A pig wearing lipstick, exposed.

As Koko posted thoughts and sparked conversation on one lipstick pitbull, in the northernmost frontiers of the United States, 1400 valiant women and men were showing us something we somewhat suspected. A transcontinental intuition, perhaps?




Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.



Needless to say, an intuition only, as the mainstream news outlets would NEVER want one to hear about this-- it upsets their "maverick" narrative too much.

But truth travels. Alaskans know.

The smartest piece on McCain/Palin that I've read

JoAnn Wypijewski is without compare in contemporary American journalism, and her unapologetic take on the political (sex) appeal of Sarah Palin is worth reading, not least for its searing description of McCain as beast in a way that I haven't quite seen captured to date:

At 42 McNasty, as he was called in high school, took up with 24-year-old Cindy, a former junior rodeo queen, and, having boosted his image and his net worth via a marriage vow, soon reverted to the pattern of insults and macho egotism that has typified most of his life. He denigrated her education at USC as a tour through "the University of Spoiled Children." For all but one of several miscarriages, he left her on her own. When she was popping ten to fifteen pills a day to mask her pain and "do everything he wanted," he never noticed. In 1992, in a rage over her gentle teasing about his thinning hair, he exploded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt," a one-two punch hurled in front of three journalists and two aides but unreported until recently, by Cliff Schecter in The Real McCain. On the campaign trail in June he joked about "beating my wife" and took umbrage when others failed to grasp the simple good fun in the remark. In early August he said he'd encouraged Cindy to enter the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty pageant at the high-revving, flesh-swinging biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. It might have been a fine quip except that up on the stage with her daughter Meghan, staring out toward the throng where a sign urged Show Ur Tits 4 McCain, Cindy had the thin, fixed smile of endurance, not joy.

This description of McCain is not gratuitous -- because the question of his virility or lack thereof seems to Wypijewski central to understanding the selection of Palin. After all, presidential politics is still about who "does it better":

In Sarah Palin the right has its perfect emblem: moral avatar and commodity, uniting the put-upon woman who gushes, "She's just like me!" and the chest thumper who brays, "I'd do her, and her daughter" with those who have long exploited the fear and sorry machismo of both, with the help of another durable reactionary weapon. Now that it's official, as McCain's campaign manager said, that "this election is not about issues; this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates," McCain's only live tag appears to be, Republicans Do It Better. Translation: small-town, gun-toting, rough-and-ready, all-American Sarah and Todd versus Barack and Michelle. White Power. (Or, close enough, White-ish.) Palin Power.

The triumph of symbolism in our politics is truly complete.

Update from the Battle for Hearts & Minds

An Obama canvasser and Friend of the Blog writes:

Rolled in late last night from Virginia, and I am no longer high on hope. Renewed determination maybe, but not hope. Palin with her so called "balls" has everybody by theirs. What was so disturbing about canvassing was not that other people had convictions I disagreed with, but that most people don't really have any. Or think they have them but don't know why they have them, and don't care that they don't know why they have them.

This clear-eyed assessment both disturbs and motivates B&B. Strategies for breaking through American Torpor? How are you helping the cause of convictions?

Great Political Minds Ready to Lead in Our Times

Rudy is a pig

I actually didn't realize how awful he was until tonight's speech.

But I have to say, Sarah Palin had the quote of the night, and this is verbatim: "I love hockey moms. They say the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull-- lip stick."

Let's talk about sex.

The most unlikely power sent us all back -kicking and screaming- to our old schoolyard. Thanks to an impossible faux-pas by the McCain camp, we all now know that a certain 17 year-old is knocked up by a less-than-recommendable boyfriend. We were also informed that there will be a wedding. To make things worse, no date is set (yet).

Almost immediately, Obama came out saying that “family, and especially children are off-limits”. The idea was to show that Obama is a real gentleman, and a bundle of good manners. Or it could just be that Obama really, really does not want to talk about abortion, and avoiding taking a stand like the plague.

Now, as when I was 15, I still hate personal gossip. Back then, I could not care a less for who was sleeping with who, or even more intimate details. Somehow, I was always disgusted by unrequested information, so common at the schoolyard. Privacy is privacy is privacy.

However, this is not the moment to act as if we all are part of some Victorian drama.

Obama should –and he somehow must- address the fact that the other ticket CERTAINLY care way too much about other peoples lives. They do not accept abortion, something so easy as sex-ed, and not to mention, basic scientific facts in schools. This means that they put their ideology above the majority’s right to have access to a good education. Or worse, they care too much about mi vagina...

Obama lost the opportunity to lament, the awful way the leaders of the republican political party outed a young girl, making her (insert any virgin-sacrifice analogy here) the table-talk of the whole world. And no one somewhat rational can buy their claim that they did so because they were pressured by “rumours on the Internet”.

Of course, pointing fingers at real subject matters, and therefore putting himself as a person ready to defend the hard-won rights is not recommendable to win this election. But hey, when will it be?

What kind of country arrests its journalists!!!

From democracy now website :


ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ




full democracy now statement here
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/9/1/amy_goodman_and_two_democracy_now_producers_unlawfully_arrested_at_the_rnc

===========
UPDATE

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC

Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar


===========