Month: October 2008

And this classic rant from “Network” could be recited word for word today as well. I find myself wondering, if someone went on the air and actually did this, whether we’d hear shouting throughout the country:

I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job, the dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter, punks are running wild in the streets, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

Continue Reading “Eerily Prophetic, Volume 2” →

Kevin Brown brought this to my attention: The Onion article from the date of Bush’s first inauguration that is, in retrospect, so dead on that it’s frightening.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784

PAD

Last night John McCain intimated on Dave Letterman’s show that he and Obama should both show up and debate on Letterman.

That was before Letterman nailed him to the wall with pointing out that McCain is pals with Gordon Liddy. I haven’t seen them cut to commercial so fast since Crispin Glover nearly kicked Dave in the face.

If Obama and McCain debated on Letterman, it would be an absolute fiasco for McCain. I don’t know that Obama would necessarily fare MUCH better, but his famed unflappability would probably serve him in much better stead. Letterman would say all the stuff that wiseguys like me snark about on my blog.

I’ll grant you, McCain obliquely likening his appearance on Dave to being interrogated by the Vietcong was the best use of his time as a POW he’s ever made, and perhaps even the most appropriate. But he really, really would NOT want an extended debate appearance on Letterman. It would not go well.

PAD

PS–And major props to Keith Olberman who was willing to let himself be nothing more than a prop for Letterman’s jokes, standing in the wings, scowling, arms folded, ready to go on should McCain cancel again, like a human fire extinguisher inside glass that is supposed to be shattered in case of emergency. That gives me more respect for Olberman than any five over-the-top rants.

Last night John McCain intimated on Dave Letterman’s show that he and Obama should both show up and debate on Letterman.

That was before Letterman nailed him to the wall with pointing out that McCain is pals with Gordon Liddy. I haven’t seen them cut to commercial so fast since Crispin Glover nearly kicked Dave in the face.

If Obama and McCain debated on Letterman, it would be an absolute fiasco for McCain. I don’t know that Obama would necessarily fare MUCH better, but his famed unflappability would probably serve him in much better stead. Letterman would say all the stuff that wiseguys like me snark about on my blog.

I’ll grant you, McCain obliquely likening his appearance on Dave to being interrogated by the Vietcong was the best use of his time as a POW he’s ever made, and perhaps even the most appropriate. But he really, really would NOT want an extended debate appearance on Letterman. It would not go well.

PAD

PS–And major props to Keith Olberman who was willing to let himself be nothing more than a prop for Letterman’s jokes, standing in the wings, scowling, arms folded, ready to go on should McCain cancel again, like a human fire extinguisher inside glass that is supposed to be shattered in case of emergency. That gives me more respect for Olberman than any five over-the-top rants.

…a Mafia wiseguy called “Joe the Plumber” is saying, “I’m gonna have t’get a new f*ckin'” nickname…”

PAD

Hi all I am here. This is Kathleen typing since Peter is bowling this evening.

Continue Reading “Presidential Debate Mark III” →

“Who is Barack Obama?” John McCain is asking us. This should prompt an obvious response: “Who is John McCain?” But we need not ask, because we have seen John McCain, or at least his type, half a century ago. His type had a different name, and trafficked in a different sort of guilt-by-association, but it was a senator whose tactics were the same. The insinuations were the same. Whether the result will be the same remains to be seen.

That long-ago senator embraced the politics of fear as no one had before. He exploited the fears of a paranoid populace. He acquired notoriety and masterminded a brand of smear tactics that became synonymous with his surname, and it was dubbed “McCarthyism.”

Continue Reading “The Rise of McCainism” →