First Looks category archive

Kill time tomorrow before the returns start coming in at the Plough and Stars, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.

This is a different venue from the usual one.

Reject the politics of hate.

“With the head of our enemy, to deliver to our emperor.”

“I think the United States losts its way . . . .”

Via the Booman Tribune.

Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and jeers.

With apologies to Sheldon Harnick.

Adam Felber on the cluelessness of Imaginary Bubba:

Imaginary Bubba lives in the heads of the punditocracy, and as soon as a debate is over, everyone on the news networks rushes forward to tell you what their Imaginary Bubba thought of what went down.

(snip)

. . . Imaginary Bubba doesn’t represent the American people as faithfully as his hosts think. In fact, Imaginary Bubba is wayyy out of touch with Joe Sixpack, which is odd, because they went to junior high together. But in the first three debates, Imaginary Bubba, largely, called it a tie. A slight McCain advantage in the first, maybe.

What made this all the more startling is that the pundits ignored actual Bubbas in favor of their imaginary ones.

(snip)

Of course, all three times, (the post-debate–ed.) polls turned out to be right, an accurate reflection of how the debates were perceived, and Imaginary Bubba turned out to be wrong.

A new victim of Bushonomics has, as Duncan would say, been eated (emphasis added):

Regulators on Friday shut down Freedom Bank, a small bank located in Bradenton, Fla. It was the 17th failure this year of a federally insured bank.

(snip)

The FDIC said the bank’s deposits will be assumed by Fifth Third Bank of Grand Rapids, Mich. Its four branches will reopen Monday as offices of Fifth Third Bank.

Aside: What the heck kind of name is “Fifth Third Bank”? It sounds like the name of a bank in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

For all those folks who think they can tell a Real American(tm) from a–whyaddya call em?–Fake American:

Via Adam Felber.

More here.

(Aside: I still haven’t identified the juncture at which celebration became an excuse for vandalism.)

Via Glomarization.

Well, we won’t talk about that, but it was a great week.

The second best $24 I ever spent was my trial subscription to The Nation.

The magazine takes no prisoners.

I both anticipate and dread its arrival every week, because I know that, when it arrives, I must put my mind to work.

I fell behind reading it this month, so I took four issues with me on my trip the past two days and ploughed through them at the various restaurants where I dined (if you can call “Popeye’s” dining, but the “Captain’s Deck” sure throws a mean breakfast).

It is well-writen, tightly reasoned, based on facts, and easily the most intellectually challenging magazine I have ever read.

The Nation (emphasis added):

. . . The administration’s guiding ideology was explained by the famous but anonymous Bush aide who informed reporter Ron Suskind of the impotence of the “reality-based community”–defined by said aide as individuals who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he explained. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality–judiciously, as you will–we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” The net consequences of this philosophy can be seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, the Justice Department, the budget deficit, the housing crisis, the banking crisis, etc. And yet it retains a certain salience in the Alice in Wonderland atmosphere of our political system–particularly with what remains of the Republican base.

The McCain campaign is doubling down on this bet. Each new day brings a revelation that the candidate has lied, flip-flopped, appeared dazed and confused or has hypocritically contradicted himself from the day before, and the campaign’s response is always the same: “Liberalmedia, liberalmedia, liberalmedia.” When questioned by Politico.com about the naked lies the campaign has been peddling, spokesman Brian Rogers was explicit: “We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.” GOP strategist John Feehery was no less reticent about his disrespect for reporters and for reality: “The more the New York Times and the Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there’s a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she’s new, she’s popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent…. As long as those are out there, these little facts don’t really matter.”

In other words, as far as Republicans are concerned, truth is not a defense. If lies work, they lie.

When I was at the home today visiting my mother and attending the semi-annual care meeting (a routine review of treatment and progress), I also looked up my aunt. She was playing bridge–she is actually quite the cardshark–with three other old ladies.

One of them was the mother of a classmate of mine. The conversation slid into politics (as many of my conversations do) after I mentioned that First Son has seen combat in George Bush’s Glorious and Patriotic War for a Lie, and she said, “I can’t wait for Obama to win.”

The other old Southern white ladies looked at her a little funny.

Now, this is an old Southern white lady who, 40 years ago, had she been driving her “household help” home after a day’s work, might have expected her “household help” to sit in the back seat.

There was a little bit of discussion, because my Aunt said of Senator Obama, “Well, not him.”

I pointed out that elections are about who’s running, not about who we wished were running.

General agreement.

And I said, “Frankly, I would be happy just to see someone in the White House who is honest.”

More General Agreement, in spades.

I gave out an Obama sticker–the lady who was a mother of a classmate of mine said that she would put it on her door. (The world becomes very small in the home.)

Anyhoo–back the the quotation from The Nation:

Look at the record.

Republicans lie like cheap whores

Early and often.

Why persons of good will persist in believing them is beyond me.

Oh, yeah. Can anyone say, “Keating Five“?

From US News and World Report:

University of Kentucky police cut down a likeness of Sen. Barack Obama that had been hanged in effigy Wednesday morning, the Kentucky Kernel reports. The likeness, which was found hanging from a tree between a parking lot and a school building between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., wore khaki pants, a blue sports coat, and a mask of a black man, according to one of the students who first saw the figure. “I was disgusted and hurt someone would deface the university and put something up of this magnitude,” student A. J. Mertz said.

There’s really nothing more to say.

He said, “I will always be honest with you.”

He is, obviously, by that statement, not a Republican.

Man, I’m glad I’m not in Philadelphia. I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.

I was in Philly in a hotel (they had the best snapper soup in Philly) when the Sixers won the NBA championship. Philadelphia fans thought it was appropriate to celebrate by driving around Center City honking their horns. I was, frankly, so angry I was trying to figure out how to open the window in the hotel and throw things at the street.

But this a good team, full of good guys who are genuinely likable, and I’m glad they won.

And, as Samuel Pepys would have said, to bed.

You won’t see this on Cops.

It just stinks.

Wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t been bla–oh, never mind.

Go here. Read and learn. This one’s going on my blogroll.

Oddly enough, my mother’s name is Helen and my aunt’s–my father’s older sister–name is Margaret and they’ve known each other since 1944, but these aren’t them.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Billboard in lower Delaware:

An eye for an eye makes the world go blind.

Maryland license plate (which I assume refers to 7-11’s worst nightmare):

GO2WAWA

Maryland license plate:

IAM4IU

(Indiana University? International Unit?)

Bumper sticker (I want one) on a Delaware vehicle:

Proud To Live in a Blue State

Lots of Obama yard signs, a smattering of McCain signs (more as I got into Virginia, but still Obama signs in the majority). Of course, the yard sign survey and five dollars will get you a cup of coffee in New York City.

Truth is our friend. And the friend of the nation.

Complacency is the enemy.

This is going beyond absurd to silly:

An upstart group calling itself the “National Republican Trust PAC” mixes a pile of false claims and the image of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta to create one of the sleaziest false TV ads of the campaign.

• The spot falsely claims Obama has a “plan” to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. In fact, Obama has said quite specifically, “I am not proposing that that’s what we do.”
• The ad implies such licenses would enable terrorist attacks. In fact, Atta wouldn’t have needed one to carry out his attacks.
• It claims that Obama’s health care plan will apply to illegal immigrants. But Obama has stated quite clearly that his plan “does not” cover illegal immigrants.
• The ad falsely claims that Obama’s plan “gives illegals Social Security benefits,” which is also flatly untrue.

They don’t have the balls to come out and say, “We agin’ him ’cause he black.”

To catch up on Fact Checks I’ve missed while I’ve been playing data recovery tech, including not only McCain lies, but also a few Obama spins, go here.