Mania in Minneapolis

"You're going to do right by this little girl. Understood? And you're gonna help me become Commander in Chief, right? RIGHT?"
"Please, you're hurting me."
"I can't hear you!"
"Sir! You're hurting me! Sir!"

I just caught some of McCain's speech at the convention. It's fairly rousing. Maybe too much so. At the "what I'm fighting for" part, he called out members of the audience and recited some of their recent tragedies, while the cameras sought out these people who were largely either teary or stone-faced. The crowd of delegates applauded and cried out "whoooo!" These weren't really "whoooo" moments.

McCain's pick for #2, Sarah Palin, has been... Well, suffice it to say you've probably heard of her now even if you're not a political junkie. One question is whether she'll attract more women--and specifically Hil Clinton supporters--to vote for the Republican ticket. I can honestly say that there's no simple answer to that. Earlier this week I was marinating in coffee and sugar at Dunkin' Donuts and I overheard some normal-looking older women talking about her. They were not hostile towards her, but at least a couple of members of this group seemed less than starry-eyed about her balancing the presidential race with caring for a Down's syndrome baby. There's no uniform woman bloc, obviously.

Then there comes Palin's not-always-winning personal style, per Barry Crimmins.

How much Palin's primetime sneer appealed to the evangelical community is another question. There was nothing blessed or meek in her remarks and her only real mentions of religion were used to kneecap her opponents. What has Governor Palin's faith done for her other than elevate her to a place where she can walk on the stage at a political convention and say, "Blessed are the power elite!" She didn't discuss the beauty and majesty of Alaska, she belittled the places where tens of millions of Americans live. She ran a town that was bolstered by almost $30 million in pork barrel graft from Sleazy Ted Stevens but she disparaged the people who reside in places where fundraisers have to be done to buy rudimentary items like textbooks. And she's going to ride into office by dissing the people who organize the underprivileged? Well maybe.

Palin was also supposed to win over a lot of women who supported Hillary Clinton. Many of these people are mothers. Mothers say things like, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." This would have limited Palin to discussing her own family and John McCain's shoulders (Jesus, do they have a sign in the wings at that convention that reminds every speaker to mention McCain's shoulders, or what?)

Of course, mean is at least part of what she's supposed to bring to the table. The question is how well her particular brand sells this year. It's gotten some traction in Alaska, and this anecdote from her mayoral race in Wasilla is a cute illustration. (NYT article via Tom Hilton)

The traditional turning points that had decided municipal elections in this town of less than 7,000 people — Should we pave the dirt roads? Put in sewers? Which candidate is your hunting buddy? — seemed all but obsolete the year Ms. Palin, then 32, challenged the three-term incumbent, John C. Stein.

Anti-abortion fliers circulated. Ms. Palin played up her church work and her membership in the National Rifle Association. The state Republican Party, never involved before because city elections are nonpartisan, ran advertisements on Ms. Palin’s behalf.

Two years after Representative Newt Gingrich helped draft the Contract With America to advance Republican positions, Ms. Palin and her passion for Republican ideology and religious faith overtook a town known for a wide libertarian streak and for helping start the Iditarod sled dog race.

“Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. “But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first Christian mayor.’ ”

“I thought: ‘Holy cow, what’s happening here? Does that mean she thinks I’m Jewish or Islamic?’ ” recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran, and later went to work as the administrator for the city of Sitka in southeast Alaska. “The point was that she was a born-again Christian.”

You read that right. The good Gov Palin won her first race through the Ashkenazic sound of her opponents name and the suggestion that he and his values might be *ahem* foreign to those of other Wasillans.

So Senator Lieberman, how do you like your new friends?

From the archives

There are things I mignt blog about later on if I don't get too depressed about it. Right now I'm sticking with a topic that at least involves little wooden people dancing around.

Hungarian émigré George Pal was a gifted filmmaker and a visionary puppeteer--or vice versa--but some of his work may not translate very well across the decades. Or if you're going to enjoy it, you need to take into account the possibility of seeing things that are somewhat offensive. Here's a case in point, perhaps not work safe, but for different reasons than the usual NSFW warning.



Actually the question also occurs to me of just how much would a walking scarecrow and his talking crow friend be freaked by a haunted house. Look at yourselves!

But yeah, the big league eye-rolling and the "Spook" imprint at the end press certain buttons. Which they always did, but more people are bothered by it now.

Look beyond the gratuitous minstrelsy and it's still a beautiful piece of animation. The way things move when you know they shouldn't is miraculous.

Here's a later ('62 as opposed to '42) George Pal work, less obscure. It's a scene from The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.



Okay, so shoemaking elves have kind of an abusive group dynamic. Still, it's funny.

3D animation is quite commonplace now, of course. This is a different animal. On the one hand you see whimsy and playful motion. Yet in the occasional bout of shakiness you can feel the labor that went in. I at least have to hope--and I have no problem with computer animators doing their thing--that handcrafted animation survives.

Maybe not with all the wide-eyed golliwogs, though.

The big uneasy

It seems to have occurred to George Bush that if he had returned to Washington three years ago and taken his job seriously, he'd be something less of a pariah today. Behold!

Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney canceled scheduled appearances at the convention, determined to avoid appearing neglectful of the storm-torn region.

However, first lady Laura Bush did address the convention alongside Cindy McCain, the wife of John McCain. Both urged delegates to open their wallets to residents hit hard by the storm.

“I would ask that each one of us commit to join together to aid those in need as quickly as possible,” McCain told the roughly 4,000 delegates assembled in the center. “As John has been saying for the last several days, this is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.”

Quite right. In fact this is a time when your Republican hat would make it that much easier for the villagers to find you with their pitchforks and torches. Rome has been burning for at least six years now (that's an *ahem* conservative estimate) and now might not be the best time for a fiddlefest in the Twin Cities.

Brad Reed takes a good look at how the current hurricane and/or possible storm might be used, and he concludes it well.

Which brings us back to Hurricane Gustav. While it's unlikely that the GOP will totally undo the damage that the Bush years have wrought to its brand, the Republicans will likely attempt to show the public that during an election year they can at least try to govern in a manner that isn't wholly reminiscent of the Keystone Cops. Expect to see Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal giving us regular updates via satellite feed proclaiming that unlike in years past, federal relief workers are doing a heck of a job. Texas Governor Rick Perry will offer us heartfelt testimony from hurricane refugees grateful for the help they've been receiving. And finally, we'll probably watch Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour tell us that the government's excellent response to the hurricane shows that Barack Obama is dangerously unqualified to be president.

While you'd be right to call this cynical pandering, there are a couple of upsides to it. After all, assuming that the Republicans don't simply funnel all the money to Blackwater, it will be good to mobilize people to give money for hurricane relief. And let's face it, it is nice to now have two major political parties at least paying lip service to the radical idea that the government shouldn't simply sit by while its citizens drown.

Of course, it's nice that everyone will care a lot and say so. But it doesn't change the fact that years of not so benign neglect have made the situation in the Delta more precarious than it needs to be.

2 comx 2 luk n2 (sorry)

The other day the Globe ran a story on Maryland-to-Mass emigre Jeph Jacques and his creation Questionable Content. There are so many webcomics out there that it's a little difficult to stand out. It's a good thing that QC has succeeded where others have failed.

If Jacques' work is likely to be confused with anyone else's, it's RK Milholland's Something Positive. Both are set in the world of contemporary twenty-somethings, but QC is probably a little sunnier that s*p. The flights of fancy elements are quite distinct as well. Anyway, the world must be broad enough to accomodate both.

Very different, but well worth the time to seek it out, is Josh Pasto's The Other Kids. Currently "Kids" is showing on gocomics.com's Comics Sherpa service. It's there to get noticed, and may if it's lucky appear in newspapers in a few years. You know, if there are newspapers in a few years. Anyway, Pasto has a fresh and mordant take on childhood long after I would have thought that vein was fully tapped. As seen in the example below, he's also got a sharp and forward eye for design.

The way he keeps the upper right of the panel "clean" until he's ready to use it suggests a sophisticated Japanese influence. More power to him.

We don't get much call for it around here.

I'll be posting again this weekend, I think. Have to investigate current events a little more. Rumor has it that John McCain has named Michael Palin as his running mate. That's a good choice, because it gives him the element of surprise. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. But doesn't the VP have to be from here? And isn't Palin from Dutchland or someplace. Like I said, I have to do some digging.

Non-leaked Friday Random Ten

Looking up "blogger" on Clusty.com, I saw a report that a blogger had been arrested for leaking new Guns n' Roses tracks on the internet. That puts kind of a crimp in my plans. I was going to leak a new joint recorded by Jimi Hendrix and Tupac. (Yeah, I thought so too, but it turns out they;ve both just been lying low for a while.) Oh well, looks like I'll have to stick to floating titles.

1. Tom Waits--Jesus Gonna Be Here
2. Duke Ellington--So Far So Good
3. Regina Carter--Don't Explain
4. Gnarls Barkley--St. Elsewhere
5. Ruby--Tiny Meat
6. The 5,6,7,8's--I've Got a Man
7. The Who--Armenia, City in the Sky
8. Randy Newman--Guilty
9. Battles--Atlas
10. Tori Amos--Talula (The Tornado Mix)

Getting Mile High

I did happen to see Obama's acceptance speech tonight. It followed a formula, as they all do. But overall, I think it ranks as a success.

Barack Obama certainly comes off as All-American here. Granted, Appalachians and a lot of older voters may have different criteria--to put it nicely--for what's American and what ain't. But I think people watching at home, those who are somewhat open at least, can look at this performance and say, "What? This is the guy I'm supposed to be afraid of?'

The most important thing he did was to praise John McCain for valor in fighting for America, then ripping him a new one on just about everything else. It's an important point to make: the presidency isn't a military pension. "Thanks for goint to Vietnam 40 years ago" does not translate into, "Here's the missile launch codes. Good luck."

Obama also shot back at the charge that he hasn't put the country first. Of course as much as he was responding to McCain and his campaign, that part was aimed even more at Joe Lieberman, who'll be addressing the Republicans in the Twin Cities in a few days. Hey, if you can rally the troops by tapping their resentment of that sanctimonious wiener, go for it.

Finally, it was nice to hear wild applause for the speech's references to same-sex partner rights. Yes, the crowd might be expected to be a little more liberal than average, but I'd guess straight males are at least a plurality. A standing O for the nominee addressing "our gay brothers and sisters" would not have happened just a few short years ago.