A Real Endorsement For MetatOGGer

I've been on vacation for a week; no kid, nothing. I have had lot's of time and have watched some movies I hadn't seen and did some mp3 fixing and rearranging. I found a program that helped me a lot. It's called MetatOGGer, and it is incredible.

I have thousands of music files I have accumulated over the years. How I got many of them is a mystery. Remember Napster before the fall?

Anyway, many of the songs are missing information, like the title, artist, or album. Some of the songs simply have question marks instead of information, meaning I have to listen to it to know what the hell song it is!

Well, no more! This little program, MetatOGGer, listens to your music and finds the correct tag information for you. Yes. It listens to your music so you don't have to!

I realize this technology isn't brand new, and I may be late. But man! Load up some questionable files and watch the little bugger discover information about your music library.

It's free, and seems to work great. Oh, and it's French (but it's in English).

No, I am not being paid for this endorsement. I just really like it!

Andrew Sullivan Endorses Obama-Again

The whole, exhaustive, complete, long, terrifying, brilliant thing here. Snippet:

But until this unlikely fellow with the funny ears and strange name and exotic biography emerged on the scene, I had begun to wonder if it was possible at all. I had almost given up hope, and he helped restore it. That is what is stirring out there; and although you are welcome to mock me for it, I remain unashamed. As someone once said, in the unlikely story of America, there is never anything false about hope. Obama, moreover, seems to bring out the best in people, and the calmest, and the sanest. He seems to me to have a blend of Midwestern good sense, an intuitive understanding of the developing world that is as much our future now as theirs', an analyst's mind and a poet's tongue. He is human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. His passivity and ambiguity are sometimes weaknesses as well as strengths.

Sully, I want to thank you for your tireless work this campaign, and the clarity, suspicion, and honesty with which you wrote these past many months. Good show!

Darth Vadar Endorses McCain

Better late than never, I suppose.

More Conservatives For Obama

Bush official: Obama presidency would be 'great' for US image
Agence France-Presse
Published: Wednesday October 29, 2008

The election of Democrat Barack Obama to the presidency would be a "great thing" for the image of the United States, a Bush Administration State Department official said on Tuesday.

James Glassman, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, was careful to emphasize he did not support the presidential nominee of either party, adding that he also thought "it would be a great thing for the United States to have a woman as vice president," in reference to Republican running mate Sarah Palin.

Glassman has also served as a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Speaking at a news conference focused on the US-led "war on terror," Glassman, who is tasked with improving America's image around the world, also spoke about the US military-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a lightning rod for criticism abroad.

"I don't think it's going to affect the image of the United States" if the prison is closed, he said.

Both candidates, Obama and his rival Republican John McCain, have pledged to close the camp at the US naval base that continues to hold 272 "war on terror" prisoners without charges.

Glassman is also known for his book "Dow 36,000," which he coauthored in 1999. In it, he asserted that the US stock market was vastly undervalued and that the Dow would reach 36,000 in "a few years."

As of Wednesday morning, the Dow stood at 9062.

Dow 36,000 (co-author). In this book, published in 1999, near the peak of the late 1990s stock market bubble, Glassman and his co-author declared that the stocks making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, then around 10,000, were undervalued and that the stock prices would rise sharply, with the index reaching 36,000 within three to five years.

Another Paper Endorses Obama: The Anchorage Daily News!

From the Anchorage Daily News opinion piece endorsing Obama:

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.

Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.[emphasis all mine]

The Picture Powell Was Talking About

Elsheba Khan at the grave of her son, Specialist Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan.

Powell Endorses Obama

I predicted it. I don't know how big a deal it is, but I am glad.

The former Bush Secretary of State crosses party lines to endorse Obama, calling him "a transformational figure" who could "not only electrify our country but electrify our world."

Says McCain's Ayers attacks have "gone too far," criticizes McCain's "unsure" response to the economic crisis, and says Gov. Palin is unqualified to be vice president.

Makes the announcement on Sunday's "Meet the Press." Says he plans to vote-- but not campaign-- for Obama.

Says outside the NBC studio: "I think that Sen. Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, a fresh set of ideas to the table.... Sen. Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm, patient, intellectual, steady approach to problem-solving that I think we need in this country."

Update: Some folks are worried about what the endorsement means to certain people, and how they might react:

I fear for this country
By Ron Beasley

No, I'm not afraid Palin/McCain will win, I'm afraid of what will happen when they don't. It was not too surprising that Colin Powell endorsed Obama this morning but what he said was:

[video of MTP; same as above]

As you see is not so much an endorsement of Barack Obama but a condemnation of the current Republican party and the Rovian McCain campaign. Lee Attwater sparked the wildfire that is the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party. Karl Rove fanned the flames and the Palin/McCain campaign has been throwing gasoline on the fire.

What passes as the Republican party these days is attempting to do is make the almost inevitable Democratic sweep illigitimate. This from Bilmon :

With the prospect of a bone-crushing election defeat staring them full in the face, the diehard rump of the conservative movement is already busy fashioning a narrative to explain the dissolution of its world -- the one that Ronald Reagan built and that George W. Bush (with an assist from Wall Street) has thoroughly trashed.

And the emerging story line appears to be, roughly, that ACORN did it.

Given the underlying proclivities of the modern conservative movement (Sarah Palin division) we should have understood that sooner or later it would come to something as absurd as this. Failed authoritarian movements needs scapegoats the way fecal coliform bacteria need a steady supply of raw sewage, and this one has a lot of failures that need explaining.

The remarkable thing, of course, is the right's effort to make the ACORN boogie man do double duty: responsible not only for the looming "theft" of American democracy (per John McCain) but also for bringing the US and global financial system to its knees (per any number of conservative quacks economists and cranks pundits).

You have to admit: That's a damned impressive revolutionary track record for an obscure group of community organizers operating on a shoestring budget. I mean, who needs the Red Army when you've got ACORN and the Community Reinvestment Act?

So what will this do to Karl Rove's lunatic fringe?

We don't need to hark back to the unfortunate history of a certain Central European country in the 1930s to understand how poisonous this kind of political myth making can become. Powerful elements of the Republican Party and the conservative "movement" aren't just preparing themselves to go into opposition, they're preparing themselves to dispute the legitimacy of an Obama presidency -- in ways that could, if taken to extreme, lead to another Oklahoma City.

It's hard to tell to what degree the GOP high command fully understands or is trying to feed these dynamics (indeed, it's becoming increasingly difficult to even tell who the GOP high command is these days). The last thing I want to do is get into an arms race with the wingnut right when it comes to paranoid conspiracy theories. (That's one race the left will always lose). Still, the recent statements of John McCain and his Bircher-influenced running mate aren't exactly reassuring:

My opponent's answer showed that economic recovery isn't even his top priority. His goal, as Senator Obama put it, is to "spread the wealth around."

You see, he believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe, in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism.

I've been following politics for going on 35 years now, and I don't think I've ever heard a Republican candidate publicly refer to his Democratic opponent as a "socialist" -- not even while hiding behind a cardboard cutout like "Joe the Plumber". This from a man who told the entire nation on Wednesday night that believes an obscure nonprofit group is "perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Likewise, I don't think there's ever been an American vice presidential candidate who explicitly referred to entire regions of the United States as "pro-American" -- with the clear implication that other regions are something less than "pro-American." Not since the Civil War, anyway.

We've crossed some more lines, in other words -- in a long series of lines that have made it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the ultraconservative wing of the Republican Party and an explicitly fascist political movement. And John McCain and his political handlers appear to have no moral compunctions whatsoever about whipping this movement into a frenzy and providing it with scapegoats for all that hatred, simply to try to shave a few points off Barack Obama's lead in the polls.

To call this "country first" only works if you assume your opponents (and scapegoats) are not really part of that same country. And we all know where that leads.

Now not all or even most of the Palin/McCain lunatics are going to resort to violence - but it only take a few of them as was demonstrated years ago in Oklahoma City. And we can expect that the Secret Service is going to be very busy trying to keep Barack Obama alive the next few years.

Update II: Powell after the interview on MTP...

Washington Post Endorses Obama!

Mr. Obama is a man of supple intelligence, with a nuanced grasp of complex issues and evident skill at conciliation and consensus-building. At home, we believe, he would respond to the economic crisis with a healthy respect for markets tempered by justified dismay over rising inequality and an understanding of the need for focused regulation. Abroad, the best evidence suggests that he would seek to maintain U.S. leadership and engagement, continue the fight against terrorists, and wage vigorous diplomacy on behalf of U.S. values and interests. Mr. Obama has the potential to become a great president. Given the enormous problems he would confront from his first day in office, and the damage wrought over the past eight years, we would settle for very good.

Any presidential vote is a gamble, and Mr. Obama's résumé is undoubtedly thin. We had hoped, throughout this long campaign, to see more evidence that Mr. Obama might stand up to Democratic orthodoxy and end, as he said in his announcement speech, "our chronic avoidance of tough decisions."

But Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment.

H/T swimming freestyle

McCain And Liddy: They Share Principles

I think I mentioned this before, but McCain actually does pal around with terrorists. G. Gordon Liddy is a domestic terrorist and McCain joined him on his show in May of 2007 (not when McCain was 8, which is pre-history). Go read Carl Bernstein's post.

LIDDY: Your experience in the Hanoi Hilton is remarkable. I mean, I put in five years in a prison [for masterminding the Watergate burglary, and associated crimes], but it was here in the United States, and they didn't torture - the only torture that I had was being forced to listen to rap music from time to time.

McCAIN: Well, you know, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of your family. I'm proud to know your son, Tom, who's a great and wonderful guy. And it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon. And congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.

Care to expand on these principles and philosophies, John?

Well, I'll Be....

Ralph Stanley, old hillbilly-redneck and flatpicker endorses Obama.

Hitchens Endorses Obama

It's not glowing, but it's an endorsement! Here is the headline...

Vote for Obama
McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president.
And Palin is simply a disgrace.
By Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Buckley Endorses Obama

Not a big shock, but what would daddy think? The party Bill Buckley helped create has imploded, ruined the nation, and now stinks with overt racism, guilt by association, and anti-intellectualism. I am dancing on the GOP's grave!! Go read it at The Daily Beast!