I’ve been reading about Mrs. Palin. My head didn’t explode until I read this:
She’s a hit [Mona Charen]
I’m getting tons of mail like this:Sarah is real!!! What a fabulous contrast with Obama, who is not real. Sarah is from America. Obama is not.
If it was meant to bait me, well nom nom nom, I am eating the bait. I now officially hate these weasel fucks. And that’s saying something.
For 20 years, I lived in Indiana, where you can’t make a Dan Quayle joke in mixed company, where our right-wing editorial page regularly got complaints that it wasn’t conservative enough, where the same thing was said about Rush Limbaugh, blah blah blah. I developed a mantra, which I’ve discussed here before, but indulge me. I’d say: I have arrived at this point in time on my own path, and so has this person before me. We have reached different conclusions along the way. Ommmm. This kept me from going insane and perhaps even made me a better person. I should have said it out loud more often. Hell, I should have screamed it in a few people’s faces. I certainly feel like doing so now.
That smelly little excrescence above, that’s it in a nutshell. These are the people I want gone. Not just out of the White House, off the national stage. I want them out of the country, put on boats and sent to the southern ocean to circle the pole until they break up in the ice and drown. Mona Charen, daughter of privilege, who went from Livingston, N.J. to Barnard to the White House to the Capital Gang to the Corner, approvingly quoting an anonymous turd-juggler calling Sarah Palin “from America” and Barack Obama not from America. [Enter: Ghost of Ashley Morris] Fuck you, you fucking fucks. [Exit: Ghost] You are un-American. You don’t deserve to live in this country. You are simply too much, dare I say, of an elitist.
Since the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan, these people have been the self-appointed arbiters of Who Gets to be American. For nearly 30 years, they’ve sat in their well-paid jobs typing with their soft little hands, making the world safe for themselves. They are liars and hypocrites of the worst sort: Divorce is OK for Peggy Noonan, bad for you. Working mothers named Phyllis Schlafly or Mary Matalin or Mona Charen are good, but your job takes you away from your precious children just so you can be fulfilled, you selfish bitch. Homosexuals who want to live together under a legal contract will destroy marriage, but homosexuals married to opposite-sex partners (Hi, Mrs. Craig!) won’t. Bill “Double-down” Bennett repackages Aesop’s fables as “The Book of Virtues” and gambles his royalty checks in casino VIP rooms, but that’s OK.
I could go on.
Of course it would be Mona Charen who would do this for me. Our paper used to run her column, and I’d read it every so often. Her big issues were communism and culture, and like most columnists, filed dispatches from the home front once in a while. She nearly dislocated her shoulder patting herself on the back for staying home with her children — she’d blushingly describe her child-care arrangements while she penned her deathless prose as “having help” — and occasionally would express her simmering resentment that she’d given up her career (writing speeches for Nancy Reagan: Wikipedia) and its financial rewards for her kids, while others hadn’t. One day she wrote that a family with a $200,000 annual income could hardly be considered affluent. In her, ahem, elite circles, this is certainly true. And yet she claims to be in touch with the “real” America, while everyone with a D after their name isn’t. You couldn’t make this shit up on a head of windowpane, folks. You really couldn’t.
And who wouldn’t be a little resentful? She went to Barnard and George Washington University Law School! All that to write twice a week for Creators Syndicate and be part of the Corner? That’s a waste of a good education. (I keep wondering how long it’ll be before these folks come out against educating girls at all, if they’re just going to stay home with their kids anyway. In this arena, the FLDS folks are bleeding-edgers.)
You know why “the base” loves Palin? It comes up time and again, as it’s about the only really notable thing about her: She had her last baby, even though she knew ahead of time it had Down Syndrome. This is a noble act, to be sure, but I don’t see how it qualifies one for high office. And so much for women being judged as anything other than a collection of female body parts. (The fringiest part of the fringe will wonder, if she’s so pure ‘n’ all, why she even had the test in the first place, opposition to all prenatal testing being a big signifier for these folks.)
But back to the culture warriors. They’ll snicker behind their hands at the funny names black people give their kids but think Track and Trig and Willow are fine names for, er, white children. Palin, from the 49th state, is “from America,” and Obama, from the 50th, isn’t. Palin hunts and fishes in exurban Anchorage — good. Obama works in inner-city Chicago — bad. They’re too self-deluded to see the truth before their eyes, that they’re both “America,” an America that can support and elevate people from such divergent backgrounds, who make such different choices. But they can’t see that, because only people who make choices they approve of get to be Americans.
You might say they don’t matter, these little foot soldiers. Yes, they do. They matter now more than ever, because they’re the amplifiers. They’re the bloggers and other chatterers who pick up the talking points and talk them to death.
Later in the day at the Corner:
Not from America [Mona Charen]
Did not mean to endorse what one letter writer said about Obama not being from America. He obviously is — from the furthest left part. I just loved the guy’s phrase “more precious than pearls is a woman who likes to fish and hunt.” FWIW, I do neither.
Really, Mona? Could’ve fooled me.
By the way, I fish and have no particular problem with hunting, although I’ve never done it. And I’m voting for Obama.
moe99 said on August 30, 2008 at 11:12 am
Wow! Let me never get on your bad side, Nance.
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Danny said on August 30, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Totally OT:
I just have to share with you one of my favorite things here in San Diego – the beach at Del Mar, right around 18th street and the lifeguard tower. One of the very cool thing about this beach, other than it being big and clean with soft sand and having volleyball nets and bathrooms is that the train goes by on the cliffs nearby. Yesterday, my nephews and I were catching waves all day while the trains were going by sounding their horns.
Just spectacular.
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beb said on August 30, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Wow, what a rant. I’m with you fully here. It’s like these Republican talking heads are some another planet because they’ll say things that are disconnected from anything that normal people see and hear.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 12:24 pm
And if McCain had tapped Romney, we’d be . . . talking about Temple undergarments. And why his kids all did LDS missionary stints, but none went into the military. And flip-flopping as Massachusetts governor.
Pawlenty? We heard what would have been said about that one the first two hours after the announcement of Palin, as Dem strategists scribbled out Pawlenty’s name on their talking points and made oddly worded (if heartfelt) statements about Pawl-Palin’s inexperience and lack of global understanding.
The fact that it took Obama’s campaign hours to start counterpunching on Palin’s own record and credentials (or lack thereof) meant that the Speech bump was effectively shut out, which Chuck Todd pointed out quietly but often on MSNBC. Over grills all weekend people will chat about life while making mooseburger jokes, and next Tuesday the focus swings back to whether the wrinkly white-haired guy is certifiably crazy, just hot tempered, or temperamentally suited to leadership.
McCain-Palin: Picking Up the Electoral Map and Giving It a Good Shake
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a different Connie said on August 30, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Wow, Nance, you’ve said it all for me. Congrats.
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moe99 said on August 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
Just read the first 6 articles. All on Palin. Anyone who thinks she’s a solid pick has drunk the Kool Aid.
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jcburns said on August 30, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Wow, Nance represent!
I’d just like to say as a white-bread guy from Ohio, I am exactly as not-American as Barack Obama. Precisely. proudly, in every detail just as not-from-America. For those weasels of you who draw a line and try to push Obama onto the other side, away from you and “your kind,” I proudly step across that line and join him…and everyone else you exclude.
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Jolene said on August 30, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I dunno, Jeff. McCain has surely shaken up the news. Whether he shakes up the electoral map remains to be seen. My sense is her will mainly bring out white evangelicals, who have not been enthusiastic about McCain. There are a lot of them, I guess, and they can get pretty fired up, but the Republican base is still smaller than the Democratic base. There may be some Hillary supporters who will vote for her, but there cannot be many who are totally devoid of reason, as they’d have to be to vote for someone whose principles are so totally different.
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moe99 said on August 30, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I think this letter to Andrew Sullivan, who Jeff must agree is a conservative pundit on his same bandwidth, offers a bit of pause:
“I had been reluctant to acknowledge how flawed and dead the conservative movement has become; that’s over now. No more excuses, no more clinging to old visions of rational discourse and principled debate. I really have witnessed the death of conservatism and its replacement by a kind of toxic babbitry which would be merely laughable or cringeworthy if it were not also so extraordinarily dangerous.
This election year has been a series of revelations and disillusionments–the crudely ugly tactics of Limbaugh and Hannity (and–worse–their embrace by Buckley’s heirs at National Review), the thinly-veiled racism and nativism of the campaign against Obama, the transparently cruel and God-hating ideology of movement Christians; but–even though dismayed by McCain’s bizarre campaign–I had retained some illusions as recently as this morning. I believed McCain to be at least a patriot, sincerely concerned with issues of national security.
His nomination of Sarah Palin ended that illusion, too.
No remotely serious politician–no honest patriot–would think of placing this individual a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, however admirable she may be, however lively her biography.
Moreover, the elation on the right regarding Palin’s nomination made clear to me that none of them has ever been remotely serious about national security, either. On the contrary, as the left has insisted for years, for them it really has all been about political advantage, noise and bluster and ugliness with no core of principle, no genuine strategic commitment.
The very same people who, only yesterday, insisted that Obama’s resume was too dangerously thin to entrust him with the oversight of our national security, today are celebrating Palin’s accession as a triumph for conservatism (evidently this is because she is hostile to both abortion and polar bears). Their hypocrisy is staggering–they truly do believe in nothing but their own entitlement to power by any means.
And I’m very much afraid I must conclude this is as true of McCain as it is of his ghastly cheerleaders, the Limbaughs and the Hannitys. Nothing else could explain the elevation of a woman so singularly unqualified in every aspect save gender.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/american-conser.html#more
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Letter to, not from . . . Andrew is still trying to get his bearings on this one, which i’m sure he won’t support, but his viewpoint over time will be worth checking. Conservatism is changing, which is not quite an oxymoron, but it is a peculiar thing to watch. Could drift/fracture into two or three movements, but i think that’s true just under the surface for the Dems, too. Major realignment over the next ten years strikes me as smart money to bet, but which issues will be with which group i couldn’t even begin to predict. The biggest chunk, made up either of mostly D-heritage or R-wreckage parts, will be soft-pro-life, or pro-choice-with-reservations.
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John Good said on August 30, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Wow. Thanks for speaking for those of us who still have to deal with the Summit City Koolaid Teetotalers. Nicely done.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Actually, thanks to Andrew, if you want to reflect on complicated conservatives — http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kirchick26-2008aug26,0,1400460.story
And i’m not sure i ever mentioned — i’m pro-McCain among many other reasons because i like the idea of tightening and defining down torture past waterboarding, and i’m certain McCain will get that done and make it stick. I’m not for it for both moral and practical purposes.
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 3:09 pm
All us chicks ‘n babes are sposed to dash over to the right right now and become cheerleaders for Mrs. Palin cuz Hillary was cheated goldurn it and we want a girl on the ticket. And Sarah can skin an elk and make chili out of him, too. woo hoo . . . Yep, that’s presidential, alrighty.
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 3:11 pm
“TOXIC BABBITRY”
I love it.
Danny, on beaches in SD – we love OB for the pier and Dog Beach and Nick’s and OBistro and of course for The Black, Your Momma’s Mug and Rancho’s . . . I’m making myself homesick for SD. wah.
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Joe Kobiela said on August 30, 2008 at 3:16 pm
N,
I like you I really do.
I have read you since you started in the fort.
I remember your picture by the old Greyhound bus station.
But for God sakes, if this woman had a D by her name instead of a R, you would be singing her praises, at least give her a chance to speak. Everyone said they want change, not the same old Washington ilk, (see Bidden) now we have someone different and you slam her because of what other people write.
Put away the Dem vs Rep and give her the same chance and respect you would if she was on your team.
Pilot Joe
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 3:38 pm
“you slam her because of what other people write”
Is that why she’s getting slammed? I thought it was because of her obvious lack of credentials, capability, experience and intellect.
We don’t need a damn desperate housewife for a president.
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MaryC said on August 30, 2008 at 3:45 pm
At least, some of Mona’s readers are forcing her to defend (or weasel away from) that “Obama’s not from America” statement.
Now if we could only get Mona’s correspondent to explain exactly why Obama’s not from America and Palin is. What could possibly be the difference between the two? Palin likes to hunt and fish, that must be it.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Only another day left to donate to the candidate who promised to stay with public financing and kept his promise!
https://secure.johnmccain.com/Contribute/ContributeB.aspx
McCain-Palin: Real Election Reform!
(No rush on posting the Obama donation website, since you have weeks and weeks to donate to that campaign . . .)
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Joe Kobiela said on August 30, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Ah Suzi,
She running for v-president, not president.
and I still say if she was D instead of a R you would love her.
Joe
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nancy said on August 30, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Joe, if I failed to make it clear, let me do so now: This has nothing to do with Sarah Palin, and everything to do with the people who have decided, on the basis of knowing little more about her than the sketch of her biography, that she must be One of Them. Further, that being One of Them, she embodies all that is good and right and true about this country, unlike Obama, who is wrong and bad and probably a secret Muslim.
I probably would like Mrs. Palin just fine if we knew one another in real life. We share many of the same interests.
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coozledad said on August 30, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Sarah’s a slap in the face to intelligent women. It’s hilarious watching these Republicans wonder why women won’t back Bubbles. You don’t get it, guys. Never will. It simply isn’t possible for torture advocates and racists to understand the difference between someone whose vagina is a clown car, and someone who has managed to make their own way despite the opposition of the brotherhood of the holy penis.
Sarah Palin is just another Clarence Thomas:The Republican parody of equality. They laugh about it when they’re popping each other’s fat arses with towels in the steamroom.
The pretense to nuance kills me too.These guys want to be able to waterboard people and use it as evidence in a court of law. And they will use it on US citizens. We’ve already seen how their nipples get hard when they’re on a witch hunt. If you think waterboarding isn’t torture, and you don’t think it runs counter to the spirit and letter of the Constitution, then you’re simply a lost cause, and a failure as a human being. You are ill.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I would gladly forfeit our lifelong dream of winning Powerball, buying an island and declaring an independent monarchy if I could infiltrate one of those faux town meetings and ask McCain “How do we beat the bitch?” And what does the bitch think about Keating Five?
There is so much of this that assaults common decency and intelligence. Women will vote kneejerk for a woman that thinks carbon dating is voodoo, Creationism should be nationally mandated science teaching, interfering in tawdry small-town romance, low rent rendevous need a governor’s interference, and the Constitution guarantees a right to untrammeled gun-show dealing in assault weapons.
The love of my life is spitting bullets over this travesty. but I think she’s missing the greatest insult. It’s the name. Michael Palin may be a lesser light in the Monty Pantheon, b-b-b-but he’s a pescophile that truly loves a Fish Called Wanda. Sarah Palin does disservice to his name. This c*nt believes in slaughtering fishes for her livelihood. Well, no she doesn’t, and anybody that has some idea about her husband Fabio reeling in the Great White Salmon is an idiot.
Quite a stutter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZAC2WuEaCc
God’s second blunder was Republicans. First was probably not Michael Palin.. It’s an agreeably arguable contention that Kevin Klein’s character is basically Dickless Cheney. Is it possible somebody could discern a more despicable piece of shit?
Now there’s the subject of how she’s damaged his name. Michael Palin is a clown, because it dawned on him one day. His pal, John Cleese, is the comic rendition of the sun setting on the empire. He’s not Ray Davies, but he’s close, and who is? Their compatriot Terry Gilliam understood a Stalinist turd like W years ago. Gun-mom is not remotely funny, and if she believes the world is 5000 something years old, she’s an idiot, or a liar, or a Pharisee.
We figure she’s a “mean girl”.
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Joe Kobiela says:
August 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Ah Suzi,
She running for v-president, not president.
and I still say if she was D instead of a R you would love her.
Joe
Oh Joey, gee thanks for splainin’ it to me. Like Dubya, I might enjoy havin’ a beer with the lil darlin’. She still seems more like the head of the cheer-leader squad, not the head of the class.
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Mary O said on August 30, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Thank you, thank you. You just put into words what I, a working mother of 3, have been feeling for awhile. Which is why you have your website and leagues of devoted readers like me.
I hope I make it through this election without beaning about half of my family. I just had a surreal conversation with a younger brother who went off on Obama and his connection to Bill Ayers. This guy was 4 years old when the Weather Underground was around, and now “knows all about it.” Yes, the Fox news version, of course. I kept my cool as he got hotter and hotter.
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 4:00 pm
BTW, Joe, if John-boy croaks, Sarah becomes the Prez, capish?
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Some asshole prayed that God would rain on Obama. God seems to have made his choice. Heckuva job. Fucking morons.
god
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Hattie said on August 30, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Why anyone thinks this is anything but a big fat mistake on the part of the Repubs is beyond me. But I appreciate the rant. If I had to live around the kind of assholes who think McCain-Palin is the “real” America, I’d be pissed off too.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 4:11 pm
They don’t want the human tragedy connected with Katrina. Of course they don’t. They don’t give a shit, but they’re afraid it will look bad, These people are aholes.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 4:17 pm
OK. Does anybody in their wildest imagination think this idiot is Hillary? She doesn’t believe in universal healthcare. She believes Creationism is equal to actual science. She’s a Republican Stepford idiot.
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 4:31 pm
What we don’t need is another lightweight ideologue with too much hubrus and too little proclivity for deep thinking.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Ladies,
Sorry , Bitches,
Whoa, we meant cumts.
John McCain thinks women are dumb.
I don’t claim to understand women. It’s my firm belief that women represent the best the human race has to offer.
Here’s the deal. This idiot believes everybody ought to be armed with an assault weapon. She’s a jerk. She’s basically a moron bevo-hair Repiblican lady. She has no clue but Miss Congeniality.
She’s basically Lindsey Lohan sans brains. And when Gustav hits, these pep[le dom’t care about human beings. Why would they? They’re Republicans, abd there isn’t any cash there.
.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Suzi, She seems like the mean girl. But you know what, McCain is the mean gitl. He seemed to sign on with the Swift Boaters. McCain latched on to Kerry’s senate investigations. And kept arms length. Ahole.
Do you believe Bush lied his ass off about WMD? You know he lied his ass off. These people subborned the Constitution.
They lied, she lied, do we vote for assholes that lie their asses off? Sorry, but these are dickheads. She believes real science is made up. She’s a moron. And McCain is contemplating his nexr trophy wufe if she’ll bleach her hair.
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moe99 said on August 30, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Joe, Let me clue you into something. There were many women in the Democratic side who actually opposed Hillary. And were not afraid to speak up about it. And Hillary, like Sarah, is a woman!!! So don’t you dare think that if Sarah had been appointed the VP for the Dems that plenty of women would not have spoken up about what a frakkin travesty it was. Doesn’t matter party, she’s unqualified at the present time to hold this office.
And, yes, I was one of those women who spoke in opposition to Hillary.
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susang said on August 30, 2008 at 5:22 pm
hey nance
If you want to lower your blood pressure and have a good laugh, check out Gail Collin’s column about the VP pick
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/opinion/30collins-.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 5:27 pm
McCain rode Kerry’s idea that there was something to be said for law enforcement. Where the hell does some nitwit like W get off. What an asshole. He made his way on tha, but Kerry tiook down Raygm for anybidy with a brain. Gustav is about to nail Mawleans. Tjese aholes fucked that up beyond belief.
I’d ask intelligent people to consider. Ix the USA in some lonh war? An intelligent person would decide it’s something for law enforcement. It asure as shit doesm’t mean some Stralinist whack-jobs ought to trash thee Constitution.
It is fairly clear Republicans buy into Grover, and they think the Pretzeldent is supposed to be king. Holy shit, not these assholles. Rovian is 666.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 5:37 pm
So, she’s OK. She believes creaiinonsm is science. Shes a moron.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Holy shit. She believes. What a mpprn. This cunt is a flaming ashole
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Ehat I’d say
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Suzi said on August 30, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Obama – Columbia and Harvard Law.
Palin studied Journalism in Idaho . . .
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brian stouder said on August 30, 2008 at 5:59 pm
It’s like these Republican talking heads are some another planet because they’ll say things that are disconnected from anything that normal people see and hear.
Literally true. Here in Ft Wayne, the local radio lip-flapper, and a fellow who seems to wannabe a tool (and one-time radio partner with The Proprietress) Pat White, made me flat-out angry yesterday.
I am very slow to actually call someone a “liar” – but Pat White is either a lead-pipe liar or else a rock-headed simpleton. In discussing McCain’s running mate, he repeated and pointedly said that she made ALL her remarks “off the cuff” in Dayton; NO notes, and NO teleprompter, and by the way Obama is an empty-suit who hasn’t an original thought in his head, and who is lost without his teleprompter.
He repeated this litany 4 or 5 times, and of course his amen-callers began repeating it as ‘something they noticed, too’.
When I got home, and saw the video, it took me approximately 3.5 seconds to see her teleprompters!! Pat White is a damned liar or a f___ing idiot, or both.
Now – one could correct him on this point of fact, but how many numbskulls will always believe it? It reinforces the idea of the shif’less dumb ol’ black guy who has a slick song and dance to perform, and the earnest, virtuous white woman, who is “one of us”.
Granted this is a microscopically-small example, but it captures what Limbaugh and Hannity do every single damned day….and thinking about agin now, it makes me angry enough that I can hear my heart beating in my ears!!!
Sorry Jeff – You are indeed mild mannered (or well mannered, if you will), and I enjoy reading your takes, and I know we would get along swimmingly if we ever met….and there is no “but” following this statement. People like YOU are really “one of us”, the good folks, the thinkers and the fair-minded.
Limbaugh and Hannity….and on a much smaller scale, Pat White (et al) are the worst of us; liars and bigots and rabble rousers, making a living off of other people’s ignorance (which gives them every reason to increase that ignorance!)
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nancy said on August 30, 2008 at 6:03 pm
In the future, please refrain from referring to Palin as a cunt, Caliban. And anyone else who feels inclined. She’s not, and it clouds the discussion.
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Catherine said on August 30, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I wonder if it is possible to keep the discussion about Palin on the things that matter? That is, to policies, experience and so forth? If the attacks on her start getting sexist in the way those on Hillary were, I might have to find more than bare minimum of sympathy for her.
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Deborah said on August 30, 2008 at 6:41 pm
This was one post that is exactly the reason I read your blog. You can say it better than most.
I’m a woman who was never for Hilary, always for Obama, and I’m of a certain age too, way closer to Hilary’s age.
Oh and Mona, who’s she? And for that matter who’s Sarah?
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Rana said on August 30, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I wonder if it is possible to keep the discussion about Palin on the things that matter? That is, to policies, experience and so forth? If the attacks on her start getting sexist in the way those on Hillary were, I might have to find more than bare minimum of sympathy for her.
I agree, but – “start”? — The sexism is already well under way.
(And I resent that I find myself having to defend this anti-choice, pro-oil, anti-science Republican from such attacks. Sexist attacks = lazy, easy, unpersuasive.)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 7:16 pm
To mellow on a late August evening — take some Farmer’s Market long fat green beans, topped and blanched, throw them in a trough of heavy duty foil, drip a bit of lemon juice, throw a bit of rosemary and thyme on top, drizzle with olive oil, seal ‘er up, and throw on the side of the coal before you put the grill top on and do up some steaks (or black bean burgers for the vegans).
After all the main course comes off the grill, pull the pouch and dump the contents into a bowl, and enjoy the evening.
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Colleen said on August 30, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Thank you for articulating that, Nancy. What you said. I just feel like this administration is…mean. Scolding. Pointing fingers and deciding who “deserves” what. I’m sick of it.
And Joe, if Obama had chosen the Dem equivalent of Palin for his running mate, there would be a LOT of us walking around saying “WTF did he just do?” Having a D after the name doesn’t mean a free pass.
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LA Mary said on August 30, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I wondered about the prenatal testing too. If she had no intention of terminating the pregnancy, why test? It is a somewhat risky procedure.
I had a brother with grand mal epilepsy who was also what we called mentally retarded, now developmentally disabled. I had testing with both my pregnancies. Amnio on one, CVS on the other.
Did she just want to know the gender?
…and, she’s not a cheerleader. She’s the vicious basketball player. Cindy McCain was a cheerleader at USC (aka university of spoiled children).
I also have a brother who has been a councilman in a town of about 25,000 for a few years, before that on the school board. He’s got more time in than Sarah, but even as a loving sister, I can’t imagine him being ready to be president.
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Calliope said on August 30, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Karl Rove on the possiblility of Obama choosing Virginia Gov. Kaine:
“With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?”
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MaryC said on August 30, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Re the pre-natal testing, I wondered about that too but she has said that she wanted to know so that she could be prepared. It looks like the pre-natal test is being spun to make her seem more saintly than those parents who have refused the tests, preferring to accept what God or fate sends them. Interesting how that works.
By the way, the latest rumor is that the baby is actually her oldest daughter’s — which seems a little over-the-top to say the least. I know it’s been done many times in the past with the help of a friendly family doctor but this was a pretty public pregnancy!
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moe99 said on August 30, 2008 at 8:18 pm
LA Mary, I’ve also heard USC referred to as the University of the Scholastically Challenged or U$C. Mostly from Stanford graduates.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 8:26 pm
She also believes Catholics are devil’s spawn. I dont’ think we’re some sort of cult. I’m pretty sure we predated Martin Luther’s bad bowel movements. If there’s a Twentieth Century philosopher more prescient than Teillhard, lets hear it from W’s brand of rich asshole self absorption. Bring the asshole on and mission accomplished. Kiss my ass, Ms Point Guard, and welcome to the occupation.
Rabid anti-Catholics are basically whack jobs. She is a bigot, and sitting in that gunstand and shooting at papists is seriously heinous. Shooting immobile moose is another story. What Randy Newman said. Jesus, what a jerk. You shoot some mammal that doesn’t move. Ahole.
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deb said on August 30, 2008 at 8:30 pm
wonderful rant, nance — you’re fabulous when you’re pissed.
LA mary, i’m as irritated with the palin pick as the next guy, but i don’t know how much we can read into her decision to have amnio. i did it at 38 because there were medical issues on both sides of the gene pool. terminating the pregnancy wasn’t even on our radar. if there were problems, we wanted to know sooner rather than later so we could start dealing with them.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 8:38 pm
My dad is a pediatrician. He loves kids. This was bull, and anybody thinks this had to do with anything but bullshit is an idiot.. You despicable piece of shit.
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caliban said on August 30, 2008 at 9:03 pm
She’s an idiot. She believes Creationism is science and should be taught in school. You can’ get stupider than that.
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LA Mary said on August 30, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Mona should know that Alaska is from the farthest left part of the US, not Hawaii. Check that longitude, Mona.
I wiki’d Livingston, NJ and I’m surprised how rich folks are there. Back before Amtrak, we rode the Erie Lackawanna through Livingston and it looked almost as shitty as the rest of northern NJ. I always read the name of that town in the voice of the train conductor….LivingSTON…LivingSTON.
My home town (where the bro is a councilman) has shrunk in population dramatically. Turns out I know about half the borough council personally, and I think I know the mayor’s sister. We had a fight in the girls room once. I don’t really miss NJ.
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dand said on August 30, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Great Rant.
She makes me think of Monica Goodling.
I figure McCain does not think that death and taxes apply to him.
She must be an up and comer. If corruption were the Olympics then the Alaska Republican party is the Michael Phelps of corruption. Here Palin is barely 2 years in office with her own ethics investigation. Most people would take 5 years to get that far.
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Dexter said on August 30, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I also adopted a philosophy , “this person has a reason for believing the way s/he does, let them believe; it’s not my job to try to change him/her.”
This was arrived at after I used to ridicule Reaganites and show them the error of their ways; it never worked, I stopped. I took it way left of liberalism and was known as a radical. A few union brothers understood, but I was too radical to relate to most fellow workers.
This is why I enjoyed this rant-topic so much. I read every word muttering “yes!”. I have my personal antidote to apoplexy that is brought on by Limbaugh and all of FOX News…I avoid it. I have to. The late George Carlin was interviewed decades ago in Playboy; he said he had seven heart attacks because he was so goddam mad at Nixon he was in a rage all the time. Finally someone talked to him and convinced him killing himself with hatred might not be for the best. Carlin eased up a bit on Nixon and lived another 30 years.
My daily tonic is delivered into my head via headphones , from Air America. I listen to Randi Rhodes and it’s all better.
She relentlessly attacks these weasels and calms my soul.
FOX News and Hannity and those people are not worthy of my anti-elitist time.
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Linda said on August 30, 2008 at 10:51 pm
The Democrats should not tie themselves up in knots figuring out how to deal with Palin because she is a woman: just treat her like another candidate. Subject her statements to the same scrutiny that you would any other candidate. I’m sure the governor who said she didn’t keep up much with the surge because she was paying attention to Alaska stuff at the time will come out smelling like a rose.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 30, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Danny, given your location, i’m guessing you’ve seen “The Stunt Man,” and if so, recall the scene where Eli Cross/Peter O’Toole talks about his director friend who wanted to make the ultimate anti-war movie?
I think i just watched dailies on that set.
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Suzi said on August 31, 2008 at 12:12 am
To learn even more about Palin, check out Feminists for Life
http://www.feministsforlife.org/index.htm
They would ban abortions for rape and incest victims, for women whose lives are at risk and also the pill and morning after pill.
This is one of those groups that would like to brainwash us all into beleiving that abortions cause mental illness and that “abortion factories” are raking in buckets of money from poor victimized females who aren’t capable of managing their life decisons without the guidance of enlightened pro-life coaches.
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del said on August 31, 2008 at 12:45 am
Nancy, I clicked on the Wikipedia link to Mona Charen and found that I tried a case against her husband in Washington, D.C. in 1999. He was with Paul, Weiss, et al’s NY office. Hmmph.
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Gasman said on August 31, 2008 at 1:24 am
The notion that McCain is tough on national security has just been exposed as total bullshit. If he were such a security genius why in hell would he pick Sarah Palin? Her credentials are unimpressive for someone a heartbeat away from the White House. Let’s remember that the heart we’re talking about is in a 72 year old cancer survivor.
I’ve heard from R talking heads that Palin actually has more foreign policy experience than Obama or Biden because her state borders Russia and she commands the awesome forces of the Alaska National Guard. Alaska has fewer people than Albuquerque. Her longest political experience was in a town of less than 7,000 people. If the United States Senate doesn’t provide adequate training on the international stage, being Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska sure as hell doesn’t. Being Gov. of the nation’s smallest state (population wise) for a year or so is also scat preparation. And I’m supposed to take McCain seriously? If Obama had picked the mayor of Albuquerque (who incidentally, probably has more foreign policy experience than Palin) I would have said he was nuts.
Joe, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass whether or not she had an R or a D behind her name. I find her to be rather misanthropic politically. She appears to be Ted Nuggent’s female twin. No thinking D will be swayed simply because she is cute or has an interesting, if very brief political bio. Her choice was such an overtly patronizing choice to the cave dwellers on the right that it is HIGHLY unlikely to sway anyone from the center-right/left. And as for capturing disaffected Hillary voters, that may be the most telling thing about the McCain camp. They are so dismissive of women that they find them all interchangeable. Very much of a Dan Quayle pick.
There is no way in hell you can spin her total lack of experience into some sort of foreign policy advantage. Her pick indicates just how cynical and patronizing the Republican Party still is. It is insulting to anyone truly interested in national security or any of Sen. Clinton’s issues.
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MaryC said on August 31, 2008 at 3:26 am
By the way, Nancy, if you want a really egregious example of Who Gets To Be An American, here’s a quote from Jonah Goldberg of the National Review on the appearance of Lily Ledbetter, the Alabama woman who sued Goodyear Tire for wage discrimination, at the Democratic Convention:
“Tootsie with a southern accent. I burst into laughter”
Imagine, if you will, a Democratic writer with a New York address and a Jewish last name making the same remark about a speaker from Alabama at the Republican convention. Why, conservatives would throw a bigger hissy fit than Lucia de Lammermoor. Because in that case, of course, the speaker would be a real American and the Dem would be an elitist … non-American.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 3:47 am
Sarah Palin may not be a total bimbette, and pretty soon, she might be suffering from the Truman Syndrome.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/30/arts/truman.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert
Me, I’d prefer Mick Travis if I had to take on some movie character psychosis, or normality in the face of lunacy and abject criminality. But criminality and being a Republican is kind of au naturel, like Nixon, and that’s a vision nobody wants to live with. Or Jack Lint. Michael Palin in the role of a lifetime. I’ve always found it exhilarating that the best Monty was the American.
It’s possible American voters are so purely blood simple stupid they might select the grimacing, lecherous oldtimer and his high school fantasy VP pick. It’s going to be difficult with Kenneth Blackwell on his way to prison. He’s not? Quelle surprise. But Ohio knows how to do it right:
http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1214037102320080.xml&coll=2
Seems old after a while, but there was never anybody other than Evelyn Waugh and Eric Blair that exposed the total self-righteous sense of entitlement that nitwits like the Bush family exude. Not superior to me. Not superior to the average NancyNall contributor. Sure as shit not superior to the Constitution, even if mom is the Quaker Oats guy.
Anyway, HL said Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
I love that guy, but I prefer H. I. (You know, Raising Arizona.). Actually, the entire chase scene after the Huggies with a panty on his head is pretty much a perfect metaphor for Junior’s idiotic invasion of Iraq. And if somebody wants to bring up psychosis, there was Desert Storm, and this little pisant couldn’t ever outdo Daddy. Mission fucking accomplished.
I want Barack to be President. I want my country cleansed of crooks and unmitigated creeps like Karl Rove and the McCarthy stooge Ronald Raygun.. Lee Atwater damned these jerks on his deathbed. Bush One bailed out of a plane. Bush More Important said Mission Accomplished. Flaming asshole. McCain said all of that was alright, and he threw Kerry under a Short Bus to do so. Slandered by these subhuman scum, but he sucks up to them. Randy Newman has this right. Jesus, what a jerk.
Ms. Palin sullies her surname. Bad joke, and I believe evangelicals are Actually Americans and they don’t buy this gun-mom bullshit.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 4:05 am
Mona Charen seems to be having some sort of triangular love affair with Maureen Dowd and Hillary Clinton. Hillary is not in the mix except for campaigning for Obama. These ladies can’t write their ways out of bags.
Mona Charen’s byline photo is basically straight out of Oscar Wilde, and Dorian Gray would like his picture back. There are “national” columnists that are inexcusable. Mona’s right up there with David Broder. Maureen Dowd’s obscene obsession with what a cunt Hillary is is gaining all the time. Fine. OK. You made your asinine point. Shut the hell up. She’s not running anymore. God, what a conflicted moron, that’s too cute by miles to be a decent writer. Meow, dumbass.
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Danny said on August 31, 2008 at 4:11 am
Jeff, no. But I will make a note to check that movie out (love O’Toole). And I think I get your drift about the dailies! I was thinking more along the lines of Dr. Strangelove: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.”
Again, apologies to all for not being around much to join in the fun. I only have my nephews around for another few days and we are trying make the most of it.
My impression (albeit from a quick scan) is that many of you are going a little overboard. Really, some of you need to check yourselves. Seriously. With the exception michaelj/caliban, no one else here gets carte blanche to type stream-of-unconsciousness.
Suzi, OB was the first place I lived when I moved here in ’84. The thing I was getting at with Del Mar is that to have these colorful, cheerfully-horn-blaring trains whizzing by on the sea cliffs whilst catching a wave … in the sun … with a biplane overhead with a trailing advertisement … is kinda like if being in a Thomas Kincaid had he been a surf bum. Maybe I just am not describing it correctly, but there is just something so deliciously incongruous about the situation (like having your cake and eating it to) that it occupies a special place in my heart. And I ain’t even a train freak. It’s just very cool.
Some of the best things in life are free.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 7:02 am
Can America screw the pooch on this one? You’ve got a guy and cheerleader, and he’s an angry old fart that claims to be a war hero because he dropped bombs and got shot down. You’vw got a bunch of idiots tha think they proved their manhood by dropping hose bombs on VietNam. Viva Viagra. You’ve got, in the other corner, the first black man to make it this far, possessed of actual intelligence. I figure, if capability for nuanced thinking is bad, why not elect one of those guys from Blue Collar Comedy? But please make it Tater Salad.
What the hell, vote Sarah Palin and make America’s streets safe for Streetsweepers from the gunshow. It’s interesting. Did the crabby oldtimer think this was going to energize Hillary supporters? Probably did, but not in the right way. Honestly, McCain used to seem like he thought of women as second class citizens. Now he’s proved he thinks women are idiots. Or bitches, or cunts, or whatever.
How is it possible that America contemplates electing somebody that called his wife a cunt in front of a bunch of reporters? He’s marginally more intelligent than W, but that’s not saying a whole lot. Americans, ask yourselves, are base stupidity amd abject sexist inanity the criteria?
For deciding on a Comander in Chief? Demonstarable stupidity doesn’t make somebody a man, and a man doesn’t denigrate women. We’ve been down that road, and it defined failure on the decks of aircraft carriers. Unless you think trashing the Constitution is a good thing, this election is strictly no-brain.
This manly men crap is simply a load of Rush Limbaugh crap. Weasels that couldn’t stand up in a fistfight. You know Rush. Resembles Jabba. Made fun of Chelsea Clinton. Well, she’s gorgeous and he continues to be a truly revolting mound of blubber.
How the hell did voters buy W as the defender of the OClub and Nixon’s boy could slander Kerry. American voters are stupid. I always wanted my country to be more intelligent, It’s really a drag to find out that intelligence and compassion are detrimental to political success.
Alan Price had something to say on this subject:
Poor people are poor people –
And they don’t understand
A man’s got to make whatever he wants-
And take it with his own hands.
Poor people stay poor people –
And they never get to see
Someone’s got to win in the human race-
If it isn’t you, then it has to be me.
So smile while you’re makin’ it-
Laugh while you’re takin’ it-
Even though you’re fakin’ it-
Nobody’s gonna know.
Nobody’s gonna know.
It’s no use mumbling.
It’s no use grumbling.
Life just isn’t fair-
There’s no easy days
There’s no easy ways
Just get out there and do it!
And sing and they’ll sing your song-
Laugh while you’re getting on-
Smile and they’ll string along-
And nobody’s gonna know.
Nobody’s gonna know.
Nobody’s gonna know.
And nobody’s gonna know.
He also had this to say:
When there’s a bluebird singing by your window pane
And the sun shines bright all day through
Don’t forget boy
Look over your shoulder
‘Cause there’s always someone coming after you (la la la la)
When everything in life seems just as it should be
At last success seems just around the door
Don’t forget boy
Look over your shoulder
‘Cause things don’t stay the same forever more (la la la la)
Hope springs eternal in a young man’s breast
And he dreams of a better life ahead
Without that dream you are nothing, nothing, nothing
You have to find out for yourself that dream is dead (la la la la)
Dead (la la la la) repeat to fade
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 31, 2008 at 7:30 am
Caliban – re: Eric Blair and Evelyn Waugh:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/books/review/Holt-t.html
Hot off the presses, a review of a book about the two of them as twins separated at birth. Interesting take on what bound two unlikely writers together.
Danny, from unreliable memory, O’Toole’s character says “He wanted to make a great anti-war film; when they premiered it in his hometown, military recruiting went up three hundred percent.” Richard Rush claimed that he had heard Stanley Kubrick say this about himself after “Paths of Glory.”
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Jolene said on August 31, 2008 at 8:36 am
Here is an interesting take on Gov. Palin–a WaPo webchat w/ a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News. Very much worth reading.
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basset said on August 31, 2008 at 9:58 am
will this be the thread that finally gets Caliban banned? we can only hope…
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coozledad said on August 31, 2008 at 10:50 am
Back to the us versus them, it seems I heard someone discussing extraordinary rendition as yet another “tool in the toolbox”. Does this mean, when the DOJ is entirely staffed by Regents Bible Sales College graduates, we can only be certain that torture will be defined as whatever John McCain says it is?
Will waterboarding be used as a test for criminal unbelief, or merely used to extract confessions from political enemies?
At what point do you determine when to grab the extraordinary rendition tool out of this “toolbox” in abject violation of due process to redress perceived political imbalances, such as happened in the Siegleman case?
I’m curious, because I’m anxious to learn everything I can about eliminationist theology, and why evangelicals are keen on replacing the gospels with “The Witch-Finder General”.
I suspect it’s because of an essential failure to grasp the difficult moral choices which face people of mature conscience. The framers understood that there are people who resolutely refuse to put away childish things, and they crafted the law to protect us from them and their phantoms.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 31, 2008 at 11:52 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/08/29/DI2008082902052.html
Yes, worth reading . . . to learn about the reporter’s viewpoint. He knows so much about what Palin “really thinks” or feels, but when asked has no idea how she handles the childcare thing. An incurious fellow in some odd ways . . .
You shoulda heard the moms and dads in the coffee line after worship this morning at a mainstream Methodist exurban church. The most negative comment — “i wouldn’t name a kid after my Piper Cub float plane, but i guess it must make sense in Alaska. But naming a boy Track? I’ll bet they gave him a hard time in basic training…he leaves for Iraq on Sept. 11, doesn’t he?”
We’re putting up a bluegrass, county symphony, and fireworks at 9 pm concert this afternoon at The Dawes Arboretum (30 miles east of Columbus) for anyone around central Ohio. First act at 3:30 with a guy who played fiddle for Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” and two more bluegrass bands (modern and traditional, both led by the head of Denison’s music department), then the ol’ symphonic chestnut parade ending with 1812. It isn’t free unless you’re parking cars, but as i recall it’s just a few bucks. BBQ for sale or bring a basket and a blanket. I’m the tall geeky guy in an orange vest, wave and say “Obama rocks!” and i’ll be delighted to wave back to a fellow NN.C commenter.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 31, 2008 at 11:54 am
Cooze, i believe you mean the “Malleus Maleficarum.” It’s on my shelf next to “The Necronomicon” and the Gnostic Gospels. Gotta stay up on the oppo research!
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ROgirl said on August 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm
These are the people who say we could have won the Vietnam War if we hadn’t cut and run. Their moral hypocrisy rises every time they invoke God. The sleaze that they unleashed on the world over the past 8 years is sickening. Yet…they’ve managed to sell their message masterfully to people who don’t question their motives or ability to frame the debate. Isn’t it always easier to spin the argument at the level of the lowest common denominator than to explain a position in depth and with intelligence?
I hope enough people in this country can see past the bullshit, actually go out to vote in November, and defeat the fuckers.
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Suzi said on August 31, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Who does this remind you of?
“. . . she tends to oversimplify complex issues, has had difficulty delegating authority, and clearly has some difficulty distinguishing the line between her public responsibilities and private wishes . . . ”
If she became POTUS would she appoint a bunch of incompetent churchy cronies to high offices, maybe make that smarmy lardass, Warren, her veep?
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coozledad said on August 31, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Nah: I meant the movie with Vincent price. Do you honestly believe Regents grads read? Or is it a matter of faith?
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Danny said on August 31, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Cooze, i believe you mean the “Malleus Maleficarum.” It’s on my shelf next to “The Necronomicon” and the Gnostic Gospels. Gotta stay up on the oppo research!
Jeff, Don Vito Corleone would approve.
Hey, you sure do read a lot for being a “stupid” conservative. Cut it out or we won’t let you sit in the back of the bus with all the cool kids on our way to the winning-the-election field trip in November.
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derwood said on August 31, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Nice rant…I so enjoy you guys! Even Caliban!
The Palin pick scares me because of this: I work with 3 women, fairly conservative but not far right wing. All three were considering voting for Obama…two of them had committed to it in our conversations. All three of them were giddy, literally giddy over this pick. It was mostly the fact that she was a woman. They said they would do some research on her background but they all were now considering voting for McCain because of the chance for a woman to become President.
That scares the hell out of me. These are intelligent people…if they are having these thoughts in middle Indiana certainly it is occurring in other areas.
My pack of Obama crap can’t arrive soon enough.
d
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Danny said on August 31, 2008 at 1:25 pm
The Palin pick scares me…
derwood you hit the nail squarely on the head. This is why the left-wing blogosphere is having a major melt-down right now. I daresay, a few here have become unhinged too.
Lord Vader’s countenance is twisted into a rictus of joy.
Actually, I just funning y’all while we’re getting ready for the beach. Everyone, have a great holiday.
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LA Mary said on August 31, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Danny, I’ve left beaches because the train noise and the damn flying ads completely screw up the day of enjoying the water, the sound of the wind, the sun.
Maybe those trains were blowing their whistles because the Amtrak LA to SD train ran out fuel again.
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coozledad said on August 31, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Personally, my head is exploding because God is pissing on your convention, and I didn’t even pray for it.
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MichaelG said on August 31, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Derwood, see my 6:42 PM comment on Nance’s Friday post “What a Weasel Wants”. Link below. Your story is exactly what I had in mind.
Mary, the “Capitol Corridor” train runs from Auburn through Sacramento to San Jose. It overnights in Auburn. I got stuck one morning because they couldn’t get the damn thing started.
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MichaelG said on August 31, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I wasn’t aware that Alaska had an actual border with Russia. It had always been my impression that something called the “Bering Strait” interposed its presence between the two countries. Oh well, live and learn. Given this new reading of geography, could Delaware be said to have a border with Portugal? I know there used to be a little water between them, but it’s only a matter of degree, isn’t it? Now I’m beginning to wonder if California has an actual border with Mexico or whether Michigan truly abuts Canada.
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LA Mary said on August 31, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Until the tore down the Thompson Yard I could hear trains all day, every day. Now it’s the Metrolink maintenance yard and a park. I’ve got light rail train station at the end of my street, which is very nice. I can start out on foot from my house and get pretty much anywhere in the country via train. I’m two stops from Union Station.
That’s why when I go to the beach, I don’t want to listen to trains.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Somebody should ask Mrs. Palin about selectivity of cold dead hands and gun ownership:
http://www.startribune.com/local/27703754.html?elr=KArksUUUU
Republicans do believe in Cheney’s idea of unitary executive. That is, unquestionably, monarchy, old style. I expect we’ll be handcuffed and detained for calling Dickless Dickless and suggesting King George is pretty much an idiot. Our mayor down here in Beaufort County is a verically challenged liittle Napoleon that went to the Citadel. All sorts of delusions, and marshall law is probably not out of the question.
Please consider the fact that if Shrubs had the long war suspension of habeas corpus and every human right civilized people don’t even need to discuss, those people in Twin Cities would probably be on their way to Guantanamo, with stops in Morocco and Egypt.
Republicans have made it clear they stand for mindless uniformity of sanitized thought. They aren’t Luddites, because they did know how to make all of the incriminating emails disappear. But inveighing against intelligence, the GOP stock in trade, seems demonic. CS Lewis had never heard of Karl Rove and Grover Norquist when he invented Screwtape and Wormwood, but if the shoe fits Cheney and W, they wear it.
How does a moderately intelligent human being buy this “at war” with Al Quaeda bullshit? There is actually a country that makes Al Quaeda possible, and that’s Saudi Arabia. Do the New American Centurions want to go to war against them? Hand-holding among Cheney, Rummy and various Ayatollahs got Raygun elected while keeping hostages imprisoned. Republicans in office have murdered foreign leaders, moved guns and drugs to support brutal fascists, and lied their asses off about all of it to Congress. And they continue to lie.
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LA Mary said on August 31, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Sarah Palin may be a swell person. Her politics and mine are not compatible. In fact, McCain is closer to my politics than she is, so now I’m even more bummed that the GOP might win.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 2:39 pm
If you believe global warming doesn’t exist, and you aren’t buying some version of evolution, are you a dumbass, cute, somebody it gives most people the creeps to see embraced by McCain, Republican woman? It doesn’t require a global renaissance but imposed stupidity as a prerequisite for citizenship and patriotism seems kind of counter-productive.
And she could be blond in the drop of a bottle of peroxide, and she’s younger than Cindy. There is the problem about the cash. And how does this greedy wrasrl skate on Keating? Keating was Nationwide before Rosemary gave birth to Nationwide. And McCain was grubbing money from middle-class Americans’ hopes and dreams. Terr isn’t a new concept, and the Republican Party is well practiced.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I wouldn’t go so far as admitting the Lords of New Feudalism were human, because, being one, which I can’t do anything about, I hope humans have some redeemable characteristics, but there’s always Calvin and Hobbes:
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes
Come to think of it, love may fail, courtesy will prevail. Kerry was Harrison Bergeron, and we’re all supposed to think being stupid and thuggish, and a bully that’s actually a cringing wimp is a standard to be achieved.
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derwood said on August 31, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I actually enjoy the sound of trains. My wife’s grandparents live in Minot, North Dakota right by the Amtrak station. It was always cool to visit and listen to the freights blow their whistles. I also go on rolly rides for hours at a time…maybe I have a defect.
d
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 3:10 pm
McCain in a nutshell:
http://www.gocomics.com/deepcover
Noun, verb, adjective, adverb.
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julia said on August 31, 2008 at 3:31 pm
According to Time, the annual compensation for a partner at her husband’s firm is well over $1 mil/yr – even without her wingnut welfare income, she has no way of knowing what it’s like to struggle along on $200k.
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ROgirl said on August 31, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Let’s see…
1)Republican women are embracing the Palin selection because she’s a woman? They hated on Hillary something fierce, and they didn’t give her any props for her gender.
2)And her lack of foreign policy knowledge is something she can can get on-the-job training for? McCain’s ads intoned in dramatic narration and scary drum beats that Obama, with very little foreign policy experience, was a scary prospect, and a celebrity with no substance. Hmmmm.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Actually, this looks more potentially like “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”
http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse
If I were Superman, I’d have a hard time deciding whether the Shrubs or the Pattersons needed annihilating first. But I guess however I decided, I’d be handcuffed and detained.
Derwood. Trains are a soundtrack. Mystery Train, Train Time, Train to Nowhere, Train Kept Rollin, It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry, Orange Blossom Special, Wabash Cannonball, Last Train to Clarksville, Midnight Special, the spectacular Train in Vain, Nighttime in the Switching Yard, Folsom Prison Blues, Casey Jones, Smokestack Lightning, oh, and Love in Vain, and the Rolling Stones did a decent rendition of the song from the Devil at the Crossroads. And People Get Ready. So gorgeous it breaks your heart. I heard Curtis sing it at a Bobby Kennedy rally on Tuxedo Street in downtown Detroit, and it may sound corny, but that does seem to me to be what America’s about.
Hate to beat a dead horse, but we’d still have viable trains in the USA if Dwight Eisenhower didn’t build the interstate system for Jimmy Hoffa.
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caliban said on August 31, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Here ya go:
http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadventuresofqueenvictoria
Fact is it wouldn’t make a noticeable change.
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Dexter said on August 31, 2008 at 4:41 pm
ROgirl, right on! Look at Vietnam today and it’s hard to imagine how and why the US spent so much in lives and dollars, and for what? It just seems like such a mistake , as it did to many of us during the “American War” as the Vietnamese refer to it. Still, these people Nancy wrote of would want us to believe that by even more bombs and troops, somehow we could have won that war, and a good many of them think the US should have nuked Hanoi and all of the North.
It’s these same people and their children who believe the filthy nonsense springing from McInsane’s mouth regarding the “noble mission…” —all that shit—about the US occupation of Iraq.
Changing subjects for second , only Bill Maher questioned Obama’s determination to escalate the Afghanistan war.
Any bets on how long it will take Obama to oust Osama bin Laden up outta the cave?
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Dexter said on August 31, 2008 at 4:47 pm
an icon from my youth has left…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/sports/01kowalski.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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Jolene said on August 31, 2008 at 6:55 pm
More Palin entertainment: Her comments on the Pledge of Allegiance, as reported in a candidate questionnaire completed during her gubernatorial race.
11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance
The problem: The Pledge was written in 1892, at which point it would have been difficult to find out how the Founding Fathers actually felt, and the “under God” phrase was added in 1951. Even I knew that. Well, actually, I’d have had to say that it was added “in the ’50s.”
Here are her responses to the whole candidate questionnaire, which demonstrate why “the base” is so ecstatic about her selection.
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moe99 said on August 31, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Is she the mother of the baby? I realize this is National Enquirer territory but we’ve been here before with John Edwards, so what’s sauce for the goose….
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223
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Suzi said on August 31, 2008 at 8:02 pm
FortWaynites, Palin reminds me of Matt Kelty — attractive, popular, religious, family-values figure, and naive, under-educated for political office, not too deep and dangerously ignorant of the law.
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Dexter said on August 31, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Jolene , that’s a good one! We had to stand and recite The Pledge every day as kids , heart covered by hand, and I remember discussion as to how it had recently been changed (several years before, in my instance). Later on it flared up again as The American Atheists under Madeleine Murray O’Hair demanded the offending changes be stricken.
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Dexter said on August 31, 2008 at 8:19 pm
As the sun rises many thousands will walk the Mackinac Bridge from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City. My wife and I and assorted friends made this walk many times, mostly in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. It’s a great experience. Bon voyage, walkers!
(and you no longer have to worry about tripping over (former) Gov. John Engler’s triplet stroller!)
http://www.mackinacbridge.org/annual-bridge-walk-7/
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coozledad said on August 31, 2008 at 8:43 pm
McCain, in one last jab at sainthood, drives a knife through the heart of Rove’s Party. Talk about a hell Obama speech.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 31, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Teach your daughters well —
http://surberpictures.blogspot.com/2008/08/caribou.html
I’m thinking she can handle Putin or Medvedev. Ah, what a beautiful sunset over central Ohio, and beautiful fireworks with ribs and a Molson i didn’t have to pay for, all to the 1812 Overture after some Orange Blossom Special with bluegrass ensemble and county symphony. Life is good!
McCain-Palin: Shooting Up In the Polls, Not Just North of the Arctic Circle
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Gasman said on August 31, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Jolene,
That Palin gem questionnaire answer regarding the Pledge of Allegiance reminds me of an oft told tale in Texas. In the early 1920s, Gov. Ma Ferguson was asked about her stance on the then hot issue of making English the official language of Texas. Her response: “If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus Christ and the twelve disciples, it’s good enough for me!” Kind of hard to argue with that kind of logic. Palin appeals to those simpletons who believe that the founding fathers actually did have a hand in writing the Pledge.
Gov. Palin is lookin’ more Quayle-like with each passing day. Maybe she really is the best that the Republicans can muster. More’s the pity.
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nancy said on August 31, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Jeff, since you bring it up, please parse the difference between those two photos. Sarah shot a big mammal, so she has a bigger dick than John, who just shot a little birdie? I’m curious. I mean, we all know Kerry’s a big fag because he likes windsurfing, but I’m a little behind the curve on my bird-hunting code.
I assume she ate that thing. Can we get some more shots of her removing the gut pile?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 31, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Caliban — did you buy the argument linking Eric Blair and Waugh in the NYTBR? Interesting, but a stretch. In the end, i wasn’t sure what absolute values it was the author claimed they shared, other than honesty. Which is reason enough to value each, but doesn’t link them in any way that explains their differences.
[update] Sorry, just saw Nancy’s question — i would assume she ground it into sausage and froze it, having not heard good things about caribou steaks. Kerry looked like he was poking his grouse nervously wearing a jacket that just came out of the store cellophane, but who said fag? Who’s making penis comments? I just thought it was cool that she was willing to be photographed teaching her daughter to hunt, which not every politician would have the {koff} guts to do.
Really, i have no time or truck with demonizing Kerry or Gore or whoever that fellow is the Dems are running this time for president. I just think that i could like the Republican candidates this year and not be sub-human. As always, i could be wrong.
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Dexter said on August 31, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Oh my! Thank you! I thought Kerry was a big fag cuz he likes bicycling!
Audubon shot the birds he painted and studied; Kerry was just hungry for a pheasant.
MOOSE STEW TONIGHT!! OK, I ain’t no vegetarian, but this photo is still disgusting. Go watch “Into the Wild” and see how Chris McCandless ( Alexander Supertramp) fared trying to preserve his fallen moose….
(by the way, Jon Krakauer is a helluva author…I’m currently reading “Into Thin Air” (1996)…a real page-turner! )
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nancy said on August 31, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Yes, God knows being photographed hunting is a sure career killer in ALASKA.
That link draws a contrast between the two: “…as opposed to.” I’m just wondering, honestly, how opposed they are. One is a woman with a little kid, posing with a caribou, and the other is a man with another man, and he has a bird? Clearly Don Surber thinks this is just as oppositional as can be, and I was wondering if maybe you could see something I can’t.
Actually, Dexter, as I recall, some did find oppositional photos between Kerry (road bike) and Bush (mountain bike) worthy of discussion. The conclusion was that mountain biking is Of the People, whereas road biking is, well, faggy.
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Dexter said on September 1, 2008 at 12:06 am
Christ, where does that leave me, pedalling around a small town on a cross bike?
Oh. I want to share this video with fellow cyclists. I saw this live on the 2008 Tour De France TV coverage and it was scary, but the rider was unhurt…not for the squeamish…
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e5c_1216753545
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Phoenix Woman said on September 1, 2008 at 12:09 am
McCain was badgered into this by the Fundies. They told him in no uncertain terms — You pick Lieberman, we walk:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/how-palin-came.html
So his staff picked the ultra-Fundie Palin, who herself was on the short list of acceptable running mates reeled off by none other than the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land three weeks ago:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/08/politics/politicalplayers/main4331863.shtml
Just as in 2000, when they screwed him in South Carolina, the Fundies have once again shown McCain that they own his butt and he can’t make a move without bowing down to them.
By the way, here’s an Alaskan blogger with a representative picture of beautiful downtown Wasilia, Alaska, the booming metropolis that Palin left $20 million in debt when she was kicked upstairs in 2006:
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking-one-alaskans-perspective/
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MarkH said on September 1, 2008 at 12:18 am
Wow, I go away to a Labor Day camp-out at Colter Bay, and look what I find when I come back. Trip was cut short; weather is terrible, massive cold rainy front blasting in from the northwest. Continuing through tomorrow night, complete with snow(!).
Nancy, thanks for admonishing caliban. Please do it more. I am tiring very quickly of his (seeming) narcotic-induced repeticious rants and the vulgarity adds nothing. I just skipped through after his first three or four.
ALTHOUGH: caliban, I like the Tod & Buz reference the other day; I’m one of the few here who picked up on those two, I suspect. Long live the ’62 Corvette! The epitome of the model.
But, Nancy, picking on Mona Charen is WAY too easy. She’s like a fifth-rate commentator on a three-deep team. I used to cringe watching her on “Capital Gang”. You better be able to do battle with Mark Shields and Al Hunt, and she just wasn’t up to it. By the way, FWIW, I knew you were (rightfully) separating Palin the candidate from those idiotic passages. Time will tell about McCain’s choice. Meantime, I’ll go with Jeff’s last paragraph in his 10:56PM post.
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Colleen said on September 1, 2008 at 12:23 am
Again…why do the repubs try so hard to court the fundamentalists? Because it’s not like they are gonna go vote for anyone else…
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Jolene said on September 1, 2008 at 12:35 am
Because, Colleen, there are more Democrats than Republicans, especially after the enormous increase in Dem voter registration that has taken place this year. Thus, they need ALL their voters to come out. Supposedly, it was GWB’s ground game, driven by social conservative volunteers, that enabled him to win Ohio in 2004. This year, they have been unenthusiastic about the candidate at the top of the ticket; but, apparently, they love Sara Palin, so McCain’s pick helps to shore up his previously weak right flank.
It doesn’t, though, ensure that he will gain the vote of Sara Palin’s mother-in-law.
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Joe Kobiela said on September 1, 2008 at 12:49 am
This next nine weeks should be fun here with the divine miss N leading us through. I know those of us on the right are going to be taking shots but I won’t take them personally. I learned a long time ago that the more educated left wings,have a hissy when they realize there are more of us than there are of them, and we don’t really care what they think of our views.
Ya’ll have a good labor day.
I’ll be watching Gustav take out N.O. again.
I figure it’s Bushes fault.
Pilot (not to the Gulf coast) Joe
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Gasman said on September 1, 2008 at 1:45 am
Joe,
By what data do you arrive at the conclusion that “there are more of us than there are of them?” There are fewer people that are registered as Republicans nationally than Democrats. There are demonstrably less of ya’ll than us. Just once Lord, please show me a Republican than can actually get facts straight!
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moe99 said on September 1, 2008 at 2:12 am
The proprietors at Making Light disemvowel chronic troll posting, which includes unneccessary profanity. So Nance, how about disemvowelment? There’s a website out there that you can use:
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
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Dexter said on September 1, 2008 at 2:49 am
Godammittall anyway. How could anyone shoot a beautiful moose like in that Palin picture, anyway?
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moe99 said on September 1, 2008 at 3:08 am
http://www.maniacworld.com/twin-baby-moose-in-sprinkler.html
I’d like to know, after watching this video, how anyone could kill a moose.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 1, 2008 at 7:25 am
It was a caribou. They’re rude, disagreeable, and argumentative; not like moose at all.
Really, hunting amuses me not at all; the irony (i thought) was between politicians who pretend to hunt for election season photo ops, and someone who has a freezer full of game that they regularly eat.
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coozledad said on September 1, 2008 at 8:05 am
How about politicians who wade into a canned hunting ground drunk, and maul their friend’s faces with a shotgun. I suppose it’s best to forget little details like that when you’re hawking that Amway shit.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 1, 2008 at 8:12 am
Heck, who needs Amway when you’ve got this to hawk:
http://exurbanleague.com/2008/08/29/sarah-the-riveter.aspx
Palin-Jindal 2012: Exorcising Ghosts of GOP Failure With Competence and Coherent Speechifying!
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