entertaining POPULAR exclusive FREESTYLE MINDFUL CUTTING-EDGE SOCIO-POLITICAL BLOG AVEC a dollop of SNARK now showing the POPular hilarious samizdat "DONALD TRUMP IS MY (frickin'') GURU"
"Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC, because Democrats are dangerously weak on crime. Barack Obama has voted against tougher penalties for street gangs, drug-related crimes, and protecting children from danger. Barack Obama and his liberal allies have a disturbing history of coddling criminals so we can't trust their judgment to keep our families safe. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558-5591. Thank you, bye."
The workers in Indiana who refused to repeat the smear-script had to pay for it -- losing many hours of work. Sounds like in the end they made the right call.
The magazine [Newsweek] reported 86 per cent of the 1212 voters polled said they are dissatisfied with how things were going in the United States. The economy was the biggest concern with 48 per cent. When asked which candidate would better handle a number of issues, Senator Obama topped every category except national security and terrorism.
"For context on just how toxic these numbers could be for the Republican Party, consider that in October 2006, weeks before the Democrats swept control of both houses of Congress, only 61 per cent of voters expressed dissatisfaction," Newsweek wrote.
One is not okay with the vicious Mrs. Palin's continuing race-baiting, either. No time to address this at length, but one can visualize Sarah Palin dancing around like Anita from West Side Story, and singing, "Stick to your own kind! One of your own kind!"
And I wish I knew why the Trophy VEEP, at least according to the CNN Ohio voter response meters, seemed to get away with a whole lot of extra-crunchy bullshit.
Um, because it was charming extra-crunchy bullshit?
Thanks to the internets tubes, dudes, you, too, along with all-important American dudettes, can apparently spontaneously generate a whole passel of charmingly inane Palinian bullshit propaganda phrase prose poetry.
You can do it because we're America, here, hey, Joe-six-pack-hockey-mom reform reform greed change families fear furriners terrists Putin newspapers mooses bookburn witch-hunting regular-folks-wth-stock-portfolio talibangelical babe Ahmedinejad and so why not?
Plus -- Spain!
(INSERT DUBIOUSLY ADORABLE ACTUALLY INAPPROPRIATE BORDERING ON OFFENSIVE WINK HERE)
Democrat Barack Obama is building widening leads in the three key battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, new polls released on Wednesday show.
The latest figures show the Illinois senator is gaining momentum on Republican John McCain as the rivals dash back to Washington to vote on a $US700 billion ($882 billion) Wall Street bail-out package.
The Quinnipiac University study suggests Obama won Friday's presidential debate and that McCain's vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin is suffering from sliding popularity after a stunning initial impact on the race.
They also indicate that voters trust Obama more to handle the financial crisis rocking the US economy, and he seems to be convincing Americans he is ready to be president.
"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute.
The surveys show that in Pennsylvania, Obama leads McCain by a gaping 54 per cent to 39 per cent after the debate, compared with 49 per cent to 43 per cent before the debate.
He is up 51 per cent to 43 per cent in swing state Florida, compared to a 49 to 43 per cent lead before Friday's first of three high-stakes presidential debates.
And in Ohio, Obama is up eight points, 50 per cent to 42 per cent, after having led by 49 per cent to 42 per cent before the clash in Mississippi.
The trio of swing states - which have a history of going either Republican or Democrat and swinging presidential elections - are vital stepping stones to the White House on November 4. . .
CNN polls found that men scored the debate 46 to 42 per cent for Senator McCain, but 59 per cent of women thought Senator Obama had won, to 39 per cent for Senator McCain.
So I've been rl crazy busy and we're back to blogging lite, but I could not resist sharing my revulsion re: McCain's saying he is tired of "catching the spears" from Obama.
Really, John.
In America, it's fine to be openly sexist, but not openly racist, dude.
We've all been plagued at home by calls from telemarketers. Worse, however, is when a research firm, working at the behest of an unidentified political organization, rings you up for the ostensible purpose of conducting a poll, but actually with the intention of circulating half-truths and rumors about a targeted candidate.
Which is precisely what happened earlier this week, when 750 Jewish voters in five key states - Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan - picked up their phones to discover that a firm called Research Strategies was on the line and eager to gauge the voters' feelings about Barack Obama. The first bunch of questions were fairly innocuous, but, as the minutes passed, some of the voters became so upset by the questions - and suspicious of the questioner - that they began to take careful notes. Unfortunately for Research Strategies, some of the note-takers shared their findings yesterday with journalists. Also unfortunately for Research Strategies, one of those note-takers happened to be Jonathan Cohn, a frequent contributor to The New Republic.
In other words, the firm got busted for doing something that was supposed to stay under the radar. And the firm's confidential client - whose identity will be revealed shortly - got busted as well. It's worth examining this episode, because this is how hardball is played, far away from the stump speeches and TV ads.
Here's Ben Smith of Politico on the GOP group behind anti-Obama push-polling.
P.S. I hear that my original source for the original push-poll story will appear on NBC News tomorrow (Thursday) night. Well, "w00t!", blogtopia!! (Yup, Skippy coined it).
PT Key West resident Dr. Joelna Marcus received a phone call today. She was asked if she is Jewish, and she replied in the affirmative.
She was asked if she was religious.
She was then asked if her opinion of Barack Obama would change if she knew that Obama had given lots and lots of money to the PLO.
Sounds like liar John McCain's Smear-Talk Express, not unlike Ol' Man River, just keeps rollin' along.
---- Update: Another FL voter (from Gainesville) has revealed he too received a similar push-poll call. And here's a push-poll recipient from PA. (Scroll down).
Maybe he's just seen this story from the Sydney Morning Herald about Sarah Palin's controversial church. There's a link to a video clip that's well worth a watch, too.
So I have recently received a virtual "Shut Up, Bitch!" card from a commenter who thinks I, as a female, should shut up about Sarah Palin, as she, too is a female.
And that my asking if Mrs. Palin is running for Vice-President or Vice-Prom Queen is sexist. Or something. (Though when during the primary, I frequently asked whether Barack Obama was running for Prom King I received no similar criticism, as I recall).
Somehow I should be shutting up about Palin because -- what? All of a sudden we don't want to be picking on a gurrrl? But we've been picking on gurrls 4-ever! NOW, you want we should stop? I feel sure that that is just what Karl Rove had in mind with this pick! Using reverse sexism as a Teflon-ing ploy. (He's such a clever dude, is he not?)
Anyhow, to this sub-section of gentle readers: if you think the choice of Sarah Palin as Trophy VEEP is not a hideous insult to all women (and men), then, you know, like, go for it.
I don't mind that they're running a female. I think that's kind of cute. Especially coming from the nappy-headed ho, dumpy-wife-dumping, cunt-calling section of the universe.
But running a national and international experience-free person who would be heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States, leading a world super-power in an age where conflicts can erupt into wars in which whole countries are at risk?
Because of her gender? Her external appearance?
Her willingness to bear five children? Her charm and gumption? Her hardscrabble rise from PTA mom way up the Alaskan ladder of success? Her ability to moose-hunt/duck-hunt?
Hunh?
I mean, really. What were they thinking?
It's like they've chosen her as Trophy VEEP because of her feel-good teddy-bear vibes:
“[Sarah Palin] wouldn’t have articulated one coherent policy and people would just be fawning all over her,” said Andrew Halcro, a Republican turned independent, who along with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, ran against Ms. Palin for governor in 2006. “Tony and I looked at each other and it was, like, this isn’t about policy or Alaska issues, this is about people’s most basic instincts: ‘I like you, and you make me feel good.’ ”
Ee-ew.
How cynical is that? How sexist is that?
Answer: very.
Sarah's choice proves Obama's point that John McCain doesn't get it while it has also had the surprising (to me) effect of slingshotting me right into BHO's arms at last. (Hmm.)
The Republicans just don't get it.
Not that we ever thought they did, mind you.
On the upside, it does add humor to an otherwise dull day. I see in the New York Times that Mrs. Palin, while pro-death penalty, stills calls herself "pro-life." Haha.
Even though Mrs. Palin totally opposes reproductive freedom, she claims to be a "feminist." Yo. That's like claiming to be a pro-boiling-beings-in-oil buddhist, is it not?
Jeeez.
Oh, and there are those (and you know who you are) who think that this choice is NOT an insult to all women, in particular, not to conservative and independent women.
As recently as last month, Ms. Palin appeared to dismiss the importance of the vice presidency in an interview with Larry Kudlow of CNBC, who asked her about her prospects for the job.
Don't skip the clips!
McCain has picked a woman because she is a woman. A conservative woman. A young, physically-attractive Talibangelical homeschooling anti-science creationist conservative woman. What a great package for a Trophy VEEP. (Ooh! NBFH just coined it!!)
McCain has passed over more experienced, less photogenic conservative and independent women. (And men).
Now, you perhaps think that that is not insulting to all women. (Not to mention all men.)
But I strongly disagree. Looks over competence? Why is that not insulting? Shallow much? We electing a Vice-Prom Queen?
I noticed earlier that Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove, unlike his tone-deaf Democratic party counterparts, was oddly attuned and aware of the karma-cause-&-effect thing re: POWs, as in Pissed-Off Women Democrats (a group of which I am, and continue to be, a proud example).
I think it is a very pleasant thing that John McCain has picked his VP according to her genitalia. I mean, why not?
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in various alienated sections of vagino-american blogtopia, a section of blogtopia whose spontaneous-arising I joined in, cheering.
Moi, I think it may actually piss off the people who are already actually and very reasonably pissed off, even more. (And if it doesn't, it should).
But it may surprise Miss Piggy by pissing them off in sort of a different, and perhaps 180 degree anti-pandering direction. Possibly inspiring some deep revulsion. (And don't forget Palin's being a card-carrying Feminist For Government-Forced Maternity [coughchokecough]).
I for one certainly am finding McCain's choice of Sarah Palin particularly, unconscionably, despicably, almost deliciously repellent.
Am I alone in this? I think not.
We shall see.
But from where I am, this pick is vilely sexist, and a hideous insult to all women.
And he's also old. A little older than Biden. I don't agree with playing the ageist card except oh dear I seem to have just played it, have I not? Guess I'm just a little sensitive on the oldness is inherently badness theme. Oh?
I prefer to make decisions based not on um you know sheer ageism gender bias shapeism racism classism blah blah, but rely more on the stupid/not stupid/adequate/smart/f*cking brilliant policy continuum.
Wasn't I talking about the O.J. Simpson verdict just the other day?
Hmm.
Well, anyway.
Must be time for more Milosz.
A SONG ON THE END OF THE WORLD
On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.
On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.
I know, I sound like a broken record, but this all gets back to the argument I've been making all year about having a philosophy of government and political power that sees a need to use the power of the state to secure and improve the lives of ordinary citizens. If you simply don't believe that it is so, that public policy should be nothing more than artful structuring of choices (and not mandating that X shall be available for all, regardless), then policy as such loses its punch. One is as good as another, and all are mere bargaining chips in the hunt for bipartisan unity.
Obama could be as old as Methuselah, or even John McCain, and all that experience would not do him a bit of good as long as his campaign is . . . not about what he intends to do for the country.
This blog frequently and deliberately uses vile sexist language in order more clearly to demonstrate its ubiquity and unacceptability, so don't get your panties in a twist about it, sweeties. ;)
