Great quip from Obama linking McCain to the hucksters who used to try to sell tourists the Brooklin Bridge (possibly apocryphal). Thanks to Mark Matson in Quick Hits and NcDemAmy for the youtube.
Linking McCain’s lies to a well known cultural motif like bridge selling is a good way to make the subject of McCain’s lies become a self-perpetuating narrative.
Update: TPM weighs in with another witty linkage (though perhaps less universal): “A Bridge Too Far”
Anonymous Liberal, who some of you may remember from his occasional pinch hits for Glennzilla, makes a point worth highlighting, The Media’s Moment of Truth:
This election is a test of the political media in this country. If journalists can’t find a way to dissuade the use of flagrant dishonesty as a tactic, they will have failed this country miserably.
A moment of truth, and a moment for truth.
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Waxman’s investigators said they took statements from six political appointees involved in the videoconference who maintained that Doan asked her employees how they could help Republicans in the upcoming elections.
This is an aspect of the Republican crusade against Congressional earmarks that needs more attention. As usual, Republican reforms only exist to benefit Republicans. Any actual good they might do is purely incidental.
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So the McCain campaign has been lying with near impunity. Josh wonders:
The McCain campaign’s ability to frame their message around a series of demonstrable lies is only possible because most of the press takes an agnostic position on whether his messages and ads are true or not. But if the press won’t, don’t we need to stop relying on the mainstream press to make that point?
Obama has started to address this, but he needs to go a step further.
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For quite some time we have been noting that the Republicans ran a hugely obstructionist strategy in the Senate, running up a record total of cloture motions. McCain, in his effort to cast himself as some kind of trans-partisan agent of change was of course fully on board with this agenda.
Further, McCain by far, leads the pack of senators for votes skipped during the 110th Congress. McCain skipped 63.8% of votes. He beats out stroke sufferer Tim Johnson, and both Obama and Clinton in the midst of their epic struggle who all still managed to attend a majority of votes.
Let’s take a peek at that record, after all McCain says:
The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.
Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.
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Of the most recent general election polling, the only one not showing a decent lead for Obama is that CNN/Opinion Research poll which has him only up by 1 point, 49-48 and had the race tied at 47 the week before.
But that same poll also asked for impressions about the parties, and the results are much more encouraging:
“Next, we’d like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people — or if you have never heard of them. The Democratic Party.”
Date
Favorable
Unfavorable
Never
Heard of
Unsure
Fav-Unfav
8/29-31/08
59
36
–
4
+23
8/23-24/08
52
40
1
7
+12
4/28-30/08
56
35
1
8
+21
Almost 60% of the country approves of the Democratic party. As I noted back in June, candidates should clearly and repeatedly embrace the “Democratic” label. It is a winner. For the good news on that other party’s numbers, come inside:
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For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. 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 boots. You’re on your own.
The speech was great of course, but I really loved this section. So refreshing to see a major Democrat confront conservative economics head on. But he also said:
Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know.
Well I think it’s pretty clear McCain doesn’t care, and what’s more the voters know it. From a CNN/Opinion Research poll this week:
“Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think each one applies more to Barack Obama or more to John McCain. . . .”
“Cares about people like you”
Obama
McCain
Both (vol.)
Neither (vol.)
Unsure
53
36
3
7
1
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Congratulations to Senator Obama and to America really. The first non-white Major Party Nominee. Marvellous.
Whatever else, the media’s obsession with their narrative on Hillary and her supporters did translate into actual coverage of the nomination vote, in fact CNN covered it start to finish with no interruptions and (amazingly) no one talking over it. For a few minutes there, CNN truly was the “Best Political Team on Television.”
Unquestionably it was classy of Hillary to personally call for nominating Barack by acclamation. Cue more body language experts and maybe even a Harry Houdini seance to help the media psychically determine that Hillary is really planning to change parties tomorrow so she can attend the RNC and ensure Obama’s defeat or something.
Consider this a convention open thread.
Update:26 million watched yesterday. 5 times 2004’s numbers.
Why won’t what Atrios calls the zombie lie (that Bob Casey Sr was supposedly denied a 1992 speaking slot for being pro-life) go away and die?
Probably because Bob Casey Jr. continues to spread it.
Today, at “God-o-Meter” (a joint Beliefnet.org/Time project), Dan Gilgoff posts this interview with Senator Casey, where the lie is given fresh life:
[Gilgoff:] Many pro-life Democrats were pushing for the opportunity for you to speak at the convention because of what it would represent symbolically, since your father was famously denied a speaking role at the 1992 convention over his pro-life views. Were you pushing for a speaking slot for that same reason?
[Casey:] We were invited to speak by Senator Obama’s campaign and were grateful for the opportunity. But when you’re in your first 18 months in the Senate, you shouldn’t expect it. So I didn’t ask.
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Even if they aren’t fully aware of it consciously.
A new study to be published in Science this week has found it can predict the decision of “undecided” people with 70% accuracy:
The team tested the “automatic mental associations” of 129 residents of Vicenza, Italy, about a controversial expansion of an American military base in their community.
In a computer test, participants were asked to rapidly rate a series of words, interspersed with pictures of the base, as either positive or negative. One week later, when participants made a conscious choice to support or oppose the base expansion, researchers found that those choices invariably reflected the initial automatic associations.
Comments inside.
Update – The sample only included 33 undecided voters (the article I read did not convey that, but the original from Science does. My scepticism goes up a bit (though I think a bigger study would find a similar result). Science is highly respected, but that doesn’t preclude them from running with an unconvincing study. Hopefully someone else repeats this research.
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It has long been an oddity that Vancouver, Canada’s temperate coastal paradise (and perhaps answer to San Fransisco), which usually ranks in the top 5 of various “World’s Best City to live in” lists is also home to arguably Canada’s worst pocket of abject poverty and endemic drug abuse.
Vancouver’s lower east side is a little pocket of the third world 2 blocks from affluent downtown Vancouver (I was shocked at how quick the transition is when I drove through last year). The area has become synonymous for heroin use, and has been the locus of much drug policy discussion in Canada for many years now.
In 2003, Vancouver became home to a North American first, “Insite”, a medically staffed, clean, secure and legal safe injection site for needle drug users. These things are not new in Europe, but such ideas are always delicate in Canada because there is a widespread belief that the US will punish us somehow for deviating too far from its War on Drugs orthodoxy. Insite was made legal under a special permit allowed in Canada’s federal drug laws issued by the then ruling Liberal government. Surprise, surprise the Conservatives hate it and have wanted to close it ever since they’ve taken power in 2006. They’ve backed away before, and even lost a legal battle over it but they’re taking another run at it as Canada gears up toward a likely election in the fall (with luck, Obama will have Prime Minister Dion among his congratulatory phone calls in November).
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The tide is turning against Wal-Mart in its quest to hold off unions while treating employees like dirt:
GATINEAU, QC – August 15,2008 – UFCW Canada members at a Wal-Mart location in Gatineau, Quebec have made history by becoming the only Wal-Mart workers in North America to have a union contract, after a Quebec arbitrator imposed a collective agreement on Friday.
The contract raises average wages of the Gatineau Wal-Mart members by more than 30%. Improved vacation provisions are also part of the three-year agreement. The terms of the collective agreement are effective immediately.
Yes, eight workers at a Wal-Mart auto service shop have won a 3 year battle with the company, and a Quebec arbitrator has imposed a binding contract on the company.
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I was perusing some of the book chats at FireDogLake, when I stumbled over this tidbit that needs a little more attention, in a chat about Paul Alexander’s biography on Karl Rove, Machiavelli’s Shadow:
Others mentioned mentors. For much of his career, Rove has said Lee Atwater was a friend and mentor. Friends of Atwater told me that Atwater never really liked Rove and did what he could to stay away from him.
A useful reminder that even vile scumbags like Lee Atwater don’t like other vile scumbags. It must be really awful to be a powerful Republican. All that money, but you loathe and are loathed by everyone around you. I guess they deserve each other, but I still pity them. They live an unending Faustian bargain.
Some of you may remember that I raisedsomeconcern over email chain letters that flow around the internet. Particularly the ones about Obama being a muslim which bring a general problem into specific relief. I have borrowed the concept of “memes” invented by Professor Richard Dawkins to refer to these as “memetic emails” – emails that flow and ebb according to how likely each recipient is to forward the message.
I’m happy to say that someone is now trying to do something about this, and I’m pleased to point you all to Truth Fights Back. TFB is a project run by John Kerry’s internet director, Brian Young and funded through Kerry’s PAC Campaign for our Country. It is an effort to build a piece of (hopefully permanent) infrastructure that will combat the memetic nonsense (which I believe is generally more harmful to Obama and liberal causes generally).
Obviously John Kerry has more reason than most to be concerned with the power of negative information to play on the irrational fears of voters and turn them away from candidates they might otherwise support. It is fitting that it comes from him. Inside some more commentary on the site, and the thinking behind it.
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In a stunning development, a sternly worded letter to a Cabinet Secretary has resulted in a subpoenaed member of the executive branch being made available to comply and testify.
Dr. Kaye Whitley, Director of the DoD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office had been told by her superiors, including Deputy Defense Undersecretary Michael Dominguez, not to attend an earlier hearing on the endemic sexual assault problem faced by female soldiers.
I’m actually torn between being mildly pleased and disappointed in this development.
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A reminder that Still President Bush can still cause damage, even when he’s busy groping volleyball players at the Olympics:
Bush to Relax Protected Species Rule
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 5:53 p.m. ET, Mon., Aug. 11, 2008
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Monday said it plans to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
continued
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I know there are NASA fans around here, and as much as I love space geekdom, it pales next to particle physics which might result in the Grand Unified Theory.
So I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the LHC:
Geneva, 7 August 2008. CERN1 has today announced that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made on 10 September. This news comes as the cool down phase of commissioning CERN’s new particle accelerator reaches a successful conclusion. Television coverage of the start-up will be made available through Eurovision.
I’m no physicist, but I’ll take a stab at explaining how unbelievably cool this will be and what it might mean inside.
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That surprising ruling in Congress’ favour from Bush 43 appointee Judge John Bates arrives not a moment too soon. In a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee on the continuing travesty of military rape, Dr. Kaye Whitley, Director of the DoD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, duly subpoenaed by the committee, failed to show:
Lawmakers could not ask Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office at the Pentagon, to address the issue of sexual assault and what steps have been taken because Deputy Defense Undersecretary Michael Dominguez had barred Whitley from testifying, despite a Congressional subpoena.
Well that certainly sends the right signal to military women contemplating reporting being raped: Even the woman tasked to protect them from rape is muzzled from speaking publicly. Now what’s your problem toots? Are you sure you didn’t really want it?
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Speaking of Tim Kaine, it seems VA Republicans are setting the stage to cry foul if McCain loses Virginia in November:
Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Frederick said Monday that incidents in Hampton and Richmond led the party to fear “coordinated and widespread” statewide voter registration fraud.
He is calling on the Governor and Attorney General to start a state-wide investigation on voter fraud. Kaine, to his credit, fires back:
“I think that is slandering the reputation of hardworking Virginians who care about elections and who want people to care about this process,” Kaine said. “You know, I don’t like to see folks doing things in the heat of a tough election to suggest they are trying to winnow down turnout and that is what I view (Frederick’s) effort as.”
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Chris, Josh Marshall and many others are noting McCain’s bizarre line of self-contradicting attacks with varying degrees of bemusement, scorn and triumph. Let us not fall into the trap of thinking that the contradictions and inherent absurdities of McCain’s positions will cause them to fail entirely. Let’s see why:
All fish live in the sea.
Sharks live in the sea..
Therefore, sharks are fish.
Is this logical? Does it follow? Hopefully you see that it does not. But a certain kind of person is often tricked by this: Right-Wing Authoritarians.
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Two from the awesome Scott Harper Horton, First, his interview with the fired (for not abusing his office) former Federal Prosecutor David Iglesias, and Second a good rundown of AG Mukasey’s latest evasions on the new revelations about the persecution of Governor Siegelman.
Oliver Willis writes of conservative bloggers trying to attack the Coburn-is-a-jerk omnibus Bill by comparing some money for the DC Subway in it to the Ted Stevens Bridge To Nowhere. The little chart explains the matter quite well.
Even better than e. coli conservativism, now confirmation of collapsing mine conservativism. I wonder if Bob Murray is friends with Phil Gramm?
DDay at Digby’s runs down the really insipid notion conservatives are working on as their only defence against a Democratic nominee that can draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands: Popularity = fascism.
New UN Human Rights Chief appointed. A female judge from South Africa. She has big shoes to fill left by Canadian Louise Arbour who is a personal hero of mine.
More UN News, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon mildly criticizes moves by the Israeli defence ministry to resume settlement activities. Considering Moon was the Bush Admin’s pick for SG, I’m mildly encouraged by the small shows of independence by him.
Keith Ellison (D-MN) vs Hans Von Spakovsky:
ELLISON: Why don’t you want nuns to vote, Mr. von Spakovsky?
“The Meanest Man in the United States” – Molly Ivins, after Gramm blocked legislation that would restore food stamps to elderly legal migrants. Let them eat capitalism.
It seems Gramm, like most nightmares, isn’t stopped just because he’s horrifying. Larry Kudlow:
While McCain clearly disowned Gramm’s remarks, Holtz-Eakin and Fiorina were wrong, at least at that point, to throw Gramm out of the campaign. In fact, McCain spoke to Gramm after dissing him, and asked him to stay in the campaign and continue to be a surrogate speaker. This was not widely reported, but several sources confirm the conversation. However, it was no secret that Holtz-Eakin in particular has been a Gramm adversary inside the campaign.
This is weird. I get that McCain would still want the advice of the ultimate e. coli conservative to prove his bridge-collapsing bona-fides to the right, but wouldn’t it be better to keep him on in a silent-but-deadly advisory capacity? Does McCain like being represented by such a despicable sociopath?
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The ACLU has launched a lawsuit in Alabama on behalf of some ex-convicts who have been denied their right to vote by the State. Good for them. I’ll say quite simply that no one should be denied the franchise on the basis of any criminal conviction whatsoever, and yes, everyone currently in prison should be able to vote. Denying the franchise has not been demonstrated to be any kind of effective deterrent, punishment or otherwise effective tool in preventing crime or serving any worthwhile societal interest. As such, society has no right to deny someone the vote out of spite, vengeance or whatever basic emotional reasons are employed today. It is a violation of John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle which is a founding basis of what it means to exist in a “free” society. The real story is that denying the franchise to convicts is yet another conservative tactic for shrinking the electorate and creating a false conservative friendly environment.
Observe, quoth the NY Times:
Alabama does not bar all felons from voting, only those convicted of crimes involving “moral turpitude.” In 2003, the civil liberties group says, the State Legislature clearly defined what those crimes are: murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, incest, sexual torture and nine other crimes mainly involving pornography and abuses against children.
At issue in the lawsuit is not the list enacted in law but an expanded “moral turpitude” list developed by the state’s attorney general, Troy King, in 2005. That list includes about a dozen additional offenses, most of them nonviolent, and several including the sale of marijuana.
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The evening keynote will feature Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD). The location for Netroots Nation 2009 will also be announced.
Watch it.
21:03 – Someone just announced a 10 minute delay to the start of this.
21:28 – “please take your seats, our presentation will take place in one moment” – still alt-rock on the feed. That Michael jackson cover from a few years ago “Smooth Criminal”
21:32 – And we’re off, further updates below the fold.
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“There should be no self-esteem crisis among the right side of the blogosphere,” Malkin told a luncheon audience at the Americans for Prosperity convention in Austin.
[…]
“We don’t need a change in tactics,” Malkin told the audience. “We need more of you.”
Uhm, not to concern troll the rightroots or anything, but Michelle, if you don’t have people coming out, you certainly do need a change in tactics. Of course, that change would require putting the likes of you out to pasture, so I can see why you’d rather stay the course. Not that I really mind if the rightroots wants to remain irrelevant.
Perhaps this is a good clue why:
“These people in the papers and the people in the television,” he said, paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, whose mug graces video screens here at RightOnline every time there’s a pause in the programming. “They don’t like us they don’t agree with us – why would we take their version of their facts and take it as our own?”
Anyone really want to make the case that conservativism is anything more than a set of shallow authoritarian personality cults to rationalize socially destructive behaviour?
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