Barack Obama is IRISH!

This comes by way of gchat courtesy of the Harvard College Democrats favorite Boston Irishman, Robert Seaumus O'Shanahan Winikates.

Men for Palin (Version 2)

Check it out!! And in case you missed it, here is version one:

VP Debate Liveblog!!

Bring your laptops and bowls of Moose stew down to Thayer Common Room to watch the Debate! For those of you who dare to venture down, the comments section awaits... UPDATE: Men For Palin: A Summer Surprise

Move over Jeremiah!!

Palin shows up at about 7:00. Although, judging people based on their preacher is pretty dumb, this is too ridiculous to not raise some eyebrows. This dude is actually more insane than Jeremiah Wright. You hear what he is saying about Jewish people? Damn. He likes us even less than Wright. It brings to mind the line from Tom Lehrer: "The Catholics hate the protestants, and the protestants hate the Catholics, and the muslims, hate the hindus, and everyone hates the Jews." Anyhow, this should help shore up the Bubbe vote in Florida. Shana Tova Barack Obama!! PS Though executive spiritual advisors might not like Jews so much, apparently the rest of America does!! Mark Penn, when not destroying Presidential campaigns, researches this, and apparently we even have less negatives than Methodists!!

Gaffe or Good Policy?

In case you missed it here is Joe Biden's most recent "gaffe" in which he said clean coal is not a viable option.

This is the most sensible thing I have heard a politician say about this.

In fact, I think that the Wall Street Journal's critique of Obama's position on "clean coal" is spot on.

As for "clean coal," the Obama campaign actually supports it. But this too is a political bait-and-switch, perhaps explaining Mr. Biden's confusion. In theory, clean coal would require capturing greenhouse gas emissions, compressing them into liquid and then pumping it underneath the earth. Even if the technology were ready for commercial deployment tomorrow, to sequester just 25% of yearly U.S. CO2 emissions would mean moving volumes more than twice as large as the world's current oil pipeline system can handle. That will require an enormous amount of money, and generations to build.

Then, however, I quickly revert back to my usual disagreement with the WSJ editorial page.

That an eminence like Mr. Biden is clueless about coal suggests how little official Washington has thought through the consequences of its anticarbon agenda.

This is absolutely absurd. Washington isn't hasn't thought through the consequences of its anticarbon agenda? What about the consequences of the procarbon agenda? The WSJ's assertion that "The real costs of green ambitions won't be paid by well-heeled coastal liberals, but will fall disproportionately on the Southern and Midwestern states that depend on coal for jobs and power." does have some validity but when contrasted with challenge to our entire global civilization and way of life posed by the procarbon agenda, I'll take the anticarbon agenda any day of the week.

P.S. More Biden Hilarity on the rope line.

Now this is how you start a Monday morning

It's 10 AM out here in Colorado and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet. So can somebody else please go over to RedIvy, read this, then come back and tell me what the fuck this dude is talking about? I gather it has something to do with Ron Paul, but that's about all I got. And anyone who makes analogies about "savages being given a slice of pie" is surely destined for Internet stardom, so we really ought to get on this...

UPDATE: DID YOU KNOW? "Our tax is a burden to choke on the bromides provided on a platter of charm, radicalism and novelty." NOW YOU KNOW!

It doesn't get odder than this

When asked how he felt about Ron Paul, Mike Gravel had some surprising things to say:

for those who missed it, it was amazing night indeed. Needless to say, Mike Gravel is an interesting man. I'll have to get around to reading his book sometime soon.

A Third Party Election

Alongside today's news that Edwards and Rudy are dropping out comes word that Ralph Nader, accomplice to Bush's 2000 election theft, is exploring another run.  It's pretty clear he waited until Edwards bowed out, as they both fit, to some extent, the same mold.  Except Edwards knew when to bow out with some dignity left, while Nader seems ready to screw things up again.

What's interesting, though, is that this could make 2008 a third party election.  If Mike Bloomberg ends up running and if Ron Paul, realizing he has several million dollars of online donations left after losing the Republican race, decides to run as well, things could get interesting.

While the Democratic race is still fairly wide-open, it's becoming increasingly clear that John McCain will end up with the GOP nomination.  McCain and Paul present drastically different views of conservatism, just as either Clinton or Obama and Nader do on the liberal side.  Bloomberg, having been a member of both parties, can provide something interesting to attract voters from both sides  - drawing from the left for his social stances and from the right for his business experience and managerial skills.

While this is drastically oversimplifying things, let's say most of Paul's supporters stick with him in a third party run and that some (although definitely not all) of Edward's supporters go to Nader.  Who does Bloomberg get?  He'll likely pick up some of Romney's supporters on the GOP side and a few Hillary or Obama supporters regardless of who wins the nomination.  Nader and Paul will cut down the votes of the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees.  And if McCain is the Republican candidate, there's a good chance many of the evangelical conservatives who supported Huckabee will be less likely to vote.

What does this all boil down to?  It's still not likely by any stretch, but for the first time in decades there's a very small, but finite chance that an independent could make it to the White House.

Frank Sinatra's Endorsement

Sinatra is probably spinning is his grave right now. I have to hand it to the Paul-tards on this one, that dubbing is pretty impressive.

While I am no fan of the gold standard, Ron Paul definitely has the coolest campaign around. It mostly involves random people with too much time on their hands screwing around on the internet rather than any actual effort to win a majority of votes. Because the exigency of getting votes is not around to distract them from such crucial and tested campaign tasks as launching a blimp and then making video ads to put on YouTube attacking Rudy Giuliani that proclaim "You Just Got Ron Paul Blimped!." Ashton Kutcher would be proud.

Ron Paul would make an absolutely terrible President, but I think the possibility of that actually happening is remote enough that us Democrats should heartily root for him to continue to pile up decent showings and run third party. He gives the Republican Party fits, calling them out from within on their bullshit fiscal conservatism and expansionist foreign policy. If he runs third party, and I think he will (what else do you do with 20 million dollars?), he splits away the small but not insignificant libertarian bloc of the Republican party which might just be enough to put Hillary Clinton over the top (I think Barack Obama would handily win a general election without any help from Ron Paul.) And he would continue to be a thorn in the side for the Republican nominee through November, a constant reminder of the party's lack of direction post-Bush.

But more importantly, I hope he stays in the race so his supporters continue to do cool shit like charter blimps. The entertainment value alone justifies his continued candidacy.

Breakfast at Huckabee's

They may not believe in evolution but in the world of political minstrels they are definitely less crazy than Ron Paul's singing friends.

 

I really have to hand it to these guys. They have pretty good voices and the lyrics are pretty creative.

----
You see he's the only one who's for them
Faith, Family and Freedom
In the right order
So what now? It seems he's the best for us
He's even got Chuck Norris
Telling us how it's gonna be

(When the eyes of the ranger fall upon you
You better like Mike)

So I said, "What about voting for Huckabee?"
She said, "I think I remember that man,
And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked him."
And I said, "Well, he's the best hope we've got

But to truly get in the Christmas I need to know what Ron Paul will give me on all 12 days of Christmas!

Day 1: A return to sweet liberty!
Day 2: No more new world order!
Day 3: Dollars backed by gold!

how much better can it get?

It is a true statement to how pathetic the Republican party has become during the Bush presidency that Preacher who doesn't believe in evolution and a physician who doesn't believe in the federal reserve are the only Republicans generating any momentum or excitement only two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

I can't wait for the general.

It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes to support Ron Paul?

first obama girl...now Ron Paul

get pumped...the blimp is coming to boston Sunday!!

I think Ron Paul is completely nuts. That said, it would make me so happy to see him win a primary or two. First of all, his amazing/insane supporters deserve a chance to celebrate and it would be amazing to watch the rest of the party squirm if Ron Paul starts seriously affecting things.

This is the coolest grassroots movement in America right now. A blimp? A BLIMP!!!!!

Also, his supporters are prodigious song writers. Apparently they are in the Christmas Spirit! 12 days of Ron Paul Christmas (check out this video)! The New Hampshire Primary comes 2 days after Ron Paul gives us Freedom of the internet on the 12th day of Christmas.

The other interesting issue for Paul is what happens after he doesn't win the Republican nomination. This campaign is so grassroots and out of his control at this point that it will be very hard for him not to run as a third party candidates. While he wouldn't win any electoral votes, I think he could pull down at least 2-3 million votes nationwide with his ability to raise money and would probably take votes away from the Republican nominee (although he may just bring out voters who wouldn't have voted if he wasn't running). But it is hard for me to imagine a situation where a Paul third party run would hurt the Democratic nominee. So, Ron Paul is definitely nuts and should never be President, but he just might take enough Republican votes to become the right wing Ralph Nader.

so...Hope for America! Tea Party 07! (His supporter planned money bomb sunday could bring in $5 million + dollars)

www.ronpaulblimp.com
www.teaparty07.com

New Ron Paul ad

New Ron Paul ad out. Listen below (it's just audio).

My favorite line: "Dr. Ron Paul has cared for thousands of women and children."

Garrett Smacks the IOP in Today's Crimson

Read read read read read:

On its face, the IOP purports to support exactly what the misty-eyed memoirists of the activist Sixties want Harvard students to be doing. In the style of the civic-minded academy, it implores Harvard students to “examine critically and think creatively about politics and public issues.” The entire circus operates under the spiritual aegis of President John F. Kennedy ’40, who, one imagines, looks down with rolled-up sleeves and a winning smile upon the IOP’s noble young activists.

Marketing, however, can’t gloss over the truth forever. What transpires down at the end of JFK Street is not the catalysis of idealism but rather a sort of cotillion for political nerds. It absorbs every freshman looking to exercise their obligations as a citizen and churns out a mixture of political technicians, professional hand-shakers, and disillusioned burnouts.

[...] the IOP inculcates a worrisome catechism of centrism in its followers. The maxim of political involvement IOP-style is to mold yourself into just the right mixture of sensible sentiments and professional suavity. Of the nineteen members of the IOP’s Student Advisory Council, for example, only four choose to identify as “liberal” or “conservative” on their Facebook profiles. Nine, apparently, have no political views whatsoever.

And having a corral for the political set on JFK street means Harvard mirrors a problem endemic to the nation: the consigning of civic duties to a self-contained class of “political people.” This flies in the face of the very notion of democratic society: that we are all political people. Political mobility is a sentiment which needs to boil through everyone who comes to Harvard College, a trade school of citizenship.

Absolutely right. Plus Garrett is much more intellectual and pragmatic about it than I can ever bring myself to be -- my solution to this problem has never grown much past "burn the motherfucker down", which for the record is also how I feel about the Crimson, the final clubs, and the GODDAMN NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS -- so you should really just go read his piece.

Though I would add that the IOP is ultimately not a cause of our political inertia so much as a symptom; there is a whole social and economic order that demands just those centrist sycophants the IOP churns out. (Let's not pretend the Dems are innocent on that front either.) After all, the all-inclusive "democratic society" Garrett proposes does not coexist well with a capitalistic one...

...For a palate cleanser, make sure also to read Jarret's fun column comparing the GOP presidential race to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- though I do think Jarret seriously underestimates the impact of Ron Paul. He has a blimp, people! A BLIMP! HOW CAN HE LOSE??!?

Singing Libertarians

Ron Paul supporters are famous for their internet networking talents. But did you know they could sing too?

with supporters like these how can he lose?

Ron Paul Still Scares Me

Ron Paul just used Guy Fawkes day to raise over $4 million dollars in one day! Holy Moley!

This man still scares the bejeezus (sp?) out of me. Paul supporters are akin to a cult.

Don't believe me? Check out this Ron Paul Ad