Halloween Open Thread

“His hair was perfect” 

What are you doing tonight?

“Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity”  (more cowbell!)

“One-eyed one-horned flying . . . “

Re: Your Brains

These guys are probably Obamabots:

Hey Obama! I got yer party unity right here!

I got yer party unity right here!

It’s been a long hard couple of years since this campaign first started.  Tensions are high.  We need some laughs and it’s Halloween, so here is your assignment (if you choose to accept it):

Tell us your funniest Halloween jokes, and give us links to the funniest Halloween pictures and comics.  I have already set the bottom threshold for bad taste and offensivensess, so don’t go below it (go over to Klownhaus and post it in my Halloween thread there)  I’ll post the best ones later tonight.  NO SERIOUS STUFF ON THIS THREAD!!!!

So have at it Conflucians!  Happy Halloween!

Donna Brazile makes me sick!

Is Sarah Palin smart enough to be a feminist?

I was born with a penis, which some people believe disqualifies me from expressing an opinion on feminism.  Now I’m not trying to define feminism, or to tell feminists how they should think, feel or act, but when I read this I had to say WTF?:

You might have noticed a recent media burp—gassy, though blissfully short—about a handful of faux “feminists” backing the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket. I won’t name these women out of concern that feeding their misplaced sense of self-importance may risk them bursting into shriveled balloon ribbons of overextended ego.  If you’re addicted to surreal humor you can find such SP supporters (I call them Spalinists) via Google—if you lack an excuse to put off, say, cleaning the garbage pail, and if you can manage it without bladder-challenging fits of hilarity at the cognitive dissonance invoked by juxtaposing words like “feminism” and “Palin.”

But if any actual feminists are concerned about the effect on Women’s Movement institutions and energy of this clutch of “formers” (a former chapter official of a national feminist organization, a former editor of a feminist publication, former Democratic funders, former Hillary supporters, and so forth), let me reassure you. The “trust date” had already long expired on these women, who’d been voted off feminist leadership posts, or fired, or quietly asked to resign. Some are confessed consultants to the campaign whose candidates they now—surprise!—endorse. I never imagined I’d see a “feminist” mercenary. But then I never heard of rats climbing onto a sinking ship, either.

Spalinists traipse around with their candidate, grinning and applauding her, sometimes getting paraded out to take a bow at a rally. They sound off about how she’s the target of sexism. (She is. D’uh. But being a victim of misogyny does not necessarily a feminist make—or we’d never have had Liddy Dole. Or Britney Spears.)

Spalinists claim they support the GOP ticket (while conveniently ignoring McCain) because: A) Palin is secretly brilliant, B) she is a feminist who only differs with the Women’s Movement in opposing abortion; C) us “elitist” Women’s Movement types who supported HRC but disavow SP are “anti-working-class women,” and—here it comes—D) Spalinists want to “teach the Democratic Party not to take women for granted.”

[…]

A) Anyone who hazards arguing that Palin is brilliant is herselfmorethana few watts short of a bulb. Palin is calculating (you betcha’!), or McCain wouldn’t be hemorrhaging from her stab-him-when-he’s-down wounds as she hypes her 2012 campaign before his is formally pronounced dead. But any real intelligence remotely attached to Palin gleams in Tina Fey’s eye.

That’s where I stopped reading.  If I or some other man had written those first three paragraphs, I would expect to see some righteous indignation and allegations of misogyny.  But the part that disturbed me was the allegation that Sarah Palin lacks intelligence.

Even assuming that the allegation was true (it’s not) what the f*ck does that have to do with her credentials as a feminist?

The One Speaks To America: A Play in One Truthful Act.

Obama Goes A-Presidenting

H/T to my muse, Pat Johnson at The Confluence, for the inspiration for this one!

THE SCENE: A fake Oval Office in a television studio. BARACK OBAMA is on the set of his half-hour infomercial, which will shortly be broadcast on all the major networks (except ABC). He is in the midst of completing the final take.

OBAMA (to the crew): Are we ready?

DIRECTOR: Yes, Barack. We finally got the teleprompter back up. That new techie over there took care of it.

(A brown-haired figure in a denim jumpsuit, wearing a baseball cap, glasses and sporting a large mustache, waves from across the room.)

OBAMA (ignoring the techie, relieved): Thank God! Okay, let’s roll.

DIRECTOR: Five – four – three – two – one. Action!

OBAMA (calm and Presidential): My faithful Obamabots, I am sending you this personal message, because no one but you will be watching. You have done very well for me up until now. I especially appreciate all the violence and hatred you have spewed at people who do not want to “come to” me. Keep it up! But I have to ask that you please stop hanging Sarah Palin in effigy, since some folks are starting to do the same to me, those racist bastards!

DIRECTOR: Ummmm, Barack…

OBAMA (whispering): Shhhh, Fred, I’m nailing it! (clears throat) As for all those things my running mate, Joe Biden, said about how the international community will test me, they’re absolutely true. But don’t worry, when that red phone rings at three a.m., I’ll be forwarding the call to my team of 300 foreign policy advisors, who will tell me exactly what to do. So be prepared for another attack, kids – and oh by the way, I’ll have to draft you and your friends and family. No exceptions for girls, either. Sorry, sweeties – everyone must serve in Barack’s Army!

Stealth PUMAs = Silent Majority

UPDATE:  Recommended by RD:

17 Posted on October 31, 2008 by riverdaughter

There is a post on alegre’s corner that every Democrat should read. It’s written by Pacific John who, along with Michelle Thomas and John West, was one of the forces behind the 300 Delegates petition to get Hillary’s name in nomination at the convention.

Stealth PUMAs are a significant number among undecided voters, as per the latest Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters released today:

One in seven, or 14 percent, can’t decide, or back a candidate but might switch, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters released Friday.

Who are they? They look a lot like the voters who’ve already locked onto a candidate, though they’re more likely to be white and less likely to be liberal. And they disproportionately backed Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s failed run for the Democratic nomination.

For now, their indecision remains intact despite the fortunes that have been spent to tug people toward either McCain, the Republican, or the Democrat Obama. Fueling their uncertainty is a combination of disliking something about both candidates and frustration with this campaign and politics in general.

We’ve estimated that almost 30% of Hillary Clinton supporters (CNN says 4 in 10) will not vote for Obama.  Let’s do some math: 30% of 18 million are 5.4 million Democrats that are voting McCain, McKinney, Nader, etc., but not Obama.  That’s a lot more than “a shrieking band of paranoid holdouts.”

But the survey — which has repeatedly quizzed the same group of 2,000 adults since last November — shows considerable churning below the surface. Of those now changeable, nearly three-quarters said in June their minds were made up, and half said so just last month.

Can anyone guess what happened that month?

Almost four in 10 persuadables lean toward McCain, (there’s that 4 in 10 ratio again!) and about as many are considering backing Obama, while the rest are either undecided or lean toward other candidates. Viewed another way, about one in every 10 supporters of Obama or McCain says he could still change his mind. Even so, persuadable voters could be especially fertile hunting ground for McCain in the closing days of a contest in which most polls show him trailing.

These people trust Obama less than decided voters do to handle the economy, the Iraq war and terrorism. They are less accepting that the Illinois senator has enough experience to be president. And by a 17 percentage-point spread, more see Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin favorably than unfavorably, unlike the narrow majority of voters already backing a candidate who dislike her.

Not the color of Obama’s skin (which is my same cinnamon brown, BTW) – but Obama’s LACK of experience is turning off voters, as it did us waaaaaay back in the primaries.

Persuadable voters don’t differ noticeably from those who have made up their minds by gender, age or education, though more of them report feeling stress from personal debt, according to the poll.

Meaning, anyone in the middle & lower income groups, a.k.a. working class, blue & pink collar, labyrinth cube farm workers, retirees, – i.e. the invisible as Hillary Clinton said (and I’m one of them).

Half are independents, more than double their proportion among decided voters. But, as with decided voters, more persuadables are Democrats than Republicans. Four in 10 supported Clinton’s candidacy this spring.

“She got cheated, I thought,” said Chris Markle, 25, who’s from Schenectady, N.Y., and now leans toward McCain. “I’m kind of upset about that.”

BINGO!!!!!!!!  There’s the smoking gun!  Evidence of a mad-as-hell-and-ain’t-drinking-the-UnitySchmoonity-KoolAid Hillary Clinton supporter who will not support the Democratic ticket!!  We are not alone!  What do we call those people again?  Gee, they had that funny name like  some wild cat and another name for a donkey or something.  Why are they so pissed off again?  Oh yeah!  Caucus voter fraud.  Rampant sexism.  Biased media.  Clinton won the majority of the popular vote.  RBC meeting hijacked delegates and votes which Clinton won to cushion Obama’s delegate pile.  I can go on & on, but let’s get back to the story here.

Numbers like this SWING a state to etiher blue or red.  Why do you think Obama & McCain are in Florida, Ohio and Pensylvannia  almost everyday this week?

Fret not, my PUMA siblings.  Everything that we’ve inherently felt with determined conviction as lifelong Democrats, what brought us here to this blog, what we’ve witnessed fisrthand will come true.  The DNC, the media and incessant wailing of the Oborg Collective will not silence us on November 4th like they did on May 31st, 2008.  We are the silent majority and justice will prevail on election day – IF WE GET OUT AND VOTE.

On that note, I want to end it with Tito the Builder, who’s gave a very memorable interview last night on Hannity & Colmes.  What I love about Tito is that he is a Latino that echoes everything I’ve heard Latinos in Tampa, Orlando and Miami say about Obama’s charismatic yet oppressive tactics live Chavez in Venezuela or Fidel Castro in Cuba throughout the months of the primaries and during the GE (remember last SUSA poll said 52% of Floridian Latinos are voting for McCain).  So grab your tacita of Café Bustelo and enjoy (h/t HillBuzz)

Happy Halloween & ¡que viva los PUMAs!

17

There is a post on alegre’s corner that every Democrat should read. It’s written by Pacific John who, along with Michelle Thomas and John West, was one of the forces behind the 300 Delegates petition to get Hillary’s name in nomination at the convention.

I believe that if more Democrats knew what went on with the delegate count manipulation and intimidation of those delegates at the convention, there would be more PUMAs. Those of us who were in Denver know that delegates were contacting us around the clock, frantic and worried about the tactics the DNC was using to get them to switch their votes. The media was swarming the PUMAs but every time we brought up the pressure the delegates were under, they stuck a mike in our faces and asked if Hillary was out to ruin Obama’s convention.

Well, it wasn’t Obama’s convention. It was *ours*, the Democratic voters convention. And when all of the committees had finished their business credentialling and ruling, the number of delegates separating Obama from Clinton was 17. As Pacific John points out, it was actually less than that because the Credentials committee upheld the ruling giving Obama 4 of Hillary’s Michigan delegates. And all that sturm and drang about “The ROOLZ” that took away half of FL and MI delegates? Tossed out the window at the convention. Those two states were seated with full voting powers- after their ability to determine the nominee was nullified at the RBC hearing in May.

It was all a big game of chess. A coup engineered by the DNC to deprive Clinton of the nomination and to install Obama. And if any Democrat out there is still voting for him because they think Obama is a Change! agent, they ought to think over whether overturning the will of the electorate is the Change! we need. If he runs his campaign like Genghis Khan, it’s unlikely that he will govern like the Dalai Lama.

So, without futher ado, I link you to

17

Clip, save and pass it around.

Friday: Happy Halloween!

Bwahahahhahaaaaaah!

Lot’s of scaaaary things happening in the news today.  Here’s a quick round up from some of our friends:

• edgeoforever posts that Obama’s informercial was dead on delivery.  The experts say it was too depressing.
• Heidi Li says her Obot friends are pondering weak and weary while she is sharpening her reasoning skills over why the prospect of an Obama presidency is frightening.
• Murphy is laughing maniacally over the protest at the LA Times over the Khalidi tape as well as the fact that after $600 million, a slavish media and the GOP 527’s that never showed up, Obama is still in a statistical tie with a guy who took public financing.  theremin music. OOooooooOOOOOOoooooo.
• Check out this page of extreme pumpkin carvings if you’re looking for ideas.  The 2008 winners feature a nerd, a mummy and “squash on a spit”.

I don’t know if I can top myiq’s post but it would be hard to go any lower.  He really reached the bottom.

See if you can spot us in this video:

What double standard?

When someone hung an effigy of Sarah Palin in Southern California it was a big joke.  Feminists weren’t laughing and asked what would happen if somebody hung up an effigy of Barack Obama.  Well guess what?  Somebody did:

(CNN) — Two men have been arrested in connection with an effigy of Sen. Barack Obama that was hung outside a building at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, police said Thursday.” 

“Authorities found a life-size effigy of the Democratic presidential candidate hanging from a tree outside the school’s Mines and Minerals building on Wednesday morning, police said.”

“Police said they arrested Joe Fischer, 22, a senior at the university, and Hunter Bush 21, a former student at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. “

“”This was a serious incident. It caused a lot of wounds to be opened from racial tension,” Monroe said.”

If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.

Early Halloween Open Thread

Donna Brazile makes me sick!

I got yer party unity right here!

Are you dressing up for Halloween?  Any special plans?  Tell us about it, or whatever else is on your mind.