August 2008
95 posts
“Credit was the means by which we reconciled the social ideals of America with an...”
– —Interfluidity
The ambiguity is, as always, radical. Also, credit-as-ideology (perhaps a mutation there of) probably deserves a good examination.
Hmm
“And interestingly, we did not see anything that said Palin on it, except for a few stickers you could count on one hand.” (First Read)
keyholez:
“And you know, I’m a policy guy, and I’m thinking, ‘Yeah.’ But people didn’t care.”
— Andrew Halcro
But…what the government does is make policies. What does it mean to not be a policy guy in the context of people who want to run nations or parts of them?
(Leo, I know, but we’re past those categories I feel)
Russia’s Collective Farms: Hot Capitalist Property →
All that is solid…
We may not have to wait as long as we thought
Methane (CH4) is 20-25 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2)…there’s another source of methane that has the potential to be far greater in volume, and correspondingly far more threatening to the climate. It’s the methane from bogs and marshlands that is trapped under the Siberian permafrost. Well, that was trapped. As the permafrost melts, the methane...
A fun game
Go through this list and then read this book.
“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of...”
– Vice President Palin, on climate change.
Weird idea
Don’t be surprised if in about 3-4 weeks she pulls out of the race, citing the need to care for her new child. This will have accomplished a number of things; 1. The spotlight quickly went from the Democratic Convention to McCain which he desperately needed 2. McCain will have shown his willingness to run with a woman 3. The Evangelicals will be satisfied that he does hold their values 4....
“Obama, you said the race is about presidential temperament. Well, eat this,...”
– HuffPo
Palin pushed creation science during bid for... →
Yeah, that too maybe
I DON’T think Palin will have a lot of appeal to Hillary Clinton voters, as Palin runs squarely into some gender politics taboos, i.e. the younger, more attractive, but less qualified woman replacing the older one. (538)
Remember, Obama picking a lady who wasn’t Hillary was thought to be out because letting someone other than Hillary go first would be somehow wrong. I think...
Epic Fail
I’ll get to explaining what I meant about Warner and economic ideology and how it bears on Obama’s success last night later, but the Palin pick is…an absolutely ridiculous gamble.
They must think that the Obama Campaign can’t leverage her lack of experience because Obama is “inexperienced.” A point that’s been raised on the tv more than once this morning...
FINANCIAL. TERROR. WEAPON.
keyholez:
China sells —> spreads widen further —> US home buyers pay more on their mortgages —> the Treasury has to bail out FNM & FRE —> …?
Change we can believe in?
Sorry, I didn't know this was already under...
[Slightly revised 9/1/08 — also, see here for answers to many of questions raised below]
endasher:
keyholez:
our groupuscule:
The problem is that Obama, even though he may have short-term plans that move towards a radically CHANGE’d utopian horizon, seems to have given up on altering the operating rules of the system itself…
…Yes, structural change is pretty important,...
Related to Keyhole's argument about the death of...
Also, again, the Outquisition is implicated here as well. I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact reason that I associate all of these things.
LONDON - Sparked by surging oil, a dramatic rise in the value of old plastic is encouraging waste companies across the world to dig for buried riches in rotting rubbish dumps.
Long a symbol of humanity’s throw-away culture, existing landfill sites are...
Amazing
notesonskynet:
This is a little bit genius. One of the new features of FriendFeed (a Twitter-like thingie) is “fake following”. That means you can friend someone but you don’t see their updates. That way, it appears that you’re paying attention to them when you’re really not. Just like everyone does all the time in real life to maintain their sanity. Rex calls it “most important feature in the...
Why two?
The presidential term limit seems a bit arbitrary to me. I can see some pretty good arguments for a limit of a single term (or even just a single consecutive term), notably making the presidency less political. Currently, a first term must always be at least partially preoccupied with reelection. Not that it shouldn’t be, anyone who believes in their platform should want as much of a chance...
“Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too...”
– Bill Clinton, affirming that a sense of the world-historical is the ony real qualification to lead.
all the sad young MSNBC political analysts
Now a pretty accepted proposition:
The media news-du-jour here is that the tensions at MSNBC—both political and personal—erupted, leading to several on-air fights between the talent. While Fox News stays ruthlessly on message, as I wrote yesterday , MSNBC has been looking increasingly like The Real World. (What happens when overpaid media personalities stop being polite—and...
Howard Wolfson Goes To War With MSNBC →
Chuck Todd holds nothing back
MSNBC pundits this morning discussed potential running mates for John Mccain and whether there is a “glass ceiling” for unmarried individuals in politics. After Andrea Mitchell floated Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) as an example, Joe Scarborough noted that Crist is engaged. Chuck Todd suggested the engagement may be staged so Crist can be Vice President.
…
As the group laughed,...
Why I am not posting about the convention
I’m really actually just too furious to do so. “What does Hillary need to do?” “Is Bill Clinton still mad about some legacy issues?” “Does Obama have a paranoid racist lady problem?” “How will he win over more bitterz?” “Do those kids really love their computer screen father?” SHUT UP AND DIE EVERYONE.
"A statement"
Fast growing social network Facebook has hit the 100 million users mark, according to a statement today by Dave Morin, the company’s Senior Platform Manager. (RWW)
OK, so it’s a press release or something. Nope. “According to a statement” can now just mean this:
The end of civilization; three exclamation marks.
Bias versus partisanship
As fun as it is to attack pundits on Fox, their real crime isn’t so much what they say as how they say it—specifically, the “fair and balanced” and “no spin” claims. Appealing to objectivity in order to convey a particulapr political perspective as simple truth is, well, bad and wrong. “Media bias” is dangerous to the extent that it is deceptive.
...
“I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.”
– Mr. Biden
(Cillizza)
“Tucked away in one corner were thousands of lightweight rolled cardboard...”
– (AP)
How many people have they had to threaten?
U.S., Iraqi Negotiators Agree on 2011 Withdrawal:... →
The VP chatter and the post-gaming of the Democrat’s housing count offense and Republican response are still preempting coverage of this. I think that’s partly due to the fact that the campaigns haven’t addressed it yet, so it doesn’t exist in the election-centric media universe.
That’s odd too though, especially for Obama. I assume that both for reasons of timing...
It's pronounced "Marxist"
It’s something I’ve been fond of saying for a while, but now there’s a collected body of evidence regarding Obama’s pretty much correct perspective on the economy. The Times magazine has a big piece on his economic position, focused largely on the fact that it’s difficult to place on the established ideological spectrum. The author approves “‘University of...
“Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.’s...”
– (WSJ @ HuffPo)
This makes…little sense to me: “Yes, we are from a decade ago!”
More Ev →
And yet, so far the news of the day revolves around McCain’s need to be reminded by his staff how many homes he has.
"I will never surrender in Iraq, my friends. I...
BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that timetables should be set for a U.S. troop withdrawal, but conceded that nailing down a broader pact on future relations is difficult.
[…]
“We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold, are well worth...
“Adjusting to the attention, Biden this morning presented the stakeout press with...”
– (First Read)
WatchIn less than three weeks, Countdown will officially lose the geist.
Because he has nothing better to do, and is crazy
The smart pick, according to Nader, is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nader phoned into Politico Tuesday afternoon to offer his prediction that a surprise nod to Clinton is actually what Obama has in store—never mind the talk of mistrust between the Clintons and Obama. (Politico)
The delay question
endasher:
Chuck Todd just now: “This text-messaging thing is very important to them. I’m hearing now that they will wait to tell the pick he’s the pick until about one minute before the text message goes out.”
Chuck Todd has jumped the shark.
Really?
Security company Marshal reports that their latest survey found 29% of respondents willing to admit that they have purchased something from a spam e-mail. While that number seems pretty questionable, PCMag’s Appscout points to a related survey from Forrester in 2004 that found 20% of people say they have bought from spammers. In other words, if you believe these studies - it’s getting...
The delay question
endasher:
By my measure, this is Day 2 of Operation: Hillary Surprise—cf. Chyrstia Freeland’s mindblowingly unsubtle Hardball appearance last night—and it’s so far been less trial balloon than trial Hindenburg. Boom!
Waiting this long has raised the stakes. Even Biden would land with something of a thud now. 538 has made the decent point that the wait (and resulting build up) and the...