July 2008 Archives

We've now witnessed what the extreme result can be from a continuous diet of hate, distortion, propaganda, and bigotry.  I'm sure you've read about the nutcase who walked into a Unitarian Universalist church Sunday in Knoxville carrying a shotgun and killing 2 people and wounding 6 others.  His reason?   According to the Knoxville police, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and...

Ever wonder why McCain is pretending to grocery shop with a young mother (who turns out to be a Republican plant) and giving press conferences from the cheese aisle?  This is why:According to Pollster, Obama has now opened a 10 point lead over McCain there.  This state, that which has 21 electoral votes, is key to any successful candidate in November.  Since March, the gap between Obama and McCain has been widening.  McCain's people can...

As we all know, McCain and all of his surrogates taunted Obama about not being to Iraq in 2 years, not having any credibility internationally, of being too young, lightweight.  Now that he has returned from what many will say was a smashing success, speaking to hundreds of thousands, meeting with heads of state, visiting the fronts of both the Iraq war and the real war on terror in Afghanisatan, McCain and his mouthpieces are...

The latest WSJ/NBC poll out yesterday continues to show Obama with a 6 point lead over McCain.  If you mix in the other independent candidates, Obama's lead blows out to 13 points, 48 to 35.  According to Pollster, Obama's lead over McCain in average national polls was only 2 points, narrowing over the last couple of weeks.That's not the Republicans' problem, though.  Their problem is twofold.  First, in state by state polls, Obama leads in...

It's been a hell of a day.  I would like all of my readers to know - conservative, liberal, libertarian, Christian, and atheist, and all in between, that I appreciate, so much, your readership, loyalty, participation, and criticism.  i enjoy our interaction, discussion, and, sometimes, confrontation, about so many issues.  i am dealing with some personal issues tonight, and want you to know that your presence and participation is so important to me.I'll be back...

Yesterday at the trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, allegedly Bin Laden's driver, a military judge tossed all of the statements he made in Afghanistan, due to the "highly coercive" conditions under which Hamdam was questioned.  Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, presiding over the trial, did not throw out the statements made by Hamdan at Gitmo, but required the prosecutors to produce the individuals who conducted the interrogations who must testify about how they interrogated Hamdan. This...

As was reported by German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday, Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, backed Obama's troop withdrawal plan.  Here is the exchange concerning Obama's withdrawal proposal: Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes. SPIEGEL: Is this an endorsement for the US presidential election in...

Across national polls, the Presidential race between Obama and McCain is close, generally 4-6 points, and not very predictive.  There is one place, however, that there is a huge gap, and it's not insignificant.  It's at inTrade, the online prediction market, where people actually trade in predictions of future events.  It is amazingly accurate, better than polls and pundit, in predicting the outcomes of political races.  In 2006, inTrade values accurately predicted virtually every race...

Steven Sloane, with whom I became friends when he conducted Mozart's "Magic Flute" for Houston Grand Opera this season, invited us up to New York to watch him conduct an opera for this year's Lincoln Center Festival at the Park Avenue Armory.  The opera was Die Soldaten, by Bernd Alois Zimmermann.  Zimmermann started composing the piece in 1957, finally premiering in Cologne in 1965.  His original concept was multiple playing areas incorporating cinema and sound...

In recent days, I, and other bloggers have been writing about small, but vocal groups of Obama haters, most claiming to be Hillary supporters.  There have been many questions about the origins of these websites and groups that are pumping out blast emails repeating every kind of criticism of Obama that you can imagine.  I have suspected that most of these are Republican in nature, but indeed, the source of some of these emails have...