Wonkette
- Barack Obama opened up a two week “Crap all over John McCain’s economic proposals” tour of America, and the McCain team unveiled yet another brilliant, hopeful slogan: “that’s change we just can’t afford.” [New York Times]
- One Nevada resident sums up the theatrics in her governor’s mansion: “It’s like the Clintons if they had gotten divorced.” [Los Angeles Times]
- John McCain and Barack Obama have to figure out how to raise obscene amounts of money while still decrying the obscene amounts of money sullying politics. [Washington Post]
- The rising cost of air travel may soon make it, once again, the province of the wealthy and privileged. [Wall Street Journal]
- Remember Nancy Pelosi? She is an Important Political Woman, just like Hillary Clinton. [The Hill]
- Jim Johnson, the man heading Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee, may be as sullied by ties to the mortgage industry as every other rich person in America. [Politico]
DAILY BRIEFING
JimJohnson-iny Crickets, “reserved Minnesotans” seem to be eating a few too many powdermilk biscuits these days.
From the Pelosi article - “Democratic committee chairmen were shocked to realize that they had passed a set of rules…” Sounds kinda familiar…didn’t they pass a whole other set of rules once that they didn’t know about?
Listen, since all of Hillary’s supporters are going to vote for John McCain anyway, can’t we just call the election now and spend the summer getting drunk on mojitos?
After 8 years of Boosh:
Change. It’s all I have I left in my pocket.
urr. not enuff coffeeee.
Change. It’s all I have left in my pocket.
Maybe it’s 80 and humid somewhere, but in New York it’s already 86 and humid. Kill me.
John McCain’s strategy is change he can xerox.
Not that John McCain is young enough to know what the hell a Xerox is.
Or that anyone else is young enough to know what a Xerox is.
Cutting back on air travel is a good thing (maybe not if you’re a pilot) considering the amount of CO2 generated by jet engines (ie: tons of it per jet) to help slow down the greenhouse thingy.
This might bring us back to simpler air travel, to the era of the blimp. Back to a time where the mere mention of a blimp doesn’t bring back snickers of laughter and memories of pasty faced pot heads screaming Ron Paul from 5000 feet up. When blimp disasters were about the Hindenberg not the Tardenberg/Black Sunday. Thanks Paultards for ruining blimps as an alternative to planes.
“Change we can’t afford”? Really? Like we can afford to continue tax cuts for millionaires and huge subsidy giveaways to farm states? Maybe McCain knows more about voting patterns for those groups than I thought.
Did the McCain people do focus groups on “Sometimes no change is better than some change” or “Changing the change to stop change” or something else along those lines? Because that seems more like the straight talk we’re getting these days.
I like how we can’t afford economic growth, but $550 billion on a war is okay.
TJBeck: Change you can mimeograph. Change you can carbon copy. Change you can medievally transcribe.
Change. It’s what’s for dinner.
Change. The other white meat.
LucyHoneychrrch: And I’m sure the minimal amount of petroleum reserves we tap daily in Iraq have no effect on the global market, or the price that we have to pay here at home. Nope, no effect at all. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.
McCain sounds like a used car salesman: “The question isn’t whether we can afford to spend $200 billion a year pursuing a fruitless goal in Iraq… the question is whether we can afford not to spend $200 billion a year in Iraq pursuing a fruitless goal.”
Looking over my 401(k) and my IRA, I think that even I’m sullied by ties to mortgage industry. Plus, I bank at Citibank. But then again, I’m an elite East Coast gay liberal, and Obama supporter. One that drives a 4 year old American car, lives in the ghetto in a run down apartment without air conditioning, but that’s exactly what a elite would say, isn’t it?
DoctorCulturae: McCain gets changed 6 times a day. McCain knows change. And he has more experience with international affairs and enemas too. McCain prays every day:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (by myself, Cindy does it for me)….”
http://www.amazon.com/Serenity-Discreet-Bladder-Protection-pieces/dp/B000GGU0CQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1213107292&sr=1-3
DudeLooksLikeALady: ah, but you are using the wrong “we”. The “we” he is talking to were the people who went to his $10K per head event yesterday in Richmond. Those hard-working Americans cannot afford the change Obama proposes because it would cut into the cash they have for their country club dues.
“RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Republican John McCain reversed course today and allowed the media into a private fundraiser in Richmond.
The $10,000-per-ticket reception for the presumed Republican nominee, the national party and several state parties marked the first time McCain had allowed reporters into his fundraisers. The four-term Arizona senator had kept such events off limits to the media for months with little or no explanation.
The event and a $1,000-a-ticket luncheon raised $800,000 for McCain and the GOP.
Among those attending the reception were former Virginia Governor James S. Gilmore and former Lieutentant Governor John Hager.
At the reception, McCain chided Democratic rival Barack Obama for his reluctance to agree to a series of joint town-hall meetings.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)”
ManchuCandidate:
There has been a pilot shortage before the fuel crisis, so pilot losses aren’t an issue.
Airships have been getting some attention, but the lobbyists from Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, etc. are turning up the fear dial.
The best solution for travel is improving and expanding our rail systems. Modern trains are far cheaper to operate in terms of fuel and equipment, primarily because they aren’t restricted by weight like aircraft.
oh wow, i thought you were joking about the “that’s change we just can’t afford” and i was going to compliment you on the joke, but then i decided to read the story.
john mccain’s campaign is going to be that gift that just keeps on giving.
metropolitan: When will the Dems roll out clips of Raygun saying Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?
Change. It’s what my underpants need.
1974 (again): Do you know Robyn Hitchcock’s song “1974″? Time for a YouTube break!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YVDDXFpVjNU
Servo:
Exactly. That WSJ article was pretty useful (lots of good insidery numbers about fuel costs for the airlines), but it completely missed the bigger point: Our economy is completely and utterly depenedent on being able to efficiently move people around the country. Less inter-city travel will seriously fuck up our economy. So why isn’t anyone talking about improving Amtrak? (in fairness, Barry Hussein has mentioned it within the last week or two, but no one seemed to take notice).
Improving our rail system seems like a good idea. But they need to class it up, give the kind of service they gave when rail travel was new, and people dressed…
Botswana Meat Commission FC: Amen. More trains, please. Right now, if you take out the Woodrow Wilson Bridge or American Legion Bridge (for those outsdie the Beltway, these move 495/95 across the Potomac at DC/MD/VA area), you have just wiped out N/S transportation of goods up and down the east coast as well as created nightmare gridlock for 100s of miles. We desperately need to invest in Amtrak and in Metro (commuter rail) around the DC area because we are just about maxed out on cars and roads, and Metro is dying for lack of funds at the same time more people are using it because of gas prices. It is just stupid how terrified politicians are of saying “that’s it, people, stop driving, we are pouring money into rail, buses, and making communities safer for walking and biking”. (and in the politicians’ defense, people freak out when they are told money will not fund roads but will funds rail).
graceless: Wait, you mean there are naked people on Amtrak? This needs to be publicized–ridership will skyrocket! Ohhhh, you mean dressed nicely instead of like piggish slobs. Oh well.
1974 (again): Four-year-old car? Shit, man, that’s practically new - I drive a 1990, which is only 7 years younger than I am, and I *like it.* Kind of. The main thing is, it’s all paid for and still runs.
We need to use more trains for shipping goods, too.
I SERIOUSLY doubt the last line of the airline article: “It will probably be a more pleasant travel experience on the whole,” he said. “The industry will have to behave differently in terms of customer service.”
Pfft. Right. They’ll raise prices for business travelers and still provide lackluster service and no meals on most routes. Not that airline meals were good, mind you.
Botswana Meat Commission FC: graceless: Doglessliberal: It was great when I was stationed in Japan. I could get anywhere by rail for cheap. The express trains hauled ass and were spotless. They put all of their pride into their rail systems because their nation would slam to a halt if they failed.
Doglessliberal: Recently, CRX (Rail Shippers) have had commercials all over the radio. They ship cargo and people. So much of our current economic crisis comes from not just people driving to work, but all of our good driving cross-country on trucks. It wasn’t always this way. You’ll see alot more shipping on trains now, I’m sure.
MoodProcessor: I really hope so. I am old fashioned in a lot of ways and really love train travel. One down side: where does one hang one’s TruckNutz? Maybe they can branch out and sell PurseNutz or BackPackNutz?
MoodProcessor: Which is why I have no sympathy for interstate truckers. What a fuckin’ waste! They choke the commuter routes to a crawl and cause the most physical damage to roads they were never designed to carry their massive numbers.
vicuna:
The fact that we consider ourselves a developed country and still have passenger rail “borrowing” tracks from the freight companies is like some kind of absurd Banana Republic joke.
Botswana Meat Commission FC: this is so true. I was saying the other day that we need parallel tracks, one for freight, one for commuter. Yeah, it would cost up front, but how much are we vomiting in money subsidizing oil (and the attendant war(s))?
Doglessliberal: YES! Ken Layne, please invest all Wonkette proceeds in a PurseNUTZ R&D effort ASAP!
I could do better slogans for WALNUTS!: “That’s change that will fuck us up.”
Well, maybe not.
Doglessliberal: One word: TrainNutz.
Joey Ratz: …you’ve ruined Thomas the Tank Engine for me forever. Thanks a lot.
Jim Gibbons was in my dad’s reserve unit. True story.