You know how right wing troglodytes always seem like they were born "made to wave the flag", as John Fogerty put it so well? Flag pins, hands on hearts and national anthems? Well, it doesn't have to be just the red white and blue, and it doesn't have to be just… Read full post »

 

 Who exactly was Senator McCain calling "My fellow prisoners"?

OK, generous interpretation: He was just speaking/thinking about something involving POW's (or some other kind of prisoners) and it slipped. Happens. The guy ain't slept like a human of any age should in a while. It… Read full post »

Times EST

 

20:03: McCain gets in a sly dig off the bat, "nice to see you at a town hall, Senator Obama"

 

20:09: McCain came prepared with a nice-sounding spiel about the economy. Obama is not sounding focused... reverting to prepared soundbites after McCain's outlined plan. 

 … Read full post »

All times EST

21:02: Ifill forgot to call Biden Senator in the introduction. Caught it second time.

 

21:05: Oy, she's already milking the soccer mom thing. Interesting she went soccer. Rick Davis and Karl Rove must've barked at her that the hockey mom shit ain't that catchy -… Read full post »

Barbara Ehrenreich makes a very salient point: The vapid cult of "positive thinking" at all costs, as exemplified by books like The Secret and frothing motivational speakers, must be seen as a large core contributor to the current mess. After all, according to "The Secret", you are expressly forbidde/…

Read full post »

There is a very very short answer to all McCain's posturing about "We are winning in Iraq":

 

Yeah, we're winning in Iraq - for Iran.

 

But he can't. 

 

However, he should hammer him on the strategy/tactic thing. Would that look dorky and condescending tho? (09:50 EST)

 … Read full post »

"The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable," says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.

In fact, some of the most ba… Read full post »

To which I replied: 

"Yeah, but it's Joe. You know he'll gaffe. only question is how much. <sigh> I… Read full post »

It's football season! The Jets season is forfeit, due to testicular and imaginatory deficiencies at the head coach position, but Warden Glynn's Home For Boys (2006 Crying Game Champions!) are 2-0, so that's good.

What's also good is taking time to reflect on the way we may have wronged some… Read full post »

First of all, it's amazing how this has gotten so little play - or did I miss something?

Turns out, for those of who don't like to multi-window, that John McCain was not in a "Cone of Silence" when Barack Obama was going first at the Saddleback Church debate.  Despite… Read full post »

Even as he is crashing, not only in the irrelevant polls but also in the money markets (where he just slid under 50% and lower than McCain today for the first time since securing the nomination) - Barack Obama is being proven as, by far, the wisest of the two candidates… Read full post »

One of the intellectual giants of the Zionist revolution - among the generation who founded the State of Israel at any rate - was a dude named Moshe Sneh. He later joined the communist party, not out of Marxist conviction, but rather conviction that the USSR would win the cold war… Read full post »

Just read this. You'll thank me later.

 

I rarely get that "NO THEY FUCKING DID NOT" thrill anymore. I'm sitting here with a stupid grin on my face. Then again, remindeth me the estimable and most feline EasyWind thus:

 "(of course, they had "Bush was elected, say good by… Read full post »

Is this normal? I seriously don't remember. If not, WTF? Poor Gov. Schweitzer (whom I greatly dig) looked like he was valiantly pulling one walk-off line after another out of nowhere, stalling for time. She cost him what could have been a very impactful speech. Still was.

Ok, phew.… Read full post »

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post, in response to the number-of-homes gaffe. "

 

The notorious Rove Laboratories have screwed up, and allowed their new and improved formula for… Read full post »

One of the biggest mistakes one can make, when confronting a malfunction, is to fail to realize the fundamental, sweeping nature of change experienced by the system in question, and by the variables which impact it. In no field is this more evident than education.

In the following two-part essay, I wi… Read full post »

From AP:

"Biden voted to authorize the war, but long ago became one of the Senate's surest critics of the conflict. Ironically, perhaps, his son, Beau, attorney general of Delaware, is due to spend a tour of duty in Iraq beginning this fall with his National Guard unit."

 I can see… Read full post »

Senator Obama has chosen Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del) as his vice presidential nominee. Already from many corners we hear the wails of disappointment. Not liberal enough, not conservative enough to balance Obama's (vastly overstated) "liberalism", brings nothing electorally... Despite all this, it's almos… Read full post »

I don't know how many of you understand spoken Hebrew, or follow Israeli politics, but this is the pilot to an online weekly show I'll be doing. Ask in comments for url's in Israel and so on.

Comments most appreciated. Just to note - both the slouch and… Read full post »

There once was this runaway province, whose inhabitants much preferred to belong to the country to the north, and failing that would rather be independent than stay with the "mother country", whose political institutions and overall direction they simply rejected.

Despite repeated warnings, they vo… Read full post »

Everyone with a brain knows that influence peddling by high officials and their intimates is nearly unavoidable. If you're in the PR business, and your spouse is a high official, say one in charge of billions in contracts, people are gonna find their fingers coming to a screeching halt on your… Read full post »

I must admit that this didn't occur to me, but 10 years not living in the states has rendered my "nutso christianese' a little rusty (I am in full command of nutso-judaese, tho....).

 Anyhoo, It turns out there's a substantial case that the entire ad ("The One") was designed to… Read full post »

I've noticed this strange argument when debating with vehement anti-ssm types:

"If gays living together is acknowledged as equal to hetero marriage, why would any man assume the immense sacrifice of marriage and fatherhood?"

I've been running across this enough times to sense a pattern. This leads me… Read full post »

I wonder if this blog will finally stick. I guess the reason I've never presevered with a blog in English (in addition to my Hebrew one, which I have been maintaining since 2003) is because my participation in (most excellent) Ornery American fora kinda took care of the bug in that… Read full post »