I Laughed, I Cried, I Spat Epithets, I Chewed the Rug

Tags

debates, Election 2016, the GOP, Trump

Whoa what a night of fun and escapades! The second great debate between the twixts and tweens of the GOP. Oh, goodness, where to start.

As the “photo” above illustrates, crucial to all such undertakings–the pretence that THE DONALD does not really count. Nothing to see here folks, the great “HAIR” will soon depart. Well he was supposed to by now, but has tenaciously clung to the tattered remnants of Ronnie Reagan’s spurs, winking and nodding at the great masses of dumb-ass racist mother-fuckers who keep thanking God for blessin’ them with a giant of a candidate  in THE DONALD.

Donald need say nothing. He need only flash the pearls in a sea of Mar a Lago suntan to get the juices of the gun rack lovin’ beer guzzlers who are more familiar with a baseball cap than THE DONALD  will ever be.

The fireworks started immediately with The Trumpet: “Hey you, Randy Paul, whatcha doin’ here boy? You got 1% support, you aren’t supposed to get a stand.”

Randy, looks taken aback, and moans, “Why you pickin’ at me, squirrel head–thanks Bobby (I love the Brady Bunch) Jindal for the hair metaphor. I’m an opthamologist and I fight for your right to form boards and certify YOURSELF in My America!”

But the one to watch was Carly. She stalked THE DONALD, waiting for her moment to pounce. That was after she pinched Scotty, manager of the Koch subsidiary, also known as–Wishconsin. That’s because everybody wishes they weren’t in Wisconsin, especially Scotty. Wish on Scotty, you’re headin’ north my son, and you aint’ comin’ back.

Carly is a formidable debater. She can rush off a three-minute soliloquy without missing a beat, taking a breath, or breakin’ a sweat. She is GIFTED in that. She made Hamlet weep for shame.  What comes out of that precise tight little mouth is worthy of a cesspool, but she CAN deliver it.

Donald retreated with a “you are beautiful Carly” which was surely sufficient to insure she is eligible for a runway walk at the next Ms. World or Ms. Universe, or Ms. Multiplex, whichever comes first.

Ben shows why Ben won’t be president any time in the normal course of human evolution. What started out as a joke, has become, I am more and more convinced, empirically proven: Benjie Carson is an idiot savant. He can wield a scalpel like no other, but the dude is flatly the dumbest thing on earth on any other subject.

Richly, he leads the pack in the chutzpah finals. A man who was raised in poverty, given the advantage of every single government program then in existence that assisted his growth from cradle through college, now suggests that the US is rotten at the core because it keeps the “spigot of goodies” flowing. Only when it stops, will people have the ability to fend for themselves as nature meant, and as he was taught even though he never had to test that theory out in his own life.

Well, Benjie who owes somebody called Abe a debt of gratitude, as well as numerous of his brothers and sisters in color who bled, fought, and died for his freedom, this same BLACK MAN now urges that the solution to the “illegals” is to turn them into a permanent underclass of American workers–the slave laborer, whom we will permit to live in America and work for next to nothing in Merika, but never vote or have any of the accoutrements of civilized citizenship. They will be guest workers. ( see Qatar. UAE, Saudi Arabia if you want to see how such systems work in reality.)

I guess Benjie didn’t spend much time reading about the FUCKING HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THIS COUNTRY. Which is probably clear from the fact that he thinks that Obamacare is akin to the same “free goodies” and is as bad as slavery itself.

Can I get an amen that this jerk is an idiot savant?

Did anyone believe CC’s dramatic “I care about the little guy” routine?

How ’bout Mikey’s attempts to be relevant?

Or Scotty’s blinking as the ideas were moving too fast for him to keep up?

Or Rubio’s ever-present hankie wiping his frightened brow?

By far some of the best stuff came from the under card, led by the perennial favorite in hilarity, Ms. Lindsey Graham. Lindsey is perhaps my favorite, because while awful shit is projectile vomited from his mouth every 3.2 seconds, Lindsey otherwise is funnier than just about anyone I know.

He dressed down boy king, Bobby Jindal, much as a parent might gaze forgivingly at their child. “Still growing, he is, but he looks to make a fine cut of a fellow by the time he has.” (said while nailing down the cowlick with spit).

Ms. Lindsey, who (squirrel) likes to talk about how dangerous everything is, did just that, (squirrel) reminding us that the Middle East is a scary place and he will keep us safe, cuz he’s been hanging with the “guys” all these years, and they assure him, that we gotta go kick butt and they’re  the ones to do it. (Squirrel). Lindsey will of course act all commander in chiefy, while he yearns to get his hands on some hot barrels of his own.

Meanwhile Theodore The Canadian Cruz raised the subject they just all loved to talk on–Iran. No more scary country exists. They are seconds away from the launch codes. They shout “death to Merika” and mean it. War!

War excites them all. We may have to folks they shudder in supposed sympathy. We won’t want to, but “fear, fear, blah blah, fear, fear, blah, fear” they go. We just may have to for our own good doncha know and the good of the world (which they will fitfully not believe for like a millennia, but someday they will thank us.)

Ahh, the smell of napalm in the morning. Brings back such memories don’t it?

And everybody, just everybody was shoutin’ their “not a politician but an outsider” bona fides. Nobody is a Washington “insider”. No, Captain Marvel, otherwise known as JEB! or Jebbie, is gonna be THE DISRUPTOR”. I mean, that sent a shiver down even my spine.

There were moments of anticipated high drama which fizzled: Donald is cornered on his alleged claim that autism and vaccines might be related. Of course the medical community will tell you that there is no such relationship. Trump is on to  the gotcha moment brewing, and slyly mis-directs: “I wasn’t talkin’ about the vaccines themselves but the AMOUNT. I believe the doses are too high. They should be spread out over more years.”

Ben is given his chance to eviscerate THE DONALD with some real and actual medical knowledge and . . . .he agrees, that the dosages may be too high. To make it worse, Randy chimes in that he agrees. Trump walks away unscathed, and grinning.

They tried to gang up on him, they tried to ignore him. They tried to make his petty disagreements with Carly self-centered as puff boy, Chrissie said, “this ain’t about you and your jobs, it’s out THEIR jobs”, pointing to the well-dressed audience. It probably wasn’t about theirs either but it was a cute aside.

My predictions: Oh they are no better than the next gals.

I see Walker departing soon. He did little to help himself and he needed to take off his clothes and wiggle his wiener in order to get attention. He was too shy apparently.

Huck and Randy are dead in the water but will probably hang for a while. Same for most of the rest. As long as the last dollar is left to be spent, they will drag their wrinkled asses around the country talking to anyone who will listen. I mean, their spouses aren’t gonna listen to that shit any more, somebody’s gotta be found who will.

Oh there is so much more to come. But this was a great one, much better than the Foxy beginning.

Weirdest thing that happened: Hugh Hewitt, pummelled by THE DONALD for an earlier interview, completely caved in and admitted on air in public, that he didn’t pronounce the Arab words correctly, which was why Donald failed to know the difference between Kurds and Quds. Hewitt even admitted that Trump was the “best interview” ever.

So the 4th estate sinks to unimaginably new levels of useless propaganda mongering.

And the beat goes on.

Oh Gosh, What a Difference a Night May Make, or Not

Tags

debates, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Mitt's lying

I didn’t have much to say about Debate I. President Obama was not prepared, neither having done his homework  it seemed, nor was he ready for a Romney who simply rewrites his position whenever the political winds seem most helpful. He lost in the public opinion, though he surely won on the facts.  But as we increasingly know, facts matter little.

Last night was a different story. The President came prepared to take off the gloves and call a spade a spade. Romney attempted to run over him as he had the first time, pushing aside the moderator and taking that elite-entitled control as the “most important man in the room.” He shockingly silenced the President, announcing, “you’ll get your turn when I’m finished,” and “that was not a question, that was a statement” dismissing the President’s interjection, and talking on.

He time and time interrupted the moderator telling her he wanted to answer the President’s statement, then arguing with her, and finally just saying what he wanted to say in spite of her attempts to keep to the rules. He was the first to violate the agreed upon rules by walking up the President and demanding answers to specific questions–answers he got and probably wished he hadn’t asked for after all.

Funny isn’t it how Vice President Biden was subjected to withering criticism by the Right for being intemperate and rude to the moderator, but oddly they were silent in the face of Romney’s dismissive and rude behavior toward both the President, the Office of the Presidency, and the moderator.

Romney of course, relied on lies once again, claiming that he was not in favor of allowing either legislatures or employers power over the reproductive rights of women. But of course he’s on record as supporting fully the Blunt Amendment which would have authorized just those things. Further his determination to defund Planned Parenthood strikes most seriously at the contraceptive needs of poor women.

In the end, Romney walked into trap after trap. It was as if the President knew that if he dropped these little enticements, Romney could not fail but jump to gobble them up and open himself up to disaster. He did so regarding Detroit and the bailouts, then of course most famously on Libya where he simple didn’t know the facts, and finally he had the stupidity to mention in his closing that he was “for 100% of the people”, giving the President the perfect opening on the 47% argument, and Romney could do nothing but stand there with that weird stance and look.

How will it all play out? It’s anybody’s guess. Romney by rights had no claim to a move up in the polls given that he lied all through the first debate. But he did. He lied a good deal in the second according to the fact checkers so far. Will it matter? Will President Obama’s crisp clean answers coupled with a deadly assault on Romney’s etch-a-sketch political philosophy make any difference?

I truly don’t know. It should. It all should have mattered, but after all, the people watching are high interest people, who have made up their mind, and low-interest voters who are fairly unaware of much that we know to be the truth. It’s a matter how of it “sounds” to them. Will women be offended by how Romney treated the Office of the President and Candy Crowley? Will they be offended about his lies regarding women’s issues? Will they be offended by his assumption that women need flex time because they have “dinners to cook” and his claims that he asked for lists of competent women (apparently he never met any in his long career as a businessman), when in fact the “binder” was prepared in advance to be given to the winning candidate by women’s groups eager to see more women placed in government service. Will people be okay with a man who assures us that the “numbers add up” because I’m a businessman and I know?

Who knows? The election is in the hands of people who don’t care that much. They don’t care enough to know the facts but settle for who sounds good.

I remain cautiously optimistic, but no more than that.

Related articles

• Obama Is Back! (thedailybeast.com)
• Mitt Romney’s binders full of women just don’t stack up (guardian.co.uk)
• Ladies’ Night (salon.com)
• Obama comes out swinging (salon.com)
• WATCH: Mitt Romney Barrels Over Candy Crowley (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama Seizes the Upper Hand (thedailybeast.com)
• Mitt Is Not Moderate, But He Does Say Things Like “Binders Full of Women” (blogher.com)
• Obama Bounces Back With Strong Showing in Second Debate (swampland.time.com)

My Phucking Bul-Chit Day Was Worse Than Hansi’s

Tags

debates, Humor, life in the foothills, sewing machines

Once upon a time, I had a sewing machine. And it didn’t work very well. So I bought another one, and it worked okay, but never as good as it should.

So I didn’t sew a lot, because it just seemed too much trouble to deal with all that messiness of jammed up thread, stalling, badly wound bobbins, and broken needles.

But then, as I was sewing one day, and cussing out the machine, the Contrarian, never a slouch when it comes to making sure the little woman has all her tools of housekeeping going strong, suggested I just get a new machine.

And I said no. And I said, I don’ sew enough to bother, and I said, maybe, and then I started to read stuff on the Internets, sliding through the tubes of information trying to make sense of it all. And I heard about this thing called refurbished machines which allow you to buy a much better machine at a lower cost, and that they were really really fixed up and looked brand new, and in some cases were just that brand new, but sent back because Missy didn’t like the color.

So.

I settled on a Janome or something like that, and ordered it from Overstock and read all the nice reviews by other buyers about how much then loved it, even over more pricier models. And I got it.

And the needle was bent, so I fixed that. And then I tried to wind the bobbin and the motor sounded like it was chopping glass in there. And I fiddled and I fidgeted and I said a few swear words (I know, not like me at all). And I smiled, and I said, “why gosh, this machine seems to be broken. Chit happens.” I called the customer service and they sent me a shipping label and we repacked that baby and carried it to our UPS carrier which was really convenient and the guy smiled real nice, and said everything was fine and off that broken thing went.

Three days later, I got an e-mail that they had it, and I was given a $20 credit for “my time and inconvenience” toward another purchase.

So I studied harder, and longer and settled on a Brother machine that was more expensive, but hey I had that $20 extra dollars. So after much thought and process, I ordered it.

And it too came in only four days. And it looked all bright and shiny. And then I raised the needle and it too was bent. So I fixed that. And I read the manual and I watched the nice video they provided. And I followed the diagram on top, and they all agreed, this was a snap, and it was not so very different from winding the bobbin on most machines, just a wee bit easier.

And so I did it, and I turned on the machine. And the light came on. And the machine whirred. And the SPINDLE DID NOT MOVE!

So I did it again. And again. And again. Then the Contrarian came in and picked up the manual and started reading, and poking and asking man-questions. And nothing worked. And when I pushed the “needle placement” button, the error message showed that the thread was jammed but there wasn’t any thread in the darn sucker.

So I got on-line with Brother’s support. And they said basically they didn’t give a chit about my problem because it was a refurbished machine, but it sounded broke to them.

So I called customer service from Overstock and said, “I got another broken machine, so send me a shipping label,” and they did, and they said they are sending me a replacement machine toot-sweet, and I feel rather unsure about all that cuz I figure I got only one strike left, and I’m not sure I wanna waste it on a two-time loser.

So there, Mr. Hansi, pitcher drawer, I had a worse day than your silly painting episode.

And there is more.

Then I turn on the TV and watch the debate and Mr. Willard was great and MY PRESIDENT SUCKED. And I am really now in a bad mood, and yelled at the dog, and bit the Contrarian (not really but I sure wanted to, cuz everybody knows that there is nothing worse when you are in a bad mood than somebody who tries to cheer you up for criminy sakes.)

And with that I went to bed and didn’t sleep good at all.

So there Mr. Hansi. I win.

Cuz I gotta win something since the dang President seems intent on giving away his Oval Office to a cheap imitation of a human being.

Damn Day.

Debating at the Retirement Home

Tags

debates, Election 2012, Humor

In case you missed it, there was another GOP comedy hour last night. Unfortunately it went on for two hours, which was an hour and fifty minutes too long. Most of the audience had gone to sleep/left to take their meds/wandered off in a Alzheimer’s fantasy, by the time it ended.

I wandered around the hall, and tried to pick up some of the remarks being made by the erudite audience members. As you know, we were in Arizona, where there is a PrepH dispenser at every corner, and the local drugstores regular run wrinkle-cream sale wars.

George: Who is that little scrawny guy at the end?

Lucinda: What? Let me turn up my ear. Oh, at the end? That’s my uncle Herman, isn’t it? No, wait, uncle Herm died back in 1983, summer I think. I remember the roses were especially nice that year. What dear?

George: WHO IS HE?

Lucinda: Well, go up and ask him dear, he looks nice. I’m sure he’ll tell you.

¶

Al: Kate what the hell is this Obamacare and Romneycare? Do you know what they are talking about?

Kate: Well I think that man with the black hair is the Romney one. I don’t who the Obama one is. It’s nice they care don’t you think?

Al: Think about what?

Kate: About? Oh they care. Caring is nice. I’m voting for caring people. That’s all I know.

Al: I’m confused.

Kate: Yes dear, I know. Don’t worry, I’ll make you some pudding when we get home. You always like that.

¶

Henry: Hey, Fred started booing. It’s a wave Alice, let’s join in. BOOOOOOO.

Alice: What are we booing Henry?

Henry: What? Oh, Contraception. At least I think that’s what that sign up there says.

Alice: I never took any of that stuff in my life. I don’t trust nobody messin’ around down there, if you know what I mean.

Henry: Yeah, I know what you mean Alice. You haven’t let me mess around down there in more than twenty-five years.

Alice: Why shut your dirty mouth Henry, or . . .

Henry: Or what Alice, I already sleep in my own room.

Alice: Well, why don’t they talk about something that matters. The girls all talk during our card game every week. I don’t remember anyone ever bringing up THAT subject.  I just want to get my blood thinner pills cheaper. Have they said anything about that yet?

Henry: I think they are coming to it.

¶

Miriam: What’s an earmark, Wilber? They are getting all angry about earmarks. What are they?

Wilber: You know Miriam, the marks on your ears when you have you earrings on too long. You take them off, and there are those marks?

Miriam: What a silly thing to talk about. What did he say?

Wilber: Which one?

Miriam: Either one.

Wilber: Well the one guy says the other guy loved ’em, and he said he would end them. The other guy says you got to be a team player sometimes.

Miriam: He loves them? Is that some sex thing? Sounds nasty to me.  How is the other one gonna end them? I rub my ears– is he gonna do that? I don’t want no stranger rubbing my ears Wilber.

Wilber: Maybe it’s a team?

Miriam: A team rubbing my ears? Now I’m not voting for that. The shuffleboard team is enough for me. Gloria said that Martin might be laid up with that embo-somethingorother, and not be able to play tomorrow. We might need to get a sub. Maybe that fat guy with the white hair on the end would play. Go ask him.

Wilber: I can’t just walk up there and interrupt Miriam. Besides my hip hurts. These chairs aren’t the least bit comfortable you know.

Miriam: I’ll vote for softer chairs.

¶

Liz: Oh, it’s a game. Let’s play!

Mort: What?

Liz: Wake up! It’s a game. You say the first word that comes into your head. The little guy said “consistent” and the next guy said “courage”.  That dark-eyed one? He said “resolute”. What is resolute Mort?

Mort: Resolute, resolute. Let me think. I have heard that word before. I think it was a ship name. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the name of a ship.

Liz: What an odd word to pick. Why is he talking about a ship.

Mort: (standing up and shouting) PROSTATE!!!!

Liz: Sit Down! Mort Sit down. For God’s sake in heaven what are you doing?

Mort: You said it was a game. That was my word. What’s the matter?

Liz: Oh my God, now I missed the fat little fellow. Did you hear his word?

Mort: No but he looks happy don’t you think?

Liz: I think it’s over. You spoiled it Mort, just like you always do.

Mort: What? What did I do?

¶

Hi, I’m Mitt Romney. I hope you’ll vote for me.

Gertie: How nice. You look like a nice man. What are you running for dear?

Sam: Oh goodness Gertie, he’s running for some government thing. Don’t you watch the news?

Gertie: I would but it conflicts with my Wheel of Fortune, you know that. Have you ever been on that young man?

Sherry Peyton, reporting for A Feather Adrift.

 

Can These Folks Be Allowed to Vote?

Tags

debates, Election 2012, GOP, Middle East, voting

Much has been said lately about the efforts of GOP’ers around the country to limit the vote.

Efforts have been under way, and in many places successful in putting up road blocks for those wishing to exercise their right to cast a ballot.

All such efforts have occurred in states that have Republican majorities in their state congresses.

Most have resulted in various forms of Voter ID requirements that are particularly onerous on students, the elderly and minority populations. In some cases a permit to carry a gun is proof enough, while a college ID is not.

This is all in the name of preventing “voter fraud.” This is the argument even though there was something like like less than 400 cases of voter fraud NATION WIDE in the last election, and studies going back into the late 80’s, proved no worse.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that as many as 5 million potential voters could be denied their right to vote by these voter restriction laws.

So it’s a real issue.

Some colleges are re-issuing college IDs to  meet the very specific requirements of laws designed to make their IDs invalid.

Lots of volunteers are massing to help the elderly locate birth certificate alternatives where none were issued when they were born.

It should be noted that there are dozens of anecdotal cases in which people have voted for over 50 years and are well-known in their small towns, yet they will be turned away without “proper ID.” Sometimes people are donating money to pay the legal fees to help these folks get the proper papers.

A lot of lawyers will make a lot of money in order to work all this out.

And it does seem odd that a party would be so intent on trying to deprive so many people of their right to vote.

I mean the party of “the constitution” should be, you would think, the party that defends the right to vote to the death, wouldn’t you think?

When there are only a very very few folks who attempt to vote illegally, and they certainly don’t effect any results, one would think that it would behoove the GOP to vociferously stand on the right to vote against all challenges.

Now, alternatively.

One could make a very good case.

That people, over the age of 15, who are not being paid, and are not compelled, and are not entering a contest for money–who dress like his because they want to, might be of questionable ability to cast a knowing, intelligent vote.

People like this decide to spend money to buy costumes and materiél and dress up in their HOMES, and then go out IN THE STREETS dressed like their favorite hero, or to express their solidarity? with some sports team.

They drive in CARS along FREEWAYS, scaring the bejesus out of normal law-abiding citizens.

They teach your children, and handle your money and do your taxes and other things that we value.

I ask you, if you saw one of these walking insane asylums dressed up in their finery, would you leave your children with them? Give them your cash for safekeeping? Trust them to fix the faucet? Of course not.

And I would argue, they should be prohibited from voting.

Why are the Republicans not fighting to prevent these questionable brain-limited, only partly human beings from voting? Huh?

Oh, I see. Because they are Republicans.

My bad.

♦

Things are so bad for Rick Perry these days, that he can gaffe away, and nobody bothers to mention it. He’s having a free gaffe holiday.

Just say Solynda instead of Soyndra and call it a country. **pat on the head** little Ricky.

Michele Bachmann has taken as of late to touting her bona fides on Israel by telling us that she volunteered at a kibbutz in her young adulthood. Does the bubble-hair know that kibbutz’s were experiments in “collectivism” *GASP* not capitalism?

♦

Meanwhile Newt continued his ugly rhetoric that Palestinians are not a real “people” but “invented” and just “terrorists”. Frankly I thought Mittens had the better argument (freak out I’m agreeing with Mittens now!). Newt is just pandering for Jewish votes of course. His claim that Palestinian children are being taught to hate Israelis in school, is patently false, but hey, when you are making things up for effect, who cares? Certainly not the TeaNutz®, for whom this stuff is just red meat.

♦

Ya have to laugh. As you might suspect, The Blaze does little if any original investigation or reporting. Mostly they reprint others work. Shockingly, they reported a AP item which investigated the claims made by various of the GOP candidates in the last debate, and offered the truth of the various statements and allegations. For instance it found that Michele Bachmann’s claim that Newt was for cap-and-trade, to be true, even though Newt denied it. Similarly it found Mitt’s claim that Obama was the first President to cut Medicare to be false, finding that both Bush and Clinton had also done so.

But Blazey nincompoops can’t stomach that. So they attacked the AP as being. . . .you guessed it. . . . a liberal machine. And various other excuses that it doesn’t matter, because the devil must be defeated.

Sleep well my friends. The sky intends to stay up for at least another day.

Related articles

• Gingrich Targeted At Lively GOP Debate (huffingtonpost.com)
• Chris Weigant: Newt? Really? (huffingtonpost.com)

GOP Polling Well in U-Becka-becka-becka-Stan

Tags

debates, Election 2012, GOP, teabaggers

It seems our intrepid gang of idiots, the GOP field, took the much quoted Vegas phrase to heart: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

At least they were hoping it would. Not a few of them must be wishing they could take back a few words of stupid they uttered last night.

They cut loose. They let it hang out. They shouted, called each other liars, and waved their hands in the best imitation of teacher’s pet vying for the spotlight that has been seen in a good while. There were no adults in the room.

Specifically, Mitty was confronted with the fact that his “lawn care service” of years past employed illegals. Now Perry contends he knew it for a year before stopping the practice. Mitty responded with this gem of a remark: “When I found out, I went to the company and told then ‘I’m running for office for Pete’s sake! I can’t have illegals working for me.'”

Yes, Mitt, that is the right reason for not employing undocumented workers–because it would look back for your campaign. Good job dude.

Mitty also grasped Perry’s shoulder in strong matter, while attempting to get Perry to shut his mouth, so that Mitt could ‘splain away the gardening faux pah. It looked for all the world as if Perry was a hair’s breath away from hauling off and decking said Mitty in the chops.

But the war of words continued with Mitty mixing it up with Santorum over health care and then again with Newt the Grifter over the same thing. This suggests that Mitty is a lot concerned over the lack of love shown him by the public and figured he had to show a lot of manly aggressiveness this time around.

Newt admonished Anderson Cooper as he has done all the moderators for attempting to foster infighting between the candidates “which is not helpful” and then attacking Romney on health care. Then he went further and called the present Congress basically stupid, and pointed out that that referred to “both parties.”

Michele basically waved her hand most of the night, crying to be called on and at the end, insisted that they couldn’t end the program without her being able to mouth her favorite phrase: “And Obama will be a ONE TERM PRESIDENT”, which she then proceeded to do.

The biggest applause line came for Herm Cain’s affirmation that he stood by his remarks that “if you don’t have a job, it’s your own fault” to OWS protesters.The unemployed are to blame. So the GOP remains firmly on the side of Wall Street and against 99% of the population,which is why they played so well in the new country of U-becka-becka-becka-Stan.

Herm seems to have a couple of ploys that he thinks will work when confronted with stupid remarks he has made. First he looks wide-eyed and announces, “it was a joke!” Or he claims that the question was narrower, or somehow he clearly meant A when he said B.

For instance: Herm apparently was asked on a radio show about the Israeli-Palestinian trade of prisoners wherein the Israelis got back one soldier and turned over 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Herm was asked would he be inclined to a similar deal, letting out prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in return for the release of a single American soldier. Herm said he “could see himself doing that.”

Well, the panel went nuts. “We can never negotiate with terrorists” spouted Santorum, who will as well all know, never get that chance. Herm then said, “well the question didn’t include Al Qaeda originally.” When Cooper said, indeed it did, well then Herm was in a bind. “Well I meant to say we cannot negotiate with Al Qaeda”.

But Herm, you said the opposite.

As to 9-9-9. Herm can’t explain why everyone gets it wrong. He just assures you that if you go to his website, you can clearly see that he’s right. It’s apples and oranges that everyone keeps comparing, but it’s only oranges that he’s talking about.

I guess dozens of economists and most Republicans can’t understand the simple logic of it all. I guess only ill-educated folks such as Herm plays to, have the native intelligence to get it.

And before I forget it, Mitt was recently quoted as saying this about the housing problem. He argues that the government is wrong to try to help people out and delay foreclosures and refinance mortgages. “Let the banks proceed to foreclose as rapidly as possible. Let the housing business hit rock bottom. Then the banks can start renting out the properties and hopefully begin selling them. And then this whole problem can start to go away.”

Gosh Mitty, that’s so freakin’ compassionate of you. I’m sure that millions of Americans will just go lay in the street and wait to be run over, and get out of the way, so the housing “problem” can hit bottom. Just to get it over with. Ya know.

Oh, and Michele Bachmann wants you to know, that even if your yearly income is $5,000, she wants you to pay SOMETHING in federal taxes. You know, you can’t feel a part of things, unless you have some skin in the game. So if you are living on less than a hundred bucks a week, you know, just skip a couple of meals of beans and rice, you know, for the good of the country.

All the candidates questioned whether we should be giving foreign aid to other countries any more. Until somebody remembered Israel. Then they all backed up. “Except for Israel! They are our BFF!”

If you want to read more details of the debates then see;

The Rundown News Blog

The Commentariat of October 19 (second section)

Andrew Sullivan collects a host of opinions on last night’s debate.

And don’t miss this resolution from the Tea Party Nation, which asks business people to pledge to not hire a single person until Barack Obama is defeated. I kid you not. Remember this is the base of the GOP. Nice folks huh?

Related articles

• Mitt Romney, Rick Perry Really Dislike One Another (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• As Rick Santorum and Rick Perry attack Romney, GOP frontrunner shows tendency to bristle (boston.com)

McCain Doesn’t Reach Across the Aisle

Tags

Barack Obama, debates, Election 2008, John McCain

I don’t take credit for the following. I owe it to the Contrarian who brought it to my attention during the debates.

I’ll spare you my take on those by the way. You watched ’em and have your own opinion. In general I thought McCain did better than I would have expected, yet the polls seemed to have decided on the side of Obama. I am happy and will leave it at that. But I do wish to address one subject that stuck out, and I believe much can be made of this point point in upcoming days.

McCain touts himself as the Maverick, the man who bucks his own party and reaches across the aisle to embrace Democrats in a determined effort to effect bipartisan agreement on important legislation. For many the argument is not with this assessment, but whether McCain any longer actually does this or rather is it a thing of his past, long discarded in his singleminded drive to achieve this personal goal.

I question the entire idea at all, frankly and I’ll tell you why. McCain says he has a long history of reaching across the aisle. What does this mean? If it means that McCain is willing to embrace anyone who agrees with his point of view on any given subject, then indeed he does. But that is not bipartisanship at all in my book. What McCain actually does, is say that when I have made up my mind, I don’t have any problems with any Democrat who is willing to accede to my opinion coming on board. But this is not at all what reaching across the aisle means.

It means, that one is willing to say, “Look, we have important fundamental differences, but lets look where we agree, and attempt to build bridges across the areas we don’t agree.” That is bipartisanship as I see it. McCain does not do this. And the proof of that is in the debate last night.

Obama was criticized by some for being too agreeable. He started off too many sentences with “John and I agree on. . . .or I think John is right on. . . .” He wasn’t combative enough, so they say. But is this not exactly what a bipartisanship approach looks like? Do you convince someone to change their views or even consider doing that if you don’t soften them up with a few “I agree with you on this and this” remarks?

Now of course, no one expected McCain to change his mind. But Obama was about the notion of setting an example, a presidential example, I might add, that this is the way that conciliatory negotiations go forward. You do not negotiate with someone by continually saying “You’re naive, or you don’t seem to understand, or you don’t seem to get it.” These are belligerent words and guaranteed to make your opponent dig in his heels. They are not the words of a “reacher across the aisle” kinda guy. Not a uniter, but a divider.

So it seems to me that the best case against McCain’s notion that he is the reformer who can reach out to the other side and foster agreement is to bury him in his own words and actions. He made attempts to bully last night. He continually claimed that Obama was unable to grasp concepts, that he didn’t obviously know important things that he McCain already knew. He attempted to paint Obama as some inexperienced and naive child who was in over his head. It is about as far from diplomacy as one can get.

His entire body language was combative. He hunched away from Obama, refused ever to look him in the eye, stared glaringly at the moderator. He grinned smarmily when he thought he had an answer to knock down Obama’s point. He was, in a word, rather snarky, though they called it feisty.

Apparently the American people were not impressed. McCain, so I understand, did poorly with women who perhaps disliked the manner of McCain, and thought Obama a gentleman, quick to give a compliment and always willing to agree with a good point. Surely McCain must have agreed with something Obama said, yet he never once acknowledged that. Does that come off as truthful or merely gamesmanship? I would argue the latter.

It may be for this reason that the majority believe Obama won the debate. Agreed, I think it was close, and so did those polled, but Obama was still given the win, and the voter is the only one who counts. Pundits see things somewhat differently no doubt.

I’m sure McCain’s caretakers are befuddled. I’m sure they thought they won, McCain was literate and didn’t bumble around, though I guess he got a few names wrong. Still, he did well I thought. But as these things go, substance is never quite the issue. It’s appearances and Obama clearly it seemed was more Presidential, whatever that means to you or anyone.

I simply wonder what will happen next time. McCain will undoubtedly try a different ploy. Last night’s did not work. He has painted himself into a corner now with the bailout in addition. He said “sure” to the question of whether he would be voting for the bill when it came to that. No shocking refusal to upset everything at the last moment now. Unless he wants to be branded as flipping once again.

Most suggested that Obama needed not to win, but to weather the storm. He did that. And he looked the part, sounded the part, and was the real bipartisan candidate to boot.

Stay tuned for the circus that will be Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Even the ultra right “National Review Online” is calling for her to withdraw before she destroys McCain’s campaign completely. Nothing but another McCain mistake it seems. There are so many these days, it’s hard to keep track.