Brains in the new Economy Size!

McCain attempts to reinvent himself, again.

( And hopes no one notices )

And Carly Fiorina is off the Straight Talk Express because she talked too straight!

( The underside of the STE bathes in more blood! )

Ruth Marcus says she's fed up with McCain's "True Whoppers."

( Brad and Andrew disagree. )

McCain, who "doesn't understand the economy," now claims to understand the economy because he's a member of the Commerce Committee.

( But it's the Banking and Finance Committees that do the job he claims to have had. )

Who benefits from the candidate's tax plans?

( Freakonomics, Chartjunk, and more! )

To know her is not to like her

( Sarah Palin's popularity tanks 16 points in six days )

John McCain invented WiFi!

( Al Gore's got nothing on this man! )

McCain calls for a "9/11 Commission" to investigate the finance crisis

( A noun, a verb, a tragedy. )

Palin says she fired Monegan because he was 'too aggressive' in going after child molestors.

( No, really. That's her story, and she's sticking to it. )

"I understand the economy! You've got to believe me when I say that!"

( Another gaffe, another idiocy. )

Busy life...

I had a busy day yesterday. After a full day at the office, I rode the bus home and pounded out another 400 words on a story I'm not quite feeling yet. Okay, so basically I want Wish's take on what it's like to boink a Sterling, but why? What point am I making? Is it a meditation on Wish's Zen (first mentioned in Decadence in December) and the way it interacts with her strong-but-passive sex drive (I know, a funny contradiction, but there are a lot of women like that: who want to be wanted, but aren't quite up to saying, "How do I convince you to want me, and how will I know it?"), or do I want to comment on the bittersweetness of Buddhist sex, or maybe a look at how Wish navigates the Borderlands. Hmm.

Anyway, got home and was plunged into homelife. Did the dishes and managed to slip a knife or something under my right thumbnail, which is now excrutiating and making it hard to type. Made dinner, tacos with a home made spice mix. I found a knife sharpener that I like and slicing and dicing the tomatoes was a pleasure for once, even with my aching thumb. Helped Kouryou-chan find her bicycle helmet, and replaced the tires on Omaha's bicycle from the mountain treads to the street treads. I discovered that my own front wheel is completely out of true, but it was too dark to do anything by the time I was done with Omaha's. Fed and watered the cat.

I've been doing the one hundred push-ups thing. I'm through the first week, so far so good. I noticed, as I was looking at the home page, that there's an advertisement in the lower left-hand corner for a "hard-core belly." It leads to an exercise and diet regime that you have to pay money for, but it occured to me that there's a much simpler answer, especially if you're already doing the One Hundred thing. If the push-ups only take a few minutes a day, and I do seem to be on the curve they recommended to 100, then... what if on alternating days (since the push-up thing is every other day), I did bicycle crunches on the exact same schedule?

We'll see how it goes.

Too Much Liberal Media!

Last night, while I was making dinner, I put on Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World schtick. I have to say that the last two were very lame; first, he toshes at Rupert Murdoch for what sounded an awful lot like personal reasons, and then he went after Sarah Palin for owning a tanning bed to "fight Seasonal Affective Disorder" and wondering if she'd ever been diagnosed or treated for it, an unreflective and sleazy line without supporting evidence. (I will say that owning a tanning bed is as "all-American" as owning a Utilikilt. A Utilikilt is the official uniform of aging Generation X geeks and nerds; a tanning bed is apparently an official accoutrement of Alaskan white trash. We're a country of idiosyncracies.)

But I paused it after the Murdoch episode to go attend to dinner, and the girls both walked in, looked at my laptop and, at the same time and in the correct cadence, suddenly shouted out, "The Worst Person in the World!" And then Kouryou-chan said, "Oh, he's always on there."

"Which one?"

"The one on the right. With the big head. He's always on there."

That would be Bill O'Reilly, of course.

The Retractable Brain

Every once in a while, it's necessary to spank yourself for the mistakes you've made.

Let's go through them.

It looks as if the Mitt Romney video is actually several months old, back when they were both slugging it out for the nomination. Mitt has been mum on the subject of the McCain candidacy ever since the Republican National Convention.

While there have been a number of articles about "push-polling," it looks more like this is a test case for push-polling. The poll takes too long; they're earnestly collecting data, rather than just trying to misinform voters. But it looks like they're collecting data on which negative message about Obama is most effective with certain kinds of voters.

And we should be fair to Sarah Palin. We do not have any reason to believe that she has ever read Westbrook Pagler, the anti-Jewish writer who once wished both Roosevelt and Kennedy dead. Indeed, we should have every reason to suspect any claim that she's ever read any book whatsoever. That line was written by a McCain scriptwriter, who probably borrowed it from Pat Buchanan who, for all his faults, does have the intellectual curiosity to have read Westbrook Pagler.

Happy Constitution Day!

As President Bush dutifully reminds us, today is Constitution Day, a day in which we are supposed to read our Constitution of the United States and remember what it's all about.

With that in mind, I quote liberally from other websites and, in a non-partisan manner, remind you of what's at stake 48 days from now and present you with Article II of the Constitution of the United States:

• Shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States;
• He may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and
• He shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
• He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and
• He shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
• The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
• He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;
• He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper;
• He shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers;
• He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and
• Shall commission all the officers of the United States.