"She is female, which addresses the novelty of the opposition; she is smart and well-respected; she is knowledgeable on key issues, especially domestic policy. I still think it's going to be Mitt Romney."—Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas at Austin government professor, on possible McCain running mate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
Other quotes from the same article include "Hutchison is not charismatic. But her circumstances would be if she were nominated," "The conservatives could probably stomach (Hutchison) a lot better than a Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman," and "OK, she's not a dynamo of fiery charisma; in fact, as I've noted before, she's a bland and sometimes boring speaker, and a pleasant if unprepossessing television presence."
Feel the excitement!
Quote of the Day
Shaker Gourmet: Swiss cheese fondue
What's more fun than fondue? LOL
It is fun for parties and, well, just plain tastes good. This recipe comes from a friend of mine who says that "any day is a fondue day".
If you don't have a fondue set, you can make it in a heavy saucepan and transfer to a little crock pot (or some sort of dish that you can keep warm) to serve.Swiss Cheese Fondue
2 lbs grated cheese (I use Gruyère and Emmenthaler)
Bottle of dry white wine
2 Tbsp corn starch
approx 3/4 cup water + 1/2 cup warm water
Garlic, pepper, freshly ground nutmeg
-Rub the bottom and sides of the fondue pot with a couple cloves of garlic. I use a garlic press and throw them in there after I rub the pan.
-Dilute the corn starch in the 3/4 cup water in a glass
-Heat the wine in the pot but not to boiling. If it boils, turn it down to a low simmer. The amount of wine varies, but I usually start with about a cup to 1 1/2 cups.
-Add the diluted cornstarch and the cheese slowly,in handfuls until the mixture is relatively smooth. Stir vigorously the whole time you're doing this.
-Heat the fondue just to boiling and stir, stir, stir!
-Once the mix has come together and boiled, add another 1/2 cup of warm water and pepper and nutmeg to taste.
-Serve with cut-up crusty bread and have extra pepper for people to use on their plates. Other things you could dip are apples or veggies but I never bother.
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me (include a blog link!) at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com
Important Announcement
"If you don't vote for Obama, you're helping elect McCain" is not an absolute truth. Please stop saying it like it is.
When you assert that a failure to support Obama is de facto support for McCain as unqualified fact, you are engaging in the discussion as if every American lives in a swing state, the electoral college doesn't exist, and the presidency is decided by a national popular vote total. All of which are wrong.
Very few of us are going to be casting votes that have the potential to determine the outcome of the election.
Many of us can vote for neither of the two major party candidates without helping or hurting either one. And the rest of us, who do live in swing states, can engage in strategic vote exchanges.
Your failure to acknowledge these realities makes your entire argument intellectually dishonest.
So please, do us all a favor and just. stop.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Woman Kicked Out of Federal Building for Lesbian T-Shirt
Lapriss Gilbert was escorted out of the Van Nuys, CA Social Security office this Monday, because her t-shirt, which reads "Lesbian.com," was deemed "offensive."
As she headed for a line to pick up a Social Security card for her son, Gilbert was stopped by a guard who said her T-shirt, naming an educational and resource Web site for gay women, was offensive.In good news, "Lapriss was told she could come back into the building and was escorted to the front of the line by another Paragon security guard" because "nobody in that office felt her T-shirt was offensive by any means."
She said the guard, who works for a private company hired by the Department of Homeland Security, demanded that she leave the building or face arrest.
"As an African-American and a lesbian, I haven't been through one day without facing some sort of discrimination ... but this is just shocking," said Gilbert, 31.
Lori Haley, a federal spokeswoman for the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement - which is under the Homeland Security umbrella - said the guard was out of line.
"We believe that the actions of the contract security guard were inappropriate and unacceptable - we have notified his company, Paragon, of our position in the matter," Haley said.
In bad news, several of the stories I've now read about this incident (including the AP's coverage) describe the shirt as "promoting lesbianism." As if Lesbian.com is a freaking recruitment site. Good grief.
[H/T to Shaker ScottRS.]
Dare I Say That Alaskan Repubs = Stoopid
Maybe it's related to feeling better about the crook you know than the crook you don't know, but still:
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska won the Republican primary in his home state on Tuesday, soundly defeating six Republican challengers less than a month after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for concealing more than $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company. [...]For all we know, the other candidates may not have ranked high enough in the corruption scale to take the victory lap. Perhaps Dave Cuddy should've worked harder on bribes instead of his actual campaign.
"People have been voting for Ted for 40 years and their inclination is to keep doing it," Dave Cuddy, a former state lawmaker who finished a distant second to Mr. Stevens, said in a phone interview several hours before the polls closed.
Kudos to the Alaskan Republicans who have made democracy that much more of a mystery.
On Hillary and the Talking Heads Who Hate Love Hate Her
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's Comment is free America, "Mad men in cable news land." It's about the coverage leading up to and through Hillary Clinton's speech last night, and what it revealed about the media, and what it revealed about her:
And then the coup de grace, as Olbermann noted that "people have questioned what Senator Clinton's motives might be going into this speech," then pondered, sincerely, "Is it possible, and I know in this cynical year it seems almost silly to ask this question, but is it just not possible that she could genuinely believe that the nation can't sustain itself with another four years of Republican rule and that that's the motivation going into tonight's speech for her?" This is what it had come to at last – the possibility that Clinton has integrity was being discussed like the remotest possibility in the multiverse, something "silly" to consider, the idea that Clinton is motivated primarily by not wanting Republicans to win presented as the zaniest outlier of all conceivable motivations.Read the whole thing here.
It was, perhaps, too much to expect that reason could penetrate the MSNBC bubble inside which Olbermann is cloistered – and supporting evidence for the void of said reason soon presented itself in the gruesome spectre of Pat Buchanan, still considered an appropriate national commentator, despite the fact that he should long ago have been relegated to the dustbin of history, unfit to comment on bullfrog racing, no less the Democratic convention.
When we catch up with the manic Matthews again, he is in full meltdown, barking at Clinton supporter Lisa Caputo questions about how the Clintons are going to win the White House back for the Clinton family. Caputo laughs at his suggestion that the Clintons have a "restoration plan" to recapture the White House. "I'm SERIOUS," he insists. Yes, that's precisely the problem, you crazy, crazy man.
Roadside Attraction
Driving down I-75 Sunday afternoon from Detroit to Toledo, we spotted a billboard for a fireworks store:
*
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
Someone please notify the Department of Redundancy Department.
I'll Take Castrating Harpies for $200, Alex
Who is Barbara Boxer?
Question of the Day
Because I need a break from all things Democratic convention, here's one that's totally unrelated (which we've probably done before at some point): What's the best TV series of all time?
I've got one word for you: Lost.
From the Department of Fuck You
Karl Rove has said some wild shit in his day, but I can think of few things that approach the unadulterated gall of his claim that Michelle Obama failed to sufficiently show her love and respect for this country in her convention speech last night:
I don't think she did too well on saying I love America. That wasn't adequate enough because, look, people are gonna hear that, and then those that have paid attention to her earlier comments are gonna try and square those two off.Yeah, that's right. Karl fucking Rove, the Turd Blossom, the conservative's grand marshal and architect of their past eight years' scorched earth campaign, a man who's been a Republican operative for longer than I've been alive, who has been shadowed by scandal nearly as long, who was fired from Daddy Bush's 1992 presidential campaign for unethical leaking, who then managed Dubya's 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial campaigns, spending years molding and shaping his candidate into presidential material, finally getting him into the White House in 2000, from where Rove himself has orchestrated domestic (and foreign) policy for the last six+ years, meaning that much of the new American landscape is attributable to Rove's machinations, even though most Americans couldn't pick him out of a crowd of two.
One can't cast one's eyes toward Iraq, or read of the still-struggling Gulf Coast, or greet another infuriating 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court, or hear about a family who lost their home because of the catastrophic combination of a healthcare crisis and no health insurance, or a crumbling infrastructure, or American students falling behind their global peers, or American scientists falling behind theirs, or any one of dozens of issues that have Rove's grubby fingerprints and Bush's crummy signature all over them, and fail to think about the scheming that has changed our country and our lives, not for the better by almost any estimation.
And the pot of shit behind it all has the temerity to suggest that Michelle Obama doesn't love her country—the proof of her insufficient affection being, evidently, that she hasn't endeavored for the past four decades to destroy it.
Fuck you, Rove. Fuck. You.
News from Shakes Manor
Last night, during the Cubs game…
Liss: Do you think there's more genetic variation between cats and dogs, or cats and humans?
Iain: Zuh?
Liss: I was just thinking: I wonder if cats genetically share more in common with dogs, or with humans.
Iain: Surely dogs. They're bofe four-legged and furry.
Liss: It seems the obvious answer—but when you consider that there's only something like 2% variation between humans and chimps, and we look a lot different, it's conceivable that cats are 18% different than dogs, but only 17% different than humans.
Iain: I reckon that's true. [pauses; reflects] What made you fink about that while watching the ballgame?
Liss: Dunno. It only takes about 56% of my brain to concentrate on the ballgame, so other things run in the background.
Iain: 56%? That's very precise.
Liss: I said about 56%.
Iain: Ohhhhh. About 56%. And the uffer 44 finks about genetic variation between humans and cats?
Liss: Uh-huh. And other stuff.
Iain: That's a very strange fing tae fink about, but yer very cute noonetheless.
Seen
By Iain: A car bearing one of Indiana's "alternate" In God We Trust license plates, flanked on either side by:
1. A bumper sticker reading "I don't have an attitude problem. You're just an asshole."
2. A magnetic bumper ribbon reading "Support Strippers."
Action Item: HHS Rule Change Public Comment
[Previous posts on HHS Rule Change here, here, here, here, and here.]
As you may recall, last Thursday, the the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled proposed regulations which could seriously undermine women's access to reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion. Louise Melling, Director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project explains:
The Bush administration is trying to spin the proposed regulations as a necessary means of protecting health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions. But federal law has long carefully balanced protections for individual religious liberty and patients' access to reproductive health care. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.The public now has 30 days to let the Bush administration know precisely what we think of these regulations. Click on the icon below to be taken directly to the ACLU's Action Alert, which allows you to send comments to HHS. It couldn't be easier. Please take just a moment to make sure your voice is heard.
What's really new about these proposed regulations is that they appear to take patients' health needs out of the equation. They expand the ability of health care workers to refuse to provide complete and accurate information and counseling to women who seek services. Moreover, both the regulations, and Secretary of HHS Michael Leavitt’s public comments about them, leave the door open as to whether institutions and individuals can refuse to provide contraception.
Make no mistake: that lack of clarity is intentional. As the Washington Post reports, "…when pressed about whether the regulation would protect health-care workers who consider birth control pills, Plan B and other forms of contraception to be equivalent to abortion, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said: 'This regulation does not seek to resolve any ambiguity in that area'." Indeed, the Wall Street Journal notes Leavitt's admission that some medical providers may want to "press the definition."
Not reassuring.
Quote of the Day
"Even after all these months, I still don't completely understand why Clinton's essentially centrist campaign for the White House ginned up so much open contempt from the press corps, which has felt completely comfortable addressing her in an openly derogatory and condescending manner. The issue of her convention involvement simply allowed the press to whack her around like a piñata one more time, regardless of the facts."—Eric Boehlert, in a must-read piece bluntly titled "Hillary Clinton speaks at convention. The press concocts a story." Seriously, I cannot recommend it enough. Go read the whole thing. Even if, and perhaps especially, if you're under the impression that Clinton is deliberately divisive or that there is animosity between Camps Obama and Clinton.
Hillary Sexism Watch, #109
And on and on and on it goes… Here is GOP Consultant Alex Castellanos, who also featured in #96 of this series, yesterday comparing Hillary Clinton (as she was in parts #87 and #90 of this series) to Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction:
Castellanos: [My advice to the Obama campaign would be] make nice with Hillary. And that would be almost impossible to do. I think the specter of Hillary Clinton hangs over this convention like Glenn Close with a knife in Fatal Attraction. She's just not happy.Yeah, I know he's a Republican.
And that anyone who does is simply presumed to be a Clinton partisan. As if the commentary isn't objectionable just on its own.
Hillary Sexism Watch: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy, Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Seventy-Six, Seventy-Seven, Seventy-Eight, Seventy-Nine, Eighty, Eighty-One, Eighty-Two, Eighty-Three, Eighty-Four, Eighty-Five, Eighty Six, Eighty-Seven, Eighty-Eight, Eighty-Nine, Ninety, Ninety-One, Ninety-Two, Ninety-Three, Ninety-Four, Ninety-Five, Ninety-Six, Ninety-Seven, Ninety-Eight, Ninety-Nine, One Hundred, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108.
Possible Plot Against Obama Thwarted
News of the alleged plot was first reported by the local CBS affiliate in Denver and the Rocky Mountain News. The local reports said the investigation was opened after local police in Aurora, Colo., which is located in Arapahoe County, made a traffic stop and discovered two rifles and methamphetamine. Authorities subsequently went to the Cherry Creek Hotel and knocked at the door of a guest in the middle of the night; the guest jumped out of his sixth-floor window but was subsequently recaptured. The man allegedly said something about Obama to authorities, but it could not be ascertained what comments were made, the reports said.I was a little hesitant to post this, because I'm quite honestly not sure if it unnecessarily stokes fears about Obama's safety—and it drives me nutzoid when people talk about how they're convinced a horrible fate will befall him and positively makes my teeth grind when I hear someone use that as a justification for not wanting to vote for him. (Although I've heard that a lot less since he got the Dem nomination.)
…Wednesday evening, the FBI confirmed the identity of one of the suspects: Tharin Robert Gartrell. A source familiar with the investigation said that Gartrell and the other two suspects were believed to be white supremacists. The real question now is whether the men were in position to carry out any kind of threats against the candidate—or whether they were trying to impress girlfriends, the source said. The Obama campaign declined comment, referring reporters to the U.S. attorney's statement.
But, on the other hand, I think it's reflective of the reality that there are violent racists out there—and, whatever anyone has to say about Barack Obama as a politician, he has to take an extra risk to blaze this particular trail.
There's a lot of talk about John McCain's bravery as a POW; all things being equal, stories like this one ought to serve as the backdrop for a lot of talk about Obama's bravery as a groundbreaking candidate. Of course, that would require speaking honestly about our imperfect country.
God Bless America.
McCain on The Tonight Show
Another video, care of Petulant, who is now having a much-deserved rest after being up all night making videos for us! Here's my arch-nemesis John McCain on The Tonight Show with another of my sinister nemeses Jay Leno last night, yukking it up in a display that makes me want to throw up for ten thousand years. I've provided a paraphrased transcript (with some unavoidable commentary of my own) below, for those who can't watch/hear the video.
Paraphrase of video (if anyone can find a full transcript, please drop a link in comments): Leno says he loves having "real people" like those running for president on his show; McCain says it's his 13th time on The Tonight Show; they make jokes about how old McCain is; McCain pretends to fall asleep; McCain says his social security number is 8 (ho ho); Leno asks about McCain and Biden being friends and wasn't it Biden who suggested McCain run as Kerry's veep; McCain says yeah and Biden once said that if McCain ran on either party's ticket it would be great for America and he'll keep reminding Biden of that.
Leno says now Biden says that McCain would be Bush's third term; McCain says he's the underdog, but they're tied in the polls, and he loves being the underdog; McCain makes idiotic joke about Leno being his running mate; Leno says he can make more money "doing a week in Vegas" (presumably he meant comedy, although I didn't realize there are people who would pay to see that—huh).
Leno says being pres is a lousy job for the money; McCain says the house is nice; Leno tells him he's got enough of those; McCain has no response and looks like an embarrassed glaikit.
Leno asks whether Obama's selection of Biden will affect McCain's veep choice; he says no; "you've gotta find somebody who you know shares your principles, your values, and your priorities" (by that rationale, McCain couldn't pick himself of four years ago!); they discuss Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; McCain jokes that Biden talks a lot; Leno makes the most annoying cat noises in the world because he's a giant asshole.
McCain says Obama was most liberal senator and Biden was third most liberal according to their voting records; Leno says he's been disappointed in the negative ads; says he's "watched the American dollar turn into the peso" and he doesn't care about how many houses someone has etc. and wants to know why negative ads work and why Americans fall for them (for the same reason they think you're funny, Jay—people are idiots).
[edit for commercial break]
McCain talks about being a POW; spent five and a half years in a prison cell without a house and didn't spend that time in captivity because he wanted a house (zuh?); says he's proud of Cindy's father, who barely finished high school, fought in WWII, and started a business, and realized the American Dream; Cindy is a great humanitarian; he's proud of his life and his record; they spend their time in a condo in Washington and a condo in Arizona and some time in California and they have another place up in northern Arizona and "my friends, I'm proud of my record of service to this country, and it has nothing to do with houses."
Leno asks about negative ads; McCain says "we all don't like negative ads" and claims his ads comparing Obama to Paris Hilton were an attempt to be humorous (humor: FAIL); says the tone of the campaign is "very rough" but it's Obama's fault because he didn't agree to McCain's plan to come together in town hall meetings and stood onstage together to campaign directly to American people; Leno says they're doing some debates; McCain says it's not the same boo hoo wah wah wah.
Leno asks McCain about using Hillary in some of his ads; asks why McCain doesn't pick her as his running mate; McCain dodges the question and says he respects Clinton (but not enough not to take her words out of context for an ad, of course, ahem) and she inspired millions of young Americans, especially women; he appreciates her, but they have different ideas about government and how to stop out of control spending and ethical problems.
Leno says the dollar is falling all over the world and asks if that's the biggest issue; McCain says it's a symptom and "we gotta stop sending $700 billion a year overseas to countries that don't like us very much." Huge applause. What $700 billion is he talking about? Imported goods? Foreign aid? War funding? WTF? It doesn't matter. The audience goes wild.
McCain then says that we've got to drill offshore for oil immediately; "And we need nuclear and we need wind and tide and all—and hydrogen, all of the things—natural gas, hydrogen cars, electric powered cars" and flying monkeys and jetpacks and rocket ships and unicorns!
McCain says "some of the money we're sending overseas" (that mysterious money we're just sending randomly in bundles) "ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations" and it should be used instead for energy independence; America can do it; too many nay-sayers blah blah; in France, 80% of their energy is generated by nuclear power—followed immediately by jokes about how France sucks, of course.
Then Leno hustles him out of there and says he's got a Republican fundraiser in Hollywood to get to. Who's Paris Hilton now, asshole?
The End.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Insert your own joke about the Dem Convention here.
