The Occasional Observer

For reasons I don't fully understand, Strawberry Girl asked me to write a Star Wars haiku. Finding it fun, I wrote many. Please accept my humble contributions below without malicious laughter:

You say "I love you"
Awaiting cold carbonite
I say that I know

Go to work, young man.

Goofing on Ole' Joe never gets old.

Some legitimately important news with real implications. Expect it to get little coverage, as people need to know whether Mitt's dog really rides on the roof or if Barry really does eat dog for breakfast.

From a thread at R 4 '12:

I weary of whipping the horse carcass any further, but this has never been about RTL or the “rape exception” debate.

The firestorm of coverage is because Akin’s comments could be reasonably interpreted to blame women for getting pregnant in case of rape. Either the victim partially consented (hence her body didn’t “shut that whole thing down”), her female parts didn’t work properly, or she wasn’t actually raped.

In other words, the rape victim is either a slut, less than a real woman, or a liar.

The cruelty in sending this message to the victim of a horrible crime is mind-numbing. The hubris Akin has shown in not withdrawing highlights his selfishness and his lack of awareness.

The damage he is doing every day to the pro-life cause should cause pro-lifers to be at the forefront of those demanding his withdrawal. With every headline, every passing day, every regurgitated story about Akin “missing science class”, Republicans “hating their mothers,” etc., Akin’s words are being used not only define him, but every pro-life advocate out there.

The majority of Americans, who have mixed feelings on this issue, are being convinced every day that pro-lifers who are against the rape exception are motivated NOT by love of the child and the mother, but by ignorance and a prejudicial bias against the victim.

Pretty much says it all.

Theme is that Mitt needs to be more comfortable in his own skin, but also has a great takedown of O:

Sure, he grew up rich — Dad was the CEO of American Motors. (Hey, where was their bailout?) But Mitt didn’t inherit his fortune: He gave away everything his father left him, establishing a school of public management in his father’s memory. (Old-school patriarchs build monuments to their fathers.) Why would he do a thing like that? Because he didn’t need the money: “I figured we had enough of our own,” he explained. And then some. George Romney made his money by being a boss — a leader. Mitt Romney has been the same thing. When things went wrong, people put Romney in charge of them — at Bain, at the Olympics, at a hundred companies he helped turn around or restructure. Bain is a financial firm, but Romney wasn’t some Wall Street bank-monkey with a pitch book. He was the guy who fired you. He was a boss, like his dad, and like his sons probably will be. Barack Obama was never in charge of anything of any significance until the delicate geniuses who make up the electorate of this fine republic handed him the keys to the Treasury and the nuclear football because we were tired of Frenchmen sneering at us when we went on vacation. Obama made his money in part through political connections — no, I think Michelle Obama was worth nearly 400 grand a year — and by authoring two celebrity memoirs, his sole innovation in life having been to write the memoir first and become a celebrity second. Can you imagine Barack Obama trying to pull off a hostile takeover without Rahm Emanuel holding his diapers up for him? Impossible.

As good as that is, this part's better:

It is time for Mitt Romney to get in touch with his inner rich guy. Some Occupy Wall Street types, believing it to be the height of wit, have begun to spell Romney’s name “Rmoney.” But Romney can do better than that — put it in all caps: R-MONEY. Jay-Z can keep his puny little lowercase letters and the Maybach: R-MONEY doesn’t own a flashy car with rims, R-MONEY does billion-dollar deals with Keystone Automotive and Delphi. You want to make it rain? R-MONEY is going to make it storm, like biblical. Rappers boast about their fat stacks: R-MONEY’s fat stacks live in a beachfront house of their own in the Hamptons, and the bricks in that house are made from tightly bound hundred-dollar bills. You have a ton of money? R-MONEY has 200 metric tons of money if he decides to keep it in cash.

Link.

That is all.

Dear Congressman Akin,

Your comments cannot be walked back with an apology.  In substance, they are deplorable.   You have implied that women who become pregnant via rape were actually consenting to it.  Disgusting.

Politically speaking, it is the type of statement that not only loses votes, but takes people from disagreement to hatred, from "lean Dem" to "I'm calling all my friends and relatives to turn out against you."  You have not only severely damaged your electoral prospects, but provided Democrats a weapon to wield against Republicans nationwide.  

As a lifelong Republican, I feel this election may be our country's only chance to beat back Obamacare,  prevent our government from becoming insolvent, and preserve the American Dream for future generations.

The MO Senate race is too important to be thrown away.  For the love of our Country, and for the love of the unborn, we need a GOP majority in the Senate.  Please realize your career is not more important than that.  Step down as the GOP nominee for Senate before it is too late.



You can send your own to Congressman Akin here.  
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Update:  I received this in my inbox:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at www.akin.org.I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
<contact@akin.org>:This address no longer accepts mail.

What a coward.

Blockquote below is from Investor's Business Daily. Hat tip to Mark Lowe at Race 4 '12.

THE AMAZING LITTLE STORY THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN

… As the president’s big black armored bus began to waddle its way out of town along one of the leafy streets, a little girl was standing, up ahead. She’d set up a sidewalk lemonade stand, like thousands of kids across the heartland on hot summer days.

Maybe it's just 'cause I'm connected to the financial services industry....

But this is genius.

Check it

Red October was skulking about the Gulf for a month, and we had no idea.

Comforting.

Gallup and Rasmussen show the race approximately even, while a few other polls have shown a > MOE lead for Obama. Why the discrepancy? The Fox and CNN polls that showed high single digit leads for Obama had a party ID split of D+7 to D+10.

Check out this link for an explanation as to why that is unlikely.   Current Gallup polling (which has historically shown itself to be pretty accurate on party ID split, even 3 months out from the election) shows R+1.  If that (or anything close to it) happens, given Mitt is typically carrying independents in most polls, it is difficult to see how Obama wins.

I done already told you.

6 minutes of light

[Note: Embedded video removed b/c it kept auto starting and I couldn't take it any more.]

I've been listening to this song heavily. By my standards, that means 5x a week, which is about half of my music consumption.

The song hit me right away, with its blend of melancholy chords and the primitive, almost tribal, feeling that the xylophone (or whatever perscussion chime that is) brings. The verses are explanatory, quiet, but emotionally accessible.  His lyrics perfectly capture the internal tension that one would feel trapped in that circumstance, including the ways he lies to himself.  Then the chorus explodes with passion as the anger he feels towards her (and towards himself) comes to the surface.

The fact that his anger fixates on things that are trivial rings true. How often have you observed a friend, colleague, or maybe even yourself, when really affected by a relationship gone bad, focus on points of argument rather than core issues?

Just when I was ready to crown the song as greatest artistic achievement of the year, I finally got a look at the video.  It's the best visual adaptation I've seen since Peter Jackson filmed the bloodthirsty hordes of Isengard storming Helm's Deep (although the two are polar opposites in terms of on screen "action").

 

I love everything about this video. As Gotye sets his thoughts on the dissolved relationship, he blends into the mosaic. He's no longer an individual, he's part of something bigger than himself. And yet he is defined by jagged lines. He's fragmented by the painting, and the fragmentation is reinforced by the close-ups that emphasize parts of his body over the whole.

Panning out for the holistic shot that includes Kimbra, the new vantage point changes the overall feel to one of beauty. This nicely complements the "he said, she said" nature of the song.

While explaining her reasons for the break-up, she approaches him in a somewhat sultry fashion.  She leaves her place in the painting, and invades his space.  She's breaking her role in the design; his vision of her role in their relationship.   She's getting closer to him than he wants, almost hauntingly in his ear with her indictment. All the while, in how she moves, brings her open mouth near his ear (and her naked body near his), she's seductive.  Frustratingly so, since she (or the memory of her) is also driving him mad.   You almost feel like he's screaming for relief when he belts out his verse in the chorus.

Finally, she fades away, is stripped from the mosaic, paint removed from her body.  She has released herself from him, and from his fractured, static view of their relationship. And left him alone, shattered, with his self-consoling half-truths.

Drudge banner hinting at Petraeus as Mitt's Veep choice (citing anonymous Obama donor as source). Not exactly solid footing for a rumor, but good for a round of good ole fashioned speculation.

and can effectively articulate the difference between an Obama future and non-Obama future. I doubt Ryan will be picked for obvious reasons, but it would be a true "double down" against Obama's corporatism, crony capitalism, and statism. The guy gets it, and here are two brief videos that are very much worth listening to and sharing:
 ht: Matthew E Miller