Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

People are weird.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

by | 111 Comments

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Q: How can you tell when John McCain and Sarah Palin are lying?

A: Their lipstick moves.

Barring something crazy, this is your last thread of the night.

*** Update ***

It just never stops:

Palin claims Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” That’s not true.

Alaska did produce 14 percent of all the oil from U.S. wells last year, but that’s a far cry from all the “energy” produced in the U.S.

Alaska’s share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And if by “supply” Palin meant all the energy consumed in the U.S., and not just produced here, then Alaska’s production accounted for only 2.4 percent.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    And the lies may not even be the worst part of it. Take a look at this gem that the NY Times dug up:

    So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.

    So evocative of “Heckuva Job” Brownie that it’s frightening. Truly, she is an appropriate candidate for the modern GOP.

    -dms

  5. 5.

    jeffreyw

    politico

    “We recognize it’s not going to be 2000 again,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, alluding to the media’s swooning coverage of McCain’s ill-fated crusade against then-Gov. George W. Bush and the GOP establishment. “But he lost then. We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”

    Wallace, after a political defeat:

    One of the particularly insightful comments in the film comes from Seymore Trammell, Wallace’s former finance director. Trammell recalls a talk with Wallace after the defeat: “He said, ‘Seymore, do you know why I lost that governor’s race?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure, Judge. What do you think?’ He said, ‘Seymore, I was out-niggered by John Patterson. And I’ll tell you here and now, I will never be out-niggered again.'”

  8. 8.

    Laura W

    Anybody think SNL will be any good?

    Yes yes yes yes yes! Even without BO, sniff. I can not WAIT to see Tina play Sarah. yeeee haaaaa. Now, I just have to remember to tape it when I toddle off to bed. I am watching Maher from last night now. Thanks the the poster in an earlier thread who mentioned how good it was. Jeanine is tres intelligent! PER USUAL, I went to bed last night and forgot to tape. I try to notate these important life events in my daytimer but the longer this election goes on, the worse my STM becomes. Seriously.

    Two questions for all of your smart folks on this site:
    1) Who is jbarnett and why is he talking to me?

    2) Why does Obama never seem to wear a long-sleeved dress shirt in any color other than white? OHSHIT. I am not kidding. CNN has a clip of him right now wearing BLUE. (unless my tee vee color is off.) There goes my theory that for him to wear a pastel feeds into the elitist, feminized, p*ssy mantra.

    Can we just go vote now?

  9. 9.

    Conservatively Liberal

    A quote from a New Yorker article about the way Palin communicates:

    Palin, who studied journalism in college and worked for a time as a sportscaster, has an informal manner of speech, simultaneously chatty and urgent, and she reinforces her words with winks and nods and wrinklings of her nose that seem meant to telegraph intimacy and ease. Speaking recently at her former church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, she said, “It was so cool growing up in this church and getting saved here, getting baptized by Pastor Riley in Little Beaver Lake Camp, freezing-cold summer days that we had at camp—my whole family getting baptized when we were little.” She sounded the same when we met, high-spirited, irrepressible, and not in the least self-conscious. On the contrary, she is supremely self-confident, in the way of someone who believes that there is nothing she can’t talk her way into, or out of, or around or through. There was never a hesitation before speaking, or between phrases, no time for thought or reflection. The words kept coming—engaging, lulling, distracting—a commanding flow, but without weight. Yet, for all the cozy colloquialism, she cannot be called relaxed. She’s on—full on.

    I noticed the same thing in the interview with Gibson. She speaks without pausing to think, as if she knew the answer before the question was even asked. She is not thoughtful at all, she has her beliefs and everything stems from that. There is no need for thought because she is completely pre-programmed to respond to any situation she is faced with.

    She is one creepy lady, and I have a feeling that the reason she responds the way she does is because of her belief that she has the right answer no matter the answer she gives.

    It is scary that McCain has put her in the position she is now in. That someone like her may have a chance to be president tells me that the Republican party has completely collapsed.

    They are in this for their party, not the country.

  10. 10.

    Laura W

    and she reinforces her words with winks and nods and wrinklings of her nose that seem meant to telegraph intimacy and ease.

    That is very profound and telling, just that snippet right there. I saw her response to the Bush Doctorine question again tonight, for the 7th time or so, but this time I was REALLY taken in by her facial and body gestures. I mean, they were screaming discomfort, SHIT!, stalling, use-cute-to-get-out-of this, buy time, deflect, PUNT!

    I’d love to see some (truly good) body language expert, or highly sensitive intuitive, or both, take that one little clip of tape, slow it way down, and read the hell out of it for the country. “In what respect, Charlie?” A million things happened in those four short words…her body shifts, her facial expressions, tone of voice. I was struck by it tonight in ways I’d not thought about very deeply until tonight.
    I’m glad there are others keyed into the same clues.

  12. 12.

    Davis X. Machina

    They are in this for their party, not the country.

    The Party is the Vanguard of the Glorious Revolution. The State is destined to wither away when the aims of the Revolution are finally achieved. This is why the organs of the State must always serve the Party.

    All power to the soviets of preachers and brokers!

  13. 13.

    Dennis - SGMM

    She is one creepy lady, and I have a feeling that the reason she responds the way she does is because of her belief that she has the right answer no matter the answer she gives.

    I think that the Republicans should be congratulated for developing the Stepford Candidate long before the Dems.

  15. 15.

    oh really

    Little Chuckie Krauthammer has written an idiotic column in which he tries to divert attention from Sarah Palin’s ignorance to Charles Gibson’s “gaffe.”

    According to Krauthammer, there have been four different Bush Doctrines, and the one that is currently operative is not the one Gibson identified. What Krauthammer doesn’t realize is that by identifying four Bush Doctrines, instead of one, he gives Palin four chances to get the question right and she couldn’t come up with even one partially correct answer. She obviously had never even heard of any Bush Doctrine. That’s probably because Sarah Palin has spent all of her time addressing issues directly related to the furtherance of her own career. Hiring childhood friends for government positions and carrying out vendettas on non-loyalists takes time, and Sarah, when she wasn’t engaged in foreign policy by gazing at Russia appears to have spent most of her time hanging out at home or getting even with people who crossed her. (Of course, I’d love to see a calendar showing all the days in the past decade that Palin has been in a town, city, or area of Alaska from which Russia is visible.)

    Sarah Palin clearly had no clue what any Bush Doctrine is or was. She didn’t get fooled by Gibson identifying the “wrong” Bush Doctrine; she just didn’t know WTF she was talking about. And it should have been obvious to anyone who saw her.

    This is typical Republican dishonesty. If Krauthammer can name four different Bush Doctrines, shouldn’t the Republican nominee for VP be able to name and discuss just one? Of course. But Krauthammer is a thoroughly dishonest Right Wing Nut Case, whose only goal is to further the extremist goals of the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.

    If you read the long article about Palin in the NYTimes today, Palin really evokes thoughts of another “great Republcan” — Dick Cheney. Secrecy, loyalty, vendetta, incompetence. She’s got it all. Now, all she has to do is should one of her friend’s in the face.

  16. 16.

    Will Hunting

    On bill simmons brady mailbag this week, some reader poited out that palin is a dead ringer for the teacher in varsity blues who moonlights as a stripper. Good times!

    No power and no ac in houston. Bummer. Overall, the cit came through fairly well, although my office building downtown got waxed (chase tower).

  17. 17.

    Whammer

    Krauthammer is an insufferable hack. Unfortunately, I don’t think the “Bush Doctrine” thing is going to get any traction.

    I wish the “Georgia ought to be in NATO right now” so we can go to war with Russia sound bite would stick. We’ll see.

    I do wonder how she can be so pathological about not telling the truth — how could she say “nearly 20%” when it isn’t even close?

    In other news, to steal a good line that I think bears repeating. Sarah Palin says she has foreign policy experience because you can see Russia from Alaska. I can see the moon from my back yard, does that make me an astronaut?

  18. 18.

    Krista

    Yep, it really goes to show how pathetic the MSM is when only the ladies of “The View” have had the Thatchers to ask some pointed questions of McCain.

  20. 20.

    Laura W

    On bill simmons brady mailbag this week, some reader poited out that palin is a dead ringer for the teacher in varsity blues who moonlights as a stripper.

    I think Jon Stewart said that first. (Not totally certain, but pretty sure since I can visualize the graphic above his head.)

    In other news, to steal a good line that I think bears repeating. Sarah Palin says she has foreign policy experience because you can see Russia from Alaska. I can see the moon from my back yard, does that make me an astronaut?

    I think krista said that first. (Not that I know krista but I read it here in previous threads and posts.)

    Have to go now. Finally I can get caught up on Project Runway from last week wherein the designers team up to create a garment around the astrological sign of their partner.
    (Don’t tell me! Sarah’s a Taurus!)

  23. 23.

    FLILF Hunter

    Caribou Barbie sez: “It was so cool growing up in this church and getting saved here, getting baptized by Pastor Riley in Little Beaver Lake Camp….”

    Heh heh… she said “beaver.”

  24. 24.

    jcricket

    I spent the better part of today just trying to keep up with all the articles debunking the lies that Palin and McCain have told about themselves. And eventually I just gave up out of exhaustion.

    As someone who’s told plenty of tall tales in my day I don’t know how these people do it – it’s exhausting trying to keep your story straight on one lie, let alone the dozens that Palin/McCain are spinning at any one time.

    Not to mention trying to justify (at the same time) all the lies and distortions about their opponents.

    I can only hope these are, as TZ says, the “death throes” of the Republicans this campaign season. That they’re blowing their wads 60 days out and it’ll just be a slump to the finish line. Unfortunately, I fully expect the Republicans to get 40-45% of the votes no matter what… Sad that with this much obvious difference between the parties and candidates people still can be convinced to vote for Republicans.

  25. 25.

    PeterJ

    is Obama no longer appearing on SNL tonight?

    He cancelled due to Ike.

    Palin claims Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” That’s not true.

    Alaska did produce 14 percent of all the oil from U.S. wells last year, but that’s a far cry from all the “energy” produced in the U.S.

    Palin thinks that oil is the only thing that counts. And then she just rounded the number up hoping that she would get to keep the rest as usual.

  26. 26.

    Dennis - SGMM

    As someone who’s told plenty of tall tales in my day I don’t know how these people do it – it’s exhausting trying to keep your story straight on one lie, let alone the dozens that Palin/McCain are spinning at any one time.

    They have system: whatever the truth is, just say the opposite.

  27. 27.

    Libby

    I can’t keep up with the lies. I think that’s their strategy. Bush did that too. Lied relentlessly, to keep us busy while Cheney hatched the next evil plot.

    I decided to check up on Sarah’s foreign creds today with pictures. You can see for yourself how the Russians are a constant threat on that island that’s three miles away. I even found a link to a live webcam with operable controls. Sure to remove all doubt that she’s unprepared to deal with world affairs.

  28. 28.

    FLILF Hunter

    She is one creepy lady, and I have a feeling that the reason she responds the way she does is because of her belief that she has the right answer no matter the answer she gives.

    Definitely creepy. She’s the spawn of the fundie seed pods, which is why she’s so damned certain of her answers: It’s God’s plan.
    This is the same frackin’ bullslop we’ve seen corrode our government from the inside out over the last eight years. I said it before and I’ll say it again: Klondike Monica Goodling. Substitute “Loyal Palinites” in place of “Loyal Bushies” and you’ve unlocked the DaVinci code.

  31. 31.

    Epicanis

    Open Thread means I can post anything, right?
    Since energy has been mentioned, can I take a moment before I go back to my dark, hot home to say “I WANT MY FRIGGIN’ ELECTRICITY (and internet access) BACK!”

    Montgomery County, TX: about 130000 customers without power (and air conditioning and internet access…) for an unknown length of time.

    But don’t worry, Entergy says they’ll get the state legislature to allow them to add another “Hurricane Cost Recovery Charge” to everyone’s bill, so they’ll be fine.

  32. 32.

    The Other Steve

    Don’t worry.. Even though Ms. Palin can’t handle Charles Gibson, she will be more than able to take on Vladimir Putin.

  33. 33.

    FLILF Hunter

    The Other Steve Says:

    Don’t worry.. Even though Ms. Palin can’t handle Charles Gibson, she will be more than able to take on Vladimir Putin.

    Onaccounta she’s got that fundie x-ray vision that can see into guys’ souls.

  34. 34.

    Libby

    I cruised the blogs of some right wing friends of mine and it was so depressing. These are good people outside of their politics. They’re not stupid, but they’re buying the line of crap McCain is selling about taxes. But mostly the guys think she has a great ass and that’s qualification enough. They don’t see what asses the daring duo are. I don’t get it.

  36. 36.

    cain

    Anybody catch kos’s rant on Sullivan’s post about being Obama not being aggressive. It’s pretty good. Some Fuckhead would be proud.

    here

    cain

  37. 37.

    FLILF Hunter

    “This is a travel tip, not an argument for foreign-policy expertise. Because a person can see the moon does not make them qualified to be an astronaut.”

    But… but…

    I’ve been to Chinatown, and Japantown, and Russian Hill — oh, yeah, and I drove by Solvang a couple of times…

    That’s gotta be ambassador-grade cred, at the very least.

  38. 38.

    Mary

    Jesus Christ. David Foster Wallace hung himself Friday night. Maybe he was too oblique and wordy for some people’s tastes, but damn, he could write. Yet the fucker let his wife discover his body. No one should do that to their family.

    From his Kenyon University Commencement speech, 2005:

    This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger. And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let’s get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what “day in day out” really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I’m talking about.

  40. 40.

    Libby

    I actually agree with Sully more than Kos, although they’re both about half right. Hell, I even agreed with BTD today and I never agree with him.

    Palin is a distraction and as long as we focus only on her, then the race is still not about McCain. It’s about Palin v. Obama.

    I’m trying to balance it by connecting her to Bush and connecting them both to McCain. I’m also trying to focus on issues more. I think pushing the meme that he wants to tax employer based health insurance and that he wants to kill social security could be effective talking points.

  41. 41.

    Scrutinizer

    it turns out they’re greatly exaggerating the size of the crowds they’re drawing. Like saying they drew 23,000 when they drew 8,000.

    Rick Davis said today that the McCain campaign had raised $50M since Caribou Barbie came on board. I’m guessing it’s about a tenth of that. How are they gonna slip the fundraising past the FEC? Or is that yet another thing they’ll worry about once they win?

  43. 43.

    Incertus

    As someone who’s told plenty of tall tales in my day I don’t know how these people do it – it’s exhausting trying to keep your story straight on one lie, let alone the dozens that Palin/McCain are spinning at any one time.

    That’s the thing–they don’t try to keep them straight. They’re just telling them and they don’t stop to see if they’re being debunked or if they contradict each other. They’re daring the press to take them on, figuring that they can depend on using the myth of the liberal media to sustain them with the base, and the low-information part of the low-information voters to put them over the top.

  44. 44.

    Stuck in the Fun House

    Gah. I didn’t make it through two minutes of that video clip Fun House. Damn, it’s going to be an ugly couple of months.

    You’re braver than I Libby. I just read the article. That was enough for me.

  45. 45.

    t jasper parnell

    Just when you think it can’t get any crazier we get this. Jesus on a fucking Pogo Stick.

    That video is beyond the pale and most distressing.

  46. 46.

    Tara the antisocial social worker

    John, haven’t you heard? It’s disrespectful to use the word “lying” when someone makes a statement that they know to be false.

    No word yet on whether it’s OK to call it untruthing, prevaricating, and/or bearing false witness.

  47. 47.

    Napoleon

    That NY Times article on Palin is amazing. She has every character defect that has made Bush such a disaster times 2.

  48. 48.

    Maggie

    The Bush Doctrine thing may have no traction, but the right sure are twisting themselves into all kinds of pretzels trying to make sure it has no traction. Might work, but the reaction itself is telling. Oh, yeah, and Charlie Gibson is a Blue Meanie!

  49. 49.

    NickM

    What you’re obviously forgetting is that Sarah Palin is the most knowledgable person in the universe about energy, so when she says its’ 20%, that means factcheck is wrong.

  50. 50.

    Bostondreams

    Just when you think it can’t get any crazier we get this. Jesus on a fucking Pogo Stick.

    Yeah, I live in Florida. My parents, good Republicans, gave it to me after it came in the paper, St. Pete Times I think…
    Lovely viewing.

  51. 51.

    The Thinking Man's Mel Torme

    Just when you think it can’t get any crazier we get this. Jesus on a fucking Pogo Stick.

    My local fishwrapper is going to have this DVD insert tomorrow. It’s going to stoke the nut-bars in the paper’s online forums to full-bore foaming insanity.

  53. 53.

    The Moar You Know

    Just when you think it can’t get any crazier we get this. Jesus on a fucking Pogo Stick.

    I smell a false flag attack in America’s near future.

  54. 54.

    anonymous

    As someone working in the media research industry, I have no idea how to deal with the DVD drop. I guess it gets thrown in the garbage because it works outside any normal media norms, but that’s going to play hell with whatever PR group the Clarion Fund employs trying to figure out if it worked or not.

    I guess if they win they crow about the effectiveness, and if they lose they pretend they were effective but had a bad year. It’s a pretty crazy way to throw around money in the industry. Someone doesn’t give a shit about quality control or accountability.

  57. 57.

    DaveInOz

    I’ve been following and documenting the daily stats from 538.com for a couple of months cos I could never remember what they were a few days before.

    It’s pretty depressing reading at the moment but I can’t believe that Obama hasn’t now hit bottom. With the ABC interview now receiving wide play, the lies being challenged in the MSM and McSame’s wonderful experience on ‘The View’, the tide must be turning.

    You can check out the stats and a graph here.

  58. 58.

    Delia

    It’s all too much for me today. I’m going to bed, but here’s some good news. Bob Geiger is back to blogging and he resurrected his Saturday cartoons. Some great stuff there.

    Judging from those cartoons, I’d say offhand that the lipstick-pig whine-fest rather backfired.

  59. 59.

    Dennis - SGMM

    It can get much crazier. From the NYT:
    Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan

    WASHINGTON — President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

    The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
    American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission…

    I’m sure that the Pakistanis will appreciate our respect for their sovereignty. No one could anticipate that our actions might lead to any civil disorder or even the toppling of Pakistan’s fragile new government.

    More:

    Pakistan’s top army officer said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate American incursions like the one that took place last week and that the army would defend the country’s sovereignty “at all costs.”

    Pakistan’s army is a force answerable only to itself. No government stands in that country without the military’s approval and support. And yes, these guys actually do have nuclear weapons.

    And what happens if, during one of these incursions, US troops are captured and subjected to the same treatment that we’ve authorized for our captives?

    I don’t know whether Bush is trying to get a pelt for McCain to wear or if he’s just gone completely crazy but, this is not a good development.

  60. 60.

    Paul in Boca

    Dennis, Bush is simply trying to push enough buttons to have something happen somewhere in the world that he defines as a threat to America, so he and the Dickster can suspend the elections. They have not done everything they have in the past 7 years to meekly walk into the night and turn the government over to Obama.

  61. 61.

    OriGuy

    WASHINGTON — President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

    Obama got beat up for suggesting he might do this, but IOKIYAR.

    +1 Alaskan IPA in the big bottle. Something good came out of the state.

  62. 62.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    What you’re obviously forgetting is that Sarah Palin is the most knowledgable person in the universe about energy

    You can see an oil rig from Alaska, so that means she is an expert on energy.

  63. 63.

    Stuck in the Fun House

    And to top it all off now Demo-rats are concern trolling their little hearts out just as they’re fixing to jump ship.

    Mr Obama has never won an electoral contest against a strong Republican candidate Photo: AP

    The Democratic presidential candidate’s slump in the polls has sparked pointed private criticism that he is squandering a once-in-a-generation chance to win back the White House.

    Party elders also believe the Obama camp is in denial about warnings from Democratic pollsters that his true standing is four to six points lower than that in published polls because of hidden racism from voters – something that would put him a long way behind Mr McCain.

    The Sunday Telegraph has learned that senators, governors and union leaders who have experience of winning hard-fought races in swing states have been bombarding Obamas campaign headquarters with telephone calls offering advice. But many of those calls have not been returned.

    A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: “These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They’re the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won’t accept that they are losing and they won’t listen.”

    After leading throughout the year, Mr Obama now trails Mr McCain by two to three points in national polls.

    Mccain gets a bump in the polls as expected, together with the Rapturist orgasms over Sarah Palin and pissy ass dem so-called leaders are claiming that Obama is throwing the campaign. The same jackasses that had claimed he was the best campaigner in a generation only a couple of weeks ago when Obama was up 4 points instead of down 3 today.

    I can’t stand these lily liverred shits anymore. I am no longer a democrat as of now, and will make it official to return to an independent voter as soon as I can deploy my sorry ass to the county clerk. I’m still for Obama, but that’s it for me as a democrat.

  64. 64.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Hey this is fun, following up on Krista’s awesome quote can we add a few more (a la you can see an oil rig from Alaska)

    I can see a car from my driveway does that make me a mechanic?

    I can see a school bus from my house does that make me an educator?

    I can see a helicopter from my garden does that make me a pilot?

    I can see a ***** in my shower does that make me oh, well, you know never mind, that is going a little too far :)

    Add yours!

  65. 65.

    Bostondreams

    And to top it all off now Demo-rats are concern trolling their little hearts out just as they’re fixing to jump ship.

    These are the same asses who mocked the 50 state strategy in ’06 and said Obama couldn’t beat Clinton in ’08. When have THEY ever beaten a strong Republican candidate? Hell, when has MCCAIN beat a strong DEMOCRATIC candidate?
    Yeah, definite concern trolling.

  66. 66.

    Mary

    That SNL open with TinaFey and Amy Poehler (pregnant??!?) WORKED.

    Clinton: “And so I invite the media to grow a pair, and if you don’t, you can borrow mine.”

    I need a cigarette now.

  67. 67.

    timb

    I don’t know if anyone mentioned this, but Palin’s story of being in Kuwait and thinking she was in Iraq is wonderfully parallel with Beauchamp’s claims of the same isn’t it?

    In the Wingnut world, that ERROR made Scott Beauchamp the most vile liar ever; something tells me in greater Wingnuttia, Palin just made a mistake.

    Beauchamp set this all up to lose the war, that bastard

  68. 68.

    Ed in NJ

    Mary Says:

    That SNL open with TinaFey and Amy Poehler (pregnant??!?) WORKED.

    Clinton: “And so I invite the media to grow a pair, and if you don’t, you can borrow mine.”

    I need a cigarette now.

    Just a devastating portrayal of Palin as a vapid beauty queen. And it will be shown over and over again on the cable news stations for the next few days.

  69. 69.

    Conservatively Liberal

    I can see an electrical transformer from my yard so I guess I’m ready to be an electrician.

    I can see a fire hydrant from my yard so I guess I’m ready to be a fireman.

    You and me,
    we can be,
    whatever we see,
    In Palin World.

  70. 70.

    LiberalTarian

    I have seen police cars go by with their sirens and lights flashing–I could be Attorney General.

    Hey, this is fun!

  71. 71.

    Conservatively Liberal

    Oh oh, I just saw my new cat and since she needs fixed after she has her kittens I guess it is time to be a veterinarian!

    /grab the Dremel and pipe wrench

    Here kitty kitty…

  72. 72.

    LiberalTarian

    Turns out Palin has asked Schwarzenegger to veto a clean air bill here in California.

    One of the supporters of the bill gets a good lick in:

    Clean-air advocates say Palin has no business getting involved in a health issue affecting California residents.

    “No matter what the hockey moms say, it’s the mothers of children with asthma that the governor should listen to,” said Lisa Warshaw, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Clean Air, sponsor of the bill.

    What does the McCain/Palin spokesperson say??

    “Governor Palin has been a leader in tackling environmental issues, and she has worked with many states and governors to cooperate on those issues,” said Ben Porritt, a McCain-Palin campaign spokesman.

    Right. She’s for ignoring science in global warming, driving large predators extinct, and thinks Alaskan oil can save the country. Up is down anyone??

  74. 74.

    Martin

    Holy fuck, Tina Fey is a little too good at that. Well, at least we’ll get 2 months of good entertainment out of it, but no more.

  75. 75.

    Brian J

    McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign’s factual claims: “We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”

    That’s what I found on TPM. That’s a big ‘ol fuck you to the media. I hope the media doesn’t bend over like usual.

  76. 76.

    Brian J

    So evocative of “Heckuva Job” Brownie that it’s frightening. Truly, she is an appropriate candidate for the modern GOP.

    Since I’m just full of suggestions these days, here’s an idea for an ad from the Obama campaign. Take the part of McCain’s acceptance speech where he says something like, “Sarah Palin hasn’t met Washington yet, but I can’t wait till Washington meets her,” and then have have the announcer in a skeptical, snorting tone say, “I’ll bet. She’ll fit right in…” And then, in a much more creative and direct way than I could, talk about why Washington would love her: because she’s just like the rest of them. She talks a good game, but in the end, she’ll take your money and run. There’s a ton of material to work with.

  77. 77.

    Conservatively Liberal

    That SNL skit with Fey and Poehler was a riot!

    Ask her about dinosaurs!
    The media should grow a pair, and if not I will lend them mine.

    Hillary had to love that line ’cause I know I sure did.

  78. 78.

    Stuck in the Fun House

    That’s what I found on TPM. That’s a big ‘ol fuck you to the media. I hope the media doesn’t bend over like usual.

    I’ve been thinking, trying to figure out exactly what is going on with the whole Sarah Palin thing. It seems to me that the GOP pick of Palin is the ultimate demand wingnuts are making to the media. After years of pummeling the press with the liberal bias hammer, and relentlessly foisting the false equivalence and equal treatment kinnard, republicans are trying to shove this shiny but deeply flawed VP pick protege of theirs down the throat of the media.

    Of course, it has never been for fair treatment, but the ability of wingnuts to create their own narrative, complete with contrived facts and have it labeled as fair treatment without interference from the media or anyone else. And Sarah Palin is far worse than just flawed candidate, she’s a total trainwreck as we are learning and unfit for VP, and the press knows it. And they are showing some signs of actually standing up to wingnut threats of crying liberal bias while stomping their feet like little children who want to do something dangerous and are being told no. Maybe this time they will act like a free press and do the right thing for the country. If they don’t, we are all royally fucked for some time to come.

  79. 79.

    Conservatively Liberal

    Maybe this time they will act like a free press…

    In the big media circus, there is no such thing as the free press. They are only as free as their corporate masters allow them to be. That freedom ends with the political agenda and bottom line, no matter the outlet.

    It has always been that way and I don’t see it changing any time soon. When media was small there was less control as the ownership was spread across many people of diverse opinions, but now that a few control most popular outlets all we get is what they want us to see.

  80. 80.

    oh really

    Libby says: “They’re not stupid…the guys think she has a great ass and that’s qualification enough.”

    Libby, that sounds like a pretty good working definition of “stupid” to me.

    Perhaps the most often repeated least true statement in American politics is “The American people are not stupid.”

    Sadly, the evidence says otherwise and Sarah Palin is a perfect test case. If, after eight years of Bush, there are Americans who can be persuaded to vote for McCain because his running mate is “a babe,” then this country has reached the point where the most merciful thing (for the sake of the rest of the world) would be for someone to simply smother the US while it sleeps.

  81. 81.

    LiberalTarian

    I dunno. One of the reasons I quit history was because I realized that one could never underestimate the capacity of people to behave foolishly en masse. I decided water behaved in a much more sensible fashion, and studied it instead. I still like history, but the stories are like one long horror movie–“No! Don’t go into that room!! Don’t you hear the scary music?? Stop, no, turn around, think better of it!!”

    I had a dream once about my ex-husband (who had this amazing ability to spend $1.25 for every $1 we brought home). I dreamt that we were riding in the car that we really liked, but had to replace because we couldn’t afford to fix the drive train. In my dream, I was sitting in the passenger seat as he drove it off a cliff. As we did the car swan-dive thing, I looked at him and screamed, “HOW AM I GOING TO FIX THIS???”

    I’m 95% of the mind Obama is going to win, and win big. But, there is 5% of me that feels like we are heading right off the cliff, and Republican voters are just too stubborn and/or dumb to realize how bad the outcome will be if they elect McCain/Palin. If they elect John McCain, I just don’t see how we can do anything but land at an exploding heap at the bottom of the cliff.

  83. 83.

    Stuck in the Fun House

    but now that a few control most popular outlets all we get is what they want us to see.

    This is true, but I’m wondering if there is a limit to failing in their constitutional duty to keep the public at least minimally informed with basic facts. If you look on memorandum there is a long list of articles basically saying the Mccain campaign are lying liars. Anyway, one can hope for the best.

  84. 84.

    Conservatively Liberal

    I am thinking (dangerous thing that is) and Palin can be summed up thusly:

    The Empress has no clothes. The McCain camp took this politically naked woman from nowhere, they put her out on the political street to politically pimp for them and they are telling people that if they note that she is naked then they are attacking her.

    They have made stating the obvious an attack. The Empress is naked and everyone knows it. Everyone. Supporters and detractors alike know that she is naked.

    This is just fine with Sarah because she is the woman with all of the answers.

    If the press fails us, we are probably fucked. Qualifications may no longer matter, personality and popularity rule the day.

    Unfuckingbelievable for a so-called advanced society. Our founding fathers would be aghast that we could fall so far.

  86. 86.

    LiberalTarian

    Mary Says:

    The SNL opening is here, for at least a few minutes (Blip.tv, not YouTube.)

    Brilliant!! Thank you Mary!

  88. 88.

    liberal

    Conservatively Liberal wrote,

    When media was small there was less control as the ownership was spread across many people of diverse opinions, but now that a few control most popular outlets all we get is what they want us to see.

    My impression is that back in the day, this “diverse ownership” mainly consisted of extremely right-wing small-town newspapers.

  89. 89.

    jbarntt

    Q: How can you tell when John McCain and Sarah Palin are lying?

    Easy, I just read the Washington Post, New York Times, etc., you know the press. Liberal blogs are good too. From these sources I have discovered the lies, such as:

    Sarah Palin gave birth to the child. LIE, it was her daughter.

    Sarah Palin has been faithful to her husband. LIE, she cheated with a former business partner of his.

    I’m sure you can expose other lies about her.

    As to McCain, well he did have that affair with a lobbyist, right ? Bastard denied it, even though an unsourced front page article in the NYT’s proclaimed it. Must be true, seemed truthy, had a lot of truthiness about it.

    Also this stuff about him as a pilot and a POW. Total load of rubbish. Everyone knows he was responsible for the Forrestal tragedy. I read it on a liberal blog. Also read that a pilot who is shot down is a bad pilot, not a hero.

    Really chaps my fanny that McCain is viewed as an honorable man when all the evidence is against it. Christ the man lived in a luxury hotel in Hanoi for over five frickin’ years. It was nice, lots of liberals say this, like Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, etc. They went there, they saw it. They were the truth tellers and guys like McCain, Day, Swindle, etc. are just lying liars.

  90. 90.

    Conservatively Liberal

    My impression is that back in the day, this “diverse ownership” mainly consisted of extremely right-wing small-town newspapers.

    Yes, but there were liberal bastions across the nation that no longer exist in the current media mega-market. There used to be some great objective reporting on local and national matters in quite a few cities, and while there are ‘token’ liberal markets now it is nothing like the freewheeling, disorganized, glorious mess it used to be in the good old days.

    The media buy-up killed the voice of the free media. Everything is business now, even news, and it has to turn a profit every year. One small advantage is that intelligent people know we are in a serious mess now, and some of them are on the right. If they perceive McCain to be bad in the long run, and if they are not impressed with Palin, they may just turn against the right for this election cycle.

    Sad, but this is about our only hope if we are to get real reporting done about this sham McCain and Palin are pulling.

  91. 91.

    jbarntt

    Q: How can you tell when John McCain and Sarah Palin are lying?

    Sorry for the second post but I’m really upset about McCain’s lies about his “service”. Sen. Rockefeller, (D-W. VA), told the truth about the bastard when he said that McCain delivered death from 30,000 feet with laser guided bombs in 1967.

    That fine Democrat, Sen. Rockefeller, is a truth teller, and exposes the lies of Bush III. The lies infuriate me and make me upset, I even got a case of the vapors and I really hate that !

    Oh, Mom ordered out for pizza and its here, gotta go.

  92. 92.

    jbarntt

    Q: How can you tell when John McCain and Sarah Palin are lying?

    Sorry for the second post but I’m really upset about McCain’s lies about his “service”. Sen. Rockefeller, (D-W. VA), told the truth about the bastard when he said that McCain delivered death from 30,000 feet with laser guided bombs in 1967.

    That fine Democrat, Sen. Rockefeller, is a truth teller, and exposes the lies of Bush III. The lies infuriate me and make me upset, I even got a case of the vapors and I really hate that !

    Oh, Mom ordered out for pizza and its here, gotta go.

  93. 93.

    zuzu's petals

    The WaPo can barely contain its sarcasm in its discussion of Palin’s much-vaunted mayoral “executive experience” :

    WASILLA, Alaska — On Sept. 24, 2001, Mayor Sarah Palin and the City Council held their first meeting after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The council condemned the attacks and approved a $5,000 gift to a disaster relief fund. Palin said she would try to obtain materials from both attack sites to include in the town’s “Honor Garden.”

    And then the council and mayor returned to their normal business: approving funds to upgrade the public well, issuing a restaurant permit and taking up a measure forbidding residents from operating bed-and-breakfasts in their homes. After a lively debate, the bed-and-breakfast measure lost, 4 to 1.

    Since joining the Republican ticket, Palin has faced questions about whether she is qualified to be vice president or, if necessary, president. In response, the first-term Alaska governor and Sen. John McCain point to the executive qualifications she acquired as Wasilla mayor, a six-year stint from 1996 to 2002 that represents the bulk of her political experience.

    …

    n September 2002, she presided over her last City Council meeting. The council took up an ordinance to ban sex shops. The police chief announced that Raymond Chiemlowski was promoted to sergeant. Keller “reported that traffic lights on Knik-Goosebay Road will be turned on soon and encouraged everyone to use caution while adjusting to the new traffic pattern.”

    And with that, at 9:48 p.m., Sarah Palin’s final meeting as mayor of Wasilla was adjourned.

    As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood

    A good read for background on just how circumscribed her duties really were, and how driven and ambitious she was even then.

  95. 95.

    Jon H

    I kinda wish anti-McCain ads would start using video of Uncle Fester instead of McCain. Maybe only in brief shots among regular clips of McCain.

  96. 96.

    myiq2xu

    I kinda wish anti-McCain ads would start using video of Uncle Fester instead of McCain.

    McCain looks more like the Crypt Keeper, with wisps of white hair clinging to his skull.

    Fester was bald/shaved

  97. 97.

    TenguPhule

    Q: How can you tell when jbarntt is being an idiot?

    A: This is a trick question. Jbarntt is always an idiot.

  98. 98.

    TenguPhule

    I’m sure you can expose other lies about her.

    For the Bridge to Nowhere before it looked bad, then against it.

    Lied about being in Iraq.

    Lied about being in charge of the National Guard’s *military* role (That’s the Fed’s, not the State’s, dumbass.).

    Lied about firing someone who didn’t play pattycake with her abuse of authority.

    Lied about her record.

    Lied about Obama.

    Lied about knowing shit about Russia.

  99. 99.

    liberal

    Conservatively Liberal wrote,

    There used to be some great objective reporting on local and national matters in quite a few cities, and while there are ‘token’ liberal markets now it is nothing like the freewheeling, disorganized, glorious mess it used to be in the good old days.

    I’d have to do some research to really check that out, and unfortunately don’t have time. ;-)

    I do know one thing, though—it took far, far longer for the press to start digging into our intervention in Indochina than it did in e.g. the recent invasion of Iraq.

    One interesting theory says that there’s much more “competition” in Britain, and the reason is that there are more national papers there competing for public attention.

    Everything is business now, even news, and it has to turn a profit every year.

    That’s certainly undermined the overall quality of reportage, but I’m not sure what impact it’s having on the partisan leaning of the media.

    One small advantage is that intelligent people know we are in a serious mess now, and some of them are on the right.

    Interestingly, a prominent report yesterday has Greenspan expressing strong doubts about McThug’s tax plan. Not that I have any respect for Greenspan otherwise, but I doubt he’d do that (w/o mentioning Obama’s plan, AFAICT) w/o privately being against McThug.

    Sad, but this is about our only hope if we are to get real reporting done about this sham McCain and Palin are pulling.

    Yes…though I’ve always wondered what would happen if Obama/Biden “went nuclear” and used extremely strong language. Instead of saying various McThug/Palin lies are “lies,” attack their persons—saying “They are liars with no honor.”

  100. 100.

    liberal

    jbarntt blithered,

    Sarah Palin gave birth to the child. LIE, it was her daughter[‘s].

    (yawn)

    And the claim that Palin recklessly, irresponsibly endangered her high-risk-pregnancy baby by flying back to Alaska after her water broke, apparently just to satisfy this nutjob desire that the baby be born a “native Alaskan”?

    Of course, we don’t need to look at personal details to see that Palin is yet another two-bit Republican thug.

  101. 101.

    Xenos

    Sarah Palin gave birth to the child. LIE, it was her daughter.

    Sarah Palin has been faithful to her husband. LIE, she cheated with a former business partner of his.

    These, of course, were Republican lies, generated and disseminated last spring by Republican who were Republican opponents of Sarah Palin. Liberal bloggers found these rumours and discussed them, but did not hold them out to be true. The only prominent blogger who took them seriously seems to have been Andrew Sullivan. And then US Magazine printed some of them. Big deal.

    You are whining, JB. Nobody likes a whiner.

  102. 102.

    dslak

    The only prominent blogger who took them seriously seems to have been Andrew Sullivan.

    Yes, but to be fair, he never claimed to believe them. He just argued that it was something 1) relevant, given that she used it as evidence of her pro-life bonafides, and 2) easily refuted, if false.

  103. 103.

    donnah

    Good Morning America on ABC Sunday morning actually ran a short piece on the negative/lie-filled campaign McCain and Palin are running. They had clips of Palin repeating her claims about dropping the Bridge to Nowhere and selling the jet on Ebay. Then they showed a clip of her interview with Charlie Gibson. I was shocked to see them raising legitimate questions about their lies. Perhaps there’s hope.

  104. 104.

    timb

    Here’s a shocker, Joel Barnett, is a freeper?

    You can’t imagine how surprised I was that the Freeper crowd, with it’s new fanboy crush on Palin, is in full “McCain ’08” mode. Dolts like Joel are pretty easy to fool. A Vice Presidential pick gets them out of Mom’s trailer to pull the trigger for the ol’ GOP! Maybe McCain should announce he’d pick John Bolton for White House chef and the Freepers would love him even more!

  105. 105.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    Unfuckingbelievable for a so-called advanced society. Our founding fathers would be aghast that we could fall so far.

    More likely, they would say “told you so”. Many of the founding fathers were opposed to direct democracy and afraid of what the howling mob of common people would do if allowed to rule without a strong set of elitist filters between them and the govt. Read the Federalist Papers or check out the original design of the Electoral College for examples.

    Of course things have changed a bit since the late 18th Cen., so what they thought then is not necessarily applicable to today’s world.

    For me, I’ll stick with what Adlai Stevenson and Winston Churchill said (paraphrasing here): “in a democracy people generally get the government they deserve”, and “you can always trust the Americans. In the end they will do the right thing, after they have eliminated all the other possibilities.”

  107. 107.

    jbarntt

    And the claim that Palin recklessly, irresponsibly endangered her high-risk-pregnancy baby by flying back to Alaska after her water broke, apparently just to satisfy this nutjob desire that the baby be born a “native Alaskan”?

    Mom and baby seem just fine. Maybe Palin and her doctor knew a bit more about this than you, hmm ? But let’s get down to the important stuff, OK ? The bottom line is liberals hate Palin because she’s had five children, but no abortions.

    If she had aborted her fifth child, (actually her daughters, right), she would have some talking points for liberals. Oh well, she failed the test.

    Meanwhile, back at the Democratic ranch, Obama favours fourth term abortions and the great Catholic theologian, Sen. Biden has proclaimed that life does begin at conception, but that it should not be a hindrance to abortion.

    Meanwhile, back on the Republican ranch, both McCain and Palin have clear cut views on the subject. Obama and Biden do a nice dance, but their moral position is built on sand.

    Why can’t these guys just say what they really think ? Is it so hard, or do they really know that they have to toe the NARAL line to get elected ?

    McCain and Palin have no problem stating a clear and unambigious position on the issue, why can’t Biden and Obama do the same ?

  108. 108.

    timb

    Joel, take the abortion debate back to Free Republic, ‘kay? You may be a theocratic, one issue voter, but all you will receive here is derision for increasing government involvement in our personal lives.

    Joel: My view is a tax cut in every pot and a soldier next to every womb! There will be no abortions, unless Lord Palin agrees.

    Joel, do you have a tatoo of a heart with Palin’s name in it, yet?

  109. 109.

    Delia

    Meanwhile, back at the Democratic ranch, Obama favours fourth term abortions

    What the hell are you talking about? Why don’t you read some basic physiology texts? There is no fourth term in pregnancy. There’s first, second and third trimester. We won’t even deal with the falsity of your claims since you haven’t a clue what you’re talking about and this thread is about dead anyway.

  110. 110.

    TenguPhule

    Meanwhile, back at the Democratic ranch, Obama favours fourth term abortions

    That would be a miracle considering human pregancies are trimester.

    Or, does jbarnett want to fess up as to what ungodly alien planet he originates from?

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    Mom and baby seem just fine.

    And if you survived a bout of Russian Roulette you’d be fine too. That wouldn’t make you any less stupid though.

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