Parabasis

When Geeks Run For Office

Holy crap.  I think I might actually give money to this guy. Especially considering the odiousness of his opponent.

Another Good Reason to Support Obama

 Here's one good reason for sucking it up and dealing w/r/t progressive differences with Barack Obama.  You know what Bush is doing right now?  He's trying to get federal regulations rewritten to equate contraception with abortion as a sop to the Religious Right. Assuming those regulations get written, it's going to take a new President to undo them.  Obama will. McCain won't. If under McCain we then lose a woman's right to choose, that would mean that according to the new regulations, a woman's right to contraception would also be seriously infringed upon.  Yet another reason why you won't read a lot of airing of greivances with

Quote of the Day

I'm at a point where I really don't care if Obama was playing politics or whether he was sincere. My instincts say it was a mixture of both. Barack Obama's black father left him when he was a baby to do God know's what nearly a world away. I don't know what in the world could be more important than making sure that your off-spring grows into a healthy, well-adjusted young man. Maybe I should be more understanding, but I'm just not there right now. Some say Barack should have taken that occassion to salute the majority of black men who are doing right by their kids. I guess. Let me be arrogant and say we don't need any salute. What we need is for our brothers in struggle to start acting the part. I don't want any credit. What I want is some fucking help. What I want is for my son to not have to spend half of his time in relationships with women doing the work that half--ass fathers were too lazy to do themselves.

If Barack Obama can help create an enviorenment in which fathers on the lam can be seen for what they are--quitters, cowards, and filth--than I am all for that. If that takes embarrasing these fools in front of white folks, I'm fine with that too. You embarrassed yourself the day you walked out on your kid. Once you abdicated your basic biological duties, you lost all claims to coddling and to respect. As I said, I'll always advocate and work for better policy, mostly because it makes sense, but not because I have an iota of sympathy for men who quit on children.

-- The Indispensible Ta-Nehisi Coates.

McCain and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Wow. This is a pretty staggering list of very public mistakes, lies, gaffes etc. that McCain has made this week.  He truly is a maverick, truth telling American hero who we owe the Presidency.

Well I Guess Now That We Spy On Everyone...

How is it possible that this law is Constitutional?

Things I Agree With

Matt Yglesias edition.

Iran is Not An Existential Threat to the United States

Now explained in handy chart form. (Via)

Things I Agree With

Matt Yglesias edition.

But I thought Mike Huckabee was such a nice guy!

Of course being a nice guy that doesn't stop stop him from unfavorably comparing Obama and (wait for it...) Jesse "White Power" Helms.

Yep, that's right.  Mike Huckabbe said that Helms should be admired because "he stood for something and he stood clearly" while "we're not seeing that in Barack Obama".

What's amazing is how swiftly the racist right works to encode their messages.  The Confederate Flag is "history, not hatred" and displaying it is simply honoring the past. We talk of "states rights" instead of "segregation". Jesse Helms should be admired for sticking to his "convictions" but we won't mention that those convictions are the tenants of white supremacy.

The chutzpah of these people is really remarkable.  Any decent human being would've swept Jesse Helms out with the trash and apologized for their party's attempts to lionize one of the most loathsome bigots in American 20th century political life. But then again, there aren't a lot of decent human beings to be found amongst the politicians and infrastructure of the Republican Party.

Hilarious

From the Onion:

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency