Red meat speech. Already been covered elsewhere that it was written several days ago and had to be girlified to make it seem like it was her words. Palin is the ur-woman: Hockey mom for the northerners, soccer mom for the midwesterners, and taco mom for the Latino ladies.

D.A. is absolutely right, tho — she was good, and she’ll make McSame look like the cadaver that he is when he speaks tomorrow. And that’s not change we can believe in.

Thanks DA for the summation. I watched Huckabee and lost my resolve to subject myself to more in one sitting, and then I never got back to it.

I was hoping for a flop, but thats life. A good intro is one thing, I doubt she has the stanima to keep it up once the shortcomings of her vetting are made clear to all.

I can’t wait to see what Biden does. I’m not sure how to best play that one to the public, but I would love to see Biden dismantle her.

I didn’t come off with the feeling that she was very good. I realized that all she had to do was avoid setting herself on fire to get good reviews (gotta love those low expectations), but she seemed awfully… nasty, I guess. Not nasty in a ‘nasty politics — play the game — go get ’em!’ kind of way, but nasty in a ‘nyah-nyah-nyah — I’m cool and that guy has bugs in his hair!’ kind of way. If a candidate I was supporting came off that way, I would be embarrassed — for them and myself.

The best thing about this speech is that it removes the opportunity for her to play the “victim” card the McCain camp has been overplaying since the announcement. That will make her absolutely fair game for the hardest, toughest questioning Obama and Biden can throw at her.

No more suggesting that they’ll have to go soft on her “because she’s a woman”. She’s a right-wing conservative who’s flat out wrong in her politics and she can and will now be called on it.

Never underestimate soft narrative. Republicans learned long ago that voters want a product, not results. The Republican platform literally could be to sacrifice ever girl and boy under the age of 14, via wood chipper, to bring forth Ba’al and his innumerous hell demons to rape and pillage the land until all that remains of the once green Earth is the blackened and charred remains of what once was; if they sell it with the right, “Aw shucks, ma’am.” face, I guarantee they’d get at least 40% of the vote.

Much as we like to think and hope otherwise, people are stupid. Thinking is too hard; it’s much easier to just go with what the rest of your neighborhood herd is doing. And giving how the media loves to turn the whole thing into a middle school popularity contest, I wouldn’t bother day-dreaming about how far being right will get you.

Regardless of whether she was any good or not tonight, the perception in the MSM that she was completely removes the “victim” defence the McCain camp has been playing since the announcement. She’s no longer a poor little know-nothing from Alaska, she’s a far right winger who wants to force your daughters to have babies.

She came out as a politician with policy positions, and that makes her fair game in the eyes of the public. Obama and Biden can now go to town on her without people disapproving of their “roughness”.

She doesn’t know it yet, nor do the republicans at the convention, but she walked the campaign into a propeller tonight.

You can’t lie like that. And you can’t pitch the red meat to the 27 percenters without coming off as hating the 73 percenters.

WTF is wrong with you tonight? You get a slick orator and you gotta give them kudos, even though they are trying to ratfuck you and your progeny’s futures?

“To her credit, she delivered her speech assuredly and dynamically.”
“The McCain tribute was nicely done. He’s a genuine hero. ”

Could you please stop patting people on the back who don’t give a shit about you or what you hold dear? Jesus.

oh COME ON. No vetting and a cloud of scandals, and she’s still good news for the Repubs?

Fuck me. If I wanted “this is great news for McCain” I could go to one of the blowdried TV outlets.

This is the kind of handwringing bullshit… oh, fuck it. God dammit.

“Could you please stop patting people on the back who don’t give a shit about you or what you hold dear? Jesus.”

All the more reason why it’s so goddamn important NOT to pretend that they don’t know what they’re doing.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to swear off quarter bags of Organic Bubbleberry.

Yeah, if, as DA said she threw a bald face lie about the bridge to nowhere in her RNC speech, its over. With that in the bag, on top of everything else, just fuggedit.

I for one would love to hammer on the connections between her and Ted “series of tubes” Stevens. Bridge to nowhere and ‘not a truck’ are catchy phrases, and once properly connected with pork, graft, and lies in the public’s mind, they could have a lasting impact.

* the qualifier only because i didn’t see it myself, not to cast any doubt on DA’s telling of it.

Maybe after eight years of that drooling fucking chimp in the White House, all you have to do is form complete sentences to wow people?

Three things:

I have no idea what Joe Sixpack thinks of this speech, so I’m not gonna even try to parse it in those terms…call me an effete coastal liberal (LBC born and raised bee-yatches!), but whatever.

Second, Palin did what she had to do. And that was, read the Teleprompter without looking like she read it. You had five days to memorize this speech, congratulations, you pulled it off.

Finally, this speech was just plain mean. I’m sorry, at points it was cheap and disingenuous. Yeah, I’m biased. My brother in law, a McPOW-bot, basically justified it as “turnabout is fair play after Denver last week.” Me, I dunno, yeah there were some attacks on McCain then, but that I was a mayor! Osama was a “cuh-mee-YOO-nity organizer” wink wink was tacky. And the “Part the waters and save the planet?!” WTF, lady. You believe in Jesus, right? Go to hell.

I cannot comprehend how any pre-written speech takes this creationist jerk from “clouded by scandals and not vetted all” to “good news for the Repubs”. Are you trying to take away my ponies?

OK, I cannot get a real good independent vibe of how mean she is perceived to be. Are we progs being too sensitive or was she really mean?

Coz it makes zero sense for her to be mean. There are no votes there, plus it’s not her. I’ve seen videos of her in AK, she wins with cuteness and perkiness.

I was saying this morning that she would do great. We saw how well Mike Huckabee did this year, with practically no funding and no support from the GOP powers. Sarah Palin is a “Huckabee with a killer bod”. And the whole GOP is behind her. However, meanness is not the shtick.

I think Obama/Biden would be wise to just ignore her for awhile to see how she plays with voter sentiment. I wouldn’t get in a pissing match with her right now.

Concern troll… is concerned.

WTF is wrong with you tonight?

Dude, it’s about winning this thing. Sun Tzu and all that shit. Face up to the reality of what this Palin performance means, really means, not what we want it to mean. Only then can can we defeat it.

‘When your mind underestimates a foe’s Ur-moose-lady, so lady’s mousse your faux mates’ rest undermines.’ — The Phoenix

Seriously, did you hear her speech? It had the patent low-brow rowse the 29 %ers cheapshots, even the reference to the “Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot.”

These people are CHILDREN! And so are those they pander to.

‘Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.’

Um, yeah. About al-Kayeedah. I seem to remember the sheriff of this here town promising to bring in the bin-Laden Hole in the Wall gang “dead or alive.” That was, gosh, like seven years ago. Anyone know what happened to those guys? (I heard a rumor they’ve been knocking over banks in Bali, Madrid, London, and all over the Middle East.)

I just don’t understand why Dems are too polite to mention the fact that Bush-Cheney failed to even try to catch the real criminals actually responsible for 9/11.

never seemed nasty, much less Nixonian.

Wrong. It seemed nasty because the crowd wanted nasty, and the crowd wanted nasty because Rudy was very very nasty (9/11).

That was an hour which, in isolated primetime, stuffed to limit analysis, that projected a vision of America that I hope encapsulates a base 30% and little more.

If not, there’s nothing to be done about it.

I agree with the commenters. Knock it the fuck off. Okay, she can read off a teleprompter. But she yet again, Nixonlike, demonstrated her marked (and profound) capacity to tell a series of bald-faced, shit-assed lies with about batting an eyelash.

My God, even Dahlia Lithwick at Slate is oozing praise for this viper’s “ability” to stand and read a rehearsed speech. Oh, the authenticity. Her story. Her capacity to connect! Her, her… authenticity.

Fuck it. This is, at best, amateur performance art. All it shows is that McCain, flying blind, managed to pluck a perky, shallow pit-viper from his list of Rove-approved candidates after 3 full months of opportunity for vetting. The dramatic arc of this pathetic convention managed to spur some interest simply because the bar was set SO comically low for her. She likes to talk. She likes being on TeeVee. This was up her ally. Unlike Dan Quayle or even GeorgeW, she didn’t slur her words or lose her place. Pin a rose on her.

So, let’s keep our mind in the game, shall we? The Obama Campaign has put out a thorough rebuttal. (Mark Kleiman has it up at his blog.) She lied repeatedly and she will eventually have to answer questions with regard to her assertions. Let’s not forget that she is lawyered up on charges that are not going to get prettier as the media wears out a path to Wasilla, Anchorage, and Juneau.

There are so damned many potholes in her road to the November election. Or, to switch metaphors midstream–and pay due homage to our betters–these rats are simply not going to fuck themselves.

They overplayed the ‘community organizer’ slam.

I totally agree on this. I imagine there are some Republicans going “Hey, wait a minute!!”

plus the Convention’s “theme” is supposedly “SERVICE” – is she kicking that to the curb?

Her voice is fucking annoying, though. Really.

The people who were cheering her at that point are too dense to make such a nuanced connection.

Maybe I’m not being clear here, maybe my take on Palin is totally off, but I’m not handwringing. McCain’s speech has yet to play out, but I’m guessing Palin comes off as the absolute rock star on their ticket.

If so, that’s a great opportunity. Focus on Palin, render McCain impotent. Hit her back hammer-and-tongs, but make it about her — go after what they CLEARLY see as their strength and double-down on them. Fucking SAY it’s their strength, that she’s the only thing holding that pathetic ticket up. That is a winning strategy.

That’s an interesting idea. Saying that all the Republican ticket has is a small-town mayor.

The whole thing sounds like the Zell Miller speech from 2004. I knew better than to listen, because when I yell back at the TV it scares the cat.

It helped that the preceding speakers sucked in comparison, probably intentionally to make her look better as an orator. Rudy’s a fucking asshole to the bone, and that came through… Huckabee damned McCain with faint praise, then finished up with a bizarro Starship Troopers story about an Arkansas teacher who basically bullied her incoming students with the message that they wouldn’t be real citizens unless they went to war.

You underestimate the ability of Rudy 911 and Huckleberry Gantry to suck all on their own, with no need for additional instructions. But between the “real citizens kill furriners take orders” pair-bell and the eldest Palin kid’s immanent departure for Eye-Rack, looks like the paleolithic Rethug Base is not going to give up rah-rahing Commander Codpiece’s Big Greezy Overseas Adventures no matter what the remaining 70+ percent of the voting public thinks. And with Big Dick off the reservation, waving his cheney at Vlad-the-Putin, that’s gonna sell like a sack of tofuburgers at the Kansas State Fair.

Palin sounds — and looks — like the nasty little third-grader who makes the special ed kids cry by telling them there’s no Santa Claus. And when she gets called out for being mean, her thuggish Talibangelical parents try to get the teacher fired for “disrespecting Little Sarah’s deep religious convictions”. Her combination of sneaky passive-aggressive cruelty and whining self-pity is going to remind the sane people of such American comic archetypes as Dennis-the-Menace’s Margaret or SNL’s Emily Littella. Admittedly, there may not be enough sane Americans left to constitute a voting majority, but I don’t think Palin’s novelty value is going to last long enough to overcome another two months of watching the shambling, stinking corpse of Modern Rethuglicanism knock over the furniture and crap on the carpets.

I’m afraid the 73% disapproval and 27% approval just isn’t valid anymore. Clearly, McSame wants to get as far away from Bush as possible. I think that’s why they haven’t mentioned any of the Bush failures.
People are thinking about this race as a whole new slate. I agree with Some Guy that it doesn’t really matter if you’re right. Oh, well. “Idiocracy” is well on its way.

Get Rovian on it. Hit her on her strength.

Executive experience? how badly did she fuck up Wasilla?

Or, for that matter, your standard rant from Coulter/Malkin/Mike Adams/Doug Giles. Did she say that Democratic men were gay, Democratic women were ugly, Muslims smell funny and Michael Moore is fat?

I agree with DA. The media were drooling all over themselves after this speech, and that’s just how it is.

Fact is, she is somewhat charming, if you forget that they wrote that speech before she was even selected.

Also, she straight up lied about the “tax burden” thing too. Even factoring in the increases for the rich, it’s still a net tax decrease.

These fucking clowns.

and better – she’s so hot, she’s so good, that she makes McCain look like a drooling septugenarian beside her. she’s gonna plant some roofies in the old man’s oatmeal and embezzle the daily receipts.

For

‘community organizer’

Read – Uppity Nigger.

That was full-on dog whistle bullshit.

Other than that, I think she quite credibly read the teleprompter. She showed that she’s not just a joke to be taken lightly. Good. That means she can no longer whine about being a victim..

I think she’ll fool all the rubes, which may have been the whole idea in the first place. I can’t imagine she’ll grab too many new votes, though, and that’s what their campaign really needs.

Once her little honeymoon is over, and people start to really wonder wtf it means to nominate somebody who is actually under indictment for criminal behavior, I still think she’ll wind up being more of a liability than a plus.

Has that ever happened before? Seriously. Can anybody tell me with some degree of certitude whether anyone has ever been nominated for a major Party Pres or VP spot while under indictment? It fairly screams “Fuck you. We don’t give a shit about the law, and we’re not even going to try to hide it.” in a truly disturbing way.

Wow, those are indeed some low expectations there. At the same time, thanks for watching, cuz I sure couldn’t.

I do think the real target is McCain. Let Biden deal with Sarahcuda. The real message is that there’s no surprise that a scandal ridden presidential candidate picked a scandal ridden Vice Presidential candidate.

Her slamming of the press might not go over too well with them. Already Joe Klein has posted a piece that reads like something Eric Boehlert might have written. (On the other hand, the ever-pathetic Fineman has almost certainly renamed his favorite blowup doll “Sarah”.)

It’s pretty clear to me that for all the nods to “maverick” and “reformer”, they’re playing to their base and little of anyone else. I say get out of the way and let them walk right over that cliff.

Like it or not, she did what she is supposed to do. She’s a less whackable (in the mole sense) opponent because she’s a woman, a small-town, folksy, attack dog woman.

And yes, the standards are so low from the rethug point of view that making complete sentences and not fucking up more than 40% of your vocabulary make you a stellar speaker.

This is, as DA pointed out, mostly easily counterable as long as it is done with the style that Obama has established. And the lies need to be hammered. She doesn’t get a pass on the bridge to nowhere or the rest of her pork grabbing. You can’t have it both and this “small town gal” is working that angle hard. It’s one big opening.

To digress for just a moment, the lack of substance anywhere on the stage from anyone was staggering. Some of the speeches were just rethug talking point sort of cobbled together in some kind of alzheimersesque rant. Huckabee exemplified this and der rduy took another step further. This plays to the base because they’ve been subject to such strong Pavlonian conditioning. I do think the rest of the country is pretty fucking tired of this bullshit and may see through it. That said, there is a desire on the part of many to find one reason not to vote for the scary black man. Obama can beat this back and show it for the emptiness it is. We’ll see how he does it and how the media reports in the days coming up.

Obama will be here in my town tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be interested to see if his stump speech starts to address some of these issues.

Tomorrow, Obama or Biden on the stump:

So did you see Sarah Palin last night? She’s somthing else, isn’t she? Now, now, hang on … let me finish. Sarah Palin. Whewww! Where did she come from all of a sudden? Didn’t really know her at all until last night. But she really brought the house down over there at the Republican Convention, didn’t she? Just hopped on a bridge from Alaska and came out of nowhere … okay, okay. But seriously, folks, it looks like the Republicans have a real CELEBRITY on their hands! Alright. Alright. A real rock star. Tell you what … you think it’s too late for her and John McCain to switch places on the ballot? Palin-McCain. Palin-McCain. Fits right on a bumper sticker. I bet a lot of the delegates over at the Republican Convention would like to put that on their cars after that speech by their vice-presidential candidate. (goes into exposing lies, etc.)

Get Rovian on it. Hit her on her strength.

Executive experience? how badly did she fuck up Wasilla?

That’s it G. the conservatives here in Oz took an election in 2004 over Labou’rs Mark Latham with [thumbs through Australian political arcana]…here we go:

The Government also plans to use Parliament to undermine Latham’s credentials as a manager by delving further into his record when mayor of Liverpool Council from 1991 to 1994. The plan is to show that Latham’s spending projects at Liverpool were Whitlamesque in their scope and left the council with huge debts.
Liberal strategists believe that while Gough Whitlam is remembered fondly within Labor Party circles as a visionary who gave Australia a modern national identity and recognised the need for spending on the suburbs and tertiary education, he is remembered by voters – especially in Queensland – as profligate and a bad economic manager.

If he can’t run a council etc.

Maybe I’m not being clear here, maybe my take on Palin is totally off, but I’m not handwringing. McCain’s speech has yet to play out, but I’m guessing Palin comes off as the absolute rock star on their ticket.

If so, that’s a great opportunity. Focus on Palin, render McCain impotent. Hit her back hammer-and-tongs, but make it about her — go after what they CLEARLY see as their strength and double-down on them. Fucking SAY it’s their strength, that she’s the only thing holding that pathetic ticket up. That is a winning strategy????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??

It was maybe the most effective speech in the history of speeches that took place in St. Paul and began at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 and lasted until approximately 11:10 p.m. I’ve ever seen.

It had everything anyone who had never heard a campaign speech before and had no idea what to expect from a campaign speech might still expect:

information everyone was already familiar with about the candidate, more information everyone was familiar with about the candidate, an incredibly trivial fact or two about the candidate’s husband and/or family that everyone likely wasn’t familiar with, a number of common platitudes about the candidate’s running mate, people holding babies, a crowd primed to theatrically overdo their enthusiasm, familiar lines of attack against her opponent, no real policy statements foreign or domestic, other than vague and common promises, and a few “zingers,” generously sprinkled with half-truths and outright lies.

As Wolf Blitzer immediately noted “she hit it out of the ballpark!” And as some progressives worry (on HuffPo for instance), Palin’s single-handedly healed all the rifts in the GOP and reignited the culture wars. And it was truly a remarkable performance, as performances taking place on this exact day and time in the city of St. Paul go, in that the candidate didn’t cry “where’s my smellin’ salts” and flop to the floor in a heap, nor fart and burp into the microphone, nor speak in a guttural voice, rotate her head 360 degrees and spit pea soup on the crowds a la Linda Blair.

The woman is not to be underestimated, as she has proven she is fully capable of meeting most estimates of what most candidates typically do. It is absolutely clear that we need to worry about this for days and rethink out entire strategy.

One final thought on all this. I think the other thing that the dems have to do is get palin to out herself. She’s got more than a few whackaloon stances on issues and that needs to rammed home via questions to her. Give her the chance to contradict herself or tell the truth, either way she’s fucked because she’s not the mainstream of America by any means. Most “mom’s of five children” area secessionist fundies. That point needs to made over and over again. She’s failed her way to top in the one of the least populous and most corrupt states in the union. That’s not a record, those are closet skeletons.

Something else, and I think it came from Josh Marhsall, and it dovetails with the above. Whatever success is enjoying is mostly, and I mean almost completely, only playing to the base. It’s a losing strategy because the sheer numbers of it run against the rethugs. palin will mot likely help shore this base up but it doesn’t reach out and grab the middle. In fact, it plays away form this. This is Obama’s strength, love it or hate it.

This is a losing strategy because at best it’s going to buy them a 40% vote. If that’s their goal then as far as I am concerned, they can have it. I want the other 60%.

Before you get too concerned about how this is playing, you might want to check out the comment section over at CNN ….

Wow, those CNN comments seem too good to be true. I wonder.

Aristophanes….

I salute you. Somehow… telepathically, electronically… send those lines to the Obama campaign. I mean it. Yes. Yes. That is rhetorical brilliance!

PUT HER AT THE TOP OF THE TICKET! Let her dwarf McCain. Moreover, turn her into a “what-if”. Make those who are now somewhat charmed and sympathetic to her (as well as all of the Christianists) wistfully reflect on how much dead-weight there is with ill-tempered, unstable, and, yes, aging septuagenarian at the top of the ticket.

Then: 1) Carefully and strategically draw attention to her lack of knowledge of anything economic, international, or–for that matter–complex, and 2) Let the media and the internet continue to work its magic in teasing out the details of her corruption and hypocrisy as a corrupt politician in the “Breakaway-Republic-of-Alaska.”

This Republican convention has been a freak show, an utter embarrassment. McCain has just thrown away the independent vote. The wingnuts are about to see what happens when you let James Dobson take over your political party.

The Obama campaign is so much better organized and so much more disciplined than the McCain team it’s ridiculous. Community organizer, you bet your ass.

Did anyone else catch the buried lede about Biden mentioning pursuing criminals, not for vengeance, but to enforce the rule of law?

It was the juiciest red meat I’ve tasted in years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/biden-we-might-pursue-cri_n_123790.html

FUCK BUSH. IMPEACH THE CRIMINALS. IT IS TIME FOR BUSH TO LEARN THE MEANING OF STRESS POSITIONS.

If I may clarify, I refer specifically to the stress of the seated position. On a bench at Den Haag, Der Nederlanden. Manacles, that would just be icing on the cake.

I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I would endorse “enhanced interrogation”.

Would it be sporting to allow Bush a few hours to consider whether to repeal his executive “orders” on torture before his interrogation begins?

“Let us know what you decide, Mr. Bush. Have you seen Tiny’s new pair of forceps?”

I would like to remind everyone that Sarah Palin has promised to cooperate fully with the investigation, and has said that she’s confident she and her husband will prevail completely against all the charges.

Not only that, but her underage daughter plans to get married as soon as possible, and will carry the child to term no matter what the risk to her health or any other consequences.

She also no longer supports the “Bridge to Nowhere” and has decided that that term no longer insults her, in fact she now uses it herself, so you can just ignore what the people of Ketchican insist are broken promises there, they’re just whiners who want government money.

And finally she plans to learn as much as she can about all that foreign policy and you know, economic stuff, or like, whatever, as soon as she can, and she’ll have you know she’s a fast learner.

Oh, and John McCain is a POW.

I’m worried Bush’s governance debacle have robbed me of my ability to laugh about this stuff anymore. Maybe it’s me and I’m an asshole. But then, I’m Dick Cheney’s tiny blackened amygdala, so I’ll be frank.

This concern-trolly post had very little funny and was extremely long. What, are we liveblogging now? Make sure to tell me what beverage you are sipping as you watch.

I’ll put up with a lot of if it’s funny. This was like coming home and finding your dog dead on the porch.

Shorter me: TL;DR. LULZ: ZERO

D., I agree with everything you’ve said. I’ve said here before that Palin is dangerous, especially with the swine media now making her the focus and not Bush fuck-ups or McCain’s…dumbassedness.

Well, hell, they’re both dumbasses now that I think about it…

Palin may be one too, but it ain’t showing that much…yet!

IF she was trying to connect with the average voter (kind-of informed, but not totally up on every single scandal and what every pundit has to say about everything), I think she whiffed more than she connected. We watched it with a (lefty, of course) friend of ours who thinks he knows a lot about politics, but he didn’t even understand half of the insults. Like the Styrofoam Greek columns — do you really think that 80% of the population understood what in the hell that meant? Seriously — a lot of that was Inside Baseball kind of stuff. We got it, because we’re into that kind of shit; I think a lot of others might not have.

You DEMON-crats hate Palin because she wants Alaska to secede from the union…but that’s because you’re elitists. There’s nothing wrong with sedition as long as it’s being done by a Republican (silly LIE-brals). We, hear in The Heartland of The USA of America are completely at ease with our Russian-linked sister as being from the wilderness and abusing power in every way possible, she’s exactly like small town America, which we love! Your Biden will be helpless before her in the debates and will spend his time just like McCain did, looking repeatedly at her nether-regions (which small town America will NEVER vote for). So just surrender, DIM-O-crats, and beg President Cheney to shoot Iran in the face so you can go back to whining about your aragula espressos.

Sad. Being Independent means never having to curl up in the warmth and comfort of your own rectum and suck your thumb when things are turning up roses. I can’t stop smiling:

1. The London Times took a giant crap on Caribou Barbie last week when the thumb-sucking conspiraphobes were still wringing their hands over Who’s Hiding the Embryo. The National Enquirer has a big barrel of crap and a high-pressure hose, and orders of magnitude more trash to spew than that episode with John Edwards and his zipper. And this vicious, hateful harpy with a voice like quadrophonic feedback just disgraced herself and hit every last bullet point on the “caricature Republican xenocidal Jesus zombie” checklist while the statutory rapist of her child shared the stage with her and she read Zen koans off a TelePrompTer about how the Service that actually serves the public is not the true Service (and is actually ludicrous and absurd) — so twice the economic ignorance, twice the political ignorance, twice the foreign-policy bluster and twice the indifference to reality spells DOOM to Obama… how, exactly?

2. On one hand, Pakistan is real close to calling shenanigans on our little cross-border raids; today’s clusterfuck resulted in serious diplomatic embarrassment. Acts of war do tend to get the aggressor’s ambassador shouted at by the victimized country’s leadership; that’s to be expected. And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $300+ billion in paper that matures this month, and China holds $300+ billion in FM&FM, and they’ve already announced that WWIII can probably be avoided but a reorganization of international finance is overdue and, you know, can’t be avoided if they get screwed out of their worthless USD. Whatever is going on by the end of the month, Sarah Palin isn’t going to be able to Gidget her way out of it. Or Evil-Gidget her way out of it, for that matter. She’s W in a librarian outfit, and “more of the same” just peaked earlier tonight in a vulgar display that’s going to look awfully ill-considered by mid-morning.

Buck up, campers! What has to happen to convince you that the Pottery Barn Party not only isn’t going to win, but is busting their asses in a desperate attempt to lose?

I don’t understand the commenters who are giving D. a hard time for this post. Look folks, we’re from a certain segment of the public. Our segment is not the majority. The sooner we realize that, realize that in our bones, the better off we are. We can still win this, and win in the long term as well, but we have to understand the actual conditions that obtain here. D.’s mention of Sun Tzu is a good point, and it’s how I’ve been looking at this campaign.

You think Palin is fuckin’ crazy? Well, I think that Palin is fuckin’ crazy too. But there is not yet good evidence what the public in general thinks of Palin. We gotta know ourselves, know the 27%-ers, and know the rest of the public. The oppo research that’s been done already about Palin is good. Dirt on Palin is good. Dirt on McCain is better.

My point is that if we want to defeat the crazies, it’s better that we look at this coolly, and have a really wide-angle view, and lay plans, than to act all shocked that our whorish media and easily-led public could possibly like Palin’s nasty speech.

Probably nobody gives a shit, but I’ve been interested, when reading Sun Tzu lately, to note that he probably would have thought the whole neocon strategy was complete bullshit. Check these quotes:

No leader should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no leader should fight a battle simply out of pique. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. Hence the enlightened leader is heedful, and the good leader full of caution.

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor dampened, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue… In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Don’t attack out of anger, be cautious when starting a war, don’t destroy a country, and don’t have long wars. Yup, he would have though the neocon strategy was bullshit.

Hammurabi, the White, Potent, who penetrated the secret cave of the bandits, saved the inhabitants of Malka from misfortune, and fixed their home fast in wealth; who established pure sacrificial gifts for Ea and Dam-gal-nun-na, who made his kingdom everlastingly great, thinks speech was Ud-kib-nun-na.

You know, where master orders slave to fish corpse out of canal, but slave loses balance and falls in and covers self with … ah, nevermind, joke explained never funny.

Speaking of unfunny joke, Hammurabi think dog and maid-servant joke has been around since Nan-GIŠ-lišma who reigned 1,200 years, and he was Barsal-nuna, son of Enme-nuna. Besides, everyone know difference between maid-servant managing brood with sticks and dog is not ochre pigment on face of maid-servant, but 14 shekels and a date with executioner.

Hammurabi was joking about sexual abominations. Laugh, damn you, for it was I who clothed the gravestones of Malkat with green; who made E-babbar great!

(1) Palin is a new and dangerous force on the electorate, because she is the hard right populist Talibangelicals that those types have been waiting for. Whether or not it has the numbers to win for McCain, this is the closest thing the fundies have had to a straight line to the White House since they learned Bush Jr. wasn’t entirely handing the keys over. The Talibangelicals may find enough energy and people to make this election a lot weirder than it even has been.

(2) She has indeed appeared accomplish what McCain appeared unable to do — unite the hard right behind McCain with an enthusiasm that heretofore had not existed. As Rachel Maddow consistently points out on TV, it’s okay for the networks to obsess 24/7 over some angry ex-Hillary-now-McCain voter nutcase, but don’t ever, ever, ever cover the serious divisions within the Republican Party — which even Pat Buchanan notices once he applauds Palin for having brought the Party together.

(3) I am somewhat relieved, since the speech was over-reaching and just bitter enough to make it clear that at least the VP is not going to avoid publicly identifying with the far right. That’s something in the Democrats’ favor. Unfortunately, the major media have to keep playing the game that, somewhere, in John McCain’s awesome, vast, sainted soul, there is a Moderate Maverick who will make all their bi-partisan-but-we-really-mean-Republican fantasies come true.

(4) Operation “THE LAST 7.5 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN RULE IN WASHINGTON NEVER, EVER HAPPENED has completely unveiled itself in public, and even the NYT noticed how ridiculous it is for the Republicans to demand to be sent to Washington to clean up after all those, um, damned, um, Republicans… I think the Republicans opened a big ol’ can of vulnerabilities with this line of over-pushed nonsense.

(5) Democrats & liberals need to stop granting McCain the luxury of assuming that his choice of installing a far right evangelical nutbag already immersing herself in incompetence, personal power vendettas, and unaccountability into Dick Cheney’s “Fourth Branch” office is only for electoral purposes.

If John McCain wants to give that sort of unaccountable power to such a dangerous right wing nut, maybe it’s because John McCain wants such a person to exercise that unaccountable power in pursuit of the very agenda she has always pursued. That also happens to be a huge line of attack, because there are a whole lot of people opposed to putting a fundy nutbag who makes G.W. look moderate in the White House.

Anyone who at this stage wants to argue the VP position is just for funerals & ‘being there’ after 7.5 years of Dick Cheney, f*** you. And that includes you, John “S” (what happened to Sidney?) McCain.

(6) It’s up to Obama and the Democrats to recognize what strengths Palin has brought as well as the vulnerabilities, and make of them what they will. They have been perhaps assisted by a cheaper, meaner tone from Palin than might have served her best.

Marshall Ganz, the UFW’s chief organizer way back when, has been teaching organizing in and out of the Kennedy School of Government for years. He designed and in some instances himself taught the Camp Obama organizing workshops that the Obama campaign has given around the country since last year. Ganz says that in recent years, the two most dynamic groups, in terms of seeking out and taking his courses and then going out and applying what they learn, have been environmentalists and evangelical Christians.

It was a mistake to attack community organizers that way. Hopefully the Democrats will capitalize.

I didn’t watch the whole thing but I heard “Washington is too liberal!” and stuff that only a 27%er could love. So for the audience she was addressing, yep it was a good speech.

Get back to me in a week. When she’s done a few interviews. Or, which seems more likely, Camp McPOW declares every question about her experience “over the line,” and she stops speaking to anyone.

On Yahoo! right now: Top box Palin’s speech draws high praise from media. (Wait is that good? I thought the media was evile.)

Below:
Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
Palin never ordered Alaska NG to do anything

Hmmm.

Probably nobody gives a shit, but I’ve been interested, when reading Sun Tzu lately, to note that he probably would have thought the whole neocon strategy was complete bullshit. Check these quotes:

I’d place a large bet that Obama has The Art of War memorized, while your average ReThug wouldn’t touch it because it was written by some foreigner and Bush wouldn’t look at it because he can’t pronounce the name. I’ve been matching Obama’s actions against AoW for a while (yes I’m a geek) and it explains a lot:

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.

Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

Popcorn?

Palin/McCain’s Zombie Corpse/2012!

I can’t believe evangelicals want a woman’s inferior, illogical, pre-menopausal finger on the Red Phone or nuclear suitcase. Where are the quotes from evangelicals about how God says women can’t have authority over men?

The fact is, Harry Reid will be sorry he called her shrill. That is sexist.

I hope The Obama campaign is planning at least a week of negative ads. They’re writing themselves at this point.

I like how the rethugs are running against D.C. as usual.

I know their base is ignorant, but even some of those must know that the rethugs have been running the show for almost 8 years?

I don’t understand the commenters who are giving D. a hard time for this post.

Agreed, 100%. D. made some observations about her performance and how it plays to the Rethug base, etc. There was no handwringing — not to mention the fact that the post ends with “Obama’s still going to win, quite handily”. Yet if a post doesn’t come out the gate absolutely screaming “OBAMA RULZ!!!1 MCPOW PALIN TEH SUXXOR FOREVER!!!11!”, then said post is “concern-trolling” and “patting people on the back who don’t give a shit about you or what you hold dear”? Who’s doing the hadwringing here, D., or the fucking comment police?

Since seventwentyfour swore off quarter bags of Organic Bubbleberry, there’s some extra supply around. Have some, and chill the fuck out.

End of the day, sexism will out. It always does. No way the Bush backwash and knuckledraggers that compose the Rethug base are going to vote for a woman on the ticket. They just won’t. They’re all a-tingle from the l’il lady gettin’ all hot and bothered for the arena full of hatebags. Give it a week, ten days. Let things start seeping into their thick skulls a little bit. Bring on the debates.

Euphoria has a habit of disappearing quickly.

I’d place a large bet that Obama has The Art of War memorized, while your average ReThug wouldn’t touch it because it was written by some foreigner and Bush wouldn’t look at it because he can’t pronounce the name. I’ve been matching Obama’s actions against AoW for a while (yes I’m a geek) and it explains a lot:

Aow FTW!

Yes, it is a bit strange for Republicans to be decrying the evil liberal media one day, then to be proud of the media love the next day. Whether the people notice this or not remains to be seen.

If this van’s rocking…

MzNicky, I was wondering about that myself (I didn’t watch the speech, but I was wondering anyway) in regard to why a contingent that feels women should not lead men would be okay with having a woman vice president or president. I know everything’s fine with that crowd if you just rationalize it away, but it has to be giving some of them pause, especially the ones who feel women with children (which should be all of them) should not work, let alone take high executive offices in major countries.

I can’t believe evangelicals want a woman’s inferior, illogical, pre-menopausal finger on the Red Phone or nuclear suitcase. Where are the quotes from evangelicals about how God says women can’t have authority over men?

There is this explanation, maybe..

Thing is, it seems that Evangelicals are good at ignoring contradictions too.

I can’t believe evangelicals want a woman’s inferior, illogical, pre-menopausal finger on the Red Phone or nuclear suitcase. Where are the quotes from evangelicals about how God says women can’t have authority over men?

The average TalEvangical voter (male and female) will have to be 110% convinced that she’d be surrounded by right-thinking men folks who’ll tell her what to do. This means McPOW has to start surrounding himself with the loonies STAT.

Of course they can’t be too loony or they’ll scare off the indies and the possible Democrats.

But if they’re not loony enough the fundies won’t be happy.

OK, I have to shut up. I’m getting a visual of a wrinkly old man butt stuck in a cleft stick.

This means McPOW has to start surrounding himself with the loonies STAT.

McCain’s foreign policy team is 100% neocon already, d00d.

Dirty Old Man / Malibou Barbie 08!

DOh!

Meant Caribou Barbie, of course.

Gary, your Mama called. She wants her DNA back.

I don’t know that the evangeloids are capable of thinking this thing out clearly. Really, I don’t, because believing in rigid hierarchy AND magic is who they are. They can’t be happy with McSame’s pick, but they’re certainly not going to vote for Obama. If there are enough of them — and I’m not really convinced there are — to pressure McLame to drop Palin, despite whatever convention-inspired support there may now be for her in some Rethug quarters, then they may support him. As it is now, today, I bet they’re just real confused. Palin’s baggage — and let’s face it, as far as Rethug base is concerned, her whole family mess, just for starters, is baggage — may sink her yet.

I’ve been hoping for a while, and now Christmas is coming early.

Bush got away with it because he has a veneer of “good ol’ boy reformed by Jebus & a good woman” thing going, and hell, half the country knows someone like that, or wish they did.

But Palin is the real deal, the shrieking face of batshit, and that’s what the R’s are running on this year.

Let ’em.

Sarah Palin succeeded at charming the insane, religious fundie, right-wing conservative wackos like she is, but I think she also came across as creepy and unctuous al la Tracy Flick to anyone with a brain who believes evolution science is a fact, women should have the right to choose, and that religion has no place in secular government.

She was great political theater, no doubt about it, but her appeal was to people who were never going to vote for Obama anyhow, so the net effect was ZERO GAIN.

Obama should just ignore this insane woman and focus on beating McCain and McCain’s complete lack of any substantive ideas.

Remember how Clinton won? “It’s the economy, stupid.” Indeed.

I think that McCain and his right-wing bosses did the Dems a huge favor last night. Read more. http://www.tagg-lines.com/2008/09/thnaks-senator-mccain-you-just-made-our.html

As I recall, Mrs. Dan Quayle, a slightly creepy woman with a Sixties hairstyle, had a birth induced so she could take the Bar Exam. For a party that’s All About the Fetus, they’re a little cavalier with the nippers.

She delivered a competent speech in front of a room full of people who had already made up her mind that they loved her. It looked good on tv. She was also nasty and petty. She said fuck all of substance. She said nothing about her loony right wing views. Nothing.

Check that, her substantive points were largely lies: bridge to nowhere, raised taxes in Alaska, no earmarks. She reformed dick in Alaska, and the Obamas better nail her over and over and over and over. Every surrogate must mention the ethics investigation, Ted Stevens, Jack Abramoff, etc.

There is absolutely no need to talk about her daughter or her family – at all. The Obamas have PLENTY to hit her on, and none of it is going away.

Very easy tv spot: Palin, McCain, Bush, Abramoff -writes itself.

She came out swinging and described herself as a pitbull. To me that takes the gloves off of Biden in the debate. Does she think she has the market cornered on beating people up with a smile? Biden practically invented that tactic.

McMaverick will look like a skeleton tonight, and Palin will disappear to study up on the issues. Barack will be fine.

The comeback as I imagine it:

“When I graduated from college I chose to do community work instead of chasing down a high paying corporate job. It is the kind of work George Herbert Walker Bush once described as, “a thousand points of light.” And that’s how I saw it and still see it today. Apparently, Republicans today sneer and laugh at that sort of community work, sneer at helping people who are devastated by the loss of jobs and the instability of their neighborhoods…”

It is easily turned back on them.

[…] Palin Was Very GoodThe governor of Hawaii is a droner and an appallingly bad public speaker. Huckabee damned McCain with faint praise, then finished up with a bizarro Starship Troopers story about an Arkansas teacher who basically bullied her incoming … […]

The joke about the hockey mom and the pit bull: was Palin actually comparing herself to a breed of dog notorious for killing small children and babies?? As i noted in another blogsite nobody seems to have picked up on that in the news coverage; probably just as well, since it’d be perpetuating a stereotype about said dog, after all.

Well, there was a bit more going on there than has been mentioned (haven’t read every comment in the thread, so excuse me if someone made this point) – what they are trying to do is draw Obama into a pissing match with their VP candidate. Apparently they still don’t realize that he is not a stupid man and will not be drawn into that. But that was part of what was going on – it was a typically thoroughly juvenile GOP ratfuck technique – “hey, let’s send out this woman who was mayor of some po-dunk shithole to insult their nominee!!” Like I said, it’s not going to work to draw Obama into fussing with her – he’s going to stay focused on McLame and his lack of ideas. And for that matter, Biden shouldn’t get drawn in, either – he needs to hold his fire until the debate. In the meantime, surrogates (Hillary, are you listening?) need to go after this low-rent bitch and take her apart hammer and tongs. She’s given them plenty of ammo. And Biden shouldn’t show any restraint once the debate rolls around. This “stop picking on this wonderful mother” tactic they’ve been playing for the past 4 days – they killed their chances to continue that with having her give such a nasty speech.

Aside from that, her speech wasn’t meant to appeal to anyone but the 29 percenters. She didn’t offer up any reasons, policy or otherwise, why anyone but the hard-core nuts should support her and McCain. They will probably succeed in getting some of that base out to vote that wouldn’t have voted otherwise, but this year, that ain’t gonna be enough. Remember 2004 (when I don’t believe they won, either – I think Ohio was stolen) – Bush didn’t even break 50% with the fundie base massively energized. Even if they get every one of those fundies again this year, with this convention and this disastrous VP pick, they are going to lose as many or more of the swing voters that got it close enough for Bush to steal in 2004.

If you want to know why this convention is such a yawn, it’s because we’ve already seen this show before so many times. In 92…in 96…in 2000…in 2004…every GOP convention since 88 has been all about trying to focus the hatred of the base on the “enemy within”. Everyone but the hateful base has had enough of that shit, since they’ve learned the baggage it carries with it.

One last thought – seriously, I can’t believe they had the balls to claim that Obama would increase deficits. After the way these jackoffs have doubled the national debt in 8 years? Who the fuck do they think they’re kidding? The 29 percenters, sure – but those are the people you can fool all of the time.

It is easily turned back on them.

“…treat with contempt those who were compelled to volunteer to help the victims of our national tragedies: September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, the flood victims in Iowa….”

Jesus…the ad does write itself, doesn’t it?

I think they’re scared to death. The majority of what I heard last night (Whitman thru Palin) was “bad, bad Obama!” and “bad, bad liberals!” more than “Yay! McCain”. Not that I was keeping a careful score of it.

As a couple people said, “this will play to the convention center but won’t matter to the public.” No specifics on policies or plans, just badmouthing Democrats and feel good cheerleading and flag waving. And, I think the majority of likely voters are going to realize that McCain/Palin is an empty suit ticket.

If it were me, I’d super glue McCain to Bush and pound the “he thinks he deserves the Presidency – say what?” message. Then, paint Palin as a conniving, power hungry, corrupt Boss Hogg type politician who will do or say anything for personal gain.

I haven’t given up my optimism about Obama/Biden.

Jennifer said,

September 4, 2008 at 15:47

If you want to know why this convention is such a yawn, it’s because we’ve already seen this show before so many times. In 92…in 96…in 2000…in 2004…every GOP convention since 88 has been all about trying to focus the hatred of the base on the “enemy within”.

Another reason why the convention is such a yawn: Ron Paul is having a shadow convention and managed to draw several delegates and guests from the RNC. Of course the media is completely ignoring this because they’re still pushing the “Dems are divided between Hillary and Obama” and the “GOP is strongly united” memes.

You just wait until the debates. I’ll be wearing a short skirt. I’ll be holding an apple pie with my left hand and an AK-47 with my right. What’chu got, Joe Biden? You faggy Dem fag.

Sen. Obama campaigned all across America and earned 18 million votes.

Gov. Palin gave a well delivered speech.

-GSD

[…] 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized | ER is skittish. Others are just as […]

I thought she sucked, but I couldn’t stomach the whole thing and had to turn it off. I did hear the community organizer bit; I think anytime some bozo brings that up, we should remind them Obama was in the Illinois state senate for longer than Palin was mayor. He held state office for longer than she has, and national office as long as she has held state office. Plus, how does PTA membership provide vital local political experience but community organization doesn’t? How is one laudable and one laughable? Or are they just full of shit? Wait, don’t tell me, I think I can get this one…

The media need the campaign to be a horserace, as Bob Somerby has delineated. Therefore, the media reports will be that “Palin did a great job,” “Ron Paul who?” and after tonight, “McCain is a Hero,” hoping to bring the polling numbers closer to 50:50. But yesterday in the mail came the hardcopy version of the “McCain and Pain are anti-choice” ad and my wife, the former Republican, said, “I’m showing this to every woman I know.”

Women’s reporoductive rights.The war in Iraq.The economy. Civil liberties.

Democrats can own the majority of voters on every one of this critical issues. Get out there and talk to your neighbors! Be the counter to the media that the country needs.

And those CNN comments are fantastic, a window into the heart of America.

Do you think Caribou Barbie did this? She might be as skilled with a tat gun as she is with her Endangered Species Slaughtering Rifles.

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/levi-johnston-debuts-bristol-tattoo-on-ring-finger

People need to calm down. As I write this, it’s a little after 7AM local time the morning after her speech. This was her shining moment. It doesn’t get any better for her. That was prom night, folks.

> You don’t. But I’m very content right now.

Did you fill your Kleenex before, or after, her 207th hate-filled lie about Democrats?

Almost blue
Almost votin’ like we used to do

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

If Palin is as aggressive and protective as a pit bull, how come her daughter is knocked up?

I still think she will prove to be a miscalculation on McCain’s part.

Thus far she has delivered the two things she was picked to do: appeal to the fundie base and be an attractive campaigner. Those were thought to be the two biggest deficits of McCain’s candidacy.

Picking a gun-toting Christianist for the VP slot to shore up base support is a very typical GOP maneuver. That is, pander to the base in a meaningless way. Nobody (except the panderees) believes that McCain will actually let Palin direct policy once in office a la Cheney or Gore. She’ll be given fluffy assignments. At best she’ll be the figurehead of an energy commission.

Her second purpose is to be an appealing campaign face so that voters won’t have to deal with McCain’s dreadful presentation. McCain had seen film of her in action and I think this was the main reason he picked her. This is her main strength. She is a performer like Bush. The plan is to show an awful lot of her and less of Grandpa. Like Bush she will only appear at strictly controlled, scripted events. McCain hates that environment and sucks in it so its her job to be the front woman.

But that’s where the plan goes wrong. As much as she appeals to the GOP base she alienates those to the left of her. As her truly wacky religious and political views become known and her reformer mystique is debunked this will only increase. That may seem obvious but its important because McCain ca. 2000 could have appealed to a lot of centrist or even liberal voters like no other GOP candidate could. With Palin on the ticket he will not have that appeal and loses that potential advantage.

Second, despite their efforts last night, she simply invalidates the whole experience argument used against Obama.

Third, she seems to be a scandal machine. It could get bad enough that McCain has to hide her from the public thus removing her utility as eye candy. If it gets bad enough that he has to pull her from the ticket then McCain is toast no matter what he does. Will he be able to ride out the little storm of mini-scandals? Maybe, maybe not. The latest I heard is that the Enquirer is on her case. Usually, when that rag has your number you are in deep shit.

When they nominated her I sat and thought about it for days. She’s not some poison pawn manuever. She’s a fuck-up. They didn’t think about what they were doing. She doesn’t know that this isn’t Wassilla. She’s going to end public life before the end of this campaign.

She’s going to end public life before the end of this campaign.

Ed, see my comment above regarding prom night. What all the handwringers don’t seem to realize is that it’s all downhill from here. This ain’t like Obama’s big convention speech–he does that every day, just not always in front of eighty thousand people.

At some point she’ll have to have a press conference. And then there is the debate with Joe Biden. She’s in over her head.

what they are trying to do is draw Obama into a pissing match with their VP candidate

I suspect that as well. She can be dismantled — easily (and wouldn’t watching Hillary do that be amusing?) — as needed, but McCain is the one Obama is running against. This VP pick smells of distraction and misdirection while McCain attempts to circle the wagons.

Even certain Atlantic hack-y pundits are, in a rare moment of candor, saying that she’s not the real problem here. I disagree with the tactic of ignoring her when she’s outright lying, but calling her on it should always include a circle-back to McCain’s decision-making ability.

It’s the same old same old. The ugly, divisive politics aof 2004. they didn’t wear purple heart bandaids, but the tone was exactly the same – ugly and divisive. It’s sad that that’s all they have.

And the community organizer thing? they should just say it’s sad she’s so unfamiliar with needy communities she doesn’t value people who help those in need.

It’s the same old same old. The ugly, divisive politics aof 2004. they didn’t wear purple heart bandaids, but the tone was exactly the same – ugly and divisive. It’s sad that that’s all they have.

Hey if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I see the Palin gambit as primarily a GOTV effort. They need to rouse their base to keep this election from being a lop-sided loss for them, and to rescue some marginal congressional rethug candidates. She didn’t change any decided minds; her mission is to inject some adrenaline into the depressed and corrupt hearts of their dead-enders, and get some cash for sex.

eidos said,

September 4, 2008 at 16:41

I still think she will prove to be a miscalculation on McCain’s part.

Miscalculation? Hell, I don’t think he did *any* calculation. It would be like if someone asked him to do the determinate of a 6×6 matrix with three variables, and he immediately went up to the chalkboard, scribbled out “17”, and said “I’m done.”

It is the kind of work George Herbert Walker Bush once described as, “a thousand points of light.”

Heh, didn’t Nooners herself coin that phrase? The same woman who yesterday said the Palin pick was bullshit? And then made to grovel and apologize? (or so I have read).

There’s that other angle – Palin isn’t a Villager, so the knives may be out for her in the punditsphere. I’m not holding my breath for that, but it could happen.

i agree with the prom night comments. This woman can’t unite the fundies with the fiscal conservatives.

Alaska is the home of socialism in the US. They get big fat government checks every year like clockwork.

The state Palin was the governor of is the pork gobbler champ of the US. Just take that picture of her holding the “Nowhere, Alaska” shirt while running for governor and juxtapose it with her own line about “thanks, but no thanks”. And then hit her with the fact that even though the bridge was cancelled, not only did she keep the money, but still built the road that leads to the proposed bridge.

She is a wasteful spender of government money. There is nothing on her resume that even closely resembles fiscal conservatism.

Yeah, the whole reason for picking her was to GOTV of the base. If they didn’t pick her, it would’ve been Jindal or Huckabee, as the other candidates were more “moderate” (ie: they’re not foaming at the mouth dead-end Christian fundies).

But unfortunately for the GOP, the “base” has shrunk as older members have died off, some people woke up and smelled the bullshit, and the younger generation of Evangelicals are starting to shift their focus to that “other” part of Jesus’s message (y’know, help the poor, sick, etc.).

McCain’s foreign policy team is 100% neocon already, d00d.

Neo, theo and so-cons aren’t always the same critter. And at the end of the day the TalEvan is happy to see brown heathens bombed (provided they can watch from a safe distance), but they’re more concerned with [other people’s] social issues. Where’s the guy’s who’ll push prayer in school? Let’s hear some more about banning evolution or at least relegating it to “alternate theory,” status. Who will make sure CA, MA and those other states that pose a threat to marriage (NJ, VT NH?) get punished? And for God’s sake get some fire-breathing maniac to protect the children!

If McPOW had told the TalEvan to get stuffed I’d be worried because they would have fallen in line. Instead he decided to appease them (and screw the Evangelicals who are worried we’re trashing God’s creation), and expects the people who aren’t so ferverent to follow along.

It’s the same old same old. The ugly, divisive politics aof 2004. they didn’t wear purple heart bandaids, but the tone was exactly the same – ugly and divisive. It’s sad that that’s all they have.
I absolutely agree, “g”. And Rudi’s warmup speech and the crowd reaction to it was downright disturbing. But the old “divide and steal votes” strategy won’t this time. Their candidate is a bit too weak and the Dem candidate is a bit too strong for the election to be close enough to steal with electoral shenanigans.

Glenn makes my point more clearly than I can:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/04/gop/

[…] 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized | ER is skittish. Others are just as […]

And then hit her with the fact that even though the bridge was cancelled, not only did she keep the money, but still built the road that leads to the proposed bridge.

Really? I hadn’t seen that. Sets up the Dems for a great line–something like “She built the road to the Bridge to Nowhere–and she did it after she cancelled the bridge.”

Not quite right–need tea–but you get the idea.

And the community organizer thing? they should just say it’s sad she’s so unfamiliar with needy communities she doesn’t value people who help those in need.

All he needs to say is “I stepped in when government was unwilling to, and that’s the American way, to roll up your sleeves and do something.”

Period.

eidos,

I said essentially the same thing at my blog today.

I believe the Republicans think they can roll out the 1988 Lee Atwater game plan all over again, right up to Ayres/Horton comparison ads.

They will fail, epically.

By bump you mean dip then yes people are not happy with what she said long time McCain supports have been calling in C-SPAN and NPR all morning here in DC
OoOoOo Cans suck it was just a matter of time that the middle Cans heard the hollow ring of empty rhetoric. Hollow Cans get it? LOL

DivideAndConQueso said,

September 4, 2008 at 17:54

Glenn makes my point more clearly than I can:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/04/gop/

If Greenwald is right, then Obama has definitely won already. If the GOP’s tactic of degrading everything to person assaults while detracting from the issues, Obama did the opposite in his speech last week by praising McCain as a person, but bashing him on the issues. Dems in the past have either tried to play game (ie: sling mud back at them) or spent far too much time trying to defend their personal life, and both those strategies have obviously failed.

> And the community organizer thing? they should just say it’s sad she’s so unfamiliar with needy communities she doesn’t value people who help those in need.

A great ad would be to have a montage of MLK, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, & Mandela juxtaposed with audio of Moosejaw dropping hate bombs on community organizers.

Even better, pictures of volunteers cleaning up after Katrina cut with McBush grinning over a birthday cake.

The fact is, Obama is a nigra, and we here in the Alaskan Heartland love our country and don’t love no shuck-jivin’ nigra. Dems are fags. My family is awesome. Vote for me, or fuck you, you fucking liberal piece of shit loser. Aren’t I charming? Fart.

DA TROOF, despite being a major douche, is correct in the latter half of his statement: Olberman was working very hard to find something to attack Palin on, but it all would’ve been anticipated, however cogent. It would, therefore, be rendered moot at the point he attempted to inject his point of view. Don’t worry, though – Kieth’s got time to dismantle her speech.

Martin’s excellent point is lost on the many idiots (like DA TROOF) scoffing at actually organizing communities without government intervention. These are the same idiots that speak of “smaller government” and whatnot. Community organizers, despite the hype surrounding them, are the essence of living without relying on overt reliance on the government. That fact is now entered into the debate, and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to that, right?

The dummies also belittle Obama’s becoming a public servant for his COMMUNITY, but we’ll get to all that, too. Why’d J. Sidney become a public servant again? Oh, for ambition’s sake, which he admitted himself. Have fun trying to hide those comments from McCain’s mouth, TROOF.

Martin had a point within his so-called “rant, but it may be perceived that he’s just reacting to Palin’s good use of sarcasm. We’ve got time to correct Palin on the matter. She’s opened herself up to the public lesson in manners that I’m sure will be doled out by the “community organizer” himself. Wait for it, folks – it’ll be…spectacular.

If Greenwald is right, then Obama has definitely won already.

…wait… Glennzilla’s article seemed to me to say that “praising McCain as a person, but bashing him on the issues” was a loser for Democrats (or at least the way to maximize Republicans’ chances). It read a lot like Brad’s recent pants-poopin’-panics, if more restrained.

you know how you can tell her speech didnt work as well as the Thugs hoped it would? Bobo Brooks liked it, and said it exceeded his expectations. Res ipsa loquitor.

er, loquitur.

And the community organizer thing? they should just say it’s sad she’s so unfamiliar with needy communities she doesn’t value people who help those in need.

Period.

Exactly. Obama was advising people how to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Don’t republicans love that. And Obama was doing it without taxpayer funding.

This is an easy rebuttal.

How did Bridgeport get a minor league baseball team to transform slums into livable neighborhoods? Community leaders.

How did Baltimore revitalize its waterfront? Community leaders.

How did New York clean-up Harlem (holy shit, Rudy!)? Community leaders.

Community leaders are lobbyists for neighborhoods. They attract investment and business leaders.

Obama could have joined a law firm or become an investment banker. But instead he became a leader.

If Obama has a brain, this is a huge slam dunk.

A great ad would be to have a montage of MLK, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, & Mandela juxtaposed with audio of Moosejaw dropping hate bombs on community organizers.
The hypocrisy of whining about being demeaned as a small town mayor and then demeaning community organizers should get through to all but the most brain-dead party faithful. The ad you propose would be especially effective if it emphasizes that MLK and Mother Theresa were FAITH-BASED community organizers.

It is good to see my entire extended family today. We get to eat turkey on the taxpayer’s dime! (laughter)

There are pregnancy test kits on every girl’s chair. Please let me know how many more of you got pregnant this year. You will get a gift snowmobile, again courtesy of the taxpayer (more laughter).

Jennifer said,

September 4, 2008 at 15:47

Jennifer has the right of it.

I’d add that Hillary Clinton has got to be saying to herself, “This Palin thing will be America’s first woman president over my dead ass!” One thing McCain’s choice has done is give Hillary Clinton a major incentive to prevent a McCain/Palin victory. If she’d been – and I’m not saying she was, I’d like to think she has more party loyalty and genuine values than that, but even if she was – previously inclined to sit back and hope for a shot in 2012 against an even-lamer-than-Bush Republican incumbent, I’m sure that the idea of Palin as likely president has got to have changed all that.

I hope this motivates Hillary to get out there and whip her own base into a frenzy! Palin wants to send women’s rights back to the 1800s. For some reason, Republican women in the 27% camp don’t experience cognitive dissonance when a woman in a power position extolls “traditional” -i.e., a woman’s place is in the home, preferably barefoot and pregnant – values. Hillary supporters and sane Republican and Independent women do understand the hypocrisy of this, however, and if Hillary and others pound this home, it will help a lot. I for one intend to expound on how much Palin hates women every chance I get.

> DA TROOF, despite being a major douche,

Bingo! You’ve got his new name, for whenever we have to respond to his insanity:

Troof Douche

Major Douche: For some reason this made me think of Major Bedhead from the children’s show Big Comfy Couch.

Damn, I’ve been so caught up in the political whirl I haven’t been accomplishing much this week. I’ve got to get into Candy’s Really Real world and clean up some of my own (non-political) messes today. I’ll probably suffer withdrawals. You kids have fun!

this was good, but John Stewart ripped that convention apart. and had time to fry a Newt too.

[…] During Palin’s speech, I kept on thinking about Obama and Biden, and how generous they were in their praise of McCain the person — if not the candidate.  They attacked his positions — not him. Palin, on the other hand, went for the jugular. (For a really good parsing of her speech, click here.) […]

pictures of volunteers cleaning up after Katrina

With church groups prominent.

As others have said, this should be easy, just as it should be easy to tie the catch phrase personal responsibility to community action and—shocking!—organizing.

Forget the trailer park white trash bimbo. Every word out of her mouth was a lie including “and” and “the”. The real 800 pound gorilla in the corner of the convention hall was the Chimp whom nobody bothered to mention. From now on, it’s “Bush McCain”. Keep on tying them together and you can’t lose.

Another point:

The rightwing-controlled media and the pundits went all Viagra and sh*t over her speech.

She now has a new higher standard she has to live up to – which she won’t. So we need to point out every time she opens her mooseburger hole.

For some reason, Republican women in the 27% camp don’t experience cognitive dissonance when a woman in a power position extolls “traditional” -i.e., a woman’s place is in the home, preferably barefoot and pregnant – values.

I think that’s because they also instinctively understand that The Rules Are Different for aristocrats and plebes. Not that that whole conceptual framework shouldn’t cause some cognitive dissonance in them itself.

Damn Obama and his elite VP comin’ down to real Amurka with their “outside agitatin’ “.

The Truth Says:
September 4th, 2008 at 15:50

Ah, my poor, lovely liberals.

I’ve no snark for you today.

Nor I for you – if you really can’t comprehend that you just witnessed the 2008 equivalent of Michael Dukakis in a tank, you merit not my loathing, but my pity. Your team’s odds didn’t just go up, they went DOWN. The “Happy Shiny Soccer-Mom” mode they originally cast Palin in had at least some potential as political Teflon, but calling herself “a pitbull with lipstick” was political suicide, as was telling the media to bring it on. She’ll come to hate whoever wrote that for her by the time this is officially all over. I say “officially” because in real terms, this race ended way back when even BUSH had to admit the merits of Obama’s withdrawal plan for Iraq, as did McCain. Everything since then, including the conventions, is meaningless ritual.

By pandering to the 27%ers – who are more like 20% in reality – at the exact moment when the GOP needed desperately to broaden its base of support, Sarah Palin just put the GOP down like Old Yeller, & no amount of FOX News fluffing is going to make that reality go away.

Nearly every last talking-point or rhetorical zinger can be – & will be – proven to be uttter bullshit. Maybe on your home planet, bullshit is a vitamin. Here, people aren’t too enamoured of being served a plateload of it.

She lied. Lying about the Bridge To Nowhere. Lying about tax increases. Who knows what ELSE she lied about beyond that – but those lies – lies on national television – were fatal errors of judgement, & the paybacks won’t be gentle. All she needed to do was act cute & recite some boilerplate without any miscues. but no, she just HAD to slam community organizers, sneer at the idea of treating terrorists as human (she may as well have yelled “Up With Torture!”), & blow her entire previous image for the sake of revving up the faithful.

Usually political newcomers get to start their time in the big spotlight with a honeymoon-period. She had none. Do you honestly think that was part of some nefarious “liberal conspiracy” – or is it a barometer of just how titanic a fuckup her selection was?

No, I’m sorry – Sarah Palin did NOT “do well” at the RNC … she handed her opponents a basball bat. Unarmed. If you think that’s “doing well” you’re a hell of a lot tougher than I am – I’d rather make my opponent have to get that bat by pulling it out of their own bleeding ass.

I posted this link near the end of the previous thread, but I think it bears repeating … in fact, I think it’s pure gold for Obama … read it & weep, Trout.

read it & weep, Trout.

McCain opposes himself more than he opposes Bush. That’s Maverickiness™ you can believe in.

BooMan points out just how beautiful Palin’s speech really was — by elaborating on its theme of hatred.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/9/4/12340/17696

As a Jewish pal of mine in the Army once told me, “Oh, no, I *want* anti-semites to feel free to speak their minds. I want to be able to know just who my enemies are, and it’s easier when they identify themselves.”

And thus is it ever with the GOP, too.

Don’t panic, fellow elitists. What would the 2007 Red Sox do? Fight back. Palin took the gloves off and got some hooks in. She’s totally open for some serious shots now.

Nothing will smooth over Palin’s zinger like an angry black man frothing about his entitlements.

A revealing comment there. If the black community does nothing to improve their lives, it’s proof they’re lazy, and if they roll up their sleeves and do something, they’re angry and demanding. But if anyone points out the racism in that concept, they’re just silly liberals. It’s a bullshit kaleidoscope, reflecting and twisting endlessly!

I agree with you that she was good, and did her job well. I DON’T AGREE WITH YOU that she was never nasty…I felt her whole speech dripped with Rovian contempt for Obama and the other “elites”…very effective meat to the Republican base, but let’s see how this plays out in a setting other then reading lines to your party faithful.

I thought she was nasty as hell and lied repeatedly, but of course the reptilian brain of the normal citizen takes this stuff in and files it away as facts.

And she bashed and mocked the press, but of course, the sorry little simpletons that the VSPs are, they will lap up the punishment and pant for more.

And yes, you all have permission to use Bullshit Kaleidoscope as the name for your next band.

this race ended way back when even BUSH had to admit the merits of Obama’s withdrawal plan for Iraq, as did McCain.
I find it interesting how things worked out. In 2005 one could easily have predicted that leading to the ’08 election Bush and whoever was the GOP nominee would doggedly stay the course on the Iraq war (time table = surrender, etc.), the war would be a major campaign issue and then shortly before the election Bush would announce a surprise major troop withdrawal and/or withdrawal time table. This would take the wind out the sails of the Democrats’ main issue. That would have been a pretty standard political maneuver.

What actually happened was that McCain became so attached to the war that it became his only strength. He keeps braying about how the surge is working and it was all his idea and so on. But the perception of Iraq becoming more secure, with less news coverage, removes it as an urgent issue to the American public and removes McCain raison d’etre. (Don’t get me wrong, I know that Iraq is still a dangerous place). Bush’s withdrawal time table (i.e., good news about the war) actually hurts McCain’s candidacy contrary to conventional politics.

The primary issue has, of course, become the economy which is very bad for McCain.

…and Dhalgren, unfortunately Biden was on this morning, and danced delicately around the issue of her attacks, even though Matt Lauer gave him the perfect opening to do so…I thought he was WAY TOO NICE!

I hope the Dems don’t hold back on the serious attacks now that she’s revealed herself for the pit bull “with lipstick” she is, but I won’t hold my breath…

Dems go for serious discussions of policy, Repubs go for the attack lines that stick!

JNM: “And yes, you all have permission to use Bullshit Kaleidoscope as the name for your next band.”

Are you kidding? I’m selling the name to the GOP. It’s the perfect name for their 2012 convention!

That was an excellent and hopeully accurate analysis.

“The McCain tribute was nicely done. He’s a genuine hero. But it’s hard to escape the message that McCain’s greatness lies well in the past, not the future. That he should be honored for past deeds but that his second wind is trying to catch its second wind for what lies in the days ahead.”

You are talking about a man who enthusiastically participated in the terror bombing of Viet Nam, who managed to crash five planes, and is rumored to be the cause of the fire on his aircraft carrier that killed more than 150 people. Genuine hero? How about homicidal maniac with bigtime connections.

“You will get a gift snowmobile…”

FYI, in Alaska they really do refer to these (as Palin does) as “snow machines.”

HuffPo links to Jon Stewart showing Rove saying that Palin “was mayor of, I think what is the second largest city in Alaska.”

These people will say anything. ANYTHING. The lingering mystery is if the media will call them on it. Meanwhile, the Mob o’ Morons ™ that constitute the base will cheer it, repeat it, and wave signs about it. If Palin’s speech (and her selection) was meant to shore up that group, FSM-bless. McGramps has ’em.

Now: who else is there to talk to?

“Almost blue
Almost votin’ like we used to do”

http://www.electoral-vote.com

. . . There’s a girl here and she’s . . .

2004 called, it wants its fear-mongering back.

Beautiful! And oh yeah, it won’t be pretty with Biden coming at her at all. I can’t wait, actually.

Good analysis. Hitting that communuity organizer thing, linking it to church groups, would be really smart of the Obama campaign. Two can play that “denigrating you” game.

His narcissism was on full display last week, and has backfired in a major way.

Er… As noted above… http://electoral-vote.com/

As a Jewish pal of mine in the Army once told me, “Oh, no, I *want* anti-semites to feel free to speak their minds. I want to be able to know just who my enemies are, and it’s easier when they identify themselves.”

Amen. I’d much rather have the vermin out in the open than wonder what they’re up to in the woodwork.

The Guess said: “What does Michelle Obama do for a living?”

She’s an attorney, and unlike Sarah Palin’s husband, she doesn’t have a $100K-a-year, no-show do-nothing job from British Petroleum.

“Where will you turn all your hatred when McCain wins in November?”

When will you stop beating your wife and rimming your dog?

Troofie,

I’ll answer those questions, if you’ll answer this first:

1) How do you feel applauding an adultress and her family of hillbillies who can’t keep their peckers in their pockets?

JESUS WAS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

JESUS WAS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

I understand he was also a Capricorn and ate organic food.

And he wore Earth Shoes.

And he wore Earth Shoes.

Also a crazy foot fetishist.

“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

Where’s Michael Vick when you need him?

On the contrary. He believed in love and peace and never wore no shoes.

What? Too soon?

Where’s Michael Vick when you need him?

In prison, where he belongs.

[yawn]

New thread please.

Jesus could also see your house from here.

Ah, it’s always so sad to see a snarkaholic troll fall off the wagon, right on its pointy little head. That was one mighty short “day” … oh, I forgot : on Planet Dumbfuck, days are only 14 minutes long! How silly of me.

This is the beginning of the end for Obama. His narcissism was on full display last week, and has backfired in a major way.

EPIC BULLSHIT. See Righteous Bubba’s link @ 20:01 & compare the numbers to those of just a week ago – then go change your Fruit-Of-The-Looms. If it backfires much more, he’ll be debating Bob Barr while Wet-Start & Hockey-Mom watch it all on TeeVee, wondering what the fuck just happened. Twenty seats down in a week isn’t a blip – it’s a hemmhorage. Someone needs to tell the GOP to do a 180 – they’re carrying the ball straight into their own end-zone at a dead run. Beginning of the end, yes. For the Republicans. Say good-night, Gracie.

To answer your shite questions:

1) What was humanly possible – even a Jesus-Stalin tag-team couldn’t completely clean that rat’s-nest up, & everyone knows it. Fail.
2) Something useful to human beings – try it some time. More fail.
3) Our “hate” will continue to be aimed at the same pack of sociopaths & soul-challenged fucktards it was aimed at before the election.

I’m sure you had a point in there somewhere, but the reek of Stupid #5 overpowered it. See you in November, fool. Bring Kleenex. Lots of it.

‘cuz everybody needs someone that they can look down on!

(Isn’t that the chorus? It’s been about 35 years since I heard that song.)

Michelle Obama, deedily doodily sploot.

My micropenis grows smaller every day!

Oops, my spelling hemhorraged.
Typos are the Jews of Orthographic Fascism.

Two points:

ONE: Palin is said to have attacked “community organizers.” WRONG. Sarah READ a speech written by a McCain speechwriter that attacked “community organizers.” Sarah – wouldn’t know a “community organizer” if she ran over one at a snowmobile race.

TWO: Someone should remind Sarah Palin that Jesus was a “community organizer” and Pontius Pilot was a “governor.”

I’m sure you have a point somewhere. (Yawn) Mind getting to it?

Troofie, have you no answer for my question?

If not, shut up and go away! See? Really simple….

This troll is getting boring. Where’s that punk-hating Deadhead guy? He was fun.

Oh TROOFIE!

————————————
Robert M. said,

September 4, 2008 at 20:56

1) When Obama had power in Illinois, when did he do anything to reform that most corrupt of states?

Quoting the AP: THE FACTS: …In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

You get bonus points, though, for referring to Illinois as “that most corrupt of states” in a post discussing the governor of Alaska. (Cf. Stevens, Ted; Murkowski, Frank; VECO; BP; Exxon and Exxon Valdez; et al.)

2) What does Michelle Obama do for a living?

Off the top of my head: she’s a Harvard-educated lawyer who’s worked mostly for city government and community non-profits.

After a quick Google search: after working her way up from a blue-collar background to attend Princeton and Harvard Law, she’s held a number of positions–mostly in city government, community non-profits, and the University of Chicago. Since 2002, she’s been a vice-president at the U. of C. Hospitals.

Nice try, dipshit. Remind me again what Cindy McCain does for a living?

———————————-

BooMan Tribune said:

“Guiliani and Palin did me a favor tonight. They came right out and told us that they hate community organizers and the people that they serve. Good. Now I’ll have a much easier time making my arguments about that point in the future.”

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/9/4/12340/17696

And Guessie goes merrily along, cementing the image of Republicans-as-hateful in the minds of everyone here.

You’re not going to change any minds by trolling here, Dudley. Certainly not with the level of dishonesty and contempt you’re displaying.

I’m thinking they’re going to use that hair bubble of hers to hide the radio device that Bush used during the debates. Someone needs to scan the frequency and rebroadcast Chistopher Dodd’s “Letters From Nuremberg” audiobook back to her to replace Henry Kissinger’s earpiece coaching.

Ooh, look at that – it CAN reply after all.
At least, when it thinks it has a chance to score points, that is.

Jesus, Troutmeister, you got your stupid qustions answered. Answering your talking-points is evading them? You got more respect than you deserve & you STILL think you’ve made some kind of devastating blow. Must be nice to have an infinite capacity for kidding yourself like that. Didn’t get the answers you wanted? Boo fuckin’ hoo. Yeah, it IS “this easy” -when you totally ignore every last act of pwnage inflicted on you & pretend you’re some kind of brainiac, while making a complete grommet of yourself, ANYTHING is “this easy” … needs more Thorazine.

Didn’t click that link, did you?
Nobody can change their undies THAT fast.

Does affirmative action really frighten you that bad? Big bad equality makes you all ishy & incontinent? The solution is as close as your local travel-agency. Move to Iran – they don’t have affirmative-action policies there. Convert to Islam & you can be a Mullah, I think you’d be a natural for the job. You’ve already got that denial-of-reality thing down cold.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November …

Get Rovian on it. Hit her on her strength.

Executive experience? how badly did she fuck up Wasilla?

Traditional fundy values? As a mother, perhaps she should have worried less about smashing glass ceilings and more about keeping her her children from running wild.

Maybe Guessie will regale us with his explanation of how ‘masterful Palin speech and certain GOP victory’ translates into ‘300-point one-day drop in the Dow.’

I can’t wait.

Some of us who were hooting over the last-minute inclusion of the baby daddy are eating crow today.

Now every woman in America (and many men, including me) want to fuck Levi Johnston. Every teenage girl watching last night is eager to bear his child with or without benefit of a wedding ring. Watch for him to star in a Fox prime-time series come Fall ’09 (or as early as this Spring if the Repugs lose and he ditches Krystol Brimstone Lassie Bristol.)

This is not good.

Yes! We are DOOMED if Levi Johnston is on every TV in America for the next two months! Oh, I so hope the Republicans don’t do that.

SomeNYGuy: “fuck Levi Johnston”

Exaaaaaaaaactly.

Answering your talking-points is evading them?

Of course, just like asking a McDrone to give a single example of how Palin has performed as CiC of the ANG is demeaning.

Also, up is down, black is white, peace is war and God is hate.

I’m a little surprised that the GOPmeisters aren’t constantly repeating Levi’s stated ambition to become “a fucking redneck”. That’s some world-class vote-getting bumper sticker material (I’ll bet Biden wishes he’d said it).

This is all so “Twin Peaks” that I’m guessing the Log Lady will show up at my door this afternoon.

I’m getting a visual of a wrinkly old man butt stuck in a cleft stick.
Google Image is your friend!

Oh yeah! Like I’m going to click that.

I clicked it. Somebody get that poor lion some Scope.

1) When Obama had power in Illinois, when did he attempt to reform that most corrupt of states?

Please please please keep dissing Illinois and Chicago. Don’t forget to mention how disgustingly corrupt Chicago is.

Google Image is your friend!

Not any more, it’s not.
Tell Google Image I want my tee-shirt & my mix-tapes back!

Is this any better?

“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?

Pit bulls are in heat only every 6 to 7 months?

hello?

Google Image is your friend!

Holy Hemorrhoids, Batman!

Now here’s my thoughts about Palin’s speech…

Her delivery reminded me of that character in the Harry Potter books who made Harry scrawl, “I will not lie,” over and over again in his hand.

…and we all know who the liar turned out to be!

What sucks was the predictable gushings of the Wolf Blitzers and Charlie Gibsons that she is the greatest leader since Augustus.

What sucks was the predictable gushings of the Wolf Blitzers and Charlie Gibsons…

I’m sure they’re heartbroken that they won’t get to interview her.

Too funny. From today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

Home on the shooting range with Sarah
Chris Henning
September 5, 2008
HALF TRUTHS
THERE’S been far too much loose talk lately about Alaska’s gorgeous governor, Sarah Palin, and her wonderful family. In Sarah, John McCain has made an excellent choice for Veep. The limp-wristed, milquetoast left hate her, of course, because she’s a looker, because she’s anti-abortion; but above all they hate her strong values. None of your wafty, left-wing moral relativism for her: she’s got solid, Bible-based, conservative beliefs based on family, neighbourhood, country and muzzle velocity.

I met Sarah and her beautiful children, whose names will come to me in a minute, when I was in her lovely part of the world on a recent killing spree. Like Sarah and her delightful husband, Shed, I find the taking of animal life a pleasant form of relaxation.

What? Oh. Thank you. Someone has just passed me a note, listeners, saying Sarah’s and Shed’s gorgeous children are called Poke, Debris, Barge, Teepee and Cloaca. Now if memory serves, Debris is the daughter who is expecting, which is simply wonderful news. And of course she is getting married to the father, Trucker, who is a lucky young man at just 14. (Lucky to be alive actually, because Shed certainly has a temper on him.)
Oh wait. I have misspoken. Shed, apparently, is Sarah’s husband’s business partner with whom she … oh. No, I’m sure that’s not right. Anyway, it’s none of our business what they do in private. Sarah’s husband is called Moose.

What’s that? Another note, listeners. Apparently there was a minor error in the list of names I gave you a while back. Those are in fact Trucker’s siblings. Sarah’s children are called Fang, Box, Missile, Chewie and Dogger. Chewie is the pregnant one. She’s 15, but totally ready for motherhood. Her parents have shielded her from the world as any caring parents would – because if you tell them about you-know-what they’ll be at it like rabbits. Barge is the father of her children, according to this, not Trucker, who is the boyfriend of Missile, who I don’t think is pregnant yet, though she has turned 12 so you never know. Barge and Chewie will be getting married as soon as he gets parole, I am informed. And I was right about the husband. It’s not Moose. It’s Whosis. I misheard.

Talking of moose, have you ever tasted one? I have, and it is delicious. Try this recipe: shoot one 1.5 tonne moose. Cut out the fillet, and mince it finely. Mix with egg, bread crumbs, onion and things. Flatten and fry.

There you have one wonderful mooseburger. Nothing tastes better in the Alaskan morning air. There’s no waste, because you feed the rest of the carcass to your dog. You feel really close to nature living off the land this way. Where city living is full of complexity and doubt, on the chilly mountainside life is simple: one shot, one mooseburger. Doubt never enters your head.

I don’t know why everyone thinks Biden will beat her in the debates. Biden will blather, she’ll deliver tightly drafted jibes, and the press will say she won so long as she doesn’t get flustered.

As for reading a teleprompter, hey, Obama has a good speaking voice, but if you think he’s writing them himself, dream on. They just got caught doing what everyone does.

I think she’s dangerous because she energises the base. The question is how big it is. It seems to us, because we’re sane, that there just can’t be enough people this shit appeals to, but Bush got re-elected. I remind myself every time I read someone saying that there are only 40% of them. Bush got re-elected. And our candidate remains black. How many people will be looking for *any excuse*? How many lunatic PUMAs are there out there, furious at the sexism of Obama’s campaign and unconcerned about the reality of a Palin presidency?

They managed it really fucking well. Everyone’s been crowing about how bad their convention has been, but they managed her speech really well, and she did well. Nice post, DA. Eye on the ball innit.

LOL at SMH. I just can’t believe she called her kid Bristols.

I started laughing when I read “Shed” and haven’t stopped all through 2 days’ worth of comments.
And to the danger Sarah poses? I’m banking on Obama getting out the vote.

Outta left field i’z wonderin’ what percentage of Alaskan’s are African-American, and if Gov. Palin’s had much experience relatin’ with non-white folks up there in the Great White North?

Johnny.

According to the US Census 2006 update, 3.7%. The national average is about 13%.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/02000.html

Johnny.

According to the US Census 2006 update, 3.7%. The national average is about 13%.

Let’s see, Biden is on video describing himself as a Zionist. Nice to know, Joe.

Palin (it’s the year for 5 letter VP candidates names that rhyme, btw), on her first excursion out after nomination, goes to AIPAC and makes speech saying they (100 years Iraq war John and her) want to INCREASE the ties of Israel and America.

Exactly HOW “HARD” do you think these two chosen candidates will duel? They will, but only about crap unimportant to all except talking heads in D.C. msm. Another msm orchestrated propaganda session for the unthinkiing masses.

I GUARANTEE Israel will never be mentioned. Nor Palin’s Israeli flag in her office.