For Europe, Obama revives positive image of America’s unique identity | csmonitor.com

Leading Paris writer Bernard-Henri Lévy saw two visions of America on Election Day: “The McCain-Palin duo regarded “American dream” as a golden age to rediscover. Obama sees it as a new age to be invented, a model ever in progress … a frontier to explore. In this sense, he is much more faithful to that pioneer spirit that is part of the greatness of America.”

Oh my gosh, what a wonderful article. America is so many things. We are dark and light in so many ways. But we are not simple, nor are we intractable.

Guests for the Sunday TV News Shows – NYTimes.com

So the media is “biased” against Republicans?  Here are the guests for the talk shows this morning.  I took it one step further than Media Matters.

Republican Guests =10
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican
Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican
Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republican
Marsha Blackburn, Republican
Sen. Jon Kyl, Republican
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Republican
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Republican
Newt Gingrich, Republican
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez – Associated with Republican administrations
T. Boone Pickens – One of the engineers and financial supporters of the Swiftboat campaign against John Kerry in 2004.  You tell me.

Democrat Guests = 5
Rep. Barney Frank, Democrat
Sen. Carl Levin, Democrat
Reps. Charles Rangel, Democrat
Byron Dorgan, Democrat
Ted Turner, Associated with Democratic causes and donates heavily to Democratic party

(Shelby?  I’m not sure who this is.)

I have a question for people who think the media is left-biased – If this is so, why wouldn’t Republicans want the Fairness Doctrine on public airwaves act back?  Seriously.  Simple logic says that that they should be all over it if the media was dominated by left wing journalists, pundits, reporters, and thinkers.  But they aren’t.  They are dead set against it.

Left leaning media is a myth.  Republican guests are willing to shout down opponents and state issues in a socially impolite manner, therefore they make television and radio more dramatic than guests from the Democratic party. 

It’s pretty simple.  Most Republican guests are In Yer Face Reality TV and Democrats are C-Span.

Free the GOP

Following the conventional wisdom of the past two presidential elections, McCain tried mightily to assuage the Republican Party’s social-fundamentalist wing. His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose social views are entirely aligned with that wing, as his running mate was clearly meant to demonstrate his commitment to that bloc. Yet while his choice did comfort those voters, it made many others uncomfortable.

Christine Todd Whitman and Robert M. Bostock have an excellent editorial in WaPo. If McCain chose Whitman for his running mate, I’ll bet that he might have taken on those PUMAs and drawn in a lot of the fiscal and social moderates to his side. He wouldn’t have needed the base. If the GOP had run the campaign on honest terms, kept the dishonesty and the overwrought fear-mongering from overwhelming the “rest of us”, they might have had a good chance.

But they didn’t. They kept playing to the extreme social conservatives. When will the GOP realize that the social conservatives want more government in our lives? You can’t talk about getting government out of our lives and then turn around and talk about shoving more control over people’s personal lives down our throats.

I LoL’d.

The New York Times – Hippie Version

It makes Mother Jones look like Ayn Rand.

Even though we were pretty much told to sit down and shut up by nearly every political candidate running, we still voted.

Barna voter survey: Atheists and Agnostics

The second largest faith group in America, trailing only the Christian segment, is atheists and agnostics. These religious skeptics represent about one out of every ten adults. About four out of ten skeptics were registered as Democrats, four out of ten as independents and just two out of ten as Republicans.

Three-fourths of atheists and agnostics (76%) gave their vote to Sen. Obama, while only 23% backed Sen. McCain. That is a step up from the level of support Democrats have previously received from skeptics. In 2004, 64% of atheists and agnostics voted for Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Most of the other atheists and agnostics I know online sent money to various candidates like Obama. There were special pleas online to send money to the coffers of Kay Hagan, who was fighting off Liddy Dole’s special brand of hate. Of course, Hagan turned around and offered up her own special brand of hate right back by suing Dole for slander – Because Dole called her an atheist.

Hang on. When did I become a thing of slander?

Colin Powell got it right for Muslims when he said that Obama is ‘a Christian, but so what if he’s were a Muslim?’.

No one stepped up to the plate for Atheists, but most of us were not surprised. We rolled our eyes, joked, and laughed. We didn’t burn shit or riot in the streets. We barely made a peep outside of our own circles. (There are bus sign campaigns going on now, which I think are tacky. Bleh.)

We’ve been around a long, long time. We were here during the time of Zeus and Odin. We walked silently aghast beside Shamans, chuckled to ourselves as Priests burned the best seeds for better crops, and raised our eyebrows as the Minoans jumped upon bulls. We wondered at the nature of the world around us, but did not believe that it came from supermen in the clouds or goddesses under the sea. We watched the light leave the eyes of the dying and knew somehow that there was no more than this. Some of us asked our questions, challenged the gods, challenged the fearful and the rulers who used that fear. Those of us who were brave enough have always paid the price.

We are far better off than the doubters of yesterday and we know it.

Power Line – The Importance of Being Careful

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.

Obama taking lessons from Bush on thoughtful speaking? Words fail me.

The line about Nancy Reagan was accurate. And funny. He should not have apologized. Unlike a lot of people who read blogs, I am actually old enough to remember Queen Nancy and her silly china patterns, redecorating sprees, horror-scope scheduling, seance holding, and “Just Say NO!” first-lady days. Please. The GOP needs to get a sense of humor. Especially about Reagan. I’m tired of the canonization of Reagan. His Presidency was as flawed as any other.

Unless Powerline is trying their hand at satire with The Importance of Being Careful. If that’s the case, I stand in admiration. Unfortunately, I doubt it. More likely, this is just more of the GOP mantra, “Reality is what we say it is.”

Max Blumenthal: Who Is The Mystery Man Behind Prop 8?

Who is funding California’s Prop 8, the country’s most controversial ballot measure? The Mormons’ donations are well known, and are a source of outrage among the church’s more moderate elements. But little attention has been focused on two of the proposition’s biggest individual donors: Elsa Broekhuizen, the mother of Blackwater founder Erik Prince, and Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., the reclusive theocratic millionaire who inherited $300 million from his philanthropist father at age 18.

So, there are ties back to the Bush/Cheney most beloved military privateers and torture unit, Blackwater. Just think America, some of your tax dollars funded the campaign to fund the fight for Prop 8 in California.

Absolutely. Although, I don’t use the phrases 24/7 – That would be a nightmare. Coming up with fairly unique phrases at this moment in time is not rocket science.

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

The top ten most irritating phrases:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

The most irritating phrase for me is “I could care less.” The correct phrase is “I could NOT care less.” The second most irritating is “anyways”. Where the hell did the extra “s” come from?

A very cool interactive page with newspapers from around the world announcing Obama’s win: Obama Grabs Headlines

The next President of the United States – The Big Picture

Photos from Election night – Barack Obama’s Photostream on Flickr:

I loved McCain’s speech. It was the old McCain. The guy I knew before he hugged Jerry Falwell and George Bush. Before he embraced the agents of intolerance. The man who knew what Conservatives stand for. Less government in our lives, be it social engineering or fiscal responsibility. I hope he returns to the Senate ready to go as the old McCain.

Unfortunately, we are not purple everywhere.

Boycott of FOX

I propose that we punish the FOX Network for its hatchet job on Sarah Palin.

So, the uninformed become even more uninformed about the world around them? I’m not sure if it’s funny or not.

In one of the most ironic, mind-bending, eye-twitching series of columns I’ve seen in a while, Michelle Malkin speaks about the “smearing” of Palin:

Sunken ships loosen bitter lips. The failed McCain campaign, for all its high-minded talk of honor, duty, and courage, is now teeming with unscrupulous gossip-mongers.

It boggles the mind that they must thrive on this hatred and petty bitterness. That they can’t speak of the honest criticisms that were lobbed at Palin in terms of political criticism. It wasn’t the damn towel, it wasn’t the rumors about Trig, most people didn’t care about that stuff. They still don’t get it. Malkin and her ilk threw all sorts of accusations and smears at Obama and it didn’t matter. We knew it wasn’t true. (Most people aren’t that stupid, so you can stop treating us as if we are.)

It was Palin herself. It was in the answers she gave. It was her positions. It was in her personality. It was the raw hatred that came dripping from her mouth every time she spoke. It was the way that her rallies seemed to turn into angry mobs – And most of us didn’t get that from the media, Michelle. We watched the rallies without commentary on YouTube. We talked to online friends who attended the rallies. It’s sad that your readers can’t see that.

It’s especially sad because I am one of the voters who was not on board the Obama express until Palin appeared at the convention. I watched her speech hoping to find something I liked. I found the opposite. She horrified me. It was the entire GOP convention that pushed me straight over into the Obama camp. We would have voted for McCain, but not for her. She put a nail in the coffin of the hateful right wing of the GOP.

I would love to see Conservatism return to its platform of less government in our lives, both fiscally and socially.