That Cobra Thing

Some fuckwad bought billboard space and put up a picture of the Twin Towers burning with the legend: "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat". Really, it's a stellar example of what I meant by quoting the whole "can't think of conservatives like you're trying to rationalize their thought processes." (Hat tip to Pandagon, btw.) Now, I'm not being fair, this is one dude, somewhere in this land of ours is a crazy fucking asshole with deranged views on the left wing who'd come up with something equally inappropriate. (Like, gosh, since it was actually a Republican in office when 9/11 happened, the exact same image with a message saying "Please don't vote for a Republican" might be apropos. Except that it'd be a huge mindfuck to the sort of people for whom this sort of thing is persuasive, since that juxtaposition would run so violently counter to the acceptable narratives and idea-boxes we have. Disfigured and/or Iraqi children crying into the camera lens would be a more thematically appropriate leftist equivalent in our current political/theoretical/ideological lexicon of bullshit.) This is just one guy, and reacting to conservatism for this one guy is like someone not wanting to like Tool because he met some Tool fans once and they were massive dicks. Still and all, though, it's a...hmm...it does well to remember that this sort of thing is out there.

(And, to be fair, I've passed on the opportunity to go see Tool because I gathered a sense that the prevailing audience behavior at a Tool concert might not be to my liking, although I have to imagine there's also a lot of people who go stoned and just stand still hoping they'll play "Third Eye.")

Not to get all explicitly or implicitly contrasty, but here's Elizabeth Edwards on Tony Snow's death. During the primaries I was an Edwards booster until that became a non-viable option. I was, admittedly, somewhat uncomfortable with what Yglesais might call the "optics" of that alignment, since an ostensibly pretty liberal guy was rooting for the white Southern male with what turned out to be a voter base of conservative Democrats who were also white Southern males. (Of course, that was a good indication that voters don't pay attention to what the candidates are really saying, since Edwards was clearly the most overt liberal in the race other than somebody like Kucinich.) The best thing I think Edwards did for the race this year was push Obama and Clinton to the left a bit and, more to the point, get the Democratic candidates talking in specific terms about what kinds of reform they want to see in this country, particularly re: health care. Essentially marginal figures who run "to keep the other guy honest" and stay in it long past viability to try to leech their 2.5% of the vote or whatever always wind up pissing me off in the end because I think it's an act of hubris (and people who turn independent to do the same in the general even more so); the only politicians who have an honest shot at "keeping the other guy [or gal]" honest are the ones who also have a shot at winning. Edwards was clearly the distant third option, but a world in which he wound up the nominee was infinitely more imaginable than the same happening to Kucinich; you need to be of a certain stature to have the kind of effect presidential candidates like to think of themselves as having. Anyway. The second best thing is that I hope Edwards' second primary run solidified the status of his wife as a public figure. Elizabeth Edwards' piece on Tony Snow is classy and sweet and cool, if not especially interesting ("we should cure cancer! we can all agree on that!") but that she bothered to write it in a public forum is indicative of her intent to stay in the public eye, hopefully writing more substantive pieces as she has over the past year. I'm definitely not alone among former Edwards fans who'd say that actually we kind of think she's a lot cooler than her husband.