Soulmate

Politico reports:

John McCain, in his first television interview since his shocking vice presidential pick, said that he saw in Sarah Palin "a partner and a soul mate."

Fine. Let's use that phrase. McCain chose a soulmate. One he had only spoke to extensively once.

Bait

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a post titled "Elitism Bait":

The entire Sarah Palin pick comes down to one thing--the hope that George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, or (God forbid) Will.I.Am. will make a joke about moose-burgers. At that point, the McCain campaign will cut an ad which says They're laughing at you. Vote for McCain and you can show the world. You can show them all!

I think it's a great point. Let's show a bit of restraint, and not take the cheap-shot bait.

Let's focus rather on shit like Cindy McCain joining in on the current meme that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is next to Russia.

Skills: Ideological Purity

Tim F, at Balloon Juice:

Thinking that [Palin]’s qualified to lead the United States only makes sense if you subscribe to the fringe partisan view that virtually anyone with the right ideological purity is qualified to do important jobs.

Wrapped

Umm. What is this Tentacle Porn?



Note: I recognize and abhor the sexualization of politician Sarah Palin across the political spectrum. There's no need for that. I don't mean to add to that here. My point is that it's so disgustingly obvious that the Weekly Standard is doing it - and in a way sooo reminiscent of a way more extreme and explicit form of sexualization!

Another Attempt at GOP "Celebrity Parallelism" Is Really Wrong

A bizarre article from CNN called "GOP to have its share of stars, too, is currently the #3 most viewed article on CNN.com. I thought it would be in the vein of article I pointed to the other day, with a thin set of low-profile celebrities that are actually Republican supporters.

Apparently, however, it doesn't even support its headline.

It begins:

(CNN) -- Now it's the Republicans' turn.

The Democrats turned out the star power for its convention in Denver, Colorado, right up to the final night, when the 80,000-strong crowd attending Sen. Barack Obama's closing speech at Invesco Field was serenaded by Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder, among others.

The Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, may not have the same oomph, but it won't lack for well-known visitors.

Sounds like we'll hear about all kinds of events related to the Convention, right?

But then it proceeds to give a list of performers and organizations who are indeed in the same city at the same time, clearly intentionally, but apparently not promoting the GOP, as the examples of Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder were:

• Members and events related to "the nonpartisan Creative Coalition," who are in Twin Cities after having been in Denver this past week. They are "devoted to arts advocacy as well as issues such as health care and affordable housing."
  
  
• A couple concerts sponsored by an anti-AIDS and global poverty group, the ONE campaign, also "nonpartisan."
  
  
• Beach Boys, Gretchen Wilson, and Sammy Hagar are all playing concerts in the same city as the convention, though no claim is made that they represent any kind of Republican support.
  
  
• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, "one of the GOP's biggest celebrity names" will in fact not be there.
  
  
• Rage Against the Machine, as non-GOP-supporting as you can get, is playing during the week.
  
  
• And finally, "there are also several arts-related events in a lower key."
  

Seems like the headline should have been: "No Celebrities Interested In Standing with GOP at Convention"

A Type Of Necklace

I'm not so into mocking old highschool pictures of people, but this one's pretty recent.



Nice beast.

"Dream Choice"

People.com:

People.com: Meghan, what did you tell your father about his selection?

MEGHAN MCCAIN: It's girl power and you know I'm all about that. She's very smart, has a sweet family. Her son's in the military and my brothers are in the military. We have a lot in common. This is my dream choice. I almost started crying on stage – and I am not a crier – when they were talking about this being the anniversary of women's suffrage. I couldn't be more proud. It's also a reinvention of the Republican Party. She's such a cool role model – and she's got great shoes! (Laughs)

Pat on the Head

AP: McCain makes history with choice of running mate.

By catching up to the history that Democrats made 25 years ago?

Good job, Republicans. Here's a pat on the head.

Careful

Michelle Cottle lays out some realities of tactics that the Palin choice introduces:

Biden nonetheless needs to tread carefully and show more self-control and finesse than he is normally known for. Palin may be a varmint-hunting, moose-stew-guzzling NRA lifer,
but she is still a woman--and an exceedingly delicate, feminine looking one at that. (A former Miss Wasilla no less!) And as irrational as they may be, the laws of politics forbid
any man from behaving in a condescending, bullying, dismissive, mocking, or otherwise
disrespectful fashion toward candidates of the fairer sex. Just ask poor Rick Lazio.

The fact that Palin looks to be a far more fragile flower than Lazio's former opponent makes Biden's job all the tougher. In head-to-head match ups, he will need to dismantle Palin completely, yet avoid triggering all those stupid, gut-level, subconscious, knee-jerk instincts that would lead voters to feel protective of her. This is particularly important in light of the remaining Hillary Issue. God forbid a meaningful chunk of Hillary dead-enders got it into their heads that, not only had Obama disrepected their gal, but now his number-two was dissing another sister. 

Whine all you want about how all candidates should be viewed and treated the same regardless of gender. The research and history of our politics show they aren't. Just something for Biden to think about when he's strapping on the gloves.

Practice

Gail Collins:

If she’s only on the ticket to try to get disaffected Clinton supporters to cross over, it’s a bad choice. Joe Biden may already be practicing his drop-dead line for the vice-presidential debate: “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine, and governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton.”

Not Too Much Luck, Sleepover

Politico.com:

[Obama] later released details of his congratulatory phone call to Palin.

“He told her she would be a terrific candidate and that he looked forward to seeing her on the campaign trail,” Obama senior strategist Robert Gibbs said. “He also wished her good luck but not too much luck.”

I also liked this little tidbit.

“You know, our families have just really hit it off,” Obama said at an ice cream shop in Aliquippa. “We had some of his grandkids over for a sleepover with [daughters] Malia and Sasha, and they just had a great time. I’m absolutely convinced that Joe Biden is the right person to help move this country in the direction where working families have a shot.”

Throw Away The Key

Ahh, the weekend. Coffee, internet, hopefully a rainy day. Perhaps some calculus problems.

Let's take a peak at the national news.:

MUNCIE, Ind. - An Indiana man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after admitting he forced his 7-year-old daughter to stab the family cat to death.

To which I say:

Her Father Shot The Grizzly

This is not an Op-Ed. This is the beginning of a biography article (under some category called "Woman In the News") in the NY Times, by William Yardley:

Her father shot the grizzly bear whose hide is now draped over the sofa in her office. She, too, hunts and fishes. She runs marathons. She delivered her fifth child during her first term as governor. They call her husband, the reigning champion in the annual Iron Dog snowmachine race, First Dude.

Dumb Smart

It didn't take long for the "This Shitty Choice Proves McCain Is Bold" narrative to take root.

Tom Curry, writing at MSNBC:

She represents the most audacious gamble in McCain’s career and a gamble with the fortunes of the Republican Party.

Catholic.org:

The Maverick has indeed gone bold.He has just infused this 2008 presidentail campaign with a jolt of raw energy.

Victor Davis Hanson, at NRO writes a post titled "A Maverick Choice."

Too Funny

washingtonpost.com asked some "political experts" for their thoughts:

LISA SCHIFFREN
Speechwriter to Vice President Dan Quayle and contributor to the National Review Online's "The Corner" blog

My first response to the Palin choice was to say "Yaaay!" -- and to call my daughters to the TV. The GOP rarely hits those emotional chords -- or makes the edgier choice -- but John McCain has done it big-time by partnering with a young woman who worked her way up to the governorship of Alaska while happily married and raising five (!) children.

Double-Maverick

Toby Harnden, at Telegraph:

I've just got off the phone with a senior McCain adviser at his Arlington headquarters who summed up the Palin pick this way: "A maverick with a record of reform has chosen a maverick with a record of reform. John McCain is putting Washington on notice that there's a shake-up coming."

MCCAIN PICKS ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN AS VP CANDIDATE - New York Post:

DAYTON, Ohio - John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a maverick conservative with less than two years in office, as his vice presidential running mate Friday in a startling choice as the Republican National Convention drew near.

MSNBC:

In his introduction of Palin, McCain portrayed her as a McCain-like maverick and as ordinary mother who understood the struggles of other parents.

"Maverick" is the only idea they have.

Palin - vote for her cuz she's like McCain!

New Story

Will the new story be that because Palin seems like a terrible choice, it proves that McCain is super Maverick-y?

Taking Cues

Amanda Marcotte:

This is also a sign that the Republicans are taking all their cues from the Democrats this election. The Democratic convention is a non-stop discussion of women’s rights to reproductive health care, equal pay, and freedom from violence.  Republicans grab their asses and pick a female V.P., hoping that they can get in on some of that action.

Head Fake

Could it be that he's picking a terrible pick, because, um, then he'll have room for improvement? Low expectations?

Well, it's probably Good News For McCain.

I can't wait to read Kristol or Rove or Krauthammer's take on why Palin's so perfect.

A woman, loves drilling, pro-life....anything else they can say?

Atrios, on Palin:

Proof that all the very well connected journalists know absolutely nothing.

Logic

How can you take Jonah Goldberg seriously?

McCain wants to lower the corporate tax rate to make us more competitive with our rivals. Yes, oil companies are included - but by this logic (as my colleague Ramesh Ponnuru notes), Obama's middle-class tax cut will be a tax break for hookers and serial killers.

Believe it or not, there are some who do.

A good opportunity for a classic - based on a shot from the Creationist Museum:



Credit to "Yuri2356," posted in a contest on Scalzi's site.

"strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort"

He showed no fear and spoke of actual common ground in addressing hard topics:

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.

The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.

I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.

You know, passions may fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.

But this, too, is part of America's promise -- the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

Jumble Of Crap from the Wall Street Journal

What is this schlock from the Wall Street Journal?:

McCain Seems To Have Obama Beat in One Arena

Sen. Barack Obama appears to many people to be running a far more tech-wise campaign than his opponent, with his use of text messages to announce his vice-presidential candidate and the creation of his own vibrant social network, My.BarackObama.com.

But Sen. John McCain is in some ways outsmarting Sen. Obama when it comes to Internet marketing.

Oh,my! Bold statement. Let's see what the evidence is.

One example: As of Wednesday, a Google search for "Joe Biden" or even just "Biden" resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled "Joe Biden on Obama" that links to Sen. McCain's site. There, a video begins playing that shows Sen. Biden criticizing Sen. Obama during the Democratic primaries. The move mimics the "ambush" strategy that advertisers often employ: buying a competitor's term so that an ad for the buyer's own product appears when a consumer searches for the other brand.

Sen. McCain was able to pull off that sleight of hand because he outbid his opponent for the search term "Joe Biden." As a result, Sen. McCain's ad takes the top spot alongside search results, while Mr. Obama's ad appears lower in the results.

Sen. McCain's team has been the aggressor in other ways, too. In recent days, it has bought search ads tied to key terms such as "U.S. economy" and "housing crisis," which take visitors to Web sites outlining Sen. McCain's plan on those issues.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp largely has yet to advertise around these terms, missing a key opportunity, according to experts, to communicate his message to undecided voters.

"The big downfall is that Obama's not reaching the undecided voters," says Janel Landis, senior director of search development and strategy at SendTec, a search-marketing firm that has been tracking the candidates' techniques since June. "He's not bidding on issues or his competitor's name."

His competitor's name...like "Joe Biden?" This article is wobbly. What's the "One Area" in which McCain "Seems To Have Obama Beat," again? Ambush ads?

What other evidence do you have?

In July, the McCain campaign had 15.1 million sponsored link impressions -- the number of times that an ad is downloaded onto a computer screen -- compared with the 1.2 million for the Obama campaign, according to Nielsen Online.

Um, come again?

...sponsored link impressions -- the number of times that an ad is downloaded onto a computer screen.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Anyway, let's go with it. 15.1 million is way bigger than 1.2 million. 12.5 times larger.

Sen. Obama, meanwhile, has chosen to focus online ad spending around display ads. The Obama campaign had 416.7 million image-based ad impressions, compared with Sen. McCain's 16.5 million.

416 million? 25 times larger.

But fine. McCain buys more ambush ads than Obama. More often when someone thinks they're clicking on something that will tell them information about Obama, they are actually taken to the McCain website. This is the "One Arena" McCain is winning in? Is the campaign proud of this?

Moving on...

Both campaigns have made quantum leaps in using the Web for marketing compared with where the two parties were in 2004.

Ahh, balance. Know what else? Both candidates use electricity many times during the day.

Here, too [in traditional media, like TV], Sen. McCain's camp has something to crow about this week. New data shows that Sen. McCain's ads that ran during the Olympic broadcast on NBC Universal were more memorable than Mr. Obama's commercials, according to IAG, a Nielsen firm that uses an online panel to track the performance of advertising.

"Memorable?" Interspersing attack ads into the Olympic Games coverage? Yes, I remember that, certainly. It was memorable. And sickening.

The political ad that Olympic TV watchers were best able to recall included Sen. McCain's attack ad that said Sen. Obama is the "biggest celebrity in the world" but questions if he is ready to "help your family?" The spot went on to promote Sen. McCain's renewable-energy plan.

Ahh, WSJ, bring it back to me. What else did it say? Perhaps you could embed it here?

To come up with its data, IAG looked at about 1,600 surveys of likely voters who watched NBC Olympic broadcast where the political ads aired. IAG uses an online panel of consumers who regularly log into an IAG Web site and answer questions about TV shows and ads they saw in the past 24 hours.

Higher recall of ads is "typically the result of better creative and that is the story here as well," says Alan Gould, IAG's co-chief executive officer.

The attack ad didn't sit well with everyone. About 27% of the people who remembered the celebrity ad said they were less likely to vote for Sen. McCain after seeing it.

So there ya go.

Wait, what were you talking about again, Emily Steel and Suzanne Vranica? What was this "One Arena," again?

Greek

Eschaton:

Greek Revival

And there are these giant buildings all over this city, Washington DC, where many of these reporters live and work. I assume they've noticed a couple of them.

No Way To Win, Part 4435

Jesse Taylor:

Of course, there is no backdrop that Obama could have for his speech that wouldn’t play into Republican attacks on his “celebrity”—if he had it in the Pepsi Center, it would be compared to glitzy stage shows by (just throwing out a name here) someone like Madonna.  If he took it to a small, intimate setting, it would be compared to a wine party among celebrities.

Exactly. As Atrios said, we knew there'd be a hissy fit, we just didn't know what. It's just hilarious that it turned out to be about the props.

No Other Option

Desperation, NY Post-style:



Translation: "Nah, nah nah boo boo."

Long Thought

Jonah Goldberg in his happy place:

I've long thought the first black president would be a Republican. I still think it would be better for the country if that were the case, and if Obama loses I'm sure the next African-American with a shot at the job will be a Republican. 

Prickly

I can't wait for the Republican Convention - especially this guy's speech.

Bush-Style

In case you haven't seen this yet, a pretty incredible piece of communication that should be repeated ad nauseum until November. This is the face of the McCain campaign:

(CNN) – A health care policy adviser for the McCain campaign told a newspaper reporter that nobody in the United States is technically uninsured, because everyone has access to hospital emergency rooms.

"So I have a solution [to the health care crisis]. And it will cost not one thin dime," John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday.

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Hospital emergency rooms cannot technically turn away anyone for financial reasons.

Apparently McCain was pretty embarassed.

UPDATE: McCain's campaign says they do not consider Goodman to be an official campaign adviser.

Did Mr. Goodman LIE to the newspaper? The newspaper has not yet retracted its own description of Mr. Goodman

...helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy.

What part?

UPDATE: ThinkProgress points out that Goodman wrote an op-ed the WSJ earlier this year, and was referred to as an "unpaid advisor."

It's certainly more "official" contact than all the Ayers crap.

Maddow For President

How awesome is Rachel Maddow?!

Unlike Olbermann, Maddow plans to interview some conservative guests. But she is determined to avoid the left-right pairings that sustain much of cable news.

"It creates fake balance," she says. "I'm sorry -- we're going to have a debate about whether or not the Earth is flat? It doesn't make sense to have a debate about whether offshore drilling is going to bring down gas prices. You know what? It's not. The fact that it's false ought to be reported, or you're advancing a lie."

Can't wait for her show.

The lack of challenging guests is Keith's biggest weakness in his eyes. He brings people on so he can have someone to make his point towards. He puts it in the form of a question, but it's still Keith making his point, like "Is it true that Bush is just being a ninny, where he could in fact be a President?" Guest: "Yes, Keith."

(via the lovely and talented John Cole - I pulled the same quote out of the WaPo article)

Take The Damage

Wil Wheaton's friend Andrew tells a story:

The mage was on guard, heard a rustle in the woods outside the camp, and immediately unleashed a fireball.

"You aren't going to wait to see who it is?" asked the DM (different guy; we rotated). "What if it's one of your friends?"

"They can take the damage," replied the mage's player.

Gerson Confuses 'Em

This is a funny moment.

Frequent Townhall.com write MIchael Gerson takes a break from writing articles like "Will the Environment Survive the Environmentalists?" and confuses the hell out of his commenters by writing an article telling Obama to be more high-minded and lofty in his speech tonight, etc, and that

...Obama can make all these points with added power because he is part of a great moral story involving aspiration, faith and the struggle for unity.

Uh-oh, someone caught Obamamania! It's still goin' around!

His commenters rub their eyes and shake their heads, but still he proceeds:

This is the reason I will set my sons before the television set to watch Obama's speech. Because it is not "some men" but "all men." Because a historical journey that began in the Middle Passage can end in the Oval Office. Because a "dream deferred" can be fulfilled.

Obama should not underestimate his moment -- or squander it.

Save commenter "Jack," who adds a comment titled "Heroic Conservatism," they're all confuuuuuused. Commenter junkman writes:

What in the H-E-double-toothpicks are you talking about? Wake up dude...BO's a radical liberal. Keep your family away.

Toy

Atrios's clear thinking is a gift to us all:

I really just wonder when and why the war preznit decided that winning his glorious war meant staying there forever instead of declaring victory and going home. I guess it's not fun to get a new toy and then give it back.

Sherlock Hoft

God these people are fucking stupid.

oops

put a bunch of posts in the last two days on the wrong blog. Fixing that.

Energizing

Shorter Richard Olivastro:

Selecting Rick Santorum Checkmates Biden

• Rick Santorum would be the Barack Obama of a McCain/Santorum ticket

About Something

Ezra Klein summarizes:

Clinton's message was simple: Her candidacy was about something, not someone. She is a Democrat, not a Hillaryite. And if her supporters believed in her, then that's what they were signing up for: An effort to expand health care, and weight economic policy towards the middle class, and refashion American foreign policy into something sane and recognizable. The candidate left in the race with a similar set of beliefs is Barack Obama.

I think this points to the lack of "he's an awesome guy" in her speech, but leave it be. Put down the pipe.

By all means, if you'd prefer to investigate Hillary's psychology, you can enjoy next year's TV movies about this campaign.

In Our Faces

dday:

Our foreign policy is literally blowing up in our faces on multiple fronts, but the media is dead-set on whether or not someone with a sign somewhere is a PUMA or not.

grr

American Story

Claire McCaskill is rolling out the New Season in her Democratic Convention speech:

Barack Obama's story is an American Story.

I think we'll hear that point made a lot in the next couple of days.

Popularity

The Jed Report:

But the funny thing is that even if you were to count up all the votes, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won a higher percentage of the Democratic primary vote than John McCain did of the Republican primary vote.

Meaningless, sure, but funny.

Facing the Truth

Go, Digby!

The Rat[Loving] Express is rolling ahead with an ad called "Passed Over," lamenting the fact that Barack Obama didn't select Hillary Clinton as his running mate, despite the fact that she received millions of votes. The McCain camp charges that Clinton spoke the truth and Obama couldn't stand the pain.

I, for one, cannot wait to celebrate the exciting news that John McCain has selected Ron Paul as his vice president.

Categories

Roger Ailes (not that one):

The McCain campaign keeps emphasizing that McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam, as proof of his qualification for the Presidency.

Well, so was Gary Glitter, and I'm not voting for him either.

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #924

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #924, originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

I love Ape Lad's "Hobotopia" comic soooooo much.,

Stop, Now

Digby's not interested in the "Be Nice, Now" Democracts:

Isn't that precious? The American people are sick of vicious, bloodthirsty Republicans which means that Democrats can't mention the fact that Republicans are vicious and bloodthirsty.

Time to Ignore

John Cole:

Personally, if I were Hillary, I would be furious these scumbags have latched on to my reputation and legacy. It really isn’t fair to her.

And I think we are officially to the point we can ignore these idiots. They are just nuts.

Celebrated

I'm not sure whether I wanted them to be real celebrities or a sad sack bunch.

In any case, they're a sad sack bunch. The article about how "McCain Has Celebrities, Too" cities Daddy Yankee (um, music star), Patricia Heaton (former "Everybody Loves Raymond" and Honorary Chair of Feminists for Life), and Jay Leno (Jay Leno).

Um, woo?

Oh, let me not forget those who might have been in the crowd:

Then [McCain] capped off the night with a fund-raiser at the Beverly Hills Hilton, where quite a few denizens of the movie colony were spotted by the pool of reporters who covered in the event. The pool reported that the actors in the crowd included Gary Sinise, Dean Cain, Jon Voight, Jon Cryer, Angie Harmon, Craig T. Nelson and Lorenzo Lamas, among others.

Seeing Real PUMAs

I'm quoting the whole thing from Ezra Klein, but it's an interesting experience. I'm having it vicariously!

Last night, wandering the streets of Denver, I ran into some real life, genuine PUMAs! Neither were delegates, and one was actually a Republican, but I interviewed them here. The interesting answers came from Tierney, the Democrat, who said she'd vote McCain because she thought it would give Clinton a better chance in four years, and that "there's nothing that would please my soul more than to see Obama lose." Meeting them was like meeting any other fringe political group (I also ran into some anarchists), and basically convinced me that this is an extremely small subset of people with extremely intense feelings who, unlike other extreme subgroups, are getting a whole lot of media attention and reveling in it.

Texas GOP - Cheap and Ugly

Steve Benen cuts through to the heart of why the Texas GOP is making the ridiculous argument that Obama's half-brother in Kenya, with whom he has zero contact, is poor, so hence Obama can't say he cares about the poor:

But let's cut the nonsense -- the Texas Republican Party isn't concerned about George Obama. There's a transparent subtext, which, once again, hopes to characterize Barack Obama as foreign, different, and somehow less than American. Even by Republican standards, this is unusually cheap and ugly.

Kristol Dreams

I had heard a lot about the irritating new Kristol column in the Times today, but couldn't actually bring myself to read it (beyond the first sentence. Kevin Drum saves us the pain and trouble and takes us a little further in:

In the first sentence of his latest NYT column, Bill Kristol reports on the "anguished cries" he's heard in Denver from Hillary Clinton supporters who are outraged about Joe Biden joining the Democratic ticket. In the second sentence, he concedes that he hasn't actually heard any "anguished cries" at all, but he "felt" as if he could "hear" them.

Yes, Bill Kristol is apparently doing his best Stephen Colbert impression, sans the wit, charm, and satire.

Read the rest of Drum's post for his take on the actual point of Kristol's "article," which is that the Official Orders of the Right are now to Accept Lieberman as McCain's VP choice. Heh.

Backwards

Noting a female reporter referring to the many women-centered forums at the Democratic Convention as an "estrogen-fest," Melissa McEwan makes some great points:

1. Men not being sexist shouldn't be contingent upon women not being misogynist. They should stop being misogynist just because it's the right thing to do.

2. Men and women are misogynist for different reasons: men to marginalize women, and women to ingratiate themselves with the men trying to marginalize them. Neither one is justifiable, but one is oppressive and the other is a (bad) strategy to deal with that oppression.

3. One thus sees that if the men who are misogynists weren't, the women who are misogynists wouldn't have any reason to be. Ergo, exhorting women to stop being misogynists so that men will stop gets it precisely backwards.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage women not to be self-loathing misogynists. It only means that we probably shouldn't treat them as somehow more responsible for sexism than sexist men. They really and truly aren't our worst enemy—if our worst enemy disappeared tomorrow, we'd never have a problem with sexist women again.

Noonanics

Mark Noonan, taking a break from saying that Obama has too little experience, says that Biden has too much:

While Biden talks a great game of being one of us, the fact that he’s lived in the Senatorial coocoon since I was a regular viewer of Bugs Bunny indicates that he just might not be aware of what day to day life for Joe Average is like.

They will hate you no matter who you are and what you say. Don't waste your energy on them.

Umm

I don't want to gloat, but...

8/15/08: Chelicerata: "a noun, a verb, and I-was-shot-down"

8/17/08: Atrios: "A Noun, A Verb, POW"

8/21/08: Hoffmania: "A Noun, A Verb, POW"

8/21/08: Carpetbagger Report: "A noun, a verb, and ‘prisoner of war'"

Whatever - it's pretty obvious!!

Hiding Behind the Skirts of the Surge

I was JUST saying how the White House (aka the McCain Campaign) has only The Surge, and what does Goldfarb, "official McCain blogger," run to the shelter of? At 3pm on the day his campaign's getting their rich-ass kicked?

Story of the Surge.

Because

Jesse Taylor creates a new form of joke:

Q: Why did John McCain cross the road?

A: Because John McCain was a POW.


---

Q: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

A: John McCain was a POW.

The Past

NYTimes.com:

Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said only: “The improved security in Iraq allows us to have conversations with the Iraqis about setting goals for more American troops to come home and for the Iraqis to take the lead in more combat missions. Any dates in an agreement will be based on conditions on the ground because we do not want to lose the hard-fought gains of the surge.”

The war began in early 2003. The "surge" began ramping up in early 2007, complete by let's say mid-2007.

The White House really believes that we can just pretend that those FOUR YEARS of the War never happened, and anyone who says differently is somehow living in the past - that the only relevant component of the Bush Presidency is the "surge."

We will never forget your crimes and your failures.

Ya Ever Use A Computer?

Those "interstitial ads" that Jerry Seinfeld did with NBC (often during The Office, etc) to promote his BeeMovie thing were seriously irritating, but his purported role in the new Microsoft "Vista's Great, Believe Us" ad campaign isn't going to help.

Mead

Digby, on the GOP refusing to permit abortion even when it threatens the life of the mother:

Welcome to the Dark Ages. May I offer you some mead?

Lots o' Space

When talking about the future of the "current iPod line," why doesn't anyone mention anything about the Classic? Does no one use or care to use big drives anymore?

Or is Apple just going to coast along pretty much unchained unchanged for years to come?

I bought a 160GB Classic a month ago and LOVE it. I've stopped using my iPhone for music.

Real Or Imagined

Read Atrios every day. Seriously.

As I've written before, Republicans will inevitably throw some sort of hissy fit over something real or imagined that happens at the Democratic convention in order to try to prevent any kind of convention bounce for Obama. Be prepared.

Lieberman's Home

Jason Zengerle :

But I do hope that when Lieberman gives his speech at the GOP convention, he realizes that the delegates cheering him on are the same people who'd be rioting in the streets if their party ever gave Lieberman anything more than a symbolic honor. In other words, Lieberman's only use to the Republicans is as a sideshow act; and he, of course, has no use anymore to Democrats. So, basically, he truly is a man without a political home. So sad.

I agree that his role largely is "sideshow act," ie. demonstration of "true post-partisanship."

However, I'm not so sure how much rioting there'd be. I think he talks "seriously" enough about bombing the enemy-of-the-week to be comfortably accepted into the fearful and hateful heart of the modern Bush/McCain Republican Party.

Terms of Probability

From reader John at Marc Ambinder's blog at The Atlantic:

Q: What's the difference between isolated and scattered thunderstorms?

A: The National Weather Service expresses the probability of 
measurable precipitation (0.01 inch) for a given location using 
percentages and terms such as isolated and scattered. Isolated means a 
chance of precipitation of less than 30% and scattered is used for a 
30% to 50% chance. Likely describes a probability of 60 percent or 
greater.

Kill Me

In this ad for Burger King, a cow tries to kill a man who is eating a chicken sandwich, because, um, he's not eating beef.

Now What?

I still enjoy garfield minus garfield:

Household Centipedes

Stars and Stripes:

"I’ve never seen anything like it," she said. "This bug was prehistoric."

Big. Quick-moving. More than 10 pairs of legs … having just one of these endearing qualities is usually enough to make an insect unwelcome, let alone all of the above, says Hideomi Kakimoto, a Yokosuka base environmental engineer.

But "geji," or household centipedes, are known as "good bugs" in Japan, as their ninja-like maneuvering (and, cringe, their ability to jump) allows them to hunt other household pests like cockroaches and clothing moths.

Wikipedia says that geji are even sold in Japanese pet stores.

(via Japan Probe, where the photo comes from)

What You Get When You Hire Goldfarb

John Cole notes that official McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb is using his position to fight personal battles and promote personal issues:

The bonus funny is that Goldfarb seems to have co-opted McCain’s online election effort to continue his on-again off-again feud with Andrew Sullivan. The only thing that has changed, really, is that Goldfarb has moved his portion of the fight from the pages of the Weekly Standard to the McCain campaign blog. That, my friends, is change you can believe in.

Classy.

What The French Call

We all say it every time a new post appears, but it's still great to have fafblog back.:

While the Democratic veepstakes is being driven largely by a search for qualities like Strength, Experience, and other ways to say Penishood, Republicans this year will be looking for candidates with a kind of energy or vitality, what the French call a certain having-a-pulseness.

NY1 - Queens Report

A local issue.

My letter to NY1:

Consider this a vote *against* the new "Queens Report" - the announcers seem unprofessional, the onscreen graphics do not match your regular graphics (close, but not quite - see, especially, the time/temperature fonts), and...I live in Brooklyn. Why do I need a Queens Report? If they're interesting NYC stores, just include them in your regular news.

Routine Outbreaks

Jesse Taylor:

You see, if you oppose the Iraq War because it’s going poorly, rather than because it was a bad idea on its own merits, you’re then forced to deal with the routine outbreaks of, “Look!  Progress!” that tend to infect the rhetoric of war supporters.

Freedom of Debate

Why is it within legal bounds for there to be corporate sponsors in our civil government decision-making process? Couldn't we - I don't know - put a few dollars worth of our tax income towards sponsoring Presidential debates?

Why don't we just put fucking banner ads on the voting machines?

Penguin-Skating Watch, Courtesy of Elyse Sewell

Former America's Next Top Model contestan Elyse Sewell keeps a quite entertaining blog of her world travels in her continuing modeling career, complete with a good serving of photography. I particularly like this shot from an ice-skating rink in Hong Kong.

Schiffren Wins!

In what I must term the most inane post of the year, Lisa Schiffren at the National Review Online complains as an aside about how NYC doesn't arrest "illegals," and how they let them sell counterfeit goods, but all of this is really a build-up to the central outrage of her piece: that those same sidewalk vendors sell Obama caps but have no interest in selling McCain caps.

Here is it, in full:

Here in New York City, as is well known, our officials never prosecute illegal aliens. Nor do they prosecute — or even discourage — people running veritable businesses selling stuff on the sidewalks. Much of that stuff, of course, is counterfeit designer items from China, as well as goods like socks and scarves. There are also dozens of unlicensed fruit and vegetable stands. This above ground underground economy pays no taxes, and they often compete with and undersell local stores — which seems unfair. Not to mention that they clutter busy streets. You would think a pro-business administration, like Michael Bloomberg's, would not tolerate that. And you would be wrong.

Now, adding insult to injury, politics enters the equation.

As it happens, most of the counterfeit purses, sunglasses, and some other shlock are sold by West Africans, most of whom are here illegally. In recent days, around the city I have noticed a new addition to their wares: rows of baseball caps with an "Obama" logo. No McCain caps — ever. If you ask, they laugh in a none too friendly way. It's not that I don't get it. But you would think that some of these children of God would carry "McCain" caps or t-shirts, if not in recognition of his support for them, then merely because some people might buy them. Market principles dictate that. And you would be wrong.

(via Sadly, No!)

Aha

Sadly, No! explains the current rules:

Apparently having your own jet and eight mansions isn’t elitist if it is an embodiment of your very own Republican “fuck-the-poor, help-the-rich” philosophy. Same thing with the $520 loafers — if they are worn while stepping on the face of a homeless person, they aren’t a sign of elitism. Liberals, on the other hand, aren’t allowed to talk about poverty, homelessness, or unemployment unless they give all their money away, move into a cave, quit their jobs, and walk around barefoot.

Just Embarrassing

I'd like to show my appreciation for this honest denouncement of Jerome Corso by Jon Henke at The Next Right, a site generally opposite to many of my own political opinions.

But intellectual honesty is beyond politics - or, it once was. Congratulations to Jon for saying that his vision of The Right doesn't need crap like Corsi.

I will try to keep an eye out for intra-party soul-searching like this on the Left as well, and honor it in my own way by posting here.

Jon writes:

The continued tolerance and prominence of Jerome Corsi - his books, columns and appearances - is just embarrassing.  It is embarrassing for the Right, embarrassing for Republicans, embarrassing for conservatives and libertarians, embarrassing for all of us. 

It's not just that he's frequently, remarkably wrong - something pretty well documented and acknowledged by both the Left and (while less enthusiastically) the Right.  (and the Obama campaign (PDF), of course)  Both the Obama campaign and Hugh Hewitt acknowledge that Jerome Corsi is "fringe".

Bad as his gross errors are, though, it's not just that.  It's also about who Jerome Corsi is. 

• Jerome Corsi is a smear artist (e.g., he has claimed that "Hillary Rodham Clinton is a lesbian and Muslims worship Satan").  


• Jerome Corsi has advocated the hysterical, deceptive North American Union conspiracy theory. 


• Jerome Corsi associates with white supremacists.


• Jerome Corsi is guilty of plagiarism.


• Jerome Corsi is a 9/11 Truther.

I mean, c'mon.  Have some standards.  This guy does not deserve the platform, he does not deserve the publicity, and he does not deserve to be treated as member-in-good-standing on the Right. 

The Right seems to engage today in social promotion of hatchet men, bullies and political hit men.  Those people poison the Right, and - whatever their temporary electoral effects - they serve to discredit us all. 

(my emphasis)

Don't Overplay

The six-to-one overseas troop support story is a good one for Democrats, but I think they should be very careful not to overplay it. Accusing opponents of "using the troops for politics" is an attack that Republicans are just much better at than the Democrats, and this could end badly if they dig into it too far. It will spread on its own, quick effectively.

Hell, even NY1 covered it this morning.

"a noun, a verb, and I-was-shot-down"

Guliani = "a noun, a verb, and 9/11"

McCain = "a noun, a verb, and I-was-shot-down"

CNN:

“If there is anything I am lacking in, I’ve got to tell you, it is taste in music and art and other great things in life,” McCain joked. “I’ve got to say that a lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again.”

Please No

This should be all I need to know to keep me from seeing the new Clone Wars movie:

...a kinda sorta girlfriend for R2D2...

But I fear that I will see it anyway.

Giraffe

Sometimes, riding a giraffe is all I want out of a video game.

Language of Democracy

From a fascinating interview conducted by Glenn Greenwald with Professor Charles King from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service:

CK: Well, the Russians are certainly worried about the idea of being strategically encircled by the West, particularly by the United States. They see the US focus on democracy as being no more than an extremely cynical attempt to cloak basic US strategic interests in something other than what it is. That is to use the language of democracy to protect governments or countries that are pro-US in their foreign policy orientation. The Russians will often point out that the US doesn't seem to have any problem with autocracies that are extremely pro-US, and it does occasionally seem to have problems with democracies who aren't terribly pro-US in their foreign policy orientations.

Impaler

Michael Reagan at Townhall.com:

Putin is playing the role of Vlad the Impaler, and the heads he is displaying atop Red Army bayonets as he marches through Georgia -- a la Gen. Sherman -- are those of the leaders of what used to be called the Free World.

?! I didn't see that in the news yet!

Oh. A metaphor. Got it, Michael.

In the face of all this, when we need desperately to take advantage of the vast stores of oil that lie beneath our feet and off our shores waiting to be exploited, we allow the Democrats to place all that petroleum off-limits as they have since the Clinton administration all but banned drilling.

They scoff at the vast majority of Americans who are demanding that we drill and drill now, using the lame excuse that it will take years before the oil here can be brought to the surface and refined and supplied to the nation’s gas pumps.

Instead they dream of presently unavailable alternative sources of energy that may never become realities, and in any case are years in the future.

Realists don’t dream. They recognize that if we start to drill now, sometime in the not too distant future -- two, three five or even ten years from now -- America will have all the oil we’ll ever need and we won’t have to worry about what Vladimir Putin or Iran’s President Ahmadinejad are doing to threaten our oil supplies.

That's funny. It seeeeeemed like Cap'n Reagan is veering off message - not just saying that "well, every little bit helps" and hence we should drill. But he's saying there that more drilling will in ten years provide "all the oil [America] will ever need."

Ya don't say.

Rod Mar

I love this photo by Rod Mar from the incredible photo blog Best Seat in the House. Highly recommended, and here's the journal-style description of how he got this shot:

9:40 p.m. -- Medal ceremony begins. I learn that USA mistakes have cost them. While everyone gathers in front of the podium, I take the 600mm lens and go where no one else is shooting from. I know the shot I want -- I want something with both the USA and Chinese teams in it. I spot where the nations' flags will be raised and head in that direction. I want their faces facing me. Security has blocked off the area I need to be in, so in Mandarin, I ask the crew running the boom camera for television if I can stand beneath the boom. They agree, and I find the photo I want of the U.S. team looking at the Chinese team with their gold medals.

Six To One

Think Progress:

a new analysis by Open Secrets finds that the U.S. military is increasingly rejecting McCain as its spokesman. Obama has received nearly six times as much money from soldiers deployed overseas. Even anti-war libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who has suspended his campaign, has received more than four times as much as McCain.

Final Cylon

Make-Believe: Ur Doing It Wrong

Jesse Taylor:

Could it be any more obvious that McCain would have leapt on any conflict anywhere in the world to play make-believe George W. Bush circa September 2001?

Enthusiasm

CNN:

"At some point during the rope line an enthusiastic supporter shook Mrs. McCain’s hand and exacerbated an existing carpal tunnel condition,” said spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

Ambition

Is Bush's finale to get us into WWIII and WWIV at the same time before he leaves office?

[Bush] also announced U.S. aircraft and ships would deliver humanitarian aid to victims of the fighting between Russian and Georgian troops, which erupted Friday.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo jet carrying medical supplies already has arrived in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, with more aid missions are planned by the Navy and Air Force.

In light of this from Monday:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military has nearly completed the airlift of 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq to Georgia, but is providing no other military assistance to Georgian forces, a Pentagon spokesman said.

"The support we are providing right now is in the form of transportation of their troops back from Iraq," said Bryan Whitman, the spokesman.

Pulling On the Skin

Really, Spain?:

BEIJING — Pictures in a newspaper advertisement that a spokeswoman for the I.O.C. called “clearly inappropriate” have left the Spanish basketball teams apologizing for its contents.

The Spanish men’s and women’s basketball teams posed for pictures pulling on the skin behind their eyes to make it look as if they were Asia. The pictures have run in an advertisement for the Spanish courier company, Seur, in the Spanish sports daily, Marca, for the last month.

Pau Gasol, who plays for the Lakers, described this little anecdote:

“Some of us didn’t feel comfortable doing it,” Gasol said. “To me it was little clownish for our part to be doing that. The sponsor insisted and insisted. They pushed because they’re the people that pay the money. It was just a bad idea to do that. It was never intended to be offensive or racist against anybody.”

Lovely.

But It's the Official Site!

I love when Noonan pulls a quote from a story in the Official Website of Multi-National Force - Iraq to prove that things are lookin' up.

In this case, two tigers arrived at the Baghdad Zoo, and children are smiling. He follows this with:

Iraq is still not a bed of roses and there remains fighting to be done - but given all the news we’ve seen out of Iraq over the past month or two, it is incontrovertible that we - and the Iraqis - have won this fight...

Stay

I'm sure they would say that it's just coincidence given the circumstances around its formation, but it still amuses me that #dontgo is kinda close to dontmoveon. It seems utterly "conservative," as well, in the classic "inertial" sense. Progressives say "Move On" and these yuckleheads say "Don't Go Forward."

Perhaps they could just call their movement "Stay."

Top Hypocrite

Awesome. Bush is criticizing Congress's vacation.

Fluency

Best Atrios Deep Thought yet:

Now would be an excellent time for Condi Rice to employ her fluent Russian.

You Mean, Before God? And Before Family?

McCain/Lieberman/GOP's new phrase: Putting Country First, which apparently is not what Obama has done.

Through The Floor

There's always a way for Bush to do a worse job.

Cokie Roberts Should Apologize

Fuck off, Cokie.

Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka:

Saying our 50th state is somehow 'foreign,' does a great disservice to the hard working, patriotic Americans who call Hawaii home

Out Of Trouble

Digby:

Whatever. He seems to be enjoying himself at the games and it's keeping him out of trouble. Man, is he ever a smaller figure than he was four years ago when he was strutting all over the country scolding everybody and telling us all he was a leader who knew how to lead. I guess a little presidential grab ass is all he's got left.

Sick & Transcendence

To the degree that this blog is run by an actually present personality, I have been sick since Wed night, hence the lack of updates. It's all Olympics, throat lozenges, ginger tea, and more Olympics.

Brazil soccer is a transcendent thing to see.

No Way To Win

Chris Bowers:

They have gotten into a spat with Paris Hilton, which there is basically no way to win. Hilton has nothing to lose, and the back and forth just highlights the frivolic idiocy of McCain's recent attacks.

(via dday)

Negative Ads

I'm really starting to like the clear writing of Jesse Taylor:

There’s a difference between “Barack Obama is the Antichrist” and “John McCain is closely tied to George W. Bush” in the realm of negative ads.

Humor

This strawman is exactly the kind of stuff that will get McCain supporters jazzed.

The tendency of Obama supporters to see racist impulses behind every criticism of their candidate has evolved into absurdity. Now even the first black president feels compelled to declare he's not a racist. By this measure, nearly every American is at risk of being branded a racist at some point in the campaign. To assess whether you're at risk just consult the list below ( apologies to Jeff Foxworthy ):

Pitch-Perfect

A lot of praise around the leftosphere (if you will) on Obama's "Pride In Being Ignorant" comment. This from Jason Zengerle:

I don't know if a politician has ever offered a more pitch-perfect response to the idiocy of the modern-day GOP.

Referendum

Digby:

I think we might need to see a few more mentions of McCain/Bush on Obama's blog at this point, don't you? This election should be a referendum on them, not him. They've been in power, they've got the record. If the election is all about Obama, the Democrats are giving up their argument.

It was supposed to be about how great Obama is, but against the GOP smears, that doesn't appear to be working.

Time to get pragmatic.

Ignorance

Quote of the Day?

I'll say Quote of the Year!
Obama, on the GOP tire gauge nonsense:

It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.

Fuck yeah.

Morning

Huh?:

NEW YORK - Looking to bring more value-seeking consumers through its doors for a late afternoon caffeine fix, Starbucks Corp. said it will now offer its morning customers any iced grande beverage for $2 after 2 p.m.

What does that mean? How do morning customers get in Starbucks after 2pm?

This is, incidentally, the top story in the country this morning on CNN.com.

Tut-Tut

A flash of honesty from The Right, courtesy of Rick Brookhiser at NRO:

Isn't this the equivalent of a sit-in, except that the sitters are representatives? If a Democratic rump had defied Gingrich or Hastert in such a fashion, wouldn't we tut-tut about their behavior?

Spiral

I don't know why I should trust him, but it's still a fascinating article by Ian Welsh on our "Vicious Downward Spiral" economy, and how it's going to get much worse before it gets better.

Goodbye

Keith Olbermann writes about the sad end of his professional association with Dana Milbank.

We had decided not to have Dana on this news-hour again until this was cleared up, and, sadly after some very happy years, he's apparently chosen to make that cloud permanent.

Good luck, Dana.

Dig

I must confess, I'm having a terrible time digging into the anthrax case.

Change

The Right resents anything that suggests any modicum of behavioural modification.

Sarcastic and Cynical

The right's only response to Obama is sarcasm. They're running on sarcasm.

Obama could not have been more right when he called the McCain campaign "cynical."

Courage

Marvelous new surfing set from The Big Picture.


(REUTERS/Mike Hutchings)

I've no idea where one aquires the courage to face something like that.

Drivel

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Passive-aggressively describing Obama as a "worldwide celeb" is just an attempt to appeal to a sort of base sense of jealousy and xenophobia. It makes absolutely no comment on what an Obama presidency might look like. It simply says "don't vote for these guys because the rest of the world likes him." It really would be no different than Obama releasing an ad that said "John McCain fought in one failed war, no wonder he's backing another."

Funky

New Yorker Comic: "Do you find it painful when I get funky?"

Waste

Kathy Hilton, on McCain campaign ad comparing Obama to her daughter:

It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

Hey, look - issues!

Three Weeks

Mark Cuban, who states that he originally started his blog to "respond to a story that I felt misrepresented the email exchange I had with the reporter," gives some adviceg:

For anyone who is getting attention they would not like, if you can just deal with it, and not generate any new news or stories about yourself, than all the attention will go away in 3 weeks.

In 3 weeks, unless you do something new, even the media gets bored with the story. They run out of ridiculous headlines. They cant get even the smallest blogs to reference them. The juice runs dry and by then someone else has is the story. More importantly, if you can stay out of the news for a while, your 3 week run will have been completely forgotten.

Its also important to recognize that the 3 weeks rule does not apply to good news. If you cure the common cold, save a person from drowning, feed the poor, or do something nice that does get a headline, it will not be carried forward for 3 weeks. You will get 1 day in the news, and then 10 blogs will write about it, and then after 3 days, it will be forgotten by all by those involved in the story and your friends and relatives.

This doesn't apply to presidential candidates, I suppose.

Illegitimate

It's been hard to take digby in the last 6 months, despite how much I love her, because, frankly, her writing is often painfully depressing, but she's damn right:

All these themes reinforce each other, culminating in a vague sense that the Democrat -- in this case Obama --- is somehow an illegitimate leader, unworthy of the presidency, a fluke, a phony (and a fascist.) It might help McCain on the margins, but I don't think that's what this is really about; it's about setting the conditions and frame for Obama's ability to govern if he should win. It's what he will be fighting from the minute he takes the oath of office.

Oppositional politics is what the modern Republicans really do well. (It's the only thing they do well besides starting wars and pillaging the treasury.) They have a gift for making the Democrats dance on the head of a pin with the most simple-minded kabuki.

Obama will be seen as the interloper who stole the election from its rightful owner by fooling the nation into thinking he was something he wasn't. "He's a chameleon, a changeling, he's not quite right." Whether he wins big or by a hair, he'll still be an illegitimate president who must be stopped from doing anything until they can restore the White House to its proper occupants --- the Republicans. It will be the basis of their rationale for total obstructionism and ongoing character assassination.

Great Stuff

Does it surprise you that a company called Hornbeck Offshore Drilling would be in favor of "offshore drilling?"

I Want To Wake Up Now

I'm losing my mind:

Charging for checked luggage and legroom isn’t enough for some carriers — starting today, coach passengers flying aboard US Airways Inc. must pay for a drink of water.

This morning, US Airways began charging fliers $2 for bottled water and sodas and $1 for teas and coffees. First class members, trans-Atlantic passengers and a select group of others are exempt from the extra fees.

And of course you can't bring your own water.

Martial

John McCain wants to militarize crime-fighting in US cities.

Who are YOU voting for?

What Their Strategy Has Been For the Last Week

Obama, straight up:

Obama was asked if he, too, isn't engaging in negative campaigning, and how is his negative talk different from McCain's negative talk.

"This is the classic dilemma of politics,'' Obama replied. "We get four or five shots in a row (assertions by McCain), that I would rather lose a war so that I can win a campaign, that I am not willing to visit the troops, that I somehow am full of myself, that I'm an empty-headed celebrity, whatever repeated attacks have been launched this week, so when I say, boy those are kind of silly arguments, the press says, isn't that being negative. Well no, I'm describing what their strategy has been for the last week... I'm just stating the facts....

"Ultimately, what I think we've got to do is keep driving home the essential message of this campaign, that we've got to change business as usual... What we've seen this week ahs been politics as usual... This is the same thing that was done four years or eight years ago... You guys are all familiar with this. You've seen this before. We've seen this movie before.''

(requoted from Cole)

Fake Kottke

Awesome. I said yesterday, posting an article about "target panic" in the times, that I felt like Kottke.

Alas, Kottke did in fact post the article today.

I should write a book or something. Or write fakekottke.org.

I Am Nothing Special

Apparently Jon Stewart critiqued McCain's attacks about Obama being "arrogant," pointing out that they're both actually running for the position of "most powerful person in the free world."

What's McCain running for, he asked?

Hated By the Young

Can't....hold back....

Apparently the WSJ thinks even Obama's daughter thinks he's out of touch:Too Fit to Be President? - WSJ.com:

During a July family appearance on "Access Hollywood," Sen. Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, revealed that her dad doesn't like ice cream or sweets. "Everybody should like ice cream," she said.

Ooooooh. Criticism from your family. Ooooooh.

Fucktards.

Modest Barrier

Merlin Mann, on Twitter:

Thinking I sorta liked it when you had to learn perl, apache, and html to smear the web with dumbassery. It was a modest barrier to entry.

No Hope

Eric Martin:

So in addition to being too popular, too charismatic and too eloquent to be President, Barack Obama is apparently too physically fit as well.  Those are some serious drawbacks. 

If we can confirm that Obama is also exceedingly intelligent, displays good judgment and is competent, this guy's gonna be downright unelectable.

NY Post Is Lazy and Depressing

The award for most depressing headline to cover the triumph of humanity's first direct handling of water molecules on Mars:

MARS WET DREAM IS A REALITY

Pick One (or Two!)

James Poniewozik at TIME:

You can make Obama into Britney Spears, or John Kerry, or Malcolm X. I'm not sure you can make him into all three at the same time.

(via TMV)

Tool

Jesse Taylor:

Let’s put this out there - the “race card” is by and large a tool used by conservatives to stop people from talking about race, particularly as it relates to African-Americans.

[...]

In every case someone was doing something right - pointing out a problem the GOP had with race in a forthright and honest fashion. And in every case, the GOP immediately declared race itself a shameful and awful thing that immediately taints any discussion, no matter how racial its undertones already were. It makes the entire debate about whether or not the inner Jesse Jackson of all black people has come out and is trying to stomp around and extort various concessions from cowed white people, rather than what actually happened. And our political media being the bravely intrepid fuckwits that they are, it always - always - turns into a debate over whether the “race card” was actually played.

I Can't Hear You

If I don't talk about the "Is Obama Too Fit?" article, and don't link to it, will it leave the news cycle in under 24 hours?

Chaser

, originally uploaded by jennifer helen.

After all the politics in the last couple of days... a chelicerata chaser.

Description

"Playing the Race Card" is not a description of an action. It is a rhetorical phrase, and should be covered that way.