Written by the director of research at Google.
This is an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) for the 2008 United States Presidential Election. It is meant to portray factual information, not the author's opinions.
You've probably already seen Palin answer Couric's question about the bailout. Here it is below in case you missed it.
Fareed Zakaria summed up her response pretty well, "This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head" (Newsweek).
I have to say, when I saw it I had a strange feeling of Deja Vu. I'd seen this kind of nonsensical answer in a video before. Was it perhaps another clip from the same interview I was thinking of? No, that wasn't really it. It wasn't just the nonsense that was familiar, it was the strategy - the "vapid emptying out of every catchphrase" strategy - that reminded me of something else.
Where I had I seen it before? I couldn't put a finger on it. But then, this morning, as I drank a cup of coffee, it hit me.
Ms. South Carolina!
In case you missed it, below was Barack Obama's position on the war, October 2, 2002
Now let me be clear — I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.
He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.
But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.
Full speech here
He's always thinking one step ahead. It just seems that lately, it's the wrong step.
(If you are reading this after Friday, the screen shot in the image above was taken BEFORE the debate that did or did not happen Friday Sept 26th)
Remember Sarah? (she's the one who's friendly with Matt Damon)
The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.
I don't even know what to say about this one... Well, actually I do. I'm sorry to say it... she could be good at many things. She could be a nice person, a wonderful mother, a great governor of Alaska, BUT THIS PERSON IS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. I'm sorry, she just isn't. I'm not qualified, my friends and family aren't qualified, nobody I know is qualified. It's the truth.
Watch CBS Videos Online
And the really scary thing is she COULD be President.
And with that in mind, I think TPM kind of has a point on this one.
He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog at my homework' in history.
I usually spend 20 minutes in the morning getting up to date on what is going on in the world. There sure was a lot of interesting stuff to get updated on this morning.
This one made me laugh. I guess Letterman is best when he gets angry.
This one made me worried. I guess Palin is best when she has a script and TelePrompTer.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Is the video of Palin being blessed by the witch doctor all over the news like the Jeremiah Wright thing was? I can only follow along through YouTube clips, and this one below is the first I have seen of it.
I love Zefrank. He gets his readers to join him on his creative journey and together they usually come up with some really cool stuff.
Together with the help of about 20 readers, he composed "a children's song for adults: anxiety" I just listened to it, and I have to say, it made me feel pretty damn good :-)
Check it out here.
By the way, if you don't know who Zefrank is, this is a good place to start.
This video, is one of my favorites. A lot of it may seem weird, but the more you watch the more you understand what all of the weirdness is.
It looks like George Will (he's a conservative) thought Obama acted more Presidential too.
Whenever I read The Economist, and find something that disagrees with my own point of view, I usually find myself reevaluating my point of view (they even made me wonder if Bush wasn't as bad as I suspected when they endorsed him in 2000). The Economist, a British news magazine, is in so many ways the polar opposite of the US main stream media (and they can by no means be categorized as the "liberal press"). They argue their opinions in a low key, extremely well informed, and very intelligent manner.
The Economist calls it like they see it, with out any emotional, reactionary bullshit. So, ever since the Republican convention, I have been waiting for their point of view on the election, McCain's choice of Palin, and the tone of his campaign. I have been waiting for them to set me straight - is my opinion opinion unbiased and reactionary, or is it grounded in some truth?
Well, here is the truth as The Economist sees it. (I'll include an excerpt from the article below, but I think you should read it all (Brian). McCain takes the harshest criticism, but they don't give Obama a free ride)
The decision to play this election, like that of 2004, as a fresh instalment of the culture wars is disappointing to those who thought Mr McCain was more principled than that. By choosing Sarah Palin as his running-mate he made a cynical tryst with a party base that he has never much liked and that has never much liked him. Mr McCain’s whole candidacy rests on his assertion that these are perilous times that require a strong and experienced commander-in-chief; but he has chosen, as the person who may be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency, someone who demonstrably knows very little about international affairs or the economy.
And then ask yourself, which of these two you would hire?
In fairness, I haven't seen either press conference in it's entirety, but even the Wall Street Journal has picked up on McCain's scapegoating:
In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution. He'll never beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000.
Just saw these devastating images from the hurricane
I have been thinking a lot about my Uncle Doug and his family lately. I'm glad they made it out of Galveston safely before the hurricane hit, but I can't imagine what they are going through and will have to go through in the many hard months ahead.
Ever since people started claiming that Palin is just as qualified to be President as Obama I have had this thought that I haven't quite been able to articulate. It revolves around what I see as a critical difference, that being that Obama has had a clear desire and AMBITION to be President, while Palin, it seems to me, probably hadn't thought about it much at all until she was asked to join McCain. As I said, I couldn't really articulate why this matters to me, but it does.
I just read this excellent article by James Fallows that explains what I couldn't. It has to do with Palin not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is, and why this is so important. Here's a quick excerpt from the article:
What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.
I would like our president to be a man like this. I don't mean Obama (although I'm sure you have guessed by now I would like that too). What I mean is I would like our president to be the type of man (or woman) who stands up and says these kinds of things. A person with principle.
This is also what I meant in my previous post when I talked about the man McCain used to be.
I remember having a brief political discussion with my doctor many months back. He said he liked McCain. I said I did too. I remembered McCain from 2000, and was very impressed by the straight talk, no bullshit, high moral standard stuff. I said I was actually happy because I thought , Democrat or Republican, we would get a good President this time.
I don't feel that way any more. I have been disappointed, often shocked and lately disgusted by the way McCain has run his campaign. I am not the first one to say it seems like an entirely different John McCain.
I just read this article by Andrew Sullivan (who was also once a McCain fan), and I have to say, I couldn't agree with him more.
One thing that sucks about having shingles, is that it just doesn't sound cool. I mean not only is it known as an "old person" illness, but the name is completely lame - shingles - ugh...
The Danish name for it is MUCH better - helvedesild:
helvedes = hell's
ild = fire
Put em together and the word means - "Hell's fire"
Pretty cool name, I think. I almost feel proud telling people I have helvedesild
I was telling Luke how the name is so much cooler in Danish. Luke is clever though, so he pretended to misunderstand helvedesild this way:
helvede = hell
sild = herring
"You've got Herring from Hell?!"
Of course, the dumb doctor refereed to it as some kind of herpes.
I've got 'em!
Kind of proud that Mathilde and I made the diagnosis ourselves with nothing but a photo of the red spot on my back and a little help from Google. The doctor took one look and said there was no doubt. I just swallowed my first horse pill (with spit) while waiting to pick up sushi to go for Emily's birthday lunch. Writing this as I drive home (kidding). I kind of like this mobile blogging.
Just for fun I thought I would try writing a blog post "on location". I am currently in the waiting room at the doctors, surrounded by a bunch of sad looking sick people. I have felt like I had the flu for the last few days (Mathilde was sick last weekend) but now I have a red rash on my back that looks like shingles. I forgot about this one, but shingles is actually very common in Hodgkins patients, both before and after treatment. I called the hospital and they told me to head over to the doctor and get it checked out..so, here I am.
Only 5 people ahead of me in line. I'll let you know what he says.
From Palin's speech:
This is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform, not even in the state Senate
Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? What are they advocating for? They think that the lives of those folks who are struggling each and every day, that working with them to try to improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency?
My instinct is that I shouldn't get into a whole bunch of political stuff here, but then I thought the last post with the clip of McCain's voice mail was just too funny to pass up.
And then I remembered this video I saw that made me giggle too, and I figured what the hell! I haven't come up with much else to blog about lately, so I may as well share :-)
John McCain's Wandering Eyes
Some people might point out that I never really post funny stuff about Obama. It could be I am looking in the wrong places, but I just haven't really seen anything funny about him. Or, maybe Obama supporters are just better at making funny things I can link to.
Or... it's possible I am biased ;-)
I thought it was a pretty darn good giggle :-)
Listen to it here.
