Political stuff

Short, so not cut:

Salon has an interesting article today about how speakers at the RNC this week aren't letting facts get in the way of their speeches - they mention things like Zell Miller not mentioning that as regards the weaponry that Kerry voted against in the early 90s, said vote was in line with then-president-Bush's 1992 State of the Union Address, where he, on recommendation from his Sec of Defense, Dick Cheney, said failing to cut defense spending would be "insensible to progress."

And Mitt Romney made the well-refuted claim that Kerry had voted to raise taxes 98 times - the problems with that number, though, as the Annenberg Public Policy Center have said, though, are legion:

Annenberg explains that 43 of the 98 "tax increase" votes were actually votes on budget resolutions that did not, in and of themselves, raise taxes. Moreover, in several instances, the total of 98 includes multiple votes on the same piece of legislation: By the GOP's math, Kerry's support for President Clinton's 1993 deficit reduction package as it wound its way through Congress should count as 16 separate votes to raise taxes. Kerry gets dinged six times for a single 1996 budget resolution, seven times for a 1997 budget resolution, and six more times for supporting a proposal to raise the cigarette tax. That proposal was sponsored by Sen. John McCain -- a Republican.

And so it goes. If you're supporting Kerry and you have Bush-fans who enjoy trying to debate you or slam Kerry, you might want to print the article out & carry it around so you have handy facts on your side.

(no subject)

Andrew Sullivan gives some context for Zell Miller:

Andrew Sullivan summons up his righteous indignation:

Miller's address will, I think, go down as a critical moment in this campaign, and maybe in the history of the Republican party. I kept thinking of the contrast with the Democrats' keynote speaker, Barack Obama, a post-racial, smiling, expansive young American, speaking about national unity and uplift.

Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats.

Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man's speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude. . . .

Last night was therefore a revealing night for me. I watched a Democrat convince me that I could never be a Republican. If they wheel out lying, angry bigots like this as their keynote, I'll take Obama. Any day."