The new optimists...

 

These pictures were all over the blogosphere, so I'm not sure who to credit, but I saw them first on both Atrios and Daily Kos, two of my blogging heros.  

The party of inclusion? Well sure if you are only including raving lunitics...

Remember when Howard Dean, for all his virtues and vices, destroyed his chance at the Democratic nomination because he gave a wild excited speech about moving his campaign forward from one state to the next and ended it with a whooping "Yeehah!" (exactly the sort of exclamation you would think mindless cowboy Bush supporters would enjoy)? Well then you haven't seen anything till you see last night's keynote address by Dixiecrat Zell Miller, Georgia's unelected Senator.

Giuliani offended, yet scared people. The Bush twins confused them, leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth. But Zell Miller will go down in the history of this campaign and the Republican Party. Zell Miller, with his rigid, angry face, blazed with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision of bigotry and stubborn pride became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the “negroes,” Zell Miller now finds himself out of the Democratic Party mainstream. Oh, but he fits right into the new Republican Party. His speech last night was jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. Just when you think we can move past the old Southern stereotypes as tired as Miller himself, here comes an out-of-touch pretend Democrat to revive them for the entire world to see. Not smart, GOP.

The crazy ramblings didn't end on the stage. No, they continued well into the night on the cable news shows. On CNN, he was questioned from Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield, (or the Axis of Easy), about why just three years ago he had introduced Kerry in Georgia as an American hero who had worked hard for our nation’s security (the speech was still up on Miller's website early this morning). Miller suggested he was new to the Senate at the time and basically didn’t know what he was talking about. Well I could have told him that.

And about those weapons system votes that Miller criticized Kerry for making over a decade ago. Wasn’t it true while as Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney raised similar doubts about those very same systems? Miller said he’d let Cheney answer that himself.

But that was just the warm up. Next it was over to Chris Matthews’ Hardball on MSNBC where Miller just lost it. Matthews asked Miller to defend his speech, and particularly his allegations that John Kerry voted "against" various defense appropriations. As both Matthews and Miller know, voting against a large appropriations bill doesn't necessarily mean that you disapprove of every part of the bill. Miller got progressively angrier as Matthews persisted in holding him to his statement, telling Matthews several times that he wished he was in the studio so he could "get up in your face."

As Miller steamed, Matthews asked him if he thought that he was helping the political discourse in the country, and then, whether he even thought he was helping the Republicans by what he was saying. At that point Miller’s meltdown peaked. He started waving his arms around, demanding Matthews "shut up" and let him answer the question. Miller then lapsed into a dialogue with himself wondering, “I don’t know why I even came on this program,” before returning to Matthews and announcing he wished they lived in a previous era because he would have "challenged you to a duel." He wishes he lived in a previous era for a lot of reasons. And that’s fine. Wish all you want. Let the Democrats handle the future.

Nothing screams compassion like drunks, robots, and bodybuilders...

How do you know if you are a Republican? Well, I tell you how. If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican. If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group, then you are a Republican.

So it turns out that I'm a Republican.

Oh wait, no. Arnold Schwarzenegger is just a liar.

The second night of the Republican National Convention featured a lineup of speeches focusing on the compassionate conservative theme used by Bush in the 2000 election that he failed to live up to. Of the two major speakers, one is best known as a robotic inhuman killing machine with a terribly annoying speech pattern. The other is Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Come on, Laura, like you didn't see that one coming?)

The star of Junior and Kindergarten Cop spoke first making a few bad jokes about his Hollywood celebrity and how speaking for the convention was better than receiving an Oscar. He then proceeded to talk about the compassion of the Republican Party by saying that the Democratic National Convention should have been called True Lies, a film he starred in that is worth seeing for Jamie Lee Curtis's performance only. And maybe a young, un-Faith-y Eliza Dushku. But the point that Arnold made was that his version of compassion is to call names such as "girlie men," a statement that he made again last night. As a bonafide Girlie Man, I find that highly offensive. For all their whining about the liberal entertainers, they had a Hollywood millionaire scold those Americans who acknowledge that the economy is not doing well.

Even more offensive was having Arnold try to pretend his experience is typical of the average immigrant. Are they hoping that Arnold will appeal to the Latino vote? He can wrap himself up in an immigrant identity, but I can’t imagine it playing to minorities they way they intend.

In the most bizarre moment of the presidential race to date, two spoiled rich girls came out in their Juicy Couture sweat suits and their vapid, snobby expressions. No, it wasn't a guest appearance by Paris and Nicky, but the Bush twins, who were on hand to introduce their plastic, animatronic mother. I watched the clips and read the text of this speech as I missed the actual live telecast, but I have to say I have no idea what they are talking about.

Referring to their stone-cold, bulldog of a grandmother, the twins said “we love you dearly, but you're just not very hip. She thinks ‘Sex in the City’ is something married people do, but never talk about.” Can someone tell these morons who told the convention they “are really not very political” that the name of the show is Sex AND the City? Sarah Jessica-Parker must be rolling in her shoe closet! You just have to read this thing. I suppose it is hard to talk in that sort of setting with a wicked hang-over.

In the last speech of the night, First Lady Laura Bush spoke to all those ladies in the very diverse town of Stepford, Conn. She tried to paint the president as a man who “was wrestling with these agonizing decisions” of going to war. So that’s where his compassion lies. He compassionately ponders wars!

Bush spoke of when, as a young couple, Laura and George once drove an Oldsmobile Cutlass when their transportation wasn't as "fancy," she said, as if you'd almost think her husband was a self-made man. They met at a barbecue and married 3 months later. Nothing says romance as a big steak and a rushed engagement. (I guess she wanted to hold to this boyfriend before she committed vehicular manslaughter again like her last boyfriend.)

The point of the speech was to paint the president as a regular guy. No one is falling for it though. We all know he is a spoiled frat boy of privilege who grew up, as Ann Richards once said, “with a silver foot in his mouth.” She tried to soften the edges of her husband's harsh presidency tonight. While her charm and persuasion may have worked on some of the 50 swing voters still left out there, she's asking America to forget a lot.

That darn liberal media...

MSNBC's question of the day.

Did Rudy Giuliani's speech reassure you or move you to support the Bush-Cheney ticket?

Choose either "Reassure" or "Moved to Support."

I feel there may be a little bias here.

Sigh.

Keep you friends close, but your enemies in Midtown...

The Republicans have officially been in town and it has been all I can do to keep from losing my mind. I'm trying not to let them get to me, but it's hard. Especially when I force myself to sit through their misleading and vindictive speechifying.

Last night's Bush love-fest was one falsehood after another. In the beginning of what will be a convention theme, the republicans trotted out John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani, two people who are far from the true face of the Republican Party these days. All the speakers lied about Bush's failed record and equated 9/11 to the Iraqi War. Especially Giuliani. He revived the rationale that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attacks of Sept. 11, invoking that ground zero photo op where Bush grabbed a bullhorn and made the one true, sincere statement that Bush has made in four years. Giuliani said that Bush "stood amid the fallen towers of the World Trade Center and said to the barbaric terrorists who attacked us, 'They will hear from us.' They have heard from us! They heard from us in Afghanistan and we removed the Taliban. They heard from us in Iraq and we ended Saddam Hussein's reign of terror."

And he wasn't the only one. At least three other speakers, including John McCain, referred to Bush's only good moment. For the majority of America though, memories of Bush's reaction to Sept. 11 come from very different images. There's Bush, sitting in a classroom while the towers burned and school kids read "The Pet Goat." There's Bush, flying aimlessly around the country on Sept. 11 to avoid a threat to Air Force One -- a threat that Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer trumpeted and the White House later quietly disavowed. And there's Bush, invoking the attacks of Sept. 11 to launch a war against a different enemy in a different place. No one was hearing from Bush then.

The focus on Sept. 11 is just a way to avoid talking about the war abroad or safety at home. In almost four hours of speeches devoted almost exclusively to the attacks of Sept. 11, Osama bin Laden wasn't mentioned once from my count. Giuliani should be ashamed of himself for using 9/11 for political purposes. He spoke of seeing people jumping from "the fires of hell" and described in a way that did "all but include the SPLAT," according to Al Franken.

Maureen Dowd referred to last night's constant 9/11 references and Iraq distortions "repulsive, yet effective." That's what pisses me off more than anything. They used our troops last night as a political prop. They linked Saddam with 9/11. They attacked John Kerry and misrepresented his statements. And it might all work!

But it wasn't all cheerleading and canned applause. The one time the crowd came alive was when John McCain mentioned "a disingenuous filmmaker," referring to Michael Moore (or Mel Gibson, I'm not sure just yet). The crowd exploded in chanting and howls and such vociferous screams that I could feel the palpable hatred through my TV set

The entire night was focused on false “leadership” and absent “courage.” They constantly beat the drums of fear and safety as if the two go hand-in-hand. We should be fearful of the constant dangers of terrorism, but don’t worry our homeland is secure? I don’t think it works that way. You want to secure the homeland? Then provide proper funding to areas of greatest risk like New York. Stop pissing off the world, especially the Muslim communities by invading other countries who pose no threat and spitting on our global commitments and treaties. Create an America where education is not only funded till 12th grade, but encouraged for everyone at all ages. Make sure everyone can afford not decent healthcare, but the world’s finest healthcare. Protect our environment and support civil rights for all minorities and take care of our elderly and lift people up rather than kicking them when their down. Then and only then will you get a secure homeland.

God, I miss Boston.