Hmm.

This is dishonorable. Whether he agrees with us or not, he did make a promise. I don't need to agree with my girlfriend that I should do the dishes -- but if I promised to do so, whether I agree with her thinking or not, I am obligated to honor that promise.

That's "honor," Mr. McCain. Supposedly your stock in trade.

McCain's violating promises before he's even taken the oath (which, oddly enough, seems to free Presidents up from keeping promises made).

Point: "Apparently, you *can* talk one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco. You just have to talk in Spanish." That's from Dave @ Garfield Ridge.

Update: Commenters point out that McCain didn't say he wouldn't build a fence -- he says that fences may (or may not, I guess) be appropriate for urban areas, and that cameras and patrols more appropriate for deserts.

I didn't read it closely enough and jumped ugly based on a loose reading.

My apologies to readers and to McCain.

He's still dancing on this, but we already knew that. This is hardly new or newsworthy.

Posted by: Ace at 12:03 PM | Comments (105)
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Funny, comics knew to lay off Chelsea Clinton and the Gore Girls. They knew that to attack them would result in blackballing from Comedy Central and Letterman and etc.

Saving Bristol

Never in history has a woman been under more pressure to keep an unwanted pregnancy than Bristol Palin. She is the teenage daughter of Alaska Governor & Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin - a conservative, Creationist Christian power-vampire and pro-life huckster who has put Bristol and her un-welcomed fetus at the center of a politico-religious crusade to stop her exercising her constitutional right to terminate the pregnancy.

Rather than sit back and impotently bemoan Bristol's tragic, lonely circumstance, it is time for us - the silent majority - to unite behind this poor, imprisoned woman and save her from both a tyrannical household as well as the horrible nightmare of a forced childbirth.

These are not empty words. I, Doug Stanhope, am offering you, Bristol Palin, the sum of 25,000 dollars so that you can abort your child and move out of that draconian home. I have also set up a PayPal link so that others around the world can help increase this amount to ease the burden of starting out on your own at such an early age.

I was once in a similar situation where I'd accidentally impregnated a girl and she had to make that same fateful decision that now faces you. It was easy for her - she didn't have a fascist, oligarch parent, the entire Republican Party or the sneering eyes of the Christian Right to contend with, much less a daft, puppet boyfriend who's just waiting for the cameras to stop rolling so he can bolt like a gazelle.

We made the right choice and rather than end up bitter rivals in court battles over custody or support, we are great friends who high-five over our decision and have all the free time and disposable income that young mothers never know. I now pay it forward and offer some of that money to you.

You don't need to ruin your future in order to support the megalomaniacal self-promotion of a mother whose every action is rooted in a demonic ego and archaic superstition. Don't become victim of the same pressure that had your brother "volunteering" for duty in Iraq.

Please consider my offer as time is of the essence. You don't want this child, the father certainly doesn't want this child and the world doesn't need another wailing mouth to feed.

Anyone want to bet this no-talent ass-clown actually gets more work than ever?

Ah... Douglas Stanhope introduces a very special guest, someone he says he's a big fan of: Truther Alex Jones.

It's good to know that I now have a reason to not know who the fuck Doug Stanhope is. And that I have a reason to have avoided the lame Comedy Central shows they air at three o'clock in the morning.

And all this time I thought I just didn't like him because he wasn't funny. And, well, because I never heard of him.

I actually think I did see him one time -- accidentally. I think he was at the Comedy Cellar when I went there to see Dan Naturman, Colin Quinn, Dave Atell, Jim Norton, Nick DiPaolo... you know, funny people you've actually heard of.

I believe he was either a "middle" -- a lame comic they stick in the middle because it's the openers that set the mood for the whole set and the closers that send people out with good memories; and, in longer sets, a weak comic they stick between two stronger ones to minimize the damage he can do by bringing down the room's energy -- or the fucking emcee, which is even lower than a middle. The emcee gets to tell a lot of good jokes, like "Give it up for Colin Quinn" and "Come on, come on, one more hand for Dan Naturman."

If I can't remember whether I actually saw him or not -- well, that just shows you the comedic firestorm that is Doug Stanhope.

How Unfunny Is He? Apparently he didn't even have the chops to host a Girls Gone Wild video-- today's equivalent of burlesque show comics, the lowest of the low.

Stanhope is the dipshit that ran The Man Show into the ground. He's also the dipshit who did one of those Girls Gone Wild videos and was so annoying that the guy who runs those videos, Joe Francis, used his next few infomercials to mock him and promise GGW fans that Stanhope wouldn't be returning.

How bad a comic do you have to be to actually distract from tits and college girls making out?

In that kind of video, you either have to be exceptionally good or dreadfully bad to even be noticed at all. Seems to me that Doug Stanhope got a lot of notice.

How fucking pathetic.

Posted by: Ace at 11:01 AM | Comments (122)
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See Hot Air for the link to donate to MAF to pay to get this on the air.

However, based on the networks' recent behavior, I'm guessing they'll refuse to run it.

More on this disgrace at the spectator. For some odd reason, the media don't seem interested.

But did you hear Sarah Palin bought a tanning bed? ZOMG, that's so funny.

Obama Admitted it... in June.

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Comments (22)
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It's come to this.

More at Wired.

Thanks to MVL, Kenneth, jp.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (167)
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Palin had her turn, the media had their turn. Now we get a turn again.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (59)
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On this week's episode of "Schmoozing with the Stars..."

“A lot of people have gotten nervous and concerned. Why is this as close as it is? And what’s going on?” Mr. Obama said, speaking to about 300 people over dinner at the Greystone Mansion. “We always knew this was going to be hard – this is a leap for the American people.”

“This should be a celebratory evening, we’ve got 48 days to go in a campaign, a campaign that started 19 months ago, at a time when a lot of folks thought we might not get here,” Mr. Obama said. But, he added, “I’m not in a celebratory mood.”

He ticked through the series of crises that have taken place in recent days, including the hurricane on the gulf coast, the deadly train crash in nearby Los Angeles and the turmoil in the nationÂ’s financial markets. He said the stakes of the election were high.

Seriously?

Is this the sort of high-judgment priority setting we're going to see in an Obama administration? I can understand mentioning something about the crash in his remarks to establish a connection with a local audience, but why on earth is a crash that looks as though it was caused by engineer inattention a major issue facing the United States?

Posted by: Slublog at 08:39 AM | Comments (29)
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The Washington Post continues its descent into hackery with this morning's front page story hit piece on John McCain. It turns out that sometimes he is for government regulation and sometimes against and that his opinion may change depending on the industries involved. It also is the case that his opinion changes over the span of a decade. More on this shocking news:

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.

Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street.

The WaPo repeats Democratic talking points about the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which partially deregulated the financial services industry. Blame is laid squarely on McCain for cosponsoring the bill, but Michael Shear fails to mention that it eventually passed the Senate 90-8 and the House 362-57. President Clinton signed it. Democratic notables who voted for it include Reps Nancy Pelosi and Robert Wexler and Senators Harry Reid and Chris Dodd.

A few things have changed in the economy over the past decade that may have prompted McCain to make concomitant changes in position. Only an idiot would say after observing the mortgage meltdown and this weekend's mini-crisis that there's no problem and we should continue on as before.

Note that Democrats aren't insisting that we do nothing. Rather, they want to get credit for the same old populist shtick they bring out every time "plain old folks" get taken by "eeevil businesses." Republicans are supposed to be easily cast as corporate stooges. Unfortunately, John "The Fargin' Maverick" McCain never fit that description. They are especially pissed that McCain has appropriated their usually strong position on economic issues.

McCain leads 58% to 38% among those who regularly shop at Wal-Mart while Obama leads 61% to 36% among those who donÂ’t frequent the retail giant. Overall, Obama leads among those who earn less than $40,000 a year while McCain leads among those with higher earnings. Among white voters, Obama has the edge only among those who earn less than $20,000 a year and his advantage among those lower income white voters is just four percentage points.

Investor confidence has stabilized—at least for the moment–after falling sharply for several days. The economic confidence of those who do not invest was not shaken by the Wall Street events of recent days. As for the political implications, polling conducted last night shows that 47% trust McCain more than Obama on economic issues while 45% trust Obama.

And it's only Monday. The McCain camp needs to run some ads reminding people how much money Obama took from Frannie and Freddie. He'll look like a real hero of the people with his hand in the cookie jar.

Well, well, well: McCain tried to do something about Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005. What happened? Chris Dodd, who received the most political contributions from the two quasi-governmental mortgage buyers, kept McCain's reform bill from getting out of committee.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:35 AM | Comments (16)
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Do you hear that neocon wingnut warmonger chickenhawks? Mankind hates Sarah Palin.

HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?!?

Posted by: Slublog at 07:23 AM | Comments (79)
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So far, Republicans have managed not to cave on offshore drilling (though ANWR seems to be out of the question). House Democrats passed a bill which would allow energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf, but sharply limited drilling closer to land. The bill would also increase the tax burden on oil companies to subsidize wind, solar, and conservation programs. President Bush says "no deal" and it looks like Senate Republicans will keep it from a vote.

Oil fell to near $90 per barrel today, the lowest it has been in seven months. Following the financial mini-crisis over the weekend, I bet Saudi Arabia is sending a big "I told you so" to the rest of OPEC. Of the oil producing states, Saudi Arabia seems most concerned with keeping the price of oil low enough to stave off the development of energy alternatives or a world-wide economic slump, either of which would cause oil revenues to plummet.

In related news, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission actually looked through the data and discovered that speculators were not manipulating the market to cause prices to skyrocket.

Lo and behold, the CFTC found that index traders and swap dealers actually reduced their stake in crude oil futures as prices spiked. The number of contracts held by these investors betting that prices would increase -- the net long position -- fell by 11%, and more were shorting oil than going long over the six-month period. In other words, index traders and swap dealers were driving the future price of oil down.

Commodity index funds also have a much smaller share of the oil market than everyone thought: just 13%. Even if the figure was 70% or more, as some assumed, it wouldn't have mattered. In a futures exchange, trades are matched, so one trader's gain is another's loss. The overall volume is irrelevant.

The CFTC study is especially notable because it came in response to extraordinary political pressure. Congress held more than 40 hearings on "speculation" over the summer, and commission chief Walter Lukken was the pinata. Federal bureaucracies have been known to try to appease their Congressional funders, so the CFTC deserves special credit for debunking the speculator frenzy.

Don't expect this to stop both presidential candidates from blaming the boogeyman for high gas prices.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:54 AM | Comments (48)
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This is the second attack on the embassy in Sana'a this year and the third on Americans in Sana'a.

The death toll included six militants, four civilians and six soldiers guarding the embassy, the state-run Saba news service said, citing the Interior Ministry. The building wasn't damaged and staff in the mission were unhurt, Saba reported.

"At about 9:15 this morning a car exploded at the main gate of the embassy and then there was a secondary explosion," Ryan Gliha, a spokesman for the embassy, said in a phone interview.

A group by the name of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to carry out similar strikes in the Persian Gulf region if al-Qaeda prisoners aren't released by the Yemen, the al-Arabiya news channel said.

The question mark in the headline is because there are conflicting reports over how many people were killed and just who they were. CNN says (no link) that snipers fired on Yemeni first responders.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:13 AM | Comments (9)
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