“I hate cynicism. I wipe it from me. I don’t like cynical people. I don’t like cynical movies. Cynicism is very easy. You don’t have to justify it. You don’t have to fight for it.” – Michel Gondry
Bjork – Declare Independence, directed by Gondry:
See also:
Obama extends streak to 10
anonymous_banker’s house
Hillary Journalist vs. Obama supporter
As good as it gets
Everyone tuned into the US democratic primary will be aware that the Clinton camp has gone bibliography crazy in the past day or two, accusing Obama of borrowing without credit a few lines of a speech given this weekend from Massachussetts governer Deval Patrick. Clinton’s strategists hope to bring Obama’s cultish suporters back to reality, since a man with no original words is certainly not a man worth listening to for very long. Patrick fired back that his friend, Obama, was free to use his ideas and rhetoric if he liked. Possibly more remarkable than the Clinton-camp response is that of Republican strategist, Holly Robichaud. āIt certainly goes in the face of his squeaky-clean image,ā she wrote in a weekly blog for the Herald. āIt is clear he used the same words – there is no question about it. It will hurt him, but maybe not enough for him to lose ground.ā His squeeky clean image? How many of us have written a paper at one point during our careers with perhaps an improperly labelled or cited source?
As a result of Plagiarism-Gate, I’d like to be the first to recognize the source for Obama’s most memorable line to date: Yes We Can. Bob the Builder, a children’s television character created by Keith Chapman, was the source of this popular line of vernacular. He sings a song which is sourced below for all to review. I mention this because I want to make sure we’re all being as up front as possible about where our ideas come from before those drips over at Clinton and Republican headquarters decide to take a bite. And also because it’s gonna take a hell of a lot longer than a phonecall to Patrick for Chapman to come up with an animated response allowing Obama access to Yes We Can, with all the clay figures and the stop motion and all that.
1. Isaac Newton: Pigmaei gigantium humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident.
Obama Says Borrowed Lines Not a Big Deal
Free speech: For the takingĀ Ā
Bob the Builder
Today’s link is Stuff White People Like, a blog (you guessed it) about what white people like. We’re so lame! Some of the best include:
#67 Standing Still at Concerts
…So when white people go to concerts at smaller venues, what to do they do? They stand still! This is an important part of white concert going as it enables you to focus on the music, and it will prevent drawing excess attention to you. Remember, at a concert everyone is watching you just waiting for you to try to start dancing. Then they will make fun of you.
…But if you are reasonably skilled in sports, you have to be extremely careful how you approach your co-ed matches. If you try TOO hard (bowling over a female catcher, throwing a kickball EXTRA hard at someone) you come off as an aggressive, crazy maniac. On the other hand, if you donāt try at all you come off as a jerk who thinks they are above the game. The only solution is to approach the game like a point-shaving basketball player – play hard enough to be convincing, but not hard enough to win. If you follow these rules, you will find yourself invited to the mandatory post-game drinks at a local bar where you will be photographed many times.
#64 RecyclingRecycling is a part of a larger theme of stuff white people like: saving the earth without having to do that much.
Recycling is fantastic! You can still buy all the stuff you like (bottled water, beer, wine, organic iced tea, and cans of all varieties) and then when youāre done you just put it in a DIFFERENT bin than where you would throw your other garbage. And boom! Environment saved! Everyone feels great, itās so easy!
If you are in the position where you need to take a white person to lunch for business or pleasure, saying āI know a great sandwich shop,ā will always bring out a smile. The white person will then tell you about the great sandwich shop in the town where they went to college and how they had a crush on a waiter, or that there was some special sandwich that they always ordered. This will put the person in a good mood.
Itās important to note that this type of restaurant is best for business or friendship situations as it is very neutral and does not carry connotations like Sushi or Breakfast.
These sandwiches generally start at $8.99. Remember that whenever a white person says they wants to go to a sandwich shop you are looking at at least a $15 outlay after tip and drink, $20 if the place has a good selection of microbrews.
Also note: white people will wait up to 40 minutes for a good sandwich.
[tags]stuff white people like, racial stereotypes, funny link, hilarious blog, discrimination, recycling, expensive sandwiches[/tags]
1. This:
2. The [tag]Atlantic Review[/tag] has an excellent post on future quagmire building in [tag]Iran[/tag], and how many we need in our daily diet:
Tired of the same old boring quagmire? Looking for a new kind of quagmire to talk about with your friends? Good news if you are, because Iraq is not the only quagmire around. No need to look farākeep it in the ā[tag]axis of evil[/tag].ā Iraqās neighbor, Iran is also a quagmire of a sortsā¦ a diplomatic quagmire for the transatlantic allies.
3. If this is at all possible, [tag]Bill Clinton[/tag] claims theyāve been running their campaign āon a shoestringā:
The former president spoke as if he were back in the grass-roots insurgency that he and his wife brought to the presidential campaign trail in 1992. āWeāve gotten plenty of delegates on a shoestring,ā he said recently. He didnāt mention that his wifeās campaign has raised and burned through more than $140 million so far. Thatās a lot of shoestring, even in Washington.
4. Life imitates The Big Lebowski over at [tag]Byron Crawford[/tag]. Now, the post itself isn’t actually first rate but the discussion (over 200 comments as of right now) has got itself a race war on its hand. And who knew, on a black mans website and everything!
5. Some short asides: Russia is seeing minimal increases in its oil production, Was Edwards really the working class candidate?, 25 Questions to Think About Before Your Next Job Interview, Bushās Enemy #1: [tag]Dennis Kucinich[/tag], and a firm of which [tag]Prescott Bush[/tag] was a director was involved with the financial architects of [tag]Nazism[/tag].
The Origins of Super Delegates, or
How the Democratic Elite Enacted a Crooked System to Keep Their Kind on Top
1968
The seeds of the current Democratic system of nomination were planted in the ashes of fires and riots of the 1968 convention and election. Entering the cycle, the Democrats were split into four camps. The old guard favorite and residing president, LBJ, was facing falling popularity and poor health, and in March of ’68 he withdrew from the race. His VP, Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. of Minnesota, then entered the race representing the old-guard machine and boss wing of the Democratic party.
The other two candidates were Eugene McCarthy, running on an anti-war, pro-youth platform, and Robert Kennedy, who represented the pro-Civil Rights platform. The fourth faction were the old school Democrats, aka Dixiecrats.
In 1968, only 13 states held a primary, and HHH decided to focus on the states where the machine still decided the candidate, letting proxies run for him in the primary states. So the primary contest came down to McCarthy and Kennedy, but then Kennedy was shot in CA after winning the primary.
It became obvious as ’68 went on that the primaries were a farce and that the people’s voice meant nothing. The young folks, feeling disenfranchised and angry at the war in Vietnam, descended upon the Chicago convention and riots broke out. But the old guard won, soundly nominating HHH as the Democratic nominee for president.
So a fractured party limped towards November, and until LBJ pulled an October surprise by halting bombing in ‘Nam, HHH was polled at 10% below Nixon. Still that wasn’t enough for the Democrat Humphries, who while getting only .7% less of the popular vote than Nixon, lost the electoral vote by a score of 301 to 191.
1972
The 1968 convention debacle had a residual effect on the Democratic party besides a loss to Nixon: at the 1972 convention, a committee was put together to make recommendations on how to broaden the participation and increase diversity in the nomination process. Senator George McGovern was put in charge of the committee and recommended that the selection process for delegates be put into the open. This led to a majority of states switching to the primary system.
McGovern also became the first nominee under the new system after Edward Muskie, the establishment favorite, became a target of Nixon’s “Dirty Tricks” campaign and was reported crying. Wallace (leader of the Dixiecrat branch of the Democrats) was also had a strong candidacy until he was shot by Aruthur Bremer and became paralyzed.
McGovern’s campaign against Nixon was marred by disaffection from the Democratic elite as well as two media incidents, both involving his running mate Thomas Eagleton. The disaffection from the Democratic bosses was so strong that some even threw their support behind Nixon.
The most famous event was the uncovering of skeletons in Eagleton’s closet, specifically electro-shock ones. At first McGovern joked about it saying that Eagleton would undergo a psyc-exam if the other candidates did too and said he was 1000% behind Eagleton. Then he asked Eagleton to resign.
The first event was when an unnamed Democratic senator was reported by Bob Novak as saying that McGovern was the party of “Amnesty, Abortion and Acid,” and saying that the Roman Catholics would revolt if they knew what McGovern was really about. Humorously enough, in 2007 Novak revealed that Eagleton was the Senator that said it.
McGovern lost in a landslide, with only MA and DC voting for McGovern. This monumental loss was seen as an indictment of the new primary system that also disempowered the elite, and by the 1980 election the DNC had instituted superdelegate reforms. From that point forward, active Democratic politicians and other individuals selected by the DNC would constitute over one fifth of the total vote in the Presidential nomination process.
[tags] superdelegates, democratic primary, nomination process, history of superdelegate system[/tags]
See also: Superdelegates, The Super-Delegates Begin To Balk, More on the Democratās SuperDilemma, Shake-ups and Super-delegates, Clinton campaign considering āpotentially incendiary stepsā, The āSuperdelegatesā: Always Intended to be Independent, and Clinton āInterested in Acquiring Delegates, Periodā.
