For your weekend entertainment, I give you a comparison of the ruling classes of the U.S. and Westeros. It’s probably the most trenchant political commentary you’re likely to see in this election year. The person who came up with this idea deserves some kind of geek achievement award. Or at least a congratulatory note from George R.R. Martin.
Let us take a moment to remember Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign. Never again are we likely to see a candidate who so effortlessly combined folksy charm with apocalyptic fanaticism. He gave us a glimpse into a future straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale and it was thrilling, like a cheap carnival ride before the nausea sets in. And now it’s over and we’re both relieved and a little sad, like that feeling you get after watching a really terrible movie when you’re home with a fever. Yet questions remain. Will he run again? When will he get his own timeslot on Fox News? Most importantly, will the porn industry still proceed with its plans for a Twitter-based anti-Santorum wankfest on May Day?
Here’s a photo of Obama flashing the Vulcan salute during a visit with Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura from Star Trek):
Can you imagine Mitt Romney doing this? Or even getting the reference? Romney would probably tear a muscle just attempting the gesture.
I have plenty of reasons to vote for Obama. But this picture pretty much encapsulates all of them. He may be the only nerd-in-chief I’ll get in my lifetime who, at least for a while, kept the White House free of frat boys and bubbas.
Representative Paul Ryan still wants me to live under a bridge.
That’s the only conclusion I can reach after reading Jonathan Cohn’s withering analysis of Ryan’s latest budget proposal. His “Path to Prosperity” eviscerates Medicaid by cutting nearly $1 trillion from the program over ten years. And that’s just a prelude to even deeper cuts. By 2050, spending on Medicaid and other health care programs would slashed by 75% from current levels.
Of course, Ryan’s budget will never pass. But if this excrement is what passes for sound public policy in Republican circles, I weep for the future of bipartisanship. The GOP has become so pathologically fixated on lowering taxes that it is willing to contemplate truly abhorrent and destructive means to achieve its goal. This is a budget as envisioned by fanatics. And I’m not sure how you negotiate with fanatics.
A good old-fashioned sex scandal has been unfolding in the Minnesota Senate over the past few months. In the fall, Republican Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch admitted to having an “inappropriate” relationship with a staffer. Soon afterwards, Senate leadership fired Michael Brodkorb, a staffer who had gained notoriety as a combative Republican Party operative. Brodkorb is now suing the Senate for gender discrimination, claiming that female staffers have had affairs with male legislators and were not dismissed from their jobs. That’s right; the entire theory of his claim can be summarized as “Why all the playa-hatin’?”
The sheer audacity of Brodkarb’s claim speaks volumes about his character. But it’s also worth noting that both Brodkorb and Koch played important roles in the effort to get a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the November ballot while they were vigorously undermining traditional marriage. Such hypocrisy from conservatives is now all too routine, but it still deserves attention when the public is being urged to legitimize discrimination of friends, family, and neighbors.
As I’ve noted many times before, it doesn’t take much to send us liberals into a panic attack. Over the past couple months, as the economy slowly improved and the Republican primary became a parody of itself, we became increasingly confident about Obama’s re-election prospects. Some of us even began making comparisons to the snoozefest that was the 1996 presidential election. But both The Times and the Washington Post have released discouraging poll numbers over the last couple days and now Obama supporters are wringing their hands together and asking themselves what it all means. Are voters pissed about high gas prices? Are they reacting to all the talk of war with Iran? Are they tired of the President bursting into song?
I don’t pretend to know the answers, but I’m not hitting the panic button just yet. Two data points don’t make a trend and there are bound to be any number of peaks and troughs for Obama between now and Election Day. While I’d be happy to see him coast to a second term, my operating assumption remains that this will be a close election. If the liberal blogosphere continues to hyperventilate whenever the poll numbers drift south, I’m going to have to trim my Google Reader subscriptions until all that remains is Ars Technica and Fleshbot.
Last night’s Super Tuesday contests failed to bring the Republican nomination race to a definitive end. That’s reason enough to cheer, but the mood became downright celebratory here on The 19th Floor when word came that Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich lost a primary election to a Democratic opponent. To understand why this brings me such joy, I direct newer readers here. Even after nine years, I can’t discuss the incident without getting a little :sniff: emotional. I suppose I’ll never completely recover from the trauma, but at least I can take consolation in the fact he’ll soon be spending his days puttering around in his garage while his inexplicably hot wife grudgingly fixes him yet another grilled cheese sandwich.
Until he gets his own MSNBC show.
:shakes fist: KUCINICH!