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Meltdown

Obama meltdown

There are few things in all the world I enjoy more than watching someone come completely unstrung in public. If that makes me a bad person…well, duh. What part of “weasel” was unclear to you?

I am frankly amazed at how prickly and snippy Obama is about Sarah Palin, and with what little provocation. I sincerely thought he was a better politician than this. Any political adviser worth a damn knows that you don’t let your Number One scrap with their Number Two, so he’s apparently off the leash and winging it. Bad for him, an all-you-can eat buffet of delightful schadenfreude for me.

I know. The graphic doesn’t make a lick of sense in black and white. Click it to download a color version — and steal, my pretties! Steal like the wind!

Comments


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: September 9, 2008, 11:45 am

I don’t think I’ve enjoyed politics so much since George Bush won his second term. (I totally went to bed expecting Kerry to win.)

This is delicious!

Oh, and I totally want Obama’s campaign to fail in the worst way possible. I detest him.

(I was going to say “crash and burn”, but considering my ethnicity I didn’t want the Secret Service to start monitoring me. Which they may already doing anyway.)

(Hey, Secret Service/FBI/ICE/whatev: call me! I wanna work for you! I can speak languages! You don’t even have to pay me a lot!)


Comment from Secret Service
Time: September 9, 2008, 11:52 am

We’re already monitoring you “Muslihoon”.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:08 pm

And to think, two weeks ago I was completely down in the dumps about this election.

I know this has come up before, Musli, but I don’t remember the answer…why DON’T you work in government? Seems to me, we badly need what you have to offer. (And I’ll vouch for you — that has to count for something).


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:14 pm

I knew the melt was coming after he picked Joe. All that hype, oooo, oooo, I’m gonna get a text message from O!

3AM… “it’s Joe Biden” Bwahahahaha. I did love that. Nothing like building up your supporters hopes and then giving them the old leg sweep. It still tickles me when I think about it.

Hope! Change! Joe 🙂


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:21 pm

The dimmest, wheeziest old hack on Capitol Hill. Oh, that was delightful. But I still didn’t let me get my hopes up; I was sure McCain was going to poke me in the squishy bits by doing something infuriatingly mavericky. Instead of the delightfully mavericky thing he actually did.

I expected him to make a surprise pick, but you know who I was bracing for? Lindsay Fucking Graham. McCain had been sending Lieberman and Graham out everywhere as his ambassadors, and everybody was on the Lieberman track. Graham would have been a perfect McCain surprise maneuver. I mean, the old McCain. The one I hated with a white-hot passion.

I hate me some Lindsay Graham.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:24 pm

Actually, I have applied. Numerous times. Turned down those times I actually hear back.

Languages, while I have a skill, is problematic because I have no demonstrable credentials. “I taught myself” is not acceptable.

And there are background issus. Many of these (particularly a foreign wife and foreign in-laws, which now don’t apply since I’m divorced) have been resolved.

Truth be told, the government is a little suspcious of “ethnics”. They’ve been burned too many times by turncoats and double agents. They’d trust me to go to Europe or Russia or South America, but sending me to any Muslim area or South Asian area would be risky for them.

I keep trying. I also plan to take more classes to get some professional or acceptable credentials to prove my language skills. And there are various ways to help the government without actually being employed by it.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:27 pm

I thought I’d remembered that you’d tried, Musli. Keep trying; it’s a good fit.


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 12:54 pm

Oh yeah, I half expected him to pick Graham. The VP debates would have been so exciting, snore.

You know, I hope they keep going and start to believe their own press about Palin: she’s just a know nothing redneck. That swift kick in the teeth that he gets will be hilarious.

You know the Joe pick was just another example of the alien thing. To them, he is Super Foreign Policy Man and us mouth breathers don’t know anything about him or the subject.


Comment from memomachine
Time: September 9, 2008, 1:11 pm

Hmmmm.

I for one have found this election cycle the most entertaining thing imaginable. No matter how weird, strange, crazy or insane it is, it gets even more so.

At this point if it were a movie it’d be a political equivalent of a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World with Jackie Gleason fighting for the best lines.


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 9, 2008, 1:23 pm

Now that graphic would make a great bumper sticker of which I would buy. Nah…strike that, I don’t put stickers on my car. A t-shirt I would wear.
You could start making some money here weasel.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 1:51 pm

I never put a GOP bumpersticker on my car; I don’t want some tolerant liberal keying it.

I wish, PnB. Something like Cafe Press is so overpriced, I’d want to offer them for cost. And dealing with the printing and distribution yourself is a nightmare. I get the impression Ace lost his shirt (ha, ha) when he tried t-shirts.

There’s not an entrepreneurial bone in my body. Sorry, Uncle B. I’ll do the dishes.


Comment from Jill
Time: September 9, 2008, 1:57 pm

C’mon, Sweasie…you can do much better than this dreck at Zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/politics/tl-john_mccain

Have you ever investigated Zazzle as an alternative to Cafe Press?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 2:09 pm

I have, actually. They looked like a much better deal. Very little of my artwork is sized appropriately for t-shirt work, but I’ll give away my .psd files to anyone who wants to give it a shot.

Among other things, Jill, I’m in kind of a weird position with my visa. I can’t work or look for work between the time I officially apply for my fiancee visa (please god, very soon) and when we’ve…done that legal thing. They are incredibly strict on this point (one poor girl was put back onto a plane to the states after Heathrow immigration officers read her diary(!) and discovered she’d been talking to people in the UK about a job in the future).

I’ve talked to an immigration advisor about the fact that I have clients in the UK that I’ve worked with for years doing website development, and she opined it would be safer not to for a while. Governments are pretty retarded about the internet still.

So I’ve tried not to do anything online, especially with web sites, that might even LOOK like an ongoing source of employment once I hit Badgerland. Of course, once I’ve got my visas all squared away, look out! I’m going to ream you poor bastards to within an inch of your miserable lives.

I said that last sentence out loud, didn’t I?


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 9, 2008, 2:49 pm

It’s my understanding that the Big O called a press conference this morning. Thirty miles away Palin/McCain set up a box/podium and Obama’s media circus started leaving to go cover Palin/McCain. (tell me if that was misinformation, please – I hate misinformation)

Now that has to sting like nettles and turpentine on a papercut.


Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: September 9, 2008, 2:50 pm

I remember some guy on the intertubes – who seemed to know what he was talking about, or at least made a convincing case of lying – saying that Secret Service are mainly recruited from the US Navy EOD, Musli. Not sure how being able to diffuse a bomb makes you better at jumping in front of someone and catching a bullet with your guts, but there you have it.


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:09 pm

Gibby – I can only suspect that the complete ability to put thoughts of your impending demise out of the picture as you perform your duty is a key criteria.

They would have to be unflappable, is my guess.


Comment from Jill
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:16 pm

Aww, Swease…I dint unnnerstan’.

(pours you a nice tall Grey Goose)


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:16 pm

A former EOD buddy of mine sent me a pretty funny picture. I found a link to it.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militaryhumor/l/blcaptions7.htm

I just ‘membered something. If an EOD tech thinks you’re a little off do you have to worry?


Comment from JuliaM
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:42 pm

Best quote from a UK blog (Freeborn John) on the changes Sarah Palin’s selection hath wrought:

“The big change is that now the Republicans are having fun. The Dems aren’t.”

If it keeps up, I may seriously consider staying up and watching the voting on TV. 😉


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: September 9, 2008, 3:43 pm

I never put a GOP bumper sticker on my car; I don’t want some tolerant liberal keying it.

Same here. Closest I got was putting a Fred bumper sticker. Because he’s quite benign (compared to McCain, GOP, or now Palin).

Plus, I don’t want to go to family functions, have someone see a bumper sticker, and then go off on me.

Or be afraid to drive through certain neighborhoods where Republicans are not tolerated.

Strangely enough, I had a nice, prominent yaa ‘ali (يا علي) (“yaa Ali” means “O Ali!”)sticker on my car. This was during my I-love-Shiism phase; this also made my car very easy to find. I had to scrape it off when Mom began to make noise about it. I wouldn’t mind doing something so obscure like that again.

Problem is that my Sunni relatives and family would not look kindly on something that could be construed as Shiite. When asked, I’d explain that Hazrat Ali bin Abi Talib was an admirable man, and I put it on to make my car easier to find. I made a point not to mention Ali’s name too often, though. Because I was reading Shiite sites and books, and studying Shiism, I began to instinctively add عليه السلام (alayhissalaam in Arabic, Urdu, and Persian, meaning “upon him be peace”) after his name. Shiites say that. Sunnis say رضي الله عنه (raDiyyullahu ‘anhu in Arabic, raziallah anhu in Urdu/Persian, meaning “the pleasure of Allah be upon him”) instead. And so if I said AS instead of RA, it becomes blatantly obvious I’m not following the Sunni line and thought about him, making me a heretic if not an apostate.

How’s that for a non sequitur?


Comment from Secret Service
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:12 pm

***Puts priority red flag on case file marked “Muslihoon”***


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:12 pm

Heh. That’s some cultural tightrope you have to walk, Musli.

For years — since the Clinton era, obviously — I had an NRA bumpersticker that read “My president is Charlton Heston.” I kept it after Bush became president and after Charlton stepped down because, by god, my president WAS Charlton Heston! I miss that bumper sticker.

I also had one that said “things haven’t been the same since that house fell on my sister.” Uncle B sent me that one. I’ve never really understood it, because a house didn’t fall on my sister.

What do they say? Two bumperstickers is an opinion, three is a nutcase?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:16 pm

Em, Your Weaselness, I can explain what the house-fell-on-my-sister sticker meant. But I daren’t.


Comment from Enas Yorl
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:21 pm

I’ve never really understood it, because a house didn’t fall on my sister.

Right. Go on – pull the other one now. You’ve seen The Wizard of Oz how many times but didn’t get the reference?


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:31 pm

Egads, Musli. Here I’ve always felt bad that I didn’t understand enough about the issues, and now I see that to have expectations like that (of understanding all the issues) are totally unrealistic. I imagine that growing up immersed in the culture is much easier than outside looking in. From my perspective it sure sounds like it’s easy to piss *someone* off.

And now, much like the color version of the Flying Fang-Brain, I have this insatiable need to figure out what houses and sisters have to do with bumper stickers.


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:35 pm

LK, think Wizard of Oz.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:45 pm

UB<————– whistling


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 4:50 pm

Whistling…. Right past the graveyard.


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 9, 2008, 5:44 pm

I never saw Wizard of Oz so it’s not the first thing that pops into mind. Sorry.

🙂


Comment from wendyworn
Time: September 9, 2008, 5:48 pm

Musli,

At the moment, the higher offices of the government require that you have sold your soul to Satan. You are a really nice guy so they probably can’t use you. On the other hand, if I’m wrong and you have sold your soul to Satan, you might try putting that on your resume.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 5:59 pm

Never saw WoO? What are you, some kind of commie, LK?

Heh:

y banana taste funy

I think I would’ve gone with “rong” over “funy” but still. Oh, I know, I know…but when they’re funy, I don’t mind.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: September 9, 2008, 6:25 pm

I was thinking that a better caption for that one would be “Hey, Obama. You dropped your corncob”…..

Think about it…..


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 9, 2008, 6:27 pm

(at home now)

Gee, Weas… you cut me real deep there. How could you even in jest compare me to a commie. Ow. Ow, just kick me in the nuts and stab me through the heart, it’s kinder.

I know. I know. Haven’t see Wiz of Oz, Casablanca, or Psycho. You gotta remember, I am partially deaf so w/o captions, TV doesn’t hold a whole lot of attraction. It’s only since CC that I have been able to watch movies without saying “What did they say?” I can read lips but even the best lip reader misses things. By the time I had CC WoO just didn’t have that appeal.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 6:43 pm

Wizard of Oz is still my favorite movie of all time. When I was very little, I thought it was a religious movie. Word. Dorothy gets conked on the head, goes to “Oz”…when she gets back, they tell her “we thought we were going to lose you.” I was certain Oz was where you went when you died. Also, they ran it at Easter every year. Remember?

I used to watch it religiously, too. Every year. Once I got it on DVD, I had to stop. All you have to do is tune up the overture, and I begin to howl like an infant.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 6:45 pm

Oh. And I meant to say…movies and TV shows are one thing, LK. But the thing that *really* sucks about a hearing deficit is the way it totally fucks cartoons. And puppets. No lip-reading that shit, sucka.


Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: September 9, 2008, 6:56 pm

I love Oz, though the book is much better, but hate Casablanca. Not a single likable character in that show.

Actually, Weas, what really ticks me off is that (with the exception of Dr. Horrible) Hulu doesn’t offer captions. Pretty much all of my shows are on Hulu, but what good does it do me?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 9, 2008, 7:19 pm

I didn’t realize that about Hulu. I lumme some Hulu. Once everything is on demand, I shall be a happy weasel. Captions would be nice, though. If experience and family history is any guide, my hearing will not outlast me.

The Oz books are…different. REALLY different (as are the Mary Poppins books). In both cases, I’m happier when I think of them as *totally* different works of fiction. From the movies, I mean.


Comment from Pupster
Time: September 9, 2008, 7:27 pm

Allen,
I love that EOD picture. Gonna steal.


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 7:49 pm

Pupster, my buddy gave me an EOD t-shirt. On the back it says: “If you see me running try to keep up.”


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 9, 2008, 9:33 pm

Oooo…I loved WoO as a kid. For a time they played it around Easter, but then they moved it around Halloween. I used to think it would be so cool if one could get knocked on the head and have such an adventure. The husband said the witch and the monkeys terrified him, so he didn’t care for it. Same way with the daughter. I could NOT let her watch it when she was a bitty mite. She had quite the imagination and would get her some night terrors.

Loved Mary Poppins, the book, mightily. I think I read it a gazillion times.

Two movies, I liked better than WoO, were ‘The Ten Commandments’ (Heston being the best part), and ‘Meet Me in St.Louis’. Add the Marx Bros. flicks as a close seconds.
What is really great, is that my kids LOVE them too. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.


Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: September 9, 2008, 9:34 pm

Yeah, Mary Poppins the book is totally different from, and imo better than, the movie.

*gets an idea for a blogpost*


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 9, 2008, 10:10 pm

Weas, the worst thing in the world as a kid would be asked to go see a play. I dreaded those. The trade is that I have a quiet world, and that is nice, too. Excepting the part about not being able to hear songbirds.

But the thing that *really* sucks about a hearing deficit is the way it totally fucks cartoons. And puppets. No lip-reading

If you can believe it, Pixar is so good at modeling/animation that you actually can read some things. I was amazed that I was actually able to follow some stuff. Sully in Monsters Inc… wow.

My peeve? That they don’t offer captions at the bottom of the screen in movie theaters. It isn’t hard to do. (They even do it for some games!) And, my wife says that there are a lot of times she can’t catch words and she’s got normal hearing.


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 9, 2008, 10:13 pm

Oh, yes… pnb, I have to add “The Lion in Winter” with Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Timothy Dalton, Anthony Hopkins… For that movie I pestered my best friend silly until he said back the whole movie for me, a line at a time. What a movie!


Comment from Allen
Time: September 9, 2008, 11:34 pm

Oooo, more movies, also one of my favs, “Zulu” with Michael Caine.

Pull ’em down you Zulu Warriors,
Pull ’em down you Zulu Chiefs,
Kali, zumba, zumba. zumba,
Kali, zumba, zumba, zay.

Hey, it wasn’t my idea. That’s what happens when you get attached to a Brit Army unit. Royal Green Jackets. I can’t believe I said that. What the hell it’s a flushback, ya know where the old crap backs up.


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 9, 2008, 11:55 pm

Caine. There’s a guy that will never be replaced. “The Man Who Would Be King” or “Deathtrap”. I saw Zulu so long ago I’m fuzzy as to exact events. Here again, at that time I was catching 3 in 10 words so the mind kind of fills stuff in as you go – sometimes right sometimes wrong.


Comment from Allen
Time: September 10, 2008, 12:05 am

LK, “The Man Who Would be King” oh man. Caine, Connery, and Kipling. Lummee, some Kipling.


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 10, 2008, 1:05 am

Now here’s one that is way opposite that, but did you see “Secondhand Lions”?

It was fun to just turn the brain off for a while. And Caine and Duvall worked well together.


Comment from LemurKing
Time: September 10, 2008, 1:42 am

Halloooo? Damn, I’m the last one up again. I need to get a life.


Comment from Fennec
Time: September 10, 2008, 3:24 am

I never put a GOP bumper sticker on my car; I don’t want some tolerant liberal keying it.

I wanted one of those snazzy “NOBAMA” stickers for my car, but since I live near the People’s Republic of Portland, I figured it was an insanely bad idea.

However, since my car is aging, I was thinking a good PALIN sticker in the window might be OK. Anyone know of any good sites to buy Palin sticks? I’ve been searching for one that says PALIN in big letters, with McCain as an afterthought. 🙂

*contemplates* I do have a new Xyron sticker maker. Weasel, you mind me making one out of one of your nifty images? 🙂


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 10, 2008, 4:12 am

Sorry, LK. I’m on the morning shift. Somebody else will have to keep you company in the wee hours.

What the sam hill is a Xyron sticker maker, Fennec, and what kind of art does it eat?


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: September 10, 2008, 4:34 am

Add me to the list of The Man Who Would Be King fans. And I agree with Mrs Lemur King. I have reasonably good hearing but the quality of sound recording in Hollywood is sometimes so poor these days that (especially when trying to translate from United Statesian in realtime) I can have problems with the dialogue, too. I imagine it must work the same way with our stuff when it’s shown in the USA?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 10, 2008, 5:57 am

Between accents and colloquialisms, I find about 30% of your television completely unintelligible, Uncle B. Also, you allow European genitals on television after midnight, which is distressing.


Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: September 10, 2008, 7:52 am

Fawlty Towers in particular would be extremely difficult for an American to follow without captioning, even for hearing people.

The Lion in Winter and Secondhand Lions are both f’n awesome, though in totally different ways.

LK, I typically make up my own dialogue to go along with the plot, which I can figure out based on events and body language. Thing is, my dialogue is usually way better than the actual dialogue, so I often underestimate how bad a movie is. Gladiator is a good example. My dialogue was awesome, but the actual dialogue put me to sleep when I saw it later with captioning.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 10, 2008, 8:06 am

I do okay with TV, Mrs P. And fairly okay with radio. You know, you take the whole thing in its entirety and you can usually work things out after the fact.

The fatally difficult thing is telephonage. Cell phones and Skype in particular, because they lose bits of data. Uncle B has a lovely, clear speaking voice, but I just can’t make it out a scary percentage of the time.

Uncle B doesn’t seem to have quite the same problems, but I may have some small degree of hearing deficit. I had a lot of ear infections as a kid. I’d have it tested, but what’s the point?


Pingback from Book/Movie Adaptations « Mrs. Peel’s Words of Wisdom
Time: September 10, 2008, 11:02 am

[…] « A study of differences Book/Movie Adaptations 10 September 2008 The Weas mentioned that for Oz and Mary Poppins, the books are so totally different from the movies that it’s […]


Comment from Lemur King
Time: September 10, 2008, 11:52 am

Thank you, Uncle B! Someone else who recognizes that there are two languages where there used to be one. Queen’s English and American English.

Mrs. Peel – I will try to take a diary/log of “Things I have misheard that sound really bad but are quite innocent.”

Top of my head I could have sworn the wife said “(our son) is gay and he came out of the closet”. Actually he had a rough day and could not get out of the closed closet. That’s not even a good example but you get the idea.

Thing to point out to you going-deef folks out there – the new hearing aids are amazingly good. They can help you pick out voices and discriminate out a lot of environmental noise. And they no longer hiss and pick up wind noise the way they used to. It’s there but not nearly as bad. They also chop off sudden loud noises so you aren’t skewered through the brain.

A good audiologist can tell you what the point would be, Weas. I came home with the new hearing aids and sat and listened to water dripping in the sink. Cruel Wife said “What ARE you doing?” Me: “You hear this sort of thing all the time? This is so COOL.” and later – “When did we get all the frogs outside? Geez they are loud.”


Comment from porknbean
Time: September 10, 2008, 12:27 pm

I’m searching out an audiologist myself. My ears ring ALL of the time and I mishear many things. Certain low tones, I just cannot make out.
It doesn’t help when the family talks to me with their backs turned. It doesn’t help all of the loud ‘white’ noise at work either. I come home after work with my ears ringing even louder.
But you know what bugs me more than that? I had to finally get some reading glasses last year. I can still read without them, but can’t clip my pig’s toenails without. I would hate to hurt their little toes.


Comment from removeCCNfromyourlife
Time: September 13, 2008, 5:46 am

After I put a NOBAMANATION sticker on my car, people asked for more. Got 20 more. Down to three.
Own my car and it is a POS.
I would key it myself, but the rust is too thick.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 13, 2008, 5:50 am

Okay, I have to ask. What’s CCN?

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