Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

State GOP Starts the Sliming and Fear-Mongering

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I haven't gotten mine yet, but someone was kind enough to send me a scan of a GOP mailer that is going to houses around here claiming that Democrats want to “surrender” to terrorism. This particular copy was sent right to the heart of FL-18, Annette Taddeo's district.

The content of this thing is pretty ugly. Here's a shot of the worst page. You can click on it for a larger .pdf version of that page.

Mailer_10-12-08.jpg

This is accompanied by a smiling photo of Governor Charlie Crist, along with a message warning that terrorists want to kill us, and that we should vote for Republicans to “help keep America safe.” (You can download a .pdf of the entire mailer, if you want.)

Got that? The State GOP, which paid for this thing, and the formerly post-partisan Governor, are saying that Democrats want to surrender to terrorists. Talk about low-class smear jobs…

Does anyone actually think that Democrats want to surrender to terrorism? Most Democrats want to make an orderly exit from Iraq. So, the polls tell us, does most of the country. (And, for what it's worth, during the second Presidential debate it was Obama who took the more bellicose approach towards chasing down bin Laden, not McCain.)

It used to be that we only saw stuff like this in the last week before election day. But the GOP wants absentee ballots, and early voting starts soon, so here we go.

Posted in 9/11 & Aftermath, Florida, Politics: FL-18 | 11 Comments

Pop Culture

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It's good when your side's views infiltrate pop culture. Here's a snippet from this week's “Screen Gems” column in the Miami Herald.

Coming this week on TV and at the movies, Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod (10 p.m. Tuesday, Discovery) — I know, I know, who cares about some dog race in Alaska? Until Sarah Palin is vice president, and then the dog-racing police will come to your house and if you don't know the right answers they'll stick a cattle prod up your … Oh, sorry, I was channeling Keith Olbermann there for a second. Never mind, he's gone now.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

Less than 100 to Go

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Less than 100 days to go before the inauguration, and in anticipation I've moved my countdown clock from the very bottom of the blog, where it has rested for years, up to the top so that it may enjoy a moment in the sun before its retirement.

Inaugurations are at 12 noon on January 20th of the year following the November election. If you are wondering why the clock shows what seems to be an extra hour, I think it is because this counter cleverly includes the extra hour for the move off Daylight Savings Time, the last Sunday in October, when we gain an hour (“Spring forward, Fall back”).

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Less than 100 to Go

Google’s Time Machine

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Goole has a Time Machine. Search the web as it was in January 2001.

Posted in Internet | 1 Comment

OK, This I Don’t Like

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

In Evidence that we should freak out, episode I, RC3 points me to Grain piling up in Canadian ports | FP Passport:

Still think the global credit crunch is all about the TED spread and collateralized debt obligations? Think harder. Export-bound grain has started piling up in Canada as sellers have begun refusing to trust the credit lines and financial institutions linked to their foreign buyers.

The problem is that Canada's export cargoes don't get loaded until buyers can prove their ability to pay — proof that has been increasingly hard to come by in the wake of bank defaults and shrinking credit markets worldwide. Unable to get credit lines, many buyers have left the grain market, generating big losses for Canadian shippers. Add to this the greater costs that shippers now shoulder because of delayed payments, and the picture starts looking pretty bleak.

Krugman is right (again): if the IMF crowd can't pull something fierce-looking out of the hat this weekend, next week is going to be a real shocker.

(But I find Evidence that we should freak out, episode II much less convincing. That sounds more like an investment opportunity than a looming disaster.)

Posted in Econ & Money | 2 Comments

Video: Taddeo Smacks Down Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Social Security

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Thanks to Eyeonileana (FL-18: Annette Taddeo instructs incumbent on Social Security) for the link to this video:

I wish everyone in the 18th Congressional District could see this: Democrats are sometimes accused, occasionally even with justice, of fear-mongering on Social Security. But with this incumbent it's all true: she really does support 50% privatization — and if she'd had her way, in the future people who depend on Social Security would be very very vulnerable.

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Video: Taddeo Smacks Down Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Social Security