“Honoring the pre-debate tradition, Barack Obama's campaign is out with a memo on Wednesday raising the expectations for John McCain to ungodly heights. But in addition to setting the stage for tonight's affair, the Illinois Democrat did something peculiar: he allowed a peek into internal strategy.posted by ericb at 10:41 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]
Spokesman Bill Burton lays out -- in no small measure -- how he believes the debate will proceed.
‘Just this weekend, John McCain vowed to 'whip Obama's you-know-what' at the debate,’ he writes, ‘and he's indicated that he'll use Bill Ayers to attack Barack Obama... Senator Obama is going to use the debate to discuss his plan for the economy. That's what he's been doing this entire campaign.’
Such a prediction may appear, at once, over-simplistic and optimistic. But the Obama campaign has seemingly been engineering this scenario for the past week. Indeed, if John McCain brings up Ayers in tonight it may be because he was goaded into doing so.
Following the candidate's second debate, both Obama and Joe Biden chided the Republican nominee for not making the personal character attacks he made on the stump to Obama's face. Since then, however, polling data has shown voters recoiling from McCain's use of Bill Ayers in political attacks. The Arizona Republican is left in a quandary: don't bring up the former '60s radical and risk being seen as squirmy and afraid; or bring him up and get bashed by Obama for not talking about the economy.
As Burton writes: ‘But after two debates in which John McCain didn't mention the middle class once -- and after his campaign declared openly that they want to turn the page on talking about the economy -- the real question is not how many attacks McCain can land in the debate, but whether he can finally communicate a vision to turn this economy around.’”
54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, NASCAR fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President."posted by octothorpe at 10:43 AM on October 15, 2008 [9 favorites]
The next was a woman, late 50s, Democrat but strongly pro-life. Loved B. and H. Clinton, loved Bush in 2000. "Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I'm sick of paying for health insurance at work and that's why I'm supporting Barack."
McCain's Transition Chief Lobbied for Saddam Husseinposted by spock at 10:53 AM on October 15, 2008
The person charged with planning the McCain administration, William Timmons, lobbied for Saddam Hussein in an effort to get the international community off his back. Obama challenged McCain to talk about William Ayers to his face at the debate tonight and McCain accepted the challenge. What was Obama thinking? Maybe he will bring up Timmons and point that he (Obama) was 8 years old and living in Indonesia when Ayers was planting crude bombs but McCain knowingly chose Saddam Hussein's lobbyist for an important job in his campaign. There could be fireworks if Obama brings this up.
Start from day 1 blaming Obama and the dems for anything and everything that goes wrong, from a drop in the DOW to a hangnail.
Just look at the picture and be terrified of an Obama presidency!
The only difference between Obama and Osama is BS.
Lee Atwater: "By 1968 you can't say '[n-word]'-- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.posted by milkrate at 12:19 PM on October 15, 2008 [2 favorites]
''And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me -- because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than [n-word]'"
The outside groups arrayed against Obama have not exactly been models of competence and effectiveness this year. When it comes to assembling the dirt, John Boehner is no Newt Gingrich or Tom DeLay. Among all the insinuations that Obama might be a terrorist, furthermore, is a healthy does of red-baiting that is more silly than frightening ... And just as the increasingly hateful tone of the crowds at John McCain's rallies (especially when Sarah Palin is there to egg on the thugs) is turning off moderate voters, the anti-Obama forces' worst enemy will be their own craziness. As Garrett Epps wrote in the Prospect in 2002, Bill Clinton didn't destroy his enemies; he drove them insane, and they destroyed themselves.This is important to remember - they can and probably will launch a mean-spirited opposition to anything President Obama tries to do, but we're not exactly dealing with political game masters here. Where Gingrich was Axis & Allies, Boehner is Risk.
After Barack Obama's major economic address to 3,500 people in Toledo, the office several blocks away swelled to capacity with newly-fired up volunteers. One of the volunteers who'd come into Obama's office in recent weeks is Debrah's husband, such a staunch Republican that he'd long been donating monthly like clockwork. He'd even gone into the nearby Toledo McCain office, but when he visited it had been nearly empty. The explosive energy difference, Debrah told us, particularly in the past few weeks, made an impression on her husband, who planned to vote for Barack Obama.These are people whose own personal experiences mean that they now simply aren't going to believe fringe-y emails about Obama being a baby-killing Muslim. And they're not going to believe that hordes of nefarious community organizers stole the election when they, themselves, went into that booth and voted for Obama.
The Republican National Committee is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.I don't know if McCain is aware of this, but generally, when you want to win in a state, you campaign there. What exactly is his strategy here? Is he stopping his campaign for the good of the economy again, only this time on a state-by-state basis?
The shift in advertising resources suggests that the RNC has decided to focus on defending reliably Republican-voting states against Obama's onslaught of advertising. Flush with money, Obama is outspending the joint efforts of the Republican Party and the McCain campaign by more than 2-1.
McCain has led Obama in ad spending only in Iowa and Minnesota. But television stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul said Wednesday that Obama is increasing his spending and is committed to run ads through Nov. 3.
CNN is now predicting Obama will win Virginia and the electoral college.
Yeah, turns out, he's now given up on both Wisconsin and Maine.
for all his money (well, his wife's)
A lot of the maps I've seen use 5% as their threshold. Less than that is scored as 'even'
[Wallace] said the senator from Arizona would focus tonight on what she called "the truth about Barack Obama's plan for raising taxes" and his pursuit of other "liberal" policies. "Barack Obama is measuring the drapes," she declared. "He and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are planning a liberal Democratic takeover of our economy." She referred to the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.Oh, God, this just keeps getting better. Obama's tax plan? Really? You mean the one where everyone making less than $250k gets a tax cut? Oh, yeah. I'm sure working families are going to hate hearing more about that.
DANTES assists eligible members of the armed forces to obtain certification or licensing as elementary school teachers, secondary school teachers, or vocational or technical teachers and to become highly qualified teachers. The program also helps these individuals find employment in high-need local education agencies (LEAs) or charter schools.McCain just described it incorrectly.
The single best moment of the debate, for me, was Obama's defence of labour organizers in Columbia. He didn't have to go there to make his case against the Columbia FTA, but it was the strongest, most moral argument to make, and he made it. Good for him for showing solidarity.The split screen of this is... err... interesting.
God how bad I want to see what they write on their notepads.One thing that I thought was weird in the debate before this one - the one with Brokaw, where the candidates had chairs but were wandering around a lot:
I'm gonna give you all a $50 off coupon toward K-12.
McCain's deer in the headlights moment.
The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush....I will argue my conservative record of voting with anyone's, and I will also submit that my support for President Bush has been active and very impassioned on issues that are important to the American people. And I'm particularly talking about the war on terror, the war in Iraq, national security, national defense, support of men and women in the military, fiscal discipline, a number of other issues. So I strongly disagree with any assertion that I've been more at odds with the president of the United States than I have been in agreement with him.
I have a theory on McCain's sharpie -- he uses a fat felt pen to take notes with because he doesn't want to wear reading glasses and it's the only way he can see his notes.
Speech structural parameters of candidates fall within very narrow tolerances, suggesting high degree of wordsmithing and rehearsal. For example, noun/verb/adjective/adverb ratio is nearly identical, as is unique word count and noun phrase profile. Speech of Presidential candidates is more complex and less repetitive than that of their Vice-Presidential counterparts. Biden is the most repetitive speaker. The Obama/McCain debates began with balanced performance from both candidates but end with Obama verbally overpowering McCain with overwhelming superiority in concepts delivered.posted by Korou at 12:26 AM on October 16, 2008 [3 favorites]
The Irish betting company has paid betters prematurely in the past. On June 12, shortly before polls closed, Paddy Power said it would pay out 80,000 euros ($107,176) on bets that Irish voters would ratify the European Union's governing treaty, adding that the ballot was ``in the bag.''posted by mullingitover at 2:14 AM on October 16, 2008
Voters came out against the treaty by about 53 percent to 47 percent.
This country wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for an angry mob that decided it wanted a tax cut and threw English tea into Boston Harbor. Angry mobs once enforced local justice without interference from the meddlesome federal government in the Old West and in the south after Reconstruction, just as our Founding Fathers had envisioned in The Federalist Papers. And we would probably all be Muslims now if an angry mob hadn’t chosen Barabbas over Jesus 2,000 years ago.posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:56 AM on October 16, 2008 [3 favorites]
The Republican Party certainly owes a lot to angry mobs. Angry mobs in Little Rock and Selma deeply concerned about the issue of state’s rights, angry mobs of parents in Boston who didn’t want their kids bussed across town and angry mobs of Chicago homeowners who didn’t want their property values to go down all helped give birth to the modern conservative movement.
Soon after McCain hit the ground in Hanoi, the code went out the window. "I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital," he later admitted pleading with his captors. McCain now insists the offer was a bluff, designed to fool the enemy into giving him medical treatment. In fact, his wounds were attended to only after the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a Navy admiral. What has never been disclosed is the manner in which they found out: McCain told them. According to Dramesi, one of the few POWs who remained silent under years of torture, McCain tried to justify his behavior while they were still prisoners. "I had to tell them," he insisted to Dramesi, "or I would have died in bed."Read the Rolling Stone article. I know it's long and full of words, but you deserve to know the real story, not the fairy tale.
Dramesi says he has no desire to dishonor McCain's service, but he believes that celebrating the downed pilot's behavior as heroic — "he wasn't exceptional one way or the other" — has a corrosive effect on military discipline. "This business of my country before my life?" Dramesi says. "Well, he had that opportunity and failed miserably. If it really were country first, John McCain would probably be walking around without one or two arms or legs — or he'd be dead."
Once the Vietnamese realized they had captured the man they called the "crown prince," they had every motivation to keep McCain alive. His value as a propaganda tool and bargaining chip was far greater than any military intelligence he could provide, and McCain knew it. "It was hard not to see how pleased the Vietnamese were to have captured an admiral's son," he writes, "and I knew that my father's identity was directly related to my survival." But during the course of his medical treatment, McCain followed through on his offer of military information. Only two weeks after his capture, the North Vietnamese press issued a report — picked up by The New York Times — in which McCain was quoted as saying that the war was "moving to the advantage of North Vietnam and the United States appears to be isolated." He also provided the name of his ship, the number of raids he had flown, his squadron number and the target of his final raid.
McCain's implication that Obama was principally responsible for the negative tone of the campaign was simply not going to be credible to most voters. Certainly, the Obama campaign has been negative at times -- more often than either the Al Gore or John Kerry -- and on several occasions explictly misleading. But voters came into the debate thinking by 2:1 margins that McCain was running a negative campaign and Obama a positive one. To try and fight against that tide was a significant mistake.posted by chunking express at 7:37 AM on October 16, 2008
"A Democratic researcher spent the evening counting the Arizona Republican's blinks, and tallied more than 3,000 during the night's affair -- three thousand blinks in a 90-minute time span. They even compressed a 30-second clip of those blinks into a nine second video."posted by ericb at 7:48 AM on October 16, 2008 [1 favorite]
“For those of you who are feeling giddy or cocky and think this is all set, I just say one word. I guess it’s two words for you: New Hampshire. You know, I’ve been in these positions before where we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked. And so that’s another good lesson that Hillary Clinton taught me.”posted by ericb at 9:12 AM on October 16, 2008 [5 favorites]
Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog.
Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher related to Charles “the Crook” Keating. Oops.
October 15th, 2008 . by Marty
John McCain did great tonight in the debate. But every time John mentioned “Joe the Plumber,” some of us in the campaign banged our heads against the wall. If Steve Schmidt had any hair left, I hear he would have been pulling it out tonight. He reportedly screamed at John’s debate prep team tonight (out of earshot of reporters, of course). “You idiots - he’s related to Charles Keating… of the Keating Five scandal!” They thought they had a real live Joe Six-Pack who’s spurned Barack Obama’s tax plan. But what they forgot to do was check on Joe Wurzelbacher’s background.
Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who’s Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating’s son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years.
“He's a plumber, sure, respectable blue collar work. But honestly, right now, in this climate, how many voters exactly personally relate to a guy who's planning on buying a business? Oh no, Senator Obama might stop Pete the Locksmith from flipping his house and buying that Land Rover! And that was before it was revealed that Joe the Plumber might be a Republican plant!posted by ericb at 9:50 AM on October 16, 2008 [3 favorites]
This Joe ‘the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher already talks like a GOP pundit (he's got the accidental casual racism down!), and his aw shucks willingness to repeat ancient class war talking points to every camera in sight is actually a bit suspicious for a random voter, but the most important thing about Joe Wurzelbacher is his last name: it's the same as the last name of Charles Keating's son-in-law!
Keating's son-in-law, Robert Wurzelbacher, served a 40-month prison sentence in 1993 in connection with Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse. Since then, who knows what he's been up to, but there is a Robert Wurzelbacher who lives just outside of Cincinnati, owns a wood company, and donates to Republicans.
Meanwhile there is a Joseph Wurzelbacher who owns a painting company in Cincinnati! Along with a septic tank repair company!
These dots were all connected by a DailyKos diarist, who has no proof that Joe and Robert Wurzelbacher are related, but, you know, it's suspicious. The Wurzelbvacher connection was also made, amusingly, by this right-wing satirical blogger.
But regardless of whether Joe the Plumber is a Republican plant or not, one thing is for certain: he's not actually voting for McCain. Because the asshole isn't actually registered.”
"[Joe has] succeeded in raising the ire of a lot of his plumbing brethren, particularly those in the United Association of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry!posted by ericb at 10:39 AM on October 16, 2008 [1 favorite]
The UA was the 'first international Union to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States,' having thrown their support behind Illinoisan way back in January. Radar called them up to see how they felt about a man so inextricably linked to the world of pipes suddenly becoming a campaign talking point....'You know, hopefully Joe put in his time as an apprentice and a journeyman, so he can appreciate what it's like to be a working person,' a spokesperson told us. 'Now that he has succeeded and has the chance to become a contractor and a business owner, he should really be supportive of Senator Obama's tax plan, which will benefit the working-class people who really need it.'
So, confidential to Joe: stop being such an asshole. You're disappointing plumbers all over the country!"*
"Political strategist and conservative analyst Martin Eisenstadt is a senior fellow at the The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy and Founder and President of the influential Eisenstadt Group. An expert on Near Eastern military and political affairs, Mr. Eisenstadt works alongside Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, offering advice and liaising with the Jewish community in particular. Prior to that, he consulted on the Rudolph Giuliani campaign, as well as numerous corporate and multinational organizations on issues of security and policy development. Mr. Eisenstadt has been an influential voice in Near Eastern policy debate for over a decade."And, to repeat from his blog post:
Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher related to Charles “the Crook” Keating. Oops.So, I'd say that if McCain advisers Steve Schmidt and Martin Eisenstadt know of the "connection" then it's likely not "tenuous at best."
"John McCain did great tonight in the debate. But every time John mentioned “Joe the Plumber,” some of us in the campaign banged our heads against the wall. If Steve Schmidt had any hair left, I hear he would have been pulling it out tonight. He reportedly screamed at John’s debate prep team tonight (out of earshot of reporters, of course). 'You idiots - he’s related to Charles Keating… of the Keating Five scandal!' They thought they had a real live Joe Six-Pack who’s spurned Barack Obama’s tax plan. But what they forgot to do was check on Joe Wurzelbacher’s background. Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who’s Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating’s son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years."
The group's president, Diane Fedele, said she plans to send an apology letter to her members and to apologize at the club's meeting next week. She said she simply wanted to deride a comment Obama made over the summer about how as an African-American he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."OK. Two things. First, what is "outrageous" about Obama pointing out that he does not resemble a white man? Second, even if you wanted to mock this statement by putting Obama's face on some fake money, and depict him in a humorous fashion, was it necessary to include the Kool-Aid, ribs, fried chicken and watermelon? Someone put some time into that. How this can be interpretted as anything but purposeful and deliberate racism is beyond me.
"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."
ABC News' Chris Bury is outside Toledo, near the home of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber," and reports that Wurzelbacher -- such a key part of Sen. John McCain's critique of Sen. Barack Obama's economic proposals -- acknowledged that he wants to purchase the plumbing business for $250-280,000, not that he would net that much in profits.So thank you, John McCain, for sifting through your Keating buddies and finding this American Everyman, putting a face to the sort of person who would benefit from an Obama presidency.
He would make much less, he said.
Which would seem to indicate that he would be eligible for an Obama tax cut, not that he would be subject to the tax increase from 36% to 39% Obama would impose on those making more than $200,000 per person, or $250,000 per family.
Republican mailing depicts Obama with watermelon and fried chicken.
MLB pushes back World Series Game 6 by 8 minutesYeah I know it's just a couple of minutes. Yeah I read the disclaimer about doing the same for his opponent at the bottom. But come on - I know I'm not the only one who reads this and hears "Bownch Bownch....OHHH YEAHHH....chcka chckaaaa".
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball has agreed to push back the start time of a potential World Series Game 6 by eight minutes to allow Democrat Barack Obama to purchase a half-hour of air time on the Fox network.
Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said Thursday that the game time would now be set for 8:35 p.m.
The Obama presidential campaign said Oct. 9 that it had bought the 8-8:30 p.m slot on CBS and NBC.
"Fox will accommodate Senator Obama's desire to communicate with voters in this long-form format," network spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said in a statement. "We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for Fox to carry his program on Oct. 29. If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Senator McCain's campaign."
“Wurzelbacher first came to attention over the weekend, when he engaged Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, in a six-minute discussion of tax policy at a rally in Holland, Ohio. He told Obama that he was a plumber and was hoping to buy his boss’s business, which he said made $250,000 to $280,000 a year. He was concerned, he said, that Obama’s economic proposals would mean he’d be kicked into a higher tax bracket.posted by ericb at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2008 [10 favorites]
…Legally speaking, Wurzelbacher isn’t a plumber, because he isn’t licensed by Toledo, Lucas County or the state of Ohio. A representative of the Toledo Building Inspection Division said a plumber must be registered with the state and only then can apply for a city plumbing contractor’s license.
Wurzelbacher said he worked under the license held by his boss, Al Newell of Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. of Toledo. Newell is a licensed plumbing contractor in Toledo, records show. But anyone working under Newell should have a journeyman’s plumbing license or an apprenticeship license, officials said.
Building Inspection officials said Newell was responsible for making sure that anyone working under him was licensed. The Toledo Plumbing Board of Control may consider sanctions against Wurzelbacher or Newell, officials told NBC affiliate WNWO of Toledo.
‘There’s a lot I’ve got to learn’ about the plumbing business, Wurzelbacher said Thursday.
Wurzelbacher also acknowledged that he had no specific plans for buying Newell’s business, saying he and Newell had simply talked about the idea from time to time. He might have difficulty making the purchase: Court records from his divorce show that Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006.
Even if he did buy Newell Plumbing and Heating, Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t affect him. While Wurzelbacher told Obama that the business would be taxed at a higher rate because it grossed more than $250,000 a year, Ohio business records show the company’s estimated total annual revenue as only $100,000.
In any event, Obama’s tax plan specifies that the higher rate would apply only to revenue above the $250,000 threshold. For a company with revenue of $280,000, the top end of Wurzelbacher’s supposition, only the extra $30,000 would be taxed at a higher rate.
Analysts calculated that the extra tax would amount to $900, which would likely be more than offset by separate provisions of Obama’s plan: a 50 percent tax credit for health care and elimination of the capital gains tax for small businesses.
… Asked about other issues by a covey of curious reporters, Wurzelbacher voiced strongly Republican opinions.
‘Social Security’s a joke,’ he said. ‘I have parents. I don’t need another set of parents called the government. Let me take my money and invest it how I please.’
On immigration: ‘I wish our borders were closed.’
And on the war in Iraq, which McCain has strongly supported: ‘I’m not sorry we’re in Iraq. ... It’s made us safer. I absolutely believe that.’”
I found an article on IQ that makes the point that 62% of American have less than a 110 IQIf IQ has a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15, the 62nd percentile is at 104.6. So that data would suggest that Americans are slightly smarter than your average bear.
By definition because IQ is a norm-referenced test with the mean set at 100.
"...It’s not clear how not wearing a flag pin makes someone condescending. Regardless, Obama does wear a flag pin. He has, in fact, worn one at each of the three presidential debates. The person who refuses to wear one is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).posted by ericb at 3:14 PM on October 16, 2008 [1 favorite]
I came across all those videos in my search, and while I did hear 'terrorist' and 'zero', I didn't hear anybody say 'kill him.'
It became part of the image perpetuated by a white culture bent upon bolstering the myth of superiority by depicting the inferior race as lazy, simple-minded pickaninnies interested only in such mindless pleasures as a slice of sweet watermelon.Chicken is similar. I could stand to learn a little bit more about how the chicken figured in Southern and black cultural history and culinary practice, but my understanding is that, again, it was a pretty rare treat, especially in the poorer rural South. You ate beans a lot, and eggs a lot, and ham a lot (because it lasted a long time) but you only ate a chicken when you killed it (doesn't preserve well). And you could only keep as many chickens as you could feed and house. Poor people (black people, in the pre-Civil Rights South) didn't get a chance to eat chicken all that much for these reasons. So chicken was a rare treat and not many people could afford to keep chickens, or to kill the chickens that they did keep on a frequent basis. Chicken-stealing was a common crime, and blacks were commonly accused of the crime (rightfully or not) - so when blacks were depicted enjoying chicken, the implication was often that it was probably a stolen chicken. The chicken story ends up getting pretty complicated, because a genuine tradition of cooking, raising, enjoying, and starting businesses using chicken exists in history and is a part of real black American culture today - chicken is soul food. At the same time, chicken-eating was so often depicted in comic dismissals of blacks - and commercialized in some nasty restaurant ventures on on the vaudeville stage - that associating blacks with chicken to make a joke can carry an intent to humiliate. So it happens that racist attitudes toward blacks have sometimes gotten mapped onto chicken, and at the same time, it has a legitimate place in black foodways.
“My name is Joe Wurzelbacher. I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250 to $270, $280 million a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”A bald-face lie, as he now says he's not in a position to buy a company that's "not for sale," a company which has an estimated total annual revenue -- not profit -- of $100,000, and about which he says he's dreamed about buying sometime in the future.
Hopefully the woman with the spark-throwing thing on Letterman’s “will it float?” skit will send a few good sparks into Laura Meckler’s general direction. But hopefully Ms. Meckler’s cathair turtleneck sweater won’t catch fire, at least not unless someone can promptly turn that water hose on the wall on her.I don't understand what NOBAMA is saying. NOBAMA wants the author of a somewhat objective article on what happened on the show to have her clothes catch on fire? And/or that the fire will be put out with the fire hose on the wall? Is NOBAMA mad about the Wall Street Journal's liberal bias here? Or because Meckler is giving spoilers.
Sen. McCain was also asked about his running mate and whether she was his first choice for the job. Sen. McCain said "absolutely" she was. But he confessed, "I didn't know her well at all. I knew her reputation."Lieberman was his first choice.
...
The host also asked whether Gov. Palin had said that Sen. Obama "pals around with terrorists." McCain started to say he didn’t know, then said "Yes. And he did."
Obama also poked fun at his Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, which he delivered before a crowd of tens of thousands at an outdoor football stadium on an elaborately constructed stage.Yeah. Politicians should definitely not write their own jokes. Sorry.
"I was originally told we'd be able to move this outdoors to Yankee Stadium," he said of the dinner.
Then, pausing and looking around, he said, "Could somebody tell me what happened to the Greek columns that I requested?"
Chickens can find their own feed, but each chicken needs a lot of room if this is going to work. Also, chickens that live entirely by foraging have to have their population adjusted to match the feed supply. For example, a farmer of 100 years ago might have kept a dozen hens and a rooster through the winter, and allowed the hens to hatch a brood of chicks each in the spring, giving, say, 72 chicks plus the original 13 chickens, or 85 birds total. The old rooster would be sold after the chicks had hatched. The old hens and most of the young chickens would be sold in the fall, and one cockerel and twelve pullets would be kept through the lean months. By having 85 chickens during the fat months and only 13 during the winter, the amount of supplemental feed needed by the chickens would be minimized. A flock of 13 chickens might survive all winter on the grain spilled by a cow and a team of draft horses, plus some hay and whatever else they could find. This winter diet would be nutritionally poor (both vitamin- and protein-deficient) and the hens would lay no eggs, but they'd recover in early spring and the cycle would repeat.Finally, before industrialization the rural South was still a place where livestock in the open were in danger - it was a place of bobcats, foxes, and feral dogs, all of which are happy to pick off chickens one by one or in a crazy slaughter, so chicken attrition was pretty high. And certainly any time there's hunger, which for poor people is almost all the time but was at a point of national emergency during the Depression, chicken theft was real and common.
Nutritional deficiencies increase with the number of chickens. I've heard estimates that you can support 1-2 hens per acre with no supplemental feeding, though probably not during the winter. As you add chickens to the farm, they first exhaust the supply of high-calorie feeds such as seeds, then the supply of high-protein feeds such as bugs, worms, and high-protein forage. Finally, they use up the supply of high-vitamin feeds such as grass. Modern poultrykeeping revolves around supplying the nutrients the chickens can't find for themselves.
In the good old days, when people didn't feed their hens at all, much of the hen's diet was provided by sheer sloppiness. People threw their garbage out into the street or the barnyard. The cows and horses spilled grain. Manure was everywhere and was full of yummy maggots. Even with all the natural bounty provided by Stone Age sanitation, the number of hens that could be supported without supplemental feeding was very limited. Flocks of over fifty hens were unusual before chicken feed was invented.
"NBC's price quote for e-mails sent to Todd Palin: $15 million.Unbelievable.
The AP's price for e-mails between state employees and the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain: $15 million.
And the AP again, for e-mails between state employees and the National Park Service (on polar bears, wolves and other topics): $15 million.
The AP's news editor in Anchorage, Mark Thiessen, told msnbc.com he wasn't authorized to say whether the AP, a nonprofit cooperative owned by newspapers, planned to pay the $45 million for e-mails."
For all of the accusations of theft by blacks, there were still more who did not acquire their stock in that fashion. Many came to obtain their livestock...through industry and privilege. Were this not the case, then fewer blacks would have been observed in possession of such flocks. In her mid-ninteenth-century travel observations, Scandinavian novelist and feminist activist Frederika Bremer noted: "Every house has a pigsty, in which there is generally a very fat pig; and many hens and chickens swarm about the garden-plot, in which they grow beans, Indian-corn, and different kinds of roots...the slaves sell eggs and chickens, and every Christmas their pig also...they often lay up money, and I have heard speak of slaves who possess several hundred dollars..."A bit later, she talks about how the development of new roads and railroads in the South gave birth to new towns and opportunities for income. One popular business model that was low-capital, high-reward was selling food to train travelers. Fried chicken was one of the most commonly sold (I'm guessing because it can be eaten hot or cold). So chicken was inventory, not a semi-worthless dooryard pest. Speaking of two women who raised and sold chicken and chicken dinners in the early 20th century, the author says:
For Winston, Edwards, their families, and community members, chicken was more than a source of nourishment; it was their livelihood. Most likely, the black people in Gordonsville (VA), like families elsewhere, ate very little of the surplus that provided their families with income. Winston notes in [a] news article that her own children "never knew there were parts of the chicken besides wings, backs, and feet until they were big enough to move away." This was not to withold "the best" from her children; rather, "the best" was reserved for sale so that her children could have even more.So this supports what I'm saying: not that chickens didn't exist, but that they had value, and thus weren't squandered or wasted or eaten every day. If you were eating chicken, it was good times, and represented a financial sacrifice.
"Don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't underestimate our ability to screw it up. I want everybody running scared. Over the next 18 days, other than your family and your job, I want you to make a decision that there is nothing more important than bringing about this change that we need."posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:29 PM on October 17, 2008 [1 favorite]
"We've really got to hand it to Joe [the McCain lackey]," Palin said. "Somehow he got Barack Obama to finally state his intentions in plain language — Sen. Obama said he wants to spread the wealth and he wants government to take your money and decide how to best redistribute it."Now, fortunately, this article points out that Joe would actually benefit from Obama's tax plan, so chalk up one for the MSM for that one. But this oft-quoted "redistribute the wealth" meme that Team McCain loves to hammer on needs context, so hear is the full quote of what Obama actually said to Mr. Wurzelbacher:
After the crowd booed, Palin added: "Joe suggested that sounded a little bit like socialism. Whatever you call it, I call it bad medicine for an ailing economy."
"I’m gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5% of the folks who are doing very well – even though they’ve been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they’re paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts. . . . My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."Only a Republican could take this pro-business position ("Let people have more money to spend") and turn it into "socialism". Inigo Montoya springs to mind ... "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended."Whaddya say, McMaverick? Are you proud of those supporters, too?
A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.
McClatchy is withholding the women's names because of the threats.
Separately, vandals broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.
The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."
[...] Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, he said.
Obama Camp Connects ACORN Probe to US Attorneys Scandal
Palin also made a point of mentioning that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country, of which North Carolina is one. No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.This is exactly the sort of behavior I am looking for when electing someone to run this great country-- a statesman with the fortitude to stick his or her head in the sand and avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. A person who doesn't hesitate to divide the states into "pro-America" and anti-America. A person who equates love for herself with love for the nation. "California, why do you hate America? And you, New York! Don't make me laugh! You aren't real America."
But it's at events like these and our rallies that we are so energized and inspired and we know that we are not alone. We feel your strength and we feel the power of prayer, so many of you tell us that you are praying for us and praying for our country and that's why we so appreciate you being here."Wait. Is that the editorial "we" or the royal "we"? Did she forget to tell us that she is running for Queen??!!
"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:11 PM on October 17, 2008
Survey of the Louisiana Purchase: The survey method used during the Louisiana Purchase survey was the rectangular survey system. It was an orderly method for arranging the sale and grant of Louisiana Purchase lands to settlers. The rectangular land surveys of the Louisiana Purchase are continuous over thousands of square miles of land and its initial point of survey is found in Arkansas. This survey system replaced the pre-Revolutionary War system of “metes and bounds,” by which property was identified by physical features (i.e., streams and trees). The rectangular survey system was introduced by a British soldier, Colonel Bouquet, who learned about the survey while stationed in Sardinia, Greece. Thomas Jefferson, a man interested in science and survey, developed a system based on Bouquet’s observations in the 1780s. It was adopted by the United States Congress and used for the NorthwestOrdinance of 1785.The old engraving of a row one-room log cabins you linked to, Pollomacho, certainly could be slaves' houses. But the single tin-roof one in the color picture could be a very late 19th-early20th century house for any poorish person, and lots of whites lived in cabins like that one.
The rectangular survey system is based on the “Y” axis (principal meridian) and the “X” axis (base line) system. The two points intersect at a point based on identifiable physical geographic features, such as Robbins and Brown’s witness trees. After this initial point of survey was established, the property could be divided into six-mile square townships with sections and quarter sections for sale or grant to potential property owners. Many of the survey lines follow state and county boundaries in the United States. The rectangular survey system is also a basis for the use of “sections” of lands that are equal to 640 acres, “quarter” sections of 160 acres and “quarter-quarters” or “forties” of 40 acres. Throughout the 1800s and early 20th century, villages and towns were laid out in a rectangular grid pattern based on the rectangular system of survey. Today, the United States is a very “rectangular” country, with political and civilian property divisions in the west and Midwest following a checkerboard pattern of squares or oblongs with lines running directly north-south and east-west.This major development of the United States is a direct result of the survey of Arkansas that occurred in 1815...
it's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:08 PM on October 17, 2008 [9 favorites]
Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.[...]
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.
Asswipe.
The sign in question mocked Obama's call for change and asked what other figures "called for change in this fashion." The answer: Marx, Hitler, Castro, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini. "And you want Obama for President? Are you nuts,” the sign said.Actually, it gets better. If you look at the sign, it also says, "Each and every one called upon youth movements!"
Two senators in opposing political parties [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican] asked Republican presidential candidate John McCain to stop the automated phone calls that link Democratic candidate Barack Obama to a 1960s radical.This whole thing makes the Willie Horton ads seem tasteful and fair. Besides, Horton was a scary guy. Ayers is a freakin' professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. What's he going to do, lecture me to death?
"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."
Reid told reporters at a news conference in Las Vegas that he's surprised at the "scummy" tactics employed by McCain's presidential campaign and "can't believe John McCain knows what's going on."
The automated calls in Maine, Nevada and other states — they are commonly known as "robo calls" — say Obama "has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans." The charge is misleading: The bombings, which took place more than 35 years ago, didn't result in fatalities and the group didn't claim responsibility for the attack on the judge's home.
Obama has condemned Ayers' radical activities, which took place in the late 1960s and the 1970s, when Obama was a child. In the debate Wednesday with McCain, Obama said Ayers played no role in his presidential campaign.
But really folks, did you notice Obama is not content with just having several American flags, plain old American flags with the 50 states represented by 50 stars? He has the "O" flag. And that's what that "O" is. That's what that "O" is. Just like he did with the plane he was using. He had the flag painted over, and the "O" for Obama. Now, these are symptom -- these things are symptomatic of a person who would like to be a potentate -- a dictator. And I really see this in this man.The "o" flag in question is the Ohio state flag.
Across the state, Democrats showed the most first-day enthusiasm. Of the nearly 114,000 first-day voters, 64 percent were Democrats, 21 percent Republicans and 15 percent unaffiliateds.I knocked on about 25 doors today here in NC and while a large number of registered voters had moved (I live in an area with lots of renters) those who were home had already voted for, or were planning on voting for, Obama. Every single one. I gave out lots of maps to the nearest early voting station.
African American turnout was up significantly. Black voters, who make up about 22 percent of registered voters, were 36 percent of Thursday's early voters.
From evangelicals' general enthusiasm for an Iraq war that defied most interpretations of Christian just-war doctrine, to their support for political figures and tactics that defy all standards of decency and honesty, we see a pattern of behavior conspicuously out of step with the book they claim as their manual for living.posted by leftcoastbob at 8:29 AM on October 19, 2008 [1 favorite]
"The summons to leadership that we face at present is our fourth rendezvous with destiny. Answering this summons does not mean peace, prosperity, justice for all and no more wars in the world—any more than the American Revolution meant all people were free, the Civil War meant an end to racial inequality, or World War II and our great victory in the Cold War meant the triumph of democracy and free markets. What our leadership in the world does mean is that these things have a chance. We can have peace. We can continue moving toward greater prosperity for all. We can strive for justice in the world. We can seek to limit the destruction and the casualties of war. We can help enslaved people find their freedom."So Powell has always been an interventionist, has always believed in the military as a tool for humanitarianism. Ironically, in this same article he says that Gulf War 1 had a "limited objective" because for the US to take over Iraq would cost an "unpardonable expense in terms of money, lives lost and ruined regional relationships", saying of those who criticized Bush Sr. for not capturing Saddam, "Even if Hussein had waited for us to enter Baghdad, and even if we had been able to capture him, what purpose would it have served? And would serving that purpose have been worth the many more casualties that would have occurred? Would it have been worth the inevitable follow-up: major occupation forces in Iraq for years to come and a very expensive and complex American proconsulship in Baghdad? Fortunately for America, reasonable people at the time thought not. They still do."
That effigy had a Star of David on top. I'm confused. First Obama was supposed to be a radical black Christian, then he was supposedly muslin, now he's Jewish?Don't forget atheist. And I heard he prays to Hindu.
If McCain had been a member of the KKK, and had a colleague who is a proud abortion clinic bomber, he would have been universally reviled.I've heard a lot of things about Obama before but illegal alien???
We don't even know for sure if Obama is an American since he refuses to release his birth certificate. His Kenyan grandmother brags that she witnessed his birth in Kenya. No wonder Obama is fighting the federal lawsuit seeking him to prove where he was born. John McCain turned over the appropriate documents as soon as he was asked. BO has been fighting that request tooth and nail. As far as we know, he is not only constitutionally ineligible to be president, he is an illegal alien.
#atodd: Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers- I'm phonebanking so let's all work together and get John McCain elected #litf08Some folks are already thinking that the story is a bit off. Photo here too at Drudge - it's unknown if the photo is reversed or what.
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:55:41 +0000
#atodd: Oh the blog I will be making soon... Its been a rough night #litf08
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:52:58 +0000
#atodd: Pretty sure I'm on the wrong side of pittsburgh
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:45:59 +0000
#atodd: Stubbornly searching for a bank of america to avoid ATM fees.
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:23:21 +0000
#atodd: This traffic in pittsburgh needs to go away!!!! #litf08
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:04:06 +0000
Police say they did not take the photo of Ashley Todd that is gaining internet notoriety. The photo depicts a 20-something female with bruises under her eyes, and a red "B" on the right side of her face.Her cached MySpace, and some ruminations on death and funerals from her MySpace blog...
...While many people expressed sympathy online, just as many were voicing doubt about Todd's story.
...Ashley Todd is a member of the Brazos County Young Republicans. The group's president would not comment.
“And now John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, has commented on his blog that ‘this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.posted by ericb at 11:37 AM on October 24, 2008
‘If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.’
He titles his posting: ‘Moment of Truth.’ Indeed.”
"Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her cloths [sic] off, but its [sic] better if you do."Guess she's working for the right campaign.
"[Assistant Chief of Police Maurita] Bryant said somebody charged with making a false report would typically be cited and sent a summons. But because police have concerns about Todd's mental health, they are consulting with the Allegheny County District Attorney. She remained in custody and was awaiting arraignment."posted by ericb at 12:17 PM on October 24, 2008
"Todd was one of the members of a group called 50 College Republicans that has been publicizing its activities through a blog and Twitter feed on a website called Life in the Field."Looks like the
Maybe I can forestall a political flamewar by making this into a grammar flamewar. Does this actually scan?
posted by GuyZero at 9:57 AM on October 15, 2008 [1 favorite]