NOT SAFE FOR WORK but fun fun fun!
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Friday, October 31, 2008
John McCain's Response to Obama's 30 Min TV Spot
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TwitVote Today
Have a twitter account? Head on over and cast your mock-ballot! 
click the pic.
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Assclowns Of the Week Up
Image Downloaded from the linked site
Welcome Back to Pottersville
Once again has a great edition of the "Assclowns" series.
JurassicPork, rocks out loud.
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Dole Finds New Low
Photo Dowloaded from Seattle TimesEven In the Scope of Republican Behavior This is Reprehenisble
Dole's 30-second advertisement shows clips of some members of an atheist advocacy group — the Godless Americans Political Action Committee — talking about some of their goals, such as taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and removing "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency. It goes on to question why Hagan went to a fundraiser at the home of a man who serves as an adviser to the group.
Hagan is a Presbyterian church elder who teaches Sunday school. On Wednesday, her attorneys demanded the ad come down within 24 hours. On Thursday, Hagan's attorneys filed a lawsuit accusing Dole of defamation and libel.
In a television ad this week, the North Carolina Republican questioned the Christian credentials of Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. The state senator responded angrily, filing a lawsuit Thursday and airing an ad that says Dole is breaking the Bible's Ninth Commandment by bearing false witness.
Hagan is hitting back, and hitting hard. Libby Dole needs to go down with the rest of the Republican slimebags. They deserve to become, as a political entity, as dead, dead, dead, dead, as the whigs for what they have done to the nation.
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Opening Up the Random Name That Tune Gates
Here's How To Get In On The Fun
First off, put your iPod, or other mp3 player on shuffle. (you can also use your custom mix station from Pandora or other internet radio)
Take the first ten tunes. (cull out the instrumentals)
Write down the title and the artist.
Email it to steviebcl1 at aol.com
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Homesick on Halloween
Halloween makes me homesick. Actually the whole fall-season does. I am from Philly- and the north east is the BEST place to be in the fall, even in a regular year when we are not WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!! Did I mention that I am a Phillies fan?
One of my favorite things to do when I still lived in Philly-- and not far away here in Tokyo, was to go to the Henri David Ball.
Henri is a fantastic and famous jewelery designer in Philadelphia and a wonderful leader in the gay community and every year for years and years he has thrown one of the most kick ass Halloween costume balls evah! He even changes his amazing costumes multiple times all night long (top photo one of his creations from last year)
I used to go EVERY year. It was a not to miss on the calendar.
The slogan for the party has remained the same.
Don't Come as You ARE, Come as You Want To Be.
I have seen some of the best most creative costumes in the world at that party. One year I went as "Candyland" that was a lot of fun to make. especially the hershy kiss choker and sexy boots. I did a whole Tank girl thing one year, and once I went as a pumpkin and my date went as Peter. (oh my!)
But my best efforts never held a candle to some of the amazing costumes I have seen at that party. WOW.
At the stroke of midnight the runway contest begins. Always has 2 parts, first half is the cross dressers part- high fashion- gorgeous! Then the Halloween costume portion. Amazing stuff. Big prizes, and always some famous judges. Ed Rendell was a judge once when he was still our mayor and not yet our gov.
This photographer, Cliff Mautner, has some great shots up (including the one at the top of the post) from last year.
In a political year the campaign costumes are always outstanding. I am sure that the GLTB community will be out in Anti-Palin force this year! I hope I can find some photos online after this weekend.
The day after Halloween, "The Day of the Dead" is then celebrated down on South Street. Great cure for your Halloween Hang Over.
Philly, where the Phun is!
Crossposted from Fighting Liberals
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Friday Random Name That Tune. . .Littlest Gator's Edition
The Littlest Gator Sent Me These Ten Tunes Off Her iPod
I've tracked down the first four lines of the songs which are presented here.
The answer key is posted up at Harp and Sword
1. (extra point available on this for naming the first album it appeared on)
D. Potter scores first and often with Fleetwood Mac "Landslide" the extra points are still up in the air. Ric scores the extra point on Landslide first being recorded on the amazing "Buckingham/Nicks" album.
I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down
2. kenga got Regina Spector's "Fidelity"
I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
3. D. Potter again with Indigo Girls' "Galileo" (a fine song, from a fine duo)
Galileo's head was on the block
The crime was looking up for truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth
4.
What is it that makes me just a little bit queasy?
There's a breeze that makes my breathing not so easy
I've had my lungs checked out with X rays
I've smelled the hospital hallways
5. Soundacious picks up on "When Two and Two are Five" by The Story
When two and two are five
You're gonna go to work like any other day
Things might be much different
God might be a vengeful one
6. D. Potter scores again with Katrina & the Waves "Walking on Sunshine"
Oh! Ohhhh yeeeh
I used to think maybe you loved me now baby I'm sure
And I just can't wait till the day when you knock on my door
Now everytime I go for the mailbox , gotta hold myself down
Cos I just wait till you write me your coming around
7. D. Potter gets Mike Doughty's "27 Jennifers"
I went to school with 27 Jennifers
16 Jenns, 10 Jennies, and then there was her
It’s the sweet shine of,
Yeah, force of divine love
The blessed arrival of you
8. Soundacious recognised "A Case of You" by the wonderful, wickedly talented, and above all, kind, Joni Mitchell (you know I love you forever Joni, you also know how very rarely I say that)
Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, "Constant in the darkness
Wheres that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar."
9. bunter picked Amy Winehouse "You Know I'm No Good" (and i will confess here, again, my guilty, guilty love for miss amy. i wish she could get herself a backup band of old pros in recovery who would be able to show her how to rock the shit out of sobriety)
Meet you downstairs in the bar and hurt,
Your rolled up sleeves in your skull t-shirt,
You say "What did you do with him today?"
And sniffed me out like I was Tanqueray,
10. JeffH spotted Tori Amos' "Winter"
Snow can wait
I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose
Get my new boots on
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Obama Interviews
Obama on Rachael Maddow, Part 1
Obama on Rachel Maddow, Part 2
Obama on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Happy Halloween! 4 Days Left
Photo: Seth Wenig-AP
Work hard so we come out ahead, just like this Pumpkin. Go make some phonecalls, offer to help someone get to their polling place, plan your own election day strategy for voting and assisting voters.
Need a little break? Here's a few Halloween Trivia questions for you.
1.The first Jack-o-Lanterns were made out of what?
2. Which 1993 movie feature characters such as Max, Dani, and Allison?YES Hocus Pocus
3. Who sings "Monster Mash"?D. Potter gets a treat for... Bobby "Boris" Pickett (not related to Wicked Wilson). He died a couple years ago.
4. According to legend, how do you kill a Werewolf?you have to use a silver bullet to kill a werewolf, right? Or maybe Nair?"
5. What candy bar consists of layers of a peanut butter crunch center, coated in milk chocolate and made its debut in 1936?is correct, it is indeed....5th Avenue.
6. Why was candy corn revolutionary when it was created?
7. Who is the main character in Washington Irving's Halloween story "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?Ichabod Crane is the main character in Irving's story. Well, him and the Headless Horseman of myth, but I think Crane is who you're looking for.
8. What candy bar was named for the Mars family's favorite horse?: a horse named Snickers?
9. What phobia do you suffer from if you have an intense fear of Halloween?
10. In Medieval times, what was commonly used (eaten) as a cure for leprosy?
Put your answers in the thread. Virtual Candy Corn for correct answers.
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Thursday, October 30, 2008
Voting Tips
photo Frank Siteman/Allposters
How To Have YOUR Vote COUNT
Vote early: Group News Blog STRONGLY recommends you vote EARLY.
Voting by mail: If you have already received a vote-by-mail ballot, make SURE to vote right away. (Don't forget postage and to sign the security envelope. It is your signature under penalty of perjury on the security envelope, matched against your signature on file with the elections office which validates your ballot. Without your signature your ballot will not be counted.)
Personally, I think if you have an opportunity to drop your ballot off at a polling site in person, you should do so. That way you KNOW your ballot got there; otherwise you are relying on the Post Office... which is reliable. However this election, personally, I want to be CERTAIN. It's a little thing, but in Washington State in 2004, the Statehouse was decided by 133 votes.
Provisional ballots: If you know you are a registered voter and someone tries to challenge your vote or tries to make you vote on a "provisional" ballot, insist they contact their supervisor or the county elections commissioner. In the 2004 election depending on the state, between 30-38% of the more than 1.6 million provisional ballots cast were not counted.
DO NOT VOTE ON A PROVISIONAL BALLOT IF YOU KNOW YOU ARE A REGISTERED VOTER. INSIST ON YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE.
If you have trouble, call the national voter protection hotline at 1-877-US-4-OBAMA (1-877-874-6226).
Straight-party voting: Don't do it. If your ballot lets you check one box and vote for all Democrats, don't. Seems like a great idea. Problem is, the programing is easy to screw up and in some states, voting the straight-party ticket means you've NOT voted for president.
Instead, vote for each candidate individually. Just look for the "D" for Democratic Party after their name. Then make certain the election software doesn't flip the vote on the screen in front of your eyes. Of course, if you have a paper ballot that won't be possible.
Paper ballot: Ask for a paper ballot. Even if they have touch-screen or other electronic machines, ask for a paper ballot. If they have one, ask them to give it to you. You don't need to explain -- although "it's easier for my disability to work with paper" is simple to say. When they ask you what your disability is, say "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it's really none of your business. May I have a paper ballot now please?" Then keep your mouth shut as you stare them down till they give you what you asked for. *smiles sweetly*
If you are voting in person, make CERTAIN to LEAVE ENOUGH TIME. More people will vote Tuesday, November 4 than in any election in U.S. history. This is why we want you to vote early if at all possible.
Find Your Polling Place NOW. If you can vote early, vote early.
Problems: Take a CAMERA or VIDEO CAMERA with you. Record your votes, especially if you have electronic touch-screen voting systems, the kind which have been "flipping votes." The only way to prove the systems are flipping votes is with VIDEO. Video the screen as you vote. Watch carefully to make certain your vote does not get flipped for a candidate or initiative you are against. If that happens, STOP.
Velvet RevolutionGot all that?
What To Do If You See Voting Machines Flipping Votes
Early voting has begun. We strongly recommend using paper ballots whenever possible. Many states allow the use of paper ballots, but you have to ask for one. Ask.But in some states and counties, voters are required to use the electronic voting machines. And there are a growing number of reports about electronic voting machines flipping some votes from one candidate to another.
So if you're voting on an electronic voting machine and you see your votes being flipped (or if the machine malfunctions in any other way), what should you do?
Here are some suggestions from election integrity experts at TrueVote.us, and from Emily Levy of Velvet Revolution's StandingForVoters.org and Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.org.
- Get the machine's serial number, if possible
- Call over a poll supervisor to observe the problem
- Insist on filling out a problem report
- Refuse to vote on that machine
- Request that the machine be taken out of service and impounded for later forensic examination
- Tell all the voters waiting in line exactly which machine flipped your vote (third machine from the left, or whatever)
- Report the problem via election integrity hotlines, twitter, and the voter suppression wiki. Information on how to do that is here. [Jesse: Also call the national voter protection hotline at 1-877-US-4-OBAMA (1-877-874-6226)]
- Call the county, city, and state election offices and report the problem.
Find those phone numbers here.- Call reporters and tell them about the problem
And also, please keep in mind that not seeing flipped votes does not indicate that votes are recorded correctly, as they can be flipped invisibly. That's just one reason why we strongly recommend using paper ballots whenever possible.
Simple Tips...
- Vote early. Make SURE your friends and family vote also.
- If voting by mail, use postage and sign the security envelope.
- Don't vote "the straight party" line. Vote for each individual candidate.
- If voting in person, go early and be prepared to wait.
- Don't let people make you vote "provisionally." Insist on a regular ballot.
- Photograph/video your voting process.
- If there is trouble with your machine, demand a different machine.
- Then contact everyone with your photos/videos (including GNB.)
It's not to late to DONATE TO YOUR FAVORITE CANDIDATES.
Please let us know of your voting adventures.
We'll keep opening voting threads between now through Election Day.
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Palin Power
The Gov. and her Super Hero Transport the "Bat(shit-crazy) Bible Bike"
"Jesus rode a dinosaur, You becha! But I am sure he would have preferred, ya know, to ride this, also...too."
Cooking With Dani
Banana Bread!
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (3 medium, but 1 more never hurts a thing)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
*optional 1 cup chopped nuts, raisins or other dried fruit
Peel the bananas, and fork mash, or, if you're lazy like me stick them in the bowl of the stand mixer and place it on "stir."
Add in the butter, and the sugar and cream all together until smooth.
Mix in the buttermilk, vanilla, flour, baking soda and salt, in that order, and mix on low until all ingredients are moistened and incorporated. Stir in nuts or dried fruit by hand.
Divide into two standard loaf pans, or turn into one greased and floured baking pan and bake at 350° for an hour. Bread is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan.
For extreme wonderful good good goodie goodness, slather a fresh from the oven warm chunk of this with Nutella®. Nummmers.
UPDATE!
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All Hallow's Eve Pre-Pumpkin Open Thread
Are you going to any Halloween Parties this weekend?
Are you wearing a costume? Working on costumes with other family members? What are you going to be?
Any particular plans, ghost stories to share, halloween horror stories, happy memories, plans for binge candy eating, (or in MB's case, making)? Share here!
One of my favorite Halloween stories ever-- A guy who came to one of our old parties as the invisible man, totally bandaged up in a trench coat, no one knew who he was all night, he had totally faked us out by calling that morning to say he was sick and couldn't come but that the wife was coming anyway (he did a very convincing sick guy) Anyway, everyone thought they knew who it was and all manner of inappropriate things were whispered at him. One gal was so sure it was an old boyfriend of hers that she groped him a big after a few beers... The unveiling at the end of the night was priceless. (she was pretty embarrassed!) And his wife never let her forget it!
Have fun! And we have some more Halloween threads on the way.
Also-- if you have any good photos send them to me by email and I will post them up! There's more...
A Human Don Rickles Punchline
More Fun From The Gang That Couldn't Campaign Straight
It was the Mighty, Mighty Driftglass who I first noted saying some one or thing was enough of a a failure where “they could fuck up a two-car funeral procession”. That nifty turn of phrase always stuck with me, as one would have to be just a total deficient to manage such a fantastic feat of “FAIL”.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has managed to smash up both clown cars in their sad motorcade of a campaign. Whether it was the ill-fated and embarrassing “My Act Isn't Together, And I'm Taking It Off The Road” debacle of his campaign “suspension” during the pivotal early days of the financial meltdown, or his damaging Ayers dog-whistling for weeks, or his craven pushing of the Ashley Todd “Chifferobe-gate™” hoax, it has been a cornucopia of rake-steps and thumb-hammerings so abundant that the late night talk shows would have to start at 9 p.m. EST just to have enough time to cover them all.
John McCain was bad enough, what with David Letterman slashing at his integrity—and that's exactly what Dave was doing, and damaging him badly—for the weeks after his punk-assed reneging on a show appearance, but it has been Sarah Palin and her proud—almost giddy embrace of “teh stupid” that has been the hearty, bottomless cup of “cringe comedy” that never lets you leave the table.
When people can tale your exact words and mannerisms, do them verbatim and bring the house down, you have become a joke. A bi-pedal, opposable-thumbed, clothes-wearing joke.
(Cue generic 1950's Doo-Wop music in the background, with shoys of bobby-soxers and greasers shimmying at a sock-hop)
Who can forget these all-time hits?(On her opinion of the Bush Doctrine:) “In what respect, Charlie?” (On what news she reads:) “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.” (On what Supreme Court decisions she disagrees with) Paraphrase: “Du-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-hhhh?”
Yes, you get all the classics, but folks, if you keep watching this train wreck—THERE'S MORE! There's the “wink” at the debate! Her 'I'm a Ha-a-a-ckeee mahm!' appearance at the Philadelphia Flyers opener where she dropped the ceremonial puck to a chorus of boos so loud that it has now been discovered that the team's wingnut owner ordered canned cheers piped in over the arena's P.A. system to drown out the crowd's displeasure!
A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-nnnnnd most recently, this tuneful ditty of snake-bit, you-can't-make-this-stuff-up, “just...give it up” gold...
Goalie Injured After Tripping on Palin Carpet
Filed at 11:50 p.m. ET
ST. LOUIS (AP) --Blues goalie Manny Legace left after one period Friday night with a hip injury that occurred when he slipped on the carpet placed on the ice for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The Alaska governor dropped the ceremonial first puck before the Blues hosted the Los Angeles Kings. A narrow carpet walkway was placed from the gate at the Blues bench to center ice for Palin, her husband and two of her daughters.
Just before the ceremony, Legace was the first player onto the ice for St. Louis. A team official pointed to the carpet. But Legace said the official moved his own foot from the carpet just as Legace stepped down, causing the carpet to slide.
Legace fell, then gingerly made his way to the crease.
After Legace's mishap, the official rolled up enough of the carpet so other players wouldn't have to step on it.
Legace described the injury as a strained left hip flexor. He doesn't believe it is serious but said it is painful. He said he won't play Saturday when the Blues host Florida, but wasn't sure if he'd miss any additional games.
“I felt a pull right away,”' Legace said. “'I was hoping it would just go away.”
But after making his first save, the injury felt worse, Legace said. He played one period, giving up two goals on 12 shots.
Yes, you read it right...Sarah Palin couldn't even go to a Goddamned NHL hockey game without a star player getting injured as a direct result of her bubble-headed, doom-trailing presence.
He tripped and busted his ass on the carpet they laid out for her.
Can ya'll do nothing right? This is your whole schtick, ain't it? Drop a puck, kill a moose, I dunno, pull some strings and get a dude you don't like fired? You're supposed to rock at this stuff...what happened? The hell with Steve Schmidt, is “Bad Luck Schleprock” running this joke of a campaign?
You remember Schleprock, right...
“Wowzy-wowzy-
wooooooo?”
But really, the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this story in the news was the image of a beet-red and infuriated Don Rickles leather-lunging from the cheap seats up top as the whole P.R. bed-shit went down, “You hockey puck!”, at Palin and the assembled coterie of tone-deaf campaign gits who yes, as Drifty put it, “could fuck up a two car funeral”—and in fact have for the last five awful weeks.
They have become a punch-line. A human, Don Rickles punchline. “You Hockey Pucks!” Classic.
And to the esteemed Senator from Arizona, after your haterific words the last two days about World Series. delays, playing the Arab-hate card, and crying poor over Obama's having money to run last night's ad when your ass tried to opt out of public campaign financing yourself in February, there is another classic Rickles punchline and album title that sums you up just as succinctly...just as perfectly as “You Hockey Puck!”...
There's more...
Obama Yard Sign Victories
Obama Yard Sign Victories
Over the last month, there have been a number of local news stories here in Austin, Texas about Presidential campaign signs as a symbol of free speech. The first one to break concerned University of Texas students Connor and Blake Kincaid (cousins) who shared a dorm room and decided to put Obama posters in their dorm window. They were told by university officials to remove the signs, as the school has a specific policy in place for more than ten years prohibiting the posting of political signs on windows or doors belonging to UT. The Kincaids refused to remove their signs and went public about the issue, claiming it denied them freedom of speech and enlisting the support of campus Republicans as well as Democrats.
University of Texas students Blake Kincaid (left) and his cousin and roommate, Connor Kincaid, are seen outside their room at the Brackenridge Hall Dormitory in Austin, Texas. Photo by Jay Janner.
Their tactic initially failed, however. The University held a swift administrative hearing and punished the cousins by barring them from registering for spring classes. News coverage of the fight intensified, with continued bipartisan support. TV stories showed representatives from campus Democrat and Republican groups urging all UT students to put a sign of their choice in their dorm window, thus forcing the school to hold thousands of disciplinary hearings. A day later the University of Texas decided to suspend its rule against displaying political signs in dorm windows pending review by a committee of students and staff. The Obama signs stayed up.
A story from KEYE-TV on October 16th tried to depict the local yard sign vandalism as a bipartisan problem, but the last sentence of the story reveals "Austin police have received 29 calls about political signs stolen or vandalized in September and October. 19 of them were Obama signs, 5 were McCain, and 5 were unspecified." One Austin woman, Melissa Balsam, erected a replacement Obama sign above her American flag, at the ten-foot level. This too was stolen during daylight hours, so her current effort is "now affixed 20 feet off the ground, nailed down and duct-taped to her house."
When an Obama supporter in another part of the country set up a surveillance camera to videotape whoever kept returning to his neighborhood to rip down all the Obama signs, that bit of film and interview was played over two cycles on all three local stations.
Now, Shannon Bennett of Northwest Austin has made national news by her response to repeated theft of her Obama yard sign. She purchased 12 cans of spray paint and created a permanent Obama symbol 14 feet across on her lawn. It's a work of art, and even her Republican neighbor admires it. Watch the story below for details. Creativity and insisting on your right to speak is an unbeatable combination.
(From KXAN news)
How Many Sarah Palins Can You Fit Into A Lenscrafters?
How Many Sarah Palins Can You Fit Into A Lenscrafters?
It was a bumper crop on David Letterman last night. He reprised a stunt he does regularly, sending large numbers of people dressed in particular costumes into a business near his recording studio and filming the reactions -- i.e., how many Spidermans can we fit into a Jamba Juice? But this time, it was how many women dressed as Sarah Palin can we fit into a Lenscrafters?
Usually nobody notices or reacts. Which is the joke.
Last night, however, after sending in three different Sarah Palins, all of whom stood primly in the front glass doorway facing the camera across the sidewalk, Dave sends in another two Sarah Palins at once. At this point (up to 5 Palins in view), people on the street start pointing it out to each other. One guy stops to take a photo of his own. An employee of Lenscrafters, an uptight-looking white guy in a suit, is moved to action. Instead of talking to the Sarah Palins, however, he comes out, notices the guy with the camera, and goes to him, apparently thinking he must be behind he stunt. Amazing, how sexism works: It must be the nearest man in charge, not the phalanx of women actually doing the action themselves.
As this is going on behind the manager's back, Dave sends in seven more Sarah Palins. The guy with the camera apparently argues "Hey, it's not me", and the manager notices another bystander also taking a photo. Agitated, he finally turns to go back into Lenscrafters and discovers there are now 16 Sarah Palins clustered in the front of the store.
Dave has now run out of Sarah Palin costumes. He sends in a dog and two space aliens. The manager disappears into the back of the Lenscrafters. Dave sends in the remaining eight folks, dressed as (among other things) a cowboy, a football player, Jesus, Superman, Ironman, and a fat Spiderman.
Enjoy it while you can. Dave also had Alec Baldwin as a guest last night, who talked about his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live and meeting Sarah Palin. He called her Bible Spice. You can watch that segment here.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
TLG Food for Thought, Oct. 28th 2008
Here's a trade show that I wouldn't mind attending.
The French just kicked off the 14th Annual Paris Chocolate Show, celebrating all things cacao. Growers, producers and artisans gather to share their knowledge and products with the world.
Oct. 28: A chocolate model of the Eiffel Tower sits on display at the Chocolate Show in Paris. Benoit Tessier-Reuters
Can't make it to the City of Lights this week? The show moves to NYC next week at Pier 94, 711 12th Avenue and 55th Street.
Two interesting Chocolate reads that I had fun with last year.
Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light by Mort Rosenblum and The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by Joël Glenn Brenner
Sweet-tooth waking up now? Scroll back a few days and you can learn how to make some chocolate marshmallows with Dani and MB.
Me? I am going to go browse some cookbooks.
Free Download of a Damned Good Song
James McMurtry "We Can't Make It Here"
Is available for a free download. CLICK HERE!
"best American protest song since 'Masters of War'"
Stephen King.
I agree that this is one of the best political comment songs written in a very long time.
Little Sarah Was Day Dreaming Again
Inaugural Aspirations, 1/20/2013
"I wonder if it is too soon to go dress shopping, I saw a great little number at Neiman Marcus the other day..."
Obama National Address #001: Open Thread/Live Blogging
Open Thread/Live Blogging.
LIVE from the Seattle Campaign for Change Office, at the GNB News Desk, this is Jesse Wendel.
Mostly I'm going to just watch the event. Because Obama's so dreamy. *laughs*
No, um, I'm going to write. And from time to time I'll refresh the page so you can see what I'm writing.
You may take advantage of the comments section.
I'll be updating this both from the 8 ET feed, and the 8 PT feed. As well as the constant analysis between from the network news stations where everyone and their brothers will have opinions.
Rock and roll.
LIVE -- EAST COAST FEED (5 pm PT)
It's an infomercial.
Health care.
Economy. "The bottom fell out. We're going through the worst economy crisis since the great depression. I'll ensure that you, the middle class, gets paid back first."
Middle class tax cut.
Freeze foreclosures for 90 days.
Elderly people with pensions. Commitment to pensions SHOULD HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW. People should be able to retire with dignity and respect.
Energy independence. Reduce dependence on mid-eastern oil. Five million green jobs which can not be outsourced. Clean coal. (Note: Aaaarrgh.) Wind, solar.
Iraq. Spending $10 billion a month. Need to look at bringing that war to a close. It's time to spend some of that money right here in America. How many schools could that build? How many scholarships?
I'm not worried about Exxon. I'm worried about the guy who has worked 20 years and suddenly sees his job going overseas. That's the guy I'm fighting for.
(Note: Many of these are intercut with stories of "real Americans" whose stories illustrate the point. And with Governors talking about Obama's plan.)
Education. Starts at home. Read to your children. (He tells some of his personal story, about the absence of his father. Then about how his mother raised him, and how he grumbled at age eight.) Early childhood education. More teachers. Higher standards and pay. Every American should have access to an affordable college education.
Every American should have affordable health care. You can keep your same coverage and your same doctor.
My mother in the last months of her life was reading insurance forms while the insurance companies were saying 'maybe there is a pre-existing condition.' This is wrong.
Michelle: He calls [his daughters] every night and talks to them as long as they need.
Obama directly into the camera, American flag off his shoulder: I will never hesitate to protect our country. Be Commander in Chief. Curb Russian aggression. I will also never forget that when I send our forces into battle I am sending sons, daughters, mothers, fathers.
I will always tell you what I think and where I stand.
CUT TO: LIVE FROM FLORIDA INSIDE AN AUDITORIUM
America -- the time for change has come. In six days we can choose hope over fear.
If you will knock on some doors for me, if you will make some phone calls for me, if you will cast your ballot for me...
Together we will not just win Florida, we will win this country and we will change the world.
Thank you.
END OF LIVE EAST COAST FEED
I just added the infomercial to the top of the post. *smiles*
Update: 7:45 pm PT
The overwhelming consensus of the Netroots of the East Coast feed is the infomercial was BRILLIANT.
McCain has bupkis with which to answer. Especially as Obama is speaking to our greatest hopes and dreams while McCain is dog-whistling racism, lying, and acting insane. (No disrespect intended to crazy people. Been there, done that.)
Right-wing outrage alert:
- Debates: "Raise taxes on people making over $250K."
- Infomercial: "Cut taxes on people making under $200K."
Don't worry. Nothing has changed.
Fifteen minutes till the West Coast feed. Talk with you then.
LIVE -- WEST COAST FEED (8 pm PT)
Here we go. Let's hear some damn CHATTER out there...
Economy: Low cost loans for small businesses
Ted Strickland, Governor, Ohio
Kathleen Sebelius, Governor, Kansas
Strickland: "It's a once in a generation kind of leadership and that's what Barack is offering us."
Jesse: What I've been saying for a while is this is the election not even of a generation, but of a lifetime.
Energy Independence: $15 Billion a year in energy independence.
Five million jobs a year in green jobs which can not be outsourced. (Note: on the East Coast feed I said 15 million. I've corrected that above.)
Obama: Every parent in America wants the same thing, a good education for their child.
I'll recruit an army of new teachers and give them more support.
Under my education plan those students could get a tax credit to cover their college education in exchange for [military service or serving their country.]
I know what it's like to see a loved one suffer, not just because they're sick, but because of a broken health care system. And it's wrong.
Michelle: [About his daughters...] He calls them every night. And he talks for as long as they need to talk. He always has time for them.
Obama: It is that fundamental belief. I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. There is not a liberal America. There is not a conservative America. There is the United States of America.
As President I will rebuild our military to meet 21st century challenges. I have a close friend who is on his way [to Iraq].
I will not be a perfect president. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. i will listen to you when we disagree. I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved with your own democracy again.
CUT TO: LIVE FROM FLORIDA INSIDE AN AUDITORIUM
In six days we can choose unity over division. The power of change over the status quo. That's what at stake. That's what we're fighting for.
TO ACHIEVE THE AMERICAN DREAM.
In this last week... if you'll stand with me, and fight by my side, and cast your ballot for me, then together, we'll change this country, and change the world.
Thank you. And God Bless You.
END OF LIVE WEST COAST FEED
This seals the election for Obama. Well done.
Now it's about down-ticket. Senate, House and State races.
LIVE from Seattle at the GNB News Desk, Jesse Wendel, good night. There's more...
Running at the Mouth
Sarah Palin, a selfish traitor to her own ticket.
She was asked what happens in 2012 if you lose on Tuesday, would you simply go back to Alaska? Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News asked her and Palin said this, and I will read it to you verbatim according to an ABC News transcript: "Absolutely not," Sarah Palin says. "I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken, that ... that would ... bring this whole ... I'm not doin' this for naught," and that is a direct quote from Sarah Palin. --BlitzerThere's more...
Tune In for Barack @ 8 PM Tonight
Reminder...
Barack Obama speaks on network television (except ABC) at 8 pm tonight ET/PT.
Millions of Americans, millions of people around the world will be watching the next President of the United States as he speaks.
GNB will put up an Open Thread at 8 pm ET and cover the East Coast feed LIVE with Obama staff in Seattle. (Middle of the country and West Coast folks, the thread will stay open for your feed, which as we understand it, also happens at 8 pm local time.)
GNBs' comments on the event will go up throughout, as I imagine I will see it multiple times tonight.
Starting in 1 hour 40 minutes. East Coast... see you then.
Miss Ashley and Her Chifferobe...Busted.
It Didn't Take An Atticus Finch To Solve This Case...
When certain incendiary stories break in the news, I have found that it is almost always better to step back, let a little of the dust settle, and then weigh in. Some stories are so dangerously radioactive, yet pull you towards them nonetheless—oftentimes due to their emotional and historic freight. They hit notes within us that resonate endlessly, like that final chord in The Beatles' “A Day In The Life”—rumbling “wow”-ing, humming, trilling, ringing with a sustain that just goes on and on.
It's that initial hammering of the chord that gets you going, though. That strike that vibrates through your very soul. You feel it in your gut—low and sour. Old, and familiar....but no less discomfiting.
One such story is the whirlwind tale of one Ms. Ashley Todd, the College Republican and McCain campaign staffer whose shooting star of infamy began with a heavenly flash of purported vicious abuse against her person—and a floundering campaign's prayers being answered, streaked across the media sky trailing questions and second looks, and ended cratering in a manure field—smoldering, earth-torn and eye-wateringly stinking to beat the band.
If you've been away from your T.V. or radio for the last ninety-six hours, well...you missed the whole sad and sordid spectacle. I almost don't want to re-tell it, but the level of evil and rank stupidity involved, and the speed at which it was exposed is just too rich to pass up. So if I may, here are the events in question. The operative words here? In question.
THE DRUDGE REPORT, of late reduced to posting only borderline favorable or close polls by outfits with as much accreditation and accuracy as an applause meter at a Junior High School Talent Show, has been a bit down lately. Most of the reputable pollsters and pundits sense the end for “The Eggman's’” beloved flyboy-fantasy candidate, and Ol' Drudgie'd been looking for something—hell, anything to boost the spirits of the desperate loons who turn to him every day for talking points and what to think about when not breathing and pooping. Then, a story was funneled to him, we have come to find out, by Pittsburgh College Republicans. A sordid tale timed just so, election-wise. A young woman, ironically enough, a College Republican herself, and a McCain supporter / campaign worker had been brutally robbed while at an ATM in a dodgy part of town, and then further brutalized by sexual fondling, beating and then, facially mutilated by an angry, strapping (six-foot-four, WHY, JUST LIKE OBAMA, DAMMIT!) Black hooligan, who had been content to simply take her money until the McCain sticker on her nearby car set him off into a Nat Turner-esque rage. She reported it to the police—after a while, and to her fellow College Republicans, and once Drudge got his yolk-drenched hands on it from said Winger Youth...he picked up the ball ran with the story like so...
Let us all take a moment to curse and blaspheme God above for despoiling this earth with the cur who invented the animated GIF siren...seriously.
But then, like Leon Lett, Drudge screwed up after going upfield with it a good ways, waving the ball around, and embarrassingly fumbled the canard-slicked ball away, as the damned thing couldn't be held on to anyway.
The story stank, like a wet dog in sleeping in a carton full of rotten eggs and sauerkraut. The “B” so callously scored into Ms. Ashley's blush pink cheek—evidently with little more than a spork...was done backwards. Not “Little Rascals” ain't-it-cute backwards, but rather, in “WTF? Can't your ass spell or at least write the alphabet?” backwards. Minds turned to Morton Downey Jr.'s faked attack where supposed Nazi skinheads supposedly scrawled a swastika on him—backwards also—and inadvertently revealing that it had probably been (later proven positive) done intentionally before a mirror to get it right, but forgetting the simple optical trick to get it right. This of course didn't stop the worst and most desperate elements on the right from running with the ball also. There will be no links to these troglodytes as I would rather not foul your computers with the virus of racist stupid, but it wouldn't take much for you to find them. (Do it on a public computer you don't give a damn about—rope-belted law professors and venomous C-level wingers shall abound...). But inspiringly, a few of the usual suspects as well as “Real” America—a.k.a. SANE America—caught the awful stink of duplicity all over the story. One entity that did NOT catch that whiff, (as if they would have wanted to) and actually fanned the fetid cloud around so that everyone could smell it was the John McCain campaign itself. The story went straight up the food chain from the nowadays manic / depressive Drudge to the grasping McCain camp and they not only oversold it, but got caught embellishing it, using media back-channels to push that the dyslexic “B” had been mayhem-gouged in honor of, you guessed it....“B-arack”.
At which point, every media-phoning flack on McCain's staff and the candidate himself should have had a badly-penmanshipped “L” spork-carved hard into their doughy faces.
“L”, for “Loser”, that is.
Because Ms. Todd's tale began unraveling as it sprang half-knitted from her lying mouth. There were “inconsistencies” in her story to the police. “Problems” with the aforementioned forensics. There was odd and obvious “Friday-afternoon-at-five-minutes-of-the-end-of-the-soap-opera”-grade foreshadowing of the event on her various online journals. And then, as rightful doubts began a'swirling, a desperate bit of lily-gilding—the new claim that she'd been “sexually fondled” by her dusky, politics-incensed attacker—the ultimate attempt to buttress and then juice up the story as it began to fall apart. This attempted “Parlock-ing” was not holding up.
And it failed of course. She gagged on the polygraph. The timing and ATM video didn't match up. She never went to the ATM she claimed the attack occurred at. The black eye was little more than Alice Cooper-ish, brushed-on stagecraft. And then...she recanted, while huffily blaming the media for blowing her own arson-fueled wildfire out of proportion. (WTF'-ing F?) A few of the more dispirited wingers who didn't go for the bait still bemoaned not the damage Todd's claim could have caused (which we'll get into later), but rather, how it damaged McCain by making his more rabid supporters appear to be whacked-out, desperate racists—which is of course soooooooo not true. And some double-dealing apologists on the right opted to play the “pity” card as a dodge for the 400 years of racial TNT Todd tried to light the fuse of with her antics. Some well-meaning folks on the left chose the path of some forgiveness as well, citing Ms. Todd's 'obvious but heretofore undiagnosed' mental issues. I applaud those on our side who can be so magnanimous. I think they're as wrong as grape jelly on liver and onions, but hey...that's just me.
No, let me amend that. That's NOT just me. That's a lot of people I know. Everyone in my family and pretty much all of the people I talk to in my daily doings. Do I think Ashley Todd has some serious problems? To paraphrase her bubble-headed idol, “You-damn well-betcha!”
Do I also think that she knew the cultural, historical and violence-packed dynamite she was messing with here, too? “You-damn well-fucking-betcha!”
It's a story as old as time in this country, trotted out and perpetuated by folks for various sub-rosa reasons, but always circling back to the obviously evil root—that bitter cocktail of racist hate / fear and sexual hangups—that has scrambled America's brain for from 1621 onward. People have at times used the hoary, wild-eyed stories to distract attention from other transgressions.
To “give a reason” (lamely, as if there needed to be one for these folks) for physically acting out their hatred of darker peoples.
To instill a sense of fear in and increase the perception of power against said darker peoples.
And there's good 'ol simple racist “shits and giggles” too. We can't forget that.
In spite of Ms. Todd's post-admission 'Duh. I dunno why I did it. I was all mixed-ed up I guess.' ass-covering for her bigotry, it's pretty clear she knew exactly what she was trafficking in, why she was trafficking in it, and the desired effect of trafficking in it. You tell me...what are the odds of a McCain campaign worker, knowing the desperate situation of that campaign—a campaign praying for a game-changer—just happening to play up a race-hate based hoax (playing to “Birth Of A Nation”-grade stereotypes) in the waning days of the election in perhaps the key swing state as a “can you imagine that” coincidence?
Are the odds so impossibly great that Ashley Todd just randomly played the card that got countless Black men lynched across this country on many times the mere word of a complainant, or...the perception of someone standing in chivalrous stead for a complainant? The card that gets the good ol' boys fired up like none other?
The green-eyed “Joker” that got The Scottsboro Boys railroaded and then imprisoned for years on end in the early 20th century for a rape they didn't commit?
The same one that got a fourteen-year-old boy named Emmitt Till beaten, strangled, shot twice in the head, mutilated, then drowned in a muddy southern river with a seventy-five pound cotton gin fan chained around his neck at the century's halfway point? Because he was accused of “sassing”, looking at, or winking at a White woman he didn't know. The card play that got Till killed (and his murderers allowed to get away with it, laughing up their sleeves at “justice”) scarred the nation...and touched a generation of Black folks personally—my family included...
You see, they kidnapped him. (Till) They beat him, tortured him, killed him deader than dead and desecrated his body with such extreme a prejudice (shot, eye gouged out, beaten and then tossed into a river with a 75 lb. cotton gin fan tied to his neck) that it shocked the world when it became public in 1955. And if you are a Black person born between 1900 and 1970 or so, you remember, as sure as you remember your name—where you were and who you were with when you saw that infamous picture of Till's shattered "body" in the open casket (WARNING—NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH) his mother insisted he be seen in by all who could. Jet Magazine ran that sea-changing photo in its September 15th, 1955 issue.
My mother saw it that week, a girl of thirteen in the deep south. It affected her greatly.
It drove two of my uncles to leave the south as soon as they were able, at the age of 17, just a few years later.
It deeply affected a young man from Louisville, Kentucky by the name of Cassius Marcellus Clay. You now know him as Muhammad Ali.
And it affected every Black person I know near my own mid-forties age, because Jet Magazine would annually run that photo on the anniversary of Till's death for many years afterward. I saw it in 1975. My mother saw me looking at it quizzically. I just couldn't wrap my brain around the idea that the "thing" depicted there was ever a person. I was twelve.
“Can I see that?”, my mother asked.
“Ummmm. Okay.” I handed the magazine to her.
She looked at it and her eyes went cold. A muscle in her neck tensed. And then she relaxed.
"Do you know who that is?", she asked.
“It said, 'Emmitt Till'.”
“Did you read what happened to him?”
“Not yet. I was...just lookin' at the picture.”
“Well...what do you think about that picture.”
“It...I dunno. It doesn't look like a person.”
“It doesn't, does it.”
“Nope.”
“I always thought he looked like a scarecrow there.”, she mused.
“You're right. It does look like a scarecrow.”
“He”, she said forcefully. “Not “it“. “He” “That was a boy. Two years older than you. And a buncha White men killed him. And messed his body up like that. He was a beautiful boy just like you. They killed him because he was Black, son. And they smashed his body up because he was Black. Look at him.”
She held the picture up for me to look at again.
“They turned a pretty Black boy into an ugly scarecrow. To scare us, son. Look at him. You can be disgusted. Be disgusted. But do NOT BE SCARED.”.
I would love to say that picture did not ever scare me. But as I became older, and wiser to some of the more awful ways of this world, and would catch that picture at an odd, unprepared moment,, it would chill me to the bone, turning my stomach, and make me realize again, the depth of man's inhumanity to man—right here in the United States of America.
Context. It gives me context for things. To this very day.
It is the card that got hundreds of Black Bostonian men harassed, arrested and in many cases “legally” roughed-up when Chuck Stuart gut-shot and killed his nearly full-term pregnant wife for insurance money and he blamed a manufactured Black assailant for the crime—and then macabrely picked out of a police-hustled lineup one Willie Bennett to cover for his devilish act? While Beantown's Finest went berserk casing n*ggers up until they were on the verge of beating a confession out of one unlucky one they arrested on unrelated issues (Yes, Boston's PD had announced they were close to a murder confession and an imminent indictment from a man didn't do it and was prepared to lock him up for the rest of his life in jail?), but had to cut him loose when Stuart's own brother crumbled under guilt's weight? But what if Stuart hadn't gotten nervous? Or his brother hadn't dimed him out? This ugly event coming at the century's 7/8th mark—a mere heartbeat ago.
And what of Susan Smith's bottom-deck dealing when she slow-drowned her kids in a shallow lake and blamed a random, manufactured negro car-jacker for the slaughter? Cried for days on TV pleading for the phantom Rastus to bring her babies back to her un-defiled, until she got caught in her own web of lies and re-canted. Only after a dragnet went out and innocent Black men stayed the hell inside their homes lest they be rousted and then “tuned-up” by law enforcement for info—this as the century wound out. Almost yesterday.
Yes...Ashley Todd was just misunderstood and confused, and gosh-darnit!—played this whole drama out unprompted and unbidden by the weight of the deed throughout American history. How could she have known? It's 2008—where's her frame of reference?
Jena brings it all sickeningly home. Teens. Kids. Decades at least, removed from the last picnic/lynching to take place in their neck of the woods, by so-called decent people, somehow knew, in their stupid little turf battle, just what mega-trope, what ultimate nullifier to go to to let those wandering n*ggers know that they meant business about keeping one's place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We can sing “kum-ba-ya” til our throats sound like Miles Davis after a bender of Sloe Drano Fizzes, but at the sick core of America, racism still infirms this country's aspiration to greatness.
I use the word “infirms”, loosely. Because the pat analogies about America's racial “sickness” are so very, very flawed. Racism in America isn't a wound,—as so many describe it. No. Wounds heal. And it isn't a cancer—because you can remove a cancer, should you catch it early enough, or if not—at least bomb it with enough countering toxicity where you can seriously impede its progress.
Racism in America is neither of these things—a wound, or a cancer.
It is quite simply...akin to a living, festering parasite that feasts on the very soul of the country, and what makes it work. It's a vicious tapeworm. Picked up long ago, and living there, deep in the American belly...it's very guts, in fact. Not killing, mind you...but in there nonetheless, all slimy and sickening, so intwined with what makes this place simply exist, that it's supremely difficult to remove.
Those 'never-seen-a-lynching' kids in Jena knew about the power of the noose. And Ashley Todd knew about the gravity of her incendiary charges too. It's gut-deep in America, twisted 'round her innards and un-purged even as we facetiously scream “We are cured!” Because when times get tough, or a sacred totem is threatened—such as access to the office of President—up the bile rises from those depths, an utterly “natural” reaction of course when you think about it. Time was tight. Something needed to happen. And Todd made that thing happen—plying a disgusting trope as old and sturdy as a soaring, rope-scarred southern poplar—badly, but make no mistake...she tried.
Is she unbalanced? Could be. Was also she smart enough to know the explosive power of the dynamite she was playing with? Almost certainly.
And with that, my sympathy for her begins and ends. Whacked out of your gourd or not, when you have your marbles in enough order to run that desperate game at a desperate time—a game which has cost the lives of hundreds of people who, yeah...happen to look a lot like me, a game too death-freighted for Black folks to joke about “darkly” beyond ourselves (and where said in-group snark is pretty much “whistling past the graveyard”—literally), and a game so ingrained in the American psyche that when you see it played out in pop culture, it isn't even doubted, but rather, accepted as common cruelty (Yes, “To Kill A Mockinbird's” infamous plot arc—the wild accusation by protagonist Mayella Ewell, the sham “trial” of Brock Peters' “Tom Robinson”, and Robinson's subsequent murder by mob in spite of his innocence), there is no benefit of the doubt left.
You are fucking with democracy.
You are fucking with people's lives, Ms. Ashley / Miss Mayella
With your...harmless (to you) tales of “chifferobe bustin” gone horribly awry.
A card usually well played, Ms.Ashley / Miss Mayella...except that you clumsily marked the Goddamned deck, and your partner 'cross the table's got no poker face at all. Yes, I mean you, Senator McCain.
You, Senator McCain, you signaled for this. Called for it with the over-the-top rhetoric of late that has damaged you and that you will not own up to—in spite of the whole world seeing it for what it is as plain as day. In sheer panic and desperation, you—and your aide de camp Governor Palin blew your racist dog whistles for all it was worth, and then clumsily denied it.
Trouble is...dog-whistles beget bark-backs. And this one? This one was “Lassie-needs-help-at-the-well” loud.
She worked for the campaign. She proudly repped for the party. While others cried “Socialist!”, “Commiie!”, “Terrorist!” and “Kill Him!”, Ms. Ashley / Miss Mayella went with the old school approach.
“A n*gger touched me.”
Yes, it reeks a bit of the times of the buggy-whip and flagpole-sitting, but it's an evil evergreen, and still pretty damn effective. Trust me. I live its effectiveness every day when my antennae are gauging the people around my Black self. The clutched purses and furtive recoils from the high-strung...
I deal with it.
I am watchful of those who seem snap-ready. Those who cannot cope. It's sad to say that in 2008, but it is how we—Black men—still have to live sometimes. You enjoy yourself in mixed company, but are always sadly at the ready to be boogeyman-ned. I still remember the summer day I was playing football down the street from my home and a red seventies-style “Love” van stopped in front of the house, and four White female school friends of mine tumbled out, giddy and in retrospect probably more than a little bit drunk from a night of “Foxes”-style carousing—gracing me with an impromptu and bodacious daytime visit. I'd been dropped off at night a few times before after hanging out after school with them, but always with discretion. Quiet area. Residential. Open the car door and a hushed, “I'll see you guys tomorrow.” Ka-chunk! This unexpected weekend drop-by, replete with hugs and loud laughter and easy camaraderie was wonderful for me, but it disquieted my parents a bit—Mama trimming the azaleas now with an arched eyebrow, and Daddy's near-his-easy-chair curtain pulling back at the liviing room window repeatedly, as if to say “What the fuck?” We laughed and joked for a few minutes, and then, the girls were on their way...off to ambush some other unsuspecting boy in the circle of friends I supposed. And I remember my father, this man of the time of “Till” asking me pseudo-casually, but still with a palpable worry after the girls had gone, “They seem mighty friendly. I mean...I know they like you, but do their folks know about you? How ya'll deal? 'Cause I know they're your friends, but you've gotta be careful with that. You don't wanna be in no jam 'cause someone can't deal...Things ain't quite what you want 'em to be just yet.”
Oh, Daddy didn't lie.
That was 1979. I still remember his words. They still have heft. They still matter in America. I so wish they didn't...but they do.
It would be great if the reason Ashley Todd's stunt went up in flames so quickly was because this land has moved beyond buying into that kind of stupidity. We have- a little bit, but what exploded this cigar Yosemite Sam-style in the faces of those who went all-in on the “scandal” was the fact that information is disseminated and counterbalanced a lot differently than it was even ten years ago. An agenda-driven powerhouse like Drudge and FOX can be fact-checked, fisked and found a liar easier and faster than ever before. Sources and background can be scrutinized. Once-cold trails fading into the mists of disinformation and passing time can blaze alight with the digging of an engaged and information-rich opposition.
So, are we “better” than we were because this bit of psychotic rat-fucking failed? Yes...incrementally. And it's nice to see that if someone rat-fucks enough times that they eventually get “rabies”. But it's still a bit early for the balloon-drop over this country getting past the demons of bigotry. We got lucky that Ms. Todd was a sloppy Machiavellian, and her bosses so ham-handed at spinning her evil into electoral gold. Should Barack Obama be elected, expect all manner of racist plays from “Buchahan Purple-d” agonizers. You will see an army of secessionists, and “not my president” declarations. The truly sick among us will plot half-baked schemes at re-instating the status quo. And their just as twisted but mainstreamed brethren will probably hatch better schemes, so they are most definitely to be watched.
We were all just a little bit more grown up though, about Ms. Todd's fantasies-cum-“October Surprise” than we have been in some other instances. Everyone that is, except the usual suspects who fanned the flatulence about, and those who dealt it—Ms. Ashley Todd, and the handlers and flacks for—as well as the man himself, the dangerously flawed John Sidney McCain. Ms. Todd's newfound claims of mental issues don't make this act any less heinous. And the McCain camp doesn't get to pooh-pooh this away as the loopy act of an unstable girl. They validated this smear with open support when it broke, and pushed the “B is for Barack” Sesame Street-garbage to anyone within reach of a Blackberry™ just as surely as they've been pissing in the punchbowl of electoral discourse over the last six weeks. No. They...and he, don't get off the hook for this. Fox News VP John Moody shockingly said of McCain's entanglement in this embarrassing debacle...
“If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.”
They own it. Utterly.
Because again...“dog-whistles beget bark-backs.”
And that's a little something you'd think a so-called pit bull and an ornery son-of-a-bitch would know. There's more...
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