Inevitable

by digby

They are going back to their roots. I would look for this in Arizona and New Mexico, but it could crop up in any of the western states and Florida too.

——– Original Message ——–

Subject:	Stop Obama’s Aunti and 10 Million Illegal Alien Voters
Date:	Sun, 2 Nov 2008 11:54:37 -0600
From:	MinutemanHQ

National O Minuteman Poll Watch 2008 Stop Obama’s Aunti and 10 Million Illegal Alien Voters Report Voter Fraud

7558 W. Thunderbird Road Ste. 1 PMB 622 Peoria, AZ 85381 &nb sp; Phone (520) 829-3112

ALERT: All Minutemen, Minutemen Supporters and Patriots Operation “Poll Watch 2008” We Need Minutemen at your Local Polling Places Tuesday, November4th – All Day and Night Call Your Local Campaign Office TODAY Ask Them if Obama’s Aunti Is Registered to Vote? Tell to Keep Illegal Alien Away for the Polls as You Will Be Watching Is Obama’s Illegal Alien Aunti Zeituni Also A Registered Voter? According to the AP story : ‘Obama aunt from Kenya living in US illegally’ By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judg e who denied her asylum request. I must ask the question – If experts believe there could be more than 10 million such illegal immigrants in the United States – does that also mean that 10 million illegal votes could be cast as a result of incompetence and or blatant fraud? I have received so many positive responses to our call to civic duty – as Minuteman poll watchers. We discover we have many Minuteman volunteers who are officially inside the polls as watchers and many others who will be positioned outside the 75-100 ft. neutral zone that surrounds polling locations. Just as a neighborhood watch, civic minded Americans will be working to keep our polling locations safe and secured to those who have the right to vote in our elections. Along with illegal alien workers who display blatant disregard for our laws to enter the U.S. we also know that last year alone in the just the Tucson sector of Arizona over 46,000 arrested and convicted murderers, sexual predators, drug dealers and violent criminals re-entered our country after they committed crimes in the U.S. and were removed by deportation. Could they have also cast a vote in your state? We know millions of illegal aliens who have stolen identities of U.S. citizens could also be casting illegal votes. Not only should we stand vigilant to ensure the rights of all who have a legal right to vote to do so in safety and assurance of the integrity of the system. When you vote, please insist that your poll worker asks for and checks your I.D. The right to vote is precious and the future of our democracy hangs in the balance. Protect yourselves with video cameras and spend a few hours at your local polling places and be vigilant to document anything that may be out of the ordinary or suspicious especially the busloads of people who will arrive at many locations around the country. Please wear your MCDC hats and shirts and follow the SOP – no verbal contact, just quiet and vigilant observation and documentation. Remember that in 2004 the Columbus Dispatch reported that illegal alien Nuradin Abdi—the suspected shopping mall bomb plotter from Somalia—was registered to vote in the battleground state of Ohio by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a left-wing activist group. Also on the Ohio voting rolls: convicted al Qaeda agent Lyman Faris, who planned to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge and had entered the country fraudulently from Pakistan on a student visa. [“Long gone but still registered Ohio’s Election Day rolls include people who couldn’t—and shouldn’t—vote, October 24, 2004, Jon Craig The Columbus Dispatch”] There are many more documented accounts of rampant voter fraud from Wisconsin to Florida but thankfully not here in Arizona, voters made sure of that by passing prop 200 in 2004. However in many other states fraud is actually encouraged and many organizations will likely aggressively oppose basic ID requirements at the polls. And they have legions of attorneys standing by to protect people potentially voting illegally from election officials who ask for proof of I.D. who will be accused of harassment and intimidation. They will be accused of disenfranchising the poor and the minorities—never mind the damaging effect of unchecked voter fraud on law, order, and the integrity of our electoral system. WHO: Thousands of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Volunteers WHAT: Operation “Poll Watch 2008”- A national muster to make sure legal U.S. residents and registered voters are allowed to vote. WHEN: November 4th, Nationwide WHERE: On Duty at Local Polling Locations in Every City and Town in the United States. Our Government is still NOT DOING ITS JOB! On November 4th Minutemen will be on duty to be sure you get to vote. YOU can make a REAL DIFFERENCE. So, for your sake, for the sake of your children, your grandchildren, and for generations to come, please help MCDC continue its fight to protect and preserve the United States of America and defend our Constitution. Select Here to Donate to the November Operations Support Fund https://secure.conservativedonations.com/minutemanhq/? a=1854 Sincerely for these United States, Chris Simcox, President Carmen Mercer, Vice President

Registered Voter By Birth

by dday

As the last of the lawsuits against ACORN gets laughed out of court, and as Republican Secretaries of State grumble about having to reinstate voters to the rolls, it’s clear that, no matter what happens in the election, this insanity around voter registration and zombie lies about voter fraud has to stop. Exhibit A is the fact that John McCain’s own head of his “Honest And Open Election Committee” can’t name any evidence of voter fraud.

But Ronald Michaelson, a veteran election administrator and member of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, said in an interview that he could not name a single instance in which this had occurred.

“Do we have a documented instance of voting fraud that resulted from a phony registration form? No, I can’t cite one, chapter and verse,” he said […]

Asked for specifics about the dangers of fake registration, Ben Porritt, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, provided links to 13 news clips and a 2003 Missouri state auditor’s report. Eleven of the cases did not involve registration fraud. Two recounted how felons appeared to have cast illegal votes under their own names. The lone example of a forged registration leading to an illegitimate vote comes from The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund, who in April 2006 wrote that a community organizer had improperly registered a noncitizen, and “someone eventually voted in [the noncitizen’s] name.”

Michaelson, who served for 27 years as executive director of the Illinois Board of Elections, said the sharp exchanges over registration fraud have undermined voters’ confidence in the electoral system.

“The fact that so many of these illegal registrations are being made public raises a perception in the minds of people,’’ he said. “That’s more of a general concern. You don’t want to perpetuate the idea that our election process is lacking integrity.”

Asked whether his own party was responsible for fostering that perception, Michaelson said, “Well, it doesn’t help. It has captured the attention of a lot of people.” Why do it, then? “Maybe it’s because there’s nothing else to talk about,” he said.

Boy, he is part of a committee with the word “honest” in it, isn’t he?

This is one of those “problems” that actually has a solution, a very smart and nonpartisan solution that would be simple to implement and would eliminate a lot of unnecessary labor. Rick Hasen asks for America to nationalize voter registration.

The solution is to take the job of voter registration for federal elections out of the hands of third parties (and out of the hands of the counties and states) and give it to the federal government. The Constitution grants Congress wide authority over congressional elections. The next president should propose legislation to have the Census Bureau, when it conducts the 2010 census, also register all eligible voters who wish to be registered for future federal elections. High-school seniors could be signed up as well so that they would be registered to vote on their 18th birthday. When people submit change-of-address cards to the post office, election officials would also change their registration information.

This change would eliminate most voter registration fraud. Government employees would not have an incentive to pad registration lists with additional people in order to keep their jobs. The system would also eliminate the need for matches between state databases, a problem that has proved so troublesome because of the bad quality of the data. The federal government could assign each person a unique voter-identification number, which would remain the same regardless of where the voter moves. The unique ID would prevent people from voting in two jurisdictions, such as snowbirds who might be tempted to vote in Florida and New York. States would not have to use the system for their state and local elections, but most would choose to do so because of the cost savings.

There’s something in this for both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats talk about wanting to expand the franchise, and there’s no better way to do it than the way most mature democracies do it: by having the government register voters. For Republicans serious about ballot integrity, this should be a winner as well. No more ACORN registration drives, and no more concerns about Democratic secretaries of state not aggressively matching voters enough to motor vehicle databases.

Finally, universal voter registration is good for the country, not only because it will make it easier for those who wish to vote to do so, but because it should end controversy over ballot integrity that threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our election process. If President McCain or Obama makes this a priority, we can have the system ready in time for the president’s re-election.

Of course, Republicans aren’t serious about ballot integrity, and their opposition to this would prove it. They just want something to carp about and undermine confidence in elections. In addition, there’s a credible concern, given how the current government has politicized the Department of Justice and the General Services Administration, that giving over voter registration to them might have dangerous consequences.

But of course, there are Republican Secretaries of State doing that politicization right now. And wouldn’t it be nice to create an election system where people don’t have to turn in a form or remember to vote at an old precinct if they missed the cutoff, a system designed to make voting easier instead of harder?

This is but one possible innovation in elections (like expanding early voting access, making Election Day a weekend or a holiday, instant runoff voting, a mandate for paper ballots, abolishing the Electoral College, etc., etc.), but it certainly would help to defuse this massive hissy fit we hear every four years like clockwork. I’d love to see Republicans oppose the concept of registering every American to vote.

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The Inmates Take Over The Asylum

by digby

They can’t control them anymore:

You’d think 21-year-old Kristi Burton would be feted by the pro-life establishment. Though she still lives with her parents in Peyton, Colo., and is only partway through law school, Burton has already succeeded where other anti-abortion activists have failed: Last month she got a proposed amendment to her state’s constitution on the ballot that defines a fertilized human egg as a person, the first in the nation. Amendment 48 allows a challenge to the very legality of abortion and has at least a chance of passing, thanks to Burton’s sheer single-mindedness. Last June she founded her own group, Colorado for Equal Rights, and recruited her parents as its first volunteers and donors. Burton spent 40-hour weeks canvassing at churches and garden shows. She needed 76,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot; she collected more than 130,000. The group now has eight staff members and more than $500,000 in donations.

Yet Burton has not received much support for Amendment 48 from her most natural allies—the country’s major pro-life groups. Heavyweights like National Right to Life and Americans United for Life are not backing it. “There are other ways to protect human life that we focus on because we believe they are the most effective,” says Clark Forsythe, president of Americans United for Life. Although pro-life leaders generally agree with Burton that life begins at fertilization, they fear a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade would ultimately be slapped down by the Supreme Court—still at least one vote shy of an anti-Roe majority—setting back the movement. “The established pro-life movement feels … we should stop trying to overturn Roe because the time isn’t right,” says Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative public-interest firm that has advised Amendment 48. “Then there is this huge grassroots movement saying it’s immoral not to try and save innocent lives.”

This young woman undoubtedly believes that most people agree that life begins at conception. She isn’t interested in the thorny problem of what to do with women who have abortions if the fertilized egg is considered a “person” — meaning the woman has logically committed premeditated murder. And she doesn’t care that challenging Roe may very well result in its being upheld. She believes she is doing God’s work and doesn’t see why she should pull her punches when the truth, as she sees it, is obvious.

I actually have far more respect for her than I do the smarmy, institutional anti-abortion careerists who have milked this issue for all its worth for over thirty years for political and personal gain. They have known from the beginning that they would never be able to satisfy their true believers because there was never any way in hell that the country would stand for prosecuting women for having abortions. And that is where the true believers’ principles inevitably lead them. It’s a scam.

Colorado is looking good for Obama and let’s hope that results in the defeat of this absurd proposition. But at some point, they’ll probably be able to get a case like this before the Supreme Court. And that, of course, is yet another reason why it’s so important to elect Obama.

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We’ll Always Have Tom

by tristero

Friedman surpasses himself:

First, we need a president who can speak English and deconstruct and navigate complex issues so Americans can make informed choices.

Then, we need pundits who can write good.

No To Prop Hate: Volunteers Desperately Needed

by tristero

Digby also posted on this, but it’s so important, I’d also like to jump in. No On Prop 8, the pushback on the despicable anti-marriage initiative on the California ballot desperately needs 1000 volunteers to GOTV. I would join up in a heartbeat if I lived anywhere near California (I’ll be doing GOTV on election day in Pennsylvania after I vote in NYC).

Sign up here to work to defeat Prop Hate. In an email, they told me they are in a dead heat. Prop Hate will deny marriage to loving couples. It is rank discrimination of the ugliest sort.

I’d like point to out that while opposition to Prop Hate is a civil rights issue of critical importance to the GLBT community, the right to marry the person you love is a fundamental civil right that impacts everyone. Oppressive societies throughout history have discriminated against couples not only on the basis of sexual orientation but also because of race, creed, religion, political views, and nearly any other difference bigots happen to obsess over. It is not a Christian principle to oppose marriages but a cynical political initiative fueled by well-funded extremists with a purely secular will to power. It would be not only a moral outrage if Prop Hate passes, but deeply dangerous to the always fragile wall of separation between Church and State.

Vote NO on Prop Hate. And people in or near California, sign up to volunteer now to GOTV and help defeat rightwing extremism.

Saturday Night At The Movies

The Docu-horror Picture Show

By Dennis Hartley

Whatever happened to Fay Wray?

In honor of Halloween weekend (we can call it that, when Halloween falls on a Friday, right?), and in a desperate search of a theme for this week’s post (heh), I thought I’d eschew the usual “Top 10 Horror Films” tact in favor of something REALLY scary-real life. Because, let’s face it. Try as they might, Hollywood can never really match the thrills, the chills and grotesqueries of, say, reading the newspaper, watching CNN, going online to look at your 401k, popping into a Denny’s at 3am, or waiting for next Tuesday’s results. Documentary filmmakers have been on to this little secret for years.

So forget the exploding squibs, the fakey Karo syrup blood and severed prosthetic limbs-here’s my Top 10 list of creepy, scary, frightening, haunting, spine-tingling tales that you literally could not make up (as per usual, in no particular ranking order). Er….”enjoy”?

The Atomic Cafe-Whoopee we’re all gonna die! In a big, scary mushroom cloud. But along the way, we might as well have a few laughs. That seems to be the impetus behind this harrowingly funny compilation of U.S. government propaganda shorts from the Cold War era, that were originally designed to “educate” the public about how to best “survive” a nuclear attack (all you have to do is get under a desk…everyone knows that!). In addition to the Civil Defense campaigns (which include the classic “duck and cover” tutorials) the filmmakers have drawn from a rich vein of military training films, which generally reduce the possible effects of a nuclear strike to something akin to a barrage of shelling from, oh I don’t know… a really big field howitzer. The genius of the film lies in its complete lack of narration (irony speaks louder than words, too). This also gives the film a timeless quality; you could very easily apply its “message” to the current world stage (everything old is new again). It makes a perfect double bill with Dr. Strangelove.

Brother’s Keeper– An absolutely riveting documentary about a dirt-poor, semi-literate rural upstate New York farmer named Delbert Ward, who was charged with murdering his brother in 1990. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky follow a year or so in the life of Delbert and his two surviving brothers, as they weather the pressures of the trial and the media circus that surrounds it. The clock seems to have stopped around 1899 on the aging bachelor brothers’ run-down farm, where they live together in relative seclusion in a small, unheated shack (at times, one is reminded of the family in the classic X-Files episode, “Home”) The prosecution claims that the brothers conspired to kill their ailing sibling, coming up with some rather oddball motives. The defense attorney’s conjecture is that the victim died of natural causes, and that Delbert was coerced by law enforcement into signing a written confession (admitting a “mercy killing”), thereby taking advantage of the fact that he was uneducated. He also cagily riles up the town folk to rally behind “the boys” by portraying the D.A. and investigating authorities as city slickers, out to railroad a simple farmer. Is Delbert really “simple”? Watch and decide.

The Corporation – While it’s not exactly news to any thinking person that corporate greed and manipulation affects everyone’s life on this planet in one way or the other, co-directors Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott have managed to deliver the message in a unique and engrossing fashion. By applying a point-by-point psychological “profile” to the base rudiments of “corporate think”, Achbar and Abbott build a solid case to prove that if the “corporation” were, um, corporeal, “he” would be Norman Bates. Mixing archival footage with observations from the expected talking heads (Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, etc.) and the unexpected (some CEOs who are actually sympathetic with the filmmaker’s point of view) along with the colorful (a self-professed “corporate spy” who makes McCain’s ratfuckers look like Boy Scouts), the film gives us the full perspective not only from the watchdogs, but from the belly of the beast itself. There are enough audacious “exposes” trotted out to keep conspiracy theorists, environmentalists and human rights activists tossing and turning in sweat-soaked sheets for nights on end.

The Cruise-I used to hang out with a co-worker who had a bit of an enigmatic soul. He would pace about his living room, quaffing beers and expounding on the universe. Sometimes, he would stop dead in his tracks, give me a faraway look, and say, “Trust me, Dennis-you don’t want to be in here,” while stabbing a finger at his forehead. Then, he would resume with his pacing and his (always entertaining) pontificating. The idea of being in someone else’s head is always a bit “horror show”, don’t you think? If you can take it, you might want to check out this one-of-a-kind doc that spends nearly 80 minutes in “here”. Specifically, inside the head of one Tim “Speed” Levitch, a tour guide for Manhattan’s Gray Line double-decker buses. Levitch’s world view is, um, interesting, to say the least. And he is nothing, if not verbose. Is he crazy? Is he some kind of post-modern prophet? Or is he just another eccentric, fast-talking New Yorker? It’s a strange, unique and weirdly exhilarating roller coaster ride through the consciousness of being.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston -The full horror of schizophrenia can only be truly known by those who are afflicted, but this rockumentary about cult alt-folk singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston comes pretty close to being the next worse thing to actually being there. Johnston has waged an internal battle between inspired creativity and mental illness for most of his life (not unlike Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson and Joe Meek). The filmmakers recount a series of apocryphal stories about how Johnston, like Chance the Gardener in Being There
, stumbles innocently and repeatedly into the right place at the right time, steadily amassing a sizeable grass roots following. Everything appears to be set in place for his Big Break, until an ill-advised tryst with hallucinogenic substances sends him (literally) spiraling into complete madness. While on a private plane flight with his pilot father, Johnston has a sudden epiphany that he is Casper the Friendly Ghost, and decides to wrest the controls, causing the plane to crash. Both men walk away relatively unscathed, but Daniel is soon afterwards committed to a mental hospital. The story becomes even more surreal, as Johnston is finally “discovered” by the major labels, who engage in a bidding war while their potential client is still residing in the laughing house (only in America). By turns darkly humorous, sad, and inspiring.

Grey Gardens -“The Aristocrats!” There’s no murder or mayhem involved in this real-life Gothic character study by renowned documentarians Albert and David Maysles (Salesman , Gimme Shelter), but you’ll still find it to be quite creepy. Edith Bouvier Beale (who was in her early 80s at the time of filming) and her middle aged daughter Edie were living under decidedly less than hygienic conditions in a spooky old dark manor in East Hampton, L.I. with a menagerie of cats and raccoons when the brothers decided to profile them (their halcyon “high society” days were, needless to say, behind them). The fact that the women were related to Jackie O (Edith the elder was her aunt) makes this Fellini-esque nightmare even more twisted. You are not likely to encounter a mother-daughter combo quite like “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” more than once in a lifetime. The intrinsic camp value of the Edies was not lost on Broadway; a musical adaptation (I think that’s a first for a documentary) ran for 2 years. Coming soon: a dramatized version produced by HBO with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore (oy vay).

In the Realms of the Unreal -Artist Henry Darger is not usually mentioned in the same breath as Picasso, but he nonetheless makes for a fascinating study. Darger was a nondescript recluse who worked as a janitor for his entire adult life. He had no significant relationships of record and died in obscurity in 1973. While sorting out the contents of the small Chicago apartment he had lived in for years, his landlady discovered a treasury of artwork and writings, including over 300 paintings. The centerpiece was an epic, 15,000-page illustrated novel, which Darger had meticulously scribed in long hand over a period of decades (it was literally his life’s work). The subject at hand: An entire mythic alternate universe populated mostly by young, naked hermaphrodites (the”Vivian girls”). Although it’s tempting to dismiss Darger as a filthy old pervert, until you have actually seen the astonishing breadth of Darger’s monster from the id, spilled out over so many pages and so much canvas, it’s hard to convey how weirdly mesmerizing it all is (especially if you catch an exhibit, which I saw here in Seattle last year). The doc mixes Darger’s bio with animation of his artwork, and actors supplying narration from his tome.

An Inconvenient Truth– It’s the end of the world as we know it. Apocalyptic sci-fi has become scientific fact-now that’s scary. Former VP/Oscar winner Al Gore is a Power Point-packing Rod Serling, submitting a gallery of nightmare nature scenarios for our disapproval. I’m tempted to say that this chilling look at the results of unchecked global warming is only showing us the tip of the proverbial iceberg…but it’s melting too fast.

Sicko – Torture porn for the uninsured! Our favorite agitprop filmmaker, Michael Moore, grabs your attention right out of the gate with a real Bunuel moment. Over the opening credits, we are treated to shaky home video depicting a man pulling up a flap of skin whilst patiently stitching up a gash on his knee with a needle and thread, as Moore deadpans in V.O. (with his cheerful Midwestern countenance) that the gentleman is an avid cyclist- and one of the millions of Americans who cannot afford health insurance. The film proceeds to delve into some of the other complexities contributing to the overall ill health of our current system; such as the monopolistic power and greed of the pharmaceutical companies, the lobbyist graft, and (perhaps most horrifying of all) the compassionless bureaucracy of a privatized health “coverage” system that focuses first and foremost on profit, rather than on actual individual need. Better eat your Wheaties.

Zoo -When the Seattle press originally broke the story of a Boeing engineer dying from a perforated colon as the result of his “love” for horses, that alone was weird and disturbing enough (not to mention the cruelty to animals angle). But when it was revealed that the deceased was a member of a sizable group of like-minded individuals, calling themselves “zoophiles”, who traveled from all parts of the country to converge on a farm where their “special needs” were catered to, I remember thinking that it was a scenario beyond the ken of a Cronenberg or a Lynch; it was horror in the most abject sense of the word. That being said, there is still a “bad car wreck” fascination about the tale, resulting in an eerie, compelling and thought-provoking Errol Morris-style documentary about the darkest side of (in) human desire. To their credit, filmmakers Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede keep a sensitive, neutral tone; it is not as exploitative as you might assume.

Previous posts with related themes:

Oh come, all ye Pagans: DVDs for All Hallows Eve

Divine Trash, Hidden Jewels-Part 2: Klaus Kinski

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California Emergency

by digby

I know you’re tired of hearing this from me, but it’s important. The ban gay marriage amendment, prop 8, is in a dead heat right now and the campaign is having a hard time getting people fired up to help GOTV. In this historic, progressive year it is just unthinkable that we in California would let a bunch of backwards, segregationist, religious extremists actually take away fundamental civil rights.

I had a conversation with a gay friend of mine last night who is extremely political and simply didn’t realize that a big Obama win here in California might not translate into a victory for No on Prop 8. It doesn’t scan, right? Liberals in liberal California voting in big numbers means support for gay marriage. But the fact is that there a quite a few conservative Democrats and “moderate” Republicans who may very well vote for Obama this time out, but who are opposed to gay marriage. Obama himself is opposed to gay marriage, although he did quietly announce his opposition to Prop 8.

We especially need the young voters to turn out big in California. They instinctively understand this as a basic issue of discrimination and fairness and have the most stake in the future. They need to vote and they need to help get out the vote. We all do.

If you think I’m being hyperbolic, here’s the ad about “The Call” again so you’ll know just what kind of crazy we are dealing with:

Here’s where to go if you can help. Send the link around to anyone you know who can help.

As much as I will be proud and excited if Obama wins this election, it will not be a truly progressive victory is we let these forces of the dark ages succeed in changing the constitution of the most populous state in the union — a state which Obama is poised to win hugely — to expressly discriminate against its citizens. It shouldn’t happen.

No on Prop Hate.

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Because I Need It

by digby

I’m a little bit stressed out and I expect that many of you are too. I need a little break. (If you are an animal-phobe or a serious cynic, don’t bother to read further.)

For the rest of you, I offer cute zoo animals eating birthday cake:

More at the link.

And here.

And OMG.

ok, I’m done.

Sharp Tip

by digby

This is such a great idea, I hope all the Randites adopt it and it sweeps the nation:

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a law professor at the University of Tennessee and author of the blog “Instapundit.” His wife, Helen Smith, is also a blogger as well as a forensic psychologist who writes this blog. Yesterday she came up with an idea to deal with uppity Obama voters, at least those who are waiters and waitresses. In a post, linked to by her husband, entitled “Should You Tip Less in an Obama Administration?”, she writes:

I often tip generously both because I have been a waitress and because I think it is important to reward people who work. However, if Obama gets in (and it is still an if), perhaps tipping less or not at all would be a good way to save money as a way of “going John Galt.” Yet, is it fair to the person who is stiffed? What about a compromise, just tipping less? What do you think?

So Dr. Helen’s idea for “going John Galt” is to get and other “Atlases” (picture of her husband) to not only stop holding up the world but stop tipping those who only hold up plates and trays for these world carriers.

That will teach them to vote Obama! To be fair, she doesn’t actually advocate stopping the practice, well common courtesy, of tipping. She is simply proposing “just tipping less.” Don’t stiff them, just cut their wages down. After all, they’re paid a whopping $2.01 per hour to bring you your lunch.

As if this weren’t arrogant enough, she then goes even further, suggesting that along with a lower tip, other “Atlases” should leave notes, referencing Obama:

I’ve been thinking. If Obama is elected, maybe in lieu of a tip I should leave a note like the following:

HOPE AND CHANGE FOR AMERICA: Spreading the Wealth Around.

In lieu of a tip, $_____ has been donated to the Re-Elect Obama for President Campaign. Thank you for supporting the man and the movement that are bringing America together!

If enough people leave notes like this, I’m sure it will galvanize waitpeople everywhere in support of The One!

That’ll teach ’em to vote for Obama. Why all those dumb waitresses will get so mad at Obama because their customers are giving him their tips that they’ll never vote for a Democrat again! A wicked, cunning plan, it is.

It’s a good thing that Dr Helen is a psychologist who studies dead people because her understanding of living human behavior is seriously lacking.

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White Noise

by digby

The New York Times does a nice feature today on Media Matters, running down how it works and speculating about its effect on the election.

But the most interesting, and predictable, part is this:

“I don’t pay any attention to them,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, a Washington newsletter. “Whether it’s conservatives evaluating the media, or liberals evaluating the media, I just have no confidence in any of the ideological stuff.”

Moreover, for all the organization’s culling, the sheer number of items it pumps out can be overwhelming to those reporters who cover the news media, or the campaign.

“At the risk of incurring their wrath,” said Mark Z. Barabak, a political reporter for The Los Angeles Times who has covered the Obama and McCain campaigns, “I think it does become, at a certain point, white noise.”

Similarly, David Folkenflik, the media correspondent for National Public Radio, said: “They’re looking at every dangling participle, every dependent clause, every semicolon, every quotation — to see if it there’s some way it unfairly frames a cause, a party, a candidate, that they may have some feelings for.”

That said, Mr. Folkenflik said the organization was a source of useful leads, in part because of the “breadth of their research.”

Yes, they are ridiculously thorough, which is the kind of thing mainstream reporters and political analysts just hate. Stuart Rothenberg simply discounts all information that doesn’t come from allegedly neutral sources. I’d love to know what he thinks those are. (I guess all those videos and documentation from Media Matters are just so booooring to have to look through to evaluate if what they are saying is true. So much easier to just put your fingers in your ears and your faith in Cokie Roberts.)

But this is really funny coming from one of Newtie’s creations:

“I think they are one of the most destructive organizations associated with American politics today,” said Frank Luntz, a pollster for Rudolph W. Giuliani and Newt Gingrich who this year has led on-camera voter focus groups on Fox News, a frequent Media Matters target. “They are vicious. They only understand one thing: attack, attack, attack.”

“If I were a Democrat, I would tell them to shut up,” Mr. Luntz said. “If I were a Republican, I would tell my candidates to ignore them.”

I’ll bet he would:

Pollster Frank Luntz is crying foul after MSNBC canceled his long-scheduled focus group two days before the debate. Luntz, who is under contract to MSNBC, had already spent $30,000 on recruits for several focus groups and invited reporters in Florida to watch — only to be told that the network didn’t want to declare a winner in the debate.

“I think they buckled to political pressure,” says Luntz, who has advised Republicans from Newt Gingrich to Rudy Giuliani but says he’s done no GOP work since 2001. “They caved. . . . Why is it that Democrats are allowed to do this” after leaving politics, “but Republicans aren’t?”

But MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines says: “We made a decision not to use focus groups as part of our debate coverage. This decision had nothing to do with Frank’s past work or politics. We think our viewers should be able to make up their own minds without ‘scientific’ help” — despite the fact that the network has prominently featured Luntz and his on-air focus groups for four years.

Luntz has criticized President Bush on occasion, and his non-televised focus group, ironically, favored Kerry in the debate. Some NBC executives find him extremely fair but believe his longtime GOP links create a perception problem.

“For me, nothing is more important than getting it right,” Luntz says. He says MSNBC bowed to pressure from conservative-turned-liberal activist David Brock in dumping him and that the network hasn’t even agreed to use him as an analyst — sans focus groups — in this week’s debates.

Luntz, of course, never left Republican politics. And he never stopped being a jackass:

LUNTZ: I always use the line for Nancy Pelosi, “You get one shot at a facelift. If it doesn’t work the first time, let it go.”

Just in case anyone wonders about the tedious “white noise” Media Matters is boring reporters with, here are just a few headlines from today:

• Cunningham alleged that “Obama wants to gas the Jews”

• In the days before the election, media figures have repeatedly compared Obama to Hitler

• Pressed by Juan Williams, Hannity again declined to express regret for hosting Andy Martin

• Foser: The Right’s “bias” charade

• Savage: “If you’re insane, hate the family … hate your mother and father, hate the Bible, hate the church, and hate the synagogue,” you oppose CA gay marriage ban

• Rose Tennent on Obama ad: “[D]on’t put that jive out there in front of me, devil, and tell me that these people are hurting when they are not hurting”

• Liddy: Obama is relying, in part, on “the welfare class” to win Pennsylvania

Who cares about all that icky stuff? What I want to know is whether or not Obama snapped at reporters for dogging him and his daughter on their way to a Holloween party. Now that’s important stuff.

Update: I’d forgotten that Rothenberg was embarrassed by Media Matters quite recently for saying this:

Voters shouldn’t judge a candidate by his skin color. Maybe, but is it any more unfair than, for example, saying that because McCain and President Bush are both Republicans that a McCain administration would produce a third Bush term? No, it isn’t.

I think he probably believes that.

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