Ross Douthat dreams of a Republican who understands and can talk about policy. Just imagine. For a change Sunday newschat shows might cover actual issues instead of serving as group therapy sessions for stupid angry people like John McCain, Eric Cantor and Joe Lieberman. The dirty little secret of DC is that nobody presses these guys on policy because they can’t possibly handle it. They oppose Obama policy because pancake rainbow phlogiston wolverines.
As long as we’re dreaming I’ll take my magical flying pony with the feature that makes it poop dollar bills. Plus flame breath to fight the dragons.
stevie314159
In a land of morans, the thrice-married Newt is king.
joe from Lowell
The problem is, when conservatives do work to put forward serious policy proposals, they’re nightmarishly awful.
Iraq War. Put people’s Social Security in the stock market (in 2006!) Deregulate the financial sector.
These people have been burned before, and they’re not about to touch the stove again.
ChrisS
Republican who understands and can talk about policy.
It’s unfortunate though that most of the current republican policy is either hateful or ignorant … neither of which attract people that understand and can talk about policy,
SGEW
Just like a liberal to fail to understand the overwhelming importance of pancake rainbow phlogiston wolverines.
You can’t handle the pancake rainbow phlogiston wolverines!
Gunner
My wife said I had flame breath this morning. Can’t help you with the part about pooping dollar bills, though.
jeffreyw
I want my unicorn poopin hunnerd dollar bills, thank you, or gold coins, yeah that’s it.
jeffreyw
And let me take this chance to say “fuck Trackfone”.
Bastards have been givin me the runaround for a week trying to activate a new phone that they sold me. Finally they say they are sending me a new phone because mine is broke but they can’t tell me that I will be able to keep the phone number I’ve had for 30 years.
jeffreyw
And here I am asking for a unicorn that poops gold coins when all I really want is a cell phone that works.
jeffreyw
Ad whirreled peas, natch.
chopper
yeah, i gave up on the sundays when it became clear it was just a bunch of losers discussing exactly how improperly the president ate his pancakes that morning. lieberman apparently thinks he should have gone with real vermont syrup and anything else is an insult to the troops, while ann coulter argues that ‘some people say’ it was actually the blood of white fetuses.
beltane
The problem is that conservative policies have been pursued to the exclusion of everything else, and they have been shown to be a dismal failure. As with Ptolemy’s theory of the solar system, it is the underlying assumptions of conservatism that are flawed, so all policies conceived using these assumptions are inherently doomed. This being the case, there is nothing left for Republicans on TV to do but howl, howl, howl.
Eric U.
@ChrisS: a republican that understands policy becomes a liberal Democrat
Dave Ruddell
Pffft. As if firebreath could hurt a dragon.
Thunderbird
Ross Douthat dreams of a
Republican who understands and can talk about policyunicorn.Fixed it for you.
chopper
BTW, dunno of the title is intended to be a descendents ref, but good on you.
Leelee for Obama
@Eric U.: I wouldn’t go quite that far, but a Repub that understands policy at least stays somewhat sane. I can count the obvious ones on one body, so maybe 20? I’m sure there are more, but I can’t name them.
Conservative policy has only worked for people who have money or power, or both. Again, why everyday people think the policy helps them is beyond me. Thomas Frank said it best. They vote against their own best interests in support of cultural issues that shouldn’t be part of the dynamic. Abortion, stem-cells, faith issues, gay rights-these are things that wouldn’t change THEIR lives at all, because they are personal issues, but they have allowed the thugs to co-opt them, and so they have let the robber barons fuck all of us.
BTW- I had to stop watching the Card Game last night because I was getting too upset and angry. Anyone else feel the same way?
bondwooley
A Republican who can talk about policy? Actually, their official policy is to spout catch phrases and bumper sticker lines in an effort to avoid policy.
It’s all part of their newest marketing strategy:
(satire)
Cat Lady
Didn’t Ron Paul participate in the Republican primaries last year? How’d that work out?
Tom
I think it is pretty hilarious that even though this post went up yesterday afternoon and was linked by Sullivan that currently there are no comments at the times website.
jeffreyw
You want fries with that?
r€nato
Do you suppose Liz Cheney will come out on Friday with a statement condeming Obama for showing weakness to our enemies by pardoning the turkey?
The Grand Panjandrum
Give’m a break Tim. At least they aren’t trying to take our guns away and raise our taxes. Sheesh. Priorities, man. All that policy stuff is just for elitists who think the government should be intervening in private family medical decisions. The GOP would never do that, would they?
valdivia
@Cat Lady:
He may like to talk policy but he has very little grasp of it. He wants us to go back to the gold standard? At that level, it is almost like not really talking about policy at all.
Comrade Jake
I respect the desire for a Republican who understands and is interested in policy, I really do. People like Douthat would like an antidote to Obama.
The problem is that in searching for one, they conclude that someone like Michael Steele will do. Their chicken and egg problem would appear to be significant.
Third Eye Open
truefact: The first time a dragon used flame breath, was to save an orphanage from trolls.
Jeffro
Chopper @ #10 – made my day w/ “ate his pancakes improperly” & will be sharing that one far and wide.
And isn’t the post title derived from Prince?
Should’ve had a “Housequake” thread when HCR finally passed Congress. That would have been wildly appropriate.
Lisa K.
Douthat is such a douche…
Well, gee, THAT is certainly a brilliant and insightful observation. Where the hell have you been for the past 30 years, Ross? This is the cancer that has pretty much killed them, and you are just figuring it out now?
That right wingers hate people with brains is not news. As Sarah would say: “…I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the the kind of spineless… a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with some kind of elite Ivy League education and a fat resume that’s based on anything but hard work and private sector, free enterprise principles. Americans could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership.”
In other words, the leading Republican contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 says the best qualification for a Republican politician is to be stupid. And yet, it seemingly just occurred to Douthat-heir to Kristol’s crown as the paper’s resident wingnut-that the GOP is hostile to ideas.
These guys are hopeless.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Comrade Jake: I still don’t get why, or how, Steele ended up in that job. The guy is a buffoon when he is at his very best. The choice was so illogical it seems to confirm the GOP really does have a death wish for itself. The first thought that came to mind, when they announced his appointment, was that this may have been some sort of internal coup to cause the collapse of the GOP leadership so some hidden group could then swoop in and take over. Probably too conspiratorial, but I still find it difficult to understand why they would make that bad a choice.
Brick Oven Bill
I think this is on-topic as we are talking about slaying dragons. Well, anyway, yesterday was a good day as the ex-military guy with the tattoo on his neck who made the wise crack to our female northern European diversity trainer called me boss. So you now know you are talking with the real McCoy.
We are not allowed to sexually harass as we are to respect the workplace. But there are many hotties there and I believe that I myself might have been sexually harassed also yesterday. So today I might sexually harass back and if someone yells at me, I will stop as I respect the workplace and will not steal or fight.
DanF
Douthat … pathetic. Asking for “fresh policy ideas” from a party that’s about to impose a RNC litmus test on candidates is pretty much a non-starter. They likes their ideas old and stale. It was good enough for their pappy, and their grand-pappy, and their grand-pappy’s pappy.
DanF
@Brick Oven Bill:
I think you need to take the day off Bill. Try walking home today. Perhaps consider buying a plot of land and take up farming. Modern life seems to be taking a toll on you.
low-tech cyclist
The dirty little secret of DC is that nobody presses these guys on policy because they can’t possibly handle it.
“Because [the Republicans] can’t possibly handle it” would only become the reason when the TV and newspaper people know enough about policy themselves to ask questions that could demonstrate the Republicans’ ignorance on policy.
r€nato
@Lisa K.:
Hey, Ross… George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, and Ronald Reagan called. They told me to tell you, ‘no shit, sherlock!’
David Hunt
@r€nato:
You win today. I calling it early.
David Hunt
I’m calling it early. Time to give money to John so he can get us the edit function back…
inkadu
pancake rainbow phlogiston wolverines
Establishment conservatives blame the pancake rainbow phlogistan wolverines, but true patriots know its the mcmuffin refraction gluino coyote that’s really to blame. Discussion?
The Grand Panjandrum
We can officially close the internets for the day and go get ready to over eat tomorrow. TNC won it today.
He’s referring to several hit-and-run commenters coming by to mock all the anti-Palin comments in the blogoshpere.
inkadu
@r€nato: Gobblergedon!
Chat Noir
@DanF: Olbermann pointed out Monday night that Ronnie Raygun failed at 6 of the 10 criteria the RNC wants to institute.
So much fail.
BC
The Republicans don’t really want “new ideas” nor policy – what they want is what they had with Bush, a way of using their underlying ideology in response to any and all problems. Sort of the way they did in the runup to the Iraq war – fixing the problems (or rationale) as a way of arriving at their desired solution. Or with the tax cuts, where no matter what was happening with the economy, the solution was tax cuts. I don’t know why our esteemed John Cole didn’t find these two policy issues reason to change because I just thought they came up with ideas on what to do and then used any and all rationales, even self-contradicting ones, to justify the policy. This is what Douthat wants now – someone who can do this kabuki dance around on all the talk shows and then it just gets into the mediasphere as conventional wisdom. All the “policy” they have now is just laugh-out-loud stupid.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@r€nato:
Ya know, some poor sap is married to that. They have 5 children, which means………. well, you know.
Max
In my Douthat Dream, I am skinny, and taller, with longer, thicker hair and better eyesight.
Also.
bemused
Heard on the Stephanie Miller Show this am, “You can lead a conservative to logic, but you can’t make him think”.
Notorious P.A.T.
Ross Douthat can dream about something good all he wants, but we all know that if it came along he wouldn’t know what to do with it.
DBrown
@Notorious P.A.T.: He realized that she was the wrong sex … .
Notorious P.A.T.
Yes, but who would be better? Seriously, who? And that tells us just about all we need to know about the Republican party.
PeakVT
Ross Douthat dreams of a Republican who understands and can talk about policy.
Well, I have two names for him: Larison and Bartlett. I doubt Douchehat would agree with much of what they say.
dr. bloor
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
Five unlucky turkey basters?
Kryptik
@Leelee for Obama:
No, you don’t understand.
A Republican that understands policy becomes a ‘Liberal Democrat’ because he no longer is able to stand up to the 10 Reagan Principles. Thus, he cannot be a Republican, and therefore must be a radical liberal commie RINO.
Notorious P.A.T.
Brick Oven Bill is a short-order cook at Hooters.
Kryptik
Oh…and as a note on Douchehat…
I didn’t take him seriously to begin with, but after someone linked to his remarkable piece in the WaPo last year casting Mr. Potter as the hero of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and George Bailey the villain…I’m amazed that anyone takes him seriously at all. The man obviously lives in a Bizzarotarian world.
Leelee for Obama
@Kryptik: So, it’s their perspective, and not ours? Isn’t that how we got Lincoln, Bayh, the Nelsons, etc.?
I see what you did there.
Notorious P.A.T.
By the way, I just have to post this, even if someone else already did: Just days after Fox News promises to eliminate on-screen errors. . .
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200911240056
The Grand Panjandrum
@Notorious P.A.T.:
They could dig up Barry Goldwater and do a Weekend at Bernie’s thing with him and get less embarrassing results.
me
As one of Ryan’s constituents, No, just no.
Leelee for Obama
@Notorious P.A.T.: Yeah, I saw that somewhere. Of course everybody knows that Obama was really in office on 9/11/01. right? Or maybe this is a backhanded way of admitting Bush really WASN”T President until January of 2005?
Seriously, is she that full of shit?
Leelee for Obama
@The Grand Panjandrum: Not just less embarrassing, actually more substantive. I rarely agreed with him, but he did think actual thoughts.
Max
OT – but important.
Preview of Obama’s Big Announcement.
Here.
Tonybrown74
@The Grand Panjandrum:
He is supposed to be the Republican version of the Black Sage, or Magical Negro.
The Republican Obama, if you will. Instead, he comes off as a Steppin’ Fetchit, which, as a black person, pisses me off to no end!
tamied
@Notorious P.A.T.: I thought they got Steele because he was the only black Republican in the party.
Pasquinade
@Notorious P.A.T.. think they’ll count this one….
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200911240056
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/25/807908/-Perino:-We-did-NOT-have-a-terrorist-attack-on-our-country-during-President-Bushs-term.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kpfhGxJbLc
Leelee for Obama
@Tonybrown74: I thought the same thing, but I didn’t think a middle-aged white lady should be the one to mention it.
Legalize
Respectfully, they actually oppose Obama because purple banana monkey telephone and refrigerator. Geez.
matoko_chan
Check out Doughy Pantsload.
The GOP should promise to repeal Obamacare if it takes back the senate.
Why..yes….and repeal Medicare and the Prescription drug benefit too.
;)
The GOP base has distilled down to the essence of Stupid.
People that are dumb enough to actually believe these assclowns.
Selection for Stupid– a hundred of fitness selection for people too dumb to believe in ToE and stupid enough to swallow con-serf-atism.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Tonybrown74: If they wanted an African-American in the position they could have picked someone like former Congressman JC Watts and not embarrassed themselves. Watts is a full-blown consersative and he isn’t an idiot. (Of course, I still hate him because he played for the Sooners, but that is another matter.)
Tonybrown74
@Leelee for Obama:
I think it would have been okay in this instance, since Republicans are so blatantly shitting on all of our intelligence.
matoko_chan
There was some awesomesauce on that TNC thread….
my favs:
The whole problem is that the rightside isn’t bright to get how mad funnie they are…….so they just get all butthurt over being disrespected.
Wile E. Quixote
I’d love to see someone call Lieberman on his bullshit. Take out a full page ad in some newspapers with the quotes outlined in the Washington Monthly piece and set up a contest where you guess what Joe Lieberman will say about HCR next month. The lucky winner gets their health insurance paid for for a year.
I still don’t understand why the Democrats haven’t dumped Lieberman from their caucus. What does he bring to the table? He’s an arrogant, backstabbing little shit who will do anything he can to fuck the Democrats over if it gives him an opportunity to get attention in the media. I wish that Reid had a set of balls and would just up and dump his ass and say “Look, Joe’s a backstabbing little creep and we’re tired of the fact that he’s more interested in getting his face in the news than he is in being part of the Democratic party. So we’re dumping his ass. He’s all your’s Mitch. Mazel fucking tov.”
Tonybrown74
@DBrown:
No!
As a gay man, I will not allow you to pin that Douche-hat on our community. Being both black and gay, I have enough shit to deal with, without having to explain that one away!
matoko_chan
i fail.
Selection for Stupid—a hundred YEARS of fitness selection for people too dumb to believe in ToE and stupid enough to shaddap and swallow when gettin f*cked by con-serf-atism.
KevinD
Let them try dealing with these people
ellaesther
@The Grand Panjandrum: Veryveryvery OT (I don’t even rightly know what the T is, because I just came rushing over here to look for you! [In part because you never update your own blog! Dude!]) but – GP, my friend? You made me grin just now, you did! Thank you!
Oh, and, you voted for McGovern…? I was a second grader making signs for him (under what circumstances I can no longer recall) which read (I kid you not): “Vote for McGovern and peace you will have!”
(Thanks man, you made my day!)
Tonybrown74
@The Grand Panjandrum:
He probably had to much self-respect to do it. Plus he didn’t put himself up for the job. It was between Steele and Ken Blackwell for HNIC (Head N****r In Charge) of the GOP.
r€nato
@matoko_chan:
‘eagle word soup’, that is awesome. I am so stealing that one.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tonybrown74: Dude, speaking as a straight, white man, we don’t want Douthat. If you guys don’t want him, maybe he can be exiled to some desert island or Galt’s Gulch somewhere. I think everyone would be ok with that, right?
Jim Pharo
An excellent example of “Things We All Know(tm).”
We all know McCain was a joke, yet 40-50 million Americans thought they’d take a flyer on him since the other guy was so repugnant — standing as he did (and does) as a living rebuke to the idea that ignorance really is blissful.
Another dirty little secret: We All Know(tm) that the Dems are the good guys, the Repubs are the bad guys. That’s why Dem pols must go when they mis-behave, while Republican ones can knock-over a liquor store and stick around, saying the video surveillance tape was doctored by Dan Rather.
I love this opening:” Ross Douthat dreams of a Republican who understands and can talk about policy.” I’m a committed progressive, and brother, I’m with Douthat: our society is ill-served when one of our political parties is seized with a long-term kind of madness.
Leelee for Obama
While the eagle word soup is golden, indeed, and well worth filing away for other threads, THIS is so fucking brilliant, even some of the less brain damaged Repubs could get it. Caligula lives and he’s still wearing dresses!
Jim Pharo
@The Grand Panjandrum: Beg to differ on the “isn’t an idiot” point. I’ve heard him speak contemporaneously a number of times, and I believe he is, in fact, an idiot. By GOP standards he may well be Einstein, but by the reality-based standards, not so much.
The Grand Panjandrum
@ellaesther: You’re welcome. Objects in the blogoshpere may be older than they appear. And yes I voted for McGovern.
I contain multitudes, motherfucker!
Leelee for Obama
Hope y’all have fun today, I’m gonna be heading to my Daughter’s family for the Holiday! We’re doing it early so as to keep the in-laws from imploding!!!! Toxic people, as I’ve mentioned before.
jayjaybear
I don’t want to imply anything, but I suspect that you could slip Michael Steele into the slot of an old-school subway turnstile with complete success.
ellaesther
@Jim Pharo: Ok, now I know what the T is, and, honestly: our society is ill-served when one of our political parties is seized with a long-term kind of madness – THIS.
A two-party democracy really, but REALLY needs to have both of its parties in functional form if it, the democracy itself, is going to function at all! Even a lifelong progressive Democrat such as myself can tell that my party is made up of human beings, and human beings are prone to error, douche-baggery, and hubris. Without a functioning opposition, the likelihood to any and all of those three human characteristics skyrockets.
As I have said so many times before: Sigh.
Comrade Dread
I dream of being voted sexiest man alive, having random billionaires hand me briefcases full of cash, and discovering the secret of being able to drink all of the scotch I want to without getting a hangover, frying my liver, or gaining an ounce.
Something tells me my dream is likely to come true first.
Corner Stone
@jayjaybear: So you’re saying he’s a slug?
Corner Stone
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): If I didn’t have to go buy a ham later I would crawl through these tubes and mercilessly neck punch you for this.
bemused
@Kryptik:
I had to look that up. It seemed incredible that Douthat would switch villain & hero that openly but he sure did.
Most conservatives are not as straight forward as that although I do see it happening a little more often. If only more senior citizens would catch on that the conservatives really, really do want to do away with their Medicare & Social Security. It’s not like there aren’t big fat clues all over the place.
ellaesther
@The Grand Panjandrum: You know, I did that math that we all do, without thinking: “Let’s see… he’s clearly not some punk kid (way too smart for that), has created a new life on a farm (must have lived a life before), has kids in elementary school — he must be a late-blooming parent just like me and thus my age! Mid-forties! Done!”
But, on the other hand, I have a friend who recently celebrated his 65th birthday and he has a 5 year old (and a 9 year old, and 10 year old), so the tropes do not always apply…!
(And thank you again! I’m grinning afresh!)
ellaesther
@jayjaybear: I… have no idea what you’re talking about.
But I’m curious!
Steeplejack
Sadly, Ross, we have to
workput up with the Republicans we have rather than the Republicans we wish we had.JenJen
@Pasquinade: Jeebus!! And nobody even blinked. Astounding.
Corner Stone
@Jim Pharo: I am in agreement.
Comrade Tudor
I don’t know if you all know David Price, Congressman from North Carolina, but he has a 2010 Republican challenger.
It’s like a bad myspace page. I particularly love the call to repeal the Civil Rights act. Oh, and his solution for the economy? “more better jobs.”
I wish I was making this up.
I also really hope he wins the republican primary, because Price’s district is the most liberal district south of the mason-dixon line. And Hutchins being a “Jesse Helms Republican,” he must also believe we should put a fence around half the district he’s running in to keep the “negroes and communists” in line.
very serious people.
Leelee for Obama
@ellaesther: Token, token, token. Guess it helps to be NYC subway literate!!!!
geg6
Chunky Ross Douchehatspoon is a fucking tool. Every time I read or hear his name or see his face, all that comes into my mind is this is a guy who, as a male undergrad, couldn’t keep it up with a voluptuous, pretty girl who was actually gonna voluntarily fuck him silly. And then wrote about it for all the world to see. And ANYONE is supposed to listen to this guy and take him seriously? Pahleeze.
burnspbesq
TNC knocks it out of the park with this one.
“Sarah Palin is to women what Alan Keyes is to blacks.”
jayjaybear
@ellaesther: As Leelee for Obama commented, Steele is a token. The GOP has been rather token-happy the last year or so…they saw that Hillary was almost as popular as Obama in the primaries, and hoped to lure her partisans with a female veep candidate (with about 1/10 of her intelligence and capability), just because that candidate was a woman. They saw that Obama was so popular that he became our first African-American president and voted in Michael Steele as RNC chairman, despite his basic incompetence and silliness. They actually had the other black Republican, (Ken Blackwell, as a second-chance candidate for the position.
bemused
@burnspbesq:
That’s a perfect comparison.
Notorious P.A.T.
@KevinD:
Yeah, those people really want someone who understands and can talk about policy.
burnspbesq
Just occurred to me that although we slag Heath Shuler (and rightfully so) for his Blue Doggyness, he may well be the second most liberal ex-pro athlete to serve in Congress during my lifetime.
Think about it. Here’s the list, as best I can remember it.
Bill Bradley
Heath Shuler
Tom McMillen
Steve Largent
JC Watts
Jack Kemp
Jim Bunning
This list suggests that it would not be imprudent to make having been a professional athlete a per se disqualifier for public office.
ellaesther
@Leelee for Obama: Ah-HA! Yes. I am from all the wrong places for that comment have meant anything to me…. That, I failed to put two and two together! Thank you!
(And good luck with the in-laws…! Yikes!)
DarcyPennell
@Comrade Tudor:
Ahem, that’s the “so-called 1964 Civil Rights Act to the U.S. Constitution.” My favorite part of that site is the button where he lists the big 3 enemies of the culture war: gay marriage, terrorists, and fake Republicans. Last time I checked, the only terrorists involved in the culture war were on his side (like George Tiller’s murderer).
As a resident of David Price’s district I couldn’t be happier about George Hutchins. No one can beat Price so Hutchins is just cheap entertainment. I think we’re going to need some comic relief next fall.
Tonybrown74
@jayjaybear:
I laughed really hard at that one.
Does that make me a terrible person?
Comrade Dread
I miss the days when Republicans used to at least act embarrassed that their ranks included racist dumbasses.
maus
… a government that works well is not the end goal of the GOP.
Comrade Tudor
@DarcyPennell: There is just too much wingnut fail on that site to count. “Jewish-Torah?” Like there’s a Christian Torah?
I’m in David Price’s district as well.
One last thing. In his “Biography” on the left hand side, he lists his awards, military service, and something called “eduction.” I don’t think he knows that eduction is the geological process where the earth’s crust spreads sideways. More unintentional gay humor from the teabagging party.
still liberal
Let’s get back to the basics of the Constitution, as God gave it to the Founding Fathers. A true conservative should support the repeal of the 13th Amendment. Then they could put that uppity African socialist, Obama, in his proper place.
different church-lady
Look at the bright side: the grey lady has a guy who’s halfway reality-based and values policy over polemics, writing in the space that was formerly occupied by a toxic waste dump in a suit.
matoko_chan
Darcy……what they don’t get is that there is no culture war.
There is an evolution of culture event, like the extinction event at the K-T boundary or ice age glaciation.
Conservatives are attempting to keep a zombie culture alive with rage transfusions……it won’t work.
It is tantamount to battling glacial flow with pitchforks and torches….which is, exactly what “conservatives” are attempting.
DarcyPennell
@Comrade Tudor:
Maybe the Christian Torah is what Jewish scholars will read after they’ve been forcibly converted during the end times.
Joel
@Thunderbird: Ross Douthat wet dreams
of a Republican who understands and can talk about policyunicorn.chunky Reese Witherspoon.licensed to kill time
Well, here’s Sarah Palin talkin’ about Canadian policy:
There’s that “common sense conservatism” meme again, plugged in there, too.
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time: blockquote, did it right, wtf, yadda yadda yadda…
Linkmeister
@burnspbesq: Wasn’t Tom Osborne (former Nebraska coach) also a US Rep for a while? V. conservative, as I recall (which makes sense; Nebraska’s offense was “fullback left, fullback right, fullback over center, punt” for a long time).
Steeplejack
@licensed to kill time:
You gotta put two underscores on each blank line in the blockquote to make it all hang together.
Starting the blockquote on the very next line after your regular text ensures that it appears in non-bold.
FYWP.
licensed to kill time
@Steeplejack: Thanks, Steeplejack – the thing is, I know that, and I did that but it still spilled out. Perhaps there was an extra empty line I didn’t grok.
Blockquote hates empty lines.
Liberty60
@matoko_chan:
very nicely put.
I just was commenting over at David Frum’s blog,where one of the commenters admitted that economically, immigrants are beneficial, but it is the culture change they fear.
This is why the immigration debate is so futile; it isn’t about reason or numbers, it is that deep primal fear of the Other that they exploit; it isn’t racism in the classic American sense of not liking people of color, it is that universal xenophobia of being overrun and annihilated demographically.
tamied
@still liberal:
Who wasn’t legally elected anyways…
burnspbesq
@Linkmeister:
Right you are.Err, let me rephrase.
You are correct.
No need to use that nasty word to describe anyone.
chaos
Stupid, as in the opposite of the genius policy decisions that have the Chinese lecturing us on how not to spend like drunken morons and the opposite of spending hundreds of billions that have not exactly meant much to the 17.5% unemployed or underemployed workers in this country. If only we drew our leaders from the talent pool of retards like John Cole and Tim F. and the circle-jerking commenters here, maybe the real unemployment rate could be 25%!
matoko_chan
But what he supported was a dimbo who is incoherent and a political ignoramus and a flaming demagogue.
Let us not forget that Ross was a ginormous Palin crackpusher…he helped bring her to the national stage.
I guess this is what comes of dealers dipping into the merchandise.
matoko_chan
Which is exactly what is happening.
Conservatives could have held power forevah…half of the electorate is on the left side of the bellcurve.
But they alienated all the black, brown and yellow proto-conservatives with their intransigent and shameless racism.
The demographic timer goes tick…tick….tick.
matoko_chan
also too, the instant any media saint asks Palin about her nutty beliefs in the Endtimes and the First and Second Re-Gatherings and teh Rapture, the teabaggers are going to be screaming about “religious freedom” like cats dipped in turpentine (forgive me Tunch).
That simply doesn’t mean Palin gets to practice Crazy as a religion, and refuse to answer any questions about her practice of Crazy, especially as a candidate for CinC.
matoko_chan
lol @ chaos
of course, instead we should draw our leadership from retrograde sub-sapient jesus-take-the-wheel white evangelical christian retards that believe in Gog and Magog and the Rapture.