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ENDORSEMENTORAMA
Barack Obama wins election-nailing endorsements from Maria Shriver, Forest Whitaker, Stevie Wonder, MoveOn.org, twenty-nine North Dakota legislators, and - most crucially of all - Garrison Keillor:
“Seven years of a failed presidency is a depressing thing, and the country is pressing for a change and looking for someone with clear vision who is determined to break through the rhetorical logjam and find sensible ways to move our country forward. That’s you, friend,” he wrote in a letter.
That’s the way to bust open a rhetorical logjam, Garrison - with a sturdy cliché chisel! Hey, aren’t Democrats meant to be uniting the nation following all these years of Bushitler divisiveness? Let’s see how that’s working out:
With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Obama locked in a tight race before Tuesday’s voting, the campaign has turned into a gigantic family feud, with prominent and everyday Democrats splitting with spouses, siblings, parents and children.
Why, it’s an all-in wimp war! A gender-based racial/generational Obamic/Hillarian Democrisis! A mate-against-mate blue state hategate! Maybe Maureen Dowd can find some root causes here:
A more accurate snapshot of the frosty Clinton-Obama relationship came on a frosty December day ...
A day so frosty MoDo’s thesaurus was frosted shut.
... in a scorching encounter that is now known simply as “the tarmac moment.” On Dec. 13, the two senators were preparing to board their private planes parked next to each other at Reagan National Airport, to go back to Iowa for a debate.
Where, no doubt, the two jet-share refuseniks preached about global warming. Obama aims to “make the United States a leader in the global effort to combat climate change by leading a new international global warming partnership”; big words from someone who won’t even split a ride with Senator Steroid Ankles. Back to MoDo:
Hillary sent word to Obama that she wanted to talk to him. Obama’s aides figured that she wanted to make a pro forma apology for the comments of Billy Shaheen, the Clinton co-chairman in New Hampshire, who had told The Washington Post that Republicans would pounce on Obama’s confessions of cocaine and marijuana use in his late teens. Shaheen would step down the next day, but Camp Obama did not think the slam was a mere slip of the tongue.
In front of her plane, Hillary apologized to her rival about Shaheen. Obama replied that he was concerned at the pattern of insinuations and attacks from her supporters and that a message needed to be sent from the top that sharp attacks were not, as Hillary had put it, “the fun part.” He brought up another recent example: the Clinton volunteer in Iowa who had been asked to leave after forwarding sleazy e-mail falsely claiming that Obama was a Muslim.
Then, according to witnesses from the Obama camp, Hillary got very agitated and was “flapping her arms.”
Well, she was on a runway. Who needs a stupid jet?
As would any sensible individual, wron.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 02 04 at 12:04 PM • permalinkHe brought up another recent example: the Clinton volunteer in Iowa who had been asked to leave after forwarding sleazy e-mail falsely claiming that Obama was a Muslim.
If it’s the email I think it is, I’ve received it at least a half-dozen times. I reads like something from the late, and lamented, Weekly World News supermarket tabloid (where have you gone, Bat Boy?). On the other hand, Obama needn’t be a Muslim for there to be legitimate questions about his out-of-the-mainstream religious beliefs.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 02 04 at 12:13 PM • permalinkI firmly believe this next election in the U.S. is pivotal (yes they most if not all are but…), in my opinion WE, the U.S. could become the next Russia…reduced influence, with a lot of nukes.
OR worse a third rate power, say like….ummmm…ohhhh a Venezuela.
We have many bright people and true leaders as the world is today, who should be running for the presidency, to bad they aren’t.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Okay 10. I can officially go off topic without worrying about Andrea chasing me again with that scary paddle. The old she devil.
(clears throat)
paco, old chap. Remember a few months back we went on that trip in the Tardis to the Mayan pyramids? Remember what I said? NO MESSING UP THE TIME LINE!
Could you please explain to me this?
Posted by wronwright on 2008 02 04 at 01:06 PM • permalinkThere are a lot of unhappy Republicans in California now, since their fellows put The Governator in office.
Not only did he turn out to be a Dim0crat, his wife (a Kennedy) just endorsed Obama.
All together now: WE TOLD YOU SO !!!
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 02 04 at 01:21 PM • permalinkBeats me. I thought Fred was the best guy in the race but despite the oft repeated preference for a candidate that doesn’t pander and doesn’t go negative Fred didn’t attract much support.
The conventional wisdom is that Fred “didn’t want it enough”. From what I can gather, that really means he didn’t get on his knees in front of donors and reporters often enough.
And, yeah, I’m amazed at how people who claim not to like “politics as usual” ignored the candidate who was least “politics as usual”.
Then there’s the press focusing on meaningless crap while ignoring the candidates’ actual stances on issues. No doubt they’ll later whine about how the public “just doesn’t pay attention to the issues”.
Pfeh.
But I’m in an unnaturally bitter mood lately. Women… can anyone explain them? Or at least this one in particular?!
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2008 02 04 at 02:37 PM • permalink#19 I liked Fred because he wasn’t for politics so much. He wanted a smaller government, etc. And good on him. Government should only be there for military protection, in my view, such as from terrorists.
Over in the States, as they should have here, the media should have paid attention to the issues, the candidates, the stances, and so on. Not just got on their knees for one political party.
I still think Fred was your best chance. You can picture him saying “Fuck them, nuke ‘em” if there was a terrorist attack, you can picture him saying “Send ‘em all back to Mexico” for the illegal immigrants, and so forth.
I liked his “No shit” attitude though, I respect that a ton.
Hillary vs McCain.
Truly a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
It’s more a decision of voting for who will do the least damage and quite frankly I’m not sure that John McCain is the obvious choice, especially if Huckabee is the VP candidate.
Should McCain become ill, and let’s face it the guy will be the oldest sitting President ever, and his cancer re-occurs that would leave Huckleberry Hound with his finger on the nuclear trigger. That thought should make ou crap your pants if it hasn’t already.
But enough, enough already.
I say to purge these demons from this blog that Tim needs to immediately institute a policy of gratuitous nudity in all postings.
Nudity, not Dudity, which as we all know is dude nudity and not kosher at all.
Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2008 02 04 at 03:20 PM • permalink#20 Ash_
The media might focus on issues if they were truly objective, but pigs would fly first.
Back when the media was promoting Fred’s lack of ‘fire in the belly’ he gave them an answer similar to the one he gave Miss Schoolmarm, ‘I don’t raise my hand’, a polite way of saying he wouldn’t dance to their tune. It made me like him even more, but the media got out the knives.
The most hilarious aspect of the Hillary-Obama slap fight (for me anyway) has been all these liberal pundits howling with indignation at seeing the Clinton attack machine sicced on one of their own. It’s like they’re surprised or something.
People? Where have you been for the last decade and a half? This is what the Clintons do. Hell, it’s who they are.
Posted by WingDynasty on 2008 02 04 at 03:44 PM • permalink“Seven years of a failed presidency is a depressing thing…”—Keillor
Had some mental helth issues back in 2000, eh?
Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 04 at 04:28 PM • permalinkTo be honest, I hope Hillary wins the democrat primaries. Obama is a little more than a bag of platitudes, and if Hillary were to win the presidency, she will continue to put it up the jihadists. Obama? He will hope they go away with audacity!!
Either way, you yanks have a pretty poor set of choices come November.
Failed presidency? No, that’d be Gore and Kerry.
That tarmac encounter must have been a real globalwarming metaphore: scorchingly frosty.
(Congratulations to Tim Blair on his form. I was expecting an understandable slight blunting of his comic edge during the drug-fueled recovery, but no such thing has happened.)
This is the best pictureI have seen in the whole US campaign. Saw it first in one of the Australian broadsheets.
A sinister looking Kennedy fills Obama’s ear with poisonous thoughts. Seems to working by the expression on Obama’s face. Clinton is oblivious to Obama’s hate-filled glare as she chats, animatedly.
Hollywood could not have set up a picture that says more about the Democrats. In fact, I couldn’t get over how much Kennedy looks like some evil Hollywood priest. You could see him cast as the sadistic cardinal in a movie on the Spanish Inquisition.
This really belongs on the Fisk thread, but, hey: everybody has moved on.
Paco and Fisk – Part I
The taxi swerved to a stop in front of the King Cheops Motel 6, scattering chickens and a stray goat in a brief but loud barnyard chorus. The joint was situated in a rundown suburb of Cairo that looked as if it had been zoned for a landfill. I paid Omar, the smiling cabby, and told him to wait. “Certainly, Sir, veddy good! Omar always offers the deluxe service to the distinguished travelers! Remember me to your friends!” As I walked up the dusty, tiled steps, Omar sped off, giving me a friendly wave. I sighed – recollecting the notice on his dashboard: “Effluvial English Spoken” – and entered the hotel lobby.
The lobby consisted of a battered counter, a dilapidated naughahide couch, and a ceiling fan that wobbled and clanked on its axis at a speed insufficient to discommode the flies who were along for the ride. A young, prematurely bald clerk sat on a stool behind the counter making a half-hearted attempt to conceal an old edition of Maxim behind the covers of a Koran.
“Good morning”, I said. “I’m looking for a Mr. Robert Fisk. I understand that he’s a guest here. Can you tell me his room number?”
The Clerk hastily broke off his spiritual meditations and looked at me quizzically. “Mr. Fix? The celebrated writer and” – he added somewhat unsurely – “English satin bag? He is expecting you?”
“Me being here is entirely his own idea.” I lit a cigarette and offered one to the clerk; he took it and put it carefully in one of the pockets of his vest (which looked like an old prayer rug that had been cut down for size and secular usage).
“Ah, yes; Mr Fix. He is in room 203. I will show you the way to the stairwell. You will use the steps, please? We just buy new elevator” – he beamed proudly at me as we passed the elevator car, sitting incongruously on the floor of the wide hallway – “but we find out later that you need something called a ‘shaft’. We should be getting most elegant new shaft any day now.”
It seemed to me that the King Cheops Motel 6 had been most elegantly shafted already, but I kept the sentiment private. I dragged myself up the dingy stairs and reached my destination. The door to room 203 was slightly ajar, so I gave it a gentle push.
Sitting in front of a cracked mirror was the equally cracked author, himself. He held a deerstalker hat in one hand, and a fedora in the other, and alternated them as he tried each one on in turn. I coughed politely.
What’s worse is the fact of the House and Senate being Democratic majorities. If this doesn’t change even if McCain takes the White House we aren’t sure he’ll behave like a Republican, and Romney isn’t too reliable either. I can’t even console myself with the certainty of gridlock.
I’m seriously thinking of buying guns now hoping to be grandfathered before they mess with the Second Amendment. As for free speech, remember McCain-Feingold. And it’ll be open borders again, too. Ugh.
Paco and Fisk – Part II
“Oh, there you are, Paco! Say, what do you think of my playing detective?”
I took out a fresh gasper, struck a match on my thumbnail, and fired up. “I think that all depends on how you feel about being called a ‘dick.’”
“What? Oh…Ha, ha, ha! Very good! ‘Dick’, eh? Double entendre, play on words, that sort of thing? Yes, that’s rich indeed. But seriously now, old top. Do you see me as more of a Sherlock Holmes figure, exercising superhuman logic, or as a kind of 1940’s gumshoe, with a tough-guy line of patter, and a Moscow tucked away in my shoulder holster?”
Considering his native intelligence and the violent world in which he chose to live, I actually pictured him as being more of a Clueless Western Tourist Whose Body is Found Crumpled in the Bazaar With Throat Cut and Pockets Picked. The poor slob.
“That’s ‘roscoe’, not ‘Moscow’, and you won’t need either of those lids. I’ve already solved the case.”
Fisk sprung from his chair in the midst of switching hats, leaving him wearing both of them simultaneously.
“What? You’ve already worked out who wrote that Hussein biography under my name?”
“Yeah. It was Tim Blair. One of his nurses gave him a laptop to monkey around with while he was still feeling happy from the painkillers they gave him after his operation. It was just a prank.”
Fisk’s map turned the color of a fresh piece of calf’s liver. “Of all the bloody cheek! Blair even succeeds in humiliating me when he’s stoned!”
I turned to go, but suddenly remembered something that I thought might take some of the sting out of the whole affair. “Well, the good news is that the first sentence of your book has been short-listed for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize.”
Garrison Keillor, too much ice fishing on Lake Wobegon has dulled your senses.
Fred’s big problem is that he waited too long to “officially” get in the race, it hurt his fund raising efforts.
#22 Ash_ nudity?? what the hell did I miss?
Posted by Old Tanker on 2008 02 04 at 05:23 PM • permalink#37: wait ‘til you hear what they were talking about.
#35, 38.
Set of poor choices indeed. Notice that, with a few notable exceptions, real leaders stay well away from politics these days?
Waylon Jennings had a song, “The World’s Gone Crazy (Cotillion)”, about the side men all wanting to be front men, while the front men all want to go home. (It also mentioned that villains have turned into heroes and the heroes have turned into heels.) Lyrics
El Cid
Tell me about it. This batch almost…Almost I say, makes me wish for Mr. Ear Wax.
Mention of Mr Ear Wax gives me a chance to comment on his 2020 summit.
Labor headquarters, Friday, February 1, late.
Ring, ring ... ring ring.
Faceless Labor Controller: Hello.
Kevin Rudd: Kevin here (pause) mate. Just watched the Twenty20 cricket. The Aussie cricketeers crushed those darkies. Bloody brilliant (pause) mate.
FLC: Yes, yes, saw it. What the fuck do you want, Kevin.
KR: The cheering (pause) mate. Did you hear the cheering. I want people to cheer me like that. I want to be loved like Golly.
FLC: Golly?
KR: Golly, the black man with the white lips, like a gollywog.
FLC: That’s Symonds, also called Roy, Never Golly.
KR: Sure there was a Golly there. He got a standing ovation. I want a standing ovation (pause) mate. Anyway, I want to be cheered and adored like the Aussie cricketers at the Twenty 20. I want a Twenty20 of my own.
FLC: Faulkner and I have been talking about a summit, you know, one of those useless talkfests filled with full of boring people who think they should be running the country. We were going to pick some date way in the future and ask these nuff-nuffs to tell us what they want to country to be like then.
KR: Can I chair it?
FLC: The date picked is so far in the future to be totally pointless. We’ve been bouncing around the name Australia 2050. Faulkner reckons we should call Nerdcon 2050. He is going to make the delegates pay their own way. You can imagine what sort of dickheads that will attract.
KR: Can I chair it?
FLC: We could bring that forward 30 years and call it Rudd’s 2020. That might pick up some goodwill from the Twenty20.
KR: Can I chair it?
FLC, exasperated: Yes, Kevin, you can chair it. Maybe co-chair it with some tame academic who might give it some credibility.
KR: Great (pause) mate. Will there be mass hysteria and cheering?
FLC: Depends how many people the ABC and Fairfax send along.Why, it’s an all-in wimp war!
I would just like to point out that I am not now, or ever have been, related to a democrat party member, nor editor of moveon, nor anyone else at all - well, there’s my socialist sister in the UK, but what can you do?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 02 04 at 07:28 PM • permalinkJust remember, for every black who votes for Obama because he’s “black” there are two hispanics who will vote for Hillary for the same reason. No love lost between these two minority groups.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 02 04 at 07:30 PM • permalink#37 OK CAPTION TIME!
“She put out for me in ‘79”
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 02 04 at 07:41 PM • permalink#40 & 42, Paco. Absolutely made me cackle (almost Hillaryesque cackles, I might add).
However, if you truly did travel back to the time of Pacal the Great in the Tardis (you have to admit, the similarity in names is a bit suspicious), you’ve planted doubts in my mind. Come on. Paco Enterprises’ drive for world dominion, that whole Mayan calendar, 2012 end of the world thing? I’m feeling a bit insecure, like a Bill Clinton aide in a black church.
#45 After reading the other two reviews, I posted a review of this “book”.
This book isn’t worth the paper it is written on. I wouldn’t buy a used copy for 5 cents. Much better buy “Global Warming Every 1500 Years”, also available on Amazon.
I hope it gets published.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 02 04 at 07:59 PM • permalink“#22 Ash_ nudity?? what the hell did I miss?”
I’ve been doing an extensive search ever since post # 22, looking for nude photos.
No luck so far.
Posted by Dave Surls on 2008 02 04 at 08:27 PM • permalink60 61 no crap I hope.
Janice, different thread, but
that might ease your mind about the specious rumors about McCain’s incarceration in North Vietnam.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 04 at 09:46 PM • permalinkCaptain Renault: Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.
We do suspect them:Barack Obama wins election-nailing endorsements from Maria Shriver, Forest Whitaker, Stevie Wonder, MoveOn.org, twenty-nine North Dakota legislators, and - most crucially of all - Garrison Keillor.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 04 at 09:49 PM • permalink64 Vote or the other voters will vote against your candidate. I assume Dems win because they pay more. Ted K seems to get lots of votes for his money.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 04 at 09:52 PM • permalinkHillary vs. McCain…may the better Democrat win. Ain’t no GOP in that fight.
well, I’ll do what I can tomorrow and November to keep that from happening…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 02 04 at 10:40 PM • permalinkDo McHillO exist? As Cap Ed reports
So I have some sympathy with our friends in Britain this morning, who have to be slapping their heads with the results of a poll taken by a television production company that found 23% of their fellow countrymen didn’t believe that Winston Churchill actually existed.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 04 at 10:57 PM • permalinkI endorse The Anchoress’s take on McCain and Romney.
Did anyone see Stevie Wonder wailing “Obaaaaaaamaaaaaa, Obammmmmmaaaaa” and then falling over?
Now that’s an endorsement!
It grabbed my attention. I hear that the Republicans are already looking for ways to better it - they’re going to get a deaf guy in a wheelchair choke on a pretzel then fall down a staircase.
Posted by Pig Head Sucker on 2008 02 05 at 12:39 AM • permalinkI think an Obama Administration would be like the Second Coming of Jimmy Carter. Once was too many times.
Here’s my candidate for November. Why vote for the lesser evil?
http://www.cthulhu.org/index.htmlPosted by Michael Lonie on 2008 02 05 at 12:49 AM • permalinkBut who won the all-important David Hasselhoff endorsement?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 02 05 at 01:45 AM • permalink
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No, Hillary was doing the “chicken dance”. It was a cunning ploy to change the subject. And it worked! Obama forgot all about his grievances when he walked, very quickly, towards his plane.