Good god, the green screen is back.
Why the hell is Laura Bush doing a Hurricane briefing?
6:04 pm- That was quick, back to Gustav coverage. All things considered, the Republicans are probably lucky the press are focusing on the natural disaster rather than the man-made disasters of the past eight years. I mean, Bush and Cheney are not speaking. That has to be good for the GOP.
6:45 pm- Is this over already?
6:45 pm- BTW, I am to the point now that there is no doubt they did absolutely no vetting of this candidate before McCain selected her. The normally in your face Bennett was treading on eggshells the whole time on CNN. No one wants to stick their neck out right now, especially after the little shit bomb the Palin family dumped on them this morning.
7:26 pm- Still no official gavel-banging or anything, but I am calling this puppy. It appears the RNC convention, Day One, is over.
PeterJ
She’s the only republican that wanted to attend the convention?
jbarntt
Hell if I know, not even sure what you’re talking about. Care to say ?
Common Sense
Apparently you have to mention Gustav to get on a major news channel today
TR
I like how the non-partisan hurricane tribute lasted all of ten minutes.
Did you catch Rick Perry? “Republican governors in Republican states are taking care of people. That’s just what we do.”
Cindy McCain is now speaking, wearing a mustard-yellow dress out of the Wicked Witch of the West’s wardrobe. Hideous. As my wife just said, “She looks dead inside.”
Keith
Because, as a resident of Crawford, she lives next to the Gulf Coast and thus understands the mechanics behind hurricanes as well as the logistics of large-scale evacuations.
gbear
Damn you. I went over to C-span to check it out just as that sanctimonious prayer was going out. I wanted to see dead-inside Cindy.
zzyzx
I disagree. I don’t think this helps McCain. Remember how mad everyone was at day one of the DNC because it was wasted? Give people airtime and they can make attacks that will stick or redeem themselves. Palin will have her chance on Wednesday and the best thing for the Democrats will be if few people watch.
…well unless she just gives her stump speech again but I doubt she’ll do that.
jnfr
They forgot to ask why God is inundating all those fine Republican-led states with hurricanes (two more on track behind Gustav).
Ed Marshall
I just heard on indymedia radio that the St. Paul cops just arrested Amy Goodman. This should be interesting. Amy Goodman has been arrested for reporting by about every loathesome regime on the planet, now it happens in America.
Scott H
Can I possibly loathe Wolf Blitzer more than I do the priggish Bill Bennett? Old “No, it is shock and awe! No! it is SHOCK & AWE!” is not going to shut up about that pregnant teenager.
The Dude Abides
From the previous thread:
Exactly. It’s relevant to American voters that Governor Palin wishes to deny Alaskan (and American) citizens the right to have sex education taught in public schools, when her own family is proof-positive that abstinence-only education doesn’t work. In fact, it has an abysmal track record.
handy
Gotta give Woofie credit, he brought up Troopergate, and not in a way that made Palin looked good.
handy
“looked good”… /facepalm
Jake
I think I’m going to let Cole watch this, so I don’t have to.
Scott H
Bill Bennett says, on air, that a study shows that abstinence, in practice, works, and many studies show condoms do not.
Without saying that studies show that abstinence only education, in practice, does not work – and what he, charitably, must mean is that many sstudies how that condoms are not 100% effective – and he doesn’t mention the pill, IUDs, or any other combination that teens would learn about in an actual sex education class.
And… oh, m*****f*****, now Wolf is on about Trig not being Palin’s own baby. Dare I try MSNBC?
MSNBC is covering the demos. So far, so good.
carsick
What may have seemed like a good idea – suspend the convention for a category 5 hurricane – is resulting in looking like a party that can’t even organize a convention. The empty floor and people milling around looks like a convention boondoggle all because the hurricane didn’t live up to their (hopes?) expectations.
No energy, no momentum. I’ll be amazed if they can pull off even a minor convention bounce.
Palin was certainly a swing for the fences but it’s looking like they were expecting single A pitches and not MLB level.
gypsy howell
George Bush is starting to look prescient for staying away from this clusterfuck convention.
SGEW
This is absolutely, 100% true. Not having sex prevents pregnancies, while condom use has a (vanishingly small, but not completely nonexistent) chance of failing.
In fact, what works even better than abstinence (after all, “miracle babies” (i.e., unplanned pregnancies in virgin women due to accidental . . . um . . . fluid spray) do happen once in a blue moon) is castration of all men over the age of ten. Let’s see it happen, Republican party! Our childrens is at stake!
jake
So, pretty much what you’d see if Gustav were a light shower.
But maybe they were all in the men’s room.
Studly Pantload
TR sez:
She’s done worse. As in, Friday. I mean, take a gander at the following and tell me the designer didn’t envision the wearer being followed by a litter:
http://mccainblogette.com/postings/083008_0928/08.jpg
Suddenly, Hill’s pantsuits look pretty damn stylish.
Joshua Norton
How about uncle Joe? Wasn’t this Lie-berman night?
w vincentz
Lucky for the Refucks that the cat 2 hurricane came along.
What else can they talk about?
Also, I posted something about this a few threads down.
Wool meet eyes.
Joshua Norton
There’s another one, Hanna, waiting in the wings. Maybe McSame will sit out the whole election/hurricane season from a command post at Hurricane Central so he can “run things” – what ever that means. Too bad none of this ever occurred to him after Katrina.
raff
WTF? No, seriously. What. The. Fuck? I take a holiday afternoon nap, I wake up around supper-time & the whole world’s gone mad.
In the short space of a couple of hours, it comes to light — after the whole who’s-the-Downs-baby’s-real-mamma? nonsense — that Palin’s 17yr. old daughter is now actually pregnant for reals?
I’m sorry, but this is just fucking insane. & I’m sorry, but no, we shouldn’t just look away because that would be the polite thing to do. Leave the family alone in this time of their very personal business. Bullshit. Sara Palin, an avowed christian — to the point where she advocates no birth control for married couples — & apparent champion of “family values” has an under-aged, unmarried teenage daughter. C’mon!
Sweet Jebus, perhaps it’s because I just woke up from an otherwise pleasant nap, but I’m fucking pissed at this news. I’m sick of the hypocrisy of the ‘moral right’ & I’m sick of looking the other way so as not to offend these sanctimonious assholes.
In a sane world, McCain/Palin would stand a snowball’s chance come November, but given a conservative veep with a teenage, unwed daughter, we’ve moved past parody into insane satire.
Tim (The Other One)
Epic first day ! This is GOOD news for McCain !
dbrown
Looks like NOLA missed the bullet. Looks like the storm is not a Katrina anywhere so the repubics won’t get to act like hero’s just be cause finally, they didn’t fuck up the Government’s normal emergency agencies.
Litlebritdifrnt
Cindy looked plastic compared to Laura (whom I actually like and respect, she has always appeared to me to be a smart and classy lady despite her obviously very poor choice in a spouse). Cindy on the other hand just looked like a Stepford Wife, botoxed all to hell and reading words fed to her by the machine. Comparing her speech to Michelle’s (which is a little unfair I agree) is like comparing hopeful admiration and pride in one’s spouse to a steaming pile of dog vomit with money to be honest.
Blue Buddha
And that’s what the RNC was hoping for: another category 5 that they could rally everyone around and have a Gustav telethon to detract from the fact that McCain’s campaign is sinking fast.
Instead, they got a category 3 that moved swiftly (thank God for NO residents) such that there was little damage and people are able to fix the shaky levees in NO on the fly (as they are doing right now). Gustav is going to be nothing but a low pressure system by tomorrow afternoon, and the RNC convention is going to have to make up something else to distract voters.
raff
..obviously I meant “…McCain/Palin wouldn’t stand a snowball’s…”
My bad.
Jake
Meanwhile, Palin lawyers up over TrooperGate.
The McCain campaign is looking more and more like a bad episode of Reality TV with each passing day.
Scott H
Well, it finally occurs to MSNBC that the deaf interpreter maybe oughta be included in the camera shot. Way to go national media!
SGEW
You think the lawyering up is bad? Check this out:
“Republican lawyers are currently doing a vet of Sarah Palin up in Alaska.”
Ah, vetting a V.P. candidate after they’ve been announced.
We are in Bizzaro world!
Rosali
The thing is that Palin, at 44, is young and had a bright political future ahead of her. She could have just waited 4 or 8 yrs and built up her resume and she would have been a stronger candidate. She was probably a shoo-in for the AK congressional seats being vacated due to indictments. For her own good, she should have told McSame, “Thanks but no thanks”. Now she’s going down and taking McSame down with her.
They’re going to end up with a post-convention freefall.
handy
09/03/2008
ST. PAUL, MN – Republican presidential candidate John McCain accepted today the resignation of Sarah Palin as his running mate amid questions about her experience, as well as scandals that may plague the McCain campaign up to the November election.
“My friends,” Senator McCain said, “as a prisoner of war, for five and a half years, I didn’t even have a vice presidential nominee.”
maxbaer (not the original)
McCain says that they knew about it. He’s a maverick POW and cannot tell a lie.
t jasper parnell
This has got to one of the weirdest three days in American politics. The candidate who touts experience picks someone nobody including, it now seems clear, his own campaign new from Adam. A VP nominee who now looks less ready for prime time than nearly anyone ever and who is at this point an unwelcome distraction instead of a welcome one. McCain made the decision to chaoticize his nominating convention and, you heard it here first, open himself up to Republican complaints of dissing the President and VP.
Were I some kind of paranoid I would argue that this is all some clever plan; since I am not, I claim that this is the biggest fuck-up ever anywhere.
Joshua Norton
Yeah. Like they ‘vetted’ Chimpy. The shredders are working so hard they’re shooting sparks and becoming a fire hazard.
lampwick
BREAKING NEWS:
PALIN FAMILY HUSKY IS BI-SEXUAL NYMPHO, WILL HUMP ANYTHING IN SIGHT!
(Ok, so maybe that describes most dogs…)
Just Some Fuckhead
lolz
Will no one think of the children, dear God?
maxbaer (not the original)
I was thinking more Jerry Springer.
PeterJ
Actually they refuse to answer if they knew or not.
maxbaer (not the original)
I think McCain is trying to throw the election. Fuck that! No one can out-incompetent Dems. C’mon Obama, show him we are the party that knows how to lose an election.
handy
Some McCain lacky was on the TeeVee today bragging about how all kinds of good old ‘Murkan people DO know this woman, it’s only the Northeastern liberal media that doesn’t. Then, without missing a beat, she went on to state that Palin has “eye popping integrity.”
Talk about the sublime to the ridiculous. Did anybody else see this?
raff
Oh, & I suppose it should be noted that while McCain tried to paint Obama as being a Britney-type celebrity, it’s McCain’s running mate that has a teenage, pregnant daughter… just like Lynne Spears.
SGEW
I wonder how they define “integrity.”
That word you use . . . I do not think it means what you think it means.
Gov. Palin has eye popping ________.
Y’all can fill in the blanks.
maxbaer (not the original)
Do you realize that this is only the third day of Sarah Palin’s veep candidacy? I may not be able to leave the internet for the next two months. Or just to get more popcorn.
Tom65
Can you imagine how pissed Romney is right now? He just got passed over for something out of an episode of “Cops – Wasilla”
t jasper parnell
She(Palin) has to withdraw, doesn’t she? “For the good of my family. . .” Who wouldn’t believe her at this point?
zuzu's petals
Has anyone mentioned that Obama’s numbers have only gone UP since the Palin announcement?
Check out the CBS and Gallup daily tracking polls, specifically.
Just Some Fuckhead
May I just say the comments here are crying funny?
Dennis - SGMM
How about Lieberman? All he has left is the aftertaste of McCain’s dick in his mouth.
GSD
Rumor has it Ashton Kutcher influenced McCain’s Veep choice and he’s gonna announce the Punking on that last day of the convention.
-GSD
mark
That was one the phrases injected into her Wikipedia article shortly before she was named.
omigodomigodomigod
I just had a thought. What if the father of Bristol’s child is a few years older than her? Could it be statutory rape?
Just Some Fuckhead
And McCain too, for early onset alzheimers. Who wouldn’t believe him at this point?
gbear
These critiques of Cindy McCain’s looks always make me feel awful since finding out that Cindy and I were born in the same year. 54 years old isn’t supposed to look or sound that decrepit.
Scott H
They adjourned, and even banged the gavel, too, ages ago. They couldn’t end that thing fast enough.
t jasper parnell
t
gbear
Tim Pawlenty and his staff are none to happy either.
t jasper parnell
Where is McCain? Has he said anything meaningful today?
PC
Who is “McCain”?
gbear
He spent the day studying for his hurricane preparedness exam and getting to know Sarah’s soul.
Tom65
I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever.
PeterJ
He’s busy vetting Palin while his wife is at the convention.
t jasper parnell
So McCain was felled by Hurricane Gustav, there ought to be a Bob Dylan song in that.
Johnny Pez
I imagine it won’t be too long before some kind of paranoid from the right blogosphere argues that it is indeed a clever plan by Osama bin Laden to get his secret muslim sleeper agent into the oval office.
Anyone want to bet I’m wrong?
PeterJ
Vetting means checking out, doesn’t it?
jake
“Gustav” needs to enter our lexicon of slang but I’m not quite sure how:
1. “Dude, I tried to tell Cindy about Sarah and me at the party but right as I said it the song ended and everyone heard it!”
“Ah bro, you totally got Gustaved.”
2. “So like, she was like, my party this and my party that forevar! And when we got there it was like two people and her dad was playing music a record player and some stale nachos.”
“Omigod! That Gustaving heifer!”
TR
What a train wreck.
Is McCain-Palin the first presidential ticket in American history that seems more like a murder-suicide pact?
w vincentz
I just saw the weather map. Looks like two more hurricanes are headed to the US. Hannah and tropical disturbance?
With any luck, they’ll hit soon and the Refucks can opt out of their entire fuckin’ convention.
There’s protesters to arrest, doncha know?
Kirk
W vincentz, no, they won’t hit in time to play with the GOP convention.
Hanna is expected to land about Friday.
Ike will be either next Monday-Tuesday (if he follows Hanna to the east coast) or Thursday-Friday (if he follows Gustav into the Gulf of Mexico.)
maxbaer (not the original)
No question Palin can stand up to Putin. She shoots to kill.
Notorious P.A.T.
That’s because he had $10,000 on Bob Jindal.
Incertus
As I understand it, the daily tracking numbers are a three day rolling average, which means the Palin numbers haven’t been factored in yet–the first ones will come out tomorrow, while today’s were based on the last days of the convention. That said, I don’t expect much of a Palin bump, and I really don’t expect it to last.
w vincentz
@ Kirk,
I heard Hannah will hit northern FL on Thurs. Ike (if it forms) later. at least the Refugs are trying to make up for their masterful handling of Katrina.
I wonder if they’ll include “hurricane preparedness” as a platform plank.
Seems this might be the only thing they have to run on, and very lucky for them that the levees held today.
Isn’t it great to watch these idiots have their party implode?
I’m luvin’ it!
tb
I heard they have other guns besides the one tranquilizer rifle.
Andrew
On one hand, Palin is an inexperienced anti-birth control radical secessionist. On the other, Pawlenty was rocking a serious mullet as recently as April. I’d say Palin is the overwhelmingly better choice.
zuzu's petals
What I just cannot believe is that she chose to accept, knowing she had a pregnant teenage daughter. How craven is that?
Conservatively Liberal
Reading over at TalkLeft in their open thread and it seems that the “Palin/anti-Palin” stuff has given BTD (Bloviating Tiresome Dipshit) the vapors so he needs to take a few days off from blogging. Or is it take a few days off from political blogging but other stuff is ok. Or he will be back sooner than that but not doing political diaries. Something like that. I am sure that BTD’s vapor locking was not helped by Jeralyn going totally for Obama/Biden.
BTD is so shell-shocked that he has to take time off to recover?
The property value at TalkLeft just went up, and the internet has less crap. Way to go Armando!
PeterJ
A poster over at Corrent is urging BTD to leave TalkLeft and start his own blog.
For once I am actually agreeing with them.
Even better, he could join P.Lunatic and myiq0.8xu and start blogging over at Corrente. There’s plenty of space for him there and he will probably feel at home at once…
Conservatively Liberal
Your idea is gaining traction (from TalkLeft):
BTD came back and started an open thread saying that he will not be posting about politics because actions by the left have disturbed him (vapors!). In other words, he was looking for sympathy (pity) and the ratfuckers are obliging him.
Man he is one pitiful sack of shit, but the idea of two or three sacks of shit on one blog? You just know I would have to go there and read it! Missing out on the concentrated stupidity and shit oozing out of a place like that would be criminal (or should be).
I love humor and politics, no doubt about it. The blog world has lots of both, but I reserve my commentary on it solely for BJ. There are great conversations about both here, and the conversation about the insanity at a blog with those three mental midgets on it would be more fun than midget-tossing in a bar.
DonnaInMichigan
Hey…Cindy McCain!!
Judy Jetson just called, and would like to know when you will be returning her outfit!?!?!?!
OMG. She looked ridiculous.