Is there a curse more cruel than a blank page and a blinking cursor? (Well, duh — cancer, pestilence, ungrateful children.) My mind feels as empty as a bucket at the moment, my concerns few and my resources close at hand (coffee). I moved out to the living room to write because Ruby’s here, posing. For a while she held the stretched-out-low-ears-up position, a relaxed rabbit yoga favorite. But then I came into the room and FEAR RUN PREDATORS, but she stuck around, washed herself for a bit, binkied on the couch and did the Watership Down stretch, so I guess she’s feeling pretty good today.
Labor Day weekend, the end of summer. We’ll get another month of shirtsleeve weather, maybe two, but school starts Tuesday and a new schedule will take over the house. I’m googling “new ideas for school lunches” and otherwise meandering around the internet in search of inspiration, which I am not finding. I did find this, however:
May I just say how tiresome I find the Gannett YourCityNameHere.MomsLikeMe.com section? I vividly remember early motherhood, how isolated and unsure I felt, how much I wished my best friend lived next door, and I suppose that audience is a fat pigeon waiting to be plucked, a sheep ripe for fleecing, but please. A section like this on a newspaper’s website automatically drains 50 IQ points from everything that comes in contact with it. MomsLikeMe are always feeling outrage over something stupid, like a T-shirt. For a while I was clipping particularly dumb MomsLikeMe copy, hoping to get a column or essay out of it, until I found the research too tiresome and depressing. When they’re not expressing outrage over T-shirts, MomsLikeMe are looking for lessons in disaster. The stupidest reaction piece to any breaking-news story is the “experts advise on how to talk to your kids about what just happened” angle; it makes steam toot out my ears in comical cartoon fashion. I wonder if the abandoned draft of that piece still sits in my Google Docs…why hey, it does! Started and abandoned in the summer of 2009, here’s how it went:
It’s been a bad year for teen drivers in metro Detroit. Early this summer, five young people died when their car was hit by a train. Just a month or two later, a car being driven at an insane speed entered a subdivision, lost control and hit a brick welcome sign with enough force to fold the car almost 90 degrees and kill all three occupants, ages 19, 17 and 19.
The first story had everything — a teen driving with a suspended license, a 14-year-old victim who’d just been scolded by her mother, eyewitnesses, even a security-cam video of the incident. The second was nearly as vivid; the speeding car clipped a riding lawn mower in the instant before the crash. You’d think a newspaper staff would have all it could handle just reporting the bare facts, but when I looked at the Detroit Free Press website on day three of the train-crash story, there was something more, a “refer line” to a related story.
Is crash a teachable moment? beckoned a link. After the second accident, a similar come-on: Local parent says her “heart is just breaking” over this news.
Not so long ago, these would have been links to a sort of hand-wringing sidebar that seeks to make sense of the senseless, in which an “expert” from a local university or hospital advises parents on how to discuss the tragedy with teen drivers, or some such earnest mush. For a while, “reader service” was all the rage among newspaper editors, and it was thought this kind of carbuncle hanging off a big story would help the bad news go down easier.
But it’s a different world in newspapers today. Both links took me to something even worse than advice from a pediatrician: A “moms like me” website.
With modern families scattered coast to coast, the internet provides the support your mother used to, before she retired to a golf course in Scottsdale. Today’s moms have it so much easier, free to turn on Nick Jr. and sit with their laptops in an electronic coffee klatch with her girlfriends, wherever they may be. The mom sites — city-dot-momslikeme.com is the Gannett brand, but there are others — are looking to cut the contemporary mother out of the newspaper-readership herd and heap her with lots of specialized content. Or, as Indianapolis Star editor Dennis Ryerson wrote in 2007, announcing Indianapolis’ mom-site debut:
“Moms represent a critical user group with huge buying power and a longing for outside contacts and advice. They lead incredibly busy lives and want information that is easy to access, full of utility and as warm and refreshing as their own children. IndyMoms.com focuses on three main elements: social networking, calendars, and photos, lots of photos of children having fun. It’s a living, breathing site where moms meet each other and set their own agenda.”
So far, so good. As a former newspaper journalist myself, I can hardly argue with any publisher wanting to find a new way to make a little money in this dying game. But as a reader, I resent it when I click the second link, the “heart is just breaking” one, and read this:
“talking about being a safe driver, yes, yes, but there were more passengers killed than drivers, so it seems we need to moreso focus on talking about keeping yourself from being an unintentional victim of someone else’s bad judgement, and that is harder. I dunno why I started this thread… check, I know, my heart is just breaking and I had to say something but I just don’t know what to say”
Those earnest sidebars about how to talk to your kids about 9/11 suddenly seem positively Pulitzer-worthy.
—–
2011 me again: Eh, a good start, but I’m not sure where I wanted to go with it. To say MomsLikeMe sux? That’s a blogger’s job nowadays, so here you go. Funny how Ryerson said moms lead “incredibly busy lives.” To read a MomsLikeMe site, you’d think all they had to do was sit around reloading their browsers and pasting dumb Facebook statuses. MomsLikeMe, take your kids to the park — you’ll be a happier mom, and so will your kids.
And now look what happened — I got some inspiration. Nothing like coffee, a rabbit and the Gannett Corp. to give the morning a push.
I guess I’ll take Labor Day off with the rest of the proletariat, so look for me again on Tuesday. A little bloggage before I go? Sure:
I have but a single rabbit, but Coozledad’s vegetarian petting zoo is far more populated. Hello, Skinnerbox.
Uncle Sam puts on his suin’ pants. I’d say it’s about time, but I’m sure someone will figure out a way to spin this as detrimental to the financial industry at this critical juncture in the economic crisis.
A week in the red tent: A year of Biblical womanhood, taken literally.
With that, I wish you a fine weekend. See you Tuesday.
Sue said on September 2, 2011 at 11:06 am
The lady doing the year of biblical womanhood sounds like an interesting and thoughtful person, good for her if she can open some doors rather than closing them.
On to something different: I don’t do extreme couponing or even much couponing in general, but this website is unbelievable. I’m probably going to use it quite a bit and start planning my shopping trips more carefully. Take a minute to look at it; it’s really comprehensive. Kind of a one-stop shop for deals and coupons, updated constantly.
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 11:58 am
I hope the lawsuits get some traction. The Tea party scam was formed with seed money from a lot of these banks to keep them out of the courts. Some of the biggest donors were the Charlotte based insolvency leaders. They had no trouble filling the NC legislature with shit flingers.
The Republican strategy this election appears to a ratcheting up of “the coming racial war” meme, despite the fact that much of the black urban population has been relocated to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight for Phil Gramm and UBS’ right to go through your pockets. But you’ll never go wrong selling racism to the American right. Never seen a Republican who wouldn’t swallow that shit whole.
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Julie Robinson said on September 2, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Methinks Rachel forgot to read the New Testament, where Jesus says he came to bring a new covenant, so all the legalism of the OT is no longer valid for Christians. Forgive me, Sue, but it strikes me as hugely backward for women. Especially evangelical women, who are already not considered as equals to men in their spiritual gifts.
MomsLikeMe reminds me of my all-time favorite hint from Heloise, in which the writer tells of a brilliant idea she had after noticing that weather forecasts weren’t always accurate: she steps outside to gauge the conditions herself!
Birthday wishes for all the celebrants around here. Our sparkling daughter turns 31 tomorrow.
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deb said on September 2, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Maybe Rachel’s not using the New Testatment guidance, and perhaps that’s a good thing. Otherwise she’d have to follow all the pesky business about excising the body parts that cause her to sin. (Matthew. You can look it up.)
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Jeff Borden said on September 2, 2011 at 1:01 pm
C’mon, Cooz, you are going to hurt the feelings of those ever-so-sensitive teabaggers. It’s not that they don’t like the browns and the blacks and the yellows. No sir! Why, any gathering of a few hundred angry old white teabaggers will be chock full of at least one or two folks of color. Look at that nice Allen West. He is a Negro and he is a teabagger! And we cannot forget Herman Cain, of course, who is black but really hates himself some Mooslims.
I noticed the glee among some of the most ardent rightwing haters after the riots in London. They fell all over themselves predicting a similar conflagration in America, no doubt prompting even more angry old white people to stock up on guns and ammo, store plenty of bottled water and canned food and move to a gated community with security guards to protect them from the dreaded “others.”
At base, I guess this is what a lot of teabaggers would like: a chance to use their Second Amendment rights to shoot up some people of color.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2011 at 1:08 pm
My right wing sister has here panties in a bunch about Obama’s speech to congress. She says he acted like a king. These are angry old white people for sure, that fits my sister to a T.
The woman living the biblical life for a year makes me tired. What a stupid waste of time. Sorry, but that’s how I feel about it. And MomsLikeMe is even stupider. I think I’m in a bad mood right now. I’m having one of those days where I’m so happy I’m retiring in 13 months. Yippee.
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Bob (not Greene) said on September 2, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Deb, Acting like a king how? For addressing Congress?
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Suzanne said on September 2, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I heard A.J. Jacobs speak about his “Year of Living Biblically”. It wasn’t entirely lighthearted, and he said he came away from it with a new respect for people who practice spiritual disciplines.
Personally, I’m just tired of hearing from people with Fox Geezer Syndrome, some of whom aren’t even geezers. They want the market to work things out economically, at least until it works them right out of a job, and don’t want to pay taxes for anything. It’s amazing to me how many complain about the cops doing a bad job or criminals being let out on the street or stages collapsing, but never seem to give one second of thought to where the money to pay the cops or probation officers or the stage inspectors originates. It’s not that they don’t want these services, they just don’t want to pay for them.
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Sue said on September 2, 2011 at 1:28 pm
The article on the biblical life woman was respectful and the lady did not come across as, well, what I might stereotypically expect. She seemed to have a more thoughtful and inquisitive take on it, as opposed to the “I’ll show you” aspect I see more often.
I would consider her take on this more like someone who does some extreme homesteading experiment because of an interest and commitment to see what it was really like as opposed to someone who goes off the grid to show everyone how much better life was back in the days of fresh air and no plumbing.
Maybe I read too much into it. I just thought she was less judgmental than what I’ve come to expect, and to me that was refreshing.
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Julie Robinson said on September 2, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Good for you, Sue, to see it as a positive. I’m a bit like Deborah these last 24 hours; hot, tired and cranky.
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Connie said on September 2, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Hot and cranky here and about to be a year older. Involved in a hurry up and get it done renovation construction project in the $350,000 range. Specs ready to bid by end of next week. Carpet yesterday, lighting and ceilings today. Every time I do this my husband reminds me I swore I’d never do it again.
I will repeat, hot and cranky. 95.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Bob NG, here’s what my sister said in her e-mail to me:
“PS. I just have to rag you about the latest Obama kerfluffle. Obama invited himself (like a king) to address the joint chamber of Congress 15 minutes before he announced to the public that he was going to address Congress about his jobs program. According to the Constitution, the president is supposed to be invited by Congress to speak in its chambers. He can’t demand that they be his audience. (We all know he wants to scold Congress, in a venue in which the members can’t respond, about how it is Congress’s fault that his economic policies have failed.)”
My guess is Obama hasn’t been the only president to announce he will address congress in this way and there probably have been some republicans among them. Of course my sister got her talking points from the right wing blogs she reads. They’re all saying the exact same thing.
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Hattie said on September 2, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Thank you thank you for this, Nancy. All the crap about trivia was making me cross-eyed.
Oh, and it looks as if your first comment here is spam.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 2:41 pm
“Moms like who?” reminds me of the classic joke in which the Lone Ranger says:
We’re surrounded by Indians. What are we going to do Tonto? And Tonto says “What you mean we White Man?”
A truly sublime joke, I think.
The talking point bullshit from Freeper world about Obama’s joint session address on jobs is incredibly lame. When even Wikipedia can call bullshit on you, you are just making idiotic shit up. And I wonder why the nutbags and teabangers and Gangbaggers didn’t have the brains to attack Wiki on this subject the way they rewrote history for $Palin and the Bachmann (R, Snake Pit). Hell Congress has accommodated generals and astronauts for fuck’s sake. Corazon Aquino, Marquis de Lafayette, John Adams, and Shrub W. Bush. Douglas McArthur. Pretty regal bunch. Flaming douchebaggery.
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Sue said on September 2, 2011 at 3:07 pm
No it’s not spam, Hattie. I really think that website is amazing.
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mark said on September 2, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Obama busy making history. First President to anounce a speech before Congress without first telling Congress of his intention and negotiating a date and time. First president to get a forearm to the chin instead of an invite.
Glad he thinks his important jobs announcement can wait for his vacation, his Holiday weekend and his political gamesmanship. His save the nation policy proposals probably wouldn’t work if announced from the Oval Office. For a guy who ran a brilliant campaign, he’s sure stumbling with the politics of being president.
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Always good to have someone come out and regurgitate what they heard on Limbaugh. Lets you know what the shitheads are being spoon-fed.
I’m old enough to remember the Reagan gropers chanting “He’s our King!” in contrast to that windbreaker wearin’ Jimmy Carter. Logical consistency is not the wingnut’s precious.
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garmoore2 said on September 2, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Deborah:
Ask your sister where it says in the Constitution that the President has to be invited by Congress to speak. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 3:41 pm
“political gamesmanship”
Really want to bring that up? How was it sleeping soundly through July?
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Here’s the lede from the Hyco Lake Newsletter, published by some douche who was not too long ago scrambling to get federal stimulus money to implement his half assed internet service in our area.
“Happy Labor Day – Monday is a day to remember for all of us who have labored to pay taxes to support those who don’t!”
Yes, he lost out to more competent bidders, and yes he’s another Republican egg fart. There’s a nine in ten chance he’s the offspring of some garment worker trash who spent the weekends that the labor movement earned them seeing how far they could spit.
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Jason T. said on September 2, 2011 at 3:50 pm
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s black. And a Democrat. /snark
(I’m not sure which aggravates the right-wing talk radio crowd more.)
They were crazy when Clinton was president, but with Obama, the crazy has been amped up beyond all reasonable proportions. And there’s only one significant difference between Clinton and Obama.
In other words: “Acting like a king” is code for “uppity.”
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mark said on September 2, 2011 at 3:56 pm
ag- I don’t mind bringing it up, or talking about July. July i think was a toss-up, but I understand the point of those who think Republicans lost ground. Another year or so and we will have some idea of who was right.
Sorry if I can’t gin up the requiste hate to comment here. These are fascinating times. A president so weak that it seems he has no chance of beating anybody in 2012- until you look at the GOP field, so weak, bizarre or ignored that none seem to have much chance to beat Obama. And the players still on the bench, even worse. Extraordinary.
But yes, I think Obama has made a mess of the last couple weeks. If he had gone on TV last night or the night before, today’s bad news might have reinforced the urgency of his jobs message. Instead, he looks like the problem is a lot less important to him than is getting the window-dressing just right for his much promised, never revealed plan.
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Troll. New Black Panther Party comin’ to git his sugar.
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moe99 said on September 2, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Obama, much as I think he’s wrong, is still trying for that bipartisan approach. Still trying to work productively with Congress which I think is god damned stupid because the Republicans would as soon lynch him as deal with him. Bunch of racist fucks. At any rate, Obama is much nicer than I am.
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mark said on September 2, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Cooz, wake up. This is the internet. You really can’t be effective as a bully here, even by grunting ‘racist’. If this blog should only allow your views, ask Nancy to fix things to make you happy.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 4:10 pm
All I’m saying about July is that was the most purely cynical political gamesmanship in my 60 yrs. on earth as a US citizen, unless you count Iran-Contra and the deal to prevent the October surprise by holding on to the hostages in return for cash and arms. I wouldn’t call such out and out treasonous international crime gamesmanship, so I’m sticking with the debt ceiling horseshit, which clearly showed that the welfare of Americans and the US economy means nothing to the GOP. Bastards cost me more than $10 grand and I’m sure my case is not unusual. To paraphrase Julia Stiles in 10 Things…, I maintain they kicked themselves in their own balls. Unless Americans are so stupid their instincts to vote in their own financial and political interests is overwhelmed by appeals to racism, and utter bullshit about Socialism, about which none of these cretins have a clue, playing politics because a party is whining about losing the White House after stealing two elections should mark a descent into irrelevance and ignominy.
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Hee.
I do loves me some internets. It’s like high school without the pimples.
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ac jones said on September 2, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Isn’t it simple-minded to call people who disagree with you racists? Much as the commenters here have fantastic recommendations, it makes me sick to see that some think an entire political party wants to lynch our leaders. Maybe it’s just the heat.
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Read any National Review lately, ac? Ooga Booga!
Mark’s been shitting his pants ever since the blacks had the nerve to come out and vote for a guy who wasn’t white. Perhaps you should have a little get together and pray.
Or just go scarf up some more “viewpoints” from Limbaugh.
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Julie Robinson said on September 2, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Apparently I’m not the only cranky one today.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 4:37 pm
The racist component of the knee-jerk antipathy to Obama is absolutely unmistakable, and anybody that denies it is a practitioner or just ignoring the obvious.*
*whistling past the graveyard of the American way.
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brian stouder said on September 2, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Glad he thinks his important jobs announcement can wait for his vacation, his Holiday weekend and his political gamesmanship.
mark, this is a (typically hypocritical) rightwing talk radio meme that I hear wafting across the workspace every damned day.
The case cannot be rationally made that, on the one hand, the president is some sort of uppity “king” for asking for a joint session; and on the other, that he’s lazily sitting around “on vacation” when he COULD be issuing edicts and proclamations – while Congress is on vacation!!! Because, remember, Congress (and not the president) has the power of the purse strings. And also recall that this is more or less the SAME congress that will NOT confirm the appointments this president makes; or at best, will only do so after a year or two of apathy and neglect, if not active opposition; and the same Congress that damned near sent our economy over (another) cliff – because……because why?
So, to sum up. We have a jobs/economic crisis, and the president cannot vacation, but the Congressional recess is altogether reasonable; the president thinks he’s a “king” if he wants to address a joint session of congress and have any input on the scheduling of that address; everything is always entirely the president’s fault, unless things go well (as in bin Laden’s head on a pike, or the fact of our exit from combat operations in Iraq), in which case it’s an afterglowing-effect from all that was right about the Bush administration .
Isn’t it simple-minded to call people who disagree with you racists?
I’ll grant you that the president’s opening gambit – attempting to big-foot the Republican debate – was too cute by half; possibly we agree there.
But please do excuse me if my blood begins to boil whenever a national Republican – such as Perry – openly questions whether President Obama loves his country. I find it very, very difficult to stop short of saying that such a sentiment stems from – at best – a malevolent heart, if not a coldly racist calculation of what the voters in Bug Tussle might respond to.
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Bob (not Greene) said on September 2, 2011 at 4:55 pm
What Stouder said.
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Sue said on September 2, 2011 at 5:07 pm
I’m with mark. I would have liked to see Obama get this going sooner.
That way, we would be done with it by now, with nothing accomplished after several weeks of absolute, complete refusal by Congress to consider any of his ideas, along with many, many instances of dog-whistling, scare tactics and general messaging about all the undeserving who are going to immediately game the system by getting a job that could have gone to real Americans or at least … appropriate Americans.
Because you do know how this is going to turn out, don’t you?
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moe99 said on September 2, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Look, Obama thought the date was agreed upon with Boehner’s office before he announced. Then, of course Boehner pulls the Lucy stunt and pulls back the football yet again so Obama can look ridiculous. And of course, folks like mark jump all over it, because that’s what it was designed for.
It’s all of a piece with this:
Conservative columnist Matthew Vadum is just going to come right out and say it: registering the poor to vote is un-American and “like handing out burglary tools to criminals.” “It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country—which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote,” Vadum, the author of a book published by World Net Daily that attacks the now-defunct community organizing group ACORN, writes in a column for the American Thinker
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/columnist_registering_poor_to_vote_like_handing_out_burglary_tools_to_criminals.php?ref=fpa
I’m just sick and tired of it.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Amen Brother Stouder
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coozledad said on September 2, 2011 at 5:48 pm
Moe: The whole party’s a racist rump: the merger of disaffected white trash, Art Pope, and the corpse of Wachovia Bank. The American Thinker is a white ressentiment broadsheet written by dsm IV subjects: childhumpers, chickenfuckers, urine drinkers, helium-fueled masturbators, fecal portraitists, leather clad clown makeup wearing frotteurs, and self-stranglers.
I don’t know what the fringe elements of the party read.
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brian stouder said on September 2, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Moe – that is a flatly striking link.
Meanwhile, racism? Race? Nope – racin’ don’t know nothin’ about no racism in NASCAR.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/02/2574468/stewart-biffle-send-regrets-to.html
an excerpt…hell, here’s the whole article from the rah-rah NASCAR hometown Charlotte Observer:
NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle say they can’t attend next week’s visit to the White House because of scheduling conflicts. Both insist they mean no disrespect toward President Obama. Both drivers have been to the White House before and met the president. In fact, Biffle says he has a picture shaking hands with Obama on display in his office. Biffle says he couldn’t get out of a two-day appearance for main sponsor 3M in Minnesota next week. Stewart won’t reveal where he will be but says he would have accepted the invitation if possible. The president invited NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and 11 other drivers who made the Chase last year. Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards also say they can’t attend.
Hmmmm. Isn’t the ending of this article interesting? The game is to figure out what the message is, here. The article offers a rather fulsome defense of Stewart (an Indiana boy) and Biffle, and then somewhat abruptly lumps bad-boy Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards into the last sentence without any further elaboration.
Makes one….curious
edit:
Another “NASCAR ain’t racist” spin (so to speak) – it’s just bidness, doncha know:
http://www.foxsportssouth.com/09/02/11/NASCAR-drivers-decline-White-House-invit/landing.html?blockID=558322&feedID=3703
Here’s this guy’s rationale:
Politics aside (and no one questions that NASCAR is a conservative sport), the move sends a strong signal that these drivers would rather not be seen with a president that has such a low approval rating on the economy.
Also, unlike athletes from other sports, NASCAR drivers themselves are private-sector employers. Tony Stewart, who sits precariously in the 10th spot in points in this year’s Chase, owns his own team as well as that of Ryan Newman. Not only does he have employees to pay, sponsors to woo and overhead to cover, Stewart has just made a substantial investment in bringing Danica Patrick to NASCAR full time.
The other drivers also run businesses, including merchandising and licensing operations that have payrolls and other expenses. These are not guys who show up on Sunday, drive for three hours and cash big paychecks. They are businessmen who know that their livelihood depends on a thriving U.S. economy.
Huh. Well. OK. But then the guy inevitably has to reel that back a little, at the end –
And it is worth noting that the other members of the 2010 Chase — champion Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton (who has expressed an interest in entering politics after his racing career is over) — have all committed to the event.
Yeah, it IS “worth noting” that, I guess
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Jason T. said on September 2, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Well, I do have a very simple mind. Luckily, it’s a simple equation.
There is a large section of people who hate Barack Obama simply because he’s a Democratic president. But there’s a substantial proportion of those people who treat him with a special kind of disrespect because he’s a person of color.
Seriously. I don’t need to over-think this. I can just look in my email box for the umpty-thousand emails (including from my relatives and so-called friends) depicting the First Family as monkeys, or eating watermelon, or shining shoes, or smoking crack, or wearing “bling.” I sure didn’t get those when Clinton was in office.
Sometimes the simple answers really are best.
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Jason T. said on September 2, 2011 at 6:16 pm
And I’d add that no, certainly not everyone who disagrees with Barack Obama is a racist.
But racists overwhelmingly disagree with Barack Obama. And they tend to be extremely vocal. And a lot of politicians and talk-show hosts are catering to those people, and they are lapping it up.
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beb said on September 2, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Still reading Matt Tiabbi’s Griftopia, which talks about the mortgage scam and scam it was. The point of the mortgage back securities was to hide just how dicey those mortgages were. One of the scams that was truly amazing was taking unsaleable stock in these mortgage pools, make them into a pool and sell off the “senior” traches as AAA securities when *all* the underlying stock was BBB.
As for living biblically it’s worth remembering that evangelicals really love them the Old Testament even though Jesus — supposedly the head of the Christian church taught the New Testament, a new revelation. This people don’t jackshit about their own religion.
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MichaelG said on September 2, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Jason T. has hit on something. I get a steady flow of emails similar to the ones he describes as well as an equal number smearing Mexicans. I deleted seven or eight just from today’s email load. There is an enormous volume of this stuff and most of it is professionally crafted. It’s not the work of some strange, twisted fuck sitting in his dirty underwear and drinking Ripple in his mother’s basement. This stuff is being manufactured and distributed by pros with a large budget. There’s a program here. It’s evil and disgusting.
That said, I’m sick and tired of Obama’s trying to work in a bipartisan fashion. It doesn’t work; never has and never will. At this point he’s simply caving to every Republican demand. I cannot understand why the Democrats are so terrified of standing up to these people. When I voted for Obama I hoped he would be a scrappy guy with a spine who would make every effort to represent the interests of the people. I’m woefully disappointed but will, obviously, vote for him over any of those mindlessly destructive Republican candidates. I contemplate the future with little hope and much despair.
I’m pretty cranky today as well. I’ve just laid out a fortune to fix my front door which was kicked in, to install steel security doors and buy a new TV. The new TV is nice, though. It’s huge and state of the art and I got it for a great price at Fry’s. Cheaper than any number I could find on the net even with sales tax added. No delivery. I stuck it in the back of the Element and be-bopped home.
I have TCU and Baylor on as I type. Don’t ask why. It’s one of those games where I which they could both lose. Esp TCU.
Tomorrow is the day all the little guys go out to get creamed by the big guys for the sake of their athletic dept budgets.
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alex said on September 2, 2011 at 9:54 pm
No doubt about it, the election of a black president has given a certain element “liberty” to utter racist bile of the sort that hasn’t been acceptable in polite society in the last half century. That’s the return to “traditional values” envisioned by the neo-Confederates and holy rollers who comprise today’s GOP.
They can try to depict Obama as weak because he doesn’t sink to their level by returning tit for tat, but I think in the long haul he’ll be recognized as the gentleman that he is, and Boehner and McConnell and Cantor will be seen for the craven pussies that they are. Just my humble opinion.
And getting a new e-mail address is the best thing I ever did. Not only am I not bombarded with moveon.org solicitations for cash, I’m also not getting the old daily dose of racist, sexist B.S. from yutzes I wish I’d never known.
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moe99 said on September 2, 2011 at 9:58 pm
From what I read today, the reason Obama caved on the air pollution laws, at this time, is because it would have hurt a couple of crucial Senate races.
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alex said on September 2, 2011 at 10:22 pm
I’ve been disappointed in Obama’s environmental record, but compared to Bush inviting guns and snowmobiles into Yellowstone, I can forgive him for pleading economic exigency (and a recalcitrant congress).
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Deborah said on September 2, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Alex, I’m going to have to abandon my personal e-mail account for the reasons you list. I have so much spam it’s ridiculous. I never open it anymore. I’ll just open a new personal account.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I’ll admit readily to making outrageous and somewhat inflammatory political comments in this forum, and I thank y’all for forbearance, because there is more intelligent and well-expressed comment here than anywhere else I kknow on the web. On the other hand, I’m absolutely sure I have never claimed that everybody that despises or disagrees with the President is racist. Nancy’s blog is easibly searchable, so show me I’m wrong. Aside from that, denying that racism is part of the virulent hatred of the President from so-called conservatives, who are actually nothing of the sort, well, that is analogous to saying there is no potent undercurrent of racism in American Republican politics. Now, that is truly outrageous, like saying “some of my best friends”. What I said about racism being an inherent component of the inchoate and nonsensical and illogical rage against a President with brown skin, sorry, that is drooling idiocy. The Southern Strategy is not gone away. It’s crucial to GOP politics, and it’s the basis of all this “not one of us”, Mau Mau (no racist subtext there, right) garbage spewed by rightwing nutjobs.
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april glaspie said on September 2, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Maybe the true Teabangers like Dickless Armey and the Koch Heads and the pervert Richard Mellon Scaiffe are not really motivated by racism (but of course, they are), but they sure don’t like rednecks any better. But they understand redneck racist passion is perfectly malleable and they employ all of Lee Atwater’s disciples to pump that shit up. Atwater, of course, had a death bed conversion and disavowed that non-Christian behavior when he asked forgiveness from his Lord and Personal savior. This whole scenario is so much like Brits pitting Catholics and Protestants against each other in Ireland, it would take a wilfull idiot to buy in on the rich folk’s side. Can God’s creatures be that fucking stupid? They don’t see they are the next jetsam, left to drown? Godawmighty that is sad.
As I’ve suggested before, what is the President supposed to do on the Progressive front. Can’t kill ’em and can’t live with ’em. The President has led intellectually and Congress has been fucking obtuse.
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Dexter said on September 3, 2011 at 12:21 am
Dick Cheney hobnobbing it up with Jay Leno. What the hell , Jay…you pimping for the man here? Everyone should watch this assessment of Cheney by Joe Wilson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UIpXdl44_A&feature=player_embedded
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april glaspie said on September 3, 2011 at 1:54 am
Jay Leno used to be pals with Denis Leary. After the W sending the first responders into cancer hell, I doubt it any more. Leno is the PNAC shitheel of all time. What is wrong with scumbags of this sort that really thought the whole thing was about Halliburton.? What a bunch of dickheads. They tried in 1998 to convince Clinton. He wasn’t that stupid. PNAC then bought and paid for Scalia and the painted lady. Floriida wasn’t just fucking stolen? And after the shitheel Ken Blackwell and the CEO of Diebold robbed Ohio? These people are concerned now with Obama’s attitude when they stole two in a row? What a helluva bunch of assholes.
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april glaspie said on September 3, 2011 at 1:55 am
There is no excuse for these shitheels. It’s like shooting your hunting buddy in the face with a lady gun.
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Jolene said on September 3, 2011 at 4:09 am
Here’s a brief summary of some good research re what sort of people make up the tea party. As others have been saying, it’s not a mistake to characterize them as people predisposed to dislike minorities.
Cooz, I am a woman who appreciates a powerful sentence. your characterization of the contributors to the American Thinker is Pulitzer-worthy.
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coozledad said on September 3, 2011 at 8:37 am
Thank you Jolene! I knew six (seven?) years of undergrad would pay off someday.
If you want a thorough dissection of the formalin suspended sociopaths at American Thinker, these are the go-to people:
http://world-o-crap.blogspot.com/2011/08/dilbert-meets-dr-turok-son-of-stone.html
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MarkH said on September 6, 2011 at 3:20 am
Alex, please. Bush invited neither guns nor snowmobiles into Yellowstone. Sleds have been allowed in Yellowstone since 1963. Controversy grew in the 80s and 90s. Banned after a lawsuit settlement between enviros and the NPS in 2001, a counter suit by the industry resulted in a revised EIS and court action that got snowmobiles reinstated with limitations on numbers and technology mandates in 2004.
http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/yellowstone/snowmobiles.html
Also, a Reagan-era ban on weapons in national parks was overturned when the democrat controlled congress and senate attached a new law to credit card legislation (?!!) in May, 2009 and it was signed, by President Obama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/27guns.html
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