This is a few days old, but it’s well-worth reading if you haven’t seen it yet: Andy Worthington’s blunt and wide-ranging interview with Larry Wilkerson (Colin Powell’s former chief-of-staff). Some highlights of what Wilkerson said.
I wouldn’t have said that a couple of years ago, but now I’ve come to the conclusion that the man (Cheney) truly is — whether he was that way when I knew him before, when he was Secretary of Defense, I don’t know, that’s not at issue with me any more — the man now is just crazy.
and
It’s our media. Our media loves to keep it going. They love to throw him (Cheney) out there and, you know, stoke the fires. I asked a couple of people fairly high up in our media world, “Why in the world do you continue to give him and Limbaugh an audience? Why? Why do you even put them on the same plane as the president of the United States? Why do you have these dueling speeches? You guys made them dueling speeches, not the two principals.” Well, you know, they’re running out of business. People are canceling their newspaper subscriptions every day. They want news.
and
Well, to keep it brief, I think the problem is that this is a national security issue, and there are so many more challenging issues — as one official put it to me the other day — on which the President has already shown some ankle, whether it’s about talking to Iran or whether it’s his rather pronounced silence vis-à-vis North Korea, or whether it’s something as minuscule as lifting some travel restrictions on Cuban Americans for Cuba. They don’t believe they can show another square centimeter of ankle on national security, because the Republicans will eat their lunch, and every time I’m told this I die laughing. I say, your guys are captured by the Sith Lord, Dick Cheney, you’re captured by Rush Limbaugh, whose real radio audience is about 2.2 million, and whose employer, Clear Channel, lost $3.7 billion in the second quarter of this year. I said, when are you gonna wake up? These are kooks. And Cheney is the kook leader. But [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid are such feckless leaders they haven’t got any spine. We have no leadership in the legislative branch on either side of the aisle.
I really recommend the whole thing. Hardly anyone is willing to put it as bluntly as Wilkerson does.
James K Polk, Esq.
Just the way the corporate lobbyists prefer. Imagine that!
Leelee for Obama
If Larry Wilkerson doesn’t get some kind of award for telling the truth, it will be a sin. He has been amazing in his honesty, and in his willingness to cut through the BS to say what needs to be said, a Medal or Prize of some kind is in order.
cleek
yeah but is he selling a book ?
Leelee for Obama
@cleek: I haven’t heard anything, but it’s possible.
Surabaya Stew
WOW…quite a piece of work the article is! How come Larry Wilkerson hasn’t bean heard from much before?
gwangung
This is all part of the mindset that you have to win the daily news cycle to win anything at all.
Taking the long view is a lesson that has yet to be re-learned.
nepat
The right really specializes in measurement inflation – ahem. Glad to see someone call out Limbaugh’s bogus audience numbers. Fox does this too. Their highest rated show – Glenn Beck – pulls in only about 3 million viewers (2 million of whom are probably also Limbaugh listeners and a majority of whom are in the senior demo). And yesterday’s Klan rally totals were spun by the wingers as 2 million. In reality they were 1,940,000 bigots short.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Clearly the man is a traitor. Bet he has granite counter tops. Also.
But seriously, I think I’m in love.
Leelee for Obama
@Surabaya Stew: He’s been on Olbermann lots of times, and I’ve seen him elsewhere, just don’t remember where. He is a treasure.
DBrown
Is there some way to get him elected him the leader of the Senate?
demkat620
@Surabaya Stew: Are you kidding?
Suicidal Zebra
I wonder if the decline in newspaper subscriptions/sales and general advertising revenue doesn’t correlate more closely with the drop in journalistic standards than internet uptake.
Certainly, I find myself more and more disenchanted with the bullshit reporting peddled by these infotainment corporations.
jeffreyw
They’ll not have him on because they don’t think he’ll advance their chosen narrative. Sure, he’ll appear with Amy Goodman, and Bill Moyers, and Olbermann. You know, the crazy far left media.
AkaDad
Larry Wilkerson is shrill.
Eric U.
@Suicidal Zebra: people realize they are getting republican spew instead of the news. Why bother to pay attention to that?
Brachiator
Shout it from the rooftops. The conventional wisdom is to whine about Obama’s fruitless attempts to reach out to Republicans.
Not enough is said about Obama’s fruitless attempts to reach out to the lame ass Democratic Party leadership.
I would love to see Obama make a mid-term adjustment. Kick out the tired, worn-out Clinton holdovers who have run out of gas. Kick out “progressives” who are long on agenda, but short on any clue as to how to get shit done. Kick out the fuzzy head philosopher kings in Treasury who have no idea of how an economy works on a practical basis. Give Congress their marching orders instead of waiting for them to dither policy proposals into nothingness.
Oh, yes, and screw the GOP.
cleek
gotta say… going from Powell’s CoS to the Senior Black Correspondent on the Daily Show is a bit of a drop in stature…
DougJ
I would love to see Obama make a mid-term adjustment. Kick out the tired, worn-out Clinton holdovers who have run out of gas. Kick out “progressives” who are long on agenda, but short on any clue as to how to get shit done.
Isn’t that pretty much the entire party? Who would be left?
geg6
Larry Wilkerson is a great American hero. My belief is that he is still a Powell man and he says what Powell feels he cannot say publicly. I’ve seen him now on PBS once and Olbermann and Maddow numerous times and he is a man who strikes me as unable to exaggerate, embellish, or obfuscate. If he is probably too controversial for a Medal of Freedom (which he certainly deserves more than George Tenet), then Caroline Kennedy should be giving him one of the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards. He makes me proud every time I see or read about him.
Brick Oven Bill
What kind of dummy commits suicide with aspirin?
And why was he taken to Stroger hospital, where President Obama’s organizational work has resulted in 12-15 shooting and stabbings nightly, which is worse than Van Jones’ reference to what happened at Columbine ten years ago.
Surely the powers that be would have known that Kelly would not have gotten responsive health care at this hospital. The doctors might say: ‘He ate some aspirin, ha, I’ll get to it.’ And turn around and treat community bullet wounds, leaving Kelly with poor health care. This would have been known to those who delivered Kelly to Stroger hospital.
Here is an image of a Sith Lord. This Sith Lord looks far more like Rahm Emmanuel than Dick Cheney. Think about it. Cheney = $250,000 in annual deferred executive compensation from a pipeline contractor. Emmanuel = $16 million from a hedge fund.
Is Rahm knocking off witnesses to protect the President? And himself?
Allan
Wilkerson’s testimony before Congress is required reading for anyone who still suckles at Bush/Cheney’s dry teats. I’m looking at you, BoB.
If I weren’t already gay married, I would totally gay marry Wilkerson. Now THAT is a man.
calling all toasters
BOB: it’s about as fair to blame Obama for the south suburban murder rate as it is to blame Dan Riehl for making you a psychotic moron. Actually, it’s less fair.
The Grand Panjandrum
@cleek: Heh. Larry really does look good for a guy in his 60’s.
TheFountainHead
This article turned around my Sunday. Thanks much! Now for football and a MUSE concert.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
And Cheney is the kook leader. But [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid are such feckless leaders they haven’t got any spine. We have no leadership in the legislative branch on either side of the aisle.
It’s good to see it’s not just DFH’s who think this. Especially in Reid’s case. Pelosi is in a bind because she’s being back-stabbed by Steny Hoyer(the protector of all things Blue Dog) all the time.
Warren Terra
Off Topic:
Did anyone else notice that a Balloon-Juice troll possibly made the cover of today’s New York Times?
I can’t find the picture in the Times‘s picture gallery, but today’s front page has a picture of the teabaggers in all their glory on the mall, complete with a “Glenn Beck For President” sign and, front and center, a big sign with a picture of Obama as Che and text saying, in huge letters:
If you look at the picture, you’ll see that I didn’t insert that space in the last word of the sign in order to escape moderation – the space was there on the sign.
The only explanation I can come up with is that the sign’s author reflexively inserted the space because that’s how they now spell the word “Socia!ism” – and, obviously, that idiosyncrasy can only mark them out as being a frequent commenter here at Balloon-Juice, trained in how to avoid the moderation filter! B.O.B., was that you? Where is Cole this weekend, so important a trip that he left Lilly behind?
shoutingattherain
Lawrence WilkersonMyself: “I become exasperated. There’s just no courage, there’s no moral courage whatsoever in the Democratic Party.”I sure hope Nanners and HarryBear read this. MY Party needs to find its’ balls, spines, voices or any other body parts it has to find a clue. The first step is new leadership in Congress. Electing Jim Webb as Majority Leader would be a good start.
Chad N Freude
@Warren Terra: Excellent analysis. Reasoning exactly like Brick
HeadOven Bill. QED.Chad N Freude
@shoutingattherain: The Democrats’ lack is offset by the Republicans excess of *immoral* courage.
Leelee for Obama
@shoutingattherain: I want some spine as well, but I find Webb a tough read. I like him, but he’s something of a Blue Dog also. Part of Reid’s problem is his BlueDogginess. It would be great if his constituents were more progressive-he’s have more leeway to push things more our way, even if that wasn’t his inclination. What is Nevada really like?
Shell
I read Sen. Graham’s saying Obama’s health speech was a ‘disaster’ and ‘the public option is dead…throw it in the garbage.”
Jesus, what is it with South Carolina?
Brachiator
@DougJ:
RE: I would love to see Obama make a mid-term adjustment. Kick out the tired, worn-out Clinton holdovers who have run out of gas. Kick out “progressives” who are long on agenda, but short on any clue as to how to get shit done.
Seems to me that there were a lot of people eager to join Obama who were not party regulars, or old Clinton hands waiting to get back into government. Some of these people have been tapped for roles in the Obama Administration. More need to be.
And there is not much point in going for the standard Beltway crowd if ideas wither and die in the Congress for a lack of leadership.
And some of the Clinton holdovers may still be useful, but in some other role than the ones for which they were originally selected.
Quick example: proposals related to the regulation of financial markets have ground to a halt, and when you hear anything about it at all, it tends to focus on totally irrelevant crap such as limiting the pay of top executives, which excites progressives, but is otherwise a waste of time.
Hell, I would reduce Madoff’s sentence if he could be used to help draft regulations that would catch people like him. The people who are currently in charge lack any practical knowledge of business, and so are clueless when it comes to regulation.
MikeJ
If they keep repeating it enough, the media will pick it up. When the media starts saying it, many of the Dems in Congress won’t want to appear stupid by disagreeing with someone who graduated from community college with a degree in journalism and nice hair, so they’ll start saying it.
Leelee for Obama
@Brachiator: So, what you’re saying is we should hire the crooks to tell us how to beat the crooks? While I know this is done often with bank robbers and burglars, it seems maybe keeping the assholes who screwed things up in place is pretty much the same thing, and so, far, I’m not sure it’s working out so well for us. But, it’s been great for them.
MikeJ
BTW, about the site where that interview is…
They think the FDA is part of a wide ranging plot to wage war on our liberty? WTF? They think kids look just dandy with flippers, fuck the FDA for never approving thalidomide!
IndyLib
@shoutingattherain:
Isn’t one of the large factors in choosing a Majority leader seniority?
I would love to see Webb in Reid’s place, but he was just elected in 2006.
Michael
Democrats: spineless as cooked spaghetti, and covered in tons of corporate money-sauce.
jwb
@Suicidal Zebra: Well, the existence of the intertubes means that if we are disenchanted with the MSM we can go elsewhere to get the news—so the intertubes would certainly be a contributing factor. And then, of course, you hardly want to pay for poor work or something you perceive as shilling for the other side.
srv
Cheney is not a kook. Everything he has done makes complete sense if you assume one thing: that he’s an agent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
burnspbesq
Among many telling comments in the Wilkerson interview, this one, about the FBI interrogators, reallllllllllly pisses me off:
“After they proved their worth, they were sidelined.”
The Cheney Organized Crime Family, neatly summarized in eight words.
*bangs head against wall*
blahblahblah
Exactly why I canceled my subscription to the New York Times and canceled cable television. Because they don’t sell me news. I still pay over $100/yr for a subscription to the Economist, because – while it’s openly biased – it is one of the few sources for real world news in Africa, East Asia, and Latin America.
Why, they actually pay people to collect local news from various world regions and then they publish it! American “news” outlets are playing corporate Pravda with their programming, selling a Potemkin village of lies, omissions, and irrelevancies. No wonder their customer base is fleeing!
And they think the solution is a bigger monopoly.
Cat Lady
Sith Lord FTW. I wonder if he lurks here.
Isn’t he the one who called Doug Feith the stupidest man in the world, also?
Doc Ellis
Wilkerson spoke out long ago but he’s damanged goods because he was there with Powell and they should have done the honorable thing and quit before we ever went into Iraq. Or at least later as things got more and more out of hand. Instead he let Cheney and that crowd publicly humiliate him over and over again. Powell got Bush elected. He was the “good advisers” I heard many many voters give as an excuse to vote for Bush.
So Powell sends out Wilkerson a couple of years later. Too late. Just as Ike’s warning about the military industrial complex. Too late.
Surabaya Stew
demkat620, it’s obvious that whatever expose Wilkerson has previously received, it hasn’t been enough. I had heard about him before, but haven’t read much about him at all. It that because I missed something big, or because the MSN has been ignoring him?
The Grand Panjandrum
Speaking of Kook Leaders, Rick Santorum is thinking about a run for President.
burnspbesq
I’d really really like to believe this little tidbit from the Wilkerson interview:
“My wife thinks that ultimately there’s going to be something. I’m a little more cynical than she, but she’s convinced that this investigation that’s been going on [by John Durham] — very low-key, the guy’s very persistent, he’s very determined, he reminds me of [Patrick] Fitzgerald on the Valerie Plame case, and his starting point is the destruction of the videotapes, and I’m told he’s got a plan, and he’s following that plan, and I’m told that plan is bigger than I think. “
Cat Lady
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Please FSM Santorum/Bachmann 2012.
me
That was Gen. Tommy Franks. Specifically, he said Feith was the “stupidest fucking guy on the planet.”
me
@Cat Lady: What a black hole of ignorance that ticket would be.
Chad N Freude
@MikeJ: You pushed my curiosity button, so I looked at their Declaration of Principles. Sorry for the long blockquote, but I can’t synopsize it.
I especially like “Despite the tragic exception of slavery, the result was the most prosperous, healthy, literate, and compassionate society in history.” Apparently, rampant socially sanctioned bigotry against African-Americans, Jews, Irish immigrants, Italian immigrants, and gay men and women in the post-slavery era did not affect our national prosperity, health, literacy, and compassion.
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude: Dammit! The blockquote is supposed to include all but the last paragraph.
Ash Can
OT, but it looks like it looks like Obama will be appointing another Supreme Court justice next year. (Yes, the link goes to the GOS. It gives a far more concise summation than a direct link to the Tweety Show video would. Deal.)
shoutingattherain
@Leelee for Obama:
Jim Webb strikes me as someone you wouldn’t want to fuck with. He has, in fact, killed people before and right now I don’t really care what his politics are. He can’t be any more conservative than Harry Reid and I want a guy that eats nails for breakfast, not milk-toast.
Reid seems like the kind of guy you could push down a flight of stairs and he would apologize for getting blood on the carpet. His first instinct is to compromise, and looks damn weak doing it. Makes ALL Democrats look like a bunch of p*ssies.
I want a shitkicker, not a bootlicker. I don’t care how or who they get to do it.
I also like Sherod Brown, and as soon as Jeff Merkley gets the gag out of his mouth he’ll contribute too. There are others, but I am most disappointed (and my list of disappointing Ds is a long one) has been John Tester. I gave that SOB a ton of money and so far I’ve only seen him on the side of a milk carton.
Cat Lady
@burnspbesq:
I think Obama likes the long game. Do you notice how Bush has disappeared? No one talks about him anymore. History started 1/20/09, and the previous 8 years didn’t happen. The advantage to that is that with each passing week, fewer and fewer people will care whether charges end up being brought against the Bushies. The temperature of the environment will be tepid, because the press will all have moved on to the next shiny missing white girl or teabagger object. The MSM never wanted to talk about torture anyway, because they’re complicit. Quietly, the wheels are turning, and no, I’m not saying that Obama is playing 11 dimensional chess. But, they’re taking their time.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Cat Lady: Amen my sister!
ed
Nice of Mr. Wilkerson to speak up long after he might have made a difference. What a profile in courage.
Suicidal Zebra
@ jwb, Eric U,
In the UK (which is where I hail from) the fall in quality journalism can’t really be tied to any particular political wing. All investigative journalism appears to be verboten except in v. rare cases, perhaps because it is too expensive or doesn’t fill the necessary 30 column inches/30 mins you need in your 50+ page paper or 24hr channel.
I’d love to be able to say ‘God, that Sky News is going down hill, thanks goodness for the BBC’, but the BBC is pretty crappy these days as well, as are the other channels. Not because of the bias, but because the Editor’s have chosen to dumb down a complicated story or parrot bullshit and easily disprovable information.
There was a time when I wanted news from as many sources as possible to get a balanced view. Now I just want it raw, bypassing the corporations entirely, because they can’t be trusted to lay out all the facts.
Chad N Freude
@The Grand Panjandrum: At last, we’ll have someone in the White House who disapproves of sex with dogs. It’s about time!
Fulcanelli
@Brachiator: “Quick example: proposals related to the regulation of financial markets have ground to a halt, and when you hear anything about it at all, it tends to focus on totally irrelevant crap such as limiting the pay of top executives, which excites progressives, but is otherwise a waste of time.”
Good point. If effective regulations were enacted and more importantly enforced, maybe they wouldn’t be getting away with gouging the public and their damn bonuses would likely come down anyway.
All without the political consequences of having the government stick it’s nose in the private business of what a company pays it’s employees hanging around the MUP’s neck like a big, smelly sack of So cka lism FAIL.
Shawn in ShowMe
Pelosi actually keeps her people in line. Lumping her in with Harry Reid, the most ineffective Majority leader in recent memory, just isn’t justified.
Fulcanelli
@burnspbesq: Hey, counselor, that Strength in Numbers stuff you recommended on my you tubes was great last eve. Neo-Grass. I’ll be grabbing that. You betcha. Also.
Chad N Freude
OT, but . . . A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
The entire article is required reading.
MikeJ
Ineffective? He does exactly what the Democratic majority in the Senate elected him to do. If you had worked long and hard to become a senator would you want a majority leader who pushed you around or one who treated you with respect?
As a voter, you’re not going to vote for someone who treats you like shit. Why would you expect a senator to do any different?
Fulcanelli
@Chad N Freude: You left the last line out, bro.
“And we’ll all just go back to carving out big limestone blocks for Pharoah’s next Pyramid for a living.”
freelancer
@Cat Lady:
That was Gen. Tommy Franks.
DBrown
@Chad N Freude: You are full of it if you believe the nonsense you just passed off. Remember American Indians? A group of American citizens (yes, by our laws) murdered by the millions, lied to and cheated by ‘free white Americans’, and how treaty after treaty was always broken by us to steal their land that our laws said was their’s? Remember the semi-enslavement of black Americans after the civil war and how this treatment went on until well after WWII? And as to living any way you desire … what a load of shit. Ask the Morons about that lie (not that they have clean hands.) Then the little matter of the Philippines and our torture and murder of many of its people; and lets not forget Panama? Ask Columbians about the good o’l USA seizing that area and creating a new country that we then seized what we needed from that new country. Remember Mexico and how we took much of the southwest by war, threat of war or just by seizing areas. Get real and stop the rose colored glasses that you use to view history and wake up. What we have now is the best and fairest country we have ever had.
Demo Woman
@ed: Wilkerson did speak up several times last year about the Bush Administration.
MikeJ
@DBrown: Dude, that was screwed blockquoting, not chad. He was quoting the loonies that run the web site the interview is at.
Bonnie
The problem with Wilkerson is he waited too long to speak up. It’s too little too late.
Shawn in ShowMe
Unfortunately, this is absolutely true. This country has SOOOO much blood on its hands.
jwb
@Shawn in ShowMe: But you have to add: the Democractic senators elected Reid, so he’s what a majority of them agreed they want for leadership. I guess I’m just wanting to point out that Reid is not really the problem so much as a reflection of the problem, so replacing him as majority leader won’t really do much until you address that underlying problem.
steve s
@Suicidal Zebra:
People like to do projection. So if they cancel their subscription for some reason, and the industry does terribly, they project their behavior on everyone else. I’ve got a wingnut relative who thinks the newspapers are failing because they “got too god-damn librul and nobody wants to read that shit.” blah blah blah. But that’s 100% wrong. It has nothing to do with ideology. The fact of the matter is that newspapers were successful because they had control of printing presses and could charge advertisers and arm and a leg. When the internet came along the bottom dropped out of that market and ad revenues have fallen 50% in ten years.
arguingwithsignposts
there is so much win in this thread – BJ trolls and spacing, wilkerson’s TDS assignment. I’m laughin to keep from cryin.
Chad N Freude
@DBrown: Everything in the posting before the last paragraph should have been inside the blockquote. The last paragraph is mine, and I’m afraid that I omitted native Americans in my haste to get the post up.
*Please read the last paragraph of the post.* If you still think I
then I must be a pretty bad communicator.
Leelee for Obama
@shoutingattherain: Oh, I think he’s tough a they come, and would have loved to be able to vote for him. That’s not what I mean. A tough Majority Leader only works if he’s in alignment with the President’s agenda, and I’m not sure Webb is-haven’t heard much from him on health care or energy policy, have you? The prison reform bill and the new GI Bill were top-notch, though.
Chad N Freude
@MikeJ: Ack. Thanks.
MikeJ
Just noticed that on the front page of that site they proudly proclaim they won an award from the Ron Paul loons.
Shawn in ShowMe
Unless the Dems were willing to do away with the seniority precedent, what exactly was the alternative? The people who would shake up the joint are relative newcomers.
burnspbesq
@Fulcanelli:
Glad you liked it, but I find that video a little sad, because it reminds me that in addition to being a brilliant violinist and composer, Mark O’Connor was also a kick-ass guitarist before a wrist problem forced him to give it up.
freelancer
@Chad N Freude:
WordPress enables shitty communication.
IndyLib
@arguingwithsignposts:
How are you doing today? I hated leaving the thread last night about the time you got on, but I knew my kids were going to get me up waaay earlier than I might choose to get up if I was the only one consulted on what time I was going to get up.
geg6
Demo Woman: I could be wrong, but I believe I read something about him and first saw him on teevee about 2 years ago or so. And those of you who got rid of your cable for the sole reason that you hate the shoutfests and don’t trust the reporting have cut off your noses to spite your faces. Rachel Maddow’s show is no shoutfest and though she is a proud liberal, she is a very intelligent and gracious interviewer of even the most rabid wingnuts. And BBC America is, hands down, the best teevee news source in the country. If you’re only watching CNN or FOXNews, you might think cable sucks sweaty balls. But I find excellent news sources on cable that provide great stuff. I’d also give kudos to Discovery for science and Sundance for environmental news and information.
Chad N Freude
@MikeJ: Ack. Thanks.@freelancer: I can make myself misunderstood without computerized assistance.
The Saff
@Cat Lady: That was Tommy Franks. With a descriptive F-bomb thrown in for good measure.
arguingwithsignposts
@IndyLib: hanging in there. just hanging in there at the moment.
licensed to kill time
@arguingwithsignposts:
Totally OT, but just for a mood-lightener:
10 More Craptastic Excuses for Cakes
Tsulagi
“Now”? The dynamic duo Bush and Cheney from day one were dumb and dumber. Who led with the “er” designation on any given day was a tossup.
Yep.
Bill E Pilgrim
OT, well sort of: You know, we could have easily whittled down the 30 to 60 thousand who showed up yesterday to almost nothing.
I’m talking simultaneous Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Columbo and Jeopardy MARATHONS, people, run all weekend. Would slow it to a trickle.
As it is you notice how often this group talked about “We don’t want to be here! We have things to do!”, even in Master Beck’s presentation. I almost expected him to go into detail about missing TV shows right there.
Early bird specials would be another line of thwart, but I’d go with the rerun tatic myself.
jwb
@Shawn in ShowMe: It’s not because they are newcomers, it’s because there aren’t enough of them. I truly believe the Democrats in the Senate have in Reid exactly the kind of leadership that a majority of the Democratic senators want (probably because it leaves most of them with the perception that by having weak leadership they have more individual power).
gwangung
@arguingwithsignposts:
Ah, well…sounds like it could be better, but it could be lots, lots worse. At least, when you’re posting, it’s good…
Fulcanelli
@burnspbesq: I had the pleasure of seeing Mark O’Connor playing with the Dixie Dregs back in like, 1978. Hearing him go toe to toe with Steve Morse was a treat. Grand National Fiddle champion a few times as I recall…
geg6
OT, but DougJ is quite the bloggy star on GOS today. Two shoutouts in the midday thread. Doug, don’t go getting all high and mighty and orange on us now, okay?
shoutingattherain
@IndyLib:
I don’t know all the seniority rules. I just spent the last half-hour Googling around to find out, but it’s just too damned convoluted for my beautiful mind. Someone hereabouts will come forward and spell it out for us. BJ is like that.
I did find this amusing testament as to how things just never change in the Democratic Caucus:
No Clear Mission. That would make a nice campaign slogan.
Demo Woman
@geg6: I think it was that long ago also. There were several newspapers articles that carried his dissent. I tuned in late to this thread but to say that he spoke up to late, is just wrong. He started speaking as soon as he left the state department. Powell says very little but he is still out there earning lots of money. Maybe he does not want to upset the gravy train.
Rachel Maddow is great and I for one am pleased that I can watch all her recaps on line.
Wile E. Quixote
@Brick Oven Bill
Who knows, but it seems to me like you’re trying to sow confusion to protect Glenn Beck, who raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. Or perhaps you’re trying to protect yourself and Glenn Beck, were you one of Beck’s accomplices BOB? Did you just dispose of the bodies in your brick oven? Or did your involvement in this heinous crime run even deeper?
Brachiator
@Leelee for Obama:
Fulcanelli
@geg6: Just don’t get him started on Broder… Plz
jwb
@shoutingattherain: But I believe those are all just rules that could be changed at any time by the caucus if they chose to do so. Since they don’t, you have to conclude they don’t have the votes to make the change (even if some in the caucus would desire to do it).
Bill E Pilgrim
@Chad N Freude:
Don’t feel bad, that blockquote quirk makes this the only blog I know in which people habitually write long instruction manuals about how to read their previous posts.
Not that I’m complaining, it adds to the entertainment.
arguingwithsignposts
@gwangung:
there’s that. i’m a little bit lost this afternoon, to be honest.
Brick Oven Bill
Wile E. Quixote; The risks I assume are to protect the good name of John Cole. This I do willingly, as it is important that nobody finds out that he is a closet cat-juggler.
Jared
Is it just me, or is Col. Wilkerson a ringer, in every possible way, for Lt. Col. Markinson from the movie, “A Few Good Men”?
arguingwithsignposts
@licensed to kill time:
Oh, my eyes! teh stupid, it burns! thanks for the laugh.
OriGuy
@Bill E Pilgrim: Claiming “We have things to do” preempts the DFHs who point out that the anti-war protests drew far larger crowds. Everyone knows that DFHs don’t have regular jobs and can just sell drugs or sponge off (FOX News watching) parents to go to protest marches.
licensed to kill time
@arguingwithsignposts:
You are welcome :) Hope you feel better for it. I particularly liked the literal interpretation of “leave blank”.
shoutingattherain
@jwb:
Yep. I get that. I’m sure there are a whole host of rules and procedures that need to be followed in order to change the rules and procedures. I just have no clue what they are. Seems to me like the rules keep the older, established members and excludes the younger, hungrier members. I’m not sure that’s good.
gwangung
Nah. That pretty much says that they’re rank novices with respect to protests.
A Mom Anon
OT,sort of,but did Beck and the other peddlers of this 9/12 nonsense even show up in DC to address the throngs of mouthbreathers?
Leelee for Obama
@Brachiator: I was watching Breach the other night. I was amazed that Hanssen was the guy assigned to find himself ( the FBI mole ). While I know that Madoff was all kinds of connected, and that’s likely why he was never investigated properly, I wonder how much help someone that nefarious and self-agrandizing would be.
Right as rain about Frances Perkins, though. She is my absolute idol.. I’d like to think Sec. Sebelius could be like her-it’s possible; she’s been a surprise to me at HHStougher than I had anticipated, but quiet. We’ll see what Obama wants to do after the HCR bill gets done. Commerce is bunches more influential than I used to think it was, so you may be right.
Bill E Pilgrim
@OriGuy: Yeah that’s what they wanted it to imply, that they were too upstanding and productive to do this dirty protesting thing that hippies do.
What it really meant however had to do with missing oatmeal and Matlock reruns, is sort of my point, once I saw the actual people.
A friend of mine in DC who was sort of out of the news loop wandered down to go to a museum and was astounded by the people, and e-mailed me that it was 100% white, and not even just racially but white, white hair, white pants, white shoes. Also that they were 50% overweight and 30% immensely obese, “and these are the people who don’t want health care?” she added.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Brick Oven Bill:
Cat juggling? I’ve heard of this.
Roll the ugliness.
DBrown
@MikeJ: Sorry.
IndyLib
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, hold on damnit. We’re here to listen to any venting you might need to do.
arguingwithsignposts
To all the juicers: i’m sorry. this has been a crappy weekend. i’m wishing i could just shut the window. i don’t feel worth it. i’d give anything to feel like carrying on. i’d give anything to feel right, to feel happy. instead, not so much. i’m commenting because it’s all i know to do. everybody hurts
tc125231
@Chad N Freude: We figured that out. Nice quote anyway.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Grand Panjandrum
That article you linked to? I read it twice, and never saw an indication that Santorum is a former senator. Anyone reading it who didn’t know would quite naturally assume that he’s a current officeholder. I realize it’s aimed at a targeted audience and not the public at large, but that doesn’t excuse sloppy, irresponsible journalism.
IndyLib
@shoutingattherain:
I just remember that seniority seemed to be a big issue when the Dems announced that Reid would be maintained as the their Senate leader when they took over as the majority in 2006.
I do wonder if there’s any way for us lowly Dem plebes, you know the ones that voted their asses into office to pressure Senate Dems to change leaders.
JK
From the University of Wyoming’s Office Of Public Relations
UW International Center Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Honors Cheney Family
Sept. 10, 2009 — Students and scholars from Wyoming, the nation and the world will reap the benefits offered by the new Cheney International Center dedicated today at the University of Wyoming.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, his wife Lynne and other Wyoming dignitaries attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the 20,000-square foot Cheney International Center, located on the west wing of the former Student Health Service Building.
Matched by the state of Wyoming, the Cheney’s gift totals $6.4 million, with $3 million earmarked for the building and $3.4 million for scholarships.
“It’s very gratifying to us to see this wonderful facility and to know about the many projects Wyoming students are going to be undertaking around the world,” Dick Cheney said. Lynne Cheney added, “UW students have global contributions to make, and they will learn so much that they can bring back to our wonderful state.”
“Enhancing international programs has been on our agenda for years,” UW President Tom Buchanan said. “But the Cheneys have taken our vision and given it the momentum it deserves. Through their generous gift, we now have a state-of-the-art facility to house all our international programs. The Cheneys have also funded a scholarship endowment to support study abroad opportunities for UW students…
h/t http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=34621
tc125231
@Chad N Freude: Nah –sometimes all of us react without sufficient reflection. You communicated just fine.
You know, as a long-term depressive I got and stayed off antidepressants by committing to a regime of heavy daily exercise.
It really works. Once you get going, you know when you start to slip, and actually miss it. The hard part is getting started.
Phil
John Cole!
I see you’re still bending over to your new liberal masters – can’t say I’m surprised for a pathetic follower like you John.
Say John, are you still a “conservative of conscience”? Does that mean you get to do drugs with Andrew Sullivan?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/12/dismissed_marijuana_charge_raises_judges_ire/
And your site actually has a poster who called the person who said this a “hero”:
“Glenn Beck is an actual terrorist, and the people attending his rally in DC tomorrow are al-Qaeda in America.”
So, your site not only endorses calling its political opponents Al Qaeda members but doubling down on it? Is that what “conservatives of conscience” say now? My my, you’ve come a long way John! You really are the true cream of the fucking “conservatives of conscience” crop now, eh John?
I’ve got some news for you though John, and it’s not good. You were a dead ender for the Bush administration and you’re headed towards being a dead ender for this administration now too John. At least that means you’ve got experience! Maybe you can put that on a resume or something…
2010 is going to be a bitch John. Even Nate Silver is starting to realize your new liberal friends are about to drop a doozy of House and Senate seats all across America.
And no doubt you’ll be there to lie to your new liberal friends about how “everything is fine” up until the very day it happens. But why you do have to lie to YOURSELF John? You really don’t believe the shit you peddle these days, do you John? Does Media Matters send you some Cheetos coupons for those crazy nights in Massachusetts with Sullivan or something John?
The people demand answers John!
Leelee for Obama
@arguingwithsignposts: I wasn’t online last night, Signposts. Sorry you’re feeling down this week-end. Anything that talking about would help? You know we’re here for you if you need us. Did you ever go see someone? Professionally, I mean?
Ash Can
@Phil: LOL!
freelancer
@Phil:
6/10
Try Harder.
arguingwithsignposts
@Leelee for Obama: nothing but tears at the moment. nothing but tears.
Leelee for Obama
@arguingwithsignposts: Feel an arm around your shoulder, and know that you can talk, OK?
Phil
“6/10
Try Harder.”
Sure thing!
@arguingwithsignposts
I’m sorry to hear you’re upset this weekend. Wait, you frequent a blog that compares people like me to Al Qaeda?
Nevermind, fuck you, I hope you had a terrible weekend.
SiubhanDuinne
@Arguing
What Leelee said.
arguingwithsignposts
@Phil:
hey, i did. hope you feel happier now, you fucking sonofabitch.
i don’t wish pain on anyone – right or left. that’s the diff. between me and you apparently.
Warren Terra
Phil,
at the risk of feeding the trolls, some points:
Cole hasn’t posted anywhere in this thread, so I don’t know why you’re addressing him.
If you think this site is generally soft on Sullivan, you haven’t been paying attention. That said, only a ninny would look at Sullivan’s recent record of blogospheric inanity and suckitude and decide to pick out his harmless recreational drug use as being the thing to complain about; in fact, only a total loon would see the problem in Sullivan’s recent imbroglio being his victimless and safe use of marijuana (albeit with a truly moronic choice of venue, on federal lands), rather than the true scandal, i.e. the subsequent favoritism Sully received from the justice system.
Your comment about calling someone a hero is obscure and meaningless without explication (who the person was, who called them a hero, when, why, how, etcetera, etcetera).
And as to the rest of your post, it is entirely invective and lacking in content, with the sole exception that you predict some Republican gains in an off-year election. Well, double bonus brownie points, sherlock: except when President is able to wave the bloody shirt amid the drumbeats of war, everyone predicts that a first-term President will lose seats at the midterm, and that’s especially true when that President oversaw massive gains at the last election and has his weakest political support among the elderly, who vote disproportionately in off years. Hardly The Verdict Of History, my friend.
Leelee for Obama
@arguingwithsignposts: Apparently, there’s a troll among us. Just ignore him, and work at feeling better.
Phil
“hey, i did. hope you feel happier now, you fucking sonofabitch.
i don’t wish pain on anyone – right or left. that’s the diff. between me and you apparently.”
But you DO frequent a blog where the site administrators (not some random poster) enjoy comparing people like me to Al Qaeda. On a site where the main blogger (John “Conservative of Conscience” Cole) claimed he was getting tired of the angry partisanship of the Right and thus was becoming an independent.
Who knew independents allowed people to blog on their website that their political opponents were akin to Al Qaeda?
Hahahahahaha! That’s a good one!
So again, fuck you and I hope your weekend was miserable.
And I know November 2010 is going to make you VERY miserable. Try not to OD or anything.
(And no, I don’t normally say things anywhere even approaching this nasty, but you frequent a blog that compares me to Al Qaeda, so fuck you. Here’s me not giving a shit.
bago
Don’t say you want me.
Don’t say you need me.
Don’t say you love me.
It’s understood.
General Winfield Stuck
Nah, Cole has a special tag cat for your kind. Called “Clown Shoes”. No way to improve on that. GFY Phil, Bye Phil.
arguingwithsignposts
@Phil:
fuck you too, bastard.
freelancer
@arguingwithsignposts:
add him to your pie filter. NOW!
SiubhanDuinne
@DougJ
Any chance you could just delete the trollish hatefulness (and ban said troll)? I don’t think any of us need to read this swill.
NoVa Commie
@Phil:
Nice to see someone demonstrate not giving a sh1t by posting repeatedly.
More capslock please!
licensed to kill time
Pusillanimous Phil pukes putrid poison. Pie, please?
General Winfield Stuck
@arguingwithsignposts:
Don’t get too upset with Phil, he is a long time winger troll with a bug up his ass for Cole switching parties. Drops bye to whine about this or that offense by mean libs, then crawls back into his hidey hole and cries like a little girl/
JK
@General Winfield Stuck:
In Phil’s case, could it be whitey hole?
jwb
@General Winfield Stuck: What strikes me about Phil is that he just doesn’t know his craft. I mean really what’s the point of trolling so deep in a thread anyway? Patience, Phil, patience. To be an effective troll, you have to get your timing down.
Phil
You’ve got a blogger who compares me to al Qaeda but I’m the bad guy for hoping someone had a bad weekend.
Got it.
Leelee for Obama
@General Winfield Stuck: Somehow, I’m unsurprised that a winger troll would attack the vulnerable member of a group. Kinda like Malkin with the S-Chip kid, Graham. How proud he must be to get a rise out of someone in pain.
arguingwithsignposts
@Leelee for Obama:
hey, he’s talking pie right now. i hope he enjoys his bitterness.
General Winfield Stuck
@Phil:
I’m skeptical this happened as I doubt Cole would equate a bilthering idjit with a terrorist mastermind, but if it did, just file it under “now you know how it feels”
Leelee for Obama
@arguingwithsignposts: Good for you, Signposts! His bitterness should consume him and no one else!
burnspbesq
Re Phil:
Jeez, we need a new bouncer. Who let this guy in?
Chad N Freude
@SiubhanDuinne:
Redundancy abounds.
General Winfield Stuck
@Leelee for Obama:
A year of so ago, he had the nerve to smear Kermit the Fog, and I’m not kiddin’/ Of course, I slammed him for this brazen act of puppet cruelty.
Leelee for Obama
@General Winfield Stuck: Snort! You go get ‘im Stuck!
Chad N Freude
@tc125231: “We” meaning everybody but @DBrown. At least I didn’t get any other drubbings for offending the blockquote gods.
Chad N Freude
@Phil: Assuage my curiosity. Would you provide a link to the post that defamed you? Thanks in advance.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
By the way, there is a great new book about a little known chapter in the life of Isaac Newton, Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist, by Thomas Levenson.
Reading that now. Amusing.
I can’t help thinking that Chaloner was just a man out of his time – he would have fitted right in as a friggin’ CDO specialist.
The Grand Panjandrum
@General Winfield Stuck: Now, now. Cries like a little girl? That is an insult to my lovely daughters. I know plenty of young boys at their school either of my two second graders can out run, out ride, out jump and generally whip ass on. Besides we should never conflate our own fellow citizens with foreign terrorists. How about calling him a McVeigh wannabe?
Svensker
@arguingwithsignposts:
To all the juicers: i’m sorry. this has been a crappy weekend. i’m wishing i could just shut the window. i don’t feel worth it.
Hang in, kiddo. You are totally worth it. I mean, look at the POS folks swaggering around in D.C. and on the toob — Harry Reid, Bill O’Reilly, Mark Sanford, Rush Limbaugh, etc.,etc. — and you KNOW you’re a fuck of a lot better than they are, amirite. And they’re walking around crowing about themselves. You gotta hang in just to make sure they get their commupance and realize you are way more worthwhile than they are. Srsly.
And, I repeat, have you tried the OTC vitamin B — IP6? On some folks, it works better than Prozac. Really, worth a shot.
linda
Chad N Freude
OT, but . . . A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
i was watching a roseanne compilation dvd of the halloween programs that contains her commentary. she said she had endless arguments and fought with the network for years to be able to do those shows. the network objected because of fear of religious yahoos reacting badly.
those programs turned out to be the most popular. prolly not in the south though.
General Winfield Stuck
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Of course, your right, My apologies sir to your daughters and little girls in general. They ain’t as sweet and helpless as one might think. And I took a black eye from one in grade school as proof.:)
Genine
Phil,
Seriously, what the fuck is your problem? Liberals have been compared to terrorists and all manner of low-life for 8 fucking years and after one article you’re crying like some punk-ass bitch!
Not only that, you’re kicking someone while they’re down? That’s fucking disgusting bullshit. I would say shame on you, but that is something human beings are capable of. That is not a category I would put you in.
So why don’t you go back to your hole, contemplate your small dick size, low sperm count or whatever makes you feel so deficient that you feel the need to post a bunch of crap and leave us alone.
Chuck
The real irony about Harry “Milquetoast” Reid is that he used to be a boxer.
Maybe he played a variant of rope-a-dope and stood there and apologized for his opponent who pummeled him.
Donald G
@Phil: Man, Phil sounds like an ex-lover turned psycho-stalker. What’s the matter, did Cole steal your Pet Shop Boys collection when he switched from the Dark Side?
mclaren
Far back at the start of this threat, Suicidal Zebra asked:
David Simon, a former journalist and writer of The Wire (among other things) has pointed out that is exactly what’s going on in the newspaper industry. Massive cutbacks force the few remaining reporters to subsist on canned handouts from the politicians. The result? Washington D.C. beat reporters find themselves forced to act as transmission belts for propaganda spewed out by the administration.
Only the biggest newspapers today (Washington Post, New York Time) have the resources to do any serious investigative reporting at all. All too many formerly excellent mainstream newspapers have given up their print operations entirely, degenerating into online screeds, like The Christian Science Monitor.
There’s a direct correlation twixt the rise of teat-sucking spineless Washington beat flacks who take whatever press handouts they’re handed and reprint ’em verbatim (like Cokie Roberts) and the collapse of newspapers’ finances.
That, plus the immense concetration in media ownership in America. Once upon a time, America had hundreds of competing daily newspapers and half a dozen major newspaper competing in each major city. Today, as with TV and radio, the newspaper industry is becoming concentrated in the hands of a few vertical media monopolies as more and more major American cities become one-newspaper towns and the remaining colossi (WaPo, NYTimes) now talk about taking over newspapers in other major cities and making them into cookie-cutter franchise papers with boilerplate national coverage and a smattering of local stories reported by a pitiful handful of reduced staff.
Mike G
…taking over newspapers in other major cities and making them into cookie-cutter franchise papers with boilerplate national coverage and a smattering of local stories reported by a pitiful handful of reduced staff.
That’s basically the Clear Channel (another Repig-crony corporation) model for radio stations. Centralized micromanagement of bland, market-research-driven playlists and robot DJs with massive layoffs of local staff, cost-cutting and corporate obedience is everything. But people catch on after a while that the product has been gutted of any originality or value and isn’t worth shit anymore. Along come MP3 players and satellite alternatives, and radio is toast.
Newspapers may be next if they don’t pull their head out of their ass. Large, centralized profit-seeking corporations are a crummy organizational model for producing quality media.
Allan
Hey Phil, that’s right, we love comparing right-wing fundamentalist terrorist assholes in the US to their middle-eastern counterparts.
Why don’t you report us to the Federal Government?
Oh wait, that’s right, Obama runs it now.
Bwahahahahaha.
Yutsano
@Chuck: And to top it off, Harry “Milquetoast” Reid is also heavily involved in the LDS church in Nevada, so I’m certain that colors a few of his opinions.
Cain
@jwb:
That’s what she said.
cain
Chasseur
wanna know why normal ppl arent listening to wilkerson? he references star wars u nerds.