The US political debacle

Turtle on 9/10/2008 at 03:27

Personally, I'm waiting for the movie.

(http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/adg/836109998.html)

Fafhrd on 9/10/2008 at 04:13

You won't have long to wait Turtle, (http://www.collider.com/entertainment/news/article.asp/aid/9384/tcid/1) she's already been cast.

Ko0K on 9/10/2008 at 04:23

Scripted porn isn't doing too well these days. They should shoot it in night vision and market it as a home-made clip.

Turtle on 9/10/2008 at 04:47

And cast someone who could possibly bear a passing resemblance to Palin if you squint, get drunk, put her in a shitload of make-up and use your imagination.

Fafhrd on 9/10/2008 at 05:29

Thanks to the miracle of SCIENCE, someone was able to record McCain's thoughts during the (http://www.collider.com/entertainment/news/article.asp/aid/9384/tcid/1) first and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWrZgsPk-Qc) second debate. I imagine this technique was attempted on Palin during the VP debate, but only recorded static.

Muzman on 9/10/2008 at 08:20

Quote Posted by Starrfall

Double-posting to laugh my ass off at how little the republicans have left.
(http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10091952&ch=4226716&src=news)

Here's the cover: (http://cerberus.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/c1/c132dc34f59686cce631c1c6f853d2844e574c64.jpg)

(The video is fox news manufacturing outrage over the cover, which is apparently a HUGE SLAP IN THE FACE because it's NOT AIRBRUSHED and it makes her look SO UGLY)

edit: POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS

I really must stay out of this but..but
People talk like this. On the news. Where you live.
I really don't want to be smug foreign guy but Oh My Fucking God.
I don't care who you're voting for; everyone from TTLG, get out. Now. If I show this to people the city of Perth will be happy to billet the lot of you until you can get set up. Immigration amnesty as soon as anyone sees this. Seriously. Party at my place.

In other news; I'm not paying much attention to all this but McCain apparently played the stupid card a couple of times in the debate, to the horror and amusement of many. He tried to '(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/mccains-planetariophobia/) gotcha' Obama for rorting 3million for an 'overhead projector' at a planetarium. Hmmm yeas. Whoever dug this up was close I guess. It is a projector and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss_projector) it does project overhead

Starrfall on 9/10/2008 at 13:49

We can't leave, we have to try to fix it.

On the bright side, Michelle Obama was on Larry King and the Daily show yesterday and she is excellent. ((http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=187586&title=michelle-obama-pt.-1) Here's part one of daily show.)

Gryzemuis on 9/10/2008 at 14:25

Quote Posted by Muzman

He tried to '(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/mccains-planetariophobia/) gotcha' Obama for rorting 3million for an 'overhead projector' at a planetarium. Hmmm yeas. Whoever dug this up was close I guess. It is a projector and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss_projector) it does project overhead

Obama's take: "It's a complex projection system for a planetarium. Planetaria are good for educating children (and grownups) about physics and the universe we are in. And education is what this country needs most".

McCain's take: "Waste of money. The Sun circles around Earth. It's in the Bible. Everybody knows that. No need for planetariums".

Starrfall on 9/10/2008 at 14:30

The other funny thing about that is that if you look at usaspending.gov (brought to you by Barack Obama) you can very easily search and find that the Adler planetarium didn't get anywhere NEAR 3 million (and didn't get the projector earmark). But then McCain is a rather confused man who has trouble keeping up to date.

(http://www.usaspending.gov/faads/faads.php?reptype=r&detail=-1&datype=T&sortby=t&database=faads&recip_id=13805&fiscal_year=2007&record_num=f500)

And I'll add that the fact that Obama's government transparency tool can be used to undermine McCain's rantings makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

edit: Even better is using it to find that $2,803,222,422 did go to an Arizona entity (although not at McCain's request) in 2008, which is also the largest amount given to a single entity that fiscal year. (http://www.usaspending.gov/faads/faads.php?recip_id=964840&sortby=u&detail=-1&datype=T&reptype=r&database=faads&fiscal_year=2008&submit=GO)

After utilizing my poor math skills (ie: punching numbers into google, feel free to double check), I conclude this represents a 2500% increase over the earmarks it received in 2007.

This works out to $10,000 per student. To put this in perspective, a year's tuition at UC Berkeley (which is widely considered to be the best public university in the country) is around $9,000.

I also note that according to wikipedia this particular entity is soon going to trial over alleged fraud in obtaining financial aid.

jay pettitt on 16/10/2008 at 11:38

So I've got a history of judging these things badly, but I think if I was the one looking after the Republican purse strings I'd be abandoning the presidential race after last night and concentrating on minimising losses to the senate and congress or whatever it is that you guys in the US are also voting on this season.

To my mind Obama was strong throughout and the class act of the evening, McCain had some good moments but was ultimately betrayed by how out of touch the Republican policy card has become over the last 20 years and it left him floundering. I don't think appealing to Republican traditions by portraying the other guy as a kind of liberal bogeyman is going to get him into the White House this time round.