October 8th, 2008
Josh Marshall connects the dots:
Seems like almost every day now there’s a McCain-Palin rally where the campaign has the candidates introduced by someone who hits on “Barack Hussein Obama”. . . . After the fifth or sixth time you pretty much know [it's] on the orders of the campaign. It is obviously with tacit approval (to believe anything else is to be a dupe at this point); and quite probably on the campaign’s specific instructions.
Given the regularity of the cries of “treason” and “terrorist” and the like, and the frequency with which the screamers seem in oddly convenient proximity to the mics, we should probably be considering the possibly that these folks are campaign plants. It happens all the time. It’s just that usually they don’t scream out accusations of capital crimes.
(Or incitement to capital crimes. One of the recent shouters was quoted screaming “Kill him!”]
Categories: General, News & Current Events, Politics, Religion |
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October 8th, 2008
This didn’t take long, now, did it?
UPDATE: As quickly as it went up, it came back down. Image is still visible here, and I’ll also post below:
Categories: Humor, Politics |
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October 8th, 2008
Nothing new here, really, but worth checking out anyway.
Categories: Politics |
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October 8th, 2008
Holy crap! Who’s been putting what in Tom Friedman’s Wheaties?
After years of self-congratulatory “big idea” drivel and smug sooth-saying, I’ve noticed that Friedman seems to have been returning to real, thought-out, argumentative analysis lately. And today he apparently woke up with whatever strange, crippling monkey he’s been carrying around all this time finally off his back and decided to take a full cut at the ol’ pill, one time. He starts by treating Sarah Palin like a big fat teeball, but that’s just a warm-up swing. By the time he gets around to how taxes “buy civilization”, and whose interests, exactly, are served by the GOP continually stoking our oil addiction, he’s fucking Babe Ruth.
Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But . . . there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”
I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.
Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.” . . .
[P]utting the country in the position where a total novice like Sarah Palin could be asked to steer us through possibly the most serious economic crisis of our lives is flat out reckless. It is the opposite of conservative.
And please don’t tell me she will hire smart advisers. What happens when her two smartest advisers disagree?
And please also don’t tell me she is an “energy expert.” She is an energy expert exactly the same way the king of Saudi Arabia is an energy expert — by accident of residence. . . .
At least the king of Saudi Arabia, in advocating “drill baby drill,” is serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil. My problem with Palin is that she is also serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil.
Damn. I haven’t heard such a clear or uncompromising statement about what taxes are for since I can remember. And selling America to China and Saudi Arabia? About time someone said it.
He hit that one out of the park. Hope somebody notices.
Categories: Culture, Economics, Energy, Foreign Policy, General, News & Current Events, Politics, Taxes |
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October 8th, 2008
- Nothing earth shattering came out of this. Obama probably had a small win, but McCain certainly did nothing to help himself.
- “That one”? McCain really, really holds Obama in contempt.
- McCain’s plan to buy mortgages was an interesting moments in that 1)it is already in the bailout package and 2) it is a pretty clear signal that the Reagan Revolution/Washington Consensus model of economics is dead.
- Obama and McCain both had effective closings, but aside from that Obama was clearly the better person on stage. He answered more of the questions and was better at tying his answers into the larget theme of what his presidency would be like.
- McCain is not funny and he should no try to be — it really comes off false.
- Brokaw mostly sucked. He tried too much to keep them on schedule instead of using their obvious willingness to ctualy debate each other to try and lead the debate inot interesting territory. The questions he chose were re-hashes of the ones at the last debate and he too often used right wing frames in his questioning and follow ups. He did almost nothing to drag the candidates back ont the questions asked, either. At east he didn;t sneak in any McCain Ayrs talking points in the form of questions.
- Obama stating that health care was a right warmed this liberal heat. It is reassuring in the face of his cautious approach to heath care reform.
- The format was terrible. Can we please, please, please have a real debate sometime before the Cubs win a World Series?
Categories: General, Politics |
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