Sacrifice!!!!!

The Kansas Citian reports that an Obama victory could be bitter sweet, as an African village portends the slaughter of innocent bull in his honor.

In a related story, the Pennsylvania sanitation department warns that a McCain victory may result in a systematic failure of all plumbing statewide due to a prolific deluge of bull sh*t.

Closing Argument #1 - Andrew Sullivan

I'd comment, but I don't want to ruin it.

Obama for President

___________________

November Surprise!

Courtesy of Matt Drudge. He broke the case! Can I change my vote (sent by absentee ballot already)?



This is his leading story. Has the coverage of this campaign brought an end to Drudge? Not that he was ever a respected reporter, but at least he tried to be credible. This is just silly. Someone freeze-frame a wave into a Nazi salute, before it's too late!

The Penultimate Results: Greetings From Pennsylvania!

Florida in 2000.

Ohio in 2004.

Pennsylvania in 2008?

First, a smattering of the final national polling conducted during the three-day period from October 30 to November 1:

CBS News: Obama +13 (apparently conducted from a pool of 546 Trinity United Church of Christ parishioners)

CNN/Opinion Research: Obama +7

Rasmussen: Obama +5

Gallup Traditional: Obama +8 (Matt Drudge relied on this 51-49 poll last week to show John McCain was chipping away at Obama's lead. Obama has since gained about a point each day since Drudge's "red alert." The traditional model assumes an apathetic response from newly registered voters and places more emphasis on likely voters, among other factors.).

Gallup Expanded: Obama +9

Diageo/Hotline: Obama +5

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby: Obama +6

Pew Research: Obama +6 (Pew's poll was conducted over a four-day period beginning on October 29. I include it here because Obama enjoyed a +16 lead in the Pew poll during the October 23 to October 26 period and shows a definite trending towards John McCain. Pew essentially projects that undecideds will break evenly on election day, thereby resulting in a 52-46 Obama victory. McCain-Palin spokesperson Rick Davis bets the house that these undecideds will break heavily for McCain.).

But national polling is only part (the secondary part) of the election day equation. The true strength of the Obama campaign, as crafted by the two "Davids" - Plouffe and Axelrod, is its understanding of the electoral map.

Current polling indicates that Barack Obama maintains strong or "leaning" leads in every state carried by John Kerry in 2004 totaling 252 electoral votes. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Obama augments this number (accounting for population shifts since the last election) using the Rocky Mountain West - Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado - showcasing a total of 19 electoral votes.

Despite the reported "tightening" of polls spouting from the right-wing punditry, these 19 Western votes solidify Obama's bid for the presidency and makes victory for John McCain a Herculean feat or, more appropriately phrased, a Sisyphean task. It is all uphill and a really big electoral boulder.

Give McCain Ohio and Florida, the most coveted toss-up jewels. Give him the traditional Republican safe harbors of North Carolina, Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Indiana - states put in play by Obama's broad-based ground campaign. Give him Missouri and its 11 electoral votes notwithstanding a 100,000 person Obama rally in St. Louis last week and that 20% of Missouri's population resides in St. Louis county.

Scoreboard? 278-260. McCain still doesn't win if everything breaks right. And I mean everything.

McCain's advisers understand this. Thus, only one strategy remains: Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes. A state won by John Kerry in 2004 by 2.5 points and Al Gore in 2000 by 4.2 points. It is vital that McCain flips one of the 2004 "blue" states to "red." Pennsylvania is the only one within shouting distance and with enough electoral votes to essentially "change the math" of this election.

Want to know what's in store for Barack Obama on Tuesday night? Pennsylvania polls close at 8 p.m. EST. If McCain loses the Keystone state outside the margin-of-lawyers (i.e., more than 3%), you can practically pop the Grant Park bubbly. Something apocalyptic must befall the rest of Obama's map for McCain to wrestle the election away.

On the other hand, if McCain eeks out a Pennsylvania win, in the words of Joe Biden, "gird your loins." It may be a long night.

Most recent Pennsylvania polls (trending towards McCain after double-digit Obama leads earlier in the week. McCain and various 527 political action committees dumped millions into Pennsylvania over the past few days):

Rasmussen one-day poll (November 1): Obama +6

Public Policy three-day poll (October 31 to November 2): Obama +8

Mullenberg three-day poll (October 31 to November 2): Obama +6

One more day of the circus, kiddies! I will publish my formal endorsement for President and election day predictions tomorrow evening. Enjoy your work week, socialists!

GOP Boogeyman Du Jour: Zeituni Onyango

The right-wing blogosphere buzzes with today's RNC entry into the Obama character association royal rumble: "Ladies and gentlemen, entering the ring right now, weighing in at 103 pounds, hailing from Nairobi, Kenya, now fighting out of Boston, Massachusetts illegally, Barack Obama's deceased father's half-sister, "Auntie" Zeituni Onyango.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't with the fading-fast Rovian Empire. First, stop "pallin' around" with people. Then, start pallin' around with people. It's enough to make a guy stop running for president. But not this guy. And not this election.

So, what do you need to know? Can Auntie Z stop the foreclosure sale of my home? Does anyone in the Onyango family have a contact at Kaiser Permanente so I can get some damn health care? Is she a Muslim too like Barack Hussein Obama? Can someone please interview Victoria Jackson again (Hannity - you have a professional obligation to get VJ into the studio and push her for answers).

As reported by the New York Times, Auntie Onyango currently resides in Boston in public housing four years after an immigration judge denied her request for asylum. As mentioned, Onyango is the half-sister of Obama's deceased, estranged father. The Obama campaign stated Barack and Auntie Z encountered each other on a handful of occasions since 1992 when he traveled back to Kenya (where he was born of course - why else would he visit Kenya?). Their last communication occurred two years ago when Obama learned that she was currently living in Boston.

Today, the Obama campaign returned the $260 Onyango donated to the campaign in tiny increments upon learning of her illegal status within the United States.

For the storm troopers of the Rovian Empire, this means everything! From one of Hugh Hewitt's suckling pups:

So let me get this straight. Millionaire Obama doesn't use his wealth to help his poor illegal alien Aunt get out of public housing, but if I complain about Obama wanting to raise my taxes to 'spread the wealth around' I'm the selfish one?

No. If you're making below $250,000, you shouldn't complain about it, unless you were already grousing under the current Bush tax regime, because you will not incur a tax increase. That's 95% of you. For the other 5%, you can bellyache a bit, but Obama only asks for a 2% increase on your current federal rate.

Amazing! I flipped us back to the issues. That never happens!

By the way, instead of blithering about socialism, spreading the wealth, redistribution and this minute's "Real American" hero (I hear Tommy the Boxcar Hobo is on deck), why don't you visit this link during a fleeting moment of repose when a yearning to entertain serious conversation comes over you: http://www.barackobama.com/taxes/.

The Latest Straight Talk Making the Rounds

This video is apparently making conservatives melt. He mentions Robot Chicken, so it can't be all bad.



This might shock you, but I take exception to the notion that everyone - and this guy claims ev-e-ry-one - that supports Obama has been brainwashed into doing so. Yes, this concept of marginalizing the opposition is not monopolized by the right, but that doesn't make it acceptable. It smacks of arrogance and simple delusion - which aren't good things when the (apparent) intent of the video is to convince people to change their minds. The choir will eat this up, but what good will that do Palin/McCain?

Hat tip to faithfull reader Clamshucker for sending the video. You dirty shucker.

"His Choice?"

Normally I resist posting campaign ads produced by either ticket, but this one put a charge in me. Very simple. Very topical. Very true:



I've exceeded my video quota for the day, but reserve the right to post a clip of McCain and Palin's faces superimposed on Bill Allen and Lori Loughlin bike-dancing to "Send Me An Angel" by Australian band Real Life in the seminal eighties film Rad.*

*Shout out to Defective Pants for daring to dream.

Obama leads 60% - 39% in Early Voting, McCain Scoffs

According to a Washington Post/ABC News tracking poll, early voting yields a big lead for Barack Obama. Ballots have been casted by an estimated 9% of the electorate with a projected 34% committed to getting out the vote before November 4.

When asked to respond to this latest setback, John McCain snorted, "look, I don't believe in polls or voting statistics or election results. I'm going to be President of the United States. I'm listening to my lawyers now. I'm not saying anything more. Come on, campaign staff! Back to the plane!"

An awkward moment ensued as McCain looked around and saw no staffers by his side. A reporter than asked, "Senator McCain, are you aware of the ABC News article describing the state of your campaign as 'demoralizing' and noting many of your staffers are already circulating their resumes looking for new work?"

McCain issued an ineffable grunting noise and then bursted, "F**K YOU PALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to rip off your head and piss down your dead skull, reporter. You f**ked with the wrong marine!!!!!" After being restrained by secret service and placated, McCain slogged across the tarmac towards his aircraft grumbling under his breath, "ACORN, Ayers, Wright, Socialists, Marxists, Rezko, spread wealth, black, Arab, Muslim, radical, risky, abortionist, sex ed to kindergartners, f**k you Obama."

I'm just a humble professional chess player from Appleton, Wisconsin, but my simple antenna picks up bad, foreboding news for John McCain.

The "Anti-Elitist" Drag

Christopher Hitchens makes it know he is, um, a "bit displeased" at the selection of Governor Palin and her stunted views on scientific knowledge:

"This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."

Hitchens refers to this race towards the intellectual bottom as the "GOP ticket's appalling contempt for knowledge and learning."

Despite the Anti-Elite, we've still come a long way in terms of scientific advancement since God created the earth 6,000 years ago. Cut them some slack, Hitch.

Trouble in GOP Shangri-La?

Watch very closely for signs of a McCain-Palin meltdown as next week progresses. Often, in the final days of an ill-fated campaign, after the sobering realization that almost two years of yeoman work will go unrewarded, personal enmity springs forth from the candidate's inner sanctum and the invidious rot quickly spreads outward. From CNN:

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out . . .

. . . A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else."

"Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

Count me in the camp assessing this election as still too close to call and teetering ever so close to the margin-of-error. However, if John McCain's campaign truly now finds itself on the brink, it is customary for the vanquished party to air the dirty laundry and reconfigure the power structure for future prospects. Remember: The 2012 campaign begins on November 5, 2008.

***UPDATE***: Christian Science Monitor reports senior advisors for the McCain campaign are distancing themselves from Governor Palin. Palin, in turn, is distancing herself from John McCain's policies.

A Grim Karl Rove

Going into the last week of the election, the Architect assesses Senator McCain's path to victory as a "very steep hill to climb."

Closing Arguments

Barack Obama begins his summation with a new ad:

The Playing Field

Could John McCain's demise be a fait accompli 10 days before the election? The permutations don't bode well: Give him Ohio (20) and Florida (27). Give him North Carolina (15) and even Virginia (13) now leaning towards Obama. Throw in the traditional Republican strongholds of Indiana (11), Montana (3) and North Dakota (3) surprisingly in play. Toss in hotly-contested Nevada (5) and Missouri (11). You know what - I'm feeling generous: Give him New Hampshire (4) because Palin's a Hockey Mom.

Final score: 269-269. A veritable tsunami of GOP support in the final week still doesn't give McCain the victory math. However, in the case of a tie, the 12th Amendment requires the House of Representatives to determine the President-Elect with each state's newly elected delegation casting only one vote. And that means Joe the Rodeo Clown, Joe the Dairy Queen Manager and Joe the Toothless Old Buzzard Whittling Wood And Spittin' Tobacco Juice On The Porch Of The General Store - you know, the three folks comprising the total population of Wyoming - carry equal weight in this doomsday scenario as the 37,000,000 citizens residing in California.

A disquieting thought until you realize that the Democrats currently control 27 state delegations in the House and are expected to make further gains this election. Still, chilling to let your darkest fears for the country creep in to your consciousness. The House debate dedicated to breaking the tie would make the rancor exchanged during the 2000 election fiasco look like a friendly disagreement among gentlemen.

You better vote, or that's all she wrote!

Yes, of course, we here at the Potatoe will be re-running this friendly reminder on Election Day. But it's never too early to get out the vote. Wooooooooooo!!!!!

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Pray for Tracy's Husband

This is the base of McCain/Bush/Palin Republicanism. Can someone please explain to religious nuts like the ignoramus in this video that the Bible doesn't support hatred, let alone hatred based merely on a person's name, family, background, etc.? Also, with all this "God will take care of me" stuff. No he won't. He's tired of carrying your fat ass across the sand. Help yourself, you lazy lunatic - and I'm not talking about another box of Mallomars! God is done helping you. You've used more than your share of his welfare. The next set of footprints you'll see in the sand will be the ones leaving you for a nice hammock and a Corona. He deserves it, his back must be killing him.

Can you imagine being married to this shrew? Yes, sweetheart, pray, because if anyone needs a prayer, it's your husband. Pray that you wake up from your self-induced slumber of ignorance. Pray that your husband doesn't lose his job because you and others like you are completely brainwashed nutballs. Pray that you lose your voice, so he doesn't have to hear about the headache God blessed you with every night for the last 10 years, or how God wants you to watch Fox News and give your grocery money to the reverend in the Rolls Royce. Dummy.

Powell the Racist

So says Rush Limbaugh:

"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail. "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

How quickly the right wing slime merchants like Limbaugh and Hannity turn on real conservatives when those conservatives think for themselves instead of basking in the celebrated ignorance and fear-mongering of today's Republican party.

Lets hope people like Powell, Ross Douthat, David Frum and others like them get the Republican party back on course.

"Breast of Fresh Air" - UPDATE

Williamsburg radio weighs in on the debate over the debate:

The Hannity Dilemma - McCain's Jane Fonda

I'm coining a new phrase - The Hannity Dilemma. From this pint forward, the Hannity Dilemma will be used to describe the situation where a standard developed by a hard line partisan hack like Sean Hannity, intended to be used only against those heathens with opposing political views, is instead applied to a member of the standard-setting hack's own political party. The horror.

The award is named for Master Hannity because of his wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonder____ (that's 5 1/2 for those counting - you'll see) near aneurysm after his own standard (paraphrased here) asserted against John Edwards - "people who lie to their families by having affairs can't be trusted by the American people" - was applied to John McCain by Hannity's own weak-kneed liberal pushover but awoken from his castrated slumber co-host, Alan Colmes. Hannity gets so fired up that the standard he developed is used against one of his own, that . . . well, he starts quoting math and yelling protest slogans.



In that clip, Sean Hannity was faced with the Hannity Dilemma. His response: Donna Martin Graduates! Donna Martin Graduates! Donna Martin Graduates!

Now that we have an illustration of how The Hannity Dilemma works, lets apply it:

The Standard: The personal acquaintances of presidential candidates are valid, especially when such acquaintances are or were anti-American.

The Intended Application: In applying this standard, just about every talking head on the right (and some on the left), as well as the Republican Presidential ticket, have been hammering the Obama-Ayers and Obama-Wright connections, and particularly the anti-America angle. Fine. As I've stated before, I think those topics are fair game. As long as the same standard is applied to everyone.

The Hannity Dilemma: Joe Klein draws a comparison today between the scrutiny given to Obama's "radical friends," as opposed to the right's absolute silence on McCain's friendship with his own personal Jane Fonda - David Ifshin. As Klein explains:

Ifshin, you see, had been a vehement anti-Vietnam radical. He had even gone to Hanoi at the height at the war and given a speech denouncing the American pilots dropping bombs on North Vietnamese civilians as “war criminals.” The speech was broadcast repeatedly in the Hanoi Hilton, where McCain was being held captive. More than a few people thought Ifshin was guilty of treason.

He was also a close friend of John McCain until he passed away in 1996.

Klein's telling of this story is quite personal and worth the read, as Ifshin was also a friend of Klein's. It also shines a very favorable light on McCain (or, rather, the man McCain used to be). Their friendship was forged out of a respect for each other, despite their polar-opposite opinions so many years before. Ifshin was vocal about his regret for giving the above-referenced speech, and McCain forgave him. The McCain-Ifshin friendship was also detailed with admiration by the NY Sun in 2006. It's really a great story.

But as much as he regretted it, Ifshin did give that speech, just as Jane Fonda gave similar speeches attacking American soldiers. Guess what the right wing pundits think about Jane Fonda? Well Sean Hannity's guests, like Ollie North, think she's a "traitor" for her actions during the Vietnam war. I don't think it's a stretch to claim that that view as common among the right.

Now here's the dilemma: If Fonda is a traitor, so was Ifshin. So if Obama's associations with people like Ayers who, as John McCain described Ifshin "a long time ago, in the passions and resentments of a tumultuous era in our history, I might have considered my enemy," are fair game that must be examined, shouldn't the right wing pundits be examining McCain's association with this person who was a "traitor" by their own standards? Who is the real John McCain? Can we tolerate a president who palled around with traitors? Donna Martin Graduates!

ACORN: Ghost Stories for GOP Kiddies. Boooo!

To have standing to sue an individual and bring them into the court room, you, the plaintiff, must present an injury. Without injury, without a showing of damages or a theory of damages, the court has better things to do then adjudicate a case where the plaintiff is not entitled to relief.

The RNC is such a plaintiff when it comes to the ACORN pseudo-scandal. The chimeras of conservative moppets' nightmares - eg., a leftist Mickey Mouse primed to vote Obama - currently reside where they should remain: in dreams.

In the words of Barack Obama, "um . . . so . . . just to be clear" voter registration fraud does not bear fruits of voter fraud on November 4. As such, the Republicans cannot show injury. They cannot show damages.

Case closed . . . but of course it's not - since you hardened, righty, Kool-Aid chugging prick masters cannot stop pushing this lark or generally shut your pie holes. Sigh, let's play it out once again.

We revisit Disney and Mickey Mouse's indefatigable quest to vote for Obama: So the registration card filled out by "Mickey Mouse" is handed to representatives at ACORN from the ACORN canvasser (ie., by the way, just for a visual, Micky is a filthy hobo who stinks of Jack Daniels and rides the rails out past Toledo and is approached by an ACORN canvasser/pederast/check-kiter paid as an independent contractor based on the number of cards she submits. Make them black too, Neocons. Make it terrifying.).

If the card is suspicious, it is segregated from the stack of patently valid registration cards. Sometimes, the representative misses a suspicious card because she is working quickly, or is snorting Colombian bam-bam, or absolutely loves Obama. It really doesn't matter - for both the suspicious pile and verified pile are sent to the Election Board for review.

Why? BECAUSE IT'S THE LAW! ACORN is required to submit all registration cards it collects and stamps with its seal. Why? So that the Election Board can keep tabs on voter drives, provide ethical standards and confirm that the voting rolls are in order with the registration cards.

But Warm Apple Pie - what if the Board lets a suspicious card slip through and Mickey Mouse becomes listed on the voter rolls. Oh my god, does fraud win? Republican children huddle close! Fraud!!!! Boooooooooo!!!!!!

Um, no. Though Mickey Mouse is now registered to vote, there is no Mickey Mouse (sorry kids - there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny either. However, hobgoblin Dick Cheney is very real and will spray you with buckshot from his spectral shotgun if you don't pray for the destruction of Iran each evening).

Wait! What about the filthy hobo who filled out the card? He may try to vote as Mickey. Presto! Voter fraud. Fraud, GOP children. Fraud!!!!! Boooooooooooooooooo!

Um, no. The filthy hobo, Mickey Mouse, even Sarah Palin cannot vote without presenting a valid form of identification to the election monitor for authentication before signing the voter roll and before entering the voting booth. Why? BECAUSE IT'S THE LAW.

Okay, okay Warm Apple Pie. But playing along with me just to . . . GOP children? What are you doing? . . . oh my god . . . where did you get that Obama placard . . . stop waiving it . . . there is no change we can believe in . . . sit down children . . . Trig, you too - why are you watching the Couric interview again . . . behave!

Er, so play along with me. Let's say all of these fail safes . . . well . . . fail and the filthy hobo eludes detection and gets into the voting booth. I mean humans are fallible and at least half of the monitors are human (the other half are Democrats). I'm sure a ton of fraudulent votes are cast by misanthropes each election. Countless. Probably hundreds of thousands of these miscreants trolling the election sites. Maybe a million. Who knows?

Twenty. From 2002 to 2005 only 20 people were determined guilty of ineligible voting (and only five of these twenty were found to have voted more than once).

Sleep easy, GOP children. May visions of tax credits for sugar plum purchases dance in your heads.

* * * * *

ACORN is pure Republican hokum used solely to work the base into a heaving swell of stupidity and enlarge the ever-growing gaggle of phantasmal boogiemen conjured up by McCain-Palin this Fall. Maybe it's meant to simply hurt my ears.

It's viable for eighteen more days, as is the right-wing cacophony.

Barack Obama: At The Adult Table

I remember countless holidays where I was banished to the kiddie table - out of range of civilized discourse, relegated to making armpit farts and flicking boogers. Worse was the adult folk patronizing me with their disgusted glances, mortified that their scion could belch the alphabet.

Tonight, Obama shook his head with disapproving maturity. Tonight, John McCain made fart noises with his mouth.

"Ayers, ACORN, Ayers, ACORN, Ayers, ACORN, Ayers . . . my campaign is about the economy." Did that just happened???? It did. I almost did a spit-take (I haven't done a spit-take since Palin's explanation about Russia's proximity to her foreign policy experience.).

Tonight, McCain would have been better served with honest questions: "Health care plan? In what respect, Barry?"

The split screen did him no favors. At one point, my girlfriend equated McCain to Vincent D'Onofrio's bug character in "Men in Black." Without pause, I eagerly equated McCain's visage to Jeffy Goldblum's fly character in . . . well . . . "The Fly."

The point?: McCain's skin was thinner than soy paper, absolutely ineffective at shrouding the curmudgeon beast below ready to shed its apocryphal mask of gentility at first prodding. He was petulant, irascible and disconnected. He spouted fluff attacks in rapid-fire succession as if trying to eclipse a world record. It was a haphazard carpet bombing of a hunkered-down Obama, prepared for every twist and turn. Hell, even the much ballyhooed Bill Ayers reference seemed trite and tortured - almost as if McCain doesn't have a bone to pick with folks "pallin' around with terrorists" despite his previous message.

I thought Palin was the death knell for McCain. I was wrong - ask yourself this fundamental question and let it govern your vote: Over the past three months, which candidate demonstrated the consistency of character and a never-failing steadiness in the face of tough questions, tough issues, tough matters and tough world events?

Like I said before - vote the man in this election, not the ideology. Vote for an original leader, not for a partisan soundboard. Vote for the candidate who makes very clear in these three debates that your issues will always trump the petty squabbles of the Autumn election cycle.

Full disclosure: For the first time since I became voter eligible I have donated money to a presidential candidacy. After the second debate, I pulled out my American Express Elite-Yuppie-Intelligentsia-250k-per-year Gold Card (a platinum card is too fringe, too extreme, too Sheehan, just too elite) and authorized a $50 payment to Senator Obama.

Why? Because he's consistent. Because he's steady. And because for all the money I will pay in taxes (being in that upper 5% Barack never speaks to), it is a pittance compared to the potential economic loss I suffer without a job, health insurance and affordable education.

Laud the free market. We all do. But it cannot exist in a vacuum. And whether you are Joe Six-Pack, Joey Danko or Joe Plumber, Mikey Dollar Signs will be quick to interject that you cannot draw blood from a stone and you can't siphon taxes from zero dollars of income, no matter how high the rate.

In closing, yes I'm drunk. But sober enough to see that the "October surprise" is just how damn optimistic I am about a major party candidate less than three weeks from Election Day.

If Richard Lowry had little starbursts for Palin, then count me as flaming gay for Obama. My starbursts come with energy independence in a decade.