Today in Pop Culture and Insidious Racism

Freaky truth.

Welcome back to the WTF, readers. Apologies for my absence...I've been sitting at home with a nasty cold.

I hope you all caught the debate last night...it was the first time I watched one on CNN with the "analyst scorecards" and the "squigglies." Let's be real it was kind of more interesting watching the colorful little squigglies than the actual debate. They were basically the only thing that kept me from falling asleep...well, that and the fact that I could only breathe through one tiny channel through the mucus in my right bronchial tube. But mostly the squigglies.


PopHangover sums it up pretty well. And gives you that closer look at the audience you'd secretly been hoping for. Who gets chosen for a presidential town hall meeting? Such classic American archetypes as "Bug-Eye Lady" and "Penis-Head Woman," natch! "Did a Red Lobster "All You Can Eat" buffet just close outside the studio?"

Anyway, the other "interesting" part about watching CNN was chillaxin with the 360 crew led by Silver Fox Anderson Cooper after the debate!!! Seriously, CNN's theory on producing the best debate analysis is obvi to throw as many pundits as possible at it. It was like watching footage of an insane house party, only without music, booze or fun.

Shining Moment:

James Carville calls the election for Obama in the ABSOLUTE MOST SOUTHERN WAY POSSIBLE: "Call the dogs in, wet the fire and leave the house, the hunt's over."

One of the "non-partisan" analysts called the election for Obama, too, but there were like 34,895,697 on the show and I couldn't find another video.

And along those lines, righty Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" appears on the Colbert Report...

And when Colbert asks him what McSame can do to turn the campaign around, he replies, "It's too late."

But I do understand why some of you continue to cling to your cynicism: For one, it sure is hard to believe in the integrity of the electoral process after the disasters of 2000 and 2004.

For two, HOW IN THE LIVING F*CK DID KENLEY NOT GET AUF'ED. Um, for comparison purposes,



Yes, the one on the left is Alexander McQueen's and the one on the right is Kenley's, not that you can really tell the difference. I swear to bob, my brain melted. Project Rungay:

"How the judges could point out that it was a clear take on another designer's dress and then reward her with a win for it just baffles our minds. They could have just said, "Pretty dress but we've seen it before." Instead they said, "We've seen it before. Congratulations!""

And find Michelle Collins at BestWeekEver's reaction here.

And find my reaction here.

Ugh. Anyway. Another reason for understandable cynicism are the BLATANTLY RACIST ATTACKS the McSames have been launching against Obama this week. Can we just talk about this for a second? Because I had to get real pissed at some people over at DailyKos for implying that Quaylin's disgusting comment that Obama would "diminish the prestige of the presidency" was somehow NOT racist. Excuse me? Here's what I said...

It's ridiculous to ignore the racial overtones of these or any of the other comments the wingnuts have been making...

When you talk about racism (or sexism or homophobia, etc, etc) you're talking about the IMPACT of the words and not the INTENT. (Though I absolutely believe these words were INTENDED to incite violent racism, you can disagree and it doesn't change the IMPACT.)

The fact is that when the right attacked Kerry or Clinton or Gore or any white man, they were not playing to the RACIST leanings of their base. Regardless of intention, the IMPACT these words will have is to inspire RACIST fear in the wingnut base.

And McSame and crew KNOW THAT. If you don't believe that the accusations of the past week are bringing out the vilest, most repulsive racism in the republican base, take a look at this video via HuffPo.

Not only are the accusations RACIST, but they are made specifically to ignite RACISM in voters in a disgusting last-ditch attempt to sway the poll numbers.

Needless to say, these things piss me the f*ck off. Please don't let your friends and family believe that the McSame camp is innocent of inspiring revolting hate and bigotry in their followers. Seriously, if you watched that video, I wish you luck sleeping tonight...

Speaking of desperate and pathetic racially charged fear-mongering from the McSame campaign, hear what the African-American grad student at this week's town hall debate had to say about McSame's assumption that he'd never heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

You'll notice I haven't really spent any time talking about the "Obama is buddies with Bill Ayers" ish that all the pundits seem to love, if only for it's utter redonkulousity. That's about 90% because it's obvi not even worth my time and 10% because I was a little sad to find out that Obama did not, in fact, pal around with members of the old Weather Underground. But now is not the time to rant about direct action...Instead, I'd like to focus on the effects - or lack thereof - of McSame's latest ploy. Not least of all because everything is going exactly as I predicted.

davidkc at DailyKos brings us news of scathing anti-McSame columns in several Florida newspapers.

But on the cynicism front, perhaps we should all hear the wisdom of Kos.

BTW, if we could talk about Project Runway for just one more second, I feel the same way about saying goodbye to Miss Jerell as Wisit from Top Design feels about saying goodbye to Wisit.

Again, I'm not actually addressing the Obama-Ayers accusations...merely using this news to point out that as of 4:41pm today, McSame still doesn't get it.

Let talk about FiveThirtyEight for a second. First off, Nate Silver (operator of FiveThirtyEight) appeared on the Colbert Report on Monday night, so check that out.

Next, let's give Nate the shout out for telling us oh, I don't know, a MONTH ago what CNN is just now getting around to reporting.

And then head on over to FiveThirtyEight and take a good, long, lascivious look at those numbers. Obama's chances of winning? 90.7%. Chance of an Obama landslide? An unprecedented 36.74%.

And go ahead and savor Nate's report on how West Virginia is now seriously in play. (CNN reports on that circa November 4th, 6pm.)

By now you may all have seen Tom Friedman's column tearing Quaylin limb from limb (since it's the NYTimes' most emailed article), but it's worth a repost.

In other news, all the other NYT columnists said something disparaging about McSame and/or Quaylin, too.

Aaaand Michelle Collins at BestWeekEver calls the election for Obama. I think.

And finally, in Oh Hell Yes: The Alaskan Supreme Court won't allow the Quaylins to hold off Troopergate investigations any longer. It's gonna be a fun 26 days.

Until tomorrow. Help.

PS - Charlie, if you're reading this my facebook has been down for more than a week now but I keep wanting to tell you how hysterical it is that there's a gay boy named Charlie on Survivor!!! ZOMGLOLZ!!! Now get Obama elected! Miss you!