Personhood Questions

So there's this ballot vote in Mississippi coming up that defines "personhood" from the moment of fertilization. Basically, it's another attempt to outlaw not only abortion, but in vitro fertilization and even stem cell research. So I have a couple of questions:

Can a person still in it's zygote state receive a Social Security number at the point of conception?

Can a person still in it's embryo state apply for a credit card? A mortgage?

Can a person who was conceived in a foreign country by his/her American citizen parents on a vacation be eligible to run for president of the United States? Or does he need to show his "Conception" Certificate?

Just saying'...

Literacy FAIL!

Apparently not enough improvement.

(H/T HuffPo)

And The First Debate Goes To...

...apparently Obama according to most of the analysis, which is surprising to me because I didn't see it as such a clear cut win. Here's my analysis for whatever it's worth:

Pre-Debate

With all the hoopla going on about the financial crisis we find ourselves in, a lot of the pre-debate talk was toned down. Then McCain pulled his one day "suspension" crap and the media ate it up, all the while not reporting that McCain probably didn't know what the word "suspension" means. The fact was that his ads were still running, he made three news appearances (getting lambasted by David Letterman in the process), attended the Clinton Global Initiative (drawing praise from Bill at the worst possible time for Democrats), made an attempt to postpone the debate and then decided to go to "Warshington" to throw a wrench in the bailout works.

Due to all the self-imposed scheduling wackiness, some including me, thought that McCain would be unprepared for this first debate, that he was an old white man running away from a black man asking for change, and that Barack Obama would wipe the floor with the doddering, old fool.

Misunderestimating

What we didn't think about, and by "we" I mean the logical thinking Democrats and liberals that live in the world of reality, was that McCain is a crafty, old codger who's been in debate situations before and knows that the truth doesn't matter, it's all about perception. He was on the attack and aggressive for most of the 90 minute debate and as we all know Obama's demeanor doesn't lend itself to angry outbursts, he seemed to be on the defensive most of the evening.

Ultimately, if you're looking at content alone and reading the transcript, Barack Obama did win the first debate. If you're looking at style points, I would have given the slight edge to McCain because of his aggressiveness but for the fact that while Obama came across as presidential and cool, calm and collected, McCain looked uncomfortable while listening to Obama's answers, seemed exasperated when Obama would zing him with the truth (did McCain say "horseshit" when Obama smacked him on the Spain gaffe?) and not once during the entire evening did McCain even look at Obama. He made no attempt at eye contact. That put me off because it was disrespectful of his opponent and came off as condescending, almost as if he seemed irritated that they had to go through this exercise. One thing's for sure, McCain is thin skinned (not just because he's old) and I have a feeling he's going to let his emotions get the better of him at the most inopportune time very soon. Maybe the next debate?

Round two will happen in two weeks. Next we get to see Joe Biden and Sarah Palin go at it on Thursday. That is must see TV.


Best Lines of the Night:

Obama: "... presidents have to be prudent in what they say. But, you know, coming from you, who, you know, in the past has threatened extinction for North Korea and, you know, sung songs about bombing Iran, I don't know, you know, how credible that is."

McCain: "Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left."


Worst Lines of the Night:

McCain: "I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes, and I saw three letters, a 'K,' a 'G,' and a 'B.'"

Obama: Anytime he said "John McCain's absolutely right."


What did you think?


UPDATE (4:30pm): Here's FactCheck.org's fact checking on last night's debate.

Debate On!

The first of three McCain thrashings will take place after all as the McCain campaign zigged when it should have zagged and decided to avoid political suicide by actually showing up for the Mississippi debate. Someone should hide the hotline number next time.

In yet another ploy from Camp McCain the non-suspension suspension of John McCain's run for the White House backfired as he left Washington in worse shape then when he arrived... as if that's anything new.

Had Obama had fallen for the blatantly transparent move, it would've seemed McCain was playing leader and Obama follower. It would've also had the bonus of rescheduling the debates and cancelling the only VP debate and the destruction of Sarah Palin in order to use that date for the first POTUS debate.

When McCain's hapless managers saw Obama wasn't biting, they realized that it would be political suicide for them to blow off the debate. I'm also sure they weren't counting on the reports that McCain's presence was what put a wrench in the works in the first place, asking for fewer regulations and tax breaks for corporations. Real reformer that McCain. So now the debate that Maverick said he wouldn't attend so long as a bailout deal was not finalized and is even further away from getting done than when he arrived in D.C. is back on.

Not to be outdone by the "suspended campaign" embarrassment, the latest McCain camp debacle didn't stop the them from declaring victory in the debate before it's even occurred.

An advertisement prematurely declaring victory in something you didn't want to participate in before its happened... hmmm... I remember something seeing like that. Where have I seen that before?

Obama Wins Mississippi

O-mentum was apparently only slightly delayed.

Obama wins Mississippi 61% to 37%