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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Reince, watch, repeat

Reince, watch, repeat

by DougJ|  January 30, 201211:44 am| 132 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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What struck me about that clip from old man Schieffer that mistermix put up wasn’t so much how offensive Reince’s comparison was but how obscure it was. How many viewers could possibly have known who Captain Schettino is? I had no idea. I had heard of the crash, but not to the point where I knew the captain’s name. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Italian ship disasters are exactly what Real Murkins like to talk about it around the Applebees salad bar, but I doubt it.

In 2008, I was similarly struck by how often John McCain would yell “field mice” or “bear DNA” at odd moments, and by how Mark Halperin and Chuck Todd thought this was a killer tactic, even though there’s no way most Americans had any idea what he was talking about. This set of Republican debates has been even worse, with the constant references to Saul Alinsky and silver dimes. What Atrios wrote a few years ago is more true than ever:

I’ve written before that I think part of the problem that conservatives/Republicans face is that their mythology has become a bit too complex for mere mortals (people who don’t listen to Limbaugh and read The Corner obsessively) to comprehend. They reference rogues’ gallery of enemies and various “bad things” that most people have never heard of. Simply trying to navigate through the various wingnutty minefields while throwing out the appropriate red meat has become difficult to do, and the result is incomprehensible to most of the country.

Here’s another example of what I’m talking about, in the context of the Christian right’s response to Gingrich’s anti-media debate tirade a few weeks ago:

The way Land sees it, Gingrich’s answer went beyond merely nodding toward the anti-media spirit among conservative Christian voters and reached forward instead to what they imagined would be an apocalyptic, nearly eschatological campaign between Obama and Gingrich. “They would love to see a false smarty pants decapitated by a real intellectual,” Land told me. “He would tear Obama’s head off.”

Evidence in support of Land’s analysis can be found in a webcast on the Internet site of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association. On the site, Matt Barber, an aggressive promoter of a socially conservative agenda, voiced unalloyed joy over a video celebrating the Gingrich-King confrontation like a nature show. Barber describes

footage of a lion chasing down a zebra. And then after the lion kills the zebra and looks up with his fur bloody, they switched back to a picture of Newt Gingrich with blood over his face. He had just made a meal out of John King.

To most viewers, I’m sure Gingrich came across as a guy who was angry that his philandering ways were being discussed on tv, but to some on the right, Gingrich came across as an intellectual lion-eating zebra zebra-eating lion. It’s no wonder these debates are killing Republicans’ favorability with independent voters.

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Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    redshirt

    January 30, 2012 at 11:49 am

    I learned from the Palin selection that these folks believe their own lies. Or, the true powers that be are immensely cynical and are playing the wingnuts as well as everyone else.

    It’s shocking to me, or at least it was – they sincerely believe this shit.

    But then, a large percentage of the earth’s population believes in magical sky fairies, so I suppose it’s not that shocking.

  2. 2.

    John Dillinger

    January 30, 2012 at 11:51 am

    The last minute of

    http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406662/january-23-2012/indecision-2012—newt-gingrich-s-south-carolina-kill

  3. 3.

    Mark S.

    January 30, 2012 at 11:52 am

    I remember “bear DNA,” but what was “field mice” about?

    I noticed this watching teabagger interviews. A couple of these people were referencing “The 5,000 Year Leap” as if it were as famous as the Bible.

  4. 4.

    chopper

    January 30, 2012 at 11:52 am

    this is one of the major ways obama drives his opponents nuts. the gop has convinced themselves he’s a teleprompter-reading empty suit. much of it comes from deep-seated racial resentment, the same shit that makes white guys see a black dude in a managerial position and think to themselves ‘oh, affirmative action, i’ll bet’.

    the fact that obama went through countless debates, town halls, pressers etc in 2008, and took the goopers behind the woodshed in baltimore, none of that registers. he’s just a guy who reads fancy speeches.

    it’s the same thing that convinces them that newt is some sort of savvy super-intellectual.

  5. 5.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 11:52 am

    Although Newt claims, and some demure, an intellectual standing, his persona comes across as Primordial.

    The simplicity, the catch-phrases and sound-bytes , is the strong suit of the Republican strategy. When they get nuanced, they seem more like Dems.

    The image of the lion taking a zebra is as simple, and rabble-rousing as you can get, I mean short of showing pics of lynched blacks in the South.

  6. 6.

    lamh35

    January 30, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Bill Maher had a great New Rules segment on the RW’s hardon for comparing POTUS to Saul Alinsky.

    New Rule: Who The Fuck is Saul Alinsky

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 30, 2012 at 11:55 am

    Christ on a pogostick! Saul Alinsky on a teleprompter! I think you’ve got it.

    I was going to write that this started under Clinton, with Mena, Vince Foster and other buzzwords floating aimlessly in ether, but I assume they had them about Kennedy and Roosevelt, too .One that stands out is Brit Hume wearing a button that said “Free Lisa Meyers”, the conceit begin that LM’s interview with I forget whom that would bring the CLintons down at last! I think he was still on NBC then.

  8. 8.

    maya

    January 30, 2012 at 11:56 am

    Well, of course. Good right-thinking Xtianists love to give obscure names to their pitbulls. Sic’m Czarz!

  9. 9.

    rea

    January 30, 2012 at 11:56 am

    Gingrich came across as an intellectual lion-eating zebra

    Oh, surely Girich sees himself as a lion that eats zebras rather than a zebra that eats lions.

  10. 10.

    Steve

    January 30, 2012 at 11:57 am

    From your lips to FSM’s possibly non-existent ears, DougJ.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    January 30, 2012 at 11:57 am

    DougJ @ Top:

    … an intellectual lion-eating zebra …

    While I love the image of a kick-ass “lion-eating zebra”, I suspect this is a typo and the correct order is supposed to “zebra-eating lion”?

    .

  12. 12.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    January 30, 2012 at 11:58 am

    Clearly we need some more Republican debates, to help the independents understand the choices.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    January 30, 2012 at 11:58 am

    There’s a significant group who do listen every day to Limbaugh et. al.– and they have their special keywords and dog whistles. And if Rush says it, it’s true. Even if… one doesn’t always totally understand what the Rushster is talking about.

  14. 14.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 11:58 am

    In that exchange between Gingrich and John King, King came across as a pathetic sorry excuse of a journalist after Newt attacked him. Why did he not ask a follow-up question, about Newt’s hypocrisy during Clinton impeachment? I am sure school children would be better at King’s job, than he is.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 30, 2012 at 11:59 am

    These morons have committed the ultimate sin of the pusher…they’re shooting up the junk they sell to their conservatard junkie victims.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2012 at 11:59 am

    The Newt lion-zebra thing is actually from The Colbert Report, as John Dillinger links above.

  17. 17.

    lamh35

    January 30, 2012 at 11:59 am

    Ex-RNC chief rips current chairman for comments on Obama

    Former head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele ripped his successor, current RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, on Monday for comparing President Obama to the Italian cruise ship captain who allegedly abandoned ship and has been arrested on multiple charges.

    “I think it’s an unfortunate analogy. I mean, people died in that situation,” Steele said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday in Florida…

  18. 18.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    @rea: Newt brings to mind a hippo, rather than either a lion or a zebra.

  19. 19.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    It’s all kind of scary, if you think about it. Reminding me of a Bill Moyers interview with Richard Vigueri years ago on the topic of republicans creating their own world, with their own version of facts, and not playing in the same national narrative sandbox as everyone else. It seems to be reaching dangerous levels of cognitive dissonance, and does not bode well for the future, not if, but when, one these fools get back into the WH. It could be Peak Wingnut, but irrelevant if don’t survive it.

  20. 20.

    Violet

    January 30, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    footage of a lion chasing down a zebra. And then after the lion kills the zebra and looks up with his fur bloody, they switched back to a picture of Newt Gingrich with blood over his face. He had just made a meal out of John King.

    Hilarious they’re describing the Colbert Report video. They have no sense of irony, do they?

  21. 21.

    Bulworth

    January 30, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    footage of a lion chasing down a zebra. And then after the lion kills the zebra and looks up with his fur bloody, they switched back to a picture of Newt Gingrich with blood over his face. He had just made a meal out of John King.

    You know, it’s a real shame good Christians like Barber and their Jesus have been kicked out of the public square because their discourse is so elevating.

  22. 22.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    A hilarious pic of Obama in a Reagan ‘Do’, and some funny words, as well.

    Code of Conduct
    While there are no official rules of behavior on the campaign trail, over the years some guidelines have been established, and each party has its own list of recommended conduct. Here are some for your side.
    Do: Give a biblical justification for all policy positions.
    Don’t: Talk about being Mormon. Or black.
    Do: Talk about having a very distant great-aunt who is Hispanic and who taught you everything you know, but have since forgotten, about speaking Spanish.
    Do: Disavow any positions you may have had in the past that were mainstream Republican policies as of ten years ago.
    Do: Express your solidarity with the birthers.
    Don’t: Express your solidarity with the birthers.
    Do: Remind the American people that Democrats love the terrorists. Sure, Obama found Bin Laden and then calmly made the decision to have him killed—but he didn’t even torture him first!

    Good Luck!

    Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201107/gop-candidates-2012-open-letter#ixzz1kxft4VPL

  23. 23.

    Boo

    January 30, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    “It’s no wonder these debates are killing Republicans’ favorability with independent voters.”

    But that always happens with primaries. In 2008, the long democratic primary raised Obama and Clinton’s negatives when compared to John Mccain. I think its a mistake to think independents will continue to see eventual nominee Romney in the same negative light once the general election starts. Its no use for us to be complacent based on what the polls say in January.

  24. 24.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    Interesting point. Although we can get mighty insular on our blogs, I think our side does better at realizing that most people won’t get the inside jokes, simply because most of us aren’t laboring under the illusion that our numbers are far greater than they are. When I make reference in mixed (that is, not all flaming lefty) company to esoteric stuff I think most people won’t get, I always add a self-deprecatory disclaimer about people who aren’t obsessively political probably not being interested in this, etc., etc.

    I’m surprised by how often people are aware of the references, but even when they’re not, people seem to appreciate the explanation and are usually at least somewhat interested in the topic. I very much doubt these tin-eared righties who rant about Alinsky and field mice even notice the blank and bored looks they get when they go on and on about this crap. When your political philosophy/tactics are based on smashing crockery, running over pedestrians and general bulldozing, you tend not to be adept at conversational cues, either.

    Wow, that was a highly self-congratulatory little comment, wasn’t it? ;)

  25. 25.

    Watusie

    January 30, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    I had the same problem with The X-Files from Season 4 onwards – roundabout the time when the square-jawed aliens with their eyes and mouths sewn shut started turning up.

  26. 26.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    @Violet: And to think that some wingnuts think that Colbert is one of them, even after he
    skewers them almost daily on his show.

  27. 27.

    RossInDetroit

    January 30, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Hippos kill more people in Africa than lions. Lions are all about the show, but the hippo’s just lurking under the surface until you get out of the boat.

  28. 28.

    The Moar You Know

    January 30, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    When children live in a world of their own, making up their own language and ignoring everything around them, we call it autism.

    BEAR DNA CAPTAIN ITALIAN GUY TELEPROMPTER

  29. 29.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    @Violet: I can’t remember if BJ was one of the places in which the recent poll on Colbert was discussed. This study found that conservatives and liberals found Colbert equally funny, but liberals know his character’s a parody and conservatives think he means what he says.

    Left unexplained was why, if the character is serious, the stuff he says would even be humorous. Presumably our friends on the right just enjoy the superb and always elegant ass-kicking Colbert deals daily to the progressive front.

  30. 30.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    @RossInDetroit: Usually hippos kill people on land when the hapless individuals accidentally get between them and the body of water. Think of it as a teabagger being separated from his stash of Little Debbie cakes.

  31. 31.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    Left unexplained was why, if the character is serious, the stuff he says would even be humorous.

    Then Colbert would be no different than any of those elebenty talking heads on Fox.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    January 30, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Reminding me of a Bill Moyers interview with Richard Vigueri years ago on the topic of republicans creating their own world, with their own version of facts, and not playing in the same national narrative sandbox as everyone else.

    The most dangerous part is that they’re not content to play in their own sandbox. They’re trying to drag the rest of us into their sandbox and make policies there. Unfortunately, the policies can’t be contained to Republicanworld and have to interact with objective reality at some point- and we’re all going to face the consequences.

  33. 33.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    @MattF:

    There’s a significant group who do listen every day to Limbaugh et. al.—and they have their special keywords and dog whistles.

    But that’s the weird thing: that block isn’t big enough to win an election. So pandering to that block while confusing and alienating everyone else ain’t sound strategy when you’re chatting on national TV with someone who’s not in the clique.

    No, I think it’s more that they just can’t help it — the get so much jolly from their in-jokes that they can’t stop with them.

  34. 34.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    But that’s the weird thing: that block isn’t big enough to win an election.

    What about the Republican Primaries though?

  35. 35.

    CaptainFwiffo

    January 30, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    I think the field mice are supposed to be gay San Francisco marsh mice. It was on the list with anti-gravity chairs… It might not have been the same list… I think it might have been on a list that was contemporary with Coburn’s anti-anti-gravity chair amendment.

    It’s like the time where that guy showed up at a unitarian courthouse to perform a citizens arrest on an activist judge working with the Tides Foundation to cover up Barry Soetero’s birth certificate from the Indonesian Harvard.

  36. 36.

    RossInDetroit

    January 30, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    The political realm is getting more and more polarized. I blame the media, of course. Detroit used to have an R newspaper, the News, and a D newspaper, the Free Press. Now they’re indistinguishable except for editorial content because of consolidation. And of course neither has a fraction of the influence they had even 10 years ago.
    Used to be if you were an informed voter you regularly encountered ideas that challenged you. Now it’s possible to immerse yourself in a comfortable realm where everyone agrees with you. Competing realms have their own issues and vocabulary. We used to argue over differing approaches to our common problems. Now we’re not even seeing the same problems any more.

  37. 37.

    IM

    January 30, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    @Mark S.:

    Now that is rather an international thing. Here in Germany you will say field hamster, these creatures supposed to be all standing between us and the next big building project guaranteeing a golden future.

    Wasn’t it once upon a time in the US the spotted owl or same sort of fish.

    After some events in Lousiana, complaining about volcano monitoring seems to be out of fashion.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    January 30, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Thank you for that GQ link.

    For Venn diagram fans: Under “Challenges”:

    This road traditionally has many obstacles. But this year a new one is in store for you: the changes that have occurred in your party. …. what’s happened in your party is this:

    Circle A: What you have to say to get nominated
    __
    Circle B: What you have to say to get elected

    Notice that the circles do not intersect.

    Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201107/gop-candidates-2012-open-letter#ixzz1kxjukp75

  39. 39.

    KG

    January 30, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    It’s the nature of the Wingularity… the closer you get to the event horizon, the harder it is to recognize reality.

  40. 40.

    handsmile

    January 30, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Four days ago, it was Jan Brewer accusing Obama of being “thin-skinned.” Yesterday, Preibus lobs this offensive and inapt comparison.

    Obscurity in the defense of free association is no vice. Every few days another loyal party apparatchik will queue up to deliver a fresh insult. And that remark will be the most-played song on the media Wurlitzer until the next “hit,” whether or not listeners know what the lyrics mean. Two of the GOP’s favorite games are in play here: “Throw it against the wall, see what sticks” and “Control the news cycle.” Rinse and repeat. Mission accomplished.

    Much like his birthplace, indeed his very presidency, Obama’s long-demonstrated character is deemed to be suspect, even illegitimate. It is the GOP’s most fervent wish that someday some provocation, no matter how unfair, untrue, outrageous or obscure, will cause Obama to respond in a thin-skinned or aggressive manner. (Coming attractions: nastier insults directed at the First Family.) Because on that day, Republican prayers will be answered.

  41. 41.

    Robert Waldmann

    January 30, 2012 at 12:18 pm

    I live in Italy. The Costa Concordia (cruise ship) has been aground on the front page of the papers for days. I learned captain Schettino’s name from Preibus.

    I didn’t notice any explanation for the comparison. Given the latest polls, I’m sure Reince would love it if Obama abandoned ship, but I don’t see why he has his hopes up.

  42. 42.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    When I saw the pic, I was laughing so that my shaking hand spilled my morning elixir.

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I think you’re on to something here. I love me some Firesign Theater, and I can see a striking similarity to snarky off-hand references to “cow farts” and fire-fans saying “Shoes For Industry!” at odd moments.

  44. 44.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: Me, too. It’s what I love best about BJ commenters: y’all may be erudite as hell, but you also regularly embrace a 12-year-old’s sense of humor.

  45. 45.

    ChrisNYC

    January 30, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Schettino was ALL over CNN and Fox. Perfect story for them. So people may get that.

    Newt’s stump speech though is pure internet. Bowing to Saudi kings, Fast and Furious, one other that I can’t remember right now. I watched the rally he did at a retirement community yesterday (“The Villages” was the name of the place…OMG!). Crowd was hooting and hollering and seemingly right on board. Maybe the Redstaters are all 75+.

  46. 46.

    GregB

    January 30, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    There is also this weird disconnect wherein the far right and the media are always decrying incivility yet they all relish in the most blatant acts of incivility.

    President Obama uses the generic term fat-cats and they all have a collective shitfit about dividing America yet these rightwing fools blather on about Hitler, Stalin, Mao and wag fingers in faces and they consider that telling it like it is.

    It’s just so strange to watch the idiocy of it all.

  47. 47.

    Seonachan

    January 30, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Would have been a better analogy if it were a giraffe.

    If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days because they get infections and they don’t have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they’re relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn’t matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis-class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets, a female may be again dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.

  48. 48.

    Chris

    January 30, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Do: Give a biblical justification for all policy positions.

    I don’t think they do a lot of that, actually – I have yet to read a Biblical justification for their tax policies or for their foreign policy, other than “God loves us and hates commies and hajjis so FUCK ‘EM!” But no Bible linkee…

  49. 49.

    Culture of Truth

    January 30, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    “Excuse me stewardess, I speak wingnut.”

  50. 50.

    Dave

    January 30, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    The captain’s name is not as obscure as you think. I watch the first hour of the Today show every day, and for the last two weeks, every days there’s some new story about the cruise ship and what a shitheel the captain is.

  51. 51.

    kindness

    January 30, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    @different-church-lady: How about if the media just admits they ‘Are All Bozos on This Bus’?

  52. 52.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    @Seonachan: Did BoB write that block-quoted comment?

  53. 53.

    John S.

    January 30, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    When children live in a world of their own, making up their own language and ignoring everything around them, we call it autism.

    I get the thrust of your point, but as the parent of an autistic child, you sort of missed the mark. That isn’t really how most autistic children operate. Republicans CHOOSE to have perceptional impairment; autistic kids do not.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    January 30, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    More from that GQ article:

    At the very least, you’re guaranteed a show on Fox News, for the few of you who don’t already have one.

    Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201107/gop-candidates-2012-open-letter#ixzz1kxpod6ij

    Stephen Sherrill, meet Charles Pierce.

    (The photo illustration looks a little like Obama goes Bruno Mars.)

  55. 55.

    Seonachan

    January 30, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: No, Gingrich said it.

  56. 56.

    amk

    January 30, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: These lame ass punks get the courage only if they face dems. And will lick their own balls when they confront rethugs.

  57. 57.

    GregB

    January 30, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    @John Dillinger:

    The other thing about most wingnuts is they are so uncreative and really can only vomit back up what they have been told or shown.

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    @different-church-lady: And when I say I love Firesign, I mean I really love me some Firesign. And as a true example, I just broke a dish loudly on the floor and my very first thought was, “I’ll have to get the Mayor to clean that up later.” Which is so obscure I can’t even find a single google hit on it.

  59. 59.

    slag

    January 30, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    @lamh35: If I understand Mr. Steele correctly, he says that Reince Priebus’s analogy was even wacker than Newt Gingrich’s new plan to turn 9 year olds into cruise ship captains.

  60. 60.

    lamh35

    January 30, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    the GOP really need to go back and watch the debates with then Dem nominee Obama and GOP nominee McCain. Obama was calm, cool, collected and never rattled and never shied away from correcting the record or calling McCain on his lies and hyperboles. He did it decisively and deathly, without throwing bombs and useless extra gestures like Gingrich oh and without his “trusty teleprompter”. How soon people forget that Obama is very swift on his feet.

    Obama vs Mittens…please no contest, IMHO. But hey wingnuts enjoy their delusional fantasies.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om-0uFFqzdA&feature=player_embedded

  61. 61.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    @shortstop:

    Well, that’s ok. I prefer it to being ‘stodgy’.

  62. 62.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 30, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    @Seonachan: OMG! BoB is really Gingrich, that totally makes sense!

  63. 63.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    @Seonachan:

    Nonsense, only an idiot would hunt giraffes. The meat is stringy and you need an air ee oh plane.

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    January 30, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    @Dave:

    Not that wingnuts would be reading The Guardian (superb UK paper), but Guardian has been writing at length about Captain Schettino. Sadly, that cool Coast Guard captain’s name is less memorable. (EDIT: well, it’s Gregorio DeFalco. Not that hard…)

    Another cool thing about The Guardian: Carl Hiaasen writing about the Florida GOP primary.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/30/florida-republican-primary-carl-hiaasen

  65. 65.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Yeah, I’m old so I had to look him up. Considering GQ’s audience, that may have been what they had in mind; Mars being born in Hawaii, and all.

  66. 66.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: I hope you recognized my untrammeled admiration! That was no kind of criticism, sir.

  67. 67.

    mds

    January 30, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    Evidence in support of Land’s analysis can be found in a webcast on the Internet site of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association.

    Ah, yes. Because it’s “Adam and Eve and Susan and Tricia and an intern to be named later,” not “Adam and Steve.”

    It’s oddly appropriate that the SBC’s Land provided the segue to the Talibornagain’s enthusiasm for a serial philanderer whose “conversion story” is joining the religion of the woman he last officially commited adultery with. Dr. Land was one of those trying to provide cover to his co-religionists a while back by suggesting that Mormonism is just another sect of Christianity after all. He obviously wanted to be backing a winner instead of whoever got left behind by the clown car. Alas, it seems the AFA is having none of it, and Franklin Graham only broke from his nonstop tax-exempt fluffing of Sarah Palin to talk up Donald Trump. Funny that their latest horse is Newt rather than the lifelong devout conservative Christian who has several children and is still on his first wife. And by “Funny” I naturally mean “Completely predictable,” as Rick Santorum isn’t quite enough of a vicious asshole to appeal to the True Followers of the Prince of Peace in this country.

  68. 68.

    slag

    January 30, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    For Venn diagram fans: Under “Challenges”

    I hate to do this, not being an expert in diagramming, but I believe the circles in Venn diagrams must be overlapping. I think what we may be talking about here is a Euler diagram.

    Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

  69. 69.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    January 30, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    @lamh35: It’s clear things are somewhat desperate when Michael Steele offers a cogent criticism. I stole much of Ralf’s letter to send to CBS:
    I find it totally unacceptable for a veteran journalist such as Bob Schieffer to have laughed at the purported “joke” Reince Priebus made asserting that President Obama is like Captain Schettino. The comment itself was out of bounds, for a number of reasons. In no way has the President abandoned the ship of state. In no way has President Obama recklessly endangered our citizens the way that captain recklessly endangered – and killed – his passengers.

    There are bodies still being recovered. Mr. Priebus took a cheap and tawdry shot at the President at the expense of families worldwide who are grieving – or still sitting in anguish that their loved ones are missing – including families here in the United States. It is beyond tasteless. I find it hard to believe a professional spokesman lacks the judgment to understand that it is inappropriate to joke about accidents in which people lost their lives. Mr. Priebus should be forced from his position for such graceless cruelty in furtherance of political points.

    But it is the height of unprofessionalism for Mr. Schieffer to have laughed along. Watching the video, I was simply shocked at Mr. Scheiffer’s laugh. There was nothing in the least bit funny about what Mr. Priebus said.

    Perhaps Mr. Schieffer’s tenure on the air has should be reconsidered in light of his apparently diminished cognitive capacity. I expect a full public apology, from Mr. Schieffer on the air. It should address the American and worldwide audience, and note that people from many countries are grieving. Until that apology, I will encourage everyone I know to boycott the sponsors of Face the Nation, and indeed other CBS offerings should the apology be not be forthcoming with the next two days. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

    Very truly yours,

    Bella Q

  70. 70.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 30, 2012 at 12:58 pm

    @shortstop:

    On the contrary, I found it complimentary, like the last time I was carded……

    Shite! That was 30 years ago.

  71. 71.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    @mds:

    “conversion story” is joining the religion of the woman he last officially commited adultery with

    …that we know of. This ain’t over yet.

  72. 72.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    @slag: Didacticism: it’s not always a bad thing.

  73. 73.

    Paul in KY

    January 30, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    @Seonachan: How ever did our female anscestors survive when we regularily lived in ditches & caves & whatnot 24/7 to stay out of the way of about 18 or 20 animal species that thought we were quite tasty?

    Guess the Earth was much cleaner then.

  74. 74.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: I was mercy carded a while back. It just doesn’t have the same uplifting effect when it’s accompanied by a look of condescending benevolence. Still, the kid was trying to be kind.

  75. 75.

    slag

    January 30, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Didacticism: it’s not always a bad thing.

    Ha! Ambiguous statement is ambiguous.

  76. 76.

    Cat Lady

    January 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    Every time I’ve seen Michael Steele on one or another MSNBC show lately, I don’t recoil in disgust. He’s dropped the minstrel act he did when he was with the RNC, and he seems to have found his misplaced dignity. He seems to be enjoying himself. I guess he’s earning an honest living for once in his life.

  77. 77.

    Ben Cisco

    January 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    @Culture of Truth:

    “Excuse me stewardess, I speak wingnut.”

    I call new tag!

  78. 78.

    Robert Waldmann

    January 30, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    @Boo:

    Boo where do you get your data ? I just checked all favorable unvavorable ratings of Obama from 2008 which are listed at pollingreport.com. There was no poll in their data set with more unfavorable than favorable. I note they don’t report Rasmussen polls (or hunches guesses and what you think you know either).

    I also didn’t notice a rise and fall of unfavorables over the year.

    H Clinton (who you will note has not been elected President) did have high unfavorables. But they didn’t increase noticibly from 2007 to 2008.

    I think your assertion that this always happens is false. I suspect that you didn’t bother to check any evidence. To be quite frank, I think you don’t understand the value of data. To be franker, I think you have insufficient respect for the truth.

  79. 79.

    Jay S

    January 30, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    All right, I’ve a passing understanding of wingnut, but what the heck does ‘silver dimes’ refer to?

  80. 80.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    @Jay S:

    but what the heck does ‘silver dimes’ refer to?

    My best guess is an oblique reference to FDR and New Deal soshulist stuff.

  81. 81.

    wrb

    January 30, 2012 at 1:20 pm

    I agree with the overall point but strongly disagree about the story of the two captains.

    It is epic, Homeric, biblical, the characters archetypes.

    It will be the matter of myth and legend.

    Democrats should make it their myth: Boehner et al are whining in the lifeboat. Coast Guard captain Obama is ordering them back to their posts.

  82. 82.

    RalfW

    January 30, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    @lamh35:

    Maybe I’m just being a dork, but the Hill’s headline is absurd:

    Ex-RNC chief rips current chairman for comments on Obama

    “I think it’s an unfortunate analogy. I mean, people died in that situation,” Steele said.

    Ohh, the gloves and the earrings came off in that one! Woot!

    Wait. “unfortunate analogy”? “I mean, people died…” What, pray tell oh sages on the Hill, was the ripping?

    I know it’s small beans to go after the Hill, but so many headline writers do this. Steele criticized. He pointed out the fail. But ripped? That’s what Newt dod to King (as so well illustrated by Colbert).

    When everything is called an attack, it all becomes meaningless. A chide is not a rip. A correction of the record is not an attack.

    The editors all think a weary and jaded world needs to have amped up headlines. But it’s just crap. Day in and day out of crap.

  83. 83.

    ajesquire

    January 30, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    The best example of right-wing inside-baseball killing their candidates that I can recall is John McCain’s debate with Barack Obama when McCain put “health of the mother” in air-scare-quotes, referring to exceptions from abortion restrictions.

    Right-wingers had been complaining to each other that courts were interpreting health-of-the-mother (as opposed to LIFE-of-the-mother) exceptions to abortion restrictions too broadly (inclusion the use of mental health) so that the exceptions swallowed the rule.

    McCain probably thought he scored major points with that comment, but just came across looking like a heartless ass.

  84. 84.

    Judas Escargot

    January 30, 2012 at 1:33 pm

    @Jay S:

    All right, I’ve a passing understanding of wingnut, but what the heck does ‘silver dimes’ refer to?

    The RONPAUL likes to point out that a gallon of gas used to be 10 cents, back when the dime actually had silver in it. So if we went back to a Gold Standard, gas would be that cheap again!

    (Really, that’s his pitch– ironically he’s also explaining how going to a gold standard would lead to destructive, apocalyptic deflation).

  85. 85.

    Culture of Truth

    January 30, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    RalfW BLASTS MEDIA FOR CRAP HEADLINES

  86. 86.

    Jay S

    January 30, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    @Judas Escargot:
    Ah, thank you. Then it’s part of the libertarian dialect of wingnut. I vaguely remember Ron Paul saying that. I didn’t realize it had become a part of the lexicon.

  87. 87.

    jibeaux

    January 30, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    @ajesquire: I’m a woman with my fair share of reservations about abortion, and I will remember McCain’s air quotes about the health of the mother for as long as I live. It’s a large part of what makes me come down on the side of, “even though it’s something I wouldn’t do, I’m going to go ahead and trust that decision with the person who is pregnant and not these assclowns.”

  88. 88.

    chopper

    January 30, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    @Judas Escargot:

    actually, given the high price of silver, an old silver dime is worth about as much as a gallon of gas currently costs. i think paul is trying to emphasize the value of precious metals.

  89. 89.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    @ajesquire: Good call! I’d forgotten that one.

  90. 90.

    Culture of Truth

    January 30, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    you need that dog collar from “Up” to follow a Paul speech. “Sound money!” “Austrians!” “Liberty!”

  91. 91.

    Paul in KY

    January 30, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    @Culture of Truth: This just in: ‘Culture of Truth Destroys Snarkometer With Headline’.

  92. 92.

    fasteddie9318

    January 30, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    The nutters seem to be crossing some singularity threshold where the nutter movement stops being run by the people who are still smart enough to know that the bullshit they’re feeding the masses is bullshit, and starts being run by the people who have been fed the bullshit and manifestly believe that the bullshit is true. It’s probably going to get uglier before it gets better, and it may not really start to get better until the increasingly elderly Fox News audience starts dying with some rapidity.

  93. 93.

    bjacques

    January 30, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    @Judas Escargot:

    When I was but a whey-faced lad, besotted with Ayn Rand, I remember a bit in Atlas Shrugged where one of the characters, who the Everyman character knew had disappeared, turns up again and offers him a cigarette, and it’s the best he’d ever had. Everyman doesn’t recognize the brand and asks the guy how much they cost.

    A pack costs 5 cents. In gold.

  94. 94.

    Judas Escargot

    January 30, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    @chopper:

    i think paul is trying to emphasize the value of precious metals.

    Seeing as his portfolio is 64% in gold and silver mining interests, this is hardly surprising.

  95. 95.

    Svensker

    January 30, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    But that’s the weird thing: that block isn’t big enough to win an election. So pandering to that block while confusing and alienating everyone else ain’t sound strategy when you’re chatting on national TV with someone who’s not in the clique.

    I don’t think they know there’s an “outside” to their “inside.” Their entire world is bounded by Fox News and Rush, The Corner, American Thinker, and for the intellekshuls, WSJ. They don’t read, hear or see anything outside this. If, by accident, they do get a transmission from the outside, they ascribe any inconvenient “facts” that make it through the filter to liberal media bias.

  96. 96.

    Culture of Truth

    January 30, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    Preciousssssssss!!!!!!!

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    January 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    DougJ @ Top:

    It’s no wonder these debates are killing Republicans’ favorability with independent voters.

    Huh?

    The thing is that Independent voter unhappiness with the Republicans is not translating into support for Obama. From a recent NY Times piece (Poll Shows Obama’s Vulnerability With Swing Voters, Jan 18):

    The swing voters who will play a pivotal role in determining his political fate are up for grabs, the poll found, with just 31 percent expressing a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama. Two-thirds of independent voters say he has not made real progress fixing the economy….
    __
    While Republican primary voters say Mitt Romney stands the best chance of defeating Mr. Obama, nearly half of independents say they have yet to form an opinion of him, creating a considerable opening for Democrats to try to quickly define him if he becomes the nominee.

    In addition, there is this weird thing that I hear among people in Southern California that Mitt is saying whatever he needs to placate the GOP fundies, that he will govern as a moderate and, because he is obviously a successful businesman, he will be able to fix the economy. And hey, his tax returns prove that he has the Midas touch.

    I think this positive view of Mitt is dumbass. But Independent voter disenchantment is real.

  98. 98.

    Culture of Truth

    January 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    I think one of Newt’s problems is that he deviates from their insular wingnut world. As far as I know, “colonized moon base” is not part of their mythology. Yes, he doing it to win votes in Florida, but it’s also Newt being Newt.

  99. 99.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    @Svensker: 15 different ways of spelling “Exactly”, take your pick.

  100. 100.

    Downpuppy

    January 30, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    Am I the only one getting ads featuring a bent over naked model offering “Mutually Beneficial Arrangements” next to a classic car?

    Must be mistress day.

  101. 101.

    Svensker

    January 30, 2012 at 2:33 pm

    @Downpuppy:

    Am I the only one getting ads featuring a bent over naked model offering “Mutually Beneficial Arrangements” next to a classic car?

    Nope, I’m getting her, too. My interest in naked girls is even less than my interest in fancy cars, so somebody’s demographics are all screwed up.

  102. 102.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 30, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    The paranoid style always has its own lexicon. What’s interesting, I think, is that the threshold for that kind of “inspeak” — i.e. an argot — has shifted ever further from the fringe.

  103. 103.

    wrb

    January 30, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    @Downpuppy:

    Wow.

  104. 104.

    gogol's wife

    January 30, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    @lamh35:

    I don’t always like Maher, but that is excellent.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    January 30, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    @fasteddie9318:

    It’s probably going to get uglier before it gets better, and it may not really start to get better until the increasingly elderly Fox News audience starts dying with some rapidity.

    Stupidity is a constantly renewing resource. New dopes will replace the ones fading away.

    Consider, for example, the youthful Ron Paul supporters.

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    @The Moar You Know:
    When I was a wee lad running around the neighborhood with the other wee tots we used to make up games with names of stuff, invisible enemies and friends and generally any other kind of make believe that we could.
    But even at a very young age we recognized that it was not real.
    Rethugs, having never grown up, and never having recognized make believe are still playing games.

  107. 107.

    GeneJockey

    January 30, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    @Downpuppy:

    Probably the references to Newt are triggering some text-based ad-selection program.

  108. 108.

    wrb

    January 30, 2012 at 3:02 pm

    @GeneJockey:
    Just checked the new “plane” story and there Columbian girls are being offered.

  109. 109.

    Another Bob

    January 30, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    And then after the lion kills the zebra and looks up with his fur bloody, they switched back to a picture of Newt Gingrich with blood over his face.

    Considering it’s Gingrich, it wouldn’t be a zebra, it would be a plate. It wouldn’t be blood, it would be gravy.

  110. 110.

    xian

    January 30, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: re ” Sure, Obama found Bin Laden and then calmly made the decision to have him killed—but he didn’t even torture him first!”:

    I’m thinking of a t-shirt now: “Obama shot first!”

  111. 111.

    xian

    January 30, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Italians are also “other,” not fully white, mediterranean, “guineas” (which meant African, based on the guinea coast), etc., plus not sure how Ri-eence Pree-bus (pee-ance freelance), aka RNC PR-BS pronounced it, as I haven’t watched the clip, but given Schieffer’s spit take, did he perhaps say “shettino” as if he was calling Obama something like “Captain Shit-ino”?

  112. 112.

    xian

    January 30, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: actually i can see it. it means they are actually willing go laugh at themselves, and that they know their views sound silly when taken to an extreme, but the chiding is so gentle and knowing that they think they see Colbert winking at them.

    I remember too some liberals who found Colbert offensive when he first launched.

  113. 113.

    AnotherBruce

    January 30, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    @Brachiator: Thanks, I never understood the logic of this claim. Sure lots of old people die off, but lots off middle aged people become old too.

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    January 30, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    @IM:
    Funny story: The Northern Spotted Owl never existed. It was an utterly arbitrary definition based on where they lived. If the forest had been turned into a lumbering forest (rather than old growth) the same owls would still have lived there, but they would no longer be Northern Spotted Owls. Identical owls thrive in the lumbering forests of California under a different name.

    I found that out doing research for an environmental science course in college. After I presented it (as the ‘con’ argument for the project) my classmates voted unanimously that it was necessary to protect the Northern Spotted Owl that I’d just explained did not exist. Really, that tells you all you need to know about humanity.

  115. 115.

    shortstop

    January 30, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    @xian:

    it means they are actually willing go laugh at themselves

    Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.

    Really, though, can you think of any other examples of so many of them being so willing to laugh at themselves in a single context?

  116. 116.

    priscianusjr

    January 30, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    @MattF:

    There’s a significant group who do listen every day to Limbaugh et. al.—and they have their special keywords and dog whistles. And if Rush says it, it’s true. Even if… one doesn’t always totally understand what the Rushster is talking about.

    Glenn Beck was even more like that, wasn’t he?

  117. 117.

    priscianusjr

    January 30, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Identical owls thrive in the lumbering forests of California under a different name.

    I’m sure the owls are very happy there — until the forests are cut down.

  118. 118.

    priscianusjr

    January 30, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    @xian:

    Italians are also “other,” not fully white, mediterranean, “guineas” (which meant African, based on the guinea coast), etc.

    For that matter, Jews didn’t become white until 1967. Before that they were pretty much the same as A-rabs, if not more so.

  119. 119.

    replicnt6

    January 30, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    I still occasionally say “That’s a good idea, Chuck, but syrup won’t stop ’em.”

    Needless to say, nobody, but nobody around me has any idea what I’m talking about.

    But that’s not uncommon.

  120. 120.

    ThresherK

    January 30, 2012 at 5:06 pm

    Right wingers are getting royalty checks from a company that doesn’t want TelePrompter to become the next once-trademarked term lost to generic use.

    Like aspirin, vanilla or cellophane used to be proper nouns with commercial value.

    Aside from that, I got nuttin.

  121. 121.

    Intercalation

    January 30, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: I hope you received an appropriately low grade for that revelation. The same nonsense argument is regularly trotted out with respect to distinct salmon populations, and it is equally wrong in that application as well. Thought experiment: if an undergrad-level investigation into an issue reveals information that completely upends such a hot button topic, which is more likely, that the undergrad found something all the experts and talking heads missed, or that the undergrad doesn’t know enough to know how woefully misinformed he is?

  122. 122.

    Frankensteinbeck

    January 30, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    @Intercalation:
    Actually, I got great grades, thanks, because among other things I know the difference between overturning the science of experts and overturning bullshit narratives like the environmental debate is filled with. Notice that you did not actually provide any counterargument, as neither did they. Instead, I’m beset with arguments like prisc’s above, who does not understand the difference between clear-cutting and a lumbering forest. The owl has a huge range, and a genetically identical population thrives nearby in lumbering forests, which the old growth forest would have been turned into.

    It is very hard to come up with an argument the experts in the field have missed. It’s very easy to come up with an argument other college students have missed, or that pundits and activists have missed – as I would think anyone who follows politics would have noticed by now.

  123. 123.

    Another Bob

    January 30, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Frankensteinbeck, I don’t see you presenting anything other than a “bullshit narrative” yourself. On the other hand, there DO seem to be multiple studies that have been done at the detailed genetic level that unequivocally show that the Northern Spotted Owl is a legitimate subspecies, genetically distinct from two more southerly subspecies.

    http://darwin.eeb.uconn.edu/eeb310/lecture-notes/spotted-owl/node2.html

    http://www.fws.gov/arcata/es/birds/NSO/documents/ScientificEvalofStatusofNSO.pdf

    Central to understanding the status of the subspecies is an evaluation of its taxonomic status. The panel is unanimous in finding that the Northern Spotted Owl is a distinct
    subspecies, well differentiated from other subspecies of Spotted Owls.

  124. 124.

    DougJarvus Green-Ellis

    January 30, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    I have also liked his commentary on tv recently. Surprisingly so.

    One thing is that neither he nor Steve Schmidt seems like that much of an asshole when they’re on tv these days. Go figure.

  125. 125.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    @Another Bob:

    meh. lumpers and splitters

  126. 126.

    Another Bob

    January 30, 2012 at 10:30 pm

    @General Stuck:

    meh. lumpers and splitters

    No, something is either genetically distinct or it’s not. Mitochondrial haplotypes are either the same or they’re different. It’s objective, not arbitrary.

  127. 127.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    @Another Bob:

    Well, okay then. I’ve always mostly a taxonomic splitter myself. I did do some Spotted Owl population research one summer with the forest service, and got pretty good with my S.O. hoot. It’s been awhile though, and have forgot how.

  128. 128.

    Andrew W.

    January 30, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    What struck me about that clip from old man Schieffer that mistermix put up wasn’t so much how offensive Reince’s comparison was but how obscure it was. How many viewers could possibly have known who Captain Schettino is? I had no idea.

    The Costa Concordia is the most expensive passenger wreck in history. Maybe you are preoccupied with politics but Jesus Christ, that’s an embarrassing admission for someone on the Internet 24/7.

  129. 129.

    Another Bob

    January 30, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    @General Stuck:

    That’s pretty cool. I’ve probably never even seen a spotted owl, although I grew up in Northern California. Another bird that I’ve read about because it also likes to nest in old-growth timber is the marbled murrelet. Did you ever see any of those? They sound very interesting. Birds that spend most of their lives at sea but seek out old-growth timber to nest.

  130. 130.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    @Another Bob:

    Did you ever see any of those?

    Nope, not that I remember. but we were quite a ways inland, in NM.

  131. 131.

    Another Bob

    January 30, 2012 at 11:45 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Oh, New Mexico, eh? So you must have been dealing with the Mexican Spotted Owl subspecies, if my sources are correct.

  132. 132.

    General Stuck

    January 30, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    @Another Bob:

    So you must have been dealing with the Mexican Spotted Owl subspecies,

    you are correct

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