I mean, I left L.A. last Tuesday. And tomorrow all these Bear-Flag-Come-Latelies will arrive in the Las Vegas/Henderson area. They'll take my favorite spot at the phone-bank table. They'll drink the coffee, and eat the nicest of the sandwiches and sugary snacks before I get to them. They'll take the choiciest areas for knocking door-to-door.

They'll hog the water. They'll take up my favorite corners for doing yoga and T'ai Chi during breaks, and they'll do the wrong kinds of yoga and T'ai Chi.

They will steal my yogurt out of the fridge.

I hate them already, and they aren't even here yet.

Stupid Californians; who invited them?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 122 words, total size 1 kb.

My father insisted today that I take a break from "getting old white men to vote" today, and return his phone call.

Before I leave the table I tell my cohorts about my father's line. The one person at the table who is white, male, and past the conventional retirement age says, "tell him you're sitting across from an Air Force Veteran his own age who thinks he should vote for McCain."

I smile. "I'm not sure you know what makes the old man tick," I remark.

Out in the parking lot I find myself a nice place on a curb and punch in Dad's code on the cell phone. "I'd sure like to see you this weekend, if you'll be back," he tells me.

"Ah. But I'm not going back until after the election, like I told you. That's why I went over the night before I left," I remind him. (I refrain from telling him that this is one of the reasons I left a several hours later than I really wanted to, and ended up spending the night in Primm, Nevada, on the way out here; I had to pack that morning, alongside my traditional try-to-clean-up-the-house-on-the-day-I-leave idiocy.)

"So, you're getting people to vote for Sarah Palin," he remarks. "She's just so . . . pretty."

"You know, Dad," I tell him, "if you vote for McCain, you'll be seeing a lot more of her on the news and in various magazines and newspapers. Not that I'd want you to make such a serious decision for such a superficial reason. But I'd hate to see you stuck looking at pictures of Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the next four years."

"Furthermore," I continue, "the Governor wears skirts more than she does pantsuits, so the average consumer of news would see a lot more leg with her than they would have with Senator Clinton."

He seems to be wavering. "Her legs are nice," he tells me.

"There's also the fact that if she and McCain win this one, the contest will be between Palin and Mrs. Clinton in 2012. Wouldn't that make the debates more fun?" I ask.

"Maybe. Will they be held in hot oil?"

I move in for the kill: "Not in real life. But with computer graphics, there will still be video of it happening in hot oil, and it should look perfectly realistic."

The only thing that could go wrong now is if my stepmother accompanies my dad to the voting booth in order to "help" him. Of course, it's just the Golden State, so what he does won't matter on the Big Battleground.

But still . . . . I would like to have made the sale.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 460 words, total size 2 kb.

Economics and theology from one of the most talented Classical Liberals out there, Alfonzo—the proprietor of Macho Sauce Productions. (Who is starting to be referred to simply as Macho Sauce himself. Why not? Alice Cooper was originally the name of a band.)

I know, I know: everyone complains about the hat. I like the hat. (Of course I like the hat; I've got one a bit like it.)

But the tile and the echo still bug me: I want to see Zo in a real studio, with better acoustics. That way, everyone can accuse him of "selling out." And there will be yet another golden goose out there, laying eggs that enrichen all our lives.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

Schwarzenegger mocks the Obama-bod.

It may hurt worse if Sarah takes off one of her borrowed jackets and offers to arm-wrestle Big Zero. (Or, worse, decide the contest by shooting hoops against him: Palin is shorter than I am, and we all know who would win that contest.)

Via Insty.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

But it's okay; he did it in an upper-crust fashion.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

Apparently, he knows some of my husband's family out in Chicago. What a brave young man.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Last night, the Heaths (Sarah Palin's parents) and the Palins (Todd's parents) stopped by the Clark County Republican Headquarters. It was quite the distraction. I'd make a few calls, and then get up to get my picture taken with them, then make more calls, etc.

As I write this, Governor Mitt Romney is stopping by to help with precinct walking.

Saturday, Mayor Giuliani will be there in the evening; I'll probably miss it, due to a social engagement.

And on Monday, Governor Palin will be appearing in Reno (and another Northern Nevada town I don't recall the name of), while McCain holds a rally here.

I know people are sick to death of getting nagged. But my job is to nag them; there's no other way to make sure that people vote, other than to remind them that it has to be done.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:47 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Well, best of luck. Missouri might be a better bet, though.

Posted by: Christophe at October 31, 2008 03:38 PM (2rBIo)

2 Don't count your Messiahs before they're hatched.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 31, 2008 11:25 PM (ayS6b)

3 "Fool me once, shame on you." Familiar with that expression, Azmat? The shame is on the pranksters, not the person that is skeptical, but non-offensive friendly, and engaging. Maybe the Sûreté should interview those Montreal clowns about that hack into his personal bank account.

Posted by: Darrell at November 02, 2008 08:17 AM (WLXEf)

4 Are you saying that their bank accounts were hacked by the likes of you? non-offensive? more like clueless, you would think that one would get a clue when your biography is called _______ Palin.

Posted by: azmat Hussain at November 02, 2008 02:36 PM (9mcr7)

5 I have no rebuttal, Darrell you win, I don't know exactly what but you win! Care to make a side bet on the election tomorrow, tell you what, I will take McCain and Palin for the right price. Any amount you win will be donated through LMA. Cheers, Az

Posted by: azmat hussain at November 03, 2008 04:03 PM (ZVMDn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

It might be fake, but it strikes me as perfectly accurate.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

According to D.C. Thornton, they wouldn't have been nearly as funny: just depressing.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 31 words, total size 1 kb.

I agree with Insty: this would have been the best counterpoint.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

The party breakdown, of course, tells us nothing. Except that California is, sadly, California.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

My mother remarks, on the eve of my trek out to Nevada to assist with the McCain-Palin campaign. "I'm afraid I can't quite wish you . . . success."

"Understood," I respond. "Let's just say I'll try to have a good time, and I'll stay safe."

"There was a time . . . I might have considered voting for McCain."

"Oh, really?" I remark, trying to control my shock. RINO or no (and some call me a RINO—it's all in how we order our priority lists), the man does have that evil letter after his name.

"But then he appointed that . . . that woman," she concludes.

"So you're one of those people, then? The ones I thought didn't really exist? You were open to McCain, but were turned off by the Palin pick?"

"Oh, yes," she tells me. "I can't see how anyone who supported Hillary can possibly want that woman in the White House."

"There are plenty of them, though," I point out. "There's even a name for them—women, and some men, who were so disgusted at what they perceived to be sexism in the Obama campaign [see how delicately I phrased it?--ed.] that they are actively campaigning for McCain. I'm really curious as to why you dislike her so; we'll have to talk once I get back into town."

"Sure, Honey," she tells me. "And you have a good time."

I always have a good time knocking on doors to try to get people to the polls . . . But I pulled it off four years ago (me, just me—it was my efforts that made the difference), and it'll happen again this year.

After we hang up it occurs to me that my mother and I are our opposite numbers: she considered McCain a possibility until he brought "that unqualified woman" on board. I was going to drag myself to the polls and pull the lever for the good Senator until he tapped Palin to be his Veep.

Granted, I already knew Palin, since I'm a minor-league energy blogger, but the main difference as I see it is . . . the good old mainstream media. I get absolutely no data from them (though I do try to keep tabs on what they are doing, of course).

My mother gets information from nowhere else. And she doesn't even have cable TV—it's all broadcast news, all the time.

She enjoys, furthermore, no internet access, because every time I show her how to web-surf and check her mail she nods brightly, and then renews her phobia once I leave the house. Then she assures me a few months later that she's forgotten how to do either of those two things, and it is my fault that this has occurred. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Because of my media skepticism, she seems to regard me as the informational equivalent of Randy Weaver: cut off from reality. Suspicious. Seeing black helicopters buzzing around this Presidential campaign.

And I apparently ruined the career of that nice Dan Rather man, for no reason other than vague suspicions and partisan malice.

Of course, someone raised me to be an iconoclast. Someone mentioned that one ought to question authority every now and then. And it wasn't the Great Pumpkin, either.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:15 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 553 words, total size 3 kb.

Bill is still hedging his bets; he's drinking the negative Kool-Aid and buying into the idea that McCain is the underdog in a race that may be more objectively neck-and-neck between McCain and Obama.

Yet he hasn't let the negativity in the air ruin his perspective completely.

And I agree with most of his policy prescriptions: attack, Senator McCain. Get on the air. Both you and the Good Governor need to be on the Sunday talk shows this coming weekend. Buy some airtime on Thursday night if the campaign can possibly scrape up the money, so as to respond to whatever Obama's going to try to do with his his own half hour of change, hope and pulling magical things out of top hats.

And cut out the infighting in the campaign, or at least keep it behind closed doors.

I do not, however, agree with Kristol's feeling that all the negative ads about Obama should be pulled. If the very libertarian, very unscary Goldwater could be defeated by one negative ad that distorted his positions, I see no reason to go wobbly at this point with respect to either Obama's disastrous economic proposals, nor his "cut and run" attitude regarding Iraq.

At this point, the surge has been so successful that some feel that we cannot lose in Iraq, and that is possible, though I feel one can usually find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Afghanistan, however, still has to be secured, and it will be a tougher nut to crack than Iraq was—particularly with the degree of international involvement, which keeps us handcuffed in a number of ways.

Between Afghanistan, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and the delicate matter of renegotiating our relationship with some of our "friends" (the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and possibly the Chinese) we must be careful: we can't afford a newbie at the helm—much less a "partition Iraq"/"Obama will be tested"/"look at my I.Q." kook like Joe Biden.

As far as the economy is concerned, I realize that there are nuances involved. Barack Obama may no longer be a socialist at all. It's possible that he is simply an aggressive welfare capitalist, at the far left side of the continuum. And even in my libertarian circles a lot of people (if they are pressed hard enough) will admit to the feeling that there should be some sort of safety net for the unemployed, provided it is temporary, rather than a "lifestyle."

But the economy is at a point such that the best thing we could do for it now is get some jobs created, and that will not happen without small and medium-sized businesses getting some tax breaks and seeing a bit of lessening in the restrictions they face.

We are also at a point wherein every dime we can spare from defense should go to tax breaks for energy companies, so that they can "greedily" figure out how to address our energy issues without subsidizing our enemies. Which means, in the short term, more drilling in fecund areas like the Gulf and the Southern California coast (done, of course, in an environmentally responsible way), and—medium-term—R&D on all the other alternatives—especially those that are low in carbon emissions, and especially those that are renewable. In the long term, we're going to be relying more on biofuels and electricity (which, of course, can come from a number of sources). But we're still figuring out how to bring those costs down.

The worst thing we could do now is pull money out of the research that is shaping our future, as we move away from fossil fuels.

And that is what Barack Obama wants to do. There is no way to sugar-coat that.

This election is critical—militarily, economically, and environmentally. And as much as I respect Obama's brainpower and idealism, that is not enough. McCain has to win this one, or we will quite likely go into a full-on recession, and we might well be attacked again; we may not even see the support for Israel that we've been able to provide in the past, and whatever else Israel is, it is a toehold for democracy in the Middle East—one of very few examples (ironically enough) of multi-ethnic representative democracy.

Vote.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 715 words, total size 4 kb.

Center-right bloggers on McCain, Palin, the mainstream media, and the election.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

"Did the God of Socialism fail, or not?"

That is what this election is about.

Did the vampire of redistribution that had me enthralled during my college years ever lose its appeal?

Because it still wants blood, even now.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:59 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 45 words, total size 1 kb.

Via Morrissey, who points out that it isn't so much a question of "the last eight years" as it has been the last year. Though the groundwork for that has been laid previously.

Let's go back to the "Never Find Out" hit parade:

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 51 words, total size 1 kb.

HillBuzz wonders why all the early voting runs counter to the predictions of the "Eeyore" pollsters and the "Eeyore" pundits.

Well, let's see. "Two schools of thought, there"—

1) There's a lot of wishful thinking out there regarding the possibility of an Obama presidency, and that serves as a rationale for poll samples that predict historically unheard-of turnout among young Obama supporters in all, um, 57 states;

2) We're being deliberately lied to—led to believe that a race that will be very, very close is isn't any such thing, and Obama's got it more or less in the bag.

Probably an act of kindness on the part of the Obamabots; they're trying to buffer the shock for us, in case McCain doesn't win.

They are just trying to be nice. So when we win, we should try not to gloat.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 152 words, total size 1 kb.

Got it from Ace.

Did I mention that he watches TV so I don't have to?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 2 kb.

A cop-killer/unrepentant terrorist with a red star on his shirt leaning on "property" rights and calling the police for protection from the media.

Loves it.

Via AlllahP at Hot Air.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.