We’ve already noted the overt visual similarities between John McCain and Saul Tigh, but this weekend’s All-Sarah-Palin-All-The-Time Media Circus caused several observant bloggers (whose names/URLs I’ve unfortunately Cmd+W’d and thus are lost to the ether) to note a not dissimilar look between Laura Roslin and Sarah Palin. This, of course, forced me to roll out my Pixelmator and craft the following:
And yes, I’ve made shirts available for those so inclined.
(In the interests of full disclosure, after creating the above image, I noted that others appear to be thinking in the same general manner as I.)
Think A Happy Thought
I’ve made no bones about my general dislike for John “Maverick” McCain nor my sore disappointment at his ascendancy to the GOP presidential ticket. However, I believe that I have found my Peter-Pan-flying-happy-thought/Harry-Potter-produce-a-patronus-thought concept that will allow me to pull the lever for McCain this November.
Well, to be truthful, it’s two thoughts.
First off, there’s the specter of Nuremberg-style tribunals for Bush administration officials:
I think the thing to emphasize here is that this is a serious conversation going on among people who might have influential voices or play influential roles in an Obama administration. Many of them want to put John Yoo — a special favorite of theirs — on trial, whether before a Nuremberg-style tribunal, a criminal court, or a truth commission with as-yet unspecified powers. And, of course, they wouldn’t stop with Yoo; if they had their way, they would likely have a long list of former Bush administration officials to put in the dock. They are serious.
Second, there are the efforts of groups like Accountable America:
Nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country will probably receive a foreboding “warning†letter in the mail next week.
The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual new outside political group on the left that is poised to engage in hardball tactics to prevent similar groups on the right from getting off the ground this fall.
Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.
“We want to stop the Swift Boating before it gets off the ground,†said Mr. Matzzie, who described his effort as “going for the jugular.â€
The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.
The group is also hoping to be able to respond if an outside conservative group broadcasts a television advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama, or another Democratic candidate, by running commercials exposing the donors behind the advertisements.
This sort of behavior is disgusting and, frankly, beyond the pale. Undertaking actions that essentially threaten to blackmail potential donors to opposing causes and turning political decisions by the other party into potentially criminal matters are enough to convince me that, despite my reservations about Johnny Mac, we simply cannot afford to have hyperpartisans like that anywhere near the reigns of power. I simply see no other viable alternative.
Vide-O-Rama
Posting has been sparse — I’ve been busy, busy, busy at Ye Olde Shoppe Of Employment[e] and engaging in family-related matters and thus have had precious little time for blog-related silliness.
I haven’t been so busy as to miss out on some of the excellent entertainment the Internet is known to (occasionally) yield, so please sit back and enjoy the fruits of my “hard” “labor”.
What’s that? You say you want a Samsung commercial thinly disguised as a viral video of 10 awesome optical illusions? Then have I got the video for you!
Good advice for the Democrats from a totally disinterested party, John McCain:Continue reading “Vide-O-Rama”
“We’ve Replaced His John McCain With Some Fred Thompson. Let’s See If He Notices.”
So I have my problems with the Honorable Gentleman from Arizona — amnesty, Gang of 14, class warfare rhetoric in opposing Bush’s tax cuts, Gitmo idiocy, that execrable McCain-Feingold, etc. — but something strange is afoot. See, I somehow got onto his direct email list and some rather funny things have been slipping through the past few days, such as a little ditty on Tax Day that included the following:
I believe today, as I have always believed, in small government, fiscal discipline and low taxes. I believe that tax cuts work best when accompanied by lower spending. And I make the promise to you that if elected president, I plan to make the present tax cuts permanent, lower corporate rates from 35% to 25% and end the Alternative Minimum Tax, which will affect millions of middle class families.
Then I got this beauty this morning:
My Friends,
This week, I laid out an economic plan aimed at providing immediate and long-term relief for all American families. One of the key components of this plan is a suspension of the federal gas tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year.
The effect of this “gas tax holiday” will be an immediate economic stimulus – taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time you fill up. And because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging and just about everything else, this immediate step will spread economic relief to every family in America.
Both of these proposals are remarkably similar to policies that (my original choice for Pres.) Fred! D. Thompson was talking up, back before his implosion. Seems I’m not the only one thinking that way, either.
So who replaced my cranky candidate with a shiny happy person, anyways?
Continue reading ““We’ve Replaced His John McCain With Some Fred Thompson. Let’s See If He Notices.””
Other April TomFoolery
John McCain’s campaign gets into the act:
BBC has a go:
Lala and Dr. Tiki (of Tiki Bar TV fame) play on gawkers’ Lala fanbois’/Internet voyeuers’ desires:
That’s Just About The Size Of It
On my commute home this evening, I noted a car ahead of me bearing a very well-worn Fred Thompson 2008 campaign sticker in the lower-left of their rear window. Tucked in next to the Fred! sticker was a far shinier, far newer Mitt Romney 2008 sticker. Now, if only the owner would post a “Soul-Crushing Sense of Defeat and Resignation to at Least 4 Years of Statist Government, Regardless of Party 2008” sticker next to the Romney bit, they’d pretty much have my progression through this wretched race nailed. Heck, I may just try to sell some of those myself on Zazzle. Might sell as well as the McCain ’08 Hold Your Nose Plugs.
Thompson Giuliani Romney Or Bust.
I’ve continuously bemoaned John McCain’s frontrunner status in the GOP primary race and have held forth with friends and family as to just what bothers me about Ol’ Straight-Talkin’ John. Rather than repeat myself, though, I’ll let Mark Levin’s editorial at NRO do my talking for me.
Let’s get the largely unspoken part of this out the way first. McCain is an intemperate, stubborn individual, much like Hillary Clinton. These are not good qualities to have in a president. As I watched him last night, I could see his personal contempt for Mitt Romney roiling under the surface. And why? Because Romney ran campaign ads that challenged McCain’s record? Is this the first campaign in which an opponent has run ads questioning another candidate’s record? That’s par for the course. To the best of my knowledge, Romney’s ads have not been personal. He has not even mentioned the Keating-Five to counter McCain’s cheap shots. But the same cannot be said of McCain’s comments about Romney.
Last night McCain, who is the putative frontrunner, resorted to a barrage of personal assaults on Romney that reflect more on the man making them than the target of the attacks. McCain now has a habit of describing Romney as a “manager for profit†and someone who has “laid-off†people, implying that Romney is both unpatriotic and uncaring. Moreover, he complains that Romney is using his “millions†or “fortune†to underwrite his campaign. This is a crass appeal to class warfare. McCain is extremely wealthy through marriage. Romney has never denigrated McCain for his wealth or the manner in which he acquired it. Evidently Romney’s character doesn’t let him to cross certain boundaries of decorum and decency, but McCain’s does. And what of managing for profit? When did free enterprise become evil? This is liberal pablum which, once again, could have been uttered by Hillary Clinton.
He finishes:
Let’s face it, none of the candidates are perfect. They never are. But McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates. The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney. I say this as someone who has not been an active Romney supporter. If conservatives don’t unite behind Romney at this stage, and become vocal in their support for him, then they will get McCain as their Republican nominee and probably a Democrat president. And in either case, we will have a deeply flawed president.
Go ye and read the whole thing. Then try not to get depressed.
I’m Unsure As To The Cultural Significance Of Any Of This (Or: Obama Is A Cylon)
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Please note that we’re proudly running WordPress, despite Prof. Reynolds’ unkind words about it. *grin* (Surviving the Instalanche thanks entirely to Donncha’s excellent WP Super Cache plugin)
Aron and I have long noted that Battlestar Galactica‘s Colonel Tigh (played by Michael Hogan) bears a more-than-striking resemblance to one Senator John McCain, an observation evidently shared by others (click the pic above to see the full image). However, we were unprepared for the sheer BSG-related brilliance a slip of the tongue could unleash.
Evidently, Aron’s wife inadvertently let current events slip into her speech the other night and, in referring to Edward James Olmos’ character, called him “Admiral Obama”. Aron shared this with me the next day and we had a good laugh over the prospects for a BSG-themed campaign.
And then he went and did something, well, brilliant:
(Click the picture for full-size.)
That’s right, he gimped Obama and Clinton into the BSG continuum, with Barack as Lee Adama and Hillary as Starbuck. The disturbing mental Lee-Starbuck smooching visions this conjures up should likely be avoided by most thinking adults, as they are quite difficult to shake, I assure you, but the humor value far outweighs the risks in my opinion. [NOTE: Some seem to be under the misapprehension that the above picture is actually one of Obama and Clinton “smooching” — not so. Clicking the link only takes you to the full-sized version, I assure you. -ed.]
Now we just need to get Jeff Harrell to update his t-shirt design to read “Obama is a Cylon” and the circle shall be complete.
PS: I hereby declare myself the Official Google Winner for the first recorded electronic use of the phrase “Obama Is A Cylon“.
*grin*
PPS: Non-watermarked version available upon request.
UPDATE 2:
Here’s the rendering of the GOP that Aron gimp’d, back when this was still fresh and there was more than TighMcCain standing in the Republican field:
Click the image to see the embiggened source.
Ouch. Very Ouch, Baby.
Tammy Bruce really let John McCain have it today. From “John McCain Thinks Americans Are French”:
Let me be blunt. McCain is a self-serving, opportunistic pig. He, like other open-borders, Americans-Are-Lazy politicians, is a man who has grown soft and fat and elitist in Washington, DC, and has developed an obvious contempt for the average working American. Not only does he not deserve to even think about being president, he should not be in the U.S. senate. He is an example of the opportunistic narcissists in Washington whose only concern is their own career as they do whatever they think it’ll take to advance themselves.
Wowsers. Read the whole thing, and then contact the good Senator’s office and see if he’s in any need of Bactine to assist in recovery from such a vicious tongue-lashing.