Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republicans in disarray!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I was promised a recession.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The willow is too close to the house.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

You cannot shame the shameless.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Which one of these idiots asked this?

Which one of these idiots asked this?

by | 176 Comments

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Tapper? Todd? I’d like to know.

QUESTION: One more question — have you — do you any comment on Anita Dunn’s belief that Mao is one of her favorite political philosophers?

MR. BURTON: I caught some of that from the Glenn Beck show yesterday, but I don’t think anybody takes it — takes his attacks very seriously. We’re just — you know, we go day to day in this White House trying to ensure that people know the truth about the policies and programs and positions that the President holds, and we’re going to continue to do that.

At this point, I think it would be easier to cut on the middle man and just have Glenn Beck attend the press gaggles.

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  1. 1.

    aimai

    I think its good they are monitoring Beck’s show and were ready for the question. It drives me crazy the way Democrats usually respond to the crazy as though its sane, but are always surprised by it. This shows that Obama and his team have grokked that they are in a dialogue driven by Beck. If they only start making fun of the reporters for carrying beck’s water in the briefing room I think they can nip this in the bud.

    aimai

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    Just to turn things around, can you imagine the howling if some random reporter asked a Bush press rep a question about an issue that Michael Moore was raising?

    -dms

  3. 3.

    Midnight Marauder

    @aimai:

    I think its good they are monitoring Beck’s show and were ready for the question. It drives me crazy the way Democrats usually respond to the crazy as though its sane, but are always surprised by it. This shows that Obama and his team have grokked that they are in a dialogue driven by Beck. If they only start making fun of the reporters for carrying beck’s water in the briefing room I think they can nip this in the bud.

    I think you’re spot on in that analysis. It reminds me of how effective Gibbs’ “Maybe it’s Madrid” comment was during that press conference after The Great Olympics Fiasco of 2009. So dry, yet so cutting.

    Q Your response to Chairman Steele’s criticism about the President going to Copenhagen?
    MR. GIBBS: Who’s he rooting for? (Laughter.) Is he hoping to hop a plane to Brazil and catch the Olympics in Rio? (Laughter.) Maybe it’s Madrid.

  4. 4.

    dr. bloor

    @aimai:

    If they only start making fun of the reporters for carrying beck’s water in the briefing room I think they can nip this in the bud.

    “So what did Glen tell you to ask me today, Jake?”

    I’d pay cash money to watch that press conference.

  7. 7.

    Makewi

    It’s like death by a thousand paper cuts for every administration that I can remember. In this case Obama’s vetting team just sucks, because even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

  8. 8.

    Comrade Luke

    I can’t read any posts about wingnuts anymore without thinking Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

    I want to post that in every thread. It’s just so…perfect.

  10. 10.

    Peter J

    From the comments of the plumline thread:

    Q What does the President think about the Justice of the Peace in Louisiana who won’t marry interracial couples?

    DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY BILL BURTON: I’ve seen the story and I’ve looked into this a little bit. And I found that actually the children of biracial couples can do pretty good. So in terms of anything else I just think it’s something that they’re dealing with locally.

    lol

  11. 11.

    Fencedude

    because even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    Ooohh…so easy. Soooo easy.

  13. 13.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    I think they ought to have two press corps. One for the somewhat sane reporters and their questions and one for the insane. Then have the White House hire Lewis Black as the White House Press Secretary to the Insane.

    Not only do I think he can handle it, I think he would volunteer his services for free.

  14. 14.

    Chad N Freude

    do you any comment on Anita Dunn’s belief that Mao is one of her favorite political philosophers?

    The literacy level and command of the English language of the questioner are breathtaking. Apparently, Dunn expressed a belief that “Mao is one of her favorite political philosophers.” Are we to conclude that she believes it, but she really doesn’t know for sure? That she thinks it’s true but it’s open to question? That she has no proof but it’s an article of faith? I’m certainly glad that we have people like this to ferret out the Truth.

    Afterthought: Maybe he’s setting up a she said/she said report.

  15. 15.

    kay

    @Makewi:

    You’re insane. His “vetting team sucks” because they didn’t view video of every sentence this person ever uttered?
    It’s Beck’s weekly hissy fit. Why don’t you idiots contribute something useful to the debate, like an idea? Just one. Is there a Republican in the House or Senate that has contributed one positive thought or deed this session? I’m not sure what we’re paying them for. To block unemployment benefits to their constituents out of spite?
    She survived the insanity that ensued last time you lost an election. I imagine she’ll weather this storm.

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    But is that as bad as joking about Balloon Boy?

  18. 18.

    Anne Laurie

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    Then have the White House hire Lewis Black as the White House Press Secretary to the Insane.
    …
    Not only do I think he can handle it, I think he would volunteer his services for free.

    But only if he gets the residuals, plus Youtube ad rights. He’ll never need to work the comedy clubs again!

  20. 20.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Fencedude:

    because even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    The Helicopters Weren’t Joking, bitchez. Fax … us … some … documents, Beck!

  22. 22.

    Makewi

    @kay:

    Calm down. This isn’t the first personnel issue with team Obama, and yes the press loves this kind of thing. Ask Billy Bob how easy it is to govern when you are dealing with a new scandal seemingly every single day. Obama wants to be an effective leader, so he needs smart but vanilla people around him who will tow the party line in public.

    @Chad N Freude:

    She made a comment during a speech in which she stated her 2 favorite philosophers were Mao Zedong and Mother Theresa. I believe the joke claim comes in when she was asked about it later and stated that it was a joke that she cribbed from Lee Atwater.

  23. 23.

    Makewi

    @DougJ:

    We could probably dig up something on balloon boy cooking ants with a magnifying glass, but I’m not sure it’d have the same appeal. I never voted for him in any case.

  25. 25.

    Martin

    But is that as bad as joking about Balloon Boy?

    I don’t think any of us have the proper documents to email you to demonstrate we have the capacity to answer that question.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    Bush Junta jokes will never end.

  27. 27.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi:

    she was asked about it later and stated that it was a joke that she cribbed from Lee Atwater

    Lee Atwater, the Republican “smashmouth politics” strategist.

    Do you have a cite for the blockquote?

  33. 33.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Makewi:

    It’s like death by a thousand paper cuts for every administration that I can remember. In this case Obama’s vetting team just sucks, because even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    Get a Grip, Wingnuts Makewi: John McCain Obsessively Quotes Mao Zedong

    4/2008:

    “I think we had some difficulties and righted the ship,” McCain told Letterman. “For a while there, I was reminded of the words of Chairman Mao, who said it’s always darkest before it’s totally black.”

    And just five days ago:

    “Look let’s let a thousand flowers bloom. Let’s come up with a winning combination the next time. … let’s all go through the process, rather than condemning anybody’s chances,” he says, reacting to recent comments about Palin by Schmidt.

    The fuck, shut it up.

  35. 35.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi: Thanks. Jake Tapper blogging an Ace of Spades tweet. Maybe it’s true. But future historians are going to have one hell of a time trying to find original sources for anything after 2006.

  36. 36.

    kay

    @Makewi:

    Ugh. Now you’re going to tell me about Joe Biden and his momentous “gaffes” and how he has to be “muzzled”, or something.

    Really. You and our press corps are more rigidly conventional than the members of the local Rotary Club. More so. They’d brush this off.

    Is there any import to any of this stuff? What does it mean, or matter? Are we going to reach some sum total with this weekly bullshit, that leads somewhere? She’s not even a policy person, for God’s sake. She’s a media flack.

    The campaign’s over. he’s the President. Might be time to start talking about something substantive.

  38. 38.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Might be time to start talking about something substantive.

    You ask a lot of Scarlett.

  39. 39.

    Makewi

    @Midnight Marauder:

    Ill advised, as I said. In any case, it doesn’t change what I said. At best it’s a “yeah, but they do it too”. To which the only sane reply is to learn from the mistakes of others.

    Thanks for the stfu, though. Got your jackboots all polished I see. Fascist.

  40. 40.

    General Winfield Stuck

    ! The credenza gag

    Makes me think of Costanza and Bubble Boy. Wonder if they’re relations somehow./Gump

  41. 41.

    valdivia

    okay the jokes about the gass thread are still making me totally crack up. that was so full of win.

    I am sure Beck will move onto something next week and have his 912ers screaming about that instead. That we have such a bad press core that this becomes a question is just depressing. Why can’t they make jokes about crying helicopters?

  43. 43.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Makewi:

    Got your jackboots all polished I see. Fascist.

    pot. kettle. all that. Could we everyone just agree to stop with the epithets of “fascist” and “nazi”? Hmmm?

  44. 44.

    kay

    @Midnight Marauder:

    I knew it. The competing quotes appear. This is so predictable, we could draw a fake-controversy trajectory.

    Jake Tapper is Patient Zero for fake-controversy disease. He’s the first-outraged, and then he acts as a carrier.

  46. 46.

    Chad N Freude

    @kay:

    Is there any import to any of this stuff? What does it mean, or matter?

    Right! So why bother shouting at each other about it? It uses bandwidth that could be used for something really significant, like hi-def balloon chases.

  47. 47.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Makewi:

    At best it’s a “yeah, but they do it too”. To which the only sane reply is to learn from the mistakes of others.

    Or that it DOESN’T MATTER IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE. Who gives a shit if McCain or Anita Dunn randomly quote Mao during an interview or a speech or a late-night talk show appearance? They are not Mao. They are not followers of Mao. They are not disciples of Mao. They are not trying to enact Maoist policies in any way, shape, or form.

    It’s a non-issue any way you slice it. I only posted the quotes to demonstrate that point, not to say “yeah, but they do it too.” It’s only “they do it too” in the sense of “both sides do this because it’s a fucking non-issue.”

    Where is Michael Gass when you need a good laugh to relieve the stress rampant stupidity?

  48. 48.

    Makewi

    @Chad N Freude:

    Oh, so you want to go with the it wasn’t a joke line of thought? I’m thinking that’s not a real winner. In addition, Jake probably asked her, seeing as that is sort of his job.

    @kay:

    Sure, convince the press to NOT talk about huge gaffes made by the employees of the POTUS. That’ll happen.

    I also like your insistence that the WH Communications Director is just a “media flack”. A big nobody. Only her responsibility is to ensure Obama’s message is delivered to the people. You think this sort of thing helps or hurts that effort.

    Or are you just asking me to join you in ignoring it in hopes all those meanies will just go away.

    —–

    I don’t get this. It was a stupid and ill advised joke and it won’t help Obama and most of you just want to cover your ears and eyes and stomp your feet and pretend it just isn’t true.

  49. 49.

    kay

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    It’s not about him/her, who I actually don’t mind. I have no real beef with malewki.

    I hate our media. Do we need anymore proof of how completely insane and irrelevant they are, after yesterday?

    HOURS today on the boy who wasn’t in the ballon. They’re covering themselves mistakenly chasing a ballon. ALL DAY. Could we make this up? I don’t think so. They should at least set it to music. it’s a story about them.

  50. 50.

    Chad N Freude

    @kay:

    Jake Tapper is Patient Zero for fake-controversy disease. He’s the first-outraged, and then he acts as a carrier.

    Great metaphor. It’s a pity, because I really like his name. For me it conjures up Philip Marlowe style film noir: Jake Tapper, Private Eye.

  51. 51.

    Makewi

    Might be time to start talking about something substantive.

    Tried that. You just fall back on the typical lines of reasoning that state that anyone who disagrees with you is a big racist poopy head. Which is always real fun. Leads the conversation right into the brick wall you were hoping for.

  52. 52.

    Comrade Jake

    @Makewi:

    In this case Obama’s vetting team just sucks, because even if it was a joke, you can’t have a member of the administration joking favorably about a man who is responsible for the death of millions.

    This is arguably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read here. And I’m familiar with this BOB character.

  53. 53.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I don’t get this. It was a stupid and ill advised joke and it won’t help Obama and most of you just want to cover your ears and eyes and stomp your feet and pretend it just isn’t true.

    Nope, we want to not care. And success is what we got///

    right there……on the table.. we’ll mail it to your happy arse if you want. creds, it’s all about creds dude.

    very weak concern trolling, par.

  54. 54.

    Makewi

    @Makewi:

    I’d be willing to give it another go though. The substantive thing.

    In any case, my advice for public employees at that level is smart/vanilla/strong message carrying in public is solid for whoever is POTUS. I’m not making people care about this.

  55. 55.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi: No, I want to go with the it wasn’t sourced line of thought. Do you post here on days when you don’t need defensiveness stimulation?

  56. 56.

    HumboldtBlue

    I agree with Mae, this is a very serious issue because a very serious White House correspondent brought this up and that means it’s very, very serious. It’s these sort of serious issues we must discuss at length before we decide to do anything to help our failing economy, the housing crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc etc. I mean, if we can’t deal with these very important issues about toss away quotes, we can’t deal with reality. That’s why. Such as, also.

  57. 57.

    slag

    I’m voting Tapper. Or Reid. Or some other over-priviledged dumbass who deserves to be merit-paid into perpetual serfdom. Maybe it was Sprinkles Sidoti.

  58. 58.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @kay:

    It’s why my teevee has been off. The way I figure it though, is the more time they spend on wanking on Balloon Boy, the less wanking wingnuts we see, and absurd meme making they do on Obama. It’s a glass half full for me. Anyways, I have XM for music and it’s on right now.

  60. 60.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Makewi:

    I’m not making people care about this.

    so true, so true. but you are making me laugh, that’s something.

  61. 61.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi: I forgot to mention that

    Jake probably asked her

    is probably not attribution. If he asked her, he should say so instead of quoting an anti-administration twitterer,

    seeing as that is sort of his job.

  62. 62.

    James

    Here:

    In an e-mail message, Ms. Dunn said, “My source for the Mao quote was actually the late Lee Atwater, either in an article or bio I read after the 1988 election. Now that I’ve revealed this I hope I don’t get Keith Olbermann angry with me. Let it be noted that I also quoted Mother Teresa, but no one is accusing me of being a saint!

    ”

    White House Vs. Fox: Chairman Mao – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com

    I think it is a legitimate question for a reporter to ask, inviting the WH to respond to charges on the record. Just because a reporter asks for a response doesn’t mean that they are actually advocating the position.

  63. 63.

    Makewi

    @Chad N Freude:

    So it’s the Jake Tapper is a liar school of argument. I have no need to be defensive. You all think it’s a non issue. The press has other ideas. I don’t care much one way or the other.

    My initial comment was SSDD. It still stands.

  66. 66.

    arguingwithsignposts

    BTW, just a suggestion for the lexicon, an index of the greatest threads evah. I’m nominating the Gass thread and the Jane Hamsher thread, for example.

    The Helicopter Wasn’t Joking. Also.

  68. 68.

    Comrade Jake

    You were suggesting Obama’s team should have done a better job vetting, so they would catch people who’d once made a joke about Mao. That’s not SSDD, that’s just piles of stupid.

  69. 69.

    kay

    @Makewi:

    I don’t believe in gaffes. I know it’s the rigidly conventional wisdom that every random comment resonates, but I don’t believe people care about every random comment. It has to ‘fit” a narrative.
    Gaffes only matter when they reinforce a negative perception people already suspect is true. They only matter as “revealed truth”.
    That’s been my experience at hearing with my witnesses who blurt out weird or negative statements, despite my best intentions, and I think I’m right, and you’re wrong about the importance of random comments.
    I think you know this. You’re trying to make this fit the “poor vetting” narrative. You’re trying to make it not about the comment but about Obama’s “vetting” and that theme’s been promoted before.
    We’ll disagree on this. I know yours is the majority opinion. I’m sticking to my theory. It’s how it plays out in my real life.

  71. 71.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi:

    So it’s the Jake Tapper is a liar school of argument.

    Gawd! No, it’s the if Jake Tapper is a professional journalist he ought to do what professional journalists are supposed to do school of argument.

  72. 72.

    HumboldtBlue

    Yeah it’s legitimate to ask about a throw away quote made by a White House adviser. It’s also legitimate to ask if the reporter who asked the question likes to rape little girls, because I heard one of them does and it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    Mr Gibbs, what is the president’s response to charges that Mickey Kaus fucks goats?

    Mr. Gibbs, a black man in Ohio said he really dislikes white people, does the President, who obviously only represents black people, have a response?

    Mr. Gibbs, one of the White House advisers said they always squeeze the Charmin in grocery stores, having received a tweet from Mr. Whipple who adamantly opposes this practice, does the President plan on disciplining said staffer for tgheir squeezing?

  73. 73.

    arguingwithsignposts

    when did Dylan Ratigan grow a spine?

    He’s second to Rachel Maddow in terms of MSM journos who ask uncomfortable questions these days. (since Helen Thomas, Bill Moyers, and Amy Goodman aren’t considered MSM at the moment)

  74. 74.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I’d be willing to give it another go though. The substantive thing.

    You brings the funny tonight.

  75. 75.

    James

    @Chad N Freude:

    I think Dunn is terrific! She’s really brought life to the WH communications office, after the disaster that was Ellen Moran.

    “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,” she told Mr. Stelter in an interview. “As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.’’

    White House Vs. Fox: Chairman Mao – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com

    Here’s more about Anita Dunn:
    Anita Dunn – WhoRunsGov.com, a Wash Post Co

  76. 76.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi: The page makewi used as “source”has nothing on it but a picture of Tapper and a cartoony display of the Ace tweet. Where’s the response?

  77. 77.

    James

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Don’t be preposterous. A lot of times, the WH welcomes the opportunity to go on the record about those kinds of charges. You notice they had an answer ready.

  78. 78.

    Makewi

    @Comrade Jake: @kay:

    Yes, I am suggesting that this is another example of poor vetting. I understand that people will say stupid things, and that people will say things that will be twisted to be taken for stupid things, I’m just suggesting that great care should be taken to not hire that sort. The problem is that the hits keep coming with his picks. We can agree to disagree on this.

    I also suggested that this is falling into the “death by a thousand cuts” mode that has happened to every POTUS in my adult life.

  79. 79.

    tammanycall

    Please to put “helicopters don’t make jokes” & “email documents” into the BJ lexicon. Both give me the giggles.

  80. 80.

    Comrade Jake

    The only interesting part of this whole thing is to wonder why the WH has decided to take on Fox so directly, right now. Is the strategy here to make it personal, so that people like Beck are focused on nonsense like this Dunn quote rather than legislation that is moving steadily through the system?

  82. 82.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I also suggested that this is falling into the “death by a thousand cuts” mode that has happened to every POTUS in my adult life.

    Well, that and starting needless wars and killing our economy.

  85. 85.

    HumboldtBlue

    Yeah, the White House is definitely on the record about its opposition to squeezing the Charmin. This thread is even stupider and more inane than a WH press conference.

  87. 87.

    Comrade Jake

    @Makewi:

    Yes, I am suggesting that this is another example of poor vetting.

    But this is complete nonsense. One can’t decide to not hire people based on them making statements that Glenn Beck & Co might get hysterical over. That’s a clear path to insanity. The reflexive, defensive crouch your attitude implies is something that thankfully Obama doesn’t give a shit about.

  88. 88.

    kay

    @Makewi:

    I think Obama’s Gates comment was a revealed truth gaffe.

    Barack Obama thought the arrest was stupid, despite his elaborate beer summit. I did too, incidentally. Stupid arrest.

    Those ring true.

  91. 91.

    General Winfield Stuck

    This thread is even stupider and more inane than a WH press conference.

    We aspire to greatness.

  92. 92.

    Martin

    It’s not really OT, because it’s always a valid topic, but Fuck the Yankees. Angels are playing like shit, but Fuck the Yankees anyway.

  93. 93.

    Makewi

    @Comrade Jake:

    This was fun. I’ll leave you to ruminate over whether others besides Glenn Beck might not want administration officials joking about Mao. I’d suggest that your average person would rather they didn’t. I’d further suggest, as per my initial suggestion, that the average person is starting to see these sort of personnel issues pile up, and that they aren’t inclined to believe there is such a thing as a “throw away quote” by someone working for POTUS.

    You all disagree. I get it.

  94. 94.

    Chad N Freude

    @Makewi: I guess so. Even I can fuck up an attribution. But I suppose I should be defending myself against this onslaught.

    I REALLY have to go now. I’ll pick up the late-breaking insults and Intertubes lessons when I get back.

  95. 95.

    AkaDad

    The @AceofSpades indicates a target audience. It’s a response. You new to the tubes kid?

    This just drips with condensation.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    I think Obama’s Gates comment was a revealed truth gaffe.

    I think that considering anything that might offend more than 3 people on the outer fringes of society to be a ‘gaffe’ is the problem.

    Let’s accept that the truth is the truth and not go down the path that there’s something wrong with saying it.

  97. 97.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Makewi:

    This was fun. I’ll leave you to ruminate over whether others besides Glenn Beck might not want administration officials joking about Mao

    And like clockwork, Scarlett crinkles her pretty little nose and exits stage right.

  98. 98.

    Makewi

    @kay:

    I thought the arrest was stupid. I hate the thought that a man can get arrested in his own house, or on his own property for “getting lippy” with the 5-0. I still would have advised Obama to put out a “don’t want to comment until all the facts are in, if it was racism then it is clear that despite our great strides as a people that we still have some work to do”. Pure vanilla, great policy, no gaffe.

  99. 99.

    bayville

    I’m assuming this exchanged was sandwiched in between, the balloon boy query and the question on Limbaugh getting the boot from the NFL?

  100. 100.

    Mark S.

    Yo Makewi, I’m really happy for you, and I’m a let you finish, but Michael Gass is one of the greatest trolls of all time.

  101. 101.

    Makewi

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    More like, how many modern POTUSes can we list -or- the press really hates you but loves your attention and your money.

    I can’t stay here all the time, but it does comfort me that you track my comings and goings. I’ll be leaving shortly, and I announce it so you know that the responses will end.

  102. 102.

    James

    @Makewi:

    Really? there is something sinister with joking about Mao? Nobody is allowed to joke about Mao? Who made that rule? Was it before or after Lee Atwater joked about Mao?

  105. 105.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Makewi:

    I’ll be leaving shortly, and I announce it so you know that the responses will end.

    Well, ok. Hope it was as good for you as it was for me. Later alligator.

  106. 106.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    There is an episode of The West Wing where Sam Seborn wants to use the Mao attributed phrase “Permanent Revolution” to talk about education reforms.

    Bravo is currently running the final season of The West Wing and just today aired the Santos-Vinick debate episode. Santos talks about his health care plan – he says he wants to drop the age requirement for Medicare, basically “Medicare for All”. It’s amazing how well written that show was and how the issues and debate have changed so little.

    This is just my roundabout way of saying how much I miss President Bartlett.

    (What? He wasn’t real?)

  107. 107.

    valdivia

    @Mark S.:

    this.

    I guess all the dark humor about dictators is now verboten? And I thought the problem with the Mao quote was that it signaled that obama is a maoist not that the admin finds him funny? I iz confused.

  108. 108.

    Comrade Jake

    Well I for one am delighted that Makewi decided to grace us all with her presence and insight this evening.

  109. 109.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @valdivia:

    Commie dictators is the bait they like best. Easier to raise the Red Scare/Soshulist card on liberals than the fascist one. Though lately it’s any card they can get their grimy little paws on. Desperation has a thousand memes, or somesuch.

  112. 112.

    Uloborus

    Alright. I’m a sucker for people who claim they want a real argument, Makewi.

    First, you say it’s insppropriate for someone in the administration to joke about someone like Mao with deaths on his hands. Makewi, most of humor is about bad things. It’s not about sunshine and unicorns unless something bad happens to them. So, no matter how awful Mao was (not this debate), yes, it’s entirely appropriate. The motivation behind avoiding a humor topic as ‘bad taste’ is the worry about reopening fresh emotional wounds. America has few about Mao.

    Second, you were given a real argument. Even if she’s serious – who cares? If America were recoiling in disgust, it’d be important. The people who think having any respect for Mao as a philosopher is an automatic disqualification think Obama is a Maoist already. The press Corp doesn’t, they’re just doing their ‘She said butt, hur hur hur!’ routine.

    People say dumb things by accident, and this wasn’t even dumb. It’s a non-issue to anyone who isn’t desperate for controversy.

  114. 114.

    pragmatic idealist

    Wow, this comment thread is hilarious. The imbecilic “Mao” question was funny enough, but you have your own comments performance artist, Makewi, who uses the old Benny Hill crass ironic shtick of repeating the stupidity until 5000 chortles bloom. Excellent! Thanks Pisser!

  116. 116.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Anita Dunn has poor situational awareness. She describes how Chaing Kai-shek controlled the military and the urban areas, and then bragged about how the ideology of the rural areas prevailed. But if you were to look at the competing ideologies in 2009, the Marxists largely control the urban areas, and in theory, control the military. The Constitutionalists control the rural areas in America-2009.

    But while the military takes orders from the President, it answers to the Constitution, representing the ideology of the rural areas. This leaves the Marxists with the urban areas, and the people hitting each over the head with splintered railroad ties.

    This is why Generals are male.

    Here again is the video of Anita looking like a frog eating insects.

    You don’t mess with Glenn Beck.

  118. 118.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    MakeWee: “It warms my heart to bring joy into take a dump on the life of one as bitter and spiteful joyful and happy as yours. Like bringing food a turd to shut ins.”

    Fix’t.

    @kommrade reproductive vigor:

    I would love it if the White House would call for a nutter press conference. Bring Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Malkin, Doughy Pantload, Erick Erickson, any and all nutters, birthers, deathers who have a question for the White House. Get them all seated, lock the doors and then announce that the event is going to be pay-per-view only and that Lewis Black is hosting the Q&A session. Of course, the money raised will go to retire the national debt.

    I would pay to watch that in a heartbeat. My wallet would be out so fast that it would be smoking.

    I have to go. Nobody post anything till I get back.

    You gonna leave us hanging like that, Chad?

  119. 119.

    Ed Marshall

    On Guerrilla Warfare is studied at every military college in this country. Make that the world. The Maoist takeover is global and at the heart of every nation that fields a half-ass serious serious armed forces. This woman is the tip of the Red Iceberg.

  121. 121.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @arguingwithsignposts 8:32 pm

    I think that’s a nifty idea with awesome sauce.

    Last night was fun. Wait, let me try this:

    Last night… was fun… even if you are… dicks… and those who follow you… I have proof… the helicopters did… NOT… laugh… ask John Cole, I am sending him all my credenzas… mock me at your peril… I am a former law enforcement officer and will not stand for your condensation…

    Man, that’s hard work. Gass must have spent minutes and minutes developing that style.

  122. 122.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Ed Marshall:

    Doesn’t Mao to Macarthur adopt the teachings of Sun Tzu and his Art of War. I think Mao perfected it in beating the Chinese Nationalists and Chiang Kai-shek. A lot of red blooded American wingnuts have always praised and quoted Mao, at least as a war fighter.

  123. 123.

    handy

    You don’t mess with Glenn Beck.

    Okay, but what does that have to do with all the other dreck you just wrote?

  126. 126.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    Who cares who Anita Dunn’s favorite philosophers are, even in jest? I want to know who Rahm’s favorite philosophers are.

  129. 129.

    Davis X. Machina

    This is just my roundabout way of saying how much I miss President Bartlett.(What? He wasn’t real?)

    As real as Miss Elizabeth Bennett, and you don’t get realer than that.

  131. 131.

    TheFountainHead

    Okay. I went back and read last night’s Gass thread. I got to the helicopters not telling jokes and I lost it. Seriously considering changing my name here to “Stoic Chopper”. What do you think?

    TFH+2

  132. 132.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @dfd:

    Yeppers, Beck will shed big ol’ reptilian tears of sadness.

    You morans are ignoring what we really need to know: Does President Obama like ice cream? If so, is he aware of how bad it can be for your teeth? If not, why does he hate ice cream, apple pie (which goes with ice cream!) and America (the home of apple pie and all that is good!)?

    This is some important shit that we need to know! Instead, our important questions are treated with condensation, we’re dismissed as all wet.

    This is really sad. I blame Michelin Tires for all of this.

  133. 133.

    John O

    DougJ, you’re fast climbing my list of “best” doom-posters.

    This one is another in a long series of wrist-slashers.

    It’s all just…really weird and surreal.

  136. 136.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    Brick Oven Bill

    The Constitutionalists control the rural areas in America-2009.

    ___________

    Then they also apparently control the porn too…

    And the South shall RISE again…

  139. 139.

    kay

    @Martin:

    I agree with you Martin.
    I might have stuck Gates out. It’s valuable to tell the truth.

    But I’m not Obama, who is, in my opinion, practical almost to a fault, and the press were not going to shut up about it until their rigorous insistence on conformity and blandness was satisfied.

    They were going to badger Obama until he reassured them that policemen are always good and true and honest and hard working, and that he is not, in fact, harboring s secret hatred of white people.

  142. 142.

    Calouste

    @Comrade Jake:

    The only interesting part of this whole thing is to wonder why the WH has decided to take on Fox so directly, right now. Is the strategy here to make it personal, so that people like Beck are focused on nonsense like this Dunn quote rather than legislation that is moving steadily through the system?

    I guess they thought it was a lot simpler to toss the rabid dog a bone to chew on rather than having to continously keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t piss on the carpet or scratches the sofa.

  144. 144.

    slightly_peeved

    Aren’t the most popular presidents of the last thirty years the Republican who joked about outlawing Russia and starting the bombing in 30 minutes, and the Democrat who discussed what the meaning of ‘is’ is?

    And didn’t a guy who could barely use the English language get re-elected in 2004?

    The US people don’t give a crap about gaffes by their leaders, let alone their flunkies. Obama should follow the Republican playbook here – belittle, condensate to, and mock the press corps at every opportunity. Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen.

    The only interesting part of this whole thing is to wonder why the WH has decided to take on Fox so directly, right now.

    Maybe the lesson of Kerry in 2004? The US people don’t want their leader to be a wimp. Someone gives you crap – slap ’em down. Pick your moment, as Obama did during the campaign, but hit them when the time is right.

  147. 147.

    Tattoosydney

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    @dfd:

    ‘Who is Spain?’
    ‘Why is Hitler?’
    ‘When is right?’
    ‘Where was that stooped and mealy-colored old man I used to call Poppa when the merry-go-round broke down?’
    ‘How was trump at Munich?’
    ‘Ho-ho beriberi.’ and ‘Balls!’ all rang out in rapid succession, and then there was Yossarian with the question that had no answer: ‘Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?’ The question upset them, because Snowden had been killed over Avignon when Dobbs went crazy in mid-air and seized the controls away from Huple. The corporal played it dumb. ‘What?’ he asked.
    ‘Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?’
    ‘I’m afraid I don’t understand.’
    ‘Où sont les Neigedens d’antan?’ “

  151. 151.

    Anne Laurie

    BoB flames out, Makewi shows up. Makewi flounces out, BoB staggers in. I am only aware of some internet traditions, but the clock-punching doesn’t help the verisimilitude, spoofers.

  153. 153.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Makewi:

    so he needs smart but vanilla people around him who will tow the party line in public.

    Apparently our little Pisser thinks it made a point of some sort with this as its basis. The problem with being a winger is that while they might associate with some people with an IQ appreciably above body temperature they don’t associate with with creative, driven, critical thinking, intelligent people. That sort are not plain vanilla , you get something entirely different from plain vanilla people. You get the status quo from them, you get inoffensive in all respects from them – including doing something different.

    Unscripted speech is a reflection of attitude, people whose thinking “goes off the reservation” will say things outside of that narrow constraint; not might – they will. Makewi wants them to think like makewi and not rock any boats unless they be the evil liberal boats.

    This kind of thing is the half-clever almost smart thinking of an inexperienced 14 year old. Paying attention and living for awhile reveals a few things…

  154. 154.

    danimal

    Back to Beck…I saw the part of his show with the Mao quote and all I can say is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Anita Dunn’s quote was pretty obviously poor (or at best, very dry) humor. But Beck takes her quote and asserts that Anita Dunn WORSHIPS Mao.

    Worships?

    Does this asshat really think there is a shrine to Mao, Stalin and Hitler deep in the bowels of the White House? No wonder his idiot followers are so riled up; if one tenth of his claim is true, this administration is the most evil thing in the world today. Next, Beck will claim that Obama bathes in the blood of newborn babies. And they’ll believe him.

    Beck will eventually flame out, but I predict he’ll do a shitload of damage before he’s done.

  155. 155.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    Anne Laurie

    BoB flames out, Makewi shows up. Makewi flounces out, BoB staggers in. I am only aware of some internet traditions, but the clock-punching doesn’t help the verisimilitude, spoofers.
    ___________

    I have to say… one time at another website, I caught the SAME COMMENT posted months apart, by two ostensibly different posters.

    It was something about, “Wake up libs… the Dems are only playing w/ you the way we play w/ our religious nuts…”

    I remember that last phrase… “the way we play w/ our religious nuts…”

    Seriously… the comments got posted about 6 wks to 2 months apart, by two different posters…

    Kinda creepy…

  157. 157.

    Jack

    @danimal:

    No. Glenn Beck knows what he’s doing. His job is to work the ratchet. Every crank of that ratchet is one more formerly unacceptable set of memes entered into the political lexicon for public consumption and punditocrat speculation.

    He makes the once unacceptable, acceptable.

    He pushes the envelope, and the corporate media environment, of which is a part, maintains its relevance, in the manufacture of controversy.

    Glenn Beck is not crazy. He’s not insane. He probably doesn’t believe most of the crap he promotes (he backed Romney, who is a lot of things, but not a Bircher/Birther toon).

    But he does provide a valuable service to his employers.

    He drives narrative and keeps a lot of people in paychecks, by generating content.

  158. 158.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jack:

    Glenn Beck is not crazy. He’s not insane. He probably doesn’t believe most of the crap he promotes (he backed Romney, who is a lot of things, but not a Bircher/Birther toon).
    …
    But he does provide a valuable service to his employers.

    Oh, Beck definitely provides a value-added service to his employers. But that doesn’t mean he’s not insane — my personal suspicion, having grown up with one, is that he’s an unmedicated manic-depressive. He supported Romney because Beck himself is a Mormon convert, and his corporate masters didn’t discourage his support because Willard Romney was the Robber Baron pro-business candidate at that point of the primaries.

  159. 159.

    Jack

    @Anne Laurie:

    Forgive me for a personal anecdote, as illustration: During the campaign run ups of 1999 and 2000, I had the opportunity to meet and occasionally work with a number of then prominent GOP principals. Of note were John Ashcroft and Gary Bauer.

    Both are, and you have only my word on the matter so I anticipate disbelief, men of gentle demeanor and even temperament. They are rational actors who take very seriously their own vocations, however wrongheaded the worldviews and disastrous the results of their application.

    A number of people I knew also thought they were “crazy” because the things they said publicly. Alan Keyes moon bat crazy (and he really is tapped). Because what they said was so insane sounding.

    But they weren’t. And they aren’t.

    They know their target audiences, and speak in the idiom to which that population group is accustomed. If you aren’t a member of that group, the language seems wrong. I wasn’t a member of that group – since I was a mercenary staffer with only traces of ideological loyalty left with which to wrestle.

    I had a genuinely difficult time reconciling their speech content with their private demeanor, their manners of personal conduct, and for each man, a rigorous self-discipline.

    I discussed the disconnect with a local news man whom I cultivated, and who cultivated me (the news is really porous, like that). He was in the process of conducting lengthy interviews with the Buchanan camp, and had just asked a question which caused Pat to end the interview, and which would eventually necessitate intervention by Bay.

    The timing was good – because he was able to explain to me something which sticks to this day. Pat Buchanan is demonstrably fascist. But because he advocates his positions couched in the language of traditionalist free market conservatism, and does not speak the language of militarism, he sounds sane to people who accept at face value the terms of speech.

    Inside that bubble, he’s valid. Because he’s speaking the terms. People who didn’t understand what he was doing gave him telly shows and votes. They did this, also, for another overt fascist: Ross Perot.

    Inside Glen Beck’s bubble – he’s legitimate, because he’s speaking in familiar terms to a very specific audience. If you aren’t part of that audience, he might sound certifiable.

    As did Bauer and Ashcroft, to people not familiar with their framework and references.

    They aren’t crazy. We just don’t inhabit their mental and emotional worlds.

    That said, I think Beck is a craven, manipulative, dangerous condottiero who can do measurable harm to the Commons because that is his aim – to destroy the Commons and the idea of a commonly held Res Publica.

    And that’s a whole lot worse than crazy.

  160. 160.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Jack:

    Inside Glen Beck’s bubble – he’s legitimate, because he’s speaking in familiar terms to a very specific audience. If you aren’t part of that audience, he might sound certifiable.

    I know in practical and personal terms quite a bit about alcoholism and addcition. Playing at crazy world, pretending, donning guises, and etc are real iffy for someone with that in their background. You cannot maintain an addiction without a pretend/surreal world to live in. People outside that look at addicts and ask how they can continue with all the evidence….

    Because it doesn’t exist, that’s why; not in that surreal reality they/I inhabit/ed. GB is playing with fire and being encouraged to do so by his employers whether he is that damn crazy or pretending to be.

  161. 161.

    Jack

    Part of what Beck does is deliberate resetting of the moral type. Take, for example, Thom. Paine. The real Thomas Paine was a proto-socialist and Georgist (before there was a Henry George). He was not a capitalist. He was not a conservative. His chief adversary was The Burke Himself.

    But Beck has a number of sincere if misguided movement conservatives convinced that Paine was one of them, because he invoked Paine without explaining him.

    This isn’t a new process. Ben Franklin is often invoked by “founding father” cultists, despite the fact that Franklin was ahead of St. Simon, Proudhon and Marx by quite a few years:

    “The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets, tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law.

    All Property, indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.”

    http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s12.html

  162. 162.

    Jack

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I am genuinely wary of all psychoanalysis-from-afar. It’s too facile, too simple, too convenient.

    It simplifies known complexities and satisfies presuppositions.

    It erases motive and replaces it with pathology.

  163. 163.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Jack:

    all psychoanalysis-from-afar

    I’m not psychoanalizing the guy. He is a self-proclaimed addict/alcoholic and goofy games are bad news. I agree that calling him ‘fucking goofy’ might be what it actually is in respect to insane. (see jk elsewhere re Minney) I have not clue one whether he believes any of his shit or not. If he buys into it much then he’s sure skirting the edge of rationality if not stepped right on across.

  165. 165.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jack:

    I am genuinely wary of all psychoanalysis-from-afar. It’s too facile, too simple, too convenient.
    …
    It simplifies known complexities and satisfies presuppositions.
    …
    It erases motive and replaces it with pathology.

    I appreciate your suspicions. And I agree that many, probably most, of the “crazy-talking” people on the other side of the ideological axis are perfectly sane and even well-meaning. Or at least sane — Rush Limbaugh, for instance, knows exactly what he’s doing and that only makes him a worse person. But statistical probability would indicate that there are certifiably non-neurotypical and/or differently-sane people over there, too. Glenn Beck has stated that he “overcame” his drug / alcohol addictions by becoming a Mormon, but I’m just one of many people who suspect that he’s substituting the attention-high of being a very public demagogue for his old chemical highs. And he acts, to those of us with first-hand experience, like a manic-depressive using his addiction(s) as an excuse for not dealing with his biochemistry. Or to use another example, Dick Cheney “reads” like a normal elderly straight white middle-class American male… but G.W. Bush “reads”, at least to my ADD eyes, like someone with ADHD (again, complicated by a history of chemical addiction). It’s possible to be evil and crazy, as well as virtuous & crazy, although you’re right that it can be an easy crutch to assume that anyone who doesn’t agree with us just isn’t thinking straight.

  169. 169.

    BruinKid

    @Makewi: The video didn’t make it seem like a joke. She went on to describe the state of China in 1947 in order to quote one of Mao’s lines.

    (And Mao’s forces murdered several of my family members back then, so this hits quite close to home for me.)

  170. 170.

    Jack

    @Anne Laurie:

    We don’t really have a substantive disagreement. Typing only for myself, I just prefer to avoid the too-simple assumption that the other guy is [crazy, the Next Hitler, a closeted homosexual, insert any number of reductions to stereotype].

    Especially when that person has a political agenda and sticks to it.

    When we grow comfortable with describing our opponents as sociopaths or moonbats we blind ourselves to their programs.

  171. 171.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Jack:

    The timing was good – because he was able to explain to me something which sticks to this day. Pat Buchanan is demonstrably fascist. But because he advocates his positions couched in the language of traditionalist free market conservatism, and does not speak the language of militarism, he sounds sane to people who accept at face value the terms of speech.

    I think that some of the folks on the Left are looking in the wrong place when they start talking about the threat of Fascism in the US, like somebody who spends their time worrying about the tornado that someday might hit their house, and meanwhile the basement is slowly filling up with radon gas.

    Authoritarianism takes many forms, strongly conditioned by the local culture. We’re never going to have 1930s European style jackbooted authoritarianism in this country – we have no need for it. Americans practically invented the art of persuasion via marketing and advertising in the modern sense of the word, so we have no need to be putting people in camps in order to get what the elites in this country want, in fact it would be downright counterproductive to do so. Instead we have the MSM chasing Balloon Boy, Fox News slinging propaganda, Goldmann Sachs quietly hollowing out the Treasury Dept from the inside, and health insurance companies buying up Senate seats in small states like Montana. That is what authoritarianism looks like in this nation – it looks more like the Gilded Age of the 1890s than anything from mid-20th Cen Europe.

    So Crazy Uncle Pat is what he is – a homegrown American-style authoritarian; and that is bad enough in and of itself.

  174. 174.

    danimal

    @Jack:

    Inside that bubble, he’s valid. Because he’s speaking the terms. People who didn’t understand what he was doing gave him telly shows and votes. They did this, also, for another overt fascist: Ross Perot.

    Inside Glen Beck’s bubble – he’s legitimate, because he’s speaking in familiar terms to a very specific audience. If you aren’t part of that audience, he might sound certifiable.

    I mostly agree with your statements about Beck and the leaders of the GOP. They are much more rational and level-headed than their public personas. (Well, maybe not Beck…) I’m just astounded at the amount of crazy that’s needed to motivate the GOP base these days. Claiming that the Obama admin worships Mao is light years away from ‘sympathizing’ with Latin American revolutionaries, the sin from the Reagan years. They’ve come a long way.

  175. 175.

    danimal

    Blockquote fail…”Inside Glenn Beck’s bubble…” should have been part of the blockquote as well…I’ve got the documents to prove it.

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