Debate Pt. 3: The Final Conflict

It appears that Obama has won...again.

McCain was doing really well during the first half of the debate, but it seemed as the second half continued, he was weaving a rope to hang himself with. His mocking quip regarding the health of the mother in the case of will definitely lose points with the independents and he can kiss the Clinton supporters goodbye. I think the only people that will be happy with his performance are his alienated and angry base.

GUILTY...but not guilty?

Governor Sarah Palin, Republican candidate for the vice-presidency, according to the bi-partisan Alaska Legislature body investigating the issue of Troopergate have determined that she did in fact abuse her power and "the trust of her office" when she pressured Walter Monegan, commissioner of Public Safety, to fire her former brother-in-law, however, they also ruled that she is not guilty of committing any wrong-doing in firing him for that reason because as governor she has the right to fire public officials whenever it suits her.

Which makes no sense at all.

Obama's 30 Minute Spot

The Obama campaign has bought 30 minutes of airtime and are making one big ad out of it. I don't think this is a good idea. Now, if they broke that up to where every commercial break featured an Obama ad, I think that would be more clever. But I really do not see how this would appeal to anyone except his base. Joe Blow Voter has the attention span of a gnat which served as the motivating factor for 30-second news.

Ross Perot tried this tactic, and while I admit that he did draw a lot of viewers even though listening to his logic was sheer torture, I can't even see Obama's charismatic style holding people for 30 straight minutes. The debates were different, because they promised to be entertaining, but a 30-minute fireside chat is expecting a lot from a population of an increasingly lowered attention span.

"That One"

I am more interested in this comment from a tactical POV.

I must say that McCain couldn't have been thinking before he spoke when he made this comment. Had he said "that man" or "that guy" or preferably just "Senator Obama" it wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. But "that one?" Seriously, those two words can break open a floodgate of dissent from all but those who fervently support McCain. I usually don't make a big deal about gaffes unless they are completely ridiculous, but I have to call McCain out on this one because using "that one" in reference to a minority is bound to cause an uproar.

The Keating Five

Here It Is! SNL Does the VP Debate

WE'RE SAVED!

The House finally got its act together and passed the Bailout bill. Now let's hope that while the economy is recovering, that they will put regulations in place to prevent this from happening again.

UPDATE: Bush signed it the bill...it is official. Now we pray and wait.

Biden/Palin Debate

I confess that Palin was not as bad as I expected, but given that my bar for her was so low that the mere fact that she didn't run off the stage gave her bonus points. Her response about the power of the VP being "expanded" was confusing and frightening at the same time. It immediately brought to mind Dick Cheney, the most powerful and downright scary VP of all time. Her refusal to answer questions was smart on her part because it saved her from looking like a total idiot. However, at the same time, it irritated me a great deal and was disrespectful. Her response about Biden was "looking backward" will probably be taken up as the sword and shield of her party, but it is not a real response. The point of any election is convey the idea that the candidate will serve the country better that his predecessor. Her party lead the charge in the country's current downfall, so her job is to prove that the American people should give that party a third chance. That argument was like an abusive husband wanting reconciliation and saying that any past abuse didn't count in the wife's considerations. She did a good rebound, but in my jaded glance, I would like to see her succeed at something that doesn't require days of rehearsal.

Biden was wrong on some of his facts: Article II of the Constitution deals with the Executive branch, not Article I, for example. However, I don't have much faith in Joe Blow Voter at this point so that unless Fox News specifically points that out, I doubt they will notice. I was really impressed by Biden's comment about how life was for him as a single father. It was a very, very human moment and I saw sincerity in that response. I thought he did a good job of restraining himself. Giving his reputation for not being good at sticking to the script, he did a great job of not being condescending to Palin.

Letterman's Top 10 List: Sarah Palin

Senate Passes Bailout Plan

Well, let us hope--no, pray--that the other half of Congress has its act together Friday.

WE'RE SCREWED!

The House has voted against the bailout bill.

And yet during this crisis, all I heard were spin doctors trying to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the failure of the bill because of a speech she gave. Well, this voter is not that stupid. What I got out of this was that certain Congressional members--the vast majority being Republicans--decided to do against what is best for the country because their little feelings were hurt? Are you kidding me? And to add insult to injury, John McCain, whose unwelcomed presence on the Hill set the stage for this disaster, blames Barack Obama for the failure...but it's his party that voted overwhelming against it. Sure, there were Democrats that betrayed the American people by voting against it, but the vast majority of them did and the vast majority of Republicans did not. I think that is a show of just how great a leader he can be. He can't even rally his own party, how the hell is he supposed to run a country?

I realize that Joe Blow Voter doesn't get the bill, but the members of Congress do! You swore an allegiance to your constituents, but your allegiance to your country comes first! If that was too great of a leap for you, then stay out of national politics and run for a state office!

Legendary Paul Newman Dies at 83

1925-2008

Link to Article

PETA Suggests New Source for Ice Cream Milk...Humans

AP Article

I tried to give PETA the benefit of the doubt and went to their site to read the letter myself and see how serious they were about this suggestion. This is what I found:

The Breast Is Best! PETA Asks Ben & Jerry's to Dump Dairy and Go With Human Milk Instead

For Immediate Release:
September 23, 2008

Contact:
Ashley Byrne (phone number deleted)

Burlington, Vt. - This morning, PETA dispatched a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of ice cream icon Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace the cow's milk in their products with human breast milk. PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves. PETA points out to Cohen and Greenfield that such a move on their part would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health at the same time.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

For more information, please visit PETA's Web site Blog.PETA.org or click here.

PETA's letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield follows.

September 23, 2008

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.

Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,

On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's. Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers--and cows--would reap the benefits.

Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease--America's number one cause of death.

Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Like all mammals, cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine months. After several years of living in filthy conditions and being forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup.

And of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal farms, where they endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment chained inside a crate so small that they can't even turn around.

The breast is best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President

Further investigation on the site suggests that apparently this is a publicity attempt along the lines of Jonathan's Swift's A Modest Proposal. Still, I think it would have been more sensible and less sensational to just ask Ben and Jerry's to offer soy milk ice cream or some other plant-based alternative, given that this suggestion would still involve animals being used as a product since human beings are animals, too.

Bailout Stalled

Just In Case You Missed It...

Rove At Work?

McCain has announced that he is suspending his campaign to deal with the debt crisis, and that he wants to postpone the presidential debate. I cannot help but to believe that Karl Rove suggested this. It is far to clever a move to be done by anyone in McCain's camp. Panic a country and it will rally behind the panicker...classic political strategy, and Joe Blow Voter is probably naive enough to fall for it.

My hat goes off to you again, Mr. Rove. You never cease to impress me.

Speed-Dating Foreign Policy: Palin Goes to the UN

The media finally got its wish to be present in a capacity other than just snapping pics of Palin sitting with foreign leaders that she will hopefully never meet again after CNN threatened to withdraw its entire crew and several other media outlets--including the AP--protested. Apparently, however, 40 seconds after Palin began chatting with Afghan president President Hamid Karzai they were escorted out of the room.

I am not worried. I have faith that their perceptions of her will be made known to the media outlets in their respective states.

Moby Dick Discovered

The Lies Will Finally Pay Off!

Angler by Barton Gellman

After I found out about this book, I wanted it so badly that I used my entire monthly "going out" fund (which isn't that much to begin with) to get it. VP Cheney is an interesting subject to me because my sentiments of him have been 1/3 curiosity and 2/3 scared ******** of him. I am only on p. 50 yet there is a sense of foreboding that I carry to this book in regards to his ascent and current role in the White House that I think I was more relaxed while reading The Exorcist. I keep expecting him to pop out of the book with a meat cleaver or something.