sell alaska to the russians for $700 billion.
Category: politics
an immodest proposal
while we are nationalizing businesses like aig and fannie mae and freddie mac and bear stearns, why don’t we just get it over with and nationalize the health care industry as well?
it’s ironically amusing to me that the bush administration now walks into the sunset having accomplished the most socialist acquisitions in american history. politicians who have screamed for decades about how inefficient it is to have government control and regulation of business are now screaming about the need to take on the financial industry’s bad debt, which was created by the lack of oversight those politicians promoted.
might as well add the entire health care industry to the total weight we assume, since this ship is going to sink anyway. we have spent $816 billion bailing out what we’ve bailed so far. add to that an estimated $1 trillion dollars for assuming the bad debt. add to that the annual deficit of about $500 billion, which does not include the cost of the war in iraq. so add $10 billion a day for that.
add that shit up.
send that shit to china, if we even still can, at who knows what ultimate cost.
and then realize that we’ve done nothing, nothing, nothing to address the financial insolvency of social security, medicare, and medicaid.
it doesn’t matter. no one is going to give you a truly comprehensive look at what’s wrong, so neither candidate is going to give us a truly comprehensive answer. neither obama or mccain. why not? because they can’t be honest about it. and they know it. because there is no fucking answer, that’s why not. actually there’s one answer — america is going to irretrievably sink under the weight of its own accumulated bloat.
how do these all numbers add up?
they add up to rome burning. and everyone has no choice except to fiddle.
sarah palin and her three answers
watched her interview with charlie gibson last night. and i can now unequivocally say that charlie gibson is qualified to be vice president.
sarah palin? not so much.
as kirk and i watched, we kept saying that she sounded like she had been given canned answers to give based on keywords in the question. i counted three talking points that she adapts to whatever question is asked:
“that’s basically all about energy. let me talk about that for a while.”
“alaska is near russia. you can see it from the shore.”
“we have to keep america strong and save her from the terrorists.”
andy borowitz thinks she used a magic 8-ball, which may be nearer the truth.
and she wants to go to war with russia, basically.
i hope that the reportage on this eye-opening look into her vapidity doesn’t get lost among the coverage of hurricane ike.
we can’t afford hurricane sarah either.
all you need to know about republican campaign tactics
…is contained in this short post (with accompanying picture) by jake tapper:
The McCain campaign tells the media to stop intruding on the private life of the unmarried pregnant 17-year-old daughter of Gov. Sarah Palin while staging a photo op with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the 17-year-old’s fiance, Levi Johnston.
talk about have your cake and eat it too.
sarah palin is a very nice lady. her speech last night, if short on specifics, was certainly entertaining. shameless [how many people were passed that poor baby?], but entertaining. the base is no doubt fired up. everyone else probably ranges from horrified to indifferent.
i’m sure i’d enjoy having a beer with her.
i’m also sure that the majority of americans, after the last eight years, no longer see that as a valid electoral test.
laura mcgann
here’s a name you may be hearing from in days to come. i learned about her via talking points memo…she has reported on alaska politics in the past and seems to know the lay of the land.
she’s now in wasilla and has a series of posts at the washington independent. she’s doing the thing that most journalists don’t bother with anymore — shoe leather journalism. digging through archives and records.
here’s a great post as a sample:
I just got off the phone with the very helpful city clerk at the Wasilla City Clerk’s office, Kristie Smithers, who is pulling some documents for me from when Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor.
I told her I appreciated her help, since I’m sure she’s been bombarded with requests these last few weeks. The clerk’s office keeps all City Council meeting agendas, minutes, legislation, ordinances, etc. She chuckled. Then she told me that I’m the first person who has asked her office for anything.
that bears repeating.
“I’m the first person who has asked her office for anything.”
the incompetency is breathtaking.
joe klein nails the palin summary
in a must-read blog post about the desperately devious inanity of the mccain campaign’s newly-started “war on the media”, joe klein neatly summarizes what’s wrong [so far] with sarah palin:
Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.”
and that’s just the topline summary, which leaves out a few choice items. i have faith that american voters are smarter than to fall for yet another republican attempt to slice-and-dice a 50%+1 electoral victory.
obama breaks 50% in polling
for the first time, obama has broken through the 50% support barrier, in gallup and other polls.
a post-convention bounce that will dissipate? maybe. but given that the polling time period includes the beginning of the paling of palin, i’m guessing that 50% may be a new low water mark for obama’s polling.
or at least i’m hoping it is. we’ll see a week or so after the republicans finish their convention.
news you may have missed
i know i did. del martin, pioneer for glbt rights, died last week.
Pioneering lesbian rights activist Del Martin, who married her lifelong partner in June on the first day that same-sex couples here gained that right, has died. She was 87.
Along with six other women, they founded a San Francisco social club for lesbians in 1955 called the Daughters of Bilitis. Under their leadership, the group evolved into the nation’s first lesbian advocacy organization.
at least she got the chance to legally marry her partner of 55 years, just before she died.
quote of the year
from the daily show’s jon stewart:
“[Michelle Obama] must prove she loves America. As opposed to Republicans, who everyone knows love America…they just hate half the people living in it.”
—Jon Stewart
thank god we have this man to keep us all sane.
the best speech you missed: john kerry
whoda thunk i’d be typing that this morning? you figured bill clinton would be spot-on. but kerry hit on mccain hard, very hard, and more effectively, concisely, and entertainingly than anyone else i’ve seen thus far. and his self-deprecating humor was a bonus. from the huffington post article on the subject:
Kerry, his party’s pick in 2004 who failed to defeat incumbent President Bush, said McCain’s changed positions on the Republicans’ tax cuts, climate change bills and immigration leave him shaken. Kerry paraphrased himself, telling the Democratic National Convention delegates: “Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you’re against it.”
i love it. last night was so entertaining. i’ve been watching until 10:00pm on the good old new mac media center — the official democratic convention site has a great, stutter-free, beautiful hd feed. very thoughtful of them. and switching over to abc at 10:00pm. i gotta get my fix of punditry — i like to see how it’s spun.
bill clinton was perfect. he did exactly what i wanted him to do — make a powerful and unrefutable case, as an ex-commander-in-chief, that obama is ready to be commander-in-chief.
check. job well done, bill. i [mostly] forgive you for your transgressions this year.
hillary does the job
to my mind, she did exactly what she needed to do last night. she explained why she was in the race, she hit on the themes that excited her supporters, and she pivoted all that to believably encourage her supporters to support barack obama.
it was a great speech, and to my mind laid to rest all the mindless speculation about a rift. she’s gone far beyond what any other “second-place” candidate has ever done, and for that she should be appreciated and congratulated.
the one sore point everyone keeps mentioning is this whole business of not refuting her argument that he isn’t ready to be commander in chief. you know, the 3am thing. i maintain that for her to say something like, “he’ll be ready at 3am, and 4am, and 5am” or whatever would have sounded craven and inauthentic, and would have blunted the effect of what was an outstanding effort.
it makes perfect sense for bill clinton to make that argument tonight. he should be the one to persuade people that obama is ready to be commander in chief, since he was himself, and hillary hasn’t [yet] been.
i’ll be looking for him to do exactly that tonight.
the two convention speeches you must watch
the best speeches often happen out of prime time. even though i line up pretty well idealogically with dennis kucinich, i’m too practical to delude myself into thinking that someone like this could ultimately get elected. that’s a sad indictment of my crappy attitude and pessimism, but that’s how i feel.
but man what a speech. this should have been in primetime. certainly would have been better and vastly more effective than boring ass old mark warner. good god am i glad that he turned obama down for the vice-presidential slot.
the other speech was in primetime, but i’m betting that all the network talking heads just talked over it. i know that abc did. it was brian schweitzer. i guess he was up for veep but didn’t get it. i know that the guy at fivethirtyeight.com was constantly flogging him as the best choice. after i watched this speech, i could see why. i really knew nothing about him, but he’s marvelous. he has a great way of taking substantive policy and making it accessible, entertaining, and informative. who knew a discussion of energy policy could be so much fun? he’s the sam kinison of politicians, calmed down a bit and wearing a bolo tie.
i’m happy with joe biden, but in a less close election this guy would have been a perfect veep choice.
hillary clinton, veep?
andrew sullivan thinks maybe, and he’s the biggest hillary hater on the planet:
Texting the selection of Hillary at 3 am this Saturday morning would be the coolest campaign gimmick of all time.
i’d go even further, and say that given we know that obama has made his choice, if we haven’t heard the pick in time for tonight’s evening news it probably will be (in true clue-style) hillary at 3am with the text. there’s no good reason to hold on to the info at this point.
obama’s veep
my dream person? al gore.
oddly enough for me, i think that i’d be happy with hillary clinton as well. i’ve calmed down a bit over the last few weeks, and she’d be a great attack dog, which for me is the best quality a vice-president can have.
i like joe biden a lot, so i’d be very happy with him as well.
the rest? i’d need to be convinced. i’m signed up for the text message, and i’m waiting for my cell phone to beep.
mccain unable to stay on message
even when the message itself is pretty idiotic:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday taunted Republican candidate John McCain for agreeing on the importance of keeping tires inflated as an energy-conservation measure after having joined the GOP in mocking the idea.
“It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain,” Obama said as he campaigned in Indiana with Sen. Evan Bayh, widely considered a top-tier candidate for running mate.
When asked about the air-pressure issue during an appearance Tuesday night, McCain said: “I agree with the American Automobile Association. We should all inflate our tires.” Obama had noted that keeping tires inflated and cars tuned was endorsed by both NASCAR and AAA and should be part of any comprehensive plan to reduce reliance on imported oil.
However, McCain had spent recent days ridiculing Obama’s remarks about tire pressure, telling a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D.: “My opponent doesn’t want to drill, he doesn’t want nuclear power, he wants you to inflate your tires.” The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, poked fun at the idea, sending reporters tire gauges with “Obama Energy Plan” emblazoned on the side.
his campaign staff must be ready to slit their throats. completely undercutting your message must do wonders for staff morale. i’ll bet the guy who spent long hours sourcing and distributing those tire gauges must be especially pleased.
obama talks up high speed rail
amen to this:
“If you think about the Midwest, think about right here, what we’ve got is all kind of towns that we could connect,” Obama said. “All of these cities are, they basically take in the air about 45 minutes to an hour to fly.”
“But by the time you get to the airport,” Obama continued, “take off your shoes, get to the terminal, realize that your flight’s been delayed two hours, go pay $10 for a cup of coffee, and a sandwich for another $10, come back, you get on the plane, you’re sitting on the tarmac for another 25 minutes, you finally take off, you’re circling above the city for another half hour, when you land they can’t find your luggage, and then you get to where you’re going — by the time it’s all done it’s a five-hour trip! …So the time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation, connecting all these cities and think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”
getting around europe is so much easier, because they have trains and a complete mass transit infrastructure. having given up my car, i can tell you that there’s nothing better than being able to get everywhere with someone else doing the driving. i hate it when i have to drive somewhere, such as when i visit my mom in florida.
let’s hope this is more than just campaign talk.
wake me up
…when john mccain breaks 44% in a national poll.
obama leads mccain 47% to 41% in this recent poll.
there have also been some polls that show mccain in the lead.
what do they all have in common? obama goes up and down, but i haven’t seen him go lower than 45% in any poll. mccain stays more steady, but never seems to break 44%. this tells me that there’s a significant chunk of people that lean toward obama, but haven’t solidly decided for him yet. if mccain’s percentage rises above 44% without a corresponding rise in the lead for obama, that means that those obama leaners are starting to break for mccain, which may be trouble. so i think 44% is the target to watch for. when he breaks that, everyone will need to take a hard look at what that means. until then, the polls can bounce around and it won’t mean much.
in my opinion. i’ll put the crystal ball away now.
headline of the day
New McCain Ad Bashes Obama for Not Visiting Troops Using Footage of Obama Visiting Troops.
via daily kos. there’s not much this guy can do right, is there?
there’s something to be said for voting for someone using the effectiveness and cohesion of their campaign organization as a criteria.
petraeus for obama’s v.p.
i feel like starting a rumor. or maybe just helping maureen dowd start one. from her column today regarding obama’s overseas trip:
The image of John McCain in a golf cart with Bush 41 in Kennebunkport — with Poppy charmingly admitting that they were “a little jealous†of all the Obama odyssey coverage — was not a good advertisement for the future, especially contrasted with the shots of Gen. David Petraeus and Obama smiling at each other companionably in a helicopter surveying Iraq. (Asked by a Democratic lawmaker a while back why there weren’t more Democrats in the military, General Petraeus smiled slyly and said “there are more than you think.â€)
so could he be obama’s pick for vice-president? there’s probably a million reasons why this wouldn’t work, and won’t happen. but it would be a great checkmate to john mccain in a lot of ways.
vote for obama, who has the best graphics
via ambinder, this is the poster advertising obama’s rally in berlin:
is this not an absolute triumph of design? perhaps a little too perfect — it’s a bit scarily close to german and russian propaganda posters, and i’m not sure they want to reinforce the “obama as messiah” message, even if subliminally. i’m sure that will be a theme that the opposition uses when discussing this, and hopefully that meme won’t gain traction.
but purely from a design standpoint, it’s a total thing of beauty.