If you know someone teetering toward McCain due to his “heroism” or “mavericky-ness,” this quick video of Tim Dickinson should give them a shove back in the right direction:
Pass it along. The companion cover story in Rolling Stone is even better. [hat tip bjkeefe]
SOMEWHAT RELATED: Isn’t the prevailing notion that McCain’s great during town halls a bit of a myth, eagerly propagated by Our Stupid Media, as well? Sure the McCain of several years ago may have shined during them, but his town halls that I’ve seen during this election season aren’t all that. He has looked stiff, awkward, humorless and unconcerned. Am I missing something? I guess I’ll find out tonight.
Michael Rovito, who we wrote about earlier, was on CNN this afternoon to defend John McCain’s charges against him that he had engaged in “‘gotcha’ journalism” when he asked Sarah Palin questions about Pakistan and Waziristan at a Philly cheesesteak joint Saturday. After Betty Nguyen, CNN news anchor and member of Our Stupid Media, asked Rovito, who is a grad student at Temple University and most definitely not a journalist, twice if he had indulged in “‘gotcha’ journalism” during his encounter with Palin, he responded thusly:
“I don’t even know what that means, but of course not. I’m not a journalist. I’m just a tax-paying citizen. And if we cannot ask a question of our veep and presidential candidates and if we do we get scorned for being a ‘gotcha’ journalist—again, I don’t know what that means—but then it’s a sense of, I don’t know, it’s almost tyrannical in a way. Like I think that comment, just speaking objectively, was kind of a blow to the integrity of journalists and tax-paying citizens who have questions that we want our vice presidential and presidential candidates to answer. I mean, I don’t get this”
So you would think Nguyen would understand that he was a citizen asking Palin some legitimate, educated questions and would appreciate his defense of the integrity of her profession, getting that he was implying that good journalism, by nature, should have a “gotcha” component, right? Think again…
NGUYEN: “Well, what he’s trying to say, I mean, with this gotcha moment, did you try to set her up and play stump the candidate?”
ROVITO: “Of course not. No.”
Jesus Drunken Christ on a bar crawl, “stump the candidate”? Where have I heard that before? Hmmmm…
And to close things out, Nguyen, looking like she was ready for a pat on the head and a bone-shaped biscuit, proudly announced that Rovito had claimed that he’s not a “‘gotcha’ journalist.” Quality reporting had been completed and we closed yet another chapter in the massive novel(ty) that is Our Stupid Media.
If you have the stomach for it, watch a disturbing video about Governor Palin’s wolf bounty program, a substitute for clubbing seals (should you become bored with that.)
Sarah don’t blink, and I know why.
John McCain asked Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Despite being a political novice, she said, without any hesitation whatsoever, yes.
Sarah don’t blink, and I know why.
The inevitability of a media interview finally caught up with her. Instead of acknowledging what every American already knew, which is that—coming from where she was—it would be impossible to be ready to be president, she, without any hesitation whatsoever, insisted she was ready.
Sarah don’t blink, and I know why.
When asked detailed political questions, instead of showing one iota of humility by admitting the incompleteness of her knowledge, she tried to hoodwink the American public with scripted narratives, and once again insisted she was ready to be president.
Sarah don’t blink, and I know why.
When asked about possibly violating the sovereignty of another nation, in this case Pakistan, she said, “we must not blink ... in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.”
“We must not blink” must be a euphemistic phrase for “we must not think.” A good leader has to be decisive above all else. George W. Bush was always decisive.
Hardly anyone one can beat Joe Biden when it comes to expressing righteous anger. This Jed Report video has been posted everywhere, but I haven’t seen it picked up widely by the media yet, who are too busy doing reports about how there’s be a run on people wanting to buy Sarah Palin’s shitty eyeglass frames.
I won’t be watching it live. I don’t even know if I’m going to record it. Here’s a thread for you poor bastards who are going to suffer through the hell that is a John McCain speech. You can also discuss tonight’s Obama interview on The O’Loofah Factor. I will watch that, but not until after I’ve enjoyed a meal at my favorite local dining establishment.
I hadn’t planned on doing open threads for the RNC like we did for the DNC, but with the Bush/Thompson/Lieberman tri-feckless tonight and the introduction of the Wasilla PTA’s National Security Czar tomorrow, loading up some open threads as a guffaw catchers is probably a good idea.
I missed it, but my lovely wife Chris told me that both Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan were saying the same thing on today’s Morning Joe that I was saying last week: the Democrats need to stop barking out “I honor his service” like a Tourette’s tic every time they mention John McCain’s name. Both Scarborough and Buchanan pointed out that Republicans would never do that. If fact, they went out of their way to dishonor John Kerry’s service in 2004. Enough.
One of the many things that piss me off about the Bush administration on a personal level is this: it has forced me to join the tinfoil hat set—a club I never wanted to join. But this latest twist in the anthrax case has me wondering anew about government and media machinations in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Glenn Greenwald has a comprehensive overview of the implications of the latest twist in the anthrax case here. It’s long but well worth reading in its entirety. Here’s a brief summary:
The anthrax attacks, which began a week after 9/11 and were designed to appear as if they were launched by Islamic terrorists, were instrumental in convincing the American public that the 9/11 attacks were part of a larger, ongoing effort to destroy the US.
Government officials – including McCain, Bush and Cheney – falsely linked the anthrax used in the attacks to Iraq. That link appeared to rest on a bogus claim that the anthrax contained a chemical called bentonite, which was used in Iraqi bio weapons programs but not by US labs.
Prominent WaPo columnist Richard Cohen claims that a “high government official” advised him to start taking the anthrax antidote Cipro before the anthrax attacks. And ABC News claimed shortly after the anthrax attacks that 3 to 4 separate “well-placed sources” told them the anthrax used in the attacks contained bentonite, which helped bolster the Iraq link and in turn gave rise to feverish speculation about Iraqi bio and nuclear weapons programs.
The government now says the anthrax attacks were the work of a crazed government scientist using anthrax from the US bio weapons research lab. That scientist committed suicide this week. And we now know the anthrax contained no bentonite. There was no false positive test that gave rise to that rumor, either – it appears to be a wholesale fabrication.
So if the attack was the work of a homegrown nutjob, who was the official who tipped off the WaPo’s Cohen prior to the attack? Who were ABC News’ three or four “well-placed, separate sources” who spread the lie about the bentonite?
Vonnegut was once asked if he “had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show.” To which he replied, “I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: “C-Students from Yale.”
Reality television is one area where John McCain might outdo Bush. Most know that McCain graduated 894th out of 899 cadets midshipmen, but how many know “the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines.” [link]
Just what we need: an inept, stupid soldier sailor in control of the most powerful military on earth.
