I have to admit -- if it proves true, it was well-played by McCain. Co-opt much of the Dems' perception of being progressive, and full of youthful vigor. And make a play for those disaffected Clinton supporters the media can't STFU about.
And given McCain's age (already advanced, but likely even more so given his POW stint), and the stresses of the office, it'e entirely possible that his VP would be moved to the Big Chair sooner rather than later. In which case, the Dems would have been completely outflanked as the forward-leaning party.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, of course.
Confirmed by ABC.
Aside from the brown hair, John certainly has a type, doesn't he?
I don't know a whole lot about her, other than the recent firing flap... a co-worker from Alaska here in the office blurted out, "she's drilling happy!"
Last year, the former beauty queen posed for a photo shoot in Vogue, and this spring she gave birth to her fifth child, who was found to have Down syndrome.
Aw, Kee-rist. More of these self-indulgent "I've-suffered-so-much, I-know-hard-times-like-you" speeches...
Smart choice, indeed. I personally find her smug, entitled, and irritating, but that's par for the course for many politicians. And it's hard to find many people in Alaska without ties to oil.
she sounds like a nazi...
How's that a good choice? She's under investigation for abuse of power, and has little experience. Well, perhaps she's a good choice for the wrong reasons I should say.
On September 11, 2007, the Palins' eighteen-year-old son Track, eldest of five, joined the Army. He now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome. She returned to the office three days after giving birth. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"
Ungh. I'm loathe the prospect of having to hear about this new saint for the next few months. Or years.
And what's with the names? Trig and track? Did she look through a course calendar instead of a baby name book?
Loathe to hear, obv. Which of the candidates promise us a previwe button?
She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.
Oh, she just gets better and better, doesn't she? 'I have gay friends.' 'I am responsive, but, you know, fuck you.'
Technically "Fuck You" *is* a response to concerns about discrimination. Just not a very constructive one.
In any event, being a mayor of a town of 9,000 and an 18-month governor of a State of 700,000 goes a long way to nullify the Obama-isn't-experienced argument. So there's that.
But then again, she'd be even more of a n00b in the Big Chair than Dubya was...
And she's a Creationist!
Ha ha ha! We're so fucked!
And make a play for those disaffected Clinton supporters the media can't STFU about.
Yeah, but what kind of dorkface would make this kind of leap? "I was supporting a pro-choice left-leaning woman who advocated universal health care, but now I support a right-leaning anti-choice VP candidate who doesn't seem to care much about health care -- because she's a woman! WOO!"
Note: I know there are many such dorkfaces; I'm just sad about them existing is all.
I saw this coming ever since it became apparent that Obama wasn't picking Clinton as VP. He's taking advantage of the disaffected feminists, but at what cost to his "Obama is inexperienced" message?
I hope Biden doesn't hold back on ripping her to shreds in the VP debate just because she's a woman.
Well, perhaps she's a good choice for the wrong reasons I should say.
Yes, SMT, that's what I meant. Not that I think she'd do a good job, but that I think she'll be appealing to the voter base they're going vor.
I know there are many such dorkfaces...
Dorkfaces easily misled by the fact she's a card-carrying Feminist.
How many voters will do even half the research monkeys here have done before going with a gut reaction? I fear a lot of women who are on the fence, who aren't really politically inclined and who don't bother to find the facts won't know she's a creationist, surely against abortion, etc.
Sadly, I find too many females of my acquaintance think that politics is boring and something not to bother with.
Alaska.. hmm - wasn't that owned by the russkies???.. hey she's a commie!!!
Wait - Palin.. Palin - Michael Palin? Monty Python? She's a Brit! Didn't they attack The US Ofay once?
And so it goes...
Listening to her speak live now, and she is not the least bit impressive.
Besides, I keep thinking that I'm watching Tina Fey do a bad impression...
McCain is taking a cue from Frank Zappa: Nobody ever lost an election by underestimating the intelligence or taste of the American people.
Damn straight.
So it looks like he's basically undermined the whole "experience" argument in favour of pandering to the disaffected Hillary supporters and Jesus freaks .. with a relative unknown from a state with a low population, who is under investigation for abuse of power.. and he's pissed off a lot of people in his own party again in doing so. Can't work out if this is a supremely dumb move or a clever strategic choice. Bit of both, I think.
well, she's no Dan Quayle... but she's no Geraldine Ferraro nor HRC, either... I think this is another example of McCain trying, but still not getting it. he's become a panderer, which is not uncommon in a politician of his age and aspirations....
Mitt Romney et al must be scratching their heads right now and wondering what in hell they have to do to get a break. This person may be a wonderful human being and all, but she brings nothing to the table except a vagina.
The death of the American president always is a factor, but in this election it looms larger than most: McCain is within spitting distance of the average mortality age, and Obama is a Secret Service nightmare. So you have to think: Palin or Biden? NOW who do you want answering the phone at 3AM?
It really turns the McCain "is s(he) ready to lead?" question on its ass.
Bit of both, I think.
Time will tell, but I think you're right. It sure worked in the short term, all but completely taking media focus off of Obama after delivering the most historic speech at all related to the cause of civil rights in 45 years. That takes some thinking.
The thinking appears to be that she's not nearly the most qualified or capable Republican woman for the ticket, but she's the most conservative and least feminist. I don't see that doing a thing to court moderate independents or actual Democrats, not to mention that it looks like the pandering that it is.
There's no way feminist Democrats will vote for her en masse, beyond maybe a small fringe. You say PUMA? I call them Republicans, swiftboaters, and bullshit artists. Again, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but I don't see this as a good long-term strategy for him.
Agreed. But remember, American voters are as flighty as brain damaged horses.
I can't help but think it's a brilliant choice. She plays very, very well to the Republican base, which was precisely McCain's weakness. And as we saw the last couple times around, it was the GOP's success in motivating the base which made the difference (I'm glossing over a few other things there, obv.).
That Palin may attract some other voters is just a bonus. Disaffected Hilary voters, perhaps, but more likely those voters who are very easily swayed -- and by nothing of substance. Given that the undecideds who are left are precisely those kinds of voters (as anyone who has been paying any kind of attention over the last eight years has made up their minds), Palin can easily draw some of those people over.
She's pretty. She young. She's new to us. She's a mother of a soldier in Iraq. She's a working mother. She's a mother of a disabled child. She could be your neighbour, some woman bringing her kids to soccer practice in the minvan. She's from the frontier -- tough, independent. She's as All-American as they get. The conservatives will see one of their own. Others will just see her as a bit old-fashioned, but there's nothing wrong with that...
As well, she can neutralize Obama's appeal for some -- co-opt his message of change, as history will be made either way you choose. And Biden-as-attack-dog has been neutralized as well, since he can't very well beat up on a soccer mom on national tv.
And to delve into my deepest cynicism, McCain isn't going to last the whole four years, and the GOP would have another of those neophyte puppets in the Big Chair that they love so much. And all the while looking so progressive and conservative-compassionate while doing it.
Brilliant pick, I'd say.
My first thought was that that domain was just put up, eeQ, but apparently it was from the 4th of August.
McCain's choice has also usurped all attention from Obama's speech last night. His post-convention bounce has been minimized, and the speech itself made to last one, maybe two news cycles, depending on when you went to bed. By picking an outsider, we're all desperate to find out who this woman is, rather than have someone whose positions we already know. "Oh, Romney. The dick with the hair. Enh."
And it was a hulluva speech last night. And McCain totally ran roughshod over it. He's much more skilled than people give him credit for. (Not necessarily monkey-people, just, you know, "people".)
DANG! I thought I was there first!
(That's what he said.)
I made a leap I shouldn't have earlier -- we don't know that she believes in Creationism, only that she supported it being taught in schools. Believing in Creationism and supporting its being taught are two different things.
Technically yes. Supporting its being taught means that you either believe in it or else you're pandering to your base in spite of your respect for science. Neither lends a candidate credibility, in my book.
She is the worst of Dan Quayle and Geraldine Ferraro rolled into one. A political lightweight with no experience campaigning on a high-profile and high-pressure national stage. She's Harriet Myers. The press (if they do their jobs) will rip her apart before Biden gets a chance to.
The Democrat pundits' talking point for the next several weeks should be to repeat the word "pandering" as often as possible.
If this doesn't blow up in McCain's face I'll lose my remaining faith in American voters.
I'm just saying we shouldn't assign beliefs to her that we don't know she has, is all.
So by that, you're saying that children should be molested with rubber chickens and that Stevie Wonder doesn't suck post-"I Just Called." Great work, Nazi.
who the hell names her kids Track, Trig Paxon Van, Piper, Bristol and Willow? is she raising children or Labradors?
I'm not sure she is a lightweight. A Governor is Governor, and it's never easy to gain the office*, no matter what the population is.
As for being a Harriet Myers, I guess I see Myers' situation differently, that Bush was so limited in his knowledge of the legal system that he picked the one lawyer he knew and trusted, likely over the advice of whoever, none of whom had the guts to stand up to the President and say "this is a bad idea." IMHO, YMMV...
*Assuming that she wasn't parachuted in or has some deep-rooted family connections, which I haven't heard anything about yet.
A Governor is Governor, and it's never easy to gain the office*, no matter what the population is.
Especially when that state is very male and very conservative. Let's not start with the congratulatory reach-arounds just yet.
As I understand it, she got the GOP nod for gubernatorial candidacy by easily running against a guy who was either indicted or under several investigations. She won the ensuing election because, hey, it's Alaska.
I can totally foresee the plan being, should the GOP win, for her immediately to resign and be replaced by another old wrinkly white guy, having done her job.
To me whole thing just smacks of the worst, most cynical political pandering. But in any event, I'm not quite ready to state that American voters are NOT that stupid. I've thought so before, and been proven wrong.
Admittedly, I know next-to-nothing about Alaskan politics, and I'm only learning as fast from Wikipedia as everybody else, but I still maintain that it's not easy for just anybody to become Governor. Sure, she was in the right place at the right time, but it takes a certain amount of craftiness to be that right person in the right place at the right time. You still have to create your own luck. As well, it looks as though she took on the party establishment in the process through her anti-corruption campaign, which couldn't have been easy, either.
Which isn't to defend her politics or whatever -- only that she shouldn't be underestimated simply by virtue of being the Governor of a small state. Clinton came from a small state. Howard Dean came from a small state. If all politics is local, a Governorship of a small state perhaps more local than most. Local politics, as well, is extremely difficult, just trying to keep everybody happy, and having nowhere to hide.
Blatantly stolen from Wonkette for some levity:
Well, I'm not in love with Obama, but I refuse to vote for a senile old bastard and a Vogue model.
Let's not discuss her position on various issues--It makes me tired to think of it.
I have felt all along that Obama will lose to McCain. I thought Clinton had a better chance, but that she would still lose.
The timing of this move is nothing less than brilliant. Obama's speech would have been the lead story in the news cycle for almost a week. This move stops that story dead in its tracks. McCain gives a nice congratulatory message to Obama in an ad to deflect accusations of trying to steal his thunder by announcing the choice today.
She has no Bush baggage. But most importantly, she is a woman who will make the ticket more appealing to people who would like to see a woman but are not too politically aware. If she takes a few percent of those Clinton women, it is well worth it. She will be handled very carefully. She will do fine in the debates because she will sound good and look good. That is what is most important. You think the Biden/Palin knowledge difference will be any different than the Gore/Bush difference? Not at all. But she will come across looking and sounding good. I would bet a large amount of money that the consensus is that she "wins" the debate because of the combination of low expectations and how good she will look and sound.
I have thought that the first black or female president would come from the right. The righties will vote for whoever hates abortions and loves guns. They won't lose voters because of gender or race. But the left can. There are women and blacks who would vote Republican just to get someone in office. Look at the Bush cabinet of Powell and Rice. Republicans would have had a meltdown if Clinton tried to put two black people in such positions. But the democrats can't complain because they fear being called racists. It's why Clarence Thomas is on the Supreme Court. A black Thomas equivelant would never have made it past Congress.
And she had a great line in her speech about how she couldn't possibly be wear she is today without Geraldine Ferraro and Hilary Clinton. She then quoted Clinton's recent speech and talked about how Clinton's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling were going to allow Palin to break through it. It was a nice speech.
She then quoted Clinton's recent speech and talked about how Clinton's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling were going to allow Palin to break through it.
That, my friends, is a humungous pile of steaming horse puckey! McCain would never have picked a male who had a CV like she has.
Hillary got where she did because of who she is and what she supports....not because she is female.
She then quoted Clinton's recent speech and talked about how Clinton's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling were going to allow Palin to break through it.
That, my friends, is a humungous pile of steaming horse puckey! McCain would never have picked a male who had a CV like she has.
Hillary got where she did because of who she is and what she supports....not because she is female.
A most impressive media coup, indeed. The networks didn't let up on Palin one bit today. Obama, who? However, the short term advantages might not be enough for the long haul. I'm not convinced that she'll come off so easily in the debates. That's the only chance that Obama/Biden has to quell this monster that McCain unleashed...
Speaking as someone who fits the ideal "disaffected Clinton supporter" demographic - female, feminist, and forty-something - my feeling is that McCain just handed Obama a magnificent gift. NO WAY would I ever for a second consider voting for this freak, and I can't imagine that very many other Clinton supporters would.
She's the exact opposite of everything we wanted in a candidate in regards to the issues, plus she's a power-mad, ruthless bitch who carries on about how she wouldn't have an abortion, but then rejects her maternity leave and goes back to work 3 days after her Down Syndrome baby is born. She's a member of the NRA. She names her children freaky things. Her husband refers to himself as the "First Dude." She's anti-choice. She fired someone for not firing someone she wanted fired because he dissed her sister, which makes her a loose cannon. She's incredibly distasteful as a human being, let alone as a candidate.
And c'mon...Republicans are what? Say it with me - conservative! That means they think women don't belong in office, they belong in the kitchen and the bedroom. And while she does pop out the babies with some regularity, she leaves her husband at home to take care of them. Do you really think your average Republican male is going to support that? McCain may have driven some of his base over into Obama's camp, actually.
Add to that the fact that she's got less experience than my local mayor. No, I think this means Obama's got nothing to worry about.
I have to say, to my very untutored imagination, one can't help being reminded of Harriet Miers.
I thought she was good in Mean Girls.
...one can't help being reminded of Harriet Miers.
I disagree. Miers' nomination was a result of extreme cronyism and being trapped in the Presidential bubble. Those do not apply here.
I maintain that Palin's appointment is an astute appeal to the party base. I guess we'll see whether that's the case once the poll numbers are out -- with any luck polls done after church tomorrow.
Oh, I just now on Saturday morning saw my first video clips about all this. When McCain introduced her, I swear my first thought was "Oh, geez, he so obviously wants to do her!"
Also, she has an incredibly annoying, whiney voice, and she said "I tell ya...". Not "you", but rather "ya". Isn't eight years of bad grammar/bad diction punishment enough for this country? Does anyone really want to spend another four years cringing every time she says "nuke-yew-ler"?
I mean, it's one thing to say "ya" in the real world, but when you're applying for the job of second in command of the USA, shouldn't you attempt some semblance of professionalism?
I love the Intarwebs!
Actually, I find it a plus that she can read Wikipedia. It's bound to give her more information on running things than "My Pet Goat" gave Bush.
Sorry, I can't see Her Highness and Mr. Ready-to-Kick-the-Bucket as anything but puppets don't what their told.
and she said "I tell ya...". Not "you", but rather "ya". Isn't eight years of bad grammar/bad diction punishment enough for this country? Does anyone really want to spend another four years cringing every time she says "nuke-yew-ler"?
But that means she's Just Folks Like Us! I tell ya, this is gonna get McCain the NASCAR Mom vote.
I disagree. Miers' nomination was a result of extreme cronyism and being trapped in the Presidential bubble. Those do not apply here.
Ah, no, that's not quite what I mean. There is a conspiracy theory that Miers was chosen to be a fake candidate for the Supreme Court and that, in some inscrutable way, her withdrawal 'softened' the way for Alito to be appointed in her place. To be perfectly honest, I've never been quite sure how this was supposed to work, but conspiracy theories are amusing.
Anyway, I just thought that this candidate reminded me of that conspiracy theory: somebody apparently under-qualified for the job being put forward only to be replaced by the 'real' candidate later.
Of course, this is completely irresponsible speculation, but what the heck: it's not like I get a vote, so why not have fun with it?
So let's pretend that Palin has not been brought into the race despite 'troopergate' but because of it. Let's say that the 'troopergate' allegations are just strong enough to disqualify her from the office, but do so without destroying her reputation. After all, she alleges that this guy tasered an 11 year old. Even if her pushing to have this guy fired was illegal, such a position could hardly fail to win public sympathy.
So, then, a short while before the election, Palin is forced to tearfully withdraw her candidacy in a way that makes her and her party actually look good. In the mean time, she has spent weeks and weeks absorbing the slings and arrows of Democratic attacks, deflecting criticism from both McCain and the 'real' VP candidate. At the last minute, that 'real' VP candidate selflessly steps in for the Good of the Party, somebody who, on the surface, is very impressive but who has deep-seated 'electability' problems that would otherwise have come out in the race. But, of course, now there isn't time to spend weeks linking a Rice to the Iraq War or a Giuliani to social liberalism, or what have you.
Obviously, there are lots of problems with this idea, and I disclaim any belief in it, but you've got to admit it would make a heck of a story.
Whoa, Dreads, exactly what I've been wondering. How'd you read my mind?
Or is my paranoia catching?
Anyway, I just thought that this candidate reminded me of that conspiracy theory: somebody apparently under-qualified for the job being put forward only to be replaced by the 'real' candidate later.
This is a very interesting theory, but it doesn't wash for me. Big problem being that I don't think there is a way for her to withdraw in the midst of scandal, even a minor ethics flap like this (not to beat a dead horse, but Mike Huckabee did this shit daily while he was governor down here, seemed like) that would make the GOP look good.
Look at it from this perspective: McCain totally undercut his own experience argument, gambling away his biggest talking point with this choice. Once that's off the table it's off the table, and if she resigns because of ethics problems, now Obama's got even more fire for his "judgment over experience" talking point. Sure, McCain's served his country faithfully for decades, but he doesn't even know how to properly vet a veep candidate -- he chose someone with nearly no governing and leadership experience who doesn't have the basic morality to keep from abusing her power, so what does that say about him?
Then someone not in the campaign says COUGHCOUGHWATERGATEIRANCONTRACOUGHCOUGHMOREOFTHESAME, and the seed is planted deeper. George Bush filled his administration with cold war relics who just don't get it? John McCain IS a cold war relic who just doesn't get it, and here's more proof.
I also don't see this ethics problem being big enough to make her withdraw, which as far as I know would be historically unprecedented and would bring piles of ugly ink and soundbites crashing down around McCain's ears. Again, not to grind the Huck axe, but it's a valid comparison and a lesson well learned from the primaries: if you're likable enough, you'll be amazed how much slack TV news will give you in this country.
Those are all good points, MCT. I would point out that the allegations don't have to be that serious at all, just serious enough to allow Palin to plausibly withdraw. A further point, you could raise, is that my scenario would require the Alaska ethics investigator person to be in on the conspiracy so that the ethics finding could be released at exactly the right moment.
But I don't want to pretend, for a moment, that this is anything other than a bit of fun.
Wait, I did that wrong... What I meant to say was:
That's what the Man wants you to think, dude! Wake up, sheeple!
>>The press (if they do their jobs)
Muahahahahahaha! You a funny fella!
McCain & his camp aren't smart enough to come up with that stealth-candidate idea. Neither was Bush: he really did want Meiers in there because he's a fucking moron and she was one of his groupies. He had no conception that she would be knocked back; he was entrenched in arrogance and conceit at that point, as usual. His petulant pout during the withdrawal press conference said it all.
McCain has selected this woman because he's desperate, far more desperate than anyone is letting on: he is basically tied or limping in valuable swing states & too close for comfort in states that the Rethugs traditionally walk away with. The electorate are also of course sick of Chimpy McAwol & all that are tainted with his stench. So, as is McCain's wont, he is making a big gamble. He has a history of such gambles, from what I can see, and in RL he also has a full-on gambling addiction (craps) so this just plays into that character flaw.
I'm pretty sure this will blow up in his face, because he's basically a chump & apparently is out to lunch given his decisions recently. He has demonstrated some fairly decent stupidity so I'm thinking that this is an epic fail job. The big wild card here is the American public, who have also demonstrated some fairly decent stupidity and the tendency to elect utterly incompetent fucktards.
I'm basically going into this, at this point, thinking Obama will not win, if only because I don't want to be disappointed. Plus, it would be an unbelievable sign of good judgement on the part of the American electorate, such as I have never seen in my lifetime.
*...unbelievable sign of good judgement on the part of the American electorate if Obama wins, I should say (of course)
McCain & his camp aren't smart enough to come up with that stealth-candidate idea.
[petulant]McCain is smarter than I am, and I thought of the stealth-candidate idea.[/petulant]
I think a stealth-candidate idea runs the risk of creating another Eagleton situation -- the nominee is critically wounded by what is seen to be a poor decision.
I'm convinced that she's the real deal. What's for her party not to like?
More baby news.
seems like it must be tabloid crap, but if not -- oh, my...
In reference to the rumours that RTD brings to the table, let me say something rather unfashionable:
Despite the fact that, in our age, politicians are obliged to parade their families before the media like prize cattle, I personally think that (barring outright criminality, stark hypocrisy or medical inability to work, and possibly one or two other things I haven't thought of) the private lives of politicians should be beyond notice. I simply don't hold to the notion that the conduct of one's family affairs has some kind of one-to-one relationship with one's ability to administer a country.
Or to put it another way, Churchill was a drunkard and Roosevelt was an adulterer. Hitler, on the other hand, was a clean-living vegetarian who never looked at another woman after he met Eva Braun.
I think we should take no notice of these rumours and, in fact, discourage their investigation.
Now that I've had a chance to digest this for a couple of days, I think McCain has made a fundamental and critical error.
Up until now, he's been playing to experience and preparedness to be commander in chief. His strategy has been to paint himself as POTUS-worthy, and his opponent as inexperienced, unprepared and a huge risk to be placed in the most powerful position in the world. And it was working. That strategy was the main reason he pulled to a virtual tie with Obama in national polls. If he stayed on game, he would win the election by making voters doubt Obama's readiness as they stood in the voting booths.
By picking Palin as VP candidate, not only did he utterly abandon his winning strategy, he signaled that his new strategy is to take on the Democrats at their game: Change. The GOP talking heads are playing up Palin as a reformer, as an agent of change to clean up the corruptness of Washington. 'Change' is the Democrats' home field. This is by far their number one strength. For McCain to bring the game to them like this is nothing less than a gift.
Here's my take: don't you think Sarah Palin is, like, TOTALLY HOT???
It's like she's a hot little sexcicle slowly dripping booty juice onto my political taste buds as she melts under my adoring love-gaze. Basically what I'm saying here is that she's FREAKY-SASSY-SEXXY-FINE.
In that context, I don't see why McCain-Palin don't run a new series of hard hitting political ads featuring them both pole-dancing to the REAL ISSUES.
Imagine this tasty little policy foxette looking into the camera with those deep brown peepers and singing - as if to Obama himself - "Dontcha wish your VP was hot like me? Dontcha wish your VP was a freak like me? Dontcha?" Ooooh yeah.
Course, those of you who ogle guys will wanna see John Bon McCain with his shirt off, rockin' out stadium style: "Goin' down - in a Blaze of Glory! Lord I never drew first but I drew first blood, I'm no-one's son - call me young gun!" DAMN, that's even got ME perspiring!
Meanwhile Bert and Ernie, a.k.a. the Democrat ticket, will be singing about how much they still miss Mr. Hooper or whatever. Memo to Donkeytown: you gotta sexxx it up a notch, yo.
Memo to Donkeytown
Best thing Dostoyevsky ever wrote.
But did Churchill preach teetotalism from his political platform?
But did Churchill preach teetotalism from his political platform?
No, quite the opposite. But that's kind of the point. This kind of dirt sticks because covering up the pregnancy of your teenage daughter is exactly the kind of thing everybody expects a deeply conservative person to do.
We should, of course, assume that these rumours are not true, if only for the sake of her poor daughter. But, even if they were proved beyond a shadow of a doubt then, well, show me the speech where Palin condemns people with screwed up home lives caused by conservatively tinged emotional cruelty and mutual self-sacrifice in the service of arbitrary propriety, and I will gladly eat my words.
"This kind of dirt sticks because covering up the pregnancy of your teenage daughter is exactly the kind of thing everybody expects a deeply conservative person to do."
I don't know who "everyone" is, but I would consider such a cover up to be an indicator of the nature of the person's basic values, and wouldn't want that person to be in line to be the president of the United States.
Maybe I'm being picky.
In any case, I don't think the rumours could be true, too many people would have to be in on the cover up. But they make for good reading on a Monkeyfilter weekend.
I also happen to live in the real world, not the hypothetical, fantasy, wouldn't-it-be-great-if-we-all-had-pandas world that would never impeach Bill Clinton for getting a few blowjobs.
I also happen to live in the real world
said Ralph, the talking dog.
I would consider such a cover up to be an indicator of the nature of the person's basic values, and wouldn't want that person to be in line to be the president of the United States.
I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this. Fraught and terrible as it is I would not consider such a thing to be indicative of high-level leadership ability precisely because we live in a...
world that would ... impeach Bill Clinton for getting a few blowjobs
I thought that was a bad thing and that it shouldn't have happened.
Also, it would be great if we all had pandas. I'm going to call mine May-Leigh.
LOL she praised Hillary at a Republican rally and they booed her.
Fuckin' hilarious.
Great choice, McCain!
I personally think that (barring outright criminality, stark hypocrisy or medical inability to work, and possibly one or two other things I haven't thought of) the private lives of politicians should be beyond notice. I simply don't hold to the notion that the conduct of one's family affairs has some kind of one-to-one relationship with one's ability to administer a country.
Dreads, that's the whole point. It's stark hypocrisy to make people live by one set of rules while these politicians violate them freely. These guys that are pro-life and screw anything in skirts--you don't think that their girlfriends use birth control and take "care of the problem" for them? For all the screwin' goin' on, you don't see that many of their by-blows runnin' around, so something's being taken care of. Their stance is is anti-gay rights, and "wide" in a public restroom. They do a little pot or coke when they're young, and now are warriors in the war on drugs. They duck out of the military, send other people's boys to war. They drive drunk, buy or pressure their way out of tickets/jail. We've got one asshole here in Idaho that was working with the coalition for women and childrens' abuse who was arrested for beating his wife and kids. His explanation--his daddy (also in politics) had a "heavy hand" and it made him the abusive man he is today. Why would anyone want to elect a politician that misuses their position of power to influence illegal hiring and firing?
People screw up. Families aren't perfect. But being a hypocritical lying asshole is preventable. The prevailing attitude is: If I get caught, spin and lie, never admit it, and don't apologize to the public. So, not just assholes, but liars.
I believe the public needs to know what's going on. Someone's lack of ethics in their private life will carry into their political life.
These are old figures, but I doubt anything has changed. These are matters of public record.
(Numbers from 1999)
* 29 members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse.
* 7 have been arrested for fraud.
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks.
* 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses.
* 3 have been arrested for assault.
* 71 have credit reports so bad they can't qualify for a credit card.
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges.
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting.
* 21 are current defendants in lawsuits.
* And in 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving, but released after they claimed Congressional immunity.
We have criminals in congress that wouldn't be able to get a job in private sector business.
Maybe Palin will fit right in.
I agree with these posters from the link posted above:
And as for Palin: her policies would ensure that thousands of teenagers who don't have powerful parents would have no choice at all. Her saving her daughter from having her life "ruined" doesn't excuse her of that.
The lives she could ruin are too important.
--------
It would not just be a case of saving her daughter's reputation, but also (and possibly foremost) one of cold calculation to save her own political career by keeping it free from the taint of hypocrisy and scandal.
I don't give a rat's butt whether this kid is hers, her daughter's, or the product of alien insemination on a neighbor, but I do care if she's lying.
Palin is not a class act. Watch the video if you think the woman has any shred grace, charm, and diplomacy. Not.
Loved the quote:
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain
This was a perfect choice that McCain's handlers made for the post of VP. She didn't have an abortion, she knows that oil is only 6000 years old so more is being made, she has foreign policy experience since Alaska is close to Russia and I've heard she can pick out Iraq on a world map.
The only slight lack in her experience is that she was never a POW. But McCain has that covered.
I can see the campaign ads:
Was a POW! Didn't have an abortion.
I'm too busy to read this thread, but i think McCain French Fries are not very good so if they hire a new VP of creationism, that is great because they need more flavors.
LOL she praised Hillary at a Republican rally and they booed her.
Fuckin' hilarious.
Great choice, McCain!
Seeing the video, it looks to me like they booed Hillary. Do you see it differently?
Seeing what you want to see isn't living in the real world.
She was praising Hillary, was she not? Using her as a positive example of a role model. Then they booed. So either way, that aint good.
I mean, booing is not good, right? They're not exactly agreeing with what she has to say.
She was praising Hillary, was she not? Using her as a positive example of a role model. Then they booed. So either way, that aint good.
I mean, booing is not good, right? They're not exactly agreeing with what she has to say.
I thought by your previous post that you were implying that Palin was being booed. Being booed when she brought up Hillary and that the booing was aimed at Palin herself.
It seems to me, from the video, that the booing was aimed at Hillary, at the mention of Hillary.
That is not quite the same thing as the implication of your original post, which is that Palin was being booed.
Your view may be different, but I hope that your view of reality isn't colored by your view of how you wish it to be.
Of course, I may be wrong and you indeed have a view af reality in which your current take has little or no relation to past implications from past posts.
We all have the option to dance and and doo-bop, two-step and twirle, slither and slide. But all in all, it strikes me that you're channeling quid and are being, if I can spell the word, disingenous.
I think she was being booed for bringing up a figure hugely unpopular with the GOP voters in a positive light, which whatever way you slice it, is indicative of a bit of a cock up. Generally speaking, if you give a speech and people boo, that's not good. I mean, if she was demonizing Clinton and they booed in sympathy (!) then that's one thing, but she's using Hillary as a positive role model, and the crowd don't like it.
Whichever way you want to spin it, it's foot in mouth. I think we're in Dan Quayle country.
Palin as veep has a reimagined Battlestar Galactica feel to it.
You know, I had that thought too.
I think we're in Dan Quayle country.
Actually, I've been to Dan Quayle country (it's in Indiana), but the museum was closed. Still, getting my picture taken on the front steps was a highlight of my week-long trip across the barren Midwest during Thanksgiving week that year.
Another highlight of the trip was a fried chicken restaurant in Ft. Wayne which had, on it's signboard out front, the festive holiday message "Give the Gift of Chicken!" It's a dictum I've tried to follow at every holiday season since.
Oh, the looks of joy on friends' faces when they first set eyes on the contents of the lovingly wrapped cardboard bucket that's been sitting under the tree for a week or so!
The restaurant inside the Quayle attration no doubt had a sign reading, "Give the Gift of Chikkin."
Palin seemed to be the target of the boos. Staunch Republican female co-worker was booing along... she made it clear that Palin was the target of her boos, and will continue to be. That is all.
"Families have difficulties sometimes, and lucky for her she has a supportive family."
Exactly. And screw all the girls who aren't lucky. At least they're (probably unintentionally) regognizing that luck does play a part in who has a good life and who doesn't.
>>After all the blunders and unorthodox choices, there's an odd feeling of the Republicans flaunting 'No matter what, we'll win'.
And the mindblowing thing is, they well might.
>>Obama Tells Press to "Back Off" on Palin
Not his call to make.
"Families have difficulties sometimes, and lucky for her she has a supportive family."
Exactly. And screw all the girls who aren't lucky. At least they're (probably unintentionally) regognizing that luck does play a part in who has a good life and who doesn't.
I'm not even sure that Bristol is lucky. She's 17 and it looks like she's being railroaded into a marriage because she's pregnant and because of her mother's political ambitions. I know early marriages can be successful, but they can also be very bad for all concerned.
I'm sure all our British friends are getting a good giggle over the fact that her name is "Bristol." Or is that not slang for breast anymore?
It is. More commonly Bristols (from Bristol City).
However, to the matter in hand (fnaar)...
This woman's head is too big for her body. I declare her unsuitable for the VP job.
NEXT!!!
Yeah, but it would probably only be funny if she had big boobs.
I still think it was a brilliant play. The political dialogue has been completely shifted to family values and abortion, in spite of the history-making we saw last week. No need for awkward discussions of policy or record, but just a focus on party pet-issues by placing a sympathetic mother in the spotlight.
The religious right gets to talk about family and abortion, with all that entails -- like Supreme Court picks. Any attempt to criticize the girl, her mother, or McCain on this situation will only motivate that base more strongly, by encouraging their persecution complex. As for Trooper-gate -- if Palin did anything wrong, it was only by standing up for her family, and protecting children -- and who could have a problem with that? Just out-of-touch liberals and their coddling media...
I suspect that McCain himself didn't have much to do with this decision at all, that it came from the party elite. Of course, I've nothing to back that up, but given his shift on policy over the last while, I see someone who is so guided by a lust for power out of a need for redemption or validation or some weird oedipal shit that he put control of his platform and campaign choices in someone else's hands. When he was running his own show, he was failing miserably. By selling out, he got somewhere. As such, I suspect that the choice of Palin was not his, but the party insiders, and as such, no mistake at all. In that sense, McCain and Bush may be even more alike than is commonly supposed. IMHO, YMMV, WTFWJD, etc., etc.
Also from Wonkette: clips from the introduction speech, featuring McCain scoping Palin, and fidgeting with his burning wedding ring.
[WARNING: vid is as disturbing and embarrassing as you'd expect if your grampa was checking out the dental hygenist lady.]
"I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can," McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For." "Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."
Oh, great, what a mensch. And it's only you who has to live with those consequences, right?
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think this decision can be summarized by one of my favourite quotes from the immortal The Great Eastern: "No Paul, eating an artificial firelog is stupid."
(for those of you unfamiliar with The Great Eastern, it is the greatest audio to ever grace the airwaves. Listen to a few episodes and see if you don't agree with that assessment.
(Season 5, Episode 20 if you want to hear the great piece on The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Stupidity where that quote came from . . . )
My favorite baseball story: When the New York Mets were first getting started as a ball club, pre-1969 "miracle" season, they were desperate for a catcher. They made a deal for a trade with the Red Sox, in which the Sox agreed to send the Mets a pitcher for "a player to be named later." This, in baseball terms, was basically the Sox saying "Take this bum off our hands, please, you could not possibly send us anyone worse."
So the Mets took him in, let him play for a few weeks, and discovered that he was so very awful that they sent him back to the Sox -- as the "player to be named later."
It remains the only time in the history of team sports that I'm aware of in which a player was traded for himself.
No, I have nothing to contribute. Cap'n's link there just reminded me.
But as for the movie, Palin should be played by the Marcy the neighbour-lady on Married With Children. She can't be too busy, right? But yeah -- Keanu. He'd have been perfect.
"I doubt that any of us have ever considered any of our past vice-presidential candidates a sex symbol."
Is he kidding? Al Gore was a DREAMBOAT in 1992!
"In just two days, the number of U.S. Internet searches for "Sarah Palin" reached a peak greater than any other political personality in the past three years."
Yeah, that's completely unexpected when some lady nobody outside of Bugfuck, Alaska has ever heard of is suddenly a heartbeat away from the Big Red Button.
Another day, another gripe against the media: McCain camp blames media for Palin woes.
If we had a bit more of McCain's Straight Talk TM, we wouldn't have to ask these dumb-assed questions.
>>Media coup...
>>Internets coup...
>>Next up...?
Coup de Ville?
Double Coup Ice Cream Cone?
Two Coups of Raisins?
fimbulvetr, thanks so much for the link to the Great Eastern! I've been telling my friends, for years, about that show but it's so hard to explain it without being able to listen. Now I will force them all to sit through hours and hours of episodes.
On the subject of Palin, I find it hard to understand why everybody is focussing on this thing about her kid, which seems to cut both ways at best, when it seems that she told a pretty naked lie in her very first candidate speech. That, surely, is worth far more political points than any amount of sneering about her small-town roots.
The things is that, whether or not one wishes it to be so, most voters don't care about practical issues; they care about the Hollywood version. Stories work because they fit in our head, and when people are trying to fit politics in their head they often do so by turning it into a set of stories. And the best way to turn something into a story is by picking out a story that's already been told and trying to apply it. I sense that many people on the left have already picked out a story for Palin: incompetent people pick comically incompetent hick from horrible place because they hate us. But people on the right are obviously not going to grab at this same narrative, not when they have an even more attractive story to pick up on: person just like me has meteoric rise to power by being straight-forward and sensible for a change.
If you American lefties want to attack Palin, then that is the story you have to attack. Sneering about her little town in the wilderness, about her mundane family troubles, about her hunky husband's youthful brush with the law... these things only make her look more and more like a TV heroine, like the kind of person people could identify with and think 'that could be me, that's what I would do'.
Because you American lefties: you're the bad guys in this story. You're the powerful, privileged people who think that you should have a monopoly on that power and privilege. It doesn't matter that you're not in power and never will be. The story is more powerful.
Remember all those Disney movies about summer camp, and there's a camp full of lovable oddballs who you like, and a camp full of patrician Adonises who live next door who want to shut the oddball camp down so they can turn it into a golf course? Remember how you rooted for the oddballs because they were flawed and unlikely heroes?
No, if you want to attack Palin effectively, you've got to say things that jar with that easy story, that make it difficult for people to fit that narrative into their heads. You need to expose her every time she lies, you have to point out every time she took money or boosted somebody unsavoury or otherwise spoke with a forked tongue.
I mean I'm no fan of fluffy attack personality politics, but if you're going to do it, at least get it right. :-)
And to close the circle of personality politics as entertainment: Jamie Lynn Spears Sends Gift to Bristol Palin.
The more I think about it, Hunter Thompson had the right idea, to get off the stupid merry-go-round entirely.
Now, if they can get Britney on-stage tonight with Sarah, for some tongue-on-tongue kissing, the deal would be sealed.
Pink burpies. Nice touch.
Capt, don't leave us yet!!
Honunculus has provided so many fair and balanced, even provocative links. I'm not sure where Sarah Palin really stands, but she is pivotal now. She said Ron Paul was cool, and she expressed admiration for Hillary. She can't be all that bad. she's well worth listening to tonight. I hope so. Tomorrow night I shoot pool, so McCain's on his own...
Tonight's agenda:
10:00 PM EDT: Bush drops bombs on Iraq
10:20 PM EDT: Palin speech
Something from her speech that bothers me more than the rest:
I'm just one of many moms who will say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way. Our son Track is 19, and one week from tomorrow, September 11th, he'll deploy to Iraq with the Army infantry in the service of his country.
Is he actually deploying on 9/11? Are we supposed to believe that's a coincidence? And isn't identifying him and putting his picture up there for the world to see putting him at increased risk? Every insurgent in Iraq will want to get him.
Somehow I don't think the insurgents are watching the RNC.
Why not? Al Jazeera will cover this (I assumne), and the information is available online. I'd be surprised if this tidbit didn't make it's way to them eventually.
> Oy ... Live Mics Are Such Dangerous Things
> Is the McCain Camp Spreading Smears in the Name of Fighting Them?
Taking these together, it seems that there could be a concerted effort to pitch Palin/McCain as the plucky underdogs in the contest. Everyone in The Establishment is against them, and it's terribly unfair, so the voters need to stick it to The Establishment.
Maybe, but I think the whole 'not speaking English' thing may be a bit of a problem, and the fact that fundamentalist Muslims might have a bit of an aversion to looking at a western woman speaking for 40 minutes.
It's really not the issue, the issue here is that the woman is shrill and used a lot of hateful tactics right out of the George W Bush playbook (no surprising since his speechwriter puked out that screed she was reading), & that she can trot out her family and associated rednecks to promote herself but then whine that they are unfairly targeted.
I don't see it going over too well with the undecideds, and the comments on this CNN page seem to bear that out.
(in response to homunculus)
"it seems that there could be a concerted effort to pitch Palin/McCain as the plucky underdogs in the contest."
Well, there may be now, but that surely wasn't the plan. The woman has been haemorrhaging bad press for 6 days so they gotta do something.
> Well, there may be now, but that surely wasn't the plan.
If there even was a plan.
A lot of Palin's persona is "plucky underdog". Lower middle class, from the sticks, non-Ivy League college, presented as a political reformer/ethicist/outsider.
I must admit this has certainly been an entertaining diversion from ANY REAL ISSUES, DAMMIT!!
Obviously, McCain's too caught-up in this week's program of Who da BabyMoma to answer the real questions. (Obama speaks to science issues)
I had to stop watching the speeches during Guiliani's speech when the crowd booed Obama for being "a community organizer" in Chicago.
I just got a new TV, and I didn't want to put a brick through it.
Guiliani was like the drunken uncle at a bad wedding, who just wouldn't shut up.
Perhaps he knew this was his last turn in the national spotlight, before he's swept into the dustbin of history.
At least this time he didn't use the cameras to let his partner know he was breaking up with her...
I just got a new TV, and I didn't want to put a brick through it.
TP, I picked up a Nerf six-gun cheap a couple of weeks ago, and it's highly recommended. First with the head shot, then go for the heart and neck. Very satisfying.
Canadian. No gun.
I picked up a Nerf six-gun cheap a couple of weeks ago, and it's highly recommended. First with the head shot, then go for the heart and neck. Very satisfying.
See, problem solved!
Dude -- Nerfs at close range still hurt.
The suction-tip makes the difference. Shooting Guiliani was very cathartic. Take aim, pull the trigger, get the satisfaction of shooting Rudy through the left eye. Then popopopopop!, five more shots scattered over the torso. And shooting someone on your tv gives it that whole assassin-feel. Great fun!
Dude -- Nerfs at close range still hurt.
You should have seen my family turn on my brother after he figured it would be funny to shoot his six-year-old in the face with a Nerf bow at close range one Christmas. It basically went down like this.
WHAM!
BUH-WAAAAAAAAAAAAAMOMMYWAAAAAAAAA!!!
YOU FUCKING BASTARD
I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN ITS JUST NERF HOLY CRAP I'M SORRY
Those were some good family memories for me, right there.
A Nerf bow?
*googles*
That's pretty sweet. But I still want the full rifle with laser-sights. Because more kids should be playing with lasers. And it'd be pretty funny to get the little red dot going on people as they walk down the street, and see some guy in the shadows with a funky-looking rifle pointing at them.
Thanks to the good Captain, the FBI is now reading this thread.
And hopefully laughing their asses off.
Really wishing now that the Republican Convention had come first. Then I could have started out angry and come out uplifted, rather than vice versa.
I don't like being angry. It upsets me.
Welcome to the next four years.
> "God's Will" ... is building the natural gas pipeline
Bloody micromanaging again, is he?
"Our son Track is 19, and one week from tomorrow, September 11th, he'll deploy to Iraq..."
Telling the grand lie that there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11, over and over, did not make it true. But this is a little more subtle - leaving it to the listener to infer the link. "You've heard it from old white (-house) guys, from TV pundits and now from the hot librarian lady. And while we admit is might be a little white (-house) lie it is still safe to infer it in your own head... and believe in what you know to be false". YOU MUST BELIEVE - IT'S GOD'S WILL.
She's not a real librarian - more of a "lipstick librarian".
I predict this thread will go past 200 comments.
I don't even understand what community organiser is supposed to be a euphemism for.
I don't know, but I'd guess a misguided person organising poor, black people.
Seen on Fox News ticker at the gym today: "Is media criticism of Sarah Palin SEXIST?"
< NigelTufnel > "What's wrong with being sexy?" < / NigelTufnel >
I think you're going over the top with this, homunculus. Because I love you so much, I want you to emotionally disengage, because these two cunts may actually still win the election, and you'll be very disappointed. Don't forget, America is full of hideously ignorant morons. Remember when they elected that fucking B-movie actor? So set your expectations looooooowwww.
From a bigger perspective, it could be argued that it may actually be better for the world that McCain *does* win the election, because it would almost certainly bring about the end of America as a dominant world power, which would be good, both for the growth of Americans as a society, and the world.
That sounds crazy, doesn't it? I'm trying to be all Zen about this shit.
I wasn't going to go down that road, but her voice is a flaming barbecue fork covered in hobo hepatitis and jabbed into my left ear.
We normally set our alarm to NPR in the morning, because Steve Innskeep has a voice so soothing, it's like he's spooning you and nudging you gently awake while he tells you that 3000 people caught fire today in Iraq.
This morning, as luck would have it, the radio kicked on in the middle of Palin's speech. She barely got out the words "TERRORIST STATES" at near dog-torture pitch before I hit the kill switch.
Baaaaaad way to start the day.
<3's the hand-dogg... keep it up!!
I'm trying to take the same route, Hank... I'm basically ceding the election to McCain and Palin at this point - - I'd rather be totally wrong and end up blissfully surprised than have to set myself up for yet another bitter disappointment...
Apparently there was a Denial-of-Service attack
When wiretapping is unavailable, go for this straight-shooting method to defeat your enemies...
Hunnerd bucks of that was mine. That's what, a thousandth of a percent?
You're goddamn welcome, America.
Honestly, though, for the record, I have never contributed to a political campaign (other than one or two local small-beans campaigns run by personal friends) ever. As jazzed as I was/am by the Obama campaign, nothing had yet gotten me off my ass to vote. But Palin's speech had me reaching for my wallet in a big damn hurry this morning. I heard what she had to say, read about her record, and couldn't find my debit card fast enough.
Gah, preview, nothing had yet gotten me off my ass to DONATE. I have voted before.
American politics is threatening my sobriety. I really think I should stop reading about it. I am on the verge of a fucking relapse because of these ignorant, murderous, war-mongering corrupt bastards.
I hear ya, mct. I tend to donate my time to campaigns (though I must say I pretty much saw both Gore and Kerry's loss in the cards when I saw how horribly inept and disorganized their campaigns were in Ohio) and my money to the ACLU (when my candidate loses). *sigh*
Watched most of McCain's speech last night. I don't hate the guy, and actually felt kind of sorry for him--he seemed genuinely uncomfortable reading the lines of the speech that attacked Obama, like he'd rather be saying something else. But he DID read the lines.
Of course my TV was in danger again when the crowd started chanting "DRILL! DRILL! DRILL! DRILL!" during the "energy plan" portion of the speech. But McCain--I thought at times I could see his soul crumbling.
Of course I may have been projecting.
Honestly, when the crowds broke into that "DRILL" chant, it was horrifying...
That's right son, you can all suck my giant American cock. I'm gonna drive a giant car that guzzles oil like a stealth fighter bombing IraqIran Pakistan. I'll stuff my flag down your throat and make 'ya swallow a taste of my liberty! Booo yahh! Stick all the pansies on the off-shore rigs and make them DRILL DRILL DRILL!! Comprende, Comprade?? If there's oil in the tit, than we're gonna SUCK SUCK SUCK it dry! Don't mess with the power, son - we'll run you over and throw you to the tar pits...
Each morning, I've been checking out Electoral-vote.com, to check out the effect of the latest daily polls and see where the race is heading.
The most interesting page on the site is this one, which shows the electoral college vote based on the latest (and I think weighted and averaged) poll results (first graph), but also shows the electoral votes when statistically tied (<5%) states are removed from the equation (second graph). Basically, McCain has to win all of these "barely" states to clinch the election, and I don't think he has the funds to campaign that heavily in so many places.
The other interesting item comes in today's polls. North Dakota has Obama with a small lead, and Indiana has McCain's lead dwindling to a statistical tie. These two states are traditional Republican locks. Bush won these two easily. Add in the fact that Obama has more money (thanks, mct & hbs) to campaign heavily there, and they may turn blue.
Things are changing, my friends. I'm growing optimistic.
Now if only my own country would stop leaning to the right.
It's always good to compare Electoral-Vote with the results on Pollster.
And I wish I could share rocket's optimism, but I don't. Electoral-Vote consistently had Kerry in the lead last time, but there were some issues with reflecting the religious right -- that their turnout numbers were way higher proportionally. So even on election day, Kerry was polled as doing very well, then -- whoop! Bush won on the strength of the religious vote, polls be damned.
I've the feeling that the same thing will be done again. Dobson is huge for Palin, it seems, and he hasn't even gotten started on motivating that base. Overall, we've yet to see the Palin effect in motivating the base -- her performance the other night was nothing short of brilliant (reprehensible as though the contents of the speech were), and Grampa John just slogged his way through his. If the GOP plays it right, and they will, Palin will be shoved to the forefront, "drill baby drill", "community organizer" as code for 'uppity black', "don't attack my family", and it'll be game over.
IMHO.
Doing a nice job of "ending the partisan rancor," ain't they?
END THE RANCOR!
Nancy Wilson on the use of the Heart song "Barracuda" at the end of last night's RNC convention: "I feel completely f---ed over."Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there.
Tina Fey and John McCain, 2004.
Poor Tina. To have to be forever associated with that wingnut.
*closes eyes, daydreams*
Come here, baby. I'll make it all better... Shh... shh...
>>there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there.
If the real thing don't do the trick,
You better make up something quick!
You're gonna BURN BURN BURN BURN burn it to the wick!
Ooooooh, BARRACUDA!
Teehee.
I always kinda wished Bruce Springsteen had gone ahead and allowed Reagan to use "Born in the USA," just because of the total fantastic irony for anyone who actually listened to the song.
But then I realize irony is lost in cases like this. Give us a rousing chorus, don't bother us with details and nuance.
Complete with giant-video-screen, blue-sky background, that LIFE cover. Eerie.
Not quite sure how the story goes yet, but no doubt we'll hear soon enough.
And then she can go on about how the liberal media and liberal web have it in for her, and why can't they stop attacking her family?
Aah, here we go. It goes back to that missing birth certificate. Perhaps it's not that there was a switcheroo with the mom, but with the dad instead.
[Link goes to dailykos FWIW.]
Oh, please, this cluster-fuck cannot be real and continue at this pace, can it?
From the dailykos comments:
Btw, if (big IF) this story is all true, wouldn't it be the height of irony? Todd Palin gets a guy sacked for dating the wife of his friend, then gets cuckolded by that same friend. There are soap series that would pay good money to writers who come up with these kind of storylines.
True. True.
Alaska sounds like an interesting place.
Also: JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!
Not uncommon for small town life, I'd say. I've seen stranger shit in the small town I grew up in. Add to that a degree of isolation, and all kinds of wonky stuff is gonna happen.
And if -- IF -- it's true, it may be the fatal flaw. All the rest of it is acceptable to the religious base, but once she has that scarlet letter pinned to her, she's cooked. All the more so for a woman in a position of power.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Suffice to say that all of this, and the Bristol-as-Trig's-mom rumours could easily have been dispelled were they to produce a birth certificate. Now, of course, it's too late...
Honest to god, if McCain wins this and Palin becomes VP, I seriously don't think I can live in this country any more.
Another greedy, self-righteous, arrogant, corrupt, bible-thumping bigot. Aside from the fact that she looks good in a skirt, she's just like all the rest.
One hopes that America won't be fooled again.
Swegen!
I think that if Palin is still on the ticket in November, Obama-Biden will win. She'll prove to be too much of a liability.
I always thought Nixon would look good in a skirt.
I'm just sayin'...
A lot can change in two months; and while I'm certain the fever of the RNC will die down, I'm also certain that some dirty tricks will come into play...
Oh, where's an open mic when you need one??
I guess I should photoshop Nixon's head onto that picture of Palin in the miniskirt, but frankly I can't stand looking at that asshole for very long.
And Nixon creeps me out, too.
That won't lose McCain many votes with the Yanks. Amazing how many people in the US believe that Genesis horseshit.
Yeah, I know :-(
I mainly liked it for the "pundits will gurgle on" part.
Fusing Politics and Motherhood in New Way "She assured them she would not take much time off: she had returned to work the day after giving birth to Piper. “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time,” she said, “I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”"
I'd say that women have been doing this all through history -- giving birth to a child, and then going right back to tend the fields. Doesn't mean that it's the best approach. I'd say the mother and child benefit from a period of maternity leave, both for bonding, and figuring out how this all works. Of course, that's her choice, but with a special-needs child, I'd say more attention should be given to the child, not less.
"There was no mention of the baby’s condition. Instead, she joked about giving her child the middle name Van, since Van Palin would sound sort of like the hard rock band Van Halen."
Oh, sweet Jesus.
Any questions about what happens after the baby's born aside, I have doubts about the judgment of a woman who delays going to the doctor while leaking amniotic fluid in the last month of a high-risk pregnancy.
I have doubts about the judgment of a woman who puts her four-month-old baby with special needs onstage before a national audience, in front of cheering crowds and bright spotlights and late at night, when that baby should clearly be in bed where it belongs and damn the photo op.
And I also have doubts about a woman who does that to her child, and then scolds us for invading her family's privacy.
I have doubts about the judgment of a woman who delays going to the doctor while leaking amniotic fluid in the last month of a high-risk pregnancy.
The gossip speculation there is that she needed the kid to be born in AK so she could control the documentation (i.e., birth certificate). However, given the rabid secessionist tendencies in her family, it's just as likely that she just REALLY REALLY NEEDED her kid to be born on Alaskan soil, risk to his life be damned. Either way, between that and knowingly dragging her daughter over the coals in the national press to pursue her ambitions, I don't think very much of her as a mother.
I have doubts about the judgment of a woman who puts her four-month-old baby with special needs onstage before a national audience, in front of cheering crowds and bright spotlights and late at night, when that baby should clearly be in bed where it belongs and damn the photo op.
HBS and I were absolutely goddamn frothing about that when we watched her speech. That baby should have been in a crib in a quiet room an hour or two before she took the stage, not surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming and booing partisans yelling "DRILL BABY DRILL." That's not a partisan critique -- I'd want to nutpunch Al Gore if I caught him pulling a stunt like that.
The top 20 questions we would ask Sarah Palin from Foreign Policy.
My favorite comment: I have to hand it to McCain though. He eliminated the issues debate from the campaign in one bold move and instead gave us Erin Brockovich versus Malcom X.
Just choose a running mate who knows how to skin a moose and all will be forgiven. Drive them off the land, shutter their towns, toss their life chances into the grinders of big agriculture . . . and praise their values. The TV eminences will coo in appreciation of your in-touch authenticity, and the carnival will move on.
here! here!
That whole, "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity..." line did not sit well with me. I grew up in a "small town". I sure did not fall for that line. Meh. The craziest, most psychologically deranged people I have ever come across were so-called "small town folk".
Minus the guy on the subway here in NYC, but that's a different matter...
Hehe, at first glance I thought it said "running mare."
Palin's Entry Gives GOP Ticket Shot at Capturing the Youth Vote."She reminds me of my friends," said Allyson Wartick, 20, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Oh, good Lord.
Call up the boys at CERN, see if they can up the juice on that puppy, get this shit over with.
I think I've mentioned before that many many Americans use the same criteria to vote for President as they do to vote for American Idol.
Even more just sit and watch it all happen.
I think I've mentioned before that many many Americans use the same criteria to vote for President as they do to vote for American Idol.
Christ, that just makes me cringe. In the pit of my stomach I recognize the truth of it.
Is it possible that we'll still be better off just having Bush out?
So in Palin's recent press interview, she said:
“We’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big fat résumé that maybe shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”
Okay, so the comment was aimed at Biden, but doesn't it just as easily describe McCain? He went to D.C. 26 years ago, as a Representative, and he's been there since. There's a very simple message here: summarize McCain's political career on a few presentation-slide style screens, then follow it up with the Palin quotation above.
Other campaign formalities have also been taken care of in recent days. Aides confirmed that Palin and her husband, Todd, have been assigned Secret Service names: hers is Denali, after the Alaska national park and wildlife preserve that includes Mount McKinley; his is Driller, a nod to his work as an oilman on the state's North Slope.
[INSERT INNUENDO HERE]
And I'm no expert on national security issues or anything, but shouldn't Secret Service names be, you know, secret?
Is tokenism a bad thing?
She's not just "the token woman" on the ticket.
She is also the token young person, the token fundamentalist Christian, token gun-toter and war-monger, and the token extreme right wing nut job.
I am sadly starting to agree with Capt. R. that this was a brilliant choice, filling all the gaps in McCain's Republican support.
Just how many rapes does a town of 5000 have that this would even be considered as a budget-trimming exercise?
Wow, I guess you shouldn't ask for it unless you can pay for it.
I am so tired of all you women complaining about being raped when you all dress like such sluts.
"Fuck, this woman is a sociopath."
It's my theory that most politicians are sociopaths. Add fundamentalist religion into the mix, and you get some virulently crazy-ass shit. Mind you, most sociopaths are good at protecting themselves, Palin seems utterly incompetent at covering up her crap.
Separated at birth?
Kev FTW!!!
Heh. We had a mock convention back in HS, and someone put Bill the Cat on the ballot as a write-in. He was doing pretty well 'til the teachers stepped in.
I'm pretty sure Bill the Cat can cover his own crap.
Jimmy Kimmell on the action figure:
“There are only 56 days until the election. I saw that they’re selling Sarah Palin action figures. Sad incident at Toys R Us today - a Sarah Palin doll shot My Little Pony.”
That's great. So a politician can do whatever s/he wants and if anyone complains, it's just electioneering on their part?
Let's call her righteous indignation "Palin-drone." We'll be talking about it a lot over the next four years...
And why does Todd Palin keep creeping up in these stories? In Troopergate, in budget meetings -- he's not a State employee, nor in any way accountable to anyone, yet is having considerable say in government affairs. Perhaps that's the angle the Dems should focus on in Palin matters.
>And why does Todd Palin keep creeping up in these stories? In Troopergate, in budget meetings -- he's not a State employee, nor in any way accountable to anyone, yet is having considerable say in government affairs.
It seems that he's often copied on e-mails too. So a bunch of messages that have been withheld from a freedom of information request on the grounds of executive privilege are being requested again as Todd was on CC and the privilege has already been waived.
With state business being discussed on 'personal' email accounts like yahoo, to avoid any disclosure obligations.
Have we talked about this already? We must have...
Her regular pastors also speak in tongues, believe the Rapture is coming in our lifetime, says that people who voted for John Kerry are going to Hell, and "convert" gays. Why are none of these men getting the Jeremiah Wright treatment?
See "Privilege, White", supra.
Oh my.
Tina must return to SNL and do a "speaking in tongues" skit...
Capt. called it
Thinking about it, I'm inclined to think the hack was real. Passwords on personal email accounts aren't likely to be too tough to break, if the hacker knows certain key words relating to that person. That they hacked the one account but not the other may simply reflect that those key words worked on the one, but not the more important account.
That said, I'm confused by the lack of anything important in there, and how the hack was posted.
I think the fact that she's using a personal account for business - even if the business itself is unimportant - is important. It's one more example of her party trying to avoid transparency and scrutiny.
Not the least bit important, but simply mildly amusing: Sarah Heath at the Channel 2 sports desk.
Aah, the Leafs getting slaughtered by Winnipeg... good times, good times.
Trooper-Gate's Attorney-General Problem.
Nevermind that the AG is a Palin appointee, and that he's investigating her at her request. Let's assume for the moment that there's no bias there.
Buddy is investigating a situation that he himself was involved in?
Conflict of interest, much? Sheesh... Even I can see that's wrong, and I did law at Western.
Admittedly, there's like, six people in Alaska, so there's bound to be a lot of overlap, but still.
But quite stupidly left a URL in his screenshots that could trace back to him.
Still, wtf Secret Service? Why hasn't somebody been talking to the Palins about basic data security issues since she got the nod?
- OK, OK, guys -- who has the football?
- Right here, Madam President.
- Good. And the, uh, the -- you know.
- Gold Codes? They're in your purse. Front pocket.
- How do you know what's in my purse?
- We're the Secret Service, ma'am. We have to know. And those Certs are well past their expiry date. Ma'am.
- WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT NOW. We have to nuke Russia.
- Very good, ma'am.
- Right. Gold Codes, Gold Codes... Here we are. Now, who has the football?
- I do, Madam President. You'll need to enter the launch password here, to initiate the sequence.
- OK. Now turn around, guys, and don't look.
*types "TRIG123"*
*new-clear annihilation*
Matt Taibbi: The Lies of Sarah Palin
"But watching Palin’s speech I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker – And immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who 'Five children later' is 'Still my guy.' It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag."
Oh, OUCH!!
Dang, with all that foam around his mouth I was afraid at first he was rabid.
Can't we just stop the vitriol and address the issues?
Is she qualified in anything, say...domestic or foreign policy?
No.
Easy peasy. Don't vote for her.
Pullin' for Palin.
[WARNING: Site is exactly what you think it is. You might want to have a chaser of bleach handy before you make with the clicky-clicky. Technically SFW, just repugnant.]
And in other news, one Carey Torrice, Commissioner for Macomb County, was voted "Hottest Politician" by some website. And indeed, she is hot. But in a move straight out of Footloose, the locals aren't happy, being real buzzkills about it.
Here's Carey the County Commissioner doing her part for Habitat For Humanity. In a sausage-casing dress and heels.
Of course, female politicians should not be judged on the basis of their physical appearance, but if they're a step up from Golda Mier, I'm not gonna mind. Just sayin'.
Today I want a t-shirt that reads
It's the 'ockeymommy, stupid.
roryk wins again.
Good to know we're not using our children as political footballs. Good parenting there.
Yup, and we don't care to edumacate our kids so they don't get knocked up, and we don't want you edumacatin' yers, either.
Exclusive: McCain, Palin Answer Critics.
A transcript of Couric's interview with Palin and McCain.
I've heard more intelligible conversations between winos at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. And, as then, the urge is to pretend not to notice and just keep walking.
It's really getting more and more difficult to tell which is the parody and which is the actual transcript.
On Sunday, I read some commentary on the Couric interview that quoted the bit about the bailout plan. Then I watched the Tina Fey skit from SNL and she did a very close rendition of Palin's response on the bailout. I found myself thinking that the commentary must have been on Fey's piece rather than the genuine interview...
This is Palin's attempt at redemption after the previously botched interview with Couric? If that's the case, why the hand-holding from McCain? Blah...
I don't think McCain was patronizing enough. He should've patted Palin's head and given her a cookie.
Or pizza.
I blame gotcha journalism.
Seriously, though, if they think Katie Couric's a tough interviewer, they better be glad they never sat down with my wife.
Good thing they didn't sit down with Mike Wallace. Not for them -- the poor man would have had a stroke right then and there.
I prefer gotchies journalism.
Gotchless journalism.
Because this campaign isn't about "issues", we can examine stupid, irrelevant stuff like this: Is Sarah Palin's Lipliner A Tattoo? (SLIDESHOW, POLL).
I don't know about a tattoo, but if it is lipstick, she's done a poor job of it, going well outside of the labial region.
What?
How Many SCOTUS Cases Should a VP Know?Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing. The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions. After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases. There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.
Man, I love this group's talent for giving catchy names to stuff to distract from what it really is.
Setting legal precedent? "Activist judges!"
You're to blame? "No more 'blame game.'"
You got caught in a public lie? "Gotcha journalism."
Please don't turn this into a gender thing, Capt. Leave the lipstick and pretend she has real political issues to be discussed. *pets pig, applies lipstick*
Please don't turn this into a gender thing, Capt.
OK, OK -- just one more: Sarah Palin gets painted in full, and nothing's conservative about it.
Bruce Elliott, whose wife owns the Old Town Ale House, painted this nude portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He said his daughter, who does a good impression of the Alaska governor, served as model.
Eeuw...
The Sarah Palin pity party - And as unpleasant as it may be to watch the humiliation of a woman who waltzed into a spotlight too strong to withstand, I flat out refuse to be manipulated into another stage of gendered regress -- back to the pre-Pelosi, pre-Hillary days when girls couldn't stand the heat and so were shooed back to the kitchen.
Sweet Jesus Christ. That magazine thing...oh my fucking sweet Lord...
This actually makes me MORE scared about the election, because by rights Obama/Biden should be ahead in the polls by a gazillion points. It SHOULD NOT BE THIS CLOSE, and the fact that it IS...
Jesus.
It SHOULD NOT BE THIS CLOSE, and the fact that it IS...
If he looked like you and me, dude, it wouldn't be this close. And by "looking like you and me" I don't mean "scruffy and overfond of clever t-shirts."
At least Bush flat-out admitted that he didn't read newspapers, but got his news from the teevee instead.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen -- a candidate who makes you long for the forthrightness of George W. Bush. Well done!
You're *not* making me feel better, MCT. >:(
You know that scene in "A Christmas Carol" where the spirit tells Scrooge that raising ignorant children puts everybody's future in jeopardy? Whenever I see how close the polls in an election like this or the one in 2000, I want to go back and tell that to every voter's parents and teachers.
Horrible thought just gleaned from the echo-chambers...what if she's stupid LIKE A FOX? (No, not in THAT way...)
What if she's been told to act as dumb and vacuous as possible in order to a)lull Biden into a false sense of security before the debates so she can blindside him with anything approaching coherence and b) set the bar so low that as long as she doesn't drool on herself and claim Canada is a suburb of Mexico the media will laud her for not being as bad as they thought she would?
See Bush, George W.; Tyranny of Low Expectations, The.
Palin seems to get flustered when asked for detail, maybe because she has to part from script? I'm sure she could name a bunch of newspapers, but she wasn't expecting to be asked to, and she wasn't sure which ones to name. It's potentially dangerous to admit to reading certain papers, I guess.
Palin Bingo, for the debate. Easily turned into a drinking game, I'd expect. I wouldn't know.
Life *is* a drinking game.
Especially lately.
Yet Another Gruesome Palin Interview Yet To Come?
Among the tough, hardhitting questions: Why do you think Roe v. Wade is a good or bad decision? What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?
In other words, she was given my grade six Social Science exam.
If our countrymen vote this woman into the White House, BOMB US OR SOMETHING.
*paf* *paf*
Sarah Palin On Today's [Hugh Hewitt] Show.
She performs better, as every question is softball, and scripted to lead to a talking point. But it's still mind-numbing.
Well, the infamous dead silence didn't air in Couric's interview tonight. I'm wondering if it didn't happen, or if CBS news intentionally didn't air it for leverage in case the McCain campaign wanted to bitch about "the filter" and "gotcha journalism." Because frankly, she hung herself with what they did air. Biden looked like an experienced politician with plenty of specifics. Palin looked like a talking points robot with a recursive algorithm that couldn't find the base case. She said literally nothing once the discussion moved beyond Roe v. Wade.
Like TP, I'm worried that the low expectations game will play to her favor in the debate. To borrow a "West Wing" line, basically she'd have to set the podium on fire to perform below media expectations at this point.
However, gaffes or no gaffes, Biden's a fucking brilliant debater, and I'd rather have him than a John Kerry or a John Edwards or even a Hillary Clinton (and I do not say that lightly) against her. He can get down-to-earth with the best of them, and even better, he can do it with facts. I'm nervous about the low expectations, but not worried. Biden can bring the heat without looking like he's throwing at her head, if he brings his 'A' game.
Monkeyfilter: a talking points robot with a recursive algorithm that couldn't find the base case.
PYEW! PYEW!
If any of you have watched her performance during the previous Alaskan gubernatorial debates, you will understand why Biden *should* be worried this evening. Just because she doesn't have a grasp of the facts (painfully obvious at this point), she can easily tilt the table in her favor. Like it or not, that's what I am basically expecting to happen this evening. Then again, she might just pull another Couric and botch the whole shebang - - but I'm thinking the chances of that are slim.
The McCain campaign has done a good job negotiating a very strict format. She won't be given much rope to hang herself with.
I like the way they get the light to shine over her glasses. That's... pointless.
Holy hell, she says "nuke-you-ler".
My favorite, from Twitter: "Palin drops more g's than Menace II Society."
It was as expected. She essentially gave a prepared speech. She just grabbed different parts of it based on the question. If the question involved something that was not part of her prepared speech, then she simply ignored the question and recited some part of that speech. She was awful. It was not a debate. It was a chopped up prepared speech. The media should be crying foul. They are, of course, not.
I am as mad as I was for the Gore/Bush debates when Bush demonstrated that he did not know how to answer some of the questions. Afterward, he was praised for "holding his own." What the hell does that even mean? What did people think Bush or Palin would do -- start crying and curl up into a ball? There was no reporter to keep her on point and to force her to answer. I am just appalled at the media consensus that a person who essentially refused to play by the rules and essentially refused to answer questions performed well. Mostly, though, I am mad at myself for letting something I knew was going to happen get to me in the first place.
I feel your pain. I set my expectations as low as I possibly could, and I still have that dirty taste in my mouth.
I didn't watch it, but read some of the reviews, and even over here they seem to be quoting from the US media - for example, from stuff.co.nz :
With all eyes on Palin in her national debut in an unscripted format, the Alaska governor turned in a steady and aggressive performance that featured repeated attacks on Obama and pledges she and McCain would work for the middle-class.
She frequently displayed the folksy style that has become a favorite target of late-night comics. "Aw, say it ain't so, Joe," she told Biden at one point, adding a "doggone it" for good measure.
and the NZ Herald just quoted NYT WaPo and Huffington in any depth.
I'm waiting for an independent perspective without the "she's feisty" content.
They really should have had a seizure warning on that thing. I only watched a couple minutes of it, and the next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor and the cat is frightened.
The "say it ain't so, Joe" line was just so obviously something she'd been waiting for the opportunity to uncork, it came off to my (admittedly biased) eyes as totally calculated and clumsily delivered. Especially when she followed it up with her Folksy™ refrain "Doggone it!" and then quoted Reagan's "There you go again!" line for good measure, again clumsily.
The basic gist was "Say it ain't so, Joe--doggone it, there you go again, looking back to the past--your whole opening statement was predicated on change for the FUTURE!" Yes, pay no attention to what's happened the last 8 years under republican *cough*leadership*gag*, that's just petty of you even to bring it up, as it so obviously doesn't matter...
Grrr, there go, my heart's abhorrence...
We had fun doing the liveblog over on PoliticalFilter. You should have joined us.
Though I had to do a shot for every "Maverick", and I don't feel so good now.
Did shots count for "mavericks" that Biden referenced? I quite enjoyed his "Maverick Smackdown" towards the end of the debate... but imagine that would have been a game-killer for your game!
I don't remember.
then quoted Reagan's "There you go again!"
My favorite was when she quoted the phrase "city on a hill" and attributed it to...Ronald Reagan. I wish to God most of the rest of the country saw how stupid that made her sound.
*googles "city on a hill"*
The encyclowiki says that city on a hill is code for FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION IN AMERICA.
Admittedly, Reagan changed the phrase to "shining city on a hill". I don't remember which phrase Palin used, though. I don't remember a lot of things from last night.
Reagan also specifically name-checked Winthrop when he used the speech. Also, someone running on the "more Christian than thou" theme should be familiar with the goddamn Sermon on the Mount.
s/b used the phrase, not the speech.
But -- but she's a maverick!
*throws up a little*
My favourite Palindrone was when she was talking about the mortgage crisis, going on about how people were "taken advantage of" by "predatory lenders". That it's not people's fault that they signed up on mortgages they couldn't afford.
First, the phrase "predatory lender" refers to something else -- payday lenders, credit card inducement, etc. Not applicable here, thank you for playing.
Second, people who sign on mortgages are grown-ups. Grown-ups can look at the numbers, see what they can afford, and buy accordingly. Grown-ups can also see what the numbers are now, and know that it might not stay that way.
That you are a grown-up who was caught in a mortgage you couldn't afford may not mean that you were somehow suckered. It's may in fact mean that you were dumb.
Palin quoting Reagan at her final statement:
"...you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."What Palin did not mention -- probably because she did not know -- is that Reagan's quote was about what would happen in the sixties if Medicare was enacted. So what's worse; overwrought bullshit, quoting overwrought bullshit, or improperly using a quote that is overwrought bullshit?
And then we have comments like this that bring Reagan back into perspective.
Personally, I never understood all the fawning towards Reagan - - Democrats and Republicans alike. Then again, perhaps that is just the dumb factor at work again...
Though I had to do a shot for every "Maverick", and I don't feel so good now.
Well, there was only Bret and Bart. And Brent. Oh, and Cousin Beau. Did you have to drink for Pappy, even though he was offscreen?
Get this through your beehive, lady - you can't fix the future without admitting and acknowledging what went wrong with the past. Bimbo.
You can listen to the Reagan album, if you're so inclined.
But if you aren't a DJ looking for some sweet samples, why would you?
I was supposed to drink whenever someone said "Gunsmoke". I'm still waiting for someone to say "Gunsmoke".
Gunsmoke.
*paf*
Also, Cap'n, wrt your mortgage points, the second point you outline IIRC is pretty much the standard free market republican point of view too--so I wonder how her "predatory lender" thing played with that demographic.
Of course IANAR, YMMV.
I'm sure that some people were acting responsibly, and were thrown off-track by unexpected financial problems like serious medical bills or whatnot, but when entire communities are being abandoned, it's likely that people were going well beyond their means, which is irresponsible. Not to say that the banks didn't make it easy, but that's a far cry from saying that they preyed on the American public.
Dontcha know.
Foreclosure Alley.SoCal Connected tracked down some surreal sights associated with the crisis - a company that specializes in removing whatever people leave behind in their foreclosed homes. The process is called a “trashout” - a term the company came up with because it perfectly describes what happens. Everything that’s left is dumped in a trailer and taken to the landfill.
Then there’s the guy who started a business to spray-paint dead lawns. That’s right. He paints brown lawns green. We also tag along with a couple of code enforcement officers who are spending more and more of their time having to drain slimy, abandoned pools.
A portrait of a wasteful society.
When most people buy a home, especially first-timers, they rely on their bank to tell them how big a mortgage they can reasonably carry based on their incomes, history, and assets, etc.
Now, people should do their own homework as well, but I have no doubt that many bankers have been very predatory in putting mortgage sales ahead of prudence and customers' best interest.
I also have no doubt that the risks associated with adjustable-rate mortgages weren't always explained to homebuyers.
Oh, I think it goes even further. I think some of these loans were purposely structured to all but force people to refinance just a few years down the road, using terms that were too complicated for the more inexperienced or undereducated borrowers to understand. Not to mention that many of these people weren't required to even show proof of employment before the bank handed them money. That may not be technically predatory lending, but it's certainly getting exactly what the banks asked for.
I'm in the middle of an interviewer with a former WaMu executive who tried to warn the CEO that the spike in housing costs could cause serious trouble down the road, even the collapse of their bank. The CEO looked at mortgage lending's numbers, which were higher than they'd ever been in the bank's history, and all but laughed in his face.
So, uh, if you don't understand the terms of your real estate contract, and can't afford a lawyer, who do you ask to clarify it?
MCT - re refinancing, I think that that was the whole point there, at the end. Like a credit card, where you can just hop from card to card, opening a new one to balance transfer to a new low opening interest rate. And it works too (I do it myself...) but you'd better hope that there's a new card available for you when you need to jump. And that if there's not, you have a plan B.
I recall, when I was close to leaving the US, getting ads for mortgage deals on $600,000 loans, where the initial monthly payment was ~$1350 per month. Crazy stuff, not even going close to covering interest let alone pay down the principle.
Fey is doing another stint as Palin tonight on SNL, apparently. No word on who is doing Biden.
This had better not overtake Tina's career, otherwise I'd be mighty pissed off.
Is she wearing a raincoat with clouds on it? What is she, ten?
Holy shit, both on the coat and the kid.
Sadly, that photo was 'shopped. Here's the original.
Still, THE COAT!! THE COAT!?!?
So now she's giving him the Forks? That's even worse!
Mother Renault has a spring coat like that, but it's daffodils on a white background (I think). Got it at Banana. She's pleased as punch about it.
I would live to see Bill and his sax take on Sarah and her flute in a "Devil Came Down to Georgia" showdown.
Ha ha. That kid's great. More of this , please.
And I think 'the finger' is worse than 'the forks'.
SNL's VP debate with more Fey-as-Palin.Transcript.
Be sure to watch the vid with Andy as Mark Wahlberg talking to animals. One of SNL's one-joke-wonders, but oh so good.
If I can be crass for a moment -- it's amazing how Fey and Palin look so much alike, yet Tina is stupid hawt, and Sarah is simply vile. There were twins like that in my high school -- the smart one was outrageously hot, but the one who got stuck in the birth canal was just nasty. But to balance it out, the smart one never put out, but the other one made out for the two of them, and then some. Go figure.
And now back to your regularly scheduled asexist programming.
It makes perfects sense, as does his strong support for the war. Lieberman has always put country first. It just happens that that country is Israel.
Apparently, Palin is now on CNN, cracking jokes about Tina Fey, that Palin is giving Fey "job security" at SNL, and keeping Tina Fey "in business".
Firstly, Sarah, Tina Fey doesn't need you to keep her in business. Her five Emmys say so.
Second, Tina doesn't work at SNL.
Third, there's only one comedienne here, and you ain't her.
Fourthly, and most importantly, fuck you.
That'll teach anyone to get between Capt and Tina!
Yes, it's muskrat love.
Also, Tina has gone on record as saying she hopes to not have to play her anymore come November. Hasn't she read that in her perusal of all the newspapers currently in print?
The upside of taunting Tina is that it's just going to make the mockery worse/better.
Sarah Palin is a Class-A moron who can eat my poo.
The New Republic dug up this doodled memo [PDF] of Palin's, where she thought out themes for her mayoral campaign.
Potochop at will.
I find her handwriting very loopy. No-one I know has handwriting like that. It was all destroyed by long-term higher education. Luckily, Sarah was spared that burden... And a lot of exclamation marks, too!
Enh.
We need a handwriting analysis on this. I find it disturbing that the dot over the "i" in Palin is actually over the "n".
There's gotta be something to those strange downstrokes on the P and B for "Part of the Bureaucracy". Odd.
I don't understand how someone could see the phrase Adjustable Rate Mortgage and not wonder about those words "Adjustable Rate". I also don't understand how someone could assume that with take home pay of $3,000 per month for a family of three or four, that they could afford to pay a $2000 per month mortgage. What the hell were those people thinking? I bought my house at the peak of all that stuff, and I knew how much I could afford to pay per month, regardless of what the bank said. How can people be so ignorant? Seriously! Where did they think the extra money was going to come from?
There are not education requirements needed to buy a house, and most people need housing.
There are not education requirements needed to buy a house, and most people need housing.
Sadly, there are also not education requirements needed to vote in a federal election. And most countries need qualified leaders.
That's right, only the educated should be allowed to vote or buy houses.
We don't have six-packs here, only fours. Which means you have to buy eight. Which means you drink eight.
I am Joe Eight-Pack, you betcha!
Many Canadians are grabbingAmericanreal estate, given the "slump" in the US market (particularly Arizona and Florida), and the relative strength of the Canadian Dollar (while it lasts). It's to the point where realtors are specifically aiming for Canadians. Anecdotally, those realtors are saying that Canadians are coming in prepared, that they've done research on the market beforehand, know exactly what they want and what they can afford, and don't buy until they find something that meets their criteria. I don't know if that's a cultural thing (I'm guessing that as a lot of these Canadians are retirees, it's more a generational thing), but it does point to the buying habits of Americans during that real estate boom -- that common sense had nothing to do with it.
People were eager to get into the game, and didn't think about the risks involved. Yes, the banks were eager to make lots more money off them through a dangerous mortgage situation, than be satisfied making only a fair bit of steady money off them over the long term. The banks are not solely to blame for getting the buyers to go for those dangerous mortgages. The buyers are also to blame for going for them. The banks are there to make money. This is not new. This is not a surprise. Your job as a grown up is to see how they're going to make their money off of you, and how much, and -- most importantly -- how much you can afford to pay for your house each month. If you buy recklessly, and bad things happen as a result -- why should I have any more sympathy for you than I would for someone who blew it all in Vegas?
Sorry -- I just don't understand the national pity-party over this. Yes, losing your home is sad. But you had no business being in that home in the first place.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Palin-bashing.
I guess that manes me Jane Winejug. Nobody wants Jane Winejug's vote. WHO WILL SPEAK FOR JANE WINEJUG?!?
Guar-an-teed to be a ratings smash, which I guess would decide it.
Cringe-worthy though it'd be to see one of the girls who bluffed her way through life try to take down someone who actually accomplished something through talent and hard work.
Apropos of nothing, word is that on 30 Rock[SPOILER ALERT], Liz Lemon is going to have a love interest with Peter Dinklage. Apparently just one of the namy guest stars lined up for the new season.
Palin should go on SNL. GHW Bush went on one time and did an impression of Dana Carvey impersonating him. It was funny, and did wonders for Bush's image. It would be very easy for Palin to do the same thing.
Also, I think that candidates should be required to produce something that is fifty words or so that says whatever they want about themselves. This card would be handed to people before they vote. It would not be allowed to mention anyone other than that candidate, and it would be fact-checked. This would give the completely ignorant people who vote at least some information about the candidates.
Book her for the November 8th show.
Sorry, Ralph, but my stroke addled brain won't let me do an actual link, but, since someone mentioned McCain, I thought it would be ok to put this here;
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/
It's worth reading, so please copy and paste at will. Even I can do that! Capitalization is the first challenge I've met so far.
Hey Path!
Yeah, I'm reading that. Most interesting...
Hi, Path! Nice to hear from you! A good read, indeed.
Here's a linky for your clicking pleasure.
Make-belive Maverick
Goodness, if Sarah Paladin gets any more maverick, there'll be a bonanza of gunsmoke coming from her wagon train.
That's a euphamism, right?
I hope so.
Monkeyfilter: a bonanza of gunsmoke coming from her wagon train
nice to see you path!
There are not education requirements needed to buy a house, and most people need housing.
I don't know that it's education as much as it's common sense. And if you don't have sense enough to do research before buying something that costs several year's salary, then that's where survival of the fittest kicks in, I guess.
I think caveat emptor and survival of the fittest are what got us into this mess.
I don't know that it's education as much as it's common sense.
You ever read a mortgage contract? I have two university degrees, both of them highly logic-centered, and I had to have part of mine explained to me. Not to mention that it's not only good business ethics but good business sense not to lend money to people who can't pay it back. And I say that as an employee of a business that makes its money in sub-prime lending and leasing.
For a lot of these loans, the borrower wasn't even required to show proof of employment, so eager were these banks to make more money. The banks knew better, but they were too greedy and too focused on the short term to care.
As I said in a comment upthread, Washington Mutual's former CFO went to the CEO years ago and warned the bank might collapse when the bubble burst if they didn't start backing off and being more careful with their lending. The CEO shrugged it off, because they were making millions now, so fuck the future, we'll take care of that when it comes.
What came? The commercial paper market has seized up, the credit default swap market gone house of cards on us, and we're now staring down the barrel of potentially one of the worst financial crises in our nation's history, and as rocket88 pointed out, WaMu and businesses run like theirs are the reason why.
To blame the poor for this is frankly pretty goofy, unless you believe a plumber can fool an MBA into giving him a loan he can't afford.
Um, I am the poor - and yes, I read every line of my mortgage contract, and every word of the three bids I got from the three lenders. And every word of every document before I signed them at my closing.
And btw, I'm not saying I'm not sympathetic towards the people who are being screwed over, but at the same time, they need to pay attention. I've been laid off twice in the last year, which resulted in surviving for six months on unemployment. I had no savings to fall back on because I was a single parent getting no child support and was woefully underpaid when I was working, but I was never even one day late on my mortgage payment, because I made sure I didn't buy more house than I could afford. Unemployment payments covered my bills with not a dime left over for anything else, but I survived.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did also have a garage sale, but I didn't know I was having it until I got laid off the day before, and so wasn't well prepared, and therefore only made $200 from it. :P
/soapbox
Path!
Speaking as someone who buys more pills than houses:
I do as much research as I can on every new drug I take. But it my doctor doesn't warn me about potential side effects, he's not doing his fucking job. And if I have done my research, and I ask him, "Hey, what about this potential side effect?" and he says, "I don't think you need to worry about that," I'm more than likely to listen to him because he's the fucking expert.
Sorry if that came off like I'm annoyed with anyone who's posted here, which I'm not. I'm just in choler with the general situation, and most of it is reserved for the people who were getting paid to know better.
From what I've read, the "independent" mortgage brokers in the U.S. bear some burden of responsibility. Their system of incentives was such that they were motivated to deceive both the borrower and the lender with respect to the borrower's ability to pay back.
ooof, i suck, sorry about the mislinkage. Thanky, EdArzakh.
Dunno which thread to best put this in, so it might as well be here:
Hail to the Beans!
Choose your Preferred Candidate cup for your coffee at 7-11, they count the results. Accurately predicted last two elections.
That's just lovely. He reminds me of the type that would hide under a klueless klu×y kl@n hood...
The smirkly smile, as he pawns the monkey off onto the kid (as if he's being oh-so-thoughtful), is disturbing to say the least.
Admittedly, Chevy Chase can hardly be considered a comedic authority.
I missed the first sketch and watched it later, but I did catch the Weekend Update bit. Palin was unremarkable. The performances of those around her -- Fey, Baldwin, Poehler, even Lorne -- only served to show how out of her element Palin was.
Also admittedly, that's not unusual for SNL guest stars, either. Their material is limited in accordance with their skill level, which here, was fairly low.
Still, though -- it was interesting to see Fey and Palin side-by-side like that. Fey, who has talent and skill out the wazoo, and who got to where she is through years of hard work, and Palin, who achieved what she has by approximating those qualities.
In terms of Komedy, the Andy/Mark encounter was much funnier.
The current batch of SNL regulars is so unfunny they make me miss Joe Piscopo.
There's a couple of gems on there -- Wiig, Samberg -- but overall, they don't seem to gel as a cast as in some previous editions. Individual players, rather than a group of players, I think. I'd have no idea how they could fix that, short of the reanimation of Phil Hartman.
The performances of those around her -- Fey, Baldwin, Poehler, even Lorne -- only served to show how out of her element Palin was.
You forgot "Biden." ;)
"the woman who, pretty much single-handedly, crafted the national conception of her as 'Caribou Barbie'"
Uh, not so much. That conception was there before Tina Fey ever impersonated her. The brilliance of the performance lies in the fact that it's not an exaggeration or a lampoon.
From the article:
"Tina Fey met her career maker on Saturday Night Live"
Yeah, b/c obviously she HAD no career before that. JHC,etc...
The whole thing felt forced. Plus it made Tina look bad, scurrying out from the podium without acknowledging Palin.
They should have let Palin play the flute or something.
Keith Olbermann had fun with that one last night (the "VP in charge of Senate" bit).
Upon review of Sarah's second skit on SNL (the Weekend Update appearance) - - I cringed so hard that my head still hurts.
Yeah, I'm going to miss our little chats as well...
OK, I can't seem to figure it out from the comments in mothy's link - - and I don't have audio at work. Which "c-word" are we referring to?
*taps fingers*
Transcript
John McCain: "Rates were cunt in the...cut in the Bush years."
Bah, I figured it out! Some of the newer comment's keyed me in. It's only going to get better!
Going back to a non-issue before, in the pic in mothy's link -- it doesn't look like those are real glasses. There's no refraction around the edges at all, which should be super-easy to see in rimless glasses.
Poser.
Also, there's no refraction of the light passing through the lenses and onto her cheeks, just the shadow of the edge of the lens itself.
Has been suggested that she has a slight eye alignment problem going back to her childhood, and that she may wear prism in her lenses - - and such a lens would not be so easily detectable from looking at a photograph...
Regardless, I'm settling for poser.
Also her last name is actually 'Paling'. She just doesn't pronounce the g because she's folksy like that.
Well, my glasses have a pretty weak perscription and a slight stigmatism in one eye, and you can't tell they are real unless you put them on. I only wear them for seeing details at a distance -- at presentations, movies, that sort of thing.
*curses speaker-less work pc*
*pages the local transcriber*
What the heck did he say? Though, Cindy's eyes did a nice roll job there...
Her main obstacles to the nomination are Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.
Wow. A choice between Potential President Palin, Potential President Romney and Potential President Huckabee? Wow. That's. Wow. No. No no no no. Argh.
Crap, now I'm going to have four more years of nightmares no matter WHAT happens in November.
Not after President Obama signs an executive order banning nightmares you won't.
And she also considers herself an "intellectual."
I'm not going to come up with a joke on that. I'm just going to have it sit there for you to stare at for a while.
Zamboni? As in the ice resurfacing vehichle used at hockey/skating rinks?
She's taking the hockey mom thing a teeny bit too far.
Capt., are those the symptoms of Down Syndrome, or is that just McCain's most recent medical report?
Still, though there may be a risk of those problems, pretty much any baby might have those problems, no?
Speaking as someone who lived through one of the least debilitating items on that list (difficulty breastfeeding, and that was only a temporary problem for Jack), it really upsets your life, honest. The emotional strain of parental terror aside (and I do not shove that aside lightly), it can really throw a wrench in your day-to-day life. For us, it literally doubled the amount of work it took to produce milk and give it to Jack for months, and with a child not yet on solid food, that's a serious complication.
> pretty much any baby might have those problems, no?
Yes. From what I understand, the differences between kids with Down's and other kids don't become very apparent until the second or third years.
A cynical view of this is that Palin as a model of special-needs parenting is code for Palin didn't abort the fetus even though she knew there was a chromosonal problem. From what I can see, she doesn't have much genuine experience in this area either...
I just realized today that Trig's name is actually Trigger.
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser.
So, basically Mike Huckabee with boobs. Well, Mike Huckabee is Mike Huckabee with boobs, but you get my point.
She's a -- (wait for it, wait for it) -- maverick!
I just realized today that Trig's name is actually Trigger.
Not according to the fine folks at Sarah-Palin-Is-Cool.com:
His full name is Trig Paxson Van Palin. How did Trig get his name? Trig is named after a great uncle who was a Bristol Bay fisherman. Paxson is the name of a popular snowmachining area in Alaska.
So it's not as bad as we thought?
And "snowmachining"? I thought that folks up north called it "sleddin'", if not plain ol' "Skidooin'"..?
That and the fact that Arizona is slipping from McCain has me fairly excited.
But it was countered by the economic collapse of Asia this morning, so whatchagonnado?
Apparently, Palin is now 'dressing down' in the light of the clothes (item) line spending scandal whatzit. Last night she did a rally in jeans, to show off how frugal and virtuous she is, yada yada yada.
Said jeans come from Palin's "favourite consignment shop" in Anchorage, a fact which is noteable only because of it ironilicious name: Out of the Closet.
Post-Defeat PlannersFormer Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for the White House, have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election. "Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012," says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin. "The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney. He's in charge on November 5th."
Can't we wait for this merry-go-round to stop before we start up again?
Oy vey!
*imagines going to Williamsburg and seeing a sea of Sarah Paylins*
*collapses*
Is Sarah Palin preparing for 2012?“But I’m not going to complain about it [a sexist double-standard for politicians], I’m not going to whine about it...
Then shut up about it.
And speaking of sexism towards politicians -- the fine folks at the New York Post have put together a photo essay of the film "Who's Nalin' Paylin?", to be found at a reputable adult-entertainment stores near you. Ask for it by name! [SFW, kinda]
I just realized today that Trig's name is actually Trigger.
Not according to the fine folks at Sarah-Palin-Is-Cool.com:
His full name is Trig Paxson Van Palin. How did Trig get his name? Trig is named after a great uncle who was a Bristol Bay fisherman. Paxson is the name of a popular snowmachining area in Alaska.
Weird, I was sure I read something on Sunday where he was referred to as "Trigger". Can't find it now, though.
The great EvanDorkin has a fine Palin contest on his blog:
Sitcom Pitch = Your Chance To Win A Book
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 — 1:14 pm
Here's my wacky sitcom pitch, listen up entertainment industry:
McCain and Palin are elected, okay. So, we have four years of comedy right there. It writes itself. It just might write itself, heaven help us.
But anyway:
Palin wants to be President, don'cha know, so she and her staff keep coming up with plots to kill McCain in a way that will make it look like an accident. They scare him a lot "accidentally", work on his heart, slowly poison him, send him envelopes with white powder in them, try to trigger nightmares of his imprisonment, try to knock him off podiums, rig chairs and equipment to break, etc. They use her kids, who leave toys on stairwells, shriek outside his office, screw with him, etc.
Likewise, McCain is trying to bump off Palin, she's no longer useful to him and is more popular and "too mavericky" and a friggin' danger to the world and maybe his people find out she's after him, to boot. He sends her to dangerous situations and his minions try to whack her while placing the blame on terrorists and the like.
So, you have a White House where the top two are trying to ruin, sorry, run the country while also trying to kill one another. And they have to act like they like each other, ho ha ha. It's wacky!
I don't have a title for this. Come up with a title, that's the contest. Whoever has the best title (imho) wins a HOF trade of their choice (if I have it in stock and available for free shipping). And when I sell this baby to some on-line fly-by-night and make thirty bucks, you get a dollar*.
(*I'm not pitching this, or doing it as a comic, it's just a blog post, don't worry, I won't steal your title)
Title away!
Hot dang, gosh-darnit!
Not long till she's your VP!!!
Palin: 'Far-left wing of the Democrat Party’ could takeover.“And there must be something about San Francisco and he because it’s like I heard on Fox News today, it’s like a truth serum where when he’s there, he seems to be more candid, and remember it was there that he talked about, there you go, the bitter clingers, the cling-ons, all of us, I guess, you know holding on to religion and guns and, um, so something about he being there in San Francisco.”
I didn't think I'd see the days where I'd yearn for the rhetorical abilities of George Bush, but -- there you go.
I'm just surprised to hear her acknowledge that there is part of the Democratic party that ISN'T far-left.
...the cling-ons, all of us, I guess...
Sarah Palin: Pro-Klingon.
Palin To Black Person: Todd & I Live With Racial Discrimination, Too! [with vid goodness!]
She's like one of those punching clowns, except for stupid. No matter how many stupid things she says and gets called out for, she gets right back up and says something just as stupid again.
Which is where the metaphor falls apart, as the guy didn't deck her. And rightly so. But I could understand the intinct if he popped her one in the mouth and dropped her to the floor. But that'd be Wrong.
...the cling-ons, all of us, I guess...
Sarah Palin: Pro-Klingon.
I think Klingons would vote McCain-Palin.
I thought Klingons were largely Libertarian.
Or was that the Romulans?
The Klingons would be seduced by the promise of 100 years more warfare.
Well, first she'd have to offer them honor. Then, they'll honor her offer.
Can this thread now be officially closed, forever? Pleeeeeze?
Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!
please dont insult the wicked witch like that!!!!
;)
NO HAT TRICK FOR YOU, SARAH.
The under-the-bus-throwing begins. Yay! From Newsweek:
One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
I'm really going to miss this thread.
Wow, Lara, that's a fascinating article. Dirt on both sides.
Well, we do still have the release of her medical records to look forward to, don't we? (snicker) And then there's the shotgun wedding...that should have some entertainment value.
Is this the longest thread ever? Does anyone know?
DAISYMAY!
Sources: McCain aide fired for 'trashing' staffOne of the aides tells CNN that campaign manager Rick Davis fired Scheunemann after determining that he had been in direct contact with journalists spreading "disinformation" about campaign aides, including Nicolle Wallace and other officials.
"He was positioning himself with Palin at the expense of John McCain's campaign message," said one of the aides.
Is this the longest thread ever?
Two words: Indian toilets.
NO YOU DO NOT BRING UP THAT THREAD EVER
Nah. Indian toilets only has 630 comments. This one is up to 653 with this post.
DAISYMAY?
Yes, I thought so. 1906 comments. Suck on that, Sarah!
> One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000
That makes sense - we got news of the 150K in October, which probably means it was spent in September. In about two weeks time we should find out how much was spent in October...
Crazy Palin will never reach the dizzying heights, or lengths, of Daisy May. Or Turkmenbashi I miss bees! *sniff*
What mothy said!
Don't get me started with bees...
Well that's because it is, silly!
Pfft.
Wait...it is, isn't it?
Sarah Palin is marvellous. I hope the Republicans keep her in charge for ages and ages and ages, until they dwindled away to naught
Didn't GWB make the same mistake a few years back?
>>And then there's the shotgun wedding...that should have some entertainment value.
Part of me wonders whether this wedding will actually happen now.
I'm big enough to admit that I'm small and petty enough to kinda hope it doesn't.
I don't think it is small and petty. I think those two poor kids will escape an unfortunate mess if it doesn't happen.
*notices that the Palin thread has 666 comments*
*flees*
AND I AM USER 666
PALIN/KOKO 2012
If you name your first-born Ligger, you have my vote...
"I'm basically going into this, at this point, thinking Obama will not win, if only because I don't want to be disappointed. Plus, it would be an unbelievable sign of good judgement on the part of the American electorate if Obama wins, such as I have never seen in my lifetime."
I can now say that really I was lying, and for the last month I was pretty certain that Obama would win, because McCain was running such a fucking unbelievably incompetent campaign. But the concept of McCain actually winning by some stroke of universally supernatural good fortune or malice did still send a shiver of anguish thru my fevered brain, because the guy is a chump and an overly privileged, promoted above his abilities asshole of the same order as Chimpy McWarCrime. Imagining 4 more years of the same shit, and it would be, was more than I could really face.
So it was with great pleasure I watched the election results pour in, and with great satisfaction I realised fully that Barack Obama was the new President of the USA, which is good, because whatever else he is, he's not a schmuck, and the world needs less schmucks in the White House. We've seen how that works out.
But in any case, I have enjoyed this election more than any other I have seen, and I've been watching 'em since Reagan. Schadenfreude does not even begin to cover my cognitive reaction to the Republican loss, and their current disarray.
However, the irony is not lost on me, that without the last 8 years of incompetency, war crimes, lies, corruption and general fuckheadery from Bush and his cronies, that this election would not have been anywhere near so sweet.
But I would still have preferred not to have all the death and lies and illegal war. That really wasn't a cool buzz at all. Can we not have that stuff anymore?
Also: Sarah Palin. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
And they're going to try to get Palin to read the comments section.
Just so you know.
From Capt's link above - the sole dissenting comment:
What planet are you people from? McCain lost in a close election? His ass got smeared! LANDSLIDE! And sorry, most of it was because of the idiot running mate he chose. It tickles me that most of her supporters can not even spell her name right.
Palin Aide Fires Back at Reported McCain Camp Slams.And when McCain and Palin split up in Arizona Wednesday, the personal differences were stark.
McCain drove himself home in a Toyota sport utility vehicle. Palin's departure was a grander event. She left with an entourage of 18 family members and friends and a Secret Service detail, heading to the airport in a motorcade stretching more than a dozen vehicles, flanked by a dozen more cops on motorcycles.
Ego, much?
I would vote for Koko in a heartbeat if she had a more qualified running mate, like, say, f'r'instance, a half-eaten chicken taco?
this site Capt. links to is brilliant. I hope they collect all the email addresses of the folks posting to it and send them all a copy of "Hooked on Phonics" and perhaps a history book or two. It is also nearly as funny as teh Onion, but in teh pathetic way, not the ha ha way.
I have an empty beer can with cigarette butts in it, will that do?
KOKO/BEERCAN 2012
(I figure as the mostly-sentient one, I should get to be presidint.)
KOKO/MR WHISKERS IN 2012!
BEERCAN/CHICKEN TACO 2016
I'm really going to miss her:
"Wul, it's ridiculous because you guys report based
on anonymous sources, so it's hard to have a defense.
John McCain and I just spoke a couple hours ago about this,
he too saying, you know, as long as reporters will choose
to, now a'days -- it doesn't seem like it had been practiced
in the past but now a'days -- report based on false allegations
coming from anonymous sources, it's kinda impossible to
respond to false allegations. But, I know that I know that
I know that there was nothing done wrong in the campaign."
I'd vote for Koko/Whiskers in 2012. Change we need and Toxoplasmosis in every pot!
She was just frantically ... trying to sort stuff out," Heath said. "That's the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for.
Perhaps Bristol lost her underwear out under the bleachers?
Wait, they're giving the kids' underwear back to the RNC?
So, I find myself wondering, as I have been since their loss; why doesn't McCain have her back? Shouldn't he be stepping up to the plate, now, and giving her support in light of his own, hand-picked team attacking her? I think his NOT supporting her gives more credence to the rumours.
And also, UNDERWEAR??? Didn't they already HAVE underwear?
This goes beyond the usual far-right-fringe crazy talk. This woman has some significant mental health issues.
I think McCain wanted to lose, and selected Palin to make sure it would happen. There is no other rational explanation.
Perhaps he realized he was too old or lacked the energy/desire to lead the nation after the Bush debacle, but had moved much to far into the process to back out. So he manufactured a sure-fire defeat.
Does a maverick not select good pal and perfect running mate Lieberman because party leaders don't like the ideology? That doesn't wash. McCain, much as I dislike his politics, is no fool, and only a fool would have chosen Palin as a running mate. So he did it, knowing it was political suicide. He needed to find a way to lose.
>>why doesn't McCain have her back?
He's about to. On the Leno show tonight.
RTD - I think your right. I've heard that idea a couple of other places. No one wants to outright say that he threw the election, but one wonders....
Aah, now they're saying it wasn't 'Eisenstadt', but somebody else.
Who the fuck knows?
There was a legitimate source (perhaps more than one) in the campaign that gave that info to Fox News. Fox is still standing by their story. The only fake thing here is Eisenstadt and his claim to be the source.
Now, why Fox didn't immediately come out and deny he was the source, I don't know. I suspect it might have been partly fueled by a desire to watch MSNBC fuck up publicly. But regardless, the leak really did happen.
So what about Joe the Plumber being related to Charles Keating? Is that true or is it an Eisenstadt hoax?
I believe that was debunked too.
Somebody tell me Palin was a hoax.
...a zombie nutjob puppet hoax.
Oh ho, no. She is firmly entrenched in "look-at-me" land. Her ego is GIGANTIC and is obviously addicted to the attention she continues to get. Hey - thanks media! Thanks for giving that narcissistic media-whore just what she wants. Can we move on now, please?
I'm sure most of you aren't old enough to remember the
Quayle Quarterly but it was chock full of goodness. Palin's
got what it takes to have supported a weekly at least.
"Sitting here in these chairs that I'm going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it's our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don't get away with that. We have to balance budgets and we're dealing with multibillion dollar budgets and tens of thousands of employees in our organizations."
Suddenly I think I know what's going on here: She's speaking in tongues!
Logorrhoea
Is that when crap comes out of her pie hole?
yup
I CANNOT TAKE THIS ANY MORE!!!! STOP INTERVIEWING THIS PERSON!!! You complete idiot, and your imbecile network. Forget Sarah Palin! She was a catastrophic senior moment and you people should not any longer give her media time with which she can make us all retch and cry for the future of the human race.
GAAA!
I mean seriously, did you hear the phone prank those two canadian guys pulled on her. What a dumb ass. She actually thought it was sarkozy on the phone to her and didn't even realise she was being stitched up when he made a reference to "nailin Palin" for christ's sake. Funny but not when you think nearly half of the US voted for her and that other senile idiot.
Some new 'Draft Palin 2012' website. Chatroom has exactly One (1) member, so if you want to go in and swamp it before it gets off the ground, far be it from me to restrict your freedom of expression.
Odd how that "straw poll" is leaning so much in the
Obama direction. Looks like dozens of people are voting
every second. Wonder how that's happening ...
Check Out The Hot New Sarah Palin/Turkey Grinder Bloodporn. [via teh 'kette]
Palin pardons a turkey, and then grants an interview, while the butcher is slaughtering another turkey in the background, while she's just smilin' and chattin' with the folks.
Hi-lar-i-ous.
I'm thankful for Sarah Palin coming into our lives this year. I really am. Every day, she gives us something else to smile about.
Non-blurred-out vid here, so you can see the bird in the 'killing cone', going through its death throes, while Palin is being as pleasant as can be.
Also: is she now drinking a Starbucks-type coffee beverage? That don't look like Dunkin Donuts... LBRL ELITE!
What the...
It would have been perfect if she'd turned around and said something like "So, I guess that was yer partner you were puttin' in the woodchipper back there."
ok I broke down and watched it. she is really fucked up. "levity"??? pretty sure that's not what the turkeys are sayin'
I love how the guy, around 2:20 (in the non-blured-out one) nods at what Palin says, and goes back to slaughtering.
It would have been perfect if she'd turned around and said something like "So, I guess that was yer partner you were puttin' in the woodchipper back there."
LOL.
And here we are. And it's such a nice day!
I was in the bookstore in the mall today, and I saw this: a biography of Sarah Palin.
Not exactly a weighty tome. A good chunk of it was eaten up by footnotes, and it came with a handy two-page section in 14 pt font double spaced of her "noteable achievements", most of which included her being born, graduating high school, getting married, separate entries for each child's birth, mayor, failed Lt. Gov. run, Governor, VP nominee, the end.
Kinda said to see a 'new leader' with that little of a biography to them. It was the same sort of rushed-out bio that they have for American Idols or whatever -- two hundred pages of fluff.
Enh.
I don't like being angry. It upsets me.
armfinger with afountaintattoo pen / That means you really love me..."drinklink, I swear.IraqIranPakistan. I'll stuff my flag down your throat and make 'ya swallow a taste of my liberty! Booo yahh! Stick all the pansies on the off-shore rigs and make them DRILL DRILL DRILL!! Comprende, Comprade?? If there's oil in the tit, than we're gonna SUCK SUCK SUCK it dry! Don't mess with the power, son - we'll run you over and throw you to the tar pits...dickweedlawyer attends GOP convention as delegate, meets an outgoing and personable young lady, takes her back to his hotel, wakes up $120K poorer.saw which way the wind was blowingcame to her considered opinion as a reformer and anti-corruption maverick, joins the push for Ted Stevens to resign.