October 31, 2004

Day Of The Dead

For the last seventy years or so, the Washington Redskins have had a weird statistical correlation with presidential elections. When the Redskins lose on the week before Election Day, so does the incumbent. And this week, the Redskins are playing the Green Bay Packers. I don't put much stock in this sort of thing, but a Packer win would help drive the media narrative that Kerry has the momentum. The Packers are currently leading 10-0, so I'm feeling good right now.

Oh, and Happy Halloween. This year, I've decided to go as a genetic anomaly. My costume was remarkably easy to assemble.

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October 30, 2004

The Ballot Box

I exercised my right to vote today. Minneapolis City Hall was open today and I was able to vote absentee in person, which frees up my whole Tuesday. There was a line of people in front of the election office when I got there and an even longer line when I left. It felt really satisfying to fill in the oval next to "John Kerry/John Edwards." And this being Minneapolis, I have a feeling most of the people in line with me were doing the same thing.

Poor Nader. When you start debating action figures, maybe it's time for someone to do an intervention and suggest to Ralph that he throw in the towel. In 2000, the man incensed me. Now I just feel sorry for him.

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October 29, 2004

Drinking Buddy

I'm trying to figure out where to watch the election results after I'm done working the polls. I definitely don't want to be alone, win or lose. I got an e-mail about an Election Party at Kieran's, an Irish pub in downtown Minneapolis. If anyone wants to join me, drinks are on me. And we might need a lot of drinks.

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Life Goes On

One way or another, this election will come to an end on Tuesday or (hopefully) soon after that. And we'll have to live the outcome while keeping some modicum of perspective. The world will not end if Bush is re-elected. Likewise, Kerry will not be able to usher in a Progressive Golden Age if he is elected. This election is critical, no doubt about it, but there is more to human existence than politics and we'll all remember that soon enough. There are always new endeavors to attempt, new places to visit, new friends and lovers to discover. Life is too short to spend it brooding over what might have been. Sometime after the election, I'm hoping to persuade a friend to take a trip with me to warmer latitudes. The skies over Minneapolis have been interminably gray for the last few weeks and I wouldn't mind seeing blue skies and blue water again.

But for the next four days, it's go time, people.

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October 28, 2004

Born In The USA

A college friend in Madison told me on Wednesday they were expecting 60,000 people for the Kerry rally featuring Bruce Springsteen. Looks like the actual attendance was more like 80,000-100,000. You can find some amazing pictures here. Yes, it's heavily Democratic Madison, but I can't imagine Bush being able to turn out 100K, even with an assist from someone like Schwarzenegger.

One thing that the voter protection trainer didn't cover very well on Tuesday was the rights of voters with disabilities. There is the expectation within much of the disability community that GOP challengers may try to block individuals with perceived cognitive disabilities from voting. They may try to convince election judges that if someone has a guardian, they aren't eligible to vote. It's a bullshit argument, but it's a method designed to intimidate potential voters. I don't predict that this will be a huge problem, but it will be something I'll be watching for on Tuesday. I'm not as worried about physical accessibility of the polls. In general, Minnesota does a good job of ensuring access to voting places.

If you still don't believe that there are active efforts to suppress voter turnout, look at this flyer that was being distributed in African-American neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Sometimes I wonder if I'm not paranoid enough.

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October 27, 2004

The Real Slim Shady

Can the Sox pull off a sweep tonight? They're up 1-0 in the 2nd as I type this. And will a Sox win somehow translate into another point or two for Kerry in the polls? Though I'm not a huge baseball fan, I know there are some long-suffering Sox fans out there who have been waiting for a very, very long time for their team to reach this pinnacle. For your sakes, I hope you don't have to wait any longer than tonight.

Ever since I first heard "Stan," I've liked Eminem's music. I put his stuff on when I'm feeling like the world just doesn't get me. I don't buy the accusations that he's a misogynist or a homophobe. Those claims seem to confuse his stage persona with his true self. Eminem is a gifted writer and his latest single, "Mosh," is a great anthem for the upcoming election. It's currently on heavy rotation on MTV and the video suits the music perfectly. Watch it yourself and see what I mean. If it gets a few thousand more young people into the voting booth, a few thousand more to tip the scales, Eminem should be given some sort of honorary post in the White House, like Undersecretary of Angry Suburban Youth Affairs.

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October 26, 2004

Safeguarding Democracy

I attended voter protection training earlier tonight at the U of M Law School. It felt really weird to be sitting in the same room and in the exact same spot I occupied for Con Law and Employment Law. I'll confess to having a few nostalgic pangs as I sat there. For all the times I may gripe about law school, it was three of the most exciting and intellectually charged three years of my life. Which reminds me, I felt kind of sorry for the guy leading the training tonight. The room was filled with maybe 60-70 attorneys and law students who kept peppering the poor man with questions and hypotheticals to the point where you could tell he was getting flustered. This is what happens when you convene a roomful of attorneys; we get all Socratic Method on your sorry ass. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to Tuesday and playing a small role in the election.

Sitting in a a warehouse somewhere is an iPod Photo with my name on it. I wonder how much I can get for my old one on eBay. More than a C-note, you think?

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October 25, 2004

Breathing Lessons

Dear Chief Justice Rehnquist:

I hope you're adjusting to life with a tracheotomy. As I'm sure you're discovering, it takes a bit of getting used to. Your mouth and nose won't play their traditional roles anymore. You'll have to make a deliberate effort to smell something. You'll have to be careful not to button your shirt collar over the trach tube. Neckties present similar challenges. Given your specific health condition, you shouldn't have any problems eating. Talking might take some practice, though. With a tracheotomy, air leaves the body before it can pass the vocal cords. So you'll either have to plug the tube with your finger or get it fitted with a one-way valve. You might notice that your voice is softer or raspier. If you're finding that counsel is having trouble hearing your questions during oral arguments, just have Justice Thomas repeat them for you. It might have the added effect of forcing him to sit up and listen a little more closely himself.

If you have any questions about living happily with a trach, have one of your clerks give me a call. My consulting fee is very reasonable.

Sincerely,

Mark

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October 24, 2004

Zoo Politics

This election is becoming positively bizarre. You have ads featuring wolves. Ads featuring ostriches. Trekkies for Kerry. I'm at the point where I want to turn off the television, shove my computer in a closet, and spend the next ten days in a North Woods cabin reading overwrought, epic novels (anything by James Michener should do) and smoking my way through a very large bag of pot. Anyone care to join me?

Through the magic of BitTorrent, I downloaded the first episode in a BBC documentary called The Power of Nightmares. It compares two groups, American neoconservatives and radical Muslims, and each group's brand of fear-mongering. If the first episode is any indication, the series should be a compelling portrait of how these two groups unwittingly provide fodder for each other's ideologies. Let me know if you need a link for the torrent.

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October 23, 2004

Drink The Kool-Aid

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the recent PIPA survey that examines the worldviews of Bush and Kerry supporters. It presents some interesting statistics. 56% of Bush supporters believe Iraq had WMD. 57% think the rest of the world wants Bush elected again. 80% think that Bush favors a treaty to ban landmines. A lot of left-leaning bloggers are using this report as proof that Bush supporters are stupid, uninformed, or both. That kind of attack strikes me as cheap and overly simplistic. It's not that these people are stupid. I think what's really going on is that Bush inspires an almost cultish following that forces his true believers to resolve their cognitive dissonance with a kind of hysterical blindness. Of course the world loves him. Of course he loves the environment. Of course, he was right when he connected Iraq to 9/11. For these people, any attempt to acknowledge his flaws and failures is tantamount to a loss of faith. And most people don't part with their faith easily.

But that doesn't we ignore the source of the problem. This ad should receive heavy airplay in the final days of the election. It's devastating.

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October 22, 2004

Fevered Prose

News just broke that Jesse Ventura, our previous governor with a penchant for feather boas, has endorsed Kerry after initially declining to endorse anyone. It was a weird endorsement (Ventura had a proxy speak for him), but whatever. This might be enough to convince a few fence-sitters who voted for Ventura in 1998. Every little bit helps. Another former Minnesota governor, Republican Elmer Anderson, also endorsed Kerry. Then there's American Conservative magazine, that leftist rag and another Kerry endorser. At this rate, the only people endorsing Bush will be Pat Robertson and Toby Keith.

I've concluded that writing sex scenes is hard. It's hard work. Honestly, I don't know how people make a living writing romance novels and erotica. I just finished the first sex scene in my book and I can't tell you how many hours I wasted staring at the screen, trying not to sound like a frequent poster on alt.sex.stories. I kept asking myself "Does this sound real, or am I subconsciously writing Jenna Jameson's next script?" Maybe that's the difference. Romance and erotica dwell in a universe where the usual rules of human behavior don't apply. You can have your characters exploring orifices with little or no set-up. General fiction asks for more believability, for the reader to be able to nod her head and say, "Sure, I can buy that." I'm not sure if I buy it yet.

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October 21, 2004

Popsicles For Kerry

S-s-s-o c-c-c-cold. I'm back from the Kerry rally and I'm reassessing my stance on mittens. I normally don't wear mittens because I regard them as a tad...what's the word...wussy. But I wouldn't mind having a little sensation in my fingers right now. Anyway, to the pictures:

Not my best work, but good enough. And here's one I didn't take; I wanted to give you a sense of the crowd size:

Kerry sounded like a real populist on the stage. The crowd loved him. I may be wrong, but I'm willing to bet my salary that Minnesota stays blue on November 2nd.

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October 20, 2004

Boston Is Beautiful

I was at a reception most of the evening for the Minneapolis Mayor's Advisory Committee on People with Disabilities, so tonight's entry will be short. With the Red Sox looking World Series-bound, I'm beginning to think that some justice remains in this world.

John Kerry will be in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow and yours truly will be there in an effort to score another shameless photo op. Will the wheelchair work its mojo again? Stay tuned...

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October 19, 2004

Girlie Mag

So who got me the Playboy subscription? When my nurse checked my mail today, I was a bit surprised to see the November issue mixed in with the standard junk. I don't remember signing up for it and I can't figure out who else would have ordered it for me. Not that I'm complaining. There was a time when I would have freaked out a bit because I'd be concerned about offending my nursing staff. Now, I really don't care and I suspect most of my nurses won't either (as long as I don't plaster centerfolds over every wall) Actually, Playboy has a kind of quaint innocence to it in this age of the Pornification of America. So in it goes the magazine rack with all of the other stuff waiting to be read. Now I can find out how to mix a really dry martini, how to find my imaginary girlfriend's g-spot, and other useful knowledge.

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October 18, 2004

The Real World

Oh, for crying out loud. Early voting began in Florida and they're already having some problems at polling stations in South Florida, a traditionally strong Democratic region. The national media needs to start covering this story now. We cannot afford to allow these kinds of problems go unnoticed until Election Day or afterwards. If Governor Bush and his allies are trying to suppress votes, they're being awfully transparent about it. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Republican operatives tried to relocate 63 polling places that were originally in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Philadelphia; an effort that failed once the local media exposed it.

I am taking Election Day off. Ron Suskind's piece in yesterday's New York Times Magazine was enough to push me over the edge. A Bush aide said the following to the author of the article:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'

I can't begin to deconstruct all the Orwellian and Kafkaesque overtones in this statement. An administration that perpetuates such delusions of grandeur within its ranks is a threat to the people it claims to serve. This nonsense about the "reality-based community" is indicative of a president whose own tenuous grip on reality is spreading amongst his advisors like a virus. Both Republicans and Democrats can see that. And I can either sit here and write about it or I can try to do my small part to change our collective reality.

Oh, and by the way...GO SOX! Great win tonight.

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October 17, 2004

Jon Stewart For President

The bittorrent of Jon Stewart's recent Crossfire appearance, where he dished up a scathing critique of televised partisan political theater disguised as serious debate, has been making the rounds on the internet and I finally got a chance chance to check it out this morning. Stewart clearly has no patience for these guys and their daily bullshit sessions. He's especially insightful (and funny) in this exchange with Tucker Carlson:

CARLSON: Let me ask you a question on the news.

STEWART: Now, this is theater. It's obvious. How old are you?

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: Thirty-five.

STEWART: And you wear a bow tie.

View it for yourself if you can. I predict that Stewart will land a late-night spot on CBS or ABC within the next two years. What I'm not so sure of is whether he'll be able to maintain the biting, frat-boy-meets-Ivy-League tone that works so well on The Daily Show. The over-35 crowd may not see the humor in Stewart calling someone a "douchebag." Let's just hope it's not Bush and Cheney who are still the douchebags.

And now I'm going see if the Packers can manage to win a game. A 1-4 record; yeesh. Reminds me of all those bleak seasons during the 1980s, back when we were stuck with coaches like Bart Starr and Forrest Gregg.

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October 16, 2004

Something About Mary

I can't believe the Mary Cheney thing is still getting play in the media. I don't think it's enough to change any votes, but as soon as the debates ended, so did the media's ability to focus on substantive issues. Will some Republicans actually not vote for Bush because the V-POTUS has a gay daughter? That possibility feels remote to me, but the Bushites seem concerned enough to keep harping about it.

Slept until almost eleven today and I'm feeling a bit groggy for it. I think this overcast, rainy weather we've been having has something to do with it. So now I'll probably be up past two tonight. I developed these late-night habits during college and law school and I can't seem to shake them. Even now, I rarely get to sleep before midnight on a weeknight. If I do, it usually takes a while for my brain to shut up.

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October 15, 2004

Devil On My Shoulder

I'm debating whether to take Election Day off from work to do some volunteering, whether it's driving people to the polls or being an election monitor or whatever. Part of me wants to do anything I can to make a difference. The more selfish part of me wants to accumulate some time off for another trip in the winter or spring. My family has a timeshare deal in Mexico--Playa del Carma, I believe--that I might want to check out. But my conscience is telling me to make a sacrifice for the greater good. Pesky conscience.

I have to send my $200 dollar Shure earphones in for repairs. For that amount of money, you'd think that they'd could design wiring that doesn't short circuit. Good thing it's still under warranty.

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October 14, 2004

Softball

we please get different moderators for next election's debates? While it's nice to hear the candidates talk about their wives, I would much rather have heard about the issues. And there were a lot of issues missing from the final debate. Stem cell research. The environment. Civil rights. Education, for crying out loud. And then there was this gem of post-debate spin from Candy Crowley, a reporter for CNN.

"The debate was a wonkfest. I don't think most people understood the first hour."

Way to dis your audience, Candy. I'll be dag-nabbed if I could make heads or tails of the whole thing myself. Thank heavens us stupid plebes have you on the TV to tell us what's what.
Fucking arrogant corporate media.

Here's another story about a cortical implant that enables a man with quadriplegia to write e-mail and operate a television simply by thinking about it. This kind of article seems to be popping up with increasing frequency. Just a reminder that I remain available for medical experimentation in regards to brain implants. Especially if I can use it to program my TiVo.

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October 13, 2004

Pander Much?

I wasn't terribly thrilled with Edwards's words yesterday when he invoked the spirit of Christopher Reeve:

If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.

Hey Senator, you won points from me when I met you last summer and you didn't pat me on the head or any similar acts of condescension or pity. Don't start letting me down now.

I may be asking too much for Kerry to put Bush away tonight. Bush's domestic record gives Kerry all kinds of openings, but W could surprise everyone and somehow pull off a win. Kerry may feel the itch to deliver a knockout blow, but I think it's more important that he maintain his image as a calm, articulate, presidential figure. He's done a good job of cultivating that demeanor over the last two debates. Whatever it takes to keep riding the Big Mo into these crucial and final weeks.

Hits to this site had been steadily increasing over the last few days, averaging 80 or 90 a day. I have a feeling some of you may be coming here from Susannah's site. Others, I have no idea. But it's exciting to have new readers and I hope you'll keep coming back.

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October 12, 2004

Rock Opera

A friend of mine let me rip Green Day's American Idiot and I can't stop listening to it. Holy crap, it's good. I need to set aside some time to focus on the lyrics, but the melodies and the arrangements are amazing. It varies in style from emo-pop to punk to old-fashioned rock anthem, never sounding forced or insincere. It deserves comparisons with Radiohead's OK Computer. My friend called it one of the best things he's heard all year and I have to agree with him.

This campaign season, I've been a little leery of disability advocacy organizations like AAPD and their near-monomaniacal push for electronic voting machines like those made by Diebold. This Wired News article confirms my suspicions; it points out that many of these advocacy organizations receive money from manufacturers like Diebold. This isn't advocacy; it's lobbying. It troubles me that these organizations are acting as shills for an industry with a dubious product. I cringe to think what might happen if these machines produce unreliable results and the disability community finds itself in the role of unwitting scapegoat for a thrown election.

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October 11, 2004

Christopher Reeve: In Memoriam

As has been widely reported, Christopher Reeve died over the weekend. Whether or not one agreed with his emphasis on funding for research to cure injuries such as his own (instead of increased funding for service such as personal attendant care), the disability community will mourn his passing. Reeve was perhaps the single most visible American in a wheelchair. Never before have people with physical disabilities had a celebrity in their midst. No, FDR doesn't count because he deliberately concealed his disability from the public. Reeve became an icon of sorts because he presented such two sharply contrasting images to our mass consciousness. There was his Superman persona--a vivid symbol of the quintessentially American notions of strength and masculinity. And then there was the Christopher Reeve in the wheelchair--frail and dependent, but still with a certain charm and grace. While I may not have agreed with some of his political priorities, I think it's good for our community to have icons. Not role models, icons. Icons can be the touchstones that enable the rest of us to define our own experience of disability. We may not get another icon for some time.

That's why I'm glad Christopher Reeve was here and that's why I'll miss him.

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October 10, 2004

Race Against The Clock

Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. I was doing some work on the book today and then I had to attend to some bureaucratic stuff related to my nursing care. Next thing I know, I look up and it's six in the evening. I either need to manage my time better or find a way to clone myself. Therefore, today's abbreviated entry. I never like writing short entries. After all, one doesn't like to disappoint one's readership. But it's getting late and there's an Enterprise episode waiting on my TiVo. Can a new executive producer save the franchise from itself? These are the questions that haunt my waking moments.

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October 09, 2004

Furious George

Bush didn't wet himself last night, which I guess means that he didn't lose. But I don't think he won. The meme that seems to be developing is that Bush was, well, a bit angry. I don't think it was enough of a gaffe to bring Bush down in the polls, but I think Kerry still has the momentum in his favor.

I'll leave you with this metaphor:

Oh, and can someone tell me where to find these other "internets" the President mentioned? I only get one internet on my computer. Do I need a special decoder box or something?

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October 08, 2004

Friday Night Fight

This election needs to end. Soon. Last night, I had several dreams about tonight's debate. Each dream had a different spin. Kerry bombs. Bush cries. It was like my subconscious was cycling through every possibility. How big of a dork do you have to be to dream about a political debate? I'd much prefer to dream about all the sex I'm not getting in real life. At least those dreams have more entertainment value and are a lot less disconcerting. As for the debate itself, we probably won't see a repeat of last Thursday's debate. Bush will be looking to portray Kerry as a godless Commie liberal who wants to tax the very air you breathe. Kerry needs to fling these labels back in Bush's face without looking like a bully. You can expect Kerry to hammer home the latest disappointing job numbers, the recent WMD report, and Bremer's statements about Iraq. As long as he doesn't come across as professorial or condescending or (and this would be a killer) defensive, he should be okay.

I want to give my friend Susannah Breslin a big WELCOME BACK! Susannah returns to the ether with her new site: The Invisible Cowgirl. Go give her some love. Susannah is sort of the Unofficial Godmother of The 19th Floor and I'm always happy to proclaim her coolness to the masses.

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October 07, 2004

A Shot In The Arm

It's that time of the year when everybody starts freaking out over the flu. The likely vaccine shortage will raise the freak-out quotient a bit more than usual. I'm not worried because my employer will be offering free flu shots and I'm considered a high-risk candidate for flu complications. However, about five years ago I did get a shot and still came down with a nasty flu bug that landed me in the hospital for a week. Medicine offers few guarantees, but I'll still get vaccinated because my odds of avoiding the flu are better with it than without it. I know that I have to check out of this life at some point, but I'll be damned if a microscopic strand of RNA is going to do me in.

WBAY, a television station in my hometown of Green Bay, mistakenly ran an AP report on its website claiming that Bush won the election. The station apologized for the mistake, but does the AP know something we don't?

If you buy me the book pictured at right, you'll be my bestest friend ever.

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October 06, 2004

Doomsday Device

Last night's VP debate has been sufficiently spun by the usual suspects, so the only thing I'll add is that Edwards seemed to sound a lot more natural and a lot more passionate when the discussion turned to domestic issues. And what was up with the moderator? Some of her questions were odd and a bit out of left field. "Without using the name of your running mate..." Huh? I thought she was going to have the candidates take out their No. 2 pencils for the next question.

Antimatter...it's not just for Star Trek geeks anymore. The Air Force is trying to develop antimatter-based weapons. For those times when you need a little more kick than what your run-of-the-mill nuke can offer. Global vaporization in five...four...three...

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October 05, 2004

North Shore

My day trip to Duluth was enjoyable. My colleague Beth and I delivered a good presentation on employment and disability issues for a mixed audience of social workers, service providers, and even a few students. We had lunch at Grandma's, a Duluth landmark. I wish I had more time to check out the city, but I did get the opportunity to sit on the shores of Lake Superior before I headed back to Minneapolis. Here are a couple pictures from my excursion.

It was good to get out of the office and see some of Greater Minnesota, something I need to do more of now that I've lived here almost ten years. We Minneapolitans tend to think of the rest of the state as a vast expanse of farmland sprinkled with resorts. That kind of attitude isn't fair to the people who live outside the metro area. Maybe a place that doesn't have a dozen Starbucks in a six-block radius should be commended rather than denigrated. Of course, I'm sure people in rural Minnesota have their opinions about us cityfolk, but that's a topic for another entry.

Now I'm going to plop myself in front of the TV and watch the VP debate. The Republicans are acknowledging they got outspun last Thursday and are preparing to play hardball. To which I say: Bring it, bee-otch. There's always a chance that Cheney could outplay the newbie Edwards, so I'm hoping John-Boy has his Litigator's A-Game ready.

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October 04, 2004

Space Race

Congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team who, with today's successful launch into space, successfully completed their bid for the X-Prize. I remain dubious about the commercial viability of manned spaceflight. Other than those super-wealthy individuals who want to experience a few moments of zero-g, we don't have many reasons to venture off-world. Space tourism of any kind is a fundamentally expensive proposition and the only thing that may change that equation is a radical new technology, like space elevators or an ion propulsion system. But prizes like this do encourage innovation and creativity, which could have unforeseen benefits in the future.

I'm going up to Duluth tomorrow to do a presentation with a colleague. I have to be there at 8:30. Which means I have to leave home at six in the morning. Which means I actually have to go to sleep before midnight tonight. But I volunteered to do this, so you won't hear any complaining from me. For those of you not familiar with these parts, Duluth sits on the shores of Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota. I've been there a few times, but my last visit was probably twenty years ago and I don't remember much of it. It has a reputation of being a scenic city and the fall colors should be starting to peak by now. Reason enough for a day trip.

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October 03, 2004

Fright Night

I said that I wanted to see Kerry close the gap in the polls and I got my wish. In the latest Newsweek poll, Kerry holds a small lead over Bush. It's only one poll, but it will hopefully contribute to a more general meme that Kerry has the momentum.

I saw Shaun of the Dead with a friend last night. It's a slacker version of 28 Days Later, combining humor with some effective scares. If you liked Evil Dead 2, you'll like this movie. It also has one of the most...er...vivid disembowelment scenes I've seen in a horror movie. I usually don't react much to blood and gore, but this scene elicited a respectful "Dude!" from me.

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October 02, 2004

Crazy Like A Fox

Josh Marshall over at TPM has been all over the story about Fox posting fabricated Kerry quotes on their website. Some examples:

Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!

I'm metrosexual — [Bush's] a cowboy.

The quotes were posted by one of Fox's reporters. I guess he thought they were funny. Poor Republicans. Humor just doesn't come naturally to them. Kerry has plenty of characteristics that are begging for satire, but this effort is pretty lame. As for the idea of Fox News posting patent lies on its website, color me shocked.

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October 01, 2004

Spin Cycle

One of the best comments I read about last night's debate was in the Boston Herald:

He reminds me of Fredo in `The Godfather.' I can hear him saying: `I'm smart. I know things. I'm not stupid.' ''

And while we're at it, there's this from the LA Times:

But words continually fail Bush. Mostly because he doesn't try very many. With the TV cameras trained on the stripped-down debate stage, his bare-bones communication style sometimes played as monotonous rather than resolute.

Want some comments from the right? Here's what some right-wing bloggers are saying:

But, candidly, I don't think it went that well for the President. I think Kerry helped himself tonight. He came across as a credible candidate, and he was usually on the offensive. Powerline.

ONE LINE ON THE DEBATE: Kerry won. Hands down. By a lot. That's all for now Oxblog.

Kerry did well in terms of his persona; I went in expecting a pompous windbag and he wasn't one. Bush did less well in persona; fragmented, repetitive..." Winds of Change.

The pro-Kerry post-debate spin seems to be firming up. Will it be enough to give Kerry the Big Mo going into October? Hard to say. But we need to step up our ground game. Voters need to be registered. Rides on Election Day need to be arranged. To borrow a phrase from the President, getting a Democrat elected is hard work. Let's do this thing.

My sister is taking the LSAT tomorrow, ten years after I took the damn thing. The exam is supposed to measure one's ability to "think" like a lawyer. If being an attorney was all about solving logic puzzles, I would have turned in my license a long time ago. So send her some good karma, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Man, I'm tired. With all the excitement last night, I stayed up way past my bedtime. I should work on the book tonight, but I'm beginning to question my ability to string sentences together. Perhaps I'll update the sidebar...

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack