...to see who the NRA endorsed before you decided for whom to vote, your wait is over. They've endorsed McCain.
But just because it's not surprising, doesn't mean it's not infuriating:
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.The states involved include the six swing states of Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, and North Carolina, as well as Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.
Although much attention this year has been focused on the millions of new voters being added to the rolls by the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given to the number of voters being dropped from those same rolls.
States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and remove the names of voters who should no longer be listed; but for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records shows.
mon·i·tor cat /ˈmɒn ɪ tər kæt/ — lesser feline deity to Ceiling Cat, governing the watching of birds and blogging.
"I've pledged to conduct a respectful campaign…We are trying to be a party that respects everyone."—John McCain, April 23, 2008
Steve Benen, today:
The Politico's Jonathan Martin noted last night that the McCain campaign planned on "making news" this morning, but wouldn't say what it was. We learned this morning it was a new, detailed economic plan, explaining in depth how McCain believes the U.S. should respond to the ongoing financial crisis over the next 12 months.Last night, I sat watching CNN's Senior Political Analyst David Gergen compliment John McCain on not bringing up Ayers during Tuesday night's debate. He must have said it four times. It's positively gobsmacking. Why on earth is McCain getting credit from ostensibly intelligent pundits for what is essentially just not having the spine to do his own goddamnned dirty work? Either he's running his own campaign, and ergo he's approving these smear tactics, or he's totally out of the loop within his own campaign, and ergo he isn't fit to run the local 7/11, no less the country.
No, no, I'm just kidding. The "news" is that the McCain campaign has released a 90-second web ad attacking Obama for knowing Bill Ayers. As Martin noted this morning, "The idea here is to keep Ayers in the mix without spending precious dollars to put real points behind it on TV. Republicans know that cable TV stations will play the spot for free, regardless of it being a web ad."
The web ad comes about 24 hours after top McCain campaign aides seemingly took the Ayers "issue" (I use the word loosely) off the table.
Wow. Just wow.
I've been doing blog video for a while, and presidential rallies a lot longer. And this is the most strange, ignorant, uninformed, angry, up-to-no-good, and gullible group of people I've ever seen at a political rally.Wow. Just go watch. Wow.
Ever.
Last night, Iain and I caught a bit of Michelle Obama's interview with Larry King. As you'd expect, she was smart, witty, interesting, personable; Iain, who hadn't previously seen a lot of footage of her, said, "She is such an asset tae Barack. He's looky tae have her."
One of the things I found particularly compelling was when King asked her about Hillary Clinton. He was clearly leading her to say that Clinton wasn't doing enough to support Sen. Obama, which was, of course, a constant media meme until the economy took a nosedive—and there had been some speculation, including in comments threads here, that M. Obama doesn't like Clinton. But watching this segment, that didn't come across to me at all. She seems genuinely impressed by and grateful for Clinton's support and sounds like she is quite fond of her—like they are quite fond of each other.
Obama: This has been an amazing year throughout—and I think my 10-year-old daughter summed it up best: The night that Barack clinched the nomination, and I came home, woke up in the morning, and I sort of explained that Daddy had, you know, actually won the nomination, and I said, "Don't you think this is amazing?" You know, I said, "This is the first time an African-American will have been a nominee." And Malia said, "Well, yeah." You know, "I realize what a big deal it is," she said, "but it would have been a big deal if Hillary Clinton had won, too." She said it without blinking an eye. She said, "Because women didn't have the right to vote, and there was inequality there." It was matter-of-fact; it's like, that's where we've come, where 10-year-olds and 7-year-olds understand that this is big, but they know this is the next step. You know, this is where we've grown as a country, and I think it's beautiful to watch our young people being able to see these changes in action, because they're going to grow up with a different reality than any of us.
King: Speaking of Hillary—
Obama: Mm-hmm.
King: —are you happy with the way she's supporting your husband?
Obama: She has been phenomenal. From the minute after this was done, right, she has always been just cordial and open—I've called her, I've talked to her, she's given me advice about the kids, we've talked at length about this kind of stuff, how you feel, how you react; she has been amazing. She is a real pro and a woman with character and—
King: And will she campaign for you all the way?
Obama: She's been campaigning. She's on the road. I don't know her schedule completely, but she's been raising money for the campaign, she's been working on her donors, she's been in swing states—she and Bill Clinton have been working hard to make sure that Barack is the next president of the United States.
Today is the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. It is the most important and solemn day of the Jewish calendar: a time to amend behavior and seek forgiveness.
Every religion has just such a time; for example, Catholics and some other Christian denominations observe Lent and Muslims observe Ramadan, just to name a couple. But making amends is more than just a religious obligation; it is a reflection of something that is basically human, and taking one day, one month, or forty days is merely a symbolic of something we should be doing all the time.
That's not an attempt to inflict everyone with a guilt trip, nor is it an exhortation to never make mistakes, hurt other people, or do something thoughtless. It's going to happen, and if we all tried at the outset to avoid it, we'd never get anything done. Atonement -- at least to me -- is a teachable moment. We find our limitations, our blind spots, our stupidities, and we fix them for ourselves and for those we hurt in the process.
It's no great revelation that a lot of people have trouble with the concept of atonement. To them it's a sign of weakness; if you admit that make you mistakes, people will take advantage of you. Sure, that happens. But it's part of the process, too, that if someone exploits it, they have their own atonement to look after at some point. Or not. Some people are beyond that. But that's not your problem. And if you're secure enough in your own self and you know your limitations, you will have no trouble admitting when you're wrong and you are strong enough to take the responsibility and the consequences of screwing up. By doing that, more than just making amends and putting things right, you actually improve the situation.
In the height of this silly season of election campaigning at all levels and daily accusations of sins of commission, omission, exploitation, "gotcha," not to mention the smug self-assurance and prideful arrogance from just about everyone -- including myself -- that we are right and they are wrong and there is no hope for anyone who doesn't see the world exactly the way we do, it's important to observe the admonitions set forth in the meaning of Yom Kippur regardless of your religious affiliation or lack of it: seek forgiveness, make amends, learn, and resolve to do better with the full knowledge that it is a never-ending process.
You don't have to be Jewish or Catholic or Quaker or Muslim or Hindi or Pastafarian to stop for a while, even if it's only a moment, to realize that you and that which you believe in are not the center of the universe and that getting your way or winning the argument and hurting someone else in the process isn't just something we shouldn't do because God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster says so. We know through our human instinct that making amends for our flaws and hurts is the most human thing we do.
Tsom Kal
(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
Following on our earlier discussion about the virtues and flaws of spinach: Of what commonly disliked food are you an unabashed fan?
Aside from spinach, I'm also a big fan of cabbage, a food for which I've heard quite a few people express a distaste.
I tend to be inordinately fond of sea creatures—eels, muscles, sea cucumbers, etc.—the texture or taste of which many of my dining companions have found off-putting.
Following up on PortlyDyke's look at new technology...
If you haven't tried this already, go to Google Maps and click on "Street View." If you live in an area with a camera icon over it or covered by the blue splotches on the map, type in your address and hit Search. When it brings up the address, click on the Street View link. Chances are it will show you a picture of the house -- or be really close to it. You can manipulate the picture 360 degrees, go up the street or down to the corner; anywhere that's outlined in blue. (Wow, I'd better cut the grass.)
It's a good way to waste an afternoon; I went and visited the house I grew up in and just about every other place I've lived. But when you think about it, it's creepy as hell. While I know it's perfectly legal to take a picture of a house from a public street, to me this is a stalker's dream come true, especially with just about everybody's address out there on the internet. I have noticed that the photographs blur out names on mailboxes and numbers on license plates, but the address is posted at the top of the map.
My brother tells me that Google has been sued by a couple of people; one was walking down the street and was caught in the picture, and another was a homeless guy who was caught sleeping in a doorway (Legal Aid helping him to sue). Sheesh.
(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
So, I rarely post "current news" items, but today, I ran across this article about "Google Goggles", which is supposed to prevent EUI -- Emailing Under the Influence.
Once activated, it forces you to solve a math test before you can hit "send".
While I suppose this bit of nano nanny-technology might actually be a good idea for some people, I'd go so far as to say that if you don't know that you're too drunk to be sending a pissed-off letter of resignation to your boss, there may be a more effective approach.
It's called "Rehab".
On the hope that he rises above the hoax and actually decides to run for president, I think Christopher Walken should show up at the next debate and do the entire Weapon of Choice routine in front of Obama and McCain.
Gay
Howsabout a little good news, Shakers?
FOR the first time since the Advertising Council was founded in 1942, the organization — which directs and coordinates public service campaigns on behalf of Madison Avenue and the media industry — is introducing ads meant to tackle a social issue of concern to gays and lesbians.The Ad Council has previously done public service antidiscrimination campaigns like "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" for the United Negro College Fund and "Expect the best from a girl and that's what you'll get" for, if I recall correctly, a coalition of women's groups.
The campaign, which is scheduled to be announced by the council in Washington on Wednesday, will seek to discourage bullying and harassment of teenagers who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The campaign, created pro bono by the New York office of Arnold Worldwide, urges an end to using derogatory language, particularly labeling anything deemed negative or unpleasant as "so gay." That is underlined by the theme of the campaign: "When you say, 'That's so gay,' do you realize what you say? Knock it off."
There will be television and radio commercials, print and outdoor ads and a special Web site devoted to the campaign (thinkb4youspeak.com). Some spots feature celebrities, the young actress Hilary Duff and the comedian Wanda Sykes, delivering the message.
The campaign is on behalf of a nonprofit organization in New York called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or Glsen (pronounced glisten), which promotes tolerance among students. Glsen is spending about $2 million to develop and produce the campaign.
…The campaign is "something I dreamed about for 10 years," said Kevin Jennings, the founder and executive director at Glsen, and has been in active development for two years.
Dear Spinach,
I don't know how you got to be so delicious, but it's a fine talent for tastiness you've got there. Thank you for making my lunch that much more delectable!
Love,
Liss
P.S. You really need new PR people. The whole creamed-spinach-in-elementary-school-lunchrooms thing? Terrible branding. Doesn't sell your scrumptiousness at all. I missed many years of enjoying you because of that marketing misstep.
What's the frequency, Shakers?
Recommended Reading:
Boehlert: Press Pundits Remain Silent about Sexist Coverage
Peggy: Virologist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi Wins Nobel Prize
Steve: The Measure of Mendacity
Susie: Enemies of the State
Veronica: Love Your Body Day
Tristero: South Dakota Pro-Coathanger Law Redux
And get well soon, Blue Gal!
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