Another extremely media-friendly GOP candidate for 2012!
The Naked Cowboy — the guy who famously strums a guitar in Times Square and gets his picture taken with tourists — has declared that he’s seeking to be the 2012 tea party presidential candidate.
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In the first cover-up of his nascent campaign, Robert Burck donned a suit and tie on the heavily trafficked New York City sidewalk where he’s best known for posing in cowboy boots and tighty-whites (proving that he has a change of clothing), and promised to change the country.
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Fans and reporters who expected a comedy routine were quickly disappointed, as he launched into a half-hour, ultra- conservative diatribe, promising, if elected, to “cut the federal workforce by 40 percent or more,” stop the “infiltration” of illegal aliens and restore the sanctity of marriage…
I have not yet seen Mr. Burck’s performance art, but this I know for sure: He’d make a better president than Mitt Romney.
beltane
I was under the impression that Massachusetts already elected the Naked Cowboy to be their junior senator. My bad.
El Cid
He needs to start Driving a Truck.
betamu
I can’t imagine that this bid could take off…especially after those photos of him in Advocate Men are brought up..I have the issue somewhere in a closet at home. No tan lines and no guitar!
cleek
sanctity:
1 : holiness of life and character : godliness
2 : the quality or state of being holy or sacred : inviolability
KEEP YOUR FUCKING CHURCH OFF MY LIFE
El Cid
We should definitely stay the course. Just not use that phrase.
They’ll get over this. They’d better.
Scott
Do the Republicans have any candidates who aren’t primarily entertainers?
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Scott: Or, regardless of their actual entertainment value, performance artists?
geg6
So, as I’ve always suspected, he’s your standard GOPer?
Punchy
Wait….a guy who bills himself The Naked Cowboy, who plays in public in the almost-buff, is ultra-conservative? Did I miss something?
soonergrunt
@El Cid: They ought to. They’re requesting and co-ordinating most of the drone strikes. They’ve been doing this for years.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/pakistan-permits-cia-base-for-strikes/story-e6frg6t6-1111118893683
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5762371.ece
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
OT: I like the “I personally stopped the public option…” site tag.
soonergrunt
The Naked Cowboy is a teabagger? Well, they needed to add some class and elan to that outfit anyway, so why not?
El Cid
@soonergrunt: Strangely, things change over time. That was from over a year ago — February of 2009. This happens. Pakistani leadership begins to notice the threat to their own stability. [Or perhaps they don’t. Maybe Pakistan is still taking the same position.] I’m surprised that this is not obvious.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Did anyone watch South Park last night? They had a wonderful parody of the Skoal Rebel youtube video starring Cartman and Butters.
soonergrunt
@El Cid: Upton Sinclair once said that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
It was ever thus.
Woodrowfan
@soonergrunt:
They like the “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” option.
Pakistan: Gee I think there might be some nasty Taliban people in that village over there, in that third building to the left, the one with the SUV parked behind it.
CIA: (launches missile, destroys house)
Pakistan: (clutches pearls) Oh dear me! Someone violated my airspace! How horrible! I feel faint!
Meanwhile, the Pakistani people start wondering if just maybe, the Taliban isn’t the lesser of 2 evils..
soonergrunt
Moral absolutism, situational ethics, and an infant’s grasp of object permanence; Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you: GOP/Teabaggers 2010!
soonergrunt
@Woodrowfan:
Of course, Pakistan’s main issue with the Taliban is that they won’t remember to not bite the hand that feeds them. If the Talibs would stick to killing Afghans and Indians, everything would be alright in Pakistan’s world.
El Cid
After several days of US and Western media reporting on a Spanish judge’s allegation that Venezuela’s government has been sheltering or even training members of the Basque separatist terrorist group ETA, I find it interesting that these headlines have been discussed in our media, but not the fairly open admission that this was based on claims by ETA of the , and primarily had to do with ETA captured detainees’ claims of where they had been.
I couldn’t see the slightest reason why Chavez would ever think that risking something like actually aiding ETA like this would assist his power, his goals, or his ideological agenda. Chavez tends to be more worried about the tremendous numbers of right wing, frequently government-supported paramilitary death squads and narco-traffickers crossing into Venezuela from Colombia, but of course that’s his fault too, never ever Colombia’s, because no matter which nations their death squads, narco-traffickers, and general civil war consequences enter and affect, it’s always those neighbors’ faults.
El Cid
@Woodrowfan: Don’t let it be assumed for one minute that I’m suggesting any noble goals by the Pakistani power elites. Yeah, if there weren’t any blowback consequences, they’d be directing the US to bomb all sorts of enemies in the tribal areas (their phrasing, not mine).
Poopyman
Since this is an open thread, I’ll just mention what is hopefully the last word on the O’Keefe not-prank.
This from the local bi-weakly (sic). The only 3 bits that I had not seen before are captured in one short paragraph:
So no locals were involved, it was a rented slip, and … O’Keefe owns a boat big enough where a description that “O’Keefe planned to include a tripod and overt recorder near the bed,….” indicates a good-sized stateroom? What kind of money is Breitbart giving this guy?
The Bearded Blogger
@El Cid: The evidence of Chavez helping FARC guerrillas has been accumulating for some time. I don’t like Colombia’s RW government, but even leftists here in Colombia pretty much assume this is a fact.
FARC is the communist guerrilla in Colombia, although the ideological component has eroded and it has become more of a drug-trafficking and extortion operation. In the past, FARC has collaborated with both IRA and ETA. Some of the right wing paramilitaries, on the other hand, have trained in Israel.
New Yorker
In what way is this guy less qualified for the presidency than Sarah Palin?
Josh James
Crikey, now I hate this guy, whereas before he was good for a laugh whenever I saw him in Times Square, working the tourists … wtf, dude.
Back in the day, dressing in only your underwear and singing songs in public was a progressive thing, wasn’t it?
Is it mostly that Tea Party stuff doesn’t require real thought, is that why these guys grab onto it as a political identification?
Scott
@Poopyman:
What kind of money is Breitbart giving this guy?
Wingnut welfare is a hell of a drug.
The Bearded Blogger
Never heard of the naked cowboy before… from the pictures, he looks angry and narcissistic…
A few decades ago, the left was hurt by the stereotype fo the DFH; all progressives are lazy hedonists with their head in the clouds… I think this might be the time to crisatlyze an adequate stereotype for the right, the crazy fucking hick or something.
Josh James
Just want to add, how stupid it is for anyone in NYC to bitch about the “infiltration” of illegal aliens, especially a dude who makes his living off of tourists … tell you one thing, I wouldn’t want to eat in a restaurant with this guy, every restaurant I know has undocumented workers and you know he’s getting the “special sauce” …
The Bearded Blogger
@El Cid: Oh, the Chavez adminsitration named a public park in Venezuela after a FARC guerrilla commander who was killed in a raid. The commander in question had warrants for drug-trafficking, torture and kidnapping.
This does not mean I am on the side of the Uribe-Santos government; one need not be polarized to have opinions. As a matter of fact, the raid in question was illegal, and problematic in itself.
chopper
gotta say, the guy’s politics fit right in in manhattan.
Omnes Omnibus
@Poopyman: From what I have read, it seems that the boat was a smallish sailboat, maybe 25′ or so, and it was not new. If that is the case, it might not be that expensive. Looking at sailboats for sale on Craigslist in my area, I found 22′-25′ boats for as low as $2000. Basically, you can get a sailboat for the price of a used car. Whether it is a used Yugo or used Aston Martin is another story. The fact that he owns a boat does not really tell us anything.
El Cid
@The Bearded Blogger: Actually, no, evidence of Chavez’ helping the FARC rebels has been non-existence. The ‘FARC laptops’ were a joke and actually had no evidence of Venezuelan aid — and the US media actually lied about the contents, as I read the original documents as published in Colombia. The ground-to-air rockets were stolen from a Naval armory before Hugo Chavez came to office, and weren’t the first time FARC possessed shoulder-mounted rockets nor that they raided armories. And FARC rebels crossing the border into Venezuela is no more evidence of Venezuelan participation than the crossing over of Uribes’ government’s right wing paramilitary death squad (with whom it has been proven by Colombia’s prosecutor to have been sharing intelligence for the past 5 years at least) over the same impossible-to-patrol borders.
You don’t have to be a fan of Chavez to see the worthlessness of the claimed ‘evidence’. There’s a million times more real evidence of our ally Uribe’s assistance to right wing narco-trafficking death squads than Venezuela and the FARC.
These are just facts.
Chyron HR
@Josh James:
“So me and Joe the Plumber went down to Times Square in our tighty-whities every day and started a-strumming on our guitars and before you knew it the tourists all gathered around and started glad-handling us and we had a real racket going, but that’s not what I came to tell you about.
“Came to talk about the Muslims.”
rdldot
Since this is an open thread, I’m hoping that some of our experienced dog adopters are on and that they can help me with my new dog. I adopted her three weeks ago, and was told that she was very people oriented, but good alone all day in the house, and good with other dogs.
The first weekend after I got her, she got extremely aggressive against the neighbors dog between the fence. She still does this, and seems to fixate on that yard. I started training at Petsmart with her last weekend. She barked so badly at the other dogs that the trainer had to shoot her with water bottle to stop.
Since that time, I also believe this dog is developing separation anxiety. Last Friday when I got home, she had torn up my hairbrush, and a couple other things. Monday, no problem. Tuesday I work from home. Wednesday, she had broken my glasses and a couple other things.
Is it normal for a new dog to go through these adjustments?
Please help. Any suggestions appreciated.
The Bearded Blogger
@El Cid: Well, I guess in the end it depends on who you believe and what sources you consider reliable. Obviously, the presence of Farc in Venezuela (or Ecuador) does not constitute proof of collaboration.
I’d love it if Chavez wasn’t collaborating with Farc, as this presents a very dangerous situation for Colombia and the whole region but, living in Colombia, and having lived in Venezuela under Chavez (and endured a few of his addresses), If I had to bet, i’d bet he’s aiding them. I’d love a link to a well sourced and reasoned text disproving me, if you can furnish it.
BTW, I don’t doubt that the Uribe government collaborated with paramilitary squads.
athena
I can’t believe it took me a minute to understand the title to this post. Well done.
Nikita
Since this is an open thread about making fun of angry conservatives, did anyone see this slate story from yesterday about how although conservatives were angry, liberals are worse because they mock them…or something like that:
http://www.slate.com/id/2270046/
WereBear
It’s expected. It’s not normal.
How is she crated? Have you contacted the rescue organization or whomever you got her from?
Rescues often have separation issues, and who can blame them. I’ve come to feel psychiatric medicine to get them over the hump is a kindness for everyone involved.
WereBear
Hmmm, openly “unusual” person turns out to be a Tea Partier.
Hoocoodanode?
scav
Could it just be a case of somebody retraining for a different job in the new economy? I mean, guy in entertainment-industry (!) dependent on largely tourist-based handouts, facing cold winter, sees chance of sponsorship in rising phenomenon where naked background clearly not a liability and cowboy hat, not to mention song-and-dance skills a plus. Next step: nomination and profit!
Remember November
A guy who struts around TS in his BVD’s and boots and is technically not “naked”. Really.
Hey if he gets the Naked Cowgirl as 1st lady I might reconsider lol.
Ken
@Punchy: I see it as similar to the teabaggers who turn out to be on Medicaid disability, or to be receiving crop subsidies. It’s OK when it’s me getting the government money, but those other people don’t deserve what they’re getting.
Punchy
You are punching Baby Jesus in the face everytime you perform a Hunching Over Backwards or a Twist Over Manhattan or whatever they call those moves.
At what point does the Onion just give up?
WereBear
Okay, it’s an open thread, and I just wasted 20 minutes trying, and failing, to find a freeware Clipboard manager for Windows.
I mean, XP comes with a clipboard manager; which shows what you just copied. Thanks a whole bunch.
If anyone gets all fanboy about OS X, it’s someone who sees the incredible array of working freeware and shareware for Mac… and then cries from joy.
Citizen_X
@The Bearded Blogger:
Um, that’s not the way logic and evidence work. If you’ve got hunches, we would love a link to a well sourced and reasoned text proving them. Otherwise you’re wasting our time.
rdldot
@WereBear:
I was told she didn’t need to be crated during the day, but obviously, I am going to have to start. She is crated during the night and does fine.
I haven’t contacted the rescue group about this, but I will. I am concerned that my home is not active enough for this dog, and she would do better with a family, not just one person that she can obsess about.
The only things I know about the dog is that she was rescued with puppies (I don’t know the circumstances) in mid-June. They estimate her age at 15 months (now). Once her puppies were adopted, she was spayed, and then put up for adoption. I got her on September 13.
I hadn’t thought of medication but can ask the trainer and rescue group about that.
Earl Butz
@Punchy: Two wetsuits and a dildo.
WereBear
@rdldot: I know a lot of people are squirrely about using psychiatric medication on a dog, but for heaven’s sake. She’s been through an awful lot, and now, being “rescued” is adding more stress. So she feels pressured to “act Alpha” and show she’s in charge of everything, while acutely aware she is not.
Not that different from people, really.
If she doesn’t mind being crated, it’s a blessing. But she might not be the right dog. Some dogs are very happy lying around all the time and having their activities when their person comes home from a full time job. Others can’t handle all that solitude and they go nuts.
The other option, and I’m completely serious, is to get another dog, too.
Takes care of the separation anxiety, and if you already have a fenced yard, it’s not that much trouble or time. Dogs are incredibly social creatures; the fact that they cope with so much solitude is amazing to me.
The Bearded Blogger
@Citizen_X: I’m talking about my perceptions, not trying to refute Elcid, I think that’s clear from my tone. I’m asking if there is a text I could read because it could be interesting and maybe enlightening. I’ll give you links, but I’m aware there are links in the other direction too… anyway…
http://vcrisis.com/index.php?content=pr/201003011451
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,557736,00.html
This is Der Spiegel and the supreme court of Spain.
geg6
@Poopyman:
I can’t remember which site had it, but there was a picture of the boat posted somewhere online. I have been a boater for 20 years and know many people who own very nice, very large boats and yachts. The one I saw that was supposed to be O’Keefe’s looked to be a pretty ratty 25 footer or so (possibly a Bayliner) with faded paint, looking like it was at least 10-15 years old. Not exactly a luxury yacht, most likely bought used for about $15-18,000. And when they talk bed, they aren’t talking about a real bed. More like a berth in the bow or stern with about 6 inches of floor space in front of it.
rdldot
@WereBear: Thanks very much for your suggestions. I am really torn over this. I wanted to get another dog, and had been planning to do that once she adjusted to her new place and had some training under our belt, but it may be better to push that up some. I will contact the trainer and rescue group about this. I am really concerned about her dog aggression and that’s what’s stopping me at this point. But I think it may really be only on-leash aggression. I am in no way an experienced dog owner, having only one other dog as an adult, so I am skittish about what to do next.
Dennis SGMM
The details of the California state budget have been released and the budget is only 100 days late. That establishes a new record that I’m confident will be broken next year.
The budget proposes over $7Bn in spending cuts, $3Bn of which are to education. Except that the other spending cuts really aren’t spending cuts, they are delayed payments (Including $2Bn for K-12 education to be paid next year) and other accounting shenanigans. The budget also assumes that D.C. will provide more than $5Bn in funds to compensate California for incarcerating illegal immigrants, health care and other things. Analysts say that figure is wildly optimistic.
Overall, this year’s budget looks like last year’s budget and the outcome (Over $7Bn in deficits carried forward when the assumptions went unfulfilled and the accounting tricks didn’t work.) will likely be the same.
LINK
WereBear
@rdldot: It’s one thing to meet a bunch of strange dogs, and another to have a dog as part of her “pack.”
Her better behavior at the foster home might have been because there were other dogs there?
If so, we have part of the solution. She needs other dogs to help her interpret new data; she literally doesn’t know what to think, and that frightens her.
geg6
If you are an atheist or agnostic, Amanda has a good post up today about how pop culture, even pop culture that is perhaps created by atheists/agnostics, panders to religionists and their myths about atheists and how insulting that is to those of us who are non-believers. Since I have run into these same memes here, I think it’s worth a read:
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/goodbye_to_glee/
Bobby Thomson
Should have known he was a Republican when his brand name is a lie.
I suppose it takes some energy to stand on the pavement for hours, but it’s nothing compared to the dude who used to lug an actual cross around Manhattan.
soonergrunt
@WereBear:
After about six seconds of searching:
http://downloads.zdnet.com/search.aspx?kw=clipboard+manager&osfilter=windows&licfilter=free
50 entries, virus-scanned twice a day.
I could’ve simply entered the search string “free clipboard manager windows xp” into google instead of ZDNet, but I wanted a 100% reliable source.
rdldot
@WereBear: My home is her third home in the last four months. The first where she had her puppies was just a woman and her 3yr old son. After I agreed to adopt her, she went to another foster home for a week where there were MANY dogs. That woman said she loved to run with her pack, but since I’ve had her she only seems friendly with two other dogs (and one of them ended up with a bloody ear – basset ear got in the way, I guess, nothing serious). All other dogs she has been on leash and I don’t think she has ever been on leash before, and doesn’t like it. That’s why I’m hesitant to bring another dog into the mix.
WereBear
@soonergrunt: Sorry I wasn’t specific; they are out there, but in my experience, have a gaping flaw or don’t work… when they are free.
Sure, I can pay, but it’s a short term thing and we don’t have the budget.
But thanks!
WereBear
@rdldot: I understand the hesitancy, certainly. And your assessment about the leash is probably right.
Do discuss your concerns with them and see if they can help. If not, discuss the situation with your vet, who has probably seen much like it.
trollhattan
Heh, “average Joe” West Virginians actually from central casting.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/folksy-ad-not-so-folksy-after-all/?hp
Also, too: Best summation so far of the bizarre fit of Megs as Governator, from the SF Chron:
Jay C
@trollhattan:
Yes, love the details from the “casting call”:
Complete with sartorial suggestions for those Central-Casting “hicks”:
So, is this how we might recognize John Cole if we meet him offline….??
soonergrunt
@WereBear: Well, I’m sure you’ll find something that will meet your needs on a temp basis at least.
Good luck!
licensed to kill time
I saw the Naked Cowboy interviewed on CNN. At the end he said “It’s all about borders, language, culture”. That’s a Michael Savage listener tell, big time.
I used to think he was kind of funny, strumming his guitar in his skivvies. Now I know he’s just a dumb Savage wingnut.