Thursday, July 31, 2008

LowRoadExpress.com

Via FirstRead, new from the Obama campaign: LowRoadExpress.com. I especially like the picture of a busted "Straight Talk Express." This is a very, very clever website.

"When Race became an issue"

Katharine Q. Seelye, of the NYTimes claims:
Whether that works or not, this will mark the day that race officially became an issue in the 2008 general election.
No, race became an issue as soon as Sen. Obama decided to run. The whole crypto-Muslim thing is only an issue because he's black.

Luke Russert

So, he's joining MSNBC. He's only qualification are a prematurely deceased father and a radio show he co-hosted with James Carville for a year. I'm not jealous at all that he gets to talk to Rachel Maddow on a regular basis. Honest.

My day was worse than your's

Here is how my day has gone so far:
  1. I go to work
  2. My sister takes my boyfriend to the airport
  3. My boyfriend calls me to say he has my keys - meaning my sister is locked out of my apartment.
  4. I tell him to wait outside for my sister.
  5. My sister cell phone rings in my apartment
  6. My boyfriend's flight leaves
  7. My boyfriend reschedules his flight
  8. My sister calls my mom using a streetwalker's cell phone
  9. My mom tells my sister that my boyfriend is going to go to my house, refuses to give my sister his number
  10. My mom calls my boyfriend to tell him that Lauren is coming to get him
  11. I call my mom, she yells at me
  12. My sister attempts to break into my 1/2 of the apartment
  13. My sister breaks into my neighbor's 1/2 of the apartment
  14. After an hour, my boyfriend calls - my sister is no where to be found - I tell him to go to the other area of the airport
  15. I go to eat lunch
  16. I call my mom back, realize she's told different things to different people
  17. I call my boyfriend, he threatens to get on the plane with the keys
  18. I tell my boss I'm going to have to leave to go to the airport
  19. My sister arrives at the work cafeteria, explains what she did
  20. I give my sister my cell phone
  21. My sister picks up my boyfriend
  22. I eat a cookie

New Polls!

So, I was little anxious about the new Q-polls coming out this morning in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. And guess what - Barack Obama ahead in all of them is Good News for John McCain! I love Nate's analysis:
This is a weaker performance for Obama than in June, but a better performance for him than in any month but June. Our model weights those two factors, and concludes that the status quo has more or less been preserved. As of last night, our model gave Barack Obama a 68.0 percent chance of winning the election in November. With these polls rolled in, he has a 67.7 percent chance.
Exactly. Note to the AP: 46 is bigger than 44, so they aren't tied, Obama is ahead in those states.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

It's about damn time

The Obama campaign finally responds to the lies Sen. McCain has been spewing:



Perfect. I'm all about calling a spade a spade. Glad too see it includes pictures of GWB and McSame. When the Obama campaign chooses to respond, they actually do a great job - the problem is they wait too damn long before responding.

Bizarre

Looks like the AP finally realized that McCain has no idea what he's talking about.

Desperation

Check this lede in the NYTimes article "Starry-Eyed Media Breed Green-Eyed Candidates":
That old devil “the media” is back in the news, and it’s still only summer. This particular villain is usually brought out in the fall, when one of the presidential candidates is feeling desperate and needs to blame someone else for what looks like a losing campaign.

But, no, the McCain campaign is that desperate now. I guess, he's feeling bad that the reporters are not getting him as many donuts as they used to.

The rest of the article is not that good:
Just today, the McCain camp released an ad that tries to stoke an emerging storyline about Mr. Obama — that he is arrogant and presumptuous [...] a meme that seems to be bubbling to the surface with more help from Mr. Obama than from Mr. McCain

So, in other words, it's Sen. Obama's fault that he's seen as "arrogant and presumptuous" for visiting the same countries as Sen. McCain, but doing it better... right...

Despite several other occasions of lucidity, the article itself is a paragon of the traditional media deciding that their behavior is perfectly okay.

What, you mean they don't believe the ads?

From the new CNN poll (showing Sen. Obama up 51-44 overall):
"McCain has started to run ads blaming Obama for higher gas prices, but by a 51-40 percent margin, the public thinks Obama would do a better job handling that issue than McCain," Holland said.

Gosh, you mean... the public doesn't believe that it's horrible Sen. Obama hasn't solved our dependency on foreign oil yet! Oh wait, he's not President? He hasn't been ignoring the problem for 26 years?

Of course, since everything is good news for John McCain, the title of this article: "Obama trip abroad doesn't move poll numbers." Even though, they sort of did move, because the previous poll showed Obama up 50-45.

Olmert resigns

So Prime Minester Ehud Olmert of Israel is resigning due to his involvement in a bribery scandal. What crime would it take for Bush/Cheney to do the same?

Obama smackdown!

This just in from First Read:
Obama just responded outside of Bell's Restaurant in Lebanon, MO: "You know, I don’t pay attention to John McCain’s ads, although I do notice he doesn’t seem to have anything to say very positive about himself. He seems to only be talking about me... You need to ask John McCain what he’s for and not just what he’s against."

OBAMASMASH!

Barack Obama is "Arrogant"

Mark Ambinder portrays the Republican's latest attack ads like this:
It works not because of the fact of thing -- windsurfing is not an elite sport -- but because it allows partisans to feel superior and allows Republicans to begin to build an entire narrative around their opponents' purported elitism. BTW: you can see the train of thought: Obama --> full of himself --> arrogant --> celebrity --> self-possessed --> doing things for himself, not for the country, BTW: What type of shoes does McCain wear"

Mark misses an important aspect of the attack - its inherent racism. The Republicans are trying to portray Sen. Obama as an "Uppity Black Man" who doesn't "know his place." Michelle Obama is also "ungrateful," "angry" and "bitter."

So in other words, the Obamas are nothing but Angry Black People who are not content with all the riches that the White People have given them, but who are also trying to steal something away from the White People. Somehow they think that they Deserve the Presidency. Which they haven't earned - and which, they actually can never earn.

Why do Iraqis want us to leave?

We kill unarmed men for no reason.

How many lobbyists work for John McCain?

Answer:
"How many lobbyists work here?" Couric asked from McCain HQ.

"We don't make it a litmus test for employment at the McCain campaign," Davis said. "It goes without saying that some people who are involved in the lobbying profession do it because they are interested in that side of the equation. They’re interested in government, they're interested in Congress, they're interested in public service.

They are just public servants, helping to keep toxic toys in the hands of your children and poisoned food on your table!

John McCain's attack ad

So, here's the latest attempt by John McCain to attack Obama:




I supposed the ad is trying to make the point that Sen. Obama is famous, but has nothing to back it up. It fails on several levels:
  1. Um, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are crazy
  2. Sen. Obama is, idk, a SENATOR, former President of Harvard Law Review, Constitutional Law scholar, author of two best-selling books, etc.
  3. The ad is also incoherent, it tries to do too much by adding in the stuff about the oil/taxes
  4. The "tax on electricity" claim isn't even true
  5. Sen. Obama looks optimistic in the photo, whereas Sen. McCain looks angry

Benefits of my job

When Indonesians co-workers visit the office, we all get treated to free po-boys from Mother's.

Image from here

Dump Joe Lieberman

Via Wonkette:
An angry Connecticut Democrat says that he will rent a very large floating rat and display it outside the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul if Joe Lieberman decides to attend the Republican National Convention.
The guy's also started a webpage: DumpJoe.com, which contains hillarious pictures of Joe and GWB. I can't wait until Connecticut has another shot at dumping Joe.

Sen. Shepherd Douche Watch

More updates:

Sen. Shepherd is now on house arrest, and the victim has recanted, but they are still going to prosecute because the evidence backs up her original story.

Additionally:
According to court documents, Sen. Shepherd also was arrested in 2000 for simple battery and harassing phone calls involving a different woman -- a scenario similar to what deputies say happened with Ms. Ashford.

Douche.

Disney's New Princess

I knew she was Black, but I didn't realize she's from New Orleans...

via Oliver Willis, the trailer:



I have three wishes for this movie:
  1. The accents aren't all that ridiculous as the lightening bug
  2. They don't have any songs by Rebirth
  3. They manage to not be racist

Hopefully all my wishes will be granted.

Dept of Unwanted Endorsements

Phil Spector's endorsement of Obama is probably going to help as much as OJ's endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

Damned if you do...

Here is Mark Halperin's summary of his interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe:
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mark Halperin said the McCain team is working to portray Obama as foreign, elitist, liberal and out-of-touch, even if “it’s a stretch” at times. Repeated that the election will be a referendum on Obama, said Obama could lose if he seems too presumptuous and presidential before voters weigh in.

So... it would be a problem if he were "too presidential." Funny how that starts being a problem when the black man starts running for President. Also, it's funny how the guy who just finished paying off his college bills is the out-of-touch elitist, whereas the guy with eight houses represents the "common man".

WaPo Cover


I just love how next to the article there is a huge picture of Sen. Stevens (R-AK). Birds of a feather...

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

WaPo tomorrow: McCain Lies

Y'all need to read the whole thing, but tomorrow's front page WaPo story is "McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence". Read the whole thing, because every word is delicious.

UPDATE: I just realized it, but how ironic is this blogpost's title considering the one underneath it?

Republicans lie

We all know that Sen. Obama has no problem visiting the truth without fanfare, so it's great to see Lynn Sweet backing him up against the Rethugs.

Massive Latino Outreach

I'm happy to read that the Obama campaign/DNC has launched a $20 million dollar outreach to the Latino/a community. Kos points out that the entire amount spent by the Democrats, the Republicans and the third-party groups was $8.7 million in 2004.

Important aspects of the article:
Sanchez said efforts will be particularly focused in the key swing states of Nevada, Florida, New Mexico and Colorado, where Latino voters could make up the margin of victory.

and
“The giant has woken up and we are being prodded by the Obama campaign,” said Rep. Hilda Solis, an early supporter of Obama’s primary opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who now says she is firmly in the Obama camp. Solis said she spoke with Obama shortly after he secured the nomination and pledged her support to him. Solis said she is planning on hitting the campaign trail in the Southwest on Obama’s behalf. (italics mine)

Rep. Hilda Solis is a Democratic congresswoman from SoCal. The fact that the Obama campaign is already planning on hitting her up for the campaign trail says something about how much they are planning ahead. I am so impressed by the competence and organization of the Obama team.

Michelle Obama: Best Dressed

I'm so happy to see that for the second-straight year Michelle Obama has made Vanity Fair's 2008 International Best Dressed list. Not only that, but she's #1!!!! I'm such a fan girl. *tear*

Who's campaign is a cult of personality again?

From Jonathan Chait:
The McCainiacs whip themselves into a moralistic frenzy against anybody who stands between them and the presidency. And should that person subsequently become potentially useful in McCain's quest for the presidency (first Bush, now Romney), they can convince themselves that he's not so bad after all.

The psychological process that's operating here can be used to justify pretty much anything. In part it's a function of the hero worship cult that envelops McCain, which quickly leads its adherents to the conclusion that the very fact of running against the hero is proof of one's perfidy. This, I'm sure, is what allowed McCain to so easily smear Romney in the primary and to smear Obama now.

Word. The only thing McCain has going for him is his unearned "Maverick" reputation from the press. He literally doesn't have plan to solve any aspect of the problems facing our economy. And they say us Obama supporters are cultists.

Luggage Tags

I'm happy to report that the McCain campaign spends more time thinking about cutesy luggage tags than they do strategy. It makes this Democrat sleep easy.

Funny

Dick Polman makes an interesting point:
The span of time between candidate George H. W. Bush's "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge, and his subsequent decision as president to break his pledge by supporting new taxes, was approximately two years. John McCain has now managed to violate that same pledge in just 20 days.

If you read the article, the pledge more specifically referred to Barack Obama's plan to raise the amount of your income that gets taxed for Social Security purposes. John McCain is normally against that, except when he is open to it. Seriously, I don't think John McCain even knows his own platform, as you can see in this video.

Ted Stevens

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) deserves to go to jail. I'm glad to see he was finally indicted. Here is a good discussion of the case and its ramifications for the Senate race.

It's nice that we have another state that's corrupt like us.

Where was this John Kerry in 2004?

TMZ: John Kerry for Party President

If only he were that cool

John McCain out of it

Apparently, John McCain is even more clueless than previously suspected:

From SFGate:
He [John McCain] described himself as an underdog, said he loves that status and said he's doing better at this point than he thought he would be doing. ''I will compete and I will win in the state of California.''

Sure... when Ronald Reagan's dead body re-animates and become your VP.

The Obama Family Vacation

More details are emerging about the Obama's August vacation to Hawai'i. Lynn Sweet points out that it is going to be part of his bio-tour. Until she reminded me, I had completely forgotten about the planned bio-tour.




I can't wait for our first President/Rainbow Warrior! :) I wonder if Sen. Obama can do the Haka dance.

Brian Schweitzer for VP!

I'm happy to see Al Giordano of The Field putting out Brian Schweitzer's name:

But parsing Obama's own statements about his criteria for number two, the two DC outsiders - Kaine and Sebelius - make tons more sense than the beltway insiders being mentioned. (Still, that could be all show to wow the crowd later on with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer or some other unexpected pick that comes sprinting onto the racetrack at the starting gun to thrill the crowd.)
I'm a huge fan of this choice. I think it would be daring, original and great. To find more out about Gov. Schweitzer check out his wiki, but in summary, the Governor speaks Arabic, has a 70% approval rating, and is a rancher! He's also loved by Nate at fivethrighteight.

You think your traffic is bad

At least you don't have to deal with Alligators on the Interstate during your morning commute.

Indictment in Winnfield taser death

Via TAPPED!, the Chicago Tribune reports that the Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils is going to seek and indictment against the officer, Scott Nugent, who tasered Baron "Scooter" Pikes to death.

Brief history of the case:
Pikes, 21, died Jan. 17 within 39 minutes of being arrested on a drug possession warrant. Winnfield police claimed Pikes told them he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP, but the local coroner found that Pikes had been healthy and had no drugs in his system. He ruled the death a homicide.
Yeah, the officer tasered him nine times in fourteen minutes, twice while Pikes was already unconscious. That sounds like murder to me. I'm sure Officer Nugent is going to use the "I had no idea what I was doing was dangerous" defense, and he'll probably get acquitted.

BTW, brief history of the corruption present in North Louisiana. I know we are all used to reports of the corruption here, so it's nice to see the whole state represented.
Nevils' predecessor as district attorney committed suicide after he came under suspicion for skimming $200,000 from his office accounts and extorting bribes from criminal suspects. The former police chief, who was Nugent's father, also killed himself, after losing a bitterly-contested election campaign marred by fraud allegations. The current police chief is a convicted drug offender who was pardoned by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for corruption while in office.

Pfc. LaVena Johnson

Everyone needs to sign this: The LaVena Johnson Petition. If you need to ask why, just go here to read about how the Army covered up her rape/murder and is still calling her death a "suicide." This is disgusting.

BarackBook

Apparently the Republicans have created "BarackBook," a website parody of Facebook and also a Facebook application. Let's see a screenshot of the discussion on its Facebook page:


The Internet wins again.

Good for Big Labor

I'm happy to see that Big Labor is blitzing the Rust Belt with pro-Obama mailers. I think the important thing is that these are not repeating the lies (Muslim, no flag pin, etc.) but are rather emphasizing the positive - Chrisitian, born in the US, etc. Several studies have shown that simply repeating the lie makes people believe it. So here, it's key that we not repeat the lie and only repeat the truth.

Hmm, what's wrong with this article?

So, the AP has been awful since Ron Fournier took over the Washington desk, but this article tries my patience.

The title is "Obama Faces Doubt From Women," but here is the survey they use:
In recent polls, Obama has had a significant edge among women. A Quinnipiac University poll released July 15 found women supported Obama over Republican John McCain, 55 percent to 36 percent. Among men, McCain had 47 percent and Obama 44 percent.
Tell me who has a problem, again?

Monday, July 28, 2008

I miss Marc Morial

Reading this Politico post about the National Urban League, and it's current President Marc Morial made me realize how great New Orleans had it. I remember when this city was on the upward tract, now it seems like we are stagnating.

Shreveport sounds nice

Wow... for the first time in my life, I've felt like it would have been pretty cool to live in Shreveport. If only I had a couple acres there now, maybe I could be a multi-millionaire too.

This just in from the NYT:
A no-holds-barred, all-American gold rush for natural gas is under way in this forgotten corner of the South, and De Soto Parish, with its fat check from a large energy company this month, is only the latest and largest beneficiary.
Another part that stood out was this:
The experts say the hype appears to be justified, which is why companies like the Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the Petrohawk Energy Corporation are now paying top dollar for land that was once hoarded to eke out miserly timber sales, at best.
I work for an Oil/Natural Gas company, and while those companies listed above are respectable middle-sized names, it surprised me that none of the big Louisiana Natural Gas companies were mentioned in the article. I wonder if there is a reason for that beyond general market forces. I know our company is tied up with big Gulf of Mexico drilling project right now, but I would think that they would still be interested in this if it were that promising.

State Sen. now in halfway house

So, in an update to my previous post, the Times-Picayune is reporting this:
State Sen. Derrick Shepherd was ordered to a halfway house by a federal judge this afternoon as authorities seek to revoke his bond in a federal mail fraud and conspiracy case after the senator was arrested last weekend after a fight with his ex-girlfriend.
It also turns out that he confronted his ex-girlfriend's mother and sister after the assault/theft. His lousy defense can only come up with this:

Defense lawyer John Reed said outside court Monday that details of the latest arrest had unfairly skewed the incident.

"The incident over the weekend was unfortunate for everyone," he said. "It was a personal matter. ... I think when the whole story comes out, which it will eventually, I think you'll see a very different cast put on it than the spin put on by the print and media in particular and by the government as well."

I hope he gets his bail revoked - maybe then I can get some adequate representation.

Song of the day

How did I miss Dar Williams?



This song is called "Christians and Pagans."

Conservatives attack!

I love it when the Conservatives attack McCain for his flip-flops, if only because they will generate media coverage:

via First Read, here is the Club for Growth:
We listened with concern yesterday to your interview with George Stephanopoulos on Social Security," the club's president Pat Toomey writes in a letter to McCain. "When asked if you would be open to raising the payroll tax, you refused to rule out a tax increase, saying 'There is nothing that’s off the table.' This statement was particularly shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.
I wish that the MSM had actually covered this earlier, because McCain has often attacked Barack Obama on this very issue.

Word

I totally agree with Arianna Huffington. Polls taken three months before the election are a waste of time.

Deep thought

If Belgium split into two countries, would they fight over who got to retain the name?

I'll say it again

The only reason McCain is still in the race is because the media repeats his lies for him. See also this

"Likely voter" models are flawed

Okay... so apparently the BIG BREAKING GOOD NEWS for John McCain is that he leads Obama 49% - 45% among "likely voters". Here is what is wrong with that lede:

  1. It was conducted only on the weekend, which underestimates Sen. Obama's support, as his younger voters are less likely to be home.
  2. Sen. Obama leads among registered voters 47% - 44%
  3. "Likely voters" means whomever the pollster thinks is going to vote, but who knows in July who is going to vote?
  4. As detailed here: "From registered voters to likely voters, they took 8 voters from McCain's total while taking 67 from Obama."
  5. That means that despite the "enthusiam gap", the pollster decided that only 2% of McCain's supporters weren't going to vote, versus 16% of Obama's supporters

People, we can't afford to be cocky, but seriously, the article surrounding the poll says it best:

Gallup editor Frank Newport tells Jill that "registered voters are much more important at the moment," because Election Day is still 100 days away.

Debra Bartoshevich is dumb

In case you don't know, Debra Bartoshevich, former Hillary Clinton delegate from Wisconsin, was kicked out of the delegations due to her support for Sen. John McCain. No matter what you think Sen. Barack Obama's campaign did, there is absolutely no reason to vote for the GOP candidate.

She says:
"I disagree with a lot of his [Obama's] policies"

Like what? Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton agree 95% of the time... Their differences were two: 1) Gas Tax and 2) How to create universal health care.

By contrast, Sen. McCain's idea of making health care better is to get rid of employer-based health care, which 60% of this country (including me) rely on. McCain is literally opposed to everything that Hillary stands for, especially women's' rights. They also have policy disagreements when it comes to the economy, Iraq, labor rights, Social Security, immigration reform, Don't Ask Don't Tell, gay adoption, civil unions, safety regulation, toxic toys, GSEs, mortgage reform, the GI Bill, abortion, affirmative action - I could go on, but I'll spare you.

Also, Debra refers to the "Democrat primaries," which is a partisan GOP construction and tells me she's been hanging out with a lot of Freepers. She has entered the land of the DUMB. Thankfully, media reports to the contrary, it appears that the vast majority of Hillary supporters support Sen. Obama, because they realize that those aforementioned issues are more important than their hurt feelings.

Your local government at work

I bet most of you have a State Senator who does things like "draft bills", "talk to consituents", or even the general "help people". Mine, while not laundering money, like to relax from a busy day of court appearances by punching ex-girlfriends.

According to the article:
State Sen. Derrick Shepherd was released early Sunday morning after being arrested Saturday night, accused of punching his ex-girlfriend and stealing her cellular phone and $100, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office reported.

Oh, and trust me, like all legislators, he always uses money wisely:
Shepherd was arrested at his residence in Stonebridge. The sheriff's office said there were two women in the house, one of whom appeared to be performing a lap dance on Shepherd.

Between him, Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin and "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, I think my "Representatives" have every vice.

Cuil is awesome!

So I tried Cuil and it's pretty cool. I'm not going to stop using Google, but I enjoyed the layout. However, I loved what the search of John McCain revealed:


That's right, two of the five pictures on the screen are of him hugging GWB... Hmmm, could this be the librul blogosphere at work?