2008 August 28 | Hanlon's Razor

Obama’s speech.

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 11:52 PM

It was amazing. I’ll put the video up as soon as I can.

Needless to say, if I was McCain I’d be very worried right now. Even the FOX talking heads had a hard time saying anything bad about it beyond “he talked about McCain a lot.” I guess they were all asleep for the 2004 RNC convention.

Some fantastic “unbiased” reporting from the AP

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 09:42 PM

At this point we’re starting to notice that the Associated Press is being a little overly critical of ol’ Barack Obama. I’m not sure what’s motivating it, but it seems like most stories about him are clearly tipped to one side of the fence, and it’s not the side Obama himself is on.

I caught this article, which frankly just started off wrong: Democrat’s vision will collide with reality. I almost didn’t believe what I was looking at, but sure enough it’s a whole article about how Obama’s various promises won’t happen.

The promise: Pull all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months, send more combat troops to Afghanistan and provide better care for wounded troops and veterans.

The problem: A troop pullout is feasible and conforms roughly to a withdrawal timetable advocated by the Iraqi government. But a 16-month timetable risks shifting responsibility to Iraq’s security forces before they are ready, and it gives the insurgents an explicit target date for waiting out the Americans.

That’s a paragraph that practically came right out of the GOP handbook, right down to the “a timetable tells the terrorists when we’re leaving” line. Keep in mind that point at the end doesn’t have anything to do with how long the timetable is, that would be true for a 6 month, 16 month, or a 60 month timetable, so if you’re going to bitch at Obama for it you better start telling the Iraqis to knock it off as well.

Amazing TIME interview with McCain

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 06:43 PM

The “Straight Talk Express” has gone off the tracks, folks. I don’t mean a little, I mean pretty severely. In an interview with TIME Magazine, hardly an arm of the liberal media army, Senator McPOW seems more than a little annoyed to be asked questions that aren’t “what kind of coffee do you like?”

There’s a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?
Read it in my books.

I’ve read your books.
No, I’m not going to define it.

But honor in politics?
I defined it in five books. Read my books.

Telling an interviewer to “read my books” is a pretty stupid way of conducting yourself anyway, since the purpose here is to relay information to the public. I’m sure as hell not going to go out and buy five books by John McCain just to find out what he thinks about “honor”. Frankly, I’m not going to go out and buy Barack Obama’s book if he tells me to during an interview.

The really mindblowing section of the interview, though, happens off of their excerpts and in the uncut audio recording. Sure the thing’s 24 minutes long, but you get what may be the best thing of all time: McCain making the claim that Iraq is, quote, “a peaceful and stable country.”

Maybe McCain thinks he’s still a straight-shooter, but he’s slipping so far that he honestly doesn’t know talking points and imagination from reality. Whatever’s going on, he’s wayyyy out in right field now. Snapping at the press, making outlandish statements that have no bearing on reality. The interesting part is that the media’s starting to pick up on it. The tide’s changing, methinks, and McCain’s mad that he’s not getting a free ride any more.

30 year gap in life expectancy between US regions

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 03:13 PM

I could draw all sorts of snarky comments from a story like this, but I’m not sure I really want to. It’d feel a little on the tasteless side.

The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world’s prisoners.

Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.

“The report shows that although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life,” the authors said.

Some of its more shocking findings reveal that, in parts of Texas, the percentage of adults who pass through high school has not improved since the 1970s.

It’s worth pointing out how much money Americans do spend on things like health and education in the 21st century. We’re not exactly cutting costs compard to other nations, so something is clearly going wrong.

Obama camp smacks McCain hard

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 12:37 PM

Sometimes the best bitchslaps are the simplest ones. Via TPMElectioncentral, we’ve got a nice little attack on Obama by the McCain campaign, which includes the following:

For those Democrats who are too young to have a proper appreciation of their party’s history, which likely includes most of Senator Obama’s supporters, we direct your attention to a memorable moment in DNC history that shows how the current nominee really is connected to the party’s past as much as its future.

It was forty years ago today that Barack Obama friend and political ally, and unrepentant terrorists, William Ayers was arrested while protesting the DNC proceedings.

Obama’s side wasted no time, no sir, in responding both eloquently and briefly. TPM has the image. It simply says, “FLASHBACK: 40 years ago today, Barack Obama was seven years old,” and includes a rather cute picture of little Barry O playing baseball.

I suppose in an attempt to haze over the future and make it sound like Obama might have been friends with him while he was a violent radical, they write that Ayers “set no bombs that day, but he was only working his way up from petty criminal to domestic terrorist.” Keep in mind his time as a “domestic terrorist” was… 39 years ago, when Obama was 8.

Tying the two together is asinine anyway since their “friendship” consisted of both serving on a community outreach board, a link so tenuous I’m pretty sure everyone could be connected to some terrorist that way.But hey, can’t let things like “proper timelines” and “reality” get in the way of a good smear.

McCain advisor claims there are no uninsured Americans

By Hanlon, on August 28th, 2008 at 12:49 AM

There are so many layers of dumb in this one I’m not entirely sure how to tackle them all. Regardless, thank you to DailyKos for giving me a reason not to be able to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight.

So, here you go:

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

“So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

“So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

Keeping in mind that this guy is the president of a think tank, and he’s helped craft a health care plan for a man running for POTUS, it’s really surprising that he could be this goddamn stupid. Saying that you have access to the emergency room means you have insurance is sorta like saying having the phone number for the police means the bank doesn’t need a security system.

The ER isn’t going to take you in for anything that isn’t, derp, an Emergency. So if you’ve got diabetes, the ER won’t write you a script for insulin. If you’ve got heart problems, you can’t get your pills from the ER. Think you’ve got meningitis? Can’t get anything from the ER, not unless you wait around until you’re just about dying, but by then it could be too late. Got cancer? Sorry, the ER won’t pay for your radiation.

Guys like this really stretch the word “think” in “think tank”.