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Oct 2012 16

by Blogbot

Every week we ask the ladies and gentlemen of the web to show us their finest ink in celebration of #TattooTuesday.

Our favorite submission from Twitter wins a free 3 month membership to SuicideGirls.com.

This week’s #TattooTuesday winner is @KiraKazooie.

Enter this week’s competition by replying to this tweet with a pic of your fav tattoo and the #tattootuesday hashtag.

Good luck!

A few things to remember:

  • You have to be 18 to qualify.
  • The tattoo has to be yours…that means permanently etched on your body.
  • On Twitter we search for your entries by looking up the hashtag #TattooTuesday, so make sure you include it in your tweet!

Check out the Tattoo Tuesday winners of weeks past!

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Oct 2012 16

by ChrisSick

In which we further discuss the (many) tactical failings of the President during the first debate, potential paths for improvement of performance, and I repeatedly tell everyone to shut up.

[Name Redacted]: “He’s really got no excuse to underperform in a foreign policy debate. The topic bores Romney to tears. Hell, Ryan backed up Romney’s two Afghanistan positions (we support a 2014 withdrawal while being opposed to having a date for withdrawal) during the debate.”

Sick: “To be fair, he’s never had a reason to underperform in any debate.”

— Message board comments, from “Romney Rising” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, 10/13/12

Well, hopefully, we can put all this sordid business of demoralization and decrying media narratives and poor, poor Jim Leher, firmly behind us. While liberals are again energized heading into the next Presidential Debate, it will surely be instructive to reexamine some of the failures that led to Obama’s defeat and how those dynamics will most likely play out in this next debate.

The first and possibly biggest problem for Obama were the EXPECTATIONS heading into the debate. In my own pre-debate prognostication, I predicted that Obama would play it safe, we wouldn’t see many fireworks, and that Romney didn’t have the skill to execute any game-changing kind of attack. Boy, was I wrong.

Though, in retrospect, I find my own analysis unsurprisingly defensible. Romney had a bit of a history of doing dumb things in debates, not to mention that fact that he doesn’t always handle the whole extemporaneous speaking thing terribly well. Obama, on the other hand, was cited as being “one of the most talented political communicators in modern history” by Romney’s campaign. Sure, it was just a bit of pre-debate expectation-management, but there’s two valuable points there: First, the right were successful in managing expectations down so that Romney’s performance appeared to be a massive upset, contrasted to Team Obama’s failure to do so. Second, such high praise from an enemy didn’t set eyes a’rolling, since so many people — and not just voters, but journalists — want to believe in the greatness of Obama.

In this upcoming debate, the expectations have been significantly changed, and while the conventional wisdom would suggest that Obama must perform significantly better than last debate, thus putting the burden on him, I’d suggest the burden’s actually on Mitt Romney. In the last debate — for the above reasons and others I’ll elucidate on further — the bar was painfully low for him and artificially high for Obama. As far as I’ve seen, the only journalist who actually called it correctly, pre-debate, was James Fallows at The Atlantic. While numerous conservatives argued the debates would change everything, they did it with the same conviction they argued that polls were meaningless and were, rightly, ignored.

This time, Romney will be facing a much more engaged and prepared Obama, and has set a high bar for himself to clear in that first debate. The President, on the other hand, only has to show the fuck up this time, and that may be enough in and of itself to wash away some of the stink of his last performance. If he prepares.

Which brings us to our next point, PREPERATION. Heading into the first debate, Obama seemed to not be very concerned with debate prep. The President, as Fallows notes in his pre-debate analysis, has a million things working against being prepared for a debate that his opponent does not:

“’Just the act of being on the stage with a president is an elevating thing.’ [David Axelrod said] This sounds like a small matter, but through the years, analysis of debate reactions has shown that the public takes a candidate more seriously after seeing him, for the first time, on equal footing with an incumbent president.

He [The President] faces the temptation not to prepare. A president has every reason to postpone or avoid mock-debate sessions. The schedule is full; the necessity to play-act is demeaning; emergencies crop up. And thus a president avoids practicing skills that are indeed different from what he does day by day.”

Obviously, a full-time Presidential candidate — as Mitt Romney has been for most of the last decade — doesn’t have such a challenge, benefits from sharing a stage with the President, and can devote intense focus to debate prep in a way an incumbent president simply cannot. However, having been beaten soundly in his first debate, the President has every reason and no excuse to not prepare seriously for his next two debates with Romney.

The final challenge Obama faces is SUBSTANCE. During the last debate, Mitt Romney finally committed to his post-primary pivot toward the center. He had put it off for so long, that I honestly assumed he wasn’t going to even attempt to shed his Severely Conservative image heading into the general election, much to his detriment. When he picked Ryan, it felt to me — and others — as if he had gone whole hog on the idea that this would be a base election, and all that mattered was enthusiasm and GTOV efforts.

But Romney picked his time ideally, after endless bad press through the end of summer, and having his campaign written off by any number of people (including myself), Romney used the debate to present the new-and-improved Romney version 0.4. A sensible, and sensitive, moderate man, gently — but firmly — correcting the President’s mistaken impressions of him as some far-right-tax-slashing-social-safety-net-destroying-warmongering-fancy-suit.

The performance was fantastic on Romney’s part — even the Obama campaign said so — and totally unmoored from any objective reality. But as I said recently, debate victories aren’t decided by Poltifact after the fact. They’re decided in realtime by the people on the stage. It really doesn’t matter that —according to Poltifact — only 30% of Romney’s statements in this election have been true or mostly true, while over his first term 50% of Obama’s statements have been rated the same.

What matters is what happens on that stage, and Obama has only himself to blame for his loss. Substance should matter, we could most likely all agree, but we can’t seem to agree on something even resembling objective truth, and even as the Tax Policy Center said that Romney’s tax plan will either explode the deficit or raise taxes on the middle class, Romney goes on citing Wall Street Journal editorials by his hired advisors as studies that rebut that claim.

As infuriating as this may be for liberals — and I know it is because many of you continue to insist that Romney didn’t win the debate despite all evidence to the contrary — the fact is that it isn’t the reality that wins debates. Hell, it’s hardly the reality that wins elections. Until he finally appeared to be a viable candidate, Romney was written off. By being on stage with the president he appeared, for the first time, viable. By defeating the President in the debate, he appeared to be serious.

Liberals — and I know a few specific ones right here on SG — who insist that Romney should have his win somehow stripped from him by the Presidential Debate Commission (in, what I imagine, would have to be an elaborate and shaming ceremony) are missing the point. It isn’t anyone’s job to call Romney out on the substance but Obama’s. If he’s lying, Obama is the only one on stage who can meaningfully refute and attack those lies.

In the next debate, Obama’s shown signs (most significantly in his speeches following the debate) that he’s going to be more aggressive in calling him out. Liberals, at least the ones most apt to be claiming Obama didn’t lose last time, are probably hoping for a Joe-Biden-style performance of exasperation and condescension, but I’m relatively sure — like, put-money-but-not-a-lot-of-it-sure — that the President’s team is far too smart to go that route.

For Obama, the path to victory is primarily in relying on his less professorial speaking abilities, and finding a simple and understandable way to point out that the things that Romney says about his own plans simply aren’t true, and — worse — that he hasn’t provided enough specifics to even analyze whether his proposed policies could be true.

This debate will be interesting, and my prediction — for whatever it’s worth given my last one — is that Obama will be able to successfully fight Mitt Romney to a draw at the very least. He understands the stakes, and has had ten days to analyze his weaknesses, as well as his opponent’s. Failure to achieve at least a draw could potentially be fatal for his election prospects. The polls have dramatically shifted to Romney’s favor, and even though his leads aren’t as strong as the President’s were at their most recent peaks, and there’s even some evidence in outliers that his bounce could be fading, a lot hinges on this debate.

As for me, there’s only 20 days left in this election. If I predict exactly one more debate wrong, I’m giving up the game and switching my major to philosophy, or some other specialization where things actually make sense.

Related Posts
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Tactical Animal: Let The Presidential Debates Begin
Tactical Animal: On Politicking Cont…
Tactical Animal: On Politicking
Tactical Animal: Regarding The Pain Of Being Right…Or More Reasons Mitt Romney Will Never Be Your President
Tactical Animal: Have You Got Yourself The Belly For It?
Tactical Animal: Sorry Folks, Election’s Over, Donkey Out Front Shoulda Told Ya
Tactical Animal: Politics In The Post-Truth Era
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Oct 2012 16

by Lee Camp

Want some big booty?? Well, if you’re one of the cool kids, you hide your booty in the Cayman Islands so that you don’t have to pay taxes and contribute to the society that made you rich. I recently went down there to try to find out why tax shelters are all the rage, and why Mitt Romney and his friends love them so much. Wanna see what I found out? Check out the video.

[..]

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Oct 2012 16

VioletRose Suicide in Free Me

Get to know VioletRose better over at SuicideGirls.com!


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Oct 2012 15

by Blogbot


[Syko Suicide in Strapped]

Artist / SG Member Name: Sarah Syko a.k.a. Syko SUicide

Mission Statement: “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world!” I spent a lot of my time growing up being grounded, which meant I spent a lot of time in my room with my paints and a sewing machine. Got away from my painting for a bit but moved to Colorado last year and I cant stop, and I am way happier with my art than ever before!

Medium: Very mixed media, acrylic, anything I can get my hands on really

Aesthetic: People, colors, abstract, sex, GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! Anything and everything I feel.

Notable Achievements: Did my first live painting recently and I have my first art show this month in Denver.

Why We Should Care: My work is very personal and passionate. My art shows the world more about me than they can understand or I can even explain. I like to take my time with my art, and work on my paintings over multiple sessions and different emotions.

I Want Me Some: No online sales yet but having my first art show, with work available this month! Feel free to message me if you are interested in my work. I will do request paintings if I like the idea. I usually just give my work to friends and family to always keep them close to me but I just sold my first painting and am ready to let a few more of my babies go now.

[..]

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Oct 2012 15

by SG’s Team Agony feat. Elea

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.


[Elea in Soul Nighter]

Q: How do I get the body as amazing as a Suicide Girl? I’ve been single for a while now and I’d like a change in myself. I’d like to look as beautiful as you. Your bodies are amazing. I just want to feel new I guess. I’m sure if I get the body I’d like, I’d feel confident and it would sure lead to a new person in my life. I just don’t know how to go about getting a new body. I’m not sure what to eat. Since I’m vegetarian it should be easy, but I’m not a healthy eating kinda girl! How do SGs maintain their bodies?

A: First, you should know that I am stuffing my face with pastry as I am writing this. Second, I bet very few girls on here really have the perfect body. I’m not even sure what it means. For me, the perfect body is mine, because I learned to live with it. My hips are too wide, my face is too long, and my calves are chubby. But the good thing is, this doesn’t matter on here. Everybody on here is different.
 It’s not about changing your body. It’s about changing how you feel about it.


However it’s definitely good to want to do something good for yourself and be healthy. Being vegetarian is a good way to do this. I became vegetarian myself only three months ago after I saw a documentary on how animals are treated and fed over here in the US. It’s all only about corn, which is bad for the animal and for you. Check out the Veggie and Vegan Group for recipe ideas or links to websites which support this lifestyle. (SG also has a Weight Loss group, if you need more diet tips and a little moral support.)


Contrary to what you think, I know a lot of girls on here who don’t go to the gym on a regular basis, including myself. I work in a very stressful environment that leaves me no time to sit down or rest. This is my workout. It’s all about finding a way of life that makes you feel good and works for you. “Makes you feel good” being very important. You obviously don’t feel that way so I want to help you change this.

What are routines in your daily life that you could change? I try to do some things that don’t seem significant but that keep me from becoming a slob. I park far, far away from everybody else when I go somewhere. Not only because people suck at parking and constantly ding my car, but also because a little walking never hurt anyone. I don’t buy snacks at the movie theater. If I eat when watching a movie, my body doesn’t seem to register it as much. When I cook, I turn on the swing music or blues channel on TV and dance around the kitchen. Every now and again I try to call up friends who have dogs and meet up to take a walk and play with them. There are very few days where I don’t move in some way, also because I found it helps with my depression. See if you can do similar things in your life that make you feel good and get you moving.

Last, but not least, your single status. I wish I could help you with this. My best advice is to try and think about it less and not stress about it. In a time where so many relationships start online, it’s still important to try and go out and meet more people in real life. See if there are any SG Events in your area, or by all means, try to set something up for your local group on your own. That’s a good way to meet some like-minded, cool people.
I hope this helped you.

Sincerely,

Elea

***

Got Problems? Let SuicideGirls’ team of Agony Aunts provide solutions. Email questions to: gotproblems@suicidegirls.com

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Oct 2012 15

by Daniel Robert Epstein

“Secrets are how we live our lives.”
– Mike Leigh

It seems almost redundant to say this but Mike Leigh has once again created an amazing film. It’s called Vera Drake and it takes place in 1950’s London. Vera lives in a small flat with her husband Stan, and their grown-up son and daughter, Sid and Ethel. The family is not rich, but their combined incomes make for a reasonable life. Vera is a cleaner, Stan a mechanic in his brother’s Frank’s garage, and Ethel works in a light-bulb factory. Sid is an apprentice tailor. The Drakes have something money can’t buy; they are a genuinely happy family.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the family Vera performs abortions, and when the police finally track her down after one of her patients goes to the hospital it has major ramifications.

As Vera Drake, Imelda Staunton gives one of the most powerful performances of the year that is sure to be noticed around Oscar time. Mike Leigh begins creating his films almost a year before they start rolling any film. He works with his actors by giving them their characters and they create the scenes in rehearsal with improvisation.

Read our interview with Mike Leigh on SuicideGirls.com.