Enemies of the State

This short documentary on Iranian bloggers shows that the true democratization of that country is just a matter of time.


Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

Samantha Power On State Department Transition Team

I glad to see that President-elect Obama got out his broom and scraped Samantha Power out from under the bus, dusted her off and sent her to help with the transition team at the State Department, which will soon be run by the woman Power once called a monster--Hillary Clinton. See, rivals. No word on what job if any Power will have in the administration.

Saudi King Wants to Goose Oil Prices

The King of Saudi Arabia doesn't like seeing the price of oil dropping like crazy. "We believe the fair price for oil is $75 a barrel," he said. OPEC will figure out how to stick it to us with much, much higher oil prices when that organization meets Dec. 17 in Algeria.

Funny, I don't recall an outcry for $75 dollars a barrel oil when it cost $147 a barrel in July.

According to the AP, "On Friday, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was trading at about $54 per barrel."

Of course, I look forward to the day when our cars do not run on oil. You know me, I say take the bus, train, wind surf, walk, hang glide, anything other than the car.

But until we stop mainlining oil, plunging gas prices serve as a type of accidental economic stimulus the Bush administration and Congress can't pass to save our lives.

Ancient Bud Found in China

Some one find George Lucas, we have the plot of the next Indian Jones movie--Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Joints of Xinjiang.

From The Canadian Press:

Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

(more)

See kids, these potheads are all dead.

By the way something, I like that the scientists tried to "germinate" the seeds found in the cache.

Maybe a better idea than the Indiana Jones movie would be a stoner comedy starring Method Man and Jim Breuer. It's in there somewhere. Meth smokes the ancient weed unleashing the genie of the ancient bong or something... I'll work on it.

Word on the Street: Transit

Earlier this week I read a couple of good thoughts about mass transit from Amanda and Atrios. I have been a bus rider for many years and without a car for nearly ten years now. As such, I feel compelled to steal my buddy Seamus O'Rourke's routine and give you all an edition of Word on the Street about my morning commute in Baltimore.

Since I buy day passes, I have no problem using however many buses I feel like to get me where I want to go. Sometimes, that can be less than half a mile if I have to get to a transfer or if it's friggin' cold. I stepped onto the second bus of my morning commute Tuesday planning to go about half a mile. When I got on, I noticed that there were plenty of open seats in the back of the bus, but for some reason everyone was clustered at the very front of the bus.

As I got on, happy to be out of the cold, I swiped my pass and took a few steps toward the back of the bus when it hit me--a wave of stench so vile it stopped me in my tracks before the bus driver could warn me. "Hey buddy, don't go back there," he said.

I quickly glanced at the people around me. A couple of little kids were smiling and shaking their heads, reinforcing the bus driver's warning. A lady was yelling into her phone. She said, "I'm on the eleven bus, on Pratt Street, and there is a man on this bus who has pissed on and shitted on his self and he refuses to get off the bus!"

Did she really call the cops over that? I thought. It did smell very bad, so I can understand her outrage, but the cops are pretty busy in Baltimore and I wasn't sure this rated an emergency.

Then I saw the poor guy. He was sitting alone, on the right side if the bus, about two thirds of the way back. He was wearing a black trench coat and he was pointing at the woman on the phone and yelling, "Fuck you! Fuck you all! You motherfuckers! You want to laugh and make fun of me, fuck you all!"

All this was stressing the bus driver out. "I'm not stopping!" the bus driver yelled as he pulled away. "We're just going to drive this time! No more stops!" he yelled defiantly and pulled into traffic.

Some of the people on the bus didn't like the sound of that. "Hey man, you're going to let us off, right?" some guy near me asked the driver.

"Oh sure," he said, "I'll let you people out. But no one's getting on!"

We passed a crowd, all of whom badly wanted to get on. A livid commuter waved his pass at the bus screaming something as we rolled past. It was hard to hear the yelling outside the bus over the yelling inside the bus.

"This man shitted his self," the woman on the phone stressed to the 911 dispatcher.

Two stops later, I exited, dropping out of the commotion and down to the street with one other bewildered commuter. We shrugged at each other and went our separate ways.

It occurs to me that this story may seem like a good reason to not ride the bus, but it's not meant to be.

Chase Your Tail

Obama's birth certificate is the new Vince Foster. And Alan Keyes is the new Alan Keyes.

From Russia With Pessimism

A Russian pundit named Igor Panarin told one of that country's newspapers, Izvestia, that the current economic crisis here in the United States will lead to the collapse of our country.

Panarin's obnoxious prediction initially pissed me off until I read his concise and perspicacious argument:

The dollar is not secured by anything. The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse.

Hmm... Touche, douchebag.

He goes on to explain why the U.S. will break up into six pieces:

A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles.

So, we have until spring, eh? Bummer. I stole a map of his projected dis-United States from Suzie-Q's blog. I don't know... I just can't see Oklahoma being a part of another country. They'll have to go it alone. And I just don't see West Virginia hanging with the commies in the Northeast. They'd have to go it alone too. So I count at least eight countries. I think California would break up rather quickly into about thirty city-states.

By the way something, Panarin believes that Russia can claim Alaska if it wants because it was only leased to the United States.

Eggsellent.

Howard Dean on The Young Turks

Have I mentioned how awesome Howard Dean is? One day soon, I am going to have to do an appropriate tribute to what Dean managed to accomplish in just 4 years as head of the DNC. I mean, seriously, have the Democrats lost any elections since he took over in 2005?

I Would Podcast Morning Chuck

I'm not a happy guy in the morning. I'm working again, so I have to be awake in the morning. I like to have news, so I have to nowhere to turn other than Morning Joe. I simply can't believe that Joe Scarborough's show is the most viable news show at that hour. Holy God, the network morning shows are blindingly bad. Never again with Matt Lauer and the silly weather guy. Never again.

So each morning it plays out like this. I turn on Morning Joe. Joe says something dumb. Everyone on the show--all seventeen of them--lets it stand. I yell at the TV. My girlfriend tells me not to yell at the TV.

Today something awesome happened. Joe was not there. In his place, the way less annoying Chuck Todd. It was awesome.

Do what you need to do, NBC. Give Joe Meet the Press if that's what you gotta do to make Morning Chuck a reality. The people of the morning need this.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Fairness Doctrine

The post mordem by much of the political analysts on the right of the loss of the Presidency by the Republican Party, ironically, contains much of the intellectual dishonesty that cost them the Congress two years earlier.

Or, maybe, as Bay Buchanan demonstrates in this conversation with comedian turned CNN anchor D.L. Hugley (really?) some of these people actually believe their own bullshit.



The continual assistance by Buchanan and so many others that we're "still" a conservative nation shows that they just are not ready to address the flaws in their ideology and, dare I say, collective personality, that led this party into the wilderness in the first place.

Nate Silver, who I've been linking to like a madman since I found his site, breaks down the counter productive relationship between conservatism and right wing radio. Fact of the matter is this, as long as these clowns are filling the airwaves with their nonsense, and we're filling the internets with reasonable arguments and our candidates know how to confront smears, the worst thing we could do is pass some version of the Fairness Doctrine. If we stay in the center and Rush and the radio babblers keep the party far right, then they lose.

I changed my mind about this recently. I was extremely frustrated hearing family members and the occasional Republican I come into contact with parrot things that I know Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity put out there. The scariest part was, most of the time the people I talked to didn't hear this crap from the radio. They heard it by word of mouth.

But, as Nate Silver has shown in vivid detail, progress in a democracy is all about the math. Do the Rush Limbaughs of the world turn off more people than they convince? I think that for now, the verdict is in. These guys are killing the right.

Surreal Cheney, Gonzales Indictments Baffling, Fun

I did take note of the indictments against Bush Administration super villain Dick Cheney and his willing patsy, Alberto Gonzales. At the heart of the indictment is an industry that I have long been extremely wary of--private prisons.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Cheney is charged with "engaging in an organized criminal activity related to his investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers."

So, after starting a war based on bullshit, funneling no-bid contracts to Halliburton, helping to out Valerie Plame, shooting his buddy, burning all the shit in his safe and all types of other major league violations of both the letter and the spirit of American law, the Mighty Dick Cheney gets indicted over his dealings in the private prison business by a small time prosecutor in a border town? Seriously?

Early word has it that the prosecutor is completely insane. There's also the possibility that the prosecutor is insane and that Cheney is guilty anyway.

The indictment of Gonzales is for allegedly obstructing a 2006 investigation into abuses one of the private prisons.

David Platt at Huffington Post asks, will Cheney Pardon himself? It's not legal for a Vice President to pardon himself, but when has the law ever stopped Cheney?

By the way something, the first hearing on the indictments degenerated into something resembling the end of And Justice for All. Not the greatest beginning to an uphill legal battle, but perhaps the making of a great film one of these days.

Obama's Weekly Address (11-22-2008)

Obama outlines his stimulus plan in his weekly YouTube/Radio address.



Obama adviser Robert Reich further outlines the recovery.

Here's my response:

He's absolutely right to stress how difficult the recovery is going to be. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Christmas shopping numbers will be dismal this year and that will send the market into yet another tailspin. The cost of oil could gradually rise as winter sets in and heating costs go up. Several major banks and other huge institutions are teetering on the verge of collapse and anything that comes out of the lame duck Congress between now and January 20, will be, at best, half measures that will not ignite the economy.

It sounds like his stimulus package will actually include public works projects and the jobs that come with them. The greening of our infrastructure could be the vehicle we need to revive the middle class while addressing the climate crisis seriously for the first time since Reagan took panels off the White House.

I think 2.5 million jobs over the next two years sounds like an ambitious goal. Well, I'm going to go out on a limb and say we can top that number by a significant amount.

Tough Room

Once again, even at its worst, the Bush Administration never threw Michael Moore or Chris Rock's asses in jail. They get no points for that and that very elementary observation on my part does nothing to mitigate the fact that I am very eager for our outgoing administration to become incoming prisoners. But I would just like to keep remind everyone that we can't forget the cause of human rights around the world just because the Bush Administration forgot them here.

From the New York Times:

The comedian, U Maung Thura, 47, better known by his stage name Zarganar, or the Tweezers, was detained in June after he organized a private assistance effort to help victims of the May cyclone, which killed more than 130,000 Burmese. With aid organizations and Western governments, he criticized Myanmar’s handling of the disaster.

(more)

President-elect Obama, please do not let the cause of human rights slip through the cracks, this is what we have Jimmy Carter for.

And yes, I understand that the cause of this one comedian is nowhere near the top of the list of violations going on in the dark corners of planet Earth, but more than 130,000 people are dead or missing and someone has to ask why that government's response was so poor.

That's Cheating

The case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman continues to unravel. The New York Times reports that even after U.S. Attorney Leura Canary recused herself from the case due to a conflict of interest, she received daily reports on the case.

Siegelman's appeal will be heard early next month.

We Have Serious Ass Pirate Problems...

...and despite the hilarious post title, it's not funny. Well, technically we don't have the pirate problems. Pirates aren't picking off our vessels or terrorizing our harbors. Not yet. But even the uptick in coverage by the media of the pirate phenomenon, which is nothing new, doesn't come close to documenting the totality of the problem--a major global shipping lane is close to total collapse--which stems from the utter failure of the Somali nation-state.

Here's... The Pirate News:

• On Monday, Frogette over at Ragebot! made a very good point that it's not too far fetched to imagine that Saudi oil interests might have staged the hi-jacking of their own oil rig to drive up the plummeting price of oil. To that I add, if they didn't stage it, they soon will. It's just good business. The Saudis are negotiating the return of their tanker. More at NPR.
• A battle between a Somali pirates and an Indian warship in the Indian Ocean late Tuesday night resulted in one pirate ship destroyed and one captured.
• Today Somali pirates hijacked a Greek bulk carrier despite a beefed up international naval presence in the area. The day before they got one from Iran.
• The spate of jackings these pirates, mostly Somalis, have pulled off recently has, well, made it a pirates life for them. Towns all over Somalia are suddenly awash in booty.
• From CNN--"The International Maritime Board reports over 80 attacks and over 30 successful hijackings in the [waters off Somalia] since the beginning of 2008."
• In his quarterly report to the U.N. Security Council Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns that the surge in piracy and armed robbery in Somalia has had a debilitating affect on Somalia's already wretched humanitarian crisis.
• The economic plight of the country has driven a number of kidnappings as well. In August three journalists were taken, including a friend of a friend of mine. Last week, two nuns were taken as well. There's likely no connection between the pirates, the bandits and the Islamists other than the state of the country they share.

Angry Conservative Unsatisfied With Interviewer

Nate Silver interviewed some wingnut who bubbled up from the underworld with a bunch of bullshit. No matter how mad the guy gets, Nate stays focused and feeds him his liver. Gotta love it when an interview ends with, "Go fuck yourself."

Hey, What's Going On in the Rest of the World?

Two big appointments down--Eric Holder as Attorney General and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. The Clinton one isn't final, but I firmly believe that she'll take it. What she does after that has been the subject of a lot of blogging over the last few days. The real question is, who gives a shit what she does in three, four, five or eight years right now? A million factors will shape that future between then and now and anyone who tells you they can predict the distant political future is just making shit up. Some are better at it than others, but it's still made up.

The media acts as if we're obsessed with who's running in 2012 and even 2016. We most certainly are not. They just forgot how to cover shit that's going on in other places around the world. Has anyone heard anything about China in the last year or so? Russia has to invade people to get on the news. Iraq? Hello? Come on you bastards. Here's a list of 25 completely fucked up stories the media has completely ignored.

As for the cabinet picks, they're a bit Clintony for my taste, but what did we expect? These are high level positions. The Clinton Administration was the only show in town for eight years, not that long ago. What's Obama supposed to do, raid the Carter cabinet? I guess a lot people would have liked to see AG Feingold, or SbT's brilliant (no snark) suggestion of Vincent Bugliosi. Maybe Richardson or Kerry would be better if it came down to someone to implement their won foreign policy, but Clinton implementing Obama's fireign policy sounds good to me.

For those concerned about Obama being Clinton's third term, the key factor in the tone of the Administration is going to be Obama. He's the boss and he's going to make the important calls. Even in the Bush Administration, when it came to making the call to, say, out a CIA agent, Bush made that call. Check out Scott McClellan reminding everyone of just that fact over the weekend at a speech he gave in Miami that President George W. Bush authorized the outing of Valerie Plame.



So when they say the Obama administration isn't looking to prosecute war crimes, maybe that's just their way of saying there are plenty of crimes these assholes committed right here in America.

As for the media not covering the rest of the world... I guess I'll just have to do it.

0.1%

Yes, 0.1% is the difference in the voting between Sens. Obama and McCain right here in Missouri. It's hard to believe when you look at the red county/blue county breakdown. But those 3 blue areas are Kansas City to the west and St. Louis and surrounding counties to the east.

As of Nov. 11th, a recount has narrowed the difference by 4,968 votes out of 2.9 million cast on the 4th.

Now, the state is in the process of determining whether to include an estimated 7,000 provisional ballots. Though most of the ballots are in Obama-leaning territory, typically only about 40 percent of provisional ballots are eligible to be counted.

We may have a final tally by Thanksgiving, just in time maybe to see if Jesse Jackson Jr. is replacing Obama in the Senate.

Priest Rains Fire and Brimstone on Obamaniacs

Jesus got on a roll in the New Testament and for several chapters he lays down some important directives. As a religious maverick, I will say that there are a maybe a few passages in there that I don't agree with, but most of it is pretty good stuff.

I like this part in particular, though, admittedly, I find it a high standard that I personally can't live up to:

Matthew 7

1Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

My blog is just loaded with judgments. Luckily I'm an atheist, so it's okay for me to judge. For a Priest to do it, well, that would be ill advised. And yet, in a letter posted on his church's website, a Catholic priest by the name of Jay Scott Newman wrote, "Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law."

Really? What about voting for a war-mongoring crazy person who supports an illegal war with a million innocent victims? Where's that one come in on the scale of material cooperation with intrinsic evil? How about that candidate's desire to spread the carnage to Iran?

Oh, and here's another one from the J-man that the Father from South Carolina may want to consider:

Matthew 22:20-22
20And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

21They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

22When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

Thankfully, not all Catholics share Newman's views. The national director of a group called Catholic Democrats, Steve Krueger, said, "Father Newman is off-base. He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did."

I've Been Tagged Ya'all!

Robert Rouse has tagged me. I have no set policy on how I act when tagged. Some people are completely opposed to tagging... It can be a divisive issue.

I like Robert a lot, but that's not relevant to the decision whether or not to participate in a meme. The meme itself must be good, and I must feel like doing it.

The point of this one is to list the seven best albums.

Right up my alley.

So here it is, the seven greatest albums ever recorded:

1. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
4. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
5. Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen
6. Quadrophenia, The Who
7. The Final Cut, Pink Floyd

There's a lot of conventional wisdom there, but what can I say, those are great albums. If I had to pick seven to take with me to an island or something, I would leave all of these and take ones I'm more excited about now. Actually I would just beg the genie, or whoever was sending me to the island, to let me take my MP3 player.

I have to disagree with Robert and almost every one else who ever made a list like this--only one Beatles album in the top seven. That's my own rule. The Beatles entry must also always come in number one. My choice of the Beatles entry changes on a daily basis.

Also, no album on the list can be less than fifteen years old.

I'm supposed to tag seven people, but instead I'm tagging everyone who ever came to this blog. Actually, I tag anyone who ever came to any blog, ever.

There's Not Going to be Any Gun Control Legislation

I love that while the President-elect is in the process of trying to reverse-engineer the apocalyspe, there's a large group of Americans who think he gives a shit about their guns.

KSPR, the ABC affiliate in Springfield, Missouri reports that the owner of a local gun store says his sales are up a hundred to a hundred and fifty percent since the election because of fears that Obama will sign major gun control legislation. These are not hunters, the shop owner points out. It's a national trend too. Background checks nationwide are up 50%.

Hello! There's an economic tsunami going on in this country and the people who can least afford it are posseying up and heading out to buy guns and rifles because they've bought into the fear tactics of the NRA.

By the way something, speaking of Missouri, who the fuck won Missouri?

Last I heard, the vote disparity between Barack Obama and John McCain in Missouri has narrowed to under 5,000 votes.

Why do I care about this, as Obama is getting ready to move into the White House? Well, for one, I know our good friend and contributor to this blog, Russ Weiss, wants Obama to carry his home state. It's important that as many people as possible feel like they're a part of this election win. Although Obama could have won the election without Florida, my home state; without California, the state in which I was born; and without Maryland, the state where I live now; but he won all those states, and I feel proud of that, especially Florida, which many of you know by its other name "The scene of the crime."

Which is why watching the movie Recount last night for the first time felt like an exorcism.

It's also important because it will impact my prediction, which had Obama with 368 electoral votes. Not a bad pick, but I play by "Price is Right" rules, which stipulate that no matter how close you are to the actual price, if you go over, you lose. If he wins Missouri's eleven votes I settle in eight electoral votes under Obama's total.

See, it's all about me.

Repeal Prop 8

The Courage Campaign has a petition to repeal Prop 8. My friend Rob sent it to me, if you sign it, please pass it along. So far over 200,000 have signed on. The fight is just getting started people. After California, there's a lot of other states.

Here's Olbermann's comment on Prop 8.

O'Reilly v. Stewart

Bill O'Reilly really should settle on one nemesis already. I mean really, of Barney Frank, Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Shepard Smith and David Letterman, which is truly the mongoose to O'Reilly's cobra?

To use football announcer speak, I say of all of those, it's Stewart that presents the most difficult match-up for Bill O.

The two crossed swords last night on The Daily Show:

Part One:


Part Two:

So Now You Tell Us

John Amato points out something I noticed too but had not posted--the GOP admits that Katherine Harris stole the 2000 election.

What could they possibly be talking about?

Baucus Unleashes Healthcare Plan

Paul Krugman likes Max Baucus's health care plan because it's more universal than Obama's. Krugman also thinks that Obama is willing to go with a more comprehensive plan than his own. I agree with Krugman, I think Obama's plan, which was put together two years ago, was amitious at the time, but is now short of what the people are demanding.

It would be smart politics by Obama to allow Baucus to get the glory here because it could stave off a battle royal for the credit between Edward Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Edwards and Michael Moore. Also, it's an easier sell to the American people, who will be told by the voices in their radios that this is socialism, if it comes from a Senator from Montana.

Baucus, incidentally, is also an awesome last name.

Lightning Round--Iraq News, Veterans Day, Impeach Obama, Alaska Stolen, More

Blue Herald: Question Girl returns her focus to Iraq.

Monkey Muck: Dr. Monkey makes a list of things to remember on this day.

Stop All Monsters: Get your Impeach Obama bumper stickers!~ It's funny now, I guess. But if the Republicans regain the House, joke's over.

Ragebot!: Kvatch points out that the Senate race in Alaska... totally rigged.

Democratic Underground: Blackhatack suggests that Barack Obama order the FBI to "Provide every present and former member of Congress for the last eight years with a copy of their complete, unexpurgated FBI file." After that, he says to have the FBI send the media their files. That'll change some people's opinions about government surveillence and transparency.

The Comic's Comic: After the last debate they caught up with Marc Maron on the road to talk about comedy, Air America, New York City and the election.

Barack Will Do The Right Thing About Guantanamo

One fun part of having Barack Obama as President is that every time he fixes something Bush did wrong, the right wing will lose their minds. There are already Impeach Obama groups popping up online.

Right up front--no more Guantanamo.

Oh yeah, that will cause some serious meltdowns.

By the way something, Barack took Michelle to see Do The Right Thing on their first date. That just bodes well.

Rick Sanchez v. Joe The Plumber

This was from before the election.

As you may or may not know, I've made Rick Sanchez the butt of many jokes over the years, for he is truly an ass. But what would happen if he faced off against an even bigger tool, if such a thing were even possible? What might that look like? Wonder no more, friend. It has happened. Last week, Rick Sanchez, alumni of WSVN Channel 7 in Miami, home of one of the silliest local news programs in the history of mankind, dealt Joe the Plumber a wicked thrashing on CNN.

Newsweek Looks Behind the Scenes of Election 2008

Now that it's all over, and the reporters are no longer afraid of being pitched out a campaign plane in mid-flight, Newsweek has a sprawling account of the campaign gathered from the notes of several reporters that is just a cracking good read.

Here's just one of a myriad of tidbits from the trail, this one is about just how potent the Obama online machine was:

The power of the Obama operation could be measured: doubling the turnout at the Iowa caucuses, raising twice as much money as any other candidate in history, organizing volunteers by the millions. (In Florida alone: 65 offices, paid staff of 350, active e-mail list of 650,000, 25,000 volunteers on any weekend day.) The ultimate test would come Nov. 4. In the meantime, there were indications of a great storm brewing. At the end of August, as Hurricane Gustav threatened the coast of Texas, the Obama campaign called the Red Cross to say it would be routing donations to it via the Red Cross home page. Get your servers ready—our guys can be pretty nuts, Team Obama said. Sure, sure, whatever, the Red Cross responded. We've been through 9/11, Katrina, we can handle it. The surge of Obama dollars crashed the Red Cross Web site in less than 15 minutes.

The guts of the Clinton, McCain and Obama camps are laid bare in this seven part series. The best stuff is the look inside the Clinton campaign. Mark Penn and, sadly, Bill Clinton, come off looking like out of touch doofs, especially Penn.

Cenk talks about the series in this clip from The Young Turks:

President-elect Obama's First Press Conference

Well, he's already changed the tone of these press conferences.

"This Is How We Keep Score, Bubby"

"We used to count votes, now we count bacon!"
--Chris Rock

In that above quote, Chris Rock was joking about the likelihood that if Barack Obama got more votes then someone white would come along and say, congrats, but that's not how we do it anymore.

Comedic exaggeration aside, this is kind of what happened. Twice. I don't want to bring up any bad memories or anything, since most of the Hillary people and the Barack people are getting along, but the when Barack won caucuses, the caucuses were devalued by Clinton supporters. When the delegate count piled up the Clinton campaign started talking about popular vote.

Now that Obama has won a LANDSLIDE, right wingers of all varieties are taking time out from their fierce infighting to chant in unison, "No Mandate," basing the claim on the fact that Obama only won the popular vote by six percent. Yet Bush himself screamed mandate after beating Kerry by four percent.

But you see, Barack Obama won a landslide of states. Just as his strategy was based on delegates against Clinton, his strategy against McCain was based on Electors. To quote Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross, "See, 'cause this is how we keep score, bubby."

In the end this crap won't matter. Barack Obama is not going to listen to this garbage. He's going to do what he wants for the foreseeable future. He doesn't need to be told that he can think big right away, even by someone as smart as David Sirota.

And most of the American people aren't going to buy into this "America is a center-right nation" claptrap. The difference between Chris Rock's astute, incisive commentary about the man changing the rules and reality is that the people who tried to change the rules for their own benefit just weren't as convincing as Obama. Now these people are a fragmented shell of an opposition party, left vacantly gazing at their own collective naval.

In this clip, Colin Powell talks about Americans weeping in joy at what they had done in electing Obama, despite all obstacles.


By the way something, the only states where America voted for McCain in greater numbers than they voted for Bush in 2004, were Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Conversely, in 44 states Obama out performed John Kerry, two states were the same as 2004. In other words, center-right, my ass.

Journalism Lives

A drunk British journalist shows you young punks out there how it's done. I think he's been fired.

Rachel Maddow on The Colbert Report

A lot of smart and interesting people have flailed like pregnant monkeys in quicksand adjusting to Colbert's bizarro-con, jujitsu interview style. However, Rachel Maddow's oddball personality worked tremendously well in this setting. These two have remarkable chemistry.

Requests and Demands Pile Up for Obama

Within 48 hours of winning the election, Barack Obama is being bombarded with requests and demands from leaders at home and around the world.

(More at Political Machine)

I Almost Forgot The Fifth of November

Man there's a lot going on. I almost forgot to post this:

Elizabeth Dole No Longer a Senator

Seriously, how great is it that sleezy ad cost Dole the race?

Of course, it's not like Kay Hagan's response defended the atheists on this one, but in the end, I'll take the result.

Begs the question...

Where's your God now, Elizabeth Dole?

Pick Whoever You Like Barack

The shape of the Obama Administration is now the topic du jour. I'm not sure I want to wade all the way into this. If someone asked me a year ago who I would select as the ideal chief of staff for a hypothetical Democratic President, Rahm Emanuel wouldn't have come to mind. Actually, no one would have come to mind other than perhaps Leo McGarry. The fact that Obama wants Emanuel makes Emanuel look good to me, because this Obama guy, he's on fire with the strategy and the thinking.

In other words, Barack could pick anyone for just about anything and I'm good with it. Still, the blogs will have their say, and as with the selection of Joe Biden, that might be a good thing.

James Boyce writes:

We saw a hint of this with the VP selection process where, when it appeared the choice was coming down to Biden and Bayh, there was an outpouring of negative sentiment towards Bayh, enough so that when that notion made it to the mainstream press, it had to have an effect.

Now, with key positions from Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and many many more all up for grabs, the opinions will come fast and furious from all sides.

Looseheadprop at FDL looks at some bi-partisan possibilities for the administration. Personally, I like anyone who was fired in the U.S. Attorneys purge. Rove did a great job of showing us which Republican U.S. Attorneys were actually deserving of their jobs by shit-canning them.

The Acceptance

I haven't had time to watch this yet. I will though, and when I do, I'll update this post.

Hey, We Won. Cool.

Still waiting for Florida, then I'm going to bed.

This is beautiful.

It's a new world.

See you all tomorrow.

Election Night Live Blog (Part 2)

I'm not sure if I can get to the 368 electoral votes for Obama I predicted without Georgia, which the a couple of the stupid cable channels just called for McCain. Too bad. It was a gallant effort by the Obama campaign.

Chris Matthews is throwing up one of the all-time great incoherent filibusters despite the fact that MSNBC has like twenty people sitting around their anchor desk. I would love to see what goes on off camera there, and judging by the way MSNBC has produced live political coverage before, maybe we will.

I'm starting to get a bit nervous about Virginia, talk me down Chuck Todd!

Election Night Live Blog (Part 1)

It's looking okay. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm tuned into The Young Turks, who are doing a far better job than MSNBC, which has decided to go the mind-numbing route so far.

It's so early, nevertheless, McCain's 8-3 lead so far is aggravating.

UPDATE: Obama just won Pennsylvania! I can't blog this coverage. I just can't. I'm a freaking wreck over here.

I'll check back in when I pull it together.

Madelyn Dunham -- 1922-2008

She didn't get to see Barack win the Presidency, but she sure helped prepare him to be President. Godspeed, Toot.



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My Prediction

I just posted my predictions for President and Congress at Political Machine. I've been with Nate Silver every step of the way, but I think this one will trend toward landslide--I got Obama 368-170. I also think that the "holy grail" of 60 Senate seats is not going to happen. It would not be a good thing anyway--too much Joementum involved in that whole scenario. Get me to 61 and we're having a conversation.

In a lot of ways, this seems like the natural climax of my nearly three years of blogging and all of our nearly eight years of Bush-related torment. No matter what happens, everything will be different on Wednesday.

I look forward to it.

By the way something--527s are blasting my television with Rev. Wright ads. In Maryland. Way to blow money there, forces of idiocy.

A Rhetorical Device in Need of Repair

All Over the Maps

OK, I'm getting sick of this. So much so that I'm going to exercise my blogger's prerogative to call BULL-shit!

Check out the map to the right, published today as an accompaniment to this article by Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. This is Chris's prediction of the outcome of tomorrow's vote, and YEAH!!, Barack Obama wins. But do you notice anything at all funny about it? Open Chris's article in a new window for a better view, and a chance to check out the map's interactive features.

Now look at this map from Electoral vote.com and compare the two. Do you see the bizarre assumption that Chris has made? Never mind the fact that the map above has McCain winning Hawaii despite a 41% lead in Obama's favor (polling is 68 to 27.) We'll chalk that up to a mistake, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it an honest mistake. Especially not in light of the following.

The assumption that Chris Cillizza and every other Lamestream Media 'analyst' I've seen makes is that states will only flip from blue to red on election day. Chris isn't too egregious about this compared to the rest of the yakking class, with only Ohio and North Carolina going to McCain against the flow of polling data, with the following explanation:

Our final map splits the two states that decided the last two presidential elections -- Florida and Ohio -- between Obama and McCain.

In the final analysis we put Florida in Obama's column -- based on the massive voter registration and turnout operation built by the Democrat in the state -- and gave Ohio to McCain due to a belief that Obama's ability to grow the electorate in a state so closely targeted in 2004 is far more limited than in other places.

The truth is that the outcome in both states is almost unknowable as both sides acknowledge how close the contest is. The same goes for Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Nevada -- all states President Bush carried with varying levels of ease in 2004.

The truth is that the latest polls show Obama ahead by 5% in Ohio, and 4% in Florida. His lead in North Carolina is only 2%, so I guess Mr. Cillizza doesn't feel any need to explain the outcome favoring McCain there. But wait a minute - McCain's lead in Missouri and North Dakota is a razor-thin 1%. And he's only leading by 2% in Indiana, and 4% in Montana, Georgia and McCain's home state of Arizona. But you will never hear even a suggestion from the LaMe that any of those states are going to go to Obama.

If you really want to see egregious bias , go to CNN and watch John King play with his high tech interactive election map*. King, who does an even worse job than Wolf Blitzer at concealing his pro-Republican bias, can be seen ten times a day acting out his wildest dreams and changing states like Pennsylvania (where Obama has an 8-point lead) from blue to red with just a touch of the screen. That's not called analysis, John, it's called wishful thinking. From the point of view of a news consumer, your playing with this toy is barely more illuminating than Fred Armisens parody on Saturday Night Live.

(Fred Armisen segment is about 2:00 in)

~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, does John King remind you more of the buffoonish Ted Baxter character on the old Mary Tyler Moore show, or would you compare him to Murphy Brown's equally buffoonish Miller Redfield? I find the presence of someone like John King on CNN to be a rather sad case of life imitating art. The people deserve better from their 24/7 news outlets. And I for one long for the day when newsmen were chosen for their journalistic integrity rather than their looks.

* (Contrary to blog speculation, King did not call off his wedding to CNN colleague Dana Bash in order to move in with the map. They were wed in May.)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on topic, it's time to let the Lamestream Media know that we are well aware of what they're trying to do with this slanted reporting. In showing this race to be much closer than it really is they hope to keep alive the 'horse race' metaphor that pumps up their ratings. Which is not good journalism but is at least a relatively innocuous motive. What is less acceptable is that they are subtly hoping to affect the outcome and give the McCain effort a boost. But what would be TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE would be that they are trying to set things up to make yet another stolen election look like a reasonable and correct result, caused by people (and we'd have to be talking about millions of people) all changing their minds at the last moment. That would in fact be approaching treason.

(Cross-posted from Les Enragés.org)

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Bush's White House Exit Strategy Underway

Unlike Dick Cheney, President Bush is laying low for the rest of the Presidential campaign. Just because the President isn't campaigning for John McCain doesn't mean the White House isn't staying busy during the last days of the administration.

R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post reported Friday that before they leave office in January, the Bush Administration plan to revise "a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment".

(more at Political Machine)

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We've ALL Been Punk'd

I've repeatedly mentioned that the Bush era blurred the line between political satire and reality so badly that it's hard these days to know what is going on. I mean, this guy--> is a star for fuck's sake.

If I have this right, Sarah Palin took a call from a prankster doing a shitty French accent (even if it was real), pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy (h/t Ben Smith via an email from my friend Joey). It's a cute comedy bit, but is this how it works? I could call Palin and pretend to be Putin or Ahmadinejad and get right through?

Meanwhile, former SNL cast member Victoria Jackson went on the O'Reilly Factor and... I have no idea what happened. Did she punk him? Did I get punk'd by both of them? Is she serious? I don't know. I don't even think I want to know.

By the way something, cccasionally I would wonder whatever happened to that mediocre blond girl from when SNL was better than it is now. Kinda wish I didn't find out.

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Obama On McCain Landing a Big Endorsement from Dick Cheney

A heartfelt congratulations from Senator Obama on the kiss of death from Dr. Evil.



I think John McCain may have quoted this guy when he heard the news of Cheney's endorsement.

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Marc Maron Talks to Old People

The webcast Maron v. Seder is coming right along. The project is now in beta, as opposed to the "garbage" phase where they either couldn't get on the air or ranted about how they couldn't get on the air. The show is now consistently, fairly well produced and streaming live every weekday at 3pm and on demand after that.

It's great to have Marc back in business and Sam is just fine too. In this clip Marc goes directly to the people--the old people--to see what they have to say about what's going on in the world today.



For an alternative to LSM coverage on Tuesday, Maron and Seder will have live election coverage, as will The Young Turks.

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Bill Clinton to California on Prop 8--'I Know That is Not What You're About'

President Bill Clinton sent out a recorded message to California voters requesting that they vote no on Proposition 8, which would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

This is the message:

This is Bill Clinton calling to ask you to vote NO on Proposition 8 on Tuesday, November 4th. Proposition 8 would use state law to single out one group of Californians to be treated differently -- discriminating against members of our family, our friends and our co-workers.

If I know one thing about California, I know that is not what you're about. That is not what America is about. Please vote NO on 8. It's unfair and it's wrong. Thank you.

Nice work, President Clinton.

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