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Finding God in a Dog
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| | Subject: | Local ads | | Time: | 06:53 am |
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| Right around the time that I've started getting frustrated with the Obama campaign for not hitting back at McCain, they've started issuing a series of negative issue ads with a regional focus.
For example, this ad is airing in Nevada, and focuses on the proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain. This one is airing in Georgia and focuses on McCain's relationship with former Georgia Lt. Gov. candidate (and Jack Abramhoff ally) Ralph Reed. Both of them focus on McCain as "more of the same," which is a nice touch. Finally, there's this ad, which points out what McCain's proposed tax cuts really mean for American workers. This is supposedly airing in all the swing and pink states.
The thing is, these are fundamentally issue ads. They're good issue ads -- Yucca in particular is white hot in Nevada. The problem is, McCain hasn't been hitting Obama on the issues. He's been portraying Obama as a rock star with no substance, and that's been getting swing voters. Obama needs to nuke McCain's character in response. You don't even have to go after his war record (although it would help to stop calling him a hero all the damn time) -- just go after his Senate record, and label him as a flip-flopper. The national publicity alone would win the election. | comments: Weigh in!   |
| | Subject: | "OMG McCain is up 5!" | | Time: | 07:23 am |
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| Lots of news outlets are screaming about this new poll that has McCain up by 5 points.
Thing is, that's a Zogby poll. They're categorically worthless.
Rasmussen's much more reliable polls have Obama up 3. Gallup has Obama by 1. It's tight, and we need to get the heck moving, but it's not losing. It's certainly not doomsday. | | comments: 22 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Saddleback spin | | Time: | 01:03 pm |
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| Over the weekend, both Obama and McCain participated in Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum, where Warren claimed that both candidates would be subjected to non-partisan, non-gotcha questions, focusing on poverty, HIV/AIDS, the climate, and human rights. Of course, Rick Warren lied -- but that's another story.
I think it's pretty safe to say that McCain "won" that event hands down. Even though Obama at least demonstrated some guts showing up in the lion's den, McCain kowtowed to the religious right, and thus helped to solidify his base.
After the event, however, two stories came to light that would tarnish McCain's campaign, badly, if the media and the Obama campaign chose to highlight them. The first is Rick Warren's assertion that McCain was in a "cone of silence" (2) while Obama was answering questions. As it turns out, McCain wasn't in a cone of silence, proverbial or otherwise, for at least the first half hour of Obama's Q&A -- a story that Andrea Mitchell reported, the McCain campaign denied, and then turned out to be true after all. Rick Warren, for his part, offers up some lame story that the Secret Service would ensure McCain didn't listen to the questions. So -- all we really have to go on is McCain's word as an honorable man. Yeah.
Which brings us to the second story -- McCain's alleged "cross in the dirt" moment with one of the guards at his POW camp. The way McCain tells it, his strength to persevere was renewed when one of the guards, in a silent and profound gesture, made a cross in the dirt in front of McCain, signaling that he, too, was a Christian.
How profound! How powerful! What a load of garbage! As it turns out, this anecdote is lifted directly from The Gulag Archipelago -- which was pointed out by this DailyKos diarist. Of course, the McCain campaign vehemently denied the charge, and produced a witness who claims to have heard him remark on this story back in 1971. The thing is, we have no written account of this story until 1999 -- when he was, you know, getting ready to run for President. Kinda sketchy, isn't it? | | comments: 5 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | The Audacity of Alarm Bells Ringing | | Time: | 04:35 pm |
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| Not to be alarmist, but I think Obama's lead is slipping. Not the one in the general polls: he's had a small lead over John McCain since he clinched the nomination. However, Obama has been slipping slightly in the electoral college race for, almost two months.
FiveThirtyEight.com shows the current trend here. Their simulations have Obama below a 57% chance of winning for the first time since he took the nomination. And the most visually alarming point of information is that the mode is in McCain territory for the first time ever.
What's going on? Well, McCain has been shoring up his base. Obama, simply put, hasn't. Obama does better than John Kerry did four years ago in every single demographic except for one: Democrats. Hopefully the convention and the GOTV effort will shore up those numbers. Who knows -- maybe he'll even make an awesome VP pick. Maybe someone who's not currently being named as a VP. (Obama/Dodd!) | | comments: 7 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Hannity's Dilemma | | Time: | 06:43 am |
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| Conspiracy nut John Corsi (you might remember him for writing the book "The Obama Nation", which is a best seller thanks to conservative groups and which has been shilled heavily by Sean Hannity and Mary Matalin) has uncovered two more shocking stories -- about John McCain. According to him, McCain's personal fortune ties him to the mob and implicates him more deeply in the 1980s Savings and Loan scandals. What's worse, McCain's campaign to be President is supported by Al Qaeda.
Now, I personally wouldn't trust John Corsi to tell me that sun is out and the sky is blue. But movement conservatives -- good ones like Sean Hannity -- have vouched for John Corsi as an accurate, credible reporter. So now they have a dilemma. Do they denounce this guy for a nut, apologize to their faithful, and repudiate their earlier statements about him? Or do they keep their mouths shut and continue to lend their credibility in the conservative movement to Corsi -- and thus to these statements -- in order to avoid egg on their faces?
(h/t to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jblaque) | | comments: 5 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | "How do you say 'dumb' in England?" | | Time: | 11:35 am |
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| British police seized a copy of the Axis of Evil board game in a raid on environmental activists in Kent. The reason? Because the balaclava included in the game could be used for criminal purposes.
In their cardboard version of realpolitik George Bush's "Axis of Evil" is reduced to a spinner in the middle of the board, which determines which player is designated a terrorist state.
That person then has to wear a balaclava (included in the box set) with the word "Evil" stitched on to it.
Kent police said they had confiscated the game because the balaclava "could be used to conceal someone's identity or could be used in the course of a criminal act".
Andrew fumed: "It's absurd. A beard can conceal someone's identity. Are the police going to start banning beards?" -- Cambridge News
Balaclavas can be purchased pretty much anywhere as clothing.
The good news is that this ends the American hegemony on stupid for the week. | | comments: 4 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | The Tale of Sergio Vasquez | | Time: | 10:52 am |
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| From WLS-TV Chicago:
Vazquez says one suspect jumped over the jewelry counter Wednesday afternoon. The other followed.
"I saw another guy jump over here. I saw the guy and he said, 'Give me the money or I kill you,'" said Sergio Vazquez.
Facing death and a gun, Sergio Vazquez says he followed the gunman's orders. He says he went to a desk, where he kept the money and something else.
"The same time I have the money, I have the gun in the same place. When I heard the shoot, I take the gun and we shoot together. I shoot this way and he shot me over here," Sergio Vazquez.
The two robbers were both shot, along with a store employee and an innocent bystander. All in all, however, this looks like a clear cut case of self-defense on the part of Sergio Vasquez.
There's just one problem. The only way this story plays out is if Vasquez has a handgun. And unless that handgun was purchased and registered with the city before 1982, Vasquez is looking at felony charges just for owning the gun.
I'm waiting for Mayor Daley, Jesse Jackson and Michael PFleger to come down on Vasquez with both feet. I doubt it'll happen. The last thing they need is for the communities they claim to represent to realize that their bans are really aimed not at the gangs, but at them. | | comments: 4 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Friday miscellany | | Time: | 10:06 am | | Current Mood: | Too damn hot |
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| • The guys at Antiwar.com are, as usual, burning up the intertubes. Check out Justin Raimondo's brilliant essay, "Mikheil Saakashvili: War Criminal," and Pat Buchanan's epic screed "Blowback from Bear-Baiting."
By the way, this is Antiwar.com's quarterly fundraiser. So if you can, give them a few bucks to keep up the good work.
• Meanwhile, Russia is making a BFD about finding American-made weapons in Georgia. That's because the US has been training Georgia, supplying weapons to Georgia, and giving tacit support to Georgia, since the breakup of the Soviet Union. While it might have been not the most prudent move in the world (see Pat Buchanan's essay, above), it's not exactly as if the United States was supporting Georgia in secret.
• And now, the US is going to put missiles in Poland. In response, Russia is making noises about a nuclear attack. More here. Man, it's like the Cold War never ended!
• What ever happened to those dead-end Clintonistas who threatened to destroy the Democratic party? You know, the so-called PUMAs? Well, much like the Branch Davidians after Waco, their movement seems to have more or less petered out. More here.
• In case you were wondering, Obama is not the Antichrist. No less an authority than Tim LaHayne of "Left Behind" fame says so.
• Diebold continues to be full of shit. They're being sued by the Ohio Secretary of State for dropping votes. Diebold blames the problem on their antivirus software. If that doesn't have you screaming in rage, allow XKCD to explain the problem:
By the way, there now appears to be some solid, non-statistical evidence that Diebold interfered with the 2002 elections. More here. | | comments: 8 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Miscellany: Not Fit To Publish, and more | | Time: | 05:28 pm |
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| • SC's has posted the altar piece for her Four Portlanders of the Apocalypse. Check it out!
• You might have heard about conspiracy nut Jerome Corsi and his new book, The Obama Nation. The Obama campaign has issued a 41-page, point-by-point refutation of Corsi's book. You can find it here. Keep it on hand just to be prepared. Or just read it for the trivia.
• Oregon's gay rights laws are safe for the next few years, as two ballot measures to overturn them have finally gasped their last breaths in the Court of Appeals.
• Kurdish troops are refusing to obey orders from the Iraqi puppet government. They're waiting for orders from the government of the autonomous Kurdish area.
• There's been progress on an agreement to pull US troops out of Iraq. The first draft has a three year timeline. More here.
• The bright side to the Russo-Georgian War? It puts a temporary kabosh on a war with Iran.
• We've got a hell of a game going between the Cubs and Brewers. More here. | | comments: 1 person has weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Obama ad just for Indiana | | Time: | 07:20 pm |
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| The Obama campaign has unveiled an ad just for Indiana. You can see it here.
This is definitely a negative ad, and I think it's a deadly effective one because it's understated. But how the heck is someone supposed to know where to find his economic plan?
Thoughts? | | comments: 4 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Shot | | Time: | 11:47 am |
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| Multiple reports are coming in that the chair of the Arkansas Democratic Party was shot earlier today, and is (was?) in critical condition. Police have apparently shot and apprehended a suspect, a white male in his 40s. You can follow the story here as it develops.
Update Both the Chairman and the shooter are now confirmed dead. | | comments: 6 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Today's miscellany (updated) | | Time: | 08:36 am |
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| • Georgia, which appears to be at the end of a short and humiliating war with Russia, received over $100 million in US military aid and training,. Despite a terrible human rights record, this was seen as a good investment for two reasons: Georgia's strategic location near both Russia and the Middle East, and oil. More here.
• Wouldn't it be great to have a Secretary of State who understood the Russian mentality? Someone who could have warned the United States -- and Georgia -- how an invasion of South Ossetia would provoke the Russians? Someone who could also point out to the powers that be how bloody awful the subsequent ass-kicking would make the United States look?
Well, allegedly, we do. So where the hell was she? Buying shoes?
• Update The US is sending troops to Georgia to protect them from the Russiansprovide humanitarian assistance. More here.
I will give George Bush credit for holding up our commitment to Georgia. It shows that we mean what we say. Unfortunately, it still doesn't make up for the fact that an ally with American and Israeli gear, training and money, got hammered, and bad, by the Russians. That can't be comforting to our other puppetsclientsallies.
• Reverend Wright is not releasing a new book in October, let alone going on a promotional tour. More here. Just in case you were wondering!
• This is why I don't trust ground beef.
• The Cubs play the Braves in a double-header today, after yesterday's game was cancelled due to a storm.
• Hey, can I get one of those Chinese passports so I can "prove" that I'm 23? Because I wouldn't mind being 23 again. Or maybe I can "prove" that I'm 65 and start paying senior fares and collecting Social Security? | | comments: 4 people have weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Dollar getting stronger | | Time: | 12:33 pm |
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| It looks like the US dollar is getting stronger again.
If this holds up, then we may see gas prices of $3/gal by the end of the year.
Of course, it would also mean the trade deficit growing again, after recent shrinking. | | comments: 1 person has weighed in or Weigh in! |
| | Subject: | Monday miscellany | | Time: | 03:25 pm |
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| * Given recent moves and an ultimatum by Russia, it looks like their ultimate goal, to be blunt, is to do to Georgia what we did to Iraq: destroy their military capability and install a friendly puppet government. McCain's belligerent nonsense aside, who are we to complain? It's not like we can do much about it.
* Do the corporate media have a Russophobic bias? Yahthink? More here by Raimondo.
* Howard Wolfson has become a useful idiot for the GOP with his claim that, if Edwards hadn't covered up his affair, Clinton would have won Iowa. The big problem for his claim is that most Edwards supporters that I know -- including me -- went for Obama after it became clear that Edwards wasn't going anywhere. Kos lays out the numbers here.
* Once again, skeletoncrew is ahead of her time. Unfortunately, this means that the campaign is about to get a lot more asinine. Yes, folks, it's LOLMcCain. Count on LOL'bamas in response. | | comments: Weigh in! |
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Finding God in a Dog
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