This has little to do with politics (other than how Hurricane Sandy might affect the election), but if you are curious what I do in my not-spare time, here’s an article that talks about an animated map I created showing flight cancelations due to Sandy. You can also find it here, along with lots of raw data. The best version of the animated map is here, running faster and including more days. Plus you can see it in high definition. Enjoy!
I hope everyone remembers to set their clocks back, and remembers to vote!
The blog “4 Quarters, 10 Dimes” is run by a historian who specializes in the political culture of the early USA, so — as he says — “I actually DO know what this country was founded upon”. For most of his life, he as been an independent, voting for whichever party’s candidate he agreed with. A few weeks ago he posted a most excellent rant about how the Republican party has gone way beyond the pale, and he backs it up with specific facts. You really should read the whole post, but I’ll give you a taste with a an extended quote:
As we slide down the greased banister of politics toward the big round testicle-level newel at the bottom that is the impending election, however, it occurs to me that I can now save myself the trouble of investigating individual candidates, because an entire group of them have taken themselves out of serious consideration.
As of right now, I simply cannot foresee a time when I would voluntarily cast a ballot for a Republican candidate for any office, no matter how inconsequential. Even if I know that candidate to be a decent and honorable person individually, the fact that they have seen fit to tie themselves to that howling morass of a party would outweigh any such consideration – nobody running on the Republican ticket today is worth my vote for that reason alone, regardless of any other factors.
It’s as simple as that.
This is a shame. The United States in general and our political system in particular need an organized, responsible, adult voice for conservatives to make themselves heard. Conservatives serve the useful function of putting a brake on the random undirected enthusiasms of liberals, in the way that liberals serve the useful function of kicking conservatives out of their deep dark caves. The two sides need each other. Unfortunately the Republican Party has abdicated its responsibility to be responsible and adult. It has rushed headlong into the realm of batshit insanity thinly disguised as … well, more batshit insanity, really. It has mounted a savage attack on all who do not adhere to the new, extremist, ideological purity demanded of its members and has expelled any who dare dissent from the party line. In doing so it has become a malignant caricature of its former self. There is no responsible voice for conservatives in the US in 2012. None.
Unless you count Barack Obama, who is essentially Dwight Eisenhower without the Army uniform.
There would have to be a wholesale shift in the ideology, platform and base of the Republican Party before any responsible adult could possibly consider voting Republican, and I just don’t see that happening without a seismic and cataclysmic blow to their organizational structure. They have to lose and lose convincingly – they need to be shattered on the rock of their own malfeasance, ignorance, and treachery – before responsible conservatives can return and turn it into something useful again.
Until then, no. Just, no.
“Halloween is a day when we all get to fool people into thinking we’re someone else. Or as Mitt Romney calls it, campaigning.” – Bill Maher
“Are you excited about Halloween? People go out pretending to be something they’re not, looking for handouts. It’s like running for president.” – David Letterman
“You know what the popular costume with the kids is this year? They get black face and a valium and they go as first-debate Obama.” – Bill Maher
“We had the last presidential debate. A very subdued Mitt Romney I thought. If you saw it, Obama would talk, and then Mitt would say, ‘what he said, but from a white guy’.” – Bill Maher
“He morphed into Obama so hard at the end of it he went over and hugged Michelle.” – Bill Maher
“In the last three weeks, Mitt Romney has come out against tax cuts for the rich, against war, and suddenly for regulations, for teachers, for auto bailouts, for the UN, for birth control, for foreign aid. And what I love is that at this point it’s too late for the Tea Party to do anything about this except act like they’re okay with it. At this point they’re like Jerry Sandusky’s wife.” – Bill Maher
“Today Mitt Romney picked up the endorsement of Meat Loaf. When Chris Christie heard that Meat Loaf was behind Romney, he pushed Romney out of the way.” – Bill Maher
“Today Mitt Romney advised that men should head for the shelters and women should remain in their binders.” – Bill Maher
“If these evangelical Republicans were any more anti-woman, I would think that they’re repressed homo… wait a second!” – Bill Maher
“It’s now reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to star in another ‘Conan’ movie. In this one, Conan has a son with the woman who cleans his castle.” – Jay Leno
“They’re saying the Frankenstorm could be the worst storm ever. What’s happening is a cold front from Canada and low pressure from the hurricane are colliding with the hot air from Donald Trump.” – Bill Maher
“Donald Trump has been fired from managing the upscale condominium in New York City known as ‘Trump Place’. The condominium board fired him. Finally a job loss Obama can be happy about. ” – Jay Leno
“President Obama is now getting some criticism for calling Mitt Romney a B.S.’er. I don’t think that means ‘big spender.'” – Jay Leno
“You know who is celebrating a birthday? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He’ll be 55 years old on Sunday. The United States has put severe sanctions on his cake.” – David Letterman
Well, either that or blackmail. Remember when gangsters would extort money from business owners in exchange for “protection”? I’m not sure that is so much different from what Mitt Romney gave today as his self-described “closing argument” as to why he should be elected president:
He is saying that if you don’t elect me, then Republicans will force another debt ceiling showdown: “The debt ceiling will come up again, and shut down and default will be threatened, chilling the economy.”
I love how he uses the passive tense for “shut down and default will be threatened”. Is this any different from “It would be a shame if something unfortunate were to happen to your lovely establishment”?
UPDATE: I’m honored that Paul Krugman made the same connection with protection rackets that I did! And I didn’t even have to steal the idea from him.
If you just believe hard enough, gosh, anything is possible! History is littered with the carcasses of failed empires that started believing their own PR.
Here’s the problem with ideology. Especially the ideology of thinking that it is a good idea to starve the federal government until you can drown it in the bathtub. It sounds appealing … until it runs into real life. As they say, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is”.
Was the Bush administration mishandling of Hurricane Katrina caused by their ideology that government can’t help? After all, if you think FEMA should be abolished you must believe that it isn’t worth spending money on.
He might just have reached the limit:
Jen Sorensen’s comments about her comic:
I find that people who spew the platitude that “the candidates are the same” tend to be the ones who have the least to lose if the wrong candidate is elected. At risk of sounding melodramatic, these elections truly are a matter of life and death. If you end the Affordable Care Act and millions of Americans lose their health insurance, people will die as a result. A recent estimate puts the number at 26,000 deaths per year due to lack of insurance; that’s more than a few September 11ths. Then there’s the Global Gag Rule, which Romney would reinstate. It rarely gets mentioned, but this policy wreaks havoc on women in impoverished nations. Romney would also end contributions to the U.N. Population Fund, which combats the spread of HIV and prevents 22,000 deaths annually.
These are but a few examples. Turning Medicare into a voucher program, radicalizing the Supreme Court for a generation, and displaying an open hostility toward science probably won’t help things either. Obama isn’t perfect, but as far as I’m concerned, voting is a moral arithmetic problem with a clear answer.
“The debates are over. All that’s left right now is to set up and rig the voting machines.” – David Letterman
“According to the latest poll, 80 percent of the people polled are sick and tired of hearing about the latest polls.” – Jay Leno
“Studies show that votes cast in the days leading up to the election tend to favor the Democratic Party and votes cast AFTER an election tend to favor the marijuana party. The Green Party. Is that what they call it?” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Today Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president. This news surprised many elderly Americans who thought they were the same person.” – Craig Ferguson
“Michelle Obama is with us tonight. She’ll encourage us to vote early. Most Republicans are opposed, because they believe that voting starts at conception.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“I’m looking forward to interviewing the first lady. I sat next to her when I hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner. But it’s hard to have a conversation with Newt Gingrich yelling ‘You gonna eat that’ over and over again in my ear.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“There’s been some talk about making Election Day a national holiday so people have more time to vote. I think people are so sick of this election. How about making the day AFTER Election Day the holiday?” – Jay Leno
“While he was at a diner this week in Ohio, a man told Joe Biden that he’s a good guy but a bad vice president. Which gets even worse when you hear that was the only thing President Obama said the entire lunch.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Home sales are up. That’s certainly good news. Do you know the most expensive home for sale in the country right now? The White House.” – Jay Leno
“Anybody excited about the World Series? The San Francisco Giants, who looked pretty good last night, face the Detroit Tigers. Here’s what I predict. I predict the whole thing will be decided in Ohio.” – David Letterman
“Sandoval hit three homers in the first game against the Tigers in the World Series, and today, first thing, Donald Trump demanded to see his birth certificate.” – David Letterman
“President Obama flew to a rally in Las Vegas last night. However, he did not visit any of the casinos. You know why? When you’re $16 trillion in debt, they don’t let you in.” – Jay Leno
Former FEMA Director Michael “Heckuva Job Brownie” Brown, who completely bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina, is criticizing Obama for responding to Hurricane Sandy “so quickly”. You can’t make stuff like this up.
UPDATE: Why Hurricane Sandy is the perfect end to the campaign.
There is damn strong evidence that votes are being stolen in this country. What’s ironic is that there is a simple solution — require all electronic voting machines to have a verifiable paper trail. If ATMs do it, then voting machines can do it.
But I fear that the only way this will happen is if some group hacks into the voting machines and switches all the votes to some nonsense candidate, like Donald Duck. That will wake people up.
I’m especially frustrated at the hypocrisy of politicians who claim to care about voter fraud by passing voter ID laws, but ignore the much more dangerous (and likely) fraud of unverifiable electronic voting machines.
I actually helped build an electronic election results reporting system, which was used to supply results to TV stations and newspapers (so not official results), so I know how dead easy it would be to hack such a system.
Some people should know better than to appear on the Colbert Report:
Part two of the interview is almost as painful — for Mitch Daniels at least.
It somehow seems apropos that Hallowe’en comes just before election day. After all, what monsters and goblins could possibly be scarier than some of our political candidates?
I’m really surprised that the Democrats haven’t made much of the fact that one of Mitt Romney’s biggest financial backers is none other than Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove. That should give pause to anyone who would like to forget about the horrors of the Bush administration.
Josh Whedon (creator of Buffy, Firefly, The Avengers, etc.) talks about why Mitt Romney is the candidate who will put the US on the path to the Zombie Apocalypse:
Abortion Bush Campaign Finance Cheney Climate Clinton Congress Conservatives Corporations Corruption Deficits Democrats Drugs Economy Education Election Elections Energy Environment Fox News Gays Guns Health Immigration Lies McCain Media Middle East Obama Palin Protests Racism Religion Republicans Romney Spying Supreme Court Taxes Tea Party Terrorism Terrorists Torture Trump Unemployment War
