So Close, Yet So Far

Hey! The Phillies didn't lose last night!

You may say: "that's because they didn't play last night." I just prefer to remain positive, okay?

There's not a lot to think positively about in terms of the Phils right now. Although the Phillies had a day off, the Mets and Brewers did not and they both won (thanks a lot, Chicago). That means that the Phillies are only 1 game ahead of the Mets. The Mets and the Brewers are tied for the Wild Card. There are 3 teams and 2 spots, so someone is getting screwed here. We may be in the best position, but this weekend is going to be a veritable mess of last-series-of-the-season-oh-my-god-anyone-can-make-the-playoffs-now-because-the-Phillies-didn't-win-last-week. So yeah, the Mets now play the Marlins at home, the Brewers play the Cubs at home, and the Phils get the Nats at home. We definitely on paper have the easiest team to play at this point, but the Nats have really given us trouble this whole season. I think (and hope and pray) that the Marlins are the toughest challenge because they too have been tough this season. Although the Cubs are the best team of the 3, I doubt they will play up to full potential because they have already won their playoff spot and can just phone it in. So on Monday I may be elated or furiously depressed.

In terms of other sports this weekend, Penn State (12) plays Illinois (22) tomorrow in their first real challenge of the season. It's the sexy prime-time game on at 8 on ABC. On Sunday, the Eagles also get the prime-time slot against Chicago.

Daily Dose

There Is Just Too Much To Say Today

Just how did the Treasury come up with $700 billion figure for the bailout? A complex algorithim? Carefully analyzed financial data? An estimate of the overall loss of assets of major financial institutions?

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

Please wake me up, this cannot be our reality right now.

Pardon My Incredulousness

Okay, I know a lot of blogs are posting this today, but my god. I didn't think it would be this bad. I mean, I knew she wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but I thought she could at least speak coherently.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Wonkette has great coverage of this and of the subsequent Four Questions journalists were allowed to ask her today.

Let me ask you this. Can you identify which statement was made by Governor Sarah Palin, vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party, and Ms. Lauren Caitlin Upton, former Miss South Carolina?

a) I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade -- we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.
b) I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as. And I believe that they should, uh, our education over here! In the U.S. should help the U.S., or, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.

And let me ask you this: if you hadn't watched the Miss South Carolina video over and over last year (or whenever it was), would you have known the difference?

Onion Article That Made Me LOL

Cash-Strapped NPR Launches 'A Couple Things Considered'

September 22, 2008 | Issue 44•39

WASHINGTON—Facing major cutbacks, National Public Radio has been forced to retool and relaunch its popular program All Things Considered as a truncated newscast that now only considers a couple, maybe three things per show. "We'd love to consider all things, but the reality is we no longer have the resources necessary to do so," host Michele Norris said following the new show's first broadcast, in which rising gas prices and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis were considered. "We'll still be able to mention six or seven things, gloss over four, and reference five, but we cannot afford to give every single thing our full consideration. Perhaps we were biting off more than we could chew in the first place." A Couple Things Considered is just one of many new shows brought about by budget constraints, along with NPR's recently launched Bicycle Talk and Public Radio International's This Tri-State Area Life.

I Went to a Hip Hop Show

So I went to a show last night at the 9:30 Club. Not just any show, a hip hop show. Yes, I do believe that nabs me two more points on Stuff White People Like (see #71 and #107). I was surprised to see that not only was I not the only white person there, but I wasn't even the whitest white person there (and neither were my white companions). This may have something to do with the fact that it was a producer battle. It's a known fact that white people can't rap and often look stupid doing so, but it's acceptable for them to at least try to come up with some good beats for other to rap over (see: Mark Ronson). So these producers went head to head with their beats, the first producer playing his beat and then his opponent playing his, and then they go back and forth again. Then the crowd voted and the winner moved on to the next round.

It was fun! The beats were fairly simple enough that I could bob my head in rhythm. There weren't any words, so I couldn't feel stupid not knowing the lyrics or feel uncomfortable not understanding references. It was probably the best white-girl's introduction to live hip hop. And then Wale came on to rhyme a little bit. He was actually who I came to see, but wound up missing. I had to go home early because I have a knee injury and the couple of hours of standing was starting to hurt me. But I heard he was good, albeit brief. And everyone went home happy. The End.

American Exceptionalism

Roger Cohen has an editorial in the NYT today that really resonates with me. It's a topic I've been thinking a lot about recently and always seems to become especially apparent during general election years; Cohen calls it "American exceptionalism." In my head, it sounds more like American superiority complex, but that's why Cohen writes for the NYT and I don't. His piece delves briefly into the topic, drawing comparisons between what American exceptionalism means to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. I think it's a pretty objective analysis, but I'm biased myself, so who knows. But yeah, worth a read.

Daily Dose

Better Have Your Tee-Times Reserved

Long story short, the Phillies lost to the Braves again last night, an abysmal 10-4. Brett Myers has returned to Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jeckyll and is pitching horribly. The hot hitting of the past few weeks from some players has just cooled off terribly, save for Mr. Ryan Howard.

Earth to the Phillies: you are not the Mets. So stop blowing this playoff chance and start playing hungry. Yeah, we felt comfortable a few days ago at 2.5 ahead of the Mets for the NL East and the Brewers for the Wild Card. But now that lead has shrunk to 1.5--and that's only because the Cubs saved you last night by beating the Mets in extra innings.

The Mets play today while you have off. If they had won last night, you would be tied. Hear that? TIED. This is somehow reminiscent of last season, except now you are the team with everything to lose. The Mets are the ones who are supposed to fail, not you. You all are saying "One game at a time," "we're not looking to the playoffs," and "let's not get ahead of ourselves." Well, maybe you should start thinking ahead if it will make you play a little better; stop expecting little of yourselves because we, the fans, expect everything.

There are three games left. We can't afford any more losses. On your day off today, see how it feels a little bit. Do you like sitting at home watching other teams play? Because that's what you're going to be doing in about a week when the playoffs start if you don't start playing like the great team we know you can be.

Bullet Thoughts

Okay so the McCain campaign suspension thing happened pretty quickly yesterday and I've been busy (I went to a hiphop show, watched Project Runway, and slept...more on these things later), so I have had a lot of different gut reactions and brief analysis going on in my head about the whole thing. I can't seem to form a coherent essay about it at the moment, so I'll just give you the bullet points:

• Suggested moving the debate to October 2--the date of the VP debate--and then moving the VP debate to an unidentified later date. Isn't that convenient? He's afraid his gimmick VP pick will not perform well, even after her foreign policy crash course photo op this week, that he needs to reschedule the last crucial weeks of the election campaigns.
• The American people deserve to hear from the horses' mouths exactly what the candidates think and say about the issues. That's what the debates are for. This especially goes for McCain, who has seemingly flipped on a lot of issues in a short amount of time, and who prefers not talking with reporters and only giving recorded statements without the opportunity for questions. It's time for him to start being accountable.
• I agree with Letterman--you can't take a "time-out" as President. A good leader surrounds himself with competent team members who could foreseeably take over if necessary. McCain doesn't trust Palin to take over his "campaign" for a few days? What does that say about her? More importantly, what does that say about his leadership skills?
• He never actually stopped campaigning--only canceled Letterman, went on Katie Couric, still has other speeches, hasn't stopped collecting campaign money, hasn't stopped ads.
• McCain admittedly knows little about the economy--how is he going to all the sudden step up and save it?
• Another note on leadership---you have competent people on committees for reasons. Those on the congressional committees are working on the bill because that's what they're good it. As a good leader, you let the people who have the expertise and step in only when there is a standstill. There was no standstill in Congress, they just weren't sure how people would vote.
• Barney Frank came out and said they were pretty much done and were just working out the small details--what would McCain be able to do?

Now I know this all sounds like ranting, and it is. I'm not pretending to be completely objective here, but this is how I see it: McCain's campaign has turned this crucially important election in the middle of major major problems into a circus of stunts and gimmicks.

Josh Marshall at TPM says it best I think:

"One of the advantages of running a presidential campaign is that roughly half the country is deeply committed to believing or at least saying that virtually anything you do or say makes sense. And so it is here. But, look, if you were living in the real world, if you were some hotshot young executive at a Fortune 500 company trying to rise in the ranks, and you pulled some whacked crap like this, it would probably get you blackballed permanently. People would think you were either deeply unreliable or maybe just had a screw loose. And yet here he is -- is he kidding? He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog at my homework' in history."

I Walk Away From the Computer for TWO HOURS

And look what happens! I can't even talk about it right now, I'm afraid I will burst a blood vessel. Suspend the campaign? Postpone the debate? WTF to the nth. How is dragging your campaign and all of the press hoopla (oh, I forget, he doesn't talk to them) to Washington going to depoliticize the discussion about the bailout package? NEWS FLASH, JOHN MCCAIN: This country is going through real problems here, okay? This is really not the time to play "Call My Bluff, Suckahs." Postponing a debate with only 40 days to go before the election is not going to give us any idea of how you would fix these problems.

Do us all a favor and suspend your campaign indefinitely.

Also, I have yet to see evidence that the entire economy will, in fact, implode at the strike of midnight on Friday if the administration's proposal is not passed. Calling Naomi Klein. Looks like it's so bad that they may need to cancel the election....

Daily Dose

Also, if you haven't already and get the chance to watch the whole episode, I really recommend it. Bill Clinton is the guest and it's a great interview, even though (not surprisingly) Bill does most of the talking. I did notice a few things, though:

1) Was Bill Clinton nervous to talk to Jon Stewart? He was visibly shaking during the interview.
2) Bill Clinton, man with the pinkest face ever, should never wear a pale-pink tie. It's never good to unintentionally match your accessories with your skin color.
3) Barack Obama Barack Obama Barack Obama

Instead of Just Complaining About the Bailout...

...suggest an alternative. I like what Bob Kuttner at The American Prospect has to say.

Take a Breather

This week has been horribly depressing for a lot of reasons (the economy, the election, etc.), so let's just take a break and watch the best music video ever made to the best song ever written, shall we?

This Just In: Maureen Dowd Makes No Fucking Sense

I read Maureen Dowd's NYT column weekly for a good laugh and sometimes to get my heart rate going. She is such an arrogant blow-hard who decries sexism and criticizes Hillary Clinton's hair-do in the same breath. Although I sense that she shares a similar liberal idealism to my own, her columns are more focused on those Zing! moments than making any cogent argument. The only intelligent pieces I've seen come out of her colum were written by other people (see: Colbert, Stephen and Sorkin, Aaron). Today is no exception.

The first paragraph of the post today reads:

"I don’t agree with those muttering darkly that the picture of Gov. Sarah Palin with a perky smile and shapely gams posing with a pleased Henry Kissinger, famous for calling power the ultimate aphrodisiac, is a sign of the apocalypse.

It isn’t even a sign of the apocalipstick."

Oh, whoa-ho! How long have you been saving up that apocalipstick line? She continues on, hypothesizing snarkily about Palin's meeting with Kissinger and then somehow winds up doing what she loves to do most: striking down the Clintons.

Thanks for really providing some insight there, Maureen. Your column really furthers the national conversation. Great piece of edititorial work.