Like you probably do, I get a lot of emails from folks who don’t, um, really understand what I think about politics but know I have an interest and want to share what they find funny. I suppose these guys are “famous;” they seem to have a lot of YouTubes and it looks semi-professional and/or backed with Republican welfare money. Anyway, I thought this was actually very interesting.

Crude as it is, I have only one thing to add: I’ve spoken with ~15 people this month on their choice of Dem candidates: my plumber, a couple of my neighbors, some folks at the grocery store. I’m chatty and curious like that, and I’m also struck by the theme I have heard from 14 of that group (yes, I have been counting).  Read more 

I found this Sportswomanship Story at First Draft this evening. I concur with Athenae — it bears repeating.

Associated Press Photograph By Blake Wolf, AP

Western Oregon’s Sara Tucholsky is helped around the bases by members of the Central Washington softball team after injuring her knee when doubling back to tag first base.

After being assured there was no rule against it, Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace carried Western Washington’s injured Sara Tucholsky around the bases, completing her homer and adding a run to a 4-2 loss that eliminated the Wildcats from postseason.

There is something very special about the young women involved in this incident — and I can’t say  Read more 

Examination at The Root of the perceptions and personas of Oprah and Obama, and how unrealistic stereotypes and expectations—and meeting them and molding yourself to fit them—provide very fragile and shaky foundations for trust.  Read more 

Here (fair using most of it):

Obama has not had any difficulty pulling white voters, per se. Where he can’t crack the nut is with the working class, whether they’re white, Latino/Latina, or something else — anything but African-American. The reason AAs are the exception is obvious: Obama has tremendous support from the entire African-American community, understandably so. AAs from every economic stratum support his candidacy. But if Obama weren’t black, working-class AAs wouldn’t vote for him either.

And no wonder. Working people need health care and Social Security, not a goddamn Unity Pony and a speech.

I’m moved to remark on this because the meme is circulating that Obama’s problem is that white working-class voters are all a bunch of Archie Bunkers who are too racist to vote for him. This meme is being pushed aggressively by the Obama campaign, especially after the huge Pennsylvania loss. Straight from Axelrod’s mouth to the pages of the New York Times, where it’s dressed up as thoughtful analysis.

The purpose of the racist meme is fivefold:

1. To distract from Obama’s real weakness — that he has nothing to offer working people and can’t get them to vote for him to save his damn life;
2. To excuse his failure by instead blaming the voters;
3. To imply that the only reason people vote for Hillary is because they’re racists, which just goes to show how nasty and icky Hillary is;
4. To subliminally remind people that the Clintons themselves are racists, at least according to the Obama campaign;
5. To once again mine the seemingly inexhaustible vein of white guilt that sends shivers up the legs of the liberal elites.

The constant repetition of the phrase “white working class” (or variations thereon) is crucial to propagating the meme. And it’s false, because it erases Latino/Latinas along with every other non-AA ethnic group, and shifts the focus away from “working class” (which is where it belongs).

So please, stop saying white working class. Don’t play into Axelrod’s game.

P.S. Similar thing with older voters.

Bingo.  Read more 

Via TeddySanFran @ FDL, the question everyone should be asking right up to election day:

So, the question is: will the ad run on Monday?

…

Is John McCain powerless? Is he impotent?

Bwahaha. Yes, these are important questions. I hope that some of our more accessible talking heads *cough* Ezra *cough* will be able to raise them on the air. As in:

Really, what people are asking right now is, why hasn’t McCain been able to gain traction with Democrats? Are we looking at an impotent campaign here, you know, one that’s never going to get any stronger towards November?

or

Well, McCain’s been taking criticism lately, and he hasn’t shown that he’s really strong enough to deflect any of it… is this the emergence of an impotent candidate?

or

“Say, do you think McCain takes Cialis because he’s impotent?”

You get the picture. Simple yet devastating. Can we pull it off?

Her op-ed piece in the NY Times tells it like it is. Go read.

Via Talk Left, Bob Somerby on Keith Olbermann and Countdown:

But then, Countdown has almost surely become the most propagandized show in cable “news” history. Yes, you can still find pure crap in the mainstream press. But pure crap abounds now on Countdown.

When we started this site, the mainstream press corps took the cake (see item above). Now, our “liberal” cable show does—and that has our analysts bollixed.

How silly does it get on Countdown? Just watch any part of the show, any night! The propaganda flow starts right away, and it rarely stops.

But wait, there’s more! The emphasis is mine.  Read more 

Paul Krugman in his latest column:

The question Democrats, both inside and outside the Obama campaign, should be asking themselves is this: now that the magic has dissipated, what is the campaign about? More generally, what are the Democrats for in this election?

That should be an easy question to answer. Democrats can justly portray themselves as the party of economic security, the party that created Social Security and Medicare and defended those programs against Republican attacks — and the party that can bring assured health coverage to all Americans.

They can also portray themselves as the party of prosperity: the contrast between the Clinton economy and the Bush economy is the best free advertisement that Democrats have had since Herbert Hoover.  Read more 

“We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain, and I will be that nominee.”

Hat tip to Talk Left.

She does it again, with help from Paul Krugman:  Read more 

Here:

If you can’t say “fuck,” I’m not coming to your new media revolution.

Bingo. Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.  Read more 

[Plays theme from Twilight Zone]:

The Republicans have good reason to hate both the Clintons - Hillary and Bill beat them. Repeatedly. The Democrats have no good reason to hate the Clintons - they beat Republicans repeatedly.

What the hell is up with my party? Disenfranchising voters to throw an election? Dclaring vast swaths of party loyalists to be racists? Deriding party stalwarts as “Republican-lite”? Dismissing the economic successes of a previous Democratic administration? Just why are the self-described progressives so frantic to remove Bill Clinton from the company of Democratic presidents? I have provided my answers, but it still remains a mind-boggling phenomenon.

Scary smart.  Read more 

Survey USA, which has been the gold standard of polls this election season, just released their latest results for Pennsylvania.

Hillary leads Obama by 18 points. MyDD has more.

SUSA was the one that correctly predicted Hillary’s 10 point win in California when many others showed it to be a close race or even had Obama ahead.

Lou Dobbs puts the smackdown on Bill Schneider trying to spin the Democratic race.

Go watch, Res ipsa loquitor.

Sideshow:

Scott linked to this Bob Somerby post which starts, but doesn’t stop, with that Gerson article. Somerby goes on to talk about the narratives that accompany the Clintons wherever they go, particularly in the press corps. These days, though, they have escaped out into the same blogosphere that used to exist largely to stamp out these lies. Gerson was going after Obama in that article, but Gene Robinson is going with the “Clintons will do or say anything to win” story, despite the fact that there is no evidence for it.

Maybe I’m more sensitive to this because I never loved the Clintons all that much, but I could see what the conservatives/Republicans were doing to the Clintons in the ’90s, and I knew which side of that I was on. The fact that the same falsehoods about the Clintons are now showing up in the supposedly-progressive threads of supposedly-progressive blogs/sites isn’t making me feel good. Of course Clinton’s supporters are horrified by it - as a non-Clinton supporter, I’m horrified by it, too. Destroying the Clintons does not help the party, and will do it serious harm in November. If Obama can’t get his campaign to discourage this crap, we will lose in November, and won’t be the Clintons’ fault.

Maybe when the people over at The Obama 527 Formerly Known As The Kos Community get tired of tax return pr0n, they can turn their attention to this little matter.  Read more 

Fucking awesome:

To Philadelphians (and the thousands of “Rocky” fans who flock here every year), this movie isn’t about winning - it’s about class.

It’s about invisible people, living in forgotten, decaying neighborhoods. It’s about the search for dignity.

It’s about making people see your life.

At the beginning of the movie, Rocky’s a nobody, a neighborhood thug. By the end of the movie, he’s somebody people look up to. That was the trophy. That was the point of the whole damned movie.

The Clinton-bashers already have such a high opinion of their own self-worth, they can’t possibly understand Hillary Clinton’s appeal to the working class, or why “Rocky” resonates with her and her supporters. I’ll tell you why:

She sees them.

She sees them, and not like a particularly distasteful bug under a microscope, or as a bunch of bigots (as convenient as that might be for some to think).

This woman who has spent her entire life in public service connects with working people. Well, why wouldn’t she? They know life is hard and courage means to get up every day and keep trying.

This is Jesse Jackson’s “they work every day,” and not, I might add, “Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions”, and definitely not “You are wearing me out, brother”.  Read more 

[UPDATE See The Responsible Plan]
Turkana channels Naomi Klein:

Naomi Klein recently published what I consider to be the best book on politics in at least a generation. I’ve mentioned it in previous posts, and I will undoubtedly do so again. Many times. It should be required reading for anyone who claims to be politically informed. So, I also want everyone to click over to Huffington Post, and read her new article, with Jeremy Scahill:

Sixty-four per cent of Americans tell pollsters they oppose the war, but you’d never know it from the thin turnout at recent anniversary rallies and vigils.

When asked why they aren’t expressing their anti-war opinions through the anti-war movement, many say they have simply lost faith in the power of protest. They marched against the war before it began, marched on the first, second and third anniversaries. And yet five years on, U.S. leaders are still shrugging: “So?”

There is no question that the Bush administration has proven impervious to public pressure. That’s why it’s time for the anti-war movement to change tactics. We should direct our energy where it can still have an impact: the leading Democratic contenders.

Because Klein and Scahill also understand that although both Democratic candidates are much more honest and realistic than John McCain, when discussing Iraq, neither is coming close to being honest and realistic enough.

Look past the rhetoric and it becomes clear that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton has a real plan to end the occupation. They could, however, be forced to change their positions—thanks to the unique dynamics of the prolonged primary battle.

Despite the calls for Clinton to withdraw in the name of “unity,” it is the very fact that Clinton and Obama are still fighting it out, fiercely vying for votes, that presents the anti-war movement with its best pressure point. And our pressure is badly needed.

Well said.  Read more 

It means nothing to the dead and little to their families, but it’s still an important step in moving this nation back towards sanity. Conservative blogger Cole bitchslaps the stupidest of Villagers thusly:

see that Andrew Sullivan was asked to list what he got wrong about Iraq for the five year anniversary of the invasion, and since I was as big a war booster as anyone, I thought I would list what I got wrong:

Everything.

And I don’t say that to provide people with an easy way to beat up on me, but I do sort of have to face facts. I was wrong about everything.

I was wrong about the Doctrine of Pre-emptive warfare.
I was wrong about Iraq possessing WMD.
I was wrong about Scott Ritter and the inspections.
I was wrong about the UN involvement in weapons inspections.
I was wrong about the containment sanctions.
I was wrong about the broader impact of the war on the Middle East.
I was wrong about this making us more safe.
I was wrong about the number of troops needed to stabilize Iraq.
I was wrong when I stated this administration had a clear plan for the aftermath.
I was wrong about securing the ammunition dumps.
I was wrong about the ease of bringing democracy to the Middle East.
I was wrong about dissolving the Iraqi army.
I was wrong about the looting being unimportant.
I was wrong that Bush/Cheney were competent.
I was wrong that we would be greeted as liberators.
I was wrong to make fun of the anti-war protestors.
I was wrong not to trust the dirty smelly hippies.

I mean, I could go down the list and continue on, but you get the point. I was wrong about EVERY. GOD. DAMNED. THING. It is amazing I could tie my shoes in 2001-2004. If you took all the wrongness I generated, put it together and compacted it and processed it, there would be enough concentrated stupid to fuel three hundred years of Weekly Standard journals. I am not sure how I snapped out of it, but I think Abu Ghraib and the negative impact of the insurgency did sober me up a bit.

War should always be an absolute last resort, not just another option. I will never make the same mistakes again.

I salute you, Cole. It takes a real man to stand up and say, “I was wrong.” Kudos.

A chilled out oasis opens up in the pit o’ hell that is Newsweek/WaPo’s “On Faith,” whenever Jacques Berlinerblau puts in his two cents.

I will proclaim that “there is no religious freedom without freedom from religion.” The two go hand in hand.

Among Berlinerblau’s god-given talents is the ability to like Obama and question his religiosity at the same time.

Sometimes the quest for faith opens up unfathomable questions.  Read more 

Gene Lyons:

Watching [some] overwrought Democrats carry on about the extended presidential primary season, it was my wife, a baseball and basketball coach’s daughter, who wondered, “Haven’t any of these people ever seen a seven-game series ?” Exactly. Take my favorite ever, the 2004 American League Championship Series. Baseball fans already know where I’m going with this.

With the Boston Red Sox down three games to none, I was determined to ride Game 4 out to the bitter end. It wasn’t like I’d never seen a Yankees victory celebration before. Bill Mueller was coming up in the ninth. He figured to get on base. Anything could still happen. Anything did. Mueller drove in the tying run, Big Papi hit a walk-off shot in the 12 th, and the Red Sox ended up winning the ALCS and sweeping the World Series. That was the year Curt Schilling, my kind of Republican, pitched Game 6 with an ankle tendon sutured in place and his shoe filling with blood.

See, here’s the thing about sports fans: We know the rules, we know how the game’s scored, and we know it ain’t over until it’s over. We have little patience for dilettantes who don’t. Would that overwrought political pundits and Barack Obama supporters, to come to the point, understood those things.

Bingo. Heck, remember Dave Henderson in 1986?

So, could the Boys on the Blogs* and the Obama campaing — assuming there’s a difference — stop whining, clutching their pearls, and heading for the fainting couch now?  Read more 

Exactly:

There’s stuff I prefer not to emphasize too much because it’s already too destructive, but I have to admit to bitter laughter when I hear people say that Obama needs to go negative on Hillary because he’s never done that before. He certainly has. And it’s clearly deliberate.  Read more 

Why should he? It’s all a non-issue for Republicans, so why should Democrats be held to a different standard? So the so-called Justice Department can carve another notch on the bedpost for taking down another Democratic governor, like they did Spiegelman? Forget about it. And Jeralyn raises the key issue for all the moralists and high horse experts out there:

[Spitzer laywer Michelle] Hirshman — a former assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan — also argued that if federal prosecutors brought charges against Mr. Spitzer, they would be required to similarly charge the nine other unnamed clients> in a federal complaint unsealed last Thursday, to avoid what’s known in legal circles as “selective prosecution.” None of the other nine unnamed clients have been charged in the case.

Bingo. Shouldn’t everybody be calling for all 9 to be prosecuted, not just Spitzer? And Ted Haggard too, for good measure? Why aren’t they, I wonder?

At most, here’s what Spitzer should do:  Read more 

My day to be nice to people, I guess. Must be the the prospect of setting my clock back (or is it forward?) What eriposte said:

It is a sad day when FactCheck.org actually debunks the unsubstantiated crap on allegedly “progressive” blogs.

eRiposte then goes on to demolish the claims that the Clinton camp artificially darkened Obama’s image. Kevin Drum agrees.

Hey, remember when the Freepi were going nuts analyzing the serifs in third-generation xeroxes?  Read more 

Yes, the report is at Nice Polite Republicans but you still need to hear out Montana’s Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, on the load of crap that is RealID.

Avedon:

And if FDR himself had to go to the convention and through four ballots to get the nomination, I don’t see why Hillary and Obama can’t do the same.

Bingo.  Read more