“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy
He goes on to say that we’re not designing a system from scratch and so single payer ain’t gonna happen. Still, this is some progressive red meat. More of this, please.
The idea is consistently advanced in the traditional op-eds that McCain can’t pick his BFF, Joe Lieberman, as his running mate because Lieberman is pro-choice and his pro-choice views will undercut the Republican base.
This argument is divorced from reality and history. George H. W. Bush was literally pro-choice one night, and then Reagan asked him to be his veep nominee and he was pro-life the next morning, and nobody flinched. The Republicans eat it up when somebody converts to their side, even if the motivations are obviously cravenly political. And can you think of a more cravenly political beast than the Liebermonster?
I’m not saying he’s going to pick Lieberman. I have no idea who he’ll pick. I’m just saying all the op-eds which are now pointing out that McCain can’t pick Holy Joe as his running mate because of the pro-choice thing have dumped the last thirty years of Republican foibles down the memory hole, just like they do every fucking week.
I’ve been waiting on buying a laptop for months now. I actually had one ordered but they couldn’t get it to me before I left for tour, or even while on tour, so I canceled the order.
The thing with buying tech (and for me specifically I’m looking at the Asus Eee 1000 laptops) is that I know that if I wait for three weeks, something significantly better will be released. Advances are made so quickly that the value of waiting is so large, that it almost never makes sense to buy anything.
If I wait for a month, I can probably get one of the S101’s or a 1000 in a fun color. So, I continue to wait. If Asus weren’t so damned productive and innovative however, I probably would have bought one already. Ironic, but true.
We as a nation have to make a collective choice regarding who will be the single most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. We get to choose between an entirely reasonable human being who used to teach constitutional law and was a community organizer for a while, and then there’s this other seventy year old guy who is a craven liar, who scarfs Ambien, who’s wrecked five planes in his life, graduated at the bottom of his class, who’s been consistently wrong about the biggest American foreign policy issue in the last eight years, likes to physically assault foreign diplomats and who talks about Czechoslovakia as if it still exists.
And where are we in this decision making process? We’re not quite sure. Aww gee, it’s a close one. We could go either way. It’s basically a coin flip.
Don’t forget, you could always vote for a third party. There’s the guy who started the Clinton impeachment, the guy who has no sense of his own absurdity, or the lady who hit a cop once.
The next time there’s a primary and Dennis Kucinich runs, please don’t tell me that he’s too extreme to stand a chance in the general election. This race, just like the last two, has proven that no one is too extreme for the American people. We’ll vote for anybody who’s wearing a clean suit.
The more I think about it, the more I think I’m gonna lose a nickel on my Sibelius prediction.
Why would the Obama campaign be texting the name of his veep pick to every kid with a cell phone? That only makes sense if the pick is someone whose name will be recognized by every kid with a cell phone. Names like Kathleen Sibelius and Tim Kaine are only recognized by people in their respective home states or by news junkies. If a kid with a cell phone sees the words, Jack Reed, pop up in a text message, he will not squeal with delight (although I would.)
So then maybe it’s gonna be a celebrity pick — someone with a name like Clinton or Gore.
I have no idea who it will be, or who it should be, other than that it should be Dennis Kucinich and I’m holding out until I hear otherwise dammit. I’m just guessing based on what little information exists. Anybody who says they know who it is at this point is full of shit. Remember:
When asked “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?,” McCain answered “At the moment of conception.”
A sensible follow-up to that question might have been, “At what point does a baby lose human rights? Since your rhetoric and your voting record are both clearly pro-torture and imperialistic, it has to be at some point, so when?”
But of course, that question will never be asked. Issues exist in isolation in Newsland. Never do they relate to each other or to the real world. Issues exist simply to allow candidates to claim them and thus win particular demographics. And it’s the job of the press corps to set up these issues on a table so that candidates may grab them a la carte as if they’re picking their Pokemon for the big stadium battle at the end of the show. Nothing more.
Oh look, I picked Pro-Life and Warlord. Vote for me! Patriotic Flag Pin, I choose you!
But he’s an opportunistic douche with a point.
Barr wasn’t invited to the Saddleback forum. In the injunction filed against the church, Barr’s campaign said that because Obama and McCain stand to benefit from the event’s media exposure, it should be considered a non-monetary campaign contribution. That, Barr’s lawyers said, is an illegal in-kind contribution.
As Saddleback preps for presidential forum, big Bob Barr’s unhappy he wasn’t invited
I win a dollar from Charlie if Obama announces his VP after August 13th 11:59 EDT. The thing is, all these e-mails that the Obama campaign keeps sending out about how he’s gonna announce his VP like any minute now so you should sign up for the e-mail/text message list is giving me the impression that Barack doesn’t care about my dollar.
If I were the sort of a person who stood to win a dollar based on the timing of the announcement, I’d sign up for the list.
If he can just hold it in for another day and a half, I’m rich.
P.S. I think it’s gonna be Sibelius.
So, for the second year in a row, the issue of torture and illegal detention will be a hot one at the APA’s annual convention, which begins Thursday in Boston.
For torture to be a hot issue, there has to be a significant faction which believes that torture actually isn’t so bad.
It’s not just Republicans in congress who can’t agree if torture is actually wrong or not. It’s also psychologists.