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March 22, 2008
Bill Clinton: Shitbird
I've been thinking more about Bill Clinton's latest hailing of the Johnny Mac/Hillary ticket and implicit bashing of Barack Obama. Chris Matthews as well as bloggers and posters all over the interwebs have pointed out that Bill Clinton has seemingly become unhinged from reality, and while there's certainly an argument to be made in that regard vis a vis Hillary's absurdly impossible shot at the nomination at this point, I think there's more at work here than just "Bill Clinton's losing it."
I also think this is not at all the same experience-bashing that Bob regards it to be.
First of all, the context: a VFW hall in North Carolina. This speech was made to appeal to white North Carolinians in advance of the upcoming primary. Again, Bill has been sent out to divide the election in terms of race. And this jab is much more subtle than the Jesse Jackson crack in South Carolina. Here's how it works: first, it clearly calls into question Obama's love of his country. Now, where have we heard, in recent memory, someone saying something bad about America? You know, like maybe they don't love America. Or maybe, even, I don't know, they damn America.
It's not the least bit of a stretch to see Bill Clinton appealing to that inner-racist who heard Obama's speech but who still wonders if Obama really doesn't agree with his minister. His black minister. You know, the one who doesn't love America like Johnny Mac and Hillary do.
Or maybe you didn't even listen to that speech because you've already decided Obama is a Muslim Manchurian Candidate who hates America enough to get elected its president and then destroy it.
Either way, this somebody-doesn't-love-America line works, and it works by playing on Obama's ethnicity.
But Bill ain't done. He brings up all this "other stuff that seems to intrude itself on our politics." So what is all that "other stuff"? According to Howard Wolfson, Bill was talking about negative campaigning.
Sorry, Howard but you're full of shit. Anyone with a brain and Google knows that you and Mark Penn are the leading negative campaigners in this election year. No, what Bill was talking about, and watch the video so you can see his sly little smile as he says "other stuff", is the Wright controversy and Obama's attendant speech to not only clarify his denunciation of Wright's comments, but also to break open wide the conversation about race and, in a larger way, division in this country.
Obama's speech is easily half of the "other stuff" that Clinton is so handily dismissing. Obama's speech, indeed, Obama's campaign and the existence of Obama himself, have intruded themselves on "our politics." OUR POLITICS. Bill Clinton's words, to a VFW hall in North Carolina, after placing John McCain and Hillary Clinton on the same pedestal.
If you think I'm wrong, I would ask you to go back and watch Obama's speech again, and listen to what he says about the deeply buried, generational attitudes about race and entitlement that have been so pervasive in this nation since its founding.
The Clintons are floating a new tactic in front of 80 VFW members in North Carolina, but the ideas behind the tactic are older than Jim Crow.
12:01 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By JumpyPants
The Ticket?
(Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
The more I think about these guys as a ticket, the more it makes perfect sense. Talk about a cross-section of America -- not to mention a cross-section of brains and experience.
10:48 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
President Clinton's Remarks
I disagree with JumpyPants (below) on President Clinton's "two people who loved this country" statement. I don't think the point of the remarks had to do with specific candidates. I think he was honestly trying to say that he hopes the general election battle will be waged on substance -- and not loaded with smear- and fear mongering. After all, there will only be two people "who loved this country" in the general election. Now certainly President Clinton supports his wife for president, but I think he was talking in generalities in this case.
That said, after the kind of smear-and-fear campaign the Clintons have run, the negative reaction to the former president's remarks is totally understandable.
UPDATE: I stand corrected. JumpyPants has directed me to this video (forward to about the 5-minute mark). With this further evidence, it's clear that President Clinton was attempting to give us a variation of Senator Clinton's awful, awful "my experience; McCain's experience; Obama's speech" statements. And President Clinton totally mangled it. So it's clear that President Clinton was praising Senator McCain's experience and record over Senator Obama's record. Terrible and shameful.
08:27 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
It Was A Good Run, But It's Over
Senator Clinton needs to step aside and allow the Democrats and Senator Obama to run against Senator McCain.
And the Politico agrees.
Chris Matthews does, too, according to GottaLaff.
Oh, and so does very serious Mark Halperin.
Yes and -- oh wait... Josh Marshall agrees.
07:56 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:38 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 21, 2008
Worse than fellatio
The Oval Office cigar coitus and the attendant lying under oath and impeachment, one would think, would be enough of a low for Bill Clinton. But I guess not. This election cycle has seen the former President bash Obama more than once from the puny-minded perspective of race. And now, alleged Democrat William Jefferson Clinton had this to say about what one hopes is a cigar and coitus-free love affair between his wife and Senator John McCain:
It'd be a great thing if we had an election where you had two people who love this country, who were devoted to the interest of the country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues instead of all this other stuff which always seems to intrude on our politics.
That's right, the two people that love their country - and, it should be said, seemingly each other- are Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
It doesn't take a first-grader to figure out Bill Clinton believes Barack Obama doesn't love his country. I guess Bill missed Barack's speech the other day.
But it's not just the implicit bashing of Barack that's so offensive. It's the warm-hearted embrace of Johnny "Bush III" Mac that makes me want to vomit all over my blue dress.
07:07 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By JumpyPants
'He Won't Sell Anybody Out To Buy His Future'
Superimpose the Wright controversy onto Pacino's speech. (Not safe for work.)
Senator Obama is telling the truth. Should he be punished for it?
11:44 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Typical White People
So I listened to MSNBC turn Senator Obama's WIP Sports Radio "typical white people" remark from yesterday (about his granny) into a major problem for the Obama campaign. Joe Scarborough was behaving as if Senator Obama not only besmirched his own grandmother for political gain, but that Senator Obama had insulted white people around the globe.
The thing is this... Senator Obama is bringing up this issue at the peril of his politics. He would rather confront these issues and lose, than to ignore them and win. That's what's called integrity, Joe Scarborough, integrity we haven't seen in a politician in a long, long time. Whether it's the Clinton campaign who likely pushed the Wright videos to the press, or the far-right fuckwits who are pretending to suddenly be racially sensitive -- and who, by the way, mistakenly believe you can be racist against the majority race. You can't be racist against white people. Sorry. I'm also looking at you, Geraldine Ferraro.
So what are we all supposed to do? Repudiate and denounce family members who say racially insensitive things? Of course not. My grandmother said some awfully racist things that, like the senator, made my skin crawl. And I believe that she was typical of white people of that generation -- at least from what I've read about and experienced first hand.
How do I square this with my eternal admiration for her? How do I reconcile this alongside all of the gloriously fun times my brothers and I had with her? That's what Senator Obama is challenging each of us to examine. Do we denounce our closest and dearest family members? No way. But we see to it that we do not carry on these attitudes. That we move beyond it as one America.
Back to the far-right bloggers, FOX News and Ferraro... The minority population CAN'T be racist against the majority population any more than the poor can subjugate a king or, for that matter, workers can subjugate a CEO. For a white Hannity or a white Ferraro to somehow play the role of a racial victim is hilarious...ly stupid.
UPDATE: Brian Kilmeade walks off Fox & Friends over this issue. And Steve Doocy is a dillweed of epic proportions.
09:21 AM | Comments (9) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:15 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 20, 2008
Obama's Passport Files Breached
Can we seriously arrest this entire regime? All of them?
Oh wait. Just a few "bad apples" again. Yeah right.
08:26 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
My E-mail Chat With A Soldier
Presented without comment.
To: Bob Cesca
Subject: I'm in Iraq for the third time
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:10:52 -0400
From: xxxxxxx@aol.comAnd you're a pathetic asshole who make cartoons for a living.
I'm here because I volunteered. Iraq is an abstraction for you, but a day-to-day reality for me. Who gives a shit what you think?
When you grow a set of balls and stop making cartoons for a living and do something, DO something for your country besides preach to the converted Leftist relics at the Huffington Post as a way of making yourself feel relevant, maybe your opinion will mean something.
Until then you're just another attention whore, blathering about the war and using men like me as a prop for your bullshit, as you age and slowly realize that you're never going to be the person you hoped you might become.
Dave
"Kung Fu Jimmy Chow?" Wow, that's a great way to spend your life. Why the hell bother?
From: Bob Cesca
To: xxxxxxx@aol.com
Sent: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 2:45 pm
Subject: RE: I'm in Iraq for the third time
Hi Dave,
Thank you for your service.
Bob
To: Bob Cesca
Subject: Uhh.....Want to try that again....?
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:17:53 -0400
From: xxxxxxx@aol.comI love how you leftist douches think you can stab us in the back and make it all okay if you just say "thank your your service."
Go make a cartoon, you aging Leftist pussy.
From: Bob Cesca
To: xxxxxxx@aol.com
Sent: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 6:11 pm
Subject: RE: Uhh.....Want to try that again....?
How did I stab you in the back? I'm defending you against a commander-in-chief who is using you as a scapegoat.
Bob
To: Bob Cesca
Subject: Re: Uhh.....Want to try that again....?
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:28:59 -0400
From: xxxxxxx@aol.comYeah, sure you are. You're defending me. Yeah, right.
Go back to your cartoons. I'll go back to the war. Ass clown.
UPDATE: Here's his latest. Sounds like he's a very angry career Pentagon type.
Okay, ass clown, I'll spell it out for you.I have two engineering degrees from UC Berkeley, was first in my class at flight school and have fought in places you've never even heard of for the last twenty years. I volunteered for my first political campaign in 1976, and was on staff when Bush won Ohio in 2004. I've traveled to thirty countries with the military and have been to forty others on my own. This is my fifth war.
And YOU are defending ME? You think I need the brilliance of Bob the Cartoon maker, who has never served a day in his life, to protect me from a CINC who is "scapegoating" me? Oh, Bob, shine your protective brilliance upon me!
You're not fit to shine my shoes, pal. You know precisely shit about the military and jack shit about this war, and for you to think for a second that you're "defending" me is so galactically arrogant that it defies description.
You're having delusions of adequacy, chump. I'm smarter than you, more educated than you, more experienced politically than you, more knowledgeable than you, and have a billion times the political and a trillion times military experience you have.
And you're defending me?
Yeah, um, okay, sure. Keep telling yourself that.
That took three minutes, which is 2:55 more than you deserve. Go back to "Kung Fu Bullshit Nobody Will Ever See" and continue to age, knowing how utterly irrelevant you truly are.
I'm coming home in four months and when I do I'm going to help crush Barack (God DAMN America!) Obama and his raving bitch of a wife.
You keep preaching to the inmates at the Huffington Post
Nice guy. Impressive resume.
12:36 PM | Comments (39) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Part 3 this Sunday...
07:15 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 19, 2008
Dubyaville
Why am I not seeing this on the very serious cable news networks?
(h/t Sadly, No)
10:38 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
New Huffington Entry
George Bush blames the troops for all of it.
10:20 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:15 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 18, 2008
The Tide Is Turning
Senator Obama wrote today's speech himself.
Remember all of those idealistic movies in which you kind of hoped that the fictional movie president was the real president? Yeah, it's kind of happening now -- in our time. And I can't think of anything more important we can do with our votes than to use them to turn the tide on an eight-year dark ride.
07:47 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Game Changer
Barack Obama's speech today was such a game changer that he changed the game into something that isn't even a game. If you've been watching John Adams on HBO, you know the people who founded this country didn't see it as a game. And the men and women who have fought to continue to realize the initial dream of this nation in our daily lives haven't viewed it as a game. But the people that hijacked our political process on both sides of the aisle at least 20 years ago do view this as a game.
It's not.
It's lives. It's livelihoods. It's the future.
And Obama made that plain today.
Senator Clinton would like us to believe she hasn't read or seen the speech yet, though she is "glad" he gave it. Perhaps. Perhaps Senator Clinton will have a chance to watch the speech and heed his words as she moves forward, whether she maintains her campaign or whether she realizes that she's beaten. I truly hope Senator Clinton can hear the speech with her heart, and whatever her role in America starting tomorrow and moving forward, can act with these principles foremost in her mind.
Meanwhile, we have a president to elect, and his name is Barack Obama.
03:50 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By JumpyPants
History In Progress
11:46 AM | Comments (8) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Speech
So far... Genius. He's both disarming the controversy and igniting a sensible discussion about race.
10:05 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
John Adams
I forgot to post my reactions to parts one and two. In a word: stunning. Part two, which centered around the Declaration of Independence, was especially perfect.
07:46 AM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Speech This Morning
I can't believe that this Reverend Wright issue is still a thing. See, because when the evangelicals who elected George W. Bush said crazy shit like "gays and abortionists" caused 9/11, the president never had to climb onto the cable and apologize. Also, didn't Ron Paul almost entirely run on the position that America's foreign policy caused 9/11? Did anyone notice the loony shit Mike Huckabee said? And then, of course, there's Pastor Hagee -- Senator McCain's religious surrogate -- who believes that Katrina was all about God punishing New Orleans.
So, naturally, I don't think this would be a thing if Reverend Wright wasn't an "uppity" black pastor who scares the piss out of suburban white people. Suburban white people prefer their pastors to be more sedate, partly drunk, a little bit touchy with the kids, and quietly aggressive.
Contrary to the funeral dirge on the cable, Senator Obama will recover from this and will continue forward to defeat Senator McCain in November.
UPDATE: Greenwald gets into it here.
07:11 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Happy birthday to Jerry Cantrell who is 42 today.
07:02 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 17, 2008
The Case Against Senator Clinton
Markos, again, encapsulates what we've all been talking about here:
People like me have two choices -- look the other way while Clinton attempts to ignite her civil war, or fight back now, before we cross that dangerous line. Honestly, it wasn't a difficult choice. And it's clear, looking at where the super delegates, most bloggers, and people like Olbermann are lining up, that the mainstream of the progressive movement is making the same choice.
Read the whole post here. Some key points:
Clinton isn't just a member of the DLC, she's in their leadership.Clinton hasn't just rejected a 50-state strategy, she has openly attacked it.
Clinton didn't just vote for the Iraq war and refuse to apologize for it, she voted to give Bush the same authority on Iran.
Right, right, absolutely.
04:54 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Bush Economy
Thanks, Mr. Bush! Can we officially declare that deregulation and tax cuts for the super rich are disasters for the economy? There's not even a budget surplus to boast here.
If this is your first stop on the blogotubes, good morning and the white people on CNBC are saying things like "runs on the bank." More details involving President Bush's awesome economy here.
UPDATE: Think Progress:
In 1930, as the U.S economy was sinking into deep recession, President Herbert Hoover said this to Congress:Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.In his speech this week, Bush echoed Hoover: “The temptation of Washington is to say that anything short of a massive government intervention in the housing market amounts to inaction. I strongly disagree with that sentiment. … Government actions are — have far-reaching and unintended consequences.”
07:35 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:30 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
March 16, 2008
Insane Like John McCain
The Voice Inside Hillary's Head:
"Iowa doesn't matter. Ten more delegates don't matter. Superdelegates matter. Except the traitors who cannot see that I am the only person except for Johnny Mac who can do this job! Only ME! And Johnny! But that lucky black man with all his black luck and his latte-sipping red-state youthful urban African-American wealthy educated business-based white union voters - he thinks he can ruin this for me! He thinks after all I went through - Jones and Flowers and the one in the beret - not to mention health care and the cookies - the cookies! - and Sinbad, having to dodge sniper fire with Sinbad, and having to move to New York and that endless talking tour, pretending I care about Rochester or Jamestown or Buffalo or anywhere north of Westchester County for God's sake, and being so careful, so so so so so careful, no bills to speak of with any taint of political danger on them, all the votes vetted, polled, even the Iraq one, can't take that back, but so what, who cares, does anybody care anymore, would they care anymore if the lucky black man didn't keep bringing it up?! After all that, all I've been through, he thinks he can waltz in with his charmed life and his internet savvy and his millions of dollars and tens of thousands of contributors and all his stupid pledged delegates and voters, just fly in on a cloud of pixie dust and take this away from ME!?! FROM ME?!?!? OR FROM MY BELOVED JOHNNY MAC?!?!? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Oh, and try to remember: wave with only one hand at a time. And laughing doesn't sound like hatred."
08:41 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By JumpyPants
Kirk Ellis on John Adams
11:37 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Run On Black Roses And Luggage
Maybe we in the blogotube-o-sphere ought to buy black roses and luggage for them as they fall. TRex documents the wingnut In Memoriam (cue sad music):
1. Michelle Malkin fired from “The O’Reilly Factor”.2. Ann Coulter’s book sales tanking and her credit cards getting declined by Publix.
3. Melamine Misstatement fired from her job.
4. Tucker Carlson tossed out on his amply padded backside.
5. And now Jumpin’ John Gibson being taken away to be rendered into fat for cheap tallow candles for The Poor or whatever.
Some people may call this an unrelated chain of business-related layoffs, or Conservative Media’s flailing efforts to adapt to the times. Me, I just see it as Progress.
Limbaugh and O’Reilly are next. Hannity, too. It will be a beautiful day when all these bloviating turds have to suck dicks in a bus station bathroom for change. Tick…tick…tick…
Go here to buy the black roses. Try Costco for the luggage.
08:41 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Also, here's a Morning Awesome link: the history of photography (h/t Oliver Willis).
08:25 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
