I Don't Like You Either.

"It's Like These Guys Take Pride in Being Ignorant"

by Blue Stockings | It's much more like they think the public is really ignorant---or rather the part constituting their base.

Obama was talking about the tire gauge kerfuffle, but he could be describing the entire far right wing of the GOP.  As skippy puts it,
"they not only take pride in being ignorant, they take pride in preaching ignorance."

As usual they're picking on one miniscule point and basing a whole attack on it.  They know their base better than I do, of course.  Maybe that sort of thing works with Republicans.  It worked with Michelle Malkin.  These are people who don't have any tools but blunt ones to work with.  Or rather, they don't need any tools but blunt ones to work with.   You don't have to be subtle when you're dispensing ignorance.

From The Stump:

Jon Stewart & Bob Herbert's "Phallic Symbols"

by Damozel | I'm not fond of Bob Herbert after what he helped do to Hillary and Bill Clinton.  But I thought we Obama supporters---I am one of those now---won a point or two on the "dog whistle" argument re: the celebrity ad till we got to Bob Herbert and his "phallic symbols." 

Plus he sort of proved Big Tent Democrat's point about not knowing when to stop or how something that sounds good at the moment can swerve back around to cut your arguments off at the knees.. 

Jon Stewart responds pretty much the way everyone I know did.  Then he tries to put the race genie back in the bottle. 

Jon Swift Schools The Blogosphere on Satire

by Teh Nutroots & Damozel  | We had an uncomfortable day or two last week when A-List blogger Andrew Sullivan read one of Z-List bloggers John Q's pieces which quoted from one of Sullivan's postings (getting it all wrong) and tactfully called him out for the stupidity of his misinterpretation at The Daily Dish.  [Afterwards Mr Sullivan was good enough to post a second note noting that our resident neoconman's piece was rather amusing.]  Naturally we're grateful. 

Whilst we were all feeling low about having inadvertently taken in Andrew Sullivan, Jon Swift---one of the blogosphere's most distinguished (and sensible) political bloggers--- kindly dropped by and suggested that another time we listen to his advice on satire (which he set out in a piece from which we've excerpted below).   We were really grateful for this as his is the balanced vision to which we and Fox News aspire but can never attain.

Swift's advice on satire is included on the piece he wrote on the New Yorker cover.  We hope that other aspiring satirists will read and learn. 

A Right Wing Lady's Plea to the Media: Please, No More Dog "Whistles"

Mrs. Anna Hosanna [A True Born-Again Believer] | As a true Believer, I am not Afraid to "step up" and say "the Truth." I know what The Wall Street Journal and others who are dwelling on Barack Obama's Arrogance and  Athletic Build are secretly trying to tell Us:  Barack Obama is not an "Ordinary," or "typical," American like You and Me.  This is what I understand is called a Dog Whistle, based on this Article [though "Beware" because the Writer Melissa McEwen seems to be Some kind of a Liberal Feminist and might even be a "British Person" to Boot]:

Wall Street Journal: Will Real Americans Find Obama Offensively Physically Fit?

by Teh Nutroots | Aw, hell.  I can't let this one go.  Amy Chozick---as Damozel comments, it's kind of hard to believe it is with a straight face---asks, at The Wall Street Journal, is Barack Obama offensively physically fit to the fat American electorate?  Will middle-aged fat gits like Mister Teh Nutroots refuse to vote for someone so distastefully thin from eating elitist [healthy] food like arugula lettuce [which unlike all-American iceberg lettuce supposedly contains some food value] and working out on a regular basis?

Jon Stewart Unleashes on McCain Smears

Posted by Damozel |  In my opinion, this is the way to attack McCain's smear campaign:  with incredulous laughter.   Jon Stewart takes up McCain on the Paris Hilton ad and unleashes on both McCain and the media on the 'Obama-eats-arugula-and-is-arrogant meme.'  Don't get down in the mud---fight the smears by pointing and laughing... 

Sad Bastards: The Right Wing Smear Campaign Against Obama

I don't know which is more pathetic:  McCain's pathetic, hamfisted attacks to take down Obama with lame little smears or the pathetic eagerness of formerly McCain-hating right-wing bloggers to dig up any information that might appear discreditable to him.  Right wingers in America really have come round to thinking that the end justifies the means.  In fact, they don't care anymore about what's true----what matters to them is what they can sell.  And after trying to rationalize Bush Inc. all these years, they no longer know the difference between a suspicion, a belief and a fact. 

On top of all that, Wingnuts are in general a trusting and credulous species when it comes to any information, no matter how suspect or incomplete, that they think will prove their points.

Has Maureen Dowd Got a Big Swoony Crush on Obama?

by Damozel | I think she has.  Yes, I think she has.

Look at this:  MoDo's account of Obama's meeting with Sarkozy, entitled Stalking, Sniffing, Swooning.  Read all the way through it if you can.   You may first wish to take an anti-emetic.  It's more than a moderate dose of Dowd.

Sarkozy---excuse me, 'Sarko'---has a crush on Obama? 

JibJab: "It's Time for Some Campaigning" (Plus Bonus Tune from 2004, "This Land")

Posted by Teh Nutroots | ...Everyone gets pretty much equally disrespected.  And the conclusion---to quote Cockney Robin---is "spot on," unfortunately.

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Camille Paglia's Hillary Hate: Still Going & Going & Going...

Camille Paglia still hates Hillary, though for different (although similar) reasons.  Hillary is still the wrong archetype; always was, always will be, forever and ever world without in amen.

I saw the first Hillary signs going up this week: a thin, white-haired, but very determined elderly lady was trying to wrestle one into the ground near zipping traffic on a county highway. I thought, "Hmm ... Hillary's demographic?" Obama is certainly a darling of youth, the wave of the future. (Salon)

Obama, on the other hand, is a 'dewy and somewhat reserved newcomer,' beloved of the intelligentsia, with 'the patrician elegance of John F. Kennedy.'  Gaaaah.  Also: heh.  According to La Paglia, Hillary's demographic consists of white-haired little old ladies.  All the cool kids---and La Paglia---want Obama.   

Oh, who cares what Camille Paglia says or does about Hillary or Obama? Her area of expertise is the androgyne in art history, art, and literature literature, with a side of Madonna and Keith Richards and their "hieratic assertions of charismatic personality."  Yes, yes, I read her Sexual Personae Book back in the Nineties.  I liked her Sexual Personae book.  I wish she and Salon didn't believe that her literary/artistic take on pop culture qualifies her for political punditry.  She's always trying to blind her readers with jargon. 

Which is why, oh Brad of Sadly, No! ("How Does this Woman Get Paid to Write Again?") I so revere thee: