The Party of Gigantic Sammiches.

The fact is bombing Iran must be done. Now. Otherwise they’ll develop more technology.

Fact is, the McCain campaign is testing us all.

We need to start a war and destabilize the Middle East so that Iran doesn’t start a war and destabilize the Middle East.

The first person McCain is gonna test is his arch-enemy, Jose Luis Zapatero, prime minister of Spain. (Damn you, Zapatero!)

First question on the test:

1) Uh, where did you say your country was again?

Karl Rove’s final bit of advice for John McCain:

From now until election day, speak only in non-sequiters.

Thers found this interview of nut vs. Biden:

McCain’s entire planned inaugural address: “Bring it on, bitches!”

I’m the one doing the testing! Not them! I’m the tester, they’re the testees! I’m gonna hold these testees in my hands, grab them by the short hairs and not let go.

Is that some sort of pizza sammich?

? ? Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. ??

Now, now, I’m sure you libruls have exaggerated McCain’s war impulsiveness. First he’ll test them, by sitting them down, bashing their heads together, and telling them to cut out the bullshit. If they haven’t done so within a reasonable period of time, then it’s time for the bombs.

And the period of time will be very reasonable, if that’s what you’re worried about. No less than a minute.

Yep. He’ll test their ability to laugh for days on end without dying.

I do not see enough gratitude on the part of John McCain for receiving Al Qa’ida’s endorsement. If he takes Al Qa’ida’s vote for granted, they may not turn out.

11 days. It took you guys 11 days.

11 days to Brooklyn?

Test them for what? Agent Orange exposure or Alzheimer’s?

The fact is, that interview with Biden shows the contempt liberals have for hard questions, reality and for Heartland Values. You just lost the election, of course, Obama will be desqualifed for lying about his birth certificate and for advocating Marxism.

In all seriousness, does anyone have any fucking idea what is with that monster pose? I keep looking at it and wondering what neurological or physiological cause would lead a member of Homo sapiens to do it. I can only come up with a) he’s actually a monster (is there a cryptozoologist in the house?), or b) he did it intentionally. Both open up a universe of more questions, more imponderable than the last.

You just lost the election, of course, Obama will be desqualifed for lying about his birth certificate and for advocating Marxism.

And John McCain will ride a magical unicorn to the top of a candy-covered mountain, where he will whisk Sarah Palin up in his arms and they will ride into the White House on the wings of a sparkly sunbeam.

The world could use more Marxism.

OT – Anticipating McCain’s defeat, Joe Lieberman is now trying to make nice with the Democrats:

“When I go out, I say, ‘I have a lot of respect for Sen. Obama. He’s bright. He’s eloquent.’ Someday, I might even support him for president…”

Ashamed as I am to admit it – although as a liberal I am capable of admitting it – I don’t know U.S. political history all that well. So, a question for those of you that do: have U.S. politics always revolved around fearmongering an Existential Threat, or is that a relatively recent thing? I remember the Cold War very well, duck-n-cover films and all, and in World War II there was actually a believable threat. Before that, I don’t know as much.

While I believe there are dangerous lunatics who can attack the U.S. as they did 7 years ago, I just have a hard time buying the idea that terrorists are any threat to the U.S. way of life except through provoking dumbshits like Dubya into dismantling it themselves.

I knew a magical unicorn would come into play in this election, I just wasn’t sure when.

In all seriousness, does anyone have any fucking idea what is with that monster pose?

It was deliberate. He was clowning around. Never a good idea when you’re running for an office in which, current occupant notwithstanding, dignity is an important component of power projection.

It was deliberate?

Well, where did he buy the clown tongue? All I can find is noses and shoes.

El Cid,

11 days to add the sammich. I’ve been waiting for this since day one, since the first time I saw the picture.

…have U.S. politics always revolved around fearmongering an Existential Threat, or is that a relatively recent thing?

I think there’s always been a strong paranoid element in American politics that’s fed on perceived dangers to the nation from foreign immigrants or blacks or labor unions.

You could make a case that the modern version – powerful cabals of evil foreigners bent on global domination – goes back to the World War II fear of Nazi Fifth Columnists. After the war, that morphed pretty easily into anti-communism, and forty years of Cold War hard-wired the theme into US politics. During the 1990s, neo-conservatives were quite openly casting about for a new boogeyman to replace communism, and seemed to be unsure whether they should concentrate on the Muslims or the Chinese. 9/11 settled the issue for them.

During the 1990s, neo-conservatives were quite openly casting about for a new boogeyman to replace communism…

I remember that. They seemed awfully lost without the Russkies to blame for everything, and IIRC some of the fringier ones were claiming that the fall of the Soviet Union was a ruse designed to get us to drop our guard.

Oops, that Ace was me.

During the 1990s, neo-conservatives were quite openly casting about for a new boogeyman to replace communism…

They tried very hard to make China the new boogeyman between 2000 and 9/11/2001. Remember all the hysteria about the Chinese taking over the Panama Canal?

I can see Armageddon from my front porch.

#

The world could use more Marxism.

I refuse to belong to any organization that’d have me as a member. Swordfish.

In all seriousness, does anyone have any fucking idea what is with that monster pose?

It’s some kind of release of tension. He wanted to explode the whole time during the debate so it comes out this way as soon as the debate is over.

This looks shopped – I’ve seen quite a few shops in my time, & the pixels just don’t quite look right … also, for some strange reason (a dead giveaway) the tongue isn’t forked.

Well, John Sidney McCain III is sure testing the heck out of ME … because even at this late date, I still can’t tell for the life of me whether he’s blowing it on purpose & systematically trashing the GOP as paybacks for the hit-job it pulled on him back in 2000, or he just honestly IS this ridiculous.

Hints? PROTIPS? Anything?

In all seriousness, does anyone have any fucking idea what is with that monster pose?

He was trying to walk around the table to shake hands with the moderator after the third debate. He went one way, the moderator went another and he made this “dopey me” face.

If you look at the video it only lasts a second.

Someone said somewhere (maybe here) that candidates like McCain and Hilary who grimace and gesture when they speak run the risk of looking foolish when a camera captures them in mid-grimace. Whereas Obama who always looks cool and un-ruffled doesn’t have that problem.

McInsane was reacting to a cue from his masters in Vietnam.

In real world, circumstances test you.
In McCain world, you test circumstances.

What a country!

Okay, really? Is he really saying that every other country and political power on earth is going to be too scared to fuck with him?

The fact that a Presidential candidate for one of the two real parties is spouting this kind of nonsense just drives me crazy.

So, a question for those of you that do: have U.S. politics always revolved around fearmongering an Existential Threat, or is that a relatively recent thing?

Pretty much. It’s older than the U.S. itself. In the 1630s, the big fear was that the Pequots (uncivilized savages who thought they didn’t deserve the atrocious treatment they’d received by assorted pirate traders) were going to murder the colonists in their sleep, so the big issue was when and how to massacre them. It also, just entirely coincidentally of course, resulted in the acquisition of vast new lands for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was completely unrelated to the formation of a rival colony in Connecticut. Entirely coincidental, really.

Since then, yes, North American politics has been deeply paranoid to the point of violence. Various Indian nations, the hated papist French and their Mohawk allies, for example. When the settlement of that war permitted the French people to stay in newly-English territory, the English Crown itself became the target of accusations that it was secretly Catholic and the True Christians of America had been stabbed in the back. And taxed to pay for their own back-stabbing, to boot.

After that dust-up, the American Revolution, paranoia spread to include any immigrants, especially those of that inferior race, the Irish, and any Catholics. The list of Native American nations out to destroy us grew longer to include the Cherokee and Creek in the south- so naturally they had to go. Entirely coincidental that the prime farmland they left behind became cotton plantations.

Speaking of which, paranoia about the dark folks working for nothing rising up and killing everyone had by this point been around for a century and a half. This fear of slave revolts led to assorted massacres and purges.

That particular fear is, of course, entirely unrelated to our contemporary goobers buying guns in anticipation of an Obama victory or the breathless anticipation of black riots should Obama lose.

Short answer: yes, fearmongering about existential threats have long played a role in U.S. politics.

Does Dafyyd ab Hugh know that John McCain stole his sammich?

Short answer: yes, fearmongering about existential threats have long played a role in U.S. politics.

Thank you. That’s depressing, but I appreciate the answer.

(SamFromUtah under the new nym.)

A census taker tried to test him once…

Mmmm…fava beans…

Loneoak:

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton: “John McCain failed miserably by erratically lurching from position to position”

Another five or ten Democrat Senators and Joe “War Gnome” Lieberman will be as irrelevant as anyone* could wish.

Speed the day!

*Anyone to the left of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, that is.