PachyBlogging, Day3, Part XIV

Michael Reagan is a professional, and he’s a Reagan. Finally, some life in the crowd.

Pro-Life. I guess there’s no more hiding the babykillers’ choice-killing ways.

An adoptee? Damn, the Republicans will take anyone. Immigrants, unwanted children….. Heartless fascists.

Another Winthrop allusion. Criminey, how come the Shining City on the Hill gets more play than the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God phrase?

I will not comment on the video.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

PachyBlogging, Day3, Part XI

Homie alert! A rep from Wisconsin. With cattle on the backdrop. If only they could pipe some of that wonderful dairy-air into the Madison Square Garden.

He’s got a bit more energy.

Why do all the Wisconsin politicians have first names for first names and last names?

  • Gary George
  • Tommy Thompson
  • Tony Earl
  • Herb Kohl (Cole, okay, a stretch)
  • Paul Ryan
  • Michael Ellis
  • Gerald Kleczka

He’s trying to recapture a bit of Steele’s “But not John Kerry” mojo from last night.

He’s an earnest anti-Kerry bludgeon.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

PachyBlogging, Day3, Part VII

Why is Rob Portman getting more response than Elaine Chao? Are the delegates hoping to impress Natalie?

He’s a little more fluid of a speaker than Chao; he’s not pausing for applause that’s not forthcoming. You don’t wait for the response and hope your pause will spur it.

Unfortunately, Portman seems confounded by the role of the executive branch and the legislative branch, which is I guess to be expected when one’s dealing with the nomination of the executive branch.

America cannot win in the global business environment; it can only compete effectively, perpetually. Or not. The only way to win would be to amass all the world’s land and resources….

Hmmmm….

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

PachyBlogging, Day3, Part VI

Elaine Chao is pausing for applause that’s not coming. How sad. The delegates should drink more.

She’s doing okay, but her personal anecdotes aren’t connecting.

When mentioning the divesity in Bush’s cabinet and government, she gets a bit.

Unfortunately, she’s the Secretary of Labor, and she’s talking about education.

Poor woman, trapped in one of the more obviously superfluous departments and blending its mission with another superfluous department’s.

Bush not resting until everyone who wants a job has one? He’s going to look mighty haggard by election day.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

PachyBlogging, Day3, Part III

I tried to turn Owen of Boots and Sabers onto the CSPAN live Internet feed because it has no commentators.

Unfortunately, that means that all we get during the musical numbers is shots of people on the floor dancing. But that’s refill the booze time.

Now get off my Real feed, Owen; when I was the only one on’t, it was pretty smooth. Now that two of us are using Realplayer, it’s getting a little blocky.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

See What You Made Me Do?

So I get 1000 hitz and 1 t-shirt order? You’re making me do naughty things, including dramatic recreations of hypothetical situations wherein Jessica Cutler’s twin sister Monica were to model JC T-Shirt’s Visualize World Hegemony t-shirt:

Note that this is only a dramatic recreation, and no Visualize World Hegemony t-shirts were harmed in the creation of this dramatic recreation.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

Mail Call

Received an envelope with a touching flier featuring underfed, ill-clad waifs, and I was ready to write a check to whoever was going to feed those poor children.

Until I realized Sports Illustrated was offering me an opportunity to purchase their endless line of 2005 swimsuit calendar products.

What kind of sports do these foals participate in? Wearing a flag on their heads and marking golf holes?

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

That Makes Me a Baby Genuis

Neil Steinberg writes the following about the RNC convention in his column today in the Chicago Sun-Times:

One reason I could never be a Republican is their squeamish view of the world. Everything is dirty, or evil, or forbidden. I tried to watch the start of the convention with an open mind, and wasn’t even irked by the lone theme of the first night — Sept. 11 — as if the American people are too dumb to absorb two ideas in an evening.

During the montage of recruiting-ad-style tributes to the military, I tried not to be bothered by a guns-and-glory view of war that went out of style after Vietnam.

Then they sang the Air Force Fight Song. I’ve always loved that song, with its thrilling opening line, “Off we go, into the wild blue yonder/Climbing high into the sun. . . . ” Then they got to the verse, “Down we dive, spouting our flame from under/Off with one helluva roar!”

Only they didn’t sing “helluva roar.” They sang “terrible roar.” My guess is, a little bowdlerization for the Right Wing, with its horror of profanity, Harry Potter, gay marriage and all matters Satanic and things hellish, or even helluvaish. It’s a philosophy for babies.

With that broad brush, Steinberg demonstrates the “live and dictate condescension” philosophy espoused by…well, not all Democrats because I realize some are not like that. Perhaps we could narrow the focus to Chicago tabloid columnists secretly ashamed of their suburban homes. Or Neil Steinberg, anyway.

He gets paid to write a column knocking the Republican convention. I get to write all I want lauding it, for free, and I can drink all I want on the job. Advantage: me!

Someone who makes it to the end of his column, let me know if he:

  1. Kicks Bob Greene while Greene’s starting to get up from being down.
  2. Deploys the rhetorical flourish of so-called to earn his pay as a wordsmith.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

Good Morning, Middle Age

Yea, verily, I quote from the book of Bowling for Soup, and the prophets saith:

Debbie just hit the wall
she never had it all
one Prozac a day
husband’s a CPA
her dreams went out the door
when she turned twenty-four
only been with one man
what happen to her plan?

She was gonna be an actress
she was gonna be a star
she was gonna shake her ass
on the hood of Whitesnake’s car
her yellow SUV is now the enemy
looks at her average life
and nothing has been alright

Bruce Springstein, Madonna
way before Nirvana
there was U2 and Blondie
and music still on MTV
her two kids in high school
they tell her that she’s uncool
but she still preoccupies
with 19, 19, 1985

Of course, for we in Generation X, riding in the slipstream of the sonic Boomers, 40 is only the end of adolescence these days. Thanks, sixties generation. Now grow up so we can.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories