Propeller Week In Review: April 24, 2008 — Apr 24th 2008

By James Marcus

BUSH LEAGUE

With the primary contests at center stage, George W. Bush hasn't gotten much attention from the Propeller community in recent months. This week, however, he led our Top Twenty with "Disapproval of Bush Breaks Record," which bagged 236 votes and 332 comments. Radiofreeeuropa had some sarcastic props for the president: "Congratulations to Dubya! The lowest approval in the history of poll taking! He can add this triumph to the recent poll of 109 historians in which 98% viewed his presidency as a failure." UnusualSuspect seconded that emotion: "A 'downhill racer,' to be sure... and we still have 9 months to go. In the immortal words of Chubby Checker, 'How low can we go?'" Yet there were a handful of pro-Bush comments to be found, including this hopeful calculation from libsRfunny: "Yet Congressional ratings consistently lag even lower. Looks like a plurality prefers Bush." Another member, dearpru, wasn't buying: "Not having a simple majority doesn't matter; what matters is that we're having a dialectic in our party, while the RNC is merely sharpening their knives and beating the bushes (not the right ones, unfortunately) to get out money for their Swift Boat effort to sink whomever is the Democratic contender."

PLAINS SPEAKING

Meanwhile, former president Jimmy Carter was getting decidedly mixed reviews for his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. "Carter: Hamas will accept Israel" racked up 179 votes and 378 comments, including this assessment from rdy2rck: "Carter has the right to do what he wants, but there are inherent dangers in being an unofficial emissary, especially [when you're] an ex-president." Another member, tanglang, was more blunt in his disapproval: "Look at the destruction [Carter] caused to Africa by 'validating' the elections of dictators who cut off the arms of people who said they would vote against him. Look at the fact that he is responsible for the nuclear N Korea we have today. I don't trust Carter, or believe one peanut-farming thing that comes out of his [mouth]." Replied lfergie812: "Carter was a religious man when Bush Jr was pickling his brain with alcohol." And Tangent001 was also willing to give Carter a chance: "I'd have to say there's plenty of room between naivety and pure cynicism for Carter to operate. The worst anyone can do is just give up." Meanwhile, KvilleTX counseled patience: "Not so fast, let's see some results. Remember, some of us have been watching this street fight for 4-5 decades."

PROVIDE, PROVIDE

"Food Rationing Happening in the United States" generated 124 votes, 171 comments, and a spirited debate about whether such shortages were actually a major problem in this country. Grrr dismissed the whole crisis as a scam: "It's not becoming harder to feed everyone, it's becoming easier to scare people, manipulate shortages, and fix prices." An even more skeptical response came from simonsez: "The only people starving in the US are fashion models." Other members took the crisis more seriously. For capecoraIM, there were multiple factors worldwide, including climate shifts down under: "The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December." And normallysilent proposed a grassroots approach: "It would help if everyone did like they were asked to do back during WW2. Plant those gardens. Provide for yourself a little. Help take the load off the system. The food tastes better and you know what is on it."

AND DON'T OVERLOOK....

A story about spiking oil prices racked up 168 votes, 79 comments, and this speculation from walden3: "Imagine if the price of gas tripled under a Democratic president. Wow. I can hear the big M Media whining now. Rush would have the lemmings throwing rotten tomatoes at the White House." But texasangelwings was already rolling with the punches: "Well, guess that I will get a new fishing license for the year and quit bowling! I can walk to the lake!" Several stories about John McCain also made the cut, including "McCain Winning Back Unhappy Republicans" (145 votes, 173 comments) and "Young Voters Say McCain's Age is No Big Deal" (141 votes, 377 comments). The Propeller community made some noise about intelligent design, Barack Obama (as always), and Hillary's Clinton's win in Pennsylvania. And finally, there was "Earth's Hum Sounds More Mysterious Than Ever," with 176 votes and 121 comments. The latter post first appeared to be one more ringer from the Onion, and I wondered whether the planetary melody would turn out to be Jefferson Starship's "Ride The Tiger." But no, the story was legitimate. And truthiness gets the prize for the best explanation of this mysterious phenomenon: "Maybe the mice who had the earth built as a giant supercomputer to determine what the question was to the answer 42 now know and are done with us and that sound is the machine breaking down as they no longer are maintaining it." That will do very nicely, thanks.

Tags: week-in-review

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