An intellectual carrot. The mind boggles.

About half way through the debate I had to put down the scotch I was drinking as I realized Palin was going to say the word "maverick" so much during the evening that I would be in no condition to go to work the next day if I kept up the drinking game I was playing.

Palin lied aggressively, seemed unaware of her own ignorance of specific senate votes she tried to call Biden/ Obama on, tried to turn practically every issue back to her "strong suit" of energy policy in Alaska, referred repeatedly to the Bush administration as "ancient history" and pretty much exceeded all expectations because she wasn't as horrible as she's been up to this point in interviews. Ain't democracy great?

Biden looked and sounded like a Vice President. Palin looked and sounded like the Assistant Manager at the local Krispy Kreme.

My throw-something-at-the-tv moment was during the debate but in the post-debate coverage on NBC which was flat out atrocious. Here the Republican strategy of working the refs paid off in spades as NBC anchors and guests spun the debate hard as a Palin win.

Cut to Brian Williams and Dan Rather who both quickly agreed Palin cleaned Biden's clock. Then to Peggy Noonan who claimed Palin "killed." Then to Geraldine Ferraro who called it a split but though Palin did great and couldn't remember Barack Obama's name. Then to three panelists, two of which thought Palin won with the third calling it a tie. Nice to know right wing bitching about NBC could so easily put them in the bag for their side.

Bottom line: I think many of us are tired of waking up in the morning and realizing we're quite a bit smarter than our President and Vice President. It's disconcerting. The last thing we need is John McCain and Sarah Palin to continue that proposition.

If you don't know then nobody knows but I know you know and you should know better.

We interupt our October horror film quotes for a Chrissy Snow update.

Sarah Palin will not win tonight's debate despite the bar being lowered so far it's currently burried at about six feet under.

In addition I would really wish guys online would stop referring to her as a "MILF." There is nothing milfy or in the least bit attractive about her. But then I'm attracted to smart women so there you are. Phhhtttt!

Then there's this bit of satire which sadly doesn't read as satire.

"In one part of the interview, I asked her what newspapers and magazines she read before being asked to be John McCain's running mate," Couric said. "And she couldn't name any. So again, I turned to the crew and I said, 'Hold it, guys,' and I went to the Governor privately and said, 'Governor Palin, did you not understand the question? I'm asking you to name some newspapers or magazines you read. You can't come up with any? I'm just trying to make sure you're clear and to give you a fair shake here.' And she said, 'Okay. Nightline? Is that a magazine?' I said, 'No, that's a television show.' She said, 'What about Lou Dobbs? Isn't that a newspaper?' And I said, 'No, that's a man. Lou Dobbs is a man.' And there wasn't much more I could do. I'm not a miracle worker."

God will not damn a poor lunatic's soul. He knows that the powers of evil are too great for those with weak minds.

It's bad enough that these students at local Christian college George Fox University hung an image of Barack Obama in effigy but the wingnut responses to this incident in the comment section are priceless.

Americans should be outraged at the biased coverage in this election. This story about a bunch of crazy kids makes the headlines and there isn’t a single mention about the Gwen Ifill scandal.

It's just not fair that the media cover this clear act of racism over our wingnut tantrum du jour.

If the effigy had been John McCain, this incident would not have made the news, and nothing would have been done to the students. Seems Barky is always going to get a pass based on race. God Bless America.

Since McCain's about as white as Thurston Howell I don't think we need to worry about racist students hanging an effigy of him.

No doubt what these students did was wrong but where is the outrage when the same thing is done to an image of our soldiers ?

True. We save our outrage for what you assholes did to our ACTUAL soldiers by sending them off to a pointless war in Iraq.

The stupid--- it burns!!

To a new world of gods and monsters!

I wrote this yesterday morning but didn't get it finished. In light of the Senate's asshattery today I'm going to add a little update at the end.

Here's how I would sum up the state of things in Washington right now with the financial crisis.

A = A lame duck President who may be sincere about the need for action or may be cynically using the crisis to rob the federal piggy bank one last time before he leaves office.

B = The Democratic leadership (Pelosi/ Reid) who believe they need to do something or they'll get blamed with the inevitable collapse.

C = The actual Democratic segment of the Democratic congress who won't sign on to any plan that doesn't help regular Americans through this crisis.

D = Die hard Republican members of congress who want to use this crisis to push through more deregulation. Plus they want to pose as populists who actually care what voters think.

A proposed the original $700 billion dollar bailout and in negotiation with B they worked out a "compromise" that was really just the initial plan with progressive bobbles attached.

C and D hated the plan and torpedoed it. After the vote D blamed B for their votes because B said something mean about them.

There appears to no situation in which A and B working together will be able to provide a bill that would appeal to either or both C and D.

Any solution generated by D would be no solution at all and should be rejected out of hand. They need to be removed from the equation.

I say we let C propose a solution and push it through. They seem to be the only group that have the country's best interests in mind.

UPDATE 10/1 - The absolute worse thing we could do would be to ignore my suggestion about rejecting solutions from D out of hand, but that appears to be exactly what Senate Democrats are trying to do.

Fuckers are tacking right. God, I hate our Democratic leadership.

A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.

The talk yesterday around my house was why in the hell the Oregonian had agreed to distribute copies of the anti-islamic video Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West to it's subscribers.

(This DVD video now serves as a coaster on our coffee table by the way. )

Apparently we're a little late to the party on this video as it appears this controversy's been brewing for a while nationally and locally. In Portland the mayor actually asked the publisher of the Oregonian Fred Stickel not to put the inserts in the paper.

The mayor's office said he wrote to the publisher of the paper: "The Mayor reviewed the video and personally asked Fred Stickel, Oregonian publisher, not to distribute it in next Sunday's issue. The Mayor felt that the tenor of the video contributes towards a climate of distrust towards Muslims that holds the entire Muslim community accountable for the actions of a dangerously misguided few. Distributing with the Oregonian lends the video an impression of objectivity and legitimacy it does not deserve."

Of course Stickel refused and published the paper with the video advertisment anyway--

The report by Bill Graves revealed that Fred Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, said the newspaper is treating the DVD as it does other paid advertising or product inserts.

"I've always felt we have an obligation to keep our advertising columns as open as possible," said Stickel, after viewing the DVD. "Our acceptance of anything -- our acceptance or rejection -- does not depend on whether or not we agree with the content. . . . There is a principle of freedom of speech involved here. I could find no reason to reject this."

With this in mind I'm sending the following letter to the advertising editor at the Oregonian--

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a filmmaker that has recently completed my first feature length film entitled "Hitler Was Misunderstood, But Even If He Wasn't He Was Right Anyway." The video is entirely educational. I would like to include free DVD copies in the Sunday edition of the paper. What would be the cost of that? Also; I see from your website that you have no restrictions on content. Nevertheless I will keep the swastikas on the video cover small.

Yours under the First Amendment,

Feldwebel Wormer

If you want a serious response to this garbage check out this website.

UPDATE: PJ points out there was also attack against a mosque this last weekend. I suppose that's another example of Stickel's Free Speech.

Yeah. I guess I gotta find my own way.

Lots of videos of Paul Newman around this weekend so don't feel the need to comment on this. For me personally one of my favorite Newman roles was as Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Sometimes these tributes to actors when they die can be a bit silly. They were just actors after all.

Not Newman. He was something more.