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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / Friedman makes the people come together

Friedman makes the people come together

by DougJ|  July 27, 20117:15 pm| 119 Comments

This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute

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A few months ago, a conservative reader emailed me to say that, even though he didn’t agree with Balloon-Juice politically, he really liked my Stones lyrics title posts, that they were a nice relief from the constant partisan rancor of the intertubes (he put it more eloquently than that, he was a good writer). That made me feel good and it made me wonder about what other types of stuff you can do on a political blog that can bring people together. Reading this CJR piece made me realize, it’s been right in front of my eyes for years: mocking Tom Friedman is something everyone of any non-Chinese political stripe can enjoy. Here’s Volokh conspiracy excoriating Friedman for gushing over China with only the caveat “One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks.”

Here’s Jamelle Bouie of the American Prospect:

It’s not just that he wants to enact his preferred agenda though an elite-driven party with no constituency, no activists, and no ties to local communities but that he is clearly uncomfortable living in the world as it is, where voters matter, interests are heard, and political disagreement is important.

Here’s Dave Weigel really laying into him:

[H]ow can a sophisticated political analyst buy into this? How do you look at the way Washington is actually organized, with multiple legislative veto points that can cripple or kill legislation, and say “we could fix this if a third party won the presidency”?

This is one topic where you can’t tell a liberal critique from a conservative critique. Any pro-American-democracy observer should be horrified by Friedman’s autocratic — that’s what this third party stuff is about, having hedge fund managers install an “enlightened” dictator — fantasies. I’m glad that so many people feel the same way that I do about this.

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Previous Post: « You’d make a grown man cry
Next Post: The discreet charm of Tom Friedman »

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    July 27, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    He certainly does mix the bourgeoisie and the rebel.

  2. 2.

    pragmatism

    July 27, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    the next six months will be of vital importance to see if the public decides to shave the mustache of misunderstanding.

  3. 3.

    Josie

    July 27, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    Thanks, DougJ – Maybe it’s my naturally cynical nature, but this post makes me laugh, and I needed a good laugh today.

  4. 4.

    Comrade Luke

    July 27, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Why is it that the entire NY Times writing crew pisses off everyone, all the time, yet they still have jobs?

  5. 5.

    beltane

    July 27, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    This is wonderful. I’ve always thought of Tom Friedman as a useless hack, but knowing that he brings out the kumbaya in everyone almost justifies his existence.

  6. 6.

    Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    July 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    It’s heart warming to realize that, whatever our differences, we can always join hands across the smoldering corpse of Friedman’s intellectual pretensions.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    Before Obama and before Boehner and before 9/11 there were terrorists among us.. Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the Atlanta Olympic bombing.

  8. 8.

    cleek

    July 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    @Comrade Luke:
    stinky gets linky

  9. 9.

    Alex S.

    July 27, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    Friedman is the worst case of ‘I know more than you do’ I know. In his opinion, he doesn’t just know better than you or me, no, he knows better than the two parties and the whole establishment, better than any democracy could ever know. There has to be a dictatorship because there is only one valid opinion, his own.

  10. 10.

    moops

    July 27, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    As an expert pundit he will manage to see this unanimous derision and decide that he must be at the center if he is attacked from the left and right so consistently.

    He will manage to not even consider the flaw in this reasoning, or apply Occam’s Razor.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    One other thing..why is anyone reading the oped pages..sorry, they are just telling you what you want to detest or what you want to like.
    I love Krugmam but reading him doesn’t really enlighten me.

  12. 12.

    Ol' Dirty DougJ

    July 27, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    I find Krugman quite enlightening. I find Kristof a bit enlightening. I hate all the others.

  13. 13.

    driftglass

    July 27, 2011 at 7:33 pm

    “Of course, from cheerleading the waste of trillions of dollars and hundred of thousands of lives to send a “Suck On This” bouquet to the Middle East, to snuggling his porn-star mustache onto the asscrack of whatever Beltway bullshit is on the menu this week, Friedman — a soft, incredibly rich, dimwitted, talent-starved hack who invents ideologically convenient histories that never were and will never in a million years have to actually live in the chaos his idiotic ideas create — is indeed a perfect symbol for how completely broken our media has become.

    Honestly, this was old-school Soviet-bad, so obvious and ham-handed that it rivaled anything you might have seen during the depths of worst of those Cheney-Rummy-Bush-Feith lie-a-thons.
    …”

    http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/07/voice-of-empire-ctd_24.html

  14. 14.

    Silver

    July 27, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Don’t sell the dictator thing short. If I was installed as dictator, I’d have Tom Friedman dismembered, and I would install Tom’s various body parts at the malls his wife’s family owns for decoration.

    Bipartisan support for that should be fairly easy to garner, I’d imagine.

  15. 15.

    arguingwithsignposts

    July 27, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Somewhere, an immigrant cab driver is weeping at the insults hurled at the only Moustache who ever listened to his theories on globalization.

  16. 16.

    Quicksand

    July 27, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    This is all part of Friedman’s shrewd plan to pull together a nationwide, cross-spectrum coaltion third party — of Friedman-haters.

  17. 17.

    freelancer

    July 27, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Given the traffic this site gets, you might even be able to get Taibbi to guest blog on this subject.

    As always, links to MT’s articles on Friedman’s abortions aka books:
    http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html

    http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html

  18. 18.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    Ol’ Dirty DougJ, Kristof is really enlightening. He speaks to issues that you don’t normally read about. I sent a few of his columns to my brother and he was shocked they were on the oped page.

  19. 19.

    patroclus

    July 27, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    No worries – I predict that it’ll take Friedman at least six months before he realizes that everyone is making fun of him.

  20. 20.

    Amir_Khalid

    July 27, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    @Comrade Luke:
    They’re not all dicks. Nick Kristof is way better than Friedman at providing a grass-roots global perspective. Gail Collins is slyly funny, and I hope she gets back soon from book leave. K-Thug’s expertise on economics is unmatched by any other American big-newspaper columnist.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Luke

    July 27, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    You know, we kind of have three parties right now, with the Tea Party operating within the Republican party.

    Not working out so well…

  22. 22.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    Anybody heard from him on the Chinese train crash? Turns out they built it so quickly because they had zero training and zero safety standards. Same thing for their world’s longest bridge (doesn’t even have guardrails!)

    He’s this generation’s Walter Duranty.

  23. 23.

    Svensker

    July 27, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    When my son was in the 9th grade he found a glaring historical error in one of Tommy’s posts that was crucial to the (idiotic) point El Tommo was trying to make. With his history teacher’s help, my son wrote a letter to the NYT pointing out the error, correcting the history involved and explaining why said error completely destroyed Tommy’s point.

    Oddly, he never heard a word about his letter from either the Times or Tommy. But he did get an A+ in his history class. :)

  24. 24.

    Ol' Dirty DougJ

    July 27, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    Anybody heard from him on the Chinese train crash? Turns out they built it so quickly because they had zero training and zero safety standards. Same thing for their world’s longest bridge (doesn’t even have guardrails!)

    He never touches on anything that goes wrong in China. It pains to me admit this — and I couldn’t find it with a google search — but Jonah Goldberg had some funny stuff making fun of this.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    Svensker – When my son was in fifth grade, he found a mistake in the weekly reader and the teacher called him a liar cuz the weekly reader doesn’t lie.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Luke

    July 27, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    Yes, Kristof and occasionally Collins are good. ETA: and Krugman.

    But Bobo, Chunky Bobo, Friedman, and Dowd cancel them out imo, at least from the perspective of paying for a subscription to the paper. When you have to go around searching for the needle in the editorial haystack, it’s a problem. And this is supposedly “the paper of record’.

  27. 27.

    freelancer

    July 27, 2011 at 7:43 pm

    Also, while we’re flaming middle of the road, “a pox on both houses”, seemingly above the fray, intellectually dishonest, sanctimonious hacks can we leave some room for Chris Hedges?

  28. 28.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    Krugman used to be a real economist before he became a leftist hack.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    Comrade Luke ..The paper of record..what does that mean. When I read a paper, I look at the articles that are researched not the oped pages that are slanted at best. Doug mentioned Kristof and he is absolutely right because his columns read like research. I love Paul but not all of his columns reach that standard.
    Plus if you tell your whacko friends you don’t have any idea what they are talking about because you don’t read oped’s that helps.. lying is okay..btw

  30. 30.

    arguingwithsignposts

    July 27, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Here’s another beef I have, from Weigel’s column:

    I wasn’t surprised to read this from Friedman. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, I’d heard him muse, to an audience of the sort of people who wouldn’t laugh at “Americans Elect,” that Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles should consumate their partnership as a presidential ticket.

    The Aspen Ideas Festival is a glibertarian wankfest akin to the Davos wankfest, and they both represent yet another chance for the overclass and their courtiers to stroke their chins with concern about the world around them without producing a damned thing worth the money spent.

  31. 31.

    PeakVT

    July 27, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Jeffrey Sachs is another elite who has been spewing third party bullshit lately.

  32. 32.

    beltane

    July 27, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    See, even the right-wing troll Reality Check thinks Tom Friedman is an idiot. Are there any people living on this planet who do not think he’s an idiot? If so, stand up and be counted so we can laugh at you.

  33. 33.

    Jay B.

    July 27, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    One other thing..why is anyone reading the oped pages..sorry, they are just telling you what you want to detest or what you want to like.

    In that case, why is anyone reading this blog?

    Assuming there’s value in both reading what people who you disagree with think AND reading what people you agree with write — maybe even spurring a deeper understanding of your own beliefs — there should be a place for an Op-Ed page.

    The problem has become that The Times’ Op-Ed page is written largely by fools. Bruni, Dowd, Collins, Douthat, et al. They suck. The “conservatives” are utterly dishonest in a way that might (but might not) embarrass even Bill Safire. The putative liberals (save for Krugman) are possibly worse, stupid, venal, obsessed with trivia and laughably shallow. Anthony Lewis must be sick to his stomach.

    The worst, by far, is Friedman. But he’s still instructive in a way — he’s the mouthpiece for the autocratic middle. The capitalists who are horrified by the knuckle-draggers in the GOP. The technocrats who can’t understand why they don’t have a political following for their “sensible” version of impoverishing workers. If you want to know the hash these idiots are thinking, read Tommy Friedman.

  34. 34.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    @Beltane What I really want to know is this: who is buying his books? The CCP?

  35. 35.

    Comrade Luke

    July 27, 2011 at 7:51 pm

    @Jay B.:

    But he’s still instructive in a way — he’s the mouthpiece for the autocratic middle.

    Winner. I think we have a new term. I love it.

    ETA: You know, I have a glibertarian friend who LOVES Tom Friedman. Buys his books, quotes him, love China (eyeroll). He also wants to put birth control in the drinking water and make people “qualify’ for having children.

    Autocratic middle fits so, so perfectly.

  36. 36.

    Ol' Dirty DougJ

    July 27, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    The worst, by far, is Friedman.

    I don’t think it’s by far. Bobo is quite terrible too. They have the same tendency of extreme elitism. I hate Chunky Bobo but I don’t think he’s quite as contemptuous of the middle class as they are.

  37. 37.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    I think my favorite Tom Friedman moment was when he said it’s a shame New York City can’t be more like Singapore–sure, Singapore has things like public cannings, and is a one-party police state, but their subway is so clean! And their airport is new! That was his argument.

  38. 38.

    Dee Loralei

    July 27, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    How many FU’s will it take Friedman to understand that nobody likes him?

    I called my Rep and 2 Senators today and yesterday telling them clean bills only. Today I said ” I know the Constitution has a precise legal definition of Treason, but I’m wondering what else to call you Republicans who intentionally destroy the full faith and credit of the US. I mean seditionist just doesn’t have the clarity of the word Traitor!” Needless to say, I got 3 hang ups.

    I’m wondering if tomorrow it might behoove me to call them and at least demand that my teabagging rep vote no on the Boehner plan, because it doesn’t go far enough. See if maybe we can make that one of the “unborn undead”, as someone on here called it. And that way maybe we could force a clean bill only vote. What do you guys think? I mean, I’m only following Uncle Rush dopefeind Limbaugh’s advice when he prescribed Operation Chaos, or whatever it was, during the Dem primaries.

    Comments?

  39. 39.

    James E. Powell

    July 27, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    This is one topic where you can’t tell a liberal critique from a conservative critique.

    Friedman, the Times, and all their colleagues will take this to mean that they were Proved Fucking Right!

  40. 40.

    Jay B.

    July 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    Reality Check – July 27, 2011 | 7:37 pm · Link

    Anybody heard from him on the Chinese train crash? Turns out they built it so quickly because they had zero training and zero safety standards. Same thing for their world’s longest bridge (doesn’t even have guardrails!)

    The way you’ve been celebrating our race to the bottom, we’ll have it here soon enough. We already have the crumbling infrastructure that the government you want to starve can’t afford to fix.

    I’ll try and remember this the next time there’s a catastrophe your idiotic economic beliefs helped cause, you fucking loser.

  41. 41.

    jrg

    July 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    My dad was a conservative. We disagreed on everything political. Except Friedman. If things ever got too heated, I could always find agreement mentioning what a contemptible piece of beltway-consensus parroting shit Friedman is.

  42. 42.

    arguingwithsignposts

    July 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    @Ol’ Dirty DougJ: Give Chunky Bobo time. He’s much younger than the Moustache and Bobo.

  43. 43.

    Calouste

    July 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    @Reality Check:

    Anybody heard from him on the Chinese train crash? Turns out they built it so quickly because they had zero training and zero safety standards. Same thing for their world’s longest bridge (doesn’t even have guardrails!)

    I was wondering who you support in the Republican primaries, Tim Pawlenty?

    I’m also wondering how the US is going to enforce safety standards when your wet dreams come true and the Tea Party bankrupts the US government.

    I’m not wondering why you don’t make the connection.

  44. 44.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    Friedman is the worst. I hate him more than Krugman. More than Kristoff. More than Brooks.

    The NYT columnists fall into three camps:

    1) Big Government Conservatism

    2) Big Government Liberalism

    3) Technocratic Fascism

    Friedman is in the third camp.

  45. 45.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    And BTW, Rachel Maddow was pimping the Chinese model and their high-speed trains not to long ago.

  46. 46.

    El Cid

    July 27, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    What this country needs is a radical center willing to rise up and marry a billionaire heiress.

  47. 47.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    Please don’t dominate the rap jack
    if you’ve got nothing new to say
    If you please don’t back up the track
    This train got to run today

  48. 48.

    Jay B.

    July 27, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    Bobo is quite terrible too.

    We know…[heh]

    But yes, I had momentarily forgotten that tool. Still, while smarmy and hateful, Brooks a better writer than Tommy, which is a slightly mitigating factor. But both are absurd creations of a masturbatory media culture.

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    July 27, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    @James E. Powell: If everybody on the left thinks you’re an idiot and everybody on the right thinks you’re an idiot, that is certain proof that you are a super genius.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    El Cid .@ 46.. I’m so tired of trying to fix up my darn house that at this point I’m looking for barely a millionaire that likes to mow.

  51. 51.

    Reality Check

    July 27, 2011 at 7:59 pm

    re: “crumbling infrastructure”

    http://tinyurl.com/c2vzmu

  52. 52.

    Amir_Khalid

    July 27, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    @JPL:
    “Paper of record” is basically the bragging rights you claim by virtue of being the most prestigioustest newspaper around these here parts, wherever “these parts” might be. Not an actual title. Just boasting, and often empty boasting at that.

  53. 53.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    Amir_Khalid

    You got it goin on dawg!

  54. 54.

    taylormattd

    July 27, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    Madonna!

  55. 55.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    Amir_Khalid I actually know that but still shy away from the oped pieces because they have so much more to offer.

  56. 56.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 27, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    I was talking to my cab driver the other night on the way home and even he hates Friedman.

  57. 57.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 8:06 pm

    so this, at long last, is where we find common ground amongst ourselves and even with the wingnuts? THIS is the elusive place where Obots and Firebaggers, Libertarians and Teatards, achieve brother/sisterhood? Thomas Friedman’s column?

    Huh.

  58. 58.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    eemom

    slow night

  59. 59.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Up until 3 plus years ago I received home delivery of the Times every day and I was more informed because of it. I’ve been able to get home delivery for years although I live in GA After my divorce that just became to expensive so now I only get Sunday but read it online.
    The paper is more than the oped pages, imo………

  60. 60.

    Jay B.

    July 27, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    Reality Check – July 27, 2011 | 7:59 pm · Link

    re: “crumbling infrastructure”

    Yeah. A laughably slim piece by libertarian jackass Jack Shaefer in Slate using Bush Administration sources to buffer his thesis that infrastructure safety is all a Big Government plot. What, you couldn’t find something from the Heritage Foundation? Included in it is this perfect piece of hedging:

    A “structurally deficient” bridge can safely stay in service if weight limitations are posted and observed and the bridge is monitored, inspected, and maintained.

    Oh, well then. Never mind. I take back that stuff about crumbling infrastructure. So long as “structurally deficient” bridges are monitored, inspected and maintained, there’s no problem. And I’m sure God will do just that because that’s the only way it’ll happen.

  61. 61.

    Alison

    July 27, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @beltane #32

    Are there any people living on this planet who do not think he’s an idiot? If so, stand up and be counted so we can laugh at you.

    I was going to say possibly his mother, so long as she was sober and in mixed company…but then my bleeding-heart liberalness took hold and I looked it up and she’s no longer amongst the living. So there went *that* joke…

  62. 62.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    @ Raven

    so, what drove old Norske to finally bail on FDL?

    (10,834 DAYS AND THE KILLING GOES ON AND ON AND ON…..)

  63. 63.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    JPL

    DO you read the Flagpole? It was founded by DennisG of BJ,

  64. 64.

    Bender

    July 27, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    We also hate David Brooks, if that’s helpful.

    And I thought the Jacobites thread the other day was nice.

  65. 65.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:14 pm

    eemom

    That was The Southern Dragon and he’s still there I think. He was Brown Water Navy like SSGM. The Flamethrower was a dogface.

    Maybe not, here’s the Dragon this am

    SouthernDragon July 27th, 2011 at 6:07 am
    69

    Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

    US KIA Afghanistan: 1,680

    US KIA Irak: 4,474

    Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

    US MBS 2011: 25,668 and counting

    I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night

    No war but class war

    Never. Give. Up.

    Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

    Namaste

  66. 66.

    jwb

    July 27, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    moops: “As an expert pundit he will manage to see this unanimous derision and decide that he must be at the center if he is attacked from the left and right so consistently.” It always him to say that both sides do it.

  67. 67.

    beltane

    July 27, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    @Reality Check: There is a group of old people, raised to think the NYT is infallible, who believe Tom Friedman is an intellectual heavyweight because why else would the NYT pay him to write columns. This is the same group of people who also believe that Charlie Rose is a wonderful interviewer and that Cokie Roberts is a savvy political commenter. We all have a few of these people in our families; it cannot be helped.

  68. 68.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Raven, No but thanks for the link..

    When I used to get up at six and read the paper version of the nytimes, I did feel more aware.
    Now it’s hard for me to slog through Sundays’

  69. 69.

    jwb

    July 27, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Comrade Luke: Actually, we have at least four parties: progressive dems, corporate dems, chamber of commerce Repubs, teabaggers.

  70. 70.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    July 27, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    @patroclus:

    No worries – I predict that it’ll take Friedman at least six months before he realizes that everyone is making fun of him.

    Yes, ahem. Do you have an address to which we can send your internets today?

  71. 71.

    BruinKid

    July 27, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    Hey now, even Chinese people (like me) think Friedman is drop dead stupid.

  72. 72.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    You fucking dumbass DougJ.
    There is no more kumbayah circle where everyone can get along.
    Kain just morphed into Jennifer Rubin and BJ alum Elias Isquith just godwinned your stupid ass.
    the gap between the blue sane and the red insane is widening.
    you can see this on the debt crisis.
    wtf is wrong with you? you’re like fucking weeping over the sad bygone days of sweet bipartisanship.

    this is war. get over your weepy sad bigself.

  73. 73.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    Raven, BTW..if you call your rep and thank him for voting against the Boehner bill, you will quickly find out how he is voting. That’s what happened with Price. I was shocked and said OMG..he was on my news and told me that the debt limit didn’t matter and now he is caving…

  74. 74.

    jwb

    July 27, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    jwb: FYWP for not allowing edit. “It allows him to say that both sides do it.”

  75. 75.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    JPL

    You don’t need a weather man to say which way the Broun blow.

  76. 76.

    Ol' Dirty DougJ

    July 27, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    We also hate David Brooks, if that’s helpful.

    But not in the same way I do. You guys hate Tom Friedman in the same way that I do, and I like that. We all agree that we don’t want to live under a Chinese-style dictatorship.

  77. 77.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:26 pm

    Samara Morgan

    recess already?

  78. 78.

    Judas Escargot

    July 27, 2011 at 8:29 pm

    Krugman used to be a real economist before he became a leftist hack.

    FTFY.

    The neo-Keynsians didn’t leave the right wing. The right-wing left the neo-Keynsians.

    Doesn’t make him wrong, though.

  79. 79.

    Corner Stone

    July 27, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    @Samara Morgan: I’m not really a big fan of your anti-LOOG jihad, mainly because anyone who’s stupid enough to read them gets what they deserve. But I have to say Elias isn’t doing himself or his compatriots any favors with that bullshit post.

  80. 80.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Raven.. You missed my point..Price was against the increase until he was for it and I showed my disgust. I don’t want the Boehner bill to pass. I did lose my cool though because I accused Price of lying all this time by telling me it was not big deal …

  81. 81.

    Marginalized for stating documented facts

    July 27, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    This is true of all our major popular pundits, not just Tom Friedman.

    It’s true of David Brooks. It’s true of Charlie Rose. It’s true of Larry Summers. It’s true of essentially every member of the American elites. They all spout demented gibberish, and they’re all wildly applauded for it. They have an unrelieved record of failure, and they’ve all received glowing praise and prestigious awards for their massive non-stop failures, from Bush handing out the American medal of freedom to clowns like Wolfowitz (and Bush himself was elected and then re-elected, a two-time president) to Larry Summers getting a series of increasingly prestigious positions after presiding over the total collapse of Russia’s economy due to his insane policies.

    In our society, failure gains praise, while sanity earns contempt and ridicule.

  82. 82.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    JPL

    Aha. I thought it was another encouragement to call. I’ve tried to stay out of those threads because I personally think it’s meaningless but I don’t want to bum anyone out who doesn’t.

  83. 83.

    Svensker

    July 27, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    One thing that got me very nervous about Obama early on in his admin was a pic of him getting on Airforce One and in his hand was little Tommy’s latest tome. I always hoped O was reading it for laughs, but it didn’t reassure me.

  84. 84.

    batgirl

    July 27, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    And yet Friedman has a new book coming out in early September with a 1,000,000 print run. FSM help us all.

  85. 85.

    Stillwater

    July 27, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    @Corner Stone: Elias is liberaltarian, which functionally means liberal with some government hating while still keeping a foot in both camps. So his views on politics can for the most part be ignored.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 8:48 pm

    Raven .. I called to say thank you for being against the bill.. Saxby and Johnny, I called and said I didn’t really care how they voted but not to filibuster. You go with the hand you are dealt. I was shocked about Price though after taking so much time to speak to local media telling them that the debt limit did not matter because we could pay our bills.

  87. 87.

    Amir_Khalid

    July 27, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    @Samara Morgan:
    Is it just my perception, or is this latest incarnation of M_C exceptionally intemperate even by her standards?

    @Corner Stone:
    A jihad is any righteous struggle — to defend the faith, to make this world a better place, to make oneself a better person (this last, so said the Prophet, being the greatest jihad of all). Please, I beg you, don’t demean the term by using it for one of M_C’s petty little vendettas.

  88. 88.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    July 27, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    JPL

    White man speak with forked fork. . .

  89. 89.

    VOR

    July 27, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    RE: Jay B. at #60. The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis was known to be structurally deficient prior to it’s collapse in August 2007. The Pawlenty administration chose the lowest cost option to monitor and inspect it. Thirteen people were killed and 145 injured.
    Prior inspections revealed known bowing of bridge gusset plates, critical support pieces of the bridge. Rather than repair, it was deemed cheaper to monitor and inspect.

  90. 90.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    One thing that got me very nervous about Obama early on in his admin was a pic of him getting on Airforce One and in his hand was little Tommy’s latest tome.

    Athletes that watch their opponents games aren’t necessarily fans. In a political context, reading Friedman can legitimately be considered ‘research’.

  91. 91.

    Elias Isquith

    July 27, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    1. Not a liberaltarian. Garden-variety liberal, more or less.

    2. Meant to imply how awful Douthat’s argument is because it potentially half excuses the fucking holocaust. I should have been clearer.

    I think Doug J knows what a fan I am, but wanted to clarify nonetheless.

  92. 92.

    Arundel

    July 27, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    I’m just struck by how very tone-deaf the mere name of Friedman’s fantasy centrist party is: “Americans Elect”. Is that meant to be noun/verb? Sounds democratic!

    Or is it missing a multiple possessive apostrophe at the end of “Americans”? Indicating that “Elect” is a noun. As in, “the elect” , another word for elite. Considering what he’s talking about, I have to wonder if that isn’t a sly joke- putting hedge-fund managers and smart technocrats in charge of this “centrist” party. Oh, but with internet voting.

    “Americans’ Elect”. The elect, or elite, of Americans. It’s just peculiar how the name can be read in two opposite ways. Very democratic, or quite elitist.

    Oh, and fuck Friedman. High on my list of pundits whom I wish drummed out of respectability or attention.

  93. 93.

    Bender

    July 27, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    @ Samara Morgan

    the gap between the blue sane and the red insane is widening.

    Sooooooooo….

    Which one are you again?

  94. 94.

    JPL

    July 27, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    raven @ 88 .. That was such a polite way of saying, I can’t believed you pretended you were a tea bagger.. Like I said earlier sometimes you go with the cards you are dealt. I’m still mad at myself for hanging up on the jerk.

  95. 95.

    OzoneR

    July 27, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    [H]ow can a sophisticated political analyst buy into this? How do you look at the way Washington is actually organized, with multiple legislative veto points that can cripple or kill legislation, and say “we could fix this if a third party won the presidency”?

    a third party presidency would have no principles and would do whatever the hell whoever is in control of Congress would do. Nothing is off the table, nothing is a sacred cow. That’s truly representative of the people. We can call it the “I Gots Mine” party.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    Rather than repair, it was deemed cheaper to monitor and inspect.

    See! And that worked out okay! Sure, you’ll say “But 13 people died!” which misses the point that the taxes looted from our producers to prevent that event would have surely resulted in the death of more hardworking citizens by denying them the life-giving nectar that inevitably trickles down from the wealthy. And if those 13 dead and 145 wounded had really cared about their personal safety, they would have taken the responsible free-market path and hired someone to give them a report on the safety of that bridge prior to crossing it. It was complete negligence on their part, and inexcusable selfishness to deny those free-market bridge inspectors the employment!

  97. 97.

    eemom

    July 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    One thing that got me very nervous about Obama early on in his admin was a pic of him getting on Airforce One and in his hand was little Tommy’s latest tome.

    aw jeez. I wish I could un-know that.

    ETA: Ah. Thank you Martin.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    July 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    We can call it the “I Gots Mine” party.

    Sociopaths: is there no problem they can’t solve?

  99. 99.

    LAC

    July 27, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    How is Friedman’s crap any different from Salon’s crap?Glenn greenwald is the patron saint of self absorbed politically tone deaf bullshit artists.

  100. 100.

    fuckwit

    July 27, 2011 at 9:25 pm

    Actually, both liberal and conservative populists and activists are fucking equally and commonly PISSED OFF at the elite of the world and how they are fucking us over. We have that in common.

    We just disagree about who that elite is: corporations or government.

    Interestingly, we both also agree that corporate capitalism is a dangerous corrupting force, we just disagree about what is being corrupted: cultural mores (sex on TV and movies), or the environment and economy.

  101. 101.

    Nutella

    July 27, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I wasn’t surprised to read this from Friedman. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, I’d heard him muse, to an audience of the sort of people who wouldn’t laugh at “Americans Elect,” that Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles should consummate their partnership…

    It’s legal in New York now, but eewwwwww.

  102. 102.

    Stillwater

    July 27, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    @Elias Isquith: You’ve got one of those name decoder rings on your computer, don’t you? The response-time was amazing!

    But are you sure about not being a liberaltarian? Do I need to look into the LOOG archives for demonstrations of your libertarian leaning on social and economic issues?

    Edit: Hell, I thought you even wrote a post about being a liberaltarian.

  103. 103.

    THE

    July 27, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    @Sammy m’orgasm.

    That’s not a scary name. For those of us who are not attracted to, or impressed by the supernatural, it’s just deeply pretentious.

    Just cos you find it shivery and creepy doesn’t mean everyone does. I haven’t watched a supernatural-themed horror movie in 30 years. Won’t let them in the house.

  104. 104.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    @wooden bender, who is as fake as George Washington’s teeth.
    lol, im blue.
    really, really blue. im a flaming liberal– i worked on Obama’s campaign.
    Can’t you feel my blue vibrations?

    Do you wanna hear about the latest advances in red/blue genetic theory?
    You OTOH are as red as John Boner’s deeply constipated arse-hole.

  105. 105.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    @Elias Isqueef

    I think Doug J knows what a fan I am, but wanted to clarify nonetheless.

    sooooooooo
    that is how you show fandom? By godwinning the object of your affections?

    LOLLLOLOL!!!eleventy!

  106. 106.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    @Raven

    recess already?

    go eat some rotten carrion and die of botulism poisoning you stupid corvid.

  107. 107.

    Elias Isquith

    July 27, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    @Stillwater,

    You’re welcome to go through my archives, of course, but I’ve never thought of myself nor described myself as a liberaltarian. IIRC, my initial post as a sub-blogger at the League had a brief tidbit wherein I tried to describe my ideological leanings, and I called myself a progressive or well to the left of the rest of the League — or something along those lines.

  108. 108.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    @Elias Isqueef
    it doesnt matter what you call yourself.
    Your fellow travelers are ALL libertarians. they may call themselves liberaltarians. neo-liberals, classical liberals, bleeding heart libertarians, civil libertarians– you are all fucking crypto-conservative “libertarians.”

    By theyre works shall thee know them

  109. 109.

    Samara Morgan

    July 27, 2011 at 11:41 pm

    @undying lord

    like im gonna take chong from a maftoon like you.
    this is the kind of muslim i am.

    Sufism consists of three elements-`ilm, jihad, and `ubudiya. First was `ilm, the knowledge of Islamic Law. He emphasizes the significance of living according to shari`a, and stipulates that Islamic Law is to be understood and practiced accordingly. Moreover, he cites Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s work, which declares that God will bless those who acted according to their knowledge of Law-no matter how ignorant they might be-but would punish those who ignored the law irrespective of their knowledge. Second is jihad, the effort to situate oneself within social reality and to solve the problems one faces. `Abd al-Halim’s ideal image of Sufi is not exemplified through the concept of ‘mystic’ (those who live in seclusion, practicing asceticism). He states rather that Sufi must be committed to solving the problems of the time, and gives the example of `Abd al-Qadir al-Jazai’rli (d.1883), who fought for the defence of Algeria against France (ibid. 15-16). Third is `ubudiya, servitude to God: being correct and devoted. When `ubudiya is attained, ma`rifa is granted, and God showers the believer with Mercy (ibid. 12)”

  110. 110.

    Comrade Kevin

    July 27, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    Someone needs another time-out, apparently the last one didn’t leave enough of an impression.

  111. 111.

    Stillwater

    July 28, 2011 at 1:29 am

    @Elias Isquith: Well, I don’t know how I got that impression. Sorry bout that.

  112. 112.

    THE

    July 28, 2011 at 4:31 am

    @ Sama ram organ

    Have you ever realized how funny your nic is,
    if you rearrange the spacing between the letters?

  113. 113.

    Samara Morgan

    July 28, 2011 at 9:18 am

    @Kevin
    you are just as big of a dumbass as mistermix and dougj.
    there is NO FUCKING MIDDLE GROUND.
    the Teabaggers burned it.
    Isquith and Kain are just teabaggers with a four-year lib arts degree.
    the glibertarian rentboiz and DougJ’s “conservative” friend might collectively frown over the mass of conservative stupidity that is the mustache of understanding, but they still kneel to free market fuckery and Distributed Jesusland™ in the privacy of the voting booth.

  114. 114.

    THE

    July 28, 2011 at 9:22 am

    Then of course there’s always,
    @ Moar anagrams

    srsly.

  115. 115.

    Samara Morgan

    July 28, 2011 at 9:31 am

    i do. not. care.
    you still can’t make me do what you want.
    i do what i like and say what i want.

  116. 116.

    THE

    July 28, 2011 at 9:36 am

    I am not going to change you.
    I only want to tease you for the silliness.

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 28, 2011 at 9:39 am

    @ m_c

    i do. not. care.
    you still can’t make me do what you want.
    i do what i like and say what i want.

    The battle cry of the Tea Partier. Interesting.

  118. 118.

    Donald

    July 28, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    “Any pro-American-democracy observer should be horrified by Friedman’s autocratic—that’s what this third party stuff is about, having hedge fund managers install an “enlightened” dictator—fantasies. ”

    Anyone remember that phrase, the “golden straitjacket” in his 90’s book glorifying the omnipotence and omniscience of the financial markets? “The Lexis and the Olive Tree”, if I remember correctly.

    Conservatives hate him because he has this weird mixture of some liberal technocratic goals with dictatorial tendencies. They see it as communist China–but one could also see his ideal as Pinochet’s Chile. You might see more conservative Friedman fans then, if he’d only deny global warming.

  119. 119.

    Samara Morgan

    July 28, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    @Omnes

    that was addressed to Spock.
    not you.

    i think i’ve been more than clear that the Tea Party are statistically NHC conservative christians that cannot make anyone in America (outside of their 27% demographic) do what they want.
    that is why they are going to burn down the house if they dont get to control it.

    And are there muslims in the teabagger ranks now?
    name one.

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