Birmingham Blues

Del passed on this piece of nuttiness, to which I linked below.  The poster apparently believes that Obama’s family in Kenya has enlisted the occult to ensure his victory in the presidential election.  He quotes an email forwarded to him by some other guy and written by some woman who heard a message from some other woman who claims she traveled to Kenya to visit Obama’s “home village”.  Never mind that he was born in Hawaii.  The poster attempts to establish Woman #1’s credibility as follows:

[She] is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington State.  She is also a member of EndTime Handmaidens and Servants of Jasper, Arkansas.

Oh, okay.  I will henceforth swallow every crazy accusation pearl of wisdom and truth that she types as she paraphrases a message she received from a “young evangelist” who apparently went to Kenya to tell the Christians there that they’re doing it wrong.  Does this remind anyone else of the Telephone Game?

However, after seeing this at Shakesville, I must admit that there may be a kernel of truth here:

The occultists are “weaving lazy 8’s around McCain’s mind to make him look confused and like an idiot”.

Ah well…at least he has someone to blame.

I know it’s almost heresy for a political junkie to say this, but I will be so damn glad when this election is over.  John McCain’s slide in the polls has brought even more crazies out of the woodwork.  When I hear people insist that an Obama victory will mean imposition of Sharia law, when they fear a takeover by “the blacks” (as if people of color are a monolith), when the new meme making the rounds in wingnut circles is “Obama couldn’t pass a background check”  — including this dude, who, I shit you not, gets all on his high horse and says he prefers his presidents to be “drug free for a lifetime” ( I wonder if he voted for GWB) — I almost despair for my country.

I also wonder whether any of these people will reconsider their rhetoric after the election when, assuming Obama wins, he turns out not to be a one-man al-Qaeda sleeper cell, when Sharia law isn’t, after all, imposed, when Bill Ayers doesn’t get a top spot in the administration, when the economy starts to improve and the rest of the world stops looking at us askance.  In short, when he turns out not to be the anti-Christ they want to paint him.

Nah.  The regular right-wingers will scream for four years about Acorn “fraud”, and the religious nuts will just move the dates forward on their end times predictions.  Same song, different verse.  They’ll just turn their attention from sliming a candidate to sliming a president.  Those of us who lived through the 90s will recognize the tune.

Now I’ve really depressed myself.  *sigh*

Who needs to rig the voting machines when suppression works so well?

Eligible Alabama voters are being wrongly denied the right to cast a ballot in the coming election because of the way Gov. Bob Riley’s administration defines a crime of moral turpitude, state court administrators said Wednesday.

The Administrative Office of Courts sent a memo Tuesday to county probate judges, sheriffs and circuit clerks saying that people who should be allowed to vote have been stricken from the voter rolls based on information from Riley’s administration over which felony convictions bar people from voting.

AOC Director Callie Dietz and Legal Director Griffin Sikes Jr. told election officials that they hoped the memo would help them identify people who have been wrongly denied their right to vote during the past 18 months and notify them that they are eligible to vote Nov. 4.

Alabama law says people convicted of felonies “involving moral turpitude” are barred from voting unless they have their rights restored.  Those convicted of other felonies don’t lose their voting rights and don’t have to jump through any hoops to have them “restored”.  Here’s the problem: the governor’s office determined that 480 out of the 575 felonies defined under state law involve moral turpitude.  The AOC begs to differ:

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I’ve been hearing this meme in the media, and from Sarah Palin’s own mouth.  She appeals to working class voters because she’s one of them! Really?  Not so much.  The AP has finally noticed that the Palins aren’t exactly hurting financially, something that should have come up before now.

Brett Blackedge continues to build on the investigative piece that Del highlighted on Sunday, in which he pointed out that the Palins sold their house on Lake Wasilla in 2002 for $327,000 because they were building a new lakefront house a couple of miles away.  From today’s story:

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Well, sort of…

Tina Fey’s response to the bailout question is almost verbatim what Palin actually said.  Irony is on life support.

Sarah Palin has suddenly remembered that she accepted campaign contributions from a couple of Alaska politicians who have since been charged with corruption.  The corruption she pledged to fight when she was elected governor.  I guess it must have slipped her mind that Alaska state Senator John Cowdery (R) donated $1,000 to her gubernatorial campaign, even though she did remember to tell him he should “step down, for the good of the state” after his July indictment.  She also forgot about the check from former Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch (R), who is awaiting trial.  Now that the AP has pointed all this out to her, she is donating the money to charity.

You know what?  This is the focus of the headline and most of the linked article, but it’s not what really irks me.  This is:

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Literally.  This certainly gives a different twist to the Republicans’ chant of “Drill, baby, drill.”  I’m just sayin’.

We had a bit of down time today, as we were unable to login to post anything new.  After spending many hours poring over threads in the WordPress support forum, I think (hope) that I’ve fixed the problem.

Two things that tickled my fancy today:

On the way to work, I heard a snippet of John McCain’s acceptance speech where he said, “And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming.”  Okay, am I confused, or is McCain?  He does remember that he’s running as a Republican, right?  And that he’s been in Washington since 1982?  Sounds to me like he dissed his own party, and himself, big time.

Yesterday, Del sent me a post by an Alaska blogger detailing Sarah Palin’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request for emails sent by two of her aides.  She claimed executive privilege for some of the emails despite releasing logs that showed her husband was included on the distribution list.  Seems to me giving access to a private citizen might just negate a later claim of privilege, but that didn’t stop her from trying.  Gee, does this sound like anyone we know?  This morning Del sends me a link to a Salon piece entitled “Sarah Palin’s Real Soul Mate,” who would be none other than Mister Executive Privilege himself, George W. Bush.

Oh, goody.  Just what we need.

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Let me be clear, lest anyone misunderstand.  I have no problem with Palin talking shop with her spouse.  Who doesn’t?  But when he (a private citizen, remember?) is copied on emails that are later withheld from the public, something smells.  And it doesn’t smell like the transparent government she championed when she ran for office.

Hmmm. Sounds like the Republican elite might not be that excited about Sarah Palin.

h/t Katharine in comments; Chet has a transcript at Shakesville

From the New York Times:

Two years after Representative Newt Gingrich helped draft the Contract With America to advance Republican positions, Ms. Palin and her passion for Republican ideology and religious faith overtook a town known for a wide libertarian streak and for helping start the Iditarod sled dog race.

“Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. “But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first Christian mayor.’ ”

“I thought: ‘Holy cow, what’s happening here? Does that mean she thinks I’m Jewish or Islamic?’ ” recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran…

Religious litmus test?  Check.

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support.

Firing people who won’t toe the party line?  Check.

[Palin defeated the incumbent mayor of Wasilla, a non-partisan who holds a degree in public administration.]  Once in office, Ms. Palin asked many of Mr. Stein’s backers to resign — something virtually unheard of in Wasilla in past elections. The public works director, city planner, museum director and others were forced out. The police chief, Irl Stambaugh, was later fired outright.

Purging government of experienced professionals in favor of party hacks?  Check.

It’s George W. Bush redux.  Oh well, at least she’s a good fit with McCain.