The Greens oppose the CPRS not because it is too weak, but because it will point Australia in the wrong direction with little prospect of turning it around in the timeframe within which emissions must peak, says Senator Christine Milne.
Rundle08: Joe the Plumber campaigns. What’s next? Fluoride?
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On FOX News, Shephard Smith, a burly man whose tragedy is that, without even TV makeup, he perpetually appears to be wearing eye-liner, was clearly angry. Not the fake frikked up anger that FOX anchors deploy on dippy liberals, but the real thing. The source of his ire? False attacks on the … Democrats? “Well Barack Obama has made it clear that he regards Israel as our greatest ally and a permanent friend,” he hammered in the wake of a rocky interview, with the air of Mr G defending Funny Girl against the claims of Cabaret, “and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that that’s not his true belief.” Then he looked down the barrel and shook his head,”it’s crazy what’s getting out there.” That he was defending the sainted one on the Poor Unbalanced network was one thing — but what was truly strange was that the man he was defending him against was Joe the Plumber, doing a phone interview on foreign policy. The McCain campaign, knowing that it has no choice but to keep upping the ante, had gone from using Joe as a talisman, to getting him on the road — he’ll be appearing with Walnuts in a couple of rallies later in the week, and this morning he was doing a personal appearance at a “patriotism” store that sells mainly US flags and lives, no doubt, on mail-order from the Bay Area Black Bloc anarchist collective (“first class post — must be flammable”). Joe’s role was to be the heartfelt, yet trusting voice of the average folks, speaking home-spun wisdom about the strange European ideas of the Democrats. “Joe said Obama’s plan sounded like socialism,” Palin has been saying in her rallies, and note the phrasing — it’s the “Joe don’t know much but he know what he know and it’s the wisdom of the ages” sort of thing. Sadly, Joe’s media-training was even worse than Palin’s, and when an old zionist in the audience threw out the remark that “Barack Obama means the death of Israel,” Joe, instead of referring him back to the campaign, said “those were comments I would agree with … I think that’s true.” Whoever the questioner was knew his mark, knew Joe was just busting to say his piece on just about anything. And he’s entitled to his opinion, but the principle effect of the moment was to make the McCain campaign look even more wildly undisciplined than it already is — which is damn hard. McCain has known for ages that portraying Obama as a current radical leftist won’t work, that every poll shows it turns people off the McCain campaign more than anything. Despite the shrieks of conservapundits to open up that front, he’s stuck to the idea that Obama is naïve, not Hamas, and tried to use that as a way of tarnishing the “hope change” rhetoric. The questioner clearly wanted to jam the campaign up and force it to the right. Well he got it half right. The McCain campaign had to release a statement saying they disagreed with “Joe the Plumber” on Obama on Israel, thus destroying the magic bond that had existed between them, and Joe went on to that FOX news interview go say, when asked what his evidence for the assertion was “that I’m not a foreign policy guy … I’ll just put it back on you guys to find out the truth” and “well the guy who asked the question, he was from middle America, it was something he felt deeply about.” Me, I suspect the guy was from Mossad, on deep cover as an old Columbus Ohio Jew, his beige casual-wear expertly constructed in the Tel Aviv labs, given to him by his handler Mem, to help blend him in. But anyway, it marked the point at which Joe began to cross from the asset to the liabilities column on the McCain-Palin balance sheet. Mark the moment that FOX news lost love for Joe the P when he said to Shepherd Smith: Listen, I know you wanna really get some answers on this one, I’m just not gonna help you out here, Shepherd. Cos, really, that’s exactly what you want to hear when you’re a mid-afternoon anchor with four hours to fill, your interviewee saying, “ha suffer and die sucker, twist in the wind”. Shepherd had a tough time, but it’s nothing compared to what the McCain team must be feeling, watching Joe the P rise from the primeval swamp of GOPolitics, like Godzilla, trampling all before him. What’s next? Fluoride? The Fabian society’s role in such? Here’s my bet and if I’m right, every Crikey subscriber has to buy me a drink if they ever run into me: by the end of the week, Joe the Plumber will be talking about central banking, Andrew Jackson, the gold standard and the whole megillah, and though it will be too late, the campaign will send him down the same liftshaft that Carly Fiorina and Joe the McCain Brother were sent. Poor old Walnuts. You can see, in the most recent McCain-Palin joint interview, his deep loathing for Palin — indeed there’s a video fakemashup which has him reaching across and knocking her over as she goes into one of her “you betcha” routines. McCain’s a warrior-psycho, but he knows foreign policy in depth, and values deep thinking about it (in strategy at least — ethics not so much) and having Palin and Joe as his running mates must be deeply galling to him. Indeed both Sarah Palin and Joe Wurzelbacher illustrate the desperate delusions and deep stupidity of populism, its interest in identity and emotion (“he’s from middle America he feels this deeply”) above actual work and governance. Formal education is not necessary to political participation but intellectual curiosity, a belief that knowledge is real, that argument matters is. Among all the terrible — but hopefully self-defeating campaigns — the McCain has won, this basic assault on reason and knowledge, this celebration of a smug dumbness, is the worst thing they have done to themselves and their nation. Country first, hah. Nothing goes right for the McCain campaign at the moment, though their plugging away at this socialism stuff has undoubtedly got them closer to a possible win. Today, McCain ducked out of an open air rally in Pennsylvania because of rain — while Obama spoke to 9,000 people who braved a downpour, the candidate in a rain jacket, water streaming down his face, telling them that “this is too important — we’ve got to go out in rain and sleet and hail and…” The conviction of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska could have helped the GOP, given Palin’s (late-ish) stand against him — save for the Senator’s stubborn refusal to stand down from the ticket, giving the Republicans a convicted felon as a candidate, and McCain-Palin a challenge they can’t resolve. It’s funny really, but also sad — Stevens succumbed to the temptation to get a bunch of free stuff for his house, and turn Alaskan politics into a dynastic succession, at the end of a decades-long tenure as “the father of Alaska”. Palin et al are piling in on him, yet it was Stevens who ensured that Alaskans get a royalty from their own oil — rather than Exxon et al having a free hand — supported the largest closed-shop in the US when the Trans pipeline was built in the 70s, and in the 1940s — the 1940s! — as a young lawyer won land rights for the Inuit in a decade long campaign. People ain’t forgotten it in “the land to which the tide is tending” (the meaning of “Alayeska” in Aleutian Inuit) and don’t be surprised if this rogue state/nation send the felon back to the Big House, not the big house. If they do, I think I surely will move there. Third problem is the way the infighting in the McPalin campaign is spilling out into the open. That Palin is now routinely ignoring her handlers is now open knowledge. She did a transcendentally weird joint appearance with Elizabeth Hasselback, who appears on women’s morning show The View, her claim to fame hitherto being an American Idol finalist, is a nervy blonde, and of course, a Republican. Hasselback introduced Palin at a rally, and then Palin went into an extended rave about the clothes issue and how “Elizabeth said I should say…” and “Elizabeth thinks…” and man it was strange. It was a goddam slumber party. Were ear piercings and a pillow fight far behind? There was something gleeful about it — it was an escape from the Law of the Father, of old Walnuts, grumbling about “why doncher read a briefing note for once in yer life” and “you spend that much money on clothes you could read the Constitution once in a while and find out what you would actually do!!!!!” and of course “you kids get off my lawn.” It’s for this that an unnamed McCain staffer said that Palin was not just a “diva”, but “a whack job.” Of course she is, and goes back to her profound incuriosity, her sense that she has a set of beliefs and why disturb them with facts that would just lead to confusion? It’s not that the Obama campaign has been without errors. After Joe Biden was subjected to, well, a whack job interview in which he was asked if Obama was a communist, the Obama team banned interviews with that station and then with the whole of ABC Florida. Wise? Maybe they needed to be as heavy as possible in a swing state, but it’s an ugly and repressive way of treating something better laughed off. But by and large the Obama campaign is disciplined, tight, and has a truly extraordinary movement on the ground, reaching millions of people a week — and now pushing McCain to buy advertising time in places like Montana (won by Bush with 20% in 04), North Dakota (ditto) and West Virginia (you got a purty mouth boy). If by some wild chance the polls were wrong, but happened to be wrong in Obama’s favour, the GOP would be reduced to a dozens states, Texas their only big population base. The party might then be fully taken over by the religious right and unelectable for a generation. Well a man can dream. Tomorrow, Obama has his half-hour film ad on all networks (except ABC) including the Spanish networks, and the cable. It’s huge — a tens of millions of dollars buy — dwarfing McCain’s remaining funds. Will that put the lid on it? We will find out, but it’s fair to say that when FOX is getting pissed off with you because your rough trade pickup is going crazy in the green room, then you are in last days of Kurt Cobain territory. He was an eye-shadow sort of guy too. |
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23 Comments
You’re a class act JamesK, and a raving loony to boot. The ‘xx’ is a nice touch - very tasteful and discreet.
heheheh jameskkk - old george would be turning in his grave if he knew people like yourself enjoyed his work, maybe if you truly read what he had to say you’d see him as a leftist “buffoon” now there’s a word right out of the alexander downer’s guide to social effrontery! xx
Well written,covering a lot of ground, two beers for the man, Cheers!!
just remember: it ain’t ovah ‘til it’s OVAH!!!…
NEVER underestimate the ever present, basic, silent yet extant, underlying bigotry of many americans… we can but hope that enough of the (in the opinions of john james and jamesK) “left-wing nuts” outnumber the bigots and the simply stoopid that make up the “right-wing nuts” who want more of the same… THEN we might have something to celebrate. so, as the saying goes: don’t count your chickens…
Yep, beer anytime you want it… the para on the “deep stupidity of populism” was worth the annual subscription fee. The notion that because someone is Middle American and believes X, X must necessarily be true (or at least worth taking seriously) is offensive to anyone with even a basic concept of what representative government is supposed to be about. There is no intrinsic reason why conservatism should be so intellectually vacuous, and the fact that the Republican party is losing its brightest defenders should worry its leadership more than any poll result.
“Rough trade pick up going crazy in the green room..” ! I love it.
Guy and First Dog. Worth the price of admission alone!
nobody wants to respond to your dumb posts because you are a horrible person. stop posting jamesk
This article and some of the postings are a great advertisement for the Loony Left, their ‘world view’ and the suppositions that underpin it.
1. “Barack Obama… regards Israel as a greatest ally and permanent friend”. Of course. He just wants to sit down with the guy who keeps saying that Israel is a cancer and, you know the cure. Just a poor, misunderstood old Shiite. Those silly, bloody old Zionists.
2. “Me, I suspect the guy was from Mossad” Bloody Jews, again! Those Zionists are a wart on the arse of progress, as every good Leftie knows..well, at least thinks, but we dont shout about it!
3. “Plugging away at this socialism stuff”. Hell, no-one should mention the word, ‘cause Obama sure isnt. And we dont want to scare the horses. Just coax them in, nice and gentle.
4. “She has a set of beliefs and why disturb them with facts” Coming from a guy( ?the Guy ) whose heroes are Robert Mugabe, the Vietcong and Fidel, that’s a big call.
5. Then there’s Lucy’s “what representative government is supposed to be about”. Whenever the Left talk about “representative government”, you gotta start worrying. I always picture the famous photograph of the lone protester in front of the tank in Tiannamen Square.
6. Finall,Dave Sanderson’s “there really is a god..” crack at Sarah. These are the same people who’ll happily countenance the killing of the most innocent and helpless of all human beings and tell you its all about choice and what a dill Sarah is to have allowed her diabled baby to live. I think it was Voltaire who said ” if a watch demands the existence of a watchmaker and the Universe doesnt demand the existence of a Supreme architect, I conset to be called a fool.” The Scritures say it more succintly, in Proverbs, “The fool says in his heart there is no God” Fortunately, we are not handing out prizes for foolishness.
The Ole Walnuts imagery continues to amuse and delight. It is so funny it really does hurt.
I watched that Shepard Smith interview this morning and it was a hoot. You know when you have crossed over when even the tedious and self-important HuffPo starts to sing your praises. Bravo Shep.
So, Joe the P and Sarah P have gone “off message” ? What was the message in the first place? McCain and his inner circle must bear full responsibility for this embarrassing end to his dreadful campaign. If Sarah Palin can allegedly “go rogue” and thumb her nose at the “might & power” of the entire RNC (after all of nine weeks on the trail) , then it ain’t her fault, it is theirs. Is anybody in control? talk about Walnuts delegating responsibility away to the “staff”.
Also on that Shepard Smith person, I read recently that FOX re-signed him for a $8 million contract so he can continue to NOT give a political opinion. Suspect he will be BIG in an Obama Administration for FOX.
And thanks Guy for continuing to remind me of the likes of Carly Fiorina - surely an early nomination for Political Hall of Infamy?
Great stuff.
Your name is an insult to a great writer and you are a boorish buffoon.
Why don’t u go hug and xx urself you inane lame leftist lackey
Spot on again Guy ! Beers in Adelaide anytime! As for Palin, she was i/v the other day on terrorism and was asked if people who blow up abortion clinics are terrorists - she refused to say yes but went onto this claptrap about Bill Ayers - the McPalin campaign are grasping at any straws they can to bring down the democrats - not that I’d vote for the big O but it sure is the lesser of two evils. The article the other day on Voting Machines is spot on and has been documented with scary recent incidents and with the complete farce that was Ohio last year - check out Greg Palast’s book Armed Madhouse and his new collaboration with JFK Jr ‘Steal Back Your Vote”. Speaking of madhouses, John James you must get some good internet allocation where you are. You have to tell us more about those “Scritures” and as for the statement “These are the same people who’ll happily countenance the killing of the most innocent and helpless of all human beings and tell you its all about choice” Damn straight it’s about choice nutbag and has my lovely partner would like passed on to you, “Get you’re misogynistic bullshit beliefs out of my uterus”. keep the crackers coming JJ the stains on the screen from your head so far up your arse are a classic. xx
David Sanderson is feeling left out of his personal fiefdom…playing leftist pseudo intellectual Fabianist to Rundle’s churlish Bolshevist.
As usual however you have not made an intelligent nor an original remark thus far.
Try actually reading the comment I responded to you twit….
yes JamesK - all class mate compared with christian nazi shite that spews forth from JJ and yourself! hugsxx
The one thing I’ll miss about the US election is no more columns on it from Guy. Are you compiling them into a book, even an eBook would do. (I suppose I could trawl the gmail archives but that’d be work)
I would buy Guy Rundle a drink if I met him, whether he turns out to be right or wrong about his predictions of Joe the Plumbers future assertions
David Brooks, the NYT’s house conservative, describes Palin as a cancer on the Republican Party. Nevertheless, party dimwits think that she will be a great 2012 candidate. She probably is too dumb to make it that far but if she did it would be a godsend to the Democrats who could confidently look forward to three presidential terms. Maybe Palin is right - there really is a god and Palin’s party ascendancy would be the proof.
JamesK and John James - two of the finest cranks in all Christendom.
It would be a waste of time and space to deal with all of their myopic cant but I I’ll answer one point. Palin’s choice to have a Downs Syndrome child has nothing to do with the apprehension her candidacy causes across the political spectrum. Her dire lack of knowledge, her lack of intellectual curiosity or training, her dreadfully confused and malicious talk are what make her such a woeful vice-presidential, and hence presidential, candidate.
It will be fun to watch McCain and his team unload on her after the election. McCain will not want the lasting legacy of his failed presidential run to be the ascendancy of Palin within the party. He will systematically destroy her - he’s a destructive old bugger but it’ll be for a good cause this time.
Buy you a beer?
We’ll buy you the whole bloody pub man.
God knows what we’ll do when it’s over and they cut off your oxygen.
Meanwhile, just be careful with that ether and keep tappin away.
I’ll buy Guy a beer anytime, (Richmond Melbourne). Keep it up. nearly there.
Looking forward to the book.
Hark what is that strange, scraping noise?….. why it’s the sound of George Orwell turning in his grave.
All class: “the stains on the screen from your head so far up your arse are a classic”
Still Guy will probably approve…
I believe that ‘Sassy’ Hesselbeck was a contestant on ‘Survivor’, rather than ‘Idol’.
she finished fourth.
the show was filmed in Australia during the last Presidential election, and Elizabeth forgot to register to absentee vote.
I am not sure how this qualifies her to be resident right-wing kneejerker on The View.
You should study her a bit, she’s almost as dumb and opinionated as Palin, and good comedy value
hell yeah more words from john james and jamesk i’m not gonna read
keep on truckin’ you complete lunatics. nobody here respects the dumb bile you vomit out on a daily basis and crikey would be better off if you both stopped posting your dumb sh*t altogether.
its just getting boring.
Into the felines’ den……….
Rundle’s “Indeed both Sarah Palin and Joe Wurzelbacher illustrate the desperate delusions and deep stupidity of populism, …… this celebration of a smug dumbness…”….is a nausea inducing albeit extreme display of a smug leftist rant.
Supposedly, under the Obama tax plan, 95 percent of the American people will get a tax cut and pigs are flying as we speak. Journalism’s nadir has to be its treatment of an average person, Joe The Plumber who had the temerity to ask a tough question of ‘The Anointed One’.
Elaine Lafferty, US correspondent for The Irish Times and a Democrat traveled with Sarah Palin on the campaign trail (rather than inebriated from smoke hazed tv screens in pubs) and she found her far from stupid……
“Now by “smart,” I don’t refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don’t really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I’d heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is”
I would actually like to see a black man as President of the US but if McCain wins it will be because of the arrogance and contemptuous disdain of the average American voter by the radically partisan press and also because he is in fact an excellent candidate (as is Obama).
Rundle is an arrogant tosser with no discernible attributes nor balance to back up his faux bravura. He is but one of, if not the most extreme example of, this woeful excuse for journalism.