IS ROBERT ELIGIBLE TO VOTE? HELP WANTED.

I need your help to determine if Robert, the Conservative, is qualified to vote. It seems Robert has very strong opinions about who should have, or not have, the right to vote. He brings terms like “apathy” and “uninformed” into his discussion but fails to quantify what measures of “apathy” or “informed” should apply.

In applying an arbitrary standard to voter eligibility, what Robert is really saying is this: “Let me decide.” Fair enough! If he wants to assign himself this role, he should understand that “two can play this game.” So let us judge Robert by his own standards and determine whether or not he should have the right to vote.

Here is the gist of a conversation I had with Robert earlier this week:

Robert:  I belong to the crowd that doesn't want everyone to vote.

(O)CT(O)PUS:   Lucky for the rest of us, there are laws to protect us from people like you.

Robert:   I wouldn't deny anyone the right, of course, but Saturday elections would mean that many people who have such apathy to the process that they wouldn't vote during the week would cast votes on Saturday.

(O)CT(O)PUS:   And who are you to make this judgment? Who are you to decide when one votes or who gets the right to vote? By this definition, you would disenfranchise anyone at the drop of a hat for failing to meet any narrow-minded criteria you can think of.

Robert:   It is sad that so many people are uninformed on issues.

(O)CT(O)PUS:  Like you! By this standard, you should not have the right to vote either. What makes you think your opinion or your vote is more worthy than mine or the next person. Do you think you are smarter than me? Or more educated than me? Or more democracy-worthy than me? Or more entitled than me? Obviously you have no concept of equal rights, equal protection, and equal access under Law.

Robert:  I think that half the people who vote now would do us all a favor by staying at home.

(O)CT(O)PUS:  Then do us a favor and stay home yourself.  For someone who claims to value liberty and freedom, you have a damn strange concept of what these mean. Or are you one of George Orwell's … pigs who would have our Constitution restated to mean: "Some animals are more equal than others." Damn, you are even worse than stupid!

I have extended an invitation to Robert to visit our humble shores and take our voter eligibility test. That is why I prevail upon you, my fellow creatures of the deep and pilots of the waves. What would you ask Robert to determine his eligibility to vote?

My question for Robert begins with this 48-second segment from a Sarah Palin speech:



Fruit fly research does sound a bit silly … especially for the likes of Joe-Six-Pack and Joe-the-Plumber.  But a recent study shows that “Drosophila” fruit flies have an abundance of neurexin, a protein essential for proper neurological function.  This discovery has important applications in autism research.

Of course, everyone knows that Sarah Palin has a “special needs” child, and it would seem hypocritical of Petite Sarah to debunk this research. So here is my voter eligibility question for Robert: Read this paper and give us your opinion as to why funding for this research should be cut.

Next?  My compatriots above and below the waves, can you think of any voter eligibility questions you would like to ask Robert, the Conservative?

Palin Strikes Again, and Prop 8 in California

Don't have much energy just now since I am dealing with a cold, but this article contains quotations that positively cry out for mention: evidently, Governor Palin thinks people who criticize her are trampling on her constitutional right to talk foolishness. She really seems to have no idea what the First Amendment is for. She thinks it exists to prevent people from criticizing others--especially from saying mean things about her ignorant pronunciamentos. Well three more days of this gibberish, and then it's time for us to have our say. I already voted a while back.

Here in California, the only excitement, so far as I can tell, is about the gay-bashing Prop. 8, which designs to take away gay and lesbian couples' right to marry in the state. It appears, so far, to be headed for a narrow defeat, if the latest Field Poll is accurate--but the gap has closed significantly in recent weeks thanks to a slimy ad campaign (theme: them wicked homos is gonna teach homo-marriage in the schools and turn your kids into raging perverts), so it's not a sure bet either way. The "Yes on 8" campaign is better funded than the "No" campaign; I keep seeing annoying signs everywhere saying "protect marriage" and suchlike drivel. It seems to have had a strong effect on the numbers. But Barack is up over twenty points here.

Joe the Maoist

I picked up the clip below at A Silent Cacophony, one of my regular reads. Looking for Joe the Plumber in the crowd, John the Candidate tells the audience to stand up because they're all Joe the Plumber. I'm sure the man with umpteen houses and cars and a private jet wishes it were so. I'm sure the Man who has never had a private sector job, much less a blue collar trade, would like us to think of him as a man of the people, a Maoist hero.

The idea of the wise peasant, the log cabin born leader is nothing new and it's typically American, but it's also a central mythology of Marxism. We remember Mao Zedong's cultural revolution during which the professional, academic and educated classes were all but exterminated in favor of leadership by peasant farmers, coal miners and yes, plumbers. That one learns to swim by swimming was a Maoist cliche that implied that education was not only not necessary, but not desired. It took China a generation to begin to recover from the destruction.


The idea still lives here in America, despite our continuing obsession with Communism and Socialism. We still believe in the wise fool; in the wisdom of those untainted by information and intelligence and culture and we still believe in superstitious suspicion of all others. We still believe that Joe, whose name is Charles, and isn't a plumber and can't do basic arithmetic much less understand the tax codes, has the answers we need because he's one of us and not one of them. We're still yearning for the Worker's Paradise promised by Communism. We still admire Forrest Gump and marvel at his wisdom, but we still can't seem to differentiate between the people who exploit us by invoking our class identifications and snobberies and class prejudices, and people who actually serve our best interests. All we seem to see is the working class uniform and not the wolf wearing it.

Only in America would the accusation of Marxism arise from a plan to add 4% to the burden of the top 2% elite in the interest of recovering some of the debt we have incurred in making them rich. Only in America would the accusation of Socialism arise from restoring the top tax bracket we had under Reagan; the progressive structure advocated by Adam Smith and Teddy Roosevelt and that we have had during the most prosperous years of our history.

I could go on endlessly about the irony of invoking a worker's paradise and the bogeyman of Communism to sell economic feudalism, but odds are, if you've read this far, you don't need me to do that. It's the dumb people that can be fooled all of the time. It's Joe the Plumber and everyone who stood up when John the Rich Man asked them to who enjoy the flattery and the snobbery and the smug, stupid certainties sold to them by Sarah and the old man.

WELCOME EXPAT FROM YOUR "EEL" FRIENDS

Although still nursing a bug, I do not want to be remiss in welcoming ExpatBrian to The Swash Zone.  In fact I should take this opportunity to honor all the teachers among us:  Blogging Dino, ExpatBrian, Maleeper, and Squid who are clearly in the majority, which means true blue Fogg and your virus-ravaged and feckless 8pus will have to mind our peas and carrots and watch our language.

Expat is our ESL specialist.  It means he teaches “Engrish,” a dialect spoken by so many people around the world, it may someday become standard English.  Here are some examples of his accomprishments:

Happy handwashing day, our hands make crean today, with soapy!

When Sunny comes, can Money be far behind?

I doan udnelstand vi a “duck?”

Our hotel has comfortable beds and other athletic activities.

Mentalhealthprobrem?

We giff customers lowest possible price and service.

After the concert, there was hardly a dry seat in the house.

Olde Engrish proverb: Abstinence good only in moderation:

Engrish not spoken here:

So lets extend a warmy welcomeness to our new bee, ExpatBrian, who needs no introductionation. Preeze make self comfortable and peel at home.

You're no Maverick

John McCain, you're no Maverick and you're certainly not the original. In fact the original Mavericks are so disgusted with you, at least two of them say they'll shoot. . . . the TV if they see your face on it again.

The Real Mavericks in fact are Liberals with affiliations going back to FDR and the New Deal, not to George Bush and the shady deal.

But don't take my word for it:

Thoughts Inspired By Goddess Rachel Maddow

I have a crush – a serious crush – on Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. In fact, I have considered giving up blogging at Swashzone because of Maddow. I’ve been thinking – all I need to do everyday is post “See Rachel’s broadcast last night” & that pretty much sums up SQUID’s current view of the universe. And this from a woman (me) who complains frequently about the incessant hero-worship of Shakespeare (sorry Dino). So yes – I confess – I worship at the shrine of GODDESS MADDOW.

So tonight – my fav intellectual Rachel – used a football analogy. Simultaneously intelligent & hilarious. I laughed my head off. Feminist Rachel M. using a FOOTBALL metaphor – co-opting Americana’s classic archetypal reference to the Joe-Six-Pack American male (mercifully she did not acknowledge the J-6-pk tie in). What is more MALE than football? – according to media generated American ideology, that is. BUT – my dearest Rachel – brought the football metaphor to a whole new level – surpassing the tired old “Hail Mary” & infusing her metaphor with – well – intelligent campaign/political analysis. An analysis that compares the current campaign to the painful one of 4 years before. Very Clever - & informative. With little blue helmets vs little red helmets lined up on the field - should be a diagram in future American Civics textbooks. Anyone in doubt of the lay of the electoral land take note - Obama is winning the game in McCain’s end zone – state by state. (So much for CNN’s John King’s “magic blue/red computer board”)

Then R.M. interviewed Ed Rendell – quite a political character - gov. of battle-ground Pennsylvania. I’ve spent much of my life living in the now all important PA – I am personally familiar with many corners of the state. Let me tell you from experience – it is a skitso state politically. I lived there most of the time in its bible belt portion - during the days of Specter, Ridge & Santorum. But now Ed Rendell – colorful democrat from Philly – rules. Don’t get me wrong – I like Rendell. Somewhat of a live wire – but that’s precisely what PA needed to shake it up from its Santorum meltdown. Oi!!! I was frankly amazed to learn – when I had moved elsewhere – that he’d managed to win the governorship. PA is geographically a RED state. Oh yes it is. The BLUE hotspots are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh & Harrisburg. The rest? White – oh SO white – working class, small town, Christian-conservative America. And I’m NOT just talking about Amish & Mennonites. Oh - & lets not forget those “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” (i.e. cheap as hell) folks living in the burbs of these cities.

Not to slam PA or small town America – but food for thought - I have only once in my life seen – to my horror – a Klansmen in full white regalia & hood – in PA. A sight I will NEVER forget. AND!!! I saw said Klansmen early on a SUNDAY – hello church!! – morning. Whilst I was living in the BIBLE belt. No – racism is NOT strictly southern grown. My point is not to slur PA - but there are elements in now-all-important PA - like other parts of this country - that are incredibly narrow-minded & behind the times.

(AND - I like PA. Really. It's my second home.)

To get my rambling back on track – unlike CNN - which has been concertedly ignoring the rest of the world for months when it supposedly reports the NEWS – Maddow does – in her “underreported” portion of her show – actually occasionally mention the disintegration of things in Pakistan, Afghanistan & now Syria. (Talk about ego-centric – we Americans are so quick to forget the rest of the world when we have an election – the world we also presume to be leading – the world we are presuming to be electing the next leader of.)

So – Squid – having gushed about her HEROINE worship of R. Maddow – is now going to slither off to her sanctimonious ocean depths . . .

Real Americans

The ATF has announced that they have broken up a white supremacist plot to kill Senator Obama along with over a hundred black people in a Tennessee murder spree.

Who knows how far they would have got, but who knows what other evil lurks in the hearts of such people, stoked up on campaign libel and "Joe sixpack bigotry."

No comment has been obtained from Palin headquarters yet, as to whether these are some of the "real Americans she's been talking about.

Military intelligence

The twenty first century. The military might want to shut it all down; in the name of freedom, of course.

"GPS cell phone service could be used by our adversaries for travel plans, surveillance and targeting,"

said a draft report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). No more maps at gas stations folks, and I had better go back to using a sextant on my boat lest somebody hijacks it and uses it to terrorize the Florida coast.

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,"

Damn those vegetarian devils!

"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,"

and aren't those Republicans good at it?

"Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool,"

and the same thing goes for postcards and telephones and semaphore signals! Who knows what those boy scouts are talking about? Don't they have training camps or something like that?

"Terrorists may or may not be using voice-changing software but it should be of open source interest that online terrorist and/or terrorist enthusiasts are discussing it,"

said the Generals, and if the price of goats is being discussed in Pakistan, we need to get the flock out of there.

Cross posted from Human Voices

Blah, Blah, Blah

John McCain has begun to repeat the nuclear power song and dance he gave during the last debate. The song goes like this:

" We talked about nuclear power. Well, it has to be safe, environment, blah blah blah."

The word environment is a Pavlovian stimulus to Republicans and of course McCain is preaching only to the dogs at this point. "Enviros" are a favorite bogeyman because of course, "gimmie-gimmie, I want it for free" Republicans don't want to talk about the dangers inherent in nuclear power plants at all. They don't want to talk about the huge amount of time they take to build and to make them as safe as they are. When dogs, children and Republicans want something, they want it now, now, now and lying politicians like John McCain are always there to dangle it in from of them.

So what is McCain saying; the hell with safety? I want cheap energy no matter what the risk? I don't give a damn if New York or Chicago become the next Chernobyl? Yes, he is. That's just what he's saying and he's saying it in full knowledge that having it in the near future is out of the question.

"we've been sailing Navy ships around the world for 50 years with nuclear power plants on them."

Aye, aye Captain, but they're small, extraordinarily expensive and aren't spending most of their time parked in Phoenix or Denver or Little Rock. Unlike the expense of building and maintaining a Nimitz class carrier, the public sees the cost of electricity every month. New power plants are going to appear on your electric bill long before one Watt gets generated. To replace the oil we import today, we will need far more plants costing far more billions than High Roller John is willing to discuss.

Indeed there may have been accidents on Navy ships, despite what Mr. McCain says. Of course Three Mile Island comes to mind too. But hey - the hell with safety - we want nukes. We don't want to think about what to do with radioactive waste or what to do with obsolete plants after they have been shut down. Screw safety - Now, now, now!

"I have news for Senator Obama, nuclear power is safe, we ought to do it now."

So far it's been relatively safe but with nukes it's not only about odds, it's about the unbelievable consequences of an accident. A bad accident or terrorist incident can render large areas unlivable for thousands of years. That's why building them takes a lot of time and money. That's why we can't "do it now." McCain will likely be dead before nuclear power makes a dent in our importation of oil and he certainly won't have to worry about the long term consequences of his blah, blah, blah, arguments, will he?

Of course the cornerstone of this argument is essentially false. As with the offshore drilling argument and indeed most of the negative tirades we're hearing about Obama, it's based on what they say Obama said, and not necessarily what Obama actually said or meant. The arguments are so noisy just for this reason: to drown out reason, to obscure the facts. The fact is that to say we need to be careful when playing with dangerous things is not to oppose nuclear power. John is putting words in Barak's mouth only because he wants to win and doesn't care how much he lies to do it or how much his lies would cost you.

Cross posted from Human Voices

By way of introduction

I'm new here and thought I might give a little background on myself and my views. While I do support the Dems in general and Obama in particular, I grew up in a conservative, mainstream environment and am influenced by those years. Indeed, where I lived, the 60's was a time when parents played bridge on Friday nights and kids got a soda after school or met at the library to finish up their homework.

Schools in my area were quiet institutions where students could depend on a traditional, if not classical education. With Berkeley and Cal State Hayward to the east, Stanford to the south and San Francisco State in between, young people in my area had real choices for serious study.

A few places popped up to give young people a place to meet and make friends on weekend nights. Many had live music and friendly vendors outside selling all manner of unusual products. For those who might not be feeling well, there was a whole host of medicines and even herbs and spices!

Once your poor feelings were treated, you could meander inside and listen to as many as four or five ensembles a night play a nice selection of ballads or heart warming love songs. It was a magic time and I enjoyed all it had to offer.

Here's one female artist who typifies just what I'm talking about. Although I don't recall her name (can you help me out here, Fogg?) her slow, melodic and soulful ballads were both relaxing and moving at the same time.



With tongue firmly in cheek, I look forward to working with you all here at The Swash Zone.

Happy Deepavali!

by expatbrian (cross posted from World Gone Mad)

I've never been so remiss before about posting to this blog. But alas, my excuse is a good one as I have been blogging elsewhere. That link will take you to the blog I set up at the school for foreign students where I teach.

Anyway, since I already heard the fat lady singing, there hasn't been that much to talk about. Sure, the campaigns have continued. McBush is down double digits and like the ignoramous he is, he says he's happy with that. Palin has "gone rogue" in the words of some inside staffers. In other words, as could have been easily predicted, the dingbat is out of control, gone completely batshit with the media frenzy that surrounds her, and will certainly do something so incredibly stupid that her political career will implode if it hasn't already.

I've been especially amused by the various opinions expoused lately on what a "real American" is. It seems to be anyone who falls between Walter Brennen's "Old Rivers" and Andy of Maybury. Somehow, those of us who are educated, professional, thinking adults have been excluded from the definition. I mean, is anyone else as utterly offended as I am at the idea that, in order to be viewed as a "real American" we have to be the sort that drinks a six-pack at night after showing our butt crack all day?

Bloggingdino was right in his (her?) critique of one of my earlier comments over at The Swash Zone. The American voter is not mind numbingly stupid as I overgeneralized. It is only approximately half of them that are. Well, in the case of this election, less than half and that number is deteriorating rapidly. In any case, the moronic ones are quite simply the Republicans, who, with all of their failures so blatantly exposed, continue to support not only their ridiculous "team" of McCain/Palin, but continue to preach - to an emptying room - that their way works the best! They are apparently absolutely blind to their own recent history!

Like so many others, I feel like I have been politically brutalized by the Republicans for so long that I find it nearly, if not completely impossible to be in any way optomistic of the future. Yet, with Obama in charge and a 60+% in congress, who knows. Maybe, like Michelle, I'll get a renewed sense of pride and hope.

NOT FUNNY

I was just getting ready for bed to nurse a bug when this caught my attention (a H/T to Echidne for posting this earlier):



The interviewer, Barbara West, must be a Freeper for the McCain campaign, and her questions are so obviously hostile they border on parody.  Here are some background statistics before I continue this rant:

Federal deficit (Carter years):   $54.5 billion annual average
Federal deficit (Reagan years):   $210.6 billion annual average

Federal budget (Carter administration):  $590.9 billion (1980)
Federal budget (Reagan administration):  $1.14 trillion (1988-89)

National debt as a percentage of GNP (Carter years):  31.5%
National debt as a percentage of GNP (Reagan years):   70%

Furthermore, it should be noted that the federal bureaucracy grew by 5% during the Reagan administration despite campaign promises and years of rhetoric about shrinking the size of government. But wait, there’s more:

Personal savings rate (Post WW-II to 1979):  8 to 10% of disposable income

Personal savings rate (1985):  Zero.

(Since Bush #43, household debt now exceeds household income.)

My point:  The current economic meltdown has roots going back to the Reagan administration, and the Republican mantra for almost 30 years has been “smaller government” and “fiscal responsibility” that, hypocritically, was never put into practice until ... you guessed it … Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who was the first president to actually balance the federal books. 

Now the Republicans are trying to demonize Obama as a socialist.  It is an outrageous lie when one considers that 20 years of Republican mismanagement set the stage for the current meltdown.  Wish the kids a Happy Halloween for me.

On The Road With the Dead-Heads - Still

I offer up this post as a respite from all of our political angst these days - though it occurs to me that this post champions a group of people that Palin & co. would absolutely loathe - so - happy days!!

Today I am wearing a tie-dyed T-Shirt of turquoise blue & purple. An authentic Dead Head t-shirt. Made for me by a true D-head. It is a prized possession.

Why? You ask? Am I a fanatical fan of The Dead? No. Have I ever been to a D-head concert? No.

So then why is the t-shirt so prized? Because a friend made it & the t-shirt reminds me of him. Now this man was never a close friend. I never got the chance to know him that well. He was working as a temp for a company I was working for eons ago. He was a temp by life-style choice. He would work for a short time – just long enough to save enough money to go on the road with The Dead – again. He was rootless – by choice. His community was made up of his fellow dead-heads whom he would hook up with for months at a time on the road. During his brief stints in the “real” world he would connect with others – such as me.

My memory of him is that he was a smart man. I always enjoyed talking to him - he had such a clever, dry sense of humor. His view of the world was hazed over with a heaping helping of liberal hippyness. He was also a gentle soul. Kind & unassuming. He embraced his deadheadedness with an idealistic fervor that I often found myself envying. Oddly so. For the short time that our paths crossed – he changed my view of the world in his own humble way. In fact – he still does. Bless him.

Then the making of the t-shirts. His personal fund-raising drive to go on the road with The Dead. My purchasing of this t-shirt from him meant that I was enabling his return to the road. For better or worse.

Months after he left – without a trace – Jerry died. Immediately we all thought of our friend. How his world, his sense of belonging & purpose must have shattered like bits of glass. My ex-husband & others tried to track him down – but the trail was cold. We all worried about him though we knew we would never see him again.

I think of him still from time to time – especially when I wear this t-shirt – which I adore. I wonder what became of him & his fellow idealistic types - living in an unforgiving & increasingly conservative society - without their center - Jerry.

I realize I may seem to be over-sentimentalizing a simple, now worn, article of clothing. And, well, yeah, I guess I am. But the reason is this – there is much about this lost friend & this t-shirt that symbolizes my path through life as well. In my adult life I have moved so so so so so many times (in the early days by choice, now - not so much), I have said goodbye to more friends than most people make in a life time. I have learned to be philosophical about friendships – to value them in the here & now because tomorrow . . . Unlike my old dead-head friend, I have less of a sense of community. His wandering gave him a sense of purpose & a sense of shared community with his fellow Jerry worshipers. And this is perhaps the part of his story that I have always somewhat envied. My less purposeful sense of community comes from phone calls & emails with friends scattered around the country. Friends I love & value more than they can know.

What brought on this personal reverie of a post? Whilst going about my business today sporting my D-head t-shirt I have been going over in my mind all that I must do in the weeks to come. Including - wading into the job market – again – full force. Mine is a temporary position. Still a transient in search of a permanent home, I know that I must eventually leave where I am currently landed.

BUT – thanks to a kind d-head, a fellow transient, who once crossed my path – I will not be alone when I move on – because I will have his awesome t-shirt in tow. So let's hear for friendships - past, present & future (ok - now I'm being sentimental!). They are the positive fabric of my life (even when not tie-dyed blue & purple . . . )

[Ah yes - only a true LIBERAL could have written this post!]

Palin in Iowa

If you've taken Economics 101, you've heard of Adam Smith and the "invisible hand," the principle that causes markets to be self regulating. It's usually considered to be a least a vertebrum in the backbone of conservative philosophy, but people (if we use the term loosely) like Sarah Palin apparently aren't aware of Smith or of principles of any kind even if she can see a library from her window.

Adam Smith, whom some consider to be the father of capitalism, thought it fair, right and proper that the wealthy should pay proportionately more in taxes than the less wealthy. By Sarah's dim light however, the father of Capitalism would be a socialist. In the crepuscular gloom of her perky little mind, any kind of tax is socialism: It's spreading the wealth around.

Handing out government checks as a stimulus isn't socialism, but to reduce taxes is the same as to increase taxes because it is socialism if it's taxes. Ok, so you're not from a small town and probably not a real American, so to make it perfectly clear, Obama's proposed tax cut for 95% of Americans is:

"the philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax."

Got that? Less is more and more is less and together it's socialism. Spreading $600 checks around isn't socialism, because it's just giving (real) people back the money wealthier people paid in, but lowering taxes on nearly everybody is socialism because not only is it spreading money around, but a "massive tax increase."

"It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you, and government and politicians and, kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you."

It's really impossible to make any sense of this gibberish, other than to infer from it that she's opposed to funding anything the government does, opposed to having the government do anything but pay for her husband's basketball tickets and her feloniously padded expense account - opposed to government itself.

Who knows if it makes sense to her or to her audience or whether either of them care? It's a hate session. It would be less effective if it made sense. It's the kind of mockery that used to precede pogroms and purges and witch hunts and various slaughters of various innocents in the more primitive dream world Mad Sarah looks backward to as a guide. As pure chant-and-response shamanism, it seems to be as effective at eliciting shrill cries of "kill him" and "socialism" from the howling jackals as it is at scaring hell out of anyone rational. Indeed is anyone rational not terrified of allowing this simple minded sociopath anywhere near Washington?

Six degrees of suppuration

No, that's not a typo. Although it's fascinating to see how easy it is arbitrarily to relate one person to another and one person's principles to another person's totally unrelated opinions, it's disgusting to witness the misuse of that effect to slime, smear, slander and misrepresent without scruple.

The Gateway Pundit, for instance: a website that still as of this morning still blares the lurid, inflammatory but absolutely fake story about an Obama supporter beating and robbing a McCain supporter, is insisting on a very important "link" between Barak Obama, "Jew-hater" Rashid Khalidi, and "terrorist" Bill Ayers. A film clip exists, they say. The existence of a film clip is "confirmed" says the Blog; a clip that shows Obama engaged in Jew-bashing at a dinner in Khalidi's honor in 2003.

It must be true, right? Obama must hate Jews if someone at that dinner read a poem criticizing Israel. Indeed all the Israeli Jews must hate themselves if they oppose their government's policies - and of course all Jews are Israelis, right?

Well forgive me if I automatically discount the kind of article that is designed to be bantered back and forth between people trying hard to maintain a belief; the kind of article that insists a major newspaper is sitting on a scoop of monstrous proportions because they're "Liberal."

"Khalidi and the Obamas were great friends in Chicago and often shared meals together." The quote oozes like pus from a chancre. "By the way, Khalidi was also best friends with Bill Ayers."

continues the writer, suppurating like a bedsore.

It's tempting to correct the flawed grammar and very tempting to note that the entire diatribe hinges upon the crapulous credibility of the writer, but I really don't care about who Obama knows, about who may have said what at some dinner he attended, and I'm certainly not going to inflate this pastiche of fragments to the level of "confirmation" of anything but the desperate need to demonize the Democrat in order to disguise the failure of the Republican. It's the kind of need that prompts a writer to make a jewelled elephant out of a fake police report made by a mentally deranged young woman, painting it up like a cheap whore, decked out with gems of outrage, smug condemnations of the perfidy of Democrats in general and stepping in its own excrement.

That the people who write for this blog really care about whether someone hates Jews is remarkable, but then of course, Obama, by associating with Jew haters, partying with Jew haters, eating dinner with Jew haters, is also part of a great conspiracy against the US and everything this country holds dear - why should I disbelieve? It's all "confirmed!"

Editing Feminism To Suit

This is incredibly disturbing. Apparently Conservapedia is not enough to keep certain extremist (misogynistic) elements happy.

I read this post - Wikipedia & Feminism at Feminist Law Professors in dismay & utter disbelief. DISMAY that the "free & open" sharing philosophy of Wikipedia is being so callously abused in the name of misogyny. UTTER DISBELIEF that our court system thinks Wikipedia is a citable, verifiable source. WHAT!? For god's sake! I lecture my students every semester about the fact that Wikipedia is NOT a verifiable source. A helpful easy reference tool at times, yes, but completely unadjudicated.

Do I need to personally lecture the US Court system every Fall & Spring as well?!

As an educator I struggle continuously to try to get the plugged-in generation to appreciate & understand that they can not google the world, that libraries exist, that "copyright" is still a legal concept, etc etc etc. The problem is that there is so much "open sharing" of easily accessible info that I honestly don't think they stop to think about the ethics & reliability of how they use info they find online. These are tricky times in this regard in academia. Plagiarism is on the rise because it is almost so easy (so they think) that they don't realize how wrong it is. There is an ethical disconnect that is very real. Not their fault sometimes. They are responding to the cues they are receiving from their plugged-in world.

SO!! I am thoroughly annoyed to find out that I am being undermined by the US Court system which is apparently now validating Wikipedia - & who only knows what next.

As for the misogynists trolling Wikipedia and "informationally" preying on feminism - I am beyond words. Aghast. Though sadly I am not surprised. I try so hard to NOT be cynical - but in the face of such behavior - it is very hard.

It rattles my world to think that a student of mine might naively believe something misrepresented ON PURPOSE on Wikipedia about feminism. My mind just can't go there.

Blogging Dino Speaketh of What It Knoweth Naught

I resist sweeping denunciations of folk these dwindling days of the election season because we have arrived at a place in American democracy at which we really could elect some S.O.B. who will—almost casually, I might add—either get us all killed or unleash unspeakable horror on an entire region of the earth. What I've seen described aptly as the Republicans' "addiction to misinformation" has infected the larger political discourse, and there's risk of a meltdown of the representative system here and a huge catastrophe being visited on others. Democracies are born, and they die—Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural are an excellent reminders of that. (Democracies and republics are perpetual experiments: we can at least try to keep renewing the original energy, optmism, and relative right-mindedness that made it possible to establish ourselves as we did.) Ours has long borne the risk of going out like a star turning supernova and taking out everything anywhere near it. Ignorance and worse—and an assist from bad actors like UBL—have brought us to this frightful pass. That more than 40% of the country thinks John McCain, who is running about as vacuous a campaign as any I've come across in my lifetime, deserves the nod is proof of how bad many people's powers of discernment currently are.

Many, but not all: progress or decline is a matter of small percentages with us. At present it really seems as if something very fine is happening right under our eeyorish Democratic snouts: a clear majority of The American People™ is looking and listening and deciding that this time around, the Republicans are running on noxious fumes. I mean really, the EPA would ban the smokestack-filth they're spewing—if, that is, the Republicans hadn't gutted the EPA. Self-parodist Rep. Michelle Bachmann and her macaca-peddling ilk aren't going over too well in 2008, are they! Their robocalls alleging that Barack is a moozlum-socialist-terrorist-dope-smoking-radical are earning them hoots of incredulous derision, and even provoking thoughtful defenses of the right to be "other" (from American orthodoxy, that is) on the part of luminaries like General Powell. We should be very pleased about this development. In some cases it may be no more than "the rage of Caliban seeing himself in a glass," but it's something to work with, anyhow.

I agree somewhat with Fogg that if/when the Republicans return to the halls of congress as a humiliated minority party, they'll be in an ugly mood and will do whatever they can to tear down the shiny new Demo-Prez, just as they did with William Jeffuhsun back in the nineties. But for a while, too, their powers will be limited—the thumping they're fixin' to take is Texas-sized, from all appearances. With some Lyndon-Johnson style arm-twisting and drawling, we might get a few good things done: perhaps some measure of improvement in health-care access, for instance, and a saner foreign policy should be achievable—one that won't continue to bankrupt us even as it sows hatred and division around the world. Much that we have achieved over the years has been achieved in the teeth of our most childish, violent, hateful citizens, and usually when we are in difficult circumstances at home and abroad. The country's demographics are shifting decisively, and the right-wingers are going to have to come up with something more sophisticated than race-baiting and Soviet-era commie bashing to keep them going. That will probably take them a while because in truth, many of them aren't very bright.

Finally, what I find most lamentable in humanity (I daily thank the Dinosaur Gods—peace and adulation be unto their celestial green and khaki hides!—that I'm an Allosaurus and therefore not among them, though of course not being among them makes it very hard to type) can be summed up in one word: "fallow." That is, so much capacity so tragically and so consistently wasted. Great art has been created, excellent systems of governance have been opined, science has discovered much, and so forth: and here we have folks like "Crazy McCain Rally Lady" still demonstrating that the first task of ordinary humanity is to make use of NONE of that capacity, and instead give in to the dark primal fear that has always haunted their days on this earth. The other lamentable thing is those pesky humans' failure to transmit in a sustainable way the best insights they've had. Rather than proceeding forwards and upwards, they seem to go round in circles of ignorance and horrid violence; what is realized in one generation is forgotten or denied by the next, saeculum per saeculorum. Still, I think there's not much use in giving in to the force of these Ecclesiastes-like vexations of spirit. I'm going to go have a nice cup of coffee; in multa sapientia multa sit indignatio et qui addit scientiam addat et laborem. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Coffee!

The unbearable Liberalness of Truth

Remember when Sarah Palin asked just what it was that Vice Presidents do? Evidently, she's seen a post card of Washington so now she's qualified to tell us:

"[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes."

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

According to a spokeswoman for Mrs. Palin, the statement was a reply to a third grader's question; as though the innocence of the listener justified a misstatement of Vice Presidential powers. In a year or so, that child will have to learn What the qualified Mrs. Palin has yet to learn: that the VP is not in charge of the Senate; unless of course the constitution has been by then abandoned in favor of "whatever the Party says."

Of course Palin, like George W. is fond of talking to us as though we were all in the third grade and none too bright. It's easier to do than to appear intelligent and it appeals to those who read and think at that level and it's typical of many cult leaders. Listen to tapes of Jim Jones, for instance: he refers to his wife as "mother" and explains things like the need to drink the poison to his followers as though they were babies not old enough to know that the cyanide in the Flavor-Aid was for their own good because the Liberals were out to ruin them.

Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but I don't think so. The people who will readily believe that Palin can as VP, draft legislation, that she's as competant in world affairs as Zbigniew Brzezinski because she could, if she wanted to, but never has seen an unihabited arctic island; the people who will fight you to the death to defend their position that Obama is an Islamic terrorist: these people are cult members. You and I are the enemy and they are not stupid at all. It's just that the facts have a Liberal Bias.

A CHAIN LETTER

For half of my adult life, I have been victimized by the chain letter curse wrought by a succession of offspring who, in various stages of their adolescence, have subjected me to annoying e-mail forwards, hoaxes, jokes, fake virus warnings, petitions, silly poems, surveys, and every conceivable piece of Internet junk imaginable. The picture you see above was sent to me by the youngest and last of my octopode fries.  Before I continue, a word of caution:

Please send this post to 2,000 people within the next 30 seconds, or else Captain Fogg will sink your boat, your cephalopods will be turned into sushi, the oil lobby will be drilling for Dino, and ExpatBrian will be forced to return to La La Land.  This is serious business, folks!

Monogamy or monotony?  Are you tired, bored, or discontented with your [select one -- mate, partner, relationship]?  Do not despair because hope is on the way.   Unlike most chain letters, this one will cost you nothing.  Just send a copy of this post to five of your best friends who are equally frustrated, then bundle up your [select one -- husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, lover mistress, partner, Swash Zone creature] and send to the first name on your list.

When your name moves to the top of the list, you will receive over 10,000 [select one -- men, women, sheep, goats, gerbils, partners] from which to choose.  One of these will fulfill your every wish and desire.  Do not break the chain or else you are likely to get your old [select one -- deadbeat, dud, SOB] back.

Indeed, this IS truly amazing.  When I received the above picture via e-mail from the last of my octopod fries, I thought to myself:  Hmm, has my charming and much-loved offspring finally seen the light?  Yes, my little 8pus, nothing does happen.  Chain letters don't work.  And they are annoying as hell.  Could this be the end of the curse?  Will my e-mail box finally return to normal after years of patient and silent suffering?  Perhaps I should view this latest e-mail as a coming of age, a sign of maturity … that has finally released me from this curse.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and fame..."

by expatbrian

Well, hardly. My thanks to (O)ct(O)pus for inviting me to contribute on The Swash Zone. You can view my details on my profile or find me over at World Gone Mad. Talk soon!

COURAGEOUS CONFRONTATION

A grateful H/T to Lindsay at Majikthise for posting this:



A dramatic video capture of bigotry, confrontation, and retreat … all within a 3 minute segment. Most gratifying of all, this clip shows campaign staffers and supporters demonstrating more courage than their own candidate who, to date, has failed to acknowledge and condemn such conduct.

UPDATE (5:20 pm): This report about another GOP defector in an important swing state:

A longtime Republican State Senator in Wisconsin history announced on Tuesday that she would be supporting Barack Obama, in part because of the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign and, specifically, the use of "dishonorable" anti-Obama robocalls.

"All of us should be extremely wary of the half truths and outright untruths that have been spread by the recent negative campaigning and shameful automated phone calls," said Barbara Lorman of Fort Atkinson. "While my admiration for Senator Obama has grown with his positive approach to addressing the challenges facing our nation, my disappointment with the McCain campaigned has deepened. The negative tactics are inappropriate, downright dishonorable and have no place in the State of Wisconsin."

In issuing her statement, Lorman became the latest in a growing line of GOP officials who have publicly denounced the recent tone and tactics of the McCain camp ... [including] Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Norm Coleman, as well as former Secretary of State Colin Powell ...

Our Mutual Enemy.

I'm now convinced that this is the time. This is the time for all of us to come to the aid of our country, to stand up for civilization, for what is right and true; for our way of life, for our future, for our families, our homes and our fortune. This is my call to revolution.

The time to break the bonds imposed up us by an arrogant and assumed oppressor; a power that has made the truth its enemy, democracy its victim and the American people its hostage, is now. Indeed the time is now or the time will never be. Let us declare undying enmity toward Fox News.

Not to change the subject, but I have to ask "what do we know about Cindy McCain?" Not much really. Michelle Obama has been chopped up and re-assembled as a Terrorist, an opportunist, an elitist and many other silly things, but Cindy is an enigma. When the New York Times ran a long and somewhat sympathetic article about her and her unusual life with John, our mutual enemy, Fox News, decided without evidence that it was a "dirt Digging" article and opened the gates of hell in the direction of Barak Obama. Glenn Greenwald at Salon found it to be no more than

"just generally dissecting her private and emotional sphere for no apparent reason beyond idle voyeurism,"

but it's not partisan, he says. They did worse to the Clintons. That's true, but the idea that Presidents are entitled to secrecy when Republican is Fox policy, not the Liberal Press stereotype they peddle. She has become a public figure and thus has waived the right to privacy of a private citizen just as everyone does. "what do we know about Cindy" is as a legitimate question as is "what do we know about Sarah Palin, or Michelle Obama or the "first Dude" and his secessionist, anti-American "pals."

Because Mrs. McCain was said to have suffered from Migraines and took pills to ease the suffering, Fox News has decided that Barak Obama is a drug addicted criminal and has launched a crusade to find his "drug dealers" and search out anyone who may have bought "drugs" and hence can be associated with him. This is more than idle voyeurism, this is an attempt to twist the truth, to mold truth from the clay and animate it by blowing the breath of ignorance into its nostrils -- and for no reason other than to destroy anyone running against a Republican. Were this not obviously so, they would not have rolled their eyes and chanted Liberaliberal when George Bush's adult drug and alcohol problems, including a DUI conviction, was discussed.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book"

said Fox and Friends. Oh really? The New York Times should inquire as to who passed Barry the joint at some party 25 years ago? Perhaps when Fox stops suggesting mob ties and terrorist ties of the Obamas; perhaps when they stop suggesting that his education was paid for by shadowy jihadists, that he was trained at terrorist training camps, that he supports the bombing of government property, that he's a disciple of Karl Marx and all the other foul things that issue from the anus of Fox - perhaps then.

Will we as patriotic Americans permit the quiet destruction of our country by the world's foremost propagator of terror, fear, hate and propaganda, or will we turn these bastards off? Will we sit idly by as associates, friends and others present Fox Facts as truth? Or will we do what we need to do to prevent our country from sinking into the cesspit from which nations never emerge whole?

Death to the Fox!

Learning From the Younger Crowd

I've been noticing a certain acerbic tone in my young child’s manner of speaking to me lately. Ill-tempered & impatient, to be exact. Now – I could, of course, explain this away by saying – “oh well, it’s the age” or “kids will be kids” etc. Yes. Mmmm Well. Um. Except for the fact that my child’s tone, manner, demeanor is beginning to seem oddly familiar. Like I’ve heard it before. Many times. Recently. A lot. Yes - hauntingly familiar. As if I am listening to my own reflection in a mirror. Could it be that my child is taking cues from dear old mom about how to communicate?

What’s that old expression about things going around & coming around?

Today as I was approaching my classroom building for my next class I was wading through the usual crowd of my students hanging around the door smoking like chimneys & generally lollygagging. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of my students grin & wave at me. I aimed my patented, squid-sarcastic look in his direction. As I passed into the building I heard him say, “She hates me, I know it.” Rolling my eyes heavenward I headed to my classroom.

A few minutes later as my students strolled into class, my “she hates me” student headed for his seat. I called out – in an ever so SO sarcastic voice – “Hello so & so. I like you so & so.” He turned & grinned sheepishly & said “See – I thought so, but I’m never quite sure.” Then we both laughed heartily.

It struck me later that this incident – like my struggles with my ornery child – is yet another example of the cycle of human interactions. How one person behaves or speaks informs how another person behaves & speaks, etc etc etc . . .

Both my child & my “she hates me” student have reflected back to me my own moodiness & manner respectively. Reminding me that I can not act & react in a vacuum. That I must bear responsibility for HOW I am.

What has this got to do with anything at issue on this blog?

It seems to me from recent posts on this blog - reporting about happenings on the campaign trails - that there is a lot of meanness & ill will being circulated around this land of ours. The debating of political issues has become thoroughly dumbed down into overly & overtly personalized & poisonous rhetoric. I too am guilty of this. I have been mightily & heartily sarcastic – not just critical – but sarcastic – about Sarah Palin. And it is my sarcasm that I am increasingly bothered by. Towards SP I am not playfully sarcastic as I am with my students. No. I have been aggressively sarcastic towards her & her running mate. And this sarcasm does NOT make me feel any better. It is not healthy blowing off of steam. No. It’s not. Call me a whimp – but it is really bothering me. I have allowed SP's own idiotic rhetoric to suck me into more of my own idiotic - yes, idiotic - rhetoric in retort. Where does it end?

I am not claiming that I am ready to go out & start slashing the tires of cars bearing McCain/Palin stickers. However – the angry desire to slash someone’s tires starts somewhere, doesn't it? People are not born inherently disposed to have evil tendencies towards tires. So how did we go from name calling to vandalism? What will be the next leap into the depths? As a collective electorate – what are we now demonstrating about ourselves? And I do mean COLLECTIVE. Are any of us really above the fray at this point?

Perhaps the phrase “what goes around comes around” needs to be modified to “be mindful of what you send around because it may come back around upon you in an even more disturbing form.”

Or maybe I am just an idyllic, idealistic, delicate flower in need of watering. I don't know.

BUT I do know - that if I want my child to learn how to speak in a more reasonable, polite voice it would be nice if I modeled such behavior for him. Might there not be a lesson in this? As for my "she hates me" student - a reminder to me that sometimes by simply owning our behavior we can get a smile & be understood.

Insane McCain

If you've ever been to a turkey farm, you will have seen how one lone animal will begin gobbling and the rest will follow suit until the whole flock begins to sound like the American news media commenting on an election.

"Spread the wealth" seems to be the latest gobble ever since John Mc Cain, in his desperation, attempted to conflate the Obama tax policy, which hardly differs from what we've had since the beginning of income taxes in America, with socialism. It's not much more of an idiotic redefinition than is typical of the 2008 campaign rhetoric which has it that a hundred year occupation of a foreign country is a "victory" and accomplishing the goal of regime change and democracy is "surrender." Indeed the trickle down theory is little more than a scenario in which people the government helps to get rich then redistribute a small part of it by spending.

In St. Charles Missouri this weekend, John McCain attempted to show the show me state that lifting some of the burden from the struggling classes is Socialism. Senator Martinez from Florida compared Obama's tax plan to that of Fidel Castro and the chorus of boos from their gobbling audiences is not directed at the dishonest and sometimes demented charges or the turkeys who make them, but at anyone outside the circle of the tribe by virtue of sanity, education, honesty or intelligence: particularly intelligence. There is no idea too stupid, too false, to demented that the tribe will not dance around the fire and scream "kill him!"

It there any charge quite as incredible as insisting that presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan must have been socialists who wanted to redistribute the wealth by not giving the kind of tax breaks to the top 5% that George Bush did and that John McCain wants to continue and extend? We have never had a bigger and bigger spending government than we have now and McCain has no plan to change that that could pass a second grade arithmetic teacher's scrutiny. He has hot button topics like earmarks, and socialism and spreading the wealth, but the rest is only "trust me my friends."

"Our opponent's plan is just more big government, and John and I think that that is the problem, not the solution," said the gobbler in the glasses "Instead of taking your hard-earned money and spreading your wealth, we want to spread opportunity so people like you and Joe the plumber can create new wealth."

Of course it's not more big government by any measure. It's a return to the time before George Bush's borrow, bloat and spend policies.

What's the Palin plan? Give it to the rich and let it trickle down. Gobble, gobble, gobble. What's the plan? borrow and spend and put the burden of all that debt on people like you and me and Joe the plumber and our children and grandchildren, and how do we sell it? We lie about palling around with terrorists, we call Obama an elitist Arab Muslim Terrorist, who conspires with Vietnam War protesters, who is a Chicago Machine politician with no experience, whose house was paid for by gangsters, who reads books by terrorists and whose education was paid for by Pakistani Fundamentalists and who isn't even an American. Did I mention that he's black?

At this point and regardless of who wins, I'm ashamed to be part of this. If Obama wins, the country has been so damaged already and will be filled with a large minority who think he's the devil, the future is so dim my old eyes can't see anything but gloom.

Colin Powell's Endorsement of Barack Obama

Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was about as thoroughgoing as this dinosaur could have hoped, the general’s polite qualifying phrases aside. He demolished Senator McCain’s potential closing arguments for the last few weeks of the campaign: the “experience and c-in-c prep argument,” the economics argument (though McCain had already ruined that one himself), the character attacks alleging radicalism, and the insinuation of an unacceptable degree of “otherness” in Obama’s person and background. McCain isn’t likely to change many minds from here on out, especially since his running mate and high-level supporters keep declaring whole swaths of the country “un-American,” claiming that our core values are hunting and fishing, insulting us by lying to our faces about things that have already been proven several times over against them, and so forth. They just can’t help saying transparently blockheaded, alienating things because if they didn’t say them, they would have nothing at all to say. For once, we seem to be showing some collective determination to invalidate the cynical judgment that “nobody ever lost a nickel underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” (Either P. T. Barnum or H. L. Mencken said that, I believe.) What I’m seeing – based in part on those huge St. Louis crowds Barack is drawing now, and the amount of money he raised in September ($150 million, mostly from small donors) -- looks like a genuine upwelling of healthy regard for participatory guv’ment. Still two weeks to go, but at present things are looking good. Maybe humans aren’t so bad after all, though I still think things were better and simpler in the Jurassic. We didn’t have politics at all because we had already achieved Aristotle’s dream of “the good life.” Bloody asteroids!

VIOLENCE AT PALIN RALLIES

The über-patriot in action again, here is Sarah Palin delivering a speech at Elon, North Carolina, yesterday :

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.

Does Petite Syrah mean to imply that other parts of America are less wonderful, less patriotic, and less pro-America?  According to another report, her speech was briefly interrupted after a protester was led away in handcuffs.  Here is how Sarah Palin responded:

"You know what, maybe we need to tell security that maybe he need not go," she said.  "Maybe he needs to stay and learn a little from all of you."  The crowd then cheered.

What exactly did Sarah Palin have in mind? Did she intend to have the protestor drawn and quartered?  Have him fed as raw meet to the cannibals? Here is another account from Mark Binker who was covering another rally:

I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.  As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.

"Hey, hey, " I said. "I'm trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay?"

The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building.   We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.

This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.  It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.

"Oh, you think that 's funny?! " the large bearded man said.  His face was turning red.  "Yeah, that 's real funny…" he said.

And then he kicked the back of [my] leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.

Yup, it’s sure getting ugly out there.

Down the drain

Maybe we shouldn't have been wasting our time last night, listening to McCain and Obama accusing each other of being big spenders when we should have gone straight to the one expert who seems to agree with John's tax proposal. I don't mean some PhD economist or tax law expert or even a CPA; I'm talking of course, about Joe the Plumber, the fellow whose concerns about Obama's tax proposal has made him one of the most well known men -- and certainly the best known plumber on the planet at the moment. If that notoriety alone doesn't translate into financial success for Joe, it will be only because he'd rather not be in a higher tax bracket.

According to Joe Wurtzelberger, a progressive tax structure is Robin Hood socialism and John McCain seems to agree. I particularly liked his oily sneer when he repeated his "spread the wealth around" formula, but I wonder how that meshes with the spreading around of wealth inherent in supply side economics. It's only the direction of the trickle that differs after all, not the redistribution.

Of course Joe seems to have misunderstand what the differences are, and who can blame him? Like all of us he's been bombarded with ugly stereotypes of tax and spend liberals all his life and to be fair, it's complicated, but Joe is wrong. If he buys a business that grosses more than $250,000, he will not be propelled into a higher tax bracket by that fact alone. Surely Joe understands the difference between gross and net and knows about all the expenses and other deductions available. It's very unlikely that the business would net that much and therefore be subject to a tax increase of any kind. It's not very nice of his "Buddy" John not to have explained that to his "best buddy."

For one thing Obama's plan offers additional benefits like a tax credit for new employees and the elimination of Capital Gains for small businesses. Even if the business is wildly successful, and with all this notoriety, it may well be, the increase would be 3%. He would be better off in Obama's America than he would have been in Ronald Reagan's or John McCain's.

Very much to Mr. Wurtzelbacher's credit, he's not endorsing anyone yet. After all, his future and my future depend on a lot more than a 3% potential tax hike that's very unlikely to affect him. A new and deep recession may make it all moot if McCain's leadership is not much better than George Bush's.

All in all, the scenario is not what Joe fears it would be, it is not what John McCain misrepresents it to be and it's very very far from anything one could honestly describe as "spreading the wealth around" even if it's said without the squint and sneer and rubbing of hands. But then we're talking about John McCain's claims about his tax policy and not about honesty and to quote another plumber and funny guy I used to know - that shit don't flush.

Let him have one?

Although all indications are that the vast majority of Americans thought Barak Obama "won" last night's conversation, the howling of the media this morning seems to be about the whining comment McCain made: "I am not George Bush." Is this an effort to allow McCain to leave with some small measure of undeserved dignity?

In the interest of that old "fair and balanced" shell game I guess they have to show that he didn't come across as an incoherent, double-talking, sneering and condescending Bush clone. He did however, and in contrast with polls of professional pundits who listen to and repeat what other professional pundits repeat, the public seems to agree. CNN's unscientific poll shows that about 80% of respondents did not think McCain won, but the "scientific" polls seem restricted to those still, after all this time undecided and not to the voters in general. I can't help thinking there's something a bit wrong with someone unable to make up their mind after almost two years.

So far this morning, all I'm reading are rubber stamp repeats of the "I am not George Bush" line and nothing of the embarrassing (for McCain) reiteration of "he's going to fine you" after it was explained that he would not and the nauseating repetition of the "there's more we need to know about your relationship with ayers" red herring after that stinker was put thoroughly in its grave. There are no more unanswered questions John, no matter how often you ask the same damn thing. No, Obama didn't say that, but I wish he had.

McCain repeated his rehearsed points over and over and it was often obvious that he wasn't really listening to the answers and that he had no idea what the public's view of his and Palin's mean, vicious accusations might be.

My biggest disappointments of the evening were that McCain seemed too often to have the last, and often dishonest word; that Obama did not point out the continuing "trickle down" nature of McCain's proposals that are so much like the Bush standard, that Obama did not bring up William Timmons and tell us "we need to know more." I wish Obama would have asked him why he kept repeating that chestnut about fines when it was patently a false claim. I wish a lot of things, actually. I wish sanity and honesty weren't so rare in this country, but all in all, I saw McCain as the defendant here, a defendant trying to talk his way around the evidence by postulating unlikely explanations of how his fingerprints were all over the crime scene.

Cross posted from Human Voices

Sexism - Will It Never Cease!?

DEAR JOHN MCCAIN & FEEBLE-MINDED MEDIA:

I am a WOMAN. A SINGLE woman. And I am NOT referring to my lack of marital status. I am referring to the fact that I am an INDIVIDUAL woman. I am UNIQUE. I do NOT necessarily think like other women I may encounter in the course of a day. And they do NOT necessarily think like me.

I am SICK TO DEATH of us all being lumped together into some sort of collective. It is insulting. It is condescending.

None of you would ever DREAM of saying things like - "Joe Biden is a role model for men." You would be hooted at if you did. You would NEVER do news stories with opening lines such as "American men say they are still not hearing what they need to from the presidential candidates."

You wouldn't - would you?

Well then STOP doing it to us women!!! We are not mindless sheep all bleating in the same direction. I personally have heard what I need to hear from the candidates & made my mind up long ago so, what your idiotic, derivative news story was REALLY about was that SOME women had not made their minds up yet! SOME! not ALL! You are continuing the nonsense you began months ago with your mindless news stories about Hilary's women voters being so mad that they were refusing to vote for Obama. Maybe that was true of SOME, but not ALL of us reacted that way. Do your jobs! Tell the whole story. Dig deeper. And you, Campbell Brown - now known for calling the McCain campaign on its sexism towards SP - are guilty of perpetuating this sexist drivel just like the rest of the media. The "American women are still not hearing what they want" story was on YOUR program!

And as for you, Mr. McCain - how dare you imply that your running mate is a role model to women! The fact that a woman is on a presidential ticket - in & of itself - is a positive for women. Yes. HOWEVER - the actual woman herself is NOT a role model to women - at least I -an individual woman with an individual brain - do not think so.

SEE! I have an INDIVIDUAL opinion! Just like all of the INDIVIDUAL opinions that you all readily assume men to have.

Get with it folks! Your sexism is shamelessly on display!

A sincerely ANGRY,
Squid

Jurassic Debate Analysis

The Third Debate as Viewed from the Jurassic:

This dinosaur says Obama did better than McCain. McCain's dig about how pro-choicers have been shamefully stretching the definition of "the mother's health" (presumably to cover the sniffles and mild headaches) was shocking--I agree with Fogg's comment in Octo's post, for which post many thanks. I had no idea McCain would say anything that insensitive on national television. He managed to express his "pro-life" stance in a way that's hard not to take as bordering on open contempt for women.

McCain also had been issuing Viking boasts about how he was going to bring a whole case of whoop-ass (at least 24 units with the tops already off and the cans properly shaken) to the debate, whereas in fact the whole thing was fairly civil. Obama bested him on the Ayers issue and managed to avoid "repudiating" John Lewis for telling the truth about the atmosphere McCain and Palin have allowed to develop at their rallies. McCain's "hide behind the flag" defense of the imbeciles who attend his rallies was contemptible, period. Obama, by contrast, was comfortable as an old shoe: just the sort of person we ought to make president at a difficult time. Nothing either candidate said was particularly memorable, which no doubt helps Barack at this late date.

The stuff about Joe the Plumber had me rolling my eyes and sighing like Allosaurus Gore: my fondest hope is that Joe the Plumber will immediately sit down and write a highly theoretical rejoinder to both candidates and the moderator, one that will bring to bear Kant, Hegel, Foucault, Nietzsche, and even Derrida on all the things they said about him.... Deconstruct, baby, deconstruct! Really -- how hokey and condescending can a candidate get? Even Joe and Jane Sixpack are insulted at being summed up as "Joe the Plumber."

Finally, I think McCain done sunk himself good with all that ridiculous talk about school vouchers and similar things at a time when -- yet again -- the stock market is collapsing and we are "on the eve of destruction," at least financially. What piffle! "Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace...."