GYWO

Finally, the important issues emerge

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Pie!

Interlude: Suzanne Vega

Frank and Ava

146 years ago today

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Ready on Day One

This went live less than 36 hours after the election results were announced. Impressive.

GYWO: New World Order

  Submit to your new Marxist Overlords and Our new Maximum Overlord Super-Black Superman (sometimes appearing in his guise as mild-manner public servant Clark Dark):

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

GYWO: Pre-election chaos!

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Fairness doctrine

  What Atrios says.

  I don't know if this is some sort of straw man for the conservative chattering class, or perhaps this is analogous to the "War on Christmas" which never really existed.

  In any event the obsessive focus on the issue by the Right is a little weird.

  Or, echoing Atrios--"silly" or "stupid".

Let's do the time warp

Daily Kos, 2005:

John Roberts had just been confirmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Senator Obama, who had voted against the nomination, stepped up to defend his Senate colleagues who had voted for Roberts from what could be described as an angry mob of Kossacks. A quote:

My dear friend Paul Simon used to consistently win the votes of much more conservative voters in Southern Illinois because he had mastered the art of "disagreeing without being disagreeable," and they trusted him to tell the truth. Similarly, one of Paul Wellstone's greatest strengths was his ability to deliver a scathing rebuke of the Republicans without ever losing his sense of humor and affability. In fact, I would argue that the most powerful voices of change in the country, from Lincoln to King, have been those who can speak with the utmost conviction about the great issues of the day without ever belittling those who opposed them, and without denying the limits of their own perspectives.

Tom Tomorrow

Lots of folks have wisdom to share about the election: Cartoonist Dan Perkins is wiser than most. A snippet:

After eight years of an administration whose actions have run the gamut from stupid to venal, we will have a rational president who believes in things like, say, science. Who can string a succession of words together into a coherent sentence.

Read the whole thing.

Quote of the day

President-elect Barack Obama at his first press conference since the election was asked an obvious softball question about what kind of puppy his daughters were going to get. After a brief tongue-in-cheek discussion about the choice, he suggested they would like to choose a shelter rescue dog, although most shelter dogs were "mutts like me."

"Mutts like me".

To quote Josh at TPM--"a line for the ages".

Poll accuracy

If you're wondering which polls were the most accurate, a good summary is here.

Adventures in Wingnuttery

Keeping up with the wild assertions that have been ginned up to attack Obama is a real challenge, particularly as the election draws near and the desperation level intensifies. A brief, but hardly all-inclusive, summary:

• He was born in Kenya, not the United States.
• His father is not Barack Obama Sr, but 1960s radical Frank Marshall Davis.
• His father is Malcolm X.
• His college education was funded by Islamic terrorists.
• He was educated in an Islamic madrassa, where he learned to Hate America etc etc.
• He is a Muslim. He is STILL a Muslim 'cause Muslims say he is and we know they don't allow take-backs, so there.
• He gave up his US citizenship when he moved to Indonesia as a child.
• His wife made a bitter, hate-filled speech lashing out at "whitey". A videotape exists but is being suppressed.
• His wife gave a bitter, hate-filled radio interview lashing out at "white racists". An audiotape exists but is being suppressed.
• He is a Socialist.
• He is a Marxist.
• He is a Communist.
• He is the Antichrist.
• His wife was jealous of a possible relationship with a campaign volunteer and forced him to send her to a Caribbean Island.
• He'll "turn over the country to the blacks".

OK, that last one is, in fact, true. You found us out. We're going to have a Blackazoid-created wonderland of awesome negrosity.

"Negrosity" quote h/t Pandagon

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

UPDATED: With fresh new wingnuttisms:

• Baby killer!
• He'll take away all our guns!
• He'll tax all our guns and ammo before he takes 'em away.
• He'll declare martial law.

Senate Predictions

NC: Kay Hagan (D) replaces Liddy Dole (R).

Hagan had a slight but steady lead until Dole began running her "Godless" ad. Oops. Hagan surged by 3 points overnight.

GA: Saxby Chambliss (R) defeats Jim Martin (D)

While it would be sweet justice to see Chambliss beaten, I fear Jim Martin just didn't have enough in the tank. A shame--Martin is a man who would serve Georgia well.

KY: McConnell (R) defeats Lunsford (D)

This would have been a HUGE pick up, but McConnell has a solid machine in a very red state.

AK: Begich (D) replaces Stevens (R)

Begich was up 2 points when Senator Ted "The internet is a series of tubes" Stevens was convicted on 7 counts of lying, etc. Ted goes down the tubes, Mr. Begich goes to Washington.

LA: Landrieu (D) defeats Kennedy (R)

The Republicans best hope for a take-away this cycle falls short.

The Rest: Democrats all-- John Warner cruises to an easy win in VA; CO and NM each send cousins named Udall to DC; Max Baucus wins in MT, and Al Franken pulls off the win in MN.

Final Senate tally: Democrats 56, Republicans 43, Independent 1.

The Republicans will get one back right away when Joe Lieberman gets kicked out of the party.

Sarah Palin's medical records

Still not released.

She had promised to do so, and when asked about it again confirmed that she would release them.

Still waiting.

I do not subscribe to the tin-foil hat theory about the baby actually belonging to her teenage daughter: That's preposterous and counterproductive.

However: She was in Dallas, TX to give a speech when she began to feel unusual pains and began to leak amniotic fluid. She chose to stay in Texas, give the speech, then get on a plane and fly from Dallas to Anchorage, with a stop in Seattle.

All of this with the knowledge that she was carrying a special-needs child.

Texas is home to one of the finest neonatal ICU centers on the planet. Instead, she got on a freakin' plane and flew to Alaska.

Perhaps there is some comment in the records which might reveal that decision for exactly what is was---foolhardy at best.

Original story from last spring in the Anchorage Daily News.

Interlude: Suzanne Vega

Palin Pranked

Uh-oh: A Quebecois radio show gets through to Gov Palin pretending to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

(h/t Daily Kos)