Duck Goes Moo!

Smashing Magazine recently detailed the changes made to whitehouse.gov the very second Barack Obama took over as president:

Smashing Magazine: Whitehouse.gov Redesign: The Change Has Come

It never fails. Every time winter comes around a political cartoon like this one always surfaces:

The basic premise being, “It snowed this year, therefore global warming doesn’t exist”.

I have heard some very powerful and well thought out arguments against global warming, but this isn’t one of them.

And yet every year political cartoonists redraw the same premise after the first snowstorm of the season.

Though I must say that these cartoons still pale in comparison to the infamous “Peanut Butter Pastor” for its full and complete lack of understanding of the science behind the issues:

and of course the “Banana Crafted By God For Humanity” argument:

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not using these individuals to say that anyone who doesn’t believe in global warming or evolution is just as silly and misguided. I really despise that sort of tactic. It’s one of the reasons I do not like “Penn & Teller’s Bullsh*t” show.

They pick out the worst examples of people who hold a certain belief, make them look like idiots and then say the belief is therefore idiotic as well. Really a vile way to disprove something.

Still, I have to say that I didn’t have an issue with Penn & Teller’s show until they went after something I believed in. Then I noticed what they were doing.

I think it is often the case that when someone is defending your views you tend to ignore any major fallacies in their argument or any underhanded tactics (which is probably why I chuckle whenever they draw Bush as a short little monomaniacal troll and I get a little ticked when they draw Obama as a withdrawn elitist beanstalk).

Now that the campaign is all over, I admit I did start to experience a little Obama fatigue at the end despite my support for the man, so this Onion video is especially funny to me.

Though I wouldn’t call Obama’s speeches empty rhetoric…

Our crack political team has been studying the election results so far and would like to announce that they have called the election for Barack Obama.

Even though not all of the states have been officially placed in either column, a McCain win with the remaining states left would seem almost completely unattainable.

Congratulations, President Elect Barack Obama!

McCain has become well known as of late because of his tongue jutts, the sudden emergence and hiding of his tongue in a manner not unlike a reptile (reptoid replicant conspiracies, anyone?).

This photo kinda takes the cake and truly makes McCain look like a monster out of an Ed Wood movie. I imagine it isn’t so bad when watched in motion… but still, it is pretty funny.

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On a more serious note, I do think McCain did a great job at the debates last night. He at times seemed a little too hot under the collar, but for the most part he came off very well and landed some really good blows to Obama.

Will it be enough to turn around his campaign? Well, probably not, but there are still three weeks left and a lot of politicking to left to do. Who knows, McCain could still pull it off.

In the end, this has been an amazing political season and one to be studied and analyzed no matter who ends up winning in the end.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

McCain continues to fall further down in the polls and Obama continues to rise, despite the ACORN incident. Could McCain still pull out a win? There are still several weeks before voting and a lot can happen in that time. There could be a sucker punch awaiting Obama on November 4th.

Also, now that the Alaska has decried that Sarah Palin abused her power but did not break the law, how will that affect the rest of the campaign? I imagine the McCain campaign will insist this is a liberal/media-elite backlash against all the straight-talking they’ve been giving, and another example why they should take the White House.

We shall all see as we approach the final home stretch. I just wish I haven’t been too busy to draw anymore “Strange Bedfellows” cartoons. There is so much good material out there right now that really won’t be topical in a few weeks.

posted from Wonkette

Well, the day has come and gone where the Veeps had their time in the spotlight. Did Palin choke-up and spew out a salad of talking points and buzzwords? Not really, maybe a little at some points. Did the Biden Gaffe-o-matic 4000 say something absurd and bizarre? Again: Not really, maybe a little at some points.

Nothing really changed in this debate except to perhaps strengthen the parties’ respective bases. Palin came off as competent, albeit a bit nervous, and Biden came off as emotionally stable and approachable. No gaffes, no Couric moments, no major movements in the polls predicted.

Of course political pundits and wonks on both sides are all spewing forth gibberish about how their candidate obviously won the debate, as they are paid to do.

BTW, if you watched the debate be sure to check out FactCheck.org and find out which Veep pick lied or misspoke about what.

Also, I’ve been using RealClearPolitics for my poll result information, but they have recently been caught up in a scandal where the owners of the site may have been including more polls biased towards the GOP than those biased towards the Dems.

I might suggest people use FiveThirtyEight.com instead or in conjunction with RCP. I check out both daily to see how the race is doing.

Register to vote if you haven’t already!

I hope Obama wins or that McCain is in very, very good health.

I was poking around the internet when I saw a big headline on Google News stating, “McCain Suspends Campaign”.

What? Huh? Who? Is he okay? Is his heath failing? Did Palin betray another superior who helped her political career out?

But when I clicked on the link I then saw that McCain was calling a temporary halt to the campaign so he could rush to Washington D.C. and “help”. He’s also calling a halt to the debates.

Stranger yet, Obama claims that he called McCain before all of this and they agreed to announce together that they were both going to work on the issue. The McCain campaign insists this is not true and this was McCain’s idea and his idea only.

Wow, David Letterman and Stephen Colbert are sounding more and more alike with each passing day.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

The McCain campaign has been skyrocketing ever since Palin was revealed as the GOP veep and Obama has been falling in the polls, but in the past few days the McCain campaign has begun to lose its luster and fall down in the polls with his opponent.

Obama has not shown any gains, but he has started to stabilize in the polls. Will he surface again as the lead or remain in statistical dead heat with McCain? The upcoming debate Friday will most likely decide where the polls go next.

By the way, here is a great site that exposes lies and mis-truths told by both campaigns: FactCheck.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/opinion/14friedman.html?ex=1379044800&en=c3c37388fe4618aa&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

A must read for everyone, though the only people who will be receptive to it will be those already voting for Obama. Anyone who would be for McCain will most likely shut themselves off from the what Thomas Friedman has to say, so as well put and poignant as this article is it will not really change the minds of anyone.

As my friend Ben posted, it seems the GOP is the party that tells you what to think and the Democratic party that tells you things that make you think. Not everyone wants to think and its hard to rally a base with something that is up for interpretation rather than a simple “Drill, Baby, Drill” or deafening chant of “USA!!! USA!!!” to drown out the any other thoughts or opposing views.

Still, I stand by my earlier comment that there is nothing in the platform and ideas of either party that is inherently less intelligent or based in reality; it is the nature of the campaigns in which the difference can be found.

The GOP are waging a campaign based upon culture, as they have for the past couple of decades. The Democrats, on the other hand, are still waging a standard campaign based upon political positions and specific organizations instead of the cultures they belong to.

By playing off of culture specifically, the GOP are able to deafen the ears of whole masses of people to any other opposing viewpoints. No need to argue intellectually why certain things must be done, just make the other viewpoints harder for others to listen to by making yours seem so simple and obvious in comparison to the viewpoints backed by data and open discussion.

This is not to say that the GOP positions cannot be backed by data and discussion, just that generally there is no attempt to do so. There are some noted conservative intellectuals, but they’re generally not mentioned in lieu of gimmicky slogans and Rovean tactics.

But, if it works it works… right? Well, you may win the elections but in the end the tactics employed by the GOP end up dumbing down America and furthering cultural divides. People end up losing interest in politics and start having arguments with empty talking points and slogans instead of exchanging ideas and coming up with new concepts on how things can be done.

This is why I want Obama to win the presidency, beyond the fact that I agree with the majority of his platform and what he has to say. I do not want another campaign based upon culture instead of ideas to win. The culture wars are destroying what is best in America and hinder the natural, Darwinian evolution of ideas and positions. It dumbs down every argument and makes politics unpalletable and incomprehensible to the public.

Unless, of course, my cultural values are blinding me to the fact that the Democrats are waging the exact same kind of campaign as the GOP. Generally, someone who belongs to a certain culture is completely blind to when others use aspects and icons of their own culture to fool them.

Wow, people have said that Sarah Palin looks just like Tina Fey, and to see Tina Fey play Sarah Palin it even more so drives in the point. All Tina Fey had to do is do up her hair and put on a red dress and, voila, she looks just like her.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

Note: you have to watch a commercial first to see the the SNL clip.

It’s not a joke. Fran Drescher, star of “The Nanny”, has been chosen by Condoleezza Rice to become the nasal, Queens-accented voice of America.

“She will support US public diplomacy efforts, including working with health organisations and women’s groups to raise awareness of women’s health issues, cancer awareness and detection, and patient empowerment and advocacy”

Drescher is a cancer survivor and started an organization called the “Cancer Schmancer Movement”.