The Evil Petting Zoo

Yeah, I know, I've been really shitty about updating. I just started a second job that requires I get up at 5:30 in the morning this week, I've got class all afternoon, and homework in the evenings. I'm adjusting, though, so I'll try and be better.

So. Last we left the Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, she was taking hypocrisy in new and thrilling directions by calling Obama an "elitist." Now, she's officially hitched her wagons to McCain, and, in trying to articulate the reason for her shift in position, explains why she views Obama as someone who views himself as superior to the common folk -- and, in the process, drops the word "redneck".

Just so we've got it all straight -- the wife of a British aristocrat calls Obama an "elitist" and then, when trying to explain why he's an elitist, insults the very people Obama supposedly insulted during the whole "bitter" clusterfuck. It's like a diamond of hypocrisy -- beautiful, multi-faceted, and deeply, deeply flawed.

So, yeah, I've been busy this week. I moved back into the dorms, and I've started my senior year. Between the classes, the adjusted schedule, and darting out of town so that I can get stuff that was left behind during the initial move-in, I haven't been able to post much.

Which means I wasn't able to post this steaming load when it was dropped:

Q But Osama bin Laden is the one that — you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11 –

PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.

Well, good that we know that now, isn't it?

Seven years. Seven. Motherfucking. Years. That is the time the Bush administration, nay, the GOP as a whole, has been flying around the flag of 9/11 to enforce its agenda. Iraq? 9/11! Iran? 9/11! Patriot Act? 9/11! FISA? 9/11! But it can't cut both ways, can it? When it turns out that we could have done more to prevent 9/11, Bush ignores the 9/11 Commission Report. When we've gone seven years without capturing the man behind al-Qaeda, the administration just shifts the goalposts.

And this isn't going to stop with Bush, not by any stretch of the imagination. At the RNC, which is basically McCain's debutante ball, they air this goddamn monstrosity that hijacks 9/11 to rally the war flag against Iran by connecting the attacks to the hostage crisis. They will keep waving this flag with no sense of shame or humiliation.

They have turned one of the worst tragedies in the history of our nation into a joke. Those disgusting bastards.

Well, after months of "elitist" bullshit and the latest tack towards insulting "community organizers," I'm glad to see we have finally put aside all pretense of attacking Obama for "arrogance" and gotten straight to the racism.

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.

Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

That's right. Someone gave him an opportunity to back away from the racist buzzword, but he forged on. Doesn't it feel so much better, getting it out in the open?

Well. That blew up nicely, didn't it?

Y'know, when Palin got nominated, I knew there would be doubts raised about her history. I knew there would be doubts raised about her record (anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-big oil, etc.). I just didn't know there would be a shitstorm on par with Hurricane Andrew tearing through a sewage treatment plant.

I mean, where to begin? You've got Palin's pregnant teenage daughter, which serves as an unfortunate testament to the fact that McCain opposed federal money for teen pregnancy prevention programs. You've got Palin's close ties to a political party that believes Alaska needs to secede from the US. You've got her being for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was... hell, was she ever really against it?

But the best part of this is seeing the wheels slipping off of McCain's campaign. It's not like they've come all the way off, but all attempts to rationalize the Palin pick are proving to be comedy gold. Cindy McCain goes on This Week and argues that Palin has the extensive foreign policy experience of living closer to Alaska than anyone else (hey, my uncle lives up in Maine, does that mean he gets to sit at the next policy meeting?). A McCain spokesperson goes on CNN to proclaim Palin's experience in handling the National Guard; not only does he get driven into the ground, but McCain cancels his appearance on Larry King that night in retaliation for someone actually acting like a journalist. Meanwhile, McCain shows all signs of keeping his wagons hitched to Palin's, if the RNC speeches are any indication.

This is going to be fun to watch, if only for seeing how far it can go forward before falling to pieces.