.]

From the back of the Communion line someone shouted out, “Are you judging this man, Father?” I was grateful for the intervention. Will the Last Day be like this? One friend making an appeal for another? The response was cold: “He has judged himself and been found unworthy.”

With no further appeal possible and with my wife exiting in confusion, tears, and offended embarrassment, I returned to my place along. My place? Did I have a place any longer? Was I expected to leave?

Incredible!

Are we surprised?

Why?  The Constitution was shredded on December 12, 2000. The elections, 2000 and 2004, stolen. No robust outrage from our elected officials.

So aided by the theo-cons, the Neo-con disciples took over our government, dismissing ALL our rights and freedoms.

Has anyone noticed?

We’re in deep, up to our ears in this sh*t.

A Hearty Welcome to the USSRA.

Deserving. But something is up.

McCain has been called out on his campaign’s distortions and outright lies – a dishonorable, dishonest campaign: AP, WAPO, NYT front page

 via MSNBC-First Read we read this:

To top it off, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign’s factual claims: “We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”

Today, the Maestro, Karl Rove on Fox News:

Rove is objecting to a dishonorable, dishonest campaign? !!!?!!! The Karl Rove?

Huffpost

When Karl Rove is saying your political ads have gone too far, you know you must be doing something dishonest.

The former Bush chief strategist, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said that John McCain had stretched the truth in his recent round of attacks against Barack Obama, in the process opening up the Arizonan to a round of effective counter-attacks.

“McCain has gone in his ads one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test,” said Rove. “Both campaigns ought to be careful about… there ought to be an adult who says: ‘Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don’t we make our point and get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don’t include that one little last tweak in the ad?'”

Watch:

Why is Karl Rove speaking out against a campaign he’s reported to be advising? Surely, it can’t be to protect his reputation.

SO, what’s up Karl?

Surely this Andrew Sullivan smack down deserves to be re-posted on every blog, newspaper news service, on every billboard in America; to be read by all likely and registered voters. Snip and send to all in your circle. Ask them to do the same.

Tip of the Hat to Andrew:– written like no other can.

{Note to Andrew: I’m taking some liberties here, hope you’ll cut me some slack but this piece is too good not to share}

McCain’s Integrity

For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It’s about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person.

[.]

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush’s war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country.

And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil.

He capitulated and enshrined torture as the policy of the United States, by allowing the CIA to use techniques as bad as and worse than the torture inflicted on him in Vietnam. He gave the war criminals in the White House retroactive immunity against the prosecution they so richly deserve. The enormity of this moral betrayal, this betrayal of his country’s honor, has yet to sink in. But for my part, it now makes much more sense. He is not the man I thought he was.

[.]

because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That’s all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base. This is pure Rove.

Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country’s safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this country’s national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time.

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain – no one else – has proved it.

(emphasis added)

MTC:

John McCain’s integrity. Sadly, he was passed over by his creator.  John McCain has morphed from his role in the Keating Five scandal to become a gigolo.

Asking a gigolo to display integrity, honor or manhood is like wishing that the moon is made of blue cheese.

After a week of national attention and doll branding, reality dawns but history has yet to catch up with the appalling McCain camp.

Via TPM: We’ve had a week of her and everything is a lie.

[.]…we seem to be witnessing the first stirrings of a backlash and a dawning realization that the ‘Sarah Palin’ we’ve heard so much about over the last few days is a fraud of truly comical dimensions.
The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today that’s just “a naked lie.” And pretty much the same thing has been written today in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the AP, the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday even Fox’s Chris Wallace called out Rick Davis on it. (Do send more examples when you find them.)

The Bridge to Nowhere collapses:

New Republic

Newsweek

Wapo

AP

WSJ

Chris Wallace, Fox News Watch the Video at 1:31

[Update]
Alaskans know the real story of the bridge to nowhere-Alaska CBSNews 11. Watch It.

Reality catches up – The fallout

Lieberman shunned.  His top aide quits in protest of his boss’ McCain support.

Koch backs Obama, calls Palin ‘scary’

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, who endorsed and worked for George W. Bush in 2004, is endorsing Obama today, NY1 first reported.

Fret not, more Republicans will follow – Senator Lincoln Chafee’s Republicans for Obama will grow.. McCain does not have a Party. What he has are the evangelical wingnuts.

As for the Polls.  Reminder: Kerry and Dukakis were ahead at this time in the cycle. They went down to defeat. Gore had the popular vote and went down to defeat.

From Nate Silver – FiveThirtyEight – has a must read detail analysis:

Monday’s Look at the New Electoral Map

Obama 292   McCain 245

That said. Polls are all over the range and can’t be trusted:

AP:Poll shows big shift to McCain among white women

McClatchy: Kentucky Clinton voters, a big force, are drifting to Obama

Like I said, don’t trust the Polls. Diebold controls the outcome with the best excuse for shenanigans ever: How many will vote for a half-white guy?

Ooops! The one drop rule: a black guy?

New Video shows how easy electronic voting machines are pried open, – hacked, pried open in 18 seconds

Yeah.. eight years later, and no paper trail.

Pakistan is a ticking bomb; ready to explode perhaps before November – much sooner than many analysts were predicting. The fuse has been lit.  On the weekend, Asif Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, was elected president in the midst of turmoil. Zardari, profile- bio, holds little power. He’s now in the firing line.

Pakistan has announced “disconnection of supply lines to the allied forces stationed in Afghanistan through Pakistan in an apparent reaction to a ground attack on a border village in South Waziristan agency by the Nato forces.”

Listen up: Af/Pak is one Taliban country – now considered the most dangerous place in the world

A Primer

“Without the [Pakistan’s] army’s backing – and the cooperation of the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency – the war against the Taliban is hopeless. There are enough Pakistanis, particularly in the tribal borderlands, who feel Musharraf was wrong to get involved in what they see as an American war against Islam.

It is often forgotten that Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan is merely the line drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand, foreign secretary of British India in 1893, and perceived by most local tribes nowadays as an irrelevance. The name Pakistan itself is essentially an Anglophone acronym, the first three letters of which include Afghans between the Punjabis and Kashmiris. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that escalation of the current fighting along the border could threaten the country’s existence. The question is whether Zardari can display the same acumen in that rats’ nest as he has done in his financial dealings.

 – The Sunday Times, UK, September 7, 2008 – link above

A series of incidents over the last 72 hours provide more confirmation that the war in Afghanistan is now openly extended into Pakistan – the new international battlefield:

The Events

Power cuts fuel Pakistan’s power struggle
The assassination attempt on the Prime Minister is the latest twist in a complex battle for influence for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

The attack comes in the context of a growing Islamist insurgency in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan’s North West, and after a string of terrorist acts. Last week suicide bombers outside Pakistan’s main munitions factory in the town of Wah killed almost 100 people

Meanwhile, the coalition of parties that brought down Pervez Musharraf has split after less than six months, with Ms Bhutto’s widower, Asif Zardari, pushing successfully to become president, and the Muslim League, headed by her old nemesis, Nawaz Sharif, moving into increasingly fierce opposition.

Pakistan reacts with fury after up to 20 die in ‘American’ attack on its soil

The war in Afghanistan spilled over on to Pakistani territory for the first time yesterday when heavily armed commandos, believed to be US Special Forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.

The surprise attack on Jala Khel was launched in early morning darkness and killed between seven and 20 people, according to a range of reports from the remote Angoor Adda region of South Waziristan. The village is situated less than one mile from the Afghan border.

Related: Afghanistan’s war has a new battlefield

Right on the heels of  the US confirmation of their ground assault inside Pakistan the retaliation was swift:

Pakistan cuts supply lines to NATO forces

BARA: In a major development, the federal government on Friday announced disconnection of supply lines to the allied forces stationed in Afghanistan through Pakistan in an apparent reaction to a ground attack on a border village in South Waziristan agency by the Nato forces.

Political authorities of the Khyber Agency claimed to have received verbal directives to immediately halt transportation of all kinds of goods meant for the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan for an indefinite period.

[.]

The authorities claimed that due to repeated attacks on the personnel of the Khassadar forces during the last one week and abduction of a few personnel, it had become difficult for the security forces to provide foolproof security to the supply lines.

Independent sources, however, claimed that the government feared retaliation by the tribesmen against a recent ground attack conducted by the Nato forces in Angoor Adda of the South Waziristan Agency that triggered condemnation from various quarters, including the government of Pakistan itself.

The French are rethinking their commitment.

What are the aims of this war?
French Opposition Demands Rethink of Afghanistan Mission

The French are not alone. The Afghan mission will be debated during the Canadian election campaign over the next four weeks.  Since 2002 ninety six Canadian forces personnel have been killed.

Lessons Not Learned

Af/Pak will prove to be the mother of all quagmires.  

During the primaries there was a lot of debate over which candidate offers the best approach to America’s health care crisis.

Recently Steve Clemons, TWN and the New America Foundation, sat down with former Senator Tom Daschle to discuss the issue of ‘America’s Health Care Debacle’ and his [Daschle’s] book Critical— what’s possible in comprehensive Universal Health Care.

Watch Video of Shorter Version Daschle on the Health Care crisis here

Says Clemons:

“To some degree it is really Tom Daschle’s political machine that has been more important to Barack Obama than franchises controlled by the Daley clan, the Kennedy family, and the Clintons. Daschle’s people are the ones who have animated and built out Barack Obama’s incredible national operation.

And while Tom Daschle may not ever get the chance to serve as President of the United States — though i think he would have made a great president — I suspect that Daschle will bring some muscle and great skill to either the White House as Chief of Staff or to Obama’s cabinet (if elected) as Secretary of Health and Human Services”.

While Hillary Clinton really does know the nuts and bolts of a rebuilt and redeployed health care policy system, Tom Daschle does as well and may be the person who actually does deliver real, universal health care in the United States. I discuss health policy with former Senate Majority Leader and Obama Campaign co-chair Tom Daschle in the short clip above.

Well worth a listen –

The longer (73 mins) meeting at which Daschle spoke on the subject in depth, followed by Q&A from reporters and industry representatives, can be watched here.

This time around it’s different. Corporate America’s bottom line is hurting – being wiped out by health care costs – and they are at least ready to embrace the idea of universal health care.

“There’s a sense of urgency that was not there before” – Daschle

….As always It’s follow the money…

Blinded in the Palin headlights Biden’s statement to ABC news goes under the tires. The Palin pick has accomplished the much needed distraction.

We’ve been snookered by the Palin trick.

From The Guardian, UK

Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush

• Biden says criminal violations will be pursued
• Democrats have issued subpoenas to Bush aides
• 3 staffers have been held in contempt of Congress

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Biden’s comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

But his statements represent the Democrats’ strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years.

“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued,” Biden said during a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, according to ABC.

“[N]ot out of vengeance, not out of retribution,” he added, “out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law.”

[.]

“Misdeeds committed during the Bush years”

If not in the U.S.A, there are prosecutors standing by in Europe waiting for the 20th, January 2009.  Misdeeds will include war crimes.

Let’s add the financial crimes to the pot. The worse financial crisis in seventy years. A Bush economy built on the export of fraudulent bonds. Overseas investors will demand repayment. The next eight weeks are a danger zone for false flag events.

You can bet the farm that BushCheney will pull out ALL to get McSame and sidekick Palin elected. It is happening now as our eyes are wide shut—the manipulation of oil prices to under $108 / bbl as I write and gasoline prices headed towards $3.50 and lower for election day as was predicted.  McCain is their man. They know the election will be decided on kitchen table issues.

“Operation Keep the Hill” is on, in full mode, to paint a picture of robust business health and declining prices. They’ll have us forget that Freddie, Fannie, Lehman and another 200 banks are busted. So too the FDIC. BUSTED. The Feds’ begging bowl is now well over a trillion.

They’re hoping and praying their con job will last until election day.

Be alert to the McCainPalin trick.

OBAMA-BAYH 08?

KMBC-TV is reporting:

Bumper Sticker Could Indicate Bayh Is Obama’s Veep

View the Video

LENEXA, Kan. — After weeks of speculation and days of intense rumors, the answer to who Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would name as his running mate may have come down to a bumper sticker printed in Lenexa.

KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney reported that the company, which specializes in political literature, has been printing Obama-Bayh material. That’s Bayh as in U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. Word leaked out about the material as it was being printed up by Gill Studios of Lenexa. The Obama campaign had said it would make the announcement by text message on Friday.

Gill Studios, would not confirm information about the material. They would not deny it either. The company president would not comment when asked by Mahoney about the reports. But at least three sources close to the plant’s operations reported the Obama-Bayh material was being produced.

Bayh has a reputation as a fiscally conservative Democrat. Bayh endorsed Hillary Clinton and it is believed that he could help the Obama ticket by delivering a key battleground state.

[UPDATE: That turned out to be pure speculation. It’s Biden]

Who would have thought!?!

Can this be good news for McCain and the GOP?

Susan Eisenhower has given up on the GOP. In an essay posted at The National Interest she has aired her disgust with the GOP’s direction and the McCain campaign on foreign and domestic issues ….. the “party has lost its way.”

Reflections on Leaving the Party

Among the reasons for her decision:

 – “The GOP [is] a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.”

 – “..as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

 – ..“the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove-style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win?”

I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year. This was not an endorsement of the Democratic platform, nor was it a slap in the face to the Republican Party. It was an expression of support specifically for Senator Barack Obama.

I had always intended to go back to party ranks after the election and work with my many dedicated friends and colleagues to help reshape the GOP, especially in the foreign-policy arena. But I now know I will be more effective focusing on our national and international problems than I will be in trying to reinvigorate a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.”

And now, as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security. At the same time, the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove-style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win?

This week, I changed my registration from Republican to independent. The two political parties as they exist today, and the partisanship that they foster, reflect the many fights of the cold war, the Vietnam era, the post-cold war and the 9/11 periods. Today we are in a different place altogether, where our security as a nation is challenged not just from abroad but also close to home. The energy, health-care and financial crises threaten our national prosperity and well-being, just as surely as any confrontation overseas or an attack by radical terrorists.

[.]

As an independent I will now feel comfortable supporting people of any political party who reflect those core values.

It was not easy taking this step, since politics, like religion, is something learned on the knee of one’s parents and grandparents. And like anything else inherited, it is imbedded in one’s own identity. This makes leaving even harder.

But there will be some joy for me in my new status since I will be able to speak for myself, and not as a member of a party that has, sadly, lost its way.

(highlights added)

Will other moderates follow?