Oh FINE. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen it (and certainly heard it) by now, but here is everyone’s Uncle Joe dropping the F bomb on live TV.
I think he’s the greatest. He’s just so lovably inappropriate! You know he was sitting there thinking to himself, “What powerful words can I say to B that he will remember for the rest of his life?” Well, he certainly found the words to say. Perhaps he just forgot that there were 250 hot mics around. Regardless, I’m glad it happened, and here’s why: it’s been lightening up the health care debate and people have been having some fun with it.
PS- Here is a great tool to see how the health care legislation will affect you. Super easy– just put in your marital status, if/how you have health care and what you make. Click here.
Republican Senator Arlen Specter, a well-known moderate, has announced he is joining the Democratic party and he will run as a Democrat in 2010. This is not a huge surprise. He has consistently voted with the Democrats since Obama has been elected. Apparently though, our Veep, Mr. Biden is the one that convinced him. Way to go, Joe!
Obviously as a Democrat, I am happy that we have one more crucial vote in the Senate. (Now if they would just get that pesky Minnesota seat settled and swear in Al Franken…) But let’s look at the larger picture here.
I always like to give credit where credit is due. I am, after all, a first born child and I LOVE to be recognized when I’m right or when do a good job. (Do you think they’ll give me gold star stickers for a job well done in the real world?) The Republican party, over the past ten years, has done a fantastic job at messaging. Ex- It didn’t matter that he wasn’t smart, America just needed a president you can sit down and have a beer with. This, of course, turned out to be an EPIC FAIL. But the American people bought it in 2000 and 2004. Here’s another good one: All Democrats are socialists who want to take away your guns and hard earned money, abort your babies and let the terrorists win while turning the US of A into a godless nation. A slight exaggeration, but I can only hope that you get my point.
But while the GOP was painting moderate Democrats and the actual socialists with the same brush, they neglected the fact that their own party has its moderates. And maybe, just maybe, the party’s message was excluding them.
It’s weird, but I think Meghan McCain is the most logical spokesperson the GOP has right now. Naturally, I will disagree with her on some points, but at least she’s says things that make sense. And if they are looking for the youth vote, I’m pretty sure MM will have a better chance at reaching out to young people then Rush Limbaugh. Or that wretched Ann Coulter. Ugh.
I don’t really feel like analyzing how the GOP can fix its problems when I think there are bigger problems to solve… like the economy. I’ll let you know when I figure that one out. In the mean time, my trust is in B.
But welcome to the real party, Sen. Specter. Time to get down to business. There’s work to be done.
So my friend just sent this video to me. Take a look:
Now as a proud liberal with a potentially unhealthy love for Barack Obama, I found this video entertaining in the sense that Joe Biden wiped the floor with this wingnut reporter. Then I looked at the comments on the video, and realized that everyone thought that Barbara West really tested Biden and proved that Obama is totally a Marxist Muslim nutjob who will destroy our country within the first six months of his presidency. I guess you really do just see what you want to see.
As I was watching this, I thought of a conversation I had with my sister the other day. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been bickering just a leeetle these days about politics. I was video chatting with her, and one of her friends muttered something in the background about how Obama was going to get assassinated and that in voting for him, I was basically just voting for Biden.
Now, don’t even get me started on the fact that it is disgusting and embarrassing that no single person is worried that John McCain might be assassinated. Nope, just the black guy. But on top of that, do you REALLY want to play the vice president game?! REALLY? Saying that you shouldn’t vote for Obama because he could get assassinated is like saying you shouldn’t vote for McCain because he might die like tomorrow. Both are certainly possibilities, but to base your vote on either hypothetical situation is absurd. And even if I were to base my vote on those hypothetical situations, I would clearly trust Biden over Miss Wasilla. (Have you seen this, by the way? “Joe the mauve sofa”…hysterical)
And call me a commie, but I honestly think the quote “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need,” is pretty damn right on. Isn’t that SORT OF the foundation of things like conservative Christian things like tithing? The idea that when you are able, you should give of yourself to others who need it most?
Man, that was boring. Awkward and uncomfortable jokes by McCain all went flat. Insulting Tom Brokaw, jokes about hair plugs and balding (was that a swipe at Joe?). The zingers were mediocre. Then John McCain has the audacity to call B “that one”. OH NO HE DIDN’T. I’m sorry, but I prefer audacity to come in the form beautifully bound hardcover book called “The Audacity of Hope”. Ahem. Here is the video:
What did he mean by “that one”? What a demeaning term. On top of flawed policies and rampant lies, John McCain lacks the manners and professionalism required to be the President of the United States. Just picture him at the table with leaders from around the world. Is he going to call someone he disagrees with “that one”? Or perhaps he’d like to use another one of his favorite words, cunt. He makes me so mad.
And he messed up a TR quote. Again, OH NO HE DIDN’T.
“My hero is a guy named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt used to say walk softly, talk softly, but carry a big stick. Senator Obama likes to talk loudly.”
Ugh. Get it straight.
And for the love of all things good and pure in this world, Johnny, please stop calling me your friend. I am NOT your friend. I wouldn’t even be your Facebook friend.
The majority of pundits and polls show that Obama won this debate. I agree. He holds the American agenda, and I will be so proud to call him our president.
Also, this is totally unrelated to the debate, but I find it to be an important fact since the candidates’ personalities seem to be on a pedestal in this election. Today, while Joe Biden was at the funeral of his mother-in-law, Sarah Palin was criticizing him on the campaign trail. She’s a jerk.
Twenty-seven days until this election is ovvvvvah.
This is the shining moment of the debate. This is where Biden won it. He is just so genuine.
I keep thinking about this moment over and over. And here is what struck me. Without even meaning to, Biden did something very important for women in this election. Palin plays the “mom” thing over and over again. She’s just a hockey mom, she’s got kids, blah blah blah. She talks about hardships. These are things that resonate with women. He showed that these are things that resonate with him as well. He was a single parent. He had to be a father, and a mother, at the same time. So really, what he did, was show that women don’t have to vote for another woman to get someone who understands those experiences. That’s huge.
And Sarah Palin didn’t even acknowledge what he had said or what he did. She could have said something nice, but she didn’t. Heartless. Mean. Unqualified.
I love outdoor concerts. I love live music in general, and being outside listening to live music makes me feel like I’m actually sort of outdoorsy. I mean, there are bugs, and I’m sitting on the ground, right?
This Labor Day weekend, I attended two truly American outdoor concerts, and I find the juxtaposition of these concerts to be very entertaining. On Sunday night, I went to the National Symphony Orchestra’s free concert on the Capitol lawn. The Capitol was behind us, the Washington Monument was in front of us, there was a ridiculously gorgeous sunset, and generally the entire event oozed classiness. Our view basically looked like this:
Of course, the only songs I really recognized were the suites they played from movies (um Harry Potter? AMAZING.), but still, it was classy. After the concert, we even went out for some classy glasses of wine at a classy restaurant AND took a cab home. I know, I’m an adult. (As long as you disregard the fact that we tried to bring wine into the concert and failed because they legit tear apart your bag looking for booze and weapons, so we had to hide the wine in the bushes. That wasn’t so classy.)
Unfortunately, my faux-maturity came to an end last night when I attended a Jimmy Buffet concert. You heard me. Jimmy Buffet. I know you’re jealous. Going into the concert, I anticipated dancing like a hippie alongside a bunch of people who looked like my parents. I wasn’t entirely off-base on that assumption, except instead of dancing next to a bunch of middle-aged white folks, I watched in horror as police tackled them to the ground and arrested them. I have never seen so many arrests in such a short period of time, and man, those cops were brutal! It was mostly entertaining/shocking to watch all of this stuff go down, but at one point I found myself alone right as a cop took down a fat guy in a Hawaiian shirt, and I nearly started crying I was so scared. My favorite fight, by far, involved two trashy women who started going at it right in front of us. One of them was holding a child and screamed “Can’t you see I have my baby here?!” right before she smacked the other woman in the face. That poor kid’s gonna have some issues.
On the whole, the Buffet concert was a hell of a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed dancing around like a sweaty maniac to all of the songs I know by heart (har har), and for a dude who’s like 112, Jimmy sure puts on a good show. (Although we think he maaay have been lip syncing some of the songs…)
I loved that everyone at the concert went all-out when it came to tailgating. We were proud of ourselves for having Margaritaville brand margarita mix, but some people brought sand, decorated their cars like sharks (fins to the left baby), had baby pools to lounge in during the tailgate, etc. One little girl even had a sign that said “I missed my first day of kindergarten to be here.” Again with the good parenting.
The costumes in general were absurd. I saw more bikini tops on people who shouldn’t have been wearing bikini tops and shirtless dudes who shouldn’t have been shirtless than I ever wanted to see, and I started to get jealous that I didn’t have a parrot on my head. My favorite costume was this younger couple that was totally decked out in pirate gear, and I told them how much I loved their outfits. Then later in the night when we needed our car jumped, THE SAME PIRATE COUPLE stopped to help us. How’s that for karma?!
While hopped up on margaritas and Jimmy Buffet, I made a startling observation: Jimmy Buffet and Joe Biden are twins who were separated at birth. (And they even have the same initials…dun dun dun.) See for yourselves:
Right?!!
Now for your at-work enjoyment, take a listen to my favorite Jimmy Buffet song (and be sure to notice Jimmy’s mustache and the delightfully literal video):
Yesterday was day 3 of the girl power hippie lovefest. And oh girl, it was a good one. I’m going to try and keep it quasi-brief. Brevity really isn’t my thing though.
I went to a tea hosted by Nancy Pelosi to honor to women in Congress. I was fairly dressed up, but some of the women looked absolutely absurd. It was like 2 p.m. and they had gotten their hair did. Whatev. The first speaking guest is introduced. The woman standing right next to me steps up onto the stage. I had been standing next to Annette Bening the entire time and didn’t even know it. Whoops. She was wearing glasses, okay?! Harder to recognize her… I don’t know. Next up to speak was Nancy. The word I always use to describe her is ‘lovely’. Really, she’s quite classy. And during her speech, she announced that Rosario Dawson and Eva Longoria Parker were there. Excuse me? Rosario is hot. Eva is pretty. Enough said about that. As if things couldn’t get any better, Idina Menzel comes out and sings an acoustic “Defying Gravity” from Wicked and a song that she had written. While she was singing, I was busy looking around for her smokin hot hubby, TAYE DIGGS. AHHH. No dice. Didn’t matter– she was amazing.
We were herded like cattle to the Pepsi Center for the delegate vote. Instead of just giving the numbers from the vote, every state made a long speech bragging about how beautiful they were. And I swear, at least three states claimed to be the first state the sun touches each morning. Somebody was lying. I bet it was Maine. I kid. Barack is getting the majority of votes, with some Hillary supporters sticking to their guns. Some states, like California and Illinois had passed. Weird. New Hampshire, New Jersey…everyone is waiting for New York…New Mexico. New Mexico yields to Illinois, Illinois yields to New York. And our girl Hilllllllz steps out to clean up the mess. How dramatic (and symbolic)! She asked that B be announced the winner. She shoots, she scores. Euphoria ensues. People are awkwardly dancing.
All the speeches were good, but some were better than others. My dad and I were discussing how DNC speeches made by unknowns are really just screen tests. I mean, Barack passed his in 2004, didn’t he? So look out for Rep. Patrick Murphy from PA. He did great.
Melissa Etheridge played, more awkward dancing occurred. You could tell people were gearing up for the Democratic savior and the Republican satan, Bill Clinton. He came out swinging for B. And it was genuine. Billy’s still got it. He focused a lot on world diplomacy during his speech. Seriously people treated him like he was Jesus.
John Kerry spoke. Some other people. And then Beau Biden came out. Beau, Joe’s son, is a complete dreamboat. Seriously foxy. RAWR. I was weeping when he talked about his mother and sister being killed in the car accident, and how Joe Biden never left their side. Of course I cried when Sen. Biden came out and hugged his son. I have cried more times in the past couple of days than in the past couple of years. By now we know Biden’s story, but every time I hear it I am convinced more and more that he will be great. And he’s really living up to his role as an attack dog. Slap old Mac around. His wife, Jill, came out at the end and said she had a surprise. Who could it be?! Joe Jonas? Ben Affleck? GEORGE CLOONEY?! And then Barack stepped out. AHHHHHH. People were having political strokes. I wish I could really convey the electricity of the convention last night.
Oh! I saw Mohammed Ali last night! Just walking around the convention with his posse. Pretty cool.
After the convention, I ended up hanging out with people Mallory went to high school with. I still miss you Mal. And now I totally get all of her Denver stories about burritos and bicycles.
The big speech is tonight. Still looking for George Clooney.
So I considered live-blogging Hillary’s speech but then I got nervous because Kathleen is way smarter than me when it comes to politics. Now I wish I had live-blogged it. From a nerdy rhetoric student’s point of view, and a weepy patriot’s point of view, and the point of view of some one who thinks Barack Obama looks damn good in a suit, that was a GOOD speech.
She got the weepy stories in; she did some great McCain bashing; and she did an excellent job hammering home the message of “HEY CRAZY LADIES! Voting for McCain or voting for no one is NOT the way to honor my campaign’s legacy. VOTE FOR BARRY!” or something to that effect. And that Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuit comment? The Harriet Tubman rhetoric at the end? Killer. Love her right now.
And I will say, though the orange suit complemented Hill’s skin tone, I thought orange was an interesting choice for the patriotic overload that is a convention. With all the Obama campaign’s branding strategy, I thought it was odd that they allowed Hillary and Chelsea to appear next to each other wearing orange and black. Anyway, Michelle looked great, as per usual, and Joe Biden has really white teeth.
Stay tuned for Kathleen’s potentially more legit commentary, once she gets off the Pepsi Center floor. Lucky bitch.
P.S. I spoke to my mom before the speech, and she said she and my dad were also getting ready to watch. This shocked me a little, because my dad is a bit of a diehard Republican. My mom was talking about how they were kind of bashing Hillary on the teevee commentary and I was like whaaaa?, because I was watching NBC. Of course my parents were watching Fox, because my dad said it was “the most neutral station.” Tee hee.
P.P.S. I’m watching Fox now because I got curious, and Charles Krauthammer is speaking. Like a month ago I applied to be his research assistant. Never heard back, shockingly. It was one of those jobs that you just have to send in your resume for, so don’t judge me.
Yup. School House Rock got BFD’d.
Republican Senator Arlen Specter, a well-known moderate, has 
six words to change the world. 