Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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45Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    He’s right about many things, including the fact that zombie populist ‘conservatism’ can still win elections.

    Um… which elections have they been winning?

    A handful of liberals stupidly describe conservatives as fascists, so Jonah Goldberg responds by writing several hundred pages about the threat of liberal fascism. (Get it?) Liberal Jews frequently congratulate themselves for their secularism, so Norman Podhoretz produces a book in which he claims that Jews treat liberalism as a religion. (Clever!)

    Other than giving something for the Bill Kristols and Sean Hannitys to guffaw over, how many votes did this win over? “Liberal Fascism” was printed Jan ’08. I don’t recall seeing many people boycotting Whole Foods or voting out Nancy Pelosi in November.

    I still haven’t seen the waves of Podhoretz-inspired reactionary religious Jews emerge from the secular liberal crowd.

    I mean, if these strategies are so effective – if these rhetorical moves are so cutting and so moving – show me the votes.

  2. 2.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Sully finds a great passage describing modern conservative rhetoric.

    LOL. Great Passage? I would just say malevolent sixth graders in adult bodies and leave it at that. Or, focus on something you want, convince yourself you’re entitled to it, and take no prisoners in getting it. And then blame those who stand in your way for whatever might stick.

    Karl Rove is a political sociopathic flim-flam man, that was good at it (electoral politics), until he wasn’t, after people caught on to the grift.

  3. 3.

    clone12

    Part of me think it is bad for the country that Wingnut Robepierres are driving their movement into terminal purity, the other part of me can’t help but rubberneck and watch with morbid fascination….

  4. 4.

    Lev

    But of course they try to deflect any criticism–the goal of the conservative movement has for some time been to keep its people from thinking, especially about themselves. Got to keep that brain stem working overtime, because if that cerebrum kicks in and Joe Republican starts wondering, “Hey, why did we go to Iraq again?” all is truly lost. This can’t continue forever, as people either get tired of the stress and anger or die at 45.

  5. 5.

    beltane

    The modern conservative movement is a glorified quest to reach the absolute zero of humanity. Already, the true believers have largely lost the ability to communicate in standard English. Another turn of the spiral will find them unable to perform simple functions such as driving (traffic signs are kind of communist if you think about it) and preparing food (that lettuce was picked by Mexicans and lord knows what they’ve done to it).

    The teabagger protests of the future will feature partially clothed, excrement covered fat people shrieking incomprehensible gibberish. It will be the Woodstock of the damned.

  8. 8.

    D0n Camillo

    The teabagger protests of the future will feature partially clothed, excrement covered fat people shrieking incomprehensible gibberish.

    And this will differ from current teabag protests how?

  9. 9.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    A handful of liberals stupidly describe conservatives as fascists, so Jonah Goldberg responds by writing several hundred pages about the threat of liberal fascism.

    This statement doesn’t make any sense to me, or at least it seems willfully obtuse.

    Would Jonah Goldberg be more correct in his writings if a larger number of liberals had ‘stupidly describe[d] conservatives as fascists’? I was under the impression that the reason why Johah’s book is stupid, ignorant and ridiculous is that liberal goals and the means they use to pursue them bear little or no resemblance to historical Fascism, and in fact are often 180 degrees opposite in character to Fascist ideology, while their opponents on the right do at times espouse the sort of militaristic and corporatist ideology that are primary characteristics of Fascism. In other words it is the content of the respective arguments from left and right and the degree to which they are grounded in history and empirical facts which mattter and not so much a head count of how many people are making them from one side or the other.

  10. 10.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Besides playing “I know you are but what am I” they also project their malevolence onto their opponents and accuse their opponents of transgressions they’re currently committing themselves.

    Last night I saw the opening minutes of Limbaugh’s appearance on The Jay Leno Show and Leno asked El Rushbo about being divisive. Rush responded that it was not he who was divisive but Barack Obama.

  12. 12.

    Zifnab

    In other words it is the content of the respective arguments from left and right and the degree to which they are grounded in history and empirical facts which mattter and not so much a head count of how many people are making them from one side or the other.

    Ah, I see you are not inducted into the Holiest of Holies, the Religion of Equivalence. You see, Democrats do things. Republicans do things. Therefore, Democrats are just as bad. But worse! Because they’ll do things while raising your taxes. And abortion, which is like the holocaust by times a million.

  13. 13.

    r€nato

    I clicked through and read the Damon Linker review of Tanenhaus, to which Sully linked.

    (how many degrees of separation is that, again?)

    Some observations:

    1) The realignment didn’t start with Obama as Linker states; it started in 2006. How quickly they forget that history did not begin and end with George W. Bush.

    2) If the 14 comments left there can be considered some sort of indication (iffy, I know), the right isn’t anywhere close to ‘getting it’.

    3) The article which begins by asking conservatives to please, please, please take a good look in the mirror at what they’ve become… ends up, basically, pinning conservative hopes for a comeback upon Obama failing and right-wing media whipping up the masses. In other words, replaying the 90s. And then assuming the GOP manages to find its ass with both hands in some future election year, conservatives will get a Republican party which will once again fail to live up to true conservatism.

  15. 15.

    r€nato

    …you know, I already didn’t think Jay Leno was funny. But after that Rush appearance… man. Fuck him. I hope his show crashes and burns.

  16. 16.

    Lev

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: That’s the key: they’re all about projection. Karl Rove is a master of it. If you’re Karl Rove and you can write, with no irony, that the Democrats are politicizing everything then you’ve entered the realm of projection.

  18. 18.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    @Lev:

    This can’t continue forever, as people either get tired of the stress and anger or die at 45.

    Shit, that means I only have 5 months to live…

  19. 19.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I was under the impression that the reason why Johah’s book is stupid, ignorant and ridiculous is that liberal goals and the means they use to pursue them bear little or no resemblance to historical Fascism, and in fact are often 180 degrees opposite in character to Fascist ideology…@

    Indeed, it is central to Jonah’s point.

  21. 21.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @r€nato:

    I’ve seen parts of The Jay Leno Show the last two Thursdays. On Sept 17 Leno had an extremely slanted ACORN skit depicting everything about ACORN being crooked and yesterday I got stuck seeing Limbaugh.

  22. 22.

    MobiusKlein

    Oh, yes, don’t forget that the right wing stupid’s can win an election. They managed to elect GWB twice, so I presume nothing.

    Forget at our peril.

  24. 24.

    catclub

    JAF Rusty@21
    But isn’t Leno a hollywood liberal – like all the others?
    I’m confused.

    Grumpy Code Monkey@18
    So why don’t you try getting tired of the stress and anger
    instead of dying?

  25. 25.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @beltane:

    quest to reach the absolute zero of humanity

    It’s all been pinpointed down to the minute:

    Nadir Of Western Civilization To Be Reached This Friday At 3:32 P.M

    Experts predict that the penultimate catastrophe will occur at
    approximately 7:15 p.m. Thursday night, when the social networking tool Twitter will be used to communicate a series of ideas so banal they will instantaneously negate the three centuries of the Renaissance.

    http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nadir_of_western_civilization_to

  26. 26.

    Common Sense

    I don’t think Leno is necessarily biased. He just isn’t funny, and I don’t understand giving him 5 nights a week. I hope NBC fails because I don’t want lame TV personalities dominating prime time any more than they already do.

    Also, Conan sucks now. What happened?

  27. 27.

    lloyd

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I think Linker would agree with your argument as to the wrongness of Jonah’s book.

    I think the point that Linker was making is that Jonah was motivated to write his “stupid, ignorant and ridiculous” tome by an “I know you are but what am I” response to somebody somewhere (perhaps in his imagination) who once called him a “fascist.”

  28. 28.

    Cat Lady

    Experts predict that the penultimate catastrophe will occur at approximately 7:15 p.m. Thursday night when the social networking tool Twitter will be used to communicate a series of ideas so banal they will instantaneously negate the three centuries of the Renaissance.

    @SpotWeld: What time did PeeWee start twittering, hmmmmm….?

  29. 29.

    Legalize

    And this will differ from current teabag protests how?

    The Teabaggers might be a little more slim from lack of nourishment resulting from the inability to feed themselves?

  33. 33.

    Ecks

    @Zifnab:

    Um… which elections have they been winning?

    According to pollsters like 538, they stand reasonable odds of winning various bits of the congress back in the next few electoral cycles. It’d almost be surprising as they didn’t, mid-terms tend to be very unkind to incumbent parties.

  34. 34.

    Ecks

    I’ve seen parts of The Jay Leno Show the last two Thursdays. On Sept 17 Leno had an extremely slanted ACORN skit depicting everything about ACORN being crooked

    And Letterman had “great moments in presidential speeches” mocking Dubya for years. These shows aren’t partisan, they just take whatever issues are “current” in pop culture, and attempt to make silly jokes by taking it to the extreme. It’s lame, it’s predictable, and my in-laws TIVO it religiously to watch every night.

    Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste or sophistication of the American public.

    I am a Walrus.

    .

    When you get bigger than Jesus you can be THE Walrus.

  36. 36.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Ecks:

    When you get bigger than Jesus you can be THE Walrus.

    I was hoping to slip that error by, since I am wedded to FF and still can’t edit, you blue meanie you :)

  40. 40.

    Rick Massimo

    The other essential aspect of conservative rhetoric: the double-down.

    If ACORN were a Republican-backed group, there’d be a bill on the floor of Congress right now to DOUBLE their federal funding.

    There would be no explanation for this, although if pressed Congressional Republicans might respond with a condescending sneer that the actions of the ACORN workers on the videotapes (assuming the GOP had failed in their attempt to pass the tapes off as forged) were of course indefensible, but made it COMPLETELY OBVIOUS to anyone but a TOTAL MORON that the real problem is that ACORN doesn’t have enough money to pay for good, ethical employees.

    The bill might or might not pass, but it would absolutely get to the floor of Congress. And the “compromise” position would be to leave ACORN’s funding where it is. After Rush talked about it for a week, the “compromise” would be the “far-left liberal” position.

    And that would be the debate. ACORN workers caught on video advising prostitutes and pimps how to get around the law: Do we level-fund them or double their funding? That would be the choice.

    It’s a tactic I wish we would learn.

  41. 41.

    EnderWiggin

    @Cat Lady:

    It will be the Woodstock of the damned.

    I think we’ve found the definitive description of the Wingularity.

    This made my week.

  42. 42.

    Zifnab

    @Ecks:

    According to pollsters like 538, they stand reasonable odds of winning various bits of the congress back in the next few electoral cycles.

    I mean, no offense, but I’ll believe it when I see it. A lot of the territory they are poised to win back stands in deep red states they shouldn’t have lost to begin with.

    At the same time, they’re fairly anemic
    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/24/785910/-The-2010-money-picture,-thus-far
    with a $14 million lag in the House, and a Senate map that doesn’t particularly favor them (although it doesn’t favor the Dems much either).

    I mean, the top five Senate races, three are still the GOP’s to lose. Races in Delware, Illinois, and Pennsylvania will more than likely be decided in the primary.

    And even if all this were to radically change in the next year, where are the Glenn Beck mobs gaining their traction? I don’t see the Eagle Forum or Red State doing serious fund raising. I question whether we even see the 9/12ers turning out to vote.

    The polls show record low support for the GOP. This isn’t ’94 or ’02, where the Republicans are getting all fired up over a bunch of fresh blood. There’s no leadership and no back bench. I just don’t see where this GOP revival is supposed to come from.

  43. 43.

    Zifnab

    @Rick Massimo:

    It’s a tactic I wish we would learn.

    It’s a tactic that only works with total media exposure and a complete disregard for credibility. If you want that kind of party, get in line behind Rod Blagojevich. He mastered staring straight into the camera and – with a very serious face – lying his ass off.

    The Democrats that sell out to the corporate media – typically the hawks and the “moderates” that somehow always come down on the side of big business – do get impressive media exposure. You’ve got your very serious Joke Lines and Lanny Davises echoing whatever GE or Goldman Sachs or Blue Cross / Blue Shield want them to say. Throw in your Dianne Feinstiens and your Joe Liebermanns, and you’ve got a full contingent of media friendly “liberals” that can get on any Sunday Morning Talk Show. And they’ll all sit there and politely disagree over exactly how many extra troops to send into a Middle Eastern death trap, all the time saying how we’re “winning” but we would win a little more if we just cut your Medicare benefits to fund the war effort. And you still won’t get what you want, because the media isn’t working for you.

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