MSNBC dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on Thursday, four months after suspending him following the publication of his latest book. The book “Suicide of a Superpower” contained chapters titled “The End of White America” and “The Death of Christian America.” Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied.
Pat Buchanan gave the keynote speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. He had failed to secure the nomination, but had done well enough to demand the spotlight during prime time. Molly Ivins said later of his speech that “it probably sounded better in the original German.”
Speaking of which, Buchanan was quite the amature apologist for Hitler himself, having once said the Fuhrer was “misunderstood” and that the US and Germany should’ve fought on the same side in WWII.
Buchanan took to the ‘pages’ of the Creators’ Syndicate, of which he’s been a long time member.
My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end.After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous. The calls for my firing began almost immediately with the Oct. 18 publication of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” A group called Color of Change, whose mission statement says that it “exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice,” claimed that my book espouses a “white supremacist ideology.” Color of Change took particular umbrage at the title of Chapter 4, “The End of White America.”
Media Matters parroted the party line: He has blasphemed!
Well, with the disaster of optics that was today’s hearings on contraception sponsored by the Congressional Republicans and only featuring male witnesses, and that fool Freisse, or Freak, or Fuckwit or whatever the hell his name was, and then this? I’d say the forces of light have had a pretty good day.
Oh, yeah–Open Thread
Walker
Since this is an Open Thread…
Is anyone else getting ads on this site for products that are priced in Chinese currency? What’s up with that?
Felanius Kootea
About time (re Buchanan).
Soonergrunt
@Walker: I’m getting a whole log of ads for Star Wars The Old Republic, and Crucial SSD drives myself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Buchanan, like Ann Coulter or Kellyanne Whatshername or Dana Carvey, seems like a relic at this point. one of those ghosts of the Clenis years that floats up on cable every now and then. It’s like Bob Dole’s endorsement of Romney. There was a moment when I thought, Huh, he’s still with us, eh?
Suffern ACE
@Walker: Hmmm. I remember from one of Pat’s earlier books from the 1990s he was railing against the loyalty oaths that Chinese immigrants took to the communist party and their homeland. Not that there wasn’t any history there. Maybe the Chinese have been monitoring him ever since.
Martin
Ron Paul and Crucial SSD ads. Maybe we should go to a flash memory based currency? Hmm. probably a bad idea – Apple already has enough money.
Martin
@Suffern ACE:
You mean like some kind of pledge of allegiance? Yeah, the commies love that shit.
some guy
amateur, sp.
MaximusNYC
They’ve had a chair open for Pat at Fox for a long, long time, I suspect.
DFS
@MaximusNYC: Mebbe, mebbe not. The thing about Buchanan is that he’s very much at odds with the neocon invade-everything set, which means he doesn’t have as many options open to him as your usual candidate for wingnut welfare.
I always had sort of a soft spot for the guy. There’s value, I think, in having at least one truly sincere apologist for fascism in our public discourse.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Yeah. But the Chinese aren’t going to sell their iPads, and Proview has asked for China to ban iPad exports. Wouldn’t that be like closing our bank branches and making us walk to Samsung?
Mark S.
He was just suspended a couple months ago? I thought he was canned. Shows how much attention I’ve been paying.
Is the McLaughlin Group still on? He’s still always welcome there, right?
Martin
@DFS:
Yeah, Stormfront really doesn’t have the kind of billionaire support that the other think tanks do.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Something like that. It was a secret pledge. Couldn’t trust those immigrants. The more they denied taking their secret pledge, the more we were supposed to believe that they couldn’t be trusted. The oath and the control of Panama made the Chinese immigrants kind of dangerous. Almost like having them around put us in jeopardy. There must be some kind of word for that specific problem that I am missing.
Yeah. That’s the guy who didn’t lose his seat at the table until 15 years had passed.
freelancer
Fuck yaself Uncle Pat! If I never see you on the telly again in my life it’ll be too soon.
Chris
I’d seriously pay some good money to see an America where the adjective “Christian” was used in politics as something other than a euphemism for “white power” and “American nationalism.”
A very widespread and “respectable” belief, once upon a time. Thank God, that one’s actually been pretty well stomped out.
trollhattan
I am happy to sponsor a telethon to buy the Buchanans–Pat and Bay (or is it Bey?)–and gift them to the Taliban. They’re Republicans, so obviously for sale.
Who’s in?
clayton
Speaking of Buchanan getting a spot at the Republican Convention, does anyone remember people getting all worked up about a pro-lifer not getting to speak at a Democratic Convention?
No?
That’s what I thought. But Glenn Greenwald and his pal Mona Holland did many many years later and used this non fact to pound the so called progressive — back before they became progressives . . .
Politics is a weird thing.
I was also wondering if anyone remembered jwest from the comments section back at Greenwald’s old Unclaimed Territory on blogspot. Good times as I remember. Along with Greenwald and Mona — who went by hypatia then.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s about time they gave the boot to the vile sack of Nazi shit.
Auf wiedersehen, Hoffentlich niemals, Obersturmbannführer Buchanan.
Silver
Go read the Amazon reviews for his book. I loved the little professional blurbs they use. Yes, there’s a Daily Caller one in there, so I use the term “professional” quite loosely.
Here’s a fun game: Find out where to insert the words, “for a huge racist” in these sentences to make them accurate:
Praise for Pat Buchanan:
“Buchanan is an honest writer who … minces nothing except an occasional opponent.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Nobody turns a sharp phrase, drops an historical reference, or makes a literary allusion as naturally as Pat Buchanan.”
—Human Events
“Buchanan is a muscular writer, fully in command of the English language he feels is under siege. He is adept at linking history, statistics, and the writings of philosophers and economists to proffer forceful arguments.”
—The Washington Post
“Mr. Buchanan … is positively fearless. He is also right.”
—Tony Blankley, The Washington Times
“His approach is that of a true conservative, offering a perspective rooted in American tradition initiated by Washington.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Suicide of a Superpower:
“Suicide of a Superpower traces the changes in governance and culture in America that foreshadow a decline of epic proportions. … Buchanan is no stranger to controversy. Nor is he prone to exaggerate. The crises he describes are real, and he is not afraid to say they ‘may prove too much for our democracy to cope with.’”
–Jack Kenny, The New American Magazine
“A stunning Jeremiad on America’s decline, written with characteristic muscle and wit.”
–Timothy Stanley, The Telegraph (UK)
“Buchanan offers an astute diagnosis of America’s problems and gives constructive suggestions to put us back on track.”
–Virgil Goode (Former Congressman R-VA), The Daily Caller
“Well-written, well researched and highly persuasive.”
–Tom Piatak, Chronicles Magazine
ChristianPinko
What’s this country coming to when you can’t even say in public that Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy?
Villago Delenda Est
I recall vividly that in the middle of this speech, Al Franken, who was doing the Comedy Central coverage of the RNC, called the election, right there on the spot, for Bill Clinton.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@clayton: Dollars to donuts we’ll be hearing all about how mean Bubba was to old man Casey at some point this summer, to prove that both sides are exactly alike.
One story I read about this mentioned Uncle Pat’s appearances on the early TRMS and said he and Rachel had an ‘improbably chemistry’ or something like that. I always got a vibe of thinly veiled mutual loathing in those segments, and assumed some skittish MSNBC suit thought they needed some “balance” for the scary lesbian from Air America
Redshift
Funny how neither MSNBC nor Buchanan mention in their statements that he was suspended after he went on a white supremacist radio show to promote his book. As I recall hearing, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Hill Dweller
This decision aside(which took way too long), MSNBC really is awful. CNN and Fox have been horrendous for years, but I think MSNBC has become nearly as bad as those two.
Maddow and Hayes have solid shows, but the rest of their lineup is abysmal.
Martin
Fuck this place is going to hell. Bernie Ecclestone’s 22 year old daughter buys the Spelling mansion for $85M and 22 year old Ekatarina Rybolovleva buys a NYC apartment for $88M.
Where are our 22 year old billionaire spawn that we need to keep importing them. Maybe we really have gone too far with this contraception thing.
John O
Confession: I like Pat. He’s true to his racist ass, Irish-bully, hardball drinking and arguing legitimate historian self. Bellicose and belligerent. But if you combine Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, you have Pat Buchanan, more or less.
2 for 1.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Martin: My god, even with all the work the accountants put in to sheltering their trust fund from gift and inheritance taxes, the Mittlets couldn’t afford one $88 million apartment to share. Well, they could, but they couldn’t furnish it.
These, people, are the ravages of your class warfare. Look upon them and weep.
clayton
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Only thing being is that he wasn’t. Mean, that is. It’s just another wingnut meme.
freelancer
Since this is an OT
Anyone here watch the Starz series “Boss” with Kelsey Grammer?
It’s a brilliant show, and the politics of the whole show are really intriguing but the gratuitous sex added to the show (since it’s on Starz) is laughably blunt. It’s like
“Oh, that was a fucking great scene, but then the knockout political aide decides it’s been too long since sexytime and oh, shit! I’m 14 years old again watching Skinemax and there’s a nipple! Okay that was ridiculous, forced, and hackneyed, but okay the plot’s rolling again so whatever, Oh HEY, this old politician’s caretaker just decided to drop trou and now she’s full frontal and presenting herself to the Mayor. WTF?! Not that I mind the scenery but when the show switches gears, it’s like the first few minutes of internet porn without the actual porn. It’s off-putting and laughable. That and the B-story with the Mayor’s daughter as a recovering addict sucks because she can’t act at all.”
Canuckistani Tom
Interesting article by Cory Doctorow
Lockdown: The coming war on general-purpose computing
sloan
Here’s an open thread Happy 108th Birthday to Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly!
And here’s Ying Huang in the role of Cio-Cio San performing Un bel di, vedremo.
It’s 4 minutes of sheer beauty.
burnspbesq
@clayton:
Ah yes, those were the days, before Greenwald fell in love with the sound of his oen voice and was outpaced by people like Marty Lederman and Scott Horton. He had all the best trolls, including the Michael Jordan of trolldom, Bart DePalma.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@clayton: Oh, I know what happened, but it’s not just a wing nut meme. I’m sure Politico will lead their history of the conventions with that old chestnut. David Gregory will report it as if he just discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls
Alison
@Hill Dweller: I’m looking forward to Melissa Harris-Perry adding to the non-craptastic side of the equation. Because yeah, much of their morning/afternoon slate is bleh. I like Sharpton in general but he’s not really the best TV host. LoD has some good moments but is way too in love with the “get a leftie and a wingnut on to scream at each other” gimmick. Ratigan, Bashir, Schultz? Ugh. All crap.
burnspbesq
Somewhere in this great country of ours, our good friend Dennis G. is having a cardiovascular incident over this.
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2012/02/corruption_watc/
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I may have this reversed, then. See, if there were only one Mittlet, there’d be no problem with securing the robo-spawn an iconic property. Perhaps the problem isn’t enough contraception.
But indeed it seems we are not minding the class warfare gap. I think we need some tax cuts, stat!
amk
Good riddance. Will jeebus now welcome him with his open arms and take him in ? That would be perfect.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Hill Dweller: I don’t think Lawrence O’Donnell is completely terrible, though he does have his craptacular moments. Ed Schultz, though, is a complete disaster.
handsmile
Anthony Shadid, NYT foreign correspondent and twice winner (2004, 2010) of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, died in Syria on Thursday, apparently of an asthma attack.
Shadid was the finest, most informative and reliable American journalist on Middle East affairs (and one of the very few who spoke Arabic). His death is a grievous loss.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/163363/new-york-times-anthony-shadid-dies-of-apparent-asthma-attack-in-syria/
Hill Dweller
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I haven’t watched LOD in a long time, but as I was saying on the previous thread, the twitter machine was blowing up after he let Arianna Huffington tell African-Americans how they should feel, without any push back.
Does anyone honestly think Huffington gives two shits about black people? LOD should have laughed in her face.
Bruce S
I actually always sort of like having Buchanan on MSNBC – he has always been pretty open about his views and he was pretty much a straight-down-the-line reactionary who didn’t really give a shit about the GOP itself, so much as his cultural blinders and nostalgia for an era of unalloyed white dominance. It seemed like Rachel Maddow enjoyed having the cranky old white guy around to play off of. I’d take the unvarnished, utterly transparent Buchanan as the “house conservative” commentator over a douche-bag like Joe Scarborough, a fake “liberal” like Mika or the cretins at FOX any day.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Hill Dweller: Haven’t seen his show tonight, so I have no idea what that’s about. Why he would have that twit Huffington on is a good question.
Elizabelle
@handsmile:
Just heard about Anthony Shadid’s death. Tragic loss.
Asthma attack caused by proximity to his guides’ horses.
And it seems demeaning to Mr. Shadid to have him in a thread about Pat Buchanan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/middleeast/anthony-shadid-a-new-york-times-reporter-dies-in-syria.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
Martin
@Canuckistani Tom: Gah. Are the kids on Cory’s lawn again?
The only reason he’s seeing the trends he is is because the general purpose computing community so badly shit the bed for a good 10-20 years that it invited this problem. The general computing world caused this by not creating a desirable alternative.
Martin
@The prophet Nostradumbass: This
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: I guess I’m bitter and cling to old resentments, but Arianna Huffington once founded a think tank to promote the ideas of Newt Gingrich, and campaigned actively for Phil Gramm. I really have a hard time taking her seriously
I believe O’Donnell has admitted to being wrong and had his critics on his show. Maybe he’ll let somebody smart come on and explain why Zsa Zsa Ga’Moore has her head up her ass.
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: OK. Since I figure it’ll come up anyway, did she say why she thought that? She doesn’t do policy, so what exactly does she think should be eating African Americans all up inside.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s funny, in one of Al Franken’s books (I think it’s the Limbaugh one), Huffington is specifically identified as a “Conservative”, and she didn’t object to it. She was asked about “good” government programs, and naturally she mentioned foreign aid to Greece.
Suffern ACE
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Don’t forget that she became a Democrat just in time to protest the candidacy of Al Gore!
Debbie(aussie)
I have a very difficult question to ask you guys. My hubby and I often wonder if the US can continue as it is for very much longer before some sort of falling/civil war along religious lines. Your fundies are so extreme,even tho thay appear to be outnumbered by the secularists. How do, ,iving in the middle of it all feel about it?
I know that realy only appros 27% of your fellow citizens are truly crazy. But maybe they need to be given the opportunity to congregate in certain areas and see how things might go in “ARUS-autoritian religious (christian only of course)united state”
Martin
@burnspbesq: I think it’s a good move to hire Jack. At worst, he winds up defending the lobbyists, gets fired, and the blog look like idiots. At best, he really does pull the curtain back and the blog look like geniuses for betting big.
But you have to take these chances as a startup. I hope it works out.
Hill Dweller
@Suffern ACE: I didn’t see it personally, but she allegedly was telling African Americans to abandon Obama, because they are worse off under his leadership.
Now that she has cashed in using liberals, it’s apparently time to create another persona(libertarian?).
Suffern ACE
@Suffern ACE: Actually, I miswrote. She became a Democrat specifically so she COULD protest the candidacy of Al Gore. It’s like she passed right through that phase where former arch conservatives are supposed to be confused moderates and vote for DLC candidates and went right to full blown “The Party Has Left Me” without passing go, but collecting 100s of millions of dollars.
GregB
@Debbie(aussie):
We hope that with an electoral drubbing in 2012 the fever will break.
amk
gop-mitt salsa.
ChrisNYC
Today was a thoroughly fantastic day. I just watched Greta Van Susteren on Fox ask Rick Santorum, “How do you solve this problem, as a politician, of the creepy supporter who says something creepy?” On Fox this happened.
freelancer
@amk:
The GOP base’s reaction to Mitt in this image is not unlike Dhalsim in Street Fighter. Keep at super-arm’s length and kick ass.
Dee Loralei
@Suffern ACE: She said that if a Republican asked the Reagan question of are you better off today than 4 years ago, most people would have to say no. And that it would go doubly NO if African Americans were asked and answered honestly. Because they are much ‘worse off”. And therefore shouldn’t vote for the black guy, because the Republicans could help them. (I’m paraphrasing.)
Death Panel Truck
@Alison: @The prophet Nostradumbass: I’ll take Ed Schultz over Keith Olbermann any day of the week.
Yutsano
@Debbie(aussie): If it does happen, it won’t be exclusively along religious lines. There will be other cultural and political prompts that will cause that fracture. But the population that is truly crazy is also rather diffused around the country. They are not so concentrated so much in one area that they can just make a break and run off on their own. They also have grand illusions about the power they actually have. There needs to be much more complacency among the general populace before it gets really bad.
Suffern ACE
@Debbie(aussie): The costs of splitting up would be rather devastating and we would take the world with us. It would all go well, dividing up the country, until both sides said “And of course, we’ll be taking the air base in Uzebekistan and the naval bases in Malaysia.” It gets pretty ugly for everyone very quickly after that.
You could do your part by lobbying to get Rubert some kind of “humanitarian man of the year” award from your government. While Rupert is down there, for goodness sake don’t let him leave this time.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Death Panel Truck: I don’t watch Olbermann either (any more); he was always a bit obnoxious, but he’s become insufferable since he went to Current.
Origuy
If there’s any justice, Pat will end up like Franz Liebkind. (RIP Kenneth Mars)
Suffern ACE
@The prophet Nostradumbass: You missed the memo. He already has been mutually separated from Current.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Suffern ACE: His show is on right now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dee Loralei: Lemme guess: If we all stay home and teach the Dems a lesson by electing Rick Santorum, the country will at long last understand how bad the system has gotten, and we’ll elect Dennis Kucinich in ’16, establish public financing of campaigns, single-payer and pass those amendments that do away with the filibuster and redraw the Senate so there is some equitable representation, and ice cream will make you lose weight, cancel Trump’s TeeVee show and bring back Arrested Development.
Alison
@Suffern ACE: Link? I’d assume that would be everywhere, since it’s seemed to be brewing lately…
Martin
@Debbie(aussie):
Nah, we won’t wind up there. I think you have to remember that everything you see in this country is like you’re looking at it in a funhouse mirror. Everything gets magnified and distorted. It does because the loudest voices in this country are often in the minority, and the majority pretty much doesn’t get much of a voice at all because we’re all too busy to actually be outraged about the most trivial issues on earth.
And the first amendment really does encourage this kind of stuff. It’s an odd country that you can’t say ‘shit’ on the radio, but you can call a whole class of people ‘nappy headed whores’ and keep your job. We’re a nation somewhat obsessed with polling because you get these assholes out on the radio and TV calling for the most absurd stuff, and you really lose sight of whether it’s a fringe view or commonly held. So you go to a poll to find out if the loudest voice in the room is also the majority voice in the room or just some lunatic (its usually a lunatic).
The religion issue seems like a big issue, but I’m not really convinced that it’s a structural issue. I think it only comes off that way now because the GOP decided to deliberately give them a voice, but at some point they’re going to have to take that voice away because it’ll be too much of a liability. Fundamentalism and politics are such a toxic mix that it just can’t hold together for all that long. And I think we’re seeing that unravelling this year. Part of it is that the GOP this year really look like fucking clowns, but you also have to look at the candidates. A Mormon, two Catholics, and a Baptist that hides his religion constantly. This is a bad brew of non-evangelicals (or unrepresentative ones) leading a political base that is more than anything most strongly identified with evangelical Protestantism. It’s genuinely funny that the GOP might have a devout Catholic at the helm and that this whole contraception disaster is being led by the bishops – most Catholics are Democrats.
So, yeah, things probably do look dire. They often feel dire, just in the absurdity of it all, but it’s not dire. We’re slowly becoming more secular and more non-denominational. The religious group holding on best are the Catholics, mostly because the Latino community in this country is exploding, but they’re not divisive. A lot of what you see are simply groups lashing out as the nation changes. Progress can be slow and painful at times, but it’s still a very strong place here.
Suffern ACE
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Really. I guess I missed the memo. I thought he quit over low production standards at for their coverage of the South Carolina caucus. Somekind of long thread was had aboout it on this very blog!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Dee Loralei: That’s close, but not quite right. She did not suggest that African-Americans should vote for the Republicans. When O’Donnell pointed out that the Republicans have no solution for them, and thus, shouldn’t vote for them, Huffington agreed.
She’s an idiot, to be sure, but she did not suggest that Black people should vote for the R’s.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Suffern ACE: The low production values are apparently still there, from the brief snippet of the show I saw when I checked the channel.
What did he expect from a channel that doesn’t have an HD channel slot anywhere in the country, and has no experience producing that kind of program?
ETA: In fact, hilariously, Olbermann is now apparently doing his show with a plain black background, presumably in some sort of a “protest” at the inhuman conditions at Current.
Alison
@Suffern ACE: Well, there was some shit between him and TPTB at the channel over production and such, and then something to do with the Iowa caucus coverage…he was supposed to anchor it, then said he didn’t want to, then changed his mind…but the show told him to eff off or something. And then he had a guest host I think for a night or two. But if he’d left the channel, we’d be seeing a crapload of stuff about it, I’m sure…from the left AND the right :P
David Koch
Pat’s father died in World War II — he fell off one of the guard towers at Treblinka.
Dee Loralei
@Debbie(aussie): Debbie, we honestly thought 2006 and 2008 would make the far right re-consider their stances and step back and become more centrist.2010 proved us wrong. I can’t explain in how many locales, states and even Federal offices they defeated us. But we were beat silly.
If we get the President re-elected again this year, if we somehow, miraculously hold the Senate, and if we can re-take the House of Representatives,then Nationally, we might be okay, we might become stabilized, once again.And women and minorities will still be given grief in the states.
But, I think, if we do re-take the Presidency, we are in for a metric fuck-ton of hurt. Look at what the Republicans did during Clinton’s second term, now consider that this time the President is an African-American and has no bones in his closet. It’s gonna get very, very ugly. We’ll have a Tim McVeigh a month.
And yes, I am doing my utmost, every day, to make sure Barack Obama remains President of the US.
I’m not sure this country can survive with another Obama Presidency. And I am fully willing to face that outside chance.But I will vote for him, will work for his re-election, because I believe he deserves to be re-elected and I believe my fellow country-men deserve the best president we can get.
But, yea, if they believe re-electing Obama means war, I’ll be there on the other side, letting them know they are wrong.
Anne Laurie
@David Koch: Nah, it was Pat’s mother that was German. Seriously. The dumb basturd actually bragged about his Irish daddy “marrying up” with a German Catholic girl — back in his (my own old man’s) generation, that was considered a Big Deal. Which give you yet another indicator as to how old & out-of-touch the Buchanan Voters really are… they were outdated by the time the Baby Boomers came along, and now the oldest of those Boomers are on Social Security. He’s a Dead Bigot Walking, and the chronologically-younger “conservatives” who follow him are cultural necrophiliacs.
Suffern ACE
@Alison: Oddly, I appear to have posted something completely wrong based on something I misread. The feeling is strange. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I usually try to limit my mistakes to grammar and punctuation.
Alison
@Suffern ACE: Nobody’s perfect :)
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Anne Laurie: Indeed, someone with the name Buchanan would have been “neutral” in World War 2, not a Nazi.
piratedan
you know what…. screw Pat Buchanan, I could give a shit what that racist old fuck has to say. Sooner his grifter mug is off my telly the better.
David Koch
Sure took MSNBC a long time to denazify.
Martin
@Dee Loralei:
But at the same time, it’s mostly bluster. Sure, there’s a genuinely scary fringe there which is comprised of almost certainly many thousands of people if not more, but the broader group doesn’t really have their heart in that line.
The attacks on Obama were almost entirely launched by people who don’t have a visceral dislike for him in order to rally their diminishing numbers. And they got that rally in 2010. And look where it’s gotten them – a hugely divided party, depressed voters, and candidates so weak, none of them could win a Senate race.
Yeah, it looks scary, but it’s all bark. It’s a group that knows they’re in trouble demographically and with the issues, and they out there making noise like crazy trying to convince us they’re bigger and more powerful than they really are. And their cause is so bankrupt that their only strategy is to embrace even more fanatical groups. This is pretty much the kamikaze phase of the conflict – where the desperation really shows up. They had a fucking white supremacist panel at CPAC. They’re resorting to voter suppression as policy. To tearing down organized labor in the middle of an honest to god manufacturing recovery. These may look like principled stands, but they’re really just pulling out all the stops to try and hold some ground by denying Dems their organizing strength and to keep Dems out of the polls. This is desperate stuff here. This is short term gain at serious long-term cost. This is the kind of stuff that can erase a party from future ballots.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous in the near term, they certainly are. And it doesn’t mean they won’t get their victories, they certainly will, but we just need to hold tight and they’ll break. And more than anything else, we need to push them over the edge. We need to fight a lot harder this year than in 2008. The goal here isn’t a historic win, it’s complete humiliation of the GOP. These are probably the best possible conditions for the Dems to break the GOPs back. We should be fighting for Texas this November.
Understanding that it’s early and all of that, but Obama is leading all GOP candidates in the polls right now *in South Carolina*. Let that sink in for a moment. Can you imagine if the GOP lost to a black Democrat with a middle name of Hussain in the state that led secession and still has a Confederate flag flying over the capitol?
ajr22
You know you’re racist when you write “If i was racist would Hannity let me be on his show.”
pseudonymous in nc
Shadid’s reporting was the antidote to Judy Miller’s in Iraq. (Bart Gellman did some great work for the WaPo too.) The best reporter on the Middle East in the American mainstream media. Too fucking young. A huge loss.
As for Racist Uncle Pat, he’s long served as a good reminder of the side of “old white ethnic Catholic America” that isn’t EJ Dionne. That is, a pack of bigots.
David Koch
Pat just announced his writing a memoir of his years at MSNBC, titled, “My Struggle”.
Chuck Butcher
@David Koch:
sounds better in the original…
Another Halocene Human
@Alison: UP with Chris Hayes. I prefer him to Maddow. I mean, not the same sort of show, but still.
Of course, doesn’t hurt that MHP is a frequent guest. Defs looking forward to her show.
Another Halocene Human
@The prophet Nostradumbass: My less intellectual union brethren love Schultz. To be fair, he was the only one reporting on the early days of the Wisconsin state capitol occupation.
I like to put him on when I’m doing chores. His blowhard shtick gets my sluggish blood flowing, plus I can walk away and not miss anything.
ETA: And sistren
Rita R.
@David Koch:
This is when I wish BJ had a “Like” button.
kdaug
Am I the only one who finds Mrs. Greenspan insufferable?
amk
OT – German President Wulff quits in home loan scandal.
Triassic Sands
Buchanan’s a strange bird. Now that MSNBC has dropped him, maybe Fox will find a couple of million lying around to offer him for his “unique” insights. In one of the stranger cases of nostalgia, I imagine there will be more than a few Americans who will miss getting their racial reports from Pat. I could never figure out why MSNBC picked him up in the first place.
Evie
He’s one of those old-school racists who used to comment on polls showing a Democrat in the lead and say something like, “But without the African-American numbers in that, he/she wouldn’t be ahead.”
Yes, without all those pesky *people,* the GOP could run the world.
debbie
@Mark S.:
Yes, and he’s always the first to speak. Tonight should be very interesting.
Raven
No Joe or Mika this morning!
Raven
The trees in Michigan are the right height.
Schlemizel
@freelancer:
Mrs Schlemizel & I used to like an HBO shoe “The Hicthchiker” (yes it was a looooong time ago) it was sort of “Twilight Zone” in the the bad guy always got it in the end. But it became a joke that there was always a boob shot during the show. We started making bets as to how long into it we would have to wait to see nipple!
It was obvious they thought they couldn’t draw views with just a story there had to be a little sex in it.
amk
@Raven: Have they been fired too ? (a guy could dream)
Raven
@amk: I’m sure they are out pimpin one book or another. . .or each other.
harlana
come on, Paddy Paddy Buke Buke, take it like a MAN. a WHITE man.
Schlemizel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hey that worked so well in 2000! Since there really was no difference between Gore & Bush, and Gore wasn’t really a liberal lets all vote for little Ralphie. As Ralphie himself said, we want Bush elected because the disaster he will create will shock the entire country back to his brand of liberalism. He is on tape, before the election saying he wanted Boy Blunder to win. I wish some reporter would be so impolite as to ask that asshole how that is working out for him – and us!
harlana
i have not seen Paddy on MSNBC since the book came out, so i sort of predicted this would happen. it’s just a shame it took this long. better late than never.
Schlemizel
@Raven:
So, its a good morning.
amk
https://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama/status/170462244545626112
Cool.
Schlemizel
I first encountered Paddy’s ‘thinking’ from some thing a co-worker brought in to start political fights over (I liked the guy even though he read Seachlight and other horrible crap because he was not totally blind to the racism and could be argued with but yes he was twisted). It must have been in St. Ronnies first term.
Paddy talked about how he and his brothers used to bushwhack Protestant kids & kick the shit out of them. I grew up as a protestant kid in a very Catholic neighborhood in a Catholic city & got my ass handed to me on more that one occasion because I was not Catholic, often by a a group of kids including brothers. It took me years before I didn’t harbor a hatred for Catholics. Ever since I read Paddy bragging about this I have had an intense desire to see him suffer, to really be ground into the mud. I knew it would never really happen, his disappearance was the most I could hope for.
I hope he lives a very long and lonely old age.
Joey Maloney
@Martin: Desireable to whom? I find the idea of a general purpose computing machine over which I have complete control to be very desireable.
WereBear
Ah, but the funny part is, they used to constantly get opportunities to do this… and they never took them. I remember a few waves of “this will be a CHRISTIAN suburb” and we will make this area of town “COMPLETELY CHRISTIAN.” But, like towns who forbid alcohol are always close to borders of places who do not… turns out, they don’t really want to live too far from the sin they are always railing about.
Because they are far more talk than action. I lived in a little Southern Baptist town. I went to the Christian school. There were three radio stations constantly railing about SIN. If there were Catholics and Jews, they kept their heads down and I couldn’t tell you if there was a synagogue in town.
I emphasize this because the Power in Town was all Southern Baptists. So it must have been them who put up the civic center and brought in rock acts; who were all about the sex and drugs! It must have been them who owned the bars and nightclubs that were always serving teenagers. It must have been them who complained about not being able to close the dirty bookstore because of silly laws! When they would casually break the law in many other ways, because their cousin was the Police Chief and their nephew was a Sheriff’s deputy.
Just as our Red States lead the nation in porn consumption, they really like having it both ways. Just as our most ossified GOP screamers tend to be the ones caught doing coke off an underaged hooker.
Because it was during my growing up years in this little town that I realized what the great writer Theodore Sturgeon once wrote: you don’t have to convince a hungry person to eat. So all this railing about sin meant they couldn’t stop thinking about it, could they?
Whereas I don’t think about it much. Maybe because I’m not doing it.
Linda Featheringill
@Schlemizel:
Sorry you had such bad experiences as a child.
Aside from Pat himself and Bishop assholes, how do you get along with run-of-the-mill Catholics now?
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch:
I see what you did there.
JPL
@David Koch: You are so right. More often than not Buchanan was offensive and MSNBC kept him on. Pat lives among the 27% who watch Fox news so maybe he’ll find a preaching job on that station.
amk
ppp tweet – lil ricky up 9 points in WA
ornery_curmudgeon
@Schlemizel: So you apparently joined with those who scapegoated Ralph Nader.
You are not thinking, you’re pretending to think and fooling yourself. Even now, today, with all that has occurred, you attack an actual progressive who told the truth that the Dem party IS corrupted by corporate money (in this, the SAME AS Republicans).
You aren’t upset and writing screeds against the actual people who allowed the Iraq war and somehow manage to work w/ Republicans against progressive issues. No, you bitch about a corporate crusader.
Just to review, your VP candidate was Joe Lieberman. We will just have to disagree.
Patricia Kayden
Buchanan can call Faux News about a job. I’m sure he’ll fit in very well over there.
jimmiraybob
In his imagined and longed for benevolent Christian kingdom this would never have happened. Why o why is America full of uppity serfs clamoring for unalienable rights and decency?
handsmile
@Elizabelle: (#44), @pseudonymous in nc: (#84)
Appreciate knowing that you recognize what matters.
Given the astonishing ignorance of most Americans about the Middle East, the shallow coverage by the corporate media, and the region’s intractable and perilous volatility, the death of America’s best and most knowledgable journalist on the subject, especially at the tragically early age of 44, should register as more consequential than the employment situation of yet another elderly white racist.
Soonergrunt spoke of “forces of light” in his post above. With Shadid’s death, a considerable and vital source of light has been snuffed out.
Villago Delenda Est
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Ralph Nader is a shitstain. He betrayed every progressive with his ego-driven stupidity.
Fuck him and all who defend him.
jimmiraybob
@Schlemizel:
Wow. This is my story exactly…except my family had me dunked in Catholic water. Didn’t help though, I always got my ass handed to me by Catholic and Protestant kids including brothers. I was an early proponent of can’t we all just get along, which somehow made me a target. Then, oh lawd, in the late 60s when I grew my hair long……
On the other hand, I’ve never been bothered by vampires. So, there’s that.
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
I feel about them like I do about all people of religion – as long as you don’t ask me to believe we get along just fine. It took me a few years to get here but I made it.
I now actually sort of thank those thugs, they taught me what it was like to be a minority and to be abused simply for a belief.
Schlemizel
@ornery_curmudgeon:
So you are one of those fuckers stupid enough to fall for Naders bullshit. Thanks for the heads up, I now know I can safely ignore anything you say as you are so fucking stupid even reality cannot penetrate that shit pile you imagine is your brain.
You and the other asshole who still have not learned are the best friend the GOP has. You and your friends are a big part of the reason is difficult to complain about differences with Obama on policy or tactics.
In short: FO&DIAF
Schlemizel
@jimmiraybob:
True enough – but that is a grown ups thinking, not the child having his face rubbed into the sidewalk because of a religion.
There are bullies of every stripe but when you a 10 if every bully who worked you over was left handed you’d be pretty pissed off at leftys. Some people grow up and understand it was not their left handedness that was the issue.
Paul in KY
@Bruce S: I always liked his ‘boys at the yacht basin’ crack.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and ABBA will finally reunite.
Paul in KY
@Dee Loralei: I think you are being a bit histrionic here. At least I hope you are.
The vast majority of that ilk are all talk & no action. Loud mouthed braggarts. I trust the Secret Service to take good care of my president.
Paul in KY
@Chuck Butcher: I think he might run into plagarism problems in Germany if he used that title ;-)
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: I would love to garrot Ralph Nader. Slowly.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@Patricia Kayden:
actually, and i doubt it fits their premise anymore, but faux could score a ton of laughs by proactively barring pat buchannan from their network, for what ever reason sells pixels.
Paul in KY
@ornery_curmudgeon: VP Joe Lieberman (and it is on record how much I hate this sanctimonious traitor) would have been better than VP Dick Cheney.
So fuck off about Ralph Nader.
Schlemizel
@Paul in KY:
Not me. I hope the same for him that I do for Boy Blunder. I hope they live to a very old age, a point where their stupidity, incompetence and evil are so widely recognized that they live out their days in a pain amplifier. Humiliated, shunned and alone. Lucid to the end understanding how much they are hated.
Schlemizel
Oh, and one more thing for ignorant_curmudgeon:
Ralphie was known to us in the 70’s as the “cause without a rebel” because he had become such a ‘centrist, don’t rock the boat’ type. His actual accomplishments as a reformer have diminished to invisible & had long before he took it upon himself to get W elected. Now he is just a rebel without a clue.
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: Well, I’m not going to jail for Nader. So what you hope for hopefully has a much higher chance than my fantasy.
Nader may get that. Boy Blunder still has a cocoon he can live in & deny reality (which he is good at).
Odie Hugh Manatee
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Ahh, you’re one of those people…
Both Nader and his apologists can FOADIAF, as someone above said. Nader, via his supporters, gave us Bush. Quit trying to rewrite history.
His supporters fucked up, plain and simple.
LAC
@DFS:
Oh, yeah…he’s special. Hear he is a dog lover too. (eyeroll)
Schlemizel
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Worse, it was not unknowable before had. Ralphie admitted he wanted Boy Blunder to win. Ralphie took next to no votes away from W and stood slightly less than no chance of winning even one state let alone the entire the White House. The BEST case scenario with Ralphie was that Gore would lose the popular vote but have enough EC votes (and wouldn’t those have been 4 wonderful years with a GOP House!). As it turns out statistical studies show Ralphie caused Gore to lose one of the NE states to Boy Blunder and he made FLA close enough to steal.
That ignorant assholes like that still are carrying a torch for Ralphie makes me worry about what the rat fuckers have in store for us this fall.
Schlemizel
@Paul in KY:
I don’t know, he may be starting to get it. He is unloved even in the GOP and was unmentioned until yesterday when Ol Frothy brought him up as a bad example. He actually said he blamed W more than Obama for the bail outs!
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: I pray you are right!
gar
@kdaug: No!! I do believe she is the worst. The whole Morning Joe crew (Joe, Mika, Willie, Barnicle, and Halperin) is bad as well. I enjoy the Chris Hayes Show the best. But by in large I think MSNBC could do much better.
muddy
@Silver:
Whenever I see “muscular writer” it always seems to translate to me as, “being a dick.” (i.e. VDH) Does anyone know of an author said to be “muscular” who is not a dick? Or for that matter is a woman? It’s a dogwhistle to me.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@ornery_curmudgeon: True and irrelevant. You cannot make the argument that a Gore presidency would not have been far better for the country than the utter disaster that George W. Bush was.
You and your fellow Nader supporters gave us George Bush, two wars, five trillion dollars in debt and, most importantly, millions of dead people in the Middle East. Nice going, hope you can sleep at night. I’d shoot myself in the head, personally, if I’d fucked up that badly, but then again I have a working sense of shame.
mike in dc
The biggest sin Gruppenfuhrer Buchanan is guilty of in this day and age is superfluousness. The airwaves are filled with raging, aging white male id monsters. If I knew the magic formula for getting them to calm down and STFU for just long enough for the country to progress a bit and get things done, I’d have shared it already.
Maus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why do we need a “new” Social Conservative? The old ones are working just fine.
Bruce S
I will say this for Buchanan’s Krackpot Korner – The American Conservative has actually published anti-imperial stuff that’s worth reading (alongside some totally reactionary garbage re race and culture.) It’s the first place I encountered Andrew Bacevich. All that can be said for Weekly Standard and National Review is that they always publish total garbage and don’t even try to rise above partisan hackitude and opportunism.
Samara Morgan
wallah.
i lurve this.
Why has foxnews not suspended Sarah Palin?
the dude
Sully says MSNBC is indistinguishable from Fox News now, since they canned Buchanan, who is a “serious figure”, apparently.
Bruce S
Personally, I would rather MSNBC had canned “Morning Joe” and given Pat three hours of white populist airtime every morning. He could have finished the job on “conservatism” – for all but the criminally insane – that the Bishops, among others, have started. Also, Buchanan would more than likely have had a more interesting round of guests than Joe’s usual suspects, because as toxic as his own are, I think Buchanan has more respect for ideas and in his own crazy way more intellectual integrity than Scarborough. Hard to imagine even Buchanan suffering such a fool as Mike Barnicle on a daily basis. Buchanan’s virtue – probably his only one – is that he’s not disingenuous. Which is why he’s good television from my perspective of taking the smiley face off of conservative horseshit.
Maus
@the dude: Sully’s angling for the Bell Curve hour, all the “statistical and fact based” racism liberals want!
David Koch
@the dude: Naturally Sully comes to Pat’s defense, they both hate Israel.
fuckwit
Wait.. what? Wasn’t it Pat ROBERTSON who gave the hate-filled, homophobic keynote for the Repugs in 1992, after running for the nomination and losing?
Pat ROBERTSON, the fundamentalist theocrat preacher blowhard. Not Pat BUCHANAN, the Nixon-fellating, McCarthyite racist.
Please, keep your assholes straight.