Golly, why would I answer the question? Golly, I will talk about my talking points that I memorized. You betcha, I don’t even know what de-regulation means, really, so Bridge to Nowhere is near Russia, isn’t it?

Me and Todd don’t like taxes, because snowmobiles are expensive, ya know? Darn right. Who needs to answer the questions when me and the Todd are the most ordinary Americans ever?

(Joe Biden is using an interesting debate strategy: relevant facts and information.)

What does that mean Gwen Ifil keep repeating the questions? I’ll talk about my energy expertise, you betcha.

Am I repeating myself about Fannie Mae? No! Bad! (imagines taser shock). Talk about rearing again. Fannie and Freddie are like that Putin.

East coast politicians don’t let Alaska drill for oil. (Uh, like John McCain?)

I am tolerant and have diverse friends. The Todd and I once watched Will and Grace, and thought that guy was really funny, ya know?

Team of mavericks! Mavericks! Main Street. Wall Street.

Say it ain’t so, Joe! (She has been dying to say that)

Now she is babbling about her biography and education. What the hell is this? It’s like she heard a key word, and then launched into her memorized spiel. It’s insane.

Vote for me, ya know, because me and the Todd have a special needs child. And I am a mother, ya know. MAVERICK! MAVERICK!

MAVERICK!

Ian Marquand, from the Montana’s New Station has an interesting post up today about Montana Republican Party efforts to disenfranchise voters, especially young voters:

On Monday, the executive director for Montana’s Republican Party, Jake Eaton, dropped more than 3,400 challenges of registered voters to Missoula’s elections office. In other words, Eaton is challenging whether 3,400 Missoula County voters are eligible to cast a ballot in November. (To put it in context, Missoula has about 68,000 active registered voters.) He’s also filed challenges in Lewis and Clark, Silver Bow, Hill, Glacier, Deer Lodge and Roosevelt Counties, involving some 6,000 voters in all.

The intrepid defenders of democracy at the Republican Party compared voter registration cards with change of address requests filed with the USPS to find voters who might vote in the wrong district or double vote. It sounds reasonable, until one examines what the Republicans are trying to do: intimidate people, especially voters, rather than educate them.

The executive director of the Montana Republican Party, Jake Eaton, certainly didn’t choose at random when he selected counties to challenge:

Missoula County had the largest list of "discrepancies" of all 56 counties, so Eaton made sure it was among the first to be tested. The result is that the county elections office must generate more than 3,400 voter notification letters (plus residence affidavits and other information) that must be mailed by next Monday . . . in other words, Eaton’s challenges could hardly come at a worse time.

Marquand charitably accepts Eaton’s justification, which is a total sham. A little-known fact about Missoula County is that it tends to vote Democratic. Another little-known fact is that it has a large number of college-age voters, the kind of people most likely impacted by this challenge. Eaton and the Republicans are interested in one thing: intimidating young voters into thinking they can’t vote. The timing  and geography of the challenges makes that abundantly clear. Republicans in this state have a good reason to be afraid of voters. Their candidates lack ideas and have a very limited vision for the state that voters are seeing through.

The Republican Party can’t compete anymore in the marketplace of ideas. Their mean-spirited, narrow agenda has lost so much support that they spend more time challenging the rights of people to cast ballots than working to ensure that everyone gets to vote. Of course they don’t want young people to vote; young voters really only remember the past eight years of Republican corruption, mismanagement and lies.

So what can we do?

Educate voters. College students should know that they absolutely have a right to vote where they attend school. From the Secretary of State’s web page:

If you’re a student living at school, you can choose whether to register at home or school, but you can’t register or vote in both places.

People who have changed their addresses also have the right to vote. They just need to re-register, and quickly. Though Montana does have same day registration, voters should check with their local election offices to make sure what they need to do to be able to vote.

6,000 Montanans are going to get official-looking letters telling them they need to sign an affidavit and have it notarized to vote. It’s an effort to depress turnout, pure and simple. Help educate your friends that no one can take away their right to throw these people so hostile to democracy right out of office.

On a final note, I thought Brad Johnson fixed all our our election issues?

I thought the story itself was bad. The video makes it unreal.

What you’re seeing is a major party nominee for the Vice Presidency of the United States, unable to name one Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees. She sounds like the kind of student who graduated from high school because she attended and didn’t cause any trouble.

This isn’t a story of liberal elitism, as much as conservatives want to make it seem that way. It’s not a ‘gotcha’ question. It’s about the integrity of the electoral process and the judgment of the person who wants to be elected President.

John McCain cannot be trusted to lead. He has no judgment.

Sarah Elliott on the Montana GOP’s continuous whining:

“There is nothing new here,” she said in a prepared statement. “While many Montanans are struggling with high gas prices and a national economic downturn, the Montana Republican Party is worried about conversations that the commissioner himself said would not affect his judgment.”

Don’t get me wrong, the issue of ethics is highly important - in fact, it’s crucial for a vibrant democracy. However, the Montana GOP isn’t doing anything to help Montanans - they’re only in it for th epolitical game. No new ideas, just petty whining.

I really can’t think of any viable policy that the Montana GOP has brought to the table in a very long time. Erik Iverson and Jake Eaton come off as a couple of bullied kids who aren’t intelligent enough to stand-up for themselves, so they just tattle, tattle, tattle and don’t do anything to improve people’s lives.

It’s really depressing.

If I were a betting man, I would be tempted to post these odds.

Odds that that Dennis Rehberg will vote for a bailout bill that is essentially identical to the one he opposed today, claiming it is much improved for Montanas—1:8

Odds that Sarah Palin will actually debate Joe Biden this week–Even

Odds that, if she does, at one point in the debate she will claim that dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark, 6:1 against

Odds that Roy Brown will suspend his campaign in solidarity with John McCain–6:1 against

Odds that the Green Bay Packers will bring John McCain in for an attempted Hail Mary before the end of the season–3:1 against

Odds that Tim Fox will ever campaign on that actual duties of the Attorney General—15:1 against

Odds that a Montana right wing blog will bring up Governor Schweitzer’s speech in Philadelphia before tomorrow again before tomorrow at noon, 1:1000

For the love of God:

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

I hope the liberal media will release this right away.

How do right wing blogs and talking heads get to blame the Democrats for not passing the bailout bill today when Republicans voted overwhelmingly against it?  I’m not a logician, but it seems unfair for people opposed to the bailout to blame Democrats for the negative impacts of it not passing.

If they push this narrative, it’s time for Democrats in the House and Senate to write a truly progressive bill to restore confidence in the economy.

Compromise be damned.