Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Let there be snark.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

You cannot shame the shameless.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

We will not go back.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

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Archives for 2009

The Wilson Resolution

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On my tv is a debate over whether to vote for the resolution smacking Rep. Wilson on the hand for his outburst, and my gut instinct is the apology was enough and this is now more theatre of the absurd. Having said that, I know full well what the Republicans would have done were the shoe on the other foot- they would probably be moving to hold a special election to remove him after having censured him. Hell, the crazies wanted Dick Durbin censured for speaking the truth.

I guess if you can get impeached for a blow job, a toothless resolution for breaking House rules seems about right.

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A Brief Thought For Wolverines Remembrance Day

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Being quite naive, I believed that Red Dawn would teach conservatives why violently occupying a foreign country would be a stupid idea. Wikipedia.

Initially, the occupiers had tried terror tactics, executing groups of civilians following every Wolverine attack, to intimidate the local population and the Wolverines into halting their attacks. However, this tactic backfires, and civilians lend increasing support to the resistance movement.

This brings to mind the time worn question: if you simplify a message to comic book form, and if you cast a magic spell over the comic book that makes every war-hungry conservative memorize it line by line, can they still miss the point? Let’s consult the same Wikipedia article.

Ironically, the operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named after the movie (Operation Red Dawn), as well as its targets, which were dubbed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. The Army captain who named the mission said that: “Operation Red Dawn was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie.”

All signs point to yes.

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Wolverines!

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Winger Tim Graham on WaPo’s Swayze obit (via Steve Benen):

[T]oday’s Adam Bernstein obituary for Patrick Swayze begins obviously by noting his big hits “Ghost” and “Dirty Dancing,” but doesn’t get to “Red Dawn” until paragraph 23. Even then, Bernstein wrongly suggests he had a supporting role.

[…]

There are clearly no fortysomething Reaganites working in the Washington Post newsroom.

You can’t spoof this stuff.

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Focusing On Those Who Have Lost The Most

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Atrios.

[I]t’s weird how disconnected the media is from the reality of the unemployment situation. It’s not that there’s no coverage, of course, but overall there’s little sense of the economic reality for so many people. The double whammy of the recession and foreclosure crisis has caused immense pain.

I have miles of respect for Atrios, but I cannot agree with this statement at all. As always the Washington Post has kept its focus squarely on the hardest hit.

LONDON — In this land of inherited privilege and celebrity billionaires, it no longer pays as much to be rich.

Hobbled by soaring debt and ballooning public spending amid the global financial crisis, the British government is joining others around the globe in tapping the wealthy to cover massive shortfalls. As a result, the tax rate here for those making more than $250,000 a year is set to jump from 40 to 50 percent, leaving the likes of Charlie Mullins — the self-made king of London plumbing — fuming. He estimates that the new bill on his $2.5 million annual income, with exemptions, will jump by no less than $236,000.

Observers say it is part of a far broader campaign in the wake of the Great Recession — including curbs on bankers’ pay and a rigorous global hunt for tax cheats from Switzerland to Singapore — that is suddenly putting the world’s wealthy on notice.

Why the assignment editor at the Post goes back to this well day after day after day is a question that maybe DougJ can answer.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with some winning the rat race and others losing. The corrosive effect that I see here is that obsessively covering the winners’ concerns amplifies their relatively mundane problems and minimizes the issues facing truly desperate people. This is not a trivial point; weighing one concern or the other would lead a low-information press consumer to support policy positions that are almost opposite one another.

A two-digit percentage of Americans fall into the terrible position of being one rejected medical crisis away from homelessness. God knows how many more once-stable middle class families the recession has pushed right to that edge. Yet, mysteriously, my WaPo RSS feed seems to filter out their narratives.

Maybe the press thinks that Michael Moore already interviewed everyone who is barely hanging on. Maybe desperate people sell fewer papers. Who knows. All I know is that that stuff like this hardly makes an effective counterpoint to the hateful drivel on FOX. In the end it seems hard to blame some Americans for thinking that Obama has no agenda other than (1) making Republicans upset (what does Newt think about this?), and (2) modestly inconveniencing wealthy people.

***Update***

I see that Atrios had this post written well before I did.

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Conservatism Cannot Fail, Only We Can Fail Conservatism

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Adding to DougJ’s post, who could have predicted that the right, after earnestly supporting EVERYTHING Bush and the Republicans did the last eight years, would determine that the tattered wreckage left behind was not the fault of… conservatism? It is just priceless. Again, I ask, do you remember all the mass protests organized by Freedom Works and the fiscal conservative teabaggers when Bush and DeLay were jamming through the Prescription Drug bill? You remember 60-100,000 wingnuts descending on DC screaming “I want my country back?” while wailing about out of control spending? Me either.

This isn’t about principle. This is about cynical partisan politics, with an assist from the media and the glibertarian excuse makers- only a complete fool would be blaming Obama for our current mess, and only a complete fool could look at the last few decades and think the solution to our nation’s woes is giving the Republicans another shot in 2010 and 2012. Only this time, they really will take us towards that elusive conservative Utopia that eluded them while they ran the house, the Senate, and the White House! I promise! The check is in the mail! I will respect you in the morning!

Regardless, I’m sure the Fonzi of Freedom Nick Gillespie will have another video up soon telling us that the protest in Washington last week was really about people who care for limited government, all while fluffing wingnuts like Mike Pence and Jim DeMint. Just don’t pay any attention to the birthers, the neo-confederates, the militiamen, and the Glenn Beck groupies.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- these “conservatives” sound like the excuse makers for the Soviet Union who tell us communism didn’t fail, it just wasn’t properly implemented.

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