This, from the Politico, is a classic:
Nor are Democrats strangers to having their crazy uncles take center stage. During the run-up to the Iraq war, for example, Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and David Bonior (D-Mich.) famously flew to Baghdad, where McDermott asserted that he believed the president would “mislead the American public” to justify the war. The trip made it a cakewalk for critics to describe the Democratic Party as chock-a-block with traitorous radicals.
Never mind that president Bush did “mislead the American public” to justify the war. Even if one accepts the benign interpretation that Bush misled the public inadvertently, at the end of the day, he said there were WMD and there weren’t.
That’s where we’re at: having the prescience to see what is coming marks you as a traitorous radical.
GregB
Mike Allen must have wiped the fap-fap juice off the screen after seeing that little vindictive morsel of GOP-er folklore on the computer.
-G
McGeorge Bundy
I’m almost surprised. Almost.
ninerdave
Speaking of insanity in the media:
“Wilson took caffeine pills in 2007”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/58257-wilson-regularly-took-caffeine-pills-in-2007
What idiot editor rubber stamped that piece. Who gives a fuck? I always thought the Hill was one of the more respectable media outlets.
JK
Doug,
Thanks for this link. One more on the one hand on the other hand article. I’m getting pretty sick of these. I wish the MSM could raise its game. The public deserves better from them.
asiangrrlMN
I didn’t know it was possible to literally see red. Huh. I learn something new every day. Thanks for that, DougJ, I guess.
cmorenc
@ninerdave
Ok, I digress from the main topic at hand, but this factoid raises the puzzling question:
Why take caffeine pills instead of drinking perfectly good fresh-brewed coffee . Unless your only familiarity with coffee is the kind of crap they brew at the local 7/11 or Folger’s instant.
JK
Doug,
How do you manage to avoid sinking into total despair from all the nonsense, dishonesty, and stupidity that you blog about?
AnotherBruce
Not only that but the rest of the article is a vomitous pile of apologia and half assed justifications for the embarrassing and juvenile behavior of republicans over the last couple of months. Really, whoever Andie Coller pretends to be, (s)he even fails at being an ass-kissing courtier. You really need hip waders, an oxygen tank and a lobotomy to get through this article.
General Winfield Stuck
House Republicans are just plain certifiable. Gawd help us if voters put them back in charge of the House with any dem president, but especially Obama/ WE would have round the clock hearings on O’s BC, Bill Ayers would be a fixture in the witness chair, and Michelle Bachmann will have her rope ready.
Wilson is in the process of being canonized by the wingnuttosphere and his record even makes Palin’s antics seem reasonable. As Cole pointed out in the 2008 election, right wing blogs, were pretty much running the McCain campaign. And now they seem to be the GOP spiritual adviser across the board.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Being a lifelong DFH, I learned that lesson long, long ago. Are you just learning this or is this a space-filling observation on your part? ;)
No matter how right we are, to the Rightwe will always be wrong because they are always right and we’re the DFH. The MSM has to follow along with that theme because of the necessary bread buttering and whatnot.
They define reality, we only have to live it.
AnotherBruce
They define reality, we only have to live it.
C’mon now, when did the DFHs cede the turf on defining reality? After all we did decades of ground-breaking, wall melting, mirror shifting research on alternate realities. Why the hell are we letting a bunch of bow tied pansies define it for us now?
JK
@General Winfield Stuck:
Words almost fail me when it comes to Eric Cantor. Calling Cantor a scumbag would be an insult to scumbags. He’s one of the most worthless, useless, clueless, pathetic human beings to ever serve in Congress. He’s a total waste of protoplasm and atoms.
asiangrrlMN
@JK: What is it about Cantor specifically that bothers you so much? I mean, I can think of half a dozen Republicans who are just as loathsome (cough, Michele Bachmann, cough). Please enlighten me.
KG
@General Winfield Stuck: this reminds me, state elections are going to be important over the next couple of years. 2010 census, new districts should be drawn and in place by 2012. Anyone have the numbers on what party controls which state legislatures? (Don’t look to California for help, the parties got together long ago to gerrymander the hell out of our House, Assembly, and State Senate districts; and I doubt the gerrymandering commission will be any better)
Bill E Pilgrim
Republicans worry they’re becoming known less for their ideals and more for the pettiness of their vitriol
Says the caption to the graphic with that article. To which the only sane response is, er, “ideals”?
The content is the pettiness, clowns. Your “ideals” are insane conspiracy theories and no, “Bush over-inflated the WMD myth to sell invading Iraq” is the precise opposite, AKA what actually happened.
Olberman did a great comment on this that I just watched at MSNBC.com, pointing out that the actual lie involved was the real travesty of Joe (my wife doesn’t work for the CIA but if she did I’d out her myself) Wilson’s outburst, aside from the juvenile raspberry-blowing-as-statesmansmanship delivery.
Politico is such a right wing joke. That’s really where our problem lies, no pun intended, still, that places like that are considered “centrist”.
Wile E. Quixote
@DougJ
Pretty much, remember, these are the spiritual descendants of the people who were condemning people 60 years ago for premature anti-fascism.
Linkmeister
If you click on her name to get a bio, you get a blank page with just a photograph.
Chad N Freude
@JK: @asiangrrlMN:
Cantor is a cynical self-promoting political climber. I doubt that he has any principles beyond attaining political prominence and power. He is certainly not one of the Bachmanniac Bedlam escapees. Calculating, cynical, self-promoting yes, lunatic no.
asiangrrlMN
@Chad N Freude: Yeah, I get why Cantor is despicable, but I don’t get what’s especially despicable about him amongst a field of so many.
Chad N Freude
@Linkmeister: Cool. She is n/a. In my profession, that means “Not Applicable”.
Chad N Freude
@asiangrrlMN: He appears to be intelligent enough to know that the others are helplessly crazy and he is not.
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude: I should have added that this makes him worse than the loonies, because he doesn’t have to be one of them, he chooses to be.
Darius
Honestly, I’m just amazed that Politico wrote an article that was actually [i]critical[/i] of the GOP. Last week, they were telling me how the GOP was poised to make a comeback. And the week before that. And the week before that…
asiangrrlMN
@Chad N Freude: Ah. So it’s the shrewd cynicism to which you are alluding. I get it.
ninerdave
@cmorenc:
Good point, however I counter with, why the hell do people drink RedBull (and it’s variants)? They smell like ass (I was in an elevator with some tool who had an open one today), taste even worse and the crash at about 2pm is horrid.
JGabriel
DougJ:
But the right can’t “never mind” that. You see, it justifies their mistrust of Obama. “Misleading the American public” is no longer what they would do — it’s what they actually did. So of course they assume Obama is doing it too.
.
JK
@asiangrrlMN:
Cantor is not the type of Repub who belongs in a pscyh ward like Palin or Bachmann.
What gets me about Cantor is his SLIMY, SMARMY, OILY, LYING demeanor. Every time I see this cocksucker on tv, he conveys this TOTALLY FAKE, CONTRIVED earnestness and seriousness of purpose and claims Republicans are just tring to do what’s right for America but Obama and the Dems just want to score political points.
asiangrrlMN
@JK: Got it. So the fact that he ISN’T batshit crazy makes him more despicable because he can choose to be helpful rather than act like a third-rate used car salesman. Gotcha.
Chad N Freude
@JK: Beatcha to it, dude. See@Chad N Freude and @Chad N Freude. But I yield to your vastly superior list of accurate adjectives.
Chad N Freude
@asiangrrlMN: I beg to differ. He is much more like a first-rate used car salesman.. A third-rater can be spotted within seconds of when he starts to speak.
Brachiator
The current (Sep 10) episode Fresh Air features a Terry Gross of author Max Blumenthal, who has a new book about how the GOP is degenerating into wingnuttery, dedicated more to declaring Obama illegitimate than in pursuing any rational policy.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112683449
Blumenthal also finds some surprising connections between the wingnuts who label Obama as a Hitler and Lyndon Larouche operatives.
A taste from a transcript of the show.
JK
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who grinned Wednesday night when Obama embraced his idea for a high-risk pool that would serve as a safety net for people who are currently difficult to insure, was collecting signatures Thursday on a petition in opposition to the president’s entire plan.
The Obama proposal is an “egregiously expensive and expansive form of government-run health care,” McCain said in an online letter to supporters.
h/t http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/09/10/ST2009091004411.html
Why in God’s name does Obama continue courting McCain when he’s shown ever since his defeat that he’s just a warped, frustrated, lying sack of shit.?
josefina
Only slightly OT: from RedState’s begging-bowl page:
redtillimdead Thursday, September 10th at 5:34PM EDT (link)
Its amazing. Last night when I went to bed, he had 5200. When I started following him about 30 mins earlier, he had about 5k. Now, he has over 8k. I wonder how many he had before that?
Linkmeister
@JK: Why? Because Obama, despite all the evidence that the other side doesn’t want to play, really believes that “changing the tone in Washington” can be done.
It’s kind of a touching naiveté, as far as I’m concerned, but whaddyagonnado?
asiangrrlMN
@Chad N Freude: Then he is third-rate to me.
asiangrrlMN
@JK: Last gasps of bipartisanship. I predict that Obama will give it up pretty soon.
Well, it’s bedtime for me, kiddies! See ya in four hours or so.
JK
Chad N Freude – Sorry I didn’t read your comment first.
asiangrrlMN – That was slightly cathartic for me, but John Boehner and John McCain are starting to give Cantor a run for his money in terms of Repubs I despise most.
Comrade Kevin
@josefina:
What are they, a bunch of Communists?
JK
@Brachiator:
Thanks again for yet another useful comment and accompanying link. Blumentahl was also interviewed last week or the week before on Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org. That interview is also well worth checking out.
Chad N Freude
@JK: For me, Cantor is the newbie. McCain and Boehner have been undermining American democracy for much longer.
Blue Raven
@ninerdave:
Some of them taste pretty damn good. As for why, they’re higher in caffeine, have other stuff in them besides caffeine that’s at least allegedly good for you, and unlike coffee, they’re cold, bubbly and have different flavors.
JK
@Chad N Freude:
That’s very good point. Unfortuantely, Cantor will be around many more years poisoning the well, unless of course Dems find someone to defeat him.
Redshift
@KG: Also remember that in two states (NJ and here in VA), those elections are going on right now. Anyone who wants to help out (in person or monetarily), we’d be glad to have you — Virginia has no limits at all on campaign contributions, FYI.
The Dems took control of the State Senate here the last time around, and we’re within striking distance of the House of Delegates now. Creigh Deeds, who’s running for governor, introduced nonpartisan redistricting bills many times when he was in the Senate. (They were voted down by the Republicans.)
stibbert
@Brachiator: heard most of that Fresh Air w/ Max Blumenthal yesterday, it was on in the next room, so i wasn’t paying much attention until the segment about Palin’s Wasilla church and the self-appointed bishop exorcisin’ the demons bit, which i found rather extremely frightening. i mean, isn’t this the 21st C., and we still haven’t moved past that kinda shite-hysteria?
i believe a lot of things, not all of them are usual or even kind to others, but if i ever went into a room where everyone thought as i did, i’d likely leave more quickly than i entered.
those folks who lack the abilities of critical thinking or self-examination just scare the pants offa me.
IndyLib
@Blue Raven:
Are there any of them out there that aren’t tangy/sour? I don’t do sour.
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
Proving once again that projection is the organizing function of the conservative mindset. It’s not a coincidence that every Republican who self-righteously denounced Bill Clinton for his relationship with Monica Lewinsky turned out to have been getting some on the side themselves.
Mnemosyne
@JK:
Let’s say you have a friend. Your friend has a boyfriend who’s a warped, frustrated, lying sack of shit. But you can’t come right out and tell your friend that, because then she’ll turn against you and cling even harder to him. So you have to pretend to make nice while looking for any opportunity to stick the shiv in.
Comrade Kevin
Who invented this godawful idea that bipartisanship for its own sake was something to pursue, or be admired?
Linkmeister
@Comrade Kevin: I don’t think that’s quite right.
I think the concern was that if something as big as health care reform didn’t have at least a few Republicans it would be tarred as a “Democrat program” and could be more easily reversed under a different Administration and Congress. The idea was that the broader support it got when enacted, the less vulnerable it would be to destruction down the road.
angler
Go read the comments that follow that article and you’ll find another Wilson-esque example of Republicans reinforcing the critique. The bullshit balance line on Dems as antiwar is classic Politico but the bulk of the story says the GOP is now identified with its nuts. The commenters proceed to say I’m nuts and I’m proud and Obama is like Satan only he lies more.
Martin
Those that have no ideas about how to solve societies problems. Without bipartisanship forcing credit be shared, it’d be even more obvious that they have no idea what to do.
Comrade Kevin
@Linkmeister: I wasn’t, actually, thinking specifically about Health Care when I wrote that. It is a general problem with the way the Beltway media generate their crap. “Bipartisanship” is always the right way to go, no matter what the issue, especially when the Democrats are in charge. It’s like they think that elections shouldn’t have consequences; the permanent political class should run things.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Comrade Kevin:
Who invented this godawful idea that bipartisanship for its own sake was something to pursue, or be admired?
Well, even sidestepping that whole question (I’d use “begging the question” but everyone seems to have given that the opposite meaning of what it used to be traditionally, sigh, I give up) for a moment, the other problem is that there’s nothing remotely “bi” about dividing opinion and air space and attention evenly between a party that can claim only 20% of voters at best, and the rest.
The Wingnuts want to argue that well, Republicans have 20% and Democrats something like 35%, and the rest are independents and whatever, so, even-Steven, or at least close to it.
But that presupposes that the remaining 45% are evenly divided between the Republican and Democratic positions, which is insane, mainly because the current Republican position is so extreme, which is why they have only the 20%.
The problem is that the prevailing High Broderism simply refuses to acknowledge that a country roughly divided 50-50 between two major parties is a thing of the past, at least right now. They want to blame the extremism of the GOP on a few loud adolescents yelling from the balcony, but — don’t look now, David, the whole damn GOP is up there, making fart noises and acting like idiots.
“Bi”, pfft. The best you could call the actual populace is “bi-curious” right now. People are sort of morbidly fascinated to know what the Republicans are up to, but after a few encounters most people end up thinking nope, sorry, too kinky for me, and scuttle back to the real center.
Linkmeister
@Comrade Kevin: Ah. I misunderstood.
Well, yeah. Bipartisanship (or High Broderism, as Digby calls it) is the Holy Grail for the Villagers.
arguingwithsignposts
In other news, via FMM, McMegan is likely auditioning for a gig with the New York Times.
God help us all if they hire another insufferable narcissistic RW hack to write for them.
Comrade Kevin
@arguingwithsignposts: OH LORD, NO, MAKE IT STOP! The Power of Christ compels you!
JGabriel
@arguingwithsignposts:
On the one hand, McMegan would fit right in with
Dowd, Stanley, et. al. On the other, I can see how McMegan would even be too stupid for them, what with her Ayn fixation and winger/gamer boy toy fiance.
.
Comrade Kevin
AAAAAH! I thought I had seen the last of Tom Campbell, make him go away! At least I haven’t had to look at a Carly Fiorina ad yet.
@Linkmeister: No problem, I actually agree with what you wrote.
Trinity
@arguingwithsignposts: You Lie!
Trinity
@Trinity: that was intended in my most Joe Wilson-esque voice.
freelancer
Okay, so no Juicers on the West Coast feed still up?
Fiji?
Samoa?
none of our english prisoners from Oz?
weird.
well, I’m going to bed in 10 minutes, here’s the trailer for
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Calouste
@Comrade Kevin:
It baffles me. In democracies, like the ones they have in Europe, whoever wins the election (and if necessary gets a coalition together) governs the country until the next general election or the coalition falls apart. You get the occassional Grand Coalition, typically between Conservatives/Christian Democrats on one side and Labor/Social Democrats on the other side, but they tend not to last long. Things are tempered there in a different way, as political appointments are basically limited to cabinet level positions and under-secretaries/junior ministers, maybe 40-50 people in all. All the other people in the department are career civil servants.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, I screwed up and went to sleep at 9:30, woke up at 2:45 a.m. That’s my five hours. Now I’m up for the duration. dammit.
Bill E Pilgrim
@arguingwithsignposts: I hear you, AWSP.
Still suffering from jet lag myself after a week-long trip, I went to sleep at midnight and managed to sleep all the way to 4 am. Which was actually progress, in my case. I hope to reach 5 or even 6 am some day soon.
Viva BrisVegas
@Calouste: In Westminster systems, i.e. the non-US English speaking world, the European style of coalition governments is so rare as to be non-existent.
Under Westminster you have two parties and they evenly divide the polity between them. This is in order to maximise the returns to their bases by making the minimum compromise necessary to gain a majority.
What you also have is party discipline. Policy is decided on by the party in conference and in caucus, and the elected representatives of that party are held to that position on the parliamentary floor through fear of political death.
This is what is missing from the American system. What you have instead is some kind of underformed 18th century ideal of how a political party should work, and then attempting to shoehorn it into the 21st century.
It it any wonder that the American model for democracy does not exist outside the USA and a couple of South American cesspits?
MikeJ
Just now two here and I’m waking up. Which sort of sucks, but ideally will force me to sleep early tonight, and then make it easy to wake up on Saturday when I’m hiking up to Paradise glacier.
ironranger
Pat Buchanan again on Morning Joe as they discuss the extremism in the R party, which is pretty ironic considering Pat was or is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Pat’s name was on a list of notable members of SCV I saw on Southern Poverty Law Center, along with Trent Lott, Lester Maddox, Virgil Goode, Charlie Daniels, Clint Eastwood & Rick Perry.
Not likely anyone in msm is going to ask Pat about that.
MikeJ
2008 election, Joe Wilson spent $1,266,821. Rob Miller spent $624,365.
Miller’s actblue page is currently at $703,018. More money in 24 hours than in the entire previous campaign.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
“Everybody” thought Iraq had WMD. Well, yes, that’s why “everybody” voted to send the weapons inspectors back in. Nobody, except the Repugs, thought that Iraq was a “grave and gathering threat” (Bush) or an “immanent threat” (Cheney). Please check out this DKos diary.(It isn’t really about Iraq/Saddam)
Click here: Daily Kos: “Barack Obama is just like Saddam Hussein” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/9/135725/4880
Xenos
@Calouste: This points to the true agenda for the GOP – to maintain the modern spoils system, where second and third generation party apparatchiks get public sinecures and the seasoning that allows them to cycle out to the more profitable positions in the capitalist support systems (journalism, think tanks, wingnut welfare outfits).
Losing control of the executive branch puts the careers of thousands of these apparatchicks on hold for years at a time. Thus their bitterness and anger. The election of Obama threatened the entire Republican mode of production and system of reproduction.
kommrade reproductive vigor
You could have stopped at “From Politico.”
Fulcanelli
@JK: “Why in God’s name does Obama continue courting McCain when he’s shown ever since his defeat that he’s just a warped, frustrated, lying sack of shit.?”
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, grasshopper…
WereBear
Who likes “bipartisanship?”
Besides the village, the whole mass of Independents (which is really a lot of Undecideds.)
Let the masses collide and form some kind of consensus, and the squishy middle chooses that, claiming they “look at both sides” and make their own decisions.
Even though they had nothing to do with the process.
MikeJ
Yea! Gordon Brown, or a carefully programmed computer, apologized to Alan Turing.
slightly_peeved
I’m not American, but I think “President of the United States Mr Barack Hussein Obama” still sounds pretty awesome, even after 8 months.
Because McCain – and the rest of the Republicans – keep showing that they are warped, frustrated, lying sacks of shit. I think you just answered your own question.
Fulcanelli
The only way way we’ll get anything even remotely resembling an actual representative government back is if We The ‘effing People (read: Dems and independents) open our wallets and cough up like businesses, PAC’s and the mouth breathers on the right do and in a big, sustained way every election cycle.
Ideas don’t elect decent candidates, money does. Bitch and moan all you want, that’s the way it is. We have to continue what started with Obama in the last election, and play the game. Getting enough progressives elected with actual private donations is the only chance there is of campaign finance law reform. Weaning incumbents and especially challengers off of PAC/business cash and replacing it with public cash is the only way forward.
The cash pouring in for Joe Wilson’s (R-etarded) opponent after his outburst of PTSD (Political Tourette’s Syndrome Derangement) the other night shows that people are starting to get it. I’m gonna toss him a few bucks meself.
More cowbell wouldn’t hurt either…
EarBucket
I’m sure Marc Ambinder would be happy to explain to you how they were only right accidentally because they hated Bush so much.
El Cid
Remember, “flew to Baghdad” means that Democrats flew to Baghdad, put on pink tutus and became Saddam Hussein’s boyfriends and burned American flags and crawled up on top of anti-aircraft guns.
In the same way, “NANCY PELOSI ! WENT TO SYRIA !” meant that Nancy Pelosi flew to Syria, married the Assad family, put on a burqa (scarf, whatever), and pledged on TV to built the World Trade Centers again just so she could help more Arab terrorists knock them down again.
arguingwithsignposts
@Fulcanelli:
I agree with you in principle. But there’s a reason we’re the “people.” We don’t make nearly as much money to throw into the politics pot every year as businesses and the k-street lobbyists who represent them. The unions do a pretty good job, but if money=voice, we will never be on par with the special interests.
Consider ActBlue has raised $100 million over four years. I don’t have actual figures, but IIRC, that’s less than one industry puts into congressional campaigns. (look at opensecret’s heavy hitters list for an example of the amount of money spent since 1998).
So yes, public funding of elections would be a good thing.
PeakVT
Speaking of unequal treatment: The Tale of Two Joe Wilsons by Juan (not John) Cole.
gnomedad
@JK:
What courting? Seemed more like pwnage to me.
CT
Obama bipartisan reachouts are not aimed solely (or even mainly) at McCain, et al. If that approach works, and you can get some honest, useful response from the R’s, good. But he is also constantly getting that message out, over and over again, in high-profile events, to independent voters, that his door “is always open”. Casts himself as the reasonable grown up in the room-its kind of his Teflon, to go back to a Reagan era phrase. The whole middle (Reagan Democrats) thought he was such a sunny, optimistic guy that no charge could stick to the guy, even something has outrageous as Iran-Contra.
someguy
I’m still waiting for the traitorous radicals who foresaw disaster in Afghanistan to be vindicated. Guess that’s coming in the next couple months when we admit defeat and run like hell. Oh joy.
Rommie
I wonder if Obama “keeping the door open” has another purpose: An Escape Hatch. It’s plausible that signals (or comments) have been sent to the few moderate R’s that – If your party goes into full Third Manassas crazy mode, we’ll take you in if you want to come to our side of the world.
Alas, that would also mean an anticipation of the DisLoyal Opposition forming, but it’s hard to ignore the Wingnut Singularity set to full suck. Plan for the worst, Hope for the best.
Speedy
If Politico were an actual print newspaper , it wouldn’t be fit for my cat to shit on.
Balconesfault
@Speedy: Politico’s other new thing is that since Harry Reid once said Bush lied during an interview, this is the same thing.
Comrade Mary
@freelancer: Ha! The trailer looks great, although given how this was based on the book by Jon Ronson, it’s too bad that Ewan adopted an American accent.
Really, y’all MUST read Jon Ronson. He’s also got some presence on YouTube, so search for stuff like this, too.
asiangrrlMN
Damn it! When I said I’d see you in four hours, I wasn’t meaning to be literal! Ok, it’s a bit more than four, but I got less than that in sleep last night. Grr.
arguingwith, you still up?
Shouty Joe Wilson is so very pouty. Politico needs to go fuck itself. The false equivalence still drives me fucking batshitcrazy insane (but still saner than Michele Bachmann).
jwb
@JK: Maybe because it shows over and over again that McCain is “just a warped, frustrated, lying sack of shit.” I mean, Obama has to know that McCain is going to be all over the media, so with the media and public apparently unable to remember anything that happened more than seven seconds ago, it’s important to constantly have recent points of reference of his douchbaggery.
Comrade Mary
Oh, and the film is showing just down the street from me tonight, although I have no chance in hell of getting a ticket. Maybe I’ll just go and gawk at the pretty people.
Bill E Pilgrim
This really is funny, via TPM, Lindsey Graham during the speech.
The face shows impassiveness, while the brain screams “Oh shit! no other Republicans are clapping, quick—- evasive action!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXxCSqGGdgU
Morbo
I still say shame, shame on Dennis Kucinich for that time he called Bush a liar during his State of the Union address. Oh wait, that never happened. If only, if only…
Way to set the bar high.
arguingwithsignposts
@asiangrrlMN:
still up. did have a couple of instances of dozing for a while. going to be a long day. but it’s friday, at least.
Don
Actually it is printed here in the D.C. area, thought it’s been about a year since I last recall seeing one of their red boxes – perhaps they stopped. Want me to send you one for litter box lining?
TheFountainHead
“Why in God’s name does Obama continue courting McCain when he’s shown ever since his defeat that he’s just a warped, frustrated, lying sack of shit.?”
I have to agree with gnomedad on this one. This wasn’t a courting, this was a “Eat your $^%#@! heart out you incontinent soulless gasbag!”
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: I hear you, my brother in sleepless arms. Heh. That’s funny (to me, anyway).
@Morbo:
What can I say? shrug. I’m a dreamer!
CalD
Thanks again for reading the Politico (so I don’t have to).
The Grand Panjandrum
The GOP leadership will suffer because of the way they somewhat publicly forced Wilson to apologize. Wilson is a know nothing back bencher who we rarely heard of. Wilson may well lose his seat next November but Boehner and the rest of the House GOP leadership are now in the cross hairs of the true believers. Had they less publicly called Wilson aside they may have saved themselves the embarrassment of having to explain to the Rump why Wilson was forced to apologize.
The Grand Panjandrum
Shorter Politico: Dems right about Iraq War = crazy uncle. Republicans wrong about everything = cranky.
Its just another day in the Village, Mr Roger Simon.
Bob In Pacifica
Anyone remember bentonite?
How about the five separate sources around the testing at the Defense Department’s Fort Detrick labs telling ABC News that there was bentonite in the anthrax tested from the letters, and that meant that they were made by Iraq’s chemical-biological warfare unit?
Wouldn’t you like to know who those five separate sources were?
Little Dreamer
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Agreed. I noticed this months ago, why is it taking others so long to figure it out?
The Other Steve
Did you guys catch the ACORN pimps and ho’s video?
It’s pretty funny. Apparently ACORN gives tax advice. Some some conservative types went in with a video camera and pretended to be a pimp with his ho’s needing to hide his money from the IRS.
I guess they tried this in six different cities until they finally got someone to bite the bait.
I guess the point is that it’s clear evidence ACORN is behind a giant conspiracy to traffic in prostitution and pimps or something like that.
Little Dreamer
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Shhh! Don’t give them ideas, I like watching them pare off a few more supporters each time they play these games. It’s the only entertainment on my television these days.
Zach
It was prescience; Hans Blix said that Bush was misleading the world at the time.
SGEW
OT (but relevant, alas; indulge my annual ponder on this day)
9/11/09
Eight years feels like forever. It feels like yesterday.
On that beautiful pastoral crystal clear morning, after the second tower fell, I stared hard at the rest of the skyline, willing it to stay there – willing the rest of Manhattan to stay standing, to not crumble in sympathetic resonance. On my rooftop, my neighbor clutched my phone; she had just been talking to her father in the first tower before it fell. She couldn’t stop screaming. The radio spoke of other planes, other threats. Some guy next to me cursed the “rag heads.”
I remember that I felt some sort of portentous vision, some fearful prescience; of war, of terror, of suffering and monumental overreaction. I feared that I was witnessing the opening act of a global spasm of terror, of endless war, and that the fear and tearful rage of my country in reaction to this horror would lead to an attempted cure more harmful than the cloud of ash and dust and human remains that blotted out my southern horizon.
Now I look back at the past eight years and this nation’s visceral reaction: Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia; the PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretapping, the DHS; Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram, black sites, extraordinary rendition . . . and I realize that no matter how awful we have been, I was expecting far, far worse. I was expecting tens of millions killed, and a police state, and a nation that lived in perpetual fear. I feel that we have weathered some terrible storm, and are now abandoning the worst of our impulses behind us in the darkness. We are left with the damage we have caused – damage that may not heal right, grievous damage, damage that stains the very landscape like the gaping hole in my city’s outline – but the rest of the skyline still stands. We did not all crumble.
Last night I was walking down Eighth Avenue, and saw a beam of light fire up into the sky as they tested the spotlights for today’s memorial. I felt a sort of distant pain, like an amputee’s phantom limb that had just softly clenched its fist. But this city – this country – is still here. Evil men with box cutters couldn’t take it away from us. And neither could Bush.
asiangrrlMN
@SGEW: That’s beautiful, SGeW. Thank you for sharing that.
Eric
Andie Coller writes back:
Thanks for your comment — I understand your point. And I didn’t say
McDermott was a traitorous radical, or that he was wrong. My point was
that the trip was hugely controversial — McDermott basically called
Bush a liar on foreign soil, which is a pretty big breach of the usual
protocol, as Wilson’s outburst was on Wednesday night — and the rest of
the party became vulnerable to those sorts of accusations and
characterizations because of it.
Best,
Andie
—–Original Message—–
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 9:04 AM
To: Andie Coller
Subject: Politico.com: Web Comments To Reporter
Below is a comment submitted via the Web site:
RE: GOP Cranks dominating Debate.
Dear Ms. Coller,
In your effort at balancing your article by calling out cranks in the
Democrats’ midst, you wrote “During the run-up to the Iraq war, for
example, Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and
David Bonior (D-Mich.) famously flew to Baghdad, where McDermott
asserted that he believed the president would ‘mislead the American
public’ to justify the war. The trip made it a cakewalk for critics to
describe the Democratic Party as chock-a-block with traitorous
radicals.”
Please answer these questions: 1) who was right about WMD in Iraq,
President Bush or Jim McDermott? and 2) Which was ultimately more
harmful to this country: a trip to Bahgdad by responsible Democratic
Lawmakers, or waging a Trillion Dollar War against a country that posed
no strategic threat to the United States? Please give me the courtesy of
a reply.
If the answer to A) is Jim McDermott, and the answer to B) is waging a trillion dollar war, then I think that you should apologize to Mr. McDermott for characterizing him as a traitorous radical.
Eric Stromberg,
Waverly, IA
Thank you,
THE POLITICO
Politico.com
Eric
I figured that would be the reply:
Shorter Ms. Coller: “I didn’t characterize Jim McDermott as a traitor, others did because of his actions.”
At least she was prompt and courteous in her response.
arguingwithsignposts
@SGEW:
thanks for sharing that.
i too remember thinking things were going to be far worse in the aftermath. Here in the U.S., they haven’t been as bad as i imagined. But in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are much worse.
I wonder what Iraqi would have imagined, watching a TV eight years ago, that what he/she was seeing would lead to the chaos and destruction that has been visited upon them.
PanAmerican
KG:
60-D, 36-R, 2-tied
jimmiraybob
“…he said there were WMD and there weren’t.
This is way too benign. He had his top administration officials fan out with a message so dire as to scare the shit out of the nation. They had the Fox News wing pissing in their shorts. They drove the country to hysteria and panic – the message, repeated loudly and steadily, was that we were all going to die in a giant nuclear fireball with our only remains carried aloft in a mushroom cloud – the only option was to be poisoned by anthrax …. before the giant nuclear fireball.
Bush’s certainty – at least in the public message – was not in the least tempered by facts or reflection. It was pure gut feeling, pure machismo. As a leader of a powerful nuclear nation this is the true measure of an imbecile and/or a proto-emperor.
There was more than enough information ahead of the invasion that would have cast significant doubt on the WMD claims. These were men and women – led by Bush/Cheney (or Cheney/Bush if you will) – that wanted to invade Iraq who found a resonant message and invaded. Given the prospect of another 4 years they may well have turned the corner on Iran too.
Bush screamed WMD as loud and as often as he could until a stunned nation acquiesced.
Thanks, back to lurker town where the beer’s cold and the grass is always mowed.
noncarborundum
@JK:
I know the trope is way overused already, but I’d like to point out that calling Cantor a “cocksucker” is, in fact, an insult to cocksuckers everywhere.
bayville
From where does Politico recruit these “reporters” ?
It is literally impossible to be more inept at your chosen profession, than Andie Collier is here.
I guess the editors approve of this as well.
Chad N Freude
@TheFountainHead: I haven’t seen anyone else note that Obama’s nod to McCain sent the message to the Right-eous “Even your conservative fearless hero/leader thinks this is a good plan. Fight me and you fight Him.” Preemption, I think (not that it’s working).
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator: I added the book to my Amazon shopping cart — sounds really interesting — but WTF!? They’re saying 1-4 weeks for delivery! Anyhow, Brachiator, thanks for the link as I for some reason didn’t get to hear Fresh Air yesterday and missed this completely.
Chad N Freude
@The Grand Panjandrum: Ah, but if they don’t publicly demonstrate their commitment to civility and disapproval of its opposite, they risk alienating the mythical independent uncommitted. Truly, a sad dilemma.
Chad N Freude
@Little Dreamer: It’s because anything that isn’t certifiably beyond psychiatric help is now considered “centrist”. Tortured analogy: Since 180 degrees is the opposite direction, 179 degrees is the half-way point.
Little Dreamer
@Chad N Freude:
Not sad for me, I need more popcorn!
;)
Chad N Freude
@noncarborundum:
Fixed.
slag
The irony is that some of us who saw what was going on after September 11th–the rounding up of immigrants, the secrecy, the mad dash to war–were sitting around saying to themselves, “Has everyone gone freakin crazy?” I guess it just depends on which side of the fence you’re sitting on.
RSA
Traitorous radicals are the bane of physicists and chemists.
wobbly
Also a classic, the PBS snapshot of a guy from Rochester, New York, commenting on Obama’s speech from an empty room in the Xerox tower.
Nice shot of the Rochester skyline, zero in on the jerk in his cubicle…
He’s totally against whatever Obama said.
He’s watching the speech from his cubicle?
Jeez, I thought Zerox ditched these useless paper shovers years ago…
Apparently not.
DougJ
@Eric
Thanks. She never replied to what I sent her.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JK:
When he throws bon-mots in McCain’s direction I don’t think Obama is courting McCain himself so much as Obama is courting the tire-swinging news media folks who love McCain like a first BFF. The road to David Gregory’s heart run thru John McCain. Just imagine the weeping and pulling of hair and sackcloth and ashes spectacle that will be the MSM when McCain finally shuffles off to the great Aircraft Carrier in the sky. It will be like Reagan all over again.
Mark D
@JK: Dear lord — McCain has had government health care his ENTIRE FREAKING LIFE!!! And now he’s saying how evil it is?
Worse yet, no one in the media points this out. Instead, they continually reinforce the wingnut meme that those who were right about the war were traitors for being so.
**bangs head on desk**
steve duncan
Real men don’t drink coffee. They just swallow the fresh grounds.
Dominique
Sure, there are right-wing parents telling their children that the black Kenyan muslim socialist president wants to indoctrinate them, it is true, yet we must not forget that on the other side there are also equally wicked people, calling war foolish and unjustified.
Bender
Get your facts straight. That’s not why McDermott is a traitorous radical.
Taking money from his buddy Saddam’s government to go to Iraq to call the President a liar is what makes McDermott a traitorous radical. Taking more money from Iraq after his trip is what makes him a fucking scumbag.
liberal
@Bender:
Link, please, to evidence that he directly took money from Iraq?
Mayur
Also, Bender’s the same guy referring to “(nonexistent) WMDs” two threads up from this one.
So which is it, Bender? Is Bush a liar or were there WMDs? Or is this just as much a logical contortion as your nonsense in the other thread about the *Democrats* and Clinton going to war in Iraq (in 2003, 26 months into the presidential term of Bush-R, and an (R)
Majority in both houses)?
Does Fox News pay you to spam this crap here?
Mayur
Also, Bender’s the same guy referring to “(nonexistent) WMDs” two threads up from this one.
So which is it, Bender? Is Bush a liar or were there WMDs? Or is this just as much a logical contortion as your nonsense in the other thread about the *Democrats* and Clinton going to war in Iraq (in 2003, 26 months into the presidential term of Bush-R, and an (R)
Majority in both houses)?
Does Fox News pay you to spam this crap here?
liberal
@Bender:
But Bush was lying.
Robert Earle
Even if you discount of ignore the “not telling the truth” denotation of the word “mislead”, is there a better word for what George W Bush did?
You know, mis-lead, as in lead down the wrong path, take in the wrong direction…mislead.
sweetgreensnowpea
8 years ago today i watched the decimation of the twin towers.
that afternoon i went to work.
a supervisor asked me what i thought about it.
‘george wants a war”, i said.
he turned his back and walked away.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
I’m way late on this thread, but I can’t resist saying how proud I am to have Jim McDemott as my Congressman. Of course, the right-wingers would say his support in the polls is “sinking like a rock” just like Predident Obama’s—he only got 85% of the vote in this last election.* Suck on that, Dubya!
*Actually, that is quite a downturn.
ice9
You must love this:
CLARIFICATION: An early version of this story referred to town hall protesters waving photographs of Barack Obama adorned with a Hitler moustache. While Republicans have used Nazi references to describe Obama’s policies, the Hitler moustache signs are favored by some supporters of Lyndon LaRouche.
The MUSTACHE, why, that’s LaRouche a hunnert percent.
ice9