Wow. Just Wow.
I doubt this will make much news, but it should. Seriously.
In the current issue of Contingencies, McCain wrote an article on health care and the free market. It includes the following passage:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.Paul Krugman points out the obvious:
So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!Let us understand this passage correctly: McCain is admitting that he is responsible for the collapse, which today he has been blaming on inadequate regulation (even though Phil Gramm -- the champion of deregulation -- is his advisor; even though he has always been a firm believer in deregulation himself). Let me repeat that again: MCCAIN ADMITS HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COLLAPSE. Responsible in part, at least. Not solely responsible.
If he ever takes questions from a damn reporter again this better be the first thing asked.
In Sarah's Honor
From Marni Sabin in NYC:
On the Huffington Post:
Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name. And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:
https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor
You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:
McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202
Cooperation? Not So Much
Remember when Sarah Palin, with the confident air of a peacock, was welcoming the Troopergate investigation? If not, it was about two weeks ago. But now she is refusing to cooperate and the First Dude is refusing to testify despite being subpoenaed. He says that the investigation is no longer legitimate. The Republicans running the investigation still outnumber the Democrats, but whatever.
Why Obama Acts Like He's 10 Points Up in the Polls
From Slate:
Barack Obama apparently has not gotten the e-mail. He's supposed to be panicked. He's blowing a historic opportunity. He could lose the election. Worried Democrats have done everything but employ skywriting to get the message across that he needs to do something dramatic. Fast.
Why are they so calm in Obama-land?
Maybe they're not rattled because they've been through this before. If they'd listened to the polls and Democratic experts, they'd never have gotten in the race. In the summer of 2007, there were lots of Obama supporters who thought he should panic a little more—or risk losing to Hillary Clinton. The Obama campaign stuck to its plan and won. Aides often cite this lesson in explaining why they're not going to overreact now.
I Want a New Drug
My friend sent this to me:
See more Adam "Ghost Panther" McKay videos at Funny or Die
Flexing Her Expertise
If Palin is an expert in energy we need a new definition of expert. Read the this and then tell me what that definition should be. Her quote:
"Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."
Republicans Are Like My Cat
I have a cat. Her name is Twiggy. As a joke I like to call her The Twiggers because she's so damn unassuming and is, quite literally, a pussy. Everything makes her flinch. She's always cautiously walking around my apartment, hesitatingly sticking her paws out to touch inanimate things she's touched hundreds of times, like a pillow, and then running off scared when the pillow just sits there.*
Were she a person she'd probably vote Republican. Or at least that's the theory of Douglas Oxley, a political scientist from the University of Nabraska, who argues that people vote Republican as a survival instinct.
[His] team discovered that social conservatives react more strongly to shocking images and sudden noises by sweating more and blinking harder, compared to liberals. Such innate threat responses point to a biological, and perhaps genetic, basis for our politics...Interestingly, Sarah Palin doesn't blink.
The same trend held for blinking in response to a loud, random noise. Conservatives blinked a little bit harder than liberals, an innate response to a threat, Hibbing says.
*In her defense she used to be owned by a psychopath who killed animals.
McCain Ad Racist?
About the above ad Time says:
This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama's principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.
12-Year-Old Boy To Save World
Patrick found the following story. It's pretty amazing. Basically a kid is going to save the universe.
William Yuan, a 12-year old boy from Beaverton, Oregon, has developed a new 3D solar cell which if it ever gets commercialized could seriously change the face of solar power. Though he was encouraged in his research from his middle school science teacher, this is no mere school science experiment: the Davidson Institute has awarded Yuan a $25,000 scholarship for his research.What did you do today?
His optimized design provides 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than the cutting-edge, three dimensional solar cell.
Funny, Sad
How to talk to your woman if you want her to kill you. Seriously, I love this technique:
Girl: Where have you been this past week?
Boy: Yeah, weeks are formed by days. And days are formed by hours, which are formed by seconds. I've said this all along. Were you not clear?
Palin Now Unfavorable
22 point drop in a week. Unfavorables now 5 points higher than her favorables.
Baby Steps
Yesterday McCain made news by saying that if he were president he'd fire the head of the SEC. Unfortunately the president cannot fire the head of the SEC. Learning from his mistakes McCain said the following this morning:
"I believe the chairman of the FEC should resign."So close! The FEC is the Federal Election Commission.
Birdbrain: Now a Compliment!
At least among non-human animals.
This is fairly awesome:
Crows seem to be able to use causal reasoning to solve a problem, a feat previously undocumented in any other non-human animal, including chimps
Take that, chimps!
Another Day, Another Minister Scandal
From USA Today:
[Sarah Palin's former minister] has preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted into heaven; and preached that the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq were part of a world war over Christianity, The Huffington Post reported after reviewing recorded sermons by Kalnins.
The Economic Crisis and Fractals
This is cool (if you're a dork):
One of those long-time market watchers is fractal pioneer Benoit Mandelbrot. In 1999, Scientific American published an article by Mandelbrot that showed how fractal geometry can model market volatility, while revealing the intrinsic deficiencies of a cornerstone of finance called modern portfolio theory.
Mandelbrot, 83, contends that portfolio theory, which tries to maximize return for a given level of risk, treats extreme events (like, say, yesterday's market shockers) with “benign neglect: it regards large market shifts as too unlikely to matter or as impossible to take into account.” The faulty assumption of modern portfolio theorists, in Mandelbrot’s view, is that price changes do not drift far from the mean when observing daily ups and downs—so extreme events are exceedingly rare. “Typhoons, in effect, are defined out of existence,” he wrote.
In place of modern portfolio theory’s reliance on the canonical Bell Curve, Mandelbrot drags in (surprise!) the fractal. A fractal is a geometric shape that can be divvied up into parts, each of which is a Mini-Me facsimile of the whole. If you look closely enough, you can see fractals everywhere. Besides monotonous screen savers, fractal patterns describe the distribution of galaxies and the shape of coastlines. Mandelbrot devised so-called multi-fractal generators that can use historical market data to simulate alternative scenarios of where stocks or other securities might be headed.
For fun, here's a pretty fractal.
Wall Street Journal editorial board skewers McCain
This just in, courtesy of my dad:
John McCain's recent comments on the economy aren't just coming under fire from Barack Obama's campaign: arguably the country's most conservative editorial board said Friday the Arizona senator's recent "populist rifting" was downright "un-presidential."
A Friday Wall Street Journal editorial sharply criticized McCain for his recent condemnation of Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Committee. The Republican presidential nominee told an Iowa crowd Thursday Cox had "betrayed the public trust" and should be fired.
Who's bankrolling whom?
An interesting graphic from the Trib. Highlights:
Lawyers, doctors, consultants, educators, scientists and more artsy types like actors, writers and musicians tend to put their money on Obama. McCain is winning the cash race among homemakers, as well as farmers and ranchers and those who work in the oil and gas industry. Meanwhile, donors who list their professions as some variation of business executive seem split depending on what title they claim.
One surprise involves donors with military ties. McCain is the candidate with the strong military résumé, yet Obama has received more in contributions from uniformed and civilian military personnel. Another twist: Obama has taken in far more than McCain from those who say they are pilots or aviators—$146,821 to $92,722. McCain was a naval aviator who was shot down and held prisoner during the Vietnam War.
Touchdown, barely
From the Trib:
When it comes to watching football, more would hang with Obama than McCain.
Obama was the pick over McCain by a narrow 50 percent to 47 percent, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Friday that generally mirrored each presidential candidate's strengths and weaknesses with voters. Women, minorities, younger and unmarried people were likelier to prefer catching a game with Obama while men, whites, older and married people would rather watch with McCain.Biden Calls It Straight
From Biden's recent interview with Katie Couric.
Katie: "Your vice presidential rival, Governor Palin, said "To the rest of America, that's not patriotism. Raising taxes is about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse."One note: It's not that no one is paying for the war; it's more that no one alive is paying for the war. They've all yet to be born.
Biden: "How many small businessmen are making one million, four hundred thousand -- average in the top 1 percent. Give me a break. I remind my friend, John McCain, what he said -- when Bush called for war and tax cuts--he said, it was immoral, immoral, to take a nation to war and not have anybody pay for it. I am so sick and tired of this phoniness. The truth of the matter is that we are in trouble. And the people who do not need a new tax cut should be willing, as patriotic Americans, to understand the way to get this economy back up on their feet is to give middle class taxpayers a break. We take the tax cut they're getting and we give it to the middle class."
Funny Lede
From the AP no less:
John McCain either doesn't want to meet Spain's prime minister any time soon or isn't quite sure who he is.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Developing Narrative
Almost immediately upon her nomination Sarah Palin was cast as the rising star of the GOP. She energized the base, energized McCain, and provided reason for hope among conservatives of possibly retaining control of the White House. The worry for the Democrats, it was said, was falling into the trap of running against Palin instead of running against McCain.
But there's a narrative out there developing about who, exactly, the voters are interested. For the second time in the last two days attendees at a McCain-Palin rally have left after Palin spoke, opting not to listen to McCain. This was covered last night on CNN and if it's talked about again I think the McCain campaign may have some issues.
Simply put, Palin is becoming the de facto Republican candidate for the White House. And this is not good for the GOP. As much as Palin is propping up McCain when it comes to the base and their enthusiasm, McCain is the counterbalance to her inexperience in pretty much everything. They can't survive without one another in this election -- hence all the joint rallies -- but more importantly they can only survive in their current roles. A Palin-McCain ticket is even more prepoterous than a McCain-Palin ticket and it could be leathal to their election if that order starts to blur. Which is what the voters are signaling each time they walk out before hearing McCain speak and is what the media is signaling, albeit in a different way (so perhaps reinforcing is a better term), each night they focus on Palin-as-rising-star instead of Palin-as-VP.
Good Obama Line
Today John McCain, in responding to the Wall Street crisis, said that, as president, he would fire the head of the SEC.
(Which is nice except that as president he doesn't have the authority to fire the head of the SEC. Those damn details!)
To which Obama said at a rally:
[McCain] said that he is calling for the firing of the Security and Exchange Commissioner. Well I think that is all fine and good, but here is what I say: In 47 days, you can fire the whole Trickle-Down, On-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don’t just get rid of one guy, get rid of this administration, get rid of this philosophy, get rid of the do-nothing approach to problems and put someone in there who is going to fight for you.Putting the election in terms of business -- "you can fire" -- does some potentially important legwork for his rather vague "change" platform that might resurrect it from the land of banality. He's grounding the call for change in the language of the economy, thus moving the economic issues into the fore, and casting the voters as the agents of that change. Were my brain not fried I'd do the intellectual work of teasing out how this is different from what he has previously been saying about change and agency, but I trust that you all know what I'm getting at.
Obama Details Wall St. Plan
From his speech today in New Mexico:
The events of the past few days have made clear that we need to do more right now. We do not have time for commissions and we can’t afford to lurch back and forth between positions when dealing with an economic crisis, like my opponent has. That is why I am calling on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to use their emergency authorities to maintain the flow of credit, to support the availability of mortgages, and to ensure that our financial system is well-capitalized.
Tomorrow I will be convening a meeting with my top economic advisors to discuss a plan based on the ideas I’ve been talking about with former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and other advisors of mine. Then I’ll call for the passage of a Homeowner and Financial Support Act that would establish a more stable and permanent solution than the daily improvisations that have characterized policy-making over the last year. Specifically, it would accomplish three primary goals.
First, it will provide capital to the financial system. Second, it will provide liquidity to enable our financial markets to function. And third, it will do what I’ve been calling for since I supported legislation on it early last spring, which is to get serious about helping struggling families to re-structure their mortgages on more affordable terms so they can stay in their homes. We’ve made a good start but we need to do much, much more. We cannot forget that there are many homeowners who are in crisis through no fault of their own, and a solution that does not have them at its core is no solution at all.
Still No Word
From Chuck Hagel, Colin Powell, or Condoleezza Rice on who they will endorse for president. In order of importance I'd say it's Powell > Hagel > Rice, although it's really a toss up between Powell and Hagel. If either of them comes out for Obama it would be a huge hit to McCain.
Allison Endorses Obama
Wick Allison is the former publisher of the National Review, the conservative magazine. Today he wrote a thoughtful column endorsing Obama. His concluding paragraph:
“Every great cause,” Eric Hoffer wrote, “begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” As a cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama.This falls into a theme, articulated by many, that Obama is actually more pragmatically conservative than the current iteration of the GOP, the party responsible for the massive increase in the national debt and the expanding size of government.
Just a minor problem...
This was submitted by Katy Brown in Iowa City, Iowa:
Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.
There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.
In 2006 and 2007, Obama teamed up with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as “Google for Government.” The act created a free, searchable web site – USASpending.gov — that discloses to the public all federal grants, contracts, loans and insurance payments.
Can't Make This Stuff Up
The Virginia GOP is holding a big rally this Saturday designed to reach out to minority voters in Fairfax County. On of the featured speakers is George Allen. Macaca George Allen.
Why Palin Is Good for Women
Quote from the column:
First, more representation for feminism across the spectrum of political beliefs is a good thing. Women, like men, should be able to disagree on gun ownership, environmental policies, taxes, even abortion while agreeing on gender equity.
Second, the biggest feminist issue in America today is the career-family balance. Despite remaining discrimination, motherhood is at the core of the "glass ceiling" holding back female achievement. How inspirational, then, to see that the "mommy track" can be a road to the White House. Palin is a mother of five who resumed an intensive work schedule days after giving birth, and whose husband seems to be a full partner.
Better For the Economy?
With the hedge against attributing success or failure solely to the president, which is fairly silly...
She So Knows What She's Talking About
Think Progress points out that during her interview with Hannity, when talking about the Fannie/Freddie, Palin unknowingly blamed her campaign manager for contributing to their failure.
What's Daddy's Roommate Doing in Wasilla?
As we commemorate Banned Books Week September 27-October 4, we are reminded of the many attempts to restrict our right to read.
(This post comes with a special shout-out to my mama, Marianne Ryan, associate dean for learning at Purdue Libraries.)
Faced with such dilemmas, librarians know that even the threat of censorship imposes a chilling effect on those who risk their jobs and reputations when they dare to confront efforts to deny the public's right to hold and receive diverse opinions. When we observe Banned Books Week this year, we celebrate heroes like the former librarian of Wasilla, Alaska, whose courage represents a measure of freedom. Fortunately, in public libraries across the United States, books, hated by some but loved by others, remain on the shelves because of the dedication and commitment of librarians like Mary Ellen Emmons, who proudly uphold their principles, even when called upon to stand up to those who bully and abuse power.
CEO Pay
Kristof has a nice column today about about the inflating scale of CEO compensation which reminded me of this great column by Surowiecki about performance pay for hedge fund managers and CEOs. Here is his conclusion:
One lesson of the current market chaos, then, is that it’s hard to get incentives right. Investors, after all, want fund managers and corporate executives to take reasonable risks—that’s the only way to make money—and many of them do just that. But, in trying to reward reasonable risks, we’ve encouraged unreasonable ones as well. And when you make it rational for people to bet the house, you may end up without a roof over your head.
Last House Standing
Apparently there is only one house left standing in Galveston, TX in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
A Scary Thought
John Kluge:
The ownership society is sold as a way to get people to embrace the market and oppose government control of the market. I think the opposite is going to prove true. As more and more people are dependent on the market doing well, the political pressure to ensure that no one loses in the market will be greater and greater.The free market can't be rigged to succeed for everyone; that's not how it works. In fact, that's kind of how communism works. Like Immature Marx communism.
John Scalzi calms your nerves:
Are we socialists yet? No, no. Relax. We couldn't possibly be socialists. Socialists only nationalize successful businesses.Phew.
Palin and Pot
Link:
In 2006 the state legislature, at the urging of Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, passed another law that supposedly made private possession of marijuana for personal use a crime. A judge found that law unconstitutional as well, and the Alaska Supreme Court is considering an appeal of her ruling.
The upshot is that smoking marijuana in the privacy of one's home is just as legal in Alaska today as it was when Palin did it. Evidently she regrets this situation.
As mayor of Wasilla in 2000, Palin championed a city council resolution opposing a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for adults. Last March her administration asked the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse its 1975 decision shielding private marijuana use, arguing that the drug is more dangerous than it used to be.
In other words, Palin got to smoke pot without worrying about legal consequences and now wants to deny that assurance to fellow Alaskans doing exactly the same thing. "Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana," the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2006, because she worries about "the message it would send to her four kids."
It's Palin's job to teach her children that certain pleasures are reserved for grownups. The government should not continue to arrest adults who are harming no one simply because her children are easily confused.
Top McCain Gaffes
From the Washington Monthly:
McCain thinks the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia was "the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War." He thinks Iraq and Pakistan share a border. He believes Czechoslovakia is still a country. He's been confused about the difference between Sudan and Somalia. He's been confused about whether he wants more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, more NATO troops in Afghanistan, or both. He's been confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq. He's been confused about whether the U.S. can maintain a long-term presence in Iraq. He's been confused about Iran's relationship with al Qaeda. He's been confused about the difference between Sunni and Shi'ia. McCain, following a recent trip to Germany, even referred to "President Putin of Germany." All of this incoherence on his signature issue.
You'd think that this sort of track record would disqualify a person from being the leader of the free world. But McCain was a prisoner of war so please stop your sexist attacks against Palin and her family.
Palin Annointed By God?
"Sarah is that standard God has raised up to stop the flood. She has the anointing..."
This is from an email currently circulating amongst those who believe that the Almighty would anoint a person with the power to save humanity but not anoint her with the power to, I don't know, not habitually lie. But this might explain her ability to become an expert on Russia simply by living closer to Russia than most people in the United States. Osmosis is the work of the Lord apparently.
Read the email.
Was It Not A Gaffe?
Was McCain actually shunning the Spanish Prime Minister? From the WaPo:
Was McCain purposely trying to diss the Spanish leader? Questions about whether McCain forgot which country Zapatero leads, got confused about Spain's geographic relationship to Latin America, or confused Zapatero with the Zapatista rebels from Mexico have exploded on blogs since reports of the interview first surfaced.McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Sheunemann said McCain's answer was intentional.
"The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero (and id'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview," he said in an e-mail.
Politicians Lie, Numbers Don't
And the numbers show that Democrats are better for the economy than Republicans.
McCain Did Not See This Coming
McCain has been hollering about foreseeing the economic crisis for the last two years, telling CBS news yesterday morning, "Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems."
This is true.
But this is also true: He claimed in November, 2007,to have not foreseen the sub-prime mortgage crisis in an interview.
Q: Well the dimension of this problem may be surprising to a lot of people, but to many people, to many others there were feelings that there was something amiss, something was going too fast, something was a little too hot. … Were you surprised?
McCAIN: Yeah. And I was surprised at the dot-com collapse and I was surprised at other times in our history. […]
I don’t know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said “wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.” So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.
Big Indy Poll: Obama Winning
A new Selzer poll has Obama leading in Indiana 47%-44%. Selzer is the same polling agency that forecasted Obama winning Iowa during the primary. They have a very strong track record.
Good Point
Sullivan on Palin saying she didn't consult with her eldest son before accepting the VP nomination:
And the other weird detail, of course, is her dismissal of Track's views because he would be in Iraq "doing his thing." In fact, an active duty soldier would have plenty of reason to be consulted about the possibility of his mother becoming vice-president. It could compromise his ability to blend in, require possible extra security protection, and perhaps jeopardize his chance to be in combat.I think this is critical. Who better to target, either for murder or, possibly worse, for kidnapping, than the son of the vice president of the United States? Having Track in combat exposes him to risks above and beyond those of his fellow soldiers, and the potential social/tactical issues attendant with being such a high target are worrisome, at least if you're the dude's mom.
McCain Doesn't Know Our Allies
A friend of mine has a short article in Time about McCain's latest Senior Moment, when he apparently didn't realize Zapatero is the Prime Minister of Spain, a NATO ally, responding to the question of whether he'd receive Zapatero in the White House:
Honestly, I have to analyze our relationships, situations, and priorities, but I can assure you that I will establish closer relationships with our friends, and I will stand up to those who want to harm the United States.McCain is a POW. That is all.
How McCain Lost Me
An interesting article from a former McCain supporter—who actually wrote a pro-McCain book, "Citizen McCain."
An excerpt:
When Bush, issued a “signing statement” in 2006 on McCain’s hard-fought legislation placing prohibitions on torture, saying he would interpret the measure as he chose, McCain barely uttered a peep. And then, in 2006, in one of his most disheartening acts, McCain supported a “compromise” with the administration on trials of Guantanamo detainees, yielding too much of what the administration wanted, and accepted provisions he had originally opposed on principle. Among other things, the bill sharply limited the rights of detainees in military trials, stripped habeas corpus rights from a broad swath of people “suspected” of cooperating with terrorists, and loosened restrictions on the administration’s use of torture. (The Supreme Court later ruled portions of this measure unconstitutional.)
McCain’s caving in to this “compromise” did it for me. This was further evidence that the former free-spirited, supposedly principled, maverick was morphing into just another panderer – to Bush and the Republican Party’s conservative base.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
My Commencement Address
This speech managed to make me cry when it was delivered. It's short, powerful, thoughtful and, listening to it now, awfully prescient. It's about Truth and humanity -- two things under considerable attack lately, if you follow politics.
The speaker is William Schulz, the Executive Director of Amnesty International. He graduated from Oberlin College (like me!) and has a Masters from the University of Chicago (like me!) and is responsible for the bettering of humanity on a magnificent scale (not like me!). He's also an amazing orator. Give it a listen.
DFW 2005 Commencement Address
(If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I'd advise you to go ahead, because I'm sure going to. In fact I'm gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings ["parents"?] and congratulations to Kenyon's graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story ["thing"] turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning...
Obama's Healthcare Plan
A detailed analysis from the Wall Street Journal on why O's plan is better than McCain's.
"Given the current inefficiencies in our system, the impact of the Obama plan will be profound. Besides the $2,500 savings in medical costs for the typical family, according to our research annual business-sector costs will fall by about $140 billion. Our figures suggest that decreasing employer costs by this amount will result in the expansion of employer-provided health insurance to 10 million previously uninsured people.
The lower cost of benefits will allow employers to hire some 90,000 low-wage workers currently without jobs because they are currently priced out of the market. It also would pull one and a half million more workers out of low-wage low-benefit and into high-wage high-benefit jobs. Workers currently locked into jobs because they fear losing their health benefits would be able to move to entrepreneurial jobs, or simply work part time."
Forget Wikipedia
Now there's Dickipedia.
From Sarah Palin's Dickipedia entry:
Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current governor of Alaska, Republican vice presidential candidate, a compulsive breeder, and a major lady dick.
The only thing Sarah Palin seems to enjoy more than having children is giving those children ridiculous names and inadequate sex education.
Palin served as both a city councilor and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a nightmare of suburban sprawl located in the armpit of the state’s two major highways. Somehow, she was elected governor of Alaska in 2006, not only becoming the first woman, but also the hottest chick ever to hold the office.
On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain performed perhaps the greatest political mindfuck in American history by announcing that he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin celebrated by ovulating.
Are you kidding me?!
From the Palin/Hannity interview:
"Didn’t bother asking my son because, you know, he’s going to be off doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn’t be so impacted by, at least, the campaign period here."
Yup, just fighting the war in Iraq. But not impacted...
Conventional Wisdom
Andy sent this to me and I thought yuo guys might get a kick out of it:
priceless...
I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now
We Rule the EPL! (?)
As The Big Lead points out, with the government takeover of AIG the US Government is now sponsoring Manchester United. Weird week.
Don't Blink
To Hannity on being asked to be vice president:
“It was a time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway.
To Gibson:
"I didn't hesitate, no."
From the campaign communications director on August 29th:
"Later that morning, John McCain departed for Phoenix and Governor Palin departed with staff to Flagstaff, Arizona. Governor Palin, Kris Perry, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter proceeded to the Manchester Inn and Conference Center in Middleton, Ohio. They were checked into the hotel as the Upton Family. While there, Governor Palin’s children, who had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding anniversary, were told for the first time that their mother would be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America."
Palin Needs to Read up on...Palin
And in that cronyism — it’s symptomatic of the grade of problem that we see right now in Washington and that is just that acceptance of the status quo, the politics as usual, the cronyism that has been allowed to be accepted and then it leads us to a position like we are today with so much collapse on Wall Street.Did she not read the NYT article on her political life that began with a story about her cronyism? It was on the front page of the paper on Sunday. Was the most-emailed NYT story for three days. No?
Get Her a Dictionary!
It don't stop:
On reaction to Obama’s attack on McCain for saying that the “fundamentals” of the economy are strong:Verbiage means language that is excessively wordy or technical. "The fundamentals of the economy are strong" is the antithesis of verbiage.
“Well, it was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use..."
More Mistakes
More from the Palin interview:
On AIG getting government bailout:“Well, you know, first, Fannie and Freddie, different because quasi-government agencies there where government had to step in because of the adverse impacts all across our nation, especially with homeowners.”
“It’s just too impacting, we had to step in there. I do not like the idea though of taxpayers being used to bailout these corporations. Today it was AIG, important call there, though, because of the construction bonds and the insurance carrier duties of AIG.”
AIG got in a mess selling Credit Default Swaps.
Palin is clearly who I want leading me through this economic meltdown.
WTF
From Palin's interview with Hannity tonight:
...government can play a very, very appropriate role in the oversight as people are trusting these companies with their life savings, with their investments, with their insurance policies, and construction bonds, and everything else.
Appropriate role? Seriously? The government can play an appropriate role. Way to say nothing, Sarah. Pretty soon she will come out in favor of rainbows and teddy bears.
What's that? She hates polar bears? Oh, never mind.
Snap!
Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's President, he'll take on, and I quote -- 'the old boys network in Washington.' I'm not making this up. This is somebody who's been in Congress for twenty-six years -- who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign -- and now he tells us that he's the one whose gonna' take on the old boys network. The old boys network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting.
Obama, 9/17
Hammered at Home
Palin was just hammered at home, but this time the consequence won't be another kid she can fuck up.
She Did What!?!?!
From CBS:
During a quick stop at a diner in Cleveland, Ohio, Sarah Palin was asked for her reaction to the AIG bailout.
“Dissapointed that taxpayers are called upon to bailout another one,” she said. “Certainly AIG though with the construction bonds that they’re holding and with the insurance that they are holding very, very impactful to Americans so you know the shot that has been called by the Feds its understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one.”
[snip]
Though she has been on the campaign trail for nearly three weeks, Palin has yet to hold a press conference, and this morning’s stop marked the first time she answered a question from the press on the fly, prompting concerned looks from staffers.
Good Point
Good point: Now that the government is running the biggest insurance company in the world, shouldn't we elect a president who is qualified to run a large company?
Drill, Drill, Drill
Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah Palin
Drill, Drill, Drill
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country choose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. Bu t what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Eve Ensler
Discourse In America
I had heard about this, then heard about it again...and then again, and finally again just now. Suffice it to say: THIS IS NOT ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.
McCain and Regulation
The Washington Post has a story up about McCain's sudden, dramatic shift towards regulation -- in case you missed it, it happened sometime around 8am this morning -- after long championing deregulation.
This is one instance where the Obama campaign and his supporters needs to step away from cries of flip-flop. What the message should be is the learning curve. It took a once-a-century financial meltdown for McCain to realize that some regulation is a good thing. Which is a nice bit of Monday Morning Quarterbacking. Obama et al need to be saying things like, "Where were you when the problem started?"
McCain Against AIG Bailout Yesterday, Not Today
Yesterday on the Today Show:
MCCAIN: No, I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG and I’m glad that the Secretary Paulson is apparently taking the same line.Today's statement from the McCain campaign:
LAUER: If we get to the point middle of the week as we heard in that report where AIG might have to file for bankruptcy, they’re on their own?
MCCAIN: Well, quote “on their own,” we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else.
"Today, the government was forced to commit $85 billion to stop the collapse of AIG, another in a growing series of events that includes Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management, and a casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important companies in America. The focus of any such action should be to protect the millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans and other accounts with AIG. We must not bailout the management and speculators who created this mess. They had months of warnings following the Bear Stearns debacle, and they failed to act."
"We should never again allow the United States to be in this position. We need strong and effective regulation, a return to job-creating growth and a restoration of ethics and the social contract between businesses and America. Important questions remain to be answered by Wall Street. Did executives mislead investors and regulators about the severity of the problem? We must investigate whether or not there was misrepresentation on part of the company executives. If there was, there must be penalties. We need to change the way Washington and Wall Street does business, and as President I will."
Just for fun
*If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic,
different."
*If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, yours is a quintessential
American story.
*If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
*Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
*Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
*Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
*If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first
black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive
that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law
professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with
over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human
Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a
state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the
Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs
committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
*If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council
and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as
the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to
become the country's second-highest-ranking ex ecutive and next in line
behind a man in his eighth decade.
*If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2
beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real
Christian.
*If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your
disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true
Christian.
*If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the
proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
*If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other
option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen
daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
*If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a
prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner-city community,
then gave that up to raise a fa mily, your family's values don't represent
America 's.
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI
conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age
25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska
from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
New Lies From McCain
Says as chair of the Commerce Committee he oversaw every part of the economy. If only the Commerce Committee was in charge of, say, the financial institutions. Whoops, that's the Banking Committee. Or the health care sector. Whoops, that's the Finance Committee. Or the....
Defining White Privilege
(Small font b/c it's long)
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while if you're black and believe in reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school, requires it), you are a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn't fit to safeguard American institutions.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.
White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.
White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.
White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."
White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction, having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go on to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so strong, while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still get high, and even ask whether or not you ever sold drugs.
White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."
White privilege is being able to say that you hate "gooks" and "will always hate them," and yet, you aren't a racist because, ya know, you were a POW so you're entitled to your hatred, while being black and insisting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because a lot of white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Link
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
It's Russia! From Alaska! Tomorrow!
This webcam gives you a view of Russia from Alaska. Since Russia is on the other side of the IDL you're actually looking a day ahead. If you stare hard enough and long enough you'll become an expert on US-Russia foreign policy.
Blackberry
You've heard by now that a McCain aide has kinda-sorta-not-really claimed that John McCain invented the Blackberry. Well, here's what Ben Smith was just sent from Obama aide Bill Burton:
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Burton
Sent: Tue 9/16/2008 4:07 PM
To: Ben Smith
Subject:
[snip]
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld, a miracle made possible by John McCain.
(Gone unnoticed thus far: Blackberry is made by a Canadian company. I don't know if this makes the gaffe better or worse.)
That Sound You Hear?
Is the sound of the media running away from McCain. The latest is Richard Cohen, who published this scathing column today in the Washington Post.
Palin to Handicapped: No Sports For You!
As governor Sarah Palin vetoed $275,000 in funding for the Special Olympics.
The Collapse
Barack Obama had the following to say regarding the collapse of Lehman Brothers:
I certainly don't fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It's a philosophy we've had for the last eight years - one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.Trickle down economics had nothing to do with the financial collapse. It was not the government's fault that Lehman, Bear Sterns, Lynch, et al, grossly mispriced the risk of lending money to people with poor credit. It was not the goverment's fault that these institutions grossly mispriced the risk of lending too much money to people with good credit.
To be fair, McCain's statement on the collapse is equally bothersome, although for different reasons, but he is right to applaud the government for not coming to the rescue of Lehman. The government had to do something to counter the moral hazard of bailing out all these institutions (Bear, Fannie, Freddie). Letting Lehman fall on its face does just that. And should Lehman dissolve in a somewhat orderly fashion it'll provide the market with reassurance that it can survive a huge insolvency, which is equally important.
But it's really just a shot in the dark. Still, it was the right shot (I think; others disagree).
Imagined Conversation
''Senator, you have a few minutes?"
"For you, Steve? I have all day. Have a seat."
"I wanted to talk to you about a new theme. You had a great convention, good bounce --"
"Thanks to you. My friend, the job you've done since you took hold of my campaign--move over, Karl Rove. He's got nothing on Steve Schmidt."
"Thanks, sir. So we want to capitalize on your bounce and deal a little more firmly with the age issue."
"Steve, you know how many times we've been around that track. I'm 72, and I look every
day of it. We can't get around that. The voters know me, and they've already figured in my age. And we've got Sarah now. She's a pep pill."
"Our tracking polls show age is the public's biggest remaining concern about you, sir. People love Sarah as running mate or VP. But when we test the words 'President Palin' ... "
"So? What are you suggesting?
"We need to go on offense. Our theme is that Barack Obama is too old for the job and that the public needs a younger, more vigorous brand of leadership. OK, here are some scripts we're looking at."
"Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Do you need time off? I can give you a few days. Take some time. You've earned it."
"No, Senator. If you'll just look at these scripts --"
"Steve, April Fool's Day is seven months off. You want me to say Obama is too old to be president and I'm not?"
"Yes."
"I'm younger than Obama?"
"Not younger, exactly. More youthful. You have more, um, youthiness. What is 72? That's just a numeral. Same two digits as 27. It's ink on a driver's license. You have the adventurous spirit of youth. You're the innovator, the reformer. You may be older in years. You're older technically. But you're younger in qualifications. That's the age that really matters. Qualificationswise, you're entering your prime, and you have the experience to prove it. You're like Reagan, although you're even younger, though not technically.
"Whereas your opponent? Tired ideas. 'Bitter.' Same old fresh face as in 2004. His best days are already behind him and he never accomplished anything. Peel back the public-relations front and the media hype, and he's over the hill."
"Steve. This is preposterous. You can't honestly ask this head of white hair to go out there and say I'm younger than Barack Obama. I'm a grandparent."
"So is Sarah, in a few months. Grandparents aren't old anymore. They're the new aunts and uncles. Especially in Alaska. Look, let me give you some context--why I think we have a good shot here."
"I'm all ears."
"You may have heard of the law of the excluded middle. No? It's from philosophy. Logic, to be specific. It says that if X, then not not X. Wait, bear with me. If a statement is true, then the negation of that statement cannot also be true. Otherwise everything could be true at once. You'd have fuzzy logic."
"Steve --"
"We've figured out something. The law of the excluded middle is not in the Constitution. We looked. It's not in any contract our party ever signed. It wasn't even written by Republicans. It was written by left-wing academics.
"So at the convention last week, we send the former mayor of New York City to go out on prime time and ridicule Obama for being 'cosmopolitan.' We make Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Manhattan, the spokesman for small-town values. According to Democrat logic, he should be laughed off the stage. But the response goes off the charts.
"Why? Across America, people are fed up with so-called logical 'laws' that they never agreed to and that insult their values. They're ready to fight back against cosmopolitan logic. We've tapped into that!
"Look at Mitt Romney. The former governor of Massachusetts gets up there and bad-mouths the East Coast. No one bats an eye. Then he says, 'We need change, all right: change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington. We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington: Throw out the big-government liberals.' As if Ted Kennedy has been president these past eight years. The liberal bloggers said things like, 'Has Romney lost his mind?' But that's Democrat logic.
"Or Sarah. Our side says Obama is too inexperienced to be president. Karl Rove says Tim Kaine, the Democrat governor of Virginia, is too inexperienced to be vice president. So what do we do? We go find Sarah, who has less experience than either of them. Less than anybody in American politics, practically. We put her on the ticket and say she has more than enough experience to be president. Even though Obama doesn't. Maybe that's not cosmopolitan logic, but Americans get it.
"Look at the themes of your campaign. Republicans have messed up in Washington. So, what's the answer? Elect another Republican. Messing up isn't a strike against us. It's a qualification.
"Washington. You've been there 26 years. You're a fixture. So what does that make you? An outsider.
"Government. You run against big government. OK, so Republicans have made it bigger. That only shows why we need Republicans to make it smaller. And who better to bring competence to government than the guys who go around bashing it?
"You run on fiscal responsibility. Get that deficit under control. How better to do that than with big tax cuts, unpaid-for? Who turned surpluses into deficits? Republicans. That's exactly why we need the kind of sound fiscal management that Republicans bring to Washington.
"Rudy and Mitt and Sarah give speeches steeped in contempt for Obama and Democrats and urbanites and liberals. They play the identity-politics card like there's no tomorrow. That's the message on Wednesday. Thursday, you talk about how you're going to bridge the divide, be Mr. Bipartisanship, bring a new respect to politics.
"If you believe what the textbooks say, we're the incumbent party. We've held the White House for the past eight years. We've held Congress for most of that time. So what does that make us? The party of change!
"And you know how we prove that? By offering all the same policies as President Bush. Apart from global warming, we're the same on every major issue. That's how we're going to shake up Washington. Just by being us. 'John McCain is the change. Vote for him and change will come.' That's our message. Of course, when Obama says, 'I am the change,' we say it's messianic. But when you say it, we're campaigning on your biography.
"Sir, the potential here is limitless. When we started down this road, it was just tactics. We were operating on the Rovian principle of hitting the other guy where he looks strongest, not weakest. We figured the best defense was a good offense. Plus, we wanted to exploit the element of surprise. We knew that no one would expect the most idealistic Republican politician of his generation to run the most cynical campaign of his day.
"And then we saw how it was going over, and we realized we were on to something. At the convention, we pushed the pedal all the way to the floor. We nominated a vice presidential candidate whose shortcoming was her lack of any apparent substantive command of national issues. We could have filled that gap. Instead, we gave her a substance-free speech. OK, there were a few lines about oil pipelines in the Caucasus. But we kept them to a bare minimum and played up cultural resentment instead. We substituted snarl for substance. Result? Home run.
"That was when it dawned on us. We're way beyond cynicism here. We've warped out of cosmopolitan logic altogether. We're in a new political space. We're epistemological pioneers! Republicans are the party of freedom and personal choice, right? So what's the ultimate freedom? What's the ultimate choice? 'X and not X--you can have it all!'
"The public wants change and experience. That's what you're promising. They're 90 percent there. All you need to do is help them close the deal. Here, listen to this script:
"Barack Obama says he's 'young.' But is he really? Being young is about more than just talk. Look behind the words, and you'll find the same old policies. From the same old people.
"Anyone can come out of nowhere and claim to be young. John McCain has been proving his youth for decades, ever since he was a young POW in a dark isolation cell in Vietnam.
"John McCain will bring real youth to Washington. The kind of youth that gets results.
"John McCain. A president you can trust to be young."
"Steve. My God. You're a genius. I feel younger already. You could almost make me believe black is white."
"Actually, Senator, I was just coming to that."
Link.Obama Ad: Equal Pay
Obama has just dropped a new ad hitting McCain on voting against equal pay for women. It's sort of a weird ad in that it's implying that McCain is against equal pay for women, which I don't think anyone believes. But maybe it'll play with women voters.
I'm Buying Some
Ever have your sandwich stolen from the fridge? Sherwood Forlee came up with a great way to prevent lunch theft, accidental or otherwise.
A Letter From My Dad
Dear friends and family:
I have never sent a mass email like this before, but I am so concerned with current presidential campaign that I am compelled share my views with you.
For many years John McCain was an admirable man who did, indeed, put the country first. In 2000 he was a bastion of reform, candor, and dignity. He was widely admired for his "straight talk" -- and rightly so. But the John McCain of 2008 is unrecognizable to me. What he's done over the last few weeks has forever changed how I'll see him. He's now a deeply cynical politician who is embracing the worst in politics solely for political gain.
Perhaps the most important decision a nominee for President makes is his selection of a running mate to be vice president. The primary criterion for that job is the ability to assume the presidency should it become necessary. In McCain's case this is all the more important due to the fact that, given his age and history with cancer, actuarial tables show that he has at least a 14% chance of dying during the next four years. Should McCain run for the presidency in 2012 there is an even higher probability that he would die while in office. Simply put, if McCain and Palin win in November, there is a very real chance that Sarah Palin will become president.
Sarah Palin is not ready to serve in the White House. In July she admitted to not knowing what the Vice President does, but setting aside that worrisome admission please consider that, in the midst of a war against terrorism and extremism, she had expressed no interest in foreign affairs and has no foreign policy experience. Regarding the surge in Iraq, in December 2006 she said "I want to know that we have an exit plan in place" -- the exact opposite of the purpose of the surge and of the Republican position on Iraq. The issue isn't whether or not you agree with the surge as a strategy; it's whether or not you understand what the strategy is. Palin never once expressed a sound understanding of the tactical and political aims of the surge, an event she first heard about while watching the news. To the question of her foreign policy experience, McCain's response that "Alaska is right next to Russia," as if foreign policy understanding can be obtained through osmosis, is so insulting to intelligent voters that I can scarcely believe that he has used this line many times.
Sarah Palin is not ready to serve in the White House. In July she admitted to not knowing what the Vice President does, but setting aside that worrisome admission please consider that, in the midst of a war against terrorism and extremism, she had expressed no interest in foreign affairs and has no foreign policy experience. Regarding the surge in Iraq, in December 2006 she said "I want to know that we have an exit plan in place" -- the exact opposite of the purpose of the surge and of the Republican position on Iraq. The issue isn't whether or not you agree with the surge as a strategy; it's whether or not you understand what the strategy is. Palin never once expressed a sound understanding of the tactical and political aims of the surge, an event she first heard about while watching the news. To the question of her foreign policy experience, McCain's response that "Alaska is right next to Russia," as if foreign policy understanding can be obtained through osmosis, is so insulting to intelligent voters that I can scarcely believe that he has used this line many times.
Even if before taking office Sarah Palin were to develop understanding and expertise in foreign and domestic affairs -- a prospect that is patently impossible -- I would still oppose her serving in office, due to her positions on other issues. For example, Palin opposes abortion even in the case of incest or rape. Though thoughtful, compassionate people may disagree on this issue, I am deeply disturbed by the prospect of a country that forces the victim of rape to bear the child of her rapist. What may be worse is that when she was mayor of Wasilla her administration required rape victims to pay for the "rape kit" used to investigate the crime -- a practice nearly unheard of in our country, and for good reason. The families of murder victims don't finance the police investigation of those crimes, nor would we ever expect them to. To hold a different standard for the victims of rape is unconscionable.
For another example, consider science education: While running for governor Palin supported the teaching of creationism in the schools, saying, "Teach both [evolution and creationism]." This stance undermines science education and amounts to an attack on science, threatening the future of science leadership of the United States. Under the Bush administration research in science and medicine has been hampered. If you care about someone with cancer, Alzheimer's disease, or heart disease, (as I do) then you should support increased opportunity for research and improved science education.
Even if I agreed with Palin on these issues, I would still oppose her election due to her lack of character. She continually misrepresents herself and her record. I can understand that, for example, Palin would want to hide the fact that she was elected as mayor of Wasilla with the backing of her church, which at that time was interested in censorship. I can understand why she would want to hide the fact that she questioned how books might be banned from the public library, and that when the librarian stood up to Palin, making it clear that she would not remove books, Palin fired her. I can understand that, given her lack of preparation, she is hiding from the press, having yet to take questions from the American people in a town hall meeting or public press conference.
But worse than hiding her worrisome history with censorship and abuse of executive power is her duplicity. Palin is running as a fiscal conservative, as if she understands the moral obligation to the next generation not to leave them footing the bill for our reckless spending. But her record does not indicate that she is interested in, let alone capable of, leading the country in a manner that is fiscally sound. Consider the fact that when she became mayor of Wasilla the city had no debt, but when she left office the city had $20M in long-term debt. Consider the fact that as mayor she sought out and received almost $27M in pork-barrel federal money and that last year, as governor, she requested $254 million in earmarks for Alaska. This is the most per capita of any state in the union! For the 2009 fiscal year she's already requested $194 million in earmarks. She has criticized Barack Obama for seeking earmarks for his constituents, but she has asked for earmarks at a greater rate than he has.
At the center of Palin's dishonesty is the story of the Bridge to Nowhere. Consider the fact that she advocated for the Bridge to Nowhere -- indeed, she continued to support the project after Congress pulled the plug on funding it -- but on the campaign trail she repeatedly states that she was against it. In fact, she kept the money that was directed to the Bridge to Nowhere and instead is using those taxpayer dollars to build a road to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone. Moreover, the Palin administration is still pursuing a project that would link Ketchikan to its airport with federal funds. I understand that politicians seek earmark funds for their constituents. I don't object. But for Sarah Palin to campaign as someone who "said thanks, but no thanks, to that Bridge to Nowhere" and who as someone who is opposed to earmarks is beyond the pale. There is hypocrisy and then there is hypocrisy masquerading as noble righteousness in an effort to purposefully mislead the electorate. We need to expect better from our elected officials.
But the true issue here is not Sarah Palin. It's not her ignorance of foreign policy or military tactics. It's not her troubled history of abusing the power of her office. It's not her position on abortion, earmarks, the economy, or the Iraq war.
The true issue here is John McCain.
John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin to be his vice president was absolutely not because he was "putting country first". He had only met her twice before offering her the nomination and only consulted with her five days prior to asking her to be the nominee. When McCain was seeking the Republican nomination, he stated clearly that one needs more than to be a mayor or governor for a short time to be prepared for the White House, but Palin had been governor for only 21 months when McCain tapped her. McCain's camp did not vet Palin. McCain chose a running mate who was virtually unknown to America and, rather than subject her to press conferences so that we may learn about her in her own words, he has since been painting a picture of Sarah Palin that is purposefully misleading. Every day another inaccuracy emerges. For example, this week McCain stated that Palin didn't request earmarks as governor, although she clearly has. The McCain camp claimed that Palin has been in war zones in Iraq, but has now been forced to admit that she has never been inside Iraq! Either McCain doesn't know very much about the person he chose to be his running mate -- a scary thought -- or he thinks that he can run a campaign on the idea of a transparent government while sequestering Pailn from the press and blatantly misleading the public about who she is and what she has done -- a thought that is far more disturbing.
McCain might have chosen someone who is prepared to be vice president; but he didn't. He might have chosen someone who, although inexperienced, is honest and consistent about her record; but he didn't. Instead, he chose someone who would appeal to the extreme right wing of his party and who, as a woman, might attract supporters of Hillary Clinton. Moreover, he did this impulsively and now is unwilling to admit to any weaknesses in his choice, or to be honest about her record. This was a deeply cynical move that is insulting to the American voters who care about our nation and how it is governed. Even if you think Palin is a wonderful candidate and that McCain made an inspired decision, do you really want a president who acts on impulse and self-interest? At first I thought the problem was that McCain didn't know Palin's background, policy positions, and style. Now my fear is that he doesn't care.
There is more to say about McCain's judgment and character. All politicians distort the records and positions of their opponents; this is nothing new. So when McCain claims that Obama wants to raise taxes on the middle class -- even though Obama's plan actually provides more tax relief for the middle class than McCain's -- it is only mildly annoying. And when McCain says that he will cut taxes for everyone even though he won't -- well, I expect such distortions. However, the most recent ad by the McCain camp is so grotesque as to defy credulity. The announcer in the ad says, regarding education, "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family." Here is the truth: Obama supported legislation to protect young children from sexual predators, which included teaching children what to watch out for (e.g., inappropriate advances) when with an adult they do not know. It is incredible that McCain would stoop so low, although it is no longer surprising.
How a candidate runs a campaign matters. In the darkest hours of McCain's campaign, when the prospects of his election were growing dim, McCain jettisoned much of what made him an admirable politician for so many years. Instead he embraced the worst in divisive, destructive, pandering politics. When McCain's campaign manager admitted that "this election is not about the issues" it was the only moment in recent memory when I've felt certain that the message coming from the McCain campaign was true. Basing a campaign for our highest office on a strategy of deliberate lies is not an issue of tactics. It calls into question the character of the candidate and his fitness for office.
John McCain seems to have no integrity left. He has turned the election from a question of qualifications, preparation, leadership, and policies to a series of outright lies and obscene pandering that marks the worst in American politics. No one who behaves this way should be elected president. Please do not vote for McCain-Palin.
Jeff Witmer
