How it happened

Several people have asked me to tell the engagement story and never let it be said I don't give the people what they want:

I.C. and I had been throwing around the idea of getting away for a weekend. We looked into Miami but as it's hurricane season it didn't get chosen. Bermuda is already cold, Montreal didn't seem right, no cruises fit our schedule and with the Jewish holidays around the corner we had sort of given up on the idea of getting away. Both of us play poker (hey, did you guys know I still have a poker blog? It's true!) and at some point last week I.C. suggested going to Atlantic City.

I had been wanting to check out a new hotel on the boardwalk, The Chelsea and so we reserved a room for two nights.

Going into the weekend I had no idea that he might propose, although in retrospect there were so many signs. He kept saying how the weekend was all about me and that "you can have whatever you like." By coincidence, several of our friends were at the Borgata on Friday night but heading back right around the time we arrived in A.C. I wanted to stop by and see them, I.C. was concerned about "leaving the laptop in the car in the parking lot" and made it clear he'd prefer to go to our hotel first. Oh, also, he suggested I bring the laptop. He never suggests I bring the laptop! (It was because he knew I'd want to blog/facebook the news shortly after it happened.) Then, when we checked into our room, the I.C. said "no, we need a different room, the safe is broken." It didn't seem that weird at the time because we were there to play poker and did have some cash on us but now it's obvious he needed the safe for the ring.

We had a casual dinner on Friday night and spent a few hours at the poker table. He won a little, I lost a little. On Saturday, we slept in and lazy-ed around our room for a few hours before deciding to go get some breakfast. When we were showered and ready to leave, I.C. put his arms around me and told me he loved me. I said I loved him too. He said "yeah? And you want to be with me forever?" I giggled and said yes. And then he completely stunned me, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised I just kept saying "oh my G-d" and finally "yes!"

The rest of the day was a surreal daze. After we called our families and close friends, we tried to go to the coffee shop in our hotel. But we couldn't eat. We were so excited and just giddy. We walked on the boardwalk and just watched the ocean for awhile. We stared at my ring. Shiny. We talked about the wedding and talked about the future. We kissed a lot. It was awesome. We're very happy and feel very lucky to be together. It took us awhile (that's a whole other post, maybe tomorrow!) to get here but we're so happy it happened; falling in love with my best friend has been completely magical and I can't wait to begin our married life together.

UPDATE: IC said it's tacky to post a picture of the ring but if the ring happens to be visible in a photo taken of me drinking an awesome blueberry mojito at Buddakan in AC, how can I not share?

Happy new year!

Hope your 5769 is super sweet.

Advice, please

Readers of this site might know that I am not the type of girl who has ever pictured her wedding day. Until like today. And it turns out I should've been paying more attention when other people told me about their wedding details. I don't even know where one begins. So just to start: do I join TheKnot or WeddingChannel? For what, exactly? When are those wedding gown sales people always talk about? Is renting tacky if I think buying is stupid? We're thinking a small destination wedding, probably in the Caribbean or Florida--ever been to a good one? What island? What hotel? Any and all practical advice would be greatly appreciated.

In Brooklyn we'd say "he thinks who he is"

I'm still in engagement lalaland but I couldn't resist blogging this:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was reading his newspaper on a recent Thursday morning when he was jolted by a comment made by his successor, David A. Paterson.

In the 22nd paragraph of a New York Times article on Aug. 21, Mr. Paterson said that aides to Mr. Spitzer had lacked experience in Albany, and added that the Spitzer administration’s management approach sometimes “just didn’t work.”

Mr. Spitzer grew upset, according to a senior aide to Mr. Paterson and another official. He picked up the phone, reached a Paterson aide, demanded a public apology from the governor and “issued threats, veiled and unveiled” against Mr. Paterson, said the aide, who insisted on anonymity because he did not want to anger either man.

No public apology was offered; Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Paterson have not spoken since June.

Hahahahaha. Sorry, is Eliot "brought down in a hooker scandal" Spitzer unaware that he's no longer in a position to be demanding anything from anyone ever? He's threatening the governor? Is he serious?

News

I.C. asked me to marry him and I said yes!

Audience participation poll

Joseph Weisenthal, who does the awesome blog The Stalwart, asked on his facebook profile the other day: "Financial market gyrations aside, does anyone else just *feel* like the real economy is slowing. I can't quite place my finger on it..."

The truth is, despite living in New York City, with a boyfriend who works in finance, I don't actually feel the economic downturn yet. Please don't get me wrong, I'm in panic mode just as much as anyone else because, well, there's a panicked feeling in the air. But the reality? I don't know anyone who has gotten laid-off (yet). It's still hard to get a cab when it's raining or rush hour. All the best restaurants are still booked up every Friday and Saturday night for weeks. Fifth Avenue is still filled with shoppers and Bergdorf and Saks are crowded. I stopped by the Hermes sample sale the other day and the line was down the block. All my freelance friends are currently employed. Again, the last thing I want is to sound flip. These are dark economic times, it's true. But are y'all actually seeing this or just hearing about it on TV?

Does this mean the end of free checking?

My bank is gone.

Song of the Day

"Whatever you like" by T.I.

It's cheesy, sure, but I giggle when my boyfriend sings it to me (though I giggle just the same when he sings about putting Marcy on the map and Brooklyn on his back). And I thought the video was awful, right until the very end. Sidenote: did anyone catch T.I in last week's "Entourage" episode? So cute.

What's 25 billions when we're giving away so much more?

House clears $25bn for carmakers

Hat-tip James.

And...

If you had to pick two football teams to win this week, which would it be?

So...

...are we for the bailout or against the bailout?

And now for a post mocking Dawn Summers

Clay Aiken: I'm gay
Rest of America: No, duh.
Clay's biggest fan Dawn Summers: What?!!?!?!? No way!

I yelp but don't yet twitter

I evidently needed another online social-networky type time-suck and so I've become obsessed with Yelp.

Yelp is a reviews site and I've been reviewing every single thing I eat, drink and do.

If you're a yelper, friend me. If you're not, and have too much time on your hands, think about joining.

And yet, rooms in Atlantic City are still 400 bucks

Unexpectedly, Las Vegas hit by U.S. downturn

Go, Biden, go! You tell 'em!

Ben Smith reports:

"We’re not supporting clean coal," he said of himself and Obama.

They do, on paper, support clean coal.

America: We still don't get Lewinsky, though

Bill Clinton: 'I get why Palin is hot'

Hat-tip Hot Air.

Who loves Joe Biden?

I do!

Asked about the John-McCain-is-old ad put up by the Obama campaign, Barack Obama's running mate said:

"I thought that was terrible, by the way."

Asked why it was done, he [Biden] said: "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we'd have never done it."

Late Monday, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement from Biden. In it, Biden said he "was asked about an ad I'd never seen" and was "reacting merely to press reports."

That's an awfully strong opinion for an ad he's never seen.

Who serves in the U.S. military?

Smart, rich, white people.

Hat-tip IC.

Listen to him

John Carney leaves Dealbreaker and has this to say on his way out the door:

For those of you still on Wall Street or wondering what to do next, I'll offer a four pieces of advice. Remember that we'll get through this mess we're in, and we'll have great stories to tell about it for the rest of our lives. Never work in a job that makes you miserable. Love your family, help your friends. Buy drinks for strangers.

He's moving to Clusterstock.

Does he know they're on the same ticket?

Joe Biden says he won't let Obama take away his gun.

Biden, who regularly gets an "F" grade from the NRA, sounds straight outta Compton when he says "he [Obama] tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem."

Saddos

Wait. When did Time Magazine become a parody/humor site? Check this out, from an article called "How We Became the United States of France":

You just know the Frogs have only increased their disdain for us, if that is indeed possible. And why shouldn't they? The average American is working two and half jobs, gets two weeks off, and has all the employment security of a one-armed trapeze artist. The Bush Administration has preached the "ownership society" to America: own your house, own your retirement account; you don't need the government in your way. So Americans mortgaged themselves to the hilt to buy overpriced houses they can no longer afford and signed up for 401k programs that put money where, exactly? In the stock market! Where rich Republicans fleeced them.

There are at least 4 things in that paragraph that are plainly untrue. Is Bill Saporito supposed to be a humor writer? But then why isn't he funny? Or is this a blog post by a new blogger trying to drum up hits by saying absurd/wrong/idiotic things in the hope of being noticed?

Hat-tip Jamie.

Now, not

A positive article about Iraq in the New York Times. I know, I couldn't believe it myself:

But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.

Hat-tip Pokerwolf.

The speech she would've given...

...if Democrats weren't whiny crybabies more concerned with politics than speaking together in one voice as Americans: Sarah Palin on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

She has more class in her pinky than Hillary Clinton could ever even imagine having in the entirety of her body.

Hat-tip Fallen Sparrow.

Like Berlin, except with electoral votes

Palin draws crowd of 60,000 in Florida.

Football update

I picked the Bills in my pool and they squeaked out a win. Thanks, commenters!

Next week I really challenge you all: I need two picks to win to advance to the following week. So get to thinking! And let's go Cowboys!

Lazy Sunday

I bought a 6-pound cauliflower.

Recipes in comment section very appreciated.

But if I were going to say something to him, it'd be about poker

I got my hair shampooed right next to Alex Rodriguez today at a fancy salon. No, of course I didn't say anything to him. This is New York!

Sarah Palin mania--the bad kind

New York women are going crazy, and not in a fun way, over Sarah Palin (via Hot Air Headlines):

Ms. Grose posited that some of the anger was because Mrs. Palin, a former beauty pageant winner, resembled a high school homecoming queen. "She has always embodied that perfectly pleasing female archetype, playing by the boys' game with her big guns and moose murdering, and that she keeps being rewarded for it," Ms. Grose wrote.

A psychiatrist and conservative blogger, Patricia Santy, said the strong emotional reactions are driven by Mrs. Palin's differing with the left-leaning political agenda of many feminists. "Their entire image of themselves is based on the fact that they are paving the way for women. What do they see? Women getting ahead, women being empowered who don't agree with them," Dr. Santy said.

I realize I'm about to mention Dawn Summers in three posts before 10am but she did say it best: "no one hates women more than women."

In other news, I still have yet to wear my "Sarah Palin is my homegirl" shirt outside. I was going to wear it today but this article plus the fact that I need to get a haircut is putting me off. What if the chick at the salon is one of these women and gives me a bad cut out of spite? Isn't it atrocious that these kinds of things seriously need to be considered?

Not my kind of patriot

John McCain's new ad is up and it mocks the Joe Biden comment about taxes being patriotic. Rumors are swirling about Biden dropping out and being replaced by Hillary. I doubt that, a lot. Obama is an amateur (sidenote: Dawn Summers does this great impression of him kind of looking around and saying "me? You want me to run for president? Ok!") but removing Biden would be too much evidence that he's not ready to lead, not ready for primetime, not ready for dogcatcher. Obama's best move right now is to not make any big moves at all. Removing Biden would just be too much of the wrong kind of attention for him. He could coast into a win if he doesn't have any more glaring mistakes.

Dawn Summers gets towed.

The rest of us laugh:

The 311 system was fully automated, so I just held the line waiting for an operator. My feet were killing me and I was in no mood to press buttons through a freaking decision tree. After a few minutes I was hearing Chinese. What the fuck? More Chinese.

I still didn’t hang up because I could not imagine a scenario where pressing no options would result in CHINESE. Finally, I hung up and redialed. This time I paid attention. Evidently, for English you have to press 1, for Spanish you have to press 2, just stand there, you get Chinese.

Awesome.

Song of the Day

"Hey, that's no way to say goodbye" by Roberta Flack.

The truth is that my SOTD is "That's no way to say goodbye" by Leonard Cohen but when I looked it up it turned out that it was my SOTD a mere 2 months ago (I have a bad memory and listen to Leonard Cohen a lot). In the comment section of that post, commenter Bryan mentioned the Roberta Flack version which I'd never heard before. It's very pretty. Not nearly as broody, obviously, as Leonard Cohen's but it still has the same sultry feel.

Conversation fo the Day

"Did you see Biden's huge f*ck up today?"- Dawn Summers (who has such a potty mouth).

"No"- Me.

"Oh good. Media in the tank! Media in the tank! Media in the tank!"-Her.

It's that time again

You guys did a great job with the Giants! What team should I pick to win for my suicide pool this week?

Open letter

Dear Nebraska,

No, seriously, how is Chuck Hagel your Senator? You can do so much better! You're not Maine or Rhode Island, or some other blue state that has to deal with backstabbing, liberal Republicans. You're a red state, act like it!

Love,
Karol

Why I hate "populists"

I love Neil Cavuto and can't stand Bill O'Reilly.

Question for the older folks

I was 7 in 1984 when Ronald Reagan won a landslide election against Walter Mondale.

What I want to know, from people who remember it, is this: did everyone know it was going to be such a romp? There was no internet, so no aggregate poll numbers from Real Clear Politics. Was it a given that Reagan would win, and win by that much?

I can't even imagine that sort of victory for either candidate in 2008 (or 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, etc.) I just want to know what the vibe was like before that election. What's it like to live through a political landslide?

Good riddance to bad rubbish

In an article about a coming Democratic despondency if McCain should pull off a win, Russ Smith writes:

I was reasonably certain that Obama would win convincingly, and perhaps by a landslide. In fact, although favoring McCain, I’d resigned myself to at least four years of the charismatic Illinois one-term senator, despite the nervousness that he’d turn out to be a less pious Jimmy Carter or, a latter-day Adlai Stevenson. What the hell, it’s not as if the Republicans have distinguished themselves in the past four years, McCain included. Besides, one benefit of a turnover at the White House would be the resumption of political conversation with Democratic friends; too many personal and professional relationships have been fractured in the past eight years.

I have maintained, even through sinking poll numbers and pathetic fundraising, that McCain would win in November but, like Smith, I had resigned myself to the possibility of Obama. Republicans had clearly sold out the priniciples that had elected them and deserved to lose. Also, we chose McCain in the primary. Our bad.

But I vehemently disagree with the last part of Smith's statement, that an Obama win will heal relationships fractured in the last 8 years. The fracturing of various relationships during the Bush administration was a bonus for me. I got to find out that some people in my life were straight koo-koo and I got to get rid of them without thinking twice about it. My support of Bush brought out pure insanity in some people I knew, and it was good in a way: like a preview that they can't be trusted. Likewise, anyone who gets too heated when talking politics probably isn't for me. I'm fairly even-keeled in person, even if I sometimes get hyper on this here blog. I like that the Bush administration helped me clean house, and I'm not looking for an Obama administration to change that.

Debunking the "Sarah Palin didn't know what the Bush doctrine meant" canard.

Charles Krauthammer, who coined the phrase "Bush Doctrine", says there is no one explanation for what it means and that Charlie Gibson gaffed when he pressed Palin for an answer.

And, in today's Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens writes:

Gibson: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"

Palin: "In what respect, Charlie?"

Which was a sensible answer, given that no higher authority than Jacob Weisberg of Slate has counted six versions of the thing (including "absence of any functioning doctrine at all"). Further pressed on the subject, Gov. Palin explained that "what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism," which better sums up the gist of Bush policy than Mr. Gibson's cramped definition of the doctrine as "anticipatory self-defense."

And so the candidate, without so much as the benefit of a junior year abroad, managed (maybe luckily, though luck is often a function of wit) to get the better of the anchorman, Princeton '65.

Yes to Palin

David Brooks makes an anti-Palin case but ends up convincing me she's the right woman for the job:

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman.

I do want someone who will destroy the corrupt establishment, who will bark "no" when Congress tries to spend my money, who will not support those in her party who have fallen off the wagon and joined the trough in Washington. These are favorable things to me. And in a piece about her inexperience, Brooks seems to forget that she's A)the second slot on the ticket and B)Running against a guy at the top of the other ticket who has zero executive experience. I rather a VP with limited experience running a city and state than a president with none.

Hat-tip JC.

Empty man

Barack Obama will fix the economy. He's not entirely sure what's happening on Wall Street, and he's not clear on what it will take to turn things around, but that doesn't mean he can't say a lot of words about it that end up meaning nothing.

It's the end of the world as they know it

And they feel fine?

UK’s first official sharia courts are here:

ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

How completely sick and demented. I don't even think anyone will remember to turn out that light.

Hat-tip James.

Bad News Bears

If, like me, you know very little about the financial industry but, also like me, today's news is scaring you because things seem to be going really badly, check out Dealbreaker.com's coverage. It's in-depth but also easy to understand.

Sarah Palin is awesome

The fact that John McCain announced his pick of Sarah Palin for VP on the Friday before Labor Day weekend meant that I missed most of the commentary surrounding the pick that happened that weekend. Like this post by Mark Steyn. An excerpt:

Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).

Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a "hinterland" - a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn't just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won't need the usual stage-managed "hunting" trip to reassure gun owners: she's lived the Second Amendment all her life. Likewise, on abortion, we're often told it's easy to be against it in principle but what if you were a woman facing a difficult birth or a handicapped child? Been there, done that.

Love. Her. If the Cowboys weren't on tonight (and therefore I have to wear something Cowboys related), today would be the day the Upper West Side would see my shirt. Tomorrow!

My Watercooler

Click on for Mad Men discussion.

Mad Men had a slow start to its second season. I didn't have anything worth discussing until last week when Jimmy Barrett let everyone know he's nobody's fool.

When I first started watching the show, I wrote that I loved Joan Holloway (of course) but I also loved Betty Draper (I actually wrote that I wanted to be just like her minus the philandering husband). I remember people being confused about that. Betty was so...plain. And subservient. She didn't seem to have any spunk or life of her own. The latter might be true, she is hopelessly devoted to Don, but the episode where I fell for her is when she shot her neighbor's birds out of the sky with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth. Don't mess with Betty. She'll be nice and sweet and look the other way on Don's affairs for awhile, but she's smarter than she seems and she's a badass when crossed (remember the slap in the supermarket?!).

So, does she really kick Don out? Is this like a Carmella Soprano (or Vanessa Diaz) situation where she'll let him back in when she can't deal with things on her own? Obviously Barbie and Ken are meant to be together, but not if Ken is getting it on with every Midge and Skipper around.

Or do the 60's become the 70's and Don and Betty become swingers?

He's not bitter

Hmmm:

CBSNews.com: So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

[Ex-Clinton Aide] Mark Penn: Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time.

Who could he possibly be referring to when he says "other candidates"?

Blunder

Barack Obama put out an ad mocking John McCain for not using the internet. Turns out, John McCain can't type due to injuries sustained while being held captive in Vietnam. Does Obama still have a staff? What's going on over at the One's campaign? It's like amateur hour all of the sudden.

It's here!

The shirt is adorable but the IC takes the worst pictures of me (I don't know what that's supposed to mean). I can not wait to wear this around Manhattan:

I want this button

Via Conservative Grapevine.

Good luck with that

Slublog rips on Obama's new ad, which seeks to portray John McCain as out of touch because of his time in the senate, over at Ace's site:

I see two potential lines of attack.

The first is against Obama. "In 2005, Barack Obama came to Washington. 143 work days later, he got bored with that job and decided to run for president. He doesn't have much to show for those 143 days, except maybe a willingness to take money from your pocket and spend it on pork barrel projects in his own district."

"Since taking office, Obama has voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel projects, including $1 million for his wife's employer and $100,000 to this guy.

(quick shot of Father Pfleger saying something dumb)"

Really? The Obama campaign want to try to attack McCain's experience AND Sarah Palin's inexperience? And they think this will work? Really?

Blogroll Update

All in the NY section, all people I know and like:

Peter Feld- A Democrat who says what the Democrats don't want to hear.

Creaky Pavilion- Tatyana blogs about politics, travel, design, the gym, let's just say "everything".

Rise If You Must- If I sing any more of John Carney's praises, it'll just be embarrassing.

I feel like I'm forgetting someone but I'm in a hurry right now so don't be offended if it's you.

Rockstar

Watch Sarah Palin bring the house down in Alaska.

Wisdom of crowds

I'm doing my first ever football pool. It's a suicide pool which, for those who aren't total dorks and into this sort of thing, means I choose one team (some weeks two teams) to win. I can't pick the same team twice in one season. So, with that in mind, who should I choose for this week?

We remember 9/11

We'll never forget. We'll never forgive.

Priceless

Wow, great idea McCain campaign:

The McCain campaign is "very seriously considering" having McCain and Palin campaign together more often than not in the next two months, a senior campaign aide said, adding it could be the most a presidential and vice presidential candidate campaign in tandem in recent history.

Via Hot Air.

Two things

Two more thoughts on Sarah Palin and the election in general before I pry myself away from the computer for the evening.

1. I am loving the fact that Sarah Palin is getting criticized on such conservative grounds. She supported earmarks! She really did want a pork project! She should stay home and raise a family! She raised taxes! Conservatives might lose this election, anything can happen, but I feel like we've won on so many other levels.

2. Speaking of winning, I want to remind Republicans to temper their current enthusiasm (and yes, I'm reminding myself as well). The election is still awhile away and while things may look good for us at the moment, everything can change in an instant--just ask Barack Obama (he did give a convention speech, right? I have heard zero about it). We still have a long road ahead of us, let's not forget that in our celebration over the most magnificent Vice Presidential pick of our lifetime.

2A. With the swing in the polls, things have gotten much more heated than they had been throughout this election season. Republicans suddenly care who wins, really care. And that's awesome. But a reminder to both sides: at the end of this, no matter who wins, we are all Americans (and therefore so much better than Europeans--just kidding, people, just kidding) and everything is still going to be ok. One of my favorite posts of last election was this one where I wrote:

Politics, and politics-watching, is a sport. Get our team to beat your team. Get their guy to fumble the ball during a pass. Get the three-point shot when no one expects it. Yes, yes, there are very important issues in play and of course these issues matter but if you can't take the excitement of the game, if you threaten to move to France if your team doesn't win, if you can't have a conversation without raising your voice, or see a poll without freaking out, get off the freaking court. I'm not going anywhere if there is a president Kerry. I love this country and will love it just the same even if I don't like the president's policies. I understand that if my guy loses, I will have to hear some 'nyah nyah nyah na' on November 3rd but Mets fans have to deal with that yearly and they're not leaving New York. We'll all live to fight another day, play another game, say 'we'll get 'em next time'.

And then I wrote that we should go to swing states and work for Bush. It's a testament to Sarah Palin that I hadn't even considered doing that this time around until she entered the race. If you're looking to get involved, drop me an email and I'll make sure it get to the right place. Let's win this thing.

Stop the presses, a Hollywood celebrity opposes a Republican

Matt Damon doesn't think Sarah Palin is ready to be president. Here's the video (hat-tip W.O., again). Here's a better one:

I'm hiding behind electoral maps

Peter Feld, who was my polling prof in Grad School and one of the few teachers who was nice to me despite my being a Republican, has this to say on the latest poll numbers:

If you hide behind electoral maps or statistical projections at your favorite number-crunching site, and ignore the national polls because "it's 50 state elections," you'll be lulled by projections based on weeks-old data, often conducted by middling polling operations. And you'll miss what's happened.

This election just flipped.

It's not "over," and Obama is far from doomed. But important dynamics were established over the summer, and especially the past 10 days, that help McCain tremendously.

Panic isn't helpful, but neither is denial. Actually, a little panic at Obama HQ would be prudent. An absence of panic means no lessons are being learned.

I recently made a comment on his facebook page about how national polls are meaningless because we don't have national elections. So I'm just egotistical enough to imagine I'm the quote in this piece about "50 state elections".

Peter also has a post, today on Gawker, warning, again, that the Obama campaign is in trouble:

And Politico counts yesterday — a day when six fresh polls showed McCain even or ahead of Obama — as an Obama victory, because his campaign had succeeded in getting the media to fact-check Palin's bridge-blocking claims.

"Bridge to nowhere" is an apt name for this Obama strategy. What Obama ("You can't just make stuff up!") and his sputtering media supporters miss is that the "for-it-before-I-was-against-it" quote damaged Kerry, not because America hates a flip-flopper, but because it captured exactly what made him seem so ridiculous.

It was a line Kerry had used on himself, something Palin would never do.

There's still a long time to go before election day but I must admit to feeling pretty good about everything right now. And that's a bad sign for Barack Obama.

Is he trying to say black people can't organize themselves?

Governor of New York David Patterson says dissing "community organizers" is racist.

I say, having "community organizers" is racist.

I love a good rant in the morning

The Guardian can't get enough of meddling in our election (should I suggest a town to them? Hey, maybe this time adopt a city. I vote Cleveland.) and so has the typical "America better vote for Obama...or else" piece by a guy who calls Andrew Sullivan (voting for Obama, voted for Kerry last time) a "conservative" so you know he has no clue what he's on about:

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

O.M.G. Europe will, like, hate us. A deeply unpleasant shift is predicted! They may even use harsh language or give us dirty looks!

He continues:

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.

Anyone who believes that they don't hate Americans, they just hate Bush, should take advantage of the current low, low prices on a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn. I lived in Scotland under Clinton, and traveled to 10+ other European countries at that time, and while most people were nice to me, I assure you I had plenty of anti-American comments directed at me. People were picking political arguments with me even then. And this is all pre-Bush in those magical Clinton years when we all held hands and sang Kumbaya when we weren't occasionally bombing Iraq to no end.

Here's the thing that, for some reason, never translated to our European friends who pretend to understand our political system: we voted for Bush! Twice! Even if you go the "Election 2000 was stolen" nonsense route, he still won in 2004 by a sizable margin. And in 2004, all of these "we will hate you even more" arguments had already been made.

He does go on:

And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world's verdict will be harsh.

Oh, of course. We can't just reject Obama because we think he's an empty suit who will have no choice but to raise taxes when he finally gets into an executive role and realizes that you can't just rattle off wishlists of things for the American people, that these things need to actually be paid for before you can even think of lowering the oceans, no, no, we reject Obama because he's half-black!

And he concludes:

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

Yes, dodo, Obama's support in Europe hurts him at home. You know why? Because of articles like these that treat Americans like your subjects, purport to tell us who would be best to lead us and call us names if we don't choose the one you think we should choose. There was a time when Europe liking a candidate didn't immediately disqualify him in the eyes of many Americans. Articles such as this one make it so that time isn't coming back anytime soon. Keep doing it, though, treating us like idiots for not agreeing with your opinion. It only hurts the side you wish to help. McCain/Palin '08!

Hat-tip for this article to W.O. who knows how to rile me up first thing in the AM.

Bob Herbert should be fired

In a piece about how liberals like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama reject the "liberal" label, Bob Herbert concludes:
"Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas."

In what way does Clarence Thomas "self-hate"? Or, is being a conservative just unacceptable for a black man? Why, he must follow the empty-headed Bob Herberts of the world right off the "government will take care of you" cliff! Who is allowed to be a conservative anyway? Am I self-hating because I'm a Jewish, immigrant, female conservative? What opinions should I hold that might be acceptable to straight morons like Herbert? Please, enlighten me to what my correct thinking must be. And I better not deviate from it, lest some hack find me self-hating.

Fark headline of the day

I love those farkers:

Bob Woodward: "There's a secret program to kill terrorist leaders in Iraq and that's the main reason for the lowering rates of violence. If anyone found out about this program, people would die. Read about it in my new book"

He's lost his mojo

Obama sounds terrible in the biggest softball interview of all time. (Via Hot Air).

Update: And his new ad (at the same link above) a-sucks.

Yes, it's all Palin all the time

Christopher Hitchen on the liberal insanity over Sarah Palin (Via Hot Air):

I could well be wrong, but I think something similar is involved in the attempt to paint the Palin family as if it were Arkansas on ice or Tobacco Road with igloos and Inuit. Very well, she possibly has had her Troopergate and even trailer-park moments. But whom exactly did the Democrats drown in moist applause, for two nights running, in Denver? The most dysfunctional family ever to occupy not the vice-presidential mansion but the executive one. It's hard to imagine that there will be any more unwanted pregnancies or shotgun weddings when or if the Palins move to the Naval Observatory on Massachusetts Avenue, whereas with the Clintons, the very thing that made all Bill's friends turn white and pee green was that they made him the president, and he still wouldn't stop. For me, it is astonishing that the Democrats have been babbling all week as if this point isn't just waiting—indeed begging—to be made in riposte to their "opposition research."

Quote of the Day II

So the Times, whose editor at one point refused to "recycle" the Edwards story because it originated in the National Enquirer, is now lifting a quote from People magazine. But this is an important issue — how can we select a vice president if we don' know all the details of her childbirth??

-Ryan Tate on the wacky New York Times piece on Sarah Palin's baby Trig.

If you're over 10 and watch CNN and believe everything...**

CNN falls for Palin in bikini with gun photoshop.

**...you're in too deep.

Quote of the Day

"Obama's spectacularly failed his first attempt at diplomacy. Someone who should be your ally who nevertheless only helps half-heartedly and works against your interests behind your back? Hey, Obama -- Hillary is France. And you seem to have had just as much success with Hillary-France as Bush did with real-France."

-Ace of Spades on Obama's dealings with Hillary.

Song of the Day

"It's a Pity" by Tanya Stephens.

I hate the message in this song, despise. It's everything that's wrong with everything. And yet I've been humming the tune all weekend and shaking my hips a little whenever I think of it. Maybe it's just that I've wanted to go dance to reggae music for like, ever, but haven't found a suitable place in Manhattan (it's not that hard, reggae music on a weekend at a place in the city with a dance floor and yet no such place seems to exist). "Who knows maybe someday the world will be modern enough. We'll share you in a civilized manner between the two of us." Sure you will.

Wow,what an orator

Barack Obama may have a pleasant sounding voice but his words are mediocre, at best:

“I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change,” Obama said at a town hall meeting here. “And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you [have] been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person.

“That is not change, come on,” Obama continued. “I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear.”

You can't just make stuff up. Twice. He's got such a way with words.

Thank you, hateful liberals

I keep meaning to blog about how British media is really the worst at understanding the Sarah Palin phenomenon (I mean, honestly, I can't wait till the Guardian adopts an American town like last time, hopefully in Ohio again) but this Brit gets it right:

When a hate campaign goes wrong, however, disaster follows. And everything that could go wrong with the campaign against Palin did. American liberals forgot that the public did not know her. By the time she spoke at the Republican convention, journalists had so lowered expectations that a run-of-the-mill speech would have been enough to win the evening.

As it was, her family appeared on stage without a goitre or a club foot between them, and Palin made a fighting speech that appealed over the heads of reporters to the public we claim to represent. 'I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion,' she said as she deftly detached journalists from their readers and viewers. 'I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.'

Palin! Palin!

Let's go T.O.

...and all the other Cowboys too.

(And also go Philly because I chose them in my Pick 'Em pool).

More Sarah!

Barack Obama: No one could've predicted the surge would work like it did.

Sarah Palin: If by "no one" you mean "no one except John McCain and many others" then yes "no one" made that prediction.

Not-so-random thought

Is it ok to respond "no, I hate you" to a facebook friend request? Or do mature people just hit "ignore" and move on with their lives?

"Most"

John Carney suggests having a market for electoral votes. I'm in, and not just because I'd do most things John Carney suggests.

Oh thank G-d

The show Hard Knocks, which chronicled the Dallas Cowboys training camp, showed coach Wade Phillips appearing to cry when he had to make team cuts. Wade clears up that it was just allergies (hat-tip IC):

"I wasn't crying," he said. "I was sniffling, but I wasn't crying. ... There's no crying in football."

Although, my brother the Jets fan said this when I told him about the episode: "I get emotional cutting people from my fantasy team! I can't imagine doing it in real life."

Million dollar idea

Dear McCain campaign,

Where is the Sarah Palin merchandise? Where? I know I'm not the only one who would be rocking a "I heart Palin" t-shirt. This can't be it for the Palin merch. You have a rockstar on your hands, don't miss this opportunity.

Signed,
Someone who did not imagine in a million years that she'd be looking for a political t-shirt/button/sticker this season.

Update: Ok, obviously the campaign couldn't officially carry this one. But man, you just know it would sell.

Another Update: I think we have a winner in yellow-gold. I can not wait to wear this around the Upper West Side (aka Moscow on the Hudson).

Just. A. Thought.

Maybe we should have ended with Palin?

She. Rules.

I admit, I was scared when McCain picked Sarah Palin. I thought the best way to win was to pick a VP who could potentially carry a swing state (Pawlenty), had a lot of experience with which to beat-up Obama (Thompson) or generally just a political rockstar (ok, that's Thompson again as Giuliani's pro-choice views left him dead in the water, see post below). I just wanted a safer choice. Like it or not, the white Christian man/white Christian man ticket is the one that has won...every single previous election. I don't think Americans are racist or sexist in their voting, I just think that people in general tend to do what they've always done, vote for the ticket that looks like that last ticket they chose.

Anyway, how wrong I was. Sarah Palin blew me away. She struck the perfect balance of scary resolve and adorable sweetness. And if we're going to take a chance on a ticket that doesn't look like every previous ticket, I'm glad we're taking it with her. It's not just that she's near perfect on the issues, it's that she can forcefully deliver her arguments and convey a "regular person"-ness that will be amazing to watch as the election unfolds. I heart Palin. Let's win this thing.

After praise comes criticism

This story, on Rudy lowering the boom on Obama, quotes my man criticizing Obama's flip-flops thusly:

"How many times have we seen Barack Obama do that? Obama was going to take public financing for his campaign, until he didn't. Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it. When speaking to a pro-Israel group, Obama favored an undivided Jerusalem, until the very next day when he changed his mind.

"I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing."

Except, I remember cringing when after the word "Jerusalem" Rudy ad-libbed "as I do, and John McCain does." I went "oooh, not sure that's right. Rudy might, McCain probably doesn't take a position on it." Anyone know?

The way things are

I am pro-life. I don't really talk or write much about it because, frankly, it isn't in my top 10 of important issues. Whenever I am forced into a conversation about abortion, I always go with the argument that I support abortion laws being made on a state-by-state basis (or, in my ultimate dream world, on a community by community basis), and while I am personally pro-life I would support the idea that states like New York would choose to legalize the practice. I like that the Republican party is the party of life, I do, but every time I see Rudy Giuliani give a speech, talk the talk and walk the walk, I wish abortion politics didn't exist. If he were pro-life, or if Roe v. Wade were overturned and the power was indeed in the hands of the individual state legislatures, he would probably be our nominee right now. A Giuliani/Palin, all executive-experience ticket versus the Senator duo, would kick some serious ass. Too bad.

To sum up

Liberal nemesis Dawn Summers writes:

Gauntlet? Thrown. Game? On. Palin hit it out of the park. She did what she needed to do and sanks God…I was getting worried that she was going to be pulled off the ticket and I still think having a novelty candidate on the Republican ticket helps diffuse the “chance taking” feeling about voting for Obama. I’m still worried about the vice presidential debate…Palin can be nasty, so Biden’s going to have to fight, but God help him if he pulls a Lazio. Yikes. Of course, the knowledge that McCain has to face Obama three times gives me hope. And change.

"That's right, U-S-A"

I still love Rudy. Is it just the New York angle? Maybe. I still get so excited to see him on the national stage. Like, that's our guy! I've seen him in the city! He used to give speeches at City Hall! Yeah, it's probably the New York angle.

Update: Oooooh, Biden should get the VP offer in writing. Rudy! Rudy!

Another update: "This is right where the Republicans get me"- ex-Democrat IC when Rudy starts talking foreign policy.

Another update: Let's go, Sarah. Everyone is watching. Kill it.

Last update before I go watch Hard Knocks: She was amazing. Incredible. So much better than I thought she'd be. Palin!

I already have Dawn Summers

Craigslist ad is seeking nemesis for hire.

And I still love me some me

We've been watching "Hard Knocks", the HBO reality show set in football training camp, which this year features the Dallas Cowboys. Early in the season Terrell Owens showed off his cutie new t-shirt line. And yesterday the IC came home with this for me:

I am officially ready for some football. Let's go Cowboys!

I still love me some Fred!

Thompson/Palin, now there would've been a ticket:

Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases.

They tell you they are not going to tax your family.

No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry ... it's not going to affect you.

They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.

The more we know, the more we hate them

Kyle Smith gets it right:

Incidentally, after eight years of abuse from every conceivable corner of the political universe, President Bush’s approval rating is around 28 percent. Barack Obama, after getting the most adoring media reception conceivable for nearly two years, is at 38 percent. McCain is at 34 percent. Is “saddled with historically low approval rating” really just a way of saying, “has misfortune of being president in era of 24/7 media attacks”?

Palin blogging

Dana Superstar has started an all-Sarah Palin blog called Skirts, Not Pantsuits. Check it out.

They must be running out of ways to say "her teenage daughter is pregnant"

Stop. The. Presses. Palin's husband was member of third party

Thunder, stolen

Obama's DNC bounce smaller than others and shrinking

Quote of the Day

"Sarah Palin got more votes in her election as mayor than Joe Biden did in his run for the presidency."

-Mike Huckabee

Hat-tip Larry, of course.

What will Al Gore do?

Global warming is ending?

Update

I am not at the convention. I just couldn't get away right now, much as I would've liked to be there.

Sarah Palin, grandma-to-be

So, does this hurt her or what? And, no, I don't mean does this hurt her vp-ilf status.

Palin rebuts rumors, says daughter pregnant

Update: Yes, I agree with Allah. On everything. Almost always.

Another Update: From Allah's post: "Lee Stranahan does the math for Trig Truthers: “Some people are still holding onto the fake pregnancy rumor. Let’s just do some math. Trig was on April 18, 2008 - about four months and a week ago. Bristol is said to be five months pregnant. Now, if you want to pretend that the five month date is a total lie then you’d also have to believe that the 17 year old had a Down’s Syndrome baby then turned right around and got pregnant again presumably because the first premature birth was so freakin’ awesome!”"