Me thinks those hockey fans know a lying, xenophobic skank when they see one!

Hockey fans are the greatest fans in the world.

I'm no Philly fan (I detest the Eagles and dislike the Flyers), but they made me proud tonight! I almost feel bad the Rangers started kicking their butts almost right away. Almost.

Thanks, Philly!

I LOVE PHILLY!!!

Go Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, 76'ers

Eric,

Perhaps if Palin was from the United States instead of the "United Sates", she might have been better received.

Being an Irishman, Booze always had a lovely ring to it. Now so does Boos.

Taking those two little girls out to get booed by the crowd was a shameful thing for Palin to do. You have to be one tough sob to endure an arena full of boo-birds in full throat. So, subjecting her young daughters to that experience is unconscionable in the extreme. Pathetic, simply pathetic.

Just a reminder. TPMMuckraker has a lot great new reports on the Palins.

They are not getting much traffic on there, and there is a lot of in depth reports being posted.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/

At the risk of getting booed myself.. guys.. i really couldn't tell if she was getting booed. I saw a lot of something that could be described as 'go away" hands, but i also saw some tepid clapping too. How could you tell she was getting booed?

It's just more great news for John McCain!

Apparently, we're not getting the full effect of the boos because of that music the house pumps in, but the NYT hockey writer said the boos were "deafening":

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/a-misplaced-hockey-mom-moment/

mccukoo picked an under educated backwoods for his VP who believes the earthis 10,000 yrs old-what more evidence of stupidity do we need?!

As if we haven't had enough bad news lately, I just came across this AP headline:

"For Bush, last 100 days to feature 'no letting up'"

You know what that means lads, and lassies, don't you?

It means that he has got one more major fuck up left in him, that he is going to inflict on us, before he goes.

OK I have not confirmed this, but rumor has it, that Sarah Palin was so rattled by the booing, that she dropped baby Trig, and tried to breastfeed the Puck.

The official McCain campaign narrative is: We're trying to figure out how to save the McCain campaign.

The Barbiecuda is going to have a wicked hangover in the morning, from all the boos.

i am so disgusted with Palin as a parent. She drags her kids all over the country. Why aren't her children back home in Alaska getting prepared for school or something? i think she her rugrats as pawns to muffle criticism.

They're not booing her. They're saying boourns.

Actually, they were hollering "Moooooose!!!! Mooooose!!!!!"

Too funny to wait for the video....

At a Minnesota Senate race debate tonight, Al Franken said that he'd have voted against the 2005 Energy Bill because of the oil company tax subsidies.

When Coleman rebutted by noting that 84 other senators voted for that bill, Franken explained...

“I’m just — I don’t know — a maverick.”

Which got a big laugh (and deservedly so). But then the real punchline....Norm says,

"I guess the people of Minnesota have to decide whether they want a maverick in the U.S. Senate, or somebody that can get things done."

Between that slam and the obvious snub when McCain was in the Twin Cities on Friday, I don't think Norm is getting a Christmas card from John and Cindy this year.

Are you trying to tell us a joke that McCain signed some obscure letter while being life-long deregulator to the bone? I'm a little bit slow.

Rapping Palin (Source: sarahpalinlimericks.com):

from Sarabeth:

That comely lass from Wasilla
is no intellectual gorilla.
In moments of stress
(speaking to the press)
her stream of unconsciousness is a killa.

from Stuart:

Pity poor Sarah Palin
her attacks on Obama are failin.
She brought up Bill Ayers
but nobody really cares
and her husband Todd they'll be jailin

from C. Lament More:

Palin is worried about Putin.
When she isn't evolution refutin'.
With McCain as her guide
she will stall, and then glide
and crash land. I guess that's straight shootin'

My last post for the night. If you are still awake and have not read it yet, this is the best piece of the week: the GOP rats are jumping off the McCain ship.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/us/politics/12strategy.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

I was saying "boourns."

This is worse than Alito's wife.

Did anyone of you read MODO's latest Column?

the faux Latin part is very difficult to understand

Gail Collins notes the similarities between McCain and a certain LOTR character.

Remember how we used to joke about John McCain looking like an old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn? It's only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign's golden era. Now, he's beginning to act like one of those movie characters who steals the wrong ring and turns into a troll.

During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: "We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious."

Funniest quote of the cycle bar none

LOL This was a "contrived" event, I bet the old observation that two parts of the American psyche are at work, first the "rags to riches", where a relativly unknown is cast into the spotlight, and the "all men are created equal" where that person gets ripped down.

Hockey is facing soft ticket sales, so I guess Palin is an improvement over "Morganna the Kissing Bandit."

I think it is funny actually.

Hear that dull roar under the blaring music? That's booing. Cheering is higher-pitched.

Anyone else catch the "Obama-Biden" lawn sign in camera range behind Palin?

Which one of her daughters play hockey? Since she is heralded as a hockey mom.

So I'm watching that jerk Brokaw on MTP tell me that Norm Coleman has pulled his negative ads in the MN Senate race and MTP breaks for a commericial - to a negative ad lying piece of garbage about Al Franken.

Since I can't watch in real time what's going on in the US, can anyone clue me in if the MSM are picking up on the point that McCain/Palin are ignoring Finding 1 of the report that makes the charge of abuse of power? Also, that the legislature hasn't the power to bring charges as a legislative body against the governor; only the AG and he's a Palin appointee/friend?

I think thas is the big news of the investigation - the MSM on each side of the political spectrum are the prosecutors and the public is the jury. If the repug side gets all the airtime, then Palin does the crime but serves no time for her efforts.

We all have seen various videos of the McCain's Hate Mob, but I found this one to be the extremism at its worst. It does not feel like these Bethlehem lunies could be called Americans. It's already a couple of days old but still...
http://keystoneprogress.blogspot.com/2008/10/mccain-supporters-spew-hate-in.html

One thing about the boos -- while some of it surely was the reflexive action that Philadelphia sports fans have in response almost anything that happens in front of them, it's also worth noting that hockey fans are the whitest group of fans in all of sports. (Don't know about NASCAR, but certainly moreso than basketball, football and even baseball.) In addition, hockey fans tend to come from the suburbs. So if you're looking for an indicator about where Obama stands among white swing voters in southeastern Pennsylvania (also, less significantly, South Jersey and Delaware) this was probably a good sign.

Am I the only one who went Huh? at the speed with which the results of the trooper-gate investigation came and went? This morning the story vanished from the front pages of the NY Times and the Washington Post. Nothing, nada, zip. I was incredulous. Even Huffington Post could manage only a wistful question below the fold suggesting -- fingers crossed -- that maybe trooper-gate might not be over? I had thought for sure the story would consume an entire week of MSM looping and be the big buzz going into Wednesday's debate. I was relishing the prospect. Instead, it's gone. Phit! Palin's being "booed" is getting far more play, even on this site. (And by the way, the booing didn't seem so exceptional to my ears; every politician gets booed at these game-opener appearances.) The Zeitgeist or something has definitely decided to give sister Sarah a pass on this one.

Philly fans boo everyone.

They cheered when Michael Irving lay on the field with a neck injury.

They booed Santa Claus.

Much as I'd like to say this is encouraging, given past behavior, I'm not surprised they booed.

If you look closely at the video, you'll see that Palin's daughter was wearing a Flyer jersey that was probably given to her by a Philly fan. That had to evoke boos from the NY fans!!!! Shame on the rest of you for misinterpreting the reason for the boos.

When I wore a Yankee hat to a Boston playoff game, I got much of the same treatment. In fact, one Boston fan passing me on his way to his seat stopped to ask if I was a Marine for having worn the hat in enemy territory (I served in the Navy!!!!).

I know I'm repeating what's been said but it is exploitive to put young children in such a situation. It's bad mothering. Palin lacks the courage to face the media or anyone who isn't on her side alone. I agree that she will reap what she's sown, as will her party.

Palin is all talk - no puck!

From:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/10/paranoid-style-meets-issue-of-race-in.html

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Paranoid Style Meets The Issue of Race In American Politics

Richard Hofstadter's seminal article "The Paranoid Style In American Politics" portrayed, for the first time with widespread impact, the insular and delusional suspiciousness that characterizes much of the "critique", if it can be called that, of the far right and, at times, of the extreme left.

Standing just one notch away from pure delusion--and often not even hewing that distance--and embracing those whose functionality--such as it may be--is supported by and compels the repetition of these fantasies, we see this style in every electoral cycle, manifesting itself, remarkably anew, in new minds, with the same characteristic conspiratorial thinking--the grasping of an ambiguous, or equally likely, unresearched but conspiratorial-sounding detail or name--into a grand plan, foggy in specifics but surely--as it has assumed its premise--secretly lurching towards an all powerful hegemony.

As always, they give people too much credit. As always, they are among the bitter powerless, whose manifest lack of explanation for that lack of power turns itself into a bitter projection--if they can't have it, their secret masters must, and so on. It gives them a path to power through projection--they see the secret truth, and gain power through it's proclamation--thus "None Dare Call It Conspiracy", thus the "Clinton Chronicles", thus "9/11 Truth", etc.

Each election the impulse forces itself to burgeon anew, straining to fit facts to its preexisting need, straining to grow into the dark.

Now--it becomes interesting.

Here--we have a candidate whose power combines with the fact that he is the first of a long oppressed minority to rise to this position. How, we might ask, will this impulse find a way to strain itself upwards towards conspiratorial theories of all embracing power? A challenge to the force of the delusion impulse.

In the last few weeks, we have been seeing the development of this narrative.

Touch him with the brush of radicalism--despite the fact that Obama's adult life story has been one of consensus-building and unifying--a clear and deliberate move towards the shared need, and away from the radical fringe. The key has been to forge the conspiratorial, paranoid impulse with racial fears, to create the combined message: You don't know who he really is.

As in: "Who really is Barack Obama?"

This lights the torch to the paranoid style in full force, turning it upon ill-formed objects--Bill Ayers, ACORN, that by their mere sound and invocation, can be whipped by this eternal historical force into a storm of hatred. To those prone to such thinking, these become absolute evidence, touchstones, the words they have been waiting for.

For the conspiratorialist, the obvious and central characteristic of Obama's personality--the move to unify, which is inherent in his speech, actions and development, is--as is so often the case in this style--evidence of its opposite. Of course, if he were in fact a radically divisive figure, this would also serve as evidence of the same "radical" characteristic. That's the paranoid style--either it's there, or it's masterfully hidden: Heads I win, tails you lose (at least until medicated).

You likely have seen this kind of thinking developing on the outer edges of the message boards and twittering over recent months.

However, it was only with the cementing of the McCain-Palin team that the style has begun to grow into its fuller portrayal. Each of the two essential elements of the admixture is used to reinforce the other--"Radicalism"--Bill Ayers, ACORN--provides license, justification and cover to those who experience a deeper prejudice, and that very prejudice leads those who experience it to draw in unexamined, tangential "evidence" to prove to themselves or others his inauthenticity or "radicalism."

McCain, and to a greater extent Palin, have used this admixture at rallies to attempt to create some form of enthusiasm in the electorate. It has proven to be a volatile mixture, this new alloy of the paranoid style, and, in their efforts to provide some spark to a moribund campaign, they have been unable to keep this lightning in the bottle.

The remarkable and horrifying shouts we have heard over the past weeks did not originate with this campaign--but they were liberated by it, allowing this raw and stark version of the paranoid style to be unleashed by and feed off of these insinuations. We have seen this kind of visceral unleashing of the paranoid style, driven by fear and the impulsive, momentary, compensatory power of stereotypic hatred before, in other nations. Not here, and not in this way.

There are limits to winning--and losing--ugly. And there are ways to fan and contain the paranoid style. I suspect that Plain believes that she is speaking the plain truth to these audiences--and that there is a plain truth to be spoken, and that she already knows what it is--and no more.

It is John McCain's responsibility to put this darker manifestation of a dangerous and unnecessary dybbyk back in the bottle. I can see he understands what has been released--and perhaps would wish to retain just those parts that could meet his ambitions, without its consequent furies.

Just as you would rather lose an election than lose a war, John--I believe that you would rather lose an election than to unleash, justify, imprint and allow this distorted vision on this society. It was not you, it is not you, and it should not be you or us. Consider it your newest, and your best, call to courage.

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/10/paranoid-style-meets-issue-of-race-in.html

It's official...Philly is my new favorite town. I think I'll head out to South Street and get a few sex toys and a cheese steak!