Alright, liberals. Gut your guns and start screaming, or Dave won’t think you are serious.
It’s almost like he thinks FreedomWorks, Americans For Prosperity, Fox News, the entire Republican establishment, all of talk radio, the health insurance industry, and all the others involved didn’t spend months and billions of dollars working up to that hot summer of health care idiocy (KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE!). Because liberals aren’t throwing in their falsies, donning their Don’t Tread on Me fanny packs, and jumping into their Hoveround scooter to go yell at Republicans during Easter recess, I guess you all just don’t care. And in the places you did go out and question them- well, you just weren’t angry enough.
Not sure what is going on, but Weigel’s been churning out a lot of crap lately. Very uncharacteristic.
*** UPDATE ***
Oh, never mind. Steve Benen pointed all this out this morning.
Elia Isquire
I always thought he was overrated, tbh. This doesn’t seem that outside the norm for him. But maybe it’s just Slate by osmosis.
amorphous
Terrible grammar in the title of the post, Mr. Connery-Taft.
Chris
Plus, of course, there’s the fact that most Democrats have jobs and families and lives and so on, while most old people are Republicans with nothing but time on their hands, leaving the crazy ones to go scream at town halls.
flounder
Weigel’s always had a very high variance in the quality of his writing. I pretty much stopped reading him though after he tried to claim with a straight face that the reason the Boehner ordered the U.S. House cafeteria to start packing everything in styrofoam was to reduce the deficit (‘cuz styrofoam saves money yo).
cathyx
Sometimes things are so preposterous that they don’t need a reply. Like the Ryan plan.
srv
How can I attend the Obama protests yesterday and chase republicans around, also, too?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
bulshytt. all libertarians do is churn out crap.
Weigel’s a libertarian.
nuff said.
Here’s what chu do Cole.
/points Weigel and laffs.
YOU NAKED! and your junk is relly, relly, rellyrellyrelly small.
MikeBoyScout
F**k All!
So, unless we dance like idiots this summer for the Broder Village MSM we will be compared unfavorably to the teabaggers?
Because the ignored scale and size of the protests in Madison, WI and global protests against GWB’s Iraqi Freedomfest War were just not as interesting and didn’t have the both sides do it angle, we are Villager circus clowns?
David Weigel, let me quote Dr Paul Krugman to you, cuz you and the also too very serious Jacob Weisberg both deserve to hear it:
schrodinger's cat
He is serving his new corporate masters, after all
You gotta serve somebody…
jl
If the notorious tightwad Cole would spread a little of his Soros money around (and I quote him from his own damn blog: BECAUSE I AM MADE OF MONEY!), I could get on a nice air conditioned bus and go to a town hall, or even a big demonstration in the nation’s Capitol.
Cole has my email, so if he would get on it and send me some menu options for the meals, I would appreciate it. But I like wild salmon, so maybe that is enough info.
Also, we need some event swag and pre printed signs.
Edit: Salmon in butter garlic caper sauce with wild rice, baby lettuces and I hope the wine is decent. Buckwheat pancakes and waffles will do for the breakfasts, unless you have some good clotted cream to go on oatmeal.
Also, if we go to a demonstration in Washington DC, we need some side trips, and a good party (means we eat more than stale pizza).
All this should be in the Soros astroturf organizing guide.
Does Soros know Cole has been feeding all his Bolshevik money to Tunch?
Mark S.
Maybe people aren’t getting that worked up because Ryan’s plan has no chance of passing?
And this was nonsense:
To support the assertion in the parenthetical, he links Ezra, who doesn’t seem to make that claim at all. I don’t remember all the changes the ACA makes to Medicare, but it’s at least a couple fucking worlds apart from what Ryan’s proposing.
Turgidson
The gasbag morons who showed up in summer 09 were scared about things in their own head or told to them by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. And they were intemperate buffoons to begin with, most likely.
Liberals are just disgusted by how much of a cold-hearted clown Paul Ryan is. Harder to get worked up into a rabid froth of fear and anger – even if there are actual, real reasons based on facts and events actually occuring, to be mad.
And like I said in an earlier thread, the media would not cover Dems/liberals shouting down VERY PATRIOTIC GOP OFFICIALS WHO JUST WANT TO REACH OUT TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS with the same amount of deference and interest as they did the teahadists who were rebelling against their illegitimate sockulist oppressors. They’ll just say the liberals are a bunch of DFH’s who should be drummed out of polite society or ignore them all together like with the Iraq run up.
freelancer
I pulled the Eject handle on Weigel’s schtick last summer when he was subbing for Sully. He’s not an honest broker.
John Cole
@amorphous: There. I fixed it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
What’s that sound I hear, coming from the MSM’s Little Shop of Horrors?
Feed Me, Seymour!
You can do it!
Feed me, Seymour
Feed me all night long
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Cause if you feed me, Seymour
I can grow up big and strong.
cathyx
How do you go about blocking certain commenter’s comments again? I see the need to do it.
MikeJ
Dammit. I was so proud of myself for going out of my way to vote for and elect Democrats, now I learn that it means I’m not serious because I don’t have a republican around to scream at.
I suppose I could head over to the 8th and try to pass as a Carnationite.
Fred
Speaking of churing out crap. Still waiting to hear what you have to say about your buddy Greenwald supporting New Mexico libertarian Governor Gary, anti-child labour laws, Johnson for Prez!
MikeJ
@cathyx: On Firefox, install greasemonkey and cleek’s pie filter. On Chrome, install my port of the pie filter (click my name).
cathyx
@MikeJ: Thanks MikeJ.
John Cole
@Fred:
He might as well support Jimmy Johnson, because Gary Johnson has no chance in hell of winning the primary.
But seriously, Glenn is a civil libertarian. Who do you expect him to support in the Republican primaries?
susan
“Alright, liberals. Gut your guns and start screaming…”
Just exactly how does one gut a gun?
Tom
And wasn’t there a video circulating just yesterday of Ryan being booed by his constituents when he spoke of not taxing the rich to reduce the debt? (though, in fairness to those booing, they were rather even-tempered, not acting with “keep the government out of my medicaire” paranoia.
schrodinger's cat
@John Cole: In honor of Friday we can has Tunch pic plz?
kdaug
“What do you hear?
Nothing but the rain, sir.
Then grab your gun, and bring in the cat.
Boom, boom, boom.”
Turgidson
@Tom:
It shows they weren’t “serious” that they booed with some composure. If they were true patriots they would have been yammering about 2nd amendment remedies and calling Ryan’s plan a “Hitler plan” and so forth.
Dilbatt
Dave Weigel is still a Republican at the end of the day. ‘Nuff said.
Fred
@John Cole: Greenwald is worshipped by a lot of progressives including many people here, which is why I am asking.
BGinCHI
Serious = Know Nothing and Be a Dick
I guess we’re not serious that way, bitches.
More grown-ups plz.
Midnight Marauder
Actually, it would appear to be very characteristic of him right now.
Assuming we use your own words as the basis of analysis.
Jim
Weigel is not uniformly horrible, and has his funny and enlightening moments, but he is a good example of the problems with a horserace commentator moving to an ostensibly professional publication. He takes forever to call obvious bullshit bullshit, because what Atrios can say on day 1 needs a week to go through Slate’s “fact-checking” process. So in the meantime Weigel resorts to easy Slatepitches and, in this one, doesn’t bother to explore why the reactions would be different.
This article started with its title and went from there.
Next up on Weigel’s docket:
Why Vouchers Are Better Than Medicare–And Why Your Grandmother Should Write In Paul Ryan for President
mark
I started reading Weigel right after the Journolist controversy. I could never tell why people liked him or why he was supposed to be such a hero – he seemed to traffic in nothing but the most vapid and cliched “establishment” wisdom. Glad to see my hunch was correct and that he is nothing but the colorless hack I thought he was
Paula
@Fred:
HOOCOODANODE.
Seriously, though, Cole ain’t responsible for other people’s bullshit.
Danny
I think Weigel has a little bit of a point in the sense that I miss the sense of urgency within the progressive movement to make this happen. I don’t frequent either Kos or FDL so I can’t vouch for what’s happening over there right now they, but Steve Benen f.e. (god bless his heart) will write something like “I hope the democrats are gonna be on the ball this time [missing call to arms goes here]” (and did in fact write something exactly like that).
From my habit of dropping by RedState from time to time I know that every other post is a call to arms to write someone, turn up somewhere, call in somewhere, donate money, etc etc, IOW organizing.
If you ask me, every blogger that consider themselves part of the progressive movement should be busy right now full stop posting info on when and where your local republican representative will hold a townhall, and suggesting appropriate questions to ask.
Sure, it’s better to have Foxnews, Rush and Kosh brother $ to spend, but let’s not start making up excuses before the battle is lost, shall we? Obama seemed to do pretty well organizing in 08, without any of those…
Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places?
Mojotron
Not that Dave Weigel is the hill I want to die on, but this “I stopped reading [x] when they wrote something that I didn’t agree with which hurt my feelings” thing is overdone. In the past week alone people have explained why they stopped reading TPM, Glenn Greenwald, FDL, Radley Balko, ED Kain, Weigel, and Sullivan, Sullivan, Sullivan. Where do you get news from? Adbusters? Which writers are pure enough for Balloon Juice?
“i stopped reading” & site:balloon-juice.com = 3,850 hits. Yes, I know some of them (like the first link) aren’t pertinent. The point is still valid.
Elia Isquire
Who cares about whether or not Greenwald is wrong about things? He can be good on some issues and bad on others. It is not a necessity in politics that everyone agree on everything all of the time. At least not if you want to, y’know, do anything.
ETA: Yeah — what this person above me said!
DonkeyKong
We are angry….but we’re only on week two of our PX90 exercise system. This system has created Paul Ryan.
We must beat Ryan by becoming him.
By the tenth week we will be able to punch through Ryans budget plan with our HUGE pectorals like Maximilian tore through Tony Perkins in the Black Hole when Perkins found out the crew of the Cygnus had been turned into zombies.
kdaug
@Mojotron: Numbers of hours in the day / limited life-span. Never been to Red-State/LGFB, used to go to Stratfor, browse Sully occasionally. There’s a billion I’ve never heard of. Find your niche.
NobodySpecial
@Fred: That word, ‘worshipped’? It does not mean what you think it means.
Paula
@Danny: That’s because they’re not particularly interested in organizing. Sorry.
FlipYrWhig
This is just Slate-brand contrarianism. “Why the protests against Paul Ryan’s budget plan aren’t protest-y enough — and why this is good news for Republicans.” The whole conceit for the article presumes that people are watching the news and taking note of what they _don’t_ see, which is a bit screwy as a premise to begin with. “I haven’t seen people yelling on the news about it _that_ much, so that Ryan plan must be a good idea”?
Weigel is like Douthat, only without the moral scolding.
FlipYrWhig
@Mojotron:
The shark. He jumped it.
maus
@Fred:
rootedcosmopolitan.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/glenn-greenwald-neither-a-liberal-nor-a-progressive/
It’s disappointing, but he doesn’t *in general* say the same sorts of things that Sullivan does, the sorts that make me want to stab knitting needles in my ears. You seem to think that “we” need to attach ourselves to strong personalities to survive. I can appreciate that Greenwald is around, but when the fuck did any of us agree with him 24/7? He’s always been more libertarian than progressive.
But also, as mentioned previously who the fuck is he supposed to support for the Republican primary? There’s a lot of shit, not a lot of shiny there.
@Mojotron:
There is a sort of critical mass in which you realize that someone’s bullshit outweighs the insight you would otherwise get. Really, though, I just find plenty of them (Sully & Weigel) to be unreliable and not worth concerning myself with. Kain and FDL I disagree with at times, but there’s enough to keep me interested and stimulated. Greenwald, I think this is a bunch of nitpicking. He is most always an ally.
lamh34
@Elia Isquire:
Overrated is right. I never knew who Weigel was other than seeming to me to be a tea party apologist. I began to actually listen and read what he wrote, and my first impression was “unimpressive”.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
OK, now I don’t know what your point is. You call Weigel’s column “crap” but Benen said it was persuasive. So which?
Midnight Marauder
I stopped reading Mojotron when he
Midnight Marauder
I stopped reading Mojotron when he started questioning why I stopped reading people on the internet.
OzoneR
I agree with Dave. Loud gets attention and that moves the idiot low information voters of the country. If we want them to think we’re serious, we got to let them know we’re here and we’re loud, powerful, and dedicated.
Shut down roads, chase caravans of Republican senators, greet them at airports, make the news.
As it is the low infos don’t think we exist, why would politicians?
WaterGirl
@amorphous: A favorite little joke I heard years ago…
Some professor from the midwest is visiting Harvard, and he stops someone and asks “Do you know where the library is at?”
The Harvard guys replies “Here are Harvard, we don’t end sentences with a preposition.”
So the first guy says, “Okay. Can you tell me where the library’s at, asshole?”
BGinCHI
@OzoneR: This is an excellent way to run a prison or a kindergarten.
Elia Isquire
@lamh34: His twitter feed is not helpful towards any pretensions he might have of coming off as more than a giggling, smug, snarking pseudohipster.
Which is fine since I’m pretty much a giggling, smug, snarking pseudohipster, but I don’t have such pretensions…
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Tell em it’s right next to Morrow Plots!
FlipYrWhig
@Elia Isquire: But he’s SO unhip. On TV he’s nervous and twitchy. (FWIW, I’m sure I would be too.)
Jewish Steel
Ha! I stopped reading Midnight Marauder when he stopped reading Mojotron when he started…
sukabi
@OzoneR: wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference how LOUD the left gets… won’t be covered because it goes against what the wealthy assholes have decided is “best” for
the countrytheir balance sheets.see anti-war protests circa 2002-4, Madison WI coverage in the NY Times vs coverage of Teaparty nonsense, ect.
Arundel
I used to think Weigel was all right. But the Journolist controversy seemed to spook him, like a puppy being swatted with a rolled-up newspaper for misbehaving. Ever since, he’s all Beltway CW and erring on the side of DFH kicking when applicable.
So I understand people who say they scratched him off their reading list. And I don’t know why people snipe about that, as if we have to continue reading writers who suddenly get re-enthused about scorning progressives, change their tune because they someday want to be Bobo. Screw that noise. Weigel was never a terribly good writer to begin with.
OzoneR
@sukabi:
you have to be too loud, too disruptive, too numerous to ignore, loud, more disruptive and more numerous still and if they still don’t pay attention to you, you get in their cameras and their microphones. You MAKE them pay attention to you.
OzoneR
@BGinCHI:
Yes it is, welcome to America, just slightly better than a prison or a kindergarten…maybe
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: That’ll get them wondering! My office at the UI was in Mumford Hall, right across the street from the Morrow Plots!
Did you know they built a new building right next to the Morrow Plots (several years ago) and ended up having to build most of the building under ground so it wouldn’t mess with the light?
Fred
@Paula: Cole worships Greenwald. So I think he should explain how a self described progressive can worship another self described progressive that pops a boner over a libertarian with radical view.
As H Thompson said “When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro”
Lolis
@John Cole:
The NM governor said America proved it was colorblind by electing Obama. He seemed to think this proved racism was a thing of the past. Video available at Obama Diaries.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: That’s why the library is the Underground Library! Remember, I was born in Mercy Hospital, lived next to the stadium as an infant in what was called “Stadium Terrace”, WWII vets housing, and spent 18 years haunting the De Luxe and Chins!
fhtagn
How does “gutting” a gun help? Does it make the NRA foam at the mouth and roll on the floor?
MikeJ
@Fred: Fred worships $10 rocks.
Fred
@MikeJ: If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.
MikeJ
@Elia Isquire: It just shows how pitiful our media is if Weigel is considered good or smart because one time he wrote something that teabaggers were unhappy about.
jwb
@MikeJ: I’m still waiting to hear what Fred has to say about all those $10 rocks endorsing Michele “batshit crazy” Bachmann.
Paula
@Fred:
Well, suffice it to say I don’t remember GG ever calling himself a “progressive” — mostly because he’s not. People who think he’s some kind of pro-left ally are mistaken.
MikeJ
@Fred: I’ve seen this algorithm, just post random strings from googling.
I rate this troll replicable in one line of perl.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: I never questioned why the library was the underground library. How funny! I knew you lived here a long time but I didn’t realize you were born here.
In all the times we have talked about the places we both hung out, trying to find the overlap, I don’t think you ever mentioned the Deluxe. I wonder if that was it. That and Todd and John’s. I even got food poisoning at the Deluxe, and still went back!
jwb
@MikeJ: And you’ve already written it, no doubt.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Here’s some of the old crew at the De Luxe
There is actually a pretty good Facebook “You Know You Grew Up in Champaign Urbana if you Remember” and “Rest Home for Retired Boneyard Navigators” pages with lot’s of pics.
Mark S.
I don’t get the $10 rock reference.
John Cole
@Fred: I don’t worship anyone.
Svensker
@Fred:
Agreeing with a lot of what Greenwald says and being grateful that he’s out there saying it is not the same thing as “worshiping” him. Some weird projection stuff you got going on there.
stuckinred
@John Cole: Tunch?
BGK
@WaterGirl:
Since it’s Oskee-Wow-Wow old home week…
During the two years I lived at P.A.R., I walked or biked past Mumford Hall twice a day. One windy day, I wiped out on my bike on the path which wound back through those ag buildings and ended up getting pinned against one of the steam tunnel vents. I couldn’t manage to figure out how to extricate myself. I was aided by two painters who came running over from where they were working and got me untangled.
Had I been a good Randian superman, I would’ve properly denounced their unionist second-handing and “created” myself a solution. Or something.
BGK
@stuckinred:
And here I thought George Chin did all the necessary haunting of that joint…
Midnight Marauder
@John Cole:
“Ahem.” — Tunch
Uloborus
@Fred:
I can’t stand Greenwald, but I think you’re being creepy and OCD.
stuckinred
@BGK: My first gig out of the Amry was in the kitchen at FAR. We had this training thing and there were all kinds of dudes displaying weird behavior. One guy kept walking around, taking a picture out of his pocket, giggling and putting it back. It turned out they were from the psych ward at the Danville VA Hospital!
Not everyone knows that the “trade” shops at the U of I are union and they have a contract that, even if the union strikes, they get to keep working.
stuckinred
@BGK: George on the 4th of July, Sonnacbitch, money talk and bullshit walk!
WaterGirl
@BGK: I am a bad person for laughing out loud at the picture of you being pinned against one of the steam tunnel vents. I apologize. it was probably quite upsetting at the time. Those vents were hot!
I was just writing about some UI painters today, too. It’s my niece’s birthday today and I had to recount how my dorm room (ISR) was being painted when I got the phone call on the day she was born, and none of my friends were around so I shared my exciting news with the guys who were painting my room. They were very kind and asked all the right questions. Sounds like they were good to you, too. Who could have known that the painters were involved in everything that ever happened at the UI?
Now, my windy day story was a couple of years later, when I was walking by the big window at the Esquire in Champaign, wearing a dress, and a big wind came up. It’s still prime time so i think I’m not allowed to tell the whole story. Edit: since we now know the painters were part of everything, there must have been painters inside the bar.
Bizono
@freelancer: Agreed. He’s also a condescending prick towards most liberals. Stopped following Weigel’s Twitter feed a few months ago and my blood pressure is doing much better.
Lawnguylander
@maus:
Nobody. But if the Out reporter represented his views accurately then he wasn’t talking about about the primary:
He’s hoping for a Gary Johnson/Russ Feingold ticket, presumably as a third party run. That’s pretty fucking stupid.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: I worked food service at ISR. You never worked there, did you? I met the best people working food service. Seriously.
Edit: Meant to say in response to your earlier post that it was great to see the photo of the deluxe. My parents owned a tavern while I was growing up, and I always felt that if you combined the Deluxe with the Embassy in Urbana, that you get the bar that was like home to me growing up. Nice memories.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: The Snakepit! I played ball with Joe in the very old days and Bob and Pedro are old friends. I was surprised when after Scottie died (from booze) they not only put a plaque on his stool but made a refrigerator magnet for all his pals!
Martin
Right. The left took over Madison for a month and it barely got coverage. Louder won’t mean shit.
Elia Isquire
@FlipYrWhig: the power of twitter, man. the powah of twitter.
OzoneR
@Lawnguylander:
Johnsom/Feingold, six year olds will have to work, but at least we won’t be wiretapping their phones…maybe
JonF
Dave must have applied to Reason again for a regular gig.
OzoneR
@Martin:
well there needs to be something, cause whatever is happening now is not working
BGK
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know how I managed to wipe out as badly as I did to end up pinned between by bike and that concrete vent, and yet walk away with just a scrape on my arm and a tear in my pants’ knee.
I have another painter story, though this one doesn’t involve injury. I had one materials science course in the Mechanical Engineering Bldg. The ground/lower floor was below sidewalk level, and the men’s room had clear glass windows because it was practically impossible to see in from the street. I walk in there one morning, and just on the other side of the glass are two lady painters, working on scaffolding on the building trim. We stare at one another for a few seconds, and then we all started laughing. I left and found alternate facilities.
When leaving class an hour later and going by the same men’s room, there was a hand-lettered sign taped to the door: RESTROOM CLOSED – PAINTERS WORKING OUTSIDE WINDOW.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: You have such an amazing memory! I never heard the snakepit reference, and those names must have been from before my time. You’re talking about the Esquire, I take it? Though I believe the other owner of the Embassy also died, maybe from drinking too much, that must be pretty common with bar owners.
Mark S.
@Lawnguylander:
Well I’m hoping for a Rachel Maddow/Charles Barkley ticket, but that probably won’t happen and I’ll vote for Obama.
BGK
@stuckinred:
Good God, was George Chin ever not a walking skeleton?
My last time at Chin’s was when one of my roommates’ then-girlfriend was a waitress there, and George had been getting grabby. She wanted some polite thuggery to encourage George to keep his hands to himself. I can’t say for certain the sounds the drunk and probably senile George was emitting were in any known language. We got bombed on Long Island Iced Teas, she ended up quitting, and we stiffed them on a very large tab.
Oh, to be young and stupid again.
WaterGirl
@BGK: What a great story! Hopefully you weren’t indisposed when you spotted the painters, though that might make a better story. Loved the hand-lettered sign.
I actually had the same experience with painters and the bathroom in the basement of Mumford, with an open window in the summer. Lots of laughter then, too, but no x-rating because they were in line of sight when I walked into the bathroom. I believe I was the creator of the hand-painted sign that time.
Edit: bike accidents are weird like that.
MikeJ
@OzoneR:
Obviously, since Ryan’s “plan”is now law and it is not that case that everybody is laughing at it.
WaterGirl
@BGK: @stuckinred: I had forgotten all about George Chin. Man, there were a lot of stories about George. Eddie was his son, right?
Oh, and I completely second the “oh, to be young and stupid again”.
Paula
@Mark S.:
Wasn’t Barkley actually thinking about running in either AZ or his native Alabama?
Fuck Obama, Charles Barkley can schmooze the hell outta everybody, but I hope he gets his health under control first. Two years ago his doctor warned him about being “one Happy Meal away from diabetes” …
FlipYrWhig
@Lawnguylander: Sure, Johnson/Feingold, makes perfect sense. They agree on some of the things Greenwald cares about, and have nothing in common about ANY OTHER FUCKING ISSUE. It’s like someone wishing for a Mitch Daniels/Keith Ellison ticket because of the message it would send to the Arab/Muslim world.
parsimon
@Shoemaker-Levy 9:
I had to reread the Benen post, which I’d read earlier today, to see. I assume John is looking at Benen’s remarks to the effect that the Republicans had an extensive and well-financed set of organizations in place to orchestrate and fuel both astro-turf and legitimate Republican shouting at townhalls. Democrats (apparently) do not.
Weigel makes the completely fair point that Democrats might want to get something similar going; I don’t fault him for mentioning it.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Scottie owned the Leather Shop. Joe, Bob and Pedro owned the Esquire which some of us called the Snakepit. The Esquire was, in many ways. and extension of Chins. If you look at the pictures on the Boneyard page you’ll see shots of the crew in the Bamboo Lounge. Chins was a great gathering place for all kinds of nefarious characters. I spent many a friday night dispensing red leb to the citizens! Do you know about Vincent the Coat Freak? He hung there quite a bit and we amused ourselves watching him talk unknowing patrons into letting him try on their coats and watching him. . .uh, enjoy it. Art Sinsabugh and Frank Gallo the artists hung out there as did many lefties.
“In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafe,s at night
And revolution in the air”
sukabi
@OzoneR: the only way the left gets coverage is if it occupies all the new network and cable offices as well as doing a nationwide work strike… in other words a full on shut down of all things corporate.
and that’s not likely to happen.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Eddie and George Junior. George Junior was a really good HS quarterback and, if memory serves, had one lung. Their mother owned Moy’s Tea Garden in downtown Champaign long before there was a Greater Downtown Food and Beverage. George was a crazy gambler, he used to drive to Chicago to play Mah Jong but he kept getting in wrecks. He built a house in West Champaign that had a crazy room built on top that had a spiral staircase so only one person at a time could get up. That kept the cops from being able to raid it.
Uloborus
@MikeJ:
…I’m guessing this is snark, since Ryan’s plan is not law and has no chance of becoming law?
Sometimes it’s hard to tell around here.
stuckinred
@BGK: I left in 84 and went back often for a few years but saw George less and less. I’m not surprised he went down hill, the amount of booze he consumed was insane. In the early 80’s some of the local brothers were starting to cause shit in campustown. George sent up to Chicago for this big ass odd-job dude named Yi and just put him at the door. That shit ended then and there.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: The leather shop. Right! I remember him, just not his name. I also liked Dan’s hat shop that was in that neighborhood, too. Always took my dad there when he was in town and needed a new hat or just wanted to look around.
You have had quite the full life!
Nope, don’t remember the coat freak. Sounds a bit icky, though, from reading between the lines. Do you remember the Birthday Freak?
I can only see the one page you linked to because i don’t have a facebook login. Every time I think about doing facebook there’s a new horror story about the lack of security and I decide not to do it…
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Me at quad day
‘
Did you click on the Vincent link? They made a movie about him, he stands on a bridge on the Chicago River in wild suits and dances for the tour boats. I’m happy that he is happy.
Fuzz
Someone probably mentioned this already, but no tea partier mocking is really complete without talking about those guys that dress up like George Washington and other colonials. Because taking up arms against what was at that point the most powerful nation in the world with the most professional army in the world is the same as playing dress up and holding a sign about health care.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: Sounds like you ran with a wilder crowd than I did. :-)
How do you remember these names? I remember Moy’s Tea Garden, but wouldn’t have been able to come up with the name to save my life. There was House of Chin, and then Eddie Chin’s in campustown, right? That’s the one where I saw people snorting coke (or so I assumed) right in plain view in the restaurant.
Southern Beale
Hah!
I actually needeld Weigel on the TwitterTubes about this. Told him for his next story he can write about how liberals didn’t protest the Iraq War or warn anyone about global warming.
Sheesh.
I was firing one off after the other and he Tweeted at me to “go slower, I’m writing these down …”
But seriously, angry town halls? What the hell was going on in Wisconsin and Ohio and all that? Granted it wasn’t the Ryan budget people were protesting but Christ on a cracker did he not get the memo that the Tea Party was astroturf and all those Town Brawls were organized by right wing, GOP-affiliated organizations? Hellooooo!!!
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: The House of Chin became Eddie’s and then I think George Chin’s Wok and Roll Cafe. I remember this stuff because it was a vital part of my life. I came home when I was a bit under 20 and left when I was in my late 30’s. I got hammered by some douchebag here for “reminiscing about protesting”. Well fuck it, we were a tribe did shit that mattered to us. Strawberry Fields, Earthworks, the Record Service were all collectives that we created from nothing. Did it last? I guess not Did drugs and alcohol kills some of us? Yes. Did we stop the war? Maybe not but we sure as fuck tried. I remember it because it mattered to me.
ETA, it’s really nice to run across people on the tubes that have some relationship to that time and place.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: I did click on the link for Vincent. I’m happy whenever anyone is happy, but I don’t recognize him. Was the movie good? If they made a movie about him, maybe he wasn’t creepy in the way it sounded when you talked about him trying on coats.
I am certain now that the birthday freak must have been autistic. He would meet you once, ask you your birthday, and then every time he saw you he would call out your birthday: date, month and year.
The photos where you have your hair pulled back are the ones i am most familiar with, especially the softball team photos. So either I knew you from the sports setting or I knew you at the time you usually wore your hair pulled back. (I will figure this out one day!)
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@parsimon:
I sort of see it your way, that Weigel makes a good point about lefties stepping up their game. I also see John’s point that turning it into a repeat of the August ’09 freak show would be distasteful. What I’m not getting is where John exactly stands on these two questions, since he seems to be both endorsing and slamming Weigel’s column.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: We just all came across the Vincent vid so I have just seen the trailer. It WAS creepy. I didn’t know the birthday guy, sounds good. What about Igor or the Swami?
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: What’s wrong with reminiscing about protesting?? Talking to you is like dusting off cobwebs in my brain. I had forgotten all about Earthworks. I know you were part of record service, were you part of strawberry fields and earthworks? Or were you just talking about those things happening? Those times and even those places had a big impact on me, but still I don’t remember all the details you do. I wonder if it has anything to do with having been in the service? If you get out of there alive and intact, it seems like that would encourage you to live every day to the fullest.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
Say….did anyone have Weigel for their first-to-be-mainstreaming birtherism pick?
Because Ellis says its him.
Birther Issue Goes Mainstream
Darn.
I was pulling for Bobo.
/sadface
sherifffruitfly
“Weigel’s been churning out a lot of crap lately. Very uncharacteristic”
I assume it’s the journo-cocktail-party thing. He hangs out with the Hamwald firebaggers and shit like that, and they all mutually support each other into thinking they’re “the base”, and lo and behold the story comes out that “the base” hates Obama, that Democrats are disconnected from “the base”, and all the usual shit.
And the cycle continues.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@stuckinred: I love the fb photo set. I wasn’t there. But then again, I was.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: With that glowing recommendation, I think I’ll skip the trailer and the movie. :-) And that’s a negatory on Igor and the Swami.
OzoneR
@Southern Beale:
Actually, I would argue that the protests against the Iraq War did eventually turn the tide against it.
Sometimes you lose in the short term even when you stand up en masse. The French shut down Paris last year to protest raising the retirement age, but they did it anyway, but they’re still fighting and Sarkozy will be sorry next year.
stuckinred
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Dang, linky no workee but I think I get it!
OzoneR
@MikeJ:
You don’t wait for the snake to bite before you get out of the pit.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
“Reform” Birtherism.
lawl.
The Wingularity is Near.
John Cole
@Shoemaker-Levy 9: My point is it is:
A.) Absurd to compare the two, when one was after months of agitation, millions spent on advertising, and an entire network dedicated to the defeat of the bill and this is something that happened a few weeks ago and has zero chance of passing.
B.) That even though people showed up and protested, Dave seems to think they are not “angry enough.” That is some Goldilocks bullshit if I have ever seen it. What would be angry enough?
C.) That Steve Benen covered most of the same points about the networks, the FreedomWorks, etc. I disagree that I found the Weigel piece persuasive, but I do agree that Democrats will need to be fired up in the actual election- 18 months from now.
WaterGirl
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I can’t get to your link, so I don’t know what you mean. But I looked at the photo set and kept thinking that I have photos that look identical, even if the faces were different, so I wonder if that’s what you meant.
(At first I could only see the one picture at stuckinred’s link, and then got the “you have to be logged in” message. but then I figured out I could just click next again and it would still work.)
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Strawberry Fields and Earthworks were started with a the proceeds from 5 cent a record “community” tax. We also bailed people out of jail with funds from that tax.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Strawberry Fields and Earthworks were started with the proceeds from 5 cent a record “community” tax. We also bailed people out of jail with funds from that tax.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@stuckinred: Yeah. 20 years later, 45 miles west, different faces and names, same scene. Weird.
stuckinred
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty trapped
countless fire and flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
Our hippie softball team was the High and Mighty
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: How cool is that. That makes me smile. I did know that a million years ago but had forgotten. Strawberry Fields is so commercial now that it’s hard to remember where it all came from. You might like the Common Ground Food Coop that we have now. That era had a lot to do with the person I turned out to be.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@WaterGirl: Huh. Maybe you have to part of the group?
It’s the Gallery in Normal group:
facebook.com/group.php?gid=5378714706&v=photos&so=375
Yes! Exactly. See above.
WaterGirl
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Still can’t get to it, and it sounds like stuckinred can’t either. But the point is clear now, even if we can’t see the photos.
45 miles west… bloomington? (I have a terrible sense of direction!)
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: The Original Strawberry Fields, click back to see Scottie at TLS.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@WaterGirl: Yup. Bloomie. C-U’s knucklehead cousin.
stuckinred
Gotta rack, peace ya’ll.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: Me, too, just want to say I am looking at the “you know you grew up in CU” photo set. It’s amazing. My eyes teared up seeing the old strawberry fields. Goodnight stuckinred
Edit: I posted this comment before I saw your link to this and the leather shop above. yeah, it was good to see scotty and the leather shop, too. Still looking at photos.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: Tangled up in Blue? I’m too lazy to look it up. Truth is I’m kinda sick, and too tired. But I heard that song when I read those lines. Thank you.
WaterGirl
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I went to a helluva halloween party in bloomington one year. Stayed all night and drove home in the morning.
Comrade DougJ
Great first line.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Comrade DougJ: You do any songwriting, Comrade DougJ? Or can i just hand that line off to the hot guitar player crush (of the ucon- variety) of my youth, with whom I’m pals 30 years later to work into a tune? He’s also got a 1st edition of Atlas Shrugged that I told him is probably worth $ to someone. He’d love to sell it and donate the money to a cause that would make its author shriek with rage. Heh.
Southern Beale
And speaking of astroturfed town halls:
Wall Street Front Group Loading Up Conservative Activists With Soft Ball Questions For GOP Town Halls
It’s from Weigel’s story, so perhaps he just buried the lead.
CJ
And I’m tired of the official space between never and mind.
Nellcote
I use Weigel as a teabagger whisperer.
Dennis SGMM
@MikeJ:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really like Chrome but I was missing the pie filter.
WaterGirl
@Dennis SGMM: Now we need a simplified process for Safari. :-)
patroclus
I think Weigel’s analysis is bracing and moves the debate onto more earnest grounds.
Anne Laurie
@Arundel:
Yeah, well, some might remember that he LOST HIS JOB over that Wingnut-Wurlitzer-orchestrated nontroversy. He was, IIRC, ‘encouraged’ to quit being a blogger at the WaPo (like it or not, one of the top Very Serious Papers). When that proved sufficient to quiet the complaints of a lot of noisemakers who’d never read his stuff before being notified of the mandatory Ten Minutes’ Hate by Drudge and WND, he was ‘reassigned’ to blog at Slate… which is owned by the WaPo, but generally considered a much less prestigious gig.
Back when he was reporting for the Washington Independent, Weigel was (to my recollection) the first mainstream media reporter to cover the Birfers, back in 2007. I sort of agree that he’s been a little gun-shy since switching over to Slate, but I still find him worth reading every day.
Dan
maybe this has already been said above but in addition to the reason john cole raised the other main reason there’s not an uproar like there supposedly was with health care is because it was immediately clear ryan’s budget was a non-starter. it’s unfortunate but the republicans might get a bit of a free pass for voting for a budget plan that is so awful BECAUSE it never had a chance of becoming law.