George F. Will – Call Him John the Careless

Via The gruber

“From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism. Tuesday’s probable repudiation of the Republican Party will punish characteristics displayed in the campaign’s closing days.”

Wow. o

Coco is checking out “cloud” placement in her work Plush Deconstruction: Synthetic Clouds of Existent and Metaphysical Manifestation.

She seems fairly content with her work. I’m going to have to vacuum before Heather returns from New York… o

The colors this season have lasted longer than any since I moved back to Utah in late 2002. I’m hoping to capture a few more frames of delicious autumnry before we bundle up for the winter.

I love how blown out of focus the power line is in the upper left. Kind of like my mind right now. o

Lovely:

“Sometimes, when a political campaign has run out of ideas and senses that the prize is slipping through its fingers, it rolls up a sleeve and plunges an arm, shoulder deep, right down to the bottom of the barrel. The problem for John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Republican Party is that the bottom was scraped clean long before it dropped out. Back when the polls were nip and tuck and the leaves had not yet begun to turn, Barack Obama had already been accused of betraying the troops, wanting to teach kindergartners all about sex, favoring infanticide, and being a friend of terrorists and terrorism. What was left? The anticlimactic answer came as the long Presidential march of 2008 staggered toward its final week: Senator Obama is a socialist.”

From:
Like, Socialism: Comment: The New Yorker

The last paragraph is most damning for Ms. Palin. I’ll let you savor that for yourself.

via: TPM

Nov. 4th can’t come soon enough. o

Everytime I get on a ladder, there are a few moments when I wonder if this was such a good idea. And then I wonder if ladders were such a great idea. And then I get over it and remove the snow from the satellite dish.

I’m hoping this winter will be gentler all around, with the exception of massive snow in the canyons. o

Definitely a grape of some kind. These are very tiny. I had the macro/wide angle adapter screwed into the Lensbaby for this one.

I think the wine made from these spawns zombie nematodes. o

Inside look at the McCain campaign and its narrative attempts:

John McCain – The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate – NYTimes.com

This election cycle was supposed to be about “the story”. Unfortunately for McCain, his ever-changing direction has been completely transparent. Normally, that wouldn’t be such a big deal. But with the economy tanking, ever-changing isn’t what people are looking for in a candidate.

The bigger issue facing the GOP is that it is starting to look more and more like the party of yesterday. Nothing has accelerated this more than the selection of Palin as a VP candidate. The GOP looks as if it’s not the solid block (from David Frum, no less) that it has been over the past 25 years. Moderates are turned off by the current GOP tactics of name-calling and appeals to an increasingly fringe base.

The latest scare tactic from the GOP? The language of the dangers of one-party rule, which ring empty, given that the GOP has had it’s chance during its years of one-party rule to move the country forward and failed. One-party rule under the GOP gave us the massive failed response to Katrina, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, extreme fringe politics (manifest in the ridiculous Terry Schiavo case), partisan divisiveness and no end of voting district gerrymandering to ensure it stays in power.

Barack Obama has represented a surprising calm in the face of disaster. His demeanor in the face of relentless character attacks (which haven’t stuck) shows a presidential character we haven’t seen in a long while.

There have been gaffes on both sides, to be sure, but on substance alone, Obama shows an approach to problem-solving and has ideas to move the U.S. away from the apocalyptic, New Testament informed end of days chaos we’ve seen from the Bush/Cheney cabal.

Biden’s remarks about Obama being tested in the first six months isn’t quite the homerun for the GOP that it’s been made out to be. Both Clinton and Bush were tested in their first years as president with attacks on the United States. Joe Lieberman said the same thing on June 29,2008. I don’t think it’s reckless to assume that no matter who is president, the United States will have to be vigilant and aware. o

These are clinging to the last days of autumn. Just like me.

Clarification: these berries, if planted right, will spawn alien life forms. o

This week there is a huge hubbub over Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenses. There’s still some life in the story and my favorite headline from the conservatives is from this National Review piece.

The problem isn’t that the wardrobe cost so much. It’s that Ms. Palin has said on numerous occasions that she’s just a “hockey mom” and part of the “Joe Six-Pack” nation. There were problems with this assertion before this latest gaffe.

The weird thing is that conservatives BUY IT. They believe that a couple making over a hundred grand a year is “just like me”. The other people on the ticket all make more money than Palin, to be sure, but come on. Joe Six-Pack if your six-pack includes six bottles of expensive champagne. When was the last time YOU spent $75k on clothes from Neiman-Marcus?

Conservatives got all crazy about John Edward’s $400 haircut and fashion expenditures of Hillary Clinton. The shoe is on the other foot now. And that foot appears to be in the self-righteous mouth of the GOP. o

Near as I can tell, there are no alien life forms in these pods. However, the black seeds that drop will take root anywhere. Including concrete. The seeds do not spawn alien life forms. o