So this woman...

... carved a "B" on her face backward? Exactly how dumb do you have to freaking be to support McCain?

How about just doing an "O", lady?

Critical breaking news

Fourteen years in, Axl Rose is finally releasing his goddamned album.

And you know, the leaked tracks are actually very strong, particularly "Better".

But hey, if this world's worth anything at all then one should at least be able to expect that an album whose production required, at one point, the construction of an in-studio chicken coop for the containment of its lead guitarist - I mean, one's gotta be able to assume that album can't be bad, right? People who know me know I'm not known for believing in things: but I believe in that.

November 23.

Socialism

Which would you consider socialism?

(a) Allowing the expiration of the parts of the Bush tax cuts most dramatically geared toward the richest people in America.

or

(b) Raising taxes on private oil companies for the express purpose of redistributing the money to the citizens of your state. (Alaska, that is.)

If McCain weren't going to lose, this kind of crap would actually be making me angry.

John Cleese

I've been a hapless Monty Python nerd since age 10. But my appreciation has just doubled:

John Cleese (part 2): Obama, Biden & Fox News

Third Debate

We're just past the halfway mark now. My impression is:

On the one hand, McCain appears persistently mendacious. On the other hand, he does come off as quite bitter.

Obama? Stumbling now and then as he tries to shore up his position, but not enough to hurt him in any way.

***

What the hell is with the facial expressions?

Well, they're certainly something Saturday Night Live can work with tomorrow night.

***

What strikes me most is the change in McCain since debate #1. The first time it was all, "This mental weakling over here is utterly wet behind the ears and has no idea what he's doing." Tonight it was far more fear-and-loathing, far more, "This bad man is going to ruin the life of Joe the Plumber."

Grit teeth and flop sweat and weird facial expressions.

***

Early in the debate, McCain said, "I'm not George Bush. If you wanted to run against Bush, you should have run four years ago."

An hour later, he said the last president who tried to bar trade and raise taxes at the same time was Herbert Hoover. And so Obama should have said, "If you wanted to run against Hoover, you should have run in 1932. I assume you met the age requirement at the time."

Such a zinger. Really very funny, isn't that? Ha ha. Ha. Ha.

Yeah, I'm going to go work on something else now.

The upside of Sarah Palin

is that she's certain to boost the ratings of 30 Rock this season.

Outside of The McLaughlin Group, it's the only program on television worth watching.

Bye-bye!

town hall

So I listened to the debate last night over the radio rather than watch it. Interesting difference, because to my mind the result of the whole thing was pretty much a-pox-on-both-their-houses. Open up the papers this morning, though, and everybody's calling it for Obama. Very like Kennedy/Nixon in 1960.

Palin's greatest hits

Heading into the VP debate tomorrow night, this makes for a nice recapitulation:



(Of course, she won't end up doing all that badly in the debate. There'll be no opportunity for cross-talk or follow-up, and each question will get a wafer-thin 90-second-soundbyte of an answer. She'll platitude her way through the questions she can't answer, and steer everything else into attacks on Obama/Biden which will leave Joe [a] picking up too many pieces, and [b] unable to fire back at her, as doing so would make him look mean.)


Well. My real reason for chipping in with this post tonight is Couric's question: can you name a non-Roe Supreme Court ruling you disagree with? And Palin can't think of any - good grief. How about the ruling that Dick Cheney gets to keep secret all his deliberations in forming our national energy policy? How about Bush v. Gore?

Of course Mrs. Palin wouldn't take my side on those. So, how about Hamdan v. Rumsfeld? That's the one where our nine largely conservative justices came back saying: You know, Bush Administration, if you're going to snatch up people all around the world, torture them, and incarcerate them for the rest of their lives, then you need to do a little pro forma here. Set up a kangaroo court, announce the reason you're holding these guys, and give 'em an opportunity to claim innocence before routing them back into Bagram, Camp Delta, or one of your east-European CIA black sites. Please? Just for appearances. You're making us look bad.

Now: you know Sarah Palin opposes that. Or she would, if she had heard of it.

But she hasn't heard of it. It's in none of the magazines she reads (you know - all of them?).

--Well then, how about she just names the freaking Dred Scott case? Having completed a middle school education, this Supreme Court decision should ring a bell for her, yes?

And it fits, because what Palin did say was (to paraphrase): "in Ameerica's lahng history, ah, er, you knoohw, Katie, there arr lahts of tiymes peeple might disagreee with the coourt - and the tiymes Iye maeght disagree with 'em arr the tiymes they decided somethin' thaat it's the staeetes' rayght too deecide."

Like - the Dred Scott case. Wherein the Supreme Court argued against the right of the state (territory) of Illinois to emancipate a slave within its borders - because that would undercut the slaveowner's property rights. Talk about judicial activism - and violation of states' rights! This is exactly the sort of thing you would think Sarah Palin should oppose.

But who knows? Maybe she's pro-slavery.

She is a big Bible booster, after all.

Swing states swung?

A post-first-debate Quinnipiac poll released today:

Florida:
Obama: 51
McCain: 43

Pennsylvania:
Obama: 54
McCain: 39

Ohio:
Obama: 50
McCain: 42

But here's the clincher. Peter Brown, the poll's Assistant Director:

"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung ... so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign ... McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century."

(...With the usual caveats that the election's a month away, other polls' results vary, and there could always be another 9-11. You never know.)


Post-script: Don't you think it's interesting that only now, as the polls seem to be giving a solid indication that Obama may win this thing with or without their help, that only today does Bill Clinton hit a campaign stop and make a convincing performance on Barack's behalf?

(Oh, no, I would never imply the Clintons would prefer he just lose. But now that he isn't, they sure seem more interested in getting on his good side.)

Post-post-script: Thanks to Jim to directing me to this bit of silliness.