A good overall summary ad.

This thing is wildly popular, evidently. More funny than anything else, but pretty good overall.

For those of us following the election, it’s become clear McCain’s final strand of hope over the last couple of weeks has been calling Obama a socialist. This tiny, tenuous foothold was given to him by Obama when he said the phrase, “spread the wealth” when talking to the now famous Joe the Plumber.

That’s it. That’s what McCain has at this point. And he’s been trying to ride it all the way to election day.

And it’s also why the following quote, if effectively communicated, equates to the end of McCain’s campaign. Quite simply, McCain was asked at a townhall meeting if it was fair for the rich to pay more in taxes. Here’s was his answer:

When you reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

Outlandish propaganda, right?. Nope. Here’s the video:

He follows it up by saying it shouldn’t be an outrageous difference (it shouldn’t be totally out of proportion), but that’s consistent with Obama’s plan, so he gets absolutely no points there. The bottom line is that the woman accused the concept of a progressive tax policy of being socialist, and John McCain openly refuted it–on video. He essentially made, while being recorded, the exact argument of the Obama campaign.

Oh, and remember when he said he’s never flip-flopped on an issue? Well, this is just about as blatant as it gets. Pass this along so we can expose McCain for the flip-flopping career politician he really is. If enough people see this it will cut the final thread of deception-based hope their campaign has.

Note to the Obama campaign: Do an actual, professional campaign video on this. And encourage the viral spreading of said video. If you get this message out, it’s game over.

Here’s an interesting little web application that will tell you who you’ll save more tax money under — Obama or McCain.

Give it to all your McCain-supporting friends, and ask them why they’re voting for the guy who they (and all their friends) will pay more taxes under.

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

Image from barackobama.com

I’m trying to figure something out. Over at fivethirtyeight.com (a great site, by the way) there is a ton of focus on who currently has most of the electoral votes.

Why?

My understanding of the electoral colleges is that electors are strongly encouraged to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state. So are all these electoral college calculations based on projected wins in the popular vote, followed by the expected, non-surprising electoral votes?

That would make sense, but it doesn’t mesh the other breakdowns on their site that show granular percentages, among electors, for each candidate.

How are they getting those numbers within states if the electors have to wait until the popular vote takes place before they can make their decision? I understand that some states have laws that say you must vote along party lines, so perhaps that’s the answer.

I admit ignorance here, and I’m looking to get this sorted out. It just seems like there’s too much existing knowledge about the electoral voting direction when it’s well known that their decisions hinge on the popular vote for their state.

Can anyone shed light on where fivethirtyeight.com is getting this granular projection information on the electoral college, and why they think it’s so important given the fact that the popular vote is what determins how they vote anyway? I assume they know what they’re doing, so what am I missing?

Image from huffingtonpost.com

Oh goodness. This is too rich.

Sarah Palin, the self-proclaimed championess of cutting waste, has spent over $150,000 on hair, makeup, and clothes in recent months. Hell, $13,000 was spent just on their personal makeup artist…

…just last month.

Palin’s high-paid traveling make-up artist is Amy Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as head of makeup on “So You Think You Can Dance.” Strozzi was paid $13,200 by the McCain-Palin campaign last month alone, according to the campaign’s latest financial disclosure report filed this week. — Washington Post

Keep in mind. The source of this information is the McCain/Palin campaign itself. It’s from their official campaign records.

And Palin’s responsible spending included:

• Two trips to Saks Fifth Avenue for $49,00
• A single trip to Neiman Marcus for $75,000

Let me be clear here. If you still think that McCain and Palin are the plain, honest and fiscally responsible people they’re trying to portray themselves as, after reviewing this information from their own campaign records, then you’re a fucking idiot–and you deserve what you’ll get if they are able to somehow steal the election.

This is no longer funny. It’s now officially a fucking joke. The idea that Palin with her cute little sailor winks could waste this kind of money on her appearance and try to get voted in as a fiscal conservative is absolutely hilarious–in a dead puppy kind of way.

Their supporters, at this point, should officially be ashamed of themselves.:

Image from imageshack.us

A very interesting visualization of both tax plans. Here’s the background, from democraticunderground.com:

There’s a graph that Obama supporters are sending around, showing the differences between the Republican and Democrat tax cut proposals. It shows that Obama is not in fact planning to raise taxes – he’s planning to cut them for all but the very, very rich. I couldn’t help but notice though – the graph is still massively weighted towards the interests of the super-rich.

[snip]

So let’s make this a bit more accurate – let’s keep all the brackets, but draw it to scale.

[ Click to see a full-scale version of the image ]

Image from Viveka Weiley

[ Original Link ]

It’s the facial expressions. They really capture the self-righteous ignorance of this horrible, vile creature. This is a Crusader-mom. She’s the type of person who would back the killing of “those people” (arabs, muslims, etc.) in the name of God. And no, she’s not one of a few.

They are legion.

She’s just one of the more talkative ones. I live among thousands of these people every…single…day.

‘