#114523 by Unapologetic Liberal on 11/19 at 11:18 am: “This is the crap that will preoccupy the electorate - not “Senator Obama, please lay out, step by step, your actual PLAN for bringing the troops home…and then explain your counterargument to those who say we have additional responsibility to the Iraqis.”...”

This is what people have come to expect of politicians, UL. All they ever come up with is excuses. In reality, it is being taken for a ride - down a one-way street.

As lawyers are professional excuse-makers, and as political parties mostly have lawyers as candidates, stop voting for lawyers, uhh…......!!!

#114523 by Unapologetic Liberal: “Unfortunately, the mob likes a fight, so bottom-feeders like Novak and O’Reilly dominate our media, and make their millions distracting us all from the questions we ought to be asking….”

So, if we blame lawyers, we still have this to contend with…....... and it makes having a democracy rather difficult. But, then, is that what people really want???

The one thing about lawyers is that they always tend to tell their clients what they want to hear…......
Fantasies are sadly still very popular amongst the supposed adult population!?!?

Ocjim, excellent point.  The mainstream media will never give us solid, substantive reporting or analysis on these candidates, because there WOULD be nowhere left to go.  So instead, we end up with the same vapid nonsense every four years. Paper or plastic?  Boxers or briefs?  OMG, John McCain kina-sorta-not-really called Hillary a b*tch!  OH NO HE DI-INT!!!

This is the crap that will preoccupy the electorate - not “Senator Obama, please lay out, step by step, your actual PLAN for bringing the troops home…and then explain your counterargument to those who say we have additional responsibility to the Iraqis.”

NOT “Senator Clinton, how do you plan to get universal health care through Congress and how are you going to pay for it - not just the long-term costs but the initial overhaul?”

NOT “Senators, how do you reconcile your national security promises with your subservience to AIPAC and the rest of the unconditional-support-for-Israel lobby?”

NOT “What tax increases and budget cuts will YOU propose/enact, in order to counter both the retirement of the Baby Boomers and the Teenager-in-Chief’s 8-year credit card spending spree?”

We have great reporters out there, men and women with a sense of responsibility and a true desire to do their job and serve society.  Unfortunately, the mob likes a fight, so bottom-feeders like Novak and O’Reilly dominate our media, and make their millions distracting us all from the questions we ought to be asking.

#114377 by cyrena

“Still, if you’d gone through the piece, (which certainly isn’t LONG or complicated) even YOU would have probably figured out that Bill Clinton was NOT likely to be dressed in a blonde wig and an Anne Taylor wrap dress, pretending to be a citizen posing a question.”

“Then again, maybe not.”

***

Notwithstanding a lot of folks inability to read the editors preface: “Campaign-trail satire:” Found right there ... first three words ... count them, one, two, three ... One bright person got it right. Thanks cyrena.

Folksies ... this is humor! duh

If humor frightens and confuses you, don’t read it!

Now were you all radical so-called conservatives I could understand your not understanding satire, your not knowing how to laugh.

Are you?

Well if you are go over to one of those cwazy wite-wing-nut sites. That’s where you find attack lies written as fact!

Oh my golly! I just answered my own question. How else could you so easily see this humor as attack lies, and not get the joke?

Folks, there is help available. Join a Laughter Yoga class, http://www.laughteryoga.org/ Take large doses of vitamin C, [good for everything] and, stop sweating the small stuff. With time and care you may be able to graduate to Michel Moore, even understand Greg Palast.

Then the sky’s the limit!

By the way, I just heard Obama has released a statement. “We, my wife and I, never use paper or plastic. We have our own personally monogrammed shopping bags made from recycled hemp fiber. And lovingly embroidered with horse hair, recycled from an old violin bow, and died with the juice of cranberry, recovered from the cranberry jelly my wife made, from organically grown cranberries.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

Incidentally, no one should feel superior because they recognize the purpose of the satire or denigrate others who aren’t familiar with satirical writing.

Borowitz’s piece does ridicule the superficial pettiness wrought by reporting that elevates the vaporous and suppresses the substantive.

Neocon sniping seems to bring that out, while a real candidate analysis which filters lies, posturing, and distortion, would reveal the corruption of many candidates. It would serve democracy by eliminating the corrupt. Would there be anyone left?

For example, a Rudy-watch and Rudy-analysis would bring out the total hypocrisy and ruthlessness of a Rudy.

I can feel some sympathy for Hillary though she is not my choice for the nominee, most especially due to her equivocating on the war. Something that involves killing leagues of people and causing untold suffering is nothing to politicize. Obama is less calculating but still not offering an Iraq exit strategy.

At any rate, the rabid neocons have already done immense damage to our country and continue to chip away at it with their ruthlessly divisive strategy and their fear-mongering. It’s like total destruction is the price to pay for their victory. I would never enlist in that strategy or their war.

#114451 by echeola on 11/19 at 5:23 am: “I really think that humorous articles should have a separate section…... I think some of the readers don’t know this is SATIRE!...”

Oh, I agree…... but its part of Truthdig’s uncaring attitude towards its readers!?!?

The paper-or-plastic question is total mudslinging.  In fact, the diamonds-or-pearls questions was also mudslinging.  I say let’s just cut out all the crap between now and January 2009 and just swear her in then.

#Quote Andy Borowitz: “Chelsy Davy, Prince Harry’s girlfriend of three years, said she dumped the prince because “I got tired of explaining to friends why my boyfriend was always wearing a Nazi uniform.”...”

Oh, I thought that this was the main part of the article…........???

#Quote Andy Borowitz: “...a citizen who posed a question to her in a town hall meeting was revealed to be her husband, former President Bill Clinton, dressed as a woman….....

President Clinton, wearing a blond wig and an Ann Taylor wrap dress, asked Mrs. Clinton, “Will your presidency continue the glorious legacy of my—I mean your husband’s—terms in office?”...”

Oops, first Borowitz says “former president”, then he says “president Clinton” in referring to Bill, ha ha!

Looks like Borowitz can’t wait for the election and has upgraded Bill to president again….. or can people ever get him out of their minds for long enough to accept Hillary as her own person - and the candidate for 2008???

Now, about those supermarket bags….....

#114361 by Margaret Currey

Margaret writes:

•  Such trivial things the critics talk about, the paper or plastic thing, is crazy, what if you forget your bag, will you be charged a nickel like they do at the IKEA store, personally I like what Ms Clinton did carry it away in her bare hands.
Ms. Clinton knows that people are always trying her to see if they get her at gotcha, personally some of these people should live in the real world.
Poor Margaret. Might YOU consider living in the real world? At least to the extent that would allow you to recognize SATIRE (a form of humor) instead of assuming this to be a real episode?
Did you read the entire thing Margaret, or do you suffer from attention deficit disorder? Had you read the entire thing, even you might have picked up on the fact that this was intended as humorous satire. (since there word ‘humor’ above the title may have been too small for you to see, and too long for you to understand).
Still, if you’d gone through the piece, (which certainly isn’t LONG or complicated) even YOU would have probably figured out that Bill Clinton was NOT likely to be dressed in a blonde wig and an Anne Taylor wrap dress, pretending to be a citizen posing a question.

Then again, maybe not.

You scare me Margaret. That takes away the appreciation for the humor, which we certainly don’t get enough of as it is.

Far more frightening than that, people like you actually vote.