Armstrong Williams jumps on the bandwagon

Joining Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, George Will and other neanderthals on that "Powell-endorsed-because-he-and-Obama-are-both-black" bandwagon is, perhaps, an unlikely candidate: conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. From his piece on The Hill's blog:

But as much as I admire and respect him, Powell made the wrong choice yesterday.
Unless he’s changed his party affiliation, Gen. Powell is still a Republican,
and Sen. Obama is as liberal as they come. Just ask yourself this: If there were
a white liberal Democrat running for president against McCain, would Gen. Powell’s decision been any different? Would his announcement on "Meet the Press" been any less prominent? The point is it’s easy to get caught up in the potential significance of this election, and I think that’s what happened with
Gen. Powell. (emphasis mine)

I'd think that Mr. Williams would know better. By the by, in a video on his website (Oct 20 video commentary), Mr. Conservative Williams says he still hasn't decided whether he will vote for McCain or Obama. I'd think that with his criticism of Powell, he didn't leave himself much room.

Push Poll

I received the following email and am reprinting all of the info here, with permission. It's instructive to see what's really happening. Note: the respondent does not really believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim (but as Colin Powell says, so what if he were?). Several groups, listed below, are calling for a return call campaign to jam the phone lines of this push polling organization.

Dear friends,

I just received a presumably McCain push poll on my cell phone. The push poll was as follows:

* Push Poll (PP): Are you intending to vote in the 2008 presidential election?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Do you intend to vote for John McCain?
o Me: No
* PP: Do you intend to vote for Barack Obama?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Do you want a strong President who will manage the economy?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Did you know about Barack Obama's affiliations to Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac and that most of his contributors are Washington lobbyists representing the corrupt firms that caused the financial crisis?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Does this make you less likely to vote for Barack Obama?
o Me: No
* PP: Did you know about Barack Obama's affiliation to terrorist Bill Ayers and to the fraudulent voter registration organizationAcorn?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Does this make you less likely to vote for Barack Obama?
o Me: No
* PP: Are the values of the candidates important for you in this election?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Did you know that Obama is a muslim?
o Me: Yes
* PP: Does this make you less likely to vote for Barack Obama?
o Me: No
* PP: We are going to ask you a series of questions about your demographics. Is this ok? o Me: Yes
* PP: What is your age?
o Me: 34
* PP: (Inaudible)
o Me: (Silence)
* PP: Thank you very much for taking time to answer the survey of the Political Action Committee for Change (not sure, if this was the name or not). This is an independent survey and is not affiliated with the political campaigns of John McCain or Barack Obama. (End of call)
The number was registered on my caller ID as the following: 703-263-2155, Let's call this number and shut it down! :-)

UPDATE:You should read the comments on my blog entry in dailykos.com at http://www.dailykos.com/storyo... * Someone named NH Flaming Moderate (http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:154372) claimed to have been called from that number today, but she was unable to answer because she was at a soccer game.

* Another person named Ballerina X (http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:97334) claims the caller ID read "Perry Elaine."

* Another person named jgilhousen (http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:108731) claimed the location was "Herndon VA" and said that "there are several marketing/political research companies there, any of whom could be the culprit." Another person says the caller ID read: PUBSRV 2008.

* Someone named Msanger (http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:85832) received the same exact call in Georgia at 4.30 pm Saturday.

* If you google Elaine Perry, she does voice overs: http://voice123.com/elaineperry Also, there have been twelve complaints registered against this phone number online: * http://www.callercomplaints.co...AND * http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Nu...On these lists of complaints, one person who answered the calls said they were repeated calls by the Huckabee campaign.

The Mormons for Obama on Yahoo Groups have organized a concerted effort to call the number en mass. They said they were initially getting a voice mail but now are actually getting a busy signal.

Someone in the Feminists for Obama Yahoo Group wrote:
All I could find out about that number is that it is a verizon phone and it is in Centerville, VA. If you want to find out the persons name and address, you have to pay 40 bucks. I tried calling and it just kept ringing. You may want to check with verizon though.

A fellow Truman Scholar wrote me 15 minutes ago to say:
Based on other comments I've found online, I think this is the organization that pays for those calls:http://www.americansincontact.org/

Paul Krugman wins Nobel prize

Paul Krugman, economist and NY Times columnist, has won a Nobel prize. From Bloomberg:

President George W. Bush, whose approval ratings are at historic lows as the U.S. veers toward a recession or worse, got yet another thumb in the eye when one of his most vociferous critics was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.

While Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman was honored ``for his analysis of trade patterns of and locations of economic activity,'' he's more widely known for twice-weekly columns in the New York Times and appearances on television, in which he regularly attacks the president on the war in Iraq, his tax cuts and other issues.

Krugman, 55, doesn't mince words. He has accused Bush of leading the country into ``strategic disaster and moral squalor,'' and his columns and Times blog entries carry headlines with such blunt entreaties as ``Please Go Away.''

Even though Krugman's award was for his economic theories and not his criticism of Bush, the prize elevates the profile of an already-prominent Bush critic, said Jim Davis, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

``People will just see that a well-informed economist who has been critical of the Bush administration got the Nobel Prize, that's the take-away here,'' Davis said.

Of the more than 800 Krugman pieces listed on the Times Web site since he
became a columnist in 1999, almost 600 of them mention ``Bush,'' a search of the
site shows.

`Takes the Food'
On Feb. 11, 2005, he referred to Bush as someone who takes food from the mouth of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends.'' On Jan. 22, 2007, Bush, with his plan to use tax credits to buy health insurance, is ``not even trying to hide his fundamental indifference to the plight of the less- fortunate,'' Krugman wrote.

Krugman is a fierce critic of Bush's foreign policy and was an early opponent of the war in Iraq. Of the president's case for removing Saddam Hussein, Krugman
wrote on Feb. 11, 2003, ``Mr. Bush's America does not look like a regime whose
promises you can trust.''

``People claim to be shocked by the Bush administration's general incompetence,'' Krugman wrote on Oct. 8 last year. ``But disinterest in good government has long been a principle of modern conservatism.''

Krugman is not the first Bush critic to win a Nobel Prize. Former President Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 ``was more of a slap in the face,'' said Stephen Hess, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Krugman's award could bring Bush face-to-face with his antagonist. The president typically invites Nobel Prize winners to the White House in November or December.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment on the award.