The Green Screen Explained

Hilarious. Mr. Beale and I were wondering what the hell that lawn was. Turns out it was the lawn of Walter Reed -- Middle School in North Hollywood, CA, that is:

Last night's creepy Edward Scissorhands backdrop for McCain's speech confused more than a few people last night. It seems like Josh Marshall and co. may be onto a HUGE p.r. disaster for the G.O.P...

The picture behind McCain was Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA. Yes, that's right. Hollywood.


And yes, that would be "Walter Reed."

The "noun, verb, P.O.W., sleeping pill" speech of McCain was given with the ironic backdrop of clueless G.O.P operatives screwing up an attempt to show the REAL WALTER REED HOSPITAL.

As is so often the case during the Bush reign, the symbolism exceeds the conceits of the most fantastic fiction.

They don't know about computers, or Google, or the internets, but they're telling us to "catch up to history." They preach about P.O.W.'s, but they don't know, or don't bother too long to find out, what Walter Reed looks like.

And now they play the blame game.

Cripes. They can’t handle the most basic thing: putting up a backdrop for the candidate's speech. And we’re supposed to trust you with running the entire country? No. Fucking. Way.

Return Of The Wedge Issue

[UPDATE]: Heh. The New York Times agrees with me. Imagine that.

Okay, folks. If you liked the culture wars, you're gonna love seeing them drag on for another four years. War on Christmas, beeyatches!!!!!
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Last night’s speech by John McCain was so lackluster, it took real effort to keep from switching to, oh, I dunno, a World Series of Poker rerun. As one commenter at Eschaton posted, “the crowd went mild.”

And what was up with the green screen? Have they learned nothing?

John McCain has already been overshadowed by Sarah Palin. I’ve had fun taking potshots at Palin this week: the puppy killer, the slutty daughter, the podunk town she ran that is supposedly the perfect proving ground for the White House. But she’s a far more effective speaker than McCain, prompting more than one person to wonder: At what point will Palin drop McCain?

Ouch.

But really what Sarah Palin has done is bring the evangelical base back into the voting booth. And along with them come those rancorous, divisive social issues. Karl Rove is ecstatic. 

I really didn’t think this election would be about gays and abortion; I mean, after eight years of this crap who isn’t sick of being hammered over the head by an issue that has absolutely no bearing on jobs, gas prices, healthcare, the mortgage crisis, or any of the other real issues affecting people’s daily lives?

Aren’t we sick of being manipulated by divisive social issues? Haven’t we had enough of that crap?

Apparently not. At least, the Republican Party doesn’t seem to think so.

And here’s where I see an opportunity for Barack Obama. The whole point of the “Yes We Can” message was to say, let’s move past the politics of divisive wedge issues and work together to solve the real problems challenging American families.

Here’s an excerpt from Obama’s January 27 speech after he won the South Carolina primary:

It's the politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon, a politics that tells us that we have to think, act and even vote within the confines of the categories that supposedly define us, the assumption that young people are apathetic, the assumption that Republicans won't cross over, the assumption that the wealthy care nothing for the poor and that the poor don't vote, the assumption that African-Americans can't support the white candidate, whites can't support the African-American candidate, blacks and Latinos cannot come together. We are here tonight to say that that is not the America we believe in.

Yes, my friends, that is change we can believe in. And that is not what I’m hearing from the Republican Party these days.

Adding Sarah Palin to the ticket did not offer any change from the past four years. To the contrary, it showed us that if elected, the debate of the next four years will look exactly like that of the past eight: more wrangling over “activist judges” and Roe v. Wade, more rancor over funding for abstinence-only education and who’s wearing a flag pin (and by the way, last night John McCain was not).

We can expect more Dr. David Hager-type appointments to key posts affecting women’s health, and more Monica Goodlings in the Justice Department. Sarah Palin is George W. Bush in a dress, so if you’ve liked debating gay marriage while American jobs are shipped to China and India, then by all means go right ahead and support the GOP ticket.

As for me: I’m sick of these stupid distractions. I’m sick of Rove-style wedge issues that allow the corporatists in Washington to raid our treasury and undermine our economy.

So, my advice to Barack Obama is: get back on message. I’m sick of politics as usual, wedge issues, gays-guns-and-God. Surely I’m not the only one.

Palin Shoots Puppies

For real:

Under Palin, the state Board of Game authorized for the first time in 20 years the shooting of wolves by state wildlife officials from helicopters. The order resulted in the controversial shooting this summer of 14 one-month-old wolf pups taken from dens on a remote peninsula 800 miles southwest of Anchorage — an act that environmentalists claim was illegal.

It’s true:

Biologists found the 4- to 5-week-old pups when they landed to collect carcasses of adult wolves shot from a helicopter two months ago near Cold Bay, about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Biologists had killed 14 adult wolves, including mothers of the pups.

"As we got on the calving grounds, we took adults, and in the course of taking adults we found there were pups," said Doug Larsen, director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation, from Juneau.

"The issue then was do we leave the pups to fend for themselves and starve or do we dispatch them," Larsen said. "Our feeling was that it was most humane to dispatch them."

Shameful. Gov. Sarah Palin killed puppies.

Zombie Lies

As Atrios likes to say, zombie lies never die. Well, someone better kill this zombie lie before it takes root.

Conservative blogs like Redstate are all over the myth that Sarah Palin winged her speech last night because the teleprompter malfunctioned.

Do a Google search. I dare you. It’s becoming part of the national mythology, like how hippies spit on Vietnam veterans and Al Gore said he invented the internet.

Well, guess what folks. This zombie lie ain’t true, either:

Because of the positioning of the PJTV booth, I had a clear view of the teleprompter as well, and it never conked out. On the other hand, I also noticed that Palin's hilarious "What's the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom" line--and she may have been the only person on the planet to successfully sell such a joke--was an improv; it wasn't on the teleprompter.

Driscoll isn’t the only one who saw a perfectly-operating teleprompter, either.

U.S. News & World Report also debunks the myth.

Ditto Politico.

Just sayin’ ....

IOKIYAR, RNC Edition

Jim Voorhies was right. Last night's Daily Show segment pointing out the right-wing's hypocrisy as liberals react with horror to Sarah Palin was just too perfect. Thank you, Jon Stewart, for saying what my brain is to slow and my Google-fu too lame to articulate.

If you missed it:

IOKIYAR, Celebrity Edition

Remember when being a celebrity was a bad thing for a politician? You had to know that rule was just for Democrats, right?

Because now that Sarah Palin is on the cover of all the gossip rags, she’s looking a lot like a celebrity these days.

And with glowing headlines like these, I'm wondering if we're looking at a politician or Mariah Carey.

It’s funny that no one ever calls the Republicans on this stuff.

Shameful

The Palins’ Dirty Car Wash Business

Oh, my. The Washington Post has discovered some big problems with the Palins car wash business:

State records show the business ran into trouble with Alaska's division of corporations business and professional licensing after Palin became governor of the state in 2006.



A Feb. 11, 2007 letter to the governor's business partner advises that the car wash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue.

The warning letter was written on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal.

On April 3, 2007, the state went further and issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the car wash's failure to file its report and pay state licensing fees.

That’s some executive experience for you!

Unbelievable

My friends, we must suspend disbelief if we are to buy the McCain campaign line that Sarah Palin was "fully vetted”:

Palin hired a lawyer three weeks ago to act on her behalf as state legislators investigate whether she may have abused her power in firing the state public safety commissioner for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, CNN confirmed.

McCain’s first test was to pick his running mate, and he chose someone with an ethical cloud over her head?

My friends, we must suspend disbelief if we are to buy the McCain campaign line that they knew Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant:

"Sen. McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president," said an aide who asked not to be named. "Families have difficulties sometimes and lucky for her she has a supportive family."

How “supportive” is it to put one’s teenage daughter through this kind of spectacle? Being 17 is hard enough; being pregnant and 17 is even worse (rent “Juno” if you need a primer). Doing it all in the national spotlight: horrendous. And they dared to call Hillary Clinton irrationally ambitious ? What do you call Sarah Palin? You’re right, Jonah: “there's nothing below-the-belt about pointing it out.”

We must suspend disbelief if we are to buy the conservative line that her daughter’s pregnancy does not discredit Sarah Palin’s staunch support of abstinence-only education. It didn’t work for the Palin family; it won’t work for yours. If you want teen pregnancy rates to explode even further nationwide, vote for these two clowns.

We must suspend disbelief if we are to buy the conservative line that Sarah Palin’s “executive experience” qualifies her to be Vice President of the United States. She’s been governor for less than two years; of Alaska, the least densely populated state in the union. She was mayor of a 6,700-population town for six years before that. The house on the left does not qualify one for the house on the right:

OK clearly I haven't figured out how to do photos in Blogger. But you get the picture ... sorta...

Memo To Stuart Shepard: I Told You So

Remember when Focus on the Family’s Stuart Shepard asked a question?

Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for “rain of Biblical proportions” to descend on Mile High Stadium to ruin Barack Obama’s acceptance speech?

Not just rain, he clarifies, but “abundant rain! Torrential rain! Urban and small stream flood advisory rain!”

Hey, Pastor Shepard: a hurricane has forced the Republican National Convention to scale back its opening days and prompted the media to shift its coverage away from the convention to the Gulf Coast. So that might be an answer for you.

(h/t, GoldnI).