General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Happy birthday to Joe Biden, my brother and the best vice president anybody could have."
@BarackObama
ME: Joe, about halfway through the speech, Im gonna wish you a happy birth--
BIDEN: ITS MY BIRTHDAY!
ME: Joe.
Link to tweet
VermontKevin
(1,473 posts)yodermon
(6,143 posts)demmiblue
(36,873 posts)The Polack MSgt
(13,191 posts)This is all time Inception level meme bomb laying to waste all things interweb
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)where Polack is a compliment? I loved the movie "Inception". You made my word day.
The Polack MSgt
(13,191 posts)I never thought that the word was positive or negative, just a description
I know that some people think Polack is a slur - Mainly because of all the Polack Jokes back in the 70s and 80s - but it just means a polish person in Polish
One polish person = Polack
More than one = Polaki
BigmanPigman
(51,615 posts)Response to kpete (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Hekate
(90,758 posts)ucrdem
(15,512 posts)Not exactly flattering but still hella nice.
On a related note, I've been reviewing the Anita Hill saga from October 1991, before there were any Clintons on the scene, which is kind of weird, though many names are familiar. As best I can figure from the 1,032-page US gov transcript of part 4 (link below) and multi-part CSPAN video (the video is problematic but it exists), Biden stuck his neck out for Hill and the others, Angela Wright and Rose Jourdain, and gave Hill's account a thorough airing, with cross-examination by a friendly Democratic senator Howell Heflin of Alabama (that was then) and by unfriendly GOP senators Specter and others. He also devoted the last hours of the hearings to a very thorough cross-examination of Thomas conducted by Heflin, and got repeatedly whacked throughout by Thomas (who simply repeated that the hearings were a travesty, the allegations were false, and he refused to listen to or respond to the testimony), Orrin Hatch, and others.
The hearings were also crammed with witnesses insisted on by Thomas' legal team, which appears to have been large, thus the testimony of John Doggett III, who claimed to have a Yale law degree and other sterling accomplishments, along with Stanley Grayson of Goldman Sachs and a former dean of Oral Robers U law school, where Hill once worked.
The long and short is that Hill was closely interrogated, particularly by Specter, on national TV, which is more than most mortals would ever want to experience, and the other two women submitted written testimony but did not, although Biden explicitly invited them to, testify on live TV. Personally from what I've read and seen I don't think there was much chance of Thomas stepping down as he denied every word and Hill hadn't tried to find another job or reported the harassment officially.
I also found that the (inaccurate) conventional wisdom that Biden somehow insulted or defamed Anita Hill-- he did nothing of the sort and was unfailingly kind to her and her family in the testimony I've seen and read -- appears not just here but in online venues like Politico and Alternet, intensifying around primaries, particularly 2008. Making me think hmm.
http://www.loc.gov/law/find/nominations/thomas/hearing-pt4.pdf
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)I had also heard bad things about him during those hearings - good to know it's not true.
Hekate
(90,758 posts)It keeps coming up here, and I am so relieved.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)The CSPAN video shows that the hearings were difficult for Biden and the others, including Teddy who stays beside him the whole time, who had to hear themselves denounced as racists on national TV, and Thomas' behavior is appalling, moreso since he's turned out to be completely uninterested in civil rights. His defense is to play the aggrieved Adonais under attack by lesser mortals. At one point Biden is sharp with him, and tells him he shouldn't be angry at the people who are trying to help him, and Thomas answers by glowering behind his eyeglasses and bushy mustache, at which point Hatch steps in with a hypocritical platitude to change the subject. And that's how it goes for a thousand pages.
p.s. several DUers have wondered whether the Thomas hearings are worth revisiting, i.e. is there enough there to indict him as a serial harasser. From what I've seen of the written and televised testimony, there's more than enough. Thomas seems to have been a real jerk.