September 10, 2008
Q. Maybe it's a BS job Barack Obama made up.A. It's not made up. There's even a Wikipedia article on community organizing. Here's the opening paragraph:
Community organizing is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self-interest. While organizing describes any activity involving people interacting with one another in a formal manner, much community organizing is in the pursuit of a common agenda. Many groups seek populist goals and the ideal of participatory democracy. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.Q. Huh?
A. See, it's very complicated and important.
Q. If it takes that many words to describe and it's still not clear what it is, I'm pretty sure it's a BS job.
A. Know what? Why don't you rot in your disorganized community, you @#$%ing caveman.
Q. And who are the idiots paying these people salaries?
A. It's the community! They want this! Without the organizing there would be riots and cannibalism!
Q. I'm pretty sure we'll be fine organizing ourselves.
A. You stupid, gun-toting redneck, this is why people like us don't even bother trying to talk to people like you. You belittle important things you don't understand while clinging to your book about the invisible sky fairy!
Q. It's a made up job.
A. One day Barack Obama will force all your ignorant communities to be organized! Then you'll get your comeuppance! All of you who laughed at him, we'll see if you're laughing then!
Q. I'm pretty sure I will be laughing. I'll actually make a point of walking up to the community organizer and laughing at him because he wasn't able to get a real job.
A. Then you're just mean.
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I've also been known to end my sentences with prepositions.
English is, after all, a Germanic language. We mustn't get too hung up on word order.
Naturally, this has led to ostracism from other English majors, who have started referring to me as an "EMINO."
Once again, I'm just not part of the club.
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When you get a 20-point swing in white women from Obama to McCain, thatÂ’s unprecedented. I donÂ’t think anybodyÂ’s seen that kind of movement that quickly in presidential politics in their lifetimes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Thomas] Friedman, you’re a little bit late to the party here. Obama’s idiotic lipstick and dead fish comments were examples of Obama getting tough. That’s how he gets tough! This is how community agitators man up, folks. The real problem — and I say this to Tom Friedman and to all the others who are getting quaky in your boots. I mean, this clown that calls here right before the end of the hour, if that doesn’t illustrate liberals, I don’t know what does. Call here and say Sarah Palin can’t put two sentences together, when his own candidate can’t put a paragraph together without an "uh," and an "eh, you know, uhhh." Obama doesn’t have any ideas he can get tough on. See, this is the real problem.
How would he get tough on tax increases? How would he get tough on surrender in military conflict? How does one get tough about not drilling for oil? I mean, is he going to sit there and angrily pound his fist and say, “If you don’t properly inflate your tires, I’m going to lose it! Shut up about high gas prices and listen to me, quit your whining. Go out and buy a tire gauge and use it in an air pump or stick it where the sun don’t shine!” What’s he gonna do? How does he get mad about that and get tough about his issues? How do you get tough telling people how you’re going to screw ‘em? You hide the fact that you’re going to screw ‘em. Barack Obama does not have any ideas that Americans want, Barack Obama does not have any ideas that Americans need.
The guy is a one trick pony. He climbed into the arena of ideas with a speech from 2004 in one hand and in the other, a speech about him being The One weÂ’ve been waiting for. And now that heÂ’s punched out, his followers are stunned, thatÂ’s all their guy had. They have been passionately backing a man who has accomplished zilch, zero, nada. He hasnÂ’t accomplished anything. He has no life story he can tell. Well, he has a life story, but he wonÂ’t tell it.
It certainly is quite a meltdown. I'm on the verge of . . . schadenfreude.
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Did Obama really mean to call Sarah Palin a pig, or at least refer to her in that sentence? In order to answer that question, people have to look at the full context of his statement here. He also said this:
“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink.”
“We’ve had enough of the same old thing.”
Given that Palin had very publicly made the lipstick/pit bull joke during her widely-seen acceptance speech, it certainly seems that Obama intended to reference both Palin and McCain respectively in this sequence, with Palin being the pig and McCain the “old fish” wrapped in change. The crowd certainly understood what Obama meant, and roared appreciatively.
Now Obama and his team want to pretend that this sequence had no meaning whatsoever. ItÂ’s always difficult to gauge intent, but one would have to think Obama an idiot for not seeing the subtext of his own statement, especially since the crowd understood it all too well. Obama himself has cried about the supposed racist attacks of Republicans and the McCain campaign all summer long, without ever once giving any evidence of it, and certainly not a data point like this.
If Obama wants to argue subliminal racism, he has no defense against overt sexism now. This is his game, and he just proved himself incompetent at it.
Glenn's original roundup on this is excellent and extensive, despite the fact that he read the remark differently than I did; can you spot the quotation from a famous piece of children's literature in his post? (And what is it that Insty's mom blogs on, again?)
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NBC’s Meredeith Viera asserted that only blogs went after Palin’s motherhood abilities while running for veep, even as her colleague Brian Williams slyly raised feminists’ “fears or doubts that she should be able to do this, that she should be doing this.”How would CNN’s O’Brien like the [Howard] Gutman standard applied to her? She’s been working overtime covering the presidential campaign season, anchoring daily coverage, nighttime conventions, and producing documentaries that require large chunks of time away from home. Disney’s Family Parenting website lauds her as “a modern mom balancing a thriving career as one of America’s top news anchors along with her four children” – two daughters now ages 7 and 6 and twin boys who are 4. Where are the Palin-bashers to lambaste O’Brien’s professional pursuits?
How about Katie Couric? Her husband died at 42 when her daughters were 6 and 2 years old. With two young children devastated by the loss of a father, she opted not to quit journalism. She anchored NBCÂ’s Today Show through his illness and death, continued working an intensive, time-consuming schedule as one of AmericaÂ’s most visible broadcast journalists while a single mother with two fatherless children at home, and then jumped to CBS News, where she maintains a rigorous on-air schedule, travel plans, and off-air social calendar. Where are the finger-waggers?
Also at CNN, Campbell Brown flew to Las Vegas last year to moderate a political debate while 8 ½ months’ pregnant. Fox News host and left-wing blogger Alan Colmes, last seen questioning Sarah Palin’s commitment to prenatal care because she worked and traveld late in her pregnancy, had no comment. When she initially left the Today Show in 2007, Brown said she was stepping down to devote more time to family and baby. She immediately turned around the next day and jumped ship to CNN, where she has anchored wall-to-wall CNN Election Center coverage and will launch a new nightly show in November.
And at NBC, famous balancer of work-and-motherhood Viera replaced Couric on the Today Show. She has three children at home and a husband who has battled multiple sclerosis and two bouts with colon cancer. By the Gutman standard, Viera should have left the business years ago to tend to her family in need.
As a working woman in the media for 16 years and a working mother in the media for the last eight. I know the commitment and energy it took for these women to get to the top. I’ve filed columns from hospital beds, written books while nursing, brought my toddlers to TV studios, and told bedtime stories on the cell phone while boarding planes. I’ve worked hard to strike the “balance” we all seek. I’ve made good choices and bad choices, and have no regrets about the opportunities I’ve taken and the opportunities I’ve rejected. I couldn’t have done it without a supportive husband willing to forego his own career goals – the kind of spouse that the media has ignored in Todd Palin and the kind of spouse I’m sure the Sisterhood of the Protected Female Journalist all have.I don’t challenge the commitment these fellow working mothers in the media have to their home lives. What I challenge is their silence and complicity as the Palin-bashers impose a “Family First” double standard on conservatives. The sorority is closed to the Right.
Michelle—that is because conservatives aren't just wrong; we're bad. And stupid. And also not-good.
So the ends justify the means, no matter how sexist those means are.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are doing back-flips in their graves right now.
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03:04 PM
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Who says half-white men can't jump?"
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02:28 PM
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Oh, right—for non-time-travelling youngsters, start here.
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02:25 PM
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Um, guys? The way that the presence of a good, decent man in the household helps a teenage girl avoid risky behavior of any kind—whether it's related to drugs, food, sex, or cars—is by example, and by showering her with unconditional love—and his wife with respect, affection and erotic energy.
I know I'm not supposed to say it, but holding off entirely until marriage seems a bit dangerous to me. What if one gets married, and then discovers that there is a true sexual incompatability? That's a disaster—or a divorce—waiting to happen.
Posted by: Attila Girl at
02:13 PM
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2. Not all virgins use pr0n. I'm fairly certain my sister was against it, and her husband's not complaining... (by heaven, he's in his 40s!)
3. I dunno about you, Attila, but the rubbing the dickhead thing? Pure gold. I get all tingly shivers just thinking about it.
4. Em. OK.
What I'm actually trying to say, Attila, is that these are issues that could potentially come up in any marriage regardless of *ahem* "experience". I mean, you wouldn't know (from the man's perspective) your wife's vagina was too damned tight until you went at it for the first time, for instance.
Isn't it better to experiment *together*? Knowing that you will never be compared to anybody else because there *wasn't* anybody else. Knowing that your commitment to each other doesn't have an escape clause or a 'Plan B' built-in right from the start. Knowing that your spouse learnt how to please you from learning how to please *you* and no one else. Being secure in your sexual knowledge and experience within the holy bonds of matrimony.
I think that outweighs anything you've thrown out at us so far.
But of course, if you simply mean boinking your fiancee, or to-be bride in the changing room or the night before, well, that's a whole 'nother story and something I can fall in line with.
That, or practicing on a relative. The closer the better.
/never said I wasn't a perverted deviant.
//Joking. Mostly.
///Ever seen my cousins? Some of them VERY hot hot hot!
////Especially the Eurasian ones. Holy crap!
My favorite is "'I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she’s feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal.' — February"
No, I don't think either Palin or McCain should respond directly, but it's fine for the rest of us to notice. The more he puts down women, small-town folk, older people, and gun owners, the faster his free-fall among those demographics.
Actually, my favorite part of the "lipstick on a pig" clip is how the Harvard man suddenly develops a little whisper of a Southern/traditional Black dialect, mid-speech: listen to him talk about "police-uh" instead of "policy."
Now that's cynical.
I know he's playing defense, but why does he have to be so defensive about it? Because once in a while, when Obama's feeling limp and small, he has to say hard things, just so he can walk erect. (Hm. Maybe that's why he suddenly developed a black accent, too.)
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September 09, 2008
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday morning that the newest Democratic energy bill will be brought to the floor under normal rules and will be subject to a vote on a Republican alternative that is likely to call for even more drilling than Democrats are prepared to swallow.Hoyer, holding his weekly session with reporters, would not discuss details of the new Democratic energy bill — which was first outlined by caucus Vice Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) over the weekend. But Hoyer did outline the process for bringing the bill to the floor, and said it will be brought up under regular order.
“[Republicans] will have the opportunity to offer their alternative, yes,” Hoyer said in response to a question about how the energy bill will be introduced. “We understand that their motion to recommit will be their Republican alternative.”
The move is a dramatic departure from DemocratsÂ’ pre-August recess strategy, in which they brought up each of their energy bills under suspension of the rules and, in doing so, avoided having any votes on Republican measures calling for offshore drilling. But by embracing this strategy, Democrats also failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the majority of their energy bills.
Now that Democrats are introducing their own proposal to allow drilling of the coasts of a handful of Gulf Coast states, they believe they can hold back the GOP energy bill, which calls for opening up both the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who remarks:
Pelosi miscalculated in her heavy-handed tactics before the recess. She attempted to push through her own plan under suspension of the rules, a tactic she decried in 2006, which kept Republicans from offering an alternative. When it failed, she adjourned Congress, hoping to put off the debate until after the conventions Â… and her book tour.Instead of regrouping, the Democrats found themselves routed by an angry electorate and motivated Republicans. The House Oil Party kept the issue in the media eye, at least to an extent, but high gas prices kept it on the minds of voters while Democrats took their summer vacation. It was as poor a political calculation seen in recent years, and the sudden shift in generic Congressional ballots and in party identification has been the result.
Pelosi and Harry Reid may have finally figured out that they could lose this election on energy policy. Will this be enough to stanch the bleeding?
Note: I'm under deadline in my money-work; I'll try to sneak a real blogpost up tonight; in the meantime, keep your eyes on the way the electoral college is swinging in McCain's favor, and watch the House and the Senate; we need to know the details of any bill they vote on this week. We've got to keep them honest on this, and make sure they aren't taking options the table that we may need to use to become closer to energy-independent.
And make sure to get your comments in to the MMS, supporting exploration and drilling!
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The track — played at the Republican National Convention in honor of the Vice Presidential nominee, who earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" playing high school basketball in Alaska — was pumped through the streets of Lebanon, Ohio on Tuesday morning at an outdoor rally before the GOP ticket showed up.When the song was played after Palin's convention speech last week, the band members quickly requested that McCain and Palin pull the plug.
"Sarah Palin's views and values in no way represent us as American women," Ann and Nancy Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. "We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image."
But the McCain camp said last week that it had paid for and obtained all necessary licenses before using the song.
And the band's former guitarist, Roger Fisher, told Reuters last week that the McCain camp’s use of the song benefited both sides: Republicans get "the ingenious placement of a kick-ass song" — and Heart gets headlines and royalties. Part of that money, said Fisher, would be heading to the Arizona senator’s opponent: "With my contribution to Obama's campaign, the Republicans are now supporting Obama," he told Reuters.
I noticed that they made a point of using it as bumper music on Rush's show yesterday.
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And you can find out all about it at American Solutions.
So we have a country anthem—but I'd like a hard rock one. I wonder if we can adapt something written by the Wilson sisters, specifically for the current energy crisis. Though didn't they write one about the Speaker of the House? "Dreamboat Nancy"? (Someone let Paul Shanklin know about this; he might like to do it, if he hasn't already.)
h/t: Newt Gingrich, whose interview today with Sean Hannity is now available for your listening pleasure.
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The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is collecting comments on its next five-year offshore leasing plan. The MMS--the federal agency responsible for administering the offshore oil and natural gas program--considers the size, timing, and location of the areas to be considered for federal leasing, and it bases its recommendations on the publicÂ’s comments. The plan is reviewed by Congress and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
MMS is accepting public comments on its 2010-2015 plan until next Monday, September 15th. Apparently several anti-drilling groups have called on their members to flood MMS with comments. Therefore, the majority of comments oppose new leases. Numerous national polls have shown Americans support increased drilling; their comments do not reflect the nationÂ’s sentiments.Showing support for drilling via MMS can have an immediate impact on the next leasing plan and can send a message to lawmakers.
That is a great idea; it sounds like the anti-drilling people are stacking the deck.
Comment here.
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Uncle John.
Ed Morrissey once referred to Levi Johnston as "the most nervous teenager in America."
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Sigh.
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Certainly don't accept any bill that places the Pacific Ocean off-limits, or significant parts of the Gulf—or large stretches of the Atlantic, either. Fifty miles from shore (any shore), BTW, is too far; it's several times what's needed to preserve the aesthetic appeal of our beaches.
And don't vote on anything that places ANWR off-limits long-term in any irrevocable way. We can start with the OCS and Wyoming, but I left my heart in the bleak tundra near Prudhoe Bay.
Meanwhile, I want all the other goodies: nuclear power, wind, geothermal, ethanol and methanol. Conservation. Importing of sugar-beet ethanol from Brazil. Superior production of methanol from non-food sources, such as switch-grass and algae. And immediate transfer of our best ethanol-makin' recipes to underdeveloped countries, where it might help them to grow nonedible material that can be made into alcohol-based fuels.
But not at the expense of developing petroleum-based sources to bridge the gap, while we figure out what our best sources of liquid fuel and electricity will be in the future, and how to keep optimizing car batteries for hybrids (and expanding the range for plug-ins).
So don't take a bunch of money away from the oil companies; I want them to build rigs. Lots of rigs. And pipelines. And refineries.
And of course we need flex-fuel vehicles, Joy of Joy's Desiring, that will accept gasoline, ethanol, or methanol.
This is going to take a while; don't get talked into half-measures by the Gang of Ten/Gang of 14.
They'll bargain—they will if they've been looking at the polls. If McCain and Palin have any coattails at all—and they continue to push energy in their speeches—the Democrats will get reasonable in a hurry.
"Drill, Baby—Drill."
Otherwise, let the government shut down. Hey--what have they done for us, lately?
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The boy is just having too much fun . . . he sounds like the look on Clinton's face when he got deposed about that damned cigar:
Rasmussen: McCain Leads Obama in Ohio By "A Shitload;" Trends Predict Possibility of "A Serious Skull-Fucking"I think that's what it said, anyway. So, I skimmed. Sue me.
It's 51-44, actually, if you're a "Numbers Fag."
This month, McCain enjoys a solid 58% to 32% among unaffiliated voters in Ohio. That is a major improvement from the five-point deficit the Republican received from this demographic a month ago. Among men, McCain leads 59% to 36%, but the Republican trails among women 50% to 45%.Okay, enough with the polls. We see which way this trainwreck is heading.
. . . . . . . .
Eagleton Scenario? Under/over: I say Palin drops out by next Monday.
Bank on it.
Drudge Slug -- NYT TUESDAY: FAR FROM CERTAIN OBAMA WILL MEET AMBITIOUS FUNDRAISING TARGET... DEVELOPING....
Now it's just starting to feel dirty.
Not even good-dirty.
Honestly, the posts I want to write now are along the lines of: "Obama wasn't a bad guy. He probably meant well. And I do understand the excitement about electing our first black president; I could get excited about that too, were the candidate in question simply [not] so far to the left of me on so many issues..."
Honest[l]y, that's what I want to write. I feel bad.
He sometimes has this jolt of remorse toward the end of his posts—not enough to actually edit the term "skull-fucking" out of his headline, but remorseful remorse nonetheless.
That's pitch-perfect Ace, right there. And it is magnificent.
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September 08, 2008
"How many times does that make, today?"
"I dunno. Can't count that high. Are you accusing me of ego-surfing?"
"Yes. Yes, I am. 'Who's reading my blog? How popular am I? Who likes me today?' It's like being in cyber-high school."
"Maybe," I tell him.
He leaves the room, and I mutter under my breath, "except even I wasn't getting thousands of hits a day in high school. And I was cute back then."
Posted by: Attila Girl at
08:23 PM
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07:06 PM
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Well, then—people would still question his experience. But I doubt they'd be all over his family life and religious beliefs in quite the same way.
The experience argument wasn't sexist; sexist was the way she was attacked for being so "stupid" as to have a child with Down syndrome, and such a "bad mother" that her daughter got pregnant a bit ahead of her wedding day.
Questioning Palin's experience wasn't the sexist element; it was the part that was merely factually wrong (depending, of course, on how heavily one weighs executive experience, which is the subjective aspect). It was bringing her family life into things, holding her responsible for her daughter's misstep, suggesting that she should be placing her family ahead of the nation's best interest, etc. that were exercises in sexism.
Then, when we used the word, we were told blithely that we aren't qualified to use it; only the Left knows what it is.
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