A Day at Gaijin Studios

I mentioned last week that I was finally getting to a project I'm pretty excited about, and while I don't want to give away too much in the way of details, I can tell you this much: interviews for the pilot episode of a new show I've cooked up with my co-producer, the talented and award-winning Will Payne (also late of GameTap/Turner Broadcasting), were shot last Thursday at the offices of Gaijin Studios, one of the premiere creative studios in the comic book industry. Here's Will and I with Cully Hamner (center), the comic book artist best known for the new Blue Beetle at DC Comics and the mini-series Red with writer Warren Ellis, which was recently optioned for a film:
Cully and his studio-mates - Brian Stelfreeze, Laura Martin, Tony Shasteen, and Doug Wagner - kindly allowed us to invade their space for a day, and they really couldn't have been more gracious if they tried. Here's what I can tell you about the pilot: it was shot in HD, and we had a jib arm, allowing for some really smooth camera shots. I think it's going to look great, and it's definitely going to be interesting. More will be revealed as the project comes together.

-EB

Still Burned Out...

...but I just read something that I feel I have to comment on, because I think it's yet another example of John McCain's poor judgement in choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. According to Palin, and as reported here by ABC News, she fears that her First Amendment rights are being threatened by reporters suggesting that she's engaging in negative campaigning against Barack Obama. Here's an excerpt from the article, including a quote from Palin:

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

How does anyone suggesting that she's going negative constitute a threat to her free speech rights? No one is stopping her from doing it, and every day this week, both she and McCain have engaged in negative campaigning. Her quote, I think, is very telling - "If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning..." I don't think the news media needs to do any convincing - anyone could listen to her remarks and determine by themselves that it's negative campaigning. Governor Palin must think that most people are waiting to have their opinions spoonfed to them. And I certainly don't believe that she's afraid of being attacked by the mainstream media - I think "mainstream media" is code for any news organization other than Fox - this is just part of the Republican strategy of smearing the media, I suppose because the love affair with John McCain is over. But is that the news media's fault, or John McCain's, since the Straight-Talk Express became the No-Talk express?

Anyway, I think this is just another demonstration of Palin's incompetence, and her inability to distinguish between criticism and censorship has exposed a fundamental misreading of the First Amendment on her part.

Okay, I'm quitting - really.

-EB

Political Burn-out

Well, dear readers, yesterday pretty much burned me out on political blogging. I think I mentioned this in a post last week - as a presidential election political junkie, I've had a real hard time tearing myself away from the 24 hour news cycle, and I've allowed myself to become supersaturated by the non-stop stream of cable tv news, newspaper websites, and political blogs. And after my last two posts, Governor Socialist and Comment on a Comment, I think I've argued all I can argue, and commented all I can comment in any kind of depth on this election. Anonymous and RayRay, I did reply to your comments on the Comment on a Comment post, in the comments section, so if you're interested in continuing that dialogue, please check it out - I value your comments and thanks for engaging in the discussion.

Anyway, blogging about politics was never really the aim of this blog, but this election has been so interesting and compelling and infuriating to me that I've needed an outlet to talk about what's going on - it would not have been fair of me to expect my wife Laura to be the only person to listen to me going on and on about this stuff every day. Fortunately, the internet does not roll its eyes when you start ranting (and for the record, neither does Laura, which is astounding to me and a testament to her patience), which makes it the perfect place for me to air out my world view, especially since, at the moment, I'm not going into an office every day where I can impose my opinions on my co-workers.

So what will be coming to the cleverly named Elliot Blake blog? News on personal and professional projects, more stuff about comics, and who knows what else. I'm sure I'm I'll have one or two more things to say about the election next week, and I probably won't completely give up on discussing current events, but it certainly will not be with the frequency seen this month of October. Beyond that, I'm not sure - the content is certain, however, to become more varied and eclectic, and that, I think, is a positive.

Tomorrow, for sure, I'll be posting on a new project I'm very excited about, so I hope you'll come back and take a look.

-EB

Comment on a Comment

My last post, "Governor Socialist," (scroll down or click here) garnered a comment that I think is worth further discussion, and for the convenience of my 10 or 15 regular readers, I'll paste the comment here so no one has to click around:

Comparing the sharing of the oil revenues in Alaska with Obama's plan to take money from some and redistribute it to others is either convenient or dumb. Take your pick.
In Alaska the oil companies pay for the use of the land based on production that money is the used to fund the states financial requirements. Any excess is returned to the citizens of the state as required by law.
Barack Obama's stated goal is to redistribute the wealth. He feels it is only fair to take money from the "haves" and give it to the "have nots". I believe that is welfare. I believe we have an obligation to help those less fortunate, but history has shown that just giving the poor money kills incentive to improve. Taking the money and educating or training these people allows them to become productive and support themselves.

Anonymous Commenter:
I don't think the comparison is convenient or dumb, mostly because I wasn't making a comparison, and I don't believe the writer at the New Yorker was either. I think on the socialism issue, Governor Palin is talking out of both sides of her mouth - at the same time she's slamming Barack Obama for being in favor of the progressive taxation system we have in this country, equating it to socialism, she's espousing the virtues of Alaska's unique set-up, in which the state and the citizenry are benefiting from the collective ownership of a form of wealth, in this case revenues from oil resources. Here's what the Governor said, in her own words: “...we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” That sounds an awful lot like a form of socialism, and it's one that Alaskans are fortunate to benefit from, because due to this sharing of the wealth, they don't have to pay income or sales taxes. So I think it's intellectually dishonest for her to embrace one form of socialism while accusing Senator Obama of being a socialist for supporting progressive taxation, and using that system of taxation to ask people who can afford to pay a little more in taxes to do so, while at the same time giving a break to people who are working and paying taxes. People who have income so low that they don't pay taxes aren't going to get a break, because you can't pay less than zero.

I don't know enough to argue whether or not progressive taxation is a socialist idea, but if it is, we've had a socialist government since 1913, when the federal income tax was enacted, and therefore, every president since then has been a "redistributionist in chief," including Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, both of whom raised taxes while in office. Leaving aside her embrace of "Alaskan Sharing the Wealth" (for lack of a better term, since "Alaskan Socialism" seems unnecessarily inflammatory), if Governor Palin is anti-socialist, and thinks progressive taxation is socialistic, then she ought to explicitly come out against our tax system and explain what she's in favor of. No taxes? A flat tax? A consumption tax? If she has a position on this, I think Americans are entitled to hear it. Otherwise, I believe it exposes her argument, and the argument of the McCain campaign in the final week of the presidential campaign, as bogus.

That's my two cents.

-EB

Governor Socialist

With all the "socialist" hoo-hah being bandied about in the waning days of the election, I would like to present the following excerpt from that liberal rag the New Yorker, in which Sarah Palin appears to endorse a form of "spreading the wealth":

"For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist."

The full article can be found here. I found a link to it on the Talking Points Memo website.

-EB

Work, Glorious Work

This week is shaping up to be productive, thank goodness. Here's why:
-Yesterday, I finished mapping out/laying out/writing the first chapter in a webcomic I'm hoping to submit to Zuda Comics, DC Comics' online comics venture. I'm going to finish typing the script today. There's a significant challenge to scripting a comic; it's far different than writing for animation or live action, in that there's no movement - you have to pick the moments you want your readers to see, and describe them for your artist - so it requires a tweak to your thinking, and I've enjoyed that challenge. I've actually got two stories that I'd like to do as webcomics. If I'm feeling especially productive, I might actually get two scripts done this week.

-Today I do research and prepare the interview questions for the interviews my co-producer and I will be shooting on Thursday, for the pilot episode of what we're hoping will turn into a new documentary web-series. More on this as it develops. This has been in the works for a while, and I'm excited to actually have the shoot.

-Tomorrow I lose an hour to a workshop at the Georgia Department of Labor, which I have to attend to keep receiving my unemployment checks. I'm not looking forward to it, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and in this economy, that's what I've gotta do. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that job opportunities in my chosen career are just around the bend.

That's all for now.

-EB

Maybe McCain Should Have Picked Hillary

Today in the New York Times, political reporter Adam Nagourney has an article called "Second-Guessing the Vice Presidential Pick," which you can read here. Obviously, right now things are not going well for the McCain campaign, and there's a lot of second-guessing going on, much of it centered on the choice of Sarah Palin, who was chosen, according to the Nagourney article, for several reasons including this one: "...she would give Mr. McCain a chance to compete for women voters who had supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and were upset at how she was treated by Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic Party."

That struck me as a weird turn of phrase. Was Hillary Clinton treated badly by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party? I watched the Democratic primaries very closely, and early on, I was leaning towards Obama, but had not yet decided. By the time of the Georgia primary, I had made up my mind and chosen Obama, and I have not regretted that choice in any way. But in my decision-making process, how Senator Clinton was treated by Senator Obama and the Democratic Party never entered my mind, because I didn't see her being treated badly. I saw that her campaign was unable to shake off Obama, and I saw her reinventing herself a few times in an effort to overtake him as the primaries went on. I know Senator Clinton had a beef with the news media for what she perceived as a free ride for Senator Obama, but I really cannot remember a time where Senator Clinton was treated poorly by Barack Obama.

Am I missing something? Have I put on the rose-colored glasses of selective recollection?

One thing, though, is certain - if we're second guessing better choices for the v.p. slot on McCain's ticket, he'd probably be in a lot better shape right now if, instead of picking a woman to try and woo Hillary supporters, he had just picked Hillary.

-EB

...My Favorite Consignment Shop in Anchorage

Does anyone believe this malarkey? The RNC spent $150,000 on a wardrobe for Sarah Palin and her family, I suppose to upgrade their look for the campaign, and politically, it backfired, embarrassing Governor "I'm Just an Average American Like You" Palin. Yesterday on the campaign trail, she sought to tamp down the flap about the wardrobe, asserting that the clothes are not her property, that it's all just for stagecraft to make things look good, and that she's "back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska."

Give me a break! She's the governor of a state! She's not wearing consignment shop clothes! Seriously, anyone who falls for that should have their head examined. Governor Palin and her husband, according to federal disclosures reported by the Associated Press, are worth about 1.2 million dollars, and they had an income in 2007 of $230,000 - which does not include the $17,000 worth of per diem she was paid by the state for 312 nights of staying in her own home since she was elected to office. Now, I know she has five kids, which certainly eats into a person's wardrobe budget, and I know that of the four people running for high office, Gov. Palin is the least well-off, especially when compared to the person at the top of her ticket, but I just don't buy the consignment shop story.

In the whole scheme of things, perhaps this isn't important, but I think it shows a certain amount of disingenuousness that runs counter to her image as a "maverick" - it just seems like it comes right out of the playbook of your standard-issue politician.

She also said, “The double standard here, gosh, we don’t even want to waste our time.” Does anyone have any idea what she's talking about? What's the double standard?

-EB

Updated 10:20am: Well, according to this column by Maureen Dowd, Governor Palin did, at one point, shop at a consignment store called "Out of the Closet." That said, I'm still not buying her assertion that she's currently wearing consignment shop clothes on the trail. Dowd makes an interesting point in her column - for all the cries of sexism that the Republicans have been throwing at the media and critics of Gov. Palin, it's really the McCain campaign and RNC that are guilty of sexism, in how they have felt the need to gloss-up and glam-up the governor with expensive clothes and a make-up artist that was paid more than anyone on the campaign for the first two weeks of October - more than $20,000! Rather than letting Palin be Palin, as I've heard it said by conservatives, they've been playing, as Dowd puts it, "Caribou Barbie." So, honestly, if Palin is pissed off about how the campaign has handled her, and is concerned that she's been tarnished by this, and in some way diminished by it, she's got every right to be. But it still doesn't make her qualified to be second-in-line for the presidency.

Live-Blogging the Early Vote in Georgia

Today, I voted.

Georgia is one of the early voting states, and turnout here has been huge - today was no exception:
While waiting on line, I thought to myself, I'd really like to be live-blogging this, but I'm sans Blackberry and/or iPhone (which I openly covet). But I had a notebook with me, and a pen, and the will to step back into the 2oth century to record my thoughts. I have scanned them, and I share my voting experience with you below. (Click each page for a larger, readable image.)





Three hours in line! In the end, I did get my Chick-Fil-A reward:
...although I think a better reward would be an Obama victory on November 4. But damn, that chicken sandwich was good.

-EB

Twelve Days to Go...

...and I have been hit with some kind of election malaise, a weariness born, I think, out of the 24 hour news cycle, and my addiction to the minutiae that comes out of that news cycle.

But it's not just that. I've grown weary of the flat-out lying that's coming out of the McCain campaign. They're not even trying to win on issues now - they're trying to win on fear. Of Obama the terrorist sympathizer. Of Obama the socialist. Of Obama the sex-education for kindergartners advocate. Of Obama the government-run health care advocate. And on and on and on, ad infinitum, stretching the truth until it breaks. You can find a collection of the lying, detailing the robocalls and the misleading mailers, here at Talking Points Memo.

Both campaigns engage in distortion, but the McCain campaign just takes it to new levels. The thing that's wearing me out is the zeal with which they seem to engaging in this nonsense, especially McCain's running mate, Governor Sarah "I'm-just-like-you-everyday-Americans-just-don't-mind-the-$150,000-designer-wardrobe-that-costs-more-than-what-most-of-you-pro-America-folks-who-come-to-my-rallies-earn-in-two-or-three-years" Palin. Commie pinko liberal that I am, I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered on the way home from picking up my daughter, and they played a clip from a Palin speech she gave today at a rally in Troy, Michigan (or Ohio - it's unclear). (Here's a link to it.) The gist of the clip is that Palin, smug as ever, credits folk hero Joe the Plumber for getting Barack Obama to say in plain language that he wants to "spread the wealth," and then bashes Joe Biden for saying paying higher taxes is patriotic, before saying that it all sounds like "socialism" to Joe the Plumber "who is speaking for all Americans worried about their economic future," and that "now is not the time to experiment with socialism." To which the crowd responds with loud cheers and jeers. Can I remind the Governor that out of economic necessity, the Treasury Department, led by the former chair of GOLDMAN SACHS, JUST NATIONALIZED THE FREAKING BANKING SYSTEM! So clearly, our government, and our Republican Fed Chairman, decided that it is time to experiment with socialism, at least on a temporary basis.

(Dialing it back now.)

Somehow, she and McCain have these people hoodwinked that they are going to do better under McCain's tax plan then Obama's, which is going to cut taxes for people making less than $250,000 a year. It's probably a safe argument that most of the people at that rally would benefit from the Obama tax plan. I have no problem with anyone who takes issue with the way taxes work in this country - it's a legitimate argument to be had there - but we have a progressive tax system for a reason, and that is so those who don't make much money either don't have more taken out of their pockets, and those who can afford to pay more do so - and with the huge income disparity in this country, the top 1% aren't going to miss the few extra dollars they're going to have to pay - never mind that they're still going to be paying less in taxes then they were under Reagan. And paying slightly higher taxes right now to help bail our country out of this mess we're all in together is patriotic. Sacrifice is patriotic. That's not something that our current president or his would-be Republican successors seem to understand.

Anyway, they also have people going around saying Obama is a socialist. He's not a socialist. I know this is an Obama talking point, but if he were really a socialist, why would he have the support of a capitalist like Warren Buffett, the most respected businessman in the United States? The socialist nonsense, the palling around with terrorist nonsense, the do we really know who Obama is nonsense is all just designed to scare people into thinking that if Obama wins and takes office, he's going to unveil a secret evil agenda and sell out our country to the United Nations and bow down to terrorists. It's small-minded rhetoric intended to play into the conspiracy theories we seem to buy into all to easily in this country.

I'm also tired of the way McCain and Palin have been hammering Obama on how well he speaks. (Somehow eloquence and intelligence are supposed to be bad things, threatening and different to the "everyday Americans" Governor Palin is so fond of talking about.) She intimates in the NPR clip that Obama has not been speaking clearly about his tax plans - and nothing could be further from the truth. He's been clear and consistent about his intentions all along. All you had to do to know this is pay attention. Of course, people not paying attention to what is actually true is what McCain and Palin are counting on now. After all, if you can't make inroads with voters on issues, half-truths and outright lies are all you've got.

-EB
p.s. I think I've worked my way out of my malaise. Blogging is good therapy.

Those Sharp LCD HD TV Ads

I'm watching the world series, and Sharp has bought a lot of time for those freaky ads featuring a professor waxing on about the wonders of Sharp's LCD technology. Y'know, that guy in the picture below. I was thinking I can't be the only person who is somewhat put off by these ads, the constant repetition by the professor of "LCD TV!", and the extremely tight close-ups of the prof, which I can't seem to find a still of on this wondrous thing we call the internet. And it turns out not only am I right about not being the first person to be bothered by these commercials, I'm also not the first person to blog about it (which is less of a surprise). Shout out to the group blog Salt In Wound, from whom I have cribbed the still, for beating me to the punch.



-EB

Memo to the RNC Re: $150,000 Clothing Budget

Republican National Committee, I think you have been very generous with your clothing allowance for Sarah Palin and her family, and I just want to throw this idea out at you: spend $150,000 on me and my family, and I'll consider stopping my searing critiques of John McCain, his campaign, and your party's campaign methods, all of which I frequently indulge in on this blog.

Sincerely,

Elliot Blake

p.s. That doesn't mean I will stop the criticism, it just means I'll think about it.

Here She Goes Again...

Today was one heck of a day for Governor Palin.

First, she took issue with Barack Obama's position as a feminist, asserting that if he were a real feminist, he would have picked Hillary Clinton to be his running mate: “Our opponents think they have the women’s vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous since only our side has a woman on the ticket,” she said. She added, referring to Mr. Obama: “When it came time for choosing a vice president, somehow he couldn’t bring himself to choose a woman who got 18 million votes in the primaries.” Really, Governor? You're taking issue with the Senator Obama's choice of running mate? You'd rather have gone up against Hillary Clinton in the Vice Presidential debate? I guess you must be curious to know what it feels like to be chewed up and then spit out. Also, I think it's a little presumptous of you to assume that the Obama campaign feel like they have the women's vote locked up - I don't think they're taking anything for granted, starting from the top down - but it's especially presumptous of you to assume that women are going to vote for you, or should vote for you, just because you're a woman.

Second, she has once again displayed a stunning ignorance about what the job of the Vice President is when it comes to the V.P.'s role in the Senate:



It's right there in the Constitution, Governor, Article 1, Section 3: "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided." You wouldn't be "in charge of the Senate," nor would you be entitled to "really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of really good policy changes." Just wanted to clear that up for you.

-EB

John the Would-Be President and Sarah the Pit Bull Hockey Mom

At the Vice Presidential debate, Sarah Palin talked a lot about "Joe Sixpack."

At the final Presidential debate, John McCain brought up "Joe the Plumber" something like twenty-one times.

Today, Gov. Palin introduced "Tito the Builder", "Phil the Bricklayer", "Rose the Teacher", and "Barack the Wealth Spender."

Is it just me, or does it seem like the McCain/Palin campaign is working out the cast of characters for a childrens' television show in which "John the Would-Be President" and "Sarah the Pit Bull Hockey Mom" would lead this brave crew of "everyday Americans" in the struggle against "Barack the Wealth Spender?"

I have a few additional character suggestions for Senator McCain and Governor Palin, supporting characters for "Barack the Wealth Spender," who is clearly supposed to be the bad guy in this new kids' show they seem to be focus-group testing at their rallies: "Bill the Washed Up Old Terrorist", "Acorn the Squirrel", "Jeremiah the Crazy Old Pastor", "Colin the Turncoat Republican Who Only Endorsed Barack the Wealth Spender Because He's Black and so is Colin the Turncoat Republican", "Andrew the Anti-America Big City Dweller", "Newsy the Liberal Media Elite", and finally "Democrat the Baby-Killing Socialist."

If only I could draw. This is sounding like a surefire hit to me.

-EB

Update 11:26pm: This just in - according the Caucus Blog of the New York Times, Governor Palin added one more character to her expanding universe of "real Americans." Giving a speech today on feminism while in Nevada, Gov. Palin singled out "female owners of small businesses, especially one she described as 'Irma the Restaurant Owner.'" That's a good one! Well played, Governor!

Why You No Post, Elliot Blake?

So, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Elliot has posted so many witty and searing insights into the state of presidential election politics over the last few weeks that I've come to rely upon his blog as a way to shape my opinions - but over the last few days, he's hardly posted any witty and searing insights at all!"

And you're probably wondering, "Why you no post, Elliot Blake?"

And you could conceivably even be worrying, "Good gosh, I hope he hasn't been silenced by shadowy operatives of the Republican National Committee due to his oftentimes harsh critiques of the McCain campaign!"

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can relax - the truth is, on the weekends it practically impossible for me to post, because I have small kids. And today? Today I was thinking. Deep in thought. And I was also busy trying to organize and file away more than a year's worth of comic books. Turns out that I underestimated the quantity of comics in need of filing - I'm going to have to get another longbox. I'm up to 7 long boxes and 15 short boxes of comics now, not to mention all the collected editions on my bookshelf. It's quite possible - and the jury is still out on this - that I'm addicted. Addicted to comics. Hey... maybe that'll be my next blog... Because what the world needs now is another comics blog.

-EB
(Apologies to Dave Campbell of the blog "Dave's Longbox" for stealing his "Why you no post, Dave Campbell?" line.)

Colin Powell Endorses Obama; So Does Sam Blake

This just in - Colin Powel endorsed Obama on Meet the Press. Clearly, good news for the Obama campaign, and not good news for John McCain. I think Powell is one of the few former members of the Bush Administration to get out with his good reputation mostly intact. Sam, my five year old, just asked what "endorsing" means, and I explained that it means Powell wants Obama to win; Sam said that means he's endorsing Obama, too. I expect these two endorsements to dominate the news cycle over the next couple of days. Press inquiries for Sam' explanation of his endorsement should be directed to me.

-EB

Well, This is Just Frightening...

I'm all for people having differences of opinion when it comes to politics, but this is something else entirely:



Racism, ignorance, and hatred, all on display outside of a Palin rally in Pennsylvania. Is this the "kindness, goodness, and courage of everyday Americans" in the "pro-America areas of this great nation" that Governor Palin mentioned Thursday night? Just curious. I'd like to believe we can better than this as a country, and just respect each others' differences - then I'm reminded that there are people out there that just aren't interested in that line of thinking.

Shouldn't McCain and Palin be speaking out against this kind of behavior? I guess not if it serves their purposes, like the sleazy anti-Obama robo-calls they're employing, which are reinforcing the mindset demonstrated by the people in the video above. Those calls are so sleazy that even Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican and co-chair of McCain's Maine campaign, has called for them to be stopped. Good for her - at least there are some Republicans out there who believe these tactics are below the belt. Unfortunately, those Republicans don't seem to be working for the McCain campaign.

-EB

I Wonder if I Live in a Pro-America Kind of Town?

At a McCain fundraiser in Greensboro, North Carolina on Thursday night, Gov. Sarah Palin said this:

“We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America,” Ms. Palin said, according to a pool report. “Being here with all of you hard-working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans.”

Good grief. I didn't realize there were ares of the country more pro-American than others. I wonder where the anti-America parts of the country are? Anyone? The cities maybe? Is that what she meant?

SARCASM ALERT!
Thank goodness Sarah Palin was brought on to the national stage to point these things out to us, because without her, I never would have realized that it's the small towns where the kind and good and courageous everyday Americans live. Because, oh, I don't know, New Yorkers who had to endure the horror and tragedy of September 11th are only kind and good and courageous one or twice a week, I guess. Yeah, that must be it - you just can't find the kindness, goodness, or courage of everyday Americans in the big cities. Thanks for clearing that up, Governor.
END SARCASM ALERT.

That little speech by Palin once again seems to be implying that people in small towns are more patriotic, or that they are the true patriots of this nation. I'd really like it if the Republicans would stop calling into question the patriotism of those who don't agree with them. I'm not a Republican - that much should be obvious - but I love my country as much as anyone, and I'm proud to be an American, and I'll be an even more proud American if we elect Barack Obama to the presidency.

-EB

This Blog

Y'know, when I started this thing, I really thought I'd be spending a lot of time talking about comic books, my job search, the projects I've been trying to get off the ground, and things that I find interesting. And yet, I've mostly been commenting about politics and the election. Go figure.

-EB

McCain and Palin's ACORN Hyperbole Breeds This:

Death threats to ACORN staffers in Cleveland and Rhode Island, and vandalism at ACORN's Boston and Seattle offices, after McCain's ridiculously overblown statement in Wednesday's debate about how ACORN "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy." More on this here. With one exception last week, when Senator McCain asked his supporters to dial back their anti-Obama feelings to from violence-threatening hatred to acceptable levels of dislike, the McCain campaign have really been fanning the flames, and they need to come out with a statement saying that this kind of threatening behavior towards a community activist group from his supporters, even if they are "fringe", is unacceptable.

-EB

ACORN...

...and I don't mean the kind falling from the trees to be hoarded by squirrels - I'm referring to the community organization called ACORN, which has been getting a lot of play in the news lately thanks to hysterical cries of voter fraud from Republicans, Fox News, and the McCain campaign. I touched on the ACORN controversy the other night during the debate, and I think it's worth bringing up again because this scandal is being blown up into something much bigger than it actually is.

Here's the story: ACORN, a liberal community organizing group, has been using paid canvassers to register new voters in predominantly poor areas. Several canvassers padded their registrations with phony forms, filled out with names like Mickey Mouse. ACORN, by law apparently, has to turn in all voter registration forms, and as such, these phony registrations were turned in to state governments. But ACORN itself alerted state officials to the problem voter registration forms, which doesn't sound like the actions of an organization seeking to perpetrate, as Senator McCain put it in the debate Wednesday night, "one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." I don't know - if it were me trying to perpetrate voter fraud so I could destroy the fabric of democracy, I wouldn't call attention to myself - I'd be a lot more shadowy and sneaky, and tell my associates not to try and register Mickey Mouse to vote, because even if someone shows up a the polls wearing mouse ears - it's going to be pretty obvious that it's not actually Mickey Mouse, because Mickey Mouse is not real. You heard it here first, folks.

Even John McCain knows this is ridiculous, and he joked about it at the Al Smith Dinner last night in New York: "In case you haven't been following my opponent's get out the vote campaign, ACORN is helping to register groups previously excluded, overlooked and underserved -- second graders, the deceased, Disney characters. In Florida, they even turned up an ACORN registration form that bore the name of one Mickey Mouse. We're checking the paw prints.Although, I might let that one go, I'm pretty sure the big rat's a Republican." Comedy works best when there's some truth behind it.

There's a larger story here, I think, which is that the Republicans and the McCain campaign are trying to set the table for legal challenges in battleground states they're worried about losing to Obama and the Democrats.

More on this here and here and here. Worth reading.

-EB

If I Had a Band...

...I'd call it Weepy Joe and the Criers.

-EB

p.s. This is the first post in an occasional series called "If I Had a Band...", in which I will post the name of my band if I had one. Which I don't. But, on occasion, I come up with band names out of the blue. And I will post them here.

Live-Blogging the Spin

Mitt Romney just said Barack Obama "isn't someone who keeps America America." Give me a fucking break. I hate the spin room. Both sides spew bullshit after the debate, and that's all the time I've got for it.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Who Won?

Well, it's over, and I think Obama did an okay job. I wanted him to fight back more forcefully against McCain's lecturing and hectoring - it would have been nice to hear him say "Senator McCain is right" a few less times, and I really would have liked to hear him say "Don't lecture me, John." But I guess his game plan has been to keep it civil, and by extension presidential and above it. McCain's demeanor and smugness and overall temperament during the debate keeps him from winning in my book, but he did a good job of keeping Obama on the defensive rather than answering the questions at hand. I can tell you this - I don't like John McCain, and the way he's run his campaign has cost me what little respect I had left for him. I'm going to call this one a draw.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Vouchers

McCain made a big to-do about vouchers as a cure-all for the problems with the education system, explaining that they're very popular in the terrible D.C. school system, so that must mean vouchers work.

I have more to say on this, but I need to read transcripts and see who said what. Because I disagree with McCain, and I agree with Obama, and I'm going to explain why tomorrow.

In other news, the Dodgers are down by four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. That ain't good.

Good night, and Dodgers, good luck.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Eloquence

I love how McCain is slamming Obama for his "eloquence" tonight. Read that as "lying to you." As "don't believe the smooth talker." This party, this candidate, this campaign is against intelligence, against intellectualism, against smarts, because the people high up in the Republican party want to keep their base stupid.

Maybe I'm a little angry right now, because I generally don't buy in to conspiracy theories, but to hear the Republicans rail against the "elite', against academics, against those who have excelled in higher education is disgraceful.

Vote for smarts. Vote for "elite." Vote for Obama. Vote against people against education.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Is Hard Work!

I'm having trouble keeping up. New York Times, you've beaten me again!

Shout outs to my homies Mary Grace and Randy, and a hey hey to my old college pal Dan!

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Mis-Representin'!

Every freaking time McCain gets the last word, he takes the opportunity to completely misrepresent Obama's positions, and I really would like to see Obama smack back. McCain is scoring points this way, but he's offsetting those points scored with his creepy, pissy, know-it-all demeanor. Obama, as usual, is doing a good job of remaining above it and appearing presidential - but I'd still like to see him land a good one on McCain.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Energy

How much does McCain think 45 new nuclear power plants are going to cost? He said we can be completely off Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil by the end of his first term, but that math doesn't add up. How long does it take to build one nuclear plant? And what do you do with the spent fuel, when we can't find a safe place to put our current spent nuclear fuel?

Live-Blogging the Debate: Kitchen Sink

Every time McCain gets the last word, he throws the entire kitchen sink at Obama, regardless of whether or not it's related to the topic. I wonder how many times he's going to say "he wants to raise your taxes" tonight? I feel like if I was taking a shot every time he said that I'd be drunk by now - and I'm lagging behind on the live debate because I paused it on my TiVo.

Live-Blogging the Debate: VEEPS

Good answer from Obama on why Biden was a good pick for V.P.

McCain says Palin is a role model for women. My wife says "No." End of story.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Exaggerating ACORN

ACORN perpetrating the greatest voter fraud in history? Give me a break! A few people paid to sign up new voters registered Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Tony Romo. If someone showed up at the polls and tried to vote as Mickey Mouse, they'd be turned away. End of story. The Republicans and the screaming idiots at Fox News are making a big stink about this because they've realized McCain can't win on issues.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Smack Talk

Somehow John McCain is laying the blame for his negative campaigning on Senator Obama. Please. The tenor of the McCain campaign over the last several weeks has been disgusting.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Smack Back, Barack

I'd like to see Senator Obama hit McCain back a little harder. McCain keeps asking "when has Sen. Obama ever stood up against the leadership of his party?" That's a stupid argument, because Senator Obama's party has not been in the majority except for the last two years, and has not held the White House for eight. Democrats generally do not see eye to eye with the Bush Administration, and as the opposition party, needed to present a unified front against Bush and the Republicans. Shelve this argument, John, it's stupid.

Live-Blogging the Debate: I Will Look at Obama!

Senator McCain is working really hard to actually look at Obama tonight.

He did have his tough guy moment though, just now, telling Obama if he wanted to run against President Bush he should have done it four years ago. I give McCain points for that one.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Ignoring Reality

Bob Schieffer just asked if all the spending proposed by both candidates, given the current economic climate, is "ignoring reality." I think John McCain is ignoring reality by not answering the question, and by continuing to flash that creepy, wide-eyed, off-putting smile.

Is it me, or does McCain seem kind of agitated tonight? I'm waiting for tonight's "that one" moment.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Feeling the Pressure

I think Senator McCain is completely feeling the pressure tonight - he seems completely tongue-tied.

Joe the Plumber is getting a lot of play - I guess Joe Sixpack is off tonight.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Game On

9:05 - I think John McCain just had a Sarah Palin moment - his answer about the "Fannie and Freddie Mae" causing the housing crisis sounded a lot like Gov. Palin's non-sensical answer in her interviews with Katie Couric.

Live-Blogging the Debate: Pre-Game

Before things get started, a question: I was just watching The Colbert Report, and Colbert was interviewing Nobel Prize Winner economist Albert Steiglitz, who said that U.S. contractors in Iraq are making money shipping sand into Iraq from Kuwait. Sand. Could that be true?

The Dodgers and Phillies are playing right now, the Dodgers down 3-1 in the NLCS. I'd like to be watching the game, but my desire to see John McCain melt down this evening is outweighing my desire to see the Dodgers hang on and win. Go Dodgers!

Live-Blogging the Debate: Return of the Jedi!

I will, once again, be live-blogging and taking on the forces of evil in this third and final installment of the Debate Wars trilogy. But if any of those damn Ewoks show up - or Wilfred Brimley with a couple of adorable kids - I'm outta here.

-EB

New MacBooks

Is it wrong for me to lust after the new MacBook and MacBook Pro introduced today by Apple?

Sid The Science Kid...

...kind of creeps me out, which is unfortunate, because I think the content of the show is fantastic, and my kids - my son especially - love it. The producers - the Jim Henson company, the people behind Sesame Street - do an outstanding job of explaining scientific principles that kids are curious about, like how water becomes ice, and vice versa.

But man, the look of the show makes it hard for this particular grown-up to watch. Here, in no particular order, is my dissection of Sid the Science Kid (if you're squeamish, don't look):

• Character Movement: all the characters look like Sesame Street muppets, but instead of being puppets, they're computer generated models, and as such, they have far greater range of motion than a hand-operated puppet. This is not inherently a bad thing, but when something that looks like a puppet is animated in part using motion capture to impart realistic human movement, it's creepy, and does not look right. This issue is compounded by very soft timing of the movement, which makes the characters seem to move a little slower than a real person would move, making it seem almost as if the characters are moving though a liquid atmosphere, rather than air.
• Lip-Sync Animation: If these characters were traditional muppets, they'd only have two mouth positions - open and closed. And more often than not, they would have a more or less fixed expression on their faces. Sid and his friends have whole range of expressions and organic mouth positions that seem entirely out of place on muppets - the mind (okay, my mind) rejects seeing them emote and talk this way.
  
• Voices: True to its Sesame Street roots, grown-ups do the voices for all the characters, including the main cast of four different kids. For some reason it's easier to accept those grown-ups-as-kids voices coming out of a traditional puppet than it is out of these computer rendered models. Sid and his friends just don't sound like kids, or really even talk like kids.

For me, it all comes down to choice of medium, and while Sid remains true to the Henson brand, I think it would work better as a computer generated show if they had come up with character designs that weren't so firmly established in the mind as puppets. All that said, I'm certainly in favor of the show, and would recommend it for kid-friendly viewing, but parents - prepare to be a little creeped out.

-EB

Correction

Last week I posted some photos of myself with Scott McCloud at Agnes Scott College, which should have been credited to photographer Gary W. Meek. That post has been updated with the proper credit, and the editors of elliotblake.blogspot.com apologize for the error.

-EB

Maybe I Spoke Too Soon...

This from the New York Times:

LAKEVILLE, Minn. — After a week of trying to portray Senator Barack Obama as a friend of terrorists who would drive the country into bankruptcy, Senator John McCain abruptly changed his tone on Friday and told voters at a town-hall-style meeting that Mr. Obama was “a decent person” and a “family man” and suggested that he would be an acceptable president should he win the White House.

But moments later, Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee, renewed his attacks on Mr. Obama for his association with the 1960s radical William Ayers and told the crowd, “Mr. Obama’s political career was launched in Mr. Ayers’ living room.”

The dizzying statements came on a confused day when Mr. McCain’s campaign pounded Mr. Obama as a “liar” in an incendiary television commercial about Mr. Ayers....

The article in its entirety is posted here. So what's it going to be for the McCain campaign? High road or low road? It seems to me you can't travel both simultaneously, because attempting to have it both ways smacks of hypocrisy. So perhaps I was too quick to offer praise for Senator McCain's change of heart. Interesting analysis of McCain is offered at Talking Points Memo by blog founder Josh Marshall. Definitely worth a read.

-EB

Behold My Power!

In my last post, I took John McCain to task for the nasty tone his campaign has taken over the last week, as he and Palin whipped up anger, resentment, and vitriol towards Barack Obama at their rallies and with their dirty advertisements. Well, clearly someone in the McCain camp read that post, printed a copy of it, and gave it to Senator McCain to read (as he doesn't know how to use the Internet), because later in the day he changed his tune and actually came to Obama's defense at a Minnesota town hall rally. I take full credit for this shift, however temporary, to responsible campaigning. I could describe it, but here's some video instead, put together by the progressive blog Talking Points Memo:


Extraordinary stuff. Senator McCain comes to his senses and displays some of that honor and integrity that he's known for, saying that his supporters need to be respectful of Senator Obama, and gets booed for it - although more supporters cheered for his call for politics to be conducted in a civil manner, which is encouraging. Hopefully, given the history of racism and violent acts towards minorities in this country, this appeal for respect by McCain will lead to cooler heads, because the ginning up of supporters into an angry mob is, at best, not a good idea and at worst highly irresponsible.

Back to the video for a moment - in my opinion, the most extraordinary piece of that clip is the part where McCain tells his supporters they don't need to fear Obama: "He is a decent person, and a person that you do not have be scared as President of the United States..." Thus undercutting the entire message of his last week of campaigning, the tune of which was that we should be scared of a President Obama. We shouldn't be scared of that of course - we should elect Barack Obama to the presidency on November 4, and I'm hopeful that we will.

-EB

p.s. The Alaska legislative panel investigating Sarah Palin's part in "Troopergate" (dominated by Republicans, by the way) tonight found that Gov. Palin abused her power in firing the state public safety commissioner. That, and having to admit that a President Obama isn't really scary, add up to one really bad day for the McCain campaign. And to some schadenfreude for Democrats everywhere. (Yeah, I used the word "schadenfreude" - and I'm not afraid to do it again. I might even pull out "zeitgeist." Just watch me. I'll do it.)

Desperation is Ugly, a.k.a. McCain/Palin '08

What is wrong with John McCain, Sarah Palin, Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, and all the people involved with running the McCain campaign? John McCain claims to be a man of honor and integrity, and portrays himself as a man with a strong moral compass, but where is that moral compass as he and Palin whip up their partisan crowds into an angry shouting mob? Is fear-mongering really what we need right now, when not just our economy, but the global economy is melting down? (Or freezing up, depending on whether you're thinking about the stock martets or the credit markets.)

John McCain is proving, every day, that he has no idea about how to deal with the economic crisis, and that he has no idea about how to deal with Barack Obama in a civilized manner, so we're being barraged with tear down after smear after lie by a man so desperate to be president of these United States that he's either forgotten where he's placed his honor and integrity, or he's revealing that he never truly had adequate reserves of either quality.

-EB

Photos From My Panel Appearance with Scott McCloud

DECATUR, GA - 9/17/08 (Photos by Gary W. Meek, Copyright 2008 Agnes Scott College)
There I am (above) with comics genius Scott McCloud at Agnes Scott College's panel on The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which was the common reading for incoming freshmen. I was asked to be on the panel to talk about the adaptation of Persepolis from graphic novel to animated feature film. Scott is talking about Persepolis while I sit idly by, hoping I don't come off like a dumbass while waiting for my turn to speak. Seriously, though, as a comics fan and as a writer, to get to be on a panel with Scott McCloud was very cool.

Here (above), I'm pretending like I know what I'm talking about while describing a scene I particularly enjoyed in the book and in the film. I was very impressed by how the filmmakers, one of whom was Satrapi, the author and artist of the book, were able to let go of the narrative form inherent to the source material - a comic book - to fully take advantage of the medium of animation. The scene pictured above is from the sequence in the book where teenage Marjane goes through a growth spurt. It was represented very differently in the movie, but the overall effect was the same. Well done.

Here are the panel participants in a staged post-panel photo opportunity. We're all hanging out by the ashtray - but no one is smoking, except for my shoes. I always think it's appropriate to wear my flame-adorned Chuck Taylors at public speaking engagements (like I've had so many).

-EB

Post-Debate Wrap-Up

Well, here's my verdict - Obama won. I think John McCain came off as a pissy, rambling, old guy who thinks that he knows better than that young whippersnapper Obama and everyone else in that room.

I thought Obama did great on foreign policy, especially in respect to Pakistan and how to deal with the Al Qaeda/Taliban problem in the troublesome border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was authoritative and very clear about his intentions. McCain accused Obama - and has been accusing him - of telegraphing his intention to invade Pakistan. Obama has never said he's going to invade Pakistan, and clears that up here: "I want to be very clear about what I said. Nobody called for the invasion of Pakistan. Senator McCain continues to repeat this. What I said was the same thing that the audience here today heard me say, which is, if Pakistan is unable or unwilling to huntdown bin Laden and take him out, then we should." That seems like a clear policy statement to me, and puts Al Qaeda on notice, but nowhere does it say "we're going to invade Pakistan."

McCain's response to this was curious to me as well: "I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what. And I know how to do it. But I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator Obama did. And I'm going to act responsibly as I have acted responsibly throughout my military career and throughout my career in the United States Senate." Okay, Senator, if you know how to get him, why haven't you shared that with anyone else? If you know how to get him, why didn't you push to get him instead of letting it drop and cheerleading for us to get into Iraq? And as far as acting responsibly throughout your military career, have you forgotten about the multiple planes you stalled and crashed as Navy flier, or about how you handled yourself on the USS Forrestal after the terrible accident on its flight deck? And as far as acting responsibly throughout your military career, have you forgotten about your role as one of The Keating Five?

The senator from Arizona indicated that he knew a lot about a lot of things, like Social Security: "Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problemsare, my friends, and we know what the fixes are." And the economy: "And I know how to fix this economy and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and stop sending $700 billion a year overseas."

I said it earlier, and I'll say it again - Senator McCain, if you know how to fix these things, why haven't you done anything about them?! Are you/were you waiting to be elected President? If so, how is that putting country before all else, like your presidential aspirations?

I'm disgusted. And if I were an undecided voter - which I'm clearly not - I would have landed squarely in the Obama camp tonight.

That's it - time for sleep.

-EB

p.s. Transcript quotes from C-Span debate hub: http://debatehub.c-span.org/ Great job on that website, guys!

Live-Blogging the Debate: Cool Hand John?

McCain just said we need a "cool hand on the tiller" when it comes to foreign policy. I guess he just endorsed Obama for President, because he sure as hell couldn't have been talking about himself. Is he completely out to lunch on how he's careened all over the place over the last few weeks in dealing with the economy? He's got the hot hand of a reactionary, and that is definitely not what we need in a president.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Okay, One More Thing

Senator McCain, in talking about Iraq, keeps on saying that we need to bring our troops home in victory. I think he's missing a larger point, which is this - it's no longer our war to win. We won when we overthrew Saddam Hussein, and won again when we captured him and delivered him to justice. But in the Bush administration's poor planning for the aftermath of the war, we opened up a sectarian can of worms and a civil war, as well as a new front for Iran to strengthen and exert it's influence. The longer we stay there, the harder it's going to be for the Iraqis to come up with their own political solution to their sectarian mess.

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Health Care

One last thing - John McCain's health care plan would give people a $5000 tax credit to go out and buy their own health insurance. Fine. But it apparently costs $12,000 to insure a family of four. Is Senator McCain going to spot me that extra seven grand? (I will add a link to to explain McCain's health plan later.)

-EB

Live-Blogging the Debate: Smirking

The maverick just keeps smirking and smirking and smirking - he really is just plain obnoxious. Obama is doing a much better job of keeping his composure.

This debate format sucks - I'd like to see some more back and forth between the candidates.

That's it for the live-blogging - I can't keep up.

-EB

Live-Blogging: Obnoxiousness

McCain is really taking the low road tonight - he's taking cheap shot after cheap shot. And the creepy smile that follows up his lying about Obama's tax proposals is too much for me to handle. McCain just tried to link Obama to Hoover and told people that Obama's going to be a protectionist as well - which is just a load of malarkey. I think Obama understands that we live in a global economy that relies on trade, but that's not going to stop McCain from suggesting otherwise.

McCain also just said that fixing Social Security is not that hard - he knows how to do it. If that's the case, why hasn't he done anything to fix it? Where's your record on that, Senator?

He's also repeating lies about Obama's record on taxes, claiming he's voted 94 times to raise taxes. Here's the "straight talk" on that from factcheck.org. It's misleading, and McCain knows it.

-EB

Live-Blogging: It's On!

Initial impressions: McCain is coming off like a pissy, angry old guy. "I know how to fix the economy!" Okay, John, if that was true, where have you been over the last three weeks? Why haven't you brought this knowledge up before now? He's also taking credit for an idea that's been kicked around for several weeks now - buying up upside-down mortgages and refinancing those loans at the new, lower values of those homes. Not a bad idea, but also not his idea.

On to the bailout - McCain brings up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and blames that part of the crisis on Obama and his cronies, when it's his own campaign manager who was a Fannie/Freddie lobbyist for years! And he has a ton of lobbyists on his campaign staff. (They're getting called out in Doonesbury this week.) Then he goes on to blame the low-income people who were getting Fannie and Freddie mortgages - read minority. And he's telling this to an African-American man - I wonder if it occurs to McCain that he's essentially blaming the questioner.

I think Obama is doing a better job of answering questions and having some empathy for the questions so far.

Tonight's Debate

There's been a lot of talk about hearing from "Joe Sixpack" and "Wal-Mart Moms" at tonight's town hall-style debate, which should be interesting, because we'll get to see Obama and McCain answer (or dodge) questions from people who live on "Main Street" who are worried about the economy. I wonder if they'll field any questions from "Joe Comic Book Geek?" Are the concerns of that demographic being heard?

Also, I'm going to give live-blogging the debate another shot tonight.

-EB

"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

From this article on Salon.com, which I'm quoting above and here: "Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran."

Instead, though, it was the Palins, specifically "First Dude" Todd Palin, who spent seven years as a member of the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, whose founder, Joe Vogler, was virulently anti-American and anti-government. Here's a quote: "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand." So anti-America was this guy that he got the Islamic government of Iran to sponsor his planned appearance at the United Nations, where he was to denounce the United States. He was murdered before that happened, leading to some dark conspiracy theories on the part of Alaska Independence Party members about who was responsible for his death. Interesting stuff, and I'm willing to bet if this association between the Palins and this secessionist party gets wider press, Gov. Palin and McCain will blow it off as a non-issue, and in the same breath continue to condemn Obama for having worked on education issues with a reformed radical. Any takers? And the McCain team insists they vetted her...

Good stuff.

-EB

Projects

•Spoke to my collaborator on an animated project long in development yesterday, and I'm pretty damn excited about it. We're going to pitch the show to a network soon and see if we can get it going. Can't talk about it in anymore detail than that right now, but when I can, I will, because I think it's an interesting story.

•Still contemplating doing Strange Beasts as a webcomic, and I'm looking into Zuda Comics, which is a relatively new webcomic site owned by DC Comics, as a potential platform. There's some legalese to get through. We also need an artist, although I have someone in mind. Of course, this is all moot if the last publisher we're waiting to hear from decides they want to publish it, which I'd be entirely in favor of. And I think Carl would be in favor of it, too. Right, Carl?

•Still working on casting the pilot for my animated show Comic Shop. Two of the four roles are locked, waiting to hear from someone on voice #3, and waiting to hear from my potential guest star, who is a busy comics pro. But in a perfect world, I'd get all this stuff recorded next week.

That is all. For now.

-EB

Caption This

I found the above tiny advertisement on the New York Times homepage this morning, and it just struck me as anachronistic, given the widening economic crisis we're in. I would think even highly paid CEO's are probably wondering if premium business travel is a good idea right now. Anyway, take a look at that guy's face - he's just so self-satisfied as he sits in his premium business class seat, with a real wine glass. It's inspired several captions:
-"I love my golden parachute!"
-"Crisis? Not where I'm sittin'."
-"I wonder what Sarah Palin looks like naked."

Now, perhaps it's not fair to blame that guy for our economic woes - after all, he's just a model in an advertisement - but it sure is therapeutic. That's a big part of why Lehman CEO Richard Fuld was in front of the House Oversight committee yesterday, being publicly lambasted - so we could have a scapegoat and feel a little better knowing who to blame. So if you're feeling like you need someone to blame, go ahead and blame Mr. Premium Business Travel, by adding your own witty caption in the comments section.

John McCain is Out of Touch and I Know Why!

This just in - John McCain is from an alternate reality. If this campaign was a DC Comics publication, he'd be from Earth-3, the Earth where the counterparts of all the superheroes we're accustomed to - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman - are bad guys, and Lex Luthor is the only good guy. It's opposite world. The evidence of this infiltration of the Republican candidate from another dimension? His speech today in Alburquerque, where he posed this startling question: "Who Is The Real Barack Obama?" A convenient round-up of the salient parts of the speech was found in this entry of The Caucus blog on the New York Times website, but there are a few points that I want to point out here as evidence of my alternate-Earth John McCain theory:

• While the stock market was plunging, and the credit market was freezing up completely - which must be good things on Earth-3, a.k.a. opposite world - Senator McCain was reminding us that “even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don’t know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign.’’ Hmm, that sounds to me like a veiled reference to the multiple-times discounted internet smear campaign that Obama is a secret Muslim (and I'm not referring to a Muslim veil - John McCain don't play that). Am I reading too much into that comment? I don't think so, what with Sarah Palin, doggone it, just doin' her part to remind us patriotic American folks of this great country that Barack Obama "sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?” Now this is just the type of campaigning that John McCain would have you believe a man of his stature would never stoop too, because he has too much personal integrity. And certainly after the brutal South Carolina Republican primary of 2000, which ended McCain's first presidential bid, and in which McCain himself was subject to savage smearing of his character by Karl Rove, you would think he would just disavow negative campaigning, and that he would never hire anyone like Steve Schmidt, a Rove protege, to run his campaign. But maybe JOHN MCCAIN HAS BEEN REPLACED BY HIS FAR LESS SCRUPULOUS COUNTERPART FROM AN ALTERNATE EARTH! Yeah, that must be it. (Or maybe this isn't John McCain at all - maybe he's been replaced by a shape-shifting Skrull, and this is just setting the stage for a "secret invasion!")
• From The Caucus entry: Mr. McCain decried what he called Mr. Obama’s “touchiness every time he is questioned about his record.’’ Right. Because John McCain isn't touchy about anyone questioning his record or his much-ballyhooed integrity and maverickiness. Here's some more: “For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book,’’ Mr. McCain said. “It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there’s always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But, my friends, you ask such questions and all you get in response is another angry barrage of angry insults.’’ Huh. Angry barrage of angry insults. This coming from the man who got all snarky with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, and has a famously bad temper. I guess the Earth-3 Obama that McCain knows from his home planet is really hot under the collar, as opposed to the cool customer we've seen over the last two years, and especially over the last two or three weeks as the economy has gone into the crapper. That must be who McCain is talking about. I don't know. I feel like I know Obama just fine, and I think he's done an admirable job of explaining his positions and his personal history, as well as detailing what he plans for America. Unless he plans to... DESTROY AMERICA! Yeah, if he's planning that, I bet he's keeping it to himself.
• More from The Caucus (thanks, Caucus!): “Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis,’’ he said. “I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed.’’ I'm not really sure where to start with this, but I guess I'll begin here: Senator Obama has accused Senator McCain of opposing regulation, mostly because John McCain has a long record of opposing regulation, and would deregulate the health care system if he could. But the whopper is this: "I guess if he believes a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed." Senator McCain might as well be talking about his own campaign, as evidenced here in the Washington Post, and debunked pretty much every day here on FactCheck.org (where they do a good job debunking Obama campaign distortions as well - everybody's doin' it!). But perhaps on Earth-3, John McCain is still the honest guy he believes himself to be.
• One more hit from The Caucus: “Today the Dow has fallen below 10,000,’’ he said. “And yet, members of his own party said they felt no pressure to vote for the bill. Why didn’t Senator Obama work to pass this bill from the start? Why did he let it fail and drag out this crisis for a full week before doing a thing to help pass it?’’ Okay, maybe on Earth-3, the Democrats didn't vote for the bailout bill from the start, but here on Earth-Prime, they did, and it's your party, Senator McCain, that didn't have the leadership necessary to get your fellow Republicans to vote for it - at least not until the second round when the bill was made more expensive with...pork! Like tax cuts!
  
• And now, the final piece of evidence that John McCain is from an alternate-Earth: he thinks people are ready to talk about things other than the economy, and that it's a good idea to get really negative about your opponent while people are freaking out about their nest eggs and the plummeting value of their homes. Because people don't need to know how you'd handle these problems, they just need to know that Obama might be some kind of shady, America-hating character, who might be out to destroy us. Thanks, John McCain, I feel better now!

And seriously, thanks The Caucus blog, because I really leaned on your round-up of quotes tonight.

-EB

Good Grief

I took a couple of days off of blogging, mostly because I don't have any time on the weekends to post anything, what with playing with the kids and all, which, honestly, is a welcome respite from all the things going on with the economy and the election. I'm even dreaming about this stuff now - last night I dreamt that I was obsessing over election polling numbers and statistics, so clearly I am very concerned about how all this is going to play out. There was some relief in hearing that Obama has taken a clear lead in the national polls, as well as in swing-state polls, but a lot could happen between now and November 4, so this is no time to be easing up on the gas.

At lunch today, I turned on CNN, and saw that the Dow is down 500 points today, and below 10,000 for the first time in four years. Richard Fuld, the former CEO of the now defunct Lehman Bros. was being grilled, live, by the House Oversight committee, and one of the members was taking the opportunity to grandstand - not a surprise, but it really turned me off. This is a serious crisis and we need to figure out how to get through it.

Certainly, it's not going to help the McCain campaign - they want the focus to turn away from the economy, so instead of talking about solutions or offering up their ideas for how to fix things, they're taking personal potshots at Obama and trying to tear him down. I think this is going to backfire for them. Oh, how I hope it's going to blow up in their faces. At least Obama's not letting this stuff stand - his campaign is hitting back hard. Keating Five anyone?

More on this later - I'm not done venting.

-EB

Memo to Anonymous Commenter Who is Not My Dad

(The below comment from Anonymous was left on my post about "Who Won the Vice Presidential Debate?")

Well thanks so much for your liberal comment. Just sit back sip your wine and scream into your tv as the Mcain and palin ticket wins on November 4.

October 2, 2008 11:23 PM

I just wanted to respond publicly to this. Anonymous, thanks for reading, and you're welcome. I think it's fairly clear from the tenor of my posting, especially last night, that this is the blog of an Obama supporter, and yes, I'm more or less a liberal, so that's going to influence my comments. I also wanted to say that you're right about one thing - if McCain wins on November 4, I will be screaming at the TV, only I won't be drinking wine - I'll need something much stiffer.

Cheers,

Elliot Blake

Who Won the Vice Presidential Debate?

Well, I think that answer depends on whom you're supporting for President. I think there's no doubt about my support for Obama, and I think Biden did a solid job tonight supporting Obama's policies and ripping into John McCain. I also think he did a good job of not being condescending to Sarah Palin - certainly a better job than I did. Boy, I sat back in my comfortable chair, sipping wine like the liberal that I am, and condescended both to the television set, loudly, as if yelling at a baseball player for booting a simple grounder, as well as to the ol' blog.

Yeah, I wanted her to fall on her face, and she didn't - so I think if you're a McCain supporter, you must be elated tonight that she did nothing to embarrass the ticket or the party, and came across as confident, and if you're so inclined - I'm not - likeable.

That's my incisive analysis. That's all folks!

-EB

Memo to Governor Palin Re: Media Filters

Governor Palin -

I'm glad you like debates, and getting the chance to answer questions without the "media filter." Tell me, when you couldn't answer a simple, straight question from Katie Couric or Charlie Gibson, was that because of the "media filter," or because you just didn't know the answer? I would like to point out that at tonight's debate, you barely answered any question directly, and if you didn't know the answer, you re-directed, which you couldn't do when Katie put you on the spot. Katie Couric didn't make you look like an idiot - you made you look like an idiot.

But good job setting the bar so low that the pundits are now saying that you did a good job. Apparently all you had to do is hold your own, regardless of whether or not you could actually answer the questions asked of you.

By the way, Senator Biden kicked your ass - I hope you took notes.

Yours,

Elliot Blake

Live-Blogging the Debate: Maverick!

He's a Maverick, damn it!

I'm a maverick, you're maverick, he's maverick, she's a maverick, wouldn't you like to be a maverick too!

Be a maverick, drink Dr. Maverick...

Well, not if it tastes like John McCain... Yuck.

-EB

The Vice Presidency

Apparently, Governor Palin agrees with Dick Cheney that the office of the Vice President is neither part of the legislative or executive branches of governments.

Scary, especially when you can just look at the Constitution and see that it's part of the executive branch.

She wants that Cheney power. YIKES!

-EB

I'm Live-Blogging the Debate!

I didn't plan on it, but here I am doing it.

Look out New York Times!

Memo to Governor Palin Re: Debate

Y'know, just because you keep saying "straight talk" and "maverick" doesn't make those things true. John McCain has engaged in anything but "straight talk" since he resurrected his campaign by pandering to the right wing of the Republican party.

Also, you say that "John McCain knows evil." Okay. Does that mean nobody else recognizes evil when it knocks on the door? Give me a break, lady.

Finally, let me explain something to you - Joe Biden keeps bringing up the Bush Administration because he's linking the McCain campaign to the failed policies of George W. Bush. And it's working, because you guys have offered nothing new or different from W's policies.

And you can keep making that cute little smile, but I got news for you - people can see through it. It's a politician's smile through and through.

Yours,

Elliot Blake

Memo to Joe Biden Re: Debate

Senator Biden:

Watching the debate, and you're kicking ass. Keep it up. And don't let yourself get too riled.

Also, good job answering questions and not redirecting the moderator's questions too much.

Yours,

Elliot Blake

Memo to Governor Palin Re: Debate

Governor Palin:

Watching the debate - can't help but notice how you good you are at dodging questions you don't have an answer to.

By the way, I'm watching as you attempt to answer the question about what the trigger is for the United States to use nuclear weapons, and I can't help but notice that you keep saying "nuk-u-lar." I'm sorry, but we just can't have another four years of someone in high office in this country who can't properly pronounce "nuclear."

Yours,

Elliot Blake

Memo to Governor Palin

Governor Palin:

I'm watching the debate, and I just wanted to remind you that nuclear is pronounced "nu-cle-ar," not "nuk-u-lar." Get it? "NU-CLE-AR!" "NU-CLE-AR!" "NU-CLE-AR!" "NU-CLE-AR!" "NU-CLE-AR!" "NU-CLE-AR!"

FOR GOD'S SAKE, IT'S "NU-CLE-AR!"

Yours,

Elliot Blake

p.s. Quit being so smug. It's not becoming in a candidate for high office.

Procrastination

I'm supposed to be writing something else right now, not making a blog entry, but I've got a wicked case of procrastination. Must...buckle...down!

This blog o' mine has been very political of late, which is reflective of where my head has been, but I've also been thinking a lot about the following:

• Comic books - Always thinking about the comics. Just finished Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, and I have to say, it might just be the finest example of what the comics medium can accomplish, in terms of breaking down the stereotype that comics are kids' stuff.
• Apostrophes - Specifically when used to indicate the possessive. I was told recently that an updated style manual has dictated the use of the "apostrophe-s" at all times, even when the word in question ends in "s" so as to indicate the plural, as above in "kids", so that instead of writing "comics are kids' stuff," I should have written "kids's stuff." That does not look right to me at all, and seems like it should be read aloud as "kidses stuff". I reject that notion completely. If any of my millions of readers know which style manual makes this assertion, please comment below.
• My various projects - I've been pitching some comics projects, and I'm contemplating writing the first eight or so pages of the latest one, called Strange Beasts (created with my friend Carl LaPan) so I can also submit it to Dark Horse Comics, but I don't have any contacts there, so it would just be an unsolicited submission, and I'm not in love with that idea. I've also been contemplating the idea of a webcomic, and whether or not Strange Beasts would be appropriate for that, or if another comics project of mine, a superhero comedy called Sword-Maiden, would be a better choice. Either way, I'd need to find an artist, and pay this person so it actually gets done. Given my current job status, this is not entirely feasible. I also need to get the pilot for my animated web series Comic Shop voiced; it's written, but I need to cast and record it so I can put together a fully-animated one-minute presentation piece. And I've got one other thing that I've partnered with someone on that I can't talk about right now, but that I'm anxious to get out the door.
• Occasional Superheroine - This is a blog that I read regularly, by a writer named Valerie D'Orazio, who at one time worked as an assistant editor for DC Comics, but has since moved on to become the president of the organization Friends of Lulu and the writer of a forthcoming Cloak & Dagger series for Marvel Comics. Valerie's commentary on the state of the industry is no-holds-barred and often very personal; she says what she thinks, and her honesty makes her blog one of those rare places on the web where you can find opinions about comics and the comics industry rather than blind cheerleading. This, however, has earned her some enmity from a particular subset of...gosh, I don't even know what to call these people...internet comics trolls will do, I guess - anyway, she's actually received death threats from internet comics trolls who don't like what she has to say about DC Comics, or a recent issue of Teen Titans, which is just insane, and when I read about this in one of her recent posts, it was maybe the first time I've actually been embarrassed to be a comic book fan, because, theoretically, the bonehead who felt so moved to tell a blogger she should perish in a fire because he didn't like what she said about his favorite comics publisher is one my comics-loving peers. Then I realized that's not the case, because this person is clearly sub-human and needs to realize that everyone is entitled to their opinion, even when it comes to comics, and if you don't like it, don't read her blog! At any rate, this trend left Ms. D'Orazio in the position of contemplating whether or not it's worth the trouble to continue blogging if she is going to have to deal with that much vitriol, but I'm glad to see that she's going to press on despite the idiocy of the internet comics trolls. Good on ya, Val - it's almost trite to say it, but if you quit, it's letting the terrorists win.
• Employment - Man, this is a tough job market.

That's all for now.

-EB

Updated 8:54pm: Man, that's one hell of a run-on sentence in the section about Occasional Superheroine. Apparently, my procrastination does not allow for reading for clarity.