The Obama campaign released its documentary on the Keating 5 scandal, which John McCain was directly involved in. I think the move is genius. You can analogize all the negative campaigning to a gunfight.

There’s Senator McCain (this summer) firing wildly. Obama ducks behind the bar. McCain continues to fire wildly. Everyone encourages Obama to stand up and trade bullets, but Obama stays in his spot. McCain runs out of bullets (he’s re-using old attack lines). Then, Obama stands up. BOOM. Keating 5.

I have been meaning to link this, from Anirudh, Why I maintain a weblog. It’s a wonderful piece of succinct writing, and I agree with its sentiments. Here’s an excerpt:

The most beautiful part, as I now realize, is to be able to look back on yourself, like a time capsule. For some reason, I have a very very weak memory. I frequenty encounter things that I did not fully remember doing (for example, I found out I own ninjagod.com ), and it feels nice to remember what I felt during certain periods of time.

But the most important thing is this:
My main goal in life is to grow and change for the better. And this weblog seems to be physical proof that I have.

Read the whole thing.

This poll from Fox News is interesting. I’m sure that Palin’s name is in red just to provide some contrast. It’s the middle choice, so you need some different color in order for people to see it. I mean, if people can’t see Palin’s name, how can they know that they’re voting for the right choice?

Palin from the debate tonight:

There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration.

But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there’s just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that’s where you’re going.

Positive change is coming, though. Reform of government is coming. We’ll learn from the past mistakes in this administration and other administrations.

[emphasis added]

Palin from Couric’s interview:

Couric: When President Bush ran for office, he opposed nation-building. But he has spent, as you know, much of his presidency promoting democracy around the world. What lessons have you learned from Iraq? And how specifically will you try to spread democracy throughout the world?

Palin: Specifically, we will make every effort possible to help spread democracy for those who desire freedom, independence, tolerance, respect for equality. That is the whole goal here in fighting terrorism also. It’s not just to keep the people safe, but to be able to usher in democratic values and ideals around this, around the world.

Riddle me this, Batman: What, specifically, did Palin learn from from the Bush Administration’s mistakes?

I wanted to point this out, to show how Palin was dodging the questions. The portion I’ve excerpted from the transcript is rather long, but you need all of this to illustrate how inept Palin is.

IFILL: Senator Biden, you voted for this bankruptcy bill. Senator Obama voted against it. Some people have said that mortgage- holders really paid the price.

BIDEN: Well, mortgage-holders didn’t pay the price. Only 10 percent of the people who are — have been affected by this whole switch from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13 — it gets complicated.

But the point of this — Barack Obama saw the glass as half- empty. I saw it as half-full. We disagreed on that, and 85 senators voted one way, and 15 voted the other way.

But here’s the deal. Barack Obama pointed out two years ago that there was a subprime mortgage crisis and wrote to the secretary of Treasury. And he said, “You’d better get on the stick here. You’d better look at it.”

John McCain said as early as last December, quote — I’m paraphrasing — “I’m surprised about this subprime mortgage crisis,” number one.

Number two, with regard to bankruptcy now, Gwen, what we should be doing now — and Barack Obama and I support it — we should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that you owe.

That would keep people in their homes, actually help banks by keeping it from going under. But John McCain, as I understand it — I’m not sure of this, but I believe John McCain and the governor don’t support that. There are ways to help people now. And there — ways that we’re offering are not being supported by — by the Bush administration nor do I believe by John McCain and Governor Palin.

IFILL: Governor Palin, is that so?

PALIN: That is not so, but because that’s just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket’s energy ticket, also.

I think that this is important to come back to, with that energy policy plan again that was voted for in ’05.

When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy independent.

It’s a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we’re relying on foreign countries to produce for us.

We’re talking about a bankruptcy bill. Biden transitions to how we should deal with the problem now. Biden points out how McCain was surprised that there was a subprime mortgage crisis, and how McCain, Bush, and Palin are out of touch.

Palin responds, (I’m paraphrasing) “No, that’s not right, and now I’m going to talk about energy policy.” What the fuck. No one has talked about it for several minutes. We’re talking about the financial crisis. You try to show that you’re not out of touch by completely ignoring the issue. Brilliant. Apparently, your answer to the mortgage crisis is “drill, baby, drill.”

She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and when she’s in unfamiliar territory, she resorts to changing the topic. It’s quite masterful really. First, she brings up the energy bill, which they did talk about. Then, she uses that as a spring-board to talk about energy independence, which has nothing to do with anything. I want to call it a non sequitur, but it’s not. She’s just playing word association. She dodges the question, brings up something unrelated from several minutes ago, and then brings up an entirely new subject.

This is why Joe Biden won.

I was talking with Lloyd before the debate, and my prediction was that the right-wing pundit class would give Palin the “Most Improved” Award and then declare victory. Of course, even the left-wing pundits were also giving her “most improved” props. You didn’t hear it in such words. You heard, “exceeded expectations,” etcetera. It’s junk, and she was horrible. Just because she cleared a bar so low she could hop over it merely by being somewhat coherent, doesn’t mean she did a good job. Palin spent all of her time filibustering. She never actually said anything; she never actually answered the question. And because of the debate format, no one could challenge her on that. Her performance was pathetic, and everyone would’ve said so had she not been even more pathetic with the Couric interview.

If you want to label a lack of understanding of the issues as “folksiness,” then be my guest, but “doggone it,” I have never actually heard anyone say “doggone it” in my life. (Unironically, that is.) She said McCain picked her because of her closeness to the Heartland, but she’s almost from Canada. Please.

It’s funny how pathetic the right-wing spin is. The idea is that was she was supposed to re-energize a base who’d become somewhat disillusioned. If she does so by not being embarrassingly pathetic, then the Republican Party really is garbage. I mean, look at them recently. They’ve become a party of whiners, decrying Couric’s softball questions as “liberal elite bias.” They cried that they didn’t vote for a bill because Nancy Pelosi’s speech was too mean. It’s a worthless party, and Palin is a worthless candidate.

Biden killed her. Ask anyone who hates the war, and you’ll see how successful Biden was in tying McCain-Palin to Bush-Cheney. Then, look at Bush’s approval rating. Sorry, Palin’s best response is “He’s a maverick!” Let me also say this, on every issue in the last few years where McCain has bucked his party, he’s been on the wrong side. He was for that horrible “comprehensive” immigration bill. He was for that 1st Amendment-bashing McCain-Feingold finance reform. Notice how she never brings those bills up. NEVER. “Maverick”? Whatever, that fall-back talking point doesn’t cut it if you can’t be specific. It’s an empty phrase, and she is an empty candidate.

Congrats, Palin. You won the “Most Improved Award.” It means nothing.

Palin is not qualified to be Vice President. I keep coming back to this exchange from her interview with Katie Couric:

Couric: When President Bush ran for office, he opposed nation-building. But he has spent, as you know, much of his presidency promoting democracy around the world. What lessons have you learned from Iraq? And how specifically will you try to spread democracy throughout the world?

Palin: Specifically, we will make every effort possible to help spread democracy for those who desire freedom, independence, tolerance, respect for equality. That is the whole goal here in fighting terrorism also. It’s not just to keep the people safe, but to be able to usher in democratic values and ideals around this, around the world.

Specifically, I’m going to be very general. The problem is not this exchange by itself. The problem is that every question is answered this way. She has no credibility in foreign policy.

Honestly, her answers do more than reveal her inadequacy. They are an all-out assault on the English language. She strings together meaningless cliches and right-wing talking points. Read that answer again. It means absolutely nothing. The purpose of her words is to obscure the nothingness that lies behind them. Hideous.

I procrastinate. Every once in a while, it catches up to me, and I get completely owned by an assignment. I see this as my natural comeuppance, or karmic consequences. It’s a lesson; I vow never to procrastinate again. Inevitably, this vow results in nothing.

Here I am again.

Maybe this is an odd question, but it has been burned into my mind recently:

How do you prove you’re alive?

Remember.

Our cable box is broken and this has upset me more than when we didn’t even have electricity. And I can still get cable tv if I bypass the box. I suppose it’s human nature to be more upset about losing something that you have rather than not having something at all. We overvalue what we already have.

Still, it is very surprising that this would upset me so much. I think I just love TV much.

As I walked to get some lunch, I got a glance at the Baltimore Sun’s headline story. “Call for Change,” it said, in big bold letters, showing a picture of McCain underneath.

I wondered, How can anyone take this seriously? You Republicans do realize that you’ve been in power for pretty much the last 8 years, right? You’ve held the presidency since 2001, and you’ve had a majority in Congress since before then. You only completely lost that majority in 2006. You’ve spent all the time since in filibuster mode, all the while decrying a “do-nothing Congress.” You’re the ones doing nothing. You’re the ones who did nothing when Iraq was going to hell; you’re the ones who did nothing when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Your party is proudly incompetent. And yet your recipe for change is four more years.

To illustrate how absurd this is, how can we have John Sidney McCain III decrying Washington insiders? McCain has been in the Senate LONGER THAN I’VE FUCKING BEEN ALIVE. He’s been in the Senate since 1986, and I was born in 1987. He was also elected to the House in 1982. But it’s not like he lived a quiet life in Arizona beforehand. No, he was a carpetbagger. John McCain is a creature of Washington.

My friends, that’s not change we can believe in. A call for change? I call shenanigans.

Apparently, Alberto Gonzales committed perjury. Can we please put the tyrant in jail? I just started reading The Dark Side and I’m pissed as hell. I want to make a goal of putting all of those directly responsible for torture and gutting the Constitution in jail, and I want to drive from power everyone who voted for the MCA. No quarter for tyrants.

My latest audiobook was A Short History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton. It gave me a good overview of the Civil War, and I enjoyed it a lot. The one problem with listening to audiobooks about wars is that when they mention geography, it’s impossible for me to figure out what’s going on. I don’t have a map to look at.

I learned a bit about strategy in war. There’s a lot of value in having the initiative and forcing the enemy to react to you rather than the other way around. In general, one should concentrate ones forces. Speed is a killer, as evidenced by the cavalry. I don’t really know how this helps me practically. Maybe the next time I’m playing a board game I can remember it.

I was impressed by Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln. Had Lincoln not been assassinated, I wonder how differently things would’ve turned out. He was much more magnanimous and moderate than the Republican Congress.

Finally, I realized how the Civil War and its aftermath left scars on a nation that we still see today. The book was written in the 60s and that upheaval in civil rights is directly related to that war. 100 years and the same kind of tensions flared again. It’s strange how conservatives want to make-believe that racism just isn’t a problem anymore when history shows us how culture can sometimes change very slowly. After all, it’s the conservative who should recognize the role of the habits of society.

The absurd impulse allows me to continue. The pessimist sees the meaningless universe and despairs. If I succeed, he says, it means nothing.

But what keeps me going when it gets so dark, so unbearable, is the fact that if I fail, it means nothing. This will sound less poetic, but when you leap from swinging vine to swinging vine in a video game, you do not fear death or failure. If you die, you try again. While life may not provide a similar opportunity, at least you know that you can disregard your failure. There is nothing to fear.

When Sisyphus sees that rock tumble back down the mountain, he is happy. The reason the rock fell in the first place is because of human sweat, muscle, and decision. Success or failure, it does not matter. They are both the result of human effort. In the end, that is all that matters.

If the universe ends, and all is for naught, we know that at least we existed. At least we did something. Even if know one else knows, I at least felt myself exist.

Even if our sandcastles are consumed by the sea, we continue to build. And even when that last sandcastle is gone, I do not feel fear. I do not fear the world crumbling down around me. Success or failure, either way I lived. I built.

So the world may bring its worst, but I take solace in the fact that in the end, it means nothing. I lived despite it all. That is our absurd triumph.

I want to launch on September 1st, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea since I’m flying back to Baltimore on that day. Who knows what will happen with internet access? I’ve already set the comic to auto-update. I really hate to hesitate, but I think I have to push it to September 8th.

John Edwards admitted to having an affair. Now we know what he meant when he said that he sinned everyday.

Alright, I’m done with this whole issue.

I’m truly blessed to have such great friends on both coasts of this beautiful country.

So, I’m in Vegas, with relatives. I’m sleeping on the couch. I have no privacy, and it’s driving me nuts, haha.

Okay, why does my blog theme keep getting its options changed, even though I’m not touching anything? Grr…

Anyway, I was rafting, and now I’m going to Vegas. Who knows how much blogging will be done in the next few weeks? Expect this month to be sparse.

I am like a bajillion books behind in the book review thing. I don’t know if this was such a good idea. I read 2-3 books a week, and so I keep falling further behind.

Let’s make a specific goal to rectify this situation. I will be caught up by July 22.

This Lay’s commercial is one of my all-time favorites:

What really makes me laugh is at the very end, they throw him back! Haha!

How come heat interferes with your ability to think? What’s the science behind it? I’d look it up, but I wouldn’t be able to comprehend it at the moment; I’m roasting.

For Prince

In the trunk of the prius
was our dog
wrapped in a blanket
dead.
In between the breeze
and my dad’s voice,
I heard the radio dj exhort,
remember to say happy father’s day
when you see your dad.

“Happy Father’s Day,” I said.
“Gee, thanks.”

Opera 9.5 just came out! I haven’t been this excited about a new browser release since the old days, when the browser wars were in full swing.

“…but maybe your political optimism will rub off on me.” — my friend, to me.

Me, the political optimist? When did this happen? I don’t know, but I like it.

Brevity! In both words and action.

“It is the curse of the universal man, that in trying to be everything, he is nothing.” — Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

“The horrible screaming means that it’s working.” — Patrick, Spongebob Squarepants

“Regrets are for horseshoes and handbags.” — Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock