Quick Slants for October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween! I am looking forward to taking my critters out trick or treating, and Daddy is dressing up as well. A picture will come later, but in the spirit of this campaign season it is of course a political costume.

What’s up with Alaska?

There must be something in the water up there. Just a few weeks after Sarah Palin denied violating the law, despite the fact that she was found to have violated ethics laws, now Senator Ted Stevens is claiming that he hasn’t been convicted of anything, even though he was convicted on seven counts last week. While I respect the fact that there is corruption on both sides of the aisle, what the hell is it about Republicans and their refusal to accept responsibility for their own actions? Hey Ted, when a jury of your peers says that you are guilty, we call that a conviction. Oh, and Ted… this Golden Momo is for you.

More Alaska BS

Let me get this straight… Sarah Palin is suggesting her right to free speech is being violated because she is being criticized by the media for her negative attacks? Wow, that is just rich. Coming from the party that has curtailed civil liberties for the past eight years, that is really rich. So Sarah, consider yourself a Golden Momo recipient again as well.

Independent analysts say Obama tax plan better

If you are earning under $250,000 a year, you are likely better off under Barack Obama. So concludes an independent panel gathered to compare the tax plans of the two candidates. At the request of the New York Times, the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, and Deloitte, examined both plans. The study found that those making under $100,000 were far better off under Obama, while those making between $100,000 and $250,000 would do about the same under both plans. Only in the highest income group would Obama raise taxes, whereas McCain would be cutting them. One of the key parts of this proposal, noted in the article, was that Obama’s tax plan would eliminate income taxes for people over age 65 earning less than $50,000 a year. That is a huge savings for many elderly.

In addition to this study, The Economist magazine has endorsed Barack Obama.

Storck the Racist Dork

We have another racist Momo in the house. A local GOP Chairman in Florida sent the following e-mail in response to large numbers of blacks showing up to vote in Hillsborough County (the emphasis is added by me):

—– Original Message —–
From: Chairman David Storck
To: ‘Storck David’
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:09 AM
Subject: VOTE

This e-mail was sent to me from one of our Volunteers in the Temple Terrace office. If you think it can help us win this election please pass it on. This election is now in our hands everyone can make a difference.

Thanks
Dave

THE THREAT:

HERE IN TEMPLE TERRACE, FL OUR REPUBLICAN HQ IS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR LIBRARY, WHICH IS AN EARLY VOTING SITE. I SEE CARLOADS OF BLACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS COMING FROM THE INNER CITY TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR CHANCE TO GET A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY SEEM TO CARE LITTLE THAT HE IS AT MINIMUM, SOCIALIST, AND PROBABLY MARXIST IN
HIS CORE BELIEFS. AFTER ALL, HE IS BLACK–NO EXPERIENCE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS–BUT HE IS BLACK.

I ALSO SEE YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENTS AND THEIR PROFESSORS FROM USF PARKING THEIR CARS WITH THE PROMINENT ‘OBAMA’ BUMPER STICKERS. THE STUDENTS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC TO BE VOTING IN A HISTORIC ELECTION WHERE THERE MAY BE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT. THE COLLEGE PROFESSORS, PARTICULARLY IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, FOR THE MOST PART HAVE LITTLE OR NO EXPERIENCE IN THE WORK-A-DAY WORLD. THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN MOSTLY ACADEMIC
UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF LIBERAL COLLEGE PROFESSORS. FOR THEM, A LITTLE SOCIALISM AND ANTIAMERICANISM IS A GOOD THING. AFTER ALL, IF TERRORISTS ATTACK US, WE MUST HAVE DONE
SOMETHING TO PROVOKE THEM.

YOU AND I UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS THE POTENTIAL OBAMA PRESIDENCY PRESENTS TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. THE SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH, INTRODUCING UNION INTIMIDATION IN THE WORKPLACE, INCREASED DANGERS TO OUR NATION BY TERRORISTS, CUTTING OUR DEFENSE BUDGET BY 25%, TURNING OUR TAX SYSTEM INTO A NATIONAL WELFARE SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC POLICIES THAT COULD DRIVE US INTO A DEPRESSION.

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO STOP OBAMA: VOTE !!!——- (AND GET EVERYONE YOU
KNOW TO VOTE) ONLY YOU AND I CAN STOP OBAMA NOW ! !

SEVEN DAYS TO GO AND WE MUST ACT IMMEDIATELY..

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR YOU AND I:

• VOTE. OBAMA IS ADVERTISING ON TV ASKING ALL HIS SUPPORTERS TO TAKE A DAY OFF WORK OR
CLASS TO VOTE.
• CONTACT PERSONALLY EVERYONE YOU KNOW REMINDING THEM TO VOTE AND HOW IMPORTANT
IT IS. PARENTS, VOTING-AGE CHILDREN, IN-LAWS, CO-WORKERS, CHURCH CONTACTS, SCHOOL
CONTACTS, BUSINESS CONTACTS. MAKE A LIST AND CONTACT THEM.
• SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST THAT WANTS TO DEFEAT OBAMA.
YOUR EMAIL IS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL IF YOU USE IT WISELY AND PROMPTLY. YOU CAN REACH 10,000,000 PEOPLE IN THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS IF AS FEW AS TEN PEOPLE ON YOUR LIST TAKE PROMPT ACTION AND TEN PEOPLE ON THEIR LIST AND TEN PEOPLE ON THEIR LIST…YOU GET THE IDEA.
LET’S ALL PRAY AND WORK AND WE WILL SURELY CELEBRATE OUR VICTORY ON 11/5/08.

David A. Storck Chairman
Hillsborough County
Republican Party
chairmanstorck@earthlink.net
Visit Our Website
Paid for by the Hillsborough County Republican Party. Not authorized by any candidate or
candidate’s committee. www.HCRP.org

Wow. I would continue to comment on the ignorance of this e-mail, but it truly speaks for itself.

Obama making serious run at Arizona

I don’t think he is going to take the state, but Barack Obama is serious about making life uncomfortable for John McCain in his own home state. This says a lot about where both campaigns are functioning. McCain is on the defensive, spending resources on red states while fighting in vain to capture Pennsylvania, something that is exceptionally unlikely. Obama on the other hand is fighting almost completely on McCain’s turf. This tells us a lot about what we can expect on Election Night.

Speaking of Election Night…

Here is another reminder that I will be doing a live blog that night, and am welcoming comments.

While I was going to wait until Monday night to post my predictions, I am going to put them up instead tonight or tomorrow morning. Most pundits agree that the polls over the last few days are a waste of time, and frankly I think most people have decided who they are voting for. So keep your eyes open for my prediction of the outcome.

Family Guy smacks down Bill O’

From tonight’s Countdown. Well done, Seth.

Late Night Slants

- Here is Obama’s infomercial from tonight. This is impressive stuff, and it will no doubt influence more moderate voters. While it is substantive, it is also deeply personal, not just for Barack Obama but also for what Americans are experiencing right now.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Thanks to HeartInSanFrancisco from You Tube for posting these.

- This new Obama ad reminds us how McCain used his first “presidential” decision. Not overly effective, but definitely an attention getter as people get ready to go to the polls.

- Today McCain’s top pollster, Bill McInturff, showed us what lipstick on a pig really looks like. He stated that the presidential race is “functionally tied” in a campaign memo. This is cherry picking and overstating to the maximum and does absolutely nothing to counter the state poll numbers that make it clear that Obama is actually pulling away in several key states. Mr. McInturff, you don’t even qualify for a Golden Momo; this is just too pathetic for such an honor.

Don’t get me wrong; Democrats and Obama supporters should stay worried, and not take the leads for granted. They need to work, and work hard, right up until Tuesday. And then, it is up to the American people.

-Rachel Maddow did a great (and very balanced) job of separating fact from fiction on the claims of the McCain campaign.

- We do have a Golden Momo winner tonight, however. And it is Mr. McInturff’s boss, Senator McCain. Today McCain mocked Obama for delaying the World Series tonight with his infomercial. The trouble with this claim? Fox (that great liberal network) denied this and said the game began on time. Had McCain bothered to pay attention, he would have known that the pre-game was affected, not the game itself. You know John, the least you could do is have your facts straight. But that would be new for your campaign, wouldn’t it?

- As noted, Obama is now pulling away in Colorado. Pennsylvania and Virginia are nearly locked up. And, almost unbelievably, Indiana is looking like it might track to Obama. I still expect Indiana to stay in the Republican column, but this type of broad strategy is forcing McCain to spend almost all of his time on defense. Even worse for McCain, he has been forced to conduct the dreaded “robocalls” in his own home state of Arizona. This just serves to dilute further his campaign’s assertion that the race is “functionally tied.” That is horseshit, designed only to maintain the morale of the campaign in the final days of its existence.

To illustrate this point, here is a clip from last night’s Rachel Maddow show. She humorously uses a football field to illustrate the current battle. Nice job, Rachel.

- Today Sarah Palin tried to link Barack Obama to an “extremist” Palestinian.

Um, Governor… you might want to look before you leap into that steaming pile of crap. It turns out the good Senator McCain gave that same person an awful lot of money. Keith Olbermann summarizes it nicely. Next distraction?

Oh, and Gov? You get to share the Momo spotlight tonight with your boss.

- With so many Momos of late, we need a Citizen of the Day. Thus I present Republican Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, who extended early voting hours in his state because of long lines and horrific waiting times to vote. The Republican legislature in Florida had previously curtailed early voting, but Crist saw this as “a people decision.” Good for him.

- Andrew Wahl brings us his talent once again in this very well done pre-election cartoon, contemplating the demise of the Republican Party.

Cartoon by Andrew Wahl

Cartoon by Andrew Wahl

- Finally, here is Stephen Colbert’s take on “Obama the Socialist.” Funny stuff.

Caption this photo

Here’s something I’ve been wanting to add to this blog for a while. So feel free to suggest a caption to the photo below. Please add a comment that includes your first name and location, as well as your caption. The funniest will be added here. And please, keep it relatively clean.

Add your caption below

Add your caption below

Rick from Illinois: “Where did I go wrong? I had it all… money, women, cars… and then I attended a Palin rally in rural Pennsylvania. Now look at me.”

FSogol from Virginia: Sadly, McCain’s “Joe the Spoiled Frat Boy” campaign fizzled before it started. Why so glum, Joe?

Desperate Dole caught lying

Today we have a rather unexpected “Moron of the Moment.”

Facing the prospect of losing her Senate seat, Elizabeth Dole has opted to utilize a Rovian tactic to keep her sinking campaign afloat; lying. In a 30 second ad, Dole asserted that her opponent, Kay Hagan, is godless. And the ad concludes with a female voice saying, “There is no God.”

The trouble for Dole is that it is not Hagan’s voice, and she never said such a thing.

Hagan has responded with two ads, and is seeking a “cease and desist” order against Dole.

While this is a typical Republican strategy, it is unfortunate, and I would like to believe that it is beneath Elizabeth Dole, who has spent many years as a public servant. This seems a classless way to end a political career.

Dole’s ad:

Hagan’s response ads:

David Gergen on “socialism”

Here is an interview with David Gergen where he makes an exceptional point. If Barack Obama is advocating socialism, then so did Ronald Reagan, and so did Teddy Roosevelt. The McCain/Palin campaign has been using the word “socialist” to drive fear into the electorate. And perhaps people who don’t think very deep will bite, but the fact of the matter is that there are highly successful elements of socialism built into our capitalist economy. And, as noted here previously, Palin herself has recognized that Alaska is highly socialized, and she has said that in a positive way. The current name-calling and fear-mongering is baseless, but it’s all that McCain and Palin have left.

And let’s remember that Gergen is no leftist; he advised three Republican presidents (including Reagan) before advising Bill Clinton, who by all rights was a conservative Democrat.

Thanks to Crooks & Liars for catching this one.

Gergen: Now, one of the most effective popular programs we’ve had in the last three decades. It’s called the earned income tax credit. It’s a program whereby, if you’re a working person, a working couple and you’re below the poverty line, the government will actually give you money. That’s a redistributed program. It’s a program which takes money from the upper classes and gives it to the lower — to the working poor.

Now who started that program? The earned income tax credit? Ronald Reagan. It was one of the — it was an achievement of the Reagan administration that Bill Clinton then built on.

Quick Slants for October 29, 2008

The campaigns are into their final week; only six more days until the general election.

- This mornings polls show that Pennsylvania is a near-certain win for Obama, despite all the time, energy and money that McCain/Palin have dumped on the state. Ohio and Colorado are also looking pretty blue right now, and Florida and Nevada are tilting that way. The polls are tied in North Carolina, and are at a near tie in Georgia and, of all places, Arizona. While the only real poll that matters is next Tuesday, the fact is that so many polls (from many sources) are being done that it makes the information pretty reliable when poll after poll after poll is showing the same thing. It is extremely unlikely that those results will change significantly between now and next Tuesday.

While the pundits and campaigns talk about the race “tightening,” that seems true only in the national “horse race” polls, which have tightened up a bit in the past week. But looking at the state polls, which are far more reliable in terms of projecting a winner, the advantage is Obama’s, and not by a little. In addition, John McCain’s gutter tactics in the last month could easily backfire when voters turn out next Tuesday. After this election, Republicans will analyze what went wrong in this election, and the smart ones will realize that the old, tired arguments of the Republican Party just aren’t working anymore.

- Early voting is confirming that there is a significant surge in black voting this election.

fivethirtyeight.com

source: fivethirtyeight.com

- Both Presidential candidates, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Senators Norm Coleman, Jim DeMint, John Sununu and Gordon Smith have all called on Ted Stevens to resign. Now you would expect it from Obama and McCain. As for the others… what do they have in common? They are all involved in fierce battles to hold onto their jobs. While McConnell looks like he will eke this election out, the others are facing a more bleak picture.

- While tonight’s thirty minute Obama infomercial carries some risk for the candidate, it could also very well seal the election for the Democratic candidate.

- The vultures are coming to pick the flesh off the bones. Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney are both expressing their public doubts about the possibility of a McCain win. And Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels isn’t planning to attend a Palin rally in his state, in the last week of the election.

- Sarah Palin is a Socialist? By her (and McCain’s) own standards, she sure is. This commentary is extremely sarcastic, and just as accurate.

- Speaking of Governor Palin, according to the McCain campaign, she is no longer “rogue” or a “diva.” Now she is a “whack job.” Amazing.

- McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin confirmed what we already knew; John McCain’s health care proposal isn’t as good as what most Americans already get at work. In fact, Holtz-Eakin said what we already have is “way better.” He continued to say that McCain’s policies will make the health care situation in this country worse.

That’s not the change we need.

REMINDER: Election Night Blogging

We are one week out, so it is a good time to remind readers that I will be doing real time election updates on November 4th beginning at 6pm CDT. It is at that time that the first polls will be closing in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. As I also indicated earlier, I will be posting my election predictions on the night of November 3rd.

I invite readers to check in and see the results, as well as to offer commentary. As long as the comments are not profane (and ARE relevant), they will be posted, so feel free to contribute.

Please note that I, and many others, will be at the mercy of Word Press that night. While I am not expecting a problem publishing that night, the fact is that there are going to be a lot of people online that night, so delays might well be possible.

Quick Slants for October 28, 2008

- The definition of denial; it’s not just a river in Egypt:

- Here is some more information on the two skinheads that now stand charged with plotting to kill Barack Obama and many other African-Americans.

- Politico offers a terrific article in response to criticism that its election coverage is one-sided in favor of Barack Obama. To summarize, their response is that a crappy campaign deserves coverage that reflects the crappiness of the campaign. Since Obama’s campaign is operating efficiently and, dare I say, almost flawlessly, it gets better coverage. A note to McCain kool-aid drinkers; if your candidate wants better coverage, he needs to start doing things to deserve it. And attacking Barack Obama incessantly while offering no real or new solutions of his own won’t cut it.

An excerpt:

…Okay, let’s just get this over with: Yes, in the closing weeks of this election, John McCain and Sarah Palin are getting hosed in the press, and at Politico.

And, yes, based on a combined 35 years in the news business we’d take an educated guess—nothing so scientific as a Pew study—that Obama will win the votes of probably 80 percent or more of journalists covering the 2008 election. Most political journalists we know are centrists—instinctually skeptical of ideological zealotry—but with at least a mild liberal tilt to their thinking, particularly on social issues.

So what?

Before answering the question, indulge us in noting that the subject of ideological bias in the news media is a drag. The people who care about it typically come at the issue with scalding biases of their own. Any statement journalists make on the subject can and will be used against them. So the incentive is to make bland and guarded statements. Even honest ones, meanwhile, will tend to strike partisans as evasive or self-delusional.

Here goes anyway.

There have been moments in the general election when the one-sidedness of our site—when nearly every story was some variation on how poorly McCain was doing or how well Barack Obama was faring—has made us cringe.

As it happens, McCain’s campaign is going quite poorly and Obama’s is going well. Imposing artificial balance on this reality would be a bias of its own…

- In case you still have your appetite today, here is something to take it away. Predictably, the Republican Party campaign has sunk so low that one of its 527’s (The National Republican Trust) is bringing back Jeremiah Wright, in what is probably one of the worst political ads ever created. It looks, sounds, and smells desperate, just like John McCain. The ad is being targeted at voters in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. These knuckleheads still haven’t figured out that between the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Obama has taken every body blow they have… fair and unfair… and dusted himself off and walked away. It’s not working, and this brings us to the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Well, to the fine people at goptrust.com, you get my vote… for Morons of the Moment.

- Here’s another great cartoon from Mr. Fish:

- Finally, a place where John McCain isn’t behind in the polls… more seriously, this is great scientific news.

Evidence found of solar system around nearby star
By Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — For the first time, astronomers think that they’ve found evidence of an alien solar system around a star close enough to Earth to be visible to the naked eye.

They say that at least one and probably three or more planets are orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, 10.5 light-years — about 63 trillion miles — from Earth. Only eight stars are closer.

The host star, slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, is in the constellation Eridanus — the name of a mythological river — near Orion in the northern sky.

Epsilon Eridani is much younger than the sun, about 850 million years old compared with 4.5 billion years for our system.

“This really is a system like our solar system was when it was five times younger than it is now,” said one of the discoverers, Massimo Marengo , an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. “It’s like a time machine for our solar system.”

“This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth,” said Dana Backman , of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. , the lead author of a report to be published Jan. 10 in The Astrophysical Journal .

SETI chose Epsilon Eridani as one of the first targets in its long — but so far vain — search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence in 1960.

The suspected planets are too far away to be detected directly, so their presence has to be inferred by indirect measurements. Their star is so near, however, that some astronomers think that they may be able to see its planets with better telescopes within the next decade.

One of the planets, a gas giant 1 { times heavier than Jupiter, was discovered in 2000 by Barbara McArthur , an astronomer at the University of Texas in Austin . She measured the slight wobble in the star’s position as the planet swung around it. Further observations by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006 confirmed its existence, McArthur said at the time.

Now Backman’s team has deduced the presence of at least two more planets, after space- and ground-based telescopes separately revealed two belts of rocky asteroids and an outer icy ring circling Epsilon Eridani.

The inner asteroid belt is about 280 million miles from its host star, the same distance as our own ring of asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. The second belt is about the same distance as Uranus is in our system.

Finally, a wide, third ring of icy objects extends billions of miles beyond Epsilon Eridani, resembling the so-called Kuiper Belt of mini-planets outside Pluto.

In 2002, Alice Quillen , an astronomer at the University of Rochester in New York state , reported that unusual clumps of material in the outer ring probably indicated the presence of a Saturn -size planet in a Pluto-like orbit. Her finding hasn’t been confirmed, but “I still think there is a planet out there of this size,” Quillen said in an e-mail.

According to Marengo, the gaps between these belts were created when clouds of dust and rocks consolidated into planets, as happened in the early days of our solar system. He likened the process to the formation of Saturn’s famous rings, which are separated by spaces cleared out by little moons.

“The easiest way to explain the gaps is to say there are planets there,” Marengo said. “It’s the same way as the rings of Saturn are kept stable by the moons of Saturn .”

“I think these rings are probably telling us about how systems clear out after planets have formed,” Quillen said. “It’s pretty exciting to catch such a nearby system in this critical stage.”

Marengo raised the possibility that more Earthlike planets might exist in the space between Epsilon Eridani and the inner dust ring.

“The inside belt is cleared, like in our solar system,” he said. “There could be terrestrial planets inside, but we can’t detect them yet.”