(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?
Blessed Are The Peacemakers
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.
On Paul
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.
Twitching the GOP Horses
… some part of the horse, anyway. Reporting from the salt-of-the-earth diner-demographic in Iowa, Mr. Pierce at Esquire elicits a brilliant analogy:
[My emphasis] This is not quite the “Look! a jackalope!” trope so beloved of internet trolls and Media Village courtiers, which is just intended to distract. Twitching, in the veterinary sense, allows a skillful 200-pound biped to compel obedience from a 1,200-pound quadruped — just as the tiny minority in charge of the Republican party has compelled the GOP rump to vote against its own best interests for the past forty years, and counting.POLK CITY, Iowa — So Dennis Wendle and Don Boone were hanging out together at home down around Liberty, Missouri (no kidding), and they decided that they were tired of living in a state that counted for so very little in the presidential nominating process, especially when compared to The Crucial Iowa Caucuses. So they packed themselves up for the drive north and, yesterday, they found themselves at a table in the Riesling Sun Cafe in downtown Polk City, which was jumping for nine in the morning, and waiting for the imminent arrival of Rick Santorum, whose campaign was said to be jumping as well, perhaps even as high as second place in TCIC. Dennis and Don were pretty much trapped over their breakfast, what with the fact that patrons of the Riesling Sun were outnumbered about 50-1 by journalists, camerapeople, and TV news haircuts from many lands. (Frank Luntz was haunting the ice-cream counter, possibly attempting to lie pistachio into thinking itself to be chocolate.) Don spoke, in succession, to Canadian TV, Japanese TV, German TV, and a local station from Boston.
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“Hey,” Dennis said to me, showing some admirable entrepreneurial drive. “For fifty bucks, you can stand on my chair.”
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Dennis is a retired TWA mechanic, and Don worked for Kansas City Power and Light for over 20 years, and also was an official in an IBEW local. They are shopping around for someone to get behind during this election year. They are not optimistic. “It’s big money and it’s big business, and it doesn’t reflect the views of working-class people like us,” Dennis said. “Corporations are not people. See what I mean? The people’s wishes. I don’t even follow Santorum, but I’ll bet, here’s what we’re gonna talk about. We’re gonna talk about the moral issues. We’re gonna talk about abortion. We’re gonna talk about all those things that are pretty much settled.
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“There’s a trick in the horse industry that we learned before we had sedatives that, if you grab a horse by the lip, and squeeze it, he forgets about anything else. It’s called ‘twitching.’ That’s what they do to us. They twitch us with all that other stuff and pass over the important issues. Not gonna talk about jobs, either, because they’re not here, and they know where they went, but they’re not gonna do anything to bring them back.”…
(And speaking of “twitching demagogues”, Brett Smiley at NYMag‘s Daily Intel reports that Rupert Murdoch has “Sort of Endorsed” Santorum… via Twitter.)
Greenwald: A Bridge Too Far [Updated]
John, I’m stunned that you continue to think Greenwald was using the remark as a metaphor or hyperbole. He expressly stated that he was not:
And perhaps you were not “laughing” at rape survivors, but you were mocking them in a public forum where women (including asiangrrlMN) were revealing their experiences with rape and that they found the comments offensive. Moreover, that men were also expressing concern likely means they have a mother, sister, daughter, aunt, or niece who has been a victim of sexual violence. You chose to ignore all of that. You could have said nothing. You chose to insert yourself. It was and is wrong. I didn’t seek nor did I want your defense. Your silence would have been sufficient.
And to those who think I overreacted or have a fragile lady-psyche, I’ll be sure to remember not to be so goddamn sensitive about rape in the future.
I’ve removed myself from the masthead. The celebration can officially commence.
-ABL
I’ve put off writing this post for days, and I still don’t have the words to express my disgust about the “rape analogy heard ’round the Twitterverse.” In case you’re not up to speed, long story short, I had a Twitter discussion with Marcy Wheeler about the NDAA; a Greenwald supporter quipped that if I saw Obama raping a nun on live TV, I would defend him for it; another supporter quipped that I would fantasize about playing the role of the raped nun; and Greenwald piled on. When asked to account for the clumsy rape metaphor, Greenwald doubled down, claiming that it wasn’t a metaphor, and that he actually believed that I and other Obama supporters would defend Obama if we were to see him raping a nun.
Corn fed open thread…
<a title=”GOP 2012 Clown car in 3D by dengre.bj, on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/59124558@N06/5813765368/”><img src=”http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5263/5813765368_b1a979ac25.jpg” alt=”GOP 2012 Clown car in 3D” width=”500″ height=”457″ /></a>
With the Iowa Caucus looming in the news cycle I thought I would offer some guesses as to the outcome. When the dust settles, the final results will matter very little, but the spin will drive the news cycle for a few days, help to shape who stays in the race against Willard, and either bust or inflate Iowa Caucus myth.
Monday Evening Open Thread: St. Willard, Hypocrite
(Jeff Danziger’s website)
From Matt Viser, at the Boston Globe‘s Political Intelligence blog:
MARION, Iowa – Mitt Romney, in his final sprint for votes in Iowa, launched into his harshest criticism yet of President Obama, saying that his policies would “poison the very spirit of America and keep us from being one nation under God.”
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“I’ve watched a president who’s become the great divider, the great complainer, the great excuse-giver, the great blamer,” Romney said at a garage of an asphalt company in Marion, a suburb of Cedar Rapids. “I want to have an America that comes together. I’m an optimist, I believe in the future of America. I’m not a pessimist.”…
Yeah, give me a quarter-billion dollars in blood money, and I’d be optimistic too, putz. And to think there are courtiers in the Village who’ve wondered how it would be possible for the Democrats to stir up sufficient animous against the Romneybot 2012 model to bring the all-important Spite Voters to the polls in November. I’ve been warning you all: By the time the official coronation takes place in Tampa, every voter in America (and a selection of their smarter household pets) is going to loathe Willard Romney with a bile that could etch the windows of the space station.
Anything more positive and life-enhancing on the agenda tonight?
Monday Evening Open Thread: St. Willard, HypocritePost + Comments (195)