Pat Buchanan spent a little time grasping at other straws before finally going there, and feeling how silly they all were, he finally settled on “it must be because he’s black.” Yeah, he actually went there. Sigh.
Someone tell me again how the Republicans are a 21st Century party? That they’re not interested in fostering discord just for the sake of political gains? That McCain/Palin somehow represents something different from the Republican party we’ve been dealing with for the past 8 or 25 years? That these people could possibly bring us a positive change of pace?
Hey, Pat! Do you want something to distract everyone from the totally awesome Powell endorsement? How about questions about McCain’s health on the front page of the The New York Times on Monday?
UPDATE: go here (and then there’s Joe).
9:00pm — It’s the first night of the new Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC!*
*And don’t let them de-dyke you, Rachel! We love you just the way you are — always the smartest one in the room and dancing circles around Pat Buchanan! 
While we here at Chez 10K have been distracted by the TV (for weeks, really — first by the Olympics and then by the Democratic and Republican conventions, respectively), the creative among us have been churning out the videos. Here’s a sampling:
Here are a various few links for a Friday afternoon…
- 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World
- 30 Creepiest Trees on Earth
- A brilliant and hilarious parody from Jimmy Kimmel.
- If you’ve been reading here for long, you know I loves me some Rachel Maddow — she’s smart, very quick, witty, and I love the way she can make Pat Buchanan turn a helpless shade of purple when they appear together as talking heads. I’d love to see her get a show on the teevee. Maybe the time is near? She is at the top of the list.
Or did it never really go out of style?
“I’m not saying all Republicans are racist, sexist homophobes. Just the people they elect into office to represent them.”
— David Cross
The quote is via Pensito Review and Garnet Donkey. Today Daily Kos, AmericaBlog, Pensito Review, among many others, all wonder about bigotry’s resurgence among conservatives, while Steve Benen gives us an updated list (which leaves off Katherine Harris’s most recent deranged rantings):
I think it’s safe to say the last two weeks have been less than kind when it comes to conservatives and race relations.
* Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) "macaca" scandal.
* Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) joked about how a "nice little Guatemalan man" fixing up his house might be an illegal immigrant.
* A leading congressional candidate in Florida said he knows, "from my own experience, that blacks are not the greatest swimmers, and may not even know how to swim."
* Two congressional candidates and a gubernatorial candidate believe people who "appear" to be Arab or Muslim should be subjected to racial profiling at airports.
* Pat Buchanan’s new book argues for "an immediate moratorium on all immigration," in order to preserve the dominance of the white race in America.
And in one you may not have heard about, a Baptist church in Mississippi voted out a 12-year-old boy who "asked Jesus to live in his heart" — because the child is biracial and church members didn’t want the black side of his family attending with him.
And these are just from the last two weeks.
–Guest Post by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report
I’m sorry for all you Republicans out there — I know some of you are very nice, but you really need to start hanging with a better class of people.
They’ve been looking kinda sketchy for a while, but now it’s official: Target is evil. Apparently their employees can refuse to wait on a customer for just about any kooky reason they can come up with. (If you happen to work at Target, I suggest you start refusing to sell fertility aids to religious fanatics because you have a moral problem with children being raised in hateful, intolerant familes.)
Bush is finally being exposed as the lying weasel that he is.
Immigration Pat thinks Bush is ruining the GOP. I think it goes much further than that. Dubya is ruining this country and is putting the entire world at risk — he’s screwing up the economy, environment, creating a breeding ground for terrorists, and failing to take the necessary steps to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of fanatics and nutjobs.
Get out your protest kit! Cheney will be at UTK tomorrow! Shudder.
Paul Krugman talks about health care coverage.
Bill O’Reilly has really gone off the deep end.
And Frank Rich asks what everyone’s been wondering: where does Dubya get off claiming that we don’t torture when his VP was, at that very time, trying to make sure that US government will continue to support our policy of torture?!? Sheesh — it’s starting to look like these guys aren’t even trying to pretend they’re not evil anymore.
Does Bill Frist still suffer from the delusion that he has a shot at the presidency?!? Gak. Give it up, Bill. Time to go home. We’ll find something for you to do. Maybe you can restart your practice and diagnose more people you’ve never even met!
And finally: yet another reason to love John Cusask.
Chilling stuff from rescue workers via BOING BOING.
Wikipedia is tracking the details.
Katrina news links from hamdems.
And on othe lighter side of the news (maybe that last one should be in here):
From Andrew Sullivan, former log cabin republican (this is just an excerpt — you really must read the whole thing here):
I CANNOT SUPPORT HIM IN NOVEMBER: I will add one thing more. And that is the personal sadness I feel that this president who praises freedom wishes to take it away from a whole group of Americans who might otherwise support many parts of his agenda. To see the second family tableau with one family member missing because of her sexual orientation pains me to the core. And the president made it clear that discriminating against gay people, keeping them from full civic dignity and equality, is now a core value for him and his party. The opposite is a core value for me. Some things you can trade away. Some things you can compromise on. Some things you can give any politician a pass on. But there are other values - of basic human dignity and equality - that cannot be sacrificed without losing your integrity itself. That’s why, despite my deep admiration for some of what this president has done to defeat terror, and my affection for him as a human being, I cannot support his candidacy. Not only would I be abandoning the small government conservatism I hold dear, and the hope of freedom at home as well as abroad, I would be betraying the people I love. And that I won’t do.
From South Knox Bubba (see complete article here):
Tonight’s message was that true compassionate government and safety nets are obsolete. It seems Bush and the GOP are ready to leave behind the past, including the Constitution, Americas position of respect around the world, and now the less fortunate among us.
Amy Sullivan weighs in with:
By far, the biggest cheers and ovations came when Bush denounced gay marriage (I couldn’t see Cheney from where I was sitting…any television shots of him applauding that line?) and after several of the jingoistic, We-don’t-answer-to-no-one statements. The folks around us were whooping and hollering at those, and starting “U.S.A.” chants whenever they got the chance. I had a flashback to sitting in the middle of the football stadium at Penn State for a Michigan away game a few years ago–it’s a little frightening to be that outnumbered by a rather rabid crowd.
And so, quite possibly the most meanspirited convention in recent memory ended. I realize that 1992 is well-remembered for Buchanan’s disturbing speech, but what exactly were people expecting from Pat Buchanan? The hateful rhetoric this time around was launched by the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney and Dennis Hastert. These are the supposedly mild guys who are supposed to make the party palatable to independents, but apparently they didn’t get the party memo because they were all too busy overcompensating for their moderate leanings. I honestly don’t think it would have been any worse to have actual rightwingers like DeLay behind the podium.
William Saletan writes:
This was a speech all about what Bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president.
Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven’t happened. So, he’s trying to go back in time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years ago. He can’t show you the things he promised, so he asks you to envision them. He asks you to be “optimistic.” He asks you to have faith.
Sorry, Dubya. No can do.
