The first and probably last, Fox News Clip I will ever post. Juan Williams reax to Michelle Obama’s Speech

cannot. stop. laughing.

Jonathan Alter takes a closer look at the unhinging McCain campaign and strategy in this week’s Newsweek. It’s a pretty good little article. Main point being:

Victory for McCain would hardly prove redemptive. “You can’t govern winning this way,” Weaver says. “We’ve seen that after the last two elections.” And defeat would leave John McCain feeling more than the usual depression, wondering why he mortgaged his precious personal honor just to trade up to the White House.

About a month or 2 ago something switched in the McCain Campaign and in McCain himself. I noticed a growing pattern of negative attacks, unforced errors and just-plain-false claims. Selfishly I though, oh man, I should be making a list for the blog — but who has time for that?

The more unglued McCain comes, the more fascinating, if sad, the whole thing is to watch. McCain’s public missteps a growing in number faster than Britney, Paris and Lindsey’s combined.  Sure some are honest mistakes that anyone would be caught making were they on camera 20 hours a day - but several more are, to me anyway, indicative of inherent flaws in the candidate. Off the top of my head, I can remember:

• Bashful and Embarrassed: Is it really ok for the OLDEST potential leader of the America to squirm like a 13 year old boy at the mention of Birth Control?
• Painfully Unfunny: Killing Iranians is Fun! So is bombing them!
• Geographically Confused: Maybe he should spend a week in a 7th grade Geography class. At recess he and the other boys can giggle about birth control.
• Just Plain Wrong on the Sunni Awakening and Surge timeline: I don’t even have anything funny to say here, this is just simple facts on his self-proclaimed strength. Maybe its age or exhaustion or maybe he really didn’t know. But none of those reasons should be acceptable - for as the president he would be older and busier — and going into that with a basic misunderstanding of the facts is just scary (not to mention Bushian).

I could go on and on with these. And the list is even longer with the gripes I have about some his campaign staff, surrogates, television commercials, advance work and strategy. As an Obama supporter, I should be happy with all of these mistakes and gaffes (and part of me is) - but as an American, who thought the idea of a McCain/Obama general would mean a lot of interesting debate and discussions - I am shocked and a bit disappointed by the derailment of the Straight Talk Express…

I have been gone for the last week and a half (ahhhh) - so, sorry for the lag in posts. I will sort of catch up on all of Big Brother after tonight’s episode!

I have never been much of a fan of Paris, but this is hilarious!

As a tribute to my new favorite TV show Mad Men (watch it!!) - check out these old print ads. There are several worth seeing here. This was my favorite though:

The body copy reads:

How soon is too soon? Not soon enough. Laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during that early formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance and “fitting in” during those awkward pre-teen and teen years. So, do yourself a favor. Do your child a favor. Start them on a strict regimen of sodas and other sugary carbonated beverages right now, for a lifetime of guaranteed happiness.

Ahhhh Mazing.

Campaigning is a dirty, double-speaking business. This from First Read today:

The surge revisited: Republicans, meanwhile, have jumped all over Obama’s response to ABC’s Terry Moran, who asked the Illinois senator yesterday whether he would support the surge if he had to do it all over again. Obama answered no. “Well, these kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20-20,” he said. “But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is at that time we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush Administration … was one that I just disagreed with and one that I continue to disagree — which is to look narrowly at Iraq and not focus on these broader issues.” But ask yourself this: Wouldn’t Republicans be jumping all over Obama for flip-flopping had he answered that he now backs the surge? (And isn’t this the same kind of question as asking McCain if he regrets voting for the Iraq war, which he still stands by.) Of course, as we mentioned yesterday, Republicans want to redirect the narrative back to the surge (which tends to benefit McCain) versus withdrawal (which tends to help Obama).

But…its been a GOOD week for Obamaland!!

Thomas Friedman’s column today is fantastic. It covers the Energy Crisis and sheds some light on just how inept George Bush is at handling…well…anything. Friedman explains that by lifting the ban on off-shore drilling (as Bush did last week) you are essentially feeding America’s addiction to oil - rather than creating solutions to minimize the need. He couldn’t put things more clearly than this:

When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up. His problem is what that crack addiction is doing to his whole body. The cure is not cheaper crack, which would only perpetuate the addiction and all the problems it is creating. The cure is to break the addiction.

Read the whole column. Be Sad. Then go VOTE in November.

On the upside - since you can’t afford to go on vacation this summer - you can go see The Dark Knight over and over. You won’t be disappointed.

As we left off last week, Jessie had just won HOH. I should boycott this week’s shows.

Ollie Ray says that his relationship with April was more important than the agreement that he made with Brian. I bet his father is so proud.

Libra is sitting really pretty now. She is pulling the strings and remaining under the radar.

Everyone is so mean to Renny. Even Jerry. She is ridiculous, no doubt, but I sort of feel sorry for her.

Any one else sort of loving Keesha?

Smitty looks absurd with that handle bar moustache. Can I please close out my tab?

Jessie’s HOH Room - gives him a platform to talk about himself and his muscles. They should have covered the entire room with mirrors.

So the Nerd Herd surfaces. Jessie, Ollie Ray, Smitty, Libra, April and Michelle. I hate all of them. They discuss who to nominate. Jessie REALLY wants to put Renny up (because he is petty, immature and bad at the game) but it seems like the others convince him otherwise. Basically they have a 4 people to choose from - Dan, Steven, Angie and Renny.

Jerry talks about his wife, who has Parkinson’s. He is a door bell. I don’t think he is intentionally playing a sympathy card, but it is certainly working.

Dan (the Republican Catholic) talks to Steven about being gay. I love this show - educating people one conservative at a time. Dan listens and learns. Good boy.

Angie talks to Jessie - and he blames her for trying to keep Brian. Fine, whatever. Childish, arrogant prick. For some reason he is starting to remind me of a more annoying Rob Van Winkle (yea that’s Vanilla Ice kidz). Not sure why. Just an equal level of disdain from me.

Keesha and Steven discuss their dogs. Keesha is sad, Steven says they might be dead. After he says, they have probably forgotten about us. Awesome.

Food Competition: Stop Your Wine-ing

Red Team: Jerry, April, Libra, Keesha, Renny and Smitty
Green Team: Jessie, Ollie Ray, Angie, Michelle, Dan and Steven

It rules are about 19 pages long, so I stop listening. Whichever team fills their wine bottles the most, wins. A few observations:

Dan is really good - he really shouldn’t be underestimated in this game. He is trustworthy and physical. And he seems smart.

April is retarded.

Ollie Ray says that he was trying to focus on not getting any wine in his mouth. For fear of becoming of an alcoholic. First of all - really dude? And Secondly, do the producers REALLY think that we believe that this was actually wine? Come On.

Renny does really well. And I am sure she will get no credit. Oops, as soon as I say that, Keesha compliments her. LOVE Keesha.

Michelle continues to do very well in competitions. She is someone to watch.

The Green Team wins.

Libra and April start bickering. I love every second of it.

Dan tries to get Jessie alone in the HOH room. Using the poo diversion again. It doesn’t work. The diversion that is.

Smitty opens up to Libra and April about losing his dad and getting his heart broken. And talks about his new girlfriend and how much he loves her. It’s pretty boring. If this is the cream of the crop footage that they are using for the CBS broadcasts - we are in for a snoozy season. I already miss Brian and his puppet shows.

Dan finally gets his chance to talk to Jessie. The boys talk about “their word” again. I roll my eyes.

Nominations:

Jessie nominates Dan and Steven. He sort of attacks Steven for being disrespectful. So, that’s Renny and now Steven that, for some reason unknown to me, must respect the cocky, annoying, self-important 22 year old. Right, sure, fine, ok. I can’t wait for this week to end.

Steven calls him a tool 11 times in 2 sentences.

In the confessional, Jessie says that Dan is safe - Steven is the real target. But a lot can change in a few days.

In the final seconds of the episode, Jessie flexes into the confessional camera and growls. Then says that “you can’t even get all 18 inches of that in the camera” - talking about his arm. Words cannot express my loathing for this kid.