November, 2006 archive

. . . of the people who wound up looking good, and came off looking bad. Here is his list; follow the link for his reasoning:

THE WINNERS

1. George H. W. Bush.

2. Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer.

3. Joe Lieberman.

4. John McCain.

5. Joe Biden.

—
LOSERS

1. Dick Cheney.

2. George Allen.

3. Dennis Hastert.

4. Tom DeLay.

5. Karl Rove.

One man’s take:

. . . All the states Lincoln fought against are now the bastions of his own party.

(snip)

The GOP is now very much the party of Dixie; and the consequence of this election is that the Congressional leadership is even more Southern than it was before. The irony is that it was the moderate Republicans who were disproportionately punished electorally by the extremists in their midst. And so the party that lost because of its extremists now sees itself more dominated by the extremists. Nixon’s cynical ploy – played beyond the extreme by Rove – has, in other words, come back to haunt and defeat his party in the end. Because it over-reached.

There seem to have been relatively few polling problems yesterday, and those that happened were readily explained, despite some dirty tricks which led the Commonwealth of Virginia to call for help from the FBI.

No doubt because Katherine Harris was otherwise occupied.

And, despite the hysteria in certain areas of Left Blogistan, there is no indication of hacked voting machines.

We owe thanks to the poll workers–often poorly or unpaid, many of them volunteers–who pulled this thing off with respect for the procedures of American democracy.

I’m not saying I agree, but I think it’s worth thinking about.

Americans have put the breaks on one-party rule. They have judged the GOP to be guilty of hubris – a vice that typically afflicts those who wield clout without accountability – and so they have decided on the punishment, which is that now President Bush, in his lame duck years, must share power with those whom he only recently demonized as bad for America. He has basically spent the political capital that he boasted about in November of 2004, and now the bill has come due.

Americans decided tonight that Bush should be held accountable for the $2-billion-a-week stasis strategy in Iraq, and that his party should be held accountable for the institutional corruption in Washington. They did not signal a rejection of conservatism per se, nor did they endorse a return to liberalism. Their essential message was far more practical. They said to the ruling Republicans: you had your shot at doing things your way, you’ve screwed up, so now the other side gets a chance.

I made it to the polling place about 10.

Surprisingly enough, for mid-morning, there was a fairly steady stream of voters in and out, though I did not have to wait.

One of my neighbors, who was serving as a poll worker, told me the turnout had been pretty good, not great.

I voted. Straight Democrat. Despite what I said here, I decided that the message was more important than the man.

It’s time for the forces of Truth, Justice, and the American Way to reclaim the national polity.

A 54-year-old Orange Park man credits two small Bibles in his shirt pocket for saving his life when they stopped a bullet.

But, then again, here.

Hear them here:

NPR talks with voice over narrators who specialize in negative ads. (I heard the interview–it was a hoot, especially when the narrators unleased their talents on nursery rhymes).

Does anything illustrate the moral, intellectual, and political bankruptcy of the current Federal Administration and its sycophants more than their belief that, to win the election, they must masquerade as Democrats?

Andrew Sullivan on waterboarding.

In my part of the Greater Philadelphia Co-Prosperity Sphere, folks who have a chip on their shoulder are said to have an “attytood.”

Sometimes they have a good reason.

Today’s Quotes of the Day, from the Quotemaster. The last one is the best.

Our elections are free, it’s in the results where eventually we pay.
– Bill Stern

In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or
the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
– Charles de Gaulle, 1899 – 1970

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the
most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are
those who try to tell them the truth. A Galileo could no more
be elected president of the United States than he could be
elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men
favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the
bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.
– Henry Louis Mencken, 1880 – 1956

Californians seem to understand that government’s major
function is to entertain. No matter who is elected, the
politicos end up swindling us, wasting our tax money on
pork-barrel projects. The only way to reclaim at least some
of that lost money is to elect politicians who put on a good show.
– Orange County Register

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or
before an election.
– Otto von Bismarck, 1815 – 1898

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are
decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy
two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.
– Lily Tomlin

Here.

Whoops.

Sorry.

Doubt.

John Amato is right.

Factcheck dot org looks into the biggest lies of the campaign advertising season:

Much of what we found went well beyond the bounds of honest advocacy, and would warrant dismissal for any reporter who tried to pass it off as an accurate news story. We believe reasonable citizens will also find these distortions to be unacceptable even in political advertising, where a certain amount of puffery is expected and tolerated. It’s one thing to present your own case in the best light and to point out the flaws in your opponent. But a lot of what we encountered was far from the truth.

(snip)

In addition to a general disregard for factual accuracy, we also found systematic attempts to mislead voters about some of the most important issues of the day. Republicans repeatedly mischaracterized Democratic positions on dealing with terrorism. Democrats continued to claim that the Medicare drug benefit is somehow bad for seniors when in fact it saves them hundreds of dollars per year on average.

Good reading before Tuesday.

Personals from the London Review of Books:

Long seen as cold fish compared to the torrid Latin lovers of Italy and France, the book, titled “They Call Me Naughty Lola”, shows that Britons are not all stiff-upper lip with this collection from the world’s strangest lonely hearts section.

“Woman, 32, needful of the finer things in life seeks stinking rich bloke, 80-100,” one ad says. “Must be willing to fibrillate his ventricles when he becomes tiresome or bankrupt or both. Also interesting thirtysomethings for illicit, immoral affair to be conducted concurrently with the above.”

More at the link.

The current Federal Administration wishes to bar captives detainees in Gitmo from talking about how the current Federal Administration has treated them:

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets and that their release — even to the detainees’ own attorneys — “could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage.” Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques and foil government efforts to elicit information about their methods and plots, according to government documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Oct. 26.

Yeah.

Right.

Sensitive national security secrets.

Such as that the current Federal Administration’s claims that “We don’t torture” is another Bush lie.

It’s not national security that is at risk here. What is threatened exposure is the years of hypocrisy of the current Federal Administration.

And they dare to prostitute the National Honor (well, what little they have left to the Nation) to protect their own sorry sadistic behinds.

As promised, here is FactCheck.org’s analysis of ads by the Democratic Party. Follow the link for the complete analysis:

Gauging by the attack ads flowing from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s House contenders are running against Exxon, Pfizer and Bush. The ads tie Republican House candidates to unpopular industries and an unpopular President. Some of these ads are exaggerations.

At times DCCC ads run completely off the rails of factual accuracy. One falsely implies that an Illinois candidate tried to ban Dr. Seuss books from schools. Another correctly states that an Ohio candidate was investigated “for abusing her position,” but fails to mention that the investigation found “no substance” to the allegation. Others claim Republicans voted to “raid the Social Security trust fund,” a bit of misleading nonsense we’ve noted previously.

What follows is our analysis of 143 ads from the DCCC that have appeared since Labor Day, nearly all of them attack ads. For our take on ads from the DCCC’s counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, see the article we posted Oct. 27.

Of course, as far as I am concerned, support of the current Federal Administration and its depredations is sufficient to send a candidate to the unemployment line.

I have been at home the last three days.

The phone has run steadily, seven or eight times a day. Almost all the calls have come from “Unknown Name/Unknown Number.” Some have come from “Unknown Name/866-xxx-xxxx.”

One came from “Real Name/Real Number.” It turned out to be “Real Name/Real Wrong Number.”

One came from “Obvious Marketing Name/Real Number.” I actually answered that one. I wanted to compliment them on not disguising their number.

But it was a recording asking me to validate an application for a new mortgage–an application I had not sent.

The Unknowns get to ring over to the answering machine. If they really want to talk with me, they can leave a message.

Surprise, surprise, surprise, no messages.

Caller ID rocks.

My one or two regular readers may have noticed that the percentage of posts with political themes has diminished over the past couple of weeks–I have done a couple linking to analyses that I found interesting or enlightening, but nothing about the issues.

Anyone who hasn’t figured out the issues yet shouldn’t be voting.

(Aside: I am against “motor voter registration” for a related opinion–someone who can’t be bothered to go down the registrar’s office for an hour or two when he or she moves shouldn’t be voting. I guess some people would feel that, in place of a poll tax, I’m favoring an apathy tax. But, dammit, if you don’t care enough to register, you probably don’t care enough to vote intelligently. The apathy tax is one that the apathetic impose on themselves, and they deserve to pay it.)

Voting is neither a right nor a privilege.

It’s a duty.

I’m sick of the campaign and can’t wait for it to be done (with the good guys winning, I hope). The news is so saturated with the same old thing day after day, that it seems to me that any posts I might do will be deja vu all over again, since anyone who dips into my archives will quickly find out where my sympathies lie.

But one thing has certain held true during this election cycle. Bush continues to lie. Not spin, though he also can do a convincing imitation of a top. Just lie.

And we don’t need liars and their sycophants guiding our polity.

Do your duty. Vote. Inform that vote with morality, true American values, and truth.

I just saw an ad for this, or something very similar:

Now, I’m not feeling particularly Christmassy, but that’s another issue.

It’s just too early (even though Harry Shearer reported in, I think, last week’s Le Show–Real Player required–that Christmas decorations were up in Harrod’s in London.) I haven’t been to the mall for a while, but I bet they are up in the mall, also.

Going to the dogs:

The owners of a cocker spaniel have told how their beloved pet became addicted to licking poisonous toads for their mind-bending properties.

Laura Mirsch said her dog Lady returned to their new home from one binge at the local pond “disoriented and withdrawn, soporific and glassy-eyed”.