BAILOUT FAILS TO PASS THE HOUSE

House Rejects Bailout Package, 228-205; Stocks Plunge

SNL, round two: "Katie, I'd like to use one of my life-lines."

Tina Fey reprises her brilliant role as Sarah Palin. Stick with it to the half way mark, when it starts to get amazing. I totally LOL'd.

The Tax Foundation finds errors by both candidates during first debate

"Although the first debate was originally supposed to be about foreign policy, due to the current financial situation in the United States, the economy was the issue for the first half hour of the debate. In the economic portion of the debate, both Sens. Obama and McCain made some statements about taxes that played somewhat loose with the facts. Let's take a look at a few of these courtesy of CNN's transcript"...

JUMP

"You're absolutely right, John."

Perhaps the first time a candidate has accused another candidate of being too agreeable.

Obama disagrees with McCain on HUGE, over-arching policy issues, so clipping together sound bytes of Obama being polite during the debate makes what point, exactly?

Levis joins the money throw-down to support the gays/gayelles

"Levi Strauss and Co. is joining the battle to strike down California's discriminatory Prop 8, which seeks to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry.

The forward-thinking jean company had donated $25,000 to Equality for All, the coalition leading the No On 8 campaign.

In doing so, Levi's continues its tradition of civil rights support. In the 1940s, the company ceased the practice of segregation within its factories and more recently the company was one of the first Fortune 500 company to offer health benefits to the domestic partners of its unmarried employees".

perez hilton

lolcat duznt undrstan wy looke allmos sayme heiyt duhring debayte

Barack Obama: 6'1"
John McCain: 5'7"

Paul Newman dies of cancer at 83

I've had this picture above my desk for the last couple of weeks that I tore out of last month's Vanity Fair--it's of Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward in 1963.

Great actor, great man.

Click here for a link to a wonderful audio slideshow from the new york times.

McCain back on for debate

The New York Times reports:

Senator John McCain’s campaign said Friday morning that he will attend tonight’s debate with Senator Barack Obama at the University of Mississippi, reversing his earlier call to postpone the debate so he could participate in the Congressional negotiations over the $700 billion bailout plan for financial firms.
Moments after Senator McCain ended several of days of suspense and announced that he would participate in the debate after all, the doors of his campaign plane were opened and the steps were down, as Mr. Obama’s 757 idled nearby on the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, according to a pool report. Both planes were set to arrive in Memphis on Friday afternoon.

National Review calls for Palin to pull out

Even the National Review is calling Palin out as an inappropriate possible-president.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

obviously I have never felt the same way about Palin as this republican journalist has. but i would have no objection to her pulling out of the race:

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability....

...Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

full article

UUUhhhhh, MCCAIN-FEINGOLD, MAYBE???

so, Katie Couric, the soft-ball lobbing tv journalist if ever there was one, asks Sarah Palin to provide a specific example of when McCain has pushed for more regulation in the last 26 years. and she says,

"I'll try to find some and bring them to you".

as opposed to mentioning that one bill that had a bigger impact than any other single thing that mccain has done in his entire career, and also happened to be one of the biggest reforms of campaign financing (via REGULATION) ever.

The best part about watching this video for me was, thinking back to 2002, the year that McCain-Feingold was made into a law, when I was but a sophomore in high school, working for Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) on her student advisory board, writing a report on the bill. I knew more about McCain-Feingold in the year when I still wasn't allowed to have a boy in my room with the door closed, than Sarah Palin knows NOW. And I think my cat may have actually been to more states/countries than her. Okay that last part was an exaggeration, but it comes pretty close.

click HERE for the clip.

The Biggest Load of Political Bulls**t I've Heard Since Bush said FEMA was doing a good job with Katrina

So I'm actually grateful to McCain for this week. He did something even more transparently politicky than taking an inexperienced nutjob of a backwoods Alaskan woman as his VP pick in order to fire up those bible-thumpin, rifle-totin' GOPers/steal attention and momentum from Obama.

McCain suspended his campaign in order to fly to D.C. where he is "needed" to help solve the financial crisis. Included in this suspension is a possible no-show for the highly anticipated first debate with Obama.

Please keep in mind:

(A) McCain is not even on the committee that is dealing with the issue
(B) McCain's financial background/expertise is pretty much zilch.
(C) McCain is the most absent Senator of the 110th Congress, having missed 64% of the votes since January 2007 (more than Tim Johnson, who um, had a stroke) (Washington Post).
(D) He tanked in the polls this week. concidence?
(E) Congressional lawmakers came to terms on the bailout package today, several hours before McCain finished his speech at teh Clinton Global Initiative and flew to Washington to rescue the American Economy (NY Times).
(F) McCain's "suspension" saved him $1 million dollars in ads, and generated a shitload of earned media. ie., he didn't stop campaigning, he merely stopped paying for tv time (huffington post).
(G) As of Friday morning, 12:17 AM PST, the McCain camp still hasn't announced whether or not he will debate Obama Friday night, having declared that the answer depends on the state of the bailout agreement.

In my opinion, this move makes McCain look like a complete idiot. It looks like, not only is he reluctant to debate Obama, but he went about avoiding that debate in one of the most transparent maneuvers I've seen in a loooong time. If I didn't object to the word "pussy" being used as a derogatory term I would TOTALLY CALL HIM ONE.

But, at least I haven't thought about Sarah Palin for like a good 36 hours.

Here's the latest New York Times article about it all.

There's the Bill Clinton we know and love!

It only took Jon Stewart to bring back Bill's charming self.

Why donating to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name isn't a good idea.

"Okay, guys, we've been getting a lot of emails about a campaign to "fight back against the McCain Campaign's hateful policies toward women" by donating to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name. Megan has this to say: "The problem with this idea is that Obama forewent public financing on the basis of relying on donors — big and small — to continue giving him money. If people give the $5 or $10 to PPFA instead and send cards to McCain's office, you're just notifying him how much money Obama is losing. Heck, I wouldn't put it past a Republican operative for starting the chain, especially since it doesn't encourage donations to PPFA's PAC, which can spend the money to run ads about the candidates/reproductive rights, but to the organization itself, which cannot. Please be careful about forwarding this along. If something like this really went viral, it could do a lot of damage." Maybe we should save the donations/cards in case the GOP gets elected?"

(Jezebel)

The Daily Show: The Candidates hold a Generic-Off

What Would Judge Judy Do?

Man I love Judge Judy. This is a clip from her on the View last week, explaining her thoughts on Sarah Palin, among other things. It's especially good because she and Bawbawa are actually friends, so Babs actually seems genuine throughout.

The best part is when JJ is saying that whether or not Palin personally supports embryonic stem cell research should be irrelevant, because it's not her job to enforce that belief on the American people, it's the job of the elected legislators. At which point Hasselcrack kind of mumbles, "well she has a duty to the American people". I don't think JJ heard her, because Babs abruptly changes the subject to avoid JJ laying down the ultimate smackdown on Hasselcrack's dumb Republican ass.






(Jezebel)

Republican Faux-Populism will lose us this election

David Brooks is so right on in this article. What strikes me is his point that it's the liberal reaction to Palin: hatred, fear, snobbery, and condescension that is hurting us. The McCain Campaign will stretch this faux-populism as far as it can go, snatching in independent voters who have been offended by liberal condescension to Palin, who they view as a "regular person".

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the establishment” is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.

Full article on nytimes.com after the jump.
JUMP!

Obama Scoffs at McCain Economic Panel

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times poliblog, The Caucus, writes:

“Instead of offering up concrete plans to solve these issues, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book –- you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem,” Mr. Obama told an audience here. “But here’s the thing – this isn’t 9/11.”

Mr. McCain, in a round of morning television interviews, proposed creating a panel to study the upheaval on Wall Street similar to the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. Such a group, he said, could “get to the bottom of this and get it fixed.”

It’s hard to understand how Senator McCain is going to get us out of this crisis by doing the same things with the same old players,” Mr. Obama told a cheering crowd of about 2,000 people here. “Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn’t offering them more tax cuts.”

full article

One of my favorite Jezebel features: Crappy Hour

The original Wonkette, Ann Marie Cox (no relation :) and Jezebel Megan Carpentier have a classic AIM convo about Bristol Palin's tanning bed, Tucker Bounds being a sado-masochist, and how Republicans don't have any idea what feminism is, but have somehow co-opted the word "sexism" as their own original experience.

ANA MARIE: There's some kind of segue between Julia and this about Tucker Bounds, but I'm still coffee-less, so I'll let you make it. They really need to stop sending the twelve-year-old intern out to the morning shows. Or cable shows, I mean. I think I was thinking "morning show" because he's getting his ass kicked, in all cases, by heavily rougued faux-next-girls! GIRLS!

MEGAN: Actually, the man just needs to, like, fucking prepare before he goes. Your candidate is out lying like he's Dick Cheney or something, you gotta put your big boy panties on just like Ari Fleischer did and take it. I think the real problem is that Tucker Bounds likes getting spanked by hot women.

ANA MARIE: YOU CAN TOTALLY TELL. He totally knows the shit the campaign is trying to pull and just enjoys being called on it. "TELL ME AGAIN HOW WE LIE, CAMPBELL. MAKE IT HURT."

MEGAN: "I know I've been naughty, Megyn. Tell me I've been naughty."

click here for the hilarious full convo.

Michelle Obama is blogging again

Michelle's 2nd ever blog post sums up the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which John McCain is AGAINST. Remember that time that John McCain said that women just need more education and training to close the pay gap? Yah, not voting for him.

Click here to read Michelle's blog.

Jeremiah Wright is to Obama as Phil Gram is to......

MCCAIN!

This Gawker article makes the point that McCain's relationship with Phil Gram might end up hurting him even more than Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright did. Phil Gram is the former senator who happens to be McCain's main economic guru, and who also happens to be a major proponent of predatory lending (i.e., the main cause of this whole "verge of dramatic economic depression thing" that's going on right now).

So the United States is entering financial turmoil, what with all of our banks collapsing and the world's largest insurance company needing a bailout from the State of New York and the stock market tumbling and thousands of fancy jobs on the line. Honestly, though, let's get to the heart of the matter: will this news secretly (or openly!) thrill political partisans? It seems, on its face, that news of Wall Street turmoil helps Senator Barack Obama. And why not? The initial careful ventures into political exploitation of this maybe-catastrophe are already underway. How will it play out?....

Click here for the full article.

Behind-the-scenes fierce-ness

A fantastic behind-the-scenes photo diary of Christian Siriano's show, by his photographer boyfriend, Brad Walsh.


Slide show from Jezebel after the JUMP!

The McCain Campaign's Sacrificial Lamb

Tucker Bounds, the sacrificial aide from the McCain campaign, continued to take beatings from various network anchors. It is such a pleasure to watch journalists do their jobs.


OMG!!! Fox News called out the McCain campaign's lying-ass ads that say, (erroneously) that (1) Obama plans to raise taxes for the middle class, and (2) Obama supported a bill for sex ed for kindergardeners (um, hello! it was a bill about sexual predator education so that kids know not to get in the strange man's car for candy! UGH!). Something is wrong when it takes Fox to call you out on your effing lies.




Campbell Brown goes to town. This one's my favorite. Her mocking smile when he blatantly dodges her questions makes me love her.

Uhhhhhh, SamRo and LiLo are more logical and articulate than the Republican VP Nominee....

Our favorite Gayelles took to Ronson's official blog to write their thoughts on Palin. And most of it is intelligent. WTF?









"I really cannot bite my tongue anymore when it comes to Sarah Palin.

I couldn't be more supportive of a woman in office, but let's face it, it comes down to the person, and their beliefs, male or female.

Is it a sin to be gay? Should it be a sin to be straight? Or to use birth control? Or to have sex before marriage? Or even to have a child out of wedlock?

I find it quite interesting that a woman who now is running to be second in command of the United States, only 4 years ago had aspirations to be a television anchor. Which is probably all she is qualified to be... Also interesting that she got her passport in 2006.. And that she is not fond of environmental protection considering she's FOR drilling for oil in some of our protected land.... Well hey, if she wants to drill for oil, she should DO IT IN HER OWN backyard. This really shows me her complete lack of real preparation to become the second most powerful person in this country."



Jump to the full blog here

Bob Herbert of the NY Times rips S.P. a new one

“Do you believe in the Bush doctrine?” Mr. Gibson asked during the interview. Ms. Palin looked like an unprepared student who wanted nothing so much as to escape this encounter with the school principal.

Clueless, she asked, “In what respect, Charlie?”

“Well, what do you interpret it to be?” said Mr. Gibson.

“His worldview?” asked Ms. Palin.

Later, in the spin zones of cable TV, commentators repeatedly made the point that there are probably very few voters — some specifically mentioned “hockey moms” — who could explain the Bush doctrine. But that’s exactly the reason we have such long and intense campaigns. You want to find the individuals who best understand these issues, who will address them in sophisticated and creative ways that enhance the well-being of the nation.

The Bush doctrine, which flung open the doors to the catastrophe in Iraq, was such a fundamental aspect of the administration’s foreign policy that it staggers the imagination that we could have someone no further than a whisper away from the White House who doesn’t even know what it is.

You can’t imagine that John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman would not know what the Bush doctrine is. But Sarah Palin? Absolutely clueless.

Ms. Palin’s problem is not that she was mayor of a small town or has only been in the Alaska governor’s office a short while. Her problem (and now ours) is that she is not well versed on the critical matters confronting the country at one of the most crucial turning points in its history.

Full article after the jump

Gov. Palin: not so good at reporting all her income on her tax return

The Washington Post wrote last week:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.
The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Jack Bog interprets exactly why this is not okay, in his blog post last Wednesday, entitled, Governor Palin, your tax return, please

Whether these charges were legitimate under Alaska rules and regulations, I haven't a clue. Certainly there are questions about their propriety. (Perhaps we could track down Emilie Boyles and see what she thinks.) But I do know something about the federal income tax consequences of fringe benefits, and it certainly appears to me based on the published reports that some, if not most, of these "per diems" should have been included as income on the Palins' federal income tax return. If they weren't, something's wrong.
"Per diem" allowances received by an employee can legally be omitted from her gross income if they constitute reimbursements for amounts that the employee could have deducted as business expenses had the employee paid for them out-of-pocket and not been reimbursed. Thus, for Palin, the tax question would appear to boil down to whether, had she not been reimbursed for the $60,441 of travel, meals, and lodging expenses, she could have legitimately taken business deductions for them.

It does not appear that such deductions would have been allowable for any amounts attributable to travel by her husband and children. Section 274(m)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code strictly forbids deductions for bringing spouses and dependents along on business travel unless the spouses and dependents (a) are employees of the taxpayer (here, the taxpayer is the governor), (b) are travelling for a bona fide business purpose, and (c) would otherwise be entitled to deduct the travel on their own tax returns. Unless Palin's spouse and kids are also her employees and she can show that they were away on their own businesses, their expenses would not be deductible by the governor. And therefore she cannot exclude from income any per diems attributable to any of them. (By the way, since she's the employee, the income would be required to be reported on her own return, not her kids'.)

As for her own travel, Palin could also run into tax problems. Only travel "away from home" qualifies for tax exclusion (or deduction), and for this purpose, one's "home" is generally the principal place of one's business. In this case, the governor reportedly works out of offices in both Anchorage and Juneau, but since she has only one state job, she can declare only one of those as her tax "home." If Juneau is her tax "home" (which would seem to be the case, since that's the capital), she cannot exclude or deduct meals and lodging expenses incurred in Juneau, and if Anchorage is her tax "home," she cannot exclude or deduct such expenses incurred in Anchorage or Wasilla. If she got per diem reimbursements for stays in both places, stays in only one place would appear to be excludible or deductible. And perhaps more importantly, the cost of regular commuting between one's residence and one's tax "home" is not deductible at all, no matter how long the distance between them; it is certainly possible that Palin's treks between the two locales are simply long-distance commuting for tax purposes.

Kathy Griffin wins another Emmy!

My heroine and/or model for acceptable behavior won another centerpiece for her dining room table yesterday at the Creative Arts ceremony. Good for her. Unfortunately, there was no "Suck it, Jesus" comment this time, since apparently she doesn't want to get pulled from being a presenter next week at the main Primetime show.

"No way!" she gasped in her seat when she heard her name called as winner. Upon arriving at the podium, she gasped, "Well, well, well! Here we go again, f—ers. Here we go again!" Looking around the auditorium, she acknowledged some celebs in the audience, adding, "Hanks, Gandolfini — what the f—! I'm not going to tell anyone to suck it. I would make love to this thing if I could."

video below of her awesome speech last year




(LAT)

In case you missed the Palin/Clinton opener to SNL last night

Christian Siriano ain't no tickety-tack-tranny-mess

So, it turns out, Project Runway has actually produced a designer that is going to be a mogul. Christian Siriano's Spring 2009 collection is gooooorgeous. Click here to view the New York Post's slide show of the collection.

Because who wouldn't want a Sarah Palin wig?

buh. wigsalon.com announced their new line of wigs & hair pieces reflecting the style of Sarah Palin. my birthday is on october 10th folks.

(Gawker)

Sara Benincasa as Sarah Palin

"ya just kidnapped some dogs, I think, is whatcha did."

it almost captures the idiocy.

tax plans, in your face

I think I might just print this sucker out and laminate it, so that every time a GOPer tries to tell me that Obamataxes are going to hurt me as a taxpayer, I can just smack this on their forehead. Srsly. You will pay less taxes under Obama unless you make more that $600,000/year. In which case you need to shut the eff up and help this country with those greenbacks.


(washington post)

Professor Obama is sooo dreamy!

check out this wicked constitutional law exam given by Prof. Obama at the University of Chicago School of Law in 1997. I want Sarah Palin to take it.

Man, this is the time.

So, I've been meaning to start blogging again. And Sarah Palin really inspired me to do so. Her cuckoo-ness lit a fire under my ass to add my 2 cents to the blogosphere. I hope this blog to eventually be a conglomeration of all of the pop-culture goings on that I chew on everyday, but for the next 8 weeks, it will most likely be centered on the Presidential scramble.

I am so scared. I was a Hillary-ite. I believed her to be extremely qualified, extremely smart, and ruthless enough in that Clinton way to get what needed to be done, accomplished. I guess I'm just a bit too cynical to have been able to jump on the Obama train from the start. I viewed him as incredibly inspiring, but I was never convinced that he knew all the dirty tricks that Clinton did. He may know them, but for the most part, he doesn't use them. And I thought that counted him out in the long run. For Democratic voters, it certainly didn't. But now we are 2 months out from the General Election, and those Independent voters will decide this election. Those are the voters who don't necessarily have policy loyalties. They will be voting based on the televised debates and the commercials that run in their respective states. We gotta' get 'em. It is thrilling to be a young person in this country at this moment, because finally my generation has moved beyond apathy. Bush did a bad enough job, that suddenly, we all give a shit. Which is effing awesome.