Login HereThe political heat is ramping up all over the nation's...preschools? This satirical take on political commercials really brings home the juvenile idiocy of so many political campaigns these days, and I could not resist showing it to you guys.
The above "commercial" is actually a response to this initial "attack ad," which also cracked me up. "Give your gold star to Jimmy Jones. He colors inside the lines." Mwahahahahahahahahaha. Hilarious.
I thought we could all use a giggle this morning -- and a bit of a discussion on what we would rather see in terms of political discussion in this nation of ours. And what we can all do to make that happen.
NOTE: I will be on Air America talking with Thom Hartmann today around 1:40-ish 2:00-ish pm ET. (For Jacqrat's sake, I'm repeating this. Now go get your cuppa coffee, hon, and turn on the radio...we'll wait for you.)
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Zed? Christy!!
Can “we” spot the pattern here :
wapo link
Oh dang… this time I read first!
I loved this commercial! We definitely need more preschoolers to run! At least they’re up front about their tantrums!
Cute commercial. But if it were TRULY accurate, someone would need to be pantsed on camera, neh?
Tnx for the new fund drive thermometer on the right! Just shipped you some PayPalBux!
Love
/S.O.S. from MA
Sorry for the bum link :
link
Hey COLORADO BOB all caps, ain’t seen you ’round these parts before. Welcome!
OT, re: Roots Project beta site
If you set up your account and start posting some of your own content to your own blog there, Matt Browner Hamlin and I will be looking daily for original material generated by the community to promote to the front page. You’ll also WIN FREE STUFF.
Well, maybe not, but anyway, it’s next generation Internets that we’re building, and you can be a a part of it. Check it out.
Please also make note of our new fundraising thermometer on the right sidebar of any FDL page.
Thanks for the laugh Christy.
For those close to DC, the Cherry Blossoms are blooming, so come on by. I took an hour off from work yesterday to take a bike ride through the trees. It was awesome. Better get here before the crowds…
Yes, Christy, thanks for the belly laugh! It snowed all over my daffodils yesterday, and I turned on the tv this morning and got an eyeful of Specter makin’ excuses to the Republican Laywers Association. Jeez.
COLORADO BOB @2
My father is a retired Wildlife Biologist who worked 25 plus years working for different state Game & Fish and US Forest Service. He retired early due to his frustration with the increasing sell off of our forests for money which overrode the need to preserve our wilderness areas.
Can’t talk to this wonderful 83 yr old solid gold Democrat about what this administration has done to the very agencies he used to work for without him coming to tears.
Pachacutec @ 8
Just kicked-in $50.75. Great work Pach!!
Those were really cute videos!
“He colors inside the lines!”
LOL
Just wanted to get the news onto this thread:
Today, Waxman wrote a letter to Condi Rice requesting that she testify before the Oversight Committee on April 18th regarding the Administration’s claims that Iraq sought uranium from Niger, White House treatment of classified information, the appointment of Ambassador Jones as “special coordinator” for Iraq, and other subjects.
You can read it here:
house PDF
At least with global warming we in south central Texas don’t have to wait ten or twenty years to get out of drought. I think two weeks ago we were still considered in severe drought. This week the lakes are up to normal, and now with the unexpected and unending T-storms of today and now tomorrow, we are edging over to serious flooding. We had a 500 year flood in ‘98 and one again in ‘02, so we are overdue. ;-)
Sort of an Al-Franken-meets-Pee-Wee-Herman type of ad.
I missed it maybe but is Jimmy’s party the one with Dumbo or Eeyore ?
My question is-who do political ads actually influence? Certainly no one on this site. So what we would like to see is probably the opposite to what will benefit the politicians. They’re trying to reach the masses and didn’t PT Barnum say something about how you do that?
Ah, brilliant. Years ago the Daily show did a skit where one of the correspondents auditioned 5 year olds as potential candidates for president in 2036, and had them do attack ads.
I particularly like the announcer, who has nailed the art of making every word sound like the vilest accusation…
Palast on Meirs’ past practices for the Bush Regime.
eCAHNomics @ 18
I always thought that the point of negative ads was to depress turnout for the opponent more than they piss people off at the person running them. I seem to remember that cynical explanation, at least…
Those are great! But, I must admit I still do have the urge to eat my ballot.
Christy - looking forward to hearing you on Thom’s show. Have a lot of fun. What’s the topic?
EPU - what was the Freudian slip in Rove’s rap?
And noe for somehting almost completely different… Here’s a good Freudian slip for your entertainment: “Sometimes a p*nis is just a p*nis.”
eCAHNomics @ 18
In his recent speech at Troy U, Karl Rove stated loudly and clearly that the American people cannot be mislead or manipulated.
*sigh*
I would like to see an intelligence debate and reasoned action on:
Iraq
Global warming
Energy
Healthcare
Globalization
Tax policy (It’s not just for the very rich.)
The social safety net: Social Security, retirement, fairness, DCFS, etc.
WH briefing with Perino on CSPAN 1
Perino up on cspan now— Hugh’s already on it!Also cspan3 @ 147– 3/26/07 hearing was held on the obligation of the United States to assist Iraqi refugees and those under threat from insurgents because they assisted the United States
c-span
landofthefree @ 22
I hope you slathered it with paste first! :)
Freudian reading - Neil @ 23
I saw “sometimes a punaise is just a punaise.” I think I visit the Lake a bit too much. . .
Key Rove aide fingered in US Attorney investigation to step down; Could face subpoena
I just posted one of those funny political ad satire clips on my blog.
That one sums it up.
.
Gnome de Plume @ 29
I saw “sometimes a punaise is just a punaise.” I think I visit the Lake a bit too much. . .
that’s soooo tacky… :~)
Hugh:
You forgot Iran.
Did anyone ever see one of Michael Moore’s TV shows “The Awful Truth” where he ran a ficus for congress? Moore was annoyed that there was a NJ congressman running unopposed for re-election in 2000, so he literally ran a ficus tree and created ads for it. The “attack ads” and “isn’t ficus wonderful!” ads were terrific. From that, he began the “Ficus for Congress” movement. link
There has been no evidence of wrongdoing…
What a ridiculous claim to make, the investigation has just begun.
Jim Axelrod will not let Dana Perrino characterize this investigation as a show trial.
Perino again going through the laundry list of “how helpful” the WH has been on the attorney firings. Keeps talking about “show trials” before the Congress.
Shorter version: Oversight is a bitch.
Dana– the dems are out of touch, they don’t want to fund the troops, work on energy, etc. They are just interested in show trials.
Dana: the republicans have legitimate questions that they want to ask AG and he will answer them on April 17th.
there ya go.
here’s one for Gnome de Plume
This is sort of cool! I was working a long day yesterday, so didn’t comment after the morning. But I was able to comment at the end of Siun’s thread and at late-late-night fdl, on how important Siun’s coverage of the ambiguity of the Iran-Iraq maritime border is in the north Gulf was.
It turns out that, on this important issue, Siun and fdl beat Justin Raimondo to the punch. Justin’s essay is good and his links go to the sources many fdl commenters also linked to here yesterday. Good job, Siun!
From Alia Malek in Salon today:
Perino on Walter Reed photo op “that’s an unfortunate characterization”
not inaccurate I suppose just unfortunate. Perino talks fast but it’s the same old blah, blah, blah.
*groan* de plume
angie @ 37
I liked the part about how the Ds haven’t done anything.
The President immediately took action on Walter Reed. Of course, the problem had been festering for years right under his nose.
Rove Aide Linked To Abramoff Resigns
Scandal Claims Its First West Wing Job
By Peter Baker and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 7, 2006; Page A01
A top aide to White House strategist Karl Rove resigned yesterday after disclosures that she accepted gifts from and passed information to now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the first official in the West Wing to lose a job in the influence-peddling scandal.
Susan B. Ralston submitted her resignation to avoid causing political damage to President Bush a month before the midterm elections, officials said. “She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at this important time,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino… more
Rove aide resigns
Speaking of Lakes, I am about to put on my wellies and head out to inspect the yard. My fish are probably swimming around the neighborhood.
Neil from epuland
That would make zigging a non-issue
Yes, that would be the main reason for implementing such a feature. It was only today that I realized a side benefit is shorter, more relevant quotes from the post referred to.
FDL techs–please don’t regard Neil’s or my comments on this score as complaints or anything other than very gentle suggestions intended to be entirely constructive. This interface hits the sweet spot of providing both ease of use and essential features–best on the web in my view. Moreover, the current quote implementation is excellent.
Dana Perrino shows more signs of stress today than I ever remember seeing.
Perrino claims the WH is accomodating, as in going further than rquired, as opposed to cooperating which means respecting Congress’ authority to investigate the politicization (corruption) of the DOJ.
Oh Dana just said that there are others who understand the Constitution much better than she does.
Um– that is a problem and was kind of freudian to admit.
yeah, eCAHNomics @ 43– that was quite the zinger.
Pelosi going to Syria. Perino we discourage such trips. Syria is a terrorist state, etc. I don’t know what she is thinking to do there.
Take a step back and think what kind of message it sends. As in diplomacy what’s that?
AZ Matt: THANK YOU!
Who’s going to Syria–I missed the ID.
Hugh @ 50
She’s gonna mess with the Bush agenda of pissing off all the Sunni governments, so that the entire Muslim world will be against the US.
Perino (Is it one r or two?): Pelosi going to Syria rather than working to fund our troops.
Perino: over the top: charges of wrong doing, falsehoods
Waiting for Perino to say W will bomb Iran while stamping his feet if Brits aren’t returned soon.
Raw Story:
check out the picture at the link– pretty young for such a big job– jeepers.
rawstory
Hugh– that was breathtaking wrt Pelosi/Syria.
This is the real front in the War on Terror, not Iraq. If BushCo hadn’t distracted the US from Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda wouldn’t be regrouping there now. From AP:
OT, sort of, but folks, Josh at TPM just caught an LATimes piece that may wellbe a DOJ “voter-fraud fraud” smoking gun…
Here’s the link to the article
link
707! I can’t wait to show these ads to my kindergartener, who in the last week has started asking us to play CDs of the Capitol Steps in the car… hey, it beats the gazillionth repetition of kiddie CDs.
angie @ 56
check out the picture at the link– pretty young.
rawstory
Hugh– that was breathtaking wrt Pelosi/Syria.
Yeah–Stepford wives minus 15 years these appointees.
Perino described the following as a case where Democrats have definetly been “over the top”, which justifies her use of the term “show trials”:
Claims there has been interference in US Attorney public corruption cases where there is no evidence.
Moderated Q&A with David Broder at the WaPo website: link
More on Sara Taylor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Taylor
Hey punaise–did you do last Sunday’s NYT crossword? The title was Oooh! You can guess the theme.
Hugh @ 54
Pelosi 07
Neil @
48
I thought it was a new definition of “accomodating” as in “trying to make disappear down a toilet”. Maybe I need to get the television fixed…
katymine @ 11
I recently talked to a parent of a friend of mine from the neighborhood where I grew up. He spent most of his working career at the National Science Foundation.
You can guess what he said about the NSF under Bush.
As it happens, I got an NSF grant back when I was a junior in High School, to take six weeks of math and computer science classes with other high school kids from around the country (in my case, at SMU…somehow, I thought New Orleans, my other choice, would be too hot in the summer…ha ha ha). It was a terrific experience, and didn’t even cost the government that much.
Merit based grants for high school kids to take six weeks of science and math at universities around the country in the summer of their junior year? Bushies don’t like that.
AG Gonzales has Bush’s full confidence.
Someone asking questions about Saudi support for terrorism. Perino dodges it like crazy.
Perino doing the definition of ‘is’ wrt Gonzo & yesterday’s testimony.
JEP @ 58
JEP’s right. The article details how DOJ’s focus on voter suppression rather than investigating voter rights abuse against minorities
borders onIS criminal.Hugh @ 68
I hope her big girl panties don’t fall off
The “show trials” meme is just weird. Is there anything in this country that has been widely referred to as “show trials” other than the McCarthy hearings? (And the wingnuts think McCarthy was great, so it doesn’t seem like that’s a precedent they would be leaning on to condemn these investigations.) Well, that and Guantanamo.
When I hear “show trials,” I think Stalin. And while I know that one of Rove’s prime techniques is accusing your opponent of secretly doing what you yourself are openly doing, I still can’t see the advantage of bringing such authoritarian into everyday rhetoric.
If you want to evoke the idea of innocent administration officials being targeted because they’re the opposition party (same Rove technique), “witch hunt” seems far more suitable.
I just don’t get it. Any ideas?
jayackroyd @ 47
Absolutely jayackroyd. This site is feature rich and user oriented when it comes to comments. I love it. My suggestions are suggestions that would solve problems raised here by firepups and the mods.
Redshift @ 72
Luntzian
From the same AP link:
Once through the anagram generator, lightly:
DANA PERINO
A DRONE. I NAP.
Perino: Members have a responsibility to the troops to do their jobs. But where is Bush’s responsibility? Poor social and medical services when they come home wounded. Multiple tours, not enough equipment and training, less time between tours, and of course the really big one sticking them in a war that should never have been started and keeping them there for more than 4 years despite a worsening situation and one failed policy after another.
Re: Perino.
Background from wiki. Environmentalists: watch out.
Perino attended the University of Southern Colorado from 1990 to 1994 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and a minor in both political science and Spanish. While attending the university, Perino was very active on the forensics team and with KTSC. From there, Perino attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, Springfield where she also worked as a daily reporter covering the Illinois Capitol for WCIA-TV, a CBS affiliate. She then went on to work in Washington, D.C. for Representative Scott McInnis of Colorado as a staff assistant before serving nearly four years as the press secretary for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO-Retired), who then chaired the House Energy subcommittee.
After Representative Schaefer announced his retirement, Perino moved to England to marry Peter McMahon. After a year in England, Perino and McMahon moved back to the United States and resided in San Diego, California for three years. During that time, Perino worked in the field of high-tech public affairs.
Two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Perino returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice. Several months later, she was asked to join the White House where she now serves as the Director of Communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). By statute, the CEQ oversees the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, where all federal agencies must complete environmental assessments on their activities before they take action.
angie @ 49
Yeah, too bad those people Perino refers to don’t work in GWB’s administration.
JEP @ 58
sorry, that was Paul Keil on Josh Marshall’s TPM site who caught that article and posted it… credit where credit is due…
Hugh @ 50
Maybe she can send a “message” like the Bushies did during the 2000 Camp David peace negotiations. Y’know, just keep a lid on things for a couple of years, and things will get a lot better.
Of course, unlike them, she has actual principles, so she won’t do that. But I suspect they already know that without being told.
FYI folks — The Thom Hartmann interview time has been bumped back a little bit to 2:00-ish pm ET. I updated above, but I didn’t want anyone to be hanging on the radio without knowing what was up. Thanks!
One more and I’ll stop:
DANA PERINO
DO INANE RAP
It is official, Rove’s aide (Sarah Taylor)has resigned.
link
OT: pet owners, and even for all of us who like to eat, check out this frigtening dKos diary about how dry pet food, and perhaps even human food, may be poisonous. The canned food recall apparently didn’t get all of the poisonous cat and dogfood.
JEP at 58 — Hey, that’s the op-ed that I linked up in my first piece today showing the pattern of behavior on that issue. :)
*xyz @ 14
Oh boy, this is brewing to be a showdown.
I hope Big Hank has the video clip of Condi smoking gun is musroom cloud appearance on Pumpkinhead
*xyz @ 84
House Committee requests deposition of former Rove assistant in connection with Abramoff
Elliott at 71 — Funniest comment all day. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
eCAHNomics @ 18
In his recent speech at Troy U, Karl Rove stated loudly and clearly that the American people cannot be mislead or manipulated.
*sigh*
Rove was just misquoted. What he meant was, “the American people cannot be mislead or manipulated as much as he would really like”
[Modnote: If you use bold, please be careful to close it, thanks]
linkMr. Specter: You’re no longer the chairman of this committee:
Elliott @ 71
I hope her big girl panties don’t fall off
I hope they do.
*xyz @ 84
So Rove tosses another body under the bus to insulate himself. Good. He’s getting scared. I like.
*xyz @
84
Well, then, I say, “Sarah Taylor, come on down!“
JEP @ 58
It’s coming out! It’s all starting to dribble out! Finally, it’s coming out.
More drip, drip, drip to come (I hope)
*xyz @ 84
“Barry Jackson, a longtime aide to Karl Rove, also is thought to be leaving soon…. All the departures appear to be more-or-less routine turnover,” reports the Washington Wire.
Ha! Routine
Today’s Danziger cartoon is very appropriate for this thread:
Rove, Rove your boat!
Wonder if she’ll respond this time. What can Waxman do if she just shines him on?
jayackroyd @ 53
She’s gonna mess with the Bush agenda of pissing off all the Sunni governments, so that the entire Muslim world will be against the US.
As if that damage has not all ready been done by our blind support of Israel and an illegal invasion of Iraq!
Great Letter Neil! For us to have any faith in our justice system it seems reaonable for Libby to get as much time as possible for outing a NOC who was protecting our country and putting her own life on the line. Let’s hope that Reggie has enough conscience and integrity to sentence Libby to more time than the people who are doing time for robbing the local gas station. Time that he will not do anyway. What faith we have in our justice system….not much
Niger Documents…Phase II of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence! Please Senator Rockerfeller
Yeah, it’s routine for Karl to toss a body out when the heat gets too close…
OT– for pups concerned with the declining honeybees– house hearing on cspan3.
OT: Cspan3 has a hearing on Bee mortality. This is a raging problem effecting our food chain here in the USA and around the world. Very important!!!. I was shocked, SHOCKED, to even find this on our blessed Cspan. VERY IMPORTANT. lolo
angie @ 101
I haven’t seen one in fifteen years.
angie @ 101
Hahahahahahaha Great minds!!
Elliott at 103 — We still have them in WV, but fewer and fewer each year. But we still have some folks near-ish us who have hives, so that may be why I still see them.
Well played.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 105
How does this relate to the Africanized bees? We’ve had some serious incidents with them out west, and I was wondering if anybody has done a study of how this is interrelated, or are the Africanized bees included in the ones that are dying off. This whole issue has me alarmed!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 105
It’s a crime.
I see bumble bees but no more honeybees.
EPU’d from earlier thread on fear — Here is my favorite piece on that subject:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mindkiller.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its’ path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear from Dune by Frank Herbert
Terry Olson @ 98
Subpeona
Pretty honeybee:
severinghaus JPG
lolo @ 104– it’s pretty amazing that so much information is exchanged here all the time; nothing gets by the folks here. :0
New York Times page A6 “HEADS OF ARAB STATES PROD ISRAEL TO EMBRACE PEACE OFFER” “the initiative offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with the Arab States in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle east war and the creation of a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem”
Imagine that asking Israel to abide by Un resolution 242 and 338!