By Hanlon, on August 31st, 2008 at 09:10 PM
 If there was any question about it, it’s been eliminated by now. See, I was watching Bush’s little press conference talking about Gustav earlier today, and there was a comment in the middle of it that was, well, surprisingly admirable.
I will not be traveling to Louisiana tomorrow because I do not want my visit to impede in any way the response of our emergency personnel. I’ve been talking to the governors, yesterday and today; I also spoke with Mayor Nagin of New Orleans to make sure that they’re getting everything they need from the federal government to prepare for what all anticipate will be a difficult situation. I hope to be able to go to Louisiana as soon as conditions permit.
Well played. In 2005, the “photo op” criticism was running rampant. Accusations that Bush was getting in the way of the response flew, that he was taking National Guard and FEMA personnel away from doing their jobs just so they could be ferried around with him. So I tip my hat to the man, good show.
McCain’s plan, however, is the exact opposite.
The Arizona senator and Alaska governor will fly to Mississippi on Sunday to view preparations for the hurricane, adding a last-minute trip in an effort to contrast their would-be administration with President George W. Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Since the convention isn’t going to be delayed, he’s going to impede on whatever he damn well pleases just so he gets that precious face time. It probably has something to do with the fact that the media’s going to be down in the Gulf instead of Minnesota.
Am I suggesting that John McCain is potentially putting people at risk by taking resources needed for the response to a terrible natural disaster in an effort to follow the media in order to give himself more face time on television? Yes. Yes I am.
By Hanlon, on August 31st, 2008 at 08:26 PM
 The internet is an amazing thing. Unlike John McCain, we’re utilizing our resources to actually learn about this woman and we’ve figured out more in about three days than he did in… however long it took him to choose the woman (which may have in fact been less than three days).
An absolutely amazing eye-opener is from 2006, before Palin was elected. A blog sent all the potential officeholders a questionairre and then recorded their responses. Take a look-see. Highlights:
1. Complete the sentence by checking the applicable phrases (you can check more than one).
Abortion should be:
SP: I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor’s determination that the mother’s life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent’s life.
Keep in mind that doesn’t offer exceptions for things like rape and incest. So if your uncle rapes his 14 year old niece and she gets knocked up… tough shit.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that abortion stances are pretty much pointless. Roe v Wade isn’t going to be overturned any time soon, and abortion laws aren’t likely to change too much. That said, it’s still a nice peek into the woman’s brain.
10. Do you support the Alaska Supreme Court’s ruling that spousal benefits for state employees should be given to same-sex couples? Why or why not?
SP: No, I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.
So, the next time you hear her claim that despite being against gay marriage, she’s for gay rights, you’ll know she’s absolutely full of shit. This is the kind of thinking that leaves a gay man sitting outside the hospital room while his lifelong partner sits inside slowly dying. We’re talking a hyper-homophobic platform that puts her at odds with a great majority of the country.
Here’s the stupid, though:
11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
This is as historically accurate as saying “if English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me”. The phrase “Under God” didn’t show up until the 1950s. It wasn’t in the pledge or on our money before that. So no, it wasn’t good enough for the founding fathers, they avoided any such verbiage and would be downright offended that there’s so many expressions of Christian faith invading our body politic.
So that’s today’s lesson. Sarah Palin is a severely right-wing bigot who doesn’t know jack shit about foreign policy or American history. She’s not even qualified to teach a high school social studies class, let alone be Vice President. And they’re going to wrap her up in her gender and pray that this insulates her from criticism. Sad.
By Hanlon, on August 31st, 2008 at 08:05 PM
 I really do have to respond to a lot of media reports lately, particularly from the AP. Today’s flavor came in the form of an article talking about the RNCC, the delay, and McCain’s actions concerning it all.
John McCain tore up the script for his Republican National Convention on Sunday, canceling most opening-day activities and positioning himself as above mere politics as Hurricane Gustav churned toward New Orleans.
It’s not exactly nice objective journalism to write “tore up the script”, but that’s pretty minor. What gives me a migraine is this act that doing so is being “above mere politics”. As the article goes on to say, McCain doesn’t want to make the mistakes that happened during Katrina, the largest of which was the image of being unconcerned with the disaster. Guess what? If McCain didn’t delay the convention, if he did try to sort of “have the convention anyway”, the first response would be “hey it’s like Katrina”. Say what you want to, but this proves he’s still thinking at least partially thinking politically.
The fact that Bush and Cheney are out, as are a number of other GOP heavyweights, is significant by the way. The convention is, while nominally about presenting the nominee, more a media spectacle intended to be a gigantic gala promoting said nominee. When half of your headliners aren’t showing up, there’s some problems.
McCain said in an interview with NBC that it was possible he would make his acceptance speech not from the convention podium but via satellite from the Gulf Coast region.
Case in point.
Again, I’m not politicizing the hurricane, but I’ll absolutely analyze the Republican response to it. They’re going to have to handle this incredibly carefully, because as good as it will in fact look to have them helping the cause, you know the Democrats are going to be doing the same. It’ll be a full-court press on both sides, and simply “helping people not die” isn’t going to work well.
Take home message: don’t buy into this “they aren’t playing politics” line. It would have been suicide to have a convention and not address the disaster, and they know it. Much like the fact that Bush didn’t say anything about the Asian tsunami for three days had no actual bearing on helping the people, it was just an image. Had he said something within an hour of the water hitting land, nothing would have changed from their perspective, but it gave the appearance of greater concern. It’s the same gambit here. Period.
By Will, on August 31st, 2008 at 07:46 PM
 Yesterday, Right Wing News posted a list of “Twenty-Five Reasons to Love Sarah Palin for VP.” In a rare fit of capricious snark, I’ve decided to go through all 25 reasons and see just how desperate they are. I mean, the press has been hard pressed to find 25 facts about Sarah Palin, so you have to imagine just how much Right Wing News is stretching to find 25 politically useful things.
It surprised me too, but I didn’t find every single one of these items to be pathetic and ridiculous.
1. She’s got chief executive experience in government, unlike Obama, Biden and even McCain.
True. Of course, that executive experience consists of a short, two-year stint as Alaska’s governor, preceded by an eight year run as mayor of Wasilia (population 8,000 and change, if you’re feeling generous). Not to sound like a complete douchebag, but that experience strikes me as far less relevant than years (and in Biden and McCain’s case, decades) on the national political stage, even if it is on the legislative side.
2. She gives renewed hope to women of America that they will live to see the first woman president. This is especially touching when it comes to seniors who long to see the glass ceiling broken in their lifetimes.
Technically true, but horribly sad that one of the top justifications of Palin as VP is that even the right wing aknowledges that McCain will probably die in office and leave her to run the joint. Even if she is a gyno-American, she’s certainly not the best choice considering the “experience!” I’m a feminist, but I’d like a few criteria beyond “she has a vagina” when picking our first woman president.
Read More ->
Yesterday, Right Wing News posted a list of “Twenty-Five Reasons to Love Sarah Palin for VP.” In a rare fit of capricious snark, I’ve decided to go through all 25 reasons and see just how desperate they are. I mean, the press has been hard pressed to find 25 facts about Sarah Palin, so you have to imagine just how much Right Wing News is stretching to find 25 politically useful things.
It surprised me too, but I didn’t find every single one of these items to be pathetic and ridiculous.
1. She’s got chief executive experience in government, unlike Obama, Biden and even McCain.
True. Of course, that executive experience consists of a short, two-year stint as Alaska’s governor, preceded by an eight year run as mayor of Wasilia (population 8,000 and change, if you’re feeling generous). Not to sound like a complete douchebag, but that experience strikes me as far less relevant than years (and in Biden and McCain’s case, decades) on the national political stage, even if it is on the legislative side.
2. She gives renewed hope to women of America that they will live to see the first woman president. This is especially touching when it comes to seniors who long to see the glass ceiling broken in their lifetimes.
Technically true, but horribly sad that one of the top justifications of Palin as VP is that even the right wing aknowledges that McCain will probably die in office and leave her to run the joint. Even if she is a gyno-American, she’s certainly not the best choice considering the “experience!” I’m a feminist, but I’d like a few criteria beyond “she has a vagina” when picking our first woman president.
Read More ->
By Hanlon, on August 31st, 2008 at 12:42 PM
 This is looking like it’s going to be the big one, folks.
A lot of other blogs are taking potshots at the GOP, whether or not McCain is doing something or other as a photo op and almost gleefully making parallels to Hurricane Katrina, putting up photos of Bush playing guitar or McCain eating cake, whatever. Not the time for that, I don’t think.
Gustav is going to be a category 4 hitting smack into New Orleans, 900 miles across compared to Katrina’s 400. Mayor Nagin is aiming for 100% evacuation and I’m hearing from other areas that evacuations are happening even where the storm isn’t predicted to hit directly.
It’s worth remembering that the disaster of Katrina wasn’t the storm itself, it was flooding from the levees. Now it’s the storm coming down directly. Those levees aren’t finished rebuilding now, I just heard on ye old television that 84% of the reconstruction is behind schedule. If I were a religious man, part of me would think that God sent Katrina so everyone would get their shit in line for the big one.
Bush is about to make a speech, and I know I don’t want to get political at a time like this, but it’s hard to avoid the fact that the White House did snipe at Clinton’s “feel your pain” ethos as justification for why he didn’t make any immediate statements before.
The convention is looking to be delayed, turned into a Red Cross drive perhaps. You can say what you want about exploiting the situation to look good, but even if we want to look at it that cynically, just having a big party in St Paul while the Gulf gets annihilated would have looked even worse. I’m not sure what kind of a convention can actually happen with all of this going on, frankly. I just hope they don’t wrap themselves up in “outreach” too much.
By Hanlon, on August 30th, 2008 at 05:25 PM
 No surprises here.
Here’s a finding from Gallup: Among Democratic women — including those who may be disappointed that Hillary Clinton did not win the Democratic nomination — 9% say Palin makes them more likely to support McCain, 15% less likely.
From Rasmussen: Some 38% of men said they were more likely to vote for McCain now, but only 32% of women. By a narrow 41% to 35% margin, men said she was not ready to be president — but women soundly rejected her, 48% to 25%.
Only 9% of Obama supporters said they might be more likely to vote for McCain.
As for voters not affiliated with either major party, 37% are more likely to vote for McCain and 28% less likely to do so.
There is wide uncertainty about whether she’s qualified to be president. In the poll, taken Friday, 39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn’t and 29% have no opinion.
That’s the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the elder George Bush chose then-Indiana senator Dan Quayle to join his ticket in 1988. In comparison, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was seen as qualified by 57%-18% after Democrat Barack Obama chose him as a running mate last week.
Among all those surveyed, 35% call Obama’s speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium Thursday night excellent, 23% good, 15% “just OK,” 3% poor and 4% “terrible.” Sixteen percent say they didn’t see it and 14% have no opinion.
Asked about the Democratic convention’s impact, 43% say it makes them more likely to vote for Obama, 29% less likely. Nineteen percent say it won’t make a difference.
This is emphatically not good for McCain. It looks like, overall, the choice of Palin actually hurt his chances of picking up some of those PUMAs. I guess that’s the lesson, Senator: Democratic women aren’t idiots. Your Hail Mary pass was a stupid idea and within two days it’s kicked you in the balls.
Obama also got a net increase overall thanks to his speech, a massive 7% with bad things to say on it, and a great review of his presidential pick.
By Hanlon, on August 30th, 2008 at 05:10 PM
 The internets have been abuzz lately with the incoming Republican convention. Oh, not the RNC convention, but the “renegade convention” that’s being staged by one Ron Paul. Set to compete with the RNCC, you can bank on Paul and his supporters doing all they can to make headaches for the GOP.
Called the Rally for the Republic, they’ve sold almost 10,000 tickets so far and I’m wondering if they’ll get any more right before the convention starts. Frankly, I hope so.
See, while I used to mock the hell out of Paul, I admired him for two reasons. One, he’s purely ideological. There’s no screwing around with him, he’s not pandering or playing politics like McMoron is. Secondly, his followers don’t talk about “heroism” or “strength”, they talk policy. Try it out, argue with a Paulite. Chances are it’ll be centered around his ideals, not what kind of a guy he is.
The other thing I love is that he’s definitely capable of making things annoying for the GOP. A 10,000 man unofficial convention is going to be a big draw, and that means not quite so much attention for poor MehCain. He played the Palin card, seemingly, to make sure the news cycle ignored Obama’s speech*, now the Paul card’s gonna steal at least some of his thunder.
*I realize, of course, that I’m wholly guilty of this as well. What was there to say? Obama was an inspiration.
By Hanlon, on August 30th, 2008 at 02:08 PM
 A commenter pointed out that the article with Governor Palin praising Obama’s energy plan technically is still on the site, it’s just been buried and relocated. However, nothing can really defend the fact that “someone” has done some massive edits.
Even better, the person doing the edits is one “Young Trigg”. For those keeping score, Sarah Palin’s youngest child is named Trig. So, is it possible that Palin, or perhaps Mr Palin, decided to fire up a Wikipedia account and make a whole bunch of positive edits?
You can look at the pre-edited article and compare it to the current one, and there’s quite a few rather suspect edits, such as that the entire section “Abuse of Power Investigation” has been renamed and the section “Concerns about the 2008 Presidential Campaign” is gone. However, when you look at specifically what “Young Trigg” did, it becomes more obvious. A few I liked:
- In talking about the commissioner dismissal, for no good reason a detail was added about Palin’s ex brother in law being remarried and divorced again.
- Palin was given credit for “killing” the “bridge to nowhere”, despite other evidence indicating she supported it initially.
- Threw in some random details about playing in a championship game with a sprained ankle during school.
- Claimed she’s “noted for her willingness to take on oil companies.”
The list goes on. The topper, though, is that “Young Trigg” asked to have the page protected. It seems after YT put all the pro-Palin crap (notice nothing’s cited, or even relevant), he/she decided it would be best if no one could do anything crazy like change things back.
Someone clearly has no idea how the internets work if they thought no one would pick up on this. You can’t go and edit out negative stuff and add blatant propaganda without getting caught. Sorry.
By Hanlon, on August 30th, 2008 at 12:10 PM
 I found myself in a bit of a conundrum this morning.
I’d put my name and phone number on Obama’s site, saying I’d be at a local get-together type event. I’m a sucker for rallies. As it turns out, though, it was a “canvassing”. I got a call, since I was running late, from a woman in the campaign asking me about going around town, handing out pamphlets and talking to voters. I said I’d think about it, then decided not to.
Warning: overinflated ego within.
When I started writing it was December of 2005, the NSA scandal was new. I re-started in January of 06, and later that year I found myself boosting the midterm elections. The Murtha camp got in contact with me after I’d embarrassed, on video, one Larry Bailey who was trying to smear Murtha over the Haditha comments he made. So I did some volunteering and put up an “exclusive” I’d gotten.
Quickly I got some negative emails from readers who didn’t like that I was shilling for Murtha, that I’d gone from commenting as an outsider to using the site to campaign. This might be something I do in my spare time, but they had a point. It’s hard to consider myself an objective commentator when my time is spent handing out propaganda and wearing one of those little weird hats that has tiny flags sticking out of it.
I know “objective” sounds funny given that I’m wholly to the left here, but the point is that everything I write here is from my ideological point of view and not in the interests of a particularly candidate or party. I’m not above calling out my own side or defending the other when it’s the right thing to do. Campaigning runs counter to that since I’m quite literally becoming a part of the propaganda. There’s a place for that, but it ain’t me. I’m a liberal, not a lockstep Democrat.
Don’t get me wrong, I want Obama to win and I’ll certainly continue to write from that perspective, I’ll even go to some rallies and express my support, but the important thing is that what’s here is me, not his campaign. I’m not reproducing campaign literature and pretending it’s news, I’m not spouting Obama’s talking points and acting like it’s my own thoughts. What you get here is me, and dammit I’m just too proud to sacrifice that for any reason, even if it means not “helping the cause”.
Yeah, yeah, I’m too self-important, whatever. My site, I can say what I want.
By Hanlon, on August 30th, 2008 at 10:59 AM
 Oh foreign media, you’re so much more interesting than ours…
Israel planning unilateral Iran attack
Ephraim Sneh, an Israeli Labor Party lawmaker, has sent an eight-point document to both US presidential candidates, saying “There is no government in Jerusalem that would ever reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran.”
“When it is clear Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, an Israeli military strike to prevent this will be seriously considered,” the document says.
Not off to a good start. But wait, there’s more. The biggest Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf, is reporting that, wait for it, the United States is planning on attacking Iran as well.
“The operation, described as extremely successful, was halted recently in connection with plans for an impending US air attack on Iran. Along with this, targets would also be bombed which were connected with the Dutch espionage action,” writes the Netherlands’ biggest newspaper.
“One of the agents involved, who was able to infiltrate the Iranian industry under the supervision of the AIVD, was recently recalled because the US was thought to be making a decision within weeks to attack Iran with unmanned aircraft.
For what it’s worth, Iran is warning that if anyone attacks Tehran, there’s going to be a “world war”. I’m not really sure they’ve got the resources for that, but it’s an understandable sentiment at the very least.
UPDATE: Commenter woeds points out that this might not be entirely reliable, as Telegraaf has a tendency to go tabloid. Lesson I forgot: look at the source more carefully. So this is something to keep an eye on, but not lose our heads over.
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