Campaign 2008 :: Unbelievable Advertising

This is from the nutjobs in the village freaking about Proposition 8 in California. I'm speechless.



I can't wait for a week to pass so i can stop feeling compelled to post these atrocities.

Sure hope Obama is going to unleash some Culture Peace.

"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out."

--Martin Niemöller, 1976

More Republican Lemmings Jumping

More high-profile Republican lemmings seem to be jumping ship these days. A wave o them. Colin Powell, of course, being the highest profile defection to the Obama camp, has done a tremendous amount to show citizens how it is possible to be sane in our choices. This is not football. When people do not perform in ways that are good for you, you must fire them, even if they are on your "team."

Anyhoo, former Senator Pressler, and former Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, is the latest.

"...Pressler said he had concerns about his party's fiscal policy, particularly the war in Iraq, that went beyond the presidential campaign.

"We have to be a moderate party. We can't be for all these foreign military adventures. We have to stop spending so much money. My God, the deficit is so high!" he said. "The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone."

Despite his support for Obama, however, Pressler emphasized that he intended to stay in the GOP and described himself as a "moderate conservative."

"I'm not leaving the Republican Party. We're going to reform it," he said, but added: "In the general election, if you have disagreements, you should not vote the party line."

The Republicans Are Looking More and More Like a Lynch Mob

THIS MUTILATION HOAX is really so unbelievable. The McCain campaign is looking so incredibly desperate, out of control, grasping at straws. I think we are going to see a lot of anger this week. And i bet an explosion of dubious volunteers like this Ashley Todd, doing what they can to "help."

The Republican Party is Looking More and More Like a Lynch Mob

This woman is a United States Congresswoman. Michelle Bachmann is the new poster child of Republican intolerance, racism, and insanity. I'm sure you've all heard about her performance on Chris Matthew's Hardball last Friday, in which she--in a chillingly McCarthyesque kind of way--called for an investigation into the anti-
Americanism of Barack Obama and other liberals.

This is what happens when people who can not think for themselves become cogs in a machine they don't understand.



The more i see of her, the more i wonder how the people of Minnesota EVER elected her.

If you'd like to make a campaign contribution to her opponent, do so HERE

I Prayed, and It Worked!

RELIGULOUS is here today!

Newsclipping of the Day :: Homespun Wisdom from Garrison Keillor

"We Americans are a stalwart and stouthearted people, and never more so than in hard times.

People weep in the dark and arise in the morning and go to work. The waves crash on your nest egg and a chunk is swept away and you put your salami sandwich in the brown bag and get on the bus.

In Philly, a woman earns $10.30 per hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at night. It's hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia that, because she can't afford health insurance, she can't get fixed, but she still goes to work because he'd be helpless without her.

There are a lot of people like her. I know because I'm related to some of them.

Low dishonesty and craven cynicism sometimes win the day but not inevitably. The attempt to link Barack Obama to an old radical in his neighborhood has desperation and deceit written all over it.

Meanwhile, stunning acts of heroism stand out, such as the fidelity of military lawyers assigned to defend detainees at Guantánamo Bay - uniformed officers faithful to their lawyerly duty to offer a vigorous defense even though it means exposing the injustice of military justice that is rigged for conviction and the mendacity of a commander in chief who commits war crimes.

If your law school is looking for a name for its new library, instead of selling the honor to a fat cat alumnus, you should consider the names of Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Bridges, Colonel Steven David, Lieutenant Colonel Sharon Shaffer, Lieutenant Commander Philip Sundel and Major Michael Mori.

It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. The American people have an ear for untruths. They can tell when someone's mouth is moving and the clutch is not engaged.

When she said, "One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day, American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars," people smelled gas.

Some Republicans adore her because they are pranksters at heart and love the consternation of grown-ups. The ne'er-do-well son of the old Republican family as president, the idea that you increase government revenue by cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and thereby drive the needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow a dictator with a show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to yourself - one stink bomb after another, and now Governor Sarah Palin.

She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity, and she was John McCain's first major decision as nominee. This troubles independent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy. She will get a nice book deal from Regnery and a new career-making personal appearances for 40 grand a pop, and she'll become a trivia question, "What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to see Russia from her house?" And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves out of the swamp of Republican economics.

Your broker kept saying, "Stay with the portfolio, don't jump ship," and you felt a strong urge to dump the stocks and get into the money market where at least you're not going to lose your shirt, but you didn't do it and didn't do it, and now you're holding a big bag of brown bananas. Me, too. But at least I know enough not to believe desperate people who are talking trash. Anybody who got whacked last week and still thinks McCain-Palin is going to lead America out of the swamp and not into a war with Iran is beyond persuasion in the English language. They'll need to lose their homes and be out on the street in a cold, hard rain before they connect the dots."

Campaign 2008 :: Unbelievable Advertising

Wow. The Obama Campaign has bought an entire channel on the dish network. I can't think of better use for television. I'm sure many conservatives and Republicans are pissed. But really, what a great idea; surely better than 30 second commercials. This will surely be a game changer.

The Colorful World of ISU

We just got back from an Ohio University International Student Union dinner. Wow that was a lot of food, from all over. And it was all prepared by the thousands of international (and non-terrorist, i might add) students, for 500 people! What a treat.

The Athena Cinema is Back!

Thank goodness our own ATHENA CINEMA is back! It was on hiatus all summer, which put a definite dent in my popcorn consumption. The good news is that the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University is now in charge, and they not only show the best of the new, but it's going to have a art house dimension also. YAY! For instance, today at 6pm featured the Athens Premiere of Godard's CONTEMPT starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance. And i missed it! Doh.

The Republican Party is Looking More and More Like a Lynch Mob :: Part 2

MORE racist crap from the Republicans.

"through their own words
they will be exposed
they've got a sudden case of
the emperor's new clothes."

--Sinéad O'Connor, 1990

Run! The Liberals Are Coming! Run!

My friend Scott --a conservative with a functioning conscience and intellect, unlike some Republicans these days--sent me THIS tragic the-sky-is-falling oped piece from the Wall Street Journal. The Democrats might make sure we all have health insurance! Effective schools! Increase voting participation! Run for the hills!

Robert Borosage has a nice laugh about the terror of it all.

Don't panic people. We can and will survive a realignment of our priorities. Some who read the Wall Street Journal are going to have to carry their fare share, however.

The Republican Party's Looking More and More Like a Lynch Mob

READ all about it here. It's from California of all places. You'd think California Republicans would be a little more moderate than the foaming at the mouth simple bigot-leaning variety of the South.

Freath of Bresh Air

Thanks for naming it, Mohn JcCain. That's what you are all about.

What Do You Wish the Candidates Would Talk About?

HERE is what i wish Obama would steer the conversation to in tonight's debate. Silly me, assuming the conversation between our two potential Commanders-in-Chief is steerable:

"And after 9/11, in the wake of this massive failure, they started sweeping up everything. Everything in the entire world. They are recording everything, building a giant facility in Texas the size of the Alamodome to store all the data. The warrantless eavesdropping was authorized at the very top be Justice Department legal opinions so secret that the NSA's OWN LAWYERS were not allowed to look at them. They are getting this information by setting up big rooms at telecommunications facilities to tap the major switchers of the top companies (they have outsourced the tapping to a group of tiny companies, many from Israel), and they even built a large submarine to directly feed into the undersea cables which house overseas communications.

It is an unbelievable and infuriating story. What I am writing right now, what all of you are writing, every word you say on the phone, every text message, every email - the government has it. Locked up in a room in Texas. And the legality is so murky that it's basically indemnified.

An Obama Administration faces challenges in the economy at home and with failing occupations abroad. But there's the very real question of whether there's a functioning Constitution to begin with. If the government can sweep up the communications of every man, woman and child on the planet, if the government can sign off on torture and indefinite detention, and if the Congress can essentially indemnify the government for doing so, what is this state that Obama would inherit?

If this isn't discussed openly before the election, it becomes that much harder to actually reverse these policies, which have been growing through inertia for at least six years, if not longer, and which Congress has basically rubber-stamped. Obama has agreed to look at every executive order and throw out the ones that are unconstitutional. That is not a specific enough answer. Signals intelligence and the NSA needs to be addressed. Torture and rendition need to be addressed. We practically don't have a country to lead anymore, or at least one worth leading. The Constitution, the founding document, has become a non-issue in this election or really any election. No President has tarnished it as much as this one, and yet we continue on, muddling through, talking about tax cuts or who has the more comfortable demeanor. This election may repudiate conservatism but it's necessary to define terms. Is it a rollback of torture? A rollback of the surveillance state? A rollback of official secrecy and lost civil liberties? I don't think we know. And I think we need to have that conversation out in the open.

Are we ever going to talk about our loss of honor as a nation?"

What do YOU wish the Candidates would talk about in tonight's final debate? Tell me by leaving a comment.

This Woman is Brilliant

Rachel Maddow is so exceedingly good at exposing the empty rhetoric of conservative bloviators. She is perfect at dealing with these kind of idiots playing a game of exquisite corpse with the conservative movement's exponentially incoherent talking points, bankrupt ideologies, and increasingly exposed hidden agendas. What a creep and a hypocrite and a liar Frum shows himself to be:



I hope we are going to see much, much more of Maddow. I always liked her radio program on Air America, but TV is really her medium. Her presence, poise, and command of the situation, as it unfolds, makes her one of the best journalists working today. It's really too bad she could not be the moderator for any of the debates. Someday, perhaps.

Our Third Annual Glasshouseworks Garden Party

We love all these Athens Folk!

Dusty

Darn Right, You Betcha

Here's Why McSame is Unqualified to Steward our Economy

What Our Economy Needs

I've been reading about the Senate's version of the bailout, which i guess is going to be voted upon today. One GOOD PIECE, by DDAY over at Hullabaloo, makes a great case for how out of whack our economy is. Unless we have a balanced economy, with a healthy manufacturing sector to counteract the paper-pushing sector, we will remain out of whack, as DDAY notes in his criticism of the bill up today in the Senate:

"As for the "progressive alternative" from Rep. DeFazio, it doesn't read to me as much of an alternative at all. The good part of it, raising the FDIC insurance limit, is in the Senate plan now, and the rest of it seems to just be a new way to give away money. The change away from mark-to-market accounting, which has the potential to be hideous as companies make up numbers and the entire financial services industry becomes Enronized, is a fait accompli thanks to the SEC. David Sirota seems to like it, but I fail to see how it would do anything to stop foreclosures or alleviate the housing crisis. It may, I repeat may, save money on the initial layout, as there's no price tag attached. If it's administered the way that they fixed the S&L's, it could be cheap. But it doesn't even begin to try and solve the problem.

The problem, folks, is that the largest sector of the private economy is financial services, in other words people pushing paper to other people, while manufacturing is at its lowest level in decades. That is historically unsustainable and impossible, and invites crises like this, and no amount of figuring out a creative accounting fix and some kind of bailout on the cheap is going to change that. Only by creating a new energy economy, allowing for 5 million new green-collar jobs, and building a manufacturing base again to match the knowledge economy will we ever have an economic system in any kind of balance. Yet only the Senate bribery bill even brooches that subject."

Anyhow, i agree with DDAY that we ought to pass a stopgap that stops the hemorrhaging, but waits for a real fix until after the election and a new President and a new Congress can take it up. We've got to stop being the world's military force (DDAY calls us GLOBOCOP which is perfect), we've got to solve our energy dilemma, and we have got to stop allowing our financial sector to continue to kill the manufacturing sector.

Well This is a Great Idea

You'd think ABC and CNN et al. could take care of THIS on their own. Once this was a part of journalism. Fact checking i mean. But, as you know in the world of lies, facts are really irrelevant.