Charles the Coolest Old Dude

My brother Kevin has been volunteering for the Obama campaign in Boulder and sent me this video of "the coolest old dude" who's also been volunteering there. I've got tears running down my face having just watched the clip a second time:



Update: it seems that Charles has been choking people up all over the interwebs--Salon's editor just posted the above clip along with this lovely video of Obama getting to know the daily work routine of a home health aide:

Something Evil's Lurking in The Dark

I'm not sure what to make of this music choice: As noted in MoDo's recent column, Sarah Palin appeared at a York PA rally last Friday to the tune of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." OK it was Halloween but still.

Sarah Palin... York!!!


Thriller lyrics

It's close To Midnight and Something Evil's Lurking in The Dark.
Under The Moonlight, You See A Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart.
You Try To Scream, But Terror Takes The Sound Before You Make It.
You Start To Freeze, As Horror Looks You Right Between The Eyes,
You're Paralyzed

You Hear The Door Slam, And Realize There's Nowhere Left To Run.
You Feel The Cold Hold, And Wonder If You'll Ever See The Sun
You Close Your Eyes, And Hope That This Is Just Imagination, girl
But All The While, You Hear The Creature Creepin' Up Behind
You're Out Of Time

They're Out to Get You, There's Demons Closing In On Every Side.
They Will Possess You, Unless You Change The Number On Your Dial.
Now Is the Time for You and I to Cuddle Close Together dear.
All Thru The Night, I'll Save You From The Terror On The Screen,
I'll Make You See

Darkness Falls Across The Land, The Midnight Hour Is Close At Hand.
Creatures Crawl In Search Of Blood To Terrorize Yours Neighborhood
And Whosoever Shall Be Found Without The Soul For Getting Down
Must Stand And Face The Hounds Of Hell, And Rot Inside A Corpse's Shell.

The Foulest Stench Is In The Air The Funk Of Forty Thousand Years
And Grizzly Ghouls From Every Tomb Are Closing In To Seal Your Doom
And Though You Fight To Stay Alive Your Body Starts To Shiver
For No Mere Mortal Can Resist The Evil Of The Thriller

'Cause this Is Thriller, Diller Night
and No-ones Gonna Save You from the Beast about Strike.
You Know its Thriller, chiller Night
You're fighting for Your Life inside a Killer, Thriller.

Thriller, Diller Night
'Cause I can thrill you More Than Any Ghoul Could ever dare try. (Thriller, Diller Night)
So Let Me Hold You Tight And Share A Killer Diller Chiller,
Thriller Here Tonight.

'Cause this Is Thriller Diller night
girl I Can Thrill You More Than Any Ghoul Could ever dare try
Any Ghoul could ever Dare Try
(Thriller, Diller Night) So Let Me Hold You Tight and Share a Killer thriller.

Good Morning from McCainey-land

If Obama loses tomorrow, this is most likely what the electoral map will look like. See more info about your worst fucking nightmares at 538.

The Original Mavericks

The descendants of Texas cattleman, Samuel Maverick, react to Sen. John McCain branding himself a 'maverick'.

The Double Maverick

While it doesn't play as well as Governor Palin's appearance, he at least seems to acknowledge that his campaign isn't going well.

sunday predictions

palin prank

Translation Notes:
- The first man on the call (introducing Sarkozy) presents himself as "Frank L'Ouvrier": Frank The Worker.

- When he talks about going hunting by helicopter, and says "like we say in French, 'On pourrait tuer des bébés phoques aussi': "We could kill some baby seals, too".

- He asks her if she has met the prime minister of Quebec, "Richard Z. Sirois" (instead of Jean Charest) : Richard Z. Sirois was one of the well-known comedians of "Rock et Belles Oreilles", a French Canadian comedy group (started in 1981, dissolved in 1995). Sirois is now co-host of the show "Les cerveaux de l'info" at that radio station.

- When he says that his wife singer Carla Bruni wrote a song for her, he says "In French it's called "Du rouge à lèvres sur une cochonne" or if you prefer in English - and he sings - "Joe The Plumber.. it's his life, Joe The Plumber": the French means "Lipstick on a pig" -- ....but "cochonne", the feminine of "cochon" - pig, is largely used for "dirty girl" (sexual connotation).

my friends, my friends

obama's arts policy

This from my chum EE Miller. Click on it to make it larger:

The John McCain iPhone Application

asshole says obama's a "marxist"

From McClatchy:
So it’s not enough for some of Barack Obama’s opponents to label him a Socialist. He’s actually a Marxist, according to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

DeLay told MSNBC’s “Hardball” Wednesday that “I tagged him as a Marxist months ago,” and explained why: the Democratic candidate’s association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers.

“It’s not that Wright makes outrageous sermons, it’s that Jeremiah Wright is a black liberal theology preacher. And 20 years of association means he must agree with the Marxist theology of black liberation theology,” he said of Obama...

racists for obama

zombies and christians on wall street

Thanks to Wonkette for the finds.

obama says mccain going as bush for halloween

From the Huffpo:
...Obama used the occasion of Halloween to rib McCain in a new way, saying the Republican wore his usual costume: "Just like every year, he's going as George W. Bush..."

Goin' Rogue!

Trying to remember to laugh lately, and The Daily Show helps out a lot!

Ich Bein Ein Joe der Plummer für Halloween feiern

Palin als Gruselkostüm ist Renner in den USA


Ricky's makes the German Reuters feed!

by the time he gets to phoenix

John McCain is campaigning in Arizona on Monday. Good news.

Vote

Wake up from your nightmare, Sarah!

Scott Horton of Harper's Bizarre on Gov. Palin's nightmare "that an Obama presidency would present the specter of a socialist state in which fundamental American freedoms are undermined." She's been asleep for the last 8 years of a state

* That snatches its victims off the street, denies them all form of legal process and whisks them away to secret “blacksites” where they can be tortured using all the techniques described in Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon?

* That believes it can detain and hold its enemies forever without any charges or any evidence against them, denying them access to courts to prove their innocence?

* That constantly manipulates the population’s fear whenever its public popularity slips and elections begin to approach?

* That systematically spies on millions of its citizens in direct violation of a criminal statute which forbids such surveillance?

* That lies to its people about threats from abroad in an effort to build popular support for a series of wars and then cites the existence of those wars as a reason to suppress dissent?

* That nationalizes the debt of predatory capitalists so they suffer no punishment for their misconduct and then nationalizes major financial institutions, converting the nation’s free market system into a socialism in which crony capitalists are a privileged elite?

Of course, this blog would make us all enemies of that state.

Palinspeak

Xeni Jardin posted on Boing Boing a great piece by Anil Dash, who blogs "about how culture is made" and is interested specifically about the use of language in culture. Dash looks at Gov. Palin's dangerous assertions about Sen. Obama's 'terrorist ties'.

Sarah Palin has been unsurprising in her criticisms of Barack Obama's credentials and policies, fulfilling the traditional role of the vice presidential candidate being the most aggressive and pointed rhetorical attacker in a campaign. But a closer look at her deliberate use of vernacular and language reveals that she has gone far beyond any other candidate in vice presidential history in the dangerous and irresponsible implications of her attacks. She has phrased her attacks on Obama in a way that avoids accountability to the press while specifically addressing the subset of her audience who are most likely to advocate extreme actions against Obama.

I don't usually write about politics here; I leave the ugliness to those who seem to revel in it. But I think a lot about language, usually in a more lighthearted context like talking about yo mama jokes or lolcats. What's striking to me this election season, though, is that Sarah Palin has chosen to abuse her command of language so obviously without suffering any serious criticism for it thus far.

The crux of the issue is simple:
(1) Sarah Palin has unequivocally associated Barack Obama with the idea of terrorism and specifically with "terrorists".

(2) Republican President George Bush has defined in our National Security Strategy, and the Republican Party's platform affirms, that we may identify and strike at terrorists before they have committed any defined acts of aggression against American citizens.

(3) George Bush has made clear, by stating before a joint session of Congress that "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

(4) Palin has used deliberate choice of language to avoid these connections being highlighted by the media, while increasing the likelihood that the target audience for her message will be incited by her statements.

Through these arguments, it becomes clear that Sarah Palin's assertions are designed not to prove that Obama is unqualified for the office of the Presidency of the United States. Rather, she appears to be attempting to convince a substantial portion of her supporters that Obama supports terrorism against the United States and thus should be, at the very least, incarcerated as an enemy combatant (which we are doing to American citizens already) or at worst, assassinated for supporting terror. She has done this knowing full well that she can retain plausible deniability thanks to the ambiguity of her statements as they'll be interpreted by the media, by her detractors, and by her more reasonable supporters.

It really is shameful that the media doesn't do more to question her abuse of the language. Of course, we've all seen what happens when the media even hints at questioning her: 'sexism', 'elitism', 'unfair'. Isn't it just a bit moronic that the media can't even question a Vice Presidential candidate's statements or hold them accountable - no matter what sex, race, or creed - without having it turned back into a dog and pony show about how the media attacked her because they're sexist? How can her base defend her as a leader when she apparently can't be held up to the same scrutiny as her opponents or even her running mate? It's as hypocritical as the McCain Campaign now complaining that she's gone rogue! WTF?! But didn't they want 'a maverick'?

Obamanos Socialistas! Or: don't throw stones at glass white houses

After recently watching our Comrade Finn's movie, La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo, I asked people if they felt Sen. Obama was even remotely socialist compared to the preachings of the Maoist prisoners quoting Marx. The answer was pretty apparent. He's about as socialist as W. is conservative. Now comes this little tidbit about Gov. Palin, from Hendrik Hertzberg's New Yorker commentary about McCain and Palin's failed attempt to convince people that Obama is a socialist (via Mark F. of Boing Boing):

The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

What's next up: "Joe the Arseclown Plumber turns out to trade plumbing skills for goods?

mcnasty is at it again

Rashid Khalidi is cool. I used to listen to him on WBEZ when he was a guest on Jerome McDonald's WorldView show.

1993 the onion

Thanks to Wonkette for this:

the rear view mirror ad

CNN: Palin Talks 2012, McCain Aide "Speechless"

Update: Here is Michael Tomasky from the Guardian on this point. It has been suggested after this video aired that the quote was taken out of context.

Dancing with our Politics

This is the best You Tube video I've seen, well no wonder it was made by some energy activists.

A must watch You Tube video.

found by Zulma Aguiar on You Tube

Youth Vote

Everybody In

Only Bob Barr Can Stop Obama

From Bob Barr's website:

Now that it’s guaranteed that John McCain can’t win the elections, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr has emerged as America’s last hope to prevent Barack Obama from becoming the next President of the United States of America.

If you love freedom and care about the future of our great nation, don’t waste your vote on a lost cause like John McCain! Help Bob Barr defeat Barack Obama and send a powerful message to the establishment that socialism stops here.

http://www.bobbarr.com/2008/10/22/only-bob-barr-can-stop-obama/

Cindy McCain Claims She's "Just Like Any Other Female Human"