Ezra Klein on McCain’s fundamental misunderstanding of how Social Security works:

There are criticisms that people make of Social Security, most of them relating to a mismatch between the program’s revenue and its future obligations. But McCain’s comment is very different. It’s like if lots of people made fun of one guy’s car because it was broken down, ugly, and lacked headlights. Then one of the dimmer members of the group, sensing an opportunity to jump in, piped up with, “yeah, four wheels and an engine? What’s with that!? When you gonna do something about that!?”

“Hey! Where did you get those clothes? At the…toilet…store?.”

You know those glow sticks they give little kids on Halloween? With the neon goo inside? Where you and I have blood, Iverson has that glowing stuff pumping through him. He’s just on fire, all the time. If you could spread that magical juice throughout your roster, you’d win the title every year—talent and size be damned.

But as it is, Allen Iverson has two gallons of it, and most people don’t even have a teaspoon. There’s your trouble. Hmm… it’s a game won by the best team… so what do you there? Through most of his career, Allen Iverson has known what to do there: win the damn game himself. He can see how and where the fire is burning, and by comparison it’s almost all in him.

“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

It’s “couldn’t care less”, Jack, couldn’t.

NBC. Tonight. Nine. Watch it.

Via Atrios.

Via Matthew Yglesias.

And, of course, the granddaddy of political splicings:

Pa. House, 161st District: In one of the most spirited — and nasty — legislative campaigns, longtime Republican Rep. Tom Gannon is being challenged by Democrat Bryan Lentz. This race offers residents two strong, attractive candidates in a race that has shown the best — and worst — of local politics.

…

But where this race really sizzles is in some of the personal attacks offered in ads and mailers. A Republican ad has denounced Lentz for his legal defense work for a man who was charged with taking an indecent picture of a boy at a Variety Camp. The ad suggests Lentz worked “to put a child predator back on the streets.” Gannon also once cited Lentz’s lack of community service, apparently oblivious to his military service.

Gannon, himself a lawyer, defends the ad, and says the voters had a right to know what kind of work his opponent was doing. He questioned whether someone with that type of work experience should be seeking public office.

Lentz believes the attacks to be dishonest. This newspaper tends to agree, and point out that such negative pieces are exactly why so many people are being turned off to politics. They are beneath the clear qualifications of both of these office seekers.

Voters in the 161st District in all reality will not go wrong with either Gannon or Lentz in Harrisburg. But the endorsement goes to the newcomer Bryan Lentz, in no small part because of the nasty, negative tenor Gannon’s brought to the campaign.

NBC will return the Emmy Award-nominated “Scrubs” and move freshman comedy “30 Rock” to Thursday nights beginning November 30 to form a new two-hour 8-10 p.m. (ET) comedy block with “My Name Is Earl” and “The Office.” The change will follow a special super-sized night of comedy two weeks earlier on Thursday, November 16, with three 40-minute episodes of “My Name Is Earl,” “The Office” and “30 Rock.”

My ambivalent feelings towards 30 Rock aside (love Alec, Tracy; undecided on Tina, plot), this may be their most consistent lineup ever.

It’s hard to see a commercial like this and not punch people decrying a Democratic-led Congress because “they’re just gonna raise taxes”.

Ignoring that Bush’s tax cuts won’t be up for renewal until 2010, making them an issue this Congress won’t even debate, if you think this election is about taxes, then fuck you.

This is nothing less than a referendum on the direction of America -

Are we afraid of what may be wrong, or hopeful about what could go right?