Americans have to be patriotic about something besides war.
Yes, that sentence was definitely the one made me feel like cheering.
Total reciprocal concurrence from here.
Insert "that" in the appropriate place in 1.
By the way, the official announcement speech was today, not yesterday, although Edwards' website jumped the gun slightly.
Scene from Christmas.
Newscaster: After the break, find out who will be announcing their candidacy for president in New Orleans.
Me: John Edwards!
Grandma: John Edwards, huh? Do you love him or despise him?
Me: Um. Are those my options? I wouldn't say I "despise" him...let's just say that if he was the nominee, I'd vote for him. Although that's not really saying much.
Grandma: Wait. Are you a Democrat?
Me: I'm sorry, we must not have met. I'm your granddaughter, the aspiring civil rights lawyer?
Grandma: I guess we better not talk politics, then.
That is a great line. I did not hear the announcement speech over heckling from the assholes who make up the rest of my department.
Yay, Edwards! I'm really thinking of trying to figure out who to send a resume to.
Nice line. Hoping he doesn't get pegged as too single-issue, though.
Hard to see how "something to be patriotic about besides war" translates to single-issuedom. I guess the "single issue" of the war; but Edwards' "single issue" was poverty. This line seems to me to be more about the "something else" than about the "war".
Well, now that the bandwagon has pulled the blocks, and is officially careening downhill, it becomes my duty to throw myself under the wheels. It is my nature to be, if not useful, at least unnecessary.
"Too pretty to be trusted" can be applied to more than Edwards' face and blow-dried hair. He certainly knows how to get the liberals all moisty, doesn't he?
Me: I'm liking Edwards these days.
Dad: Ungghh
Me: What?
Dad (dripping with distain): He's a *trial lawyer*.
Me: So are you!
Dad: Yes, we are both completely amoral.
bob: I've been on the bandwagon since 2002.
rob: When Edwards ran for Senate, the incumbent Republican, Lauch Faircloth, tried the "trial lawyer" line of attack and it backfired spectacularly.
Fuck. I wish I'd written that line.
Does Edwards have a substantive view about New Orleans itself? This is a great chance for him to say something profoundly dumb.
I thought we were all supposed to be blushing on behalf of Obama. Which young hearthrob is hearthrobbier?
Abu-Labs America-Hater, why don't you just bomb the Capitol building and be done with it?
I was surprised to discover this past week that my country cousins in New Hampshire, who normally engage in willful ignorance to a shocking degree, are aware of Edwards.
And seem sympathetic. But -- is there some cancer story in his family? That was the gist of their commentary.
I consider that branch of my family a measure of middle America. The 'something to be patriotic about besides war' line would work for them. If they're paying any attention at all.
We're not going to be able to take any shots at Edwards with Drymala around.
You know that big case that made his reputation? The one with the girl in the pool? Little known fact: Edwards threw her in.
Which young hearthrob is hearthrobbier?
But -- is there some cancer story in his family? That was the gist of their commentary.
His wife survived breast cancer; she was diagnosed in the past year, I think.
Ooh, that could work against him -- nobody likes cancer.
she was diagnosed in the past year, I think.
Just a few days before the '04 election, actually.
That explains it. I was drunk that whole week, and the 52 weeks after. And right now.
Wasn't it just after the election? But sometime before she said a woman's place is in the home?
Edwards threw her in.
Also, I heard he gave his wife cancer.
18--
you make that sound so bad. i heard he offered to jump himself if she'd give him an extra five points on the settlement.
so it's not like she didn't have options.
and on the trial lawyer thing--has he done any work fighting back against the crap that the insurance companies and the ama spread about how 'frivolous lawsuits' are destroying america?
Wasn't it just after the election?
No.
His wife survived breast cancer; she was diagnosed in the past year, I think.
Ah, yeah. It works for him, in the eyes of the people.
Jesus, the old electability conundrum. To the extent that Edwards is just plain too young and poofy-haired to be President, it's countered by Elizabeth's breast cancer.
Anyone who sincerely thinks that this country is willing to elect a black or female president is deluded. White boy. With wife who survived cancer. Sure.
She's a smart woman, Elizabeth Edwards, last I read her various posts here and there.
Grandma: Wait. Are you a Democrat?
Me: I'm sorry, we must not have met. I'm your granddaughter, the aspiring civil rights lawyer?
Grandma: I guess we better not talk politics, then.
That's the "Anglo" side of your family, right?
it's countered by Elizabeth's breast cancer.
And the death of their 16-year-old son.
It is the voter's obligation to reluctantly choose the lesser of two evils. Edwards is simply un-American.
I like my relentless skepticism. Yes, when flattered and pandered to, my hackles instinctively rise. I cannot be "sold". I have the same feelings as everyone else, but simply will not let the positive and pleasurable ones cloud my judgement.
Edwards likely has been studying the Kennedys. John sure made everybody feel good, but while starting the peace corps lowered top marginal tax rates 25 percent. And escalated a war. And did diddley on civil rights and poverty.
Everybody hates LBJ, but the ugly basset actually got the good stuff done. Successful politics is ficking ugly, because there will losers and victims.
Republicans and conservatives understand this, the aesthetes and moralists in the Democrat Party want the sainthood without, ya know, that mortification and celibacy stuff.
Edwards is slick. More likely St Bobby the cypher is the model, I have no idea what kind of President Bobby would have made. I didn't trust him, either.
To the extent that Edwards is just plain too young
If he wins in '08, he'd be 9 years older than Clinton was in '92, and a year older than GWB when he took office.
I cannot be "sold".
I'll pay 37 cents a pound for McManus.
The 'Postropher prevents me from asking, "Who's buying?"
Elizabeth Edwards was the guest yesterday on "The State of Things," a NC-centric, usually-non-call-in radio show on WUNC. I only caught about 10 minutes but in it she talked about finding solace in a Usenet group after their son's death. Them's geek points, and I like 'em.
You can download it in mp3, I believe, from www.wunc.org. I am far too lazy to go looking for a direct link, but I can if I have to.
33:OTOH, I am cheaply bought. Can I hear another offer?
I should note that I am also on the bandwagon for Edwards. Yeah, I'll vote for whoever, but I'd love to see it be Edwards.
OT:I just picked up Neil's new release of the live Everybody Knows This is Nowhere tour, long buried in the underground archives. The electric sessions with the Whitten Crazy Horse have been very hard to come by as bootlegs, tho the acoustic first set has been available for years.
19 minutes of "Down by the River." OMG.
Sausagely would not understand.
If he wins in '08, he'd be 9 years older than Clinton was in '92, and a year older than GWB when he took office.
Looks young. Looks young. Doesn't make a smit of difference in the eyes of the buying public how old he actually is.
36: 33:OTOH, I am cheaply bought. Can I hear another offer?
For what it's worth, having read this blog for just a couple of months, I recognize your written voice in the first sentence or two, before scrolling down to see the name.
Back to the presidential politics theme, I see that both Obama and Edwards are referring to Bush's "surge" as "escalation". Good on them; the Democrats may finally be learning how to play the language game. Edwards also called it "the McCain doctrine". Heh heh.
BTW, you non-DC types in town for UnfoggeDCon should be aware that the surgers in the Metro stations are frequently broken.
Stoller's dissatisfied. with Edwards.
"the McCain doctrine" is an awesome phrase.
43: The comments to that post are interesting. Between that and the weird dust-up with Ezra a few days ago, I kinda wonder whether John Edwards kicked Stoller's dog or something.
I support Edwards, but if I had to pick a second choice, I'd go with Rod Blagojevich -- his record of corruption shows that he's got what it takes to be competitive in our contemporary postmodern context.
45:I think Stoller sees what I see.
I'm just saying, always beware of people appealing to your best instincts and better natures. No good can come of it.
Still waiting. Come on, 4 bits? Anyone?
Also, you non-DC types in town for UnfoggeDCon, please don't get shot/mugged/assaulted. You should be a little more careful at night than in other big cities.
I hear the echo of seasonal music in that:
"Stoller sees what I see..."
I think Stoller sees what I see.
In both of those specific instances, I think Stoller is seeing things that aren't there.
49:
Said McManus at Unfogged,
Stoller sees what I see.
Over at this other blog,
Stoller sees what I see.
A fraud, a fraud,
Down in New Orleans,
Appealing to our better natures,
Appealing to our better natures.
Edwards might be a fine candidate, but honestly, I like his wife better. She doesn't have teh resume, but I think she's smarter.
My Fox news watching Republican Uncle--who worked for Republican candidate who lost to Bob Drinan in Mass.--can't stand Edwards because he's a trial lawyer, thinks that Kerry's a phony (and has since he saw him at a Vietnam Vets against the War Rally in a leather jacket) thinks Teresa Heinz is weird and condescending; but he likes Elizabeth Edwards a lot. My uncle isn't exactly middle-America, but I definitely think that she makes him more palatable.
52 -- maybe she could run for senator of NY.
My personal opinion is that Stoller's complaint is more than slightly petulant. It smacks too much of "but we R teh netrewts n he didn't ask us first!" which, in turn, smacks too readily of the Jesus freaks who insist that candidates come before them to be metaphorically if not physically anointed before they can be supported from the pulpit. No thanks. Edwards asked for feedback, not approval, and had the miniscule measure of spine it took to know already that he was going to run unless he got nothing but overwhelmingly "lame! so lame!" responses. Somehow I have trouble equating that with being a big, high-handed fake.
Stoller sounds like he wants his candidate to be pure not only in deed, but in heart. Or he needed something to blog about that day. Whatever.
41 is funny.
48, on the other hand, is the kind of vaguely defined warning that freaks my parents out. Yet another reason I'm glad they don't read this site.
48, 56: I believe I've said so before here, but my mother's impression of NYC, DC and other cities is that one can't walk on the sidewalk for all the terrorists and muggers.
Reckon I'm in for $0.3711
58 -- OTOH everything's up to date here.
We've gone about as fur as we kin go.
56 - Yeah, that's why I try to keep my parents ignorant of all things DC. If my mom knew about, say, the dude shot in front of the 7-11 on U Street in the middle of the afternoon last week, she'd be coming to pack me up and move me herself.
I've heard that DC is a little sketch---more so than NYC.
Jackmormon, stop trying to make sketch happen! It's not going to happen!
On the other hand, 62 reminds me that a guy was shot in the back of the head at the McDonald's a block and a half from my old place. That McDonald's always emanated a sinister atmosphere, though, and I avoided getting near it, by instinct.
Yeah, same. Likewise, I've avoided mentioning anything about the guy who was killed about 5 blocks due east of me a couple of nights ago.
Despite it all, I've never felt at all threatened in the time I've lived here. Not sure if that's luck or ignorance, though.
What are you talking about, apo? Are you refering to my completely authentic Californian slang? What do you have against my regional dialect?
DC's murder rate per capita is higher than NYC's, but it's been falling for a decade. This year it dropped about 15% while NYC's went up. It's generally much safer here than people believe.
If the suspiciously named Dragon Coach drops me somewhere near the Flophouse and I don't get hopelessly lost in the heart of somewhere the fuck, yes.
70 -- If you have to ask...
71 - I am not. Get your teen flicks straight, Ogged.
67 - The weirdest thing about DC to me is getting catcalled walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the day. It doesn't make me feel threatened or anything but the first couple times it happened, I wanted to turn and say to the guy "Really? People still do that?" Nobody I know gets catcalled to that degree in NYC.
77: What form does a standard catcall take?
71 - I am not. Get your teen flicks straight, Ogged.
Fuck, it was a 50/50 call on the teen flicks I've seen, and I blew it.
Standard catcalls:
"Looking good!" "Come over here, baby!" "Nice ass!" "Smile!" "Where you going?" "Girl looking fine!" "Hey! ... Hey! ... Hey!"
What about wolf whistles? Au courant or passé?
80: And these are common in DC? Fucking crazies. No wonder we don't let 'em have a vote in Congress.
77: You know, I hear about that, but I almost never see it. My female roommates have mentioned that it's quite a different experience when I'm walking with them, as opposed to when they're on their own.
Dude, Stanley, these are common everywhere. Wolf whistles, however, are passé.
63 et seq. -- I asked my sister, a Central Valley native who is just a little younger than our Jackmormon (if I have everybody's dates accurate) about "a little sketch" (which rings pretty poorly on these ears, acclimated though they are to "a little sketchy"), and she said she says it all the time.
The whistle that cartoon characters make at, say, Transvestite Bugs Bunny.
Hmm, forbidden link. Available here.
Do you suppose that whistle translates across cultures? Or are there other lecherous whistle melodies on other continents?
94: The Andy Griffith Show theme song will get you murdered in most of the Middle East.
will get you murdered in most of the Middle East
By dolphins.
The Andy Griffith Show theme song will get you murdered
Becasue they'll hate you for your Tarheels.
By contrast, whistling "Flight of the Bumblebee" will get you laid every time.
The little-known sand dolphin. They drag lost travelers out of the desert to oases. As long as they aren't whistling.
Whistle the theme to Flipper and see what happens. Those sand dolphins have no sense of humor.
Sand dolphins are noble, true, and often receptive to sexual advances. But they fucking hate whistling.
Looks like Hagel is not running for president or for re-election to the Senate.
I am very concerned that neither Obama nor Hillary can be elected. This time the Democrats definately have a chance of winning, but, unfortunately, probably not with either of them. Edwards would be a much saner pick. He is a good, intelligent man who really does care about all Americans, not just the fortunate ones.
