Sarah Palin Uses Quote in Speech from Racist, Anti-Semitic Writer, Westbrook Pegler

From the New York Times:

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”

This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It’s astonishing there’s been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver.

More from Politico.

Diagramming Sarah Palin's Sentences

I recognize this Slate article is both mean and unfair. (Anyone who has ever transcribed a verbal interview with anyone recognizes how totally syntactically fuzzy conversational speech is.) However, I love diagramming sentences—and, honestly, these are some choice (tortured) specimens.

I Can't Take This Campaign Anymore

Transparency (defined as an amount of public disclosure sufficient to limit officials from abusing state mechanisms for their own interest) is a hot topic in government ethics. Opening meetings to the media and private citizens, publicly releasing budgets and financial statements, and providing referendums on laws, rules and decisions—these are all seen as government gestures toward being transparent.

This is a different kind of transparent:

Cindy McCain $300,000 Convention Outfit

Oh, Vanity Fair. It takes one to know one, doesn't it? Here's their breakdown of Cindy McCain's super elitist and out of touch RNC convention outfit — which at my old salary would take me over 6 years to afford! (If I never paid taxes, ate food or did anything else ever!)

Cindy McCain

Oscar de la Renta dress:
$3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch:
$4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings:
$280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace:
$11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown:
$600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

I don't want to raise anyone's ire, but it does at least look good. Let's also mention that it's only 6k shy of the starting MSRP for the most expensive Volvo on the market: the XC90. It's also worth 30,000 cups of the most expensive latte in the world, or 23,077 pounds of Organic Baby Arugula — based on a $3.99/ 5 oz price tag (feel free to check my work). There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's being chairwoman of Hensley, the nation's third-largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products.

Tire Swing Journalism

Well this and the tags below it should speak for themselves:



If they don't, here's tpm's Josh Marshall to do it.

More On The "McCain Trailblazer / Haiti Telcom" Scandal

Lucy Komisar just published the documents on her blog.
This is, of course, re: this.

McCain Camp Admits Ad Was False

After the NYT's and WaPo get on their case. [via Daily Kos]

McCain Not Entirely Neglected by the NYT...

Much has been made of the fact McCain's editorial (or at least an editorial emerging from the McCain team's word processing system) for the New York Times was returned for further revisions.

However, the mostly-characterized-as-liberal paper did feature an op-ed from the McCain man's former communication director, Dan Schnur.

Meanwhile, McCain leaves no doubt that he plans to overstay, excuse me, stay his welcome right here in the US of A... Shown below advocating for further oil drilling of California shores.

"$4.00 A Gallon"

[On Google: McCain + Milk = Gaffe]

McCain "Trailblazer" And Lots Of Other GOP People in Haiti Telcom Scandal

So, in the wake of his firm receiving a $1.3 million fine from the Federal Communication Commission, Jim Courter (one of John McCain's top fundraisers*) has stepped down from the position of national finance co-chairman for the candidate's presidential campaign.

New Jersey-based IDT — of which Courter is CEO — was fined by the FCC for failing to file a contract for telephone service to Haiti in 2004. More interesting, however, as Lucy Komisar points out:

Its work with Haiti has been put under scrutiny since a former employee, Michael Jewett, then IDT’s manager for the Caribbean, sued the company. His suit claims he was fired when he balked at negotiating a scheme that routed a portion of the company’s long distance revenue from Haiti calls to a shell company owned by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. [...] In a quarterly S.E.C. report filed June 6, IDT's balance sheet shows $365 million "income taxes payable," meaning the sum is put aside for back taxes. The figure was zero last year.

All the executives below Courter involved with the Haiti deal are gone. The June report announced the "involuntary" departure of the chief legal officer.

Top-tier Republicans have also bailed out.

William Weld, former G.O.P. governor of Massachusetts, was head of corporate governance at IDT but resigned after the Jewett complaint was unsealed in July 2005.

IDT announced in October 2006 that its entire board would not seek reelection, including former congressman and vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, former Minnesota Senator Rudy Boschwitz, and former Washington Senator Slade Gorton. [Note: I posted all their faces at the above left. From top to bottom: McCain with Gorton; Courter; Boschwitz; McCain with Kemp; Kirkpatrick; and, lastly, Gilmore with an eye patch photoshopped on by another blogger.]

"Why do you put very powerful politicians on your board. Because you like them, you think they’re capable and they buy you protection," said Herbert Denton, president of the New York investment firm Providence Capital, which owned IDT stock. "Why do they leave at the same time? I speculate there’s something rotten in Denmark."

I hope this story gets some traction.

[*He seems to get a lot of his coworkers to donate.]

AP: McCain visits German restaurant — in Ohio

(WARNING: This post contains at least one pun.)

A funny/endearing headline for McCain, courtesy of the AP — who may or may not be in the tank for him at this point.

WaPo picked it up as well — because, basically, this is a joke too tasty* to turn down that I'm sure the McCain campaign lunged for in an effort to redirect some media attention toward their candidate on Obama's big day in Berlin.

From "the Trail":

Asked whether he was trying to make a point by coming to a German restaurant while Obama was in the real country, McCain took a mild swipe at his rival.

"Well I'd love to give a speech in Germany to [sic!**]-- a political speech -- or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in. But I would much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of the presidency."

"Oh, Burn!" These petty, yellow snowballs are probably why nobody follows the news (well, that and all the depressing stuff).

*[Chortle.]
**[For shame, WaPo copy editors!]

Meghan McCain "Blogette Music Playlist"

Says my friend Jeremy: "Meghan Mccain, about whom people could say bad things, likes her music on the indie/cutting-edgish side. Pertinent information!" It's true, sometimes.