Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

No one could have predicted…

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

In after Baud. Damn.

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Archives for September 2012

But that’s just because he doesn’t want to turn into some Manichean

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Mistermix skipped my favorite part of Freddie’s piece:

For a brief moment in the height of the Bush hysteria, conventional liberals of the Tbogg variety knew what it was like to be one of us– to be reflexively dismissed from the conversation, to be asked to take loyalty oaths and purity tests, to be subject to redbaiting and McCarthyism, to constantly hear dark talk of culls and purges from within. I mean they literally say, these days, “you’re either with us or against us,” talk that they themselves rightly ridiculed as the language of fascism not five years ago. Back then, they correctly perceived that these kind of tactics are inherently illiberal, totally contrary to the spirit of free inquiry and skepticism that is the deep structure of democracy and liberal society. They knew, then, that blind adherence to parties and leaders was a moral and intellectual failure. They knew, then, that bullying groupthink and categorical exclusions and affinity pledges and threats were each and all ugly, unfortunate, and totally antithetical to the more equitable and just world they seek to build. And then, they forgot. And it makes people crazy in a truly frightening way; it takes reasonable, progressive people like DougJ and turns them into Manichean monsters.

(bold mine, natch)

Here’s the thing: not everyone on the left is a strict non-interventionist (Freddie’s post is mostly about insufficient liberal criticism of Obama’s foreign policy). I don’t think it’s insane, or inconsistent, to have been for the mission in Bosnia, for the invasion of Afghanistan (though I think now it might have been a mistake), against Iraq II, against bombing Iran, and ambivalent about what’s going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan right now.

There’s probably no more emasculating phrase than “reasonable progressive” anyway.

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Too Many Protest Singers, Not Enough Protest Songs

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Freddie:

I don’t know how else it say it, considering I’ve said it a thousand times. I want my country to stop killing innocent people. […] And the innocent people we kill the most, these days, are Muslim. And the policy of the Obama administration has expanded the zone in which we kill innocent Muslims, they have shown no interest in stopping killing innocent Muslims, and in fact their campaign constantly brags about the drone program which kills innocent Muslims. That’s just true. All of it is just true. Obama is directly responsible for the expansion of hostilities against Muslims targets which result in the death of people who have taken no violent action against the United States. Voting for him cannot, does not, and will not challenge that reality.

I would probably object at the margins but in general I agree with Freddie’s assessment of the Obama Administration and the death of innocent Muslims.

I don’t like the drone program, and I especially don’t like that the whole subject of the global war on terror goes essentially undiscussed. Romney’s non-discussion of war was no accident – it’s the product of the same political discomfort Democrats feel taken to its political extreme. The ugliness and waste of the war, and the death of innocents, is something that most politicians believe is a political dead end. So if there was some way to get a discussion of drones, and war in general, back into the political conversation, that would be the first step in changing the political reality Freddie decries.  But the rest of Freddie’s piece, including part I cut from that quote, doesn’t get us there. It’s essentially a screed against a couple of liberal blogs and some imaginary kind of liberal, the nut of which is this:

show full post on front page

Too Many Protest Singers, Not Enough Protest SongsPost + Comments (219)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Jubilee

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Since Nat Silver has a book to sell, Dan Amira at NYMag has a long interview about “the race for president, why he doesn’t play fantasy baseball anymore, and what makes Dick Morris so awful”:

…So, basically, barring an October surprise, Romney’s chances are more like nil?
Not nil, but slim. So the debates for example have proven to move the number by about 3 points in the past… The problem now is that there are a lot of ways that Romney could kick a field goal, but Obama seems to be ahead by a touchdown right now. So, I guess he could kick two field goals, to stretch the metaphor out. Or maybe if Romney did pretty well in the debates, and you had a couple of bad but not extraordinarily bad jobs reports, he could put two or three things together, and then they get a strong turnout. So that’s why you can’t quite say that he can’t come back organically, if you had a cluster of different medium-sized things happen, to get some momentum. But I’m not sure that, say, the debates alone are enough to move the numbers for him. I think he needs that and something else, or he needs some kind of acute crisis to develop….

What do you make of Dick Morris? You mention him in your book, and he’s just the absolute least accurate pundit ever, and yet he still gets a platform.
I’ve been thinking about starting a hedge fund, just to invest in whatever Morris says won’t happen. You have to actually be quite skilled to be that bad.

It’s amazing. He said the other day that Romney would win by 4 or 5 points.
I know, that would be my secret plan if I were the Romney campaign, to get Morris to make a prediction of an Obama landslide. I’d definitely lay some money on Romney at that point. I think it’s just, when you make that many poor predictions — and we’re not just teasing him for one, he really does have a terrible track record — are you deluding yourself? Or is it all a show to rally your base? With him I don’t really know, but, I see prediction as a way to judge whether you’re, frankly, in touch with reality or not. We all have our views, and we look at this information in a certain way, and you test that by means of an event that you don’t know the outcome to yet and seeing if your subjective point of view matches what unfolds. So I think a slightly impolite way to put it is that at best Dick Morris is detached from reality, and at worst I guess, he knows it and is just lying to people.

Sunday Morning Open Thread: JubileePost + Comments (96)

Hey, I Just Met You, and This is Crazy

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Another sad rundown on the fail parade that is the Romney campaign:

vMitt Romney could use a big moment.

Since he began stumping, the GOP presidential nominee’s campaign events have been nearly identical — perfectly staged and choreographed, but forgettable. If it weren’t for the occasional state flag hanging behind him, those watching wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the GOP nominee’s rallies in Pueblo, Colo. and Vandalia, Ohio.

But as Romney tries to reignite his campaign following a slew of polling showing him trailing President Barack Obama, some Republican strategists argue that he should stage a dramatic campaign trail moment designed to break through the clutter and move the needle.

The defining moment of the Romney campaign is his unwillingness to provide any details for his plans. The person he chose as his running mate has ideas the American people hate, and even those are idea free and devoid of details.

It’s the Call Me Maybe campaign, but no one likes the jingle.

Hey, I Just Met You, and This is CrazyPost + Comments (117)

Cracks In Reality

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Doctor Who tonight was…well, classic Steven Moffat writing.  No spoilers from me, but definitely the best episode in an awfully long time.

And speaking of cracked realities…

 

They’ve gone over the cliff, inventing entire realities where Mitt Romney will come back and win.  Sure it’s possible, just not very likely.  It’s possible Earth will get hit by a deadly meteor next Thursday, too.

When Obama actually wins, these guys will be calling for armed, violent revolution.  Count on it.

Cracks In RealityPost + Comments (141)