TRUTH HURTS.

I found this on another website, but it is well worth sharing.  The Palin-McCain campaign continues to repeat lie after lie, no matter how many times their lies are disproved, and there’s no end in sght.  They have nothing to run on but lies, so why stop now, right?

Just keep repeating, Palin-McCain: I said thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere.  I sold that jet on ebay.  Troopergate is not real.  I do not accept earmarks.  I have no lobbysists working for my campaign.  I wish I’d never heard of the Keating Five.   You can see Russia from Alaska and that’s all you need.   I have the experience.  I can bring change.  The economy is fundamentally sound.  I never voted with George Bush over 90% of the time.  Life is beautiful.  Everything is great.  Thanks for asking.

And now, our guest, The Anonymous Liberal: 

The fact that McCain and Palin continue to tell these tall tales about Palin’s record in Alaska is aggravating–there’s no question–but it also presents the Obama campaign with a golden opportunity. The key to exploiting that opportunity, however, is not to get angry or to join in the lying game. Neither of those tactics ever work well for Democrats. The key to fighting back is to brand McCain and Palin as liars through the use of mockery. I realize that everyone and their brother is playing the role of armchair political consultant at the moment, but please indulge me for thirty seconds.

Here’s how I imagine Obama responding:

“You know, I was listening to Governor Palin today and she repeated–for what must be the 20th time–a claim that every news organization has already disproved. She said she “told Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the Bridge to Nowhere.” Then I heard John McCain speak and he repeated that same false claim, along with several others that have been disproved: she didn’t ask for any earmarks, she sold the plane on Ebay, she fired the personal chef, and so on . . . . and while I was listening to all that, something occurred to me. I’ve been doing this all wrong! You see, I’ve been limiting what I say to things that are actually true. But campaigning is so much easier when can just make stuff up.

So today I wanted to share with you some things I never have before. For starters, did I ever mention that back in my Chicago days I played professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls? It’s true: when Jordan retired, they wanted me to take over at guard, but I said “thanks but no thanks; I’ve got a job to do in the state Senate.” Oh, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before either, but my running mate, Joe Biden, he once wrestled a live grizzly bear…and he won! He also once sold the entire state of Delaware on Ebay. I kid you not.

I don’t know about you, but I feel liberated. This whole “telling the truth” thing was really holding me back. Now I know how John McCain feels when he says that I’m going to raise your taxes, even though every independent organization who’s looked at it says that my plan gives you a bigger tax cut than his. Well, I say to you John McCain: two can play at that game.

Did you know that John McCain will raise every American’s taxes by 800,000%? I made that up just now, but it’s as true as anything he’s telling you, so there you go. Oh, and under his plan, if you fall behind on a house payment, Phil Gramm and a team of monkeys show up and take your house away. It’s true. I swear. How do you think he got all those other houses that he doesn’t even know he has?”

Okay, that’s enough. Hopefully you get the gist. The goal is to create a narrative, to brand McCain and Palin as borderline pathological liars. If done effectively, the press would absolutely eat this up and would play the soundbite over and over again. They are suckers for good humor and they already believe the basis of the narrative. This tactic would turn McCain and Palin’s lying into an ongoing joke, one that would pay dividends throughout the remainder of the campaign. If, for instance, either McCain or Palin were to repeat a lie during the debates, all Obama and Biden would have to do is say–in classic Reagan fashion–”there you go again” and everyone would instantly know what they meant. This tactic would work. I’m sure of it.

 

IN WHAT RESPECT, CHARLIE?

I have to tell you, I was concerned that ABC’s Charles Gibson was the wrong person to be asking the questions in Sarah Palin’s first interview with a real, live national journalist since she was named as John McCain’s running mate in this presidential election.  In all honesty, I’m not sure why I thought that, it just seemed like the interview should go to a bigger venue — say, 60 Minutes or Meet the Press.  I guess the McCain campaign tried to play it down the middle, wanting to pick someone safe that also wouldn’t seem like they were just another Fox News conservative shill.

Well, let me tell you:  I was wrong about Charles Gibson.  Charles Gibson knows what he is doing, folks.

Here’s a clip  from the interview.  The rest of the interview is supposed to air tomorrow night (Friday, September 12) on ABC prime time.  I think my favorite part is when he asks if she agrees with the Bush Doctrine; she goes completely blank, then after a long pause says, “… in what respect, Charlie?”  Then he starts to explain, catches himself and just says, “What do you interpret it to be?”, thus handing her the shovel so she can keep digging her own hole.  Watch:

STUFF.

I’m just amazed by this Girl Talk right now.  I heard some last year via Cory, but recently downloaded Girl Talk’s latest album Feed the Animals from GT’s MySpace page.  If you’re not familiar with Girl Talk, check out this track:

And if you don’t think that’s genius, try doing it yourself sometime. 

****

Two movies to choose from this week: Burn After Reading and Righteous Kill.  Let’s see, which one should you see?  The New Coen Brothers film (Burn After Reading) or the latest example of just how far Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro have fallen (Righteous Kill)?  Go with the Coens.

****

Go on over to Cory Graham’s blog and sample his live blog form last night.  It started off with the idea that it would provide witty takes on the Monday Night Football game, but quickly degenerated into… well, you can imagine.  Here’s a sample (we’re talking about an idea Cory once had for his Halloween costume):

9:41     corygraham:  There’s no excuse for you not having one of those Capital One cards with the image of your choice on the front.

9:42	corygraham:  You, Aaron, are probably the only person I know bold enough to use that to its full potential.

9:44	Aaron:  That would be good, but there’s just too much to choose from.

9:44	Aaron:  I really wouldn’t even know where to start.

9:44	corygraham:  I think you go for a picture of yourself as a traveling dildo salesman

9:44	Aaron:  Dude I just don’t understand why you never used that.

9:45	Aaron:  I laugh about it still.

9:45	Aaron:  Hey! Wanna buy a dildo?

9:45	corygraham:  Three words:   Dildos. Are. Expensive

9:46	corygraham:  And really, do you want to wear a coat full of used dildos?

9:46	Aaron:  It would be interesting.

9:46	corygraham:  … and smelly

9:46	Aaron:  You could carry on conversations by pointing to each one and saying who it belongs to.

9:46	Aaron:  That just seems awkward and brilliant.

9:47	Aaron:  Hey — this Vicky’s dildo.

9:47	Aaron:  These two are Rachel’s.

9:47	Aaron:  This one belongs to Tina.

9:47	corygraham:  ”Well, you see folks, each of these has a story.   I remember when I got this dildo, I had to pull it from a lady in the bottoms.   They said that the man that unleashed its power would be the King of 3rd Street.”

9:47	Aaron:  And here’s oneof Kevin’s —- wait! What’s that doing here?

9:48	Aaron:  He licks the shaft. He swallows the gravy.

9:48	corygraham:  Kevin is a dildo miser.   He doesn’t share.   He’s known in “certain” circles as Dildjoe Lieberman

9:49	Aaron:  I prefer Sarah Im-Palin’.

****

HISTORY LESSON — So often, Republicans like to refer to themselves as “the Party of Lincoln” and refer to their great achievements of the past two hundred years, such as being the party that “ended slavery.”  This is true.  I will admit.  Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and he did, in fact, free the slaves.  As such, Republicans of today are correct in that a Republican was president of the United States when the slaves were freed during the Civil War period of the 1860’s. 

However, Republicans are not correct when they say they are the party of Lincoln.  Abraham Lincoln would be ashamed of the intolerant element that has seized control of his party.  Republican Abraham Lincoln might have freed the slaves, but two hundred years after that, Democrat Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and in response, Alabama showed their appreciation for those civil rights by voting against LBJ by a margin of 69 percent.    What do you think Honest Abe would have said to that?  And what do you really think Honest Abe would have said about today’s Republican party? 

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Uh-oh.  Get ready for Virginia to be the new Florida, come November: 

 

From InsideHigherEd.com:

 

Last week, Virginia’s Montgomery County, home to Virginia Tech, issued a press release regarding proper protocol for college students registering to vote. In interviews with Inside Higher Ed Tuesday, it was described by turns as “unsubstantiated,” “chilling,” and (more generously) as not “incredibly encouraging or friendly.”

It reads, in part: “The Code of Virginia states that a student must declare a legal residence in order to register. A legal residence can be either a student’s permanent address from home or their current college residence. By making Montgomery County your permanent residence, you have declared your independence from your parents and can no longer be claimed as a dependent on their income tax filings — check with your tax professional. If you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding. And, if you change your registration to Montgomery County, Virginia Code requires you to change your driver’s license and car registration to your present address within 30 days.”

The county registrar of elections said Tuesday that the memo was intended to counteract the absence of cautionary information given to students signed up through the ubiquitous get-out-the-vote registration drives. Generally speaking, however, those interviewed for this article said the warnings are, at worst, farfetched and misleading, or, at best, overstated and not typically supported in reality.

And, in a year in which historic youth voter turnout is anticipated, and the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been propelled by college students’ support, this case in the battleground state of Virginia is “not an isolated incident,” said Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director for the Student Public Interest Research Group’s nonpartisan New Voters Project.

“For a county registrar to issue what really are in our experience unsubstantiated warnings for a particular demographic is alarming,” said Jahagirdar. “It’s upsetting that this is coming up in Virginia. But it’s even more upsetting that the ability of young people to vote is questioned in many other states too.”

She added: “In 25 years of registering young voters around the country, none of the staff has ever heard of a single incident where a student has lost their tax status or their scholarship because of where they’ve registered to vote.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s campaign, which has been registering voters on Virginia Tech’s campus, has called the information propagated by the county “erroneous.” The campaign’s Virginia spokesman, Kevin Griffis, cited an exemption in the U.S. tax code allowing dependents to live away from home while attending school.

And he said that while students should check with their individual health insurers, in the campaign’s calls to 10 top health insurance companies, none indicated that registering to vote at a college address would be grounds for dismissing students from coverage, “and in fact some of them laughed at us.” (In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Lynne High, a spokeswoman for the mammoth United Healthcare, echoed that students covered on their parents’ health insurance plans aren’t affected if they register to vote in another state.)

“We should be trying to engage as many people as possible in the political process, and have them take part in the civic life of their communities. In the case of students at Virginia Tech, their community is Blacksburg. That’s where they live; that’s where they call home. They should be able to vote there,” Griffis said. (The campaign of the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, did not return a call to its Virginia state office Tuesday.)

 

SEE ABOVE.

I’ve added a couple of things to the top of aaronsaylor.com.  Of particular note is the video in the upper right corner, which I encourage everyone to watch.  And watch.  And watch.  And share with all your friends.  And watch.  And watch.

It’s worth noting that now, when the Republicans are presented with their one big moment to capture the nation’s attention, they are trotting out Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson and Cindy “The Outfit I Wore Last Night Cost $300,000, More Than Your Whole Damn House” McCain.  They are preaching hate and divisvenesss, screeching sarcasm and lies, and showing utter disregard for truth and human decency — and contempt for everyone outside that Minneapolis convention center.  And tonight the topper: they are showing distasteful, slow-motion videos of 9/11 in yet another attempt to scare us to death.  

(In contrast, watch the video above.)

SARAH PALIN IS SO GREAT. I JUST LOVE HER.

It’s just nauseating, this collective hard-on that the conservative faithful have for Sarah Palin.  

Which really says everything you need to hear about said conservative faithful, that they would be so willing to go into spastic love fits over a woman with whom most of them were totally unfamiliar just a week ago.  They were told to love her, and they loved her so.