The Tweety Congress

I'll take the contrary view here.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer re-snarks Sen McCain on a tweet mocking the Oregon Solar Highway and it's a Twitter War?

There's only two remarks there. Of course, Earl's does win the "Nuke 'em From Orbit–it's The Only Way To Be Sure" prize. Sen McCain should know better than to lead with his chin like that.

But I've read the tweets from Rep Earl during the President's address to Congress and aside from the remark about Teleprompter Jindal, I found it all kind of banal.

Sen McCain's tweets, which include such semi-inscrutable awkward stabs at wit such as 150,000 for lobster research - similar to lobster managment?, see the sea turtles on your $238,000 Polynesian Voyage, and $900,000 for fish management - how does one manage a fish..., some of these bon mots separated by an hour or more, just leave me unimpressed.

Now, I don't want to be hating on Rep. Earl–I'm a huge fan. And I guess the thing about Twitter is it's all so immediate! But it just seems to be making the idea of knowing it all right now seems so pointless.

I think Twittering makes you kind of stupid.

"Oh, Stewardess? I Speak Jive."

Caucasians gots to be representin'.

And which flygirl doing it at CPAC?

Michelle Bachmann, The ExtraTerrestrial:

As Steele concluded his remarks, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann -- the event's moderator -- told Steele he was "da man." "Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man," she said.

Oh, my. How. Very. Awkward.

"Teleprompter" Jindal EPIC FAIL.

The previous installment dismissed the Republican response to the President's speech to Congress of last night as forgotten almost as soon as it was delivered.

That's the problem with swingin' for the fences; when you miss, the whiff of that bat through the air is nothing short of amazing. By all accounts, Governor Teleprompter wasn't just uninspired, he dropped a big, wet, steaming one, and was the most amazing misstep since Gov. Palin's "In what way, Charlie?". This was tone-deafness for the record books.

Of course, you'll expect us liberals to mock him (indeed, it's part of ROR's mission statement), especially when they found the best that they had was one of thier 1994 speeches to source from. But even the conservatives, the ones who've hailed him as the next Ronald Reagan, the new telegenic technocratic smart young up-and-coming and not-so-white face of the 21st Century Republicans, are pulling sour faces at this one.

I mean, et tu, David Brooks?

Kenneth from 30 Rock? Seriously?

I did see the thing (not surprisingly, it's somewhat hard to find even on YouTube). It was cringeworthy. From that bizarre cockeyed grin he had when he walked to the podium to the mawkish appeal to history to the corn-fried personal story awkardly linked to Republican versions of American values to the same tired appeals to fiscal conservatism we don't believe anymore, it was strike one, strike two, strike three, and you're out.

If I were talking to Gov Jindal, I'd console him. You see, them Republicans, they're a fickle bunch. Once you go bad, it's under-the-bus time so fast your head'll be swimmin' by the time you come back to half your senses.

The best commentary I was able to find comes from the New Orleans-based blog Your Right Hand Thief (read this first, then this one):

Jindal is getting bludgeoned for his candy-ass response to Obama's speech last night. It's sort of fun seeing Wonder Boy getting criticized so thoroughly from both sides. Honestly, I was surprised to see the reaction this morning. When I watched the end of Jindal's response last night (I couldn't help myself), I didn't think it was a disaster. Sure, he sounded cheesy because of all the "talk slower!" coaching he's received. And sure, Jindal is just naturally geeky. (I don't have a problem with him being a geek, I have a problem with him being a geek who decided to force himself to believe stupid things in order to advance his political career.)

The comments are even better and more biting than the above.

But one point I wanted to make centers on the sentiment, famously expressed by Tbogg, that Jindal's "presidential aspriations blew up tonight like a cheap condom on the end of a fire hose." I think those sentiments premature, at least as far as he's going to have a a chance at the Republican 2012 nom.

Remember when Sarah Palin opened her mouth and started "aww, shucks"-ing and "drill, baby, drill"-ing all over the place and should have been laughed off the national stage, but wasn't.

Bobby "Teleprompter" Jindal face planted last night.

But he'll be back.

You can mark those words.

Looking Into The Abyss: Et Tu, Bacon Explosion?

Welcome back to Looking Into The Abyss, our occasional series of forays into that altered reality we charitably call "the conservative blogosphere". Remember: When you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you. We look into the abyss so you don't have to.

Anyway, the storied Bacon Explosion, that example of bacon-on-bacon-on-BBQ cardiovascular and dietary violence that is obviously oh-so-sweet to eat, is actually anti-liberal:

This posting at a blog ironically called "Laugh at Liberals" (whatevs, dudes) hotlinks all the piccies (which you've all seen about a billion times at the original site) and how to put it all together, and then a list of awkwardly hack reasons why BE is such an anti-liberal food–reasons which seem to say more about the worldview of the writer than anything actually liberal.

Spaking as a liberal (with a surprisingly conservative diet) I'd like to try me some Bacon Explosion, but buying all that meat costs money, and thanks to a couple of decade of Republican Reaganomics, I just don't have that much right now.

And yes, I work. Full time. Just so's you know.