CheapThrills

I voted for Obama today – Absentee ballot straight to Lower Merion, PA

RyanB — 2008-10-10T13:58:16-04:00

Though I currently live, work and pay taxes in Boston, MA, I am still registered to vote in my home state of Pennsylvania. I plan to reside in the Philly area at some point in my life, and in the meantime I figured it’d be a smart choice to keep my PA voter registration alive and well.

Because, as we all know, Massachusetts always goes blue, and PA… well who knows. The potent mixture of conservative suburbs (mine included) surrounding the cities and a rural center always causes PA to sway back and forth like the neighborhood drunk.

So today’s the day I did my part in preventing said drunk from barfing all over our country: I sent in my absentee ballot. Give Obama a point in Lower Merion, PA! I’ll see the rest of my townsmen and women on Nov. 4th.

P.S. For all your Philly Obama supporters, he'll be visiting 4 neighborhoods tomorrow:

Change We Need Rallies
with Barack Obama
Saturday, October 11th
http://pa.barackobama.com/PhiladelphiaChange

Progress Plaza
1501 N. Broad Street

Mayfair Diner
7373 Frankford Avenue

Vernon Park
5789 Germantown Avenue

South 52nd Street and Locust Street
Public entrance on Spruce Street

The October 7th presidential debate, cocktail party politics style

RyanB — 2008-10-08T15:40:23-04:00

I've been covering the politics beat over at AOL's Lemondrop for a couple weeks now, writing a column called Cocktail Party Politics. It's basically a fun way of discussing a current political issue... I give a short recap, then offer up talking points according to your stance.

And, of course, what political debate would be complete without a complementary drink tip?

Today's post covered last night's presidential debate. I think my take on the debate shines through my apparent "unbiased" stance. This week's drink? "That One": No real recipe, just involves pointing to whatever the guy next to you is drinking and saying, "I'll have whatever 'that one' is having."

You can also check out last week's post on Sarah Palin - a commenter calls me "liberal trash"! Haha! Total crazytown.

"Kill him!", "Terrorist!", "Sit down boy!" - Sounds from the latest McCain/Palin rallies

RyanB — 2008-10-07T10:46:38-04:00

UPDATE: (10.9.08) Just found this on Ben Smith's blog over at Politico. Man-on-the-street interviews from a McCain/Palin rally in Strongsville, OH.

Secret Service is looking into the "KILL HIM" threat yelled during Palin's rally in Clearwater, FL. No thanks to the McCain/Palin campaign.

__________________

I attended two Obama rallies during the primaries. At each one, Obama made a point of praising Sen. Clinton for her many achievements, calling her a worthy opponent. At one of the rallies during this praise, someone in the audience booed. No words, no threats. Just a boo.

Some audience members chuckled. Obama paused, furrowed his brow, shook his head...

And flat out condemned the negativitiy. Like, denounced and rejected it.

So when I see stuff like this from McCain/Palin rallies, it royally pisses me off.

McCain, seriously? Someone calls Obama a terrorist at your rally, you take a pause, let the audience bask in their laughter and excitement, and then go on to condemn the "angry barrage of insults" that come out of the Obama camp? Really?

Oh, and let's not forget about that Palin rally in Fort Myers yesterday, where a supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

But worse yet, the "Kill him!" proposition that came from a supporter at a Palin rally in Clearwater, FL. Seriously?

It's beyond gutter politics. It's criminal.

A red-blooded American man's opinion on Palin (+ Tina Fey SNL debate skit. Hilarious)

RyanB — 2008-10-06T11:06:18-04:00

Concerning last week's VP debate...

I found these comments on my last post and felt they deserved their own space. The comments were actually written before Lowry's ridiculous "starbursts" blog post... is Lowry reading CheapThrills?!? ;)

From PDaddy -

When Sarah Palin winked at camera, I felt she was winking right at me and my heart went all aflutter. Maybe it is a guy thing, but she really connected with me. I honestly cannot see why any red-blooded American man would not want her to be the VP -- she can memorize the playbook; she is really pretty; she wears nice clothes; and most important, she stands by her (Mc)-man! She is the stepford wife turned politician...and what's so bad about that? (wink)

Yes, that pin really caught my eye (the one that wasn't rather continuously winking back at my Sarah), and oh, what a satiny dress suit! (...or suit dress, or whatever it is called) But even more than that, I was so captivated by her folksy persona -- when she spoke about Joe-Six pack it really resonated with me. (And my wife liked Palin, too, because she [my wife] is a soccer mom to my son, who, yes... plays soccer!). And, I must say that I was so impressed...no haunted... by Palin's stepford thing. Spooky and sexy at the same time.

I really think that it all got the best of me -- her wink, her dress, her lapel, her haunting stepford thing -- so much so that later, after the debate was over, I could not remember a single substantive point about any of her policy positions, save some vague stuff about her being a 'maverick' who's on a 'good ticket' with her man McCain. And that's a shame, because according to Ed Rollins on CNN and some other conservatives on talk radio, she really had a lot to say. I can't believe I am so shallow that I got swept away by her eye (not her eyes, exactly), her satin dress, he bejeweled pin, her folksy tone, her maverick image, and her sexy obsequiousness that I missed all the important things she said.

I'll post more from PDaddy sometime this week. On the topic of apes and evolution.

Thoughts on last night's VP debate

RyanB — 2008-10-03T10:22:00-04:00

I haven’t yet read anything from the spin room. I've only talked to a handful of people at length. So I thought this'd be the optimal time, before my mind gets totally corrupted, to give my short two cents on last night’s debate.

Most importantly – Biden kicked ass. He was clear and straightforward, but also honest and gracious. When he spoke, I believed every word he said.
Biden also showed tremendous restraint. I know that’s what he had to do, but man I really wish he had pounced on some of Palin’s responses. She flubbed names and circled the issues, and I really wish Biden had called her on it.
On that note – umm, seriously Palin? Winking at the audience and dodging literally ALL the questions? We must have heard about her energy policy 5 times, if not more. We know she governs the HUGE, energy-producing state of Alaska, but doesn't she have anything else to talk about? I guess not.
But because Palin sounded literate, we will hear the “she nailed it!” spin. Of course. So, Palin, bravo for stringing sentences together. You get a Reading Rainbow certificate of appreciation.
And I’m just going to throw this out there: How the HELL are we going to solve the environmental crisis if we don’t first acknowledge the cause of the problem? Logically, that makes ZERO sense.
The format sucked. Big time. It favored canned speeches and memorized answers.
Along those lines, with all due respect to Ifill, I really wish she had demanded that each candidate (Palin more so) stick to the issue at hand. I remember watching the primary debates, and man oh man Tim Russert really forced the candidates to answer the actual questions. I would have liked to see something similar from Ifill. Oh well.
And one other thing, are you kidding me with the “McCain suspended his campaign for the economy” play? McCain didn’t save the economy. He barely “suspended” his campaign, if at all. Can we just call that for what it was – a pure political play?

There’s my pre-spin room rant. If you watched the debate last night, what did you think?

Update: Ok I went into the Internet spin room (I had to!!!). And I found this awesome Palin debate flowchart.

Palin’s "debate bootcamp" lessons

RyanB — 2008-09-30T10:36:40-04:00

So this VP debate is coming up on Thursday. Quite frankly, I’m more excited for it than I was for last week’s presidential one. I think it's because Palin has been in debate “bootcamp” since last week, and I picture her standing in camo at a podium barking her answers at Beavis and Butthead’s gym teacher Mr. Buzzcut. That image brightens my day.

But seriously, what's she learning at this so-called camp? One can only speculate…

1) Maybe they're convincing her that the picture she claims to have seen? You know, the one of human footprints inside of dinosaur tracks? It was just an instance of witchcraft.

2) Maybe she’s forced to watch an endless loop of Ms. Teen South Carolina’s horrendous “the Iraq” answer a la A Clockwork Orange, just to burn the image out of her head. Because we all know her Couric interview answers were shocking similar. Can you even tell them apart?

"The... things like the terrain even in Afghanistan and that border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where, you know, we believe that-- Bin Laden is-- is hiding out right now and... and is still such a leader of this terrorist movement. There... there are many more challenges there. So, again, I believe that... a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq. And as I say, Katie, that we cannot afford to retreat, to withdraw in Iraq. That's not gonna get us any better off in Afghanistan either. And as our leaders are telling us in our military, we do need to ramp it up in Afghanistan, counting on our friends and allies to assist with us there because these terrorists who hate America, they hate what we stand for with the... the freedoms, the democracy, the... the women's rights, the tolerance, they hate what it is that we represent and our allies, too, and our friends, what they represent."

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our [children].”

3) But if she’s going to say something crazy, maybe they’re teaching her to at least back it up with a compelling image. Like this one.

4) And when it comes to actual issues…

a)    First and foremost, for heavens sakes don’t agree with Obama!
b)    On second thought, try to keep your mouth shut as much as possible.
c)    And if (when) you do say something ridiculous, just scream sexism and blame Biden/the moderator/the MSM for intimidating you. Mark my words, that’ll work like a charm.

Wanda Sykes on Leno Sept. 23, 2008 - "Jay, I'm a feminist. But that lady is crazy."

RyanB — 2008-09-24T13:25:20-04:00

Wanda Sykes never ceases to amaze me. She's cool with dancing on the street corner in a red wig and a ridiculous fake fur coat, she doesn't hesitate to slap sense into Larry David, and, best of all, she's never afraid to tell it like it is.

Last night she appeared on Leno to talk politics and just straight up BROKE. IT. DOWN. I especially enjoyed her description of the Republican National Convention - "it was like watching a meeting in Doctor Evil's lair." My thoughts exactly.

I'm a Lemondrop blogger

RyanB — 2008-09-19T16:36:38-04:00

I’ve been blogging over at Lemondrop, the new lady-focused blog hosted by AOL. More silly than snarky, Lemondrop hit the Internets two weeks ago to much fanfare. I’m psyched to be a part of it.

I cover the Weird News beat on Mondays and Fridays, and also have some features in queue. The first one was posted yesterday, in honor of Wednesday’s America’s Next Top Model makeover episode.

Definitely check out Lemondrop if you’re itching for a lighter, goofier side of Ryan. Because, though I know I can get mad serious up in here, my all-time favorite workout is laughing. Great for the abs.

Here's a run-down of my posts to date. Lemme know what ya think!

That time I was on The Price is Right

RyanB — 2008-09-12T10:59:41-04:00

Don’t believe Tony! Toni! Tone! for a second. It definitely rains in Southern California. And it was on one particularly flood-watered January day that my BF and I found ourselves on the CBS lot for a Price is Right taping. Because really, what else is there to do in LA when the sun's hiding?

After waiting around for a couple hours with some insane Price is Right fans (you know, those weird matching T-shirt peeps, or worse yet, the older people with “I Love Bob Barker” face-painted to their cheeks), we finally got lined up to enter the studio. On the way in, a few producers took groups of 20 for quick interviews.

I basically acted like a lunatic during that interview. Somehow, I knew that would get me called down.

And then the luck just kept rollin’ my way. Which I found infinitely hilarious.

Most random showcase EVER. Seriously... a saxophone? What would you have bid on all this?

Grand finale, complete with Grandmommy shout out. She watched the show every day of her adult life.

And there you have it. Feel free to make fun… I know I looked psychotic. Happy Friday!

Caught on tape! McCain gettin' dirty...

RyanB — 2008-09-10T12:48:13-04:00

McCain’s icky Education ad prompted me to dig a little deeper and find out the sex ed legislation that Obama actually supported. Here’s what I found, from McClatchy’s fact check:

As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12. But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

Republican Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Tuesday of McCain's ad: "It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls."

So I’d like to say thank you to McCain, for helping me to learn a bit more about my candidate.

But all jokes aside, this ad makes me feel sick to my stomach. Like, I’m nauseous right now. I think it has something to do with this screenshot:

What do we see here? Obama looking down, shirt ruffled, sleazy grin on his face. What do we hear? A voiceover discussing his support of comprehensive sex ed for kindergartners. And so, I wonder, what are we meant to imagine? That Obama is looking down at a little kid in a sexual way. And what are we meant to feel, as a gut reaction? Outrage and fear.

Well it worked – I do feel outrage and fear. Outrage that McCain would stoop so low as to dip into the Birth of a Nation playbook , and fear of the filth to come out of his campaign.

Gutter politics indeed.