Sunday Potpourri for a week of mind-blowing politics
October 19, 2008
It’s too much; I can’t put it all into a series of posts. Instead, I’m going to rip off ***Dave and use his idea of a potpourri post to aggregate a sampling from the InterWebs. He’s been in India all week so maybe he won’t notice me stealing his method.
By the way, if you use your mouse’s scroll wheel (press down without turning) to click the links, they’ll open up in new tabs without closing the link page. Handy for linky-pages like this one.
Politicky-stuff:
- This just in: Apparently Colin Powell is a ‘Fake American’. No, really! According to Congresscritter Michele Bachmann and McCain advisor Nancy “let me hear you say my last name after a few drinks” Pfotenhauer, Obama supporters aren’t real Americans. And in spite of that terrible price, Colin Powell has endorsed Obama. Damn…
- And if that weren’t amazing enough, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed Obama – first Democrat they’ve backed in 136 years.
- McCain’s campaign has said that the people yelling ugly slogans at Palin rallies or who support McCain with racist imagery are “isolated nuts”. Pam’s House Blend has a compilation of nuts which include GOP party officials, attendees at the ‘Values Voter Summit’, Republican fundraisers, and McCain campaign offices. And of course, some genuinely isolated nuts too.
- Be sure to watch Saturday Night Live’s Palin vs Palin
- Greg Laden has an excellent video report from Keith Olberman on The Hate Talk Express including some old-lady on young-man violence. The important point is that using hate in your campaign… is a dangerous game.
- And since we mentioned the ‘Values Voter Summit’ Americans United got an inside look (it wasn’t easy). Read as much as you can stomach about the ‘values’ of the Religious Right.
- Stupidity can be found everywhere, but… Oh my gosh…
- If you doubt that the religious right only thinks that they are real Americans, or that racism is a component, listen in on this coffee shop conversation
- Folks, racism doesn’t advertise itself by name. Very few people – let’s call them overt racists – wake up in the morning and think to themselves; “Gee, people of color turn my stomach”. Most racism hides in pervasive, unacknowledged bias, and it has been carefully measured in a study at Stanford University. (NY Times: Racism without racists.)
(HT John Weber)
Economics-y and somewhat politicky stuff
- Greg Laden has a great roundtable discussion video with Bernie Sanders, and a comedian and two actors, on disparity of wealth and what it really means. Obviously Sanders is the only credible one there, but the best quote was from FDR’s Fed Chairman, Marriner C. Eccles, comparing the economic crisis to a poker game. Of course, it was a quote, because Eccles is sort of dead these days.
Sciency stuff
- Visit Dana’s place En Tequila Es Verdad Sunday Sensational Science for a look at the Grand Canyon along its grandest dimension: time
- Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology has a great article about trash in Why I hate plastic tampon applicators. Gee I dunno, Darren… they’re pretty popular. I even see them lying on the ground in parking lots and washing down the gutter in rainstorms. Of course, that is your point…
- Orac has a musical comedy video; If you open your mind too much, your brains will fall out
Social and historic-y stuff
- Don at Life Cycle Analysis shares a moving video about veterans and disability – and I think it applies more widely than that anyway; The Family Tradition
- Check out this awesome collection of George Wesley Bellows drawings at the Boston Public Library. (HT Mike The Mad Biologist)
Whew! I actually could go on for quite a while. How do people get bored with all that life goin’ on around them? I didn’t even get around to ACORN.
Categories: Uncategorized
I seeeeeee youuuuuuu …
(Nice summary.)