I'd Start With Griswold v. Connecticut

Before the bailout vote this afternoon, the blogosphere was swarming with rumors that CBS had two more un-aired responses from last week's disastrous Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric, the one in which the aspiring Vice-President looked less like a moose-hunter and more like a deer caught in the headlights. If it were possible, these two responses were said to be even more embarrassing to the campaign.

Jonathan Martin at Politico seems to have figured out what one of those responses was:

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

God, how elitist to have some expectation that someone pay attention to the country's highest court, even if that person is running for the second-highest executive position in the country. And how sexist to expect that a woman with five kids who shoots moose can even have the time to pay attention to anything like that...even if she is running for Vice President!

I really, really, can't wait for Thursday, if I haven't already mentioned that. Although I'm a little annoyed knowing that there's going to be nowhere to park on campus that day. I may have to...walk.

Oh and by the way, in case you didn't know, Griswold v. Connecticut was the case that legalized the use of contraceptives (at least for married couples).

Is It Just Me

Or did Ehud Olmert just reveal himself on Rosh Hashonah to be the world's biggest coward?

If he really believed that the only way for Israel to make peace with its neighbors was to leave East Jerusalem and Golan, then as Prime Minister, did he not have a moral obligation to work towards that end? It's a politically unpopular position, but if he really felt that it was necessary, why only speak about it now that he has nothing left to lose?

If there's one thing I pray for the new year, it's that new Israeli prime minister Tzipi Livni will have more of a spine.

Shana Tovah

I'm heading out in about ten minutes for Erev Rosh Hashonah services, where we will usher in the year 5769, and then going to Hillel for some good Jewish soul food (I have a stomachache right now, for which the best cure is matzoh ball soup). I'm meeting up with a friend to walk over to services. I'm Reform, she's Orthodox, and we're going to Conservative services. Now that's bipartisanship we can believe in!

So if you're reading this, may you have a sweet new year, and may you be inscribed in the Book of Life. Yes, even you, Bill Hobbs and Glen Dean.

Avinu Malkeinu, Chaneinu V'aneinu,
ki ein banu ma'asim.
Assei imanu ts'dakah vachesed, vehoshiyeinu.

Hear our voice, Lord our God, pity and be compassionate to us, and accept - with compassion and favour - our prayer.

*************************************************

P.S. Someone else wants to wish you a Happy New Year as well:

As Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I want to send my best wishes for a happy, healthy, and sweet new year.

This marks not just a time for rejoicing, but for reflecting on the hopes the new year brings, and on our responsibilities to see them fulfilled. As families come together to mark the High Holy Days, upholding a proud Jewish tradition.

Let us all rededicate ourselves to the task of repairing this world for our children and grandchildren, and to working to achieve peace and security for Israel. On behalf of all of the Obamas and Bidens, Shana Tovah.

Australians Have The Best Scandals

Forget lobbyists or pregnant teenagers, this takes the cake:

DUMPED NSW police minister Matt Brown has denied he was drunk at the wild Parliament House party where he allegedly stripped to his underwear.

Mr Brown told The Sun-Herald newspaper that the night of the party in his eighth-floor office on June 3 was marked by stupidity but not drunkenness.

He said he remembered taking off his shirt, and dancing, but did not remember taking off his pants.

"I don't recall parading around in my underwear," he said.

"I know I took my shirt off and I know I did have a dance. I was working off steam in the privacy of my own office with workmates. It was harmless fun."

Mr Brown, who was just 27 when he was elected in 1999, has strenuously denied getting his gear off and mounting the chest of fellow MP Noreen Hay while announcing to her daughter he was "titty f---ing" her mother.

But he wasn't drunk. Thank goodness!

In a related story, the GOP has called on all of us to love the sinner and hate the sin, and to forgive him. Because, after all, he wasn't a Democrat.

¿Por Qué No Te Callas?

Bills Hobbs' counterpart in Clark County, Nevada (aka Las Vegas) may very well have shot the Republicans' chances in that state in the foot:

Didi Lima, the Clark County GOP communications director, also was removed from her volunteer role as a Hispanic community liaison for Republican John McCain's presidential campaign over the remarks made earlier in the day while working at a McCain campaign booth.

"We don't want (Hispanics) to become the new African-American community," Lima told The Associated Press. "And that's what the Democratic Party is going to do to them, create more programs and give them handouts, food stamps and checks for this and checks for that. We don't want that."

"I'm very much afraid that the Democratic Party is going to do the same thing that they did with the African-American culture and make them all dependent on the government and we don't want that," she said.

See, this is what's nice about Tennessee. If she had made those comments here, she wouldn't have been fired; she would have gotten a rousing show of support from the state GOP (except perhaps from Lamar! and Corker). It's hard to tell how the TN conservative blogosphere might have reacted though. Welfare = bad after all, but then again, they would see that the story involved Hispanics, immediately assume that it meant "illegals", and then some heads would probably explode. But I digress.

It's a brilliant statement really. Not only did she just insult African-Americans, but in the same fashion as the Baca comment about how Hispanics consider themselves "above" African-Americans, she painted all Hispanics in an offensive stereotypical brush. Way to lose two voting blocs with one stone!

The Republicans are going to come to regret the way they've handled Hispanic voters. Hispanics should have been a natural voting bloc for them, due to their more conservative positions on social issues such as abortion. But they've allowed anti-immigrant hysteria to prevail over political common sense, and the attempt to drive a wedge between African-Americans and Hispanics is blowing up in their faces.

But I'm sure Bill Hobbs is happy that he doesn't work in Nevada right now.

Stacey Campfield Makes A Funny

In response to Jason Mumpower's dog-whistle comments about Rep. Nathan Vaughn yesterday:

I think you are fishing for the race card a little hard on a lot of stories lately. Most of the liberal Democrats come from down town Memphis or the Memphis area. They are not all black. Cohen, Kernell, Morraro and others are white, liberal and from Memphis in case you didn’t notice. Liberalism is not race based but they may be concentrated in some urban area more then others.

Of course, Cohen and Marrero (who is Morraro?) don't come from anywhere near what would be considered the Memphis "inner city." And it's actually not true that everyone is a God-fearing, flag-waving Republican outside of Memphis; there are actually quite a few folks in East Tennessee who don't believe that wealthy suburban Republicans can empathize with their needs.

But we shouldn't be too hard on Campfield for over-simplifying the situation as a way to cover for Mumpower; it's still not entirely clear if Campfield even knows where Memphis is.

Weird

There's a diary up on Daily Kos right now from someone claiming to be Tennessee House Majority Leader Gary Odom's cousin, "Randy Odom." In the diary, "Randy Odom" claims that Gary Odom is a racist and has cut off half his family due to one cousin having a bi-racial baby.

While I don't believe any of this for one second (I know Gary Odom isn't racist, and the diary itself sounds like it was written by a 12-year old), I do find it curious that it went up the same day that House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower laid a stinker of a racist comment directed at African-American Representative Nathan Vaughn:

“They are better suited to be representing inner-city Memphis than the rural hills of East Tennessee,” said Mumpower.

(Translation--Vaughn needs to "know his place" and not get all uppity)

Of course I can't prove it, but there is a part of me that wonders if this isn't all a (really half-assed and laughable) Republican attempt to deflect from that mini-scandal.

McCain--Don't Believe What You Hear

John McCain essentially had a meltdown this morning on "This Week" when asked about Sarah Palin's agreeing with Barack Obama's position on Pakistan, a position which McCain has repeatedly attacked him for:

"She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest," McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos of Palin. "In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's—that's a person's position… This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitve policy statement made by Governor Palin."

Please let the record show that the Straight Talk Express does not believe that you should hold people accountable for what they say, nor does he believe that his own running-mate has any idea what she's talking about.

Personally, I think Obama's right on this, and by extension that would mean Palin is right too (as painful as that is to say). But if McCain disagrees, wouldn't that be something he'd want to, you know, tell his running-mate at some point?

I'm so excited for Thursday's debate, you have no idea.

Made-For-TV Moment

Last week, Katie Allison Granju had an interesting post up asking why there was such a different reaction from conservatives between the pregnancies of Jamie-Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. In the former case, the teen mother was slammed, derided, held up as an example of declining moral values, even though she chose to keep her baby. In the latter case, she was essentially treated as a saint. Several commenters in KAG's post implied that the difference was that while Lynne Spears had essentially "pimped her daughter out," putting her on magazine covers and selling the baby photos, while the Palins simply wanted privacy for their daughter, and had only revealed her pregnancy after those mean lib'ruls had started asking questions about it.

It does seem like a reasonable difference, except...

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

OK, now who's pimping their daughter out?

If you think that Bristol Palin is entitled to privacy from the prying eyes of the media and the political world, then for God's sake, give her that privacy. If you think that she and her family are being smeared, then don't force her into the limelight if she doesn't want that. Don't exploit her wedding just so you get a nice TV moment and a boost in the polls. Is there really that much of a difference between forcing her to have her wedding broadcast to the whole world for a political gain and Lynne Spears putting her daughter on the cover of gossip magazines for a monetary gain?

Channeling Mike Byrd for a second, I eagerly await Kleinheider's explanation of why my pointing that out is sexist, anti-Christian, and will only help Sarah Palin.

The Sunday Liberal Blog Roundup, 9-28-08

The "toxic debate derivatives" edition of the weekly Tennessee progressive blog roundup with a look at what the state's best bloggers are talking about...

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Senator Drama Queen: ...how does a man go, in just a few days, from claiming that the economy is fundamentally sound to marching all over Washington, DC like Chicken Little, hitting new levels of scenery munching, derailing the negotiations Congress had gotten through before his arrival politicized the whole process -- swooping in, wearing his home-made cape and superhero pajamas -- pretending to be the man who’s saving the day, when he couldn't even be bothered to read the 3-page document that is central to the process?

• 55-40 Memphis: I ask again, is this the best way to use the ammo? Besides, the five biggest Wall Street losers have already rolled over. We need to protect cash deposits, homes, jobs. That's where Main Street lives.

• Aunt B: I start by saying two things that I have observed about Southerners -- one, a lot of them are Southern Baptist, which means, when they don't like how something’s going, they have no compunction about breaking off and doing something different while still considering themselves to be the true carriers of the proper torch and two, they don't like to be played for fools.

• Carole Borges: If you've been following the economic terrorist attack from within, you probably feel confused. Who wouldn't. It's obvious no one in Washington has a clue what is happening. How could ANYONE in their right mind even consider for one micro-second supporting anything that says "...the whole thing is up to Paulson's "discretion," and "may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

• The Crone Speaks: Now, onto why I felt Obama dominated the foreign policy segment. As I wrote quickly last night, he was authoritative, his answers came easily, he did not rely on anecdotes or generals, or the old guard. As I also mentioned last night, McCain tired quickly. He looked, to me, to be extremely tired.

• Joe Powell: I do know that for the first time in my life, this important office isn't being handed off to the next local insider, another pre-selected candidate from the Republican party which has held total control of [Tennessee's 1st Congressional District] for over 100 years.

• Don Williams: Welcome to full-blown oligarchy -- government that socializes the losses of big business while privatizing the profits and promoting corporate welfare through good-old-boy contracts for military build-ups, outdated energy plans and tax breaks for the wealthy.

• TNDP: In spite of the unprecedented economic crisis created by Bush-McCain policies that freed the banking and lending industry from vital protections for the American people, John McCain wants to put Americans’ health care at the mercy of Wall Street.

• Enclave: Given Barack Obama's strong, comfortable, steady performance in tonight's debate on John McCain's turf of foreign policy, I would say that the Republican attempts for the last four weeks to raise expectations on Sarah Palin by comparing her to Barack Obama may have been a deadly mistake. Also, see ongoing series re. racial tensions fueled by suspect Tennesseean reporting.

• Fletch: Lighthouse Light

• KnoxViews (Sven): The author, like all the other purveyors of this and other similar dumbass notions, fails to explain the mechanism by which the GSEs ruined America. He harps on poor and corrupt management, accounting scandals and skeezy congressional ties - all of which existed. But zero evidence is provided for the core implication that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stampeded Wall Street into making bad loans to the shiftless underclass. That's because no such evidence exists. And: R. Neal: Just like investors who have been duped, the federal government will have no idea what they are buying or what to do with it. Even on a straight up equity sale of shares nobody knows what they are buying any more. Quarterly reports are works of fiction and earnings conference calls are performance art. With derivatives they don't even have to lie -- they can just hide mistakes and corruption under impenetrable layers of bullshit. Corporate America's stock in trade is now deception.

• Lean Left: So the GOP plan is to insure the bad debts, putting the taxpayers on the hook for possibly much more than the 700billion dollar Paulson came up with without giving the taxpayers anyway to ever get compensation if the government is required to pay off on that insurance. And then, just to rub salt in the wounds of the average tax payer, they are going to give the class of people who are most responsible for getting us into this mess a huge tax break for two years.

• Left of the Dial: The only time George W. Bush has spoken to us with "any sense of conviction, control, sincerity and grasp of the situation" was atop the rubble of the World Trade Center holding a megaphone. And even that turned out to be a bunch of crap. Plus: No Bailout For You!

• LeftWingCracker: Here's how to help Obama in Memphis

• Liberadio(!): One of the most important questions that could be asked by Jim Lehrer is not being asked: "What exactly is victory in Iraq?" Plus: Yee of Much Faith

• Newscoma: "George Bush is no different than Herbert Hoover," he said. "I was a kid during the depression and I want you to know, we are heading down this path again."

• The Pesky Fly: What bothers me is that this dog whistle has so permeated the conversation that it has filtered down to second graders. That, dear children, is some effective marketing.

• Resonance: Financial Crisis Reveals Bush's "Political Capital" Is Now An Illiquid Asset

• RoaneViews: We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. Republican Party Platform adopted September 2008

• Russ McBee: Both Fulmer and McCain are decrepit, counter-productive shadows of their former selves, and both have far exceeded their sell-by dates. Plus: Trillion dollar life preserver: I don't know about you, but I'm awfully tired of being trickled on.

• Sean Braisted: Ultimately, while this bailout deal might be in the best interest for our country, the language being used by the administration is fairly reminiscent of language used to push through the ill-conceived Patriot Act, and the War on Terror in general.

• Sharon Cobb: I'm giving away two tickets for you to see and meet my favorite rednecks, Jackie and Dunlap from Red State Update. They are appearing in a town hall meeting in Nashville on October 6, and all you have to do is drop me an email telling me why you love these two lunatics, and I'll forward your entry to Jackie and Dunlap to choose the winner. (No way I was going to choose the winner!) Please get all entries in by Friday, October 3 at midnight to me at: MissSharonCobb@aol.com

• Silence Isn't Golden: But the Republicans aren't going to touch this thing with a ten-foot pole. Why would they? Bush has no coattails anymore, there's no need for them to fall in line with him. They can vote against it, and they will, and then go back to their districts and put all the blame for the fact that we're wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out irresponsible corporations...on the Democratic leadership in Congress!

• Southern Beale: Yesterday blog trolls started touting the expected line that our mortgage crisis is the fault of a) Bill Clinton, and b) black people. Gee, what took them so long?

• vibinc » Blog Archive » The Coming Financial Disaster: Remember, just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it doesn't affect you.

• WhitesCreek Journal: I don't know that much about this stuff, but according to one Democratic Congressman calls to Congress are running about 50-50 on the bailout... 50% No! And 50% HELL NO! Plus: Did You See the Debate?: I saw something else on John McCain's face as he turned it away from Barack Obama. I saw one hell of a pancake makeup job hiding the purple rage. That $5000 was money well spent.

• Women’s Health News: McCain just said something to the effect that healthcare should be between the patient and the physician, not the federal government. Can I hold him to that on reproductive health and "conscience?"

Dewey Defeats Truman!

And McCain wins the debate!


I have a lot of trouble believing that they created this web ad and sent it around to the media only within the last half-hour. So I think it's only logical to conclude that they had this ready to go even as McCain was saying that he may not attend this debate.

Which leads us to another conclusion, one that was obvious to any intelligent observer from the beginning--McCain's "suspension" of his campaign was merely a political stunt, designed to take attention away from all the other problems with his campaign.

Feel Good Friday--Give Peace A Chance In The New Year

I can't embed this video, but please go over to YouTube and watch it. Yesterday Sir Paul McCartney performed in Tel Aviv, Israel, and led 50,000 Israelis in one of the most beautiful songs ever written, although it was in fact written by the late John Lennon.

All we are saying, is give peace a chance.

It's Happening

The bailout is going to fall on the Democrats, as predicted:

And a late-afternoon White House summit bringing together President George W. Bush, presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, and top congressional leaders, described as "a full-throated discussion" by one person in the room and "a contentious shouting match" by McCain's campaign, broke up with conflicts in plain view.

Conservatives were in revolt over the astonishing price tag of the proposal and the hand of government that it would place on private markets.

************

Meanwhile a group of House Republican lawmakers circulated an alternative that would put much less focus on a government takeover of failing institutions' sour assets. This proposal would have the government provide insurance to companies that agree to hold frozen assets, rather than have the U.S. purchase the assets.

Bush already said he backs the Paulson plan instead, but there's still no reason for Congressional Republicans to fall in line with him now. They're going to stick to their plan, and when it fails, the huge giveaway will be solely the responsibility of the Democrats. It won't be the Republicans who passed the bailout, and it won't be Bush who forced it through (lame duck and all). It will be the "Pelosi Bailout".

Meanwhile, McCain appears to be taking an active role in building some sort of consensus:

At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.

In subsequent television interviews, Mr. McCain suggested that he saw the bipartisan plan that came apart at the White House meeting as the proper basis for an eventual agreement, but he did not tip his hand as to whether he would give any support to the alternative put on the table by angry House Republicans, with whom he had met before going to the White House.

Remind me why he's not going to debate again? If he's not offering any concrete plans, then why can't he spare two hours to lay out his vision to the American people?

If he doesn't, Obama should definitely still go, and use the free airtime to describe exactly how he would fix the economy and whether or not we should bail out the banks. Perhaps he should invite Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Ronnie Musgrove as well, to get another good Democrat some great exposure.

Here We Go Again!

Remember how USC wasn't even going to be challenged this year en route to an undefeated season? Remember how they could, only three games into the season, go ahead and book their flights to the BCS Championship game?

Yeah, not quite:

Freshman Jacquizz Rodgers ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns and Oregon State built an early lead and held on for a 27-21 upset victory over top-ranked Southern California on Thursday night.

I think it's safe to say at this point that whoever wins the SEC Championship will get a slot in the BCS final, considering how the supposed #1 team won't be going undefeated in a weak conference. I guess this means Oklahoma will move up to #1 now, which means their annual choke will happen within the next three weeks.

Last season is going to repeat itself. How many seasons of not having a clear #1 team are we going to have to go through before we can acknowledge that the BCS is broken?

Figures

In the initial discussions for a Bible-based theme park to be built in Rutherford County, developer Armon Bar-Tur had cited his experience in developing the Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as his qualifications for building a theme park in Tennessee.

Whoops:

Hard Rock Park, a South Carolina theme park that a Bible Park USA investor said he helped build, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will be closed for the remainder of the year, according to the Hard Rock Park’s Web site.

“Regretfully, Hard Rock Park has closed for the remainder of the 2008 season to allow management to focus on restructuring efforts. Following the completion of this process, Hard Rock Park intends to re-open for the 2009 season and we invite everyone back next year to continue the fun,” the site said.

The $400 million park, touted as the world’s first rock and roll theme park, opened in June in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

So despite this guy's qualifications as a developer, the park in South Carolina could only stay open for three months before hitting financial difficulties. Gives you a lot of confidence in Bible Park U.S.A., doesn't it?

The people who protested the park in Blackman rightly saw the scam for what it was. And now Lebanon and Wilson County are going to be stuck with the $200 million flop. At some point, everyone will have to realize that building a theme park in the middle of an economic recession is bad business administration, giving away millions of taxpayer dollars on a gamble is bad governance, and exploiting religion for profit is just bad karma.

E-Mail Of The Day

Courtesy of my dad:

Coach Phil Fulmer, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, has resigned effective immediately at the request of President Bush. Fulmer will now be head of FEMA. Bush said he was impressed by the way Coach Fulmer evacuated 100,000 people out of Neyland Stadium in less than an hour during last Saturday's 30-6 loss to the Gators.

Watching The Trainwreck Unfold

Remember right after the Republican convention, when McCain received a huge bounce in the polls? When Sarah Palin was being hailed as a new conservative standard-bearer who completely revived the McCain campaign? When Obama was supposedly thrown through a loop over Palin and was therefore struggling?

Remember all the hand-wringing?

Yeah, that's over with now. Or at least it should be.

There's no need to rehash the details of the McCain campaign's decision to suspend his campaign, that's been done already by people who had time to sit down today. We all know that it was a political ploy, a desperate move made by someone who hasn't actually been in Washington all year. And the decision to postpone the debate was made simply because McCain isn't ready. If I were Obama, I'd still go just for the free airtime.

I still don't get why they wouldn't just change the format of this debate to make it about the economy rather than foreign policy. Put both the candidates on national television and make them lay out their plans for how to fix this crisis. It'd be timely, relevant, and it wouldn't necessarily distract from the business of coming to a legislative solution. But seeing as how McCain still won't even say how he'd vote on the bailout plan, I'm guessing even he doesn't know how he'd answer that topic in a debate.

But if McCain isn't ready, then you KNOW Palin won't be ready either. So now they're trying to postpone the VP debate as well:

McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis.

In this scenario, the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin would be rescheduled for a date yet to be determined, and take place in Oxford, Mississippi, currently slated to be the site of the first presidential faceoff this Friday.

Now, strictly speaking as a student at the school in St. Louis from whence this debate is supposed to take place, I'm not entirely opposed to that plan. I love Joe Biden, but how awesome would it be if Obama himself were to come to MY campus? I find out on Friday if I got a ticket through the student lottery, stay tuned.

But I'm still against postponing the VP debate. If it's postponed now, it will never be rescheduled. There likely wouldn't be any time to have it after three presidential debates, and it would be very difficult logistically for the schools to move the dates after spending months preparing for them. Besides, the McCain campaign seems to prefer taking the bad press resulting from Palin's refusal to talk to the media than to risk letting her answer even basic policy questions.

I guess I can understand why...



The whole campaign is a trainwreck. Now does everyone understand why I said weeks ago to just chill out?

Reason #1 Not To Rush The Bailout Through

Forbes:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

If John McCain really is determined to suspend his campaign and throw the debates into disarray, then the least he can do is come up with a more exact number.

Seriously? The world's going to come to an end if we don't pass this thing by Friday, and it's not based on any hard data, but on "a really large number"? This isn't a plan to fix the economy, it's simply Bush's final "f-you" to the American people.

I Hate To Do This

Because I'm sure that it was an honest mistake, and that the St. Louis Whole Foods meant well, but I saw this today and just couldn't resist...

moar funny pictures

More From The ABC Poll

I alluded to it in the last post, but there were some very interesting numbers (warning, PDF) in it that require a second look. I still maintain that national polls aren't all that important, but it does highlight some forming trends.

The overall:
Obama: 52
McCain: 43

Stronger Leader:
Obama: 47%
McCain: 46%

Understands Economic Problems:
Obama: 57%
McCain: 33%

Among white women:
Obama: 49% (43%)
McCain: 47% (54%)

White Catholics:
Obama 47% (38%)
McCain 46% (57%)

Married women:
Obama: 51% (42%)
McCain: 46% (53%)

Independents:
Obama: 53% (42%)
McCain: 39% (52%)

In a further sign that McCain's post-convention and post-Palin bounce has completely evaporated, look at the enthusiasm gap:

The number of McCain supporters who describe themselves as “very enthusiastic” about his candidacy rose 18 points to 46 percent after his convention. Today it’s subsided to 34 percent, while a steady and far greater number of Obama’s supporters remain very enthusiastic about their candidate, 62 percent.

But, uh...that's all bad news for Obama! You see, uh, if he has an enthusiastic base, that means that they're all Kool-Aid drinking ELITISTS who follow around the Obamessiah!

(/Hobbs)

Free Sarah!

FINALLY, someone in the media says it. Campbell Brown on CNN:



The rough transcript:

"Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment," said Brown. "This woman is from Alaska from crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is competent. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters... Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one."

Granted, I'm sure that at this stage Palin doesn't exactly mind cutting off the media and only speaking to friendly audiences. But there is something inherently sexist about the Republican strategy. If she's as tough and strong as they claim, then she can handle the media. If, on the other hand, she really is a delicate flower who will have a breakdown if pushed too hard, then it'll all come out at some point. And even if you really think that the media is biased and out to get you (which they're not), you still have to deal with it. Hillary Clinton spent months during the primary claiming media bias. It didn't do her much good save for one SNL skit.

But of course, seeing as how Obama is up by 9 in the latest national poll and has by all accounts erased McCain's "Palin Bounce", I can see how the campaign is in no hurry to let the pitbull off the leash anytime soon.

The Bailout Is A Trap

I'm not going to pretend to understand all the economics of the Wall Street collapse. I understand basic supply and demand and how the stock market works, but I couldn't tell you about the intricacies of the credit market. I don't know what the best solution should be to the crisis, only that propping up an industry that's made terrible business decisions for the last decade doesn't sound terribly sensible.

However, as a government major, I can tell you that there are quite a bit of politics behind the proposed bailout. Politically, it's a trap. And the Democrats are going to fall right into it, I'm afraid.

This was not, NOT, drawn up as a quick reaction to an emergency. They've been sitting on this bailout plan for sometime. They had to know that this was going to happen at some point. But the fate of the free world didn't ride on it then, so why are they demanding it be passed right away with no time to truly analyze it now?

Politics, quite simply. The Republicans know that they've got the Democrats backed into a corner over this. They can demand "swift action" in response to this crisis, and if the Democrats don't act immediately, the Republicans can scream "do-nothing!" and "obstructionists!"

But the Republicans aren't going to touch this thing with a ten-foot pole. Why would they? Bush has no coattails anymore, there's no need for them to fall in line with him. They can vote against it, and they will, and then go back to their districts and put all the blame for the fact that we're wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out irresponsible corporations...on the Democratic leadership in Congress!

And it won't matter how much mortgage relief is in there, or how many caps they put on CEO pay (the relevance of which to this problem I'm still not sure). The bottom line will be that the Democrats supported a huge, unpopular giveaway, one that amounted to a small Band-Aid over a gaping wound in the economy.

The political aspects of this bailout plan are obviously not as important as the economical. But either way you look at it, it's a rotten plan. Bush no longer has the power to ram whatever he wants down Congress' throats, so why let him send this final "screw you" to the American people?

Vote On The JStreet Grassroots Champion

JStreet PAC, the political action committee devoted to supporting candidates who support an equitable, peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict has a poll up to determine which of the candidates they've endorsed should receive a $5,000 campaign contribution. Here are the options:

• Rabbi Dennis Shulman, a Democrat running in the New Jersey 5th, against incumbent Republican Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ). Blind since childhood, Shulman will be a fabulous advocate for JStreetPAC’s pro-peace, pro-Israel values in Congress. He is known for saying, “"We keep sending career politicians to Washington and what do we have to show for it? A big mess. It may very well take a blind man to show Congress the light."


• Tom Perriello, a Democrat running in the Virginia 5th district, against incumbent Republican Virgil Goode. He co-founded Avaaz.org, an Internet advocacy group with a truly global reach, spent years waging peace in West Africa, and is a signatory to the “Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq”. He believes that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “key” and that Congress should not tie the parties’ hands as they negotiate. Periello’s opponent is notorious for his anti-Muslim views, saying "we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt... strict immigration policies,” and for his opposition to foreign assistance, including to Israel


• Ashwin Madia, a Democrat running for an open seat in the Minnesota 3rd. A former Marine Corps Captain who served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006, Madia’s opposition to the handling of the war in Iraq was a primary motivation for his becoming a Democrat and running for Congress. He believes that the U.S. should engage in forceful diplomacy with nations such as Iran, that the United States should begin a strategic withdrawal from Iraq, and that hands-on American diplomacy should be used to help broker Israeli-Palestinian peace.


• Darcy Burner, a Democrat running in the Washington 8th, against incumbent Republican Congressman Dave Reichert. Burner came within a few thousand votes in 2006 of winning in this suburban Seattle district last time. Now, Burner’s back for a rematch. She’s established herself as a foreign policy leader among this cycle’s challengers, commissioning “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq” from leading American generals and security experts and organizing 55 other Congressional candidates to support it.

My vote goes to Darcy Burner, just because of how tight that race is and how invaluable her leadership on Iraq would be in Congress. But it's a tough decision; Perriello and Shulman are great candidates too, and are going up against some of the most odious Republicans in Congress.

Watching The Gas Crisis From Afar

Here in Missour-ah, the price of gas has gone up somewhat in the last few days, but there's been nothing quite like the Great Gas Crisis that I hear is occurring in Nashville right now. My mother's been keeping me up to date as to how many activities she's had to either cancel or postpone because no one can drive right now.

Just a thought, as an outside observer--it is somewhat amusing as a case study in how people in Nashville tend to overreact to natural disasters. It appears that while the hurricane did disrupt the pipelines, the real shortage came about from people panicking and rushing the gas stations. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy if I've ever seen one. About the only thing that would have made it better would have been if this had happened in the winter, and someone on the news had predicted snow at the same time. Then Nashville would be out of milk, bread, AND gas! Complete and utter chaos at Kroger!

I do hope Nashville gets all its gas back soon, because this crisis has proven that if the pipelines really were to get knocked out completely, we'd be completely unprepared to handle a longer shortage. The years of allowing the city to sprawl out without making the necessary investments in alternative forms of transportation are coming back to haunt us now.

ALSO: According to WPLN, the crisis may have been exacerbated by the fact that Nashville is one of several cities that use a special gas blend during the summer to reduce pollution. Since the switch to regular fuel was set to take place last week, many stations may have simply let their supply run low so as not to be stuck with too much of the more expensive fuel. I eagerly await the press release from Bill Hobbs and the TNGOP blaming lib'ruls and environmentalists for the shortage.

The Crazy Tennessee Sports Weekend Round-Up

This has been a most eeeeexcellent sports weekend. To Vanderbilt fans, anyway :)

• After jumping out to a 4-0 (2-0 SEC) start, your Vanderbilt Commodores are now ranked for the first time in 24 years, coming in at #21 in the AP poll and #25 in the coaches' poll. It bears repeating that we still have to take it with a grain of salt--we're not at 6 wins yet, and in both of the other two recent seasons we started 4-0 (1984 and 2005), we didn't get to 6 wins. However, and I knock on wood as I say this, I do think this season is different. This wasn't the season where it was supposed to all come together, not after losing Earl Bennett and Jonathan Goff. But against all odds, it's happening. If there's any doubt that we're not dealing with "same old Vandy" anymore, consider this stat--Vanderbilt has outscored opponents 51-10 in the second halves of the four games. "Same old Vandy" collapses in the second half, winning teams can overcome shaky first halves and dominate the rest of the game.

• A big Mazel Tov to Vandy free safety Ryan Hamilton on being named the national Defensive Player of the Week. That's what happens when you get three interceptions, including one returned for a TD and one that ended the game. Also, D.J. Moore's fumble recovery in the end zone made the ESPN Top 10 plays last night.

• One final thought on Vandy...I hate bringing up the subject of the "b-word", but the path to 6 wins is fairly clear now. Regardless of what happens against Auburn in two weeks, we've got Mississippi State and Duke after that (with Georgia in between). We may not beat Georgia or Florida this season, but Miss. State and Duke should be easily winnable for a team that aspires to make the post-season. And actually, I am looking forward to the Vandy-Auburn game, if only because a game against two ranked teams should be nationally televised.

• Moving onto the Titans...3-0 for the first time since the 1999 Super Bowl season, and all alone atop the AFC South standings! Another huge Mazel Tov to Kerry Collins, for becoming only the 15th quarterback in NFL history to throw for 35,000 yards. The team needed a leader after the Vince Young fiasco, and Collins is more than rising to the occasion. This is a team that has all the pieces in place for a deep run, with the QB controversy more or less settled, the WRs finally stepping up, a one-two punch at RB with Chris Johnson and LenDale White, and easily one of the most vicious defenses in the league.

• I'm going to go out on a limb and make a bold prediction. With the usual AFC powerhouses (Indianapolis, New England, and San Diego) all struggling, I'm going to say that the AFC Championship comes down to the Titans vs. the Denver Broncos. Of course, should the Titans lose that game, be prepared for a whole new round of second-guessing the 2006 Draft. Hey, any Vanderbilt fan could have told you back then that Jay Cutler was more mature and more prepared for the NFL than Vince Young.

• In Fantasy, I don't regret starting Kerry Collins this week over Derek Anderson. Anderson's on pace to have a slightly better game, but he's been in too much of a funk lately. Collins' game wasn't spectacular, but it was good enough. But the New England D--negative 5 points. Against Miami. WHY?!?!?!

• And finally, a message for all University of Tennessee fans. It's not just the team, and it's not just Fulmer. Florida is just that good. Every team would be that good if they had Jesus Christ Tim Tebow as their quarterback. And remember, there are still plenty of teams that would kill to have as winning of a record as Fulmer and the Vols have. However, there are also plenty of coaches who would kill to have Fulmer's job security. If you're determined to get back into national championship form, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to let his seat get a little hot.

That being said, I would certainly be happy with letting Fulmer stick around and grow roots as long as he wants. See y'all November 22 in Nashville, bitches.

WTF?

That's all I have to say:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

Oh, what is this? She's tough enough to shoot a moose, she's a "pitbull with lipstick," but she can't handle Joe Biden? Are they scared of a Dan Quayle-Lloyd Bentsen "You're no Jack Kennedy" moment occurring if they allow Joe Biden to retort?

Republicans, again, make up your minds. Either she's a strong, tough, female crusader; or she's a delicate flower who's far too sensitive to debate a man or be asked tough questions. She can't be both.

Shame On The Obama Campaign!

How dare they take advantage of Jewish Princesses who are total label-whores? They should know that if they add a section to their online store called the "Runway to Change" collection, with shirts and tote bags from high-end designers, no politically-minded Jewish American Princess will be able to resist the temptation! And just so that they can make a little extra money. It's so cruel of them!

P.S. I ordered the Diane von Furstenberg tote bag. Don't tell my Dad....

Feel Good Friday--Your Peaches Edition

This song came up last night on the jukebox when some of us went out bowling with the Jewish Grad Students club (it's still weird to think of myself as a grad student). This also happens to be one of my favorite make-out songs. Unfortunately, I didn't make out with anyone last night :(

Shakesperean Facebook

The funniest thing I've seen in a long time--Shakespeare's "Hamlet" as a Facebook news feed:

Polonius says Hamlet's crazy ... crazy in love!

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet are now friends.

Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.

Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.

Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.

Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family

The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"

Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.

Polonius is no longer online.

Go read the rest.

When Art Imitates Life

Last weekend, the opening sketch of Saturday Night Live featured a joint press conference between Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, with Amy Poehler's Clinton proclaiming that she was told she'd be addressing the nation alone.

Funny how art imitates life sometimes, isn't it?

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has canceled an appearance at an anti-Iran demonstration in New York next week after organizers blindsided her by inviting Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, aides to the senator said Tuesday.

Apparently, several major Jewish groups are sponsoring an anti-Iran protest outside the United Nations in New York on Monday, and Hillary Clinton was invited to attend. However, the invitation to Sarah Palin indicated that they may have invited Clinton under false pretenses:

"Her [Palin's] attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event," said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. "Sen. Clinton will therefore not be attending."

Now, I don't know how the organizers are going to handle this situation. JStreet has a petition you can sign urging them to disinvite Palin, and unless they do, it's going to be a blatantly partisan event. How can you have an event expressing Jewish unity while simultaneously sending the message that we should all vote Republican? Way to undermine your credibility.

Somebody ought to ask Palin what her credentials are on this issue. Can she see Iran from Alaska? Does she own a Persian rug? Has she eaten a kosher pickle or a bagel at some point? Because, actually, just supporting Jews for Jesus does not mean you understand Jews.

That's A Fun Game

Sarah Palin a town-hall meeting in Michigan:

Asked for "specific skills" she could cite to rebut critics who question her grasp of international affairs, she replied, "I am prepared."

"I have that confidence. I have that readiness," Palin said. "And if you want specifics with specific policies or countries, you can go ahead and ask me. You can play 'stump the candidate' if you want to. But we are ready to serve."

My God, she's a female George W. Bush.

"Stump the candidate" is a fun game. It's also known as "asking the candidate legitimate questions" and "expecting the candidate to know what the hell they're talking about." She's essentially admitting that she's going to be stumped if you ask her a tough question about foreign policy.

Here we are once again, with Sarah Palin essentially trying to flirt her way out of answering questions, trying to act cute in order to deflect potential criticism. But of course, if anyone calls her out on that, they will immediately be branded as sexist by the GOP.

Hey Republicans--sexism isn't criticizing a woman over her lack of preparedness. But promoting the message that a woman can get out of any tough situation simply by batting her eyelashes isn't some promotion of gender equality; it's actually quite patronizing.

This Is Bad News For Obama

Seriously. It is. The "Palin bump" is over, but it's bad news for Obama because he isn't beating McCain 100-0 yet.

CBS/Gallup, likely voters:

Obama--49%
McCain--44%

Now, despite these good numbers, I stand by my previous statement that national polls don't really mean much in substantive terms. You have to look at the state polls:

Iowa--Obama 52, McCain 40

New Mexico--Obama 52, McCain 44

Florida--Obama 48, McCain 48

Ohio--Obama 49, McCain 47

Iowa and New Mexico are the two states that Kerry lost in 2004 but Gore won in 2000. If Obama holds those two--and barring some huge breakdown in the next month, he will with that kind of lead--then between the rest of the "swing states", he'll only need to win one. Between Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida, he'll only need to win one of them to put him over 270.

But yes, this is bad news for Obama. It's always bad news if he's not winning in every state!

McCain/Palin--A Tanning Bed As A Health Care Plan

Back to my pet issue once again.

We learned today some interesting news about Sarah Palin's time as Alaska Governor, including that she had a tanning bed installed in the governor's mansion. While I think it'd be worth a look to see if she bilked taxpayers for that too, it just strikes me as odd in the context of her being on a ticket with a melanoma survivor, John McCain.

Odd because the woman who promotes herself as a "responsible mom" is promoting such reckless, deadly behavior. And odd because the man who survived melanoma four times is committed to preventing so many other cancer patients from getting the health care they need.

Odd, but not really surprising. It just further proves how clueless they both are.

First, some facts about skin cancer, from the Skin Cancer Foundation:

• More than 20 Americans die ever day from skin cancer, primarily from melanoma
• Melanoma accounts for only 3% of skin cancer cases, but accounts 75% of skin cancer deaths.
• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer among adults 25-29, and the second most common among 15-29 year-olds.
• 65% of melanoma cases can be directly proven to exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
• The lamps in tanning beds release UV radiation at a frequency of as much as 12 times that of the sun.
• Using tanning beds before the age of 35 increases your risk of melanoma by as much as 75%. In addition, people who use tanning beds are at an increased risk of contracting other forms of skin cancer, such as basal or squamous cell carcinoma.
• Skin cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women under 30.

I'm not trying to scare anyone here, but there is no such thing as a "healthy tan" (unless it comes out of a bottle. I recommend the St. Tropez gradual tanning moisturizer--it's pricey but worth it!). Any prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation without protection irreversibly damages your skin. Even John McCain agrees that it's best to avoid prolonged sun exposure and to use sunscreen if it can't be avoided.

But his Vice-Presidential candidate is promoting, actively or not, an easy way of getting melanoma. If she does (God forbid) get into the White House, how much harder is it going to be to convince young women that tanning isn't healthy, nor does it make you look "glamorous," when the Vice President herself is doing it?

Already the tanning industry is trying to come to her defense, claiming that they need tanning beds in Alaska to fight off Seasonal Affective Disorder and Vitamin D deficiency. First of all, SAD is caused by a lack of light, not UV rays. Second, when scientists say that sun exposure can help fight Vitamin D deficiency, they generally mean 10-15 minutes outside a few times a week, not 30 minutes frying under a lamp. Most people get the needed amount of Vitamin D just through a small amount of sun exposure and through their diet, not from tanning. Considering that salmon is very high in Vitamin D, I'd certainly hope Alaskans get plenty in their diets naturally!

By the way, here's my favorite line from the tanning lobby's press release:

"Kudos to Governor Palin for standing up to dermatologists and other members of the sun scare industry who are trying to frighten Americans away from UV light."

As someone who's been to my fair share of dermatology conferences, I can testify that yes, they are quite scary. You should see some of my dad's "before-and-after" slides of acne and rosacea treatments! But I digress.

We knew well before this that Sarah Palin was a rather reckless individual, but this just adds to the body of evidence. But what about John McCain? As a melanoma survivor who now takes careful precautions to protect his skin, he can't possibly approve, can he?

Does it even matter?

A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.

For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.

"It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money," said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

According to the study: The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.

Oh but don't worry, you'll be getting a tax credit...that likely won't last one doctor's visit.

There's McCain's central hypocrisy... he advises that everyone should get routine dermatological check-ups to check for irregularities such as growing moles (one of the major warning signs of melanoma). It's good advice and I certainly won't argue it, but does anyone else have a problem saying that while putting forth a health care plan that will guarantee that millions of Americans will have no means of paying for it? Private insurance certainly doesn't always cover it.

And don't forget that as someone with a pre-existing condition such as cancer, it would be nearly impossible for John McCain to get health insurance under his own plan if he weren't a U.S. Senator.

Why should it matter to McCain what kind of behavior Palin is promoting with her tanning bed usage? It's certainly not the Republicans' problem if others get skin cancer.

So, to recap--vote Obama/Biden for real health care reform. Vote McCain/Palin for a bronzed glow that will leave you either broke or dead.

Why No Nashvillian Should Vote For McCain

Something important just occurred to me. One of McCain's surrogates claimed this morning that McCain helped invent the BlackBerry. But as we all know, BlackBerries are now produced by Research In Motion, a Canadian company owned by a guy named Jim Balsillie.

Wait a second...

If McCain invented the BlackBerry and put the pieces in motion for Balsillie to make billions off of it, and if Balsillie then took those profits and tried to buy the Nashville Predators hockey team and move them to Canada, then John McCain is DIRECTLY responsible for all of the Predators' off-season drama over the last few years!

It's McCain's fault that we've had trouble signing free agents and selling out season tickets! It's McCain's fault that the local ownership group had to sell to, then buy out, "Boots" Del Baggio! It's McCain's fault that we've had to claw our way into the playoffs only to lose in six games!

And personally, I blame Sarah Palin for the Alexander Radulov situation. She must have told him that he certainly can go play in Russia; it's so close to Alaska that it really is like playing in the U.S.

All good Nashvillians need to hold these two accountable for trying to mess with our hockey team, for trying to sell us out to the Canadians, and for giving the Nashville Scene editorial staff quite a bit of heartburn.

How The Maverick Rolls

Just out of curiosity, what is the moral difference between asking Jewish voters...

"Would it change your mind about Obama if you knew that his church was anti-Israel? Would it change you rmind if you knew that the leaders Hamas had endorsed Obama? Would it change your mind if you knew he had met with the leaders of Hamas?"

...and asking white voters in South Carolina....

"Would it change your mind about John McCain if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate African-American baby?"

The lie told about John McCain in 2000 and the lies being told about Obama now are both hallmarks of Karl Rove-style politics. But the victim of those tactics in 2000, the supposed "maverick" who fought against the extreme right, has no problem using them now. The maverick, indeed!

All I know is, if it WASN'T a true push poll, then there ought to have been a question saying "Would it change your mind if you knew that Sarah Palin's church supports Jews for Jesus?"

A Brief Pause From Politics

It occurred to me today that I've now been in St. Louis for exactly one month. I feel the need to do a recap.

So far, it seems to me that St. Louis really gets a bad rap. They don't deserve it. Yes, I realize that my perception is skewed by the fact that I live, go to school, and hang out almost exclusively in the "nicer" parts of town. But even in the instances where I've gone outside of the Central West End-University City-Clayton bubble, I've never felt unsafe, at least not anymore than in New York City or in London. You just take the same precautions that you would in any major city--be alert, don't act stupid, and don't walk alone at night.

What I've seen though is a very vibrant city, with strong neighborhoods and communities. Maybe it's just because the weather is still nice, but it seems like every weekend since I've been here, there's been a fair or a festival in at least one part of town.

And maybe it's a product of its reputation, but the cost of living here is very reasonable, certainly much cheaper than in other cities of comparable size. Basics like food and gas aren't any more expensive than in Nashville (and neither is alcohol, thanks Anheuser-Busch/InBev!) I live in the Central West End of St. Louis, which is the most closely analogous to Hillsboro Village in Nashville. I know that for the price I'm paying for my apartment here, you wouldn't necessarily get anything bigger in the Village.

Here are the very St. Louis things I've done so far:

• Gone to a Cards game at Busch Stadium (which is gorgeous--too bad the Cards are out of playoff contention)
• Gone to Ted Drewes for frozen custard. I can't really describe it, but suffice to say I'll never be able to go to Bobbie's Dairy Dip again.
• Gone to "The Hill" for Italian food.
  
• Walked all over Forest Park (my apartment overlooks it)
• Gone to the river to go gambling.
• Gone to the three major malls--the Galleria, West County Center, and Plaza Frontenac. Multiple times each. There is a part of me that worries that I'm using law school as an excuse to go shopping (I need more "professional" clothes!)

Things I haven't done yet:

• Gone up the Arch. That's high on my priority list.
• Gone to a Rams game. Based on how they've done so far, that's not high on my priority list.
• Seen Chuck Berry at Blueberry Hill
  

Little Connections

Since I'm apparently getting all my hits today from Bill Hobbs' site (thanks for that by the way, I'm having a good streak of keeping my daily average hit count above 100 after a stretch in August when it went down to as low as 60), I'm going to post a story that will make him mad.

I was reading this article in the Tennessean about how Muslims are readjusting where they donate money in the wake of 9/11, and this passage struck me:

Along with fasting, most Muslims practice zakat, or almsgiving, during the month of Ramadan. As one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, Muslims are required to donate 2.5 percent of their wealth to charity each year. Many also give additional charity, known as sadaqa.

Jewish people reading this....pronounce "sadaqa" out loud. Remind you of anything?

I just thought that was kind of funny, a way to put a smile on my face right before the chaotic mess that is my Property lecture begins.

Of course, Bill Hobbs would say that it doesn't matter, because all Muslims are horrible people and Jews should not attempt to find any sort of common ground with them. The only people who REALLY care about the Jews are evangelical Republicans. They'll make nice words about Israel just as long as you don't dare to oppose them on any other issue!

Carry on.

Memo To Robin Smith

Shut up and get back in the kitchen!

The Tennessee Democratic Party: 1828-2010

(NOTE: If you've been directed here from Bill Hobbs' site, welcome. Bill Hobbs is a liar, a hypocrite, a hateful human being, and an all-around tool. The TNGOP is every bit as much a good ol' boys club as the TNDP, dissenters are not welcome. And Robin Smith still needs to shut up, get back in the kitchen, and get me a beer while she's up. Thank you--ed.)

Mark your calendars for the funeral, folks. In November 2010, the party started by Andrew Jackson in Tennessee in 1828 will die a very painful, excruciating death.

I don't mean to be a pessimist. But a series of unfortunate events from the past year have convinced me that the TNDP is on a collision course with its own demise. It won't be readily apparent this year because the Presidential race and the lack of a competitive Senate race will cover it up. But in 2010, the TNDP is going to face losses of historical proportions across the state. Bill Frist may as well go ahead and book the moving van to the governor's mansion in January 2011.

We had a great moment of unity in 2006 when (almost) everyone within the party enthusiastically backed Harold Ford. But we've been on a downward spiral since this election started.

Let's rewind to the delegate selection process back in February. Yeah, I know I should just get over it, but I'm bringing it back up again. The process was COMPLETELY hijacked by special interests, leaving the people who had ACTUALLY hit the ground to campaign for the presidential candidates out in the cold. This was the case for both campaigns, not just on the Obama side.

Fast-forward to the Senate race. I remain convinced that had we gotten around one Senate candidate earlier on, we'd at least be able to put up a decent fight against Lamar! Alexander. But the TNDP couldn't convince Mike McWherter to stay in it, leaving us with two candidates with little name recognition and even less money to duke it out. It's like there was no interest in even challenging Lamar!.

Then last week, I got an email from fellow blogger Newscoma that led to this excellent post. Young people who are trying to organize for Obama in rural West Tennessee were completely rebuffed by local party officials. I advised her to tell them to organize on their own via MyBO, much in the same way the Nashville Loves Barack Obama group got started. But still, people who haven't been involved before who are desperately trying to get involved should NEVER be turned away by the party. The party is constantly saying that they want young people to get involved, but apparently not TOO involved. Wouldn't want them meddling in the club or anything.

And now we have the complete and utter farce that was the Senate District 22 race. Now, I really don't like Rosalind Kurita. If I lived in Clarksville, I certainly would have voted for Tim Barnes instead. But she won by 19 votes. And absent proof of any voting irregularities, that election should have been upheld, regardless of whether or not Kurita is a "good Democrat." And no, Republicans crossing over to vote for her does not count as a voting irregularity. Personally, I'm not a fan of the open primary system, I think they should be closed. But it's like Hillary Clinton and the caucuses--if you think the system is flawed, the time to complain about that is before the fact, not after.

So rather than do what was right (albeit uncomfortable), the TNDP essentially overturned the primary results by punting the decision to the county parties of that district, who will almost certainly declare Barnes the winner. This is not how you take back the Senate; if you lose one primary you work as hard as you can for other Democratic candidates. The national Democratic Party failed to take out Joe Lieberman in 2006, but we'll have a big enough win this year so that we can kick him out of the caucus. That's the right way to do it. But what the TNDP did was the most undemocratic thing a Democratic Party can do.

(However, I'd like to concur with my fellow progressive bloggers when I say--good fucking riddance, Alma Sanford. If it were anyone else, I'd point out the fallacy in renouncing the Democrats based on perceived sexism, only to vote for an anti-choice candidate who called his wife a "cunt." But after what happened last summer during the mayoral election, when Alma Sanford shut down the Davidson County Young Democrats' GOTV phone-banking session because more young people voting might have meant her candidate would do worse in the election, I've come to the conclusion that we're better off without her corrosive influence)

So what have we learned from all of this? That the Tennessee Democratic Party is corrupt, infiltrated by special interests, is still very much a good ol' boys' club, and is far more interested in maintaining the status quo than in taking risks and actually making gains. All of this might have been ok back in the days of the Dixiecrats. But Obama's ascendancy has highlighted all of these problems. It's no longer a sustainable way to run a party.

I've met Gray Sasser several times. He's a very nice person and he genuinely wants Democrats to win throughout the state. But he's not doing anything to make that happen. He and the rest of the party have put forth a strategy of keeping the powder dry until 2010, when the big prize of the governor's mansion is at stake. But that strategy is going to blow up in all of their faces.

Because why vote for Democrats if a primary can be so easily overturned if the party doesn't like the outcome? Why campaign for Democrats if the party doesn't value your contribution? Why try to get involved period if they're fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their own power at the expense of everyone else?

Now, I'm certainly not saying I'd rather have Robin Smith and Bill Hobbs running my party. They're hateful liars and we certainly don't need folks like them in our leadership. But there's no question that they've excited their base throughout this election cycle and that they've had success in organizing at the grassroots level.

That's why we're going to lose in 2010. The TNGOP has made huge gains this year, and it may very well be too late to catch up to them. We certainly won't if we're falling apart internally or if the candidates we put forth for governor are just members of the same good ol' boys' club. And yes, Harold Ford is part of that club too.

Bear in mind, this is no skin off my back. I'm a registered voter in Missouri now. Missouri has a great Democratic candidate for Governor in Attorney General Jay Nixon, and I'll be very happy to vote for him. But I still consider myself a Tennessean, and I don't want my state to turn crimson red.

It may not be too late. We need a major, top-to-bottom overhaul of the entire party. Unfortunately, it may very well take a blowout in 2010 to force that overhaul.

UPDATE: The reaction from the Tennessee liberal blogosphere is coming in, and it's unanimous--the TNDP royally fucked up. And as LeftWingCracker points out, the strategy of waiting until 2010 could blow up on the TNDP sooner than thought. If we DON'T retake the Senate in November, then Ron Ramsey and the Republicans can simply refuse to seat Tim Barnes and trigger a new election, which Kurita will almost certainly win. And she won't be back as a Democrat after this.

The Sunday Liberal Blog Roundup, 9-14-08

The "lipstick on a blog" edition of the weekly Tennessee progressive blog roundup...

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Back to the election: Eight years of simplistic, slow-witted leadership has been more than enough. I donít care how much youíd like to hang out with these people, or how thirsty you are for a beer in their company, that doesnít mean that they have what it takes to lead this country in the right direction.

• 55-40 Memphis: Let Hillary take on Palin: Hillary can righteously and authentically say that Sarah Palin is an insult to woman candidacies. ... the sexist media will eat it up. I'll bet a Hillary soundbite shows up in every evening news until election day.

• Andy Axel (at KnoxViews): A Tennessee Majority = 50% + 1 - 20. Give or Take.: In case you haven't heard, majority does not rule in Tennessee

• Aunt B.: My Morning Palin Thought: This, America, is why we still need feminism, because, when the chips are down, women need a stronger skill-set than "just flirt your way out of the problem."

• BlountViews: TPO Regional Mobility Plan 2035 Meeting: From a previous, informal survey, TPO determined bike transportation (27%) to be a primary concern, more transit (21%) and alternative transportation (17%) were next in line of importance. It was reported that 50 percent of respondents surveyed thought new roads were the least important.

• Carole Borges: Palin said religious views helping shape her state's future: If you believe that hearing the voice of God and speaking to God directly about political policy is a smart way to govern, then vote for McCain/ Palin.

• The Crone Speaks: Obama Doesnít Support the Families of 9/11 and Other Outrageous Crap: This is a serious problem. Seriously, folks, when the media itself promotes the lies of the McCain campaign, without giving viewers/listeners factual information, there is a very serious problem. While we have to be on notice not to believe the media outlets, and do our own fact checking on every issue, Krugman notes that the actual lies are a sign of things to come, should the lying team somehow take the White House.

• Joe Powell: Narrative Fiction Rules The 2008 Campaign: It's both fascinating and a little sickening to see news reporters and their dubious pundits talk to each other about how they are being suckered and manipulated by the McCain campaign but are not posing those questions and concerns to McCain himself.

• Don Williams: Why Obama should get mad, get loud and get real, NOW: Voter caging, spoilt ballots caused by lousy machines in poor districts, vote suppression, an October Surprise, media turning blind eyes to McCainís parade of lies, the Bradley Effect, Swift-boating and outright malfeasance all work to McCainís advantage. So, unless media get serious about issues and lay off the beauty contest, I donít see how Obama wins. Bonus:

• TNDP: Sen. Diane Black Wants to Deny Voting Rights: If you havenít voted in the past three primary elections, at least.

• Enclave: I Wonder If Sarah Palin Ever Read BillHobbs.com in 2005?: Back in 2005, the prospect of using the porkbarrel airport as justification for the porkbarrel bridge to nowhere was frightening for a conservative blogger. Now that Bill Hobbs is in charge of communications of Tennessee's Republican Party, he does not seem too frightened by Palin's use of the justification. In fact, Hobbs is now defending her performance in the ABC interview and rationalizing that she did stop the bridge to nowhere.

• Fletch: Arrowmont for Sale: I was saddened to see the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg put up for sale. It was one of the few things Gatlinburg had going for it culturally (after Panera Bread was replaced by a hot dog stand). The "oasis in a cultural desert" will most likely be turned into a few candle and t-shirt shops. Yes, I'm an elitist. Plus: Monuments

• KnoxViews: Workers concerned about jobs and health care, trust Obama to help: According to a recent survey, more than half of American workers are worried about finding a new job if they become unemployed, followed closely by concerns over their ability to pay for healthcare insurance. The poll also shows Barack Obama as the preferred candidate for tackling U.S. workplace issues. Plus: The shocking truth about Sarah Palin

• Lean Left: The score: ...if these analyses are a representative sample, the Obama camp attacks somewhat more often than the McCain camp, but their attacks are much more accurate (or much less inaccurate, depending on your perspective). ... Also, chew on those numbers for a minute: Only one anti-Obama attack out of nineteen could be scored better than "half-true."

• LeftWingCracker: It's time to raise and allocate resources: Yes, of course I support Bob Tuke; however, I presume you've noticed that the DSCC is treating him like plutonium, right? They're not sending money here, so I'm not looking for miracles. OK then. ... In Shelby County, we still need to crank it up large for the Democratic ticket for several reasons... Plus: YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION

• Liberadio(!): Podcast: September 8, 2008: Part 4 The Daily Show is not afraid of Karl Rove. Are you listening those of you in the real news media? Or will you show the ìdeferenceî required of you by the McCain campaign?

• Newscoma: Dear Tennessee Democratic Party: ...I think you need to come to Hooterville and talk to some of the people Iíve been talking to the past few days. Go to all of the Hootervilles, not just mine. You are blowing it, in my opinion, when it comes to rural voters and in many ways, you are disenfranchising younger voters here. This isnít good, Nashville leaders. Plus: Fun With Newspapers

• The Pesky Fly: Seven Years and Counting: Failure is too generous a word to describe George Bush's efforts to deliver justice. He didn't fail. He and his minions have done exactly what they wanted to do. Capturing Osama bin Laden wasn't on their list. They had other priorities. There was a massive, world-changing event to politically capitalize. There was a country with vast oil wealth to pillage. There was a police state and one party rule to establish. There was an economy to crash so the broken pieces could be bought for pennies on the dollar.

• Progressive Nashville: Think America, think: One of the most depressing parts of the Republican national convention last week was the crowd chanting "Drill baby, drill" during former mayor Rudy Giuliani's speech that included calls for offshore oil drilling. ... The moment illustrated once again how the party is able to convince people to act against their own best interests to enrich private companies and individuals.

• Brian at Resonance: Sarah Palin, The Trojan Moose: I'll be more specific--every day not spent discussing the economy is a victory for McCain. It was no accident that the economy was barely mentioned at the Republican convention. The fact is that it is in worse shape than government statistics indicate. It's the trump card in the Obama hand, if the campaign stays on message. Therefore Obama must resist the temptation to be sidetracked by the Trojan Moose. Plus: Against Government, Yet Cashing The Checks

• RoaneViews: Flight of Heroes: Just for today, let's try not to think of a President reading "My Pet Goat", or the awful aftermath for our country and the world that these terrible attacks were used to justify. Let's honor the innocent victims and the heros...

• Russ McBee: Woodward's series on the "surge" and its real architects: After nearly eight years of witness to the Bush calamity, no one should really be surprised that the Bush administration sought and accepted military advice, not from actual military commanders, but from the same group of radical zealots who had helped cook the books to justify the invasion in the first place.

• Sean Braisted: The Monkey Trial: Had I been in Clarksville, I most likely would've voted for Barnes in the primary...but he didn't win, and I think Mr. Rochelle adequately refuted all the arguments made by Barnes' lawyers, except the one that I think this decision hinged on, and that was that Kurita wasn't a "good Democrat" for voting to make Ron Ramsey the Speaker of the Senate. Ultimately, it seemed clear that is what this farcical process came down to.

• Sharon Cobb: America, Don't Be Stupid Again: Eight years of George W. Bush wasn't enough for you? You want four more? Because if you vote for McCain/Palin, you'll get four more years and worse. You can't seriously be buying that McCain/Palin are the real mavericks, can you?

• GoldnI: Marsha Blackburn - Really A Man, Baby!: Moral of the story--when Sarah Palin is criticized, it's always going to be sexist and she has every right to be upset. When it's Hillary being criticized, the whiny crybaby needs to bite her tongue and get over it. It's nice to see that Marsha Marsha Marsha has become a feminist crusader all of a sudden.

• Southern Beale: Itís Gutter Politics As Usual: Sarah Palin as Vice President is a cravenly laughable political stunt. Itís wedge politics as usual. Hearing her snide jabs at Barack Obama in her RNC speech proved to me that Sarah Palin represents nothing more than the same divisive, anything-goes, culture-wars, red vs blue, "War On Christmas," fear-based, Karl Rove-style politics of destruction we've lived with for the past eight years.

• TennViews: Blackburn gets "dishonorable mention" on 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress list: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released their "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and 4 to Watch)" list. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN7) made the "watch list": Plus: Tennessee is a top 10 state legislative battleground state

• Vibinc: Seven: In the past seven years, we have seen one thing after another justified by the attacks of 9/11; two wars, domestic spying, torture, and a full frontal attack on the civil liberties that are the foundation of our nation. All of these things slipped by a nation rapt in a feverish nationalism masquerading as patriotism.

• WhitesCreek Journal: Good is Dead?...(Maybe Not!): Is there a light rising in America? Will we demand that our candidates for the highest office in the land, simply tell us the truth? Unless the referees in America blow the whistle, the cheaters will win.

• Women's Health News: PMSBuddy - Almost as Irritating as the Election Coverage: PMSBuddy lets you send and receive notifications to others that you have PMS, you know, so they know not to take you seriously. ... Okay, first, "recurring occurrences" are not really unexpected. Second, if dinner plates are hurled because PMS comes up, itís because some jerk dismissively asked "Are you PMSing?" as a way to dismiss some womanís thoughts and feelings. Third, menstruation is not shameful. Maybe you donít want to talk about it over spaghetti and meatballs, but if youíre close enough to send alerts from PMSBuddy, youíre close enough to have an actual conversation. Like adults.

EDITOR'S NOTES:

1. There's so much good stuff this week it is hard to pick just a few posts to highlight. Go to the front page of these blogs and just start reading...

2. A couple of blog address changes:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera is now at http://thorg.com/blog/

• Newscoma is now at http://newscoma.com/

• Vibinc is now at http://www.vibincblog.com/

Update your blogrolls and news feeds accordingly...

The Funniest SNL Opening In Years

Here's the opening sketch from tonight's season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. Amy Poehler always does Hillary great, but Tina Fey was PERFECT as Palin, all the way to the accent and the flirty behavior. I think if SNL wants to hang onto viewers throughout this election, they need to keep bringing Tina Fey back:

Going Bowling?

Barring a complete breakdown in the next few minutes (and anyone who's ever followed this team knows that that's always a distinct possibility), Vanderbilt will be 3-0 by the end of the night, halfway to bowl eligibility.

I normally believe that you should never start using the "b-word" this early into the season. I believe that discussing the "b-word" too early practically guarantees a 5-7 season. However, it is interesting to note that the national sports media is already projecting us to go to a bowl game, either to the Papajohns.com Bowl or to the Music City Bowl.

Quick question--why the hell is it called the "Papajohns.com" Bowl? Would simply calling it the Papa Johns Bowl not sound corporate enough or get the advertising point across well enough?

I don't think the above question matters though. IF Vandy gets six wins, I don't see how we don't get a Music City Bowl bid. The marketing potential for that is just too great. Don't get me wrong, we Vandy fans will all gladly drive down to Birmingham if necessary, but I think we'd rather just go to East Nashville to LP Field.

Now, how do we go about doing that? Let's look at the rest of the schedule:

• Ole Miss
• Auburn
• Mississippi State
• Georgia
• Duke
  
• Florida
• Kentucky
• Tennessee
• Wake Forest

I would say that the only games that Vandy is almost certain to lose are Florida and Auburn (although considering how shitty Auburn looked tonight, that game could very well be a toss-up too). I expect we'll beat Mississippi State and Duke, although that certainly can't be taken for granted. So we just need to win one between Ole Miss, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wake to get to six wins. Even though Georgia is highly ranked this year, Vandy always plays them close, and the Bulldogs struggled to beat a South Carolina team that Vandy beat fairly easily. That game should be exciting to watch.

And now that I've said all this, you can blame me when we go 5-7.

P.S. Charlie Weis of Notre Dame is officially the most badass coach in the league.

Feel Good Friday--Still A Huge Dork Edition

Per my discussion of the "Epic Battle of our Time," I would like to put forth this video to back up my argument that Hanson is STILL better than the Disney-fied Jonas Brothers:

Marsha Blackburn--Really A Man, Baby!

CongressMAN Marsha Blackburn, on Sarah Palin and "lipstick on a pig":

When you take the remark in context of the campaign, and everything is taken in context and relationship to something else -- you go back and he called a reporter sweetie during the primary, had to call the reporter and apologize for that. He passed over two good women for the VP spot, one, Senator Clinton, the other, Governor Sebelius. Then you get to this today. I think it's a pattern of conduct that the American women are responding to. And we're seeing the negative responses that they have brought forward today.

CongressMAN Marsha Blackburn, on that other "good woman", Hillary Clinton:

Blackburn said she was surprised by Clinton’s negative response to heavy criticism from opponents and noted that “part of the discretion of serving in leadership is…knowing when to bite your tongue.”

******************

Blackburn agreed women are often treated differently than men but that she has approached campaigns by saying “I am the most qualified person for the job” rather than promoting a breakthroughs based on gender.

Moral of the story--when Sarah Palin is criticized, it's always going to be sexist and she has every right to be upset. When it's Hillary being criticized, the whiny crybaby needs to bite her tongue and get over it.

It's nice to see that Marsha Marsha Marsha has become a feminist crusader all of a sudden. Too bad she couldn't do that when a woman was running for President rather than being hand-picked to be Vice-President.

Oh and by the way, I love it when conservatives cite this whole business as "proof" that Obama would have been in a stronger position had he picked Hillary. As if these conservatives wouldn't now be dredging up every single Clinton scandal that happened since 1992. As if the whispers of Vincent Foster and Monica Lewinsky wouldn't turn into loud screams on cable news shows. As if Sarah Palin wouldn't be comparing herself as the "all-American hockey mom" to Hillary's "cold, evil career woman."

Obama On Letterman

The video likely won't be up for awhile, but on Letterman just a few moments ago, when asked about the "lipstick on a pig" controversy, Obama responded that he wasn't referring to Sarah Palin with that statement, but had he been, "she would actually have been the lipstick."

God, what I wouldn't have given to have been a fly on the wall to witness either Robin Smith's or the Tennessee Guerilla Grrls' heads exploding over that one.

UPDATE: The video:

Lipstick On A Pig

We've seen a visual representation of lipstick on a pitbull, but not on a pig. Until now:


Now mind you, this isn't any old pig, this is Squealer, the very first Beanie Baby (out of a zillion) that I ever owned. I still have him for good luck (you know, I really hope that my future husband doesn't read this blog, I've probably thoroughly freaked him out by now). And it isn't just ANY lipstick, it's a Chanel Red, the preferred lipstick of femme fatales everywhere.

I think my representation of lipstick on a pig is a lot nicer to look at than the members of the Republican presidential ticket, don't you?

Deep Breath Everyone. Stop Panicking

The polls don't look too great for Obama right now. McCain opened up a big post-convention bounce and Sarah Palin only looks to be helping him out as of right now.

A few things to remember:

1. Michael Dukakis had a huge convention bounce too, bigger than McCain's. And we all know how close that election turned out to be, right?

2. Palin is merely the flavor of the week (pork-flavored). And she can't avoid the press forever. Eventually, she'll be forced to speak.

3. Several of the last few polls may have over-sampled Republicans. The press and the polling companies want a close race any way they can get it. The state-by-state votes are what matters, which leads me to...

4. ...the fact that it looks as though the "Palin bounce" came largely from the South:


And when you calculate it over both conventions, Obama actually gained support in the West and Midwest:


The change in support for McCain isn't coming from swiping Hillary supporters or independents. It's coming from him consolidating the Republican base in the South, an expected outcome of the convention. I don't know what their internal numbers are saying, but these results are probably a good indicator of why Obama has pulled out of Georgia and is focusing on Florida (more undecideds + more electoral votes = better payoff)

At this point, Obama looks likely to hold onto the states that Gore won without a Supreme Court intervention in 2000 (the Kerry states plus Iowa and New Mexico, including New Hampshire--they haven't done a poll in New Hampshire recently, I wonder what the independents will think of McCain's final repudiation of his "maverickness"). So at this point, all he has to do is swing Florida OR Ohio OR Colorado OR Virginia.

None of this can be taken granted, for sure, but anyone who is panicking right now needs to take a deep breath. And then go out and canvass or make some phone calls!

Just A Reminder

While everyone's going back and forth on whether or not Obama using the "lipstick on a pig" line was sexist (never mind that McCain used it too), I would just like to remind everyone that Jim Cooper started the trend back in 2006 to describe pork-barrel spending (although he said that if you put lipstick on a pig, "it's still pork"...hahaha, clever!), and everyone is just copying him.

You simply can't beat the Coop D'Etat at his own game, so don't bother.

What Made Bredesen Change His Tune?

Just wondering.

“ We’ve got a lot of people who love him here and who are working hard for him, but I’m not sure this is where I’d advise him to spend his time when you’ve got an Ohio which has got a swing state in this election right close by here.”

Now, a lot of us have been saying virtually the same thing for awhile now. Phil Bredesen only a few weeks ago was the one saying that the ONLY way Obama could win this entire election was if he went to a Waffle House in East Tennessee. So I am a little curious as to what made him change his tune all of a sudden.

Bredesen's not incorrect in that Obama's time and resources are probably better spent elsewhere than here. This does strike me as a pretty inartful way to say it though. I think that Bredesen's becoming a bit like Bush in that he knows he's fast becoming a lame duck and really doesn't care about his legacy or the future of his party. I am beginning to look forward to him fading into obscurity in two years.

A Funny Thing Happened At Lunch Today

Over the last few days, all of the student organizations at Wash U Law have had lunch meetings to tell people about what's going on with their groups the rest of the semester and to gauge interest among the 1Ls.

Today, the Wash U Law Democrats met at the same time as the Jewish Legal Society, and I had to make a tough decision. I ended up going to the Democrats meeting (Mom, if you're reading this, I know I SAID I'd try to go to both, but that simply didn't work out in the time constraints, and I heard that they didn't do much at the Jewish meeting anyway). After hearing about the debate-watching parties and signing up to be poll-watchers on Election Day, they asked for 2 1Ls to volunteer to be representatives on the executive board. Three of us raised our hands.

What are the odds that all three people volunteering for that position in St. Louis would have worked for the Harold Ford Jr. Senate campaign at one point or another? In addition to myself, there was also a girl from Memphis, and another girl who had gone to Vanderbilt.

They ended up deciding to take all three of us onto the e-board, but really, what were the odds of that happening? If nothing else, even if I'm not too keen on Harold Ford anymore, he did single-handedly launch a whole new generation of Tennessee Democratic politicos (politicas?)

Where Do I Send My Resume?

Here's a nice story about former Predators enforcer Stu Grimson ("The Grim Reaper"), and his post-retirement success story:

He left the game in 2002 after a series of concussions left him unable to play. In the years since, Grimson has worked his way through law school at the University of Memphis, spent nearly two years as in-house counsel for the NHL Players' Association and plans to continue his law career in Nashville.

Hey Mr. Grimson...if you need a 1L intern next summer who also happens to be a diehard Predators fan, you know who to call.

Send Ed Koch To Boca Raton

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, former NYC mayor and former Bush supporter Ed Koch needs to go to Boca Raton and West Palm Beach right this very instant:

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

When asked by Ben Smith of Politico what prompted this switch, Koch had a very revealing answer:

He said he was alarmed by the report that she'd triggered a conflict with the local librarian in Wasilla, Alaska by inquiring about the possibility of banning books.

"Any time someone goes to the library and says, 'I want to ban books,' and the librarian says 'no,' and she threatens to fire them -- that's scary," he said.

Now, while no books were ever actually banned, why would she have even asked the question (and then tried to fire the librarian) if that wasn't her intent? If we're electing someone to this high of an office in the "free world," they shouldn't even harbor that intent.

This is how Obama wins South Florida. Send people like Koch down there, to talk to elderly Jews like my grandparents, who are committed Democrats and were loyal Clinton supporters, but who remain wary of Obama. Remind them that McCain, far from being a maverick, has sold out to the far-right religious extremists, and that the selection of someone like Palin, who certainly doesn't seem hostile to anti-Jewish scams like Jews for Jesus, only confirms it. Remind them that a candidate can't exactly be pro-Israel if they also believe that the Israelis are facing judgment for "rejecting Jesus."

If McCain had picked Lieberman to be his running-mate, Florida would not even be in contention for Obama. The Palin nomination has handed the Obama campaign a chance to win it on a silver platter.

The Epic Battle Of Our Time

No, I'm not referring to Obama vs. McCain. I'm referring to the battle of the cute, clean-cut, very religious, instrument-playing and song-writing boy bands consisting of three brothers. One of them hit their peak in the 1990s but still tours and performs in smaller clubs (and is apparently coming to St. Louis soon), and the other band is currently one of the biggest sensations in the country.

That's right...may I present to you, Hanson vs. The Jonas Brothers:

“On the musical side, I think there’s very little similarity between us and the Jonas Brothers but I think they seem like really talented guys,” Taylor Hanson told Access Hollywood. “They care about each other.”

Ok, so it's not really a battle, Hanson thinks that the Jonas Brothers are doing a great job. But as someone who was in middle school in the mid to late 1990s, let me just inform the kids these days that there is no comparison. Hanson was far more talented and far more original, and they didn't need Disney and Miley Cyrus to rise to fame.

Yes, the Jonas Brothers are cute (although I wonder if I should be saying that as someone who's two years older than the oldest Jonas). And "Burnin' Up" is a pretty good song. But come on..."MMMBop" was a cultural phenomenon. Love it or hate it, it was a game-changer.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved Hanson. And if I'm able to get to that concert, odds are I'll be screaming like it's 1998. There is a part of me that will always hold the candle for Taylor Hanson (although I'll admit that I do find it vaguely creepy that all three brothers and their wives have basically become baby-making machines when they're my age or slightly older). But I'll always dig the long hair.

Ron Paul To Be On The Ballot In Montana?

Interesting...

On September 5, the ballot-qualified Constitution Party of Montana submitted its presidential elector candidates to the Secretary of State. The party informed the Secretary of State that its electors are pledged to Ron Paul for president and Michael Peroutka for vice-president. Ron Paul was aware that the party planned to do this, and has said that as long as he can remain passive and silent about the development, and as long as he need not sign any declaration of candidacy, that he does not object.

Note: The Constitution Party of Montana is not part of the national Constitution Party, which has Chuck Baldwin as its candidate, although both candidates will be on the ballot.

The latest Montana poll from Rasmussen shows Obama and McCain tied at 47% each. Ron Paul came in second place in Montana's February caucuses, behind Mitt Romney. Even when Montana held a non-binding primary in June, long after McCain had sewn up the nomination, Ron Paul still managed to get almost a quarter of the vote. Obviously, there is a good deal of pro-Paul sentiment among Republicans in Montana, so having him on the ballot could be devastating to McCain there.

It's only three electoral votes, but it's three electoral votes that McCain can't afford to lose. I'll be eagerly following these developments.

Sick Of "Spending Time With The Family?"

NBC Sports:

Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement and race in the Tour de France next year, sources close to the situation have told Velo News.

Armstrong, who will turn 37 years old this month, would race with Astana, the sources said.

The seven-time Tour de France winner will race in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France — for no salary or bonuses.

This is nothing but good news for cycling. The return of the hero will make everyone temporarily forget about all of the doping scandals that have plagued the sport in the last few years. Never mind that they ALL dope in some form.

But, good for him for continuing to do what he loves.

A Disturbing Trend

We saw this during the primaries with statements such as, "The Iowa caucuses should only be for Iowans," but it's starting back up for the general election:

Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.

The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance.

If you're a student and you're reading this, the Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that you have the right to register to vote in your college town. You do not have to change your driver's license or your license plates, nor will you lose your financial aid or your insurance. It doesn't matter what you're "primary residence" is, just as long as you have a residence in your college town and you're not trying to vote in more than one place. I'm registered to vote in Missouri, yet I have New York tags on my car (from buying it in Ithaca, although I'll change that to Missouri when they expire) and a Tennessee driver's license (add all that to the fact that I have Missouri insurance and it's going to be a lot of fun to explain to the cops should I ever get pulled over here, but I digress).

I don't think this is necessarily a Republican or a Democratic thing most of the time, and it may very well not be in the Virginia case either. In a lot of instances, municipalities simply don't want students voting in local elections. You know how it goes, they're perfectly content to receive the jobs and tax revenues that a university brings, but God forbid the students who make all that possible should have a say in how the town they live in most of the year is run. The original Supreme Court case came about from a mostly white town in Texas not wanting the students at an historically black college in the town to have any say.

Although the Obama campaign thinks that what happened in Virginia was simply a mistake, I would hope that both he and McCain take a stand against the illegal and deceptive practices that are used every election cycle to keep students from voting.

The Sunday Liberal Blog Roundup, 9-7-08

The "conventions are over and Obama v. Palin enters the home stretch" edition of the intermittently weekly roundup of what progressive Tennessee blogs are talking about.

SPECIAL NOTE: Our condolences to Katie Allison Granju, whose father passed away unexpectedly.

• 55-40 Memphis: 55-40 Memphis: Failin' Palin: Some are betting that McCain's current VP pick, Sarah "Failin'" Palin, won't last through Friday. Others are not so sure.

• Aunt B: Palin Thoughts: Okay, America, letís have a brief talk about whether itís wise for Palin to continue to harp on her "small town" roots. Those of us who grew up in small towns, who are watching her, know her. We recognize her. PLUS: Stacey Campfield, Put Up or Shut Up: This stuff Campfield claims? That the children of illegal immigrants are allowed to go to school without proper immunizations? Itís utter bullshit. Nowhere in the state law that I could find is that allowed.

• Carole Borges: A Republican star is born! But wait! Isn't celebrity vapid?: It is exactly the same old same, same old, only now it's wearing high heels and a skirt. As a feminist Sarah worries me.

• The Crone Speaks: Mortgage Delinquencies Rise, Health Care Costs Rise: The one thing I need to note is that all of these things that have seriously impacted peopleís lives all come from the GOPís mismanagement, and the deluded notion that free markets promote competition. As these reports show under GOP leadership, more people are hurt. PLUS: TN R. Delegates Vote for "George S. McCain" ´ The Crone Speaks: Why a Freudian slip? Because McCain, no matter how much he tries to distance himself, is so much like Bush, it keeps slapping him in the face. AND: Palin summed up here and here.

• Joe Powell: Political Mother: I did learn some reasons why Sen. McCain picked Gov. Plain to be his running mate. She's George W. Bush in heels, all hat and no cattle, and she did what McCain could not do - unify their party behind his campaign. PLUS: US Media FAIL says Brit Media: Meanwhile, England's Guardian newspaper says the best thing about American bloggers is they resemble Brit media in general.

• Don Williams: McCainís heroic story isnít the whole story, questions need asking: It wonít be easy to challenge this man who is rapidly becoming a living icon of military heroism. Still, here are a bakerís dozen pertinent questions -- plus corollaries -- that should be asked before itís too late for our nation and the world...

• TNDP: Sarah Palinís Speech Under Scrutiny: That bastion of liberal media bias, Comedy Central, no wait, the Associate Press, today reports that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was lying in her Wednesday night Republican National Convention speech.

• Enclave: Revenge of the Community Organizers: So the question bears repeating: who is more worthy of scorn? Community organizers or the lobbyists who help Sarah Palin stay in office?

• Fletch: Angry

• KnoxViews (Rocketsquirrel): How Far the GOP Has Fallen: How far the GOP has fallen...Just as Eisenhower warned of the emerging military industrial complex, so too did Goldwater warn of religious extremists thinking they could control our public discourse and political decisions. PLUS: (Rikki): dunced around: This flagrant violation of Constitutional checks and balances persisted for months as Congressmen sent letters of protest and disgust to the White House. Finally, the House of Representatives voted to hold Bolton and Miers in contempt. Karl Rove was declared in contempt by a House subcommittee. Contempt was appealed, rejected and a stay denied. Miers is scheduled to appear before Congress Thursday. AND: Convention coverage archive.

• Lean Left: Why Does John McCain Hate America?: Itís not just Sarah Palin whoís the darling of the anti-government fringe. McCain himself is seeking lists of supporters and pledged delegates from a person who is simultaneously a flagship leader of an extremely radical fringe party and also a member of McCainís own party. [..] Not only are McCain and Palin both on record as courting secessionist and anti-government groups, but the GOP is fine with having two of that groupís presidential nominees in its own ranks, and McCainís platform is apparently close enough to the anti-government partyís platform to enable an endorsement.

• Left of the Dial: Meet Sarah Palin

• Left Wing Cracker: Heh. Think THIS may be how Palin was vetted?

• Liberadio(!): Misconceptions: A Reflection of Values: Iíll be glad to grant the Palins their privacy. But the circumstances they wish to keep private, they, and others like them, keep foisting on the public through cynical public policy that fails.

• Newscoma: Tennessee Soybean Festival ë08: So, Iím guessing this is a Hooterville Exclusive.

• Pesky Fly: A Question for the Candidate, plus: Future Leader of the Republican Party

• Progressive Nashville: Judgement call: The McSame campaign wants us to believe this election is about the experience to make good decisions, but we've seen nothing but horrible decisions come out of the campaign and the GOP leadership. Even if we forgive McSame's role in the Keating 5 scandal, we still have to deal with the fact that he thinks George Bush is doing a swell job and that it might be good for us to remain in Iraq for 100 years.

• Resonance: The American Oil Refinery Shortage Myth: According to rightists, the second-most common response to energy crisis, behind "Drill! Drill! Drill!", is that gas prices are high because environmentalists have prevented America from building any new oil refineries in 30 years (or whatever duration it is). How does this claim square with marketplace reality?

• RoaneViews: Governor Bredesen Endorses Ruppe for State Senate PLUS: The Governor Campaigns for Becky Ruppe, with photos. (Ed. note: This one is a must-win, folks!)

• Russ McBee: McCain imitates Caligula: The nomination of Palin for the office of vice president sends exactly the same message to the American people and to the US Senate (in which Palin would be the presiding officer and tie-breaking vote): he thinks so little of them that he believes any random fundamentalist wingnut plucked off the street would be qualified to lead them. PLUS: Labor Day scorecard: American workers not doing well: That's the "ownership society" for you: workers get shafted, while one of the two main presidential candidates doesn't even know how many houses he owns.

• Sean Braisted: Kissinger Most Expensive Baby Sitter Ever: I'm sure Palin has at least basic knowledge of the national issues at stake (just like most Republican politicians), and so the "soft bigotry of low expectations," can only help her in the coming weeks. Given that Republican ideas are generally formulated by a select group of pre-schoolers high on glue, its not that hard to remember GOP talking points. Taxes bad, spending bad, liberals bad. PLUS: More Republican Comedy: Of course, its perfectly plausible that a 50+ year old man from Georgia has never heard that phrase used in a negative light towards black people...just as its perfectly plausible that David Duke didn't know what the Klan was all about...or its perfectly plausible that Sarah Palin was McCain's first choice for VP.

• Sharon Cobb: A Wrap Up Of Sarah Palin's Speech At The Republican Convention Wednesday Night.: Still half asleep, I rolled over and opened one eye and asked, "Why is Sally Fields speaking at the republican convention?" PLUS: Senator John McCain: A Hero, Yes. But A Maverick, No. The Republican Convention Speech Last Night: According to CNN, McCain had 169 lobbyists in the front of the auditorium during his acceptance speech. You simply cannot sell yourself as an agent for change when you've been a U.S. Senator for decades.

• GoldnI: Things I Learned Today: I was vetted more thoroughly by Wash U Law than Sarah Palin was by John McCain. PLUS: Republicans -- Make Up Your Minds: How is she going to handle foreign leaders if she can't handle "Meet The Press"?

• Southern Beale: Permission Not Granted: Should be the new slogan of the McCain-Palin ticket. The funniest is this statement from the principal of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California... PLUS: Return Of The Wedge Issue: But really what Sarah Palin has done is bring the evangelical base back into the voting booth. And along with them come those rancorous, divisive social issues. Karl Rove is ecstatic.

• Vibinc: Joementum to Educate Palin: Palin will also not be available to the media for an undetermined time while she gets her affairs in order back in Alaska. I guess theyíre going to use some of that time to get her up to speed on their Cold War era worldview of foreign policy. Personally, I donít think she needs it.

• WhitesCreek: What are we changing here?: I thought I had seen the nastiest lies ever in the past two presidential elections, and somehow, I though John McCain would be slightly better at sticking with the truth. WRONG! PLUS: Moose and Snow: McCain's Veep pick seems to be up to her miniskirt in the rankest form of good old boy and girl corruption and cronyism.

• Women's Health News: Just a Thought on Palin: Sure, campaigning and being VP may be demanding. However, if, with all of the resources at Palinís fingertips, the situation still seems inadequate for providing for a child, if the deck still seems stacked against working mothers, imagine how women without the luxury of these choices must feel.

Republicans--Make Up Your Minds

Yesterday we learned that Republican Vice-Presidential candidate will not be giving media interivews, arguing that the media can learn everything they need to know from Palin's scripted campaign appearances. The reason behind this decision, depending upon whom you ask, is either because the media is just too mean and nasty, or because the campaign is worried that Palin will make a mistake:



The Republicans really need to make up their minds. Either Palin is a tough, strong, "pitbull with lipstick" if you will, someone who can go hunting and eat moose, who can hold her own against anything she comes up against; or she's a delicate flower who will wither away and die if she's asked tough questions.

You can't have it both ways. How is she going to handle foreign leaders if she can't handle "Meet The Press"?

Feel Good Friday--Even More St. Louis Edition

I've done several St. Louis-themed Feel Good Friday entries in honor of my new city, but it occurs to me that I've made a grave omission. How could I have forgotten the Queen?

Eric Crafton FRACASA

Fracasar = "to fail" in Spanish. Because that's all what you'll be forced to speak now!

Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman has just ruled that the English-only proposal can not appear on Davidson County ballots Nov.4.

The judge's ruling affirmed the Davidson County Election Commission's 3-2 decision last week to leave the measure off the ballot because Metro Legal advised the commission that the Metro charter forbids more than one petition-driven referendum in a two-year period.

Hey, you know how conservatives are always saying--hell, John McCain said it tonight--that judges should apply the law exactly as written and not interpret the law as per their job legislate from the bench? Watch them backpedal as quickly as possible on that talking point!

Poor Eric Crafton. Now he may be forced to, oh, I don't know, do something productive for Bellevue now!

What To Take Out Of Tonight

Some conclusions out of tonight:

• Sarah Palin's hairdo is beginning to look less and less like a bun and more and more like a bird's nest.

• The campaign still can't seem to find a flattering backdrop for John McCain. Tonight it went from the standard lime-green jello to the Giant Blue Screen of Death.

• Just when you thought John McCain couldn't give a more boring speech, he did. By the way, did you know he was a POW?

• What exactly did he mean when he said that Palin "worked with her nose"? Because as far as I know, she's not in the perfume business, nor is she a sommelier. And the only other things I can think of for what that might have meant are too far in the gutter to mention here.

• Before McCain's speech, the Republicans showed a very graphic video of 9/11 and the Twin Towers collapsing. And then John McCain took the stage at exactly 9:11 PM Central Time. Republicans showed themselves as the desperate, depraved, disgusting, morally bankrupt assholes they really are. But they do that every day, so that's not really news.

But if there's one thing I ask you to take from tonight, it's this:

#24 SOUTH CAROLINA: 17
VANDERBILT: 24

Because, in the grand scheme of things, Vanderbilt upsetting South Carolina and the Ole Ball Coach for the second straight year, earning our biggest home win since 1992, and going 2-0 are far more important than anything that comes out of any Republican's mouth!

Thanks, Barricuda Lady!

Politico via Drudge:

An Obama aide confirms Drudge's report that Obama has raised about $8 million from more than 130,000 donors and is on pace to raise $10 million by the time McCain reaches the stage tonight.

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton says, "Sarah Palin's attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected. And we fully expect John McCain's attacks tonight to help us make our grass-roots organization even stronger."

Speaking of which, last night I made my own donation to the campaign by ordering a few more Hebrew Obama bumper stickers to put on the cars of everyone I know.

Where's Hillary?

I've been wondering that since yesterday. You have to wonder what she makes of Sarah Palin. Kathleen Sebelius and former Hillary surrogate Debbie Wasserman Schultz have already done a press conference highlighting what a liar Palin is, but we have yet to hear from the most prominent woman in the Democratic Party.

That's going to change soon. According to Talking Points Memo, Hillary will campaign for Obama in the swing state of Florida on Monday.

I can't wait to see what happens. I'll grant the former Hillary supporters one thing--Hillary would have crushed Sarah Palin's skull with her bare hands, and I hope she still does. Neither Obama nor Biden can exactly do that; some people might think it sexist for them to do so. But Hillary has to be incredulous now, watching the same people who have slimed her character, her looks, and her family for the last 15 years suddenly becoming anti-sexism crusaders.

It's a great idea for them to wait until Monday too. Let the Republican Convention percolate for one more news cycle to close out the week. And then on Monday, once all the Republicans have finished patting themselves on the back, send Hillary out to destroy whatever bounce they may get. Palin may have changed the Obama campaign's calculations a bit, but they still know what they're doing.

"A Pitbull With Lipstick"

That's how Sarah Palin referred to herself in the speech.

Somehow, I don't think this is what she meant:



Because, after all, pitbulls are only mean and vicious if you condition them to be that way.

A Role For Jim Cooper

We haven't heard much lately from our Congressman on the campaign front. Our Governor can't seem to keep his mouth shut, and seems to have a weird obsession with Waffle House, but Jim Cooper, an early and vocal supporter of Barack Obama's, hasn't really been out there lately. But if the Obama campaign wanted to use him as a surrogate, they may have found a winning issue in Sarah Palin's speech tonight.

Here's what she said tonight:

I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere.

If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves.

Here's what she said back in 2006, as she was running for Governor:

“Palin said Alaska’s congressional delegation worked hard to obtain funding for the bridge as part of a package deal and that she ‘would not stand in the way of the progress toward that bridge.”

Now, we already know she's a liar. But pointing out that she initially supported the "bridge to nowhere" and only recanted after a near-universal backlash would stand as a very effective contrast to the "maverick, corruption-fighting" image she so wants to have.

Forget her family, the Obama campaign is being handed more substantial issues on a silver platter. Jim Cooper is uniquely qualified among Obama surrogates to speak on the subject of wasteful earmarks and the politics of pork. Someone really ought to get Cooper on the news shows, on the campaign trail, to demonstrate how un-"maverick" the McCain-Palin ticket really is.

So, Did I Miss Anything?

I just finished watching the women's quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, between Serena and Venus Williams. Serena won 7-6, 7-6. It was a great match, with lots of long, dramatic rallies. In the end though, Serena simply wanted it more. In the second set, Venus had at least seven set points, but couldn't seal the deal against a clearly more worn-out Serena. I always enjoy watching the two of them play--there's so much of a mental game going on, where they're always calculating two moves in advance.

My boyfriend Rafael Nadal is up next.

Was there anything else on TV tonight that I missed?

In all seriousness, I did turn over to the speech right around the time she started talking about Trig, her Down's syndrome baby. It was a cute moment, but Palin's voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I'll catch the rest on YouTube later, but I didn't want to deal with it tonight. I'll only watch McCain's speech tomorrow night if the Vandy game is already over (or if Vandy is already that far behind by that point, not that that's going to happen).

I'm Done

This is going to be my last post on the whole Bristol Palin issue. It's just not worth it. It distracts from the important issues, like the economy and Iraq. It's an interesting story insofar as that it's exposed raw emotions on both sides, on issues ranging from abortion to the role of women. But it's re-igniting another round of the "Mommy Wars", which is such a pointless debate (really, if Sarah Palin has found a way for most of her life to balance work and family, more power to her. Now let's see how she's going to help other women do the same).

There are plenty of other issues that Sarah Palin needs to address that have nothing to do with her family. Evidence of her corruption as governor is mounting, her church supports Jews for Jesus, she's a book-banner, and the list goes on. At some point, the obsessive focus on the pregnancy only becomes counter-productive, and gives the Right the opportunity to look positively progressive on gender issues (although if that's the new reality, then I believe a huge apology is due to Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Janet Reno, and Madeline Albright)

I'm going to put forth one final thought, and then I'm done. I apologize in advance if this veers into "too much information" territory. For me, there is a certain poignancy in this whole sordid affair. You have Bristol Palin, a 17-year old who decided to have premarital sex, didn't take the necessary precautions, and is now pregnant. But now, let's say there's another 17-year old girl (although in reality she was 17 five years ago) who makes the same decision. But before she goes through with it, she discusses it with her parents, with the boy she's involved with, and with her doctor. In the end, before she carries out her decision, she goes on birth control, and takes it faithfully everyday. She has the peace of mind to know that when she does eventually decide to have a baby, it will be at a time when she can give it a stable and loving home situation. She also enjoys the added perk of not being in excruciating pain for at least a day and half once a month.

She's not promiscuous (in fact, her own mother thinks she's a prude compared to "how we were in the 70s"), and has never once in the last five years used birth control as a license to act stupidly. All she's tried to do is act responsibly. But for a good segment of the population in this country, the first 17-year old is thought of as a saint, and the second 17-year old is thought of as a slut.

The now 22-year old could honestly care less what that segment of the population thinks of her life choices. But it does make her wonder where the country's priorities are. There are plenty of both types of girls around who are not getting what they need (healthcare, jobs, homes, decent wages, a way to pay for college and for childcare, an end to the war that's draining resources from all of the above), and here we are having a stupid debate about which one of them is following the "right" path.

All right, I've gotten that off my chest. Back to Contracts reading.

"It's Over"

Republican political strategist Mike Murphy and conservative writer Peggy Noonan got caught in a "live mic" incident on MSNBC with Chuck Todd. Hilarity ensued:

You can find a rough transcript here.

"It's over." "Cynical." "Gimmicky."

I have a word for it. "Classic."

The RNC Can't Get A Break

The start of their convention was pushed aside by Hurricane Gustav. John McCain's speech on Thursday night had to be scheduled around Colts-Giants NFL season kickoff game. And now, there will be something far more important going on at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the same time as Sarah Palin's speech.

Serena and Venus Williams will play each other tonight in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, with the winner being put in a great position to win the whole tournament.

Now, I realize that most people don't follow ELITIST sports like tennis as much as I do (although tomorrow night will put me in an even bigger dilemma--I want to see what McCain says, but also to see if the Colts choke, AND to see Vanderbilt knock off South Carolina for the second year running). But since Venus and Serena represent the only real bright spots in American tennis, it's always a big deal when they play each other. I'll try to catch a bit of the Palin speech, but I'm mostly going to be watching tennis tonight. Whatever she says will be endlessly dissected on the news and on YouTube anyway.

LOLPalin

I just can't help myself lately:

moar funny pictures

Accuracy WIN.

Things I Learned Today

1. Apparently, if you want conservatives to like you, all you have to do is get knocked up outside of marriage. Then they'll love you!

2. John McCain was a POW. Seriously, I didn't know that until today.

3. If you damage your car by hitting a pole in your building's narrow parking garage, the sensible thing for the body shop to do, knowing that you'll still have to park in the narrow garage, is to give you a rental car that's...bigger than the one you wrecked!

4. The difference between substantial performance and specific performance in contract law. It's actually a fairly big difference.

5. That I'm taking the best notes in Contracts out of all of my classes because a) the professor doesn't let you use a computer and b) the class is small enough that I can't just use my iPhone.

5. The definition of estoppel.

6. That I will never get a straight answer as to whether or not I can study intellectual property law without a technical background (hey, I blog! I know html! Isn't that good enough?)

7. I was vetted more thoroughly by Wash U Law than Sarah Palin was by John McCain.

Forget Bristol, THIS Is What To Call Palin Out On!

We can debate ourselves in circles about whether or not she's a fraud, a hypocrite, etc. But it turns out that Sarah Palin goes FAR beyond being your run-of-the-mill Christian Rightist. No, she's someone who would be more at home in Salem, Massachusetts circa the 17th century:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

I'll never understand conservatives who defend book bannings. Wouldn't the mayor of a town telling the library which books they can and cannot stock be a perfect example of the government trying to override personal liberty? And shouldn't it be the job of the parents, not the government, to determine what their kids read? Personal responsibility and all!

You have to wonder what First Lady Laura Bush, a former librarian, thinks of this. But she sold her soul a long time ago so I guess we'll never really know.

I would really love to know which books she tried to ban. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite books from the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
• The Golden Compass (and the rest of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy)
  
• The Harry Potter series (I stood in line at midnight for books 4-7 and I'm not ashamed of that fact)
• Go Ask Alice
• Of Mice and Men
• The Giver (Seriously? That was challenged? WHY?!)
• The Handmaid's Tale (a story in which women are banned from reading. Oh, the irony)

People like Sarah Palin would tell you that these books contain profanity, sex, alcohol, drugs, violence, people revolting against the system, and child wizards. And they do. But they're also some of the greatest works of American literature (except for the Dark Materials and Harry Potter series, which are British). Banning such books are not attempts to create a better environment for children. They're an attempt at social control, pure and simple.

I fear what this woman would do with access to the Library of Congress. Would she replace all the priceless works of literature with copies of the King James Bible and Dr. Seuss books?

Oh, wait. Dr. Seuss once threatened to sue an anti-choice group for using the line "A person's a person, no matter how small" from Horton Hears A Who in a press release. So he's out. Baby killer!

Pregnancies I Like To Hear About

Good to see that Tiger Woods is being productive with his downtime recovering from his knee injury:

Woods said on his Web site that [wife] Elin is expecting in late winter without being more specific on a due date.

You see America, these are the pregnancies we should be focusing on--celebrity babies! It's especially intriguing in the case of someone like Tiger and Elin Woods, where the baby will come out with good looks and freakish athletic abilities.

If you really want the whole Bristol Palin issue to be "off-limits," then what we need are more celebrity babies to distract the media and the bloggers. Someone call Brangelina, let them know there's a baby in a third-world country somewhere who's up for adoption.

Of Course It's Hypocritical. But That's Not The Point

(UPDATE: Katie Allison Ganju makes a similar point, more eloquently than I did)

Kleinheider doesn't think that we on the Left should point out the hypocrisy of the "abstinence-only" Sarah Palin having a pregnant 17-year old daughter, because, you see, it's not really hypocrisy. Everyone has moral failings, and conservatives understand that. Yelling "hypocrisy" will only make conservatives more likely to rally behind Palin.''

Of course it's hypocrisy though, and of course it demonstrates "abstinence-only" sex education for the farce that it is. But that's an obvious point, and that's not the point here.

Oh, and if you want to talk about how well conservatives understand and are willing to forgive moral failings, then can we please forgive Bill Clinton and John Edwards as well (and no, Martin Kennedy, there is NO WAY IN HELL that Chelsea Clinton would have been treated as sympathetically had she gotten pregnant at 17)? Hell, let's forgive Newt Gingrich and David Vitter and Larry Craig too. If everyone has moral failings, then maybe we should stop judging one another on each other's issues. Let's all agree that one's sex life is a private matter, between a person and their family and God, and is not relevant to one's ability to lead. I'm all for that. I'm all for not judging people based on their life choices. If some of my friends on the right could join me in that agreement, we'd have a much better political discourse.

But that's also not the point.

My mother, a former Hillary supporter, told me today that she's finally been galvanized into truly supporting Obama over the Bristol Palin issue. So have several of her Hillary-supporting friends. She doesn't understand how, as a mother, a woman could jump into the public eye like this knowing that her daughter's name and situation would be dragged through the mud. My mother so wants to see a female President in her lifetime, but has come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin would be a huge setback for women.

All good points. But with all due respect to my mother, that's not the point either. Here's the point.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Palins were to take a step back and say to themselves, "Gee, we're in this tough situation, but fortunately we have the resources and the supportive family network so that Bristol can keep her baby and give it a good standard of life. But what about everyone else who doesn't share our situation, all the other young single women who find themselves pregnant without anything to fall back on? Since we're so blessed, shouldn't we find a way to help them as well?"

It would be nice. But they won't do it.

The same people who say that it's such a blessing to have a baby at 17 are the same people who oppose giving children expanded health coverage, oppose allowing for paid maternity leave, oppose daycare, oppose on principal any policy that would allow a single woman without such a network as the Palins' to keep her baby and thrive.

The Right will tell you that you are such a good person to keep a baby when you're in a situation like that. But then they'll turn right around and say that you shouldn't expect any help from society...because after all, it's your fault for having sex in the first place. In the conservative mindset, it's not MY problem that you have a baby to take care of, that's YOUR problem. Enjoy your little bundle from Heaven and don't bother us for help, Commie.

Make no mistake, the Right still wholly believes in shaming the whores in the public square and branding the scarlet "A" upon their clothes. They just do it in a more subtle way these days.

That's how we as Democrats ought to deal with this new twist. Barack Obama says that families should be off-limits, and I agree wholly (and hey, TNGOP, that means that Michelle is off-limits too!). But this situation doesn't necessarily demonstrate as Kleinheider claims, that Sarah Palin will now resonate with average middle-class voters. What it should demonstrate, and what Democrats need to point out now, is that Sarah Palin has been in the same situation as you may have found yourself in....

....and yet still doesn't give a rat's ass about you or your family. It doesn't matter if your family suffers as long as hers doesn't.

A Few More Ponderings On Palin

1. We're now seeing that the McCain campaign conducted no vetting of Sarah Palin whatsoever. Not only did no one bother to check the archives of her hometown newspaper, but the McCain campaign is apparently JUST NOW sending a team of aides to Alaska to conduct a background check on her. It appears that the decision to name her as Vice President was made in haste, almost haphazardly.

This should raise questions about McCain's judgment and his fitness to serve as President. The operative word here is "should"; it won't though. You see, McCain was a POW for five years, and that settles everything.

2. Sarah Palin is such a "maverick" and a "corruption-fighter" that she was actually for the "bridge to nowhere" pork project that everyone else opposed...before she was against it.

3. Is it a big gaffe thinking that the Founding Fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, when in fact it was written a century later, and the "under God" line wasn't added in until the 1950s? Not terribly, it's an honest mistake I suppose. But needless to say, had it been Obama who said that, everyone would be yapping their mouths about how UN-AMERICAN he is.

4. What infuriates me the most about the Palin nomination is the reaction from the Christian Right groups. James Dobson's Focus on the Family and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum have long preached that women should stay home with their small children rather than working. To do otherwise will lead to a breakdown in the social order. Yet these groups are falling all over themselves to praise the selection of a woman with five children, several of whom are still young.

So what gives? Is there something special about Sarah Palin that magically enables her to "have it all", the high-powered career and the nice family?

Or is it just another blatant example of conservative hypocrisy, where you have to follow their rules even though they see no need to follow them themselves? Should all women except for high-powered Republican ones stay home?

Is this really all just another fresh version of IOKIYAR?

Do I even really need to ask that question?