Wandering Artist's Journal

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain, said the Obama campaign had launched “a mad-dash of damage control,” in the wake of the debate. “Barack Obama failed to utter the word ‘victory’ a single time during last night’s debate on foreign policy,” Mr. Bounds said in a statement. “And that’s failing the commander in chief test by any standard.” via

I thought they were pretty evenly matched but then, what do I know - I thought the same thing after the Saddleback Forum when everyone said it was a clear "win" for McCain. I even thought Obama's "above my pay grade" answer (at Saddleback) was the best line of the night (and most accurate) but I'm in the minority with that opinion, too. Anyway, I doubt if the exchange changed anyone's mind about who they intended to vote for. It may have helped undecided voters come to a decision. When I say that I thought they were evenly matched, what I mean is they both looked like plausible leaders. They're both knowledgeable and have coherent world views. However, those views are radically different. John McCain is such an old soldier. War, weapons, the camaraderie of warriors, and the military mind-set permeate his statements and seem to occupy most of his thinking. Even his signature issue of eliminating earmarks is consistent with this mindset. He repea...

A lot of people have been thinking about the Great Depression and wondering if this current financial crisis could get that bad. Franklin Roosevelt was sworn into office in 1933 and he faced the problem immediately, saying in his famous speech about " fear itself": "The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit…If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well.” But as decades passed, the belief in government as an instrument to advance the common good was rejected. Ronald Reagan became President, proclaimed that government was not the solution but the problem, and joked that, “The 10 most dangerous words in the English language are, “Hi, I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” Now, like a last-minute, battlefield conversion, the White House has rediscovered...

In the Roosevelt Room after the session (10pm Thursday), the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal. “I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.” Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.” ( via NYT )

Less that six weeks until the election and the first of three Presidential debates may or may not take place tomorrow. McCain announced that he intended to postpone the debate because “a crisis calls for all hands on deck.” Obama wants go forward with debates because "It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess." California's two senators, both Democrats, described McCain's actions as unhelpful. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said he is causing "a distraction at a time when sober reflection is needed," while Sen. Barbara Boxer accused him of "engaging in political theater." ( via ) Nevertheless, both McCain and Obama showed up at the White House today , summoned by President Bush. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said that the White House summit would be relegated to little more than a publicity event. "We're going to...

While I appreciate the comments and emails of support, I now find myself in the position of defending my detractors. "Anonymous" and "Citizen X" are exercising their right to comment on a blog that was set up for open public comments. I can delete comments that cross the line into idiocy, but that hasn't happened yet. To "Anonymous": I'm unclear on how expressing a political opinion makes me less of a painter. Or how keeping quiet would make me a better painter. To "Citizen X": You make a some good points. I don't necessarily agree with the conclusions that flow from those points. I'm hip to the shadow government, but still pissed about the symptoms. Yes, kvetching is self-indulgent but this is a personal blog, and if it's any consolation I'll be done blathering soon - say, in 40 days. As for my "reporting" on art - it's moved over to BAArtQuake . Mean while I'm still painting . . . working on a BIG pr...

From Craig Newmark : When you make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Palin's name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website: https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is: McCain for President 1235 S. Clark Street 1st Floor Arlington , VA 22202 PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate--Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular "Donate Online"

Remember privatizing social security? John Neffinger lays it out HERE .

. . . I'm just sayin'

From Joe Klein at Time : . . . the financial titans have been going for the quick buck rather than the sound one. Money and creativity have been redirected during the Reagan-Bush era away from substantive loans to real businesses into a Ponzi scheme of borrowing by investment bankers, so they could engage in the most irresponsible, if lucrative (for them) speculative lending imaginable...In this sense, the mortgage crisis was a perfect metaphor for Republican financial governance: Investment banks like Lehman--R.I.P.--took loans to invest money in...bad loans. In this case, the loans were bad mortgages. This is called throwing good money after bad. John McCain has excellent experience--a ringside seat--in the vagaries of this experiment in greed and anarchy. He was a member of the Keating Five. This was the signature scandal of the Savings and Loan crisis, twenty years ago. It concerned the insider help that five Senators gave Charles Keating and his Lincoln Savings and Loan, in return...

... eventually it will sound like the truth to enough people. That's the Republican modus operandi. Today, at a campaign stop in Colorado, Sarah Palin repeated — for the tenth time — her lies about the Bridge to Nowhere. The McCain-Palin campaign has repeated the story at least 34 times . This, in spite of the documented truth about her support for the project .

Philip Gourevitch writes about "the peculiar landscape" of the Republican VP candidate (in the Sept. 22 issue of the New Yorker .) A few excerpts: Just about everyone in Alaska knew that Palin was on John McCain’s list of potential running mates, but no one in the state’s insular, Republican political world had seen any indication that the campaign was checking her background. That made sense to Pat Dougherty, the editor of the Anchorage Daily News . Palin was forty-four years old and had served only a year and a half as governor, and he said, “The idea of her as Vice-President is ridiculous. She’d be way in over her head." Palin’s style of governing was unorthodox and at times impulsive. Although she boasts of a record as a fiscal conservative, she raised the sales tax while she was in office. She left the town saddled with millions of dollars in debt from the building of a new sports complex, and with legal fees, because she had failed to secure title to the land on w...

WILL JESUS WASH THE BLOODSTAINS FROM YOUR HANDS? (as recorded by Hazel Dickens) I saw a grey-haired mother crying softly in her door As she gazed upon the pathway where he'd return no more Oh Lord, I'd love to hold my baby just once more And, Lord, I hope I never live to see another war Chorus: Will Jesus wash the bloodstains from your hands? Will he welcome you in to that peaceful land? Will he forgive the killings, the wars you have planned? Will Jesus wash the bloodstains from your hands? Well the bombs you've dropped, the guns you've shot all in the name of peace While the people beg for mercy, you gave them no relief There's blood on your hands, mister, you'll answer for one day And the tears you shed on that day won't wash your sins away Chorus Now you say we could survive a nuclear war And that you would use limits, you'd only go so far Well Hiroshima's horrors we'll never forget For bloodthirsty warriors never know when to quit Chorus Wor...

from CNN : Sarah Palin did not visit troops in Iraq, a spokesperson for the Republican vice presidential nominee confirmed Saturday, as new details emerged about the extent of the Alaska governor's foreign travel. In July of last year, Palin left North America for the first time to visit Alaskan troops stationed in Kuwait. Palin officials originally said her itinerary included U.S. military installations or outposts in Germany and Kuwait, and that she had visited Ireland. A Palin aide in Alaska had said Iraq was also one of the military stops on that trip. The Boston Globe, however, reported Satu...

I've been increasingly distressed over the deteriorating state of our country and the world-wide fallout from our bad behavior. It's been a very long time since I felt this sense of impending transformation in an election. I'm not at all convinced that the change will be positive. I want to DO something. Something useful. I sent money, but it's not much. I blathered here on my blog. During the primaries, I participated in one of those "calling" events. The problem was that when it came time to actually open my mouth, I froze. I'm pathetic at talking on the phone. But here's something I can do: I just signed up to host a MoveOn for Obama Party run by the Political Action group, MoveOn.org . On Sunday, September 21st, MoveOn members will gather at house parties across the nation. We'll call MoveOn members in battleground states and get them involved in Barack Obama's historic grassroots campaign. And because it's MoveOn's 10th birthday...

When Sarah Palin was Mayor of Wassilla and Charlie Fanon was Police Chief, they charged victims of sexual assault $300 to $1,200 apiece for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence. The Governor (at the time) Tony Knowles had to sign legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for the tests. The governor signed House Bill 270, sponsored by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, outside the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam room at Alaska Regional Hospital. In attendance at the signing were members of victims advocate groups, law enforcement agencies and legislators. The new law made it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims insurance companies for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault did occur. Full story HERE

From Time Magazine's Karen Tumulty : Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

That's Adam McKay's take on it , and I'm starting to agree with him. He thinks it's because, "there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it." That, and the proven Republican tactic of outright voting fraud (and here and here .) I think it's more of the classic Democratic inclusiveness, politeness, and insistence on nuance, which results in the kind of situation I saw last night when Keith Olbermann interviewed Barack Obama on Countdown . Olbermann gave Obama the kinds of easy, leading questions that begged for a simple, straightforward answer like, "They're lying." Instead, Obama started to remind me of Kerry and Gore with his hit-every-bullet-point answers - at one point he described a recent political cartoon (No, stop, please! A cartoon is a VISUAL! Get a joke writer if you want to do verbal funnies.) Now the Obama campai...

Jim and Andrea Corrales were eating at the El Pinto restaurant in New Mexico yesterday when the No-Talk Express pulled in. Jim pulled out his iPhone and filed this report on Americablog.com : Our family today had an interesting encounter that I wanted to share with you. We were eating at El Pinto restaurant in Albuquerque. It is the most popular New Mexican restaurant in town, a large sprawling compound with a number of dinning rooms and patio spaces. We were eating outside in the patio closest to the main road and had just finishing lunch when I saw the McCain bus drive by! It was followed closely by a number of police motorcycles, secret service SUVS, and press vans. It was obvious they were coming to El Pinto! We figured we'd head out and see if we could get a closer look. I decided this might be my one chance, to ask one question of each candidate. I carried Caterina (16 months) along with me to meet the candidates. I worked my way through a number of other dinners and secret s...

from Will Bunch at Truthout : It was a Speech to Nowhere because Palin had the nerve to talk at length about John McCain's "torturous interrogations" in the very same speech when she all but condoned the continuation of similar, abhorrent practices that have been directed for eight years by our own U.S. leaders, when she stated that Democrats are "worried that someone won't read them [terrorism suspects] their rights." It was a Speech to Nowhere because Palin belittled "community organizers" -- thousands of Americans who work long hours for little pay in some of the toughest neighborhoods, trying to assist the American Dream that even the poorest among us can pull themselves out of the muck with a helping hand. Palin and other GOP speakers have turned a noble job into a dirty word tonight -- shame on you! Listen to what CNN's Roland Martin said after Palin's speech was over. My two parents are sitting home...

Palin's RNC Speech Bent the Truth on Her Record and on the Opposition By Russell Goldman at ABC News Sept. 4, 2008 In a rousing speech at last night's (Sept. 3rd) Republican National Convention, vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, touted her record, attacked the opposition, and in some cases, bent the facts. •PALIN: "[Obama] is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign." FACT: On July 15, in a speech in Washington, D.C., Obama twice used the word "victory" in reference to Iraq. "In fact," he said, "true success in Iraq -- victory in Iraq -- will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms. ... I want Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future, and to reach the political accommodation necessary for long-term stability. That's victory. That's success....

Sarah Palin has a sketchy grasp of history and is not a member of the reality-based community , to put it mildly. During Palin's 2006, run for governor, Phyllis Schafly's Eagle Forum asked candidates to answer several questions. In answer to the question, "Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance?" Sarah Palin answered, "Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance." (Except the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and the "under God" phrase was added in the 1950s.) Maybe the fact that she went to five colleges in five years before she managed to get her degree has something to do with her tenuous relationship with the facts. She started out in the fall of 1982 with a major in Business Administration, then switched to general studies at another college, then transferred schools three more times before graduating i...

Sarah Palin said that "a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." She may be a little unclear on what a community organizer actually does . As Mayor, she was able to hire one of Jack Abramoff's lobbyists to score $27 million in special earmarks for her little town of 6,700 residents. "There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage." (via CBS ) Who needs community organizers when you have those kind of Washington connections? More on community organizers from Nerdette: