Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You can’t love your country only when you win.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Cole is on a roll !

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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Archives for January 2012

Because We Haven’t Been Ripping Off Charlie Pierce That Much Lately…

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…I can’t resist drawing your attention to this line:

By the way, Politico? Quoting Fred Barnes on anything is the recognized international I Got Nothin’signal. Quoting Fred Barnes on American politics is the functional equivalent of asking a fruit bat what it thinks about the trade deficit.

The whole post (on the bathos of GOP Daddies bemoaning their current nominating pool) is, as always, worth a read.
Nothing else to add, except that on my travels as a youth, I had occasion to consume fruit bats, both grilled and stewed (once in a braise of five species, two of them previously undescribed).  I can assure you that they are tasty, but fully as uninformed about balances of trade as Mr. Pierce suggests.
Yet more thread!
Image Vincent van Gogh, The Bat, 1886

 

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Some Pig

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(Pat Oliphant via GoComics.com)
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The Guardian‘s invaluable Richard Adams will be live-blogging the Iowa caucuses. Kick-off at 8pm EST, “a winner possibly being named around 10pm or 11pm” — from the undisclosed off-site location, presumably.
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Apart from ongoing demonstrations that 140-character deliminations are inadequate for responsible social interaction, what else is on the agenda?

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Blessed Are The Peacemakers

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Why not, then?  I’ll have a go.

First:  There is a reason I long ago stopped reading Greenwald.  That would be captured by this joke.  Greenwald does a real service when he points out the facts of the surveillance state.  He does monumental disservice when his particular version of civil liberties purity leads him to make strongly imply/tiptoe up to the brink of a practical political judgment* —  Paul over Obama — and his factionalism leads him to paint those who disagree with that judgment along the lines found in this image:

That kind of nonsense is how we let the worse angels among us bring in regimes like that of the 43rd president of the United States, objectively pro-torture (and much more) in a way that 44 is not.

As for Paul himself — I’m not even going to repeat what many here have said better:  that Greenwald’s Paul fixation turns on fantasies.  You don’t even need the racism to know that he would be a terrible president, that liberty in any practical sense for most individuals would diminish, and that the daily lives of most Americans would be harder under the bonkers gold-buggery and all the rest with which a Paul administration would wreck the economy.  In that context, his race profiteering and his deference to the Lost Causers’ “liberty” to crush the rights of other Americans, just tells you that Paul is a pure waste of carbon, on top of the potential disaster he represents should he ever pull the levers of real power.

All of which is to say that I feel myself fortunate to have enjoyed my brother’s 50th birthday celebration over the last several days, ignoring the web, thus missing all the excitement.  Had I been checking out my surroundings, I would have said that Greenwald is, IMHO,  bluntly and blatantly in the wrong in this latest exchange — and that I hope ABL returns to posting here soon.

To which calming end let me offer up one photo (and a couple of bonus images below the jump) of a genre in too short supply around here lately.

Pets!

Here’s my cat, Tikka, thinking deep thoughts:

And for everyone who’s gotten a little too anxious to join the circular firing squad lately, may I suggest some personal time with your local version of my antidote to the long dark teatime of the soul?  That would be, for me, almost any line where the shore meets the sea:

And last, lest the moment pass without at least a hint of political snark, let me offer one more treat, something I’ve been saving up for when we all need something nice.  That would be this image, sent to me by some now-lost-to-the-‘tubes Samaritan, titled “Silly Putty Rupert Murdoch”

Perhaps you’ve all been wanting some more thread?

*Change made to satisfy those who feel that touting the virtues of Congressman Paul’s libertarian views, whilst condemning in the strongest possible language the moral and policy choices of President Obama does not constitute a direct endorsement.

Images:  Fransisco de Goya  y Lucientes, The Lamp of the Devil, 1797-1798

Kitten Tikka Masala, photograph by TL, Jan. 2, 2012

McClure’s Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, photograph by TL, December 30, 2011.

Anon., Silly Putty Rupert Murdoch, early 21st century.

 

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Burn down the cornfield

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I like Obot/Firebagger flame wars as much as the next navel-gazing blogger — and for the record, I’m mostly with ABL on this one, because I agree with Sam Spade’s “she was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it” — but, with all due respect to both ABL and Johnny Drama, you’re never going to top my Accountability Now showdown with Greenwald. Nah guh happen. I wish I could show you all the crazy emails from that episode.

So I’d rather talk about all the craziness in Iowa, even though I already have wing nuts fatigue. Paultards, the Hayekian modest of Mitt Romney, when God gives you Santorum….and there might even be some crazy new dark horse candidate that Halperin falls in love with.

Is there any real way that Santorum can be resuscitated as a serious, Burkean, heartland himbo (not just by Bobo but more broadly)? Any chance we could be in for some school marm tutt-tutting about Dan Savage’s potty-mouthed anti-Saturoum site? And what’s up with that vest he’s always wearing?

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This has been going on since February

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I’ve written before about conservative efforts in Indiana to destroy private sector unions. Union members and others filled the Indiana statehouse last February, but Mitch Daniels and his conservative allies (and the wealthy libertarians who finance them) are back for Round Two:

Nearly a year after legislatures in Wisconsin and several other Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public sector unions, lawmakers are now turning their sights toward private sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm.

The thunderclouds are gathering first here in Indiana. The leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say that when the legislative session opens on Wednesday, their No. 1 priority will be to push through a business-friendly piece of legislation known as a right-to-work law.

Remember: our betters in punditry and elite opinion told us over and over that they wanted to bust public sector unions because it was about the budget. They would never go after private sector unions. Union members here never bought that, because it was, well, a lie. Predictably, Daniels destroyed public sector unions and then came for the next group of people, because it’s about driving down wages, and sending that cash right up the line to the top 10%.

I love this part:

Indiana’s Republican leaders are eager to pass the bill — and end any related commotion — before Feb. 5, when the national spotlight turns to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

Conservatives are eager to screw the working people who voted for them, and get those noisy pests out of the statehouse before the Super Bowl starts. Commotion! Can’t have that unless it’s the Republican base waving signs and calling themselves the Tea Party.

I spoke to a Steelworker organizer/activist here in Ohio about Indiana two weeks ago, and they are fighting hard. I am really curious to see what effect the labor fights in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin are going to have on conservative prospects in 2012. This is a full-out assault on paychecks and quality of life, and while it’s true that union leadership supports Democrats, it is not true that union members are lock-step Democratic voters.

If the Indiana electorate is (around) 10% private sector union members, and half of those voters were voting GOP prior to this latest assault, we could be looking at another conservative over-reach that sparks a backlash, and moves a margin.

Anyway, the fun starts right after the Iowa primary. Hopefully working people in Indiana can make some noise and draw some attention away from the celebrity line-up in another “I” state in the middle.

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On Paul

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Since Paul is going to probably do well in the caucus today, we’ll just turn this over to TNC for the last word on Ron Paul. There are so many things in my opinion that disqualify Ron Paul for President (his anti-abortion views, his statements that we should not have fought Hitler, etc.), but for me it starts and stops with his opposition to the various civil rights acts that have made America a better place. No matter how “pure” his reasoning may be, it falls on deaf ears here. I do wish, frankly, that more candidates would adopt his positions on some issues, but anyone with that big a character flaw is just completely incapable of even being considered for President. It’s a non-starter.

Not to mention, after what I’ve been reading in the newsletters, I think there is a very solid case that Paul is just a racist old crank.

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