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« Liberal Outrage: July 2008 | Main | Liberal Outrage: September 2008 »

Liberal Outrage

I'll link to anything that uses the original Mario Brothers game*

*Not a guarantee


By fnord12 | August 28, 2008, 2:29 PM | Liberal Outrage & Video Games | Link



Fact check? How about a nitpick?

AP:

The shotgun-style charges Democratic National Convention speakers fired at Republican John McCain Tuesday night weren't necessarily half-truths. But in some instances, they weren't the whole story either
...
SEN. ROBERT CASEY JR.: "John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick." THE FACTS: McCain voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time from January 20, 2001, to when Congress left Washington on its annual August recess, according to a study by Congressional Quarterly. But McCain wasn't always a staunch Bush backer. In 2005, his support for Bush's position on legislation reached a low of 77 percent; last year, when he launched his latest bid for the GOP presidential nomination, he voted with Bush 95 percent of the time.

Eight years of outrageous and false claims from the Bush administration and nothing from the AP, but a Democrat picks a (seemingly accurate even looking at the 'facts') broad statistical average while giving a speech and suddenly they're all over it.


By fnord12 | August 27, 2008, 8:47 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Cribbing

For a couple of days now, i've been semi-composing a blog post in my head about why Obama is running a different sort of campaign than we are used to, and why a lot of the concerns we may have about how unwilling he seems to be to really go on the attack really don't matter. There's been a lot of anguish on the blogs and in the press about the fact that Obama hasn't been doing enough to counter McCain's attacks, and that he's really been letting McCain set the terms of the debate on the national stage. And it's all true (although he does seem to be changing his national tactics a bit, taking advantage of McCain's "I don't remember how many houses I own" flap.). But there's a reason for that - Obama isn't running a national campaign. Just like in the primaries, he's playing a numbers game and working on the ground, state by state. National ad buys and smart quips in the national press don't have much meaning in that scenario, and worrying about blips in national polls - or even state polls - aren't as important when you're engaging in a massive effort to register new voters that aren't generally contacted by pollsters.

There's obviously some major risk in doing things this way as you don't have the standard metrics (polls, national media coverage) to judge how well you are doing, but Gore and Kerry ran the "safe" way in 2000 and 2004 and it resulted in "close but no cigar".

I was going to write a post about all that, but DDay at Hullabaloo did it for me.

Also, if you (like me) are concerned about Obama's centrist tendencies, this may give you some hope:

I truly believe that the coalition Obama is building is more progressive than he is, or than he chooses to be, and the infrastructure is in place to pressure him as President, leveraging all of this support from the grassroots, the millions of people that will be out on the ground on Election Day, to push for a sensible progressive agenda.

Finally, while DDay's article has a lot of supporting links, the best one to check out is this one, which talks about Dean's conflict with the Democratic party's orthodoxy. The point to highlight is the fact that the infrastructure that Obama is setting up here is not going to disappear after election day, win or lose. This is a transformation of the way the Democratic party will operate going forward; it is Dean's 50 state initiative in action.


By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 4:53 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2)| Link



Texans Are A Breed Unto Themselves

The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff's Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in a story published Friday on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Web site.

...

It isn't clear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers.

Link

I want to know who these people are who are on this highway looking for schools to shoot up. You'd think if it was such a dangerous area, the people of the town would get on the police and FBI to, you know, fix it? I mean, kids getting shot up on a regular basis would be the sort of bad press the state government wouldn't want getting around.

I hope these crazy, gun-toting teachers don't end up shooting the kids.


By min | August 19, 2008, 8:09 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Your immature giggle of the day

AP - not corrected as of posting time:

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

By fnord12 | August 19, 2008, 9:37 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2)| Link



Hell freezes over

Link:

"Many people on Wall Street believed they had made enough money in life and were more concerned about the war and the generational effect that Obama brings to this election," said Richard Hunt, a Washington-based lobbyist for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.

By fnord12 | August 15, 2008, 12:05 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mind

For those like me who can't get enough analysis on what's going on in the Russia/Georgia conflict, here's an interview between Glenn Greenwald and Charles King, a professor who is an expert on the region.


By fnord12 | August 13, 2008, 9:24 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Fuck them if they can't take a joke

Henry Kissinger, 1972, regarding supporting a Kurdish uprising and then abandoning the Kurds to the Shah of Iran's slaughter machine. "Promise them anything, give them what they get and fuck them if they can't take a joke."

Today:

One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.

"We killed as many of them as we could," he said. "But where are our friends?"

It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?

and...

Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours.

But as events have unfolded differently, Washington has offered Georgia - one of the largest contributors of troops in Iraq - little more than lukewarm vocal support.

In a demonstration of the fact that Georgia could be abandoned by its chief ally, President Bush warmly embraced Mr Putin at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday.

and...

So if I'm in the Georgian government and I see that by far the largest and most powerful NATO country wants us to be a member -- wants to extend an Article V security guarantee to us even though they are well aware that this will infuriate Russia and that we have ongoing disputes with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- then maybe I reason that if our ongoing disputes with Russia over Abkhazia or South Ossetia heat up, that the U.S. will be willing to intervene. After all, if the U.S. isn't willing to intervene on our behalf in case of a heated up conflict with Russia, then why is the U.S. eager to support our bid for NATO membership?

and...

Saakashvili thought he was a player in the game, when really he was just the ball.

By fnord12 | August 12, 2008, 4:29 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Georgia

Interesting analysis/criticism at the Booman Tribune.


By fnord12 | August 11, 2008, 12:34 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



In which i beat a dead horse

Don't blame me; Tom Brevoort brought it up:

The marketing reason is that Spider-Man is more than just a super hero, he's Marvel's corporate icon, so doing a story in which Spider-Man gets a divorce is tantamount to Marvel endorsing divorce. And while you might not think so, that's still a real hot-button issue in certain circles (as I'm sure will become apparent at some point during this year's Presidential campaign.)

I'll do my best to not to address the larger issue, but is divorce really likely to become an issue this campaign? McCain is divorced and Obama isn't really the sort to attack him for it, so in what manner will it rear its head?


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 3:13 PM | Comics & Liberal Outrage | Comments (1)| Link



How Wall Street Journal reporters do their research.

I challenge you to read this and be able to resist the urge to self-lobotomize.

This "research" was later cited in a Maureen Dowd editorial, but that's somewhat less surprising.

Guess i'll do a little research of my own. Does anyone out there think that John McCain has had too many organs replaced by alien super-biologists to be president? Please let me know. Thanks!


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 12:12 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2)| Link



Too inane for words

Why aren't these people laughed off our television sets?


By fnord12 | August 4, 2008, 12:22 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link



Mortgage Defaults, Part Two

Now that the initial wave of subprime mortgage problems is tapering off, alt-A and prime mortgage holders are taking their turn.

But with the U.S. economy struggling, homeowners with better credit are now falling behind on their payments in growing numbers. The percentage of mortgages in arrears in the category of loans one rung above subprime, so-called alternative-A, or alt-A, mortgages, quadrupled to 12 percent in April from a year earlier. Delinquencies among prime loans, which account for most of the $12 trillion market, doubled to 2.7 percent in that time.

While it is difficult to draw precise parallels among various segments of the mortgage market, the arc of the crisis in subprime loans suggests that the problems in the broader market may not peak for another year or two, analysts said.

Defaults are likely to accelerate because many homeowners' monthly payments are rising rapidly. The higher bills come as home prices continue to decline and banks are tightening their lending standards, making it harder for people to refinance loans or sell their homes. Of particular concern are alt-A loans, many of which were made to people with good credit scores without proof of their income or assets.

I can't believe people were giving out loans without proof of income and assets. When i applied for my mortgage, they asked for everything. I practically had to get their names added to my bank accounts with a debit card, they were so nosy.

Alot of the problems stem from those who opted for the ARMs (adjustable rate mortages). They were able to make lower monthly payments because they were only putting money towards paying off the interest, and sometimes the payments were less than the interest accrued. The balance would be added to the principal owed. Gee, who couldn't see that was a seriously bad idea? When their principal increased by 10-15% or when their grace period ended, they had to start making payments towards the principal. This "surprise" increase in their monthly payments led to the defaults.

The reason given for the delay on the alt-A and prime mortgages becoming delinquent is that their grace period was a couple of years longer than those with subprime mortgages. And you know what the best part is? This will have a bigger impact than the subprime mortgages because most institutions hold more alt-A and prime loans than they did subprime loans.

Why people with good credit and who theoretically could afford their loans didnt' lock in when the interest rates were low and instead opted for an ARM, i don't understand. What's wrong with you people?


By min | August 4, 2008, 10:46 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link



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