Cry Havoc!

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

--Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The Ugly Has Arrived

John Aravosis at Americablog (via HuffPo) reported on a McCain rally- one which in some ways shocks me, and in other ways is SO Bob Roberts: "McCain was speaking today in New Mexico, doing his usual personal attack on Barack Obama, as the stock market plummeted (you can see the ticker next to McCain on the screen, an apt reminder of what McCain and his fellow Republicans represent), and McCain asked the crowd 'who is Barack Obama?' Immediately you hear someone yell 'terrorist.' McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting. Oh, but McCain does say in the next sentence that he's upset about all the 'angry barrage of insults.'"

The Washington Post reports on a similar moment at a Palin rally today: "Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said. "Boooo!" said the crowd."And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued. "Boooo!" the crowd repeated.
"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

A FINE Christian attitude. Ya gotta ask yourself, is that what you think Jesus would do?

Maybe Palin is fuming that she might owe some back taxes. The Wall St. Journal notes: "Several tax experts said they believe Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is required to pay federal taxes on $25,000 in reimbursements from the state of Alaska for her children's travel expenses."

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Speaking of Bob Roberts puts me in mind of that fantastic last scene in the movie, in which the camera pans around the interior of the Jefferson Memorial, under whose dome the following quote is inscribed: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

I was interested to learn that it comes from a longer letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Rush about how his words and philosophy on the subject of religion were being twisted and distorted:

"I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not forgotten. On the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, that I find much more time necessary for it than I can at present dispose of. I have a view of the subject which ought to displease neither the rational Christian nor Deists, and would reconcile many to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do not know that it would reconcile the _genus irritabile vatum_ who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is on too interesting ground to be softened. The delusion into which the X. Y. Z. plot shewed it possible to push the people; the successful experiment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro' the U. S.; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians & Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me, forging conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, &c., which are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei & Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth.

Eugene Robinson at WaPo puts challenge out to the media: "If we in the media really believe what we say about serving the public interest, we have a duty to avoid being turned into instruments of mass distraction. Of course we should cover what the candidates say, putting their words in context and pointing out when the candidates are exaggerating or lying. But we should also think hard about how much prominence we give to smears and counter-smears."

Maybe all this talk will spur the Fourth Estate into a higher gear. We can only hope. At the New Yorker Festival, NY Times editor Bill Keller said, of the attack on his paper by the McCain camp: "My first tendency when they do that is to find the toughest McCain story we've got and put it on the front page." Please, Bill--PLEASE--do.

Over at Countdown, of course, Keith Olbermann weighs in with a sarcastic Special Comment (now that's my style). He also touches on this very sad and desperate story about a 90-year old woman who shot herself in her foreclosed home. Good God, this is a Dickens novel.

Even Rich "Starbursts-in-my-eyes-over-Sarah-Palin" Lowry at the National Review is chiding McCain for not drawing a bead on the ISSUES."McCain has suffered from his own manifest lack of interest in economic issues. He was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee for four years, but you'd never know it. He repeatedly misstates his only real tax proposal for the middle class, an increase in the dependent exemption. Often, he calls it a credit. In the first debate, he called it a dividend. He might as well lurch into Tina Fey territory and call it that "hoozie-what's-it." Most voters probably didn't even know that McCain had a (creative) health-care plan until Obama began lambasting it."

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Most pollsters are now putting Florida in the Obama column-- I guess finally catching up with the newly registered hordes of voters? "'Between Jan. 1, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2008, 803,909 people have registered to vote [in Florida], including 360,478 Democrats, 253,294 Independents and NPAs, and 190,137 Republicans,' party communications director Eric Jotkoff wrote."

As for those of us over here in Biased-Liberal Land, our guy is ahead and we don't quite know what to do with ourselves. I'm such practiced hand at FRETTING that I find myself fussing over poll numbers even though Fivethirtyeight.com has Obama at 345 electoral votes, Gallup Daily Tracking has given him a statistically significant lead for 11 straight days, and Electoral-vote.com has Florida even more solidly in Obama's column than Colorado and Ohio. I'm such a Frequent Fretter though that I can't help worrying that somehow, some way, something will happen to upset it all.

Daniel Chun makes the case for insanity: "Go knock on some doors. Make some phone calls. Make a donation. Recruit your friends. You only have to do it for a month. This s**t makes a difference, and with the country in such a bad way, the stakes could not be higher. If you aren't going crazy, there's something wrong with you.

Let me leave it today with a quote from Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: "In a president, character is everything. A president doesn't have to be brilliant... He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever... You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can't buy courage and decency, you can't rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him... He needs to have, in that much maligned word, but a good one nonetheless, a "vision" of the future he wishes to create.. But a vision is worth little if a president doesn't have the character-- the courage and heart-- to see it through." Too bad John McCain hasn't read Peg's essay-- he could learn a thing or two about "honorable." Incidentally, it's about the last Republican hero, Ronald Reagan.

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It's a shorter edition today so I can prep for the debate. I.e. go and check that I have a full tank of Scotch.

Clock is ticking...Only 28 days to the election, people--that's just 4 weeks!

RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. Here are some upcoming dates--forward this on to your friends in the appropriate states (swing states in bold).

• Wednesday, Oct 8: Missouri
• Friday, Oct 10: New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma
  
• Saturday, Oct 11: Delaware
• Tuesday, Oct 14: Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon
  
• Wednesday, Oct 15: Massachusetts, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Also don't forget to check Project Vote, which lists the names and addresses of purged voters in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas (so far). If you live in one of these states, check the list TODAY to see if you have been purged and also check for friends, relatives, and neighbors." If you find yourself or someone you know on one of these lists, they may be able to protest being removed from the rolls.

If you're voting absentee, you may have to get your ballot in weeks before the Nov 4th Election date. Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot.

And again, in many states, you may vote EARLY, before Nov 4, to avoid the long lines (Ohio, your early voting week is over). Reed College has compiled lists of which states offer early voting/absentee balloting options.

Remember to watch the debate tonight, October 7, 2008 at 9pm EDT, 6pm (PDT), from Belmont University's Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Tom Brokaw, special correspondent for NBC News. This debate will have a town-hall meeting format.

P.S. Thanks Helene and Milena for this "Trains of thought" pictorial: