Not only did he give a resounding, persuasive endorsement, but he said exactly everything I wanted to say. Just, you know, much much better.

After a false start — www.eisenstadtgroup.com seems to be a hoax — I can’t definitively link Joe Plumber to Charles Keating.  True, his name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, and Robert M. Wurzelbacher, Jr., was Keating’s son-in-law who served prison time after his conviction in the Keating scandal. But for all I know, Wurzelbachers may be as common as Smiths up there in Toledo.

Still, after watching his interview with Katie Couric right after the debate, I do wonder who found him and how.

Joe sounds like he works for McCain, saying things like “We’ve seen who McCain is — we don’t know who Obama is” [in other words, "he ain't from around here"].

Joe also calls Obama “well-spoken, better spoken than I am.”  ["How dare he be better spoken than I am?  He's black!"]

He makes fun of Obama, portraying him as a performer who just fed him a memorized response [For a memorized response he should review McCain's response to a question about Russia's invading Georgia.  For his "answer," McCain simply recites a list of all the countries in the area].

Finally, Joe gets really ugly.  He says “he’s almost better than Sammy Davis, Jr.”

Now that’s just insulting. Who trained Joe?  Apparently he took a logic course in plumber’s school; note his appropriate use of the concept of slippery slope in the transcript below of his October 16 interview with Diane Sawyer: “I mean, $250,000 now. What if he decides, well you know $150,000, you’re pretty rich too. Let’s go ahead and lower it again. You know it’s a slippery slope. When’s it going to stop?”

Last night’s presidential debate turned out to be about Joe the Plumber.  An interview has been making the rounds online in which Obama talks to an Ohio plumber, who is considering buying the business he’s been working 12-hour days for over the past years.  Joe says he would be dissuaded from buying it under Obama’s economic plan, where Joe’s tax rate, on his profit above two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year, would increase from 36% to 39%. Or maybe Joe is predicting that, under Obama, he might not be able to borrow money to buy the business.

Check out the original interview here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFC9jv9jfoA&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/

I like the way Obama talks to the guy, admits that his tax rate may possibly increase, and gets specific about exactly where it could go up.  He also points out that if his proposed tax breaks for actual working class people had been in effect, Joe might have been benefited – and been in a postiion to buy the business before now, instead of working 10- to 12-hour days all these years for somebody else.

This morning I found this story that said Joe had now decided to vote Republican: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/15/joe_the_plumber_the_video.html?hpid=topnews

And I thought, well, of course, I could see why he might vote Republican: Joe is rich.  He makes more than twice what my husband and I earn combined. We are way older than Joe, but we put off entering the work force while we were earning Ph.D’s, and we don’t work in nearly as lucrative fields as plumbing.  I’m an English professor.  [P. S.: Good for Joe! I work hard, but I bet I don't work nearly as hard as he does].

Of course, Joe is rich, but he still might be afraid to vote Republican because, unless he has no 401K invested in anything based in stocks or credit,  but keeps his retirement money in gold bullion under his bed, he might be afraid to keep the financial deregulation that just caused a stock market crash, banking panic, and incipient recession.  But I digress.

This morning, I decided to check Joe’s math.  First of all, he’d have to NET MORE THAN $250K to pay higher taxes on any of it, and as Obama clearly explained last night, his tax raise would entail a rate shift from 36% to 39% — ONLY for what Joe netted OVER $250K!

So say Joe improved his profit margin and went from netting $250K to $275K.  That’s ten percent, a big jump for one year.  Under the current 36% rate, he’d be paying $9K tax on that $25K.  Under Obama’s plan, Joe would pay $9750 on that top $25K.

So, because he’s going to pay an extra $750 on twenty-five thousand dollars extra profit, Joe is not going to buy the business? Is Joe claiming that the extra $750 tax bill is going to prevent him from getting credit?

Has Joe been working so constantly that he has somehow not heard that the stock market has crashed, banks are terrified to lend money even to each other, and so credit is already much, much harder to get and will be for who knows how long?

I’m skeptical, because I can’t see a puny $750 tax increase on income over $250K dissuading me.  Credit is going to be harder to get anyway.

Somebody please explain this to me.

The Discovery Channel is running a documentary tonight about the 1981 lynching of Michael A. Donald in Mobile, AL.

(Mobile is my home town, where my mom and dad still live. I didn’t like living in Mobile, but just because of its suburban ickiness—I didn’t know I had other reasons to get out of there, like a disturbingly recent history of Klan violence.)

Michael Donald was a 19-year old African American who ended up the random recipient—and medium—of the Klan’s usual message of murder and hate. Two Klansmen beat Michael Donald, slit his throat, and hung him from a tree outside the local Klan leader’s house.

Was this the last lynching?

No, actually—the murder of James Byrd, Jr., in Texas in 1998, probably, could be called the most recent lynching. I’m scared to say last.

All this I learned on the radio this afternoon, in an NPR interview with Ted Koppel, the host of the documentary, and Artur Davis, a congressman from Alabama, among others.

What astounds most about the Michael Donald murder is the date. This wasn’t the 1930s. This was 1981. MTV was on the air. I was alive.

A friend who teaches at the University of Minnesota said (as I’ve quoted before on this blog) that his students often have the mistaken impression that racism, and certainly racial violence like lynching, was something that happened a long time ago. And then Dr. King came and fixed it for us. Didn’t you see the movie?

Michael Donald’s murder in 1981 (and James Byrd’s in 1998, and many more incidences of violence) reminds us that racism, even in its most blatant and visible form, is alive and well. Never mind the secreted racism of the job application slush pile, or the divisive lies parents pass on to their children.

But the most recent lynching might be this: a couple of weeks ago, four students at a small religious school in Oregon hung a cardboard effigy of Sen. Barack Obama from a tree.

Which brings me to: what do the appalling deaths of Michael Donald and James Byrd mean to us now, as Barack Obama campaigns for the white house?

Many things, but here’s one; that when John MCain and Sarah Palin condone hatred and violent speech from their supporters—when they stand quietly by as rally-ers yell “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” (not to mention “treason” and “terrorist”)—it’s way, way beyond “negative campaigning,” or irresponsible. It’s fast approaching a lynch mob.

As long-awaited as Barack Obama’s nomination for president has been, and as proud every American should be of it—we haven’t moved beyond racial violence. We’re not immune to it, and we’re not above it.

I use the word “performance” loosely. I’ve seen soap opera stars that were more convincing.  She could certainly star in her own reality TV show, though.  I mean, it’s a perfect set-up.  Like the scantily clad beach bunnies “surviving” in the jungles of Brazil, or the strangely attractive kids (each in a different but ultimately photogenic way) working, playing and living in “The Real World.”  In fact, I think SP is starring in the wildly popular “Who Will Be America’s Next President?”   She plays the plucky, wise-beyond-her-years newcomer, McSame plays the crotchety but soft-hearted Colonel, and Trig is the next Lion King (honestly, weren’t you just waiting for Todd P to hold him up to the crowd after the debate was over?).  Last night’s episode pitted Spunky Gov’ against Joe “Kitchen Table” Biden.  She looked like she was using every bit of self-restraint to not hit the big blinking button or blurt out, “World History for a hundred, Alex!”

But back to the performance.  I would have liked to begin with “well, bless her heart…” – that universal Southern preface to an insult – but alas, she’s the 1.0 model of the GOP Drones, the early version that don’t include hearts. As that is the case, I’ll start with a question. What kind of person would stand in front of a nation at war, with over 4000 soldiers dead, 40,000 maimed for life, 159,000 people who lost their jobs last month, 700,000 people who have lost or will lose their homes, and wink playfully at the audience?

Wait, you don’t have to answer that…

Right back atcha, champ.

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

*****
This is from the magical anonymous Interwebs — thanks, Kamilla!

I can’t decide who Barack Obama should choose as his running mate.

I’m sure he’s on the edge of his seat, waiting for my call, but I’ve got nothing to tell him yet. Ken Rudin at NPR discusses the pros and cons of Mrs. Clinton, and a short-list of other possibilities, including Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, and Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, among others.

Who do you think it’s gonna be? Who do you think it should be?

The pertinent Clinton question is, will her supporters vote for Obama because they’re Democrats even if she’s not on the ticket? And the question’s corollary: could the vitriol against Clinton get-out-the-vote for the GOP when faced with their own lackluster (to some) candidate?

Although I think Clinton’s bad rap is mostly undeserved, folks do love to hate her, so I would make her the Health Care Czar and move on — betting that Dems love to hate Bush more, and that the chance to put a Democrat in the white house after eight years will get out the Clinton vote, while a less well-known Veep could help keep disaffected conservatives home.

Sebelius and Napolitano are excellent politicians (each was named by Time in 2005 as one of the five best governors in the U.S.), but I worry that the news story would be, in this race, that Obama picked a woman for a running mate that wasn’t Clinton (although Sebelius, along with Obama’s Kansas roots, might get the Dems those six electoral votes).

Jim Webb, the conservative-ish Senator from Virginia, is an interesting choice. He makes sense geographically, as Presidential candidates often try for a Veep from a different region of the country, and VA’s got thirteen electoral votes up for grabs — at a dead heat in the latest polling. Plus, he’s a decorated Vietnam veteran, which might bolster the ticket’s national security ethos against McCain, who is, of course, the more well-known veteran.

But, on the other hand, Webb’s conservative. (Ish.) Anti war but pro gun. Hard on corporations, but hard on immigration, too. It’s refreshing to see a politician from either side have a complex take on the issues, but, for me, I like it better when politicians take my side.

Webb brings up a good question; how important is the Vice’s politics anyway, considering, as VP John Adams, once said, that his or her job is “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived?” If somebody helps electoral math, do their stances have to add up?

(A final word on Webb: although he’s pro gun and was Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy, this does warm my heart — when Bush asked him, about his son serving in Iraq, “How’s your boy?” Webb said, “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President.” Plus Phillip Thompson, the aide who was arrested for carrying Webb’s loaded gun, in a briefcase, into the Senate Office Building in March? A high school friend of my brother’s.)

Had to post this video; just for the madness of typing that title.

He’s back in the news, folks. After a recent spate of badly written books, (perhaps the world’s most famous living) novelist Salman Rushdie is once again in the center of controversy after Britain awarded him a knighthood on Saturday, June 16th. Once again, Iran is at the helm of the controversy, being one of the first countries to publicly announce that Britain’s honoring “one of the most hated men in the Islamic world” is a clear insult to Islam. And once again, the conflict is centered around Satanic Verses.

The situation, of course, is by no means simple since there has already been much violence done surrounding Satanic Verses. Starting eighteen years ago, there was a spate of riots, burning embassies, attacks on the novel’s translators, and, of course, the fatwa that, though thankfully did not ever come to death itself, meant the constant possibility of Rushdie’s own end for a good ten long years. I guess I’m trying to say that the actual material harm that has surrounded Satanic Verses came from both the insistence that the book be removed from bookshelves, and the responding insistence that book be continued to be published, or vice versa.

When asked how he felt about all that’s been done, Rushdie said that he can’t be responsible for the acts of madmen. This is, of course, undeniably true, but I can’t imagine that it’s easy for anyone to walk away from the idea that one’s own book has caused so much strife, and that his arrival on this conclusion was as simple as the manner in which he declared it. (more…)

Last night, when you were tossing and turning in bed, trying to sleep, I bet you were thinking: “What would Senator John McCain bring with him if stranded on a desert island?”

The answer? “Books.” You’re getting those 40 winks tonight!

Check out these “Desert Island Necessities” from PoliticalWire.com—presidential candidates’ answers to a question from the Associated Press: “what would you most like to have if you were stranded on a desert island?”

Some candidates went right for the loopholes, naturally: Gov. Bill Richardson answered, “a Blackberry and a Davidoff cigar.”

Good thinking, Bill, but cell phone towers are scarce on most of your run-of-the-mill desert islands. Mike Huckabee is way ahead of you: “Laptop with satellite reception.” Oh snap, Bill!

And the ultimate loophole? Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo’s answer—”Boat.” Well, you know, besides that, Tom.

Besides McCain’s answer of books, the second most popular response was some iteration of “My wife.” I think that’s great for the boys on the island, but some potential first ladies might prefer to stay on the mainland and pine for their husbands.

Barack Obama went one step further; “Other than my wife and kids . . .” he said. By God, if I have to be stranded on an island this whole family’s going to be marooned!

I love Democrat Chris Dodd who, thinking only of the moment, and perhaps having been asked first thing in the morning, said “Coffee with cream and sugar.”

And, finally, there’s Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, who gave the inscrutable answer of “Tarp.” He’s thinking it probably rains more on a desert island than people expect, or just loves tarps. All I know is that I’m not voting for him.