We already voted. And yes, Republican Robocall, I have been on the lookout for last minute lies and distortions, like your presidential campaign has put out.

Geebus, could someone this session get a bill passed banning these infernal things already? The “but they are effective and cheap” argument kind of breaks down when they are calling households in a largely vote by mail state over the last weekend.

Everyone hates Robocall, (except the politicians on both sides who are too chicken to ban them.) It’s not a protected First Amendment right to use equipment and a service I’ve paid for to telephone spam our household. They serve little informational purpose, as non-inflammatory ones have little time for anything but broad brush strokes, and inflammatory ones serve no purpose but to um, inflame.

Die Robocall, die. I’ll get my movie listings from the Toobz.

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

From National Post:

A Quebec comedy duo notorious for pulling prank calls on celebrities have struck again. This time, comedian Marc Antoine Audette and Sebastian Trudel Audette, known as the Masked Avengers, tricked Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin into believing that she was speaking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

—snip—

Throughout the interview Audette drops hints that he’s not who he claims to be. He names popular French singer Johnny Hallyday as his advisor on U.S. affairs and Quebec singer Stef Carse was named as Canada’s Prime Minister.

“We have such great respect for you [Sarkozy], John and I,” she gushed.

Later in the interview, Audette, jokes that he and Palin shared an interest in common, hunting.

“We should try hunting by helicopter like you did, I never did that,” Audette said.

“We could have a lot of fun together while we’re getting work done. Kill two birds with one stone,” Palin replied.

I couldn’t stand to listen to more than about the first thirty seconds.

If you must, it’s up at Eschaton. And probably all other corners of the Toobz.

There is now nothing left to be said about this woman.

Maybe I’m being too sanguine, but I kind of wonder if stuff like this is really going to matter as much as it did in the past. Columbian reporter Michael Andersen has this article this morning:

For the second time in four years, would-be casino developer David Barnett is dropping tens of thousands of last-minute dollars to stop Tom Mielke from becoming a Clark County commissioner.

On Wednesday, a Seattle-based company owned by Barnett bought $59,000 in mailers opposing Mielke, state records show.

—snip—

Last week, the county Republican Party, boosted by a big donation from the local Building Industry Association, dropped $41,800 in a sharp anti-Brokaw mailing and TV campaign.

Mielke’s direct donations include $7,500 from La Center’s four existing casinos, which have long opposed a larger tribal operation nearby.

Things will change somewhat next cycle, as a sidebar to Andersen’s piece points out, if Clark County continues to have over 200,000 registered voters. That would result in the triggering of contribution limits. It won’t do anything about independent expenditures, though, so I guess this sort of thing will likely continue in the future.

Another thing in Andersen’s article: something like half the ballots have already been returned, so the folks who can afford to drop wads of cash at the last minute are seeing a diminished return.

I don’t know of a Constitutional way to deal with independent expenditures, but it sure gets old. Neither the BIAW nor Dave Barnett have the interests of the entire citizenry at heart. It’s just a game to them, if admittedly a game involving the mountains of money they hope to make by influencing public policy. Meanwhile, the regular old Joe (is everyone named Joe?) watches as his community struggles to pay for basic services like parks, roads and public safety. Maybe voting in large numbers will help.

Haunted Mansion at Disneyland last week. They do a “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme this time of year. Photo credit to my wife.

Happy processed sugar, kids.

Is state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, turning his back on Padawan protégé and House candidate Joseph James in the 17th LD?

So hard to learn how to deceive without getting caught red handed, it is. Yes, hmmm.

Apparently internal Democratic polling has challenger George Fearing within five points of incumbent Congressman and lump of coal Doc Hastings, R-Pasco. Read more about it at McCranium.

Also, the General reminds us how Hastings did the bidding of Tom Delay when he was on the House Ethics Committee. There was a fine moment in the history of ethics.

If Republicans wish to accuse us of wishing to settle old scores and rub salt in their wounds, well, they would be correct. The perfidy of the last eight years is more than ample justification to throw the lot of them out of every office we can.

The mind simply boggles at the thought of Doc Hastings having to defend his district.

If you would like to provide, say, $25 worth of salt in the form of a last minute television ad, click here. (Yeah, supposedly cable spots over there are just incredibly cheap. More salt for your buck.)

Looks like even long-time Republican incumbents are really feeling the heat. So what should Republicans do? In the case of struggling state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, the answer is predictable. Just lie.Senate Republicans Thursday accused Democrat David Carrier of violating state campaign finance laws by receiving $40,000 more from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee over the past two weeks than the law allows his campaign to accept.

But Carrier, who is running to unseat Republican Sen. Don Benton, denied the charge, calling it “a complete lie.”

“What they’re trying to do is create the appearance of inappropriate activity that isn’t there,” he said.

And what exactly was the heinous crime that has the senate Republicans so exorcised?

Chris Gregorich, executive director of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said the committee’s contributions remain well within the limit.

As of Thursday, he said, the Carrier campaign reported $31,070 in in-kind contributions and $14,000 in cash from the committee, for a total of $45,070.

Gregorich said the committee wrote a $30,000 check to the Carrier campaign on Oct. 12 that would have put the campaign over the legal limit. But he said the check was written in error by the committee’s treasurer and later destroyed.

Pass the smelling salts. Now the GOP Party is complaining about stuff that didn’t actually happen. It stretches credulity to believe that Senate Republicans actually believed their Democratic counterparts would violate contribution limits by $40,000. I mean, wisecracks aside, these are professional campaign operatives on both sides.

Besides, the voters could give a rip, especially right now. Little things like retirement funds and jobs are weighing a wee bit more on people’s minds than manufactured Republican outrage. But Republicans are always the victims, you know. It couldn’t possibly be that Republicans generally have few positive ideas and people are finally seeing through their boilerplate platitudes about taxes.

And with the PDC complaint coming on behalf of a special interest glutton like Benton, the whole kerfuffle is nothing but a last-weekend smear aimed to the GOP Party base. Like we’ve never seen this play before.

If nothing else it was good to see Carrier call them out on their lie. He’s one to watch.

Here’s hoping Carrier gets added to the list of incredibly pleasant surprises come Tuesday.

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

From Iowa State Daily:

Elborno said after seeing the people who were asked to leave, she was concerned that McCain’s staffers were profiling people on appearance to determine who might be a potential protester.

“When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked,” Elborno said. “It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic.”

Elborno said even McCain supporters were among those being asked to leave.

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

So you think that girl is going to continue to vote for Republicans?

McPalin is alienating an entire generation with their abusive, paranoid style. Four years ago at Shrub rallies you at least had to possess something terrorist-related like a Democratic tee shirt. Now you just have to look like you might want to vote for Obama.

Truly unbelievable. Let’s hope we can put a permanent end to this iteration of the institution known as the Republican Party. They have not one redeeming feature as a major political party. If they get their clocks cleaned as we all hope, when the inevitable “what went wrong” discussions start in earnest, honest grass roots Republicans are going to need to point out that the first step is to stop being lying, paranoid, vicious morons who throw their own supporters out of rallies.

Or, you know, honest Republicans can come on over to the big Democratic tent. Friendly discussions about the appropriate marginal tax rate can be held among fellow citizens of good will. If one truly believes a certain rate is too high, we can investigate it, listen to economists argue, and legislate it and so on. That’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s called governing.

(Props to Atrios.)

The reason the BIAW campaign Dino Rossi campaign for governor didn’t let Goldy and Josh in to cover their press conference yesterday is because Goldy and Josh are probably Nazi communists. Who can forget this gem from the March issue of the BIAW newsletter, which Goldy had a great deal of fun with?

What environmentalists offer today, instead of the racist German National Socialism that defined the Nazi party, is an international environmental socialism, an amalgam of Nazism and communism—an international environmental socialism with a centralized planning scheme. But this amalgam is increasingly at odds with itself, causing a rift within the environmental lobby, with builders caught in the middle.

The issue really isn’t about name-calling, it’s about the constant inaccuracy of the right wing. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would try to shoehorn mainstream environmentalism into a made-up box called “an amalgam of Nazism and communism.” But they do it anyway, with any idea that strikes them as even faintly liberal, from tax policy to social policy to foreign policy, from the BIAW to the RNC to Sam the Non-Plumber.

I can never decide if it’s entirely deliberate, or if these people are just so profoundly ignorant of history they simply cannot express themselves clearly. At any rate, a vote for Dino Rossi is an endorsement of the inaccurate and inflammatory baloney being peddled at all levels of the Republican Party right now. It’s all they have left, you Swedish Islamo-Nazi-Liberal-Fascist Meatballs.

It’s something you did. At times it actually was about peace and love, although it may seem strange now.

Then some people did bad things before you were born, and therefore you are all Marxists. Sins of the father you know.

If NRO, the Doughy Pantload and Eric Earling should last for a thousand years, people on the right will still babble: you are all dirty fucking hippies.

Luckily our finest hour is very nearly upon us. Never before have so many contributed to the defeat of so few.

What time Friday do you think the bin Laden tape will show up?

One of my favorite right wing maneuvers involves pleas for “civility” in politics. Once the righties figure out the nastiness isn’t working and they are likely to lose, some of them start insisting that the problem is a lack of civility. It’s all so utterly predictable, it strikes me as funny.

Case in point: Columbian reporter Michael Andersen has an article today about a Clark County businessman named Andrew Deal who has set up a web site urging civility in politics. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, and never mind the same dude did the same thing four years ago, to not much effect if the truth be known.  But Deal makes a claim in today’s article that bears some scrutiny:

“Four years ago, the story was about how 58 percent of the population was worried that we’d end up in court again,” said Deal, who organized a similar event in 2004. “This time, it’s 60 percent of people think that widespread voter fraud is likely.”

And now let’s go to The Google and see what we find regarding that claim about voter fraud. Hmmm. The top hit is from, of all things, Fox Noise on Oct. 22:

Most Americans think there will be extensive voter fraud in the upcoming presidential election. A FOX News poll released Wednesday shows 60 percent think it is either “very” likely, 28 percent, or “somewhat” likely, 32 percent, there will be widespread fraud in voting this year, and 35 percent think it is unlikely.

Yeah, um, okay. Since a lot of the article is about bashing ACORN, it’s pretty hard to take it seriously.

And that, my friends, is how unsubstantiated right wing bullshit gets catapulted out into the wider world, following a direct line from Drudge to Fox Noise and on down.

What’s hilarious, or pathetic actually, is that Deal’s firm, CGI Productions, is listed as being responsible for “web application development” at the bottom of the Clark County Republican Party web page.

That would be the same Clark County Republicans who, in January, felt free to post the infamous “Obama is a Muslim” smear on their web site.

I guess “civility” is all about being nice to Republicans, and letting them hate and lie to their little hearts’ content.

Dear McPalin and others pushing this absurd nonsense: please define your terms. Here’s a dictionary definition of socialism: (you can go here and look it up at Merriam-Webster yourself if you want.)

1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

Yeah, we have to resort to publishing the dictionary definition because nobody even knows what kind of socialism we’re all supposedly pushing by hoping for a small adjustment in marginal income tax rates.

Might be a fun thing for people who get paid to write news articles to examine, since the “s” word is being thrown about on the cable tee-vee every five minutes or so.

Are Democrats in favor of the kind of “socialism” that provides very safe luxury automobiles, really fun kids toys and furniture you can put together with a hex wrench, or the kind of socialism where the urban populations are all forcibly removed to the countryside to work on the farms while Culture is Revolutionized?

‘Cause, you know, there’s a difference. If anyone actually cares.

I thought hating on France was idiotic, but hating on Sweden takes things to a whole new level. I’m pretty sure that any day now the McPalin supporters will demand the name of a popular Swedish food item be changed to “Freedom Balls.”

The stupid, it really does burn. Define your terms, McPalin, if you can.

From Roll Call’s article about the WA-08 race between Democratic challenger Darcy Burner and Republican incumbent Dave Reichert, R-Wash.:

Burner said Reichert’s advertising firm, Media Plus, has made what she alleges amounts to an illegal loan of as much as $1 million to buy airtime in this last week before Election Day.

“From my perspective, when they are breaking the law and then use that money to go up on television to say that I don’t have a degree that I did in fact earn, do I think it’s getting nasty? Absolutely. But not on our side,” Burner said. “They will do anything to hold onto this seat, and they don’t care about the law or the truth.”

There’s still (barely) time to throw in one last bit of turkee to help Burner counter this ridiculous and deceptive bit of Seattle Times/RNC/Reichert bullshit. Democrats are hopeful of having a big night in one week, and Republicans are desperate to hang on to WA-08 as their potential losses pile up. Darcy has done as much as anyone to challenge the Bush status quo and having her break their back by defeating Reichert would be incredibly sweet.

I know everyone is probably pretty tapped out, but if you can, go visit Darcy. As we’ve seen, every small contribution adds up, and I’m guessing last minute media purchases are vital as this race goes down to the wire. Don’t mean to be theatrical, but if you’re going to donate one last time to Burner, do it this instant.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton utterly dismantled Fox Noise political operative Megyn Kelly in the clip above. Priceless. And surreal. Is there anyone in this country who still believes some hairdo chanting “fair and balanced” means Fox is actually fair and balanced? Talk about doublespeak. Her efforts to shake Burton were another EPIC FAIL, just like everything else the McCain campaign has tried.

I don’t know how these Fox Noise employees can lie so repeatedly without shame, but that’s what they do. They’re not journalists, they’re paid political prostitutes. There’s no reason for an Obama administration, should he keep his lead and win, to give them wide access any more than they would give wide access to a supermarket tabloid or Hollywood gossip show. Covering the White House comes with a certain amount of professional integrity, which Fox Noise employees clearly lack. (Like duh, or they wouldn’t work for Fox Noise.) Frankly, the National Enquirer has more journalistic bona fides than Fox Noise, come to think about it.

Change is coming. There are many serious problems facing this country, but I’d imagine Congress could make time for hearings on media oligarchies at some point. I’d like to see this sorry episode played for some Fox Noise executives, perhaps they could enlighten some members on how this sort of blatant campaigning for John McCain constitutes journalism.

And no, pointing at the “EM ESS EM” and bleating “liberal bias” isn’t going to cut it any more. The truth hurts, and the truth is biased, as they say. All the lies, all the corruption, all the incessant demagoguery and nastiness that is the modern Republican Party has now caught up with what was once the party of Lincoln, leaving it and its allies exposed to face the full wrath of the American voting public.

And yes, News Corpse is entitled to First Amendment protection, just like supermarket tabloids and gossip shows. You can basically spew any old nonsense that strikes your fancy when it comes to public figures. That doesn’t mean anyone else in the traditional media or government has to treat Fox Noise and Rupert Murdoch’s little stable of hacks at the Wall Street Journal editorial page with anything but the contempt they so richly deserve.

It’s all one big top-down Republican media machine, and while they’re pressing all the levers marked “scary” and “socialist” and such, it’s not working. That’s why they’re so frightened and angry. One can only imagine the self-loathing some of these MiniTru workers must feel as the Ponzi scheme and the big con game fall apart at the same moment in history.

The Fox Wall is threatening to come down on their sorry apparatchik heads. Time to head for the dachas and party like it’s 1991.

(Props to Jed L. at Daily Kos for catching the video.)