No Surrender
I don’t know how many of you have ABC News Now, but if you do, tune it in. They are showing the entire Kerry rally in Madison. Springsteen is singing No Surrender as we speak. Kerry’s about to come on. It’s one of those rare hair on the back of your neck political moments.
It’s happening.
Spin On This
I just saw Marc Racicot babble like a two year old on ABC News Now when confronted with Rudy Giuliani’s footage blaming the troops for the looting of munitions on Good Morning America. They really need to work on those talking points. This didn’t look good.
Sam Donaldson wryly noted that nobody is really blaming the troops. As it was in Vietnam, the blame lies with the policy makers. hah.
Who’s Your Daddy
Finally we have an explanation for Dick Morris.
On an isolated Indonesian island, scientists have discovered skeletons of a previously unknown human species — tiny, Hobbit-sized figures who lived among dwarf elephants and giant lizards as recently as 12,000 years ago.
The Mojo
There must be something in the water this year in Beantown. The Yankee machine had the Sox down and they battled their way back and back and back to get into the series. And then they won with authority, dammit!
That righteous Boston mojo took them all the way and it’s going to take John Kerry right through next Tuesday. And he’s going to win with the same decisiveness that the Red Sox won the series. No bullshit and no question about who won.
And a certain faux Texan is going to get a chance to run for the office he always wanted — baseball commissioner.
I’m Joining The Republic Party
With an appeal like this, who can resist?
Listen, before I want to say something, I’m traveling with a guest and a friend who represents thousands of people all across this country who are affiliated with the Democrat Party.
In fact, I believe my opponent is running away from some of the great traditions of the Democrat Party.
The Democrat Party has also a great tradition of defending the defenseless.
If you’re a Democrat, and your dreams and goals are not found in the far left wing of the Democrat Party, I’d be honored to have your vote.
Those Republics sure know how to reach across the aisle.
Because One Must
Today, I would like to join my online brethren over at Slate in endorsing John Kerry, as distasteful as that particular chore is. Sadly, one doesn’t have much choice considering what we have to deal with. I only wish that the nominees could be more like, well… me. But that would be too much to ask so I will hold my aristocratic nose and vote for the lesser of two losers. Again.
You see, I am a beltway “independent” which allows me to criticize everyone and take responsibility for nothing at all. I would never actually vote for a Republican mind you — how could I align myself with all that tacky Nascar and gay bashing business? But, neither can I associate myself with the Democratic party what with its stubborn insistence on not being exactly like me in every way.
As a beltway independent, then, I can safely vote against the Republicans without ever having to compromise even one of my pet issues in order that anything actually gets accomplished. And, there’s no need to sully my clean hands with those tawdry fights against the opposition. Whatever I don’t like I blame on Democratic weakness and perfidy, thereby proving to the Republicans that I am independent enough to agree with them on a least that one issue if nothing else.
John Kerry, sadly, does certain things with which I disagree and I find that unacceptable in a politician. And even worse, instead of being as dazzlingly exciting as say…me, he is serious and plodding as are so many of these lowly politicians who cater to the unwashed hoi polloi. Frankly, it’s just a bit stomach churning to see a brahmin behaving as if he cares about what they want and need when we know that he couldn’t possibly.
Still, what choice to we really have? George W. Bush has made a hash out everything so even someone uninspiring and thick will just have to do.
Vote for John Kerry. He’s slightly better than that cretin George W. Bush but not nearly as perfect as I am.
FYI: Blogger is very bloggered so posting is by the grace of the goddess
Trick Or Treat
FAUX News is having a baby over Drudge’s screaming headline:
ABCNEWS HOLDS TERROR WARNING VIDEO
The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11… ‘The streets will run with blood,’ and ‘America will mourn in silence’… America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush… ABCNEWS strongly denies holding back from broadcast over political concerns during last days of election….”We have been working 24 hours a day trying to authenticate’… Developing…
Run for your lives!!!
I love this part, though:
The terrorist’s face is concealed by a headdress, and he speaks in an American accent, making it difficult to identify the individual.
Golly, I don’t know why ABC might be skeptical of such a tape. It’s clear that this alleged terrorist is simply a member of the Kerry campaign who’s joined al Qaeda.
Setting Up The Fall
James Wolcott documents some more FAUX news atrocities. “Liberal bias” definitely made it into Moody’s memo this morning since virtually every anchor has opined on it today. This is definitely a preview of the new and improved wingnut whine and pout. It’s almost sweetly nostalgic, like a gauzy trip back ten or twelve years in time. I remember it well…
As Wolcott says:
I’m not saying Fox News is anticipating a Bush loss, only that they seem to be laying the ground work for the blame game should he cough it up on November 2nd. They are taking the first baby steps to denying the legitimacy of a Kerry win, preparing the first batch of sour grapes.
It’s all of a piece with the preemptive screeching about voter fraud and Democratic dirty tricks. They are cataloging reasons to explain why the asterisk couldn’t pull it off. They will whine and fret and stomp their tiny little feet in a frenzy, earnestly claiming that Kerry didn’t legitimately win. And they will do it without even the slightest trace of irony.
Try to imagine how little I care.
Stench Of Panic
Amy Sullivan at The Washington Monthly post a very disconcerting piece about the Junta making a recess appointment to the Supreme Court.
Just when you thought the various post-election legal nightmare scenarios couldn’t get worse. U.S. News & World Report is emailing around some reporting that indicates the Bush White House may be considering a recess appointment (requiring no Senate approval, remember) to replace Chief Justice Rehnquist if he steps down for health reasons:
“Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has said Chief Justice William Rehnquist will return to the bench following cancer surgery, administration officials are quietly considering candidates to replace him and even the possibility of making a recess appointment. The officials said that they do not want to talk about the process publicly in the last week of the presidential campaign. However, one insider said that the West Wing is considering what would happen if the judge left the bench soon and if a close election next Tuesday meant an evenly split 4-4 court was to decide the winner. Such a situation would likely mean that a lower court’s ruling on an outcome would be final and officials are worried that it would go against the President.”
I have serious doubts that they could get away with this, but it doesn’t surprise me that they would consider it. They circumvent the letter of the law at every opportunity. To think they would observe the spirit of the law and our democratic system is laughable.
Family Fetish
Dear gawd. Via Media Matters I see that Dick Morris’s wife is making a pathetic living hanging on to Lil’ Dickie’s coattails:
McGANN: People have heart surgery all the time. They don’t have to go into hiding. He has been in hiding for the last six weeks.
And I think that it’s part of their plan to build up and hype him — at the end of the election, and for the opening of his [presidential] library. So, we have once again for — I don’t know what time, the 10th, 15th, 20th time — the new Bill Clinton. And I think it’s also what Dick [Morris] likes to call his ADD [attention deficit disorder] problem. That when he doesn’t get attention he’s disordered. And on the one hand, he I don’t think really wants to help the Kerry campaign because if Kerry wins, Hillary has less of a shot, if any, at ever running for president and becoming president. […] You know, there was no reason for him to be holed up. My uncle had the same operation two weeks before he did. And he [McGann’s uncle] called me yesterday as he and his wife were driving to Florida. And he’s 71 years old. People recover from this surgery and they can do other things. You don’t have to just sit in a chair. They have created this. This is — you know — just like the sensation he created when he walked into the [Democratic National] Convention, with the camera showing him in 2000. They have to do something — he has to do something dramatic or he’s not happy.
Jayzuz. A man spends six weeks recovering from quadruple bypass surgery and he’s “in hiding.” (There seems to be a lot of speculation about all this on the wingnutladies lunch bunch circuit because I heard Mrs. Alan Greenspan say that there was word that Clinton’s recovery wasn’t going well.)
The next time some GOP harpy brings up the fact that Hillary is a big lesbian or a self hating feminist because she didn’t drop Bill like a hot potato after he got a few furtive blow jobs, ask them how Eileen McCann can respect herself after having her dachshound-like husband splashed all over The Star as a connoisseur of prostitute toe-sucking.
From Howie Kurtz in 1998:
“He is deeply angry and resentful of the Clintons,” says one Clinton supporter who knows Morris well. “He feels they basically walked away from him at a time he was in need and in trouble.” Yet friends say Morris retains a psychological attachment to Clinton – a need to be needed by him – while reserving his strongest fury for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Two and a half years ago, Morris was a national punch line. While serving as chief strategist for Clinton’s 1996 campaign, Morris was fired after the Star tabloid revealed his longtime relationship with prostitute Sherry Rowlands. His marriage to attorney Eileen McGann broke up, and his $2.5 million book on policy-making in the White House was a commercial flop.
But the suddenly famous Morris refused to go into hiding. Determined to launch a punditry career, he explored different venues – trying out for a New York radio show, for example – before landing high-profile gigs with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox TV network and Post newspaper. Now Morris is back with his wife – the most important thing in his life, he says – and gaining new prominence as an expert on Clinton and sex.
Eileen apparently took the (pedi) cure and voted with her feet.
They sure have some kinky family values on FAUX News — you’d think the falafels and foot fetishes alone would make it distinctly spicy for the Gary Bauer set. Has anybody asked the fundies about this…uh…inconsistency?