can you say “october surprise”?

By Mark | October 26, 2008

According to CBS News, the United States military today launched an attack inside of Syria, killing eight. Here’s a clip:

U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as “serious aggression”…

“Syria condemns this aggression and holds the American forces responsible for this aggression and all its repercussions. Syria also calls on the Iraqi government to shoulder its responsibilities and launch and immediate investigation into this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria,” the government statement said…

Those inclined to see conspiracy are calling it an October surprise. The headline at the popular D.C. gossip site Wonkette reads, “Finally, The October Surprise!” It is, of course, possible that the timing is coincidental and it’s not election-related, but, given the timing, one can see how observers might have concerns. The BBC, while not saying outright that the attack was made for political reasons, does call the timing “curious.” Here’s a clip:

…Its timing is curious, coming right at the end of the Bush administration’s period of office and at a moment when many of America’s European allies – like Britain and France – are trying to broaden their ties with Damascus, our correspondent adds…

There’s little doubt that McCain and the Republicans would like to see the national dialogue transition from the economy to war — a subject on which McCain continues to poll better than Obama – but would they instigate an international incident just to see that accomplished? I’d like to think not.

And I don’t know that it will change much. At this point, I think McCain could kill bin Laden in hand-to-hand combat after defusing a nuclear bomb beneath a daycare center and he’d still lose. You have to give them credit for trying, though.

Posted in Politics | 10 Comments

what would a mccain loss mean for the republican party?

By Mark | October 26, 2008

We’re still ten days out from the election, but, right now, if you listen to the popular press or read the polls, it appears to be Obama’s race to lose, barring some tragic event or an unprecedented level of voter suppression and fraud. The Obama campaign has the momentum, the money, and, more importantly, a message that seems to be resonating with American voters concerned about the economy and their futures. States that, several months ago, weren’t in play, now seem to be turning purple, and people everywhere are beginning to wonder what a victory by Obama might mean for the Republican party.

In today’s edition of the UK paper The Guardian, reporter Paul Harris argues that a Republican loss would be “potentially devastating” for the GOP. Here’s a clip:

…’The Republican party is going to have to work out what sort of party it actually wants to be. It’s a changing world for them,’ said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside. It might not be easy. A powerful Democratic win could wipe out Republican moderates. It could leave the party in the grip of its conservative and evangelical base who remain critical of figures such as McCain but who are wildly enthusiastic about politicians such as Palin. The Republican party could end up in a bitter civil war for its political future…

Whereas Bush has been able, at least up until now, to appease the far right without alienating the moderates in the party, it doesn’t appear as though that may be tenable from here on out, as the religious right become more demanding. In this current race, the general consensus seems to be that McCain did not want Palin for a running mate, but that he took her as a concession to the right, who held her in high regard for her principled evangelical stands on issues like abortion. Unfortunately, that decision, while rallying the Christian base, did little to ingratiate moderates, who in many cases saw the decision as cynical, calculated and ultimately not in the best interest of the United States.

But all of this aside, it might just be the case that the numbers no longer add up for the Republicans. As Timothy Egan points out in today’s New York Times, we’re becoming a more urban, culturally mixed nation, and, given that, the “us against them” politics of those like Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann who seek to draw a line between those they consider “real Americans,” and those that they don’t, may not hold the same promise. (Once everyone’s drinking lattes, it becomes a lot less powerful of an insult.) Here’s a clip from Egan’s column. It begins with a discussion about the top 10 most educated cities in America:

… These are vibrant, prosperous places where a knowledge economy and cool things to do after hours attract people from all over the country. Among the top 10, only two of those metro areas — Raleigh, N.C., and Lexington, Ky. — voted Republican in the 2004 presidential election.

This year, all 10 are likely to go Democratic. What’s more, with Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia now trending blue, Republicans stand to lose the nation’s 10 best-educated states as well.

It would be easy to say these places are not the real America, in the peculiar us-and-them parlance of Sarah Palin. It’s easy to say because Republicans have been insinuating for years now that some of the brightest, most productive communities in the United States are fake American — a tactic that dates to Newt Gingrich’s reign in the capitol…

Egan goes on to note that not only are we becoming a more urban nation, but we’re also becoming more ethnically diverse. “By 2023,” he says, “more than half of all American children will be minority.” So, how long can the politics of division last? As young voters are already overwhelmingly in favor of Barack Obama, one wonders what the future might hold when over half will be of mixed race.

So, are we headed for a showdown between the evangelical base and the more moderate factions within the Republican party? Some are already suggesting that Palin, having given up on McCain’s chances, is thinking about herself, and how she’s positioned for 2012, when she might make a run of her own for President. One thing is for certain, with no clear leader to rally around, and hold these various factions together, it’s going to be interesting.

Posted in Politics | 19 Comments

ashley todd: the new face of american conservativism

By Mark | October 24, 2008

Undeterred by the fact that the “B” on her face was scratched on backward, perhaps in homage to the great conservative thinker Morton “self-inflicted backward face swastika” Downey Jr., FOX News, the Drudge report and several other trusted conservative news sources, tasting blood in the water, went live with the story of Ashley Todd, a 20 year old College Republican from Texas who claimed yesterday to have been beaten, sexually assaulted and disfigured by a black supporter of Barack Obama in Pittsburgh. She said her assailant, a 6′ 4″ black man, who had initially just wanted to rob her, became enraged when he saw her McCain/Palin bumper sticker, and then started to beat her, ultimately carving the letter “B” — presumably for “Barrack” — into her face. Being tipped off by the fact that the “B” was backward – thus indicating that work was probably done in a mirror – the police began looking into her story, which, as you might have guessed, began to unravel as evidence surfaced. When confronted by the fact that no terrifying black assailant was seen on the ATM’s security camera, and discrepancies concerning her account, Todd, a student at Texas A&M confessed.

But, prior to the confession, in spite of all the red flags, the race-bating right wing hate machine kicked into high gear. Following are a few examples, as reported by Jay Bookman of the “Atlanta Journal Constitution”:

…Andy McCarthy at the National Review’s Corner responded with a post so embarrassing he has now taken it down so nobody can see it.

Dan Riehl at riehlworldview.com posted under the headline “Thugs for change,” claiming that “Obama’s run his campaign just like a street thug out of Chicago. Now we get to see what some of his worst supporters are like.”

Noel Sheppard at newsbusters.org chastized AP for daring to be skeptical of the initial report. Most of all, he wanted to know why the AP didn’t report that the alleged perp was black. How dare they exclude a detail that had no bearing whatsoever on the alleged crime!!

Josh Painter at redstate.com blamed the attack on Barack Obama, suggesting an “Obama thugocracy” was coming: When Obama “urged his supporters to get in their face, did it not occur to him that some of his more deranged followers might take him literally?” Painter asked.

He was echoed by fellow redstater Erick Erickson, who wrote: “Hey! The dude was just doing what The One asked him to. Full pardon on January 21st.”

At Atlas Shugs, they posted the woman’s photo and called it “the new face of the Republican Party.”
“Shame on those that doubted this poor girl,” the post read. “Always ready to jump on the side of the leftists and thugs. ugh. Americans, I implore you to get off your asses and save this country from the radical left coup on the White House, Senate and House…. Perhaps the Obots misunderstood Obama urging his followers to Get In Their Face and GET IN THEIR FACES!” They got the advanced course of Camp Obama to cut up their faces”…

And this, my friends, is the legacy of George Bush and Karl Rove. This is the new face of the Republican party. It’s all about winning at all cost, with no concern for the damage done in the process. This is a reflection of what we saw in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Truth be damned. It’s a fucking game. All that matters is getting your way.

Bush won the Republican primary against John McCain in 2000 by appealing to the lowest racist common denominator of the electorate. In South Carolina, the Bush campaign initiated push polls asking voters whether they’d be more likely or less likely to support McCain if they knew he’d fathered a non-white child. He hadn’t, but it didn’t matter. And now, eight years later, McCain’s embraced the same tactics, implying that Barack Obama — a Harvard professor of constitutional law — is a “terrorist” because of the fact that he served on a board with a college professor who espoused radical politics 40 years ago. He knows full well that it’s bullshit, but all that matters is winning… And that mindset trickles down.

Am I surprised that a College Republican from Texas would seek to make race a central part of this campaign by claiming that a large black man would attacked her and “carve” a “B” into her face? Sadly, no. I expected as much. And that’s what hurts so much about this. This is the reality in which we live.

I’m hoping, for the good of this country, that Barack Obama wins decisively come November 4. And I’m hoping that with that victory comes a realignment in this country unlike any seen since Reconstruction. I want to strip this house of ours down to its foundation and start over again. I want us to finally put race, and this kind of politics behind us once and for all. I want our leaders to stop leading through fear and intimidation, and start leading by inspiration. I want a President who challenges us not to be more frightened, but to be better people. I’ve been too fearful to say it, because I think I’ll somehow jinx it, but I hope with every fiber of my being that Barack Obama becomes our next President. And I hope to God that this great nation of ours gets another chance. We don’t deserve it, but I hope to God, for the sake of my daughter and her friends, that we get it. We’ve been too weak and too cowardly for too long. It’s time we stepped up and did something to make our ancestors — the ones who risked their lives to come here — proud. I’m so tired of sitting here, day after day, and taking it. I’m tired of watching of schools collapse, as our prisons grow. I’m tired of the lobbyists. I’m tired of debt. I’m tired of being lied to. I’m tired of being a human veal calf, passively consuming… Fuck. Fuck Ashley Todd and the system that created her…

Posted in Rants | 15 Comments

what happened to the michigan feed-in tariff?

By Mark | October 24, 2008

In Ann Arbor this evening, at TechKnow Forum 2008: Recharging Michigan, during a panel on the future of our state, Stanley “Skip” Pruss, Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s special advisor on renewable energy and the environment, brought up Germany. He held them up as an example of what can happen when a government seriously embraces alternative energy. Germany, as you may know, currently leads the world with regard to alternative energy research and production. In fact, according to Pruss, more people are now employed in the alternative energy sector in Germany than in the automotive industry.

John Denniston, partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, offered the reason why. According to Denniston, it was all due to the feed-in tariff, which, by guaranteeing a profit to anyone who could produce electricity that could be sold back into the grid, set off an incredibly alternative energy boom.

The following clip comes from a July 2007 issue of the UK’s Guradian newspaper:

…The secret of German success is the “feed-in tariff” (FIT). Anyone generating electricity from solar PV, wind or hydro gets a guaranteed payment of four times the market rate – currently about 35p pence a unit – for 20 years.

This reduces the payback time on such technologies to less than 10 years and offers a return on investment of 8-9%. The cost is spread by generating companies among all users and has added about one cent/kwh to the average bill, or an extra

Posted in Alternative Energy | 4 Comments

does palin know the constitutional role of the vice president?

By Mark | October 23, 2008

It seems to me that Chris Mathews, in this clip from the MSNBC television show Hardball, is asking a legitimate question. Showing video of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in which she explains that her job as Vice President is to reside over the Senate and draft legislation, Mathews asks McCain campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer if the candidate is aware that, as Vice President, according to the constitution, she has no legislative role and only participates in the Senate on the very rare occasion when a tie-breaking vote is needed.

Matthews, of course, goes to far with it, suggesting that Palin should spend more time reading the constitution and less time shopping, but, it seems to me that, beneath the Hardball theatrics, he’s got a legitimate concern… Here’s the quote from Matthews:

…Somehow, in all these trips to Washington — through Neiman’s, and through Saks, and through everywhere else she stopped off, she never picked up a copy of the Constitution. It is a problem. It is a problem, Nancy, and you know it…

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments