Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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

Come on, man.

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

No one could have predicted…

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You are here: Home / Pink as the Bing on Your Cherry

Pink as the Bing on Your Cherry

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This is just creepy and weird:

Add this to list of bizarre and unusual campaign trail antics: at last week’s Tea Party Express rally in Phoenix, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio welcomed Sarah Palin with a pair of pink underwear.

“I just got done welcoming Sarah Palin to our County. Had a nice chat and gave her a pair of pink underwear,” Arpaio posted onTwitter, along with a photo of him with the former Alaska governor.

I’ll never fucking understand these people.

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  5. 5.

    BGinCHI

    I thought it was a white, embroidered Texas Longhorn symbol at first.

    Then the shock and awe set in.

  6. 6.

    Mike

    Arpaio is known for making his inmates wear pink underwear as a way to embarrass them and make jail/prison a little more uncomfortable. It was also great PR, since all the grey hairs in AZ got a good chuckle out of it.

  8. 8.

    gmf

    I really wanted this to be as creepy as it sounds, but it’s really not.

    This guy gives every political visitor a big pair of pink boxers with his name, his signature, and a big badge printed on them. I saw a picture of these over at gawker earlier & it’s really no big deal.

    The guy’s a moron, but this is something he gives everyone.

  9. 9.

    R-Jud

    @Ash Can:

    You just HAD to post this at dinnertime, didn’t you?

    Hey, it’s bedtime over here. Not that I’ll sleep… ever again.

  10. 10.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @gmf: The guy’s a moron, but this is something he gives everyone.

    I guess that makes it less creepy, but not entirely non-creepy.

  11. 11.

    demkat620

    God that is just eww!

    This next tow years is going to be chock full of stupid. God help us all.

  13. 13.

    BGinCHI

    @gmf: Well, since he gives pink underwear to everyone, then I guess there’s nothing creepy about an old man welcoming out-of-town guests with undergarments.

    Happens every time I travel.

  15. 15.

    wmd

    Arpaio claims his pink underwear is “world famous”.

    of course he has delusions of grandeur and some degree of megalomania.

  16. 16.

    MikeBoyScout

    Time to grow a beard and move to Afghanistan and hope for some of those bags of Iranian money.

  19. 19.

    El Cid

    If you elitists knew anything about Real America, you’d know that this is the normal way that politicians greet each other.

  23. 23.

    Ash Can

    @efgoldman: If a Dem’s going to implode and hand the race to the opponent, having that opponent be Lincoln Chaffee is just about as good as it gets.

  24. 24.

    beltane

    @gmf: That actually makes it weirder. Arpaio’s underwear fetish is the kind of decadent, pervy, behavior one associates with fascist characters in a Pier Paolo Pasolini film.

  25. 25.

    freelancer

    Some of this could be that Sheriff Joe is operating under

    wingnut rule #1: “Thou shalt support all things that pisseth off the Liberals”, and then not being able to tell the difference between pissing off liberals and confusing/creeping out liberals with behavior that’s simply just bizarre.

  27. 27.

    Violet

    I doubt Sarah Palin was upset about receiving the pink underwear. It just reinforces her starbursts quality amongst the GOP males.

  28. 28.

    lamh32

    @Nick:

    This is as good a place as any to put this:

    Paolin Interview: Obama’s immigration answer…

    …Sotelo repeatedly stresses Hispanic voters’ disappointment, and the only answer Obama can give is a deeply unconvincing one: That they should vote against Republicans in the hope that Democratic majorities will somehow do what larger ones haven’t:

    EPS: But how can you ask for their vote now… if, like… most of my listeners, that’s what they see … that you haven’t worked that hard to make comprehensive immigration reform now.

    POTUS: Piolín, I completely disagree with you on this. With all due respect, even though I’m in your studio. The notion that we haven’t worked it hard is just not true. There is a notion that somehow if I had worked it hard enough, we could have magically done it. That’s just not the way our system works. If I need 60 votes to get this done, then I’m gonna have to have some support from the other side. If the Latino community decides to sit out this election, then there will be fewer votes and it will be less likely to get done. And the other side, which is fighting against this, is not gonna support it, so look, let me say this as an African American. We worked for decades on civil rights. Civil rights didn’t come after one year. It didn’t come after two years. People had to march, they had to have their heads beaten, they had fire hoses put on them. Even after Dr. King gave his I Have a Dream Speech, it still took years before African Americans achieved full citizenship in this country. Change isn’t easy. It doesn’t happen overnight. Now, you know, for us to say, oh, it didn’t happen right away and so we’re just giving up and we’re not gonna be involved in the system, that makes no sense. That’s not the history of this country. That’s not the history of change in our own lives. All of us, you included Piolín, have gone through hardships, you’ve had your struggles and what happens is, is that you keep on working and you keep on working and you keep on working and finally, eventually you make a breakthrough and you get things done. That’s how change happens for us personally, that’s how change happens in the country, so instead of us giving up, we just have to keep working until it gets done…

  30. 30.

    General Stuck

    @beltane:

    That actually makes it weirder. Arpaio’s underwear fetish is the kind of decadent,

    I’m guessing little Hitler himself pre sniffed ’em

  34. 34.

    lamh32

    @lamh32:

    More of Obama’s answer:

    EPS: But I would like to find out the steps that we need to take, Mr. President, so we can help you to make this happen.

    POTUS: Look, the steps are very clear. Pressure has to be put on the Republican Party.
    EPS: How?

    POTUS: Well, let me give you a very specific example. Right now, Nevada, you’ve got a majority leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, who’s running against a woman named Sharron Angle who is completely opposed to comprehensive immigration reform. ….I mean, the — there is no place in the country where the Latino vote doesn’t matter and even if Latinos are gonna support Republicans, they should say to the Republican candidate, the price of our support is you publically saying that you’re gonna support comprehensive immigration reform because I’ve already said that, Harry Reid has already said that, Democrats are already on record as saying it. If I can get the votes, I’d sign the bill tomorrow. So you have to put the same pressure on those who have not yet been willing to publically commit to comprehensive immigration reform and if they don’t publically commit, then you’ve gotta vote against them.

  35. 35.

    lamh32

    @Nick:

    Nope, probably the only Blacks that voted for Thurmon were Black Conserv, and maybe his illegitimate half-black daughter!

  36. 36.

    Martin

    @gmf:

    I really wanted this to be as creepy as it sounds, but it’s really not.
    This guy gives every political visitor a big pair of pink boxers with his name, his signature, and a big badge printed on them. I saw a picture of these over at gawker earlier & it’s really no big deal.
    The guy’s a moron, but this is something he gives everyone.

    You do recognize that anyone who gives out underwear with their name, signature, and a big badge on them is still creepy, just in a whole different category than what we first thought.

  37. 37.

    maus

    Really? This incident isn’t an issue, this isn’t sexual impropriety.

    Arpaio is an all-around asshole. This is his gimmick, making MEN in prison wear pink underwear.

    He’s a loathsome pile of bile, but this is not worthy of note.

  38. 38.

    General Stuck

    I’ll never fucking understand these people.

    And someday, you might even be able to forgive yourself for being on their side five years ago. None of us are getting any younger.

  40. 40.

    Zifnab

    That god he’s not a Democrat or we can only begin to imagine what tawdry jokes he’d be the victim of in the WaPo or WSJ editorial section.

  41. 41.

    Cat Lady

    I would love to read the theories by future anthropologists of what the politics of the early 21st century was by studying the artifacts. I really think we’ve entered the wingularity event horizon, since that object emblazoned with those words seems to make sense to more than one person. Holy fucking shit.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    Typically Palinesque detail about the thong at the top: the word barracuda is misspelled.

    Does she have some kind of language-arts-black-hole force field around her that degrades everything in its vicinity?

  44. 44.

    Hunter Gathers

    I’ll never fucking understand these people.

    It’s quite simple, really. Conservative men love Sarah Palin because she gives them the impression that if they support her, she might let them fuck her. Shit, if she went cavorting around Iowa and New Hampshire wearing nothing but that piece of ‘underwear’, she’d come out of both primaries with 60% of the vote. What, you think her grasp of policy is what attracts them? Or perhaps you were being sarcastic. I’ll go back into my hole now, stockpiling toilet paper and canned goods while preparing for conservative rule.

  45. 45.

    Martin

    @lamh32: I’ll get clobbered for this, but, I have to make an observation.

    When Republicans are in power, both liberal and conservative activist groups are relatively quiet, at least in terms of their role relative to elected officials. They’ll march and make themselves known, but not really put pressure on legislators.

    When Democrats are in power, both liberal and conservative activist groups are relatively active, particularly in terms of their role relative to elected officials. This is when they tell the office holders what they need to do to secure their vote, and often when they’re willing to withhold it. It would seem the only sure-fire Democratic GOTV effort is to have them as the minority party.

    It’s as though the GOP can’t disappoint anyone, because nobody has any expectations that they’ll do a fucking thing, so nobody emotionally punishes the GOP for doing what was expected, which is nothing. Democrats, on the other hand, can’t win for trying because they’re expected to do everything, which is quite simply not possible, so they’re doomed to failure.

    Just my view as a non-activist voter.

  46. 46.

    xochi

    @maus: Yes, but did you see who he gave them to? Sarah Palin! If she’s involved, then it’s important that the world knows about it.

  49. 49.

    max

    I expect that since he gives them out to everybody that he’s just emphasizing that he has that cop’s view of the world in which everyone is a criminal.

    Hey, Palin can use them to play cops and robbers with her hubby.

    max
    [‘Hubby can’t wear moose antlers.’]

  51. 51.

    BGinCHI

    @Martin: +1.

    How can you be blamed for not governing well if you don’t believe in government?

    You just shrug, hit another golf shot, send thousands into harm’s way, and wait for the lord to give you further instructions.

  53. 53.

    Violet

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Conservative men love Sarah Palin because she gives them the impression that if they support her, she might let them fuck her.

    Yep. That’s it exactly. The starbursts factor.

    I can’t figure out why conservative women love her. Maybe they think their men will want to fuck them if they’re seen with her?

  54. 54.

    kindness

    Joe thought he was gonna get ‘lucky’…

    Why are these ‘straight’, ‘christian’ folks such sick tools?

  55. 55.

    Nick

    @Martin:

    It’s as though the GOP can’t disappoint anyone, because nobody has any expectations that they’ll do a fucking thing, so nobody emotionally punishes the GOP for doing what was expected, which is nothing. Democrats, on the other hand, can’t win for trying because they’re expected to do everything, which is quite simply not possible, so they’re doomed to failure.

    this also too

  57. 57.

    Martin

    @BGinCHI: Ironically, it was Bush who coined the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’ phrase. We are truly a self-delusional nation.

  58. 58.

    lamh32

    @Martin:

    I understand what you’re saying. I chalk it up to the few cons of being a “big tent” party. You have some maybe performers in the tent, and everyone is performing all at the same time. So it’s harder to keep your eye on just one act, and you inevitably end up missing one of the acts, since you more likely to look at the most “interesting” one first.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh32: I am not appealing to you as a font of wisdom on all things AA, but do you get the impression that the AA community has more patience with fixes that take time and effort than the population as a whole?

  61. 61.

    MikeJ

    @wmd: It’s not photoshopped, it’s a representative picture, probably the first hit on google images for “Palin underwear”. I never got the impression that it was supposed to be what the nimrod gave the moron.

  64. 64.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    @Violet:

    I can’t figure out why conservative women love her. Maybe they think their men will want to fuck them if they’re seen with her?

    Ding ding ding ding ding…

    Truer words have never been said.

  67. 67.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Suck It Up!:

    Ah yes, the infamous media conspiracy to make Obama look testy and legislatively impotent (and logically, testy at his legislative impotence) has struck again. Between that and those shiftless, unappreciative Mexicans bringing the black man down, it’s a wonder he hasn’t just quit in the face of such maniacal opposition…

  74. 74.

    lamh32

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Honestly, speaking for me and mine only, but I think it’s more that the experience of African Americans who can trace their existence back to slaves in American (as opposed to African immigrants), is one where change had to be incrimental, especially since the majority of that 200+ years of experience was as a non-voting “being”. And for ever step we took, there was a majority of the nation actively working to take us back.
    So we sorta had to fight tooth and nail for every little bit we could get.

    I will say that it also depends on ages. I have younger family, who are part of this “Veruca Salt” generation. The have benefited from the hard fight, and have never had to engage in it. So to them, the rights are a given.

  77. 77.

    Suck It Up!

    @lamh32:

    Oh, I’m not referring to the quality of his answer, just never heard/read the president use so many “gonna’s”. what I’m trying to say is that his answer sounds like something you’d see in the comments – plain, simple, to the point. And that’s not a bad thing.

    Get what I’m saying?

  79. 79.

    Suck It Up!

    @Martin:

    I totally agree with your comment. I recognize it because it’s happened in my personal and professional life. People expect you to know better and do better, but they end up letting the other guy off the hook.

  80. 80.

    BGinCHI

    @Martin: I can only think that Bush must have been thinking about what Desdemona says to Othello:

    “I understand a fury in [my] words, but not the words”

  81. 81.

    lamh32

    @Suck It Up!:

    oh, yeah, I hear ya.

    What I find with Obama and alot of us AA, is that when we get around certain people, our use of language and is different.

    For me and me only, it is a fact, that I speak differently when I’m around my family. Just as I speak differently when I speak to my Black co-workers when we are not in a “diverse” group.

    It’s just engrained in us, that you have your “inside” voice and your “outside” voice.

    so if you paid attention, Obama really does sound and use different languange when he speaks to the ethnic media. it’s not some type of “shadow” language, it’s just something that you learn to do as AA in America!

    Having said all this, please don’t go around following your AA co-workers when they are gathering and try to see if they are speaking different. Unless you are ready for a beat down…lol!

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh32: Thanks. the part about the younger generation makes sense as well. I had never heard the term “Veruca Salt” generation before.

  85. 85.

    J

    @El Cid: If I’m remembering my history aright, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. The hymn pre-dates the Hitler period (I think the tune is by Haydn), and it doesn’t mean nGermany above everyone else, but Germany above all or above everything, i.e., something like ‘Country first’. Not my favorite sentiment, but not necessarily what it tends to sound like to non-Germans.

    Ah, just catching up with the modern world, I checked Wikipedia, which has more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland_Über_Alles

  87. 87.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Suck It Up!:

    That was certainly my reaction to your belief that Obama was somehow being misquoted or maligned in any way. Minus the exclamation point.

    So I simply kicked the villainy up a few dozen notches to more appropriately match your level of perceived victimhood. If you can’t even read the most innocuous of direct quotes without assuming something is afoot, you need to settle down.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @wmd:

    I knew the thong is not what Arpaio deals out. But I assume the “Saracuda” thong is for sale somewhere.

  91. 91.

    Bob Loblaw

    @lamh32:

    I think it’s a case of people not believing Obama has earned the right to be a voice of civil rights wisdom, based on his life’s history.

    His generation missed the movement, so to speak. He was a child during the 60s, and one that didn’t even live in the fucking country at that.

    So it seems only natural that people who believe themselves to be operating in the civil rights movements of today’s generation, may have expected more stridency and urgency from his administration since the men and women of Obama’s generation don’t really have a whole lot of accomplishments of their own in these arenas compared to those who came before. It goes both ways.

  92. 92.

    RedKitten

    I can’t figure out why conservative women love her. Maybe they think their men will want to fuck them if they’re seen with her?

    I think that she’s someone that they aspire to. They see her as a “regular gal” — someone who isn’t intimidating, someone who talks to them like they’d talk to each other over a few glasses of Boone’s, but who is also very powerful and attractive.

    They love her because they want to BE her.

  94. 94.

    Nick

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I think it’s a case of people not believing Obama has earned the right to be a voice of civil rights wisdom.
    His generation missed the movement, so to speak. He was a child during the 60s, and one that didn’t even live in the fucking country at that.

    Yes, well he should definitely be criticized for not crawling on the National Mall at the age of 2 to fight for Civil Rights.

  96. 96.

    Suck It Up!

    @Bob Loblaw:

    That was certainly my reaction to your belief that Obama was somehow being misquoted or maligned in any way. Minus the exclamation point.

    As you can see from my response to lamh, I did not think Obama was being misquoted or maligned. I’m not the one who had a knee-jerk reaction, you did.

    I know you like to get into a lot of back and forth with people on this thread. Don’t try it with me because I don’t engage with hysterical people. Nothing in your posts applies to me so please, step off and settle down.

  100. 100.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Nick:

    I’m saying that there are people who think wisdom can only come from experience. I don’t particularly agree with them, but you could attempt to get a handle on the argument rather than try to brush it away with silly reductions.

  101. 101.

    John Bird

    If I can break into a debate over the President:

    When I say ‘Arpaio should be in jail’, I’m not speaking figuratively.

    It’s possible (likely, in my unlearned estimation) that he’s guilty of murder.

    He’s at least guilty of serious crimes against the Constitution.

    And the threat Arpaio poses to civil society by example is, I believe, far greater than that posed by Sarah Palin. Letting this man walk free and be held up as an example to emulate is dangerous.

  103. 103.

    FlipYrWhig

    @RedKitten:

    They see her as a “regular gal”—someone who isn’t intimidating, someone who talks to them like they’d talk to each other over a few glasses of Boone’s, but who is also very powerful and attractive.

    What I’ll never get about Sarah Palin is that she’s So. Obviously. that Heather/Mean Girl/Queen Bee type. She’s not a “regular gal,” she’s, IMHO, if we’re talking cultural stereotypes, a petty, backstabbing small-town bitch. I remember high school. I hated people like that. I never understood why they were “popular.” Maybe nerds and misfits like me see Sarah Palin differently than the “norms” do.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @El Cid:

    Weird oops moment: Chilean President Sebastián Piñera visits with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, signs the guestbook with “Deutschland über alles”, apologizing afterwards that he had no idea it was a Nazi hymn phrase, just something he heard a lot as a kid.

    Given South America’s history as a popular hideout for Nazi fugitives, do you doubt him?

    (IIRC, Argentina was more popular, but Chile got their share.)

  105. 105.

    General Stuck

    @Martin:

    It’s as though the GOP can’t disappoint anyone, because nobody has any expectations that they’ll do a fucking thing, so nobody emotionally punishes the GOP for doing what was expected, which is nothing. Democrats, on the other hand, can’t win for trying because they’re expected to do everything, which is quite simply not possible, so they’re doomed to failure.

    Interesting observation, and I concur it occurs. We saw this really highlighted during Reagan, a sort of Serotonin high that defies the awful shit wingnuts do when in power. Even when this group or that, left or right calls foul. Even the Watergate and Iran Contra hearings, had this sort of fuzzy unreal daytime soap opera feeling to it. Like it wasn’t really happening, or part of a script being played out without consequence. Then there is the evil shit we saw from Bush and Cheney the past five years.

    I tend to think of it as a kind of primal response to the tribe of the majority, which is white in this country. And beyond just race, though that is part of it. That extends to cultural identity as the familiar. The white party, GOP, only pays lip service to the problems of the minority, or folks of color. It sounds good, but they end up doing zilch to address their concerns in an affirmative way. And this is also true for national security matters, or a deeply innate and often unconscious or denied acceptance of safety, , that their kind is protecting them, and they don’t look any deeper than what elected wingnuts blathers about this or that threat. Until, shit hits the fan, like in Iraq, and now in Afghan.

    There are activists that holler about this shit, but nobody cares about them much, and yes, the GOP are fuckups, but they are US, fuckups.

    When dems get into power, so do possibilities of action and effort to deal with our social ills, because dems bring with them the complaints of citizens of color, and the deep tribal impulses of the majority start ringing with concern, and more critique of what dems are up to being serious about the worries of “those others”. That stretches itself into every arena, including national security matters.

    This includes about all of the republican party, and actually a lot of well meaning dems, imo, whether they realize it or not.

  107. 107.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Bob Loblaw: Who the hell would want to be leader of the free world, have a salary in the top 1%, live in a 132 room mansion complete with a bowling alley, putting green, jogging track, billiard room, tennis courts, swimming pool, and movie theater, 5 full time chefs, a vintage wine collection, a woodland retreat on 125 acres, a stretch Lincoln Continental limousine, a helicopter, a jet with two galleys a dining room and medical facilities, personal assistants, a bodyguard detail, and the best free health care in the world, among other small pleasantries in the face of some ostensibly unfair coverage and mean anonymous blog comments?

    I don’t know how he goes on from day to day.

  109. 109.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Nick:

    37 percent of Latinos say they’re voting for Brewer.

    Look closely. That’s the result from “Likely Voters.” The results for registered voters were probably a lot different, but the link to the raw polling data is broken.

    There has been a lot of questions about the likely voter screen that organizations have been using in general, and the one for Hispanics in particular. I suspect that the Election Day results of Hispanics voting for Brewer will be somewhat lower.

  110. 110.

    Nick

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I’m saying that there are people who think wisdom can only come from experience.

    you’re saying that people think Obama shouldn’t talk about Civil Rights because he wasn’t old enough to remember the civil rights era, because, of course, black men stopped fighting for civil rights in 1964 and everything.

    I’m pretty sure no one thinks that except old people who hate the fact some young kid is President.

  111. 111.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Violet:

    I can’t figure out why conservative women love her. Maybe they think their men will want to fuck them if they’re seen with her?

    I thought it was because they hoped their men would get to fuck Sarah Palin, so they wouldn’t have to.

  112. 112.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Bob Loblaw: Apparently, the President felt some discomfort attending an almost exclusively white prep school as a teenager, so there’s that.

  113. 113.

    JCJ

    Maybe that underwear is supposed to be a way of promoting “abstinence only.” I know if I was looking to have sex with a woman once I saw that underwear I would be too disgusted to get/keep it up.

  115. 115.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Suck It Up!:

    the language doesn’t sound like Obama.

    You left yourself a lot of vague flexibility to have some out cards there, but let’s not pretend that original statement was supportive of lamh32’s link, ok? There’s no reason for the skepticism flareup unless your default is one of suspicion.

    @Nick:

    I’m saying that preaching patience can come off as condescending when you’re in a unique place to act, and are simultaneously of the generation that hasn’t had to show nearly the level of patience in their lives as others that came before.

  116. 116.

    Nick

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I’m saying that preaching patience can come off as condescending when you’re in a unique place to act

    Oh this “he can just magically make things happen” bullshit again.

    are simultaneously of the generation that hasn’t had to show nearly the level of patience in their lives as others that came before.

    There you go again with the fucking reverse ageism. Now who’s being condescending?

  117. 117.

    MaryRC

    @maus: Arpaio makes prison inmates wear pink underwear and he even sells pink underwear, yes.

    But there doesn’t seem to be anything on record that says that he regularly gives presents of pink underwear to anyone but Sarah Palin, or if he does, he doesn’t announce it to the world.

    So making an announcement that “I gave Sarah Palin pink underwear?” Yes, that’s a double order of creepy with sexist on the side.

  118. 118.

    suzanne

    I posted about this on Pandagon, and I don’t want to appear like I’m apologizing for the human filth that is Arpaio, but this isn’t quite as gross as it sounds. Arpaio has sold souvenir pink boxers in Maricopa County malls around the Christmas season for probably around fifteen years now, and the souvenir boxers aren’t the same as the actual inmates’ underwear. (My mother bought my uber-Republican grandfather a pair of them one year, and Arpaio autographed them.) IIRC, they weren’t even usable as actual underwear, they were just pink shorts with an elastic band, and had “Go Joe!” or something similar printed on them in gold lettering. Arpaio gained his notoriety for dyeing the male inmates’ underwear, supposedly to cut down on black-market sales of the things, but I don’t believe the female inmates’ underwear is pink.

  119. 119.

    John Bird

    @suzanne:

    Well, it’s only partly sick in that he’s giving a woman he barely knows a pair of underwear as a gift. That’s just normal Arpaio sauce.

    What’s really sick is that he’s giving someone, as a gift, a symbol of the depraved and unconstitutional way he treats the accused (not convicted, but accused).

    Which is, sadly enough, also normal Arpaio sauce.

    I truly believe that if there is ever an American Hitler, he will resemble Arpaio.

  120. 120.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Nick:

    There you go again with the fucking reverse ageism. Now who’s being condescending?

    Are you reading the same thread as I am? With the Veruca Salt talk and everything? Where people who disagree with Obama’s activism on various topics have been routinely described as unappreciative, demanding little shits?

    I’m simply taking that thinking and showing other implications. Barack Obama’s actually had a relatively easy life in this day and age, all considered. His wife’s had far more to overcome in her professional life, for example. He hasn’t had to be always patient in the face of broken promises and false starts, and his natural gifts have always given him a leg up when he’s wanted one. It’s not that difficult to see why hardcore agitated Hispanic and GLBT activists don’t necessarily see a kindred spirit all the time, assuming you’re willing to look further than skin deep.

  121. 121.

    suzanne

    @MaryRC:

    But there doesn’t seem to be anything on record that says that he regularly gives presents of pink underwear to anyone but Sarah Palin, or if he does, he doesn’t announce it to the world.

    He’s given pink underwear to every politician that’s visited with him for years. And, just to reiterate, the souvenir underwear that he gives out and sells at Phoenix-area malls at holiday time isn’t really usable as underwear, they’re just pink flannel shorts with an elastic waistband.

    The man’s an asshole, no question, but for far more important reasons than this.

  122. 122.

    Suck It Up!

    @Bob Loblaw:

    Man, just fuck off. I read her post and I knew exactly what I was thinking. There was no vagueness, there was no implication. I wasn’t waiting for proof to go off on someone or to start screaming about some fucking conspiracy. Not a single thing I have said on this site would give anyone any reason to think I’m the person you describe.

    Jesus Christ. Not even lamh and the other person who responded to my post went where you did. I swear you and Corner Stone must be twins. You two have this talent for putting words in people’s mouth that aren’t even close to what that person said.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I will be moving on. I feel like I’m talking to the reactionaries over at Dkos.

  123. 123.

    suzanne

    @John Bird:

    Well, it’s only partly sick in that he’s giving a woman he barely knows a pair of underwear as a gift. That’s just normal Arpaio sauce.

    Yeah, I mean, I agree it’s a dick move, I just don’t think it’s as perverse as it sounds.

    What’s really sick is that he’s giving someone, as a gift, a symbol of the depraved and unconstitutional way he treats the accused (not convicted, but accused).

    Yep.

    I don’t want to say too much on here, because it’s not my personal business, but a friend of my mother’s is involved in a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s office b/c they denied her her medications while she was in Tent City for a DUI. I know what a fuckstain Joe Arpaio is.

  126. 126.

    Kathy

    @Violet: I think it is more the case that they hope their conservative men will bang Sarah and not them. If my husband looked like the typical conservative I would rather he did someone else too.

  127. 127.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Nick:

    Unless you simply believe that being black = doom, you’d realize that there’s actual diversity to minority experience. Obama worked to organize the projects, he didn’t live in them. He’s had to navigate the subtler discriminations and bigotry of the modern world that still remain all-encompassing and burdensome, but he’s not a product of rank socioeconomic racist oppression. Fortunately so I might add. I’m not sure why you’d wish it to be otherwise…

  129. 129.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bob Loblaw:

    It’s not that difficult to see why hardcore agitated Hispanic and GLBT activists don’t necessarily see a kindred spirit all the time, assuming you’re willing to look further than skin deep.

    Upper-class white lawyer John Aravosis has had a harder life than Barack Obama? How about rich commentator Andrew Sullivan? Dan Savage? All of these white, middle-class men have had harder lives than Obama because they’re gay?

  130. 130.

    bootsy

    Sheriff Joe and other Republicans: Your Racist Uncle and Your Pervert Uncle, combined.

    Female GOPers are your Racist Pervert Uncle’s second wife: She has given up finding a “good” man, and settled for “any” man.

    (nothing against second wives, uncles, etc.)

  131. 131.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Mnemosyne:

    I would doubt it. Though I don’t know anything about their family lives. If any of them weren’t accepted by members of the families growing up, that could be rather devastating. Having family around you that genuinely wants you to succeed and thrive is one of the most uncommented on factors holding people back in bad situations.

  132. 132.

    General Stuck

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You got to hand it to Loblaw, he sets the record about every thread for digging the most and deepest holes for himself to climb out of.

    We could call him The Atomic Shovel.

  133. 133.

    Honus

    @lamh32: It’s not just an AA thing. I’m a hillbilly who graduated with honors from a top 5 English program and have lived in a university town for almost 40 years, but my friends notice that I start to talk completely differently to people visiting from back home. When I ran a construction crew here, I had guys on my crew who had gone to Ivy league colleges and law school, or had masters in nuclear physics (one guy worked for me for two years while he finished his thesis on enriching plutonium gas. His next job was at NASA). I also worked with local rural southern natives who didn’t finish high school.
    One day the physicist was standing next to me while I talked over job details with a local yokel who was, now that I thnk of it, named Homer. (pronounced “Homah”) After we were finished, the physicist looked at me in wonderment and asked “what the hell did that guy just say?”

  134. 134.

    J. Michael Neal

    @WaterGirl: I had to reinstall my operating system to get my mouse to work again. I decided I was too lazy to change my nickname again. I’m also too lazy to change back to my name on my laptop, so I’m still the Master of Accountancy there.

  136. 136.

    John Bird

    @Mnemosyne:

    I don’t really know about the people you’ve described, but a lot of white middle-class men do have extremely hard lives because they’re gay, lives that drive them to suicide on occasion.

  137. 137.

    dave

    As you might have known if you read the article you linked to, Arpaio is famous for making inmates wear pink boxers. The boxers have become kind of a banner for the Maricopa County penal system. Stupid as it sounds, they’re one of Arpaio’s signature reforms. It’s not really creepy or weird; it’s a logical souvenir from a visit to “Sheriff Joe.”

    It might help you understand “those people” a little if you bothered to look into the context of the stories you write.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @John Bird:

    I don’t really know about the people you’ve described, but a lot of white middle-class men do have extremely hard lives because they’re gay, lives that drive them to suicide on occasion.

    I am not disputing that even middle- and upper-class white gay men have hard lives. I’m disputing the notion that Barack Obama had a totally easy life growing up biracial in the United States and middle- and upper-class white gay men clearly had much, much more difficult lives than he did. Not only does that get into silly Oppression Olympics stuff, to me it skates dangerously close to that right-wing meme that Obama had everything handed to him on a silver platter by affirmative action because everyone knows that The Blacks get everything they want.

    ETA: Note that I am specifically talking about middle- and upper-class white gay men, because working-class and minority gay men have it way harder in this society than both Aravosis and Obama.

  140. 140.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Bob Loblaw:

    Though I don’t know anything about their family lives. If any of them weren’t accepted by members of the families growing up, that could be rather devastating.

    Tell me about it. If only Barack Obama had had some sort of unconventional family situation, maybe he’d be better able to relate to the struggles that his noisiest critics have gone through.

  141. 141.

    Calliope Jane

    Sadly, I heard that there’s a prison gift shop where you can purchase such things.

    Still creepy and weird, though.

  142. 142.

    John Bird

    @Mnemosyne:

    I totally agree with you, I think. But I’d point out that there is a very wide gap between “Obama’s life was difficult because he had a black parent” and “Obama had everything handed to him by affirmative action”.

    I mean, I agree that the first statement is probably likely to be true to some degree, as do you. But someone could disagree with our shared opinion without coming anywhere close to the second position espoused.

    In fact, I’d guess that there are probably a lot of people who believe that biased reactions to Obama’s race neither helped nor hindered him to any degree at all.

    I’m just kind of nitpicky about false dichotomies, especially as they line up with party politics.

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