Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

In after Baud. Damn.

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Archives for 2004

Outsourcing

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This is certainly timely- the multimedia arm of the Democratic National Committee, otherwise known as CBS, apparently has run out of Bush-bashing books and will instead have to re-air this piece on outsourcing:

For decades, American manufacturers of everything from blue jeans to semiconductors have searched the world for the cheapest labor they could find.

It may have cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs, but it’s made American products more affordable. Now, some of the most familiar companies -ones we deal with every day – are moving a whole new class of jobs overseas.

They call it outsourcing. Not the old economy assembly line jobs, but jobs in the new economy — anything that involves a computer or a telephone.

Gee- just in time to support the false messages put forward during the convention. I am sure it is just a coincidence.

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Chutzpah

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Kevin Drum notes these comments from an anonymous White House Spokesman:

At the White House, where officials are formulating their own package of reform proposals, a senior official, speaking on background to reporters, indicated that the administration will oppose any such arrangement. The official said Bush “wants to protect intelligence agencies from any undue influence” and “ensure that intelligence analysts maintain their autonomy.”

“It is fair to say that there [are] some very important potential consequences to the placement of the office,” the White House official said.

Before tentatively agreeing with the remarks, the Political Animal quips:

The chutzpah of these people is just breathtaking, isn’t it? How do they find people willing to say stuff like this with a straight face?

Maybe they hire them away from the Washington Monthly? Remember this, Kevin:

The Committee ste out to examine a number of issues including whether anyone within the Intelligence Community was pressured to change their judgements or to reach a specific judgement to suit a particular policy objective. Not only did we find no such “pressure,” we found quite the opposite. Intelligence officals across the Community told Members and staff that their assessments were solely the product of their own analyses and judgements. They related to Committee staff in interview after interview their strong belief that the only “pressure’ they felt was to get it right. Every individual with whom we spoke felt a deep sense of responsibility to provide the highest quality product possible. This was especially evident among terrorism analysts whose assessments had become all the more important after September 11th, 2001.

Of course, the bi-partisan report means nothing to fierce partisans. If you say something often enough in certain circles- it is true. That is why they still are attempting to defend and spin serial liar Joe Wilson, even though Tom Maguire has effectively laughed them out of the blogosphere.

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No Kidding

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Sayeth Rich Lowry:

The debate has now been settled: John Kerry definitely served in Vietnam.

That was a major point of the Democratic Convention and of Kerry’s acceptance speech. This must be one of the great acts of chutzpah of all time: The party that made national politics safe for Vietnam draft avoiders in 1992 now considers Vietnam service arguably the foremost qualification for the presidency. But, hey, the Democrats are now the party of militaristic display and cultural conservatism.

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Kerry Speech

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I did not watch the Kerry speech– I figured it would just piss me off. I like reading the speeches instead, as there is something about the last few prominent national Democrats that just infuriates me when they speak- the self-righteousness, the lies. Not sure what it is. Where have you gone, Pat Moynihan?

At any rate, some comments:

This line just blew me away:

I was born, as some of you saw in the film, in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Colorado, when my dad was a pilot in World War II. Now, I’m not one to read into things, but guess which wing of the hospital the maternity ward was in? I’m not kidding. I was born in the West Wing.

Holy loads of cheese, Batman. That is reason enough to keep the man out of the Oval Office.

This line was amusing, too:

I have unforgettable memories of being a kid mesmerized by the British, French and American troops, each of them guarding their own part of the city – and Russians standing guard on that stark line separating East from West. On one occasion, I rode my bike into Soviet East Berlin. And when I proudly told my dad, he promptly grounded me.

My first thought was- I wonder if that is when they flipped him. Gary Farber- that was an attempted joke.

I actually felt a moment of comaraderie when he said this:

I felt goose bumps as I got off a military train and I heard the Army band strike up “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

I cry every time I hear it. Same with the National Anthem, TAPS, and America the Beautiful.

This is a gem- an attack on Bush’s line from 2000:

To all who serve in our armed forces today I say help is on the way.

A quick trip down memory lane:

When first running for his Senate seat in 1984, Kerry explained carefully that he was firmly against such mainstays of the defense establishment as the B-1 bomber, B-2 stealth bomber, AH-64 Apache helicopter, Patriot missile, the F-15, F-14A and F-14D jets, the AV-8B Harrier jet, the Aegis air-defense cruiser, and the Trident missile system.

He also ran on a platform of cutting back on the M1 Abrams tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Tomahawk cruise missile, and the F-16. The average newspaper-reading American, of course, recognizes these systems as the veritable tip of the spear that not only crushed Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War but also smashed the Taliban in Afghanistan and punched through to Baghdad in the second Gulf War…

In 1991 Kerry voted to cut defense spending by 2 percent. Only 21 other senators voted with Kerry, and the defense cut was defeated.

In 1991, Kerry voted to cut over $3 billion from defense and shift the funds to social programs. Only 27 senators joined Kerry in voting for the defense cut.

In 1992, Kerry voted to cut $6 billion from defense. Republicans and Democrats alike successfully blocked this attempt to cut defense spending.

In 1993, Kerry voted against increased defense spending for a military pay raise.

In 1993, Kerry introduced a plan to cut the number Of Navy submarines and their crews; reduce tactical fighter wings in the Air Force; terminate the Navy

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Berger Rumors

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Atrios and the Atriettes are promoting this WSJ piece stating that Sandy Berger is in the clear:

Officials looking into the removal of classified documents from the National Archives by former Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel Berger say no original materials are missing and nothing Mr. Berger reviewed was withheld from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Not so, says Newsmax:

senior spokeswoman for the National Archives denied a report Friday morning that Archives officials have cleared former Kerry-Edwards campaign adviser Sandy Berger on charges that he withheld documents from the 9/11 Commission.

“In spite of what the Wall Street Journal said, the National Archives really isn’t commenting on this case because it’s under investigation,” Susan Cooper, chief spokeswoman for the Archives, told NewsMax.com.

I’ll keep you posted.

BTW-now that we know that Atrios’s real name is a Soros-funded left-winger named Duncan Black, I guess I really wasn’t all that off last year when I called him the Prince of Darkness.

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