Last night, the president threw the ceremonial first pitch at the All Star Game in St. Louis. It was hard to assess the quality of the pitch thanks to Fox’s shitty camera angle. But as Steve M. over at No More Mr. Nice Blog notes, wingnut codpiece worshipers like Gateway Pundit quickly dubbed it a “sissy pitch” and compared it unfavorably to the Worst President Ever’s post-9/11 toss. Because that’s what really matters.
And in fairness, I think former Andover cheerleader George W. Bush did throw a better pitch than former Punahou School basketball team stand-out Barack Obama, though it was hard to be sure thanks to the geniuses at Fox.
But was Obama roundly booed as the mouth-breathers are claiming? You be the judge:
I’d call it a mixed reception – some cheers, some boos – and not too surprising in a state McCain carried by less than 1 percentage point. Now this is booing:
And this. Also:
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
All-Star Delusions
Pugilistic Pegs Pummels Palin
Ho ho ho, wingnut smack-down alert! I knew from the moment she literally called bullshit on the Palin pick that Peggy Noonan wasn’t wholeheartedly on board the SS Sarah. But damn! Magic dolphin believer and Reagan saddle-sniffer though she is, Pegs sees the Wingnut Thrillah from Wasilla's true colors:
In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.Then Pegs demolishes fellow wingnuts’ Palin reclamation project recommendations with a series of jabs and a roundhouse punch in the snoot:
In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.
"She makes the Republican Party look inclusive." She makes the party look stupid, a party of the easily manipulated.Yowza! Pegs is the Shep Smith of the Wall Street Journal opinion page. Rock on, sistah!
"She shows our ingenuous interest in all classes." She shows your cynicism.
"Now she can prepare herself for higher office by studying up, reading in, boning up on the issues." Mrs. Palin's supporters have been ordering her to spend the next two years reflecting and pondering. But she is a ponder-free zone. She can memorize the names of the presidents of Pakistan, but she is not going to be able to know how to think about Pakistan. Why do her supporters not see this? Maybe they think "not thoughtful" is a working-class trope!
"The media did her in." Her lack of any appropriate modesty did her in.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Guest Post: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
[Editor's note: We are extremely honored to have Secretary of State Clinton here at our humble blog. Take it away, Madam Secretary!]
I’m right here, pinheads!
By the Honorable Hillary Clinton, United States Secretary of State
My fellow Americans, I’ve been extremely busy lately, working hard to move this administration’s agenda forward all over the world. About a week and a half ago, I met with Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman about freezing settlement expansions, which are often a roadblock to peace in that troubled part of the world.
To emphasize our focus on a two-state solution and promote economic development in the region, I also spoke with Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad last week.
And today I’m meeting with the rightful President of Honduras. My goal is to underscore this administration’s support for that nation’s duly elected leader, who was recently ousted in an unlawful military coup.
I was scheduled to visit Italy and Greece late last month to attend meetings with Group of Eight counterparts on Iran, the Middle East peace process and the Afghanistan War and to participate in a meeting with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about tensions between Russia and Georgia. However, I had to cancel that trip because I’m recovering from surgery on my elbow.
In light of all these activities and the success this administration has had in defusing tension throughout the world in the wake of George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency – success I was instrumental in achieving – you’d think I’d get some credit and recognition, if not from my political enemies, at least from those who say they support me, right? Wrong.
According to this nitwit and her “sources” at Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air blog, I’m not one of the most powerful women on earth and a tireless advocate for peace and prosperity around the globe. According to her, I am a helpless victim of dastardly men, locked away in a tower like Rapunzel.
Talk about insulting and demeaning. Yeah, those folks at The New Agenda have “got my back” alright – I can feel their shivs. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with President Zelaya to attend. Someone tell Barack it's time to remove the shackles.
What does Sarah Palin's resignation mean for women in politics?
Nothing. This is all about Palin. I see several possibilities:
1. Maybe she’s resigning ahead of a scandal.
2. Maybe she’s leveraging her current high profile to rake in some speaking fees and / or do a Huckabee-style Fox show rather than dealing with the nasty business of governing.
3. Maybe she wants to get the hell out of Alaska before the snow flies.
4. Maybe she wants to concentrate on her family.
5. Maybe she wants to start a Palin Defense League and go after her critics.
6. Maybe she’s following her well-established pattern and bailing to go after a bigger job.
7. Maybe she’s surrounded by sycophants who didn’t tell her how this would look.
Her resignation might mean any or all of this. But what it doesn’t mean is that poor old Palin was driven out of politics by mean old sexism. It doesn’t mean we’ve reverted back to Mayberry circa 1960.
This is Sarah the Barracuda we’re talking about. The sitting governor who yucked it up with a pair of shock jocks as they called an opponent (and cancer survivor) a “bitch” and a “cancer” and implied the opponent didn’t like her own children. The candidate who eagerly joined ancient sexist and crude jokester McCain’s campaign.
And we're supposed to believe Palin got the vapors over a comedian making a tasteless joke and photoshop job on a blog? Yeah, right. Pardon me if I fail to lock arms with the wounded sisterhood over Palin’s exit from the Alaska governor’s office, which some would have us believe is “a dark moment for our country:”
What am I going to tell my daughter?Forgive a mother’s brag, but my almost-11-year-old daughter seems to be a little more politically astute. She doesn’t totally get the pro-choice and pro-life thing, but she knows it’s an important issue that sharply divides conservatives and liberals. (I had to explain that to her 5 years ago when one of her friends -- whose parents’ views closely mirror those of the Palins -- told her she shouldn’t vote for John Kerry in the elementary school’s mock election because Kerry thinks it’s okay to “kill babies.” Thanks for making me explain abortion to a 1st grader, wingnut assholes!)
That was the first thing that popped into my mind this afternoon after watching Governor Palin step down.
My 11 year-old daughter adores Sarah Palin. She is too young to understand pro-choice and pro-life. The difference between drilling and being environmentally cautions. My daughter looks at Sarah Palin and she sees herself.
As a junior activist in the local “Save the Manatee” organization, my kiddo understands environmental issues pretty well. She thought Palin’s “drill, baby, drill!” shtick was both dumb and short-sighted.
Who knows -- the kid might rebel and disgrace us someday by growing up to be a Republican activist or country music singer. But the point is, even at that age, kids are capable of understanding the basic stuff and comprehending why people might disagree vociferously -- and even call each other names, which we adults learned on the playground, after all.
Palin -- and Hillary Clinton even more so, in my opinion -- were subjected to sexist attacks during their campaigns. Big fat duh there. Obama was subjected to racist attacks. Again, duh. That’s wrong, and it should be called out when it happens.
But to act as if the latest melodrama from a wingnut flake blots out the noon-day sun and dashes hope for women and girls nationwide is, well, stupid and hysterical.* I didn’t agree with Palin about much during the campaign, but there is some truth to what she said here.
Palin knows how to rev up her fan base, so she’ll no doubt run with the martyrdom meme if it gains traction. But this Vagina-American ain’t buying it. I hope to see a woman president someday, but one who supports women’s issues (like the Ledbetter Act, for example), not George W. Bush in drag. Even my 10-year-old kid gets that.
*I am aware that “melodramatic,” “flake,” “stupid” and “hysterical” can be used as slurs against women. They can also be earned labels for either sex. And in this case, they are.
[H/T: Wonkette. Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Headline FAIL
Did you know Joe Biden writes for The New Agenda blog? I bet he would be surprised by it too, especially with that flaming example of headline FAIL attached to “his” post.
Or maybe it's not headline FAIL. It’s hard to believe anyone could be so obtuse as to accidentally pair that photo with that headline.
And make a special “get it up” image to go along with the article:
And, when a commenter said, “I know you don’t mean to slur Mr. Biden, but that headline of yours needs a lot of help,” lamely admit that “okay maybe that headline was a little obscure” [ed – I do not think that word means what you think it means…] but let it stand.
Biden said a lot about the scourge of domestic violence in that piece. Was “get it up” really the key message? Maybe if, on your planet, Biden is chiefly an associate of The Hillary Usurper and an erstwhile foe of Our Lady of Wasilla it does. The New Agenda? Ye Olde PUMA. Same as it ever was.
PS: Why does "The New Agenda" put "feminism" in "quotes" in its "tagline"?
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
ObamaCare
Did anyone watch ABC’s Prescription for America town hall thingie with Obama Wednesday? It was predictably short on specifics, but that didn’t stop alarmists on both sides from forming wildly contradictory theories:
A: Obama is a socialist who is determined to drive private insurance companies out of business and post government apparatchiks at hospital bedsides to pull the plug when the meter on Granny runs too high.--OR--
B. Obama is an insurance industry stooge who is determined to squander America’s last chance to enact a sane system that covers all (and, oh yeah, Hillary would’ve had this wrapped up by January 21, easy).As I’ve mentioned before, the only health care reform plan that makes sense is a single payer scheme. Health care wasn’t even an issue for me in the primaries because I thought both Obama’s and Clinton’s proposals sucked big green gators.
That said, if we want our government to at least take a step in the right direction (i.e., field a public health option), maybe we should listen to Robert Reich:
...As FDR said in the reelection campaign of 1936 when a lady insisted that if she were to vote for him he must commit to a long list of objectives, "Ma’am, I want to do those things, but you must make me."Is citizen lobbying useless? I don’t think so at the executive level. I think Obama wants to do something positive, even if his target is too incremental by far for my taste.
We must make Obama do the right things. Email, write, and phone the White House. Do the same with your members of Congress. Round up others to do so. Also: Find friends and family members in red states who agree with you, and get them fired up to do the same. For example, if you happen to have a good friend or family member in Montana, you might ask him or her to write Max Baucus and tell him they want a public option included in any healthcare bill.
As for lobbying the legislative level, well it might be useless, depending on where you live. I suspect my senators would rather have their prostates removed with red-hot pincers than jump off the insurance company gravy train. Still, it might be more effective than a "pray-in."
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Teeny Wolf
I don't remember if Gulliver mentioned encountering wolf packs in Lilliput. But if he did, it might sound something like this:
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
