McCain is being kind of tight-ropey -- he mentions "trained interrogators" to make sure we never torture anyone, but I am not sure what he really means. I totally get that he has a complete and real and very-in-disagreement-with-Bush anti-torture policy. But given what has happened in the last eight years, I need detail. I've been told too many times that we aren't gonna torture, only to find that, yeah, we're just gonna move the goalposts on what torture is.
Obama: acknowledges McCain's work on torture, works in some nice religiousy language about restoring America to its position as the "shining beacon on a hill." I have heard a lot in the last past eight years about how Bush has coded his speeches with a lot of religious allusions that make sense to evangelicals. It seems that Obama is following suit here. It's kind of clever, and not offensive.
Final comments: McCain goes out on a bit of a negative note, but maybe that is how America is feeling now? So does Obama, but it seems to build into his long-standing mantra of CHANGE.
Okay, I thought those were final comments, but they've kept on going for like five minutes. McCain goes out on POW stuff. The black, soulless eyes of Jim Lehrer wish us as much of a good night as such deep and aborbent singularities can muster.
And now the wives! Cindy like the red! Michelle is floral and adorable: florable. I am suddenly feeling very tender and affectionate toward Jim Lehrer and his notebook full of tabbed and indexed questions.
AND SCENE!
TAKEAWAYS:
Jeff: "I would like to be able to shout at the TV and not have everyone I know be able to read it."
Duly noted!
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As I begin this post, Jeff says, "Oh great, a little break in which to get drunker."
It is only fitting! A tribute to America, and her politics,
UPDATE: As a former Russian Studies major, I am offended that McCain cannot actually pronounce Sevastopol. Jeff has told me that mispronunciations of foreign names is part and parcel of these theatrics, but I am still grumpy.
UPDATE: Obama just mentioned "petro-dollars." For some reason this makes me unreasonably happy. Now, it's "wind and bio-diesel." I think an Obama presidency would be like living in an awesome Discovery Channel show. We will all have mustaches and build machines and live in hot air balloons. I am ready!
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Jeff: "McCain is pretty unpatriotic. He's not wearing a lapel pin, unlike Obama."
UPDATE: Jeff informs me that he actually said that "McCain is pretty fucking unpatriotic." I regret the error.
They are seriously discussing whether we should actually TALK to people. No, let's just move in elliptical, non-verbal dances around each other. Perhaps Ahmadinajad is actually a bee, and will understand.
UPDATE: Obama just smooshed McCain for not knowing who the Prime Minister of Spain is. McCain gave a grimace of the "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" type.
Meanwhile, Felipe Zapatero is crying in Madrid and asking his advisors why no one likes him.
UPDATE: McCain is trying to discredit Obama on talking to Iran. But I think he's overplaying his hand. Ahmadinajad is a clear loon; he talks a very bad line but doesn't put his money (or his maybe-nukes) where his mouth is.
UPDATE: McCain -- "The average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean." Um? Yes? Starving is bad? What does this have to do with Iran? Query: Are we being oppressed by the Dutch now? I hear they are very tall over there. Damn their tulips and windmills!
Jeff says I ought to conclude this post because it has become "breathless. It's like you're doing the 100-meter dash." It's a field day!
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NB: this furious blogging brought to you by Hendricks' Gin: Smooth and delicious!
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Oh noes! Now Obama is doing it. It's a duel of Moms Who Told Me Sad Things About Their Soldier Sons. Back off, candidates! This is not a duel that has any winner! The only way to win is to ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT. Not a strong point, y'all. You are presidential candidates. You are removed. You are not going to be bringing a casserole over, or driving the younger kids to soccer while mom takes a time out. So CHILL.
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Also, McCain says we shouldn't do anything militaristic in Pakistan. I guess he's trying to distinguish himself from Bush, who has authorized some awesome border skirmishes and stuff of late, but he also is mentioning dubious geographic areas like "Urzurufstan," which sounds like it's second star to the right and straight on till morning or maybe half a league south of Terebithia.
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Obama: uses the word "brazen." It is telling that the use of the word "brazen" seems like a vocabulary high note in this debate.
Also -- Obama just correctly identified something strategic, and then said "as I just said to President Karzai," like they play tennis doubles every Tuesday.
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Aieee!
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Typography for Lawyers
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On Saturday we slept in and got room service for breakfast and then achingly, creakingly rolled out to the Lower East Side for the Boog City Festival. We hung out for an hour or so and then decided to walk up to Washington Square to visit the Forbes Galleries, where you can see the toys of plutocrats' children. On the way, we checked out a bookstore that turned out to have a William James biography that Jeff wanted and a Joanna Drucker/Susan Bee artists' book that I wanted. At the Galleries, we learned that Kaiser Wilhelm specifically ordered the toymakers of Germany to make toy submarines, and we saw photos of Lech Walesa and Ronald Reagan (separately) peering at the exhibits. Then we went over to Sixth Avenue and got a snack which included an alcoholic milkshake. Then we walked back to the Lower East Side, caught some more poetry, and I read my poetry, and then I bought a dress with giant gold buttons with the Eiffel Tower on them from a store across from the reading. From there, we went to the Most Feminine Bar in New York, which had scented candles, a clientele consisting entirely of us and two bridal showers, and a continual playlist of 80s Madonna, Sheryl Crow, and En Vogue. There we met Shanna, and all of us walked up to the East Village to eat dinner at a cajun soul food place. Huzzah! Then Jeff and I cabbed back to the hotel, bought a bottle of wine and some chocolate, drank and ate said comestibles while watching football, and fell asleep.
The next day we got up, got to the train station, got on the train, and read until we arrived in DC, where I went shopping for shoes to go with my new dress, before heading up to Adams Morgan to host the first reading of the new year of In Your Ear. We had two poets and a filmmaker and it was very good. I had an ephiphany about my manuscript, so that was double plus good. Afterwards, I headed home and input all my changes into my book manuscript and also did some minor housekeeping on a chapbook manuscript and sent some emails back and forth and watched some football and some baseball and also caught up on a long novel that I am slowly reading.
And then I went to bed. Again. Whew!
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