Thanks but no thanks

So George Bush thinks he will raise Republican morale by visiting a campaign office? Yeah, George, that'll do it alright.
Bwwwhhaaaaaa!

Frightening

After that good ole boy Joe the Plumber was raving looney-tunes about Obama and Israel today, even Fox News' Shepard Smith had to call him out. And then Smith finished the segment by muttering this:

man...some things--it just gets frightening sometimes.

Yes, yes it does.
What is the matter with these people? Have they lost their minds?
Progressives are afraid of McCain because of what he has DONE -- nominating Cariboo Barbie for vice president, voting with Bush way too many times, losing his temper at everyone around him including calling his own wife a cunt, forgetting speeches and the names of his supporters, demonstrating erratic judgment about the economic crisis -- all of this shows a man unfit to be president.
The wingers have talked themselves into hating Obama not because of anything he has done but because of what they think he IS -- a black, terrorist-loving, America-hating, Israel-hating, scary, Muslim Socialist boogeyman who is going to destroy America. This has been ballyhooed over and over again by McCain and Palin and their fellow travelers that the wingers now believe it sincerely and fervently.
So yes, it does get frightening sometimes, to see such hysterical fear based on nothing at all.
Except, of course, that Obama actually is black.
And I think this is actually the real source of their fear -- racsism is at the heart of it.

Shining city

I think Obama is the man who can lead America back. This is from Obama's speech today

Understand, if we want get through this crisis, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right. We don't need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government – a more competent government – a government that upholds the values we hold in common as Americans. . . .
It's about a new politics – a politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts; one that reminds us of the obligations we have to ourselves and one another.
. . . what we have lost in these last eight years cannot be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits alone. What has also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play. Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens. That's what's been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that's what we need to restore right now.

Good, Bad, Ugly

Good: Court loosens Ottawa's grip on access to medical marijuana
Bad: TSX suffers second-worst day in last-minute selloff
Ugly: Alaskan Senator found guilty in corruption case

On the teevee

Watching the ball game, I don't know why the announcers aren't coaching because they both seem to know exactly what the Phillies and the Rays should be doing next.

Why attack Syria?

I don't understand what is the rationale for the Syria attack -- they shot up a building under construction and blew some stuff up and killed a few people, then flew back to Qaim.
Was it just a bunch of rogue soldiers "taking matters into their own hands"?

A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the foreign fighter network that travels through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military's reach.
"We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

But later in the article we find out that there aren't large numbers of foreign fighters coming into Iraq anymore:

The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq has been cut to an estimated 20 a month, a senior U.S. military intelligence official told the Associated Press in July.

That's like five people a week, not all of whom would be entering at Qaim anyway.
So was the American military just showing off? Or are they trying to provoke a war with Syria? And what would be the idea behind that -- do they think starting another needless war would actually help McCain win this election?

Shorter

Shorter Mark Levin:

Why are all these conservatives supporting Obama? Don't they know the new sheriff is a ni....?

UPDATE: TBogg summarizes the Levin column this way:

Great line of the day

From Richard Wolffe on Countdown

Keith, I'm going to be as restrained and measured as I possibly can about this. But this is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far and there's been a lot of competition for that prize. Fruit flies aren't just to do with this kind of research. They are a standard scientific model in genetic research along with a whole range of other organisms and cells including mice, rats, I mean there's nothing fluffy or funny about it. It's scientific research. And if you deliver your first serious policy speech and you make this kind of basic error, you either don't have a scientific adviser, or you don't have a speechwriter who knows what they're saying.

Emphasis mine.

UPDATE: RossK explains exactly why those fluffy, funny fruit flies are critical to cancer research today.

Great post of the day

I don't have the direct link, but a commenter on Taylor Marsh quotes humorist David Sedaris talking about undecided voters:

I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?"
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Cry me a river

Is it just me, or are too many of the new TV shows this fall showing scene after scene of crying parents, weeping friends, sobbing children, and misty-eyed co-workers?
I guess I'm getting pretty tired of watching actors, even good ones, emote all over the screen.

Then again...

Flaunt it, baby, flaunt it!

TBogg, shorter

Yes, she really is "Cariboo Barbie"

Rock paper scissors

Steve suggests a plan for the Liberal leadership:

On one level, it's the height of elitism, decidedly undemocratic, downright unfair. However, the idea floated yesterday, one I've also considered, of simply having the Liberal caucus lock themselves in a room until they come to relative unanimity on the next leader does have merit. A vote, whomever wins, that person is the defacto leader.

The comments to his post are thumbs down, but I think this has merit. After the Liberal experience last time, when a bruising, expensive, year-long, nine-contender campaign finally produced a leader who apparently couldn't get along with his caucus, maybe there is a better way.
Or else lets just have Rae and Iggy play a few rounds of rock paper scissors, eh?

Gee, what a surprise

The New York Times is reporting that Bush has decided not to close Guantanamo.
Oh, who could ever have expected that?
My litmus test for whether Obama is really going to try to change things in the United States, or whether he is just going to go along to get along, is whether he orders Gitmo closed. He would have to deal with a shitstorm of faux outrage from the Pentagon and from the Bush enablers in Congress, but its a decision that must be made. Here's why:

Mr. Cheney and his chief of staff, David S. Addington, have made it clear in the internal discussions this year that keeping Guantánamo open under a new president would validate the administration’s decisions dealing with terrorists, the officials said.

Conservatives or Liberals?

Which party is this MP talking about?

He paints the party brass as ultra-aggressive, unaccountable apparatchiks who treat politics as a blood sport, more interested in scoring points off the opposition than in governing well. They wield tremendous influence, forming an impenetrable barrier around the leader and treating MPs like underlings. 'The elected officials shouldn't be working for the unelected people.'

Answer here.

Dion had his opportunity

Rabble's Duncan Cameron writes:

In his televised press conference Dion admitted that the party had lacked the resources to counter Conservative propaganda, and mount a campaign to put another face on his leadership.

Sorry, but Dion is not blameless here -- he had ample opportunity to respond to the the Conservative attack ads.
It doesn't cost a penny to give a good speech in the House of Commons.
And surely, when Dion was elected leader, the Liberals could have sent him across the country to appear on radio talk shows and talk to local media and tell Canadians who he was.
Cameron made another couple of observations I thought were interesting. About Dion's leadership he said:

Dion lost his leadership when he agreed to go along with the Conservatives on a meaningless agenda to remain in Afghanistan, when he should have been affirming his leadership by opposing the war. Instead of flushing out his enemies within caucus, and building links in his own province, he preferred to support the continental militarization of Canada.

And about the candidates for the next Liberal leader he says:

Big money and its friends have done well by the Liberal party. An executive vice-president of the TD Bank looks like the right choice to Liberals comfortable with this symbiotic relationship. But a McKenna candidacy does not appeal to the people that elected Dion Liberal leader: young people, idealists, citizens devoted to environmental causes, international development or national unity. Of course these are precisely the people coveted by the NDP and Green Party alike.