Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

Yeah Morbs calls for Tarantino to be executed on the regular, but I don't think he's a fanatic . . . Wait, hang on, let me think about this

he definitely not religious

Romney has already managed once again to come out on both sides of the issue of the movie, btw: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/14/so-romney-agrees-with-the-u-s-embassy-in-egypt/

Mitt Romney: Well, I haven’t seen the film.  I don’t intend to see it.  I, you know, I think it’s dispiriting sometimes to see some of the awful things people say.  And the idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out in a negative way is simply inappropriate and wrong.  And I wish people wouldn’t do it.  Of course, we have a First Amendment.  And under the First Amendment, people are allowed to do what they feel they want to do.  They have the right to do that, but it’s not right to do things that are of the nature of what was done by, apparently this film.

George Stephanopoulos: We’ve seen General Martin Dempsey call Pastor Jones to say, “Please don’t promote this film.” You think that’s a good idea?

Romney: I think the whole film is a terrible idea.  I think him making it, promoting it, showing it is disrespectful to people of other faiths.  I don’t think that should happen.  I think people should have the common courtesy and judgment – the good judgment – not to be, not to offend other peoples’ faiths.  It’s a very bad thing, I think, this guy’s doing.

that seems like a reasonable take, expressed idiotically. he condemns the filmmaker and film, but makes the important caveat that free speech protects such things.

Voltaire he is not

Yes, but the point is that it's pretty much exactly what the embassy in Egypt said

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

a statement which Romney's already publicly condemned.

yeah isnt that exactly what the embassy tweet said?

xpost

embassy needs a blog

guys: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-strikes-down-wis-law-limiting-union-rights-214923391.html

oh hell yes

Romney has already managed once again to come out on both sides of the issue of the movie, btw: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/14/so-romney-agrees-with-the-u-s-embassy-in-egypt/

Mitt Romney: Well, I haven’t seen the film. I don’t intend to see it. I, you know, I think it’s dispiriting sometimes to see some of the awful things people say. And the idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out in a negative way is simply inappropriate and wrong. And I wish people wouldn’t do it. Of course, we have a First Amendment. And under the First Amendment, people are allowed to do what they feel they want to do. They have the right to do that, but it’s not right to do things that are of the nature of what was done by, apparently this film.

George Stephanopoulos: We’ve seen General Martin Dempsey call Pastor Jones to say, “Please don’t promote this film.” You think that’s a good idea?

Romney: I think the whole film is a terrible idea. I think him making it, promoting it, showing it is disrespectful to people of other faiths. I don’t think that should happen. I think people should have the common courtesy and judgment – the good judgment – not to be, not to offend other peoples’ faiths. It’s a very bad thing, I think, this guy’s doing.

― a shark with a rippling six pack (Phil D.), Friday, September 14, 2012 6:48 PM (36 minutes ago)

romney pretty much otm?

Yes, but the point is that it's pretty much exactly what the embassy in Egypt said

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

a statement which Romney's already publicly condemned.

― a shark with a rippling six pack (Phil D.), Friday, September 14, 2012 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so messing around w/ princeton.edu's electoral map i realized that Obama could lose FL, VA, IA, WI AND NH and still get to 270 - assuming he gets OH, CO & NV. Willard should probably just stop wasting everyone's time.

assuming/godwilling the math for mitt is still bad in a month, what is there to fall back on? i mean in terms of like, for mccain, surrogate groups resuscitating the reverend wright ads, &c. i assume there's some desperate dog whistle thing that mitt would have on standby but i can't think what it is.

racism?

theyve been pushing welfare flimflam hard for a the last month, thats abt as dog whistley as you can get, second guessing a lie abt the obamas response to the lybian consolate attack, bringing paul ryan on board, romney camps been in full panic mode fora while now

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish campaign ineptitude from campaign panic mode.

In this case maybe it's both?

But despite all those flaws and problems, the Republicans still have Fox News, nonstop ads from Karl Rove and others, and their talk radio army with Rush and others, who can reach undecided voters who don't pay attention to the mainstream media and blogs and forums

there are barely any undecided voters, but they're not people who are listening to rush limbaugh etc.

The Republicans could run an empty cereal box and still get 43% of the vote. That's a pretty good base to work from.

I'm having a conversation with a couple of black friends on fb about the racial component of the Van Duzer bear hug. I thought the hug itself was a little disrespectful, though Van Duzer seems like an okay guy by all accounts. However, they're reading a racial component into it that dates back for generations rooted in silly white superstitions about rubbing black baby's heads for good luck and so on. I can see how this is connected to that.

I think the caveat here is that this is campaign season, and Obama's staff probably thought "Amazing photo op!" If it had been last year or next year, Van Duzer would've gotten a firm "What the fuck are you thinking? No!"

the problem is their empty cereal box still has to say all kindsa crazy shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l2J61379sEs

d'oh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2J61379sEs&feature=plcp

That's a few weeks old. Had ZERO traction afaict.

It's a shame, it's just a shame, that some people are too lazy to go that last 5%...

(I know the zing is that they're using slave labour, but the rest of that video has been capitalism's post-No Logo get-out, that even slave labour improves the local conditions, if only we could give them more jobs we would be the true heroes here)

assuming/godwilling the math for mitt is still bad in a month, what is there to fall back on?

Hoping that the debates involve putting Barack Obama in front of a mike and his numbers going down, despite all historical precedent.

Or, waiting for him to say anything that you can whip up into some bullshit and put on tv 24 hours a day in five key states.

*mic

Well, yes.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/15/santorum-smart-people-will-never-be-on-our-side/

Without the church and the family, there is no conservative movement, there is no basic values of America there is no basic values of America there is no basic values of America there is no basic values of America there is no basic values of America.

Known unknowns etc.

Mitt Romney’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Campaign.

However, they're reading a racial component into it that dates back for generations rooted in silly white superstitions about rubbing black baby's heads for good luck and so on. I can see how this is connected to that.

what connection do you see?

acting all silly when you meet a celebrity (potus or not) is a far cry from some antiquated ritual of rubbing a baby's head for luck.

how come no one ever hugged Taft like that

http://911review.org/humor/shrubrub/0001.jpg
http://911review.org/humor/shrubrub/skull.jpg
http://911review.org/humor/shrubrub/readn.JPG

I realized as I posted those that they all come from a URL entitled 911review.org/humor.

The Twins used to rub Kirby Puckett's head for luck:

http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11708871

I've watched the Van Duzer clip a few times, and even though I can see where JF's Facebook friends would take notice of something like that, I think the guy was just tremendously excited.

http://static.flickr.com/97/247882094_e666b03ed8.jpg

what connection do you see?

I can see how they would see it.

I think Van Duzer was just excited, yeah, though it apparently wasn't as spontaneous as everyone's letting on (he ran it by Secret Service or staff first, but POTUS didn't know). I think maybe a Prez deserves a little more formality than being bear hugged, but I don't personally think there was a racial component to it.

http://imgc.artprintimages.com/images/art-print/paul-schutzer-vice-president-richard-m-nixon-receiving-a-hug-from-an-indian-woman_i-G-27-2704-IVFND00Z.jpg

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-U1370194.jpg?size=67&uid=b7f736e3-3431-4c87-96c6-7e45f6c058b7

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2TlYFeEdT2XJ0-mPvgeEaIkBn8zeuqgPe06HX5pD3Nv_S8WWG6A5-Y-UFXg

Morbs calls for Tarantino to be executed on the regular, but I don't think he's a fanatic

T gets commuted for making 3 good films in the '90s. Let's talk Apat*w.

he definitely not religious

come to church w/ me sometime.

http://www.shamelessmag.com/media/content/2008/10/obama-hug.jpg

do you like hugs? feel like we got so much in common now, right about now baby

presidents get hugged all the time--this guy was a little over-enthusiastic & a Republican, but the fact that he cleared it with SS shows that he wasn't trying to disrespect. this is where i give the f up on humans figuring each other out

Yeah, people hug presidents all the time. I know, but I kind of want to be sympathetic to her perception of it:

"there's a tiny bit more going on than just "picking up the president" that rankles, and i'm reluctant to mention it. but beyond the basic disrespect of PICKING UP THE PRESIDENT, whether or not it's campaign season, there's a racial aspect. seeing this story reminded me of my mother telling me how she refused to let people rub my head when i was an infant. apparently, rubbing a black baby's head was considered good luck in some circles. we're not magical beings, we're not children, we're not the stump on the apollo theater stage, we're people. and this particular person is the president of the united states. show some goddamn respect."

Maybe if we'd already had a few black presidents or if Obama had asked to be picked up, it would be different. I dunno. It was just something I hadn't thought about at all until I saw several people agreeing that it struck them as shady.

deserves no more respect than any other President especially if he kills innocents in drone strikes

cynicism + respect in all the rong places