From Joe Klein's interview with Obama. Obama on Energy policy.
The biggest problem with our energy policy has been to lurch from crisis to trance.
So the RNC is going to "spread the wealth" around by donating Sarah Palin's used Manolo Blahnik's to charity? Might we ask if they will be taking a "charitable deduction" for those clothes? And might we also inquire who will be the recipient of this largesse? As I understand it, from years of studying the entrails of Republican policy, the only deserving women are homeschooling, pregnant, married teens of disabled fetuses--after the baby is born, of course, its own its own. Mz. Hockey Puck looks to be a taut, trim, size eight to me. How many pregnant teens will share in that snazzy red leather jackett--and how many pregnant teens, women, and families, won't get any help from the government because the RNC's charitable deductions lowered their tax liability and Mz Palin et al cut the funds for WIC?
aimai
And man, just wait till "Joe the Plumber" and "Maggie the Fry Cook" try running for office as Republicans. No more "good cloth coats" and please, no butt cracks.
Rate my Party! Look, if these jerks spent half the energy trying to persuade people to vote for them that they have actually spent trying to prevent other people from voting McCain could have won this election. But trying to get people to vote for the Republican party would have meant moving the party pretty far to the left, admitting the cock up of the last eight years, humbling themselves publicly and not getting to play king and queen of the world but instead promising to work on our actual problems. That was all just too much for them. It cost too much, psychically and in terms of potential lost graft. So they opted for strategies like this:
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports on some nasty campaign tricks trying to suppress the Latino vote in that state:
Sparks resident Raul Murillo, 50, said he received a cell phone call Oct. 13 asking him to vote for his presidential candidate over the phone, which is not legal.
“I said ‘No, I want to vote for Obama. I want my vote to count for him,” Murillo said.
He said the caller identified herself as part of the Obama campaign. but Murillo said he knew something was wrong as he is an Obama volunteer. “When I refused, she got mad and the conversation ended,” Murillo said.
From my perspective, the election is in the bag. What we're fighting for now is not to win the election, but to win the power to govern--and winning the election is just one part of that.
Ramesh Ponnoru tries desperately to pretend that there is some way, any way, that the fact that liberals think Sarah Palin is both dumb *and* anti-intellectual can be made into proof that she's a genius. Was it Tbogg or Roy who pointed out that at this point the entire rationale for the conservative movement, top to bottom, is the fantasy notion that something is good if it pisses off liberals. As we know if liberals are for free universal health care conservatives must be against it. And by the same token if liberals think Sarah Palin is an idiot conservatives are honor bound to find her quite intelligent. But really, this is stretching it beyond the bounds of rationality.
Palin's Alleged Anti-Intellectualism [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Last week I asked what evidence we have that Palin is, as is often said, "anti-intellectual." Most of the feedback I got came from liberals who maintained that Palin is dumb—which, even if true, isn't the same thing. One or two readers made the valid point that some of the arguments people have made in favor of Palin belittle the importance of intelligence and learning. But again, that does not establish that Palin is hostile to the life of the mind.
A friend pointed me to Noam Scheiber's article on Palin. The Palin of Scheiber's portrayal certainly fits the label: She seethes with class and intellectual resentments. (The article does not attempt to disentangle the two.) But all of the evidence the article presents for this view comes from political enemies of Palin. They don't really even provide first-hand accounts of her flaws in action so much as they offer characterizations of what was going on inside her head. Scheiber concludes, "Could Sarah Palin despise Anne Kilkenny because Kilkenny once suggested she refrain from chewing gum? I'd like to believe it's not true. But I'm honestly not so sure." Okay. But Kilkenny got wide attention for circulating an email trashing Palin after her selection as McCain's running mate. How much do we want to bank on her impressions?
Can I just nominate Patrick Fitzgerald for my bipartisan, reach across the aisle, person to head up the DOJ?
aimai
Del passed on this piece of nuttiness, to which I linked below. The poster apparently believes that Obama's family in Kenya has enlisted the occult to ensure his victory in the presidential election. He quotes an email forwarded to him by some other guy and written by some woman who heard a message from some other woman who claims she traveled to Kenya to visit Obama's "home village". Never mind that he was born in Hawaii. The poster attempts to establish Woman #1's credibility as follows:
[She] is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington State. She is also a member of EndTime Handmaidens and Servants of Jasper, Arkansas.
The occultists are "weaving lazy 8's around McCain's mind to make him look confused and like an idiot".
From what I hear, the Palin selection was completely last-second stuff. Utterly unvetted. Utterly reckless. McCain was intent on Lieberman until the very last moment. If you want a commander-in-chief who will make vital decisions at the last minute, on impulse, according purely to polls and electoral tactics, against his own judgment and deferring to Rovian hacks: vote for McCain.
He's George W. Bush, without the prudence and caution.
Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) along the road to Kaiser Pass, Sierra National Forest.
I know it's almost heresy for a political junkie to say this, but I will be so damn glad when this election is over. John McCain's slide in the polls has brought even more crazies out of the woodwork. When I hear people insist that an Obama victory will mean imposition of Sharia law, when they fear a takeover by "the blacks" (as if people of color are a monolith), when the new meme making the rounds in wingnut circles is "Obama couldn't pass a background check" -- including this dude, who, I shit you not, gets all on his high horse and says he prefers his presidents to be "drug free for a lifetime" ( I wonder if he voted for GWB) -- I almost despair for my country.
I also wonder whether any of these people will reconsider their rhetoric after the election when, assuming Obama wins, he turns out not to be a one-man al-Qaeda sleeper cell, when Sharia law isn't, after all, imposed, when Bill Ayers doesn't get a top spot in the administration, when the economy starts to improve and the rest of the world stops looking at us askance. In short, when he turns out not to be the anti-Christ they want to paint him.
Nah. The regular right-wingers will scream for four years about Acorn "fraud", and the religious nuts will just move the dates forward on their end times predictions. Same song, different verse. They'll just turn their attention from sliming a candidate to sliming a president. Those of us who lived through the 90s will recognize the tune.
Now I've really depressed myself. *sigh*
[Amended to say that "friends" was ironic and not meant as an attack on Mithras, but on the kinds of people he is encountering who argue that the democrats will be more restrictive in their civil liberty position than the republicans. I did not mean to imply that Mithras actually had friends like this.]
Its going to be a long eight years. Hat tip and air sickness bag to Sadly, No!
Sadly, NO! is on the case:Letter from a future prisoner
Posted: November 20, 2007
By Janet FolgerNov. 20, 2010
To the Resistance:
I’m writing this letter from prison, where I’ve been since the beginning of 2010. Since Hillary was elected in ‘08, Christian persecution in America has gotten even worse than we predicted.
When the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” was signed into law, my radio program was yanked off the air along with all the others that dared discuss moral issues on Christian radio. The networks just couldn’t bring themselves to air a pro-abortion program or one that advocates the homosexual agenda for the government mandated “balance” because broadcasting lies went against their basic beliefs – I don’t blame them.
We knew “Thought Crimes” was in danger of becoming law back when it passed Congress in 2007, but thankfully, President Bush kept his promise to veto it. But, tragically, Hillary signed that most dangerous bill in America – ushering in the criminalization of Christianity. And now, even my book, “The Criminalization of Christianity,” has been banned as “hate speech” just as I predicted when I wrote it back in 2005.
(Folger:) When the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (”Thought Crimes” for the Workplace) became law, businesses and ministries were targeted by homosexual activists and were forced to close when they wouldn’t comply with a law forcing them to hire those opposed to their beliefs on moral issues.
This had happened before with the Burn Down Da Muh-Fuh Act of 1964, but so few black and Hispanic people were willing to hold down a job that America soon recovered. Also, all the feminist attorneys quit their jobs to become single welfare mothers (after the Kill All The Handsome, Financially Secure Men With Hair Act became law), so no one got sued for 27 million dollars anymore for saying “Hey, toots!” to their secretary or “Thanks, sweetie,” to the elevator girl.
Ah, but those were delicate times while they lasted. So often, it was humor alone that carried us through.
You: How do you greet a Native American?
Your Friend: How?
You: OMG, I’m turning you in!
[mutual nervous laughter]
Why, I can never help but smile when I remember the time when we… Oh, never mind.
When they canceled my program, banned my book and targeted my ministry, I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d be forced into “prison ministry” against my will. Unfortunately for our nation, that ministry is growing fast. A homeschooling mom was assigned the cell next to me. I try to comfort her, but she cries constantly at the thought of her kids being raised in government foster care.
Red Meat Gets Fired Up! [NRO Staff]
Tune in to watch Jim Geraghty and Mark Hemingway discuss Joe Biden's latest fantasies, Obama's shape-shifting tax plan, and the most horrifying mental image imaginable involving the Straight Talk Express.
My mom always takes Haitian taxi cabs so she can practice her french. Recently she got in a cab with a driver who was, to her horror, playing a right wing radio show and she could hear the talk show guys ranting and raving against Obama. She nerved herself to say to him "I can't listen to this" and it turned out that he listened "to know what they are saying" about the democrats and Obama and that he had learned the code so well that he got himself, a la Spocko, on the show by pretending to be extremely conservative on some political topics and then started lambasting them from the left. They began shrieking at him and cut his phone.
True Story. And yet, even more surprisingly, my mother is not Thomas Friedman.
bedtime stories [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Sad but true: this election has me dreaming about Mitch McConnell and John Sununu — and their victory speeches.
One of the things I learned at the weekend's Waffle-Making-Bake-Sale-Yard-Sale for my children's school clusterfuck is that there is a grammatical tense, lets call it the plus perfect passive pta subjunctive that leaves one person holding the bag for eight or twenty hours of work while others drift in and out of the project murmering "cleanup will happen" or "were flyers posted" (see, also, "wouldn't candy apples have been good?" and "that went well although we were too busy to come" ) I see it at work, here, in Larry Wilkerson's amazing volte face:
Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Republican Lawrence Wilkerson, is also voting for Obama:
Really? He "found himself in the thrall of vested interests?" Can you give us a date and time and an agent in all that Larry? Weren't almost all the people on his campaign staff already "special interests"--hell, they were entire "interest groups" as far as I can see. What part of his campaign is not straight up Republican/conservative values, at this point and from the get go? Can you talk about the shame of his "sacrificing his integrity and character" while approving the party in whose service he has done so?"A year ago, I would have supported John McCain," Wilkerson said. However, he said that in the course of this campaign, McCain has caved to political pressures.
"McCain, who in the course of his senate career was never too corrupted by the process, has run a campaign that proves he wants so badly to win the Oval Office that he was willing [to] sacrifice his integrity and character and found himself in the thrall of vested interests," Wilkerson said.
This is so wrong, so sad. First Jill Biden's mother and now this? My own great uncle passed away yesterday. These have been hard years for that generation and it seems like people are leaving us faster and faster. I hope and pray that Senator Obama's grandmother rallies and sees him win the election--indeed, sees him inagurated. She must be so proud of him, and he of her. I meditate on my own beloved grandmothers and send Senator Obama and his family all my thoughts and prayers. If you want to do something for her don't send postcards, as the overenthusiastic kiddies at Kos suggest, send money to the campaign, or flowers to someone ill at hospital near you, or donate to a charity important to you *in her name* and ask to have the thank you card sent to the obama campaign to let them know.
Oh. My. File this under "And that's just the transition team! Wait till you get to who he chooses for the A team."
I think I broke my disbelief drive.McCain recently named John Lehman to oversee his transition effort and figure out how a McCain administration ought to get started—and whom it ought to hire for the most senior jobs—should McCain win the November 4 election. Lehman, now an investment banker, was secretary of the Navy during the 1980s, and he played a R-rated role in the Tailhook scandal....In his 1995 book, Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy, Greg Vistica, the San Diego Union-Tribune reporter who broke the Tailhook scandal, described a scene from the 1986 Tailhook meeting:
When the door to the suite at the Las Vegas Hilton opened, a prominent member of President Ronald Reagan’s administration and a naked woman were clearly visible. He was lying on his back, stretched out in front of a throng of naval officers. There were probably one hundred men watching him, laughing with him….Several of the Navy and Marine officers now crammed into the room…knew him personally and worshiped him. Many knew he was married and had three children. Almost everyone knew who he was, which made the show that much more fascinating….Most of the officers in the room, including the man on his back, were hard-drinking renegades. Some had been partying for days, others for hours. The carpet was spongy and damp from alcohol spilled on it by drunken military men. The room itself reeked with the odor of booze and sweat. But nobody seemed to care much. All eyes were on the man and the naked woman standing over him, wagging her bare rump in a teasing motion. The men in the room went into a throaty uproar at the site, and their cheers and laughs grew louder as the show went on.The man on the floor was Lehman. And this was the example he was setting at this particular Tailhook convention. Another account of the Tailhook scandal--The Mother of All Hooks: The Story of the U.S. Navy’s Tailhook Scandal by William McMichael--noted that Lehman ate whipped cream out of the stripper’s crotch.
Here. Take along a handkerchief. The blood spatters pretty widely.
You know this (Firedoglake)
Former Dick Cheney henchperson Jennifer Millerwise-Dyck was on MSNBC with David Shuster, promoting the idea that Bill Ayers is a dangerous terrorist and Obama's association with him shows a lack of character that should disqualify him from office.
SHUSTER: If it is a judgment issue, then I wonder if you will take this opportunity to publicly denounce John McCain for saying that he would make Leonore Annenberg an ambassador. Mrs. Annenberg runs a foundation that funded an education initiative that Bill Ayers worked on.
MILLERWISE: I'm not familiar with this, it's the first time I've heard about it so I'm not going to make any great statements at this moment. But I can tell you....
SHUSTER: Okay, but anybody who is associated with Bill Ayers should be condemned then, right?MILLERWISE: Well I think anybody who says that...who started their political campaign in the guy's living room, an unrepentant domestic terrorist who in 2001 said he wish he would've bombed more. I think it's an important issue that the American people need to be aware of as they look at who they want their next president to be.
SHUSTER: I understand, but as far as somebody who gives millions of dollars to that very foundation, to help Bill Ayers after 2001, they should be kept from an ambassadorship, right?MILLERWISE: Again, this is the first I've ever heard about this issue, I wish you would have brought it up before I came on the air and I would have been happy to look into it but I'm not familiar with it so there's not much I'm going to be able to say on it.
Millerwise can't say much because there's nothing to say. By the internal logic of the McCain argument (such as it is), anybody who associates with Ayers has questionable judgment and doesn't love America. Yet when McCain released a list of 100 ambassadors who had endorsed him, Leonore Annenberg's name was at the top.
Newseum, Inc.
$15,000,000 for the construction of the Newseum in Washington, DC. The interactive museum is dedicated to the news business: the history of the news in the media, including newspapers, television, cable and radio, and the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing the freedom of the press.
Spoke too soon over at Steve M's in a thread what I proposed would be an end to Republican "intimidate the voter tactics." Looks like I spoke way too soon. Someone tell me how this is legal? Why doesn't this constitute an illegal infringement on the right of voters to vote? Hell, in my state you can't even get within 500 yards of a polling place with a quiet sign, let alone heckle the voters. But here the sheriff stands by?
Photographer Joe Eddins and I headed over to the closest one and found a steady line of voters hoping to cast ballots early. Most seemed to be Obama supporters and several had come from the rally. Nearly all the voters were black.
Also at the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in. Nearly all were white.
As you can see from these videos, no one held anything back. People were shouting about Obama's acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word "terrorist." They also were complaining that Sundays are for church, not voting.
[Moved the video below the fold because it was auto-playing. Definitely worth watching--check it out.]
More...
Via Huff post.
aimai
The Visitor (2007) 9/10
Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a college professor, leading a solitary and empty life following the death of his wife. Visiting New York City for a conference, he meets by chance, and establishes a relationship with Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Gurira). Tarek begins to teach Walter how to play the djembe (an African drum). Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy.
The Visitor is Thomas McCarthy's second outing as writer/director, following the exquisite The Station Agent in 2003. One could wish for him to work a little faster. He has a delicate touch with human loneliness and isolation, and a respect for difference that transcends cliché.
More...
McCarthy has an affinity for certain character types; Tarek's insistent cheerfulness is reminiscent of Bobby Canavale's character in The Station Agent, and when we meet Tarek's mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass), her steady, sorrowful gaze is reminiscent of Patricia Clarkson. But the characters aren't just types, which is really important for two reasons. First, because Uptight College Professor Who Needs to Loosen Up is kind of over. I mean over. It's just something we don't need to see anymore. On the other hand, Human Needing to Become More Human is something we will never see too much of, because it is one of life's essential narratives. Because McCarthy is so good, and because Jenkins is so so good, Walter is a human and not a type. (Jenkins, by the way, has one of the most beautiful speaking voices I can think of, it rolls and rumbles and surprises, and I could listen to him read the phone book.)
Second, it's important that Tarek and Zainab be fully human because the film largely focuses on immigration issues. If the characters have no presence as individuals, then the film is a Message Movie. The danger of polemic is high. But by the time Tarek, through no fault of his own, comes to the attention of the authorities and it's discovered that he and his girlfriend are illegal, we know them as people.
And here, in two paragraphs, we can see the reductionist version of a movie review. It's about an uptight white guy being loosened up by, not a Magical Negro, but a Magical Arab (with a Negro girlfriend). It's a political movie about the plight of illegal immigrants. It's a quirky indie about the colorful New York City life of people who drum in the park. Yes, we can do that. But we don't have to.
They say there are only seven stories. Parts of The Visitor feel familiar, but I'm going to say that's because there are only seven stories, and not because this particular version of storytelling has nothing to say. Just in terms of narrative, this film surprised me several times. I didn't think it was going to do that, and I didn't think it was going to do that.
Visually, The Visitor does some remarkable things. There's a moment of Walter's face framed in a window that is almost Kubrick; all stark white and angles. And can we go back again to Richard Jenkins? He's so himself. He's in that place where he's not acting, he's being, and if there were weaknesses in the script, that clarity of presence would overcome them.
One of interesting things about the way the story is told is that there is never any hammering about Walter's grief. It's never actually stated that he's grieving, or that his emptiness is related to his wife's death. But there are all these suggestions, and it's clear to me that Walter was one of those men who depended entirely on his wife to have warmth in his life. Without her, he has to find it himself, and mostly he fails. Listen: The movie opens with Walter taking a piano lesson. When the lesson doesn't go well, the teacher finds out she is Walter's fourth such teacher. Later, we find out that his wife was a piano teacher.
Again, no one emphasizes that note. The person I watched the movie with didn't catch it. But it's there, and it says that Walter is not an uptight priss, but someone reaching out, trying to find an opening. For him, the djembe is that opening. And once open, he is a person who cares about his friends, and so Tarek's plight has meaning to him.
A movie like The Visitor is what Netflix was made for. Most people would never get a chance to see it otherwise, and isn't it wonderful that you can?
(The Cross-Post)
Silver Spray Falls on Crown Creek in Tehipite Valley, Kings Canyon National Park.
And the person who put it there says the message isn't political, it's racist. Shawn Ley spoke with the man who isn't shy about his views.
There it is, right above the "McCain-Palin" sign: a make-shift ghost, hanging from a noose. A Barack Obama sign attached upside down. Obama's middle name: "Hussein" spray painted and misspelled above.
Mike Lunsford hung the ghost in his yard. He spoke to us off-camera, saying his views could hurt his employers business ... but he says make no mistake: He doesn't want an African American running the country.
Lunsford says he believes Barack Obama is not a "full blooded American." And he says the United States is a white, Christian nation - and only with white Christians should be in power. With Lunsford not willing to share his views on-camera:
"It's like whoa. He's definitely anti-black."
His neighbors are. Vickie Crowe lives next door. She's an Obama supporter.
"What did you think when you first saw that?" Vickie Crowe/neighbor: "Well actually my 5 year old son says Obama's hanging upside down. He's what? He's hanging upside down. It's the neighbor's ghost. I took it as a little bit of a racist statement because my grandson's mixed and it hurt a little bit."
Mike Lunsford says he got the idea after an Obama supporter in New York put up this display of a Obama mannequin being chased by a figure of John McCain wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.
Here - new mom Megan story says this symbol makes her more than uneasy it scares her. Megan Story/neighbor: "He's been a really nice neighbor but it's one of those you question and wonder, you know, if he's that forward about something will he be forward enough to do something else, too. it is scary at times but we live in a scary world."
Lunsford also says he's motivated by the national media which he says is pro-Obama. The McCain KKK image is being celebrated as a "hit" on the internet. Lunsford expects a negative reaction to this, although he hasn't gotten any complaints.
Buena Vista Social Club - El Carretero
Ultravox - The Wild, the Beautiful, and the Damned
Shriekback - Sea Theory
Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays
Bush Tetras - Moonlite
Space Cossacks - Hava Nagila
Residents - Ramblin' Man
Iggy Pop - Dum Dum Boys
Social Distortion - So Far Away
Young Marble Giants - Constantly Changing
Post yours in comments.
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Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher ... |
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| ... and phony journalist / Republican shill / man-whore James Guckert, a. k. a. Jeff Gannon? |
Here's the actual quote from The Corner:
Former Fetus Barack Obama [Ed Whelan]
Nearly 48 years ago, a young woman, not yet 18, became pregnant in her freshman year of college. Living in a time and place in which abortion was generally illegal, she proceeded to marry the father of her child and gave birth to a son. Perhaps she would have done so irrespective of the abortion laws at the time, even if, say, she lived in a legal culture that celebrated abortion as a fundamental right. Very possibly not. (I haven’t found any statistics on the percentage of pregnant college freshmen who abort their pregnancies, but indirect indications suggest that it’s very high.)
Barack Obama may actually believe, as he stated yesterday, that Roe v. Wade “was rightly decided.” But it may be very lucky for him, as the son born of that woman, that it hadn’t been decided a dozen or so years earlier.
That Obama may owe his very life to a pre-Roe legal regime that banned abortion is, to be sure, not necessarily a reason that he should favor that regime (though I can’t help noting that Justice Thomas’s critics recklessly accuse him of hypocrisy for opposing racial-preference plans that they say he benefited from). But it ought to lead Obama and others to think more carefully about the valuable role that protective abortion laws play.
Jesus, these people really do think that the the taxes you pay on your income go directly from white people to minorities for drugs and booze. They have literally no fucking clue that there is no "tax fairy" who magically builds roads, staffs police stations, educates children, fights wars and all for free. "Joe the Plumber" reveals that he is a total moron, as well as an asshole:
JW: There’s a lot of things I wish McCain would say. As far as this, yes, I would like him to speak. Not so much about small businesses, but just people in general that make this money. It’s not up to them to help America, I mean – let me rephrase that. It’s not – they shouldn’t be taxed more because they’ve succeeded. That’s envy and jealousy. Get off your butt and go work. Don’t sit there and expect the government to give it to you. So I wouldn’t mind him speaking on it like that. I know he couldn’t say it probably like that because that’d turn a lot of people off. But it just – yeah, I guess I would like him to speak about that and a bunch of other things
A focus group run by Stan Greenberg, reported by Amy Sullivan:
In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg's focus group were "audibly snickering" at John McCain's grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to "Joe the Plumber."I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning. It smells like...well, you know.
The group of 50 uncommitted voters should have at least been receptive to McCain -- Republicans and Independents outnumbered Democrats in the group by almost 4 to 1, and they started the evening with much warmer responses to McCain than to his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama. But by the time it was all over, so few of them had declared their support for McCain that there weren't enough for Greenberg to separate them into a post-debate focus group. Meanwhile, the Obama supporters had to assemble in two different rooms to keep their discussion groups manageable.
