THE GREAT SCHLEP - GO TO FLORIDA AND GET YOUR GRANDPARENTS TO VOTE OBAMA

Sarah Silverman is the spokesperson behind a great program called "The Great Schlep", a cool idea that asks you and me to go to Florida and get your grandparents to vote for Barack Obama.  Here's Sarah talking about The Great Schlep:


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.


For more information, check out the website The Great Schlep !

Does PG&E Want To Screw San Francisco? Opposes Clean Energy

Does PG&E wanto to screw San Francisco? If you consider that the utility doesn't back using clean energy sources and has not met State of California guidelines for renewable energy, it sure seems so. You can change that with the passage of Proposition H - "Yes on H." It's the first initiative of its kind; tell your friends around America about it and have them call friends in San Francisco and tell them to vote "Yes On H".

Palin Displaying Racism and Disrespect For Senator Obama

Governor Palin needs to really examine her heart these days leading to the election -- if she can find it.  This is what she said today according to Politico:

“Barack Obama hasn’t told the American people the total truth about that, about his association with Ayers,” Palin said on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show. “Doggonit, he fails to tell the American people with candor and with truthfulness what his associations are and we have to know.”

Palin blamed the media for not providing what she characterized as the same level of scrutiny to Obama that it has applied to her and running mate John McCain.

“I don't see the other ticket being asked to be truthful and give details,” Palin said.

“Some in the mainstream media are saying that, well, we’re taking the gloves off unfairly. No. You know there are only, what, 26 days to go. We gotta start getting answers to these questions that are paramount here so that voters have a choice in front of them that is based on truthfulness and candor. They deserve it.”

The Alaska governor told Ingraham’s listeners that if those questions were being answered, voters would find Obama “out of the mainstream,” adding that the Illinois senator would diminish “the prestige of the United States presidency.”

McCain's Mortgage Plan May Be His Political Suicide Note

Yesterday, both here and on my blog, I disclosed that McCain's plan - abruptly announced during the second presidential debate - to buy up individual mortgages and renegotiate the principal balance of those mortgages to reflect current home values, was previously called for by Obama and was already part of the bailout legislation signed into law by George Bush. Well, I have a slight correction of sorts: as McCain revealed details of the plan yesterday, It became clear that McCain was trying to accomplish something different, and, in the spirit of McCain policy proposals, far worse, than current law.

Politico reports that Jason Furman, Obama's economic policy advisor, released the following statement regarding McCain's plan:

Last night, in his latest attempt to get [his conflicting proposals for fixing the economy] right, [McCain] threw out a proposal that appeared to give the Treasury authority it already has to restructure troubled mortgages. But now that he’s finally released the details of his plan, it turns out it’s even more costly and out of touch than we ever imagined. John McCain wants the government to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money, and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover. The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud.... John McCain’s plan to overpay for bad mortgages by handing taxpayer dollars over to big financial institutions is erratic policymaking at its worst, and it’s not the change we need to strengthen our economy, create new jobs and keep Americans in their homes.

McCain is showing himself quite the magician in this campaign. In one broad stroke, McCain has tranformed himself from being the mortal enemy of government regulation to advocating government regulation on a scale so massive that liberal democrats are saying he's gone too far! There is one resonating constant in this new plan, though: wealthy corporations will be the primary beneficiaries. By purchasing mortgages at their face value - which is clearly above market value - McCain is giving a windfall to banks, especially considering that those mortgages might otherwise have been defaulted on.

My appraisal yesterday of McCain's plan was otherwise dead on. I predicted a flood of republican resentment for the plan, and that's precisely what happened. According to Politico, Conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin had this to say:

I can’t underscore enough what a rotten idea John McCain’s ACORN-like government mortgage buy-up is.... Will he propose a similar plan for those who bought mutual funds at or near the market top?

Andy McCarthy, a conservative writer for National Review, said

The thought that he's going to win this thing on policy is foolish. I mean, now, Fan, Fred and $800 billion later, his great idea is to spend a few hundred bill more to buy the bad mortgages? Really gets the juices flowing, doesn't it?

In fact, The New York Times reports that Michelle Malkin and conservative blogger Melissa Clouthier both cosigned a tag word from my post, referring to McCain's plan as "socialist." It looks like this Hail Mary didn't work either. It's fourth and long. The time has come for McCain to punt the ball to Obama.

Rob J
Cross-posted at Opinion Streams.

McCain Still Comes Off As REAL ANGRY; Some OF His Supporters Are Nuts

I just subjected myself to watch Senator John McCain and his running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin that was on MSNBC and CNN -- I skip Fox News when I can.

I've got to say that McCain and Palin are drawing the radical fringe movement and I can't help but wonder how many of them are White Supremacists.  Do they represent America? Well, considering that the audiences at these rallies are almost all white, the answer's no.

McCain and Palin are running for a part of America, not all of it.  That's the problem.

Fellow Keating Five Member: McCain Deserves More Scrutiny

Former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini told PolitickerAZ.com Monday that he thinks Sen. John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the late '80s and early '90s is fair game as an issue in the presidential contest between the senator from Arizona and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

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Washington Independent: Petraeus Talk Seems to Bolster Obama

During a talk Wednesday about Iraq at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington policy organization, Petraeus repeatedly made statements that bolstered the foreign-policy proposals of Sen. Barack Obama, McCain’s Democratic rival, or cut against McCain’s own lines.

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AIG planning another executive retreat.

Really, what more needs to be said.

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Palin tried to hire Terrorist Gordon Liddy as spokesperson.

Sarah Palin thought it was a good idea to hire Liddy to promote drilling in ANWR. Did she know Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, wiretapping, contempt of court and contempt of Congress; was willing to kill a janitor and a journalist as part of the Watergate break-in; admitted plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution? Kidnap plans?

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10 Ways to Eat More Bacon

Bacon chocolate-chip cookies, chicken-fried bacon, bacon-and-egg ice cream, and more creative uses for everyone's favorite meaty treat.

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Apple to Launch an $800 Laptop?

The Inquisitr claims that some Apple retailers have already been given price lists for Apple's upcoming laptops and that there are 12 price points ranging from $800 to $3100. Current laptops are said to have only have 8 retail price points: 3 Macbooks (starting at $1099), 3 Macbook Pros and 2 Macb...

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John McCain Against Net Neutrality; Obama For It

It wasn't a contentious topic at last night's presidential debate, but network neutrality is the hot-button issue on the mind of PM's senior tech editor. He explores the candidates' stands on the issue in a Geek the Vote edition of his biweekly trends column.

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FCC deepens probe into Pentagon TV analyst payola

The FCC is asking former military officers for details on their participation in a campaign to promote the Department of Defense's Iraq policy on national news program without proper disclosure.

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County in Illinois is suspending foreclosure evictions

"These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people, and don't care who's in the building," the sheriff said. "They simply want their money and don't care who gets hurt along the way ... On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore... It stops today."

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Buying Into Team Concept Resulting In Big Results For Big Blue

Buying Into Team Concept Resulting In Big Results For Big Blue-By Jon Wagner for Football Reporters Online

It took the New York Giants the majority of the 2007 regular season to buy into what its coaching staff was selling. We all know how that story panned out for New York, with an unlikely run to a Super Bowl title over the previously undefeated New England Patriots. The Giants didn’t even look like a playoff team, let alone an eventual NFL champion, in the earlier part of the 2007 campaign.

The point at which the Giants are at now, defending their 2007 title with a perfect 4-0 start in 2008 (extending their regular and postseason winning streak to eight consecutive games), clouds recollections of the Giants’ very humble beginnings last season.

Revisiting those early stages of what has become the Giants’ tremendous team growth, provides a great deal of perspective. The Giants began last season 0-2, allowing 80 points in their first two games; after winning seven of their next eight games, the Giants and Eli Manning were about as dreadful as they could be in getting wiped out at home, 41-17, against the Minnesota Vikings; and, after losing a key December game at home (in which they came in favored) to the Washington Redskins, in December, the Giants found their slim playoff chances hanging by a thread, down 14-0 after the first quarter in Buffalo, in a must-win game.

That’s the point at which everything finally clicked for the Giants, who they haven’t looked back since. That’s when Brandon Jacobs ran for two touchdowns (en route to a 143-yard rushing day) to tie that game in Buffalo; when Kawicka Mitchell stepped up with a huge play, returning an interception 20 yards to put the Giants ahead of the Bills to stay; when Eli Manning finally began to prove, in any conditions (even in rainy and windy Buffalo that day) that he could be the leader the Giants had waited for, four years; and, that’s when the Giants learned what they had in Ahmad Bradshaw, who ran for an 88-yard touchdown and a career-high 151 yards to clinch the win over the Bills, and ultimately clinch the Giants’ playoff chances, touching off what became one of the greatest late-season runs in sports history.

What followed of course was the narrow, confidence-building, well-played loss to New England at home, the Giants’ final loss (excluding the 2008 preseason) to date, before the Giants’ magical road playoff run to a title.

Manning’s confidence and level of play soared. The defense finally practiced on the field what Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was preaching, and the rest of the Giants bought in to Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s ideals of personal sacrifice and “team first” concepts.

The Giants of course, have gotten where they are today because they have talent both on their roster and throughout their coaching staff. However, last season’s 18-1 Patriots also had a world of talent, yet as 14-point underdogs in Super Bowl XLII, it was the Giants who emerged as unexpected champions.

Why? Because the Giants mixed their talent with all of the other ingredients needed to overcome injuries and adversity -- maximum effort, heart, true team play, and surprising heroes picking up the slack for the Giants’ stars whenever called upon.

When Jeremy Shockey went down for the season with a leg injury in the aforementioned Washington game, Kevin Boss stepped in more than adequately for the remainder of the season, including his key, late 45-yard reception in Super Bowl XLII.

And, of course, we all know the remarkable catch that David Tyree made, despite being able to count the number of catches he had previously made in 2007 on the same right hand that incredibly affixed the football to his helmet as he acrobatically fell to the ground.

So, is it any wonder that after their amazing Super Bowl run, even after the retirement of Michael Strahan and the huge season-ending injury of Osi Umenyiora, that the Giants continue to not miss a beat?

Because of their team-first attitude, a collective willingness to prove all naysayers wrong, and the uncanny ability to effectively plug seemingly anyone into holes created by injuries or other circumstances, the Giants have simply refused to let such personnel losses translate into any additional losses to their opponents.

Given the track record since December, it should come as little surprise that the spot of the man who caught the winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII (Plaxico Burress, of course, sitting out last week serving a one-game team-imposed suspension), was filled in on Sunday (a 44-6 crushing of the Seattle Seahawks) with Domenik Hixon catching four balls for a career-high 102 yards and a touchdown, and by Sinorice Moss catching the first two touchdowns of his professional career.

The Giants’ schedule will get much tougher this season, it will be a long and winding road back to another possible Super Bowl title, and the Giants may not repeat as champions. However, the smart pick says that because they have defined the word “team” since December, the Giants will at least have a great chance of getting back to the top no matter what other obstacles are placed in front of them.

(image thanks to Ingamenow.com)