Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

A great column by Steve Chapman over at the Tribune on The Subject I Just Can’t Bring Myself to Write About. Why? Because it’s just so depressing and it fills me with hopelessness. I know it’s fringe activity, and it should be treated as such, but…what was John McCain thinking, foisting her upon the scene and giving her legitimacy?

If her speech made anything clear, it’s that the shallow, ill-informed, truth-twisting demagogue seen in the 2008 presidential campaign is all she is and all she wants to be … facts have never been Palin’s strong suit. Nor do they matter because what infuriates her is the mere idea that constitutional protections would apply to “a terrorist who hates our Constitution and tries to destroy our Constitution.”

This is not some bizarre paradox. Lots of people who despise our Constitution — Nazis, communists, Klansmen, Alaska secessionists — enjoy its protections. Does she think the Bill of Rights should apply only to people who share her views? That would not leave much of the document she and the tea partyers claim to revere.

There is so much that makes no sense. So much that contradicts itself. So much that goes against everything I believe in and defies all reason and logic. And so it’s depressing because despite her very small group of loyal followers, the media will continue to cover her like she is Obama’s equal until she is eventually perceived that way by most of the country.

And then all bets are off.

No, I will not be commenting on any fringe groups or fringe activity here. We have high standards here at The Booze Cabinet! High, high, high standards. Now, off to another booze-filled picture shoot. This is Serious Business!

I’m trying to watch the first-place (?!?) Cubs finish this game that is now in the 12th inning and meanwhile Bill Kristol is leering at Jon Stewart and making me ill. Still, the Palin coverage makes it worth it, and now Colbert piles on. The clips I have seen of her speech today are downright surreal. A true wack-job for the ages, Sarah Palin. Here’s a helpful look back from Gawker (“Sarah Palin’s Gradual Descent Into Incoherency“). Best description ever:

It’s like Peggy Noonan, Jack London, and William Faulkner wandered into the woods with three buttons of peyote and one typewriter, and only this speech emerged.

The Cubs? In the 13th, still tied. Come on! Bases juiced, no outs, end it! Fonzie, gimme some redemption! Yeah! Grand slam! Whooo! Wow, that was awesome. Looks like they’ve done it again, they’ve sucked me back in. Damn!

I’m just trying to catch up with the world after the big long 4th of July weekend but so much has happened–Sarah, Sarah and Sarah! The brain is a little rattled, a bit loose. Good times up in Wisconsin, rocking Buffestalo with the very first performance of our rock opera and I have now thankfully shaved off the moustache that accompanied the set. It just seemed appropriate at the time, in a Burt Reynolds kind of way, or something.

Also, I see that the Donald Rumsfeld of Vietnam, Robert McNamara, has died. He lived a long full life, 93 years. I won’t get into how I feel about that, but it’s not good. And QB Steve McNair died too, which is weird. Murder-suicide? Yikes.

But Sarah! Oh, we hardly knew ye. What’s next?  I saw a tiny bit of her “speech” a little earlier on the telly and man, she’s gone a little nuts, eh? I mean, a little more nuts? Well, leave some for the squirrels and, ehh…I can’t even pretend to care right now, summerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

Be glad McCain isn’t calling the shots:

Every last statement he’s made–at least, those that I’ve seen–has been (a) fabulously uninformed and (b) dangerously bellicose…The point is, neoconservatives like McCain and Wehner just can’t seem to quit their dangerous habit of making broad, extreme statements based on ideology rather than detailed knowledge of the situation in Iran and elsewhere. This was always the main problem with McCain’s candidacy–he would have been a trigger-happy President, just as Wehner’s old boss, George W. Bush, was. We are well out of that.

Just imagine if McCain and that Wackjob Palin were in there. Jeezuz! That was a close one! Palin–hardly worth mentioning her ridiculous Letterman feud–we knew was unfit for the job, but McCain? He should know better. Don’t these guys know how to handle things in a cool calm manner?

Alright, I’ll mention that ridiculous Letterman feud. What a friggin nut, this woman. What a bullet we dodged with this one! And what an insight into the people who follow her, with this Fire Letterman protest that drew 15 people. Watch the video at that link and know that America is a little saner with these people on the outermost fringes and not in power.

But this is perfect, Dave’s Top Ten last night: Things Overheard at the Fire Dave Letterman Rally. I really hope he keeps on pushing this thing like he did when McCain canceled on him. Enough with the apologies, Dave!

Who did I call “the gift that keeps on re-gifting itself?” I can’t remember. But anyway, it’s now Sarah Palin. She just keeps on talkin’ and explainin’, and by talkin’ and explainin’ she really gives voters a chance to hear her talk and explain things that need to be…explained. And gosh, she’s cute as a button!

My first reaction when I heard that McCain was suspending his campaign was “What? Huh? Ha ha ha! What? Um… Huh? Ha ha ha!” And then he wanted cancel the debate? “What? Huh? Ha ha ha! What? Um… Huh? Ha ha ha!”

I can’t believe that anyone would take this seriously. By “this” I mean the campaign of brave John McCain and cute-as-a-button Sarah Palin.

Roger Ebert has done it again. Nice opinion piece on “The American Idol Candidate“:

I trust the American people will see through Palin, and save the Republic in November. The most damning indictment against her is that she considered herself a good choice to be a heartbeat away. That shows bad judgment.

I don’t watch American Idol or anything but I know how it works, and I know that it rewards mediocre talent. Who’s that guy, Clay Aiken? I don’t know who else, but that’s the point: these are gimmicky, one-and-done types of “talent.” As a musician I hate that on its premise, but really I don’t care much; it’s inconsequential. Top 40 has always thrived on such medicority.

This hockey mom is another story. Her lack of talent has consequences for all of us. That tool Charlie Gibson interviewed her last night and from what I’ve seen and read of it, she has no business running for dogcatcher. I trust that the American people will continue to reward medocrity and make this election much closer than it ever should be. But I applaud Ebert’s sentiment.

“We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby…”

The moment that I heard the word “decision” in regards to Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy, I thought, “hmmm, that sounds an awful lot like ‘choice.’” It appears that, after some consideration, she made a choice to keep the baby! What a great thing she was able to do: think about and then make a decision as to what she wanted to do about her very personal situation. It’s so…how do you say…American? Free. The way it should be.

While the Republicans fall over themselves tonight cheering Ms. Palin, let’s not forget that their platform–and indeed, her platform–is to take away that choice, the very choice that her daughter has been allowed to make, and that all teenage girls are allowed to make, in the face of a very difficult situation. How very un-American that would be.

Neil Steinberg, in today’s Sun-Times:

This week the religious right, with crashing swiftness, has rediscovered privacy, at least when it comes to the pregnancy of newly named Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s unwed 17-year-old daughter, Bristol.

“We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy,” said Palin and her husband, Todd, in a joint statement.

Why sure. Of course we will. That is the decent thing to do. But is it too much to ask that Palin — and John McCain, and all those so moral that they are overflowing with morality and need to impose a little of their excess morality upon everyone else — that they in turn respect OUR daughters’ privacy and let them work out THEIR own personal and gynecological lives as THEY see fit? Apparently it is.