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Friday, July 10, 2009

Those damned things

What's Mallard raving about today?

Senator Boxer, name-calling.

The Republican slide into complete irrelevance due to their insatiable focus on petty incidents and infantile name-calling continues apace.

29 comments:

Factinista said...

Now Mallard's asking people to email in their own jokes. His sheer laziness continues to outdo itself.

Iron Dragon said...

Hmm, and of course this can't have anything to do with the fact that some people prefer to be called by a title other than sir or ma'am. Not to mention that this might have also been a reminder, depending on the nature of the interview, of the respective balance of power between interviewer and interviewee. IE if it was an interview/interrogation dealing with the handling of a military action, handling of funds, use of resources, etc. it might have been a way of reminding him that she was in the position of strength.

Also possible that he showed a certain level of condescension when speaking to other women when answering so she requested senator. Also possible that she did it as a way of seeing how rehearsed he was in terms of prepping himself for said interview (IE is he reading a script or giving honest information)

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

Tinsley can't actually call Senator Boxer a bitch or worse in the comics page--but that doesn't mean he can't encourage his readers to do so! That Bruce--all class!

Michael Foley said...

Dear god, how did a baboon get into the Senate buildi-- oh.

A fun game I like to play is: guess which internet picture Tinsley used as a source reference? It's always on the first page of google image search; in this case, it's the first result.

Anonymous said...

Iron Dragon said: "Also possible that he showed a certain level of condescension when speaking to other women when answering so she requested senator."

Bingo. He was having a grand ol' time of it, and I'm sure Tinsley was fapping away like mad to the coverage until the bitch got all uppity and forgot her place, at which point he completely lost his erection.

12xuser said...

Tinsley is going to get all sorts of great stuff from this; email after email full of hateful misogynist slurs. It'll be like his birthday!

The way she actually said it, it wasn't really disrespectful. She said "please" and "thank you", and explained why she preferred "Senator". A little touchy, perhaps, but not mean.

Unknown said...

When did David Bowie get glasses?

David in NYC said...

Not to mention the fact that there are actually rules for how people are addressed, given their title and/or position.

In this particular case, the correct form of address is "Senator Boxer". This applies in all situations except (a) the envelope address of written communication, in which case it would be "The Honorable Barbara Boxer", or (b) a formal introduction, e.g., at a state event, in which case it would be "Senator Boxer from California".

http://tinyurl.com/qva

I thought conservatives were supposed to be in favor of rules, standards, protocol, etc. Guess that doesn't apply when you don't like the person being addressed.

I wonder what this strip would say if Senator Boxer had referred to the General as "Mister". No doubt Ducky's head would be exploding at the thought of such denigration of our brave soldiers.

Jake said...

I gotta admit, the strip does make me want to call the Senator something different. How about "Sweet-cheeks?" Also, shouldn't she be grabbing the General some coffee or baking a pie or something.

Gold-Digging Nanny said...

Oh my God, guys! The military and the Senate each have rules for addressing people -- and they're not even the same rules! I truly think we have reached a breakthrough here.

Please. I remember when this happened. Dad was watching Fox at the dinner table. I had to leave right away. Fox announced they were going to talk about Boxer's gaffe next. Dad started ranting about how stupid Boxer was for not knowing military protocol. I asked what she had said, and he told me. I said, "That's not so bad." Dad said, "Some people think it is." Apparently, not enough people. I don't remember even Fox doing something on it the next day, from the shows I ended up seeing. This thing is so petty it didn't even last a whole news cycle on a channel like Fox that's dedicated to blowing even the tiniest missteps by Democratic leaders completely out of proportion.

Kip W said...

How dare she make a polite request that he use the approved form of address! [And from here out, everything I was going to say has been said by wavydavy, so I'll just talk about this cool movie I saw the other night. There's this nurse, see...]

Mr. FourDotEllipse said...

I went looking for the original quote, but instead found this final comment by Melissa McEwan on Shakesville which I can't improve on.

"Ultimately, the exchange was nothing more than a woman politely asking a man to treat her respectfully, and that man politely agreeing to do so. There's absolutely nothing controversial about it, aside from the fact that it still drives lots of people bonkers to see a woman stand up for herself in public and demand the respect she's earned."

rewinn said...

Tinkley puts GENERAL in bold and italic type (while omitting Senator Boxer's title) because he's just another reichwing uniform groupie.

MToje said...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I took Tinshley up on his offer: I suggested that he use "Senator" because, like any good conservative, he should "see people" and not gender.

fuckreagan said...

Tinsley is stealing from my posts. I used my vocabulary to insult him in a way he would not understand, he used an encyclopedia to find a synonym for kneeling. I gave him punchlines for his comic about Sarah Palin being on television, he requested jokes from his readers. I shoubd sue his ass--he must have lots of money.

Jazzbumpa said...

Rewinn - very salient point.

Michael -
Good catch, and really bad rendering.

There's another level that isn't apparent in the cartoon. Senator Boxer is on the Republican hit list. I get emails from idiot conservative of my acquaintance, and she, along with Speaker Pelosi are regular targets of their lies and whatever this Blallard shit represents today.

Anonymous said...

Mallard, for this liberal Democrat Senator, many words come to mind, but I will not use them. Barbie is a real "sweetheart" isn't she? Yes Ma'am!

CW in LA said...

Having lived in California for a long time, I've become a big fan of the senator's. And after Obama moves on to honored retirement in 2017, I would be delighted for Tinshley (assuming he hasn't drunk himself to oblivion by then) to witness her being addressed as "Madame President".

fuckreagan said...

I would love to see Jocelyn Elders in that role. She was a great politician with a lot of interesting ideas who was not afraid to say anything-

Frank Stone said...

The thing that stood out most clearly to me (apart from the fact that a transvestite glam rocker was standing in for Senator Boxer) was that, in true right-wing commentariat fashion, Tipsy provided no context or sources for the Shockingly Offensive Incident on which he was reporting.

This is how they operate, and how they demonstrate their contempt for their audience: stir up outrage by telling the viewers anydamnthing about them evil liberals with nothing to substantiate it, betting that the viewers will be too lazy and stupid to look it up for themselves (sadly, they're usually right).

exanonymous said...

Considering the US is barely above Kazakhstan on the gender equality gap index in 2007, there needs to be more people like the Senator who prefer genderless titles to emphasize the position independent of sex.

It's funny too, because the top countries are all Scandinavian, where a woman who should be addressed respectfully wouldn't hesitate to do just as the Senator had done. And the people wouldn't even blink. And in at least Finnish, gender doesn't even exist for honorifics or third person nouns.

Ducky is right! said...

So, is there anyone out there who believes that this would be a story if a male Senator had requested it?

It's been a while since I've taken a US government class, but as I recall, by design Senator outranks General. Whether he addresses her as 'ma'am' or 'Senator' doesn't change that.

Why not just say what's REALLY bothering you, Ducky? "Fucking goddamn cunt whore think she deserves something other then dropping to her knees to fellat powerful men"

Now we see if he decides to make a week out of trying to not call the Senator a cunt. It's Friday, so we might luck out on that one.

rewinn said...

I appreciate AnonymousCoward's link to the anti-Senator Boxer ad which clearly shows her asking for proper Senate Decorum in the Senate Chamber (in the Senate, you use the Senate's rules, no-one else's really matter.)

But why does Anonymous Coward claim to know words he can't say? Why? Being inarticulate is nothing to boast of!

And why would we want a Senator for a Sweetheart? IIRC she's already married; she no Vitter or Ensign or Coburn.

NLC said...

I think Ducky is right! makes a valid point, but I think perhaps the more valid question to ask is what would the firststorm have been like had Sen Boxer referred to him as "Mr Walsh"?

Rootbeer said...

To: mallardmail@gmail.com
From: rootbeer@root.beer

That's BRIGADIER General Walsh to you, disrespectful asshole...!

brashieel said...

Just to be clear, a Senator has more authority than a general in most situations. And in the Senate Chamber there are only one relevant set of rules. The Senate's.

A senior elected official chose to remind a senior military official that she had the authority. This is called "civilian oversight" and is very much a good thing.

Hibryd said...

Michael, thanks for showing us how Tinsley spends 30 seconds of his "80 hour" "mostly research" work week! Great catch!

Anonymous said...

Friday's duck-turd is up...and the preoccupation with something no person with an uninjured frontal lobe gives a pickled tit about continues apace. Is this going to go on all next week?

(Gawrsh, Ah hopes that don't come off as too judgmental or nothin'. Ah wouldn't wan'ta offend the delicate superintelligensia. FART! FART!)

Kahran042 said...

Please remove the hotlinks in this section. When I see them, I can't help but click on them, and the comments invariably end up bringing out the worst in me.