From the blog "Margaret and Helen:"
My name is Helen Philpot. I am 82 years old. My grandson taught me how to do this so that I could “blog” with my best friend Margaret Schmechtman who I met in college almost 60 years ago. I have three children with my husband Harold. Margaret has three dogs with her husband Howard. I live in Texas and Margaret lives in Maine.
Check it out!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Heartwarming Picture!
From Andrew Sullivan:
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama supporters stand in the cold during a rally at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, October 28, 2008. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty. McCain canceled his Pennsylvania rally because of the weather.
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama supporters stand in the cold during a rally at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, October 28, 2008. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty. McCain canceled his Pennsylvania rally because of the weather.
Fox's Shepard Smith Disavows Joe the Plumber
From the Huffington Post:
So, Joe The Plumber was out on the trail with John McCain today, apparently giving the thumbs up to someone in the crowd who felt that an Obama Presidency would bring about the end of Israel. From Raw Story:
So, Joe The Plumber was out on the trail with John McCain today, apparently giving the thumbs up to someone in the crowd who felt that an Obama Presidency would bring about the end of Israel. From Raw Story:
The Ohio plumber, who has no license and is actually named Samuel Wurzelbacher, spoke at a McCain campaign event in Columbus Monday. A McCain supporter asked if "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." JTP hardly batted an eye.
"I'll go ahead and agree with you on that," Wurzelbacher said.
Anyway, five minutes with Joe The Plumber had Shepard Smith so frustrated that the Fox anchor felt compelled to issue a disclaimer, immediately following the segment, pushing back on any notion that Obama would mean the "death of Israel," saying: "I just want to make this 100 percent perfectly clear -- Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States, no matter what happens once he becomes President of the United States. His words." Smith later added, "The rest of it -- man...some things -- it just gets frightening sometimes. We'll be right back." I haven't seen Shep this broken up about the state of the world since Katrina.
More Palin Love (Not so Much!) From the McCain Campaign
From Politico's Mike Allen's Playbook Blog:
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”
Priceless!
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”
Priceless!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wouldn't it be Swell! (HT Pam)
Dear Red States:
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. It may even include Florida and Ohio, they are seriously considering it. We've given them until Nov. 4th to decide. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country. Since we're dropping the middle states we're calling it United America, or simply the U.A.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. You can take Ted Nugent. We're keeping Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. You get WorldCom and whatever lessons can be gathered from the crater of Enron. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get Ole' Miss. We get Harvard and 85 per cent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms, and the highest concentration of pregnant unwed teenagers. Please be aware that the U.A. will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, really we do, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
We'd rather spend it on taking care of sick people, and educating our children.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy Redies believe you are people with higher morals then we Bluies..
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
The Tubes Are in Mourning!
Ted Stevens found guilty! Claims he's innocent! Still running for Senate!
Hagel calls a Palin a Palin
From a lengthy article about Senator Chuck Hagel:
Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told me. “The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.” He scoffed at McCain’s attempts to portray her as an experienced politician. “To try to make the excuse that she looks out her window and sees Russia—and that she’s commander of the Alaska National Guard.” He added, “There is no question that this candidate is arguably the thinnest-résumé candidate for Vice-President in the history of America.”
Ouch!
Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told me. “The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.” He scoffed at McCain’s attempts to portray her as an experienced politician. “To try to make the excuse that she looks out her window and sees Russia—and that she’s commander of the Alaska National Guard.” He added, “There is no question that this candidate is arguably the thinnest-résumé candidate for Vice-President in the history of America.”
Ouch!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
McCain and the Economy
Mark McKinnon, McCain's communications director during the primaries, wrote the following in The Daily Beast:
If not for a major economic event that interceded a few weeks ago (for which a strong majority of voters blame Republicans), this race might still be competitive. It isn’t Steve Schmidt’s fault. It’s the economy, stupid.
Josh Marshall from TPM thinks otherwise:
....I thought most observers were overstating the degree to which an economic crisis automatically advantaged the Democrat. To some degree, sure, especially in the dying days of an unpopular Republican incumbent. But remember, McCain's sell in this campaign was steadiness, experience, unflappability in a crisis. If he'd convinced voters that that was what he brought to the table, I do not believe the damage he sustained by the economic crisis would have been nearly so great. I continue to think that McCain's reaction to the economic crisis was the turning point in the election.
If not for a major economic event that interceded a few weeks ago (for which a strong majority of voters blame Republicans), this race might still be competitive. It isn’t Steve Schmidt’s fault. It’s the economy, stupid.
Josh Marshall from TPM thinks otherwise:
....I thought most observers were overstating the degree to which an economic crisis automatically advantaged the Democrat. To some degree, sure, especially in the dying days of an unpopular Republican incumbent. But remember, McCain's sell in this campaign was steadiness, experience, unflappability in a crisis. If he'd convinced voters that that was what he brought to the table, I do not believe the damage he sustained by the economic crisis would have been nearly so great. I continue to think that McCain's reaction to the economic crisis was the turning point in the election.
Alexander Cockburn On Obiden & McPalin
The whole article, found here is excellent, as usual. However, it is not safe reading for doctrinaire Democrats. Money graph:
Biden’s lucky in having an opponent for the vice presidential slot who’s now drawing about 95 per cent of the press coverage for the entire campaign. There’s no space for nasty questions about his very special relationship to MBNA, the largest independent credit card company in the world, or for the immense favors he did for the credit card industry as a whole with the bankruptcy bill that even Bill Clinton vetoed before Bush finally signed it. But did anything ever so clearly indicate the truly incredible stupidity of McCain’s team of strategists, handlers and consultants than the disaster the Palin candidacy has become?
Biden’s lucky in having an opponent for the vice presidential slot who’s now drawing about 95 per cent of the press coverage for the entire campaign. There’s no space for nasty questions about his very special relationship to MBNA, the largest independent credit card company in the world, or for the immense favors he did for the credit card industry as a whole with the bankruptcy bill that even Bill Clinton vetoed before Bush finally signed it. But did anything ever so clearly indicate the truly incredible stupidity of McCain’s team of strategists, handlers and consultants than the disaster the Palin candidacy has become?
Tom Harkin Spanks His Opponent
After a contentious Iowa debate in which Republican Senate candidate Christopher Reed called Senator Tom Harkin "Tokyo Rose" and "anti-American" and accused him of giving "aid and comfort to the enemy," Harkin did the following:
After the cameras were turned off, Harkin calmly told Reed: “You’re a nice young man and I thought you had a political future ahead of you but that just ended your political career right there” and walked away. Reed said nothing.
That's gonna leave a mark! You can read more here.
After the cameras were turned off, Harkin calmly told Reed: “You’re a nice young man and I thought you had a political future ahead of you but that just ended your political career right there” and walked away. Reed said nothing.
That's gonna leave a mark! You can read more here.
David Frum Takes McCain to the Woodshed
Read it here. For those of you unfamiliar with David Frum, he's the guy that coined the immortal words "Axis of Evil" for Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech. Of course, he's full of cr*p regarding "angry liberals" stiffling dissent (and a lot of other things), but it's interesting nevertheless. Money graph:
Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there's a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.
Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there's a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.
Sunday Afternoon Limerick Blogging
I made this one up myself:
There once was a girl from Wasilla
At Obama she'd lob verbal missilla
McCain was too stupid to vet her
And things for Dems have never looked better
Now she's a Republican electoral prospect killa
There once was a girl from Wasilla
At Obama she'd lob verbal missilla
McCain was too stupid to vet her
And things for Dems have never looked better
Now she's a Republican electoral prospect killa
Tina Brown on the Torrent of Republican Endorsements of Obama w/Some Thoughts About Palin Thrown In
Good stuff. 1st graph:
If one more Republican grandee or neoconservative bigwig endorses Obama, his campaign will collapse under the weight of counterintuitive adoration. It seems it’s not enough to garner the blessing of General Colin Powell; now he’s collected the imprimatur of the neocon foreign policy hawk Ken Adelman, the guy who introduced Dick Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in. Adelman came out for Barry yesterday to George Packer on his New Yorker blog.
If one more Republican grandee or neoconservative bigwig endorses Obama, his campaign will collapse under the weight of counterintuitive adoration. It seems it’s not enough to garner the blessing of General Colin Powell; now he’s collected the imprimatur of the neocon foreign policy hawk Ken Adelman, the guy who introduced Dick Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in. Adelman came out for Barry yesterday to George Packer on his New Yorker blog.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Get Thee Some Pearls Here!
How about some Saturday Night pearl blogging? We love ourselves some fancy yet well-priced Tahitian pearls. They are pretty because they come in all sorts of pretty colors, like green, aubergine, pistachio, yellow, blue, white, and yes, even gray! Sarah Palin would love herself some Tahitian pearls, but she'd never get them from our site because she likes paying retail.
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