Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / First Thing We Do, Let’s Muzzle All the “Centrists”

First Thing We Do, Let’s Muzzle All the “Centrists”

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Just as a sidebar, I loathe these ratfcking undercover-Rethuglicans with the heat of a thousand trashfires:

… Ken Vogel, Politico‘s dogged money and politics reporter… dragged the Americans Elect leadership into a fascinating defense of their 501c4 status and decision not to disclose donors.
__
“The folks running Americans Elect, they don’t know who the donors are,” said Sragow, defending the secrecy. Another AE leader contradicted this a little bit. “I’ve participated in some of the meetings where people won’t sign because of fear of retribution,” he said. “We can have complete disclosure and fail, or we can succeed.”
__
But hang on: What sort of retribution were we talking about? “My father, Peter Ackerman,” offered the group’s COO Elliot Ackerman. “He’s been mischaracterized in the press frequently.”
__
Sragow wasn’t about to let this suggestion fly — this idea that working with AE wasn’t dangerous. “Don’t suggest that there is no retribution,” he said. “Nobody who’s spent 10 minutes in politics could think that.” He’d been vilified for participating in the group. He’d been attacked and insulted. “Fortunately, in this country, we don’t use molotov cocktails literally,” he said. “We use them figuratively.”
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Well, this didn’t jibe either. Occasionaly, AE leaders have suggested that their donors will come out on their own. When would that happen?
__
“We’ll elect a president,” said Sragow, “and people will be very proud.”

Oooooh, “mischaracterized in the press frequently“, even “vilified for participating” — the ghost of Dr. King weeps for your exquisite suffering. Sack up, you sad little Fortunate Son. You couldn’t “elect a president” to your kid’s middle-school class, assuming you could scrounge up the guts to connect your Very Serious High-Minded Campaign to an actual meatspace candidate, and that the little perisher isn’t home-schooled in the first place.

In the spirit of Centrist Comity, I suggest you ram your metaphorical molotov cocktails up whichever of your metaphorical orifices an explosion might dislodge enough metaphorical pap that you could at least fake having the courage of your carefully-undisclosed convictions.

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  2. 2.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Yeesh. These people need to watch Romney 2008’s example of how you can’t just buy the presidency.

    If Romney manages it this year, I’ll take that back.

  3. 3.

    Rick Massimo

    “We’re Americans Elect! We’re coming to take down the system! Um, as long as we can be guaranteed that the system won’t be mean to us!”

    That’s the principle on which this great country was founded. Or as it says in the Declaration of Independence, “we pledge to each other our lives – um, no; how about our fortunes? Nah – our cocktail-party invitations? HELL NO!”

  4. 4.

    William A

    Any time one of these organizations refuse to identify their donors, the response should be “It’s blood money”.
    If they are afraid to identify the source then there must be something shameful they are hiding.

  5. 5.

    Schlemizel

    these ratfcking undercover-Rethuglicans

    Yes – and please remember to mention what these guys are and what they are trying to do when speaking about politics to your friends and neighbors. No repeats of ’99 please

  6. 6.

    some guy

    hedge-fund funded organization Americans Elect.
    hedge-fund funded organization Americans Elect.
    hedge-fund funded organization Americans Elect.

    repeat as necessary.

  7. 7.

    j low

    I suggest you ram your metaphorical molotov cocktails up whichever of your metaphorical orifices an explosion might dislodge enough metaphorical pap that you could at least fake having the courage of your carefully-undisclosed convictions.

    Hooooweee!

  8. 8.

    Hunter Gathers

    Well, there’s this black guy who was installed in the White House due to a fraudulent election that once referred to the people who finance Americans Elect as ‘fat cats’, so that makes their permanent sense of constant butthurt legitimate. Don’t you know how hard the super-rich have it these days? Women still won’t drop to their knees to worship these titans of industry, capitol gains are still taxed, they still see minorities in the street that aren’t being shoved into the back of patrol cars and, worst of all, the moochers and the takers think that our Galtian Overlords should pay higher taxes than they already do! The gall of the moochers and looters. It’s not the fault of the rich that they were smart enough to have rich parents, worked hard enough to get legacy scholarships to Ivy League schools and were business savvy enough work in an industry that rewards failure. The moochers and the takers and the looters are just jealous. Perhaps in the future, people will be smart enough to be sired by the rich, which would be a lot easier if the poors and all the non-white looters just went and died already.

  10. 10.

    Schlemizel

    BTW – I signed up with the boys – took their shitty little (well huge actually almost endless) survey & plan on nominating BHO when the opportunity arises. I’d suggest we get as many people as we can to do the same – it won’t change the outcome (they will decide who to pick & the votes will magically appear) but it will screw with their minds if BHO get several thousand votes.

  11. 11.

    Phil Perspective

    @rlrr: That’s the whole point Krugman has been making on his blog re: Little Tommy Friedman’s stupidity. Friedman can’t admit that what he wants is staring him in the face. And that, while some good has been done, not enough has been to done to solve our problems.

  13. 13.

    PeakVT

    @some guy: The Wall Street-backed Americans Elect. Most people think that a hedge fund is some charitable landscaping organization.

    @WeeBey: For how long? I’m not going to believe Boner can actually get enough votes from his own caucus until the bill is actually passed.

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    I want to know, when the fuck did our super-rich become so insecure that they all demand that we LOVE them? It’s not enough that they have all of the money and the power, now we have to fucking LOVE them, too?

    Jesus fuck, I’m sorry Mommy never loved you enough, but get some fucking therapy and stop insisting that the 99% love you enough to fill the hole in your soul.

    These guys won’t be happy until news of the death of a Koch brother leads to the same kind of public demonstrations of grief that they had in North Korea.

  16. 16.

    Tone In DC

    @WeeBey:

    Dayum!

    I can visualize a certain Kenyan usurper catching Orange Julius blundering in. And nailing Boehner with a nasty uppercut.

    Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

  17. 17.

    Rafer Janders

    “Nobody who’s spent 10 minutes in politics could think that.” He’d been vilified for participating in the group. He’d been attacked and insulted. “Fortunately, in this country, we don’t use molotov cocktails literally,” he said. “We use them figuratively.”

    Narrator: Most of the strange tales concern Dinsdale [Piranha], but what about Doug [Piranha]? One man who
    met him was Luigi Vercotti.

    Vercotti: I had been running a successful escort agency — high class, no really, high class girls — we didn’t have any of *that* — that was right out….So a week later they called again and told me the cheque had bounced and said…I had to see…Doug. Well, I was terrified. Everyone was terrified of Doug. I’ve seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Doug. He used…sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and…satire. He was vicious.

  20. 20.

    harlana

    @Mnemosyne:

    I want to know, when the fuck did our super-rich become so insecure that they all demand that we LOVE them? It’s not enough that they have all of the money and the power, now we have to fucking LOVE them, too? . . . These guys won’t be happy until news of the death of a Koch brother leads to the same kind of public demonstrations of grief that they had in North Korea mass self-impalements and self-immolations throughout the country.

    fixt

  21. 21.

    Mike Goetz

    You know, the 2012 Presidential Election could feature Obama (Dem), Romney (Rep), Gary Johnson (Lib), Donald Trump (Ind), and Roemer/Bloomberg/Huntsman/Bayh (Am. El.)

    The word “shitshow” comes to mind.

  24. 24.

    LosGatosCA

    This was all predicted by Frances Fukuyama in his essay “The End of Parody” or maybe it was “The End of Sanity” or perhaps I’m misremembering the whole thing and it was titled “As the Sun Sets on Civilization: The Return of Alchemy and the Dark Ages.”

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @WeeBey:

    From the TPM article:

    A top Senate Democratic aide says House Republicans have privately offered up the terms of their surrender on the payroll tax cut, pending sign off from their notoriously unwieldy caucus.

    (my bold)

    OK, this should be interesting. Will the vile scum that are the teatards torpedo the orange dipshit’s attempt to save face? You have to remember, they’re the ones who forced the downgrade of the US debt rating for no other reason than pure spite.

  28. 28.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t need to know who’s funding them to know that they exist to subvert American democracy, and that their goal is to act directly against my best interests.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    Btw, IIRC Ackerman Sr. threw $5.5 million at his son’s toy.

    Anyone who thinks that these people actual make money by being smart rather than nepotism, corruption or sheer luck should wonder why someone would invest that kind of money in such an obvious failure.

  30. 30.

    Rick Massimo

    You have to remember, they’re the ones who forced the downgrade of the US debt rating for no other reason than pure spite.

    Pure spite? How dare you accuse them of spite? They were sticking to the dearly held constitutional of That F*cking N!%%@r Is Not the Boss of Us.

    That’s totally different.

  34. 34.

    Zifnab

    @dollared: In all fairness, JP Morgan built his empire on the eve of the Socialist Revolution that was the FDR administration. Conservatives reined uncontested for much of the 19th century, but had the rug yanked out from under them in the 20th. They’ve learned a bit since then about the value of populism.

  35. 35.

    Zifnab

    @dollared: In all fairness, JP Morgan built his empire on the eve of the Soci alist Revolution that was the FDR administration. Conservatives reined uncontested for much of the 19th century, but had the rug yanked out from under them in the 20th. They’ve learned a bit since then about the value of populism.

  36. 36.

    Anne Laurie

    @rlrr:

    The current and the previous two Democratic administrations were/are the very definition of centrists. WTF?

    Those guys had the minimal guts required to call themselves Democrats and take the consequences. The “centrists” flogging American Select are throwing around their daddies’ looted money to get some variety of Republican elected, but they’re too craven and dishonest to admit that, possibly even to themselves. That kind of craven should be in a museum somewhere, not contaminating the electoral groundwater.

  37. 37.

    jl

    @Zifnab: Morgan built his fortune in the latter half of the nineteenth century, starting with shady contractor arms deals in the civil war. He butted heads with Teddy Roosevelt and died around 1910.

    So, maybe you confused FDR with TR?

    I don’t think Morgan had the rug pulled out from him by anyone. There was supposed to be famous exchange after the 1907 panic when Morgan sent a message to Roosevelt saying that he would send his man to see one of TR’s men and they would work a deal out, and supposedly TR told Morgan to go to hell, more or less, that the government would fix the financial system as it saw fit.

    But in the end I think TR OKd some immunity deals to allow some mergers and finanical fix ups to end the crisis. Morgan outlasted TR and had a role in the creation of the Federal Reserve, though the formalities were after Morgan’s death I think.

    I think Morgan is the inspiration of our current Wall Street Great Mean of Genius who envisioned that they would be running the world through decades of prosperity due to their very hard work and very great smarts. But instead they are despised welfare kings, shoveling money into politics in order to buy enough pols to keep bankruptcy at bay.

    A sad tale of emulation gone wrong.

  38. 38.

    jl

    And, I am sure the US voting population will be inspired by the courage of these wealthy arrogant bigshots, with lots of secret money. Such profiles in courage always inspire all the enthusiastic political support that money can’t can buy.

  39. 39.

    Jon O.

    Best part about this post: The Americans Elect advertisement immediately below it. Go on, give it a click or five! Jamie Dimon would love your support.

  40. 40.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    “Don’t suggest that there is no retribution,” he said. “Nobody who’s spent 10 minutes in politics could think that.” He’d been vilified for participating in the group. He’d been attacked and insulted. “Fortunately, in this country, we don’t use molotov cocktails literally,” he said. “We use them figuratively.”

    And from both sides! Don’t *ever* forget that both sides do it!

  42. 42.

    Karen

    What the hell is a real Centrist?

    I always thought that my views were Centrist: somewhere in the middle, believing in fiscal responsibility where we don’t fund things without paying for them, especially tax cuts, wars, tax breaks for rich people and where religion and state are separate and how everyone should be treated equally under the law. I guess that makes me socially liberal?

    If what I’m describing isn’t Centrist then what is?

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