Yes, I am a cynic.
I have to ask how convenient this entire exchange is. Level headed, lucid and erudite McCain supporters just happen to intervene in "critical" discussion of views and first amendment rights? All while the camera manages to capture the scene? To be finally punctuated by an extremist tucking his tail between his legs and slinking off?
Easily the best (contrived) television on television...
[H/t to my sister who doesn't blog, yet?]
Mark Jacoby, who owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, violated state laws with his own registration, authorities say.SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.
State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states.
. . .
The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.
The entire article is a well written wake-up call for a hot-potato issue that no one as yet wants to take on.Farmer in Chief
Thursday 09 October 2008
by: Michael Pollan, The New York Times
Federal policies to promote maximum production of commodity crops such as wheat, from which most of our supermarket foods are derived, have succeeded in keeping prices low. But suddenly the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. (Photo: Nouriche Nutrition Ltd.)Dear Mr. President-Elect,
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food.
. . .
...make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on - but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them.
Private Military Contractors Writing the News? The Pentagon's Propaganda at Its Worst
Friday 17 October 2008
by: Liliana Segura, AlterNet
A newsstand in Baghdad. The Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to produce media for Iraqi outlets. (Photo: Joao Silva / The New York Times)Less than a week after the Washington Post reported that the Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to "produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to 'engage and inspire' the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb wrote a strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "I have serious reservations about the need for this expenditure in today's political and economic environment," he wrote. "Consequently, I am asking that you put these contracts on hold until the Armed Services Committee and the next administration can review the entire issue of U.S. propaganda efforts inside Iraq."
...the declaration of the "War on Terror" itself. It's a project the Bush administration has always approached as a PR campaign as much as a military one.Tell that to the brave young men and women who are actually on the ground.
Is this really the price of Petroleum Politics???? Wouldn't we be better served by supporting American social programs that have recently been gutted by our OUR economic downturn???Selling the War to Americans
Perhaps one of the Bush administration's most egregious PR undertakings in the war on Iraq was revealed this spring, when the New York Times blew the lid off the Pentagon's military analyst program, in which more than 75 retired military officials were recruited to spout pro-war rhetoric on major networks in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Top GOP Fund-Raiser Tied to Iraq Fuel Contract
Friday 17 October 2008
by: James Glanz and Michael Luo, The New York Times
Rep. Henry Waxman released documents on Thursday alleging that a top McCain fund-raiser has been overcharging the military for fuel deliveries in Iraq. (Photo: Sam Hurd)The Democratic chairman of a House investigative committee presented documents to the Pentagon on Thursday alleging that a top Republican fund-raiser, Harry Sargeant III, has made tens of millions of dollars in profits over the last four years because his contracting company vastly overcharged for deliveries of fuel to American air bases in Iraq.
Winking
Blinking
...and Nod
Barack Obama said (paraphrasing here) that these are difficult times and we must work together to overcome them.
He did not say that he would fix them. He did not say that the government would fix them. He didn't say Democrats or Republican (or liberals or neocons or hawks or tycoons) would fix them. Instead he made a simple statement that has done more for national identity and pride than any other politician to date. Barack Obama used the word 'we' to describe the answer to our problems.
Under his leadership We have been empowered to fix what is ailing America.
Under his leadership We are allowed to be responsible for the direction of our solutions.
Under his leadership We Americans, the people, will be able to say, "We fixed it!"
[H/T to my sister (who doesn't blog, yet!)]
[Tip-o-the-hat to my brother, who doesn't blog, yet!]
Two people are in a fast car. The passenger who is looking at a map says “there is a cliff up ahead” and the driver says “no there isn’t” and the passenger holds the map up so the driver can see it and says “look, it says right here on the map, there is a cliff just up ahead” and the driver grows angry and says “FOR THE LAST TIME THERE IS NO CLIFF” and speeds up even more. The car flies off the cliff. Just before the fiery final explosion the passenger says “I told you so.” and the driver says “No. No. YOU DOUBTED.”
