2008 September 11 | Hanlon's Razor

Palin: US may have to go to war with Russia over Georgia

By Hanlon, on September 11th, 2008 at 06:29 PM

When I heard about Palin sitting down with Chuck Gibson for an ABC interview, I figured he’d throw softballs and she’d knock ‘em into the outfield without much effort and nothing major would come out of it. What I didn’t consider was that Palin would be capable of saying something monumentally stupid without provocation.

When Gibson said if under the NATO treaty, the United States would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.

“And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable,” she told Gibson.

If the Obama campaign doesn’t burn Palin alive for this little doozy, I’m going to be pretty disappointed. War with Russia? Good luck.

McCain and health care

By Hanlon, on September 11th, 2008 at 06:16 PM

I’m almost worried. If TIME Magazine is going to start providing analysis like this, we bloggers may soon find ourselves redundant and unnecessary.

Today’s issue: health insurance. John McCain wants to tax your employer-provided health care benefits. He wants to replace those benefits with an insufficient tax credit–$2500 for individuals and $5000 for families (the average cost per family for health insurance is $12000).

There is a positive, progressive tax aspect to this: wealthier people should have to pay for health insurance themselves, without tax breaks from the federal government.

But make no mistake: this plan will do little or nothing for those who do not have insurance now–unless they are young and healthy–and it may well hurt a fair number of workers, especially unionized workers, who get gold-plated benefits from their employers.

It will certainly do nothing for families with members who have pre-existing conditions or children with special needs–because it makes no provision to regulate the insurers, forcing them to cover all comers at “community” rates that don’t discriminate against the people who need health insurance most.

Ah, children with special needs. You know, like Trig Palin. Of course, it’s a good thing Trig is covered by government-provided health care, otherwise they’d be in some trouble.

Hanlon’s Theatre: a damning anti-McCain Ad

By Hanlon, on September 11th, 2008 at 03:47 PM

This is how it’s done.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

More voter shenanigans

By Hanlon, on September 11th, 2008 at 01:49 PM

More fun in the swing states.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

Oh but wait, we’re not done yet.

The Macomb GOP’s plans are another indication of how John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.

The Macomb County party’s plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan, according to a report issued last year by the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

It’s almost brilliant. The GOP spends almost a decade handing over tax cuts and other huge benefits to the rich and screws over the poor; by the time the election rolls around, all those poor people will have lost their homes; challenge the votes of the people who lost their homes and make sure their votes don’t count; keep the seat atop the hill.

Greg Palast was right, folks. Just wait. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Obama goes on the attack, media opens its eyes

By Hanlon, on September 11th, 2008 at 01:37 PM

I’m concerned.

After spending a week or so intensely worried about media coverage, a campaign that’s so focused on state-by-state work, and which of the two will end up victorious as polls slide in the wrong direction, to see Obama finally go on the offensive is so encouraging I just don’t know what to do.

It’s probably a good thing McCain’s camp gave him the easiest target ever in the “lipstick” non-troversy. Instantly Obama had a way to start calling McCain out for being a dumbass, and boy howdy is he doing it. First on the Late Show:

“Technically, had I meant it this way she would be the lipstick, you see. The failed policies of John McCain would be the pig,” Obama said, drawing laughter from the audience. “Just following the logic of this illogical situation.”

Then he started just shouting out of a bullhorn at these people, for mocking his belief that habeas corpus (gasp) should be maintained.

“The reason that you have this principle is not to be soft on terrorism. It’s because that’s who we are. That’s what we’re protecting,” Obama said, his voice growing louder and the crowd rising to its feet to cheer. “Don’t mock the Constitution. Don’t make fun of it. Don’t suggest that it’s not American to abide by what the founding fathers set up. It’s worked pretty well for over 200 years.”

Now, shouting and making one-liners on a talk show don’t mean a whole lot unless the actual news media follows along.

It seems as though the Democratic strategy for a while now has been “maybe if we act even nicer, the media will give us good coverage”. Realizing this was a stupid strategy, Obama’s giving the media someone interesting to cover and, as a result, now a lot of the media found its balls and are willing to join in on calling McCain on bullshit.

Boston.com tears apart the pipeline deal Palin’s cited, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal take issue with the Bridge to Nowhere claim (amongst oodles of others, such as NPR), and now we’re at a point where Bill O’Reilly is defending Obama against the lipstick thing. That’s right, Bill Goddamn O’Reilly is defending Obama.

See what happens, folks? You bare your teeth and the media takes a look. Act nice and you get swept away. You can run an aggressive campaign without being dishonest.