Category: Links

Some additional reading October 18th from 16:22 to 20:40:

• Doonesbury – GBT's FAQs – Did Obama really sink eight out of ten from downtown?
  — Mark G. Smith, Chapel Hill, NC
  Indeed he did. GBT and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter were chatting with Sen. Obama in a hotel lobby in Berlin about the widely-seen video of the candidate sinking a three-pointer in front of a gym full of troops. Obama explained that in fact he'd gone on to sink seven more during two games of Horse. He was justly proud of his performance, and GBT got the clear sense that he wouldn't mind if the full story got out
• Strange Candidate #4: Jonathan Maxwell – "85-year-old Jonathan Maxwell ran for president in 1948 as the candidate of the American Vegetarian Party. He was the owner of a vegetarian restaurant in Chicago and claimed not to have tasted any meat in 45 years. He also said that he loved every vegetable, "except okra."

  As the leader of the Vegetarian Party, Maxwell demanded the abolition of slaughterhouses and cattle cultivation. He advocated the use of pasture lands for growing foodstuffs, saying this would solve the world's food problems. He also proposed building "garden cities" in underdeveloped areas. Finally, he wanted to ban liquor, tobacco, and medicine."

Some additional reading October 17th from 00:44 to 01:07:

• Will Gun-Totting, Churchgoing White Guys Pull the Lever for Barack Obama? – NYTimes.com – "No. 2 is how we talk about issues,” Obama went on. “To act like hunting, like somebody who wants firearms just doesn’t get it — that kind of condescension has to be purged from our vocabulary. And that’s why that whole ‘bittergate’ episode was so bitter for me. It was like: Oh, this is exactly what I wanted to avoid. This is what for the last five or six years I’ve been trying to push away from.”
• Declarations – WSJ.com Peggy Noonan: Palin's Failin' – When even Peggy Noonan thinks Sarah Palin is unqualified, McCain has problems:
  "But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for?…In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."
• The Balance Sheet: Online Only: The New Yorker – McCains Debate Problem – One of the reasons John McCain isn’t especially successful as a debater, or as a speechmaker, is that he often discusses issues by using inside-the-Beltway shorthand, a shorthand that’s completely baffling to anyone who doesn’t already know what he’s talking about—which is say, completely baffling to almost all American voters.
• Joe the Plumber, dumb and dumber – "One more point that Joe and I will be mentioning again. We just found out today that Obama's $250,000 cap on the tax cut, that's $250,000 in taxable income NOT total income. In other words, that means if you make under $250,000 AFTER deductions, you get a tax cut. And if you have your own business, that means your real salary could easily be $400,000 before deductions. That's a hell of a salary for Joe the Plumber to be making and whining about."

A few interesting links for October 13th through October 16th:

• The Deal, Sealed? – Timothy Egan Blog – NYTimes.com – "McCain went back to some of his obscure obsessions, including yet another mention of that overhead projector that Obama helped to get some museum in Chicago. Imagine if Herbert Hoover, debating Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 at the depth of the Great Depression, kept dwelling on the problem with university chalkboards, and some old sympathizer with Sacco and Vanzetti."
• McCain camp creates imaginary friends at Virginia rally – "We all know the McCain campaign is full of pathological liars (the McCainpedia is up to 132), but as the ship takes on more water, getting caught in this sort of stupid prevaricating makes them look even more pathetic:"

Some additional reading October 13th from 16:18 to 16:42:

• The Raw Story | Fox concludes Larry Flynt's 'Sarah Palin porno' is legal – Apparently, a stand-in for Sarah Palin (she claimed prior commitments, and is only in a cameo) finds a truckload of Russian soldiers, and has herself a little party, discussing Putin and his rearing head.
  "A partial script of the movie which has appeared online makes it clear that the film definitely has elements of political parody. In the opening scene, the actress playing Palin flings herself on a tanning-bed repairman, pronouncing, "You're in luck. I fully support off-shore and on-shore drilling. … God almighty! You are hung like a moose. Now I have to eat ya! … Pound me until my head is so empty that I can't even remember the name of the one Supreme Court case I actually know!"
• Rubbing it in their face – So back in the day, August 8, 2005, one of the wankers at Powerline wrote this gem:

  It must be depressing to be Paul Krugman. No matter how well the economy performs, Krugman’s bitter vendetta against the Bush administration requires him to hunt for the black lining in a sky full of silvery clouds. With the economy now booming, what can Krugman possibly have to complain about?…
  The "depressed" Krugman can cry himself to sleep with his Nobel Prize, as well as the realization that yes, he was right and the wingnutosphere was once again proven tragically wrong.

• Smellin’ Like A Felon – "The Perfesser has done the voter fraud myth one better: he’s managed to convert a bureaucratic error in which no fraudulent activity has taken place into an act of fraud. Fraud no longer requires the act of one person or group intended to deceive another, it simply requires a record keeper to not keep up with records. Meaning, of course, that you’re committing fraud when your change of address form isn’t processed by the DMV or when a bank mistakenly places a deposit in your account.

  How Glenn Reynolds eats without stabbing himself in the eye with a fork, I do not know. My guess is either he uses those nice soft plastic forks with barnyard animals on the end, or his diet is restricted to finger foods and chewable vitamins. "

Some additional reading October 12th from 13:14 to 19:50:

• BAD PHYSICS: Misconceptions spread by K-6 Grade School Textbooks – Physics questions answered in two paragraphs – useful for bars (assuming you have your iPhone handy), and classrooms, or discussions with one's nephew…
• Thank you for smoking – Roger Ebert's Journal – Kind of stupid if you ask me, history is history, and shouldn't be manipulated by the latest fashion, or belief system.
  "The stamp honoring Bette Davis was issued by the U. S. Postal Service on Sept. 18. The portrait by Michael Deas was inspired by a still photo from "All About Eve." Notice anything missing? Before you even read this far, you were thinking, Where's her cigarette? Yes reader, the cigarette in the original photo has been eliminated. "

  They've done this deed to a Robert Johnson photo too if I'm not mistaken.

  A travesty.

• Grasping Reality with Both Hands: The Semi-Daily Journal Economist Brad DeLong – The American Press is worse than Hitler! – "Capital gains and dividend tax cuts are simply not "economic measures aimed directly at the middle class": the middle class doesn't collect capital gains, or dividends, in any material amount. Indeed, that's what makes you middle class–that even though you have a fair or a good income you work for it."

Some additional reading October 12th from 08:59 to 10:39:

• Spite Politics by digby Kit Seelye has a… – "Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He's totally and completely immoral. It doesn't take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn't take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker. The reason Rove continues to survive is …because this generation of Americans has become so steeped in greed and social Darwinism that it can no longer distinguish between cheating and achieving, between enterprise and crime, and can't bring itself to criticize winners any more than it knows how to be nice to losers. He survives because an increasing number of Americans secretly agree with Rove's vision … as quaint, faintly embarrassing rituals that only a sucker would let hold him back."
• Firedoglake » The Moonies and McCain’s Main Man – "I guess we all know now that the media get all worked up about some presidential candidates who have dealings with religious figures deemed "anti-American" and "hateful" — but not all of them. If it's a black pastor at a church attended by a Democrat, well, they're on that like stink on shit. If, on the other hand, it's a Republican candidate who embraces apocalyptic nutcases and gay-bashing extremists, well, the very scent seems to make them faint."
• The Associated Press: McCain linked to group in Iran-Contra affair – "Republican Sen. John McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America in the 1980s.
  The U.S. Council for World Freedom also aided rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua. That landed the group in the middle of the Iran-Contra affair and in legal trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which revoked the charitable organization's tax exemption."
• To Attack, or Not to Attack? – "Three weeks out from the 2008 election and John McCain's campaign has no discernible central theme, no succinct answer to the most basic question voters ask as they consider their choice: Why should I choose you over the other guy?"
  …
  "The Obama campaign, by contrast, seems to have settled on one message, which it is driving nearly every day: John McCain is too erratic to be president."
• "Abuse of power" | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/11/2008 – "John McCain's Faustian pact with the Republican attack machine has seriously damaged his so-called "maverick" brand, perhaps beyond repair. And now, thanks to the news last night, we have solid proof that the so-called "maverick" vice presidential nominee is really just another garden-variety politician who violates the public trust for personal gain."
• Alter: McCain Let the GOP Get Away | Newsweek Voices – Jonathan Alter | Newsweek.com – "And mavericks by definition aren't leaders; they're headstrong politicians (or, originally, cattle) who derive their self-worth from wandering away from the herd. They're about as reliable as a crappy '70s car of that name."

Some additional reading October 9th from 22:28 to 23:40:

• SLAM ONLINE | » Basketball Debates: Is Small-Ball Dead? – This post made me giggle uncontrollably.
  "Welcome to the 2008 NBA debates. Tonight’s issue is whether or not small-ball is the future of the NBA or merely a fad whose time has passed.

  I’d like to welcome our guests. From the half-court party we have Gregg Popovich, coach of the 4-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, a combat veteran who served his nation in the United States Air Force. Representing the small-ball party is Mike D’Antoni, who coached the high-scoring and successful Phoenix Suns to 50 wins in four straight seasons and has just been appointed the coach of the New York Knicks. Appearing as an independent is Don Nelson, current coach of the Golden State Warriors and one of only two NBA coaches to win 1,200 games."

• Matthew Yglesias » Media Whine – CBS News’ Dean Reynolds slam Barack Obama for not kissing enough ass, pounds the table in old-man solidarity with McCain:
  …[click link to read it]

  It’s remarkable how much press affection for McCain seems to be just grounded in this. He feeds me tasty barbecue, so I should hold him to a different standard than other politicians! Sure he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but his campaign plane is clean!

Some additional reading October 8th from 10:42 to 15:11:

• ESPN Page 2 – Simmons: The forgotten pioneer – Elgin Baylor – Beautiful article by Bill Simmons on race relations and American athletes. "When Elgin was serving our country in 1962 and potentially sacrificing his livelihood, there were dozens of towns and cities strewn across America that wouldn't serve him a meal. Black stars felt like two people at once, revered in one circle and discriminated against in another. Just because America changed over the last four decades doesn't mean those guys forgot the way it used to be. Throw in today's nine-figure contracts and the babying and deifying of today's basketball stars and you can see why they would be a little bitter."…
  "We might elect our first black president in four weeks; this wouldn't have a chance of happening without the strength of people like Elgin once upon a time."
• Health Care Fines for Small Businesses? | The FactCheck Wire – "McCain said that Obama’s health care plan would mandate that “small businesses” provide coverage for their employees and would fine them if they failed to do so. Actually, Obama’s health care plan, posted on his Web site, says: “Small businesses will be exempt from this requirement.”

  McCain is a liar, in other words.

Some additional reading October 6th from 07:41 to 21:50:

• Shanghaiist: Baidu finally appoints a CTO after two years – republished in Shanghai, whoo hoo
• The real Obama – For your feel-good story of the day, courtesy of a young Barack Obama
• Rioja (wine) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – "In 1635, the mayor of Logroño prohibited the passing of carts through streets near wine cellars, in case the vibrations caused a deterioration of the quality of the wine"
  I wish we had an excuse to enact similar legislation here in the West Loop – all the heavy vehicles shake our walls, and cause light bulbs to have a very short lifespan.

A few interesting links for October 4th through October 5th:

• Day 28 – D & I often talk about a mandatory civilian corp too, we think its a great idea for our nation to get itself back in shape. Works in Israel, Holland, and elsewhere.

  "I'm all for a mandated year-long stint in the military or for some sort of civilian re-construction/community service corps for EVERYONE, right out of high school. I think it would have benefitted me. For this years' service (or two years?), you get college funding. T. definitely looked like a new person, and my home room was suitably impressed by her demeanor ("who dat Mr. G? She look cool!"). T. said she's passing all her classes at the Doug, something she was capable of last year but unfortunately we couldn't give her an environment conducive to learning.

  We need something to re-establish a sense of community in this country, to rinse off the years of "me and my own over everyone else" created by two and a half decades of dominant right-wing bullshit"

• Obama's Favorite Restaurants: Food: Centerstage Staff: CenterstageChicago.com – For some reason, have never eaten at RJ Grunts. The rest of these Chicago restaurants I can vouch for (well, my disgust with Sepia notwithstanding). If pressed to narrow to one, I'd say Spiaggia, but Topolobampo would be a close second.

Some additional reading October 3rd from 09:28 to 18:09:

• SuperSonicSoul on Economic Meltdowns, Stadiums, and NBA Owners – "The time has come for this country to quit subsidizing billionaires on the backs of taxpayers. If stadiums were such a great investment – as owner after owner tells city after city – then why are there so few owners willing to build stadiums? They certainly have no trouble coming up with the hundreds of millions to purchase the team, so why can't they come up with at least part of the money needed to house them?

  The answer is simple – because they play us for fools"

• Winky Dinks – "She said what she wanted to say, and she was so relaxed she even winked at one point. Really! An actual wink during a national debate, when she said she was going to try to get John McCain to change his mind about not drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

  I hope that wink wasn't a lurid signal that Palin plans to bestow oral sex on her running mate to get him to change his mind about ANWR, breathily promising him that she'll show him the true meaning of drilling in Alaska if only he'll say yes. That would be so wrong on so many levels.

  Perhaps she intends only to "wink him off," to paraphrase the famous joke told by Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail. But even that would be a dismayingly inappropriate way to further the cause of domestic oil exploration, in my opinion. "

• Fake pollsters' scare tactics target Obama | – "Barack Obama's campaign for the White House is receiving increasing complaints about scam pollsters involved in dirty tricks operations to discredit the Democratic candidate.

  Victims claim the fake pollsters work insinuations into their questions, designed to damage Obama. Those targeted in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania include Jews, Christian evangelicals, Catholics and Latinos."
  Criminals. Should be prosecuted.

• There's something wrong with these people – Rich Lowry obviously doesn't go outside much if he thinks Sarah Palin was at all sexy when she winked at the television audience. Creepy, if you ask me, like a used-car salesman. But Lowry thought she was hawt!
  " I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America"
• More Random Debate Thoughts – "I'm sure I'm not the only female in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, rolled her eyes and thought: oh, dear God. We have all seen just that wink deployed at guys like Rich Lowry. We have all watched in amazement as it actually works, despite its transparent manipulativeness. What, we all wonder, could those guys possibly be thinking? (What the winking women are thinking is usually altogether too clear.) I'm betting that for every male vote that wink picked up, it lost at least one woman."
  Those winks were the most irritating debate tick I can ever remember, and even as a hetro male, irritated me beyond measure. Winks usually mean you've got something stuck in your eye, or you are suffering a stroke.
• Macworld | Geotag your digital photos – still no perfect solution for a DSLR, but…
• G.O.P. Holds to Firm Stance on Abortion – NYTimes.com – "The Republican Party platform this year will reassert the party’s opposition to abortion. And again it will not allow for exceptions in the cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother"
  pathetic
• Pam's House Blend:: Biden, Palin and that pesky marriage thing – "Joe Biden's answer boxed in Sarah Palin, forcing her to give a feeble, confusing answer that probably left her supporters on the far right unhappy. One — she holds the same position on marriage as Obama/Biden, so that was off the table. Two — it left her to use a "some of my best friends are gay" position, and acknowledged that gay and lesbian couples deserve some rights. [BTW, the Log Cabin Republicans have no basis to say that Palin's comments reflect any evolutionary thinking on McCain/Palin's part, it only raises the question of what rights they intend to deny gay couples. …
  To have her say this before millions had to give James Dobson, Lou Sheldon, Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins agita. "
• Over Van Alles En Nog Wat. » Blog Archive » The 10 big news stories the mainstream media IGNORED – "The daily dispatches and nightly newscasts of the mainstream media regularly cover terrorism, but rarely how fear of attacks is used to manipulate the public and set policy. That’s the common thread of many of the unreported stories last year, according to an analysis by Project Censored."

Some additional reading October 2nd from 17:19 to 23:58:

• What's missing from this election? Molly Ivins – "The late buckaroo populist and freedom fighter would have had a ball with the insanity of this current news cycle."
• Palin Debate Preview: The Primer – "That kind of incoherent word spray (or "word salad," if you like) is the result of GOPAC training, but Palin has created her own, supercharged brand of it. And as a result it's turned into a trademark hook that results in the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of smoothing over and hiding a candidate's unpreparedness on any (or in this case, every) given subject, it instead highlights it, and makes it jump out of your TV"
• Biden Wins, Hands Down – "According to a CBS poll, 46 percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Joe Biden was the winner. 21 percent thought Sarah Palin won, 33 percent thought it was a draw.
  According to a CNN poll, 51 percent of voters though Biden won, compared to 36 percent for Palin."
• pandagon.net – shaver razorback palin – Amanda Marcotte finds some die-hard Palin supporters deep in the heart of Austin (near Wheatsville Co-op, I presume). There's always been plenty of rednecks in Austin, just usually they don't mingle with sane folk.

A few interesting links for October 1st through October 2nd:

• 100 percent, absolute truth? – Politico.com Print View – Liar McCain
  "John McCain told the Des Moines Register this week that he always tells "100 percent absolute truth," even in campaign ads. There's one big problem with that bold statement: it's just not true.

  McCain has made a number of statements — in paid ads and on the campaign trail — that simply cannot be described as 100 percent accurate. Some aren't even close."

• Chicago Bar Features Sarah Palin Nude Portrait – "The Old Town Ale House is a dive bar in the Old Town neighborhood that is well-known for its hundreds of adult-themed paintings of bar regulars and famous Chicagoans. Its most recent addition is a portrait of Sarah Palin… nude.

  The four-foot-tall (1.2 m) oil painting portrays the Alaska governor standing on a polar-bear-skin rug (“she doesn’t believe in global warming,” said the creator) and toting an automatic rifle (“she’s really into hunting”). In the picture, Palin is wearing nothing but a pair of red stiletto heels and her trademark eyeglasses. A window in the background looks out onto an Alaska landscape, complete with a moose. "
  republished two of my photos of this bar

A few interesting links for September 30th through October 1st:

• Talking Points Memo Bailout Plan Reactions – " so we've rounded up the reactions of various economists we trust and respect. The verdict: there has got to be a better way. Or, in Adam Levitin's words, "So what did Congressional leadership do with this bailout bill? Put lipstick on a pig. I wonder how many Congressmen who voted for the bill know just how impotent the executive compensation, oversight, and homeowner protection provisions are. There's a reasonable bailout bill that could be passed. But this wasn't it."
• BizarroBlog: Snakes on a Plane – Cartoon of Medusa at a Nude Beach
  "Taking this premise further, Medusa would also have snakes in her arm pits and on her legs and arms. Gross. And shaving would be even grosser. Let's not talk about it."