Ruby and the Romantics' Greatest Hit?
No cheating now, Net or books. I suggest you mull it over and then let it go, for me often the key to an elusive item I know I know but cannot grab on command. (Answer at end.) If you have it, I believe your innate processes (possibly the same %*&@#$% gremlins that waken us at 4AM?) will ferret out the answer.
The TPM "Election Central Morning Roundup" is not a bad place to start your day, this being one specific example:
Polls: Obama Ahead In Florida, Ohio And Pennsylvania
A new round of Quinnipiac polls gives Barack Obama the lead in the three largest swing states. Obama is ahead 49%-44% in Florida, 52%-38% in Ohio, and 53%-40% in Pennsylvania. The Ohio result seems like an outlier compared to other recent polls showing a tight race, but the others are not unreasonable.
Obama In Indiana, Then Off To Hawaii; Biden In North Carolina
Barack Obama is holding a rally at 11 a.m. ET this morning in Indianapolis, before leaving the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii. Joe Biden is campaigning in North Carolina, with a 10:30 a.m. ET rally in Charlotte, a 2:15 p.m. ET rally in Winston-Salem, and a 7 p.m. ET rally in Raleigh.
McCain In Florida; Palin In Ohio And Pennsylvania
John McCain is kicking off his officially-themed "Joe The Plumber" rallies, with a 9 a.m. ET rally in Osmond Beach, Florida, and a 6 p.m. ET rally in Sarasota, Florida. Sarah Palin is holding a 1 p.m. ET rally in Troy, Ohio, and a 7:15 p.m. ET rally in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Mellencamp In New Radio Ad: Obama Is The One For Small -Town Voters
The Obama campaign has a radio ad in Indiana featuring the state's favorite son John Mellencamp, whose famous "I was born in a small town" lyrics puts him in a good position to subtly rebut any objections to Obama's own "small town" gaffe from April:
"But now I'm seeing small towns across America dying," Mellencamp says. "Folks losing their jobs and their homes. Eight years of George Bush have really hurt. And John McCain is just more of the same."
Another Poll Shows Narrow Obama Lead In North Carolina: A new poll from North Carolina-based Marshall Marketing gives Barack Obama a 48%-46% in this newly-minted swing state, within the ±4.5% margin of error. In their previous poll from two weeks ago, McCain had a 48%-46% edge.
Obama At Rally: "This Looks Like The Real Virginia To Me": At a rally yesterday in Leesburg, Virginia, Barack Obama rebutted the "Real Virginia" comments of McCain surrogate Nancy Pfotenhauer. "I know some folks may not think so, but this looks like the real Virginia to me," Obama said. "This looks like authentic Virginia and y'all look like a bunch of Virginians."
Schwarzenegger: Palin Will Be Ready By Inauguration Day: In an interview aired yesterday evening on CNN, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did his best to defend Sarah Palin's qualifications. When asked whether Palin is ready and qualified, the Terminator answered: "By the time that she is sworn in I think she will be ready.
Award-winning sandwich-board I savored on lower First Avenue the other day
In his debate yesterday with Larry Kissell, Robin Hayes now has a new explanation for why he said "liberals hate real Americans." First he didn't say it, then the audio clip surfaced, and now -- it was all because of liberal bloggers! (see video clip above).
I'm personally quite thrilled that we've become such great all-purpose bogeyman. I feel like I need a foot rub and a cigarette.
Peter Daou has a thoughtful piece looking back on the growth of the netroots at the Huffington Post, entitled "On November Fourth, the Netroots Should Be More Than an Afterthought":
If there's one thing I learned, it's that you never get credit for being right too early. Just ask Howard Dean. But it's been fun to be a part of all this nonetheless.
Meanwhile, House GOP officials have leaked a "death list" of most vulnerable seats, and it includes Hayes. It may be a smoke screen, however, since the NRCC is pouring money into Hayes' district and Larry Kissell doesn't have enough money to run television ads.
If you feel like pounding another nail into Robin Hayes' coffin like the ghoulish fiend you no doubt are, you can donate to Blue America candidate Larry Kissell here.
I try to routinely peruse Froomkin's column. He can be quite useful for one trying to drag at least some sense out of the cacophony:
-clip-
With the dead weight of the last eight years sinking his campaign, Republican presidential candidate John McCain yesterday made his most vigorous attempt yet to throw President Bush overboard.
McCain had previously relied mostly on zingers to counter the charge that he is running for a third Bush term. But perhaps recognizing that wasn't doing the trick -- the two men do, after all, share positions on core issues such as tax cuts and national security -- McCain is now describing his areas of disagreement with the incumbent in greater detail, and in so doing, adding his voice to the already considerable chorus of Bush critics.
Joseph Curl and Stephen Dinan write in the Washington Times: "Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat.
"'We just let things get completely out of hand,' he said of his own party's rule in the past eight years.
"In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. McCain lashed out at a litany of Bush policies and issues that he said he would have handled differently as president. . . .
"'Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously,' Mr. McCain said in an interview with The Washington Times aboard his campaign plane en route from New Hampshire to Ohio.
"'Those are just some of them,' he said with a laugh, chomping into a peanut butter sandwich as a few campaign aides in his midair office joined in the laughter."
Curl and Dinan write that McCain "rejected Mr. Bush's use of issuing 'signing statements' when he signs bills into law, in which the president has suggested that he would ignore elements of the bills, labeling them potentially unconstitutional.
"'I would veto the bills or say, "Look, I don't like it but I'll obey the law that's passed by Congress and signed by the president." I think the signing statements was not a correct implementation of the power of the executive. I think it was overstepping,' he said.
"And Mr. McCain emphatically rejected Mr. Bush's claims of executive privilege, often used to shield the White House from scrutiny.
"'I don't agree with that either. I don't agree with [Vice President] Dick Cheney's allegation that he's part of both the legislative and the executive branch,' he said."
-clip-
And Mr. Froomkin also covers this farcical business of Bush summoning world leaders to talk finances next month. I would want to think he should be required by all the Geneva Conventions -observing nations (probably, given the guest list, everyone but the war-criminal US of A) as a matter of attendance to offer up some sort of self-effacing mechanism, since he is so obviously personally locked out of exhibiting humanoid qualities. Maybe some sort of carnival exhibition involving shooting down effigies of w?
Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Mark Landler write in the New York Times: "President Bush will convene leaders of 20 nations in Washington on Nov. 15 for an emergency summit meeting to discuss the economic crisis, the White House said Wednesday. But the session, coming less than two weeks after the presidential election, could put Mr. Bush on a collision course with his successor.
"The White House said Mr. Bush would 'seek the input' of the president-elect, and both the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, and the Democrat, Senator Barack Obama, praised Mr. Bush for convening the session. But neither man committed to attending, and the White House conceded it did not quite know how the meeting would play out. . . .
"[F]rom the American political perspective, the timing -- at the tail end of a lame-duck administration -- is terrible.
"If history is any guide, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain might prefer to steer clear. Historians say Mr. Bush's summit meeting brings to mind similar efforts of another president facing tough economic times, Herbert Hoover. During the Great Depression, in the waning days of his administration, Hoover tried to draw the president-elect, Franklin D. Roosevelt, into policy prescriptions for the economy, but Roosevelt steadfastly resisted.
"'Roosevelt simply did not want to get close to him or be identified with anything he would want to do, because he was terribly unpopular, and the same now exists with George W. Bush,' said the historian Robert Dallek. 'In some ways, he's trying to rescue his reputation, and the last thing Obama or even McCain are going to care about is saving George Bush's reputation.'"
-clip-
And here is tonight's musical interlude, apropos of nothing I can fully account for, but probably therefore incredibly revealing of my inner conflicts, ehh? Probably just the sort of thing my gremlins arouse me with in the wee hours. And that has been happening not infrequently lately - though I may not have the etiology down, I admit. Extra points for recalling album name (year?!) from memory - I certainly could not do that.
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
Cause I've been in love in before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
. . .
So I hope you see that
I would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you.
I'm sure you by now realized that that great chart-topper was "Our Day Will Come." I'm pretty certain I actually possessed the 45 - along with a few other classics like the Cascades' "Rhythm of the Rain." Where that vinyl is now I have no idea.
The TPM "Election Central Morning Roundup" is not a bad place to start your day, this being one specific example:
Polls: Obama Ahead In Florida, Ohio And Pennsylvania
A new round of Quinnipiac polls gives Barack Obama the lead in the three largest swing states. Obama is ahead 49%-44% in Florida, 52%-38% in Ohio, and 53%-40% in Pennsylvania. The Ohio result seems like an outlier compared to other recent polls showing a tight race, but the others are not unreasonable.
Obama In Indiana, Then Off To Hawaii; Biden In North Carolina
Barack Obama is holding a rally at 11 a.m. ET this morning in Indianapolis, before leaving the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii. Joe Biden is campaigning in North Carolina, with a 10:30 a.m. ET rally in Charlotte, a 2:15 p.m. ET rally in Winston-Salem, and a 7 p.m. ET rally in Raleigh.
McCain In Florida; Palin In Ohio And Pennsylvania
John McCain is kicking off his officially-themed "Joe The Plumber" rallies, with a 9 a.m. ET rally in Osmond Beach, Florida, and a 6 p.m. ET rally in Sarasota, Florida. Sarah Palin is holding a 1 p.m. ET rally in Troy, Ohio, and a 7:15 p.m. ET rally in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Mellencamp In New Radio Ad: Obama Is The One For Small -Town Voters
The Obama campaign has a radio ad in Indiana featuring the state's favorite son John Mellencamp, whose famous "I was born in a small town" lyrics puts him in a good position to subtly rebut any objections to Obama's own "small town" gaffe from April:
"But now I'm seeing small towns across America dying," Mellencamp says. "Folks losing their jobs and their homes. Eight years of George Bush have really hurt. And John McCain is just more of the same."
Another Poll Shows Narrow Obama Lead In North Carolina: A new poll from North Carolina-based Marshall Marketing gives Barack Obama a 48%-46% in this newly-minted swing state, within the ±4.5% margin of error. In their previous poll from two weeks ago, McCain had a 48%-46% edge.
Obama At Rally: "This Looks Like The Real Virginia To Me": At a rally yesterday in Leesburg, Virginia, Barack Obama rebutted the "Real Virginia" comments of McCain surrogate Nancy Pfotenhauer. "I know some folks may not think so, but this looks like the real Virginia to me," Obama said. "This looks like authentic Virginia and y'all look like a bunch of Virginians."
Schwarzenegger: Palin Will Be Ready By Inauguration Day: In an interview aired yesterday evening on CNN, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did his best to defend Sarah Palin's qualifications. When asked whether Palin is ready and qualified, the Terminator answered: "By the time that she is sworn in I think she will be ready.
Award-winning sandwich-board I savored on lower First Avenue the other day
- Irish Breakfast
- Irish Coffee
- Irish Whiskey
- Irish I Had the Day Off
In his debate yesterday with Larry Kissell, Robin Hayes now has a new explanation for why he said "liberals hate real Americans." First he didn't say it, then the audio clip surfaced, and now -- it was all because of liberal bloggers! (see video clip above).
I'm personally quite thrilled that we've become such great all-purpose bogeyman. I feel like I need a foot rub and a cigarette.
Peter Daou has a thoughtful piece looking back on the growth of the netroots at the Huffington Post, entitled "On November Fourth, the Netroots Should Be More Than an Afterthought":
We should acknowledge that the netroots kept hope alive when our system of checks and balances was in mortal danger, kept hope alive when civil liberties were fast becoming disposable niceties. We should realize that back when Billmon and Bob Somerby and a gentle soul with a sharp pen named Steve Gilliard were required reading, when Digby was a mystery man and Firedoglake was a new blog with an intriguing name, when citizens across the country began logging on and conversing from the heart, there was no glory in political blogging. There still isn't. No one knew if blogs would become quaint artifacts. Many hoped they would. Blogging was about speaking up for America's guiding principles, liberty, justice, equality, opportunity, democracy.
If there's one thing I learned, it's that you never get credit for being right too early. Just ask Howard Dean. But it's been fun to be a part of all this nonetheless.
Meanwhile, House GOP officials have leaked a "death list" of most vulnerable seats, and it includes Hayes. It may be a smoke screen, however, since the NRCC is pouring money into Hayes' district and Larry Kissell doesn't have enough money to run television ads.
If you feel like pounding another nail into Robin Hayes' coffin like the ghoulish fiend you no doubt are, you can donate to Blue America candidate Larry Kissell here.
I try to routinely peruse Froomkin's column. He can be quite useful for one trying to drag at least some sense out of the cacophony:
-clip-
With the dead weight of the last eight years sinking his campaign, Republican presidential candidate John McCain yesterday made his most vigorous attempt yet to throw President Bush overboard.
McCain had previously relied mostly on zingers to counter the charge that he is running for a third Bush term. But perhaps recognizing that wasn't doing the trick -- the two men do, after all, share positions on core issues such as tax cuts and national security -- McCain is now describing his areas of disagreement with the incumbent in greater detail, and in so doing, adding his voice to the already considerable chorus of Bush critics.
Joseph Curl and Stephen Dinan write in the Washington Times: "Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat.
"'We just let things get completely out of hand,' he said of his own party's rule in the past eight years.
"In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. McCain lashed out at a litany of Bush policies and issues that he said he would have handled differently as president. . . .
"'Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously,' Mr. McCain said in an interview with The Washington Times aboard his campaign plane en route from New Hampshire to Ohio.
"'Those are just some of them,' he said with a laugh, chomping into a peanut butter sandwich as a few campaign aides in his midair office joined in the laughter."
Curl and Dinan write that McCain "rejected Mr. Bush's use of issuing 'signing statements' when he signs bills into law, in which the president has suggested that he would ignore elements of the bills, labeling them potentially unconstitutional.
"'I would veto the bills or say, "Look, I don't like it but I'll obey the law that's passed by Congress and signed by the president." I think the signing statements was not a correct implementation of the power of the executive. I think it was overstepping,' he said.
"And Mr. McCain emphatically rejected Mr. Bush's claims of executive privilege, often used to shield the White House from scrutiny.
"'I don't agree with that either. I don't agree with [Vice President] Dick Cheney's allegation that he's part of both the legislative and the executive branch,' he said."
-clip-
And Mr. Froomkin also covers this farcical business of Bush summoning world leaders to talk finances next month. I would want to think he should be required by all the Geneva Conventions -observing nations (probably, given the guest list, everyone but the war-criminal US of A) as a matter of attendance to offer up some sort of self-effacing mechanism, since he is so obviously personally locked out of exhibiting humanoid qualities. Maybe some sort of carnival exhibition involving shooting down effigies of w?
Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Mark Landler write in the New York Times: "President Bush will convene leaders of 20 nations in Washington on Nov. 15 for an emergency summit meeting to discuss the economic crisis, the White House said Wednesday. But the session, coming less than two weeks after the presidential election, could put Mr. Bush on a collision course with his successor.
"The White House said Mr. Bush would 'seek the input' of the president-elect, and both the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, and the Democrat, Senator Barack Obama, praised Mr. Bush for convening the session. But neither man committed to attending, and the White House conceded it did not quite know how the meeting would play out. . . .
"[F]rom the American political perspective, the timing -- at the tail end of a lame-duck administration -- is terrible.
"If history is any guide, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain might prefer to steer clear. Historians say Mr. Bush's summit meeting brings to mind similar efforts of another president facing tough economic times, Herbert Hoover. During the Great Depression, in the waning days of his administration, Hoover tried to draw the president-elect, Franklin D. Roosevelt, into policy prescriptions for the economy, but Roosevelt steadfastly resisted.
"'Roosevelt simply did not want to get close to him or be identified with anything he would want to do, because he was terribly unpopular, and the same now exists with George W. Bush,' said the historian Robert Dallek. 'In some ways, he's trying to rescue his reputation, and the last thing Obama or even McCain are going to care about is saving George Bush's reputation.'"
-clip-
And here is tonight's musical interlude, apropos of nothing I can fully account for, but probably therefore incredibly revealing of my inner conflicts, ehh? Probably just the sort of thing my gremlins arouse me with in the wee hours. And that has been happening not infrequently lately - though I may not have the etiology down, I admit. Extra points for recalling album name (year?!) from memory - I certainly could not do that.
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
Cause I've been in love in before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
. . .
So I hope you see that
I would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you.
I'm sure you by now realized that that great chart-topper was "Our Day Will Come." I'm pretty certain I actually possessed the 45 - along with a few other classics like the Cascades' "Rhythm of the Rain." Where that vinyl is now I have no idea.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 10:20 PM
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