“Sarah Palin wasn’t aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations.

Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator’s running mate in late August.

If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.

She also didn’t know the three countries that are in the North American Free Trade Agreement, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.” [...]

“On Wednesday in Phoenix, Palin said: “There is absolutely no diva in me.”

Nonetheless, a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin’s possession.” (emphasis mine)

Prop 8 (California): This hideous little initiative, backed by a ton of religious right money, would rescind equal marriage in California, thereby protecting the Institution Of Marriage from whatever the fuck it is they think gay people will *do* to it. If it passes, Prop 8 would not only deny these citizens a basic human right, but will also throw a lot of married couples into limbo where their marriages are no longer recognized. And why not? It’s just the Christian thing to do.

UPDATE: Bigotry won. Prop 8 passed, by a small margin.

Prop 4 (California): This anti-abortion measure would legislate parental consent for abortion. We need to remember our kids are individuals with rights of their own, including the right to privacy, and if our daughters can’t trust us to know they’re facing an unwanted pregnancy, there might be a good reason. Also, like all these nitpicky anti-choice laws, this just gets a foot in the door to further restrictive legislation.

UPDATE: Failed, 53-47.

Prop 48 (Colorado): This is one of the more idiotic anti-abortion initiatives to come along so far, and that’s really saying something. Prop 48 would define a fertilized egg as a “person”, with all the restrictions on abortion and contraception that definition engenders.

UPDATE: Failed, 72-27 (about the same margin as a similar measure failed by last time around — ya think?)

Prop 11 (South Dakota): This is an outright ban on abortion, except in cases where it’s necessary to save the woman’s life. (How generous.) South Dakotans voted down a similar initiative 2 years ago — ya think!? But anti-choicers just keep grinding away with no compunction about the taxpayers’ money they waste on this bullshit.

UPDATE: Failed, 55-45

They’re all in the west, so it’s unlikely we’ll know whether they passed or (hopefully) failed until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. But it’s something else to watch for after the presidential race has been called.
Reproductive choice won, but marriage equality lost. I wonder what will happen to the couples already married? Prop 8 is retroactive, which if I’m not mistaken nullifies their marriages. Nice. I can’t imagine people being any more vicious and petty.

PROP 8 UPDATE II: The No Side is not conceding yet. Good for them — do not concede until every. last. vote. is counted.

PROP 8 UPDATE III: Passed, 52-48. What an embarrassment to all straight people. I am so sorry. I can only say: do not give up. Equality demands it.

“In 2000, in the wake of an economic boom and a sex scandal that led to a president’s impeachment, 22 percent of Americans told exit pollsters that “moral values” were their biggest concern, compared with only 19 percent who cited the economy.

Today, according to a recent Newsweek poll, the economy is up to 44 percent and “issues like abortion, guns and same-sex marriage” down to only 6 percent. It’s no coincidence that Palin’s popularity has plummeted as the financial crisis has taken center stage. From her championing of small-town America to her efforts to link Barack Obama to former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, Palin is treading a path well-worn by Republicans in recent decades. She’s depicting the campaign as a struggle between the culturally familiar and the culturally threatening, the culturally traditional and the culturally exotic. But Obama has dismissed those attacks as irrelevant, and the public, focused nervously on the economic collapse, has largely tuned them out.

Palin’s attacks are also failing because of generational change. The long-running, internecine baby boomer cultural feud just isn’t that relevant to Americans who came of age after the civil rights, gay rights and feminist revolutions.” (emphasis mine)

And it’s about fucking time.

And where’s Georgie? He’s been keeping pretty quiet since he said this. Loosen that muzzle! Let Georgie exercise his First Amendment rights! Speak, Georgie, SPEAK!

“One wonders how often Michelle sees Mona Khalidi these days? Do they go for coffee once in a while? I hope so. Should old acquaintance be forgot? No, but it happens. People outgrow each other; they develop different interests. One may develop an interest in becoming First Lady.

Mona’s husband is Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American academic. Republican candidate John McCain has described Professor Khalidi as an erstwhile spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. When Obama was chummy with ex-Weather Underground terrorist Bill “I don’t regret setting bombs” Ayers, who sat with Barack on the board of an “anti-poverty” charity called the Woods Foundation, they gave money to the American-Arab Action Network, run by Mona. The Khalidis and the Obamas socialized, and in 2000 the Khaldis hosted a polical fundraiser for the future Democratic presidential nominee.”

“If it looks hopeless now, hours before voting day, it is McCain himself who has made it so.

It was McCain who never offered a coherent economic program. It was McCain who pronounced the fundamentals of the economy “sound” on the very day that Lehman Brothers collapsed. It was McCain who could not defend his own healthcare plan in toe-to-toe debate with Barack Obama. It was McCain who was ultimately responsible for a campaign that emphasized stunts and tactics over policy and strategy.

As a decision-maker, McCain proved himself impulsive and emotional, hasty and over-personal — and the revelation of those faults has frightened many voters at a time of economic anxiety.”

“The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.”