I've come to the conclusion that you actually want shifty, dishonest politicians elected by an apathetic populace. This means that things are working.

If McCain's VP pick were just as boring as Obama's I might not care at all about this election, but Palin is an existential threat that demands an awakening from apathy. I don't know whats more fearsome, the fact that she was selected, or the fact that the American people have bought it and she has given McCain a huge boost in the polls. I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. Whether its the open attacks on ancient principals such as Habeas Corpus or the fact that we are in the midst of a nearly unprecedented economic cataclysm one cannot escape the conclusion that the people in charge have absolutely no idea what the fuck they are doing and that the people who do know what ought to be done have been totally marginalized by our corruption. Palin personifies all of this. She is the slick corporate VP who is all image and no substance, and they love that about her because they have convinced themselves that if they do away with substance it will free them from the problems that substantial people attempt to address. This is the road to despotism. This is the fevered dream of theocracy. This is America.

RE: Quote of the day

"You can't just make stuff up... The American people aren't stupid," Obama said.

Sigh, maybe he isn't qualified to be President after all...

Quote of the day

It was in St. Paul last week that Palin drew raucous cheers when she delivered this put-down of Obama: "Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights."

But Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for more than a decade, said captured suspects deserve to file writs of habeus corpus.

Calling it "the foundation of Anglo-American law," he said the principle "says very simply: If the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask, 'Why was I grabbed?' And say, 'Maybe you've got the wrong person.'"

"The reason that you have this principle is not to be soft on terrorism. It's because that's who we are. That's what we're protecting,"

Obama to Palin: 'Don't Mock the Constitution' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

If you think it's unlikely that we will all be sucked into a giant black hole that will swallow the world, as German chemistry professor Otto Rössler of the University of Tübingen posits, and so carry on with your life as normal, only to find out that it's true, you'll be a bit miffed, won't you?

If, on the other hand, you disagree with theoretical physicist Prof Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, who argues that fears of possible global self-ingestion have been exaggerated, and decide to live the next two days as if they were your last, and then nothing whatsoever happens, you'd feel a bit of a fool too.

Lets party like its 1999!

The question: Will the world end on Wednesday when the Large Hadron Collider is switched on? | Science | The Guardian

The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the GOP all year.

McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

They bought it.

Poll: Convention lifts McCain over Obama - USATODAY.com

The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law.

Best of luck to a member of our little debate club who is actually doing something about his convictions rather than just talking about them.

Mike for Missouri 15

noteworthy wrote:
This is cute, and nicely packaged, but hardly revelatory. We're talking about Karl Rove here.

A selection from the archive:

I wonder, when was the last time a talk show changed a mind?

When I see well educated libertarians literally falling over backwards to find some angle to proclaim Palin, a very conservative christian, as one of theirs, I have to say, it hardly seems worth talking about politics. Objective discussion about policy cannot be fruitful if people cannot accept reality as a starting point and the greatest weakness of human beings is our ability to deceive ourselves when we want something to be true.

RE: Daily Show on Republican hypocrisy - Boing Boing

Joe Biden is not a "moderate" when it comes to crime issues. His hard-line authoritarian record speaks for itself, runs out of breath, and then speaks for itself some more....

I can only assume this profound mischaracterization of Biden's record was arrived at through the tired assumption that democrats are "soft" on crime, republicans are "tough," and therefore "moderates" are democrats who support harsh laws. Joe Biden is exactly the reason such stereotypes should be avoided by responsible journalists.

Perhaps they felt he'd appeal to Clinton supporters.

Biden is a 'Moderate' on Crime Issues? | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

Biden was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and introduced the Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Act in the 90s, requiring carriers of encrypted communications to turn the keys over to law enforcement, according to McCullagh.

Biden's bill spurred Philip Zimmerman to invent the PGP algorithm and publish it for free, McCullagh notes.

The Comprehensive Counter-Terrroism act was defeated, but Biden followed up with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement (ACT), which became law in 1994, says McCullagh.

In his favor, he did speak out against the Communications Decency Act.

Biden supported Manditory Goverment Key Escrow and CALEA

The bill was sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden

You can read MemeStreams discussions about this bill here and here. When a politician writes up a paranoid, funhouse mirror description of a widespread youth counterculture and attaches to it to a bill intended to target and shut down that culture, well, those youth ought to remind him of that when he desires their vote for political office.

RAVE Act was Biden's idea