Yes We Can

The Tano Sokolow remix of Lee Dorsey's version of Alain Toussaint's Yes We Can is making the rounds as Obama's unofficial campaign song, but the version I remember is the Pointer Sisters cover, their first big hit:


Pointer Sisters With Gaylord Birch

Like, Socialism

From The New Yorker:

…The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

Umm, what is the definition of Socialism again?

Palin's "Straight Talk"

Blogger Anil Dash has an interesting post about Sarah Palin and the linguistic choices she makes. I think it is fair to say the choices are hers, because her run-on sentences and semi-coherent ramblings can't possibly be the work of any speechwriter who is on the Republican payroll.

…I don't usually write about politics here; I leave the ugliness to those who seem to revel in it. But I think a lot about language, usually in a more lighthearted context like talking about yo mama jokes or lolcats. What's striking to me this election season, though, is that Sarah Palin has chosen to abuse her command of language so obviously without suffering any serious criticism for it thus far.

The crux of the issue is simple:

1. Sarah Palin has unequivocally associated Barack Obama with the idea of terrorism and specifically with "terrorists".
2. Republican President George Bush has defined in our National Security Strategy, and the Republican Party's platform affirms, that we may identify and strike at terrorists before they have committed any defined acts of aggression against American citizens.
3. George Bush has made clear, by stating before a joint session of Congress that "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
4. Palin has used deliberate choice of language to avoid these connections being highlighted by the media, while increasing the likelihood that the target audience for her message will be incited by her statements.

Through these arguments, it becomes clear that Sarah Palin's assertions are designed not to prove that Obama is unqualified for the office of the Presidency of the United States. Rather, she appears to be attempting to convince a substantial portion of her supporters that Obama supports terrorism against the United States and thus should be, at the very least, incarcerated as an enemy combatant (which we are doing to American citizens already) or at worst, assassinated for supporting terror…

Dash makes some interesting points and he gives Palin credit for being intelligent enough to know exactly what she is doing, which is something too many Democrats have failed to do.

What I find fascinating about this election cycle is this: take anything Sarah Palin has said about Obama, and change her name to Joe Biden and Obama's to McCain, then try to imagine that the so-called liberal press wouldn't be taken to task by the biggest fascist mouths around. You'll spot them easily — they are the ones who call themselves conservatives, aka real Americans. You know, the multi-millionaire elitists who claim they are not elitists.

Bud Light

It's time for a little comic relief.



This is a few years old, but still funny. Let's hope that the new ownership doesn't change whatever advertising firm the old ownership used.

Palin's wardrobe malfunction

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls -- recorded messages often used to attack a candidate's opponent -- "irritating" even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign…

Hey Republican Party, welcome to your karma.

Some aides to Sen. John McCain say they weren't happy that running mate Sarah Palin went off script Sunday and turned attention back to the controversy over her wardrobe.

The Alaska governor on Sunday brought up the recent reports regarding the Republican National Committee's $150,000 spending spree on clothing and accessories for the Palin family.

Palin denounced talks of her wardrobe as "ridiculous" and declared emphatically: "Those clothes, they are not my property."

"Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I'm not taking them with me," she said at a rally in Tampa, Florida.

A senior McCain adviser told CNN that those comments "were not the remarks we sent to her plane." Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee, Florida, later in the day…

And I'll just bet she returns all the clothes. Sure she will. Just like she returned the money for that bridge to nowhere.

As the conservative turns

Colin Powell's endorsement is one thing, but when Ken Adelman says he's voting for Obama, you have to think McCain has screwed the pooch.

Why so, since my views align a lot more with McCain’s than with Obama’s? And since I truly dread the notion of a Democratic president, Democratic House, and hugely Democratic Senate?

Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment…

Even James Joyner, a conservative blogger, thinks Adelman's endorsement matters:

While Colin Powell, Lincoln Chaffee, Susan Eisenhower, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Jim Leach, Richard Riordan, Bill Ruckelshaus, and others can be dismissed as outside the conservative movement, Adelman can not…

At least McCain has the uber-conservative Christians in lockstep.

So sad

It really is sad that I can find a new video like this one pretty much every day.

Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day '08 and the topic is Poverty. The idea is for everyone who blogs to write something about poverty to raise awareness of the many forms that poverty takes.

I've been very lucky. While I am now as poor as I've ever been, I've never been what could be called poor. Our family wasn't well off, but as kids we had everything we needed and a bit more. Our clothes were clean, we had a place to live and we never went to bed hungry. We were at best middle-class, if only the lower end of middle-class, and the credit for our lifestyle was due solely to my mother's ability to manage the family finances. She gave up a lot for our family. She still does.

When she sold Avon years ago, she would stock up on free samples. I don't think they were free for her, but she stocked up anyway, and at Christmas we'd go to the local nursing home and pass them out. You can't imagine how grateful people were.

There are lots of ways to help other folks without much, if any, expense on your part. One of the sidebar links goes to The Animal Rescue site. They have a sister site called The Hunger Site. All you need to do is click on the large button and you will help sponsor food for someone. I've made the Animal Rescue site one of my homepages, so when I open a browser window, that's the page that comes up. I click and carry on. Couldn't be easier.

One of the more creative and successful groups is Heifer.org, who subscribe to the principle that it is better to teach someone to fish than to give them a fish. Their success stories are inspiring.

Don't just throw out your old clothes, take them to a local Salvation Army or Goodwill store. All you need do is drop off a bag or box, just like you would if you were going to the dump. We've all got closets full of things we never wear for one reason or another. Give it to someone who will. And for crying out loud, make sure the clothes are clean — giving away your dirty laundry is just lazy and ignorant.

You can go to many malls at Christmas and find a tree full of names of children or the elderly for whom Christmas is just another day. Many businesses have these trees also. Pick a name, or a family, and buy something for them. Get your friends or children to sponsor someone.

Results.org has loads of resource information available, for anyone willing to put in a bit of effort.

So there are plenty of ways to help. A little can go a long way.

Lies and damned lies

Reality vs. parody

from Today's Big Thing

Wow. I think this is more sad than funny, although it is pretty funny. And now, as expected, the blame for that interview is being placed squarely on Katie Couric's shoulders, although she did everything she could to make it easy for Palin. No wonder the GOP won't let Palin go on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Vice-Presidential Debate

And the “debate” didn't change a thing. Palin delivered the talking points she has memorized with her usual ah-shucks manner, but failed to impress me with any sense that she actually knows anything. Biden wasn't particularly impressive either, but he kept his cool and did not look like he was beating up on the little lady, which is what I'd bet the Rovians were hoping for.

I will never understand why so many voters want a President and Vice-President who are just like them. I want people who know more than I do, who are smarter than I am, who are better managers than I am — why are conservatives so intimidated by intelligence and so easily fooled by an act? GWB is no more a cowboy or a good ole boy than I am, but the entire middle of the country fell for the act. TWICE. Sarah Palin is acting. As the Shrub himself once said, “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”



I uploaded this image to ImageShack so I wouldn't help crash poor Aden Nak's server, but know that this is his image, all rights/credits/copyrights etc. belong to him. Check him out.

Interview Palin

Q: What is the role of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan?

A: Afghanistan will lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help shore up our economy and putting it back on the table. I think that the example that you can't blink. So, I didn't blink then even, when asked to run as his running mate. We got to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not believe in American ideals. And they attacked us. And now we are a free-thinking society. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the solution to the terrorists and stopping them over there


This bit of Palinesque wisdom is brought to you by InterviewPalin.com.