Remember when wingnuts freaked out because Obama told supporters to stand up for their arguments and get in people’s faces?
I wonder how they will react to this:
Less than an hour before Tiger Woods was set to explain himself in a press conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty urged conservative activists to follow the golfer’s wife and “take a nine iron and smash the windows out of big government.”
ZOMG PAWLENTY IS ADVOCATING WE ALL BREAK WINDOWS! ONE ONE ELEVEN!
Joe Stack
Right on, Pawlenty!
Use a plane – you can smash more that way.
Superking
What I love about Pawlenty’s line is that it casts conservatives in the role of the jilted wife. As if they had been married to government for so long, but the government, now controlled by Democrats, has cheated on them.
Sue
Is that one of those euphemism things, like hiking the Appalachian Trail? Was Pawlenty secretly talking dirty to CPAC?
Rock
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”
Also known as IOKIYAR
Bret
No worries. It was satire.
Cat Lady
Remind me when they didn’t freak out. That’s way more helpful.
General Winfield Stuck
My crystal ball sees hundreds, ok dozens, well maybe 20 tea baggers sporting nine irons slicing for freedom.
catclub
Didn’t some guy just take a Piper 4 -seater to
the government’s windows?
It’s not a nine- iron, but still.
cleek
fly a plane into the IRS for Scott Brown!
MikeJ
@Cat Lady:
Exactly. I honestly don’t remember that particular freakout. They’re in perpetual freakout mode, and I looooong ago stopped paying attention to what they’re whining about this week.
geg6
Sounds like a call for domestic violence to me. And in a political context, wouldn’t that be…gasp!…advocating terrorism?
Redshirt
I could have never predicted in early 2008 ACORN would become synonymous with Teabagger rage; so who knows – they might start using 9 Irons as a symbol, until the Erik Son of Erick concocts some new scheme to get those stinking libruls.
Sentient Puddle
Yeah, speakers at CPAC have already made jokes about the plane crash too. And that was yesterday.
Anne Laurie
Pawlenty believes white people (like Woods’ Scandinavian wife, or Tim Pawlenty) have a moral responsibility to keep not-white people (like Tiger Woods or That Man In the White House) on the path of true virtue. And if that requires physical intimidation, even assault, well… fine old American Heartland(tm) traditions, amirite?
Puttin’ the “thug” back in Rethuglican, Tim!
lemma
sort of OT but my DH just got an NRCC survey sent to him with a postage paid reply envelope. What is the best way to cost them some money replying? Add lots of paper? Weight it down with something that looks like taped-on coins?
Linda Featheringill
I would be tempted to ask Pawlenty what Mrs. Woods has to do with breaking government windows, except that I really think she should be allowed to go through her divorce in peace. After all, she did not harrass me when I was going through mine.
freelancer
9-iron Jihad!
White spouse scorned by untrustworthy black celebrity. This calls for a return to smaller government! Can’t you see? It’s so obvious!
ETA: @Anne Laurie:
mindmeld (though it was fairly linear for a mind accustomed to BJ)
slag
Two words: “our women”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqtKi547e0A&feature=player_embedded. Also.
Surreal American
“Now watch this drive.”
Chyron HR
I think Republicans need to start mailing golf clubs to mouthy liberals as a threat. Repubs, I recommend buying a complete set of clubs, dividing them amongst yourselves, and then mailing them to me.
Also, golf balls. To symbolize that, um… you have me by the balls. Yes.
Legalize
Wingers calling for Kristallnacht pt. 2. But with golf clubs. What a surprise. Again, the Leni Riefenstahl pictures were better than this CPAC crap.
Oscar Leroy
He did it again. . .
mcclatchydc.com/251/story/86508.html
Nice job, Stewart.
dmsilev
Has anyone checked Erik Erikovich’s Amazon affiliate page to see if he’s trying to get a cut from golf club sales?
-dms
Ash Can
@Anne Laurie: Except for the fact that she’s far too classy and well-mannered to do it, I’d love to see Michelle Obama take a nine-iron to Pawlenty’s limousine’s windows, and when she’s finished turn to him and say “That’s for bad-mouthing my husband. Any questions, son?”
Kilkee
@Chyron HR: Excellent idea.
May I note that I would be particularly, ah, emasculated by dozens of Titlelist Pro-V1s.
licensed to kill time
Imma go bust a window, say Pawlenty told me to
What they gonna do? Pawlenty told me to!
jl
Off topic, but Oh My God, Brooks has a doozy today.
The Power Elite
David Brooks
nytimes.com/2010/02/19/opinion/19brooks.html?ref=opinion
I think this is an example of Brooks functioning as conservative hack social opinion engineer. The combination of doubtful factual assertions, non sequitur, inside-out logic and invalid artument has my head spinning.
But I am not Brooks, and I need a work gig to pay rent, and am a peon, so I don’t have time to untangle it (a start would be to look up some of the stats on trends in social mobility in the US).
The argument seems to be that US political leadership is more diverse (in gender, race-ethnicity and other liberal ways) now, and that is to blame for everything bad that has happened to the quality and reputation of US poliitcal leadership.
The conclusion shows typical Brooks-style insight and incisiveness:
“This is not to say that we should return to the days of the WASP ascendancy. That’s neither possible nor desirable. Rather, our system of promotion has grown some pretty serious problems, which are more evident with each passing day.”
Of course, the whole column is basically saying that things were better when blue blood WASP men ran things.
Boy I am sure glad Brooks has some specific suggestion for fixing the horrible problems that have happened since the women, non-whites and younger adults were allowed to wreck things up.
Zuzu's Petals
@Oscar Leroy:
Right:
(Same link)
joes527
@General Winfield Stuck: If we could just convince Eric the Red that he needs to send everyone he disagrees with 9 nine irons in the mail … We could bankrupt him.
Bad Horse's Filly
Speaking of thugs….I just wrote an email to Jane Norton decrying the tone of her campaign. I have no idea what hell she’s running for and this ad does nothing to clarify – only call for Obama to resign, well practically anyway:
Jane Norton for Colorado (lucky us)
Edit: It took some heavy google searching to find out she is running for Senator.
catclub
jl @ 27
The conclusion shows typical Brooks-style insight and incisiveness:
“This is not to say that we should return to the days of the WASP ascendancy. That’s neither possible nor desirable. Rather, our system of promotion has grown some pretty serious problems, which are more evident with each passing day.”
Shorter: “Out frigging ‘meritocracy’ ended up electing a black man President. How did we let that happen?”
kay
It’s just an incredibly stupid thing to say.
Republican governors are turning out to be real idiots.
How many more of them are there to roll out nationally? Let’s see: there’s the nutjob in Texas who wants to secede, there’s Sarah Palin, who picked a fight with a cartoon character, the undertaker in Louisiana, and now the completely charisma-impaired and dumb as a rock Minnesotan.
Christ. Democrats have the good sense to keep the idiots away from the podium. Republicans can’t wait to parade this moron brigade on television.
cat48
@Ash Can:
That would make a great tape if she would work the slang “Whitey” into the insult. We would finally have a tape.
Speaking of getting in their faces, Peter Wehner and Jennifer Rubin found this to be “classless.” Sorta uppity at that conservative blog arent they.
kay
@cat48:
It’s not that he’s inciting a riot, or “classless” it’s that it’s a stupid comparison.
It doesn’t make any sense. Tiger Woods is government? Republicans are his wife? What’s the SUV?
What was the audience response? Completely baffled?
BACK to Minnesota for more training.
chrome agnomen
@kay:
you know, the republicans may also be keeping the idiots away from the podium. these may be their best and brightest! digest that one!
batgirl
@kay: John Huntsman is so very glad he is in China right now away from his crazy party.
MercuryChaos
I actually don’t remember that specific freakout either.
@kay You forgot South Carolina.
kay
@chrome agnomen:
I’m going to have to look at the GOP governors, again. They had the Utah governor. He wasn’t insane, but Obama shipped him to China, so he doesn’t count.
I was ambivalent about this Minnesota person, but I think if you’re going to call for civil unrest you have to make it clever and make sure it makes sense, or it doesn’t even work as a joke.
I need a list of governors! I always need a list.
slag
@Oscar Leroy: As we all know, one of the most bizarre problems we have is that these people don’t let empirical evidence get in the way of their beliefs. Be it teleprompters or Tiger Woods comparisons or pretty much anything we can think of, once it gets in, it stays in and keeps getting repeated over and over again no matter how many times it’s demonstrated to be baseless.
At the same time, we keep talking about how important it is for liberals to do something to counteract the tea party movement. But when they have demonstrated that they have endless faith in themselves and absolutely zero concern for the physical world around them, how do you even begin to work against that? I mean, eventually, we’re bound to get worn down and move on from an issue, and they’re still going to be there–reciting the same fact-free arguments again and again and again. As they do.
It’s a wonder that they don’t just quit out of plain old boredom with themselves, but they don’t. And they never will.
kay
@MercuryChaos:
I did forget the hiker from South Carolina, which is why I need a list.
I always whine that Democrats don’t bring out their governors, to push federal policy. After watching Republicans do it, I’m thinking that’s deliberate. And smart.
slag
@kay: We’ve got Paterson. And people keep trying to shove him into a dark closet. And we ousted Spitzer PDQ.
carlos the dwarf
@jl:
David Brooks is America’s Worst Sociologist. All non-masochists should put down his columns the moment he mentions any sociologist or sociological concept, because he will invariably butcher it to make a partisan hack point. In this case, you should have stopped the moment you saw C. Wright Mills.
[end masochistic sociology major’s lament.]
That said, the one time I actually met/got to talk to Brooks, I found him to be surprisingly well-informed and able to intelligently discuss some of the exact same concepts he regularly butchers in print. He’s kind of a chameleon, playing down his intelligence enough to remain a conservative in somewhat decent standing, while playing it up enough to win the respect of Villagers and the “liberals” they approve of.
protected static
@lemma: Just return the
fundraisersurvey unanswered. The ol’ tape-bricks-to-the-return-postcard trick doesn’t work so well anymore; it just herniates your letter carrier.If it’s a not-well-targeted mailing, see if your neighbors will let you take their copies. Our neighborhood, one of the most reliably liberal Dem precincts in Seattle, got hit with some BS ‘survey’ from the National Chambers of Commerce touting their anti-HRC efforts. We collected a half-dozen or so of the postcards from our neighbors and returned them all with ‘single-payer now’ stickers on them. A tiny gesture perhaps, but still…
Mnemosyne
@Zuzu’s Petals:
So Photoshopping a teleprompter into the photo of Obama in the classroom where he didn’t use one is A-OK because he used one during his press conference in a different classroom?
I think you broke my brain. Thanks a lot.
Svensker
@kay:
The SUV is the Constitution! With broken windows!
(or something)
LuciaMia
Hey, Governor Dipshit, aren’t you part of the government? Oh, I guess you mean federal. Well, how long before you start blithering about ‘ secession.’
Origuy
How many windows were smashed when the I-35 bridge went down?
demo woman
The fine Governor also said that “God’s in Charge”. I can understand him wanting to blame god for the bridge collapse but the same god I guess elected the President.
The golf analogy is different cuz we know that white men aren’t terrorists.
Morbo
Just don’t drive your SUV with broken windows on I-35.
HRA
@slag:
Speaking of Paterson -local news at 5 said he could not be found for 5 hours after the plane crashed here in WNY a year ago . Then there was some “expose” about him going to work at 10 am and leaving at 5 pm along with not paying attention to business.
Pawlenty gives me a headache no matter what he says.
Annie
Republican leaders advocating breaking the law. Wow, what a surprise….
Michael
Is it just me, or does anybody else want to take a tire iron to Brooks’ head?
demo woman
@Michael: IOKIYAR
bemused
@lemma:
Was it a survey & from Michael Steele? Some friends got that too. These liberals had fun answering the survey & taped a penny to it for their contribution.
bemused
@demo woman:
This was just hours after he vetoed medical care for the poor in MN. That’s how his brand of religion treats “the least of us”.
He also bragged that due to him, this is the 1st time MN has taken the spending curve to about zero & other states could do the same. He doesn’t mention that he has robbed from everyone in MN to do that.
Former Republican Gov Elmer L Andersen said in 2004 that Pawlenty was making a big mistake to take the No Tax Pledge, that it was bad public policy.
kay
@slag:
I don’t know anything about NY, so you can tell me how wrong I am, but I liked Spitzer. Not personally. I think he probably has a huge ego and cuts corners ethically, but I am willing to trade that for “fearless” in his particular case. Because he has “fearless”, in spades. if that comes with “reckless” I’ll take that downside.
I know I was supposed to be outraged about his prostitution hypocrisy, but I wasn’t. I know I was supposed to be outraged about the stupidity of his leaving himself vulnerable, and getting caught, but I wasn’t.
I was reading all these vitriolic screeds on the opinion page of the WSJ concerning Spitzer and AIG, pre-crash, and that interested me, how the big players in finance were clearly gunning for him.
I just feel like he’d be a really, really valuable person to have around, considering all the questionable behavior in finance, and his rather extensive knowledge of that sector.
I want him to come back.
Toni
Pawlenty can take as many pot shots at Obama as he wants. Obama is in the WH and Pawlenty was seen as too milquetoast by McCain and passed up for Palin. He can twist himself like an acrobat to try to find favor with these conservatives but they too will pass him up for Palin anyday.
gbear
On Summit Avenue, halfway between Lexington and Victoria Avenes, you will find the official MN governor’s residence.
I’m glad to see him getting so blatantly stupid as he ramps up to his presidential run. He was far to successsful at hiding it when running for governor.
Wilson Heath
@Joe Stack: and @ everyone else on the Austin tip, thanks for picking up this point so instantaneously. As someone who works in a Federal building, I’ve anticipated something like this for a while, but it still freaks me out more than a bit.
Here’s the thing, though, at least IMO: lots of idiots on the anti-government bandwagon are making noises that line up with this being domestic terrorism and possibly justifiable. That’s what disturbs me more than the Austin attack itself. And I say this with full knowledge that at least one person died of the attack and that another has severe burns covering nearly half their body. If this becomes socially acceptable, we’re further along down the road to Somalia than I feared. Making public service a hazardous job magnifies the problems of the zealots trying to ensure that there is no working government. When that happens, say goodbye to civil society and a modern economy.
(IRL) Stack’s suicide note is not really about any political cause, IMO. It’s like the scene in “A Scanner Darkly” where Charles Freck is arranging how he will be found after his suicide:
The difference is that Stack’s suicide was more violent. Classic family annihilator, trying to create such a big crater that people miss the insignificance of the perpetrator’s life and failures. If he had been fired from a job, he would have flown his plane into that office instead. Assuming an innocuous enough alternate target (i.e. not Goldman or an oil company), condemnation would have been universal. But people are looking at the veneer and not the pathology. And they’re almost condoning the veneer.
I’m not the sort to demand an apology out of Pawlenty. But if he doesn’t make some sort of retraction, I’m gonna find as many Federal employees as I can to phone-bank against him for whatever he runs for. Including local school board and dog catcher.
Yeah, and there’s the black man, white woman, metaphor of what Obama is doing to the country that’s not-very-subtle race baiting. But I’ve got things on my mind right now.
Mnemosyne
@kay:
The hypocrisy wasn’t the problem for me — it was the fact that he built his career on busting prostitutes while he was visiting them. That gave it an extra creep level since it put the women in a position where they couldn’t possibly complain if he did anything they didn’t like, because he had the power to throw them in jail if they did and no one would suspect a thing because he was a well-known anti-prostitution crusader.
That was the problem for me — the blatant abuse of power, not the sex. It makes me nervous to have a guy who would abuse his power like that be in charge of a whole state.
SFAW
Fixed to more accurately reflect the Republican “ethos”.
SFAW
dms –
It should either be “Erickovna” or “Ericksdottir”, please.
1) That isn’t hypocrisy?
2) Spitzer had moved on to bigger fish well before his election, hadn’t he? I don’t recall him getting elected just because he had a bunch of prostitutes arrested. And, frankly, I’d much rather have him going after Goldman et al. than Holder or Geithner/Summers. (Yes, I know the roles of Justice and Treasury are different.)
jaquestraw
Republicans need an expert like I dont know how about Bill Ayers to lead them in this area of civil disobedience.
jaquestraw
Spitzer had been seeing prostitutes for 10 years it wasnt until he challenged citibank he was removed from the gameboard.
Gravenstone
@lemma: You’re probably not going to be able to stuff more than an ounce or two inside it, whatever you use (unless you happen to have some lead handy). My personal favorite for crap like that is to shred the rest of the items in the mailing (and maybe a few other pieces of available junk mail), then cram that into the envelope.
Joey Maloney
@lemma: Cut out the label and tape it to a brick. No, wait, to a 9-iron. No, wait, to a Piper 4-seater.
SFAW
How dare you joke about this incident! Everyone KNOWS that only Republicans are allowed to joke about death and destruction and anti-government/terrorist actions.
Now, where are those WMDs?
jaquestraw
Don’t you all get tired of having the same endless argument over and over.there is little or no difference between the democrats and republicans when are you going to wake up.
protected static
Oh, look! A straw man!
Better trolls, plz. KTHXBAI.