Paying to play all night long

The Nut: Richardson won’t be Obama’s Commerce Secretary because of a scandal that won’t quiet down quickly enough. It shouldn’t cripple him politically forever, but it has blocked his present ascension. The Albuquerque Mayor’s race has begun with Michael Cadigan, Richard Romero and Debbie O’Malley jumping into the fray. And finally, we’ll tell you what you’ll learn over the next year or two.


Why Richardson will not be Commerce Secretary

Whatever happened to being able to just take a nice trip to L.A., and seeing the Lakers and some old friends? Who invites the Feds along?

If you’re a Governor of a tiny state that solves international crises and saves hostages, you should at least be more suspicious than others. Campaign contributions from CDR Financial Products higher-ups and a contract CDR won from the New Mexico Finance Authority have a federal grand jury making sure everything was in order and no one got any special treatment due to a $100,000 donation to Richardson’s Hispanic and Native American voter registration campaign Moving America Forward. Let’s briefly go through the full situation and assess the likelihood of it moving forward, why he will not be Secretary of Commerce and what his future should hold for him.

The withdrawal of his nomination is the simplest part of the whole mess. The process of this grand jury will take at least a couple more months. With Blagojevich blowing up an enormous mess in Illinois and people already being up in arms about pay-to-play politics (pay-to-play: I’ll give you a big campaign contribution, if you give me a good job/state contract/political appointment/etc.), Richardson is a victim of circumstance at the very least.

As Commerce Secretary, he would have been at the forefront of the $1T bailout. Just imagine the outcry of Limbaugh and Hannity screaming “you’ve got this shady career politician that’s under investigation for pay-to-play politics and he’s the one that’s deciding where ONE-TRILLION-DOLLARS (cue spooky sound effect) of my hard earned tax money is going! We’re getting ripped off . . .”

Obama needs cabinet members ready to help his proposals pass without being mired in traditional political scandals. Obama has no time to sit and wait for an instrumental position for economic development to be confirmed. Maybe if Richardson would have been selected for the post he deserved – Secretary of State – he wouldn’t have anything to worry about . . . Pay-to-play politics are just everywhere! In New York, Hillary Clinton is getting checked for the very same thing as Richardson: nytimes.com/2009/01/04/washington/04clinton.html

But she’s just going to run foreign policy, so what does he pay-to-play deals from her time in the senate have to do with her negotiations with leaders around the world? We’ll get into the conflicts of interest raised by the real Clinton’s foundation donor list and the nations they lead some other time.


Ok . . . but he’s still guilty, right?

The Governor has a pretty well rounded case thus far and the grand jury isn’t even looking at him yet . . . they’re just talking about the most powerful names that have surrounded him over the last six years. So here’s the full history of Big Bill and CDR Financial Services.

David Rubin, President of CDR Financial Services, helped out a couple of Richardson’s efforts in 2003 and 2004. He and his company gave $100,000 to various Richardson campaigns and also footed the bill for Bill and his crew to attend the 2004 national convention. At the same time, CDR was bidding on a contract with the state of New Mexico and won a job worth $1.6 billion to the state and $1.5 million to CDR in business. CDR won the bidding process for re-negotiating interest rate swaps for the state (you have fun figuring out how the hell those things work on your own and email me the answer).

The other half of the contract dealing with investments went to a joint venture of Salomen Smith Barney and Ryan Labs. The joint grow earned the highest score overall with CDR earning the second best of the six firms that bid on the contracts. They tied on the section involving interest rate swaps for the best bid and were awarded the contract.

Now we face the tricky part of sorting through how CDR’s bid earned their high marks – were those results cooked by an influenced finance authority? Did Bill send Dave Contarino (chief of staff at the time and manager of the campaign for President) with orders to give to the NM Finance Authority? Was Mike Stratton (close associate of Richardson’s and heavy-hitting politico) hired by CDR because that he could secure the contract with the state? Is it all simply mere coincidence and due to the incestuous nature of New Mexican politics? This is what the grand jury is trying to figure out.


Romero, Cadigan, O’Malley and someone else

Meanwhile, in Albuquerque, the town’s biggest political names and making maneuvers in preparation for a bid at the Mayor’s office in 2009. Liberal north valley city councilor Debbie O’Malley has thrown her hat into the ring to block Mayor Marty’s vie at an unprecedented, previously-unconstitutional third consecutive term. Moderate west side councilor Michael Cadigan thinks he would be best fit to not only end Marty’s reign at the only office he can win but also replace he poor conservative governance with more backward proposals. And former state senate president and two time candidate for congress Richard Romero would like to resurrect his political career at the behest of Marty (now that’s a career in Albuquerque politics – take down south valley boss Manny Aragon AND mayor-for-life Chavez) Oh yea, and Marty wants four more years so he can qualify for the city’s retirement plan.

The good news for Albuquerque voters is that the race shouldn’t bother them nearly to the degree of last year’s campaigns because of the new city finance law. Candidates are much more restricted from accepting any money from contractors doing business with the state or much of any kind of business. There will probably be a few groups that form outside of the official campaigns that run third party ads, but not nearly to the degree of 2008. So relax and look forward to laughing at Marty as he defends his red light cameras.

What 2009 and the future will hold

It wouldn’t be the beginning of a new year without an attempt to see what lies ahead. Here are a few things you should be able to count on in the next year or two.

NM will be better sheltered from the recession because all 5 members of congress are Democrats working in the majority caucus in good connection. Their freshman status (excluding Bingaman) will surely drag their abilities down a bit, but they will treat us better than if the Albuquerque and southern congressional districts would have stayed Republican.

Richardson will have plenty of headlines during the legislature about his terrible relationship with the Senate. The budget will be a horrible point of contention due to the drastic shortfall in revenues and the battle for capital outlay money will bring the legislature and the Governor’s office to blows.

Political observers will do their best to create drama in the Governor’s race, but the closer election day comes, the more obvious it should be that Diane Denish will be New Mexico’s first female Governor. Sorry Heather, we just don’t like cry babies.

According to Ben Simon, Israel will stop beating up Gaza before Obama is initiated. Another week and a half of bombing? That sounds about right for Israel.

Sarah Palin and Joe the wannabe Plumber will never go away. Alaska’s senate primary could feature the beauty pageant queen against the republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski. Since being exposed that Joe would qualify for one of Obama’s tax cuts, Joe has been doing everything a normal plumber does – maintain his blog and reporting on the Israeli-Gaza fight. Their love-child is sure to be on the way.

It’s almost over!

The Nut: Ads do stop?! Enjoy the final week of ads with this guide to a fun filled election night. If you still haven’t voted, you must read the list of needed victories. And who doesn’t need a drinking game for election night?


Would you like to buy a monkey?

Are you really ready to watch TV without political advertisements? Get the credit card out of reach and be prepared to see products you may actually want to buy. But before it’s all gone, let’s pay homage to everyone that has provided us the entertainment of the last year of politics.

For the stragglers, you’re not too late, hell, you can even still count yourself as doing it early if you hurry. Voting has been going strong and if you don’t do it by Tuesday, Nov. 4th, enjoy being shunned for the coming two years. If you’ve still got a ballot to be counted, follow this handy guide through the good and the bad from New Mexico to Alaska.

President: Obama. It’s your choice of being on the cool or lame side of history in this race.

New Mexico Senate: Tom Udall. Do you want the up and coming progressive supporter of renewable energy, a set timetable for ending the war in Iraq and at least making an attempt at establishing an affordable health care system or the guy that thinks those ideas are socialist dreams?

New Mexico House 1: Martin Heinrich. For those in the Albuquerque area, the choice is the pretty boy Dem that’s never held a real job in his life. The candidate that didn’t chair Bush-Cheney’ re-election bid in Bernalillo County. He’s also not the candidate that gave up his job because Gov. Johnson wanted to end the war on drugs.

New Mexico House 2: Harry Teague. Who says all Dems are the same? This guy made his money from oil, but still knows how to invest in clean fuel technologies. Everyone in southern New Mexico needs to give Steve Pearce an extra slap on his way down and put his old seat in Democratic hands.

New Mexico House 3: Ben Ray Lujan. The easiest part of the solid blue New Mexico plan.

New Mexico State Senators: Tim Eichenberg. Anyone living in the midtown/near heights area that can vote for Tim Eichenberg, please do and help this progressive Democrat unseat a conservative Republican.

New Mexico 2nd Judicial District, District Attorney: Kari Brandenburg. Torraco is just like Palin: Not trustable with a vote.

New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 5: Yes. Think about it. The candidate for Governor picks the Lieutenant Governor he or she runs with, so who else should pick who the sitting Governor works with?


Other good races around the nation:

Colorado Senate: Mark Udall. Just think of the synergy freshman Senators and cousins Mark and Tom will have. Coloradoans should also think about electing the dood that supports the Department of Peace:



Colorado House 4: Betsy Markey. In the only competitive Colorado House race, Betsy Markey must replace the Heather Wilson of Colorado. For the Sarah Palin lovers out there, this is a cute politician.

Kansas House 2: Nancy Boyda. She only had one term, there’s no point in throwing her out just yet. Give her another few years before you pass judgment.

Kansas Senate: Jim Slattery. If this race is close, expect massively gargantuan accusations across the nation about voter fraud from the defeated right. But Jim’s a good guy so vote for him if you get the chance.

Alaska Senate: Mark Begich. If there’s an Alaska reader out there, please ask yourself “do I want my state represented in the Senate by a convicted felon?” If not, vote Begich!

Minnesota Senate: Al Franken. Just so we get to the do the ‘good enough, smart enough’ joke one more time. Also, because Coleman has gotten in his share of trouble.

Texas Senate: Rick Noriega. If you’ve got a vote in Texas, use it to oust old-timer John Cornyn. We won’t hold it against you if this race doesn’t tip Dem, but if it does, look out for a wild night.

Mississippi Senate Race 1: Ronnie Musgrove. This is step one in Operation Isolate Alabama.

Georgia Senate: Jim Martin. Step two of OIA. Let’s see the Obama turnout machine kick in!

Kentucky Senate: Bruce Lundsford. Step three of OIA. Give the House Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell the boot and let another Republican take the reigns in the Senate.

Oregon Senate: Jeff Merkley. If there was one Republican Senator that could be spared, it might be Gordon Smith of Oregon, but without Merkley, the dreams of cloture are out of reach.

Montana Governor: Brian Schweitzer. Brian earns the Barack Out support just for an excuse to post video of the best campaign commercial of the year.



California Marriage Amendment: No. Attention Californians! Don’t give away all of the perceptions people have of you being a progressive, smart, forward-thinking state with one stupid vote you will soon come to be very ashamed of. See the way future, see a tolerance for gay marriage.

Down Ballot Races: Go to your county clerk’s website and find a sample ballot (to the googler!) Side note: if your county clerk doesn’t provide a sample ballot for you to view, we suggest hiring a new county clerk. Look up the races you will be voting on. Then call up the League of Women Voters and see what they have to say about the different judges, amendments, bond issues and various other questions on the ballot.

There’s plenty of action to watch across the nation on election night. The size and breadth of the Democratic wave that’s about to land will dominate, it’s just a question of how wide the destruction is felt. With that being said, it would be irresponsible to proceed further without predicting the future for everyone too eager to live it.


The official Barack Out With My Cock Out 2008 Election Predictions

Presidential popular vote: 55% Obama, 44% McCain 1% Barr, Nudar and Co.

Electoral Votes: 396-142

Final Senate Count: D-58, R-40, I-2 (and Lieberman will not caucus with the Democrats)

Final House Count: D-258, R-180

Election night surprises: One of the three southern senate races will go the Dems’ way (GA, MS or KY), New Mexico will turn solid blue with Udall taking the Senate race, Heinrich claiming the first district and Teague eliminating the last corner of red by winning the southern congressional district. Watch out for Montana, North Dakota and Georgia propelling Obama up to that 392 total.

Election Night Drinking Game

What’s a political event without booze? It’s voting in Utah, where they still mandate no sauce be poured on a polling day. Everyone else should be ably equipped with a quality drinking game to celebrate election night. Toast all of your hard work . . . celebrate victories . . . mourn the end of Heartless Halliburton Heather “I just love Janet Jackson” Wilson, Ted “It’s all my wife’s fault” Stevens, Tim “I thought the Rep from this district got to sleep around” Mahoney and the careers of so many more . . . place your bets with drinks and get started with these basic ground rules:


Take 1 drink for every house seat that changes hands
Give 5 if you’re from that state
Give 20 if you voted in that election

Take 5 drinks for every senate seat that changes hands
Give 10 drinks if you’re from that state
Give 20 if you voted in that election

Take 1 drink every time you hear a commentator say “too close to call”

Take 2 drinks for every Bush 2004 state that Obama wins.
Take a shot for every Kerry 2004 state McCain wins
Give 5 drinks if you have lived at one time in that state (at least 1 month)
Give 10 drinks if you cast your ballot in that state

Take a shot for every called state that is changed back to a toss up or the opposition

Side betting on all races is highly encouraged


Its been a long fun road. We’ll be back at least one more time to recap how it all played out. Happy electioneering everyone!

Remember New Hampshire or uncork the champagne?

The Nut: While no staffer will tell you its over yet, we are no fool: its over! Like a turtled box turtle, John McCain is on his back, helplessly flailing in a desperate attempt to right himself before a predator swoops down to swipe up a tasty snack. And like any other turtled tortoise, it is going to take a great outside force to upend his plight and restore his chances for survival. The work isn’t completely done, so pitch in like many artists around New Mexico did in their own unique way. Early voting has started in New Mexico and the County Clerk says my ballot is in the mail . . . let’s party!


Crayon or Magic Marker?

The writing on the wall has overtaken the canvass and we’re going to need a bigger wall (not along the border, settle down) if we have to write McCain and team “crap, this isn’t working either” another message. Surely, they have observed the clear signs from . . . North Carolina and Virginia that have swung out of his reach and will not just support President Obama, but also switch a senate seat to the Democrats side with Kay Hagen from NC and Mark Warner from Virginia. . . . or maybe they’ve taken notice that once unthinkable West Virginia is in play despite the Campaign for Change’s own worries that the state wasn’t progressive enough to elect a man with such a dark complexion. . . . maybe they figured out the game was over a couple weeks ago and signaled their concession by pulling out all efforts in Michigan. Take your pick of which state and what day, but one or the other had to have tipped off the former member of the Keating 5, the 21-year Senator that has called his wife worse things than bigots have called President-elect Obama.

Is that not direct enough proof for you? Ok, who has ever heard of a bookie paying out before the game ends? http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081016/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_bookmaker_obama_odd

So what’s left to do?

A lot more than planning the big Election Night party and post-Election Night cheap excuse for why you were so late to work that morning. Polls don’t vote (nor do yard signs according to many disgruntled Obama staffers) and as all of the Democratic candidates reminded John Edwards during the primary, polls are great, but election results are real (ethmm, 2004 . . . national result with that guy on the ticket, NC result . . . not in favor of Edwards). Go turn out the votes!

Go turn yourself out and don’t waste the gas on driving just yourself to an early voting location. (click on Voter Info) ** New Mexico guarantees you at least two hours away from work to get that ballot in the box, so make the most of it. The sooner you vote, the sooner the calls will stop. That’s a guarantee. The campaigns get updated lists from the County Clerk on a regular basis and once your name is listed as “already voted” they will leave you alone.

Go knock on doors and take advantage of the fact that you’re enjoying an Indian Summer in New Mexico and not the bitter beginning of winter in states further north. Go recruit your friends and take them early to the linked locations around Albuquerque. (click on Voter Info) **Disclaimer: Yes, the early voting locations list is provided by the Democratic party’s website . . .because they County Clerk doesn’t have her act together and the link to her listing is broken.

Or better yet, get creative like many artists around Albuquerque did and show your support in your own unique way. Maybe your explanation of Obama’s health care plan doesn’t sound as good as your guitar, ok, work with it like Bekah Wiggins did and raise a little money for Obama:



This picture was from the event Art for Change, which gathered numerous artists from five different states to offer their own personal creations to raise money for Obama’s New Mexican Campaign for Change. In addition to pulling in nearly $4,000 of cash, the event registered a few new voters and recruited many new supporters to do the real work of the election – turning supporters into voters. Hannah Macpherson and Bekah Wiggins came up with the idea and put it into action utilizing their circles of friends. The Obama campaign wasn’t involved in any of the planning until they graciously accepted the money that was raised. Hannah and Bekah will be beating down the doors to find everyone that hasn’t cast their ballot yet and they’d love to have you join them.


Blue Suspenders

There is still plenty of fun-filled speculation left, though. The biggest question Barack Out With My Cock Out faces is if a symbolic Bible Belt will remain intact across the electoral map. In 2000 and 2004 it was strong and wide, ready for the most excessive of New Mexican belt buckles, but in the last 4 years the belt has withered down so thin, only the trendiest hipster doofus might sport it. For the visually inclined, Realclearpolitics.com provides a great chart of where things stand. When you do the math on how Obama is running at least double the amount of advertising of McCain’s campaign and then add in the fact that Obama’s supporters are twice as enthusiastic about his candidacy as McCain’s (in fairness, the Obama Nation is much younger, more agile and generally more active than McCain’s geriatrics) you start to see the where the election is going.



Now get another plate, we’ve got more things to add. Add in the ties McCain has to Mr. Unpopular AKA President Bush and his proud support of the President’s policies “over 90% of the time” ‘. . . more than most of his Republican colleagues.’ Add to it his statement that he just doesn’t know so much about the economy. On top of that, add the fact that the majority of the battle of this election is not being fought in the swing states, but in the states that were surely expected to support the Republican nominee.

The big question that remains about the election is whether there will be an unabridged belt wrapping across our nation from North Dakota down to Georgia. Barack Out With My Cock Out has studied fivethirtyeight.com, realclearpolitics.com, politico.com and countless other sources for far too long to have any uncertainty in stating that the belt will survive without the blue connecting New Mexico to Maine, but with a shocking surprise in Kansas or South Dakota that goes out the window. It won’t reach from Canada to the Atlantic, but it will get to the Gulf of Mexico.


The Bradley effect and other unfounded notions

Much has been made about the issue of the accuracy of polling and how each poll represents the forthcoming actions of the voters. Every poll has a margin of error for a reason – they just aren’t perfect. We’ll skip the Stat 101 lecture and brush gently on the issues the pollsters face. Finding a perfect representation of the overall population is impossible because you don’t know what that overall population looks like. Not everyone will or is able to vote so pollsters attempt to determine how to represent the portion of people that will participate in the election. A “likely voter universe” is as easy to identify as a Chupacabra or a Poltergeist. But one issue we are confident they are not facing is whether race will skew the polling results in comparison to the electoral results.

A quick stop in History class teaches us that the Bradley Effect derives its name from former Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley and his failed candidacy for the Governorship of California. Bradley was a black politician that was leading in the polls going into Election Day only to end up losing. Many people attributed the divergence in polling numbers and the result to the presumption that people being interviewed for the poll were ashamed to admit they would be voting for the white guy rather than the black man. This theory has had few opportunities to be tested since Bradley’s 1982 defeat. Some fear pollsters over-compensate for racial tensions. Some worry they poll the wrong portions of the population that would have these sentiments. Some fear just the mention of this idea might encourage others to mislead pollsters. Some people go on with their lives. After a painful winter experience in Iowa, Barack Out With My Cock Out knows that people love to mislead pollsters, but does not worry about this throwing the election. The Bradley Effect, if it does exist is said to only account for up to a 5 point shift. So if you look around the nation and award Obama all of the states where he hold at least a 6 point lead, he still wins 277 electoral votes (calculated from realclearpolitics.com’s poll averages – a conservative-leaning site). Let’s say NM Sec. of State Mary Herrera screws up everything in New Mexico and gives away the state’s votes to McCain, . . . Obama still wins with 2 extra votes.

We’re looking at the numbers of young voters that might finally turn out en masse to support the Democratic nominee. We’re looking at the portions of the population that pollsters may not be accurately accounting for in their samples to swing this election far past any Bradley Effect or worse.

We’re also thinking of all of the friends we have that may let a distasteful remark here and there that are still voting for Obama. The most fascinating aspect of Obama’s candidacy is not that he is going to become the first black President, but that he is earning the support of people that otherwise would have nothing to do with people of a different race of your own. More and more voters stuck in the ante bellum days of our republic are coming out in sincere support of Obama. Think about it. Think about all of your friends and those that have used an ugly joke or a slur you’d never imagine uttering in front of a member of that minority group and think about how many of them still have friends of the minority groups they take so much joy in belittling. Racism is not dead, but it has evolved into a very odd form where people hold their views internally, but still behave in a mature manner when face to face in the real world. The world isn’t perfect yet – as evidenced by McCain’s un-ending attempts to convince voters Obama is a Islamic terrorist in order to gain ground in the race – but it is improving and racism has no chance to derail Obama’s victory train.


390-148 and . . . ?

You saw it here first. Two weeks out and that’s the way it’s going to be. Barack Out With My Cock out came to this number by looking at all battlegrounds and acknowledging the superior ground effort, the superior expenditures on advertising and the general shift in the opinions of the country put these states in President-elect Obama’s column. Now the real guessing game is which state that is supposed to be outside of any reach of Obama will also fall his way. Georgia was our choice, but Arkansas, West Virginia, North Dakota, Montana and even Mississippi are all vying to be the surprise of Election Night.

The more important question is if the Democrats will achieve a cloture-proof majority in the Senate (look it up). As good as this wave we’re riding is, we aren’t holding our breath. The one flaw of fivethirtyeight.com is that it consistently states that the Democrats must pick up nine seats to achieve this very important legislative advantage. However, we cannot hold any faith that the turncoat Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) would abed such ruthless legislating after spending the last year on the campaign trail with Sen. McCain. Maybe it could happen in 2010, but not this year. But we’re dying to be proven incorrect.

To quickly count seat by seat, it appears the Udall boys are ready to roll and will pick up the seats in New Mexico and Colorado (Tom and Mark, respectively). In Oregon, moderate Republican Gordon Smith can’t say enough nice things about Obama to save his seat from being claimed by Jeff Merkley. Virginia has the safest of safe seats for a Dem to win and Mark Warner is doing just that. Jeanne Shaheen will upend Sen. John Sununu’s career in Maine. Kay Hagen will claim what could have been the second senate seat for the Democrats in North Carolina if John Edwards had run for reelection in 2004 (maybe. according to insiders, Edwards probably would have lost his reelection had he at least attempted to hold the seat). Mayor of Anchorage Mark Begich is relieving 40-year Senator Ted Stevens just in time for Stevens to head to jail for the free home makeover he received from lobbyists (way to blame your wife! You’re the man!). And the most laughable of races takes place in Minnesota – those guys just can’t get enough of celebrities and are on track to send Al Franken to Washington because he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and damnit, people kinda like him.

So that’s eight seats they’ll add. NOW your complaints that the Dem’s aren’t ending the war in Iraq fast enough are valid. Previously, they were unfounded since the Dems did not have a majority in the Senate on that issue because Lieberman just loves dumping $10bil a month into a mission President Bush stated was already accomplished.

The Gut Feeling

At the end of the day, it comes down to the little things. And at the end of the day, Barack Out With My Cock Out wants a President that can stroke a jumper from 15 feet like Larry Bird, not a dying bird. The next update will contain the official voting guide for New Mexicans with encouragement to residents of other states for important contests. As soon as the lazy Mary Herrera-wannabe County Clerk gets me my mail-in ballot, its on. Hey Maggie, put a staffer on dropping my ballot into the mail and get the rest of the team working on fixing your website.

The official Barack Out With My Cock Out Presidential Debate Drinking Game

The Nut: Are you considering watching the first debate between presidential nominee Barack Obama and senator John McCain? Don't foolishly head into such an endeavor without making use of the following rules to keep the booze flowing at the proper rate - a waterfall pace guaranteed to make your head fuzzy enough to understand what the hell they're suggesting.

Also, if you find this combination of booze and politics to be an enjoyable, time, there's an awesome event to check out on next Friday. Details about Art for Change follow after the drinking game.

The official Barack Out With My Cock Out Presidential Debate Drinking Game:

Begin the opening round roughly 20 minutes before the beginning of the debate (9 eastern):

For Your Affiliation:
- Take 3 drinks if you're a registered republican
- Take 2 drinks if you're Independent or other.
- Take 3 drinks if you're not registered to vote.
- Take 1 drink if your registration does not match your current address.
- Take 1 drink if your registration does not match your ID.
- Give 3 drinks if you're registered as a Democrat.

For Your Voting:
- Take 1 SHOT of cheap whiskey if you voted for Bush in 2004.
- Take 1 SHOT of cheap whiskey if you voted for Bush in 2000.
- Take 1 SHOT if you voted for Ralph Nudar (or other candidate) in either election.
- Give 3 drinks if you voted for John Kerry.
- Give 6 drinks if you voted for Al Gore.
- Get outta my house if you're old enough to have voted for Clinton.
- Take 2 drinks if you voted for Bush in a swing state (NM, OH, FL, PA, MI, etc.)
- Give 2 drinks if you voted for Kerry in a swing state (NM, OH, FL, PA, MI, etc.)
- Give 4 drinks if you voted for Gore in a swing state (NM, OH, FL, PA, MI, etc.)
- Give 2 drinks if you voted for Kerry in a solid red or blue state (the heartland, the west coast, New England, etc.)
- Give 4 drinks if you voted for Gore in a solid red or blue state (the heartland, the west coast, New England, etc.)
- Give 2 SHOTS (to different people) if you voted absentee or early for Kerry or Gore.
- Take 1 SHOT if you voted absentee or early for Bush.
- Take 2 SHOTS if you voted absentee or early for Nadar (take 4 if your vote was cast in a swing state)

For Your Activism:
- Take 1 SHOT if you actively campaigned for Bush by knocking on doors, making phone calls, attended a rally, etc.
- Give 5 drinks if you actively campaigned for Kerry or Gore by knocking on doors, making phone calls, attended a rally, etc. (A person that worked to support Kerry AND Gore will give 12)
- Take 1 SHOT of cheap whiskey if you donated to Bush's campaign.
- Take 5 drinks if you donated to a PAC of any type.
- Give 1 SHOT if you lied, cheated or deceived the GOP in order to attend a Republican rally.
- Give 3 drinks if you saw John Kerry live.
- Take 1 SHOT if you were paid for your work for the Bush campaign.
- Give 5 drinks if you were paid for your work for the Kerry or Gore campaign (12 if you worked on both).
- Give 3 drinks if you woke up before the sun to campaign on election day in 2004 or 2000.
- Take 3 drink if you got into an argument with a complete stranger while out campaigning in 2000 or 2004 (8 if both)
- Take 3 drinks if you had a poltical bumper sticker on your car for the election.
- Take 5 more drinks if it is still there.
- Take 3 more drinks if the bumper sticker was replaced with an anti-Bush sticker.
- Take 3 drinks if you’re mad that the local Obama HQ was out of bumperstickers the last time you went by.



During the actual debate:

Take 2 drinks every time someone has to tell you to shut up so they can hear the debate.
Take 5 drinks if that person has to ask a second time without you responding.
Take 2 drinks if you are left confused by the answer a candidate gave.
Take 2 drinks every time a candidate runs over his allotted time.
Take 1 SHOT if your vote was determined by what you heard during the debate.
Take 2 MORE SHOTS if your vote switched from Barack to McCain because of the debate.

The words of the night: Everyone takes 1 drink every time either man says any of the following words:

Any reference to President Boosh
Any reference to a foreign head of state.

Economic Hard Times:
Bailout
Bank(s)
Economy
Home-owners
Garn-St. Germain
Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Investments
Keating 5
Mortgage
Stock Market

Foreign Policy:
Al Qaeda
“The Surge” (in Iraq)
Terror(ism)

Heroes:
Any former U.S. President
Any random American a candidate names as a good example of American values

Nations:
Afghanistan
China
Georgia (take a shot of whiskey if you thought the capital of this Georgia was Atlanta)
Great Britain (or UK)
Iraq
Iran
Mexico
North Korea
Pakistan
Russia
Sudan
Vietnam

Rhetorical ideas:
Any questioning of Patriotism
Any reference to experience gained while imprisoned in Vietnam
Change
“drill for oil” (or any suggestion of such an idea),“Equal Pay for equal work”
Hardwork
Hope
Maverick
(bi)Partisan
"Rebuilding international coalitions/support"
Renewable energy development

To end the debate: everyone toasts a shot to celebrate being able to have so much fun participating in the American political process.

And as promised:



See you there.

Baracking it for the ladies

The Nut: Politicians are on parade as shining examples of how to live a smarter, safer, protected life. John McCain’s sexy VP pick, warrants the revisiting of the sexist remarks he has used to court his base supporters. Meanwhile, the Tina Fey-wannabe has involuntary gone on record with a thorough demonstration of her ability to handle, sensitive, secure matters.

Progress doesn’t pile on

It took a weeklong, psilo-landen venture through the hills, but the Sarah Palin bashing urges have been buried in a deep hole under a mountain of LANL waste. It won’t come back because it can’t come back. For those that don’t like the freshman Governor from Alaska or her support of hunting wolves from a helicopter or use of state dollars to pay her mortgage or her recruitment of millions in pork for her town of 6,700 or her threats of banning books or her perversion of an otherwise gorgeous Tina Fey, heed this call: Do not attack her. Do no callously insult her. Do not mock her husband’s snowmobiling, her daughter’s abstinence-only education or her firm belief that god will save her before the floods of the rapture (better known as global warming among the school-educated crowds) come and cleanse the land of all evil. Just like Barack Obama, it only builds her support and re-doubles her disciples’ efforts.

Yahoo-gate

Before we return to the inevitable days of not knowing the names of any Alaskan politician, it does serve purpose to examine how she functions as a political figurehead (i.e.: governor, VP nominee, mayor of podunkistan, dog catcher) should her date to the prom kick the bucket before the final dance.

As soon as Gov. Palin was announced as the member of the GOP that will live on in Jeopardy! answers and political almanacs as the token offering of the GOP in a lame attempt at being progressive, reports emerged of email exchanges concerning an alleged attempt by Palin to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. Barack Out With My Cock Out is fully unconcerned with these allegations because they are still simply that: allegations. But other netizens concerned with electing only the best and the brightest to lead our nation took it upon themselves to expose what FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests have not obtained.

We will be brief in summarizing the tale of Palin’s pirated email account, but you can read all of it through that link. It didn’t even take true hacking. A person cobbled together Palin’s personal information and took advantage of the dangerously generic personal questions most email services use to send people forgotten passwords. This isn’t hacking, this is just being wiser than your average beauty queen/small town news reporter.

The person got into her account, looked around for the dirt Extra and Inside Edition dream of and was crushed to only find a few email exchanges between her and other Alaskan officials discussing official business. They tired of it and hoped leaving the log-in information on the web’s biggest forum for hackers and trolls would let the next anti-Palin netizen finish the job they had begun. Unfortunately – for the federal government that could have had their job done for them and for all of the Democrats eager to reap the political benefits of this exposed material – Palin’s e-guardian angel swooped in, emailed her advisor (either an oxymoron of a term or quite the substantial fete as Palin only takes guidance from one man and that man: god) and helped rescue the account before it could be further abused. Good night and sweet dreams!

Nightmares of implications

So what does any of this have to do with the election? Everything because it is a real example of how Gov. Palin has run the state of Alaska and how she conducts herself as a political leader. It’s not a campaign-polished, spun-dry presentation of her as the quintessential American mother. It shows her ability to guard her own privacy and conduct her own office and a substantial lack there-of. While a court of law will take forever to formally convict her of the ethical charges, it is now proven in the court of “I know my ass from a hole in the ground” that she has used a private email account to conduct official state business.

Chime in Palin apologists. “All politicians do that. That’s how they all conduct the real business.” Yep, you’re fully 100% right. But all of the others have the brains of a savvy businessman to know how to cover their own ass and do it without putting it into easily searchable records. We’ve seen the personal email addresses of seasoned, wise politicians . . . they resemble the subject line of a piece of spam with a jumble of letters that if rearranged might spell out one of their names, the year the account was set up and the office they are seeking. Why? Because gov.numbnuts@yahoo.com is too easy to find. It’s a tried and true practice of job seekers, headhunters and savvy PR gurus to guess at what the intended receiver’s email might be and to try random combinations of firstname@theirbusiness.com until one doesn’t bounce back. In addition to her illegal actions of conducting state business through private accounts, she left these accounts vulnerable and accessible to any random 8th grader that knows how to work a google search (note of clarity in her defense: Alaskan students typically do not learn how to use google until they go to college out of state). Do you want the #2 in the land to leave sensitive matters of national security and economic policy open and available to anyone with an internet connection and a proxy server?

Hear it here first: Gmail’s thorough note taking WILL be the downfall of many candidacies in the near future. The first candidacy to fall because of publicized emails that aren’t fit for the public eye is that of McCain because he brought along Palin for the ride.

More important is her man

Let her go. Let’s focus on why she is on the ticket. She’s a vice presidential nominee, as even she’s wondered, the actual job of being VP doesn’t get too interesting until the senate has a tie to break or the President has a heart to defibrillate. The real job of the vice president is done from the day he or she is selected until the general election. Ideally, they will swing their home state to vote for their ticket when they were previously disposed to vote against them (like when John Edwards ran with Kerry and brought North Carolina into the D column . . . almost). The VP is a handout to the base to rally their support. Typically, they do not receive the attention the true leaders of the ticket receive and thus, their exposure is confined to the party-faithful, involved voters that want to vote for their side, but have some personal, petty beef with the Presidential nominee (i.e.: democrats that don’t support Barack because he made Hillary cry to win New Hampshire). She’s not important. She won’t be a major decision maker in our nation’s policy. She is here to pander to the Republican base that heeds their pastor’s guidance in filling out their ballots.


Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?

Because Janet Reno is her father.

Whoaaaaa. Before you get upset with Barack Out With My Cock Out and its editorial board, please direct your anger to the man that can be credited as the source of this tasteless joke that was first used when Chelsea was only 18.

This joke made its national debut at a 1998 GOP fundraiser in DC. Wooing the audience and their deep pockets was maverick entertainer, John McCain. Set aside McCain’s fervent love of this country and the unending respect he holds for its leaders . . . like Attorney General Janet Reno. This is a clear, undisputed incident of John McCain insulting a defenseless 18-year-old girl just to raise money for a Republican fundraiser. That’s more Maverick than the Dallas Maverick’s then record-setting season of winning only nine games in 1994.

We’ll hear anyone’s defense of McCain and his clever joke. Was it a single occurrence? No. Google “John McCain’s seven sexist rants” and read all about his belittling of women, even the one’s he loves (the Alaskan-educated readers can click here, apologies for the taunting of using google to find something). He once mocked his current wife (not the one that he left when she was no longer the beauty queen he married) for her caked-on make up. He said it better than we can recreate it: “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a dolled-up trollop, you cunt.” In his defense, he said he had had a long day before he told his new wife the truth about her plastic face.

Is he partisan in his sexist comments? Nope. As shown, he’ll go after his own family. He does like referring to all pro-active women as “Pat Schroeders” – a former congresswoman from Colorado that is remembered for her work on women’s rights.

When Jake Tapper interviewed McCain about his selection of campaign chairmen for the state of Nevada, his perfectly timed, well-judged humor reemerged. He tried out the old line “and I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago,” looking for raucous applause. Unfortunately, the crickets stood at attention as Tapper wondered to himself if McCain was aware of the Gov. of Nevada’s messy divorce and the accusations of infidelity. In Tapper’s words: “awkward.”

Feminism is for women, not woman

So when did feminism stop being about women? Answer: the day a man started using a woman to further his political ambitions. Electing McCain to the Presidency and letting Palin tag along to the white house will do as much for woman’s rights as elevating Al Gonzalez to the office of Attorney General did to eliminate the racial disparity between white Americans and Hispanics (nothing for those curious of the answer).

Don’t kid yourself. Don’t talk about glass ceilings. John McCain is holding up Sarah as a battering ram to blast through the glass ceiling Pres. Bush (W without the H) erected over McCain in South Carolina in 2000. Attention feminists of the world: do you support McCain using a woman to achieve his political dream?

More importantly, are you content to tolerate the GOP’s relegation of women as unable to perform tasks in as productive a manner as their male counter parts; should they continue earning 77 cents for every dollar her brother makes? This is a simple matter of government policy and there are only two choices: One side, Barack Obama, that supports mandating equal pay for equal work and the other side, John McCain, that has stated on record and worked against enacting such a law because it would place an undue burden on business. John McCain does not support equality for women and he stands in the road towards a sincerely enlightened and equal America.

Are you worth 77 cents or a full dollar?

Porn is Bipartisan?

The Nut: National Conventions are miserably dull unless you’re there in person. Sarah Palin is not hot, does not have a record to support anything she claims to stand for and will be remembered as ‘that lady that lost with the old guy in 2008.’ A full breakdown of her candidacy included. Simple talking points to properly highlight Palin’s credentials are at the bottom.


Is Porn Bipartisan?

I’m asking! There was a trailer with an inflated elephant proclaiming that porn is bipartisan cruising downtown Denver during the convention. With the pick of Sarah Palin, the GOP has attempted to beautify the old wrinkly Presidential ticket they have been putting together.

With the selection of the two-year (not two-term) Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, the GOP and John McCain have a Vice-Presidential candidate with so much experience, she makes Barack Obama look like Bill Richardson. In addition to being the mother of a newly born infant with down-syndrome, she brings a record of raising taxes on working Alaskans, increasing spending without balancing budgets and a few good years in front of the camera covering the local news in Michigan.


Experience v. Change

Palin’s choice as McCain’s running mate takes the question of Obama’s experience off the table. Sarah Palin has spent two short years in the Alaskan Governor’s igloo and before that she was mayor of the town of Wasilla. Wasilla, AK had roughly 5,000 citizens . . . the size of the more over-crowded high schools in some big cities. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin had to hire a city manager to attend to truly administering the city. So, she has two years of experience as chief executive of a state of 670,000 people and the experience equivalent to a high school student body president of a large high school . . . bear in mind, the class president usually leaves most real decisions to be made by the principle of the school and the school board (just like Palin did).

Oh, you argue that she’s only going to be #2 and she’s along for the ride whereas, Obama is running for President where he’ll do all the work. First, lets remember the last 7 ½ years of Cheney running the show from the VP seat and then lets be reasonable. Obama’s VP pick brings more experience to the executive than the other three candidates combined. More importantly, the worries of Obama not completing his term in office are not nearly as high as the worry of McCain. AND if some idiot would miraculously pull off the unthinkable, Obama has Joe Biden – the man that would probably be the nominee if experience was all it took to become President.


Real reform

She made her name in Alaska as a reformer that cleaned up the ethical lapses that permeated the Alaskan Republican Party. While she did bring many corrupt politicians to justice, she has not found herself outside of the inquiries. Her work to expose and prosecute corruption has led her to be exposed for her own political improprieties. There are accusations of her attempting to get an ex-brother-in-law fired from his post as a state trooper. She has a record of political hiring and firing that echoes of Alberto Gonzalez’ administration of the Department of Justice. It almost leads one to wonder if her presence on the ticket could put Alaska back in play for Obama with disenchanted Republicans voting for Obama out of spite.

What about the family?

More disgusting than her fierce aggression toward people who disagreed with her politics is what she has drug her family through just for her own political ambition. The fact that she has a infant child with down-syndrome while sitting Governor doesn’t confirm her conviction to her opposition to abortion rights, it affirms her bond to her political ambition. This demonstrates her selfish conviction to her own goals. Being Governor of a single state is not a day job. Its not a 60-hour a week job. When you’re Governor of just one state, you’re busy 24/7 attending to political and governmental duties. When you run for one of the only two nationally elected offices in the United States, you miss the quiet days at the Gov’s igloo.

Now that she has accepted the Republican nomination to be one heart attack away from the oval office, she has overtly stated she has no interest in being a real mother to her newborn child. Do not credit her for sticking with her conviction to anti-abortion stances. Credit her political ambition. She knew if she would have aborted the pregnancy, it would have been discovered and her political career would have been trashed. But despite needing to attend to a newborn child, she has seized her one impossibly lucky political opportunity despite the needs of her family.

Not only does she tout this as her true proof of her anti-abortion stance, she offers her husband’s membership in a union as proof of her support of working class Americans (as opposed to a record of signed legislation guaranteeing labor unions the right to form or raising wages for the members of these unions [raising the minimum wage raises most union wages as union wages as often set as a percentage of the minimum wage, i.e.: 250% of the current minimum wage]). She offers her son’s voluntary enlistment in the nation’s military and being sent to Iraq this year as her proof of her patriotism, not a record of what she has done to provide our veterans with health care, mental health care or quality jobs after they leave the military.

And the little things

The little things with no extrinsic meaning do bear significance, as well. Palin’s announcement demonstrated the true difference between Obama and McCain’s campaign. Obama had millions across the nation receiving text messages on Friday night as they hung out with friends. The message was instantly spread virally to everyone’s local networks (there are rumors that a fake message proclaiming Hillary won was also spread to many people’s chagrin). People didn’t learn about it from Matthews or Matthews or Wolf, they learned about it from their friend (as I did) and it began a discussion about the election.

Sarah Palin became the VP nominee around 10 on a Friday morning (eastern) after a monumental speech from Sen. Obama. I watched ABC break in with the news. When they went to show who McCain had picked to accompany him on the ticket, they had to dig up grainy youtube video to show footage of her.

The colossal difference in messaging and style is more than just the little things they do. This is a simple game of contacting the number of voters you need to win the election. Obama’s campaign is contacting the people they need to win the election while McCain’s team is almost approaching the election as a foregone conclusion. If Mit Romney really turned down McCain’s offer of VP, you would surely have to conclude that the GOP recognizes that this election is un-winnable for them.

Hillary lovers unite!?

The first thing everyone has said about this selection is that it was targeted directly at disaffected Hillary backers that are unwilling to support the presidential nominee that supports all of the public policy that they need and desire – Barack Obama. While Sarah does share anatomical similarities with Hillary (i.e.: earrings), her politics are as divergent as possible. The educated guess of Barack Out With My Cock Out is that polls will show around 15% of former Hillary supports stating they are supporting McCain because of Palin’s choice.

There is little to do about this number of people and votes for Obama are best found elsewhere. It is unlikely that these voters would have supported Obama even if he had picked Kathleen Sebelius (Gov., KS) and McCain would have picked a man (Sebelius if offered as an example because Hillary had absolutely no chance of becoming the VP nominee. NONE!). If that number stays around 15% or less of former Hillary supporters, there shouldn’t be many problems in November for Obama. Currently, roughly 30% of former Hilldoggers say they can’t pull their head far enough out to vote for Obama and these same polls show, with no ties or toss ups, a 273-268 win for Obama realclearpolitics.com with New Mexico being the 5 vote difference. Now, think about what happens when 15% of those voters vote for Obama instead of McCain.

Talking the talk:

So to boil it all down to what is and is not, here are the simple positions of the hockey mom of a 5-month old child with down-syndrome, Governor of Alaska, former mayor of Wasilla, AK and GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin:

Abortion: So against it, she even carried through her down-syndrome pregnancy and now has a 5-month old child to bring along on the campaign trail. However, she has no record in governmental action (legislative or executive) of taking action to eradicate abortions or to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Budget and Fiscal Responsibility: She raised taxes on middle class Alaskans and gave tax breaks to larger companies. She took office with balanced budgets and left behind deficits. She proposed bond issues (borrowing money to pay for a current project) when the state had plenty of money from oil and gas severance revenues.

Environment and Energy: She is a true Republican in support of undeterred oil and gas exploration. She has questioned the existence of global warming and has worked to keep the Department of the Interior from holding oil and gas mining operations accountable for their environmental impact. She supports drilling to solve our energy problems, not renewable resources.

Iraq War: Her son is on his way to the warzone and she couldn’t be prouder. She supports John McCain’s approach of stabilizing Iraq as our operation point for the Middle East and does not support a timetable for a phased, controlled withdrawal.

Ethics: In her limited career of public service, she has fired many political opponents even within her own party and has taken criticism for making many of the firings because of political and personal motivations. She is currently under investigation for attempting to get her ex-husband-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Real World Experience: Before entering politics, she worked as a local news reporter . . . a perfect fit for a former beauty queen.

But She’s Beautiful: So are millions and millions of other women. Do you really want to lust after your Vice President? The porn star that ran for President in Italy lost because Italians weren’t idiots (they naturally went for the bigger celebrity in the race).

Bottom Line: If Mit Romney really refused the VP nomination, you must wonder who else passed up McCain’s offer. When they finally came around to finding a two-year Governor of Alaska to make a feeble attempt at woeing Hillary supporters, they may have conceded the race to Obama.

Real Action, VP Rice and the Best of the Best

The Big Nut:
Presidential candidates and part time Senators Barack Obama and John McCain will also take the campaign through their real office and grill Gen. Petreaus on the war in Iraq. Previous candidates Sen. Clinton, Dodd and Biden will be asking the truly incisive questions the candidates couldn’t touch. The GOP is testing Condo Rice’s name as a potential VP candidate for McCain. The Alibi recognized how truly superb Barack Out With My Cock Out’s coverage is and I, Ron Domino, would like to thank the voters, the readers and the editors for their kind words.


Real action! Senators set to bash Petraeus.

When was the last time you tuned in to see what the candidates were talking about and you found them actually atop capitol hill, doing their job? Tuesday and Wednesday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Armed Forces Committee will check up on the progress in Iraq as Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker stop by for a Q & A.

While little policy will be established, the contrasting rhetoric of Obama and Biden (D-Del) compared to McCain and Jim Demint (R-SC) should set the stage for a good debate on the direction of the war. Barack will need to be especially careful to demonstrate a strong command of the issue to reaffirm his readiness to hold the office of the Presidency. McCain could dig himself a deep hole if he takes too hawkish of an approach and puts himself on the record for a lot of quotes of him supporting nothing but a continuation of the war. Keep in mind: the General and Ambassador may be the honored guests, but that won’t stop the senators or congressmen from wasting most of the time listening to themselves preach their thoughts on the war.

Finally you have a reason to figure out what channel CSPAN2 is. For those of you burdened with the hassle of receiving your cable from Comcast, its number 26.


VP Rice?

After the Republican Party fielded 12 pale, white Christian men for candidates for President, they’re looking to get in on the Democrat’s progressive ways with their Vice Presidential choice. They have seen the problems one can encounter when choosing between a black man and a woman and decided to just go for it all. Enter, Condoleezza “Condo” Rice.

First, let us be clear that her nickname is not “Condi.” Where do you see an “i” in Condoleezza? If you would like to save the trouble of those last two syllables, don’t go cherry picking letters for the half of her name you decide to pronounce. Its “Condo” the gruff bulldog that has butchered our foreign policy under Bush’s watch, not “Condi” the smart, adorable (in comparison to other cabinet officials such as Ashcroft or Rumsfeld) woman that appears in interviews with Barbara Walters.

What do you think? Do you like the progress she has achieved in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis? How about her ability to assist the new Iraqi Parliament in forming a working government? Middle East isn’t your favorite place, ok, what do you think of her dealings with Hugo Chavez and her ability to keep the northern region of South America from going to war?

If you appreciate her work in these areas as well as her ability to smile longingly while looking President Bush in the eyes, then McCain-Condo is probably your dream ticket. For those that are tired of having OPEC raise the price of oil as they sight “escalating tensions in the Levant/Iraq/Columbia/Mars” you might want to encourage McCain to seek out someone with a little better experience in negotiating with people that hate you. . . maybe someone like the last major political figure to visit Columbia on a diplomatic mission. Too bad Richardson endorsed McCain’s opposition--Obama.


Journalistic Excellence

The Pulitzer prizes have been doled out, again. Barack Out With My Cock Out can settle for the local accolades for the first month of work.

Backward Lobbying and Big Bill's Big Endorsement

The Nut:
Instead of politicians receiving plush treatment from lobbyists, both Republicans and Democrats have been accused of trying to buy votes at primary conventions. The newest development is accusations against Don Wiviott and Ben Ray Lujan – candidates for congress in northern New Mexico – that they purchased hotel rooms and food for their delegates. Not nearly as serious as the allegations by former governor, Dave Cargo, that Heather Wilson and Darren White paid delegates $35 per hour and covered their $30 registration fee. Bill Richardson tried to bury his endorsement of Barack Obama over Easter Weekend. He echoes the call for Clinton to end her campaign for the sake of party unity. Clinton supporter and politico James Carville remembered the holiday season as he attacked the move comparing Richardson’s support to Judas selling out. . . hooray for James’ clever attempt at smearing Big Bill. There’s no negative campaigning going on here.


Lobbying gone backwards

First, Heather Wilson and Darren White’s campaigns were accused of paying delegates to the Republican Bernalillo County Pre-Primary convention. Now, after the Democrats have held their statewide Pre-Primary Convention, congressional candidates are again being accused of being a little overly kind to its supporting delegates.

Don Wiviott and Ben Ray Lujan – the two leading candidates for Northern New Mexico’s congressional seat – are both taking hits for being too overly funded and for dispersing their campaigns’ funds in possibly illegal manners. Lujan was blasted for purchasing delegates food at the convention, as well as utilizing fancy headsets to communicate with staffers at the convention. Wiviott has admitted to paying for hotel rooms in Rio Rancho for delegates who came in from around the state.

This story has not attracted much attention yet because it very routine to provide food to convention delegates. This year’s convention was actually slightly unusual in that the Santa Ana Star Center did not allow campaigns to bring in the normal lavish spreads that they traditionally lay out. It is a normal tradition for campaigns to bring bottles of water and any other kind of food or comforting item for delegates to help them survive the afternoon of speeches.

Purchasing hotel rooms is not as traditional, nor as nominal. When campaigns shower delegates with food, they may give them up to $10 worth of grub. . . its doubtful they got such a good deal on the hotel rooms. Go have your own debate on how much money a delegate’s vote is worth. Consider this though. If a campaign is going to pay for a person to stay the night in a hotel so they can attend a convention the next day, do you think they would purchase a room for just anyone or would they only foot the bill for guaranteed supporters?

All of these allegations pale in comparison to the charges against Wilson and White that they paid delegates $35 per hour and covered the $30 registration fee for them to attend the Bernalillo Pre-Primary Convention. While the hotel rooms are of the same monetary value, the direct payment to a person for their vote is nothing similar to identifying a supporter and then providing them with a means to attend the convention. . . none of the Republicans at the Bernalillo convention incurred $70 in expenses as they attended.

If you’re upset about this story, you’d better get on the phone to Gary King. The Attorney General’s office has already said it would not investigate any of the allegations.



Big Bill’s big support of Obama

How do you make big news, quieter news? Religious holidays! In the first hours of Good Friday Bill Richardson sent his supporters his endorsement of Barack Obama. As a holiday weekend campaigns normally avoid working on approached, Richardson attempted to make the normal rounds that such a big endorsement brings in as quiet a manner as possible.

Barack Out With My Cock Out has discussed how Richardson was stuck between endorsing the family that made his career – the Clintons – or being accused of betraying them and endorsing the man that will have a job to offer him at the end of it all. Richardson recognized that the primary race is decided and that there is no longer any risk in publicly stating his support so he did just that. He still didn’t want to make it any bigger of a deal than necessary. So on Friday of a week that campaigns forbid their staffs from annoying voters, Richardson came out with his opinion.

He tried to bury the reports of his support because he knew he would become the punching bag for attacks against Obama. He also saw the charges of traitor coming. As soon as he weighed in, James Carville, another surrogate supporter of Hillary Clinton retorted by comparing Richardson’s support of Obama to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Expect CNN and MSNBC to spend the next day fighting over which side wins this trade of blows. Also expect them to say that it goes Obama’s way.

Richardson’s support has been labeled as a way to curry support with Hispanics, but you should not expect too many people to come aboard simply because of the endorsement. However, if played properly, the back and forth during the announcement should win Obama a point or two. The shift in support isn’t from Richardson’s endorsement, its from voters seeing people like Carville making heartless attacks against Richardson. Bill is also helped to shift the focus from Rev. Wright and onto Richardson’s decision to leave behind the pattern of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton in favor of that intangible sparkle of hope. With it being a weekend that normally takes people away from the news, it will significantly help Obama avoid losing support.

If there are people that will support Obama directly because of Richardson’s endorsement, expect anti-war advocates, moderates and very active Democrats that are still on the fence to follow Big Bill’s lead. Richardson caught voters’ attention by taking the most aggressive stance on ending the war. He also won his support from moderate Democrats and many Republicans, as well.

His presidential bid fizzled when voters showed that they wanted a new leader that did not come from the traditional circles of power. His supporters saw his unmatched foreign policy experience, record of cutting taxes and creating jobs and came to his side because of his ability to site accomplishments for any constituency. While they may be few and far between, there are plenty of well-read politickers that know of New Mexico’s Governor and his long career of public service.

More articles to read:

Obama has reclaimed lead in national preference poll:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105529/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Edges-Ahead-Clinton.aspx

How to conduct a proper political scandal:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/03/23/foreman.scandal.etiquette.cnn

Obama fighting back:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/obama-camp-says-clinton-deeply-flawed/

NYTimes highlights McCain’s political infidelities:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/us/politics/24mccain.html?hp

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $1 Million

The Nut:

Obama’s speech against the attacks on his pastor won’t go away. Now everyone’s debating how the speech went and running in circles. Eliot Spitzer’s favorite lady that’s not his wife missed out on a cool mil from Girls Gone Wild because they already have plenty of footage of her shaking her tatas. And back home in NM, state senate, house and PRC candidacies were filed. Sen. Robinson deserves a little extra support in assuring his re-election. Oh, and a happy 5th anniversary to the biggest waste of our tax dollars ever!



Who wants some beads?

Its Spring Break and even if it wasn’t, we’d still be fully fed up with this worthless focus on Obama’s pastor. If you really can’t enjoy a week that is traditionally reserved for intoxicated debauchery, go read that first amendment to the Constitution that tells religion to take a hike. Unlike Bush’s Administration, Obama respects the Constitution and will heed its restrictions on bringing his religion into office. If you want to blast a President for chosing the wrong spiritual advisor, give President Bush a call and ask him why he relied on a meth-head that solicits male prostitutes to guide his faith-based initiatives.

Luckily for us, Barack Out With My Cock Out has Marquis Solis to report in from South Padre Island the news that Ashley Dupre, the hooker that helped Eliot Spitzer throw away his political career, just missed out on $1 million. Fresh out of jail, Joe Francis offered her a full mil to be featured prominently in upcoming Girls Gone Wild videos and magazines. Luckily, he has some smart interns scouring the archives and not just focused on everything below the neck. Just as he laid the offer on the table, he pulled it away. It turns out that he doesn’t have to pay for something he already owns. Yep, she was featured in the 2003 GGW Spring Break video shaking what she’s got.

Barack Out With My Cock Out has found the censored video here. Barack Out With My Cock Out doesn’t care to find the uncensored action firstly because the internet is double-stuffed with beautiful girls showing themselves off. Also, Ashley was only 17 at the time of the video and while we’re not into grannies over here, we do draw a firm line in the sandy beach and on our side only adults party. But a great kudos to Marquis for finding the singular important piece of news of Spring Break Week.



“Liberal Bloggers Put Positive Spin Obama’s Speech On Race”

No they didn’t. They reported what he said. They reported how he reaffirmed that he is a strong independent mind that denounces hateful rhetoric and loves our nation. We’ll say it again, get over it!



Testing the waters

Anyone wishing to be referred to as Senator, Representative or Commissioner filed their paperwork yesterday. Most of the primary match-ups that materialized will be meaningless forays into the political arena, but there are a few to watch. Most notable is liberal Tim Keller’s desire to unseat veteran Senator Shannon Robinson.

Tim can be commended for holding the right ideals in mind. He supports improving our healthcare and education systems as well as finding renewable sources of energy. Our only problem with his candidacy is that he is everything Senator Robinson is, without the power to get these things done.

Sen. Robinson is the go-to Senator for anyone involved in the New Mexico film industry. Losing his support of the Governor’s film initiatives could cripple an industry that is just getting off the ground in our state. Robinson was in the lead to kill the bill to cap tax incentives for films. If the bill had gone through, all of movie stars would have gone straight back home to L.A.. Massive infrastructure is under construction in the Mesa Del Sol development as well as many other places and if the incentives would have been capped, these buildings would have been left as nothing more than a ghost town.

It is agreed, Sen. Robinson and all of the other Democratic Senators need to be reminded that they support providing quality health care to all New Mexicans and that if the Governor puts his name on a project to do that, they should support such a measure. It is good to see Tim learn how painful being a candidate can be, but it is unfortunate if he thinks he can unseat a long time advocate of progressive ideals.

For those readers that like the excitement of blockbuster movies being filmed in your backyard or enjoy the pay check you receive for your contributions on them, maybe you should give Jon Hendry a call and see how you can get involved in defending Sen. Robinson’s seat and your own job.

Cheap Seats and Dates

The Nut:

Florida is getting very close to holding a new Presidential Primary election. It will cost between $10-12 million and will be a mail-in ballot. All likely outcomes will help Clinton, unless Obama pulls off an upset, which could be the final blow to the Clinton campaign. Obama won the Mississippi primary in a very racially divided vote. Rush Limbaugh tried to take credit for getting Republicans out to support Hillary and extend the primary fight. Racial issues and slurs are the talk of the week as a Clinton supporter denigrated Obama's success by saying its only because he is black. Eliot Spitzer resigned his office of Governor of New York and now looks to skirt any of the criminal charges in the case. Pun enjoyed, but not intended.

Florida’s $10 million mulligan

Florida Democrats are getting closer and closer to officially announcing that they will take a mulligan on their rebel pre-Feb 5 election and have their voters re-voice their opinion on their preference of candidate. To the tune of $10-12 million dollars Floridians are readying a new election to make sure their delegates are seated at the National Convention.

It is incredibly important to the Democratic Party that these delegates be seated. An embittered Florida in November is one of many things John McCain needs to pull off the unimaginable upset. Maybe ‘unimaginable’ isn’t the right word after witnessing John Kerry and Al Gore be defeated by a coke-headed, DWI-convicted party boy. Either way, the Democrats must kiss and make up with Florida and Michigan to make sure Barack Obama cruises to victory.

When Howard Dean punished the states for disobeying the DNC’s orders he did not do it to spitefully one-up the insubordinate states, he did it to show that the DNC’s rules do have teeth. We all know that he had every intention of seating the delegates once the race was decided and the convention vote was rendered worthless. But with a “no-end-in-sight” election playing on he has been forced to find a new solution to the problem.



Mail it in

The proposed solution is a mail-in election to be held by June 3. Now we must consider who this will benefit. Who are Obama voters and who are Clinton supporters? Most exit polls have shown older, slower, more “curmudgeonly” people support Clinton while Obama is bringing in votes from the more educated, less old, less traditional parts of the enfranchised electorate.

Remember all of that talk about “if it snows and ices, the old folks won’t go to the polls and Obama will win big?” Well, now the La-Z-Boy bound voters have an upper hand. While they may not run wind sprints, most are very religious about checking their mail (for many of them, it’s a highlight of their day) and they certainly know how to sit down and read through all of the directions of the mail-in ballot.

The Obama Bloc has not earned such high marks in the same categories. Thus, while Obama has many supporters eager to elect him, he will be losing many votes from people that didn’t take the time to go through all of the procedures necessary for the Secretary of State to claim that they conducted a fair, honest election with the voters’ privacy staying protected. At the same time, many Clinton supporters that may not have been physically capable to cart themselves down to a polling location will now easily be able to file their vote. Sure, there is always Absentee Voting, but how many of YOU are wise enough to have permanently signed up for it and avoided ever having to wait in a polling line again?


Should we even care?

Yes, otherwise they wouldn’t be spending $10 million on it. Wait, that’s a lie. They would spend $20 million if they thought it would be entertaining and their donors approved. It is likely that Clinton will win a close victory in Florida and nothing will be decided in the grand scheme of things. The delegate totals will stay too close for either to emerge with a definitive victory. Thus, it will still come down to the Super Delegates and they are aligning more and more in favor of Obama -- the winner of more delegates, more states and more total votes.

But worrying about that assumes you are foolish enough to expect the election to go all the way to the Convention. If Karma is watching, it should wrap up right around Memorial Day Weekend. Would that spiteful wrath of random chance be good enough for all of us in the other 48 states that heeded the DNC’s demands?


Seriously, does anybody care?

The Spinsters better have earned some overtime for the work they put in trying to find a way to make Mississippi’s Democratic Primary seem important. They point to exit polls that show that it was the most racially divided state with 92% of black voters choosing Obama.

Obama’s 61/37 trouncing of Clinton could have been much bigger. His supporters are crying foul over many white Republicans that participated in the Democratic vote to help Clinton and thereby extend the no-end-in-sight election. The racial undertones of the division of voters is sad, but we all know the sad truth that the South isn’t as integrated as other parts of our nation. . . So why worry about a state that is going to support McCain 90/10 come general election time?

Don’t get too upset. This has been done as long as there have been political parties. Earlier in this same primary election, the Daily Kos political blog organized “Democrats for Romney” in an effort to help him extend a no-end-in-sight primary battle on the Republican side. Rush Limbaugh takes credit for giving Hillary the bump by rallying Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary for her to extend the battle. Rush knows what we all know: Barack Obama will be our next President.

The difference between Republicans and Democrats: the R’s got out their tri-focals and brought their three person primary into a single person focus. Maybe the young hip Dems have a Lasic appointment scheduled.


The price of having fun

For those who thought Eliot Spitzer’s $80,000 bill for hookers was steep, his fornicating is costing him even more. The resignation Foxnews announced a day before it was, has finally come to be. Yes, that’s right. Foxnews jumped the gun and announced for New York’s Governor his resignation. But on Wednesday it became official and the state of New York readies to inaugurate its first legally blind black Governor.

If the intrigue of the $1000 an hour call girls has escaped you and you’re back to being stuck on Super Delegate totals, yes, this has a bearing. Eliot surrenders his Super Delegate status to Governor-designate David Paterson. And it just so happens that while Spitzer was carrying water for Hillary, Paterson knows that Obama is the junior Senator that we need as our next President. Go get the big board and take one from Hillary’s side over to Obama’s. I’m sure it was his campaign’s plan all along.


Four more whores! Four more whores!

Don’t think that the last pervert has been pulled out of the closet yet. Larry Flint has been threatening for years to release a long list of politicos that can’t stay faithful to their wife or beliefs. Larry Craig is still a Senator after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct charges after he tried to get a blow job in the wrong public bathroom from the wrong undercover cop. He is also up for re-election this year. We have months of time to expose every philandering hypocrite out there and Barack Out With My Cock Out is ready to report on every one of them.


Its just because he's black

I'm still too shocked at how patently racist and pathetic the Clinton campaigns comments on Obama's success were. Keith Olbermann summed it up perfectly with a 10 minute tirade on how pathetic her baseless attacks were. Hear him out.

Barack Out With My Cock Out will be back on Monday to recap all of the action from the NM Pre-Primary Convention and all of the other political fun of the weekend.

My Money, My State, My Paper, My Time

Don Wiviott and his own dreams

Self-financed candidate for Northern New Mexico’s Congressional Seat, Don Wiviott, has won his court battle and is being placed on the ballot for the June primary. Candidate Jon Adams’ claim that Wiviott failed to collect enough signatures was found invalid and the race will go on.

The next charge being leveled against Wiviott is that his funding has come from the wrong donors. Not big business or oil or lobbyists, not child abusers, thieves and crooks, the disputed cash came from the candidate’s own pockets. Wiviott has brought the Millionaire’s Amendment into play as he has given his own campaign almost $600,000. His opponents have banded together as they claim that ‘he is trying to buy a congressional seat.’

And I say, good! Great! What a perfect way to finance a campaign! Here’s the secret: Politicians run for office to see their name on the yard signs and in the news. They love themselves so much that the only way to obtain the necessary amount of affection is to be lavished in praise by voters and the media. There are two types of people that work in politics: people who sincerely want to do good and people who want to do good so they can take the credit for it. The former is a bureaucrat that thanklessly deals with constituents’ issues day in and day out and works to solve problems. The latter runs for office. Why not let the egomaniac pay for the attention that he demands with his own money? Or were you about to send him $2300 of your cash so you could learn how to pronounce his name correctly?

More candidates that bet their own cash on these elections should be commended. . . even Mitt Romney. Don’t be foolish enough to ask the tired question of “why would a candidate spend $600k of his own money to get a job that doesn’t pay half of that?” Just like athletes get paid ten-fold more in endorsement contracts than they do from their salary, politicians make much more money through their positions of power than they do simply from the office’s salary. Do you really think Wiviott wouldn’t be able to reclaim more than $600k with a seat at the table that determines who gets the tax incentives and who’s businesses get squashed? Any investor can tell you what that kind of inside knowledge can do to grow your portfolio.

So let him waste his cash away. People should commend Don Wiviott for investing $600,000 of his own money in northern New Mexico. Go question the candidates that have as much money through donors. Good luck unraveling the maze they have established of shady deals and obligations.

The most curious part about all of the shots being taken at Wiviott is that he is not leading the race. Son of NM House Speaker and former Chairman of the PRC Ben Ray Lujan is widely agreed to be far ahead of the pack. Are his people putting Adams’ camp up to this?



No, I won Texas!

Hillary won the primary vote. Barack looks like he’ll win the Caucus, but they’re still counting those votes. And thus, Barack should come out with the most delegates. So who gets to put the state in their column? Emails from both campaigns will tout their victory, but how will CNN color their map for Anderson Cooper’s ultra-futuristic demonstrations on the green screen? Will Hillary remind voters of a similar election in 2000 when one candidate won the overall vote, but not the office?

The race may have quieted a bit compared to the buzz going around this time last week, but don’t expect her to pass up an opportunity for such an effective low blow. Democrats still remember the election Bush stole through a system that didn’t rely on straightforward votes and they won’t be eager to endorse any similar tactic. But wait, will they even hear her whine? Every other complaint she has brought against Barack has fallen on deaf ears.



Feeling the Loss

Barack Out With My Cock Out was begun to serve an under-informed electorate in New Mexico. As it began, the Albuquerque Tribune stopped its presses for good and shut down a 100-year operation. The loss of an alternative to the conservative-leaning ABQ Journal was felt last week as accusations of scandal spread across the web.

As we reported on Friday, Heather Wilson and Darren White, candidates for Senate and House, respectively, were accused of buying votes at the Bernalillo County Convention. All local media ignored allegations of Fourth Degree Felony Charges with exception to one reporter. Laura McCallum quit her job of News Anchor at 770 KKOB because after being the only reporter to come with the story, News Director, Pat Allen pulled it because not enough blogs had picked it up. . . his words, not mine. The story was pulled following a phone call from a blogger, no less! After Whitney Cheshire -- Campaign Manager for Heather Wilson’s Senate bid and former writer a hard-right blog -- cried to the station that had always gone to bat for Republicans, Allen followed their favorite congresswoman’s desires and pulled the story.

The Albuquerque Journal finally covered the story in Sunday’s edition, but their coverage wasn’t anything that will get them nominated for a Pulitzer. Rather than discussing the allegations against Wilson and White, the seven-paragraph story recapped that Laura surrendered her job in the name of ethical journalism. It is a tragedy to see a state relegated to such shoddy news coverage. One would think that the current technology would allow for more issues to be covered in a more comprehensive manner. Unfortunately, those dreams were simply that: a figment of our imagination.

To fulfill the duty of the Journal, KKOB, KOAT, KOB-TV and even KRQE, know this: Heather Wilson and Darren White are accused of paying the entrance fee for their voters as well as giving them $35 per hour that they spent at the Bernalillo County Convention. This is big, front-page-worthy news because those charges are fourth degree felonies. This is especially important because Darren White currently is sits in the political office of Sheriff and, as I’ve been informed, the Sheriff is supposed to stop crimes, not commit them.



Bushy Brilliance

For those that were an hour late to work this morning, I feel your pain and offer a more in-depth excuse than the expected “I just didn’t know to change my clock” line. My household actually didn’t have a single clock that needed resetting. The oven’s timepiece has eluded us and still flashes “12:00” and everything else was jumped forward by the internets and the invisible hands that guide them. However, thanks to last year’s energy bill that extended day light savings time, not all clocks knew to change this weekend. So use caution as you manually update your computers and phones -- they could get updated again in another couple weeks. Unfortunately, your boss won’t buy that excuse -- if it gets moved up a second time, you’ll find yourself at your desk an hour early, not an hour behind and no one deserves that. Thank you Mr. President for proving that you can control time.