Garden Paths, Or Why Andrew Sullivan Needs Better Reading

I really don't get the point of these posts from Crash Landing. They're intended as thought experiments to point out potential flaws in a Obama presidency, which has it's place as the voting public makes their decision as to whom the next president is. But that's not the point of Bob Murphy's posts. The question asked--what would a President Obama have to do to make you regret your support for him--verges on the absurd of 'what ifs'. Yes, I suppose if a President Obama decided to nuke Iran that would make me regret my support for him. I would also regret buying a car with an engine that might explode two years later. Neither scenario is plausible under current known and expected conditions.
It's a mug's game since the whole point of the word 'regret' is that you expected one thing but were disappointed later on for some reason. Do I regret my expectation of a Bush presidency filled with smart advisers and an open-minded president? Yes, of course I do, but I went with what facts were available to me at the time. Is it possible for a President Obama to do the same? Yes, of course it is. And this brings me to my second problem with these two posts: the attitude that you have more than just two options in voting for president.
This is silly. If I want to vote in the current election then for all intents and purposes I only have the option of either Sen. Barak Obama or Sen. John McCain. One of these two men will become the next president. Realistically, there isn't another option, because we have a two-party system. Do I regret that? Yes, I do. I would like more options, but unless we get together and decide to put our efforts into creating a third, fourth or even fifth party then we're stuck with the system we have. Arguing otherwise is denying reality in hope that a magic pony will arrive with new political parties in tow.
What Murphy has done here is posit a couple of 'what if' questions that are meant to make the undecided even more undecided. If you want to push the issue, I'd say that this thought experiment is designed more for fear-mongering than serious thinking. Look, here's a site dedicated to listing all the possible disaster scenarios that could befall Earth. It's a great bit of fun reading, but even those disasters that have a fair to good chance of happening are so remote as to make worrying about them the same as worrying your nose might fall off your face. Should we question the capabilities of Sen. Obama as criteria for whether we give him our vote or not? Yes, do so, it's what you're supposed to do when voting for president. But asking what would it take for you to regret that decision before the election, before we see a President Obama in action, is a walk down the garden path. You will meet devils there, but only because that what you expect to see.

I'll Put a Black Fist Under Your Chin

The morning has brought not one, but two gems of posts from our dear Spencer Ackerman (who I plan to eliminate and replace with myself one day). They're loosely related as the first is a bit on Bill "Kristol Meth" Kristol reassuring neoconservatives that the nation will survive an Obama Presidency while the second item is on the CIA's continued sour relations with the neoconservatives and the agency's hope for a victory for Sen. Obama. Ackerman reads the Kristol piece as implying an Obama administration could possibly destroy the country. It's good for a giggle considering if George W. Bush hasn't been able to do it, then I doubt Sen. Obama could. But you have to push the fear-mongering somehow and suggesting that the U.S. might disappear if Sen. Obama wins is as good as it gets sometimes.
The latter piece on the CIA's strained relationship with neoconservative partisans is a little more insightful as to the damage and distrust neoconservativism has sown within the agency. Apparently, according to Ackerman's unnamed sources, many in the CIA look hopefully to an Obama administration where their opinions might received due attention again. I'm not exactly sure why neoconservatives dislike the CIA but they do and the Bush administration has given them free reign to dismantle, disrupt and generally just dis the CIA at every opportunity. Perhaps it's due to the agency's continued conclusions that run contrary to neoconservative ideology. For some reason, ideologues tend to get annoyed when reality doesn't conform as it should.
Still, lovely way to start the day. You might get the same news from other sources, but damnit man, I need me a bit of the snark to make it palitable.

Ellis Hears the Voice of Satan

For the counter-culture kids, the hipsters, the scenesters, the oh-so-cool of the world, Daniel Johnston is a name that comes with an almost mystical reverence. So it interesting to learn how someone like Warren Ellis came to know of his music as a gift of a tape from a friend in 94. I discovered Johnston about the same time through the Kids soundtrack and found my love for lo-fi music there. A compilation such as that soundtrack would turn most anyone on to the lo-fi scene as it ran through several Folk Implosion songs, one Sebadoh track (the producers must have had a fondness for Lou Barlow) and Slint's amazing "Good Morning Captain". But Johnston's tracks stood out for his childlike voice and simple melodies constructed from what sounded like just about anything he had on hand, including his hands. It resulted in the purchase of two of his albums that I listened to a lot throughout high school but generally pushed by the wayside as I got older. So it's nice to see him brought to wider attention again, particularly by a cultural genius like Ellis.

Making Light in Real Time

So it seems Bruce Schenier will do a running blog commentary on the election results as they come in on Nov. 4. Schenier is a name that get mentioned quite often when it comes to national security matters and technology on both the software and hardware side as well as the cultural implications of 21st century security issues. He's a brilliant thinker, but more than that, he's willing to go out on a limb and do what he can to prove his thought experiements. As I'm already hosting an election watching party, Schenier's commentary is a welcome addition to the in-coming flood of information.

Joseph Lieberman's Political Tar Pit

Oh this is so a mea culpa play for Sen. Lieberman. I can only imagine what he'll do after the election if Sen. Obama wins. I mean, after supporting Sen. McCain the way he has, there's a lot of bowing and scraping he'll have to do just to hold onto his committee seats, let alone chairmanships. Even if Sen. McCain wins, I think the rest of the Senate Democrats are ready to give him the boot and he knows it. Sad to see such a longtime member of the party sink so deeply and then realize the muck he's gotten into. He won't survive I'm afraid.

Issues: Al Qaeda

So Barak Obama made a comment last year that, to me at least, seemed like a smack in the forehead kind of common sense. The right and thus the press didn't see it that way though. To paraphrase, Sen. Obama said that if we received accurate intelligence to the exact whereabouts of one Osama bin Laden and the Pakistani government was either unable or unwilling to take action then we would, whether Pakistan gave us permission or not. Sen. McCain has railed against this idea (strange though he pushes for a war with Iran, a nation that dwarfs Iraq by a few orders of magnitude) and has called it dangerously naive of Sen. Obama to; a) telegraph our punches, and b) invade an allied nation. It's become a major sticking point for Sen. McCain as he continues to use it to show how supposedly unprepared Sen. Obama is for the responsibilities of the presidency.
Of course, that's horseshit. For many reasons, it's horseshit. And if John McCain can't see it's horseshit then obviously he didn't learn anything during those five years being aggressively interrogated. First off, the entire GWOT (global war on terror) was predicated on the 9/11 plans bin Laden laid out. We went to war in Afghanistan first to flush bin Laden out. Second, because the civilian leadership was quite frankly dumber than a bag of hammered dog shit, we pushed bin Laden into a corner and then just left him there. Third, contrary to what dear Sen. McCain says, attacking Al Qaeda position in Pakistan is not the same as invading the place. And finally, why the hell wouldn't we kill bin Laden if we had a prime opportunity to do so?
Al Qaeda in Iraq is an off-shoot of the main Al Qaeda terror group. They only arose as a natural response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and have continued to move and act with relative impunity within Iraq. We won't defeat them conventionally and the greatest harm we can do is to kill, in a clear way, the leadership of Al Qaeda. That the Pakistani military is unwilling to go into those areas of their nation where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have regrouped is a pretty good indicator that we will have to take matters into our own hands.
Now Sen. Obama's comment was not a declaration of war against Pakistan but a clear statement on his position regarding Osama bin Laden. We aren't, nor would we, attack the Pakistani military unless they put themselves in-between us and our goal of killing bin Laden. So the only reasonable response is to say that we'll push through the Pakistani leadership to achieve our objective of killing a major terrorist leader. That Sen. Obama, a liberal, would make such a firm statement on the matter is telling of how prepared he is for the presidency. While following diplomatic channels is the first thing one should do, he acknowledges that such a path might end up going no where. Meanwhile bin Laden might sneak away again. So declaring that wherever bin Laden is, we will go and rain death down upon him not only shows some serious spine but reminds every other nation that we will not tolerate the harboring of terrorist groups. It serves a dual purpose of laying out a strategy without hemming us in on tactics. That, to me, is the sign of good leadership. It's allowing for adaptability without sacrificing our overall goal. As Billy Shaftoe of Cryptonomicon fame said, "Show some fucking adaptability."

New Ways to Epic Fail

Caught this story on the Inquirer this morning about the glaring disparity in sentencing between a white guy with child porn on his computer and a black guy with child porn on his computer. The white guy got caught because he crashed the servers at an engineering school in Pennsylvania. The black guy was nicked when he posted about fifteen of the photos online. One judge apparently presided over both cases and was shocked enough by the disparity between sentencing stances that he pulled both men, who had been convicted, and put them in front of the court alongside the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted both cases. The black man was set to received an 8 to 10 line while the white guy was only to serve three months on the hacking charges. The prosecutor tried to explain how cooperative the white guy was (even though said hacker/kiddie porn lover futzed with FBI computers while being so 'cooperative') but the judge noted the lack of criminal history and good working habits of the black man. Clearly something is very wrong here, as the white kid (22-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania) wasn't even charged with possession of child pornography.
I'm very glad the judge did this as it exposes a clear bias by the prosecution. While both men are guilty, the glaring disparity in sentencing recommendations puts the spotlight on the prosecutor for trying to impose a harsher sentence on a black man versus a white one. I don't know who this prosecutor is but I do hope that he's sacked over the whole thing. Make both men serve the dime at the very least or make the white kid serve a longer sentence since his cooperation also resulted in the disruption of FBI work through his tinkering on FBI computers. To me, the white kid is more of a danger than the black man and his sentence should reflect that.

By Sextant and Daring-Do

Oh God, this is bloody brilliant. I'd like to see a Marco Polo version of this some time.

Of Things Remembered

Currently pumping some old tune into my noggin. Best form of therapy when recovering from an allergy attack that left me wasted for three days. And this finally shows up in the mail: Earphoria by the Smashing Pumpkins. Earphoria is an anomaly of Pumpkin releases. It isn't a best of, it was released just after Siamese Dream and before the same album made them Smashing Pumpkins. What is it then? Pieces Iscariot was their b-sides collection (albeit incomplete) so this isn't that either. I think Earphoria then was just a one-off, screwing around in the studio affair that came along with a video of the band.
For the longest time I had a bootleg copy with the expected messed up track listing, badly photocopied liner notes and mediocre sound quality. I suppose I should thank Billy Corgan for being so full of himself and greedy that he would allow Virgin Records to put out a new release. It's a fantastic record of the band at that moment right before fame when they didn't care about their image so much (or at least Corgan didn't) and drugs hadn't consumed the drummer Jimmy Chamberlain. It's mostly live recordings from various places across the globe (such as the only live recording of Slunk that I know of, made in Japan of course). There's also a smattering of strange songs like Bugg Superstar by lead guitarist James Iha that could have hearlded a new direction in music at the time. Along with that are random things like Pulsczar and French Movie Theme that seem to come from nowhere and Why Am I So Tired? that just goes nowhere. To top it off, there's probably the best live rendition of Silverfuck that I've heard including the opening riff of the never-completed Jackboot at the end.
Earphoria is an album that reminds you why the Pumpkins were so good, even if it also reminds you of what the Pumpkins became afterwards. Still, this is high school and college for me, starting fifteen years ago. It's wonderful warmth and exuberance for my soul. Even if you vowed never to buy a Pumpkins records, pick this up.

On Point, Off Guard

Here's one thing I don't get about last night's debate reactions: the whole "winning on points" part. This probably has to do with my complete lack of knowledge in formal debating but I find that argument kinda flimsy in a lot of ways. It's a bit of a mug's game since, to my eyes, it relies on how logical your arguments are and how coherently that logic is passed. To say someone has won a debate on points is like saying a F1 driver beat another, not because they came in first, but because the car had the fastest speed (which is also why I have problems with American muscle cars that are fantastic in a straight line but meet epic fail when trying to corner). A debate is won on more than just how logical your argument is. There's also the persuasiveness of your argument and logic, just like horsepower, alone do not make an argument persuasive.
To push the F1 analogy a little further, the driver who wins the last race isn't necessarily the driver who wins the championship. It's about how well a driver and car have done over the course of a number of races. It's about the long game. Winning the final debate doesn't change that unless you were just a little behind or already winning. Barring chucking it at 180mph into the wall, you'd have to have a series of amazing losses to fall behind. Once you're ahead just keeping the same pace should make taking the cup look easy. You won't have to win every race, although you will have to place well in most races. Other than that, winning on points doesn't matter if you're too far behind.

To Do and Die

Well that's done and finally over. The reactions from around the blogosphere give Sen. Obama the win on visuals and a tie on points. Some of the more conservative bloggers pegged this debate as Sen. McCain's best, but I think it was by far his worst. No, he didn't blow up or give screwy answers. He did, however, let himself look like Sen. Clinton did during her last debate with Sen. Obama: nervous, edgy, and sullen. A terrible combination for an experienced debater but, much like Sen. Clinton, understandable. John McCain had to sit through what will probably end a long career in politics and have that ending handed to him by a freshman senator. For Sen. Clinton, it wasn't a career-ending moment, but for Sen. McCain I think it was. To put it bluntly, he's too old. After his experiences in Vietnam I think this campaign will haunt Sen. McCain for the rest of his days. It's sad, but Sen. McCain let his political ambitions become an anaconda, slowly wrapping around him and squeezing until he had nothing left to give but the few dusty coughs of an independant-cum-culture warrior. And thus ends the baby boomer's hold on national politics. Finally.

I like a funny car

It's raining here and my cat doesn't care. She's got her perch on the window sill where she can sprawl between the window and my diamond grading light. Home sick but on day two of that kick. Still got bits of nasty lung putting me in fits. I think tonight's debate drinking will consist of orange juice, sadly lacking vodka. The politicking blogs are all looking the same these days: poll numbers, commentary on campaigns, economic talk and then the mildly interesting train wrecks of meta talk on all three. The only fun comes from the posts on people who still think Sen. Obama is a Muslim/terrorist/Maoist sleeper agent bred by the Viet Cong to become the last torture of John McCain. The final debate is tonight and hilarity will ensue when Sen. McCain tries that line of attack and Sen. Obama turns into a hydra of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lincoln and King then proceeds to eat Sen. McCain. Or maybe that's all the cold medicine talking. I should shut up now.

Londoners Came to Protest, Americans Came to Chant

I'm beginning to wonder what Londoners will do next to further antagonize city officials. An art instillation made from thousands of CCTV stills form an image of the current British PM Gordon Brown. It's all very V for Vendetta-like (only without the neo-nazi government chasing after the lone anarchist). But this is the kind of existential battle that Camus wrote about in The Rebel. There is always that tension between absolute freedom and absolute justice. Either extreme becomes the snake eating his own tail.
My question is, why haven't American artists started taking this route? I know most major cities haven't gone as far as London in employing CCTVs but some cities like New York and Boston have. Art instillations such at this one are the kind of protest art that I look for. It's not some sweet hippie-styled march, it's the real deal. Protest in America needs to see London's idea of protest and emulate it.

Senator John McCain: Coward

It seems both Sens. Obama and Biden have decided to make some none-too-subtle efforts to rile up Sen. McCain. Sen. Biden is quoted in a recent speech saying, "In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him." And Sen. Obama, in a Charlie Gibson interview for ABC, bitchslapped Sen. McCain for not leveling his accusations of Sen. Obama's character to his face. Both are apparently trying to coax the famous McCain temper out into the open on live TV. Essentially, both Sens. Biden and Obama have told Sen. McCain to either throw down or back off. And after the release of the well-made thirteen minute Keating Five documentary, Sen. McCain has backed off somewhat, but Gov. Palin has not.
With one more debate to go it's a wait-and-see approach as to whether Sen. Obama can bring out tht side of Sen. McCain. If so then it's game over for Sen. McCain. If not then Sen. McCain still has a lot of ground to make up. Either way, I can't see any reason why not to bitchslap the man by making him lose his temper.

Hedgerows and Nuance

Josh Marshall gives the typical immediate post-debate analysis here and wonders why Sen. McCain didn't go after Sen. Obama like he said he would. I've already given my answer to that question (hint: something about fear and being old). And Marshall does a decent job of running through the highlights of the debate with an ending pulled from Noam Schieber over a The Plank on Sen. Obama's response to the issue of attacking Al-Qaeda. Sen. McCain continues to argue that a presidential candidate doesn't say things like that. While I think Sen. McCain is wrong, I also think the way Sen. Obama responds is too nuanced to really hit back against the McCain position. The way Sen. Obama approaches the subject now is to hedge it against the Pakistani government's willingness and ability to confront the Taliban and Al-Qaeda directly. A better formulation, I think, is to say that American forces will strike at either enemy wherever they are, particularly if the supposed ruling body will not. If we find terrorist training camps in the Yukon then Canada better prepare itself for a little fire from the sky and men with U.S. flags on their sholders running around shooting at things. Instead of tying the issue up with our concerns over the stability of Pakistan, Sen. Obama should simply side-step it all together by saying, "We will not attack Pakistan. We will attack the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. That they are in Pakistan is beside the point since the aim is not to topple the government but do what the government can't or won't.

What Is John McCain Afraid Of?

Thank god for Obsidian Wings and hilzoy. At least someone can offer a sober analysis of the town hall debate that gives Sen. Obama the win without Sullivanesque hyperventilating. What I think hilzoy wants to know, as do a lot of other bloggers, pundits and media shills, is why Sen. McCain didn't go on the vitrolic offensive his campaign has adopted? Honestly, there's a simple answer to that--fear. Sen. McCain is afraid, physically and emotionally afraid, of Sen. Obama. In part it's an old alpha male lion fearing the arrival of the younger, faster, stronger alpha male who simply displaces the old lion by his mere presence. You saw it during the debate when Sen. McCain would stand and wander about, particularly when Sen. Obama was speaking. It was like the old lion being put to pasture but wanting back in the pride.
The other reason I think Sen. McCain fears Sen. Obama is based on the simple fact that Sen. Obama isn't afraid of John McCain. He won't let the old sailor bully him into silence. It's not arrogance on Sen. Obama's part, but the sense of humility that drives him zen-like calm. He's not easily dissuaded and equally persuasive without resorting to bellicose attacks as Sen. McCain is. There's an aura about Sen. Obama and it scares the hell out of Sen. McCain.

Town Halls and the Need to Burn Things

A) Worst...Debate...Ever.
B) I think Sullivan is the victim of a government conspiracy to get gays hooked on crack: Exhibit A

10.33 pm. This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it. I've watched a lot of debates and participated in many. I love debate and was trained as a boy in the British system to be a debater. I debated dozens of times at Oxofrd. All I can say is that, simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out.It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don't really see how the McCain campaign survives this.

C) Tom Brokaw should never appear in front of a TV again.
D) "That One"
E) Time would have been better spent clipping my nails, which I will do now

Some Quick Tidying Up Business

I meant to post this the day I got the answer I was looking for, and offer my sincere apologies to everyone for not doing so. I posted what looked like a legitimate letter talking about Sen. McCain and his actions on holiday in Fiji some nine years ago. After e-mailing the cited writer--a professor at Cowell College in California--I found that not only had she not written the letter, she took offense to the use of her name to bolster the credibility of it. Here is Professor Gamel's response to me, reprinted in full:

I have received thousands of emails and phone calls about the Turtle Island account.

I did NOT write that account, forward it under my name, or ask for it to be widely distributed.

I have never been to Turtle Island (which costs $2000/day), have never met Senator McCain, was a classics major, not an English Literature major, and never eat pancakes.

I regret the misinformation which is circulating, but it is not my doing, and I protest the misuse of my name.

How I think this happened: on 16 September I received this account 3rd-hand and forwarded it, with full email trail information and the name of the purported author (whom I don't know), to several friends with whom I discuss politics. It was further forwarded, and at some point the trail was deleted and I was misidentified as the author. I suspect whoever did this thought that my name and contact information would make the story more credible.

Snopes.com is investigating the account; current status "undetermined."

This is NOT an organized effort on the part of any political candidate.

I hope you will pass this information on to anyone interested in this story.

And finally, the story itself isn't necessarily false. But we'll never know unless the author herself comes forward.

So again, I offer my apologies to Professor Gamel and to anyone who took the Fiji story seriously. While I did get some answers I was not diligent enough to post them as soon as I had received them. To reiterate, the letter I posted on the McCain family's vacation in Fiji during 1999, while not proven factually incorrect, is nevertheless a prop to scare women away from Sen. McCain. Until the original writer steps up, we won't know if those events are true or not, but for me, I consider the story a fabrication.

How to Learn to Love Warren Ellis

Just a little something to start the day with, courtesy of our beloved futurist/comic writer god Warren Ellis.

Best Assessment of Rich Lowry

Ever since last Thursday's vice-presidential debate many bloggers have gotten a kick out of this graph from NRO writer Rich Lowry:

I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

So far, the laughter over the "little starbursts" hasn't quite died down yet, but John Rogers over at Kung Fu Monkey actually manages to find something far more amusing in the Lowry graph: "Modern American Conservatives have sunk to the intellectual and emotional level of the guy who thinks the stripper really likes him" (his italics). When you have to whore yourself out the way Gov. Palin has you begin to wonder if this is all an enormous joke; that when you metaphorically pull the lever on election day balloons and confetti will magically appear in the sky along with the voice of Walter Cronkite saying, "Fooled You!" It all seems just that absurd when you look even in the general area of the McCain campaign these days. What scares me though is that it isn't a joke. This is for real my friends. When you have the family where the word 'maverick' was derived complaining about the McCain campaign's use of the term, you know something is rotten in the land. I'm not all that thrilled for the wild ride we're about to experience for the next few years, no matter who wins the presidency.

Let's Buy a Car!

Publius at Obsidian Wings makes a strong case against Sen. McCain's health-care policy on the grounds that individuals do not have the bargaining power with heath insurance companies as conservative believe they do. The McCain plan would tax employer-provided health care benefits while simultaneously giving a $5,000 tax credit to each individual. The expectation is that the individual would then be able to seek out the best, most appropriate health insurance thus spurring competition within the health insurance market. Horseshit.
The problem Publius notes with Sen. McCain's plan is how it restructures the health insurance market in a way that doesn't benefit the individual. Most people I know have precious little time to go comparison shopping or drag out a negotiation for a better price on coverage. With that in mind there's little incentive for health insurance companies to lower costs, provide wider benefits or relax their standards on pre-existing conditions. The consumer loses out because as an individual they have little force of their own to negotiate a fair rate. It's an issue of supply and demand. Since demand for health insurance is high, health insurance companies can increase the costs of what they supply. This isn't like buying a TV or a car because if the makers of said cars and TVs keep the price too high then consumer do have easily accessable alternatives.
Even the example of a car purchase has its own problems. I remember when I decided to buy my first new car. I spent six months figuring out interest rates, down payments, monthly payments and learning how to bargin for the best price. At that time, I did have the time to put that kind of effort into it. And the result was an affordable purchase of the car I wanted. But had I pushed for too low of a monthly payment or interest rate, the dealership could have simply told me to go elsewhere. Individual purchases such as this lack the power of a group purchase. If I were representing a company that wanted x number of cars for y cost then I would have greater bargaining power due to the backing of a corporation making a large number of purchases. It's volume discount and that does work.
Without said volume discount the individual is fucked. The market would not adjust to make health-care affordable because they have no need to. People will always need health coverage. Lacking any regulation that would keep health insurance costs affordable, the individual is left out. The problem isn't with how health insurance is paid for but with how health insurance prices are set. Until that changes then the McCain plan would essentially deny health insurance to working individuals. I don't think it would take much on the government's part to influence the health-care market to make it more consumer friendly, but what Sen. McCain proposes is exactly the opposite.

The Tyrant Sun

I really don't see the point in the McCain campaign's strategic shift into ugly mode. It just paints Sen. McCain as an angry old man. At this point, when his campaign is pulling out of states like Michigan, going negative is a desperate attempt to pull Sen. Obama down without making the case for Sen. McCain himself. Plus, if Sen. McCain expects to rattle Sen. Obama in the remaining debates he's in for a surprise. Sen. Obama took on the Clinton machine, the smears and underhanded attacks on his character, the subtle use of race to instill fear, and the complaints of a biased media. He took those on and still won the primary.
This is another point where the establishment candidate tries a strategy that worked in the past but just slides off Sen. Obama. Again, Sen. Obama isn't running the typical campaign with a strategy based on making the opposition's ideology obsolete and the primary tactic of the rope-a-dope design to wear down opponents until they have nothing left. If Sen. McCain really believes that he can use the same attacks the Clintons did then clearly he hasn't paid attention for the last nine months of campaigning. Nearly every major media organization and dozens of Republican bloggers have dug into the senator's past and came up with nothing. The negative approach just hasn't worked.
What's more, while the McCain campaign throws more money into ad buys, the ground game Sen. Obama laid out during the summer will come to fruition. Personally, I don't know the reasons why Sen. Obama went in this direction, but he did decide to use his campaign's resources to go door to door and build a new base. I mean, when you have superstars like Jay-Z holding concerts for voter registration drives you know Sen. Obama has thought this out long in advance.
It's that ground game that will do more to nullify Sen. McCain's negative turn. Having Obama supporters going around, talking with people and explaining how and why the McCain ads are wrong is a strong defense. Moreover, the McCain campaign doesn't have the resources to counter such a ground game. To continue the use of football analogies, the McCain campaign relies on its quarterback to make the long passes while the Obama campaign constantly runs the ball, wearing down the defense and making the occasional short pass. It reminds me of the early 90s Dallas Cowboys who would have the opponent's defense exhausted by half-time.
The worse thing that can happen right now is Sen. McCain to go into a debate, trying to keep his contempt for Sen. Obama bottled up, and letting it loose. An unrestrained John McCain is a serious force, but I doubt if it will suddenly turn Sen. Obama into the angry black man the McCain campaign so desperately wants. Instead, I think you'll see a half-crazed Sen. McCain going up against an unnaturally calm Sen. Obama. Getting mad and showing it doesn't help support the argument that Sen. McCain has the right temperament for the presidency; it does just the opposite.
The whole strategic shift is short-sighted and true stupid. It means Sen. McCain is reacting to Sen. Obama, not the other way around. And a month before the election is not when you want to go on defense.

The VP Debate

I missed the first half of the debate so all this talk about how manic Gov. Palin was comes after the fact. What I did see though was a pretty boring debate between a senator who knows his stuff and a governor reading from her cliff notes. The longer I watched, the more mangled Gov. Palin's responses became. There were a few times I wondered if my beer had been poisoned because what came out of Gov. Palin's mouth was a string of words that everyone has generously called a 'sentence'.
What really struck me though was the feeling I had heard all of this boilerplate before; not in this election, but in 2004 during the presidential debates. While there were a few references to present events, it was as if McCain's advisors had lifted President Bush's talking points directly from his campaign. Sen. Biden kept plugging away with his arguments while Gov. Palin could do nothing but recite talking points. And her faux-Minnesota charm didn't do much to cover her obvious lack of material at the end. With the bar set so low for Gov. Palin and the expectation of a typical Bidenism, of course a lot of people came away from this debate with a more favorable impression of her.
I thought she had this debate in the bag until she threw herself on a funeral pyre--she started talking about how hard it is to raise a family in today's America. Now I'm not one for seeing men cry or get choked up. My grandfather instilled a sense of stoicism in me that doesn't allow for such things. But then my step-grandmother died of cancer two years ago. My grandfather had been with this woman for 20 years; they married two years after the death of his first wife of 50 years, also due to cancer. There's a certain quality to such emotions provoked by those memories that no one, not even God, can deny a man. Sen. Biden had one of those moments of emotion and it's an emotion Gov. Palin has never experienced. And she glibly passed it by. That's going to stick I think, particularly when her running mate cheated on his first wife and then divorced her to marry the mistress.
The other point that I think stands out was Gov. Palin's line of attack that attempted to contrast Sen. Obama's message of change and future-thinking with his campaign's constant associations of Sen. McCain to President Bush. First, it made no sense. Why talk about change and future-thinking if the recent past was all grand and keen? Now you can talk about the need for change and future-thinking, but the evidence backing up that argument lies in the past. The Bush presidency and its attendant problems (Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebannon, the entire cabinet, the economy and tax policies) are the past.
Thus, the second part: Sen. McCain is a member of President Bush's party. He's gone on record supporting the president on many occasions over issues Sen. Obama thinks differently on. Sen. McCain's proposals if elected president are similar to those of President Bush, if not more so. If Sen. Obama is running on a platform of change from the policies of President Bush and Sen. McCain wants to continue many of those policies, then it only makes sense to connect the two. What's so hard about this? The logic is pretty easy to follow for Sen. Obama. And yet McCain's advisors decided that attacking Sen. Biden on talking about the past if he's the running mate to a change candidate made sense. Of course, when you try to articulate it, it doesn't make sense, but there's an example of the McCain campaign's logic for you.
Overall, I don't think this debate changes much. If Gov. Palin's crass attitude toward Sen. Biden's dead wife sticks then it does hurt the McCain campaign. And if the McCain campaign continues with the line of attack that a change candidate can't talk about the recent past then it only makes them look ridiculous to independent voters. I think it's a wash; neither VP pick screwed up seriously or in an obvious way. All the debate has done is assuage the decided voters.

Him? Really? Never...

I'm willing to go on a little faith here since the background checks out so far (doesn't mean I'm unwilling to retract if this turns rotten). It's a situation where the letter in question is provided by second-hand sources. So take this with a grain of salt, but it doesn't sound too far out of character for someone like Sen. McCain:

MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN

It was just before John McCain’s last run at the presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child).
It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has a small number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are there at the same time to get to know each other intimately.
He arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was “if he likes this so much, why hasn’t he memorized any of this yet?” I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his “readings” which then became a regular part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people’s buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day after day.
Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our mealtime entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how Indo-Chine women had the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just couldn’t meet up to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us should stop Cindy from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a few comments to Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she should eat less as she needed to lose weight.
McCain’s appreciation of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David the American economist had to move his Thai wife to the other side of the table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with and touching her.

Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his rude behavior towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day, and his response was shocking: “Oh, that was Cindy’s idea - I didn’t have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this thing without even asking me. You can’t imagine how people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona . No, it wasn’t my idea at all.”

I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately one day he engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on the topic of the active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when he said, “If I was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson”. Given McCain’s personal experience with the horrors of war, I had expected a more balanced point of view. I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII — but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this conversation as I could tell that his experience being tortured as a POW didn’t seem to have mellowed out his perspective, but rather had made him more aggressive and vengeful towards the world.

My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he was leaving Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and told Amy that she shouldn’t be having pancakes because she needed to lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told him to leave her alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me, and said, “Don’t you know who I am.” I looked him in the face and said, “Yes, you are the biggest asshole I have ever met” and headed back to my cabin. I am happy to say that later that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation by all the guests for having stood up to McCain’s bullying.

Although I have shared my McCain story informally with friends, this is the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain first announced his bid for the Republican nomination, but it soon became apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I did not act then. However, now that there is a very real possibility that McCain could be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as an American citizen to share this story. I can’t imagine a more scary outcome for America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead our nation. I have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really is, not how the media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women and his treatment of his own family are even a small indicator of his real personality, then I shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be elected as our President.

Mary-Kay Gamel

Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts

Cowell College

University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California 95064

831-4*9-2**1 (office); 831-4*9-8**3 (home)

mkgamel@ucsc.edu

The email address is legit from what I can tell. So next time you hear someone talking about how wonderful Gov. Palin is and Sen. McCain's wisdom in picking her for the VP slot, just remember how one woman saw his attitude toward women.

An Apology

Sorry for the blip in blogging. My ear drum and allergies are collaborating against me.

Why Am I So Tired?

Once again I am confirmed in my culling of Megan McArdle from my blog reader. This time, Yglesias takes her to task for her political "analysis". Considering who brought the goods and who played the most partisan politics, I'd think one would hold the House Republicans to blame first. Of course, Rep. Pelosi's pre-vote speech was tasteless for that moment, even if it was true. And blaming Sen. Obama? Where the fuck does that come from? He didn't go flying back to Washington with the air of some knight in shining armor. Nor did he try to make the issue a critical part of his campaign message, aside from using the financial crisis to bolster his argument for tax reformation. McArdle's analysis is one based on the last couple of weeks of political history, not the last decade. For someone who claims to have knowledge of an economist, McArdle is showing some massive short-sightedness.

Intellectual Rigor Mortis

Sullivan quotes the late Tim Russert today in relation to Gov. Palin's seclusion from open press conferences:

"[After] all my discussions with presidents, both while in office and after they left, and their advisors, while in office and after they left, and in my reading of history, particularly presidential history, I am ever more convinced that a leader cannot make tough decisions unless he or she is asked tough questions. It is the only vehicle that brings them to closure, that forces any sense of intellectual rigor, that forces them to find a way to reconcile the political advice or the political pressures brought to bear. It will not be enough in a democratic society to simply have those on the left or right who are the pamphleteers and unwilling to challenge the views of people they support. Tough questions need not be the loudest or most sensational or the most theatrical, but rather probing and, hopefully, incisive."

Damn right.

Gamin' tha Capital Capitol

So after spending the afternoon trying to pull myself out of a Congressionally-funded funk I've sat down to read the blogs and educate myself a little. The topic of choice? Capital gains, of which my father claims no other nation in the world has, of which I call bull-shit. Apparently one of the ideas floated by House Republicans (who, when they put Congress against the wall when the revolution comes, should be shot at by the geriatrics who lost their life savings in the market) is to temporarily suspend capital gains taxes. With my newly minted knowledge I can confidently call that idea fuck-all wrong.
It's not hard to figure out really. If a capital gains tax is a tax on basically positive dividends from stock sales (that's really dumbing it down, but I'm really that dumb) then what good does suspending the tax do? Chances are good that most long term investors would look at such an idea as a great way to get what's left of their portfolio profits. Rather the opposite effect of what I think the House Republicans are looking for. There's no incentive to invest, but rather to devest. What's more, only the people who have a good deal of money invested in the market would take that route. So, I again call the idea fuck-all wrong.
I honestly have little clue as to what Congress should do, aside from putting forth regulatory bills with mighty incisors and/or reviving the old idea of corporations needing renewable charters. What I do know is the middle class has suffered the effects of an unsustainable economy for the last decade so not much has changed there. Plus, the worse the economic situation looks the better the chances of Sen. Obama winning the presidency. That's all I got for ya.

The Pony in the Taxes

I always get this warm feeling when people I respect come up with similar ideas to mine, particularly when they're solutions to widely known problems. Yglesias just did that with his post on Irish corporate taxes. It's a common complaint among corporate types and the pundits who argue for them that corporate taxes are too high. As those who watched the presidential debate Friday noticed, while Sen. McCain held up Ireland as an example of a successful (albeit going into a recession) Western nation with low corporate taxes, Sen. Obama noted that the actual taxes paid by corporations in the U.S. are similar due to loopholes, subsidies and other tax breaks.
For about a year now I've had this notion of eliminating every tax break, loophole, subsidy or other form of a tax cut that's not called a tax cut. At the same time corporate taxes would fall dramatically across the board. No one gets left out and a clear tax rate and tax code would transform the debate over corporate incentives. Yglesias seems to have a similar notion as well but believes that a simple universal tax cut wouldn't accomplish its aims of boosting economic growth while increasing tax revenues.
Such an idea is closely related to the flat income tax idea. Both would simplify the tax code dramatically (reducing the paperwork and thus making the IRS more efficient) while giving a clear tax rate to everyone. All the loopholes, deductions, tax havens, capital gains breaks and other forms of tax avoidance would close while the tax rate for all would, theoretically, come down.
Of course, both Yglesias and I know that such a proposal is a magic pony. Corporations and the ultra-wealthy want those loopholes. It makes for a great talking point as members of either party are typically backed by such people. Lobbyists and congressional members can argue that the rich are taxed too high despite all the loopholes that lower their actual taxation to a generally fair level. Thus getting a bill passed that called for such a reform of the tax code would never happen. It probably wouldn't even make it to a sub-committee meeting.
Hence the problem with great ideas like these. They sound wonderful but enacting them is nigh impossible due to the nature of how legislation is passed. It's unfortunate but that's the reality of things.

Palin's Handicap

TPM reports that the McCain campaign has said Gwen Ifill will have a lot to answer for if she pushes too hard on foreign policy during the Vice Presidential debate. At this point, I hope both Sen. Biden and Ms. Ifill rip into her like lions on a gazelle. If Gov. Palin can't handle ninety minutes with Joe "7-11" Biden then she exactly the fool we saw during the creampuff interview with Katie Couric. I want to see blood spattered all over that debate floor.

The Promise of King

Sullivan passes along this anecdote from a reader describing the meeting of an elderly white guy and two gangster-styled black men. Whitey was canvassing for Sen. Obama and asked the black guys some questions. Once he finished and began to walk away he was politely thanked by one of the black men who, incidentally, had the words "hate" and "pain" tattooed on his chest (apparently the man was shirtless). As an anecdote of white support for Sen. Obama such a story is heartwarming.
What gets me though is this isn't a singular occurrence. The last track off the latest Nas album is titled "Black President" and includes some audio clips of Sen. Obama, specifically the powerful words he said after the Iowa caucus: "They said..." Coming from one of the stalwarts of gangsta rap is this song of sheer hope. Never is Sen. Obama referred to as 'nigga'. Far from it, Nas treats the senator with the upmost respect. If such moments are signs of what the black community in America will think if Sen. Obama wins then we might see a resurgance of black pride and perhaps a turnabout in the black belief that one cannot succeed in America without either occupying a street corner or rejecting one's blackness to play the white man's game.
I want Sen. Obama to win, not just because he stands as an example of hard work bring positive results, but because he proves that in a viceral way to black America. He's no King but he's part fulfillment of King's promise to America.
Alright, I'm done waxing poetic. Time to step on some kittens and kick an old lady.

Rolling on the Ropes

Really, Ezra Klein has to stop doing this. I mean, honestly, who told him that he could make good, intelligent points? It's not just that Klein exposes the perception gap between the tv pundit class and the general public. It that Klein notes how that gap occurred with this past Friday's debate: Sen. McCain played to the pundits while Sen. Obama played to the electorate. In an age when most people are told to regard the media with suspicion why would Sen. McCain focus his attention on winning over the media? This is an election by (mostly) popular vote. If Sen. McCain can't win over the public then he has a problem. Moreover, if Sen. Obama continues to show cool determination while facing his opponent and keeping his focus on the public then how can Sen. McCain keep his campaign floating? At this late date Sen. Obama is still able to sway undecided or potential switch voters. That's not a good sign for Sen. McCain.

Love Lockdown

I've had YE's new track in my head most of the weekend. After the debate Friday night it trickled into my ears. Now Sunday rolls around and Andrew Sullivan tosses out at couple of posts on the new McCain ad and a blurb from James Fallows on the two presidential candidates' understanding of strategy versus tactics. So to use Kanye as an example, the strategy is the love lockdown while the tactics are how YE goes about doing that.
Stepping away from thinly stretched pop culture metaphors, I think Sen. McCain screwed himself when he lingered on the 'surge' and then put out an ad showing moments when Sen. Obama agreed with him on point. It shows a deep misunderstanding of what strategy is and someone like Sen. McCain should know the difference. Yet his entire campaign has shown a lack of strategic thinking. Instead, Sen. McCain seems to lurch from one tactic to another with no clear, overarching platform. From his flip-flopping to the Palin pick and the sudden message shift away from experience to one of change and then the literal implosion of his head Sen. McCain lacks a strategy for winning the presidency, or at the very least, beating Sen. Obama.
On the other end of this misunderstanding is Sen. Obama. He's had a clear strategy in mind since the beginning and where his campaign has taken hits has been in tactics. It's something few political bloggers and even fewer pundits have understood themselves. Michael Gerson wrote and op-ed piece for the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago on the 17th arguing that the Obama campaign is nothing but a reactive body with no strategy. This is immediately after Gerson points to Sen. Obama's own vision and steady hand. Gerson uses the cover of attacking the Obama campaign to attack the senator directly. It's not terribly well-hidden nor is it all that logical or thought through.
Coming from a former speech-writer for President Bush, I'm not surprised with Gerson. He, like many many others including Sen. McCain, have consistantly failed to see the strategy and the tactics of Sen. Obama. Sen. Clinton suffered defeat in the primaries due to the same lack of understanding. The whole campaign package is devilishly simple but one that few politicans could ever try.
The basic tactic Sen. Obama has relied on is the political version of the rope-a-dope. Ali used the rope-a-dope to wear down his opponents while conserving his strength. The result is a tired and usually demoralized opponent who keeps going back round after round, throwing his best and watching the punches seemingly slide off. By the end of the fight one boxer is slow, tired, and dopey while the other is ready to open up. At that point it doesn't take much to knock out the dopey boxer. Without being specifically told, the tactic goes unnoticed. It's genius in its simplicity but hard on the boxer using it. The rope-a-dope results in multiple hits to the torso that few boxers can take. Politically however, it's a brilliant tactic. It lets your opponent waste their energy punching away with their standard tactics, throwing money and people in all the ways that have worked before. Except in Sen. Obama's case few of the punches connect.
This is where Sen. Obama's strategy shows his own brilliance. He understands that the only way to kill an idea or beat an ideology is to supercede it--to make the old tactics and strategy obsolete. Sen. Clinton never got that and Sen. McCain clearly doesn't either. Both have tried to pull the campaigns down into a street brawl whereas Sen. Obama isn't a brawler and he knows that. In a position like that, you look for alternatives. Sen. Obama is fighting a guerrila campaign against the conventional warfare of Sen. McCain. The McCain campaign can shift tactics as much as they like. Until they recognize that they're using the wrong strategy then Sen. Obama will continue to inch further along in the polls. Sen. McCain will fall under the thousand small cuts Sen. Obama has put in him. The combination of a strategy that makes the old ideologies look like a Commadore 64 and tactics that slowly suck the life away from its opponent is winning for Sen. Obama.
Why so many people haven't gotten this is beyond me. But the longer they remain in the dark the better the chances of Sen. Obama winning are.

Talking Ecology to Teens

This is actually a bit sad. Hayden Panettiere, in a bid to get American youths to register to vote and then go actually vote, received a lukewarm reception from her targeted audience. You'd think that a teen star with little in the way of controversy (aside from her dad) would have a bigger impact than that. Yes, she should have taken a more forceful line, but her attitude toward how she uses energy at home should take precedent over how well she invoked the youth to vote. But obviously the folks at Trendhunter think differently. Just sad is all.

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes

From The New York Times:

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

I doubt anyone needs me to repeat the sense of urgency within the administration to have legislation in place to sign as soon as possible. It's actually quite stunning that, after days and days of negotiations, making compromises and ironing out the details of a real plan for the Wall Street bailout, a few congressional Republicans would walk into a meeting with the president of the United States, member of their own party, and throw all of that work out the window. For once it looked like Congress was responding swiftly and with appropriate measures to a serious problem and the House Republicans want to quibble over alternatives when the financial markets could actually collapse worldwide if a plan isn't figured out? Who the fuck are they? I hope Rep. Boehner loses his seat this election. I also hope he loses his balls. Was this done because there truely was serious concern about the plan and alternative plans that could be moved into place quickly? No, in fact the congressional Democrats and the administration are on the same page. But because presidential candidate Sen. John fucking McCain (who asked no questions from Treasury Secretary Paulson while his opponent did) hasn't had the chance to do enough grandstanding. Sen. McCain can't participate in the debates but he can make the network interview circuits. What the fuck is wrong with the GOP? Are they really willing to risk further instability just so their candidate can look presidential? Beating Sen. Obama is so important that the GOP is willing to let Wall Street fall. Fuck every single one of them.

I Burn

Huh, so AC/DC, The Beatles and Kid Rock don't want their albums potentially sold as individual songs thus they boycott iTunes. You know, I really think the drive to online music purchases will take a steep dive after such innovative and respected luminaries as Kid Rock and AC/DC stand up to the monopoly of the mp3...more than a decade after the mp3 became popularized...and six years of mp3 player sales...and diving album sales...and the clear choice of the consumer to purchase the music they wanted and not the music they didn't. Yeah, Apple and Amazon are shitting themselves right now for fear that Kid Rock fans will leave them en masse. Steve Jobs is actually in hiding from the entire AC/DC roadie crew.
Oh, by the way, fire hot. We should boycott that too.

Bat-Shit Crazy Scientists Need Love Too

You know, for a nation that constantly complains of waste within the government it's odd that Congress would make another $130 million cut to DARPA. This piece from Wired's Danger Room blog discusses the cut-backs Congress keeps approving to DARPA (who, by the way, brought you the Internet) due to "poor execution". DARPA still has a budget approaching $3 billion but the reasoning behind the cuts defies good sense.
Now the guys at DARPA are the ones who come up with the bat-shit crazy ideas that, when turned into reality, dramatically enhance our technological edge; the use of analog computer to compile artillery trajectories during WWI and the efforts during WWII to decode enemy encryption using analog computers drove refinements of computer design at a far greater pace than during peace-time before hand. Using flat angles on an aircraft to deflect radar signals was another DARPA-led innovation. So DARPA is a damn important wing of the U.S. military and the world at large.
So why is Congress cutting funding under the claim of "poor execution"? Well folks, that's what happens when you have a department head who doesn't want to waste time and money on projects that produce little results or on companies that can't deliver the goods on time and on budget. He'd rather see that money go to other potential projects. While you'd might think that since DARPA is obviously being so efficiently run that such cuts in funding won't affect it you'd miss the larger point--DARPA is the acronym for bat-shit crazy ideas. If a few million spent on one project doesn't produce results then it gets pulled and put into other programs that already are working or new projects that have good potential. More importantly, the DARPA chief is obviously not one to waste time on a company that peddles excuses versus ordered goods.
Instead of cutting DARPA's budget, Congress should use DARPA as a model for all other military programs. By expecting on-time results we'd might see a huge decrease in defense spending. Of course, that could only happen in a world where congressmen and military brass don't find cushy jobs in the defense industries and use their old ties to keep such a brazenly good idea from happening.

Rusty, Violent Ghosts

Now this is the kind of out of your ass political post that I can get behind. Spencer Ackerman has spent a lot of time around political bloggers so it's hard to say that he's gone completely off the reservation here. He does specialize in foreign policy but he maintains that awareness of the political world needed to understand the ramifications of various foreign actions and how they will play with Congress and the White House. I have to say though, I'm not entirely positive that Ackerman gets it right here when he says Sen. McCain just lost the election. I do think though that Sen. McCain has put himself in a bind of his own making. And after Letterman's railing against the senator, particularly over the fact that he should have put his running mate in charge of things while he goes back to D.C. and does what he thinks needs doing, canceling Friday's debate in a possible attempt to forego a VP debate will spur a lot of finger-pointing if he does lose. It really does look like a campaign that's watching one of its wheels pass them on the highway and wondering what happens when the car stops.

David Letterman Gets Feisty

After hearing about it all night finally there's video of David Letterman's annoyance with Sen. McCain suspending his campaign, canceling his appearance on Letterman's show claiming he was headed straight to D.C. and then doing an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News at the same time he was supposed to arrive for his taped appearance. It's pretty fair to say Letterman was not pleased.

What's McArdle Smoking Tonight?

This post by McArdle is one of the reasons why I'm about to drop her out of my blog reader. It is honestly a blatantly dumb assessment of the politics behind Sen. McCain's decision to suspend his campaign. As Sen. Obama has said, when the time comes to vote, he will be there to cast his vote. Otherwise, all of the nonsense that travels with a presidential campaign shouldn't be anywhere near D.C. at this moment. Yes, the president should talk to both the candidates just to ensure there's no last minute back-stabbing. Beyond that, Sen. Obama is right to say that a president has to do more than one thing at once and again I make my point that the president has to deal with a large organization at the same time a crisis erupts. You don't get to call a fucking mulligan when you're president. So why McArdle has chosen this moment to make some half-hearted political analysis that she has little experience doing when the Atlantic has several other more experienced political bloggers is more than a little baffling. Just stick with what you know McArdle, which is economics and you know it well. That's what you're being paid for. Let others like me who are comfortable talking out of our asses handle this.

I Want To Touch It

Holy shit, I think my brain just orgasmed.

Obama v. Palin: Now Taking Bets

I was wondering when someone would suggest Gov. Palin take Sen. McCain's place in Friday's debate. Personally, I say go for it. It would put Gov. Palin before the public against the candidate who took down Hilary Clinton. Sen. Obama could simply deflect any criticism that he was too harsh on Gov. Palin by saying that since she was acting in Sen. McCain's place she should have the same tough debating skills as her running mate. It plays well for Sen. Obama in a lot of ways--allowing him to zero in on Gov. Palin's inexperience and inadiquicies while using the cover that Sen. McCain is a tough debator and Sen. Obama expected the same from someone entrusted to represent Sen. McCain in a presidential debate. The right will cry sexism but that's only after Sen. Obama slices open Gov. Palin on live national television. After that kind of evisceration, I don't think any of the undecideds will have a problem voting for Sen. Obama.

Gambler's Odds

I'm not going to bother with linking to all the blogs talking about Sen. McCain's maneuvering since it seems that just about every other post is about said maneuvering. Instead, I'm going to emulate the senator from Arizona and just shoot from the hip here.
There are several possible reasons for suspending a campaign so close to an election, even a presidential election. The death of a spouse or president would qualify and have a real touch of class to it. Suspending a campaign, just days before the first debate, on the basis that Congress and the country need the candidate in Washington D.C. to save everything just smacks of narcissism (particularly when the Senate Majority leader tells you not to come). It also smacks of desperation within the campaign and a potential financial crisis of their own. And that's only the basic political assumptions that immediately jump to mind.
Pure political gamesmanship aside, what do such actions say of a presidential candidate? What's striking about Sen. McCain's actions/gambit is the high probability of exposing yourself to the attack line of being unable to handle the every day tasks of the president and a major crisis at the same time. Not to praise the man, but even President Bush is able to do it to some degree. That Sen. McCain has opened himself to such an attack is about as close to electoral suicide as you can get without photos of the senator with a rough trick name Billy and the motel sign in the background. It's not simply the hit to Sen. McCain's experience platform, it's a controlled detonation of the image that the senator can deal with the major problems of our generation.
The other serious problem of the McCain campaign suspension is the practical issue of presidential debates. While Sen. McCain may claim the financial crisis is too important for a distraction like a debate, it comes off more as an attempt to avoid such a debate at this time. One of the comparisons being bandied about is a college student asking for an extension on their paper. While that's fine for a college student, John McCain is a major party candidate for president of the fucking United States. You don't get extensions or absences. You don't get to skip work for a day or call in sick. Is that fair? Of course not, but that's the job Sen. McCain is applying for. Now is the moment when you get to take a look at the resumes of two qualified individuals and find out which one can handle the job. Clearly, at this point, it's Sen. Obama. He's taken the Wall Street meltdown in stride, keeping in contact with the necessary people while running a presidential campaign. In point of fact, Sen. Obama is doing two jobs at once as he is still trying to keep up with his work in the Senate and run for president at the same time. In this game there are no time outs or extensions.
All of which is to say I think Sen. McCain made a major mistake today. While he may have rallied the social conservative base with his pick of Gov. Palin as his running mate, the moderates and independents still need courting. Exposing yourself to the attack of being unable to run a major organization during a crisis does not instill confidence in the undecided part of the electorate. What's more, using the financial crisis as an excuse to duck a debate only exacerbates the intensity of such an attack. Sen. McCain has exposed a serious weakness with more than a month of campaign left. The press isn't exactly his friend anymore and a good number of people are already unsure about his abilities to run the nation while dealing with the multiple crises that already exist. Sen. McCain may like to gamble but lately his bets haven't paid off in the big ways he needed them to; and as gamblers like to say, "if you play long enough the house will always win." It's just sad to see a man I once could respect fall so low.

The Philosophers Were Right

I can't quite remember which philosopher talked about this first or in the most detail (Nietzsche's a possibility but so is W.V.O. Quine), but there's a fairly respected idea that states all thought is preceded by belief. If you say something like, "The sun rises in the east," whether this is true or not you are, in fact, saying, "I believe the sun rises in the east." With scientific facts their truthfulness isn't terribly debatable but even there you have to believe the facts are true. And even when you knowingly lie you have to believe what you say is a lie.
So it doesn't come as a surprise that when studying belief and disbelief as it relates to the brain you would find the region of the brain attached to belief would act the same way whether that belief was logical or emotional. Now Sam Harris is an ardent atheist and someone who has debated Andrew Sullivan on religion so one would think that such results would please Harris. However, what the results show is that the philosophers were right to say that belief precedes all thought. And once again the philosophers lead the way in the study of the mind. I do so love it when that happens.

Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!

Gah! Cuteness overload


more animals

Holy Zombie Jesus!

Oh, this is just too good. What better way to turn a figure of reverence into irrelevance. Fucking love it.

Telling the Big Lie

I'm shocked, shocked (well, not that shocked) to find that Sen. McCain has been lying about his tax proposals as well as Sen. Obama's tax plans. Unsurprisingly, Sen. McCain's unwillingness to raise taxes while seriously cutting spending is a bit of a lark, as Joe Klein writes. Speaking through Michael Scherer and Matt Miller is Sen. McCain's economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who admits that the basic math of the federal budget will require any president to raise taxes in the future or face bankrupting the U.S. government. The natural growth of the federal budget, Holtz-Eakin claims, will require an overall tax increase of some seven percent by 2020 to keep up with budget inflation. And it's not surprising that such an increase of the federal budget will happen since we have a military to rebuild along with our ever increasing interest on federal debt.
So what we have here is an instance, as Holtz-Eakin describes, of the math being at odds with Sen. McCain's campaign slogans. Perhaps Sen. McCain simple hasn't been told this yet or perhaps he just doesn't care. His apparent willingness to blatently lie during this election makes the latter far more likely. Klein finishes off with the mention that Holtz-Eakin acknowledges that Sen. Obama's tax plan would actually reduce net taxes over a ten year period. How that will square with the programs Sen. Obama proposes I'm not sure. But at least people within the McCain camp realize that the sloganeering is a lot of empty rhetoric.

Reason is the Mode of Transportation

For once, Erza Klein makes a good point in the pedestrian-cyclist vs. driver argument. One of the major inhibitors to walking in a city like Dallas is that everything is too spread out. This isn't to say the city completely lacks walkable areas (Lower Greenville, Uptown, Downtown) but that most of the city planning has gone into building a road infrastructure that inclines people to drive versus walking. The bus system here is a lovely mess; although the growing light rail lines are making things easier for some. But when you have a two mile stretch of river crisscrossed by two and three lane bridges for vehicle traffic and only two rail bridges (one of which is for commercial traffic) then obviously the city planners did not have a rail system in mind. As I said, Dallas is walkable to a degree, but even then you still need a car to enjoy going to the better places in Dallas and not settling for what's within foot-distance. Cities like Irivine, CA are much the same as walking isn't sensible. This isn't about being good or bad to the environment, but about what's the more reasonable way to travel.
I'm now going to hit myself for saying that Klein has a good point.

Pussy-Lovin'

My cat is loving on everything right now and has been since Saturday. She's a fluff-ball of pure joy.

Lifting Up

I believe that it has almost been a week since I last even looked at this blog. Moving into a new apartment with your sister takes a lot out of you. All the while I've seen the stupidity of the McCain campaign ramble on, a strange ad by an oil interest group pointing out the untapped offshore reserves (all of which are in hurricane-prone areas) and Sen. Obama stir like a sleeping dragon. Oh, and I now understand what all the hype over HD TV is about.
The apartment is shaping up, after it shaped us up; I have bruises all up and down my arms. Still, my left ear is ringing and I haven't put my desktop back together so I don't have access to all my music. The comic boxes are all in place; still need to unpack my book boxes. The kitchen is stocked and soon enough the liquor cabinet will too.
For the moment, as you can imagine, new blog posts will come at a slow pace. The election is heating up though and I have two series of posts to map out about modern masculinity and consumer culture in America. The last two require a bit of research from me and I haven't read all of the material I need to yet. Plus I feel like stretching my wings a bit and being more random in what I post about. So stay tuned as vague promises of untold riches await your future.

Jockin' Jay-Z

Man charged over Gallagher attack - BBC News

You know, when I first heard about this I thought, 'Aw shit, they nabbed Jay-Z for nothing again."

Aural Explorations

So I ruptured my eardrum Saturday night (don't ask, it's too great of a story). Now I'm in this sort of aural isolation because the other ear didn't work so well before. Plus I get to wear these lovely orange foam ear protectors. But it got me thinking about a program coming on the Science Channel soon about isolation experiments and Grant Morrison's current story arc on Batman. Morrison has woven a tale of Batman's early years and his attempts to push his body and mind to their limit through a ten-day isolation experiment along with Bruce Wayne's time spent in the midst of a forty-nine day mediative isolation that supposedly puts you through the whole process of dying and being reborn. That story goes so far as to roll a rock in front of the cave Wayne mediates in.
Isolation is a strange idea. We've all heard how the blind seem to have extraordinary senses as compensation for their lack of sight. Our senses are our windows to the physical world. Without them we would do nothing but bang ourselves into things with no understanding that we've stopped nor where to move next. We would have quickly lost the evolutionary race. Isolation experiments show what happens when you selectively take away a sense and the frustration and madness that follows. We are beings meant to have sensory stimulation. Our brains devote large portions of itself to the receiving and interpreting of sensory data. Take away your senses and your brain will end up using those neurons for something else, or even fake sensation to keep itself occupied.
This is why sensory deprivation experiments are both so fascinating and so dangerous. The mind can only take so much loss of sense before it creates to sense. Stick someone in isolation for ten days or forty-nine days and you might not get the same person back out. That is the crux of Morrison's story in Batman right now. Push the mind to such an extreme and what kind of madness follows? Moreover, for a character like Batman, someone who plans for everything, what does one gain from complete sensory isolation? Morrison suggests that Batman allows himself to create secondary personae, a sort of back-up person to take over if the mind of Bruce Wayne were ever broken.
But for me, I just have a busted ear drum. The ringing in my ear isn't so bad now and I think it's healing nicely, but still I have to remain cautious as to what environments I subject myself to. It's a pain in the ass but what else can I do? Two weeks to two months is the time span I'm looking at. Luckily I already had a doctor's visit scheduled for next week.

Desperate Ads

I'll provide the link but I won't post the video that was played at the Republican National Convention this year. I'm not surprised that the current incarnation of the GOP would stoop so low. That doesn't make it acceptable though. The 9/11 video aired was another clear element of the politics of fear many Republicans currently practice. I don't like it. 9/11 was a terrible even for every American, not just the Republicans. And fighting against terrorism is a fight every American is invested in. The only thing I can conclude from the usage of 9/11 video in a campaign ad is the desperation on the part of the campaign airing it. It may be that I eventually decide to not vote for Sen. Obama but I do know that I can never bring myself to vote for Sen. McCain now. His campaign crossed a line with me that they can't call a mulligan on.

Double Mint

John Ridley over at The Huffington Post has a amusing little piece on the double standard applied to Sen. Obama and Gov. Palin. Apparently Ridley is collecting what he calls "Palinisms" as a way to highlight said double standard. This is volume two of what he promises as a series of future columns:

"Before we start, I'd like to note that I intimated in Vol. 1 that English is a Latin based language. Hondorf was among a few others who pointed out that English is "primarily German based, yes, but it is really a hybrid of Germanic and Romantic languages . . . by the way, I am a redneck."

Clearly, none of us should judge a neck by its color.

A reminder, we're collecting Palinisms here, and over at That Minority Thing.com. If you've got 'em, send 'em.

Ready? Let's begin!

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phoney." Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."

SoyAA says: If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

If you give your wife a dap on stage, it's actually a "terrorist fist jab." If your daughter licks her palm so that she can slick down your youngest child's hair on national TV it's an "adorable moment." (Seriously, forget about abstinence only, teach these folks some grooming skills).

DTD SAYS: If your pastor rails against inequality in the United States of America, you're an "extremist." If your pastor welcomes a sermon by a member of Jews for Jesus who preaches that the killing of Jews by terrorists is a lesson to Jews that they must convert to Christianity, you're a "fundamentalist."

If you're a black man and you use a scholarship to get into college, then work your way up to being the president of the Harvard Law Review, you're "uppity." If you're a conservative and your parents pay your way to Hawaii Pacific University . . . you only have four more schools to attend over the next five years before you somehow manage to graduate (it might be five more schools over the next five years. No one has yet verified whether or not Palin was actually ever registered at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. But, you know how shady people are who ever attended any kind of school in Hawaii).

SeanOcali says: If you're 18, white, and get a 16 year old girl pregnant "life happens." If you're 18, black, and impregnate a 16 year old girl, you're a "registered sex offender."

If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of "Change," it's just "empty rhetoric." If one week before your party's national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about "Change," that's "red meat."

And your last lesson for the day:

If you are a Democrat, an Independent, or even a moderate Republican, if you're female, male, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, bi-racial, multi-ethnic, or GLBT, if you're a Jew, Gentile, Muslim, agnostic or atheist -- "Yes, we can!"

If you're a pitbull with lipstick from Alaska, "Yup, yup"

Stalin Palin

Palin's Problem - Charles Krauthammer @ Washington Post

I knew from the moment that Gov. Palin was chosen for Sen. McCain's VP slot that the blue-blood neo-cons would throw a fit. Krauthammer in particular is one who won't stand for a politician so close to the Presidency who doesn't have the foreign policy chops. This is not to say that Krauthammer would offer praise for Sen. Obama or Sen. Biden after the Palin decision, but it does put Krauthammer in a hard spot. Gov. Palin isn't a neo-con by anyone's definition and if you take a look at the churches Gov. Palin has attended you'll find a gospel of anti-Semitism and general hatred of the Jews.
What Sen. McCain did when he chose Gov. Palin was decide that he didn't need the backing of the neo-conservatives but did need the social conservatives. Problem is, if all you are doing is trying to rally your supposed base then your campaign is in serious trouble. Maybe Gov. Palin will appeal to more than just the social conservatives? Then again, she may turn just as many people away from Sen. McCain. There's nine weeks of campaigning left and one has to wonder whether Sen. McCain's gamble will pay off or break the house.

Live Blogging: John McCain

Was the bio clip selling McCain or coins, because it sounded exactly like one of those commemorative coin adverts.

9:21PM - I feel like I'm stuck in a slow-motion lecture. When McCain pauses for more than a few seconds the crowd goes into chant mode.

9:24PM - Is security that fucked up?

9:25PM - Can the crowd do anything else but chant U.S.A.?

9:29PM - So far, nothing. I'm bored. Where are the pills?

9:31PM - So McCain doesn't know the difference between strategy and tactics. Wonderful.

9:32PM - Vietnam mention: take a shot.

9:36PM - Vague promise of fixing the energy problem. Oh, and back to basics? What the fuck does that mean?

9:38PM - More "no more legislating from the bench" tripe.

9:39PM - Running down the line of rhetorics with no presentation of alternative ideas or how to achieve them.

9:42PM - Education is the civil rights movement of this century? More empty rhetoric. I haven't heard a single specific policy proposal yet.

9:46PM - Attacking Obama on not wanting to drill. Has McCain listened to T. Boone Pickens lately?

9:50PM - Oh God, he's invoking World War II. What next? The Civil War?

9:52PM - Partisan rancor? And who started that again? Pap, pap, and more pap. Oh, and another Vietnam reference: take a shot.

9:55PM - Two Vietnam references: take two shots.

9:58PM - Alright, just start downing your bottles please.

9:59PM - Finally he mentions that "enhanced interrogation" broke him. Keep drinking you bastards.

10:04PM - Now he keeps yelling at people to stand up. And that's that. I'm hitting the bottle again. Must find more pills.

Sarah Palin is the Last Starfighter

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin
I Ain't Nothing But Tired - Spencer Ackerman

Oh, I think we finally have achieve critical mass on hilarity in this campaign cycle. Any more and the McCain campaign will explode into a comedy worthy of Kafka. Now is the time when things go from mildly amusing to outright joke.

Women Should Be Seen And Not Heard

Jason Zengerle: a small man with a small sense of rhetoric. The speech was great and went a long way to blunting both the PUMAs and the Republicans. So grow up Zengerle and get over your mommy issues.

Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty

The Great White Debate has begun anew with the start of the Democratic convention. As a reader from Andrew Sullivan's site has noted, Sen. Obama doesn't fit into any of the preconceived categories white people have created for blacks. Moreover, the PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass) folk represent that side of the party that cares nothing for advancing the Democratic agenda. It's one thing when a member of the Republican party expresses fear of a black president, it's quite another when members of the party that's supposed to support Sen. Obama won't because he beat their favored candidate in the primaries. It's really stunning to see so much hatred thrown at a man who has done everything he can to unite people. But of course, he's black so we can't trust him.

Gun, Meet Foot

McCain Would Consider Reinstating The Draft - Colby @ Truemors

Now considering Sen. McCain's past of saying one thing in public only to have his handlers tell the press something completely different, I'm not going to lose any sleep over these statements. Until reinstating the draft becomes written policy for McCain's campaign then it's just words. However, if Sen. McCain were to make the draft part of his platform then he better make sure his GOTV efforts for the elderly are running superbly. That's because nearly ever person under thirty is going to vote for Sen. Obama. Even making passing comments about reinstating the draft for a war that the public has seriously soured on is like taking close aim at your foot with a very large gun. Moreover, during the week of the Democratic convention, you don't make stupid statements like this. Sen. McCain should know better that the Democrats will easily make his comments part of their campaigns and speeches this week.

Playing Well With Others

Something to tide me over. No, not you, you don't read me.


more cat pictures

Quick Hits

A quick run-down of recent campaign items that I don't have time to expand on:
1) McCain is burning through what little money he has for the general election on campaign ads in swing states: note that I didn't say he was building a ground game for those states, just running ads.
2) Obama comes back from vacation swinging attacking McCain for false accusations of patriotism.
3) McCain's "cross in the sand" ad is attracting way too much attention from the blogosphere to stand up for much longer.
4) For all of McCain's bluster of the past month, the national polls only show a marginal change with Obama still beating McCain in many important states.
5) McCain has started talking up a new cold war with Russia after the Georgian invasion and the Russian overreaction. Lovely. When is Obama going to stand up and say this is exactly the reason why we need strong international institutions?

That's all for now. My work on counter-culture continues.