Stupid Republican Thing of the Day (12/20/10) December 20, 2010
Posted by monty in politics.Tags: politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin, waste of oxygen
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In what is sure (and unfortunately) to become a regular feature, here’s the first in an open-ended series documenting how ridiculous and irrelevant the modern Republican party has become. On a side note, anyone want to wager how many of these in an average week will involve Sarah Palin?
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Sarah Palin: “Michelle Obama Wants the Government to Take Away Our Dessert!”
Okay, I’m paraphrasing, but not by much. From CNN:
Sarah Palin is again taking aim at Michelle Obama over her anti-obesity campaign, taking the opportunity in Sunday’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” to land a diss against the first lady’s efforts to improve nutrition.
While making s’mores at one point during Sunday’s episode, the former Alaska governor proclaims the marshmallow and chocolate treat is “in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”
It’s not the first time Palin has taken a job at Mrs. Obama over her campaign to discourage fattening foods, especially from public schools. The former vice presidential nominee told conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham last month that “the first lady cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat.”
This is how bizarre the GOP’s anti-government rhetoric has gotten, where an observation that our country – and, increasingly, our children – has become dangerously obese can only be seen as an attempt by the government to control your life. They may not be bright, but Sarah Palin has helped the Republicans corner the market on petty and mean-spirited. Will someone please make this woman go away?
*****
Current listening:
Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence (2010)
Last movie seen:
Ghostbusters II (1989; Ivan Reitman, dir.)
I Don’t Know if This Is Ignorance or Transcendence April 16, 2010
Posted by monty in news, politics.Tags: Bob Cesca, Fox News, Glenn Beck, politics, TV, waste of oxygen
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Bob Cesca is one of my favorite writers, and for my money he’s doing the best job of anyone at unveiling the drooling, gibbering, psycho ward lunacy and racist dumbfuckery of the contemporary Republican party.
Cesca’s currently busy tilting, Don Quixote-style, at the Glenn Beck windmill, hell-bent on revealing him for the huckster and charlatan that he is. I’ve long believed that Beck is engaged in a bit of quasi-Andy Kaufman performance art, and the only thing that keeps me from being completely in awe of him is the fact that so many of the people who watch him take him absolutely fucking seriously. And that is, in a word, frightening. Given a second word, it’s also irresponsible. It’s one thing to spew lies with a nod and a wink, when your listeners know you’re not serious and are in on the joke. But it’s another thing entirely to do what Beck does, which is purposely deceive his fans, who choose to remain willfully ignorant, and who tune in to Beck because he gleefully pours gasoline on even their most unintelligible conspiracy theories. Because, you know, fomenting anti-government violence and bigotry is fun.
Anyway, Cesca’s been writing some exceptional stuff about Beck recently. Here’s a link to his most recent piece for the Huffington Post, which is, as usual, spot-on.
Bob Cesca (Huffington, Post, 4/14/10): Exposing Glenn Beck as a Dangerous Fraud, Part 2
And, for those who haven’t clicked the link on the right, here’s Cesca’s blog, which is full of goodies.
*****
Current listening:
Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here (2010)
Intermission January 4, 2010
Posted by monty in news.Tags: Brit Hume, Fox News, GOP, Tiger Woods, waste of oxygen
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Any time Fox News claims it’s a legitimate news channel, just remind yourself of this video:
Apologies to Insect Life January 1, 2010
Posted by monty in news, politics.Tags: GOP, health care reform, Rush Limbaugh, waste of oxygen
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Somehow I’ll have to overlook the fact that 2009 took John Hughes and Patrick Swayze (by all accounts, two of the kindest, most good-hearted men in show business) from us, but left Rush Limbaugh alive and kicking. What I can’t overlook, though, is the statement he made about his recent hospitalization: “I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine.”
This arrogance perfectly encapsulates everything that’s wrong with the position held by the opponents of health care reform. They think that because their health care is just hunky-dory, that means it’s working for everyone else. Let’s keep in mind that Limbaugh makes, depending on whom you ask, somewhere between $28 and $34 million a year, just from his broadcasting contract with Clear Channel. So of course the health care system works just fine. He could probably buy the hospital that treated him.
The important question to ask him, though, is this:
Rush, if you made $30,000 a year and didn’t have employer health insurance or weren’t wealthy enough to pay out of pocket, how well would you think the health care system is working? If you were suddenly faced with a hospital bill that totaled more than you make in a year, would you think we have the best system in the world?
This is why a strong public option (or, dare I say it, a single-payer system) is vital: to protect those who can’t protect themselves. But the GOP doesn’t see it this way. Their health care bills are covered, and their salaries are healthy enough to bear the brunt of anything not covered. The rest of the great unwashed, as far as the Republicans are concerned, can go fuck themselves.
And I don’t know if this is a piece of the puzzle or not, but I can’t help but wonder to what degree Limbaugh’s chest pains can be attributed to the fact that he’s a morbidly obese, cigar-smoking, ex-drug addict who peddles manufactured rage. Shouldn’t these dangerous lifestyle choices somehow disqualify him from insurance coverage?
I know, I know. In a perfect world.
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Current listening:
The Clash – Combat Rock (1982)
The Neighbors Can’t Breathe November 23, 2009
Posted by monty in politics.Tags: politics, Sarah Palin, waste of oxygen
1 comment so far
Okay, I know. When someone shoots video of a politician’s fans at a rally or a speech or a book signing, it’s invariably slanted. They chop it up and edit it so that only the most moronic or inflammatory or entertaining people make the final cut. And I know that this is probably true of any politician. I’m sure you could get a sample of stupidity at any political event … and yes, I’m including Barack Obama’s events in there, too. Conservatives don’t have a monopoly on stupidity – they just seem to own more shares.
But, man. A video taken during one of Palin’s book signings illustrates exactly why Sarah Palin’s fans are – yes, I’ll say it – dangerous. Last week, Jon Stewart brilliantly and accurately called her a “conservative boilerplate mad lib,” her every speech peppered with … oh, hell, just watch it for yourself:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Before I get to the video I actually wanted to show, it’s always interesting to see the GOP attempt to dissect exactly why the liberals don’t like Palin, and it’s always funny to see how wrong they get it. They think it has something to do with her attractiveness or her religion or her outspokenness, when, as I’ve said here before, it has nothing to do with any of that, and everything to do with her being a vacuous, empty-headed twit. Oh, I won’t deny that she’s a master of controlling her image, and in that respect she’s a savvy and brilliant entertainer. But we should never mistake that for actual gravitas or intelligence.
Sarah Palin parrots exactly what her followers want to hear, and they parrot it right back to anyone who asks them about her. As in this video. It pains me that it was taken in my home state, but my consolation is that her fans would sound like this anywhere in the country. Stupid knows no geographical boundaries.
One thing I believed following the 2004 election – and which I believe even more now – is that the red/blue divide in this country comes down to an ability to think critically. Personally, it’s tiring to hear the all or nothing/love it or leave it/black and white rhetoric that consistently comes out of the GOP. There’s never (or rarely, at least) an acknowledgment of the gray areas in an issue, or that ideology is often nuanced, or that it’s possible to support a politician without agreeing with his every issue. You hear it in the responses in that video. No knowledge of Palin’s specific policies or beliefs, no idea about what Obama or the incumbent Congress has actually done to steal their country from them – it’s just God and guns and drill, baby, drill.
And, I’m sorry to say it again, but that’s dangerous. To so blindly support someone about whose beliefs you know nothing outside the empty platitudes she spews in her media appearances is irresponsible. The Republicans harp consistently about not knowing Obama’s background. Even if that were true – which it’s not, let’s go ahead and establish that right away – at least we know specifically what he believes in, and what kinds of policies he’d like to enact. With Palin, we know everything about her past, but that still tells us nothing about the specifics of her ideology.
People are so enamored with Palin’s story (and I’ll admit, it’s a good one) that they completely ignore the crucial problem: she completely lacks substance. And maybe that’s been the biggest failing of our schools: we haven’t properly taught people how to think critically. We haven’t taught them how to look for substance, to dissect an argument, to look out for propaganda. And I’m not going to deny that there isn’t an element of this same problem to Obama’s success. He was a great speaker with a catchy message and a barrier-busting heritage – there were absolutely people who voted as blindly for him as there are those who would vote blindly for Palin. Neither is right. But Obama, at the very least, talked specifically about his beliefs and his policies, unlike the vice-presidential debate, where Palin simply ignored the moderator’s questions to mouth her talking points like the Stepford GOP automaton she is. And it does seem, at least to this humble citizen, that, after eight years of Bush’s smirky arrogance, and with this current fascination with Palin, an inability to think critically often seems to be the province of the right wing.
But back on point: we need to better equip our students to think intelligently and critically. Doing so goes some way toward ensuring that they won’t behave like the people in the video, who are apparently acting without any conscious thought whatsoever – like some bizarre Pavlovian GOP experiment, they begin salivating when Palin derisively utters the phrase “mainstream media.” The final irony, of course, is that Obama’s current education policy – with its emphasis on standards and testing – will only breed more people who are unable to look beyond the rhetoric to the empty promises beneath.
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Current listening:
Burning Airlines – Mission: Control! (1999)
Know Your Quarry November 5, 2009
Posted by monty in comedy, pop culture.Tags: Carrie Prejean, Miss California, waste of oxygen
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Oh, karma, you glorious bitch. Remember Carrie Prejean, the Californian beauty pageant contestant who hates gays but loves the fake boobs pageant officials bought for her? Turns out she dropped her lawsuit against pageant officials once she realized they had in their possession an “extremely graphic” sex tape of herself. Alone. Playing solitaire, shall we say.
So, just to recap: homosexuality = bad; making a video of yourself tickling the ol’ ivories = good.
I can’t wait to see how her cheerleaders on the Christian right spin this one. Demonic possession, anyone?
CNN (11/4/09): Carrie Prejean “Sex Tape” Spurred Pageant Settlement
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Current listening:
Chris Bell – I Am the Cosmos
Wounded World November 4, 2009
Posted by monty in news, politics, TV.Tags: Matt Taibbi, news, Paris Hilton, pop culture, Republicans, Sarah Palin, TV, waste of oxygen
2 comments
Part of me was ashamed to write about Jon Gosselin and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach the other day. After all, a huge part of the problem with our celebutard-obsessed culture is that the media keeps giving them attention they don’t deserve. Jon and Kate, Lindsay and Paris, the whack-job Mormon family who’ve mistaken Mom’s uterus for a broken gumball machine, the dimbulbs from The Hills, and the entire cast of the Twilight movies – they’d all be so much more bearable if their fame was proportional to their actual level of accomplishment. That means I’d never know who Jon, Kate, Paris, or the Duggard family is, I’d know Lindsay only as the star of the Tina Fey-scripted Mean Girls, the Twilight cast would only appear in Entertainment Weekly articles I skip, and Heidi and Spencer and the rest of The Hills’ demon-spawn wouldn’t register on my radar until Joel McHale ridicules them on The Soup. There’s no earthly reason why any of these people show up on the news. In a fair and just world, they’d be relegated to media oblivion.
The same goes for Sarah Palin. A full year after getting her ass handed to her by voters, she’s still hanging around, like the drunk who doesn’t realize the party’s over. Her memoir, which we’re supposed to believe she wrote all by her widdle self in the space of a few months – despite the fact that she has yet to string more than three words together intelligibly in public – is currently ranked #3 on Amazon, which means that an unfortunate number of people actually believe she has something important to say about anything. My guess is that the book will be good for either A) comic relief, or B) a literary drinking game, wherein the reader does a shot every time she uses the word maverick. Like all the names in the first paragraph, there is no reason, none whatsoever – and I’m quite serious about this – that she gets any media attention at all. I don’t care if McCain chose her as his running mate in a cynical ploy to snatch vaginaed voters away from Obama. She has yet to say anything of consequence about anything, and the fact that anyone is considering her a serious contender for the 2012 presidential election is testament only to how delusional a segment of this country remains.
There are exactly two choices for how the media should handle these people. The first is to stop covering them. It’s a simple solution, elegant and precise. Don’t report on them, don’t show any photos or film, don’t tell us what they said. They’re inconsequential, and every second you devote to them takes away a second you could be using to cover something that actually matters.
The other option – and I could conceivably throw the whole weight of my support behind this – is to reveal them as the buffoons they are. If the NBC Nightly News were to include a 5-minute-long segment called “Daily Dickhead” where the likes of Spencer Pratt or Kim Kardashian were eviscerated through a montage of clips demonstrating their vacuous, selfish ways, I would tune in every night. Seriously. Any venture that encourages the American public to ridicule these self-involved twats is a worthwhile one, in my book.
And, incidentally, I would endorse this exact same handling of Sarah Palin. Somehow we’ve arrived at the notion that being “fair” or being “objective” means treating both sides of an argument as equally valid. As a result, we get serious news reporting of death panels and teabaggings and town hall meetings filled with angry white people who look like torch-wielding extras from Frankenstein. If the big news outlets were really worth their salt anymore, rather than report on these things as though they were legitimate news, they’d call bullshit on the whole enterprise. The right-wing is going to paint the mainstream news media as a bunch of far-left pinko commie faggots anyway, so what would they have to lose if Brian Williams came to us on-air one night and said, “Sarah Palin said today in a town hall meeting that Barack Obama wants to kill your grandparents. What a crazy bitch!”
I think it’s entirely fair to report on death panels and these teabag demonstrations or whatever else the right-wing concocts, but the Big 3 needs to have the smarts and the gumption to really report on them. They need to show, for instance, how the right-wing is using lies and distortion and charged language to derail health care reform, as well as how Fox News and other Republican groups are organizing these supposedly “spontaneous” demonstrations. The news bureaus feel, I guess, like they have to report on these things as serious phenomena, when the truth of it is, if they were really reporting objectively, they’d reveal all of it as a serious fraud to prey on voters’ fears of the U.S. turning into a grandma-killing noueveau-Cuba.
What we really need are more Matt Taibbis, the journalist who wrote the fantastic Rolling Stone article about the right-wing’s campaign against health care reform that I posted a month ago. Taibbi wrote a terrific piece shortly after Palin stepped down as governor of Alaska, but he declined to publish it until now. Here’s an excerpt:
Palin’s paranoid ramblings and self-pitying tantrums on the way out of office not only didn’t injure her chances for national office, they actually appeared to help, as polls taken in the week after her resignation showed that 71% of Republicans were now prepared to vote for her for president in 2012. Just as she had during the campaign last fall, Palin defied rational analysis by making a primal connection with the subterranean resentments of white middle America, which is apparently so pissed off now at the rest of the planet for not coddling its hurt feelings in the multicultural age that it is willing to embrace any politician who validates its insane sense of fucked-overness.
Nobody understands this political reality quite like Palin, even if she doesn’t actually understand it in the sense of someone who thinks her way to a conclusion, but merely lives it, unconsciously, with the unerring instinct of a herd animal. Palin’s supporters don’t judge her according to her almost completely nonexistent qualifications for serious office, they perceive her as they would a character in a Biblical narrative, a Job in heels with cross-eyes and a mashed-potato-brained husband who happens to spend a lot of time getting shat upon by Letterman and Maureen Dowd and the other modern-day Enemies of Christ.
On some level Palin understands better than any of us that what’s important to her base isn’t how well she does her job or even what she does with her time before 2012, but who her enemies are and how loudly she beats the drum against them – and when the news comes out that these foes have recently driven her to such distraction that she even started losing her hair (reportedly necessitating a recent emergency trip to personal hairdresser Jessica Steele), it elevates her conservative martyr credentials to previously unimagined levels.
As a national candidate she seems to us normal/rational observers mortally wounded, but as a conduit for middle American resentment she may actually have gained in stature, and don’t be at all surprised if she doesn’t emerge with the status of something like a religious figure when they roll the rock back for her inevitable candidacy three years from now.
This is exactly the kind of reporting we need now. We need the news media to stop acting like every argument is pitched on a level playing field, and that every media personality needs to be treated with the same deference. We need the media to do the heavy lifting and the critical thinking much of this country is unwilling to do itself. And that means they need to be ready to point out the people, on both sides of the political fence and in all aspects of the media, that seek to do us harm.
True/Slant–Taibblog (11/02/09): Palinoia
*****
Current listening:
Talking Heads – True Stories
Current reading:
Rattawut Lapcharoensap – “At the Café Lovely” (in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005, ed. by Dave Eggers)
Even Good Kids Make Bad Sports November 2, 2009
Posted by monty in Uncategorized.Tags: Jon Gosselin, Shmuley Boteach, waste of oxygen
3 comments
So, okay. I know that stars – even fake stars like Jon Gosselin – occasionally need spiritual guidance, too. But isn’t there something just a little creepy about receiving this guidance from a celebrity rabbi in front of an audience who paid 20 bucks a piece for the privilege?
And as for Rabbi Shmuley, when your celebrity “clients” include Jon Gosselin and Michael Jackson, doesn’t the International League of Rabbis revoke your membership?
I try to avoid commenting on stories like this one. But the ick factor here is so high that I just couldn’t resist. I have to admit that I always sort of felt sorry for Jon when The Soup would show clips of him being hen-pecked by Kate (Wife or succubus? You be the judge.), but the supreme level of douchebaggery he’s exhibited now officially makes it impossible to feel sorry for either side. This public cleansing, full of faux mea culpas, is the sad sight of someone trying desperately to make sure everyone still likes him. But whenever someone says, as Gosselin did, “I think I’m just misunderstood,” it’s a sure bet that we understand him perfectly.
In a lot of ways, though, I feel much more disdain for Rabbi Shmuley. Even though he’s proven himself to be a tool of the highest order, I genuinely think Jon Gosselin is a shlub who just got in over his head. But the rabbi is a shameless self-promoter, author, radio host, TV personality, and self-proclaimed Love Prophet. My question is, why should I even know this guy’s name? Who decided he was worth promoting, and what has he done that makes him more deserving of recognition than the religious folks who toil away in soup kitchens or build houses for Habitat for Humanity?
I’m not shy about my religious skepticism, but I’m also not blind to the fact that many people take solace in the relationship they have with their spiritual advisers. Rabbi Shmuley makes a mockery of that relationship by taking part in this circus. If he really wants to help Jon Gosselin, by all means, help. But you don’t do it in public and you sure as hell don’t charge admission. Gosselin is just a harmless dipshit; Rabbi Shmuley, on the other hand, is a slimy opportunist who takes advantage of the weakness of others and calls it beneficence.
The two of them combined are just one more example of how we, as a culture, have our priorities all wrong.
Entertainment Tonight (11/2/09): Rabbi Shmuley Opened “Up the Doors to My Emotions”
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Current listening:
Primal Scream – Echo Dek