The mores of honor demand that John McCain slur Barack Obama to his face:
This is so predictable it's like an episode of Three's Company (what?! Jack Tripper isn't gay?) -- Bill Ayers Endorsed Radical Pro-Homosexual Education Book. Bill Ayers gave a thumbs up to a tome called "Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling" by William J. Letts IV and James T. Sears, so now we have a new strawman connection to Barack Obama for the crazies to bug out over.
If you haven't yet read the report on Troopergate, well, it's entertaining stuff, in a disturbing sort of way. (PDF here, summary here.) One thing that jumps out me is that all the wingnuts out there who looked into Sarah Palin's eyes and saw that she was one of them aren't fooling themselves. She's pure wingnut: vindictive, obsessed with gaining the power to control others through any means necessary, and enraptured by the own ability to cause suffering that exhibits itself in the glee to which they defend "enhanced interrogation techniques" to their crowing about how a woman saddled with an unwanted pregnancy should have shut her legs. Sarah Palin's family went after Mike Wooten and then Walt Monegan in a way that reminded me, strongly, of the way that the wingnutsphere exerts its power, which is a process that Lindsay described as scalp-collecting, with a firing being the preferred form of scalp collected. Or collecting heads on stakes or foreskins. I'm honestly surprised more wingnuts don't have a head count in their sidebars, they love this process so much. Here's the steps:
I've been mulling over this post by Fred at Slactivist (and its follow-up) since I read these posts last night. The original post is about the psychology behind the ludicrous rumor that the CEO of Proctor & Gamble went on some talk show and proclaimed his love of Satan. This one really does show the truism that the spread-ability of an urban legend is dependent on how much it flatters the prejudices of the person who is spreading it---for instance, I've heard more legends in Austin of the horrible goings on of evil gang-bangers than I have in El Paso, though the latter actually has gangs in a way that Austin doesn't. That's because the source of all hair-raising and untrue horror stories of criminal behavior in El Paso were attributed to illegal immigrants. You can tell a lot about someone's prejudices by what urban legends they tell. The P&G legend obviously made its way through evangelical Christians, who are highly motivated to convince themselves as a group that Satanists exist, because it flatters their self-perception as mighty spiritual warriors.
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Republican John McCain pledged to fight for a new direction for the country in an energetic new campaign stump speech Monday that sought to distance him from the economic policies of President Bush."We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change," McCain said while campaigning with running mate Sarah Palin in this once reliably Republican state that has become a battleground this year. "The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now."
... McCain's retooled pitch comes as Republican campaign veterans say he needs to do more than just attack Obama in an economic environment that favors Democrats.
Obama leads in enough states to be within reach of the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory while McCain is being forced to defend Republican turf where polls show the race close. That's partly because of Obama's well-funded onslaught of TV ads and extensive network of field troops registering and canvassing voters; McCain trails on both fronts.
It was a measure of McCain's troubles that he was campaigning Monday, just three weeks before the election, in Virginia and later in North Carolina, both normally solid for the GOP nominee but in play this year.
The Virginia Beach Fire Marshal's office estimated the size of the crowd to be 12,000. A McCain campaign spokeswoman claimed the crowd size was 25,000, but the Convention Center's capacity is only 16,000.
And you know what's really bad? This isn't the first time they've created some imaginary supporters. See below the fold. 
Raising Kaine reminds us of this sad sack attendee inflation at other rallies:
McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events.
In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.
