Blaabbeando reports that triple threat Ricky Martin (Hispanic, a parent and gay) is supporting Obama. In this all-Spanish ad, Ricky says:
Considera esto, somos 50 millones de hispanoamericanos en los Estados Unidos—nuestro voto decidirá esta elección.
(Take this into account, we are 50 million Hispanic-Americans in the United States – our vote will decide this election.)
This video, reuniting the cast of The West Wing comes courtesy of the Bridget McCormack for Michigan Supreme Court campaign–McCormick is the sister of West Wing’s Mary McCormack who played the national security adviser to Martin Sheen’s President Josiah Bartlet. Sheen is featured, as are Lily Tomlin, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and other favorite cast members.
While it highlights Bridget McCormack’s qualifications for the non-partisan judicial seat with rapid-fire, witty dialog, the video also points up a very important issue that McCormack wanted to emphasize:
The primary purpose of the video is to promote the nonpartisan section of the ballot, where the officially nonpartisan judicial races are listed.
McCormack said she was taken aback by the drop-off in voting from the top of the ticket — this year, the presidential contest — to the bottom where the nonpartisan races are listed. In the last 10 years, it has run from a quarter of all voters to nearly two in five.
There’s a shorter version of this four-minute video that leaves out McCormack’s pitch for bench focusing on the need to vote not only for the party tickets–whatever your party–but also the non-partisan sections. In Michigan and fourteen other states that’s where you’ll find propositions, judges and more. And while the shorter version doesn’t have an explicit message about McCormack’s qualifications–including actress Mary McCormack’s character describing the candidate’s sister (herself) as
whip-smart and incredibly hot.
Talk about meta. The script for the video was written by Mary McCormack’s husband, and captures–as well as playfully satirizing–Aaron Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue. Sorkin was not involved in anyway with the production of the video which the candidate says will not be aired as a commercial.
Rush Limbaugh has lost it. Completely. First of all he’s weeks behind TBogg who predicted the Batman Dark Knight Rises‘ villain being named Bane “it’s an attack on Mitt Romney” nutbaggery conspiracy. But with Glenn “Crazy Eyes” Beck banished to his own self-created ice prison of GBTV, someone had to take over the far right tinfoil concession. Check out this frothing rant:
Have you heard, this new movie, the Batman movie – what is it, the Dark Knight Lights Up or something? Whatever the name of it is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises, Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in the Dark Knight Rises is named Bane. B-A-N-E. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran, and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time, the release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental, that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane?
Uh, Rush, Bane, the villain, has been around in the DC comic universe for longer than Mitt has contemplated running for President. Unless of course this eeeeeevil plot goes back at least as far as Obama being born wherever it is the whackjobs think he was born and secretly groomed as president in a bunker by commies. Or whatever the heck these lunatics believe.
A little research on the interwebs easily disproves the insane Bane theory, but then Rush et al, including Juggalos for Mitt Romney would have nothing to bitch about; there would be no Big Hollywood/Comic Book Company Conspiracy. And basically their whole concept falls apart if one simply looks at the history and the facts:
Bane first appeared in DC Comics’ Batman: Vengeance of Bane in 1993, and was a character in the 1997 Joel Schumacher-directed film Batman & Robin. Bain Capital Ventures was founded in 1984, with Mitt Romney as one of the founders. R-money retroactively retired from Bain in 1999, was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, and ran for President of the United States in 2008, and now is the GOP nominee for the 2012.
So unless Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan, and Doug Moench, the creators of Bane, the DC Comics villain, knew in 1993 through Top Sekrit Pacts with Demons and the arcane art of necromancy that Willard Mitt Romney worked for Bain and was planning to run for President with Bain Capital as an issue almost 20 years after they launched their criminal character, this whole conservative soggy bag of chips should be tossed.
Here’s more from Rushboob:
Anyway, so this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there’s now discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful, and whether or not it will influence voters. It’s going to have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is going to be huge, lot of people are going to see the movie. And it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd. And they’re going to hear ”Bane” in the movie, and they are going to associate Bain. And the thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital, but Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie –”Oh yeah, I know who that is.” There are some people who think it will work. There are some people think it will work. Others think — “You’re really underestimating the American people who think that will work.”
Uh, Rush, guess what: You’re the one associating Bane with Bain, you and your fellow fact-check-failing freakazoids. In fact you’re perpetuating the concept, one that most likely a vast number of your listeners wouldn’t have even noticed if you hadn’t brought it up, you blathering pile of hyperlipidosis. Maybe you are secretly a tool of the Vast Liberal Hollywood Conspiracy! Stuff that in your vat of HagenDazs and eat it!
Oh and P.S.: According the the dictionary “bane” means:
A cause of great distress or annoyance.
Something, typically poison, that causes death.
Synonyms include poison, venom, ruin, perdition, and curse.
Actor Bruce Willis, a longtime Republican who supported Bush against Clinton, called Mitt Romney
just such a disappointment, an embarrassment.
In an interview with Esquire, the action star goes on to describe his issues with Rmoney:
Chin up, hair up. He’s just one of those guys, one of those guys who says he’s going to change everything. And he’ll get in there, and they’ll smile at him and introduce themselves: ‘We’re Congress, we make sure nothing changes.’ He won’t do it. He can’t. Everybody wants to be Barack Obama. And what did he change?
Willis says he doesn’t think Rmoney will win the election and furthermore, he
Considering this luncheon falls on my birthday, I think a pair of tickets to this Beverly Hills fundraiser would be a really nice gift. Or just taking me as your date. You could bring someone else to the Democratic Convention, since we probably don’t know each other well enough to share a hotel room.
Obummer’s calculated personal decision to support marriage equality (the day after North Carolina voted against it) is also expected to raise money. Oscar winning writer Dustin Lance Black, who previously was so angered by the President’s lack of action on LGBT issues that he spoke about sitting out this election (bad idea, everyone should go to the polls and vote for their local ticket!), is thinking about holding an all-star LGBT fundraiser for Obama and said
I am moving from a position of little enthusiasm to a position of strong support, and that means you will see me contributing financially and repeating my efforts of 2008 by knocking on doors in states where he wants me to knock on doors. When you ask for something big and you get it, you have to show your gratitude.
Obama is the first Democratic president since Harry Truman to assert state’s rights. Dustin, please research what that phrase actually means. Because it kinda sucks. Massively.
At least Obama has a sense of humor plus some timing and delivery, which is more than can be said about Rmoney, Frothy Santorum, the Gin Grinch, or Grandpa Ron Paul. Or for that matter, Sarah Palin who wooden delivery on the Today Show, coupled with her grating voice, and robotic repetition of
socialist policies
was tragic. Fred Karger is funny and as a former actor can deliver witty remarks, but MSM forgets he’s running. Here’s what Obama said today:
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please have a seat. Well, good afternoon, and thank you to Dean Singleton and the board of the Associated Press for inviting me here today. It is a pleasure to speak to all of you — and to have a microphone that I can see. (Laughter.) Feel free to transmit any of this to Vladimir if you see him. (Laughter.)
Clearly, we’re already in the beginning months of another long, lively election year. There will be gaffes and minor controversies, be hot mics and Etch-a-Sketch moments. You will cover every word that we say, and we will complain vociferously about the unflattering words that you write — unless, of course, you’re writing about the other guy — in which case, good job. (Laughter.)
Rick Santorum is seeking to strike Wisconsin voters the right way by incorporating bowling terms into speeches, showing up at bowling lanes three times in five days and telling reporters:
Well, I always try to make campaigning fun and do things that are, you know, along the way, and get a chance to meet people in sort of normal settings instead of in rallies or structured events.
But when Frothy Santorum stopped to perform in an alley in La Crosse, he suddenly got controlling. According to Reuters reporter Sam Youngman, Santorum said to a young man bowling with him:
You’re not gonna use that pink ball. We’re not gonna let you do that. Not on camera.
Wait, what exactly is wrong with a pink bowling ball? And what if that bowling ball was the one closest in weight for the guy’s playing needs? Is this what we have to look forward to if Frothy Santorum is elected–the government telling us what color balls we can play with? That men can’t stick their fingers into something pink?
Santorum then added:
Friend don’t let friends use pink balls.
Oh Rick, I beg to differ. My friend lets me use his.
Ron Jeremy is more honest than most of the candidates running for president! And a far more wholesome candidate than Mitt, Newt or Randall Terry:
Terry, who founded the Operation Rescue organisation that came to prominence by blockading abortion clinics and has been jailed for his activities, registered as a Democratic presidential candidate against Barack Obama in order to use a federal law that requires television stations to air political adverts uncensored within 45 days of a primary or general election.
