Stop the self flagellation

I think this guy also has a good perspective on why Democrats shouldn't despair:

If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.

If Democrats speak the truth, point out the lies and hypocrisy of the McCain campaign, and even after all that, and all the trouble of the Bush years, they still manage to lose, then fine. You did what you could. America is not a perfect place. Logic and reason don't always win. What's your alternative, turn you back on logic and reason and get down in the mud with the lipstick-wearing pigs?

One last quote, MLK, Jr.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Latest in Obama land

I went to an Obama event and heard a lot of the same chicken little type stuff I've been reading lately. I think everybody should chill out. Obama is going to win. Donate money, go volunteer, don't lose focus.

Anyway, if you need any more motivation, here's a little blurb from (the inconsistently good) Paul Krugman

And now the team that hopes to form the next administration is running a campaign that makes Bush-Cheney 2000 look like something out of a civics class. What does that say about how that team would run the country?

What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get out the vote.

Biden

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll go with laughing.

"Chuck, stand up, let the people see you," Biden shouted to State Senator Chuck Graham, before realizing, to his horror, that Graham uses a wheelchair. "Oh, God love ya," Biden said. "What am I talking about?"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/america/biden.php

For my green friends

You'll like this one:

Translation: "clean coal" is not only one of the most insidious, repugnant oxymorons -- right up there with "friendly fire" and "conservative think tank" and "Alaskan teen virgin" -- it's also one of the deadliest.

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/

Chastened

Clive Crook thinks that a) Democrats like me look down on stupid people and that b) stupid people resent that. I find it hard to argue.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1984d88-7cd5-11dd-8d59-000077b07658.html

But honestly, my problem with the average American voter has nothing to do with values. I love guns, own a few myself. The pro-life/pro-choice debate to me seems personal and worthy of national discussion and consideration. I like the flag.

I just like rational thought. I like science. I believe in truth and justice.

Republicans like Palin will stand up all day long talking about how they stopped the Bridge to Nowhere, even when every objective source says that it is a lie. And yet they will keep repeating these lies, and voters don't always punish them for it. They like about every aspect of Iraq. They lie about the Justice Department, in spite of the irony. They lie about science in their EPA reports. And so far, voters seem to be saying "lie to me and kick me around, I love it!".

Maybe I could respect voters more if they actually believed in accountability.

Poetic justice?

Obama people are freaking out about the polls, which is dumb, considering that we haven't a single debate yet. But regardless, check out this election monitor of state by state polls.

http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard

If you look closely, you'll notice that they have "no data" for several states that Obama will win. Like Hawaii.

If you add them up, it get's him 275 electoral votes. He needs 270. But yet, McCain is winning in the overall polling.

So, as of this moment, we have the interesting situation where Obama might lose the popular vote and win the presidency. Talk about irony. Those of us who complained about the electoral college after Gore's loss might come to love it soon enough.

Lipstick on an old pig

You think I'm harsh towards Republicans, check out one of my favorite bloggers, Andrew Sullivan, a Conservative thinker, talking about McCain.

He does not have the minimal public integrity to be president of the United States.

Nuff said.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/pigs-and-lipsti.html

further proof

Not only do the Republicans think you're stupid, but they think you also have Attention Deficit Disorder. Or maybe you don't have Google.

Accusing Obama of "smearing" Palin in "offensive and disgraceful" comments, the McCain campaign demanded an apology — though McCain himself used the folksy metaphor a few times last year, including once to describe Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan.

So, Obama is sexist. Does that make McCain sexist too? Does the average voter decide on this kind of bullshit discussion? If so, our country is doomed. I hope it's not true, but it might be. Republicans might be right, we might be stupid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_el_pr/obama_lipstick

party of stupid

David Frum's article in the Times is getting a lot of attention, here's the passage I like best:

Conservatives need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the trend toward the Democrats among America’s affluent and well educated. Leaving aside the District of Columbia, 7 of America’s 10 best-educated states are strongly “blue” in national politics, and the others (Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia) have been trending blue. Of the 10 least-educated, only one (Nevada) is not reliably Republican. And so we arrive at a weird situation in which the party that identifies itself with markets, with business and with technology cannot win the votes of those who have prospered most from markets, from business and from technology.

Here's why this is true. Republicans think you're stupid. They think that they can put together a mix of policies and stands on issues that are bat-shit crazy, and that you will still vote for them, because you either don't know any better, or because you identify with them culturally on things like guns, religion, abortion, such that you would never dream of voting Democrat no matter what.

So, no surprise to me that the party of stupid, as Paul Krugman likes to call them, only has a winning message in places where people ain't so bright. This is why "drill, drill, drill" is a message that resonates. This is why John McCain can get up and talk about being a fiscal hawk, after participating in the worst fiscal discipline this country has ever seen from a historical perspective. The Bush administration added trillions in new debt, liabilities, and potential liabilities (i.e. Fannie Mae) in 8 years. Worst fiscal governance in American history. And yet they keep talking about tax cuts as the shiny solution. Don't get me wrong, lots of smart people vote Republican. But most of them vote because of "conservative principles" that the Bush administration long ago abandoned (rule of law, fiscal discipline, restrained foreign policy). People like Frum, David Brooks and A. Dollard are dismayed with the current Republican party, mainly because, these guys are smart.

And before you go getting all offended, I'm from Kentucky, went to public school, and my dad is a truck driver. I can say what I want to about any state in the union. Call me an elitist if you want to, maybe I'm just smart. Those are not the same things.

Russia has it's own media problem

Putin has put the kabosh on any Western style journalism in Russia, and the media have really turned into a bunch of sycophants.

Don't believe me? Check out this story. Does anybody seriously believe that Vladmir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, managed to save a TV camera crew from a tiger attack? Not only that, but he did it by shooting the tiger with a tranquilizer gun, so the tiger itself wasn't even injured?

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSLV19939720080902?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Reminds me of pre-Iraq war coverage by our own brainless US journalists.

The return of Ollie

Last week in a firefight in Afghanistan, the US military killed several insurgents and some civilians. What has caused some outrage in Afghanistan is that the locals (and the UN) say that 92 were killed, including 60 children.

Classic fog of war problem, nobody knows what really happened, but this tidbit caught my eye. The Pentagon, looking for somebody to support their side of the story, said their version was corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the military.

The journalist they named was Oliver North, of Fox News and Iran Contra fame. No, I'm not making this up.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4699077.ece

Human Rights watch has been warning that our excessive use of air power is hurting our ability to "win the hearts and minds" of Afghanis. Probably since people don't love you much when you drop bombs on them.

Entourage: Season 5

A pretty good opener, if for no other reason than the fact that it reminded me about one hit wonder Mark Morrison. They did a nice job with his track about 10 minutes in.

Return of the Mack : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJFUSiRCLBM