Political Theatre category archive

The return of the Anonymous twits.

Via Political Prof.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., considers the killing of Trayvon Martin, who was shot by a “neighborhood watch” vigilante while walking from a 7-11 to his father’s house. The neighborhood watcher found hims suspicious. Mr. Pitts asks:

Of course, the most pressing question is this: What exactly was it that made this boy seem “suspicious?” The available evidence suggests a sad and simple answer: He existed while black.

Now they are hatin’ at the NCAAs:

With Kansas State’s (Angel–ed.) Rodriguez at the line to shoot foul shots, members of USM’s band began a xenophobic little chant meant to rattle the star point guard. “Where’s your green card?” they said.

Translation: We Mississippians belong here. Do you?

He lives in Miami now, but Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico, which makes him an American citizen. They taught this when I was in school in Mississippi, but now there’s another, sinister message being pushed throughout the Southern states. Namely that people with Spanish-derived names and swarthy looks should be presumed outsiders. They must be made to prove their right to be here.

(snip the President of USM’s apology)

Saunders calls the incident isolated. Perhaps it is. But the chant arose the same day the Mississippi House passed a bill that will make life for anybody named Rodriguez or Ramos or Torres or Escovedo decidedly more difficult. Is that a coincidence? Or are the children taking cues from the adults?

It is unquestionably true that the xenophobia fostered by wingnut politicians has given bigots the green light. Why do they do it? Because hate sells.

Read the rest.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Daniel Ruth considers how the South weaves its magic spells.

In New England, presidential candidates avoid referring to “pahking the caa,” or what we should do about Cuber.

And out west, you hardly ever see a candidate from say, oh, Massachusetts showing up wearing a Stetson, because he would like a dork in the saddle.

But for some reason the South is different, transforming the hustings into one long-winded game of political kudzu charades. The problem was particularly acute for Romney, already widely distrusted for tailoring his positions on the issues based on the shifting winds of polling data.

(snip)

So there he was bouncing between Mississippi and Alabama, extolling the culinary charms of grits and pretending he has Loretta Lynn on his iPod.

To be a smidgen fair, perhaps Romney thought he could pull off his image as a Man of the Doublewide set considering Mississippi and Alabama Republican voters, by vast margins, believe Barack Obama is a Muslim and evolution is a myth.

After considering this week’s results, Dick Polman looks forward to Mitt the Flip’s campaigning for the Illinois primary:

First we must respect the slog. Illinois votes next Tuesday, and Mitt will surely be pumped! “I love birds. I especially love the northern Cardinal, your state bird. Its redness is the right color. And gosh, I love those Chicago Cubbies. And I love that song – how does it go, let me sing it – ‘My kind of town, Chicago is.’ And I love that deep dish pizza, yum. I have friends who own pizza chains…”

The US state of Nebraska is fighting to be allowed to carry out an execution using drugs manufactured in India, which the manufacturer believed were bound for sub-Saharan Africa for legitimate medical use. When this grim event takes place it will be the first execution in Nebraska since 1997, and the first ever in the state by lethal injection.

The drugs were-er–“misdirected” by a middleman.

The manufacturer wants its stolen drugs back. Nebraska is refusing to discuss to it.

I’m a confident that, if this involved a private person rather than a state government, we would hear no end of fulminating about cults of death and the like.

Details at the link.

Via Eschaton.

Karen Heller talks to some of Little Ricky’s professors about Little Ricky’s claim that Penn State was a hotbed of liberalism:

All three veteran, now-retired faculty members were stunned by Santorum’s account of the university politics and their department.

“Maybe he believes it, but he doesn’t have a very good memory,” Friedman said. “He wasn’t very conservative.”

The real story about Rick Santorum’s education is this one: “He was telling a story that isn’t true,” Friedman said. “It’s a fantasy,” Eisenstein echoed. “You’re in a political campaign and you’re dealing with people you can get to applaud if you tell stories about people being indoctrinated and liberal professors, but it’s not true.”

When I lived in the Philly area, I knew a lot of Penn State grads. When any of them formed a sentence with politics in the subject, “bid to football bowl game” was in the predicate.

Click for a larger image.

Via BartBlog.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., on the soul of contemporary conservatism:

That’s because what now passes for conservatism is less an ideology than an excuse for ideological rigidity, extreme language, shameless (indeed, proud) ignorance and situational ethics wherein the only thing that matters is victory and any tactic — fear, misogyny, bigotry, lies — is acceptable so long as it advances that goal.

Read the rest.

The San Jose Mercury-News wonders why Democrats do not adopt Republican campaign tactics. It asks

Why don’t Democrats just make stuff up too?