Obama's Inaction on Blackwater

Democracy Now has an excellent story on how Barack Obama has no plans to end the use of Blackwater and other private contractors. Obama states that private mercenaries can not be replaced because of the lack of U.S. troops.

Obama: Here's the problem. We have a 140,000 right there (in Iraq.) Unless we want to replace all or a big chunk of those with U.S. troops; we can't draw down the contractors faster than we can draw down the troops.

What Obama fails to realize that Blackwater's actions make U.S. troops and diplomats less safe. Blackwater's actions and illegal killings galvanizes extremists. Osama bin Laden attacks the United States because of her policies. He has made that clear in his messages. He has portrayed U.S. troops in the Middle East as crusaders. Blackwater helps feeds bin Laden's propaganda. Obama is foolish to think the Blackwater USA will be U.S. interests safer in Iraq.

Obama Mockumentary

The Daily Show ran a hysterical mockumentary on Barack Obama. It's actually better than the real documentary run at the convention

Wire - Strange

	Wire - Strange
	Found at skreemr.com

R.E.M. did a cover of this song on Document.

More On Obama's Speech

Creative Loafing's Alex Pickett pointed out that Obama exceeded the expectation of many. Including your's truly.

he covered everything he’s been hit on in the last several months and he surprised so many (including Hussey up there):

they said he wouldn’t attack McCain, he bodyslammed the mofo.

they said he can’t articulate his positions, he gave an intro to his positions. mofo.

they said he couldn’t beat his 2004 speech.
uh… yeah. presidential nominee.
mofo.

In InstaPundit world: Glenn Reynolds needs to posts that are critical of Obama's speech. Reynolds doesn't have any thoughts of his own. Which should surprise no one.

Live Blogging Barack Obama Acceptnce Speech

Watching the speech on C-SPAN. Obama hasn't hit the stage yet. The music is annoying me. Why don't political conventions plays Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising? Tell me that.

Dick Durbin is introducing Obama.

Creative Loafing has a comment tread going on about Obama's acceptance speech.

10:04: They are airing the feel good movie/informercial.

10:06: Michelle Obama: Who names their kid Barack Obama?

10:08: I understand that the informercial is to introduce Obama to the masses. It might have viewers flipping the channel.

10:13: Obama hits the stage.

10:14: I'm watching an acceptance speech by a black man, in the stadium the Denver Broncos play football. How fucking wild is that?

10:15: Obama accepts the nomination. Crowd goes wild.

10:16: Obama gives a shout out to Hillary. Obama needs her supporters.

10:21: Obama: Enough!

Amen.

10:22: Obama's "Eight is enough line" is fantastic.

10:24: Obama is attacking Phil Gramn's "whiners" comment. Obama is in attack mode. Surprising.

10:26: Obama: John McCain doesn't get it.

10:28: Obama hitting working class message.

10:35: Obama: Washington has been talking about oil dependance for 30 years and John McCain for 26 of them.

10:37: Obama is going through laundry list of priorities.

Wayne Garcia of Creative Loafing.

Barack is smoking hot tonight.

The crowd is eating it up. It's a Democratic audience, but the cheering will play well in the media.

10:42: Good! Obama attacks McCain on Iraq and his lack of commitmentment on Afghanistan.

Obama: John McCain said he would follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to his cave.

Game. Set. Match.

10:48: Obama's "Patriotism has no party" line is exactly what voters want to hear. It recalls Obama's red state/blue state 2004 keynote speech.

10:51: Obama accusing McCain of using scare tactics and tying it on McCain not having fresh ideas.

Obama: This election is about you.

10:55: Say hello to your next president. McCain can't top this.

I don't know how this will play in the media. By all appearances, Obama nailed it. He addressed the McCain attacks and stayed on his message of hope. That is a difficult feat to perform. Obama has the skills to pull it off.

I see people in the audience crying tears of joy. Wow.

The Obama and Biden families are on stage together.

Fireworks are being set off. I can see why they wanted the speech outdoors.

Tampa Area Obama Nomination Parties

Via Wayne "I Don't Know What Party I Belong To" Garcia: there are local parties for Barack Obama's acceptance speech.

St Pete’s Obama’08 Nomination Bash!
Please join us for this very exciting moment in history! Together we will watch Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic Presidential Nomination (live from Denver, Colorado) on one very large silver screen at the Beach Theatre. Please join the largest Nomination Watch Party in the county!

This is a FREE all ages event. Popcorn, Hot Dogs, Pizza, Candy, Beer, Wine, Sodas - will be available for purchase. (Please. No outside food or beverages)

Thursday, August 28 at 8 PM
Beach Theatre
315 Corey Avenue
St Pete Beach, FL 33706

Clearwater’s Obama ‘08 Nomination Party!!!
Let’s All Celebrate Together! Please join us for this very exciting moment as we watch Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic Presidential Nomination (live from Denver, Colorado). This event is for the entire family! This awesome event will take place at JJ CONCH’S ISLAND GRILL. Great food! Lots of BIG screen TV’s! And Games! This is the Party you don’t want to miss!!!!

For additional information please contact Loretta @ 727-488-9298, or lmitchell103@hotmail.com

Thursday, August 28 at 8 PM
JJ Conch’s Island Grill
18825 U. S. Highway 19 North
Clearwater, Florida 33764

The Least Hottest Ticket Around

Barack Obama will speak to 75,000 Democrats at Invesco Field. His convention speech is the hottest ticket around. In a galaxy far, far away, tickets are still available for John McCain's rally at Wright State University's Nutter Center.

Tickets are being given away at county GOP offices in southwest Ohio and in Indiana and Kentucky.

"Looking forward to coming out to Dayton and having a great rally," McCain told the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday.

Think about this. The GOP is giving away tickets and they are still having problems getting people to attend. The event is scheduled for tomorrow. The facility holds 12,000. The Nutter Center web site says free tickets are still available. It's obvious the Maverick is having a problem getting the base excited. George W. Bush never had attendance problems during his campaigns.

John Kerry's Convention Speech

John Kerry gave the speech of his life last night. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. Word is Kerry wrote the speech. A rarity these days in politics.

Valley of The Dolls

BlueGal hands it to Joe Scabro

John McCain just flew in from Charles Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay, and boy are his arms tired.



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Boss Hog Music

	Boss Hog - Chocolate
	Found at skreemr.com

	Boss Hog - Monkey
	Found at skreemr.com

Former Boss Hog members Hollis Queens and Jens Jurgensen are in the superb NYC band Lo-Hi. Check out their song Dig Thru on their web site.

Live Blogging Joe Biden Speech

10:27 Biden's son is introducing him.

It's Beau Biden.

10:30: Here comes Joe. To bad music. The song is Pink Houses. Good thing they didn't pick Hurts So Good.

10:33: Joe throws props to the Clintons.

10:34: Delaware is in the house.

10:34: Biden accepts the nomination. Boy, I didn't see that coming.

1035: Biden jokes that the Vice-President will not answer the phone at 3:00 AM.

Biden: Giving up is unforgivable.

10:37: Mama Biden sent Joe to keep getting his ass kicked as a kid.

10:38 Biden is delivering a working class message. Obama needs to appeal to these voters.

10:39 Intentionally confusing Bush with McCain. Audience eats it up.

10:40 Biden: McCain doesn't seem to get it.

10:41 Biden ties Obama into working class message. Biden talks about being raised by a single mother and his work in Chicago.

10:43: Biden: We have the power to change it.

10:45: Biden: That's not change - that's more the same.

10:47: Obama can create 5 million new jobs?

10:48: Yes! Equal pay for women!

10:50: Biden correctly calls Bush's foreign policy a failure.

10:51: On Afghanistan: Obama right and McCain wrong.

Biden is attacking McCain's judgement. Democrats need to hammer this message.

10:53: Biden is a hell of a lot better than Edwards and Lieberman were at the convention. That isn't saying much. That said, Biden nailed it.

10:56: Obama is in the house.

10:57: Obama thinks the convention is going well. That's debatable.

11:00: Here comes the photo op.

Quote of the Day

"Let me say, no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have."

John McCain

The Maverick just gave the Obama campaign a gift. They should use the quote and audio for a political ad.

Whose Your Favorite

Pollster has a chart showing the favorability ratings of Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. All three have strong ratings. Obama's and McCain's ratings are almost identical.

Obama - 60.4 percent

McCain - 59.6 percent

Clinton - 56.5 percent

The trend is the people polled seem to like all the candidates. Pollster could have polled some very generous people. If the poll is the be believed, Obama and McCain came out unbruised. Hillary saw a massive upswing in her favoribility. Maybe people just didn't want to admit that they hate a candidate.

Obama and McCain have star status for politicians. They're images are well crafted, but effective. Many people don't look at them as traditional pols. Obama speaks in hockey arenas and McCain yuks it up with Jon Stewart.

If the poll is reliable then the attack ads haven't worked on Obama. McCain's campaign stumbles haven't damaged his bogus Maverick image. That means this could be a very close election.

Quality Journalism

The real reason why John McCain will not select Charlie Crist as his Vice-President is that the media would have a field day over gay rumors. The panel of Morning Joe can't keep, but make jokes about the Crist rumors.


Andrea Mitchell: "Charlie Crist got married."

Joe Scarborough: "I thought he was engaged"

Chuck Todd: "After Friday, the engagement might be off if he's not the running mate."

Awkward. Nervous laughter erupted.

Mitchell: "You are so cold. That was so mean."

Todd: "It was a question."

Mitchell: "It was horrible."

Scarborough: "It was a helluva question."

How do you fill a news cycle when the John Edwards story is dying? I feel the pain of cable news talking heads.

Gary Siplin: Republican Lite

It's no secret that Gary Siplin is Florida's worst Republican. Siplin won yesterday's primary with a group of backers that would make any Republican proud.

A school-voucher group called All Children Matter had fired back with ads financed in part by the DeVos family, which owns the Orlando Magic, and the heirs to Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who chastised Woodard for being a registered Republican until last year.

Republicans and U.S. Sugar even got in on the act, sending out mailers this month trying to link Woodard to Republican policies that "shipped our jobs overseas, wrongly started the war in Iraq and destroyed our economy."

Siplin won with money from conservative-leaning businesses and Christian advocates. These are people that are dedicated to defeating Democrats.

The Florida Democratic Party and election official should have came out forcefully for Maurice "Doc" Woodard. Democrats supported Joe LIeberman in 2004, in hopes of winning the Senate majority. LIeberman has turned into a disaster for the party. Siplin has had legal troubles and the Florida Senate is not turning blue. What excuse does the FDP have for not giving Siplin the boot. His district isn't about to go Republican.

The End of Hillary Mania

Hillary Clinton releases her delegates. Her Barack Obama endorsement, to her delegates, is less than inspiring.

"I have spoken to many of you and you have questions about what to do. You want to vote according to what is in your heart. I am not going to tell you what to do. You have come from different places and made a long journey.

"I cast my vote for Senator Obama this morning."

Andrew Sullivan says Hillary "did the minimum." That isn't enough. Ezra Klein laid out the case for what is wrong with the convention.

Say what you will about the 2004 Convention, it had a theme. Conversely, the first night of the 2008 Democratic Convention had Michelle Obama bring the warm and fuzzies, Ted Kennedy calling forth tears and hankies, and Jim Leach speaking quietly and pedantically without any serious promotion from the Obama campaign. The second night of the 2004 Convention saw Barack Obama tearing apart the arena. In 2008, we had Mark Warner with a well-crafted speech that fell flat because it was an attack structure that refused to name the politician it was attacking. You had Hillary Cinton giving a powerful address, but it was an address that was broadly aimed at problems in the Democratic Party, not the problems with the Republican Party.

Barack Obama has an allergic reaction to negative campaigning. That is the worst thing to do against a McCain campaign run by Karl Rove accolades. The Democratic National Convention was a chance for Obama to come out with a bounce. Now the Obama campaign will play defense from attacks from the Republican National Convention. Obama learned nothing from the Clinton impeachment and Swift Boat attacks. David Kurtz explains that the Obama change campaign is resistant to change.

But I think its ambivalence about doing so is less a result of the Democrats' historical tendency to fritter away opportunities because of fear and trepidation, and more because the Obama campaign spent tens of millions over a year and a half to build Obama's sterling reputation and they are afraid of breaking it. It's different from what hobbled Dukakis and Kerry, but the outcome could be the same.

Lofty rhetoric and feel good messages don't win elections. Especially, when one's opponent is beating him to death with a sledgehammer.

Mason-Dixon Florida Poll

Take it with a grain of salt. (I do.) Barack Obama leads John McCain 45 percent to 44 percent in the latest Mason-Dixon Florida poll. 11 percent are undecided. Apparently, this election hasn't been long enough for these people.

An interesting tidbit is only 17 percent are more likely to vote for McCain if Charlie Crist is on the ticket. 32 percent heart Mitt Romney. Which would make my heart flutter if McCain picks the flip-flopper. Some classic flip flops.

Gun Control

"Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts," Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony with legislators, sportsmen's groups and gun safety advocates. "These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people."

Abortion

Romney answered the NARAL 2002 questionaire. His answers can hardly be described as Christian conservative.

Do you support the substance of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade? YES

Do you support state funding of abortion services through Medicaid for low-income women? YES

In 1998 the FDA approved the first packaging of emergency contraception, also known as the "morning after pill." Emergency contraception is a high dose combination of oral contraceptives that if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can safely prevent a pregnancy from occurring. Do you support efforts to increase access to emergency contraception? YES

I can go on and on about Romney.

Hand the Shovel to Joe & the Maverick

Joe Scarborough repeats McCain campaign talking points about how the momentum has turned. Keith Olbermann tells Scarborough to get a shovel. Olbermann asked Scarborough if the McCain campaign can back up their rhetoric. John McCain numbers dropped in the USA Today poll amongst likely voters.

Obama holds a 47%-43% edge over McCain among registered voters and a 48%-45% edge among likely voters. Both leads are within the margin of error of +/—4 percentage points.

In the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll a month ago, Obama led McCain by 3 percentage points, but McCain held a 4-point lead among likely voters.

On a certain level, McCain's negative attacks have worked to cast doubt in Obama. McCain's problem is he is a horrible candidate. McCain volunteered wife Cindy for a biker rally pageant. No word on how Cindy McCan felt about the possibility of posing topless or using a banana as a sex toy. Needless, to say, this set off the Christian Right's Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell.

"Well, I don't know a lot about John McCain's family history, I do know, however, that as recently as last week I think it was, the Senator made a comment in South Dakota regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest which is this topless deal and if she were to enter she would probably win it and my personal opinion and based on my understanding of the Christian faith, that's not not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make," said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell. "I don't know if that is a perfect case in point, but it surely does help to juxtapose the DNA of Senator Obama, if you would, versus the DNA of Senator McCain."

Caldwell went on to endorse Barack Obama, in a conference call with reporters. Caldwell is the Pastor to President Bush. Caldwell presided over Jenna Bush's recent marriage. The McCain campaign made a hysterical response to Caldwell's diss.

These people are Obama campaign surrogates. These kinds of personal attacks are disgraceful. This absolutely exposes the hypocrisy of Obama's claim to represent a 'new kind of politics.'

So, now a noted Christian conservative and President Bush's spiritual advisor is a Democrat. The McCain campaign won't answer questions about the Maverick's faith or sexist comments. It is easier for them to accuse all the people that disagree with being evil liberals.

Pit Bull In A China Shop

Meanwhile, in the radiation filled fields of Rocky Flats Arsenal, just outside of Denver, Colorado, The Ghost of Herman Melville is paying a visit to Billy "Bud" Wilson, an unemployed insurance adjuster...



Ah, Billy, I remember hitchhiking up Highway 287 with Jack Kerouac and a bottle of Bushmills whiskey. Stole pies off of windowsills in Lafayette...and that coal miner's daughter, Have Mercy Miss Percy! Good times,good times! But listen, I need you to do something for me...











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Extra Credit

A question of credit for Barack ObaMNBA.....
















Buddy, can you spare...















......A dime?







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Q and A with John McCain

Senator McCain, how many diferent kinds of marshmallows are there in a box of Lucky Charms?











Back when I was a POW, there used to be 4...Pink hearts, yellow moons, green clovers, and the stars...what color were those stars? And then they added those blue diamonds, sometime after I was a POW. I'm not sure how many they got now, I'd have to consult with my staff.






And how many houses do you own?








Back when I was a POW, I resolved to live in one house, The House Of God! My God is an Awesome God, Jack!







How many eggs are there in a three egg omelette?







Omelette? What is that, FRENCH? I didn't eat eggs back in the POW camp, I ate cold fishbone soup and rice with an aluminum spoon that I fashioned out of a rusty soda pop can.






How many minutes do you boil a three minute egg?







You know, I REALLY don't like talking about being a POW, but you keep bringing it up. We didn't have eggs in the POW camp. On a lucky day, the cold fishbone soup might have a small piece of cabbage floating in it.






How many pills does Rush Limbaugh swallow per hour?






I was in alot of pain in the POW camp after they tortured me, and we didn't have Oxy-Contin in the POW camp. But that's a trick question ,Jack. You thought you could trip up an old POW with one of your fancy "Russert Gotcha's", didn't ya? Rush doesn't swallow his pills, he crushes them up and snorts them.

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly, Before they're forever banned?







If the Commie Bastards couldn't torture that answer out of me in the POW Camp, I'm sure as hell not giving it up to you!







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Fickle McCain-icane Fay

So, TRex and I were talking on the phone this afternoon.

Me: Did you see the track this hurricane has been following? It goes one way, then quickly changes its mind and goes in the other direction. It's a McHurry-cain.

T: A McCain-icane!

Me: Exactly. A McCain-icane. It flip-flops...

T: It's making sure it covers every single part of the state of Florida...

Me: ...while leaving a mess for others to clean up.

T: Yeah.

Me: It's full of hot air and spin...it developed from depression into disaster...it was bad news for schools everywhere and pissed off teachers and parents alike...it came with a huge cone of uncertainty...for a while, it looked as though it was going to pick up speed, but then it fizzled out.

T: I think the McCain-icane is over.

Also at litbrit.

Harold and Kumar

Diggity Dank Donuts for all my friends!




They yanked that one from the screens in a big hurry. Anybody see it?


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A bowl of Holy Water

"I've been a Georgian ever since I was a POW in Vietnam. We're all Georgians now. Even the font I speak in is Georgian."






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