The turkey pardoning ceremony is an inherently silly ritual of politics, and this would be funny even if it wasn't Palin. But the fact that it is Palin makes it ROTFL.
Watch as she gives the interview right in front of the guy feeding turkeys into the head chopper. MSNBC was showing a censored version; this is unedited.
The second funniest clip involving turkeys ever. This is the funniest.
Three times since the Civil War — most recently, with George W. Bush in 2000 — it has awarded the presidency to the loser of the popular vote. The president should be the candidate who wins the votes of the most Americans.
A neat graph of demographic vote shifts this year.
R U gay? No, R U? Prince is now homophobic, which is really funny considering how many times I got called "faggot" for playing his music in 1983. Almost as annoying: A search for a quick punchline informs me that Prince aggressively bans his videos on YouTube and they're only on AOL and preceded by ads. So no link love.
I'm keeping the beret anyway.
Help me out here, readers. In the post-election lull, I'm in a retrospective, regrouping, greatest hits mood. Note the minor layout changes. I also tried to upgrade the very dusty blogroll, but Blogrolling.com seems to be out of order. Having listened to Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series disks of outtakes, I'm a firm believer in the idea that writers are often the worst judges of their own best work.
So I turn to you the readers, with a little trepidation, Last time I left a major decision up to you I got stuck with a pink hat. But I'll ask you again anyway, so help me choose the Best Of. Email me or comment me.
I'll take requests for the music player too. I know it's very MySpacey, but it's very Deeth too.
Republican dream come true? Nah. The Senate seat. As of Sunday Barack is officially unemployed (my Republican readers can insert their own punchlines) or at best a self-employed freelance writer like me.
All sorts of intrigue has long been underway in the special world that is Illinois Democratic politics. Jesse Jackson Jr. wants it bad; I get an email about every day from his list making the case.
In New Hampshire, a GOP county treasurer gets knocked off by a college kid whose campaign consisted of 1) the D after her name and 2) $50 worth of Facebook ads. The incumbent showed lots of class:
The current county treasurer, Carol Elliott, 68, called Ms. Sievers, 20, a “teenybopper” in an interview with a local newspaper, The Valley News, and said she had won only because “brainwashed college kids” had voted for the Democratic ticket.
Two weeks ago we would have killed for a one on one sitdown with Sarah Palin. But now, while she tries really hard not to drool over that Senate seat that Ted Stevens' felony conviction and inexplicable, possible re-election win will open up, she keeps talkin' an' talkin' an' talkin'...
Ms. Palin directed most of her media criticism at liberal bloggers, whom she twice called, “those bloggers in their parents’ basement just talkin’ garbage.”
You know you want to see it again:
For the record, I blog upstairs, and I shower and do laundry in the basement. Though I bet the wifi would reach.
A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos Tuesday morning after political analyst Michael Barone said "“The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby."
As for other 2012 players besides Palin, Ambinder notes:
By bankrolling opposition to same-sex marriage in California, the LDS church has earned some serious cred in social conservative circles.
And the Prop 8 protesters -- those who are now protesting the church -- are only fueling the impression that when it comes to standing up for "traditional marriage," the Mormon Church is where it's at.
This development has fascinating implications for 2012.
But Nate Silver--the breakout blogstar of 2008 at FiveThirtyEight--has the best take on the Prop 8 vote. There's a blame the minorities meme going around, but Nate says it's a generational thing:
If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.
The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era.
The OTHER California ballot measure, which may have a more subtle but just as big impact on the nation's politics, is Prop 11, which takes redistricting away from the legislature and sets up an Iowa-style commission. It's narrowly ahead, says Ballot Access News. Seems to be running better in GOP areas. AHnold ist term-limited, ja, und Republicans in KahleeFORnya must not be counting on a gubernatorial veto pen when the Census numbers come out in 2011.
California has long been a leader in the fine art of gerrymandering. With GIS mapping systems linked to voter and election returns databases, it's not even that hard anymore. But back in the `70s, Phil Burton did one of the all-time great gerrymanders in California, taking a dead-even delegation and getting a 27-18 Democratic majority. And he did it with pencil and paper and his brain.
In relatively homogeneous Iowa the commission setup is simple. But California has a fair number of majority black and Hispanic districts in the LA area, and court rulings have held that those need to be kept. Not sure if Prop 11 addresses that; in any case we all know it'll end up in court.
But who needs redistricting when you get all these Obama coattail wins, in Virginia and North Carolina and Ala-freakin'-BAMA. There were a few near-misses, too. (Or, as George Carlin would call them, near-hits.)
