ch.annel2-i.s-n.ow-a.ngry

That’s right, CNN’s 2004 election coverage still says Kerry is the projected winner of New Hampshire - 4 years in and we apparently still haven’t figured it out. Really?

I just realized my video embeds aren’t coming through on the RSS feed, poor show old chap. I swear wordpress is actually getting worse the longer it’s been installed. A re-install or upgrade may be in order, because they seem to have it handled on their own hosted feeds, since I see vid links from there all the time. In any case, I will provide a link to this next video, and if you ever see a post that’s just a title in your RSS history, click it and there will probably be a video hiding there for you.

“>And the promised link to the video.

It was like a roast on Comedy Central, only funny.

That kids is a direct quote from McCain about Obama. I realize he probably doesn’t mean that to sound the way it does, but it sounds like he saying, “No, he’s not Arab, he’s a decent guy,” as if the two were mutually contradictory. Then again, that might be what his crowd believes, if the question leading up to McCain’s remark is any indicator.

Why is Sen. McCain doing this? There are many answers to that question: the economic crisis and Wall Street bailout have fostered a cultural climate in which populist appeals resonate even more than usual; Gov. Palin embodies the kind of false populism upon which the politics of rage necessarily rests; and Sen. McCain himself is very angry that a younger black man might best him for the office that he, Sen. McCain, has coveted his entire adult life. More than any of that, though, the politics of rage works for the Republican Party. It has since the era of President Nixon and Gov. Wallace. If working-class white people were to stop voting against their class interests, this would fast become a one-party nation. And so Sen. McCain taps into deep wells of hatred, the lifeblood of modern Republicanism.

But as Ta-Nehisi Coates reminds us, this hate has both a history and consequences:

Somewhere, slumbering in this country, there are men who aren’t clued in that this whole ‘terrorist’ thing is mere strategy. They have guns, and all their lives they’ve wanted to be famous. Don’t give them a reason. This is still America. We are never that far from the past.

One wonders if Sen. McCain, as megalomanical a politician as we have seen in many years, understands the forces he has unleashed. Indeed, the politics of rage consumed Gov. Wallace and not his enemies; his career effectively ended when an assassin’s bullet lodged in his spine, paralyzing him during the 1972 campaign. One hopes that this grim chapter in our history will not repeat itself, that the anger bubbling just beneath the surface of our politics will not claim another victim.

Excellent read. Highly recommended. It doesn’t often occur to me that people take seriously what Impalin/McCain have to say.

Got some spin for the Obama campaign to make use of.  

“Is Obama a celebrity? Certainly his children think so. Is McCain a maverick? Well, he certainly changes his mind, unlike President Bush. 

But is being a celebrity really all that bad? Celebrities donate more to charity than (however many) Republican  politicians. Obama donates to charity. 

When was the last time Hollywood crashed the economy? When was the last time Hollywood needed nearly a trillion dollars?

You may or may not think of Barak Obama as a celebrity, but ask yourself, if he is a celebrity, is it really that bad?  Are celebrities really that much more coke and hooker and money addicted than the average congress person? Not that much if recent Republicans under investigation are anything to judge by. 

Obama: Celebrity or not, he donates to charity, not to lines of coke on a dead hooker’s chest.” 

not that all politicians aren’t guilty of this, but at least they don’t call their campaign the ‘Straight Talk Express” and say ‘maverick maverick maverick’ when asked a question about how they’re gonna fix things (his fellow candidate says ‘change change change’ - but at least uses a couple euphemisms for change, damned elitist vocabulary havin uppity east-coast liberal) 

Good stuff. I recommend watching her say a whole lot of nothing. Notice how she dodges the question about moratoriums on forclosures at the end there. And when she’s asked if she can give any examples of McCain showing leadership, the only one Palin can come up with is the example Couric gives - as if being a leading voice maybe once is all that is needed. And she slips in “maverick” - but gives absolutely no concrete examples - the best she can do is “I’ll try to find some and bring ‘em to ya :D.”