Friday, October 24, 2008

Michelle Obama, Pat Buchanan, SNL

Pat Buchanan, getting all sanctimonious, spews forth drivel in asking What if 'SNL' mocked Michelle Obama?

Oh noes! They're making fun of teh Palin!

And then Sarah Palin shows up on SNL and in doing so, validates them, invalidating Buchanan's whiny argument before it was even made.

Lucky for Pat Buchanan, an answer to his question started making its rounds today:

Maya Rudolph
A "Saturday Night Live" alum could be coming back to spoof Michelle Obama!

The hilarious Maya Rudolph is said to be working on her impersonation of America's potential First Lady.

The SNL folks tell ET there's "no official confirmation" but her appearance is "likely."

So there ya go, Pat. Quit yer bitchin'.

In Short: Palin's Makeup Artist

From Huffington:
If Palin's $150,000 shopping spree had Republicans disgusted, then the report that her makeup stylist cost $22,800 for the first two weeks of October should have them livid. The stylist, Amy Strozzi, was apparently paid more than any other McCain staffer during that period.
What the hell are they doing over there?

Ashley Todd is a Damned Liar

Yesterday, if you missed it, brought us news of Ashley Todd, originally from Texas, who was volunteering for McCain in Pittsburgh. Something about getting money from an ATM, a 6'4" black man, her McCain bumper sticker, him taking her money and carving a B on her face for "Barack" and I guess he grabbed her tit too.

This is Ashley Todd after the "incident:"

Ashley Todd

As soon as I heard this story, my initial reaction was Fuckin' morons on both sides. And then, after about 30 seconds of stewing: This is a total hoax.

First off, if you have not noticed, Ashley's B is backwards, as though she scratched up her face in the mirror without the requisite intelligence pertaining to the magical properties of mirrors. And why "B" when "O" is the graphic symbol associated with Obama and his campaign?

Then the police noted she was inconsistent in her story. Then they noticed she was absent from the ATM security tape. Then they gave her a polygraph test.

AP, you're up:
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police say a McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack.

Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division, says 20-year-old Ashley Todd is being charged with making a false report to police.

Todd, of College Station, Texas, initially said a black man robbed her at knifepoint Wednesday night and then cut her cheek after seeing a McCain sticker on her car.
Because the McCain camp needs a little more negative press about race. Schadenfreude is yummy.

McCain Backer > Craigslist > Creative Services

It has since been removed, but thanks to Jen, I captured it in time:

McCain Backer on Craigslist

It reads:

Ill be the first in line in a fight socialism melitia go usa

Why are the loudest voices the most ignorant?

Another nod to Idiots For McCain. Or for Obama. Or whatever the fuck he's saying.

ACORN Hate

Good morning. Ready for hate?

This is a link to ACORN's answering machine messages.

These are McCain's Supporters.

Click and do not drink any liquids while listening. You may just spit through your nose and then vomit and then punch the vomit telephone and then tear out to scream at your local RNC office, flinging fist/phone vomit on the person you speak with.

And, sadly, I keep hearing Cincinnati and the 513 area code. I only do what I can here; ignorance permeates the air in Southwestern Ohio. But I must also say that the Obama lawn signs are almost as prevalent as McCain. There is hope.

I fear for Barack Obama when he's elected in 12 days.

I fear for America.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Sheep Go to Heaven, Goats Go to Hell

Rep. Virgina Foxx spoke about anti-American energy. "We're gonna pretty soon separate the sheep and the goats." Huh?



One of my favorite bands, Cake, has a lovely song about just this:



The Hackabilly Vote

DVICE has a great article/app that allows you to click on your state and see exactly how susceptible to hacking those voting machines that you'll be seeing on November 4th are.

DVICE link above: article. Click picture for app.

Ohio Voting Machine Ranking

Ohio? Not so good.

How does your state fare?

Wednesday's McCain, Republican Hate

Marcia Stirman
Angry, stifled woman afraid of teh blacks

From Alamogordo:
ALBUQUERQUE The chairwoman of an Otero County Republican women's group on Tuesday defended a letter to the editor in which she wrote, "I believe Muslims are our enemies."

Marcia Stirman, a 56-year-old interior decorator, also called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama "a Muslim socialist."

A national Islamic group expressed outrage over Stirman's letter and called on state and national Republican Party officials to repudiate the publication of "anti-Muslim comments."

"Because these hate-filled remarks were made by a prominent Republican, it is incumbent on state and national GOP officials to repudiate her divisive and intolerant views," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Officials with the Republican Party of New Mexico had no immediate comment.

The letter ran Tuesday in the Alamogordo Daily News. It was titled "Why I'm a Republican" and listed 16 reasons for her party affiliation.

The list ends with Stirman saying Obama is "a Muslim socialist." She also wrote, "I believe war is a fact of life and we should always win."

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

McCain and the Lollipop Guild

I promised a Photoshop.

McCain Lollipop Guild

More Terrorism? How Low can John Go?

From last week, but caught this at Huffington (hard to keep up with all the RNC's desperate measures). This mailer went out last week from the RNC:

RNC Terrorist Front Image

RNC Terrorist Inside Image

In case you skimmed that first image, it is a photograph of a plane in front of an airport terminal (luggage gives it away, presents plausible deniability), so framed to appear as though it is about to crash into a building, viewed from inside, people in silhouette, imagery obviously composed to evoke 9/11 and - paired with the inside - imply that Obama supports the 9/11 terrorists.

What the fuck?

John McCain's response when asked if he agreed with this mailer?

"Absolutely."



John McCain has gone from respectable but un-electable to not-so-respectable adulterer to angry, hateful war-monger to today's new low rating of sad, sorry, desperate, despicable human being. Can we get worse? Is the next step killing Americans and framing Obama?

Would you be okay with this if you'd just given the RNC some cash?

The upside, of course, is that it proves McCain is a liar about running a respectable campaign while wasting time and money on hate which, according to all his own polling, is not what anyone wants to hear. Pull up the boots and keep digging, asshole.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Wilkow Arguments

Yes, still more on Andrew Wilkow.

I originally wrote, after getting Sirius Radio, about someone I'd never heard about before: Andrew Wilkow. Why? He's a right-wing nutter and drives me insane some days. What do I mean by "some days?" I listen to him as long as I can stand because he's got a unique perspective, bases his many arguments in the founding documents of our country, and I respect his opinion even if I don't agree with it. Most of the time.

I'm still getting comments on my original post (most anonymous right-wing cowards with bad grammar skills), and one came through the other day that needed notice:

"How can you say Rush or Wilkow make things up?"

Rush Limbaugh makes shit up all the damned time, misappropriates stats to bounce his opinions, and cherry-picks quotes with inferences designed to fire up his ignorant, worshipful base. Talk about messianic. There are dozens of sites that'll give you a rundown; this isn't one of them.

But I figured Andrew deserved a little more. So I specifically listened to see if anything didn't quite jive. And, damn, shit just didn't jive.

It started with Andrew stating that the top three leading causes of death in America were smoking-related cancer, obesity, and promiscuous sex ("AIDS-related death" is what he said). While I have no reason to argue with the smoking-related cancer (and other problems associated with it) and obesity (and problems associated with it), but promiscuous sex?

I looked at the primary avoidable causes of death in America and compiled a list of references from the CDC, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and The Mayo Clinic.

They all list things like heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, flu, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and septicemia.

Where does that gay AIDS sex come in? It doesn't. If he was citing something, I could not find it, and everything that could be found wasn't even close. This would be one of those "made up" things, skewered truth to twist his argument.

But what was the argument? It was an argument against Universal, socialized medicine. Unfortunately for Andrew, Barack Obama's health care plan is not "Universal health care" as he repeatedly claimed.

The argument itself centered around how wrong the socialism aspect of health care is if someone who smokes or is obese or has promiscuous sex and taxes the system unfairly because everyone is paying into the same system but some people are getting more out of it. That, encapsulated, makes a bit of sense.

But where does the argument end when it comes to practical applications in a "perfect," capitalist-driven medical society? Well, kind of in the suck state it's in now: controlled by an insurance collusion where competition is not defined by gaining the most customers, but by cutting costs, dropping risk, and leaving even those with insurance unable to get the treatment they may need. We've got differences in cost for people who smoke and some creeping up for obesity. Next comes labs - high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. Then DNA. And then the insurance companies raise and raise and raise rates at will, cite whatever they want, and are unaccountable to anyone. Why? The Great Right Wing Deregulation Machine.

That's no way to keep people healthy. Our form of health care in America is a collapsing disaster. And socializing it could only be a good thing.

Why not? Every government employee is currently receiving socialized, government-controlled health care. Personally, I pay property taxes based on the value of my home and have equal access to services such as fire and police. Do they take into account whether or not I don't lock my doors or have a gas stove or an open fireplace or smoke in my house, all things that increase the chances of me requiring those services? Nope. Why? We live in a society where parts of it are already socialized. And those parts work pretty damned well.

And as for socialism, The Republican Vice Presidential candidate is governor of a state that holds socialized, collective control of the oil in the state and every resident gets a check cut by the state. Now that's socialism.


One final note on the show. Andrew Wilkow, railing against the red herring that is conservative ACORN scare tactics, asked "Why would you have to file one fake ballot?" What follows are actual facts:
- No one is committing voting fraud. That happens when you vote. Hence the name.
- No one is submitting fake ballots. See above.
- Employees of ACORN are not perpetuating an organized attack at the heart of democracy; they are idiots trying to pad their pockets, making this employee fraud.
- ACORN is the victim of this fraud.
- Not one fictional person, including Mickey Mouse, will show up to vote on November 4th because they do not exist in this reality, nor would they have a valid ID to match their fictional address.
- Federal law states that every voter registration collected must be submitted, even if it appears fraudulent.

This is a non-issue, and the fact that Andrew Wilkow took this tack, wielded the purposefully-confused righty rhetoric designed to grow fear, well that makes him nothing more than a tool on this topic, an appendage of the Republican Terror Machine. And while this example - mixing up the language, turning a non-issue into a scare tactic - is not him making things up, if he's as smart and "intellectual" as he says he is, he should know better. And if he does, then he's purposefully lying. And that's even worse.

Obama to be Tested. No Shit.

So Biden says something not just reasonable, but completely and utterly true: Barack Obama will be tested as President of the United States.

Why is that true? Because every POTUS is challenged. W was challenged by September 11, 2001 (and unlocking the oval office). If McCain were to be elected, he, too, would face challenges.

But McCain, struggling so hard, tugs at the hem of America's dress like a little dandy in a sailor suit, holding a lollipop, shouting "Mom, Maaaaam! Barack's not ready. Did you see that; even Joe said so, that he'll be tested. See Mom, I tolja so. I tolja. Barack's not ready. Mom! Are you listening? And Colin only likes black people too, Mom."

What an ass. Photoshop coming on this one.

Linktastica! Returns! Yay!

I finally took the three minutes to put together my famous blogroll, Linktastica! with the addition of Jennyfur's Sketchbook & Oddities, a delicious compliment of original art and photography from a friend and amazingly talented woman.

Sorry it's not the fancy blog-following list Blogger has that we can set up; when I've got an hour to load each URL individually, I'll get right on that, or: Hey Blogger! How about a bulk upload?!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Obama Bucks

Happy Monday; here's your daily taste of Republican racism.

Diane Fedele, the president of the Republican women's club in San Bernardino County, came up with "Obama Bucks," a representation of what food stamps would look like if Obama was elected:

Obama Bucks

LA Times got some surprising words from Diane:
"If I was racist, I would have looked at it through racist eyes," she said. "I am not racist, which is why it probably didn't register."

Club member Kristina Sandoval agreed.

"None of us are racists," she said.

The use of watermelon, ribs and fried chicken was innocent, she said.

"Everyone eats those foods, it's not a racial thing."
Diane and Kristina are either lying or stupid. I suspect they are lying. And stupid.

Luckily, the result of this stunt is only to fire up Democrats and destabilize any argument from the Republicans that "hey, we're not racists."

It's regression like this - oh, and Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama (YAY!)- that will keep the momentum up in these last two weeks and could win us the election.

Note I said "could." This is not over until November 5th. Don't get complacent; don't get comfortable; if you haven't voted early, get off your ass on the 4th and make a couple marks on a piece of paper for yourself, for America.

It will matter.