Saturday, September 13, 2008

13 Sep 2008 10:00 pm

Truman's Truth

"I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you? It's about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them," - Harry Truman.

I should add that the many criticisms from the GOP and its flacks of my attempts to bring to light all aspects of Palin's dreadful record and constant lies reminds me of Harry Truman's dictum. I'm only airing the truth. It's just that it feels like hell to the liars, Sarah Palin and John McCain.

13 Sep 2008 08:52 pm

The View From Your Window

Miami Beach, Florida, 2.24 pm.

13 Sep 2008 07:33 pm

The Open Book Question, III

A reader writes:

I think you do have one problem with your "open book" argument and here it is:

In 2008, in mid-September, we are not even allowed to ask questions about Palin's real and actual life as a mother-as-governor? That notion is as absurd as the Palin candidacy itself, in my judgment.

I think it is fair for any politician to be asked almost any question, including how would they balance work and family life, etc. However, parenting questions, specifically, are never asked of a man in quite the same way: with an implied judgment that it must be impossible to balance work and family so you better give us a good answer about how exactly you'll be able to do your job well while raising your kids. So by definition it is sexist to ask her this type of question, even though it is---technically---a perfectly legitimate question to ask.

Actually Charles Gibson brought this very question up:

GIBSON: Is it sexist for people to ask how can somebody manage a family of seven and the vice presidency? Is that a sexist question to ask?

PALIN: I don't know.

Continue reading "The Open Book Question, III" »

13 Sep 2008 06:52 pm

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

I disagree with your assessment of the ladies on "The View" being the only serious journalists on television right now. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been doing the job of the mainstream press for years.

13 Sep 2008 06:37 pm

The Open Book Question, II

A reader writes:

You have asked your readers to weigh in on whether, or to what extent, it is legitimate for journalists to report on the family lives of politicians, particularly those who in some way make affirmative use of their families in their campaign speeches and literature.  I think that to analyze this properly, a distinction has to be drawn between what matters are proper to report and what matters are proper to investigate.

Continue reading "The Open Book Question, II" »

13 Sep 2008 05:31 pm

Faces Of The Day

Tyler Wells Dallas Rein and Nathan Collins wade through water on the shore front of Lake Pontchartrain as high winds from Hurricane Ike push water ashore on September 12, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ike is expected to make landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast early Saturday. By Chris Graythen/Getty

13 Sep 2008 05:26 pm

Heckuva Job, Sarah

Palin really is Bush's true heir in so many ways:

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, [Palin] appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Does that not seem eerily reminiscent of George W. Bush's appointment of Michael Brown to FEMA? Cronyism, debt, lies, religious fanaticism, and utter ignorance about foreign policy. You want another four years of Bush? McCain-Palin is the ticket.

13 Sep 2008 04:50 pm

Reading The Corner

I am being called "crazy" again. But no one at the Corner has the intellectual honesty to discuss the lies that the McCain camp has been putting out: specifically the lie that Obama funded sex education for kindergartners, the lie that Sarah Palin initially opposed the Bridge To Nowhere, the lie that she never requested earmarks for Alaska as governor, the lie that Palin visited the battlefield in Iraq, the lie that she didn't use her public office to persecute a former relative, and on and on. You will read nothing about these glaring lies in the public record at National Review. But you will learn that I am insane.

What does that tell you?

13 Sep 2008 04:46 pm

The Open Book Question, Ctd.

Thanks for the e-mails. Feel free to write if you have something to add. Here's one response:

I don't think you're wrong regarding anything you wrote, but, in focusing on Palin (Vice Presidential candidate), we run the risk of missing the real point: this is about McCain. Palin represents a massive flaw in McCain's judgment and executive capabilities, and ignoring this in favor of playing rhetorical whack-a-mole with a know-nothing is neither robust nor inquisitive on the part of the media.

I am utterly convinced now that McCain picked Palin solely to act as a lightning rod for the media, to dodge responsibility for his smears and gaffes. In that respect alone, he demonstrated good sense. Continuing to give him what he wants here is no better than showing "deference" to Palin in order to score interviews.

I take the point. McCain's lies are now as frequent and as obvious as Palin's, and I will focus, as I have, on McCain's dreadful cynicism, dishonor, and dishonesty. But I do think Palin's record in its totality, including her family, is relevant in one very important respect. She is McCain's first presidential-level decision. If he did not vet her in any real way, and if the vetting missed a critical fact about her, or if she was asked, as every vetted candidate is asked, whether there is anything potentially embarrassing out there about her and she said no, and that is not true, then the questions about her family life and public record matter.

13 Sep 2008 03:48 pm

McCain: Liar Who Won't Correct

If McCain were a blogger, he would have had to retract by now. But he's running for president of the United States, so he can say anything, lie about anything and not have to answer for it. Yesterday, John McCain lied on national television about something that no one disputes in the public record. He was challenged by the only serious journalists on television right now - the hosts of "The View" - about the large number of pork barrel earmarks Sarah Palin sought and secured as governor of Alaska, including the "Bridge To Nowhere" that Palin and McCain lied about and are still lying about in public. Here was his clear and irrefutable statement:

Palin's comments came after McCain sat for a feisty grilling on ABC's "The View," where he claimed erroneously that his running mate hadn't sought money for such pet projects. "Not as governor she didn't," McCain said, ignoring the record.

It has now been a day since McCain lied this explicitly in public. And he hasn't yet retracted his lie. This AP piece is dated as of this afternoon. Why not?

Because if he has to retract this lie, he will have to retract his multiple other lies? While the media demands that Obama respond to things he never said and never meant, McCain is not even asked to retract a bald-faced, massive, obvious, refutable lie.

In the last month, McCain has become the biggest liar in the modern history of presidential politics. He makes Bill Clinton look like George Washington.

13 Sep 2008 03:36 pm

The Full Gibson Interview

After bugging ABC News, they have now provided a simpler, easier way to read the full interview between Sarah Palin and Charlie Gibson. It's here. I'm going to be fisking it throughout the weekend. I mean: it's all we're allowed to examine. So I better do my job, right?

Why do I feel the McCain campaign is treating the press's legitimate need to interview Palin like an audience with the Pope?

13 Sep 2008 03:25 pm

On Bill Maher Next Friday

Yep: my time on the Cape is coming to an end and I'll be a guest on Real Time next Friday night.

13 Sep 2008 02:48 pm

The Glamour Of Terror

Virginia Postrel proposes:

To someone who thinks "glamour" means movie stars and designer dresses, the idea that terrorism is glamorous sounds bizarre. But Rushdie is wise to the deeper meaning of glamour, as a form of magic and persuasion. Glamour is in the audience's eyes, and the phenomenon long preceded Hollywood. Jihadi terrorism in fact combines two ancient forms of glamour--the martial and the religious--with the modern promise of media celebrity.

Glamour can sell religious devotion or military glory as surely as it can pitch lipstick or island vacations. All promise a way to transcend our everyday circumstances, to experience more and become better than ordinary life allows.  All invite us to imagine escape and transformation.

13 Sep 2008 02:40 pm

She Lied About Visiting Iraq As Well

I cannot quite keep count at this point of the bald-faced lies that the McCain-Palin campaign has been telling to a pliant, pathetic, useless excuse for an American press corps. But here's the latest. We were all told by the McCain-Palin campaign that Sarah Palin had visited Iraq earlier this year:

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.

This was another simple lie. Not a distortion, a lie. But, as we know, the McCain-Palin campaign tells massive lies and when called on them, first try a dodge, rather than the truth. And so when asked to give more details about her trip to Iraq, we were first told:

Asked to clarify where she traveled in Iraq, Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that "She visited a military outpost on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraq border."

So not far into Iraq, but definitely Iraq, right? Wrong, according to "Lieutenant Colonel Dave Osborn, commander of the 3d Battalion, 207th Infantry of the Alaska National Guard, who was in charge of the 570 local troops serving in Kuwait and Iraq."

Continue reading "She Lied About Visiting Iraq As Well" »

13 Sep 2008 01:25 pm

Headline Of The Day

Hilarious:

Democrats Need to Shake The "Elitist' Tag

By Lynn Forester de Rothschild

As Mickey puts it, you lost me at "de".

13 Sep 2008 01:19 pm

The Most Important Thing She Said

For some reason I cannot find the transcript of the third Gibson interview, although I watched it slack-jawed online this morning. In my judgment, she is close to a parody of a politician who cannot tell the truth and has nothing substantive to offer on policy whatsoever. When she isn't lying, she is bullshitting. I'll deal with that over the weekend, examining in close detail her actual answers and how they don't tell us anything substantive about what she would do as vice-president. I'm going to fisk the interview thoroughly. But it seems to me that, before I do that, I should put on the table what I think was the real news in the interview. On two occasions, she said:

"When you're running for office, your life's an open book."

Thanks, governor, for being a lone voice of sanity in this, at least. What you are saying is that what the McCain camp is intimidating the press (including Gibson) from examining is a perfectly legitimate line of media inquiry. Palin has said that her life is an "open book." She has therefore pulled a Gary Hart in inviting the press to examine her life in full.

And she's surely right: when you agree to run for vice-president of the United States, you surrender any zone of privacy. Al Gore's sometimes wayward son; Dick Cheney's daughter and now granddaughter; Dan Quayle's wife; George H. W. Bush's extensive clan: all these families have been an "open book" to the press. In saying yes to John McCain, Palin said yes to the natural inquiries that come with it. I don't mean utterly gratuitous stuff, like the Starr Report's detailing of the precise positions Lewinsky and Clinton enjoyed sexually. I don't mean by the standards of the Republican party. I mean by the standards of a robust and inquisitive and fair press.

Vice-presidential candidates have long been treated as an open book. As far back as the deferential pre-web 1970s, a vice-president's confidential medical history was made public, forcing him to withdraw. Eagelton's bipolar history in no way disqualified him for the vice-presidency in the way Palin's own record clearly disqualifies her for the vice-presidency. And the most obvious contemporary example is former vice-presidential candidate, John Edwards. The Edwards story - showing stunning recklessness in a potential president - legitimized the reporting of the National Enquirer, and made their reporting in this news cycle legit. And the story - subsequently reported and endorsed in the New York Times and every mainstream media source - was less relevant to public life than Palin's. Because by the time the story broke, Edwards was out of the race. Palin is not just in the race, she's ahead - and we have six weeks to go. It is, I'd argue, the duty of the press and the blogosphere to ask any factual and fair questions to which there can be clear and factual answers. 

And this open book is all the more important when a candidate has been foisted on the national scene as a total unknown, and the public has been given almost no time to understand who might be the next president of the United States. The idea that we should give "deference" to this candidate, unlike any other candidate or vice-president in modern history, is simply nonsense, when it isn't chilling. In 2008, in mid-September, we are not even allowed to ask questions about Palin's real and actual life as a mother-as-governor? That notion is as absurd as the Palin candidacy itself, in my judgment.

Of open books, any sincere and legitimate factual question is askable. I notice too that a leading Alaskan politician, Andrew Halcro, a former state legislator who ran against Palin for governor, is now on record saying:

"I used to think that 'family' [sic] was off-limits, as far as politicians go. But Sarah Palin uses her kids as campaign props. Her son Trig has his own page on the state website. Her daughter Piper gets her travel paid when she goes to state events."

Continue reading "The Most Important Thing She Said" »

13 Sep 2008 12:10 pm

Born Gay

Robert Burton sits down with neurologist Jerome Goldstein to talk about the science of homosexuality.

13 Sep 2008 11:31 am

A Letter To The Religious Right

I disagree with almost everything Joe Carter writes in this article, but I commend him for this point:

We religious conservatives must take a firm stand against the practice of torture. Yes, there is a legitimate debate to be had about what exactly is meant by that term. Let's have that debate. Let's define the term in a way that consistent with our belief in human dignity. And then let's hold every politician in the country to that standard. As John Mark Reynolds notes, "Like slavery, it debases two people and one culture: the tortured loses his soul liberty, the torturer claims to be a god, and the culture condones an ugly and wicked act." Our silence on this issue has become embarrassing; our apologies for such practices has become disgraceful.

I don't believe there is a legitimate debate about what torture means. It was defined in the 1994 Convention against Torture, which was signed into US law, as an “act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control.” But at least Carter recognizes the complacency of the religious right on this issue. That Rick Warren did not bring this question up at Saddleback was equivalent to a preacher in the 1850s not bringing up slavery.

13 Sep 2008 09:21 am

The Other Election

Christopher Flavelle assesses the political climate in Canada. Not pretty.

13 Sep 2008 09:18 am

A Brave Chap

Nige insults America's pastime:

Baseball survives on this side of the Atlantic as a playground game for both sexes, rounders. In America it was pumped full of testosterone and self-importance and became the modern baseball game - basically rounders, but with the ball thrown so violently as to be all but unhittable, and with lots of burly men dashing around showing off. I can't help but feel that we Brits got the better of the deal. Baseball, when all's said and done, is not cricket.

Friday, September 12, 2008

12 Sep 2008 07:09 pm

Face Of The Day

Competitive eater 'Crazy Legs' Conti stretches out his jaws before the Annual Cannoli Eating Contest during the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy September 12, 2008 in New York. The competition, sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, was won in an upset by newcomer Brad Sciullo, who ate over 20 cannolis at 500 calories apiece. By Chris Hondros/Getty.

12 Sep 2008 06:44 pm

The Other Bridge To Nowhere

One that is even more expensive. More here:

...[Palin] still supports spending $400 million to $600 million on "the other Bridge to Nowhere," the Knik Arm Crossing, which would provide residents in Palin's hometown of Wasilla faster access to Anchorage, [former Gov. Tony Knowles] added.

12 Sep 2008 05:37 pm

Are The Netroots Being Played By Rove?

One reader thinks so:

I just wanted to say thank you so much for being the only blogger (aside from Al Giordano) who  gets it. While the rest of the blogosphere (especially the liberal bloggers) lose their heads you are an island of common sense. Patience and Steel. Yes, yes. yes.

It also occurs to me that in a way McCain and Rove have actually simply taken over the liberal blogosphere in some way. They are being played.

Just a few examples---yesterday Obama gave a fantastic interview at the Service Forum. Did the liberal blogs even cover this? No.

He gave a great speech on the trail. Are his town halls even posted or excerpted? No.

Continue reading "Are The Netroots Being Played By Rove?" »

12 Sep 2008 05:20 pm

Fighting Back

E.J. Dionne offers some advice:

McCain has shown he wants the presidency so badly that he's willing to say anything, true or false, to win power. Obama can win by fighting for what he believes. What he can't do is wait for the media to call McCain out--although they should--or expect voters to know he'll fight for them when they are not yet sure that he's willing to stand up for himself.

Yes, but always, always on the issues. No personal attacks. Leave those and the outright lies to the liar, McCain.

12 Sep 2008 05:19 pm

A Reader Gets It

This is all Rove has left:

Speaking of getting into Obama's head, always remember this. This is what all this is about period. It's all they got:

"The most readily identified, most easily stereotyped, and most quickly dismissed figure is an angry black man."

That's what that tool Rove and his acolytes are trying to do. It's the only card they have left. Obama must not let them get their way. If he doesn't, he doesn't just win. We have a chance now to defeat the forces of evil that Obama has smoked out of their cubicles.

12 Sep 2008 05:16 pm

The Commandment They Always Forget

It's sad to be lectured constantly by the Republicans on morality. My marriage, for example, is a sin, according to Republicans. And if you squint hard enough somewhere in the Bible, you can find a couple of verses that will say so. But you don't have to squint hard at all to see the Ten Commandments. And one of them is pretty clear:

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness

What we are seeing from the pious denizens of the Christianist right - once again - is not just their susceptibility to breaking this commandment, but their zeal and enthusiasm in doing so. They are obsessed with the sex lives of others but see nothing wrong with breaking one of the most fundamental moral instructions in the Bible thenmselves. A reader writes:

Thou Shalt Not Lie.

Anyone? Dobson? Romney? Hewitt? Anyone? Larry Craig?

Continue reading "The Commandment They Always Forget" »

12 Sep 2008 05:01 pm

So Long, Maverick

From Ambinder's and Green's article on the campaign:

The truth is that, as the country begins a slow migration leftward, McCain now hews more closely to a rightward partisan line than at any point since his career began.

Continue reading "So Long, Maverick" »

12 Sep 2008 04:53 pm

Les Misbarack

Whatever happens, the McCain campaign could never pull this off. Patience, steel... triumph.

12 Sep 2008 04:40 pm

McCain's Real Opponent

A reader writes:

"John McCain isn't running against Barack Obama. He's running against reality."

12 Sep 2008 04:38 pm

Barack: Don't Attack

This is your testing time. Take this dude's advice:

"When the Democratic ticket took the high road and when Obama was seen a healer, as an outsider, as an agent of change without a lot of political baggage, his scores soared with voters and undecideds. That was why he was able to get more votes than Hillary in the primary. When he looks like another politician with experience and is an attacker and gets dirty in the mud, he loses esteem with voters."

You beat the Clintons. McCain is going to be easy. DO NOT take the bait. That's the only chance they now have. Stay calm.

12 Sep 2008 04:33 pm

Todd Palin Subpoenaed

Not exactly a surprise if you've been paying attention.

12 Sep 2008 04:25 pm

Assuming They're Not Crazy

I'm in two minds whether John McCain has lost his mind or never had a soul. But I have to say I am surprised by the barrage of lies and distractions his campaign is throwing out. The farce of the Palin candidacy is one such distraction - but the lies about sex education, the lies about Palin's pork record, the lies about "tiny" Iran, the lies about the lipstick-pig nonsense, the lies about the bridge to nowhere, the lies about the oil pipeline ... I mean, what is going on?

Some believe this is just GOP hardball. But it actually isn't. They're usually not this stupid. If you are going to broadcast a series of outrageous, demonstrable lies to smear your opponent, you tend to to that in the last two weeks of a campaign, so the lies can actually stick before they are debunked. But in September?

I know many people believe that the American people - especially the under-informed swing voters - are too dumb to know when they are being lied to. But these lies are so obvious that this cannot be true. And the sheer viciousness of the personal attacks on Obama make Rove's attack on McCain in 2000 seem mild.

Here's what I think. I think McCain is out of it. I think he checked out of his own campaign and handed it over to Schmidt and his fellow Rovians. This does not mean he does not have total responsibility. John McCain is now for ever a despicable and dishonest and dishonorable man. He has destroyed his reputation. But he is also trying to do what he can to win this election. My view is: if this is how he intends to win this election, he has mis-timed his lies.

So my assumption is that this is all about trying to get into Obama's head and get him to make a mistake. Which is why Obama needs now more than ever to stay calm and confident and focused.

12 Sep 2008 04:25 pm

What's Really Happening

A reader writes:

I am a Kentuckian, registered in Florida.  Today, I crossed the river into Ohio and volunteered to do campaign work for Obama in Cincinnati.  A number of Kentuckians are doing this since Kentucky is a done deal for the Republicans. Two things motivated me to go work for Obama. 

1.  The nomination of Joe Biden.  He was my first pick in the primaries.

2.  The nomination of Sarah Palin.  She was the reason I lost all respect for McCain.

This morning I was watching the news.  Saw an interview with Queen Noor.  Thought it was a shame that McCain did not think of her as a VP.  Smart woman, lots of kids, foreign policy experience, never asked for earmarks.

12 Sep 2008 04:21 pm

Quote For The Day IV

"'The only modern president with less of a mandate was Gerald Ford in 1974, who received zero popular votes,' Heclo said. But he added that in contrast to Bush's image as a slacker, 'focus, self-control and unblinking perseverance prepared Bush to be a wartime president before he, or America, knew it was at war,'" - Washington Post, April 27, 2003.

12 Sep 2008 04:12 pm

Colbert And "Goodbye To All That"

With no TV on the Cape, I missed this.

12 Sep 2008 03:58 pm

Another Palin Gaffe

I missed this one:

For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable...

Even among those who believe that what Russia did was inexcusable, does anyone believe it was unprovoked?

12 Sep 2008 03:56 pm

Football Season

Appleyard calls this Onion video perfect. I second that:

Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

12 Sep 2008 03:53 pm

Brooks Punts

He writes a column - a sadly misguided view of what's wrong with conservatism - that he could have written at any time in the last ten years. Why can he not tell us what he thinks of Palin? A wonderful writer he sure is. A profile in courage he isn't.

12 Sep 2008 03:43 pm

Brad Blakeman, Another Liar

I know nothing about a Republican strategist called Brad Blakeman. Except that he is a liar. And John McCain is a dishonest, dishonorable liar.

12 Sep 2008 03:37 pm

Reihan Agonistes

I don't agree with much Reihan writes in this post, but I respect his honesty.

12 Sep 2008 03:30 pm

Hannity's Up Next

Yes, it is a South Park episode now.

12 Sep 2008 03:18 pm

Patience And Steel

Chill, guys. The McCain camp is in a death spiral. A reader writes:

Like many Obama supporters, I’ve been in a poll-induced funk recently. So I went to the Obama HQ in downtown Orlando looking for a t-shirt, a bumper sticker, something, anything, to make myself not feel so damn worried.  Here’s what I found:    

1. A brisk campaign operation staffed mostly by 25-35 year olds, all at computers, all analyzing data on GOTV operations.

2. After speaking with my precinct captain who was present, she told me that since August 1, the downtown HQ has registered 80,000 new voters.  Let that number sink in.  In the last 40 days or so, they’ve registered an average of 2,000 voters per day.

Continue reading "Patience And Steel" »

12 Sep 2008 03:14 pm

The View From Your Window

Toronto, Canada, 1.42 pm.

12 Sep 2008 03:05 pm

John McCain: Lies, Lies, And More Lies

A simple expose. Send it around. McCain is one of the most shameless liars in modern American politics.

12 Sep 2008 03:00 pm

Frum On Palin

Telling:

I have been disturbed about the choice from the start, as you know. And I have not seen any reason to feel less disturbed ... She really could be president! And here's where my fellow conservatives really worry me. They are so attracted by the symbolism of the selection that they show no concern — never mind for her executive competence — even for her views.

Continue reading "Frum On Palin" »

12 Sep 2008 02:45 pm

The Far Right Concedes

Jay Nordlinger's posts at the Corner the last two weeks are worthy of a mindless, hollow, fanatical hack. But even this apparatchik for the far right cannot excuse Palin's first two interviews:

As I said in a post earlier today, any problem Sarah Palin had in that interview is her own fault — on no one else’s head.

12 Sep 2008 02:35 pm

John McCain, Dishonorable Liar

This ad by Planned Parenthood helps explain how despicable McCain now is:

12 Sep 2008 02:32 pm

Even Lower

A Republican 527 spews out more vileness.

12 Sep 2008 02:10 pm

Attack Ads 101

Ruffini continues his tutorial.

12 Sep 2008 02:03 pm

Quote For The Day III

"Forget about Trooper-gate and creationism. Forget about the truly low, cynical people who think that being the target of "liberal ridicule" necessarily means you're qualified to lead the country. Forget about moose-hunting and pipelines. You simply can't be a credible VP nominee and have no idea what the Bush doctrine is. Watch this clip. And then think about the people who say Andrew has lost his mind over Palin's nomination. I admit, for a while I wondered why he was going so hard. Now I know. And now I know who, truly, must be out their minds," - Ta-Nehisi Coates.