As we have witnessed these past two elections, republicans and their allies have no line they will not cross to obtain the office of the presidency. Al Gore recieved 500,000 more votes than Bush and ABC news had called the election for Gore, enter the GOP crooks and their allies George Bush is president. All of a sudden there is a controversy in  Florida and Al Gore loses(so says the supreme court) the election by 4 electoral votes but wins popular vote by 500,00 votes. Imagine, if you will, that the republican had lost the election in these circumstances.Imagine that.

Must be an election year.  In June the Orleans and Jefferson Parish Registrars of Voters announced a purge of 100,000 "inactive" voters from the rolls.  This on top of another purge last year that dropped 20,000 from New Orleans rolls.

While some voters purged may indeed have resettled after the storm, purges have been used frequently in Louisiana just before elections for partisan purposes.

Which is why the "mix-up" by the Jefferson Parish GOP Executive Committee, putting (Republican) Parish registrar Dennis DiMarco's name and office address as the sender of a flyer by the state GOP, urging Democrats and Independents to switch parties, smells just a little like fuckery.

In the next issue of TIME magazine, out tomorrow, reporter Michael Scherer reveals -- though this is not exactly a shocker by now -- that John McCain is ready to "play rough"  to win in November.  

In the article (not yet online), titled "A Whole New McCain" -- a full page illustration shows him throwing fastballs from a baseball mound (lefthanded) -- Scherer writes,  "The new McCain is tight and focused. The candidate who once invited all comers onto the back of his bus now hangs a curtain on his campaign plane to prevent reporters from even catching a glimpse. Instead of charm and candor, he serves up fastballs. Instead of risk-taking, he seeks control. It's a whole new McCain ... Despite his backslapping reputation, McCain will play rough if he thinks it will help him win."

TIME, keeping with the baseball theme, calls this "hardball" and "throwing heat."

Now that I have your attention, bear with me.  I cannot for the life of me understand why Barack Obama is not hitting back hard at the McCain camp.  Not negative campaigning, but as Cenk Uygur says, just telling the truth. I also cannot understand why he keeps switching positions on issues like FISA, and offshore drilling.
Remember the terrible advice (or lack thereof) given by consultants and advisers to Al Gore and John Kerry?  The recent exposure of Mary McFate Sapone as an NRA spy who for 10 years infiltrated anti-gun groups, gave them "advice" and reported it all back to the NRA rang a bell.

Hypocrisy, thy name is John McCain.  McCain smears Obama for using the "race card" because Obama called out a dirty trick McCain launched a month ago.

I have no evidence of this.  BUT, isn't it a little bit coincidental that the day after the "race card" comment people show up at Obama's Town Hall meeting heckling him on racial issues?  Someone needs to check into the authenticity of these people, and see if they were a plant paid off by Rove's clowns (clones) who are now running the McCain campaign.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

The dirty tricks have begun and Obama has to come up with faster, better, smarter, more memorable ways to address them or they will become MSM fodder for taking down Obama just like windsurfing and Swift Boats.  And expect more, and worse.

Capt. Morton: [on the loudspeaker in reference to his "missing" palm tree... ] All right! Who did it? Who did it? You are going to stand sweating at those battle stations until someone confesses! It's an insult to the honor of this ship! The symbol of our cargo record has been destroyed and I'm going to find out who did it if it takes all night!

With Emperor George down to his underwear, the Department of State memos this week come across as incredibly petty. One wonders if the other cabinet departments are going to be similarly instructed to throw monkey wrenches once Obama's plane touches back down in the states.

I'm recalling an episode Sister Mary M., O.S.B. told us, about the second protest (1991) at the School of The Americas, Fort Benning, GA.  

Better organized than the first, when the march reached the gates and the guest speakers began prepared remarks, 5 huge tractor lawnmowers came over the hill like Sherman tanks.  The mowers proceeded to ride back and forth inside the fence, for the entire speechifying part of the protest. (The amusing followup is down in the replies)    

My question is "Where in the World Is Donald Segretti?"

Seems a wingnut over in St. Cloud, FL decided to try to tie the Democrats to the World Trade Center tragedy even though it was the Republicans who ignored the warnings that could have stopped it.  So he rented a billboard.  Which you can see on the other side.

I saw this story on Raw Story and immediately it came to mind that we need to Photoshop this thing so that it tells it like it really is.

-- Make the jump --

... and they seem to be wetting themselves with glee at their "discoveries" while doing screen-captures with both hands.

Looks to me as though a bunch of creeps used the personal blogging features of the MyBarackObama website to plant weird, racist and reprehensible personal blogs that call for all manner of vile things under what appears to be the candidate's official imprimatur.

Now, in what looks like a coordinated effort, the usual suspects like Malkin, Little Green Footballs, Powerline and Atlas Shrugs are suddenly discovering all those blogs and publishing their screen captures as though they were the official Obama positions.

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to assume that the right-wing will not go quietly into that political good night.  

Are Republican Operatives Packing the Airwaves?

I've been listening to "Talk of the Nation" on NPR this afternoon and listeners have been calling in claiming to be Clinton supporters who will vote for McCain instead of Obama.  What strikes me so odd about this is that they were spouting Republican talking points.  They're voting for McCain because he has more experience and Obama doesn't.  Paraphrasing they're comments:  "We need the leadership and experience that McCain can provide."  "McCain has the experience in Washington to get through the gridlock that Obama doesn't have."  And they both said, "I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton because she was a woman, but because she was tough enough to get things done."  Or, "I listen to Obama's speeches and the rhetoric sounds great, but later there's nothing there.  It's just words."    Or a Hispanic woman claiming to be from Florida, "He has beautiful rhetoric, but he doesn't have the experience to get things done.  I'm looking at the bigger picture, and McCain has the experience to get things done.  And we're really mad about having our votes taken away in Florida.  Most of my friends feel the same way."    

more after the break.

It is Thursday and as it is traditional the Dog is going to ask a question (after all, dogs are nothing if not creatures of habit, eh?). So, the Dog is wondering, have we (meaning Dems) been played a little this primary cycle? Have we been encouraged to our worst natures, pushed along by those that have no interest in a positive outcome for our party?

At first blush the Dog was disinclined to believe this is possible, but after a little thought there are, at the very least, the structural elements that would be needed to make this kind of subtle trick work very well. Stick with the Dog for a minute here and he’ll detail them for you.

Lanny Davis insists that he is not affiliated with Hillary's campaign, yet he is one of the most prominent advocates of ever-more-convoluted schemes to prop up her numbers.  Who benefits from Davis's efforts, and who is Davis really supporting for President? The answer to both questions is: John McCain.

Hilary Clinton is the author of her own fortunes.

I am not very adept at following stories from one blogg to another and sometimes get lost. But I was following one from TPM on party unity. At the end of the story I saw the below. I do not know where it came from, the blogger said it was from some GOPers. I thought I'd better share this here, as it may explain some of what I've been reading for the past few days, here and other pro Obama sites.

If this is inappropriate, please tell me and I will delete it immediately.

I had hoped that I wouldn't have to write another diary about why -- as a sixty-something feminist -- I nevertheless do not support Hillary Clinton for President.  However, I am not alone amongst smart, thinking elder women; and while I am relieved that Obama will be our candidate, I still believe it is important to go on the record about Hillary and Feminism; for while bias against women remains a problem, that is the least difficulty associated with Hillary's candidacy.

McClatchy has a terrific article out that attempts to find a source for all the Obama smears that have been making the rounds since Barack announced his candidacy for President. Mainly the false assertions that he is a Muslim, attended a Madrassa and that he took his oath of office on the Quran. These "rumors" have long since been debunked, but they continue to pop up in voters responses as to why they won't vote for Obama.

Any one who has visited Facing South, TPM or dailykos is well aware the irregularities surrounding Women' Voices Women's Vote group and the issues surrounding these repetitive violations of not just the law, but of common sense.

Say what you will about the matter: I think Facing South did a great job at revealing the facts..

There is a clear pattern of activity of providing bogus information, as outlined on that diary above. These are not 'tin foil' claims; these involve in many cases either law enforcement or authorized officials inside the Democratic Party structure making statements to try to straighten the messes made by WVWV robo calls.  

Now, we may argue about whether these events that span 12 States, and involve potentially millions of votes already cast were a result of gross incompetence or outright criminality. But one thing is for certain: hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent [if not more] to place robo-calls to people which could not have had the desired effect.

What's this diary about? Take the jump.