Some headlines from the NY Times business section:
Economy Will Stay Sluggish, Bernanke Tells Congress
U.S. Stocks Down as Dollar Hits New Low Against Euro
G.M. Suspends Dividend and Plans More Layoffs
Gas and Food Prices Push Inflation Higher
Confidence Ebbs for Bank Sector and Stocks Fall
Watching the collective freak-out over the New Yorker cover yesterday, it has become clear that the left wing blogosphere has become very adept at whipping themselves into a Malkinesque frothing outrage, but they still seem to be unable to maintain the message discipline that the right-wing bloggers have perfected. I challenge you to, at this point, find right-wing bloggers critical of McCain. You won’t. It is all anti-Obama, all the time.
So if you are going to become just as bad as right-wing bloggers with your fauxtrage, you ought to at least pick up one somewhat useful characteristic- their message discipline. I can’t read a comment thread or visit a left-wing blog without continued self-mutilation over Obama’s FISA role. As such, a quick pointer.
This is not just a recession. This is the BUSH recession. This is the REPUBLICAN RECESSION OF 2008. This is the BUSH/MCCAIN RECESSION. Say it loud. Say it often. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
John McCain’s policies will continue the BUSH/MCCAIN RECESSION. John McCain’s financial adviser thinks you are a whiner for experiencing tough times in the BUSH/MCCAIN RECESSION. Your retirement fund is going in the shitter because of the BUSH/MCCAIN recession. You will not be able to pay for college for your kid because of the BUSH/MCCAIN recession.
Again, if you are going to copy these guys, at least be competent.
*** Update ***
What a difference the BUSH/MCCAIN RECESSION and the BUSH/MCCAIN ECONOMIC POLICIES make:
Self-serve regular, unleaded gasoline averaged $1.54 per gallon nationwide, according to AAA’s March Fuel Gauge Report released Tuesday.
That was from a year before Bush took office. Gas is averaging $4.11 a gallon today.
Svensker
Don’t forget, your gas prices are high because of Bush/McCain policies.
Napoleon
I saw a bumpersticker last week that said “Gas was $1.46 a gallon when Bush took office”
Carnacki
Message discipline? Not burying our own candidate?
John, you’re never going to make it as a Democrat. Poor message discipline, bitching about our nominee and how much he (or she) sucks, fighting like rabid badgers with each other instead of the other side – those are the things we do best.
zoe from pittsburgh
I’m a proud leftie and at this moment in time I am more annoyed by my fellow lefties than I am just about anyone else– including the republicans.
If we end up with President McCain it is because the left started a circular firing squad that grew to encompass to encompass the entire Democratic party. It started with the nasty primary fight that so many said was only helping the party– it didn’t. It created divisions and helped bitterness among dems set in.
The GOP has NOTHING this year– bad policies that resulted in a falling economy, high oil prices, job losses and a LOUSY presidential candidate. But somehow we seem prepared to lose ANYWAYS.
We have time to turn this around but we need to FOCUS– our enemies are NOT our fellow Dems. We need to keep in mind that McCain will only continue the DISASTEROUS BUSH POLICIES that helped get us to where we are today. This could be the end, folks, and we’re busy attacking each other and having hissy fits over magazine covers.
calipygian
Ah, Red State trained you well, grasshopper.
jake
Sorry, I must be frequenting the wrong leftie blogs. I didn’t see anything that comes within .5 parsecs of the DhimmiDoughnuts/Absolut Invasion/Frost Family freakouts.
zoe from pittsburgh
By the way, Obama is giving a pretty damn good speech on foreign policy right now. He needs to do a lot more of stuff like this– control what the talking heads obsess about and try to get them to talk about substantive stuff. They’re sort of like a herd of kittens chasing a ball of yarn, it’s really not that hard to get their attention.
More yarn balls please.
calipygian
Circular firing squad or circle jerk, its all really the same thing, isn’t it?
We’ve been over this before:
You’re not a member of an organized political party….
Two Democrats, five opinions….
A bitching Dem is a happy Dem…
A happy Dem is happiers plunging a knife into the back of another Dem…
Its the People’s Front of Judea against the Judean People’s Front in the Democrat Party, John, and you have to choose a side. And that’s AFTER we vanquished the Hillary led Front for the Liberation of Judea.
Splitter!
WyldPirate
Obama has been trying to focus on the “McSame” message–he’s been repeating it like a broken record. Other than his flipflopds on a few issues, he’s done fairly well with an exception–namely the media which simply can’t focus on anything other than the latest shiny object dangled in front of them and is totally in the tank for McSame.
Basically, the media knows their audience–they now that most of Americans are simply fucktards that are either incapable or unwilling to try to understand anything that takes more than a few minutes of effort (and I’m being charitable). There is a reason shit like Jesse Jackson wanting to slice Obama’s balls off and a stupid satrical cartoon captures so much attention–it titillates the fucktards of America–most of whom vote Rethuglican.
The FISA shit is a big deal that Obama flipped on–but it won’t matter in the end, the lefties that are pissed about it and other things are going to vote for Obama anyway. The fucktards–those that think Obama is a Muslim, was raised a Muslim, etc. were never going to vote for BO in the first place. These are the knuckle-dragging know-nothings of the Retuglican base who would elect the rotten, stinking corpse of Ronnie Raygun for pres if they could.
jeffreyw
via americablog:
mccain magazine cover
Michael D.
I hear gas prices are way high in Mecedonia as well. Therefore, I am going to start blaming the economic policies of Branko Crvenkovski.
Dennis - SGMM
I recently learned that Obama has made no mention of bisexual or transgendered house pets in his entire career. To me as a progressive, Obama’s lack of concern for these creatures is unforgivable. While some may dismiss this as a pet issue there are many of us who understand that is the duty of a Democratic candidate to address all of our issues equally all of the time. I am switching my vote to McCain.
EZSmirkzz
Gee, John, I didn’t even know I had been thrown out of the lefty blogosphere. Wait I haven’t been! Whew. I hope that’s settled.
4tehlulz
Something totally stupid.
montysano
…… that is directed at…… ourselves.
I feel ya, zoe. In my world, Obama would be stomping about the terra, breathing fire, and his Dem colleagues would be doing the same. Breathing fire, pounding the lectern, and hanging every bit of this 8-year clusterfuck around John McCain’s neck. If McCain is not the lamest presidential candidate in memory, then who is? Yet the polls tell us the race is a dead heat. Fuckin’ amazing.
Alan
The economy is worse than we’ve been told.
Brian
I haven’t done a large-scale scan of the liberal blogs, but I imagine that most of the people who were upset over the cover of The New Yorker yesterday didn’t believe it the staff there had any racist or anti-Obama intentions. Instead, like me, they were worried that it would help feed the narrative that he’s one of The Others, one of the nasty, black, dirty, America-hating, Muslims. In other words, people like me were worried that the satire wouldn’t be recognized as such and would sow doubts into the minds of the people that saw the cover and wouldn’t question its message. As much as it sucks, we might need some of these people in some states.
Then again, as the day went on, I realized that there’s only so much the Obama campaign can control. I doubt the campaign will be lost on ultimately silly issues such as the cover of The New Yorker. If it is, we never really had any advantages going in.
But your overall point stands, even if I don’t agree with the example offered. In fact, I’d say message discipline is one of the traits that I’d like to see the Democrats adopt from the Republicans. It’s often astonishing how effective a simple but usually mindless and inaccurate theme can take hold for those guys. The 2004 Republican convention was a sterling example of how to sell a point, even if the point is a load of horse shit.
AkaDad
To be fair to Phil Gramm, McCain is clearly experiencing a mental recession.
phobos
I think this is more because they are deeply embarrassed that the GOP’s Purity Of Essence has been violated by their former favorite whipping boy.
To openly discuss this would underline certain realities they would prefer to ignore.
MH
This. Yes.
THANK YOU, JESUS, THANK YOU!
Liberal message discipline and framing and the war of rhetoric is probably my #1 project/concern/pet peeve.
scott
The Current Occupant. Before him, John McCain 1.0, ie, Bob Dole.
Corey
You should correct your post – the CNN piece is from March 2000, when Bush was still running for office. He assumed office in January, 2001.
cleek
i hope the NYer sues
AsutinRoth
‘The Bush Recession’
Well, of course, perhaps the inconvenient fact that by the definition of what constitutes a recession we are not in a recession makes that one hard to rally behind, but I guess you are following the Blutto Blutarski method of motivational speaking.
rawshark
That’s because the left unlike the right is not a cult. On the right they all believe the same thing. Using projection they (you still do it too) assume the left also all believe the samething and that it is the exact opposite of what the right believes. E.g. the right is pro-life so the left is pro-death. The right believes in God so the left hates God and all who believe. The right loves the military (fascism anyone?) so the left hates the military.
Plus they’re authoritarian.
It’s a black/white issue. If the right says they are black then they would say the left is white but the left is not white it’s grey. It’s black, white, and all the other colors too.
Bedlam UK
I saw Bob Dole on the Simpsons. Funny guy.
AkaDad
I blame PUMA’s.
John Cole
Thanks Corey, I am an idiot.
rawshark
So then the economy is doing well? Even my CEO says we’re in a recession. Is the right going to parse the definition of recession as a denial tactic? Delay, deny, distract, deflect, then say you don’t recall. Classic.
The Moar You Know
You are not, by definition, a face-punched retard – but I’m going to call you one anyway.
I think we can all rally behind that.
Dreggas
This is one of those times where I could get all smug over the fact that I am not doing too badly. Of course not doing too badly at this point in time is always being one step away from being laid off (not likely to happen but one never knows) and not having some medical catastrophy.
However even I am pretty damn worried about the situation as a whole. I also agree that the dems have little to no ability to get behind something without putting a knife in the back of that something somewhere along the line. It’s one of my biggest annoyances. Things could have been a lot different by now if the dems had a spine and some self discipline.
Dreggas
Tell that to all those workers at GM who lost their jobs or the people whose pentions took a hit thanks to the subprime mess or the dude cursing under his breath at the gas pump or the people who have to decide between food or gas.
By definition you are not an asshole, that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re an asshole.
MH
One thing, though, is that if you’re going to get upset at the left’s lack of message discipline, then you really can’t just shrug at the New Yorker cover, because it’s a sterling example of liberals undermining their own cause by acknowledging the opposition’s branding of Obama.
It’s like an executive at Burger King who goes around saying, “I’m lovin’ it!”: even used satirically, a reprimand (at the least) would surely be in order. You just can’t go around repeating the opposition’s slogans to a general audience (and yes, even if rightwingers would never in a million years read the New Yorker, the cover of the magazine still counts as “general audience”).
Svensker
Just to make your head pop, here’s a quote from Larry Kudlow, National Review, from March 28, 2000
ï»ż
Asshole.
Tlaloc
It’s not at all hard to find “McAmnesty” and “Juan McCain” posts online (even filtering for the last week/month. Those aren’t coming from the left. Any given day on Redstate you have a number of regulars who display a severe dislike of their candidate. Sure the directors try to present a unified front but it’s not exactly airtight.
More to the point could you not encourage the dems to ape all the revolting habits of the GOP, please? The inability of the vast majority of conservatives to criticize bush, no matter how illegal his actions, is what drove you from the party, right?
Dennis - SGMM
By one definition we’re not in a recession.
Of course food and fuel prices are soaring, the economy has shed jobs for the past six months (General Motors today announced it’s making a 20% cut in salaried job costs), IndyMac Bancorp has become the second largest bank failure in US history, Washington Mutual shares lost 35% Monday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both need bailouts, the housing market continues to implode as many areas of the country experience record breaking numbers of foreclosures…
…but as long as the same administration that produces the numbers can use them to prove that he haven’t had two consecutive quarters of negative growth then everything’s fine.
curtadams
Ah, but after 2 weeks of FISA outrage – and more importantly IMO, 2 weeks of Obama fundraisers hearing “sorry, but I can’t donate to somebody who votes to gut the 4th amendment and protect lawbreaking” – he comes out with a great barnstormer speech on Iraq. Coincidence? I think not.
If Dem politicians face political harm for lamebrained idiocy (which supporting FISA was: we’re not talking nuance on abortion) then we’ll get less lamebrained idiocy from Dem politicians. Which is a very good thing.
Fledermaus
Yep. If american voters are going to be willfully stupid there is nothing any of us can do about that.
Oh John, like everyone said above, you’re a democrat now, this is how it works. I threaten to vote for Nader or Jello Biafra on a weekly basis. But I’m only serious about half the time.
Tlaloc
If you are using “recession” in the sense that economists use it then we aren’t in one, or at least can’t demonstrate that we are (we might find out later that we were). If you just use the term colloquially to mean “crappy economy” then sure it’s a recession.
To keep things clear it might be better to use some other term.
Brett
To be honest, I’m not sure if I’d want that kind of right-wing conformism. One of the things that I think is actually a secret advantage for Americans under Democratic (the party, not the political system) governance is that Democrats never quite reach the kind of circle-jerk ideological conformism that fucked up Republican leadership so bad over the past decade due to their divisions.At its best, our divisions force us to negotiate over policies and argue for them reasonably with each other, and to keep one eye on the actual world when formulating them. Not necessarily good for elections, but very good for governance. It just means we need larger margins than the Republicans do for governance in Congress and the Presidency.
AkaDad
*Note to self: Use proper punctuation when being a dick
NonyNony
You make two false assumptions John – first of all you assume that “whipping yourself into a frothing outrage” is some kind of attribute of the “right wing” – it isn’t. It’s an attribute of human beings who are perfectly capable of whipping themselves into a frothing outrage over pretty much anything given the chance (take a look at any sports blog where the Yankees are discussed, or for the nerdliest among us, go gander at the frothing outrage caused by the release of the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons or the latest summer crossover event that DC Comics has on the stands – frothing outrage is not a right-wing attribute by a longshot).
Secondly, you assume that there’s a consistent message on the “left” to discipline. There isn’t. A number of folks on the left don’t like Barack Obama and, since political freedom of speech is one of the few sacrosanct things left on the left side of the aisle these days, they aren’t going to be cowed into not saying critical things just because Obama happens to be somewhat more sympathetic to their causes than McCain is. Unlike the right wing – which tends to form up into units and do what’s best for the “good of the party”, the left wing could mostly give a rat’s ass about the party as a whole and mostly need to be herded like cats instead of assuming that they’re whipped dogs who will do what you want regardless of how many times you hit them. (This is something that every fracking consultant in the DC area needs to get through their skulls – Republicans and Democrats are different, what works for Republicans will. not. work. for Democrats. Ever. The psychology is completely different – it’s like comparing apples and porcupines.)
However, I do see that you’ve glommed onto one of the best of the Democratic traditions, which is loudly denouncing how people on your side are acting while both pointing out how much better Republicans are AND simultaneously engaging and/or encouraging the very behavior that you yourself are criticizing. Well done. It brings a tear to my eye to see how quickly you are embracing ancient Democratic Party traditions as your own John.
John S.
True, semantics rule our world.
Bush says it’s not a recession that we’re in – it’s a slow down.
So there you go.
Dennis - SGMM
Stagflation.
Helena Montana
“I canât read a comment thread or visit a left-wing blog without continued self-mutilation over Obamaâs FISA role.”
Oh, for crying out loud. Just because we’re disappointed with Obama’s inexplicable horrible position on FISA doesn’t mean we’re not going to vote for him. Just because we bitch about him doesn’t mean we don’t love him. As someone pointed out above, leftiness means not having to belong to a cult.
It’s very sad that we don’t march in lockstep enough to suit you, but then agin, most of us didn’t vote for George Bush twice. Or even once.
Alan
Dennis, the article I linked above goes through the statistical fudges the government has made over the last couple of generations. It’s worth a read. I found it via this synopsis.
JR
Excuse me, but “lefty” Dem partisans were very, very focused and disciplined in blaming Ralph Nader for George Bush’s administration and for Nader’s claim the Dems were corrupt and on the “same team” as the Dem leadership.
That travesty was and will forever remain a marvel of message discipline. The “progressive” blogosphere took clear and steady aim at their stated principles and fired without hesitation or cessation.
What is lacking now are common principles, not the ability to groupthink.
John S.
President McCain thanks you on behalf of all the Democrats that
support himare stupid.AustinRoth
âcrappy economyâ
Yep – I would go for that definition. I just dislike misuse of terms that have specific meanings.
I also believe that the credit/housing ‘crisis’ is not a crisis, yet. In 18 months, it will make what we have now seem great by comparison, and could very likely throw us straight past ‘recession’ into a deep economic depression.
Sharon
You go John! You’re on fire today.
John Cole
You can disagree with him all you want here. Hell, I disgareed with him. there is no “lockstep” here, and I try to encourage it to be that way (although I think we all agree Bush is a failure and Mccain is not a good option).
But while you all are relaxing on the fainting couch over the New Yorker, I would argue that your repeated need to attack him over FISA, which was a failing but is a done deal is damaging the candidate far more than a joke cover at the expense of the wingnuts. Which do you think does him more damage. The incessant need to prove we are not a cult by bashing Obama for his very minor role in FISA, providing a nice, tidy, easy to repeat meme for the right and the bobbleheads in the media, or the New Yorker cover?
In a couple weeks, the cover will be ancient history, and we will be moving on to another outrage du jour. Mika and friends will, however, still be rtumpeting Obama’s problems with the left-wing in his party over his “flip-flops.” Well played.
liberal
IIRC per capita GDP growth is now negative.
srv
Too bad the heroic Democrats aren’t in power in Congress and weren’t able to start working on mitigating this catastrophe earlier…
You people, you’re really a laugh. A whole party taking Condi’s best line “Who could have foreseen!” and all you can do is scream for more groupthink.
Don’t like the media message, well, go buy a network or two.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Michael D. has been living off his “…more tapping than Riverdance…” joke for too long. It was a very funny line but not funny enough to warrant a forum to share his positive views of the FAIR tax. Oh, and he’s not much of a writer and, well, kinda creepy*.
* Full Disclosure: I think all gay Republicans are creepy. I mean, wtf? To me it’s like being a Jewish Nazi. But that’s just me.
Zifnab
For years, the GOP coalition has hung together on the premise that its ok to get screwed so long as you receive an eventual reach-around.
We got screwed on FISA. We’ll receive our reach-around when Obama pulls out of Iraq (the metaphors abound, my friends!), but we’re not the Theocons, who accept absurd tax policies and environmental regulations just to fight abortion. We’re not the Neocons, willing to sign any trade agreement with China just so we can get a War with Iraq. We’re not the Corp-cons, who sell out education and medical science and every last shred of fiscal policy for a lower Capital Gains rate.
Democrats don’t swing like that.
Dick Cheney will happily let James Dobbson run a cultural crusade against his daughter, so long as Iran gets a bomb dropped on it. John Boehner will happily sign the order to drop those bombs, so long as his constituency gets a big fat tax break in the middle of it. James Dobbson has no problem with huge tax breaks – even though the majority of his congregation probably won’t see a penny of it – because it means he can railroad through another round of Terri Shavio bills.
It’s a big fucking circle jerk for a bunch of rich insiders. And its a fucking devil’s bargain. Obama’s willingness to reneg on FISA makes him look compromised. And while he’s a far, far, far, far, far cry from Dick Cheney or Tom DeLay or John McCain, he’s still closer than we’d like him to be. So we’ll bitch about that.
nepat
Amen. There is no McCain campaign. There is only an anti-Obama campaign. This is why it’s possible for McMainiac to present a policy position on one day, completely contradict it the next, and never pay any consequences for it. No one cares. He could start wearing a dress and speaking in French and still no one would care.
It’s all about Obama.
KRK
Seriously? Maybe it’s (past) time to rethink where you’re visiting. I culled my must-read list about a month ago and haven’t seen much mention of FISA of late, let alone “continued self-mutilation,” from The Carpetbagger Report, The Field, Obsidian Wings, Oliver Willis, Steve M. at No More Mr. Nice Blog, Bob Cesca, Roy Edroso, or even americablog. No doubt there are many more out there I’ve never even heard of. And comment threads peppered with idiocy are an Internet tradition.
John S.
You know what, Helena?
John may have voted for the unmitigated disaster that was George Bush (twice), but his guy won.
You want to keep being a loser? Fine, continue to have the Democratic nominee be subject to your purity tests. You want to be a winner? Listen to John and save your outrage for President Obama.
jnfr
John’s an excellent Dem already, spending his outrage on his fellow Dems!
If you want something worth your outrage, listen to Jane Mayer explain how this administration commits war crimes and has been since 9/11.
Sasha
Hey, I already call it Dubya’s War. What more do you want?
KXB
Because lefties are obsessed with process, and right-wingers care about results. The whole delegate brouhaha was a bloody joke – a party that cannot come up with a coherent way to select a candidate wants a shot at running the White House? Whether it was Bush in 2000, making the straightforward argument that Election Day is one day and one-day only, to the arcane, inside the Beltway issues of FISA – the Democrats cannot get their act together.
The righties are so focused on the end-goal, whether it is toppling Saddam, or winning in 2008 – they don’t care about the wreckage in their wake.
Gus
Exactly. I’m not going to start being like them. I didn’t bitch about Obama on FISA to “prove we’re not a cult.” I did it because I was pissed at him. If message discipline is the most important thing to you in a party, you’ll never make it as a Democrat.
Chris Johnson
ROFL
thanks- carry on…
dbrown
My (Very) right wing friend (has been a heavy republician supporter from day one) who voted for the puppet king bushwhack in 2004, will now vote for Obama (even if Hilary is on the ticket) so as to avoid Bushwhack II (i.e. McSame). He will not vote for any republicians again until the democrats F-up. That is how bad things are going.
L. Ron Obama
Holy shit.
Brachiator
Here is some actual, if unintentional, satire ripped straight from the headlines:
Previously, oil prices were rising because of bad economic news. But now they are falling — for exactly the same reasons.
Meanwhile, Bush is telling us in his most recent news conference that one of the factors behind high oil prices is consumer “psychology.”
It follows then, that if we all become hysterical and the economy tanks, then we can have low oil prices again.
Michael Kinsley makes exactly this point in the current issue of Time Magazine (Divided They Fall)
Some Democrats are so insistent on demonstrations of ideological purity from Obama, or for proof that he really, really, really likes Hillary that they don’t seem to understand that none of this matters a damn if Obama doesn’t actually, like, you know, win the actual election.
MH
There’s also the dimension of who you’re complaining TO. Democrats will bitch about each other to other Dems, and that’s all well and proper; but if/when they take it elsewhere and start talking smack in front of outsiders, well, that’s too far (see also: Joe Lieberman).
It’s like family. I have family members who irk me to no end, and I have every right to yell at them and about them, but if some random jerk off the street comes in, watch the ranks close like a bear trap. Or when various foreigners (stereotypically, Europeans) see fit to lecture me on the failings of America: Butt out. You don’t have any standing to say shit about my country.. It’s about the only time I’m ever even slightly nationalistic.
Which is why Harold Ford is such a dick: he goes on Fox News, in front of rightwing fucktards, and curries their favor by trashing liberals and Democrats. Fuck that noise. GTFO and take Lieberman with you.
nightjar
Most of the lefty blogs I checked on the NY’er cover were pretty much split like here. Some were genuinely outraged, but most were just rolling the ball around on a slow newsday. And after all, those of us who thought the NYer bungled the satire were in effect defending Obama.
Though, I get the point about those who went ballistic over FISA AND the cover have misdirected energies and certainly lack “message discipline” of wingnuts. But that’s like condemning the Leopard cause it has spots – it’s just the dem way to speak out individually. Not really that smart in the midst of a POTUS election IMO, but I won’t say it’s a bad thing in the long run. Rather have that than the wingnuts marching in a straight line, usually right over a cliff.
It’s hard to tell what the excessive carping on Obama is all about. I personally believe it’s mostly die hard HC people venting their anger because she lost.
w vincentz
How about photos of dead people that Bush policies created?
oh…sorry…forgot…we have a “free” press…just that they’re not allowed to show the reality.
…so it goes…
99 Percent Pure
Well, just one teeny-weeny little thing, Baby Boy JC.
A lot of us were expressing our ‘faux outrage’ about the New Yorker cover, and posting on other blogs/diaries about US economic woes, all while staying on the anti-McMumbles message as well. I even read the full Ryan Lizza “Making It” article on Obama in the New Yorker, posting on its content on several other blogs as well.
Back in the day they called it mental ambidexterity; in the new millenium, it is called ‘multi-tasking.’
You are absolutely correct, though, that message discipline and dilligence about hammering away against the enemy is a good thing.
Xanthippas
My gut instinct is to defend the kind of self-criticism (or primarily, criticism of their politicians) that Democrats and liberals love to engage in, but I have to say this election has me on Cole’s side of this argument. If you want to bitch and moan about it…do it to yourself, or to your friends privately. But don’t waste 1,000 word screeds on your blog on how badly we’ve been let down by Obama in this whole mess. The beginning to undoing this is to get that man elected President, and if that means sending out the message that everything the man does or says is now the new Democratic Party platform then so be it. Every single email sent to some media clown or right-wing blogger should be nothing but a vigorous defense of Obama, or furious rants against McCain. Yes, that can amount to partisan hackery, but I also happen to believe that such hackery from enough people may just be enough to influence the national discourse, and every little muscle in our collective finger should be aimed almost solely at that goal so McSame doesn’t get a free pass from his donut-delivering sycophants in the press.
Anyway, as Greenwald demonstrates, it’s the assholes we ALREADY elected to Congress that we have to be pissed about. And they my friends, in certain deliciously unique circumstances, can be replaced.
Xanthippas
I meant to write “fingers”, in case anyone reads that and thinks I have something a little more to the point than furiously typed words in mind to give McCain, the press or right-wingers.
John S.
Shocking, isn’t it?
I know the concept of winning is anathema to Democrats, but I think we should start trying.
nightjar
Amen to that!
99 Percent Pure
Way worse and it has been for some time. However, as Shrub said this morning,
Yes, and neo-con trolls stirring up the pot on various progressive sites.
{{Snicker}} I listened to him mangling the English language this morning, as he hyperventilated while trying not to think of that drink of Jim Beam and that hit of cocaine waiting for him as his reward for hanging on during the press conference.
So says the Idiot Emperor of Failure.
J. Michael Neal
Are we in a recession? Almost certainly. The “two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth” definition is no longer considered the best definition by most economists. They prefer the NBER’s multi-question approach. The NBER looks at a number of things. The top four on the list are job growth, real wage growth, retail sales, and industrial production. Except for a one month blip in real wages, all of these have been negative in each of the last six months. (For retail sales, you need to keep in mind that the reported number is in nominal dollars, so today’s announcement of 0.1% growth in June needs to be adjusted for inflation. I’m willing to bet a lot of money that, when the CPI is released later this week, it’s going to show more than a 0.1% increase.)
Given this, the NBER has already said that they are pretty sure that we are in a recession. They won’t confirm that for a number of months, though.
dbrown
The puppet king is stupid but the people he is talking too are even more stupid – 70% of the people polled believe that evolution is wrong and the bible story is the correct source for creation!?
People, the repubic upper 5% are laughing all the way to the bank as these people swallow the bullshit and vote for Mcsame. These ‘simple’ people don’t care for truth but only a simple message! A message they can understand in as few, non-complex words as possible:
BUSH=high gas/food prices and falling home values. The rest is window dressing for these people.
Mike S
When was the last time we had a bunch of bank failures?
Oh right, the last time we had a Bush in office.
99 Percent Pure
What he had said was,
Eh hee.
Genine
That’s what I’m about. I am angry over the FISA business, but the fault is not his alone. I am angry at all Democrats. But I want Obama to be elected so while I express my displeasure, I do not go overboard with it (aka comparing Obama to a second-coming of Bush).
If President Obama does any of this crap: I’ll let him have it with both barrels to keep him on point.
Obama isn’t here to save us. His election will help create an environment where we can save ourselves through our own grass-roots efforts. We cannot admire Obama’s bottom-up approach and message AND expect him to do everything top-down. It just doesn’t make sense.
The whole “Yes, we can” motto isn’t just about the election.
PK
I don’t think thats going to happen. The media for whatever reason is completely against the democratic party and has been that way for a long time. They completely ruined Clinton’s last term in office with one false scandal after another, were responsible in large part for Gore’s negative image, and have been completely in the tank for Bush for the last 7 yrs. The media seems to be determined to get McCain elected. And the left needs to stop giving them ammunition.
I am an independent turned democrat, but sometimes I look at the party and despair, that so many democrats don’t seem to realize or don’t seem to care that Obama does not need to take crap from his own side right now. He does not need to be fighting both the left and the right at the same time. I think everyone needs to shut the heck up for the next 4 months, get behind Obama and then when he is the president push for their agendas. There is nothing to be proud of in the fact that democrats are highly self critical. There is a time to be critical and a time to be pragmatic.
Jon H
“Well, of course, perhaps the inconvenient fact that by the definition of what constitutes a recession ”
The definition? What, you mean the 2-quarter thingy? That’s not the definition, that’s just a rule of thumb.
The NBER, the people whose job it is to peg when recessions start and end, says:
So there’s no reason why a steep 3-month decline wouldn’t count as a recession. And given their use of monthly indicators, a 4 or 5 month decline could count as a recession despite being less than two quarters.
Jon H
Bah, J. M. Neal beat me to it.
Bill H
Okay, look, my scores on the political inclications quiz were -7.50 and -6.41, so I think I count as somewhere in the “bleeding heart liberal” class. I also realize that America is more spread out than Europe and more suburban and doesn’t have anywhere near the mass transit infrastructure that Europe has. I get that, I really do. But Europeans pay well over twice what we do for gas, and many of the differences that I just described are of our own making. Don’t we need to do a little less harping on the cost of gas and have a little more discussion on what steps we can take to be more environmentally friendly and, at the same time, take better care of our economy?
Xenos
It has been negative for years, if you honestly calculate inflation. Hell, if you use the somewhat honest system in effect until Reagan’s second term, we have been in a recession for two years now.
Jennyjinx
This is sadly true. Stock up on whichever beer to decide on. You’re going to need a lot of it. ;)
John Cole
Jon, J. michael Neal, and others:
Look, I do appreciate the attempts to argue honestly with shit for brains from earlier in the thread, but really, isn’t the whole point that everything is going to shit, banks are failing, life is tough, gas is over four dollars a gallong, the Republicans have held the White House for eight years, and the best they can muster is the rather flaccid “Yeah, but it is not technically a recession yet.”
Christ, you Democrats really do suck at framing things.
Just Some Fuckhead
John, it was actually YOU who first blasted Obama on the FISA matter in a post entitled “WEAK”. Actual Democrats don’t get sidetracked on the way to an election. You Republican rejects, Clintards, Ratfuckers and assorted purity Leftards, on the other hand…………
In regards to the New Yorker cover, actual Democrats stood up for their nominee and IN SOLIDARITY WITH THEIR NOMINEE rejected the unhelpful, offensive and inflammatory caricatures presented by ostensible liberals.
So whatever point you think you are making, you ain’t. Sober up and try again.
John Cole
One post, and I moved on.
Just Some Fuckhead
You sure did. You moved on to trashing Obama for some alleged slight to Muslims.
Jon H
John wrote: “Christ, you Democrats really do suck at framing things.”
But… Someone was WRONG on the Internet!