My contribution to election commentary at the Houston Chronicle, Politics, Blue Team: http://www.chron.com/politics/commons/blueteam.html?plckBlogId=Blog%3a6c91dd24-fc49-402f-a658-f44bff
Posts
Newspapers Publications circulations are down, all across the country. Some say that it is because of the liberal swing, the media bias towards Obama. This is a stretch. The trend has been a move away from print publications for a while now because almost everyone has access to the internet where all major and minor news sources live. One need not blacken her fingers in an attempt to sure up awareness on current events. No! Now we need only click a link to gain access to the writings of left and right leaning contributors to all publications. And what a glorious thing it is! Now I can go to Al Jazeera , Wapo , CNN, Fox, BBC, NYT , as well as local sites, and tap into the views of other global occupants. I wonder what the numbers are for traffic to news sites. I guarantee that especially during this election season that they are multiplying exponentially. There's also the fantastic additional benefit that we are saving trees by reducing the number of print news sources. Going onl...
Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., maintained last week that, "Liberals hate real Americans that work, and accomplish and achieve." Such notions get traction quickly in today's age of instant communication. Walk around Durango High School, where the crowd was waiting for a McCain rally to start, and people spoke glowingly of the Vietnam hero's kinship with "real America." "It's something Barack Obama can't possibly know, because he's not one of us. It's like the way (Richard) Nixon was able to talk to the hard hats," said Jim Wilson, a district attorney. Reese Resnick , a Durango oil and gas industry salesman, grew up in a small Texas town, the only son in a family of seven. "I had to work for everything I got. That's what I was taught, and Sarah Palin understands that," he said. "People like Obama, they get driven in vans all over Washington. Palin's a working mom." It's the craziest catch 22. If black pe...
Just so we are clear There seems to be some confusion or rather, stubborn- ness , on the right in regards to this whole ACORN thing. It is not voter fraud. It is "possible" registration fraud. Which was brought to light by those that review the registration forms, fact check, ensure that the information is correct, and then submit those forms to the appropriate authorities to register a voter. Voter fraud would be someone coming in and voting under Albert Einstein with ID that said he was Albert Einstein and then returning to vote as Benjamin Franklin with an ID that said he was Benjamin Franklin. The ridiculous way that the right, mostly the very far neocon territory right are the ones that keep repeating this false information. Of course, not acknowledging voting machine tampering in 2000 or 2006, voter records expunged, intimidation and threats, nor will the acknowledge that a republican was busted for registration fraud in California. ACORN has been a great organization ...
No to Dismissing the Nuts We've heard it repeatedly - a few extremists, fringe, a sprinkling or a handful of nuts - that shout out or say an off color comment or bring a stuffed animal - preferably a monkey - with an Obama name tag or with shirts saying " Palin is a c@#t". Let's not focus on them, they are a minority, a smattering, a minuscule contingency that are bound to pop up from time to time. Yeah. Like in a UT clock tower. Or grassy knoll. Or with a gun pointed at a hotel balcony. Or with an arsenal at a university. Yeah. They pop up and if you act like they aren't there, you empower, you embolden them and they do the biding, or what they believe the biding is, of their "repressed" or "humiliated" people. It doesn't take much. Just say that an organization is going to destroy the fabric of America and before you know it - that organization is broken into and workers are receiving death threats at home and at work. Menacing threat...
I guess that everything pales in comparison. I am deeply, deeply saddened that this exists. It breaks my heart that an entire group of people have to deal with this sort of vitriol undercurrent. This was on Pam's House Blend where she also had a man with an Obama sticker wrapped around the head of a curious george doll. He waved it around, guffawing and thinking himself so clever. Later, inside, the MSM focused in on him and suddenly, he didn't seems so brazen, opting to remove the sticker while looking innocently around and then handing the doll to a child. Obama sock puppets and monkeys seem to be all the rage. What a proud moment in American history. I can't wait until I get to explain this Americana to my grand children.
It just seems to get worse........ This weekend Palin repeated the McCain press release, prior to the report's release, that she had been exonerated in any illegal or unethical behavior in relation to Troopergate. Even telling someone, read the report, sir. Doh! Did she not read the part about the justification for the desire to get rid of this trooper - the tasering, the threats, the abuse - were not believed by the commission? Did she not read that they believed that she was remiss in controlling the abuse that was going on in her office, under her nose and that she did indeed violate the public trust? Exactly were is that moral compass she relies so heavily on? Just because you get someone else to do your dirty work, does not mean your hands are clean. Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I forgot. She really doesn't read, does she? My bad.
So, McCain corrected some supporters about their fear should Obama become president and that he is not, in fact, an Arab....(?), and in turn received kudos across the board for stepping up and....correcting people. Even a nod from Obama thanking him for stepping up. I feel like I am looking through one of those crazy fisheye lenses with the Twilight Zone swirling overriding my vision. Honestly. That's what I feel like. Since when do we say wow, amazing, awesome, when someone says - uh, sorry, this is the fact. I mean, talk about your "no grades just stars for everyone!" mentality. Sorry. No. If someone stood up and said to Obama that McCain was an alien, from Mercury, would we have the same reaction? To his credit, Obama told the guy, no, that's not correct, he's a decent guy, a citizen, wow doesn't that make him a great guy!! No. It doesn't. It just makes him a guy that corrects people when they are categorically wrong. Period. But then you turn around, a...
Obama on Ayers: 'I assumed that he had been rehabilitated' From Ben Smith's Blog on Politico In an interview with the sympathetic conservative talk radio host this afternoon, Obama offered the clearest explanation yet of how an extremely careful politician allowed himself anywhere near a former '60s radical who would become a Republican target in this year's presidential campaign. Obama "had assumed" from Bill Ayers' stature in Chicago, he told the Philadelphia-based Michael Smerconish , that Ayers had been "rehabilitated" since his 1960s crimes. In the interview, which was taped this afternoon and will air tomorrow, and which you can listen to above, Obama recalled moving back to Chicago after law school, and becoming involved in civic life there. "The gentleman in question, Bill Ayers, is a college professor, teaches education at the University of Illinois," he said. "That's how i met him -- working on a school reform p...
This will be short.... I want to know about AIP and Palin's involvement. This is the party that preaches secession from the USA. Granted, it was the first dude that was a member. But Palin spoke at a convention and at a meeting as recently as May of this year. I want to know about this PR firm that was hired using tax payer dollars in order to promote Palin in the national arena. Isn't that at least unethical and at most illegal? I want an explanation as to how this would not be considered unethical - the contractor that built the Wasilla Hockey Stadium for 20 million also built her lake house. I want to know why Palin felt it necessary to contact Monegan ( Troopergate ) 36 times and then claim to not have pressured or been involved. I want to know why Palin used personal email accounts to conduct state business and is now charging exorbitant amounts of money for copies of emails. I want to know why Palin cc:d the first dude on hundreds of state business related emai...
So...when did you stop beating your kids? What is inherently impossible about this whole Ayers non-issue is the proof. How does one prove a non-relationship? How does one prove something that doesn't exist. All this rattling about a 60's domestic terrorist when Obama was 8, turned college professor with a specializing interest in local schools, can go nowhere. Obama has been vetted for 20 months. If there was a smoking gun - perhaps grainy video of them sitting somewhere tete-a-tete, in deep conversation, or correspondence or something that would give this issue legs, then the media, always looking for a scandal or way to knock someone off the pedestal, would have run with it. They have not. How do I prove that my neighbor, who welcomed me into the neighborhood by having a block party, who happens to be member of the Black Panther Party and also sat on the PTA with me as well as participated in several school programs and organizations, is not a close personal friend? How do I ...
Palin - drone So, if you watched the VP debates, you probably noticed that whenever Biden brought up Bush and active policies of the administration, Palin would make an effort to minimize the devastating truths of those statements by saying that Biden was dredging up the past and golly, for a campaign of "change", they sure seemed mired in the past... dontyaknow . And so over the weekend...48 hours later... Palin brings up Ayers. The guy that lives down the street that worked on several school programs with Obama and hosted one of his first "meet and greets". Ayers IN THE 60's was part of a domestic "terrorist" group that had specific targets within the country. Today Ayers is a professor of education and a Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois. He has also authored a series of books about parenting and educating children, including: A Kind and Just Parent; To Become a Teacher; City Kids; City Teachers; To Teach; The Good Presc...
A direct quote from the woman that wishes to be the next Vice President of the United States...... "Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also." If someone could please offer a translation....I would appr...
One more thing... I can't believe I left this out. And I wonder if anyone else caught it.. At one point, Ifill asked if, because of the financial crisis, would either campaigns have to pull back on any promises they had made on the trail. Palin did that monumentally annoying fake question thing (like with the Russians...where...where..I SAY...where do they go (head tilt, eye squint in mock questioning)? Alaska! It's right there!!!!). She said "how long have I been at this (head tilt, eye squint) like 5 weeks??" (Not just a little bit telling.) But then she turns around and starts talking about expanding the power of the VP. W....o.....w. 5 weeks ago, she didn't even know what the VP did. Now, even though she acknowledged several times that she is inexperienced, she wants to expand the VP power and control.
Phew! I have to say, I was nervous before the debate. I had images of Palin coming out and decimating Biden with facts and knowledge and sticking it to the people that have been laughing at her for the past couple of weeks. I half expected Biden to slip and say honey or something equally as dooming. But what a relief! Palin came out with her fixin ', her hunkerin ', her smarmy, snarky tone repeating the same tired litany of bullet points that the McCain campaign reiterates at every campaign stop. I think this is easy for her. She doesn't have to answer specific questions, she can actually just say what she wants to say without really answering any questions at all. She tried to do that joe six pack folksy crap, which I just find to be false since her continuous references to being just like us fall not just a bit flat now that I know she is worth 12 million dollars. But there was one point in the debate where I felt she displayed the real Palin . Biden got emotional...
One of the Huge Problems with the McCain Campaign "McCain Campaign" is really quite lyrical. Just noticed that. Anyway. I saw John on an interview where he was saying that he didn't see the results the interviewer was talking about - not in the polls, not in the throngs of people that are coming to their events, no, he was thrilled that Palin is wildly popular. That's the problem with not being involved with technology. Not even the latest. Just technology. I read a plethora of papers everyday...all of which I can name. They are predominantly liberal leaning but in my feeble attempt to remain aware of all that is around me, I read conservative papers as well. And I check polls and latest information on blogs. John appears to not be checking. If he did he would see that over 50% of people polled believe that Palin is unqualified. They also believe that she will hurt the party. I want to say that he is "old school". But that's not the case. My beloved m...