I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Haiku Productivity: …Limiting Yourself to the Essential.

“Befoulers of the Verbiage”

It was an unfair attack on the verbiage
That Senator McCain chose to use,
Because the fundamentals,
As he was having to explain afterwards,
He means our workforce.
He means the ingenuity of the American.
And of course that is strong,
And that is the foundation of our economy.
So that was an unfair attack there,
Again based on verbiage.

(To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 18, 2008)

Via Slate…

She who Writes Like She Talks has become the Queen of Newspaper Endorsements, but I can’t resist posting this one my self. The Idaho Statesman has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Barack Obama soared to national prominence through the force of his remarkable oratory skills – the charisma and political rock-star appeal that attracted 14,169 people to Taco Bell Arena on a Saturday morning in February.

Over the ensuing months, the Illinois Democrat has shown American voters something more subtle, but something more important. He has demonstrated the superior intellect and the calm command our nation needs now.

The Statesman editorial board endorses Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

This is not an obvious choice for a newspaper in a historically Republican state. Nor was it a unanimous choice. But we have to think about what’s best for our nation, which is facing challenging and confusing times that call for even-tempered, clear-minded leadership. When the partisanship of this election finally subsidies, Obama is the man who can reach reasoned conclusions, reach across the political divides, and reach out to the common American.

Hell is not only freezing over, it’s becoming a ski bunny’s dream.

Tim Russo writes:

In this spirit, I ask my future attorney general, Richard Cordray, the following.

What are you going to do after you are elected, to make sure that the endless evidentiary trail of racially targeted interference with Ohio”s elections is investigated and prosecuted?

Mr. Cordray, is Ohio nothing better than a post soviet republic, where a group of individuals can coordinate a months long effort to fuck with my state”s electoral processes, base on race, and get away with it?

Is there no rule of law in Ohio that will punish these people?

I kinda think my vote for you depends on the answer to this question, sir.

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is How to “Peel” Hard-Boiled Eggs Without Peeling .

“Haiku”

These corporations.
Today it was AIG,
Important call, there.

(To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 18, 2008)

Via Slate…

I read the news this morning from she who Writes Like She Talks who gushes:

Wow. In 2004, they withheld an endorsement and we were not happy here. Here”s the 2008 Obama endorsement from The Plain Dealer. This is big news. I”m very, very proud of this endorsement – and in large part because it really covers all the angles. Hmm, I might even have to start subscribing again.

Here’s how I imagine the discussion at the table that included: Publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger, Editor Susan Goldberg, Editorial Page Director Brent W. Larkin, Deputy Editorial Page Director Kevin O’Brien and Associate Editors Sharon Broussard, Christopher Evans, Joe Frolik and Elizabeth Sullivan.

What the hell are we going to do?

We don’t know, boss.

If we endorse John McCain as we’re supposed to we’ll look like total tools.

We know, boss.

Suggestions people. I want suggestions.

We could punt the way we did in 2004?

Yeah, like that worked. Do you know what it was like for the last publisher at the ANPA meeting after the election? Do better than that?

How about we endorse McCain but put an American flag on every page of the paper until the election?

The paper caught hell the last time we printed a flag, remember? People thought we were encouraging their budgies to crap on the flag.

It will be tricky, but how about we endorse that one, but use enough code words in the endorsement that the money guys will think we’re being slick and not bury us?

Do you think you can do that? Can we convince them that we’re trying to sink Obama while we actually endorse him?

It will be tricky, but we’ve got enough journalist in this room to pull it off.

Get busy. Meeting adjourned.

And so they got work and produced the endorsement in this morning’s paper.

And the code words? They’re there.

He is young and obviously cannot match the government experience of his Republican opponent, John McCain.

Read: He’s an uppity, wet behind the ears punk who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

We also believe that either would govern more effectively and lead more inclusively than they have campaigned these last two months. They had better, because this fall has degenerated into a disappointing cacophony of attack ads and banality.

Read: He can’t afford to piss off rich white men once he’s in office because they’ll crush his every move.

Obama has twisted McCain’s record beyond recognition and attempted to tie him to Republican ideologues he has fought his whole career.

Read: He knows how to fight dirty and it’s going to be our job to make sure everyone knows it for every issue of the paper over the next four years.

Such campaigning insults the American people and degrades those who engage in it. Voters who hunger for straight talk about the most frightening economy in 70 years, or who long for hope in the face of two grinding wars, deserve better.

Read: Back off, people. We’re trying to sell newspapers and save our jobs here.

We endorse Obama, knowing full well that doing so involves some risk.

Read: And we’re already preparing the We Told You So! headlines.

If they had not become bitter rivals, Obama might have found a useful ally and role model in McCain, who has spent a lifetime marching to the beat of a different drum.

Read: Obama started it!

Trust is essential to the presidency. Americans want to believe that the chief executive understands their lives, will protect their interests and will not compromise their safety. They want a president who represents what America can be, not what it has been.

Read: Of course they want someone like themselves, but the white guy can’t win.

Electing any president involves a leap of faith — a risk. Such is the power of the office.

Read: Campaigning is all about marketing. As President George Bush has shown us, it’s all a gamble. So you might as well come down on the side of the horse that’s a furlong ahead. We can always jump ship later.

For a country in need of a new direction and a new tone, Barack Obama is a risk worth taking.

Read: And pray that we have enough votes to impeach later on. Hell, you don’t give a shit what we say anyway. You’ll never read any of this.

For a bit of Perspective this morning…

And Jill, step away from the subscription form.

From Laurel Hopwood:

Dear friends,

Please consider donating a few hours on election day with Non-Partisan “Vote-Count Protection Projects”! Please forward this call to action far and wide.

1) Capture Posted Results [Cuyahoga County, Ohio] — 1 to 2 hours on election day Go to one (or more) polling place(s) at the end of the day and: a) write down the precinct-summarized election results that have been posted at the polling place, b) take a photograph of the posted precinct-summarized results, c) call in or email the results to the Cuyahoga Vote-Count Protection headquarters, d) email or mail in the photographs to the Cuyahoga Vote-County Protection headquarters. Digital Camera preferred. (We may have extras available for loan.)

2) Citizen Exit Polls [Cuyahoga County, Ohio] – 4 to 6 hours on election day With one or more partners, go to a polling place for a 4 to 5 hr shift on election day. As voters leave, ask them if they would be willing to fill out a simple anonymous survey. Have voters drop survey into Exit Poll box.

3) Vote-Count Protection Data Analysis [Cuyahoga and National] – 4 hours on election evening This can be done at the Cuyahoga Vote-Count Protection headquarters or off-site, i.e. using your favorite computer. As Cuyahoga’s posted precinct-summarized election results (project 1 above) and Cuyahoga’s Exit Poll forms (project 2 above) come in, key in/organize/aggregate results. (We’ll provide training.) Compare aggregate results to “non-official” election results being posted on Cuyahoga’s Board of Elections and Ohio Secretary of State’s websites. Microsoft Excel and Access experience is preferred.

To volunteer, contact Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D. Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D., Founder, Ohio Vigilance Host of “Doing Democracy”, WRUW FM 91.1 (www.wruw.org) – Tuesdays at 9 a.m. doingdemocracyradio@gmail.com or lovegrenv@gmail.com or 216-246-4179

Defending Democracy is tough work.

From Marc Ambinder:

Political scientists and consultants say that taped-voice telephone calls are among the least effective methods of voter persuasion.

Privately, Republican consultants liken that the RNC’s massive robocall effort this week to a ball and string toy — it gives vendors something to do and activists something to think about.

Alan Gerber and Donald Green, Yale profs who study turnout, have written that robocalls “might help you to stretch your resources in ways that allow you to contact the maximum number of people, but don’t expect to move them very much, if at all.”

Generic robocalls — those not targeted at specific constituencies — are worse.

There’s an exception. When the calls reinforce a message that a candidate is carrying, then they’re not always a bad investment.

But the national McCain campaign is only weakly invested in anti-Obama message on William Ayers and Obama’s “terrorist” connections.

Hey Kev, are you paying attention?

Republican party vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has caught flack in recent weeks for talking about different Americas. And she’s right. There are different Americas and the administration of President George Bush has done all that it can to identify those members of the flock, the sheep among us.

And one of the ways it has done that is through the Security Theater of the Transportation Security Administartion. The TSA does not actually make us any safer. That has never been its role. But what it has done is make us willing to take off our shoes before we get on airplanes. It has made us willing to carefully bag our toiletries in 3 oz. bottles. It has made us willing to produce identification cards on demand.

Those are all tests, you see, because none of that would ever deter, for the smallest moment, a true enemy of our United States bent upon destruction.

In The Things He Carried, Atlantic writer Jeffery Goldberg demonstrates how anyone with even half a brain can thwart what are essential minimum-wage earning rent-a-cops charged with training Americans to be better sheep.

On another occasion, at LaGuardia, in New York, the transportation-security officer in charge of my secondary screening emptied my carry-on bag of nearly everything it contained, including a yellow, three-foot-by-four-foot Hezbollah flag, purchased at a Hezbollah gift shop in south Lebanon.

The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads Then surely the party of God are they who will be triumphant. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go.

I said, “That”s a Hezbollah flag.” She said, “Uh-huh.” Not “Uh-huh, I”ve been trained to recognize the symbols of anti-American terror groups, but after careful inspection of your physical person, your behavior, and your last name, I”ve come to the conclusion that you are not a Bekaa Valley-trained threat to the United States commercial aviation system,” but “Uh-huh, I”m going on break, why are you talking to me?”

And I know this. The TSA will not go away in 2009. The administration of President Barack Obama will not disband this shameless waste of tax dollars. The TSA and the Department of Homeland Security will not be on that list of items in the Federal Budget that President Obama pares as he goes line by line through the expenditures.

The TSA and all the other ways fear has allowed our Government to quantify our level of sheepness will only go away when Americans once again begin to act like Americans.

The Ohio Republican Party got slapped down by the Supreme Court of the United States for attempting to interfere with the an election that is now only 17 days away; and they accuse Democrat’s of a plan to rig the election?

It’s clear that on 5 November, after Democratic party presidential party candidate Barack Obama wins the White House in a landslide not seen in my lifetime, Republicans will march to court houses around the country with claims of vote fraud and seek to do with lawyers what they could not do with their candidate Senator John McCain.

Increasingly it is clear that these are people who believe that because of their birth, their god, their wealth or the promise of some fortune teller that it is their right to rule the United States of America and that no one could possible take that right away from them without cheating.

This is the politics of the school yard.

Via Blogger Interrupted…

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Why I Love Empty Job Freelancing.

“You Can’t Blink”

You can’t blink.
You have to be wired
In a way of being
So committed to the mission,

The mission that we’re on,
Reform of this country,
And victory in the war,
You can’t blink.

So I didn’t blink.

(To C. Gibson, ABC News, Sept. 11, 2008)

Via Slate…

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Chrysler’s $2.99 Gas Price Guarantee.