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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type
#10000209 - 03/19/09 11:00 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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GT's Comment: The points raised by the author put into perspective the Palin-esque things Obama has done as president. What would have happened if Palin was VP?
Palinphobes and the audacity of type By Noemie Emery Examiner Columnist | 3/17/09 9:40 PM - DC Examiner
Now that the Obama presidency is nearing the 60-day mark, it’s time to thank those fastidious scribes on the left and the right who worked so hard to warn us against Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and the dire things that would surely occur if she ever got close to executive power.
How right they were to insist that she was unfit for high office. Let’s just imagine what she might have done: As president, she might have caused the stock market to plunge over 2,000 points in the six weeks after she assumed office, left important posts in the Treasury unfilled for two months, been described by insiders as ‘overwhelmed’ by the office, and then gone on to diss the British Prime Minister on his first state visit, giving him, as one head of state to another, a set of DVDs plucked from the aisles of Wal Mart, a tasteful gift, even if they can’t be played on a TV in Britain. (Note, the Prime Minister, who is losing his eyesight, may even be blind in one eye). As vice president, she might have told Katie Couric that when the stock market crashed in 1929, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on TV to reassure a terrified nation. Or on her first trip abroad as Secretary of State, she might have, as the AP reported, “raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe...when she mispronounced her “EU counterparts names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe’s,” then gave the Russian minister a gag “reset” button, on which the word “reset” was translated incorrectly. What a good thing that Palin, whom Christopher Buckley called “an embarrassment, and a dangerous one,” wasn’t in office to cause such debacles, and that we have Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton instead. “This is not a leader, this is a follower,” wrote ex-Reagan muse Peggy Noonan. “She follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine...she doesn’t seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.” Huh? While indulging in prose such as this, the Palinphobes didn’t seem to understand the implications of Palin’s record as governor, which they appear to never have looked at, while obsessing over her life in Alaska (too rural), her children (too many), and her exploits as a huntress (too much). This is the flip side of their refusal to be disturbed by the fact that Obama had no record to speak of, as long as he looked like a Gap or Vogue model, and could write and could talk up a storm. A Gap or Vogue model would never disgrace you, and besides, he was there. “You’re camping, and you wake up one morning and there is a mountain,” as David Brooks put it. “The next morning, there is a mountain...Obama is just the mountain. He is just there.” Braced by rationales such as this, the literati flocked to Obama, while denouncing Palin as appealing to the party’s least logical members and wing. Call the Palinphobes lacking in logic and they will have tantrums, but this time the sandal might fit. This is the Audacity of Type, a faith-based illusion if ever there was one, the belief that qualities shared by and appealing to pundits and writers - glibness, a worldly patina, and a superficial verbal facility - are those needed to run a great nation in a troubled and dangerous era. But which is more rational, to place limited trust in a proven reformer, who can learn certain facts she does not know already, or to breathe fictional traits into an unknown quantity, who has never run anything, or ever done much besides talk? “Having a first class temperament and first class intellect, President Obama will...surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit.” Buckley wrote last October. Surely he will. Obama may be there, but your 401k isn’t. Buckley and Brooks are now feeling queasy, while Noonan and friends are taking to Xanax. “The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread,” she reported last Friday. “People feel ‘unled, overwhelmed.”’ But at least, we now have sophisticates running the country, not a moose-hunting ditz from Alaska. God knows what might happen then.
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Edited by green_titan (03/19/09 12:04 PM)
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Phred
Fred's son
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10000593 - 03/19/09 12:01 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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The thing is, in order for Palin to have been VP, John McCain necessarily would have had to be president. So the question is, would McCain have fucked things up as badly as Obama has?
I don't see how he possibly could have. For one thing, Hillary wouldn't be SecState. For another, I can't see McCain ever putting a tax cheat in charge of the Treasury. And earmarks were of course a McCain crusade since... well, since forever. So no earmarks in the Generational Theft Act (assuming there would even have been one in the first place) nor in the 410 billion omnibus "last year's business" spending bill.
On the other hand, McCain has said he believes in Global Warming, so he might have eventually got around to trying to push some kind of Cap and Trade scheme at some point down the road. I can't see it being as stupid as Obama's version, but there's no way to know for sure. McCain is also notoriously soft on illegal immigration, so we would probably see at some point another push for amnesty.
On balance, the US would be far better off had McCain won, but we'd still have stuff to bitch about.
Phred
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Gastronomicus
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10000676 - 03/19/09 12:14 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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From the first paragraph:
Quote:
As president, she might have caused the stock market to plunge over 2,000 points in the six weeks after she assumed office, left important posts in the Treasury unfilled for two months
Well first of all kids, I don't know if you've been taught how wall street works but the President does not have some high and mighty power to make it go anywhere. The market fluctuates as per the current economic situation, which if you've been paying attention at all, has been going downhill well before Obama ever took office. Additionally, these crucial posts in the Treasury department would have been filled, but they were repeatedly blocked by congress. You'll have to do better then this asinine article, though I'm sure Phred will eat it right up.
-------------------- Make my Funk the P Funk, I wants to get Funked up LAGM2024
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Gastronomicus]
#10000714 - 03/19/09 12:19 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Well first of all kids, I don't know if you've been taught how wall street works but the President does not have some high and mighty power to make it go anywhere.
Tell that to the author of the post immediately before yours.
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Phred
Fred's son
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Gastronomicus]
#10000716 - 03/19/09 12:19 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Additionally, these crucial posts in the Treasury department would have been filled, but they were repeatedly blocked by congress.
Gonna have to call you on that one, broham. Congress hasn't even been called on to get involved yet, because every one of the very few candidates who has even been put forward has either withdrawn on their own or has failed to pass Obama's own vetting requirements.
If you are going to claim otherwise, you had better provide a credible source to support you.
Phred
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
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Loc: UK
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Redstorm]
#10000738 - 03/19/09 12:24 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I can't believe Obama gave the prime minister of England a box set of DVDs.
Quote:
Barack Obama, the leader of the world's richest country, gave the Prime Minister a box set of 25 classic American films - a gift about as exciting as a pair of socks.
Mr Brown is not thought to be a film buff, and his reaction to the box set is unknown. But it didn't really compare to the thoughtful presents he had brought along with him. Marking the special relationship: The Browns put a lot of thought into their gifts for the Obamas - but the gesture did not seem to be reciprocated
Marking the special relationship: The Browns put a lot of thought into their gifts for the Obamas - but the gesture did not seem to be reciprocated
The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.
The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.
Mr Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.
In addition, Mr Brown and his wife showered gifts on the Obama children giving Sasha and Malia an outfit each from Topshop and six children's books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America.
In return, the Obamas gave the Browns two models of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, to take home to sons Fraser and John.
Bush gave him a fur trimmed bomber jacket
EDIT: Source: Daily Mail
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Edited by green_titan (03/19/09 01:02 PM)
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10000749 - 03/19/09 12:27 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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He should have at least given him a Blu ray set.
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Phred
Fred's son
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10000750 - 03/19/09 12:27 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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green titan, cut and pastes require a link to their source per the forum rules. Please provide one for your latest post.
Phred
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Gastronomicus]
#10000873 - 03/19/09 12:45 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Gastronomicus said: From the first paragraph:
Well first of all kids, I don't know if you've been taught how wall street works but the President does not have some high and mighty power to make it go anywhere.
No he doesn't. If he did he probably would have made it go up a little. What power he does have is to scare the living shit out of anybody who might think about investing in the market. This he has done admirably.Quote:
The market fluctuates as per the current economic situation, which if you've been paying attention at all, has been going downhill well before Obama ever took office.
The market mostly fluctuates on perception and expectations of the future, not simply the current condition. NOT what is but what investors think will be. Quote:
Additionally, these crucial posts in the Treasury department would have been filled, but they were repeatedly blocked by congress.
Phred has mostly addressed this by saying you lie. But further, Obullshit's party owns Congress. Or did you sleep through that class?Quote:
You'll have to do better then this asinine article, though I'm sure Phred will eat it right up.
I'm not the least bit interested in being told I don't understand the market by the likes of fantasists such as yourself. You know less than nothing about it.
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zappaisgod]
#10000929 - 03/19/09 12:52 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Stock cycles also fluctuate due to bubbles popping and business cycles turning. I'm sure you're well aware of that, though.
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zappaisgod
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Redstorm]
#10002016 - 03/19/09 03:21 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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It is all about perception. The bubbles burst because the perception changes.
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zouden
Neuroscientist
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zappaisgod]
#10002021 - 03/19/09 03:22 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Phred has mostly addressed this by saying you lie. But further, Obullshit's party owns Congress. Or did you sleep through that class?
So how would that be different if McCain was president?
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zouden]
#10002055 - 03/19/09 03:26 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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He might well have actually paid attention to the job at hand and nominated non tax evader nominees. You do realize that is in reference to Ofuck's failure to staff Treasury, right? And the assertion that Ostupid's nominees have been blocked by Congress? Because they haven't been.
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zouden
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zappaisgod]
#10002087 - 03/19/09 03:31 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Oh yeah I get it now. Wayyyy to early in the morning for me
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zappaisgod]
#10002090 - 03/19/09 03:31 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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The good thing about the tax-evasion scandal.... It shows people that, believe it or not, tax evasion is a crime.
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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Phred
Fred's son
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10002379 - 03/19/09 04:21 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Confirmed: Obama's Thoughtful, Historically-Rich Gift of a Blockbuster Video Val-U-Pak Doesn't Even Fucking Work in England —Ace
As long suspected -- though no one in the American media would dare to ask. They didn't even cover the story, so of course they wouldn't want to make it even more embarrassing.
Yes, indeed, Super-Diplomatic Ultra-Charming Globe-Trotting Mega-Sophisticate forgot that American-coded DVD's won't work in British DVD players:
Quote:
Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem. The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.
A Downing Street spokesman said he was "confident" that any gift Obama gave Brown would have been "well thought through," but referred me to the White House for assistance on the "technical aspects".
A White House spokesman sniggered when I put the story to him and he was still looking into the matter when my deadline came last night.
Yes, it's a sniggering matter, no doubt.
Gee, which White House spokesman routinely sniggers and giggles at every fucking question put to him?
I have no idea who it could have possibly been. But let's just say he's the Gibbs who keeps on gibbing.
Chris Matthews' Spin? If Matthews mentions this (which of course he won't), perhaps he can argue this is Barack Obama's thoughtful, diplomatic way of saying, "You're so important to me I'm trying to force you to spend at least 50 more hours visiting in America."
By the Way: For those idiot liberals arguing this is no big deal...
Really? Not a big deal?
Then why did the PM's office leak this embarrassing detail and call to complain?
If they weren't pissed, they'd have let it slide.
They didn't. Their own diplomacy is sending the signal, loud and clear, that We are not amused.
Is it too much to ask that Obama get the most basic, simple diplomacy right?
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Phred sez: Apparently, it is.
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zouden
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Phred]
#10002406 - 03/19/09 04:26 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But it's pretty fucking embarrassing. Especially when considering what Brown gave him.
Obama better make up for it next time. I dunno, give a piece of the original liberty bell or something.
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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fireworks_god
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Phred]
#10002479 - 03/19/09 04:37 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Phred said: On balance, the US would be far better off had McCain won, but we'd still have stuff to bitch about.
I'm actually starting to think this quite well would have been the case...
-------------------- If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: zouden]
#10002489 - 03/19/09 04:38 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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He should commission a bust of Winston Churchill to give to them, a world war I or II relic, or something... not an afterthought of a gift.
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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Seuss
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Re: A gift for Phred: Palinphobes and the audacity of type [Re: Green_T]
#10002734 - 03/19/09 05:24 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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> He should commission a bust of Winston Churchill to give to them, a world war I or II relic, or something...
He could show some real heart and embed a hidden teleprompter in it as well.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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