Angry Left Can Step Off

Interesting Alternet article called "Enough of 'Barbituate' Left Cynicism, Obama Is a Victory over White Supremacy" by Tim Wise for the neo-lefties out there....you know that kind of liberal that's always a downer. I particularly liked this part:

At some point, the left will have to relinquish its love affair with marginalization. We'll have to stop behaving like those people who have a favorite band they love, and even damn near worship, until that day when the band actually begins to sell a lot of records and gain a measure of popularity, at which point they now suck and have obviously sold out: the idea being that if people like you, you must not be doing anything important, and that obscurity is the true measure of integrity. Deconstructing the psychological issues at the root of such a pose is well above my pay grade, but I'm sure would prove fascinating.

The simple fact is, people are inspired by Obama not because they view him as especially progressive per se (except in relation to some of the more retrograde policies of the current president, and in relation to where they feel, rightly, McCain/Palin would have led us), but because most folks respond to optimism, however ill-defined it may be. This is what the Reaganites understood, and for that matter it's what Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement knew too. It wasn't anger and pessimism that broke the back of formal apartheid in the south, but rather, hope, and a belief in the fundamental decency of people to make a change if confronted by the yawning chasm between their professed national ideals and the bleak national reality.

In other words, what the 60s freedom struggle took for granted, but which the cynical barbiturate left refuses to concede, is the basic goodness of the people of this nation, and the ability of the nation, for all of its faults (and they are legion) to change.

I know a lot of U2 fans that did this....once Rattle & Hum came out, U2 was crap. Too bad they didn't stay tuned, what a great ride it's been in the U2 camp since then.
Let's hope we get a similar ride from Obama. We can all at least hope, right?

Republican Perspective

P.J. O'Rourke spells it out for the Republicans in his latest on CATO:

"Let us bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Our 28-year conservative opportunity to fix the moral and practical boundaries of government is gone--gone with the bear market and the Bear Stearns and the bear that's headed off to do you-know-what in the woods on our philosophy.

An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since Ronald Reagan was elected. And where is the world we promised these children of the Conservative Age? Where is this land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque? It lies in ruins at our feet, as well it might, since we ourselves kicked the shining city upon a hill into dust and rubble."

Oh, he goes on from there. Republicans owe it to themselves to read this one.

O-oh, Say Can You See?

It was a beautiful day!

Break out the 3D glasses for this slideshow from Barack Obama's visit to Wilmington, back during the primaries, and/or just check it out like it is so you can hear me play a song on acoustic guitar.

I recorded the Star Spangled Banner moments ago and ran it with some echo for the soundtrack, so make sure to press play and turn it up loud, captain!

The 3D is really compressed, and there are some 'never published before' shots in there (read: crappy out of focus, but now somehow historic) so head to flickr for better pictures from that rally.

On the election: I'm kinda at a loss for words, I keep feeling proud to be American, alive in this moment, I feel somehow redeemed. But I'm tempered by the same thought I had the day Saddam's statue came down in Bagdad: "Now for the hard part!" I'm gonna choose joy over worry for a while.

watts4u2 endorses Barack Obama

Obama3D, originally uploaded by Watts4.

I'm not sure that I've actually come out and said these words, but I heartily endorse Barack Obama for President of the United States.
I encourage everyone to vote for Obama.
If you insist that you simply could not vote for him for one reason or another -a-hem-, then I politely suggest you don't vote this time. McCain's time has come and gone, my right-leaning conservative friends. Wish y'all had nominated him in 2000 though, he would have won a landslide and handled 9/11 better than W.
It's too late now. You've seen him. You've heard him go back on most of his maverick principles. You saw how he wanted to handle the bailout... you know we could do better with Obama. Or at least let the Dems screw themselves and y'all can run better in '12. ;-)

Alan Shrugged

David Corn has a really interesting article over at Mother Jones about Alan Greenspan's testimony before Congress last week. I don't think it got enough attention from the media. The economic Godfather of the past 40 years was wrong. Majorly wrong. And, he admitted it. As bad as the news is, at least it is refreshing to hear a decision-maker take some of the blame. Anyway, here's a quote from the article for ya:

With members of the House oversight and government reform committee blasting Greenspan for his past decisions that helped pave the way for the current financial crisis, he acknowledged that his libertarian view of markets and the financial world had not worked out so well. "You know," he told the legislators, "that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well." While Greenspan did defend his various decisions, he admitted that his faith in the ability of free and loosely-regulated markets to produce the best outcomes had been shaken: "I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."

In other words, whoops—there goes decades of Ayn Rand down the drain.

I couldn't resist using the title "Alan Shrugged" from Mother Jones.... came to find out it's also the title for Jerome Tuccille's pdf novel.

Where Our Taxes are Spent

Blog Action Day

Today, the 15th of October, is the day for bloggers to stand up and point the spotlight at Poverty. Too bad John Edwards has been silenced, but I digress. Look at my previous "Bono" and "Africa" postings. And tonight thank God it's them instead of you.

2009 Defense Bill

Believe it or not, Congress approved another bill for over $600 Billion last week. Not the "bailout" bill, this one if for Defense Appropriations for 2009. Alternet points out:

On Wednesday, September 24th, right in the middle of the fight over billions of taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of Representatives passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a murmur of public protest or any meaningful press comment at all. (The New York Times gave the matter only three short paragraphs buried in a story about another appropriations measure.)

The defense bill includes $68.6 billion to pursue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is only a down-payment on the full yearly cost of these wars. (The rest will be raised through future supplementary bills.) It also included a 3.9% pay raise for military personnel, and $5 billion in pork-barrel projects not even requested by the administration or the secretary of defense. It also fully funds the Pentagon's request for a radar site in the Czech Republic, a hare-brained scheme sure to infuriate the Russians just as much as a Russian missile base in Cuba once infuriated us. The whole bill passed by a vote of 392-39 and will fly through the Senate, where a similar bill has already been approved. And no one will even think to mention it in the same breath with the discussion of bailout funds for dying investment banks and the like.

Billions here, billions there.... you know what they say.
We need to re-think out spending policies, and get our priorities in order. How about building bridges and highways in our Georgia rather than in Russia's Georgia? We need infrastructure dollars for our own country, dollars we say we don't have, but somehow we come up with those dollars for infrastructure projects in Iraq, Georgia, Pakistan, etc. And call it a defense expenditure. And we don't even talk about it....

The Answer is: No Deal!

Way to lead on this one, Senator McCain.

Fact is, those House Republicans, well, lots of Republicans don't really like John McCain that much. You won't hear it from Rush and Sean Hannity these days, but they don't like him, either, and they used to speak of him with disgust.

Deal or No Deal?

Will the House Republicans stand on principle or for principal?

I don't like a bailout, I'm more of a free-market guy, but there comes a time when concessions must be made to save the whole system. I think Bush made a good case for this in his speech.

What's McCain gonna do? Does he have any power with House Republicans?

Here's what the Economist has to say this morning:
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12305567&source=features_box1

This is gonna be a big day. Hang in there, folks!

McCain Suspends Campaign (Still Taking Donations, though)

My friends, John McCain has suspended his campaign, but he'll still take your $$ for his campaign.
Here's a link to make a donation to the McCain campaign. It's active this morning, while his campaign is suspended.

I'm not suggestion you donate, I just want to point out that he's only suspended the part of the campaign he wants to suspend. He'll still take your money!

Bono 'Stood Up' by Palin/McCain

from CNN:

NEW YORK (CNN) – John McCain and Sarah Palin’s meeting with Bono was canceled Wednesday due to scheduling reasons, according to the campaign.

Instead, McCain and Palin will chat with Bono by phone this afternoon about the ONE Campaign, the U2 front man’s initiative to raise awareness of AIDS and global poverty.

Unlike McCain and Palin’s other meetings with dignitaries in New York this week, most of which had been open to reporters and photographers, the Bono meeting was listed as closed to the press, at the rock star’s request.

And it looks like McCain won't show for Letterman tonight
From Drudge:

EXCLUSIVE: LETTERMAN MOCKS MCCAIN CANCELLATION
Wed Sep 24 2008 17:41:58 ET

David Letterman tells audience that McCain called him today to tell him he had to rush back to DC to deal with the economy.

Then in the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, "Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?"

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, "You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves." And he joked: "I think someone's putting something in his metamucil."

"He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she?"

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

No debate with Barack on Friday? Maybe he should just suspend his campaign altogether.

I hear there's plenty of work for the poultry industry... ducking and being a chicken.
Booooo! I want my Palin/Bono photo-op. I feel cheated.....

McCain to be there, too

Ya know, for that Palin-Bono meeting.

Bono's keeping a blog this week, at the Financial Times.

I'm really looking forward to seeing photos from this event.

Tip for Obama for Friday

WSJ has a preview for Friday's big debate:

Obama advisers, for example, are considering how to provoke Sen. McCain into anger or showing what they say is how out of touch, or old, he is.

I suggest Obama find a way to say "Trollop" or maybe even "comb-over", it's worked before. (warning: McCain calls his wife a couple of bad words)


Yeah, I'm sinking that low. This is one of those stories that just didn't get any MSM coverage. If McCain were running an honest campaign like he did in 2000, I wouldn't have mentioned it.