oselle | Entries tagged with politics

So, it appears the Republicans scuttled a possible agreement on the bailout bill because Nancy Pelosi said mean things.

You know, I've got a question. I've long noticed that Republicans and conservatives, whether they're politicians or pundits or people right here on LJ, tend to have very thin skins about themselves. Oh, they're terrifically thick-skinned about, say...starting wars or torturing people or denying healthcare coverage to needy kids or leaving an American city to drown but boy, when it comes to themselves, they're all, "You're so mean!" and "You hurt my feelings!" and "Don't call me names!" Why is that? How can people so utterly lacking in any sort of normal empathy for their fellow man be so deeply sensitive and easily wounded when it comes to themselves? Can this be classed as genuinely sociopathic behavior or what?

Barney Frank hit the nail on the head:

“We don’t believe they had the votes and I think they are covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes. But think about this: somebody hurt my feelings so I will punish the country. I mean that’s hardly plausible. And there were twelve Republicans who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America but not if anybody insulted them. I’ll make an offer: Give me those twelve people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they’ll now think about the country.”

Good luck, Barney.

So the latest news is that Bristol Palin's shotgun wedding will happen right before the election.

Newsflash for the McCain campaign: This wedding ain't exactly Lady Di and the Prince of Wales caliber. If you genuinely think this would be "fantastic" for the campaign, you are not only using a knocked-up 17-year-old for your own gain but you're just...really, really stupid.

Campbell Brown on CNN had this to say about the way the McCain campaign has been hiding Sarah Palin from the press:

“Bear with me for a short rant on another subject, because frankly I have had and I know a lot of other women out there are with me on this. I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end. She was here in New York City today meeting with world leaders at the UN. And what did the McCain campaign do? They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings. And they did ban reporters from asking her any questions. Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong; she is tough; she is competent. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters just like Barack Obama did today. Just like John McCain did today. Just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions. Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.”

Now, I suspect that Brown is just using a clever tactic here -- latching onto the sexism charge as a way to goad the McCain campaign into putting Palin out there (where she absolutely should be). At least I hope she is. Because no one can seriously believe that sexism is behind the campaign's dictatorial efforts to keep Palin away from the press. I think we all know why this is happening -- the campaign doesn't want the press asking Palin unscripted questions because they know she cannot answer them. Even in interviews that she's been prepped for, and even in her scheduled speeches she clearly has nothing of value to say. God forbid the press starts hurling actual questions at her. Now, our press is not exactly known for throwing hardballs at Republicans. But Palin is such a weak link that it's not going to take much to bring her down. Even a routine foreign policy question makes her stammer and stare like a tweenie who blew off her homework to go to the mall. The campaign isn't hiding Palin because she's a woman. They're hiding her because they're stalling for time. She's a sort of unlikable Eliza Doolittle and the campaign is playing the role of Henry Higgins -- trying to mold a fundie whackjob with no applicable experience into presidential material. Good luck with that, Professor Higgins.

In other news, did you know that as of October 1st, a U.S. Army brigade will be assigned the task of homeland defense -- on U.S. soil -- purportedly "to help with civil unrest and crowd control" (among other things) a move that reverses a more than 100-year-old ban on such military use within the United States? Did you also know that as of 2006, The Defense Authorization Act gave the President the right "to impose martial law in the event of a terrorist 'incident, if he or other federal officials perceive a shortfall of 'public order,' or even in response to antiwar protests that get unruly as a result of government provocations..." Read more here.

( Conservatives and the Madness of Magical Thinking )

The fabulous John Cole over at Balloon Juice sums up Sarah Palin in the only way that fits:

Sarah Palin is the distilled essence of wingnut. She has it all. She is dishonest. She is a religious nut. She is incurious. She is anti-science. She is inexperienced. She abuses her authority. She hides behind executive privilege. She is a big spender. She works from the gut and places a greater value on instinct than knowledge.

And most dangerous of all, she is supremely self-confident to the point of not recognizing how ill-equipped she is to lead the country.

The only thing I'd change about the above comment is the word "dishonest." It's just too elegant. I prefer "liar." It's a nasty little word that suits her perfectly.

Someone asked me if I'm going to watch her on 20/20 tonight. No I am not. Between her vicious performance at the Republican convention and her blathering Charlie Gibson interview last night, I've seen all I need to of this awful woman. She needs to be shipped back to Alaska without delay. This grinning fruitcake so little deserves to be in the White House that there should be a restraining order keeping her from even standing outside it.

As far as I'm concerned John McCain has won this election.

I was away last week but I caught some of the Republican convention and it left my jaw on the floor. Nothing but petty, sneering, mocking attacks on Barack Obama, the kind of vicious, infantile shit that belongs on Fandom Wank, not on the national political stage and not when the future of the country is at stake.

Meanwhile...the Democrats can't say a word about McCain without a lengthy, fawning preface about all his sacrifice, service and integrity.

The McCain campaign is working round the clock to obstruct justice and shut down an ongoing corruption investigation into Sarah Palin, even as they hide her from the press so they can have time to turn an ignorant, unqualified extremist into something that can weather a debate and a few softball interviews.

Meanwhile...more than half the country (according to recent polls) has fallen head-over-heels for this adorable "pit bull in lipstick" and isn't it funny how Hillary Clinton was pilloried as a shrill bitch but Palin is lauded as a delightfully refreshing "barracuda?"

McCain tells people to "stand up and fight" while ignoring the fact that the reason we need to fight is because his party has been in power for eight years.

Meanwhile...this shameless liar is trailing Obama by only a few points.

People, look at what's going on. The Republicans are twisting this election, focusing on the politics of personality while diverting and avoiding any real discussion of issues BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO DISCUSS THE ISSUES and you know what? The press and the people of America and the Democrats are helping them do it.

I don't want to talk about this shit anymore. I've already had one conservative concern troll over here chastising me for my "vitriol" towards McCain, the same "can't we all play nice" hankie-wringing bullshit I saw so much of four years ago. I'm done. I want to talk about Dean Winchester. I want to talk about Supernatural. I want to finish my fanfic. And there are plenty of better places than here for information and I urge you, I BEG you to take advantage of them:

Crooks and Liars: One stop shopping for all your reality-based news.

Balloon Juice: No holds barred, take no prisoners blogging from a Republican in recovery.

Digby's Hullabaloo: Always dead on the money analysis, especially of our useless press corps.

Glenn Greenwald: This guy tells it like it is until it hurts.

Stay informed. Question everything. Make sure you're registered to vote. Pray for a miracle.

I'm going out of town for a few days & running for the airport now but I really wanted to post this.

A friend forwarded me something that's making the internet rounds, a letter supposedly written by a resident of Alaska outlining who Sarah Palin is and what she stands for and what she's done (or hasn't done) for Alaska. I'm not going to excerpt it or link to it and you'll see why.

It was all about Palin's stance on various issues and was pretty straightforward until the writer started talking about Wasilia, the small town that Palin was mayor of before she became governor. The writer described Wasilia as "a redneck town" where the average resident had only a tenth-grade education and then went on to deride other things about Wasilians.

I don't know much about Alaska and I don't know anything about Wasilia. For all I know it may actually be a dirt-poor hillbilly hellhole. But listen to me: keep talking like this and we're going to put McCain and Palin in the White House. The uneducated redneck is a cultural icon in this country. We'd put Bo and Luke Duke in the White House if we could. Deride places like Wasilia and the people who live there and you know what a huge number of Americans are going to hear? They're going to hear that those Democrat snobs dismiss Palin because she's "country." That the arrogant elitists look down their snooty noses at solid small-town Americans. That they hate American values. And they are going to walk into that voting booth in November and pull the lever for McCain/Palin because Palin's "one of us."

Don't let this happen. Palin is a nightmare of a candidate and is horrifyingly unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency for many concrete reasons. But if we bring any derision of her small-town background into this we will turn her into America's country sweetheart and give conservatives and the media an arsenal of talking points to use against Obama and the Democrats. Think I'm wrong? We've had George Bush in office for eight fucking years because a lot of people in this country thought he'd be a cool guy to have a beer with. You think they won't vote for Palin for the same idiotic reasons? Please, please, please don't let this happen.

I'm outta here. See ya in a few.

It sure sounds like it is...

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

This is not happening in Russia, China or some apocafic. This is the real deal. I realize that hurricanes and crazy vice-presidential picks have been dominating the news but I have not seen any major national coverage of what's happening in St. Paul.

ETA: In case you're wondering who vetted Sarah Palin before she was chosen as the Republican Vice-Presidential running mate, it was a secretive organization of rightwing, theocratic lunatics called the Council for National Policy:

Last week, while the media focused almost obsessively on the DNC’s spectacle in Denver, the country’s most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.

This isn't America anymore. It's some batshit crazy banana republic where people are hauled off to jail just for planning protests, military patrol the streets and shadowy gangs of religious maniacs confer in secret to pick the country's leaders. WTF is going on here?

Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast just in time for the Republican convention and so the Republicans are planning to turn it into a public relations stunt.

For God's sake, America. Don't fall for this.

Here, watch this, at least it's funny:

McCain on his Vice-President pick:

"The Presidency of the United States of America is the toughest job on the planet,” Sen. McCain said. “And my friends, the best testing ground for that job is being the mayor of a 5,000-person town in Alaska.”

Is this for real? Are we being punked? Did we suddenly sideslip into an alternate universe?

Fox News immediately dug up some "lifelong Democrat" woman who'd suddenly decided to switch her vote to McCain because he had a woman on the ticket. Is THAT for real? Yeah, I'm gonna go out and vote for this out-of-it country club jackass and his anti-choice, pro-creationism, card-carrying member of the NRA running mate because there's someone with ovaries on the ticket. Jesus H. CHRIST.

John McCain has just selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

I don't know anything about Palin and I don't want to know anything about her. As far as I'm concerned, this is a smoke-and-mirrors act. She was chosen solely to take some of the rich old geezer stink off of McCain, to make him look a little more hip and, I'm sure, in the hopes of luring away some of those supposedly disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters (because all they wanted to do was vote for a woman -- any woman -- right?)

I don't give a shit who McCain's running mate is, he's still the guy who'd be president. Everything about McCain is wrong for this country. Everything. He's a hot-headed liar, a filthy rich old country-clubber, golf-carting around in Ferragamo loafers while the country rots and claiming, nope, nuthin' wrong here! He has no knowledge of and zero interest in the lives of the vast majority of Americans and he has no ideas and nothing to offer except four more years of decline, decay and destruction. And if the citizens of this country are stupid enough to elect him...what can I say? They deserve what they get. I'm just sorry I'm gonna be getting it along with them.

When I heard that the alleged suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks had suddenly committed suicide, I thought, "something stinks." Glenn Greenwald has a great post up about the awful stench of this whole thing. Just add this mess to the list of all the Bush-era horrors that this country will never know the real truth about:

We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory. More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves.

I read this over lunch today. Bad move, especially when I got to the pic of Bush's junk trussed up in a flightsuit. How the hell this entire country didn't collectively VOMIT when they got a load of this draft-dodging, silver-spoon fratboy having the shameless audacity to put on a fighter pilot costume and prance around on an aircraft carrier is beyond me.

You should read it anyway. Preferably on an empty stomach.

The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

PS: On a COMPLETELY different note, I read that Supernatural starts filming Season Four tomorrow. I am absurdly excited. I also saw a lengthy CW promo for their Fall season and was disappointed that SPN was represented by a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of the boys. I'm telling myself that's because they want us to keep thinking Dean's dead up until September 4.

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Tender Feelings
It's creepy AND sleazy!
(no subject)
Newsflash: Old Dog (me) Learns New Trick
John Cole Tells it Like It Is
I'm Done.
How to help McCain Win
Is St. Paul, MN under martial law??
Unconscionable, shameless, disgraceful, nauseating....
What?
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What a long, sad trip it's been

Entries tagged with politics

Tender Feelings

It's creepy AND sleazy!

(no subject)

Newsflash: Old Dog (me) Learns New Trick

John Cole Tells it Like It Is

I'm Done.

How to help McCain Win

Is St. Paul, MN under martial law??

Unconscionable, shameless, disgraceful, nauseating....

What?