Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska goes down:

Today, a federal jury found Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure regarding “$250,000 in home renovations and other gifts he received from an oil contractor.” According to the AP, Stevens “faces up to five years in prison on each count, but under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely receive much less prison time, if any.”

Looks like we may just be picking ourselves up another Senate seat:

Stevens' initially took a huge dive in the polls after his indictment over the Summer, falling behind Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) by about 20 points. As the controversy settled down and Stevens vowed to beat the charges at trial, his numbers began inching up again -- and a poll last week from local pollster Ivan Moore put him behind Begich by
only one point.

But with Stevens now officially a convicted felon, any good will he built up with voters will probably be falling away very quickly. Over the next eight days, voters are likely to swing heavily to Begich in a state that hasn't elected a Dem to federal office since 1974. And this also puts the Democrats one step closer to that magic number of 60 seats.

Wouldn't that be lovely?

Of course, Sarah Palin's laying the blame for Stevens' rampant corruption on Big Oil, and she's just sure that Stevens has learned his lesson, so no need to vote the fucker out on his ear:

Hotline reports that Sarah Palin issued a statement about the guilty decision in the Ted Stevens corruption case:

Thanks for your patience there. It’s a sad day for Alaska, and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light though on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight. And that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service. And as governor of the state of Alaska, I’ll carefully monitor now the situation, and I’ll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I do ask that the people of Alaska join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system, and I’m confident that Senator Stevens, from this point on, will do the right thing for the state of Alaska.

Riiiight. Thanks anyway, but I think the people of Alaska will do the right thing for the state of Alaska and run that bastard out of office.

I don't think we need trust the judgement of a woman who can't even survive a five-minute chat with the press:

Earlier this month, reporters were told they could attend a Sarah Palin rally, but all journalists would be prohibited from talking to voters who attended the event. A week later, Palin aides told an NBC affiliate in Maine that she's willing to be part of an interview, but only if the McCain campaign could choose the reporter asking the questions.

Taking this bizarre attitude one step further, Palin offered a CBS affiliate in Des Moines five minutes for an interview. Reporter
Cynthia Fodor explained the catch: "[W]e had to submit which topics we wanted to discuss ahead of time which is not standard procedure."

Think about that for a second -- Sarah Palin was afraid she couldn't get through a five-minute interview with a local television station without getting a few hints first.

[snip]

For what it's worth, the station agreed to Palin's demands and gave her the topics in advance. Not surprisingly, the interview was dull, and featured Palin rattling off a series of talking points.

Unless she's talking about clothes, she has to have a script. How fucking pathetic is this?

The McCain campaign, lagging badly in the polls, without a single good idea between them, and running out of slime to hurl, has been forced to resort to screams of "Marxist!" in a desperate attempt to derail Obama. Methinks they should've been a little more careful about what accusations they decided to push:

In recent days, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), has begun referring to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” referring to his proposed tax plan that would provide greater tax relief for lower income individuals than those with higher incomes. Obama recently explained his support for progressive taxation, saying, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Palin contends that Obama’s characterization of his tax plan revealed him to be a “socialist” who wants to “redistribute” American wealth. Palin argues that the Obama tax plan “discourages productivity,” will “punish hardwork,” and will “stifle the entrepreneurial spirit.”

[snip]

But Palin’s criticisms of Obama’s “spread the wealth” remarks are ironic, as she recently characterized Alaska’s tax code in a very similar way. Just last month, in an interview with Philip Gourevitch of the New Yorker, Palin explained the windfall profits tax that she imposed on the oil industry in Alaska as a mechanism for ensuring that Alaskans “share in the wealth” generated by oil companies:

And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, here it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs. … It’s to maximize benefits for Alaskans, not an individual company, not some multinational somewhere, but for Alaskans.

In fact, Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) program, which
manages the redistribution of oil wealth in Alaska, brings in so much money that the state needs no income or sales tax. In addition, this year ACES will provide every Alaskan with a check for an estimated $3,200.

Collective ownership, sharing the wealth.... Soooo, Sarah... who's a Marxist, again?

Can the news get any worse for McPalin's failin' campaign? Oh, indeed it can:

A new Suffolk poll of Florida, which shows Barack Obama ahead 49%-44%, has another statistic that could affect the outcome on Election Day: Among early voters, Obama is ahead by a 60%-40% margin.

Early voting has become a big thing in Florida, and current statistics show that enough early votes have already been cast to equal more than a quarter of the total votes that were cast in 2004. So Obama has already banked a good lead in a major swing state, if this poll is accurate.

Daaamn. No wonder some Rethuglican sympathizers are attempting to lie Dems out of voting:

A phony flier, purporting to be from the Virginia Board of Elections, is circulating in the African-American-heavy Hampton Roads region of the state, falsely informing people that, because of expected high turnout,
Democrats should vote on November 5th.

The election is November 4th.

State election officials informed the local press of the flier, which was posted on the website of The Virginian-Pilot, and is designed to look like an official announcement. It even uses images of the state board logo and the state seal, both of which are available online.

Nice try, whoever did this. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll end up in a cell with Sen. Stevens.