Frum was one of the loudest beaters of the drums for the Bush and Cheney destruction of America, and the neo-con takeover of our government. Appears he realizes already that McCain is going down in flames, and says so bluntly in the Washington Post. In a nutshell, he calls on the Republican party to abandon McCain to his fate and try to save the women and children.

Frum has been a leading right wing writer, e.g. his blog at the National Review.

The National Review? Oh, that would be the most famous conservative magazine, founded by William Buckley. Whose son, Christopher, came out of the conservative closet and announced for Obama last week, and was rewarded the bastion of free thought he worked for, his father’s magazine, by being summarily fired.

Sorry, Senator. Let’s Salvage What We Can.

There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him.

A year ago, the Arizona senator’s team made a crucial strategic decision. McCain would run on his (impressive) personal biography. On policy, he’d hew mostly to conservative orthodoxy, with a few deviations — most notably, his support for legalization for illegal immigrants. But this strategy wasn’t yielding results in the general election. So in August, McCain tried a bold new gambit: He would reach out to independents and women with an exciting and unexpected vice presidential choice.

That didn’t work out so well either. Gov. Sarah Palin connected with neither independents nor women. She did, however, ignite the Republican base, which has come to support her passionately. And so, in this last month, the McCain campaign has

Palinized itself to make the most of its last asset. To fire up the Republican base, the McCain team has hit at Barack Obama as an alien, a radical and a socialist.

Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there’s a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.

I could pile up the poll numbers here, but frankly . . . it’s too depressing. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP.

OK. Let’s be clear.

Only read the following if you can handle pretty strong language.

But to be honest, I am not sure I could have summed up John McCain any better than the guy who does the “Annotated Rants” does in this essay. With links at every step to factual articles backing up his assertions.

Devastating. Harsh. But cuts through to truth like a knife. And frankly, if you aren’t just a little bit tired and angry at the lies and horrors inflicted by the Republicans, including John McCain, then I have to ask: What is the matter with you?

F*** John McCain

This is following his rally in Missouri.

VIDEO: American Flag on the Ground Following Sen. McCain Rally

Need I remind you that Obama was attacked for being a traitor to America for not even wearing a flag pin in his lapel? Something McCain was conspicuously NOT wearing during any of the debates? Yet where were the unhinged wing-nuts on the right proclaiming McCain’s lack of patriotism then. They were sure out in force earlier this year proclaiming Obama was unpatriotic for not always wearing a flag lapel pin.

Some in the blogosphere have protested this story is a waste of time.

No.

What this story illustrates is the crass hypocrisy of John McCain and the Republicans.

And yes, it is relevant that the flag was treated in this disrespectful manner.

United States Flag Code - Wikipedia

When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.

The flag should never touch anything beneath it. Contrary to an urban legend, the flag code does not state that a flag that touches the ground should be burned. Instead, the flag should be moved so it is not touching the ground.

Remember the heady days when the so-called journalists of the mainstream media and the pundits went wild over John Edwards $400 haircut?

Where are those stalwart stenographers of right-wing talking points when you need them?

Not only did they spen $150,000 on wardrobe for Palin, the campaign is also dropping thousands of dollars a day, it is reported, for John McCain’s makeup.

RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion

The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

McCain’s American Idol Make-Up Artist Makes Big Bucks

Remember last month when Republican presidential nominee John McCain got made up by the American Idol make-up artist?

Well, it wasn’t a one-shot deal. The make-up artist to the wannabe-stars is getting paid beaucoup bucks to make McCain, 72, more telegenic.

Tifanie White, who reportedly has done makeup for the shows “So You Think You Can Dance” and “American Idol,” was paid a total of $8,672.55 in September by the McCain-Palin campaign, according to the campaign’s latest monthly financial report filed this week with the Federal Election Commission. She was paid $5,583.43 the previous month, records show.

Drill, Baby Drill, Palin and McCain have been chanting. As if any amount of drilling as we hit and pass peak oil and natural gas supplies is going to change the fact we would see no impact for a decade, and then only in time to start what must be an inevitable transition to different, more eco-friendly sustainable energy sources.

But now it appears the Palin has been caught with her hand firmly in the cookie jar (or like a monkey with her hand wrapped around a goody in a monkey trap, since Palin supporter are so fond of bringing monkey dolls to her rallies).

Palin backs shipping Alaskan LNG to Japan

Oct 21 03:15 AM US/Eastern
By MARTHA MENDOZA
AP National Writer
On the campaign trail, Sarah Palin says repeatedly that America must tap its own natural gas and oil reserves to become energy-independent.

But the Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate has pushed the federal government to allow a liquefied natural gas plant to continue exporting to Asia—the only such plant in the United States that sends the product overseas.

“When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy-independent,” Palin said earlier this month during the vice presidential debate. “It’s a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we’re relying on foreign countries to produce for us.”

This summer, Palin cheered the Energy Department for extending an export license for the Kenai Liquefied Natural Gas facility. The license allowed the Alaska plant to continue shipping its products to Asia through 2011.

The plant began shipping its product exclusively to Japan in 1969, renewing federal export permits every few years. As energy prices have soared in recent years, and with supplies dwindling, there has been increased opposition to allowing the plant to export.

The current license extends a permit that otherwise would have expired in 2009.

“In these times of economic uncertainty, this is great news for the state and its residents,” Palin said when the license was approved in June.

During negotiations, which began last year, Palin had pressed for enough natural gas to serve Alaska to remain in-state. She added, however, that the rest should be shipped primarily to Japan.

The license was granted despite opposition from some federal officials who argued that domestic liquefied natural gas should be sold within the U.S.

It is truly ‘teh stupid’ to hear McCain and Palin trying to rouse their right wing low-information voters with the claim that Obama is a ’socialist’. We all know the only reason they are doing this is that the Soviet Union collapsed and they would look even more foolish calling him a ‘communist’.

But what is really pathetic is that they know that their supporters have no idea what the word means, obviously.

Our government just invested tax payer money in banks. In essence, we semi-nationalized the banking infrastructure. We just promised 700 billion dollars to help salvage the gamblers of Wall Street and their failed leveraged hedge funds. And as an extra laugh in the face of the American people, the Wall Street bankers and investor class are already planning to take 10% of that, 70 billion, and distribute it as bonuses to themselves, as a reward for doing such a good job!

But let’s look at Alaska, that stalwart frontier.

Palin’s state reaps the windfall profits McCain decries

Welcome to the People’s Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state’s Republican governor. That’s $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin’s. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.

No wonder she is popular with voters in a state whose residents pay no income or sales taxes but are blessed with state coffers rolling in cash at a time when all other states are suffering. Indeed, when the oil companies pay more taxes to the state of Alaska, they get to write that off against their federal tax obligation, leaving the rest of us to make up the shortfall.

Socialism? Thy name is Alaska.

What is even funnier is to ask the actual Socialists in America what they think of this accusation.

Socialists: Obama no socialist

These are hard times to be a socialist in America. And not just because there’s a bourgeois-bloated Starbucks on every other corner, thumbing its capitalist nose at the proletariat.

No, it’s tough these days because you’ve got politicians on the right, the same guys who just helped nationalize the banking system, derisively and inaccurately calling the presidential candidate on the left a socialist. That’s enough to make Karl Marx harumph in his grave.

Local communists, rarely tapped as campaign pundits, say Sen. Barack Obama and his policies stand far afield from any form of socialism they know.

John Bachtell, the Illinois organizer for Communist Party USA, sees attempts by Sen. John McCain’s campaign to label Obama a socialist as both offensive to socialists and a desperate ploy to tap into fears of voters who haven’t forgotten their Cold War rhetoric.

“Red baiting is really the last refuge of scoundrels,” Bachtell said. “It has nothing to do with the issues that are confronting the American people right now. It’s just a big diversion.” [Emphasis added.]
…
So, how do you know if you’re a socailist?

Generally, it involves espousing government control over a country’s basic industries, like transportation, communication and energy, while also allowing some government regulation of private industries.

“Obama is about as far from being a socialist as Joe The Plumber is from being a rocket scientist,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “I think it’s hard for McCain to call Obama a socialist when George Bush is nationalizing banks.”

And this from Bruce Carruthers, a sociology professor at Northwestern University: “Obama is like a center-liberal Democrat, and he is certainly not looking to overthrow capitalism. My goodness, he wouldn’t have the support of someone like The Wizard of Omaha, Warren Buffet, if he truly was going to overthrow capitalism.”

Bottom line: pure capitalism and socialism can be a difficult mix.

Which hits at the heart of the problem. Right now, with the economy in the tank, the idea of a little wealth sharing doesn’t sound so bad to people whose 401k plans are worth less than the contents of their coin jars.

Powell Endorses Obama, Reflecting Fractures in GOP

Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama is the latest sign that the Republican Party’s coalition is fracturing amid the stresses of the campaign….

The endorsement comes after a series of events that have pointed to the fraying of a Republican umbrella that has relied in the past on both moderates and conservatives to bulk up its governing majority.

Late last week, conservative radio talk-show host Michael Smerconish endorsed Sen. Obama, as did conservative columnist Christopher Buckley, the son of National Review founder William F. Buckley. The Chicago Tribune endorsed Sen. Obama last week, the first time the paper has endorsed a Democrat in its 161-year history.

Two Republican senators in the middle of tough re-election fights — Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota — have denounced Sen. McCain’s automated phone calls attacking Sen. Obama. “These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics,” said Sen. Collins’s spokesman, Kevin Kelley. “Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately.”

…. In the past weeks, strains have developed on all fronts. Fiscal conservatives, already angered by the growth in government spending and deficits under Mr. Bush, have been incensed by what they see as government intrusion in the markets with the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan. Sen. McCain voted for the plan, then angered his party’s fiscal-conservative wing further by proposing that the government buy $300 billion in mortgages on homes facing foreclosure.

The Palin pick was intended in part to assuage social conservatives who have long been leery of Sen. McCain. While it seems to have succeeded on that score, it may also have driven off moderate Republicans.

“Whether John wins or loses, the party is going to have to go through a period of introspection, and we’re going to have to regenerate ourselves,” said John Weaver, a former top aide to Sen. McCain.

“The Republican Party is fractured. It is completely, utterly fractured,” said Mark Corallo, a conservative Republican political strategist.