Saturday, October 04, 2008

You can splash Brute on a pig, but it's still a pig

File it under stupidity:


Toward the end of the vice-presidential debate, Senator Biden momentarily choked up while talking about raising his two children. He became a single parent when his wife died soon after he was first elected to the Senate.
But it wasn't completely clear to me in context whether his emotion was triggered by the memory of that time or by the realization that one of those two children was soon to be deployed to Iraq. It was an awkward moment, one that Sarah Palin could have responded to with sympathy because her own son has now gone to Iraq or because of the challenges she has faced in her family.

That's George Harris attempting to justify Joe Biden's actions in "Biden's Emotional Debate Moment" (Kansas City Star). For those who missed it, far less resulted in Hillary being called out for weeks and months -- the New Hampshire moment. For the record, Biden broke down in Pennyslvania and openly wept while speaking in public. Harris doesn't know about that?

Then maybe he shouldn't bore us all with his bad writing.

Strangely, he has a topic. He can't find it, but he has one. Ava and I have debated whether or not to include it in our commentary at Third. Now we will because of dumb asses or liars like Harris.

Biden has now been "emotional" twice in public (not the topic we'll be addressing) and it's past time that those not "alarmed" by it explain why it's "alarming" when Hillary's eyes well up but Biden can't even make it through a debate without choking up?

As for Palin, there's nothing she could have done. Had she said, "It's okay, Joe" (or anything milder), it would have been turned into, "Palin Mocks Biden As Crybaby."

Repeating, one incident, where Hillary talking about the state of the country causes her eyes to well up, is endlessly jaw boned on and yet Biden's now wept in public in Pennysylvania last week and choked up in the debate. At what point do the ones attacking Hillary in January start wondering whether he's fit to hold office?

And at what point does Jesse Jackson Jr. show up screaming, "He never cried over Katrina!"?

Let's all play stupid and pretend like it was "alarming" when Hillary's eyes welled up but it was perfectly understandable for a grown man running to be the vice president to weep onstage at a campaign event and to have to get his emotions under control (visibly) in a televised debate. Candidates have been run off the campaign trail for much less.

Typical, the writer wants to find a way to make Palin the fall guy for Biden's inability to conduct himself in the way that the press says candidates must conduct themselves.

Dumb Ass ends his column with, "But it is clear that he is a man with deep, close to the surface emotions about his children. Which is a good foundation for any politician." I'd say someone emotional about the state of their country might be "a good foundation for any politician." Someone emotional about their children? That's really got nothing to do with the public office he is seeking.

But let's get it straight, if a woman's eyes well up she's lacking, she's not worthy. If a man weeps in public and then again at a debate, it's time for us all to say, "It's just like sitting through The Fisher King all over again!" (For those who've forgotten, the meepies failed at the box office.) And if a male politician is choked up and the female candidate doesn't rush to reassure him, then there's something lacking in her. So for those trying to follow the ever changing double standard, it breaks down as: Woman cries bad; Man cries good; Man cries and woman doesn't comfort him she's bad.

That's twice now in two weeks for Biden.

If he were a woman, they'd be saying she's unable to keep her emotions in check and unfit for office. Bill Moyers would be gas bagging about the "moisty moment" and smugly grinning while he said he didn't know if the moment was sincere or not. And Jesse Jackson Jr. would be screaming his head off about how Joe Biden didn't cry for Katrina (and, needless to say, Jesse would wrongly be stating that Biden cried over his looks).

(The pig is George Harris, for any wondering. I am not calling Joe a pig. McCain's response, should Barack get angry in the next debate, should be, "You're not going to start crying like your running mate, are you?")

In Iraq news, Poland is now officially out. In this morning's New York Times, Sam Dagher offers "Baghdad Thorws a Party, Ignoring Recent Bombings:"


Since Sunday, bombings in busy markets and mosques in Baghdad have killed more than 50 people and badly wounded scores more. On top of that, the country's religious establishment could not even agree on a unified date for the start of Id, which hinges on the sighting of a crescent moon but is subject to certain theological interpretations. Sunnis and some Shiite clergy members declared Tuesday as the start of Id and other Shiite clerics said it was Wednesday, while the most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said it was Thursday.
The government, anticipating the problem, had decreed that the holiday would run from Tuesday to Sunday, and everyone was out in full force on Thursday evening and Friday
[. . .]
Underscoring the fragility of the security arrangements, the U.S. military on Friday completely closed off the main entry point in the concrete barrier that it had erected along Al Quds Street, a barrier intended to seal off the southern quarter of the district and turn it into a haven.
"This checkpoint is closed because of the recent attacks. It will remain closed until the attacks against the security forces cease," was sprayed in black in Arabic on freshly installed concrete slabs.

And the US State Dept's diplomatic push on the treaty masquerading as a SOFA continues with John Bolton's Baghdad arrival yesterday. Dagher wrongly concludes his article with this: "This paves the way for local elections before the end of January in all of Iraq except in the hotly contested northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk." Three provinces in the Kurdistan region will not be participating. The three provinces not included are Arbil Province, Dohuk Province and Sulaimaniyah Province.

Iwana raised the issue of a bad article and I'm carrying that over to Third in the hopes that it will be one of those "short pieces" that Dona's always encouraging.

The following community sites have updated since Friday morning:

Rebecca's Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty's Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
Cedric's Cedric's Big Mix;
Kat's Kat's Korner;
Mike's Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz;
Wally's The Daily Jot;
Trina's Trina's Kitchen;
Ruth's Ruth's Report;
and Marcia's SICKOFITRADLZ


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

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