12.30.2008

Zbigniew Brzezinski breaks down the Israel-Hamas conflict; burns Scarborough

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski gives a very thoughtful dissertation on the escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine.

Then (6:30 in the video), Scarborough tries to assert that "you cannot blame what's going on in Israel on the Bush administration." This prompted Zbig to reply, "You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you." Burn!

If an asteroid hit Earth

This has gone viral and it is pretty cool.

Apparently from the Discovery Channel, it shows what would happen if one motherlovin' large asteroid hit the planet.

Although there's no narration to explain the "why" end of it, it's still an interesting watch. Plus, the music is Pink Floyd's "Great Gig In The Sky".

Click the video to go to YouTube and watch it in HD.


Meanwhile, your odds of dying of an asteroid collision in 2009 have been calculated at 2,518,072:1.

12.29.2008

The GOP's repeated Plaxico Burress moments

The Magic Negro? Really? This is what the GOP has to offer? Really? This is it?

Dustin Hoffman offers to fellate Jose Ferrer

Hoffman is a great storyteller and this is hilarious

12.17.2008

TED talks: Ken Robinson on creativity in schools

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. He challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity


If prompted, choose a player to begin the show.

Sean Hannity: 2008 Misinformer of the Year

Great article by Media Matters naming Sean Hannity its 2008 Misinformer of the Year. And unlike Hannity's shows, the MM article if chock full of actual facts detailing the Irish Ape's deceit, falsehoods, prevarications and outright lies.

Congrats Sean!

Megyn Kelly schools Bill O'Reilly

Megyn Kelly, a screamer herself, grew increasingly frustrated as O'Reilly rejected her legal analysis, shouting, "You're wrong, Bill!"

"I've never met a non-lawyer who argues the law so confidently, albeit so wrongly," she said to O'Reilly.

TED talks: Philip ZImbardo on evil in the world

I discovered the TED site about a year ago, but only recently began digging into it. It features incredible lectures by a wide variety of intellectual, brilliant people. This one caught me. Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist perhaps best known for the Stanford Prison Experiment. He was recently an expert witness in the trial of a guard at Abu Ghraib prison.

Here, Zimbardo talks about his book, The Lucifer Effect and attempts to explain how evil, and heroism, are choices we make that are influenced by our surroundings.


If it's asking you, just click and pick a player number.

12.14.2008

He actually had time to bend down and get the other one....

This is classic.

Khrushchev made his point using only one.

12.11.2008

Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee debate gay marriage

Very thoughtful on both sides. But Huckabee plays the semantics game on the word marriage. Stewart makes the case that marriage has been redefined over the last 5000 years many times, from a property arrangement to polygamy and didn't even bec ome a sacrament until the 1200's.

Jon also seemed to hit Huckabee when he said, "It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case, that they deserve the same basic rights." This sent Huckabee scrambling to say he's not a homophobe. It's just, you know, religion..... not me Jon, Jesus said.... you know.

To which Jon points out that religion is much more of a lifestyle choice than is sexual identity.

12.08.2008

Superawesome election scoreboard

Talking Points Memo has an incredibly deep, rich interactive election results analyzer.

Geek.

Newt Gingrich is a hypocrite

Newt "Honey can you move that chemo drip and sign this divorce" Gingrich is a hypocrite. The same guy who led the prosecution of Bill Clinton while conducting his own affair now speaks up on his hatred of facism.

Commenting on a rift between Bill O'Reilly and Hendrik Hertzberg of the New York Times, he said:

"And whether they are fascists on the right or fascists on the left, they're fascists, because they believe in imposing their views on you, outside the law, or they believe in using the law to force you to change who you are. And I'm opposed to fascism of any kind."

And yet, on September 4th, he endorsed just that kind of action by coming out in support of Prop 8, forcing gays to change who they are through the use of the law.

SO which is it, hypocrite? By Newt's own definition, using the law to force gays to go into hiding and change who they are is facism.

Total intellectual dishonesty. And the right wonders why they got drubbed on November 4th.

Trent Cole is an athlete

This is unreal. Watch him leapfrog Giants longsnapper Jay Alford to get into the backfield and block John Carney's field goal

Deepak Chopra slaps down Sean Hannity

Open letter from Deepak to Sean:

Dear Sean,

I saw a report about last night's show that quotes you as follows:

"Hannity continued by saying, "We had Deepak Chopra on last night and he's blaming America! ...He was blaming America for the attacks in Mumbai and I challenged him on it and I'm like, 'Wait a minute. You've done so well in America. Why are you blaming us?' We protect 100% of the world's population. We're 4% of it."

I am really disappointed in you. Do you not remember your other guest when I was when I was on, former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen? He made the same point I did about America's policy toward the jihadists: "Are we creating more terrorists than killing them?" Ironically, this question is attributed to Donald Rumsfeld.

It really doesn't matter to me personally whether you agree with me or not. Leaving our debate aside, your habit of taking statements out of context and playing the blaming game is sad. You have a powerful platform that influences many people. Why do you use your influence to monger fear, militancy, divisiveness, and jingoism?

I was hoping to come back on your show and have a reflective, intelligent dialogue, but perhaps the attack mode is the only way you know to make a living. The best excuse for your dishonest accusations against me is that you don't believe what you're saying. The far right has deflated, so you are there to pump it up with hot air. If you stop blowing, you'll be out of a job. I empathize.

Love,

Deepak

PS: No one expects the right wing to change, but for what it's worth, they have entered an era of reconstruction. They've lost both their power and their credibility. Instead of trying to educate me about being an American, you might want to re-educate yourselves about dirty pool and below-the-belt attacks. Just a thought.

Apparently Hannity and O'Reilly aren't the only dicks on Fox

St. Paul Pioneer Press
A Fox spokesman apologized for an on-air mistake after the Vikings' 20-16 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday. While a Fox camera crew taped owner Zygi Wilf presenting the game ball to coach Brad Childress, Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe was in the left side of the shot with a towel only partially covering him, leaving him partially exposed. "It was an obvious oversight on our part, and we apologize," said Dan Bell, the vice president of communications for Fox. The Web site deadspin.com posted pictures. Fox regularly goes to the locker room of victorious teams to capture the excitement and then quickly edits and posts the footage as part of their postgame coverage. A Vikings spokesman declined to comment.

(Click photo for NSFW full-on dong)

12.05.2008

You're So Vain

Foo Fighters @ The Grammy Awards Nomination Show


...and more great Foo coverage; Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar"

44 Presidents in 4 Minutes. Powerful.

Blow it out to full screen for maximum effect

11.24.2008

GOP loses Ben Stein

Ben Stein, who I have called a total tool (and I still believe he is) has switched teams. (He and Lieberman should form a comedy duo and hit supper clubs in the Catskills).

He's now on board with Keynesian theory and says that Obama has to spend as much as possible to save the economy, debt be damned. Stein also defends Obama from GOP attacks that this is somehow his fault when he's not even president yet.

Note the graphic: "Dow off 35% since beilouts began: time to stop" - as if the bailouts are the problem and not the complete fiscal irresponsibility of Bush and the neocons.

Interesting screamathon TV.


Consider instead Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel laureate:

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s something wrong with you. But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes, he can.

Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform. Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.

About the political argument: Anyone who doubts that we’ve had a major political realignment should look at what’s happened to Congress. After the 2004 election, there were many declarations that we’d entered a long-term, perhaps permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50 House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign. Bear in mind, also, that this year’s presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies — and the progressive philosophy won.

{snip}

Helping the neediest in a time of crisis, through expanded health and unemployment benefits, is the morally right thing to do; it’s also a far more effective form of economic stimulus than cutting the capital gains tax.

So a serious progressive agenda — call it a new New Deal — isn’t just economically possible, it’s exactly what the economy needs.The bottom line, then, is that Barack Obama shouldn’t listen to the people trying to scare him into being a do-nothing president. He has the political mandate; he has good economics on his side. You might say that the only thing he has to fear is fear itself.

11.23.2008

Right-wing paranoia empirically verified

A study using Trendrr of the search term "center-right nation" has shown a huge spike just after election day. As conservatives cry in their bourbon and insist their ideology is still right (it is, but correct it is not), they've taken to blathering on about how, election results be damned, this is still a conservative nation.

This trend study doesn't tell us how many of the "center-right nation" references are saying this is "not a center-right nation", but it's safe to assume that most, if not all, of those references are in fact countering right-wing claims - adding to the absurd level of discussion this term is getting.

Click on the graph to chart it's use in real-time.

And if you still think America IS a center-right nation, peruse this and click the map for a link to more data.

11.21.2008

Pie charts

Andrew Sullivan @ Atlantic Monthly

Peter Schiff calls the recession 18 months ago

Listen to tools like Ben Stein mock Schiff.

5:19
Stein: "Subprime is a tiny, tiny blip"

6:32
Stein: "Merrill Lynch is an extremely well-run company" The stock is "cheap" at $67 a share.

It's all over the place her,e and not just Ben Stein. The supply-siders mock Schiff and in retrospect look like totally incompetent fools.


And now Schiff on 11/20/08:
"There's notihng government can do, let it happen... A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, but we have to go back toa sane economy"

This is not good.

11.20.2008

Palin does interview in front of guy slaughtering turkeys

(Huff Post)
On Thursday, Alaska Governor Oblivious Dipshit Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event.

But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!!

Fast forward to 1:15 and stay glued. If it weren't so gruesome, it would be funny.

Around 1:45, the guy in the background apparently snaps the turkey's neck. Around 2:05, Dipshit Palin says that "you need a little levity in this job" as the turkey behind her starts kicking in it's death throes.

If SNL did this as a skit, no one would believe it and the right wingnuts would say that the liberal media had gone too far.


UPDATE: 11/21 This asshole asshole was TOLD she was standing in front of the turkey's being slaughtered and didn't care. Not that she should have stopped it, but she seems to be flaunting her God, guns and guts stance. Fine. She wants to be hard? She'll find out what hard means as her career goes down in flames.

A VP with a verifiable sense of humor



Jeebus, isn't it nice to have a VP that can laugh? Man it feels good.

Oh...and Happy Birthday Mr. Vice-President Elect.

Yesterday, Obama threw a little party for Biden.

(Huff Post)
What does an accomplished man of the world get for his 66th birthday?

Well, President-elect Barack Obama already gave Joe Biden the vice presidency. So, for his birthday, Obama gave Biden two ball caps and a rendition of the birthday song.

Biden's birthday is Thursday, but Obama surprised his No. 2 after their weekly lunch Wednesday at the transition office in Chicago. According to staff, Obama presented Biden - a Delaware senator with decades of foreign policy experience - with a dozen cupcakes decorated with candles and teased, "You're 12 years old!"

Staff reported that Biden, ever astute in the art of politics, laughed at the his boss's joke. He responded: "Maybe in dog years!"

Obama led the rest of the staff in song, then handed over some Chicago-themed gifts: a White Sox cap, a Bears cap and a bucket of Garrett's popcorn, a hometown favorite.

More from the Life archives

French leader Georges Clemenceau, US Pres. Woodrow Wilson and British PM David Lloyd George during the Paris Peace Conference, June 28, 1919


Ulysses S. Grant, Cold Harbor VA, 1864


Eric Clapton with his grandmother Rose in the house he bought her, Surrey 1971


Search the entire Life photo archive

11.19.2008

Kathleen Parker: GOP's biggest problem is G-O-D

(Washington Post)
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

But they need those votes!

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.

Here's the deal, 'pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.
Keep digging

145 Years Ago Today. . .

read by Sam Waterston:


Transcript:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.


(from Bob Cesca)
Newspaper reactions to the speech:

"The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly flat and dishwattery [sic] remarks of the man who has to be pointed out as the President of the United States." Chicago Times

“The ceremony was rendered ludicrous by some of the sallies of that poor President Lincoln. Anything more dull and commonplace it would not be easy to produce.” London Times

"We pass over the silly remarks of the President: for the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of.” Harrisburg Patriot Union

"Mr. Lincoln made a joke or two." The York Gazette


Damn liberal media.

Life magazine photo archives online

Google is hosting the entire image archives of Life magazine here. One could get lost for days.

Pablo Picasso in 1967 in France


Hitler in Nuremburg, 1938

11.17.2008

Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar

Let's see how O'Hannity obeys their own rules

(Bob Cesca)
Some quotes to keep in your arsenal. Don't forget -- criticizing the commander-in-chief at a time of war is bad.

"The only ideas that they espouse are ways to undermine the troops in harm's way and undermine their commander in chief while they're at war. Your candidates have no idea how to keep this economy strong."
--Sean Hannity, 10/18/06

"He’s the Commander-in-Chief. And what I find frankly repugnant about you and some of your fellow Democrats – you have undermined our president..."
--Sean Hannity, 03/19/06


"You know, Norman, those comments while we are at war, while troops are in harm's way, while he is the commander in chief, do you not see the outrage in that?"
--Sean Hannity, 11/12/07


"I have had it with members of your party undermining our troops, undermining a commander in chief while we are at war..."
--Sean Hannity, 11/05


"You don't criticize the Commander-in-Chief in the middle of a firefight. That could be construed as putting U.S. forces in jeopardy and undermining morale."
--Bill O'Reilly, 04/04


"Can we do it without distorting their legacies and pandering to anti-American elites worldwide and using their deaths to embarrass and undermine our commander in chief?"
--Michelle Malkin, 11/23/05


"On the other hand, if Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congress are successful in undermining the commander-in-chief (thereby emboldening the terrorists to kill more Americans in Iraq)..."
--Tom DeLay, 04/11/07


"And furthermore, one of the fundamental principles we have in America is that the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces and attempts to undermine the commander in chief during time of war amounts to treason."
--Pat Robertson, 12/07/05

Frank Rich on the Conservative Crackup

(New York Times)
excerpts:
The Republicans lost every region of the country by double digits except the South, which they won by less than double digits (9 points). They took the South only because McCain, who ran roughly even with Obama among whites in every other region, won Southern whites by 38 percentage points.

Those occasional counties that tilted more Republican in 2008 tended to be not only the least diverse, but also the most rural, least educated and slowest-growing in population.

The Republicans did this to themselves, yet a convenient amnesia can be found in conservatives’ post-Election Day soul searching. There’s endless hand-wringing about Bush and McCain blunders and Abramoff-Stevens corruption, but there’s barely any mention of the nasty cultural brawls that defined the G.O.P. campaign narrative this year as the party clung bitterly once more to its 40-year-old “Southern strategy.”

Republican denial is unabated. In an interview with Palin the weekend before the election, a conservative Wall Street Journal editorialist asked whether “the G.O.P. doesn’t in fact have a perception problem, that it is no longer viewed as a big tent.” A perception problem? Hello — how about a reality problem?

In defeat, the party’s thinking remains unchanged. Its leaders once again believe they can bamboozle the public into thinking they’re the “party of Lincoln” by pushing forward a few minority front men or women. The reason why they are promoting Palin and the recently elected Indian-American governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, as the party’s “future” is not just that they are hard-line social conservatives; they are also the only prominent Republican officeholders under 50 who are not white men.

11.16.2008

Until Obama, I wanted Bartlett

...and maybe I'd still take Bartlett, but only because Bartlett was able to resolve problems in an hour. My thinking is that Obama might require a bit more time than that.

11.15.2008

The Rock Delivered

Jane's Addiction - Ocean Size


Rush - Far Cry live

11.14.2008

Jon Stewart sorta kinda hands Bill O'Reilly his ass with a side helping of logical thought

This is the second segment. Segment one was notable only for Stewart giving O'Reilly some cocoa with marshmallows and a teddy bear (Mr. Snuggles) to make him more comfortable in the new secular progressive era coming at him like a freight train out of control.

Thank you

11.13.2008

The Top Ten Right Wing Lies About Obama's Win

(Michael Glitz @Huff Post)

The Top Ten Right Wing Lies About Obama's Win

1. Obama's win wasn't that big
2. Obama only won because of the black vote and the fringe far left
3. Obama only won because he ran a center-right campaign
4. John McCain couldn't have won
5. Political parties almost never win three terms in a row
6. The US is a center-right country
7. Bush prevented a terrorist attack for seven years and if Obama doesn't prevent an attack for the next seven years then he has failed to protect us
8. John McCain's concession speech was notably gracious
9. Punishing Joe Lieberman would be petty
10. Sarah Palin is the future of the Republican Party

Each dissected in depth at Huff Post

11.12.2008

Callie Shell behind the scenes with Obama

Callie Shell had unprecedented access to Senator Obama, click here to see all of the photos. Make sure to scroll down and click Show More photos, several times. All comments belong to the photographer.

I loved that he cleaned up after himself before leaving an ice cream shop in Wapello, Iowa. He didn't have to. The event was over and the press had left. He is used to taking care of things himself and I think this is one of the qualities that makes Obama different from so many other political candidates I've encountered. Nov. 7, 2007.





Waiting: Obama listens from a back stairwell as he is introduced in Muscatine, Iowa. It was his second or third speech of the day. Unlike many of the politicians I have photographed in the past, I find it is easy to get a photograph of Obama alone. He lets his staff do their jobs and not fuss over him. Nov. 7, 2007.





Asleep somewhere between Derry and Salem, N.H., 1/6/2008. With three rallies down and two more to go, Obama catches a quick nap on his campaign bus as it headed for Salem. I once asked him when we were traveling through Illinois and he was about to fall asleep, if he cared if I took a picture. He said I was fine photographing him until his jaw dropped. This night his jaw dropped after I took three frames.




It was primary morning in New Hampshire. Barack and Michelle Obama had been campaigning separately all week. In the first few months of 2008 their private time seemed to consist of a few crossover moments in back hallways before rallies. This moment was rare and you could tell they just loved being able to sit together. Jan. 8, 2008.





These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, "Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King's words can be true for them." Jan. 21, 2008.





Two staffers had just passed this site and done two pull-ups. Not to be outdone, Obama did three with ease, dropped and walked out to make a speech. Missoula, Mont., 4/5/2008.

Cool

U2 live under The Brooklyn Bridge

City Of Blinding Lights


Beautiful Day


Vertigo


I Will Follow

Ow

11.11.2008

PA war vet tosses Bush the shocker


Afghanistan vet and PA resident Earl Granville posed with President Bush and tossed him the shocker in a photo posted on the Scranton Times website on Veteran's Day. The photo accompanied a story detailing the wounds suffered by Sgt. Granville and fellow Carbondale, PA native Sgt. Michael Kacer. The story details the extraordinary determination of these two men to overcome their battle injuries.

But the payoff is the shot of Granville tossing the shocker at President Bush, who smiles on.

Take a minute today and thank a vet for everything they provide to us. Freedom, security and a great laugh.

Olbermann's impassioned Special Comment against Prop 8

Keith Olbermann delivered a rousing, emotional, 6-minute special comment on Prop 8 Monday night. Olbermann, who has never married, vehemently disagrees with its passage and the ban on gay marriage.

"I am not personally vested in this," he said, "yet this vote is horrible. Horrible... This is about the human heart." After going through the history of marriage in the United States, and reminding viewers not only that marriage between black and white people used to be illegal in 1/3 of the country, but illegal between slaves, he made a plea for love and the spread of happiness.

"The world is barren enough... with so much hate in the world, so much meaningless division... this is what your religion tells you to do?... this is what your heart tells you to do?... You are asked to stand now on a question of love."

Obama family Secret Service code names

Renegade. Cool. They should play the Styx song whenever Obama moves.

(Huff Post)
The new First Family has been issued code names by the Secret Service. Barack Obama's is "Renegade," Michelle Obama's is "Renaissance," Malia Obama's is "Radiance," and Sasha Obama's is "Rosebud." Joe and Jill Biden also received code names, though it's tough to top "Renegade" and "Renaissance." Joe Biden's is "Celtic," and Jill Biden's is "Capri." Check out the screenshots from MSNBC below.

11.10.2008

The First Comedian

We have a funny administration.

Excerpts from the Newsweek "How He Did It" story:

  • Obama's plane was taking off from Denver airport around 9 a.m. when Axelrod got confirmation that McCain had indeed picked Palin as his running mate. He went to the front cabin to tell Obama and his new running mate, Joe Biden. Biden asked, "Who's Palin?"
  • In the debates, it was critical that Obama come across as looking like Dad. His hope was that McCain would appear to be the crotchety uncle who lived up in the attic.
  • Obama can be a little bloodless and dull in his preternatural calm, but his goofy side showed up at debate prep. He would appear very somber and emphatic when he accosted Craig/McCain for refusing to speak to the president of Spain. "You wouldn't even talk to the president of Spain!" he would intone with mock gravity. Then he would begin to giggle. He was told that he should attack McCain for saying that it was enough to "muddle through" on Afghanistan. "Muddle through!" Obama would exclaim and dissolve into giggles. It was as if he refused to take the theater of mock indignation too seriously.

And an excerpt from The Audacity Of Hope about meeting with Dubya right after being elected to the Senate. Remember, Obama wrote this himself, no ghostwriter:

  • The president turned to an aide nearby, who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand. "Want some?" the president asked. "Good stuff. Keeps you from getting colds." Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt.

    "Come over here for a second," he said, leading me off to one side of the room.

    "You know," he said quietly, "I hope you don't mind me giving you a piece of advice."

    "Not at all, Mr. President." He nodded. "You've got a bright future," he said. "Very bright. But I've been in this town a while and, let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you've been getting, people start gunnin' for ya. And it won't necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody'll be waiting for you to slip. Know what I mean? So watch yourself."

    "Thanks for the advice, Mr. President."

"Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt" - that's pretty funny.

New Rules for November 7

Landslide

(from Bob Cesca)
The 2008 popular vote:
Obama - 65,445,394 - 53%
McCain - 57,446,223 - 46%
Difference - 7,999,171 - 7%

The 1980 popular vote:
Reagan - 43,903,230 - 50.7%
Carter - 35,480,115 - 41%
Difference - 8,423,115 - 9.7%

Reagan's victory margin was only 2.7 percent better than President-elect Obama, while the president-elect received 2.3 percent more of the popular vote. Don't let anyone tell you that this was neither a mandate or a landslide. By the numbers, it absolutely was.

Scarborough decries Emmanuel's use of the f-word by dropping the bomb on live TV

Watch as Scarborough realizes he slipped up and said "fuck" instead of "f-word". Also enjoy the look on Mike Barnicle's face when he realizes what Joe said.

I guess that makes Rahm Emmanuel not that bad after all, huh Joe?

11.09.2008

It's Been A Week


Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner


J.D. Crowe, Mobile AL Register


Taylor Jones, El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico

11.06.2008

Letterman election night recap


Katie Couric said "Neil Sedaka". All it needed was this guy. And Tits McGee.

America is a bluish center-left nation

Let's stop this center-right horseshit. Did you see the election results? 7.7 million mote votes. 68% of the electoral vote. 6 new Senate seats.

Then there's this map

According to Gallup, on the issues, Americans...
...are pro-choice (67 percent)
...support the Geneva Conventions with regards to torture (57 percent)
...don't want the government snooping in their bank and internet records (67 percent)
...want the USA Patriot Act changed or eliminated entirely (81 percent)
...support protecting the environment at the expense of economic growth (55 percent)
...believe that global warming is happening (86 percent)
...believe that it's the government's responsibility to provide health care (69 percent)
...support the decriminalization of marijuana (55 percent) and support the legalization of medical marijuana (78 percent)
...are opposed to attacking Iran (68 percent, according to a CNN Poll)
...support labor unions (60 percent)
...want government funding of embryonic stem cell research (56 percent)
...believe that free trade hurts American workers (65 percent)
...believe rich people and corporations aren't paying enough taxes (66 and 71 percent respectively)
Overall party affiliation? 54 percent of Americans are Democrats (with leaners) and 39 percent are Republicans (with leaners).

The schizophrenia continues, with extreme right-wingers insisting that America is a center-right nation, despite all of their positions being repudiated.

But the band played on. Matt Yglesias, who's been a two-day strong clearinghouse of push-back on the center-right myth, compiles this video of people insisting on the conventional wishful thinking.

Watch here:


Of course, none of this explains how the Obama got to be the candidate who, in Karl Rove's words, "smartly and wisely ran a campaign" that emphasized how center-right everyone was, TWO DAYS after being branded far and wide as a socialist radical.

Here's the Electoral Vote map from mydd.com showing the EV with the map distorted to show population. Not much red there.

"The Moment" on MSNBC

Awesome that they let Keith make the call.

11PM is around 1:30 into the video.

Ralph Nader makes Fox look sane

Good for Shepherd Smith. But how far has Nader fallen into the crazy? Uncle Tom? He uses the phrase Uncle Tom in reference to Obama on the night he's elected the nation's first black president? Time for Ralph to toddle off to the home.

Jon Stewart gloats to Chris Wallace; Wallace digs at Fox

On the nose!

Not to pat myself on the back, but I will direct you to my post of November 4th where I called the election for Obama with 364 electoral votes. And as you'll note below in the NBC graphic, he got exactly that. Now, I had IN for McCain and MO for Obama, so I was only 48/50, but still on the nose electorally.

Blue America

The New York Times has some great interactive maps showing voting trends in this election, and allowing them to be compared to previous elections.

This map shows voting shifts from 2004. Areas in blue shifted towards Democrats, while areas in red shifted towards Republicans. The darker the color, the more pronounced the shift.

Change can happen

11.05.2008

Yes, We Can.

I was too wiped out to post much, and you know what yesterday meant.





The circular firing squad

First up: the dish on how totally unqualified Sarah Palin really is. She couldn't name all of the nations in North America, thought Africa was a country and not a continent, and... well, read on.

Before you go all "Nasty Democrat, piling on", this comes from FOX NEWS. That's right, The O'Reilly Factor.

Watch:






Next up is Brit Hume going all Jeff Gillooly on Karl Rove, calling Ohio for Barack Obama while Karl Rove was in the middle of an electoral map analysis that said John McCain will have a nearly impossible road to victory without Ohio.

"If he loses Ohio," Rove said of McCain, "he goes from 286, which the Republicans carried in 2004, down to 266, and that puts him below the 270 threshold needed to win the White House. So he'd not only need to sweep the rest of these states which were won by the Republicns in 2004, he'd also need to pick up something as well."

"Guess what Karl," Brit Hume broke in, "I've just received word that the state of Ohio has gone for Barack Obama."







Lastly, for now, Joe the Plumber gets his plunger pulled by CNN's Rick Sanchez during an interview on Election Day.

Sample:
Joe the Plumber: Why are you vetting me out and you haven't done this for Obama? You are asking me all these insane questions I asked a question of an elected public official and you are going to ask me these questions? That's kind of ridiculous man.

Sanchez: You have gone on the air and endorsed John McCain, you are no longer just joe private person, you have thrust yourself into this campaign by holding news conferences talking to reporters and endorsing a candidate. You have to be asked the tough questions my friend. That's the way it works in this country







11.04.2008

Election stuff for the geekily excited





What to watch for - hour by hour. From Nate Silver at 538.com
Poll closing times

Greek columns, huh?

I seem to remember these being an object of derision back in August.

Hypocrisy to the end.

11.03.2008

My prediction: 364-174


A little optimistic about MO, but I have a feeling OH and NC go Obama.

This has to touch your heart

It has to happen this year. It has to.

(Austin American-Statesman)
Daughter of slave votes for Obama

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.

For at least a decade, Amanda Jones worked as a maid for $20 a month, Joyce Jones said. She was a housewife for 72 years and helped her now-deceased husband, C.L. Jones, manage a store.

Amanda Jones, a delicate, thin woman wearing golden-rimmed glasses, giggled as the family discussed this year's presidential election. She is too weak to go the polls, so two of her 10 children — Eloise Baker, 75, and Joyce Jones — helped her fill out a mail-in ballot for Barack Obama, Baker said. "I feel good about voting for him," Amanda Jones said.

Jones' father herded sheep as a slave until he was 12, according to the family, and once he was freed, he was a farmer who raised cows, hogs and turkeys on land he owned. Her mother was born right after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Joyce Jones said. The family owned more than 100 acres of land in Cedar Creek at one point, she said.

Amanda Jones' father urged her to exercise her right to vote, despite discriminatory practices at the polls and poll taxes meant to keep black and poor people from voting. Those practices were outlawed for federal elections with the 24th Amendment in 1964, but not for state and local races in Texas until 1966.

Amanda Jones says she cast her first presidential vote for Franklin Roosevelt, but she doesn't recall which of his four terms that was. When she did vote, she paid a poll tax, her daughters said. That she is able, for the first time, to vote for a black presidential nominee for free fills her with joy, Jones said.

Awesome sauce and other toppings

Samantha Bee, Women's "Health" and Air Quotes - or dickfingers


This is corny, but it's still awesome


Spotting Dirty Tricks

The Best of Obama

'The Audacity of Hope' | The 2004 DNC Keynote Address
July 27, 2004


'A More Perfect Union' | The Philadelphia Address
March 18, 2008


The Iowa Caucus Victory Speech
January 3, 2008


The Convention Acceptance Speech
August 28, 2008


Democratic Nomination Victory Speech
June 3, 2008

Palin: Press criticism violates 1st Amendment

(ABC News)
In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

(Salon)
If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.

This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice here to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional.

According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. The First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials would not be "attacked" in the papers. It is even possible to imagine more breathaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?

(Me)
It sounds like Palin is all in favor of renewing John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts making it illegal to criticize the government. Or perhaps rery John Peter Zenger.

11.02.2008

The Who @ Borgata on Halloween

I saw The Who Halloween Friday night at the Borgata in Atlantic City. The venue can't hold more than 3000 people. It was an intimate setting and the band was incredible. What an amazing feeling to be 60 feet away from Peter Townshend.

Great setlist for the night, the highlight was the stretch from Baba to Won't Get Fooled Again, as well as Eminence Front and an amzing Sparks.
thewho.com
THE WHO PLAY ATLANTIC CITY
For their gig at the Borgata, Atlantic City, The 'Oo stuck to the same list as at the previous week's gig in Philadelphia. A good mix of greatest hits, classics and new material.

The set list ran as follows:

I Can't Explain
The Seeker
Relay
Fragments
Who Are You
Behind Blue Eyes
Real Good Looking Boy
Sister Disco
Baba O'Riley
Getting In Tune
Eminence Front
5.15
Love Reign O'er Me
My Generation
Won't Get Fooled Again
Pinball Wizard
Amazing Journey
Sparks
See Me/Feel Me
Tea And Theatre

Chase Utley: World F_cking Champions

YES YOU ARE!

around :30 in....

10.30.2008

Tucker Bounds: When Sarah shares the wealth, it's unique, not socialism

(Think Progress)
Today, MSNBC’s David Schuster asked McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds whether Palin’s “share the wealth” plan had socialist undertones. Bounds denied the allegation, claiming Alaska’s sharing of natural resources is “unique” and not at all socialist:

BOUNDS: No, in Alaska its a unique state because all the residents there have a unique share of the natural resources, that the oil companies come in and use, so therefore they share the revenues of the resources. … Its absurd to equate sharing the oil resources that all of these Alaskans have an ownership stake in, and trying to negotiate a deal with the oil companies that use those resources that —


Unique douchebaggery

Gouging? I know nothing about gouging.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.
(CNBC)

Really? Almost FIFTEEN BILLION in 3 months.

$6.9 million a MINUTE. $116,000 a SECOND.

That's PROFIT. PROFIT!

10.29.2008

Phinally



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