Porn and political affiliations

Results from a new nationwide study of anonymised credit-card receipts from porn purchases online. It sure looks like hard core Republicans love their porn with the same tenacity with which they hold onto their Republican values...

- Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
- Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
- Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.
- States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed.

Full report here.

Rhythmic review

From Michiko Kakutani's review of a book about the 2008 presidential race written in rhyme by Calvin Trillin. The review itself was written in rhyme by the Japanese American Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani. Her rhyme is a keeper.

There once was a poet named Bud Trillin,
Who cast George Bush as his villain.
He sounded like a new Ogden Nash,
Writing doggerel with real panache,
Chronicling the reign of Bush Two,
And Rove’s quest to wipe out the blue.
The prez was famous for gaffes,
Which Trillin played for some laughs.
He painted Bush as a shrub,
With a strong impulse to flub,
While taking on the Pentagon
And Cheney and the neo-cons.
In our nation’s hard times,
Trillin sought funny lines.
Some said he made mere frivolity
Out of real issues of polity.
But others toasted his wicked wit,
And gave him lots of Amazon hits.

From Katrina to Enron to the war in Iraq,
Bush’s missteps weren’t hard to attack.
W.M.D.’s that didn’t exist led to a desert fiasco,
While greed and a hurricane created domestic disasters.
In the Gulf, we were caught in a quagmire,
While at home, things looked increasingly dire.
This mess helped spawn two earlier books
By providing some embarrassing hooks.
Now the poet’s turned to the ’08 election,
Skewering the candidates for our delectation.
There was Rudy, McCain, Huckabee and Romney,
Obama, Edwards, Dodd and, of course, Hillary.
All of them tracked from Iowa to New Hampshire,
In caucuses and primaries from Des Moines to Manchester.

The former first lady versus Senator Obama
Made for lots of gripping political drama.
Bud noted Barack’s “eloquence at his command”
And how he got Dems to eat from his hand.
As for McCain, Bud saw flip-flops at a cost
From the straight-talking man who in 2000 lost,
He’d become someone fond of the tactics of Rove,
Especially as all his poll ratings dove.
While critics said the poet was partisan,
Fans hailed him as a talented artisan.

McCain’s pick of Palin was more grist for the mill,
Caribou Barbie saw herself as a tool of God’s will,
At least that’s how Trillin saw the lass from Alaska,
Whom Republicans hoped would play in Nebraska.
Both McCain and Palin tried to act mavericky,
But many thought of her selection as gimmicky.
The right was glad she was instantly famous,
But foes just saw a complete ignoramus.

Everything changed when the Dow took a dive.
Bankers on Wall Street questioned how they’d survive,
And folks turned from talk about lipstick and pigs
To worrying how they’d stay in their digs.
More bad fallout from the reign of 43,
Which hit the poor, the rich and the bourgeoisie.
Republicans suffered from this new twist of fate,
And McCainiacs wondered if it was too late.
Mac touted a guy known as Joe the Plumber,
But his populist gambit became a bummer.
Trillin recounted this all with verve and élan,
Charting the candidates’ every slogan and plan.

Trillin followed the race to the end,
Seeing what message the voters would send.
This deadline poet began his last lines
As anxious Democrats looked for a sign.
The networks announced that Obama had won,
A momentous end to a historic run.
Obama’s mantra of change helped win the election,
And promised America a brand-new direction.
Trillin praised the country’s choice to reboot
In verse that was witty, quick and acute.
What had begun two books back as a wry chronicle of woe
Became a tribute to the nation’s ability to grow.

Palin might invoke 'Pallin' around with Kali' surprise

Heidi Klum (the model) was dressed for Halloween as the fearsome Indian goddess Kali (the celestial consort of Lord Shiva). Just a couple of days back, Ms. Klum made news by endorsing Barack Obama for President. Here is why I am little scared with these two otherwise inane developments...

I am concerned that this Halloween costume gag might be used by the spinmeisters at the McCain / Palin camp to now state conclusively that Sen. Obama is now pallin' around with mythological Hindu goddesses who brandish fearsome weapons of mass destruction emanating from multiple upper limb like extremities thus invoking and fortifying all the negative images, ideas and thoughts that the McCain camp has put into middle America about Sen. Obama.

Of course, I am only kidding. Nevertheless, this does highlight the puerile nature of the campaign that the McCain/Palin camp have conducted thus far. As easy as it has been for Heidi to transform herself into this blue skinned goddesses holding a severed head, the McSame camp had tried their best to cast Sen. Obama variously as a closet terrorist, foreign policy newbie, baby killer, gay activist, supporter for introducing porn to preteens, Iran pal, embryo extinguisher, firebrand Muslim, fire breathing preacher's best friend and finally when nothing else seemed to stick, a naive socialist.

It is only in our best interests to go out and vote for whoever you think is going to build this country going forward. My choice is clear. Make yours tomorrow. We must, as a nation, make sure that we just go out and vote tomorrow - even if that is the only one thing that you accomplish tomorrow - even if it means hiring that babysitter - even if it means driving 50 miles to the nearest polling booth - even if it means waiting at the polling booth because they take 2 hours in ascertaining your identity - even if it means you will lose out on a wage earning day - this election is too important for any one to pass up - for our futures, for our children's futures and for the future of the world at large!! Of course, in the end we get what we collectively deserve.

More pictures of the deadly Ms. Klum here.

Barack Bashing Chronicles

Why is the Los Angeles Times withholding a video of Barack Obama meeting a Columbia University professor (Rashid Khalidi) five years ago. OK, Rashid is known to be a Palestinian rights advocate. So what?
Even if this is meeting was known to all in the media for the last six months, we know the McCain camp will dredge the last drop of s*** in trying to slime Obama. The LA Times should just release the video. Of course, five days before the election might not be the greatest timing, but then opportunism is what the McCain camp is all about...

From here: The video shows a gathering in Chicago for Rashid Khalidi, a teacher, writer and Obama friend who is critical of Israel. Mr. Obama spoke at the dinner, where other speakers likened Israel and Israelis to terrorists. The McCain campaign said the tape could show how Mr. Obama reacted to anti-Israel remarks. Mr. Khalidi, now a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, opposes Israel’s occupation of territory it seized in the 1967 war and has defended Palestinian resistance to the occupation. He advised a Palestinian delegation at a 1991 peace conference and has written several books on the Middle East.

Of course, the conditions under which this newspaper obtained the video is also important to consider: The LA Times obtained it from a source on the express condition that the video itself not be released. The LA Times did run a story disclosing the contents of the video, presumably with the permission of the source, but they have stated that "the Times keeps its promises to sources."

Update: A Reader points out the following (source here):

John McCain served as Chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), hich gave out grants to different organizations including the Palestinian Research enter, which was headed by, wait for it, wait for it - Rashid Khalidi. In 1998, a tax filing from IRI shows $448,873 that went to Khalaidi’s group. The relationship existed for at least 5 years as in 1993 IRI funded several of Khalidi’s studies on “sociopolitical attitudes.” No one is calling John McCain a terrorist. No in is calling into question John McCain’s patriotism. And the same should be true for Barack Obama.

Socialism reigns... Looks like all four are!

Obama the socialist (from here):

On October of 2008, in conversation with a voter forever to be known as Joe the Plumber, Obama gave one of his fullest summaries of his tax plan. After explaining how Joe could benefit from it, whether or not he achieves his dream of owning his own plumbing business, Obama added casually, “I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

McCain the socialist:

During the 2000 campaign, on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” a young woman asked him why her father, a doctor, should be “penalized” by being “in a huge tax bracket.” McCain
replied that “wealthy people can afford more” and that “the very wealthy, because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes, really don’t pay nearly as much as you think they do.”
YOUNG WOMAN: Are we getting closer and closer to, like, socialism and stuff?. . .
MCCAIN: Here’s what I really believe: That when you reach a certain level of omfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

Palin the socialist:

A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of the New Yorker — that "we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources.
So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs."

Biden the socialist:

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

Maybe, we need some spreading of the wealth...

I was out of the news cycle yesterday, but reading the Times this morning, I found some truth and candor from Sen. McCain - a rapidly dwindling commodity... Apparently Sen. McCain has publicly stated that he and President Bush do share a 'common philosophy'.

This is what Sen. Obama had to say and I think he is spot on:

It's a philosophy that says we should give more and more to folks at the top, to millionaires and billionaires, to the wealthiest among us, and that somehow it's all going to trickle down on the rest of us.

It's a philosophy that justifies spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus and our economy is in crisis.

Of course, McCain is also the individual who defined "middle class" as making as much as $5,000,000 per year. Yes, that is five million dollars. This sure is an interesting but useless philosophy as far as the common man/woman is concerned.

What is wrong with spreading some of that wealth around - pdf report highlighting income disparities? If one looks to the chart below (from the report), it is clear that the only thing that has remained stagnant was the ‘average wage incomes’. The disparity is so extreme that the axes scales have to be logarithmic such that the report could compare on the same page the disparities between CEO pay and the meager handouts that common working men/women take home. And, they have the audacity to say spreading the wealth around is a bad thing...

Michelle Malkin - fair and balanced... at times...

Compensation alert - yet again

Peter Kraus, the head of strategy at Merrill Lynch is leaving the company and in the process will net $25 million in compensation. This resulted due to the takeover of Merrill by Bank of America.

Here is the stunner:
Peter Kraus joined Merrill in September. A month back!

And the McCain camp has issues with redistributing wealth.

On robocalling and smearing your opponent

As Sen. McCain tries 'last ditch' efforts at smearing Sen. Obama through automated robocalls that aim to tie Obama to Ayers, it is instructive to look back to the year 2000 when McCain was running against sitting POTUS George Bush in the primaries and they used automated calls in a vicious campaign to smear each other.

An article from Feb 2000 in the Times here:

Supporters of Mr. McCain reported receiving automated telephone calls in which the recorded voice of the evangelist Pat Robertson urged them to ''protect unborn babies and restore religious freedom'' by opposing Mr. McCain. As he has on his cable television program, Mr. Robertson, a supporter of Mr. Bush, accuses Mr. McCain of having chosen as his national chairman ''a vicious bigot who wrote that conservative Christians in politics are anti-abortion zealots, homophobes and would-be censors.''

Adrienne Karns, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, said she received a call at 5:30 this afternoon that issued a ''Catholic voters alert.'' Then, she said, the anonymous voice told her ''that George Bush had gone to Bob Jones University, and Bob Jones University was anti-Catholic, and George Bush was anti-Catholic.'' Then, she continued, ''It said John McCain was pro-Catholic and I should vote for John McCain.''

It is clear that McCain is using the same trashy tactics from 2000 which the Republican vote machine seems to have perfected then. Of course, this time around it does not look like it might work that well (according to this study). Thanks to Marc Ambinder for the link...

Mulling the Kohut/Bradley lacunae

Here, I found a poll telling us that Obama has a 14 point lead over McCain. Yesterday I was driving around our predominantly blue collar town and came across no less than 15 McCain/Palin signs conspicuously stuck in the front lawns. I managed to count exactly 0 Obama/Biden signs. All this in the state of New Jersey which is supposed to be a solidly democratic state. This is a phenomenon that I noticed not just in our town, but towns all over this state. Often times, in the course of this election, we see the overwhelming lead in all the polls mentioned but little enthusiasm in the suburbs and homesteads… I guess it could be that a lot of people actually (inherently) support Barack Obama, but are actually not too happy with wearing it out on their front lawns. They are not too sure what their white neighbors over on the other side might think about them and hence plan to play it by ear. They are just content with going up to the polling booth and expressing their desires in secret.

Or maybe we are all wrong about this thing – the whole lead in the polls… Are these polls actually right? Are people telling us the truth? In this regard, we need to understand two factors that have been poorly quantified into the statistical engines that drive final tallies coming out of these polls: The Bradley effect and the Kohut Lacuna…

The Bradley Effect:

Bradley Effect, named for the black mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, who lost the California governorship in 1982 despite polls that had showed him in the lead, apparently because a small percentage of respondents would rather lie to a pollster than admit to opposing a candidate on the ground of his race.

The Kohut Lacuna:

Andrew Kohut, of the Pew Research Center, published an Op-Ed in the Times about the failure of polls to predict the outcome of a primary in New Hampshire between Clinton and Obama. He had a theory: undetected racism among working-class whites. Clinton, he noted, beat Obama among whites with family incomes under fifty thousand dollars and also among those who hadn’t attended college. “Poorer, less well-educated white people refuse surveys more often than affluent, better-educated whites,” Kohut wrote. “Polls generally adjust their samples for this tendency. But here’s the problem: these whites who do not respond to surveys tend to have more unfavorable views of blacks than respondents who do the interviews.”

On top of the effects of respondents lying to pollsters, it also looks like poorer, less well-educated voters are less likely to agree to answer the questions posed.

Looking at these polls and hearing the chest thumping from various democratic leaning blogs, I fervently hope that people are not lying to the pollster and poorer, less educated people know that they need to vote with their interests of self preservation at heart.

Look, I know that Obama is a politician and there is only so much we could actually expect from politicians. Remember the adage, politics makes for strange bedfellows… But the effort and the sincerity behind Obama’s ideas for propping up the middle class and the fact that he actually mentions that health care is a right to be enjoyed by all citizens should make the poorer, less educated whites think again and disprove the Kohuts and Bradley’s.

The pictures above depict the watercolor paintings of dead birds by artist Noel Grunwaldt. She is currently on with her first solo show at the Stellan Holm Gallery in Chelsea. The show runs from Sept 12 - Oct 25. She has an MA in Studio Arts from SUNY Albany and lives and works in upstate NY.

A Kafkaesque plumbing problem

After all the brouhaha about Joe the plumber, we find out that he is not a plumber, is behind on his taxes, is not an undecided voter, is not properly registered to vote and to cap it off, is not even named Joe! If this does not illustrate the thin ice the McCain presidential campaign is skating on, nothing more will.

Plumbing the depths using Joe the Plumber

Yesterday, Sen. McCain mentioned ‘Joe the Plumber’ 21 times at the debates. Apparently, Joe is some rich plumber in Ohio who happened to tell Obama that his plumbing business is set to make more than $250,000 a year and Obama’s tax policies might hit the business hard.

Big deal! Maybe Joe Plumber needs to get a couple of facts straight.

Only 2% of all households in these United States make more than $250,000 a year. That leaves 98% of all households below the $250,000 limit. The median income of all households in the United States is about $50,000. The tax policy proposed by Obama will only hit people making more than five times the median income = 2% of the population!

So, yesterday it was clear that Sen. McCain was speaking to the richest 2% of the people in the United States.

My response is this: If Joe the Plumber was asked to pay a little more taxes, suck it up and pay. You owe it to the people. The BS about trickle down or free market or laissez faire have not worked. A quick look at executive compensation and income disparities in the United States will tell you that. We need sensible policies that will give the 98% a chance.

Well, the machinations of the Jonah McPalin campaign have produced a motley cast of characters. Last week Gov. Palin gave us Joe Six-pack, this week Sen. McCain introduced us to Joe Plumber. Who know, next week we might need to get ready for Joe the Lyncher.


This ad from the Obama campaign tells us of the percentage of times McCain voted with Bush. In McCain's own words!!

Debate reaction

Yesterday's debate followed the same format as the last two McCain/Obama debates. So much so that I will use the same words that I used to describe the last debate - because it fit the bill this time too...

Watching the debates yesterday, I noticed a wheezing, breathless, cantankerous old man barely managing to latch onto questions and mounting vapid combative responses at the debate yesterday.

No doubts, Obama won. Of course, this time, McCain anger and frustration were on full display. Say it ain't so, Joe Plumber...

Jon Stewart sums up the continuously spinning McCain conundrum with this hilarious take on last weeks events.

Subconcious associations

A study about how people might subconsciously link being American with being white...

On a conscious level, the participants had no trouble identifying Obama and Clinton as American, and Blair as a foreigner. But Devos and Ma found that the subconscious associations mattered: People who were slower to see Obama as American on a subconscious level were less likely to be willing to vote for the senator from Illinois than people who more easily associated him with American symbols. This was true of both Republicans and Democrats.

You could take an implicit association test here.

Martin Luther King recalling when he first became painfully aware of prejudice:

When I was 14, I had travelled from Atlanta to Dublin, Georgia, with a dear teacher of mine, Mrs. Bradley; she's dead now. I had participated there in a oratorial contest sponsored by the Negro Elks. It turned out to be a memorable day, for I had succeeded in winning the contest. My subject, I recall, ironically enough, was "The Negro and the Constitution." Anyway, that night Mrs. Bradley and I were on a bus returning to Atlanta, and at a small town along the way some white passengers boarded the bus, and the white driver ordered us to get up and give the whites our seats. We didn't move quickly enough to suit him; so began cursing us, calling us "black sons of bitches." I intended to stay right in the seat, but Mrs. Bradley finally urged me up, saying we had to obey the law. And so we stood up in the aisle for the 90 miles to Atlanta. That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.

- published in a Jan 65' Playboy interview with Martin Luther King.

McCain's family values...

The real story of John McCain III here in this month's Rolling Stone magazine...

On the reasons behind going on a 'study' trip to Rio:

On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

"I'm going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."

"Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.

"It's a place we're probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says."Why? Where are you going to, John?"

"Oh, I'm going to Rio."

"What the hell are you going to Rio for?"

McCain, a married father of three, shrugs."I got a better chance of getting laid.".

On how he met his second wife:

In the spring of 1979, while conducting official business for the Navy, the still-married McCain encountered Cindy Lou Hensley, a willowy former cheerleader for USC. Mutually smitten, the two lied to each other about their ages. The 24-year-old Hensley became 27; the 42-year-old McCain became 38. For nearly a year the two carried on a cross-country romance while McCain was still living with Carol: Court documents filed with their divorce proceeding indicate that they "cohabitated as husband and wife" for the first nine months of the affair.

On his anger:

During his 1992 campaign, at the end of a long day, McCain's wife, Cindy, mussed his receding hair and needled him playfully that he was "getting a little thin up there." McCain reportedly blew his top, cutting his wife down with the kind of language that had gotten him hauled into court as a high schooler: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Even though the incident was witnessed by three reporters, the McCain campaign denies it took place.

Edward Winkleman unloads on the McCain/Palin race baiting.

Below the belt

First they tried the elitist track, then the inexperienced track - neither really seemed to stick to Obama's public perceptions. This was especially when his opponent, Sen. McCain was seen to be the ultimate elitist and the years of McCain's experience in the Senate seems to have come to nought. Now desperate, they are trying the terrorist track.

In this video here, Obama says it like it is and explains the facts (in his words). Essentially, he tells us that he sat on the same school board with an individual who did some bad things when Obama was 8 years old. Yes, when Obama was 8 years old.

Ayers is a guy who engaged in some despicable acts forty years ago when I was 8 years old. By the time I met him 10 or 15 years ago he was a college Professor of Education at the University of Illinois and we served on a school reform board together. A board by the way that was funded by Walter Annenberg who had been an ambassador and close friend of Ronald Regan's. So, I have talked to him about school reform issues, and the notion that somehow he has been involved in my campaign, that he has been advisor of mine, that I have palled around with a terrorist, all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points. You know, look, I can handle these attacks with the remaining four weeks, but it is certainly not serving our democracy. We need to be having a debate about how we are going to yank ourselves out of a very difficult situation and that is what I am going to spend my time talking about...

Gail Collins of the Times analyzes the Ayers connection to Obama and warns us of the slippery slope the nation will go down as the McCain camp rolls out the 'guilt by perceived association' strategy.

When I was a teenager, Charles Keating came to my Catholic girls high school in Cincinnati in his capacity as the founder of Citizens for Decent Literature, an anti-pornography group. His theme was the evil of wearing shorts in the summertime. Keating said he knew a young mother who took her child for a walk while wearing Bermuda shorts. A motorist, overwhelmed with lust at the sight of the back of her uncovered calves, lost control of his car and slammed into them. Everybody was killed, and it was all her fault. We were then asked to sign pledge cards promising to conform to standards of modesty that would have satisfied the Taliban.
If Barack Obama is responsible for the Weather Underground, and if the mother in Bermuda shorts was responsible for the car crash, I am pretty sure that I am on the hook as well.

Will the real McCain please stand up?

About a year back, McCain said that homeowners were responsible for their own futures and they were primarily to blame for bad investment decisions taken during the purchase of their homes. Yesterday, McCain proposed a $300 billion bailout for homeowners and a sketchy plan for buying up distressed mortgages. So, he is now for government backed spending before he was against it?

A couple of weeks back McCain said that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. That same day in the afternoon he said that the economy is on the brink of a collapse. He flip flopped from being a believer in the strength of our economy before he came against it in the same day! All of his life, McCain has been a deregulator and believer in the fundamentally flawed assumption that the free markets know best. Now he is an ardent supporter of tightly regulated markets. Which one does he really believe in? I think there is a clear credibility problem.

While he is busy abandoning the 'free markets know best' principle by the wayside as it starts to become an inappropriate calling card, he is planning on reviving the same failed principles to our health care. He plans on forking out $2500 to individual Americans per year hoping that this is going to cover the rising individual healthcare costs. Added to the healthcare proposal are plans on deregulating the entire health care industry. Now that we have failed utterly with the deregulation of the financial services industry, let us try and apply the same failed deregulation policies to our health. Will the real McCain please stand up?

Watching the debates yesterday, I noticed a wheezing, breathless, cantankerous old man barely managing to latch onto questions and mounting vapid combative responses at the debate yesterday. Maybe this is the real McCain.

Oh, I forgot to add. It was clear that Obama won the debate.