I find the notion that the Glenn Beck teabaggers somehow are carrying on the King legacy so repulsive, disgusting, preposterous, and obscene, that this will be my only discussion of the matter.
It’s enough to make you vomit. The balls on these people.
Sheila
“. . . but I suppose everyone has some little immortal spark concealed about him.”
Sherlock Holmes
Glenn Beck obviously knows well the art of concealment.
arguingwithsignposts
And yet they will not be silent. God it pisses me off to no end.
ETA: There is no amount of mockery, sarcasm, snark, etc. that seems to reach through their sheer idiocy. Beckk, Limbaugh, etc. {head/desk}
Omnes Omnibus
I clicked on the link; I regret that action.
valdivia
Even worse John was to have to sit for 3 hours as he looped video of King and the ‘I have a dream speech’ and DIRECTLY connected it to himself and the tea party. He had one of the King family ( a very religious woman on an anti abortion platform) talking to give his position as heir credence. Really just so repulsive, I’m still wondering how my head didn’t explode.
Chris
Reminds me of my friend who (somewhat tongue in cheek) asked what if we had a “white entertainment network” ?(alluding to BET). I told him “You do…Its CBS”
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Ugh. I had to. Big ol’ swing and a miss there. Somehow I feel slightly less bad about Pujols patronizing that Christfest.
Erlking
…And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society…
Martin Luther King, Jr.–presidential address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1967).
steviez314
I think Glenn Beck is carrying on the Don King legacy just fine.
Cerberus
I’m reminded of the Daria quote: “Aren’t you even a *little* worried that there might be a Hell?”
Nick
Yes, this is real.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DC_RALLY?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Alex S.
Their balls are quite huge – because they’re cancerous.
Gen. Jrod and his Howling Army
When I think about moderate voices, you know Rick Fucking Moran tops that short list.
someguy
It proves there is no God, that (a meteor / bubonic plague / the long-postulated AQ A-bomb) didn’t hit the national mall when this unholy confluence of bigoted felcher NASCAR retards was gathered together In Beck’s Name. That the denseness of their collective stupidity didn’t open a huge rip in space time and swallow the national mall whole turning it into a giant, ironically named black hole is also proof that there is no such thing as general relativity. God these racist m-f’ers make me sick to my stomach.
licensed to kill time
It’s positively ludicrous. I saw some footage today on CNN Int’l of both the Beck rally and the original MLK I Have a Dream speech. The contrast in the crowds could not have been any more stark on any number of levels. It just fries me to hear any comparison of his ridiculous ‘movement’ to the civil rights movement and most especially to Dr. King.
Beck, you are way out of your league.
Loneoak
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, wow, stay in the boat, folks. Stay. In. The. Boat.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I refuse to knowingly click on any wingnut link.
I suppose that I should be better informed, learn what they want, see which way the wind is blowing, but really, how much information am I going to get from idiots other than they are, well idiots?
I already know they are, in no particular order, selfish, immature, greedy, unable to assimilate new facts, racist, homophobic, bad at even basic math, lairs, con-artists, misogynistic and just general all around assholes. Is there anything I missed?
valdivia
Oh it was also great when Beck read from the Gettysburg Address to say that is describes EXACTLY what we’re going through today.
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: Triple down on that. Fortunately, I made it half way through the first paragraph before I bailed. Really really repulsive.
@Nick: Yes, well, Dr. King came to me in my dreams the night Prop H8 was struck down. I was lost and looking for directions to Birmingham Junior High School. He gave me very detailed directions, and I was confused because I was from out of state. Once he explained it to me, a Black Panther showed up to argue about the best way to get there.
Hey! My dream is just as valid as to what Dr. King would be like today (in the case of my dream, pro-marriage equality) because none of us knows–not even his friends or family.
@valdivia: Thanks for taking one for the team!
Just Some Fuckhead
White people suck. It’s a universal truth.
BlueDWarrior
Sometimes I wish I had a bunker I could retreat to so I could just ride out the last spasms of the Late 50s-Early 60s White Entitlement generation…
Oh well, I’ll just have to take comfort in that old addage “And this too shall pass…”
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: That about covers it.
GregB
It’s like Karl Rove said: They have created their own reality in which the conservatives were the great organizers of civil rights, where unions were created to save the workers from evil government and where billions of dollars on overseas wars makes our democracy at home strong.
It’s too bad that there are so many in the media unwilling to challenge this lunacy.
I think it is fork time for this nation. It’s too far gone.
Violet
@valdivia:
How did you manage to survive? The horror, the horror…
SpotWeld
It’d be interesting to post (without attribution) some of King’s more controversial statements (at least they were at the time) to Red State and see how well they go down.
Keith G
I really hope that this next election plays out in such a way as to drive a stake through the notion that these folks have any electoral import.
If they are seen as being influential, they will be awarded legitimacy and an even bigger seat at the media’s table. And that will be uncomfortably close to the critical mass that I mentioned in the last thread.
These are hard times. People want easy answers. They want to be faultless. They want an other or others to blame. They want to be told that they are noble and decent and deserving of a better outcome.
This may be…
…but it is also something we need to be monitoring and gearing up to confront.
edited to clean up tag abuse
Yutsano
@GregB:
It always seems like our problems are the worst because they’re the most immediate, but this country has been and will go through worse and then somehow we grow a collective brain and things get better. Nevertheless I will be leading the referendum to make Washington the fourteenth province of Canada if things go to shit fast. I think we’d be more than welcomed in, we’re both a high tech and a high agricultural producing area. And our teatards could find common cause with the Saskatchewan Conservatives, so it will all balance out.
EDIT: I DIDN’T BREAK THE THREAD!! HYPHEN CLEAN-UP ON AISLE 6!!
MeDrewNotYou
May I suggest watching the real deal? Or perhaps reading it? Cheers me up a little.
licensed to kill time
Uh oh. Hyphen bomb! Clean up the dash!
CanadaGoose
From LOLGOP’s Facebook page:
Today thousands of Americans are gathering in Washington DC for what appears to be the largest Weight Watchers meeting ever.
Cerberus
@Ruckus:
You forgot douchebags and fuckwads in bad need of a brain enema, but yeah, that’s most of the important points.
@asiangrrlMN:
There actually are some parallels that gay rights movements could make and some evidence that the good Dr. King would support that struggle (chief among those his close friendship and alliance with openly gay civil-rights activist Bayard Rustin).
There is no evidence whatsoever that Dr. King would support a racist alliance of people randomly angry that the people they used to hose down with firehoses now dare sully their White House. It’s openly offensive in the same way as Sarah Palin claiming to be a feminist or someone like Dobson or Mehlmann claiming to be champions of gay rights are.
But I think it’s the price of victory. Finally clearing that last hurdle and shoving the progress of liberals down the bigots throats just means that the bigots and the moderates and the conservatives will wave your hard-fought victories around as if they were instrumental to them or the true heirs of those victories and like they didn’t fight against them with every fiber of their being.
JBerardi
The worst part about this is that it’s being taken seriously. There’s going to be people on NPR debating if Glenn Beck really is carrying on Dr. King’s legacy. You all know this to be true. There’s just no limit to the lies you can sell to our media. There is no amount of bullshit so great that they will be called on it. Forget about government, these people have drowned reality itself in the bathtub.
Estragon
Two things:
1. That utterly repulsive article proves the absolute inanity of so-called ‘moderates’ in American politics. First, there’s more than just irrational animus motivating opposition to the rally; it’s the sheer offensiveness of comparing King to race-baiters like Beck and Palin. Secondly, the comparison between MLK’s mission and the Tea Party falls apart completely once you note the former’s engagement with and advocacy for democratic socialism in America.
2. Albert Pujols showed up. I had long harbored an irrational hatred for the man, but I’m happy that I now have a good reason to despise him.
Ruckus
@GregB:
I used to think the world was a pretty great place because we got to live in it. Then I got a little older and started to see that not every place is all that good. But still I lived in a great country so all was well. As I grew a little older I started to question how great the country I lived in was, because of all the changes that I started to see. And as I aged a few more years I thought that the state I lived in was still pretty good even though many places I had seen sucked big donkey…
And now the state and country I live in seem to be in constant suckage. Maybe it’s the media. Maybe it’s the politics. Maybe it’s the large corporations. Maybe it’s the wingnuts. Whatever.
All of that to say, I agree.
@Just Some Fuckhead:
OK I’ll give you a large percentage, but not all of us can suck that much.
someguy
You have to wonder why they held this rally here in Chocolate City. Perhaps it was too expensive for the teatards to drive to Atlanta so they could shit on MLK’s grave in person, and this was the next best thing.
Mark S.
If some black guys were to beat the living shit out of Beck, I would donate my life savings to their defense fund.
Comrade Mary
I yelled at CBC radio today when every hourly news broadcast led with the rally and mentioned how “tens of thousands” were present. The again, seeing that Beck was claiming 300k in attendance, that might have been subtle snark on their part.
J.W. Hamner
I think people in general don’t understand that the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t standing around holding signs… it was having your head bashed in by rocks… and then getting arrested for having the nerve to get your head bashed.
Ruckus
@Cerberus:
I stand corrected.
In my defense with my limited writing skills I don’t see how I would have fit that in anyway.
Kirk Spencer
@Keith G: It probably won’t.
Instead, the Republicans will make gains in both the House and Senate this time. This will be seen as proof of their righteousness. Because of it, even if they don’t take the actual majority in either part they will be even louder and insistent.
Ironically, this will be a significant part of what causes their losses in 2012. At that point the gideon cycle will (probably) begin.
Gideon cycle. My term for the purges done under zealots to rid themselves of the impure whom they blame for losses. Named for Gideon’s army, which became truly powerful when only the most faithful (or so it’s interpreted) remained. Of course this doesn’t work when one person’s vote is one person’s vote regardless of purity or faith.
someguy
@Comrade Mary:
Hey, if it makes you feel any better, the WaPo said “thousands” were in attendance, and shows a picture with maybe 15 people. This is good; you shouldn’t encourage the incipient KKK/teatard lynch mob across the country to think that they’re part of something. Anything we can do to make them feel isolated and small and stuck on a dead end, we should do. We shouldn’t encourage them.
asiangrrlMN
@Cerberus: I know. It’s just so fucking frustrating to have one side do the yeoman’s work in the fight for equality and then having the other side co-opt it, warp it, and turn it on its head. It’s just repulsive to me and more so because asshats like Rick Moran are fapping away to the ideological wankery. WTF does Beck have ANY legitimacy at all? Or Palin for that matter? Feh.
Davis X. Machina
@someguy: They wouldn’t be caught dead South of Auburn. (OK, it’s on Auburn.)
Cacti
Let’s see…
Glenn hates social justice…
Which was the alpha and omega of MLK’s movement.
King steadfastly opposed the war in Vietnam, and US militarism abroad…
Glenn loves it and will never apologize for the millions of barefoot and impoverished brown people that the US war machine has incinerated in the last 50 years.
Other than that, they’re like peas in a pod.
Violet
I’m glad these idiots spent their money going to Washington so they can bow down at the feet of Glenn Beck. That’s just that much less money available to go to Republican and Teabag candidates. /silver lining
Hann1bal
@someguy: But if they feel like they’re tiny little islands in a sea of DFHs, aren’t they more likely to lash out in some kind of violent way?
Yutsano
@Violet: I can’t even be that optimistic. After all there are still three Social Security disbursements to go out before November 5th, and judging from the pictures I saw they will be well-funded from that source. And old people vote and contribute. And young folk wonder why they keep getting fucked over.
sloan
It’s too bad we have to wait a few more years for the emerging majority-minority to begin voting. In the meantime we’ll still have to deal with oblivious kooks like Dr. Martin Luther Beck and stuff like this:
This is in the year 2010. And no, they did not change the policy because it was a bad policy. They changed it because some blogger at ABCNews.com ran a story and they were getting bad publicity. It amazes me that there is still a huge chunk of America that thinks a “no blacks allowed” policy in public schools is acceptable. No wonder they are freaking out with our mixed-race President Hussein.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JBerardi:
QFT.
Movement conservatism has degenerated into a postmodern cargo cult. And looking around at our culture, it is not hard to see why. Today Lord of the Flies reads like the script for a reality TV show, not an anti-utopian novel warning about the potential for evil lurking within us all.
morzer
I imagine that a year from now no-one will remember a single line from Glenn Beck’s exhibitionist bloviation today. MLK will continue to be honored, and his words will live on. Twenty years from now, people will shake their heads at how embarrassing some of those sad, angry white people were, and their grandchildren will try and change the topic away from what a loser grandpa was in his dotage. It will take some time, but demographics are on the side of justice and decency. Our job now is to stand firm until the balance tips down towards the side of goodness, equality, compassion, sane politics, the renewal of America.
General Stuck
Showbiz and right wing politics meet in Hell.
Davis X. Machina
@Kirk Spencer: A phenomenon that knows neither left nor right. You mean these guys?
Cacti
@J.W. Hamner:
Or having the crap kicked out of you for daring to sit at a lunch counter…
Or having the local Sheriff, who was part of the Klan, scheme with them to murder you for registering voters…
Or getting blasted with a fire hose for getting uppity, even if you happened to be an elementary school child…
So which one of the Becktards went through any of that?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@sloan:
So now a C average is good enough to qualify?
bemused
I think it would have been great fun if someone could have suddenly beamed a hologram of MLK on the stage right in front of Beck with some audio from a MLK speech.
Keith
I’m trying to find a play-by-play to see if I’ve already missed the laying on of the hands.
Cerberus
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh yeah, it is blindingly infuriating. It’s “flames…flames…on the side of my face” levels of pure unadulterated hatred.
There are a lot of tactics by the bigoted or the oppressor classes, but it may actually be the most annoying and vile of said tactics.
Taking the hard work of the people you beat and killed and did everything to slow down and stop including murder, terrorism, and massive demonization and then taking it, trying to claim it as your own, and flip it on its head to sell the exact opposite is some soulless fucking shit and makes me believe that these fuckers couldn’t possibly believe in the potential of there being a Hell nearly as much as they claim to.
Linda Featheringill
@Erlking:
Quote from Dr. King.
Amen.
asdf
Comparing the plight of fat, relatively well off white people who hate paying taxes, even though federal taxes are at a 60 year low, to the plight of the poor black folks I knew when I was a kid growing up in a small town in the Jim Crow south is preposterous.
I’ve got three words for Rick Moran – tar paper shack.
If you weren’t there, you just wouldn’t believe it. A level of poverty existed in this country that rivaled any 3rd world hellhole.
Some of my relatives owned many, many rent houses which were little wooden things you couldn’t even call houses. They were shacks. Tiny places. Just a tiny wooden box. I guess they produced positive cash flow.
When I was a boy back in what Beck & company must dream of as the good old days, black folks who could find work worked for peanuts and many, the men especially, found no work at all. Agriculture had changed even as early as 1960. There was no truck farming, no one grew cotton anymore in my part of the world, no one made syrup, hell, I mean, no one even grew things like corn anymore, not commercially.
OK, I am going to shut up now, I am no historian. But damn it, I was there. I saw this with my own two eyes.
Gosh, those poor, poor teabaggers.
Note: Those little wooden shacks were a world above a real tar paper shack. Ah, the good old days.
And Rick Moran, fuck you, buddy. Fuck you.
Annie
The new civil rights movement. Taking the country back for white, Christian, Patriotic Americans (victims), from Muslims, people of color, and our Kenyan/Indonesian President and his merry band of socialist/Marxists, who are moving this country towards One World Government.
The most depressing thing is how many of those who attended this travesty believe this.
Keith G
Far out.
Linda Featheringill
@morzer:
What a lovely thought.
However, I do believe, as you stated, that we must stand firm. Otherwise, there is no limit to how far evil and stupidity can do.
I really like the thought of their grandchildren being ashamed of them. Even if I don’t live to see that, it warms my being.
Thank you.
Linda
morzer
Incidentally, for what I think is one of the best blog posts ever written about MLK:
http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/remembering-martin-luther-king/
That was MLK in 1968.
Cacti
Quoth Jesus:
“If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
Ruckus
@Yutsano:
So where/how do we change that young don’t give a crap attitude? I’m an old, mostly clueless, white guy with no money. What can I do to help stop young people’s apathy? How do I let the young folk know that some in my generation and the 2 or 3 before it have fucked this country up royally? OK they probably know that. And are trying to continue to. How do we convince them to vote for people who are only less likely to continue to screw them, not actually fix things? How do we remind them that young people (and even some old white ones) is what it took to elect Obama? And that if we don’t find people to elect who are willing to buck the current system and elect them, it will never change.
Linkmeister
That author lost me the moment he used the word “racialist” to describe Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
maus
I would say “may a meteor…” but my mother is there :(
Oh mom :(
I’ve even been to a Beck event (back when he was CNN) with her and it was horrid. There’s no “meet halfway” with Beckkalos, I have to read beck’s racist alt-history books from his book club to discuss politics with her, she won’t read anything of mine.
morzer
@Keith G:
Funny sort of chap that Jesus. For a man against redistribution of wealth, he really didn’t stay on message too well.
New International Version (©1984)
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
You know, I sometimes almost think he might have had some soc i alist tendencies. Might even have been a community organizer.
asiangrrlMN
@asdf: Keep talking. With all this faux history being spread, we need to hear from the people who were actually there and saw the real shit. We need to start making more noise, I believe, in order to show that no matter what, those fucking lunatics are the minority now.
@Cerberus: Yeah. A guy commented awhile back asking why women had such a particular loathing for Palin that we didn’t have, for say, Beck. It’s for this reason. She’s grifting off the back of feminists before her (without whom she would never be where she is now) and claiming a sensibility that is diametrically at odds with her beliefs.
Linkmeister
@Cacti: Or being blown up in a church in Birmingham. Or being a Freedom Rider murdered while trying to register black voters. Or, or, or . . .
morzer
@maus:
Have you had the discussion about whether she really would shoot you as a traitor when the counter-revolution gets going?
PaulW
must read article about the shamelessness of the Beck crowd:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2010/08/28/human-behavior-needs-a-patch/
Comrade Baron Elmo
Courtesy of my man Roy Edroso:
Nice.
valdivia
@CanadaGoose:
yes! this was also true I have to say. But in fairness to WW, their diets do work, some of the time…..
Kirk Spencer
@Davis X. Machina: Not at this time, though the Dems did do this a few decades ago.
The critical difference is who’s driving the bus. Every group’s got zealots. In most groups’ cases there is more than one set of zealots at that.
The potential for a Gideon cycle or purity purge or whatever you want to call it occurs when the zealots gain control of critical positions.
Note the people you’re speaking of aren’t tossing the ones with whom they disagree. Instead they’re stepping out of the way and refusing to support. It might put them in control of the democratic party bus, but not for a few more years.
Right now, though, the zealots are in control of the Republican party. For a number of reasons they’ll be somewhat successful this year, though not as successful as they believe they should. There are several indicators that in response they’ll do poorly in two more years. They will blame it on not being pure enough; on all the traitors and false supporters and ‘those people’. Until the cycle is broken the party will get more extreme and less significant. It’s happened to both parties before. Heck, it’s happened to other parties besides them before. Sometimes the party recovers. Sometime it pretty much disappears — the Whigs being an example.
It’s going to be an interesting couple of years.
Svensker
@sloan:
The weirdest thing is that the school principal is black.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
My theory, admittedly hampered by chromosomal deficiencies, is that women recognize in Palin the sort of person who smiles at the girl in the next cube at the office, and says the most cloying sweet things to her face, while scheming how to fuck her over with the supervisor in the nastiest of ways, just because she was seated nearer to the parking-lot window. But I readily admit I could be wrong.
maus
@morzer: Hahahaah, I’m afraid to talk to her about such things these days because when she closes up and does her teabagger routine I can’t help but react and act snarky and sound like i’m talking-down because I just have no clue how to reach her.
I will however use that line :D
vtr
It strikes the that today’s rally attendees, unlike those who attended the King event, are protesting their “suffering” that is the results of the policies enacted by the politicians they’ve been voting for since 1980.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Oh, I think you are in touch with your feminine side! But, yes. Palin is a Mean Girl, and every girl has dealt with one of those. In addition, it was insulting to watch the Republican thought process. “Oooooh, Hillary Clinton is a woman; we need a woman, too. Any woman! Sarah Palin will do.” As if we’re all interchangeable. This is the same reason for Steele, too.
I have to say, I am very tempted to convert and become a rightwingnutter because there is mad monies to be made across the aisle. I would be the Mata Hari of the left!
@vtr: There you go with that old ‘facts’ nonsense again. Everyone knows that facts have a liberal bias!
valdivia
Beck kept claiming that there were at least 500k+ at the rally today (I had a bet with a fellow journalist that the number given by conservatives would be close to a million). He kept mentioning this was an act of God.
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
It’s also because Palin is a Mean Girl. Women know Mean Girls and do not like them. Men have a lot harder time picking out a Mean Girl, but women grew up with them and can suss them out pretty quickly.
Additionally, Palin has won elections and may run for our highest office. Beck is a rabble rouser, but Palin has shown that she can win elections. And if she gets in office, there’s no limit to the damage she may do. Thus she’s worth more scrutiny and loathing, imho.
PaulW
@Keith G:
So according to that woman, Jesus was all about the
BenjaminsCaesars?Looks like someone needs to read up about The Social Gospel. Or better yet Matthew 6:24. “You cannot serve both God and Money.”
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Oooh. Can I wear the pimp outfit? Pleaaaase!
Cerberus
@asiangrrlMN:
THIS.
When choosing between two people punching you in the face, you’re going to hate the one who also tries to claim that everything you ever worked and struggled for would recognize the goodness and importance of being punched in the face. It’s that extra bit of chutzpah.
General Stuck
I was trying to find some spoof for all of this, but it just isn’t there. The irony is too thick betwixt the MLK usurping white wingnuts with Becks’ tea baggers carrying witchdoctor signs of the first black presnit, and nary a message but vague messianic jingo slogans justifying their airs of superiority. It is a perfect storm of meanness, self parody, more meanness, hypernationalistic gibberish, and pure distilled stoopid.
I bet Hitler has a hard on wherever that fucker ended up.
Cacti
I noticed Glenn has been flogging the hell out of Alveda King (who’s made a lucrative career of being “Martin Luther King’s” niece)…
But where are MLK’s children? Why are none of his three living children at this event to “reclaim the civil rights movement”.
Could it be that they wanted no part of some white carnival barker’s effort to distort their father’s message?
kommrade reproductive vigor
Civil Rights Movement, TeaBagger Style:
Woo! Defend the little guy!
Mark S.
@Keith G:
Jesus said a lot of things, such as:
Every man for himself.
I’ve got mine, fuck off.
Suck it, Peter.
ETA: Jesus may not have said all of those things.
keestadoll
Dere Jebus,
i is one of dem partycipants at that fella glen becks restore sumthin to the USA rallie here in DC and i wanted to prey four all theeze sinners herebouts cuz i dont nowe, maybee its just me but theirs alot of peeple here who just aint playin ball with us and with ure plan to make are cuntry hole agin threw ure savin grace. shit theirs a lot of negows here two butt theyze gotta rite two bee here to cuz there ure chilren two and i aint afrade of em cuz of that no mater how mutch they stair at me or stands two cloose.
anyway jebus i prey four my cuntry and prey four glen beck and that hot peece of ass sarra palen.
thank u,
bob
You Don't Say
@morzer: I don’t think it’s that hard to see. Palin has bitch written all over her, which, ya know, doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the gigantic STUPID sign on her back.
valdivia
@Cacti:
yep Alveda kept talking about the massacres going on in the wombs of women in this country.
There was also a LOT of talk about how marriage is sacred. The hierarchy of forces that make america great according to the rally today: God, the Military & the Family.
morzer
@General Stuck:
Under the concrete of a parade-ground in Magdeburg, before his ashes were flushed down into the sewers. It’s the sort of end a true teabagger would wish for.
maus
Only white people know what true racism is like. The tyranny of the minority.
sloan
@morzer:
The election of Barack Obama is evidence that the change is already happening. Who would have thought that an unknown junior Senator named “Barack Hussein” could defeat America’s most famous war hero and win the Presidency during a time of war?
There’s a great paper by Ruy Teixeira outlining the coming demographic tidal wave about to wipe out GOP. A few key points:
And it’s not as if we have to wait until 2042 for these trends to tip races in states like Texas or Florida. The GOP needs the South to be relevant, and it just won’t be there forever. The GOP needs new voters right now to replace their dying base of old white folks and the Millennials are voting 2:1 for Democrats.
The Republican party is hideously unpopular with the future majority.
Summary here
Full paper here
The whole thing is worth a read if you haven’t seen it yet.
Ruckus
@asdf:
I was stationed at Charleston in the early 70’s and driving around the countryside I could not believe the “houses” that I saw. I was born in Los Angeles, grandmother lived in south central, I worked near south central and I had never seen anything like it. I didn’t know that people lived in shacks, packing crates with maybe tar paper roofs. A friends family went to China to see relatives and for dad to stay as he wanted to be buried back where he was born. When it was time to leave he got on the plane. Asked why, he answered that nothing had changed in 50 fucking years and he was not about to go backwards. What I know now is that a great percentage of the worlds population lives like that.
Why do some people think that if Jim Joe Bob gets ahead, they lose? Why do they see life as a zero sum game? And if you accept that premise why do they want to give everyone else’s share to the people who already have more than enough?
Yutsano
@Violet:
Palin won exactly two elections in Alaska. Alaska has something like a 5-1 male/female ratio. To be a somewhat attractive female in Alaska is a fucking goldmine, because you’re pretty much treated like a goddess because, well, there are so few of you around. Palin would be slightly above average looks in the lower 48, so her looks only cause starbursts in older Republican perverts. So all she has now is the Mean Girl game. And Mean Girls always had packs. So any female supporters she has are in her pack and are there to do her bidding. I’m itching for her to run for President, mostly because there will be a lot of white males sleeping on couches if they dare vote for her and the SO can’t stand Palin.
Nick
@sloan:
That’s nice, but whose to say we’ll still have a democracy by 2042.
I can see a final Republican majority doing all it can to disenfranchise minority and young voters in a final panicked gasp by the dying white majority.
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: Yes. This is all true, too. For whatever unfathomable reason, she is considered a major player on the political scene.
@morzer: Hells yeah. A girl’s got to have some protection.
@Cerberus: Yes yes and can I get an amen? There’s something extra-cruel about having your own ideals ‘shoved down your throat’ to quote the oh-so-popular meme from the right by the very people who tried so fucking hard to stop you from getting your equal rights in the first goddamn place.
You Don’t Say, it’s more than that, though. I’m a bitch–but I’m not a mean one. It’s the vicious streak towards other women that Palin has which is especially irritating.
demo woman
@sloan: There is one reason why I don’t agree with you…The Economy. If the repubs sweep in November and the economy improves in December, they will receive all the credit. People have short term memories.
morzer
@sloan:
Indeed. I know that paper, and it’s part of a set of analyses pointing to the fact that, horrible though our days may be now, this really is the hard-right crazy tendency’s last fandango. We have to stay the course, be strong for each other, and stop the foamers at the mouth from harming others or themselves. Let them rage and roar – we shall come through.
PurpleGirl
@morzer: See, your problem is reading the New International Bible and not the original King James version. You know Jesus spoke English, right? None of this translating from Aramaic or Hebrew or Greek or whatever….
Linda Featheringill
@General Stuck:
Fortunately for us, Beck is not Hitler. He is not charismatic enough. If somebody REALLY attractive comes up among all of that meanness and stupidity, we are in serious trouble.
Cacti
So, when will we hear the first accusation of the “librul media” under-reporting the 5 million people who were actually there?
maus
@Cacti: Before the day is out.
asiangrrlMN
@Cacti: In 5…4…3…2…1….And who is gonna say it? Probably Beck himself.
@Zuzu’s Petals: Halloween: “Our country is frightening, and the monsters are real. We need to take it back!”
Valentine’s Day: “If you’re in love with our country like I am, you will work with me to take it back!” (Ooooh, kinky!)
Zuzu's Petals
Let’s face it. That opportunistic little slug found out what the date of his hatefest coincided with and worked back from there.
“Why yes, it’s providential that we chose that day…because we have inherited MLK’s civil rights mantle!”
If the date had coincided with, let’s say the anniversary of the JFK assassination, it would have been:
“Why yes, we are carrying on JFK’s vision of not asking what your country can do for you …!”
If it was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor:
“Why yes, we are just like the sailors on the Arizona …!”
morzer
@demo woman:
I suspect that they aren’t going to get a bright shiny new economy. Instead, they’ll do their damnedest to cut spending, and most likely will make matters far worse. Besides, do you think they’ll do anything beyond tax cuts for the rich and the corporations? I think you’ll see some mighty disillusioned teabaggers in 2012.
Yutsano
@Ruckus:
It’s the Equivalent Exchange principle:
A lot of people think that in order to let someone else get ahead they have to be put behind. A lot of other people also believe that others are meant to be ahead for any number of factors (race being the most obvious one, but family ties and wealth also) and there must be an underclass. One would think in a fiat currency system such a notion would be ludicrous, as we can make enough money and wealth to advance us all to a rather high standard of living. But A-types always have to win.
Violet
@Yutsano:
Palin’s an odd one. She’s already jettisoned several of her longtime female supporters. She’s got a very small inner circle that keeps getting smaller. She’s got Todd to do her bidding too, though. He’s a bully from way back.
I’m terrified that she might get the nomination, the economy will still be in the tank and she could win. Old white people love her and old white people vote. Scary stuff.
@asiangrrlMN:
That’s the Mean Girl part. A bitch is one thing. Women know how to handle that. A Mean Girl is something else entirely. They’re vicious and will stop and nothing to get what they want, all the while making men love them. She’s a classic example. Horrible, horrible creature.
Chyron HR
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Just because they keep demanding sales taxes on everything doesn’t mean they actually want to PAY them.
BC
I am not a psychologist, but it seems to me that these people missed the historic events in their own lifetimes and are trying to go back and recreate them. Of course, in order for them to play any kind of role, the entire events have to be re-ordered, but that’s how you do sequels.
morzer
@Linda Featheringill:
Well, there’s always Carrie Prejean….
Chad N Freude
I don’t know what’s got all you folks in such a swivet about that piece by Rick Morón. Let me point out a few things:
1. It says “Moderate” right there at the top. How can you be opposed to “Moderate”?
2. The odd-numbered paragraphs are all “On the one hand . . .”, and the even-numbered paragraphs are all “On the other hand . . .”
3. Those of you who bailed before reading the entire piece missed the inexorable logic leading to the conclusion that Beck is the reincarnation of MLK.
BTW, I refuse to look at any of the news coverage or videos of this reconsecration of Dr. King’s legacy, so can anyone tell me (a) if there were any non-white faces in the crowd, and (b) if yes, approximately what percentage.
I really believe that the country in which I was raised has ceased to exist. I’m going to change my name to Philip Nolan.
BDeevDad
Oh come on, the Glenn Beck teabaggers are carrying on the King legacy just like the Minute Men are carrying on Cesar Chavez’s legacy of protecting the migrant workers.
Svensker
@valdivia:
That just creeps me out. But I was reading a Family Circle (or Woman’s Day) at the dentist’s the other day and they had a big story on “patriotism” (which apparently = militarism) and the things most of the surveyed women agreed was important to them was: Family, God, Country/Military. “Community” came far, far down.
We be fascists now.
Yutsano
@morzer: Isn’t Miss Fake Tits done and screwing a washed-up quarterback now?
(I just realized this same epithet could apply to Jessica Simpson…)
Geeno
@Cerberus: Daria was the best cartoon EVAR because of lines like that.
morzer
@Yutsano:
Sure, but think how she was the bright shiny conservative victim poster-girl a few months back, and now no-one cares, except, possibly the Boll-Weevil, and no-one takes him seriously. These media darlings always pass their sell-by date, which is why I am confident that Palin and Beck will ultimately fall.
General Stuck
This ought to hyperventilate the mouthbreather Reichtards.
valdivia
@Cacti:
already happened at the rally. Beck himself said so!
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Or me! I’m telling ya, I can give starbursts a plenty. Plus, with the whole Asian woman fetish thing…AND I have a brain! But, I can hide it so as to not offend. Imagine me going on Beck’s show in a tight little outfit showing off my assets (but covering my tats) and sobbingly renouncing my heathen past? I could make millions. MILLIONS, I tell you. Then, after five years, I would turn around and donate all the monies to Amnesty International, the local American Refugee Committee and the Courage Center (helping victims of torture), plus LGBT organizations. It would be GREAT. And, yes, you can be mah pimp!
@Yutsano: Mariners v. Twins right now (Twins 1-0, top of 8th). Seachickens v. Vikings tonight.
morzer
@Yutsano:
I think Jessica Simpson is done screwing a washed-up quarterback. But perhaps she and Tony have resumed their statistically damaging trysts.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: So how is Joe Mauer breaking my heart now?
BTW the FOX sports announcer sucks. If that’s your regular baseball guy you have my sympathies.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Maybe I should be your fake pastor? Fake pastors and pimps are really pretty similar. Just look at Franklin Graham!
asiangrrlMN
@valdivia: I nailed it!
@Violet: You got it. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and she doesn’t care about the casualties along the way. Truly evil.
Mark S.
@Violet:
What’s the difference between a bitch and a mean girl? I’m honestly curious.
Cacti
@valdivia:
Because anyone knows that MLK would have totally backed up Godly militarism as a pillar of the civil rights movement.
As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.
Or not.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Well, I was down there …
Unless they were tucked away somewhere, there were far fewer brown folks than I’d thought there would be and I didn’t expect to see many.
asdf
Ruckus, me too. Ft. Jackson, 1976.
Liked your story, “nothing had changed in 50 fucking years.”
Things are a little better back in my old hometown. You should see my family. We look like the freaking U.N. That’s a start.
Chad N Freude
@Violet: I am an old white person, and I detest, loathe, and despise Sarah Palin. And I dislike her also. Too. There’s a striking similarity between “old white people” generalizations and “Muslims” generalizations.
(Somewhere there must be a wisecrack about “The Protocols of the Elders of Elders”, but I can’t think of what it might be.)
Nick
@Svensker:
hate to say I told you so…
DKF
The very idea that any of the great social advances in American history were anything but liberal projects against conservative resistance is repellent. Abolition, women’s suffrage, integration, the battle against Jim Crow, gay rights – all of these, and so much more, are liberal achievements. Conservatives fought every one of them tooth and nail. Disgusting.
morzer
@Mark S.:
$12 million, a mansion in Alaska, and a Fox TV show?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Besides being a straight cutie? Your guy just walked Mauer to put two on with one out. Kubel is gonna hit a homer. I feel it!
Um, never mind.
@morzer: YES! You were the one who brought me to Jeebuz! You made a saint out of this sinner! I renounce my bisexual hedonistic ways! Praise the lawd!
demo woman
@morzer: Imagine if you will all the banks and corporations pumping money into the economy after a repub sweep. The money is sitting there so why not. Of course the deficit will be in the hole but hey that was not really important anyway. All of a sudden they will remember that the bond market said it wasn’t important.
Mike in NC
Since they’re both in DC, why hasn’t David Gregory booked Beck and Palin for tomorrow’s “Meet the Press”? It would be an awesome ‘fair and balanced’ comedy routine.
valdivia
@Cacti:
yup yup. It was a militaristic revival meeting. I am still in need of mucho alcohol to get over it. I’m actually meeting a group of BBC people doing a Tea Party doc a little later. Will report about what they have to say too.
I am happy I went to this thing today: scary but important to have seen it.
amorphous
I thought this was a pretty good find by LGF.
gbear
@Chad N Freude:
A commenter on Wonkette was keeping a tally on how many non-white attendees via how many minorities the CNN cameras could find (and you know the cameras were looking for them). The final count via the Wonkette commenter was six people. One of them may have been a caregiver pushing a wheelchair, and the one man I saw in a news clip had a facial expression that said he was ready to start throwing punches.
asdf
Ok, asiangrrlMN,
“I could make millions. MILLIONS,”
That was funny. LOL.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
I wonder…considering he was living with Morneau until last year and seems rather persistent in his bachelorhood. I have similar musings about Grady Sizemore however so take this with a grain of salt.
Guti is up. This will either go very well or will end badly.
EDIT: Like I said…Guti is kinda hit or miss. Good defense and he’s adorable though.
asiangrrlMN
@Mark S.: A bitch is a strong, assertive, independent woman who takes no shit. Most women worth their salt have been called a bitch. A Mean Girl on the other hand, is devious, vicious, hateful, and mean. She will stab you in the back just because she can. Totally different creatures.
As Tina Fey said, “Bitches get things done.”
Chad N Freude
@Cacti: I hate to tell you this, but the Air Force stages an annual Prayer Day, with posters and formal religious services and everything). They also have periodic Family Days.
Linda Featheringill
@morzer:
Carrie Prejean [as a charismatic figure]:
[chuckle] I had to google her to find out who she is. Lovely young woman.
In the 20th Century, the nuts that truly persuaded people to go all out for them were bisexual males.
Also, too:
To be successful, such a person would probably have to get a real, physical pleasure [however subtle] out of dominating people. I suspect the pleasure would be an important part of keeping the fish on the line.
Carrie looks more like the fish than the fisher.
You Don't Say
Has anyone read that book on Beck? I forget the title but the author has been on Rachel, I think. The cover photo is Beck with duct tape on his mouth. I’m interested in reading if the book really exposes him for the charlatan he that he is.
Violet
@Chad N Freude:
When I said that old white people like her and they vote, I didn’t mean that all old white people like her and vote, but if you look at the demographics of who is a Republican and who actually votes, it’s weighted heavily toward the older and whiter demographic. And if you look at who likes Sarah Palin, it’s the same demographic. Plus, older people are more reliable voters, so even if there are fewer older and whiter people around, they’re more likely to vote and therefore what they think carries more weight. That’s what I meant.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
I feel a strange need to lead a large group of sheep in prayer and take up a collection afterwards…. Should we head for Texas and minister to their financial excesses by reducing that distressing condition known as bulging wallet? After that, we can really get going on our Jeebus Loves A Swift Investor national tour.
Dave
Fuck you, Glenn Beck. Fuck you to hell.
morzer
@You Don’t Say:
Commonsense Nonsense – the Alexander Zaitchik book? Quite a bit of it was online in a series of articles.
hilzoy
Claiming MLK’s legacy is pretty hard to take. But claiming some connection with honor is, for me, even harder.
It matters that people — not everyone, but a decent number — have some conception of what honor is. It matters that when Joseph Welch said to Joseph McCarthy, “Have you no decency?”, people knew what he was talking about, and responded accordingly.
Depending on your view of Glenn Beck, he either knowingly preys on people’s fears and actively misleads them, or he gets on national TV and says things without so much as pretending to fact-check them. On either reading, he would be obviously dishonorable in any profession; in one that serves an essential public purpose, it’s much more so. And the idea of him, of all people, talking about restoring honor — it’s like reading that half a million people went to DC to hear Jim Morrison tell them about the importance of sobriety.
As someone who actually does care about honor,this makes me want to start hitting my head against a brick wall.
General Stuck
@Mark S.:
I think a “bitch” talks trash , and mean girls collect souvenirs, or something like that.
morzer
@Linda Featheringill:
She’s a charmer, and then she speaks.
asiangrrlMN
@amorphous: Surprise surprise. Glenn Beck lies like the piece of shit he is.
@asdf: But it’s true. The Republicans love their tokens and pay them well. So, if you see a big Asian woman with tats and long hair do her thang and make a gazillion bucks off the rightwing gullibles, you know it’s probably me.
@Yutsano: It would be irresponsible not to speculate. And this has been a really good pitcher’s duel. Me likey!
Sly
@Keith G:
Clearly a devotee of Supply Side Jesus
Chad N Freude
@Violet: I know that you and I are generally in agreement about everything that goes on in the BJ Hotbed of Subversive unAmerican Commenting, and the demographics are well known, but the generalization always irks me.
Yutsano
@General Stuck: Nope, wifey and Tina Fey pretty much nailed this one. Although I have to admit the many female bosses I liked got shit done without being the slightest bit bitchy. The few who threw their weight around and caused a ton of resentment however…
Mum
@Cacti:
Proof that teabaggers have a cognitively dissonant relationship with the teachings of Jesus, as well as reality.
morzer
@hilzoy:
Hitting Glenn Beck’s head against the wall might be better for all concerned. Well, except the wall.
morzer
@Mum:
The tragedy is, they probably think you’ve just complimented them on being in harmony with said teachings.
asiangrrlMN
@General Stuck: You pretty much nailed it, General!
@morzer: Yes! We all have such a heavy load to bear. Why, I, myself before my conversion used to, *gasp* fornicate! I know! I am so ashamed of myself. I need therapy to help me with this issue. So, if the good brothers and sisters of this church could donate to help save this soul, I would certainly appreciate it. The problem is, men like me more than women in general.
Chad N Freude
@hilzoy:
or keeping your pants zipped while singing before a crowd.
GregB
It would be interesting to go back and find out what most of the rightwingers had to say about Louis Farrakahns’ Million Man March.
Violet
@Mark S.:
Well, I’m not sure there’s an official definition, and there’s probably a lot of overlap, but to me a bitch is a woman who is just generally rude and mean and selfish and can be hurtful. A Mean Girl is a woman who is those things plus is ruthless in getting what she wants no matter who she hurts along the way. She also takes pleasure in hurting or bringing down others.
The main difference to me is the ruthlessness and pleasure a Mean Girl takes in destroying others. And it’ll be done for even the smallest of perceived insults or infractions. Sarah Palin is classic in this regard. The ruined lives and careers she’s left in her wake is impressive for living in such a small community and state.
A lot of people in Alaska are terrified of her. And you can see why. Cross her and she’ll take you down. She’s done it before and she’ll do it again. And she won’t just stop you from doing whatever thing it is you want to do. She’ll destroy your reputation and your career as well. She’s classic Mean Girl.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: When Brandon League is on he’s deadly. When he’s off you can score 8 runs easily.
ICHIRO!! My Japanese guy is better than your Japanese guy. :)
@asiangrrlMN: Sigh. Chone has zero power. Blackburn pitched a monster I gotta give him credit for that. BRING ON THE OLD QUARTERBACK!!
(I was talking about Crazylegs Hasslesack who did you think I meant? :)
EDIT: THIS IS CRAP!! LET BLACKBURN FUCKING FINISH THE DAMN GAME!!
Keith G
@Kirk Spencer:
Maybe. I hope so.
But rational narratives like that leave me uneasy. Hera knows that this current political biennial has not followed the agreed upon narrative.
It takes two. The zealots lack of success will be in large part a function of the amount of dedicated opposition to them that we create.
Right now, the (liberal) Democrats are smirking and shaking their heads. They need to be gathering up their (metaphoric) ammunition.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Oh, no. not my guy at all. Mine rocks!
@hilzoy: The problem is, words no longer have the meaning they once did. Somewhere in the last five years or so, people have started using words as they wish, not bothering to stick to the original meaning or even a reasonable facsimile of the original meaning. Thus, patriotism has come to mean waving the flag and screaming for furriners to go home. Honor means anything but. Lies have become acceptable or are treated as something to be discussed and debated.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Could you add in some drinking, drug use, failure to keep the Sabbath and disregard of the godly principle of female submission to male authority? Most of the congregation will have fornicated, so we need to keep our sin stats ahead of the curve.
Chad N Freude
@GregB: It was a Muslim betrayal of MLK’s legacy. SATSQ.
Linda Featheringill
@hilzoy:
So we are back to Jon Stewart’s evil? or stupid?
lucslawyer
Want to confound a teatard? Ask where they were when Bush was exploding the deficit with the drug plan, two useless wars, and his tax cuts…..
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
Words have always taken on different meanings for different groups. What’s new is that the media no longer pretend to assess the truth or otherwise of what is being said. They just crank out verbal sausage meat for their home constituencies.
Chad N Freude
@Keith G: I’m not sure that anyone is really in control of the Republican party. The party establishment is Zeus, and the Tea Partiers are the kraken. The kraken has been released and may be totally out of control.
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: Huh. To me being called a bitch is a compliment. YMMV.
@Yutsano: We no haz a Japanese guy, silly. But yes. Ichiro is teh yummy.
@morzer: Sure. I can lie. I haz fornicated with wimmenz, too. Oh noez! I can definitely repent not being submissive enough. And, not having the children. That’s gotta be a sin, too. Man, we could really rake in the monies. You and me on Beck!
Violet
@Chad N Freude:
Sorry about that. I’ve been lumped into categories and had assumptions made about me due to things I couldn’t do much about. The assumptions were not correct, even if I belong in that category. It stinks.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
So long as I get to make him weep and publicly repent his drug use and perverted conduct with ritually sanctified virgin goats.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Check out Blackburn, he is PISSED he got pulled. Granted our power guy is up, but jeez I get where he’s coming from. And Russell is gonna come swinging.
@morzer: I’ll let the halal butcher know to get ready for a large order.
Quiddity
The Beck rally was basically a religious event. If you followed the speeches and remarks by attendees and pro-Beck commenters on various blogs, you’ll see that they consider themselves to be superior to the rest of us. They are superior because they (say they) are patriots, God-fearing, and support the military. Beck’s people see themselves as the elect.
morzer
Anyone who wants to read Alexander Zaitchik’s three articles on Glenn Beck’s life can start here:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/21/glenn_beck
They are quite memorable.
quaint irene
Dorothy Parker, who left her entire estate to MLK, would I think, have quite a different take on this ‘rally.’
What’s odd is, despite all the ‘want my country back..defend constitution’ posturing; what’ this seems to be is less politics and more religion.
“Make America a Christian country again, like our founding fathers intended!!”
Do we really need to debunk this for the umpteenth time?
Feels like Beck is trying to re-create some religous revival, like the Great Awakening of the 1800’s.
Wish there was still some vast empty land open to colonization (without any native people, inconviently living there.) so these brave new folks could go and create their ideal country.
And leave the rest of us the hell alone.
asiangrrlMN
@Linda Featheringill: I’m with Team Evil AND Stupid.
@Yutsano: No kidding. But, it’s quintessential Gardy to take him out there. And, fuck you very much with your oblique mention of the old quarterback.
@morzer: Yes. Fuck that shit. Beck has no honor. None. Um, I mean, Prophet Beck speaks the truth in such beautiful, dulcet tones–gah. I have to work on this.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@gbear: Six sounds about right. Maybe 12 if you count they guys selling stuff to the TeaBaggers.
It was NOT a diverse gathering. Which of course makes the claiming of Dr. King’s mantle even more laughtastic.
Beck’s need to masturbate in front of large crowds may have fucked the GOP/TeaBagger movement over in more ways than it will be able to count. I think he succeeded in triggering people’s Yuck reflex.
Chad N Freude
@asiangrrlMN: Your response to morzer triggered a thought (always a dangerous thing for me): If a hot lesbian sex scene was shown to Beck’s audience, would the men be as offended and outraged as the women? Would the men be offended and outraged at all? Would the men want to see the scene replayed so they could be sure their offendedness and outrage were sufficient? Interesting thought experiment there.
jwb
@Ruckus: “OK I’ll give you a large percentage, but not all of us can suck that much.” Yes we can and we do. I would just modify the sentence to the more universal truth: “People suck.” ETA: And if you give them any illusions of power they really suck.
Chad N Freude
@Violet: Did I mention that I’m Jewish? So many categories, so many generalizations.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: I like the way you think. Though, of course, making Beck cry is a pretty low bar.
@Yutsano: I do not blame him at all. He has the best fucking game of his life, and Gardy pulls him like that? Yeah, no.
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Seriously. You had to include the last line? BRAIN BLEACH!
Chad N Freude: I maintain that hawt lesbian sex will always be acceptable on the right. However, the only acceptable gay sex is in the bathrooms of international airports, apparently.
You Don't Say
@morzer: That’s it. Thanks.
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
Interesting. To me it’s not a compliment, although many of the qualities you outlined in your definition are the ones that others may identify in choosing to call a woman a bitch. Strength and assertiveness are not always seen as good qualities in women and if they show too much of those qualities they can be deemed a bitch. But the use of the word bitch is still an attempt to put down the woman, not lift her up.
Yutsano
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
I was just pondering that in my head. Beck basically just held a big evangelical event in DC. That’s about it. I wish I could tell the charity to refuse the money he’s raising (after his and Palin’s skims of course) but they are a good cause and I can’t fault them for taking the cash.
But my bigger point here: most Americans, while religious, aren’t huge God-botherers. 70% say not to build the mosque but 60% say they have the right to build it. That is who we are, we are tolerant and inclusive when push comes to shove. We have to be, it’s what we all were from the beginning. We may fight against change but in the end we roll with it because we are one of only two countries with such unique foundations (the other being Canada). So Glenn Beck laid down a gauntlet and the Teabagger crazy just got even more intense and will turn off the mushy middle even more.
Another stupid question: What happened with the big Pujols speech? Odd that the only Latino speaker at this thing got buried. Did it end up not happening?
Chad N Freude
@asiangrrlMN: I was aiming for hypocrisy there. These people are 11-dimensional Yodaesque hypocrites, and not just about sex.
El Cid
Why are you libruls getting so upset because they’re holding a big AA meeting in DC?
kd bart
Estimated 87K per CBS. Largest crowd on The Mall since Obama’s Inauguration. WOW!!! That was like all of 19 months ago. Have there been any events on The Mall since then? Talk about setting the bar low.
demo woman
I have two questions…. Who the fuck stole my honor? Where did my honor go? Maybe Sarah needs to restore her honor for quitting her public service job but if she stole my honor, she needs to give it back.
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh yeah, hawt lesbian sex is always okay with the right. But didn’t you get the memo? Gay marriage is now okay! Glenn Beck said so. Elisabeth Hasselbeck said so. That must mean that any kind of gay sex is apparently okay, so long as it’s within the bounds of matrimony. Welcome to the marriage shackles, gay people!
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: According to this op-ed in the NY Times Palin is the fault of progressives and the Dems need a Palin of their own. The article is not quite as stupid as all that, but by God those of us on the left often make teabaggers look like geniuses when it comes to framing issues.
morzer
Matt Taibbi has a nice, and unusually restrained blog-post:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/195177/83512
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: No no, you’re right. Others use it as a put-down. I personally take being called a bitch a compliment because it means I am being assertive and effective. I realize that I am odd in my thinking (as usual). Ugh. I forgot that gay marriage is now becoming acceptable all around.
@Chad N Freude: Yep. I know. And I agree. Hypocrisy may as well be their middle name.
@El Cid: You’re funny. Got any of those Ommunis pills? You just may get lucky tonight!
jwb, no. Sorry. Could not do it. I read the title and the first few lines, and I stopped. I don’t want a fucking Palin of my own. Gaaaaah!
Chad N Freude
If the Beckians take back the government that was so unfairly wrested from them by voters, we will be a hypocracy, and President Palin will take the Hypocritic Oath at her inauguration.
You Don't Say
Any 12 year old girl can tell you the difference between a bitch and a mean girl. ;-)
Seriously, girls learn the difference about that age. Every woman can tell you about a girl they grew up with who was so evil and so manipulative that memories of the girl still make her shiver.
Edit: I forgot to add charming. They’re usually charming too.
Violet
@jwb:
If the left got a hawt Latina woman as their Palin, that would definitely help.
Chad N Freude
@Violet: Gay sex is fine as long as they practice abstinence.
Yutsano
@Violet:
Heh. Y’all ain’t getting me to jump into that pool that easily. If I didn’t jump in with the Dawg odds are it ain’t ever gonna happen. Now if Joe Mauer knelt down with a ring maybe…
Truth be told I don’t need the state to define my relationship period.
@morzer: I like his call to action though. Get an advertiser to realize their support for that network hits their bottom line and if one pulls another might follow. Then see what Uncle Rupert does without his precious advertising dollars.
El Cid
@asiangrrlMN: Shit — my new shipment hasn’t arrived!
Linda Featheringill
@Chad N Freude:
So if Sarah Palin and Elizabeth Hasselbeck teamed up and said to any number of men [singly or in mass] “If you will do what I tell you to do, you get to watch us two get it on.”
How many takers would she get?
Especially if she actually kept her word and the news of the glory-of-it-all spread and more guys kept coming in?
[I know the sentence structure isn’t quite right, but maybe this will do . . .. ]
eggbert bear jr.
James Earl Ray was a teabagger……
jwb
@Linda Featheringill: Beck has plenty of charisma, it’s just that he doesn’t choose to channel it as political power. He’s interested primarily in how to maximize his cash flow, not in taking the reins of power. The same is true for Palin.
Chad N Freude
@Violet: I vote for Penelope Cruz.
morzer
@Linda Featheringill:
I personally would pay to be let out of the building. But that’s just me being all bigoted and conservative.
morzer
@Chad N Freude:
This is one of those rare occasions when “Fuck, yeah” seems the appropriate response.
Chad N Freude
@jwb:
Disagree. She lusts for power so she can abandon it after a couple of years and become powerful.
kd bart
@Violet:
Jessica Alba is available.
Violet
@You Don’t Say:
This is so true. It’s hard to explain the difference to a man because they didn’t learn it at a young age. But girls do and women can figure out who’s a Mean Girl pretty quickly. It’s almost intuitive. I figure out Palin within the first 24 hours of her being chosen by McCain as his running mate. You could just see it in the way she spoke and carried herself.
Cat Lady
I’m not that worried about this ridiculous display of shameless overreaching by Beck. It’s disgusting and pathetic, but there’s a whole category of conservative northeastern style Republicans that are just like my in-laws – they definitely lean conservative, but they’re former Catholics who left the Church over birth control and priest hypocrisy. They’re really uncomfortable with the Southern Baptist god botherer wing of the GOP, and Beck’s antics make them very uncomfortable, because they’re educated and distrust the slick evangelical whackadoodles. Beck is a rodeo clown, and that’s what we’re seeing. He’s a hero to let me guess – about 27% of the population. The question is who the Wall Street wing of the party will convince to ride the bucking bronco for 2012.
ms badger
@morzer: No, no. Running Beck into a brick wall at 60 mph would simply damage the wall.
Beck is like The Heeler from Hell, who routinely runs into immovable objects at a brisk pace. Doesn’t phase the HFH and sometimes puts a dent into the object in question.
PS. The HFH is a dear and lovely animal, affectionate and attractive. He’s just dumber than a box of rocks. See also: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog.html.
That’s my dog.
Wannabe Speechwriter
“100 years later the Negro still lives on the island of poverty, surrounded by a vast ocean of materialism!” – Martin Luther King, 47 years ago today…
Chad N Freude
@morzer: The thought of watching Palin in a sex scene is more cleansing than the strongest emetic in the world.
jwb
@Nick: Not fascist yet, but the ingredients are certainly all there just waiting for Our Dear Leader. And quite frankly what’s surprised me is that so far no one has made a real move to assemble them …
Violet
@Chad N Freude:
I agree. Palin isn’t in it just for the money. She also wants the power. She’s a grifter for sure and does nothing that doesn’t benefit her. But she also wants to be able to have her way. She wants power. That’s why she scares me and I don’t want her to win the nomination for the GOP in 2012.
Chad N Freude
@Cat Lady:
That’s why they are only a tiny minority of the contemporary conservative movement.
Keith G
@jwb:
When a rock crashes into a still pond, does it control where the ripples go?
Linda Featheringill
@Violet:
Mean girl Palin:
I agree.
Someone like Elizabeth Warren probably could be a bitch [and likely is at times] but she is not a mean girl.
Elizabeth is assertive and if you don’t treat her with respect, she will beat you over the head with facts until you beg for mercy. [My hero.}
morzer
@Chad N Freude:
From both ends, in fact. I wonder, could we make money from people seeking to detox? All it would take would be one, very short tape, and your system would be cleansed of free radicals for good.
Chad N Freude
@Keith G: How Zen is that? I love it.
Chad N Freude
@morzer: If you get rid of the free radicals, the conservatives will have won.
Cat Lady
@Chad N Freude:
Well, I guess that makes them more like Independents – and there are a lot of them.
morzer
@Violet:
Palin seems to me to have a natural viciousness and delight in causing pain and desecrating what others hold dear. Beck’s nasty and destructive enough, but she would be far worse if she ever got power.
jwb
@kd bart: For something as hyped as this was, 87K is not terribly good.
morzer
@Keith G:
There is no rock.
gelfling545
@valdivia: I hope you have good medical insurance to cover the long course of therapy you will need to put this behind you. You are obviously very tough. I would have had to be removed in a straight jacket.
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: Salma Hayek. WANT!
@Linda Featheringill: Ditto on Elizabeth Warren. Hillary Clinton. Also. And, Sonia Sotomayor.
@El Cid: Well, no nookie for you, then. Unless you don’t need help from A Guy’s Best Friend to go for days on end.
jwb
@asiangrrlMN: I know. Horrible, isn’t it. Like I said, sometimes I think we are our own worst enemies. If those on the left are knowingly choosing to frame the issue this way, really what hope is there. The teabaggers, as stupid as they are, are geniuses by contrast. I think I’m going to go make myself a pitcher of margaritas and enjoy an evening’s worth of oblivion.
morzer
@kd bart:
Dave Neiwert thought 50-70k people.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/snoring-honor-becks-big-rally-just-l
Violet
@ms badger:
Oh my gawd, that is the funniest thing I’ve read in ages. I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks and I couldn’t even see the screen. The drawings are priceless. The cup…omg, the cup. Bwahahahahaha.
Frank
@Nick:
Really? I wonder what King would have thought of Beck calling the first African-American President a racist.
debbie
@ Valdavia:
A couple of hours ago on All Things Considered, Beck was quoted as saying he’d thought it was divine intervention that got him to set up the rally.
The rally wasn’t even mentioned on my local 6pm news. Surprising, considering they think Sherrod’s remarks were merely “misconstrued.”
Yutsano
@Violet: This is exactly why the Old Guard Republicans are afraid of the Tea Party Movement. They are not in control of what will happen with them and the decisions they make, and that threatens their wingnut welfare gravy train. Remember the Old Guard makes a ton of cash on the status quo. So letting these demons loose is going to bite them in the ass, and Sarah Palin will lead that all the way to her own white marbled mansion. Fortunately for us she’s lazy, so she will only work enough to set things in motion then stand back and let the money flow in. So she will eventually burn herself out. It’s just a matter of how much damage she can do in the interim.
gelfling545
@You Don’t Say: And perky. Mean girls are always perky.
jwb
@Chad N Freude: ok, I’ll admit that she might lust for power. But it would take too much work for her to get to the point she could abandon it and thereby obtain absolute power. We’re saved by the fact that she is constitutionally a lazy ass.
asiangrrlMN
@jwb: I don’t think, though, that many liberals will countenance a Sarah Palin of our own. I hope not, otherwise, I will be joining you in permanent inebriation.
@gelfling545: Terribly, terribly, teeth-grindingly perky.
Major Gripe: It’s fucking Taiwan, people! Not Chinese Taipei (watching it on tape), and it’s NOT the flag! Gaaaah!
Chad N Freude
@jwb: Dude, have you forgotten her demi-term as governor?
Jeffro
This was a test run for Beck and Palin, Palin/Beck, whatever.
A test run for what, I’m not exactly sure…but they are just warming up. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the next rally turns into a march up Pennsylvania Avenue.
Or a plea to our military leaders to do the right thing and “restore honor”…
El Cid
@asiangrrlMN: All I need is the right motivation.
morzer
Anyone who needs a chuckle might enjoy this list of Glenn Beck’s predictions for today’s Xanaxathon:
http://mediamatters.org/research/201008260005
Anyone out there seen a conservative under 50? Signs may include permanent marker on the skin, and really bad hair after a night in the back seat of the car.
Church Lady
@sloan: And the year before that, only a black student could run. It switched from year to year and was a policy that had been in place for over 30 years, with a Federal Judge’s approval, in order to make certain that black students, who were in the minority at the time the policy was instituted, would be represented in student government at that school. Now that the school in more fully integrated, and in light of the fact that there are other minorities attending, plus children of mixed race, the policy has been changed to allow any student to run. I think that counts as progress.
Next time, read the whole thing, not just a few sentences.
morzer
Anyone who needs a chuckle might enjoy this list of Glenn Beck’s predictions for today’s Mogadon marathon:
http://mediamatters.org/research/201008260005
Anyone out there seen a conservative under 50? Signs may include permanent marker on the skin, and really bad hair after a night in the back seat of the car
Chad N Freude
@Jeffro:
You mean like the classic Spanish model? The religious friction, class differences, and wealth inequity in pre-Franco Spain were kinda like what we have now.
asiangrrlMN
@El Cid: Well, I am quite certain I can motivate you! Bow-chick-bow-bow!
@asiangrrlMN: Listening to Brent M. slaughter the Taiwanese names is AGONIZING.
jwb
@Chad N Freude: The Alaska governorship was a fluke, and she was hungrier then. Ever since the 2008 campaign, she has been just amazingly undisciplined in every respect except getting money and her Facebook page. Her Facebook page does give me some concern, because whoever is behind it knows exactly what they’re doing. But so far her handlers have not been able to upload the Facebook product into Sarah herself. Until that can be done in a convincing way—and I’m firmly committed to the proposition that she’s too lazy to be able to master it—she’s not a threat to acting on whatever ambitions she might have for power.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Seriously. You and me. We infiltrate the rightwing party; we rake in the monies; we give most of it to lefty charities.
Gee, Brent, why is it the US has won five years in a row? Maybe because Taiwan got kicked out for many years on trumped-up charges because they kept fucking winning? Shit.
funluvn
All that ignorance in one place at one time. I’ll bet the grass they were standing on lost IQ points…
Chad N Freude
@jwb: I’m not so sure. She certainly appeared to relish the fact that she had state agents to execute her Mean Girl agenda, and she might want to repeat the experience on a national level. Of course, she would eventually resign because she was tired of, you know, having to do stuff. One scary possibility is that she is elected President and acts as the puppet of a shadowy cabal, enjoying the perks of office while doing the stuff that her chief of staff, cabinet members, and invisible string-pullers tell her to do. How’s that for paranoid fantasy!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I haven’t read through the whole thread, but in re Palin: I don’t know if she craves power so much as attention and adulation (and money, of course). As long as there’s a spotlight and the howler monkeys are hooting for her, she’s happy. Power, running for and holding office, would be worky-like stuff. With the exception of her personal vendetta against Murkowski, she hasn’t really endorsed anyone or said anything to threaten the establishment. That’s why she endorsed McCain, that and the chance to humiliate him because he needed it. She wants to be on the stage at teh 2012 convention, but not on any ticket.
The Populist
@Gen. Jrod and his Howling Army:
When will the silent, tolerant, moderate majority finally say enough?
The Populist
@morzer:
I see young people who call themselves Cons but they are more like Megan McCain, tolerant of people’s cultures, easygoing and at least a tad bit pragmatic.
Some are sheeple, but most give me hope when the old people finally are told to STFU by this generation, things will improve.
Chad N Freude
@The Populist: Never, because they’re silent. SATSQ.
Mark
@Yutsano@96 – this and a half!
Also, Andrew Sullivan tells us Sarah Palin has great sex appeal because…Well, he doesn’t get it, but he heard some dudes were drooling over her, so she must be hot.
Yutsano
@Chad N Freude: Paranoid fantasy? That’s a nice little summation of the Dubya Administration right there. Georgie Boy just didn’t have the mental focus to run a baseball team much less the country. He could campaign because that was about winning, which is in his talent pool, but actually MANAGING stuff, that is HARD!!
Original Lee
Am having trouble with the linky, will post later if I can, but:
– apparently Palin lifted huge chunks of Obama’s “Change” speech and replaced one word throughout with one other word throughout (take a guess which ones!)
– apparently Beck lifted huge chunks of one of Hitler’s speeches (translated from the original German) and substituted USA for Fatherland, etc.
A neighbor pointed out that the Beckathon is very successfully distracting the MSM from the commemorative MLK events AND the commemorative Katrina events. I am very very irritated.
Chad N Freude
@Yutsano: Partly true, but every once in a while (well, in the second term) he’d stamp his little foot and not do what Cheney wanted. Think Scooter Libby pardon.
The Populist
@Yutsano:
Yes, but the tea party is a walking contradiction in itself. Full of people who talk about repealing parts of the constitution without even a sense of intelligence as to why these amendments exist.
These people are the crowd that thought GW Bush was just fine as Prez. They whine about spending yet ask any of them about their own medicare and social security and they shrug as if they should keep theirs and everybody else should suffer.
It’s a movement to restore something…seems like it’s white entitlement mixed with the idea our country should be promoting nothing but religion and Hee Haw 24/7.
You Don't Say
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought that too, and maybe still do, but my spouse pointed out that her patchwork of endorsements is exactly what Nixon did.
The Populist
@morzer:
I hope we get some verification of this. I posed this estimate on a con board and was shouted down by people who wanted to believe Beck and Fox’s lie of 100s of thousands of people.
The Populist
@Linda Featheringill:
On the male side we have Alan Grayson who is quite good at backing up his viewpoints with facts.
Violet
@jwb:
I agree that Palin is lazy. Sarah Palin doesn’t do work. But she also loves power, so I think those two parts of her will be in conflict and the power-hungry part will win out and she will at least try to run for President.
Then the interesting part begins because she’s not the only person on the right who wants that job. And with much more seasoned professionals like Romney and Huckabee also in the mix, it’ll be interesting to see how she stacks up. However, she’s a huge “star” on the right and that means they can’t beat up on her too hard lest they risk alienating her fans.
She’s also female and it’s unbecoming to beat up on a girl. The Democrats had that same issue with Hillary last time, but Hillary wouldn’t have whined if they did beat up on her. Palin will whine like you wouldn’t believe if it happens to her. And then she’ll lash out in the lowest possible way. Mean girls are masters of manipulation and she’ll manipulate that sort of situation to her advantage like she always has.
Given the current teabagger candidates’ aversion to any media except Fox, it’s likely Palin could get away without having to do any actual press conferences or interviews. She could do a few softball interviews on Fox, then claim the “lamestream media” is so biased she won’t reward them with an interview. It could all be done so skilfully that the average person wouldn’t even notice her refusing to have an actual interview. And the idiotic networks are so afraid of stepping on toes, they’ll refuse to mention it.
So if she can get by with the occasional softball interview, pageant style appearances with canned speeches and no follow-up questions and a big push by Fox, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was able to do somewhat well in the primary process.
It’s obviously Romney’s “turn” but he’s Mormon and the fundies don’t like that. I have no idea if he can win the nomination without them. And they’ll go for Huckabee or Palin.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Cacti:
It is damn amazing isn’t it where all of these Jesus freaks have absolutely no idea about what he preached, absolutely none. It appears that they read the Old Testament, and completely skipped the Jesus episodes as being “just old episodes that we have already seen”. Face+palm.
Keith G
Go to Political Animal. Steve Benen has their number. One of the best bits of commentary of this day.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_08/025426.php
kommrade reproductive vigor
@demo woman: Obama! When he shoved his big black soshulust Mooslim gubbermint down your throat.
But don’t worry sweetheart. For just $500 Dr. Beck’s Honor Restorative will get you on your feet and back to ReaLAMErica again.
Chad N Freude
@The Populist: It is definitely about restoring something, specifically the triumphant years of Ronald Reagan. Peace, prosperity, invisible illegal immigration, much cheaper gas, ever-increasing stock prices . . . The list goes on.
morzer
@The Populist:
Beck was offering some very hokey math that produced an estimate of 500k plus people at the event. Maybe all the fat white dudes blended into each other, because I really couldn’t see that many of them.
Chad N Freude
@Violet: Good analysis.
jwb
@Chad N Freude: If she ever did ascend to the presidency, it would only be as a puppet. But the campaigning she’d actually have to do to win the presidency for real would be very hard work, and personally I just don’t see her doing it. I also don’t see her pulling it off unless she gave herself over completely to handlers. But she is not only lazy; she’s also stubborn and so I don’t see her being willing to do that when she can get on very well indeed not having to work that hard or giving up that autonomy. If her Facebook people could figure out how to run an almost completely virtual campaign—that would change the calculus completely.
Ruckus
@Linda Featheringill:
Evil or stupid?
I say we have both. Beck and Rush are Evilly Stupid.
Cravenly Evil and Stupid works best for me through.
They have nothing, no intellect, no process of governing, no morals, just greed and sociopathic personalities. And a very loud microphone.
jwb
@Yutsano: Except that Sarah proved that she really can’t campaign. That’s why her handlers would have to devise a completely unprecedented campaign strategy to get her through.
Chad N Freude
@morzer: It’s calculated by weight. Every 300 pound body counts as two people.
SiubhanDuinne
I see Rick Moran *still* hasn’t learned how to spell his last name.
Chad N Freude
@jwb: See @Violet for a good counter-argument.
SBJules
@Chad N Freude:
I am an old white woman too, also. I’d say I was a hippy back in the day. My oldest sister was the first in the family to support Obama and the rest of us followed. Her kids remember her watching MLK’s speech with tears streaming & they asked if something was wrong and she said oh no, I’m so happy.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You said exactly what I was thinking. Yes, W. put his foot down a few times during his second term, but it was too little, too late by that point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If the economy picks up, and Obama looks strong, I could see some of the younger GOPers (Pawlenty, Jindal) sitting out ’12 and avoiding a pie fight with Palin (I do think she’ll run, but just as a publicity stunt/fundraising machine), in that event, I guess her nomination is a possibility, if still a longshot in a weak field (Haley Barbour, Huckabee, Romney, John Cornyn, the gov of CT whose name escapes me). I wonder who would agree to be Palin’s veep. I don’t think any of the major players would want to tie themselves to that electoral rock, or play understudy to a nitwit. that Ryan guy maybe,
x
Lily’s littermate? Newton! I thought I was looking at Lily!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/28/897027/-Restoring-Honor-Rally-with-PHOTOS-and-POLL!-(Update)
He’s the last pic in the diary.
Chad N Freude
@SBJules: I say let’s form a liberal Old Farts Party. That’ll show ’em.
ETA Our motto would be “Get your misspelled signs offa my lawn.”
morzer
@jwb:
What if she refused to debate, on the grounds that the media were rigging the game? Refused interviews except on Fox?
kommrade reproductive vigor
@morzer: That sounds about right.
noncarborundum
@sloan:
I haven’t checked all the comments so this may have been said already, but I read an article about this yesterday and the policy isn’t quite as awful as it sounds at first blush. As I understand it, the point is not to keep blacks or other minority group members out of student government, but rather (perhaps paradoxically) to foster diversity by reserving particular offices to particular races in any given year. The racial assignments rotate, so that if last year only a white student could be elected (say) student body president, then this year only a black student can be. Meanwhile maybe the treasurer had to be black last year and must be white this year. Overall, this has the effect of assuring that there is always a mix of black and white students in student government every year.
Obviously there are problems with this approach; among other things, the racial situation is more complicated nowadays than the simple black/white division that the policy assumes, what with more Asian and Hispanic and mixed-race students. In fact the current challenge is, IIRC, from the parents of a mixed-race child who just doesn’t fit the binary categorization.
Elizabelle
Work better than the brains of these people.
George Orwell, phone home.
Violet
@morzer:
That’s what I suggested above. She could do it pretty easily and get away with it, imho.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@jwb: The Kathie Lee goes to South Park strategy.
WereBear (itouch)
@sloan: Thanks so much! Definitely worth the read, the most cheery thing I’ve run across in quite a while.
And it puts neon signs around the Tea Baggers’ complaints. They’re right; it’s not their country anymore.
But it only got taken away because they didn’t take care of it.
morzer
@Elizabelle:
Not totally sure about that. I am betting their gene pool is alarmingly limited!
Chris G.
@Kirk Spencer: I think however well the GOP does this year, it will be a dead cat bounce, not a resurgence. Look at most of their candidates — lunatics (Angle, Paul, Buck) or guys in their 60s and 70s (Blount, Castle).
pika
@Keith G: From an earlier post today, Benen had this gem: “They’re adding their names to the same scroll they tried and failed to destroy.” Assholes. Also: Palin tried to tell her followers that they had the same “still spine” as G. Washington. Can’t pronounce “steel.”
kay
I think this is an old idea out of the conservative/Republican playbook.
I’m a little surprised conservatives are playing the religious card so heavily, but I guess it was inevitable. Conservatives lost in 2008 when they tried it without them. I don’t think they’ll make that mistake again.
I thought for a while there they were going with “libertarian”. They must have looked at the numbers.
PeakVT
The balls on these people.
That’s like saying lemmings have guts because they jump into the sea.
jwb
@Violet: I could see how this scenario might play, but I still don’t find it likely, because for me it comes down to Sarah’s allergy to hard work. It would also be a huge risk for her, because I think she’d end up following Guilliani into third tier wingnuttia if she loses. I also think that she’s shrewd enough to recognize the downside risk. Then there is also her complete lack of discipline, which I think will make Fox-style softball interviews ineffective in the context of a campaign filled with wingnuttery.
jwb
@morzer: I don’t think evasion plays very well in the context of a campaign featuring multiple wingnuts.
birthmarker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This is my take on Madame Palin. She’ll be the useful idiot in 2012, pretending to run, and filling the coffers.
arguingwithsignposts
The fact that this thread gets over 250 comments gives me some small hope for this nation.
jwb
@birthmarker: I’m not even sure she’ll pretend to run. That depends on whether whoever is paying her thinks it helps the cause.
D-Chance.
Looks like C&L couldn’t find enough posters or confederate flags, so they proclaimed it “boring”.
Oh, and
Al Gore’s fatthere were white people present.kay
@arguingwithsignposts:
I think it’s really interesting, politically.
“Something that is beyond man is happening,” Mr. Beck said in opening the event as the crowd thronged near the memorial grounds. “America today begins to turn back to God.”
It was part religious revival, part history lecture, as Mr. Beck invoked the founding fathers and the “black-robed regiment” of pastors of the Revolutionary War and spoke of American exceptionalism.
The crowd was a mix of groups that have come together under the Tea Party umbrella. Some wore T-shirts from the Campaign for Liberty, the libertarian group that came out of the presidential campaign of Representative Ron Paul, while others wore the gear of their local Tea Party group, or of 9/12 groups, which were founded after a special broadcast Mr. Beck did in March 2009.
But the program was distinctly different from most Tea Party rallies. While Tea Party groups have said they want to focus on fiscal conservatism and not risk alienating people by talking about religion or social issues, the rally on Saturday was overtly religious, filled with gospel music and speeches that were more like sermons.
Mr. Beck imbued his remarks on Saturday and at events the night before with references to God and a need for a religious revival. “For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” Mr. Beck said Saturday. “This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished, and the things that we can do tomorrow.”
I suspect there aren’t enough “fiscal conservatives” within the Republican Party to carry the day, particularly because so many of them receive some kind of federal subsidy (Alaska!, Good God, even I was surprised at the extent) , so they’re bringing in the religious fundamentalists.
Same as it ever was, right?
Violet
@jwb:
I guess we’ll just have to see. I completely agree with you about her allergy to hard work and the downside being Giuliani-dom if she fails. But if she doesn’t run, she risks not having her name in the limelight nor being taken as seriously.
She doesn’t have the cred of someone like Newt Gingrich who was a Congressman and Speaker of the House. He perpetually threatens to run for President, but meanwhile churns out books and spends time on political shows. There’s no way she could do what he does due to her inability to hold her own on a political chatfest. And she isn’t disciplined enough to keep churning out books, even with a ghost writer. And book tours forever? She’ll get bored with that. That’s work.
So how can she keep her name in the spotlight? A run for President where she can quit on her own terms (“the Republican party isn’t what it should be”) or some such just might do it. Plus, she’s vain. And if enough people tell her she can win, she might decide to give it a try.
I think ultimately she doesn’t have the determination to keep going and win the nomination, but her ego might make her try. I think it’s a toss up and I’m fascinated, but terrified, to see how it’s going to end.
morzer
@jwb:
I was talking about the presidential run itself, not the primaries. I don’t think too many of the GOP big boys would dare to attack her too directly in their beauty contest.
jwb
@Violet: It’s true that it’s hard to know what will happen when her star begins to fade a little. That would be the moment she would be tempted to run. She does seem perfectly content to let others churn out FB updates and tweets for her, so I don’t see her putting up much of a fuss over others writing books in her name. Really, I’m not yet convinced she craves the attention more than the money, and I’m sure the Masters of Wingnuttia will keep money and attention flowing her direction as long as she poses any sort of threat to their plans.
Yutsano
@jwb:
Considering that this has already happened, I think your analysis is accurate. As long as someone is willing to do the hard work for her, then all is well in her universe.
jwb
@morzer: No, but she’d still have to talk and pretend to engage in the primary even if none of the other candidates went after her directly. Moreover, Gooper primaries are notorious for spreading sleaze behind the scenes, so it’s doubtful that the sliming would be traceable back to any of the other candidates.
I actually think her chances of getting the nomination are far less than her chances of winning the Presidency if she somehow managed to win the nomination (and I don’t think she stands a particularly good chance of winning a general election).
Bella Q
@morzer: His point is a good one though. We really should make a concentrated effort to show sponsors that people are *not happy* with media driven hate-mongering and will vote with their $$. Surely someone will start a social media campaign for that.
gbear
Just because Sarah is ill-suited to campaigning doesn’t mean that the republican convention won’t have enough delegates that are crazy enough to nominate her. If Sarah wants to play that game there are lots of grass roots conservatives who will indulge her.
Svensker
@demo woman:
I asked my wingnut cousin that. He said that we had to get back to the vision our Founding Fathers had and we had to respect ourselves and our country. So I asked him when we lost our honor, before or after January 2009. He hasn’t answered that yet.
Violet
@jwb:
The other factor is her looks. A large part of why she’s where she is is the boner she gave/gives male wingnuts. Her looks have already changed dramatically since 2008, and not for the better. Give it another year or two and it will be interesting to see if she can still get a rise (ahem) out of those same male wingnut types. I’m betting that when she looks more like a grandma than a MILF she won’t be getting the same level of attention. Sarah Palin has always traded on her looks. She has no idea what to do when those fade. She doesn’t have a backup plan because it’s never occurred to her that she might need one.
Throwin Stones
Is our media learning, or is it hard feelings for losing Beck to Fox?
Bob Cesca tweeted during the ‘rally’:
Wow. CNN just outlined Beck’s whole act. “He’s an entertainer… using fear.” They just called it the “wingnut Super Bowl.”
morzer
@Bella Q:
Well, I am in agreement with him and you on that. I was asking the other day on here what we could do to get the good word out nationally.
Svensker
@Keith G:
Very nice.
morzer
@jwb:
I don’t think it would have to be traceable. She’ll just yell victim and let the wingnuts rush to save her delicate sensibilities from the outrage of having to offer some sort of ideas.
constantlurker
today, fortuitously, I experienced the play, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS
at the GUTHIE THEATER in Minneapolis.
it is a remarkable experience. the theater gets at you in such a visceral
way that is hard to ignore what really happened in the 30’s..40’s.
for anyone in Minnesota, please get to this production. it is here until sept 25 and then off to NYC.
ps
I wanted to leave at the beginning….it was just too hard. I stayed and
grateful that I did.
we shall overcome……..damn it!
Josh
@kd bart: Blenn Geck’s rally last year IIRC attracted 70K (Malkin said 2 million); the gay rights rally that same September got about the same attendance but no media attention; ditto a couple of subsequent gay rights marches.
jwb
@morzer: But can she effectively play the victim if she’s playing with other wingnuts? I don’t think she can; or rather I think the terms of victimization are quite different in a Gooper primary than in a general election, and I don’t think her usual strategy of victimization will play in the primary.
Bhall35
@constantlurker: Agreed. We saw Scottsboro Boys at the Vineyard Theater off-Broadway. Genius. May have to see it again when it opens uptown. Hooray for Kander & Ebb!
morzer
One interesting point – according to MotherJones, Foreign Overseas Xtremist News didn’t actually show the Beck snoozefest today. Fear of embarrassment because of content – or low attendance?
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/whats-glenn-beck-afraid
jwb
@morzer: I looked at it a couple of times as it was being streamed at various places on the web (for whatever reason, everyone seemed to be using the NBC/MSNBC feed). But I noticed how they seemed to be systematically avoiding giving any reaction shots of the crowd. After a certain point, I was convinced the crowd would not have look impressive on TV and that was why they were refusing to give that shot.
mslarry
@Cacti: @Cacti:
or being assassinated in your driveway while holding t-shirts that read “jim crow must go”
or being courageous enough to let the world see photos of your 13 year old son after he’d been beaten to death, attached to a cotton gin and thrown into the mississippi river
or being a jew, who’s family members were murdered in the holocaust, but still having the courage to go down south to register blacks to vote
or being 12 and 13 year old black girls innocently playing in a church basement when some racist asshole decides to bomb the place and blow you up
or spending a year walking to and from work because you were protesting an unfair practice that made it mandatory for you to give up your seat to a white passenger if you were seated and the bus was full
or being on the committee of a black church during the montgomery bus boycott that raised money to buy SHOES FOR THOSE WHO WOULD RATHER WALK THAN RIDE BUSSES
i could go on… but I won’t THESE MO’FO’S MAKE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH
And you know what? fuck any so-called progressive, or moderate or human being, for that matter, who stays home in November because Obama hasn’t done enough.
i’m going to bed. assholes.
jwb
@mslarry: “And you know what? fuck any so-called progressive, or moderate or human being, for that matter, who stays home in November because Obama hasn’t done enough.”
This. A thousand times this.
morzer
@jwb:
Fifty thousand large white men sleeping might not have been much of a story….
El Cid
@mslarry: Why do you have to keep bringing up all this ancient history and open these wounds from the civil rights era? Today was about overthrowing the government based on what we think the Founding Fathers did in the Constushun, not a bunch of ancient history and barely healed wounds.
jwb
@morzer: Agreed. But it was just odd. I mean, no regular helicopter shots of the Mall, showing the eleventy billion Patriots(R) where you couldn’t tell that all those people were white or asleep? I mean what producer wouldn’t have called that shot routinely if such a crowd actually existed. In fact, the crowd shot was avoided so systematically, that I’m convinced there were only 1000 people there (that’s inverse wingnut math).
asiangrrlMN
@mslarry: Double-down on your last sentiment. Fuck ’em with a rusty pitchfork.
@constantlurker: Man, that looks good, but it also looks really difficult to watch. I will have to think about it.
GET FAVRE OFF MY TEEVEE! ARRRRGH!
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
How is Ol’ Grey Badger? Is he leading the Horny Boys to glory?
Brachiator
@Violet:
Palin’s possible desire for power is an interesting wild card. She is nurtured and pushed forward by her puppet masters: Rupert Murdoch and a neo-conservative cabal represented by Bill Kristol and Ross Douthat, who may ghostwrite a lot of her stuff and who are trotted out regularly to clean up her gaffes.
But when the presidential primary season rolls around, someone will explain to her that she is not going to be the nominee for president, nor will she be the nominee for vice-president, nor should she look for or expect any role in government at the cabinet level should the Republicans win.
She will be offered a beefed up media role, or perhaps some fancy titled position with the RNC. She will be expected to rally the troops, raise money, and endorse the Republican nominee.
One thing that the GOP has to worry about is whether they will be able to channel or contain the tea party movement after the mid term elections. A strong, unpredictable tea party movement could encourage Palin to go rogue against the GOP.
Otherwise, this supposedly fierce Mamma Grizzly is nothing more than a tired, defanged, exploited animal chained up in a bear baiting pit. She can still do some damage, but doesn’t realize that she is a captive animal who can be easily disposed of by her owners.
morzer
@Brachiator:
Ross Douthat isn’t a leader. He’s just another of the right-wing hacks who have been anointed reasonable conservatives despite their idiotic views. Anyway, he doesn’t have the writing style for Palin’s propaganda missives. Most of his stuff is a mixture of snot and stodge.
Zuzu's Petals
@jwb:
Well, here are some crowd shots, including an overhead view @14.
WaPo
They look just as overwhelmingly white and wingnutty as you’d imagine.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: NOT talking to you! You put Gray Badger and Horny Boys in the same sentence! (And, no. But he loves the game!)
jwb
@Brachiator: I like this analysis, and loved your final paragraph:
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
However, I don’t think Kristol is behind her tweets and Facebook page, which are her most powerful tools right now; they strike me as too smart and deft for the Master of Always Wrong and as a stylist he never does anything but drop lead balloons. I haven’t read Douthat enough to know whether he’s capable of doing it either. But I would be very curious to know who is responsible for Sarah’s Facebook page and Tweets because whoever it is definitely belongs to Team Evil (maybe a Rove protege?).
jwb
@Zuzu’s Petals: But really not very large by the standards of these sorts of things. The 67,000 that was quoted by someone above seems about right.
morzer
@asiangrrlMN:
*chuckles*
I just can’t get over those absurd horns on the helmets.
The Populist
@Chad N Freude:
Sure, according to the airlines that is how tickets are sold to flights!
morzer
@jwb:
My bet would be Matt Continetti. It’s the sort of puerile nastiness which has always been his stock-in-trade, and he did write that ghastly book about the Pseudacious One.
Jim, Once
@Violet:
I’m starting to get a little tired of this kind of thing. I’m an old white person (65), with OWP siblings, friends, co-workers, etc., etc. Of my fairly wide circle of the aforementioned, I know not a single one who loves that bitch. They (and I) loathe her. Do you think Mean Girls didn’t exist in the ‘Forties and ‘Fifties? Do you think we’ve forgotten how lethal they were? We haven’t. And the older we get, the less tolerance we have for stupidity.
morzer
@Jim, Once:
I simply don’t see Palin becoming president in her own right at this point. I’d be more worried about her as VP candidate to a “reasonable” southern undead white male.
jwb
@Jim, Once: And, yet, look at the Mall today: a sea of old and white drinking the kool-aid of stupidity.
jinxtigr
@asiangrrlMN:
If you’re still looking to repent for the wingnuts, here’s what you need to do.
Cry and lament how terribly bad you were- in GREAT DETAIL. Don’t get hung up on cheering about your new life, don’t worry about being consistent- the words to remember are ‘Isn’t it AWFUL?’, it being as many licentious anecdotes you can come up with.
While crying, and overwhelmed with faux shame.
Go light on the gratitude. They don’t want to be happy for you. They don’t give a shit if you’re saved. They just want to hear the dirty stuff you did, and to punish you, so you need to act punished and miserable, and feed them tale after tale of debauchery, through bitter tears of shame. This lets them both fantasize about fucking you, and about punishing you for being bad, at the SAME TIME.
You know I’m not fooling, either. Still want?
:)
Chris G.
@morzer: Who would be insane enough, having watched her go rogue in 2008, to pick her for VP again?
mslarry
@El Cid:
i know the folks on “glenbeckestan” feel this way and i swear i’m sitting here in Venice, CA trying to enjoy a cool summer night, but these fuckers have me stabby! To top it off, I was cruising the net and I could swear I saw “their dear leader” wearing a bullet proof vest under his clothes today. He really does believe his own crap. This shit stain of a man thinks liberals want him dead. My mind is spinning. Unfortunately, there’s not enough white wine in the world to make this crap go down any easier.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: EXCUSE me, but they are the VIKINGS, and Vikings have HORNS! #Reaching for my rusty pitchfork#
@jinxtigr: Yes. I can do all that. The only problem is that I am afraid at one point, I will break out of character and say, “Man, but you people are fucking stupid. How the hell did you make it past puberty?” I have a low tolerance for stupidity. However, if I keep my eye on the prize (mad monies, most of it for lefty charities), I *should* be able to keep my, ah, recalcitrant nature under control while regaling them with my lurid tales of sexual debauchery and the rending of my garments so I can beat upon my naked breast. Damn it. *morzer* get your collar ready. The show must go on.
morzer
I see that Paris Hilton has been arrested for possession of coke. What a perfect way to round off Glenn Beck’s Flying Wingnut Circus.
Brachiator
@jwb:
Thank you very much.
You could be right here. But the question is who ghostwrites Palin’s op-ed pieces and for-pay speeches and her other public utterances. This is one of many obvious stories that the Beltway crowd and other political reporters are either to lazy or too stupid to dig into.
Even if they have not been formally been drafted to write for her, Kristol and Douthat have obviously been drafted to defend Palin in their columns and media appearances.
Gawker once noted Kristol’s role as a Palin flack. Link here (I’ve got a buggy browser) http://gawker.com/5079966/bill-kristol-palin-camp-lackey
And it was Kristol’s Weekly Standard editorial that claimed that Palin was a literary genius who had somehow magically enriched the English language with her ignorant use of the non-word “refudiate.”
People tend to forget that former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully wrote Palin’s vice-presidential acceptance speech (from the September 4, 2008 Time Magazine).
The mythology is that Palin is a plain speakin’, straight shootin’ soccer mom. The reality is that there are conservative players behind her, crafting her image and putting words in her mouth.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Shocked and surprised I am (not).
morzer
@Brachiator:
I stick with Matt Continetti as Palin’s ghostwriter. He’s never been moderate, and he was Kristol’s wingman at the Daily Standard.
jinxtigr
@asiangrrlMN:
That’s okay. They don’t have to be sincere either, just convincing! :D
Off you go then. Starbursts and floggings and shame, oh my!
asiangrrlMN
@jinxtigr: I don’t have to be sincere, but I can’t berate them and flog them–wait a minute. Yes I can. Many of them would get off on that. I’m in the money! I’m in the money!
P.S. I can do convincing. I was a performer in my twenties.
jwb
@Brachiator: Kristol has clearly continued to be one of Palin’s advisors—I don’t doubt that. And from some of the excerpts I heard of the larger speeches she’s done, he could have easily written that stuff, since it’s so dreadful and tone deaf. It’s the tweeting and Facebook updates that have interested me most, because while they are obviously often silly and aggravating, there’s obviously an excellent strategic political mind that’s behind them (and Kristol has neither an excellent nor a strategic political mind). Morzer’s guess of Continetti seems plausible, though I don’t know much about him.
Brachiator
@morzer:
Plausible. Continetti, as associate editor of the Weekly Standard, works for Kristol and would likely be farmed out to work for Palin only with Kristol’s approval. And the Standard, which has rarely, if ever, made a profit was previously owned by Rupert Murdoch, who sold it to Philip Anschutz in 2009. Anschutz, by the way, helped fund the Discovery Institute, “a think tank based in Seattle, Washington that promotes intelligent design and criticizes evolution” (credit to Wikipedia).
But as I note, it’s who is behind Palin is an easy story that Beltway and media reporters don’t dig into.
jwb
@Brachiator: It’s an obvious story to be sure—who’s behind Palin. If it’s a small group, it may in fact not be an easy story (in Washington, however, that seems doubtful). More likely, it’s understood to be a dangerous story where if you report it you could easily end your career. What I find most curious is that even an entity like TPM hasn’t taken the story on: I mean that’s the sort of thing that could really move them to the next level, and yet they don’t do it. You have to ask yourself why. I just don’t think laziness is sufficient as an explanation in this case.
roshan
Yay, one down, many more to go!
Also, something relevant.
roshan
Pics! Pics! Pics! of the all-white party at the Lincoln Memorial.
birthmarker
@jwb: It would be irresponsible not to speculate! You seem knowledgeable. Your thoughts?
chaseyourtail
There’s quite a bit of hand wringing going on over at Kos about the crowd size. It looks like some liberals are wetting their shorts in fear of the Great White Wonder and his throngs of over-the-hill followers.
Also, someone said the Hemp Fest got just as many people…is this true? LMAO if it is.
patrick II
Beck “carrying on” the King legacy and Palin asking union members to “join their common cause” on Balloon Juice’s front page today. Is it Grifter day? Should I send a card to someone?
chaseyourtail
@roshan: Awesome photos! I really want to go to a rally at “the mall” (not one like this, of course) but it’s kind of hard to do seeing as I live in California. Oh well.
birthmarker
@chaseyourtail:
From Wiki
MaryRC
@jwb:
Oh, they’ll never accept 87K for a minute. They’re denying it already. It’s CBS after all, and everyone knows the lamestream media will lie. I’m seeing claims starting at 300,000 and up. It’ll be a million soon.
jwb
@birthmarker: I think the mostly likely scenario is that word is out that if anyone touches this story they are dead to the profession. There’s a very outside chance that no one’s reported it because it’s a very open secret and so everyone thinks there’s no story there. I don’t think this is likely, because if it was in fact an open secret I think somebody like Wonkette would have snarked about it endlessly by now.
jwb
@MaryRC: Yes, I predicted on the first Beck thread of the day that the count will certainly hit eleventy billion before we’re done.
birthmarker
@jwb: But who could it be besides the usual cast of suspects? Norquist, Armey, Rove, Cheney , Madeline…on and on and on…Who would be a surprise?
chaseyourtail
@birthmarker: Thanks…loving it! And so sorry I missed it.
chaseyourtail
@MaryRC: So true. Does anyone know what the Fire Dept. numbers are? I’m so over crowd inflation.
Zuzu's Petals
@kd bart:
Well as I recall, there were a few hundred thousand at the immigration reform rally this spring. Guess how much coverage that got.
Zuzu's Petals
@morzer:
Somebody referred to it as Whitestock.
Yeah, that’s about right.
chaseyourtail
@Zuzu’s Petals: Oh yeah. The immigration rally was all but ignored by the MSM. But Beck is the new savior with his 75k. Ugh, it’s last summer all over again.
Platonicspoof
@Cerberus:
Congrats on your Molly Award from Pharyngula!
@chaseyourtail:
Via memeorandum ,
cbsnews commissioned AirPhotosLive.com to make an estimate.
At peak
wingnutcrowd, 87,000 plus or minus 9,000.Yutsano
@chaseyourtail:
Fixteth.
chaseyourtail
@Yutsano: Bulls-eye!
Yutsano
@chaseyourtail: Balloon Juice is the place where political commentary goes to get perfected. Oh and Tunch. We cannot forget the Tunch.
chaseyourtail
Yutsano: Yeah, this is a great place. I’ve been coming here for a while but just recently decided to start posting comments. It’s the best blog around. I feel like I sneaked into the smart kid’s class when no one was looking. And then there’s Tunch…of course.
Yutsano
@chaseyourtail: This blog covers just about everything under the sun and most importantly isn’t afraid to evolve. Hell I think even ED is starting to settle in, issues with his commenting notwithstanding.
chaseyourtail
@Yutsano: Not sure I know ED. Well anyway, nice chatting with you. Now it’s pillow time. Night.
Platonicspoof
Now with fewer links!
@Cerberus:
Congrats on your Molly award (08/06/10) at Pharyngula!
Platonicspoof
@chaseyourtail:
Via Memeorandum ,
CBS news commissioned
AirPhotosLive.com to make an estimate.
At peak
wingnutcrowd, 87,000 plus or minus 9,000.Have an especially special day WP.
Yutsano
@Platonicspoof: And BTW there are no official Fire Department numbers. Thy stopped after the Million Man March in 1995. They only did one official estimate since: Obama’s inauguration at 1.8 million.