SCOTUS denies election stay

Following the dismissal of Donofrio’s spurious lawsuit, the Wrotnowski suit has also been denied cert.

Via Ed Darrell, from the AP:

Court won’t review Obama’s eligibility to serve

6 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned down another appeal arguing Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because of his citizenship.

The challenge by Cort Wrotnowski of Greenwich, Conn., was denied Monday without comment.

Wrotnowski argued that Obama was a British subject at birth and therefore cannot meet the requirement for becoming president.

He wanted the high court to halt presidential electors from meeting to formally elect Obama as president.

Echoing an appeal that was rejected by justices last week, Wrotnowski said that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American, his Kenyan father was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a “natural born citizen.”

The sad thing is that this only seems to be spurring the wingnuts on further, as in here, here, and here (for more, visit the Obama and Birth Certificate tags).

Apparently all of their ranting, raving and nonsense about natural-born citizens and the increasingly finer and finer shades of the “true” meaning of the term have failed to impress anyone; the claim is not only dead in the water, but floating belly up.

Not that this’ll mean anything to them, as I said; these are the same people who think Clinton killed Vince Foster, after all. Facts and reason have never exactly been their strong suits before, so this is unlikely to change any minds. Many of them seem to have sensed defeat and are refocusing their efforts on the Blagojevich non-scandal, especially WingNut-in-Chief, Pam Geller, of the Google-hating paranoia-fest known as Atlas Scrubs Shrugs.

We’ll see what happens; personally, I don’t think these people can be reasoned with, and that they’ll remain at a low simmer of lunatic resentment until 2012, when they will resurface in support of Palin and promptly be told to fuck off with their old, discredited stories already.

Current Events

Last night I made a huge pile of pork enchiladas with chili gravy and ate about half of them for dinner, so I’m feeling relatively well disposed towards the world today, and thus, vaguely in the mood for blogging.

Recent current events of interest include the news that Ridley Scott of Alien fame is due to adapt and direct Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World for the silver screen, which I think is really exciting news; ever since I first read BNW at the age of 13, I’ve been longing for a film adaptation. The material lends itself to the kind of simultaneously small and epic scale that can be produced on the screen in the hands of a talented director.

While Huxley was very much writing in the mould of his time and referring to then-current events, specifically the tendency of totalitarian regimes to dabble or fully engage in eugenicist practices, in my opinion, the message of the book is bigger than that and could be applied to a number of different situations regarding dystopian futures; the great part about writing about current events using symbols or exaggerated consequences is that sooner or later symbols can be seen to mean whatever people want them to mean, and consequences can be exaggerated so large that they become somewhat distinct from what they really should be connected with.

My only concern is the involvement of Leonardo DiCaprio. I don’t think he’s right for the savage, but that’s my own conception of it, I suppose. We’ll see; maybe his performance will be seminal and cinema-altering.

I’ve also discovered another webcomic to obsessively read until I get up to date on it. Damn it, this is becoming a habit; I may need to have to start using Google Reader or something and add all my favourite toons to it so I can get my fix all at once in one handy seizure inducing parade of brighty-coloured drawings.

Anyway, the newest addition to the stable is Least I Could Do, which is mostly about a juvenile 24 year old called Rayne Summers and occasionally also his friends and family. It’s a real gem, not least because of comics like this one:

In other news, Barack Obama has criticised the McCain-Palin campaign for negative practices less than two weeks before the election, calling them “ugly” tactics. Such practices include the robocalls, accusations of being friendly with terrorists and so on; these tactics have all revolved around lies, mistellings and out-of-context criticism, and all of the negative claims have been soundly debunked.

The McCain-Palin campaign fired back a criticism that Obama’s campaign had allegedly already written a draft inaugural speech, and accused him thereby of already “doing a victory lap”.

*blinks*

Uh-huh. Even if the allegation of having a draft inaugural speech were true, what of it? I’d be extremely surprised if McCain didn’t already have something on file somewhere too (I hope he didn’t let Joe write it, though). Isn’t that what politicians do, generally? As far as I knew, it’s common practice to have one speech in place for a win, and another for a loss, so as to cover all the bases. It’s only rarely that they need a “we don’t know yet, and it’s going to court” speech, although we have Florida to thank for the possibility of that.

Seriously, if the level of criticism at this point is between shady electoral practices on one side versus common and insignificant acts on the other, then I think there’s not much more to report in this election. I don’t want to say that this is where McCain jumped the shark, because I think his selection of Palin was that moment; at this point, I think he’s coasting along and flailing desperately at any opportunity to try to claw back some points in the polls.

I don’t want to say that the election is in the bag for Obama, because that’s arrogant and the gods reward hubris with failure, but I would certainly be surprised if he didn’t take it by a large margin on the 4th. Even allowing for the (probably fictional) Bradley Effect, I think he’ll gain the majority of the electoral vote.

Again, though, we’ll see.

These goggles, they do nothing!

My wife’s been on at me lately to blog more. I tell her that I really don’t feel like I have much to say lately, although something I just saw made me sit up and growl. Courtesy of Pharyngula:

This, folks, is why the US has gone from a nation rightly respected across the globe to a laughingstock. Listening to this woman makes me realise just how far from its once-great ideals America has fallen.

I don’t think this video needs any further commentary — the idiocy and bigotry is so blatant, so obvious, that nothing further needs to be said. And the really scary thing? Huge numbers of people will have watched it and nodded along.

To address the final smug little point she makes about the right decision for her husband, I’d say it begins with d.

Palin jumps the shark

Palin makes Obama terrorist claim

US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has accused the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, of associating with terrorists.

She said he had been “palling around” with an ex-member of US-based militant group Weather Underground, which opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Mr Obama once served on a charity board with a member of the group, but he has denounced its activities.

A Democratic spokesman accused the Republicans of gutter politics.

“What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy,” Hari Sevugan said.

Commentators say Mrs Palin’s attack forms part of a broader Republican strategy to attack Mr Obama’s character.

Via BBC News

Gutter politics is right. One of the more repugnant Republican tactics of the 1990s was the constant impugning of the patriotism of Democrats, a tactic which they then took into the new century with Swiftboating and the constant references to Obama’s middle name, as if that proved something.

The McCain campaign should be ashamed over this. This is negative campaigning at its most disgusting and abhorrent, and frankly, whichever puppeteer was operating Sarah that day needs to be fired, immediately.

I won’t say that Palin needs to be ashamed, because I don’t give her enough credit to have actually come up with it on her own; she’s a mouthpiece, a gimmick, a one-trick pony brought in for entirely cynical and despicable reasons, and I wouldn’t give her credit enough for being able to tie her own shoes.

No interviews for you!

It’s come to my attention that Sarah Palin won’t shut up when she’s behind a podium and has nothing to say when she’s in front of it.

What I mean by this is that she is refusing to give interviews to the press. This is deeply worrying in a candidate for national office, especially one running for VP, an office which is traditionally used as an outrider for the more outrageous or unsure ideas floated by the President or as a lightning rod for criticism.

It’s worrying on many different levels – the decision was clearly not taken by Palin herself, but rather McCain or his campaign manager. Either way, it shows an astonishing amount of contempt; either for the press or for the candidate herself.

If it’s the candidate, that speaks to poor judgment on McCain’s part; in that case, he picked a candidate for whom he has no respect or trust to serve as his potential replacement in the event of death or disaster. If this is the case, it shows contempt for Palin personally, relegating her to little more than a token candidate chosen to blunt the old familiar sting of the anti-woman policies espoused by the Republican Party. If she is nothing but a cipher to draw in the base and strengthen McCain’s credentials amongst the hardline religious right, what good would she be to the US in the event of McCain’s death or inability to fulfil the duties of his office? She would be about as welcome as a spare prick at a wedding; less, even. A spare prick at a Jewish wedding whose owner was eating a ham sandwich would be more use.

If, however, McCain does respect her for her wealth of policy experience… no, wait. Foreign policy knowledge? No, wait, Alaska being next to Russia doesn’t translate to that. Economic experience? I guess she does have experience in fucking up an economy; ask Wasilla about its $19,000,000 of long term debt. Her experience in executive positions? Wait, no, she had to hire a city manager while she was governor due to her own incompetence. Her grasp of history is impressive, though, right? Oh, wait, no, it isn’t.

Anyway, let’s suppose that McCain respects Palin as a candidate despite her creationism, inability to govern and general stupidity. That leaves us with contempt for the press, which is even more worrying.

There’s a reason why we call the press the fourth estate: it is the unofficial fourth arm of government, a check on the other three, the most directly-accessibly to the people. In this day of the press being open to so many via the internet and new media, a refusal to speak to the press translates to a refusal to speak to the people.

It shows open and naked contempt towards the people while still begging for their votes! It’s not that surprising, though; disdain and viciousness towards the people have been something of a theme with Republicans over the past few years.

There’s also the matter of the fact that the lead up to the election is as important as the election itself in many ways – it is the candidates’ chance to connect with voters and really make themselves known, to showcase their political skills and make plain their manifestos and plans for the future. As such, it’s something like a job interview taken over several months, with the election being the final decision. If you don’t convince people that you’re fit for the job, you don’t get the job, and the way that you convince people to elect you is by connecting with them and, you know, actually doing some campaigning.

Not doing so spits in the face of the whole enterprise; it gives the impression that you feel like you should be given the office, not that you have to earn it with blood, sweat and tears. Every hand shaken, every baby kissed and every townhall meeting is part of the process of earning the right to hold high office; you don’t get it just handed to you. That process includes being roasted by the press. If you can’t handle Fox News, what will you do if you ever have to deal with a hostile foreign power? Will you refuse to engage because you don’t feel ready? Sorry, no dice. You either engage with the people and their representatives in the press, or you go back to being mayor of Buttfuck Wasilla, AK.

Mind you, not wanting to go through the hassle of actually having to earn elected office has become a trend for the GOP in recent years.

The Vice-Presidency is not a legacy, it’s not a prize you get for waiting during that inconvenient election period. It’s something you have to earn, and you certainly won’t earn it by showing to contempt to everyone not sitting next to you in your campaign bunker.

Frige’s-Day Round Up

After Dunar’s recent unreasonable behaviour, which included throwing lightning bolts around like a mad bastard, this week’s round up is dedicated to the goddess Frige, who is much more reasonable and sweet-tempered than Dunar.

Lottie has a question or two about Clinton supporters who’ve said they’ll vote for McCain… The general idea is “What the hell are you thinking?!”, and it’s one that I can get behind; McCain promises to be not more of the same, but more and worse. Thought the Iraq war was bad now? Wait till your great grandkids have to go and fight under the McCain plan!

Kalliope over at Missing Mojo has a deconstruction of the flak being thrown around over the Sex and the City movie. It’s pretty clever and insightful.

Gary takes celebrities who whine about privacy to task, especially those who do so in public interviews. If you want to be private, try going away and leading a private life! He also adds the most recent update for Idiosyncratica.

MichelleObamaWatch.com is keeping an eye on the media for the inevitable racism and misogyny directed towards Michelle Obama that will follow Barack Obama’s (presumptive) nomination (via Ms Andrist).

This discussion on feminist sex at Feministe has turned pretty interesting; while it was initially of mild interest, the comments have made it worth a read.

And finally, congratulations to Anxious Mofo, who’s been linked to by Conservapedia. I’m sure he’s honoured and inspired by their linkage; he shows his appreciation by deconstructing their feeble article on Atheism. Well worth a read.