Slate does the world a public service by publishing a “long read” about the Welfare Queen St Ronaldus Magnus made famous. As the serious conservative intellectual journal Powerline notes, if I may summarize, “nyaah nyaah nyaah libtards”. Therefore, no welfare for anyone. QED.
(Thanks to reader J for sending this in.)
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
I read it Friday. Not as much vindication there as the kids at Powerline think there is.
PeakVT
So clever, those Slate writers. Too bad they’re collectively a bunch of fucking morons.
KG
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): the comments over there are amazing, though. They don’t do nuance…
Napoleon
I didn’t read the article, but On The Media or some NPR show like that had a piece on this and what I got from it was that she was a wide ranging criminal and the welfare stuff was a small part of it, but conservatives cherry picked just those parts of her criminal career that supported the proposition that welfare was some kind of unique give away subject to fraud and the dregs of society.
g
Um. The woman was a serial criminal. She was not an emblem of the welfare system. She also ripped off banks, the VA and stole babies from hospitals. Does that mean those institutions are also flawed because of her?
It’s like saying Metro should be eliminated because muggers ride the subway.
raven
@g: Isn’t that the POINT of the post?
James Gary
I don’t really get the conservative gloating. The woman the article describes was a career criminal who managed–in a pre-digital era when such things were *far* easier to pull of than they are today–to defraud the welfare system of thousands of dollars. Therefore….welfare is inherently bad?
Edit: I see several others upthread made the same observation while I was typing my comment.
Mike in NC
Most of the MSM still believes that thou shalt not speak disrespectfully of the Glorious Gipper (blessings upon him).
Firebert
Iran/Contra is still a far bigger crime than anything this woman did.
KG
@g: banks are perfect because FREE MARKETS! The VA is obviously just welfare by another name. And I bet they were public hospitals staffed by a bunch of lazyass government workers who are just trying to collect bloated pensions. And of course the communist Metro should be shut down, I mean besides the obvious public safety risk, think about how many honest used car salesmen and gas station owners, and oil companies are losing
profitsjobs because of itThat was all snark, obviously, but I’m fairly sure a decent number of conservatives would support that (the VA part they’d support quietly, but they would support it if it meant reducing their marginal tax rate .02%
Ben Franklin
As tribute to the timeliness of this post………
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/2013/12/19/09/57/conan-obrien-catches-news-readers-using-same-script
lou
To me, the article proved that welfare fraud wasn’t the problem that conservatives like to make it out to be. She was clearly a psychopath, a grifter, a con artist and apparently a murderer and kidnapper.
Oh, and unlike the stereotypes of the day that still prevail today about “welfare queens,” she was white, pretending to be black.
Chyron HR
@g:
Don’t give them ideas.
Seth Owen
Powerline passes over the little detail that the con artist was a white grifter, posing as black. Undoubtedly she knew this would play into the prejudices of the time and make her scam easier to pull off.
chrome agnomen
hey, wing nuts! i’ll see all those welfare queens, and raise you one kenny boy lay. (and there are far more than one.)
both sides!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Mike in NC:
The media and the Republicans treat him just like they treat Jesus; both pretend to honor him while overlooking anything (Like Reagan raising taxes or Jesus’ words regarding the least among us) that doesn’t fit in with their current outlook.
Davis X. Machina
@g
I hope you’re right. Otherwise, because of Whitey Bulger, I can no longer enjoy the music of Mary Bergin.
I mean, those people….
Baud
I thank God every day that there is no fraud in the military, or we’d be forced to go completely defenseless.
KG
@Baud: we’re already defenseless, now that all those gheys are allowed to serve openly!
ETA: I mean, why do you think we had to hire black water? Even if that was before the gheys were all open and whatnot
raven
No football today huh?
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Football doesn’t start until the late games today. Only two matter.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA H AH AHA HA HA HA
………………..
Small Alabama town accidentally hires black drag queens to dance in Christmas parade
By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:09 EST
Residents in the small town of Semmes, Alabama were surprised when one of the acts in the annual Christmas parade was a group of black drag queens known as “The Prancing Elite.”
The captain of the troupe, Kentrell Collins, said he believed the offer had been made in good faith, and that the representative for the Friends of Semmes to whom he spoke knew who she was hiring.
“I said we’re all over 21 and we’re guys. She was so excited. She was like I didn’t know they had any groups like that in Mobile,” Collins told Fox 10 News.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/22/small-alabama-town-accidentally-hires-black-drag-queens-to-dance-in-christmas-parade/
Matt
Funny how the RWNJ standard of “must be destroyed” == “somebody used it inappropriately”, only applies to government programs and not, say, the Catholic Church or Wall Street…
Roger Moore
@James Gary:
Simple: Reagan didn’t make her up, therefore everything he said about the evils of welfare must by 100% true.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m liking the Red Zone more and more when my team isn’t playing.
raven
@rikyrah: God that is wonderful!
We had an LBGT float in the Athens Holiday Parade.
Roger Moore
@Matt:
It’s very simple: any evidence for their preferred outcome proves that they’re correct and we have to do as they say, so the other guys have to prove their point conclusively.
* A 1% chance that Iraq had WMDs should be treated the same as conclusive proof that we need to invade, but the tiniest manufactured doubt that global warming is happening is enough to block any action.
* One allegation of voter fraud is proof we need Voter ID laws, but no number of mass shootings can be used as evidence that people shouldn’t be armed to the teeth.
* One example of welfare fraud proves we need to eliminate the whole program, but no level of military boondoggle invalidates the need for massive defense spending.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@lou:
As interesting as the article is, I think the author buried that point under the plot. It’s almost a postscript that he points out that instead of making it harder to defraud the system, we just shrunk the system.
Villago Delenda Est
@lou:
In other words, perfect material for Issa’s investigative team.
Bubblegum Tate
@KG:
Let’s try to get them all doing “decent human being” before we move on to more sophisticated things like nuance.
Ruckus
@Bubblegum Tate:
You do like to reach for the stars.
gene108
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
There was an Omen movie made a while back about Damien’s daughter. The basic plot was that Damien wasn’t the anti-Christ, but the source of power that would manifest the true anti-Christ into being, i.e. his daughter.
Anyway, I have the view about Reagan.
He wasn’t as right-wing as the modern Republican Party – for example, he wanted complete global nuclear disarmament – but he gave rise and legitimacy to the assholes that are with us today.
And just like right-wingers and their view of religion, they have no ability to understand historical context. Religious texts are about what was happening in the world 2,000 years ago and some of things people do in them have to be understand in that regards.
The same way, Reagan’s policy prescriptions were about what was going on in the 1970’s. They need to be understood in that context. We no longer have problems with rising crime, a heroine epidemic that gave way to a crack epidemic, and inflation.
In both cases the right-wingers have taken the literal word as unchangeable in an ever changing civilization, but somehow we have to take them as Very Serious People.
@Roger Moore:
Massive defense spending is what passes as infrastructure spending in America and has been the only acceptable form of fiscal stimulus, since the Presidency of Reagan.
Also, too I do believe shoveling that money into civilian spending will just see a good chunk of it go to right-wing private/public partnerships that just funnel the money to the politically connected without producing the same return as military spending does.
Also, too the military is a sort of jobs program for the youngins.
ruemara
@rikyrah: Sounds like the plot of “Kinky Boots of the South”.
Mike E
@Ruckus: He lives on his own planet of astrophysicists/clown princes of basketball, after all. Too.
MomSense
Oh my. Just looked at the comments at powerline and ooooh boy there are some angry men over there.
Mike E
@gene108: This, with a qualification: it was the “sons” of Nixon who tried with Ford, then succeeded with Reagan, to bring about their wingnutopia…hatched in near complete form during the W admin.
ruemara
@MomSense: The GOP base!
Joel
@g: I think that’s the point of the Slate article.
Baud
@MomSense:
Can you blame them? They are all men who would have been rich and successful in life if those dang liberals hadn’t oppressed them in order to pander to undeserving brown folks.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of Reagan we have to thank him for the destruction of labor unions as a potent political force. Walmartization of the economy would not have been possible without that.
MikeJ
@g:
Surely you’ve noticed it doesn’t stop in Georgetown. The residents of Gtown have for years said it would just be a way for “those people” from SE to steal their 60″ TVs.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@gene108:
Well done!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@schrodinger’s cat:
He was the prime mover. He was aided and abetted by a complacent workforce that enjoyed the benefits conferred upon them by the more unionized workforce of prior years. There were plenty of willing accomplices who remained silent while the more heavily unionized industries were offshored. None of them thought that they’d be next until they were.
gene108
@Mike E:
It was fascinating in the Bush, Jr. Administration that so many of the “bosses” were “sons” of Nixon and the political malfeasance of Nixon did very little to damage to their political careers.
What I really worry about is that any Republican running in 2016 will be advised on foreign policy by some asshat, who was, at best, only hip deep (and not neck deep) in figuring out how to drum up popular support to invade Iraq. The Republican policy establishment only has neo-cons in its foreign policy ranks.
They did not even have to go through the same political contrition the “sons” of Nixon had to because there was never any risk of prosecution for lying to get us into Iraq.
They will be treated as Very Serious People, with Very Serious Ideas about how terrible Obama’s foreign policy has been and how the Democratic 2016 nominee should be discredited because of their association with Team Obama’s foreign policy people, who will be around to advise the next Democratic nominee.
Baud
@gene108:
Heard that today from some doofus on a panel on Fareed Zakaria’s show. Basically, Obama’s a failure because we haven’t invaded Syria, I think. (I was channel surfing so I didn’t get all of it.) But they really believe that America has lost international respect under Obama.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud:
Their view of international politics is limited to the use of force and the threat of force.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
The destruction of labor unions is a long-term consequence of Taft-Hartley. Eliminate right to mooch laws, and unions would be a lot stronger.
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: there is no carrot, only a stick and a bigger stick. They want the benefits of empire without the costs
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: I used to like Zakaria before he was on CNN.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
That, and the maintenance of existential enemies. If there weren’t an Axis of Evil, they would have to invent one.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
If we have, it’s more a consequence of the NSA stuff that Snowden leaked than Obama’s decision making on things like Libya and Syria.
jonas
I think it was the Powerline guys a few years ago who were crowing about the recovery of (what may have been) the remnants of some old, 80s-era chemical weapons munitions in Iraq as vindication for Bush’s WMD claims (“He was telling the truth after all! Take that lamestream media!”). These guys don’t care how much shit they have to dig through to find that one corn kernel, but they’ll find it. And it will vindicate their narrative about how bountiful and pure their corn is.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
He strikes me as thoughtful, but like many media people, he doesn’t have the ability or desire to speak forcefully against the ridiculous of the right. I haven’t watched him in a while, so I don’t know how he is now.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
FTFY.
raven
@Baud: He knows what side of the toast his bread is buttered on!
James E Powell
@gene108:
There is no chance for any Republican who is not a completely deluded foreign policy nightmare. That part of the party establishment no longer exists.
KG
@James E Powell: I’d suggest Huntsman, but I doubt he’s got a chance
Baud
@Roger Moore:
On a relative scale, I think that’s correct. To my knowledge, the NSA stuff has been all that damaging in terms of foreign policy; it’s just given international players an opportunity to tee off on the big kid on the block for their domestic constituents. It’s like if you’re hot and a sex video with you gets leaked. On one level, sure it’s embarrassing. But the people snickering are kind of impressed also and wish they were a part of it.
Hill Dweller
The Beltway doesn’t give a shit about reality. Look at their desperate attempt to convince people Obama is a failure and/or 2012 was his undoing.
If Obama had a bad year, Republicans had an even worse year. But the Village(that includes a majority of the hosts on MSNBC) has no desire to hold Republicans accountable for anything.
Baud
@Baud:
Stupid typo.
gene108
@Baud:
I am personally surprised no one on the Right is pointing out how we are losing the space race to the Chinese. They just landed a rover on the moon and will soon have a manned moon landing.
I remember the right-wing freak out because China was building a stealth airplane, which we did 20 years ago.
Hill Dweller
@Baud:
PO made this point in his press conference. While the US has its warts, these leaks, which are obviously meant to cause the most damage, are giving cover to far more ruthless/repressive/tyrannical governments.
Baud
@gene108:
Maybe they don’t want to hear “I told you so” from Newt “Let’s Build a Moon Colony” Gingrich. If so, I can’t actually blame them in this instance.
Ben Franklin
@Baud:
Yeah. The European outrage is the mirror-image of US legislators.
“Is this mic live….ok…..THIS is OUTRAGEOUS”
Cut and print it.
WereBear
It’s the strangest thing about wingnuts: everything they think is true is fantasy, yet they have no discernible imagination.
OT: Because of iffy weather, I’d already made plans to spend last night at the friend’s house where we were having our Solstice Party. The iffy weather turned into the Great Ice Storm of 2013 and I just got home. Thanks to my hostess-with-the-mostest for using a torch to get my driver’s side door open and helping me chip off all that ice.
However, the drive back once the roads were cleared was absolutely magical.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@g:
She also got married multiple times in order to defraud different men and even convinced two of her victims to marry each other, therefore marriage should be outlawed. It’s the only way to be sure no one marries a person with the intent of defrauding or killing them.
raven
@WereBear: We head for Virginia in the morning but it looks like there will only be rain.
Baud
@Ben Franklin:
I’m looking forward to next year when Rand Paul filibusters the NSA reform bill.
Because it doesn’t go far enough, of course.
Ben Franklin
@Baud:
Because it doesn’t go far enough, of course.
Show trials and Press releases never do.
indycat32
@raven: we “only” had rain in Indy last night – over 4 and a half inches on the east side where I live
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: Gee, are you suggesting that other countries might be engaged in large-scale signals intelligence, data surveillance and attacks on other people’s cryptologic systems? And even that they might be flouting their own domestic law to do so?
Gentlemen don’t read each others’ mail.
The US does.
Because we’re not gentlemen.
(There’s more than one manifestation of American exceptionalism…)
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: That’s backwards. Obama’s a failure because he wanted to invade Syria. Fareed Zakaria is clearly reading the wrong blogs.
Xecky Gilchrist
@gene108: for example, he wanted complete global nuclear disarmament
Wait, what?
I’m not sure that’s what I’d call having us and Russia empty our silos at one another.
But more seriously, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race#Reagan_and_the_Strategic_Defense_Initiative
raven
@indycat32: Yea, the front is on top of us now, hopin it moves on but we’re driving east so proly not.
raven
4th and season for the Pokes!
Baud
@raven:
You’re like storm chasers!
Gene108
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
The loss of manufacturing jobs probably had as much to do with the then unprecedented M&A activity the Reagan Admin OK’ed.
A company that took care of its employees and did not maximize earnings became a take over target. This really changed how businesses behaved.
And when mergers happened the new entity did not need two accounting departments, so lay offs happened.
As much as union busting gets reported as why jobs got off shored, I think the M&A activity is bigger culprit.
I think what union busting did was made the new jobs much lower paying, because there were no unions demanding comparable wages in new industries.
Gene108
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Link
Reagan also got the Senate to ratify a UN treaty (maybe not a full blown treaty, can’t think of the right term) against torture before leaving office.
There is a reason folks say Reagan was way to the left of the modern GOP.
Cain
@Villago Delenda Est:
“… perfect material for Issa’s investigative team to investigate Obama”
FTFY
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Me neither. The last time was over two years ago, when the austerity fever was high. As far as I can remember he did give the promoters of austerity a platform on his show. His take on foreign affairs is less villagery and I like that.
Skippy-san
John Hinderaker is a worthless piece of human excrement.
PurpleGirl
@Baud: There is fraud but it’s carried out by the contractors/corporations and they will never be made to pay the consequences.