If I were a rich man . . .

McCain v. Obama:


Indeed.

Last Tango In Wasilla

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

(Sarah Palin meets Fargo)

Roger Ebert, while still not back on his teevee show, has something to say about the Palin Show we watched last night:

So she was understandably nervous, and you could tell that by her rapid speech, faster than what we've heard from her before . Listening to her voice, you could also sense when she felt she'd survived the deep waters of improvisation and was climbing onto the shore of talking points. When she was on familiar ground, she perked up, winked at the audience two or three times, and settled with relief into the folksiness that reminds me strangely of the characters in "Fargo."

. . . One thing a critic of a live performance is sensitive to is any unanticipated moment. There was a famous moment at the National Theater in London when an actor pulled out an automatic pencil to make some notes. It contained no lead. He should have pretended it did. Instead, he said, "There is no lead in my pencil." Then, fatally, he paused to listen to what he had said, and the audience roared with laughter when they were certainly not intended to.

A very different sort of unanticipated moment took place during the debate. Biden said, "I know what it's like to be a single parent raising two children." He did not know if his sons would survive the auto accident that took his wife and daughter. For a moment, he lost his composure. Looking at the moment again, I believe, as I did at the time, that it was genuine emotion, and not stagecraft.

It could not have been anticipated by Palin. The next camera angle was above and behind her. She paused. The silence seemed to anticipate words of sympathy and identification from her. But Biden had ended in a sentence using the word "change," and her response, reflecting no emotion at all, cued off that word and became a talking point about McCain. This felt to me, at worst, insensitive and callous. At best, that she had not fully heard Biden. In either event, her response troubled me. If a man had responded in that way to such a statement from a women, he would be called a heartless brute. [See link below]

Sometimes during a live performance you can hear an actor "going up." That's actor-speak for forgetting the lines. Laurence Olivier went up on an Oscarcast, after he was awarded an honorary Oscar. Whatever he said (the transcript shows it made no sense), the speech made an enormous impression. In an audience reaction shot, you could lip-read Jon Voight: "Wow." The next morning I went to interview Michael Caine. "Larry called me last night," he said. "He asked what I thought of his speech. I said it was wonderful, but I didn't have the slightest idea what he had said. He said I was exactly right: 'It's like during Shakespeare, when you go up and start blathering about being off to Salisbury on the morn.'"

I sensed that happening during Palin's response to the question about same-sex marriage and civil contracts. She was clear that she opposed same-sex marriage. So was Biden. I have no idea what she said about civil contracts. Neither did Gwen Ifil, apparently, because she concluded that Biden and Palin were in agreement. I knew what McCain (and supposedly Palin) really thought about the subject. I sensed that Palin had gone off to Salisbury.

Indeed. This person is supposed to be ready to take command at a moment's notice. Total farce, total fraud.

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
They've gone to graveyards, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Hey, girl, I got something I think you ought to know

Another astute analysis of Palin's debate performance:




And here's the post title lyrics, just for fun:

Wishin', hopin', singin', 'n' prayin'

Ms. Palin, may I comment on your speech patterns? It's not really Ok to drop every final "G":

Today, nearly all English speakers drop g's sometimes, but in a given speech community, the proportion varies systematically depending on formality, social class, sex, and other variables as well.

For instance, in a 1969 study done in New York City, Bill Labov found that in casual conversation, g-dropping varied with social class as follows:

	Lower class	Working class	Lower middle class	Upper middle class
Percentage of g-dropping	80%	49%	32%	5%

In other words, as class status "rises," percentage of g-dropping falls.

However, formality also matters: members of a given social stratum drop g's more often in less formal speech. Thus for the lower class members:

	Casual speech	Careful speech	Reading
Percentage of g-dropping	80	53	22

I'm just sayin'.

Oh, and Dusty (& Martha & The Vandellas):

Kind hearts don't make a new story, Kind hearts don't grab any glory

Transcript:

Look, I understand what it's like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it's like as a parent to wonder what it's like if your kid's going to make it.

I understand what it's like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, "I've got to leave, champ, because there's no jobs here. I got to head down to Wilmington. And when we get enough money, honey, we'll bring you down."

I understand what it's like. I'm much better off than almost all Americans now. I get a good salary with the United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that's my total investment that I have. So I -- I am much better off now.

But the notion that somehow, because I'm a man, I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone, I don't know what it's like to have a child you're not sure is going to -- is going to make it -- I understand.

I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it's like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They're looking for help. They're looking for help. They're not looking for more of the same.

Indeed.

Just for the record ...

... all the pundits on FOX, CBS, ABC and NBC are currently calling the debate for Biden.

I'm sure that will change within 24 hours.

I could be wrong, but I'm betting on history.


Update (Steve): Dude, you are so right!

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Mean girls, make stuff up

From Swopa at Needlenose:






To all Republicans who think this is good:

You can't hide your lyin' eyes, And your smile is a thin disguise

Governor William J. Le Petomane: Have you gone berserk! Can't you see that man is a ni...

As much as McSame & Co try to hide Sarah Falin's corrupt past, the hits just keep on coming. Here's just a sample of her myth information that's been debunked:

The Truth About Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin's credentials as a "reformer" are nothing but spin. She has sided with Big Oil, lobbied to increase pork spending and abused her public power to carry out personal vendettas. Here's a guide to separating myth from fact.

But wait! There's more!

Palin Accepted $25,000 in Gifts, Alaska Records Show

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows.
[...]
About a quarter of the entities bestowing gifts on the governor are represented by one of Alaska's most influential mining lobbyists, who said in an interview that she was not involved in the tributes. The lobbyist, Wendy Chamberlain, has a relationship with the governor's family through the friendship of their teenage daughters.

On forms disclosing the gifts, Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential nominee, routinely checked "no" when asked whether she was in a position to "take official action that may affect the person who gave me the gift,"

Now we get to the best part:

a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign said the gifts had no undue influence on her.

Since when is John McCain's campaign in charge of Alaska?
And if you call now you'll receive:

Oil-Funded Research in Palin's Campaign Against Protection For Polar Bear

[...]
In official submissions to the US government's consultation on the status of the polar bear, Palin and her team referred to at least six scientists who have questioned either the existence of warming as a largely man-made phenomenon or its severity. One paper was partly funded by the US oil company ExxonMobil.

The status of the polar bear has become a battleground in the debate on global warming. In May the US department of the interior rejected Palin's objections and listed the bear as a threatened species, saying that two-thirds of the world's polar bears were likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice. Palin, governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for US vice-president, responded last month by suing the federal government, to try to overturn the ruling. The case will be heard in January.

Though the state of Alaska has no polar bear specialists on its staff, the governor's stance has pitted it against the combined scientific fire-power of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, and world experts on the mammal.

In its lawsuit, Alaska [AKA Palin] said it opposed the endangered label partly because the listing would "deter activities such as ... oil and gas exploration and development". Oil companies recently bid $2.7bn (£1.5bn) for rights to explore the Chuckchi sea, an established polar bear habitat.

The threatened species status might also impede the building of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, which Palin has called the "will of God".

So Palin knows the "will of God"!? Now that's presumptuous!

As an added extra special bonus you can watch Katie Couric's hard hitting 'gotcha!' interview with Que Sarah, Sarah. Here's a transcribed excerpt:

Couric: “When it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?”

Palin: “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,”

Couric:“What specifically?”

Palin: “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years,”

Did I mention Palin has a BS in communications and journalism!? (it only took 5 years and 4 schools.)

Now I can understand, (after 7+ years of Bush), if a republican candidate for the 2nd highest office in the country can't answer simple questions about foreign policy or the economy or supreme court decisions, but I can't understand how a journalism major doesn't know what newspapers she reads. The question wasn't even a softball, it was an orb made of jello, covered in whipped chocolate and sprinkles.

And believe it or not, I'm linking to a faux noose list of Sarah Failin's qualifications: Raw Data: List of Palin Gaffes

I urge you to read it.



Cross posted at SteveAudio

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