Tuesday, October 21, 2008

21 Oct 2008 10:36 pm

Face Of The Day

A goose paddles across the lake at Stourhead near Warminster on October 21 2008 in Wiltshire, England. Many parts of the country seeing signs of autumn after one of the wettest summers on record. By Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

21 Oct 2008 09:45 pm

The Real McCain

Hailing the "real" America:

"I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that Western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God-loving, most patriotic part of America."

Where does that leave the rest of the country?

21 Oct 2008 09:23 pm

Obama's Granddad, Ctd.

A reader writes:

Thanks for that.  That really struck my heart.  I suppose my being the father of a racially mixed son might have something to do with it, but I find myself looking at the photo and wondering, "Did he ever think his grandson would be the Democratic nominee for President?"

Continue reading "Obama's Granddad, Ctd." »

21 Oct 2008 09:07 pm

$150K Super-Model Sarah

Move over, Cindy McCain. There's a new fashion star in town:
 

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September. The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

$5 grand for hair styling and make-up? As Americans face a depression?

21 Oct 2008 08:40 pm

Torture Comes Home

The story of Jon Burge shows what happens when soldiers torture during wartime.

21 Oct 2008 08:25 pm

The Atlantic Project

A designer admires the p.r.:

It is nothing short of fascinating. And done in such a heartbreakingly beautiful way as to render anything I've done as an art director worthless drivel.

21 Oct 2008 07:29 pm

Tied In Kentucky

Mitch McConnell might lose his seat? The Kentucky race will be worth watching closely on election night. If McConnell loses early, it's a landslide.

21 Oct 2008 07:26 pm

Cocoon Watch

"McCain's choice of Palin brought his polling numbers above Obama's--until McCain endorsed the Bush bailout. Palin draws large crowds and has energized Reagan Republicans, gun owners, women and people of faith.  Obama knows this and has his surrogates trashing Palin with a "sack the quarterback" strategy most recently joined in by Colin Powell. She is an asset and the most consequential VP candidate in a generation," - Grover Norquist. 

21 Oct 2008 07:21 pm

The Laxative Is Working

The government's dose of dollars got the credit markets moving again. But they're still more constipated than at any point before mid-September. I'm not qualified to know exactly what this means - ask Sarah Palin, I guess - but it looks like an occasion for minimalist relief.

21 Oct 2008 07:16 pm

The Palin Factor

Congrats, Bill Kristol:

Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy - ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.

Yes, 34 percent rank Palin as their major issue with McCain, above the 23 percent who are concerned that McCain will be a third term for Bush and the 20 percent who don't like his economic policies.

21 Oct 2008 07:16 pm

The Youth Vote

One reason McCain has given up on Michigan.

21 Oct 2008 07:03 pm

"Ol’ Virginny Is Dead."

Larry Sabato gives the last rites. Hey: election day is still two weeks away!

21 Oct 2008 07:02 pm

How McCain Thinks He Can Win

Poulos graphs McCain's best case scenario:

McCain's focus on Pennsylvania seems curious:

Despite polls showing him trailing Democrat Barack Obama by double digits in Pennsylvania, John McCain continued to treat the state as if the whole election depended on it.

Continue reading "How McCain Thinks He Can Win" »

21 Oct 2008 07:01 pm

RCP's Crack Polling

I'm afraid I don't trust them any more. But even they may not be able to massage the polling numbers and tilt the coverage much longer.

21 Oct 2008 06:54 pm

CNN Goofs

A pretty dismal distortion of a National Review piece. I mean: you finally get to interview Palin and this is what you use?

21 Oct 2008 06:40 pm

Palin And The Press

Scott Conroy writes that Palin is becoming "increasingly accessible to the national media":

In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions.

Continue reading "Palin And The Press" »

21 Oct 2008 06:32 pm

Pulling A Palin

Michelle Bachmann follows the leader: just deny something that is already indisputably verified by the public record.

21 Oct 2008 06:18 pm

More Neocon Than Bush?

Stephen Hayes talks to McCain about Bush taking North Korea off the list of terrorist states:

"I don't agree with it, and I think we have basically contradicted Ronald Reagan's great dictum of trust but verify. And particularly--many aspects of this are disturbing--but we told the South Koreans and the Japanese after we had made the decision. That's not a partnership with the allies."[...]

Continue reading "More Neocon Than Bush?" »

21 Oct 2008 06:05 pm

Now, Witches Are Plotting Against McCain

From the Christianist email sub-culture.

21 Oct 2008 05:59 pm

All In The Family

The latest news about Sarah Palin's remarkable use of tax-payers' money. Hey, she's just spreading the wealth!

21 Oct 2008 05:56 pm

Next Up: A CGI Palin?

Ruffini looks to the future:

Everyone remembers Howard Dean for the "scream" but I think his example provides a context in which Sarah Palin could lose the election, but ultimately win the party and pave the way for a conservative victory in the future more meaningful than McCain-Palin '08 would be...

I was thinking on similar lines, as I watched Palin's Colorado rally last night with greater and greater hathos. The concept of Palin as a marketing tool, as an emblem of pure content-free identity politics, is very powerful. You can see why on paper, Kristol loved her, the way he loved the concept of Iraqi liberation. The only trouble is the actual reality: the fact that she has no record to speak of, that what she has is dreadful, that she has no education, that she is a pathological liar, that she is a vicious hater of those unlike her, that she is a McCarthyite sans communism.

So I had an idea. Next time, why not create an entirely CGI version of the neocon fantasy that is immune to reality? Think Angelina Jolie in Beowulf.

Continue reading "Next Up: A CGI Palin?" »

21 Oct 2008 05:49 pm

Crist on Palin

He won't lie. I have a feeling the looming first divide among conservatives if the GOP loses this election will be between those who drank the Palin poison and those who didn't. In my view, Bill Kristol has lost whatever shred of conservative credibility he had left.

21 Oct 2008 05:22 pm

A Sports Fan's Take

Just one dude thinking out loud on the web. And it gave me hope for a reasoned discourse.

21 Oct 2008 05:18 pm

That Face

Obama's grandfather:

The full picture is here.

21 Oct 2008 04:54 pm

Barack And His Granddad

Another picture shows the striking resemblance.

21 Oct 2008 04:46 pm

A Sign Of The Battle

In Virginia, an African-American finds his Obama sign removed and replaced with a confederate flag. Yes, the man is a veteran. And this is how he responded:

"I've been praying for them, because we're all going to be charged with what we do," he said. "It's sad that we've grown and we want to keep fighting with something and can't be peaceful and thankful."

As I said: it's now a battle between hope and fear. There is no neutral ground any more. Do what you can.

21 Oct 2008 04:40 pm

Quote For The Day II

"You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, 'Dreams of My Father',"- John Dowd, McCain attorney, in a letter to the New York Times.

21 Oct 2008 04:40 pm

Electric Dreams

The generation brought up on black and white television still dreams in monochrome.

21 Oct 2008 04:34 pm

The Failure Of Journalism

A reader writes:

Why does it take a fake journalist from Comedy Central to show us the realities behind Main Street Wasilla?

Ask Howie Kurtz. Maybe he knows. My guess is that they're all more concerned with their own careers and what is and is not "acceptable" for the media than they are in simply getting at what is true. There are many exceptions, of course. But this campaign has exposed the MSM as brutally as it has exposed McCain.

21 Oct 2008 04:20 pm

Mental Health Break

A disco dance lesson from Finland. Because we can:

21 Oct 2008 04:09 pm

The Palin Plunge

A nugget from the NYT poll:

Mr. Obama’s favorability is the highest for a presidential candidate running for a first term in the last 28 years of Times/CBS polls. Mrs. Palin’s negative rating is the highest for a vice-presidential candidate as measured by The Times and CBS News. Even Dan Quayle, with whom Mrs. Palin is often compared because of her age and inexperience on the national scene, was not viewed as negatively in the 1988 campaign.

21 Oct 2008 04:02 pm

Why Powell Matters

A Muslim-American perspective:

"Over the past two years, we have witnessed a discourse which has consistently demeaned Muslims as less than American. In turn, American Muslims have been in hiding, resorting to our usual mix of self-pity and helplessness. The joke in Muslim circles is that if we really want Obama to win, then we would best off endorsing McCain. No one wants our endorsement. No one wants to meet with our leaders. No politician wants to be seen as Muslim-friendly. We have brought this upon ourselves.

Continue reading "Why Powell Matters" »

21 Oct 2008 03:57 pm

53 - 39?

The new Pew poll on likely voters portends a landslide of unprecedented proportions. McCain appears to have destroyed himself in this campaign:

Obama’s gains notwithstanding, a widespread loss of confidence in McCain appears to be the most significant factor in the race at this point. Many more voters express doubts about McCain’s judgment than about Obama’s: 41% see McCain as “having poor judgment,” while just 29% say that this trait describes Obama. Fewer voters also view McCain as inspiring than did so in mid-September (37% now, 43% then).

Palin has turned into a poison pill:

Continue reading "53 - 39?" »

21 Oct 2008 03:51 pm

Would Palin Pass A Citizenship Test?

Here's the latest:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

The veep runs the Senate?

21 Oct 2008 03:47 pm

Obamacon Watch

It's not just happening at the national level.

21 Oct 2008 03:47 pm

The "Worst Of The Worst"

Bush won't close Gitmo in his term. It will remain a symbol of all he stands for. Meanwhile, studies from Saudi Arabia show a startlingly low rate of recidivism among former Gitmo detainees:

Almost a quarter of the Guantánamo detainees who have been released have been sent back to Saudi Arabia. Facing a substantial threat from terrorism in their own country, the Saudi authorities have been rigorous—some might say harsh—in imprisoning and punishing any terrorist deemed a danger. Yet in new statistics provided to us by the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh, zero of the 121 Guantánamo detainees received by the Saudis were deemed dangerous and ineligible for release.

Yes, we may well have been living in Imaginationland.

21 Oct 2008 03:33 pm

Proud Of The Terrorist Mailer

The real John McCain will not be forgotten.

21 Oct 2008 03:28 pm

Tito The Builder vs David The Blogger

Feel the culture war love.

21 Oct 2008 03:27 pm

Obama vs. "The Street"

A conservative celebration - at last! - of what a president Barack Obama could do for the self-image and self-confidence of black America. And, yes, changing the assumptions of African-American youth about what it means to be black in America from one that glorifies thuggery to one that celebrates education is an important thing. It is as important for whites as for blacks, because it is important for America:

Black children would be able to avoid internalizing what James Baldwin called "the propaganda of race inferiority," since every night on the news there would be a visible reminder that there is nothing whites can do that blacks cannot. That is the real change Obama offers—all of a sudden the world young black kids imagine themselves inhabiting would seem a richer place to live, one without an upper limit.

Continue reading "Obama vs. "The Street"" »

21 Oct 2008 03:23 pm

You're Worthless, Alec Baldwin

The greatest actor in the world says Sarah Palin is a good sport. But Palin should be wary of Baldwin. Kim Jong-Il learned that lesson the hard way:

21 Oct 2008 03:13 pm

60 Percent!?

From The WaPo:

The Obama campaign is heartened by statistics that it says show that more than 60 percent of those across the country who have taken advantage of early voting are registered as Democrats. Thirty-one states authorize some form of early voting, including such battlegrounds as Ohio and Colorado.

21 Oct 2008 03:04 pm

Reality Check

Indiana:

21 Oct 2008 02:50 pm

Illogic

Lowry targets Powell:

Powell argued that John McCain "was a little unsure as to [how to] deal with the economic problems that we were having," in contrast to Obama's "steadiness" and "intellectual vigor." It's true that McCain flailed around early in the crisis, but he was desperately trying to find something that worked as his poll numbers tanked. If voters had been inclined to mindlessly blame Democrats rather than Republicans for the meltdown, Obama might not have looked so imperturbable.

Let me see if I've got this right: Powell is wrong because McCain was "desperately trying to find something that worked as his poll numbers tanked." That's Lowry's idea of leadership? Suddenly you realize why Bush went so awry. They all think like Lowry. All they care about is politics, not policy.

21 Oct 2008 02:24 pm

Powell And Adelman

Ken Silverstein is queasy:

McCain’s foreign policy crew has quite a few cranks (William Kristol, to state the most obvious) and his policies are generally scarier than Obama’s. Agreed. But having Powell and Adelman sign up with the Obama movement is about as uplifting as when Obama endorsed ballistic missile defense (the scaled down version of Star Wars) during the second debate. It’s conservatives who should be cheering.

Yes. And we are.

21 Oct 2008 02:16 pm

The View From Your Window

London, England, 5.02 pm.

21 Oct 2008 01:52 pm

Cowering To The Critics?

Larison fisks Ralph Peters and frets over Obama's foreign policy:

...what is worrisome is that Obama, already perfectly hawkish and interventionist on his own, will feel compelled to take even harder lines and be even more confrontational than he would otherwise be in order to demonstrate that he is not the weak, accommodating President that Peters et al. are making him out to be.  Having learned nothing from the Bush years, these critics may box Obama in and lead him to take positions that are more aggressive even than those of Mr. Bush to secure his “credibility” on national security. 

21 Oct 2008 01:46 pm

Undecided Voters

David Sedaris thinks out loud:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?"

21 Oct 2008 01:40 pm

Culture War!

Jon Stewart is pissed. The Jason Jones interview with the current mayor of Wasilla is completely devastating:

21 Oct 2008 01:35 pm

Lazy Sleaze

Jesse Taylor sizes up the McCain campaign thus far:

It’s not so much that McCain’s campaign has been purposefully sleazy as they’ve been meanderingly, pointlessly sleazy.  It’s the “fuck it, whatever” guide to Republican politics, with no particular focus except putting anything out there to win a daily news cycle.  Obama was a conspirator in voter fraud for a weekend, a terrorist for about three days, until he was a socialist because some plumber in Ohio said so. 

Continue reading "Lazy Sleaze" »

21 Oct 2008 01:24 pm

Not A Trace Left Behind

The LA Times tries to find out about Palin's college years. College? That's for libruls.

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