Business Casual Friday - Suspended Blog Edition

I'm not posting a post, but for selfish reasons (fucking Comcast)*, I need to post these, if for no other reason than I miss the days when Dave Letterman was really, really funny:

Olbermann Part I:


Olbermann Part II:


And now: Rotating Pies...

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*h/t to Maria who should be glad to know that she probably wasn't the only one to fling the remote control at her T.V.

Echoes of '72

Your brief history lesson for today:

In 1972, after being rejected by other potential candidates, George McGovern selected less than well known Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate with a minimal background check. It was later revealed by the press that Eagleton had checked himself into the hospital three times for physical and nervous exhaustion, receiving electric shock treatments twice. While psychological treatment is commonplace today, back in the early 70s, Eagleton was pegged as "crazy." The press made frequent references to his shock therapy, and McGovern feared that this would detract from his campaign platform.

Eagleton imploded, withdrew from the ticket, and was replaced by Sargent Shriver. The Republicans used this incident to highlight questions about the Democratic candidate's judgment.

McGovern subsequently lost the election, winning only two states.

You'd think that somebody on the McCain campaign would remember things like this and would have vetted their candidate a wee bit better.

John McCain on Foreign Travel

I don't usually do this, but the irony (I think irony, could be pathos) was too good to pass up. From TPM, via a Time Magazine article dated March 21st, 2008:

Flanked by fellow Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain noted they'd undertaken their week long fact-finding tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, England and France as members of Congress's Armed Services committee -- not as some sort of campaign foreign road show. Perhaps, but discussing international affairs with foreign leaders and enhancing McCain's presidential hopes aren't mutually exclusive. Still, McCain acted the apt pupil. "I wish every senator, every senator would make this same trip," McCain said, noting several of the first-hand educational experiences he'd gotten. "They'd be better informed."

Somebody better tell Senator McCain that you can use the Internet* to look stuff up now. His best bet is probably to say nothing until November.

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*And that the Internet is on computers* now.

**And that a computer is a television with a typewriter attached to it

Obama: "I will never question others' patriotism"

John McCain responds: "That's just the kind of thing a godless, commie-terrorist Moslem would say." 

John McCain's Sordid Past

Last night on CNN, Three Card Monte enthusiast Bill Bennett started up again with the guilt-by-association meme viz Obama and Bill Ayers, former leader of the Velvet Underground. Sorry, Weather Underground... one is obviously a radical 60s left group the other is a radical 60s rock group.

Donna Brazile then proceeded to get all up in Billy's grill, saying that if Obama then Clinton and McCain's prior associates too.

She has a point about McCain, of course. There's a whole slew of associations in McCain's past that he needs to account for.

Par example: McCain's home state of Arizona opposed (until the 1990s) the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. McCain originally opposed the holiday, but later recanted his position. It can only be assumed, therefore, that the Senator must have had some acquaintances that were... let's say... a wee bit racist. Senator McCain must account for these friends and explain to us why their views haven't poisoned his outlook towards African-Americans.

Perhaps a more sinister example: McCain was born in the Panama Canal zone. The Panama Canal zone was later transfered by the US to Panama by Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter has recently been seen negotiating with Hamas, a known terrorist organization. McCain needs to answer the question as to why he allowed Hamas to gain access to the most vital intercostal waterway in the world.

But the most disturbing example: in 1967 McCain spent six weeks as the guest of the Viet-Cong where he made a propaganda video and learned first hand about torture. Can Senator McCain explain this relationship? What kind of anti-American deviancy was his mind poisoned with? Why is he trying to hide the fact that he was intimately connected with a group of people that systematically attacked and killed Americans throughout Vietnam? Shouldn't the media be covering this relationship a little more closely?

Just sayin'.

Pennsylvania - America Starts Here (2008 Edition)

We're only less than a week into the 2008 Democratic Campaign for Pennsylvania and I already want to stick an ice pick up through my nostrils so that I might bring on the sweet, sweet relief of death. Although, with my luck I'll end up in front of the Pearly (or Infernal) gates with St. Peter (or Satan) wearing a Ron Paul sticker (or a Ron Paul sticker).

I have completely lost all tolerance for national political campaigning. I don't watch a whole lot of TV (well, US TV that is), so I haven't seen a lot of ads, and I know that the candidates haven't been in town yet, so I haven't seen any of them in person yet, but there's just really something that is completely off-putting about this campaign season.

Take a look at the rancor on the local political blog seen if you want a hint of what I'm talking about.

Here's the thing: I think, in the grand scheme of things, Pennsylvania is just going to be a drop in the bucket in the delegate hunt.

The way the NY Times is seeing it, both candidates still need over 500 delegates to win. Now, there are 566 delegates left to claim (excepting, of course, those bastards in Michigan and Florida), which means that if each candidate got, say, 50% of those delegates, no one would be able to claim the nomination in the first round.

This may make for exciting convention politics (and it does), but the agressive campaigning leaves the Party worse for wear.

This is a classic Prisoner's Dilemma for Obama and Clinton: if both attack each other, the GOP gets more ammo for November and both lose (0,0); if Obama attacks Hillary, Obama wins (10,0); if Hillary attacks Obama, Hillary wins (0,10); if neither attacks each other, the result is, at best, uncertain, but the party remains strong (5,5). Both candidates not pressing an advantage results in a second best outcome for both candidates, but a far better outcome than if they tried to.

So, I propose a moratorium on intra-party attacks while both candidates are in the Commonwealth. This is not to say that neither candidate is not allowed to attack another candidate, but rather that both candidates should be attacking their presumptive rival: John McCain.

John McCain right now is lurking like that slow, fat kid in dodgeball: back, way behind the line, cowering in a corner, waiting for one of the final two players to off the other so that he can sneak up an hit the winner with a sucker shot.

I assume that most Democrats in PA are like me: they have their preferred candidate, but if their preferred candidate does not win, we will all go to the polls and pull the Democratic lever in the booth.

(Hmmm... I suppose that description is out of date. How about: "Go behind the partial partitioned booth/screen and hit the Democratic electronic button.")

If nothing else, a gentleman's (gentleperson's?) agreement between the candidates will save the paramedics from having to try to pry an ice pick from my skull on or before April 21.