Category: Presidential Campaign

For the record: Strippers don’t really like you either.

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It’s he last line of the Nitpicker’s commentary on the Maeve Reston disgraceful article, which sounded like musings on the end of a marriage about the relationship between the press and John Sidney McCain III.

It was headlined, “McCain was frank, garrulous and accessible — and then he wasn’t,” and I’m not sure who should be fired for it, Ms. Reston, or her editor.

Here is a snippet:

But I had come to respect McCain’s frankness and his willingness to admit he didn’t always have an answer. Watching the question morph into an embarrassing “gotcha moment” for cable television, my stomach churned and my cheeks grew hot.

It reads like a an effort by a 13 year old girl to write in the vein of the really bad romance novels that she reads.

Nitpicker wrote a great essay on this, but the last line should have been the headline, so I’m doing it here. This bit at the end says it all:

It’s high time for reporters to realize candidates aren’t supposed to be their friends and, I would argue, being buddies with the people you cover would seem to me at least unprofessional, if not explicitly unethical. Obama seems to know this and I’d be willing to bet McCain knows it, too. I’m certain he’s not sitting around moaning about his lost friends in the press corps. I would even guess that it’s likely John McCain only tolerated having them so close and kissing their asses because it garnered him “swooning” coverage for a decade.

For the record: Strippers don’t really like you either.

(emphasis mine)

Everyone on the internet seems to be a better writer than I am.

They also seem much less bald.

Quote of the Day

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It’s been on the radio, and I found a link through “the google”:

“Lately, he’s called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

— BarackObama

Heh.

Why David Frum is Crapping his Pants

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So, David Frum just wrote an article in the Washington Post throwing John McCain’s presidential bid overboard, suggesting that all Republican Party efforts should be directed towards the Congress, particularly the Senate, so as to prevent a filibuster proof majority.

He notes, correctly, that the RNC is the only place where the ‘Phants are raising good money, and that they are wasting it on his doomed campaign.

He’s concerned about how a “conservative free” management of the financial meltdown will be handled, and he wrings his hands over the, “fierce new anger among many liberal Democrats,” by which he means that their refrain is, “Thank you sir, can I have another.”

But then, he gets to the bit where he actually really gives a damn:

Unchecked, this angry new wing of the Democratic Party will seek to stifle opposition by changing the rules of the political game. Some will want to silence conservative talk radio by tightening regulation of the airwaves via the misleadingly named “fairness doctrine”; others may seek to police the activities of right-leaning think tanks by a stricter interpretation of what is tax-deductible and what is not.

(emphasis mine)

Between punditry on fox, and his think-tank gigs, he is afraid that he will actually have to work for a living.

I guess that trumps ideology for him.

I incorporated a 501(c)3 tax exempt org, it was, and is, a completely bogus registration, though it is technically legal and in accordance with all laws and regulations. (no names here, I don’t want do give them grief*) It puts on SF conventions, and running a SF convention should not get tax exempt status, with deductible contributions (In truth, it went 501(c)3 for the cheap mailing rates anyway).

Neither should the right wing pundit full employment welfare programs, like the AEI, where David Frum works. They are playthings of rich people who never had to work for their money, and want to manipulate public policy for their benefit.

They are not charities, they are lobbying organizations.

*And I don’t want to give them anything else. Any contact between me and this organization is very bad for me, which I suppose is more of a reflection on me than it is on them.

OK, Is This a Sign of the Apocalypse?

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Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist just extended early voting hours in Florida, from 8 hours a day, and 8 across the weekend, to 12 hours.

I’m not sure why he did it, I’ve heard reports of the McCain campaign saying that this will kill them in Florida.

I think that after hearing the 50th story about folks waiting for hours at early voting stations, Governor Crist either decided that lengthening the hours was the right thing to do, or he realized that there was significant political blowback from this.

Why I Didn’t Comment on the Race Baiting Fraud

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I make no claim to wisdom or prescience, but I had reasons not to discuss this story.

  • I had nothing meaningful to add. I haven’t been talking about the assaults and death threats at McCain-Palin rallies either. I put this stuff down to C=MI,* and figure that is just the way things are.
  • To the degree that I have political teeth, I cut them in the UMass SGA Senate, where I served with future actors in the Abramoff and Sciavo matters† who were in the College Republicans, which gave me a nose for College Republican bullsh&#, and this reeked of College Republican bullsh&#.

    Thus. when I heard that this was a College Republican, I figured that it was a stunt which did not deserve comment.

  • By the time I heard about it, the note that the “B” was backwards, and likely applied in front of a mirror.

I just don’t one of those typewriter font types who need to get a life.

*Conservatism equals Mental Illness.
†Interestingly enough, more often than not, we were on the same side in SGA Senate,a Mondale Democrat and College Republicans,against the “US Out of North America” crowd.

OK, Time to Call an Obama Adviser Stupid

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Specifically Paul Kaminiski, who is talking up a dual buy strategy for the USAF tanker competition.

There are a number of problems, not the least of which is the fact that this is the worst of all possible solutions, doubling inventory and supply issues.

You also pay the cost of the tooling and engineering twice

A bad deal for the tax payer and the military.

There is also the problem that the 767s being made for Italy do not work. (Paid subscription required)

Boeing has assigned a “tiger team” to deal with the wing flutter issues caused by the refuelling pods.

We Are Living in Bizarro World

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and John Sidney McCain III is the Bizarro candidate.

Case in point, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission, the highest paid person in the McCain campaign in the first week of October was her makeup artist:
That annualizes to $592,800.00 a year.

Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment.”

That annualizes to $592,800.00 a year.

In addition, Angela Lew, who is Ms. Palin’s traveling hair stylist, got $10,000
for “Communications Consulting” in the first half of October. Ms. Lew’s address
listed in F.E.C. records traces to an Angela M. Lew in Thousands Oaks, Calif.,
which matches with a license issued by the California Board of Barbering and
Cosmetology. The board said Ms. Lew works at a salon called Hair Grove in
Westlake Village, Calif.

$260,000.00/year.

I’m in the wrong bloody line of work.

Why We Love the Rude Pundit

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The Rude Pundit nails it again:

  1. Barack Obama must be an anarcho-syndicalist because he believes in the power of unions.
  2. Barack Obama must be a Whig because he believes in the government’s role in building infrastructure and education.
  3. Barack Obama must be a Gaullist because he believes in regulating banks.
  4. Barack Obama must be a neo-Aristotelianist because he was a community organizer.
  5. Barack Obama must be a Dadaist because cow.

Sarah Palin’s Clothing Bill, and the Big Picture

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While the comment of a Talking Points Memo commenter about Palin and the GOP dropping over $150,000.00 of campaign funds on her cloths and bling is amusing, “If Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe had a life of its own, it would get a tax cut from a President Obama,” it misses the big picture.

We have to remember that she also accepted per deim payments intended for away from home expenses for times when she was at home, which should have the IRS coming after her, and her bilking the state out of over $21,000.00 for travel expenses for her children.

This is not about Sarah Palin. It is rather about movement conservatism, of which Sarah Palin is, at least until after election day, a sterling example.

Movement conservatism is by its nature corrupt.

Basically, these people read too much Ayn Rand, or more accurately they took it too seriously, because any amount or Ayn being read is too much.

Because of this these people believe that the government, and government service to be inherently evil, and so they enter into service to do what they believe to be evil.

The only reason for them to enter government service is money and power, and they believe that they are owed these little bits of corruption, whether it be Palin’s per deim or Stevens’ house renovations, because they are doing something so awful.

Rats are Leaving a Sinking Ship

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By rat, I mean Peggy Noonan, and by sinking Ship, I mean McCain/Palin.

Her latest piece in the WSJ cuts Sarah Palin a new one.

Of course, 6 weeks ago, she said the same damn thing on an open mic by mistake, but now she puts it in the Journal.

Her article is not about the Sarah Palin, or the election, or conservative philosophy, it is about Peggy Noonan, and an attempt to have plausible dependability about what she sees as a coming electoral drubbing.