Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Funny?

Michael Shaw is "a Clinical Psychologist; an analyst of visual journalism; an interpreter of political images; and publisher of the political blog BAGnewsNotes."  Yesterday he offered some insight on why the latest New Yorker cover landed with such a clunk, including: "To give us an appreciation, or a sense of outrage, or even a poke at any truth this picture might contain...the illustration has to take us outside or beyond the manifest content here, and then show it to us again through a different window---be that a different context or a different point of view."

As it happens, the New Yorker kerfuffle comes at an opportune time for Shaw:

In my "ObamaPhobia" presentation at Netroots Nation next Saturday, I aim to show how various campaign images in the traditional media echo more extreme right-wing hate imagery---conveying Obama as a man with a covert, anti-American agenda, or a deliberate and calculated mastermind, or a closet Muslim and Islamic Manchurian candidate. In hitting the trifecta here, many will argue this illustration is simply a satiric representation of the sophomoric attacks being tossed at Obama from far right field.

If that's all there was to it, though, than why do I sense Rove is chortling tonight?

In the meantime, I keep revisiting the cover and asking myself, 'Why aren’t I hearing rimshots in my head? Why is there nothing on the page that feels like a trigger for a punchline? How come it doesn't say to me, In yer FACE, smear merchants?'

I think it's because there are too many people (including members of my partner's own family, not to mention twelve percent of the U.S. population at large) who will look at that illustration and say, "Yup...that's Osama, er, Obama. They sure nailed him---and his crazy wife, too."

In other words, there's nothing in that illustration to niggle at the conscience of the right-wingers who believe this crap. Instead it's an image they can---yet again---email to all their friends and neighbors and co-workers as a "cautionary tale" of what they believe will happen when Barack Obama moves in to the White House. It doesn't throw a wrench into their gears, it greases them. ("Look! Even The New Yorker gets it!") If it was truly satire (or parody or whatever), there would be something in the pic that would make them not want to pass it around.

Let me put it this way: when the McCain campaign calls it tasteless and offensive, you know Republicans are slapping their knees raw, having been handed another gift---this time courtesy of a liberal magazine---that'll just keep on giving.

Ha. Ha.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday July 15, 2008

Note: Tomorrow morning we're off for a few days of universe saving at the Kossack vicki has created an easy-to-read Netroots Nation convention (spreadsheet by Kossack Vicki) in Austin, during which the C&J surrogates (who are these people, anyway?) will make mischief in the diaries until our return on Tuesday, July 22.  By the time we get back we expect you to have fixed the economy.  Thx.

---Mgt.

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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Yarmouth Clam Festival: 3
Days `til the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin: 10
Estimated percent of the world's oceanic waters that have not been damaged by human activity: 4%
(Source: Harper's Index)
Increase in bonuses to FDA employees in the past year: 29%
(Source: USA Today)
Speed of sound: 770 mph
Speed of light: 670.6 million mph
Speed at which a bogus Obama rumor races around the internet: 9 trillion mph

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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:

The man was not raised in the US. He can't understand this country the way he thinks he does. How can someone who never had the opportunity to play youth baseball really be lead [sic] us?

I know that seems a poor argument. I have a hard time trusting some who didn't have the childhood that American's [sic] had. Until the age of 10, he was a muslim child living in the far east. No Sesame Street, Gilligan's Island reruns, etc.

He creeps me out.

I have no doubt that he and his ilk view the UN as a world government that lacks only the right leadership to create the kumbaya utopia of Karl Marx's wet dreams.

---Commenter "ggt" at Little Green Footballs

All together now: One...two...three... Classy!!!

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Puppy Pic of the Day: A tense moment in Hokey Pokey 101.

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CHEERS to the last days of the Last Honest Man.  Finally, some serious-sounding rumblings that indicate Lieberman is about to lose his grip on power.  Novacula:

Democratic insiders are certain that Sen. Joseph Lieberman will be kicked out of the party’s caucus next year and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned.  Lieberman’s Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider his speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw.

And make sure you get old Tinkletoes' bathroom key.  Guy never did know how to flush.

JEERS to an adult child's worst nightmare:  [Rrrring...!!]  "Hey kids!  It's yer ol' ma and pa...we've run out of retirement money so we're movin' in!"  Don’t laugh:

Nearly three out of five middle-class retirees will probably run out of money if they maintain their pre-retirement lifestyles, a new study from Ernst & Young has concluded.  The study...finds that Americans will have to drastically reduce their standard of living before retirement to live comfortably, or even avoid destitution, later in life.

Don’t forget that Pop wants his supper on the table by six.  And don't skimp on the brown sugar when you serve his spotted dick.

CHEERS to good news from the campaign trail.  U.S. Senate candidate from Nebraska Scott Kleeb checked in yesterday to let us know that he raised a buncha dough last quarter.  And big news in Minnesota: Jesse Ventura will not be running for Senate, clearing the way for Al Franken to clean Norm Coleman's clock.  In fact, as of now Franken's ahead by a whisker, don'tchano.  I tell ya, whenever you get too frustrated about the presidential race, just flip over to the congressional contests.  It tingles.  Like, down there.

P.S. Anyone who doesn’t go ga-ga over Brownsox's daily House and Senate Roundups will one day get pelted with rotten fish heads before looking up and noticing that a piano is being dropped on them from the fourth floor window.  You know who you are and I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes in about fifteen minutes.

CHEERS to pleasant surprises.  Thirty seven years ago, on July 15, 1971, President Nixon caused a stir when he announced he was leavin' on a jet plane to visit China wearing nothing but argyle socks and a cape.  His mission: "To find the golden bedpan of the Yangtze and use it to smite my enemies."  Fortunately Pat was there to lock him in the bedroom until he sobered up.

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Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man.  Dependable Renegade asks:  Is it a prerequisite that all Bush appointees make this face at least once a day?

Yes.

Now back to Cheers and Jeers.

Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

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JEERS to moving in the wrong direction.  So if we're winning the war on terrorism (just humor me, okay?), shouldn't the terror watch list be getting smaller?  That's what I thought, too.  Well, it says here that the list of suspects---which may or may not still include Ted Kennedy---is growing faster than calories on a plate in the Country Buffet line:

The American Civil Liberties Union [announced] at the National Press Club that the U.S. government's terrorist watch list has added its 1 millionth name.  The estimate stems from a Justice Department inspector general's report last year that put the watch list roster---four years after its creation---at more than 720,000 in April 2007, and growing by 20,000 records a month.

Would the last American not designated a terrorist please turn out the lights?  Thanks.

CHEERS to a tiny toke of truth.  An article in the latest issue of TIME suggests Americans are even more wild about weed than those damn dirty Dutch potheads in Dutchland.  Not surprising to us, really.  But nestled in the article was this little tidbit, slipped in matter-of-factly, as if it was common knowledge and oh-so-mundane:

Another factor may be an increasing awareness that marijuana may be less toxic than other drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol.

Translation: nothing to see here, please move along.  But if we catch you with the less-toxic substance we'll put your neck in a vise and lock you up for life.  (With time off if you can score the guards a few buds.  And, like, could you get it by tonight???)

JEERS to Vatican vitriol.  803 years ago tomorrow, on July 15, 1205, Pope Innocent III decreed that Jews would be doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation because they killed Jesus.  His pronouncement was immediately followed by: "Ow! Who threw that?!!"

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One Year Ago in C&J: July 15, 2007...

CHEERS to declarations of independence.  Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, having apparently smoked a bit of the wacky tobaccy, came out and assured President Bush that the Iraqi military could take over from here.  The U.S. responded by saying, "We'll be the judge of that, not you."  I mean, who do they think they are, a sovereign nation??? [One year later: Lather, rinse, repeat.]

JEERS to the American Taliban.  You would think that the first morning invocation by a Hindu chaplain in the United States Senate would be a time for celebration of our nation's religious diversity.  You would be wrong.  A pod of right-wing Christians---aka the Republican base---just had to barge in, bare their tooth, and prove their bottom-of-the-barrel pedigree.  I don’t know who's in charge of the morning prayers down there, but may I suggest the following lineup for next week: A Buddhist, a Muslim, A Wiccan, A Jew, and a Taoist.  And stay on that schedule until Christ's crowd learns the meaning of Love Thy Fucking Neighbor As Thy Fucking Self.  How come us atheists always have to play the parental role in these things?  

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And just one more...

JEERS to firearms for the faithful (via Kossack PoliSigh).  Let's see...if Jesus were here on Earth, I wonder if he'd entice fresh converts like this...

An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.  Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event.  The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.

What a wimp.  Jesus would give out bazookas.  Blessed are the buttkickers, baby!

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Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:

For the second year in a row, Bill in Portland Maine has fallen down during the evening gown competition at the Miss Universe competition.
---USA Today

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