Snopes “debunks” the “myth” that any Fannie Mae advisers had anything to do with Barack Obama campaign had an/Freddie “myth.” Must be seen to be disbelieved. Coming next:

CLAIM: Barrack Obama attended Trinity Lutheran Church for 25 years, during which it’s preacher, Hezekiah Cartwright, reportedly screamed “God damn the USA” and accused the federal government of inventing polio.

STATUS: False.

During election seasons, emotions run high and people are understandably eager to believe and forward emails that would ordinarily make them more skeptical…

[Four more pages of irrelevant smarm.]

This particular email is wrong on every count. The Army has barracks, but no one named “Barrack” is running for office, nor have we been enable to locate any church in Chicago called “Trinity Lutheran” or any preacher named Hezekiah. Mr. Obama has not been a member of any church for more than 20 years. “God damn the USA” appears to be cynical take-off on a popular song by Lee Greenwood called “God Bless the USA,” whose message is pro-American, not anti-American as the email suggests.

Since last week, the Huffington Post has a gleaming tribute to their late reporter cum murderer Carol Anne Burger, of whom they gush:

The circumstances of her death remain unclear; police believe she may have taken her own life after learning that her roommate – and former partner – had been found dead.

 
Um, yeah.  That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.  A more comprehensive explanation is that she took her life after learning that cops were on to the reason why her roommate and former partner had been found dead.  No hint at all of the fact that St. Burger herself might have had anything to do with it, no sirree.
 
The Huffpost further gushes on their dearly departed murderer:

Vermonter Christian Avard – who worked with Carol Anne on her final dispatch – wrote that she was “always fun to work with, cheerful, and always very supportive. We are all very lucky to have Carol Anne be a part of the Off the Bus family.”

 
Jessica Kalish was unavailable for comment.  Meanwhile, the HuffPo invites readers to post only nice things about their dearly departed writer, who aside from stabbing her ex-lover 222 times with a Philips head screwdriver, was apparently a real sweetheart:
 

Carol Anne will be deeply missed. Please use the comment section below if you wish to offer her family and friends your condolences.

 
As  best I can tell, all the commenters bemoan the terrible tragedy of their wonderful writer having been so pained by Jessica Kalish’s death (presumably caused by Some Black Guy or some McCain-supporting homophobe) that she felt she could no longer go on living herself.  Granted, all the details weren’t known when the post originally went up on Saturday, October 25, but now?  All they have is a brief update, which reads in full:
 

Update: For further details on Carol Anne Burger’s death please click here.

 
Translation:  That was a Greenwald-link to make this post look better sourced than it is.  Please do not click it.

I’ve already called the exit poll for Obama, but I’m ready to elaborate a bit more. Here’s a more detail of how it will shake out among the 5% of the electorate that actually waits until Election Day to not-early-vote:

1. Obama: 30%-35%
2. O-BAAAAAA-ma!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hallelfrickinlujah, Obama! Yesssssssssss!: 19%
3. McCain: 20-25%
4. Palin: 10%
5. Nobama: 10%
6. Leave me alone, asshole: 6%
7. Barr: One vote, from Barr himself.
8. Nader: One vote, from David Frum. Even Nader can’t bring himself to vote for Nader anymore.

The numbers have tightened a bit, sure, as they always do, but let’s be honest: they don’t look good. Right now, a socialist with less qualification than any major candidate in modern U.S. history is on the cusp of winning the Presidency, and almost no one who isn’t a staunch conservative seems to care. Joe the Plumber seems to have helped some, and it’s too early to tell if the 2001 interview may have helped more, but regardless, the odds right now are in favor of the guy who wants to make Marxism cool. Our “senior” Senator, whose claim to fame is being married to another senior Senator, is primed to lose to one of the three alleged mothers who made up the infamous “Million” Mom March. Even Bev Perdue, whose friggin’ surname is French for “lost,” probably won’t. And don’t get me started on Minnesota’s presumptive Senator, Stuart Smalley. He’s not good enough, he’s sure as hell not smart enough, and doggone it, no one with an IQ above room temperature likes him, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be gracing the U.S. Senate with his presence for the next six years. John Murtha? That dimbulb doesn’t understand that “vote for me, you cousin-humping rednecks” is a crude joke to be employed by Republicans, not a serious campaign slogan for Democrats. Yet even he will likely get another term, as will Nancy Pelosi, who went as far as to insult everyone’s intelligence by arguing that giving the Democrats even more control of Congress than they currently enjoy will make Congress more “bipartisan.”

Yes, some unforeseen event could turn the tide and make it all better. No, it probably won’t, and even in the unlikely event that it does, it’s not too early to ask what brought us to the brink, if only to prepare us for future elections in the unlikely event that The One allows us to hold such things in the future. There are probably too many reasons to count, but the following list is a start.

1. Branding problems. Bush may look better in history books 20 years out, but he looks like crap now. That doesn’t make any Republican’s race insurmountable, but it’s a handicap for sure.
2. Corruption. OK, just kidding, actually just a branding problem, combined with the reality that the Democrats do not have a complete lock on corruption. In a rational world, Ted Stevens’s corruption would damage him, not the party as a whole, and Tim Mahoney would hurt his fellow Democrats at least as much as Mark Foley hurt his fellow Republicans in 2006. We don’t live in a rational world.
3. MCain-Feingold aka Shays-Meehan. Any Republican candidate could have made a principled decision to forgo public financing and attack the so-called “reforms” that have done nothing but stifle free speech. Did I say “any” Republican? I’m sorry, I meant all but two potential Republicans: Chris Shays and John McCain. I forgot, who is running on the Republican ticket? Oh yeah, it’s one of those two, isn’t it? Crap.
4. Coolness. Somehow Obama has convinced everyone to the left of Duncan Hunter that it’s inapproporiate to even say Obama’s full name or mention his redistributive tendencies. He can mention them himself, of course, that’s cool, but no one else can.
5. Campaigns. I used to snicker at Obama’s claim that he has all the requisite executive experience because he’s been running for President for so long. I mean, c’mon, that’s like me having the chutzpah to interview for a job as CEO of some huge company and telling the directors that I’m qualified to be CEO because I’ve … um … applied to become their CEO. But one thing is clear: someone on the Obama campaign has done a hell of a job of organizing that campaign in a way that the McCain campaign can’t even dream of. I know firsthand how poorly organized the McCain campaign is. I’ll elaborate in another post.
6. Pendulums. A certain percentage of the population just likes to flip-flop. Don’t ask why. They just do. We needed to see that coming, and to anticipate that “change,” even as an undefined variable, might actually gain some traction this time around. To have avoided the stupid debate over who can be the bigger change, and to have debated instead over what kind of change the nation may want, we needed to get in front of the “change” issue much sooner than we did.
7. Media. Everyone but FoxNews is in the tank for Obama. Not sure what the McCain camp could have done about that – whining about it almost certainly wouldn’t have helped – but it’s a reality we have to be prepared to deal with. Obama owned all but one of the major networks already, so he didn’t need his own channel on Dish Network. McCain could have used one.
8. Sarah Palin. Just kidding about that one. Without Sarah Palin or someone like her (e.g., Bobby Jindal), McCain would have never recaptured the base, and McCain would be down by at least 10 points in every poll rather than just the outliers. Palin is the only reason I can say right now that McCain will probably lose, rather than definitely losing. I’m cautiously optimistic that Palin-Jindal will recapture the White House in 2012, assuming we still have free and fair elections then. I’m less optimistic that the duo will be able to undo all the damage created by Obama/Biden in the interim (cf. Ronald Reagan, who fired up the base and served twice as long as Jimmy Carter, but never managed to abolish the Department of Education, restore balance to the Ninth Circuit, neutralize Iran or reclaim John McCain’s birthplace).

If you either voted for Obama or plan to do so between now and November 4, this one’s for you. Are you:

1. A socialist who gets a thrill going up your leg every time you hear someone drone on about economic “justice?”
2. A far-left liberal who doesn’t necessarily endorse socialism per se, but does identify more closely with socialism than with even the maverickiest version of center-right pseudo-conservatism?
3. A single-issue voter who agrees with Obama on one hot-button issue like widespread gun confiscation, retroactive abortion or coerced unionism, and could give a crap about every other issue under the sun?
4. A dumbass who has no idea what he’s voting on, but considers it his civil duty to vote anyway?
5. A retarded-ass who audaciously hopes Obama will change into whatever the hell you’d like a President to be?
6. An Oliver-Willis-ass who … er .. what was the question again?
7. All of the above?
8. Other (specify)

R.I.P.

My second-favorite lawbabe, Megyn Kelly sends an Ayers apologist back there.

Perhaps so, but if so, then so is every other Vice President in modern history.

UPDATE: Amanda Carpenter seems to think that if the New York Times runs an op-ed, the New York Times endorses all of the views contained in that op-ed. I don’t think it works that way.

Once upon a time, I touted 1&1’s “free” service. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.