Wednesday, October 29, 2008

McCain Feeling Heat

Apparently, the McCain shipwreck, er, campaign's internal polling numbers must be inline with Dr. Merrill's poll numbers, as this looks like an act of desperation in a state that really shouldn't be in doubt this late.

John McCain and the Republican National Committee are now running robocalls attacking Obama as weak on terrorism -- in McCain's home state of Arizona, according to multiple readers from the state.

The call signals genuine worry about McCain's home state at a time when several polls show the race to be much closer than expected there.

McCain's robocall, which was played to us over the phone by Mary Joe Bartel, a retiree who lives south of Tucson, attacks Obama as unprepared to defend the country from terrorism, singling out Joe Biden's recent remarks about the likelihood of Obama being tested by an international crisis early in his first term.

Go to Josh Marshall's link above to see the text, and hear the audio of the robocalls if you really have a penchant for self-abuse.

The bottom line is this is an utter disaster for McCain. He's already being outspent in battleground states. He's having to fight to defend states that Bush won handily four years ago. And now he's got to play defense on a state that should absolutely have been in the safe column.

Even if he wins Arizona, the fact that the race will finish close has to give a lot of hope to Bob Lord, Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell, Gabrielle Giffords, and a ton of lower ticket Democrats that they won't have to count on quite as many cross ticket voters to vote for individual Democrats.

Make no mistake. McCain has no coattails, and may even be a drag on his party here on election night.

UPDATE: Raw Story has more, including local reaction from Don Bivens, State Democratic Party Chairman.

Bivens says they are asking the DNC & Obama for some reasons to help turn up the volume to 11. Rumor has it Barack has more money than he can use between now and November 4. It'd be nice to see some of the money, and maybe a campaign stop from one of the surrogates (I'm assuming Barack will have higher priorities between now and November 4). Nothing would say schadenfreude quite like McCain losing Arizona...particularly since he may have another statewide race against a tough candidate in two years.

The Audacity of Hope

I've uploaded my photograph. Or rather, my photograph with the sixth oldest of our seven cats.

He is a Siamese Lynx Point cat, an absolutely beautiful animal. He's about a year old. He was a pound cat, and just refused to let us out without adopting him. Mrs. Rat and I struggled with a name for three days.

He had the name Max previously. We tried various names. I can't remember them all. I'm absolutely convinced, in a way, that cats name themselves.

We finally settled on a name. Obama.

Yes, Senator, we're putting pressure on you. Our cat has your name. So you'd better win, or on November 5, we will be in search of a new name.

Election Night Blogging, Have Notebook, Will Travel

FYI. For reasons I'm still trying to fathom, KPNX TV, Channel 12 News-Phoenix, Arizona, is seeking yours truly to blog for their site from 8 PM to 11 PM.

While I suspect there's a strong possibility that the big race everybody's interested in may very well be settled more or less by that time, it will be a good time to be there.

In 2004, and 2006, Arizona results were just beginning to trickle in at 8 PM, and there is a lot of drama locally, with all of the ballot propositions, Shadegg vs. Lord in CD 3, and Ann Kirkpatrick's run for Renzi's old seat in CD 1 and Harry Mitchell's and Gabrielle Giffords defenses of their seats.

Then there's the other big questions of the night. Can Democrats flip the House and/or Senate in the State Capitol.

Finally, a question I never thought I'd be asking six days out. Can John McCain avoid the embarrassment of losing his home state?

Update: I should have mentioned this will of course, be on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, from 8 PM to 11 PM. Unless you all know of another upcoming election night I'm not aware of.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Poll Pr0n (Bruce Merrill/ASU)

From the press release:

TEMPE, Ariz. ––Republican John McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by two points (46 percent to 44 percent) in Arizona, a margin that makes the race too close to call, according to a new Cronkite/Eight Poll. The poll of 1,019 registered voters in Arizona was conducted Oct. 23-26 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. According to poll director Dr. Bruce Merrill, “The race in Arizona is very close. Supporters of both candidates are highly committed to their candidates, with 94 percent of Obama’s supporters and 93 percent of McCain’s supporters indicating that they are firmly committed and won’t change their mind before Election Day. In addition, the undecided vote is very low, which means that there are few people remaining to be persuaded during the last week of the campaign. Obama has been closing the gap by attracting independents and women to his campaign. McCain does well among conservative Democrats and evangelicals. Still, a week is a long time in a political campaign and anything can happen. Who wins will be determined by which candidate gets their supporters out to the polls on Election Day.”

The statewide poll also found that a majority (62 percent) of all registered voters believes that Obama will win the presidency next Tuesday, while 20 percent think McCain will win. Thirty-eight percent of the Republicans in the state and 34 percent of those supporting McCain believe the Illinois senator will win. The poll also found that, by a two-to-one margin (46 percent to 22 percent), voters believe that McCain is running a more negative campaign than Obama.


This has been accomplished without campaigning on Obama's part, or locally targeted advertising (national cable advertising has been showing here).

I personally believe, at this moment in time, that McCain has the edge, but there's still a week to go, and it is nothing short of shocking that this race is this close in Arizona.

Whatever direction this one falls a week from today, one thing is sure. The game is changing in Arizona. It's not the GOP haven it was just a few years ago. Frankly, that's a lot more important than whether or not Barack pulls off an upset in Arizona next week.

Boo-Frickin-Hoo

Looks like a whole boatload of Republican trust fund babies might have to get real jobs in a couple of weeks:

A glance at the Republican job bank page on Texas Rep. John R. Carter’s website paints the whole, bleak picture with what it doesn’t show: real jobs.

..

It’s only going to get worse after the election, when a flood of GOP résumés will hit the streets, the result of retiring GOP lawmakers, election losers and an outgoing Republican administration.

Indeed, trying to find a job in a Republican congressional office is already beginning to approximate a rigged game of “Press Your Luck.” And finding comparable employment at the typical next-stop political shops off Capitol Hill has become increasingly gloomy for GOP-ers, as well.

..

“It’s a double-whammy,” said Brad Traverse, whose staffing website, www.bradtraverse.com, is a popular destination for job seekers on the Hill. “You have more firms who are both looking for Democrats and eliminating the Republican lobbyist positions. And from what I’ve heard talking to people is there’s a kind of a dearth of good, qualified Democrats to take some of these lobbying jobs.”

Younger staffers may have an easier time matching their $30,000 to $50,000 salaries elsewhere, but senior chiefs of staff making six-figure incomes will find it quite difficult to replicate that pay as Republican operatives in a Democratic town during an economic downturn.

Look. I have no love for the Modern Republican party and even less for the bulk of its representatives in Washington. Hateful, spiteful, greedy, and intolerant is no way to go through life.

Now that they've fucked up two wars, a great American city, used the Bill of Rights as toilet paper, and trashed the economy in a way that only another Republican could achieve, I have no pity for them. Perhaps for their families, but none whatsoever for these clowns. Stew in it, folks.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Real Courage

As somebody who used to work in, and manage in call centers, I can tell you that this is just all kinds of awesome.

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.

"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."

People working in call centers runs the gamut from college students, to former stay-at-home moms returning to the work force, to people working a second job, to people trying to build careers. Like most working people these days, it's not an easy conversation to explain that you're losing a day's pay.

I admire the courage of Ms. Williams, and all of the others for taking a stand, and calling bullshit. Sadly, some of them, once the spotlight is no longer on them, probably will lose their jobs over this. This isn't dressing up in a flightsuit, and pretending you're a hotshot pilot. This isn't being a chicken shit Republican Delegate and donning a band-aid with a purple heart on it.

This is real courage. It's rare. It's precious. And for a democratic (small d) government to survive, it is absolutely essential.

Prison Bars Are a Series of Tubes

Senator Ted Stevens guilty of 7 Counts of Lying on Senate Disclosure Forms

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to "repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct."

Sen. Ted Stevens leaves federal court Monday as the jury deliberated in his corruption trial.

"I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have," the 84-year-old Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, said in a written statement after the jury came back Monday afternoon. "I am innocent."

Stevens was convicted of seven counts of making false statements on Senate ethics forms to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and work on his Alaska home from an oilfield contractor at the center of a corruption investigation in the state."

"This verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which the Justice Department lawyers conducted this trial," he said.


Actually, this verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which Ted Stevens abused the public trust, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a corrupt oil service company so they could in turn steal millions from taxpayers.

And I'm guessing Ted Stevens is innocent...of the Kennedy assassination.

This leaves Sarah Palin as about the only member of the Alaska Republican Party not to go to jail. Then again, Troopergate isn't over yet.

PS. Of course, this is excellent news for John McCain. How stupid of me not to realize it immediately.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Shorter Doug MacEachern

Alaskan 'Provincial' Stirs Up Feminists, Celebrities

  • Sarah Palin, blah blah, Feminazis, blah, blah, Hollywood Liberals, blah, blah. Try not to mention all of the Republicans who endorse Obama over Palin, blah, blah.
Poor guy. He really is just mailing it in at this point.

Dear Benevolent Supreme Being (On the off chance that you do exist)

Please, oh, please, oh please make this happen.

Watching Will Ferrell as George W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live" made me yearn for the real president on the road. His absence from the partisan political scene has left Ferrell's mocking sketch as the freshest impression we have of Bush in campaign mode.

Putting Bush on the campaign trail could be John McCain's final Hail Mary pass. The Republican nominee has done so little to distance himself from his party's president that he is stuck with him anyway. He's damned either way in the polls, with or without Bush speaking up for him, so McCain might as well gamble on Bush's campaigning skills among the Republican base.

Either Craig Crawford really wants to turn this race into a 10%+ landslide, or he has supplanted Doug Feith as the stupidest fucking guy on the face of the planet.

I'm doubting even Abraham Lincoln could win an election with Sarah Palin as his running mate, and George W Bush stumping for him. McCain certainly couldn't.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Shorter Laurie Roberts's Entire Journalism Career

Is this an election or an SNL Skit?

  • I have nothing serious to say, so I'll instead ramble uselessly about a Shadegg staffer buying a Democratic bumper sticker, then equate it with Woman of the People Sarah Palin's practical, middle class wardrobe for a moment.
or alternately:

  • You mean they pay me to babble incoherently in a column for 1000 words? Hell, I do this at home all the time for free.

Friday Night Funnies

When You've Lost the Fonz and Andy Griffith...

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die


First, they came for the folksy comedians set in a fictitious southern town...

What Was I Thinking





In the interest of full disclosure, both I and the curvaceous and lovely Mrs. Rat voted a week and a half ago by mail.


Have you or will you?

Shorter Alan Greenspan

Greenspan Admits Errors to Hostile House Panel

  • Nobody could have predicted that basing monetary policy on the economic ramblings of a mediocre novelist (Ayn Rand) would end badly.

Friday Random Ten

You know the rules. Grab your IPod or Zune and Play Along...

The Cutter-Echo & The Bunnymen
Lost Planes-The Fixx
Colonial Anthem "The Battlestar Galactica Theme"-Bear McCreary/Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Soundtrack
Love and Anger-Kate Bush
It's Over-Boz Scaggs
Fight Night-Bear McCreary/Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Soundtrack
Loisada-Joe Jackson
Notting Hill Blues-Aztec Camera
Book of Brilliant Things (Live)-Simple Minds
Going Nowhere-The Moody Blues

Bonus Music Video:
Go Now-The Moody Blues

Shorter Robert Robb

Republicans Deserve To Lose, But Democrats Don't Deserve to Win

  • Are you sure McCain can't unshit the bed between now and November 4th? Can you check again?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Thursday Random Ten

You know the rules. Grab your IPod (or Zune, if you swing that way), Shuffle the Songs, and let the Suckitude fall where it may.

"Can't Let Go"-Roxy Music
"Brat In The Frat"-Dead Milkmen
"Second Hand Woman"-Steve Winwood
"Dimples"-John Lee Hooker
"City of Love"-Yes
"My Own Time"-Asia
"The Cylon Prisoner"-Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Soundtrack)
"Something to Fall Back On"-Todd Rundgren
"The Emperor Is Dead"- Klaus Bedelt and Lisa Gerrard (Gladiator Soundtrack)
"Tara"-Roxy Music

Turning it up to 11:
"The Lightsaber/The Ewok Battle (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Soundtrack)

Bonus Music Video:
Roxy Music-Angel Eyes

What is Rat Tracks?

And what the hell happened to Desert Rat Democrat?

Good question. Here's the deal. He's a die hard Democrat. But blogging about politics, exclusively, can be grindingly dull. Especially when a lot of people do that better (and in a more timely manner than he does).

So what is Rat Tracks about?

Oh, he'll still write a lot about politics, when something tickles his fancy, but this is a place for bloviating on a lot of topics: History; Economics; Geek Culture; Gaming; Politics; and anything else that fires him up.

Who is the subgenius behind Rat Tracks?

Rat Tracks is Stuart Dollar, an Arizona native. He's married (22 years and counting) to the most adorable, caring, funny, intelligent woman alive, and she has given him the gift of two sons who have developed their father's sense of humor, and their mother's loving nature.

In addition to his family, he shares his house with 7 cats, 22 tropical fish, and several shelves full of books and DVDs. You may see photographs of his cats and fish from time to time.

His current employer would prefer that their identity remain undisclosed. He has held a variety of jobs encompassing tabletop game design, call center management, administration, management, and sales across a number of industries, mostly concentrated in retail sales.

He is a graduate of the W P Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, a member of the first generation of his extended family to graduate from college.

His interests include gaming (video, and tabletop role-playing), photography (you may see his work here from time to time), British humor (Monty Python, Black Adder, Mr. Bean, just about anything of Ricky Gervais's), and film.

A former Republican, he saw the light during Reagan's first term and has gone from a Democrat who just went out and voted every two years to a dedicated, politically active Democrat (8 years under the worst President since Buchanan will do that to you).

He is still struggling with his annoying habit of referring to himself in the third-person. He promises he will get better.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

First Post

Yes. I'll get something up here. Eventually.