Over at Moron Central, Ace makes the argument that Excitable Andy has gone too far with his embrace of "Trig trutherism," and that conservative bloggers should swear off linking to anything he writes from now on.  I don't know if any of the bloggers here have ever linked to any of Sullivan's posts, but I agree with Ace.

Andrew Sullivan was one of the first bloggers I read on a regular basis, and I used to have a great deal of respect for him, even when I didn't agree with what he wrote all of the time, but he's descended into the worst kind of hackery over the last few years, and I agree witgh Ace when he says "He should be blogging at the Daily Kos."  He's not just attacking Sarah Palin here, he's attacking her innocent teenage daughter and infant son as well, and that's beyond reprehensible.

So I say, yes, let's join in on this ban.  As I wrote in the comments over there, he's dead to me.  If you disagree, let me know in the comments.

Posted by: Sean M. at 10:19 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Marc Ambinder took a break from splitting atoms...with his mind to write an informal Q&A with...himself?  I found one of his answers to himself a bit nuanced (emphasis mine):

How big are the risks for McCain?

Enormous. The fighter pilot whose hero is TR is trying to land with zero visibility. It is going to be hard to wrest away from Obama the banner of change, and McCain risks being seen as unserious about national security.  Palin is smart and quick on the draw, but she is completely untested and prone to bursts of the mouth.  She seems to know very little about Iraq and the world and even about the national economy.  She is an identity pick, first and foremost, and a process-pick, second.   Women could be offended or inspired.

As far as the national economy goes, I've (of course) found her to speak eloquently on how America's reliance on foreign oil hurts both our national security and economy.  But then again, I'm from a town that's smaller than Wasilla, Alaska, so what do I know?

Update: I've just been informed that Sarah Palin is not--I repeat not--a Jew like Eric Cantor and Jack Abramoff.  I'm not sure if this applies to her bastard grandson Trig Palin.  I'll keep you updated .

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 08:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Since there isn't much going on this weekend, I'm putting up an open thread.  Feel free to pimp your posts here.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I swear I won't single-handedly turn this blog into an "all Palin, all the time" format, but I can't really get it out of my head.  So deal with it. 

Anyway, I just realized that this is the first time since Reagan-Bush 1984 that both nominees on a major party ticket haven't been lawyers.  John McCain went to the U.S. Naval Academy while Sarah Palin got a journalism degree from the University of Idaho. 

No offense to Gabe, of course, but that's kind of refreshing. 

Update: I once again prove my Moron credentials.  This is the first time a national ticket has had two non-lawyers since...ummm...2004. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:24 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Well, what it was, anyway.  The answer is below the fold.




more...

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:34 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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She isn't from the same state as the PowerLine guys like Tim Pawlenty is, and she isn't Mitt Romney (as Mitt Romneyness is a quality highly valued  in some circles for his nuanced conservative authenticity). 

Hopefully Gov. Palin can tell us how she's actually a boring mullet-weilding governor who campaigned for state office on a platform diametrically opposed to the stances she currently takes as a vice presidential candidate.  Then we can get the "conservative leaders" fully behind her for the general election. 

If we could find a way to make her more boring and inauthentic, that would help, too.  As it stands now, she's hurting the Republican Party's brand. 

Update: Charles "I'm from Washington, so I know better than you rubes" Krauthammer shows up at Moron Central to register his displeasure.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 10:29 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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In honor of my Alma Mater's opening football game against Michigan State, I bring you the following update (from Wednesday, so it's a little old) on the stupid, smelly hippies who have been blocking Cal's attempt to build a new training facility:

A judge lifted the order blocking the University of California at Berkeley from beginning construction on a planned athletic facility next to Cal's football stadium yesterday, thus clearing the way for treeborne hippies protesting the removal of the trees to immediately begin their search for new housing. Dumpster Muffin, thy name is sadness.

It would be easy to get all Eric Cartman on the dedicated freaks who, beginning on December 1, 2006, have sat, slept, lounged naked, and screamed at police from the trees. You must admire some things about their effort, though: it was consistent (constant occupancy), stylish (one of the sitters calls herself "Dumpster Muffin,") and quasi-successful in that it put off the construction of the facility for nearly two years. Consistent, stylish, and quasi-successful would not be the words I normally associate with the word "hippie," so at the least the whole exercise has been a loopy but effective exercise in rebranding for Team Hippie. (Those three original words, by the way, are "lice," "marijuana," and "naked.")

Let's hope the next few days involve a lot of tears (from tear gas as well as sadness over their FAIL) and cracked hippie skulls. Because the word I like most to associate with hippies is "whomping."

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Could these people be any more clueless about firearms and human nature?  Via The Drawn Cutlass, we get this report about the rampant illegal gun trade in the UK. 

Weapons are pouring in from Eastern Europe (Poland in particular), soldiers and others are smuggling them in from Afghanistan and Iraq, some are smuggled in from lesser or non-Nanny States, and there's a pretty solid homegrown illegal gun trade too. 

Apparently a lot of deactivated guns in Britain are now being sold on the black market and are rebuilt to fire in clandestine workshops.  Shotguns and sawed-off shotguns are the cheapest to acquire and are less popular because they are often awkward to carry and don't offer the street cred of a semi-auto pistol or even a full auto firearm. 

I have to laugh at this,

"Everyone wants to be a gangster now, mainly the kids. You have five or six in a little crew and one of them will be carrying. They want handguns - shotguns are too big and bulky. The sawn-off doesn't look so good but use a machine gun and you get known as a heavy guy. They have them just to be a chap on the street, to pose. Some of them walk around all day with a .38. It's 16-year-olds at it and it's getting like America, silly as it sounds."

The Guardian's source said that guns were becoming a first rather than a last recourse. "A gun used to be used as a mediator; now everything is revolved with a gun. It's brought the heat on everyone. Before you would get a two [years jail sentence], now it's a five. It's getting like the US now, like The Wire. It's like a prediction of what will happen here. I think they all think they're playing Grand Theft Auto. It's madness out there."

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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It looks like the GOP, known (rightly) for years as the "Stupid Party" actually has a clue about what to do if Gustav slams into the Gulf Coast during next week's convention:

The contingency plan – a worst case scenario if the storm devastates coastal areas – would turn Republicans into Red Cross-type volunteers who would help collect donations, food and goods to help storm victims.

McCain - whose campaign motto is "Country First" – said helping people during an emergency will take precedence over accepting his GOP nomination for president.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster," McCain told Fox News in a pretaped interview airing today.

The link to the Post story comes from Instaglenn, who wisely suggests "sending a group of volunteers down afterward, with Sarah Palin in charge." Yes, please.

Posted by: Sean M. at 05:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thank you, Politico, for providing today's DNC talking points.  It turns out that Sarah Palin is a horrible pick because Alaskans hate her:

It will be fascinating to see the Alaska Republican delegation front and center at this week’s Republican National Convention now that Alaska governor Sarah Palin will be on the ticket.

This is a state party whose establishment faction, to put it mildly, isn’t too enamored with their reform-minded governor.

This is a state party whose chairman, Randy Ruedrich, has been feuding with Palin for years. Palin exposed Ruedrich for ethical violations in 2004 when both served on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — and their relationship has been frosty ever since.

Ruedrich declined to comment at the historic nature of having an Alaskan on the national ticket for the first time in the state’s history.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:21 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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To piggyback on Sean's post about the Kossacks being worried over Palin, they are now accusing her of faking her recent pregnancy in order to cover for her teenage daughter.

Some of the gems from Newsbusters:

Next concernedamerican posted a slam on Palin's commitment to her baby. "She decided not to take maternity leave with this pregnancy!!!! What's up with that? With a special needs baby?" And then went on to accept the claims without proof saying, "Kind of hypocritical to push abstinence programs in schools and then cover up your own teenage daughter's pregnancy with a lie that you had the baby yourself, dontcha think?"

Not4bushwa also assumed it was all true merely because it was posted on DailyKos, saying: "If Palin had come clean about her daughter or if McCain had vetted her more carefully and not chosen her, this would not be a story. But she didn't and he didn't. Tough luck, poor judgment, another right-wing hypocrite scandal." And later wrote, "This is a big lie. Why the excessive secrecy? So much shame for a fairly common predicament--teenage pregnancy? I wonder: Who's the father?"

Obviously, since a Kos diarist posted this garbage story, many Kossacks will simply believe it is true despite that there is no proof at all for even a single word of the accusations.

Poster sailmaker finds Motherhood so disgusting that he can't imagine a vice president doing it, posting that his "mind boggles at the idea of a lactating VP." That's classy, isn't it?

Poster Subversive really went for the gutter with, "The only thing missing from this story is that the baby wasn't Black."

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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....do you think the Kossaks might be worried?

Posted by: Sean M. at 06:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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At press time, the nut was still firmly attached to the base of the man’s genitals.

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's not often I get to file something under the "GOP Win!" category and truly, truly mean it.  Last night I went to bed and dreamt all night that John McCain had chosen Tim Pawlenty as his running mate.  When I woke up at 11am, I didn't even head to the computer to see who the choice was, because I knew McCain's choice could do nothing but disappoint.

Boy was I wrong. 

When I got out of the shower, the friend I'm staying with was awake, and said "CNN News just woke me up with a text saying that McCain chose some b**** from Alaska as his running mate."  At this point, I told him that he was just going to have to deal with the fact that I would be on the computer all day. 

I'm thrilled.

I'm shocked.

I just shelled out $50 to John McCain.  I just bought two bumper stickers and I only have one car. 

The next 67 days just got a lot more exciting.  We now have what we were lacking: a GOP ticket we can be excited about.

Hey, $3,000,000 in 7 hours can't be wrong!

We now return me to my regularly scheduled vacation. 

P.S. - Yes, my head did asplode.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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While some prominent conservative bloggers are disappointed at the Palin pick, and worried that Gov. Palin may become Geraldine Ferraro Redux, one thing I noticed today that has been lacking on our side of the aisle for a long while is back:

Excitement and Energy.

Hell, just look at the comment and traffic activity here, at Moron Central, and elsewhere. This move has excited many in the base of the Party to actually (gasp) kinda, just maybe, don't look twice, support McCain.

Also, I tip my hat to Maverick for being ballsy enough to eschew the Conventional Wisdom that picking another capable, though boring, white guy with ties to a "battleground state or area" was the wise move. He gambled on energy and buzz, and it is paying off in the short term. And all of this without pissing off a base that (myself included) already eyed Maverick with suspicion and caution.

Yeah, Pawlenty, Portman, Cantor, and Romney may very well have been wonkish Beltway approved picks, or ones that would have helped solidify states like Michigan or Ohio, but would they have generated this sort of buzz? Would they have been able to get more than a "meh. I guess I'll support him" from many in the base? Would my wife and that friend of mine I see at the playground with his daughters when I take my daughter to the park be talking about Romney tonight like he was Palin?

Why do I mention my wife? Here's why. She works in a secure office without TV, radio, or internet access. She didn't know about the Palin pick until she heard it in the car on the way home from her job. She immediately called me screaming, "Did you hear?!?!?" That is how excited she was over the Sarah Palin pick. If a person who really doesn't follow politics too much can get this excited, how many times over has that happened across America this afternoon and evening?

Hey, this race is tight, and McCain could have played it safe and gone for a boring pick. He didn't need to do a desperation pick, ala Mondale/Ferraro in 1984. But the Palin choice has rocked the campaign season to its core. No more proof is needed than the fact Team Obama seems on its heels for the first time since Jeremiah Wright became a household name.

Of course, I am writing this after settling my daughter down for bed and enjoying a nightcap to help me forget about my job. So who knows?

But well played, Senator McCain. Well played.

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:21 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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The rEVOLution may not be televised, but it's apparently still going to be in Minnesota next week:

As Republicans gather to nominate John McCain for president in St. Paul next week, don't expect former rival Ron Paul to cheer him on.

Unlike other former candidates like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman wasn't given a speaking slot at the convention -- in fact, he says the McCain campaign tried to bar him from the convention floor entirely.

"I didn't expect much and I didn't get much, because they don't want somebody there who will emphasize where they're coming short," he said in an interview.

Instead, Paul plans a rally of his own at a basketball arena across the river in Minneapolis, along with training sessions for his supporters who want to more effectively push the Republican party toward his antiwar, small-government ideals.

"They're lining up for the next fight, and they're going to have better numbers and they're going to know the rules better," he said.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:50 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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If McCain-Palin wins in November and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell wins his tight primary battle against Rep. Don Young in the recount and the general election....who will be in charge of Alaska?

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 06:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I actually told MP in google that I wanted a bumper sticker with the Palin in giant letters and a tiny McCain...guess one of the Jawas did too.  I think I'd like to see a shirt, poster or sticker with Palin '08! in giant letters, with "...and that bastard McCain too, I guess" under it in tiny letters.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 04:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Alice has a bunch of new pictures from the Denver protests up, and you can go here for posts I-XII, here for XIII-XX, and here's XXI-XXX,

Part XXI

Part XXII

Part XXIII

Part XXIV

Part XXV

Part XXVI

Part XXVII

Part XXVIII

Part XXIX

Part XXX

I'm actually still looking through these myself, they're excellent shots, so check out Alice's work, she's done an excellent job, every bit as good as Zombie.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Taking a swipe at Palin for inexperience in foreign affairs.  Really Barack, you're gonna go there?  I guess I can see how you'd think that she's inexperienced in foreign matters, given she hasn't done a few trips to Africa and a two week tour of Europe and the Middle East.  Hell, she hasn't even failed to keep a promise of aid to a poor African school yet!  What does she know about foreign affairs, silly woman...

Here's a little Alaska-delivered foreign policy for you!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:32 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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