I’m seriously stumped right now. I can’t figure out what is most pathetic. The people whose lives are so empty they are spending hours on end validating their political beliefs by spoofing email addresses to keep Bristol on DWTS, the people who care about the first group, or Reihan and company for spending time to prove that yes, they are cheating, but it isn’t making a difference.
Who gets your vote?
And what is up with that blingee headshot there?
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
Who gets your vote?
All three, but Salan even more because he’s supposed to at least play a grown-up.
Chyron HR
“What’s Jezebel’s evidence of cheating? It’s the the culprits are openly bragging about doing it.”
Oh, sure if you call that evidence.
MattR
Sounds like this is the real reality show that should be titled “The Biggest Loser”.
MikeJ
It saddens me the way they feminized dance contests.
Kryptik
Why do we need reality shows when real reality is even more absurd theater than the shows?
Quaker in a Basement
My inclination is to vote for the bloggers who write about the bloggers who write about the whole foolish business, but the hall-of-mirrors implications are just too staggering.
Forget I said anything at all.
Poopyman
Nah. Salan the least, because he gets paid to write -shit-stuff.
My vote’s on the voters, because not only do they spend countless amounts of time voting, they evidently think it matters.
The Grand Panjandrum
Gosh and I was just getting over the news of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker splitting up. And now THIS?
SteveAudio
Reihan is the supreme douche in this situation.
John Cole
Reihan didn’t write that- some other guy did.
Short Bus Bully
My god, the things that get us distracted these days. I was re-reading my some James Joyce the other day when —
Look, something shiny!
burnspbesq
(d) All of the above.
timb
@John Cole: Damn you, Cole. My only good point to make in a comment EVER and you stole my thunder.
Still, derision toward freepers, because, well, no amount of voting will make their lives successful
gbear
TBogg gets my vote. He’s been on a great Palin-bashing binge lately.
New Yorker
Who cares? As long as it’s something else to keep Sully an entertaining train wreck about the Palins, I’m happy.
Seriously, at this point, his posts on all things Palin are firing the neurons in the same part of my brain that enjoyed watching Jerry Springer when I was a freshman in college.
Dennis SGMM
How wrong is it that a guy with an islamoterrorist name and islamoterrorist coloration is writing for NRO? Clearly, he’s used his islamoterrorist powers to cloud their minds.
burnspbesq
@The Grand Panjandrum:
That’s impressive: one of the 10 hottest women on earth files for divorce, and you’re still able to lead your team to an 8-1 start. Young Mr. Parker could teach a master class in compartmentalizing your life.
Rosalita
and Jezebel followed up with the clip today of Bristol making it to the finals. Jennifer Gray’s facial expression was a priceless one of complete disgust — and the audience booed.
New Yorker
BTW, that story about the guy who shot his TV and had a standoff with the police over Bristol Palin on DWTS is the greatest piece of news I have ever read.
Hal
Salan, for the simple fact the he’s a token conservative and apologist for the Tea Party. I saw him on Real Time a couple of weeks ago, and all he could do was shake his head in righteous indignation over the horrible treatment the poor, poor Tea Party was imparted by Bill Maher.
The funny thing is I don’t watch DWTS, and I’m offended. The Palin clan is a bunch of spoiled brats who think they deserve success and money by virtue of the fact that they are “real Americans.”
Seriously John, do you really think a country that judges Obama a failure because Chicago didn’t get the Olympics is a country that won’t look at DWTS as somehow prescient in predicting the (Palin) future of American Politics.
Jade Jordan
The blingees around his head are brain cells trying to get in. Following the practice of osmosis a dense concentration of brain cells (blingees) are trying to find their way into his brain where there is a low (or non-existant) level of brain cells.
I’m just saying that he says the dumbest things.
burnspbesq
@Dennis SGMM:
Can you say “token?”
Thought so.
Put another way, Reihan Salam:NRO as Alan Colmes:Fox
Joseph Nobles
Just as I thought. Brand Palin is getting tainted with rigged voting association. NRO feels it and rushes to the defense, confirming the association.
Pay no attention to that bald-headed silo mender in the bright, spangly corner.
Thlayli
Bloody hell, Reihan, would it kill you to buy a shirt with the right collar size?
JenJen
OK, look, I am an unapologetic DWTS fan. It’s a lovely, mindless tonic to ease the pressures of everyday life, and sometimes I just don’t feel like watching politics.
So you know the angle I think everyone is missing? Even Bristol looked ashamed and embarrassed last night when it was announced that she had made the finals, and Brandy had not. Nobody was happy about the results in that studio last night, not the dancers, not the contestants, not the judges. Bristol absolutely knows she is not supposed to be there, and for the first time since this season began, I felt a little bit sorry for her.
What’s happening here is the most selfish thing imaginable; just punching hippies vicariously because they think keeping Bristol on the show pisses off liberals. Nothing more, nothing less. Because of her famous mother, Bristol isn’t being allowed to do things on her own. She’ll never know if she really was good enough to last more than a few rounds on DWTS. Teabagging voters are robbing this girl of her confidence and her “moment”, and that’s shitty. By “stealing” the victory for her, the same people that claim to support her are actually tearing her down.
Jim C
That’s what the world looks like to him … after the starbursts.
Rosalita
@JenJen:
and no more Maks to ogle…. boo hoo
JenJen
@Rosalita: Well, exactly! Who the hell wants to ogle Mark? He’s not worthy of my drooling eyes. :-)
Allan
@JenJen: Obligatory “this.”
Also, I blame the judges. When they gave Bristol the exact same marks as Brandy on Monday, when Helen Keller would have perceived the qualitative difference in their paso dobles, they created the conditions by which the fans would be able to carry the Infanta into the finals.
The looks on their faces when they gave Bristol those nines said, “Yeah, we caved.”
Crashman
@JenJen: Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations…
Alex S.
This is Sarah Palin’s ACORN!
Kryptik
@JenJen:
That’s the stupid thing about this all.
This isn’t voting Bristol in for any kind of attachment to her, as a person or a dancer, like on similar shows where a lesser talent is voted onward. It’s an explicitly political statement, and it’s dumb as hell. It’s irritating in its pettiness, and shows even TV pablum isn’t beyond politicization as long as it punches a few hippies.
DougJ
I’m sorry but Reihan and company are clearly the most pathetic here.
suzanne
I absolutely have zero give-a-fuck about this. I’ve never seen the show, don’t want to, and wish the entire Palin clan absolutely nothing but a complete lack of publicity for, well, eternity.
Amir_Khalid
What’s got me scratching my head is — bear with me here, I’m just a clueless foreigner — why are the Teabaggers doing this at all? What political goal is served by openly rigging the votes on Dancing With The Stars? What power will they gain for Bristol Palin with victory?
And more to the point, why admit that they have the means to cheat and the willingness to do it, even in so trivial a cause? In a rational society, that would just invite public condemnation.
gogol's wife
@JenJen:
I used to be a DWTS fan too, but I cannot watch it this season. The politicization of the show started way back with Sara Evans, but since most people had never heard of her, it didn’t go too far. Then there was Tom DeLay and now this — this is the last straw. It’s really too bad that ABC felt they had to make it into a forum for promoting the Republican Party.
I will say that every season there are rumors of people “cheating.” The bottom line is that the producers have all kinds of ways of orchestrating who wins. I have a feeling Bristol will.
cckids
@JenJen: Yes, supported by the headbangingly high scores the judges give her, relative to the other “dancers”. I’ve been a sometimes watcher-hey, I like the costumes & it is light fun. I can’t even get too worked up about the way the palinistas are gaming the results–crazy people are going to act crazy. And nothing says INSANE like being online/on the phone for 3-4 hours each week voting for someone on a reality show!!
But I don’t get the deference the judges throw her way–WTF?? Not that they need to be Simon Cowell level asshats to her, just judge the contestants on an equal footing.
OK, rant over. Sometimes I can’t believe I know this much about this subject. I am embarrassed.
Mike Toreno
You only posted that picture to make Salam look like a dork. By doing that, you proved the invalidity of your argument.
PWL
Ya gotta hand it to the Palins. They keep making the Lowest Common Denominator even lower, anytime they do anything.
In the future, I think anything that is supremely beyond ordinary stupid will simply be referred to as “really Palin”…
gnomedad
@JenJen:
“Liberals can’t stand it that Bristol is doing so well” in 3, 2, …
And liberals who pay no attention to DWTS are elitists, also, too.
Kryptik
@suzanne:
I don’t care about the show itself. I care about what it says far as the sheer pettiness of Palinites and conservatives, where they’d even turn a show like this into a chance to kick a few stupid libs around for shits and giggles.
Rosalita
@JenJen:
and her Paso was lame…
burnspbesq
@Mike Toreno:
He is a dork. Sorry you can’t handle the truth.
Chat Noir
@suzanne: I’m with you.
Josie
@Amir_Khalid: See, that’s where you misunderstood. You actually expected to find a “rational society” at this time in this country.
flukebucket
I can’t keep those kids straight. Which one is dancing, which one is carrying that baby around, which one is posting shit on facebook.
It just ain’t worth it anymore.
Jay in Oregon
@MikeJ:
Where would you like your internet delivered?
ChrisNYC
I actually think this is important. Regular people who don’t care all that much about politics but who vote every four years and who watch this show are pissed off. And I’m not at all opposed to regular people getting it set in their brains that Palin and the Tea Party people are part of this bizarro jihad, which is basically anti-merit, and drowning them out. Palin’s not going to be the nominee but she’ll be doing rallies and all that. The more of a visceral turn off she is to non-crazies, the better.
donnah
Jen-Jen, you nailed it in your first post.
I don’t watch the show, but it’s one of my mom’s favorites. She’s pretty much not a political creature, she’s amazingly willing to give other people the benefit of the doubt, and she LOVES ballroom dancing. DWTS has been a must-see for here every season.
So when ABCDisney started fucking with the format, bringing in Tom Delay (he left early with foot problems) and then came back with Sarah, I mean Bristol Palin, my mom still didn’t really mind.
Until it became obvious that the judges were way too soft on Bristol. Mom has seen every show, and she can spot a rip-off from a mile away. She started to voice her displeasure with the judges early in the season, and at this point she is pretty much done with the show.
Yeah, it’s just a reality show. But it was a little bit of fun for the viewers and they don’t deserve to have it screwed up by politics. ABc is laughing all the way to the bank with all of this attention, albeit mostly negative, and Palinites are jubilant with their cleverness. It’s always the regular guy who gets fucked over and can’t do a damned thing about it.
geg6
@ChrisNYC:
This.
Absolutely. I know people who watch this shit who are just screamingly, insanely PISSED OFF about how the Teabaggers and Palins are ruining their show. It’s been a topic of discussion among the staff assistants here (who were all Sarahnistas after Hillary got crushed in 2008). They are hating on Bristol, Caribou Barbie, and all Teabaggers with a white hot firey hate.
I find it fucking hilarious.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I posted this on another blog recently and got one fairly detailed response from a fan and would be curious to read any others:
I’ve been posing the following question to friends and relatives for a couple of years now; why in the world does anybody watch Dancing With the Stars? I can understand how various reality show formats might have a certain attraction to them even though I myself am not interested in them. Asking this question is not a proxy for me saying, “I’m not interested in this show so nobody else should be either.” I’m genuinely trying to understand the appeal of DWTS and it has me flummoxed. If you like dancing why would you want to watch third rate dancing? If you like to watch celebrities why not change the channel to E! and watch A,B, and C-listers instead of the D-listers on DWTS? What is the appeal?
Jules
I kinda feel sorry for Bristol in all this…you know that her mother had to have pushed her to do the show.
elm
I’m pretty sure The Quitter has a show on another Disney network, right? The “stars” of DWTS have always featured a lot of not-very-notable Disney properties & a fair number of right-wing politicians, so it’s not surprising to see them take a twofer.
Yankee Buzzard
Here’s someone with a second amendment remedy:
Bristol Palin’s dancing prompts man to shoot his TV
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/108684844.html
ChrisNYC
@donnah: That sucks. I don’t watch it — but I can see why people who do watch it do and gross that something nice is ruined.
matoko_chan
I would rather Salam would explain the epic flight of elite students from the TP/GOP.
He wont say anything about about it even though he and Ross explained it as stratification by cognitive ability in Grand New Party, page 154.
I guess it is simply rude to mention that students that have the substrate to understand meiosis, climatology and evolution flee the TP/GOP like scalded cats.
OTOH, it is rather obvious that while racism, homophobia, creationism, climate change denialism and a medieval belief in ensoulment do not prevent people from voting, the lack of cognitive ability associated with those beliefs does pretty much ensure a rejection by Harvard and MIT.
ChrisNYC
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): I don’t watch it but I think people like 1) watching people they know for some other reason having to dance (just because it’s funny and sort of humbling); 2) from what I understand from what I’ve read about this Palin uproar, the show does a lot about how hard the celebs work at getting up to snuff so there is a really earnest “hard work and perseverance” pays off thing to it; and 3) it’s a competition and viewers vote and that’s always fun.
jazzgurl
What a laughing stock America has become. The Dimwits are up and running, and low standards are the norm… all in the name of political obstruction to the black president. Wake up people before it is too late. What may be cute and ‘so-called’ funny now, may become dark and destructive later on!.
Blue Neponset
My vote goes to Tucker Carlson. Wasn’t he on this dumb ass show?
donnah
Bruce, I think the appeal of DWTS is that performers are taken out of their comfort zones and the viewer can see them starting from scratch in a new format. There is usually a sports figure or two, an older performer from TV or movies, some pop culture icons, you get the picture.
What’s interesting and fun is seeing how well they learn ballroom technique and how they respond to the immense amount of pressure to perform to high standards. It’s very demanding physically and mentally. It’s interesting to see how they progress from week to week and how they respond to the critiques from the judges. Some of them turn out to be pretty good dancers.
I don’t like a lot of shows, but It doesn’t mean I have to deride those who watch them. And I don’t like seeing a perfectly harmless show get railroaded by a bunch of half-witted political hacks.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): The show is the main prime time example showing dance. And despite the trappings, it shows dance as a skill requiring dedication and hard work, similar to sports. I like dancing competitions; I’d watch them the same way I watch football or basketball. The celebrities are what one endures to watch the dance. Many fans root for the dancers first (although not Mark). Each season has had it’s share of silliness until the finals, when the celebrities who work hard and embrace the dance are left standing. But not this year.
suzanne
@matoko_chan:
You know, you’ve achieved something pretty remarkable. You’ve acted so smug, self-righteous, and yes, elitist that you’ve managed to make me, someone who might otherwise agree with you… pretty much want want to vomit. Jesus Hussein Christ.
Mouse Tolliver
Anything that helps my apolitical relatives understand what a classless fraud Sarah Palin is can’t be a bad thing. They’re calling me every week to complain that “that Palin girl” is still there. They know this is all about Sarah Palin because the producers keep having her on the show. The Tea Party is giving us a perfect, easy to understand metaphor for everything that’s wrong with them. They’re voting for an unqualified person, mainly out of spite. Does that remind you of anything?
SB Jules
I am told by people who “know” that it was this website that voted for Palin.
http://www.votefortheworst.com/
they’re high fiving themselves now.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@ChrisNYC: @donnah: @Cheryl from Maryland:
Thanks for the responses. My biggest problem is how to respond without seeming argumentative, because this isn’t something worth being argumentative about. So maybe I’ll just stop right here.
Lancelot Link
People who care who wins Dancing With the Stars are no more or less pathetic than people who care who wins a football game.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
Hmmm, George W. Bush would like to have a word with you. Would you like me to dig up a list of all the other douchebags who either a) attended ivy league schools or b) teach at them?
Brassknuckle Diplomacy
Someone mentioned compartmentalization earlier, in reference to something else, but I think it applies here. I don’t think this idiocy is necessarily embraced as another way to piss off the libs; I really think that if Palin wins, it will confirm their entire worldview to their satisfaction. They can cheat to make it happen, but then convince themselves the cheating couldn’t have made all the difference.
The results of a reality TV show will be a referendum on the values of “Real America”. And they *need* that validation, these people rarely leave their own counties. That’s why Hollywood seems so foreign to them, no one they talk to in their community thinks like Hollywood liberals, so the rest of America *must* think the same way. A national vote-in TV show loving on one of the Palin brood will prove that to them conclusively, no matter how clearly the vote was rigged.
SoINeedAName
Does it matter the category? When it comes to a PATHETIC vote, REIHAN is a perennial WINNAH!
DougJ
@Lancelot Link:
I agree.
Joshua
But, no, they’re not culture warriors, they’re principled conservatives interested in political wonkery.
matoko_chan
@arguingwithsignposts: well yeah that is affirmative action for IQ. the ultrarich can buy Harvard with tutors and influence and dollahs. But there are very few of them.
That is why conservatives are whining about top students fleeing the TP/GOP and Pudgy Reese Whitherspoon is desperately seeking alternative meritocratic values.
No, “David Hume”, you ignorant slut. It is Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability, Grand New Party page 154.
Students that have the COGNITIVE ABILITY to understand meiosis, climatology, and theory of evolution can go to MIT and Harvard, students that dont…that believe in creationism, Fetal Personhood, and deny climate science, not so much…unless Daddy buys your way in.
matoko_chan
@suzanne: im just telling the truth.
Before the midterms it was 24-7 elite bashing.
Now the TP/GOP is all butthurt because elite students are fleeing the party like scalded cats.
What i say is simple truth.
Conservatives believe that their base is too stupid to learn.
So they tell them liberals are against them and that their beliefs are valid, but just “different”. It is IQ baiting, just like conservatives are race baiters.
Creationism, Fetal Personhood and climate change denialism are anti-factual, anti-scientific, stupid, and wrong….
All men are created equal.
All genes and memes are not.
That is certainly an interesting perception of Issa.. an arrogant elitist? May i ax what religion you were raised in?
We have already discussed this, i dont care what you think. I think juicers are mostly bioluddites that are intimidated by the “yuck factors” inherent in genetic tendency.
i agree with Sir Richard:
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
Keep fucking that chicken, M_C
matoko_chan
Lighten up Cole.
This is fuckin’ hilarious.
Apparently the Culture Gap is not just shaped by stratification on cognitive ability, but by stratification on dance ability.
matoko_chan
@arguingwithsignposts: dude he is OLD.
all my links are contemporary.
this is an emerging trend.
im not denying Buckley and crewe were top drawer intellectuals…..im repeating conservative butthurt about the CURRENT state of the party.
read my links?
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
read my links?
Why should I read anyone who cites these two exemplars of anything?
As “proof” of his hypothesis, he cites voting trends from Cornell. Come back to me when you have some data instead of anecdotes, M_C
matoko_chan
@Cole
i def think next mondays show will be worth watching.
there might be a riot in the studio, between the Bristols and the Jennifers.
i think this is wunnerful.
it is a perfect political microcosm ……Real Murikka is taking culture back away from those liberal elitist snob professional dancers and judges.
:)
matoko_chan
@arguingwithsignposts: but so did i give data.
Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability.
Grand New Party page 154.
Reihan FUCKING CO-WROTE THAT BOOK.
stratification on cognitive ability is the proximate cause….they all know it.
Douthat too.
White Anxiety.
They are ALL trying to paint it as a culture gap….but its an IQ gap.
Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability.
matoko_chan
@arguingwithsignposts:
i dont disagree with that, but its also PRIMARILY stratification on cognitive ability.
they can only talk culture war issues. that is what 50 years of IQbaiting results in.
why do u read me? u reject ever thing i say.
use the pie.
matoko_chan
wallah, its the same! Bristol gets on DwtS, Bush goes to Harvard.
Affirmative action for talent-challenged wingnuts == rich and/or famous parents.
Its like bussing for the talent gap in Bristol’s case, bussing for the IQ gap in Bush’s.