Baron Dave Romm
Post Debate Thoughts
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Use the Tip Jar for encouragement. (Let me know of any problems.)
Tip Jar
Help me make it through the
autumn. Use this PayPal button for an encrypted donation.
The First Presidential Debate Was Good
Generally, I thought the debate went well for both Obama and McCain. I was amused the the moderator kept trying to get Obama and McCain to talk to each other. He failed, though occasionally Obama directed his remarks at his opponent. Barack was far more laid back and comfortable than John. Personally, I scored Obama as an A- and gave McCain a solid B.
FactCheck.org has a good analysis of the statements and misstatements made. While both did some spin, Obama nailed McCain several times (eg on Kissinger) and McCain mischaracterized Obama's positions rather desperately (eg Obama didn't vote on a "bill" to raise taxes for people "making as little as $42K"; he voted for a resolution urging the repeal of Bush's tax cuts which would have restored some taxation (some!) down to that level. That was a long time ago and the economic situation has changed... for the worse). McCain was just wrong about the letter Ike wrote before D-Day and how earmarks have "tripled" in the last few years (they've declined, especially since the Democrats took both houses of Congress).
It seemed McCain was winging it in the beginning, and came off a poor second. Later, he started slinging Republican talking points (calling Obama "the most liberal senator" which may play to the goppie "base" but is a high compliment for many) and getting back to his stump speech. Obama had gravitas and McCain had barely restrained passion. McCain is losing, and the Palin pick is turning into a disaster. He needed to do much better than Obama, and he came off as barely holding his own against a superior leader.
For over a year, the 24-hour "news" channels have been pretending the overnight polls actually mattered. Well, now they do, and they all favor Obama. Now that it's been more than a 24-hour cycle since the debate, the spin is piling on top of spin. McCain is being raked over the coals for being condescending and off his game. Obama is being praised for looking presidential. Both of these were true, but they're being magnified into The Story Of The Debate. I don't like soundbite reporting, and the whole point of a 90 minute debate is to give the candidates a chance to talk for a bit. Chill out, people. It was just one debate in the middle of a very long campaign.
Aside: I don't like to pillory people for being mostly right but wrong in specifics, especially when I agree with them. McCain said he would "fire" SEC head Cox when the president doesn't have the power to do that. In the debate, he ameliorated that to "call for his resignation" which is fairly similar (a president can put a lot of pressure on people he doesn't have direct control over) and I tend to agree that Cox (among others) should go.
Similarly, Obama
kept saying Iraq has a $79 billion surplus. It was projected that
high, but is likely to come in at about $60 billion. That's still
far more than the $10 billion we're sending to the country
not counting the $12 billion in cash sent on pallets
and his basic assertion that Iraq can and should pay for its
reconstruction is correct.
Rhetorical Flourishes
Remmember when Barack Obama said, "It's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment."? He was called on the carpet for being "elitist". He was also right.
According tho the BBC, from the journal Science People who are scared are more likely to have right wing views. (See abstract of article here.) BBC Sept. 18, 2008:
Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda.Conservatives are scared. They like to play third-grade games of insults and the like to point at privates. But underneath a bully is a coward. Obama was right to point out that as times get worse, people retreat into their own prejudices. A free and self-assured society is a more liberal society. That's why Republicans want to build more jails and keep the terror alert high.
Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies.
That the media just pounced in accordance with the wishes of the GOP is just more evidence of how conservative they are.
Bush Puts Troops In Danger To Help McCain
Why isn't this a bigger story?
Maliki: Bush Tried To Delay U.S. Withdrawal To Help McCain Think Progress Sept. 23, 2008:In an al-Iraqiya interview on September 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the state of negotiations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments regarding the eventual withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq. Maliki said that "perhaps one of the two most important points is deciding the final date." Transcript via Open Source Center:MALIKI: Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they [the Bush administration] asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the US] so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date. Agreement has been reached on this issue. They are willing to respond positively because they, too, are facing a critical situation. [Emphasis Think Progress]
Republicans Were Against A Bailout Before They Were For It
"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all. We encourage potential buyers to work in concert with the lending community to educate themselves about the responsibilities of purchasing a home, condo, or land."
-- from the 2008 Republican Platform: The Economy.
Oddly enough, I have no pictures or interviews to go with this.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff: When Is Obama Going to Start Talking About Bush's 'Dark Side'? (villagevoice.com)
Froma Harrop: Wall Street Did What Came Naturally (creators.com)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the Wall Street executives you see hanging their heads have been called many things, chief among them "greedy." But in deciding their guilt, you must consider mitigating circumstances. Compare these two sets of circumstances.
Susan Estrich: George Bush's Final Moment (creators.com)
It takes a major crisis for a lame duck president, especially one whose popularity is as low as George W. Bush's, to take center stage during a hard-fought presidential campaign. It takes a major crisis for members of Congress, who as a group may be even less popular than the president, to find themselves still in Washington so close to Election Day, with important work to do before they can go home.
Garrison Keillor: Cowboy economics
Confident men took leave of common sense and bet on the idea of perpetual profit in the real estate market and crashed. But it wasn't their money. It was your money they were messing with. And that's why you need government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say, "This is a scam and a hustle and either you cease and desist or you spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing backgammon."
Froma Harrop: Louisiana Politics: Undone by the Wind (creators.com)
I assume that someone has removed the crushed blue Hyundai from the parking lot of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Two days after Hurricane Ike, the car was there with a tree trunk still embedded in its roof. And Ike was a pussycat next to Gustav, which had pummeled the area two weeks before.
Susan Estrich: Remembering Alcee Hastings (creators.com)
Alcee Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he got impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Now he's a congressman from Florida. People have a right to vote for whomever they want, even one of the six federal judges in America ever to be removed by Congress.
Roger Ebert: This is the dawning of the Age of Credulity
But the purpose of this blog entry is not to discuss politics (a subject banned from the blog). Nor is it to discuss Creationism versus the theory of evolution (that way lurks an endless loop). It is to discuss the gradual decay of our sense of irony and instinct for satire, and our growing credulity.
Roger Ebert: "Creationism: Your questions answered"
Questions and answers on Creationism, which should be discussed in schools as an alternative to the theory of evolution:
Q. When was the earth created?
A. Archbishop James Usher, working out a chronology from the Bible, calculated in 1654 that the earth was created on the night of October 23, 4004 B.C. Other timetables reach back as far as 10,000 years.
MARK REYNOLDS: "FILM: Retelling the Story of Black Music: Bert Williams, Godfather of the Black Stage & Studio" (popmatters.com)
Bert Williams in blackface started a conversation about representing blackness within a mainstream context that has continued through virtually every crossover moment in black American life, from actors in limiting film roles in the '30s, to Bill Cosby in the '80s, to Barack Obama's run for the White House.
Silver Silverman Goes Mega-Viral Again (Contains Expletives, Which Many of Us Consider a Plus)
Reader Report
Anit-Palin Rally
Speaking of the show we filmed a Zombie Walk in downtown Anchorage, right on 5th ave. about a hundred zombies all decked out in their rags with blood a dripping. I filmed it all for my HOWWWWLLLLEEN spectacular. This happened afterI had attended the Alaskans for Truth 1200 strong Anti-Palin rally on the Park Strip.
It was a beautiful event on a beautiful fall Alaskan day. The Chugach mountains to the East were stark and clear in the distance , with Termination Dust moving about a quarter of the way down their slopes. The Snow on the Hills, like Palin's political future, was descending to a cold, inevitable conclusion.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but on the cool side.
Soldier's Mother
Tracy Jopek
The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.
Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.
Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama's mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier's mother gave him a bracelet.
Jopek says Obama's comment rightfully suggested there's more than one viewpoint on the war.
Tracy Jopek
Wedding News
Johansson - Reynolds
Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds did a little rushing into it after all.
The couple married this weekend, according to publicist Meredith O'Sullivan. She did not provide details.
Us Weekly reported on its Web site Sunday that the small wedding took place at a resort outside Vancouver, British Columbia. Guests included Scarlett's mother, Melanie Sloan, and her brother, Adrian Johansson, the magazine said.
Johansson - Reynolds
Using Facebook
MI6
Britain's overseas security service, MI6, has turned to social networking website Facebook to help recruit new agents, it emerged Sunday.
"The open recruitment campaign continues to target wide pools of talent representative of British society today," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
"A number of channels are used to promote job opportunities in the organisation. Facebook is a recent example."
MI6 launched Facebook job advertisements a few weeks ago to try and reach a larger variety of people, she added.
MI6
Multimedia Exhibit In Ohio
Andy Warhol
Watch Andy Warhol's films and videos, and it's easy to imagine the late pop artist feeling right at home in the current age of reality TV and Web video.
This was a man who made an hourlong film of people's random activities on the couch at his New York art studio, shot "screen tests" of subjects instructed to simply gaze into his camera for a few minutes without moving or even blinking, and videotaped his own mother sleeping.
Warhol's movies and video share the stage with his more familiar Campbell's soup-can paintings and colorful celebrity prints in "Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms," an exhibition running through Feb. 15 at the Wexner, at Ohio State University.
Columbus is the only U.S. destination for the multimedia show, which had its debut in Amsterdam last year. Because film and video can be duplicated and because Warhol was so prolific in painting and other media, the exhibition also opens Oct. 7 at the Hayward Gallery in London.
Andy Warhol
Sentenced For Faked Tiger Photos
Zhou Zhenglong
A Chinese farmer who claimed to have taken photos of a rare tiger was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Saturday for faking the pictures, a court official and state media said.
Zhou Zhenglong was tried for fraud in Xunyang County People's Court in Shaanxi province Saturday morning and was sentenced a little over five hours later, the Xinhua News Agency said.
According to official media accounts, Zhou, aged 54, heard that a reward of about $146,000 had been offered to anyone who found an endangered South China tiger in the wild, where one had not been seen for more than 20 years.
Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting, plus dozens of digital photos. The provincial forestry department rewarded him with $2,900.
Zhou Zhenglong
Estate To Go To Daughter
Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger's two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose will inherit the late Australian actor's entire estate, estimated to be worth 20 million dollars (16.6 million US), a report said Sunday.
The 28-year-old actor, who died in New York in January from an accidential overdose of prescription drugs, had named his parents and sisters as the beneficiaries in his will, Perth's Sunday Times reported.
The will, which has been probated behind closed doors at the Supreme Court in Perth, was made before Matilda was born, and there had been speculation that the child's mother, actress Michelle Williams, would lodge a claim.
But Ledger's father Kim has put an end to such speculation, revealing that Matilda will inherit the lot.
Heath Ledger
Montecito DUI
Heather Locklear
Heather Locklear was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance in the upscale Santa Barbara area, authorities said Sunday.
Locklear, 47, was pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer Saturday afternoon after a resident reported seeing the actress leaving a parking lot and "driving erratically," patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said.
The officer noticed Locklear's car parked on a state highway and blocking a lane in Montecito, a wealthy community about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles. She was believed to be alone in the car, Marshall said.
Locklear was taken to the police station, where she was tested for alcohol and drugs. She was booked at 7 p.m. on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription medication. She was later released from custody.
Heather Locklear
GE (NBC) Power Contract
Iraq
Iraq has signed preliminary deals worth billions of dollars with General Electric Co and Siemens for equipment to almost double electricity generation capacity, an energy official said on Saturday.
The deals with GE, Siemens and a third company would be worth a total of $7 billion to $8 billion, Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Waheed told Reuters.
Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) earlier this month for U.S. giant General Electric to supply turbines to generate 6,800 megawatts of power, Waheed said.
He declined to say how much Iraq would pay GE for the equipment, but said each megawatt would cost between $700,000 and $800,000. That would give a value of between $4.8 billion and $5.4 billion.
Iraq
Successful Launch
SpaceX
An Internet entrepreneur's latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket, carrying a dummy payload, was lofted into orbit from the South Pacific.
It was the fourth attempt by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.
"Fourth time's a charm," said Elon Musk, the multimillionaire who started up SpaceX after making his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal Inc., the electronic payment system.
Last month, SpaceX lost three government satellites and human ashes including the remains of astronaut Gordon Cooper and "Star Trek" actor James Doohan after its third rocket was lost en route to space. The company blamed a timing error for the failure that caused the rocket's first stage to bump into the second stage after separation.
SpaceX
Weekend Box Office
'Eagle Eye'
Shia LaBeouf's conspiracy thriller "Eagle Eye" debuted at the top of the weekend box office with $29.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Paramount-DreamWorks release was the second No. 1 premiere for LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso, who also teamed on 2007's hit "Disturbia."
Opening in second place with $13.6 million was another reunion, the Warner Bros. romantic drama "Nights in Rodanthe" featuring "The Cotton Club" and "Unfaithful" co-stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Eagle Eye," $29.2 million.
2. "Nights in Rodanthe," $13.6 million.
3. "Lakeview Terrace," $7 million.
4. "Fireproof," $6.5 million.
5. "Burn After Reading," $6.2 million.
6. "Igor," $5.5 million.
7. "Righteous Kill," $3.803 million.
8. "My Best Friend's Girl," $3.8 million.
9. "Miracle at St. Anna," $3.5 million.
10. "Tyler Perry's the Family That Preys," $3.2 million.
'Eagle Eye'
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
