The Daily Coast

Along the right side of the blog I have added a new widget that lists the Google Hot Trends [meaning terms that people are all of a sudden googling...like Hurricane Gustav]...right now, the top of the list is "Daily Coast" which is undoubtedly non-blog savvy Republicans searching for the Daily Kos and probably this post in particular. I'm not really going to dignify the topic of the post with further attention because I think it is ridiculous but nonetheless, "The Daily Coast" made me laugh.

Roald Dahl: Super Spy

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Julia Child was a spy, we now have what looks to be a very interesting book called The Irregulars which deals with Charlie and Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl and his work as a spy during World War II.

Here's a little segment of an article from the London Telegraph about the book:

His [Dahl's] social skills attracted the attention of famous Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, who was running a clandestine British effort to draw America into the war.

Antoinette Marsh Haskell, the daughter of Marsh, explained that with Dahl's status came a string of women.

She said: "Girls just fell at Roald's feet.

"I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that [was worth] more than $50,000 a year."

Despite Dahl's reputation as "one of the biggest cocksmen in America", as described by previous biography, he was said to have passed on several useful pieces of intelligence, including his belief that President Franklin D Roosevelt was having an affair with Crown Princess Martha of Norway, who had been granted asylum by the US.

Oasis "Shock of the Lightening" Video

I am really starting to get pumped for the new Oasis album...here is the video for the first single which I think is pretty good...except it seems that Liam is back with the Richard III haircut again.



The opening shot of the video is an homage to this famous Rolling Stones cover:

Songs of the Future: Labor Day Edition

Information on this photo can be found here.

1. Ra Ra Riot -- Dying Is Fine
They maybe this year's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-type of band that lives up to their hype. This is from their debut EP...their new album The Rhumb Line came out two weeks ago.

2. Kings of Leon -- Sex on Fire
This is the first single from the new album Only by the Night [out September 23rd] which is currently leading my list of best album covers of the year.

3. Cold War Kids -- Heavy Boots
Along with their first single from their new album, the Cold War Kids also have some older EP tracks that are complementary.

4. Daniel Knox -- Be Afraid
This song could have been on Anthony & the Johnson's last album...Think of Antony [with a much deeper voice] crossed with Dean Martin...

5a. The Shones -- Don't Look Down
5b. The Shones -- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
When I am listening to The Shones I am hearing Nico fronting Garbage. It's up to you if you find that a great idea. I do. "Will You Still..." is not a Carole King/Shirelles cover unfortunately.

New Jakob Dylan Video

I've always been a big Wallflowers fan [I particularly love "Sleepwalker"] and I am really enjoying this new animated song/video from Dylan's new album Seeing Things:

Songs of the Future: 8/30/08

1. Truckasaurus -- Super Copter
They are in the Nintendo theme music genre and this sounds like the theme from Little Nemo: The Dream Master.

2. Alan Cohen Experience -- Space Watch
Is being called a male Kimya Dawson a compliment? I think so. This is sort of like a well-produced Moldy Peaches song.

3. He Say She Say -- Crash Dummies
Heavy synth, Peaches-influenced dance music.

4a. Tilly and the Wall -- Alligator Skin
4b. Tilly and the Wall -- Pot Kettle Black
4c. Tilly and the Wall -- Cacophony
You had me at tap dance drummer....and "Pot Kettle Black" is not a Wilco cover.

5. Anthony Rochester -- Mathematics
Kings of Convenience + Isaac Newton = Anthony Rochester

6. Birdmonster -- Born to Be Your Man
From the new album From the Mountain to the Sea that sounds like it will be just great. Get on the band wagon now before they blow up.

Bonus Video:

Birdmonster -- The Iditarod

Possibly Best Kinks Cover Ever

I had no idea this existed until searching around the Howard Stern's Private Parts soundtrack...a very straight ahead cover but excellent.

Green Day -- Tired of Waiting For You [Kinks Cover]
From the Private Parts soundtrack.

Alaska: In Song

In my over 40,000 songs I only have two that use the word "Alaska" in the title...and no group names. I never would have guessed that.

Here they are:

Camera Obscura -- Alaska
From the If Looks Could Kill EP.

Hans Zimmer -- Clap for Alaska
From The Simpsons Movie soundtrack.

My Newsweek to CS's Atlantic Monthly

Typically when CS and I go back and forth on political issues I feel like my posts are something akin to a small blurb in Newsweek and CS's are straight from a three-week in depth investigation in the Atlantic Monthly or Vanity Fair...

To make my point here's a tidbit I was meaning to add to my earlier post "Here's What Frightens Me"...somehow it got lost along the way but it was going to be, in fact, the actual thing that frightens me the most:

Governor Palin named two of her kids after characters from the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed.

Well, it turns out that maybe she didn't...it looks like a good thing I forgot to write that little bit earlier...Here's some more information on the kids' names...

The Palin Pick

When I got to work this morning and checked CNN, I was legitimately shocked to see a banner headline proclaiming that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was McCain's running mate.

Her name had been bandied around, but I always dismissed it as the female version of J.C. Watts. Just as Democrats have fretted about the religion gap, Republicans fret about the gender and race gaps. And both sides love their trophies, the politicians who they can point to and say, "See, we aren't all bad." Ohio Governor Ted Strickland is always held up as a former pastor (even though he was only briefly the associate pastor at a church) and who can forget the endless parade of black Republicans at the 2000 Convention. If the auditor of Ohio County, Indiana had been a black Republican, I guarantee they would have addressed the convention. Palin seemed to be a superficial "hey, she's a woman and if we have a woman on the ticket, female voters might like us." It's the political version of "I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are black."

Hopefully, the McCain campaign wasn't thinking so superficially. I think the idea of sending Pawlenty or Romney to debate Biden scared them. Against Pawlenty/Romney, there was a very good chance of another Lloyd Bentsen-Dan Quayle moment where Biden fillets them as they look on plaintively. There wasn't a viable VP candidate who was going to be able to go into that debate and match Biden, haymaker for haymaker. But Palin changes that equation.*

(*Remember the Let Bartlet Be Bartlet West Wing episode, based on the famous Let Reagan Be Reagan memo? There is no one who has ever said Let Biden Be Biden. Joe Biden has always been irrepressively who he is. No matter the stakes, he will always be the brainy attention whore who loves a good quip and is the embodiment of an Irish hail-fellow-well-met. You cannot get him to change. When prepping for the Alito hearings, his staff implored him that he needed to ask short, open-ended questions to force the nominee to talk. And Biden told them he understood. And then promptly spent the hearings delivering rambling soliloquies that forced Alito to say virtually nothing. So if Palin leaves the door open to a great putdown quip, you would need a 110,000 volt cattle prod to keep him from making it. Against another white male politician, he could have that Bentsen moment. But against a young woman, he could have a Rick Lazio moment. He could come across as the hectoring male boss who belittles and doesn't respect the views of a younger female. It's an archetype that I'm guessing a lot of females have dealt with in their professional lives and would make them instantly sympathetic to Palin. So instead of finding someone that can beat Biden, they found someone who might be able to make Biden beat himself.)

Both Palin and McCain have something to prove with this pick. Palin's mission is obvious: she has to show that she can handle the national media spotlight on a daily basis where any misstep will race across the internet at record speed. This is an area of campaigning where Senators do better than Governors. Senators are used to the Washington media, understand how they operate and are cognizant of how words are perceived, received and can be skewed. Governors are used to dealing with their home state media, where provincialism is a plus, not a minus. It's a little bit like being president. How you are viewed in your own country and how you are viewed elsewhere in the world can be completely different. And coming from a state like Alaska only increases the learning curve. Palin got off to a distinctly un-Quayle like start in the announcement, but the key test will come in handling the day-to-day glare.

For McCain, he has to prove that this was not a token pick. You would think that proving Palin isn't the Republican Geraldine Ferraro would be Palin's job, but it's not. McCain has to prove that Palin will be a strong voice in his administration and this isn't just a sop to women. This will backfire if independent women voters think they are being patronized by McCain. And it isn't enough to throw her issues like women in small business or something that reeks of "women care about this crap, let me play with the army guys." McCain needs to let her take the lead on some gender-neutral issues. Let her be the one who hammers away on government waste and the Bridge to Nowhere. Let her hammer Biden and Obama for voting against an amendment that would have diverted money for the bridge her state didn't need to a state that did need it (post-Katrina Louisiana). It not only gives her some intellectual heft, but makes her look like a governing partner, not just a campaign partner.

This was probably the only pick that McCain could have made that would leave the base happy and make moderates curious. He deserves credit for having the guts to make the pick, even though he just handed the Democrats their instant rebuttal point on the experience question. This pick is playing with dynamite. The media will be quick to fit any gaffe into an inexperience narrative and the names Quayle and Ferraro will be just as quick to roll of their tongues. James Carville said that the key to picking a vice-president is to "make the opposing campaign manager throw up." I don't think David Axelrod has the heaves yet, but it probably made him sit down and think through how this changes the race and changes Obama's approach. And considering McCain's other options, that is a victory in and of itself.

Here's What Frightens Me

Okay, McCain has selected Gov. Sarah Palin as his VP candidate...Paul Begala succinctly summarizes the days discussion in his article as "Is McCain out of his mind?" In the end, I don't think this will change things much in the polls [I mean the polls that have Obama up by 8%]. I don't see how the selection would make people who wouldn't vote for McCain yesterday vote for him today. The problems they have/had with McCain [whatever they are] don't go away while Obama's biggest problem [lack of foreign policy experience] was addressed by his VP selection. For me this is a marginally positive "do no damage" selection.

That being said, I would say McCain has a slightly less chance than a coin flip at being our next President. That being the case, I am scared shit less that there is a chance that Sarah Palin could be the Vice President. At least with any of McCain's other choices I would have been assured A. An guaranteed improvement from Dick Cheney and B. Someone who knows what the Vice President does all day. I would have been most comfortable with Romney...he's run businesses and I am sure that if I ever met him he would be one of the nicest people I've ever met...Plus a Vice President I can call Mittens is always fun...Tim Pawlenty would have been okay too, I mean no one from Minnesota has ever done anything really bad, right?

The McCain Veepstakes

Here is the Official CS Take on the McCain VP Prospects:

Governor Tim Pawlenty (MN): A boring and predictable pick. Notice that I didn't say he was a safe one. If Pawlenty is the pick, look for a consensus to emerge that this is Quayle Redux. If you thought Bush got through the Gore and Kerry debates by winning the expectations game, wait for Pawlenty-Biden. Pawlenty might win the expectations game simply by not pulling down his pants and molesting children on the stage.

Former Governor Mitt Romney (MA): Nice enough guy, does a good job with attack talking points. But the houses debate will only get worse. And I guarantee you -- I'd bet every penny I have -- that the Obama team has a similiar ad waiting if Romney is the pick.

Senator Joe Lieberman (CT): Lieberman is the dangerous girl in a motorcycle jacket that McCain wants to be with, but knows he can't (as odd as it is to compare a Jewish kid from New Haven to a motorcycle chick). He would love to govern with him, but the convention would become about nothing other than Republicans Gone Wild. If Lieberman was the pick, I don't know if Republicans or Democrats would be more ticked off.

Governor Bobby Jindal (LA): I think he has other things on his mind this week.

Governor Sarah Palin (AK): I don't get the groundswell for support for this pick. I want to say she is a rising star in the party, but I am not sure what concrete policy achievements she has had to back that up. Picking her would hurt the argument on Obama's qualifications and a McCain-Palin stage would look more like an old man hanging out with his decidely-attractive younger wife than it would resemble a presidential ticket. I am pretty skeptical of the "women automatically want to support a woman politician" argument, so the benefit to the ticket could be fairly minimal.

Congressman Eric Cantor (VA): A rising star in the party, only big-time Jewish Republican in who knows how long. He definitely has a future, either as Speaker of the House or the Senate or possibly on a national ticket. But he is very obscure and I am not sure what the media consensus would be.

Former Congressman and OMB director Rob Portman (OH): Probably the best pick McCain can make. He's got experience on economic and budget issues, comes from a swing state, conservatives would be happy and doesn't seem to have any major flaws outside of obscurity. He's old enough to avoid the experience questions (52) and young enough that it doesn't make the ticket look like two old men.


McCain has got to approach this pick remembering the No. 1 rule of selecting a vice president: First, do no harm. Portman does the least harm and has a decent upside.

McCain's Ad

It's my turn to give McCain some credit where it is due: he wasn't a jerk with leaking his Vice-Presidential pick tonight.

I had heard McCain was going to run an ad during the convention and I guess he did but I either missed it or Kansas isn't in contention enough to spend money to air it here...oh wait, I watched the speech on PBS...nevermind...anyway, the advert is actually sort of nice and would make me almost vote for him if it had been Hillary giving that speech tonight...



I personally can't get too angry with those woman out there who may not vote for Barack because he beat Hillary. If Hillary had won, I probably would have started my own Barack Voters for McCain group and gone to the convention and sounded incoherent on MSNBC like these ladies:

Obama's Speech

I will give Barack Obama credit for this: he doubled down on his bet. And it might just pay off.

This speech is probably never going to go down in history. I doubt it will be widely quoted in 50 years. It was a direct attack on McCain on substance, but he took just enough sharp edges off by insisting that McCain is misguided, not evil. It was filled with the kind of red meat that liberals absolutely crave, so the conventional political wisdom will probably question if it appeals to moderates.

If 2004 proved anything, it shows that direct appeals to moderates rarely work. Go re-read John Kerry's acceptance speech. It is masterful at saying absolutely nothing. It's tough to find anything to disagree with in that speech. Which is the precise problem with it.

Americans like having boldness in a president. Reagan was willing to ignore the advice of his own State Department to give the Tear Down This Wall speech. Bush routinely goes forward with boldness and has won more political battles than he has lost, despite routinely having approval ratings lower than 45%. Newt Gingrich saved Bill Clinton's presidency for the same reason that I think Obama's speech was successful tonight: it gave him a political foil.

It came out that Obama used JFK in 1960, Reagan in 1980 and Clinton in 1992 as models for his speech. The JFK parallels are more superficial -- the young candidate, not fully accepted by the entrenched elements of the party coming into the convention, accepts the nomination at a football stadium. The Reagan and Clinton comparisons are more apt: a candidate who is not fully trusted by the electorate making the case that the system is broken, the other side has utterly failed at fixing it, but he will.

Look at the barbs they threw into their speeches.


The Republican nominee-to-be, of course, is also a young man. But his approach is as old as McKinley. His party is the party of the past. His speeches are generalities from Poor Richard's Almanac. Their platform, made up of left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo--and today there can be no status quo. -- John F. Kennedy, 1960.

Four years ago, candidate Bush said, “America is a special place, not just another pleasant country somewhere on the UN Roll Call between Albania and Zimbabwe.” Now under President Bush, America has an unpleasant economy struck somewhere between Germany and Sri Lanka. -- Bill Clinton, 1992

Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, "Well done?" Can anyone compare the state of our economy when the Carter Administration took office with where we are today and say, "Keep up the good work?" Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, "Let's have four more years of this?" -- Ronald Reagan, 1980


They had a willingness to take on the other side, by name, and list their faults and failings. It showed an ability to throw a good political elbow to the ribs. It didn't hold back and showed the confidence both men had in themselves and their message. There is a reason why both men won campaigns that most political observers assumed they had no chance of winning.

Al Gore and John Kerry were unwilling to take those kind of political risks. Both speeches critique Bush obliquely, as if he was going to run out on the stage and demand they take it back at gunpoint. Gore's speech never once mentions Bush by name. Kerry directly addresses remarks to Bush, asking him to ... be optimists and not opponents.

Like most things worthwhile in life, you have to be willing to risk losing in order to win a political campaign. There has to be that impulse to make the clear case for your candidacy at the biggest moments. Senator Kerry was never willing to do that. I will always believe that if he had the courage to pick the VP he could govern with (i.e. Gephardt or Bob Graham) and come to the convention and make the case against Bush, he probably would have won. The central, unstated message of his campaign would have been, "It's time for the grownups to take over in Washington" and it would have worked.

Substantively, I'm not sure how well Obama's message from tonight will resonate with the rural Ohio/Pennsylvania/Michigan/Indiana voters who hold the power to make him the president. But that willingness to attack McCain directly in the biggest speech of his career, with millions watching, shows the kind of political courage that voters tend to respect and reward.

This Can't Be Real

The Dallas Morning News has a story on how Texas has the highest percentage of people without health insurance. For some reason they asked a John McCain health care policy advisor, John Goodman, what he thought about this...

You don't need a master's degree in Healthcare Administration to be shocked by what he said:

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Mr. Goodman's analysis drew a sharp response from the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin-based think tank focusing on poverty issues. "That is not the same thing as having health insurance," said Eva Deluna, a budget analyst for the center. People without insurance are less likely to seek care, and when they do, the cost to the health system is greater, she said.

The idea that he doesn't know the basic tenants of the EMTALA laws is a little frightening. The laws only provide ER care to patients with an emergency medical condition...what that exactly means is left to the hospital to decide. A badly sprained ankle probably wouldn't be covered. A severe flu may not be treated. Furthermore, the level of care that must be provided is to "stabilize" the person or transfer them. If a person has a heart attack, the ER would only be required to treat the blockage and stabilize...no rehabilitation care would be required by law. This is not an insurance plan.

Gomez -- Emergency Surgery
From the Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline album.

Stereolab -- The Emergency Kisses
From the Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milkey Night.

Beck -- Emergency Exit
From the Guero album.

Mogwai -- Emergency Trap
From the Mr. Beast album.

999 -- Emergency
From The Best Punk Album in the World collection.

Obama's Speech

Now that it is over I have to say, in all honesty, I am relieved that he lived through it.

McCain VP Sweepstakes

So at last check we have Tim Pawlenty clearing his schedule, Mitt Romney's sister's house being swept by the Secret Service, Joe Lieberman voting with Democrats on everything except national security, and Kay Bailey Hutchison still supporting the Roe v. Wade decision...where's that leave us?

The Sky

Here in Lawrence we missed the severe thunderstorms by about 20 miles to our south... nonetheless, this is what my sky looks like right now...

Re: The Weisberg Post

Interesting post I must say...I can never predict what story awakens the Elephant inside of you CS...the "support McCain and you are a racist" game is one that I don't think really exists outside of political commentators that I've never heard of. However, I do believe that a good 5-6% of McCain supports would not support Obama purely on race. This is backed up here...I know it's the New York Times but what can you do? Interestingly on a completely unrelated note, that is about the population of African-Americans that support McCain.

The real thing that will win this election for Obama has nothing to do with him at all; it is the candidacy of Bob Barr. Let me digress...in 1992 I was voting for President in mock election in middle school so I don't really remember the events first hand but how on earth was Bill Clinton able to persuade the American people that he would be able to create change? The answer is he didn't, Ross Perot messed things up for Bush. The same thing could happen here as Barr polls pretty high in both Nevada and Ohio and who knows what the reaction will be when McCain picks Lieberman as his running mate.

CS, That's Not Fair

CS,

Now that's not fair...there are some noted conservatives/Republicans that have made some very good, if not popular, music...for example:

Pat Boone -- Moody River
A song essentially about a suicide honor killing. Boone's girlfriend cheats on him and commits suicide because she can't stand what she did.

Pat Boone -- Speedy Gonzales
A song about a quick mouse? You bet. But really it speaks to the current immigration policy..."Speedy Gonzales, why don't you come home?" i.e. Mexico.

Ted Nugent -- Cat Scratch Fever
Please have your pets spade or neutered.

Ted Nugent -- Stranglehold

The Osmonds -- Crazy Horses
Okay, okay, this is actually a good song that you would never know is by the Osmonds if I hadn't just told you.

The Osmonds -- Down By the Lazy River

[Bonus track: Kathy Griffin -- The Osmonds Were Never Cool]

Wayne Newton -- Daddy Don't Walk So Fast

The Ramones -- Pinhead

The Ramones -- The KKK Took My Baby Away
Okay, to be fair, only one member of The Ramones was a conservative, Johnny Ramone, and the KKK song was in reference to him stealing Joey Ramone's girlfriend from him.

The Ramones -- Teenage Lobotomy
A great Johnny Ramone guitar line.

Kid Rock -- Kyle's Mom's a Big Fat Bitch [Interpretation]
As always, Kid Rock keeps it classy.

and how could forget the greatest conservative of them all:



Britney Spears -- Baby One More Time