February 21, 2008

"Gotta blow my nose here for a second."

Barack Obama blows his nose. And gets applause. And gets a news story about how he blew his nose and got applause. And 1,000 blog posts that link to it. Have we reached peak adulation yet?

By the way, this adds weight to my suspicion that Barack — everyone's calling him "Barack" now — was sick on Tuesday night when he gave that overlong, halting speech. And don't you think — speaking of bodily fluids — that Hillary is salivating over the prospect of a weakened opponent at the debate tonight? Fate has to cut her a break occasionally, you know.

Obama may be reaching near-Messiah heights, but — we heard from Preacher Huckabee — God may twiddle with the election. Has God favored Hillary by smiting Barack with a cold? Has God come through with Huckabee's miracle at last in the form of a NYT story about McCain and that woman, Ms. Iseman?

Huckabee said "I majored in miracles," and I'd like to know if he sees God's hand in that Kleenex and that newspaper.

51 comments:

Peter V. Bella said...

...and I'd like to know if he sees God's hand in that Kleenex and that newspaper.


More likely it was Bubba's. He probably had one of his "operatives" plant disease bearing germs to stop him. Nothing is going to stop Hill from getting the White House back. LOL

hdhouse said...

i believe in miracles....as one of the few liberals on here I thank God every day for the GOP field, as weak a field of candidates as we are running it can only be God's intervention that explains Micky C's default candidacy. Now we have a sex story...I guess he got too close to Bob Dole and his ED commercial.

As to Barackomania...that will cool down and we can get back to lucid here. let him have his moment. the wolves will be here soon enough.

Peter V. Bella said...

Remember, they were calling Clinton Bill during the primaries. No one would dare call Mrs. Clinton Hill. She would execute them.

Cedarford said...

Althouse - Have we reached peak adulation yet?

No, that will come when two Obama supporters in wheel chairs rise after touching the hem of his suit, and a terminal patient traveling hundreds of miles to experience Obama speeking as his last wish goes into spontaneous cancer remission when a tear of Barack's compassion splashes him.

EnigmatiCore said...

Peak adulation will come when the papers report that he had sex with his wife, and all of his minions, male and female, immediately cum.

I don't know if it is fortunate or not that we haven't gotten to that point yet. Unfortunately, I think we may have reached the point of inevitability...

EnigmatiCore said...

"as one of the few liberals on here"

I've been curious about this. My perception is that there are a more liberals here than conservatives (admittedly, not by a lot), and more of each of them than centrists (lonely, I'm so lonely...)

Ann, why not have a thread on some slow day where you ask the 'regulars' to 'self declare' if they are from the right, the left, or the middle. I'd be interested in seeing if my perception is right or not.

Unknown said...

Twiddle? To quote a visiting faculty member from France, "Zees word, I do not know heem."

Bob said...

Second the motion. An annual poll of readership on blogs is an interesting exercise in itself, anyway. Not just political preferences, but who comments regularly just out of habit, i.e., feeling like one of the family.

Bob said...

And re Obama's Kleenex: you'll know he's really considered the Messiah when his followers root through the garbage searching for such relics.

KCFleming said...

For all the left's animus toward religion in general, and to the more strict churches like Romney's (and oh my, that special underwear ...whatta freak!), they seem to be cutting Obama enormous slack.

This will continue through the election. The NYTimes won't focus any articles on the actual true wierd and unAmerican beliefs of the racist church which Obama attends, but we will hear endless stories about McCain and the appearance of impropriety (even when they cannot show any actual, you know, improprieties

Someone oughtta write a book about that.

But can you imagine the NYTimes if they had ever seen current Mormon statements that looked like what comes from Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ’ website in Chicago?

Silence instead.

"“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian”
“We are an African people and remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.”

* A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
* A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
* A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
* A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY

"The Prison Industrial Complex is nothing more than the re-creation of the slave plantation. In the slaveocracy of the Prison Complex, imprisoned people are rented by these For Profit Prisons. Therefore, what you have is an essentially free labor base to build an economy."

In "THE BLACK VALUE SYSTEM":
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.”

* Killing [talented blacks] off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.
* Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.
* Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which, while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us.”
* So, while it is permissible to chase “middleclassness” with all our might, we must avoid the third separation method – the psychological entrapment of Black “middleclassness.”
)

KCFleming said...

From Wikipedia:
In 2007, Trumpet Magazine, published and edited by the church pastor's daughter (see the church website link to it above) presented the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to [Louis] Farrakhan, whom it said "truly epitomized greatness."[12] Wright is quoted in the magazine offering praise of Farrakhan "as one of the 20th and. 21st century giants of the African American religious experience" and also praised Farrakhan's "integrity and honesty."

Well, at least this won't be the first racist President. Woodrow Wilson approvingly showed the film Birth of a Nation to the Congress and Supreme Court in 1925. Almost 100 years later, we'll have Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, presiding over these same bodies.

Perhaps we deserve it, but I had thought MLK meant something more than "turnabout is fair play".

KCFleming said...

1915, not 1925.

rhhardin said...

presented the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to [Louis] Farrakhan, whom it said "truly epitomized greatness."

It's the spread of universal illiteracy. Who would be correct.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

For all the left's animus toward religion in general, and to the more strict churches like Romney's (and oh my, that special underwear ...whatta freak!), they seem to be cutting Obama enormous slack.

Or -- and I'm just planting seeds here -- maybe the left is actually perfectly OK with religion in general as long as someone isn't trying to shove it down our throats. Maybe? No?

And while you can try all you want to pin the anti-Mormon "animus" that spiked Romney on us libs, you might do well to remember that we didn't even vote in all those GOP primaries that Romney lost. It was Republicans, specifically those open-minded, understanding Southern evangelicals, who are the reason Romney is standing on the sidelines right now.

ricpic said...

Is God carbon neutral?

KCFleming said...

-- maybe the left is actually perfectly OK with religion in general as long as someone isn't trying to shove it down our throats. Maybe? No?
No, not really.
Unless you have an example of Romney shoving Mormonism down your throat you wish to share. (And 2 skinny guys with white shirts and black ties riding bikes don't count.)
The left OK with religion?? Hilarious.

Republicans, specifically those open-minded, understanding Southern evangelicals, who are the reason Romney is standing on the sidelines
True enough. Hardly any of the media are owned by Southern evangelicals, though, and all the scary Mormon stuff I read was online on lefty sites or by the NYTimes or other standard liberal left media. I wonder if they had any effect on the voting. Ya think?

AllenS said...

"...religion in general as long as someone isn't trying to shove it down our throats."

How is that done? Individual pages from the Bible, or Koran? The whole book at once? Will you be forced to go to church? On Saturday? Sunday?

What a silly statement.

Susan said...

And re Obama's Kleenex: you'll know he's really considered the Messiah when his followers root through the garbage searching for such relics.

EBAY!!!

demian said...

Very sharp, witty post, Ann :-) MoDo's got nothing on you.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

Hardly any of the media are owned by Southern evangelicals, though, and all the scary Mormon stuff I read was online on lefty sites or by the NYTimes or other standard liberal left media. I wonder if they had any effect on the voting. Ya think?

So the evangelical right hates the Times with a passion, except when they're printing mean stuff about Mormons, in which case every word they publish is gospel.

Again, you're giving us lefties way too much credit for being diabolical here. None of the right-wing voters down here needed to have their anti-Mormon sentiment stoked by anyone at the NYT; they decided Mormonism was a cult all on their own. Sure, we libruls thought Romney was a pandering snake-oil salesman from the get-go, but it had sod-all to do with his religion.

Meade said...

CLOTHES LINE

[...]

I reached up, touched my shirt,
And the neighbor said, "Are those clothes yours?"
I said, "Some of 'em, not all of 'em."
He said, "Ya always help out around here with the chores?"
I said, "Sometime, not all the time."
Then my neighbor, he blew his nose
Just as papa yelled outside,
"Mama wants you t' come back in the house and bring them clothes."
Well, I just do what I'm told,
So, I did it, of course.
I went back in the house and Mama met me
And then I shut all the doors.

KCFleming said...

but it had sod-all to do with his religion
Of course it didn't. But religion was the most effective club used. The evangelical right has only been effective in the GOP primaries except in IA, AL, AR, GA, TN, GA. Elsewhere it was of minor import, so your analysis fails.

"The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they’re going to portray Kerry and
Edwards ...as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there’s going to be this glow about them that some, is going to be worth, collectively, the two of them, that’s going to be worth maybe 15 points."

Newsweek’s Evan Thomas on Inside
Washington, July 10, 2004

The media want Democrats to win. It will do anything to make it so, even ignore outright racism by one of its own.

Trooper York said...

Personally, I will be glad to get out of the Clinton/Bush vortex with some new blood. Senator Obama seems like a decent sort of man who will honor Senator McCain for his distinguished service to his country in the War of 1812.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

The evangelical right has only been effective in the GOP primaries except in IA, AL, AR, GA, TN, GA.

Thanks for mentioning my home state twice. Now, the left was effective in GOP primaries where exactly?

Unknown said...

Pogo,
Your knees are shaking. I promise: you'll be okay. I can see you are terrified. Take some deep breaths, close your eyes, hold onto something and the room will eventually stop spinning.

KCFleming said...

Gee thanks, Verso. Kind, kind words.

But I'll live through the Obama years much as I muddled through Carter and his fat cigar chomping intern diddling cousin Bubba.

Don't mean I have to like it. I had hoped more for the US than a descent into New Yorkian ultra government control of all things (and calling it freedom). But such is the fate of any society that believes it can vote itself rich by raiding the treasury.

As for Doug, I allus thought GA and GA were two different states. You may be blind to the liberal media effect, but that's okay. Some of us can read between the lines in Pravda jes' fine.

Trooper York said...

Pogo said.....
“his fat cigar chomping intern diddling cousin Bubba.”

Jeeez Pogo, did I know you while I was working for the Big Eight Accounting firms in the '70s. You have me dead to rights dude.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

You may be blind to the liberal media effect, but that's okay.

Still don't get how it's the media's fault that Romney tanked. I mean, even if I were to concede that the media was obsessed with tearing Romney down for his Mormonism (which I don't), that'd still make you GOP voters pretty stupid for buying into it, wouldn't you say?

One alternate possibility, of course, would be that Romney's candidacy failed because he was a not-so-smooth panderer whom even mainstream conservatives didn't like all that much. But if blaming the media helps you sleep better at night, have at it.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Imagine if he had farted

former law student said...

We know Bill's fans saved samples of his body fluids; Obama's fans have yet to demonstrate the same loyalty.

Pogo -- The only thing that surprises me about Obama's church is that they don't point out further that the large number of jailed African-
Americans are forever denied the right to vote. I'm wondering now if you protested the similar "racism" of synagogues in the 70s, who posted large signs reading "Save Soviet Jews!" I'm sure Pogo exclaimed: "How dare they focus on the suffering of their distant relatives! How dare Jews spend money on their ancient motherland! If there's one thing I can't tolerate, it's racism!"

Hoosier Daddy said...

maybe the left is actually perfectly OK with religion in general as long as someone isn't trying to shove it down our throats. Maybe? No?

Well last time I checked, the Catholic Church pretty much stopped forced conversions about 600 years ago. I don't think the Protestants are either for that matter.

But its funny there is one religion out there that really IS trying to shove its religion down our throats and when its not doing that, is hell bent on self detonating some true believing schlub in our midst. But dare say a negative thing about it and you get the racist/bigot/culturally insensitive jerk label.

Hoosier Daddy said...

The only thing that surprises me about Obama's church is that they don't point out further that the large number of jailed African-
Americans are forever denied the right to vote.


You mean just like white felons?

former law student said...

there is one religion out there that really IS trying to shove its religion down our throats and when its not doing that, is hell bent on self detonating some true believing schlub in our midst.

I was following along with your description of the Jehovah's Witnesses till you got to the self-detonation part.

MadisonMan said...

If God were really trying to help Hillary, she would lose her voice.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

maybe the left is actually perfectly OK with religion in general as long as someone isn't trying to shove it down our throats. Maybe? No?

And maybe the right is perfectly ok with atheism as long as someone isn't trying to strip away our rights to worship and celebrate religion because it offends them. Maybe? No?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The only thing that surprises me about Obama's church is that they don't point out further that the large number of jailed African-
Americans are forever denied the right to vote


Isn't that a State issue? Serious question. I know felons, who are on parole or probation, in my State (California) have no restrictions on voting.

Maybe instead of whining about the injustice, they should take it up with their State Legislators?

MadisonMan said...

someone isn't trying to strip away our rights to worship

And where is this happening in the USA? Precisely nowhere -- unless I've slept through the news about people being blocked entry into churches by armed militia.

Re: felons voting. In Wisconsin, I believe the law is that felons can vote when they're done with prison and parole. There's a bill pending granting the right to vote to felons on parole. I think I half-heard this a while back on the radio. So yes, I agree it's a state issue, as it should be.

rhhardin said...

On Kleenex

The washing machine is so contrived that, having been filled with a heap of ignoble tissue, the inner emotion, the boiling indignation that it feels from this, when channelled into the upper part of its being, falls back down on the heap of ignoble tissue turning its stomach - more or less perpetually - it being a process that should end up with a purification.

So here we are the very heart of the mystery. The sun is setting on this Monday evening. Oh housewives! And you, near the end of your study, how tired your backs are! But after grinding away all day long like this (what is the demon that makes me talk this way?) look at what clean and proper arms you have, and pure hands, worn by the most moving toil!

Certainly the linen, once it went into the washing machine, had already been cleaned, roughly. The machine did not come into contact with filthiness as such, with snot, for example, dried out, filthy, and clinging to the handkerchiefs.

It is still a fact, however, that the machine experiences an idea or a diffuse feeling of filthiness about the things inside of itself, which, through emotions, boilings, and efforts, it manages to overcome - in separating the tissue: so much that, when rinsed in a catastrophe of fresh water, these will come to seem extremely white...

And here, in effect, is the miracle:

A thousand white flags are suddenly unfurled - attesting not to defeat, but to victory - and are not just, perhaps, the sign of corporal propriety among the inhabitants of the neighborhood.


Francis Ponge (cited by Derrida in _Signsponge_)

Perhaps describing a Democrat victory with Obama in November!

KCFleming said...

Still don't get how it's the media's fault that Romney tanked.
Yes, I guess it is hard to see how portraying a guy as a religious nutball in the national media day after day might have some effect on voters.

A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University released November 4, 2004, reported that Senator John Kerry received the most favorable network news coverage than any presidential candidate since 1980. According to the study, Kerry received 59% positive evaluations since Labor Day of that year, while 63% of President George Bush stories were negative.

No reason behind that sort of bias, then, huh? No effect at all? Criminey, what bullshit.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I was following along with your description of the Jehovah's Witnesses till you got to the self-detonation part.

Yeah those guys aren't that crazy. They pretty much go away when you ask them. Unlike the 'inner city kids' who keep trying to sell me magazine subscriptions to keep them off the street.

rhhardin said...

My late friend F.T.Grampp's way of dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses

JWs: Hello, we're Jehovah's Witnesses.

FTG: Hi, I'm God.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

Pogo, if you want to have a general discussion about whether the media is biased toward liberals, we can have that, but I'm talking about Romney here. So the media favored Kerry in the 2004 election -- if there really is such wholesale liberal bias in the media, why'd they single out Romney for negative coverage? Wouldn't they have gotten closer to their nefarious ends by just trashing the entire GOP field?

Again, we're talking about Romney's failure in the Republican primaries, where he failed to garner enough Republican votes. How is it the evil liberal media's fault that he couldn't do that?

KCFleming said...

...why'd they single out Romney for negative coverage?
Romney was a stronger candidate than McCain. Both Obama and Clinton would/could beat McCain. A Romney candidacy was less certain. NYT loved McCain ...until he was the nominee. Then they attack. Brilliant, really. And please don't suggest the NYT and other liberal media don't have their claws out generally for non-lefties.

Give your media some credit, Doug. They wanted to run against McCain, and they are running against McCain. They wanted to lose this war, and they lost this war. That fifth column has in fact been calling the shots in the US since about 1965. Reagan and Bush were horrors for them, and now they are back in the saddle. And we will be taken for a ride, a very, very expensive ride.

where he failed to garner enough Republican votes. How is it the evil liberal media's fault that he couldn't do that?
Your assumption that media coverage by a liberal media heavily biased against a GOP candidate would have no effect on GOP voters I reject as false.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

So then if you know the Times and other media outlets are so liberally biased, why do you guys keep swallowing their fiendish propaganda? That's the part of your fanciful conspiracy theory that still doesn't add up to me.

KCFleming said...

That's the part of your fanciful conspiracy theory that still doesn't add up to me.
You want me to explain irrational behavior?

Why do people change lanes rapidly in rush hour gridlock even though they know it won't help?
Why do people still watch TV shows they don't like very much?
Why do people have kids?
Why do people marry someone who belittles them and act surprised when they become abusive?

If I knew those answers, and why people are susceptible to propaganda even when they are aware it is propaganda, I'd be a minor god.

And your question begs the converse:
If media outlets know that everyone knows they are so liberally biased, why do they keep handing out their fiendish propaganda?
Because it is still effective.

MadisonMan said...

The NYTimes is a laughable left-wing propaganda spewer that no one takes seriously. Except when they do.

KCFleming said...

And I just noticed that the reaction to the disturbing quotes from Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ was complete silence, just like the major media.

Can you imagine if the Mormons had said anything even remotely similar? The left is aginst such separatist ideologies until one of their own supports it.

A complete and utter lack of principles. Power alone is all.


MadisonMan: Well that explains the relentless push by left-leaning media against Bush and the war. Completely ineffective, that. They spew nonsense, in my view. But alot of people still read crap like that. In my state, the Minneapolis Tribune (AKA the Star and Sickle) has had waning influence, but that's not to say no influence at all.

Jesus on roller skates, if you really believe that the media are so ineefective in their capacity to shape opinion
1) why continue the biased reporting at all?
2) why not hand it over to conservatives, since it would have an equal non-effect?
3) why not tell advertisers they are wasting their money because the media are completely ineffective in shaping opinioon and changing behavior?

Don't treat me like a child.

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

There is, of course, another possibility that you've completely disregarded -- that the media isn't all that liberally biased (or that whatever liberal bias there may be in some media circles is to a large extent cancelled out by conservative bias in other circles), and that their "fiendish propaganda" (I really hope you understood I was using that sarcastically) isn't actually propaganda at all. But I can see you're having way more fun indulging in your the-media-wanted-John-McCain-cuz-he's-easy conspiracy theories, so I won't harsh your buzz by trying to sell you what's behind door number three.

All I'll say is this: The media couldn't give less of a shit about which political party is up or down; they just want a good story. I'm not saying they're not whores, they're just not whoring themselves out in the exact way you think they are.

But I do want to take issue with your assumption that Romney would've been a "stronger" candidate than McCain. Personally, those of us working with the Obama campaign down here were all but praying Romney would get the GOP nomination; on his best day he's still twice the flip-flopper poor ol' John Kerry was. He would've been a dream to run against.

KCFleming said...

The media couldn't give less of a shit about which political party is up or down; they just want a good story.
That's really funny, Doug, but I'm just not that stupid. I'll not bore you with the George Mason studies or the rest, because I don't think it would make any difference even it were laid out clearly to you that the media have a liberal bias and liberal agenda.


Anyway, what do all the non-chosen people in the Obama camp think of his church's stands on the US prison slave industrial complex and the evils of middleclassness? (I mean non-blacks, at least as quoted in the website at the Trinity United Church of Christ)

AllenS said...

"they just want a good story"

It's not even a good story.

Unknown said...

Pogo,
Must I point out the obvious? Romney is Caucasian, which means his Christianity is the face of the Oppressive Man, the patriarchy!

While Trinity church and its members are authentically seeking refuge from the oppressive Man, the patriarchy! After all, they're not the same as us, so we have to cut them some slack.

And if Barack wins, EVERYONE will win American Idol!