The Past Week: Recaps and Random Thoughts, October 19-25 (McCain Rally in Mesilla, NM (with pics) (Updated 1X including Clinton Rally–”Optimistic but not yet confident”); Ayers circa 1974; “Pre-Counts”–the New Horse Pucky; Messing with Military Votes; Bill Clinton, Even You’re Irritating Me Now; “Grieving”)

~~Posted by InsightAnalytical-GRL

OK, I have to say this: the video of the McCain rally yesterday afternoon is incredibly BAD! I can’t believe how bad the quality is! I’ve never seen anything done so poorly for any other candidate who has visited the Las Cruces area!  Last week, they printed the wrong address of the McCain headquarters (gave Obama’s twice), now this!  The video is heavily edited and lasts only about 3 minutes. Now, maybe they’ve “improved” it, but as of the time when I put this post together, it was just terrible!

I didn’t go to the rally because I had a gardening workshop I had signed up for…but, since it was only about two blocks from the Plaza, I managed to get a few pics as I left.  The police had blocked off all approaches except for one a few blocks up the Avenida de Mesilla and since it was a ticketed event and I didn’t have a ticket, I didn’t bother walking up that far.

However, I ran into a “Democrat for McCain,” a lovely woman who told me she was “scared to death” of Obama. I chatted with couple of the policemen manning the barricades… one of the told me outright that he thought Obama was a liar.

Here are a couple of the pics I got.  The huge flag was hanging on the side of the plaza and it appears from the video that the stage was in front of the flag.

Usually, rallies are held with the San Albino’s church as the backdrop (you can see the top of the steeple to the right in the middle picture), but yesterday things were shifted so the background was 90 degrees to the “left” along the far side of the plaza. There was a backdrop reading “Country First” immediately in back of the speakers, and the flag was suspended behind that.  Departing Sen. Domenici introduced McCain.  McCain had a good line at the start of the video…that “Obama is more interested in controlling wealth than creating it.”

Let’s see if the Sun-News deigns to put the entire McCain speech up like they did for Obama on Memorial Day.  Or, let’s see if they have interviews with attendees in a later article.  I don’t expect much, because this rag endorsed Obama last week…full of hesitations, but they endorsed him nonetheless. SHAME ON THE LAS CRUCES SUN-NEWS!!! And, I’ll have to see if Hillary Clinton’s rally for Obama further down south gets a lot more coverage and if Obama’s night rally in Albuquerque gets big play as late as Monday. (See story below in the “posts” section.)

UPDATE on the coverage (Sunday AM):

At the website, the same crummy, short video but with an expanded story with some more meaty quotes from McCain.

In the print editon of the Sun-News–”BATTLEGROUND” screaming along the top of the page, with a big sticker for the Renaissance ArtsFaire plunked over part of the picture of McCain and most of the caption! Below the stories on McCain, the story “Clinton Stumps for Obama in Sunland Park.”  Continuing on page 9, on the left the stories on McCain, on the right at the top, Clinton’s name highlighted with a big picture of her and a shot of women supporters. On page 6 a story titled “Southern NM in the Spotlight as Race Tightens” with a pic of McCain and one of Obama and Bill Richardson (can’t let a day go by without Obama in the picture!).  Next to it on Page 7 a story titled “Average Joes Have Mixed Feelings on Wealth” by the AP with charts and a title “Most Americans under 15% tax rate.”

In the story on Clinton–(which reported a crowd of about 2,600–there was NO estimate for the McCain crowd, although 2,500 tickets were supposedly available and the story referred to “thousands” in a caption of a small picture)–she is quoted as saying: “I want you to support Barack Obama as hard as you supported me.” Later in the story she pushed for a “filibuster-proof majority” but the report also had these interesting comments:

Clinton in Sunland Park on Saturday nonetheless cautioned the faithful to avoid complacency, fearing that leads Obama and the congressional hopefuls have built could slip away in the final days of the campaign.

“Ten days is a long time in a presidential election. All sorts of things can happen,” she said.

“Clinton described herself as optimistic about Democratic wins on Nov. 4, but not yet confident that all will go as planned.”

***

In case you missed the latest in the Wiliam Ayers saga, here are a couple of links for stories on Prairie Fire: The Poltics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism , written and published in 1974 by Ayers on the Weather Underground and the story about the office Obama and Ayers shared.

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Last week I griped about Early Voting (see the 3rd story in the “Posts” section) and on Wednesday I actually heard a news story on the radio about how Obama was leading in the early voting by a large margin…30%, 27% were the numbers bandied about depending on the “poll.”  Of course, there was no real poll and this story that was up at The Hill discusses how the numbers are put together.

So now the media works its magic buy discussing “pre-counts” as if they ARE the election results? Is this the voting equivalent of “pre-owned” that really means “used” when it applies to cars?  Remember we weren’t supposed to get a call on an election on the TV before California had voted? Remember how we were all aghast that Bush’s cousin at FOX News declared Bush the winner of FL and the entire meme changed in 2000? Why is this “reporting” on Early Voting now ACCEPTABLE?  In the distant past, we at least we had SOME respect for the idea of not doing things that influenced an election–like creating a “report” on Early Voting obviously meant to push the idea that one candidate is “inevitable.”

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Now, here’s a job for ACORN! Making sure everyone gets a chance to vote! Over at Edge of Forever, we saw this story this week (The link to the original Marc Ambinder story is here.):

Military votes tossed out in Virginia

Oh…they were tossed on a “technicality”–the voters did NOTHING WRONG!

Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling — requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.

Apparently, the ballots themselves were not changed for the new requirements

The McCain campaign said there’s not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn’t changed.

A Democrat is the “registrar of voters” in VA…he thinks this whole thing “stinks”…but the law is the law?

And whither WesClark, who practically lived in Virginia campaigning for Kaine…and has a residence in Alexandria, I believe.   Not a peep from him on this?

And the big question is–When do we get a uniform voting law in this country? Meanwhile,  John Conyers cancelled a September session of the committee that has been working on “preparing” for the 2008 election…I’d say there’s been a lot of heel-dragging on assuring a fair vote this election, from BOTH sides.

***

Out of the blue (no pun intended) I got a missive from Bill Clinton this week on behalf of HillPac. It was about raising money for a few downticket candidates, including Al Franken, and efforts to win a veto-proof Congress.

I don’t have to tell you how important this election is to our country. But I do want to tell you one thing that will make a tremendous difference for Barack Obama and Joe Biden as we go forward: A filibuster-proof Democratic Senate majority working by their side.

(SNIP)

I know that these three races are critically important to her — and they should be to you, too.

I don’t think it will surprise you that Hillary and I talk about the Senate races all the time. After all, she’ll be working every day with the winners next year.

Well, Bill, the last thing I want is a Democratic Congress and Barack Obama in the Oval Office. I never thought I’d say something like that, but that’s the way it is this year.  And Bill…tell Hillary to get off the Obama bandwagon, especially the one here in my backyard at the same time McCain is campaigning.  Let Obama show up in person here with us little folks down here in southern NM!

***

You can say the next item is about something you’ve seen before. In fact, you have, since all of here at IA have written about this is some shape or form over the past weeks. But, this particular piece posted at Savage Politics takes a different approach as it reflects on all the reasons why we feel so bad about what’s going on in this country. Here’s an excerpt:

GRIEVING

by Lab,
Guest Contributor

Over the past several days, while I have been purposefully alone with my thoughts, I have felt a heaviness of heart and have been filled with an overwhelming sense of nothing but pure, unadulterated shock and dismay at what I have been seeing in our country. In those quiet moments, away from the television and internet, I’ve been overcome, at times, with a deep sense of pain and hurt that’s almost indescribable. The closest I can come to explaining what I feel is Grief. I am grieving for our country.

I am grieved when the national media is concerned about Sarah Palin dropping her g’s when she talks, is completely unmoved by the fact that the man who would lead our country hasn’t been made to tell the American people why he chose to be friends with, write blurbs for, attend panels with, sit in a church pew, for 20 long years listening to, took money from, represented in court, and paid campaign cash to all kinds of people who have either hated America all of their known lives or have actually bombed its symbols. That grieves me….MORE

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On happier note, in the garden this week:  The mustard is now about 3 inches high and the arugula,  pak choi, and swiss chard seeds have sprouted! I picked the last tomato from the pot on the patio and I put up tomato preserves, which are yummy!  And I’m going to do another batch in a couple of day since I still have tons of green (and ripe) tomatoes hanging around on the counter.

THIS WEEK’S POSTS

*By Lisabona

**By American Lassie

***By kenosha Marge

*A SPECIAL POST: As the Violence of Obama’s Followers Escalates, A Former Resident of Communist Romania Expresses Her Fears about Obama and What is Happening to Our Country

BREAKING: Hillary Clinton in So. NM the SAME TIME as McCain, as Obama is in ABQ (Sat. 10/25)

**It’s Time to Decide, Folks

Celebrating 100,000 Hits with the PUMA Dames at InsightAnalytical! (Featuring Dog Testimonials and Recipes for Disaster/Democracy)

On the Ground in NM: Biden/Richardson/Endorsement Punch Hits So. NM; Big Early Voting Turnout; BREAKING: McCain May Be Here on Saturday (UPDATE 1X–McCain CONFIRMED for Sat. Rally, S. NM)

***Oh No, Poor Joe (Joe the Plumber Meets the Ghost of Joe McCarthy)

The Past Week: Recaps & Random Thoughts, October 12-18 (A Fond Farewell; Polls and Polling Methods; Odinga Video; Fitzerald, Clintons, RICO?; Body Language and Obama the Hypnotist; Chicago; Greens!…3-Parter on ‘Independent Thinking’)