Posting Times

I am no longer able to update my blog at work. Instead I’m writing my posts there and posting them onto my blog when I get home, so instead of two or three posts an hour you’ll see about that many in just a few minutes after I’m off work. Strange? Yep. New? Yep. Unusual? Yep. Annoying? You bet!

Selling Out Might Be Nice

Slate has a post up today all about how bloggers make money. As you can imagine, this is near and dear to my heart, being a poor, humble blogger. I do this for the love of writing and the chance to inflict my opinions on the teeming millions (well, thousands), out there. But if I can make some cash off it, that’d be nice, too.

Of all the things they mention in their article, the only one I have anything to do with is Amazon Associates. This means that when I put links in my articles to products, and you, the teeming thousands, follow those links and buy the products in question, I get 4% of the sale price.

So far I’ve raked in $1.34.

Early next year, I plan to move this site off WordPress and onto my own domain. Perhaps at that point I’ll try to do something with more advertising, but I don’t know. I rather like doing what I do on here, and I don’t want to have a bunch of ads cluttering up the place.

On the other hand, I’ll take just about any chance to sell out.

Supreme Ignorance

Much has been made lately over Palin’s failure to list any Supreme Court rulings she disagreed with other than Roe v Wade. Some people have framed this as a “gotcha” question. I don’t. She’s running as a member of a party that makes great hay over “judicial activism” and “legislating from the bench”. Surely she can name more than one ruling that she doesn’t agree with.

Roger Ebert posted up an article on his site that lists some rulings he thinks the conservatives agree with and what he expects Ms Palin would say about them. The article appears to be gone, to my surprise, otherwise I’d link to it. Anyhow, he obviously had plenty of time to come up with the names of all the cases. Palin didn’t, but surely she could have at least said, “I don’t like this particular ruling because blah, blah, ramble, blah”.

Now like anyone who pays attention to politics, I have several rulings I disagree with. Without cheating by looking anything up on Wikipedia, and pretending that I haven’t had any time to think about this (cause these are the first ones that came to mind right after I heard about the issue), here’s the rulings I can think of off the top of my head that I don’t like.

1. Plessy v Ferguson

2. The Dredd Scott Decision

3. The ruling that kept sodomy illegal back in 1986

4. The ruling that expanded the powers of eminent domain

5. The ruling that held “In God We Trust” could be put onto our money (not, as I found out looking up the link, a SCOTUS case, but still a valid court decision that I don’t like)

6. Allowing the death penalty to be reinstated

Sadly, many of these, including Plessy and Dred Scott, are choices Palin would likely want to leave up to the states or, even worse, the people.

Now after typing this list, I did go back and look up the specific cases and provide links, as you can see. But those were just what I was able to think of without any real effort or research. Surely someone who belongs to party that makes so much noise about our courts, and could be President starting in January, should be able to do better?

Master Debators – Side Story

Here’s my impressions of the debate as I watched it.

6:03pm – First question is a generic softball, likely to get generic swings.

6:05pm – Here she goes with the soccer mom concept. And “few investments some of us have”? I’m betting she has more than a few.

6:06pm – McCain pushed for all sorts of reform, mostly deregulation.

6:07pm – I would never have mentioned the campaign suspension fiasco.

6:08pm – She’s making eye contact, unlike Darth Sideous John McCain.

6:10pm – Sounds like she’s calling for massive regulation and oversight. How’s that mesh with free-market capitalism?

6:12pm – Oh, good, yes let’s do to the medical system what’s been done to the financial one. Sounds fun!

6:13pm – I wonder what these 94 instances of voting for tax increases, or voting down decreases, consisted of. I’m wagering it was stuff involving the rich, but I could be wrong.

6:13pm – And now Biden is calling her on it, saying McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes. Also nailing her on not answering the questions.

6:14pm – Oh, she’s going to talk the way ‘Mericans want her to talk instead of debating by the rules! What a maverick!

6:15pm – Damn! Phone call!

6:17pm – “redistribution of wealth”… why doesn’t she just call him a commie and be done with it?

6:18pm – Again a Republican running for an elected, national federal office going on about how ineffective the elected, national federal government is.

6:20pm – I knew I was suspicious of McCain’s plans to reform health care. Now I have an idea why.

6:21pm – Good evocation of the Bridge to Nowhere.

6:21pm – Good that he’s mentioning specific things that might have to be scaled back… bad that it’s only things the McCain camp wants.

6:22pm – “Char-ac-ter-ized”… if that’s the worst gaffe he makes all night, groovy!

6:23pm – Oh, yes, I’m sure she’s been ever so fierce in targeting big oil!

6:24pm – Good job for the moderator to remind Palin what the question actually was.

6:27pm – It’s a toxic mess from Wall Street affecting Main Street, not the other way around.

6:28pm – It is a good idea to do what we can to keep people in their homes. Good for them, and their banks.

6:29pm – Palin seems to think she’s the one in charge of this debate and can talk about whatever she pleases. And damn those darn east coast politicians! I suppose that’s better than just outright saying, “those liberal bastards!” Cause we all know the liberals love big oil!

6:31pm – I find myself agreeing with Palin on climate change. Was she really the first governor to form a climate change sub-cabinet?

6:32pm – To an extent we need to allow the less-developed countries to pollute more. Otherwise they’ll never reach our level.

6:34pm – Pesky phone calls…

6:36pm – Biden made unconditional statements supporting same-sex benefits. Good for him!

6:37pm – Palin is implying that being gay is a choice. It isn’t.

6:38pm – Blah. All of them support “separate but equal” for gay relationships.

6:40pm – I can feel, “Ya know, John McCain spent five-a-half years in a Hanoi prison” approaching.

6:41pm – Still no definition of “victory”

6:44pm – McCain voted against a military funding bill? Hadn’t heard this one before.

6:46pm – Good to focus on Afghanistan.

6:48pm – Nothing wrong with being willing to meet with people. Diplomacy rocks. Of course, Palin has had so few meetings with anyone who matters…

6:49pm – They don’t “hate our freedoms”. They hate our policies and actions. Our enemies do have some few legitimate gripes.

6:51pm – A two-state solution to Israel/Palestine is the best idea. Make them two separate countries and make Jerusalem an open city to both.

6:52pm – Bloody phone calls.

6:55pm – About half an hour to go, and no clear winner yet.

6:57pm – How the bloody hell are we supposed to do a surge in Afghanistan at this point? We haven’t enough soldiers. And yes, we’re fighting terrorists, etc, but we are also killing innocent people. Not intentionally, but it happens.

6:59pm – Biden keeps backing up and changing course. It’s a little awkward.

7:01pm – Americans like clear victories, cause they make us feel better. We can do what we please in Darfur, as long as we win.

7:03pm – Yes, she’s a Washington outsider… running with someone who has been in politics since 1980. Oh, and I seem to recall she supported the Bridge to Nowhere until she didn’t support it, and then took the money anyhow.

7:04pm – Good for the Alaskan government to try and divest itself of any investments in Sudan… too bad it’s taken them this long and apparently hasn’t actually happened yet.

7:06pm – Oh, yes, bring on the pundits. This should be fun! And McCain’s war, Vietnam, was one we lost.

7:07pm – You can’t take politics out of the war. War IS politics.

7:07pm – Good question about how a Biden or Palin administration would be different.

7:09pm – Did you know Palin is from a small-town? It’s true! She never mentions it, though.

7:12pm – The teaching comments from Palin are fine, but where’s the substance?

7:13pm – Oh, she sounds pretty envious of Cheney.

7:16pm – Yeah, she wants to be a Cheney-esque VP.

7:18pm – Here we go. Heartland, mom, etc. She’s better than you cause she’s one of us!

7:20pm – I hate phone calls.

7:21pm – “I’ll see your autistic child and raise you a dead wife and daughter!”

7:21pm – How much of a maverick is someone who votes with their President 95% of the time?

7:23pm – Good job, Joe! Call her on that maverick bullshit!

7:29pm – Yes, cause all know the mainstream media is owned by the liberals (like Rupert Murdoch), and out to screw the GOP.

7:30pm – Good last few statements from Palin, but getting shot down and spending, yes, five-and-a-half years in prison, is not a special qualification and doesn’t make you any more or less a patriot.

7:32pm – Good last statement from Biden, too.

So I’d say no clear winner. Palin acquitted herself decently, but didn’t really do much of substance. Biden didn’t screw up, which was a minor miracle. Basically nothing big one way or the other.