Thursday, July 31, 2008
McCain strategy
By VictorM:It's obvious that John McCain, desperate after trailing Obama in most polls, is succumbing to the strategy that has worked before...
including the Bush team’s tactics of seeking to make campaigns referendums on its opponents — not a choice between two candidates — and attacking the opponent’s perceived strengths head-on. Central to the latest McCain drive is an attempt to use against Mr. Obama the huge crowds and excitement he has drawn, including on his foreign trip last week, by promoting a view of him as more interested in attention and adulation than in solving the problems facing American families.That this strategy has worked before and might work now says a lot about how rotten most Republicans are for being receptive to this kind of garbage.
I just hope Obama is better at dealing with these attacks than Kerry was.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Obama's VP picks
By VictorM:According to readers of Salon, these are their preferences for Barack Obama's vice president: Kathleen Sibelius, governor of Kansas and Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia, finished one and two respectively.
I have to say, these are not bad choices at all. The prospect of a woman on the ticket is quite interesting. It could motivate smart women to vote in numbers never seen before. The nomination of Kaine could deliver Virginia and put some red states in play.
I have no preferences; I just hope Obama makes a wise choice.
RAND knows
By VictorM:I have to admit that I know next to nothing about RAND's political leanings, if any, or their track record. All I know is that they are a think tank used by the Pentagon. And on the issue of Iraq and terrorism, they come down on the side of common sense:
The United States also should avoid the use of the term, "war on terror," and replace it with the term "counterterrorism." Nearly every U.S. ally, including the United Kingdom and Australia, has stopped using "war on terror," and [Seth] Jones, [the study's lead author,] said it's more than a mere matter of semantics.
"The term we use to describe our strategy toward terrorists is important, because it affects what kinds of forces you use," Jones said. "Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism."
Read the whole report; it has a lot of nuggets.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The best is yet to come
By VictorM:During his state of the league address, Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS), pointed to progress in attendance, television ratings, web traffic, and other matrix to illustrate the progress the league is making. He concluded his MLS state of the league address with this remark:
If you just look at the progress we've achieved in the last four or five years, we believe our next five years, our best years, are still ahead of us...I am optimistic as well, not only because of the progress Mr. Garber referred to, but because that progress has been achieved DESPITE what the league has not done yet:
- MLS does not have a single player that qualifies as a world star in his prime
- MLS only has one world star (David Beckham) who at 33 is past his better days; another player (Blanco) is a regional star who at 35 is also past his better days
- MLS features only a handful of world class players (Angel, Gallardo, Schelotto, and maybe a few more), but every one of them is past the age of 30 and their better days are behind them
- Of the top notch American born players, only one (Landon Donovan) plays in the league, all others are playing overseas (Adu, Altidore, Beasley, Bradley, Howard, etc)
- Not a single coach in MLS has international credentials to list him as a world-class coach (Ruud Gullit clearly was one of the better players in the world, but as a coach, he doesn't qualify yet)
- The New York franchise, playing in the largest TV market in the country, has been a failure for 13 years and instead of leading the league in attendance, actually drags it down
- Too many teams (NY, DC, New England, Houston, Kansas City, San Jose) still play in stadiums that for one reason or another betray the "major" league status the league is trying to achieve
- MLS has a yearly salary cap (under 2.3 million per team) that couldn't even pay for the dental work of some NFL players, much less fill a roster with players that can compete properly against international opponents
- The level of play, while much improved over the last 2 years, still has a long way to go to attract and retain the attention of fans used to some of the better brand of football worldwide
- MLS still attracts only a small percentage of the football fans who filled Giants Stadium recently (79,000+) to watch Argentina vs USA and who watch international matches in large numbers
Friday, July 25, 2008
ET is in da house
By VictorM:Who am I to argue with a former astronaut on the issue of extra-terrestrial beings? So I wont, I'll just quote his story:
FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.
Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'
Me too
By VictorM:I just want the whole world to know that I too am "a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world."
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The question they can't answer
By VictorM:I still haven't heard anyone describe what victory in Iraq would look like in a convince way. Atrios is puzzled too:
The local Fox outlet just showed me clips of McCain saying (roughly) "Obama won't acknowledge that we've succeeded [in Iraq]" and "He's in favor of unconditional withdrawal."Makes no sense. We cannot win in Iraq; we can stay or we can leave. Those are the only two options.
If we've succeeded why can't we leave? Just who are we at war with and what conditions should we demand before we withdraw? Does any of this make any fucking sense at all?
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Females in the service
By VictorM:This bit of news is depressing. Is anyone really addressing this issue? I fear that the answer may be no:
Of the women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have walked into a VA facility, 15 percent have screened positive for military sexual trauma, The Associated Press has learned. That means they indicated that while on active duty they were sexually assaulted, raped, or were sexually harassed, receiving repeated unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature...
Depression, anxiety, problem drinking, sexually transmitted diseases and domestic abuse are all problems that have been linked to sexual abuse...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Geographaphy
By VictorM:I know, I know, McCain is not as dumb as Bush, and the following comment was most likely just a slip of the tongue, but still... judging by other comments, maybe McCain does need a lesson in world geography:
Asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer Monday morning whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded:
"I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," said McCain, R-Ariz., said on "Good Morning America."
Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.
If John McCain starts saying "subliminimal" and "nucular", I wouldn't be surprised.
True love
By VictorM:True love for your country is not wearing an American flag pin on your lapel or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance -- heck, any traitor can fake it through those. Loving your country is being disappointed by these facts and wanting them corrected:
Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation... the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person...West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama are four of the five bottom states on the index. Mississippi is ranked lowest. Um... is it a coincidence that a certain party wins those states?The US north-east has the highest overall ranking because people there earn more, are more highly-educated and have the second highest life expectancy.
West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama are four of the five bottom states on the index. Mississippi is ranked lowest.
Among other findings:
- Of the world's richest nations, the US has the most children (15%) living in poverty
- Of the OECD nations, the US has the most people in prison - as a percentage and in absolute numbers
- 25% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest level in an international maths test - worse than Canada, France, Germany and Japan
- If the US infant mortality rate were equal to first-ranked Sweden, more than 20,000 babies would survive beyond their first year of life
Sunday, July 20, 2008
They were on the wrong side of the issue, as usual
By VictorM:Name an issue, review the general opinion of conservatives, check a couple of decades later, and time and time again you'll find they were wrong, wrong, WRONG! And to quote one of them, here we go again:
Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military's ban on allowing gay people to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.Today, Americans have become more supportive of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent. More than eight in 10 Democrats and more than three-quarters of independents now support the idea, as did nearly two-thirds of self-described conservatives.
So... if you want to be wrong for the rest of your life, become a conservative.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Prostitution during the 2010 World Cup
By VictorM:The World Cup will be played in South Africa in 2010 and the municipality of Durban is contemplating legalizing prostitution during the tournament, with sex workers restricted to certain areas. Religious right groups are up in arms about the whole idea, with concerns that legalizing prostitution bucks against family values. But I think the best argument against that idea comes from Shawn Francis of the fabulous The Offside Rules:
All of the moral issues aside, who the hell wants to be a sex tourist in the AIDS capital of the World?Indeed, who does? Well, aside from kamikaze Germans and Dutch, that is (assuming they even reach the finals).
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
McBush
By VictorM:It was bad enough when about 8 years ago, the man running for president of the United States didn't know who the leader of Pakistan was. That type of ignorance has produced the worst president in American history. Now, we have a copycat:
For the second time in two days, John McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia” – a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993.Here we go again...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Laugh, it won't kill you
By VictorM:In an article describing how the left blogsphere has gone bonkers over the cover of The New Yorker depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as caricatures of right-wing smears, Gary Kamiya has this to say:
In a certain way, the left's reaction is reminiscent of mainstream Democrats' refusal to challenge Bush on Iraq. They, too, were instrumentalists and amateur semioticians, worrying that the GOP would "frame" them, to use linguist George Lakoff's concept, as weaklings and wimps. But they were wrong, just as those who advise the liberal media to deal with the right-wing smear campaign against Obama by refusing to acknowledge it are wrong. In any case, once journalists and artists start censoring themselves because they're afraid their work will play into political attacks or have other unwanted political consequences, they've started down a dark road, one that ends up with party hacks celebrating the latest Fearless Leader.In case you haven't seen it, here's the New Yorker cover:
Sunday, July 13, 2008
This is conservatism
By Bill Scher:Phil Gramm thinks that the economy is wonderful and those that feel otherwise are mistaken. This does not make Gramm uniquely callous. It just makes him a conservative... This is conservatism. The dismissal of economic burdens from others making less money than you. The belief that an ideal economy can thrive with a small boat of winners and a giant sinking ship of losers. The insistence that your economic dissatisfaction is illegitimate, and can only be explained by a brainwashing from the media or politicians...
It is precisely his attitude that has shaped conservative economic policies throughout the Bush Era. Massive tax giveaways to those earning more than $250,000. No investment to make education, clean energy and health insurance affordable to all citizens and businesses. No effective oversight of irresponsible corporations plundering the middle-class.
(Read the rest of this article on the views of several other conservative commentators to see that Phil Gramm speaks for all of them.)Saturday, July 12, 2008
Do you habla ingles?
By VictorM:For quite a while now, right-wingers have been preoccupied with English-only, particularly as it applies to immigrants. It has been one of the silliest arguments I've observed. This right-winger says this, in a mostly otherwise incoherent post about the topic:
If I emigrated to a country where English was not the language, I would not demand that the government produce signs and panphlets (sic) in English; I’d learn the language. My children would learn it as well if I expected them to succeed in their new land.Who can argue with that? Of course you would... BY CHOICE! But that's not what you bozos have been pushing for, is it?
If a country, let's say Iraq, had the need for workers from America to perform jobs Iraqis can't or won't do, would it not be wise for them to have signs, pamphlets, and other literature in English to help facilitate the American workers function in Iraqi society? After all, learning a foreign language is not something that happens overnight. How would you function in that culture until you fully understood their language and customs? Further, the author of the above quote assumes everyone has the same level of intelligence and education, which clearly is not the case for many who come to our shores; many immigrants can barely read or write in their own language. And even further, the author doesn't factor in the realities immigrants must deal with, such as debt for traveling to the USA, starving families back home, harsh working conditions, exploitive bosses, sub-minimum wage earnings, no driving licenses, etc. To expect such people to have the time or the inclination to go to night school to learn English is nuts.
What's missed in all this argument is that the vast majority of immigrants DO learn English! Wingers like to focus on a minority that does not, and fail to realize that those who ask for pamphlets in Spanish (or whatever other language) are doing so because they understand that the first few months, or even years, in a foreign land is difficult. Anything that makes immigrants adapt and understand our laws and rules benefit everyone.
It is wise for government and businesses to publish materials in a foreign language if a significant number of immigrants who speak that language live in the area. Learning English, like getting a college degree or joining the army, is something that people should do of their won free will.
My question to the quoted poster is this: are your children learning Spanish? Because if you know what's best for them, they should be!
Friday, July 11, 2008
They want to kill it
By VictorM:There's no doubt in my mind that Republicans would love nothing more than to kill Social Security, they just lie about their true intentions and come up with euphemisms, such as "private accounts" or even the need to "fix" it.
Now John McCain has been more direct about that goal. He thinks Social Security is a disgrace as designed:
"Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed," he said.So, this Social Security "problem" really only exist because the program exists. If they get rid of it... poof! the problem goes away. Another "shock and awe" solution, I guess.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Grabbing at straws
By VictorM:Most right wingers are so bent out of shape that a black man is going to be president of these United States that they are getting nuttier by the day. Their quest to find flaws with anything Barack Obama says or does, is simply laughable. Here's the latest: the news is that Obama plans to give his acceptance speech at Invesco Field, in Denver, a stadium that seats over 75,000 people, instead of at the convention floor. As a result, the loonies' at the National Review are pushing this:
So, the recent news out of the Obama camp is that they're planning a huge rally with thousands of people in a stadium, want to create a mandatory youth corps for national service, and are thinking about a big dramatic speech in Berlin.Yes, these nuts are invoking images of Hitler over this.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Above the law
By VictorM:I got an email from democrats.com with several topics, one of which saying:
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify on July 10, but on July 1 Rove announced he would defy the subpoena.Well... um... he is simply above the all -- too many powerful crooks are on his side.
Could you or I get away with defying a Congressional subpoena? Of course not. So why can Karl Rove? Like George Bush and Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, believes he is simply above the law.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Chasing the right crowd
By VictorM:Professional soccer continues to make progress in the quest to fit into the American sports landscape. Just a little over a week ago, ABC televised 5 hours of soccer, with decent results:
The challenge for Major League Soccer is to find ways to attract a good portion of those viewers. But the ratings number reinforces the belief that the league need not go outside of ready-made soccer fans to survive and thrive, and is patiently executing a plan -- very successfully, if you ask me -- that focuses exactly on that.Nationally, the Spain-Germany match on ABC-TV had a 2.3 rating, or 3.8 million viewers, which was almost equal to the 2.5 the Fox regional package of baseball games did the day before, with two high-profile big-market interleague games between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees and New York Mets.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Kevin must also believe in unicorns
By VictorM:In a post making reference to George Bush calling recently deceased Senator Jesse Helms "a kind, decent, and humble man," Kevin Drum makes this statement:
Uh huh. I guess Bush must figure that even 10% of the black vote is 10% more than the GOP needs. This should just about do the trick of getting it down to zero.Come on, Kevin, get real!
Does Kevin really believe that the 8% or so of blacks who vote Republican all the time are the type to care about that gross and offensive assessment of that bigot's life? These are black folks who are Republican to start with. Where does Kevin get the idea that these people have any pride or sense of decency?
"Down to zero?" Kevin had a brain fart, I believe.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
The middle is for losers
As the presidential general election heats up, I grow increasingly more nervous about Barack Obama following in the footsteps of a failed strategy for other Democratic candidates: drifting to the middle in hopes of attracting the fence sitters. As Arianna Huffington points out:Running to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters didn't work for Al Gore in 2000. It didn't work for John Kerry in 2004. And it didn't work when Mark Penn... convinced Hillary Clinton to do it in 2008... why start playing to the political fence sitters -- staking out newly nuanced positions on FISA, gun control laws, expansion of the death penalty, and NAFTA?
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
He's got balls...
... and he knows how to use them.This French prankster has the skill and balls to pull off some amazing stunts. I'm not convinced this video isn't a product of clever digital work, but still, it's pretty funny:
See more funny videos at CollegeHumor
And consider this guy's pedigree:
[Remi Gaillard] possesses a penchant for showing up at sporting events dressed as one of the players and making his way on to the field... His most notorious fake-job has to be seen to be believed: wearing a full Lorient kit he snuck in amongst the team's players as they won the 2002 Coupe de France and went as far as shaking hands with president Jacque Chirac, ran victory laps with cup-holding Lorient players, giving TV interviews, and signing autographs. This Frenchie has balls of steel.
