This is a test post. Nothing to see here
Thinking about taking up blogging again. I’m trying out a few new themes in the short term. Hopefully I’ll find one I like quickly. In the meantime enjoy the trailer for Birdemic: Shock and Terror:
Just updated Wordpress. Testing..
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
A Palin aide said: “Governor Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense. Nasty and false accusations following a defeat say more about the person who made them than they do about Governor Palin.”
McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.
Over at TalkingPointMemo there is a moving blog entry by eastside93 detailing his decision not to vote for Barack Obama yesterday.
I didn’t vote. Not for President, anyway.
Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.
I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn’t vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.
When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for – and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama’s name on the screen and touch it.
And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn’t cast it.
Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red “vote” button was the person I was really voting for all along.
The son of Muslim father and an atheist mother will be President of the United States.
Beautifully American…
Go vote! You will do this now!
John Hodgman has a new interview up at The Onion AV Club. A lot of stuff is covered but here is the money quote regarding this election:
I have nothing against Sarah Palin. If anything, I think it’s sort of tragic. She was clearly a Republican up-and-comer who, if they lose the election, her career has been dealt a very severe blow. We might think that’s a good thing, but I’m just saying she was called up too early. She simply had no experience. Never mind whatever her thinking might have been on national issues, but she had never taken a position on a national stage before and she had no experience with the national media and that’s what ultimately did her in. She didn’t have the training. She’s a quick study, obviously, but she’s doesn’t have the experience to talk to national reporters over and over and over again in a way that could make her seem confident and I think it really undid her. And just because John McCain wants her to be great in his campaign that doesn’t make it so, anymore than just because John McCain wants to believe that if he suspends his campaign and makes serious faces in Washington that the economic crisis will be averted. That’s magical thinking. It doesn’t make it so just because you want something. Just because John McCain wants to be President does not mean that it must happen. That’s the same magical thinking that really undid Hillary Clinton. It was like, “I don’t need to put forward a compelling argument for my candidacy. My candidacy is a compelling argument for my candidacy. I want to be President. Obviously, you all know it’s time. Let’s get this over with.” That wasn’t good enough to go against somebody who I think really has looked at the reality of election, saw all the opportunities where he could make gains, saw that she was totally neglecting the caucus states, saw that that was a place where he could take an advantage, planned for it, took the advantage, and won. That’s science. Do you know what I mean? That’s reality triumphing over magical thinking.
Do I like Obama, personally? I do. Do I think he’s got good policies? Look, I’m like everyone else, I hope so. They sound good. They sound like something I believe in, so I think based on his performance and the way that he has run his campaign, I feel that it is reasonable to feel confident that he is going to take the same discipline and smarts and lack of drama and apply them to the very serious issues today and I think that makes him a good choice for President. Do I think that his candidacy is historic? Sure, that’s exciting too, but what I think it’s really amazing that he exists in the same world that I also inhabit and no other political candidate lives in that world right now. They live in a made-up world that is not reality. I think that that’s why you see Obama surging right now. It’s that the people like the fact that Obama lives in the world that they live in.
No, I ‘m not dead yet, just crazy busy at work and helping the wife through nursing school. But I saw this quote from McCain last year and had to post it.
“I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I’ve been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism. I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn’t a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn’t a governor for a short period of time,” – Senator John McCain, October, 2007.
From a Republican Fox News debate as recorded in the New York Times , via Andrew Sullivan
Yes, I am a month behind on this, but if you haven’t seen Beware the Believers yet, now is your second chance. I’m not sure exactly what side of the Evolution – ID battle the creators of this video support, but don’t miss it. (PZ apparently thinks they are coming down on the side of the good guys – link also has a brief sequel and full credits)
This is why mankind created the Internets
