Sexism in 08

In the 2008 election, sexism will play a major issue, just not in the way thought. The attempt by John McCain to attract the female vote from dissinfranchised Clinton supporters is a shallow ploy. Governor Pilan is the ideological opposite of Senator Clinton, whose beliefs include a hardcore pro-life agenda, gun support that would make Charlton Heston smile from the great beyond (she supports legalizing assault weapons and armour piercing bullets), is extremly cozy with big oil, and is a 'global warming skeptic' meaning that she does not believe that humankind is not responsible in anyway for climate change, and this is all I know of her so far. But that is not the real shame of this. Within the Republican ranks there are qualified women with experience, including Secretary of State Condi Rice and the extremly qualified, and one time presidential candidate, Elizabeth Dole (a further list can be found here). But all of that is not what is really sexist... the sexist part is that it might work.

McStorm

All over the news today, there has been talk about John McCain heading down south the help with storm preparations. How much help will a 72 year old senator be in a disaster zone? Its not like he could really help with sandbagging. If he wanted to really help, he would be on phone doing everything he could as a senator from a distance far enough away where he (and the large entourage that follows a presidential candidate) will not will not be using up state resources and hotel space that are most likely desperatly needed elsewhere. The last thing that is needed is another cowboy president

McCain abandons the jewish vote

McCain has picked a relatively unknown for his veep, Sarah Palin. Due to her relative newness on the national scene, there is very little known about her, other than her strong beliefs in guns and Jesus, and frightening lack of belief in global warming. These should be enough to unite most people from center-right to far left against McCain, but i believe that it will have the effect of pushing an unexpected swing voter against McCain. Before I discuss Palin however, lets go criticize Barak Obama
Barak Obama has had a lot of trouble shoring up the traditionally liberal Jewish geriatric vote. This has been due to a mix of his links to Reverend Wright's neo-activist anti-Israel stance, the false links to the Muslim community, and questions about the origins of his Israel policy (one of his top advisers on the subject of the middle east supported the authors responsible for the book "The Israel Lobby", a controvertial book against the American Israel lobby). Furthermore, McCain's apparent pro-Israel stance, combined with his close friendship to senator Lieberman, the darling of Jews over 50, has put this key group of voters on the light red category. While most states with a significant Jewish population, such as New York and California, are dark blue, Florida, a state with over 750 000, mostly elderly, Jews has been a key battleground state since 2000.
So now we get to Sarah Palin, who it was recently revealed was a supporter of Pat Buchanan. A recently found 1999 AP article linking her to Buchanan's ill fated far right independent presidential campaigns reported

"Pat Buchanan brought his conservative message of a smaller government and an America First foreign policy to Fairbanks and Wasilla on Friday as he continued a campaign swing through Alaska. Buchanan's strong message championing states rights resonated with the roughly 85 people gathered for an Interior Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. … Among those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage."

Now, Pat Buchanan is not what one would call an open minded enlightened individual. A better description of him would be a closed minded fear mongering bigot. He has publicly dismissed the deaths of thousands of Jews at Treblinka due to monoxide poisoning saying "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody" (New Republic, 10/22/90). Furthermore Mr. Buchanan was crafted with crafting President Reagans infamous soundbite that the SS soldiers buried at Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96). Ironically, Buchanan's view of the Israel lobby is the same as the fringe left as The Israel Lobby's authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt when he referred to Washington DC as "Israel occupied territory" (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90). His record of anti-semitism has earned him his own quotes page on the Anti-Definition League's website.
Her endorsement of Buchanan has worried many due to his links to anti-semitism raising suspicion of her own beliefs. I dont believe she subscribes to any belifes that extreme despite evidence to the contrary. Even still, this shows that the issue of anti-semitism is not one that she finds important and the selection of her that this brings into question about the real priorities of John McCain. By selecting a Buchananite he is blatantly saying that the Jewish vote does not matter, and that despite his rhetoric, the security of the state of Israel is not one of his priorities. If the Obama campaign brings light to Palin's anti-semitic links, and McCain's apparent indifference towards them, this could easily swing the elderly Jewish vote of Florida, swinging the state back to blue.
Earlier on I mentioned Obama's policy link to the authors of The Israel Lobby, a book which he took an aggressive stance against himself. This view is now linked to the McCain campaign through Governor Palin's support of Buchanan. I believe we must see a serious apology from the Governor for her endorsement of Pat Buchanan, as well as receive an outline of her support for democracy in the middle east, recognition of the horrors of the Holocaust, and refutation of all of Buchanan's other bigoted and extreme beliefs.

O mama obama

im a little late with my praises for obama after the fact
but if i may be so pedestrian to say daaaaamn, that boy got game. I know this has been worked to death, but i just wanted to get my praise in for it before i get going on my long angry rant against McCains awful choice of vp, being that i believe that it is important to say a nice thing in the morning before one gets all violent...
serenity now, serenity now...

Bill Kills

Ok, all doubting is over, the clintons are back onside, and boy am i excited.
First though i have to say loved the choice of music for clintons entrance
"dont stop thinking about tomorrow... ...yesterdays gone, yesterdays gone"
now i know it was his 1992 campaign song, but it is kinda funny in current context
not that he really needed it cause got some bad news for the elephant in the room, slick willy is back

He started off quickly, by saying 'first I am here to support Barak Obama' and from there it was as my dad put it, to the stars. Bill was the old bill, charming, gracious, the rockstar that we knew and loved back in the 90's.
On the issues he makes it clear: the US is in trouble both domestically and internationally. He manages to weave these two ideas into a convincing narrative explaining his support for Barak Obama. He spares no attempt to show that Obama's policies are superior to the republican alternative.
I loved the speech, he came out with some new nuanced pro obama arguments, not just forced regurgitation of the party line. Among other things, he talked about how the not as bad bush (clinton knows a lot about good bush) accused him of being inexperienced, and he turned out pretty damn decent. While the press had suggested that he might make this argument, his 'domination argument' was out of the blue.
The thesis of this argument is that the most damage that had been done was due to the fact that from 2000-2006 (it was actually in 2002 when the democrats lost the senate, but he states 2000) the republicans held control of the legislative and executive branch for the first time in more than 40 years. This means that this was the first time that the republicans had been allowed to push through their agenda without compromising on any level. This is the first time I have heard this argument given at such a high level to attack Republican policy, and I hope they continue it.

PUMAMA

Party Unity My Ass My Ass
seriously, these people need to grow up and move on. I understand they feel bad, they lost, obama's campaign won. But its as if they are letting the person go above the issues. I feel that I really need to put up something more substantial because these guys and gals need to grow up.

republicans swing and miss pt 2

I love watching the republican pundits, they dont look like real people. Instead of the stepford wives, its like the stepford party. They are all shiny and smiley and when a fact exists that they dont like, they just ignore it.

republicans swing and miss

so tucker bounds was first up on larry king tonight. He was attempting to refute Montana Governor Brian Schweitzers attacks on McCain on alternative energy by saying that he was talking about one vote against a bush energy plan. However, while McCain may say that he is for alternative energy, there is very little about wind power in his energy plan according to factcheck.org
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/wind_power_puffery.html

Dennis Prager (right wing radio host), is going after clintons speech for him seeing her as saying that government will take care of everything. Obviously he did not hear her speech, where her thesis seemed to be that no matter who you are, or where you come from, if you work hard, your talent will take you as far as you can go

talking head butt

Hillary Rosen, the director for the Huffington Post, democratic strategist, and CNN contributor just had a little slip saying
"no matter what your doing you need to get it together and vote for John McCain if you care about energy and middle class tax cuts and jobs and healthcare and getting out of the war in Iraq"

Knowing the McCain camp, this might be their next campaign add

Welcome

Welcome to the Not Quite So Divine Comedy,
Here we will eventually blog about all things, but it seems that due to the time we start this, it will begin as a political blog. I hope that this blog can be maintained, because I am pretty damn lazy. But who knows, if we get some readers, I might just have the motivation required
DK