Category: Edgewise

  • Shameless self-promotion department

    An all-new, all-free mp3 political-shtick awaits you over on ye olde Monkey Vortex Radio Theater today — John, Paul, George, and Ringo. In which John Kerry and GWB attempt to join the world’s greatest rock band, with decidedly mixed results.

  • “Wheelchair accessible hot tub”

    I’m about ready to take up fingernail biting to alleviate the anxiety of the next 24 hours but meanwhile decided to check out the election eve activities around my neighborhood conveniently provided in an e-mail from MoveON. There were over 40 phone parties listed within ten miles of my house and in the brief invitation…

  • Why There Is Very Good Reason to Feel a Draft

    Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon, NYT Rumors of a secret plan to reinstate the draft are churning across the Internet, worrying some in Congress and even coloring the presidential campaign…Officials note that Congressional proposals for…30,000 to 40,000 more troops, would hardly require a new draft … DKo: A few points for…

  • Fear of Elections

    It’s that rotgut, queasy stomach, sweat it out, expect the worst time again … a liberal waiting for November 2 to be over. I’ve been through this eight times already and mostly it’s been a bummer. But none quite so bad as this year. And that’s from somebody who had to live through Reagan as…

  • Poll position

    In late October 2000, the polls consistently showed Bush over Gore by anywhere from 5 points to 13 points. I remember going into election day convinced by the confident, well-dressed people on my TV that Gore didn’t have a chance. I remember being stunned that night to see that it was even close. The unions…

  • Happy days are already here again

    [Cecil, if you don’t smile over this, please report to an ER.] Thursday evening, homeward commute time; corner of Treat Bl. and Clayton Rd. in Concord, California (medium-size intersection in a medium-size suburb): A dozen people scattered around all the sidewalks, waving Kerry/Edwards signs. Now, this is antithesis of a battleground state. And it’s in…

  • The final push

    Looking for something to do? I got this message from Dan Robinson (lately working on Advokit) last week. He’s good people: For me this project is all about empowerment of the grassroots. That Dean thing – the real legacy of our work over the last year and a half. AdvoKit is designed to bring people…

  • The here and now versus the hereafter

    Both sides in this election have an X factor — for the Democrats it’s arguably (as has been noted elsewhere on Edgewise) the young, their fear for their futures. In particular, its their fear of an impending draft. They’re voting for their lives. Polls consistently show this group of young voters as the Kerry’s strongest…

  • Challenging the ‘undecided’ majority

    All this talk about the dwindling undecideds and their seeming inability to get with the polarization program has led me to think that maybe the sense of urgency that is driving both left and right activists this year is a form of common ground we can build on. Maybe I should try to get my…

  • Arise and walk

    A new Democratic party has been summoned into existence

  • Hey look! I’m being bipartisan!

    Let’s form a progressive alliance with Bull Moose Republicans. I’m no fan of Scoop Jackson per se, but I’d like to see more moderate and principled Republicans, so I’m willing to talk.

  • Talk about your Manchurian candidate

    Wouldn’t it be strange if left-wing sleeper agents infiltrated the Republican party like the Russians posing as Americans in that Charles Bronson film and under the guise of a “new” form of conservatism, introduced a bizarre almost Trotskyist foreign policy and will to power that succeeded in duping America’s foremost right-wing party into self-destructing? It…

  • Frequently asked questions at EnjoyTheDraft.com

    Enjoy The Draft – Drunken FAQ: BUT BUSH SAYS HE WON’T INSTITUTE A DRAFT. WHY SHOULD WE THINK HE WILL? Because Bush says he won’t institute a draft. IS IT POSSIBLE HE JUST WON’T CALL IT A “DRAFT”? LIKE INSTEAD HE’LL GIVE IT SOME ORWELLIAN DOUBLESPEAK NAME? Beware the “No 18-to-25-Year-Old Left Behind Act.” SERIOUSLY?…

  • Simon World blogs Zogby’s Hong Kong talk

    John Zogby thinks the race is still Kerry’s to lose. Simon disagrees but finds many of Zogby’s insights compelling. Here are a few that struck me: Red vs. Blue This election is a repeat of 2000 in many ways, and Florida and Ohio are the key states this time. The “Armageddon Election”: the US has…

  • If Kerry had been president, Saddam would still be in power

    Then again, if Bush had been president, Osama would still be at large.

  • My beef with Greenspan

    In a discussion thread at Kos two days ago (Daily Kos :: Comments Kill the moderators) a fellow called johnmorris succinctly put the hammer down on Alan Greenspan’s disingenuous betrayal of our nation’s social compact with its frail and elderly: in 1983 Greenspan predicted disaster for Social Security unless we doubled the withholding tax and…

  • Rhythmic mash

    If you’re still conscious and interested in reliving a few highlights from tonight’s debate, I made a wee rhythmic mash out of a few of the better moments — it’s a 1:45 mp3 with drums n keys. Pick it up at ye olde Monkey Vortex Radio Theater . OK. Enough of that. Off to sleep.…

  • Good news for Dems in Pennsylvania

    From my cousin Sean: Philadelphia Daily News | 10/11/2004 | Voter registration up in Pa.: Biggest surge in urban areas and on college campuses With new registrations in the city running 9-1 Democratic, that could add somewhere close to 100,000 extra voters for the Kerry ticket. With statewide turnout likely to be in the vicinity…

  • Beat on the brat

    OK, the whole “hunchback of nutter spin” / Bush-wired is either getting legs from the strangest of places or is being helped along by a diabolical Democratic ratfucking campaign. What interests me in some of the latest gossipy developments is the “everybody knows that” gambit that sometimes leaks out of the right when one of…

  • More strange things to say in a debate

    If you’re a mom and you’re pregnant and you get killed…. How big can that voting bloc be?

  • Is Wolcott on a roll or what?

    Wow. James Wolcott nails the hypocrisy of upper-class journalists trying to fit in with the jes’ folks phonies: Howling Wolf: “Democrats like Gore and Kerry have to weigh and calibrate their every move because one ill-chosen word or phrase or gesture will be tattooed across their fore[head] by the media’s trained monkeys. I mean, Kerry…