Cry "Havoc" And Let Slip The Dogs Of War

Thus rages Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. With much assistance from Gov. Palin the McCain campaign did just that last week. Desperately trying to distract voters from the subject of the economy the RNC went on the attack with suggestions that their opponent was associating with terrorists. It certainly seemed a successful strategy with recent rallies including cries from the crowd of "kill him" and "terrorist" and even threats made to black TV crew members.

Obviously scenes of howling bloodlust do little to sway the undecided voter and now Sen. McCain is desperatly trying to tone down the rhetoric from his audiences even today even giving praise to Obama, claiming that "he is a decent person, and a person that you do not have be scared as President of the United States."

The problem for him and the Republican party is that once the dogs of war are gone it's very hard to leash them again. This is the YouTube generation and the site is becoming filled with videos featuring McCain supporters hurling epiphets at the cameras. Currently the most viewed video on the site is labelled The McCain-Palin Mob, another is The Sidewalk To Nowhere, both feature party supporters with some very nasty and angry sound bites ("Commie Faggots").

This has the potential to completely derail not just the campaign but the entire Republican party. An act of actual violence perpetrated by a member of one of these mobs could have devastating and long lasting political effects and would rightly bring the wrath of decent society to bear directly on those who let slip the dogs in the first place.

Repeating History - Again

Note to McCain campaign : It's not Reverend Wright or William Ayers, it's not that his middle name is Hussein. It's not even that he partied it up in school.

It's The Economy Stupid!

A Couple Of Questions Mr. Senator

Sen. McCain, a couple of things you mentioned during last night's debate got me wondering:

1) You plan to buy up mortgages that are in default & refinance them at fixed rates based on the actual value of the home at this time? Doesn't that reward the property owners who bought way more than they could afford (once values go up again they can profit handily from their foibles) and penalize those who acted responsibly with loans within their means? And what is to stop a homeowner declaring themselves unable to pay their loan merely to take advantage of your amazing offer? How do you plan to vet every applicant for this program without it taking longer than some of the loans issued?

2) Drill Baby Drill! Your battle cry for domestic production with which you plan to give American's "relief at the pump." This all sounds well and good but wouldn't oil sourced in ANWAR, the continental shelf or anywhere else in the US still be subject to world oil prices? Or are you suggesting that say, oil on the spot is selling for $110 a barrel but US domestic oil would be held artificially low at $75 a barrel (or some other pre-determined amount)?

And I thought you were for less government? You sly old maverick you, getting harder to pin down every minute aren't you?

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Sometimes you come across something that gets it completely right:

But it was a reckless choice. Palin has proved herself to be spectacularly unprepared for a national campaign and embarrassingly inarticulate and unreflective. She is held in protective custody by a campaign that trusts her less and less. A few conservatives have suggested she should be dropped from the ticket. - E.J. Dionne Jr. Washington Post

In this and his recent to & fro'ing on the bailout, maverick is looking increasingly more like reckless.

Warning - Reprint

I ' m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic “Muslim” (who, by the way, is a Christian). Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a “maverick”.

Graduate from Harvard Law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law Professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs Committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience. But if your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade of life.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control and only teaching kindergartners how to avoid strangers who might be sexual predators, you are eroding the fabric of society. However, if, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's. If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until
age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.