Politics
clock | September 9, 2008First read this:
Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps...?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks…
gregladen | September 9, 2008Can you believe it? It turns out that Sarah Palin actually LIED during her speech at the Republican National Convention. I can't believe it!
Man, I wonder if this "governor" should go to prison or something...
clock | September 9, 2008Tune in tonight at 7pm for another live televised debate between Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory. You can watch the debate in the Charlotte area on WMYT, in the Triangle on WRAL, and in the Triad on WFMY. In addition, you can listen live on WUNC or watch online at WRAL.com. The debate will also be replayed numerous times across the state. Check the schedule here.
gregladen | September 9, 2008We vote in our primaries today. I know, I know, you already voted in the primaries, and the whole process seems like it is finished. But it isn't. The primaries are today, honest.
If you live in Minnesota, go here to find out where you vote. I vote at the local Lutheran Church.
I think,
This blog endorses Al Franken for United States Senate, Ashwin Madia for United States Congress, In fact, I'll be ad Madia Headquarters tonight working for the campaign.
Those of you who read this blog and are in Minneapolis may find this post at Almost Diamonds useful.
Warning: This blog…
pharyngula | September 8, 2008That's a quote from Lou Engle in this video — and it's actually kind of true. He thinks it will be a wonderful thing when people see this, and there probably are a lot of Americans who think the events portrayed are perfectly ordinary, and even commendable.
I see nothing but madness.
By picking Sarah Palin for a running mate, John McCain has turned over a rock to expose a festering, primitive insanity in our country. Look on the squirming horror, world, and learn that it does exist!
A further indictment: Juan Cole sees Palin through the lens of his expertise on the Islamic world.
John…
clock | September 8, 2008Under the fold, due to length. Like the previous couple of roundups, take your time - bookmark, read, and use later.
Fisking a debunking:
Clever Wife regularly participates in a forum for craftspeople who make soap. Lately the forum has included some long digressions into politics. She is usually capable of responding to the misinformation she sees, but occasionally she asks for my help. The other day someone posted a list of "rumors" about Sarah Palin debunked by someone named Charlie Martin, a computer programmer in Colorado. Charlie's list on his blog Explorations is now up to 71 points…
jrosenhouse | September 8, 2008Here's the latest bit of wisdom from Sarah Palin:
McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Fannie and Freddie had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, however, aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.
It is appalling, of course, that Ms. Palin was unaware of a basic fact central to what is likely to be one of the major economic issues of the next few years. But this sort of gaffe is entirely typical among Republicans, who speak…
razib | September 8, 2008See Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do, or, the author's weblog. Here are some myths and facts. It is interesting that when I tell both liberals and conservatives that Thomas Frank is full of crap there's a lot of disbelief and incredulity. One of the standard responses is that everyone knows that poor whites vote Republican on cultural issues, or that rich whites are elitists who lean Democratic due to the power of social liberalism. I suspect the strength of the meme is that the Thomas Frank argument is persuasive to both sides. On the…
gregladen | September 8, 2008Seriously.
Let's make a list. Let's get all the 'Nam vets and say, "OK, you folks, you did your job for the country, you're about the right age, we want one of you to be in charge. Now let's get your credential, both positive and negative, and put them together and see which one of you should run the show. There are of course too many of you for all of you to be president, but maybe a couple/few of you." And so on.
My friend Bob, for example. Of all the 'Nam Vets, he's one of the most qualified. He was in the special forces, spent over six years in 'Nam, rose to the rank of officer (and…
jlynch | September 7, 2008Yes, it's Sarah Palin. And it has nothing to do with creationism. Read more here.
evolvingthoughts | September 7, 2008
No, the large Hadron Collider won't destroy the earth. Go on, bet me everything you own against everything I own that there's be no strangelets or black holes as a result. You'd get four or five years enjoying my wealth. Meanwhile morons have threatened to kill physicists who are trying to understand the universe...
Bush and co. (I mean that literally - they are effectively a corporation) continue to do harm.
How white are you? [I'm not very white racially, but then I suspect I'm not very human; see avatar]
Losers in Sydney can go to a million comments party. Superlosers (those who don…
j7uy5 | September 7, 2008One of the controversies about VP candidate Sarah Palin has to do with
the sale of the gubernatorial jet. She attempts to bolster
her claim, that she is a fiscal conservative, by saying that she sold
the State's jet, claiming it was an unnecessary expense.
She sold the 2.7 million dollar jet for 2.1 million.
She sold it to one of her campaign contributors.
Pretty good deal for the contributor.
Angry Bear
href="http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2008/09/palins-plane-and-mccains-fuzzy-math.html">describes
the controversy. This reminds me of two things, one
trivial, the other potentially…
clock | September 7, 2008Little Light explains the strange tale about the school desk from Huckabee's speech. As we should have known by now - it is a dogwhistle:
Sound familiar yet? Please tell me it does. This is the doctrine of "Grace, Not Works" or "Grace Alone," a theological position expounded during the Reformation, cuddled by Calvin, and popular among evangelical Christians. It's not a desk, it's a place in Heaven. And it's not soldiers we're talking about, it's Jesus Christ. Don't buy the connection of this story as an allegory for the doctrine of Grace Alone? Here's a few ways to put it. And the guy…
clock | September 7, 2008Under the fold....
Senator to president: A new day:
But is it a good thing for senators to be frozen out of the process? Though governors may make better candidates, it's not clear that they're well prepared to deal with the complex mix of personalities and parliamentary procedures that will decide whether their agenda is quickly passed or quietly strangled.
Unocommon Ground:
Admittedly, the general tone of this site over the past week or so has been one of unabashed anger and outrage. While I won't apologize for this -- mostly because I feel like the more that people throw down the gauntlet…
pontiff | September 7, 2008The lore I heard when I lived in New Mexico was that the reason Gore won the state in 2000 was that there was a snowstorm in the southern part of the state (which is more conservative.) In 2004 there was no snowstorm in the state, and the state went to Bush. If you could control the weather by fixing particular weather in different locations (weather that was not too far beyond the typical weather for the area), I wonder how many electoral votes could you swing?
clock | September 6, 2008Too long, thus under the fold - enjoy, think, bookmark for later, use:
Netroots push back against MSM 'bias':
Criticism from the left can take a variety of forms, including fact-checking, aggregating links and sometimes original reporting. Also, similar to the right's strategy over decades of "working the refs," there are left-leaning bloggers who provide a knee-jerk dismissal of whatever's on the front page of the Times or making the rounds on Sunday chat shows.
Hillary Clinton speaks at convention. The press concocts a story:
What's so startling in watching the coverage of the Clinton…