Fjord Moose: Palin and Parrots: A Spanking New John Cleese Forum First

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyNk8J1c8g

Let it not be said that you don't get first dibs on things. Nobody (apart from those nice Seesmic people and their friends) has seen this yet. You are the first. Feel free to crow loudly about how privileged you all are, copy it, blog it, and generally tell the newspapers.

OK? Happy now?

Oh, hi John!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot! Yes, we are happy now, at least I am very happy...

I love the way you cackle. It always makes me laugh.

And yes, anyone with a 3-digit IQ knows that Sarah Palin is a doofus, but gosh darn it, woodencha just like to have a beer with her and then go out and shoot some wildlife? Seriously, she's Bush in drag, except she does an even better job of garbling candid statements. But she can't just be written off, because she's inciting the lunatic fringe to yelling hateful threats and comments. It's an interesting campaign from a number of perspectives.

We've had 8 years of a drinking buddy administration. Time to let the so-called elitists have another go. (Except I don't think Obama is an elitist--whatever that's supposed to mean. Being able to hold your temper and speak eloquently off the cuff doesn't make you an out-of-touch snob.)

Hey, I'm a recovering fundamentalist too! Glad to meet you, sage62! I haven't read that book, but it sounds interesting.

Well, hello to you too! Yes, it's a wonderful book. It really helped me in my struggles about changing careers and leaving the vocational ministry. He's a very good author and still believes on God. He's just no longer a fundamentalist.

Thanks, jack

We are very privileged!!!

jack: didn't you wear that same shirt for the Q&A session?

Can't you afford new shirts anymore? Damn that Alyce Faye!

I'm sorry, i'm a woman and it's my right to notice these pointless things and have a good old nag...it's what i do best unfortunately...

I don't know...answers on a postcard please!

The crazy ties haha. I somehow can't imagine him sat in a suit and tie in that heat.

I should still buy him one. A tie, that is.

Michal Palin is not the funniest Palin anymore?! Don't miss the Sarah's Flying Campaign!

I tend to believe that other people would see the things the same way I do. I live in my own world where people prioritize such old-fashioned things as truth, integrity, wisdom, good. My little world is quite often shaken and I find myself speechless and broken. I guess I should have learned from history by now.

Sorry everyone, I have been constantly frustrated with politics and scared of public opinion.
Tilting at windmills can be quite exhausting.

You come to accept things being unfair a bit more when you get older. Well, you learn to pick which things to fight and which things to let someone else fight. It's not quite the same thing as giving up--it's just realizing that it doesn't all depend on you.

Just read this, from Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley (deceased):

"My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker, recently wrote in National Review Online a column stating what John Cleese as Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”: namely, that Sarah Palin is an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that."

Is it a coincidence that John just went online to say that very thing?

Buckley also says:

"I am—drum roll, please, cue trumpets—making this announcement in the cyberpages of The Daily Beast (what joy to be writing for a publication so named!) rather than in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column. For a reason: My colleague...Kathleen...has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster. ... I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is [my father’s] no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first."

Satan must be saying, "Is it cold in here, or is it me?" Because I thought hell would have to freeze over before I'd ever agree with a conservative.

Here's the whole blog, well-written, not too long:

Buckley

I got this, because I watched John's 1:22 minute clip on Sarah Palin, then saw a link to a video called "When Conservatives Attack", which featured Elizabeth Hasselbeck (a foaming-at-the-mouth conservative on "The View", which is America's answer to "Loose Women") criticizing Sarah Palin. That clip was posted by someone who said his last name was Buckley, and gave a link to the blog. There are quite a number of prominent or at least well-known conservatives coming out against the McCain/Palin ticket, and not just because of Sarah Palin. All I can say is:

YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!

JC's quick interview is all over the online news? Where? I guess I don't visit the right sites.

I can't find it anywhere but on YouTube. Did you mean the poem about Hannity? That's been all over the place.

Oh, the British news sites. I googled "John Cleese Interview" and only got the Seesmic link. Oh, I see--I should have googled "John Cleese Palin". That got me LOTS of hits!

Yes, it's a great poem, John! Well done.

All smiley
Very wiley
Opinionated highly
Never shyly
Often slyly
Sometimes vilely
Like Captain Bligh-ly
Bill O'Reilly


Nope. Definitely lacks the Cleese wit and accuracy.

Sir?

It's a good start, anyway, MrsThing!!!

Good morning, sir! Sorry I missed you.

You know, elections like this one are what prevent Americans from thinking about the rest of the world. That, and our natural predilection for analyzing everything to death. A headline like "Obama Takes Two Days Off Campaigning to Visit Dying Grandmother" is followed by a long list of "related" articles: pundits arguing about how this will affect the polls and whether or not that effect will change his chances on November 4; someone explaining in excruciating detail how McCain will take advantage of this windfall of public attention and what effect, if any, it will have on the polls and the election; and bloggers out the wazoo commenting on this latest turn of events. The comments will take the form of:

a) This makes Obama a better choice for president because it shows he has strong family values,

b) This makes Obama a worse choice for president because it shows a lack of commitment and too much self-interest on his part,

c) Angry outbursts of "How can he take two days off with less than two weeks to go to the election?"

and d) A few of the lunatic fringe rambling on almost incoherently about the dangers of having an America-Hating Muslim n****r in the White House who grew up in a foreign country (Hawaii)and who will never be a good president because he'll never be able to decide between his white side and his black side.
Etc.

Oh...! John posted his message right after mine!!!!!! What a honour!!!!

"AWK! Palin wants a country!"

How about Russia, dear? It's not too far...

Nice to hear from you again, Gungas.

I've been thinking about this for a bit. I don't think John meant to start the firestorm this thing turned into. Someone asked him his opinion; he gave it. He wasn't hosting a political discussion. If he had been, I'm sure he would have offered something a bit more even-handed and thought-provoking.

If John were wrong about anything he said, I might agree with you. But he was right: she *did* receive training on how to deflect questions on topics she knows nothing about, if I can believe the mainstream news media and the few bits of the debate I listened to. When called upon to ad lib an answer to just about anything, the best she can do is drop buzz words and mangle syntax. Some of her sentences are just strings of unrelated phrases. Perhaps "parrot" is extreme, but it seems clear to me that she doesn't have an original thought in her head about how to run the country. I'm not even sure she understands McCain's policies and ideas--she hasn't said anything of substance about them. And that's pretty scary, given that she's poised to become not only VP but very possibly the president. I've been reading about her, trying to keep an open mind, trying to find something that makes her more qualified than either of the other two candidates, and I keep coming up empty.

I think the real ad hominem attacks are coming from Ms. Palin when she says that Obama is "palling around with terrorists", and and from Mr. McCain when he drops the word "socialist" knowing that ignorant Americans will be shocked into voting Republican at all costs.

I didn't think John (C.) was attacking Sarah Palin personally as much as expressing his complete disbelief in her qualifications, to the point where he doesn't think she knows what she's talking about. He's not the only one to be incredulous that anyone takes her seriously. Quite a number of people feel the same way.

Including Garrison Keillor, who put it as eloquently as I can imagine is possible:

Keillor on Palin

Is Gungas joking???

Everyone to their own opinion i guess.

I on the other hand enjoyed the interview...but i find it somewhat difficult to get involved with the whole American election because i am not American and i don't live there...so to me...whoever gets in, good luck to 'em. And you Americans too.

A bit of election humor for the homestretch:

I try to keep alive John's thread!!!