Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Still Percolating

We are 10 days away from the first Presidential debate, and the air is starting to feel positively charged. There’s a certain manic hellzapopping energy to the various narrative threads that are out there right now:

- Representative Les Gara, from Anchorage, AK provides a ground level view of the latest Troopergate shenanigans. After initially welcoming the bipartisan decision by the Alaskan Legislature to investigate the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, the Palin people have taken to obfuscation and stonewalling the process, not realizing that the more they do so, the shadier they look while doing it.

- Bob Cesca addresses how the media generally responds to nuance, what the Right's noise machine is doing, and how that is reflected in the polls.

- See if you can tell me who said the following:

"Obama is now stoking racism in the country. Obama is a disgrace -- he wants the public to think he is Mr. Nice Guy while his thugs are in Alaska looking for dirt on Palin and he runs race-baiting ads and lies about what he has done and what McCain has done."


Give up? It was Rush “Where’s Mah Goddamn Pills, Ma?” Limbaugh, who said this while claiming that he was misquoted in a recent Spanish-language Obama ad aimed at Latino voters. The quotes? "Mexicans are stupid and unqualified" and "shut your mouth and get out."

Yeah, I can see how that could look bad when taken out of context. Oh, wait, what was the context? It was either said during a parody of NAFTA or what happened was that Limbaugh read from a list of stringent rules and statements then revealed that it was came from Mexico’s own guidelines on dealing with immigrants or something.

Given the nature of Limbaugh’s listeners, I am sure this parody, or whatever it was, was taken in exactly the right vein.

Yessir, Obama is a disgrace all right.

- On a related note, former “Hillraiser” Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild decided to stop supporting the Democrats and switched to the McCain/Palin ticket because she feels the alternative is someone she deems detached and elitist.

- Sarah Palin will be facing another tough interviewer, but not tonight, as her interview with Sean Hannity airs on FOXNews.

- Her ticket partner is continuing to twist in the media wind: After flip-flopping on the Fed’s bailout of AIG earlier today, then starting to hear rumblings of the Keating 5 and his medical records being brought up, McCain retaliates by returning to the “celebrity” meme that’s been inert since he made his VP choice.

- One of the positives that Obama brought to the Democratic party was taking the lessons learned from Howard Dean’s grassroots campaign and used them to regularly enervate the base. Here’s the latest example of what they’re doing with that.



(Via Sera Strawbridge.com)

6 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

Hey guys,

I was wondering. Does anyone know what happened to the money that Alaska received for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere"? I mean, every news story you see or read about it has the same exact last line that states that although the bridge project was nixed, Alaska still received the money anyway to use as it sees fit.

How does this ease the burden of the taxpayer in any way? Alaska isn't spending the money on the bridge, but they get to spend it in other ways. I don't get how this gets Palin or Alaska off the hook when it comes to federal earmarks.

Anyway, just curious.

the beige one said...

Earl, I put your question into the Rep-O-Meter, here's what came back:

"It doesn't apply to Sarah Palin because she's against earmarks and pork barrel spending."

I then put in the stats about the money Alaska received on the bridge, and it came back:

"Sarah Palin killed the Bridge-To-Nowhere."

I asked where the money went, were Tanning Bed stocks bought?

"Sarah Palin and John McCain will put an end to pork barrel spending. They are against earmarks."

Eery how it sounds and reacts like the real thing. I'll try looking for real world answers.

Deni said...

My understanding is that a big portion of that money went to building the road that would lead to the "bridge to nowhere," literally creating a "road to nowhere" that ends at the water.

So it is obvious that Alaska still plans to get some pork to build that bridge eventually.

the beige one said...

Deni beat me to it, though I've yet to find any truly direct answer regarding the topic. It does seem like the area is still expecting some money to be coming in sooner or later:

Palin's communications director Bill McAllister said, "...in fact the project isn't necessarily dead … there's still the potential for improved ferry service or even a bridge of a less costly design..."

The city of Ketchikan has already begun to develop roads and a small amount of infrastructure for the Gravina Island's 50 inhabitants. However, residents continue to seek funding for the Ketchikan-Gravina span.

Verdant Earl said...

I wonder why this isn't a bigger story. There was no relief to the taxpayers here, so the fact that the bridge project was killed doesn't seem to matter at all.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the link.

I get video updates like that pretty often through Obama's campaign site.