Politics
terrasig | October 5, 2008We here at Terra Sig are peripheral to Teh Atheist Cabal at ScienceBlogs so I had to do a consortium-wide search to be sure no one like PZ, revere, or Laden wrote about this lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing President Bush, the governor of Wisconsin and other officials over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued Friday in U.S. district court, arguing that the president's mandated proclamations calling on Americans to pray violates a constitutional ban on…
oracknows | October 5, 2008I'm still buried working on next week's talk and my part of the center grant. Fortunately, Saturday Night Live provides some temporary entertainment until I can get out from under the pile. Once again Tina Fey nails it, especially the "maverick" part. While watching the debate last week, by the end I thought I was going to throw something at the TV screen if I heard Palin refer to herself and McCain as "mavericks" again.
I know, I know, this is becoming a bit of a habit. Don't worry, though. I have something nearly finished for tomorrow, and I see a light at the end of the tunnel next week…
pharyngula | October 5, 2008Here's the VP debate exactly as I remember it: Palin was cheerful, folksy, always evading the questions and changing the subject she was prepped for, and completely devoid of substance. I especially liked the introductory ground rules, which the media have taken to heart: "Due to the historically low expectations for governor Palin, were she simply to do an adequate job tonight, and at no point cry, faint, run out of the building, or vomit, you should consider the debate a tie."
The 'folksiness' grates, as Patricia Williams notes — it's a misleading proxy for authenticity, and authenticity…
gregladen | October 4, 2008In a recent election in the District of Columbia, an extra 1,500 votes were added to the vote count that were never cast. Apparently, these votes were caused by static electricity. Or something.
New measures are being taken to make sure irregularities in September's D.C. Primary vote don't happen in November. Officials at the D.C. Board of Elections say they now know what caused 1,500 extra votes to appear in the count.
326 people voted at the Reeves Center precinct on primary election day in September. Their votes were captured on a computer cartridge, but the Board of Elections says…
laelaps | October 4, 2008It doesn't include any clips produced since the vp debate, but it is a pretty good countdown of Palin's "greatest hits" (with a guest appearance by an overprotective and embarrassed John McCain!);
gregladen | October 4, 2008Mythbusters, factcheck.org, and Snopes have become sources of a special kind of truth for people around the world. Dedicated to undoing legend and independently analyzing political or other rhetoric, these and other sites, as well as various news segments and print media spots, are to be commended for their efforts to turn down the BS meter, which all agree has been running on high ever since the old days, when there was no BS at all.
(Which, of course, is an urban myth.)
However, what you may not know is that these sites are not necessarily politically neutral, can be quite biased (in non-…
gregladen | October 3, 2008Not surprizingly, PZ Myers has passed both Obama and McCain in the polls. Details here. GO PZ (but keep an eye out for Dave Bacon)
We are asking for submission to the Remove Michele Bachmann web carnival, which will be hosted at Tangled Up in Blue Guy next Monday. Please submit your suggestions here. (If that link does not work, just send the submission to me and I'll pass it on, or contact Mike directly via his blog).
Palin Gaffe on Vietnam:
"John McCain knows how to win a war." The only war that I know of in which John McCain played a part as a combatant was the Vietnam War.…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: politics, election, debates, Sarah Palin, the sad truth, humor
Did anyone see what was written on Sarah Palin's index card that she had with her at last night's debate? It appears that, in her excitement to hold a baby so she could score some "hockey mommy" points with the electorate, she forgot her little card on her podium where the janitor later found it. What was on that card? See below;
Image: ph33 and loathing [larger view].
pharyngula | October 3, 2008Popescu is running for some political office (the article doesn't say what), and he recently gave a talk at a high school where he frankly stated his views.
"A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages and I said I think homosexuals should be executed," he said. "My whole reason for running is the Bible and the Bible couldn't be more clear on that point."
I get the impression that this guy doesn't have a chance of winning his election, but still — it's likely that saying homosexuals are evil will cost you fewer votes than saying you don't believe in any gods, at least in this…
clock | October 3, 2008In today's Grist - Politics and the Dinner Table: Weighing Obama's and McCain's stances on food and farm policy:
In the end, Pollan is likely right: Whatever the candidates are saying now (or not saying at all), events may require the 44th president to deal with food issues in ways that break radically with past policies. Silly ideas like propping up ethanol production may soon be unthinkable. One candidate has demonstrated openness to the notion of sustainable agriculture and "local and regional food systems"; the other hasn't. Neither will likely push bold change unless forced to do so.…
jrosenhouse | October 3, 2008Granted, I'm hardly an unbiased source. But come on folks! I know these debates are decided far more on style than substance, but surely at some point you have to say something. The country just can't be so far gone that ninety minutes of contentless babbling that stops just short of utter humiliation now makes you look Presidential. Unlike in her interviews Palin this time managed to speak in complete sentences and her words mostly cohered into actual thoughts, albeit thoughts that were totally irrelevant to the question that was asked. Who outside a brain-dead contrarian pundit or an…
gregladen | October 3, 2008
94
Number of times, according to Repbulicans Sarah Palin and John McCain, that Democrat Barack Obama voted to raise taxes.
23
Of these, the number of votes that were actually against tax cuts.
7
Of these, the number that were likely to lower taxes for most, except some large corporations or ery affluent individuals.
11
Of these, the number that would increase taxes only on people making more than $1,000,000 dollars per year for the funding of Head Start, school nutrition programs, and veterans' health care, etc.
53
had nothing to do with raising or lowering taxes
source
razib | October 3, 2008Photo credit: AP
I listened to the VP debate on the radio last night. Then afterwards I saw my RSS getting saturated with assessments. The Corner reverberated with agreement that Sarah Palin wiped the floor with Joe Biden. Over at Daily Kos the assessment was curiously inverted. No surprise. But then listening to the NPR and seeing Howard Fineman's column show up my RSS I had to wonder: who cares what these people think? I mean, this is kind of like watching a basketball match, and then getting the sports reporters together 5 minutes after the game ends and having them decide who won!…
drorzel | October 3, 2008I made it through half an hour of last night's VP candidate debate. When they got to the question of global warming, I realized that her answer was indistinguishable from something the Sarah Palin Interview Generator might cough up, and opted for Tombstone on the History Channel (!) instead.
"Evidently, Mr. Ringo is an educated man. Now I really hate him."
If I'm going to have to listen to someone saying ridiculous things in a funny accent, there should at least be gunfights.
gregladen | October 2, 2008Wow. Republican Erik Paulson, running for Minnesota's third district in congress, has just launched an incredibly smarmy attack campaign against nice guy Democrat Ashwin Madia. Here is Madia's response:
pharyngula | October 2, 2008Got your popcorn and jujubes? Ready for the clown show? The debate begins shortly, and this is the place to leave your comments.
Half an hour in, and I'm seeing Biden being good and specific with facts at his fingertips, and doing a good job of answering questions with substance. Palin is an airhead who's spouting more fluff and ignoring the questions — she keeps going back to energy and pretending she's an expert. It's very annoying, but she's not descending into fumbling babble-babble, so I'm sure the audience is going right along with it. Come on, Biden, slam her back on the futility of…