Archives for October 2008

Maybe Miss Congeniality would like to discuss American history with me? ‘Cause, you know, (wink) mean people suck and all.

Ohio.

Now:

Then Palin met with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger at his consulting firm’s offices for what was perhaps her most substantive meeting of the day. Palin talked for more than an hour with Kissinger, who tutored President Bush during his first White House campaign and has kept in close contact with him through his presidency.

And then:

Document 3: Kissinger and General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., 9 December 1970, 8:50 p.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project, Henry A. Kissinger Telephone Conversations Transcripts, Home File, Box 29, File 2, 106-10

A few minutes later after receiving Nixon’s call on Cambodia, Kissinger telephoned his military assistant Alexander Haig about the orders from “our friend.” After he described Nixon’s instructions for a “massive bombing campaign” involving “anything that flys [or] anything that moves”, the notetaker apparently heard Haig “laughing.” Both Haig and Kissinger knew that what Nixon had ordered was logistically and politically impossible so they translated it into a plan for massive bombing in a particular district (not identifiable because the text is incomplete). These two phone calls illustrate an important feature of the Nixon-Kissinger relationship: while Nixon would, from time to time, make preposterous suggestions (no doubt depending on his mood), Kissinger would later decide whether there was a rational kernel in what Nixon had said and whether or how to follow up on it.

After all, we’re only ordinary men:

Thirty-three years ago the US Air Force began a secret B-52 bombardment of Cambodia. In 1973, Congress imposed a halt on the campaign. But nearly half of its 540,000 tons of bombs fell in the last six months. The Secretary of the Air Force later said that President Richard Nixon “wanted to send a hundred more B-52’s. This was appalling. You couldn’t even figure out where you were going to put them all…”

The civilian toll was massive. In l970 a US aerial and tank attack in Kompong Cham province took 200 lives. In 1971, the town of Angkor Borei was heavily bombed, burnt and levelled by B-52’s and T-28’s. Whole families were trapped in trenches they had dug underneath their homes.100 people were killed, and 200 houses destroyed.

US intelligence soon discovered that many “training camps” on which its Cambodian allies, the Lon Nol regime, had requested air strikes “were in fact merely political indoctrination sessions held in village halls and pagodas.” Cambodian intelligence noted that “aerial bombardments against the villagers have caused civilian loss on a large scale,” and that the peasant survivors of the US bombing were turning to Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge communists for support.

—snip—

In March l973, the US carpet bombardment spread across the whole country. Around Phnom Penh alone, 3,000 civilians were killed in three weeks. UPI reported: “Refugees swarming into the capital from target areas report dozens of villages… have been destroyed and as much as half their population killed or maimed in the current bombing raids.”

Damn, John McCain looks angry.  (And, is it just me, or is he putting on a little weight?)

This will further enrage the already hysterical wingnuts, but The Columbian has managed to recognize skill, competence and results in the race for governor and endorse Chris Gregoire:

Gov. Gregoire has served well, particularly in matters affecting Clark County, and The Columbian today endorses her for reelection. Such was not our recommendation four years ago when we endorsed Rossi in a battle of two candidates who were seasoned politicians, but first-time applicants for the governor’s chair. Now, though, Gregoire is armed with a dossier that shows significant progress.

Rossi and other critics assail Gregoire most often in an area — the economy — where she actually shows strength and versatility. She helped turn an inherited $2.2 billion deficit into a balanced budget. And as the national economy erodes, Gregoire has hunkered down in the face of the state’s projected $3.2 billion deficit. In June, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, she halted a three-building project at the capital after costs increased from $260 million to $370 million. A new data center, space for the Department of Information Services and State Patrol offices will have to wait.

Newspaper endorsements in tight races are always controversial, and you can bet this will lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the local Orthogonians. It’s a Clark County election tradition to increase the volume of Nixonian anti-intellectualism to eleven.

Nothing is quite as poignant as the class resentments of the burghers, you know. All over the county this morning you can hear the echoes of “EM ESS EM” bouncing off the walls of gated communities. Furious threats to cancel already canceled advertising accounts will be issued first thing Monday morning. You can almost hear it– “Really, I was going to advertise just as soon as liquidity returns to the markets, but now I’m not.”

There’s no question that Gregoire has done a fine job as governor, and as the national economy tanks, we need a steady hand at the helm. I can’t honestly say that The Columbian endorsement helps Gregoire; it might or it might not. Most likely a wash overall. If you’ve heard the term “low information voter” well, Clark County is a “low information county.” Ironically, this is largely because of our unique media situation, as Oregon media dominates the area.

But we do know that lots of people registered to vote here in the last week.

Maybe many of them were intensely motivated by the thought of electing Dino Rossi governor? It’s his wink, isn’t it?

The Seahawks play the Giants today in the first of their four games against NFC East teams this season. While the NFC West has looked truly awful (especially the Rams), the NFC East is looking exactly the opposite. The Eagles’ loss to the Bears last Sunday night was the first and only loss by an NFC East team to someone outside their division this year (and Westbrook definitely would’ve gotten that yard if he was playing). After 4 weeks, the NFC West only has two wins outside of the division. With an 0-3 record and 13 more games to go, will anyone in the NFC West beat a team from the NFC East this year?

Last week, Daily Kos’ “Hell to Pay” fundraiser brought in over $25,000 for Darcy Burner, and this week it is Charlie Brown’s turn, as he takes on mudslinging GOP apparatchik Tom McClintock in a race or an open seat in California’s 4th Congressional District.  So if you have a few dollars to spare, please toss a few Brown’s way.

Two days ago:

Palin countered with a smile, “Say it ain’t so, Joe. There you go again, pointing backwards again. You prefaced your whole comment with the Bush administration,” She argued that Americans now need to “look forward.”

Today:

Stepping up the Republican ticket’s attacks on Senator Barack Obama, Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday seized on a report about Mr. Obama’s relationship with a former 1960s radical to accuse him of “palling around with terrorists.”

With the curtain closed on Reload, I’ve decided to bring the Birds Eye View Contests over here to HA. If you don’t know how this works, you just have to guess where on Earth the following scene is from. The scenes are from the Windows Live Mapping site, which will be linked from the image itself every week. Good luck!

As I’ve already written, Sen. Joe Biden clearly won Thursday’s Veep debate, at least on points.  But what really matters is the impact (if any) this debate might have on voters, and whether it changes the dynamics of a presidential race that has been shifting steadily in Barack Obama’s favor.  And the best measure of that, I suppose, are the various national tracking polls that are now being reported daily.

The following polls represent three-day running averages.  The first number is from today, which includes  results from Wednesday through Friday, and thus factors in one day of post-debate reaction.  The number in parentheses are those reported yesterday, and represents survey results from Tuesday through Thursday, all collected before the debate.

                Obama      McCain
Research 2000:  52 (51)    40 (40)
Rasmussen:      51 (51)    45 (44)
Diageo/Hotline: 48 (48)    41 (42)
Gallup:         50 (49)    42 (42)

This only includes one day of post-debate tracking, but as you can see, if there is any movement, it’s not in McCain’s favor.  Indeed, the Research 2000 poll, which is being conducted on behalf of Daily Kos, showed the best single day spread for Obama yet:

On successive days in the R2K poll, Obama was up +11 Wed, +12 Thurs and +13 Fri, which is post-debate and Obama strongest day yet (MoE +/- 5.1 for individual days.) Interestingly, the Obama numbers (48-52) are more consistent than the McCain numbers (40-46), but the polls are all consistent in picking up an Obama lead.

And Rasmussen, which is reporting the narrowest gap between the two candidates, observes a similar stability:

For each of the past nine days, Obama has been at 50% or 51% and McCain has been at 44% or 45%. The stability of these results suggests that the McCain campaign faces a very steep challenge in the remaining few weeks of Election 2008.

To say the least.

Early voting has already started in Ohio, and begins in earnest here in WA state and throughout much of the rest of the nation in another week and a half.  If John McCain is going to turn this thing around, he better get moving quick, because I don’t think Sarah Palin’s collection of half-answers, winks and folksy colloquialisms quite did the trick.

For all you Democratic Party elitists planning to attend tonight’s “4th Biennial Campaign Appreciation Party,” don’t bother; it’s been canceled.  Perhaps you’re just not appreciated anymore, I dunno… you’ll have to ask Jason.

Taking a break from the election contests for a bit here, I wanted to give a plug to a great student organization at the University of Washington that’s kicking off their fall recruitment drive. I didn’t go to UW, but I got involved with the AIESEC chapter in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan back in the 90s when I was getting my engineering degree. It was without a doubt the smartest decision I made while at college.

AIESEC is the largest student organization in the world. What it does is run an international internship exchange program. Students at universities across the globe work with local companies to create internship opportunities specifically for foreign exchanges and then host the students who get matched up to them. Members of the organization can then apply for and be matched to foreign internships of their own.

After being involved in the Michigan chapter for a year and a half – helping build their website and working on exchanging students, I was matched on a foreign internship, traveling to Helsinki, Finland during the summer of 1996 to work for the telecom company HPY. It was an amazing experience to live and work in another country, not to mention how much fun it was to be with dozens of other college students from around the world who’d also come to Helsinki that summer to work at various local companies. Over the 12 weeks I was there, I was able to go on weekend trips to Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn, Estonia.

The University of Washington’s chapter has a small group of motivated students looking for more members, especially underclassmen, to get involved with the chapter and promote the AIESEC mission of better international understanding here in Seattle. The head of the chapter, Zhi Wei Wan, just got back from a summer spent in both Turkey and Brazil and is ready to get things going for this school year. He’s looking for people with an international outlook and some entrepreneurial spirit to join the local chapter and have the kinds of extraordinary educational experiences that are hard to get from classes alone.

Here’s the first meeting for those interested in joining:

Tuesday, October 7
6:00-7:00
Thomson 335

I guess it’s all relative, you know, but apparently, the McCain campaign is about to go negative.  Relentlessly, deceitfully, viciously negative.

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama‘s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain’s team has decided that its emphasis on the senator’s biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan’s campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[…] “We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,” said Greg Strimple, one of McCain’s top advisers. “We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama’s aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.”

That’s right, they’re “looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis,” not as an actual financial crisis mind you, but as a political one.  They need to change the subject from, you know, actual issues, to Barack Obama’s “associations.”  Shit, they can’t even get Obama on what he’s done, but rather, who he knows.

Here in WA state, where we’ve largely been spared the presidential air war, it might not seem like an unusual election season, but viewers in other, more competitive states should be girding themselves for a political shitstorm of near Biblical proportions.

We have come to the point in this campaign where John McCain only has two possible paths toward victory:  character assassination or… well… the other kind.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise, but the P-I has endorsed Gov. Christine Gregoire, and in doing so, makes a strong argument for sticking with the incumbent during uncertain times:

In Chris Gregoire, Washington has a governor who has served the state well during relatively good times. She is a good bet for a future likely to be less rosy economically.

Washington voters should re-elect Gregoire based on proven performance, capability and drive. Especially for uncertain times, she’s a much more proven leader than her Republican rival, former state Sen. Dino Rossi.

Rossi was a capable senator and is a capable campaigner. But his avoidance of questions about his social conservatism, his unrealistic transportation ideas and even his unwillingness to be labeled Republican on the ballot all warn there’s a lot about how Rossi would govern that most of us, including perhaps the candidate, would learn only after he took on the job.

It should be noted that in a largely positive editorial that lauds Gregoire’s experience, performance and values, this brief excerpt comprises the full extent of their criticism of her opponent.

It will be interesting to compare that to the Seattle Times’ inevitable endorsement of Dino Rossi, which I expect in both tone and content to be substantially more negative… because honestly, even given poetic license, there are fewer positive statements one can manufacturer in support of the Republican.