PLUMBER CRACKED: Joe The Plumber Ain’t All That

WASHINGTON POST: Joe the Plumber is not exactly a plumber and he’s “not even close” to making the kind of money that would result in higher taxes from Democrat Barack Obama’s proposals. Such is the whirlwind of information that has come out about Joe Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio, since Republican John McCain made him famous in last night’s debate. McCain mentioned him more than 20 times to use him as a symbol of hard-working Americans who would be hurt by Obama’s tax policies. Obama and Wurzelbacher met earlier in the week in Toledo, where Wurzelbacher said Obama’s plans to raise […]

INSTA-POLLS: Obama K.O.s McCain, Wins 3 Out Of 3

CNN:  Fifty-four percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted after the debate ended said that Obama did the best job in the debate, with 30 percent saying Sen. John McCain performed better. According to the poll, 64 percent had a favorable opinion of Obama after the debate, up 4 points from before the event. Fifty-one percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCain after the debate, unchanged from before its start. A majority said Obama seemed to be the stronger leader during the debate, 54 percent to 43 percent, and by a more than […]

TONITE: The Old Man’s Last Stand

[Illustration by JAY BEVENOUR] Tune in tonight for the snarkiest, most unabashedly liberally-biased debate coverage on the Internet! You may not learn anything, but it will make you feel better. Tonight’s analysts will be JONATHAN VALANIA and  CITIZEN MOM. Starts around 9 PM. You betcha 8:50 PM me: yo  Citizen: Where ya been, slacka? 8:51 PM me: saving up my superpowers of snark   CNN?  Citizen: Yeah, I can’t live without the neon noodles anymore   meaning, the squiggley lines  me: I like following Gergen’s combover   it’s like a soap opera   and a whodunnit 8:52 PM all at once  Citizen: Soledad O’Brien’s hair is getting […]

Cheney Taken To Hospital With Irregular Heartbeat

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an abnormal heartbeat Wednesday morning and, upon the advice of White House doctors, went to the hospital for a procedure to “restore his normal rhythm.” For the 67-year-old Cheney, who canceled a campaign event he was to attend later Wednesday in Illinois, it will be the second time in less than a year that he will have the outpatient procedure — which consists of an electric shock. The vice president’s office said that after experiencing a problem, Cheney saw the White House physician. It was discovered there that he was experiencing a recurrence […]

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Another Foreclosure Suicide

LA TIMES: A series of financial setbacks left Wanda Dunn facing eviction from the house in Pasadena where her family had lived for generations. Dunn, 53, told neighbors that she would rather die than leave. Early Monday, the day of her expected eviction, firefighters pulled her body out of the house as it burned. She apparently had set it on fire before shooting herself in the head, authorities said. “We knew it was going to happen,” said Steve Brooks, who lived across the street. “It was nobody’s fault; it was everybody’s fault.” As Brooks watched the flames, he noticed that […]

LASSO OF TRUTH: Wonder Woman Is Anti-Palin

THE HILL:  Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on television in the 1970s, slammed Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the “anti-Wonder Woman.” Carter made her remarks in response to a question from Philadelphia Magazine about comparisons between Wonder Woman and Gov. Palin (Alaska), the GOP’s first veep nominee. “She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives,” Carter added. “And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?” Carter said that […]

THE HATE NOISE: Anthrax Hoaxes Shutdown Obama Campaign Offices In Philadelphia And New York

CBS: PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) — A threatening letter containing a suspicious powder forced evacuations at a Barack Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon. According to police, a letter with a suspicious powder was sent to an Obama-Biden field office in the 1500 block of Christian Street. The letter was apparently opened by a volunteer at the office.”The letter was somewhat threatening in nature and it contained a substance that we believe to be a hazmat,” Captain Mike Gillespie said shortly after the incident. Police, fire and hazmat crews responded to the scene shortly after a 911 call was […]

FAILOUT: The Masque Of The In-The-Red Death

TECH CRUNCH: The collapse of so many major financial institutions in the past year, and over the past few days especially, is hard to fathom in its enormity. Sometimes you need a good visual to put things in perspective. The New York Times has an interactive graphic up on its site that pretty much says it all. It shows that $4 trillion has been wiped off the total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market since last October. Of that, nearly $1 trillion is from the decline in the financial sector alone. MORE EDGAR ALLAN POE: THE “Red Death” had […]

BRADLEY EFFECT IN REVERSE: Crackers Crackin’ Up

“Keep The N*gger Out Of Office” Cops: Man threatened voter officials over tardy registration card OCTOBER 8–Angered by a delay in the receipt of his voter registration card, a Louisiana man today threatened election officials, claiming that he urgently needed to cast a ballot to “keep the n*gger out of office,” according to police. Wade Williams, 75, was arrested this morning on a felony terrorizing charge after allegedly calling the Registrar of Voters and warning that he would come to the state office and empty his shotgun unless he got his registration card. Using profanity and racial slurs, Williams told […]

YES WE CAN: Winning The Battle For Pennsyltucky

HOPE IN THE RUINS: Obama in West Philly, Saturday ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has nearly closed the deal in Pennsylvania, as anxiety over the economy overcomes lingering concerns about his inexperience and qualms about his race, according to more than three dozen political operatives, pollsters and analysts across the state. A surge in Democratic voter registration is also helping. Some Republicans in the state say privately it is all but impossible for Republican Sen. John McCain to win Pennsylvania. Others are hopeful but nervous. Still many remain optimistic, noting that the race has been marked by wild […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the National Security Agency stepped up its efforts to collect intelligence domestically by filtering millions of phone conversations and e-mail messages. In his new book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 To The Eavesdropping On America, journalist James Bamford reveals that the ultra-secret agency has half a million people on its watch lists. Bamford has been writing about the inner workings of the NSA since his first book, The Shadow Factory: A Report On America’s Most Secret Agency, was published in 1982. He is also the author of Body […]