Leave it to the Republicans, and Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, at a time with the worst President sitting in the White House, in a year, from the Presidential race, to down-ticket, is expected, due to lying, scandal and abuse of power, a disaster for the GOP, and they go out an pluck a vice-presidential candidate that is, currently, in the middle of an ethics investigation.
Hmmm ... It makes me wonder if Ralph Reed was on the short list, or, perhaps, the Stumblin' Bumblin McCain campaign checked with the Federal Prison Bureau, to see if they could get Jack Abramoff furloughed for a a few months.
Sarah "Midnight Sun" Palin, may not be shaking down bag men, like a former Republican gem, Spiro Agnew, but, Jesus, they've set up a "Tip Line", up there in Alaska, for people to phone in anything they have on how Palin may have abused her power.
Maybe they can work something out, like put the number under the "Country First" banners, which, IMHO, are, yet another example of how dead asleep the Rove Rats are.
Whenever I see those signs hanging over McCain, my first thoughts are "Gee, he's got a bank sponsoring his speech? ... Country First? ... Wonder where they're from ... And tying the thought of a bank to Stumblin' Bumblin John takes us where - The Keating Five(check out Barry Crimmins; Barry offers that if Palin was around back then, we'd be calling the thing "The Keating Six")
It's going on 48-hours since Stumblin' Bumblin Johnny gave his 'Price Is Right' shout-out, for Palin to "C'mon Down", and since that moment, it's been like someone left the faucet on, both levers, at full tilt, as the 411 on Palin is gushing out with the ferocity of the Colorado rapids.
She kills moose with her bare hands (kidding, I think), but she is a life-long member of the NRA ... She's a former beauty pageant contestant (runner-up Miss Alaska) ... A basketball star (for her work on the hardwood, the moniker "Sarah Barracuda") ... Hockey Mom (with the Repubs spinning as that's just like a soccer mom) ... Mother of five (spun as a Norman Rockwell painting, as if motherhood is some rare quality not seen in politics before) ...
Christ, the more that comes out about her, the more she's making Ron Paul look like a pansy liberal.
Sarah "Midnight Sun" Palin is a RightWing Nutjob!
Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny is being praised (hard-core RWFS Only) and castigated (everyone else) on choosing The Midnight Sun.
For my money, it's a cynical and pandering pick, a 72-year-old chest-thumping"I'm a Maverick", is more likely to produce said-72-year-old forgetting what he was talking about, reaching for the TV Guide, to check if TNT was running the Mel Gibson movie again, looping it, as they so often do, throughout the evening.
And you know what, Sarah "Midnight Sun" Palin is a maverick too!
I tend to think they're spinning the "maverick" thing in an empty hat, that, looking at the Dead Campaign Express, most, if not all of the top tier GOPers were letting those VP calls drop into voicemail.
A novice, small-potatoes wannabe politician from the depths of Alaska? ... Talk about going to the "ends-of-the-earth", or in Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny's case, maybe he was warming up for that Osama bin Laden hunt, by chasing his VP choice to "the gates of the Arctic Circle"
"[Sarah Palin is] going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long," said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain's top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain's health, which Mr. McCain's doctors reported as excellent in May.
Ooooooo-Kaaaayyyyy!
We want a gun-toting, moose-killing, Pat Buchanan-supporter to be the proverbial "heartbeat" away from the Presidency?
A woman, who just a little over a month ago, stated she didn't know what a vice-president does, and dissed the job because she's a busy-bee-doer?
And, as we referenced in the beginning, her ethics investigation, Midnight Sun is going to have to balance campaigning, with giving depositions, being hounded by the media, for both, whatever stumblin' and bumblin' she picks up from her mentor, as well as any-and-all developments in with what's going up in Alaska.
Jesus, he might as well just start walking around in a bathrobe, like that old Mafia guydid, to play out that he was crazy.
Just ride around in the Dead Campaign Express, make some stops (kicking away the empty beer bottles to exit), shuffle around in the robe and slippers, shake a few hands, maybe pick up a few Slim Jim's at a convenience store ...Toss out a few bon mots on his heroism, his POW days, as he rips off a piece of Slim Jim, perhaps dribbling some of the dark juice on his bathrobe.
I mean, he's down to just makin' shit up now ... Seemingly not caring what he says, how it sounds, what it looks like ... Just blathering on like ... Well ... Like an old guy shuffling around in a bathrobe, muttering incoherently.
That seems to be the program, on how Sarah "Midnight Sun" Palin got to be Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny's VP choice.
He's throwing it against the wall to see what sticks.
If we checked in with Punxsutawney Phil, he'd likely indicate that means we have eight-more-weeks of McCain, the Rove Rats, the Rightwing Freak Show, the RNC, running a campaign, not of ideas, but just tearing down with lies, distortions and smears, the Obama campaign.
Included in this, perhaps, the October Surprise;
Sarah "Midnight Sun" Palin goes all Eagleton (or the ethics investigation yields some bombshell), and has to be dropped from the ticket.
And, riding in on the red horse, none other that McCain's Mini-Me, Joe Lieberman(apparently, McCain's only serious consideration in the first place).
As he describes himself, "Joe Posnanski has been sports columnist at The Kansas City Star since 1996. He has twice been named the best sports columnist in America by The Associated Press Sports Editors. As his mother says, that and about four bucks could get him a Grande Mocha at Starbucks."
As to the blog?
"This blog is a look into his confused mind."
The post that had me doubling over in stitches is Pixifoods Part I
Pixifood (PIKZ-ee-food), noun: Any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult.
He has some good ones, classics, up there.
Candy Cigarettes ... Dinty Moore Beef Stew ...Fig Newtons ... Tang, and many more ...
All pretty hysterical.
Here's a sample;
Spaghetti-O’s As a Kid: Well, kids love the taste (and Moms love the nutrition!) As an adult: Plastic and ketchup.
Tidbits: “Helping kids grow strong and healthy is a full-time job. Why not let SpaghettiOs brand pasta give you a hand? Each delicious serving of these tender little O’s provides a serving of vegetables (Editor’s note: What vegetables?), a serving of grains AND at least SIX essential vitamins and minerals!”
OK, beyond the obvious vegetables question, I have another one: What do they mean AT LEAST six essential vitamins and minerals. Might there be more? Have those just not been discovered yet? Are scientist working in the SpaghettiO labs non-stop and occasionally shouting out, “WAIT, I found one! Oh, no, sorry, that was some lint from my pocket. Damn. False alarm.” Or does it depend on what you consider to be essential? Like do these have Calcite in them, but many Moms don’t feel that’s essential?
Polley was said to have been "very surprised" with being chosen by McCain, especially with her long time political activism, and that she is a member of the New Democratic Party in Canada.
Additionally, Polley was nominated for an Academy Award, in the category of Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, for the film, 'Away from Her (2006)'.
Sources say that the McCain staff had believed that "he was really going outside the box", with the choice of the Canadian Polley, and that action had been started to usher Polley through an expedited U.S. Citizenship process, so that she could appear on the ballot with McCain.
Polley was reported to have said that it was "nice to get a little vacation", and that she had never been to Dayton, Ohio before.
"I mean, I hung around a hotel room for three days, they had me under wraps," said Polley. "I thought, if I was going to be his Vice President, I should have been reading policy papers, and such."
On board the Dead Campaign Express, they describe the Fly Boy from Arizona as "prickly"
It was on the 13th question (or exchange) that their fatal error occurred;
Jumping around a bit: in your books, you've talked about what it was like to go through the Keating Five experience, and you've been quoted as saying it was one of the worst experiences of your life. Someone else quoted you as saying it was even worse than being a POW ...
That's another one of those statements made 17 or 18 years ago which was out of the context of the conversation I was having. Of course the worst, the toughest experience of my life was being imprisoned, so people can pluck phrases from 17 or 18 years ago ...
I wasn't suggesting it as a negative thing. I was just saying that ...
I'm just suggesting it was taken out of context. I understand how comments are taken out of context from time to time. But obviously, the toughest time of my life, physically and [in] every other way, would be the time that I almost died in prison camp. And I think most Americans understand that.
It's been clear, for some time, that anything can be the Manchurian Candidate Queen-of-Diamonds for Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, and his POW-POW-POW stories, but never, never a direct question about it.
The Rove Rats, and Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign's next step can be to offer, for a certain-level donation, that "Senator McCain will include you in his next telling of his POW-POW-POW experience.
Christ, they let loose with that, and it will make Obama's prodigious fundraising look like lunch money.
NeoNitWits and jingoistic jackasses will come out of the woodwork, cash-in-hand, lapping it up like happy soup.
A little more than two-months left of campaigning, a POW-POW-POW story, a day (hey, you don't want to dilute it, after all) ... Charging a premium if he does it in an interview, national media, versus local ... Cable news versus network news ... Newspaper or magazine ...
This Time Magazine interview shows how well the Rove Rats have programmed him.
Who knew, they had a "Cone of Silence" on the Dead Campaign Express?
Media, be warned, he might give a little taste, now-and-then, but he's not going to give the POW-POW-POW cow away for free any longer.
Jeepers ... Time Magazine ... And they couldn't figure that out ....Or come up with some big bucks (or a box of donuts) to pay for it?
Make the big wave ... Send it crashing down on us ... Destroy us all, if need be ... But punish him ... Make a big wave ... Send it against us ... Take us all ... But destroy him ...
People huddled in a hotel, down in the Florida Keys, held hostage by gangsters on the lam, the great Johnny Rocco, while a fierce hurricane bears down on them
Irony and Karma are setting up on a collision course this weekend.
Forecasters say Gustav will have become a powerful hurricane by the time it reaches the Gulf of Mexico and will probably hit the US coast on Monday, somewhere between Florida and Texas. Its most likely path will take it over New Orleans.
What makes this so special, along with it coming on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it also could hit on the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Irony and Karma ...
We certainly hope the storm veers away from populated land, and that human life is spared (and, most definitely, that the people of New Orleans don't get their first serious test on how well our government has secured their city against Mother Nature). Irony and Karma ...
Or, the RNC delegates, after listening to Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, for a few minutes, decide by unanimous acclamation, they're not going to nominate anyone.
For many, yesterday wasn't a day to worry-and-wax about Hillary Clinton's speech, it was to welcome back after a brief summer break (if you want to call yard work and house painting a "break"),writer and satirist Barry Crimmins.
And, come back did he.
Crimmins wades in on the convention, or, better yet, conventions, in general, and the political landscape ahead. Confessions of an ex-con (attendee)
I haven't a single regret that I won't be in Denver this week nor St. Paul next week. I am content to watch the media and pols limbo to new lows of pandering, insincerity and self-celebration from the comfort of home.
I've been to a million campaign events. I've been a credentialed member of the media at numerous national political conventions, as well as a dissident/performer at those same gatherings and several others. I've shared the stage with presidential candidates and bull goose loony conspiracy freaks. It's a toss-up which was more embarrassing.
Jump over and read the entire piece - it's insightful, hysterical and on-the-money (he could have just posted the Caroline Kennedy riffs alone and had a winner).
And you gotta read the Comments ...
In particular, the exchange between Barry and "Scout" (The Garlic did suggest to Barry that he advise "Scout" that "Boo Radley really is friendly")
Also, another comment deserves full view here;
John A. Joslin ( Detroit) -- Tuesday, August 26th 2008 5:50PM
Barry, I think we can forgive Caroline Kennedy... even though we probably shouldn't. Let's take the high road on this one. Caroline Kennedy was like a little kid trying to pin the tail on the donkey for Christ's sakes. She was used by these inane strategy bastards. They blindfolded her & set her stumbling off down the breakdown lane of the Beltway w/ instructions to find a good, honest man who can help us heal this country.
Next thing you know, she comes back with "plastic Joe " in tow, the guy who's been helping the credit card industry steal this country. She basically drags in the equivalent of 100 feet of human anchor chain to wrap around the ankles of the Obama campaign. She couldn't help it , Barry, in my opinion.
She was raised to give a hand to the less fortunate , and a sad sack old bagman w/ his hourglass running out of sand fits the description. The nautical thing was a factor, too. You know what I'm talking about : Hyannis Port , spinnakers , don't go swimming until two hours after eating a bushel of fried clams , tying bowlines with one hand , tilting decks, spar varnish, starfish, and salt water spray in your hair. It all adds up. She was spawned by water people and she knows a genuine NON-boat rocker when she sees one.
The Kennedys were always big on acts of charity. She probably figures it would be good for Joe to spend his declining years in the company of a halfway decent human being like Obama.
Plus, in case Obama LOSES ... Joe B. will be the perfect guy , right up front beaming for the cameras just like nothing happened," We fought the good fight . Tonight, we have heard the voice of the American people from the tiny hamlets and the busy crossroads , from the small towns, the farming communities, and from the great urban centers of this nation. I might have wanted it to go the other way, but let me be the first to congratulate my good friend and maniacal counterpart... blah, blah.
Is it the long, tedious hours of covering the Dog-and-Pony Show in Denver, or is word leaking in the corridors of Rockefeller Center that Keith Olbermann is King Cock there now, much to the chagrin of Morning Joke and Tweety.
And, last night, Olbermann and Tweety butted heads.
Now to set this up, virtually the entire day, cable news (and MSNBC, which I had on most of the time) had the Froth-O-Meter turned on "High", badgering each and every colleague, guest or passerby, if they had seen or read the "Hillary Speech" and then, with said colleague, guest or passerby, spend the next 15-minutes blabbering about what "Hillary should say" or "What should be in the speech.
(As a sidenote, it seemed I had bad timing, for just about each time I switched over to CNN, Wolf Blitzer was yelling for Jessica Yellin; He's in a closed set, and with a microphone, so why does he have to shout all time? And why are people always yelling at her?)
So, after Tweety gave a rather long prattle about Hillary, and the speech, Olbermann starts to go to guest Stenchy Hoyer, and in doing so, references Tweety's long-windedness with a "going off at the mouth here", including making a hand gesture, denoting talking too much.
As Hoyer begins to speak, you hear Tweety pull back his wings and start flapping them at Olbermann.
"You make that sound, Keith ... I could say the same thing about you"
And, speaking of Morning Joke, he must still be a little touchy after the Olbermann slap down, for he got all puffed up, playing out the Charles Atlas-Kicking-Sand-In-Your-Face advertisement, jumping all over David Shuster, for Shuster challenging him to criticize "his party" and Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain over the Iraq Pullout Timetable, you know, the one that The Commander Guy, everyone in the Bush Grindhouse, the Right Wing Freak Show labeled anyone who called for it a traitor, or appeaser, someone who wanted to lose the war.
It's here, and it runs about 10-minutes, but it's fun to see Morning Joke get all huffy.
He's been going at it, giving minute-by-minute updates, marked with wry, and often, hysterical observations. Liveblogging The DNC - Day One
8:14PM Speaker Pelosi is making with the talking now. We heard her earlier as she was nominated as the chair of convention just prior to the ratification of the platform. And, by the way, she's wearing a lovely dentist smock.
9:38PM My senator, Bob Casey, just delivered the line of the night so far:
"John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush over 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick!"
10:28PM Governor Schweitzer of Montana is totally eviscerating Senator McCain on CSPAN. But of course the cable news networks are busy talking about how the Democrats aren't eviscerating Senator McCain. This is fucking horseshit. Here's Schweitzer:
"If you drill in all of John McCain's back yards -- even the ones he doesn't know he has... that single answer proposition is a dry well!"
James Carville physically resembles an "X-Files" creature, his marble-mouth syntax harder than ever to decipher. Plus, he looks like he really doesn't give a shit about the convention. He's a Clinton crony, so he can't be happy about how the convention is shaking down, despite tonight being Hillary's big show. But overall, he just appears bored, phoning in his standard routines. David Brooks acts like a balding, nearsighted hyena, baring his blunt fangs while making predictable, pre-chewed points. Jim Lehrer looks nearly dead, and no amount of pancake can make Mark Shields appear as if he's 98.6. Probably the freezer he's kept in between segments.
With the cable television nitwits wringing their hands, bemoaning that the Democrats are "blowing it", that for the first day-plus of the convention, they're not "gutting" the Bush-McSame regime, why wasn't this guy, and his speech, in prime time?
I think, when Georgian President Mikheil Sakaasvili, called out her husband, that he wanted more action, less talk, he had something like guns, tanks, bombers, and thousands of troops in mind.
Mrs. Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain, Cindy, apparently thought better of lifting lines from Michelle Obama's speech, is headed off to the land of her husbands' "We're All Georgians", for a "humanitarian" mission, to, presumably, a week before the Republican Convention, build some chops and, a kind of off-the-rack legacy of her own.
Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, is headed to the Republic of Georgia, where tensions between the government and Russia have sparked international concern and have become an issue on the presidential campaign trail.
McCain announced to a group of fundraisers in Sacramento that his wife was headed to the country, but the campaign did not provide any details about the trip.
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker confirmed Cindy McCain is enroute to the nation and said she is visiting as part of the World Food Program. She said she will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and visit with wounded Georgian soldiers.
In the Time article, McCain aides denied that the trip was specifically designed to occur during the Democratic National Convention, and specifically on the day that her counterpart, Michelle Obama, is scheduled to speak.
Oooooo-kayyyyyyyy ...
Didn't even realize the Democratic Convention was going on, right?
Perhaps, like her husband, will she have a security detail of marines, complete with gunship helicopters, escorting her around the Georgian markets?
And, what happens when she returns?
Think, over-the-top, Frank Capra-on-steroids
Does she parachute into the Target Center in Minneapolis, by sheer coincidence, in prime-time hours?
Takes the stage in fatigues ... Tearfully tells her story, ending it with an crowd-out-of-their-seats, wildly, deliriously, cheering, Cindy, stridently, thumping her chest, bellowing above the din, "We Are All Georgians!, as two gigantic flags - the American, and Georgian - unfurl behind her.
LENO: Welcome back, Sen. McCain, for one million dollars, how many houses do you have? (Jay laughs, McCain squirms and chuckles)
MCCAIN: You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness. I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without—I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table, I didn’t have a table, I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because—not because I wanted to get a house when I got out. And you know, I’m very proud of Cindy’s father, he was a guy that barely got out of high school, fought in World War II in the Army Air Corps, came home and made a business and made the American dream and so somehow. You’ve had Cindy on this show ...
We spend our time in a condominium in Washington, a condominium in Phoenix, some time over here in the state of California, and then we have a place up in northern Arizona,’’ he said. And my friends, I’m proud of my record of service to this country, and it has nothing to do with houses. What it has to do with putting Americans in houses and keeping them in their homes.’
Jesus ...
In a softball setting like 'The Tonight Show', rather than banter, or shoot back a zinger to Leno, he stumbles and bumbles into robot-mode with the POW-POW-POW bullshit.
Not only that, but he's added a "fish story" element to it, an umbrella of sorts, extending the magic POW-POW-POW powers to his father-in-law.
I think he's on to something here, that, maybe, he shouldn't have let out of the bag like that ...
The Rove Rats, and Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign's next step can be to offer, for a certain-level donation, that "Senator McCain will include you in his next telling of his POW-POW-POW experience.
Christ, they let loose with that, and it will make Obama's prodigious fundraising look like lunch money.
NeoNitWits and jingoistic jackasses will come out of the woodwork, cash-in-hand, lapping it up like happy soup.
A little more than two-months left of campaigning, a POW-POW-POW story, a day (hey, you don't want to dilute it, after all) ... Charging a premium if he does it in an interview, national media, versus local ... Cable news versus network news ... Newspaper or magazine ...
It took Morning Joke a few seconds to put on the lip brakes, with a stunned "Excuse Me" look in his eyes.
This has to be a stake-in-the-ground, for all television host, anchors, moderators, et all.
Whenever they have a guest talking head on, and they start spouting out garbage, their erroneous talking points, said host needs to lean back, squint the eyes a bit, and dismissively, or with exasperation, jab "Jesus (fill in the name), why don't you get a shovel ..."
Challenge'em, don't just let the junk go unfiltered.
Just imagine, Wolf Blitzer, in his Curtis-Mathesesque-showroom-of-a-set, The Situation Room, suddenly interrupting one of his talking head guests with a "Excuse me, but put a sock in it ... "
Olbermann's live reaction and comment could herald in a new era.
Who woulda' thunk it - Morning Joke Scarborough could be part of changing the face of television coverage ...
Senator Obama would go a long way towards healing these wounds if he were to specifically praise the accomplishments of the Clinton presidency in a line or two during his speech on Thursday. That should be painless---he isn't running against the Clinton legacy anymore, and it would probably be a good idea to remind voters that the last time Democrats were in charge of the White House, we had peace and prosperity. Similarly, he could thank President Clinton for all of the work he did throughout his life to bridge the divides in our country. This is a cause near and dear to the president's heart.
Granted, Wolfson did say the Clintons needed to do a few things, blah, blah, blah, however, clearly, he is placing the onus on Obama.
Wolfson also takes a swipe at the media, saying they're stoking all this, yet, Wolfson joins with The Politico, and Little Billy Kristol, in extending this soap opera.
Barack Obama shouldn't have to do jack shit, to coddle, mollify or otherwise kiss-the-asses of the Clintons, the Clintonistas, or the Grand Central Station Locker Creatures("Hillary is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Hillary! All hail Hillary! Oh Hillary can you see by the dawn's early light...").
Bill Clinton needs to stop his sniffling, and powder his make-up.
Get'em a box of Krispy Kremes, if that's what it takes.
Yes, he played the race card in the primaries and, OMG!, Obama campaigned, dissing the Clinton Presidency!
Why would Obama diss the Clinton Presidency?
HE WAS RUNNING AGAINST A CLINTON!
A Clinton who was touting her participation in that Clinton Presidency as the reason, at 3AM, and all other times, she should be the next President!
And Hillary, herself, stoked this, with her non-concession, concession speech, and, subsequently, endorsing (if not overtly, certainly by not saying no) this cathartic roll call non-sense.
Jesus ... These people.
Here, Wolfson, is what the Clinton's need to do in Denver.
Firmly, directly, redundantly, state their undying support for Barack Obama for President in 2008.
Both Clintons need to address their cave-dwelling supporters, that if they, truly, are going to go out and vote for Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, than they need to stop referring to themselves as Clinton supporters, as Clintonistas, as Grand Central Station Locker Creatures ("Hillary is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Hillary! All hail Hillary! Oh Hillary can you see by the dawn's early light..."), and Democrats ...
Then, they can catch a ride with Joe Lieberman, go officially join the Republican Party, and fuck off ...
