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Pre-Election Politics Links
Nov. 2nd, 2008 01:39 amPatti is now on her 14th (at least) continuous hour of playing Mother 3. I want to play some Fallout 3, but I'm too impressed to ask her to give me a turn.
So, links ahoy!
With four days to go, it looks like things are going well for Barack Obama. He's able to pull in crowds and drive up enthusiasm in the rain and buy huge swaths of prime-time TV to spread his message. Endorsements are coming in from The Economist, the Financial Times, O'Reilly (Tim, not Bill), prominent Republican Stephen Colbert. More dramatically: Reagan's chief of staff, former Republican Governor William Weld, Bush administration press secretary Scott McClellan, Barry Goldwater's family, former Republican Senator Larry Pressler... the list of Republicans jumping ship continues to grow. And what does McCain have? Accusations of wanting to meet with dictators, which McCain did. Accusations of wanting to redistribute wealth, like that notorious communist Adam Smith. An admitted weakness on economics, not shored up by his VP pick. Their campaign volunteers are crazy and out of control. Democrats are ready to get out every vote and make this one a landslide. Is it too much to hope that this will be the final nail in the coffin of not just McCain's campaign, but the Republican party in its current form? Perhaps that is too much to hope for, but I'm optimistic...
Ted Stevens (R-AK of "series of tubes" fame) was convicted of seven felonies... not enough to make him resign or drop his campaign, mind, but probably enough to make him lose, even in Republican-ville. So there's another race I'm looking forward to seeing the result of.
Speaking of shameless, here's a bit more news on the bailout, and why that was a horrible idea: Banks didn't use the extra capital to make more loans, many used it to buy up small failing banks on the cheap, making "too big to fail" businesses even bigger. And some just went with the old tactic of giving the money to their executives, presumably as reward for a job well done.
A few bonus links:
So, links ahoy!
With four days to go, it looks like things are going well for Barack Obama. He's able to pull in crowds and drive up enthusiasm in the rain and buy huge swaths of prime-time TV to spread his message. Endorsements are coming in from The Economist, the Financial Times, O'Reilly (Tim, not Bill), prominent Republican Stephen Colbert. More dramatically: Reagan's chief of staff, former Republican Governor William Weld, Bush administration press secretary Scott McClellan, Barry Goldwater's family, former Republican Senator Larry Pressler... the list of Republicans jumping ship continues to grow. And what does McCain have? Accusations of wanting to meet with dictators, which McCain did. Accusations of wanting to redistribute wealth, like that notorious communist Adam Smith. An admitted weakness on economics, not shored up by his VP pick. Their campaign volunteers are crazy and out of control. Democrats are ready to get out every vote and make this one a landslide. Is it too much to hope that this will be the final nail in the coffin of not just McCain's campaign, but the Republican party in its current form? Perhaps that is too much to hope for, but I'm optimistic...
Ted Stevens (R-AK of "series of tubes" fame) was convicted of seven felonies... not enough to make him resign or drop his campaign, mind, but probably enough to make him lose, even in Republican-ville. So there's another race I'm looking forward to seeing the result of.
Speaking of shameless, here's a bit more news on the bailout, and why that was a horrible idea: Banks didn't use the extra capital to make more loans, many used it to buy up small failing banks on the cheap, making "too big to fail" businesses even bigger. And some just went with the old tactic of giving the money to their executives, presumably as reward for a job well done.
A few bonus links:
- One looking at media treatment of Prop. 8. Why do they ignore the people whose marriages will be broken up? Because no one is actually harmed by gay marriage, and the media likes to make issues "two-sided", "fair and balanced".
- One on Quakers launching a pacifist MMORPG to spread their religion. I am not making this up. (Update: On the other hand, the people who wrote the story evidently were.)
- One on a legal decision limiting patents on business methods, which may eliminate a lot of bogus software patents, too.
- And one on why John McCain is out-of-touch with the disabled, surprisingly considering how much attention his campaign draws to his old war wounds.
