Must Reads

Suzi Parker: In Haley Barbour's Mississippi: Civil War Looms Over License Plates

Maximillio: How Ending Social Spending Will Destroy Our Economy (and Country)

Jason Linkins: Obama Faring Poorly Against Imaginary Candidate

E.J. Dionne: Deficit Hawks and The Games They Play

Will Bunch: A Reagan Litmus Test for 2012 GOP Hopefuls

Bob Cesca: Most Americans Are Closeted Big Government Spenders

Eugene Robinson: Haley Barbour's Silence Speaks Volumes

Zach Carter and Elise Foley: Republican Amendment Would Strip Funds For Obama 'Czars,' Plus Elizabeth Warren

Jamison Foser: Facts Weren't Invited To CNN’s Stimulus Birthday Party

Elvis Dingeldein: Palin Flushes Base Down Toilet

Paul Krugman: Willie Sutton Wept

ADDING:

Joshua Holland: Joe Klein's Cluelessness on Wisconsin Uprising Highlights the Corporate Media's Contempt for Working People

Must Reads

Electablog: BREAKING! Gibbs Attacks "Professional Right"

Joe Gandelman: No, Virginia, There Is No Liberal Media Conspiracy

Josh Kraushaar: Senate In Play, With Or Without Reid

Elvis Dingeldein: First Amendment to Newt Gingrich: SUCK IT

Peter Schuck: Birthright of a Nation

Sheryl Gay Stolberg: Obama Says Mosque Upholds Principle of Equal Treatment

Must Reads

Nathan Newman: Progressives (and Obama) are Doing Better Than We Think -- and We Won't Know What We've Got 'Til It's Gone

Elvis Dingeldein: Guns, Butter and Suck

Brian Katulis: A Surge of a Different Sort for Afghanistan

The Rude Pundit: Glenn Beck's Christmas Sweater Live Broadcast: A Rude Review

Elizabeth Warren: America Without a Middle Class

Jason Linkins: HuffPost, TPM In White House Pool: Newspaper Reporters Gripe

Eric Burns: If I Still Worked at Fox News...

William K. Wolfrum: America: Land of the Free, home of the Penis-Gazers

Peter Baker: How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan

Palin's Scandal Du Jour

And the hits just keep on coming!

WASHINGTON POST:

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Just think of how many headaches the McCain campaign would have saved with a little vetting. And this is only 10 days after McCain's selection of Palin... or should I say the religious right's selection of Palin?


UPDATE (12:45pm):

TIME MAGAZINE: Sarah Palin's Alaskanomics

Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.

...Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2½ times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it.

...Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

...Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget.

...Although Palin's words side with McCain in the [oil windfall-profits tax] dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in [Sarah Palin's] Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. ...

UPDATE (3:50pm):


For my friend, Mr. The Elvis Dingeldein, who commented the following...:

Okay, it's now officially time to have Joe Biden fitted with a Matrixesque data port in his skull into which a giant upload spike might be shoved, so that he can quite simply beat the living shit out of Marty Moose with this stuff. Jack in, Biden. Jack the fuck in.

... and inspired me to quickly do this:






It's no driftglass, but he's a fucking artist.

Liveblogging at Bob Cesca's...

... is like a virtual Republican overload support group. And cheaper than actual therapy. The best part is the connection you feel and bonds you create with fellow commenters.

We've been liveblogging during the Democratic and Republican Conventions and have developed an online friendship discussing our mutual feelings regarding the political scene. We get angry, snarky and silly. There are a few that rise above like 'jane', 'The Space Cowboy', 'ceu', 'JG' and 'kansasdem', but by far, one of my favorite bloggers that I recently discovered is Mr. The Elvis Dingeldein ("its pronounced Dang-le-deen, bitches!") and his blog, "Clusterdouche." He just cracks my shit up. And I mean laugh-out-loud, can't-stop-giggling HI-larity!

Over the last two weeks, it's been my pleasure to try and match the man's sharp wit, insane sense of humor and amazing writing skillz. I haven't even come close, but I have made him laugh once or twice, so imagine my surprise when he complimented me. Yes, I enjoy and admire Mr. Elvis' writing so much that I'm flattered by his comments, so I'm including them here along with some of our comments during the RNC.

Mother, moosehunter, maverick....oh, puke.
How many times have they said "maverick"?? Obviously, they don't know what that word means.
Posted by: ceu at September 4, 2008 09:06 PM

[Obviously, they don't know what that word means.] I don't know what they think it means, but I always substitute the word "cocksucker" for "maverick."
Posted by: Broadway Carl at September 4, 2008 09:09 PM

BEST FREUDIAN SLIP EVER!!! TOM BROKAW INTERVIEWS TOM "RED, YELLOW, ORANGE, GO!" RIDGE, WHO SAYS:
"Because uh John Bush (D'OH!) ... John McCain is very much his own man."
Ohhhh, how I fill the Obama Underoos with love!
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 4, 2008 11:21 PM

Dear Michael Gerson : Please insert a rabid, feral, and deeply aggravated wolverine cub in your rectum and hang upside down by your ankles until it works its way to your filthy, filthy mouth.
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 4, 2008 11:26 PM

I love Rachel Maddow enough that I would get a sex-change operation and become a flaming uberdyke to get next to her. She's glorious. GLOR-ee-USSSS!
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 4, 2008 11:48 PM

The Jane™ said, chicks DIG humor its hotttt
Listen, sister, if years and years (and years) of reading the Interview page of a Playboy centerfold while fighting the urge to doze off in post-self-coital bliss has taught me anything, it's that The Hot Girls love them the sense of humor. And also Corvettes. And money. Yeah, mostly it's the money. But a sense of humor is always a distant third.
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 4, 2008 11:55 PM

So what does it say about a Republican National Convention with no overt "Republican" signs in the arena, no douchebag Republican monkey-president and no shoot-you-in-the-face vice president? The top two members of the Republican party were nowhere to be seen.
Matthews is talking about it now... condemning your own party leaders so you can be elected.
OOOH! John & Cindy McCain confetti! Also, a Sarah Palin impersonator and a couple of guys with John McCain hand puppets. Not the first time he's had a hand up his ass.
Posted by: Broadway Carl at September 5, 2008 12:02 AM

You and I are truly soul brothers, Mr. The Broadway Carl. I say we merge our efforts and become The Broadway Clusterdouche, what say you, sir?
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 5, 2008 12:04 AM

Mr. The Elvis Dingeldein: I'm honored that you would consider my occasional quip worthy of such an esteemed compliment. A Broadway Clusterdouche merger is a wonderful thought. That and all the Obama Underoos talk makes me hot.
Posted by: Broadway Carl at September 5, 2008 12:11 AM

"The Broadway Clusterdouche" Sounds like a fantastic musical. Perhaps Andrew Lloyd Webber could write the score? And I think Pat Buchanan would come to see it - he just mentioned something about McCain and "mano a mano," so I think he likes that sort of thing.
Posted by: KatinWilm at September 5, 2008 12:13 AM

Andrew Llyod Webber has so already written The Broadway Clusterdouche, Katin, haven't you ever seen an ALW show? Jesus The Christ™ (Superstar!) they're insufferable!
Posted by: Elvis Dingeldein at September 5, 2008 12:15 AM

I'm going to copy and paste your compliment and post it on my blog, Mr. The Elvis Dingeldein, for surely no one would believe me if I said, "You know, back in aught 8, one Mr. The Elvis Dingeldein asked me to join forces for a Broadway Clusterdouche extravaganza. Then the Republicans won back the House in 2010 and I threw my laptop out the window. I never heard from my Bob Cesca friends again."
Posted by: Broadway Carl at September 5, 2008 12:17 AM

So does that mean that Jane is singing "Don't Know How to Love Him?" Perhaps McCain's first wife could fill in if Jane is otherwise occupied.
Posted by: KatinWilm at September 5, 2008 12:18 AM

Or she could be singing, "What's The Buzz" not realizing it's her vibrator.
Posted by: Broadway Carl at September 5, 2008 12:20 AM

And so if you value your sanity in this insane political time, you should do yourself a favor a stop by one of Bob Cesca's liveblogging threads and vent. It cures what ails ya. Stop by Clusterdouche as well - it's fucking hysterical.