Is it just me, or are Obama’s jeans rather dorky?

The first 100 days, from FDR to W. Via Cynical-C and Fimoculous.

The NYTimes mentioned that if voter turnout were to hit 64% this election, it would be the highest voter turnout since the 65.7% we had in the election of 1908 (go Taft!). This got me curious about historical voter turnout levels and led me to this handy data repository, which I turned into an even handier bar graph:

click to big-ify

Apparently I’m very interested in voter turnout numbers, as this is not the first such chart that I have posted.

Why are photos of politicians often so good? Is it just that they’re photographed so often? For whatever reason, I really like this picture:

One of McCain’s strongest blocks of supporters is in the Vietnamese community (at least compared to other Asian immigrant communities) — do we have a Manchurian Candidate on our hands?

It’s been widely reported that Sarah Palin spent over $150,000 of campaign money on clothes, but my question is, what did she buy for $133 at the Gap? Do you think she has the same socks that I do?

Bradley didn’t lose because of the Bradley effect. Does anybody?

Third party candidate debate: Sunday, 8pm, CSPAN. But Bob Barr might not show up… yegads, why?

Creepy slideshow: Which celebrity could play Sarah Palin. Tyra Banks scares the bejeezus out of me.

Neat? You’re conservative. Messy? You’re liberal.

Hey, look at me, I know someone running for the North Dakota state Senate:

Do I know anybody else who lives in North Dakota?

The LA Times railed against the stupidity of undecided voters (as well as discussing their perceived central role in American politics) in a recent opinion piece. As a potentially undecided voter, it’s videos like the ones below that make me want to vote for nobody. The first, from Drudge, is a McCain supporters’ march through Manhattan being heckled by Obama supporters. The second, from Cynical-C, is a line of ignorant McCain supporters waiting to get into a rally in Pennsylvania. Both sides display an extreme lack of decency and have turned politics into demagoguery. It’s sad.

Maybe I’ll vote for Bob Barr.

Apparently I never bothered to link to this story from last year about four congressional Democrats who live together in DC to see what happens when elected officials stop being polite, and start being real:

“I once had to pick up a mouse by the tail that Durbin refused to pick up,” complained Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, referring to his roommate Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

This characterization is not fair to Mr. Durbin, interjected another tenant in the Capitol Hill row house, Representative Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts. For starters, it overlooks Mr. Durbin’s gift for killing rats. “He will kill them with his bare hands,” Mr. Delahunt marveled.

“Oh, will you stop with the rats,” said the annoyed fourth roommate, Representative George Miller of California. He owns the house and is sensitive to any suggestion that he harbors pestilence. It’s dicey enough that he harbors politicians.

So, is there any hope that this will be turned into a real TV show? Probably not:

“Everybody in the world says they’re going to do a television series based on us,” said Mr. Durbin, who was collapsed on the couch on a recent Monday night. Still in a tie, he sipped ice water from a massive Chicago Cubs cup while waiting for the Chinese food to arrive.

“But then they realize that the story of four middle-aged men, with no sex and violence, is not going to last two weeks,” he said. The prevailing topics of their discussions are grandchildren and Metamucil, he added.

“Hey, speak for yourself, Durbin,” Mr. Delahunt said, protesting the claim of no sex and violence.

“There is a lot of violence in here,” Mr. Schumer said.

In fact, the roommates have never resorted to violence, at least with one another. (Crickets are another story.) Their weapons are verbal, and often aimed at Mr. Schumer, who admits to a serious dereliction of roommate duties, like grocery shopping. He is also prone to a blatant disregard for conserving a most precious household resource, cereal.

This is one of my favorite newspaper stories of all time.

CNN presents this well conceived objection to Obama’s campaign:

Definition of muslin.

Video of Sarah Palin’s 1984 Miss Alaska swimsuit competition presentation.

“An open letter to NY State Senator Jeff Klein, who yesterday called me a f—ing assh-le after nearly hitting me with his Mercedes.”

EDIT: It’s already been on Reddit — this is the sort of thing that happens when you’re away for two months.

An LA Times op-ed columnist I like, Joel Stein, put out a bit of a mini-dog-whistle to me today when he mentioned the Obama-as-antichristers. Apparently the indie band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was at the DNC last week, at which they performed a song called “Satan Said Dance.” (Do you know where this is going?) The song apparently involves chanting “SATAN SATAN SATAN” a lot, and Stein thought it would be a great scene for the far right wing to take out of context, to “prove” that Barack Obama is the antichrist. So he put it on YouTube. Annoyingly, it’s a .swf file and I can’t figure out how to embed it without copying everything by hand, but here ya go.

RUMORSDAILY GOLIGHTLY, TRAVELING UPDATE:

Since I’m flying out of the country tomorrow, I figured I might as well just decide that I’m finished with this and throw it online:

If you’re exceedingly nerdy AND have very little taste in stickers, pins or magnets, you can pick up one of these at Cafepress for the next five minutes. Based on my past experiences with CafePress, I’m certain they’ll decide this violates one of their many, many restrictive and killjoy-based policies.

Past iterations of this idea can be seen here and here.

Sources for Creative Commons pictures: Wil Wheaton and Joss Whedon.

He’s finally found a way to target all my Anti-Christ fearing friends:

The town I grew up in was swindled (via the vagaries of bankruptcy law) out of one $322,000 firetruck. And they’re not happy:

from Irvington Village News <———@———-.com>
reply-to ———@———-.com
date Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 1:13 PM
subject Trustee Pat Ryan resigns from Village Board

At a meeting of Irvington Board of Trustees held July 21, 2008, Trustee Pat Ryan resigned from the Board. Mayor Erin Malloy thanked Trustee Ryan for her service to the Village and for being a “terrific colleague and terrific running mate.” Trustee Ryan was first elected as Trustee in 2006 and in her second term after winning re-election in March 2008.

In announcing her resignation, Ms. Ryan cited that “there is a decision before the Board that is very complicated and very difficult — It is a decision that I believe I cannot support.” Ms. Ryan was concerned that the Board’s decision to seek recovery of the lost fire truck funds from a fidelity bond held by the Village on behalf of former Clerk/Treasurer Edward Ritter could have personal financial impacts on Mr. Ritter.

Mayor Malloy, it’s worth noting, was the coin-toss loser of the exciting mayoral election of 2005 that ended in an exact tie. She actually had one more vote, but after a lengthy court battle a sealed ballot cast by one of her supporters was thrown out.   She won in 2007.

My home town’s politics are fantastic!

NYTimes has the most misleading headline of this political season: “Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy.”

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog today focuses on the lives of Barack Obama and John McCain. This picture of Obama with his mother caught my attention:

What, you don’t see it? Maybe if I blend them together for you?

Huh. I think they have similar eyes and eyebrows. Still not seeing it? Well, happy Fourth of July regardless.

It just occurred to me that, after the success of Hypnobama ‘08, I should make an election bumper stick for the surprising candidacy of Joss Whedon and Wil Wheaton. I haven’t yet decided who will be at the top of the Wheaton/Whedon ‘08 ticket.

Through a combination of garbage picking, oddly colored food and unfulfillable requirements, the Democrats plan to have the least fun convention ever!

Will flip-flops once again be prominently featured at the GOP presidential nominating convention?

Obama 2007:

Question I-B:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Yes… If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Obama’s Spokesperson, 2007:

Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton said the senator “is pleased FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Obama 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama told supporters Thursday that he has decided not to accept public financing for his general election campaign.

Hmm…