vawolf
I saw a recommended diary last night regarding Puerto Rico's political status consultation, as well as Marko's bullet about the vote. As a Puerto Rican, I think there's some confusion about what happened in Puerto Rico last night and what it means.
Did Puerto Ricans actually vote for statehood last night? Short answer, in my opinion, is 'no'. For the long answer, make the jump.
Like many of you, including buhdydharma, I have been troubled and disappointed by some of Obama's early moves when it comes to issues we care about. So I think buhdydharma is right to ask the question, "what happens if Obama loses the Left"?
Unfortunately, all my experience watching and working in politics tells me the answer is: not much.
If Obama loses the Left, other political factions will quickly fill the void--factions that we won't necessarily like. So the trick for the Issue Left is to continue to be relevant in policy debates, continue to hold influence with this administration, while at the same time not alienating it to the point where other factions are welcome in our place.
More after the jump.
Poll 89 votes Show Results What do you want to throw at vawolf right now? An Iraqi shoe Iraninan potatoes Flaming bags of poo Snow balls Loose change Pie! 89 votes Vote Now! What do you want to throw at vawolf right now? An Iraqi shoe 12 votes Iraninan potatoes 2% 2 votes Flaming bags of poo 10 votes Snow balls 6% 5 votes Loose change 26 votes Pie! 34 votes
I'll keep this short and sweet. Just when I thought nothing a GOP hack could make my jaw drop anymore, I read this on HuffPost:
Republican strategist Brad Blakeman, responding to a question about how John McCain could square his opposition to wasteful spending with the RNC shelling out over $150,000 on clothes and accessories for Sarah Palin, said that the real outrage is Barack Obama "taking a 767 campaign plane to go visit Grandma." This is the same grandmother who raised Obama and who is very seriously ill.
Clearly Brad Blakeman has had his sould surgically removed and replaced with nothing but guts, and black stuff. Let's show this Blakeman guy how we really feel about Obama's trip to see his ailing grandmother. Donate tonight before the deadline in honor of Grandma Tut, the amazing woman who helped raise our next President. There's no "memo" filed on the donation page, but you can send an email afterward telling the campaign how much you gave and why. Make the jump for more.
Many during this campaign (both Democrats and Republicans) have embraced the meme that Barack Obama isn't ready to be president because he's never "managed anything." But if the way Obama has managed his campaign--and more importantly, his transition team-- is any indication, it's clear he would hit the ground running.
As the 2008 campaign nears its conclusion, the presidential transition efforts of the two major candidates have become a study in contrasts: Sen. Barack Obama has organized an elaborate well-staffed network to prepare for his possible ascension to the White House, while Sen. John McCain has all but put off such work until after the election.
So let's see what we have here: The "green behind the ears" rookie already has in place an army of staffers ready to plan his presidential transition, while the guy who repeated "I know how to do X or Y" more times than I can remember last Tuesday has stopped all transition work until after Nov. 4. Now you tell me: Who will truly be ready on Day 1? More on the flip.
As a public service to my fellow Kossacks, I've compiled some of the more interesting, outrageous, disturbing and downright meandering answers John McCain gave during tonight's debate. Make the jump!
Poll 147 votes Show Results McCain's debate performance was... awful mediocre hillarious cringe-inducing lies, lies lies scary sad...just sad... pathetic craptacular I only unmuted the volume when Obama talked 147 votes Vote Now! McCain's debate performance was... awful 4% 6 votes mediocre 28 votes hillarious 2% 3 votes cringe-inducing 26 votes lies, lies lies 34 votes scary 8% 12 votes sad...just sad... 5% 8 votes pathetic 4% 6 votes craptacular 8% 12 votes I only unmuted the volume when Obama talked 8% 12 votes
My friends, I hate to admit it but John McCain is right: We should postpone the debates until further notice. We're facing the worst financial crisis this country has seen since the Great Depression. This is no time for rallies, town halls, debates, or even interviews and press conferences. It's time instead for the candidates to suspend everything else in their lives and focus on nothing but this crisis, 24/7.
If anything, my friends, McCain hasn't gone far enough--we should postpone the election outright.
I don't know much about American history, but I'm sure that skimming through Wikipedia I'll find plenty of precedent for putting a presidential campaign on hold because of a national crisis. More below the fold.
Poll 92 votes Show Results Best presidential debate? (I'm excluding some for the sake of space or some that aren't worth mentioning) 1st Nixon-Kennedy (1960) 1st Carter-Ford (1976) 1st Carter-Reagan (1980) 2nd Reagan-Mondale (1980) 1st Dukakis-Bush (1988) 1st Clinton-Bush-Perot (1992) 2nd Clinton-Bush-Perot (1992-town hall) 1st Gore-Bush (2000) 1st Kerry-Bush (2004) Santos-Vinnick (The West Wing) 92 votes Vote Now! Best presidential debate? (I'm excluding some for the sake of space or some that aren't worth mentioning) 1st Nixon-Kennedy (1960) 34 votes 1st Carter-Ford (1976) 1% 1 vote 1st Carter-Reagan (1980) 1% 1 vote 2nd Reagan-Mondale (1980) 3% 3 votes 1st Dukakis-Bush (1988) 0% 0 votes 1st Clinton-Bush-Perot (1992) 9% 8 votes 2nd Clinton-Bush-Perot (1992-town hall) 11 votes 1st Gore-Bush (2000) 0% 0 votes 1st Kerry-Bush (2004) 3% 3 votes Santos-Vinnick (The West Wing) 31 votes
Like Billmon, I was also struck by the number of snide references to "community organizers" tonight. The dog-whistle thing occurred to me, too. I also thought they may have been trying to scare some voters who don't know what an organizer does but may be put off by the job title.
Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter; it was a bad idea, and it may cost the GOP the election--by an even bigger margin than it would've before.
In my work as an internet communications and organizing guy, I've had the chance to work with professional field and community organizers, and I got news for the GOP: You do NOT wanna piss these people off. More after the jump.
The speech Barack Obama delivered last Thursday in Denver lasted about 45 minutes and consisted of roughly 4,700 words. But in all that time, of all those words, one word in particular resonated with me more than any other:
"Enough!" (get the t-shirt here!)
More than any other jab at Bush-McCain, of which there were many, or any other rhetorical flourish, of which there were also many, as you would expect, this one word touched me like no other he uttered in the entire speech -- or the entire campaign. Let me try to explain why after the jump.
Poll 59 votes Show Results What was your favorite passage of the speech? Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change. A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tel In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boo We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work. Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a de We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past. We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess. 59 votes Vote Now! What was your favorite passage of the speech? Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! 18 votes Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change. 3% 2 votes A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tel 3% 2 votes In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boo 8 votes We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day 0% 0 votes Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work. 7 votes Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress 2% 1 vote And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a de 5% 3 votes We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past. 7% 4 votes We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. 10 votes At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess. 7% 4 votes
So now we know what’s at the heart of the McCain campaign’s strategy: Pray like hell for something awful to happen that will swing the election McCain’s way.
Of course, when you’re pursuing the Earthquake/Towering Inferno/Poseidon Adventure presidential campaign strategy, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Sure, Al Qaeda wants to hit American again, but they’re not the most reliable bunch – they do things on their own timetable, not John McCain’s or Charlie Black’s.
To that end, here’s a wild-ass guess as to what other force majeure events John McCain and Charlie Black may be praying for that would round out a decent top-ten list:
As you all must know by now (and if you don't, what rock have you been living under?!?), Apple is releasing the iPhone, its newest life-changing gadget, on June 29th. The iPhone will feature, among other things, a built-in camera, Web access via WiFi, a phone (duh), digital music player, e-mail, the Safari browser running on OS X, calendar, etc.--all accessed via a sleek touch-screen. The whole world is literally on pins and needles waiting to get its hands on this thing.
Some holier-than-thou journos are already growsing about the amount of hype the iPhone is generating. What self-appointed buzz censors like Shafer don't realize is that the halo of hype surrounding the iPhone is entirely justified--and more! Don't believe me? Check out this exclusive list of additional features I was able to get my hands on directly from Apple. Talk about burying the lead! See you on the flip.
Poll 126 votes Show Results Are you going to an iPhone Absolutely No way Still thinking about it I've already pre-ordered I'm waiting for the piePhone 126 votes Vote Now! Are you going to an iPhone Absolutely 27 votes No way 37 votes Still thinking about it 22 votes I've already pre-ordered 1% 1 vote I'm waiting for the piePhone 39 votes
Some like doing with it the lights off. Maybe they're ashamed of the filthy, naughty things they're doing behind closed doors, online or over the phone. Maybe they're so unattractive (inside and out) that the only way they can bring themselves to do it is under cover of darkness. Who knows: The point is, they like doing it in the dark. It turns them on.
Me, I like it with the lights on. Maybe it's because I'm a voyeur (I don't do it, but like to watch others do it) and so I need lots of light. I like to see exactly what's being done and who's doing it. Unlike them, I get off on sunlight and accountability.
I'm talking, of course, about government. See you on the flip side.
Poll 41 votes Show Results I like it with the lights on with the lights off under a tanning lamp under fluorescent light bulbs (they help fight global warming!) by candlelight under sunlight under moonlight by CSI-type crime scene lamps 41 votes Vote Now! I like it with the lights on 11 votes with the lights off 5% 2 votes under a tanning lamp 0% 0 votes under fluorescent light bulbs (they help fight global warming!) 5% 2 votes by candlelight 6 votes under sunlight 6 votes under moonlight 5 votes by CSI-type crime scene lamps 9 votes
The College Republicans have other ideas, some not quite as mainstream as parading popular politicians. Morgan Wilkins, the intern hired by the Republican National Committee to win the hearts and minds of Michigan 20-somethings, is planning events that some may find odd. To others, they may be offensive. One such idea is "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day," in which a volunteer would play the part of an illegal immigrant and hide somewhere on campus while others try to find him. The winner would receive a prize.
Morgan Wilkins, the intern hired by the Republican National Committee to win the hearts and minds of Michigan 20-somethings, is planning events that some may find odd. To others, they may be offensive.
One such idea is "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day," in which a volunteer would play the part of an illegal immigrant and hide somewhere on campus while others try to find him. The winner would receive a prize.
These are the future leaders of this country. Doesn't that make you feel better? More after the jump. Read More
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