Meet Andy Martin, arguably the “intellectual” godfather behind the Obama-is-Muslim smears.
Recently he was invited on FOX News by Sean Hannity where Martin claimed that Obama “had once trained to overthrow the government.” That comment, which went uncorrected on air, was viewed by over 3 million people. Whatever it takes, right?
The New York Times does a profile on Martin… but be warned:he also has an ugly history of anti-Semitism, not that that should surprise anyone.
Seems like everyone’s getting in on the action right now: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel recently attended a “Last Chance for Change” Rally and Canvass Kickoff at the Clark County Amphitheater in Las Vegas.
Biel I knew was on board, she’s been vocal about her support. Timberlake I just kind of assumed because he gyrates too much to be a Republican, but never saw or read anything about him in terms of an endorsement.
My guess is that Biel dragged Timberlake out there with the threat of no more you-know-what unless he made an appearance.
Between Lindsay Lohan and now JT, I suppose this means I have to update my list of Obama’s sexiest guys and dolls.
I’ve been critical of George Bush for years now. I’ve even had a few laughs at his expense. And I’m all for freedom of expression, but I think this ad is inappropriate.
He may not respect the man, but Stone should at least respect the office more than this.
At least not in NYC, according to the Daily News. Dylan, a 24 year old promotional model-turned-Manhattan prostitute, explains why she’s not having to save coupons in this economy:
“The market is down, business is down, but we feel it less. We’re still busy. If men are horny, they’re going to come in here.”
Fair enough. But it should be noted that Madams across the City are having to make adjustments.
Dylan’s employer, Madam Sadie, who runs a pair of prostitution dens north of Wall Street, charges $260 for 60 minutes - or $160 for 30 minutes.
“The $1,000-an-hour girls are just not making it” with the economic downturn, the madam said.
[Photo: Escorts Dylan, Nadia and Sarah by Herman for the Daily News]
The NY Times Opinionator gave me heart-ache today after reading his devastating op-ed about the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempts in recent weeks to ”brand [Obama] as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder.”
“By the time McCain asks the crowd ”Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out ”Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.”
But if you want to cut through all the noise to get to the heart of this issue and why it’s important, read Frank Rich today, who encapsolates beautifully what I’ve been trying to say all week here on MD.
I’m blessed to have some really smart people in my life whom I consider close friends. One of whom, we’ll call him “Pestilence,” is a kid in his mid-20s who knows more about the financial world than most people ever will. I’ve literally seen him talk to brokers and economic advisers twice his age and make them look staight-up silly.
Even though Pestilence has been helping me a lot lately to better understand the financial apocolypse we seem to be approaching, I actually asked him months ago (I believe during one of our disreputable trips to Las Vegas) if he would take a few minutes every now and then and scratch out a couple thoughts for Meaningful.
I told him these posts could be on any topic he wants, but I hoped he would somehow tie them back to the financial sector since, let’s face it, with few exceptions, my grasp of the complexities market economics could rightly be described as “Palin-esque,” and Lark, God bless her, frequently tells me that numbers “make her head hurt.”
So Pestilence emailed me this short rant (copied below) about OPEC oil prices the other day, complete with pretty visuals like the one you see above, and told me I could post it.
I’m hopeful that he’ll keep sending me stuff because he’s one of the few people in my life whom I can honestly say that every time I talk to I come away from the conversation feeling like I learned something.
Guestblogonomics 1: “OPEC… Give Me a Fucking Break”
It’s true that politicians and sporting events, as rule, don’t mix. But it’s also true that McCain camp must have known this was coming, on this of all days. Which means they made the story about the booing.
Check out the well placed Obama-Biden signs in the background.
This blog was started in May of 2008 by my best friend, Lark. She invited me to be a co-author one month later. In a relatively short period of time we’ve been fortunate to see our readership explode, to a point where we now average better than 100K hits per month.
We’ve been doing it for fun, as a release, probably to scratch an inch of vanity that comes from the knowledge that people are reading and, in some cases, responding to your words.
And by some measures we’ve been ”successful.” In only five months this site has been linked, cited or sourced by some big, highly-trafficked and reputable media sites, including: The New York Times, The Atlantic, USA Today, Newsweek, Politico… among others (full list here).
We’re in the process of giving the site a face-lift and making it more user friendly – investing in MD because we’re invested in MD.
One of the things I’ve come to find equally thrilling and maddening in my short life as a ”blogger” have been those occasions when Henry Miller has spoken to me from the grave.
Today’s Musical Distraction actually comes from one of our readers – a financial whiz who flirted with McCain early on, but come election day plans to “take that next step” with Obama.
Mainly because he’s been crying himself to sleep at night over the market collapse and believes that Obama’s policy prescriptions, while not necessarily music to his free market-loving ears, are far more common-sense, reality-based than McCain’s.
He calls this song his “Recession Special.” Blues giant John Lee Hooker, “I’m Going Upstairs.”
“Now that Sarah Palin has been found to have abused her powers, violated state ethics, and lied about it, I did a little digging and found an interesting historical footnote.
The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.
Folks are losing money along with their toupees right now – because every hairline on the trading floor is of equal value during the worst week in market history.
The Republican-dominated panel overseeing the Trooper-Gate probe voted unanimously Friday night to release the report by its independent investigator. Talking Points Memo, who’ve been following this investigation since before it was fashionable, summarize the findings below.
The report finds that Gov. Sarah Palin “abused her power” in violation of Alaska law. That’s the key finding. It also finds that while the refusal to fire Palin’s former brother in law was not the sole reason Palin terminated her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, it was a “contributing factor.”
Unfortunately for Palin and McCain however, it gets worse.
The other big news of Friday evening, besides the finding that Sarah Palin abused the power of her office in the Troopergate scandal, is that John McCain, for the first time, after a full week of media coverage, has finally weighed in on hate-filled, sometimes murderous rhetoric that has been heard at McCain-Palin campaign events this week.
I’ll have more thoughts on this over the weekend. Till then, the video — kind of a must see – of McCain asking his supporters to “be respectful” is above, and TIME’s Ana Marie Cox, who attended some of these rallies, has more.
The campaign’s first official attempt at pushing back against this story. It’s pretty much his standard, honorable “don’t look at me” response that you’d expect from John McCain at this point.
“Barack Obama’s attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo.
“Even worse, he attacks anyone who dares to question his readiness to serve as their commander in chief in chief. Raising legitimate questions about record, character and judgment are a vital part of the Democratic process, and Barack Obama’s effort to silence and shame those who seek answers should make everyone wonder exactly what he is hiding.”
“Kill him, kill him,” “Socialist,” “Terrorist,” “Traitor,” “Abomination,” “Off with his head“… did I leave out any more ways McCain-Palin supporters have “raised legitimate questions” about Obama’s record this week?
Yep, Obama saw it coming, right down the line. So the answer to that question is “Yes,” the Republicans have been this predictable.
It’s also called knowing your enemy’s move before they do.
But what people may not remember is that when Obama gave this speech, back in July, in which he basically laid out the McCain campaign’s strategy for the next 5 months in less than 45 seconds, Republicans accused Obama of “playing the race card,” an asinine charge that even some very smart liberals (cough, Lark, cough) believed was true at the time.**
Now, I’m not here to re-litigate old battles or say “I told you so” (even though I did, Lark, honey, tell you so), the bottom line is this: with hindsight it becomes even more apparent that the McCain campaign has never been more than arm’s length away from some stunt, some manufactured controversy, some hail mary pass, or some meaningless distraction.
** In fairness to my girl Lark, whom I love fiercely, she was probably still seething over Hillary getting her ass handed to her over the summer — it’s likely that her judgment was heavily clouded back then.
In what must be Round 6 or 7 for David Letterman by now, last night he absolutely lit into John McCain, this time calling him, QUOTE, “squirrely,” which is just another way of saying that he’s “erratic.”
You may have heard that John McCain now wants to go back on Letterman’s show, after previously having stood him up for Katie Couric on the day he fake-suspended his campaign.
Much like Sarah Palin now wanting to go on SNL, McCain recognizes that Letterman may not stop these angry rants any time soon, so it’s probably best to go back on the show, kiss Letterman’s ring, and try to stop the bleeding.
The fury and loathing of Obama being whipped up largely by McCain-Palin-GOP rhetoric about the Illinois Senator is now spilling into down-ticket races, specifically the battle between GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss and his Dem challenger:
Thursday’s debate took place in front of a highly partisan crowd in the GOP stronghold of Middle Georgia.
Chambliss supporters waved “Saxby” signs and offered up a sustained “boos” when Martin mentioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
“Bomb Obama,” one woman hollered.
Greg Sargent cuts through to find the heart:
This isn’t a McCain rally, to be sure. But McCain could definitely have an impact on the overall climate if he called on the McCainiacs to calm down a notch or two and made a public gesture of some kind in order to let it be known that some behavior is simply unacceptable.
The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates puts all this ugliness in historical context, and reminds us about the atmosphere of fear and hatred that existed in the 1960s before MLK Jr. was gunned down. Back then they weren’t saying “terrorist,” they were saying “communist.”
