President Obama's Saturday Address - Oct 16, 2010

Magic ponies, Democrats and November

from FDL

But the Democratic Party, while not in total denial, is not running on a platform to address any of these problems. They’re silent. And without knowing what, if anything, they plan to do about the monstrous issues facing the country, and trying to enlist the voters’ support in tackling those issues, they’ve given the voters no reason to vote for them.

To which I can only say ... Any left (or even center) leaning person that gives a shit about this country and does not vote for their local Democratic candidate for the House or the Senate should sit beside the 2000 Naderites on the "I am a dumbfuck" bench. There are no excuses for allowing a Republican takeover of Congress just because you didn't get a magic pony when Obama was elected. Suck it up and be a grownup.

Remember, without McCain it would have been the Keating 4

He learned absolutely nothing.

Gotta Agree With TBogg on this one

via TBogg comes this bit of brilliance from Hugh Hewitt's interview with Gov Palin.

It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency

Sorry but I want the President and VP each to be

1. One of the smartest people in the room. This immediately disqualifies both Palin and McCain, Obama and Biden both pass this test. Biden has issues with not having much of an editor between his brain and his mouth sometimes and thus saying silly things but that doesn't mean he is stupid. Obama is clearly a very bright man.
   
2. Not someone that I want to have a Guinness with but someone that it would be interesting to talk to. McCain actually passes this test for me. I am sure he has some interesting stories because he has lived a long and eventful life but quite frankly Palin would only be interesting in a "holy shit does she really believe that" kind of way. Obama has had a fascinating life and I would love to talk to Biden about how he balances work and family because it is something that I struggle with myself.
   
3. Someone that knows the difference between right and wrong,  actually cares about the difference and in general acts in a principled manner similarly to what I would hope I would do in a similar situation. I think McCain knows the difference between right and wrong, but he doesnt give a shit if it will get him elected (see just about any of his changes in stance since about 2002). I think that Palin shows no evidence of knowing the difference (see troopergate, charging victims for rape kits, pondering the banning of books in the public library, firing the police chief). Biden and Obama both clearly know the difference and while they dont always do the right thing (see FISA and Bankruptcy bill fiascos respectively) it seems to me that generally don't go out of their way to fuck people over just because it would be good for them or their buddies or because they want to get back at someone.
   

There are surely other things that are actually more important  but if we have to pick character traits or something else other than a candidate's stance on particular issues these are the top 3 things that I am interested in.

Anyone that has anything to add can feel free to chime in.

Obama On The Paulson Plan

I haven't seen an unequivocal statement from the Obama camp on this yet. Let this post be a plea for sanity and a strong stand not only against this piece of shit plan but in favour of one drafted by someone that has a fucking clue and isnt just trying to get all of his wall street buddies rich

Rules and Bylaws Commitee Public Meeting

This is important stuff, if a little arcane for most folks .. but please watch it
Watch live video from democraticvideo's channel on Justin.tv

Obama at Wesleyan

Offered without comment

Two Views ...

Which is your view?

Obama's Financials

Maybe I am just an incompetent boob with search tools but I found it very difficult to find a clean link to a precis of the Obama family's finances on his web site.

McCain has one.
Clinton has one.
Obama has this thing.

This is going to be an issue in the campaign. It should be easy to find it.

Obama hasn't wowed the press - BFD

From the estimable Ms Ana Marie Cox at Swampland comes word that Obama is in trouble because while he is drawing huge crowds he isnt wowing "the press".

Here is a thought. How about "the press" just get "wowed" that a young, articulate, dynamic politician is raising buckets of money and getting huge turnouts at his campaign events.

Dammit I am getting tired of the way that this campaign is being covered. You don't have to be an Obama fanboy, and I am most assuredly not, to think that he would be a perfectly serviceable President. Whether or not he "wows the press" is completely immaterial to whether he has the right stuff to lead the country. After all, the current president "wowed the press" and look where that has led.

Obama/Feingold 08?

While at the Department of Justice, Hans von Spakovsky was directly involved in efforts to politicize the Department and use the Voting Rights Section to disenfranchise voters, rather than enforce our nation’s civil rights laws. As a recess appointee to the FEC he has been a committed, ideological opponent of the campaign finance laws he is supposed to enforce. Putting him at the head of the FEC is just another example of this administration putting the fox in charge of the hen house. We oppose his nomination, and any effort to tie his nomination to the other pending nominations to the FEC

Just thinking out loud...

Hillary Clinton and Gender Politics

But there's another aspect to this -- the moral question. And Hillary Clinton is on the wrong side of one of the most important moral issues of our time. For reasons of ambition and political expedience, she made the wrong call.

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died in a war she helped start. Thousands of American soldiers have been sacrificed, tens of thousands more maimed.

The congressional vote, of which she was a part, helped lead to the biggest strategic disaster in the modern history of U.S. foreign policy.

Despite all of that, millions of Americans are going to support her, simply because they feel it's time America had a woman president.

I feel that it is time that America had a woman president too but not enough to be a supporter of Hillary.

I feel that it is time that America had an African-American president too. But not enough to support Obama.

I find myself in the weird position, at the moment, of thinking that Chris Dodd is the best of the current Democratic candidates for the simple reason that he is actually leading on some issues(Cuba, Iraq to name two) instead of trying to figure out which way the wind is blowing.

Please Al .. Please .. Please run

Read the rest at the Huffington Post

Wrong Damned Answer

I understand that it will take some finite amount of time to safely remove troops from Iraq once the decision is made to do so but let me be so bold as to say that I think it is possible to do it in less than 4 years.

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

I expected nothing more of Obama and Clinton but Edwards really disappointed me with those answers. This means that this little excursion into Iraq will have gone on for at minimum 10 years if any of these people get into office.

Chris Dodd is looking better and better to me (not that he cares because I cannot legally vote) so maybe it is time to sit down with all the candidates platforms and figure some stuff out.