Shorter Reuters & Wingnut Pieces*

Shorter Bob Tourtellotte, Reuters Entertainment writer:
Even though Dakota Fanning never played a role in wasn't alive during the 1960s Civil Rights movement, Barry Obama might want to thank her because she plays a fictitious character who is based on real people who opened the door for Mr. Obama to run for President.

And -

Shorter Ed Whelan, former Judge Scalia clerk:
Young women inherently have an impulse to abort their unwanted fetuses. But they will only do so if abortion is legal. Obama should realize how lucky he is to have been born in 1960, because if abortion were legal then, he would most certainly have been terminated. Obama supporters should be careful in their efforts to protect abortion rights, since they now favor racially mixed, former unwanted fetuses to become president.

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* ‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard.
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Be Skeered...Be Very Skeered

Paster Swank:

Left-of-left B. Hussein, as far as knowledgeable Republicans are concerned, must conclude to be quite “scared” if B. Hussein lands in the Oval Office.

Muslims will follow him there.

Jeremiah Wright will follow him there.

All liberals—both theological and political—will follow him there.

A Dem-controlled Congress will follow him there.

Pro-abortionists and pro-homosexual “marriages” will follow him there.

Those intent on overthrowing America’s biblical
heritage will follow him there.

Is that not reason to be quite scared?


And -
And if McCain continues to stroke B. Hussein, he could just be handing the election over to the mask Muslim. [sic]

See You In February


What a way to end a season. Three straight losses in Fenway. The Boston Massacre III (or is it IV?).

A curve ball to Carlos Peña on a 0-2 count?

Varitek is officially terrible behind the plate. I do hope he is sent to the Nationals.

Their offense was dead. Ortiz, Lowell, and Ellsbury were unable to produce anything. They had to rely on 4 batters out of 9 to get anything on the board.

Their bullpen was weak. Masterson was actually good, but he was relied upon too much when the Sox needed 1 or 2 more reliable middle relievers. Javier Lopez is not a strong lefty and we know what happened with him. Manny Delcarmen still has promise, but not this year. Hideki Okajima no longer fools anyone with his left arm. And there was no one else used in the pen, right?

And they totally blew Game 2. Or to be more specific, they blew Game 2 when Francona put Josh Beckett on the mound of the bottom of the 5th inning with a fragile, yet hard-earned 2-run lead.

And so they had their asses kicked royally by the Devil Rays in games 3-5. I have not seen a team hit so many home runs against the contemporary (Henry-Epstein) Red Sox in a postseason series. There have been 11 home runs and counting in these three final games at Fenway.

Eleven.

Winter is here. Enjoy it. See you in Fort Myers, Sox.

And no, I do not want the Phillies to win the World Series. Being a mild Mets supporter, and not liking most Philly fans, I can't root for them. So us Mets fans should hope Tampa can take them the way they dismantled the White Sox and Red Sox.

Ugh.

Ah, what the hell

Cablevision is going crazy tonight and I can only get a handful of channels1, so I got bored and decided that I may as well introduce myself to the blog. I haven't put much thought into what my introductory post should be, so here's some quick thoughts that have struck me in the last few days:

  • Last night I paid less than $40 for a full tank of gas2. I paid nearly $60 for the same tank earlier this summer. I never thought I'd be writing about gas prices, but it's a pretty remarkable drop. Who says the financial crisis is so bad?
  • Well, the guys I play hockey with seem to be pretty sure the crisis is bad. Most of them work in banks or hedge funds. Talk of new cars and vacations is way down, and a lot are working their asses off now. Maybe to justify keeping their jobs?
  • Sprint lost another customer this week when I switched to the iPhone. wretched.tiger is tres jealous, though she did an admirable job trying to hide it.
  • Should I be referring to the other authors of this blog?
  • Did wretched.tiger ever write here, anyway?

Since I've just decided that I will refer to the other authors, I'll note that my next post will be my own prognostication of the electoral college this year, and I'll compare it with Dhalgren's.

1 including PBS, interestingly advertising "ancient tantric dances" at the RMA... hmm....
2 about 12.5 gallons at $3.19/gallon

  • Oh, one other thing: Dogfish Head's "Palo Santo Marron" is delicious. I need to get down to Rehoboth Beach sometime.

Dhalgren Makes His Picks

It's 20 days to go before the election. Time to make my state-by-state picks. These are amateur, armchair picks based on the numbers from major intrastate polls as of Tuesday, October 14th. But seeing the trends and seeing how much money Barry is spending on advertising in swing states has led me to make these calls now. I'll come back and see what my win percentage is in November.

Let's start with the 'known knowns'. These are the states that John McCain and Sarah Palin will win:

State (Electoral Votes)
Alaska (5)
Idaho (4)
Montana (4)
Wyoming (3)
Utah (5)
Arizona (10)
South Dakota (3)
Nebraska (5)
Kansas (6)
Oklahoma (7)
Texas (34)
Arkansas (6)
Louisiana (9)
Kentucky (8)
Tennessee (11)
Mississippi (6)
Alabama (9)
South Carolina (8)

McCain Electoral Vote Subtotal: 143

Here are the states Barack Obama and Joe Biden will win:

State (Electoral Votes)
Hawaii (4)
Washington (11)
Oregon (7)
California (55)
Minnesota (10)
Wisconsin (10)
Illinois (21)
Michigan (17)
DC (3)
Maryland (10)
Delaware (3)
New Jersey (15)
New York (31)
Maine (4)
Vermont (3)
Massachusetts (12)
Rhode Island (4)
Connecticut (7)

Obama Electoral Vote Subtotal: 227

Now for the 'known unknowns'. These are states where the polls have tightened in recent days. These will either embarrass me or put me over the top. Here are my picks.

State (Electroral Votes) & Dhalgren’s Pick
New Mexico (5) - Obama
Colorado (9) - Obama
Nevada (5) - Obama
North Dakota (3) - McCain
Missouri (11) - Obama
Georgia (15) - McCain
North Carolina (15) - Obama
Ohio (20) - McCain
Indiana (11) - McCain
Iowa (7) - Obama
Florida (27) - Obama
West Virginia (5) - Obama
Virginia (13) - Obama
Pennsylvania (21) - Obama
New Hampshire (4) - Obama

Grand totals:
Obama 348
McCain 192

Ok, I just predicted an Obama landslide, and that wasn't my intent here. I'm no trash talker or Joe Namath. But looking at the poll numbers, that's what it looks like.

I predict between 63 and 65 Million votes for Barack Obama, considering George W. Bush set a contemporary record of 62M in 2004. I think Obama will top that record.

Or put it this way, if you are throwing an election night party for Obama, you can pop the champagne once McCain loses Florida, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. He needs all three of those states to win, because Obama is poised to take several 'red' states from 2004. I predict McCain will win Ohio. So it won't be a short party. We should know who won the election around the stroke of midnight.

UPDATE: Chris Weigant at Huffington Post has made his picks. He's more conservative with his numbers. But interestingly, he draws almost the same conclusion regarding election night. He says that if Obama wins Florida and Virginia, then you can pop the cork well before midnight.

I Know The Feeling

mrcleanwell at Sons of Sam Horn:

fuck my life. im on the 23 floor of the dubois library and the fire alarm is going off...tonight fucking sucks cock
Well, to be specific, I don't know the feeling of watching the Sox collapse in the playoffs while in the U Mass library. Back in 1991, the Sox were at the bottom of the AL East, along with the Yankees (1991 was the worst season for the Yankees in the post-Ruth era). We had Digital UNIX terminals on the 23rd floor, and message boards. So some shit doesn't change. But I know the feeling. But this is not 1986 or 2003. This is not so bad. And there will be improvements next year...

Win Number Four

The Sox were victorious again.

But I have a question.

Will the Boston sports media have the courage to ask Terry Francona what was he thinking when he had Daisuke Matsuzaka start the 8th inning? That nearly cost Boston the game. Of course, it led to a very satisfying double play, coerced by Justin Masterson, who totally redeemed himself for the hits he gave-up in the ALDS.

Dice-K was phenomenal. He was slow to warm-up. He threw well over 30 pitches in the first inning, walking three before getting out his own jam. But once he got his gyroball and cutter working, and started painting the corners, he built himself the best outing of his MLB career. Just look at his line:

7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 0.00 ERA

Stellar! The best start of his career. He has never recorded 7 strikeouts in a game. That was vintage Pedro Martinez territory (but Pedro would have gotten 9 or 10 K's and 3 fewer walks - OK, maybe not vintage Pedro).

And that scary bottom of the 8th was preceded by an equally exciting top half. The 8th was an inning that nearly went down in Red Sox postseason infamy - except Jason Bay got hit by the first pitch he saw. I am convinced the Sox would have scored more than 1 run in that inning if Bay had strikes to swing at. The Rays did the right thing by giving him 1st base. And then the game was saved in the bottom half of the inning. Dice-K put two runners on. Okajima got Carlos Pena to fly out to JD Drew. And then Masterson was wisely brought in to get the DP. It was heart-stopping awesome. But did it have to be like that? Was Francona testing us? Was he toying with the Rays? Was he testing Matsuzaka? Or was he doing what I sometimes do when I play MLB Power Pros when I have lead - try to stretch my starter through the 7th or 8th inning?

But that second run was precious. And it was delivered by a clutch hit by Jason Youkilis. He and Jason Bay are the clutch hitters in that lineup. Lowrie, Drew, and Pedroia are not far behind.

So the bullpen is still rested and ready. Josh Beckett is ready for what could be an awesome outing. And the Red Sox defense is looking very good.

The batting order is the weakest the Sox have had in the postseason since 2003. Varitek is great behind the plate, but useless with a bat. Ortiz is out of shape and his timing is off. It will be up to the kids and the new guy, Jason Bay to generate more runs in Game 2.

But there always a snag. The Rays have their ace, Scott Kasmir starting the game. Kasmir has always driven the Sox nuts. He has started 21 games against the Sox, and has pitched 119 1/3 innings. In those innings, he has an ERA of 3.62, and keep in mind that was mostly against better Sox lineups.

Game 2 is going to be frustrating. The Sox are going to have to find a way to break through like they did last night. I don't expect the Sox to get a hit until the 3rd or 4th inning. Kasmir will be letting his left arm do the talking at least once through the Sox batting order. I think Francona needs to use pinch hitters more. It's time for more National League style offense. My two cents.

At least Crisp is back in the lineup tonight. But moving Varitek up in the order is insane. I am not in favor of rewarding failure, especially when Varitek is a fool for proclaiming that he should never be replaced by a pinch hitter. He's actually a very good pinch hitter. So pinch hit this, 'My Captain'. I would put Crisp at #8 and Varitek at #9. Again, I'm nobody.

Terry obviously doesn't need input from the fans, since he was the luckiest SOB in sports last night. Lets hope he doesn't need luck to win Game 2.

ALCS Game 1
Red Sox 2, Devil Rays 0






















































When Celebrity News Loses Its Appeal

Angelina Jolie: "Obama Would Be Great For My Family"

There's just one problem. I don't give a rat's dick about her 'family.'

I doubt many people do. Never in my wildest fantasies did I want a picture of Jolie breastfeeding on the cover of W magazine. And today, word came that it has been published.

But back to Jolie's ludicrous comment that Obama will somehow be great for her family. Does she mean that Pax, Maddox, and Zahara are going to benefit from seeing a non-white president? Really? Living sheltered lives, flying around the world, mingling with people of every color, and perhaps even meeting the president someday are going to benefit those kids a great deal. But it doesn't matter worth a damn who is in the White House as far as these kids are concerned. Barring any drug overdoses or accidents, these kids got it made.

The question is, will Obama stop the bleeding and limit the damage that continues to be caused by the policies of Bush, Chaney, and the Neocons? And will that help me and my girl? To hell with Angelina. She doesn't need help from any president. 'Cos she's got it all figured out.

I am very proud of being American, and all my children have got American passports.
Like, oh my god...so do I. And so does Governor Palin. Disappear after your new movie is released, please.

McCain's Town Halls Spiral Into Outbursts Of Anger And Panic


This has been the worst week ever for American capital markets. And in some respects, it has been another 'worst week ever' for John McCain. He failed to stop his poll numbers from sliding. He failed to attack Obama effectively at Tuesday night's debate. He is realizing that he is in danger of losing Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, and perhaps even Missouri. Four of those are 'red' states (from 2004). And his campaign has been forced to unleash its most viscous attacks on Obama yet. Beginning Tuesday, McCain has allowed the participants of rallies to stir and provoke the crowd into anti-Obama and anti-ACORN chants. McCain used to tell vocal members of his audience to turn their anger down a notch and show some respect. But those days are gone. And in an additional, almost unprecedented move, he has deployed Cindy McCain as a second attack dog, to supplement Sarah Palin.

Conservative and right-wing Americans have been sharing wingnut opinion articles, books, and conspiracy theories for years on the Internet. And of course, before there were right-wing blogs, there was (and still is) right-wing talk radio. But the wingnuttery has finally come to our televisions, with McCain supporters voicing their fear and anger that this country seems to be on the verge of electing a non-white man with an Arab/Swahili name to the White House.

Try to see it from their perspective. It is scary. It's bigger than the Yankees not making it to the playoffs. New Yorkers can always ignore the Yankees, stop going to the Stadium, or follow the Mets for a while. But for these active right-wingers, the election of Barack Obama would cause genuine pain and discomfort for months, and perhaps (hopefully) years. These are pissed-off people.

John Dickerson, Slate:

At a normal campaign rally, it's the candidate who tries to whip the crowd into a frenzy. At John McCain's town hall in Waukesha, Wis., Thursday, it was the other way around. "I'm mad, and I'm really mad," said one man who'd been called on to ask a question. "It's not the economy. It's the socialist taking over our country." McCain started to respond, and the man shot back sternly. "Let me finish please. When you have an Obama, Pelosi, and the rest of the hooligans up there gonna run this country, we've got to have our head examined. It's time that you two who are representing us, and we are mad."
Here's the video of that guy. He is indeed mad, and this clip has been shown on all major US cable news networks. The crowd cheered him as a hero, and you could say that he upstaged McCain.

James T. Harris, a local African-American talk-show host, stood and said, "I doubt that anyone in this room has taken, pardon me, the ass-whuppin' that I have taken for supporting you. Sir, I believe that in the next coming debate it is absolutely vital that you take it to Obama and that you hit him where it hits" [sic]. The crowd exploded. "ACORN is out there, we have Reverend Wright, all of these shady characters that surrounded him. I am begging you, sir." McCain told the man that he would take his advice—but that he also will offer a "positive plan of action" to address the financial crisis.
I don't think that crowd wants to hear about the financial crisis. Their priority is to prevent an Obama presidency. And for time, the time to play dirty is well overdue.

Jonathan Martin, Politico:

With McCain passing up the opportunity to level any tough personal shots in his first two debates and the very real prospect of an Obama presidency setting in, the sort of hard-core partisan activists who turn out for campaign events are venting in unusually personal terms.

"Terrorist!” one man screamed Monday at a New Mexico rally after McCain voiced the campaign’s new rhetorical staple aimed at raising doubts about the Illinois senator: “Who is the real Barack Obama?”

"He's a damn liar!” yelled a woman Wednesday in Pennsylvania. "Get him. He's bad for our country."

...

Such contempt for Democrats is, of course, nothing new from conservative activists. But in 2000 and 2004, the Republican rank and file was more apt to ridicule Gore as a stiff fabulist or Kerry as an effete weather vane of a politician.

“Flip-flop, flip-flop,” went the cry at Republican rallies four years ago, often with footwear to match the chant.

Now, though, the emotion on display is unadulterated anger rather than mocking.

Activists outside rallies openly talk about Obama as a terrorist, citing his name and purported ties to Islam in the fashion of the viral e-mails that have rocketed around the Internet for over a year now.

Some of this activity is finding its way into the events, too.

Which beings me back to my previous point about the opinions and soundbites of the wingnuttosphere making their way into live campaign events with the mainstream media candidate present.

And here is some if of that anger and wingnut behavior, albeit provoked by the videographer.

UPDATE: The fastest comment in the history of this tiny blog reminded me that Indiana is also in danger of falling into Obama's column. I will try to make my state-by-state predictions this weekend. I'm doing it for fun. But this election is dead serious. We have up to nine red states from 2004 that are totally in-play in 2008. In fact, New Mexico and Colorado might already be beyond John McCain's grasp. So my predictions are coming soon.

Oh, It's An Irish-Catholic Thing

This 'one'. That 'one'. Another 'one'. Chris Matthews says that it is an old Irish-Catholic thing. And I am inclined to agree. John McCain was born an Episcopalian Scots-Irish American. But he would be old enough to have picked-up on this use of the word "one."

School teacher: "You're a smart one."

Grandma (let's call her Rose): "Which one of you little devils broke my coffee mug? That one!"

John McCain:

And Mocean Worker quickly produced this great little diddy (H/T to Driftglass for finding this):

The Campain Ground War Surges

In the combined average of national polls, Real Clear Politics shows a 5-point lead for Obama.

In particular, today's Gallup national poll shows Obama with his biggest lead ever over McCain - 11 points.

It is still too early to declare the McCain campaign to be in a tailspin, but they have lost momentum just as they have unleashed their most fierce attacks. September was the month the McCain campaign was supposed to win the post-convention bump and keep it. They got the bump, but then lost it in the frenzy of our current economic crisis, and the way both candidates were perceived in recent weeks. Obama has been perceived at remaining calm, clear, and friendly. McCain has increasingly been perceived as irritated, erratic, and sometimes angry.

In previous election cycles, an angry candidate was sometimes seen as a sign of strength and would win a lot of white male votes. Geroge H.W. Bush was pretty swift in his dismissal of Michael Dukakis in 1988. His son was often snappy and angry at John Kerry in 2004 ("Tell Tony Blair we're going alone!"). But I am tempted to say that a good number of voters are better informed and watching a little closer this election cycle. It could be the result of our faster news cycle (which seems to look only 24 hours back and 24 hours forward). It could be the effect of YouTube and other Web 2.0 mediums. Or it could be that those who voted against Bush in 2004 are working harder to both promote their candidate and stay informed about the other side. The Left is hungry for a victory. We haven't won a presidential election since 1996 (or 2000, if you want to get technical, as Gore won Florida).

Meanwhile, some of our best bloggers are reporting movements both home and abroad.

Digby: They're getting their asses kicked. Time to start the 'ground game.'

Apostropher: Swift boater Jerome Corsi is seeking a Kenyan -any Kenyan- to appear in a 527 ad claiming Obama is a closeted Muslim terrorist sympathizer. But his evil plan has hit a little snag.

Win Number Three

What a game! I'm glad I recorded it. If the Sox somehow win the MLB championship this month, you can be sure that none of the games from the ALDS will be included in the DVD box set. That was a classic Fenway playoff game. It was brisk and scoreless for 4.5 innings, with great defensive plays and pitching by the Sox. Then it had almost accidental runs scored by the Sox in the bottom of the 5th, followed by more precise tying runs generated by the Angels in the top of the 8th.

Again, Hideki Okijima fooled no one. Terry Francona arguably left a reliever (Masterson) in the game too long to put the potential Angel go-ahead run on base (Willits). And the game had one of the most exciting and satisfying 9th innings I've seen in years. A small miracle saved the Sox in the top half of the inning, and some hard hitting to right field won the game as the clock struck 23:10.

And the surprise of the night? Terry Francona's bullpen management missteps were overshadowed by the enormously bad call in the 9th by Angels manager Mike Scioscia. I mean, what was that? A suicide squeeze play with one out and the game tied? With the infield in? With a guy on third and one out, the defense would expect a hit or a sacrifice fly. Was Scioscia trying to be coy by doing something that in retrospect was the riskiest way to bring the runner home?

Sure, a suicide squeeze is an option. But it requires the batter to make contact with the ball. The runner, Reggie Willits, did his part, taking-off the moment the ball left Manny Delcarmen's hand. But one of Scocia's better bunters, Erick Aybar, did not make contact. The Sox infield was in. They were ready. Jason Varitek immediately ran Reggie Willits down before he could retreat to 3rd base. Incredible!

For me, the amazing thing was that the pitiful TBS announcers were hoping for the suicide squeeze to happen, and the Sox appeared to expect it. The Sox still had to finish the game in the bottom of the 9th. But the middle of the Sox order shook Scott Shields. Jason Bay, Mark Kotsay, and Jed Lowrie all saw Shield's curveball and hit it hard to right. Bay and Lowrie scored hits, and that was the ballgame.

UPDATE: Anonymous, in the comments, adds:

In addition, the pitcher hadn't thrown a strike yet so you're bunting at a pitch out of the strike zone.. If you're going to squeeze, do a safety squeeze so the guy from third doesn't take off before the ball hits the ground.

That's what the Angels get for playing in the AL West...barely a step above AAA.

This was Little League 101 and Scocia blew it.


ALDS Game 4
Angels 2, Red Sox 3



































You Reap What You Sow, Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker is a wingnut, and frequently writes lunatic right-wing articles for Town Hall. She has spewed hatred, liberal-killing fantasies, and twisted logic for years. When she finally took an honest, objective look at Sarah Palin and concluded that she is not qualified for the chief executive branch, her readers gave her a taste of her own rage and blood lust. When a wingnut bites the hand that feeds her, we can see what goes around, comes around.