Bark Bark Woof Woof: October 2008

Showing newest 62 of 243 posts from October 2008. Show older posts

Showing newest 62 of 243 posts from October 2008. Show older posts

Friday, October 31, 2008

Friday Night TV

From the infinite reaches of time...

The Time Tunnel

First Lesson

A couple of weeks ago I said that talk-radio host Bob Grant set the standard for "too dumb to play dead in a cowboy movie." I stand corrected. He has been surpassed at warp speed by Sarah Palin.

How did she earn that honor? She told an interviewer on a conservative talk-radio show that being criticized by the media endangers her First Amendment rights.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

I'll give you a moment to absorb that.

Okay, I'll type this slowly so even an elected official of one of our states can understand it: the First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press. In other words, it makes sure that the mainstream media can do exactly what it is doing when it "attacks" her.

One heartbeat away, people.

James Dobson Has Issues

Dr. James Dobson has issued a screed called "Letter from 2012 in Obama's America" in which, among other things, he envisions homosexuals having free rein in America.

Now in October of 2012, many of our freedoms have been taken away by a liberal Supreme Court and a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and hardly any brave citizen dares to resist the new government policies any more.

[...]

The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.

[...]

Elementary schools now include compulsory training in varieties of gender identity in Grade 1, including the goodness of homosexuality as one possible personal choice.

[...]

There are no more Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestant adoption agencies in the United States. Following earlier rulings in New York and Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that these agencies had to agree to place children with homosexual couples or lose their licenses.

[...]

The Bible can no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such 'offensive' doctrines as homosexual conduct or the claim that people will go to hell if they do not believe in Jesus Christ.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Okay, how about an obsession? I mean, wow. Dr. Dobson is really and seriously hung up on gays and what he envisions they do to the point that he's way beyond what locking himself in the bathroom with a bottle of baby oil and a copy of the International Male catalogue could cure. And yet he has a media empire that stretches around the world, and Christianists hang on his every word.

Trust me, I'd be a lot more worried if people like James Dobson were in charge than if the Supreme Court ruled that the LGBT community were, at long last, granted all the rights they are entitled to as citizens of the United States.

HT to David Waters.

Question of the Day

Sort of a trick-or-treat question...

What is your favorite cookie?

For someone who really likes them, I never buy them at the store for home consumption. But I would have to say it's a toss-up between chocolate chip and peanut butter.

Poll Watching

For those of you who can't get granular enough, here's the latest from TPM on the tracking polls:

• Gallup: Obama 51%, McCain 44%, with a ±2% margin of error, unchanged from yesterday.

• Rasmussen: Obama 51%, McCain 46%, with a ±2% margin of error, compared to a 50%-47% Obama lead from yesterday.

• ABC/Washington Post: Obama 52%, McCain 44%, with a ±2.5% margin of error, unchanged from yesterday.

• Hotline/Diageo: Obama 48%, McCain 42%, with a ±3.3% margin of error, compared to a 49%-42% Obama lead from yesterday.

• Research 2000: Obama 50%, McCain 45%, with a ±3% margin of error, compared to a 50%-44% Obama lead yesterday.

• Zogby: Obama 50%, McCain 43%, with a ±2.9% margin of error, compared to a 49%-44% Obama lead from yesterday.

Adding these polls together and weighting them by the square roots of their sample sizes, Obama is ahead 50.5%-44.2%, a lead of 6.3 points, compared to the 50.2%-44.4% Obama lead from yesterday.

Note: "Yesterday" refers to Wednesday, October 29.

If you care, see what Karl Rove is predicting. But remember; he got it wrong in 2006.

I still hold with my prediction that Barack Obama will not break 50%. But that's just me.

Loose Cannon

In spite of the fact that a New York Times/CBS poll finds that Gov. Sarah Palin is a drag on the McCain candidacy (59% say she's not qualified for the job), Eugene Robinson notes that win or lose, we haven't seen the last of Sarah Palin.

It's tempting to think of Palin as a kind of pop star, the latest flash in the pan who rockets to the top of the charts and then fades to obscurity -- Alec Baldwin referred to her as "Bible Spice" the other day. But that smug assessment ignores the evidence that she has the chops to be much more than a one-hit wonder.

Palin's introduction to the nation was disastrous, at least in terms of appealing to a constituency beyond the conservative wing of the Republican Party. It was obvious from the beginning that she wasn't remotely prepared for high national office. The red-meat Republican base was energized, but others saw McCain's decision to put her on the ticket as cynical and irresponsible.

Palin herself must have realized that her debut was premature. But as Vernon Jordan likes to say, "Opportunity is never convenient."

I should make clear that I believe Palin is wrong about basically everything, at least to the extent that we know what she really believes. The McCain campaign gave her a job to do -- slash, burn, fire up the base, accuse Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists," accuse Obama supporters of not living in "pro-America" parts of the country -- and she went out and did it. McCain's campaign rallies often have a sense of purpose and duty about them; Palin's have a sense of electricity.

[...]

That she wasn't ready to meet the national media became clear when she sat down with Katie Couric for those embarrassing sessions. But compare the bunny-in-the-headlights Sarah Palin of just a few weeks ago with the much more poised and confident Sarah Palin of today. Ignorance isn't the same thing as stupidity. When Palin talks about economic policy these days, her sentences don't meander into the Twilight Zone the way they once did. She has more to say about foreign policy besides the fact that Russia is just across the Bering Strait. She has learned much in a very short period.

And she will learn more. I predict we'll have Sarah Palin to kick around for a long, long time.

The term loose cannon comes from the old days of naval warfare when the artillery got loose after firing on another ship, wreaking havoc on the deck of the ship that fired the shot, while the cannonball it fired usually fell harmlessly into the sea. As flashy and electrifying Sarah Palin may be on the stump, I predict that she will become more of a burden to the Republicans than she will to the Democrats. And she will give us in the blogosphere hours of endless fun and mockery.

Bonus Track: Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, one of John McCain's senior advisers, offered a "stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise."

We're Number 2

Florida ranks as second in the nation for uninsured children.

South Florida, with a relatively high number of lower-wage service jobs and minority families who are more likely to be uninsured, leads the state in uninsured children.

The growing numbers in Florida and nationally underline the need for Congress to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program and to funnel money from an economic stimulus program into more children's coverage, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. President Bush vetoed the program's expansion last year.

"That will determine whether children get the preventive care they need so they can remain healthy," Pollack said. Those two actions would cover almost half of the 800,000 uninsured Florida children, he estimated.

The new study found that an average of 18.8 percent of Florida children had no coverage from 2005 to 2007.

There are programs out there, but the word isn't getting to the communities that could most use them.

Many families don't sign up because the state has not done a good job telling them about the programs, after the Legislature cut advertising money, said state Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston.

"We have had a very poor system of outreach and education," Rich said. "These are some of the hardest-to-reach families. You can't just put an ad on TV. You have to go into the communities."

State Medicaid officials, who oversee KidCare, agree and are asking for $3 million in outreach money in next year's budget, triple the present amount, state Medicaid Director Dyke Snipes said.

If I was a complete cynic, I would say that the Legislature -- controlled by Republicans -- would consider holding back the outreach money so they can say with a straight face that they supported health care for children but the programs didn't do any good because nobody took advantage of them, so why spend all that money on them? Like I said, if I was a complete cynic...

Happy Hallowe'en

A creepy meeting upon the heath...

Friday Blogaround

Trick or treat. Here's the All Hallows Eve edition of the LC Friday Blogaround.

- A Blog Around The Clock: standing up for atheism.
- All Facts and Opinions: Helen Thomas on church/state separation under Bush.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: the Obama ad.
- Bloggg: I think Moi is a Phillies fan. Just a hunch.
- Dohiyi Mir: NTodd is field operative for Obama.
- Echidne Of The Snakes continues her wonderful series on feminism.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: Mark Weaver tells why he's voting for Ralph Nader.
- Iddybud Journal: Catholic voters are not one-issue voters.
- Left Is Right: more bits and pieces.
- Lefty Side of the Dial: Republicans for Obama.
- Musing's musings: Who would replace Barack Obama in the Senate if he's elected?
- Pen-Elayne on the Web: her last column at ComicMix.
- Rook's Rant: help for the automakers?
- rubber hose: swingin' Pennsylvania?
- Scrutiny Hooligans: the lies of Elizabeth Dole.
- SoonerThought: who's a socialist?
- Speedkill: godless money.
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat: three voting issues to be aware of.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: beating FDR.
- The Fulcrum: undecided about undecideds.
- The Invisible Library: watching the implosion.
- WTF Is It Now?? Obama and Stewart.

If you haven't done it already and you're registered to vote, vote. Vote as if your future depended on it.

Friday Catblogging

Ah.....

"I'm Snowball, and I approved this massage."

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Another Country Heard From

One of the most respected publications in this or any country is The Economist of Great Britain. It is the closest you can get to a peer-reviewed scholarly journal on financial matters that is sold at the neighborhood newsstand. And being a journal of big business and finance, you would think it would be conservative in its bearing and its outlook. And by and large you would be right. So it comes as both amazing and comforting that they have chosen to voice their support for the election of Barack Obama.

IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be. Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world. The main argument was over what to do with the federal government’s huge budget surplus. Nobody foresaw the seismic events of the next eight years. When Americans go to the polls next week the mood will be very different. The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack.

For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead.

Read the whole article, including their almost sorrowful review of what has happened to the John McCain they once admired. And when it comes to the Palin Factor, their revulsion for this is almost palpable.

Granted, they have their blind spots (referring to the hapless "BlackBerry" Douglas Hotlz-Eakins as "impressive") and they have their doubts about Mr. Obama's lack of experience, but in the end, they believe he's up to the challenges.

There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

Political fire, far from rattling Mr Obama, seems to bring out the best in him: the furore about his (admittedly ghastly) preacher prompted one of the most thoughtful speeches of the campaign. On the financial crisis his performance has been as assured as Mr McCain’s has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

[...]

So Mr Obama in that respect is a gamble. But the same goes for Mr McCain on at least as many counts, not least the possibility of President Palin. And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

The conventional wisdom is that when a left-leaning publication endorses a Democrat or a conservative one endorses a Republican, the endorsement itself carries little weight; it's what people have expected from them. But when a publication like The Economist comes out for Barack Obama, that is news, and it will reach readers who would never consider voting for a Democrat. And it is no small point that the editors of The Economist speak not just for themselves but also for the rest the financial world, both here and overseas. They are the people the next president will have to deal with when the election is over and the world wonders.

Struck Dumb

CNN's Rick Sanchez tries to pins McCain spokesperson Michael Goldfarb down on Barack Obama's anti-Semitic "pal."

You could drive a truck through the dead air.

The answer, by the way, is "No, we don't."

PS: Sniper, a commenter at Shakesville notes, "I would be so, so, so happy if Rich Sanchez had said, 'Voldemort?' at the appropriate moment." Perfect.

HT to Political Animal.

Quote of the Day

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) on Barack Obama's judicial appointment philosophy:

He said, "I’m tired of these judges who want to follow what the Founding Fathers said and the Constitution. I want judges who have a heart, have an empathy for the teenage mom, the minority, the gay, the disabled. We want them to show empathy. We want them to show compassion."

In the first place, I can't find any record of Barack Obama saying any such thing.

And second, it's not "the gay," Senator. It's "teh gay." If you're going to bash us, at least get it right.

Are You Experienced?

The latest McCain ad asks,

Would you get on a plane with a pilot who has never flown? Would you trust your child with someone who has never cared for children? Would you go under with a surgeon who has never operated?

The job of President of the United States is unique. So by their logic, the only person qualified to be elected president is a former president.

By the way, given John McCain's history of crashing jets, using the pilot analogy is probably not a good idea.

HT to TPM...and Jimi Hendrix.

Question of the Day

Assuming you have a dog or a cat...

Wet or dry dog/cat food?

Sam got a 50-50 combination in one bowl. And since Max and Snowball are stuffed, a little dry cotton every now and then goes a long way.

Know Hope or No Hope

David Broder sums up his evaluation of John McCain and his campaign thusly:

Should McCain win the election, it will demonstrate even more vividly than the earlier episodes in his life the survival instincts and capacity for overcoming the odds of this remarkably engaging man. And the country will have to hope this campaign has honed his leadership skills.

And the country will have to hope that he doesn't run the country the way he's run his campaign. That's not hope we can believe in.

Blogroll Updates

BlogRolling, the service I use for adding and maintaining the blogrolls on the sidebar, has been having some massive issues with hackers, so other than just keeping the blogrolls going, it's been unable to do anything else, like allow me to add new blogs or move existing ones to their rightful places. In their absence, I'd like to point out a couple of new blogs that I plan to add once the good folks at Blogrolling get back up to speed:

First is The Slightly Disturbing Adventures of Grant Haws, who only came to my attention recently. Welcome, Grant.

Second is Margaret and Helen, who I profiled yesterday. I have a warm place in my heart for outspoken women like them, and I'm glad to see that they prove that blogging, unlike galloping around the galaxy, is not just a game for the young.

This is also a good chance for you, dear reader, to call my attention to blogs that I may not have noticed but should be included. And I don't mean just liberal or progressive sites, either. I am interested primarily in good writing and discourse, not political orthodoxy. Drop me a note via the comments or e-mail.

Chill Out, Dems

If you're a Democrat and you're still buying the argument that John McCain could still pull off winning this election, you need to check out what Ta-Nehisi Coates has to say.

OK, I'm tired of this. Someone--who shall remain nameless--just asked me if I was "nervous" about Obama. FTDS. I don't believe in black cats. I don't toss salt over my shoulder. I step under ladders whenever the mood strikes me. I break mirrors in my spare time. I've made a hobby out of splitting poles. Thirteen is my favorite number. So fuck it, I'm gonna say it--Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

[...]

Folks, we are watching a revoloution [sic]. I'm talking about the technology, the GOTV effort, the historic numbers for black voters, a sick, sick edge among young voters. Are we going to spend the next days trying to concoct exotic scenarios in which the dastardly Republicans steal this one? Are black folks going to sit around wondering if white people will revert back to their Yacubic nature? Or are we going to start thinking about the change taking place right before our eyes, and what it means for our agenda? What will we do? I'm not asking for self-congratulation--just some self-confidence.

Word.

Joe the White Guy

Atrios made a very interesting point about why the McCain campaign has latched onto the icon of Joe the Plumber even though in reality assuming that Joe Wurzelbacher does what he says he wants to do -- buy his own business -- he'd actually do better under the Obama plan. It's more fundamental than that: Joe the Plumber is "a white guy who's about to have his pocket picked by a black guy. It doesn't have to be true."

And if you don't think the McCain campaign isn't aware of it, you haven't been paying attention.

HT to Political Animal.

Will Ditches McCain

George F. Will lives in a very ordered world. He likes things nice and neat. For example, he's a baseball fan, which is a very orderly game as opposed to football, which is all crash and tussle, and basketball, which never stops unless there's a foul. So it's no surprise that he's turned up his nose at the McCain campaign's dithering and carelessness.

From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism. Tuesday's probable repudiation of the Republican Party will punish characteristics displayed in the campaign's closing days.

He then turns his scorn on Sarah Palin and the public financing of the campaigns, noting that when the bills are added up, all the campaigns combined will have spent a billion dollars less than America spends on potato chips.

I don't know if Mr. Will will actually vote for Barack Obama; somehow I doubt it. But I can't imagine he's willing to throw his world into disorder and hand the presidency over to an administration with a vice president who he refers to as an "inveterate simplifier."

The Obama Ad

I watched the half-hour ad that the Obama campaign bought on almost every major network and cable channel last night. I was impressed by a couple of things. First, this was a theatre-worthy film in terms of quality and production, starting right off with the amber waves of grain and the swelling Field of Dreams-like score. Second, the message that Mr. Obama delivered was comforting and assuring; he came across as fully aware of the problems the country faces and that as president he would work with us to solve them. He did not sound smug, arrogant, or presumptuous, but he didn't set off any alarm bells, either. He sounded calm and confident. None of that is surprising; after all, it was a commercial. He and his producers weren't going to leave anything to chance.

One thing that was noticeable by its absence: any mention of his opponents. Mr. Obama never mentioned the name of John McCain, and he only obliquely referred to the Bush administration as the "last eight years." That's one of the hallmarks of a good ad campaign; act as if you are the only product of your kind on the market. Ad writers know that you're on shaky ground if you have to compare your product to Brand X. Don't give the consumer the chance to even subliminally be aware of the competition.

If the purpose of this massive expenditure was to reaffirm Mr. Obama's views on how to move forward in the next four years, he accomplished that very well. And I also think that he's aware of the fact that running the country won't be as easy as campaigning for the job...or making an infomercial.

Phillies Win World Series.

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Rays had a good run and they should be proud of their great year.

(Can you tell I was not really paying attention?)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Role Models

Here's why blogging is so much fun.

Meet Margaret and Helen.

And here's what Helen has to say about the election.

I cannot believe this is even close. How did America get so far off track that a week out from this election many still think it is too close to call?

It was either a few years ago or a few months ago… at my age it all blends together. But I remember it was all over the news and on the cover of all the magazines. One of those new ”starlets”… Paris or Brittney or Lindsey or Chutney or something like that - one of those starlets got caught getting out of a car without her under garments. That’s right. Photographers all around and her hoo-ha was out there for everyone and God to see because she forgot to put on a pair of panties.

I know you all know what I am talking about. It was all over the news. Scandalous they said. Out of control. She needs help. What is the world coming to? EVERYONE was shocked and EVERYONE was talking about it. How could she? What kind of a role model is she for young girls? I know you all remember it. If my scattered brain can remember it, I know you can. People didn’t have to be told how the cow ate the cabbage on that one. We all knew it instinctively.

Well imagine my shock and surprise today when I came across this little item. The latest polls show that only 55% of Americans think that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be President. 55%! FIFTY FIVE PERCENT! This about the woman whose best qualification for the job to date is that she can see Russia from her house. So what exactly does Sarah Palin have to do before the other 45% of this country is shocked enough to realize that she is a “whack job”? Please Lord don’t tell me she has to show her hoo-ha in public.

If, in fact, you are reading this blog and think that Sarah Palin is actually qualified to run the country… well I suggest you check and see if your panties are on because the joke just may be on you.

See, Mom, if they can do it...

HT to Andrew Sullivan.

Another Reason to Vote for Obama

Well, now I know where a lot of people are going to be spending eternity: in Pitchfork City. According to Janet Porter, you cannot be a Christian and vote for Barack Obama, and if you do, you're going to Hell.

To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger, according to the Word of God, so are you.

[...]

To those who call themselves by the name of Christ who ignore what God says about life and marriage, who and are clinging to a fantasy of economic gain, think again.

Obama will use your tax dollars to kill innocent children, and then he'll take your paycheck and use it to "spread the wealth around."

[...]

Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse.

[...]

If the word of God matters more to you than your perception of personal gain, Joel 2:12 issues a call to repentance I pray you will heed:
"Now, therefore," says the LORD, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning'" (Joel 2:12).
Then obey Him in the voting booth and out of it. If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian.

Actually, I guess for those of us who don't call ourselves Christian -- at least on her terms -- we don't have anything to worry about; it's only the Christians like her that have to plan on sweatin' to the oldies with Old Scratch if they vote for Mr. Obama. And it looks like it lets the Jews and the Muslims and the Hindus and everybody else who doesn't meet her rather un-Christian standards (what was that bit about "judge not lest ye be judged"?) off the hook, too. Hey, free pass, brethren!

I wonder; when God calls Ms. Porter, what name shows up on the Caller ID?

HT to Pam.

Getting Ugly

FiveThiryEight reports on an incident at a McCain rally today here in Miami.

Tonight we'll be at the Obama-Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida, and we're breaking in from Miami, where John McCain just concluded his "Joe the Plumber" rally at Everglades Lumber.

After the rally, we witnessed a near-street riot involving the exiting McCain crowd and two Cuban-American Obama supporters. Tony Garcia, 63, and Raul Sorando, 31, were suddenly surrounded by an angry mob. There is a moment in a crowd when something goes from mere yelling to a feeling of danger, and that's what we witnessed. As photographers and police raced to the scene, the crowd elevated from stable to fast-moving scrum, and the two men were surrounded on all sides as we raced to the circle.

The event maybe lasted a minute, two at the most, before police competently managed to hustle the two away from the scene and out of the danger zone. Only FiveThirtyEight tracked the two men down for comment, a quarter mile down the street.

"People were screaming 'Terrorist!' 'Communist!' 'Socialist!'" Sorando said when we caught up with him. "I had a guy tell me he was gonna kill me."

Asked what had precipitated the event, "We were just chanting 'Obama!' and holding our signs. That was it. And the crowd suddenly got crazy."

All that's missing are the brown shirts.

Question of the Day

This is an easy one.

What’s your biggest driving/traffic pet peeve?

Oh, where to start? People who drive as if they are the only ones on the road, including the little old lady with a death grip on the wheel of a twenty-year-old Corolla going 35 mph in the left lane of I-95 with her turn signal on and the passenger-side seat belt dangling outside the door, the buckle bouncing off the pavement, making sparks. Or the people with the Jesus-fish emblem who drive in a very un-Christian-like manner. Or the numbskull in the S.U.V. on a cell phone running red lights and cutting people off because they can. And... and...

Joe the Prophet

Apparently Joe Wurzelbacher ("I'm not a plumber but I play one on TV") has some insight into the intricacies of the conflict in the Middle East.

Wurzelbacher was hitting the campaign trail on behalf of McCain for the first time, joining former Rep. Rob Portman on a GOP bus tour through Ohio.

At a stop in Columbus, he fielded the question on Israel from a self-identified Jewish senior citizen.

The questioner said he was "concerned" with Barack Obama's associations and "It's my belief that a vote for Obama is a vote for the death to Israel."

Wurzelbacher responded: "I do know that."

And he knows that... how? Has he been privy to some secret high-level negotiations between Palestine and Israel that they've been holding at the Holiday Inn off Route 25 in Perrysburg, Ohio? Or is he just responding to a leading question in a way that he thought sounded like something he's expected to say?

We really are skating into Chauncey Gardiner territory here.

HT to MJWS.

Downballot

The interest in the election and the wave of revulsion against the Bush administration is making life interesting for a lot of so-called "safe" Republicans like Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Saxby Chambliss in Georgia, and Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Plus, congressional races are showing a lot of volatility; here in Miami we are being inundated with ads for the Diaz-Balart brothers who are in tight races to hang on to their seats. That's a far cry from the time when I couldn't vote for (or against) Lincoln Diaz-Balart because he was unopposed.

This is a seismic election, folks.

The Palin Effect

TPM has a cool interactive guide to all the conservatives who have endorsed Barack Obama because of Sarah Palin.

The Undecided Vote

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight looks at the undecided voter and tries to predict where they will eventually go.

Long story short ... given optimistic assumptions (McCain wins 2/3 of white undecideds, 100 percent of third-party support collapses), the undecided vote is worth a net of about a point for McCain. Given what I'd consider to be more neutral assumptions, there's no particular reason to think that the undecided vote favors him.

My guess is that the truth is somewhere in between and that this is worth, say, half a point for McCain. Even give him the full point if you like. This effect is probably smaller than that of the cellphone problem, from which there may be 1-2 points of cushion in Obama's direction. If on top of that the polls are being overly conservative with their likely voter modeling, the numbers are more likely to be underestimating Obama's standing than overestimating it.

I'm one of those people who just can't wrap my mind around the idea that any voter who intends to vote but still has not made up their mind at this point -- six days out -- is truly "undecided." I could have believed it in 2000, but today? I think that deep down inside, the people who describe themselves as undecided have actually made up their mind and for whatever reason they're not saying it out loud. It could be something as simple as they're a Republican or a conservative who is voting for Obama, or it's that they're still struggling with the race issue. Who knows. But, as Mr. Silver notes, they could cancel each other out, and this year I think the polling indicates enough of a percentage gap between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain that the undecideds won't matter.

John McCain, Socialist

Hilzoy catalogs the plans that John McCain has to spread your wealth.

"He will commit a $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys a zero carbon emission car". Apparently, John McCain doesn't believe that you and I are competent to decide for ourselves whether to give money to people who buy hybrid cars. No: the government will decide for us, and let us foot the bill. Likewise, "John McCain Will Commit $2 Billion Annually To Advancing Clean Coal Technologies." Why can't I decide for myself whether or not I want to fund clean coal? Or to contribute to a $300 million dollar prize for the development of batteries for plug-in hybrids? Or give foreign aid to Israel? And why is John McCain so eager to expropriate my money to pay for his priorities?

John McCain might think it's the role of government to use my money to "provide $5,000 for health insurance to every American family". But those of us who cherish genuine American values know that that's just a fancy way of saying that he wants to spread the wealth.

This is socialism, pure and simple. John McCain believes that the President and the Congress should have the right to expropriate our money, and spend it on what they think matters. It's un-American, and I, for one, can no longer be a part of it.

Oh, the horror, the horror.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Vote Early -- and Longer

From the Miami Herald:

Declaring a state of emergency in Florida because of long voting lines, Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday extended early voting hours across the state to 12 hours a day.

The executive order comes after record early voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites.

Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends. With Crist's order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the last day of early voting.

''It's not a political decision,'' Crist said moments after signing the order. ''It's a people decision.''

Crist said he made the decision after seeing numerous news reports about long lines and after he had a conversation with state House Democratic leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. Crist's appointed secretary of state, Kurt Browning, had rejected the idea of extending the early voting hours earlier this week.

The precedent for extending voting hours came in 2002, when then-Gov. Jeb Bush agreed to longer polling hours during the September primary when it was the first time many counties were using electronic voting machines and Miami-Dade and Broward were delayed in opening their polling sites.

Crist's decision elicited grumbling from fellow Republicans concerned about high Democratic turnout, but Gelber said the current situation necessitated an executive order.

''I think it's exactly the right thing to do, and I give the governor credit for doing it,'' Gelber said.

Yes, and if my experience last weekend is any guide, it's necessary.

The grumbling Republicans are pretty sure that this will hand the state to the Democrats. Isn't that like saying that the more people vote, the more they vote for Democrats? Well, no wonder they don't like it.

Wish List

Pat Buchanan is out with his predictions of what will happen in the first 100 days of the Obama administration:

* Two or three more liberal activists of the Ruth Bader Ginsberg-John Paul Stevens stripe will be named to the Supreme Court. U.S. district and appellate courts will be stacked with "progressives."

* Special protections for homosexuals will be written into all civil rights laws, and gays and lesbians in the military will be invited to come out of the closet. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dead.

* The homosexual marriages that state judges have forced California, Massachusetts and Connecticut to recognize, an Obama Congress or Obama court will require all 50 states to recognize.

* A "Freedom of Choice Act" nullifying all state restrictions on abortions will be enacted. America will become the most pro-abortion nation on earth.

* Universal health insurance will be enacted, covering legal and illegal immigrants, providing another powerful magnet for the world to come to America, if necessary by breaching her borders.

Works for me.

Quote of the Day

Andrew Sullivan on what is now apparent to the McCain campaign about the choice of Sarah Palin as the vice presidential nominee:

It's a massive, unmissable clusterfuck and has been for two months. They just can't hide it any longer. And the pick is a devastating one - because it basically destroys John McCain's credibility as a presidential decision-maker. His first major decision as a future president is one of the worst in American political history. That alone should be enough to seal his fate next Tuesday. You need nothing else.

Preemptive Infighting

Following up on the the earlier post about the hard-core Paliniacs, the vengeance is spreading. And while most losing political campaigns wait until the election is over before they tear themselves apart, the Republicans are nothing if not efficient. They have decided to avoid the November 5 rush and start in now.

The social conservatives and moderates who together boosted the Republican Party to dominance have begun a tense battle over the future of the GOP, with social conservatives already moving to seize control of the party's machinery and some vowing to limit John McCain's influence, even if he wins the presidency.

In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party's national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party.

The growing power of religious conservatives is alarming some moderate Republicans who believe that the party's main problem is that it has narrowed its appeal and alienated too many voters. They cite the aggressive tone of the McCain campaign in challenging Barack Obama, who has close to universal support from African American voters; as well as the push by many Republican leaders to clamp down on illegal immigration using rhetoric that has driven away Latinos.

Some moderates argue that the party's top priority must be to broaden its outreach, a caution laid down by retired Gen. Colin L. Powell on national television this month when he broke from the party and endorsed Obama. Surveys show McCain beating Obama among white men but losing with almost every other demographic group.

On the commodity market, I'll bet the price of popcorn is shooting through the roof.

HT to Political Animal.

Question of the Day

CTRL+ALT+DEL...

Your computer stops working; are you helpless or helpful?

Most times I'm able to fix it or, when all else fails, by using the three-fingered salute (see above). If that doesn't work, I call my brother; he's on the speed dial.

Cool Breeze

We have our season's first cold front coming through, bringing winds and cooler temps to south Florida; it was 61 at the house this morning. Today's high is predicted to be 70, with a low of 49 in some parts of the county.

Just like the height of summer in northern Michigan.

Diwali

In honor of my Indian colleagues, Happy Diwali.

Paliniacs

No two ways about it: you're either with her or you're against her. Via Huffington Post via Yglesias:

Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy".

He told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?"

[...]

He said: "Win or lose, there is a ready made conservative candidate waiting in the wings. Sarah Palin is not the new Iain Duncan Smith, she is the new Ronald Reagan."

I do hope that those folks have at least a water bottle and a tarp because it's going to be a long, long journey in the wilderness.

Charming

Now that he's been convicted of seven felony charges, the Senate may be rid of one of its most unlovable members. Via Political Animal:

""I'm a mean, miserable S.O.B.," he once proudly told his colleagues. And yet, he rose to awesome heights of influence in the Senate, controlling billions of dollars in public money. (...) How was Ted Stevens able to turn the fear and loathing he engendered in others into a political asset? (...)

[...]

Stevens doesn't just end friendships--he gets revenge. (Or, as he has put it, "I don't make threats--only promises.") In the past, he has campaigned against colleagues who have angered him, and, in March 2006, he openly admitted to pulling a bill that would aid the Puget Sound shipping industry to spite Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, who had crossed him over anwr. As a result, no one wants to say no to The Hulk, lest they land atop his hit list."

And now he's asking Alaskans and his Senate colleagues to "stand with him." Yeah, good luck with that.

Walking Out on Lies

Some people actually have some scruples. Via Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central:

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."

Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.

"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."

The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."

It takes a lot of courage to do something like that, especially in today's economy. But some things are worth it.

Fact Checker on "Redistribution" Story

Not surprisingly, the righties seized on an interview that Barack Obama gave in 2001 and ran all over the Orcosphere with it because he said (gasp!) "redistribution of wealth."

"Obama Bombshell Audio Uncovered. He wants to Radically Reinterpret the Constitution to Redistribute Wealth!!" runs the YouTube headline from the conservative video blog Naked Emperor News. "This video exposes the radical beneath the rhetoric."

OMG! He's a commie! Grab the smelling salts!

Actually, as the Washington Post's Fact Checker discovers,

On closer inspection, the "bombshell audio" turns out to be a rather wonkish, somewhat impenetrable, discussion of the Supreme Court under Earl Warren. Obama, then a University of Chicago law professor and Illinois state senator, argued that the courts have traditionally been reluctant to get involved in income distribution questions. He suggested that the civil rights movement had made a mistake in expecting too much from the courts -- and that such issues were better decided by the legislative branch of government.

[...]

In other words, Obama says pretty much the opposite of what the McCain camp says he said. Contrary to the spin put on his remarks by McCain economics adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, he does not express "regret" that the Supreme Court has not been more "radical." Nor does he describe the Court's refusal to take up economic redistribution questions as a "tragedy." He uses the word "tragedy" to refer not to the Supreme Court, but to the civil rights movement.

The entire transcript of the interview is here.

Today, the McCain campaign is planning to blow the lid off the dastardly plans they've uncovered: Barack Obama and the Democrats are plotting to take over the government by winning the election.

A Bunch of Joes

Some real plumbers from Toledo take on "Joe the Plumber" and John McCain.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Senator Ted Stevens Convicted On All Counts

From The Hill:

Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history and patriarch of Alaska politics, was convicted Monday of all seven felony charges for making false statements.

The verdict could spell an ignominious end to the political career of a man who rose to be one of the most dominant figures in the Senate and helped transform Alaska in its 50 years of statehood.

Jurors deliberated from scratch Monday morning with the addition of an alternate juror, and in little more than five hours delivered a unanimous verdict on all counts. The verdict comes just eight days before Stevens faces the toughest reelection bid of his four-decade career.

Shortly before 4 p.m., the jury convicted the 84-year-old senator for making false statements by failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.

That's guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty.

Question of the Day

Family matters...

How old is your oldest living relative?

In my immediate family, that would be my father and his identical twin brother at 82.

Jesus Called Me

I was at home working on some writing yesterday when the phone rang. I checked the Caller ID. It said Area Code 281, and the name was "A AND T". Figuring it was some pollster or something, I answered and was greeted with the bible verse that goes "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, etc." It lasted for only a few seconds, then hung up.

I looked up the area code and found that 281 is Houston, Texas. The only person I know in Houston -- even if it's only over the internet -- is Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat, and if he was going to call me, that's not how he'd do it; he'd be much more original. So I dialed the number back and got -- of course -- a busy signal. I guess someone in Houston is frantically trying to evangelize via robocall. Either that or it's the Jesus-freak version of Prince Albert in a can.

I am sorry I didn't get to talk to a real person. I would have told them that "Frodo gave his finger for you!"

Like, Socialism

Hendrik Hertzberg on buzzword Bingo:

As a buzzword, “socialism” had mostly good connotations in most of the world for most of the twentieth century. That’s why the Nazis called themselves national socialists. That’s why the Bolsheviks called their regime the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, obliging the socialist and social democratic parties of Europe (and America, for what it was worth) to make rescuing the “good name” of socialism one of their central missions. Socialists—one thinks of men like George Orwell, Willy Brandt, and Aneurin Bevan—were among Communism’s most passionate and effective enemies.

The United States is a special case. There is a whole shelf of books on the question of why socialism never became a real mass movement here. For decades, the word served mainly as a cudgel with which conservative Republicans beat liberal Democrats about the head. When Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan accused John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson of socialism for advocating guaranteed health care for the aged and the poor, the implication was that Medicare and Medicaid would presage a Soviet America. Now that Communism has been defunct for nearly twenty years, though, the cry of socialism no longer packs its old punch. “At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said the other day—thereby suggesting that the dystopia he abhors is not some North Korean-style totalitarian ant heap but, rather, the gentle social democracies across the Atlantic, where, in return for higher taxes and without any diminution of civil liberty, people buy themselves excellent public education, anxiety-free health care, and decent public transportation.

[...]

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

It's only like "socialism" when it's your wealth that's being "spread." If it's someone else's, it's being "shared."

Real America

I don't know how it happened, but I missed Frank Rich's column in the Sunday Times yesterday and left it out of its usual place in Sunday Reading. Anyway, here it is, and it's worth reading. He reminds us of the ignominious fall of the last politician who tried to define "real" America: George "Macaca" Allen.

There are at least two larger national lessons to be learned from what is likely to be the last gasp of Allen-McCain-Palin politics in 2008. The first, and easy one, is that Republican leaders have no idea what “real America” is. In the eight years since the first Bush-Cheney convention pledged inclusiveness and showcased Colin Powell as its opening-night speaker, the G.O.P. has terminally alienated black Americans (Powell himself now included), immigrant Americans (including the Hispanics who once gave Bush-Cheney as much as 44 percent of their votes) and the extended families of gay Americans (Palin has now revived a constitutional crusade against same-sex marriage). Subtract all those players from the actual America, and you don’t have enough of a bench to field a junior varsity volleyball team, let alone a serious campaign for the Electoral College.

But the other, less noticed lesson of the year has to do with the white people the McCain campaign has been pandering to. As we saw first in the Democratic primary results and see now in the widespread revulsion at the McCain-Palin tactics, white Americans are not remotely the bigots the G.O.P. would have us believe. Just because a campaign trades in racism doesn’t mean that the country is racist. It’s past time to come to the unfairly maligned white America’s defense.

[...]

Such human nuances are lost on conservative warriors of the Allen-McCain-Palin ilk. They see all Americans as only white or black, as either us or them. The dirty little secret of such divisive politicians has always been that their rage toward the Others is exceeded only by their cynical conviction that Real Americans are a benighted bunch of easily manipulated bigots. This seems to be the election year when voters in most of our myriad Americas are figuring that out.

The Clother

Gov. Sarah Palin in Tampa yesterday:

This whole thing with the wardrobe. I was going to just ignore it because it's so ridiculous.

It's like the Republican National Committee mugged her, dragged her to Saks, and forced her at gunpoint to try them all on and buy them. "Wear the Vera Wang or the bunny gets it."

She says that after the election, all the clothes are going to charity. That means the RNC is going to put them on E-Bay to raise money to pay off their debts?

More Kristol Meth - Let's Put On a Show!

William Kristol is still sure that John McCain can pull a do-over.

When you’re in a hole, stop digging. McCain could order his campaign to pull all negative ads, mailers and robocalls.

For that matter, he might as well muzzle the campaign. McCain campaign senior staff members now seem to be spending more time criticizing one another than Obama, and more time defending their own reputations than pursuing a McCain-Palin victory. McCain should simply say that for the last week of the campaign, no staff member is authorized to speak to the media about anything beyond logistical and scheduling matters.

Then McCain and Palin can spend the final week speaking for themselves. They should throw themselves open full time to the media. Could the press coverage get worse? Next Sunday, McCain and Palin could divide up the talk shows. Sarah Palin live! Lots of people would tune in.

There could be one other big moment this week. Obama has bought a half-hour of television in prime time Wednesday. McCain and Palin could buy time Thursday night — giving voters some incentive to keep an open mind at least until McCain and Palin get to make their case.

Palin could speak first, reprising her fine recent speeches on women’s issues and special needs kids — speeches that got almost no press coverage. She could then introduce her running mate, reminding people of his heroism, and pointing out, as she does on the stump, that he is the only candidate “who has truly fought for America.”

As for McCain, he needs to speak about America’s greatness and its future; about how the ingenuity and toughness of the American people will turn around this financial crisis just as the ingenuity of General Petraeus and the toughness of his fighting men and women turned around Iraq; about how America’s spirit was not undone by a terrorist attack, and will not be undone by a financial mess; about how the naysayers will once again be proved wrong; about how America will emerge from its troubles stronger than ever and will win its battles at home and abroad.

McCain has a chance to close this election in a big and positive way. He has a chance to get voters to rise above the distractions and to set aside the petty aspects of the campaign. He has a chance to remind them why they have admired him, and perhaps to persuade them to vote for him on Nov. 4.

Would this turn things around? Unlikely. But why not take a shot?

In other words, forget everything that the McCain-Palin campaign has done for the last eight weeks. Wipe that from your memory. Forget all the talking points about "socialism." Forget the dithering and the panic-stricken (and inducing) campaign "suspension" and parachute-drop into the economic crisis. Forget about Joe the Not-the-Plumber. That never happened; it was all a really, really bad dream. Here is the real John McCain, presented by his charming and well-dressed sidekick, Sarah Palin, and they're going to introduce themselves and their ideas for America in a big prime-time special on the scale of Donny and Marie Go to Washington. In other words, let's go out there and say, "America, we think you're amazingly stupid and you have the short-term memory of a goldfish. We think we can win all of you independents and undecideds and, yes, even you moderate and conservative Republicans who have been grossed out and scared off by our train-wreck of a campaign by just playing nice for a few minutes here for the last big finish." That's the equivalent of the Marx Brothers trying to make their last movie a heartwarming and insightful look into the soul of America by doing I Remember Mama.

For Mr. McCain, however, it's more like Long Day's Journey into Night.

Tony Hillerman - 1925-2008

Tony Hillerman, the mystery novelist who set his stories in the Navajo land, has died.

Mr. Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to incest taboos for a proper clan marriage.

“It’s always troubled me that the American people are so ignorant of these rich Indian cultures,” Mr. Hillerman once told Publishers Weekly. “I think it’s important to show that aspects of ancient Indian ways are still very much alive and are highly germane even to our ways.”

Mr. Hillerman was not the first mystery writer to set a story on Indian land or to introduce a full-blooded Native American detective to crime literature. In 1946 the grand prize in the first short-story competition of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine went to Manly Wade Wellman for the first of two stories he wrote with an Indian protagonist.

But beginning with “The Blessing Way” in 1970 the 18 novels Mr. Hillerman set on Southwest Indian reservations featuring Lieut. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police, brought a new dimension to the character of the traditional genre hero.

Before, during, and after my years in New Mexico, I read his stories, and they gave me an introduction to the native cultures in New Mexico and the Southwest. I know I can never fully be a part of it, but through his words and his often humorous yet respectful look at the Navajo life, I came to appreciate it as a civilization of infinite dimensions and deeply honorable people.

I hold him and his spirit in the Light.

I'm Honored

Rick at South Florida Daily Blog has chosen I Voted Today as his Post of the Week:

I hold Bark Bark Woof Woof's political analysis in high regard but this week it was his story-telling that caught my eye. When you can make standing in a voting line for four hours interesting for your readers you have some talent and Bark Bark Woof did just that in his post I Voted Today. It's a great post that documents the American spirit and for that reason it is this week's SFDB Post of the Week.

Thanks, Rick, and as I said over there in the comments, I hope my tale doesn't deter anyone from voting. But after what this country has been through in the last eight years, waiting four hours to vote is nothing...and well worth it.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sunday Night TV

There's only one Maverick...

Sunday Reading

- Enshrining Bigotry: Florida's Amendment 2 would not only ban same-sex marriage in Florida -- and be redundant with existing state law -- it would threaten domestic partnerships for straight couples who live together for financial reasons.

Although gay marriage is already illegal in Florida, Amendment 2 would enshrine the prohibition in the Florida Constitution, making it nearly impossible for a judge to overturn.

Supporters, primarily conservative and Christian groups, say their goal is straightforward and deserving of constitutional shelter: to ''protect'' marriage by defining it exclusively as a union between a man and a woman. Doing so, they say, would benefit children by promoting a traditional family with a mother and father -- not two moms or two dads.

''Children always fare better when they have a mother and father,'' said John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, which is promoting the Yes On 2 campaign. ''We should not, as a matter of law and public policy, create inherently motherless and fatherless homes.''

But opponents say the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment isn't a gay issue, but rather a measure that could negatively affect many heterosexual couples as well.

They point to particular wording in the amendment that they say could lead to unmarried couples -- gay and straight -- losing hospital visitation rights, the ability to make emergency medical decisions, and domestic partner health benefits provided by employers.

The proof, they say, is what has happened in other states where similar amendments have passed.

Since Michigan voters approved a ''marriage protection'' amendment in 2004, the state Supreme Court has struck down domestic partner benefits, including health insurance and pensions. A battle is also under way in Kentucky to eliminate domestic partner benefits for employees of state universities because of similar legislation.

''This amendment says that because marriage is between a man and a woman, nothing else counts,'' said Derek Newton, campaign manager for Florida Red & Blue, the bipartisan organization running the SayNo2 campaign to defeat the amendment. ''It could take away existing rights and benefits of Floridians.''

For the record, I voted against it.

- How Low They Will Actually Go: The Pennsylvania GOP compares voting for Obama to "underestimating" what the Germans did in the 1930's.

There are things you should not say unless you really, really mean them, and events you should not invoke lightly. Saying that voting for Obama, or for McCain, or for any of the major party candidates in my adult lifetime, would be a mistake that is in any way "similar" to underestimating the horror of the Nazis is one of them.

We should never forget what the Nazis actually did, or what the Pennsylvania Republican Party has seen fit to invoke so lightly; and we should not dishonor those who were murdered by using them to score cheap political points.

- David Brooks: McCain Gave Up the Center. Subbing for Frank Rich, Mr. Brooks bemoans John McCain's inability to be Alexander Hamilton and Teddy Roosevelt.

The Hamiltonian-Bull Moose tendency is the great, moderate strain in American politics. In some sense this whole campaign was a contest to see which party could reach out from its base and occupy that centrist ground. The Democratic Party did that. Senior Democrats like Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and Jason Furman actually created something called The Hamilton Project to lay out a Hamiltonian approach for our day.

McCain and Republicans stayed within their lines. There was a lot of talk about earmarks. There was a good health care plan that was never fully explained. And there was Sarah Palin, who represents the old resentments and the narrow appeal of conventional Republicanism.

As a result, Democrats now control the middle. Self-declared moderates now favor Obama by 59 to 30, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll. Suburban voters favor Obama 50 to 39. Voters over all give him a 21 point lead when it comes to better handling the economy and a 14 point lead on tax policy, according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

McCain would be an outstanding president. In government, he has almost always had an instinct for the right cause. He has become an experienced legislative craftsman. He is stalwart against the country’s foes and cooperative with its friends. But he never escaped the straightjacket [sic] of a party that is ailing and a conservatism that is behind the times. And that’s what makes the final weeks of this campaign so unspeakably sad.

- Backgrounder: an inside look at Joe Biden.

Though known to much of the public as a gabby, gaffe-prone, backslapping Irish boyo from Scranton, Pa., in private councils and in the corridors of the Senate he is known as an ambitious, astute, calculating politician always looking at the next step.

Mr. Biden’s life and career have been marked by repeated episodes of wreckage and recovery, some dealt by fate, others by his own flaws. His aim this year, at age 65 and with 35 years in the Senate behind him, was to put himself in a position to make one last move. With the White House foreclosed to him after two humbling defeats, Mr. Biden was eyeing the two most appealing alternatives, the vice president’s mansion on the grounds of the Naval Observatory and the executive suite on the seventh floor of the State Department.

Few people in American politics set the vice presidency as their final goal. But the office has been gaining in stature and influence for three decades and Mr. Biden came to believe, aides said, that he could influence American policy more by serving at the side of the president than he could as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He signaled his eagerness for the job in a June appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying “of course” he would accept if it were offered.

Two months later, Mr. Obama did just that. Mr. Biden quickly agreed after being assured that Mr. Obama wanted him as a close-in adviser.

It is unclear how Mr. Biden will perform in the job if the Obama-Biden ticket wins in November. He has said that he has never had a boss and is not used to playing second fiddle, having been elected to the Senate 36 years ago at the age of 29.

Since becoming Mr. Obama’s running mate, Mr. Biden has been campaigning day to day in out-of-the-way places, followed by a tiny press corps and a handful of aides, selling the virtues of the man he would serve. His every move is dictated by Obama aides in Chicago. Mr. Biden at times bristles at the close supervision, but he seems to need it — he has gone off message enough times in enough ways to induce some heartburn among the Obama high command, as when he suggested last week that Mr. Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator, would be tested as president by an international crisis during his first six months in office, unhelpfully injecting the question of experience into the daily back and forth with the Republicans.

- Whatever Happened To...? Sally Struthers hits the stage in Nunsense.

Although it’s been 30 years since Struthers left All in the Family, she is still remembered for playing Archie Bunker’s daughter, but she hasn’t been resting on those memories.

“I’m still standing. Didn’t I retire? No I didn’t retire,” she said semi-indignantly. “I’ve just been on TV for the last seven years for Gilmore Girls.” And while she was appearing in a recurring role — she played neighbor Babette Dell — on the WB/CW series, she was also appearing in a recurring role in CBS’ Still Standing, playing the manipulative mother of series star Mark Addy.

She’s been in Grease, The Odd Couple, and Annie on Broadway, and has appeared in several movies and on the stages of regional theaters, playing Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly, Miss Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Jeanette Burmeister in The Full Monty.

Now she’s in Nunsense and is loving it.

The plot revolves around the Little Sisters of Hoboken, whose cook accidentally poisons most of the order (five of them didn’t eat the vichyssoise; they were off playing bingo). The survivors’ coffers are pretty low, so, led by Rev. Mother Regina (Struthers) they decide to put on a variety show in the school auditorium to supplement the burial fund. Among the acts are tap and ballet dancing, comic routines, and some funny surprises.

“You know, it’s not about being a Catholic nun, this show. This show’s about being an entertainer. The nuns … happen to be wearing habits and veils and wimples and scapulas, but we’re showgirls,” Struthers said.

Nunsense made its off-Broadway debut in 1985 and ran for more than 3,600 performances, becoming the second-longest-running off-Broadway show, behind The Fantasticks. It’s been translated into 26 languages with more than 6,000 productions worldwide.

And it finally made it to Toledo.

- Doonesbury: plumber's cracks.

- Opus: the cliffhanger...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Palin's Gas Pains

One of Sarah Palin's big talking points has been that she's a reformer who knows how to get things done. Case in point has been the gas pipeline deal she says she's crafted for Alaska. But it turns out that not only has the pipeline not even been started yet, there were some sketchy dealings going on.

Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.

"We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets," Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles. In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:

-Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group - the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.

-Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

-The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.

-Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

What was that she was saying about being such a reformer?

Saturday at the Movies

From 1972... The Candidate, starring Robert Redford and Peter Boyle.

(PS: Groucho Marx has a uncredited cameo in what would be his last movie role.)

I Voted Today

Early voting began for this election season on Monday, October 20, at twenty locations throughout Miami-Dade County. All the reports were that there were long lines and people waiting three and four hours to vote. Since early voting doesn't require that you vote in your precinct, the twenty stations can accept voters from anywhere in the county. When you get to the clerk's station and give them your registration and ID, they print out a ballot for your precinct.

Because of my work schedule and out of curiosity, I decided to vote early this time. I've been voting since 1972, and although early voting has been around for a while, I was a traditionalist; I felt there was something significant about casting my ballot on the actual Election Day. It's not that I hadn't made up my mind about my choices, but I'm also the kind of person who will wait until Christmas morning to open my presents, too. So throwing tradition to the winds and going along with the idea that this is a "change election," I grabbed my car club ball cap and drove over to my nearest Early Voting site, which is the Coral Reef Library. Early voting was open today from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It was a nice Florida fall morning; partly cloudy, around 82, and a little humid.

I got there at 9:38 a.m. I had to park in the lot of a medical office two buildings over. The berm in front of the library was packed with people waving signs from every campaign, and after I parked, I had to wade my way through the forest of signs for Barack Obama, John McCain, Raul Martinez, Vote Yes on Amendment 2, Vote No on Amendment 2, Vote for Judge Colodny, and every other county-wide name you could think of, plus some I'd never heard of. The line started at the front of the library, went out onto the sidewalk, then turned north and went 100 yards to the back of the lot, which was marked by a cement wall about five feet tall. The line continued west another 100 yards or so past the open lawn behind the library, then turned south and went another 100 yards back to the street. I got in the line about half-way down the southbound wall behind a couple of ladies with small children in tow. The people in line were young, old, black, white, Hispanic, straight, gay (well, at least one -- me), and appeared to be from every walk of life in both Miami-Dade County and the rest of the country. There were families with small children, teenagers voting for the first time, elderly couples with lawn chairs and books to read, and everywhere were campaign workers passing out literature (I declined each one with a polite "no, thanks," including the sweet little lady passing out the fliers from the Christian Coalition). There were also some people handing out bottles of water, which were gratefully accepted. (No one, however, had the foresight to rent a Porta-Potty. That would have come in very handy.)

After forty-five minutes, the line had moved about 100 yards, and while I had brought along a book to read (Brideshead Revisited), I found myself passively eavesdropping on my fellow queuers; the young couple behind me who switched between Spanish and English were apparently planning to cancel each other's votes; he was for McCain while she was for Obama. The lady in front of me with the small children patiently entertained them, and her son, who was almost three, found a stick so he ran around the lawn doing an amazing imitation of a lawn guy with a Weed-Eater, right down to the sound.

After an hour, I noticed that no one in the line was expressing any sort of impatience. Like me, they seemed to be content to wait their turn, and we noticed that one of life's little mysteries was that the line moved faster when we were in the shade of the live oak trees and slowly when we were in the sun. Some compared it to standing in line at Disney waiting to get to ride on Space Mountain.

Another hour went by. I talked to Boatboy on the phone for a while, and then noticed that while I was talking I had actually moved up to the point where I was standing on the sidewalk in the parking lot. Another fifty yards or so and I would make the turn to the sidewalk in front of the library and actually see the front door. Campaign workers were now passing among us with more water and candy and a couple of candidates from local races such as the Pinecrest City Council were doing some handshaking, well outside the "no campaigning beyond this point" line.

Poll workers were now visible, counting us out and moving us up in the line in small groups. The election officials announced that anyone in the line at 1:00 p.m. would be allowed to vote. Finally, at 1:10 I was ushered into the library and the relief of the air conditioning, and I handed one of the clerks at the seven or eight computer terminals my registration and picture ID, got my customized ballot, and was escorted to one of the twenty or so privacy booths to fill out the two pages of my ballot, making sure to mark both sides, and making sure to fill in the little "bubble" mark completely, just like doing the answer sheet on an SAT. I was then taken to a scanner where I inserted the ballot pages and watched as the optical scanner read and tallied my vote. The nice little man handed my my "I VOTED TODAY!" sticker, and at 1:30 p.m., approximately three hours and fifty minutes after arriving, I was done.

As I walked out of the library and back to the parking lot, I noticed that the line still stretched around the building, and standing where I had stood four hours before was a man in a baseball cap reading a book, waiting in line to vote.

Short Takes

- Florida in Play: Why the Sunshine State is leaning for Obama.

- It's For Real: Barack Obama's lead in the polls will hold through the election.

- Al Franken is No Joke: the former SNL comedian is leading in his Senate race in Minnesota.

- Pushing the Hoax: the McCain campaign's involvement in selling the Ashley Todd hoax.

- Learn to Logic: Sarah Palin mocks fruit fly research over special needs education. Except fruit fly research has led to breakthroughs in autism research.

- Saturday Morning Cartoons: Peter Potamus.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Friday Night TV

Gather 'round, warm up the Philco, and tune in. But first, this important message...

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Nice Work If You Can Get It

From The Caucus:

Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch?

Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staff member. It was Amy Strozzi, who was identified by the Washington Post this week as Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records.

To quote Reese Watson (Hal Holbrook) on Designing Women, "Nobody's that ugly."

Question of the Day

The Great Amaz-o...

Can you juggle?

No. My hand-eye coordination is limited by the fact that I have strabismus and therefore no 3-D vision. Also, I'm a klutz.

There's Terrorism, and Then There's "Terrorism"

Following the trail from William Ayers and the McCain-Palin campaign's obsession with domestic terrorism, Brian Williams of NBC asked Sarah Palin: "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist, under this definition, governor?" Her reply, in part: "I don't know if you're gonna use the word 'terrorist' there..."

Huh? Terrorism is terrorism, whether it's an abortion clinic, a gay night club, a federal building in Oklahoma City, anthrax letters, or airplanes flying into buildings. You don't change the definition of terrorism based on your political views. Unless you're a complete fanatic, that is.

HT to Steve Benen.

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