Monday, June 30, 2008

PUMAs are

Or not. I link, you decide.






additional reference


update: post title edited, h/t michael in comments

update update: post title changed yet again, as steve reminds me that rats are pretty darn kewl ackshully.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did "Swiftboat" become a generic term for Republican ratfuck operations?

Anonymous said...

Or "dirty tricks" if you like.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if it seems like I'm nitpicking but I just read this NY Times article this morning and it's stuck in my craw.

NY Times: Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

hipparchia said...

i saw that headline, but didn't get a chance to read the article. thanks for that link.

i don't think you're nitpicking at all. it's a valid complaint.

Archaeopteryx said...

As usual, your blog makes me smarter. And I can use it.

Steve Bates said...

How did "swift boat" become the term? I ask, rather, how "ratfuck" became the term. Personally, I think actual rats (and probably actual pumas) deserve better than to be compared with people who perpetrate that sort of crap. I once shared a house with a (caged) pet rat who was a far better creature than any of the Swift Vote Brats. Even pond scum does not deserve to be compared with them.

So, hipparchia, what do you think? Are the PUMAs primarily a GOP front org, as it appears?

hipparchia said...

[sigh... ] this political correctness is soooo hard to keep up with. but you're right, and since i have developed a fondness for lolrats i should make an effort here to do better.

hipparchia said...

arch, dude, if you get any smarter, we'll all have to bow down before you! but i'm always a sucker blandishments, compliments, and flattery, so awwww... gee.... [blushes]

Steve Bates said...

Thanks, hipparchia. It looks as if Amanda oversimplified matters. PUMAs come in quite a few varieties, apparently.

In any case, I am not one. My commitment to voting strategically overrides any distaste I have for Obama's negatives, and for a proactive civil liberties advocate like me, he does have some significant negatives. At this point, though, there is nothing more important than stopping McCain... nothing. Ask me again in a couple of years; you may get a different answer about my priorities... but I could never support McCain or approve of other people's supporting McCain.

(And now I must work around Blogger's CAPTCHA, which has jammed a w and a v together with no way of telling where they are separated...)

hipparchia said...

unreadable captchas: i just type in any old string of letters, 8 or fewer characters [copying your comment to clipboard first]. if it doesn't match the page refreshes with another one. i have trouble reading maybe 20-30% of them.

over-simplification, yep, it's a problem. amanda, and many others, completely marginalizes those who have legitimate criticisms of the process and/or candidate and who are willing to go some lengths to be heard.

i promise to not vote for mccain, but that's the only commitment i'm willing to make at this point.