Fact-esque

Loserman's Lawyer Is Lunch

I haven't had much to say about the Coleman/Franken imbroglio in Minnesota partly because Mark does so much better a job at jabbing him than I could but mostly because it's less a news story than a long-running (almost endless) SNL skit in which Coleman and the GOP prove that they'll pull every shabby trick in the book to "win" an election they've clearly lost. It's funny, it's sad, it sells popcorn. What it doesn't do is allow the people of Minnesota the representation they're supposed to have in Congress, but since when did Republicans care more about their state - or their country for that matter - than they care about winning?

The case is currently in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court because Norm just can't admit that he, you know, like, lost, and the Court seems a little touchy about having its time wasted seeing as how Norm don't have no stinkin evidence of his claims.

Fancy Nancy Does the Dem Hypocrisy Waltz

It would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating. Nancy Pelosi is wagging her finger at Bush for "doing nothing about home foreclosures" after not so long ago helping Veep-to-be Biden push through the bankruptcy bill that created almost twice as many foreclosures as there would otherwise have been.

House Speaker  Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that the Bush administration must do more to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes before Congress will agree to release any more money tothe Treasury Department's financial system bailout effort, which is running low on cash.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the White House has "totally ignored" Democratic demands to stem the rising tide of home foreclosures, one of the fundamental goals of the $700 billion rescue program. So far, the Treasury has spent $335 billion, leaving it with only $15 billion of the first installment of the money.

The hypocrisy is breath-taking, a level we thought we'd never see again once the Bushies were gone. But never fear. Nancy is here.

Don't Miss This

Watch this slideshow from Obama's last 2008 campaign rally in Virginia.   The photos were taken by Nida Vidutis, who deserves some kind of award, and posted on Flickr.  Warning: you're gonna cry :)  (via April Winchell and Ezra)

DLC to Obama: Be "Cautious"; Is Obama Listening? (Updated)

I probably don't have to tell you that that's DLC-speak for "ignore the left, pander to the right". Well, with the win in the wind and assuming there won't be the kind of massive election theft we don't believe the GOP is capable of (yet), the Blue Dog right-wing ideologues of the DLC are already rushing to give Obama notes on how not to move toward the people who are electing him. 

William Galston, who David Sirota calls "one of the ideological leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council", has rushed to print this advice (in the New Republic) on the very day the reality-based left wing majority is electing America's first black president.

The good news is that the terms of his victory likely will have left him some room to maneuver. The not-so-good news is that expectations are sky-high and that some of his supporters will press him to throw caution to the wind and emulate FDR's first 100 days, or LBJ's feverish legislative pace in 1965 and 1966. This is a temptation Obama would do well to resist. Despite today's crisis environment, there are economic and political limits to government activism that the president-elect will ignore at his peril.

***

[Obama's] investment agenda (as distinct from the stimulus package) does represent an addition to the long-term spending baseline. The risk is that at some point, the rest of the world will become less willing to finance an orgy of American deficit spending and will demand higher interest rates, which could torpedo prospects for sustainable growth. The new administration will have to judge where that point is and be willing to change course if its first guess about the tolerance of global lenders turns out to be wrong.

***

[T]he people will expect Democrats to act as a governing majority. That means agreeing on an agenda for the first two years and then getting it done. The more ambitious the agenda, the more likely it is to fall victim to entrenched political realities, and failing to strike a workable balance between ambition and political feasibility would invite a repetition of the 1994 mid-term disaster that left Bill Clinton on the defensive for the remainder of his presidency.

This is, as Sirota points out, Blue Dog conservative code for "do what the corporations want you to do and don't scare them with any lefty-liberal nonsense about fair wages and lots of spending on those lazy welfare bums".

Breaking: Rain Drives McCain from PA, Phillies and Rays from Field - Obama and 9,000 Supporters Brave Elements

From the battleground commonwealth of unauditable voting machines, Pennsylvania:

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) -- Barack Obama carried on Tuesday with an outdoor rally at Widener University, outside Philadelphia, despite a cold, steady rain that made the temperature feel freezing.

About 9,000 people came out to hear the presidential contender. They stood in mud.

"I just want all of you to know that if we see this kind of dedication on Election Day, there is no way that we're not going to bring change to America," Obama told the shivering crowd.

The weather was so miserable that Obama's rival, Republican John McCain, canceled a rally 50 miles north in Quakertown - hardly insignificant, given the dwindling campaign time.

Even Major League Baseball suspended the fifth game of the World Series in Philadelphia because of the same wet conditions Monday night, a first in the history of the baseball championship.

The weather forecast for Election Day is sunny and in the sixties.

Election Psychosis

Larry David has it and so do I.

Assuming November 4th ever comes, my big decision won't be where I'll be watching the returns, but if I'll be watching. I believe I have big jinx potential and may have actually cost the Dems the last two elections. I know I've jinxed sporting events. When my teams are losing and I want them to make a comeback, all I have to do is leave the room. Works every time. So if I do watch, I'll do it alone. I can't subject other people to me in my current condition. I just don't like what I've turned into -- and frankly I wasn't that crazy about me even before the turn. This election is having the same effect on me as marijuana. All of my worst qualities have been exacerbated. I'm paranoid, obsessive, nervous, and totally mental. It's one long, intense, bad trip. I need to come down. Soon.

"We Are the Organization that Challenges the Administration 365 Days a Year, to be Fair and Just"

Got That Right

That One

Uncommitted voters at this point?  Feh.

Debate notes below the fold.

Update: It just occurred to me that Obama should have agreed to that series of town hall debates that McCain is always whining about.  The strenuous format (standing up, walking) clearly favors youth.

Palin's Secret Advantage

Via the Guardian, here's a bit of the now trademark Palin gibberish.  I'm posting it because reading it made me realize that my functioning brain processed the nonsense into something that, while not making sense exactly, wasn't as inane as what she actually said. 

"Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backward again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I'm glad you did.  I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? ... My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School , you get extra credit for watching the debate."

Functioning brains are biased for Palin because, I guess, they can't believe that anyone running for high office can be that inarticulate.  Eight (sob) years of BushCo haven't done it.  Maybe eight years of McCain/Palin will.   So, you know, bright side!