Combat! - Page 343 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

Rand Paul volunteer kind of stomps on woman’s head

By Dan Brooks in Tea Party October 27, 2010 9 Comments

A volunteer for MoveOn.org who appeared outside Rand Paul’s Monday-night debate was wrestled to the curb by Paul supporters, one of whom kind of stomped on her head. Lauren Valle, a MoveOn supporter from Pennsylvania, arrived at the debate in a blonde wig carrying an employee of the month award from RepubliCorp, a trademark MoveOn established to emphasize the connection between the Republican Party and large business interests. She was pushed over and carried to the curb by several men—including Tim Profitt, who, after a moment’s hesitation, put his foot between her head and neck and did something between stepping and stomping. Video after the jump.

Joe Manchin prepared to shoot unpopular legislation

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government October 26, 2010 2 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJORBRpOPM

That’s a campaign ad for Joe Manchin, the governor of West Virginia who is currently running for the Senate. Don’t worry—it’s not 34 minutes long, though I am disappointed to tell you that he also does not have sex with a turkey. Despite that glaring omission, Manchin still manages to shock. He barely finishes introducing himself before loading a gun, announcing his endorsement from the NRA and saying he’ll “take on Washington and this administration to get the federal government off our backs.” Then he shoots a copy of the cap-and-trade bill. In this election year, even that is not surprising. What is surprising is that Joe Manchin is a Democrat.

Give him 34 minutes, and Kanye will give you a headache

By Dan Brooks in Being Cool October 25, 2010 6 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7W0DMAx8FY&feature=player_embedded

That, gentle reader, is the full-length video for Kanye West’s new jam, “Runaway”—34 minutes of astronomical bodies, explosions, savantish pop culture slant rhymes (“too many Urkels on your team / that’s why your wins low”) and fine-ass mythological bitches. Props to everyone’s favorite Meghan Gallagher for the link. I’m not saying that Kanye has entered his Use Your Illusion phase, but the first thing he does in this video is drive a sports car, and the second thing he does is discover a new form of life. You have to watch the whole thing to appreciate it, but in case you don’t have a half hour to watch music videos on Monday morning, I’ve broken it down into its salient points after the jump.

Friday links! Spades are spades, people are jerks edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links October 22, 2010 7 Comments

It’s been a fairly amazing week at Combat! blog, what with Christine O’Donnell and Ginni Thomas restoring our faith in the human capacity for stunning feats of public dumb. Amidst this epic stupidity, though, we risk forgetting the real defining human quality, the one that animates our daily lives: mendacity. While a couple outliers were garnering all the attention with their reverse phoenix act, thousands of hardworking journalists, political commentators and cardinals were churning out the half-reasoned opinions and appeals to popular prejudice that make the world go ’round. Whether they’re lionizing the dumb for the strength of their numbers, dressing up their bigotry as victimhood or forcibly conforming other people’s fictional worlds to their own, the stars of this week’s link roundup remind us that we can be dim pinpoints of honesty in a vast, formless void of dissembling. Or we could be on TV! The choice is ours to make, and one of the two options is winning in a landslide. Fortunately, we on the losing side have our frustration to console us. Won’t you yell at a screen with me?

Close Readings: Ginni Thomas on Anita Hill’s voicemail

By Dan Brooks in Close Reading October 21, 2010 4 Comments

In our rapture over Christine O’Donnell’s last throe of national-profile insanity, we missed the other transcendently awesome thing that happened Tuesday. At approximately 7:30am on October 9, Virginia Thomas—wife of Supreme Court justice and Coke drinker Clarence Thomas—left the following message on Anita Hill’s voicemail:

Good morning, Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.

Anita Hill did not go on to have a good day. The former metonym for sexual harassment and current Brandeis professor sat on the message for a while before turning it over to Brandeis campus police and, eventually, the FBI. Seriously, Anita Hill: stop snitching. More importantly, Ginni Thomas: stop being a crazy person. Your voice message is so creepy and weasel-worded that you are subject of today’s Close Reading.