See what I did there? I borrowed a title from from one of Anne Rice’s novels and reconfigured it for this blog entry. If I had not credited Ms. Rice, I would be an outright thief.
See the image of Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams? That’s from the Columbia Pictures 1999 film Dick.
There’s a plot point in Dick that centers around a stolen cookie recipe. The origin of that cookie recipe turns out to have come from the back of a can of sweetened condensed milk. Even a suburban mother can be a dirty, rotten recipe thief.
Anyone can learn from mistakes and change their ways. Unfortunately, it looks like Mrs. McCain hasn’t learned a darned thing. Now, she’s moved on to stealing recipes. Perhaps you’ve already heard about how the John McCain website published a selection of “family” recipes and that one of those concoctions was actually lifted from Food Network host, Rachel Ray. The scandal made the news for a couple of days and the offense was chalked up to one of the beer heiresses’ interns. Silly mistake. It could happen to anybody - anybody that has a fortune, interns on staff and a husband running for president of the United States, that is. Surely a woman as “down-to-earth” as Cindy McCain would see the error of her ways and stop allowing her subordinates to sully her good name.
What makes this thievery so heinous is that Mrs. Senator McCain falsified a recipe for the Family Circle/Parents.com Presidential Cookie Bake-Off. Even more crummy is the fact that she stole a butterscotch-oatmeal cookie recipe from the back of a Hershey’s butterscotch chip package!
I gotta hand this one to Hillary Clinton. At least she knows better than to pinch a cookie recipe.
As we all know, Hillary Clinton was the task force leader for the Clinton Health Care Reform Plan in 1993. We also remember that the Republicans were blatantly hostile to “Hillary Care”. Congressman Richard (Dick) Armey said this about it:
(The plan is a) “Dr. Kevorkian prescription for the jobs of American working men and women.”
Not a nice thing to say obviously. Apparently, Ms. Clinton let that one stick in her craw because, as recounted by the New York Times, this was the resulting exchange:
Indeed, the only verbal blow landed all day was landed by Mrs. Clinton. Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the third-ranking Republican in the House and a staunch critic of the plan, told her he would do his best “to make the debate, the legislative process, as exciting as possible.”
She replied with a smile, “I’m sure you will do that, Mr. Armey.”
He said, “We’ll do the best we can.”
She said, “You, and Dr. Kevorkian,” bringing startled laughter in the committee room.
Mr. Armey recoiled in mock shock and said, “The reports of your charm are overstated and the reports of your wit are understated.”
I told you readers I would post photos of famous duos that deserve more love than any sham Unity Ticket. The Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are a trio but an Obama/Clinton ticket would be a trio, if you count Bill. How can we not count Bill? Hillary brings him up all the time - like yesterday:
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,’ she said, dismissing calls to drop out.
And thus we arrive at the qualities of the three characters, posted at the top of this post. The Tin Man had no Heart. The Scarecrow had no brain. The Lion, no courage. These are the elements missing in Hillary’s personality and I realized that with yesterday’s comment.
Look, I’m not saying that Senator Clinton is evil or a cretin and she is certainly feisty. What I mean is that she says crap like this all the time and when she’s called on it, she’s never remorseful, she acts like she doesn’t understand the fuss and she’s never brave enough to admit she was wrong.
It’s not that she drug one of America’s painful memories from out of the past. It’s not that I think she’s trying to project bad ideas into the heads of crazies running around the country. It’s not that I think Hillary Clinton is a despicable human being. The problem is that she said this thing in order to make a political point - like it some statistic she pulled from a book. She brought up this awful moment to justify her own interests. This is the part where she’s missing a heart. An empathetic person would find another example. A considerate person would perhaps invoke the year (1968) but leave out the whole and-then-he-got-killed part. A compassionate adult would remember that Senator Obama has two little girls and the last thing they need to suffer is a 72-hour news cycle, concentrated on the possibility that somebody might murder their Daddy.
Next is Hill’s missing brain. Maybe she’s not the fuzziest gal in town but the lady has a frigging degree from Yale. How can one person be so educated yet so clueless about presentation? This was tactlessness on a GWB scale. For all her consultants and advisors, nobody said, “Maybe you shouldn’t mention RFK”? This tin-eared behavior is a pattern with her. From the cookie fiasco to the Kevorkian jibe to the “Obama’s not a Muslim…as far as I know” remark. When she does it she is mystified by the negative reaction. Her lame apology for her comment yesterday is the latest example of how thick-headed she is about her gaffes:
“I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever…”
Last is her lack of courage. Sure, she’s tenacious. She digs in her heels and won’t budge. But stubbornness is not valor. Courage isn’t about fighting things, it’s about facing things. When Hillary Rodham Clinton stood up for modern women all we got was a cookie recipe, a failed health care policy and Monica Lewinsky. As a Senator, she had the chance to read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq but she didn’t. Instead she chose the safe route and voted to allow our president to wage pre-emptive war. She’s been asked countless times if she regrets that vote and not once has she expressed the sentiment without a caveat: “Had I known then what I knew now…” She could have known had she read the NIE. She might have voted her conscience if she hadn’t been so obsessed with political expediency and faux patriotism.
No heart. No brains. No courage. We’ve had eight years of that. We can’t survive another four with more of the same.
Vote Both, my yellow brick ass. If Hillary had been in Oz, she would have sold Dorothy out to the Wicked Witch faster that you can say Lollipop Guild.
Now both candidate camps are totally denying that they’re in talks. Jonathan D. Salant of Bloomberg News writes:
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama denied a report they are discussing ways of ending the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, including a possible offer to Clinton to be her rival’s vice presidential running mate.
CNN reported that aides to the candidates were talking about a resolution to the contest that would assure the presidential nomination for Obama, the Illinois senator who has a commanding delegate lead. A spot on the ticket for New York Senator Clinton is one possibility, CNN said.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs called the report “completely untrue” while Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee called it “absurd.” …
Hey? Remember that time that Lucy wanted to perform at Ricky’s club, so she devised a foolproof plan but it backfired? Then Ricky got real mad but eventually forgave Lucy because he loves her so much?
Lucille Ball was a woman who made inroads where there were no roads at all. She didn’t just star in her own television show, she co-produced it. She created one of television’s most beloved characters, simultaneously hilarious and beautiful. Desi Arnaz was quite the innovative businessman, implementing the three-camera setup that is today, a standard. Their production company, Desilu, gave the world classic programs such as The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, Mission Impossible and Star Trek.
Sadly, their marriage did not last. They remained fond of each other and that’s an amazing accomplishment.
Talking Points Memo has video of the Clinton/obama “talks” report by Suzanne Malveaux. Watch it here:
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are a couple of merry chaps that like to have a bit of fun with cut-up construction paper. Their delightful program, centered around a group of adorable school boys, living in a picturesque Colorado town is in it’s eleventh season. Mr. Parker is an exceptionally gifted song writer who gives Cole Porter a run for his money. Along with co-writing the shows, Mr. Stone gives life to a good many characters (Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Saddam Hussein and Leopold “Butters” Stotch”) through his vocal talents.
