Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for category McCain/Palin

Fundie dreams may become nightmares

Sep 3

Posted by Marlena in Israel, McCain/Palin, Politics | 2 Comments

Lots and lots of speculating about Palin and whether or not she can last as VP pick. Now that we know the religious right picked her, this was clearly aimed at the base and the base alone. Here is the smoking gun: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=352178.

So, they’re filling up the coffers. She remains under withering attack, and one can only imagine the victim-warrior narrative being used to motivate and shake down the base for every spare nickel.

The fundies have been used this way many times before, but to this date they can’t get no satisfaction from the GOP. They’re kind of like the Israelis that way. No matter how many wingnut judges or gutted science curriculums you throw their way, it’s never enough. They still feel threatened. So just imagine how excited they must be to have one of their very own on the ticket.

Now, just imagine how they will feel if, after sending many millions of dollars to the GOP because of Palin, she gets dumped. Oh dear. And on top of that, who would replace her? It’s like some sort of betrayal, don’t you think? A set-up, perhaps, to get the fundies last monies before they break up with the GOP forever. The fundies are so high maintenance anyway. Good riddance.

Perhaps this is why Karl Rove thinks it’s a ‘brilliant’ decision, though he can’t come right out and explain why or that would ruin all the fun.

Should this all come to pass, we will see who really calls teh shots around here. Beware the fallacy of insufficient cynicism. Things are bad. Very, very bad. No more effing around.

UPDATE: Brilliantly written details here, fully conveying the gasping, pearl-clutching horror of it all. Blow after blow after blow.

The Governor cancelled her busy schedule today allegedly to prepare her acceptance speech, but insiders report that she is now consumed in dealings with powerful Republicans who want to oust her.
…Initially, many conservatives were thrilled with McCain’s selection because Governor Palin is a devout evangelical Christian, a pro-life politician and a prominent gun enthusiast with a membership in the National Rifle Association (NRA). However, the mood of many of the party’s faithful is changing with the emergence of new and troubling reports about hitherto obscure details lurking in her background.
…Many Republican conservatives attending the St. Paul convention are aghast that Governor Palin’s daughter might not have become pregnant had she been able to obtain appropriate counseling.
…Even Governor Palin’s personal image is causing her problems. Earlier this morning, Republican eyebrows were raised when a photograph emerged of Governor Palin wearing disco attire featuring a micro-mini-skirt and a breathtakingly low-cut décolleté as she steadied herself on a bar while teetering on shiny, black patent leather platforms fitted with vertiginous stiletto heels that could have been purchased at Victoria’s Secret.

Let’s hear it for the ‘hitherto obscure details lurking in the background’. Priceless. Maybe the GOP/fundie marriage can be saved after all, though that would require throwing Mrs. Palin under the bus together. A human sacrifice.

Things are rarely as they appear

Aug 31

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, McCain/Palin, Media, Obama/Biden, Politics, Psychology, Stupidity | No Comments

 

Like millions of other people across America…I’m still trying to comprehend what would drive McCain to pick Palin, especially now that she is being vetted. What a disaster. I am of two minds about this. Either the powers that run things above politics picked her to be their puppet and will control the corporate media so they don’t shred her like she’s being shredded on the internet, or John McCain snapped under pressure and picked her all by himself out of spite.

McCain seems to have a similar sociopathic personality to Bush. He must have been under tremendous pressure to make this decision, and we can imagine the people pulling and tugging and wheedling and cajoling their arguments at his poor, addled brain. Maybe he snapped out of exasperation, told them all off, and picked her to literally mess up their plans. Spiteful? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Possible? Yes. As suggested by one wag, perhaps he wants to take a few of his favorite enemies out (the Rovian power structure) as a final but deeply satisfying disparaging gesture.

However, it could also be part of a bigger design — a disturbingly cynical decision from exceedingly greedy people. They selected her because they can control her, and they can control her portrayal in the media, and they can control the election results. We can judge this from the narrative.

I caution anyone who thinks disposing of McCain/Palin will be simple and fun unless the media narrative adopts the same position. We have been down this road before, have we not? Did W get the job twice against all odds? Yes, and millions of people knew he was a big fat unqualified phony. It matters not what we understand in the online community if ABCCBSNBCFOXCNN decide Palin poops cupcakes, so people should refrain from getting all cocky over this. Many many people in America will consider her a breath of fresh air. Fox has begun the ‘rising star’ narrative. We live in a country where millions of people have no trouble blithely tossing aside pesky facts that don’t meet their preferred worldview, and who spend exactly zero hours doing independent thinking or investigating.

Yes, it’s ridiculous. Yes, she lacks all qualifications. As Dick Cheney says, “So?” I ask you, since when have facts mattered to these people?

If you read this article: www.rense.com/general83/gds.htm, The RNC Just Gutted the DNC Again by Karl Schwarz (and Rense.com is down for some unknown reason), you can see that Shwarz thought this pick was a really great idea. Now he is one of the people — and a conservative — who writes the most bitter diatribes against the Bush administration, complaining how badly they have screwed everything up and cost people lots and lots of money. Sounds like a smart guy, but he sung Palin’s praises to the high heavens. How odd, I thought. Apparently, it was a signal that the right people were finally in charge again. This somewhat bizarre position, coming as it does from a highly disaffected conservative, and combined with the rumor (also from purported insiders) that McCain suffers from a deadly illness, support the conclusion that Palin was chosen deliberately by people who have plans beyond John McCain. If you buy all that, and put it in context that a Lieberman pick would have been very disruptive to the base, you can see how this route might make sense. All they have to do is get McCain/Palin close enough to squeak in with a little election theft, and then they have another puppet regime through which to control events. Additional options of the non-election variety open up when McCain becomes incapacitated. I ask you, how convenient is that?

McCain has yet to release his medical records. The latest news about his health goes back to May 2008, came from the AP (not be be trusted), and didn’t say much.

He now appears cancer-free, has a strong heart and is in generally good health, according to eight years of medical records McCain’s presidential campaign made available Friday as it sought to prove that, at 71, he is healthy enough _ and not too old _ to serve as president.

Appear. Lot’s of things appear to be one way, but in reality they are quite another. For all those who have devotedly sought the truth about 911, etc., we know how resistant most Americans remain. They see what the corporate media wants them to see, in this as in all critical matters. What I propose here may seems like a wild theory, but unfortunately, the truth for the past eight years has proven to be beyond most people’s nightmares. Therefore, I find it most productive to consider the craziest possible theories first and work my way back into conventional thinking as those theories get knocked out by facts (to the extent that we can determine the facts). For those who want an Obama win, I suggest you tread carefully or the Democrats will soon pluck another defeat from the jaws of victory. Because that seems so incredibly unlikely is exactly why you should worry.

UPDATE: The Yurica Report. The Dominionists consider this a ‘brilliant’ move. Don’t forget that the Religious Right has been waiting so patiently, so very, very patiently, with Job-like virtue I tell ya, having been used for their votes and money so many times before by the Republicans. Now, at long last, they have the chance to get one of their own into the White House. They begin to pour money into John McCain’s coffers now. She is The Church Lady.

UPDATE: The Nation reports that an ‘ultra-secretive right wing group’ picked Palin: The Council for National Policy. It is the Dominionist theocracy crowd after all. Yurica had it right.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=352178

Petroleum-coated Holy Hotties, Batman!

Aug 30

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, McCain/Palin | No Comments

I was trying to wrap my mind around McCain’s Palin pick yesterday. The pandering to women thing is obvious, but there has to be more to it than that. The brilliance of this move, if you will (and I use the term advisedly), comes in how it appeals to the very men who we might otherwise expect to protest the loudest because she’s a woman. But she’s their kind of woman, you see, the right kind, so that’s different. She’s from the tribe. Plus, she’s a hottie! She is the female version of George W. Bush in 2000: young, regular (this time for real), attractive, controllable. Those who make her will presume to own her.

Do you see how this is a brilliant pick if your emotional development stunted at age 14? Do you see how this might be very useful if John McCain drops dead, and a bunch of Old White Men want a new puppet to play with? Why should the corporate masters take a risk on Obama/Biden and have to lobby and cajole a little when they can simply have their way with McCain/Palin? If he dies they get a redo. All they have to do is pick someone with lots of the ‘right’ kind of foreign policy experience, like…say…Joe Lieberman. Then you have the refreshed Bush/Cheney dynamic with new blood: the dope up front selling and pretending to drive, and the boss in the back seat giving directions and counting the money. If the talking heads decide she’s a good pick, John McCain probably does have a deadly disease. The ‘criticism’ that she is one heartbeat away from the Oval Office? Indeed. I think that’s the point. (wink wink) Am I totally speculating? Yes I am, but you see my reasoning.

Here’s the lowdown from Alaska proper. Read the whole thing, because you need this information to inoculate yourself from the corporate media spin, and they will be spinning furiously to turn this into a good decision.

“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image.

And for great background reading on Alaska politics, don’t miss this piece from The Washington Post titled, “I’ll sell my soul to the devil”. Un-Be-Leeevable. This is the cesspool John McCain has plucked Sarah Palin from.

“Let me count first here,” Allen said, shushing a former statehouse speaker as he counted out a bribe in video footage entered as evidence in the lawmaker’s September trial, one of several crowding the docket of the federal court here.

On another tape, Pete Kott, the former Republican speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, crowed as he described beating back a tax bill opposed by oil companies. “I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie,” Kott said. “Exxon’s happy. BP’s happy. I’ll sell my soul to the devil.”

“Well, that will stay in this room,” one lobbyist said as a midnight session wound down.

And so on, and on and on.

PS. What are Obama’s weaknesses according to the right? Inexperienced, wrong race, shady religious background. What are Hillary’s? Elitist woman. Palin corrects for race, religion and class. Now the GOP can steal every argument the dems have made to support Obama and Hillary against the charges of inexperience and gender and adopt them as their very own creation. They will be the biggest supporters of young women in politics you’ve ever seen — holier than thou in their reverence. Any democrat who speaks against Palin will become a vile hypocrite and misogynist in their hands.

Will it work? Well, they have the corporate media shills as usual. Besides, all they have to do is get close enough to steal the rest, so it could work, disturbing as that is to contemplate.