Sarah Palin for President!

Wow, this is great.  This is Sarah Palin cutting funding for a program that provided housing to teen mothers in Alaska (note her initials, SP by the big cut on the top line).  Gotta love Republicans... They got theirs, and that's all they care about.

Article at the Washington Post.

Simple

Apologies to whoever I stole this from, but here's a great infographic, if you're into that kind of thing:

Getting Closer...

Further evidence for the previous post. I'm aware that this could just be election politics for the Iraqi officials as well, but we haven't seen this before, and it's disharmonious with what Bush/McCain has been and is still saying.

Over Before It Started

What a difference four months makes. Since my last post, a lot has changed in this election, first and foremost being the Democrats just dodging a horrible mistake and getting behind Obama. This week, the most important thing that's happened in this election so far, in my opinion, has unfolded: The Iraqi government has gotten behind Obama's plan for withdrawing American troops by 2010, a long time before McCain's timetable...

While I realize that this is largely a political decision by Al-Maliki, who needs to publicly oppose a continued occupation as often as possible, this still changes the calculous of this war, and this election, considerably. I've always assumed that the US disengagement from Iraq will be under the political cover of the Iraqi government asking us to leave: it's clear that a) the "we've got to finish the job" crowd is never going to go away, and b) we're never going to "finish the job." Thus, the only way where hawks and the military won't lose face is to reluctantly leave under the demand of the Iraqi's, thus nobly appearing to give in to the will of the Iraqis. Anyway, this week's news essentially opens the door to this exit. All we have to do now is elect Obama and we're out.

This does to major things to the election: First, it makes it clear that a vote for Obama is a vote to end the war, period. Second, it also makes McCain's standpoint look out of sync with the "liberation not occupation" rhetoric that has been used so often. Frankly, I think this is the beginning of the end of this war, finally.

GAH!

In case you're reading this in the post-apocolyptic future of a McCain presidency, today was the day we lost the 2008 election:

Snake Oil

The false promise of class mobility, defined:

Later, Tony

I read the

White House Press Briefing

almost daily. I do so for two reasons: First, I think it's an interesting way to get news, or at least an interesting way to learn about what the White House is thinking. Second, I think it's neat (and disgusting) to see how issues are over-analyzed, skated around, and ultimately forgotten by both the press and the White House (although in the latter camp, they're usually the ones trying to make the former forget), and that this is an important window into why "mainstream" journalism and media is so bad in this country. Personally, if I had the power, I'd shut the whole thing down to make reporters do some real work, but while it's here and important, I'll keep reading.

Anyway, Tony Snow, former FOX pundit, stepped down as Press Secretary today. In a job that essentially consists of creative non-answers, he did the dance quite well in a time in which it was pretty hard to keep a straight face while saying the administration is anything less than a dismal failure. Tony, I both despise you for your sliminess and admire you for your quick mind. And I sincerely hope you're in good health.

PS, what's with

pleading poverty on a 168k salary

? That just makes him look like a spoiled fool. Jeez, won't you just say you want to spend more time with your family

like everyone else

?