Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

When we show up, we win.

Republicans do not trust women.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans in disarray!

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Petty moves from a petty man.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

No one could have predicted…

T R E 4 5 O N

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / No, Seriously. Tell Us How You Really Feel.

No, Seriously. Tell Us How You Really Feel.

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Rolling Stone:

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

Ouch. True, but ouch. And it gets even worse.

See also: The Double-Talk Express. John McCain – Not Ready to Lead.

Reader Interactions

37Comments

  4. 4.

    Shinobi

    That second article looks… not ready to be published. I found at least 2 typos and the publish date is Oct. 16, 2008. Is this Rolling Stone -China perhaps??

  5. 5.

    Comrade Incertus

    and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way.

    Apparently not, given the way her popularity numbers have plummeted in the last month. I know it’s hip to be overly cynical and all, but occasionally we see a bullshitter for what she is.

  6. 6.

    Comrade SnarkyShark

    All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation

    cite="">

    I dont know dude, after a while that shit can start to hurt.

    I would say we have all been rubbed raw by this point.

    It might be time to slap the hell out of the crack whore.

    Metaphorically speaking of course, I had no intent to slander crack whores.

  7. 7.

    Captain Goto

    Shinobi–
    IIRC, Rolling Stone is a biweekly (or twice-monthly?) publication, so the Oct. 16 date is appropriate for the current issue.

    And–what svensker said. No one flings the spittle like Taibbi.

    But the second article is **way** more sobering. As they put it,

    In its broad strokes, McCain’s life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives’ evangelical churches.

    In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

  8. 8.

    Captain Goto

    Of *course*, I screwed up the blockquote. Those last two sentences were also from RS.

  10. 10.

    Unabogie

    The question remains, why do so many Americans hate smart people? Why do we want politicians to be dumb, but don’t feel the same way about our doctors, lawyers, or teachers?

    ETA: I can edit!

  11. 11.

    Doug H. (Fausto no more)

    Apparently not, given the way her popularity numbers have plummeted in the last month. I know it’s hip to be overly cynical and all, but occasionally we see a bullshitter for what she is.

    Just this afternoon, a co-worker of mine was joking about tonight’s debate being a ‘cartoon show’. He didn’t sound like any big fan of Obama, but to say he was unimpressed by Palin would be an understatement. The bloom’s come off, she’s a national punchline now.

  12. 12.

    Polish the Guillotines

    Apparently not, given the way her popularity numbers have plummeted in the last month. I know it’s hip to be overly cynical and all, but occasionally we see a bullshitter for what she is.

    I think that’s right. I sure hope it’s right. Because it’s just not funny anymore. Stupid is not a good idea right now.

  14. 14.

    Davis X. Machina

    As soon as I peruse Liddell-Scott-Jones I’ll be able to tell you the right Greek-based term for ‘government by bright shiny things’.

    And then we’ll have a name for what we’ve got.

  16. 16.

    w vincentz

    I’m hopin’ she brings a big dead moose to tonight’s debate and skillfully demonstrates proper field dressing technique.
    Save me the inner loins, Sarah.
    My wolf friends (those of us that dodged the bullets from your airplane) will be ever so greatful.
    Let there be blood.

  17. 17.

    Jay B.

    Comrades Incertus and Doug H. have it right.

    Taibbi is certainly correct about how a vacuous moron can get into power here — and has — but he’s wrong about the glory Palin will receive. It’s going down in flames.

    Further, I have ZERO doubt that if there was a functioning alternative media in 2000, if the netroots were as big and loud as they are now, Bush wouldn’t have gotten close enough to steal it.

    I mean look at John McCain — the media literally loved that fraud for decades. But we’ve pounded on them to take another look. McCain has been unmasked. Bush is polling at 22%. Palin lasted all of two weeks. And it wasn’t the "media" that did this. It was the presence of an alternative voice and message — THESE PEOPLE ARE CORRUPT IDIOTS. It seems to have permeated the public consciousness.

    I’m not being a blog triumphalist or anything. Events had a lot to do with it. But not everything. It’s a start, but this isn’t an insignificant fact.

  18. 18.

    Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)

    The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains.

    For many of us on the liberal/progressive/has-a-brain side of things, changing our mind is a daily occurrence. We like Obama, we liked Bill Clinton, but we have issues with them. But when you are rooting for someone, then we’re talking team, talking tribe, and no such nuance is tolerated.

    Remind me to hide the sharp knives before I read another Taibbi piece

  19. 19.

    comrade scott

    In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

    How would we know? I didn’t think he was around the unit long enough to solo….in the cockpit. I’m sure he was dandy soloing in the local bars and coke dens.

  20. 20.

    Xanthippas

    Oh but you missed the best quote from the article:

    Here’s what Sarah Palin represents: being a fat fucking pig who pins "Country First" buttons on his man titties and chants "U-S-A! U-S-A!" at the top of his lungs while his kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas.

    I love it. And here’s a better take on McCain from Rolling Stone:

    On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

    "I’m going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."

    "Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.

    "It’s a place we’re probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says.

    "Why? Where are you going to, John?"

    "Oh, I’m going to Rio."

    "What the hell are you going to Rio for?"

    McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.

    "I got a better chance of getting laid."

    Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. "McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man," Dramesi says today. "But he’s still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in."

    That’s near the beginning, and it only gets better (worse) from there.

  21. 21.

    Trinity

    Read both of these stories yesterday on the train home. The McCain story is BRUTAL….but deliciously so.

  23. 23.

    Fledermaus

    The incessant grousing about the media was likewise par for the course, red meat for those tens of millions of patriotic flag-waving Americans whose first instinct when things get rough is to whine like bitches and blame other people — reporters, the French, those ungrateful blacks soaking up tax money eating big prison meals, whomever — for their failures.

    I love Matt Tabbi.

  24. 24.

    passerby

    Michael, thanks for the link it was a great read.

    You could’ve excerpted any paragraph from that article and have the same amount of Trans-galactic Scathe.

    For Example:

    Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban-American supermom. It’s the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant.

    Raw.

    I’m sick and tired of stupid… enough to feel like he expressed my sentiments exactly.

  29. 29.

    SGEW

    Welcome to Balloon-Juice, Michael Demmons, whoever you are (if that is your real name . . . (examines Michael suspiciously)).

    Yeah, Taibbi is the bomb. As I’ve said before, he’s Hunter w/out the random violence, petty crime, or crippling chemical addiction (which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your p.o.v.).

    Also:

    Like me, he is an alien.

    Don’t blame me, I voted for Kang.

  30. 30.

    libarbarian

    The incessant grousing about the media was likewise par for the course, red meat for those tens of millions of patriotic flag-waving Americans whose first instinct when things get rough is to whine like bitches and blame other people — reporters, the French, those ungrateful blacks soaking up tax money eating big prison meals, whomever — for their failures.

    A-FUCKING-MEN BROTHER.

    I’m sorry for the sexist overtones but the best phrase to describe the GOP really is "bitches"

  32. 32.

    ethan salto

    Since Taibbi is probably the best political writer of his generation, it would be more appropriate to name-check him, not the magazine he happens to be writing for.

  35. 35.

    JR

    Damn, I really miss Hunter S. Thompson at times like this. Imagine what that mutant would have done with Governor Stumbly McGafferton.

  36. 36.

    Shade Tail

    I’ve seen Matt Taibbi on Bill Maher’s ‘Real Time’, and I gotta say, he usually came across as a bit more insightful than that. I mean, the broad strokes of his article raise a lot of good points, but that was published *today*, October 2nd, after close to a month of steady dropping of Palin’s favorability ratings. It seems like even those clueless consumer-voters Taibbi was (rightfully) lambasting are waking up to the reality that’s staring us in the face.

    Perhaps that was written a month ago and is only just now being published?

  37. 37.

    Mike

    Matt Taibi looks like the love child of a good-looking Southern fraternity boy and Chunk from The Goonies.

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