Dan Abrams FTW

9:04 pm EST May 30th, 2008 | Media | 6 Comments

Dan Abrams treats Bill O’Reilly’s insane rant from last night perfectly on tonight’s edition of Verdict.

A Time For Change

8:33 pm EST May 30th, 2008 | Republicans | 1 Comment

A McClatchy computer analysis, incomplete due to the difficulty matching data from various campaign finance reports, found that hundreds of people who gave at least $200 to Bush’s 2004 campaign have donated to Obama.

Among them are Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the late GOP president Dwight Eisenhower; Connie Ballmer, the wife of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer; Ritchie Scaife, the estranged wife of conservative tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife and boxing promoter Don King.

Many of the donors are likely “moderate Republicans or independents who are dissatisfied with the direction of the country now and are looking for change,” said Anthony Corrado, a government professor at Colby College in Maine who specializes in campaign finance.

“There is a large block of Republicans, particularly economic conservatives, who just feel that the Republican Party in Washington completely let them down” by failing to control spending and address other problems, Corrado said. “The Republicans have really given these donors no reason to give.”

Topic: President Obama

McCain Backs Down To Obama Campaign On Using Petraeus To Raise Money

6:47 pm EST May 30th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Slapped down.

Sen. John McCain said he’ll no longer use pictures of himself and the top U.S. commander in Iraq in fundraising materials after being criticized by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and others.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee was criticized by Sen. John Kerry and Doyle for e-mailing supporters a picture showing him shaking hands with Gen. David Petraeus that included the phrase “Leadership Demonstrated” above a link to “Show Your Support.”

Topic: John McCain

Our World With Tom Friedman

3:32 pm EST May 30th, 2008 | News | Comments Off

Happy “Suck On This” day.

Topic: Iraq

Deep Thoughts, By Oliver Willis

1:44 am EST May 30th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 9 Comments

There is a Wifi network in my neighborhood that pops up on my computer called “Escobar Network”. Every single time I see it I think “the family of deceased drug kingpin Pablo Escobar lives in my neighborhood, and they have Wifi”.

Every time.

Topic: Humor

Purple Line: Please, God, Make It Happen

11:49 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | News | 9 Comments

Our subway system here is pretty good, but one of the problems is that if I want to go from my part of Maryland – Takoma Park/Silver Spring to somewhere like Bethesda, I have to go through Washington D.C. to do it. This makes no sense. By auto that’s about 15 minutes drive, but because the Red Line doesn’t go in a circle, it works out that way. The proposed purple line would solve that, and make a pretty good mass transit system better. This is one of those government things where I’m like do it already.

Topic: D.C., Maryland

We’re Going To Denver!

11:27 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | Democrats | 29 Comments

Denver Broncos Cheerleaders are in Denver. Hmmm.

And by we, I mean me. OliverWillis.com is one of the blogs officially credentialed to cover the Democratic convention in Denver. I’ve never been to a convention (a political convention, that is, I’ve *ahem* been to a comic book convention or 10) so this should be pretty cool.

I’m thinking one of my main goals/projects should be to finally see Al Gore in person.

Democratic Convention 2008 @ OliverWillis.com: The Quest For Gore.

Thoughts?

Topic: Oliver's World

The Pushback Vs. Olbermann

7:52 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | Media | 17 Comments

Keith Olbermann is continuing to make waves, and the conservative movement and the media establishment doesn’t like that. In 2008 the media landscape is not the Fox News-dominated echo chamber of 2004 – and I say this as someone who sees this coverage as part of my day job and am well aware of how things have changed. Smears versus Democrats – specifically Sen. Obama are not greeted with the same reverence they once were. Those of us on the left have some place in the mainstream press to go to at least see a contrary position expressed. That bugs a lot of people. Aaron Barnhart discusses the issue further here.

Topic: President Obama

Al Jazeera Report On Kentucky Voters

7:24 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Sigh.

Topic: Hillary Clinton

It’s Not Just The Brand

6:45 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | Republicans | Comments Off

Voters are strongly rejecting conservative ideology, not just the GOP brand. Of course disasters brought about by conservative principles on both the international (Iraq) and domestic (Katrina, the economy) fronts will do that for you.

Clearly this is good news for John McCain.

(Also, conservatives still have convinced themselves that “earmarks” are the reason they lost in ’06. Brilliant.)