Obama is Time's Person of the Year and Palin is still gross.

So Time has named Barack Obama Person of the Year. I may be a bit biased, but I think that there are a lot of reasons to argue why it was an obvious, yet good, choice. Charismatic and influential and there's still more than a month before he even takes office, but he is preparing for the switch swiftly and efficiently and has, so far, done a bang up job of picking a team to work with.

And then you go to Time's list of runners up. I get why she's on the list. After all, it's been a pretty stellar year for Sarah Palin. Going from no-name Alaska governor/"hockey mom" to a potential Republican Presidential nominee in 4 years is no small feat. And let's face it, I don't think I am alone in saying that I thought she would just putter out and fade back into the Alaskan wilderness, what will all of the scandals involving family and abuse of power, not to mention just being a 'crazy hillbilly on a shopping spree at Neiman Marcus coast to coast leaving in her wake crying assistants with huge personal credit card bills.'

But the Palin train just won't stop at the station. The time article does a decent job of covering the good and the bad, I guess. It touches briefly on the icky stuff, but it also seems to contain this overarching admiration which I will never understand. To a degree, it's been a better year than not for the Alaskan governor, but after all of it, can we really think that she is even fit to be in the running for person of the year? As much as I hope she just fades back into nothingness, I'd love it even more if the media would just let Palin-fever die out.

In the article, she is called a "one-woman rescue team for the Republican ticket." Really? Because while she may have united the Christian conservative movement behind the Republican ticket this go around, she scared the hell out of any right-leaning people I know who don't fall under the Christian conservative right - and scared most of them to the point to where they didn't even vote for McCain in the end. So I fully believe it could be argued that she lost as many or more votes than she gained for the campaign. Christian conservative were almost certainly going to vote Republican anyway - it is the Independents and fiscal conservatives that Palin needs and did not and probably will not get. The Time article quotes Limbaugh as saying "Palin = Guns, Babies, Jesus."

Maybe in previous elections the guns, babies, and Jesus bit worked, but in this election where we are still waging a war abroad most people aren't even sure we should have gotten into in the first place and facing failing economies here in the U.S. and around the world, suddenly those wedge issues all but disappeared for everyone except people like Sarah Palin.

Plus, Palin's general ignorance on any issues that were important didn't help, along with the "token woman" idea that Hillary supporters would vote Palin just because she was a woman. While I think that it is insane for Palin to be questioned on her ability to govern and be a mother at the same time, I also think that it is insane to hear Palin call herself a feminist or to be seen as any sort of a voice for women since not a single woman I know agreed with a single thing that came out of Palin's mouth or even remotely liked her at all. Certainly none of them voted for her purely on the basis that she's a woman. Part of me almost hopes she does stick around for 2012, purely because I believe what will happen this election will happen again: Independent and non-Christian conservatives will be scared off leaving her with another loss. But a tiny part of me asks, What if?? and frankly, I'm not much of a gambler, so I think I'll just stick to hoping the Palin's best year was 2008. Read more On "Obama is Time's Person of the Year and Palin is still gross."!

If you're going to commit a crime...

If you're going to commit a crime it should, obviously, be a white collar crime. As it turns out these white collar crimes are much more pardonable than anything else. But what you may not have known is that you're better off doing these things in the south. Apparently, Bush has a soft spot for the southerners.

Here's a list of of those who were pardoned: Andrew Foster Harley of Falls Church, Va. Harley was convicted of wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine.

_Obie Gene Helton of Rossville, Ga., whose offense was unauthorized acquisition of food stamps.

_Carey C. Hice Sr. of Travelers Rest, S.C., who was convicted of income tax evasion.

_Geneva Yvonne Hogg of Jacksonville, Fla., convicted of bank embezzlement.

_William Hoyle McCright Jr. of Midland, Texas, who was sentenced for making false entries, books, reports or statements to a bank.

_Paul Julian McCurdy of Sulphur, Okla., who was sentenced for misapplication of bank funds.

_Robert Earl Mohon Jr. of Grant, Ala., who was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

_Ronald Alan Mohrhoff of Los Angeles, who was convicted for unlawful use of a telephone in a narcotics felony.

_Daniel Figh Pue III of Conroe, Texas, convicted of illegal treatment, storage and disposal of a hazardous waste without a permit.

_Orion Lynn Vick of White Hall, Ark., who was convicted of aiding and abetting the theft of government property.

Bush also commuted the prison sentences of John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., and James Russell Harris of Detroit, Mich. Both were convicted of cocaine offenses.

Morale of the Story: go commit crimes in the south!

Read more On "If you're going to commit a crime..."!

and now for something completely different

check out more from change.gov


Read more On "and now for something completely different"!

Our post-election world..

Now that the election is over and the Republicans are being ousted this is what FoxNews is covering...

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10712070&ch=4226713&src=news Read more On "Our post-election world.."!

Sarah Palin is so dumb....

In case you missed Friday's Daily Show...


http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=209420&title=sarah-palin-is-so-dumb...
Read more On "Sarah Palin is so dumb...."!

I could get used to this

What party was talking about a permanent majority again?


(ok ok so things will most certainly shift to some sort of median, but its still our honeymoon period so lets just imagine all people of our generation keeping the same good sense as they have had for the past two elections)
Read more On "I could get used to this"!

Hopefully she'll just fade back into the Alaskan nothingness.

So, true to her tricksy ways, Palin fails to disappoint in the newest series of items coming from what's left of the McCain campaign. Let's see if I can get this straight:

Palin is a complete hellmonster diva who regularly made staffers cry all while thinking her shit was so hot that top McCain aides could barely hold themselves back while she prances around in a towel shrieking about Africa being a country in North America and rehashing Bill Ayers, whoever that is, without McCain campaign approval all while making low-level staffers charge "tens of thousands" of dollars to their personal credit cards and laughing manically while being "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast" with the First Dude and the rest of the wolf pack.

But then again, she was somehow able to contain herself Election Night when she was told by top McCain aides to shut the hell up, choosing instead to head back to Alaska in a 12-car motorcade while McCain just drove himself home while crying.

Whoa. Evidently, $150,000 was a LOW estimate, which is pretty amazing and even though she returned to Alaska, followed by a GOP lawyer who wants those clothes back, to chants of "2012", it looks like Palin's political career may be walking that long green mile. Though, a former McCain-supporter turned Obama voter said yesterday that he would bet money that she'll nominate herself to replace Senator Stevens when he has to go off to jail, which if legal, seems like a weird conflict of interest, though we all know that she isn't above whipping out a little abuse of power to lash doubters with. What a woman.
Read more On "Hopefully she'll just fade back into the Alaskan nothingness."!

Free sticker

Some of you may already be aware of this offer, but just in case:

Moveon.org is offering "Yes we did" stickers for free...even the shipping is free.

Here is the link. Throughout the campaign I managed a free Obama/Biden sticker, two free Obama buttons and now my sticker is on its way! I love moveon.org. For more reasons than that they just give me free stuff, too.

https://pol.moveon.org/shepstickers/?id=15080-10104754-NEE49fx&t=5

Enjoy. Read more On "Free sticker"!

Yes we did

It's been quiet here because I think we all got too caught up in history. I was there in Grant Park when we made history and I may be exaggerating a bit but what the hell I'll just say it, it was the greatest night of my life! I've never seen a bigger outlet of happiness and togetherness. Yes we did. Yes we can. Yes we will.

On the lighter side just read this web address, dont click the link, read what tha address here is http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2008/11/obamas-white-ho.html notice anything off?

Ok you should have seen it by now, Obamas white ho? McCain must be shaking his head this couldn't have been an October surprise. Oh well!
Read more On "Yes we did"!

Obamamercial

7:00 Here we go with Obama's big TV buy, 30 minutes to lay out his case. Will it be a smart move? When is McCain's super expensive ad gonna start?

7:05 - Obama talks to confused old people about pension, they lean forward as he says the word gift, but then they realize theres no gifts and lean back

Right after this Obama says a good line, grow the economy, his policies don't grow the goverment

7:07 - So that's who works at wal-mart, nice touch not revealing that till the end. Also subtely showed the old black couple reading the bible

7:11 - Topic change to Iraq. Focusing on the monetary cost of the war. CEO of Google! Obama is so cool, Google wants him to be president.

7:14 - Got up for a bit and now Obama is talking about some teacher with a snotty looking teenage girl.

Moving on to kids, smart use of soundbites from old Obama speeches. Good mix so far of typical types of puffing while actually put down some good bio on Barack and outlying things that are at least a little specific like his economic plans.

7:16 - Talking about Obama growing up, pretty sure this segment is the same video played at the DNC, or at least part of it.

7:18 - Obama talking about his work with Bill Ayers to improve schools... just kidding! Barry just laying down how he's fixed schools all by himself, without anyone named Bill or William.

7:20 - Obama reads Harry Potter and has thus captured the elusive 7-year old and nerd votes in one swoop! Program moving on to showing Obama has something called experience.

7:21 - Biden drops programs first "literally." Program is moving at a fast pace, seems like a good choice to keep Joe the watcher interested.

7:25 - One thought on these little bio's of average Americans they are doing, they better be true and ready to be investigated by every jerk on the right. Don't want to find out the wal-mart guy isn't a registered wal-mart worker.

7:27 - Good dramatic close, a good appeal to moderates I think with thet stuff about honesty and open government, now cutting to live Obama-event at the Obamadome (in Florida no less)!

Obama basically repeating his "closing argument speech" he's been giving all week.

7:30 - Well its over, the live thing was very short. Great idea to put up all the info about voting and how to find out where to vote. Seemed pretty good overall, not too presumptious like Chris Matthews was worried about. What do you people think?
Read more On "Obamamercial"!

This Election is Down to the Wire

We here at PWARB love The Wire, because we are all white liberal elites and therefore realize that it is/was the best show on television. So it is no surprise that some of the cast of The Wire share our feelings for Barack Obama, our other great love.
If you've seen the show, you know that being on the bad side of Marlo Stanfield and Chris Partlow means you're 'bout to get got. They are scary, scary men. Also scary is the newly chubby Carver... what happened there?
Read more On "This Election is Down to the Wire"!

Now McCain is laughing. Barbara West is just hilarious!

As a follow up to yesterday's post about WFTV's own Barbara West, here is an interview she did on CNN this morning to defend her Biden interview. She talks about how the media needs to be harder on the campaigns, but maybe she should take her own advice and be more critical of BOTH campaigns:



But better yet, in the interview she did yesterday with McCain, she was a little harder hitting. It's funny that she did this interview after all the criticism about her first McCain interview and the proverbial poo hit the fan all blogosphere-style.



First, I like how McCain's smile slowly, but eventually, fades throughout the interview. And he also uses the old "we're mavericks, we won't always agree" thing AGAIN. Give it up already. We get it. You two are just so wacky.

Plus, the way he is giggling and quivering about during the first half of the interview, he just looks like he's high.

She probably didn't realize that he was pretty serious when he said in the beginning not to ask any mean questions. I wonder if Barbara will get a third interview.

He also has the chance to go on and on about Obama's socialist tendencies and Biden's remarks about Obama's inexperience. Nothing like misrepresenting Obama's tax plan AGAIN. I've never heard people refer to Clinton as Bill the Socialist, and Obama's tax cuts would essentially be reverting back to the tax code in place in the mid-90s, which if I'm not mistaken wasn't such a bad time for everyone. And I don't know what McCain was listening to but Biden actually said that Obama would be tested AND HE COULD HANDLE IT BETTER THAN MCCAIN.

Oh, and Joe the Plumber. Again. From McCain. Give it up. The guy is a fake. He isn't actually a registered plumber and he is not ever going to buy the business he's been working at all these years because it is not real.
Read more On "Now McCain is laughing. Barbara West is just hilarious!"!

Now that's Spooky

Have any homicidal fantasies re:Palin? Apparently these dudes do.


This display is somewhere in my neighborhood. Is it wrong that I want to drive by on my way home? Another Palin-related West Hollywood fun fact: The mayor of West Hollywood has requested that none of the Drag Queens dress as Palin in the annual Halloween Parade extravaganza. The reason? She's too easy.

Confession time: Once, on a crazy night at the Grand Canyon I burned someone's image in effigy. It was fucking awesome and cathartic in a way I'd never known. I haven't done it since and I probably won't. At least, not until after November 4th. What would be a satisfying representation of Prop 8?


Read more On "Now that's Spooky"!

Biden thinks this lady is FUNNY!

This WFTV Orlando, FL based, Fox affiliate reporter, Barbara West just thinks that Biden McCain is the bee's knees. Watch as she tries to really tear apart Biden while asking him ridiculously "in the tank for McCain" questions and Joe just laughs because he can't believe that this lady is a real person:



Oh, Barbara, with those liberal hating questions I'd expect you to be foaming at the mouth, but you actually showed so little emotion that I didn't know whether or not you were really alive or if you were instead, a robot.

Meanwhile, her interview with McCain went a little differently:



Oops, there's a little bit of drool on the side of your mouth. Yeah, yeah, right there. Yeah, you got it.

Wow, lady. That's just awesome of you, as a "professional journalist", to ask such unbiased questions. You're a real hard hitter, asking those tough questions. Like how can Obama live with himself after trying to register Mickey Mouse to vote? And McCain why didn't you rip Obama apart for something he had no control over?

And I mean, let's face it, Obama wouldn't have tried to register Mickey Mouse anyway. Everyone knows he's been living it large under the Bush tax cuts, and since he makes more than $250,000 a year and would continue to fare better under McCain's tax plan anyway. Read more On "Biden thinks this lady is FUNNY!"!

Well, she IS a maverick!

McCain and Palin have been using the old "Well, we're mavericks! You surely can't expect us to agree on everything!" gag lately. I've heard Johnny use it in at least two separate interviews. Well, these days it looks like McCain and Palin may not be agreeing on much.

With reports of this "diva" ignoring talking points and "going rogue" and all, maybe ol' Sarahcuda has a little something something up her sleeve for 2012. Forget about dealing with John McCrazypants for the next 4 years and him trying to hold her back from the greatnessmess she could be!

Palin 2012, baby!

Read more On "Well, she IS a maverick!"!

McCain wants YOU...

Yes, sir. That's right. YOU, Joe the Plumber. McCain wants YOU.

This may actually be the most technologically advanced thing the McCain campaign has done to date. Hey everybody, tell us why you are poor and you hate it! McCain is really pushing this idea of Obama = "spreading the wealth" = socialism, when if you have been paying attention, Obama's tax plan would just be returning the tax code to somewhere NEAR where it was before Bush went all crazy hating on the middle class. And all of this even after Joe the Plumber ends up being a total fake.

Instead of asking, "Why should I be punished (+3%) for being more successful?", maybe Joe the Plumber needs to be asking, "Why do rich politicians try to tax me a higher percentage of my income to keep me from making enough money to be financially wealthy?" Read more On "McCain wants YOU..."!

The more I think about it...

... the more I think John McCain and I will have to agree to disagree on this. Not that we agree on much anyway. But just take a look at the uncommitted Ohio voters feelings on what the candidates are saying at the bottom of the screen. Evidently I'm not the only one who doesn't like what McCain is saying or how he is saying it.



The use of the term "pro-abortion" is one of the biggest problems I see with the entire issue of abortion. I hate that this issue of abortion is even raised at this point. It is, in this day and age, just an issue raised to rally a largely (not entirely) religious crowd behind a single issue that is never even touched once the president gets into office. I remember abortion being a huge issue in both of the 2000 and 2004 elections and what did GWB do about it? Nothing. Why? Because he just needed the issue to get elected.

But since the issue of abortion continues to be brought up, McCain's finger quotes around the "health of the mother" is insulting. Like the life of the mother means nothing compared to the fetus in her womb that may kill her. I wonder if McCain would use finger quotes like that when talking to someone who has been in that situation. I wonder what McCain would do if it were his wife in such a position.

More importantly, though, the use of the term "pro-abortion" is so offensive and is just a way of skewing pro-choice to make it seem like something that it is not. It's eerily similar to the way you will often hear "climate change" instead of "global warming" to make it seem like man isn't destroying the planet, but that's another topic for another day.

But in regards to the abortion issue, being pro-choice does not make you pro-abortion or anti-life. It would be great if abortion didn't exist. But it would also be a great thing if war or the death penalty didn't exist either. But we do not live in a perfect world and there are silly little things to consider when bringing a human life into this like "health of the mother" and "quality of life" for mother and child, among other things.

McCain's use of "pro-abortion" really diminishes people, and especially women, who consider themselves pro-choice and makes us out to be anti-life nutjobs, which couldn't be further from the truth. Pro-choice may just mean that one does not presume to know other people's situations and therefore believe that the CHOICE should be available to each woman, especially and most importantly when these women find themselves in a situation where they had no say in any of CHOICES that got them there.
Read more On "The more I think about it..."!

Three degrees of separation.

Wow, maybe this whole wacky idea of 6 degrees of separation totally works. Maybe, just maybe, this little gem of an article from Huffington post is a total coincidence. Yeah, maybe.

You know what? It probably is a total coincidence. I mean, I know what you are thinking. McCain was the one who brought up Joe the Plumber more than 20 times during the debate. And it is weird that this guy is just three tiny degrees of separation away from McCain himself. And yes, Joe the Plumber's real name isn't even Joe, so who would've thought the press would find him so quickly or that he's have all these weirdo "issues." I mean, if this was some sort of crazy manipulative political move by McCain, it would be pretty silly since he surely would have learned from the vetting process with Palin to look a little more closely at someone before allying your name with theirs, though it is funny that "Joe" has already done more interviews than Palin, so maybe this was all about drawing attention to something - anything - else. Because between Troopergate and new ads like these:



So, yeah, if I were McCain I'd probably want to draw attention to anything else too. Like, you know, Joe, that plumber guy, the one who hates paying taxes. Because only socialists love paying taxes. Read more On "Three degrees of separation."!

ITTTTT'SSSSS JOE!

This guy is classic.



He talks of going out and educating yourself about the candidates - which is a really great idea - but if you are going to do that, you should probably go and educate yourself on a few other things like economic thoughts on trickle up or trickle down and which one of them leads to a stronger economy. Oh, and maybe the definition of "socialism", which he bandies about pretty freely. All I'm saying is that if you are checking out the candidates, you might want to be able to also understand what they are even talking about. My favorite part is towards the end when he starts talking about the different jobs he does like working on a water main... BORING.

Someone should really tell this guy that he can just vote for Democrats now, who will cut his taxes, and when (read:if) he ever makes it big, THEN vote for Republicans, who will cut his taxes. Geez. But then again, I guess he's smarter than all of us, since he doesn't actually pay any of them anyway.

We really need to be more careful about who we are making overnight celebrities because evidently we're currently accepting all applications. Read more On "ITTTTT'SSSSS JOE!"!

Cleaning the Pipes on Joe the Plumber

So everyone wants to know more about this Joe the plumber character. Turns out he's kind of d-bag. Not registered to vote, and definitely not entitled to bitch about taxes, seeing as he doesn't even pay his. Joe the plumber has an income tax lien against his home.
Apparently nobody can find records of him even being a licensed plumber. Check out the Ohio license database here.
Pretty sure this guy is really some kind of terrible remote controlled robot/hologram.

JOE THE PLUMBER UPDATE: *DRUDGE SIRENS*
The Toledo Blade:
Quote:
Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican.

Ms. Howe said that the name may be misspelled in the database.

Turns out ACORN had registered him 87 times under multiple misspellings. Wurzelbacher will vote 87 times for Bob Barr and noone will care. VOTER FRAUD! Read more On "Cleaning the Pipes on Joe the Plumber"!