Also available at Target, this Lamaze Octotunes:
O)CT(O)PUS is in love:
Speaking of shameless self-promotion, this is what happened at the White House economic conference yesterday: McCain Plays Bailout Spoiler. According Senator Chris Dodd:
"What this looked like to me was a rescue plan for John McCain for two hours and [John McCain] took us away from the work we are trying to do today. Serious people trying to do serious work to come up with an answer."
It seems Senator McCain has put party before country, and if you think McCain's grandstand play was atrocious, here is Sarah Palin on the CBS Early Show with Katie Couric:
To more fully appreciate this incoherent and incomprehensible gibberish, here is sample text from that interview:
Sarah Palin: "That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade -- we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation."
Personally I liked the Palin quote about Putin flying over Alaska with his head up. Maybe she thinks he's a witch.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course she manages the contentious border between the Yukon and Alaska.
Why is it that 150 million Americans think she isn't a babbling idiot?
I listened to those clips and found them a fine instance of unintended self-parody. When you ask her something she doesn't know anything about (which apparently is just about everything), she combines catchphrases like one of those software programs that generates random quotations. Except that the programs at least put intelligible sentences on the screen, whereas Palin's utterances are mangled almost beyond recognition. We have evidently arrived at a state of affairs in which vicious partisans are willing to dismiss anything a candidate says, no matter how incoherent or insane, so long as said candidate belongs to the "correct" party. Partisanship of the healthier sort is fine, but this willful indifference to undeniable incompetence could do us all in someday.
ReplyDeleteShe is absolutely frightening. I am utterly speechless. I feel incomprehensible in the presence of such imcomprehensibleness.
ReplyDeleteB-dino - I was struck by your ref to "partisanship of the healthier sort." I've been wondering of late whether, in fact there is such a thing anymore. In theory - a good idea - but in practice - not so much? I found myself muttering the other day to myself about the gridlock of two-party systems. SP - in fact - is a product of such a system, I think.
Squid -- yes, I know what you mean. This will make me sound like an eeyorasaurus, but we may be getting towards the end of this grand experiment of self-governance, sort of like Rome in the final few decades of the Republic. At some point, bad people figure out how to use good institutions and processes for base, selfish ends, and the political system becomes corrupt and the people turn cynical and apathetic. With another loss, I think that's pretty much where we would stand: we keep seeing that democracy can be used to destroy democracy. But I'm actually rather optimistic about Obama's chances, and I think he would provide some relief from the worst symptoms of our decline, if that's what it is. The fact that voter registration is up especially among Democrats is certainly a hopeful sign, isn't it? I mean, I don't see this as an election in which apathy reigns -- quite the opposite.
ReplyDeleteBloggingdino, 2 minutes to go ... debate I mean ... but I wanted to squeeze this in quickly. I agree with you 100% ... the end of the American experiment ... a victim of our own greed and decadence just like in Roman times. I'll hurray back later.
ReplyDeleteBest
Yeah, that Palin quote about the bailout/healthcare/taxes reminded me of nothing so much as that poor SC beauty queen explaining why Americans can't identify the USA on a world map. video here.
ReplyDeleteAnd funny you mention random quote generators... I received this via e-mail today: Sarah Palin Quotes Generator : Fictional
And finally, have you ever wondered what your name might've been, had you been a Palin? (Me, either.) But still... Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk: Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator
-Tarp Lazer Palin
(Yeah, (O)ct(O)pus, I did say I was goin' to bed... I'm just a dang addict...)