Trying Google's video search gadget

So far: meh.

Talking Richard Cohen Blues # 199,323

I just heard that peurile dolt, Richard Cohen, on Hardball. The discussion was about McCain saying that payroll taxes "are on the table," despite McCain often having said he will not raise taxes.

Cohen said that it shows that occasionally McCain will tell the truth.

By that token, then the .001 per cent of the time that McCain says he may raise taxes is the truth. The 99.999 percent of the time he says the exact opposite, he's telling untruths.

It's a binary choice: raise taxes or don't raise taxes. There's no fudging it. Cohen thinks that McCain us almost always telling falsehoods: and he admires him for very occasoinally not outright lying like he does the almost all the time he talks about taxes.

If Cohen loves McCain's maverickyness so much, shouldn't the Washington Post get a liberal to replace him?

Compare and Contrast

Introduction to an Obama interview in the Jerusalem Post:

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists.

In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and I conducted with him, looked to Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction.

On Wednesday evening, toward the end of his packed one-day visit here, Barack Obama, the Democratic senator who is leading the race for the White House and who lacks long years of foreign policy involvement, spoke to The Jerusalem Post with only a single aide in his King David Hotel room, and that aide's sole contribution to the conversation was to suggest that the candidate and I switch seats so that our photographer would get better lighting for his pictures.

Several of Obama's Middle East advisers - including former Clinton special envoy Dennis Ross and ex-ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer - were hovering in the vicinity. But Obama, who was making only his second visit to Israel, knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects.

Of course, McCain's aides actually get quite pissy about interview lighting and stage management.

Good/Bad News

Good news: BBC America is airing Spaced, a spectacularly funny and inventive comedy that introduced me to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (creators of the great movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), as well as Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), Nick Frost, and fine character actors Julia Deakin and Mark Heap.

Spaced is essentially a buddy sitcom (with the main buddies being a young man and woman -- Platonic roomates -- played by Pegg and Stevenson/Hynes), but it doesn't look like any other sitcom, though Arrested Development swiped some of the antic filming style. The writing is both strongly character-based and joke-laden (smartly so) and the filmic style is packed with clever direction and endless cinematic allusions and parodies. It definitely repays attention.

Bad news: generally it's airing late night/early morning on BBC America. DVR it!

Good news: The DVDs are soon to be available in the US. Ideal gifts for the astute cinephile, or great rentals from Netflix.

Spaced is just the sort of tv show that would have a kickass fan site.

Adamn Nagourney: Pompous Dickhead

"I've never had an experience like this, with this campaign or others. I thought they crossed the line. If you have a problem with a story I write, call me first. I'm a big boy. I can handle it. But they never called. They attacked me like I'm a political opponent."

Adam Nagourney of the NY Times

Nagourney, you wrote a piece called "Poll Finds Obama Isn't Closing Divide on Race" for the public at large. It's in the NYT and gets picked up by dozens of smaller outlets around the country. Millions of people could read it or part of it.

It was a really hackish piece, and had to be rebutted to the public at large to whom it was addressed. If instead the Obama campaign contacted you to talk about it sotto voce, would you write a piece the next day saying "My piece yesterday was totally wrongheaded and awful. I take it all back." Of course you wouldn't have--and even if you had, your initial turd would still be in the punchbowl.

Unfortunately, your idiocy had to be addressed after it had gotten out into the mediastream. If you were writing in your diary, then they could correct you personally. But instead they had to correct the broad and idiotic misimpression you created.

I don't understand this foolishness. Does he expect to make mistakes via a huge megaphone and only have those mistakes corrected to him personally behind closed doors, so the lies just sit out there?

There Will Be Blood

Shorter Washington Post Editorial Page:

It's not a war for oil, hippy. It's a war for oil company profits, and we'll lie about self-evident facts to continue it.

This is from one of the nation's formerly great newspapers. Man, this country is so fucked.

Matrix vs. Metamucil

From Ben Smith's Blog: The day in images - Politico.com







Thanks to a commenter there for the headline.

Fox-Light!

uggabugga points to a horribly slanted (anti-Obama) report from ABC News.

The only two Iraqis they showed were not only supporting the Bush-McCain line, but did it in the PR-gobbledy speak currently popular with Bush and McCain.

One of them said "...taking into consideration what's going on on the ground," which is a focus group tested line from the Republicans. Funny how those things make their way to the Baghdad Green Zone.

With the anti-Clinton 9/11 docudrama, that ridiculous Hannity-driven anti-Obama "debate" which consisted of about 45-minutes of policy-free ad hominem questioning, and the importance of Mark "I Love Rush Limbaugh" Halperin as their political director, ABC has become Fox Light.

Assholes.

Zombie Disraeli

Zombie Disraeli sets off John Holbo at Crooked Timber:

"What Brooks is arguing for is for Rockefeller Republicanism. The idea that you are ok with the New Deal, but you want a mean and flinty old man from New England to guard the money to pay for the largesse. But the Republicans just spend the last 40 years hunting that lot to extinction, starting with Goldwater in ‘64. But there is really no way to advocate Rockefeller Republicanism without admitting that ‘mistakes have been made’ – just as there is no way the Republicans can be the party of civil rights without admitting that ‘mistakes have been made’. Admitting you have a problem is obviously not enough. But it is a necessary first step."

It's well worth reading the whole of that long post, but I particularly enjoyed that section.

Fournier Analysis

Why has AP coverage of Obama been more than usually anti-Democrat this season? Here's a hint.

I've long been under the impression thatFournier is French for Prostitute.

Too bad the AP is taken over by right-wing sycophants this election season.

McCain: Adulterer and Bigamist

The LA Times reports thatMcCain got his marriage license to Cindy before he divorced his first wife. Funny, he told it differently in his biography.

Two wives at once: maybe he'll be more comfortable with Mormon Romney that I suspected.

Also, he committed adultery, which is breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Maybe when he said he would follow Osama to the gates of Hell that's because McCain knew that the old flyboy was going to end up there anyway.

McCain: A Pensioner Against Pensions!

McCain thinks the way Social Security is funded is a "disgrace," since current workers pay for retirees.

He's been taking Navy retirement / disability checks for decades: those are paid by taxing current workers. He's not even taxed on them. Does he think that's a disgrace too?

I don't begrudge him disability at all--but he apparently begrudges Social Security for everyone else.

And more McCain economic absurdity from Kevin Drum and from the irreplacable Hilzoy.

McCain Wishes He Had Bush's Silver Tongue

McCain isn't Bush: he's worse in many ways. Here, however, we'll only focus on how his brain fails his vocal cords.

Remember, the speaker is Mark Salter, who is on McCain's payroll and a true believer:

“[He] doesn’t ever want to be something that he is not,” Mr. Salter said, including trying to pass himself off as a larger-than-life figure on stage. “There’s nothing in there about him that wants to be rarefied.”


"Mr. Salter bemoans the current environment, in which, he said, “the press creates the expectation that you better not stumble on a word, or tell a joke that Mr. Rogers wouldn’t tell, or you’re going to be in trouble.”"

To the contrary, Mr. Salter: McCain's only chance is the current media environment, which overlooks his gaffes, befuddlement, and failure to grasp issues in favor of restating "HE'S A HERO!" as often and as unquestioningly as possible.

Florida Prenup

Florida bachelor-governor Charlie Crist, engaged at age 51 to Carole Rome. Rome owns a Halloween costume company.

I'm sure it specializes in beards.

[Hat tip to uggabugga]

McCain and Craps: Elite and Old

Private high-stakes Vegas craps tables for McCain? That shows that McCain really is out of touch and from a different America than anyone I know.

It's not only that I don't even know the rules for craps while I play occasional friendly low-stakes games of poker.

But I associate craps with really old guys, and old movies. Practically the only times I see people playing craps is from movies or photos made before I was born.

Except when I see pictures of McCain at the craps table.

Dowd Mind

Maureen Dowd comes in for some deserved criticism from the NYT public editor, as noted by Talking Points Memo.

Dowd's response shows she really can't grapple with the critique of her.

"From the time I began writing about politics," Dowd said, "I have always played with gender stereotypes and mined them and twisted them to force the reader to be conscious of how differently we view the sexes." Now, she said, "you are asking me to treat Hillary differently than I've treated the male candidates all these years, with kid gloves."

No, you idiot. The problem with Dowd is that she inflates her own psychodramas and psychosexual issues onto the national stage--and generally to diminish Democrats. Digby has a typically excellent review. And Daily Howler, which has been accurately assessing Dowd for years, adds some important points.

I'll step back even further to point out the larger problem with our media. Much of the so-called "political" media who almost never deal with policy or politics or the objective state of the nation and the world. Most evident from Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, even this recent Kurt Andersen piece, these people reduce the politics of the United States to their own psyches and then tell a narrative that is unrecognizable outside their own ids.

It's even worse than horse-race reporting or political coverage as theater reviewing: it's cheap pop-self-psychologizing treated as some sort of contribution to the national discourse.

And the people who do it are often so psychologically damaged that they twist politics into the shape of their ugly unresolved personal issues.

Maureen Dowd has serious issues with men (and women), she likes to bash Democrats, and this shit floods out in her columns.

A lesser-known piece about Dowd, which includes an illuminating anecdote, is at G-Spot . For those who have read it,there's more: Kathy G has posted an update.

So, Dowd, just so you know, contra your complaints, many men have been complaining about how you reflexively bash Democratic male candidates with the same standard-issue Republican gender crap. You've been doing that for years and it has nothing to do with Hillary.

Please stop. You're hurting America and killing a great paper.

Addled Offal

Great News!

BBC 7 has begun airing Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show!, and you can hear it over the internet at the link above.

Currently it's Episode one of six, with successive episodes appearing every Thursday. I believe, from the description, that this is the first episode of series one (there have been 3 series so far, with another radio series due late this year or early next).

I really like Ed Reardon's Week, but I think I may like the good Count even more, making him perhaps the funniest comic creation on radio.

I also can't wait to see his show Count Arthur Strong: The Musical? Since I'm in the US, I'll probably have to wait for the DVD release, due sometime this summer I believe.

More Count Arthur Strong:

Wikipedia
Official site

Tragicomic Quote of the Day

Roy Edroso:

If Obama gets shot, I expect the Roberts Commission will rule that he was resisting arrest.

That wouldn't surprise me.

Clinton Republicans for McCain

Well, well....look who purchased and registered the domain ClintonsForMcCain.com. The Republican National Committee!

WHOIS domain registration information for clintonsformccain.com
==================

clintonsformccain.com

Services from Network Solutions:
 Registrant:
 Republican National Committee
 310 First Street SE
 Washington, DC 20003
 US

 Domain Name: CLINTONSFORMCCAIN.COM

 Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
 Republican National Committee
 dns@rnchq.org
 310 First Street SE
 Washington, DC 20003
 US
 Phone: 202-863-8500
 Fax: 202-863-8851

 Record expires on 15-May-2010
 Record created on 15-May-2008
 Database last updated on 15-May-2008

 Domain servers in listed order:  Manage DNS

 NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET    
 NS2.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET

 Current Registrar:  NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
 IP Address:  1.1.1.1 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
 IP Location:  -(-)
 Lock Status:  clientTransferProhibited
 DMOZ  no listings
 Y! Directory:  see listings
 Data as of:  14-Jun-2005
==================

They registered it on 15 May, which is 2 days after the West Virginia Dem.
Primary.

The RNC may seem feeble now. Just remember: while Republicans can't govern or run a war, they sure can smear their political opponents. Get ready for a shitstorm from these creeps.

Not Old Age. Bad Experience.

It's not his age, it's that his experience is horrible.

Steven Suh has a great post up about what's wrong with McCain.

McCain would be just as clueless if he was 30 years younger. He'd be just as much of a jerk - he has been just as much of a jerk - no matter what age he's been. He was whoring himself out to lobbyists and corrupt businesses long before he reached the age at which it's ok to make fun of him. John McCain didn't live up to his own rhetoric decades ago. He has not only reversed himself on issues, he's done so on issues that supposedly define him as a human being, not just a politician: torture and detainee treatment, civil liberties, the power of the Executive Branch, proper American foreign policy, immigration - to call what he's done "flip-flopping" would be a grevious deception, because the truth of the matter is that he's a moral coward, a liar, a convictionless freak of America's dangerous right wing who, if anything, will actually make matters worse for this country than George W. Bush has.

That's John McCain, that's been John McCain, and it will always be John McCain. His age has nothing to do with it; therefore it should have nothing to do with us.

I, for one, won't be dumping on McCain's age. He'd be a terrible president at any age.