trickstervillain

f-ed the shit out of bears

2009-01-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

true statement of the day

2009-01-24T20:44:00.000-08:00

In an AP interview this month before an appearance in front of TV critics in California, Haggard described his sexuality as complex and something that can't be put into "stereotypical boxes."

Agree! It is highly unlikely that Ted Haggard would fit his sex into any sort of box.

safe-haven laws,

2008-11-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

or how to make a kid feel wanted.

LOL

2008-11-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

I'm there.

On not mailing it in

2008-11-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

Apparently mail hoarding is a little more common than I'd like to think. The upshot is that usually instances of mail hoarding involve only junk mail; in other words, hoarding of this variety is somewhat of a public service.

Make note: don't move to Chicago if that $25.00 Christmas check from Aunt Millie is a key item in your annual budget.

My favorite line: "I'm glad in a way," he told his judge. "It needs sorting."

2008-11-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

Breaking: Hitler only had one testicle.

hypothetically speaking

2008-11-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

(updated)

Let's say any Republican (or independent who caucuses with the Republicans after his homestate Republican voters effectively ejected him from the party) senator who chairs a committee had gone around the country during the campaign and campaigned for Obama, spoke at the DNCC, supported two Democratic incumbent senators against promising Republican challengers, repeatedly intimated and coyly refused to rule out that Sen. McCain was a fascist ("an interesting idea") and Nazi,* and routinely questioned McCain's patriotism. McCain then wins the election, and the Republicans end up taking a huge majorities in both the Senate and House. Does the senator get to keep his chairmanship? Hell no. And he'd probably suffer far worse consequences than that. Do you think a Tom DeLay or Mitch McConnell would put up with that sort of treachery? Of course they wouldn't.

But what's really interesting, and I'm just totally conjecturing here, but were a Democratic senator to have done some of the things above viz. John McCain--insinuate he's a fascist and Nazi and openly question his patriotism repeatedly--isn't it probably the case that that senator would get more flak and fallout from the Democratic leadership than what Lieberman's getting here? I can just imagine the furrowed eyebrows and scowls on Reid's face when dealing with a renegade senator who went "over the line" in his/her rhetoric and would be sanctioned somehow as a result. Fox News would be in a feeding frenzy, as would talk radio and the rightwing blogosphere. And respectable liberals would chime in to say how unfortunate Senator X's remarks were (enter stage right: Marshall, Yglesias, et al.). I could see Sen. X even losing his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Gov't Affairs Cmte; after all, he insinuated that President-elect McCain was unpatriotic and was a Nazi, etc. That sort of far-out leftist lunatic can't be trusted with something as important as our nation's security!

Isn't it sad and doesn't it illuminate how the Democratic leadership simply thinks of its earnest leftwing supporters and die-hard partisans who comprise the base as useful idiots and saps? It's very likely the case that Lieberman will get off with the same sort of punishment (or less!) than hypothetical Sen. X, even though Sen. X merely impugned McCain's patriotism and insinuated he's a Nazi/fascist, but did not campaign for Republicans, speak at the RNCC, etc.

My point here is that the Democratic Party will treat equally or perhaps punish more severely the rhetorical excesses of those of its own who impugn hard-right, war-mongering Republicans as it will those of its own who savage the Democratic nominee in the most vicious and scurrilous ways on top of a litany of other serious acts of party disloyalty and treachery.

[*I chose "fascist" and "Nazi" because I think these two terms are roughly the rightist equivalent (at least rhetorically or slander-wise) of "socialist" and "Marxist," respectively.]

Update: And . . . capitulation--standard operating procedure for Democrats when it comes to standing up to the dominant right-wing and imperialistic slant of our politics and discourse. Taking away that subcommittee chair who no one, including Lieberman, gives a shit about is really gonna teach him. Reid and most all of the other Senate Democrats are pathetic jokes. Although I guess the joke's on the Left and the activist base. We've seen this movie before many times, and I suspect it'll be on heavy re-runs over the next four years. Notice Sen. Mikulski's obsequious and deferential posture--she'll take her cues from the leadership, which is appropriate enough, and President-elect Obama. Note to Sen. Mikulski: there are three branches of government and Obama is no longer a member of the legislative branch. Theoretically, his opinion on this matter shouldn't count any more than mine or yours. But I guess old habits, deferring to the executive branch no matter who occupies it, die hard.

2008-11-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

This episode with the new White House Chief of Staff illustrates pretty clearly why leftist voters, among other groups, need a vehicle outside of the Democratic Party in which to register their dissent, i.e., America needs (at least) another political party and/or states' ballot access requirements for independent candidacies need to be made less onerous. It's maddening enough when the Democratic Party can take certain constituencies' support--leftists, blacks, unionists, gays--for granted b/c those groups have nowhere else to go electorally. Worse is when the Democratic leadership actually uses their base's ineffectual anger at having enabled or ratified Bush lawbreaking to score points with center/right voters, or, as Emanuel put it, to look more "bipartisan."

Oh never mind. kos is right, fuck Ralph Nader.

curious(?)

2008-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

A major California theater director decided it would be a good idea to fork over $1,000.00 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Probably not the best idea professionally. Sort of like a greyhound track owner donating to Yes on 3 in Massachusetts?

Or the 43rd President of the United States actively supporting the San Francisco sewage treatment plant ballot proposition (Prop R)?

You want self-destructive? I'll SHOW you self-destructive!! I fucking wrote, directed and produced self-destructive, and then set it to a saccharine and absurdly catchy musical tune!

Master of the House . . . da, da-da, da-da.. .

2008-11-11T14:23:00.001-08:00

can someone please kill dead the "open letter" device, or maybe levy a steep surcharge on each usage? or at least make it vaguely interesting and/or funny, as opposed to the weepy sentimental crap you usually get with the form that makes me want to claw my eyes out? it's a device where were it to disappear altogether I'd never fucking miss it for one bloody second. and for whatever reason, big historic events seem to trigger people's open-letter-writing inner dickwad so that you find a sappy one in every corner of the liberal blogosphere.

An open letter to open-letter writers

Dear fuckwad,

Please stop. Now.

Also, I can't tell you how much this moment in history means to me.

Please use your unique power and role in world history to do X, Y, and Z (in this case, X Y, and Z being the cessation of the production of any further open letters).

In closing, please close the book on the open letter.

Breathlessly,

A dubious Rahmulan

2008-11-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

See if you can count all of the things that are wrong with this passage--sort of like Highlights, except perverse and without pictures.

Kaus:

I admire Rahm Emanuel. Without him welfare reform might not have happened in 1996, and the Dems might not have won back a House majority a decade later. (Two milestones that, I think, are not unconnected--welfare reform made liberal government acceptable again.) Emanuel is smart, relentless, disciplined, gets things done, a winner, all that stuff. But here's my problem with having him as chief of staff: Suppose you work for President Obama. You send a memo up the line to the Oval Office. If a week later Rahm Emanuel tells you he's showed it to the President, would you believe him?

By way of an answer, I should add that among Clinton-era welfare reporters, the rule of thumb was that you called Rahm to get the administration's line and then you called Bruce Reed to find out if it was the truth. ...

P.S.: But Rahm was not the unnamed Clinton official who foolishly boasted to Michael Kramer, early in the administration, that the Clintonites would "roll" Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Ask Lawrence O'Donnell if you don't believe me. ... 8:57 P.M.

2008-11-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ironically, most community organizers would know these things.

Droopy

2008-11-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

(updated)

can you imagine how Bush and Rove would be dealing with a, say, Lincoln Chafee or someone like that had he committed the same acts of apostasy Lieberman has? would NOT be pretty, and the near-universal view, both among politicians and the media, would be that he made his bed and now he's got to lay in it. we're talking broken legs territory here.

but not with Lieberman and the Democrats. He can imply the president-elect is unpatriotic and campaign for at least two Republican senators' reelections and speak at the RNCC and, oh, that's just Joe being Joe. Fine, let Joe be Joe. but why on earth should he get to capitalize on the Democratic majority (chairmanships are available ONLY to the majority party) when he actively campaigned against a Democratic majority? yeah, so he contributed money to the DSCC, but that, in my mind, doesn't nearly make up for his vouching (and raising money for in the first instance) on the campaign trail for Sens. Collins and Coleman. whatever--don't have a dog in that fight -the Ds can run their caucus however they see fit. Just seems pretty fucking stupid to me. and all of this nonsense about conciliation etc. rings pretty hollow after Obama just selected Rahm Emanuel as his COS, a guy who's about as conciliatory as a thumb in your eye.

really this seems to be an odd strategy to engender in the caucus the notion of party loyalty, which, like it or not, is important if you want to get anything done. shouldn't you, as a D leader, want folks to think that there are consequences to betraying the caucus and party? if i'm a member of the caucus and I see Reid deal with this situation in this way, I'm certainly not going to be too concerned with any flak I could get from Reid if, in a moment of political expedience, I'm wavering on whether or not to vote cloture. oddly, in the upside down world that is the Washington D.C. Democrat frame of mind, they seem to be offering Lieberman carrots for his perfidy. MORE STICK PLEASE!

Update:

I was going to say, SEE??!!?!!, but then I caught myself b/c I realized this the national Democratic Party we're talking about here and they've long since become every bit as bad as the Republicans when it comes to pro-Israel propaganda and policy--which is saying a lot. If anything, this'll shore up his support within what's now the Democratic Party mainstream.

John Leonard

2008-11-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

I'll really miss his great reviews. I was always so amazed at how prolific the guy seemed. With each issue of Harper's he'd have his standard review where he gave his shortish take on three or four new books each month. Then I'd pick up a copy of the NY Review and he'd have a longish review there. And then he'd have a review in The Nation one month . . . I don't know where he found all of the time to read all of these books, let along write thoughtful, wide-ranging essays on them.

I'm sorry nation, my hands are tied here

2008-11-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

Leave it to TNR to point to the obvious: Obama picked Emanuel as COS because he had no other choice!

Isn't it obvious, people, that Americans didn't go to the polls in record numbers to elect Barack Obama president last Tuesday. Nope. They went to the polls to elect Rahm Emanuel Chief of Staff of the United States of America. They had to. Otherwise altering this one immutable, Calvinistically pre-determined certainty of human history would've brought the earth to a grinding halt on its very axis. Thank God that didn't happen.

2008-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Don DeLillo blogs about the election.

As good as Alan Dershowitz's!

2008-11-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Well I for one feel a lot better now.

choosing day

2008-11-04T06:34:00.000-08:00

From the Boston Glob:

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:

This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,

2008-10-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

wherever you were on the thug and "up to no good" index before, add an arm sling and your score goes through the roof.

Dr. Pepper and a bag of chips

2008-10-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I really don't know why I read the news.

yeah sure

2008-10-11T08:32:00.001-07:00

This Greenwald post almost makes me grateful that some thieving Scottish hooligans used to steal my issues of TNR. It was tough medicine to swallow at the time, but I now see that it was fundamentally a gesture of love.

radiating congeniality

2008-10-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

From Alexander Cockburn, an interesting (if extremely poorly sourced) take on alleged recent developments in McCain's health status. Very troubling if it's the case that McCain's received treatment for cancer recurrence as recent as a few weeks ago. For my thoughts on this, I refer you to my earlier post "a cancer on the presidency."

If you want an example of someone making quick work of any potential nagging cognitive dissonance, you could do worse than check out Cockburn's second item, where he incredibly suggests that since the bailout vote Democrats' chances of gaining any seats in the House have pretty much evaporated. He makes vague reference to an unnamed poll, assumedly one that is being maintained by the Republicans in a secret, undisclosed location. Look out world!

Finally, as a lapsed subscriber to CP, I recall being frustrated that my issues always came long after they were published and the resulting untimeliness convinced me that it wasn't worth the $35, particularly when I could read Cockburn's stuff online either on his own site or elsewhere. In a bid to be more relevant this election season with this McCain health coverage, I wonder if Cockburn and St. Claire might consider finally ditching the carrier pigeon method of distribution and perhaps consider posting their material directly online and, if necessary, charging a fee--preferably per article?

candor

2008-10-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

10 seats! Wow, that'd be quite a feat. I'm sure the war in Iraq would be over in no time in that case.

But in all seriousness, strange that the most sober bit of candor about Republican prospects on Nov. 4 comes from Republican strategist Ed Rollins, the same dude that once tried to payoff a bunch of black pastors in New Jersey so their congregants wouldn't go to the polls on election day. From the Nation:

bloodline

2008-10-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

With all of this high-minded talk about Obama's bloodline, I thought I'd enter the fray to point out that new evidence has come to light pointing to Palin's obvious bloodline connection to a certain hinterland politician vying to depose Stephen Harper.

Via Ambinder:

Crookline

2008-10-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a mildly amusing article recounting McCain's "five oldest moments" during the most recent debate.

I like this one:

4. Leaving the floor. After the debate finished, both McCain and Obama worked the crowd to shake hands with members of the audience. But McCain departed after a few minutes, leaving the entire place to Obama, who continued to meet and take photos for what seemed like another half hour. Why would McCain allow Obama to soak up the TV coverage of that scene — much of which continued on cable news long after the debate was over — all by himself? Our guess is that he was just pooped after standing and walking for most of the debate.

Mostly because it reminded me of Michael Dukakis in 1988, when he finished one of his debates with H.W. and got the hell outta the auditorium in a hurry. I remember my mom remarking that that wasn't probably the wisest thing to have done, to leave the cameras with nothing else to film except H.W. shaking people's hands and, while breathing through his mouth like he was in a porta-john, pretending their pedestrian body odor didn't bother him.

And I also like it because it gives me cause to reprint the following greatest picture from 1988:

And, please, whatever you do today, note the "Mike Dukakis" label on the helmet. I can see the careful deliberation that went into this by his campaign higher-ups. "We've got to assure that he has some way of identifying which helmet is his--otherwise those hooligan army boys could run off with his helmet! But if we put a 'Michael Dukakis' label on his helmet, well, that sounds too stilted and he could get de-pantsed. So we'll go with the laid back, 'with it' variant 'Mike Dukakis.' Win/win!"

Mike Dukakis: I'm gonna shoot your Soviet ass with my label gun!!!

Whatever, the guy lives in Brookline.

This is how the world will end . . .

2008-10-09T21:12:00.001-07:00

. . . not with a bang or a whimper, but with Walt Monegan's mouth.

why do I have the sneaking suspicion that Walt Monegan's mouth is an emerging black hole that will suck up the entire contents of the universe, leaving nothing behind but perhaps two or three pathetic examples of John McCain's support for more regulation?

It does look weird, right? The mustache and all, and the skin around his mouth that's sort of like a sinkhole in the middle of his face? Am I alone in this?

Better question: am I alone here?

what ifs

2008-10-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm glad somebody finally stated the obvious: if "That One" ends up getting the nod, we're all fucked.

Roe

2008-10-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Interesting commentary on the past and prospective jurisprudence surrounding abortion rights, with at least a little to say about the impact an Obama administration would have on Roe's staying power.

He could be

2008-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Via the most popular one-man political blog site in the world, perhaps the most illuminating, sobering, yet somehow unsurprising three or four minutes of footage on the campaign to date:

Favorite parts:

Q: When did you first hear of Obama?

A: Never.

and

the bit where the legal eagle gives his hand-wench some pretty keen advice to "refuse to answer any questions unless they give them to you in writing." Brilliant!

and

Q: Is Barack Obama a terrorist?

A: He could be.

Way to explore the very outer edges of logical possibility!!!

Seriously, were all of these people just drunk?

it's good . . . it's natural

2008-10-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

TV reader surveys are back and after careful analysis, it appears that a full 1/3 of TV readers have an abiding interest in the native intelligence of swine.

As such, w/out further ado, here is the latest from Saul Bellow on smart pigs:

When I came back from the war it was with the thought of becoming a pig farmer, which maybe illustrates what I thought of life in general.

Monte Cassino should never have been bombed; some blame it on the dumbness of the generals. But after that bloody murder, where so many Texans were wiped out, and my outfit also took a shellacking later, there were only Nicky Goldstein and myself left out of the original bunch, and this was odd because we were the two largest men in the outfit and offered the best targets. Later I was wounded too, by a land mine. But at that time, Goldstein and I were lying down under the olive trees--some of those gnarls open out like lace and let the light through--and I asked him what he aimed to do after the war. He said, "Why, me and my brother, if we live and be well, we're going to have a mink ranch in the Catskills." So I, or my demon said for me, "I'm going to start breeding pigs." And after these words were spoken I knew that if Goldstein had not been a Jew I might have said cattle and not pigs. So then it was too late to retract. So for all I know Goldstein and his brother have a mink business while I have--something else. I took all the handsome old farm buildings, the carriage house with paneled stalls--in the old days a rich man's horses were handled like opera singers--and the fine old barn with the belvedere above the hayloft, a beautiful piece of architecture, and I filled them up with pigs, a pig kingdom, with pig houses on the lawn and in the flower garden. The greenhouse, too--I let them root out the old bulbs. Statues from Florence and Salzburg were turned over. The place stank of swill and pigs and the mashes cooking, and dung. Furious, my neighbors got the health officer after me. I dared him [sic] to take me to law. "Hendersons have been on this property over two hundred years," I said to this man, a certain Dr. Bullock.

By my then wife, Frances, no word was said except, "Please keep them off the driveway."

"You'd better not hurt any of them," I said to her. "Those animals have become a part of me." And I told this Dr. Bullock, "All those civilians and 4Fs have put you up to this. Those twerps. Don't they ever eat pork?"

Have you seen, coming from New Jersey to New York, the gabled pens and runways that look like models of German villages from the Black Forest? Have you smelled them (before the train enters the tunnel to go under the Hudson)? These are pig-fattening stations. Lean and bony after their trip from Iowa and Nebraska, the swine are fed here. Anyway, I was a pig man. And as the prophet Daniel warned King Nebuchadnezzar, "They shall drive thee from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field." Sows eat their young because they need the phosphorus. Goiter attacks them as it does women. Oh, I made a considerable study of these clever doomed animals. For all pig breeders know how clever they are. The discovery that they were so intelligent gave me a kind of trauma. But if I had not lied to Frances and those animals had actually become a part of me, then it was curious that I lost interest in them.

Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King 20-21.

* * * *

In addition to pig stories, in response to requests from readers from near and far the coming month will bring pictures of both the beautiful fall foliage, a measure of time's ceaseless tumble forward, and my johnson.

GYWO: Sarah Palin

2008-10-09T07:38:00.001-07:00

funny.

getting your money's worth

2008-10-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

What a shocker.

Apparently my earlier understanding was incomplete. I was under the impression that various Democratic Party-aligned groups and a huge corrupt law firm spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2004 to boot Nader off the ballot and then, once accomplished, in an unprecedented move, went after him and his running mate to recover the court costs in removing him from the ballot, totaling more than $160,000, and going so far as to attempt to attach one of Nader's personal accounts in the District of Columbia. In reality,this was only part of the story, and, incredibly, the cleanest. It turns out through the payment of my (meager) taxes, I actually subsidized these corrupt and anti-democratic efforts because state workers were illegally working "all day long" during the 2004 campaign to block Nader's ballot access by invalidating signatures and the like, i.e., being paid by the state to perform work for a campaign, or, in other words, they made a huge in-kind contribution to the pathetic Kerry-Edwards campaign* that was supported financially by the taxes of all Pennsylvanians. Lovely.

I hasten to add that Pennsylvania maintains one of the most onerous and indefensibly exclusive ballot access laws in the country, requiring anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 signatures (depending on the year) in order to be placed on the ballot--that is, only if you're a minor candidate. It goes without saying that the two major political parties don't face a similar hurdle.

Relevant passage from the Post-Gazette:

Back in the courtroom, witnesses described the election work being done at state expense between 2004 and 2006.

The work included preparing challenges to 2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader's nominating petitions, they testified yesterday in Dauphin County Common Pleas Court.

The Nader effort was "massive and completely consuming," testified Melissa Lewis, who worked in Mr. Veon's office and now is caucus director of the Allegheny County delegation. "That's what we did all day long."

*I hope history will record that not only was the Kerry-Edwards juggernaut unable to win fair and square, but it's now clear it was unable to win despite cheating and effectively disenfranchising voters. Of course, taints like this just undermine Democrats when they begin to, self-interestedly, bleat about voter suppression efforts. There are no doubt credible allegations of vile voter suppression efforts being perpetrated by the Republicans and their ilk, but when Democrats so brazenly conspire with others to prevent voters from having a choice, well, their credibility to make voter suppression complaints goes out the window.

Wellstone!

2008-10-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

So, I recall back in 2002 when I was doing nothing much of anything except waiting tables and following a few U.S. Senate races pretty closely. My favorite to follow was the Wellstone/Coleman race in Minnesota. Recall that this election came right at the heels of the rushed vote for the AUMF and under incredible pressure to vote yes, Wellstone stuck to his guns and voted no, and, as I recall, made a pretty good speech about it on the floor to boot.

He was always a hero of mine. I remember in 11th grade (it woulda been 1996, snow was on the ground) me and a friend of mine went up to Minnesota to visit my sister at college and, in a very unserious way, check out a few colleges on our own. Yes, we were geeks, but we made it a point to head to what I think was Wellstone's St. Joseph, MN campaign office. We picked up a t-shirt and a bumpersticker or two, probably chipped in a couple of bucks for them as they weren't going to make much of a difference to out of staters, and were on our way back on the road, smoking cigarettes and enlivened by all of the freedom. I had that green Wellstone! sticker on my bumper for several years and only got rid of it once the old Red Baron died. True, I think most folks thought the sticker was some strange reference to smoking pot or something, but I was proud to have it on my car.

So, fast-forward to 2002. He's a hero of mine still and it's a tight race between Wellstone and the craven Norm Coleman. All of a sudden, out of the blue, Wellstone's campaign plane crashes in Northern MN, killing the senator, his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Just like that. I'm sure I cried myself to bed that night on my huge pillow, and I always get wistful and nostalgic when I think of what a great senator he was, and, from the anecdotes I've heard from folks who have had first-hand experiences with him, what a great and decent man he was (these latter qualities being pretty rare in politicians as I understand it). As you probably know, Wellstone was then replaced on the ballot by fmr. Vice President Walter Mondale, who went on to lose the seat to Coleman.

This is all to point you toward the following video, highlighted by Ezra Klein earlier today. In it, Coleman's campaign manager tries to evade questions about some suits that someone allegedly purchased for Senator Coleman as a gift and that went unreported (whether for good reason or not). I don't typically like to watch folks squirm like this, but, well, since 2002 I've pretty much felt like the apotheosis of my political spectating would be reached once Coleman goes down to ignominious defeat of huge, humiliating, world-historic proportions. Because he's a slimeball, a fake, and basically the perversion of everything Wellstone was. Oh, and he has funny teeth. Personally, I think Coleman's routine funding of an unjust war that's resulting in the deaths of all manner of soldiers, civilians, children, etc., should be reason enough to oust the douchebag. But apparently that's not enough to get you fired these days. Well, if having a foreign-sounding guy buy your nice suits will do the trick, then I'm all for it. Again, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Coleman is locked in a tight battle with the very funny Al Franken and former senator and independent Dean Barkley. I really don't care whether Franken or Barkley wins. I don't know enough about either of their positions on various issues, but I know enough to know that I don't necessarily find either utterly repellent. And, of course, anyone is far preferable to Coleman. So I hope one of the two challengers wins. And, as Klein points out, and I hope he's right, this Neiman Marcusgate thing just might push Franken over the top, or at least Coleman out the door. We can hope. This is one race in which I'll be closely following the returns come election night. And, if as speculated, Coleman goes on to defeat, I predict I'll have that sort of warm civic feeling I got when I first voted and was (almost) impaneled on a jury, together with the feeling that some things can be made right (or as close to right as possible), but it just takes time.

I sure hope someone can get it done for Paul come Nov. 4.

Glamour and culture

2008-10-08T21:18:00.001-07:00

My friends, these are not small-town values we can believe in.

Great article on Palin in the LRB by Jonathan Raban. Here's a snippet:

Palin’s view of aesthetics was nicely highlighted in 1996, a few months before she ran for mayor, when a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News happened to light on her in an excited crowd of five hundred women queuing up in the Anchorage J.C. Penney’s, waiting to snag the autograph of Ivana Trump, who was in town to hawk her eponymous line of scent.

‘We want to see Ivana,’ Palin said, who admittedly smells like a salmon for a large part of the summer, ‘because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.’

Here's hoping she was able to finagle a playstation 2 for her trouble as well, or whatever it is people were waiting outside department stores in the cold for in 1996.

2008-10-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is just surreal.

2008-10-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

2008-10-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

2008-10-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to do

2008-10-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Probably not many people have the following on a to-do list:

Email dad to remind him to wear priest collar on trip home from South America to help avoid being mugged en route.

TMI!

2008-10-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

LOL from HuffPost:

"I've been in an underdog position quite often in my life and so has John McCain and we've both come out victoriously from that underdog position."

the debate

2008-10-08T06:27:00.001-07:00

I thought Obama did a lot better last night. In a few exchanges, Obama was masterful and fluid, particularly where he rebuffed McCain on his "he doesn't understand" line. I'm happy to see that Obama improved, showed more fight, and certainly had a presidential air of confidence and authority, whereas McCain's shallow, labored breathing, his constant incantations of "my friends," and his adept use of the third-person pronoun "that one" to describe someone standing 10 feet away from him, all fell flat and were evidence of a generally languid performance. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

I still feel like Obama speaks in this halting sort of way. On the plus side, it's likely that he's simply being very deliberate about what he says, editing along the way so as not to commit some gaffe that wouldn't be forgiven a black guy running for president. On the negative side, it really makes it sound like he's one of those translators at the U.N. or somewhere, listening to the original in a headset, translating instantaneously, and (inevitably) rendering it in an uneven and halting manner.

Substance-wise, it strikes me how much, even in this overwhelmingly Democratic election, the discourse and policy prescriptions are heavily skewed toward right-wing orthodoxies. With the major exceptions of Obama's insistence that taxes for those with incomes above $250,000 will go up and all other rates will either stay steady or decline, and his (typically) hedging claim that health care "should" be a right, he's no leftist; rather, he's a garden-variety centrist Democrat. At least that's what his campaign (and his tenure in the U.S. Senate) have shown him to be thus far.

In other words, again I seem to be in agreement, more or less, with this guy. Although I wasn't as bothered by the candidates' unwillingness to answer the question asked as he apparently was, though this is probably due to being completely inured to this phenomenon after the Palin non sequitur marathon the other night.

BREAKING * * * EWOKS BACK MCCAIN!

2008-10-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

In the furious battling between the candidates over the heavily sought-after Ewok vote, it appears the Ewoks finally settled upon their candidate: John McCain ("McCain is only carrying Andorra, Georgia, and Macedonia.")--no doubt due to the likeness of physical characteristics. Ewoks will begin phonebanking and registering voters in an effort to prop up McCain's flailing campaign.

Oh right, it's Endor, not Andorra. Whatever. Ewoks!

My friends!

Another prick in the wall

2008-10-08T05:51:00.001-07:00

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Marc Kaplan of North Fayette, Pennsylvania, is speaking from experience. In today's Post-Gazette letters to the editor:

Treadmill safety

With the Sept. 17 Health and Science section article "Surge Training Promises to Work Off the Weight," there was a photograph of Ann Caldwell running on a treadmill. Anyone thinking of buying a treadmill and placing it in a small area should know that it is extremely dangerous to have it positioned with the back of it against a wall. In case of a sudden problem resulting in a loss of leg speed turnover, a person can be thrown into the wall. The back of the treadmill should always be facing the open end of a room.

MARC KAPLAN North Fayette

Let's hope that "anyone" never makes this foolish mistake again.

2008-10-08T05:47:00.001-07:00

Gotta love it when the David Duke set shows more circumspection and restraint in its statements about an Obama presidency than the Republican ticket.

You want a hand to shake?

2008-10-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Man, Wonkette's funny.

On McCain's refusal to shake Obama's hand, "Here, you want a hand to shake? Shake the cunt's."

What? I didn't say it.

I report, you decide.

Oh, and here's that great moment where McCain swallowed his pride and actually acknowledged the existence of his sub-human opponent, very decorously referring to him as "that one." Ah, watch your head on the ceiling, the level of the discourse is getting so, so high!

2008-10-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

(update below)

So, when the inevitable credible assassination attempts come against President Obama, I hope folks look back at moments like this and those highlighted earlier this morning and note that these speeches were stoking the flames of the violent extremism to come. John McCain and Sarah Palin should now be held morally responsible for any harm that should befall Obama on account of racism or xenophobia.

McCain's a dishonorable cretin. Always has been, always will be. Palin is someone who is so out of her depth and, regrettably, dangerously, compensates for her utter ignorance with zeal and contempt. There were moments early on when I felt pity for her because she is so obviously not fit for running for vice president (or any other office really). But after her sneering and veiled racist comments about community organizers and now her de facto fanning the flames of violent extremism in the name of white pride, I think she's easily one of the most ridiculous yet execrable characters to come along in modern politics in a very long time.

p.s. Yglesias: This is on her.

You know that new sound you're looking for?

2008-10-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

As I said originally (and I stand by it), why not just call it a mini-mall to begin with? Just saying.

and here we have Acapulco.

That white man is flying.

Take it from me, parents just don't understand.

antz

2008-10-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

Via Sullivan et al., the world's air traffic simulated over a 24-hour period. Notice half-way through when it gets dark. Cool.

Have to admit though, if I were an alien I'd be tempted to start stomping.

Waiting for the worms

2008-10-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

From the WP:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

what's in a name?

2008-10-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

A newspaper industry analyst proposes the following model to save the newspaper from the same fate as the town crier (the town crier!):

"A smaller, less frequently published version packed with analysis and investigative reporting and aimed at well-educated news junkies that may well be a smart survival strategy for the beleaguered old print product."

Let’s see. Smaller. Less frequently published. Analysis and investigative reporting. Aimed at well-educated news junkies. Hmm.

I guess we could call this new-fangled thing a ‘serialized fortnightly news and analysis delivery system.’ Or better yet, how about ‘Arthur Sulzberger’s self-edification method.’ No, doesn’t really have any sort of ring to it. What about, oh, I don’t know, ‘magazine.’ Or, I know I may be going out on a limb here, but why not ‘periodical’? And perhaps some of these new-style newspapers could even be published online, like Slate or Salon. There. Problem solved, newspapers saved!

(Via the most popular one-man political blog site in the world*)

*Oh, and by the way, the most popular one-man political blogger in all of the world (Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia!) actually has a significant team of interns and other support helping him to produce his blog. So really a corrective is in order. It’s not quite accurate to refer to oneself as the “most popular one-man political blog site in the world” so much as it would be to refer to one's blog as “the most popular one-man political blog site in the world that’s written, researched, edited, etc., by a team of folks but for whom all of the credit for such work is given exclusively to one individual.”

Where the girls are the fairest and the boys are the squarest

2008-10-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

We are getting pretty boxy I suppose.

Some guy here says that Tracy Flick was more likely than not being less than truthful about her desire to head to Nebraska to see the famous Omaha foliage. Disagree. She said: "And I so wanted to reach into that TV and say no, I'm going to Nebraska because I want to go to Nebraska."

You tell 'em, sister! I am so with you.

I'm willing to say that this is probably the first thing she's said all campaign long, or in at least the last five weeks of her life, that I'm willing to credit as truthful. Who wouldn't want to head to Nebraska for its own sake? I don't get it. The Civic Auditorium? COME ON!

2008-10-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

tell-tale.

2008-10-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

Most people would know they lack the decorum or temperament required of a lawyer were they, in a not very subtle way, to suggest to their torts professor during the course of a lecture to 90+ students that he has a small penis.

Truth is a defense.

Citizen's arrest

2008-10-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

In reality, there's probably no such thing as a citizen's arrest.

my sweet coconut

2008-10-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Really I'm speechless. Except that I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Teixeira de Jesus, learning how to kiss oneself is a worthy life pursuit; living any other way is just pure self-abuse, plain and simple.

''I called him John but also my darling and my sweet coconut,'' she said. ``He was a great kisser. I liked it so much that I bought a book to learn how to kiss myself.''

Uh, Ms. de Jesus, I think I'll be writing that book.

'ALSO' DEFEATS MCCAIN!

2008-10-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's 'also' in a landslide.

By the way, did Sarah Palin really say "John tapped me"? A scientific composite photo of what their kid would look like has surfaced:

It checks out. Same teeth and ghostly pallor as McCain. And by appearances alone looks to be about as credible of a candidate for VP as its governator mother.

we suck young blood

2008-09-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

An expert on awkward faces vile people make had the following to say about McCain's weird "smiles" during the debate:

Hill’s dissection: “You can see Obama’s smile is a true smile. It’s about twice as barring [sic--ed: did he mean "jarring?" I hope so] McCain’s. McCain, when he smiles, it’s always really more of a grimace smile. There’s a tension that permeates McCain’s personality.”

Exactly! And that tension would be that the Hamburglar is constantly stealing all of his hamburgers when he's not having press conferences or unsuspending his pants. McCain's erratic temperament can lead to indiscriminate retaliation against those he fears have stolen his hamburgers and won't stay off his lawn: namely, children. Here he is sucking the brain out of one plump specimen in order to feed his tumor farm.

And here the vengeful flesh-eating mutant has run amuck and is actually trying to devour the President right on stage! My friends, ehs ken haz POTUS?

why is the 21st amendment so pernicious?

2008-09-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

via LG&M, a bit of presidential history. Good to bear in mind as the cold season approaches.

a possible explanation?

2008-09-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

I think in time historians will view this past month for the McCain campaign as one of the strangest and most surreal episodes in the history of modern presidential politics. In an effort to understand, Mickey Kaus calls on Tom Wolfe:

P.S.: Remember Tom Wolfe's description of a fighter pilot's decision-making protocol: "I've tried A! I've tried B! I've tried C! ..." Update: Delmarva Now's J. Fisher has posted the Wolfe quote in full. It's eerily resonant! ...

This is the passage he has in mind:

Being a fighter pilot... presented a man, on a perfectly sunny day, with more ways to get himself killed than his wife and children could imagine in their wildest fears. If he was barreling down the runway at two hundred miles an hour, completing the takeoff run, and the board started lighting up red, should he (A) abort the takeoff (and try to wrestle the monster, which was gorged with jet fuel, out in the sand beyond the end of the runway) or (B) eject (and hope that the goddamned human cannonball trick works at zero altitude and he doesn't shatter an elbow or a kneecap on the way out) or (C) continue the takeoff and deal with the problem aloft (knowing full well that the ship may be on fire and therefore seconds away from exploding)?...

Sometimes at Edwards they used to play the tapes of pilots going into the final dive, the one that killed them, and the man would be tumbling, going end over end in a fifteen-ton length of pipe, and he knew it, and he would be screaming into the microphone, but not for Mother or for God or the nameless spirit of Ahor, but for one last hopeless crumb of information about the loop: "I've tried A! I've tried B! I've tried C! I've tried D! Tell me what else I can try!" And then that truly spooky click on the machine. What do I do next? (In this moment when the Halusian Gulp is opening?) And everybody around the table would look at one another and nod ever so slightly, and the unspoken message was: Too bad! There was a man with the right stuff.
-Tom Wolfe, "The Right Stuff," 1979

Interesting.

Letting down your (Republican) guard

2008-09-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

(multiple updates below)

I agree entirely with Chris' take on the debate. Anyone who hasn't decided who they're voting for in this election by now is a low information voter, someone who's incapable of discerning the instances where McCain was intentionally (or worse, unintentionally) misleading and/or factually inaccurate. With little more than a basic grasp of the complex financial issues at issue and having only a limited understanding or awareness of world events, the swinger is going to look to the candidates' tone, confidence, and fighter instinct, among other qualities that are assessed on the visceral, rather than intellectual, level.

In this regard, McCain came in like a charging bull, a scrapper, yet, improbably, showed himself to be polished, steeped in historical context, and even steady. He played it like an underdog, effectively sticking the shiv to Obama every time he had the opportunity (the "shiv" is the appropriate weapon of choice, as McCain (hilariously) referred to "when [he] got out of prison," leaving out the ubiquitous POW modifier). How many times did McCain note that "Sen. Obama just doesn't understand"? To my surprise, by the end of the debate, it was Obama who seemed to border on the minature and McCain who towered over his opponent in stature.

An exaggeration? I don't think so. While I found plenty on an intellectual level with which to fault McCain, that stuff just doesn't seem to matter here. No, for the swinger what matters is the healthy and winning sheen of a JFK, the self-effacing and humorous quips of a Reagan, the pathos and ability to connect of a (Bill) Clinton. Obama delivered no memorable line, he stammered, had no coherent organization to his answers, and, most damaging, unlike McCain, he didn't have a consistent message or soundbite that he continually drove home throughout the debate. I don't remember a damn thing Obama said. All I remember is McCain having his way with him, swatting his feeble protestations away like pesky flies, and Obama = doesn't understand and Obama = lacks the experience. This was the worst debate performance by a Democratic nominee for president since Dukakis got all wonky about his hypothetically brutally beaten and raped wife in 1988, courtesy of Bernard Shaw. Sort of makes me realize what all of those yahoos were saying in the primary about wanting Hillary over Obama because she's at least a fighter (granted, she's most often fighting for the wrong things, so maybe it cancels out).

Look, maybe Obama's performance would be understandable and perhaps even passable if he were leading in the polls by 20 pts. But he's not. So maybe the best explanation for his performance is that he's a fucking sucky debater.

Other observations:

- McCain mistakenly referred to the Iranian Republican Guard (it's the Revolutionary Guard; the Republican Guard was defeated and then disbanded when the US of A invaded Iraq in 2003); of course, Obama ratified this gaffe by making the same mistake when he got the mic. Woulda been nice to be able to have a surrogate mention that as yet another example of McCain losing his marbles.

- I think the foil/inverse relationships between some of the candidates in this race are fascinating: McCain: God awful at giving a stump speech (or, fuck, any speech for that matter), but excels at debates (if you can get over his evidently irrepressible condescension, self-satisfaction, and perpetual sneer); Obama, on the other hand, excels at giving a stump speech, and in fact I far prefer to listen to one of his speeches to one of (Bill) Clinton's, but when debating he's drained of any hint of eloquence and prattles around ineffectually and with no real sense of purpose or urgency. With each point McCain makes about Obama's inexperience and lack of understanding, he effectively undercuts his nimrod running mate and bolsters Obama's running mate; likewise, each time Obama effectively demonstrates that experience doesn't matter as much as judgment does (clearly this is a hypothetical since he amazingly doesn't seem up to the task on this score), he undercuts Biden's central appeal as a candidate and excuses Palin's singular deficiency.

- As Josh Marshall has aptly pointed out, mockery is a very important tool in one's arsenal in combating the Republicans' shenanigans and outright lies. As he's also pointed out, Obama has shown real promise in deftly mocking McCain in some of his speeches before supporters. Why not begin tonight's debate by simply saying after thanking folks, the university, etc., "And Sen. McCain, I'm really glad you decided to join us tonight after all." Oh, I don't know, that might've been memorable, you know, something quip-y yet still totally respectful and something that the newsbots could've latched onto and mentioned after the debate and used as a means of bringing up McCain's crazy-ass behavior over the past few days. Screw that idea, let's instead spend a significant chunk of the foreign policy discussion talking about preconditions and preparation and lower level and higher level and fucking A!!!! What the fuck was he droning on about??!! And, uh, didn't he actually say in that YouTube debate, point fucking blank, that he would in fact meet with Chavez, Castro, Ahmadinejad without preconditions, full stop?! Well, now that he spent significant time hemming and hawwing and amending and interjecting this whole "preparations" non-distinction, the McCain folks can keep this baby alive for a few news cycles, even maybe generate a good scary attack ad over it, which would say that not only would he put us in mortal danger(!) by eating from the same cookie plate as Raul Castro, something only an inexperienced pol would've offered, but he then flip-flopped or lied about his position on the matter.

- Did you notice the camera angles that rendered it nearly impossible to see the left side of McCain's face? The campaigns must've reached some sort of agreement about that, or at least I'd think they would've had to, as the asymmetry of the camera angles was pretty apparent to me half-way through the debate. Even though the guy's paying someone thousands of dollars to cover up the scars he has on his face, along with the copious wrinkles, he's gotta still be worried about folks' reactions to glancing even a bit of the disfigurement that's nakedly on display here. It wouldn't surprise me if the Obama folks had decided to give the old guy a gimme on the camera angle thing, as it appears they're bending over backwards to make sure Palin's stay is as pleasant and comfortable as possible:

Advisers to Mr. Biden say they were comfortable with either format.

That's awesome! I'm sure they'll also be comfortable winning or losing the election to the most unsteady, unstable, erratic, and bellicose opponent to come along since Nixon under the most favorable conditions to Democrats imaginable. Six to one, half dozen to the other. Either way, democracy wins!

p.s. I know I paid him a compliment above, but if you want to get a glimpse of some Obama supporters who downed the Kool-Aid and aren't looking back, check out TPM's post-debate coverage, specifically the bit on monkey cognition and what this reveals about McCain's latent fear of Barack Obama. Please. Get over it. The wind beneath your wings was totally f-ing schooled tonight.

p.p.s. Marshall:

My own sense remains that this was basically a tie between these two candidates, with both bringing their A game.

Agree! They both brought their A games. It's just that McCain's A game is pretty solid whereas Obama's pretty much sucks ass.

p.p.p.s. Victory! Oh if only the entire country were hearing impaired!

p.p.p.p.s. Apropos my observation above about camera angles, Yglesias notes that the cameras were also seemingly manipulated in such a way so as to obscure McCain's relative smallness. Perhaps that accounts for my impression that McCain wasn't seeming quite his usual Keebler Elfish-self tonight.

p.p.p.p.p.s. This ad was up immediately after the debate. Not sure how they pulled that off so quickly. In any event, really hope that deference thing works out for ya.

p.p.p.p.p.p.s by the way, not that I have any dogs in this fight, but I'm imagining Ole Miss's win over the fourth-ranked Gators, coming on the heels of successfully hosting a pretty substantive presidential debate with no evident hitches, makes for some pretty sweet icing on the cake for folks in Oxford.

p.p.p.whatever --- Update: While I believe Obama did not come off looking particularly well-versed and responsible during the debate, I really enjoyed Fallows' take on the debate and the strategy underlying each candidate's approach. I respect Fallows' experience and depth of knowledge about these types of things, and I particularly find noteworthy his reminder that Obama lamentably has to consider how he'll come off as a black man facing off against an older white guy. Haven't seen footage of Obama's debate against Keyes. I'm eager to see how his performance differed in that circumstance. More interesting analysis from Fallows.

Thomas Friedman's belly button

2008-09-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

Man I love this guy's stuff.

kill whitey

2008-09-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Say what you will about McCain, but it's quite a feat to get an entire town in Mississippi to hate your guts when the main alternative in the election is a black dude.

Fact

2008-09-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

The bailout should be financed by $700 billion of the roughly $1 trillion in American quarters the Canadian government has over the years secretly replaced with worthless canuck quarters in our $10 rolls of quarters, cleverly placing exactly one Canadian quarter in each roll to avoid detection and thereby stealing from America's college students, dads who have gotten too friendly with the nanny, renters, and other sundry losers.

It's not even a real country anyway.

I'm your biggest fan

2008-09-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

And another thing, what possible reason would there be for the fundamentalist Christian governor of a state containing perhaps two Jewish residents (not counting the native Alaskans, all of whom would be counted as Jews according to Steve Young) and who has never visited Israel to have only an Israeli flag in her state office?

p.s. and, based upon one possible reading of my wording above, it would be funny (and send quite a message!) if the contents of her governor's office consisted entirely of one single Israeli flag--no chair, no window, no paperclips--just one Israeli flag. And a tanning bed.

Mary had ten babies . . .

2008-09-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

. . .and, sadly, her head did pop off. While I can't imagine the strain of caring for 10 children, let alone a gerbil, I love the fact that the article almost seems to laud the man for stopping short of dropping off his oldest child, you know, the legally emancipated one, or, what's the word??? Oh right, adult!

off with his head!

2008-09-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Man, give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile.

bad joke

2008-09-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

This guy's campaign is more and more looking like a really bad joke.

No more funny stuff

2008-09-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Great catch by Ken Silverstein. Give us the fucking money, Bernanke, or we'll cut off your johnson!

I mean, who are we to quibble over right and wrong?

Farley/Greenwald smackdown

2008-09-25T08:55:00.001-07:00

In a post I shared on the side pane a day or two ago, Greenwald worried about the implications of the domestic (and possibly indefinite?) deployment of a U.S. Army brigade. In it he discusses the apparent violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. In response, Robert Farley offered this stinging rebuke, noting that the PCA wasn't designed to safeguard democracy, but instead was enacted to safeguard southern white supremacy. Interesting exchange, particularly as I know very little about the legal and legislative history behind the applicable laws.

With friends like these

2008-09-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

Yglesias vents his frustration about Bill Clinton giving the stage to McCain at his Global Forum, which gives him the veneer of bi-partisan cooperation and high-mindedness:

You might think a former President would be so committed to an axe-grinding agenda that he couldn’t see the big picture.

As with most things relating to Clinton, once you hear more or look closer, it gets worse. Apparently McCain's call to delay the debate(s) was made in "good faith," which I think is crediting this bizarre conduct every bit as much as Lieberman or Graham would. This comes on the heels of an appearance on the Daily Show (part 1, part 2) where he could hardly muster up even the most milquetoast of praise for Sen. Obama while having an "aww shucks" moment in response to Stewart's playful entreaties to have him get back in the fray and beat all of the other presidential contenders. Oh right, William Jefferstein Clintonowitz has apparently also decided not to campaign for Obama in the crucial swing state of Florida during the Jewish holy days (twelve days in all). And I imagine harvest season will preclude him from visiting the midwest, and New England is out of the question because he couldn't possibly think of intruding on folks' enjoyment of the fall foliage. With friends like these . . . .

p.s. Lemieux agrees, and posts a hilarious segment of Letterman with Chris Rock.

smokescreen

2008-09-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is a compelling theory:

The more I look at what happened today, the more I think it was all an elaborate attempt to stem the fallout from the truly disastrous interview Sarah Palin taped this morning with Katie Couric.

At first I was incredulous, but now having looked at the relevant footage, via Greenwald's excellent post on the topic (almost all of whose sentiments contained in the post about Palin, Washington experience in general, and Obama I agree with), it seems pretty plausible.

tag-teaming?

2008-09-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

Why does this give me the uncomfortable feeling that Obama is walking right into a trap? Will McCain be there too? If not, why not? Even if McCain and Bush aren't in cahoots, it still doesn't necessarily strike me as sound idea to meet with the most unpopular president in modern history on the eve of (apparent) passage of what looks to be a very unpopular bailout--which Obama has indicated he'll support.

Uncle!

2008-09-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

It appears that McCain's gambit of forestalling the campaign and debates has no historical precedent--not during the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Great Depression, or World War II. The claim that the present financial problems necessitate the suspension of the campaign when these far more emergent past circumstances did not is without merit. But I suppose when McCain sizes up the past week or so, what with his plummeting poll numbers, his mute running mate's continued avoidance of the press, the emerging details of his campaign manager's Fannie Mae connections, etc., circumstances around McCain camp HQ must take on the feel of the cataclysmic.

p.s. No wonder he wants to make it all go away. Wow. It just doesn't get much more painful than that.

suspending the campaign

2008-09-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

In light of this bizarre development, I think Obama's response, while remaining high-minded and all that, should be sure to point out that it's not surprising that someone would go into panic mode around a financial crisis when he has a history of saying things like this:

I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues.

Update: It'd be nice if they'd highlight this ridiculousness too. Clearly McCain's asserting that his presence qua senator will be helpful in dealing with this crisis. Well, if that's the case, his presence qua senator in the preceding six months might have allowed him to understand that, no, the fundamentals of the economy are not in fact strong, which knowledge would've given him at least a fighting chance to fashion preventative, ameliorative measures. The guy hasn't cast a vote in the Senate since April 8. What a surprise that, only a couple of days before he goes head to head with his opponent in a debate and on day 28 or 29 of no (meaningful) press access to Palin and in the face of plummeting poll numbers and embarrassing news stories about his campaign manager's $15,000/mo. paycheck from Fannie Mae, he'd decide it's imperative he head back to D.C. What a joke. In addition, it shouldn't escape notice that he's, in the process, not just proven himself to be disingenuous, out of touch, and hypocritical, but also, apparently, he's a ratfucker.

Update: I think they (the McCain camp) clearly see the writing on the wall. McCain's known for a while that he's going to lose. The choice is to either lose by a respectable margin by playing it conventionally or throw the Hail Mary and hope that you bet right and win, even though the odds are clearly against you. This is what Palin was all about (and man, did that not pay off; consider how much better it'd be for McCain to have Romney by his side during the financial crisis as opposed to Palin) and this is what this bizarre campaign suspension is all about; it fits perfectly with his documented high stakes gambling persona. However, I don't want to discount altogether the possibility that this impulsive move was somehow prompted by some freakish scandal that's about to come out about Palin, such as an affair or what's becoming apparent with each passing day, namely, that she's utterly incapable of being in front of the public without having her hand held tightly, or, perhaps, some health issues McCain's having. Afterall, as Atrios notes, his left eye did look awfully weird during that press conference, and he's just generally looking pretty haggardly lately.

Update: Marshall is right. The only thing I'd quibble with is that, in an ideal world or even in a functioning democracy, having additional press resources in D.C. while this deal is being hammered out (for better or for worse) should facilitate a resolution, namely, by better educating the public about the nature of the "crisis" and its causes, by instructing the public about the various solutions being offered and who stands to gain from those solutions, etc. The fact that this isn't the case, that Marshall (rightly) feels that having the press around would muddy the waters rather than be a benefit, is depressing.

senior moment

2008-09-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

I mean, I, er, I don't know.

the "good" sort of elite

2008-09-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sent the following to Andrew Sullivan a little while ago in response to this post, titled "Populist Rubbish":

Indeed, and please continue to harp on the fact that Sarah Palin got her undergraduate degree from a - gasp! - state university. The horror!!! Oh my God!!! Because nothing appeals to the deeply un-populist, elitist, and effete swing voter, the majority of whom I'm sure attended both Oxford and Harvard, like mocking a candidate for his or her public education. Yes, what a surprise the Obama camp isn't knocking down your door for more advice on the quarter-hour.

What a fucking snob. Perhaps he'd be better to continue his campaign for the "good" sort of elite after Nov. 4. Since when did attending the University of Idaho (or any other state institution for that matter) become an acceptable epithet, and how out of touch does one have to be to believe that that'd be an effective line of attack?

She has a degree in sports journalism from the University of Idaho, and went to several colleges in several years.

Put her up against the wall!!

The Golden Age Is In Us

2008-09-18T12:14:00.002-07:00

Jesus this is funny (scroll down), if you're into that kind of thing. By the way, if you haven't checked out Rees' Get Your War On comics, dating from right around the time we started dropping bombs on Afghanistan, then well, you've been missing out. Oh yeah, big time. Por ejemplo. His earliest are my favorites, although I can't seem to find his archives at the moment. [SS: I thought you were leaving, asshole.] [ed: patience and steel!]

note

2008-09-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

Dear Reader(s),

I'll be traveling for a short while and as a result will be out of touch. I promise to bring back souvenirs.

FP

SFU

2008-09-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

Alan Ball, the genius creator/writer/whatever he was for the show Six Feet Under is at it again with the new vampire show True Blood. Having watched the first episode of TB I can say that it was a letdown and I won't be watching any future episodes. I guess it could be like SFU, in that it's just starting out weak but soon the momentum will build. But even if that were the case, SFU, even the first one or two episodes (in my opinion, the weakest of the series), was never as bad as the first episode of TB was. In any case, the folks at the Washington Post are writing about Ball and TB and had this to say, which must've been a lot of fun to write considering, as I imagine, Ball must have a pretty huge following in the gay community and TB is said to incorporate a lot of allegorical themes about cultural oppression of gays:

September lays out a full-on feast for Ball fans, with his independent
movie "Towelhead" opening tomorrow, fast on the heels of his quirky HBO vampire
drama "True Blood."

(Emphasis mine). Well. Sounds, uh, filling? It'll be a virtual nativity calendar of Johnsons! Riding high on Ball, his fans will no doubt be in for quite the Cocktober surprise. [SS: See, you too can write for the WP!] [FP: by the way, this "dictionary" definition of cocktober surprise doesn't credit or reference Wonkette that I can see. That's a shame, cause Wonkette's (I believe) coining of the term and contemporaneous coverage of the Mark Foley scandal was hilarious and classic. See here for archival coverage.]

Who Am I?

2008-09-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

"HAHA!!! YES!!"

First prize, an easily detachable bike fender, goes to the first correct response.

Carson City, bitches!!!

2008-09-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Indeed, I am ready on Day One America. Should Osama Bin Laden himself knock on my door once I am blessed to be sworn in as the next Vice President of the United States, I will not blink, I will be able to give him specific information on specific countries, for example, the percentage of Kenya's GDP of textiles vs. agriculture, and I am also a viking when it comes to state capitals.

. . . adding, FACE!!!!!!!!!!! Allow me to demonstrate as I flip off each of the Earth's four elements.

Mail Call: the one that got away

2008-09-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Responding to this, a commenter writes:

Yeah, but what would that have meant for Jed Bartlett, eh? Or Bruce
Bartlett for that matter.

To which I say, "MI-MI, YOU GOO-NIE!!!"

Wrong!

2008-09-18T09:10:00.001-07:00

Earlier I wrote about the strangeness of Bush's lack of foreign travel/living experience in light of his, no doubt, many opportunities. In remarking on Statler's lack of int'l expertise, Atrios notes McCain "is as incurious and ignorant as George Bush, with less excuse." I suppose he's getting at the fact that McCain has lived abroad (albeit for a good five years involuntarily) while serving in the Air Force in a foreign war, on top of his myriad leadership roles in the Air Force after Vietnam, which gives him less excuse to be ill-informed or incurious. I suppose. But really I don't know how anyone can have less excuse than Bush in the areas of interest and curiosity in and exposure to other countries. I think it's a tie. Thus, Atrios is WRONG! [Eleanor Gee I think you're Swellinor: I think that's a little over the top.] [ed.: perhaps, but how else would I have reason to direct attention to this gem?] [E: I feel used.]

Disagree!

2008-09-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

I like Matt. He makes a lot of sense. And I do believe Statler is a fogey and dangerously out of touch and blah blah, but if you listen to this exchange it seems to me that McCain simply didn't hear or understand that the reporter was switching gears from Latin America (a fact which is not clear from the portion of audio Yglesias uses) to Spain and Zapatero. Look, the reporter has a thick accent and from the grainy sound of Statler's voice, it appears that he's partaking in the interview via phone, which makes it doubly hard to comprehend what a fast talker is saying (and this reporter, regardless of her skill, intelligence, incisiveness (all of which I know nothing about) is decidedly a fast talker).

McCain (aka, Gustafson's da): Sometimes I wonder if God forgot about me.

Update: On the other hand, I suppose the Right and the MSM would be going apeshit if Obama had given the same clueless answer Statler did, so maybe the ridicule and grilling is deserved. [Grendel: Yeah you fucking apologist, maybe.]

livin' large

2008-09-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Shorter Elizabeth Drew: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself/ I am large, I contain multitudes."

. . . Atrios is right.

I don't know what happened, everything's coming in so fozzie

2008-09-18T07:09:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth Drew, whose political reporting I've enjoyed on at least one or two occasions in the New York Review, has this to say about her on again, off again relationship with Statler.

McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly
(including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the
vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my
earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man. In fact,
it’s not clear who he is.

(emphasis mine). Breaking!!! * * * * Nancy Drew Appeals to World: Please, Oh Please Give a Fuck About Whether I Land on 'Hating On McCain' in the Musical Chairs of Life Once the Sweet Sweet Song of Myself Comes to Its Wistful End.
In other words, shorter Nancy Drew mystery: Against McCain before I was for him, wrote a paean to the oversizedness of his weener in relation to his little drawfish body, then realized the lighting was bad and I'm far-sighted anyways, will duly write sequel to Citizen McCain, which I will cleverly title Citizen Cain and will simply involve altering the text of the first obsequious tome by inserting the word "NOT!" in front of all glowing references to the Mav. [Septimus Smith: What drove me to insanity and subsequent death by impaling was that stupid phrase "for it before he was against it." Each time that phrase is used an angel's wings are pierced. Please refrain.] [FP: Noted. btw, you're crazy.] Really, is it possible that anyone cares that Drew is easily duped?? Perhaps she and Sullivan, Klein (Joe), Marshall, et al. could get around to forming a support group wherein on an hour by hour basis they detail to the group and the world at large their efforts at recovery, which consist of tearing down the vaunted myth of the maverick that they helped errect so assiduously in the first four years of the decade. [Waldorf: you moron, they have done this, it's called "the daily dish" and "talkingpointsmemo"!] [FP: true dat, and indeed, these poor teetotaling souls have finally kicked the McCain addiction, reaching the 12th step of recovery, which is comprised of eleven parts excessive use of the words "meme" and "narrative," a heaping tablespoonful of the word "bamboozle" and its derivatives, and randomly throwing out inane phrases like "patience and steel" and "Know Hope." Huzzah!!! And congratulations on your sobriety!!]

---

By the way, if you're not reading Glenn Greenwald, then well, you're probably employed. But even if that's the case, you should probably make some time to give him a go. Late last night I ventured onto the fetid stomping grounds of the Right to find that, lo and behold, the Right is capable of indignation in the event of a breach of privacy. Oh NO!! A "gross violation of her privacy"!!!! What-ever will we tell the sweet, innocent children!?! Just how is it that one can get so exercised over the hacking of a single yahoo email account when the current administration (with the complicity of the Democratically controlled Congress, the cock-blocked judiciary, and the comfortably numb public) has presided over the warrantless eavesdropping of untold numbers of phone calls and illicit sifting of private email accounts? I'm out of my depth here, so I turn it over to the Duke of Outrage to pinpoint just what heights of ridiculousness the Right has attained.

---

ed. note: in conducting research for this weblog entry [SS: indeed, "blog" is such an ugly word.], I stumbled upon a heretofore uncovered romance---apparently S&W have carried on an illicit love affair with a certain Miss "Emily Bear" for an unspecified amount of time, which, if I recall from trusts and estates, makes Fozzie Bear of Wokka Wokka fame my adoptive son. Furriness explained.

It is later revealed in the Muppet Family
Christmas special that the two hecklers were friends with Fozzie's mother,
Emily Bear.

the scent of bitter almonds

2008-09-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

When I first read this book in high school, the following passage made an impression on me. I thought I had underlined it, but when I just now looked back in my copy, I couldn't locate it and sure enough I hadn't in fact underlined it and I was only able to locate where the passage is in my hard copy by doing a query on Google. So I'm glad I made a mental note of the passage, since it was a misapprehension that I've come back to periodically over the last eleven years.

He had also seen the only two pictures of his father. One had been taken in
Santa Fe, when he was very young, the same age as Florentino Ariza when he saw
the photograph for the first time, and in it he was wearing an overcoat that
made him look as if he were stuffed inside a bear, and he was leaning against a
pedestal that supported the decapitated gaiters of a statute. The little boy
beside him was Uncle Leo XII, wearing a ship captain's hat. In the other
photograph, his father was with a group of soldiers in God knows which of so
many wars, and he held the longest rifle, and his mustache had a gunpowder smell
that wafted out of the picture. He was a Liberal and a Mason, just like his
brothers, and yet he wanted his son to go to the seminary. Florentino Ariza did
not see the resemblance that people observed, but according to his Uncle Leo
XII, Pius V was also reprimanded for the lyricism of his documents. In any case,
he did not resemble him in the pictures, or in his memories of him, or in the
image transfigured by love that his mother painted, or in the one unpainted by
his Uncle Leo XII with his cruel wit. Nevertheless, Florentino Ariza discovered
the resemblance many years later, as he was combing his hair in front of the
mirror, and only then did he understand that a man knows when he is growing old
because he begins to look like his father.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera 169-70.

Love is on the air

2008-09-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

You're beautiful when you're bankrupt. Hottest and most informative gay scene EVER!

Can I be the first (or the 9 millionth?) to suggest to network and cable news programs that America needs to see more man-on-man nipple suckling?

This brings back a great article that seems apropos for our financial woes: perhaps all Wall St. needs is the old cocking cure?

Grey's

2008-09-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Thought this was interesting. Apparently the entertainment industry has made great progress in the area of messaging subtlety since the 90s.

a cancer on the presidency

2008-09-17T08:32:00.001-07:00

There's probably a good argument against full release of medical records for presidential candidates under normal circumstances, i.e., where the candidate in question does not most closely resemble a necktie holding together a melting pile of mash potatoes and margarine. But where the candidate has already suffered two distinct boughts of malignant melanoma and Tracy Flick's slack-jawed older sister would be the stand-in president in the event of McCain's demise, I think the press and public should demand to see McCain's records without restriction, i.e., none of this in camera, no electronic equipment, three-hour viewing bullshit. How could you vote for the guy without first having reasonable assurances that he's going to make it to the White House come January 2009 without Sarah Palin having to carry him over the oval office threshold? See here for interesting background.

file under "reinforced cockpit doors et al."

2008-09-17T08:25:00.001-07:00

apparently the work-in-progress financial meltdown didn't catch everyone off guard.

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Rest in peace.

did he just call him polyester?

2008-09-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

nicely played, hillbilly. nicely played.

apropos the up-and-coming ad man's new killer slogan, a little vernacular Cummings:

ygUDuh

          ydoan
          yunnuhstan

          ydoan o
          yunnuhstand dem
          yguduh ged

                yunnuhstan dem doidee
          yguduh ged riduh
          ydoan o nudn

LISN bud LISN

               dem
               gud
               am

               lidl yelluh bas
               tuds weer goin

duhSIVILEYEzum

---

From 95 Poems, if I recall correctly.

it's almost like being there!!!

2008-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

it's almost like being there!! in fact, it's such a convincing read that the folks in Galveston will be compelled to send relief packages to David Kurtz once they realize how engrossed the ordeal has left him. send pkgs to DK,

c/o some fucked up sense of timing,

3919 N. Uppity McBookish St.,

Mother, Fucker 34423

by the way, if you have a minute and want to see why conservative and a good many other americans loathe "elitist" liberals and in fact why liberals have in some cases earned the reputation, check out Andrew Sullivan's (yes, I know he's at least nominally a conservative, but what with his and Josh Marshall's symbiotic crank-yanking about Obama, I consider him a prime example to look to here) recent posts on Sarah Palin, particularly this one. you can just hear the sneering contempt he has for this woman, what with her "sports journalism degree" from, of all places, the University of Idaho. lord almighty!!! what a gas!! and here he faults her for noting that she first heard about the surge in Dec 2006 in the news and he pines away for better, tougher questions, like the type Tim Russert's reanimated corpse would pose were it conducting the interview. a--how else would Sullivan expect a governor-elect of Alaska to hear about a newly developed, highly secretive strategy the Bush administration would began foisting upon the public in earnest late Dec/early Jan.? this criticism strikes me as unfair. I'd put money on the fact that most if not all governors (let along governors-elect), whether they be Rs or Ds, heard about the surge like most other Americans (and most priggish bloggers for that matter), from the news. how the fuck else is she supposed to find out about it? rather than supporting Sullivan's overwrought and (typically) hyperbolic criticism of Palin as being a pathological liar, her admission that she learned about the surge on the news seems candid and refreshingly truthful. credit where credit's due, dickslap. b- on what planet must one be living if they really consider Russert, zombie or no, to be some sort of tenacious muckraker who strikes fear in the hearts of tremulous politicians??! was he joking?--we can only hope.

humanah humanah humanah

2008-09-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Now don't get me wrong, I'm entirely in favor of anything that makes Palin come off looking like the fool she is. However, as a pretty regular follower of politics and international affairs, I don't think it's particularly fair to count this supposed flub against her. I surmised from Gibson's question that he was likely talking about the dubious doctrine of preventative warfare, something that sticks out as the most salient feature of Bush (foreign) policy. However, a source as eminent and reliable as Wikipedia confirms my initial reaction, which was to say that the doctrine of preventative warfare, evidently to what Gibson was referring, is not universally (or even commonly?) referred to as the "Bush Doctrine." And in fact, it seems the phrase "Bush Doctrine" is a term that stands in for any number of Bush policies arising in the aftermath of 9/11. As such, I hardly think it was unreasonable for Palin to ask for more specificity from Gibson. Of course, that doesn't explain the stunned deer-in-headlight look.

Update: apparently liberty's most steadfast and ardent defender, Andrew Sullivan, is in agreement with his bosom buddy Josh Marshall about Palin's flubbing of the Bush doctrine question. Who knows, maybe she's secretly part of that dread fifth column.

Update: Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks there's a good deal of ambiguity surrounding the term "Bush Doctrine." While Josh Marshall apparently thinks this is ridiculous, the more I read the more I'm convinced that Palin was in the right for asking Gibson for clarification on what he meant, and Gibson was being needlessly coy when he refused to elaborate on what he was referring to. Granted, it was foolish and belied a lack of confidence for Palin not to have followed up with something like, "Well Charlie, I'm assuming you're referring to the doctrine of preventative warfare. . . " If anything, Palin demonstrated she lacks the confidence to discuss foreign policy, a sin in and of itself when running for VP, but she it can't fairly be said or implied that based on Palin's evident lack of understanding of the term Bush Doctrine that she was completely unfamiliar with the policy set forth in the National Security Strategy document. Weirdly, despite Marshall's and Sullivan's disingenuous claims to the contrary, I think Krauthammer makes the most sense when he attributes the gaffe to Gibson.

clean passport

2008-09-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

campos is right, and his tone of wit's end exasperation is spot on. while some may view it as a haughty, elitist notion that a would-be president of the usa should have at least a modicum of international travel experience, if not actual time spent living in one or more other cultures, this is in fact a decidedly reasonable expectation to have for one who would be the commander of the most potent military force and vastest empire in world history, not to mention the nation's chief negotiator in affairs with other nations and international institutions. while international experience shouldn't be an express prerequisite for holding the office of president or vice president, common sense pretty much dictates that you'd want the folks holding those offices to have some first-hand experience of other cultures. besides, we need only point to the current president's sparse international travel prior to assuming the most powerful office in the world to reinforce this point. if my recollection is right, I believe President Bush had traveled outside of the United States two times prior to becoming president in 2000, one or both of which having been trips to Mexico, a foreign country bordering the state he governed. And needless to say, I'm sure those jaunts south of the border focused a bit more on Jose Cuervo and Girls Gone Wild than they did on cultural exchange, etc. The paltriness of Bush's international experience is brought home when one remembers that this is the grandson of a powerful United States Senator and the son of a man who was at one time head of the CIA, vice president, and president.

maybe i did . . . maybe i did.

2008-09-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

"Maybe it would have been better for Obama to have called Sarah Palin a pig, rather than to have spent a day explaining why he didn't."

Agreed!

missed-nomer

2008-09-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

at first glance, i thought they were renaming TNR.

. . . or discussing the hot dog of the semitic variety.

que sera, sera bitches

2008-09-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

A philosopher friend of mine writes me, the oracle, to divine the answer to the following vexing philosophical conundrums.

my responses in bold.

No worries. Will look at your tome of an email soon. I'm currently thinking of the following cases. Any intuitions?

1. Must choose between saving a janitor and a surgeon. Permissible to save the surgeon since he's very likely to do more good in the world (for persons in his life that are currently as yet unidentified)? Or should be flip a coin (or give the two equal chances in some less crass way)?

well, does the janitor have a good sense of humor, a large penis? I'm trying to take a panoramic view here. spit-balling if you will. in the movies, when faced between shooting human and animal, we are told to shoot the animal. blue collar worker = animal. shoot janitor in back of head. qed.

no, but in all seriousness, that's a really interesting question. my first instinct is to ask for more information. but simply going off these bare facts, i guess i'd have to say decide in some way that allows for equal odds for each. although i see the allure of offing the janitor in favor of the surgeon, and it's hard to resist.

if this is for your [redacted by official gov't Tmen] application, i can ask [my significant other] to break in to the phil office to get the answer key. you need only ask.

2. We have a certain amount of a scarce drug that each of three people, A, B, and C, urgently needs to live. A and B are quite close to us, but C is far away. Imagine also that there is enough of the drug to save A and C or B and C, but not A and B. (Perhaps differing physiologies make it the case that the amount remaining after saving A would not leave enough to save B, and vice versa, but would be enough to save C.) Now, if we give the drug to B, who is a fast runner, he can get the remaining effective amount to C before he dies. But if we give the drug to A, she will not reach C in time, and both B and C will die. Is it permissible to view the fact that B but not A could save C a good and conclusive reason to save B rather than A?

Yes--a "good" reason, but maybe not "conclusive." "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself; I am large, I contain multitudes." Walt Whitman.

3. Combo of 1 and 2: Choose between A, a normal person, and B, a surgeon, who is the only one who could save C (who needs a surgeon). Permissible to save B? Or should we give A and B equal chances.

having been a janitor but never having been a surgeon, my sympathies are with "normal person." but here, where the beneficiary of saving B is identified, it makes me lean toward saving B, surgeon, so he/she can save C. Plus, A, the "normal person," probably can't run fast enough because, like most "normal persons," he/she is overweight and his/her corpulent little leggies aren't as deft as they were when he/she played safety for the high school JV team. so in a way, A's death can be ruled a suicide.

If you choose to accept this challenge, all I need are your intuitions about what it's permissible to do. Don't feel you need to go into explanations as to why you choose as you do.

Sarah McNobody

2008-09-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

if Obama doesn't win in a landslide, the Democratic party needs to shutter their doors and windows and head off into the sunset with head hanging low. that said, it's very possible he won't win, which is to say that it's very possible, even likely, that 50% + 1 of voters who go to the polls are mouthbreathing idiots. whether it's Gore, Kerry, Obama, Dukakis, Clinton, etc., the Democrat always seems to be playing an away game at a very hostile opponent's stadium, where the crowd always seems to work the refs and all of the bounces seem to go the Republicans' way. the most apparent instance of this phenomenon came when the brilliant techies at the McCain camp flashed a green screen behind McCain during his acceptance speech which, from afar, was shown to be a picture of a random Hollywood Middle School named Walter Reed, and not, as intended, a picture of the military hospital of the same name. aside from persistent murmurs and guffaws from Josh Marshall and a few others, this story didn't really seem to break into the MSM. can you imagine had the tables been turned, had Obama's camp used the picture of a random hollywood middle school when trying to make a point about military veterans, how this would've definitively proven how out of touch and elitist Obama is and how he wouldn't know a military family if one hit him upside the head. the school gaffe would be splayed across drudge, politico, etc., soon seeping into MSNBC, FOX, etc., and it would reinforce what everyone already knows, that, sadly, the Democrats are hapless and unserious when it comes to military affairs and national security.

you may have played in an athletic event before where you sensed the refs were unjustifiably giving the other team all of the calls and the other team is cheating like rats. well, if this were the fifth or sixth game in a row where this was happening, and it became obvious that the other team was getting away with murder, well, then I would think bending the rules or, rather, employing the other team's novel rules of engagement in return, would be a no-brainer in terms of response, strategy going forward. So, instead of these feckless and pedantic ads breathlessly debunking McCain's maverick brand and preening about the equation "McCain = Bush" ad nauseam (b/c, by the way, "anybody but Bush" worked so well in '04 and essentially reprising the same theme for '08 would seem to me to be a sound strategy--NOT!!, FACE!!!), they should hit back and start aggressively pressing the story about how McCain publicly dressed down his wife by calling her a "trollop" (and who, by the way, uses that term who wasn't born in the 19th century??) and a "cunt." to boot, the Obama camp, through surrogates, should begin directly questioning McCain's temperament, drawing upon the numerous examples of his verbal and physical abuse of colleagues and underlings. they should highlight the recent court document that has surfaced re: Palin where a judge says the Palins' behavior viz. her sister's ex-husband "amounts to child abuse." a good ad would juxtapose McCain's pattern of verbal and physical abuse and Palin's alleged child abuse. (btw, any notion that Palin's family is off-limits is laughable. can we imagine the outrage and tut-tutting and concerned murmuring and self-satisfied racism that would've become endemic to the MSM had a seventeen-year-old daughter of Barack and Michele got knocked up by her thuggish boyfriend?) so maybe instead of these inane "original mavericks" spoof ads, the Obama camp (or better yet, a 527) could begin airing an ad that makes the following points:

John McCain--thinks Obama/Biden are making sexist attacks against Palin etc. Who's the sexist: McCain called his wife a trollop and a c* * t in public in front of press; openly joked about how ugly Chelsea Clinton was, laughed when one of his supporters called Hillary Clinton a bitch, and made some lame joke about gorilla rape. there's more than enough material out there. with Palin, they should mock her claim about being a "hockey mom," saying she can't have her cake and eat it too. like all else, the hockey mom tag is just a false image she wants the public to buy into so we don't need to look farther. an ad saying she's against abortion even in cases of rape and incest, her church thinks Jews should be converted to Christianity (run this in Florida), is associated with a group that wants AK to secede from the US, and even though her family is evidently falling apart (with a pregnant seventeen year old), believes she should be telling your family how to live. not your average hockey mom. but then again, how is the public expected to known about who John mcCain would have as president when she's too scared to talk to the press and the public? how arrogant and foolish is this woman, and what in God's green earth makes her think she's qualified to be vice president of the US who likely won't live through his full two terms. and on this last longevity bit, they should just fudge. yeah, he has a 30% chance of dying within 8 years, but he's also a cancer survivor (two times over), so that's gotta count for something. find some random study that shows that that increases risk to mortality by 20% or more and bam, you've got a probability of President Sarah McNobody in a few years.

i have to admit though, part of me basks in the schedenfreude of watching so many liberals, like Josh Marshall, Booman, et al., frantically coaching the Obama campaign on what to do, how to respond, like so many little league dads along the side of the field. (of course, this is precisely the sort of thing i just did above, so i can see the allure).

. . . adding, Marc Ambinder gives a pretty succinct distillation of the points I was trying to make above.