Sunday, September 14, 2008

Little snippets of pseudo-political snarking:

Apparently the outfit that Cindy McCain wore to one of the RNC events cost about $300,000. Yes, that comma is in the right place. Her necklace alone was $25,ooo. That's $11,000 more than I made last year. Her watch was almost $5,000, and her dress $3,000 (if it was couture, that's not an unheard-of price...just...insane). The Vanity Fair piece doesn't even tell us how much the earrings (huge diamonds) or shoes cost, so we have to do the subtraction ourselves....

"Why do I care?" You ask.

Well, because people who spend that kind of money on clothing and jewelry can hardly be counted upon to keep regular folks' best interests in mind. Also, people who spend that kind of money on clothing have no right to call the other side "elitist," especially if the wife of the other side's candidate shops at "White House Black Market" where research tells me that no dress costs more than $200.

Sigh....

Katha Politt's article "Lipstick on a Wingnut" (published in the Nation) is great. You can read it here:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt
In it, she proposes the "Olympics of Hypocrisy."

The supremely interesting Liza Cowan found a piece unearthing the truth about Sarah Palin. She's Dolores Umbridge in disguise!!! (okay, if you're not a Harry Potter fan, you're so confused right now....) Here's the blogger who has thoroughly examined the situation:
http://listofnow.com/?p=411

I'm poking about on the Obama campaign site, trying to figure out what I can do to help, since giving money is totally out of the question at the moment (and for all the forseeable moments....). I'm slightly discouraged, because it seems like the majority of volunteering involves getting on the phone (hate it!) to call people in swing states and try to convince them to vote Obama/Biden. I hate getting unsolicited calls, so I'm going to assume that most other people do too, and I don't know if I can handle being that person who calls and disrupts dinner or something....Ideas?

Weekend tidbits

Saturday, June 7, 2008

The other day, while driving to rehearsal, which is about all I do these days, I listened to the speech that Hillary Clinton gave when it was pretty clear that she would not be getting the nomination. It was the speech that some criticized as not clearly a concession. The NPR analyst had a much more interesting take on it, which was that the speech was a job application essay for the post of Vice-President.
Either way, I noticed myself getting emotional while I listened. My skin got prickly and I had to blink back a few tears. Ever since, I've been trying to figure out why. I had a really, really difficult time trying to decide who to vote for in the primary, and my decision came only after a detailed check list for each candidate yielded one more check to one of them. I would never have declared myself a "Clinton Supporter" or an "Obama Supporter" because I think that they had equally good things to say, and some equally not-as-good-as-they-should-be things to say.
Why was I reacting so strongly, then? I think that one reason may have been that it was a really, really well written and well delivered address. We haven't seen much of that in the last, oh, eight years. Mainly, I think, I was really reacting to the crowd. This was a group of people who unequivocally supported their candidate and wanted to do anything they could to get her elected. They were enthusiastic, supportive, and passionate. I think I was kind of jealous of that. It would be nice to be so into a candidate that you'd cheer your heart out for him or her.
There's probably also some regret that, as Clinton herself said in her concession speech today, we didn't "shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling." Clinton's candidacy has proven that there is still loads and loads of sexism and misogyny in this country. Maybe the upside is that we know exactly who and where it's coming from, so hopefully we can figure out how to dismantle it.

To second (or 4th) what Sybil Vane at Bitch, PhD, Melissa McEwan at Shakesville, and Maggie Jochild at Maggie's Meta Watershed have said: Do not boycott Obama. If Clinton was your candidate, don't skip out just because she's not on the list anymore. It will not help the fight, it will help the opposition and that will be on your hands.