06 September, 2008

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Republicons trying to shut down an investigation into their own corruption? Say it ain't so!

Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.

In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.

That's right. John "Gonna Change Washington - Honest Injun!" Bush McCain's aiming to play the White House card and try to stall an inconvenient probe. Now, writing a letter may sound a little mild - but how about persuading "seven key witnesses" to all clam up at once? How about suggesting that "the investigation into Palin's firing of Monegan should be shut down entirely"? That's a horse of a rather different color, now, innit?

How long do you think it'll be before McCain's favorite POW card comes whipping out to fend off the nasty questions? Because everybody knows that a former POW can't possibly be a lying, obfuscating, pandering jackass.

They should hope to fuck that the Troopergate scandal and tittering over Bristol Palin's pregnancy continue on full steam, because they wouldn't want a little boo-boo like this to hit the airwaves, now, would they?

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

[snip]

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.

The Daily Kos diarist who brought this to my attention refers to it as "Palin's Macaca moment." And we all remember what happened to George Allen when he made that unfortunate racial slip at a campaign event, don't we? No wonder the McCain lackeys have spirited her away from the press - it sounds like racial epithets are second nature to her, and should one come tumbling merrily from her mouth during an interview, well... snippity-snip. No more McCain/Palin.

It's been a week, and the deluge of corruption, lies, scandals, and embarrassments from the Palin side of the ticket shows no signs of letting up. If I were McCain, I'd be looking for a way to distract voters and fast. Something like... flags!

It seems Fox News and some far-right blogs are excited about the latest in a series of lies from the McCain campaign -- the notion that thousands of American flags from the Democratic convention were going to be thrown away.

Like far too many of the stories pushed by the McCain campaign, and embraced by Fox News and far-right blogs, it's not true.

Days before the anniversary of September 11, on the same morning that John McCain and Barack Obama released a joint statement pledging to avoid politics in light of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, McCain's campaign accused Democrats of throwing away 12,000 American flags.

"The campaign says the flags were recovered from Invesco Field after the Democrats concluded their convention there," Fox News reported, "and they are going to be used as part of the warm-up ceremonies before McCain takes the stage" for a rally in Colorado Springs, Col.

But according to a senior official involved in organizing the Democratic convention, the McCain camp is simply lying about the flags.

"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere," the official said, speaking anonymously since he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The "story" -- I use the word loosely -- has been promoted by Fox News' Carl Cameron, perhaps best known for promoting fabricated nonsense about John Kerry four years ago.

In other words, consider the source.

I say, consider the sources. McCain/Palin have an abysmal track record on truth so far - I don't think a single day's gone by where they haven't lied themselves blind. They've hired the man who smeared McCain to help prep Palin for the tough task of taking down Biden in the veep debates. They're snowed under by bad news. So what do they do? Send operatives to steal flags out of storerooms, hand them out at their own campaign event, and crow about what heroes they are for saving those poor pieces of patriotic cloth - committing theft in the process. And who's their point man for revealing these heroics? An easily-debunked, lying scumbag on Faux News.

I don't know how many voters are likely to be swayed by such stupid shit, but I know one Congressman whose favorite drink is McKoolAid:

Sen. James Inhofe sets a new record for disingenuousness:

"Regardless of what polls show, Inhofe said, voters will have to ask themselves a question once they get behind the curtain in the voting booth on Election Day.

"Do you really want to have a guy as commander in chief of this country when you can question whether or not he really loves his country?" he asked.

"That's the big question." (...)

[snip]

"I am not questioning Sen. Obama's patriotism, but you have to question why at times he seems so obviously opposed to public displays of patriotism and national pride, like wearing an American flag lapel pin.""

I see. So the fate of our nation comes down to which person most enthusiastically wears tacky, made-in-China pieces of kitsch. Fuck the issues - it's the acrylic that matters!

Speaking of easily-snookered blowhards, you might've heard Billy-O's a wee bit upset over being pointed out as the poster child for hypocrisy. It gets richer:

As we've discussed already, Bill O'Reilly is pissed that people are calling him a hypocrite for bashing Jamie Lynn Spear's parents for having their teen daughter knocked up, but refuses to do the same to Sarah Palin.

The latest to point out that hypocrisy was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker. As a result, O'Reilly sent a camera crew to ambush her at her home:

As Tucker stopped outside her house to pick up her mail, the Fox camera crew emerged out of a car parked across the street and advanced on her, yelling questions. At this point, I’ll turn the account over to Tucker for the blow-by-blow account, as she recalls it:

O’Reilly guy: “Cynthia, in your column, were you comparing Bristol Palin to Jamie Lynn Spears?”

Cynthia: “In my column, I was criticizing Bill O”Reilly. And I stand by that.”

O’Reilly guy: “Bill pointed out that Jamie Lynn Spears was running around unsupervised. You know that. So you were saying that Bristol Palin was running around unsupervised.”

Cynthia: “If I said that, read that part. You’re holding the column (in your hand). Read where I said Bristol Palin was running around unsupervised.”

O’Reilly guy: “You inferred it.”

Cynthia: “I inferred O’Reilly is a hypocrite. And I stand by that. Good day, gentlemen. I’m going inside to finish my Saturday chores.”

Kos points out that O'Reilly, in an attempt to save himself from looking like a total fucking twit, is of course now implying that Bristol's sexual activities were fully supervised by her parents. And he's sending tabloid journalists around to try to fluster his critics. Newsman or blustering assclown? I'll let you all be the judge.

And, finally, a final chuckle to start your Saturday evening off right:

When you vote with the failed policies of George W. Bush 95% of the time, even some of your most ardent supporters have a hard time telling you apart:

In a slip of the lip echoing a misstatement 20 years ago, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey cast Tennessee's 55 votes at the Republican National Convention for "George S. McCain."

But remember, my darlings: George S. Mc - I mean, John Bush - I mean, John McSame is a total maverick who doesn't remind people of Bush at all.

2 comments:

Efrique said...

infer: to draw a conclusion from evidence

imply: to suggest without being explicitly stated

Kos points out that O'Reilly, in an attempt to save himself from looking like a total fucking twit, is of course now implying that Bristol's sexual activities were fully supervised by her parents.

So Dana is interpreting Kos as saying that O'Reilly's actions are suggesting (without them explicitly stating it) that Bristol's sexual activities were under parental supervision. Which is precisely what Kos did. Correct usage

Cynthia: "I inferred O’Reilly is a hypocrite."
That is, she "drew the conclusion" that he's a hypocrite. Correct usage.

O’Reilly guy: "You inferred it."
If she drew the conclusion he is referring to, it would have been written in the article. He meant "implied".

D'Oh. Hypocritical and with dubious English skills. These are of course, the prime requisites of anyone who expects to work at Fox News.

Anonymous said...

When George Allen had the "Macaca Moment" the camcorder was running and the remark was on YouTube within hours. Then people like Jeffrey Feldman filled in the backstory that "Macacque" is the in word for "black folks" on the nastiest white supremacist websites. Once the real journalistic work had been done for them, the MSM boys could safely finish the job.

Unfortunately, the article you linked to doesn't have a video or audio file attached to it, so it amounts to hearsay, and the Pit Bull With Lipstick can play the "They're All Lying!" card. And so far the MSM aren't showing enough backbone to do anything useful.