Gaza

I'm starting to seriously question Israel's Right to Exist.

Afghanistan

The solution to our lingering occupation of Afghistan is simple: just convince the Taliban to change their name.

All the big Al Qaeda guys are hiding in Pakistan anyway. The only reason we can't just pull out and hand the country over to the Taliban, which is an alliance of Pashtun, the country's largest ethnic group, is because of the link between their name and the 9/11 attacks. But all of the Taliban higher-ups who were involved in that are dead or captured.

So change your name to "The Pashtun Anti-Terrorist Alliance" or something, and you can have the country back.

I'm totally serious about this. In fact, I'm pretty that it is what's going to happen.

And I hate Nixon!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.

Adam Walsh's Killer

I've been following this case for years, basically because I think John Walsh is a fucktard, and his right-wing kill-the-bastards-and-let-god-sort-it-out thoughts on crime in this country have hurt way more people than they've saved. That being said, he really did deserve to know.

EBONY

I, like many of you, have been waiting with baited breath, trying to guess who Ebony Magazine will name as its person of the year.

The suspense is over.

BlagoLand

I haven't really commented much on my Governor's current legal battles. The reason is simple. Larry does it better.

Archpundit is a close personal friend... why, we've even had a beer together before!

And I just want you to know that I voted for the bastard twice. I did not, however, vote for him in the primary.

And I'd do it again. What was I supposed to do, vote for the Republican?

Primaries are important. Before this little bit of fun, I was thinking Jackson for Senate, and Madigan for Governor. But Quinn is super fun, a crazy in the Kucinich mold. Let's see how that works out.

Madigan v. Jackson for Senate? I love that our top Senate candidates are both in politics because their dads are important.

Whenever the Senate primary is, I plan to vote for the farthest lefty with a chance to win. That worked out last time, when I voted for a nutty black reformer from Chicago with a funny name.

There's only one Republican in Illinois who can win statewide office now. His name is Pat Fitzgerald.

FDR

It appears that there's some controversy about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal in certain conservative quarters. Amity Shlaes is an "intellectual" pundit who likes to go on TV and tell people that the New Deal didn't solve the great depression. George Will, despite being smacked around by Paul Krugman, gives movement and mainstream authenticity to her claims on Sunday mornings, on George Snuffleupagus's show. We need a simple response to this ludicrous claims that treats them with the seriousness that they deserve.

At the same time, we're actually having trouble figuring out "make work" projects for the new stimulus package. Since federal, state, and local agencies weren't anticipating the need or (political) ability to fund great works, we don't actually have a lot of sensible projects that are ready to go right now. They will come in time, as this recession will take years to work itself out, but we need ideas of things to do now.

Let me make a simple observation to deal with both issues: There's room on Mt. Rushmore for another face.

Best. Ad. Evar.

I found this while surfing around and reading coverage of Blago. If companies are going to advertise on political blogs, this is by far the best way to do it.

Did you know?

That the state of Illinois has established, with federal funding, a retirement home for our former Governors?

I love Andy Samberg

I just watched Saturday Night Live... and I jizzed in my pants.

Taibbi on the election

Matt Taibbi's latest article: Requiem for a Maverick

NaNoWriMo Victory

As you can now see on the right, I completed NaNoWriMo in the nick of time. I'm not actually finished with the novel at 50,000, and expect it to creep up a few thousand more words before I'm done with the first draft. Then I have a list of minor changes to make to it already, so I anticipate the first draft being finished sometime later this week.

After that, there are a few people who have offered to read and offer criticism, so they'll find a copy of it in their inboxes. I'm going to stick it in the proverbial drawer, and not worry about it for the next month and a half, as I finish applying to Law Schools. After that messy business is finished, I'll pull the thing back out and figure out what I want to do with it.

And, in case you were wondering, yes, I do feel like a viking.

Widgets

First things first, if you're reading this blog through an RSS feed, such as Google Reader (which is how I read most blogs), you miss two elements to this blog. The first is that I infrequently change the tagline at the top, just to see if people are paying attention, and the second are the widgets to the right of the main posts. If you're reading me through something else, then you'll need to click on over to the actual site to see what I'm talking about.

I have added two widgets to the blog. The first is the NaNoWriMo widget. I like this one because it tells you not only my daily progress, but it also calculates how much further I have to go. If you look over there, the first couple of lines are solid red. I didn't write much before, during, and right after the election, and the solid red lines are days when I didn't write at all. The length of the line is an approximation of how much I should have been writing, in order to keep pace to meet 50,000 words. Note how it lengthens. The Green/Red lines are when I did write, but not up to the pace that I should have. The Gray/Green lines are when I went beyond what I needed for a steady pace to win. In order to make up for my slow start, I've needed to have a few 3,000 word days. This has helped me catch up. Note how the gray portion recedes every time I beat the daily goal. And, finally the dark gray lines at the bottom are the future. Who knows what the future holds?

I don't, but I'm hoping for dinosaurs.

Moving right along down the widget lane, there's an ad. I basically put that there for testing purposes. Nobody clicks it. Don't worry about it.

Next up are my shared items! Most blogs have a blogroll, a list of blogs that people read daily. I think it's better to just link to the items in other blogs that I find interesting. This also keeps this blog from turning into a "Hey, look at this!" linkfest.

And finally, my second new widget, the follower feature. If you've ever felt a burning desire to have me e-mailed to you, or get frustrated when you check the blog daily and there's no new content, this is the place for you. Actually, I'd be tickled pink if people would sign up to follow me. It would be, like, validation and shit. It's google, so if you've got a gmail account, you're already registered, so what's to lose? Other than admitting to other people that you read my blog, that is...

And then archives and about me, blah blah blah.

And now, back to the novel-writing salt mines...

Nom Nom Nom Nom

You know, a year ago I would've been pretty entertained by a gigantic bank failure or two. But now that those are so common, it's becoming passe.

But you know what I'm really starting to get entertained by? Country failures.

Dear Switzerland, I suggest you place your head in between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

The Netherlands and Denmark look like they've got pretty bad situations too, but both of those countries are EU members, so Nicholas "St. Nick" Sarkozy's got their back.

Smells Like Socialism

A progressive income tax, despite what the McCain campaign liked to claim, is not socialism.

But the government owning facilities, paying doctors, and coordinating the health care of individuals is, like, the definition of socialized medicine.

I present to you, Marxist Hero Bobby Jindal, Republican Governor of Louisiana.

You can do that?

In the future, I will be casting my votes for the Lizard People.

Research

In addittion to writing, I'm also doing a lot of research these days in order to make sure that my book about TERRORISM OMG is accurate. My Greatest find thus far.

I once saw Father Phillip Berrigan speak at SLU. He was giving a talk and on one side of him was an American Flag, and on the other side was a Vatican Flag. He got up to the podium and said "Ahh, just like Jesus, hung between two theives."

GOP CIVIL WAR WATCH

Huckabee's new book should apparently be subtitled "Fuck Mitt Romney".

Huckabee's a smart guy. Not only is his brand of Conservativism the best hope the GOP has for becoming a national party again, but he's also smart enough to correctly identify the 2012 front runner.

This blog would like to on record as saying that it doesn't really matter who the GOP nominates in 2012, the results of that election will be entirely determined by how well the economy is doing, which will be determined by how effective Obama's policies are.

And the fact that it won't matter at all who they pick is what makes the GOP Civil War even more entertaining.

Ancient Jokes

Ancient Greek Joke Book.

It's about 700 years older than the thing at the link, but I still think Aristophanes is one of the funniest writers I've ever read. If I recall correctly the first part of The Clouds is full of Socrates making fart jokes.

Buffalo Commons

I heartily endorse this idea... and it's from a libertarian!

Obama Nerd Watch

The People have a RIGHT TO KNOW.

Next July

Our future socialist dystopia.

Two rigid ideological parties... YES!

Way back in 2005 I had a class on political parties and interest groups. One of the key points the professor tried to drive home was that the United States didn't really have National Parties, but rather 50 state parties and a national fundraising arm for the Presidential race every four years. I pointed out two things: the first is that the parties have becoming increasingly ideologically aligned, and that picking Howard Dean as DNC chief (instead of some fundraising flunky) meant that the Democratic party meant to become a national party. My Prof. allowed for the possibility that I was correct, except that there were still some outliers in congress, and that there wasn't an equivelent "celebrity" leader in charge of the RNC. I argued "wait and see" about the congress, and pointed out that since Bush was President, he was leader of the party, so the RNC didn't need a "leader" leader.

Well, following 2006, the most liberal Republican is more conservative than the most conservative Democrat in congress. Republicans elected from New York are more conservative than Democrats elected from North Carolina. That's an ideologically coherent national party system, my friends.

And now that Obama's won the Presidency, he's replacing Dean with one of his own guys. And it looks like Newt Gingrich wants to be RNC Chairman. Newt being RNC Chair would prove my quasi-Marxist theory of partisan evolution true.

America is a big country, and we've long had a patchwork party system based on regional differences, but fifty years after the advent of mass media, we've finally cohered into a sensible two-party system. This is bad for political reporters, who like interesting stories about Mavericks crossing party lines. And it's bad for wanna-be philosophes who are oh so concerned that the parties don't line up with their particular esoteric political philosophies. But it's great for average voters, who don't need to really know anything about particular candidates before casting their votes.

Now I just need to start a campaign to bring back straight ticket voting...

NANOWRIMO

I got a late start because of the election, but in the words of Samuel L. Jackson, I continue to kick ass.

Secretary of State

There's chatter out there about who President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama might choose as his Secretary of State. While this blog officially supports Bill "America's Bestest Diplomat Evar" Richardson (and we strenuously object to Dick "I like to bomb things" Holbrooke), the two names I find interesting are Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

Some commentaries during the primary season compared the Clinton/Obama race to the Seward/Lincoln competition in 1860. William H. Seward was thought to be a lock on the Republican nomination in 1860, but Lincoln out maneuvered him for the nomination. After the convention, Seward agreed to campaign for Lincoln, and after the election, Lincoln chose him to be Secretary of State.

What's been missed is that there's a precedent for Kerry too. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson chose the former nominee of the party, William Jennings Bryan, to be his Secretary of State.

All I'm saying is, if Black Lincoln picks Lady Seward, the Republicans are running a General in 2012.

2012

Last night there was some irresponsible speculation on 2012. I know, I know. I think I brought up the topic of the GOP Civil War, the best new show since Heroes, and that eventually led us down the sundry path to 2012.

All the usual names were tossed out: Palin, Jindal, Huckabee, Charlie "Three Dollar Bill" Crist, RomneyBot™, and The Newt, along with a few lesser known Governors. Interestingly, no Senators were mentioned, probably because the GOP's Senators are either too old, certifiably insane, or Pro-Choice. Other Matt brought up the possibility of a General, and despite this, I think President Obama is going to keep Petraeus employed until 2012, at least.

But now I'm thinking Obama has to run against a General. Black Lincoln needs his McClellan! But who will it be?

Oregon goes for the Dems!

Jeff Merkley will be the next U.S. Senator from Oregon, and he will be one of the most five liberal Senators we have.

He almost lost. We could have won this seat easily if Merkley had run a bit more of a conservative campaign. Or if the fucking Greens hadn't gotten 5% of the vote.

How Ralph Nader Moves The Democrats Right

Below I pointed out how Naderism siphons voters off from the left and makes Democrats lose, and how this in turn makes progressive policy harder to accomplish. For example, Nader's "Medicare For All", which I and all other progressives agree would have an actual chance if there were 60 votes in the Senate. As it is, we probably won't be able to enact it. This is the fruit of Naderism.

But not only does Naderism hurt progressive policy options, it actually moves the Democratic Party to the right.

This, or something like it, is roughly what the ideological make-up of American voters and congresscritters:

This isn't exact, but let's say the median voter is the red line here. That means in a normal election between two candidates, a candidate must get all the voters up to the red line.:




Now, in an election where progressive voters are convinced to take Naderism seriously the median voter shifts, to the blue line here. Every left-leaning voter that is convinced to abandon the Democratic Party is a vote the Democrats have to make up. Nader's response would be that the Democrats should just move left — but it's much easier to make up the lost votes by moving 1% to the right rather than moving the 10% left needed to win back the Naderites.



If I were a Libertarian, whose policy preferences have been abandoned by both parties to a significant degree, I'd engage in tactical voting to encourage gridlock. I can understand the case for principled Libertarian votes. Naderism isn't like that at all. The Naderite or Green or Socialist critique of the Democratic Party is that the party isn't pure enough. They all fit together on a leftist spectrum, the Democrats are just interested in winning elections, so they have to be more conservative than fringe candidates. The harsh consequence of Naderism, however, is that it has the opposite result of its supposed goals.

If you want better liberals, compete in Democratic Primaries. When it comes to the general election, Naderism is generally a futile gesture, except when it succeeds, because then it's actively destructive to its own goals.

Future'd

I watched the returns on MSNBC last night, so I missed the most awesome development of the Election Campaign.

Hologram Technology is fucking here.

Third Party Suck

It didn't matter on the topline this year, but in the four outstanding Senate races, the third party vote is larger than the difference between the two candidates.

In other words (MARC ERIKSEN THIS MEANS YOU), third parties may have prevented the Democratic party from having the majority it needs for super liberal reform. In other words, the practical consequence of Naderism is to hold the progressive movement back. Or, in still other words, progressives who vote and argue for third parties are just helping the Republicans.

But, if you've been paying attention, that's old news.

SRSLY

Advice to Election officials: Next time start counting the absentee ballots as they come in, asshats.

Apparently Georgia didn't count any of its early votes, you know, early.

And what the fuck is Oregon's problem, anyway?

The election was yesterday, I should know how many Senators we have now.

Newspapers

Today's front pages.

Barack Hussein Obama

If Presidents renamed themselves after taking office like Popes do, I'm pretty sure Obama would be Abraham Lincoln II.

Open Letter #2

Dear Bryan,

You owe me $20. Cash or beer, delivered in front of as many mutual friends as possible.

<3

Open Letter #1

Dear Uncle Jim,

You owe me $20. Cash or beer, delivered in front of as many family members as possible.

kthzbai

Election Day

ZOMG JUST MAKE IT STOP. So tired. Want it all to end.

ZOMG LULZ

Howard's other ride is your mom.

I can't WAIT for the Election Night interview with Dean...

New Toy!

I am now the proud owner of a 4"x3" stamp of Obama's face.

If you come to Cherokee now I can put a stamp of Obama's face on YOUR FACE! Tell your friends...

4%

My NaNoWriMo.

I'm going to write a novel in November. My pace will pick up after the election. Blogging will slack.

Add me as a buddy if you're doing it. I work better with competition.

Voter Targetting?

I just got robo-called by the RNC... at the Obama Office.

A suggestion for Conservatives

I think the path back to power for the Republicans looks a little like this.

Election Haiku

From Slate's Bill Smee's:

McCain picked Palin.
Already 72.
Might die in office.

Cry, baby, cry

Charles meets Barack

Barkley for Governor

Sir Charles is planning on running for Governor of Alabama in 2014.

Forty-five years ago, this was the Governor of Alabama.

What a country.

Early Voting

Since my broadcast area is generally restricted to the St. Louis Metro area, you all should know that you can vote early every day up until the election.

People in St. Clair County go to the Belleville Courthouse downtown. People in St. Louis should go to 300 N. Tucker street and vote at the board of elections.

After you've voted, you can come volunteer at the Obama office on Election Day. It'll be super fun.

Law School

I'm starting to get e-mails from Law Schools offering me fee waivers if I'll apply to their schools. I figure that's a good sign.

How we begin our day

Every day until Nov. 4th.

Odd Polling

I'm kind of confused by why Obama's lead in the polls continues to grow. The race ought to be constricting as we close, rather than widening. Hell, in some polls I've even seen McCain losing ground.

Rather than any silly explanations that people might have (laying the credit at Colin Powell's feet, for example), let me suggest it's just the likely voter model changing. I've sort of suspected that pollsters have been dramatically understating how many of Obama's voters are actually going to vote. Now that early voting is happening the flaws in most polling models are beginning to show, as people they have as "not likely" have, in fact, already voted. As pollsters are forced to include the already voted in their polls, the demographics of the electorate change, and McCain loses a few points.

Election Night Questions #3

What happens in Texas?

Texas is a majority minority state (i.e. no demographic group has over 50% of the population of the state), but in the past a clear majority of the state's voters (66% in 2004) have been white, and they vote very Republican.

Most people assume that Texas is safe for McCain and that Sen. John Cornyn will win re-election, because the state has been so Republican in the past. I'm not sure, particularly because the Hispanic vote has shifted so dramatically towards the Democrats in the past four years (Bush tied Kerry amongst Hispanics in Texas).

I'm virtually alone in this, but I think the Road to 60 goes through Noriega.

And then, of course, there's also the matter of the state's electoral votes. While Texas isn't a swing state, I think it's the next red state after Indiana to go blue.

Casting Call

Seeing this made me realize that Bill Murray would play a perfect John McCain in the inevitable 2008 election movie.

Obama and Will Smith already have an understanding between themselves. I don't think anybody can argue with Kevin Spacey as Mike Huckabee or Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. And Samuel L. Jackson could lend the necessary GOD DAMN AMERICA gravitas to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

I have a hard time thinking of who to cast for Bill and Hillary, since John Travolta and Emma Thompson are stuck in my head from Primary Colors, maybe someone else has a better idea.

So, in the spirit of W., who do you guys think should play...

Bill and Hillary Clinton?
Mitt Romney?
John Edwards?
David Axelrod?
David Plouffe?
Howard "Sweater" Wolfson?
Tucker Barnes?

...feel free to add your own.

Election Day Questions #2

Will McCain break 30% in Illinois?

Current polling has it in the low 30s. Will the race a foregone conclusion, I can certainly see many McCain voters just staying home. On the other hand, Obama's political base in Chicago is certain to get out to vote for the hometown kid. So Obama might actually be able to double McCain's vote total in the Land of Lincoln.

You know, like he did with Keyes.

John McCain beats women

Or something like that.

Liberals!

Fascinating discussion between Mario Cuomo and Paul Krugman from last year.

Election Day Questions

TWELVE DAYS TO GO!

With the election coming up in less than two weeks, I have some questions that WILL BE ANSWERED.

Let's face it: Barack Obama is going to win the election (even the RNC thinks so), and he's going to win it easily. So what should you be looking for on election night, in order to keep things interesting?

Question #1:

Will Chris Shays survive?

The last liberal New England Republican, Chris Shays, of Connecticut's fourth district, barely survived the 2006 purge that took out the rest of the Republicans in New England. He faces an even stronger challenger this year.

But he's generally liked and respected in his district, and without the argument that the leadership of the House hangs in the balance, he may be able to survive.

Shays and Himes are currently tied.

Politics is fun

Doesn't this ad really make you wish you could vote for Kay Hagan?

Witches...

...some evil witches

The Picture

Barack Obama's Grandparents.

Let me join the ranks of those who think Barack Obama looks like a black version of Stanley Dunham.

Swan Song

I wonder how much the course of Western Philosophy has been shaped by the discovery of Black Swans.

Midget Porn?

This is not, strictly speaking, the most disturbing thing I've ever seen... La Pequeña Sarah Palin

This Should Make Their Brains Explode

Barry Goldwater, Mr. Conservative, arranged for his daughter to have an illegal abortion.

What happens when we win?

After the rout.

I agree with all of Chris's predictions to varying degrees. It really is pretty hard to predict what the Democratic Party will do, since their tactic over the past 2 years has been to hunker down and wait out the Bush Presidency, since he'll veto anything fun anyway.

In addition to the normal three axes in American politics (Economic, Foreign, Social), there's a fourth axis that could be described as Partisanship. For example, although Rahmbo is fairly conservative on most things, he's a hyper partisan and will always be first in line to try to fuck the Republicans. On the other hand, you've got a fair number of progressives like Kucinich who seem to enjoy telling Hoyer to get bent. So, once the Democrats have such a huge majority, and a President who will sign their bills, there'll be a wild and wacky period of inter-party alignment. My suspicion is that it'll end up being a fairly liberal working majority that ignores social issues and occasionally throws a piece of meat to corporate America. So: Yes on Universal Health Care, No on repealing DOMA.

Figuring out what the Republicans are going to do is easy. They'll probably fire Boehner, but even if they don't, they'll retreat to "Fuck you, that's why!" mode for the entirety of the Obama presidency. The House Republicans left standing after November will be the ones who are untouchable. If their districts are so conservative that they survive this election, then the only way they'll lose their seats is with a primary challenge from the right. And with such a large Democratic Majority (it's already larger than anything the Republicans managed from 1994-2006), they won't see any feasible way back into the majority. That means they have every incentive to screw with the Democrats, and none to work with them.

Which means the Democrats will be passing legislation by themselves, which is another reason they'll factionalize. Let's say we pick up 25 seats in the election. That'll make it 260 Dems to 175 GOP. That's an 85 seat advantage. But here's where they get bitchy. The GOP just decides that it's going to vote no on everything. Since all of their members are safe, and most of them are assholes, that bloc will hold.

So now you've got 260 Democratic Congressmen, of which 218 are needed to pass anything. Or, to put it the other way, only 43 Democratic congressmen need to be bought off by corporate lobbyists in order to stymie the progressive agenda. That's frighteningly possible, and the main reason why Kos has already made plans to wage a Jyhad against bad Democrats in 2010.

Fucked Fucked Fuckity Fucked

Nouriel Roubini, the man who's been right about everything so far, says you're even more fucked than you realize.

He's no Lincoln

Tasteful.

Actually LOL

This, my friends, is the funniest chat log in human history.

Byron York, renowned conservative hack, chatting with Matt Taibbi.

I've been sort of amazed throughout this entire financial crisis — conservatives have literally no idea what's going on, so it's unusually difficult for them to come up with a sensible sounding lies about the situation. Conservative responses aren't wrong, they're just nonsense, literally nonsensical. It's impossible to discuss things with people when they just don't understand something and refuse to admit it.

I suppose this is true about a number of things (most notably global warming and evolution), but in those areas conservatives have had decades to conjure up sophisticated bullshit that at least makes it seem like they know what they're talking about.

Da Sexy Times

Discussing our electoral prospects next month, someone recently asked me if we had any problem spots. I replied that we're probably going to lose a few house seats that we shouldn't have won last time, even though we're going to pick up seats over all.

I used as an example Mark Foley, whose house seat we never would've taken if he hadn't been fucking little boys. Oh, look.

Landslide watch

I just heard through the grapevine, that my racist grandfather, who hasn't voted for a Democrat since Truman, is planning on voting for Obama.

There are other factors, but I think this illustrates the sheer stupidity of the Palin pick. The Edwards voters in Kentucky and West Virginia (long after he exited the race, and in a democratic primary election) should've pointed out that the bigot vote doesn't like African Americans or Women. By picking Palin, McCain really neutralized his natural demographic advantage with those voters.

Break their backs

Man, winning makes Kos a psychopath.

Dean Reynolds

What a gigantic crybaby.

I just finished read The Boys on the Bus, which is a pretty vicious account of the press corp. during the 1976 campaign. If anything, it appears that things have gotten worse.

He's losing it

I'd be terrified if I wasn't so sure we're going to win.

It's Over

We're going to win this election. It won't even be close. Obama's field organization is so good that we'll probably win every state currently within the margin of error.

Today is the last day to register to vote in Missouri, and we've already registered more voters in this state than the margin between Bush and Kerry in 2004. And the polls have us beating McCain among voters who voted in 2004. We're going to win Missouri.

I would invite you all to start thinking along the same lines at Tim Noah.

Kick Ass

I've long argued that political reform in this country is made a lot easier by the fact that the world currently has a bunch of fairly well functioning Democracies. Instead of theorizing about political systems, like the 76ers did, we can simply observe other political systems and pick and choose what works best.

With that in mind, I heartily endorse South Korea's decision making process.

Ladies against Women Unite!

Well, isn't this precious.

Mad Dog

Matt Taibbi, America's greatest living political journalist, has written an article on Palin.

Rosh Hashanah

Kinda Funny:

Me: Hey, Linden, you went to Wash U., right?
Linden: Yes.
Me: Well, Happy New Year then!

Really Funny:

Linden: Oh yeah, I actually am Jewish, how did you know?

Pretty Good Speech

Got 26 minutes? Barack's getting feisty.

New Bailout Plan

That I support.

YARD SIGNS

Are here again. And they are no longer for sale — they're free to anyone willing to work a volunteer shift.

The dreaded "Phase 4" of the campaign has begun...

Funny

Searching on the intarwebs, I searched with the keywords "Barack Obama Muslim". All the usual suspects threw up results, with the top result being Obama's smear site. The rest of the ads were political of some nature or another. Except for one: AARP.org.

Just Don't Give a Fuck

The Republican party is rightly screwed. They're going to lose the Presidency, and lose enough Senate seats to cripple their ability to do anything.

But in the House, they've been hamstrung since 2006, and there is no hope for any change from that position any time soon. They have no leadership, and no plan for recovery. There is no way for a GOP Rep. to increase his/her power in the house beyond that of an ordinary member. These guys that remain, the majority of 'em, are from such hard right districts that they face almost no chance of losing re-election. Add to this:

1. They hate Bush, for being such a fuck-up.
2. They hate McCain, for being an apostate and an asshole.
3. They're too venal and corrupt to care about the rest of us.

So their default position on the bailout is: FUCK YOU THAT'S WHY! This will, of course, be their default position on anything and everything during the Obama administration.

That's More Like It!

Liberal PACs Ready Attack Ad on McCain’s Health - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com: "Two liberal groups – one of them directed by a brother of the Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean – will begin running a graphic attack advertisement Thursday morning raising questions about Senator John McCain’s health. Showing vivid and unflattering images of the fresh scar that appeared on Senator McCain’s face immediately after his last operation for melanoma skin cancer eight years ago, the commercial ends with a screen headline that reads, “Why won’t John McCain release his medical records?”"

Click through to see the ad. This might be the best negative ad of the season, so far.

Holy Shit

Al Gore: Burn The Motherfucker Down: "'If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we've reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon...'

Couldn't make out the rest because the crowd's cheers drowned it out, but he'd been complaining at the Clinton Global Initiative about coal plants that falsely claimed to have 'plans' to sequester CO2 from coal, so I guess that's the idea."

So, like, what if Gore starts travelling around the country organizing sit-ins to stop Coal Plants from being built? That'd be like the most awesome protest ever, right?

WTF

Is it just me, or has the campaign gone off the fucking rails?

Palin the Cheat?

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: SARAH PALIN'S SECRET LOVER REVEALED!: "In a world exclusive The NATIONAL ENQUIRER names GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin's secret lover!

No less than three members of the man’s family including one by sworn affidavit have claimed that Sarah Palin engaged in an extramarital affair with hus band Todd’s former business partner, Brad Hanson."

The Enquirer also broke the news of Edwards' affair months before the rest of the media went after it. I'd give this an 80% chance of being true. She wouldn't be the first Presidential candidate rocked by a sex scandal. Hell, she wouldn't be the first this year. But she would be another crack in the glass ceiling...

So true

Crappy Hour:: "MEGAN: Well, realism is pessimism to non-pessimists. Pessimists think nihilism is pessimism.

SPENCER: Meanwhile nihilists are beyond such concepts, much as they are beyond your lying, timid morality."

Frankly, I find nihilism to be liberating.

Follow the money

Obama advertising up nationwide:

In a sign that the Obama campaign is getting serious about tapping his financial advantage over McCain with six weeks to go, Obama's overall spending on TV ads has jumped 50% in the last two weeks, while McCain's has held steady -- and Obama is now outspending his rival even as he's up on the air in more states.

But down in MO:

Interestingly, Obama's spending has remained relatively steady in Michigan and has gone up by less dramatic margins in hotly-contested Ohio, Tracey says. Meanwhile, Obama has scaled down spending in Missouri by 40%.

Pointing this fact out, and the accompanying inference, that Obama will likely win the election but lose Missouri, is going to make me very popular in the office.

How about...

a sales tax on financial transactions?

Say, like, a 2% tax every time you buy or sell someone else's stuff. That could be fun.

We're Fuckety Fuck Fucked

Daily Kos: Things Become More Serious: "All this would be bad enough, but the crisis could easily get much, much worse. Today's developments in the financial markets offered a preview (or at least a dress rehearsal) of how the next phase could play out."

I've learned over the years that one's predictions tend to be more accurate if they're heavily soaked in pessimism.

If you're sick in the head...

Biden Daily

Political Animals

Apparently, in response to Sarah Palin's shockingly awful record on conservation and animal cruelty, the Humane Society has endorsed a Presidential Campaign for the first time in history:

Dear Friend, 

I wanted to let you know that today, on behalf of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, I announced our endorsement of Barack Obama for President. Please see my blog below for more information, and help spread the word to animal lovers across the country.

Sincerely,


Mike Markarian
President
Humane Society Legislative Fund

Click here for the cutest campaign picture ever.

¡Viva La Resistance!

The House Skeptics Caucus, led by Brad Sherman.

I've got a good feeling about how this will eventually turn out, although someone may have to lock up Steny Hoyer for a few days.

Debate Prep

Fake McCain, Obama advisor Greg Craig:

Fake Obama, Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele:

The Dodd abides

That's more like it.

BUY BUY BUY

It's getting a lot cheaper to live in Manhattan.

Call your congresscritters

I just called up Jerry and asked him to tell Paulson to fuck off. I'll probably get a nice letter in a few days.

What The Obama Team Really Cares About

So, since I'm volunteering pretty much full-time for the campaign, I'm on the internal e-mail list. Usually I get e-mails about supplies, reporting security threats, vote reg. goals, etc.

Yesterday, for the first time, I got an e-mail to read a news article. It's actually a blog posting, but every Obama organizer in the country agrees with this.

Vicious Bastards

Poll shows support for torture among Southern evangelicals... that's because the categorization is just a polite stand-in for "redneck".

Alzheimer's

John McCain is seeming more and more Reaganesque.

Can we start to talk about it now?

HELPING OUT PALIN #9

This is the ninth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

#9 How would you balance concerns over human rights and freedom in China with the United States' growing economic interdependence with that country?

Our economic interdependence with China encourages liberalization in their economy and the spread of political rights.

Any punitive action that we take against another country just tends to increase the support of the people for the rulers, regardless of who or what they are. Bombing Kosovo increased Milosevic's popularity in Serbia. U.S. sanctions against Cuba are the number one reason Castro managed to stay in power for fifty years.

The most oppressive regimes in the world (Burma and North Korea) are also regimes which completely isolate themselves from the broader world — Tyranny can only survive in a vacuum.

If we really want a country to be kinder to its own citizens we ought to encourage it to become more interdependent with the broader world community, and China is on the right path.

The Ownership Society

I had no idea that this is what the Republicans meant!

So apparently the U.S. Government will now own 80% of AIG.

And there are around 305,000,000 Americans.

So congratulations, citizen! You now own 0.0000002624% of AIG! See if they'll cut your rates.

Don't fuck with Adlai!

Sort of unbelieveably, in her Wall Street Journal, Lady de Rothschild takes a potshot at Adlai Stevenson:

Democrats Need to Shake The 'Elitist' Tag - WSJ.com: "I must face the uncomfortable truth that liberal elitism has been a weakness of the Democratic Party for more than half a century. In 1952 and 1956, for example, Adlai Stevenson emerged as the presidential candidate of the party's 'new politics' wing. But while Stevenson's stylish, articulate, high-brow manner thrilled the nation's intellectuals, he could never connect with large numbers of working-class Democrats who found him aloof and aristocratic.

The 'new politics' Democrats have found their new, improved Stevenson in Mr. Obama."

He didn't lose because he was elitist and couldn't connect with working americans. He lost because he ran against Dwight "I kicked Hilter's ass" Eisenhower. Harry Truman offered to take a demotion and run for VP again if Ike would run as a Democrat.

Now I really like Adlai (that commercial I posted yesterday was one of his). Hell, here's a commercial from 1952 and one from 1956 endorsing Civil Rights, a decade before Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, what's "elitist" about that?

SRSLY?

Hmmm.

A prominent Hillary Clinton backer is endorsing John McCain because Barack Obama is too "arrogant" and "elitist". Steelworker? West Virginia coal-miner? Migrant farm worker?

Naah, globe-trotting baroness.

What can "elitist" possibly mean to this woman?

Ta da!

GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Never Edition

"Never. Is never good enough for you?"

— Nancy Pelosi, 2005, on her timetable for offering a plan to change social security. (source)

Clinch it!

Obama needs to release an ad like this.

There are worse jobs

I just registered a 49 year old woman to vote in her first election.

HELPING OUT PALIN #8

This is the eighth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

8. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If so, how would you recommend this funding be allocated?

Well, first off, drilling is stupid.

1. It's not much oil.
2. Offshore drilling is extremely vulnerable to weather fluctuations.
3. The oil we have in the U.S. should be saved for the future, for things like Airplane fuel, for which there is no good substitute yet, or plastics manufacturing, etc.

I would "fund" alternative fuels by creating market incentives for them through a carbon tax. Why pick and play favorites that are innefficient (ethanol) or mythological (clean coal) or potentially apocalyptic (nuclear)? Tax Carbon, all carbon output, and then split the proceeds from the tax between a flat rebate to the American citizenry, and infrastructure improvements (SUPERTRAIN!).

This will reduce greenhouse gases, encourage people to live greener lives (everybody gets the same rebate, so those who use less carbon will actually profit on the deal), and create more investment (jobs!) and liveable communities.

The idea of "Energy Independence", is, by the way, a ridiculous idea. Is there any particular reason we shouldn't buy wind power from Canada if they can make it cheaper than we can? The problem with our current energy regime isn't the foreign sources, it's the fact that it's destroying the planet and increasingly expensive.

Darwin

Did you ever wish you could watch an hour long discussion of Charles Darwin by two prominent biologists?

Charlie Rose with E.O. Wilson and James Watson.

Brown Voters

I posted the 2004 exit polls yesterday. Remember this part?

VOTE BY INCOME	BUSH			KERRY		NADER
TOTAL	2004	2000	2004		2004
Less Than $50,000 (45%)	44%	n/a	55%		0%
$50,000 or More (55%)	56%	n/a	43%		0%

And among the poorest Americans the result is even starker:

VOTE BY INCOME	BUSH			KERRY		NADER
TOTAL	2004	2000	2004		2004
Under $15,000 (8%)	36%	n/a	63%		0%
$15-30,000 (15%)	42%	n/a	57%		0%
$30-50,000 (22%)	49%	n/a	50%		0%
$50-75,000 (23%)	56%	n/a	43%		0%
$75-100,000 (14%)	55%	n/a	45%		0%
$100-150,000 (11%)	57%	n/a	42%		1%
$150-200,000 (4%)	58%	n/a	42%		*
$200,000 or More (3%)	63%	n/a	35%		1%

Now imagine what the last couple of election cycles would've been like if poorest 5% of Americans weren't allowed to vote.

Well, you don't have to.  Because undocumented Hispanics that live in America, do American jobs, and pay American taxes don't get to vote.

What the American electorate will look like once we offer amnesty and citizenship to them is left as an exercise for the reader.  

*Note also that Nader scores highest amongst the wealthy.  You gotta be pretty rich in order to "vote your conscience"...

Rumor has it...

that I'll be getting some yard signs to sell today. Thirty-five signs, first come, first serve, eight bucks a pop.

GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Greatest American Congress Edition

It seems to me that if the Senate and the House of Representatives, in this long and arduous session, had done nothing more than pass this security Bill, Social Security Act, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.

— FDR, signing Social Security into law, 1935

Porn and "Common Sense" Philosophy

Ross Douthat has an absurdist piece up at the Atlantic that appears to take seriously the idea that Pornography is a form of Adultery. The basic argument:

Start with the near-universal assumption that what Spitzer did in his hotel room constituted adultery, and then ponder whether Silda Spitzer would have had cause to feel betrayed if the FBI probe had revealed that her husband had paid merely to watch a prostitute perform sexual acts while he folded himself into a hotel armchair to masturbate. My suspicion is that an awful lot of people would say yes—not because there isn’t some distinction between the two acts, but because the distinction isn’t morally significant enough to prevent both from belonging to the zone, broadly defined, of cheating on your wife.

You can see where I’m going with this. If it’s cheating on your wife to watch while another woman performs sexually in front of you, then why isn’t it cheating to watch while the same sort of spectacle unfolds on your laptop or TV? Isn’t the man who uses hard-core pornography already betraying his wife, whether or not the habit leads to anything worse?

To which Brian Beutler tries to respond in characteristic philosopher fashion, by analyzing things:

sleeping with a prostitute may be like masturbating in front of a prostitute because both involve sexual acts with a prostitute, and masturbating in front of a prostitute may be like masturbating to porn because both involve masturbating, but that doesn't mean sleeping with a prostitute is anything at all like masturbating to porn.

This might be the case, but it doesn't actually matter.

What Douthat does to open up the argument is a thought experiment meant to appeal to our common sense intuitions about adultery, and then makes an argument based upon those intuitions. That's fine, as far as it goes, but this sort of argumentation ought to be reserved for things that we don't already have opinions about. My thoughts on pornography and adultery are already fairly well-formed — as are virtually everyone else's, I'd wager. This is not to say that looking at porn is or isn't adultery (although it isn't), but that a "Common Sense" argument like this is just a non-starter since we already have separate "Common Sense" thoughts on the issue at hand.

White Votes

On what planet does Barack Obama have a chance of winning the white vote?

John Kerry only got 41% of the white vote. If Kerry had won Hispanics with the 66% that Obama is polling, that would've shifted New Mexico, Iowa, Nevada, and probably Colorado.

Given the Hispanic shift to the Democrats over the past 4 years, the natural demographic increase of Hispanic voters, and a potential surge of African American voters, Barack Obama will win the presidency with just 40% of white voters. He ought to be able to pull that in any state outside of the South/Appalachia.

The Democrats will win in 2008 because of the shift of Hispanic voters. Everything else is noise.

Luchadoros!

I wasn't kidding earlier, we do have a couple of paintings of Mexican Wrestler masks in our office now. Here's the artist (who works above our office).

HELPING OUT PALIN #7

This is the seventh in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

7. Do you support the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which would lift restrictions on sales of nuclear technology and fuel to India, a country which hasn’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?

No. One of two things has happened:

1. We're getting played. The Administration, myopic about China and Afghanistan, is ignoring Non-Proliferation and has basically given India everything it wants in order to keep them "on our side".

2. The Bush Administration's instinctive drive to undermine the post-WWII liberal consensus hates international treaties and is doing everything it can to undermine them, even if it means giving away the keys to the nuclear store.

Whatever interpretation you favor, it's clear that if you'd prefer not to die in a nuclear holocaust, it would be better to embrace and extend the current regulatory scheme, rather than allow it to become irrelevant.

Battle of Seattle

Make this movie come to St. Louis.

The trailer isn't clear on the point, but the people wearing the plexiglass face masks are the bad guys.

HELPING OUT PALIN #6

This is the sixth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

6. Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lives in China and India. Who are those countries' leaders?

China is an authoritarian (although not totalitarian) oligarchy, broadly Communist in spirit, but pragmatic in practice. The current President is Hu Jintao, who's a fairly boring Technocrat. China's leadership is relative stable and should remain so until the Chinese Miracle wears off. What happens at that point is anybody's guess.

India is the world's largest Democracy, with two large ideological parties, a Hindu Nationalist party and a pragmatic Socialist party. They map fairly easily onto the Republicans and Democrats, if you replace all the crazy Christian BS with crazy Hindu BS. There are also a host of regional parties that make Indian politics fairly impenetrable. The Socialists are currently in charge, as they were for most of the 20th Century. The Nationalists had a brief stint in power during 1999-2004 wherein they almost nuked Pakistan but decided not to at the last minute due to pressure from the business class. As the Socialists appear less likely to nuke Pakistan (or China), I would prefer that they remain in power.

Beer

Free beer offer no longer operative as Linden is in the office and we'll be moving the beer to a walk-in cooler soon. This will prepare us for an all-day drinking marathon some time this week.

Obama/Biden '08!

People surf the web on Thursdays

Just so you know, while the traffic level for this blog has its ups and downs, more people have visited on a Thursday (as compared to other days in the same week) than on any other day. For every week. I find this exceedingly odd and cannot figure out a reason for it.

Glad to be in the midwest

Apparently somebody blew up Wall Street this morning or something...

Update: After reading through some commentary on the situation, I have concluded that we are good and fucked.

Anything the administration does at this point will just be a reach around.

T'awesome

My dad just sent me this as a bumper sticker on facebook.

FYI

So I walk into the Obama office to open it up for the week. I'm supposed to be here by nine. I'm early. Three things happen before I'm actually supposed to be at work.

1. I almost lock the janitor out of the office by accident. I apologize in English. She only speaks Spanish. Hilarious over-exaggerated sentiments of mutual understanding erupt from both of us.

2. Sorry, lady, I don't have any fucking yard signs. And don't lie to me and tell me that someone from this office said you had them. No one from this office said that. Comical paintings of Barack Obama as a Mexican Wrestler? We have those (and no, you can't have one), but no yard signs.

3. Holy Shit! There's a half-full keg of Schlafly beer in the back office! And nobody else is going to be in until noon.

BRING ME ICE AND YOU CAN HAVE FREE BEER.

GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: What About Taxing The Rich? Edition

The do-good liberal who said we have to take care of everybody -- and they are well intentioned -- the more debt they run up to give to the poor, the poorer the people get because they cannot keep up.

— Ron Paul, January 2008

GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Drug Warrior Edition

There is no legitimate use whatsoever for marijuana. This is not medicine. This is bogus witchcraft. It has no place in medicine, no place in pain relief...

— Bob Barr, "Drug War Chronicle", May 17, 2002

Liar, Liar

One of these days, Joe Biden's going to come out and say that John McCain's pants are — literally — on fire.

HELPING OUT PALIN #5

This is the fifth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

#5 How do you feel about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent visit to Syria? Do you believe the United States should negotiate with leaders like President Bashar al-Assad?

Come again? We currently have fairly friendly relations with Syria. They'd like them to be even better, and we ought to embrace that. Nancy Pelosi has met with Assad recently as well.

The Bush Administration has blamed Syria for many of the problems it has caused in the region, and Damascus has bent over backwards attempting to sate our demands.

One of the key problems that the Bush Administration has had diplomatically is that they've been too kind to our nominal allies and refused to negotiate with our "enemies". Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, and Pakistan have played us for fools repeatedly, just because their leaders are "good guys". Meanwhile, engagement with Iran and North Korea could have been brought to the table, and might have been willing to work with us more, if we had bothered trying to bargain in good faith.

I'm not even sure what Syria has done lately to piss off the Foreign Policy Mandarins (except for maybe the fevered dreams of the warmongers, who like to imagine that Syria is behind the Iraqi Insurgency), but the suspicion with which we view other nations just because they're supposed to be the "bad guys" is ridiculous.

GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Fine Minds of the 13th Century Edition

Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information....Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.

— Sarah Palin, on teaching creationism in public schools; Anchorage Daily News; October 27, 2006

HELPING OUT PALIN #4

This is the fourth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

#4 What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?

Me? I don't have a plan. Or rather, we shouldn't dictate to someone else how they ought to run their country. And, in fact, it seems pretty irresponsible to try and do so. What we ought to do instead is acknowledge the grievances on both sides and try to play the role of honest broker and negotiator.

That said, Israel currently faces a demographic timebomb. The Palestinians that live in Israel are growing in population faster than the Jews, and will overtake them fairly soon. The United Jewish Democracy is doomed.

Israel can stay united and maintain its current borders.

Israel can stay a Democracy and maintain human rights for its citizens.

Israel can stay a Jewish state and maintain its cultural uniqueness and heritage.

Pick two.

Israel can stay whole and remain a Democracy by extending full rights to the Palestinians, but then it will lose its Jewish character.

Israel can stay united and Jewish by establishing a South African-style Apartheid regime that severely discriminates against the Palestinians and makes them second class citizens. But then it won't be a Democracy.

Israel can partition off a part of itself as a Palestinian state, and remain Democratic and Jewish, but smaller. How it goes about doing this is important, however, because a Sharon-style unilateral withdrawal from the territories (basically giving the Palestinians shitty slivers of Israel to quarantine them) will only provoke more violence from groups like Hamas.

Right now most liberal U.S. and Israeli politicians favor a negotiated two-state solution. After Sharon, some conservative Israeli politicians favor a unilateral two-state solution. Israeli likuds and U.S. neo-conservatives seem to favor Apartheid.

As a post-modern liberal technocrat, I think everybody'd be better off if Israel gave up its Jewishness and stayed united and Democratic. But other people take their cultural allegiances stronger than I do, and it's really up to the parties involved to work this out.

HELPING OUT PALIN #3

This is the third in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

#3 What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?

There are a few minor theological points, but my sense is that the divide is more like the Catholic/Orthodox Christianity divide — a minor theological dispute is the excuse given for a larger ethnic/cultural divide.

Realistically, in most countries Sunni just means Muslim. Something like 70% of the world's Muslims are Sunni.

The Shia, largest of the smaller denominations, just happen to be the ethnic majority in two countries: Iran and Iraq.

This has led to a schizophrenic foreign policy towards the region: we support the Sunni minority (led by Saddam Hussein) in Iraq to counter the Shia in Iran, we support the Shia in Iraq to counter Saddam, and now both the U.S. and Iran support the same Shia government in Iraq in order to oppose both nationalist Sunni and nationalist Shia.

Oh, and Al Qaeda is a radical Sunni sect, just to throw that into the mix. And the regular Sunni hate them and they hate the regular Sunni.

The only lesson that I'd take from all this is that it's past time to seriously engage Iran. We'll be better off if moderate Shia run Iraq. Iran will be better off if moderate Shia run Iraq. Our interests coincide. If we'd let go of our fevered dreams of endless war, we could cut easily cut a deal that would benefit both the U.S. and the entire middle east.