Ho hum

I'll be over here if you need me.

Take note.

Hitch Unleashed

Do yourself a favor and take a minute to read Christopher Hitchen's damning repudiation of McCain/Palin's anti-intellectual crusade in Slate:

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

Obama Rally in St. Louis, Saturday, 10/18/08

According to the liberal elite media, a record 100,000 people showed up Saturday to attend to Barack Obama rally under the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. That's a lot of pinko, terrorist-sympathizin' baby killers to congregate in one place! I'm surprised no one called the Army on us... By contrast, McCain only drew around 2,500 patriots to the pro-America suburb of St. Charles two days later.

Jesus Hussein Christ -- the xenophobic, McCarthyite attacks from the far right are starting to drive me a little nuts. I apologize. Two more weeks. I can make it.

Anyway, The Wife and I went to the rally. We brought along a few of her students who were really excited about going, and they were exceptionally well-behaved. I'm a terrible judge of distance, but I'd say we got somewhere between 30-40 yards away from the speaking podium (the zoom on my camera is just worthless). It was pretty cool to be part of such a large crowd, in a Red State of all places, but overall it was a fairly standard stump speech about the economy and health care. Still, at least I got to see the future president in real time. At one point, one of the speakers went silent for a few minutes and the crowd in my area started chanting "We Can't Hear You!", to which the rest of the crowd rejoined with a "Yes We Can!" Kind of funny; kind of annoying. Read about the real event here.

After the rally, we stopped off at Crown Candy Kitchen in Old North, and I ordered a chocolate banana malt and roast beef cheddar melt on sour dough that was out of this world. That was the real highlight of my Saturday.

"I even spilled my soy chai latte over my shitzu"

This is just too perfect - Obama roasting McCain at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner:

Show Me Barely Contained Rage

I've been keeping an eye on the polling data on Missouri, and it's been real revitalizing to watch the state go from blood red to a vibrant shade of purple. In fact, up until a week ago, Obama was maintaining a small but steady lead in the Show Me state. The latest polling data I could find, though, puts McCain one percentage point ahead. Statistically, it's still a dead heat. There is hope.

Nevertheless, it's disturbing to note that road signs as sickeningly offensive as this are being spotted in my current home state. (Please note the completely superfluous use of quotation marks, in case you had any doubts about the sign-maker's mental acuity.) But at least it's somewhat reassuring that Missourians are also responsible for the popular "Rednecks for Obama" signs at the DNC back in August. It also helps that I live in the city, because everywhere I go I see Obama/Biden bumper stickers, yard signs, and T-shirts. On the rare occasion that I do see a McCain/Palin yard sign, it feels endearingly quaint and out-of-place.

Obama's coming to St. Louis this Saturday to give a speech under the Gateway Arch to shore up local support. I got an e-mail from his campaign asking if I'd like to RSVP for the event (as if there's going to be a person at the check point with a clipboard saying, "Ah, I see you're on The List; go right ahead, Sir."). I'm going.

McCain, however, doesn't come to the city; he goes to the county. And whoever wins the counties is going to win the state.

I still have a tough time understanding any appeal McCain might have left with moderates or indepedents. The Wife called me last night as she was on the road running errands, listening to the debate on the radio. "Did McCain just snort?" she asked. Yes, he snorted, guffawed, harrumphed, sighed, seethed, rolled his eyes, jutted his tongue, and gnashed his teeth. Who wants this guy in their living rooms for the next four years?



Side discussion: What's worse - the road sign of Barack "H" Obama in a turban linked to above, or the fake food stamps the GOP is dispersing in southern California that depict Obama next to an assortment of fried chicken, ribs, and watermelon?

Where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who.

This already feels like old news, but George Saunders' latest New Yorker spoof on Sarah Palin's unblinkingness and disjointed grammar is just too perfect not to share. Words fail to describe:

Explaining how she felt when John McCain offered her the Vice-Presidential spot, my Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, said something very profound: “I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”

Isn’t that so true? I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t.

Of course, we now know that her story of not blinking may be yet another one of her fanciful fabrications.

But now, re-reading Saunders' bit in light of Palin's cringe-inducing interview with Katie Couric, I think he may have been too generous in following the train wreck of her logic. Try making sense of this excerpt from the interview:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

Reducing taxes has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief?

Oh dear.