I've tried to unplug. I've tried to go back to paying attention to silly things and just being everyone's comic relief. I've tried to go back to being the guy who says, "Duh...I dunno."
But I can't.
I can't because everyone has started updating their facebook status updates with political (?) statements like, "McCain's shoes are ugly!" and "Sarah Palin is a whore!" and the like.
I can't because I'm on a bunch of email lists. One is for me and four of my buddies. What cheer I might have held in my heart today was shot down like a duck from 'Duck Hunt' when the older and wiser member of our group told us we're all done for and to get ready for the O-pacalypse that will screw up our country in untold ways.
I can't because the other email group is a bunch of stupid actors who now want me to look at Obama and McCain's arts funding positions and see that Obama is the only one who likes to go to plays. So we should elect him because he made a totally trustworthy campaign promise to give paint to poor painters, acts to poor actors, and dance to poor dancers.
I can't because it's all anybody wants to talk about, but most people who want to talk about it are totally uninformed and determined to stay that way because research takes time out of their busy catch-up-on-TiVo time. And that makes me crazy.
I watched the debates last night. I'd never really WATCHED a Presidential debate before. I thought what they were were people asking them questions and then they respond to them.
And that's what happened.
And I was totally satisfied. I thought one candidate came off more presidential and in-charge than the other and eagerly hopped online to see what the bloggers had to say.
"WORST DEBATE EVAR!!1!"
"BORING!"
"DULL, DULL, DULL!"
Whaaaa? What the crap? It was a political debate. What were they expecting? Were people thinking Mac was gonna sock Barry in the 'nads? Perhaps on Wednesday they can put a log over a pool full of sharks and flaming buzz saws and have them duke it out. THAT would be exciting. THAT would be lively.
As a "Joe Six-Pack (Abs)", I thought the debates were fine. But then I was shut down on g-chat by my buddies and by every news network on Planet Earth AND Mars. Apparently they were awful and McCain was dreadful. I OBVIOUSLY didn't know what I was talking about.
Well now I'm pissed off.
What the crap is wrong with people? So things aren't going perfectly for five minutes...and they're ready to declare it's over? So Palin gave an interview littered with trick questions and was then edited to look like a buffoon and they're ready to throw up their hands and declare, "IT'S OVER! JESUS SAVE US ALL!" You know, if McCain loses, a good chunk of the blame rests on his "supporters" who are all scrambling around like they have bipolar disorder, criticizing his every move and playing into the whole, "See? The McCainers are desperate and frightened because they are SO gonna lose! So vote for ME because I'm gonna WIN!" trap.
I'm so surprised, disappointed, and disgusted by this whole thing. I know, I know. It's politics and politics is nasty. But geeze, people. Get a grip!
I'm really going to try to unplug this time. I really am.
Seriously.
I'm not kidding.
Just let me check drudge one more time.
9 comments:
Ok, I can go with you on the overly harsh treatment poor ol' 'Maverick' McCain has been getting lately, and I can even go along with your comments about the general uninformed imbecility of those rabid "yellow bloggerists" who do nothing but post sensationalism so they can log on and giggle at themselves while they're supposed to be working on spreadsheets or something lame like that.
But Palin "edited to look like a buffoon"? She needs no editing. That woman is the most inept and vapid human being I've ever seen running for any kind of elected office. I think the ottoman that sits in front of the chair in my living room would make a better Vice President. Just watch her try to form a cogent thought. Seriously. Don't watch as a reactionary Republican living in the Big City of Angry Liberals. Watch as a rational, well-educated human being. You'll see.
Hey! I LOVE her. In recent interviews she's just great! She's for Joe Six-Pack Abs!
I guess I'm just looking at her through the lenses my pair of My-Mom-Has-Gone-Through-The-Same-Thing glasses. Yeah, she's a little rough around the edges, yeah she's really colloquial and a little bit of a redneck, but I really think what we were seeing in those Couric interviews was caution rather than buffoonery. Come on. You don't become governor of a state by accident.
All that to say, yes. She IS rather ridiculous. I see that. Wild cards don't get much wilder than she, doontcha' knoo. "I'm just a Mehhvrik hoo's naht pahrt of theh Waahshington Ehleeeet!"
Okay honey. Remember you may have tea with the Queen someday. Lay off the cow metaphors.
But, for the record, I truly believe--and this I TRULY believe in my heart of hearts--that my 8-Minute Abs DVD has more honesty, integrity, and, most of all, experience than one B.H.O.
Um, no you don't become governor of a state by accident. Sometimes your daddy buys it for you because you've run every other business he's bought for you into the ground.
And sometimes you just become governor because you're the best shot with a rifle from a helicopter. And because you know those cooky Russians are sneakin' around the Aleutian Islands, just waitin' to hop on over and cause a ruckus, doncha know!
I'm with David Brooks. Palin's obvious anti-intellectualism (which is just the politically correct way of saying she's a dumbass) makes her "represent a fatal cancer to the Republican Party." Go back to Alaska, Sarah.
Awww.
Palin is not George Bush. She is not an idiot. That is ridiculous. The media knows she is not an idiot ala Bush or Quayle. Most people know she isn't an idiot, However the media is so pissed off about the "energy" she has brought the McCain ticket, and so in love with Barackus that blitzed her, no doubt about it. At the same time, they might as well lubed each report they did on Obama with k-y jelly.
It is astounding the unbelievable god-lust-hero-worship running rampant for Baracklius.
I could probably run out to Columbus Square right now, yell Barackimus' name and people would spontaneously start fondling themselves. Even heterosexual men. Hell, the hetero-hubbies don't need Victoria Secret magazines anymore, (or dancing with the stars) they've got Barackuda to tantalize to stroke their fancy!
I think they should rename MSNBC AND CNN the Barack-Spice Channels, 1 & 2.
As far as intelligence goes, yes Olabama is intelligent. Yes he is articulate. So was Hitler... and Mussolini... and Dennis Miller.
Obama graduated Harvard Law, so did Abdullah M. bin Laden - Osama's bro.
I think many Obama supporters have been embarrassed, as we all have, by Bush's anti-enunciations and infelicitous remarks. He obviously suffers from Dyslexia. He has been embarrassing, I agree. Palin is not the same thing. Even liberal critics agree that their hasn't been a politician that has connected so well since Regan. This doesn't come from being an idiot. A bit of a redneck? Maybe. But shoot, Faulkner was a Redneck.
I agree Fork, I think she's erred on the side of caution. I think she is well aware of the big purple vibrator/billy-club nick-named "My lil' Obamabrator" hiding behind Couric's back, waiting to club her and/or appease themselves.
Most politicians get to where they are because of money or a good old fashioned dirty trick. Obama had his fair shares of those, from high-powered Black leaders taking him under their wings, funding him, molding him, to the TEAM of lawyers he used to hamstring his opponent when running for Senate or Rep, I can't remember. (A small, very small segment was apportioned to this part of Obama's record when they were broadcasting their Obama Fingerbang... I mean, Documentary. The rest was dedicated to how he met his wife and his tremendously long tenure as a community organizer. I believe they interviewed every. single. church. member.)
And what did McCain get? Most of the time was spent on his divorce after returning from POW camp accompanied by a doom-music soundtrack. I think it might have been Siegfried's Funeral March.
Honestly, I was undecided about this until a few days ago, and now, I am so overwhelmed with Obama-pheromones I would puke if I punched that side of the ticket. Forget politics, forget the issues (they really aren't that different when it comes down to it) I am officially, absolutely creeped-out by the Obama-worship.
He's intelligent, but totally inexperienced. As far as governing, Palin has more experience. Period. Even though McCain is the man he's running against.
He's articulate, but totally overconfident, borderline-arrogant.
He's got promise; I might vote for him in 8 years, if he shows that he can do more that write a single piece of legislation or two and autograph a few self-help books. I'd rather vote for Biden.
McCain has got the whole package. My only concern was his age. But I've decided that I'd rather have a Dead McCain-Palin takeover, than four years of Obama learning how to govern.
Both are risky.
McCain could croak. Obama could have tea with Bin Laden. I'll take the McCain risk.
Thank you. Goodnight.
Furthermore, (sorry Fork for the crass comments in my last fast-typed frenzy... and for this long comment I'm about to post. But it must be noted that Palin-fact-checking and pop-quizzes are lop-sided. Take the following fact-checks as exhibit A,B, and the rest of the alphabet. By their standards, Biden is 6 times as dumb as Palin...)
Associated Press:
If Sarah Palin had made just one of the wildly inaccurate statements smugly uttered by Sen. Joe Biden in last week's vice presidential debate, there would have been 3-inch headlines in newspapers across America. (I can almost hear Katie Couric asking me, "Which newspapers?")
These weren't insignificant errors, such as when Biden said, "Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."
It turns out that Katie's restaurant, where Biden gets his feel for the average American, closed 20 years ago. The only evidence that he spends any time in Home Depot is that it appears that a pipe wrench fell on his head one too many times.
Palin would surely have been forced to withdraw from the ticket had she said something like that, but most of Biden's errors were not trifling mistakes like these. They were lengthy Lyndon LaRouche-like disquisitions that were pure fantasy from beginning to end.
For example, Biden said about Hezbollah: "When we kicked -- along with France -- we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." Hezbollah was never kicked out of Lebanon.
He continued: "I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.'" This is madness -- Lebanon is not a NATO country, nor had any NATO country been attacked by Lebanon.
Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of foreign policy.
Biden also stoutly denied that Obama ever said he would sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Liberals find it hilarious that McCain can't use a computer keyboard on account of his war injuries, but Biden is apparently unaware of the Internet, because there are clips all over the Internet of Obama saying exactly that during the CNN/YouTube debate last year.
Biden might have remembered that debate since: (1) He was there, and (2) he later attacked Obama's answer, telling the National Press Club in August 2007: "Would I make a blanket commitment to meet unconditionally with the leaders of each of those countries within the first year I was elected president? Absolutely, positively, no."
And that's still not all! Obama's own Web site says: "Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions."
Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his ability to remember well-known facts.
Biden also gave a long speech at the debate on vice president Dick Cheney's "dangerous" belief that "he's part of the legislative branch." The great constitutional scholar Biden cited Article I of the Constitution as proof that Cheney "works in the executive branch" and has "no authority relative to the Congress." Biden huffily added: "He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."
Palin would have had to deny that Alaska is a state in the union in order to say something comparably stupid.
Article II, not I, describes the executive branch. Someone tell Biden, who is supposed to be a lawyer. Apart from getting the Articles of the Constitution mixed up, what on earth does Biden mean when he says that the vice president "has no authority relative to Congress," apart from breaking ties?
The Constitution makes him president of the senate every day of the week. I realize that Biden may not be able to count to two, but Article I says the vice president is president of one of the two houses of Congress -- the one Biden is in, for crying out loud -- which is what you might call "authority relative to Congress."
Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of the Constitution.
In one especially hallucinatory answer, Biden authoritatively stated: "With Afghanistan, facts matter, Gwen. ... We spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country."
According to the Congressional Research Service, since 9/11, we've spent $172 billion in Afghanistan and $653 billion in Iraq. The most money spent in Iraq came in 2008, when we have been spending less than $3 billion a week. So by Biden's calculations, we've spent only about $9 billion "on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country." There isn't even a "9" in $172 billion.
Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of math.
In the same answer, Biden went on to claim that "John McCain voted against a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty that every Republican has supported."
The last nuclear test ban treaty the Senate voted on was the one Clinton signed in the '90s. As The New York Times editorialized on the Senate vote a few years later: "Last week, Senate Republicans thundered 'no' to the nuclear test ban treaty, handing the White House its biggest defeat since health care in 1994." Forty-nine Republicans voted against the treaty; only four liberal Republicans voted for it. That's the treaty Biden says "every Republican has supported."
Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his ability to function as vice president.
Wow! I hope I didn't cause all of this. For the record, Seth, I completely agree with you on almost everything you've said. Biden has shown considerable aplomb in his public comments and a decent amount of consistency in his governmental track record, and if the Democratic Party had any sense at all, they would have given their ticket the old switcheroo long ago.
However...
You see, I pride myself on being able to determine a person's functional intelligence based on his or her facial expressions, hand gestures, conversational vocabulary, speech cadence, etc. It's a skill I've had to develop as an educator over the past several years. And let me just say again, with gusto, that Palin most certainly IS an idiot.
I couldn't care less for the mighty Ozbama and his zealous zombies. My dislike for and distrust of Sarah Palin is based on nothing more or less than my direct observations of her television appearances (and yes, I am aware that the news media tends to spin their interviews in the direction that best suits their evil, fickle whims), but unless they generated a complete CGI Palin, a la Gollum in Lord of the Rings, I stand by my assertion that that woman's intelligence is miserably sub-par. She has no business governing a state, nor should she be one jittery heartbeat away from the leadership of the free world. I wouldn't put her in charge of the popcorn machine at the Cinemark.
bibb, naw, I, like the forkmeister, have been assailed, wassailed(I wish) and just flat-out ailed by Obamites. Everywhere I turn... people wanting me to sign petitions, people wearing t-shirts, people giving me dirty looks at restaurants when I mention McCain's name; I don't dare mention Palin's name in public. I can't even get a good even-keel news report anymore. It's getting old. But I'm over it now.
You are cracking me up though. Popcorn machine... CGI Palin...
Sorry that sounded like it was all an attack upon you... Mostly just vomiting a bunch of stuff that was pinned-up for days... weeks... sniff sniff... I just feel so... alone... I just... AWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!
But I suppose we can agree to disagree here about the moose-killer's smarts. Do I think her a genius? Nope. A dummy? Nope.
I have enjoyed your comments.
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