Oh look!  It’s another nominee!  You’ve heard of people dumb enough to fall for those scams right…?  But someone dumb enough to steal for one?  fail.

The bit about erasing memories in mice is still making the rounds.  You should check it out if you haven’t already because, at the very least, people will be talking about for a bit.

A really nicely done photo essay type thing on Obama.

Emoticons, in the 1880s?   Pshhh.  Show me some ASCII art and then I’ll be impressed! ;)

Jane Meyer’s New Yorker article on the push for Palin.

This piece from Time has some interesting pieces from Obama  & Petraeus’ meeting.

Jason Jones (of the Daily Show) interviews the current mayor of Wassila (embedded @ the Daily Dish because I’m too lazy to try and embed it here).

How your beer bought McCain’s shoes.  A nice explanation of the way beer distribution works…doesn’t sound very capitalist to me!

Buckypaper.  The latest in high-tech materials.  Have any of these things made it into public hands since plastic?  Probably…I just don’t pay much attention.  Spandex maybe?  ;)

McCain & Obama on infidelity.  I think one candidate clearly has more experience than the other here.  The question is, is that experience enough to get them into the White House?

I’m sure you’ve seen the stories about how Palin charged the state for her children’s flights & hotels.  But just in case: here’s one.

Block African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin now!  You cannot make this batshit up.  OK, obviously someone can…because they did, and appear to believe it.

Looks like Focus on the Family is getting in on the “batshit crazy” act too!  Seriously, all you not-batshit-crazy Christians need to man-and-woman-up and shut these fools up.

Wacky broccoli.

Surprise!  JP Morgan isn’t going to use the bailout money to issue loans!….they’re just going to keep it and do whatever the fuck they want with it!  You didn’t see that coming did you?????  The real question is of course: “How can we get them to defenestrate themselves?”

One last touch of crazy, congressman says “Liberals hate real Americans.”  Honestly I don’t hate many people in the world right now.  But I will laugh relentlessly at you if you are socially, morally, or mentally deficient.   Note that this guy also falls under the batshit-crazy Christian label – or, at the very least, he is trying to appeal to those folks.

No, I don’t know where the term “batshit-crazy” comes from…I suppose I should look it up.  This was the best I could find in a hurry.   Hmm.  Toxic gas from poop.  Gotcha.  Good to know.

[EDIT: Couple more because I don't want to make another post:

Zakaria goes to the Obama side.

A lengthy article about pursuing interviews in Vietnam with ex-military officers.

Ever wondered why your cell phone messes with nearby speakers, etc.?  Inquire within.

/END EDIT]

I know you held me dear in your heart, through torture & trials, and held onto dreams of return.

Well, now that we’ve been back together these last few decades you’ve tried your best to love me I know, but are you sure you’re ready to take it to the next level?

I’ve been through a disfiguring economic struggle, and I know I don’t look as good as I used to, but I promise I still love you John.  I mean, you can tell yourself that if it gets you through the night.  Sometimes I still believe it.  But I have to admit, I’m afraid.

What if we’re at some kind of world summit together, you and me – John and the USA, just like we used to dream…before our dark times…

What if we’re at a gala ball with a bunch of other countries are there, and some of them will be more to your tastes and tarted up in their rapidly expanding economies.  I know how you like them young & attractive – and in the past have had little reservation about chasing tail when things aren’t perfect at home.

Will you spend a night with exotic Chile, or fun-drunk Ireland?   Or even (now) friendly-looking Vietnam?  It’s hard, looking like I do right now – you’ve burned others before, will you burn me too?

Love always,

The USA

McCain came across as really angry/annoyed (to me of course!) again.

Surprise!  He brought up the Ayers crap that I thought he might have the balls to go against his Rove-eges advice.  This isn’t going to get him any points.   Specifics aside, I suspect that, other than the frothy Republican base, no one gives a fuck about this. Especially not in comparison to real issues like oh say the economy or Iraq.

Obama kept his cool the whole time, while McCain looked pretty depraved at some points – it looked like he wanted to haul off and smack Obama a few times.  Sure, I’m sure debating potential presidents feel that way a lot – but they learn to cover it up!

Zero points for decency to McCain, a couple to Obama.  Obama gave him a few props and I think McCain maybe gave him one, but he followed it up with a contradictoring insult.  I could be wrong here, it’s been a few hours, so don’t hold me to it!  He defended the crazies at his rallies.  Good one here – playing to your base is totally going to help you in this election.  Really he could say whatever he wants – they aren’t going away – they came for the Palin, hopefully with a side of dead old man.

McCain asking Obama the same goddam questions as the last debate makes it look like he is senile and forgot the answers.  I know I didn’t.

Obama wasn’t like, knock your socks off whatever, but he kept his cool very well (although I’m sure some will mock his thought collecting stutter type thing), answered all the crazy accusations and re-presented his policies for the voters.

Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Obama, did my kitchen sink hit you in the face?  Don’t worry, I have more!  McCain threw all kinds of funky junk and none of it stuck. I’m surprised he didn’t go for the Muslim connection!  I guess he’s saving sink #2 for the real ugliness that comes in the next 2 weeks.

I admit, I don’t know much (or have a good opinion yet) on the school vouchers, etc. stuff.   So there may be something to say there, but it won’t come from me (yet).

Obama 3, McCain 0.

And here’s what a bunch of other people thought:

Foxnews contributers.

Andrew Sullivan’s blogger response round-up.  No idea who most of these people are or what parties they belong to.

Peter David’s (the comic writer) wife filling in for him on a live blog.

Undercover Black Man’s live blog.

Printer friendly version here, if you like to actually print things.

Now, none of this is “new” info – it’s all been available online for a long period of time, but it’s handy to have it all coalesced here into one easy on the eyes place.  It was even nicer to have it in print magazine form in the new issue of RS.

The magazine version does, of course, lack citations, but you can find pretty much all of them if you are curious and have time on your hands.

This is a nice little bit of negative campaigning on my part, perhaps in honor of McCain’s 100% negative ads these days…but hey, the truth is handy.

[NOTE: I wrote this a week or so ago but forgot to post it.  Sorry, I know you missed it!]

I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear that you cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict.

It’s about 2:45 in in this clip.

What he’s literally saying is something like ..ok nevermind it still doesn’t make sense (OK I’ll TRY…”Don’t use a plan that has already be proven wrong, because then it might almost fail….”).  Maybe what he meant though (at best), is that “you shouldn’t have a bad plan and expect it to work.”  Which is still a stupid thing to say in that it’s a truism.

More thoughts (after having finally watched the whole thing):

…the bit Obama said about McCain and the bomb Iran thing…BURN.  People were saying here were no real shots in this debate…that’s the first one I’ve seen so far, and it was a decent one.

McCain told too many stories for a debate, and his dismissiveness of Obama came off to me as condescending (whereas when Obama countered him he appeared politer to me).  His general performance was fine though.

Obama’s return on the bracelet thing could have been much sharper and a burn in itself , but I think he restrained himself.  Still, the point itself is a nice burn for the audience to fill in the blanks on (in the sense of “not everyone believes the same thing, and its silly to invoke one person as representing all people in that category”…which is one of the reasons I don’t think stories belong in debates).

woah…nuking Israel would be quite different from a Holocaust…ok, maybe it technically would be a “holocaust” (no capital)…but still, how often do you hear Americans talk about the two Japanese holocausts then?  I assume he’s referring to the capital H-olocaust to try and rile people up.  To mean the image of the Holocaust brings up the camps and systematic extermination & torture of a people.  Nuking would be a genocide or something equally foul, but I think the Holocaust stands separate.

Or am I just “parsing words” as McCain says Obama is.  That’s part of how I argue I guess…although it does bother at least a few people, I tend to think that that is part & parcel of debating & the political arena itself.  If someone says you do something or whatever and uses a particular word, and that word is technically wrong, you have to correct them or else that shit will get all memed up (it probably will anyway though).

…why is McCain smirking so much?  Whenever Obama talks about him specifically…I could swear I’ve seen him smirking on a few occasions.  Sure, you obviously don’t agree with him but this is another example of petty dismissiveness that, to me, makes him look more like a cranky old man than looking presidential.

I like how Obama was just like “alright lets move on” when McCain kept babbling.  I wonder if McCain was purposefully trying to make him angry?

What is “blood and treasure”?  Is this a technical term.  The blood I understand but…we have treasure? (Why do I have an urge to post some kind of lolcats image here??)  I mean, i know what he means (I *think*), but there are many better ways to say it.

McCain on taking care of veterans…hmmm mm.  The ..shoot whats the logical fallacy name for it: “appeal to the masses”?  The bit about   “they know I’ll take care of them”…that doesn’t fly.  OK so I’m not a trained debater, maybe that is legal, but it looks stupid to me.  You don’t win an argument by saying “Jim down the street knows I’m right!”  That means nothing.

He did manage to bring up the PoW thing.  Good job John, you stuck to the script!

Call me biased (which I am admittedly, so it would be fair for you to do so), but I think Obama came out ahead here.  He acted more Presidential, respectful & thoughtful.  He held his own on all the foreign policy stuff (which I guess people were thinking he couldn’t do), and he tied in those things with our current issues to bring home the point that they are all related.

And yes John, it does matter greatly whether or not you can admit that going into Iraq was WRONG in the first place.  The fact that you still can’t understand that says so much. The fact that he keeps talking about like it was the right thing to do…of course we have to “win” somehow now, since we are there, but that doesn’t me that we should have ever been there!  What kind of crazy logic that is I’ll never know.  Thankfully.

Seriously, how is this an answer to a question:

LENO: Welcome back, Sen. McCain, for one million dollars, how many houses do you have?

MCCAIN: You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness. I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without—I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table, I didn’t have a table, I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because—not because I wanted to get a house when I got out.

I mean, I know he has to be political about everything, but wtf?   He continues on (in basically the exact same answer he gave that lady that just interviewed him…Katie Couric maybe?  I don’t know tv news personalities well) with some BS about how thankful he is for his father in law’s money.  It’s fun to live off others’ wealth isn’t it?

[UPDATE: Further thoughts since I wrote the above]

The RNC speeches hammered this point down so hard I was afraid that the other former PoWs in the audience were going to start having flashback seizures or something.

I fully accept and respect the years of life given to our country by our soldiers, but I don’t think it’s a qualification for presidency.  Sure, if you had experience as a high ranking military officer, THAT I could see as being relevant but this is just…fluff.  It’s a great way of showing what a great American he is.  Which is nice and all, but again, not a qualification for the presidency.

It also seems like a big fat pity party to some degree: “John suffered all this so YOU could live your happy life, don’t you think you owe it to him to make him president?”

Sorry John, you already got your 7(?) houses.  Frankly, I think that’s pretty good – certainly more than most of us, and more than most other PoWs, will ever get.

Also, as mentioned in my post about Fred’s speech, I’m curious about what it really means to be a “war hero”.

It is amusing how long it took McCain to reject Hagee’s endorsement (the 22nd).  He said things about Catholics and Gays but what finally broke the McCamel’s back…calling the Holocaust the will of God (which I think, technically certain branches of Christianity have to believe this, but I guess that’s irrelevant for the moment, although it does lead to interesting discussion I’ve had many times over the years about predestination/will of god/freewill/structure of time).  So, anti-Jewish sentiment is political poison, but anti-Catholic, anti-gay is ok.  At least the Catholics know how important they are to McCain;  I’m pretty sure the gays already know how they stand with Republicans in general.

Hah, and it looks like McCain had to reject another Pastor’s endorsement (see link at end of linked entry) later that day.  Hilarious!

Seriously John, maybe you should stop looking for people to make you look good, and just not be such a flip-flopper.  You know, try and make yourself look good on your own.  Because it doesn’t look like the endorsement thing is working out.  Although, I hear David Duke is always open to being courted for an endorsement.  You know, if you want that really hardcore religious white segment of the population.