My new image

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/13/the-coming-thugocracy/print/
Gee, according to Michael Barone in the Washington Times, the Obama volunteers are studenty thugs. Well, as a proud Obama volunteer I must say I am pretty far from a youthful thug. None of my friends who volunteer mind being called youthful, but as my moniker the Hag might indicate, I am far from young. Now thug... but I must admit being a teacher of young children I find the thug a bit hard to take, and it is a pretty silly label for the other people I saw at Obama headquarters - teachers, lawyers, architects, nurses, women's advocates, and although there were quite a few young people they looked pretty tame to me, you name it, this was a very mixed group. But who knows, maybe I will warm to my new tough image.

What to do with Beauty Pageant Contestants...

http://www.jedreport.com/

Where do they get these people from. I was casually watching the CBS local news from NEW YORK. There were two reporters talking about the election. I was busy reading various columns in the NYT, so I admit I was not paying full attention, but something caught my ear. One of the reporters cited an AP poll that showed that Obama was one point ahead. The other, I kid you not, said, "Maybe this has to do with Obama wants to redistribute the wealth." Huh? Since when did an anchor in NEW YORK start spouting McCain talking points. The jedreport video shows Biden having the most insane interview with a "reporter" (I put reporter in quotes - she is a former Miss Vermont - I know I shouldn't be snooty about beauty contestants, but frankly the dominatrix from Alaska has given pageant contestants a bad name) from Tampa. She even quotes Karl Marx. Jed Lewison calls this a funny interview, but I must admit to be appalled. Do people really think that calling for a more equitable tax structure is socialism or a redistribution of wealth? If a reporter in New York can say that, God knows what idiocy is being spouted in the rest of the country. PS Of course I was panicked by the AP poll mentioned, so I franticly went on line to track it down. I couldn't find a new one, so I began to wonder if it was the one that Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight wrote about. It was the only poll in the universe that showed McCain crushing Obama in the youth vote. And I read somewhere else that one of the questions went along the lines of What do you think of Obama's socialist policies?
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/whats-wrong-with-this-picture-aka-nate.html

Psycho Attack Dogs

David Corn has a good piece in Mother Jones about the false and disgusting attacks on Obama, starting with trying to de-legitimize the election if he wins, to all of the smear/fear tactics used by the Repugs. He ends his article with noting that this psycho style attack will be what Obama will face if he actually elected president. Repugs believe that if a Dem is elected, the election must be illegitimate. Just ask Bill Clinton.

Paranoia and how I am sick of the Bradley Effect

I keep hearing about the so called Bradley effect (I feel sorry for Tom Bradley who it seems is now only remembered for the elections he lost to the idiot Dukmejian (sp?), instead of all the elections he did win.) In my pre-election anxiety ridden paranoiac state, I brood that the Repug will manage to steal this election, just like so many before, by their usual tactics of fear, smear, robo calls, phone jamming, lying fliers, and voter suppression, and perhaps some computer fiddling. And even if the exit polls are good, but Obama loses through their criminal acts, they repugs and pundits will say, Oh no! It was the Bradley effect.