The Audacity of Dope

In the immortal words of Cam’Ron on Bill O’Reilly, “I got dirty on you doggy!!!!!”

But in all seriousness, this is rather important stuff.  For many of us, the Keating Five scandal happened when we were just children.  I certainly didn’t know anything about it at the time, and only heard vague references about it before becoming heavily interested in politics a few years ago.

In essence, the behavior and decisions McCain made during this scandal, and even today, make it painfully clear that he is not someone who should have any impact over our economy, especially during a crisis like this.  I’m not an economist, but I do firmly believe that there’s a certain level of regulation that you need.  The basic Republican tenet of deregulation has been shown time and time again that it’s not beneficial for the country.  Simply put, they are awful in all economic matters unless you’re “rich.”  May I remind you:

Even if we make every single right decision from here on out, it will take years for us to recover, let alone excel.  Obama’s plan and team of economic advisors is head and shoulders above McCain’s, which is why the Republicans have decided to throw the kitchen sink of smears at Barack.  It’ll continue to get worse, until McCain completely ruins any sort of positive legacy he has cultivated over the years.  But actually, when you look at things like the Keating Five, perhaps his reputation isn’t so sterling after all.

In case you had any trouble following along with her rambling run-on sentences last night, here’s her basic formula.  Don’t make me post the transcripts.

Shout to my dude Tom for sending this through.

Anyone who knows me in person knows that I’ve been talking about this for a while.  As a media studies major, it’s hilarious to watch how predictable the media has become, on both sides.  Every time you think it can’t get any worse, an agency like Fox News stoops to new mindblowingly low levels of journalistic integrity.  They literally write the headlines they want to see and then just report them, regardless of what actually happened.  It’s often said that “history is written by the victor,” and while that will always be true, we now have another form of manipulation blending the lines between fact and fiction.

If I can dictate what happens tomorrow, I don’t have to do anything today.  I just make it so.  Scary.

By the way, the hour of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report is by far the best thing on television.  If you’re not watching these programs on a nightly basis, you’re missing out on the smartest humor out there.  I pity the fool.

(hahahaha @ Couric’s ice grill like “you are setting us back with every word you utter”)

Wow.  Tell ’em why you mad, son.  Old white guy ether is the best.

It’s been fascinating to watch how quickly the Palin effect turned negative, and rightly so.  Regardless of what side of the policy debates you fall on, she’s clearly an awful VP candidate and was solely picked to try to throw a wrinkle into the race.  From day one, even the other Republicans were salty about this and now that the initial “OMG HE PICKED A WOMAN” buzz has died, she’s killing McCain’s campaign every time she opens her mouth.

LOL @ that answer in the Couric interview.  Paul Krugman hit it on the head: it sounded like a college freshman who showed up to class without doing any of the reading.  “Totally incoherent.”

The scariest part about all this is that McCain’s entire mantra of “Country First” was drop-kicked out the window by making this selection.  They knew the only chance they had in the election was to play the gender wildcard, and it shows how reckless a campaign he’s running.  This is a 72 year old, four time cancer survivor…and he picked THIS?  [Nappy Roots] Aw hell naw [/Nappy].

In case you haven’t heard, in light of the recent economic crisis, John McCain has decided to suspend his campaign to try to help solve the problem.  Sane people will look at this maneuver and realize it’s a fairly desperate attempt to avoid pwnage in Friday’s debate, but McCain clearly hopes that his campaign can spin it positively.  Expect to hear a million surrogates talking up the idea that “McCain is showing he’ll put his country ahead of his campaign.”  That sounds nice, but unfortunately, it’s patently false.

McCain’s inability to get any sort of grasp on economic issues (remember: this man has admitted multiple times that he doesn’t understand how the economy works) has lead to an awful performance on the campaign trail the past 2 weeks.  With the Palin bounce fading quickly, and even beginning to negatively affect the ticket, they were increasingly desperate.  The idea that if McCain returns to Washington to sit in on some meetings and provide his voice, this $700 billion bailout will be hammered through is absolutely laughable.  Whether it happens or not, it will not be because of John McCain.

So why did he insist upon suspending the campaign and ducking the first debate on Friday?  Simple: he’s getting hammered on the economy.  As I’ve blogged about before, anytime an actual important issue or policy is talked about, the Republicans lose.  That’s why they want you to worry about flag pin lapels or pigs with lipstick.  Once the economy became the main focus, McCain’s campaign went down quicker than his plane dur– no…wait…I’m better than that.  Anyway, he’s losing ground all over the place and in order to stop the hemmorraging, he pulled this stunt.  It’s akin to calling a timeout when the other team is racking up points, only in this case, you were already out of timeouts.  Shouldn’t this be a technical foul?  Where’s Chris Webber?

This is not a legitimate reason to suspend your campaign and try to postpone the beatdown you’re going to receive at the first debate.  Now, Barack handled this as professionally and stately as possible.  He knows exactly what McCain is doing and his remarks above could not have been better.  Thankfully, I’m not running for office, so I’ll say it:

For a “war hero,” where is your vaunted courage Senator McCain?  Take your beating like a man and go to the first debate on Friday.  You’re running scared, but it’s understandable.  Barack has Ali-like swag right now, and you’re about to be on the receiving end.

Smart people > dumb people.  When you continually vote for “the guy you want to have a beer with,” this is what happens.  Be a lame or be a leader.  Which side are you on?

Swiped from Jay Smooth.

In case you need more information after part one, check out the video above.

Here are some key elements of Barack’s plan:

• A $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families with high fuel costs right now while putting $50 billion into job creation to get our economy back on track.
• Families making less than $250,000 a year will get a tax cut three times larger than under John McCain’s plan and will face absolutely no tax increases.
• While John McCain has voted against raising the minimum wage 19 times, Barack would raise the minimum wage and set it to rise automatically with inflation.
• Invest $15 billion a year in green energy research to reduce our economy’s dependence on foreign oil and create 5 million American jobs a year.

Anyone still want to argue a lack of substance?  [Big L] Aight then [/Big L].  Can we focus on who is best on the issues that actually matter?  McCain and the Republicans are simply on the wrong side of history in 2008 and we can’t let them steal this election by clouding the public consciousness with idiocy. Be smart and rise above that.

Register to vote here.

Take some time and educate yourself @ BarackObama.com/plan.  It’s hilarious that people still have the audacity to suggest Barack hasn’t laid out what “change” means, and doubly as offensive when McCain’s answer to our economic problems is to simply create a commission to review the issue.  His campaign also said it wasn’t necessary to explain exactly what they would do in response to our economic crisis and he says our “economy is strong” on a daily basis.  This is a joke, right?

In related news, that ether:

Please make sure you and your friends are registered to vote.  This election is too important to sit out or vote from an uninformed perspective.  You have a responsibility.

Seriously, I don’t mean to laugh at any of the destruction caused by Ike and the other hurricanes this year, but this is hilarious.  I don’t know what it is, but any sort of mascot outfit is gold to me.

Shout to all those in the Houston area, hold your head.  I used to spend my summers in the Nassau Bay/Clear Lake neighborhoods, so all my old stomping grounds are actually still underwater (Mud Lake is really going to live up to its name now).  Scary ish.

Spotted over at FWMJ‘s.

It’s 2008!  Seriously!  I don’t care what your views or policies might be…you could agree with me 100%…but if you can’t use the most vital technological invention of our time, you are not fit to lead the free world.  I’ve heard some Republicans try to say this is a meaningless issue, but it really isn’t.  If you don’t understand how the world conducts business, how people communicate, and how students learn, how can you expect to lead us to the future?  You can’t.  You’ll end up keeping us in the same place and as the rest of the world progresses, we’ll be left further and further behind in every aspect of our society.