I do hope that Joe Wurzelbacher does run for Congress in Toledo in 2010. Marcy Kaptur, the incumbent, would open a can of Whup-ass on him that would wipe him off the map, and then we would at last be rid of this campaign prop.

I heard some right-wing tool on Stephanie Miller screaming about the birth certificate thing today. Despite the fact that it is so transparently false, even were it true, do these morans really think Obama would leave the campaign trail 11 days before the election to personally forge his own birth certificate?

So despite being false, it just plain doesn't make sense, you betcha.

* Right-wing personalities still can't quite give up on the whole Obama birth-certificate thing. How very sad.

If they are so interested in birth certificates, why don't they see if they can find the one for Trig Palin? Seems to be missing.

Why in the world does the Democratic party not come forth with a real Joe the plumber ad. "I'm Joe, it is my real name and I am a licensed plumber who knows that Barack Obama's Tax plans will make it more likely that I will someday be in that $250,000 tax bracket. Until I get there his plans help me and they help me hire and employ workers. That's why this real Joe the plumber will be voting for Barack Obama." Why let McCain run with this ball when it could so easily be knocked from his hands?

I'm beginning to think that when it comes to responsible use of limited resources, AIG maybe, just maybe, a little on the unreliable side.

Gee, ya think?

If the current administration is so keen on the rehabilitative effects of waterboarding, why don't they give it a spin in the boardrooms of AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Goldman Sachs, et al.? It might toughen these idiotic, overcompensated and undertalented yahoos to the point where they don't lose all our money.

Maybe they could call it "team-building".

Jeff II: I concur. Where is the Trig BC?

Why in the world does the Democratic party not come forth with a real Joe the plumber ad. Posted by: ajohng

It exists, sort of, courtesy of Michael Moore. I guess he was on Larry King via remote last night and had a couple "Michigan plumbers for Obama" on with him.

* Joe Wurzelbacher is thinking about running for Congress. Seriously. -- Steve Benen

Presumably, after the NRC has paid off his back taxes and taken care of is lien? Otherwise, why not? If Palin can run for VP and be taken seriously by some people...

LOL about "Joe the Plumber." Guess he wants his l5 minutes of fame to translate into a high paying job (with GOP support undoubtedly he would rake in more than his salary).

Open thread, so, what about this 2.5% mortgages for people who put no money down? Saw it in LA Times.

I do feel that if people were definitely lied to and cheated, this could be fair. OTOH, what about those of us who have SAVED hoping to buy a home in an expensive area? I know folks on this forum (under Kevin) discussed how they were savings with hopes to buy this year or next. If folks did NOT overextend themselves, and they saved, and home prices are artificially propped up, how is that in any way fair?

Or are is fairness what the admin wants to do when it wants to do it? The heck with the "fair" market?

Don't know about the rest of you, but houses may have dipped l0% where I am but are still totally out of reach. No ghost towns here. If they came down 50% they might be reasonable. I'm talking W Los Angeles.

Jeff II, That may well be but it seems that the very most effective points in a debate or ads in a campaign are when you are able to take an opponents issue, spin it around and come right back at him with it. With Joe's murky background this seems to be a great opportunity to do so. Anyway, just a thought.

Kos has a good piece on the way the McCain campaign abetted the A. Todd hoax, at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/24/174033/12/463/641282. Heh, she already has a Wikipedia entry.

I must say, in the event human flesh would not be available from the kitchen of my convalescence, Chilean Sea-bass would be an excellence next-best course. So, Johnny of Walnuts, continue treading on proponents of plural democracy & transparency. While Pinochet would prolly have not taken the brightest shine to me, as I were a dark-skinned African of questionable religious background, we would have had much to share, in the way of notes, on "disappearing". Helicopters sent to flight over sea, with corpses dropped to the waves below, might not have had the visceral effect of a feeding the opposition to crocodiles (or yours truly), but I definitely see the merit in it.

I am Idi Amin's Last Meal, & I approve this message.

It's Friday! The headline startled me for a split second while I fearfully doubted my internal calendar. Then, I reassured myself that it is, in fact, Friday and I can look forward to the start of the weekend.

Right-wing personalities...

Right-wingers don't have personalities. They have personality disorders.

Some notes about "The View" ABC talk show:

Elizabeth Hasselbeck from "The View" is actually gleefully planning to introduce Palin two times on the campaign trail this weekend.

Ah, Barbara Walters and The View oughta be so proud!

Hasselbeck continues to dominate and bulldoze the conversation daily, not unlike a rehearsed talking point on Fox News. But it shouldn't come as a surprise, as she is as fundamentally Christian bigoted as you can get. And this is, after all, Palin's so called 'base'.

Anyone who can in good conscience endorse such a hateful and fear mongering bigoted candidate as Palin and who seems to think that an attractive woman is defined as a Pit-Bull full of lipstick is beyond me.

Joy Behar, the most cogent and intelligent counterpart tries to get her comments in now and then. Thankfully, she'll be on Larry King (special edition) Saturday (tomm. night).

Whoppi Goldberg may be well intentioned, but she sadly just sits there tongue tied mostly- and worse yet, throughout she seems hellbent to remain utterly "neutral", ending up invariably saying a whole lot of nothing.

Go Joy on Larry King tomm. night!

Watching CNN or MSNBC gave me the feeling that they were on the electorate side for the moment. But, for me, these Media giants have always been key figures for the Jekyll Island Group, the Federal Reserve specialist, many appointed by Bush on several Quasi Governmental Agencies, which are the problem that is totally avoided in this American economy down turn.

It is absolutely distressing that financial management practices, accounting and controls, and whether policies and procedures are in place to assure the integrity of quasi-public agency operations are lacking in a report early in the Bush administration.

It is as if Saturday night live is the way our government works. Funny in way, with all the chaos and uncertainty possible now. Yet, all the time and space devote to this funny part is a waste. Here, should queue all us into the diminished real truth Americans need to know.

Look at how America is guide by our current media. It is horrible. C-Span now occasionally is sinking their teeth into some of the obvious corruption in market trading. For me, this derivative stuff has encouraged me to review some basic calculus, though my background is engineering, good economic principles are a foundation in technology.

From what I perceive the home mortgage problem is one element of the huge problem. The media who watch our back is about to loose all and any credibility it ever had if the story you about to hear is true.

Our economy is going to reset, there is always going to be talk about a bottom but you need to view this video and let’s kick this idea around.

Does this guy have the credibility?

I have always considered Bush and Company as tyrants, this would be the ultimate in treason to secretly print money with out the authorization of the Congress, or is the Congress in on this horrible story.

Or is this just a scare tactic…CHECK IT OUT>

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1954933468700958565&hl=es

Don't know about the rest of you, but houses may have dipped l0% where I am but are still totally out of reach. No ghost towns here. If they came down 50% they might be reasonable. I'm talking W Los Angeles.

I was listening to KPCC last night and they had a story about an environmentally-friendly house that they were asking $1 million for. In Culver City.

We've pretty much resigned ourselves to never being homeowners out here.

Is there a national level politician alive who hasn't met with, had dinner with, been on a committee with someone with an unsavory past?

This whole Ayers thing is just damned silly.

are we sure w voted for john?

Is there a national level politician alive who hasn't met with, had dinner with, been on a committee with someone with an unsavory past?

Yeah, all of those who've dined with John McCain.

The Ayers thing is a dog whistle. The McCain people have screwed it up though; Lee Atwater they ain't.

Ah, the mark of the down to earth everyman: Trying to parlay his fifteen minutes of fame into a seat in Congress. Joe the Celebrity!

Haven't we determined that even if Obama was born elsewhere in the world, he'd still be an American citizen, much like McCain was born elsewhere in the world, and is an American citizen?

Obama goes personally to Hawaii to 'fix' his non-existent birth certificate 'problem'. Right.

How desperate must the wretched Lush Bimbos of Dumbfuckistan be to come up with that one.

That makes as much sense as if Sarah Palin went shopping in Nieman and Saks by herself as a photo-op.

Can't they do better than that? I guess not.

Haven't we determined that even if Obama was born elsewhere in the world, he'd still be an American citizen, much like McCain was born elsewhere in the world, and is an American citizen?

It's not about being a citizen. Jennifer Granholm and Arnold Schwarzenegger are citizens who aren't eligible to run for president.

The Constitution requires the president to have been born in the U.S. or its territories. McCain was born in the Canal Zone, then held by the U.S. Obama was born in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

The Constitution requires the president to have been born in the U.S. or its territories.

The Constitution (Art. II, Sec. 1)requires that the President be either a "natural born citizen" or "a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution".

US "territories" include both incorporated territores (that are part of "the United States") and unincorporated (that are not). The Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory, and John McCain's citizenship is a product of a retroactive law passed a year after his birth granting US citizenship to people born in the Canal Zone of US parents. (A law which would have been both unnecessary and unconstitutionally restrictive if the Canal Zone were part of the US, due to the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship provision.)

There is a very good case to be made that John McCain is Constitutionally ineligible to the Presidency, but there probably is no legal standing to challenge his eligibility until and unless he assumes the office and attempts to exercise any of its powers. (And, of course, the consequence of a successful challenge at that point would be President Palin.)

Better to not let the issue become ripe, and just elect Barack Obama.

Ah, thank you for that information, cm. Is it then the case that persons born in American Samoa, Guam, the Marianas, Puerto Rico, the USVI and Wake Island of U.S. parents are not eligible for the presidency, but those born on Palmyra Atoll are? If so, I didn't know that.