Flip, flop. Flop, flip. Who can keep track?!

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The summer’s drawing to a close. Time to put away the shorts that were “way too much material anyways,” and prepare for the upcoming arboreal fireworks of fall.* I remember the seasons growing up in LA. There were two: school and summer. One was awesome with weather around 60-80 degrees, and the other was awesome and 60-80 degrees, but with homework.

But every four years, fall has a different meaning. We start off the spring with lofty ideas about how our presidential candidates should behave, and what we are looking for in the next leader of the world’s largest economy. And, much like last time, we end up becoming more cynical and detached, but with new arcane electoral knowledge under our belts (in 2000, it was voting machines, in 2004 it was the Electoral College, and new for 2008, superdelegates).

Perhaps one day, this will all make some amount of sense. But in the meantime, we continue to live and work in a plutocratic republic** that’s a great deal better off than a lot of other countries around the globe. Fresh drinking water right out of the tap, available jobs (even if we don’t want them), grocery stores with a multitude of selections even for something as banal as pickles, and a governmental system that isn’t determined by the will of the military. All in all, we’re doing pretty good.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t pay attention and speak truth to this power, even if it is on a lowly blog (Boring, Laughable, Obnoxious, Griping) on the outer reaches of the internet.



* For those of you on the west coast, this is the time of year that it starts to get chilly (below 50 degrees!) and the leaves turn all pretty.
** A governmental system in which we get to vote for people to represent our best interests, who are then controlled by the rich and powerful. But hey, it’s pretty much the same everywhere, so we’re in good company.

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It's good to know that as low as Republicans have sunk over the last 50 years, there's always room to spare for more shenanigans. Now those in Michigan and Ohio who have lost their homes in foreclosures might be unable to vote in the upcoming election. Guess who these folks are likely to support?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/michigan-and-maybe-ohio-lose-your-home.html


Remember the recent ad that suggested that Obama’s “one accomplishment” regarding education policy was trying to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergartners? This was from yesterday:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/mccain-gets-testy-on-morn_n_126773.html

And this was from non-partisan (as they come) FactCheck.org on September 10th, A WEEK AGO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/mccain-gets-testy-on-morn_n_126773.html

Someone didn’t get the memo…


Apparently, the women of Alaska are not all that enamored with Governor Palin… to say the least.
http://www.adn.com/photos/v-gallery/story/525182.html


A great article on Obama’s journey to the center to grab votes, while ignoring some key issues in which he differs from his base.
http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2008/08/american_dreamer_man_in_the_mi.html


John McCain doesn’t seem to have a stable opinion about what to do about Wall Street. His stance from a week ago would call his current persona an anti-growth socialist.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_09/014778.php


This is becoming a huge deal in Spain, and rightly so, considering McCain lumped their prime minister (Zapatero) in with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and was under the impression that the country was located in Latin America. “Obama has never been south of our border.” What!?! I know he’s an American, and our geography knowledge is famously lax, but that’s quite a lapse for someone running on his foreign policy experience…
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/217792.php


Obama’s been talking for months about the lobbyists running McCain’s campaign, but 83 WALL STREET LOBBYISTS on his staff? That should be raising some eyebrows given recent events.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9753_mccain_campaign_lobbyists_wall_street_aig.html