Snuffing Copenhagen

"If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping Al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. -- Dick Cheney

I got hooked on Politico during the Presidential election. They tried, usually succeeding, to balance the rants and raves of political and polemical characters of all shades. Sometimes they tried too hard.

That seems to be the case with their Copenhagen Connection special, which tries to keep us up to snuff on the climate change conference. Their summary of Sarah Palin's Washington Post Op-Ed sounded so reasonable that I had to read the original:

“Copenhagen’s political science”: “[G]ood environmental policymaking is about weighing real-world costs and benefits -- not pursuing a political agenda. That's not to say I deny the reality of some changes in climate -- far from it. I saw the impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state. … But … we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes. … What Obama really hopes to bring home from Copenhagen is more pressure to pass the Democrats' cap-and-tax proposal. This is a political move. … The president should boycott Copenhagen.”

Boy, was I wrong. Those Politicos should be editing Coming Attraction trailers: I felt like I was fooled into watching a very bad summer movie. The excerpts suggest some degree of thoughtfulness, not a demagogic lead paragraph that refers to "so-called climate change experts".

Downhill from there, Palin polemically claims that "I've always believed that policy should be based on sound science, not politics," and then proceeds to ignore science and wallow in the politics of the devout denier. I have never bought the story line that she is stupid, rather I think she is George Will-fully ignorant. Like that partisan political pissant, she stuffs a straw man full of distortions, adds some outright lies and proceeds to argue with her creation. They think that they can make words like "experts" and "consensus" lose their meaning just because they sarcastically put them in quotes.

Their concern about the East Anglian emails threatening the sanctity of science is refreshing. Maybe they're compensating for their silence when Environmental Protection Agency documents were altered for political purposes. Also, I'd expect Palin to be front-and-center in denouncing criminals who hack into email accounts.

Al made me do it

Al Gore will tell you he's no scientist: just ask him. He's still too certain for my taste. Yes, probability is on his side, enough so that I believe action is necessary, but it's tough for me to travel down that fellow's road.

So, I was willing to read Palin, even that twit Will, because coal and oil aren't going away soon and because I profoundly distrust Gore's pet Cap and Trade (S)shell game. I should have known better. Evidently they don't think we need solutions, or at most the 'Just Say No' policy former President George Bush smirkingly proposed at earlier climate conferences.

What are the answers? The U.S. still has tremendous oil reserves, huge gas and coal deposits. Our dependence on those energy sources is unavoidable in the short term. Many poorer countries are even more dependent on dirty fuels. This Danish probably won't be very filling.

I expect carbon credit trading to win out and be increased, and it will end up in the greedy maw of the people who brought you last year's Wall Street meltdown. Keep saying they've learned their lesson when you see carbon credit futures and carbon credit hedges. If we're lucky, there can be a carbon credit bubble complete with carbon credit derivatives.

Banking on disaster

An example: Deutsche Bank has just put up a carbon (actually 24 assorted greenhouse gases) counter up in New York City. A fine thing, and I was happy to track down a widget I could put up on this site showing the same figures. The license is free but the terms include this ominous sentence: "You will treat the existence of the terms of this Agreement as confidential, and you agree that any information relating to the Application Tool is confidential to Deutsche Bank and/or its licensors and that you will refrain from disclosing such information to any third party." My first reaction was 'how Germanic', in the old pejorative sense of the word. My second was 'bugger off', why can't I even tell someone that there is an agreement? Of course, I could use it and tell you anyway, but I'm generally an honorable sort of guy.

Yes, the widget seems to be a good thing. Gore is probably quoting scientists when he claims we're pumping 90 million tons of Carbon into the atmosphere every day. The atmosphere, like the ocean, is huge, but neither can be our dumping ground forever. What can I say? I climbed on my high-horse when I read the terms and I'm still there.

The article that pointed me to the widget helpfully tells us that Deutsche Bank is managing about $6 billion in climate change investments. That appears to be less than one percent of the total assets they manage, but it seems to be a good thing. I just don't trust them. Why should I?

The snuff picture

In other news, the Marlboro Man has seen the writing on the wall -- it says No Smoking -- and is going green, in a way. Marlboro has been test marketing smokeless tobacco and snus (!?).

Not very well, according to analysts. Altria, the parent company of Marlboro and Philip Morris, is hedging its bets by buying Copenhagen and Skoal maker UST.

Yes, it's a stretch to include this. Hey, I got in a mention of Copenhagen and more than a billion smokers lighting up is nothing to sneeze at.

Defending Sarah Palin

I'm over my obsession with the Presidential election, but the media just won't let it go. It took Sarah Palin to make me care.

Go figure. On a personal level, her voice came out at a pitch that jangled my blackboard-scratch aural pain center. How much did I dislike her as a candidate? Let me count the ways.

That's all irrelevant; she's got my sympathy. It's not surprising that the worst of the post-election attacks came out on FOX news. Sleazy comments about her thinking Africa was a country* and not knowing the countries in the NAFTA treaty. Anonymous attacks.

That's my problem with FOX: not the political views, but the tabloidy rumors and innuendo it deals in to sell them. I've read conservative commentators for years, even added a cable company mainly to watch Rush Limbaugh at happy hour. That was years ago, before he took himself seriously and, scarily, others began taking him seriously.

It sells. They know that, and so do their competitors. Though they pretend to loathe that proud part of American journalism, they'll pick it up in a heartbeat if they're losing market share.

Who's your Uncle? Sam or Tom

For a moment, Shepherd Smith seemed to be auditioning for a job at another network with his "Joe The Plumber" interview on a Death to Israel remark. I guess not, it's the soundbite, stupid. He followed by highlighting Ralph Nader's loony remark about Barack Obama being an Uncle Tom. Ralph says he's just asking the question. Right, and why should we take you seriously? Did you ask yourself that question, Shepherd?

Mo' maps

The link to the graphic above was emailed by my brother. Yes, I'm tired of this stuff, but it caught me again. What if we map votes with a cartogram weighting population into the election results? From Mark Newman, he's got the same stuff by county and with other interesting manipulations.

* As a group, Americans are abysmally ignorant of geography. There have been dozens of studies proving this obvious fact. Just to pick a group, I'd like to see how many of the 435 U.S. Congressmen could pick out a country in an unlabeled map. How would they do identifying the majority of states? Finding Saipan or the Northern Marianas?

Who wants to be a running mate?

Joe six-pack should hang out around Goodwill after the election, he just might find a deal for the 'little lady'. The Republican National Committee says Sarah Palin's $150,000 wardrobe will be donated to charity.

Sak's Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Barney's and Bloomingdale's; it brings a whole new meaning to "campaign accessories". I didn't see Wal-Mart on the list.

Good thing the money came from the RNC, McCain-Feingold stops the McCain campaign from accessorizing candidates. The Associated Press dug up an old quote: "The use of campaign funds for items which most Americans would consider to be strictly personal reasons, in my view, erodes public confidence and erodes it significantly."

Small potatoes really, but expect Devil Wears Prada jokes from the liberal blogosphere.

Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks she'll be qualified by January.

Palin oops

Sarah Palin unloading on "hecklers" that were telling her to speak louder.



Now that's funny. I don't care who you are. -- Larry the Cable Guy

Settle down, kids

This kind of nonsense is all over the internet, but most people don't get too upset unless it's pushed in front of their face.

Can't we give it a break? Media mavens have been hunting high and low for the next outrage to pontificate about. People (like me) who pass it on only make things worse.

No, I don't think this is the worst negative campaign ever, but everything's got to be a superlative in our culture. There are some losers out there who get off on tweaking our noses. There always have been. Deal with it.

What are we supposed to do about it? Too many of the knee-jerks backing both candidates prattle about what it "proves" about their counterparts.

The Barack Hussein Obama billboard is standing outside of West Plains, Missouri, author unknown. The t-shirt is being hawked at the Crucial Brutal website. Neither appears to have any connection with the campaigns.

These are examples of free speech on the edges. We may not like it, but what are our options?

Personally, I'm willing to put up with almost anything short of inciting violence-- and it wouldn't be smart to wear that shirt in a lot of places.

I thought about bowdlerizing the Sarah Palin insult like some other sites. But what's the point? The word itself is still obvious.

Interesting sidelight: the discussion on a lot of sites got sidetracked to the topless women Crucial Brutal uses in some posts.

Flat Palin

A (very small) internet meme: send Sarah Palin around the world. Foreign policy experience, don't you know.

Send your pictures to flatpalin@gmail.com or visit flatpalin.blogspot.com/

Really, I'm thinking Michigan. Republicans are begging for her to visit-- haven't heard any cries of 'come back, John'. Democrats want a Tina Fey visit.

That one

More fun from (what else?) thatone08.com/ Buy a shirt.

I didn't blink. I winked

Here's a scoop: John McCain's new campaign ad, starring Sarah Palin. OK, it's a Betty Boop cartoon (Watch for the winks and lipstick). "You're an elephant, you're an ass" indeed.

Say it ain't so, John

Barack Obama wants this Charles Keating video filed under "Look what you made me do." Fair enough, in my book. Evidently it's been in the can, waiting for John McCain or his proxy to play the character card.

Sarah Palin led with McCain's chin, using a New York Times article on Bill Ayers to back this line "This is not a man who sees America as you and I do." McCain is following with "Who is the real Barack Obama?"

Well, negative sells to some voters, but McCain's Savings and Loan skeleton parallels the current sub-prime fiasco pretty closely. David Plouffe sent this link to me--and a few million others on Obama's list-- tipping us that it's going to be playing on keatingeconomics.com Monday.



Loose-lipped McCain operatives have admitted he's trying to divert attention from the economy (A surprising lack of discipline, but that's another subject.) The McCain advertising money does indeed seem to be going into negative ads, according to Talking Points Memo. TPM claims virtually 100% of his ad spending is for attacks, while Obama's is less than half. Of course, since Obama has more resources, "The remaining million per week" cited by TPM is the same amount spent by McCain.

Is it that time already?

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Bob Bennett, Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi driving in the 'first nail' of the Presidential Inaugural Platform. Insert joke about coffin and the current administration here.

Best line on the ceremony goes to the Washington Times: "Other preparations include the repaving of Pennsylvania Avenue to rid it of potholes." Woa, I knew the Highway Trust Fund was broke, but...

Define bipartisan

I've been amused-- black humor I'll admit-- by the way the Robber Baron Bailout is being marketed.

A Republican administration proposes a no-oversight blank check.

House Republicans insist on their alternate plan.

We're told that a bipartisan bill should include both.

Now why would Democrats suspect they're being played?

Strangely, unlike a few days ago John McCain doesn't think he needs to be present, according to spokesman Mark Salter: "Because he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone."

It really was that boring.

I'm interested in this day-to-day nonsense, and still almost gave up on the debate several times. From my perspective, both sides got what they wanted and the viewers got very little. I don't like drawn chess games either.

Honestly, putting the spin aside, I saw very little difference in their foreign policy except on Iraq. Both sides are trying to put semantic lipstick on what are really minor differences. McCain got points on experience, Barack Obama some on lost opportunities.

Give Obama an edge on the economy, he sounded Presidential with proposals he connected to the middle-class. McCain came off more like a Senator running for re-election, though he scored on earmarks and Obama's proposed spending.

McCain's dislike of Obama came through; he wouldn't even look at his opponent. Still, I wouldn't make any big deal out of Obama using 'John' 25 times while McCain never used 'Barack'. Animosity aside, you know he'd be hammered by the pundits for trying to paint Obama as 'the other'. He was in a no-win situation.

Condescending?

Yep, to me he was. I don't think 'you don't understand' ever won a debate. Still, calling the faux flap about Spain "horseshit" was refreshing and appropriate.

Chris Wallace, the Fox ferret, tried to draw Joe Biden out with a snarky leading question about how he could avoid being condescending to Sarah Palin in next week's Vice Presidential debate. Biden gleefully replied that he wasn't going to be like McCain.

Sarah Smile

Biden was all over the airwaves. Where was Palin? Evidently, at an Irish bar in Philadelphia.

You can observe a lot just by watching. Yogi Berra

Follow the money

While burnishing her foreign policy credentials by traveling to Vienna Ohio, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin proposed putting the government's checkbook online.

A bold move, Governor. Will that be something like USASpending.gov? You know, "Google for Government", the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn, Barack Obama, Tom Carper and... John McCain. Or maybe S.3077, the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008, sponsored by Barack Obama with co-sponsors Thomas Carper, Thomas Coburn and... John McCain.

To be fair, I didn't know the site has been up-and-running since December either. Then again, I'm not looking to preside over the U.S. Senate come January. It's definitely not a wedge issue between the candidates.

What's it to you?

Naturally, now that I know it's there, curiosity led me to looking up the Northern Marianas.

It's obviously a work in progress: there's no 2007 data on food stamps, for instance. If the 2005 and 2006 figures are any indication, 2007 should eventually show about $127 million. (It appears about $4.5 million in California assistance was mistakenly listed under the CNMI, but that's probably due to growing pains of a new database.) Chunks of disaster and FAA money seem to account for much of the jump in 2004.

Still, $878 million from fiscal years 2000-2008 is a goodly chunk of change. I've been playing with the site for almost two hours, and I'm still trying to figure out the different ways it can be used.

A pig in a poke

It's common knowledge that John McCain really wanted his good buddy (and prompter) Joe Lieberman as a running mate-- but it would be too much for the Republican base. Still, I can fantasize about the (imagined) outrage defending the Senator from Israel if Barack Obama made the same 'lipstick on a pig' remark that so 'outraged' Sarah Palin supporters.

In any case, Politico.com has a nice video summing up this tempest-in-a-teapot:

The Britney trap

It looks like John McCain is hooked on getting rock star treatment again.

The aging fighter pilot used to obsess about Barack Obama's celebrity treatment. 'Kids these days are superficial,' he'd petulantly tell the hundreds folding-chaired into his town halls, coming off more like a jealous faded beauty in smeared make-up than a Presidential candidate.

What a difference a week makes. With Sarah Palin drawing the numbers he couldn't, he keeps postponing the date when they'll go their separate ways on the campaign trail.

He's no longer playing second fiddle to Obama, but there's a real possibility that he'll be in the third chair-- with Obama and Palin drawing more people. What a dilemma for his handlers.

McCain (did I tell you again he was a POW?) has already folded the 'more foreign experience' hand, what's next?

Hot news flash

Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris and Nancy Pfotenhauer are two-faced when it comes to Sarah Palin. I'm shocked.

(Warning, more often than not, these Daily Show embeds don't work; you'll probably have to go to the website)

Palintology: You left the mike on again?

So I was over at politico.com, because that's where I flee when I want to unwind the spin that's spun, and I ran across yet another "hot mike" moment.

Check out these comments on Sarah Palin that NBC caught when the cameras were supposedly off. Pundit Republican consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan are publicly in her corner. Didn't they learn anything from Jesse Jackson? I borrowed the You Tube link from Ben Smith's blog.



Palin's speech was pretty much what I expected, but she has a timber and a delivery that grates on my cheddar. I had to force myself to sit through the whole thing. I'll read her speeches in the future or nibble on sound bites.

This is going to be fun. How can the Democrats attack Affirmative Action and diversity.

When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism, or maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, 'Man, that doesn't do us any good, women in politics, or women in general, trying to progress this country-- Sarah Palin

(Another version, found at You Tube They seem to be having problems with embeds right now.)

Odds and ends

Good for John McCain.

Running mate (we may have to change our vocabulary here) Sarah Palin brings us one step closer to the day it won't be a big thing when a woman runs for public office. Closer, but it will be awhile: every story about Barack Obama still has to adjectivally note that he's half-white; it's been 24 years since Geraldine Ferraro was number two for the Democrats.

I just wish I'd bet on Alaska's Governor a year ago, when some pundits were pushing her as a solid second to counteract then-favorite Hillary Clinton. Yes, I do check the internet odds; following the money is at least as useful as this poll-a-day nonsense we get.

A new deck

McCain is gambling here too: he's thrown in his callow and shallow cards; Palin is younger and less-experienced than Obama. That undercuts one of his main attack points.

But apparently his pollsters have told him he has a good chance to pry away a chunk of the Hillary horde and Palin connects solidly with the Bush base, particularly the coathanger crowd.

The spin begins

At the same time, he's trying to have it both ways: pet pundits have already said 'sure it's an important job' but not that important-- misattributing that famous old Will Rodgers line.

Also, a professional putz trotted out the talking point that her high-maintenance newborn Down's Syndrome baby can be a plus instead of minus. I'd like to say I couldn't make this stuff up, but of course I could, I just wouldn't say it.

The man with the best job in the country is the Vice President. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, "How's the President?" -- Will Rodgers