Meanwhile, at McCain Headquarters.

Not a photoshop. But if it were a photoshop, Slublog might have done it.

Look. I'm a Conservative. And I'm a Christian. Heck, I make $140,000 a year, give or take a little. But I have to tell you, I'm concerned about these mean looking tapestries in the McCain HQ. I don't think Barack Obama would do this sort of thing, and it makes me wonder if I shouldn't reconsider my positions on this election.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:26 AM | Comments (71)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:23 AM | Comments (40)
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The new legions of Concerned Christian Conservative Commenters who are -- inexplicably -- suddenly coming out of the woodwork to slam McCain/Palin despite the ticket now having the enthusiastic support of nearly 90% of Republicans are now infesting my blog, too.

Which is doubly insulting -- because they're obviously not reading my blog. Or else they'd know that, having been alerted to this by Jim Treacher, I'm now as obsessive about Astroturfing as a Chicago abortionist is about caring for a born-alive aborted baby.

Friends, I'm confused. While my heart is with my fellow conservatives I have been doing some research. I make 140,000 a year. As far as I can tell I will actually get a larger tax cut under Obama? What gives? I've researched this over and over again and I keep finding the same data. Check it out for yourselves. I have always voted for the person that will extort less taxes out of me, this time it looks like it is going to be Obama.

Posted by: jim at September 15, 2008 10:54 PM (IdU3U)

1) "Friends"/"I make 140,000 per year..."

2) "My heart is with my fellow conservatives..."

But...

3) OBAMA TALKING POINT #22A(1)(b).

Three steps, always three steps.

Later in the thread, someone asked him if he was a Christian (referencing the Conservative Christian Concern troll model), and "jim" answered:

Of course.

That seems a very strange answer. "Of course"? Why would it be "of course"? That sounds like the sort of answer a liberal who doesn't understand Christians would provide -- believing, mistakenly, that stupid Christians labor under the erroneous belief that only their fellow Christians are gifted by Jesus with internet service providers.

A more likely answer is "Why does that matter?" or "Yes, but why are you asking?" Or of course, "No" -- conservative Jews and agnostics are overrepresented in the blogosphere.

"Of course."

Of course of course of course. Of course our new Concern Troll is a Christian. They all are, you know. Just ask them. (If they don't tell you first.)

As Treacher pointed out, "Conservative Concern Trolls" always seem to have simple first names as psuedonyms, which is relatively rare on the internet. It's always "Robert," "Pam," "jim," etc. Just plain folks, you see, like the good people in your small towns you might see outside the feed store, bitterly clinging to their guns and religion.

Always, always, always.

The script--

1. The Pledge: I'm a conservative/I'm a Christian/I'm a conservative Christian

2. The Turn: My heart is with you guys, really... but I have these concerns...

3. The Prestige: I hear all these great things about Obama and/or did you hear this horrible stuff about Palin?

And of course the simple whitebread, just-plain-folks psuedonym.

Honestly, FoxNews, are you going to do anything with this? All you have to do is scan your own comment threads (O'Reilly has them, doesn't he?) and look for "different" posters with different names but the same IPs posting comments that follow this three-point script.

Can Anyone Who Tips Limbaugh on Occasion... tip him about this? I'm not traffic whoring. (Mentions on the radio do not translate into traffic spikes -- which I learned to my disappointment when El Rushbo mentioned me twice with no discernible impact.)

But this seems to be kind of a good story. It's a straight-up shot of 200 proof mendacity, with a kicker of contempt for the intelligence of conservatives. And Limbaugh himself knows well all about "seminar callers" who call his show with a similar script.

Only this time, we know that David Axelrod is the god-damned "Master of Astroturfing," according to no lesser source than Business Week. So this ties directly into a major presidential campaign.

Mark Levin? Great One? Hannity? Anyone?

And if you do push it to El Rushbo -- mention Patterico's "Wasilla Resident" offering derogatory information about Palin, strangely doing so from a computer that traced to Waukegon, IL, just outside of Chicago. And of course Jim Treacher for sounding the alarm on this first.

I've heard so much about this "Right Wing Smear Machine" -- transmitting memes from "hate blogs" to "hate radio" and thence to "Faux News" until it finally gets picked up by the real media -- and I'd just be as thrilled as the dickens to see it actually happen.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 PM | Comments (162)
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Heh.*

* Heh. (Cf.: Heh.)

Posted by: Ace at 07:27 PM | Comments (23)
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The emails are here.

Press release below. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (39)
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Meanwhile, at Obama headquarters...

No, it's not a photoshop. They're just cultists.

In D&D, that would be a magical tapestry worth 3d6 100 gold pieces.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 06:10 PM | Comments (151)
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Put pressure on these idiot senators -- Corker, Graham, and Chambliss, among others -- to end this joke now.

The bill would open up a tiny little smidgen of space on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas exploration — just enough that Democrats who vote for it can claim to be pro-drilling, neutralizing one of the Republicans’ most energizing issues going into the November elections. But the benefits of the bill’s meager drilling provisions would be negated (and then some) by $30 billion in tax hikes on U.S. oil companies, placing our own domestic producers at an additional disadvantage compared to their overseas competitors. In exchange for very little new supply, these companies would pay higher taxes related to the crucial activities of exploration and refinery-capacity expansion. To nobody’s great surprise, the industry is not eager to accept this trade.

The money raised by taxing U.S. oil companies would go to pay for $84 billion in new spending on dodgy renewable energy projects — mostly tax credits for hybrid cars and research grants for biofuel production. If you want to know how much of an impact this multi-billion-dollar giveaway for special interests is likely to have on gasoline prices, consider this: Since 2005, Congress has passed two energy bills chock full of subsidies for renewable energy, and gas prices have increased nearly $1.50 per gallon.

Perfect. A "drilling" bill which does not actually permit drilling -- thus ending all possibility of expanded drilling in the future. The Democrats will say, correctly, "Well, we voted for a 'drilling bill' last time and supplies did not rise and prices did not fall. So isn't our precious ecosystem more important than expanded drilling, which has been proven not to work?"

It's better to have no bill at all than a phony one which dishonesty "proves" there's simply no point to drilling more American oil.

At least with no bill, we can keep fighting on this vital issue into the future, with some hope of success.

Is It Possible... to get the Anti-Amnesty phone brigades up and working again to threaten the senators pushing this?

Honestly, guys. A month ago we were not going to vote for you. You were going down in flames.

You want to fuck with us again? Do it. Fuck with us again. Fucking sell us out and refuse to heed the strong preferences of your constituents.

Do it, fuckers. A lot of us are simply angry and want a goddamned shock to the system. And here's the thing you can take to bed with you tonight -- a clearing out of all of you deadweight RINO Senators and a genuine Republican bloodbath is also a perfectly serviceable shock to the system as far as we're concerned.

It's not our first preference -- but it is a not-terribly-distant second.

Try us.

Do it. See if we're fucking kidding, assholes

Donation Strike: I'm just one blogger, but if we can get a sudden stoppage of internet donations, I think they'd notice.

Contact the RNC:

Here's the info for the RNC Finance Department:

Phone: 202-863-8747 |

Fax: 202-863-8589 |

E-mail: membership@rnchq.org

Doubts... Let's focus on killing this bastard from the Senate side of things.

Apply pressure there, and to the RNC. One of these stupid fucks -- Graham, Chambliss, Corker -- has to step up, announce it's a bad deal, and withdraw support from it.

The Five Sell-Outs: I'm really disappointed in John Fucking Thune.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (GA) -- 202-224-3521 -- 770-763-9090

Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA) -- 202-224-3643 -- 770-661-0999

Sen. Bob Corker (TN) -- 202-224-3344 -- 423-756-2757

Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) -- 202-224-5972 -- 864-250-1417

Sen. John Thune (SD) -- 202-224-2321 -- 605-334-9596

Thanks to Double Plus Undead. He's been on these fucking numbskulls before.

Posted by: Ace at 04:21 PM | Comments (283)
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Well goodness, this honesty concern has me deeply troubled. Somewhat chagrined, but mostly concerned. And troubled.

I've held my tongue. That's what we concerned Christians do when we're concerned, we hold our tongues.

But I have to say, golly!

Senator McCain, where are you going with all this dishonest bashing stuff you're being so dishonest about? The Army Times is questioning your dishonestness now (via an honest Kos diarist).

This does not bode well, nosirree. I am honestly rethinking my whole thinking at this critical junction in our, junction. Because when Charles Gibson, "as dignified a newsperson as America has" treats Palin fairly* and doesn't resort to hectoring her with "gotcha" questions, well, you have to wonder about McCain's dishonesty (as I do, a Christian who values honesty so much).

I'm a Seriously conservative Christian Guy here, and I have to say, this. Honesty is the best policy.

My Christian vote hangs in the balance sir.

...

Also, I reaaaaally need the Cowgirls to cover please. Amen. Oh heck, I'll take the win.

* link via HotAir

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:58 PM | Comments (6)
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As CJ says, the media can't ignore this as they'd like. If McCain makes an issue out of it, it is an issue, whether they like it or not.*

At this point, it is not yet clear what official American negotiations Senator Obama tried to undermine with Iraqi leaders, but the possibility of such actions is unprecedented. It should be concerning to all that he reportedly urged that the democratically-elected Iraqi government listen to him rather than the US administration in power. If news reports are accurate, this is an egregious act of political interference by a presidential candidate seeking political advantage overseas. Senator Obama needs to reveal what he said to Iraq's Foreign Minister during their closed door meeting. The charge that he sought to delay the withdrawal of Americans from Iraq raises serious questions about Senator Obama's judgment and it demands an explanation.

* By the way, this dynamic mitigates McCain's sorta-annoying playing of the victim card of late. The MSM simply will not report on this stuff unless McCain pushes it out there. They will do all of Obama's dirty work without prompting (allowing Obama to sail above it), but they won't do the same for McCain.

Indeed, all the press wants to do now is dig up derogatory rumors about Sarah Palin. It's only by injecting other storylines into the media directly he can even hope to push the MSM off its singleminded focus on getting Palin.

Is McCain pushing some kinda silly stuff about lipstick and pigs of late? Yes. But it's not as if he's "distracting" the media from important issues. If they weren't covering silly shit like the lipstick thing (which was deliberate, but is still silly), the MSM would just be pushing others silly shit, like Sarah Palin taking expense per diems to which she was legally entitled, or somehow "misleading" the public into thinking she visited Iraq by consistently stating she'd visited Kuwait.

For those of you who want a debate on the "real issues" -- it's simply not possible right now. The MSM is on a Palin hunt and no story is too silly to smear her with.

Now this -- Obama directly and deliberately interfering with the foreign policy power entrusted by the Constitution to the sitting president only (with the advice and consent, and not interference and sabotage, of the Senate) -- is a very serious issue indeed.

Posted by: Ace at 03:50 PM | Comments (58)
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Jesus was an Executive Producer.

“People are really scared that McCain is gaining,”< said a Hollywood politico involved with Tuesday’s fundraiser. “In my 20 years here, I have never seen folks write checks like this.”

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (37)
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