Political Theatre category archive

Dr. Gerry Mander explains British manners to Mitt the Flip the Brits the bird:

Dear Mitt

It is not uncommon for Americans visiting Britain to be surprised at the extent of cultural difference between us. You say sidewalk, we say pavement. Our pants are something you wear underneath your pants. But when it comes to transatlantic diplomacy, the important thing to bear in mind is that, in this country, when you are invited to a “tea party”, it means a polite exchange of anodyne chat over a hot beverage brewed from leaves, not a deranged nationalist cult based around hatred of government, guns and religious fanaticism.

Follow the link for more advice from Dr. Mander.

Alyona explains how Mitt the Flip off the Brits distracted from real news about real Frackers.

You are the puppet, they are the strings.

President Obama explains something beyond the kin of Wingnut World: Society is, well, societal.

Too true to be funny:

Via Delaware Liberal, where Jason 330 points out in the comments:

This shows how tough it is to satirize the Club for Growth and their flunkies in the GOP. It would only take a few minor word choice changes in the script to make that conform tot he prevailing wingnut talking points.

I remember sitting on the swing on the side porch in the late ’50s, after reading some apocalyptic article in Readers Digest, thinking that it was good that I lived within 40 miles of the largest military complex in the world, since the firewall from the nuclear bomb would take us out and we wouldn’t have to worry about the aftermath of World War III.

The Cold War was entering the chilly stasis where it would remain for the next three decades. The United States and the Soviet Union had recently had dueling “atmospheric” H-bomb tests. The Korean stalemate had not yet solidified and the failed revolution in Hungary was a recent event. “Who lost China” was a political bludgeon in campaigns (as if China had ever been ours to lose), and Ike was sending the first “advisors” to Viet Nam.

Trudy Rubin considers Mitt the Flip’s foreign policy statements, then wonders whether he is still sitting on that swing, lost in the past.

Romney’s foreign affairs statements have a Rip Van Winkle quality, as if he had just emerged from a sleep of two decades. His cold war language suits the bipolar world of the 20th century, not the current era.

One telling example: Earlier this year, he made the stunning claim that Russia was “our number-one geopolitical foe,” prompting former Secretary of State Colin Powell to comment, “C’mon, Mitt, think. That isn’t the case.”

Romney’s cold war mind-set prevents him from coming to grips with the major global problems he would have to deal with. In October, in a major foreign policy speech, he insisted: “This century must be an American century. In an American century, America leads the free world, and the free world leads the entire world.”

Can you buy your own twits-to-go?

(George Smith’s experience leads him to believe so. See his comment here.)

Raj Pate:

There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kld’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.

After all, out of sight is out of mind.

Rachel Maddow parses the prevarication.

Via Raw Story.

There are seven million stories in the naked airport: Alyona reacts to this story. Also, in part two, the there’s one born every minute dept.

Scrapple, you will recall, is made from the bits that didn’t make the cut for sausage.

Warning: Good taste shortage (in the video, not in scrapple, at least, not in Habersett brand scrapple; Rapa brand wouldn’t make the cut for Habersett, but that’s another issue).

I don’t think the old boy thought through the implications of his remark. From TPM:

McCain says he didn’t pass over Romney for Veep because of anything to do with taxes. It was because “Sarah Palin was the better candidate.”