DAngelus's Blog

DAngelus Commented on Arizona State U. Poll: McCain Barely Ahead In Home State by Eric Kleefeld

2008-10-29T07:45:52Z

I would love to see Obama make a Southern swing, on Friday/Saturday, say. Georgia-Mississippi-Texas-Arizona. Then back to the relatively-compact battleground states arc (Missouri-Indiana-Ohio-Virginia-North Carolina) until Election Day. Make McCain sweat, big time. That would be sweet.

(And, of course, winning those states would be even sweeter. I think Georgia is highly doable, actually.)

DAngelus Commented on A Night At The Congressional Races by Eric Kleefeld

2008-10-29T07:23:21Z

Wow, Cliff Clavin, the girl who could never get out of Jan Hooks's shadow (where is Jan these days? I loved *her*), the runt of the Baldwin litter, some guy (wasn't Davi a Bond villain or something?). and Pat Boone?? Jeez, I've seen bigger "stars" at the checkout lines. (Hey, I was next to Sinbad at Fry's once…) That's just plain embarrassing for the Repugs. Where's Bruce Willis when they need him?

JennOfArk, I'm not going to panic over Mississippi-B until I see another poll. All the polling had this a virtual tie…of all the Republicans in the country, Roger Wicker was the one to show an 8-point rise in his margin? I don't think so…this smells like an outlier to me. JMO.

DAngelus Commented on Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama by Greg Sargent

2008-10-28T01:45:18Z

"Billo the Clown" was third in the key 25-54 demographic in those ratings, not third overall. But still, good news for Keith and Rachel.

DAngelus Commented on Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama by Greg Sargent

2008-10-28T01:39:19Z

Actually, many people (including the guy I shave most mornings) make their living doing fundraising calls for good causes. Current roster of organizations my center is calling for:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America
The National Wildlife Federation
The Nature Conservancy
The National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Greenpeace
AmeriCares

And, oh, yeah…

Obama for America.

(Oh, and we only call previous donors. No cold calling.)

Since this center is calling for McCain/Palin, they may normally be calling for more right-of-center charities (Ducks Unlimited? The Heritage Foundation?), or they may simply have hired on for this one particular campaign, but to automatically class them as predatory scam artists is unfounded and IMO insulting.

And, as HusseinTenaX pointed out, signing up for a no-call list will eliminate commercial solicitations (except from companies you've done business with recently), while still allowing you to get calls for organizations you support. If you're being bothered by commercial calls, the solution is easy to implement. JMO.

DAngelus Commented on The "Real America" Drops its Jaw by DonMooney

2008-10-25T08:54:45Z

Of course, General Bee was killed by Union gunfire shortly after he gave Jackson his nickname. A high price to pay for a famous quote. If he'd said "Run for your lives!" Jackson would have been less-famous, and Bee likely would have been less dead. And so it goes…

DAngelus Commented on A Night At The Congressional Races by Eric Kleefeld

2008-10-25T08:20:09Z

If NY had runoffs instead of plurality winners, we would have had Liz Holtzman in the Senate instead of Alfonse Pothole D'Amato.

Oh, forget 1980! Go back another 10 years and a runoff would have prevented Bill Buckley's brother from sneaking into the Senate with a lousy 38.8% plurality! He would have faced Richard Ottinger in the runoff, Ottinger would have won, and then we wouldn't have been subjected to Daniel Patrick Blowhard Backstabber Moynihan (or, as he looks in retrospect, the Irish Joe Lieberman) winning the seat in '76 and making New York a joke for four terms until he retired and Hillary took it. (No, Pat, I've not forgiven you for when you were tasked by your party with delivering the Democratic response to the budget-busting, safety-net shredding Reagan tax cuts, and then, when the tax bill was being voted on, turned around and voted for it because you had an election coming up and you wanted to cover your fat, self-promoting, ass. You never did jack for the Dems or for working people, you porked and pomped your way through a quarter-century of wasted opportunities for New York to be the leader it should be. At least D'Amato was honest slime for his crowd, you sold us out time and time again. Jerk.)

God, I loved Ottinger. When he returned to the House in 1974, he was my Congressman for the next decade, when I was a teenager, and the Times would print the stories of votes in the House and I would figure out whether or not I supported a measure, and I would check the New York State roll call, and Ottinger would, it seemed, always be on the same side of the issue as I was. It got to the point where if I didn't know how I felt about an issue, I'd check the roll call, see how Ottinger voted, and decide that was my position. Now that's trust in your Congressman.

Damn, if he'd won that election, Ottinger could still be in the Senate (if he chose); he turns 80 in January. Oh, well.

(By the way, I was 7 in 1970; the three specific events I remember from my youth are the moon landing, Buckley winning the election [probably my dad was pretty upset, that's why I paid attention], and the game of August, 26th, 1970, where the Mets blew a 7-1 lead and lost to the Braves, with Hank Aaron hitting the go-ahead home run while we were in the parking lot because Dad wanted to beat the traffic. Dad, clearly, had missed his calling as an L.A. Dodger fan, as we never stayed the whole nine innings. It's because of him [and the fact that whenever we left early, the Mets blew the game] that I never leave any event before it's over, no matter how ridiculous the score. Which I'm actually thankful for, so thanks, Dad.)

DAngelus Commented on Obama Effect Update: Obama Is Going To Win Georgia, And Is Winning Right Now by articleman

2008-10-22T00:30:29Z

Obama winning Georgia would be the cherry on the sundae, but the real prize would be Jim Martin over Saxby Chambliss.

DAngelus Commented on Jim Webb Cuts Ad For Obama, Strongly Defends Him On Guns, American "Greatness" by Greg Sargent

2008-10-15T17:05:13Z

Handgun bans and such are foolish, unconstitutional, and don't help anyone.

They're only "unconstitutional" under the recent decision of the RightWing Roberts Court. Previously there were many decisions that agreed with the idea that "the right to bear arms" was only in terms of the "well-regulated militia" mentioned in the amendment, and that the enactment of the National Guard Act of 1902 made it perfectly okay for municipalities to prevent local gun ownership, should they so choose.

As for "don't help anyone", do you have statistics on handgun-related crime/deaths before and after the imposition of local gun bans? Me, neither. But I would bet there was at least some decrease, relative to population/national trends.

Criminals still get guns,

Yes, a local handgun ban does not completely prevent criminals from obtaining firearms. It does make it harder, though. That's a good thing.

More importantly, it decreases the number of households with a gun in the house. And since the vast majority of gun deaths are NOT from Scary Strangers killing honest citizens, but from drunken spouses settling arguments by serving their partner hot lead, curious kids being fatally rewarded for playing with big boy toys, or suicides availing themselves of an instantaneous and easy way out, removing the handguns from this equation saves real, preventable, numbers of lives. JMO.

DAngelus Commented on McCain: If I Bring Up Ayers At Debate, It Will Be Obama's Fault by Greg Sargent

2008-10-14T19:32:51Z

"You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice."

(Points for anyone who can finish that quote and legitimately apply it to McCain-Palin; I couldn't, much though I wanted to.)

It's all *your* fault is the excuse of every wrongdoer since Cain, who wouldn't have had to do anything if Abel hadn't been sucking up to God with that garden of his.

DAngelus Commented on McCain: If I Bring Up Ayers At Debate, It Will Be Obama's Fault by Greg Sargent

2008-10-14T19:31:59Z

"You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice."

(Points for anyone who can finish that quote and legitimately apply it to McCain-Palin; I couldn't, much though I wanted to.)

It's all *your* fault is the excuse of every wrongdoer since Cain, who wouldn't have had to do anything if Abel hadn't been sucking up to God with that garden of his.

DAngelus Commented on McCain: Electing Obama Would Perhaps Be Biggest Risk Ever Taken By American People by Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld

2008-10-14T17:53:17Z

To be fair (not sure why, but let's not descend to their level), McCain does acknowledge that capital losses are an issue now:

I will increase the amount of capital losses from $3,000 to $15,000, which can be deducted from your ordinary income in tax years 2008 and 2009.

But he continues to show utter disrespect for the truth by repeating all the lies that have already been refuted: "Obama voted to raise taxes on people making $42,000 a year", "Obama voted to raise taxes/against tax cuts 94 times". Shut up with the distortions, Grumpy. (By your own methodology, as was pointed out in the debates, you "voted" for "higher taxes", 455 times.)

Meanwhile, McCain keeps the tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. Cuz they're the ones who need help, don't you know?

DAngelus Commented on A Day At The Congressional Races by Eric Kleefeld

2008-10-14T17:10:22Z

The Repub in FL-16 is Tom Rooney, from the family that owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had to spend a lot to win a tough primary, but I presume he has more.

While I'm cheered by the news from PA-03 (Erie, Butler) about Dahlkemper maybe pulling the upset, I'm distressed to see the Dem. incumbent in Joe Biden's own Scranton district (PA-11) running behind. What's up with Kanjorski? Even Chris Carney, who represents the more rural PA-10 and only got in two years ago because incumbent Repub Don Sherwood was caught choking his longtime Peruvian mistress (and also in the Abramoff scandal, IIRC), seems safe, so why is Kanjorski the only Dem struggling to keep his seat around there?

DAngelus recommended $3 Million Overhead Projector? McCain Lie Shows No Understanding of Science or Technology by astral66

2008-10-08T16:12:43Z