Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/28/2008
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Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Obama and McCain strategists are worlds apart
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DAVID Axelrod, the political consultant behind the stunning rise of the Democratic White House hopeful, does not brim over with joy. With his heavy-lidded eyes and bushy moustache, he looks like a shy professor. But appearances are deceptive. Without sharp elbows and acute antennae, the former political reporter could never have emerged as the preeminent campaign operative in the cut-throat world of Chicago politics. Axelrod, 53, has carved out a niche by helping to package African-American candidates for a white electorate. But with Obama, whom he has known for 17 years, his motivation appears intensely personal. Electing Obama president would be “something you could really be proud of for the rest of your life,” he told the New York Times in January 2007 as the Illinois senator prepared to announce his historic candidacy.
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More broadly, Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe were the architects of an ambitious nationwide electoral strategy that now appears to be paying off for Obama as McCain plays defense in what should be “red’ Republican bastions. In the process, the Obama campaign has built an astounding fundraising operation fueled by Axelrod’s signature belief in “grassroots” politics driven from the ground up. But echoing Obama, and betraying his own natural pessimism, Axelrod is taking nothing for granted. He told reporters last week: ‘We’re going to fight every day between now and November 4 to get our message out. Nothing’s over until it’s over.”
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Palin’s Nightmare—By Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine)
Worthwhile read.
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Early e-voting results in vote flipping in three states so far - Machinist - Salon.com
Troubling.
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New Yorker: Barack Obama is a socialist? - The New Yorker- msnbc.com
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There is a whole shelf of books on the question of why socialism never became a real mass movement here. For decades, the word served mainly as a cudgel with which conservative Republicans beat liberal Democrats about the head. When Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan accused John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson of socialism for advocating guaranteed health care for the aged and the poor, the implication was that Medicare and Medicaid would presage a Soviet America. Now that Communism has been defunct for nearly twenty years, though, the cry of socialism no longer packs its old punch. “At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said the other day—thereby suggesting that the dystopia he abhors is not some North Korean-style totalitarian ant heap but, rather, the gentle social democracies across the Atlantic, where, in return for higher taxes and without any diminution of civil liberty, people buy themselves excellent public education, anxiety-free health care, and decent public transportation.
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IHS :: HNN :: Einstein’s God: A New Book Explores the Scientist’s Spirituality
A good fact-check on the “Einstein was a Theist” canard.
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“I am a deeply religious non-believer,” Einstein wrote in a letter to his friend and colleague Hans Muehsam, in 1954. “If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”
However, his philosophy firmly excluded a belief in the supernatural or a Creator-God.
Todd Macalister’s new book Einstein’s God: A Way of Being Spiritual without the Supernatural, (Apocryphile Press, Berkeley; 2008) explores the scientist’s views on spirituality as expressed through his lectures and personal papers.
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Daylight Atheism > Skin Deep - Annotated
The writer on this site is so worth reading.
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I’ve been reading this account of a disciplinary hearing against the odious John Freshwater, an Ohio science teacher who allegedly promoted religion in his class, repeatedly and illegally, even after being ordered by school administrators to stop. Among other things, Freshwater brazenly taught creationism in class - directing his students to Answers in Genesis and giving extra credit to those willing to see the anti-evolution documentary Expelled. Most infamously, he was accused of using a Tesla coil to burn a cross onto a student’s arm.
However, I want to focus on a different aspect of this story. As often occurs, this case has divided the community, with the religious students who support Freshwater intimidating and demonizing those who don’t:
Students carried Bibles to class last spring to support Freshwater.
Classmates of Arie Alvarado questioned her and a few other eighth-grade students who didn’t take part.
“They were calling us atheists,” Alvarado said. “I couldn’t believe it. One day they’re your friend, and the next day you’re an atheist and they’re completely ignoring you in the hallway.”
- If any of you students or teachers out there have direct knowledge of this happening in your own school, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment or use the contact form in the sidebar. - post by cburell
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Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being an atheist - although many of the Dover plaintiffs were not. Still, the reaction of these hostile believers is telling. They think that the worst insult you can hurl at somebody is to call them an atheist, as though someone’s not believing in God necessarily implies that they’re an immoral and evil person.
We’ve seen this sort of demonization before. All too often, believers judge atheists based solely on our lack of belief, not on our actions or our character. It’s another manifestation of the pernicious human tendency toward tribalism, which religion does much to encourage.
Tribalism is a tendency that’s always been with us, stamped deep into our brains by evolution. It’s the urge to label and categorize people, to sort them into groups, and then to judge them based solely on which of these groups they give their allegiance to. Even when tribal distinctions are completely arbitrary, human beings can be passionate to the point of zealousness about them (consider sports fans), even to the point of violence (consider sports riots). And when tribal membership is determined by religion, which most people consider a far more integral part of their identity than sports fandom, the consequences of irrational tribalism are far worse. Those who are outside the tribe, who are labeled as “the Other”, will inevitably be blamed by tribe members for everything that is evil and frightening in the world.
- My favorite riff on this, coming from my years living in China, is that BUDDHISTS are RELIGIOUS, but also NON-THEISTIC (at least if they know original Buddhism).
They’re also the least dogmatic religion, which is probably why wars and terrorism almost never involve Buddhist causes. - post by cburell
- My favorite riff on this, coming from my years living in China, is that BUDDHISTS are RELIGIOUS, but also NON-THEISTIC (at least if they know original Buddhism).
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A moral and rational person judges others as individuals, not on the basis of tribal allegiance. The labels we wear, by themselves, say nothing about a person’s ethics or character. The only way to learn what kind of person someone is is to get to know them, to understand what they care about and what motivates them, and what kinds of ideals they want to see realized in the world. This is as true for atheists (or for theists) as it is for any other group.
The advocates of tribalism want to bypass all this. They want to find some superficial mark of good character, one which immediately determines whether someone is good or evil, Friend or Enemy, One of Us or Other, without having to know the person as a whole. And, if you think about it, this is really no different from what racists do; it’s just that they fixate on a different superficial characteristic. Although racism is retreating, anti-atheist bigotry is still openly practiced. We can achieve much for the atheist cause by pointing out that equivalence.
- Read David Sedaris “Us and Them” (search for posts on the story in my blog) for a beautiful and laugh-out-loud funny exploration of the Us and Them syndrome. - post by cburell
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Wikipedia for Schools is a torrentable DVD version of Wikipedia that you can run on classroom PCs that aren’t connected to the net. It’s also a handy size for sticking on a memory card and plugging into your phone or netbook.
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BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | The treasure trove making waves
Exciting finds.
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Ten years ago, at a spot known locally as “Black Rock”, two men diving for sea cucumbers came across a large pile of sand and coral.
Digging a hole, they reached in and pulled out a barnacle-encrusted bowl. Then another. And another.
They had stumbled on the oldest, most important, marine archaeological discovery ever made in South East Asia, an Arab dhow - or ship - built of teak, coconut wood and hibiscus fibre, packed with a treasure that Indiana Jones could only dream of.
There were 63,000 pieces of gold, silver and ceramics from the fabled Tang dynasty, which flourished between the seventh and 10th centuries.
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Former GOP senator, vet backs Obama - Alexander Burns - Politico.com
A Vietnam vet ex-senator breaks with McCain to vote Obama.
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Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), who was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate, is the latest Republican to back Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Politico learned Sunday.
Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he’d donated $500 to the Illinois senator’s campaign, cited the Democrat’s response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.
“I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better,” he said. By contrast, John McCain’s “handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous.”
The former senator added that he hoped the next president would help place restraints on executive pay, and said: “I don’t think [McCain] will take action in that area, or he’s as likely to.”
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He joins a growing list of Republicans who have thrown their support to Obama in recent days. Last Sunday former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” On Thursday Obama picked up the support of former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, who was joined on Friday by former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
Like some of Obama’s other Republican supporters, Pressler said he had concerns about his party’s fiscal policy, particularly the war in Iraq, that went beyond the presidential campaign.
“We have to be a moderate party. We can’t be for all these foreign military adventures. We have to stop spending so much money. My God, the deficit is so high!” he said. “The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone.”
Despite his support for Obama, however, Pressler emphasized that he intended to stay in the GOP and described himself as a “moderate conservative.”
“I’m not leaving the Republican Party. We’re going to reform it,” he said, but added: “In the general election, if you have disagreements, you should not vote the party line.”
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Blogging to Learn and Questions of Standards: A Dialogue
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Fellow Army vet and English teacher Jan Seiter and I had a dialogue on a comment thread that I want to share on this post. It will mostly be of interest to English and history teachers, I think.
I hope some of you weigh in. In the meantime, it gave me an opportunity to list my favorite ways of using blogs for both Learning to Write and - a very different thing - Writing to Learn.
Here goes:
Jan’s Opening Question and Comment:
My First Reply:
Re: factual accuracy: maybe a sidebar disclaimer saying “I’m young and possibly wrong sometime.” (If only FOX would do that. Or me.)
Or maybe just trust to the two-way nature of this medium to allow people to push back/correct errors in comments.
The whole accuracy thing can be skirted by doing more creative stuff - personal narrative and so on, too.
And maybe a wiki instead of a blog so students can correct their stuff.
Re: conventions and mechanics: I’m a six traits guy myself, and am more concerned with the first five - ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency - than I am with grammar/spelling/punctuation. So I grade far more heavily for notable attention to those first 5 traits.
I want students to write freely and ideally discover they enjoy it. Perfectionism and fear of errors won’t create the conditions for that to happen. We’ll talk about errors after I’ve read enough volume from you to do an error analysis of your most frequent _serious_ grammar/spelling problems, which I’ll prioritize and teach to you one on one down the road.
Then you can select your five or ten favorite posts - which maybe I’ll score as a single test grade - and _correct those errors on only those posts_ to apply what you’ve learned/I’ve taught you to look for and correct.
I know this is sloppy, but it’s 1.40 a.m. and I’m replying to your contact communication.
Afterthought: I think students should have the option of not publishing if their work is too sub-par.
But realistically, practically nobody will find and/or read their blogs beyond other students, will they?
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(To Add More:)
Since you told me in a private email that you were looking at the French Revolution Ant Farm Diary (right?), I’ve got more to say:
That was a formative project using “Writing to Learn” pedagogy. The point of the writing, above all, was for students to learn the material in this active way, rather than listening to lectures, reading the textbook, or other passive ways of learning. So the writing in this approach is secondary to the learning.
The summative assessment was an essay that did hold accuracy and writing at a premium.
And every time I use WTL, I’m amazed at how much deeper and broader the retention, comprehension, and insight are, compared to when I lecture, they discuss, or just read or watch stuff.
Have you ever used WTL? I’d be interested to hear your (and everyone’s) experiences with it.
Second Exchange:
Jan replied:
Clay,
Your approach is terrific and I am not questioning intent.
I teach high school & college English, media literacy, speech & debate, and have taught in all grade levels. I have used 6 traits and don’t think of myself as a grammar nazi.
Lately, I have been concerned with the declining (even by current standards) level of writing and content information that seems to be fostered by the web. Blogging, IMing and texting encourage stream of consciousness-type of writing; with no regard for logic, facts or conventions. I think this is fine for drafts and, well, this conversation.
I often tell my students, “Remember, you are writing for a college graduate, NOT your girlfriend,” in an attempt to make them slow their thoughts and process their communication. Still, I get final drafts that need additional editing, presentations with missing capital letters and assorted other errors that, when I point them out, they say, “Yeah, well, you know what I mean…”
I find this attitude in college writing, too. I have students of 20-30 even 40 years old who write without thinking of editing, who think that whatever they write should be accepted as their ‘best’ and who have little sense of thinking about WHO will read their work.
For me, it’s even become about respect. If I respect you, I will do all I can to make sure that my communication is clear and accurate. but if I don’t care who reads this, I can spel anway i want sdo touy will no whut i mean…
Don’t misunderstand that I am critiquing your projects, nor the work of your students. It’s that your projects got me thinking about this issue, and I used it as an example.
When we publish something, especially to the web, as a teacher, do we have the obligation of editing, or do we just post ‘as is’? Your comment (But realistically, practically nobody will find and/or read their blogs beyond other students, will they? ) begs the question of who is the audience?
My reply:
I sympathize with your concerns, Jan, and hope I didn’t sound defensive when I, oops, defended Writing to Learn.
I’ve seen the chatroom-ese on student work on blogs, forums, and wikis when I introduced them, but didn’t have much problem rooting them out with discussions of the respect you mention (and self-respect, since using “cuz”, e.g., in a public writing is like going to a job interview in dirty clothes). Most students got it and met the standard after that, and those that didn’t woke up after a few shocking bad grades.
But that could be specific to my private school students, whose moms rip them new orifices at the first A-, much less C-.
Online writing is definitely no silver bullet for writing, as I’ve argued a million times. Over time, though, and - crucially - in conjunction with 6-traits rubrics that set the standards for their writing from the quality of Ideas on down the line to Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions and Mechanics, AND Presentation, I really have seen marked improvement in quality in all those traits, overall, AND in engagement. Wake-up grades, again, given early, were also key.
But we’re talking students here, so I’m not claiming miracles (and not suggesting you’re implying I am).
It’s the “over time” thing that’s key, to me.
I do think students who write because they’re forced, and probably see no lasting value in most cases to what is still, in the end, mere homework to most of them, will have a different attitude about what they publish compared to people who, like us, write voluntarily about things we care about.
And since it’s 9.24 a.m. this brisk Saturday morning, and I’m enjoying my first cup of coffee as I start the day thinking with you (which I enjoy too), I’m going to ramble a bit more. 
There are so many different approaches to assignments, we both know, to inculcate whatever habits of mind or skills we’re working on in a given week. So I just want to toss off a few that come to mind:
1. The “comment on the teacher’s post” assignment:
Rather than students writing on their own blog, they do a specific task in the comment thread to the teacher’s. That way they see their work standing alongside that of their peers, and may be more motivated to look better and work harder, in order to avoid looking weak. I’ve done that with:
a. Syntactical variation exercises (sentence openings, e.g.): “Take this sentence and re-write it, using only the words in the sentence, in as many ways as you can.” If you moderate comments, they don’t see other students’ work until all have done the assignment. Then they can see and learn from other students’ responses. That’s a wickedly powerful affordance of online writing that is hard to duplicate offline. I posted about it here.
b. Introductory paragraphs (hooks): Copy and paste your “hook” from your first draft, and the revised version from your latest draft, into the comment thread, and briefly explain your writer’s decision that guided your revision. (There’s an entire class discussion of authentic writing right there, which my students enjoyed, because they were seeing what others had tried. The few successes were great cases of student modeling, and the weaker ones were great cases of cliche or otherwise dead introductions.) (You can see my Seoul and a flat world teacher’s Hawaii students doing this here.)
c. Titles. (Titles are a pet peeve of mine. “My Essay” from high schoolers makes my blood boil.)
2. Critical Thinking:
My latest Diigo Daily Reads auto-posts feature highlights (basically copy-pastes, though Diigo does that work for me by publishing only what I highlight from a web page) that I then respond to with sticky notes that do NOT summarize the reading, but instead either “challenge, extend, or qualify” the point. That’s an “ideas” sort of assignment that simply forces students to THINK about what they passively read. (See this post for a screencast on this approach.
3. Trait-based assessment of x number of student blog posts per unit for a test grade:
The biggest bear, for me, about student blogging and wiki work is the sheer volume. When I assign regular posts, I normally can’t assess them all with any depth. But I still want regular writing in the same way a PE teacher wants regular running to keep his/her students fit. So to allow students to self-select 3, say, while you randomly select 2 (whatever you work out, obviously), to grade by the rubric - either for all traits, or just one or two un-disclosed ones (since they won’t know, they’ll ideally give more care to all the traits), is the best solution I’ve come up with for this dilemma. The “teacher choices” keep them from shamming on the posts they won’t self-select.
Closer, for now: I haven’t taught long enough to be able to compare this generation of student writers from previous ones, so I don’t know whether their skills are any better or worse than in the past.
I do know that the elitist side of me wants to use student blogs in a highly selective writing elective class - see For the Roses: My Latest Position on Classroom Blogging for more - to simply rid myself of the headaches of dealing with the bums, so I’ve got my Delta Force of real writers who want to train.
I guess that’s my way of saying, “I hear you.”
I share this simply because I think Jan asks good questions, and I’m sure others have valuable input to add. Here’s hoping they do.
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Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/27/2008
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Sarah Palin: the character question should rule her out :: Iain Martin - Annotated
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In contrast to Palin, one of Barack Obama’s most attractive traits, alongside his sense of calm, is his flexibility, his adaptability and his willingness to consider his options and learn. That’s going to be of more use in the difficult years ahead than a politician who cannot be swayed by rational arguments or evidence.
- The criticism of Obama as “PROFESSORIAL” distorts the fact that he’s A LEARNER.
It’s the ideologues who refuse to question their dogma - and we need look no further than creationists like Palin - who are more “elitist,” in their ignorant way. They “talk down to us” about their “knowledge” that “evolution is ‘just’ a theory” and reams of other tripe, which all demonstrate their smugness and (misguided) sense of intellectual superiority. - post by cburell
- The criticism of Obama as “PROFESSORIAL” distorts the fact that he’s A LEARNER.
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Palin pushes McCain staff aside as blame game begins | csmonitor.com
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Properly vetted or not?
And further, if she is was as ill-prepared as some McCain staffers are saying, then it would suggest that she was never properly vetted — something that was angrily taken off the table for discussion by the McCain team six weeks ago.
But they can’t have it both ways. Either she was properly vetted or not. If she was properly vetted, then they knew what they were getting into. If she was not properly vetted, then they can only blame themselves for the selection.
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The Associated Press: Palin: Election isn’t over till it’s over
Remarkable: Read the article, and you’ll find NOT ONE IDEA OR ISSUE DISCUSSED BY PALIN in the entire thing.
Instead, there are attacks, innuendo, flirtation, and sarcasm.
Just amazing.
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Barry M. Goldwater, Jr.: Why Barry Goldwater Couldn’t Support Obama
Interesting little tempest in the Goldwater family over the question of McCain.
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Barry Goldwater was one of the icons of the Republican Party and, yes, would be unhappy with many of the recent failures from within. I speak about this all the time and how mad I am that Republicans have lost their way. However, we do not find our way back by sheepishly going over to the other side. My father worked to rebuild the party in 1964 by taking it back from the liberal Establishment. He would work to do the same thing today.
CC does not help the Republican Party nor the cause by minimizing John McCain. McCain may not be everything she wants in a President or hold her exact values, but she should work within the party to promote the ideals Barry Goldwater stood for. Endorsing one of the most liberal Senators in Congress is certainly not the way to help fix any problem she sees; instead it is a betrayal of everything my father advocated government should be. My father would never endorse a candidate or a party that wanted to grow government, raise taxes or in any way step on our freedoms.
Together the Goldwaters, including CC, should work together to redefine the Republican Party and make it the model Barry Goldwater Sr. stood for.
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CC Goldwater: Why McCain Has Lost Our Vote
Goldwaters reach across the aisle to vote for Obama. More Republicans voting ideas and character instead of brand.
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There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would “race through the gate” full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe.
When you see the candidate’s in political ads, you can’t help but be reminded of the 1964 presidential campaign of Johnson/Goldwater, the ‘origin of spin’, that twists the truth and obscures what really matters. Nothing about the Republican ticket offers the hope America needs to regain it’s standing in the world, that’s why we’re going to support Barack Obama. I think that Obama has shown his ability and integrity.
After the last eight years, there’s a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you.
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Palin allies report rising campaign tension - Politico.com Print View
This is getting interesting, in a side-show way.
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Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain’s camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain’s decline.
“She’s lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,” said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to “go rogue” in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.
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GOP challenges to new voters set back by courts - Politico.com Print View - Annotated
Wonderful to see GOP-heavy Supreme Court show non-partisanship with these decisions.
Not surprising to see George W. Bush disagree with them.
The entire article is worth a read.
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The battles are over a section of the Help American Vote Act, passed in 2002 by Congress to prevent another Florida-style recount. HAVA requires states to match information supplied on voter registration forms with department of motor vehicles and Social Security records.
Individuals who provide information that does not match those documents may face confusion at the polls or be required to vote on a provisional ballot.
But critics of the provision say inaccurate state databases lead to erroneous disqualifications. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that the matching process fails 20 percent to 30 percent of the time due to minor errors like database typos, use of nicknames, and multiple entries.
“The general narrative of what’s going on with a lot of these cases is to attempt to limit the voters to who are participating,” said Georgetown law professor Jonah Goldman, director of the nonpartisan National Campaign for Fair Elections. “The central premise is that more voters help Democrats.”
Republicans, however, say that the databases are a way to increase security at the polls and stop illegal registrations from becoming fraudulent voters.
“Make no mistake, HAVA disenfranchises no one and protects the right to vote,” said Wisconsin Republican State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, state chairman of McCain’s campaign. “HAVA checks are an important safeguard — one mandated by Congress and state law — to help make sure those lawful votes are not diluted by unlawful votes.”
- NOTE the research by NYU and the following testimony from Georgetown.
Then NOTE the opposing viewpoint, from McCain’s campaign chairman in Wisconsin.
Which parties seem more credible? - post by cburell
- NOTE the research by NYU and the following testimony from Georgetown.
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At the beginning of October, ACORN reported that it registered 1.3 million new voters. But further investigation found that 30 percent — roughly 400,000 registrations — were faulty in some way, either registered under fake names such Mickey Mouse, were duplicates or were incomplete. Republicans jumped on the findings, arguing that the group was proof of a systemic voter fraud campaign by the left.
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But faulty registrations rarely turn into illegal votes. While ACORN has admitted to errors in its registration process, documented cases of illegally cast ballots remain rare. A five-year investigation by the Bush administration resulted in the convictions of only 26 voters found guilty of voting more than once, registration fraud, or ineligible voting.
- In other words, the faulty registrations at ACORN result in ACORN losing money paid to the dishonest employees. They do NOT result in illegal votes.
Read it: Bush commissioned the study that confirms this. - post by cburell
- In other words, the faulty registrations at ACORN result in ACORN losing money paid to the dishonest employees. They do NOT result in illegal votes.
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“This is not a plan that was hatched yesterday,” said Daniel Tokaji, an election law specialist at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. “The Republican party is using the whole ACORN rap as a justification for the stringent ballot security measures they are urging.”
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Wisconsin election officials admit that their database incorrectly flags voters at least 20 percent of the time. When the six members of the state elections board, all retired judges, ran their own registrations through the system, four were incorrectly rejected.
- HILARIOUS. - post by cburell
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In Michigan, the Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaign sued the Michigan and Macomb County Republican parties after learning of an alleged Republican plan to use foreclosure filings to keep some residents who’ve failed to update their address from voting. The suit settled last week and the information will not be used.
- The cynicism of this one is only matched by its heartlessness. The Michigan GOP wanted to DISENFRANCHISE JOE THE PLUMBERS WHO’D LOST THEIR HOMES DUE TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.
We don’t want THEM voting, do we? - post by cburell
- The cynicism of this one is only matched by its heartlessness. The Michigan GOP wanted to DISENFRANCHISE JOE THE PLUMBERS WHO’D LOST THEIR HOMES DUE TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.
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In-depth discussion, with historical precedents, of the government’s options in intervening in the market. By the US editor of the Economist.
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LINN WASHINGTON JR: Consider Florida; The Great Vote Fraud Hoax | Capitol Hill Blue
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Contrary to McCainian claims of major registration fraud, the greatest voter fraud in recent history occurred during the 2000 presidential election where a massive Bush/GOP conspiracy robbed over 50,000 folks in Florida of their right to vote by falsely listing them as felons ineligible to cast ballots. Remembering that George W. Bush won Florida by a mere 534 vote margin in 2000, simple math exposes that GOP disenfranchisement fraud as demonstratively more devastating than some (alleged) fudging on registration forms.
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Op-Ed Columnist - Desperately Seeking Seriousness - NYTimes.com
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As someone who’s spent a lot of time arguing against conservative economic dogma, I’d like to believe that the bad news convinced many Americans, once and for all, that the right’s economic ideas are wrong and progressive ideas are right. And there’s certainly something to that. These days, with even Alan Greenspan admitting that he was wrong to believe that the financial industry could regulate itself, Reaganesque rhetoric about the magic of the marketplace and the evils of government intervention sounds ridiculous.
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I suspect that the main reason for the dramatic swing in the polls is something less concrete and more meta than the fact that events have discredited free-market fundamentalism. As the economic scene has darkened, I’d argue, Americans have rediscovered the virtue of seriousness. And this has worked to Mr. Obama’s advantage, because his opponent has run a deeply unserious campaign.
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In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia — after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on their personas: Mr. Bush was an amiable guy you’d like to have a beer with, Al Gore was a stiff know-it-all, and never mind all that hard stuff about taxes and Social Security. And let’s face it: six weeks ago Mr. McCain’s focus on trivia seemed to be paying off handsomely.
But that was before the prospect of a second Great Depression concentrated the public’s mind.
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The Obama campaign has hardly been fluff-free — in its early stages it was full of vague uplift. But the Barack Obama voters see now is cool, calm, intellectual and knowledgeable, able to talk coherently about the financial crisis in a way Mr. McCain can’t. And when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation.
The McCain campaign’s response to its falling chances of victory has been telling: rather than trying to make the case that Mr. McCain really is better qualified to deal with the economic crisis, the campaign has been doing all it can to trivialize things again. Mr. Obama consorts with ’60s radicals! He’s a socialist! He doesn’t love America! Judging from the polls, it doesn’t seem to be working.
Will the nation’s new demand for seriousness last? Maybe not — remember how 9/11 was supposed to end the focus on trivialities? For now, however, voters seem to be focused on real issues. And that’s bad for Mr. McCain and conservatives in general: right now, to paraphrase Rob Corddry, reality has a clear liberal bias.
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McCain volunteer admits to hoax
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Once she had told the story to police, “she told lie after lie and the situation compounded to where we are right now,” said Lt. Kraus. He added that Ms. Todd showed no remorse for her actions but was angry with the media, saying they blew the story out of proportion.
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Mr. Garcia took the widely published picture of Ms. Todd with her injuries. He said he took several photographs with a digital camera to document what had happened. He said he only gave copies of the photos to police and Ms. Todd’s employer, the College Republicans. One photo appeared on The Drudge Report on Thursday, setting off a storm of media attention.
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Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/26/2008
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The Last Lynching: Ted Koppel documentary on Discovery tonight - Boing Boing
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Zakaria: U.S. has itself to blame for financial crisis - CNN.com
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CNN: What do you think caused this crisis?
Don’t Miss
Zakaria: We did, all of us. Since the 1980s, Americans have consumed more than they produced, and they have made up the difference by borrowing. Not only on the personal consumer level but in how our government runs.
Every city, every county and every state has wanted to preserve its many and proliferating operations and yet not raise taxes. How to do that? By borrowing, using ever more elaborate financial instruments.
Easy money plus leverage equals financial crisis.
CNN: OK. So what do we do now?
Zakaria: In the short term, all the solutions require that governments take on more debts and larger obligations. This is inevitable and necessary. But that doesn’t mean we should, as some noted economists advocate, stimulate the economy with more tax cuts.
That would be only one more way to keep the party going artificially, like asking a drunk to go to AA next year but in the meantime to have even more whiskey.
A far better stimulus would be to announce and expedite major infrastructure and energy projects, which are investments, not consumption, and therefore have a much different effect on the country’s fiscal fortunes.
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supercres.net » Strategy, tactic, or crazy?
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It should be noted: “Ashley Todd” is an anagram for “Shoddy Tale“.
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An hilarious (and scary) collection of right-wing reactions to the HOAX exposed.
The comments thread to this wingnut miscellany is hilarious too. Read it all for a good laugh.
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Let us go where we always go during our Times of National Crisis: to the wingnut comments of our nation’s proud conservative blogs. These people were obviously very angry last night about how this Negroid Monster Obama Staffer nearly murdered the brave 20-year-old white gal from Texas who was working the McCain phone banks in Pittsburgh and only wanted to drive around the scary “Little Italy” neighborhood looking for an ATM but instead drove right to the very heart of the Obama movement, which is a crackhouse full of 15-feet-tall Kenyan monsters who hunt this wretched ghetto looking for McCain bumper stickers, so they can lightly scratch their symbol, a backwards letter “B,” on the cheeks of their Twittering victims.
So, as you maybe heard already, bitchy made it all up. It was just a desperate true believer/campaign worker for McCain/Palin deciding that a race-baiting frenzy might just “turn the corner” for Walnuts. And, now, the wingnuts are a bit disappointed.
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Tony Burman: Shocking Racism at Palin Rally: Al Jazeera Report Starts Controversy
Interesting. AL JAZEERA ENGLISH CANNOT BE SEEN ON AMERICAN TV.
Why? (And if you answer, please also tell me if you have watched it - if yes, for how many hours, and what did you think; and if no, why not?)
David Frost and many other world-class journalists work for it.
Seems a clear-cut case of AMERICAN PREJUDICE, doesn’t it?
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It’s true — the way that the U.S. is portrayed on Al Jazeera matters, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We followed up the initial piece by sending the reporter to get reaction from African-American Obama supporters. We gave the last word in this saga to the owner of a PR firm in Atlanta:
“They are not America. They don’t reflect America, they don’t represent the America that I live in and am a part of, and they don’t reflect the majority of Americans.”
We will have to wait until November 4 — or the early hours of November 5 — to know who Americans will choose to be their next President. But there are certain things we do know now.
After the dark and gloomy years of recent times, this race has electrified the world. It’s a U.S. election that has more international resonance that perhaps any in our lifetime.
And all of these issues have been debated and explored in hundreds of hours of coverage on Al Jazeera English, an award-winning channel that is broadcast in more than 100 countries.
Except for most of the United States. Political and financial interests have pressured American cable companies from carrying Al Jazeera English.
In a country that regards itself as the world’s leading democracy, that is regrettable because Al Jazeera’s coverage has been fair, comprehensive and respectful of different points of view. And a window on the world.
As the world welcomes this new and exciting U.S. era, isn’t it time for Americans — when it comes to being able to see Al Jazeera - to actually be allowed to make their own judgment?
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Huffington Post Still Blowing Doors Off - Annotated
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- Interesting to see the rates of growth of these blogs over 12 months ago. TPM must be doing something right!
And NOTE: This is a GOOD, BI-PARTISAN LIST OF POLITICAL BLOGS for the CLASSROOM. - post by cburell
- Interesting to see the rates of growth of these blogs over 12 months ago. TPM must be doing something right!
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Palin Popularity Plummets as Controversy Drags on McCain Ticket
This article is most interesting in its breakdown of the voter out-reach strategies, demographically, of the two campaigns. Obama has more money, which is obviously helpful, but he also seems to have a more sophisticated game plan. Campaign management must be intensely interesting, like coaching a football team. The playbook angle.
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InternetNews Realtime IT News - Ohio Election Site Back up Amid Fraud Fights
Real politics in Ohio. At stake: 200,000 votes in one district alone.
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Scott Swenson: (Watch) Brian Williams Ask McCain-Palin if Abortion Clinic Bombers are Terrorists Like Ayers - Annotated
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NBC’s Brian Williams asked Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin about their attacks on Sen. Barack Obama and his association with Bill Ayers, and if they would define abortion clinic bombers as domestic terrorists.
Palin said she wouldn’t condone such actions and ultimately worked her way to saying that “terrorist” would be defined as anyone who seeks to destroy innocent Americans, meaning that she seems to agree that abortion clinic bombers are terrorists. McCain felt the need to to clean up the answer later in the interview saying that anyone who breaks the law, including bombing an abortion clinic, should be punished to the full extent of the law.
- Good for Brian Williams for asking the obvious. - post by cburell
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McCain has previously said he was “proud of everyone attending our rallies” which includes Paul Schenck who has been linked to numerous acts of violence, including the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian. Former Republican Congressman and host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe has regularly suggested the media discuss Ayers more, but has yet to raise the McCain-Palin links to these un-repetent domestic terrorists. Schenck was recently given VIP passes to a McCain-Palin rally.
- NOTEWORTHY. If Obama’s campaign knew this, that means they truly creditied the electorate with being able to take the high road with him, while the McCain campaign made a mockery of itself by flogging the Ayers story.
And they were right. The electorate is wonderfully above negative campaigning this election, overall. - post by cburell
- NOTEWORTHY. If Obama’s campaign knew this, that means they truly creditied the electorate with being able to take the high road with him, while the McCain campaign made a mockery of itself by flogging the Ayers story.
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Later in the interview in a discussion of elites, McCain defines an elite as someone who “thinks they can dictate to America what they believe, instead of letting Americans decide for themselves.” That seems to make the McCain-Palin views on a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, “elitist”.
- The logic of this ticket is as shootable as fish nailed to the wall at point blank range, but this is still a GOOD POINT. - post by cburell
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In the same interview Palin was asked if she is a feminist, and again dodged the question preferring not to associate herself with “labels” even though she is a member of Feminists for Life.
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McCain camp defends Palin in wardrobe flap | Politics | Reuters
Classic Red Herring: We screwed up, but the media is the real problem.
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Wallace said the media storm about Palin’s wardrobe was a terrible disservice to her and said there seemed to be a “double-standard for women in politics.”
“That any aspect of her shoes, clothes or appearance has become a distraction is a terrible commentary on the state of the media and politics. Let’s get on with our great debate about the best direction for the country in these challenging times for our economy and our nation’s security,” she said.
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How Safe Is This Election? | Election 2008 | AlterNet
EXCELLENT, in-depth analysis of all the ways that democracy can be sabotaged through modern vote suppression in America.
GREAT CLASSROOM RESOURCE.
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Some Republican-run states, most notably Florida, have introduced absurdly strict standards for the admission of new voters to the rolls, making it likely that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of them will have to go to extraordinary lengths on election day to prove that they have the right to cast a ballot. History suggests many of these new voters will either give up when challenged or fail to show up at all.
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Tweets Give Race-Baiting Hoaxster a ‘B’ for Effort | Threat Level from Wired.com
Too funny. Hoax campaign girl getting hash-tag twitter grief.
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Open Thread: Wordling Campaign Speeches: Write Your Best Caption
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Best Caption Here
A reader last week mentioned this “Wordling Political Speeches” as a NYTimes lesson plan, so I Wordled McCain’s stump speech in Colorado this week.
I thought I’d have fun with it by turning it into an open thread for readers to play with.
Here are the rules:
Write your own caption in the comment thread, based only on words in the image (click image for larger view). I’ll select the winner and add the caption, with credit, in a couple days.
Example:
“Applause: McCain people going Obama.”
There are zingers galore in here, but I hope you’ll have fun with them, so I’ll leave the pickings to you. Please lighten your day and ours with a laugh.
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I truly appreciate the variety of internet projects that appear across the medium these days. My blogroll lists several prolific contributors. But as we post student projects, I need to ask, shouldn’t we edit and correct them as much as possible BEFORE we post them? Or am I missing a point?
I can make one argument for NOT editing, and that is to show our colleagues that student work need not be perfect to be accepted. I do this as a matter of course in class. But I think, if the work is to be published for the WWW audience, all conventions of English should be followed, and all facts checked, lest we become part of the internet problem.