Politics

I’m pretty strongly liberal — about as far left as one can go without falling into libertarianism. Posts collected under this tag will likely reflect that viewpoint.

Sarah Six-Pack

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I’m expanding on a earlier tweet mentioning a new Sarah Palin interview, this time with radio talkshow host Hugh Hewitt. I’ve not heard of Hewitt before, but from the tenor of the interview, the ads, and the bio on his site, it could easily be because I don’t pay as much attention to the conservative side of things. Be that as it may, he managed to get a short interview with Palin, and has posted the segment as an .mp3 along with a transcript.

I was curious as to whether Palin might be any more coherent when she was a little more in her element and “among friends,” so to speak, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all — at least, not from where I stand. A few bits stood out to me…

HH: Governor, your candidacy has ignited extreme hostility, even some hatred on the left and in some parts of the media. Are you surprised? And what do you attribute this reaction to?

SP: Oh, I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what? It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency, and I think that that’s kind of taken some people off guard, and they’re out of sorts, and they’re ticked off about it…

First off: someone needs to clue Palin in that “Joe Sixpack” is a pejorative. It’s the lowest common denominator of the lowest common denominator. And while you could say that I’m “taken aback” by the prospect of someone who describes themselves that way gaining the VP slot, “ticked off” isn’t quite right. More like “frightened.” “Offended.” “Aghast.”

The thing is, I don’t want “Joe Sixpack” in office. I don’t want someone “just like me” as the Vice President–or President, for that matter. I want someone better than me. I want someone more experienced, more intelligent, more educated, and more able to deal with the situations to be found in and around the Oval Office. I can barely manage my own finances, let alone those of the entire country, why in the world would I want someone “just like me” in office? What a frightening thought.

…it’s motivation for John McCain and I to work that much harder to make sure that our ticket is victorious, and we put government back on the side of the people of Joe six-pack like me, and we start doing those things that are expected of our government, and we get rid of corruption, and we commit to the reform that is not only desired, but is deserved by Americans.

It’s really scary how accurate the Saturday Night Life spoof of the Palin/Couric interviews was. Palin appears constitutionally incapable of specifics, only able to spout out the broadest generalizations possible. They will do “those things that are expected” — not just vague, but vague in the passive voice. They’ll “get rid of corruption.” How? “Commit to the reform.” What kind of reform? She doesn’t actually say anything!

HH: Now Governor, the Gibson and the Couric interview struck many as sort of pop quizzes designed to embarrass you as opposed to interviews. Do you share that opinion?

SP: Well, I have a degree in journalism also, so it surprises me that so much has changed since I received my education in journalistic ethics all those years ago.

A Bachelor of Science in Communications-Journalism, according to Wikipedia, completed over five stints at four colleges. Admittedly, more than I have with my AA, so perhaps I’m not qualified to ask questions. Still–you’d think someone with any sort of journalism degree would expect professional journalists conducting interviews to actually ask questions with some amount of substance. She’s (not very subtly) accusing her interviewers of being unethical in their questioning, which I’m sure will go over quite well with any other journalist who gets a chance to interview her at some later date.

HH: Governor, you mentioned the people who are struggling right now. Have you and your husband, Todd, ever faced tough economic times where you had to sit around a kitchen table and make tough choices?

SP: Oh my goodness, yes, Hugh. I know what Americans are going through. Todd and I, heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday working class American running for such an office.

“Even as we speak.” At that very moment, the Governor of Alaska (a position which in 2001 offered a salary of roughly $81,648) and her husband Todd Palin (who works at BP, owns his own fishing business, and earned roughly $92,790 in 2007) were struggling through rough financial times.

And you know, even today, Todd and I are looking at what’s going on in the stock market, the relatively low number of investments that we have, looking at the hit that we’re taking, probably $20,000 dollars last week in his 401K plan that was hit. I’m thinking geez, the rest of America, they’re facing the exact same thing that we are.

Because the rest of America — all those “Joe Sixpacks” that are just like Sarah Palin — are watching their investments and taking $20,000 hits in their retirement plans. Um, Sarah? Got news for you. Joe Sixpack doesn’t have investments. Joe Sixpack’s retirement plan is to hold onto his job for as many years as he can, because he has no other way to live. Joe Sixpack doesn’t have $20,000 in investments, the bank, or anywhere else to lose. If he has $20,000, then losing it isn’t “taking a hit,” its ending up on the streets. That’s not the “exact same thing.”

This line of thought continues…

HH: Governor, when you say things are tight right now, is that simply because of Todd being off not working? Or is it because of extraordinary demands on the fiscal resources of the Palin family? What’s the situation there?

SP: No, it’s just the great financial crisis that America is in as our savings accounts also, and a 401K, they’re being hit.

HH: Sure.

SP: Our stocks, you know, they took a hit yesterday. And then of course, just the same thing that other Americans are asking themselves today. We’ve got three teenagers. How are we going to pay for their college education? How are we going to make sure that we’re investing wisely today. …[McCain] wants to increase [the FDIC] deposit insurance cap of all of our money, our savings, from $100,000 dollars up to $250,000 dollars, so that families like mine, so that we don’t have to worry about our money being safe or not under FDIC.

Once again: this is not how “Joe Sixpack” thinks. It’s not even how much of middle America thinks. The Republicans accuse Obama of elitism, and yet they’re elitists of a far nastier bent. Obama’s elitism is the Jed Bartlet style of elitism: he’s one of the elite, more educated, better prepared to lead the country than most other people. The Republican’s style of elitism is mean, cruel, and condescending. McCain pegging “rich” as making $500,000 (or whatever ludicrous number it was, I’m trying to wrap this up and don’t have the time to search for the quote), not knowing how many homes he has or how many cars he owns–and they accuse Obama of elitism? It’s disgusting.

There’s more in the interview, but I need to break away for dinner.

I know Joe Sixpack. I’ve been friends with Joe Sixpack. And Ms. Palin, you are no Joe Sixpack.

Obama, Meet Bartlet

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There’s a New York Times column where West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin writes a bit of political ‘fanfic’: what advice could Barack Obama get from former president Jed Bartlet?

OBAMA They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

I love that line: “The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.” So sadly true.

Then, leading into a rant more than worthy of some of the best West Wing episodes…

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well … let me think. …We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know … I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

Oh, but how I miss Jed Bartlet. What I wouldn’t give to see Martin Sheen step back into character and let that little rant fly.

(via MeFi)

Say what, Sarah?

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Y’know, I think one of the things that really bugs me about Sarah Palin is simply that all too often, when I’m reading transcriptions of statements she’s made, I have no idea what she’s saying. Well, okay, not no idea — generally it is possible to figure out what she’s trying to say — but her spoken grammar goes beyond the usual sloppiness one can expect in off-the-cuff spoken English into sheer gobbledygook.

Her feelings upon being asked to accept the VP slot, for example (which have been hilariously expanded on in the New Yorker):

I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.

And then today I read this statement on the Freddie Mac bailout (quoted in the midst of a Washington Post editorial pointing out that 24 days into her VP nomination, Palin has yet to really take on the press):

Well, you know, first, Fannie and Freddie, different because quasi-government agencies there where government had to step in because the adverse impacts all across our nation, especially with homeowners, is just too impacting. We had to step in there. I do not like the idea, though, of taxpayers being used to bail out these corporations. Today, with AIG, important call there, though, because of the construction bonds and the insurance carrier duties of AIG. But, first and foremost, taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution to the problems on Wall Street.

Many people remark upon just how good Palin is at giving speeches, and that may well be true. But when she’s not reading off a teleprompter, she’s barely coherent, possibly even giving our current president a run for the money (though, admittedly, with fewer mispronunciations).I’ve read better constructed sentences written by ESL students when I was tutoring at NSCC’s Writing Center. Is this really the kind of person people find to be a reasonable candidate?

Obama vs. Palin

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Apparently the following list comes from a viral e-mail making the rounds right now. I haven’t seen it, but CQ Politics posted this excerpt. As tends to be the case in these things, it has its fair share of oversimplifications, and there’s one comparison with McCain that snuck in there, but on the whole, it’s an effective summary of some of the (many, many) reasons why people who think that McCain/Palin is a better choice for the White House than Obama/Biden drive me batty, and why there’s no chance I’d give my vote to anyone other than the Democratic party this election.

  • If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.”
  • Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, and it’s a quintessential American story.
  • If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
  • Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.
  • Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
  • Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
  • If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
  • If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
  • If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
  • If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
  • If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
  • If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.
  • If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
  • If your husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

(via The Republic of T.)

Scalzi on Obama

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I’ll freely admit that I’m not terribly happy about Obama’s announcement that he’s planning on continuing and expanding Bush’s ‘Faith Based’ programs. However, I think that John Scalzi has a very interesting take on what this might mean for the Presidential race.

Now, I’m a firm believer in never discounting the Democratic party’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory; I’m still appalled at the incompetence of the Kerry campaign in 2004 and for that matter, the bad strategy of the Gore campaign in 2000, which involved separating their man from the most popular president in recent history. In this case I think the people involved in the presidential campaign are doing pretty smart things, and it might be the other folks who blow it.

To them I would suggest that they consider that the Obama campaign is paying them a compliment, in that they are making the (not necessarily self-evident) assumption that they’re all smart enough to realize that tacking toward the center in the campaign is going to pay huge dividends for the left when at the end of the 2008 election it finds itself in charge of the executive and legislative branches, and finds itself in a position to fill two or possibly even three seats on the Supreme Court in the next four years, and possibly in the bargain create a sturdy new left-leaning political base that lasts as long as the GOP base that Reagan used as a foundation three decades ago. I guess we’ll see if that compliment pays off.

It’s definitely worth reading his whole post for the leadup to those two paragraphs, as well.

I’m still uncomfortable with just how much Obama’s pandering to the ultra-religious. I just hope Scalzi’s got the right idea on where this is going.

The Threat of Photography

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Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don’t seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?

Because it’s a movie-plot threat.

Deficit Attention Disorder

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From the Christian Science Monitor, a funny editorial advertising Restraint®, a cure for Deficit Attention Disorder (DAD)!

Have you ever wondered how the federal government can bail out banks and mortgage-holders, cut your taxes, try to protect Social Security, expand your Medicare benefits, and send you a stimulus check – all at the same time? These may be symptoms of an embarrassing condition afflicting political parties, banks, and households across America: Deficit Attention Disorder (DAD).

Unchecked, normal individuals (as well as politicians and bank CEOs) afflicted by DAD start to believe in money that doesn’t exist. This silent assassin of fiscal sanity overheats your credit card, sells you a make-believe mortgage, makes your pension go “poof,” and drops a whopping entitlement tab on your kids.

Fortunately, there’s a new way to get DAD under control – without any of the cosmetic remedies prescribed by spin doctors. By combining an ancient Zen secret with a cure-all from your grandmother, our researchers are proud to introduce: Restraint®.

Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham

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Y’know, it’s really sad that this kind of polite, civil, and amusing discourse is so rarely seen these days. Two people on very different sides of an issue who, rather than loudly proclaiming their absolute certainty that they are right and the other is wrong, are able to amiably chat and joke with each other about the differences in their viewpoints.

Part one:

Part two:

Bet on the Filly

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This is neither pro-Obama nor anti-Clinton in my mind — I haven’t officially taken a stance yet, though unofficially I’m throwing my vote in with Cthulhu (why settle for the lesser of two evils, after all?) — I just think it’s really funny. It’s also ganked in full from the Slog:

Uh oh. Earlier this week Hillary Clinton instructed supporters to bet on the filly in the Kentucky Derby. In other words: Bet on Eight Belles, the only female in the horse race (and, Clinton obviously hoped, a potentially promising metaphor/omen for herself and her chances of winning the Democratic nomination).

Well, as local sports fanatic Seth Kolloen just pointed out via email (and on his blog), it didn’t go so well for the filly today.

In a development that you couldn’t even make up, Eight Belles finished second, but broke both her ankles during the race, collapsed at the end, and was immediately euthanized on the track.

(Oh — while it shouldn’t need to be clarified, just to cover my bases with the terminally dense: no, the injury and death of the horse is not funny. The “seemed like a good idea at the time” and subsequently horrifically botched political analogy is hilarious.)

John McClane for President in 2008

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Now here’s a presidential candidate I can get behind.

McClane was fighting the war on terror before it even had a name — and he’s proven he can win it.

John McClane believes in strong health care — he just doesn’t have time to get to a doctor when he’s being shot at.

McClane gets that technology creates as many problems as it solves. Relying on a gadget is no replacement for doing it yourself.

McClane knows that patriotism isn’t about waving a flag while you sit on the couch watching ‘American Idol’. It’s about getting off your butt and fighting for what’s right.

McClane is the American cowboy for our times. He gets how important action-packed portrayals of true heroism are.

Since he hasn’t announced a running mate yet, given that I’m not in entire agreement with his stance on technology, may I suggest Angus MacGyver? Equally as able to get out and get things done, but his willingness to use and adapt available technology would be a nice balance to McClane’s ‘hands-on’ approach.

(via nyquil.org)