I heard Campbell Brown, host of the laughably named "No Bias, No Bull" show on CNN, call socialism the "S-word." Some guy at another news website claims that "socialism" is a racist's codeword for "black."
Good grief.
The press as well as McCain's opponents (I'm drawing a distinction because I'm feeling friendly after a rye and water) seem especially touchy about the socialism angle, going so far as to not mention it by name. Interesting.
Incidentally, who started the whole fad of naming girls after surnames like Mackenize and Campbell? It's always a cheapshot going after someone's handle, so apologies to any Smiths, Joneses, and McTavishes out there.
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Heart's Still Beating Strong
A journalist writing in the Telegraph attempts a McCain bash, and inadvertently describes the healthy, lovely, capitalist heart of America:
Brittany Crandall, 23, who lives in a similar, one-floor home with a pumpkin scarecrow just a few doors down [from Joe the Plumber], has never met Mr Wurzelbacher, but she felt he was being unfairly treated. "He is just an ordinary person, let him be," she said, opening the door for a New York journalist to use her internet connection. "I just don't understand what the fuss is about."
But as the evening drew in, her husband, Dan, 26, wheeled out his barbecue and began cooking hotdogs to feed the crowd of journalists camped outside, selling them for $2 each.
A woman thinks the media are vultures, but kindly lets one of the vultures use the internet by welcoming them into her home. Meanwhile, her husband finds a way to make a buck out of them. Beauty.
Brittany Crandall, 23, who lives in a similar, one-floor home with a pumpkin scarecrow just a few doors down [from Joe the Plumber], has never met Mr Wurzelbacher, but she felt he was being unfairly treated. "He is just an ordinary person, let him be," she said, opening the door for a New York journalist to use her internet connection. "I just don't understand what the fuss is about."
But as the evening drew in, her husband, Dan, 26, wheeled out his barbecue and began cooking hotdogs to feed the crowd of journalists camped outside, selling them for $2 each.
A woman thinks the media are vultures, but kindly lets one of the vultures use the internet by welcoming them into her home. Meanwhile, her husband finds a way to make a buck out of them. Beauty.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
The Palin/Who Ticket?
A few lines I've heard in the past 25 minutes:
"She learned how to shovel her bullshit better." - Alec Baldwin, on HBO.
"Here's a few lines from Sarah Palin [roll edited one second clips meant to make her look dumb]." - David Letterman (immediately following a different clip called "Palin Debate Recap," and immediately preceding the "Top Ten Messages Left on Sarah Palin's Answering Machine," which itself immediately preceded an interview with Brian Williams from NBC News which concentrated on...Sarah Palin).
"Which of these is not the name of one of Sarah Palin's children? Bristol, Track, or Rifle?" - Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
That's just a few bits I can remember from some late night flicking in the past half-hour. So what does all of this tell me, besides that Dave Letterman is sexually frustrated and wants to nail the Governor of Alaska?
It tells me that no matter how much Palin may be despised by the Left, she is sure getting their attention. A lot of their attention.
Interesting. If she was just a regular flake, they would insult her, ignore her, and move on with the show. If she was truly a buffoon cut from Dan Quayle cloth, you'd hear one or two jabs, and that would be it. But whenever Palin opens her mouth, the entire television universe spends days pouring over her every word. She's like some strange alien that has landed in their midst. "Bears children? Shoots guns? Has an accent? Says funny things like 'soccer game' and 'you betcha?' Hmm. Let us be wary of this beast."
David Letterman now spends almost a quarter of his show discussing Sarah Palin. He delights in replaying her saying that she is just another "Joe Six Pack," though it is Joe Six Pack that pays his salary. I wonder if he knows that, or if decades of living in a swanky New York mansion have obliterated his memories of Indiana.
I channel surfed some cable news this afternoon and watched as they flipped back and forth between "economic meldown" and "who won the debate?" Even as the economy continued to tank, Fox, MSNBC, and CNN couldn't help themselves: they had to keep returning to the topic of Sarah Palin. They didn't spend much time on Biden, beyond a standard "he did well." It was all about Palin. Naturally it was mostly negative press, but there was a constant flow of it.
The media's intense interest in Sarah Palin is shared by the public. Last night, close to 70,000,000 people watched the Palin/Biden debate. That is the highest rated VP debate ever, and it beat the Obama/McCain debate by 33%. Only two other presidential debates come close: Clinton-Perot-Bush in 1992, and Reagan/Carter in 1980 (truly mammoth, with over 80 million viewers and back when the population was a lot smaller, too).
The media bigshots virtually all agree that Palin lost the debate with Biden. There's several polls out that say the public thinks so too, by differing margins. Me, I'm not so sure. There's something about this microscopic scrutiny of her that makes me think two things. One, she is seen as a grave threat to those who don't share her beliefs, and it forces them to discuss her and more importantly think about her. Two, not everyone may like her, but they all want to hear what she says next.
In politics, that's always a good thing. Yet there's a strange irony here. If Palin's stardom and interest continues to rise, she may become the de facto top of the ticket in people's guts if not in their heads. One has to ask: if the Republican ticket becomes the Palin ticket, will they still vote for McCain?
"She learned how to shovel her bullshit better." - Alec Baldwin, on HBO.
"Here's a few lines from Sarah Palin [roll edited one second clips meant to make her look dumb]." - David Letterman (immediately following a different clip called "Palin Debate Recap," and immediately preceding the "Top Ten Messages Left on Sarah Palin's Answering Machine," which itself immediately preceded an interview with Brian Williams from NBC News which concentrated on...Sarah Palin).
"Which of these is not the name of one of Sarah Palin's children? Bristol, Track, or Rifle?" - Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
That's just a few bits I can remember from some late night flicking in the past half-hour. So what does all of this tell me, besides that Dave Letterman is sexually frustrated and wants to nail the Governor of Alaska?
It tells me that no matter how much Palin may be despised by the Left, she is sure getting their attention. A lot of their attention.
Interesting. If she was just a regular flake, they would insult her, ignore her, and move on with the show. If she was truly a buffoon cut from Dan Quayle cloth, you'd hear one or two jabs, and that would be it. But whenever Palin opens her mouth, the entire television universe spends days pouring over her every word. She's like some strange alien that has landed in their midst. "Bears children? Shoots guns? Has an accent? Says funny things like 'soccer game' and 'you betcha?' Hmm. Let us be wary of this beast."
David Letterman now spends almost a quarter of his show discussing Sarah Palin. He delights in replaying her saying that she is just another "Joe Six Pack," though it is Joe Six Pack that pays his salary. I wonder if he knows that, or if decades of living in a swanky New York mansion have obliterated his memories of Indiana.
I channel surfed some cable news this afternoon and watched as they flipped back and forth between "economic meldown" and "who won the debate?" Even as the economy continued to tank, Fox, MSNBC, and CNN couldn't help themselves: they had to keep returning to the topic of Sarah Palin. They didn't spend much time on Biden, beyond a standard "he did well." It was all about Palin. Naturally it was mostly negative press, but there was a constant flow of it.
The media's intense interest in Sarah Palin is shared by the public. Last night, close to 70,000,000 people watched the Palin/Biden debate. That is the highest rated VP debate ever, and it beat the Obama/McCain debate by 33%. Only two other presidential debates come close: Clinton-Perot-Bush in 1992, and Reagan/Carter in 1980 (truly mammoth, with over 80 million viewers and back when the population was a lot smaller, too).
The media bigshots virtually all agree that Palin lost the debate with Biden. There's several polls out that say the public thinks so too, by differing margins. Me, I'm not so sure. There's something about this microscopic scrutiny of her that makes me think two things. One, she is seen as a grave threat to those who don't share her beliefs, and it forces them to discuss her and more importantly think about her. Two, not everyone may like her, but they all want to hear what she says next.
In politics, that's always a good thing. Yet there's a strange irony here. If Palin's stardom and interest continues to rise, she may become the de facto top of the ticket in people's guts if not in their heads. One has to ask: if the Republican ticket becomes the Palin ticket, will they still vote for McCain?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Separation of Me From Daytime TV
I watched a video clip of The View, that strange show where 5 rich women tell the housewives of America how to live their lives.
Last week, John McCain paid the gals a visit. The group asked him about the Supreme Court (surprise, surprise, Roe v. Wade came up within 10 seconds), and Whoopi Goldberg also asked McCain if she should be worried about becoming a slave.
Whoopi asked that question because McCain says he wants Supreme Court justices that interpret the constitution the way the Framers intended. That is, not to write legislation, but to weigh the legislation against the words written in the constitution.
This is where Whoopi pounced, asking if she should be worried about "becoming a slave again." Poor McCain had to murmur that no, that wouldn't happen, but that he understood her concern. The crowd applauded. Whoopi comically fanned herself with a slip of paper and admired her own intelligence. McCain had to give her a hat tip because, though talking to an idiot, he was in the idiot's house.
The irony of Goldberg's stupidity is rich. Just as McCain finished saying that he doesn't want justices writing law, Whoopi asked if the justices will bring back slavery. It was too far above her head to grasp that 1) the Supreme Court cannot write slavery into law, and 2) even if the legislature wanted to write slavery into law, it would be against the 13th Amendment of the constitution, making the law moot. Therefore, Goldberg is in total agreement with McCain: the Supreme Court shouldn't be writing laws, and they should be interpreting it the way the Framers intended.
The 13th Amendment reads like this:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
And that's that. No slavery. If Goldberg wants to worry about new laws, she should be looking to Congress, not the Supreme Court.
The hosts of The View need a refresher course in the different branches of government. I'd be happy if they even bothered to Google it.
Whoopi also took a run at McCain for the separation of church and state mumbo jumbo, which isn't in the constitution. The Framers batted the concept around in correspondence, but they never made any specific rules about it (though most people use the First Amendment to cover the subject).
Atheists have been using the church/state argument to paint ever widening circles intended to shut Christians up, thinking that church/state is written in stone. The logical conclusion of their argument seems to be that leaders should never be religious. Untrue. What the Framers seemed to intend was that no president should also be the leader of a religious group. That is, a religion's beliefs don't write the rules. But there's a flipside: the Framers didn't want the state to tell a religion what to do either. That's the whole point of the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause. It isn't there to protect the government, it's there to protect the religious worshipper.
In any case, contrary to what the View gals want, nowhere in any US rule book is there a passage that says a president cannot say the word "God." Unfortunately, there's no rule against being forced to hobnob with daytime talkshow hosts, either.
The church/state deal is a problem for Whoopi and the gang because Palin prays. Whoopi says that it worries her. She agrees that the US may have a Judeo-Christian tradition (McCain brought up the term, which is why Goldberg used it later to sound smart), but she says that there's Muslims and Zoroastrians in America, too. When she said that, five people applauded and McCain, to his credit, said, "There's a few Zoroastrians at the back."
Church/state. Palin prays. There goes the neighbourhood.
Everybody's been lionizing Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln these days. I'm sure Whoopi thinks that Lincoln was a great man for freeing the slaves and fighting the Civil War. I believe that, too. Still, this statement from Lincoln regarding the Bible would scare the hell out of Goldberg:
"In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it."
Yikes. If Honest Abe were running for president today, Whoopi would rake him over the coals for that. Civil war? Suspending habeus corpus? Bible thumping? The man's a murderous Jesus-freak and a tyrant.
As for Roosevelt, here's his take. Whoopi should listen carefully: "If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office."
Last week, John McCain paid the gals a visit. The group asked him about the Supreme Court (surprise, surprise, Roe v. Wade came up within 10 seconds), and Whoopi Goldberg also asked McCain if she should be worried about becoming a slave.
Whoopi asked that question because McCain says he wants Supreme Court justices that interpret the constitution the way the Framers intended. That is, not to write legislation, but to weigh the legislation against the words written in the constitution.
This is where Whoopi pounced, asking if she should be worried about "becoming a slave again." Poor McCain had to murmur that no, that wouldn't happen, but that he understood her concern. The crowd applauded. Whoopi comically fanned herself with a slip of paper and admired her own intelligence. McCain had to give her a hat tip because, though talking to an idiot, he was in the idiot's house.
The irony of Goldberg's stupidity is rich. Just as McCain finished saying that he doesn't want justices writing law, Whoopi asked if the justices will bring back slavery. It was too far above her head to grasp that 1) the Supreme Court cannot write slavery into law, and 2) even if the legislature wanted to write slavery into law, it would be against the 13th Amendment of the constitution, making the law moot. Therefore, Goldberg is in total agreement with McCain: the Supreme Court shouldn't be writing laws, and they should be interpreting it the way the Framers intended.
The 13th Amendment reads like this:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
And that's that. No slavery. If Goldberg wants to worry about new laws, she should be looking to Congress, not the Supreme Court.
The hosts of The View need a refresher course in the different branches of government. I'd be happy if they even bothered to Google it.
Whoopi also took a run at McCain for the separation of church and state mumbo jumbo, which isn't in the constitution. The Framers batted the concept around in correspondence, but they never made any specific rules about it (though most people use the First Amendment to cover the subject).
Atheists have been using the church/state argument to paint ever widening circles intended to shut Christians up, thinking that church/state is written in stone. The logical conclusion of their argument seems to be that leaders should never be religious. Untrue. What the Framers seemed to intend was that no president should also be the leader of a religious group. That is, a religion's beliefs don't write the rules. But there's a flipside: the Framers didn't want the state to tell a religion what to do either. That's the whole point of the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause. It isn't there to protect the government, it's there to protect the religious worshipper.
In any case, contrary to what the View gals want, nowhere in any US rule book is there a passage that says a president cannot say the word "God." Unfortunately, there's no rule against being forced to hobnob with daytime talkshow hosts, either.
The church/state deal is a problem for Whoopi and the gang because Palin prays. Whoopi says that it worries her. She agrees that the US may have a Judeo-Christian tradition (McCain brought up the term, which is why Goldberg used it later to sound smart), but she says that there's Muslims and Zoroastrians in America, too. When she said that, five people applauded and McCain, to his credit, said, "There's a few Zoroastrians at the back."
Church/state. Palin prays. There goes the neighbourhood.
Everybody's been lionizing Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln these days. I'm sure Whoopi thinks that Lincoln was a great man for freeing the slaves and fighting the Civil War. I believe that, too. Still, this statement from Lincoln regarding the Bible would scare the hell out of Goldberg:
"In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it."
Yikes. If Honest Abe were running for president today, Whoopi would rake him over the coals for that. Civil war? Suspending habeus corpus? Bible thumping? The man's a murderous Jesus-freak and a tyrant.
As for Roosevelt, here's his take. Whoopi should listen carefully: "If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office."
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
As I Was Saying (VI)
Intelligence and public speaking in South Carolina appears to be quite rare.
From Politico's Jonathan Martin:
South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”
Bong! Ring up another few thousand votes for McCain (that's the man running for President, in case the VP-happy Democrats forgot). At this rate, McCain's going to save a bundle on advertising. All he has to do is make sure a reporter is within five hundred feet of a Democrat.
Though Fowler's asinine statement does nothing to impress you with the judgement of South Carolina's Democratic leadership, for sheer stupidity nothing compares to the state's 2007 Miss Teen America entry. Here she is answering questions on education reform. Give her 15 years and she's a shoo in as the Chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic party.
Let's go to the tape:
From Politico's Jonathan Martin:
South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”
Bong! Ring up another few thousand votes for McCain (that's the man running for President, in case the VP-happy Democrats forgot). At this rate, McCain's going to save a bundle on advertising. All he has to do is make sure a reporter is within five hundred feet of a Democrat.
Though Fowler's asinine statement does nothing to impress you with the judgement of South Carolina's Democratic leadership, for sheer stupidity nothing compares to the state's 2007 Miss Teen America entry. Here she is answering questions on education reform. Give her 15 years and she's a shoo in as the Chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic party.
Let's go to the tape:
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Palin's Speech
Palin gave a good speech tonight. Not an excellent one, but a good one. Unfortunately for her, the media are raving about it. This can only mean that she's going to get hammered by the press over the next 60 days. "Hey, she was wonderful! (Psst. Sharpen the axe)."
A few thoughts after watching the first female Republican nominee for VP.
1) The Republican delegates in the hall still love Bush, but that doesn't mean the McCain camp thinks it's a good idea to mention him during the convention. Bush gave his address the other night, and that was all you're going to hear from or about the President. Tonight, Bush's name was not mentioned once. There were over half-a-dozen speakers, capped off by Palin, and not one of them said Bush's name even in passing. In a funny way, this election is almost like watching the Republican McCain and the Democrat Obama running to succeed the Other Party Bush.
2) It has been a weird, weird, weird week. McCain has thrown the election on its head. A week ago today, no one outside of politics had heard of Palin. Two days later, she's accused of covering up the true identity of her son. The next day, it's announced that her daughter is pregnant, so the slander about her son is false. Two days after that, Palin is giving a speech to accept her nomination.
3) During her speech, Palin gave as good as she got. She knocked the media, took a run at Obama, and didn't twirl her hair even once. Lefty bloggers are shocked. "My God. She can string a sentence together."
4) The speech wasn't excellent, because it should have ended off with another story of her small town roots. Instead, it ended with more stuff about McCain. They should have bookended the speech with another story from Alaska, maybe how she managed her and her husband's business while juggling family life, found the American dream, so forth. That kind of stuff will play in the heartland. Ending on the McCain deal seemed anti-climactic.
5) Speaking of anti-climactic, if McCain doesn't give a good speech, people might think Palin's the presidential nominee. Then again, maybe McCain doesn't mind that.
6) The foreign policy stuff in the speech sounded a little too pat, as if to prove she can pronounce words like "Caucasus," as in the Caucasus Mountains. These statements were no doubt used to get people off her back about a lack of foreign policy experience, but it sounded tin-eared next to the life story stuff. More life story, less Caucasus would have been the way to go.
7) Her duty now is to head out and start talking to blue collar workers, single moms, rural Americans, and family coalitions (especially any that involve kids with special needs; this was probably the most poignant part of her speech, and it came early on).
8) If anything, this is the most interesting presidential race in my lifetime. Nothing even comes close. This also had to be the first time in history that people were excited to hear a VP nominee accept the nomination.
A few thoughts after watching the first female Republican nominee for VP.
1) The Republican delegates in the hall still love Bush, but that doesn't mean the McCain camp thinks it's a good idea to mention him during the convention. Bush gave his address the other night, and that was all you're going to hear from or about the President. Tonight, Bush's name was not mentioned once. There were over half-a-dozen speakers, capped off by Palin, and not one of them said Bush's name even in passing. In a funny way, this election is almost like watching the Republican McCain and the Democrat Obama running to succeed the Other Party Bush.
2) It has been a weird, weird, weird week. McCain has thrown the election on its head. A week ago today, no one outside of politics had heard of Palin. Two days later, she's accused of covering up the true identity of her son. The next day, it's announced that her daughter is pregnant, so the slander about her son is false. Two days after that, Palin is giving a speech to accept her nomination.
3) During her speech, Palin gave as good as she got. She knocked the media, took a run at Obama, and didn't twirl her hair even once. Lefty bloggers are shocked. "My God. She can string a sentence together."
4) The speech wasn't excellent, because it should have ended off with another story of her small town roots. Instead, it ended with more stuff about McCain. They should have bookended the speech with another story from Alaska, maybe how she managed her and her husband's business while juggling family life, found the American dream, so forth. That kind of stuff will play in the heartland. Ending on the McCain deal seemed anti-climactic.
5) Speaking of anti-climactic, if McCain doesn't give a good speech, people might think Palin's the presidential nominee. Then again, maybe McCain doesn't mind that.
6) The foreign policy stuff in the speech sounded a little too pat, as if to prove she can pronounce words like "Caucasus," as in the Caucasus Mountains. These statements were no doubt used to get people off her back about a lack of foreign policy experience, but it sounded tin-eared next to the life story stuff. More life story, less Caucasus would have been the way to go.
7) Her duty now is to head out and start talking to blue collar workers, single moms, rural Americans, and family coalitions (especially any that involve kids with special needs; this was probably the most poignant part of her speech, and it came early on).
8) If anything, this is the most interesting presidential race in my lifetime. Nothing even comes close. This also had to be the first time in history that people were excited to hear a VP nominee accept the nomination.
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