Have a great idea for a caption?  Leave it in the comments section.

…when she could say nothing at all:

Can’t say I blame Rachel for being speechless. Governor Jindal squandered a huge opportunity last night with his “response” to President Obama’s address. I was a bit disappointed, too. I’d heard a lot about this popular governor; he has a reputation for wide support from the right and left, and is often mentioned as a rising star in the Republican Party.

First, let’s discuss style. Jindal sounded, to my ears, almost exactly like Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock. It was distracting, as were his strained smiles and awkward facial expressions.  He came across as unpolished and, frankly, when taking into account the content of his speech, almost childish. If he’s going to give President Obama a real challenge in 2012, he has a lot of work to do.

But the important failure here is in what Jindal said - and didn’t say.  There was nothing in his speech to indicate that he listened to the President’s address. This is a huge failure on Jindal’s part, since one wouldn’t have to hear Obama’s speech to predict some of the issues that would be raised. Instead, Jindal discussed, at length, Hurricane Katrina. He talked about his personal role in the unfolding crisis, but mainly focused on the inefficiencies of bureaucracy, following it up with a feel-good bit about Americans risking life and limb to help each other in times of need.

Jindal didn’t respond to the issues at hand. He started to turn the speech into a quasi-campaign speech, which might have been ok except that he didn’t really provide a path or a vision, instead relying on cliched platitudes about government vs people. I think the GOP probably regrets putting Jindal up for the response, and I think he may well have ruined his short-term chances for a GOP nomination nod.

Then again, an interesting tidbit from Politico (emphasis mine):

“Obama gave a polished performance, as usual. Jindal’s act needs a lot of work,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at California’s Claremont McKenna College. “His basic message was sound but his language was hackneyed and his performance was wooden. Fortunately he has a lot of time to improve his delivery. In the year 2040 he will still be younger than McCain was in 2008.”

What was your reaction to Jindal’s speech?

So there’s this businessman, see, in China? A married one, named Fan. But this married businessman also has a few mistresses, like five. He puts each up in an apartment and gives them monthly allowances.

With the tough economic times and all, the married businessman decides he can’t afford to keep all five of them, so he does the obvious: has a competition to find out which one to keep.

From CNN.com:

He staged a private talent show in May, without telling the women his intentions. An instructor from a local modeling agency judged the women on the way they looked, how they sang and how much alcohol they could hold, the Shanghai Daily said.

…because being one of five mistresses of a married man isn’t degrading enough. You haven’t really shown someone how much you love them until you debase yourself repeatedly, proving your worthiness to be #1 Girl on the Side.

So, how does the contest turn out?

Well, in round 1, a 29 year-old waitress named Yu is eliminated based on her looks. Yu shows her lack of malice toward Fan and the remaining four contestants by asking all of them to accompany her on a sightseeing trip. You know, one last family trip for her scrapbook. Amazing girl, Yu.

Tragically, Yu accidentally drives the whole lot of them off a cliff, killing herself and injuring the rest.

But don’t worry. After the mishap, Fan shuts down his company, pays Yu’s parents about $85k for her death, and cancels the competition.

Oh, and the four remaining mistresses, along with his wife, leave him.

The End.

I can’t decide.

Sarah Palin & Rush Limbaugh: media whore hog nonthreats, or legitimate conservative voices?

A big part of me wants to dismiss them, refuse to discuss them, will them into obscurity. This part thinks that the type of rhetoric coming out of these two mouths is backward-thinking, divisive, and sensationalist - and that discussing them at all helps legitimize this type of thinking. I’d almost rather ignore them than add to the growing pile of liberal outrage; it seems that arguing against nonsense makes nonsense appear to be a worthwhile position to take (because why bother arguing against it if it’s such nonsense?), and make neocons gleeful that they’re getting under our skins.

The other part of me acknowledges that the more voices we hear, the better, and that the marketplace of ideas works best when everyone can set up shop. I shouldn’t be so smug as to declare another opinion irrational or illegitimate. If I find something particularly repellent or simply wrong, then it’s up to me to say why in a thoughtful way.

And the cynic inside me cheers YES! when I hear ‘pundits’ ask if one of these two is going to be the new face of the GOP.  Media bashing and culturally insensitive remarks might make for entertaining (?) talk radio / interviews, but it’s hard to imagine a mainstream political following for either of their philosophies. So perhaps the more we help El Rushbo and Miss Wasilla in their endeavor to have all eyes (and ears) on them, one of two things could happen: they’ll fade quickly as people tire of their egos, or they’ll become the new faces of the Republican party and we can expect Dems in the White House for the next 16 years.

What do you think? To discuss or not to discuss?

Live in New Mexico? Val Kilmer wants to be your Huckleberry. According to the LA Times, he’s mulling a run for New Mexico’s governorship in 2010.

The 49-year-old LA native Kilmer is telling the Associated Press, in a chat over tea, that he’s pondering a run to head his adopted state. “I’m just looking for ways to be contributive,” says the movie actor, showing he’s already learning obtuse political lingo.

“If that (Santa Fe) ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I’ll run. I have not yet begun to defile myself.*“

Ok, I added that last line. But it may be prophetic, since the ever-confident wingman went on:

But given Kilmer’s confidence, any further political discussion may be unnecesaary and the voters virtually irrelevant. “If I run,” he pronounced, “I’m going to be the next governor.”

I’m just waiting for the debates so he can pull out his patented locker room jaw snap. It’s hard to refute that kind of logic.

*Bonus stuperb points for identifying the Kilmer movies that were harmed in the making of this post.