Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Rampant sexism running rampant

Oh dear. It's gotten this bad. So, most people know already that Tina Fey did a bang-up parody of Sarah Palin next to Amy Poehler's bang-up send-up of Hillary Clinton on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend. And the response was generally positive, even from Palin herself, showing she may at least have a sense of humor, if not foreign policy experience.

BUT! We still need some Official Outrage® from someone, so out came the McCain campaign's Carly Fiorina to complain that Fey's portrayal was "sexist." Because it made fun of Palin. Because no one's ever made fun of a politician and said mean things about them on "SNL" before. Enjoy:



Karl Rove knows from going too far

Hey, did you hear? The economy is tumbling at breakneck speed into a giant bowl of suck. If you want to take a second and check to make sure whichever bank you keep your money at is still in business, go ahead. We’ll wait.

OK, good. Now we can move on to more important matters, namely lying John McCain’s untruthful lies. Yesterday, the Obama campaign finally — finally — came out and called foul on the liberties the McCain campaign has taken with the truth. You know, like how Obama wants to teach kindergarteners how to have sex. Or that he called Sarah Palin a pig in lipstick, when even Palin herself will tell you she’s a pit bull in lipstick. Which is… better? We guess?

But the Obama camp was still late to the party, and as usual, a Republican beat them to the punch: On Sunday, Karl Rove, that bastion of decency and even-handed campaigning, said this on “Fox News Sunday”: “McCain has gone in his ads one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test.”

Yes, that Karl Rove. Can we just say, Sen. McCain, you need to stop and examine what you’re doing. When Karl freaking Rove is cautioning restraint, maybe, just maybe, you’ve crossed a line or two. Maybe. It’s worth looking into.

Now that Rove has gone and brought this up on his own, McCain’s adopted daughter would probably like to have a word with him. Just to chat.

Monday, September 15, 2008

McCain finds a new way to go negative


On Friday, John McCain stopped by to have a chat with the ladies on “The View.” (Going on “Oprah” would’ve just been awkward.) McCain even brought Cindy along, since it’s a show for the womenfolk and all, and God knows McCain doesn’t know the first thing about knitting.

This visit to the Barbara Walters House of Vapid was the perfect opportunity to see what windbags on the left (Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar) and the right (Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shephard) think of his campaign so far. Ladies, back him up here.

And the consensus? Apparently he shouldn’t lie so much.

While Gramps was going on and on about how awesome Sarah Palin is (why didn’t she get to come on the lady show, Mac?), he brought out the whole “reformer against pork and earmarks” thing again. But Walters had done her homework, noting that Palin had requested earmarks as governor of Alaska. McCain’s response? “No, not as governor she didn’t.” Except she did, but whatever. Let’s not interrupt Grandpa while he’s in the middle of one of his anecdotes.

Then there are those negative ads about Obama, which Behar asked him about by calling them “lies.” Your move, John: “Actually they are not lies.” Well, OK.

We must say, this new McCain tactic is great. We can’t wait until the debates, when Obama gets finished with a pitch for his economic plan or what to do about Iraq, and McCain’s rebuttal is all, “No.” So much more efficient!

Throughout the whole “View” sit-down, by the way, Hasselbeck didn’t say much, as she was too busy staring wide-eyed at Cindy and mouthing the words “Teach me.”

Friday, September 12, 2008

You deserve a break

On Fridays, I stop all this political nonsense and get back to the tough task of mocking the celebrity industrial complex in my weekly column, the Word, available on my other site.

To entice you, here's this week's entry:

She can save money by Djing her own wedding!
Supposedly, wedding bells are ringing around Hollywood because Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson are going to tie the knot. It doesn’t matter that they’re not even officially an item yet. Earlier this week, Ronson stopped the music during one of her DJ gigs at the Chateau Marmont to proclaim, “By the end of this year, my love will be Mrs. Ronson.” Does that sound more like a threat than an announcement to anyone else?

She went on to add, “Tonight shows the power of a woman. To underestimate that is to underestimate the world,” which kinda sounds like an endorsement for Hillary Clinton, only a few months too late. Or maybe Sam’s a Sarah Palin gal.

But end of the year? Really? Why the rush, Sam? Maybe it’s because of all those baby rumors. Yes, baby rumors. Britain’s News of the World originally reported that the young ladies wanted to make their duo a power trio, though Lohan’s reps quickly denied it. But now Star magazine has sources to quote, so it’s totally going to happen.

Says their source: “Lindsay told Sam that she’s been feeling more and more maternal in the past few months and she wants to get pregnant.” Of course, with a mother like Dina Lohan, who knows what Lindsay thinks “maternal” means.

The birds, the bees and Mommy’s home video
Speaking of children, Pam Anderson has had to undertake the sensitive subject of explaining her infamous sex tape with former/current/former/current beau Tommy Lee to the two sons she had with Lee. The boys are 10 and 12 years old.

She had to know this day was coming. Heck, we all did, but we didn’t think it would come before the kids hit bar mitzvah age. So why did the big day come so early? Why don’t we ask Pam. “They really wanted to see ‘Borat,’ and I finally had a breakdown and let them because all their friends had,” Anderson told reporters.

In the movie, Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, obsessed with Anderson, sees the famous footage of Pam and Tommy doing some interesting things on their honeymoon in 1995. “I explained to them… ‘Mom and daddy run about naked all the time, and we taped some things... and someone stole the tape,’” Anderson said. Ah, yes. It’s a conversation every parent knows all too well. We applaud Pam for handling it with such sensitivity and maturity. No, seriously. She’s a champ. What would you do?

Of course, we’re hoping the older of her sons isn’t too good at math, because once he puts two and two together… ew.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Constant updates

A friend passed this along to me, and I'm posting it as a public service:

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

Keep checking it for updates in case you have any doubt.

What was that about inquiring minds?

Yesterday, we had a bit of fun with Meghan McCain, but there’s plenty of kid love to go around on the GOP ticket. Take vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s son Track. In a matter of complete coincidence, he’s deploying to Iraq today. (You might not’ve heard. The family doesn’t like to discuss it much.)

Just in time for Track’s Heroic® departure, the National Enquirer is giving him the full press treatment. And as John Edwards knows, you’re nobody in this country until the National Enquirer is writing about you.

So what’s the rumpus? Well, apparently before joining up, young Track was a bit of a terror in Wasilla, Alaska — a car rim-stealing, hard-partying, OxyContin-snorting terror. Allegedly.

Some of the choicer quotes from Track’s coyly anonymous high school friends include “I’ve seen him snort cocaine, snort and smoke OxyContin, drink booze and smoke weed” and “Track was a master at playing people and paying them to get drugs, alcohol, steal car rims, Xbox games, you name it.”

Now, we’re not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, the National Enquirer was right about the whole Edwards thing, making the mainstream media look foolish for ignoring it because it was in, well, the National Enquirer. On the other hand, they reported in April that Elizabeth Taylor totally OD’d on booze and pills, so… We’re gonna wait for the Sun’s latest Nostradamus prediction before we make up our minds.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Kids say the darndest things

The nice thing about families is that they share, like how the Kennedys each get a chance to trash their storied legacy. John McCain, as everyone knows, is unparalleled when it comes to gaffes, but that doesn’t mean he won’t let his kids have a shot now and then.

Take official campaign poster kid Meghan McCain. The 23-year-old blogger is already misspeaking at a Jenna Bush level. Yesterday, she stopped by the “Today” show to plug her knew children’s book, “My Dad, John McCain,” which transforms the senator’s years being tortured as a POW into a lovely bedtime read for tots. (We’re starting to think Meghan didn’t really get the whole “appealing to young voters” thing at the strategy meeting).

While defending her dad and his campaign and, like, the totally awesome things he’ll do for the country or whatever, Meghan unfurled this masterpiece: “My father is obviously a famous war hero. No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period.”



You hear that, military families? Iraq war veterans? Quit your whining. You couldn’t possibly understand war the way Meghan McCain does. Which is why, once her father is elected, she’s totes going to be chairwoman of the joint chiefs and stuff.

But hey, at least she’s not 17 and pregnant. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.