Saturday, October 11, 2008

11 Oct 2008 09:52 pm

The Race Card

Palin has been deputed to play it the most crudely:

Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies.

Continue reading "The Race Card" »

11 Oct 2008 08:09 pm

Quote For The Day II

"Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?" - Khaled Hosseini, Washington Post.

11 Oct 2008 07:58 pm

McCain Rally Pastor

The incitement to global and domestic religious warfare before a McCain rally can be listened to here. Full text here.

11 Oct 2008 07:39 pm

"Playing With Fire"

John Lewis:

"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama...

Continue reading ""Playing With Fire"" »

11 Oct 2008 07:16 pm

Sorry

Theodore Dalrymple writes about apology projection:

The False Apology Syndrome flourishes wherever there has been a shift in the traditional locus of moral concern. At one time, a man probably felt most morally responsible for his own actions. He was adjudged (and judged himself) good or bad by how he conducted himself toward those in his immediate circle. From its center rippled circles of ever-decreasing moral concern, of which he was also increasingly ignorant. Now, however, it is the other way round. Under the influence of the media of mass communication and the spread of sociological ways of thinking, a man is most likely to judge himself and others by the opinions he and they hold on political, social, and economic questions that are far distant from his immediate circle. A man may be an irresponsible father, but that is more than compensated for by his deep concern about global warming, or foreign policy, or the food situation in Africa.

11 Oct 2008 06:15 pm

The View From Your Window

Palm Springs, California, 6.20 am.

11 Oct 2008 04:32 pm

Obama Breaks 50 Nationally On Pollster

And McCain, after a week of mud-flinging, keeps dropping. RCP's poll of polls gives Obama the biggest lead of the campaign, with another sharp drop for McCain this week. Pollster's chart:

11 Oct 2008 04:31 pm

Eternal Rest

Nicole Pasulka learns how to embalm a body:

It turns out that, when embalming a body, the worst part comes last. Though a body’s veins may be overflowing with formaldehyde, decay—or purge—can still occur if the internal organs aren’t drained of fluid. The process for removing that fluid makes everything we’d done up to now seem like a warm bubble bath.

Continue reading "Eternal Rest" »

11 Oct 2008 04:27 pm

Does McCain Have Cooties?

More and more Republicans seem to think so.

11 Oct 2008 03:57 pm

In Jesus' Name, Vote McCain

At a McCain rally, an invocation:

"I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons," [Pastor] Conrad said.

"And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day,"

And I imagined Christianism? (Hat tip: Ambers. Quote expanded and updated via AP.)

11 Oct 2008 03:57 pm

Sex Advice And Marriage Equality

Dan Savage is running a special:

The six biggest Savage Love donors to either www.noonprop8.com or www.sayno2.com will see their letters in print, and everyone who makes a donation of at least $25 to either group—send me your donation confirmation e-mail along with your question—gets a personal reply from yours truly. The cutoff date for eligible letters is October 16.

Can I second Dan and simply beg those of you who can to donate?

11 Oct 2008 03:13 pm

Addressing The Smears

Packer appeals to McCain's better judgement. Assuming it still exists.

11 Oct 2008 03:04 pm

Beep Beep

This gracious nod to McCain cannot hurt Obama, of course, and so it's not noble in any objective way, but it's presidential behavior and it's gracious. People don't give Obama credit enough for staying remarkably civil during onslaughts from first the Clinton campaign and now the Rove machine. In this climate, the grace is actually lethally effective politics as well:

“I want to acknowledge that Senator McCain tried to tone down the rhetoric in his town hall meeting yesterday,” Mr. Obama said, speaking at an early-morning rally in North Philadelphia. “I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – Senator McCain has served this country with honor, and he deserves our thanks for that.”

As I watched last week, as McCain constructed yet another a massive effort to detonate Obama, I couldn't help but think of this again. It sums up the entire fall campaign in a way:

11 Oct 2008 02:55 pm

Obama Breaks 50 In Florida

Without Florida, McCain cannot win.

11 Oct 2008 02:48 pm

Palin Shifts To Abortion

That's her major theme today:

Ms. Palin presented a litany of votes made by Mr. Obama that she described as “his unconditional support for unlimited abortions,” eliciting loud applause from a crowd gathered in a gymnasium-like building near this city’s small downtown. (A sports scoreboard hung from the center of the ceiling.) “Most troubling,” she said, “Barack Obama wouldn’t even stand up for the rights of infants born alive during an abortion.”

The slight dial-back on the "traitor and terrorist" line of attack is because it was hurting her more than Obama.

11 Oct 2008 02:46 pm

They Drove Them Insane

[Re-posted and updated because it matters.]

The torture techniques deployed against anyone George W. Bush unilaterally labeled an enemy combatant drove some of them insane:

A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to The Associated Press...

They were deprived of natural light for months and for years were forbidden even minor distractions such as a soccer ball or a dictionary.

"I will continue to do what I can to help this individual maintain his sanity, but in my opinion we're working with borrowed time," an unidentified Navy brig official wrote of prisoner Yaser Esam Hamdi in 2002. "I would like to have some form of an incentive program in place to reward him for his continued good behavior, but more so, to keep him from whacking out on me."

This was not even in Gitmo. It was in a military brig in Norfolk, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina, where the torture occurred on American soil and even against an American citizen, Jose Padilla. Many decent people in the armed forces resisted Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, but they couldn't stop them:

Continue reading "They Drove Them Insane" »

11 Oct 2008 02:06 pm

"Arab" Not "Arab Terrorist"

A correction to the quote I posted from Ana Marie Cox last night. One of McCain's supporters called Obama an "Arab", not a "terrorist."  The quote was reported by Halperin as well. McCain did not actually correct the woman on the matter at hand more than saying "no" and then saying that Obama was a decent family man. Are Arabs not decent family men? I guess when you're relying on ignorance and fear of this variety, your standards of minimal tolerance have to be relaxed a little.

11 Oct 2008 12:05 pm

Von Hoffmann Award Nominee

"Stocks are now, we believe, in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground—to the neighborhood of 36,000 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After they complete this historic ascent, owning them will still be profitable but the returns will decline. You won't be able to make as much money from them each year. We believe that in the meantime, however, astounding profits will be made," -  James Glassman and Kevin Hassett, The Atlantic, September 1999.

A glossary of Dish awards can be found here.

11 Oct 2008 11:11 am

A League Of Capitalist Great Powers

Thomas P.M. Barnett ponders the global financial crisis:

Arguably, this is the first great, system-perturbing crisis of globalization, because it truly captures all the main players in a way that previous ones did not.

Continue reading "A League Of Capitalist Great Powers" »

11 Oct 2008 10:38 am

Quote For The Day

"As nearly as possible, no nationalist ever thinks, talks, or writes about anything except the superiority of his own power unit. It is difficult if not impossible for any nationalist to conceal his allegiance. The smallest slur upon his own unit, or any implied praise of a rival organization, fills him with uneasiness which he can relieve only by making some sharp retort," - George Orwell.

(Hat tip: David Polansky. Photo: Jewel Samad/Getty.)

11 Oct 2008 10:11 am

S/he

Anatoly Liberman doesn't approve of they replacing he or she:

They for a singular subject was introduced by those who wanted to rid English of sexism. At a time when equal opportunity added millions of women to the work force, using he as a generalizing pronoun is silly, but it is desirable that a medicine be not worse than the disease.

Continue reading "S/he" »

11 Oct 2008 09:37 am

The Terror Vote

Yglesias reads over a new study on terrorism and Israeli election results.

11 Oct 2008 08:11 am

Reality Check

North Carolina:

Friday, October 10, 2008

10 Oct 2008 09:36 pm

Abuse Of Power

We have been given a clear warning about the vice-presidential nominee for the Republican party. We already know she is a pathological liar. We already know she refuses even basic transparency and accountability, refusing to hold a press conference as veep nominee for the first time in modern American political history and refusing to provide even minimal documentation of her fifth pregnancy. Barely into her first year as governor, as one might expect of such a person, she abused her power as governor of Alaska to persecute a former family member:

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

Finding Number Two

Continue reading "Abuse Of Power" »

10 Oct 2008 09:21 pm

Hewitt Award Nominee

"Oh, my–where to begin? A first-class temperament does not consort with terrorists or lie about his affiliation with the same. A first-class temperament does not invoke the race card when presented with legitimate criticism. A first-class temperament does not seek to shed his Leftist skin for political expediency. To conclude otherwise is confuse calm with deceit." Jennifer Rubin, reacting to Christopher Buckley's endorsement of Obama.

10 Oct 2008 09:16 pm

Face Of The Day

President George W. Bush leaves after speaking on the status of the US and global economy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 10, 2008. By Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty.

10 Oct 2008 08:58 pm

Pulling The Plug?

Harry Brighouse hears some murmuring:

So I hear (via a prominent member of the sane Republican faction) that the word on the right side of the street is that the Republican National Committee is about to pull the plug on its joint ads with the McCain campaign, and devote its resources instead to trying to save a couple of the senators who are at serious risk of losing their seats. Now this is gossip, albeit of the high class variety; take it with the requisite pinch of salt.

10 Oct 2008 08:02 pm

Crying Your Last Tears

One voice. Among so many.

10 Oct 2008 07:51 pm

Prescience, Ctd.

A reader writes:

Obama wasn't a tea leaf reader; every black person I know predicted this. This is what our lives have been and are. It's just that people many have dismissed it when we've tried to tell them. That's why Coates suggests that if Obama loses, we won't freak out. This stuff is not new.

10 Oct 2008 07:18 pm

Is McCain Finally Restraining The Mob?

Good news from the trail:

He just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, "I'm scared of Barack Obama... he's an Arab terrorist..."

"No, no ma'am," he interrupted. "He's a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements."

I guess making it explicit helped goad him back to minimal decency. Now can he stop running ads that imply exactly the same thing?

10 Oct 2008 07:13 pm

Committing Journalism

Dan Balz comes through:

But what's also clear is that McCain's tactics are over the line, with no restraint in sight ... I was in contact over the past 24 hours with another veteran of recent Republican presidential campaigns and asked, on a not-for-attribution basis, whether he believed McCain's campaign is taking a big risk with its negative turn. "Yes," this strategist replied. "Big mistake. If this stuff mattered, then why didn't they raise it five months ago? Sad."

10 Oct 2008 06:56 pm

McCain And The Dow

Both have had equally dreadful weeks:

With 25 days to go until the election, Barack Obama is presently at his all-time highs in four of the six national tracking polls (Research 2000, Battleground, Hotline and Zogby) and is just one point off his high in Gallup. He has emerged with clear leads in both Florida and Ohio, where there are several polls out today. He is blowing McCain out in most polls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and is making states like West Virgina and Georgia competitive.

Rasmussen just gave Obama a 16 point lead in Michigan. Which is in the Twilight Zone. I always believed that when Americans woke up to the reality of the past eight years, we would not have an adjustment, we'd have an earthquake. Maybe that's what's happening.

10 Oct 2008 06:54 pm

The Marriage Battle

Mike Riggs doesn't understand why Florida's Proposition 2, California's Proposition 8, and Arizona's Proposition 102, all of which would ban marriage equality, aren't getting more attention.

10 Oct 2008 06:20 pm

Email From The Front

A reader writes:

I’m currently deployed to Baghdad right now, and we kind of had a rough day out here. I wasn’t in a good mood when I left work this evening, but I got online to browse for a few quick minutes and came across your most recent Mental Health Break. That really put it all in perspective and helped cheer me right up.

It’s been an honor to serve over here, and while I didn’t agree with this war, I’m confident we’re doing good things over here.  For me, so far it’s about three months down, nine to go!  And man, do I need to get me a dog!

10 Oct 2008 06:10 pm

Quote For The Day II

"We call ourselves "public servants" but I'll tell you this: We as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good if we are derelict in upholding the common good. More is required -- More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If -- If we as public officials propose, we must produce. If we say to the American people, "It is time for you to be sacrificial" -- sacrifice. If the public official says that, we [public officials] must be the first to give. We must be. And again, if we make mistakes, we must be willing to admit them. We have to do that," - Barbara Jordan, 1976.

(Photo: Robyn Beck/Getty)

10 Oct 2008 06:00 pm

Doubling Down

The McCain campaign defends the yells of "treason" and "terrorist" at its campaign rallies, attacking Obama.

10 Oct 2008 05:55 pm

Why Ayers All The Time?

Because Rick Davis doesn't want to "turn a campaign into a CNBC news show on the stock market."

10 Oct 2008 05:46 pm

Worse Than 1933

This week's Dow drop of 18.15 percent eclipses the week ending July 21, 1933. That was a drop of merely 15.55 percent. But McCain was obsessed with Bill Ayers.

10 Oct 2008 05:44 pm

Palinex

Consult with your doctor about the new morning after running mate pill:

10 Oct 2008 05:41 pm

The Michelle-Ayers Connection!

The McCain campaign collapses into self-parody. The end of the conservative era is getting harder and harder to watch.

10 Oct 2008 05:38 pm

"At Least 57"

That's Ambinder's bet on the Dems' Senate haul. McConnell will indeed be the early bell-weather. This feels to me a little like 1997 in Britain, before the Tories fell. It feels like a moment of truth - and then the scale of the anticipated loss is actually eclipsed by the reality. But I don't know.

10 Oct 2008 05:35 pm

An Honest Conservative

Chris Buckley elaborates.

10 Oct 2008 05:25 pm

Losing The News Cycle

Weigel:

...the Ayers attack, pushed hard this week by the McCain campaign, and ampliflied by the media, is not burning up the web. Discussion of McCain's tactics is. That, not Ayers, is the McCain story of the week.

10 Oct 2008 05:10 pm

Palin Heads To Appalachia

Her base; or what's left of it.

10 Oct 2008 05:06 pm

A Tale Of Two Rallies

Sean Quinn goes to an Obama and a Palin rally in Ohio. One was all about the economy; the other was a lot about Bill Ayers.

10 Oct 2008 04:45 pm

The View From Your Window

Ponta Verde, Fogo, Cape Verde, 8.50 am.

10 Oct 2008 04:24 pm

The End Of A Wedge Issue?

Dominic Holden on marriage equality in Connecticut:

This is sure to come up at the next presidential debate, which focuses on domestic policy. Obama and McCain will, no doubt, condemn same-sex marriage. But it’s a moot point. The wall is crumbling. With three separate states allowing it—Massachusetts, California and now Connecticut—and the fabric of society remaining strong, the specter of gay marriage threatening straight marriage is soundly proven to be a canard.

But we have yet to hold California, the most critical state of them all. You can donate here.

10 Oct 2008 04:16 pm

Prescience

Have they been this predictable? I guess so:

10 Oct 2008 03:53 pm

After A Week Of Bile

The McCain-Rove fusion ticket has spent seven days spewing 100 percent negative advertizing, roiling angry mobs, deploying Palin to call Obama a traitor and a terrorist, pushing Fox News propaganda - and they have indeed succeeded in capping Obama's national rise at just under 50 percent. But McCain's numbers keep sliding and are lower on Friday than they were on Monday: 41.8 percent on Pollster; 42.9 on RCP; and a projection of 347 electoral votes on 538. Can you lose an election and your soul? McCain is testing the premise. It's a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions - because McCain did it to himself.

10 Oct 2008 03:28 pm

Mental Health Break

A video titled: "My Dogs greeting me after returning from 14 months in Iraq". God bless and save all of those defending us abroad. And their dogs waiting for them patiently at home:

(Hat tip: Nicola Karras)