lost highway

I don't buy into the "stay respectful with your language when it comes to elected officials" bit. I have always had some choice words about Bush. But the fact is, those words aren't very useful to my argument. The fascinating thing about Biden, is the media has cooked his story- along with his tendency for gaffes- such that most people don't realize what an intelligent and accomplished politician he is. Yet again why I am going to be fascinated with this debate: which side of Biden's character will prevail for the camera.

His older mark, Songs Ohia has some fantastic, dark, quiet, meditative albums like The Lioness, Didn't It Rain and Ghost Tropic. His newer project Magnolia Electric CO can be a bit more rockin. I love their latest Josephine, but there was this transitional album that is released by Songs Ohia but the album title is Magnolia Elec CO.... it might be the best. Or at least the first three tracks are.

I love Molina. His songs have been a theme in my life for about ten years now. I can always come back to his stuff. I met him once and he was obviously a kind fellow. Some petty part of me is curious as to what he became addicted to, but more importantly I'm just glad the guy is getting better.

I live in CO. The Feds have pretty much ignored the fact that everyone I know who really wants access can get a prescription and walk in to any one of the hundred odd stores in the city and buy marijuana strong enough to put a cat in a coma. If you can say anything about our time of fiscal duress it is this: it seems to have taken the holier-than-thou heat off of private issues. Romney doesn't know what to say about abortion, so he'd rather not discuss. At this point it looks like a bad career move for a GOP pres candidate to say anything specifically negative about LGBT folks. All said,

I can't wait to see the VP debate. I have no prediction. While Joe Biden is a seasoned veteran- he really knows his politics, he can be the Michael Scott of political prime time. Most of the recent Ryan footage I've seen he comes off pretentious, irritable and easy to confound. I guess my prediction is this: here are two guys that are going to piss each other off.

Manuel Antonio is really cool. If you go a little further south towards Dominical you can stay at this little place called Hacienda Baru. It has been about ten years since I visited but it was a lot quieter, and less populous around there. The Hacienda has their own tours/tour guides and you can walk a half mile from your cabana and see empty beach. Get the hell out of San Jose as fast as you can unless you know someone who knows there way around. There are a lot of smooth operators that will lift the wheels off a Yankee's rental car before they realize what's happened. I hear the Car

A weak, albeit hilarious attempt to struggle against a candidate who swears left and right he wants to close a deficit by lowering taxes, raising military spending and keeping medicaid and social security in tact. Which might be even more hilarious than big bird.

Stewart had a bit in his debate with O'Reilly where he said basically, 'Look, the U.S. is essentially a social democracy. That's how it has functioned for a long time. It has played a necessary role in people's live in this manner for over a century. The sooner we can admit that, the sooner we can use that structure effectively instead of fighting over some ideal that hasn't existed in forever.' Is there a reason that every country in the G8 has a safety net? Is there a reason why the world's most powerful countries make a social investment for some bare minimum guarantees on their citiz

A couple of fallacies about government assistance need to be cleared up here to have a reasonable argument. For starters, a large number of people receiving government assistance are either employed, or retired.

Everybody has mentioned each of mine, except for Johnny Thunder.

I contributed five bucks to a couple of entertainment pundits so I could watch the Bill O'Reilly/ Jon Stewart debate. It was pretty good. Kind of encapsulated several reocurring arguments in this thread about the responsibility of the government vs. individual, social programs vs private ones etc. Ol' Bill actually admitted that we shouldn't have gone to war with Iraq.

Implant chips for welfare mothers, your freedom depends on it. More curiously: What the hell is going to happen when Biden debates Ryan? For my money that is a candidate who comes off like a dumbass, who is actually really smart, debating someone who is known to be smart, and might actually be a dumbass. I'm excited to watch it play out.

Annnnnd Romney starts backing up certain claims made in the debate: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/06/162404662/romney-health-care-debate-claim-gets-corrected-by-his-own-staff

I agree that the number can be interpreted in several different ways. I don't see it as a windfall for Obama, it's really a fairly modest growth following a fairly linear trend for the last year. Modestly good news? Sure. Statistically interpretable? Of course. Big fat lie to get elected? You could do better.

That is a rude and detailess rebuttal. Stick your neck out and back your opinion up please. This is the respector edition. You can open a 'play the dozens' edition if you like elsewhere, but it will likely be closed.

I'm not sure it's true, I can't be. But I can imagine how it works. This is the shaping of a narrative, not a series of baseball games. Pacing could be an intentional part of it.

I can't help but wonder if Obama is pacing this thing between the three debates to give it an arc. I know that sounds like a disingenuous idea, but it could be an effective strategy. Ryan versus Biden is going to be fascinating. I have no prediction for how that will play out.

Romney won as far as theater goes. Obama won as far as facts go. The public votes on theater for the most part. Romney had a better show by far.

Interestingly, a quick swing by msnbc, and Foxnews show that based on headlines alone neither biased media source seems to be showing much of a bias as far as who came out on top with the debate. We'll see how much that changes by tomorrow.

That debate was way better than I expected, more substantive. Romney was much better put together than he has appeared for a while. I thought Obama's responses were thoughtful and complete. Nonetheless, Romney's energy when making his point was assertive and confident. I will say that it was interesting to look at their faces while the other was commenting. Obama had this smug smile. Romney kept looking like he was going to cry when Barack was speaking.

Obama is funded by a number of larger financial institutions. I don't deny that may have tempered some of his reform measures, but it doesn't change the fact that the Republican party wants to dismantly a lot of the regulation and consumer protection measures he put in place. Obama is to date, neither for, nor against the pipeline. He wanted more conclusive studies on the potential environmental impact and how it would play out with some of the indigenous folks' reservation that it would run through. I value that kind of careful consideration in my president.

Perhaps because he is in bed with the Koch brothers. But the whole tax cuts for millionaires, fix the deficit by increasing the military thing doesn't stick in your maw?

This looks like the common praise for Romney. It's so weird to see people silently rooting for a candidate they have no passion for. I have yet to see any real defense of Romney, just attacks on Obama. It's like: I like Reagan because he's not Carter, I like David Cameron because he's not Gordon Brown. But what does Romney really mean to do with our country? What about that sounds like a good idea?

I dig it! I'm only hearing one of two vocalists on these tunes so far.