Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Michelle Bachmann goes down tonight. No excuses. The burning insanity's just too dangerous to leave lying around Congress:

Appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball today, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) attacked the patriotism of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), based on his alleged relationship to former Weather Underground member William Ayers and the values of Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views,” said Bachmann. “That’s what the American people are concerned about.”

She then went further, suggesting that all liberal views — held by people such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, professors, and all Americans who identify themselves as “liberals” — are “anti-American.” When host Chris Matthews, stunned by her remarks, asked Bachmann how many people in Congress hold anti-American views, she responded, “You’ll have to ask them.”

Bachmann called on the media to conduct investigations into the anti-American activities of members of Congress, similar to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s discredited House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s. “I think people would love to see an exposé like that,” she claimed.

Outraged? Insulted? Appalled? Good. This boil on the ass of democracy is up for reelection. Delightful Red-to-Blue candidate El Tinklenberg is poised to kick her sorry arse out of the hallowed halls of Congress, and you can help by going here, getting jazzed up, and throwing a few bucks his way. Kossacks have already donated over $30,000 this evening. Let's join the dogpile.

Politics is fun.

Speaking of getting their arses kicked, the Ohio GOP is going to have to look for other ways to disenfranchise that flood of newly-registered Dems:

A welcome ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court this afternoon.

The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The justices overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.

Ohio Republicans, spurred by a manufactured ACORN controversy, want state officials to compare the 666,000 newly registered voters against data collected by the state DMV. According to the Secretary of State's office, about 200,000 of the new voters show at least some kind of discrepancy -- out of nearly two dozen categories -- some as minor as the misspelling of a name.

Today's ruling, therefore is a big win, clears the way for those new voters to cast a ballot, and prevents broad disenfranchisement.

Victory, my darlings, is sweet indeed.

And the Obama campaign is going full-out on the whole voter fraud bullshit. Fair took my breath away, this did, and I hope Emptywheel at Firedoglake will forgive me for reproducing her fantastic post in full:

The Obama campaign general counsel, Bob Bauer, has demanded that Michael Mukasey expand the scope of Special Prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation to include Republican claims of voter fraud in this election.

As a reminder, Dannehy was appointed to investigate the US Attorney firings. Arguing that Republicans' bogus claims of "vote fraud" are the same kind of misconduct as firing a bunch of US Attorneys in 2006 was, Bauer says Dannehy should include current Republican activities in her investigation.

The Dannehy investigation concerns, most fundamentally, abuse of the law enforcement process to advance, in the name of combating "voting fraud", a partisan political agenda. The appointment of a Special Prosecutor was required because the Department's leadership was the focus of the investigation and unable to credibly undertake an independent, professional and credible inquiry.

Now, on the emerging evidence of recent conduct undertaken by Bush Administration officials, Republican party officials, and representatives of the McCain-Palin campaign, it appears that further misconduct of the same nature, directly relevant to the work of the Special Prosecutor, requires that the scope of the Special Prosecutor's assignment be expanded.

Accordingly, I request that Special Prosecutor Dannehy's inquiry incldue a review of any involvement by Justice Department and White House officials in supporting the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee ("RNC")'s systematic development and dissemination of unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud. It is highly likely that the very sort of politically motivated conduct identified in the Department's investigation to date, necessitating the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, is repeating itself, and for the same reason: unwarranted and politically motivated intervention in the upcoming election.

Shorter Obama campaign: Republicans are already under criminal investigation for this stuff. Don't let them get away with the same kind of criminal conduct again.

We're not dealing with 2000 or 2004's Democratic Party anymore.

Hell no, we're not. The Dems aren't mewling cowards anymore, snivelling "Not in the face!" They're not fighting filthy, but they're fighting strong, smart, and relentlessly. Obama has performed that miracle: he showed them where the backbones were stored and persuaded them to strap 'em on. It has been a lovely sight to behold.

And they've only begun to fight:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, seeing an irresistible opportunity to make big gains on Election Day, has secured a $15 million loan from Bank of America that it will use to splurge on tight races during the last three weeks of the campaign season.

The $15 million loan is nearly twice the $8 million that the National Republican Congressional Committee was able to borrow recently and adds to the huge financial advantage that Democrats already hold over the GOP.

When combined with the cash-on-hand advantage that the DCCC has over the National Republican Congressional Committee — $54 million to $14.4 million as of Aug. 31 — the loan leaves House Democratic leaders with $47 million more than their GOP counterparts to pour into contested districts.

No wonder the Republicons are shit-scared and thus trying to press every racist, xenophobic, "patriotic," fearful, hateful, and ignorant button they can with the electorate. They're facing an election they very well might not be able to lie, cheat and steal their way to victory in. Fuck October Surprises. I do believe they could bring us the head of bin Laden, pull the troops out of Iraq, and shore up the markets long enough to stop the freefall, and the electorate would merely say, "That's nice, but you're years too late" before pulling the lever for the Dems.

It's not like they have credible candidates to sway the American public with. John McCain's become a crotchety old fart whose antics have folks whispering about dementia, and Sarah Palin is such a joke that she's even getting snubbed by the White House:

This week, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Joe Biden (D-DE) all were contacted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the Iraq security agreement.

In today’s White House press briefing, spokesman Dana Perino explained that the adminstration contacted the candidates “to keep them equitably informed.” “One of them is going to win the election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues,” Perino explained. But nobody called Gov. Sarah Palin.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Even the White House, George W. "High Functioning Moron" Bush's fucking White House, doesn't think Palin's a credible enough candidate that she needs to be informed of things like the Iraq security agreement. Apparently, they don't believe she'll be "having to deal with these issues," most likely because she can't.

I begin to think that Kevin Drum is correct:

Apropos of nothing in particular, I want to go on the record with a prediction that Sarah Palin will disappear into a well-deserved obscurity after the election is over. She is not a "comer." She is not the future of the Republican Party. She will not run for president in 2012. In fact, she won't maintain any kind of serious national political standing at all. At best, she'll spend the next few years being a celebrity starter at NASCAR races and speaking at Republican prayer breakfasts. At worst, she'll be an occasional butt of late night comics.

But you know what? I hope the fucktards on the right do run her in 2012. I hope they pin all of their hopes and dreams on her. I can think of few things more entertaining than to watch this woman try to run as head of the Republicon ticket against Obama and Biden.

I can think of few things more likely to push more conservatives into endorsing Democratic candidates:

On his talk show on WPHT today, conservative Philadelphian Michael Smerconish endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Listen HERE.

Smerconish did so by reading a couple paragraphs from his pending op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"I’ve decided," he said. "My conclusion comes after reading the candidates’ memoirs and campaign platforms, attending both party conventions, interviewing both men multiple times, and watching all primary and general election debates.

"John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I’m voting for a Democrat for president.

"I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia," says the Republican.

This on a day when the conservative Chicago Tribune endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in their history. That history, my darlings, covers 161 years.

History is being made this year. I think we can all drink to that.