Archive for October 15th, 2008

At 8:45, we’ll be opening the doors to our last debate liveblogging session this election cycle. It’s been fun, kids.

For liveblogging goodness, Click Here.

Dick Morris is smoking some good shit:

In the meantime, Republican bastions like South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana are now no better than tossups. If the election took place this week, it would be a wipeout of major proportions. Even McCain‘s home state of Arizona has to be classified as leaning toward Obama.

Damn, and I thought I was an optimist. I’m with him on Georgia to an extent, but the rest of it just rockets light-years beyond wrong and pulls up right at the brink of utterly insane. I mean seriously, South Carolina?

There are only two explanations I can think of:

1) He’s weighting Hispanic and African American turnout way, way heavier than anyone else. There may be grounds for doing so, but not to this extent.

2) He’s trying to set up some spin. “See, the Republicans should’ve been stomped into oblivion! What’s wrong with Obama that he couldn’t sweep all 538 electoral votes? He has no mandate to govern!”

Occam’s razor, of course, would suggest that my initial assumption is correct and that Morris is reading poll results while he’s high as a friggin’ dirigible. God help us all when he gets the munchies.

The past few weeks we have heard of any number or horrendous things being yelled out at Palin/McCain rallies, and seen any number of racist demonstrations from the crowd.  So far, however, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and “official” Republican outlets have tried to stay away from the precipice.  No more.

Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Sen. Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to “Waterboard Barack Obama” – material that offended even state GOP leaders.

And, of course, the appeal to false equivalency: “Hector Barajas, a California Republican Party spokesman,

Sacramento Republicans Website

said Democrats have been playing the race card, but that the local party went too far in this instance.”  I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.  The “race card”?  This wasn’t about drawing attention to racial distinctions.  This is about a Republican Party website calling for the torture of a presidential candidate.

I’m just curious.  At any point, do you think anyone involved in this wonder to themselves how we got to this point?  Because there was a time not so long ago when calling for an opposing politician to be tortured and/or killed was beyond the pale.  Now it’s just part of the political landscape.

H/T Jesse.

Poink is a small, one-woman business that sells adorable plush critters with the tagline of “handmade friendship.” Plus, I’ve been playing Spore lately and I think I might try and recreate one or two of these (for the record, no the game isn’t the be all and end all, but I do enjoy making cute critters and running around the place).  The flavour text on these items is charming … I’d like to introduce you to Ramone:  “When you say Ramone’s name, you have to roll the ‘R’. He’s an all-natural whale, and very popular with the ladies. Though all whales are beautiful singers, Ramone can add that Latino spice that will make your hips swivel.”

“Ramone,” $35

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I love it when Nobel Laureates get all gossipy:

There are all sorts of connections between the Nixon administration and the Bush administration. But here’s one I didn’t know about: Hank Paulson was John Ehrlichman’s assistant in 1972 and 1973.

I had no idea either, but I don’t find it even remotely surprising. The last eight years have been nothing but a giant do-over for geriatric Nixon leftovers, as if they were trying to pull off all their Imperial Presidency crap without getting impeached this time.

Sigh. Only a few months left.