Pandora's little box of racism

And the man and woman opening that box are none other than John McCain and Sarah Palin. Yeah, old news. But remember that last Friday we were talking in somewhat glowing terms about how the Senator had finally stepped up and shushed one of his idiot supporters who said that Obama was an "Arab." Remember that?

Well, today, Another Day, Another Palin Rally saw more of the same:

"At today's Palin rally in Pennsylvania a supporter yelled 'Kill him!' when Sarah Palin a speaker mentioned Barack Obama. Yesterday, at a joint McCain-Palin rally in Virginia, another supporter was moved to shout 'Obama bin Laden' as Palin spoke."

Yes I am sure someone will say these are isolated events, but they are isolated events that keep happening. And Sarah Palin says nothing. NOTHING. The Christian Right's choice has no problem (apparently) with her racist supporters. She told Rushbo

“I’ve got nothing to lose in this,” Ms. Palin said. “And I think America has everything to gain by understanding the differences, the contrasts here between Obama and McCain.”

Her morality is just stellar, isn't it? She has no problem throwing a lit match into a pile of kerosine she and her running mate just poured on America's race relations. That is her morality.

Guys, I really want to respect religious conservatives. I really do. But this makes it very hard. Very hard.

As for Palin, she may not be an idiot. Idiots don't normally ascend to the Governor's palace (well, perhaps once in Texas) but she is of average intellect. Nothing wrong with that, except she has above average ambition, and below average ethics and morals. Other than that, she is a damn peach!

As for McCain, I think we all know what is driving him. And it isn't "Country First." It is "McCain first, burning wreckage be damned." Nice.

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Couple of conservatives have jumped ship and found themselves on the angry end of the right. Christopher Buckley (yeah the son of NR founder William F. Buckley) said that he could not vote for McCain and was endorsing Reagan. He found himself out in the proverbial cold (though the NRO denies he was fired).

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it's a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

Rich Lowry says that Buckley is over-stating this, and to be very honest, I have never liked this Buckley. Like his father, I have found them to be not nearly as smart as they think they are. But I think it is funny that he has switched gears and suggested that the last few years have been a disaster

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of "conservative" government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me.

Hard to argue with that.

And most interesting to me is still Kathleen Parker who suggested that McCain drop Palin from the ticket only to get thousands of angry emails. Here, she is on the Colbert Report and you can tell that she is still rather amazed at the vitriol of the right. I think it is cute that she and Buckley are surprised at that. Where the hell have they been?



I have never liked Parker, but man is she right on this. Makes fun of Palin's new look; makes fun of her ability to speak in complete sentences; and notes that she lost speeches due to her column; and that one of her nicer detractors suggested that her mother should have aborted her. Welcome to Bush/Rove/Cheney/Limbagh/O'Reilly/Hannity/Newt's world.

Her best line? That Palin "doesn't know what she doesn't know." In other words, she doesn't even realize how badly informed she is, which makes her doubly dangerous, and more like Bush than we would ever like to believe. Her response to Limbaugh suggests that very fact.

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Ok, because I need just a little humor, I have to end with some Fafblog, which is a one of my historic favorites, but not for everyone. Ubub and I spent a lot of time during the 2004 election perusing the adventures of Giblets and Fafnir. This one is like their old brilliance, but be warned, the end of the post has some very funny labels that are not for everyone--especially not those concerned with the f-word. Here, Giblets brilliantly parodies the right's attack on Obama

who is Barack Obama? "Oh well Giblets Barack Obama is the junior senator from Illinois who is running for president on some moderate health care and tax reform plans and a foreign policy which is actually very similar to John McCain's," you say because you are irritating and stupid and I hate you. Yes yes but who is Barack Obama, really? "Well he was born in Hawaii to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia and was a community organizer and a law professor before running for the Illinois state senate." Okay okay but who is Barack Obama, really, while I am playing scary music and flashing this terrifyingly desaturated image of Barack Obama in a turban across your television screen? "Oh my god I have no idea, who is this mysteriously radical mystery radical!" Giblets is glad you asked!

The whole thing is funny. And the labels are hilarious and offensive.