Thinking Conservatives: MIAs of the GOP

Paranoid, rage-driven, xenophobic nuts are taking over the Republican Party.

by Rosa Brooks

Studs Terkel, writer and radio personality, dies at 96
The Chicago fixture used his knack for conversation to capture oral histories on World War II, the Great Depression and more.
By Stephanie Simon

Remembering When McCain Was Accused Of Class Warfare

In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, McCain has blasted Obama for engaging in class warfare. But eight years ago, Republicans and conservatives angrily accused McCain of the very same thing.

By David Corn

Sarah Palin speaks on the First Amendment
John McCain's running mate thinks that the Constitution protects political candidates from being criticized by the press.
by Glenn Greenwald

Bush launches last-minute deregulation push

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

Bob Cesca The Mandatory Rejection of Sarah Palin

The truth is that politicians like Sarah Palin are merely manipulating, exploiting and inciting these people. In other words, it's the ignorance, stupid. And next Tuesday, we have a chance to seriously marginalize this darker, uglier side of America.

An Idiot Wind


John McCain's latest attempt to link Barack Obama to extremism

Closing Argument
byJohn Nichols:
Obama presented more than an infomercial Wednesday--it was a compassionate chronicle of the state of the American people and his promise for change.

When filth is not enough
Tom DeLay slimed Obama as a "radical Marxist," but Obama's sweet TV ad, feisty Bill Clinton rally and jokes with Jon Stewart made DeLay look stupid.
by Joan Walsh

How Bush Destroyed The Republican Party
A president driven by ideology. A Congress rife with corruption. A political party hellbent on a "permanent majority." A leading scholar examines the radicals who hijacked the GOP — and wrecked the longest conservative ascendancy in American history
by SEAN WILENTZ

Why Does Sarah Palin Pal Around With Felons?

Just How Dumb Are White Males?

By Robert Scheer —
Let me now defend white males. We can’t possibly be as dumb as the polls showing we are John McCain’s most reliable voting base would indicate.

A Choice and an Echo

by Bob Herbert

The heyday of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove is over. Yet Senator John McCain handed the reins of his campaign to Mr. Rove’s worshipful acolytes.

Todd Palmer and Rob Pringle: In Case You Weren't Scared Enough- Palin on "Fruit Fly Research"

ALASKAN GOP SENATOR GUILTY IN CORRUPTION CASE

Naomi Klein Breaks Down the Bailout

The Rachel Maddow Show
Juan Cole gives Rachel the latest updates on the situation in Iraq.

On Iraq, McCain doesn't have a clue

Despite the impasse in U.S.-Iraq negotiations, he clings to his fantasy of "victory" and America's ability to set the terms for withdrawal.
By Joe Conason

Why the Tax Issue Isn't Working for McCain

by E.J. Dionne

If McCain can’t win the tax argument, given the Republicans’ historical advantage on the issue, it’s hard to see what other argument he can win.

John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight

We Say We Want A Revolution

by Markos Moulitsas
On Nov. 4, Barack Obama will be elected as the next president of the United States. The real excitement won't come from watching that foregone conclusion come to pass. No, the big question is, will Democrats nationwide simply "win" the night—or will they deliver an electoral drubbing so thorough that it signals the utter rejection of conservative ideology and kills the notion that America is a "center-right" country?

Obama's Moment
The Democratic nominee for president talks about how George W. Bush screwed up, why John McCain turned ugly and what he's learned from Bill Clinton.
by ERIC BATES

Blocking The Vote


Rolling Stone Magazine: Block The Vote
Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST

Swiftboat Blues

by Ari Berman

The slumping economy has made GOP smear tactics seem petty and shrill--but they're looking forward to their next shot.

Sarah Palin's RNC Outfit: $7,000 Down, $143,000 to Go!
by Vanity Fair

How does one woman burn through a $150,000 wardrobe budget in just over a month?
Spending at least $7,000 on one outfit is a good start.

Last month, it was reported that the Valentino jacket Sarah Palin wore for her speech at the Republican National Convention cost $2,500. Our source says it cost twice that, and identified the skirt as another Valentino, with a price tag of $1,490. At least Palin saved on her $79 Franco Sartos.

And what would Joe the Plumber make of all these foreign brands? The last Obama T-shirt we saw was made by American Apparel, and Michelle and the girls looked smashing at the D.N.C. in their dresses by Chicago’s own Maria Pinto.

Still, even if you assume that the pearls are real, bringing the grand cost to more than $20,000, Palin’s still got a long way to go to catch up with Cindy McCain!

Desperately Seeking Seriousness

By PAUL KRUGMAN
As the economic scene has darkened, I’d argue, Americans have rediscovered the virtue of seriousness. And this has worked to Mr. Obama’s advantage, because his opponent has run a deeply unserious campaign.

The GOP's Blame-ACORN Game

by Peter Dreier & John Atlas
An increasingly desperate Republican attack machine has recently identified the community organizing group ACORN as Public Enemy Number One.

Alan Shrugged

In a historic moment, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan acknowledged he had been wrong for years to assume that government regulation was bad for markets. Whoops—there goes decades of Ayn Rand down the drain.
By David Corn

Is The Southern Strategy Dead?
by Harold Meyerson
In less than two weeks, we may well see the election in which the Southern Strategy -- the strategic doctrine that has underpinned the rise of the Republican Party over the past four decades -- dies an inglorious death.

New York Times Editorial: Barack Obama For President

Obama's big lead in the polls is real

Democrats are afraid to believe he's really winning. But a pollster explains why those polls that show a tight race should be treated with skepticism.
By Paul Maslin

McCain Banking on a Confederacy of Dunces

By David Sirota —
Is John McCain stupid, or does he believe we are? That’s the question as he criticizes Barack Obama for allegedly trying to “redistribute the wealth” with a plan to lower taxes on the middle class and raise them on the super-rich.

Quote of the day

Democratic strategist James Carville, speaking Friday at a reporters' breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor:

"The reason Republicans are excited about Joe the Plumber is they're glad to have someone hanging around a toilet other than Larry Craig."

Civil War On The Right

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Conservatives are at each other's throats, and here's what's revealing about how divided they are: The critics of John McCain and the critics of Sarah Palin represent entirely different camps.

Bob Cesca: The End of 'Larry the Cable Guy Politics'
Be it Larry the Cable Guy or his Ohio cousin, Joe the Plumber, or their political and spiritual leader, Bushie the Commander Guy, or their newly discovered co-star Sarah the Hockey Mom, it should be obvious to anyone watching that the Republicans have been engaging in a seemingly endless game of dress up, and pretending to be something they're clearly not.

Part II: Are you a Real American?

The Internet and the Death of Rovian Politics

by Arianna Huffington

McCain is running a textbook Rovian race: fear-based, smear-based, anything goes. But it isn't working. The glitch in the well-oiled machine? The Internet.

Noam Chomsky

The Thom Hartmann Program
Thom talks with Mark Karlin, editor of Buzzflash.com, about the real story on Rezko, Ayers and the "Chicago political machine"

If McCain wins, should we all move to Scandinavia?

Imagine a land where presidents don't sprinkle holy water on wars, citizens have good healthcare and governments care about the environment.
By Louis Bayard

Incoherence

Posted by Joe Klein
John McCain had a fabulously loony weekend, flipping out charges and attacks like a mud tornado. The truly remarkable thing about McCain's attacks, especially on Obama's economic policies, is that McCain, in each case, is "guilty" of supporting some version of the policies he's attacking.

What's At Stake
The Supreme Court and the Election
By Herman Schwartz

When The Gloves Come Off

By Jonathan Schell

Reality is that which, when you don't believe in it, doesn't go away.

--Peter Viereck, poet and conservative thinker

The Idiots Who Rule America

by Chris Hedges

Our elites—the ones in Congress, the ones on Wall Street and the ones being produced at prestigious universities and business schools—do not have the capacity to fix our financial mess. Indeed, they will make it worse. They have no concept, thanks to the educations they have received, of the common good.

A devastating blow to McCain

Endorsing Barack Obama, Colin Powell directly rebukes the GOP's fear-and-smear campaign.
by Joan Walsh

From Worst To World Series: Rays Win, Red Sox Go Home

He Just Can't Quit W

By FRANK RICH
OLD Mr. Straight Talk has become so shaky a speaker that when he does talk straight, it’s startling. On Wednesday night, John McCain mustered exactly one such moment of clarity: “Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

The Thom Hartmann Program
Thom exposes Joe the Plumber as a Republican plant, related to Charles Keating...if McCain used the internet he'd know this

Fact Checking the ACORN Flap

Not a moment too soon, here’s FactCheck.org’s assessment of the recent hullabaloo over ACORN, the beleaguered community organization that has been yanked into the epicenter of the election battle since Team McCain seized upon it as a Campaign Talking Point™.

Speaking of the McCain campaign, we’re wondering why the opposition to John McCain, in whatever form it might take, isn’t making more of McCain’s own brush with ACORN affiliation in 2006, after this video made the rounds and garnered mention in The New York Times. What gives, people?

Endorsements start rolling in

Daily News editorial here:

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama
by Andrew Leonard

How's this for some virtuoso news-cycle stage management? First the Obama campaign announces that the campaign raised a stunning $150 million in September. Then Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama on "Meet the Press."

"Because he has met the standard of being an exceptional president...a transformational candidate...I will be voting for Barack Obama..."



Read more . . .

The Book of Sarah (Palin)

From the controversy that catapulted her to the governorship, to her ties to the indicted patriarch of Alaska's GOP, to the multilayered nexus of lobbyists and Big Oil interests around her, and, finally, to the Wasilla sports complex that capped her mayoral career, the myth of Sarah Palin, reformer, withers under inspection.

by Wayne Barrett

Bush and McCain: Where's The Difference?

IRAQIS DEMAND FREEDOM FROM US OCCUPATION

Ayers and the McCain-Liddy Symbiosis
by Carl Bernstein
Does John McCain "pal around with terrorists?"
Certainly McCain's continuing "association" and relationship with the convicted Watergate burglar and domestic terrorist G. Gordon Liddy might suggest that is the case, if we are to apply the standards drawn by the McCain campaign.