Politics
grrlscientist | November 1, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, clothes, politics, satire, humor, Palin's wardrobe, streaming video
Sarah Palin has ten excuses for why the American people should not be offended that she spent $150,000 on new clothes and shoes and hair cuts and expensive shit like that when we are losing our jobs, our health insurance, and our houses [1:21]
clock | November 1, 2008Annals of McCain - Palin, XLI: how I palled around with terrorists:
No one who knows me would ever consider me a domestic terrorist. I am, in fact, a pacifist. You may think that's naive, but it would be a real stretch to consider my pacifism to be the same as terrorism, even if you think it helps terrorism (in which case I strenuously disagree). I'm a doctor and take the responsibility to heal pretty seriously. Barack Obama is being accused of "palling around with terrorists" because he has had an association with people the McCain campaign decided they want to call domestic terrorists…
sb admin | November 1, 2008...you must at least read this one.
As first person histories go, this one is tops.
clock | November 1, 2008At first I thought this was fake, but apparently the call was real. If true - what a moment!
gregladen | November 1, 2008The last part ... what you need to do ... mainly applies to Minnesota residents. We'll get to that.
Right now the polls are all over the place. There are five new and recent polls to consider (data all sourced through RCP).
Public Policy Polling, covering October 28th to October 30th, with a margin of error of 3.0 percent, shows Franken with 45% of the vote and Coleman with 40. That is rather astounding.
Research 2000 has a poll covering October 27 to October 29, with a margin of Error of 4%, and in this case Franken has 40 percent and Coleman 43. A statistical dead heat.
A Mason Dixon…
gregladen | November 1, 2008Sen. Norm Coleman announced on Thursday that he was filing a lawsuit against his Democratic opponent Al Franken and the Franken campaign over what he deemed defamation of character.
...This is now the fourth time that the Minnesota Republican has filed a suit late in the course of his runs for office.
...
Aides to Coleman, speaking Thursday morning at a hastily organized press conference, seemed far more interested in generating political theatrics than they did in explaining a serious legal quibble.
... their complaint was directed at an advertisement that the Franken campaign aired that…
pharyngula | November 1, 2008The New Humanist has a yearly anti-award event, the Bad Faith Awards, given to the "most scurrilous enemy of reason" for the year. Last year, Dinesh D'Souza won; so far this year, two have been nominated, with more nominations to come. The two are Ann Coulter and, of course, Sarah Palin. They asked me to nominate someone, and I'm the wicked fellow who thought Palin was deserving…but perhaps they would have gotten a more persuasive nomination if they'd asked Jerry Coyne.
drorzel | November 1, 2008Some time back, the Obama campaign site offered a "check your voter registration" link. This seemed like a good resource to promote, so I checked it out. This required giving them an email address, and since then, I've gotten a flood of fundraising emails purporting to be from significant people within the Democratic party.
One from yesterday was particularly noteworthy in its unique incentive offer:
I want you to be there with me on Election Night when the results come in.
We're planning a big event that will include tens of thousands of supporters in Grant Park in downtown Chicago.
We're…
gregladen | November 1, 2008I have two female friends who have both worked with Coleman (one as a lawyer, one a lobbyist). Both were hit on by him (yes, he's still married). My wife has met him a few times, and while she hasn't been "hit on" he did get pretty "handsy" with her last time.
from here ... more details here.
gregladen | October 31, 2008
Glass Bead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia, and other independent media activists have released a new film, 'Terrorizing Dissent', an exposé of events at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Featuring first-person accounts and footage from more than forty cameras on the streets, 'Terrorizing Dissent' focuses on the story of dissent suppressed. People charged with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism" speak out against the government's campaign to manipulate media coverage and label civil disobedience and community organizing as terrorism.
You can see…
grrlscientist | October 31, 2008tags: politics, political sleeze, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Hagen, atheists, streaming video
At one time, I respected -- note the past tense of the word -- Elizabeth Dole, but after seeing this astonishing ad that her campaign aired in NC against her political opponent, Kay Hagen, I am disgusted. At the end of the ad, there is a picture of Hagen and a voice-over saying "there is no god" -- the implication being that Hagen, a christian, actually said this. Worse, even though Hagen is christian, her willingness to meet with atheists shows she is open-minded and thoughtful: since when is tolerance…
gregladen | October 31, 2008A word about some of the battle ground states, including Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
As you know, McCain has been claiming that the "gap is closing" in many toss up states. This is an expected exaggeration, but it is not pure fantasy, and it is a bit worrisome. There are three important factors here.
First, the McCain campaign has less money than the Obama Campaign (because fewer people like him, and all the rich people are busy losing all their cash on the economy that Bush/McCain has destroyed). Because of this, you would expect the McCain campaign to…
clock | October 31, 2008Apart from the rhetoric, apparently not:
The election is right around the corner, and voters around the country have been subjected to politicians, pundits and commercials laden with allegations of class warfare and claims about which candidates cater to the rich and which candidates will best serve the interests of the poor and the middle class. But a new study, co-authored by North Carolina State University researcher Dr. Chris Ellis, shows that it would be impossible for Congress and the White House to cater solely to any socioeconomic group - because people's preferences tend to be…
gregladen | October 31, 2008No, this is not about phenotypes and genotypes. It is about smarm.
Norm Coleman, the Republican Senator from Minnesota currently fighting to hold his seat against a challenge by Al Franken, is a power hungry amoral selfish bastard who should not be allowed near a public office of any kind.
But don't ask me about this guy. Ask Stephanie, who has written a killer post on the topic.
I will be over there later to comment. You should go now and get things started.
gregladen | October 31, 2008Emailed to: info@brazileassociates.com
Ms Brazile,
I heard your comments on CNN regarding the North Carolina race. See this:
"My Godless Money: Take it or leave it"
Donna, about 20 percent of the Democratic party are atheists. You just told us that the word "Atheist" is properly thought of as equivalent to "jew" (when used in a derogatory way, like to "jew someone down") or "nigger" when used in a derogatory way among, say, non-African Americans. You are quite wrong about this and your comments were deeply offensive.
I think you need to step back and think about the message you are…
clock | October 30, 2008I am sure that you have already heard about the despicable TV ad that Elizabeth Dole aired against Kay Hagan. You probably heard about it online, perhaps on Twitter or FriendFeed or blogs. Here's a quick selection:
My godless money. Take it or leave it.
The Worst Insult of All?
Thou shalt not bear false witness
NC: Hagan responds to 'Godless' ad; Dole's immigrant bashing
Elizabeth Dole ad falsely suggests opponent Kay Hagan is 'Godless.'
North Carolina Senate Race Degenerates Into Shouting Match About Atheists
GODLESS AMERICANS.
Sen. Liddy Dole (R-NC) attacks Sunday school teacher: 'There is…
stoat | October 30, 2008Says Seed. CIP said that a while ago, but less politely. I'd prefer Obama, but I don't have a vote. Looks like the money is on Obama: 1-9 on, whereas McCain is 5-1.
[Updates: Eli notes that Nature is endorsing Obama. C provides us with a wider choice of odds, and InTrade has him as a near-cert. But can you trust it?]
revere | October 30, 2008As I write this the Obama-Biden ticket has been endorsed by 231 newspapers across the country, the McCain-Palin ticket by only 102 (see here for latest tally). The final Kerry-Bush score was 213 - 205. Most of us don't really care that much about the newspaper endorsement bragging rights and I doubt it makes much difference to voters, either. No one expects the Wall Street Journal to endorse Obama (although the Financial Times did). After all, the WSJ knows that Republicans are much more reliably corporation friendly than Democrats. Along the same lines, I am extremely pleased to announce…