Political Theatre category archive
Colbert: “Romney Mentioned the Troops in a Speech” 0
“So Are You, But What Am I?” 0
Mitt the Flip goes Pee Wee Herman.
Twits on Twitter 0
If there is indeed a place for Twitter, it’s delivering one-liners like this:
Hey girl, let’s make our own secret tape! You hold the camera while I make fun of poor people.
— Paul Ryan Gosling (@PaulRyanGosling) September 18, 2012
Normal Psych? 0
At Psychology Today blogs, Steven Reiss tries to understand why Mitt Flips so many gaffes and missteps. He finds a possible answer in the obscure concept of “self-hugging,” the assumption that one’s own values are the best, not just for oneself, but for everyone else.
A nugget from the post:
Romney’s other value is himself. When he self-hugs what I call the need for acceptance, he projects overconfidence. Self-hugging a very weak need for acceptance makes people blind when others see them as overconfident. He tells us, “I’ll fix the economy ,” and is blind to his need to explain how.
Read the rest. It’s not pretty.
Neither is Dick Destiny’s analysis of Mitt the Flip’s appeal.
“A Uniter, Not a Divider” 1
Details at the link.
Fiction Imitates Truth 1
It would seem that the TV show Person of Interest, positing a giant surveillance computer tracking us all, is not all that far off the mark. The computer, though, is not called “Sibilance,” it’s called “Stellar Wind”:
From Raw Story:
The gigantic building is set to cost $2bn and be up and running by 2013.
It is being designed to store huge amounts of accessible web information – such as social media updates – but also information in the “deep web” behind passwords and other firewalls that keep it away from the public.
As an example of Stellar Wind’s power, Binney believes it is hoovering up virtually every email sent by every American and perhaps a good deal of the people of the rest of the world, too.
“I didn’t expect it from my government. I thought we were the good guys. We wear white hats, right?” he said.
Read the rest.
Sauce for the Goose 0
At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry considers Mitt the Flip’s foray into the birther nonsense. A nugget:
Last month, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, revived the giddy romance of the birthers’ obsession by making a little joke while visiting his home state of Michigan with his wife Ann. “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
That is true. However, it raises another thought: What the American people don’t know is not his birthplace but where some of Mr. Romney’s money was born and raised.
Oh Noes 0
Chauncey Devega has managed to tick off Fox News.
Birds of a Feather 0
One Pissed Off Veteran sees the kinship:
Mitt the Flip Truth out the Window 0
Dick Polman devoted two articles to Mitt the Flip’s foreign affairs chops (as in “chop shops”) this week. Both are worth a close reading.
Here’s a bit from the one on the Libya situation, which expresses Polman’s awe at Mitt’s flipping skills:
It takes a special talent to weave multiple lies into a single sentence, all while rushing to judgment in the midst of a fast-moving tragedy, but Romney pulled it off.
And here’s one illustrating that Mitt is still fighting the Cold War (which, in Republican revisionist history, was single-handedly slain by Saint Ronaldus and his magickal microphone over two decades ago):
So when you bluster in ignorance at an important semi-ally, and when you then double down by blustering anew in a radio interview (as Romney did earlier this week), you risk screwing things up for the nation you aspire to lead. Here’s how:
NATO, led by America, is engaged in a sensitive minuet with Russia over NATO’s plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. We’ve told Russia repeatedly that the shield is intended to deter Iran, not Russia. But Russia is wary of the project, in part because the most hawkish factions within the government oppose it – suspecting that it’s American trick to put a cap on Russian power.
So here comes Romney, again, pounding away about how Russia is public enemy number one …and guess what: his rhetoric has strengthened Russia’s resolve to oppose the missile shield.
Do you want this man’s finger on the red button?
