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You are here: Home / Showing Their Hand

Showing Their Hand

by John Cole|  August 13, 20047:58 pm| 27 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Stupidity

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Forget the Democrats trying to blur the line about free trade, saying what they really want is fair trade. Is there any clearer example of Democratic hostility to the notion of free and open trade than lame attempts at partisan gain over the origin of political campaign materials?

Someone’s Getting Fired

Amateurs:

Bush Wisconsin Campaign Material Made Overseas. Shirts, hats and other merchandise bearing the Bush-Cheney logo being sold in Wisconsin was produced overseas.

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    Oregonian

    August 13, 2004 at 9:16 pm

    Shirts made in Honduras and Haiti, hats made in China, foreign policy made in Saudi Arabia…

    This administration believes in outsourcing!

  2. 2.

    Ezra

    August 13, 2004 at 10:34 pm

    Sigh — you love the misinterpretations, don’t you? In an election where outsourcing is a major issue, making your campaign clothing in Honduras is a stupid move, as the article demonstrates. That’s why I said “Amateurs” and titled the post “somebody’s getting fired”, it was a political screw-up.

    You can try and paint me as protectionist, but lying about a college student’s trade orientation seems kinda useless, doesn’t it?

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    August 13, 2004 at 10:56 pm

    Outsourcing is only an issue because Democrats have been lying about it for the past few years.

    You may very well be a free trader, but I am not sure what interpretation people are supposed to take from this post other than a hostility to foreign made products if you think those who ordered them ‘should be fired.’

    I love how you and Jesse consistently make stupid posts, get called on it, and your response is the same.

    I ‘mis-interpreted’ it or I am ‘lying.’

    Let’s say I did mis-interpet it, and your nuanced position is that even though free trade is good, this is bad in a campaign. Is this not an admission that you and the Democrats are demagoguing the issue of outsourcing?

  4. 4.

    The Lonewacko Blog

    August 13, 2004 at 11:07 pm

    Aren’t there American makers of shirts and hats? How much more would those have cost? What’s the probability that the hats were made with prison/slave labor?

    If Wendy’s Presidential Spokesman had done this, “my” side would be all over him.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    August 13, 2004 at 11:14 pm

    Lonewacko- Any Republican who ‘would be all over this’ is a moron, too.

    Ezra- BTW, working on line manufacturing jobs for 6 dollars and hour is just the kind of McJob John Kerry would be criticizing had the job been created in the last few years.

  6. 6.

    jesse

    August 13, 2004 at 11:20 pm

    I love how you and Jesse consistently make stupid posts, get called on it, and your response is the same.

    No, John, you just tend to make consistently head-explodingly stupid responses to what we post. Like the time I supposedly contradicted myself by you quoting something Ezra said, and then contended that your point was still in effect even after it was pointed out that the contradiction didn’t exist? Or the time you said me not agreeing with Kos and Oliver Willis was a contradiction in terms of principle because it was convenient, even though I’d never agreed with them?

    Or virtually any time you’ve ever commented on a post of mine? Or Ezra’s? Which seems to be about fifty percent of what we post?

  7. 7.

    Ezra

    August 13, 2004 at 11:28 pm

    No John. You just make consistently incorrect responses and then freak out when you get called on it. Let’s look at our arguments here:

  8. 8.

    Will

    August 14, 2004 at 12:04 am

    Get lives.

  9. 9.

    Jess Curious

    August 14, 2004 at 12:20 am

    Is Springer still paying your bills, Jesse?

  10. 10.

    ksec

    August 14, 2004 at 12:32 am

    Stupidity seems to be a rethuglican trait.
    Selling imports at the most American of all functions is like the most disgusting thing Ive ever heard. Commie conservaturds . Gad I hate them traitorous pricks.

  11. 11.

    ksec

    August 14, 2004 at 12:33 am

    Stupidity seems to be a rethuglican trait.
    Selling imports at the most American of all functions is like the most disgusting thing Ive ever heard. Commie conservaturds . Gad I hate them traitorous pricks.

  12. 12.

    ksec

    August 14, 2004 at 12:35 am

    Looks like you are outnumbered , even at yer own site. Wake the hell up commie conservaturds. Stop building Chairman Maos country with my money. You dumbasses are supporting communism.

  13. 13.

    John Cole

    August 14, 2004 at 1:03 am

    Jesse- Thanks. I don’t know how I am supposed to respond to “like that one time you said something and Ezra said something else and I said something else and see how that is how you are a big pighead.” Useful. I see Springer is paying you well enough that you can afford to drink.

    Ezra- The SUM TOTAL of your post is:

    “Someone’s Getting Fired” and “Amateurs”

    along with a snippet of text stating that Bush/Cheney has had some campaign materials made overseas.

    I am sorry I did not divine the correct answer to your ‘nuanced’ post.

    If there is a political reality that this might somehow hurt the Bush campaign, again, it is the Democrats (and Buchananite isolationists and xenophobes) who are to blame for that sort of blockheaded thinking.

    From your rambling and offensive response here, I assume the correct translation to your 5 word post is:

    “Not recognizing how successful the Democrats have been at demagoguing the issue of outsourcing, the Bush campaign is going to hire some new help after it fires a few campaign workers. It seems some amateurs in the Bush campaign ordered some campaign literature from overseas. Personally, I, Ezra Klein, have no problem with free trade, and I understand that my party has lied about outsourcing from the get go, but this just shows how stupid the Bushies are.”

    I will remember to break out my Ezra decoder ring next time.

    Two other things:

    -You must think the Bush administration is really fucking stupid, especially if they plan on using all of their Bush campaign materials in Ohio. That “Madison Loves Bush/Cheney” hat will be real useful in Dayton and Columbus.

    – This line is a gem:

    “You can try and paint me as protectionist, but lying about a college student’s trade orientation seems kinda useless, doesn’t it?”

    You poor, misunderstood college student. What a fucking pathetic appeal to pity. Now go back to groupthink central, have another drink, and tell us again how the scandal-ridden McGreevey is just another innocent Democrat brought down by the homophobes.

    And take your troll Ksec with you.

  14. 14.

    Oregonian

    August 14, 2004 at 1:41 am

    I just gotta say it again: I love this site!

    The juicy-boy is just so damn cute when he’s peeved.

  15. 15.

    russ

    August 14, 2004 at 9:39 am

    The Oregonian whines: “Shirts made in Honduras and Haiti, hats made in China, foreign policy made in Saudi Arabia…

    This administration believes in outsourcing!”

    Hmmm, economics isn’t your long suit but apparently neither is reality…

  16. 16.

    Jon Henke

    August 14, 2004 at 11:34 am

    John, I have to agree with Ezra in this case. Whether free trade is a net positive or not–and it is–it’s just a bad political move to use foreign made goods in a US election.

    Whether it should be a controversial issue or not is irrelevant. It is, and no amount of wishing will change that fact.

    Ezra was right to point it out.

  17. 17.

    Ezra

    August 14, 2004 at 12:34 pm

    Yes John, that was the sum total of my post. And then there was the clarification that I came over here, in good faith, to make. But you’re so totally wedded to being right, to pointing out hypocrisy across the aisle, to ensuring a warm feeling of iconoclastic ideolgoical perfection, that you consciously ignore all evidence to the contrary and stubbornly insist that everyone was wrong about their own opinion and only you divined them correctly. In fact, I even noted that the story was picked up and pushed forward by the media, not the Democrats, yet you continually stick to your own track of thought. It’s pathetic. That it won’t hurt them because it’s in Wisconsin? You ask the Bush Campaign if they’d mind the evening news reporting that in Ohio — don’t be so willfully dense. And that “gem” of a line should stand there, a towering monument to how unbelievably stupid it is to spend time, energy and rage distorting and spinning other people’s opinions.

    You want to make an argument about Democrats demagoguing free trade? It’s doable. But my post has no place in the assault, and repeatedly ignoring both the intent and the words (it’s you who’s reading everything into the 20 or so letters of commentary I added to the quote) makes you far from a principled defender of lofty dialogue, it makes you part of the problem. So save your moral indignation for another time.

  18. 18.

    The Lonewacko Blog

    August 14, 2004 at 1:23 pm

    I’d like to apologize for everyone for my wrongthink post above. I momemtarily forgot that buying American-made products is unpatriotic when there are slightly cheaper products made by Chinese slave labor to be had on the wonderful world market. I apologize for my blockheaded, xenophobic, racist, mean-spirited, and anti-human remarks.

  19. 19.

    jesse

    August 14, 2004 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks. I don’t know how I am supposed to respond to “like that one time you said something and Ezra said something else and I said something else and see how that is how you are a big pighead.” Useful. I see Springer is paying you well enough that you can afford to drink.

    Oh, John. John, John, John. You have never, ever been right in any argument we’ve had, and when you start filling your diaper…man, it just doesn’t work.

    No, John it was a very specific entry where you quoted me about a dozen times then quoted Ezra saying something different than my consistent viewpoint. You said I contradicted myself, and when it was pointed out I didn’t, you just started crying like you always do. Sorry if my description of it was too vague – I know that a good 3/4 of your blogging involves fucking up some critique of our posts.

    https://balloon-juice.com/archives/004034.html#004034

    Who’s paying you to hit the crack pipe, man?

  20. 20.

    jesse

    August 14, 2004 at 2:51 pm

    By the way, Cole, it’s hard to tell when you’re feigning stupidity and it’s the real deal.

  21. 21.

    John Cole

    August 14, 2004 at 5:32 pm

    It’s easy with you to spot the atupidity and arrognance with you Jesse. It happens whenever you open your mouth.

    Ezra- Then it was a pointless post.

  22. 22.

    Random Numbers

    August 15, 2004 at 10:27 am

    You folk know what actually happened here, don’t you? The material was ordered from a 3rd party shop, and they failed to specify “Made in USA” only. This sort of oversight happens, and has nothing to do with the campaign.

  23. 23.

    John Cole

    August 15, 2004 at 12:48 pm

    Shh Random Numbers. Bushies are stupid.

  24. 24.

    Oregonian

    August 16, 2004 at 1:55 am

    “It’s easy with you to spot the atupidity (sic) and arrognance (sic) with you (sic) Jesse. It happens whenever you open your mouth.”

    And, oh, the things that happen whenever the juicy boy touches a keyboard…

  25. 25.

    Bloggerhead

    August 16, 2004 at 7:34 am

    John, have you ever considered that the problems you’re having with your satellite service derive from all the spittle and froth? You have to keep that equipment dry, son. If you don’t believe me, call the 800-number.

  26. 26.

    Justin Ogren

    August 17, 2004 at 3:37 pm

    I think it is pretty stupid to bring a thing like that up.

    But you also know how those sweatshop scandals arise in the news HAHA…

    So it would just be a little smart, on any campaign, that if your gonna promote your American campaign, you should be having all American products, goes the same for any campaign, I mean it would keep consistancy in the campaign.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Dummocrats.com says:
    August 15, 2004 at 12:11 am

    Dems show what they really think about free trade (Balloon juice)

    Dems show what they really think about free trade (Balloon juice)

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