"I think they are all homosexual communists in Satan's army...I espect as well they all live together and bathe together every morning and have the anal sex with one another, with the fisting and the guinea pigs." - Manuel Estimulo
"I can never quite tell if the defeatists are conservative satirists poking fun at the left or simply retards. Or both. Retarded satire, perhaps?" - Kyle
"You're an effete fucktard" - Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom
"This is the most pathetic blog ever..." - Ames Tiedeman
"You two [the Rev and el Comandante] make an erudite pair. I guess it beats thinking." - Matt Cunningham (aka Jubal) of OC Blog
"Can someone please explain to me what the point is behind that roving gang of douchebags? I’m being serious here. It’s not funny, and doesn’t really make anything that qualifies as logical argument. Paint huffers? Drunken high school chess geeks?" - rickinstl
I just came to the conclusion that except for oddities and occasional fill-ins, I will probably never "work" for anyone except wife, cats and whim again, and I shockingly realized that I actually don't give a fuck. In fact, feel pretty good. It's been surreal, real, fun, occasionally real fun but mainly just tedium and putting up with a fine broth of idiots, assholes, and asslickers. Going to the cafe to join Rhett Miller and Soren Kierkegaard, Chris Hitchens, Brian Jones, Mr. Jennings and Socrates...
As Mr. Miller and the boys so eloquently put it ....
Gettin out of the house. Im gonna go for a ride, Cause I got me a five-o Ford and the good Lord knows I tried to make friends with you and evrything went wrong. Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
Goin down to the tracks. Im gonna hide out for a while. Gonna have me some ranch-style beans From a tin can hobo-style, Forget your face, If that can be done. Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
And youll find you a boyfriend And he wont like my cat. And youll try to Pretend that you dont want me back. Right now Im leavin So youd better say, So long. Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
Gonna find me a boat And a brand new name. Im gonna find some wall-eyed, Weak-kneed European dame. Shell be my wife And youll only be a song. Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
And youll find you a boyfriend And he wont like my cat. And youll try to Pretend that you dont want me back. Right now Im leavin So youd better say, So long. Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
Yeah, Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im goin Im gone.
Jesus. Well, what do ya do about a string breakin Oh, nothin
So, to steal a line from Graham Nash to Steven Stills back in the No Nukes Movie and you're looking for an executive like me, well, "Steven, if you need me, call. And Steven, don't call."
One of the things that binds loose collectives of malcontented malevolent dissidents, anarchists and soldiers, political thinkers and intellectual dilettantes that make up my small circle of freinds is our general aversion to the impact of the totalitarian mind on life, language and discourse. Particularly when afraid -- when they're afraid, they come unglued with weird explanations of events...Orwell could have had fun with that realization because it is when under pressure from the unknown that the basic spiritual bankruptcy and ontological void that is the totalitarian way becomes most obvious. Case in point, China.China has the potential to explode at any time. It's fairly obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of Marxist thought that the victory of the Communist Party in 1948 preceded the rise of the industrial proletariat. Pretty much the way that Communism has spread everywhere, by the way, except for the countries in eastern Europe that were conquered by the Soviet Union. So, given the fact the Party still rules the country as a vicious oligarchy, it should not be surprising that the government is terrified of anything that might blow it all up. Tibet, Western China, displaced living lives of misery in Guangzhou and Shanghai...labor unrest, the incredible imbalance between rich and middle class and middle class and poor...disease, famine, water impossible to drink, etc. etc. The place is an economic dynamo sputtering away on top of a volcano.
Which presents a fair amount of hilarity masquerading as WTF? Not unlike Rush Limbaugh confusing contraception with the adult film industry and Israeli fellow-travellers eagerly sounding the drums for a war with Iran because our last religio-WMD-"Make the world safe"-enterprises have gone so well, the Chinese government is definitely after the root cause of problems at all levels. Jezebel picked up a story from The People's Daily that really makes it obvious that fantastic explanations for things is not just a Republican plutocratic art but one shared by totalitarians univerally.
Ok, girl one loses a "remote control" to a rolling door for her home. Girl one is obviously fairly rich for China since this looks like a really bad translation of "Garage Door Opener..." although I suppose it could have been a rolling steel shutter door to a patio or perhaps a French Door with a remote to the patio but, WHAT THE HELL? The silly damn Khardasians don't have remote controlled French doors; Trump doesn't have remote controlled French doors. That makes no sense...even in China, which at some levels, times and places is really like Batman's Gotham City, on meth...So, the kid lost a garage door opener. She decides to kill herself, so she hides in a closet -- another sign that we're dealing with some level of wealth here, there's actually a closet that is not so much in use that hiding in it is possible -- until her little friend comes over. She says she's going to commit suicide, the little friend says, OK, me too and Girl 1 writes down a note saying that she's killing herself over the garage door opener and Girl 2 is doing it because, well, they're friends and it's Tuesday and there's nothing on TV and...they are planning on visiting the Qing dynansty to make a movie of the emperor -- any emperor -- and then going to outer space. Girl 1 tells her sister to "Take Care of the Parents" because it's all about the parents, and they jump in a pool and drown.
Sister? The Chinese still have their one child rule. Only the very well to do and party elites get to have multiple children. WHAT THE HELL? This passes no reality test...but, the inspiration for the suicide is ...TV shows about people travelling in time and marrying royalty.
Yeah, and comic books caused juvenile delinquency and rock and roll and teenage pregnancy and communism. Ask your great, great senile grandmother!
Imagine the dialogue in the TV movie...if you've ever listened to the dialogue in a Chinese TV show, as I did by reading subtitles while there -- you'll recognize it.
Chechette: I lost the garage door remote and have brought dishonor on myself and my family. I must kill myself!
Chongette: I am your best friend. I will also kill myself.
Cheechette:Well, if we kill ourselves, we can go back in time and make a movie of the emperor in the Qing dynasty!
Chongette:Oh, good. Then we can travel in space.
Cheechette: My parents will be so proud...let's go drown ourselves in the pool!
Both: All hail the Glorious People's Liberation Army and Chairman Mao!"
Yeah. Now, they could have blamed this on Falung Gong because everybody knows that weird calestenics and such make you crazy. They could have blamed this on the influences of capitalism. They could have blamed it on a lot of things. Hell, blame it on Guy Clark ...Time travel on the Chinese equivalent to The Gilmore Girls? Jezebel has an excellent point, by the way.
This sounds like a cautionary tale about parenting — if your kid thinks killing herself is a good response to losing the remote control, you might not be sending the right message about the value of everyday objects. But Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of China Youth and Children Research Center, has a different moral in mind:
Schoolchildren are rich in curiosity but poor in judgment, so this kind of tragedy happens in every era. I have heard of children jumping from high buildings after watching an actor flying in a magic show. This kind of imitative behavior is in the nature of young children, but it's very dangerous. So we should give some sort of warning for children on TV programs.
I'm actually not sure that killing yourself so you can travel back in time and film an emperor (where do you get the camera?) is a tragedy that "happens in every era."...
Being not so sure about the impact of TV on suicides -- childish deaths from imitating superheroes, pro- wrestlers and such in the west aside -- and being slightly alert to conspiracies and coverups, I gotta say, this looks more like a cover-up of something else. There are lots of possibilities -- a spree of mass murder of children with or without child rape, a problem with some powerful "Big Bucks" in the local or regional Party-Wealthy Complex, drug-crazed People's Liberation Army veterans of the unpleasantness in Western China which dwarfs what we are seeing in Afghanistan or saw in Iraq -- but TV is a convenient scapegoat. Always has been and always will be...Dr. Who, in Mandarin drag, seducing the young with opium and time travel.
My money is probably on some sort of Child 44 coverup but who the hell knows about these things? Totalitarian countries are weirder than weird and China's internal dissension, cultural dissonance, and Commie-Confucian-Oligarchic messiness kind of makes it all seem possible, and that's funny in a weird way...and sad.
Another possibility is that this is just some Politboro thug having a shit fit at time travel TV. Again, the oddities of totalitarianism...
Jerry Harvey, expert on management dysfunction and organizational behavior, has a classic finding called The Abilene Paradox. Basically, it discusses our inability to deconflict -- agreement. We may all "want to do X but there are hidden voices saying, We should do Y because..." His story involves the disruption of a family afternoon in north Texas in the summer because his mother in law figured that he and his wife were probably bored. This resulted in a four hour car trip over beat up roads in a beat up, unairconditioned car to a Rexall Drug Store and Lunch Counter in Abilene. It was hot, it was dusty, it was a lot like the Texas in The Last Picture Show. When they finally got home and collapsed in the living room, there was dead silence punctuated by gas and burps from that fine Rexall Lunch Counter cusine for about 45 mintues. As Harvey tells the story, realizing that he was a trained social scientist with a PhD in Organizational Psychology and Behavior, felt compelled "to make a behavioral intervention." So, he said, "That was fun now, wasn't it?" To which his father-in-law responded by looking at him and visibly questioning the wisdom of letting his daughter marry this clown and then saying as only someone who's from Texas or at least spent a lot of time there can say it, "SSSSHHHEEEEIIITTTT --that was awful." The family did a post mortem, and when their reasoning got exposed -- Momma thought the kids were bored and wouldn't want to eat left overs, the kids didn't want to deny Momma anything, Papa wasn't going to push back against eveyone else so...the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and in the early 70s, the road to Abilene was paved with kind thoughts and care for other people's feelings. Book is a classic, and I recommend it to anyone -- Harvey is one of my heroes along with Keith Richards, Guy Clark and Kierkegaard.
This war was a terrible idea as a use of blood, power, treasure and time. Our soldiers performed incredibly well -- the average enlisted guy in Vietnam served one tour of 11.5 months. Once. In World War II and Korea, once you got there, you stayed until you couldn't fight anymore but there were long lulls between battle and fear. But in Iraq, it was never quiet, never safe, never secure, never lulled -- every day, anywhere, was a day in combat. Everybody hated you, and if they didn't, you figured that there was something wrong with them. As I talked to our kids returning from this cauldron, the general theme echoed one I heard from a British Peacekeeper in 1994 -- "They're all guilty bastards."
Were there problems? Hell yes; war is nothing but problems. This one was fought so poorly that it makes you wonder if Rumsfeld, Cheney and Tommy Franks had bet against at some British bookies...their ignorance, stupidity and basic inhumanity wasn't just criminal. It was of some other dimension -- as if the DOD was run by Reptilian-Alien overlords. Bizzare...
Did we have soldiers do some bad things? Yup -- every war has soldiers do bad things. But, the vast, vast majority of the American military served incredibly well, honorably and effectively. It was a bad idea; it's the Iraqis country; we broke it, we fixed it, and we need to get our guys all home. Now.
So, it was with a certain degree of stunned outrage that the drumbeat from the Republican party managed to get through my skull. The leadership of the Republican party is so committed to reflexive condemnation of anything that this White House does that they're not only willing to destroy the economy of the foreseeable future, the lives and hopes of millions of Americans; they are willing to denigrate the sacrifices of the people in the boots on the ground by saying that this war was in vain because we didn't stay there. Motherfuckers...American values were defeated in Iraq, and American interests were crushed in Iraq. They were crushed when the first bombs fell in Bagdad; they were defeated when the first tanks rolled across the Kuwaiti border. We lost the war then, in early 2003; our political leaders, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, etc., dealt us this defeat as sure as the Austrian high command dealt their army and empire defeat in 1914. Criminal ignorance, stupidity, cupidity, intellectual sloth and emergent dementia later, and here we are...again.
If you recall when the agreement to end the war was signed, GW Bush was president, Condi Rice was Secretary of State, and Petraeus was still in charge of the Army in Iraq. That team didn't negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement; the Iraqis want us gone. We just lost 4500 killed, thousands of lives shortened by wounds both physical and psychological fighting a war to bring self-determination and Jeffersonian Democracy to a nation made up of various ethnic, religious and cultural groups that all hate each other. As a whole, they want us gone, and we need to go.
Of course, these guys are all operating in a vacuum. What we do to them, they can do to us. If we torture prisoners, they will torture prisoners. If we bomb indiscriminately, they will bomb indiscriminately.
It's important as this mess ends that we honor the victors, the American Armed Forces and Veterans who overcame the strategic defeat that was the whole war, and won an operational and tactical success in conditions of incredible difficulty.
So, while I find Barrack Obama less than a success, and I resent the mistake that you can have bi-partisan cooperation when only one side cooperates as being the worst of new age gibbersih made into policy, we need to make certain that he is re-elected but, more importantly, that the Democrats take back the congress, a greater majority in the Senate and begin to work dismantling the Oligarchs on the right side of the Supreme Court.
Or, fuck it. We have backed a mythical monster -- Cthulhu -- an anarchist analytic philosopher --my brother from another mother, Crispin Sartwell -- and a dead Communist -- Gus Hall -- for President. We were being satirical...but, if you can't get your head out of your ass far enough to care this time around, just vote for our new ticket of Gary Busey and Callista Gingrich. What the hell -- he's beyond certifiable and she's obviously controlling Newt through a combination of shiny things and sexual deviance. At somepoint Gingrich will either choke on a ring or she'll suck his brains out; might as well get it over with.
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what did you see, my darling young one? I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’ I saw a white ladder all covered with water I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son? And what did you hear, my darling young one? I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’ Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’ Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’ Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’ Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son? Who did you meet, my darling young one? I met a young child beside a dead pony I met a white man who walked a black dog I met a young woman whose body was burning I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow I met one man who was wounded in love I met another man who was wounded with hatred And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one? I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’ I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest Where the people are many and their hands are all empty Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten Where black is the color, where none is the number And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’ But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’ And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
The generic concept of “The Union” might be big and on the big scale it might over-reach and when you look at it only in the largest context it might sometimes be as irresponsible as some of the smaller of the big corporations, when you look at what it really is – the collected drops-in-the-bucket of the individually powerless $18,568 teacher’s aide in Fond du Lac or the $23,559 traffic warden in Milwaukee or the $48,152 cop in Appleton, or the $22,233 radio sportscaster in New York in 1980 – “The Union” is the only protection you have when the drunken boss comes in to fire you because he doesn’t like you, or because he got elected on a promise to his puppet-masters that he’d fire you and everybody else like you so as to soften this country up to pit the urban middle class against the rural middle class so nobody’s paying attention as the corporations reduce everybody they can to subsistence levels while they take the collected drops-in-the-bucket of the mere thousands of bucks stolen from the fired or the de-unionized or the retirement-delayed, and turn them into more millions to stuff into their own pockets.
Hey, Keith Olbermann can be a smug pain in the ass; on the other hand, he's knowledgable, consistent to his principles and doesn't hesitate to piss off the powers that be. It appears that he has a problem I've shared, great bosses who have lousy bosses. His new blog is up and it's got some interesting stuff in it. If I had been his boss, would I have shoved him out the door the day we made the decision? Probably not --I understand why MSNBC might have been nervous about a prolonged farewell, Lawrence O'Donnell has done a decent job and Rachel Maddow has stayed on target. I have no fondness for Ed Schultz, since he brings his right wing radio host who became a liberal schtick to the air at a time I am looking for something to watch. On the other hand, 2-3 hours of TV news over dinner is more than enough for this Irishman.
Olbermann's initial piece is about the Wisconsin brouhaha, and the place of unions. Like a lot of us, he had a union card or two as he trundled through his career. And, since being in the union saved his job once when a drunken exec decided to fire him because he didn't like him and thought that Keith's argument with his direct boss was grounds for firing and some character defamation, he's invested.
I'm sure Keith Olbermann is still a pain in the ass to his bosses. I suspect that I have been one to my bosses; I'm fairly sure most of the contributors here have been difficult to control at times... However, while I pride myself on not bowing to any Moloch-like Wannabe Toughguy or Gal, there are times when I wish there were rules enforced by an agreement to protect people like me; at the end, our only recourse is to sue, and that's not good for your wa or your karma. Although, it can be lucrative and a lot of folks are forced to do so.
Here's another thought -- unions may have problems, but in a company versus the union argument, justice will probably side with the employees. There are times when union work rules result in some injustice, but for the most part, the scales of justice are very heavily weighted toward the employee and the employee's representative.
This is conceiveably the worst video of the worst music ever created by human beings with functioning pre-frontal lobes. Or without, for that matter. My Japanese is not all that good, but I think one of the gay-ish sort of musicians dedicated the whole thing to either Hirohito or MR. Fun...Seriously, Tiny Tim doing "If I had a Hammer!" on glockenspiel as a soundtrack to Soviet era Sex Hygiene tape would have more merit and probably better conceptual values.
I'm not a great fan of the Daily Kos. That said, I've been struggling to express my thoughts on Sarah Palin's inane, self-serving, self-righteous and self-inflated/ing nonsense yesterday, especially after the remarks made by the President, the Governor of Arizona, Secretary Napolitano and Attorney General Holder. If things happen faster today than they did 100 years ago or 150 years ago, Sarah Palin revealed herself as "so-yesterday..." And, Obama revealed himself as so today, and perhaps tomorrow. The Daily Kos got it exactly right using the word cloud approach. While I really am not enamoured with that technology either, it works in this case. Compare the Central Themes and what you'll recall from both -- heartfelt hope and tribute versus "ME! LOOK At ME! I'm the goddamn victim here. Blood Libel..." While Palin has spent entirely too much time on the national stage, I think she is now the 21st Century's Aimee Semple MacPherson, and it's time to let her move off to some AM radio station where she can hawk gold and "Sarah Says RELOAD!! Darnit" Tea Shirts and Moose Chilli Fixins...
I've been not so quietly getting pissed at the country's stupidity for a long time. Well, I guess my irritation hasn't exactly been a secret to my friends, family and anybody who happens to ask...but this just pisses me off deeply.You want a story that symbolizes what's wrong with this country and whose fault it is? THIS IS IT! People who risked everything without hesitation are being disregarded by the nation, the state and the city but Donald Trump is going to get the money for a new hairpiece...there will continue to be folks to send the donations to fund the parties at the Lesbian-Bondage themed strip clubs. So the Republic is safe...because the Republicans can continue to stoke outrage over Islamo-terrorism while ignoring the American victims. Proving that the Islamoterrorists are kind of right about us...but, that's an irony for another day.
Stewart has probably done more segments this year on the legislation known as the Zadroga Bill than any other topic. The bill would provide $7 billion in benefits for those who first responded on 9/11 and are now experiencing subsequent health problems such as cancer and respiratory disease. While it passed the House, Republicans have blocked the bill from advancing in the Senate.
Stewart noted that, while the 9/11 first responders bill is stuck, Congress did manage to pass the controversial tax bill that will extend tax cuts to everyone including the super wealthy.
The untold story behind 9/11 is what's happened to the first responders who spent months there, twelve hours a day, seven days a week doing and seeing horrific things...and breathing in and getting covered with toxins while the EPA and Rudi 9/11 were saying everything was ok. No health hazards here.
Well, a lot of them are sick -- desperately ill. There is a bill in the quque to cover their medical expenses and some compensation. It got behind the tax cut for the rich thing; it got behind the DADT thing; it got behind the speeches about retiring Senators things. The House did what it was supposed to do. The Senate -- no, not so much. Actually, the Republicans did the same thing to this that they have done to everything except dysfunction. They covered their ears with their hands and screamed about how awful it is! Two networks have covered it in detail...I don't mean a favorable mention or a barb at the Republicans which MSNBC has done. That's nice, but the Dan Choi channel has done a lot more on other things. Including, by the way, the whole issue of the filabuster. There's a lot more here that maybe, just maybe, if it had been fully covered by the media and campaigned on would have changed things in the last election and been the sort of issue that could have energized the American People.
Look, being an American should be about being a part of something greater than yourself. If not, then don't pretend you're a patriot. It's really simple -- brave men and women do things that probably are not rational, but they do them because it's their job, it's their duty, it's their country/city/family. You move toward the danger, not away from it. You don't stop to think "Gee, this might be bad for my health down the road..."
Well, at least two stations have covered this bill adequately. Fox News didn't mention in it's coverage that the reason the Senate was filabustering this was because the Republicans were filabustering it. So, fuck them, they're useless and evil.
I respect Rachel Maddow, but the country is not going to become outraged over the delay of DADT reversal. It's not immediately revolting to the average person. There's a process, and it's grindingly slow for the folks involved, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. And, some of the characters she's lionized are not totally wonderful. You don't do political things in uniform; the wearing of the uniform is not intended to be a political statement. So, getting chained to the White House fence in the Army Combat Uniform might seem a nice symbolic gesture, but it violates the Unifomr Code of Military Justice. And, it's not cool with me.
But, the two networks that have done right by the First Responders of 9/11 are -- Al Jeezera, described by Jon Stewart as the network Osama bin Laden sends his mix tapes to -- and Comedy Central.
What the fuck is wrong with us? Why are we not enraged? Are we stupid? What is wrong with the Democrats? (Silly goddamn question, I know...) But if there was somebody in charge of the Senate with some balls, this could have been the issue. This, Veterans Benefits, Unemployment, Jobs, tossing families off insurance -- on and on and on because of the deficit. We don't want to stick our kids with a tax bill -- bullshit. So cut spending, change the rules of the game to benefit the rich so the rich kids of the future can have more limos. I don't think that most Americans are all-in with that sort of logic. But you know, I've been wrong before.
Thirty six years ago, realizing that the study of philosophy and liberal science had alienated me from the real world, I joined the Army. One would think that Barrack Obama would have had more than enough exposure to the real world to be fully grounded in it. Instead, his abstract and post ironic approach to everything has resulted in where we are at the moment. I'm all for Socratic Self-Examination and living the examined life, but Socrates refused to act and had to drink the hemlock. Plato, faced with the same problem later, left Athens, not wanting them to sin against philosophy again. Or, was it Aristotle? No real matter...
Obama channelling Grace Kelly. Since the election, I've been watching and listening to lots of people on the left whimper about how unfair life is; however, some commentators have been wondering what the hell? Jon Stewart gently scolded the President in advance, suggesting that the voters might have expected audacity instead of comity. At times, Obama has reminded me ofGrace Kelly in High Noon -- there are other Quaker references available, but the whole "let's not be unpleasant, let's all try to get along, none of our concern," approach of this administration has pissed me off. It's not as if we couldn't see it coming...
For example, Paul Krugman has chosen to once more lay out a strategy for politics as a contact sport-- explain what went wrong and what could work in the future. I have no reason to believe that this administration will do what he suggests, although if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have any sense and don't want to see another debacle in 2012, they should be slamming dancing the guy, with Joe Biden pogoing on his ass to get him to remember something...
When Obama won, the Democratic National Committee was run by the Vermont madman, Howard Dean. Dean famously said when asked whether he was from the liberal or the conservative wing of the party that he was from "the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party." The party in 2008 seemed to understand that; this year not so much. I'm not going to vote for a moderate Republican unless my choice is someone like Ben Nelson. In fact, in that case I'll write in the name of one of my brothers in the Defeatists, or maybe a Malcontent from Area 51 like Cultureghost. I don't drink diet coke, I never liked light beer, and I truly dislike non-dairy creamer. IF I AM GOING TO VOTE FOR SOMEONE, I WANT THE BASTARD TO STAND FOR SOMETHING. Maybe even, something I believe in. Most Americans are the same way.
Another Democratic leader was Harry Truman. Truman was famous, according to Dylan Ratigan anyway for saying "People say I give 'em hell. I don't; I tell the truth and they call it hell." Krugman has a formula going forward...and it's worth paying attention to. In response to the complaints that the administration didn't focus on jobs, Krugman points out how the Republicans were allowed to capture the narrative. No reputable economist was satisfied with the size and scope of the stimulus...but, compromise and sweet harmony overcame good advice and facts. It is not wise to seek accord with rabid dogs, scheming slimesuckers and the insane or, Chris Matthews put it so well, the "hypnotized." Krugman has pointed out in other places that neither Geitner nor Summers were really Keynesian economists --Obama, to steal a line from Animal House trusted his frat buddies, the Deltas...he fucked up. Then, he began to endorse the thinking of the Omegas -- the Boehners, the McConnells, the Greenspans. If the Democrats thought they had a Blutarski, they were wrong...in fact, they may have had a Marmalarde running things. Krugman gets it right...
So where, in this story, does “focus” come in? Lack of nerve? Yes. Lack of courage in one’s own convictions? Definitely. Lack of focus? No.
And why would failing to tackle health care have produced a better outcome? The focus people never explain.
Of course, there’s a subtext to the whole line that health reform was a mistake: namely, that Democrats should stop acting like Democrats and go back to being Republicans-lite. Parse what people like Mr. Bayh are saying, and it amounts to demanding that Mr. Obama spend the next two years cringing and admitting that conservatives were right.
There is an alternative: Mr. Obama can take a stand.
For one thing, he still has the ability to engineer significant relief to homeowners, one area where his administration completely dropped the ball during its first two years. Beyond that, Plan B is still available. He can propose real measures to create jobs and aid the unemployed and put Republicans on the spot for standing in the way of the help Americans need.
Would taking such a stand be politically risky? Yes, of course. But Mr. Obama’s economic policy ended up being a political disaster precisely because he tried to play it safe. It’s time for him to try something different.
So, have the meeting with these guys, point out that you're still the President, and demand cooperation. Have Pelosi and Reid gear up and get as much stuff in the backlog passed as possible. If the Republicans block votes or filibuster, so be it. Publicize it, and show the nation what is actually happening. And, point out to McConnell and his crew in the Senate that filibuster reform is very possible, in fact, likely...after the new Senate takes office. Which will have a pared down, more liberal, more progressive base. And, it only takes 51 votes to pass a rules change when the Senate is seated.
Or not. I could see both parties becoming irrelevant. I think it would be a problem for the nation, doddering as we are on the issue of remaining a world party or becoming a client state of China, but what the hell...I'll probably be dead before it all goes completely south. It won't be a great show, and it may drag on. But when you elect somebody who claims the audacity of hope as a trademark and then fritters away two years so that the next two years will be unnecessarily tough, you can't rule it out.
One other thing has irked me of late. The press has been blasting the White House for not selling its accomplishments. Well, in our Athenian Republic as advocated by the Founders and explained in the Federalist Papers, the press should have done that as a part of being fair, balanced and doing its job of informing the voters so they can make the best choices. Obviously, the framers and the authors were on crack. It amazes me that when any critical thinker realizes that the attention span and memory of the average member of the public is about .5 nanoseconds (Ohhh, shiney!) the White House figures that its accomplishments, however historic and marvelous, but undeniably complex, will come to mind when Bob, who's wife has been laid off, kid has had to drop out of college and mother's home is being repossessed will remember that he can't be denied insurance next year or that if the kid had taken his loans out now instead of when he started, he could still be in school or that the bank did lower Mom's mortgage for six months, or that he has an extra $50 in his paycheck since they reduced payroll taxes and his wife has an extra $50 in her unemployment check. All he knows is that he's pissed off, screwed over and the people on Fox News use simple words and no big ideas. The last three Democratic Presidents -- Carter, Clinton, Obama -- have all been bright, highly educated and ultimately ineffective due to being so bright, educated and arrogant as to forget what got them there in the first place. Obama has two years to replicate Clinton and maybe fix this disaster -- we'll see.
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