Month: October 2008
Balwaan McCain
Not Balwaan. Looks more like Reghawaan. What in the hell is he talking about?, you’re asking. Well, let me lay it out for you. Pictured above is a mahout and an Indian elephant. Don’t they look happy together? Elephants are some of the more remarkable animals on this little globe. They’re smart, deeply emotional, and, when treated properly, extremely loyal. That old saw about how an elephant never forgets is not too far off the mark, either. The elephant, as you well know, is also a symbol of the Republican Party. This fact will become more salient as we proceed. … Continue reading Balwaan McCain
Happy Obama Photo: Ground Game
You Drive This Old Busted Junk
Josh: I have more the sense of someone desperately casting about and losing control of the situation itself. Even hypocrites can get in over their heads. Indeed, in a more nuts-and-bolts strategic sense McCain has really gotten himself into a hole because the campaign he’s been running has almost entirely been premised on the claim that you should be scared of an Obama presidency. Not that McCain, if he’d run a very different campaign, couldn’t have run on issue disagreements with Obama. But right now if you take away fear of Obama becoming president, there’s almost no reason not to … Continue reading You Drive This Old Busted Junk
Saturday Blogwhoring Thread
Post away! A. Continue reading Saturday Blogwhoring Thread
Weekend Question Thread
What talent do you wish you had, that you don’t have? I am not musical. At all. I cannot sing, I took piano lessons for years and never got better than mediocre, even with hours of torturous practicing. I like music a lot, but I can’t make any. A. Continue reading Weekend Question Thread
The Most Unbelievable Thing You’ll Ever Read
I believe the phrase you’re looking for is “You gotta be shitting me.” Okay, got up in the morning, looking through the news for things I missed yesterday, dah dee dah du—wait, what the fuck? Today, with the world caught in an economic tempest that Mr. Greenspan recently described as “the type of wrenching financial crisis that comes along only once in a century,” his faith in derivatives remains unshaken. The problem is not that the contracts failed, he says. Rather, the people using them got greedy. A lack of integrity spawned the crisis… Seriously? Alan Greenspan bet all of … Continue reading The Most Unbelievable Thing You’ll Ever Read
Already Making Excuses
I’d been wondering what was at the heart of this ACORN story.Josh Marshall: The essence of McCain’s campaign now appears to amount to prepping McCain’s base to believe they didn’t really lose the election. The election was stolen from them by Barack and his army of gangsters and black street hustlers. A. Continue reading Already Making Excuses
Tune in Next Week to See: Ungrateful Expectations, or: Thanks, But No Tanks
Look at that ungrateful little brat. So, Little Tommy Friedman’s comments are making the rounds today. Athenae, as always, employs her laser-guided wrecking ball on this bullshit below. But there’s something I haven’t seen anywhere about his comments (I’m sure it’s out there, I just haven’t seen it): This is a stupid fucking idea that NEVER dies. EVERY colonial/dominant power has bitched about the ungratefulness of the rebels/natives/colonists/poor people/insert group of people getting fucked over here. You hear (mostly, but not always, white) people talk about how black people in America should just shut the fuck up and be grateful … Continue reading Tune in Next Week to See: Ungrateful Expectations, or: Thanks, But No Tanks
Friday Night Galactica Vid
Shreds of Dignitude
I continue to be amazed at how John McCain’s ever more desperate lust for power–which he pursues like a grumpy old Captain Ahab, hobbling about both figuratively and literally (for those who watched his performance Tuesday night)–manages to make one George W. Bush seem almost reasonable in comparison (that’s one hell of a grading curve–maybe more like a grading abyss.) Let’s see: you’ve gotSarah Palin’s traveling Nuremberg Rally/Cross Burn; yesterday, Team McCain threw Stepford Cindy into the mix (I wonder if they plied her with Percocet and Vicodin)…and, of course, they’re virtually pimping Bill Ayers, to which I say, if … Continue reading Shreds of Dignitude
Joey the Shark Wants You To SAY HIS NAME
I think I’m spending too much time atBiden Daily. He’s starting tolook good to me: “All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him,” Biden said this morning. “In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.” I mean, damn. A. Continue reading Joey the Shark Wants You To SAY HIS NAME
“Get me out at any price”
Sports journalist E.M. Swift is fond of noting that whenever an underdog team was doing well, his phone would ring. The question was always the same: could this team create another moment in time that could become the next“Miracle on Ice.” His answer was always the same: “There’s never going to be another Miracle. You just can’t get all the things to line up the way they did in 1980.” In readingthis piece on our rather precarious financial standing, I found it interesting that Eichengreen always took the same kind of stand whenever we saw the dark side of capitalism. … Continue reading “Get me out at any price”
I took the Red Pill
Athenae asked me to offer an introduction of sorts prior to my first post. I’m Doc, frequent commenter, resident cynic and keeper of more sports stories than you can shake a stick at. I love college media, thoughtful dissent and higher education. I’ll be your Friday guest until A kicks me out. We’ll see how long that holds. Questions? Ask. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning. Continue reading I took the Red Pill
Friday Ferretblogging: Sleepytime Edition
Winter’s coming on, and so the boys are spending lots of time preparing, ie sprawling passed out in various places around the house, growing winter fur and putting on winter weight while being lazy as can be. The other day Puck fell asleep in a corner of the entertainment center, behind some books, and we had to take the whole shelf apart to fish him out. Riot prefers a towel stuffed behind the door: A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Sleepytime Edition
Reminder: Saturday in Santa Monica
Come and say hi if you’re around. A. Continue reading Reminder: Saturday in Santa Monica
Crack Van Recap
Major thanks to Leinie, the crack van transcription goddess. Be here next Wednesday evening for the final debate. Otherwise known as The One Where McCain Finally Snaps and Eats A Voter’s Head. First, the fashion: Escariot: OK…so what is everyone wearing? I am in my overalls, with my hammer holster on KarenNO: I have my Bible Bet on KarenNO: Belt Els_yeah_that_one: I have my Rebuild New Orleans tee and flannel pj pants. Ali451: I’m wearing my hawkey mom bomber jacket and mom-jeans VforVirginia: I’m wearing a Dream Team nightshirt. it’s teh hawtness KarenNO: Yes, I am naked and all I … Continue reading Crack Van Recap
Shocking News
In other news, water is wet. Big, unexpected news!The NRA has endorsed John McCain! Shocking, I know. Also, the sky is blue, and the sum of the squared lengths of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. No word yet on whether or not the gravitational constant of the universe remains unchanged. Schmucks. Continue reading Shocking News
3 Polls show Obama with 10 point lead in WI
Wisconsin is not a swing state, alright. We will be blue…again. TheWI State Journal reports that Obama leads by 10 points in three new polls: A WISC-TV poll of likely voters shows Obama with a 10-point lead over Republican John McCain. The poll done by Research 2000 on Sunday and Monday showed Obama with 51 percent and McCain with 41 percent.SNIP A Rasmussen Reports poll gave 54 percent of the vote to Obama and 44 percent to McCain. SNIP A SurveyUSA poll gave 52 percent of the vote to Obama, compared to 42 percent for McCain Continue reading 3 Polls show Obama with 10 point lead in WI
Happy Obama Photo: Planetarium, Bitches!
Barack Obama: Making sure your kids know where Jupiter is. McCain: Just learned about the Internet last week. A. Continue reading Happy Obama Photo: Planetarium, Bitches!
Department of Pretty Much, Suite Yeah 23
Driftglass on the sad theater that is our crap punditry: The GOP runs on a very simple electoral strategy: 1. Tell the Pig People they can have their stupid and eat it too. 2. Ruin the nation, run up insurmountable debt, seed every institution with incompetents and looters, all while cowering behind the Flag, the Bible and the troops. 3. When it all goes South, double down on the lies and the stupid, and boldly blame Bill Clinton’s Penis and the dirty fucking hippies. Election after election, this gets them to 45%. Then, a little election fraud, a shitload of … Continue reading Department of Pretty Much, Suite Yeah 23
And the prize for most bizarre non-sequitur of the night goes to …
REUTERS/Jim Young After the third question from an audience member and the ensuing discussion, wherein the candidates discussed their possible choices for Treasury Secretary and McCain declared war on Chicago planetariums, Tom Brokaw asked them a new question, about their priorities for their first year in office: There are new economic realities out there that everyone in this hall and across this country understands that there are going to have to be some choices made. Health policies, energy policies, and entitlement reform, what are going to be your priorities in what order? Which of those will be your highest priority … Continue reading And the prize for most bizarre non-sequitur of the night goes to …
Culture of Life THIS
Kristof: Mr. McCain seems to have supported Mr. Bush, mostly out of instinct, and when a reporter asked him this spring whether American aid should finance contraceptives to fight AIDS in Africa, he initially said, “I haven’t thought about it,” and later added, “You’ve stumped me.” Retrograde decisions on reproductive health are reached in conference rooms in Washington, but I’ve seen how they play out in African villages. A young woman lies in a hut, bleeding to death or swollen by infection, as untrained midwives offer her water or herbs. Her husband and children wait anxiously outside the hut, their … Continue reading Culture of Life THIS
The Last Time I Mention This. Honest.
Get your tickets! This weekend only! Really, if you live in Madison or nearby, you shouldbuy a ticket and come to the WFTDA Eastern Regional Tournament this weekend. It’s loads of fun, you’ll meet some amazing people, and you’ll get to see the ass-kicking-on-wheels extravaganza. So do it! Buy a ticket! You won’t be sorry. Paine Mansfield and Dutch Oven get ready to whip some ass. Stitch, Nikki, Die, Mouse, Ninja, Dutch, Joan, and Jenny–happy after a win. Seriously. You want to be a part of this. Continue reading The Last Time I Mention This. Honest.
I Hear Them All
Good Stuff from Old Crow Medicine Show… So, while you sit and whistle Dixie With your money and your power I can hear the flowers a-growing In the rubble of the towers I hear leaders quit their lyin’ I hear babies quit their cryin’ I hear soldiers quit their dyin’, one and all I hear them all (h/tSuspect Device) Continue reading I Hear Them All
Debate Crack Van
Tuesday is ferret day, so I might be late. Play nicely. No violence. Posts in the van belong to their authors. Share and share alike. Update: Van Closed! Thanks to all for stopping by. As to a review, here’s all I’ve got: A. Continue reading Debate Crack Van
Somebody Pinch Me
An artist’s depiction of this post’s author. Did I imagine it, or did I see Barack Obama wipe the walls with John McCain last night? ‘Cause if what I remember happened, that was an ass-whipping of epic proportions. Continue reading Somebody Pinch Me
Which One?
“That One” Continue reading Which One?
You Know Ho’s Like Diameter
Steve and the Beachwood crew MST3K the debate: BROKAW: Phil Elliott has a question for Senator McCain. STEVE: Wasn’t he the cameraman in Groundhog Day? Maybe he wants to get on the road before the storm hits. QUESTION: How will all the recent economic stress affect our nation’s ability to act as a peacemaker in the world? STEVE: We will no longer be able to afford six-sided tables. Perhaps Sir Mix-A-Lot can help with that. From the other night’s Robot Chicken: It wouldn’t beMix-A-Lot’s first foray into politics, after all. A. Continue reading You Know Ho’s Like Diameter
Drill Baby Drill…Probably not much in the Gulf though
With McCain/Palin continuing to exhort Drill Baby Drill it is interesting to note this analysis fromFinancial Times on the fact that following Hurricane Ike the output of oil and natural gas is still only at half of capacity. The Times points out that: If hurricane Katrina, the previous major storm to hit the gulf, is any guide, some of that production may never be restored. The gulf produces 1.3m barrels of oil per day, down from 1.6m b/d before Katrina hit in 2005. What’s it all mean? Jeff Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said hurricane Ike had debunked … Continue reading Drill Baby Drill…Probably not much in the Gulf though