Just Plain Folks
Shorter David Brooks on last night's debate:
Who cares about substance? She was folksy!I'm not sure which is more disgusting; Mr. Brooks' elitist presumption that the "casual parts of the country" will find her use of colloquialisms endearing and that the voters care more about how she came across rather than her lack of substance on anything beyond her talking points, or that Mr. Brooks has lowered his standards to the point that someone with the lack of qualifications on the level of Ms. Palin is an acceptable choice for vice president.
Here's a little news for Mr. Brooks and the handlers in the McCain campaign: the middle class doesn't want their vice president to come across like a daytime talk show host, and like it or not, they do remember what's been going on in the country for the last eight years. All the folksy charm won't erase that.
PS: I have some further thoughts on last night's follies here.
The Veep Debate Virtual Pub Is Open
Settle in for the feelgood comedy of the year, Shakers!
Arugula shooters are a buck a pop, tonight only!
Question of the Day
by Ginmar—liberal pinko commie hippie feminist female combat veteran who loves zombies and werewolves and hates trolls, twits, and MRAs.
Today's my birthday and the month I first started blogging. On October 26th, I'll have been blogging for six years—six thousand one hundred forty eight posts, forty seven thousand comments posted, and one hundred ninety nine thousand, two hundred thirty one comments received. Some of those posts were even about vibrators running off to join the circus, imaginary boyfriends, and complaints about the paucity of werewolf / zombie / vampire disaster / apocalypse Martian movies.
Blogging saved my life, changed me, and introduced me to friends I'd never have had a chance of meeting. Oh, like Liss, for example. And you can blame fanfiction for this. I was commenting on other peoples' blogs, and a person gave me a code for an LJ. Scary. I shudder to think what it would have been like—surviving Iraq and coming home to find nobody cared.
What do you blame your blogging on? How did you get into it?
(If you're not a blogger yourself, how you got into reading and commenting at blogs will do.)
This is what we're dealing with, Shakers.
This, of course, is a damnable lie. Obama is a wool-poly blend.
Distemper
An article in the National Review by Art & Laraine Bennett argues that having a quirky temperament is actually an advantage as president.
George Will asked, “Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?” Perhaps not. But whose temperament, in truth, is more dismaying? One that is passionate, decisive, and uncompromising in the face of moral and political evil? Or one that is merely agreeable. To borrow Robert Frost’s line, I hold with those who favor fire.
Update
Sandra Bernhard has been cut from an upcoming appearance at a Boston women's shelter following her joke about Sarah Palin being gang-raped.
Bernhard said her words were taken out of context. The PR director for the shelter said "[We] don't think violence against women is a laughing matter."
It's still disappointing to hear Bernhard defend her joke. "In no way am I making any sort of joke about crimes against women — quite the contrary. I'm speaking out about someone who doesn't do enough to protect women." Sure, sure.
"I think if you look at the real issues I'm addressing, my intent becomes clear." Not so much.
Wevs, Sandra. But good on Rosie's Place, the aforementioned women's shelter, for doing the right thing.
Blasphemous Rumours
Like the eleventh plague raining down on all us Sodomites coolly lying in our Egyptian cotton sheets, Bill O'Reilly is proof that God exists. Or so says he:
"Next time you meet an atheist, tell him or her that you know a bold, fresh guy, a barbarian who was raised in a working-class home and retains the lessons he learned there.If O'Reilly is proof there is a God (and that is not something I'd concede just yet, not based on Bill's spurious logic), then I am sorely disappointed. I mean, seriously, this is it? No miracles? No loaves and fishes, no raising the dead? No stopping bullets and saving Jules? No curing the sick, no ending suffering? Just some enormous douchenozzle getting his smirking, lying mug on TV everyday?
"Then mention to that atheist that this guy is now watched and listened to, on a daily basis, by millions of people all over the world and, to boot, sells millions of books.
"Then, while the non-believer is digesting all that, ask him or her if they still don't believe there's a God!"
By that logic, Dog the Bounty Hunter is also proof there is a God. Jim Belushi too. (I'll also concede I have no knowledge of Belushi being a douchenozzle or a liar, but still, why the fuck is he on TV everyday?)
The fact that a bigoted, lying, xenophobe like O'Reilly is being broadcast around the world is in fact proof there is no God. Or if there is, He's away on business.
(Via.)
Request
I just wanted to take a moment to ask that we all please refrain from using the term "McLame" in comments. It's ableist, and therefore violates the tenets of the safe space.
I know I set a terrible example, because I once used it myself, but it was pointed out to me that I was being an asshole, so I don't use it anymore, and I'm sorry that I did.
From the You've Got to Be Shitting Me Files
Arkansas City (Kansas) Mayor Mel Kuhn wins the Men in Tights "beauty pageant"—a fundraiser for Court Appointed Special Advocates, a foster child support agency—for his portrayal of a drag queen named "Smellishis Poon" whose onstage act included backup dancers called the "Red Hot Puntangs." And, to top it all off, Kuhn performed in blackface.
That is one ginormous clusterfucktastrophe of misogyny, homo/transphobia, and racism. Wow.
[Via Memeorandum. Pam's got more.]
Quote of the Day
"Because life isn't fair."—John McCain, responding to a question about why Barack Obama's popularity has increased as the Wall Street crisis has dominated the news.
If that isn't the most indicative expression of entitlement I've ever heard in my life, I don't know what is. Obama can't be winning because his party's economic policies are better, or because McCain's own party's policies got us into this enormotudinous mess, or because Obama better communicates his economic plan, or because he better connects with financially struggling voters, or because he's more likeable, or because he's just generally a better candidate, or for any other reason.
It's just because life isn't fair to poor, unlucky, unprivileged Johnny McCain.
There are some wet cigarette butts waiting for you in the corner, mardyguts.
Palin and Biden on Separation of Church and State
Katie Couric: Thomas Jefferson wrote about the First Amendment, building a wall of separation between church and state. Why do you think that's so important?So, nothing particularly controversial or shocking here. Pretty standard talking points of both parties, with the biggest distinction arising from a curious inflection in Palin's response: "His intention in expressing that was so that government did not mandate a religion on the people," clearly suggesting that she believes (which is, again, standard GOP dogma) that the government cannot mandate one religion, but can mandate law rooted in religious beliefs—which is why they always say "Judeo-Christian" teachings, to inoculate their legislated morality against the charge it's rooted in a single religion.
Sarah Palin: His intention in expressing that was so that government did not mandate a religion on the people. And Thomas Jefferson also said never underestimate the wisdom of the people. And the wisdom of the people, I think, in this issue is that people have the right and the ability and the desire to express their own religious views, be it on a very personal level, which is where I choose to express my faith, or in a more public forum. And the wisdom of the people, thankfully, engrained in the foundation of our country is so extremely important. And Thomas Jefferson wanted to protect that.
Biden: The best way to look at it is look at every state where that wall's not built. Look at every country in the world where religion is able to impact on the governance. Almost every one of those countries, there's real turmoil. Look, the founders were pretty smart. They had gone through, you know, several hundred years of wars—religious wars. They were in the midst of religious wars in Europe. And they figured it out: The best way to do this is keep the government out of religion. They took religion out of government, but they didn't mean religion couldn't be in a public place, in the public square.
Most informative, IMO, is that, while they both successfully deliver their respective talking points, one of them clearly looks more comfortable and confident doing it. I don’t know if it's an accurate glimpse into what the debate may look like tonight, but it could be.
Biden
If you need a little something to make you feel a bit of warmth toward Biden, in spite of the fact that he occasionally makes what I'm going to understatedly call inappropriate jokes, ahem, check out this TNR piece about how he came to be (co-)author and champion of the Violence Against Women Act.
It's a good article, especially as it details what motivated him to become an advocate for women—and this bit, in particular, significantly endeared him to me:
[A]long the way, he showed himself ready to follow the lead of female attorneys and judges. As Victoria Nourse [who was, in 1990, a Senate Judiciary Committee staffer and worked closely with Biden on VAWA] told me in a recent e-mail from her desk at Emory Law School, where she is now a professor: "[I]n a day and age when Senators were still fondling interns in the Senate elevator, he not only protected me, he listened to me, my legal advice, and by extension, all the women who talked to me."Hearing that from a woman who worked for Biden means a hell of a lot.
The more I read about Biden from people who know him well, the more I think that he's the kind of guy who says what seems like stupid shit because he doesn't get that a joke in the public sphere does not play the same way as it does among intimates. I originally thought that his joke about the "problem" of his wife being educated was supposed to be an ironic jest about educated women generally, which isn't funny given how many people still think that shit, but the more I (think I) understand him, the more I think it was his doofy, Rat Packy, boys-don't-cry way of complimenting his wife for being smart and better educated than he is. It was a joke meant for her; the problem is that he shared it with all of us.
(That explanation also satisfies my bafflement that Obama would put Biden on his ticket even after Biden "joked" about Obama being clean and articulate. Perhaps it was an inside joke between colleagues and friends that went sour when made public—many of us tease friends by ironically invoking stereotypes in private; generally we're just smart enough to know that it's only cool in the intimate space between people who know each other, though. That seems to be the cog Biden's lacking.)
Anyway, I've still got policy problems with Biden (*cough* bankruptcy bill *cough*), but having spent some time trying to find out more about him, my personal issues with him have diminished. And, frankly, I'm always happier to deal with someone with whom I've got some policy disagreements but don't find detestable than someone for whom I can muster neither consensus nor affection.
He's Got This
Stalwart Hoydenizen Amanda has a great guest post up at Hoyden About Town about her confidence that, despite his tendency to alternate between bloviating and munching on his own foot, Joe Biden will perform well at the veep debate tonight:
All debate lead-ups are exercises in lowering the expectations for your candidate, although in this VP debate the effort is somewhat half-hearted from the Dems because … well, you know, Sarah Palin. But still, there are press reports/strategic leaks about anxious moments in Arugula HQ about how their guy will do, and meeja commentary on the gaffetastic clusterfrak that he will apparently, inevitably create. And sure there are more than enough data points in his history as Windbag Q. O'Blabby, Senior Senator from the Great State of New Gaffestonia to fashion a credible angle on it. But I want to do something different, a little relief from the current political mirrorverse we're living though. I don't want to talk about Biden's weaknesses but about his strengths. Putting aside the genuine *headdesk* moments in his verbal resume, why am I confident Joey the Shark will ace the test?Read the whole thing here.
I am confident he knows what has to be done and how to do it. In the primary debates I thought Biden did the best of any of the bloated early field whose names did not rhyme with Clinton, Obama and Edwards and he did better than even them at various moments. Didn’t get his actual vote out the asterisk territory but dude can de-bate. Sure, the liberal elite media says, we know that but he just talks so goddamn much! Just shut up for a second, will you, Loquacious P. McYawnigan! says they. Well, that question was memorably asked and answered in the primaries. Can I remind you Biden is the man who gave us the Rudy Giuliani "a noun, a verb and 9/11" smackdown. As this pre-VP pick announcement article points out, while Obama was "[spinning] out some airy sentences" on the politics of fear, Biden conjured a one-liner that has entered the political language and defined a mindset.
Random Thought: Dead Men Tell No Tales Edition
For a year, when I lived in Los Angeles, I had an annual pass to Disneyland. It was a pretty cool thing to have. I could go any day, any time to the Happiest Place On Earth™ completely free of charge. Sometimes I'd just go at lunch and ride Star Tours then go back to work. Or I'd stroll in on a Tuesday evening, buy an overpriced churro and take a spin on The Haunted Mansion. These odd hours and near-constant presence in the park afforded me some strange experiences.
Once, I was riding Pirates of the Caribbean, and a few boats back, there were a couple of rowdy "long hairs" (as my father would have called them). They were generally being obnoxious, splashing, cussing, and engaging in rowdy shenanigans. This behaviour culminated with one of them yelling "Sepultura" at the top of his lungs. A few moments later, the ride came to halt. I couldn't see their boat anymore, it was back around a bend. When the ride started up, and their boat came into view, they were gone.
Now, on occasion, I get the urge to yell "Sepultura." Pretty much at random.
The Ifill Distraction
The right wing is up in arms that tonight's debate moderator, Gwen Ifill, is working on a book about the change in politics because of the impact of Barack Obama running for president. Their claim is that she cannot be impartial and they are demanding that she pull out of tonight's debate or at least confess up front that she's in the tank for the Democratic ticket.
Since the book hasn't been published yet, that's a bit of a conclusion to jump to, and the assumption that because a black journalist is writing a book about black politics and including a chapter -- as yet unwritten -- on the first black candidate to be nominated by a major political party in the nation's history is automatically favorable to him is presumptuous and, to be blunt, a bit racist: they all stick together, y'know.
What's obviously happened is that the right wing knows that Gov. Palin is a disaster waiting to happen so they are inoculating her against any poor performance by saying that the questions from the moderator were all "gotcha" questions. This is a standard "look at the kitty" diversion, and it doesn't matter who the moderator is. If it isn't Ms. Ifill, they'd find something wrong with any other choice except, perhaps, one of their own like Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity. Except sanity dictates that the Commission on Presidential Debates had to choose someone with actual journalistic experience.
Emails Implicate White House in Prosecutor Purge
I was sort of gobsmacked that Bush appointee Attorney General Michael Mukasey would appoint a federal prosecutor to further investigate the 2006 purge of federal prosecutors who were disloyal to the Bush administration in various ways, instead having the unmitigated temerity to uphold the law. I was surprised because the Bushies have done such a deviously splendid job of stonewalling investigators that the whole thing seemed pretty much dead in the water. But when new evidence emerged implicating the White House, and the White House continued to obstruct the investigation with refusals to participate, Mukasey was left with little choice.
In 18 months of searching, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility chief H. Marshall Jarrett have uncovered new e-mail messages hinting at heightened involvement of White House lawyers and political aides in the firings of nine federal prosecutors two years ago.All of this comes back to what Joseph Hughes and I called the Hidden Scandal Within the Prosecutor Purge, which centers around email usage, particularly the use of nongovernmental email accounts that violate the Presidential Records Act. (And this would be why it's a big deal that Sarah Palin used private email accounts.)
But they could not probe much deeper because key officials declined to be interviewed and a critical timeline drafted by the White House was so heavily redacted that it was "virtually worthless as an investigative tool," the authorities said.
"We were unable to fully develop the facts regarding the removal of [David C.] Iglesias and several other U.S. Attorneys because of the refusal by certain key witnesses to be interviewed by us, as well as the White House's decision not to provide … internal documents to us," the investigators concluded in their report.
The standoff is a central reason that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey on Monday named a veteran public-corruption prosecutor, Nora R. Dannehy, to continue the investigation, directing her to give him a preliminary report on the status of the case in 60 days.
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (who I'm really beginning to like, by the way) is staying on top of this investigation, penning a letter to Mukasey yesterday "asking whether Dannehy would have the authority to compel documents [and testimony] from the White House" and expressing "concern that any information Dannehy may obtain would be kept under wraps because of grand jury secrecy rules," which would not be in the public's interest: "There are a lot of questions that need to be answered." Good man!
A Justice Department spokesperson has assured him that Dannehy will "have the same authority as any prosecutor to pursue this investigation wherever the facts and the law require."
Bush's secretary is no doubt drafting preemptive pardons for Rove and Miers right now.
[More on the prosecutor purge, aka Attorneygate, here and here.]
McNasty
Add another bulletpoint to the list:
Let the record reflect that Barack Obama made the approach to John McCain tonight.
As the two shared the Senate floor tonight for the first time since they won their party nominations, Obama stood chatting with Democrats on his side of the aisle, and McCain stood on the Republican side of the aisle.
So Obama crossed over into enemy territory.
He walked over to where McCain was chatting with Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida and Independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. And he stretched out his arm and offered his hand to McCain.
McCain shook it, but with a "go away" look that no one could miss. He tried his best not to even look at Obama.
Finally, with a tight smile, McCain managed a greeting: "Good to see you."
Obama got the message. He shook hands with Martinez and Lieberman — both of whom greeted him more warmly — and quickly beat a retreat back to the Democratic side.
"I'll wipe the floor with your ass, son."
"I'm ahead by 8 points. Good luck with that."
