Senator Clinton as Secretary of State

Nate Silver (he of the $700k book deal) opines on Sen. Clinton's Brand if she becomes Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.

Basically, he believes that the position does nothing to solidify her for a 2016 run, which I do not think that she is going to make (she will turn 69 a couple of days before the election in 2016) because...another eight years on the sideline will not do her any good, and it will prevent her from doing good policy things in the Senate or at State...the unpopular but necessary things that people who are running for the PotUS have to do.

I like Sen. Clinton as our Senator and I really would not like to see her at State.

BTW, I would love to see what TAO of FAU has to say about this...

EDIT: 17Nov08

Via Andrew Sullivan

Five Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Not Be Secretary of State

Now, I do not agree with all of these, however, some of them may stick...

Interesting, though...

This Makes Me Insanely Happy

A Dinosaur for the Capital Region? | All Over Albany

A) I love Dinosaur. I love it so much, I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

B) All Over Albany is the best resource on the Web for the Albany area...

More Pictures from the Albany, NY "No on Prop. 8" Rally

OK, I will admit that my favorite (by far) sign was the Rachel Maddow one...

It was a decent crowd (~400) [which is huge for Albany] and they (we) were all earnest enough, however...

The slogans need work...

Something akin to "No on H8, New York State" which rhymes is catchy, but still kinda...craptacular...

You would think that with all the skills that people have in this community (Albany, not the LGBT community) that something a little better thought out would have been presented...

And...one final thing...

"This could happen in New York too"

*boos from the crowd*

Umm...NO.  It couldn't.


New York doesn't have a mechanism for direct democracy (thank whatever creator you believe in for that) and...well...I am just going to say this...New Yorkers (as a whole) are a lot smarter and more decent as human beings when it comes to things like this...more of the New England temperament...

And...

I, once again, must state that I am against marriage in all forms, however, I am willing to allow everyone to share the pain.

Against H8

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At the Albany, NY No on 8 Rally

About to be joined by P & M
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Union cash at issue in DA race Times Union - Albany NY

Union cash at issue in DA race

District Attorney David Soares and Integrity Party opponent Roger Cusick violated election rules by accepting over-the-limit campaign contributions from top labor unions, state filings show.

Of course they did. No, I am sure that it was innocent. I wonder if Soares will prosecute?

Via Capitol Confidential

More on Prop 8

From Anderson Cooper 360°

Dan Savage offers his opinions...and Tony Perkins responds with...hatred and vitriol.



Via Wonkette via Andrew Sullivan

President Elect Casual: Times Fashion Writer Looks at Obama, Sees Jerry Seinfeld

President Elect Casual: Times Fashion Writer Looks at Obama, Sees Jerry Seinfeld

You don't have to try to grab the Jewish vote anymore, Barack, you're already president! If you stay this course, there will be talk of the tiny Jewish man inside you, and between between Rahm Emanuel and Robert Reich, you already have enough tiny Jewish men on staff.

Loosening His Tie (Sort Of) NYT

Scott Eckern of California Musical Theater Resigns Amid Gay-Rights Ire Over Proposition 8 in California - NYTimes.com

Scott Eckern of California Musical Theater Resigns Amid Gay-Rights Ire Over Proposition 8 in California - NYTimes.com

Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer (“Hairspray”), called Mr. Eckern last week and said that he would not let his work be performed in the theater. “I was uncomfortable with money made off my work being used to put discrimination in the Constitution,” Mr. Shaiman said. He added, however, that the entire episode left him “deeply troubled” because of the potential for backlash against gays who protested Mr. Eckern’s donation.

“It will not help our cause because we will be branded exactly as what we were trying to fight,” said Mr. Shaiman, who is gay. “But I do believe there comes a time when you cannot sit back and accept what I think is the most dangerous form of bigotry.”

Looking forward to trying this out

GMail Voice and Video Chat

My Agenda for President-Elect Obama

• Repeal the Bush Tax Cuts
• Repeal "No Child Left Behind"
• Restore funding for Stem Cell Research
• Close Gitmo
• Create a "jobs corp" to restore our infrastructure (our highways, byways, bridges and canals)
• Reform our immigration policy, allowing amnesty for those who want to become citizens
• Either expand the number of or eliminate the H-1B visa
• Keep pushing free trade agreements
• Balance the Federal Budget
• Back the currency with something of objective value
• Really support our troops, rotate them home, and eliminate destructive "stop-loss" programs
• Do not bailout GM.  GM is broken and has been for 20 years.  Maybe a lean industrial phoenix will rise from those ashes that will give you the innovative company that you want
• Eliminate the Estate Tax (Inherited wealth is often squandered)
• Reform the tax code.
• Enforce the Equal Protection Clause, so that hate backed by popular referendum will never become law.
  

Joe...Must...Go...(back to his chairmanship)

Salon.com's Joan Walsh writes about Rachel Maddow's interview with Senator Evan Bayh...

Actually, Walsh doesn't write so much as just post the transcript of the conversation...

With this as the lead...

I've been pretty convinced that the Democratic Senate leadership needs to strip Sen. Joe Lieberman of his role as Homeland Security chair.

Myths about Prop 8

Nate Silver states on Five Thirty Eight:

The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish -- California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.

Prop 8 Myths

Great, let the old bigots die and hope the youngs who voted against Prop 8 don't change their mind as they (naturally, remember what Churchill said) become more conservative as they age...

The Future of Nate Silver

Earlier in the week, Gawker explained how Nate Silver could rule the world based on his success with FiveThirtyEight.com...

2. Follow the money: Statistics show (never gets old) that corporate America has all the money. Baseball fans and political junkies are fine people, but they're not the ones holding an extravagant portion of the world's wealth in their dessicated, greedy hands. In order to have a long-term career you're going to have to do something that appeals to the corporate types. Luckily, they love numbers too!

Today, Deadspin (another of Nick Denton's Gawker Media properties) is commenting on rumors that ESPN may be interested in buying Baseball Prospectus...

It's been no secret that ESPN (and many other media outlets) have courted BP in the past, as adding its unique brand of number-crunching and reportage would definitely give all of its properties some sabermetric street cred.

Deadspin does comment that this rumor is probably DOA (or to use their phrase..."ESPN wouldn't directly comment either, but did insinuate that the person talking about such a meeting with Silver was entirely full of shit."

So...I ask...what is Nate Silver to do next?

And...does he deserve a seat at the table with the Obama people? Could be the leftist version of Karl Rove? (See me or Wonkette)

Sen. Clinton as a Good Soldier

Even as she is feeling let down by the Obama campaigns implicit promise to help make up some of her campaign debt (Wonkette via Politico), Sen. Clinton is still carrying the water for President-Elect Obama when it comes to his economic stimulus package. (Capitol Confidential).

When the Canadians notice that you are a powerhouse and an asset (Ottawa Citizen), maybe it is time for the DNC under Obama's watchful eye to "help a sister out".

Top Chef

The “Top Chef” kitchen also exquisitely mirrors a certain kind of creative workplace where the obsessively gifted flounder in the face of the coolly confident. The show is rife with inventive chokers, cooks who lack the stamina or emotional wherewithal to keep the flame under the magic burning. In them we see ourselves and a thousand promotions lost to the chumps who never permitted their heads to swivel.

Trying to Stand the Heat in a Pressure Cooker

A Special Comment

On Monday night, Keith Olbermann offered a special comment on Prop 8 in California.

The text of this can be found at HuffPo but this is the part that I found most interesting...

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage.

If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal... in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay.

Prop 8 - Redux - "Prohibit Divorce"

Because...if the sanctity of marriage is what you were trying to promote (as opposed to hatred and bigotry), go ahead...prohibit divorce...

Now, I am on the record as being against marriage in all forms, but...if you are going to practice what you preach, prohibit divorce, California.

Tuesday Night

Tuesday night...

Just watching "Countdown" and "Rachel Maddow".

I have questions about Obama, Bush and his legacy (could it be that bad?), Prop 8 (or Prop H8), and what the economy is going to do.

And...the ACLU is for everyone, Bill O'...
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On the blogosphere

I have been "blogging" or something like that for more than a decade now, which makes me an "old", I realize, but not quite an "eld", and I have come in contact with a huge number of people through the "series of tubes" (TM Sen. Convict of that Cold Scary Dark Place of Nightmares that produces Beauty Pageant Winning Wolf Hunting Governors) that I consider friends, or had considered friends...people who I had never met but knew intimate details of their lives.

I went looking the other day for one of these people who I had lost contact with...I hadn't thought of this person since...well...my life started to change in the summer of '07...I typed in her friendly address for her blog and I saw that she hadn't updated since October (or so I thought) and then I saw that the "blog" was listed as a memorial...

I rechecked the date, and it was October of '07 that she last updated.  Shortly after her last post, which was something silly, she passed away.

It was a little bit of a shock.

I am not saying that it was a crushing blow, I wasn't really a friend, nor family...none of that.  I was just a person who read about this woman's life.  Her move away from her family, and her issues and problems and joys...and now there is going to be nothing new.

Which puts all of my whining about my life and politics into perspective.

Anyway...sorry for the navel gazing...

Countdown to...a new Contract

Countdown to Continue...

This makes me exceedingly happy.  KO often goes way off the deep end, however, with $7.5 million/year, Miss Princess Perfect should be allowed to move wherever she would like.

MSNBC Extends Keith Olbermann's Contact

Do they really?

3. The candidates matter: Did Barack Obama do better than John Kerry because Obama had a more sophisticated media strategy? OR was it because Obama is more competent, more likable, more telegenic, and was running against a teetering old warmonger who would be a heartbeat away from turning the Oval Office over to a fundamentalist Alaskan psycho woman? You decide.

Five Lessons from Obama's Campaign that aren't Marketing Pseudospeak.

Some Links...

1) From Frank Rich in the NY Times
"So let's be blunt. Almost every assumption about America that was taken as a given by our political culture on Tuesday morning was proved wrong by Tuesday night."
It Still Felt Good the Morning After

2) The WaPo was in the bag for Obama...
"The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces about McCain, 58, than there were about Obama, 32, and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement. The Post has several conservative columnists, but not all were gung-ho about McCain. "
An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage

3) Gawker points out that...the Euros are beginning to hate each other and Obama is to blame.

Just read it...

Let's Watch Obama Turn Europeans Against One Another