Lowering the bar

I was watching some of the pre-debate spin - yes, they now spin before the debates - and they are lowering the bar so much for Vice President Annie Oakley, that all she has to do on Thursday is not drool while she speaks and they will say, "She did surprisingly well against an experienced hand like Joe Biden."

That, apparently, is the only requirement the Republicans need for the person who would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Not drooling.

Typical sneaky Republicans

Sometimes Amazon.com is very sneaky. It is, as you may know, a Republican leaning company - sort of like Domino's Pizza (never order from Domino's, the CEO is a fanatical anti-abortion nutjob!)

Anyhoo, I sadly order my CDs (yes, I still prefer CDs over MP3s, much better sound quality) from Amazon as there are no stores near me now that sell them anymore. The HMV on Lex is now a Best Buy, and the closest CD retailer I know of in the city is the Virgin in Times Square and I'm not that motivated to schlep down there just for a CD.

Well, I usually browse on Amazon, find some CDs I want, put them in my shopping cart, and come back later. If you order more than $25 worth you get the free shipping, and I always want that, of course, so I browse over a few days to find stuff I like that will get my order up to that level.

But if you come back later and the price of any item in the cart has increased they tell you - xxx has increased from $14.95 to $16.95 - and charge you the higher price.

Ok, fine.

But apparently they don't tell you when prices decrease.

I had ordered a few CDs over the weekend, and I went in to my account today to see if they had shipped, and they hadn't. But I clicked on the page for one of the CDs to listen to some of the tracks again - Ella Fitzgerald: Live at Mister Kelly's - and I saw the price had dropped from $19.99 to $16.99.

Then I went to another one, Ella & Duke Ellington: The Stockholm Concert and it had dropped in price too.

But those bastards at Amazon didn't alert me, and were going to ship out at the old, higher prices. So, of course, I promptly canceled the order, then reordered at the new prices saving myself about five bucks.

What typical sleazy GOP shenanigans though.

Not to be a snob, but.....

I hate when installation guys are in my house and ask to use the bathroom.

You can't really say no, but, oy, I cringe.

This is not a restaurant or bar, my Geek Squad friend.

Still here

Unlike John McCain, I will continue to work during this period of economic crisis and will not suspend Too Saucy.

Oy gevalt

She really is, pardon my French now, a fucking idiot.




And please, to my Republican friends, remember that she will be a heartbeat away from the presidency under a 72-year-old sickly man.

Seriously, this is not just the fact that she's a right-wing, animal-torturing nut job. She's seriously a major lightweight.

I have friends I go to happy hour with who are smarter then her. "I'll try to find some and I'll bring 'em to ya."

Yokel

Ms. Palin arrived in New York after a campaign event with Mr. McCain in Pennsylvania.

She exited her Secret Service vehicle in front of the hotel to an empty block: Police and Secret Service had closed down the street and kept every would-be pedestrian indoors about 20 minutes before her arrival.

After she stepped out, Todd was right behind, and the Secret Service followed them directly into the hotel.

New York is considered a Democratic city, but it is also an impatient one, and residents’ views of visiting politicians often have less to do with their positions on domestic and world affairs than with how much the trip inconveniences them.

So when police, for security reasons, refused to allow people to leave a nearby restaurant shortly before Ms. Palin’s arrival, many were not at all happy about it. Instead of the cheering throngs of supporters waving lipsticks and adoring signs that Ms. Palin has become accustomed to on the campaign trail, she was met by the equivalent of a Bronx cheer.
- New York Times

Welcome to New York. Now get the fuck out. Hillbilly.

Zero percent - ZERO!!!!!!

"No Americans say they think the financial situations in their households are getting better, 56% say staying the same, and 42% say getting worse."
- American Research Group poll


Zero percent! That's almost unheard of in polling.

But the really amazing thing in this poll is that 19% of Americans say they approve of the way Bush is handling his job. Those are historically low numbers for a president to have - but it also means that almost one fifth of the American people are blithering idiots.

All of a sudden Bush looks like he's in Mesna

Here's Sarah Palin, the woman who John McCain said knows more about energy than anyone else in the country, commenting on off-shore oil drilling:


“Oil and coal? Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first,” Palin said. “So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It’s got to flow into our domestic markets first.”


Oy gevalt.

Ka-ching

The economy is going to hell in a hand basket, thanks to eight years of Republican incompetence and mismanagement - but sometimes I make out just fine. You have to know how to kvetch to the right people though.

I am in the process of switching my TV/Internet/Phone provider, and, in the procedure, something got screwed up, and I lost my landline dial tone for several days (and, of course, I barely use that phone, but still.) So after a few rounds of bitching with the new company, I have gotten the following deals: the first month free (saving of $95); monthly fee dropped from $95 to $65 for the next six months (for a saving of $180); 12 free Movies on Demand ($60); a one-time rebate of $150; installation fee waived ($29); and one free year of a multi-room hi-def DVR ($228).

Ka-ching indeed.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago I bought a new TV at Best Buy. In their Sunday newspaper ad this week, I saw they were offering $150 off their Geek Squad service to wire up a home theater system. I stopped in yesterday and asked if I could get that deal, even though when I bought the set the deal wasn't in place. The sales guy said services don't count toward their 30-day price match policy, only products, but he could just cancel my credit card purchase from 2 weeks ago and then ring it up again, as if I had purchased the set this week. Done and done - and as he did that, the register spit out a Samsung $200 rebate form, which also wasn't in place when I originally bought the set.

Sweet Baby Jesus. I need to go to Vegas soon.

Ha ha

Asked by a St. Louis radio station whether she thought Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin could run a company like Hewlett-Packard, (McCain adviser, former H-P chair Carly Fiorina) responded: "No, I don't.

"But that's not what she's running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things."

Asked about that remark on MSNBC, she made the same unprompted assessment of the GOP presidential nominee. "I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation."

And that's one of his supporters saying that!

That's it?

It's a nice duplex, Greenwich Village, lofty thing, but, I don't know - if you're the cofounder/owner of Google, is this the best Manhattan house you get?

Moooooo

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.
- New York Times

The Havemeister in on duty!

You know I also like cows. I like dogs and cats too. Can I be Secretary of Animal Welfare, just, you know, because.

Oy - this is a replay of "Heckuva Job Brownie" cronyism. And we know how well that worked.

Sarah Palin finally speaks out on world issues

I don't want to do stuff any more

I've come to the realization that I'm at the point in my life where I don't try to save a few bucks if it gets me out of doing shit.

Case in point, I just bought a beeeyoootiful new TV for my living room (52" 1080p hi-def. Thank you.)

For political reasons, I won't tell you why I bought the set - hi Robin! - but with it, I needed a new stand, as the old set (which still worked great and had an amazing picture, I hated getting rid of it; I gave it to one of the maintenance guys in my building. I digress) stood on the floor by itself.

Anyway, I got a really nice stand from the Door Store (I don't know why they call it that, they don't sell doors) and when I asked the guy how much extra to have it come assembled, and it was 60 bucks, I said fine.

At one point in my life, I would have assembled it myself - but, really, who can be bothered now? I've put together enough computer desks and wine racks and bookcases over the years. I'm done with that stuff.

I'm also buying a new home theater system and will probably shell out the extra $65, or whatever it is, to the Geek Squad at Best Buy to have them wire it up.

I just can't be bothered with that nonsense now.

Life at the Palins - if they had a funny dog

Just wondering...

Has anyone ever seen Vice President Karen Walker hold that baby? I saw him getting passed around the airport tarmac and the GOP convention hall like a joint at Matthew McConaughey's house. I've never seen Palin actually hold him.

The right-wingers are frothing at the mouth in full-frontal anti-choice glory, saying how admirable it was she gave birth to him, but since the 17-year-old seems to be the one who holds him and cares for him most of the time, I'm not sure why the kudos are being directed at Annie Oakley.

















And speaking of Bristol, here's what CONSERVATIVE Lawrence Auster says about the sudden acceptance of teen pregnancy among his Republican cohorts:

Since when do conservatives issue congratulations on an unwed teen pregnancy! Since when is it good news that a 17 year old high school student will be caring for her new born baby while attending high school? Since when is it good news that she must marry her 18 year old boy friend, two children wholly unprepared for marriage and parenthood? And since when is it good news that the 17 girl who is being forced to get married is already the prime care giver to her five month old special-needs baby brother because their mother is too busy running the state of Alaska and now running for vice president?

Just take that in. Bristol is already the primary caregiver for five-month old Downs' syndrome baby Trig.

If you look very carefully at the convention and the airport pix, by the way, you can see the prop, er, I mean, baby, but nowhere near the GOP's mom of the year.

Her convention speech won plaudits from all the usual suspects. Um, ok, no one ever said she couldn't read a teleprompter. She was a goddamn sportscaster once. They could have nominated Warner Wolf and got the same result.

Burp

Teenage mom Jamie Lynn Spears has sent a gift to Bristol Palin, the pregnant 17-year-old daughter of John McCain’s vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, a source close to the Beverly Hills baby store Petit Tresor told CelebTV.com.

“It was ordered by phone, and they asked what could be done for under $100. They spent $60 on pink burp cloths,” the source said.

Aww, that's sweet. It's nice to find out that if we elect McCain/Palin, we get the values of Brit's little sister too.

And to think, at one time, the GOP was the party that decried sex outside of marriage. Now, apparently, it's no problemo. It's nice to see they are becoming more fun-loving.

Next thing we'll know Cindy McCain will be talking about why doing crack cocaine shouldn't be looked at as a big deal. Oh wait, she already proved that.

Decisions, decisions

Tuesday night was a real TV viewing dilemma.

My fav reality show, "Big Brother" was on CBS. But the cable nets were all running the Republican convention, which, to a political junkie is always fun.

However, I can never get enough of sneaky, conniving, underhanded, self-absorbed people. So I skipped "Big Brother" - I DVRd it and can catch it this afternoon.

On Bristol Palin and her Juno-like shenanigans….

Just to be clear, I feel nothing but sympathy for Bristol Palin. Sure, it’s sort of amusing to chuckle at her unusual name, not to mention the wacky names of her 327 siblings - but she didn’t choose any of that, and she sure as hell didn’t choose to suddenly be in the national spotlight.

She’s a 17-year-old high school girl, she screwed up, but, you know, there are plenty of teenage girls who accidentally get pregnant.

Sadly for her, though, she has the added burden of having that weirdo as her mother. Sarah Palin shoots animals for giggles (see pic at left). She rants against abortion, bragging she would ban it even if the pregnant woman is a victim of rape or incest. And, worse of all, she willingly dragged her unmarried pregnant teenage daughter onto the national scene with all the press attention she knew would result with a run for the White House.

Hell, just looking at the kid’s face at the big announcement rally last week is heartbreaking: she was made to stand there holding her baby brother. Are you telling me they couldn’t have left that infant somewhere off stage being cared for instead of parading it onto that platform in front of a room full of baying Republican partisans, who - let’s face it - are not the sanest group of people in the world.

Why did the baby have to be out there at all? And why did the 17-year-old have to be the one to hold him?

What was that discussion like? “Bristol, you’re going to come out and hold the goddamn baby for the 45 minutes of speechifying. Now, Goddammit, smile.”

And you have to love the statement put out Monday when Bristol’s condition was announced to the world: “Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.”

Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened.

Of course, the real issue is that would-be VP Palin and her President will not allow YOU to make that same decision.

But that’s the age-old Republican philosophy, isn’t it: do what we preach not what we practice.

It’s seen by their continuing love of Bill O‘Reilly, even with his sexual harassments of a young female producer, or Rush Limbaugh and his drug addictions, or Bill Bennett and his gambling sickness, or…well, the list goes on.

If any of these actions had been carried out by a Democrat the right would be howling for their head and immediate firing, if not jail.

But when it’s the right-wing nut jobs - ehhh, no big deal. Forgiveness, that’s the Christian thing to do!

You know, just like they forgave Bill Clinton for getting a bob job.

Can you imagine, by the way, if Chelsea Clinton had gotten pregnant when she was an underage, unmarried teenager? Can you imagine the screeches that would have emanated from the right about those liberal permissive parents of hers.

Or how about if she had been frequently photographed falling down drunk after boozing (underage illegally) in bars like the Bush twins?

Limbaugh would have had to put down his hillbilly heroin long enough to go on a one-hour rant about her slutty ways and her evil parents.

But no, Bristol is a good Republican. (I wouldn’t be surprised if she is dragged out to give an interview to a sympathetic Fox News “reporter“ before this is all over).

And with the right, their view boils down to this: it’s ok for the favored elites, just not for you out there in peasant land.

Especially on the choice issue.

Then it becomes: we will tell you what to do, gals.

God forbid you have an unplanned pregnancy, because we will make sure the courts control your body.

Well, unless you’re a Bush or a Cheney and now a Palin. Then, hey, anything goes.

Cindy McCain better hope she is not "mistaken" for a moose on the campaign trail by VP Annie Oakley

Can he possibly fiddle with his wedding ring (and we all know what it means when a married man does that) any more blatantly...while also simultaneously staring at her ass?



By the way, kudos to Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol (!!!!!) who is pregnant. Unmarried teenage mother. Ahh, Republican family values.

Will Jamie Lynn Spears be getting appointed to a cabinet position soon?



(AP) In this undated photo, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her daughters pose with a caribou she shot.