9/11

Matthew Yglesias:

If you’d told me on the morning of September 12 that seven years later the country would have gone without an additional al-Qaeda attack on US soil, I’m not sure I would have believed you. If you’d told me that more Americans wound wind up dying in Iraq than died in the World Trade Center, I’m almost positive I wouldn’t have believed you. And if you’d told me that seven years later Osama bin Laden would still be at large, I’m sure I wouldn’t have believed you.

Yup. Pretty much.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Republicans > Alaskans > Democrats

Sarah Palin arrived in Alaska last night. The Alaskan Republican party organized a rally to welcome her back. The rally was open to the public, but the organizers asked that only Palin supporters attend. Said spokesman McHugh Pierre: “If you don’t, we’re encouraging you not to come. We’re Alaskans first here.”

First of all: Is McHugh Pierre an alias? That can't be a real name.

Second of all: Is he implying that supporting Obama means you aren't Alaskan and, by extension, American?

That's probably the cynical view. (Ok: That is the cynical view.) But it's made awfully easy to hold when it's the Republican party organizing the rally and not some apolitical Alaskan group. The rally was clearly for Republicans. In that context, yes, the quote sure does sound like McHugh Pierre is saying that not supporting Palin is an act of treason against the great state of Alaska.

Rage and the RNC

About a hundred people were arrested during an impromptu protest march after the Rage Against the Machine show in Minneapolis last week. What you may not have heard was that two days earlier, Rage put on an a capella show after police in riot gear shut down a small show they were set to play.

McCain's Chance To Stand Up

Bush has given orders allowing military raids in Pakistan without prior approval of the Pakistani government. Barack Obama has repeatedly proposed the same tactic during his campaign. John McCain has repeatedly condemned this tactic during his campaign. So here we have the perfect opportunity for McCain to stand up to the Bush administration and show himself capable of disagreeing with them on a policy issue of consequence.

Obama Ahead in OH?

According to the new Quinnipiac poll released this morning Obama leads McCain 49-44 in Ohio. What's even more surprising is that Obama's lead among women in the state has increased since 8/26 (albeit by 1 percentage point).

But there are a few reasons for concern:

McCain now leads among Independents (47-43);

28% of former Clinton supporters now back McCain, up 5%.

The reason Obama is up in the state is that there are significantly more people who identify as Democrats than as Republicans.

We Still Here?

How you know the super collider hasn't destroyed the world yet.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Kettle: You're Black

From a McCain blast memo:

While Governor Palin was cutting wasteful projects, Barack Obama was requesting nearly $1 billion. In just three years in office, Barack Obama requested nearly $1 billion in earmarks - over a million dollars per working day.

This is true.

Also true: Sarah Palin requested slightly more per working day than Barack Obama.

Also true: Sarah Palin requested almost 9 times more per capita than Barack Obama.

Also true: Obama has requested $0 this year.

Also true: Sarah Palin has requested nearly $200 million for the 2009 fiscal year.

Gross Insanity

From Washington Monthly:

CNN had an item yesterday about its latest national poll, and included this fascinating tidbit.

Is it fair to raise questions about her experience?

"A majority of women say yes, but it's close; men are slightly less likely to see those questions as fair game," said CNN polling director Keating Holland.

I suppose reasonable people can disagree about whether Palin has the requisite experience to hold national office -- correct answer: no -- but CNN asked whether it was unfair to even ask the question in the first place.

Remarkable -- not for the fact that CNN asked the question but for the fact that CNN felt is was a question worth asking. That, in a nutshell, is the story of this election. Judging from the results, millions of Americans think it is unreasonable to raise questions about Palin's experience. Insane.

Weekly Physics Update

The Large Hadron Collider -- the machine designed to recreate the big bang -- was switched on early this morning. No black hole swallowed the universe, so that's a plus. The Higgs Boson remains undiscovered.

Stop the Drilling, Stop the Oil!

How much more fuel will all this offshore drilling that McCain is promising really get us?

Some scientists have a pretty good idea.

Thought Experiment

What would the US political and electoral system look like if there were no parties?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Lesson of the Moth

From Archy and Mehitabel (1927) by Don Marqius

i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

-archy

Fucking Liar

She has no shame.

First the MIL, now the inner circle?

First her mother-in-law couldn't commit to voting for Palin, and now some of her inner circle won't either. Fascinating.

Florida's Utility For Obama

Nate Silver:

In the pre-convention period, we had concluded that there were 243 electoral votes that were essentially fairly safe for Barack Obama in a close election. Those are the Kerry states, minus Michigan and New Hampshire, but plus Iowa and New Mexico. A total of 243 electoral votes leaves him 27 shy of the 270 he needs to win a majority. How many electoral votes is Florida worth? 27. The potential utility of Florida for Obama is that he could afford to lose Ohio and Michigan (as well as Colorado, New Hampshire, Nevada, Virgina etc.) and still have a winning map by bringing home his "safe" states.

Idiot Obama

From Politico:

Obama told the crowd that McCain and Palin spent most of the convention talking about their biographies.

Palin's bio is "compelling," Obama said.

The crowd booed. "No, it's an interesting story." More boos. "No, no, it is. I mean that sincerely. Mother, governor, moose shooter."

The crowd broke out in laughter. "That's cool. That's cool. That's cool stuff," Obama said.

Obama is not going to win by courting gun owners, he's not going to win by courting hunters, but he certainly will lose if he is disrespectful to those two groups. This comment pokes fun at an aspect of her biography that many, many, many voters appreciate, not to mention that many of these voters live in swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Virginia. This is a tacky line of attack on a candidate who's lack of qualification is galling. Obama ought to leave the window dressing to his delegates. This is just weak and probably counterproductive.

Why not attack on Palin on something that matters, something substantial, like her complete misunderstanding of Fannie/Freddie? Obama's strength is the economy and the VP on the opposition ticket just made a gaffe that would sink Senators, let alone Vice Presidents. Yet I've yet to hear one soundbite out of the Obama camp about Palin not knowing about a) how Fannie/Freddie work or b) about how the government bailout is going to work. If she's so concerned about the economy, how can she not afford to spend some time reading up on one of the central issues of the economic/housing crisis?

Monday, September 8, 2008

Kristol is a Twit

The conclusion to William Kristol's abomination of a column:

A Wasilla Wal-Mart Mom a heartbeat away? I suspect most voters will say, No problem. And some — perhaps a decisive number — will say, It’s about time.

No. No. No. There's no fucking way a Wal-Mart mom should ever be the leader of the free world. This is a patently insane idea. And any voter who think it's about time we have a Wal-Mart mom as President ought to have their voting rights taken away. Seriously.

Obama Dropping Liar Bombs

Identity Politics

According to an ABC/Washington Post poll out tomorrow, McCain now leads Obama 53-41 among white women. Before the GOP convention, Obama had been up 50-42 among these folks. That's a monumental swing.

It's also an argument in favor of revoking the 19th amendment.

Sarah Palin's 1100 Confidential Emails

From the article:

But more intriguing than any email correspondence contained in the four boxes was what was not released: about 1100 emails. Palin's office provided McLeod with a 78-page list (PDF) cataloging the emails it was withholding. Many of them had been written by Palin or sent to her. Palin's office claimed most of the undisclosed emails were exempt from release because they were covered by the "executive" or "deliberative process" privileges that protect communications between Palin and her aides about policy matters. But the subject lines of some of the withheld emails suggest they were not related to policy matters. Several refer to one of Palin's political foes, others to a well-known Alaskan journalist. Moreover, some of the withhold emails were CC'ed to Todd Palin, the governor's husband. Todd Palin—a.k.a. the First Dude—holds no official state position (though he has been a close and influential adviser for Governor Palin). The fact that Palin and her aides shared these emails with a citizen outside the government undercuts the claim that they must be protected under executive privilege. McLeod asks, "What is Sarah Palin hiding?"

Palin's Expertise, vol 1

It took Sarah Palin six years and five colleges to earn her degree so perhaps it's not surprising that she knows nothing about the biggest financial news of the day, the federal bailout of Fannie and Freddie. At a rally yesterday Palin said that they had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, however, aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. Which is part of the reason that they're in such a mess.

How the Japanese store bikes

In Tokyo they use a robot as a sort of automatic bicycle parking deck.Sounds like a good idea. I'm sure it cuts the number of bike thefts.

read it here

Gloria Steinem on Palin

"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

>> Keep reading

CNN Takes on Palin and Religion

From the story on the homepage of CNN.com:

For decades, Sarah Palin went to church with people who spoke in tongues and believed in faith healing and the "end times." Her former pastor says the Pentecostal past of the GOP vice presidential nominee may now be being downplayed to avoid misunderstanding. But the pastor, Tim McGraw, says he's sure religion influences Palin's policy-making.

$113,494,327,965

Sarah Palin requested $254 million in earmarks last year, or roughly $379 per Alaskan resident. If you multiply that out by the population of the United States (taken from 2006 census numbers) you get $113,494,327,965 in earmark requests. As the governor of the richest state in the Union she requested more money per person than anyone else.

Sunday, September 7, 2008