Not Quite “Clearing the Air”

Uh oh. The bizarre and increasingly erratic “Cain Train” to the White House has been abruptly derailed for the moment by past allegations of sexual harassment on the part of the former pizza CEO that surfaced in Politico over the weekend.

Attempting to definitively put the story to bed (so to speak), while fielding questions at the National Press Club today, the wacky book peddler and current Republican frontrunner emphatically denied that he had ever harassed the two women that purportedly received considerable financial settlements for no good reason whatsoever (and without his knowledge) from the restaurant trade group he once headed to make their “baseless” allegations go away…

Could be much ado about nothing, of course. Or, if one subscribes to the “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” school of thought, perhaps something more seriously damaging may emerge. Then again, a counterintuitive line of opinion contends that once seized on with cruel relish by the mainstream media, this scandalous controversy may actually boost Cain’s profile and credibility within the Republican base for various reasons that are best described as convoluted and perverse.

Boundless Irony on Route 91

A Miami police officer is accused of driving 120 mph on a turnpike because he was late for his off-duty job working security at a school.

According to the website for Florida State Route 91 (who knew that highways had their own websites?), the turnpike styles itself as “The Less Stressway.”

Visions of Hell

Imagine being stuck in a room full of jabbering Marylanders in their local Republican Club’s “Iowa Style Caucus”…

For what it’s worth, Newt Gingrich “won” the meaningless event.

Coren on the “Occupy” Protesters

Sun TV’s Michael Coren lambastes the “Occupy” protesters for being “spoiled children of privilege” that are needy, self-indulgent whiners and so on…

I have to admit to experiencing a considerable amount of cognitive dissonance being largely in agreement with his withering assessment of the protesters involved in the Canadian version of this movement.

Occupy Canada Tackles… Breakfast TV?

As part of a witless effort to “occupy the media”…a handful of OCW copycats in Toronto parade around in the drizzle with mostly unreadable signs in front of City TV’s version of “Window 7” as the station’s fluffy morning chat show gets underway…

Eventually, the hosts decamped to another part of the studio, City TV shut their blinds and had a chubby security guard politely hustle the protesters off the property. Victory!!! They “made an impact”…

True confession: I’m only posting this nonsense because the hypocritical wanker that runs “TheSecretStore” YouTube channel has blocked me from posting any comments there. Talk about ironic. This lefty truther nutbar is all about making the anti-establishment voices of the “occupier” protesters more visible, but on his own channel, he censors and blocks any critical opinion.

Rob F–king Ford v. Marge Delahunty

Talking to a group of reporters at his extracurricular gig as a high school football coach, Canada’s least popular mayor delivers his latest bullshit version of events concerning a recent encounter with the crew from CBC’s satirical 22 Minutes program.

Aside from Ford’s story seeming to be at complete odds with reality (e.g., it was clearly not dark outside as he originally claimed, nor did his petrified kiddywink seem to be present), more than anything this incident shows what an angry, humourless prick the guy is. I mean, seriously… what would your reaction be if unexpectedly confronted in your driveway by Marge Warrior Princess?

I really hope the tape of the 911 call will be released in due course.

Update: The right-wing perspective on this goofy incident…

Unsurprisingly, the conversation quickly turns into a whine-fest of pity for the embattled mayor who is supposedly being unfairly persecuted and ridiculed by the evil lefties.

Tale of the Norden Bombsight

Malcom Gladwell spins a fascinating story about the strange origins and ultimately twisted fate of a fabulously complicated yet practically hapless bomb-sighting device developed at extraordinary expense for the U.S. military in WWII.

It’s a wonderful metaphor for many things…

O’Reilly on Sun News

Charles Adler slobbers over Fox News star Bill O’Reilly in hopes of casting some reflected attention on his obscure Sun TV program.

I wonder if O’Reilly’s latest book will suffer the same fate as his last tome when copies of it were donated to a forward base of the U.S. military in Afghanistan?

He Carried Yellow Flowers

If you thought the “smoker” ad launched by the Herman Cain campaign was atrocious, well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet:

If, after having watched that horrible monstrosity, you can still regard the Herminator as anything but a joke candidate effectively punking the Republican Party, I’d be amazed.

Cain Targets… Republican Smokers?

In another curious example of the Herminator’s offbeat campaign strategy, it’s apparently now aiming to win over Iowan cigarette smokers to support the former pizza mogul and his “999” Plan from Outer Space…

“The message behind the ad was to our supporters that we’re on a roll, we’re excited about what’s happening. There was no subliminal message. In fact, I personally would encourage people not to smoke. It’s just that I’m a smoker, and so a lot of the people on the staff said, ‘Just let Block be Block,’” the Cain operative from the Koch Industries funded Americans for Prosperity astroturf group told Fox News.

“You walk into a veterans’ bar in Iowa and they’re sitting around smoking, and yeah, we are resonating with them. I’m not the only one that smokes in America for God’s sake. It’s a choice that I made, and was at the end of the ad,” Cain’s chief of staff said.

Actually, the end of the ad features Herman Cain revealing a disturbingly creepy smile that could have been spliced from an episode of “Criminal Minds”…