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I watched Rudy Giuliani’s speech from last night here. I’ve been closely following the growth of the gaping chasm between how Republicans view this country and the reality of what actually happens in this country, but I was still taken aback by the fact that Giuliani chose to belittle Obama’s experience as a community organizer. As the mayor of a major city, you’d have to think that Giuliani would understand what community organizers do and how valuable they can be. Not only that, but also to recognize that for someone with a Harvard law degree to decide to do something like that is a significant sacrifice. Even worse, the crowd at the RNC laughed derisively at this as if Obama’s choice to follow this path somehow reflects poorly on his character or his ability to lead the nation.

Roland Martin nails the point here:

This convention is already starting to expose the major problem the Republicans are facing this year. The kinds of things that rally their base really turn off the independents who might otherwise consider voting for McCain. It’s not just Sarah Palin, although her nomination is certainly an indication of this dynamic, but much of the party leadership itself. They don’t get it, and large numbers of current Republicans know it too.

Goldy and panel ponder the important questions of our time: Was the Sarah Palin choice crazy or simply reckless? (And should the words “Palin” and “choice” ever appear together in the same sentence?) Will the Republicans get any real mileage out of the flip-floppin’, tax-increasin’, book banin’, enemy firin’, ear markin’ half-term Governor? Where was the Seattle media at the Democratic National Convention? And why was The Big Tent such a spectacle? Did anybody show up for the Republican National Convention and, if so, who will be the target of their anger frenzy this year? Is Joe Lieberman a traitor? And why are Washington state Republicans shunning their own Convention?

Goldy was joined by Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly, Executive Director of the Northwest Progressive Institute Andrew Villeneuve , HorsesAss and EFFin’ Unsound’s Carl Ballard and HorsesAss, EFFin’ Unsound, and Blog Reload’s Lee.

The show is 48:07, and is available here as an MP3:

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_sep_2_2008.mp3]

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the site.]

Danny Westneat is smitten with Sarah Palin…

I liked her — despite all the tiresome culture-war derision she aimed at “elites.”

Too bad she hates you, Danny, and the rest of us Ivy League elitists, so good luck getting that interview you’re lusting after.

Who knew a Harvard degree would someday become a political liability?  I better send my daughter to the University of Idaho—or better yet, a two-year, unacredited Christian college—if I ever want her to have a career in politics.

Dear Gov. Palin,

Congratulations on your performance tonight.  You were comfortable, composed, and deft with the zingers, and there’s no question you’re easy on the eyes (you know, for a 44-year-old woman.)  Still, I’m guessing I’m not the only American who was hoping you might talk a little more substantively about your passionate stance on the issues.  You know, like reproductive rights.

You see, my daughter started middle school this week (an event I apparently found a lot more traumatic than she did) and with my only child on the verge of adolescence, my parental anxieties have started to fixate on dark thoughts of the inevitability of (ugh) boys.  I know what boys are like.  I was one once.  And thus, I hope my daughter stays away from them as long as possible.

But she won’t forever, and so in addition to what we teach her at home, I want my daughter to receive a medically accurate sex education at school. And while I sure hope she abstains until she’s away at college (where thankfully, I’ll never know about it), if, like the majority of teenagers, she does decide to become sexually active, I want her to have convenient access to effective birth control, emergency contraception, and God forbid, even the opportunity to safely terminate a pregnancy, should she so choose.

Now, I know that you believe that every human life is sacred from the very moment of conception, and I respect your beliefs, but as a fellow parent I would hope that you would respect my belief that arrogant theocrats like you should stay the fuck out of our schools, and out of the private life of my child with your abstinence-only, Christianist voodoo. Perhaps keeping the baby and marrying her beer-swigging dickweed of a boyfriend is the right choice for your 17-year-old daughter—who am I to question her decision?  But I don’t want my daughter to ever have to make that awful choice.

The very thought of some (ugh) boy despoiling my beautiful little girl cuts me like a knife through the heart, but I’m realistic enough to know that it’s eventually going to happen, so when it does I want to be damn sure that there is plenty of sturdy, cold latex encasing his undeserving cock.  (And I hope it greatly diminishes his pleasure.) You may consider my permissive attitude indicative of the moral decline of the secular left, but then, how’s all your sexual moralizing working out for you and your family, huh?

Best of luck on the rest of your campaign; I hope you enjoy explaining to American voters why you vehemently oppose legal abortion, even in the event of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.

Respectfully yours,

Goldy

I love humor. It’s what separates us from plankton and other single cell organisms, like multilevel marketing mavens and that guy on the cell phone standing in front of the lettuce talking about getting his car detailed.

So I heard this joke. Well, actually, I read it, but it’s still funny. It is attributed to some guy named Rev. John Hagee, apparently a supporter of Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. It goes like this:

Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick.

It’s an old joke but a good one. Not as good as “a nearsighted turtle in love with an Army helmet,” but close. Of course, as generations of Vaudevillians and Catskills performers found out, joke theft can be a problem.

Take my wife, please. To the ballot box.

Uh-oh…

John McCain’s campaign threatened legal action against the National Enquirer today for running a story about McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, allegedly having an affair with her husband’s business partner.

“The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov. Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie,” said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt.

“The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it.”

Yeah… well… maybe. The National Enquirer is a tawdry, supermarket rag with low standards, and I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could spit.  But they do occasionally break stories, as liberal-hater Jonah Goldberg ironically reminded us during the early days of the Edwards love-child story…

Also, it’s worth pointing out that while the Enquirer may or may not be scrupulous in its choice of stories — that’s in the eye of the beholder — it is pretty scrupulous about its facts. They win lawsuits. They’ve broken a host of stories the MSM guys couldn’t.

So if the Enquirer is scrupulous enough for right wingers when they’re tearing down Democrats…?

On the other hand, Karl Rove can be a crafty fucker, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the R’s seeded the Enquirer with a false scandal, so that when it blows up it discredits all the real scandals too.  We’ll see.

Oops.  Listen to an open microphone pick up the real thoughts of McCain advisor Mike Murphy and Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan on the pick of Sarah Palin as VP.  Ouch.

It’s been a while since our all-time favorite troll, Scott St. Clair (AKA The Crackpiper) has given me some good material for a post, but he’s been writing columns now at places like Crosscut and the Kirkland Reporter, and his insane and nonsensical ramblings have once again caught my eye. Here’s a recap of two of his latest efforts in unintentional comedy.

[Read more…]

President Bush says “the man we need is John McCain.”  Hell, I betcha he’d say we need Dave Reichert and Dino Rossi too.  Remember that on election day… these are the folks President Bush says we need.

Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence. We begin at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E, but some of us will be there early for Dinner and to watch the Republican National Comedy show.

Tonight’s activity is a contest to turn this flow chart into a board game:

Tonight’s theme song could only be Sarah Smile by Hall and Oats:

If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, check out McCranium for the local Drinking Liberally. Otherwise, check out the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter near you.

The first thought that crossed my mind when I heard that Sen. John McCain had tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was that there were at least two Democrats in the Washington state delegation at Invesco Field who were more qualified to be president: King County Executive Ron Sims and Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Palin has been her state’s chief executive for only 18 months… and to call Alaska a “state” is almost too kind.  It’s population of 670,000 is the third smallest in the nation, about one tenth that of Washington state, and a little more than one third that of King County.  And while both Sims and Gregoire are forced to balance their budgets in sync with a fluctuating economy, Alaska’s oil royalties and reverse income tax force no such tough decisions.

Indeed, for all of Palin’s talk about fiscal conservatism and smaller government, Alaska’s state spending per capita, at $12,833, is by far the highest in the nation.  (Compared to only $5,303 in Washington state.)  And what do Alaskans get for all that money?  According to Governing Magazine, not all that much:

But, you know, Gov. Palin was clearly the most qualified for the job.  The most qualified, conservative, pro-life, creationist, Republican woman, that is.

Gov. Gregoire has served twelve years as Attorney General and four years as governor in one of the most prosperous and fastest growing states in the nation, while Executive Sims has served twelve years running a county that is larger than 14 states.  Yet local Republicans would have derisively mocked Barack Obama had either been elevated to the national ticket, while Gov. Palin, they tell us, she has the executive and foreign policy experience to lead the most powerful nation on earth.  Oh, gimme a break.

Sarah Palin is little more than a governor of a national park, whose petro-dollar based economy is more akin to that of Nigeria or Venezuela than to that of Washington state.  And given her well established secessionist leanings, the bulk of her foreign policy experience could only come from her dealings with the other 49 United States.

I don’t doubt that Palin focus groups well, and that she helps McCain enormously with his party’s evangelical base, but to hear our local Republicans defend her candidacy after months of attacking Barack Obama as being too inexperienced, well… if they could be any more cynical, I don’t know how.

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain