Rick Brookhiser on Teh Corner:
We have shown the same color-by-numbers mindset that liberals did when they rallied to Obama. Liberals love Obama because he is a Numinous Negro. Conservatives love Palin because she has a Downs baby and an M-16. For both sides, that is all on earth ye know and all ye need to know. You might call it mystical and childish.
H/t: Amy Alkon (ha!)
David Gregory on Meet the Press just now said he thought it was “cool” that Sarah Palin started going into labor and then still took an eight-hour plane ride back to Alaska.
Er, David that isn’t “cool.” It’s bloody dangerous.
Are our media really this stupid?
UPDATE: Uh:
John McCain, in his first television interview since his shocking vice presidential pick, said that he saw in Sarah Palin “a partner and a soul mate.”
John — you talked to her extensively precisely once before offering her the VP job. Are you bloody serious? This is like proposing marriage to someone after meeting them for a mid-afternoon coffee date.
I gotta just stop following the news for the rest of today. The st00p1d is driving me bonkers.
To any readers from the Gulf Coast region: be safe, peeps. This thing sounds really bad.
Interested parties can track this beast here.
UPDATE: Woof:
4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?“It blows my mind.”
Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.
“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.
What he’s talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident who didn’t want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on the hole of a gas tank of an airplane,” the resident said.
Instead of an airplane, it’s a floodwall, and instead of a Band-Aid, the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.
“The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”
And when he confronted the contractor, the contractor blamed Washington for the substandard work.
“He basically told me when Congress sent down the money, it would be repaired the proper way.”
But during a recent trip to the area, two years later, it was apparent that didn’t happen. Much of the newspaper had deteriorated or been eaten by bugs, but some still remained. In fact WWL cameras even captured the date May 21, 2006, on a page of the Parade magazine from the Times-Picayune.
(Via.)
Here’s Scott “Zeppo” Johnson of Powerline, Time Magazine’s once and forever 2004 Blog of the Year:
Just for fun, I asked David Lunde of Lundesigns if he would photoshop an image to go with my conception of John McCain as Rooster Cogburn to Sarah Palin’s Mattie Ross. He has kindly responded with the image below.
Posted by Scott at 1:28 PM
Except the person on the right is German model Sabine Ehrenfeld.
…Also, we should like to introduce David Lunde of Lundesigns to the blur tool.
Also David, not sucking — ur doin it wrong.
Update: He changed the picture and, it seems, used the blur tool on the new one. Two out of three ain’t bad!
Update: Dear Scott of Powerline, here is your picture.
[Hanx! J—]
ABOVE: GayPatriotWest
Two Corner posts wrapped into one Shorter:
…and…
Has anyone thought about what will happen if Bush takes the stage at the Republican National Convention and the crowd starts chanting, “FOUR MORE YEARS!” like they did at CPAC earlier this year? Would that pretty much be game, set, match for Obama?
Ah, Palin. Let the last word be from the folks who are still in our hearts called Blogs For Bush.
Been seeing a lot of things like this over at NRO’s The Corner – we won’t know if its a general trend for a month or so, but its exactly what I expect from the Palin selection:
To: Kathryn Lopez
Subject: So Excited!
Indeed, we won’t know for a month or so whether this particular set of overwrought emails published on the National Review’s website truly reflects the real-world popularity of a position promoted by the editors of the website of the National Review.
Our own emails to K-Lo somehow never turn up there, leading us to doubt her neutrality.Viz.:
…And I need your love to keep away the cold.
Signed, “Hanoj Grebdlog”
If you have to ask why, then I am not going to tell you.
Signed, The Pope
Would it kill you schmucks to stop schmoozing all the schvartzers like a
bunch of schlemazels with schmutz-covered schmeckels already?
Signed, Seymour Martin Lipset
I have eaten the Snickers ice cream bars that were in the icebox and which
you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me they were delicious
so sweet and so cold.
Signed, Mark Hemingway
But as Noonan has seen and we are about to, this is the one that she chose — or that she sneakily concocted while unable to escape her own straitened, 8th-Grade-appropriate writing style, whichever the case may be. For the email comes as though in a telltale purple Trapper Keeper pasted with heart stickers and titled in bold cursive with a glitter pen:
To: Kathryn Lopez
Subject: So Excited!K-Lo -
I am absolutely thrilled with McCain’s choice in Palin. Her conservative values, her reform efforts, the way she worked up from being in the PTA to a governor all show that she has what it takes. She is the commander of the Alaska National Guard. She is a mom, a member of the PTA, an athlete, has worked for a living in non-political jobs. She seems like one of us. She seems like one tough cookie, yet is still incredibly likable. That is something that Hillary could never pull off. I am so excited that I sent $500 to the McCain campaign today. I would send more, but I think that is all my budget can handle right now. I am happy he picked a woman. But, I am thrilled it is this woman!
GO McCAIN PALIN 2008!!!
What fool would be fooled by this? Here’s exactly such a one:
I was visiting the Mother-in-Law on Saturday and while outside for a while another person just wandered up and offered a pro-McCain opinion…an elderly woman, delighted with McCain, delighted with Palin. Outside of Leftwing Kookdom, the selection of Palin is being greeted with enthusiasm…and all the leftwing slanders and smears being directed her way shows the fear she strikes in the hearts of Obamaniacs who see it all slipping away…the Obamessiah washed away by a flood of competance.
We don’t want to ruin Noonan’s last word on Palin by mentioning the spelling.
* Deut. 28:28-29
St. BBQ’s pick of Sarah Palin was a brilliantly stupid move that really encompasses everything we’ve seen about Republican politics over the past eight years. From a governing perspective, it’s blisteringly stupid — do we even know who this woman is? Say what you will about Obama’s lack of executive experience, but he’s been under a pretty intense spotlight for the past year or so. He’s taken heavy fire from members of both parties and has come out of it looking like a smart, cunning and capable candidate, someone who has real command not only of himself, but of his surrogates and campaign messaging as well. Sarah Palin, on the other hand… well shit, I’m one of the biggest political junkies around, and my first reaction when I heard the news yesterday was “WHO THE FUCK IS THAT????”
People, we’re talking about a woman who eight years ago was a Pat Buchanan supporter and who is winning accolades from every crazy Christian and economic wingnut group in the country. This is someone who obviously has a hard, hard right ideology and who would likely make an even worse president than Bush. I mean, she’s less than two years into her first term as governor and she’s already being investigated for abuse of power. Can you imagine how she’d behave if she had the levers of power in the White House at her disposal? Can you imagine all the zany Christianist shock troops she’d appoint to the Justice Department? Can you say Defense Secretary Jerry Boykin?
So yes, from the perspective of governing, this is a supremely irresponsible and crazy move on John McCain’s part. The fact that he only met this woman once twice before making her the nominee for vice president of the United States is astonishing to me and it says a lot about his judgment and his desperation to win this race.
That said: from a political perspective, this pick is brilliant. It took the spotlight away from Obama’s speech, it gave the GOP base a reason to vote for St. BBQ and it created a large landmine for the Obama campaign to step around. They have to be extremely careful with how they approach her. I imagine there must be great temptation on the Obama camp’s part to simply run roughshod over this newcomer and treat her as though she were the new Dan Quayle. But, but, but: if Biden comes off as a smarmy and condescending d-bag during the veep debate, it could turn off a lot of women voters. This is not to say they’ll all switch en masse to St. BBQ, mind you — in this sort of ratfuck operation, the goal is to dampen enthusiasm and depress opposition turnout.
So the smart move here would be to largely ignore her and focus the attention on McCain. Vice-presidential picks, although they generate a lot of media hype, do not end up deciding presidential races. If you have to mention Palin in a line of attack, don’t make the focus about her, make it about McCain — i.e., he only met her once twice before making her his vice-presidential pick (and seriously, my mind is still reeling about this… what the hell, man). The Obama camp seems to be taking the smart route so far by waiting for the media hype to die down and keeping on message that this election is about John McCain and the last eight years of failed Republican rule.
UPDATE: Oh my:
The governor’s appearance on KWHL’s “The Bob and Mark Show” last week is plain and simple one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I’ve ever seen from a politician. [...]
Early on in the conversation before Palin started to crack up, Lester referred to Sen. Green as a jealous woman and a cancer. Palin, who knows full well Lyda Green is a cancer survivor, didn’t do what any decent person would do, say, “Bob, that’s going too far.”
But as the conversation moved on, Lester intensified his attack on Green.
Lester questioned Green’s motherhood, asking Palin if the senator cares about her own kids. Palin laughs.
Then Lester clearly sets the stage for what he is about to say by warning his large audience and Palin. He says, “Governor you can’t say this but I will, Lyda Green is a cancer and a b—-.” Palin laughs for the second time.
What were teenage boys thinking when they heard the governor laugh at someone being called a b—-? How about the teenage girls who look up to Palin. What did they think when they heard her laugh?
But there is more. Lester then describes Green’s chair as big and cushy. A clear reference to the senator’s weight. Palin laughs a third time. She’s just having a grand old time.
Palin was clearly enjoying every second of Lester’s vicious attack on her political rival.
But it gets worse.
Lester asks Palin point blank: “Do you have any idea of what you did, to make Lyda Green dislike you, hate you?” How does Palin respond? Does she do the right thing? What you would expect from a mature leader, a governor and say, “Bob, Lyda doesn’t hate me.”
No, she responds like a 13-year-old and says, “Um, you know once and a while I try to figure that out but I can’t figure that out.”
And yes, Virginia, we have audio:
Holy shit. Listen to this. Really. Listen to this. This is the person that John McCain thinks can lead the entire country in the event of an emergency. Hoe. Lee. Shit.
UPDATE II: My jaw is still on the floor from listening to this. Did the McCain campaign do any vetting, like, at all? Did they even bother to do a fucking Google search?
UPDATE III: This is how we do it:
Hillary Rodham Clinton urged voters Saturday to support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying the stakes of the election are high and the differences between Obama and Republican John McCain are stark.
“During our convention, we Democrats laid out clear, bold solutions to tackle the two biggest challenges confronting our nation — economic disarray at home and a decline in American strength and support around the world,” she said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address. “The contrasts between us and the Republicans could not be starker, especially on issues that matter to middle-class families.” [...]
She said McCain has said “our economy is fundamentally sound.”
“John McCain doesn’t think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security and he’s promised tax breaks for the biggest corporations instead of middle-class families. And in 2008, he still thinks it’s OK that women aren’t earning equal pay for equal work.”
Clinton’s criticism of McCain was sidestepped by Republicans, who are trying to win over disaffected Clinton voters after McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Instead, they seized on Clinton’s earlier comments praising McCain during her primary battle.
“As Hillary Clinton aptly stated, ‘Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience,’” said RNC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson.
When your entire election strategy boils down to attracting the supporters of a person you despise, your goose is well and truly cooked. Ratfucking only works on the margins — on a grand scale, it is doomed to fail.
Earlier today, Clif was poking around The Corner and said, “Later in the day these folks will be singing the praises of Sarah “Mooseburger” Palin who is waaaay more experienced and waaay more ready to be President than Obama.”
And sure enough, here we are later in the day, and as I sit here typing, Bay Buchanan is having a screaming conniption on CNN, creating an imaginary Sarah Palin who’s not only more experienced than Barack Obama (a man, it turns out, who has “done nothing but campaign for president”), but who “knows more about how to create jobs than anyone else in both campaigns.”
And now, tout à coup, it’s McCain flack Michael Duhaine, like Buchanan piling words on top of words as fast and fervently as possible. “Obama’s accomplishments next to Palin’s are insignificant,” Duhaine explains. A particular strength of Palin is her foreign policy credentials, for “she’s the Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard, and has a son who’s going to Iraq.”
Needless to say, we’re still not thoroughly convinced. But let’s check in with an expert in the art of explaining-things-to-people. Hooty-hoo, Hugh?
Victory and Energy for the Second American Century: Cheering the Palin Pick
Friday, August 29, 2008Conservatives are thrilled with the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running-mate. Scroll through the postings at RobinsonandLong.com, or listen to the hosts and callers on any of the talk shows today.
There are six reasons, all of them huge and enduring.
First, over the past month we have gone from hoping Senator McCain would win to thinking he might actually be able to win. With the selection of Governor Palin most of us are convinced he will win. Which means the country will be well led on the war for at least another four crucial years. The reason behind this new confidence leads us to the second factor.
Sarah Palin is a real deal conservative, down the line, on all of the issues. This has the immediate effect of energizing the base to battle to keep the White House and to close the gap in or take back the House of Representatives. It is especially important that she is ardently pro-life, and the story of her family is certain to resonate with those values voters who prize faith and family as the center of life.
Third, the Palin pick guarantees that the party will remain a conservative party long-term. If Senator McCain had picked a…
For counterpoint, let’s turn to this classic and oft-remarked argument, by one Hugh Hewitt:
“Cheney”
Wednesday, August 01, 2007Stephan Hayes’ new Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President is a tremendous read. Hayes will be my guest today but even a long interview won’t do the book justice, so order it and read it for yourself.
I have been rereading a couple of chapters this afternoon which detail the response to the attacks of 9/11. Perhaps because of this morning’s meeting I am more aware of how consuming the defense of the country has become for the president and the vice president, but Hayes brings home the relentlessness with which the threats to the country have been pursued.
The next president has got to chose a vice president as skilled as Cheney and a team as experienced as that which was around President Bush after 9/11 if only because the scale of the responsibility is so great and the need for clear thinking so profound. The people diseased with BDS will never get this, but the country is extraordinarily blessed to have had President Bush and Vice President Cheney and their senior aides during these first few years of a very long war.
Darn it, there’s simply always something on this Internet that needs fixing.
The International Herald Tribune’s Roger Cohen gives the illusion of being concerned about something that, if you ask us, is well worth being concerned about:
The fact Obama is under such pressure reflects Republican success since Nixon and Reagan in framing Democrats as weak, unpatriotic and indecisive. “Conservative populism has successfully cast the liberal elite as looking down on the values of ordinary Americans,” said George Lakoff, a political theorist.
Roger’s bit would go over a lot better had he not written just a few paragraphs earlier:
But if the economy now trumps Iraq, I’d say personality still trumps the economy. In the end, the election will be about trust and authenticity. [...] Is Obama more beer than Chardonnay? Is he a Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks kind of guy? Must he talk fancy? Is he one of us despite having what his wife Michelle called “that funny name?”
Beyond the sheer inanity of those questions, one thing is worth pointing out: the U.S. is a Starbucks country: 11,570 stores (PDF) to 5,769. Only California has more stores than Texas (PDF). But don’t blame Roger for raising these questions — Republicans are responsible for all this stuff. For all anyone knows, Republicans wrote the headline for his column (Obama’s from Main Street, ain’t he?). The very same Republicans, perhaps, who published this cartoon in Roger’s (NYT-owned) very own newspaper. David Brooks was right there today to point out how it’s done:
We meet today to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans, a generation that came of age amidst iced chais and mocha strawberry Frappuccinos[.]
So expect Roger to continue saying it’s all so very silly that Obama has to deal with all these questions, while continuously raising them.
Bonus points — Memo to David Brooks: Don’t give up your day job:
On United we stand, on US Airways, there’s a 25-minute delay.
ABOVE: What you saw (left) and what K-Lo saw (right)
As usual, the folks at America’s Shittiest Website™ have the trenchant commentary on Obama’s speech that we’ve come to expect of them:
K-Lo:
Normal Americans are telling me it was a “mean” speech.
Jay “What the Fig” Nerdlinger:
Biden … flashing those choppers. … gross.
Phil Gramm, “a nation of whiners” — go, Phil, go. Gramm has a better understanding of the nation, of the economy, and of people than Obama can presently hope for.
Victorites Davisopolous Hansenopita:
Zeus speaking through the naos, giving us divine guidance
Andy “Kill All The Mooslims” McCarthy:
I don’t think this is rose-tinted earplugs: LAME.
From a reader . . . “angry, nasty speech.”
Mark “Souter is a Sissy” Hemingway:
This soundtrack music is ridiculous.
Later in the day these folks will be singing the praises of Sarah “Mooseburger” Palin who is waaaay more experienced and waaay more ready to be President than Obama.
Before getting into the meat of this post about the batshittery from Stanley Kurtz on the Obama-Ayers connection, I can’t resist commenting that Kurtz sounds exactly like Big Gay Al, which may explain much more than we want to know about Kurtz’s unflagging crusade against teh gays:
Now that we have that out of way, let’s talk about Big Gay Stanley’s batshittery on the Obama-Ayers connection. As you probably know, Stanley’s been running around, telling anyone who would listen, that Obama and Ayers were best buds, that Obama’s political philosophy is therefore absolutely identical to Ayers’s philosophy, and that if we elect Obama, the first thing he’ll do in office is try to blow up the Pentagon.
The basis for this nonsense is the Obama was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Bill Ayers was involved in a group that organized the Chicago Challenge and that provided advice and recommendations to the Challenge. So, since being on the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge makes you a terrorist, let’s see who some of the other terrorists on that Board were. Here’s a list of the Board members from the group’s 1998 IRS Form 990.
First we have Edward Bottum, who was head of a Chase Franklin, a venture capital firm, as well as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Underwriters Laboratories. And, probably to throw the FBI off the track of his terrorist leanings, he made all of his political contributions to Republicans.
Then there is John W. McCarter, Jr., who is President of a noted terrorist front organization, The Field Museum of Chicago.
And don’t forget the philanthropist Nancy Searle, who also has cleverly concealed her terrorist leanings by contributing to Republicans.
Best of all, another Board member is Scott C. Smith, President and Publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which still openly advocates blowing up public monuments and gives recipes for Molotov cocktails in its “Food and Drink” section. Scott gives money to Republican candidates hoping to embarrass them by his connections with Bill Ayers.
Finally, Kurtz and all the other wingnuts screaming about this seem to have forgotten who Walter Annenberg, the guy who started this whole thing, was. To call him a fervent Republican and best buddies with Tricky Dick Nixon and St. Ronnie Reagan is an understatement. Actually, the most damning thing about Obama’s connection to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge is, well, Annenberg himself, but we aren’t going to hear that from Big Gay Stanley and friends.
I am 15 and live in a part of America that is very traditional. My problem that I’m writing to you about is I have thought for a long time that I am gay. My question is what is the right thing to do? I am going to be a junior in high school and last year things got pretty bad with other kids gossiping.
I have a couple good friends though and also have the internet LOL. You look like someone who can understand what it is like to have a secret like this and what to do. So what is your advice?
Signed, “Dr. Frank N. Furter from Transylvania” (hehe)
*Cf.
It’s a serious question.
While Bush obviously offered up his share of bullshit while campaigning in 2000 and 2004, he did have some actual policy positions (i.e., tax cuts for rich people and imperial wars of aggression) that he ran on.
St. BBQ’s campaign, on the other hand, mainly specializes in sneering, nasty attack ads. Other than comparing Obama to Paris Hilton, what does he have? Why would anyone want to vote for him?
Amy Alkon says she has outed some guy who posted a mean comment on her blog.
Somehow this has something to do with us. We gave this person his ‘marching orders’ or something.
My own view is that mockery is lots of lulz, etc. but stupid mockery like asking someone, ‘Are you a tranny?’ is, well, stupid. And offensive. And anti-lulz. I would personally but strongly advise not doing that kind of shit.
Gavin adds: I’m reading Alkon’s narrative, where she tracks the poor guy down, calls him at work, and bullies him on the phone, and I have truthfully never seen a more sobering example of batshit-crazy, out-of-all-proportion, obsessive-compulsive meanness.
I think if we take her side, even notionally, we lose a bit of our humanity. She was getting back at us through the guy she tracked down — and it would seem that she did it because the rush of campaign-waging that she so enjoys, the center-of-attention thrill of righteously waving her arms and yelling at someone, had started to fade, since we were no longer despicably assaulting her free speech by making fun of her on the Internet. That is, she needed to start it up again somehow. And voila, as so often happens, someone posted a brief, snarky comment on a blog post, giving her an excuse to go screamingly bonkers.
…Against the world, as it were, as represented by some particular person she can take on and ‘win’ against, through sheer force of attention span.
We told Alkon awhile ago that if she went this route, public opinion would be with the poor slob she ‘outed,’ and not with the public figure who went after him. This is the kind of thing that people notice, far outside the little world of political blogs.
Tintin adds: Welcome to the upside-down world of Amy Alkon. Posting a snarky comment on her site is an attempt to punish her for her free speech but, of course, tracking down the guy who made the comment and trying to get him fired isn’t an attempt to punish him for his free speech. And he’s punishing her by forcing her to take time away from writing her book to track him down at work, call his superiors and scream at him like a deranged homeless person, which, of course, takes only a fraction of the time it does to push the “delete comment” button.
I swear, every time you nip off to the store for a quart of milk, you come back to find that they’ve whooped up another one.
The Greek Temple thing has been wafting around the blogs for a little while, and it’s so far beyond the usual, day-to-day right-wing flapdoodle that it seems to have rendered John Hinderaker almost funny.* Now the GOP, apparently running low on ideas and messages or something, has taken it up as an actual complaint.
The ever-wise Jesse at Pandagon issues a plea:
Funkdaddy Supreme’s House O’ Speech
[...]
What is the proper method for such a presumptuous man as this to accept the nomination of his party? It’s obviously not in any way that a Republican would accept it, because the very acts of hubris that make a man like Obama a foppish dandy dippily doodling his way along to the Oval Office are tamed and converted into powerfully heterosexual normality by the sheer pulsating power of Reaganism. Shall Obama accept the nomination on an upscaled corner stoop, James Clyburn and Maxine Waters shuffling by with a curt, respectful head nod? Should the nomination of the first major party black candidate in America’s history happen in a gloriously reimagined welfare line, where a dolled-up John Kerry dressed as Uncle Sam hands him the welfare check of the $400,000 a year Presidential salary?
Please, you heartland patriots, design the Black Liberal’s Acceptance Speech. And don’t skimp on the Black Power salutes, either.
Above: The moment we’ve all been waiting for
* Oops, we spoke too soon — Hindy copied it from the zany jokesters in the McCain campaign. [Hanx! Doctorb]
Above: Motörhead – ‘It’s Obama’ (2:24)
Well, that’s that.
[...]
[...]
Doop-de-doop, watchin’ CNN.
[...]
…Oh, okay; let’s see what they’re saying over at Talk Left.
I keep thinking of that line from Star Wars
by Eleanor A on Wed Aug 27, 2008 at 05:05:42 PM ESTwhen the Senate votes for Palpatine: “So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.”
Speaking for me only.
That sharp, wet explosion you heard before was Larry Johnson’s spleen.
