here it is: in response to palin donning her heels and taking off her gloves, it looks like obama is now lowering the boom on mccain's record. enjoy this as you prepare for tomorrow night's debate. we will be live blogging it here, so prepare yourself...
Monday, October 06, 2008
Thursday, October 02, 2008
missouri madness
Here it is. The live blog thread for tonight's debate at 9:00 Eastern Time. Be here.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Thursday Night Thunder
All right people. Prepare yourselves. Thursday night brings Sarah Palin's arizona-prepped, expectation-lowered debate versus Joe Biden. We will be live blogging the whole thing right here. So, do what you need to do to find yourself in front of a computer and a television by 9:00 PM eastern time, Thursday night.
One thing that is bothering me about the upcoming debate is the media's insistence on replaying the jonah mcpalin camp's messaging. They have been lowering the expectations for sarah palin, thus making any performance by sarah palin in which she doesn't fall on her face and expose herself for a complete fraud translate into a 'win.' Also, after her horrible appearances on CBS and ABC over the past couple of weeks, her handlers are now saying she won't appear anywhere other than right wing talk shows and the like. I'm sorry, but I can't help agree with campbell brown; this approach to palin by mccain and co. stinks of sexism. Yesterday, when Palin and McCain were interviewed by Katie Couric, McCain jumped in to answer questions and defend palin. It definitely looked like an over-protective father keeping watch over his daughter. They need to unleash Palin and hope that her folksy life story will be enough to over shadow her complete lack of preparation for the vice presidency or possibly the presidency.
So, prepare your thoughts. Ready your typing fingers. Tell your friends. Tomorrow night we shall blog the trash out of the debate. Also, it would be nice to get some palin supporters to join the dialog. So, Gabrielle, Russ, Dad, Grandpa, Libby and DJ (?), etc. please join us as we thrash about in pure, debate-inspired bliss.
oh, and enjoy this sweet performance by the gov at the miss alaska competition:
Friday, September 26, 2008
friday night lights: open thread for the debate
prepare yourself to post your comments here as we discuss the debate in real time....
Thursday, September 25, 2008
jonah mcpalin
please forgive the following rant. i realize that political web logs are extremely tedious, and a lot of text hurts the brains of those of us who like to look at either pictures or bottles of adderall. but seriously, how can anyone even think about supporting mcain/palin after this last week? i understand (sort of) if you are not completely sold on b.rock obama. okay i take that back, i don't completely understand how you may not be sold on b.rock, but i at least can fathom it. but to still be supporting john and sarah? seriously? so, i'm going to list some of the reasons why (although i really think it's pretty obvious) one should vote barack over mccain.
1. the economy. obviously this is currently the leading factor in the election. so why go for obama over mccain? in my humble estimation, there are very few of us (politicians, layman, professionals) who actually understand what has happened with the economy or how to make it better. in fact, so much of what will happen with the stock market over the next while is based solely on perception. to have a president, then, that appears to be cool, calm, and collected is of great importance. we need someone we can trust to stay calm, not do anything rash (i.e. draft palin, suspend a campaign, cancel debates, make rash accusations ('let's fire cox!), or make false claims (the fundamentals of economy is strong)), and figure out a solution in a concentrated way. it's not so much whether that solution will be perfectly correct; rather, it's more important that we have a perception that our leader is going to do as much as he/she can to make the right choice and equally weigh all options.
2. temperament. mccain is crazy. isn't it obvious? he's so focused on the white house, that he has lost all semblance of identity. he blames the tenor of the campaign (his sleazy, lying ads) on the fact that obama turned down town hall meetings. then, yesterday, he ambushed obama with a press conference announcing he was suspending his campaign (today he has been running ads all across the country, and many, if not all, of his campaign offices are open ) to 'rush back to washington' to figure out a solution to the economic 'crisis' (something he denied was even happening at the beginning of the week).
3. do we really want another maverick in the white house? wasn't his pick of palin enough of a sign of his incompetence? please watch her performance on charlie gibson and katie couric to see that his lack of vetting made for a horrible choice for someone so close to the presidency.
4. i would keep writing, but it's time for me to leave this computer. maybe i'll add more later. maybe not.
1. the economy. obviously this is currently the leading factor in the election. so why go for obama over mccain? in my humble estimation, there are very few of us (politicians, layman, professionals) who actually understand what has happened with the economy or how to make it better. in fact, so much of what will happen with the stock market over the next while is based solely on perception. to have a president, then, that appears to be cool, calm, and collected is of great importance. we need someone we can trust to stay calm, not do anything rash (i.e. draft palin, suspend a campaign, cancel debates, make rash accusations ('let's fire cox!), or make false claims (the fundamentals of economy is strong)), and figure out a solution in a concentrated way. it's not so much whether that solution will be perfectly correct; rather, it's more important that we have a perception that our leader is going to do as much as he/she can to make the right choice and equally weigh all options.
2. temperament. mccain is crazy. isn't it obvious? he's so focused on the white house, that he has lost all semblance of identity. he blames the tenor of the campaign (his sleazy, lying ads) on the fact that obama turned down town hall meetings. then, yesterday, he ambushed obama with a press conference announcing he was suspending his campaign (today he has been running ads all across the country, and many, if not all, of his campaign offices are open ) to 'rush back to washington' to figure out a solution to the economic 'crisis' (something he denied was even happening at the beginning of the week).
3. do we really want another maverick in the white house? wasn't his pick of palin enough of a sign of his incompetence? please watch her performance on charlie gibson and katie couric to see that his lack of vetting made for a horrible choice for someone so close to the presidency.
4. i would keep writing, but it's time for me to leave this computer. maybe i'll add more later. maybe not.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
attack of the....robots?
why is everyone talking about wall street and the presidential election? i guess maybe they've forgotten there are more important threats to our well being. that's right: robots.
Monday, September 15, 2008
making america stupid
if you haven't read it yet, here's thomas friedman's latest article.
Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!”
I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — “Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!” — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.
Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”
Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with “drill, baby, drill” — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra “invent, baby, invent?” That is what a party committed to “change” would really be doing. As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”
I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.
I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency.
In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences.
A Washington Post editorial on Thursday put it well: “On a day when the Congressional Budget Office warned of looming deficits and a grim economic outlook, when the stock market faltered even in the wake of the government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when President Bush discussed the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan, on what did the campaign of Senator John McCain spend its energy? A conference call to denounce Senator Barack Obama for using the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ and a new television ad accusing the Democrat of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.”
Some McCain supporters criticize Obama for not having the steel in his belly to use force in the dangerous world we live in today. Well I know this: In order to use force, you have to have force. In order to exercise leverage, you have to have leverage.
I don’t know how much steel is in Obama’s belly, but I do know that the issues he is focusing on in this campaign — improving education and health care, dealing with the deficit and forging a real energy policy based on building a whole new energy infrastructure — are the only way we can put steel back into America’s spine. McCain, alas, has abandoned those issues for the culture-war strategy.
Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook?
Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about.
There is no strong leader without a strong country. And posing as one, to use the current vernacular, is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!”
I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — “Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!” — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.
Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”
Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with “drill, baby, drill” — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra “invent, baby, invent?” That is what a party committed to “change” would really be doing. As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”
I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.
I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency.
In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences.
A Washington Post editorial on Thursday put it well: “On a day when the Congressional Budget Office warned of looming deficits and a grim economic outlook, when the stock market faltered even in the wake of the government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when President Bush discussed the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan, on what did the campaign of Senator John McCain spend its energy? A conference call to denounce Senator Barack Obama for using the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ and a new television ad accusing the Democrat of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.”
Some McCain supporters criticize Obama for not having the steel in his belly to use force in the dangerous world we live in today. Well I know this: In order to use force, you have to have force. In order to exercise leverage, you have to have leverage.
I don’t know how much steel is in Obama’s belly, but I do know that the issues he is focusing on in this campaign — improving education and health care, dealing with the deficit and forging a real energy policy based on building a whole new energy infrastructure — are the only way we can put steel back into America’s spine. McCain, alas, has abandoned those issues for the culture-war strategy.
Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook?
Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about.
There is no strong leader without a strong country. And posing as one, to use the current vernacular, is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
any questions?
i think this should clear up any lingering questions or concerns any of you may still have.
in other news, i'm completely, head over heels in love with campbell brown of cnn.
in other news, i'm completely, head over heels in love with campbell brown of cnn.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
signs signs everywhere there's signs
my spam inbox from yesterday. creepy, right?
secondly, love him or hate him, john kerry gave a pretty good speech at the convention yesterday. take 13 minutes and watch it, if you dare.
secondly, love him or hate him, john kerry gave a pretty good speech at the convention yesterday. take 13 minutes and watch it, if you dare.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
kucinich: one crazy [insert word here]
if you missed this from the denver convention, then you must watch it right now. kucinich is crazy and i think i might be in love with him. i'm not quite sure how to define what i'm feeling all over my body when he speaks like this. see if you feel it too and you can tell me if it's normal or not.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
exculpate
several important things to note:
first, i was up at the time barack texted me to let me know about joe biden. i think that most likely makes me one of the first in america to get the big news. hooray. although i have to say that the texts and emails they keep sending me are getting cheesier and cheesier, which is a problem.
second, this new tattoo proves that my life is nearly complete. one thing about three fours that is particularly auspicious is that they sometimes look like three crosses. coney Island was the place of tattoo application. I don't believe there is a better place on earth than coney island. we attended the coney island circus sideshow and saw a nail driven into a nasal cavity, a lady walk on glass, another lady swallow swords, and the ganja queen (my personal name for her) breathe fire.
maybe you want a closer look? Fine, fine.
lastly, i don't know why, but i went to six flags great adventure on saturday. i believe this place is the downfall of america. although we did ride the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. but was it worth the wait?
first, i was up at the time barack texted me to let me know about joe biden. i think that most likely makes me one of the first in america to get the big news. hooray. although i have to say that the texts and emails they keep sending me are getting cheesier and cheesier, which is a problem.
second, this new tattoo proves that my life is nearly complete. one thing about three fours that is particularly auspicious is that they sometimes look like three crosses. coney Island was the place of tattoo application. I don't believe there is a better place on earth than coney island. we attended the coney island circus sideshow and saw a nail driven into a nasal cavity, a lady walk on glass, another lady swallow swords, and the ganja queen (my personal name for her) breathe fire.
maybe you want a closer look? Fine, fine.
lastly, i don't know why, but i went to six flags great adventure on saturday. i believe this place is the downfall of america. although we did ride the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. but was it worth the wait?
Friday, August 15, 2008
extermi-bots
ever since james kearl showed me this, I can't stop thinking that it won't be long until hal and his associates take over.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
square-jawed electrodes
our man mitt romney tells lies. Not only that, but the way he lies reminds me of my little brother lafe claiming he wasn't scared by the not-scary movie signs and then spending three weeks straight sleeping with his door open, the light on, and his room strewn with cups half full of water.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
of films and encapsulations
the best movie i have seen in recent history. please watch it if possible.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
like a rolling stone
the album cover that proves mr. olson knew the meaning of those visions of johanna.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
it's all over now, baby blue.
it turns out this web log has somehow found its way onto a list of blogs authored by my fellow 1999 graduates of spanish fork high school, which is weird. something else triggered my memory of high school last week. my junior year, i was privileged to be a part of the 'golden dawn,' a group headed by mr. michael olson, whose only aim, it seemed, was the downfall of tony johns (this was in retaliation to his constant assailing of Nathan Rees, or NR, in Mr. Clark's 7th (or was it sixth?) grade class). mr. olson was obsessed with the number 44. were he to ever encounter triple fours, it would be as if the oracle at delphi (a constant theme in his classroom) were calling down to give guidance and blessing. obviously then, it would make sense that almost all of mr. olson's essays were 444 words long. to be different, and to show my dedication to jesus, i would write essays 333 words in length. but, when a member of the g.d. showed me the fourth verse of this fourth chapter, i wrote all subsequent essays 444 words long. my high school email address quickly became landslide44@webtv.com. landslide in honor of the smashing pumpkins' cover of fleetwood mac, and the 44 in honor of the naturally-occurring portentousness of the golden number. i think the only person i ever emailed from that account was the pig steve forsey.
what does this all matter? i came to understand the deepness of the universe, and my small, electron-like nature within it, when i saw this sign on broome street last week. mind you, i walked by this place every day for the past year. but it wasn't until last week, until the class of sfhs1999 came back to haunt me, that i realized the address was the only thing that really mattered anymore. and what was $10 to know what the rest of my life would bring me? tell me please, oracle of broome street, am i a pair of ragged claws? do i have a bald spot in the middle of my hair?
what does this all matter? i came to understand the deepness of the universe, and my small, electron-like nature within it, when i saw this sign on broome street last week. mind you, i walked by this place every day for the past year. but it wasn't until last week, until the class of sfhs1999 came back to haunt me, that i realized the address was the only thing that really mattered anymore. and what was $10 to know what the rest of my life would bring me? tell me please, oracle of broome street, am i a pair of ragged claws? do i have a bald spot in the middle of my hair?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
