New York Tea Party Governor Candidate Has Staff Problems

For all of the accusations that President Barack Obama wasn't properly vetted, some of the tea baggers on the ballot this fall sure seem chock-full of oopsies in their pasts.  And their staffs.  Also keep in mind--while you ponder if "guilt by association" is appropriate--how often William Ayers and Reverand Jerimiah Wright were 24/7 stories in the conservative media.  M'mmkay?

Image from New York Daily News

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Paladino Has Aides With Tainted Pasts

As he mounts an outrage-filled campaign for governor of New York, Carl P. Paladino has vowed to forcibly rid Albany of the wayward officials and misbehaving bureaucrats who he says have demeaned state government, promising to “take out the trash. . .”

Read more at: New York Times

Rush Limbaugh Classmate of Crazy Koran Burner

C'mon, how funny is this? Sure, the site I'm linking to calls this a "random connection." But how often has Rush himself made hay out of such random connections? Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, anybody?

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Image from source, American Thinker

You can't choose your high school classmates

From everything I have heard, Cape Girardeau, Missouri is a great town -- a historic river city, whose residents love it (I have a friend from "Cape" as they call it). The town is most famous as the home of Rush Limbaugh and his brother, David, who is the author of the current number one best seller, Crimes Against Liberty. . .

Read more at: American Thinker

Keith Olbermann's Campaign Comment: Guilt by Association

Any smack-down of Rudy Giuliani is worth watching. So watch!

More on John McCain's Association with Rashid Khalidi

Picture from Washington Post

When I heard about the "missing tape" of Barack Obama at a party for Rashid Khalidi this morning on good ol' right-wing radio this morning, I had a brief "uh-oh" moment. October Surprise?

The tape was actually shot, and reported upon back in April, and is apparently the latest "scandal" to burble up from right-wing blogs and talk radio. Sean Hannity did it with William Ayers and Reverend Wright. Fringy, pointless stories keep somehow wending their ways into the actual campaign. And Hannity's already hyper-inflated ego must be barely containable these days.

But I should have known better. First, Obama's association with Khalidi seems tangential at best, and actually less than John McCain's association with the man. Of course. And on a side-note, are people like Khalidi and Ayers able to sue for the treatment that they've been given? I mean, however bad their past actions may have been, they appear to be law-abiding people these days. And yet they are being cast as the worst kind of villain today. I don't doubt that both men, and several others slimed in this campaign have had their lives rocked by this campaign.

Anyway, more on the story, here.

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The Khalidi Gambit: McCain Attacks Obama for Connection to Palestinian Activist Whose Work McCain Helped Fund

. . .McCain today said, “The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public...I’m not in the business of talking about media bias...but what if there was a tape of John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit...I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”

But McCain has his own connection to Khalidi.

In 1993, McCain became chairman of the International Republican Institute. He still chairs that respected organization. . .

Read more at: ABC News

Guilt by Association: What About the Bushes?

Just a quick post to point something out that has floated right over the heads of the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign, and all of their followers. You guys are so anxious to point fingers at Barack Obama for his past associations. It doesn't matter how well he knows them, only that they are "figures in his past," and "say something about his character."

Mmm hmm. Forget that all politicians have probably been in a room or on a board with many people with unsavory pasts. It's the nature of politics, unfortunately, and I'm sure John McCain is not exempt from it (Keating Five, anybody?).

But if you really want to go for the gold in a "guilt by association" game, how about the Bush Family, and their long-standing relationship with the Bin Laden Family? I'm not saying that there's anything sinister there, but if you follow right-wing logic (and Jeebus help you if you do), what is the difference here?

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War or Peace? The World After the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

. . .In September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City were attacked by airplanes flying into them, followed that morning by an air attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Terrorists from Al Qaeda, an organization of Islamic extremists associated with the Afghan mujaheddin, and a Saudi figure, Osama bin Laden, alleged to be their leader, were blamed. The wealthy bin Laden family had close ties to the U.S. and the Bush family. . .

Read more at: Global Research

Another Missing Obama Tape Riles Right-Wing

A while back, the right-wing blogs and radio shows were ablaze with speculation about a missing video tape, showing Michelle Obama railing against "whitey." Despite the incredible implausibility of the alleged tape, I have no doubt that there are still wingers out there anxiously awaiting its unveiling. Forget that if such a tape exists, Mrs. Obama is likely saying "why'd he" or even quoting something with reference to "whitey," and that she'd have to be completely insane to use such a slur on purpose. They're convinced she and her husband are evil, and there is simply nothing they believe they wouldn't do.

And now, there is another "missing tape." But this one actually exists. It is of a "going away" party for some Chicago professor, attended by Barack Obama. The professor is apparently affiliated with the PLO, or at least was decades ago. And the wingers are frothing mad that The Los Angeles Times has a copy of it, but won't release it. They're just certain that Obama is on that tape, agreeing to light Molotov cocktails, and throw them into synagogues. Or something.

Trouble is, John McCain is also associated with this professor, Rashid Khalidi. Whoops. But you know what? Until this tape is revealed in all its (likely) anticlimactic glory, it will be another right-winger Holy Grail.

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Woops: McCain Funded Rashid Khalidi

I guess some are tempted to file this under the category of "October surprise," a blockbuster the McCain campaign tucked away for a rainy day:

"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. " . . . The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job -- make information public. . ."

Read more at: Fire Dog Lake

Sarah Palin's Radical "Pals"

Photo from Raw Story

Sometimes, playing dirty politics can open a Pandora's box. John McCain and Sarah Palin have decided to go into 100% attack mode, and are assailing Barack Obama with attacks on his past associations. These links are tenuous at best, but it doesn't matter. They're hitting full bore anyway.

But the problem is, neither McCain nor Palin is free from their own questionable past associations--and they might not be so tenuous.

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Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals
Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is.

On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the “traditional family” and secede from the United States. . .

Read more at: Salon


Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link

Latest Far-Right Bogeyman: ACORN

Photo from source, Fight the Smears

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is the latest "association" of Barack Obama's that the far-right is trying to weigh Obama down with. ACORN is a get-out-the-vote organization, and it is true that they've had a few issues with counterfeit names on their voter registration forms.

What I'd like to know is, do other such organizations have the same sorts of problems? I'm guessing that they do, since you're sending out an army of people with clipboards--your sure to get some untrustworthy types on one side of the clipboard or the other. But tell me, if ACORN registered the entire Disney roster from Mickey Mouse to Goofy, what are the odds that those "people" are going to show up to vote?

So what is the issue here? I believe that it is a smokescreen by the right to distract from the very real, and very enormous voter suppression movement by Republicans. Particularly vote caging. In any event, it would seem that Barack Obama is not affiliated with ACORN in the first place.

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Barack Obama Never Organized with ACORN

Discredited Republican voter-suppression guru Ken Blackwell is attacking Barack Obama with naked lies about his supposed connection to ACORN.

• Fact: Barack was never an ACORN community organizer.
• Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
• Fact: ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

Read more at: Fight the Smears

Love Letter from Charles Keating to John McCain

Image from source, Think Progress

While the right-wing screeches endlessly about Barack Obama's tenuous connections to various people they consider to be unsavory, they continue to ignore John McCain's very real connections. For instance, Charles Keating. He's the guy who greased several Senators, known collectively as "The Keating Five," for preferential treatment in the Savings and Loan scandal of the early nineties. And John McCain was one of those Senators.

And McCain can't simply brush Keating off as a casual acquaintance. Check out the love letter sent by Keating to McCain. . .

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Keating to McCain in 1986: ‘I’m yours til death do us part.’

The Washington Times reports that in 1986, John McCain wrote a note on House stationery to Charles Keating, chairman of a failed savings and loan association who went to prison in the late 1980s. In the letter, McCain apologized for listing Keating as part of his Senate campaign finance committee. Keating wrote in response: “You can call me anything, write anything or do anything. I’m yours till death do us part". . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.