__
Couldn’t resist. Scott Meyer’s website is Basic Instructions.
***********
Also, commentor Steeplejack posted this earlier today:
All may not be lost. Yesterday I got a report from my friend in Alaska (70-year-old woman), who went to a “meet and greet” for Scott McAdams, the Democratic nominee for the Senate.
__
“Went to meet the Democratic Senate candidate who is going up against the now notorious Tea Party candidate, Joe Miller—don’t know if you saw the profile on NYT yesterday. [. . .] I learned more about [Miller] than I had heard in Fairbanks, which is where he lives at the end of Tribulation Trail, with his wife and eight kids. Like everyone in the sociaIist state of Alaska, he has been freeloading in various ways here, but now saying we have to cut the federal deficit and stop earmarks which Alaska lives and dies by. He forbade the reporter from visiting his home, sounds like a conspiracy theorist, thus paranoid. It fits. Anyhow, the Dem guy is the mayor of Sitka and was chosen by the Democratic Party in Alaska probably at a jovial gathering when everybody thought he’d be running against Murkowski and didn’t stand a chance. He may stand a chance now because once Mr. Miller’s philosophy sinks in, more people may vote against him.”
More and more, it looks to me like Scott McAdams deserves some of Balloon Juice’s ActBlue dollars. (And that NYTimes article certainly makes his opponent sound like every astroturfed teabagger’s wet dream.) Your thoughts?
KG
I’d say anyone who is running against a Tea Partier in the general is worth throwing money at. I’m not a Democrat/liberal/progressive, but I really, really do not trust the Tea Party crowd and think they need to be kept so far away from power that they shouldn’t be allowed to operate a light switch unsupervised.
Chyron HR
NO NO NO! WRONG WRONG WRONG! All the polls say Generic Republicans beat Generic Democrats! Why are you libs trying to cheat with this whole “putting actual people on the ballot” thing?
Napoleon
If he is worth it I say put him on the list. I heard this weekend that the Dems are looking at making decisions on who they will support with funds in the next couple of weeks so I am wondering if right about now is the time to donate (in addition to the reasons John stated in his original post).
Omnes Omnibus
@Chyron HR:
Generic Man is taller than Generic Woman, ergo Tom Cruise is taller than Sigourney Weaver.
Linda Featheringill
Just watched the Prez’s Labor Day speech in Milwaukee on CSPAN.
Summary:
Hooray! Bravo! God, I think I fell in love again!!
And I think he may have taken the economy as a weapon away from the Republicans and placed it into Democrat hands.
Really, you should track it down and watch it.
mai naem
I say yes. I sent a little money to former AK governor Tony Knowles in 04 and 06 because I thought he had a fighting chance. FWIW, Knowles, a Yale grad with actual accomplishments, was running against Princess Sarah in 06. For all the Deanies on this blog, I really think sending money to McAdams is an apt demonstration of the 50 state strategy in practice.
Davis X. Machina
It’s a mid-term election. At the end of the day, the 30% of the good people of Alaska who vote in mid-terms will look at Miller and say “Yeah, he’s bat-shit crazy, but he’ll let us keep our guns, and he’ll make sure those &*@%# coloreds, liberals, women, homos and immigrants know what their real place in this country is. And at Jesus’ name every knee shall bend. And there won’t be any damned mosque. Which is, after all, what I want out of a politician.”
Next to that, things like having a job, or a roof over your head pale in comparison. Next to that, who cares about the top 1% slowly devouring everyone else?
This crazy will have to burn itself out — there is no systemic treatment, just palliative symptomatic treatment and good nursing. A lot depends on the patient’s underlying constitution and will to live.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
Unrelated to politics, but funny: PZ Myers says the Jehovah’s Witnesses redefined irony. I think they killed it once and for all.
Anne Laurie
@Davis X. Machina:
Maybe our dollars, in this analogy, can act as a transfusion of healthy corpuscles to help the patient fight off the infection?
Frank
@Davis X. Machina:
Based on demographics/polls a fair amount of retirees depending on social security will vote for Miller and the other tea baggers. The tea baggers believe in eliminating social security/medicare. One can only wonder what these retirees who voted for the tea baggers will think when social security/medicare has been eliminated. Will they wake up?
Capn America
@Davis X. Machina:
@Frank:
Guys, wake up, the people in Alaska who are voting for Joe Miller won’t do it because their number one priority is keeping liberals and “homos” out of power, it’s because they see 10% unemployment and want to punish the party in power. This always happens in midterm elections when the economy is weak. Miller wants to drill baby drill Alaska’s way to prosperity, and even though his ideas are completely dumb and unrealistic for a state that depends on federal money so much, to a lot of people that beats being unemployed.
Also, far more Alaskans voted for parental consent in abortions than voted for Joe Miller on the same day, so if anything, the culture war issue of the year will be 17-year-olds getting abortions, not “homos” and muslims and other groups they dislike having too many rights.
jwb
@Capn America: And what exactly is your point in writing this? That we should all just curl up in a hole and die? That you are so much smarter and wiser than everyone else that you are just going to tell us how the Republicans are going to cream the Dems? Seriously, are you working for the Republicans? Because your comment only makes political sense if you are trying to help the Republicans.
Phoebe
Do it. The act blue thing, I mean.
lee
I support the idea of an Act Blue page for the Dem in Alaska.
Davis X. Machina
@Capn America: The US is the Saudi Arabia of stupid — world’ s largest producer, world’s largest proven reserves, where voting’s a form of self-expression, a kind of social signaling by choice of consumer good.
Miller by 10%.
Davis X. Machina
@jwb: ‘Not expecting to win’ =! ‘Giving up’.
lol
The advantage with McAdams is that it’s Alaska – He don’t need much money to go far on TV.
And Rasmussen has the race in single digits which means things gotta be bad.
Here’s hoping Murkowski will decide to fuck over Miller/Palin and endorse McAdams.
Bob Loblaw
@jwb:
You’re being strangely immature today. “Clap harder!” isn’t the most empirically sound path to victory, historically.
If you have any particular insight into the inner workings of the Alaska electorate, and any ensuing suggestions as to the proper allocation of election resources, you should say so. Screaming “shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!” for two months isn’t that.
Mnemosyne
@Capn America:
Actually, Alaska’s unemployment rate is only 7.7% — lower than most of the rest of the country. They’re not thinking about their pocketbooks, they’re thinking about the culture war.
(Which, not incidentally is what “parental consent” laws are — skirmishes in the culture war, not reactions to actual events. If they weren’t, why wouldn’t they be passing laws saying that teenage girls have to get parental consent before having a baby that their parents will have to support?)
Omnes Omnibus
@Bob Loblaw:Pointing out that someone is not being helpful is not the same as screaming “shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!”
Frank
@Capn America:
Doesn’t explain why retirees who are concerned about social security/Medicare will vote for Miller who wants to eliminate these benefits.
Mnemosyne
@Davis X. Machina:
Ding ding ding ding ding. A win by Miller won’t be a sign that Alaskans are ready to stop accepting government money and are ready to strike out on their own using only the money they themselves earn. It will be a signal that they want to put a finger in the eye of Liberal Elites and keep Big Gummit out of Medicare.
I think Cap’n America is right about which way Alaska will go, but s/he’s wrong about why. It has nothing to do with rational self-interest and everything to do with wanting to see Team Red win.
Bob Loblaw
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think once you start accusing people of being opposition plants, you’ve pretty much lost the moral high ground to anything.
Sharl
@Linda Featheringill: I assume you are talking about the same Obama speech StrangeAppar8us linked over at Rumproast. He has a separate link for the transcript – minus the ad-libbing – at the end of his post.
{Wish I had sound on this here PC… eh, I’ll glance at the transcript}
Capn America
@jwb:
How the hell did you conclude that from my point? My point is if the Republicans were in charge right now, they would see the writing on the wall and pull out ALL THE STOPS to keep unemployment low, even if that meant giving people shitty jobs and coming up with unfunded tax cuts, because that’s what voters react to. Pretending that the vast majority of Alaskans are backwards rednecks who wake up in the morning thinking of how to best screw over gays and other minorities, as opposed to people seeing a shitty economy and blindly lashing out at the party in charge, is not helpful.
Also, thanks Davis X. Machina.
General Stuck
How long before The Blob overtakes this thread also too?
stuckinred
KABUL—The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort.
Ms Meh
@Linda Featheringill:
I just finished watching it at CSPAN & you are absolutely right.
Despite all the bitching & moaning these past few weeks – “OMG ONOES! Democrats are DOOMED!!1!” – the President is smart enough to know that nobody but us junkies pays any attention to politics during the summertime. We went through the same dance in ’08 after McCain nominated Palin so you’d think that people would have learned by now that he knows exactly when to hit, how hard and where to aim.
The best analogy was comparing the economy to a car in the ditch – to paraphrase, the R’s drove the car into a ditch, they’re sipping Slurpee’s while we’re trying to get it out, saying “Why aren’t you pushing harder?” Then when we finally get it out, and it’s got a few dings, needs some work, the R’s are like “Look what they did to your car?!!!” And then have the nerve to ask for the keys back.
Awesome speech.
Kat
Joe Miller, second driver cited in Fairbanks three-vehicle accident
FAIRBANKS – U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller has been issued a citation for his part in a three-vehicle accident that occurred Aug. 27 in Fairbanks. Another driver was also cited in the accident.
Alaska State Troopers cited Miller, 43, for “failing to exercise due care to avoid a collision.”
The accident occurred at about 7:30 a.m. on Geist Road.
Miller’s vehicle was the first of three to collide, rear-ending a vehicle driven by James Gregory Raisis, 58 of Denali Park. The impact of that collision pushed Raisis’ vehicle into the rear of a vehicle driven by Mark Alan Lewis, 49, of Fairbanks.
Lewis had stopped in the middle turn lane, preparing to turn left into Hutchison High School, according to troopers. Lewis was cited for stopping on a highway. Lewis told The New York Times that troopers told him that part of his vehicle was in the lane of traffic to his right. He told the Times he planned to contest the charge.
All drivers were wearing their seatbelts, and no injuries were reported from the accident. Each of the three vehicles sustained heavy damage, according to troopers.
Miller on the day of the accident told campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto that he was not at fault in the incident.
Miller defeated Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Aug. 24 Republican primary. /
Followed by 14 comments so far.
skippy
i don’t know about giving scott mcadams money, but i love his dilbert strips!
Omnes Omnibus
@Kat: … and we are back to the car in the ditch metaphor.
Capn America
@Frank:
Those geezers are rational actors, they know there’s no way in hell any politician, no matter how crazy, will cut social security benefits for CURRENT RETIREES (as opposed to people who are just about to retire).
Also, keep in mind that none of the anti-social security types actually explicitly advocate cutting benefits, they always couch it in terms like privatizing, opting out, giving vouchers, etc., things that WILL lower the amount of social security benefits but don’t trigger the “old people will be put out on the streets” reaction. Plus, I’m willing to bet that outside of the Tea Party base in Alaska, most voters don’t know Miller’s views on social security.
stuckinred
triggering the “old people will be put out on the streets” reaction is up to the Dems! It should be as easy as any fucking death panel bullshit to pull off.
Kat
@Omnes Omnibus
Exactly what I thought — especially since he denied responsibility.
General Stuck
@Capn America: Stop The Presses! Alaska, a wingnut state that elects wingnuts, even when the economy is booming, even during high solar activity, and low turnout, which is three moose and squirrel for them. But like Firebag Lobsterlaw, let’s tie it all to Obama fail for a winning message this election. “Obamadems have fucked the rat, vote for us”.
Lobsterlaw, please take your braindead nihilistic bullshit to another blog, say like FDL, where they will shower you with the praise you deserve. Otherwise, your party pyromania will be fought fire with fire.
Zuzu's Petals
I say yes on the ActBlue thing.
Even though a Miller win wouldn’t change the Rep/Dem ratio in the Senate, it seems important to send a message that the teabaggers will always have a fight on their hands.
And they can’t really accuse McAdams of taking “outsiders'” money when Miller took a cool $600K from the TPExpress/Koch Bros.
Omnes Omnibus
@Zuzu’s Petals:
At one level, you are correct, but you know that they will do it anyway. When one lacks a conscience, it can’t stop one from doing things that one shouldn’t.
Bob Loblaw
@General Stuck:
It’s rather sad that you think Lobsterlaw is an effective slur against anyone. You should workshop some alternatives. Maybe get your schizophrenic partner-in-crime Corner Stone to help you out…
Chyron HR
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Of course they can. You might as well say they can’t accuse McAdams of being a dope fiend and a child molester.
stuckinred
“Workshop” is a verb?
Frank
@Capn America:
Good point. As if I couldn’t think any less of old people who are tea baggers in their political views. These people bring selfishness to a new level that I didn’t think was possible.
Zuzu's Petals
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well I hope our side gets those ads up there first and loudest.
Nellcote
Yes for McAdams on ActBlue. It’s a twofer. Alaska will get decent representation and LaPalin will blow a fuse.
Prez. Obama’s excellent kick ass campaign speech will be on cspan tonite at 8eastern. Watch it, it’ll make you smile.
valdivia
@Linda Featheringill:
this. I loved it.
Corner Stone
@Bob Loblaw: Damn man. That may be the harshest thing anyone has ever said to me, or about me.
Agree or work with that moron? Good Lord.
You sir, have wounded me grievously. Mortally, even.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Obama assails GOP, promotes new jobs program.
Okay he’s doing the one thing that many progressives say he should. Let’s see what the Republican reaction is:
Best part is the statement of capitulation put out by Harry Reid’s spokesman:
Of course, Obama asked Harry Reid’s spokesman to say that.
bemused
I heard McAdams interviewed on 2, maybe 3 different liberal radio shows. He sounded good, straightforward which is refreshing and not common in candidates today. I liked what he said and he seemed sincere. It would be interesting to hear how Alaskans in Sitka like him but he left a favorable impression on me.
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw: LOL, telling you would try to distance yourself from fellow firebagging fool corner stone. You two are political soul mates no matter how uncomfortable that may make you feel. My message to you is simple, unless you have the stomach for brutal and endless flame wars, take your Obama fail wanking somewhere else, at least till after the election. I have no authority here, other than a keyboard, so take that suggestion as you will, or not.
Mnemosyne
@Capn America:
Judging by the Bush years, if the Republicans were in charge they would be busily manipulating the unemployment numbers to “prove” that we were only at 5% unemployment and everything was Just Fine. And then they would lower the tax rate on the upper 1% of taxpayers to 20% and get rid of the EITC.
IOW, they wouldn’t actually take any action to improve the situation — they would just paper over the problems like they’ve done for the past 30 years and desperately hope the Democrats would be back in charge before the house of cards collapsed.
jwb
@Bob Loblaw: No, I’m really very certain that attacking Democrats in the months before the election is the empirically proven path to victory.
SiubhanDuinne
WAY off topic, but can anyone here explain why, whenever I order “a cup of black coffee” in any restaurant, the immediate response from the server, nine times out of ten, is: “Do you want cream with that?”
(Kind of like ordering Steak Tartare and being asked “How would you like that cooked?”)
/rant, carry on
stuckinred
@jwb: Who gives a shit what some asshole says on some blog. Like it fucking matters. . .
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: and that’s what I like about the South. . . However, it could be that folks order black and add their own cream sorta like salad dressing on the side?
And besides, this thread is supposed to be about good cheer, not much of that going down.
Kat
@Linda Featheringill
The President’s Labor Day Speech
By John Ballard
Hello, Mr. President. Where you been the last couple of years?
This is more like it.
[embedded youtube]
“They talk about me like a dog…that’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.”(@2 minutes)
“Republicans always say NO.” (@13 minutes and following.)
Bob Loblaw
@stuckinred:
Blogs is serious business. For great truth and justice.
Everyone knows entire campaigns have been won and lost in the comment sections across this great land.
stuckinred
@Bob Loblaw: And I’m Father Flannigan from Boys Town. Of course the Firebaggers think they control the universe with their ceaseless whining.
jwb
@Capn America: What was the point of your comment? Why bother, you’re wasting your time and money since we’re going to lose anyway? Gee, that’s helpful.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred #52: Yeah, but if they assume (WHY?) that I’ve brought my own cream, why would they ask if I want theirs?
Okay, now I’m just getting cranky.
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: I dunno I was just trying help.
stuckinred
BTW the Navy-Maryland game is really fun!
bemused
@Linda Featheringill:
I just saw the very end of Obama’s speech on CNN and then Rick Sanchez and panel dissecting it. There was someone from the RNC immediately saying Obama was mean. I knew then that this is what the rest of the week is going to sound like.
It was amazing that I only had to see Obama for a few minutes to know that his whole speech was fired up.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred #58: LOL, kthx
Bob Loblaw
@jwb:
Which part of Capn’s post ragged on Democrats? It seemed to me he was talking about abortion notification legislation…
Capn America
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, that’s a good point, they would def find ways to manipulate the stats. Also, they would have way overhired for the Census, and unlike Obama, would not have been honest about the brief dip in unemployment being caused by temporary Census hires.
@jwb:
My point is, when we lose, we have to understand why. Alaska has traditionally been Republican, as others here have mentioned. That’s one reason. Another is the economy. If we identify the right factors, we can find ways to address these causes and change them to Democrat-leaning in the future. What we can’t do is pretend that the majority of a state is bigoted and will hate our side regardless, since that doesn’t get us anywhere either and blinds us to real avenues for getting their vote.
In other words, I want to urge our side to read less Politico, and more Poli Sci.
Zuzu's Petals
@SiubhanDuinne:
Probably just easier to say, “Coffee…no cream.”
Bob Loblaw
@Capn America:
But then who would be on guard against Megan McArdle’s calculator? Who I ask you?
That’s the real question.
Honus
@Frank: no, they’ll be mostly dead.
Chad N Freude
I’m listening to the speech right now (Internet streaming saved my life), and I just reached
“fighting to save SS … privatizing SS will not happen on my watch.” Terrific, clear and unambiguous. But that was followed by “you [working people] all got a tasx cut,” and the crowd reaction sounded like a weak, polite “Huh? No we di’nt.” Not literally, metaphorically.
I feel like I’m live blogging a recorded speech. Ultimate Internet.
Comrade Kevin
That Basic Instructions strip is pretty good. I thought this one was particularly funny.
SRW1
@SiubhanDuinne:
The burden of a logical mind running up against human foibles. Gotta let it go at this price class if ever possible.
Maybe it helps if I mention that bringing up this little inconsistency about black coffee and cream elicited a chuckle on my part.
Xboxershorts
Just so you know, Tribulation is the phase between the rise of the Anti-Christ and the second coming of Jesus. It is a period of great and bloody battles for the souls of Christians and a significant part of the End Times philosophy.
That Joe Miller lives on Tribulation Trail, I believe, is no mistake.