hmmmm
October 2nd, 2008 | Uncategorized
Something’s going on with that last post–you can’t make comments on it. Let’s see if you can on this one.
Something’s going on with that last post–you can’t make comments on it. Let’s see if you can on this one.
46 Responses to “hmmmm”
yeah. okay.
how about that debate? I listened to it in the car, so fortunately didn’t have to actually witness SP’s cuteness spasms.
Just have to say, that picture is Price. Less. Your own Photoshop, AB?
no, Holly Bemiss, the person organizing the FASPBCF sent the image.
And I just heard from someone that the RSS on the last post is all full of pharmaceutical spam. Sorry about that…I’ll try to figure out how to fix it.
I was very glad when Biden actually got a little pissed about the whole “maverick” thing, and buried it. Speaking of pissed, Palin’s sloppy English really grates on my nerves. I sure as hell don’t speak the Queen’s English, but I do try to clean up my pronounciations when in more formal company, or when trying to give a good impression. She doesn’t even try.
I admired her total non-sequiturs.
It was like that movie “Speed.” Just keep going full tilt! It doesn’t matter where!
Argh. The debate gave me gas. And hear hear, Ginjoint. I was glad in the last half-hour when Biden started to flex some muscle on their differences. She is SOOOO smarmy! But good to know that the two parties don’t support gay marriage huh? Indigestion, like I said…. Bleh.
In the same vein as that were the string of talking points spewed forth, apparently in the hope of having them possibly land in some semblance of sense. Like a monkey on a typewriter, that sort of thing.
Why the hell do I watch baseball? Why do I torture myself like this, year after year after year?
Palin’s scariest quality is her pride in her own ignorance. How comforting to know that she supports an expansive reading of the Constitution when it comes to the rights and privileges of the VP, not so much when it comes to the rights and privileges of other people.
Anyone else catch that for perhaps ten seconds tonight, Joe Biden was *for* federal recognition of gay marriage??
Nothing actually said in the debate scares me more than the media’s consensus after the debate that “Palin stood up to Biden” and “Palin seemed competant”.
Everything is so divorced from reality.
Am I the only one expecting yet another stolen election this year? Threepeat anyone?
(whimper)
From the Chicago Tribune: “She was armed with talking points involving tax increases, domestic drilling for oil, critiques of Democrat Barack Obama’s record on the war in Iraq and stinging one-liners. And she repeatedly attempted to steer the debate to allow her to use that ammunition, regardless of the question at hand.” (Italics mine.)
Hm. Perhaps the MSM is catching up to the thinking citizenry. And perhaps monkeys will come flying out of my ass.
Call me a mean unreformed anti-sex prude, but I’m not convinced it’s ever appropriate to photoshop a woman’s face on to a bikini clad body without her permission. Criticise her policies, record and incompetence but let’s not sink to borderline sexist strategies.
Hmmm. Normally I’d agree, Lavendersparkle. But if that woman a.) was herself once a willing participant in a swimsuit competition, and b.) poses a dire threat to the Republic, I think it’s fine.
My first reaction was similar to Lavendersparkle’s. But I think the picture is just pointing out her disputable moral standards by merging two events in her biography: participating in beauty pageants and trying to ban certain books.
The original of the photoshopped image, which is around on the web everywhere, shows a woman holding a rifle — a reference to Palin’s having hunted moose from a helicopter up in Alaska. (The image is here: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_sarah_palin_bikini_pic.htm ) At least one major news organization showed the picture as authentic. I don’t know if the picture is fair play or not, but the GOP is currently texting people and telling them that Obama plans to hand over nukes to Iran — the picture is weak tea in comparison.
K was in despair about the debate, she thinks Middle America is going to completely buy Palin’s folksy okeydoke. I was compelled to play loud mariachi music to cheer her up (can’t stay sad when the horns start to play). This morning the early polls show no major uptick in favor of McCain / Palin.
Margaret Thatcher is turning in her grave….
oops ….shes still with us…..Sorry Maggie
From Feministing – and in the interest of fairness, here’s Biden as “Joe Sixpack”:
http://www.feministing.com/archives/011398.html#more
I was blissfully listening to blues music in the glass lab in Oakland. I heard a little on NPR on the radio at home and found it interesting that she’s shaving a little off that Fargoesque accent. I like reading the summaries and it sounds like she’s Ron Reagan Lite with the penetrating intellect of Dan Quayle.
just to lighten the mood a bit. i’ve begun composing a few palin-inspired haikus:
put a female on
the ticket: but women aren’t
that dumb…or are we?
piper palin. you’re
a dirty little girl. who
knows where that hand’s been?
feminist for life?
perhaps you’re confused? you see,
feminists can choose.
oh darling, what a
maverick you are, and darn right,
this is sarcasm.
a grizzly bear couch
and a giant crab coffee
table: is this real?
don’t you dirty my
identity. you do not
speak for us all here.
feel free to add! let’s see what we can get outta this. then, when finished, let’s create a small leather-bound journal full of our fabulous haikus and send them to her after she loses as a parting gift. any takers? com’n now, don’t resist the urge…
Calling last night’s tiptoe-around-each-other-and-try-not-to-look-bad event a “debate” is stretching the definition, in my opinion. One dictionary defines debate as, ” engaging in formal argumentation or disputation with (another person, group, etc.)” Did we see any argumentation or disputation? Not really. Just a soft-pedaled, staged, mockery of a debate. Was it an example of democracy in action? Nah, just spin.
In any case, here’s my favorite Palinism of the evening, courtesy of CNN’s transcript on line.
PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president.
Gaaahhh! Is that English there she’s speaking?
Thanks for allowing through this blog there for me to say there my opinion.
(Sigh)
Something is definitely going on in that last post. When I read it in my feed reader, it’s filled with ads for xanax and stuff. I suspect you’ve been hacked.
Haiku is not my verse form, alas. Will this do?
There once was a mom from Wasillia,
Of Alces alces a great killia.
Her qualification
For leading the nation
Lay somewhere twixt Bush and Godzillia.
I seriously considered using Odocoileini instead of Alces alces, but it seemed to be going a bit too far. Now if I just could have worked out a way to bring in her pregnant filia, or her superior qualifications as a performer in vaudvillia– but I will leave that, for the moment, to other versifiers.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith JcH: It’s called light verse because all the heavy work is done by the poet.
Nucular. Twice, at least. Straight to the American people. Very much in keeping with party line pronunciation it would seem.
It may bother the people who vote for Democrats these days, but those who might vote for Republicans don’t have a problem with dim, shallow candidates. I mean, look at Reagan, Quayle and the currrent Bush. Those voters at least have figured out that even if the president is a complete idiot, government will still go on pretty much as normal.
I think 2008 is going to be a year that the Repubs try to throw the election, like 2000, 2002 and 2004. (I think they laid low in 2006.) In September I saw a number of Republican vote-scamming stories very much like those I remember seeing in October 2004.
A number of months ago, a bunch of political professionals, including Republican ones, were quoted as saying they thought there were probably going to be big losses for the Republicans. I haven’t heard any such stories lately. Maybe Republican political professionals no longer believe it? I dont’ know.
The foreclosures and job losses have to have SOME effect on the electorate, don’t they (he whimpered pitifully)?
Autumn red states, ya,
But the flaming trees will be
Bare by November.
Just to let you know that Google must have changed their search algorithm again, because a search for “DTWOF” now gives this site as its top listing.
BTW, do you think it’s time for US ballot papers to include the option of voting for “RON” ( “re-open nominations ) ?
watching the debate with passive aggressive columbia students wasn’t the best idea. best i had stuck with the cubs-dodgers game…
We couldn’t watch, we knew she would be able to bob and weave and not drool, and our hands would palsy ere we voted for McCain. That’s me and my wife, btw, not the royal we.
I see that McCain is going to spend the last month going after Obama’s ‘character’. Smear smear smear.
I also hope people won’t be swayed again, but when you review the track record of the voting public, you have to be wary, at the very least.
there is a small review of “state by state” in today’s salon.com. i was very happy to sese that they refer to alison’s contribution as inspired.
yeesh! that was supposed to be “see”. i have to increase the type size on my monitor.
Well, to try to offer a tiny ray of hope, my partner believes Obama will win. And by a good margin. Imagine it, people – stay optimistic! (and keep working/giving/focusing…)
Yes, Ready2Agitate, that’s my plan. Just believe it. I’ve taken to saying (to myself) “President Obama”. Words and thoughts do have power.
I was searching through polling results on-line on Thursday when the thought suddenly struck me – Obama’s going to win this election. Nothing that I saw Thursday night in the vice presidential debate changed that… Palin spoke coherently, just not always about the question she had just been asked. She did nothing to help McCain.
I didn’t see the debate as I can’t bring myself to watch politicians on TV these days. But before the debate I did wonder about the gender relations aspect. It’s hard to put my point across without sounding sexist, but would Joe Biden feel able to go for the jugular (as Palin fully deserves) without Joe Public feeling sympathy for a “poor, defenceless, helpless woman”? Especially if she does the beauty queen bambi eyes?
And yes, I do think the Repugs will try to steal the election. In which case I’m moving to Mars. I’d send sympathy cards to all US citizens, but to be honest, I’d be blaming every single one of them that voted Republican and would be signing up for Mo’s anti-war militia. Have you seen the video of Homer Simpson trying to vote Obama, but each time the voting machine records it as a vote for McCain? Hilarious and surprisingly allowed on a Fox Network programme!
I worry less about whether Obama will win but whether he’ll win by enough of a margin to prevent the Repubs from stealing it again. I’m a spoiled idealist, which is the worst kind of cynic, but that doesn’t keep me from doing my bit. Absentee ballots go out in twelve days, and on the following Saturday I start walking my precinct.
Though we can’t put ourselves on cruise control, Washington State is pretty likely to go for Obama; our big concern is the governorship. This year’s race is a repeat of 2004, in which the Democratic candidate won by 133 votes. Even with the advantage of incumbency, it’s still a dead heat. Washington State Democrats are doing a big get-out-the-vote campaign for Governor Gregiore, which will equally help Obama.
I watched the vice-presidential debates at a large sports bar with the “Women for Obama” group of my legislative district. It was a big gathering, so the local TV stations were there, and I was one of those interviewed. At one point I was asked whether it made a difference to me that Palin is a woman. I said: First of all, she’s a woman I don’t think is competent for the job, and with whom I profoundly disagree politically. And second, I’d have to be pretty stupid to support someone who wears a skirt just because I wear one, too. The newscaster had no reply.
I not only wear skirts, I also wear hats. I’ve never seen any of the candidates in a hat. FDR wore hats! Eleanor Roosevelt wore hats! Who represents hat-wearing Americans? Fellow hat-wearers, we’re being excluded. Let’s get out and march for Hat Rights! All power to the Chapeau!
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Mark Twain: We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.
But what if the canditate were a lesbian (or gay male) who wore a skirt? What about a lesbian (or gay male) who wore a skirt and hat?
Jana, I’ve been sending money to a woman running for Congress in a Seattle suburb (even though I live in California). Her name is Darcy Burner. Her Dad is a Viet Vet friend of mine. She is an excellent candidate and I had a chance to meet her in LA.
If you listen to the Repubs you will notice there are three words they never use in the debates: Republican, George and Bush.
My favorite debate quote,“Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history.” And not a peep out of Palin.
Ted– I did some phone calling for Darcy Burner the last time she ran. My congressional district is probably 80% Democratic (our Congressman, Jim McDermott, is sometimes called “Congressman-for-Life”), so the Burner campaign often recruits people from our district to help.
I’ve done quite a few sketches of Darcy, and they almost all turned out well. I’m not sure why, because she’s relatively young (and looks younger), and I find older people much easier to draw. I can use more lines! With children and teens especially, I have to capture a likeness in just a few lines, or I end up adding twenty years to them.
Glad you like Darcy. We have some interesting local races going on, but practically everyone has interesting local races. On this blog we focus on national politics because we’re from all over the world, but one can usually have more effect at the local level. I’m a precinct committee officer, and am among those being actively wooed by the two Democrats who, because of our new top-two primary, are competing for the state legislature in my district. It’s surprisingly tricky, because I could easily support either one, and I meet them both frequently. Knowing the candidates in person adds a whole new dimension. Anyone else have interesting tales about their local politics?
Donna– A candidate wearing a skirt AND a hat! Wow! I’d have to support even an evangelical Christian who did that! (Not really.) You know, I think Stuart would look good in a fedora with his utilikilt. Distinctive, distinguished, and a bit silly.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Thucydides: A man who takes no interest in politics is leading not a quiet life but a useless one.
I just think it is incredibly sad that Democrats don’t feel like they can be for gay marriage without losing the election. I will never understand how that brings out so many emotions in people.
Well maybe the Republican WILL lose big in November:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100303699_pf.html
If that link stops working:
http://www.truthout.org/100408A
Oh, and I liked Pamela Anderson’s take on Sarah Palin. 🙂
As a Godzilla fan, I ask you not to insult the Big Guy by comparing him to whoever.
ksbel6,
The argument that we presented when we went door-to-door campaigning for a “No” vote on the Kansas anti-gay marriage amendment was a libertarian one: that the state should not decide that a whole group of people cannot enter into contracts with each other. The amendment, which passed overwhelmingly elsewhere in the state (except for Douglas County, where was defeated with 60% of the vote going “No”), was nearly defeated here in my 50,000-some population home town as a result.
Time to get out and campaign – however you can. You can go to http://www.mybarackobama.com to get phone numbers (very easy) or go to your local Democratic HQ, or join up with MoveOn.Org for their next calling party. Talk to your neighbors. Donate $ if and when you can. Now’s the time, people.
Obama Or Else!
Just have to mention here that someone over on Pharyngula http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/10/vp_debate_thread.php called Palin “Caribou Barbie”.
Can’t quite form my indignant feminist glare properly because I’m laughing so hard….
Little Gator– In central Washington State is a small town named Zillah. In Zillah there is a Church of God.
Go here for a photo of the sculpture in the church parking lot: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=4232776&publicUserId=5576180
Go here for t-shirts: http://www.8ball.co.uk/tshirt/3/26677/T-Shirts/TV-&-Film-T-Shirts/Church-Of-Godzilla-T-Shirt/
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Anna Russell: I’m not making this up, you know!
Kitty Burns Florey’s article, “Diagramming Sarah”, about sentence diagramming.
http://www.slate.com/id/2201158/