We don’t have a great deal of breaking news in our part of the suburb-o-sphere, but an interesting one dropped today, which was the first day of school for the two high schools: The Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils football team will welcome a transgender member this year, a girl named Meredith who would rather be referred to as “he” and called Seth.
I posted this on the GrossePointeToday.com Facebook wall, and a couple of other people did the same. Given the repulsive commenting going on at Patch these days — are there any internet news outlets with comment sections that aren’t sewers? — I expected the discussion, if you can call it that, to deteriorate rather quickly.
But no. Between three Facebook walls, I count about 50 “likes.” But here’s something interesting — of those 50 likes, 48 are female. Only a handful of comments, but all but two were from women, all getting misty-eyed with pride and tolerance. Two men weighed in; one made a mild joke, the other wondered what the world was coming to and made a sad face. 🙁
So what do you think this says? Are women more likely to be proud of their transgender children, or is this a football thing?
I don’t really care all that much, but I do find it interesting. This is a community that blows hot and cold on inclusion. The repulsive commenting I mentioned earlier concerns guess what? race and is bad enough I’ve wondered whether I should just set the house on fire, collect the insurance and move to Ann Arbor. But a transgender high school running back? Arms wide open!
Oh, well. Night has fallen, and I’m waiting for returns to come in on what I hope is the final act of the Thaddeus McCotter story — the $650,000 special election to fill his seat for all of six-count-’em-six weeks. The column at that link pulls punches, but it’s hard to figure what more punches would do for McCotter:
The primary will determine which two candidates will be on the Nov. 6 ballot to be elected to fill the remainder of McCotter’s term. The winner could serve less than two months before being replaced by the winner of the general election, who will take office next year, but representing a district considerably gerrymandered from the one that sent McCotter to Washington.
It was redrawn by his fellow Republicans to help McCotter hold the seat, but the former Wayne County commissioner and state legislator from Livonia carelessly left his re-election petition filings up to an office staff that botched the job — deliberately and fraudulently, based on criminal cases now pending against a handful of them.
The Republican political establishment tried to avoid taxpayer ire over the cost of the special primary — required to assure the district does have some representation in Washington — by settling on a consensus candidate and discouraging others from filing so the contest wouldn’t be needed. But five Republicans rejected such rigging and filed in the special primary, including Kerry Bentivolio, the ex-teacher from Milford who won the regular GOP primary last month and will carry the party banner in the redrawn district in November.
…Confused? Thank McCotter, whose last months in public office were dominated by an impossible quest for the Republican presidential nomination and the drafting of a sit-com script. Aside from a couple of terse statements, the normally loquacious McCotter has been unavailable — and unaccountable — since leaving office.
I’m going to say this and then I’m going to shut up: We’ve been hearing a lot about voter fraud lately. And here we have, in the McCotter case, a clear-cut case of election fraud, four people charged with falsifying nominating petitions for one filing deadline, and evidence they did it in the previous two elections. Who is howling about this? Virtually no one. My Wayne State colleague Jack Lessenberry takes a few whacks at him — and a few others — here, but that’s about it.
So much for that, eh?
A bit of linkage:
Tom & Lorenzo take a look at Shelley O’s look last night. Via Jolene. Something I learned today: Tracy Reese is a Detroiter, and the dress was a custom design. It certainly showed off the First Guns to maximum advantage.
Mark Bittman says what I was trying to say last week, about restaurants, particularly fine dining:
It simply isn’t what I want anymore. It’s become painful, not in the visiting-the-dentist sense, but in the “you have to go to synagogue; it’s Yom Kippur” sense, a long, drawn-out affair in which even the obviously beautiful and enjoyable parts — the $10,000-a-week flower arrangements, the custom glassware and china and sometimes even the carefully prepared if almost always overly subtle (to my taste) food — were overwhelmed by the sheer tedium.
These are temples of ceremony, with (normally absent) chefs as priests; they’re circuses without clowns or trapezes.
It goes on. Read.
Finally, those of you who follow journalism might know that our own Hank Stuever is spending the term teaching at the University of Montana, as a visiting prof. His class is about writing pop culture, and here’s the good news: You can follow it online! On Hank’s blog! Scroll down to the entry called “Montana,” and come back up. Charlotte, I expect this might interest you.
And so we greet Thursday. Already.
Update: I finished and scheduled this while Bill Clinton was speaking, but before the speech actually achieved liftoff and took off for the stars, with a vapor trail of puppies and bacon streaming behind. I watched the remainder in bed, on the iPad, chuckling and switching back and forth between the stream and Twitter. I think I’d buy, in hardcover, a collection of the best tweets last night, which were hilarious. (I’m indebted to Jill Biden for the puppies-and-bacon imagery, which was in hers.) My fave might be the several who sketched some version of Clinton as James Brown, throwing off cape after cape to run back out and play another encore. Who says public speaking can’t be entertaining?
beb said on September 6, 2012 at 12:36 am
It’s not gay, it’s a towel ad
http://boingboing.net/2012/09/05/army-day.html
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MaryRC said on September 6, 2012 at 12:40 am
Speaking of Tom and Lorenzo, here’s what they look like:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/fashion/new-york-fashion-week-tom-fitzgerald-and-lorenzo-marquez-fashion-bloggers.html?_r=3
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Dexter said on September 6, 2012 at 1:17 am
The first and only transgendered person I met and talked with was formerly Mary, and she had the surgery and became John. John and Mary, I know, but it’s true.
This was in Omaha , Nebraska , years ago, where I had driven at the request of an old army acquaintance to dedicate Omaha’s Vietnam Veteran’s statue and plaque in a city park.
It was a bitter cold day and the gathered souls adjourned to a meeting hall for speeches and such, and that is how I came to meet John. John was messed up emotionally. I have no idea what drugs he was on but he would talk a little while and then break into tears, a real jag, for a while. He also had an entourage of about five women who were some kind of support group for him. All I remember about him was that he had been a WAC in Vietnam, working as a medic in a big base hospital, and in early middle age she decided she had lived enough of the big lie, and she became John. I wonder how he did as a transgendered man over the years. The one important thing I recall is that he definitely was very uncomfortable around men.
If the transgendered kid is confident enough to play football, let the games begin. Bravo! You go Seth!
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Dexter said on September 6, 2012 at 2:04 am
On this blog many words were written when Hitchens passed away…how did the death of Alexander Cockburn escape me? Cockburn died in July, six weeks ago, and I totally missed reading or hearing about it. I read his “Beat the Devil” column in “The Nation” for years, but I quit that publication quite a while ago. Cockburn stirred the pot, I am sad to finally hear of his death.
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Suzanne said on September 6, 2012 at 7:14 am
I had the Twitter feed up during Clinton’s (long) speech. I rarely use Twitter, but it is great fun during something like a convention. Clinton was on fire and many of the tweets had me laughing out loud!
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David C. said on September 6, 2012 at 7:16 am
I once worked with Ron. One Monday, we were called to a meeting and told that Ron was now Rhonda. The company explained what was going to be happening and that absolutely no harassment was going to be tolerated. It seemed to work out just fine. I imagine it went the same way with that high school. Give people factual information, let them know that you aren’t going to tolerate them being assholes about it, and things turn out fine. Go Seth.
That speech was one hell of a barn burner. The Big Dog sliced the Rs into tiny little shreds with a smile and laughs. I’ve heard it said that the best way to get under the right wing’s skin isn’t to yell at them. They’re used to being yelled at – their mothers, wives, and dominatrices have for years. The key is to laugh at them. It seemed to work last night.
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Deborah said on September 6, 2012 at 9:54 am
Great post, great comments today already.
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brian stouder said on September 6, 2012 at 9:56 am
I saw most of WJC’s address – but a head cold is upon me, and – despite my best efforts to remain awake and see the president at the end – I fell asleep and missed it.
And then, in poking around this morning, to enjoy all the Republican whining (here in Fort Wayne, I heard our disgraced former congressman spitting venom at all things Democratic, on the radio this morning, before switching it off) I came across this news about Judy Blume
http://www.hlntv.com/slideshow/2012/09/05/judy-blume-breast-cancer-diagnosis?hpt=hp_c3
and now my perspective has shifted. Really, given President Clinton’s heart condition, last night may well have been his grand finale and farewell address
The lead from the Blume story –
Oh, sad day. Judy Blume, the author who has ushered so many awkward girls into adulthood, says she has breast cancer.
In a blog post, aptly titled, “!@#$% Happens,” Blume on Wednesday announced her condition, which she has kept quiet since her diagnosis in the middle of the summer.
edit: what Deborah said! And indeed, David’s point about laughter at those people is very sharply true
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Bitter Scribe said on September 6, 2012 at 11:06 am
I forget…is this Kerry Bentivolio that crazy-ass teacher who was fired for screaming abuse at his students?
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Sue said on September 6, 2012 at 11:08 am
‘last night may well have been his grand finale and farewell address’
brian, I had the opposite reaction – find that man a spot in the Administration, or have him run for an office again. I’m more inclined to think, after watching him connect once again in his magical way, that that’s what keeps him going strong.
Which pres became a senator after he finished his term?
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Deborah said on September 6, 2012 at 11:09 am
I just watched the Clinton speech in its entirety on CNN. Wow. He really spelled it out point by point and it was a pleasure to see.
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nancy said on September 6, 2012 at 11:14 am
BS: Yes, the very same. — N.
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brian stouder said on September 6, 2012 at 11:19 am
Sue – I believe the second President Adams went from the presidency to the House of Representatives, and remained there for years (into the 1850’s?)
And President Hoover became an ambassador – yes? Maybe with the Philippines?
David Davis is one guy I want to read more about. He was a Friend of Lincoln/US Supreme Court Justice – and then he resigned from the Supremes to become a senator!
Definitely different days, eh?
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Another Connie said on September 6, 2012 at 11:26 am
And to tie together two of Nancy’s themes, read the comments in the WSJ article on Michelle’s dress. Transgender, as an insult, is used more than once. I thought she looked stunning.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 11:27 am
A few hours before Clinton’s speech disemboweling the lying-ass GOP, Willard Windsock did an interview on…tada…Fox, in which he said no Democrat had said Americans are better off than they were when Shrub shuffled off. Clueless bastard didn’t think Clinton would make the poin forcibly and with facts to back him up. Down south, that’s called “burning ’em a new one”. If that’s what the former President did, he used a laser, and he was obviously enjoying himself more than he had in some time. I saw shit from GOPers online to the effect that Clinton wouldn’t be at the debates and the brillian RMoney would dazzle “Odumbo”. Have these fools heard the two men speak about substantive political policy.
Windsock also claimed the Democrats had “thrown Israel under the bus” by not mentioning Jerusalem in the platform. What the hell Mittens? The capital is Tel Aviv, no matter what your pal John Bolton whispers in your ear. Had I ever considered voting for this ahole, that would have done it for me. Bolton as Secretary of State and Bork on the SCOTUS? Holy shit, dystopian world next stop.
The transgender kid, that coach should be applauded, and members of his team should know they walk at the first sign of disrespect for a teammate, but, they should have known that already about any teammate.There were two guys on my HS football team everyone assumed were gay, and I don’t remember them getting any shit from anybody. And that was the late 60s. A smart coach should have no trouble making this kid’s playing about the team vs. the haters that aren’t players. Maybe that’s not ideal, but it would teach an object lesson. The worst danger is that the kid is better than some “legitimate” boy and gets more PT. The kid left behind’s parents will turn rabid fast and embarrass the shit out of their son, who will undoubtedly want them to just fracking drop it.
I knew Alexander Cockburn had died, from reading CounterPunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/
He frequently infuriated me with an apparent willingness to just tear it all down rather than find what’s good and go for the best. Cockburn was an absolutist unbending in demanding what he believed was right from politicians. I might buy that if I didn’t have a daughter and a grandson. I also think resorting to not evil is wise when confronted with actual evil. As I said Bolton and Bork.
Judy Blume, one of America’s ten most reviled novelists, ever. Maybe five.
And how ’bout that Skittles ad for bestiality?
http://www.shewired.com/soapbox/2012/08/28/one-million-moms-accuses-skittles-ad-promoting-inappropriate-relations-walruses
Same ignoramuses that hounded librarians about Judy Blume’s books.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 11:29 am
Oh, and the kid Seth’s courage and assertiveness is extremely admirable. Hope he has a good season.
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Charlotte said on September 6, 2012 at 11:30 am
I loved the earlier part of the evening — Sandra Fluke was amazing, just called out the GOP misogyinists, and here’s the money quote from Elizabeth Warren: “People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here’s the painful part: they’re right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs—the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs—still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them.”
Also, even though he was a terrible speaker — the guy who started Costco was terrific — talking about why actually *paying* your workers is sound strategy.
And then there was Bill — he was great, he did his thing, but I still can’t forgive him for NAFTA, and Glass-Steagall and then going out on the lecture circuit to make zillions of dollars. He’s the most charismatic person I’ve ever been in a room with, and he’s famously nice to the help, but he’s still part of the reason we had a worldwide economic collapse …
(And hi to Hank, over on the other side of the state … waving from Livingston.)
Speaking of the rich — off to Lake Forest for the weekend. Sigh. There’s nothing like growing up broke among the very very wealthy to demonstrate how very very little ever trickles down …. but I will smile, and wear conservative clothes, and try to make my mother happy.
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MarkH said on September 6, 2012 at 11:33 am
Pity poor Andrew Johnson, the answer to Sue’s question @10. Succeeds Lincoln, survives an impeachment brought on when he wanted to fire his disloyal secretary of war. Leaves office and runs for his old seat in the senate from Tennessee and loses twice, in ’70 and ’72. Good news: runs again in ’74 and wins. Bad news: has a stroke and dies four months later. Still the only former president to get elected to the senate.
Don’t forget William Howard Taft, who left the presidency and then served as the nations 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1921-30.
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Dorothy said on September 6, 2012 at 11:41 am
In July I signed up to work at the Knox County Gay/Straight Alliance booth at our county fair. I worked one shift (four hours) on the opening afternoon. A professor (woman who is married to a man) sat with me, and then there was one gentleman and a transgender woman. Her name is Gwen now, but I didn’t ask and she didn’t offer what her previous name was. I really enjoyed the little bit of time I got to talk with her and the tidbits of her background that she shared with me, but in four hours we had maybe 10-15 minutes of conversation because she was there specifically for the purpose of getting signatures on a petition to reverse or repeal the Marriage Act in Ohio. (I know I mentioned some of this before right after I did my stint in the booth.)
I found out Gwen (who was 58 this past June) is currently married to a woman who was her high school prom date. She was a man then of course, so I was curious how this came about, and a little bit fascinated. Every time we’d start to talk, though, if people came past the booth she’d call out to people, asking them how they feel about the Marriage Act in Ohio. If anyone engaged or stopped, she was out of her chair and talking to them, and got lots of support, which pleased me. She also got lots of stink-eye looks, and she talked about a few people who were nasty to her sometimes. But she was bold and courageous and left chit chat behind because she had an important job to do. I admired her greatly. We’re Facebook friends now and I continue to be moved by the work she is doing so enthusiastically.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 6, 2012 at 11:43 am
And to tie together two of Nancy’s themes, read the comments in the WSJ article on Michelle’s dress. Transgender, as an insult, is used more than once.
I refuse to read them, but I guess we should be grateful that the insult wasn’t some variation of “ape.” There’s still a little subtlety to their racism.
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MaryRC said on September 6, 2012 at 11:49 am
And to tie together two of Nancy’s themes, read the comments in the WSJ article on Michelle’s dress. Transgender, as an insult, is used more than once.
I don’t think I read the same WSJ article on Michelle’s dress because no-one mentioned transgender, but the comments in the article that I did read included this gem:
It never ceases to amaze me how the Obamas, despite their great wealth, (he didn’t earn that, by the way, it was his grandmother’s money) play at having so much in common with us blue-collar “folks,”
Yes, the commenter did say the Obamas, not the Romneys. Talk about projection.
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Deborah said on September 6, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Charlotte, Did you know Dave Eggers while growing up in Lake Forest? I just read his fictional memoir, A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius. And just before that I read, A Hologram for the King. Loved both. I read McSweeney’s regularly too.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Joe South died yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gVcQLO5VGE
(This is loud as hell.)
He also played guitar on Blonde on Blonde, and wrote the execrable I Never Promised You a Rose Garde, which made a shitload of cash for some unfathomable reason. I always thought Tom T. Hall was responsible for that dreck.
Blaming Clinton fr NAFTA is unfair. It was left by HW, as Somalia was, as an unavoidable briar patch for Clinton. Surprise. Vindictive jealousy against someone that defeated him from Poppy Bush. Knock me over with a pretzel. Clinton was required by the fast track legislation to sign NAFTA, which he did after negotiating the “Side Agreements” on labor and working conditions, and environmental protection. Had the side agreements been left in place, the maquiladora culture would have been far less profitable for American businesse. Guess who shit-canned the side agreements the minute he had the chance. That’s right, Shrub W. Bush, by rendering the interstate resolution of disputes process toothless. So to be fair, NAFTA is owned by Bushes pere et fils.
Objectionable comments involving trans people in Rupert Murdoch’s flagship paper? Say it ain’t so. Talking about the Clinton’s “great wealth” with the RMoney’s in the picture is more than a little ludicrous. And the Obama’s net worth comes primarily from his book, but of course any honest GOPer worth his lying ass can tell you Bill Ayers actually wrote that.
One thing in my mind watching Clinton last night was the idiotic comment about Ryan being able to talk policy for half an hour without notes. Clinton went on (as is his wont) for much longer and had a stunning array of facts and numbers at his fingertips. There was nothing vague about any of it. Just like RMoney and Ayn Ryan’s policy intentions about the rich people tax cut and how it could be paid for. When Clinton said “It takes brass…” I was wishing with heart and soul the next word would be “balls”. But he crucified Ryan with that comment anyway. It just would have been so hiilarious my way.
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Jakash said on September 6, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Dexter,
Re: Your ’69 Chicago comments yesterday. I knew what you meant by the Waveland Rocks, was just joking about your reference to the ease of picking up chicks. As alex and the article to which you linked noted, most of the lakefront has been redone with a steel wall backed by 3 or 4 levels of concrete that you can sit, walk or make out on. Effective, but not nearly as picturesque as the rocks were. Coincidentally, one of the spots that is still like you described is right off what used to be called Waveland Golf Course. After a big storm last year, many of those big rocks got ripped away right up to the edge of the course, eliminating the jogging path in places. The short-term solution was a delivery and placement of a bunch of NEW big rocks, but I imagine before long it’ll all be smooth concrete, too.
alex,
It certainly doesn’t bother me when people partake of booze and pot by the rocks and/or wall, what annoys me is when they either break their beer bottles afterward, or leave them behind to be broken by somebody else.
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Heather said on September 6, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Charlotte, “growing up broke among the very very wealthy”–I had the same experience growing up in neighboring Highland Park, although the high school incorporated kids from working-class Highwood, so at least it was diluted a bit. Living in a small apartment with one of the few divorced moms made me feel very “other.” I remember my eyes being opened by a friend, who pointed out that the father of another friend, whose family was one of the 1 percent for sure, had gotten into trouble for some ethics violation or other at his finance job. He said, “You don’t get that wealthy by playing by the rules.” Never forgot that.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 12:56 pm
A real question now: Does Ayn Ryan have the balls to keep up with the work to welfare Whopper? And what jellyfish excuse for a journalist is going to let him get away with that shit now?
GOPer response to Clinton’s convention speech. Mind-boggling.
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Dexter said on September 6, 2012 at 1:28 pm
I had never thought of this before, but since 1956 the incumbent party has had the hammer in scheduling the party conventions. This is especially important because Big Dog already shredded the repuggs and now Obama delivers the coup de grace tonight. Voila!
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Dexter said on September 6, 2012 at 1:37 pm
This is way off-topic, but rather stunning. The old standby, the taxi cab business as we know it, is looking more and more like a relic of the last century.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Lyft-for-riders-is-a-downer-for-SF-taxis-3842622.php
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Jason T. said on September 6, 2012 at 2:02 pm
All I can say is, “good for Grosse Pointe,” and especially good for the football coaches and the team for reacting so positively. I hope the inevitable backlash is mild, and that Seth (the student) has thick skin.
And yes, from what I’ve observed, women (generally speaking) are much more accepting and encouraging of transgender children than men. It’s an odd double standard — a woman can wear pants, but a guy can’t wear a skirt. A woman can be admired for acting like “just one of the guys,” but a guy who wants to act like “one of the girls” is going to be a laughingstock.
(It’s also a form of soft sexism — because after all, a woman who acts like a man is seen as trading up, while a man who acts like a woman is seen as trading down.)
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Bitter Scribe said on September 6, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Prospero: No worries. Everyone knows what he meant.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 2:18 pm
The “daughters, not delegates or donors” line from Ms. Fluke was a killer.
And the loathsome phony Bob Woodward checks into the campaign with his typical self-aggrandizing fabrication. Woodward makes stuff up out of thin air, and that has been his MO for a very long time. No reasonable person would be inclined to buy these volumes of extended conversation presented as verbatim. O right. He’s the mighty Bob Woodward, so he has more access to every politician than all the political reports in US history, put together, and everything is on the record, on tape. Woodward suffers from serious delusions of grandeur and anybody that just takes him on faith is a gullible fool. It’s obvious that much of it’s BS because the folks involved are too skilled at politics to say a lot of these things to him. Man, I wish he’d go away, or at least that people would start treating his books like the compostable recycled TP they really are. Some idiot told this pompous ass he was important to the American political process. Carl Bernstein should tell Woodward to STFU.
Scribe. I know, but I would have been ecstatic if he’d actually said it. It’s my personal opinion that anybody that lies so baldly and so frequently and consistently, exhibits a clear paucity in the nads department.
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Scout said on September 6, 2012 at 2:38 pm
I still haven’t had chance to watch the whole Big Dog speech. With one exception, I’ve heard nothing but effusive praise for it. The owner of the company I work for, a true Independent, raved about the speech. I think for him it was a vote changer from Rmoney to Obama. He asked the other partner (a very grumpy Republican) this morning if he watched the speech, because it was just that good. After saying no he couldn’t stand to watch it, the grumpy Republican went on to say that Bill’s speech was filled with inaccuracies. Without specifying a one, of course.
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Joe K said on September 6, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Here ya go Scout,
http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-clinton-claims-compromise-stretch-043255807–election.html
While I guess slick Willie made a good speech,remember its the other guy not Billie, running for office.
Pilot Joe
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David C. said on September 6, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Joe, Apuzzo is an inside the beltway hack and that is pure undiluted two-bit traveling circus horse shit. Find me a single Democrat that was willing to fuck over the whole country in order to make the newly elected Republican President fail. The Rethugs did.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/robert-drapers-book-gops-anti-obama-campaign-began-the-night-of-the-inauguration/question-2616401/
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coozledad said on September 6, 2012 at 3:39 pm
I’m surprised they don’t just go with “You kin lap up all that purty talk you want, give me a man what kin fill up a cockbucket!”
And speaking of cockbuckets, Romney’s campaigns and the (utterly uncoordinated) super PACs Crossroads and AFP are pulling out of PA and MI. A frustrated PA could not be reached for comment*
*Old Carlin joke.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Clever Stuart Carlson political cartoon re Medicare, with a tribute to the great Don Martin incorporated:
http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/sc/
And a great Ben Sargent cartoon:
http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/bs/
And if Ayn Ryan actually had brass balls, they’d be BBs.
Shoulda asked the guy whether the GOPers were wishing they’d brought in W, now, when the Raygun hologram wouldn’t work, Scout. I couldn’t have helped myself.
cooze: Apparently they weren’t pleased with the utter incompetence of the PA state GOP’s vote suppression efforts.
Joe, that guy’s main point is that Clinton misrepresented the Administration’s willingness to approach things in bipartisan fashion. That’s hard to buy , when it was Old Lady McConnell that spewed the infamous one term comment, and even earlier, a few months into the term, both Canto and Ryan were talking for public consumption about employin “Taliban tactics” against the President. Then there is the ridiculous number of birther Kenyan Manchurian candidat paranoiacs elected to the House in 2010. Partners in governing? I think fracking NFW. What he goes on to say about health care cost reductions has no credible basis. Wvery organization of people that make those predictions for a living agrees with what Clinton and Obama say on the subject. And yeah, it’s Obama running not Clinton, but if your making that lamo argument that’s all over the wingnet about Willard is smarter, good luck with that shit. Obama will treat RMoney like a Swiffer and wipe the floor with him. That Obama’s a moron and simultaneously some Socialist mastermind is GD stupid as can be, and any claim that’s not straight racism is a bad joke.
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Dorothy said on September 6, 2012 at 4:03 pm
A friend sent me the link to listen to Bill Clinton’s speech,and I started it at my office computer around 1 PM today. Finally finished it about 3:30 PM after many interruptions. Loved it. Had to suppress my urge to cheer out loud several times. We all know he’s not the one running for office, Joe. He sure is a persuasive and charismatic speaker, though, and he made a helluva lot of sense on multiple issues. I had fun picturing the Repugnantcans squirming over it.
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brian stouder said on September 6, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Cooz – I had just heard (at lunch, from a buddy) that Michigan was a “toss-up” state, which bothered me immensely.
Your reference was a great relief, and reminded me to check on it, and I found this
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/09/pro-romney-ads-not-running-in-michigan-pennsylvania/1?csp=34news
woohoo!
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nancy said on September 6, 2012 at 4:12 pm
I honestly don’t see Michigan as a swing. I live here, and I have yet to see any ads for either candidate outside of onesies and twosies here and there. When we were in Ohio for 36 hours last month, we saw little else.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm
What’s that Arpuzo character want to say to try and explain this away. This is straight out of a Republican strategy meeting held by Congressional GOPers on Jan. 20, 2009. Didn’t take the obstructionist traitorous derelict bastards long to get the long knives out:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/08/1098434/-Eric-Cantor-Paul-Ryan-Kevin-McCarthy-Plot-To-Sabotage-US-Economy-with-Frank-Luntz
Now I fully expect Biden to be prepared to fling this at Ayn Ryan, in the VPdebate. What’s the sniveling SOB going to reply?
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brian stouder said on September 6, 2012 at 4:28 pm
I suppose the other way to view Karl Rove abandoning Michigan is that the turd blossom has gone on to greener pastures
On one hand, I’d love for Indiana to be in play, but on the other, being a shoo-in state [for either side] has the benefit of being spared the non-stop ad campaigns.
Still, we may never again in my lifetime see a major candidate (or candidates) in Fort Wayne…which is a pretty neat spectacle
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David C. said on September 6, 2012 at 4:41 pm
This is from those dirty pinkos at Bloomberg.
Title: No False Claims in Clinton’s DNC Speech
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/no-false-claims-in-clinton-s-dnc-speech-c2Ha7CgMRqm9CIwOZMH2mA.html?cmpid=otbrn.video
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coozledad said on September 6, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Bitter scribe was talking about magical thinking yesterday. Damn if I believe the Republicans got any other kind:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/06/1128593/-Republican-weather-conspiracy-theory-disproven-by-the-weather
The Malkin link is especially sad. She’s going to be in diapers before this is over.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 4:51 pm
And I hear Scaife is buying this game by the case. One to each GOP voter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1630646578/guts-of-glory-the-boardgame?ref=NewsSep0612&utm_campaign=Sep06&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
GOP worldview. Just as Elizabeth Warren said.
The thing that should have maximum effect on Congressional voting , is whether or not your sitting member of Congress did anything but prevent governing completely. Every GOP House member stole a salary and the Maybach health care plan the last four years, while, drinking, voting to rescind ACA about 40 fracking times and complaining the President wasn’t finding jobs for people. You know Bain would fire they ass.
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Suzanne said on September 6, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Funny how conservatives, who have stated that fact checkers are biased, now suddenly think them the last word in truth if they say Clinton stretched the facts at all.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Good line from Madelleine Albright:
Every new president inherits headaches, but when President Obama came to office, he inherited an entire emergency room.
It’s funny, Suzanne. Every GOPer pol knew everything Clinton said was true. Now they’re attacking the Atlas Shrugged news source Boomberg.com for confirming that.
The reason for the GOP getting so FUBAR wierd in the last couple of years is their realization there was nothing left to gouge out of the poor, and the only way to satisfy their greed is to attack the middle class. Disconcerting, we’re almost like real people. And I sure as shit have paid more than 13% of my income in federal taxes the last decade. Way more.
Suck on this jobs number, lying GOPer turds.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansen, Kerry Washington following Foo Fighters at the DNC. Sounds better than old man telling chair to get off his lawn.
Another spectacularly asinine thing Ayn Ryan said at the RNC. Now with this bastard, the question is always Stupid or Lying? But this concept doeesn’t seem very complicated.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 6:55 pm
I had to find out what the name of the Montana student paper means. It’s a word from the Salish Indians that means “message”. Way cool, Grizzlies.
Something about the Salish:
https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Salish_Indians
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 7:07 pm
The aforementioned Erik Erickson has stepped in a large pile of cow patties:
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/09/05/801441/erickson-sexist/
Ther’s a link to an online petition. I didn’t used to believe they accomplished anything, but the corporate sponsors of ALEC dropped that shit like a stubby roach when the petitions rolled in. AT&T is still with them. Big surprise.
RMoney wouldn’t lie about something, according to some cretin at factcheck.org:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/05/796961/fact-check-romney-taxes-dnc/
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Jolene said on September 6, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Michelle Malkin truly is the most miserable person on the planet, with the possible exception of actual murderous dictators. She is so mean about everything that I wonder how she doesn’t choke on the bile she spews.
People traveled from all over the country and had arranged bus rides from nearby cities to hear Obama at that stadium. Plus, there was a huge concert scheduled before his speech. There’s no way the stadium wouldn’t have been full or nearly so. Why would Obama want to piss off thousands of supporters who had already performed hours of volunteer work to earn their tickets?
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Deborah said on September 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm
I agree Jolene, Miichelle Malkin is the worst.
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nancy said on September 6, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Roy summed her up best: “A dead-eyed shark looking only for the shortest distance between her mouth and her meal.”
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 7:55 pm
Funny thing about that election fraud by Ole McCotter. Seems the GOP view is that massive electoral fraud that affects who actually gets on ballots doesn’t threaten the integrity of America’s electoral system as much as some homeless person that misrepresents his identity at a polling place. Of course, the GOP has produced no evidence that the latter even happens, since Tamany days, or back when Ed Rollins was handing out $1/2million walking-around money for Christie “Smiling Frisker” Whitman’s campaigns. I’ve ranted about this to my friends at the DNC blog, hoping somebody with some pull would pick up on it. I’ve been particularly incensed about this since James O’Keefe payed people to actually commit identity vote fraud. There was some tough talk from NH GOPers, but in the end it was boys will be spoiled adolescent dicks:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/james-okeefe-video-purports-to-show-ease-of-voter-fraud-in-n-h-primary/
Look at the sorry ass head on that abc story. Wrong again. It showed O’Keefe actually soliciting voter ID fraud and then committing it.
Malkin is the living embodiment of a harpy, but Coulter is either Medusa or one of her snake-coifed sister gorgons. Way back in her childhood, some mom or dad or grandparent told her she wa smarter than everybody else. Well guess again lady. She always seems on the verge of requiring smelling salts when someone even mildly challenges one of the damn fool things she says. She’s so dumb and self-obsessed she believes the book sales figures Regnery publishes for her screeds, by the publisher Richard Scaiffe buying the books from himself. At least Malkin knows how to spell her given name, unlike her hero Bachmann. And , oh, Malkin’s parents came to the US from the Philipines and were allowed to stay when her dad graduated from med school. But they did it all by themselves. I think they should self-deport, personally.
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Jolene said on September 6, 2012 at 8:19 pm
I briefly overlapped with Malkin’s husband in my job at RAND. He was a health services researcher. Didn’t really know him, but saw him at a company picnic with his daughter, who was then only about four years old. She was an extraordinarily beautiful child–a blend, of course, of white and Filipino. I’ve always thought it sad that such a beautiful child should have such a mean mother.
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Jolene said on September 6, 2012 at 8:43 pm
At the DNC, Jennifer Granholm just tore up Mitt Romney for his stance on the auto industry. Said, “His cars get an elevator, but the people who design, build, and sell them got the shaft.” Pretty good line.
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Prospero said on September 6, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Well, Jolene, Kerry trashed him on foreign policy. Best thing: Kerry brought up nonproliferation. People seem to forget easily that there are nuke stockpiles everywhere, many of which are so insecure ICPosse could get ahold of them. Shrub was uninterested in this area of policy, and RMoney makes W. look like alBaradei n the subject. If people want to insist they are voting with their children and their children’s children foremost in mind, as I most emphatically insist I do and fuck anybody that wants to deny that, there is no issue more important than disarming the planet of nukes, and keeping them out of evil hands until that work is done. Obama has a keener understanding of this technically difficult issue than any President since JFK, and Willard may be the sharpest hoe in the shed about tax dodges, but he has demonstrated ignorance about nukes and containing and destroying them eventually:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/08/bring-in-the-big-guns.html
This is another crucial job for the President is one Obama has made himself an expert on, and Willard would fracking blow off in his lust to spend a fortune more than the USA already does on the Pentagon and attack on Iran to spearhead a Crusade to move the Israeli capital to Jerusalem. I wouldn’t take a chance onn RMoney pursuing informed and effective nonproliferation strategies and policies for half his Caymans IRA.
It was fun hearing Kerry make fun of Willard’s foreign policy ineptitude, but it’s no joke his foreign policy team would be people like Elliot Abrams, noted war criminal, and John Bolton, psychopath whose fantasy is blowing up the UN. Screw that, and nobody with a brain would vote for those people back in power.
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paddyo' said on September 6, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Terrific post and comment thread here today, gang . . .
Late to the party, I must share something that the writers and editors in the crowd may find interesting:
Somebody at BuzzFeed compared Bubba’s original prepared text with the actual transcript of his amazing speech last night, in a TrackChanges sort of way. It’s fascinating. The guy’s a brilliant speaker, making significant changes extemporaneously, feeding off the energy of the crowd. As an occasional speechwriter myself, I’m in awe:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nycsouthpaw/inside-bill-clintons-epic-convention-speech-4xje
And yes, the sound-bite-of-the-night remark about Ryan’s “brass” was off-the-cuff, too. . .
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Catherine said on September 7, 2012 at 12:09 am
“Bill Clinton is Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli combined into one orc-killing super love machine.” from Sherman Alexie on Twitter. In the same class as the puppies and bacon imagery, I think.
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Charlotte said on September 7, 2012 at 9:04 am
Eggers is eight or nine years younger than I am, so we never overlapped in school. And Heather — yes yes and double yes. The terror/shame of living in an apartment. Beyond weird. Dinner with my mother an eight rich white people in their 70 s last night. Only one disparaging comment about Obama — but inconceivable to them that the black guy isn’t the servant.
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Dexter said on September 7, 2012 at 1:41 pm
I was all caught up in the campaign of 2008, the possibility of Obama becoming President after the horror of the WBush43 years was refreshing and hopeful.
As part of cleaning up the image of the USA worldwide, Obama repeatedly promised to close the Guantanamo Bay Prison and Detention Center. He said this over and over, finally tempering it so say it would be history no later that one year after his inauguration.
It was a big lie. The prison has been expanded, re-inforced, even re-built, mostly. It will never be closed now.
This fiasco is one reason I watched the Obama nomination speech with one arched eyebrow,how to believe a word he says?
I heard he is going to end the war in Afghanistan by “the end of 2014”. How can we not doubt him?
http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/108831#.UEovyCIniSo
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