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Thought-provoking and definitely a change in tone – action and results, of course, will have to be seen to be believed. But well worth watching nonetheless!
UPDATE: It seems the below video isn’t working. Try the (stupid unembeddable) NYT video page here.
The Buffalo Beast (a blog, a site, a newspaper?) has published its annual list of the “50 Most Loathsome People in America“. It’s incendiary, no-political-persuasions-spared, and completely hilarious.
Snip:
43. You Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American. Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus. Sentence: Invaded and occupied by Canada; all military units busy overseas without enough fuel to get back.
43. You
Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American.
Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus.
Sentence: Invaded and occupied by Canada; all military units busy overseas without enough fuel to get back.
As the article has been linked from ten million sites, it’s not always possible to access it due to their undoubtedly off-the-charts bandwidth requests. But check back in a day or two if you can’t get there now. The idiots of 2008 won’t be disappearing that quickly.
What started as a hilarious satirical comic strip is now a hilarious satirical animation series. The latest is below. WARNING: Contains language not appropriate for people unused to hearing curse words.
Great snag on BoingBoing:
Vote That One ’08!!
and don’t forget this. No, never forget.
UPDATE: An interesting blog post by Michael C. Cohen seeks to dispel the racial bias issue. The argument is based on this look at the Bradley Effect. While interesting, I find that I’m still not entirely convinced. Please America, surprise me.
With the first ever African-American presidential candidate, race is certainly the great unknown of the 2008 campaign, but there is significant empirical evidence to suggest that Mr. Obama’s skin color may be far less consequential than some believe — and may even benefit him. At the very least, it is more complicated than many realize. Arguments about race and the 2008 election play out on two levels: one, the notion that many white voters are “closet racists” and will not vote for a black man and two, that public opinion polling cannot be trusted because white voters are afraid to reveal their prejudices.
With the first ever African-American presidential candidate, race is certainly the great unknown of the 2008 campaign, but there is significant empirical evidence to suggest that Mr. Obama’s skin color may be far less consequential than some believe — and may even benefit him. At the very least, it is more complicated than many realize.
Arguments about race and the 2008 election play out on two levels: one, the notion that many white voters are “closet racists” and will not vote for a black man and two, that public opinion polling cannot be trusted because white voters are afraid to reveal their prejudices.
PREVIOUSLY: Kristoff hits the most un-talked about issue in this election right on the head with his latest NYT Op-Ed piece:
“Most of the lost votes aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate. Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously.”
“Most of the lost votes aren’t those of dyed-in-the-wool racists. Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.
Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously.”
This is what I’ve been saying in political discussions from day one. The shifting political tide from right to left (or, you could argue, from far right to center) is being subtly but significantly slowed by racial bias in those who claim to not be racists. While Kristoff makes the point that this has been ingrained into us over a long time and that we are therefore perhaps forgivable as we evolve out of our despicable history on the subject, I can only say that I’m glad things are so bad for the republican party this cycle. If we didn’t have a tanked economy, two endless wars going on and eight years of some of the most infuriating domestic and foreign policy injustices and disasters (the Patriot Act, Katrina, Justices Roberts and Alito, warrantless wiretapping, Abu Ghraib, Iran, etc), I don’t think Barack Obama would stand a chance – not because he isn’t an exemplary presidential candidate with arguably the best mix of qualifications, temperament and policies to take the US forward in the 21st century – but because he is (half) black. Too bad being half-white isn’t good enough for most of us.
