Fear of Clowns

Democratic voter rolls up, Republicans down. McCain campaign recycling. (UPDATE: Flag story fabricated)

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama

// posted by Erik @ 9/06/2008 01:46:00 PM
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Pinhead Mark Levin is the worst.

Labels: 2008 elections, mark levin

// posted by Erik @ 9/06/2008 12:27:00 PM
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Labels: 2008 elections, Biden, Republicans

// posted by Erik @ 9/06/2008 12:16:00 PM
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McCain isn't baptized,

His wife and two his children have been baptized, but McCain has not. "I didn't find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs," McCain explained.

If Obama wasn't baptized, it would be a major scandal, don't you think?

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama, religion, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 9/06/2008 11:13:00 AM
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There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Labels: 2008 elections

// posted by Erik @ 9/05/2008 09:00:00 PM
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The RNC convention was focused on making Obama appear to be an unacceptable choice. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/mccain_manager_this_election_i.html,

"This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."
- McCain's campaign manager

By the time of a party convention, presidential candidates should be at the point of reaching out to the swing vote - as the Democrats did. The extreme partisan theme to the RNC convention shows they're still trying to shore up their voting base.

Labels: 2008 elections, obama, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 9/05/2008 08:47:00 PM
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Byron York,

If the Obamas had a 17 year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if that they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.

Labels: 2008 elections, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 9/05/2008 08:39:00 PM
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KATHMANDU - Four people were killed in elephant rampage in southern Nepali districts, local newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported on Friday ... Nisha Pokherel was killed on her way with her family at the Jalar river in the morning. Similarly Ram Ashis Mahatto, 65, was also killed by the wild elephant while 20-year-old Mira Pokherel was injured and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital ... On Monday, another two people were killed in an attack in Sarlahi and Siraha district.

SOUTH AFRICA - Vanhuvmnwe Chinangama, originally from Zimbabwe, was grabbed through a fence by the elephant which then smashed the structure and trampled him to death.

Labels: elephants amok

// posted by Erik @ 9/05/2008 06:39:00 PM
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I don't know what he meant, but it was all good!

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain

// posted by Erik @ 9/05/2008 04:57:00 AM
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McCain's acceptance speech audience didn't even fill the 21,000 seating capacity of the EXCEL Energy Center. Compare that to Obama's 84,000.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 10:48:00 PM
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Eating like mad and very bold - in daylight hours at least three of the five are always out and visible.

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 10:36:00 PM
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I honestly don't remember any of McCain's speech up to the point where he alluded to about a dozen policy particulars without doing more than mention all of them without explanation. About a quarter of them had to do with taxes.

We can assume the specifics have been promulgated in detail over the last eight years, so maybe no explanation was necessary. As his audience thundered for Bush, perhaps no explanation was necessary.

It seems obvious to me that this speech, along with Palin's of yesterday aimed to fire up the base of 20% of voters who really still dig Bush. So maybe the events of the last week primarily intend to reassure Republican donors' dollars haven't gone completely to waste ... "We fought the good fight".

PS: Reading TPM, they caught a bizarre backdrop from one point of the speech: Does this mean to convey McCain stands up for the good people of Margaritaville during their two and a half weeks of vacation? Luxury leaders, they are.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 09:57:00 PM
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On the way to work, I almost died on the highway to bring you this photo of a plane's advertisment of Ron Paul over the site of the RNC nomination.

Labels: 2008 elections, photos

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 09:08:00 PM
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// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 08:44:00 PM
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Dan Bartlett: McCain needs to introduce a "forward looking agenda".

Crowd goes wild for reference to Bush ... eager for 4 more years apparently ... and 9/11. Seconds round of Olympics style "USA! USA!"

Cindy is made up to look like Paris tonight. Just saying.

Third "USA!" ... something going on in audience.

Aimed at the "Washington crowd", McCain says change is coming. Spoken truly by a lifetime Washington insider.

Implies fighting pork earmarks will help Americans put food on our tables and gas in their tanks. Well, whatever, same thing, stealing from Peter to pay Paul.

Says he's fighting a lot for Americans, no specifics. Followed by much admirable and more or less specific criticism of other Washington Republicans.

Obama passed a corporate welfare bill benefiting big oil?

Tax cuts, globalization, spending, tax cuts, vague mention of affordable health care for individuals, tax cuts for business, doubling child tax credit, reduce government programs to reduce taxes, more globalization, changing unemployment from system designed for the '50's, find new job for those whose job went overseas - give lower paying jobs while retrained, equal access to education for all - give parents school choice (seems to be speaking of vouchers).

Stop sending $700 billion to oil states. ("USA!")

New offshore drilling. Build nuke plants, clean coal, renewable energy, natural gas.

Obama against new nuclear power plants?

Last three paragraphs grazing a dozen or so policy agendas were 5 minutes of the 40 minute speech so far.

Pretty much described Russia's invasion of Georgia as what we did to Iraq.

(Had to pee)

... picking up, seems to be promising less war later by more war now.

We must catch up to history and change the way government does everything.

Obama doesn't have the scars to prove he can change America (???!).

Promises to appoint Democrats and independents.

Says he's blessed by not being able to avoid being shot down in Vietnam.

The reminiscing "reluctant" POW has now gone on about his POW years longer than his hap-hazard hits on issues of national importance.

"USA! USA!"

"... IF YOU'RE UNHAPPY WITH OUR GOVERNMENT, MAKE IT A BETTER ONE ..." Dangerously close to "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."

Good lord, canned "raising McCain" song. YEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAA!!!! "We're all just-a-raising McCain!" This means if he dies, he has a second shot at it before Sarah Palin?

"USA! USA!"

Didn't mention "God" but two or three times I noticed. Possibly his death knell.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, Republicans, taxes

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 07:13:00 PM
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MIDNAPORE - Kalosona Chalak and two others had gone to Poradiha jungles in the morning to collect leaves, where they came face to face with an elephant herd ... Chalak could not flee due to his age and one of the tuskers hurled him into the air ... The old man was left bleeding for about an hour and villagers came to his rescue only after the tuskers left. Chalak was admitted to Keyakul Block Primary Health Centre but he succumbed to his injuries.

DHANUSA - Two people were killed and one injured when a wild elephant went on the rampage in Dhanusa district on Thursday. Six year old Nisha Pokherel was killed while on her way to celebrate Rishi Panchami with her family at the Jalar river in the morning. Similarly Ram Ashis Mahatto, 65 was also by the elephant while 20 year old Mira Pokherel was injured and is undergoing treatment at the Janakpur Zonal Hospital.

BONUS - Elephant kicks horse.

Labels: elephants amok

// posted by Erik @ 9/04/2008 06:41:00 PM
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The RNC Convention's MC just mispronounced Sarah Palin's last name. Forgivable, nobody had heard of her before last week.

... She sounds like a schoolteacher on South Park. Just saying.

Good Lord! Republicans just cheered for The United Steelworkers' Union.

... The only difference between hockey mom's like me and pit-bulls ... lipstick.

... Community organizers have no responsibilities.

... "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment" (huge applause) ... Um, like McCain?

... That luxury (governor's) jet, I put it on eBay. McCain's wife can't get around her state without one.

A couple minutes about how Obama will raise taxes ... this from about 10 minutes ago is obviously part of the speech that was written before McCain picked her last week. Republicans are indeed generally intellectually incurious, but I have a hard time believing independents - and most Republicans - will actually believe Obama is going to raise your taxes - unless you bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

... "there is only one man in this campaign who has really fought for you. (applause) ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death." Uh, you mean to say we WON Vietnam? The Ministry of Truth must start their presses!

Labels: 2008 elections

// posted by Erik @ 9/03/2008 07:29:00 PM
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Earmarks have a bad rep. For example, it's a good idea to shuffle education dollars from richer states to poorer states - to help kids in poor states have an education approaching that of affluent communities. Or help build a dam in one state that will provide energy for several. Congressional earmarks are a way we can move funds between states.

At the same time, the are easily abused: they can be used to reward campaign contributors with pork that doesn't benefit anyone but the campaign contributor.

Those two points noted, Sarah Palin was loquacious for earmarks before she was decidedly against them. (link from acceptance speech to be added below once she says it).

Here it is: "That bridge to nowhere? I said thanks, but no thanks. I said if we wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourself".

Labels: 2008 elections, Republicans, right wingers, taxes

// posted by Erik @ 9/03/2008 07:07:00 PM
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McCain's campaign manager accidentally reveals their thinly veiled strategy,

This Election is Not About Issues.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 9/02/2008 08:06:00 PM
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Sri Lanka.At least two people and an elephant have died in the human-elephant conflict prevalent in SriLanka's rural north central and eastern areas, police said Tuesday. Police said that a 45-year-old man was killed as a result of being attacked by a wild elephant at Sigiriya, about 165 km from here in North Central Province.

Labels: elephants amok

// posted by Erik @ 9/02/2008 06:29:00 PM
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Kenya - An elderly man has been killed by a stray elephant in Laikipia North district ... Kithuka said the elderly man was trampled on before being thrown into a dam.

Labels: elephants amok

// posted by Erik @ 9/01/2008 06:05:00 PM
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Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, YouTube

// posted by Erik @ 8/31/2008 11:03:00 PM
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Hosting a nominating convention is only second to hosting the Olympics when it comes to drawing new economic activity to a city. There are literally hundreds of events each day.

Cities compete for years for the opportunity. I live in the Twin Cities making websites for a living - a significant amount of my work over the last year has involved websites related to the convention. Business large and small have invested millions in the event.

I was at a dinner party Friday night.

One of the stories recounted was of a catering business owned by someone we all tangentially know. She had won for her business contracts to provide sweets at a few convention-related events. She had invested in new equipment and staff to raise her serving capacity from 500 to to 1600. Hopefully her events will still be held.

By canceling even the one day of activities is going to be a huge headache: the entities holding events are going to have to decide whether to hold or cancel their own events, and separately from that decision decide whether to honor the contracts for a canceled event.

Someone is going to end up holding the short end of the stick in each canceled event. And those that are small businesses not able to write off such losses are going to hurt a lot.

(The decisions being made by everyone, including the McCain campaign, are difficult and there's no clear right tack to take. However, a McCain acceptance speech via satellite from the Gulf Coast would be patently ridiculous.)

Here is an optimistic article about the Gustav's potential impact on economic activity surrounding a scaled-back convention, here is a pessimistic view.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, Twin Cities

// posted by Erik @ 8/31/2008 09:53:00 PM
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Here's the Republican response to the last major hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast.

This time, they seem to be sending up trial balloons indicating they realize the political fate resulting from a a split screen hurricane/convention coverage scenario.

Labels: 2008 elections, Bush White House, climate change, Republicans

// posted by Erik @ 8/31/2008 01:38:00 AM
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A US air attack on Iran is imminent. And a curiously timed Iranian announcement.

Labels: 2008 elections, Bush White House, Iran, war

// posted by Erik @ 8/30/2008 11:53:00 PM
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It appears possible that God may still answer right-wing conservatives' prayer for rain, but at a time and place of His choosing.

Labels: 2008 elections, conservatism, McCain, religion, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 8/29/2008 11:47:00 PM
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Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama

// posted by Erik @ 8/28/2008 10:28:00 PM
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Following up my last post which referenced Republican voters' general lack of intellectual depth, I'll now brin g up something that has puzzled me for weeks. McCain is asking voters not to vote for Obama claiming that Obama will raise "your" taxes. Anybody paying the slightest attention knows that a key Obama campaign promise is to lower taxes for 95% of workers.

An effective false smear has to have at least some plausibility of truth. The 2004 swift-boat smears about Kerry succeeded because Kerry himself spoke of his service in Vietnam, giving the outrageous claims some measure of believability, however slight, for those dispositioned to wish to believe them. But the claim Obama will raise "your" taxes is completely ungrounded by even the most distorted take on anything Obama has ever said or done.

Unless you're not middle or lower class. Which McCain has defined as everybody making less than $5 million a year - this a smear with the plausibility of belief because McCain actually said it, even if clearly in jest. The believability of the $5 million smear sinks in to those wishing to believe it because it's buttressed by the demonstrable fact that McCain's campaign promises would indeed favor the very rich over everybody else. McCain's lavish life has also truly and demonstrably placed him out of touch with the un-rich: reference his sincere claims that no American would pick lettuce for $50/hr and that "You could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over" the Bush years.

Labels: 2008 elections, imaginary liberal, income inequality, McCain, obama, Republicans, taxes

// posted by Erik @ 8/28/2008 09:20:00 PM
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If McCain is planning on following up with ads that all Obama has to offer is speeches, I'm quite confident in believing he's overestimating the intellectual curiosity of the Republican base.

Update: doublethink.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama

// posted by Erik @ 8/28/2008 09:11:00 PM
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Crooks and Liars.

Labels: carnivorous plants, McCain

// posted by Erik @ 8/27/2008 10:20:00 PM
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People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power..
- Bill Clinton

The best speech and line of the convention so far.

Labels: 2008 elections, obama

// posted by Erik @ 8/27/2008 08:02:00 PM
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PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Oregon Zoo officials say a newborn elephant is doing well after it was trampled by its mother shortly after its birth Saturday.

Labels: elephants amok

// posted by Erik @ 8/27/2008 06:03:00 PM
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What she said.

Labels: 2008 elections, obama, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 8/25/2008 08:07:00 PM
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Krugman,

[I]n the world we actually live in, pro-corporate, inequality-increasing Republicans argue that you should vote for them because they're regular guys you'd like to have a beer with, while Democrats who want to raise taxes on top earners, expand health care and raise the minimum wage are snooty elitists.

If there's anything else we need to understand about the economics of the 2004 elections, I don't know what it would be. The queer phenomenon of down-and-out social conservatives gathering at the gated communities of their corporate overlords pitchforks and torches in hand, bellowing, "We are here to lower your taxes!!" is described in detail by Thomas Frank in his phenomenal book What's the Matter with Kansas.

Labels: 2008 elections, Bush White House, conservatism, free markets, income inequality, liberalism, McCain, obama, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 8/25/2008 07:41:00 PM
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From the Strib,

Vandals broke three plate-glass windows and a glass door early Sunday at presidential candidate Barack Obama's state headquarters in St. Paul.

Here is what someone thought of my Obama bumper sticker (purchased at said Obama headquarters) that I displayed at a golf resort in Wisconsin a few weekends ago.

UPDATE: A billboard outside of the MSP airport welcoming the kerrfluckers' overlords:

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, obama, republican wreking crew, Republicans, right wingers

// posted by Erik @ 8/25/2008 07:06:00 PM
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Days before McCain's inevitable gaffe yesterday regarding the number of houses he owned, the backlash had already begun. From August 18, four days ago:

A conspiracy theorist couldn't make the timing more destructive to the McCain campaign.

I believed John Kerry was playing rope-a-dope in 2004. I was wrong then, but even if rope-a-dope wasn't Obama's plan, McCain yesterday showed his real colors in a way that will firmly make it Obama's election to lose.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain

// posted by Erik @ 8/22/2008 12:21:00 AM
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That's one of the back porches off the master bedroom in one of the mansions owned by the presidential candidate who's running a campaign highlighting the accusation that his African-American opponent is "elitist".

Labels: 2008 elections, corpocracy, income inequality, McCain, obama, Republicans

// posted by Erik @ 8/21/2008 09:59:00 PM
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The print and television media coverage is obviously biased in favor of Sen. Obama, yet you do not hear McCain complaining about it. He continues to march face-first into the howling political winds like an American buffalo on a mission. I like that.

When Obama received European adulation (as if he were the Second Coming), McCain did not complain but rather continued his steadfast campaign on American turf.

"No Whiners Allowed"
By Ted Nugent

Here is just a sampling of the many complaints over much time from the McCain camp about Obama and the media.

Labels: 2008 elections, McCain, media, obama, YouTube

// posted by Erik @ 8/21/2008 07:46:00 PM
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