Not Funny

Ken AshfordElection 2008, IranLeave a Comment

John McCain once again "jokes" about his desire to kill Iranians.  And he’s not talking about the Iranian military or anything — he’s joking about killing Iranians. I guess that’s good red meat for the conservative masses, but the targets of McCain’s blood lust "joke" are ordinary Iranian civilians. I know it’s easy to think of Iran has some sandy … Read More

Better Conservative Columnists, Please

Ken AshfordElection 2008, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Jonah Goldberg starts his column in today’s L.A. Times this way: Forced servitude in America? The U.S. already has high rates of volunteerism, but that’s apparently not good enough for our presidential candidates. There’s a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to … Read More

McCain = Bush

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

Interesting happenings yesterday at a public McCain rally. Carole Kreck, a 61 year librarian was waiting in line at the Denver Center for Performing Arts to attend the John McCain town hall meeting. She held a sign that said "McCain = Bush." McCain’s security detail told her to leave. The police were called. They issued her a ticket for trespassing … Read More

I’m No Economist, But….

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & Deficit, Election 2008, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

….this makes no sense to me.  From Mike Allen’s piece just out in The Politico … The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction. What does … Read More

Convention Fight

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

Two months ago, Democrats were wringing their hands about the possibility of a party-rending convention battle between the Hillary minions and the Barack minions, with the superdelegates caought in the middle. Remeber that?  Ahhhhh, good times. But according to today’s Washington Post, the convention battle might be on the GOP side: Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies … Read More

Read Maureen Dowd

Ken AshfordElection 20081 Comment

She’s surprisingly good today, as she takes on the Rove meme that Obama is a country-club elite.  Here’s a taste: Karl Rove was impressed with Barack Obama when he first met him. But now he sees him as a “coolly arrogant” elitist. This was Rove’s take on Obama to Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club Monday, according to Christianne Klein … Read More

Dobson: Obama is “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter”

Ken AshfordElection 2008, Godstuff2 Comments

I’m going to assume this is a craven attempt for publicity, because on logical and argumentative grounds, Dobson isn’t saying much.  From the AP: As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution. The … Read More

The Country I Love

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

"Country I Love": They’re running it on a very aggressive 18 state play that includes Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Virginia.  The ad does a good job of reminding people that Obama’s mom was white, and that he’s not — you know — a Muslim (as many wingnuts suggest), or an effete ivory tower liberal (as … Read More

Tax Policies of McCain and Obama

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & Deficit, Election 2008Leave a Comment

The Tax Policy Center today released an exhaustive comparison of the tax plans of Barack Obama and John McCain. The graph below shows the change in income (up being more income, down being less income) under the Obama (blue) and McCain (reddish) tax plans. Bottom line:  The people who need money the most will benefit most from Obama’s plan; the … Read More

Prez Race Tight In NC

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

Rasmussen. 6/10. Likely voters. MoE 4% (5/8 results) McCain (R) 45 (48) Obama (D) 43 (45) The internals: 6/10  Total   Men Wom  GOP Dem Other McCain  45     45  45   88  16  36 Obama   43     43  43    6  76  39 5/8   Total   Men Wom  GOP Dem Other McCain  48     52  44   81  20  49 Obama   45     … Read More

The Religious Vote In 2008

Ken AshfordElection 2008, GodstuffLeave a Comment

Barna, the pre-eminent pollers of religion-related issues, says the landscape is changing: The Christian community in the U.S. has largely shifted its loyalty to the Democratic nominee in this year’s race. In the 2004 election, 81% of evangelicals voted for the Republican incumbent George W. Bush. Currently, 78% of the likely voters who are evangelical expect to vote for Sen. … Read More

Bobby We Hardly Knew Ye

Ken AshfordElection 2008, History1 Comment

40 years ago today (from the movie "Bobby"): Real footage: The funeral train: The L.A. Times has a nice rememberance page. Is history repeating itself? Through both violent tragedy and political intrigue, Election 1968 had been transformed from a hopeful opportunity to change the country into an ugly case study of how easy it is to snuff out idealism and … Read More