existence trainer

From Merriam-Webster : demagogue : a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power There is probably no better description for what it is that Rush Limbaugh does.

I don't know what Obama has decided, but I'm very very worried. Its a terrible decision to have to make, and it will haunt his presidency either way. War is a horrific thing, and I can never really truly support a war, even if I think it is necessary. But I don't know if what is about to happen is necessary. I don't believe its largely about combat missions (though I'm sure its implied), but more about patrolling, providing security, and building a strong army/police force to combat the Taliban. Nonetheless if he increases troop levels, it will become a defining moment of his presidency. Not only he is going to have a very hard time with the base of his party, but it might taint all the good that he is trying to do (and prevent much of it if - and when - we get mired in a long, violent struggle). The Republicans will continue to lie about him - relying on the stupidly inane memes that Democrats don't support our troops, that he's cutting the military budget,...

I hope he does sue the US government - and I hope to hell he wins. This is so outrageously unacceptable. 7½ Years For Being Muslim ~ The Story Of Lakhdar Boumediene

Strong reason to be hopeful that the polling trends tell us something useful about who's going to win:

Bad politics. Worse theology. This is scary stuff. John Hagee is the guy who John McCain warmed up to for a while until some media scrutiny came to this relationship. NOTE: I'm someone who loves to read the Bible and debate theology, but watching this drives me fucking crazy. Here is the link: Vote the Bible, pt1

You know how when one person makes a political statement, someone else in the neighborhood feels like they have to make the opposing one? Well, over the past couple of weeks I've been amused at the exchange occurring in two adjacent neighborhood windows. Last night one of the neighbors (the one on the right) took it to a whole new level. How much stupidity does it require to think this is helping your cause?

Wow. You can tell he really wrestled with the issue and listened the force of his convictions. He's right: embedded in the American way is a tendency towards equality and social justice. Slavery could not withstand this tendency, and neither will other institutionalized forms of discrimination. Certain freedoms were at stake and he could not bring himself to stand up against them. Bravo, mayor.

It turns a little odd in the middle.

O'Reilly's Map Pollster's Map

Well done, Olbermann.

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need" - Acts 2:44-45 "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" - Karl Marx

Conservatism has become more and more divisive, ideological, and narrow over the last decade. At least it has in its popular expositions exhibited in present political discourse. Conservatives, if they want to save their movement, need to take it back out of the hold of the self-proclaimed conservative exponents and pundits like Limbaugh, Hannity, and - in fact - the entire right-wing radio talk-show circus that only appeal to non-intellectual gut reactions of listeners who are either easly swayed by incendiary remarks or want to affirm some loose and vague notions like small government and/or social values. Both todays conservatives and liberals are part of grand western democratic liberal tradition that they have forgotten about and that they need to re-appropriate in their thinking. Conservatives in particular need to be careful not to claim that only they have the monopoly the views of America's founding fathers (which are a significant part of this tradition) and they need to ...

Brilliant!

He's put the case as straightforwardly and eloquently as I've heard from anyone:

He writes : A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore. But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there...

Hannity gets his ass handed to him. That is what happens when you base your entire shtick on a tactic which is a classical instance of poor reasoning. Bravo Gibbs! And Colmes, whose admirable instinct was to defend his co-host from the charge of antisemitism should have also driven home the point that it shows the inanity of this entire line of reasoning.

Factchecking, otherwise known as due-diligence, is very important in evaluating the credibility of the candidates. Are one or both of the candidates willing to state straight-out falsehoods in order to win some cheap votes? For example, McCain has consistently misrepresented Obama as someone who wants to raise taxes across the board, esp. on the middle class. The fantasitic site FactCheck.org has this to say about such a claim: It's a pretty standard Republican theme: "Democrat X favors higher taxes and wasteful spending." But the McCain-Palin campaign has repeatedly pushed this line far beyond what the facts will support. Among the whoppers: that Sen. Barack Obama has voted to raise taxes on families earning as little as $32,000 per year, that Obama wants to tax your electricity and your heating oil, that he has voted for "higher" taxes 94 times, and that he will raise taxes for 23 million small-business owners. Each of these claims is false. ... As for Obama...

Two sites you should check out for extensive coverage on the truths, half-truths, and outright lies that are circulating about the presidential candidates are Politifact and FactCheck . A list of the most egregious lies can be found here . These include: