We received our ballots in the mail over a week ago but I still haven’t opened mine. The primary reason for this is that I’m not sure how to vote for the U.S. Senate race between Gordon Smith and Jeff Merkley. I’m not a huge fan of Smith (and I seem to remember some pretty nasty campaign tactics when he ran against Ron Wyden in his first Senate race) but I have a huge respect for his early opposition to the Iraq War. Oregon Senators have been centrists as long as I have lived here and most consider Smith to fit that description. I don’t know much about Merkley other than the first Senate debate I watched between him and Smith. Merkley came across as a hack Democrat who fits all the liberal stereotypes and is riding on the coattails of Barack Obama. From what I understand, both have waged an incredibly negative television campaign but I have been spared from that by the grace of Tivo.
Voting Will Make You Big and Strong
First Time Writing With A Mirror?
Â
In case you don’t recognize this young woman, her name is Ashley Todd and she works for the John McCain campaign. A few days ago she reported being robbed and molested by a black man who, once he deduced that she worked for McCain, became enraged and carved a “B” on her face. She has since confessed to making the whole thing up and inflicting the damage herself. Obviously, she would have gotten away with it if she had just carved an “O”.
Keith Olbermann castigates John McCain and his campaign
David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Snub
Dave’s point about having Palin continue the campaign is a good one. Of course, they are too scared to put her in front of the press.
The Democratic establishment are cowards
The New York Times reports that once again, despite previous assurances that they would not, the Democrats in Congress have caved in under threat of veto from President Bush. When the American people elected a Democratic majority to both the House and Senate in 2006 it was assumed by most that the Democrats would end the war. A few weeks ago I watched Nancy Pelosi on one of the Sunday talk shows. The interviewer asked her why Congress had not acted to end the war during the last two years and her response was this:Â The President will veto it and the Democrats don’t have enough votes to override.
Republicans on Sarah Palin
What is “The Surge”?
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has been criticizing Barack Obama this week for not supporting “the surge.” In a controversially edited interview on CBS News on Tuesday, McCain took Obama to task for saying that the so-called Anbar Awakening should be credited for helping to decrease violence in Iraq over the last 18 months. According to McCain “the surge” was responsible for the Anbar Awakening:
I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.
Unfortunately, as critics would later point out, McCain chose exactly the wrong time to invoke the word “history.” The awakening began in late 2006, at least three months before President Bush went to Congress and the American people in January of 2007 to announce a new strategy in Iraq. This strategy had a working title of “A New Way Forward” but became generally known in the press and with the American people as “The Surge.” Given that it wasn’t announced, much yet implemented when the awakening began, McCain is horrendously wrong, right?
Fun with Wordle
According to their description, “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide.” Also called a “tag cloud“, a word cloud summarizes the frequency with which certain words in a blob of text appear. Words that appear more often, are displayed larger while words that appear less often are smaller. Unlike the tag cloud for this blog (which appears in left sidebar), Wordle’s clouds are adorable. Their cloud editor is very easy to use and lets you change many aspects of the cloud. I used it to analyze the recent editorials that the Presidential candidates submitted to the New York Times about future Iraq policy.
Barack Obama on Father’s Day
Yes, it’s long but even if you watch just a few minutes, it is quite enjoyable.