John@40--thanks for the support on the others, and you're right about Gwatney w/ there being no direct evidence. That being said, the murder did take place at Democratic party headquarters; Johnson asked specifically to see Gwatney, and they had no prior personal connection. It could be a crazy guy who randomly decided to shoot a well-known person, but I don't even know who the state party chairman of either party in CA or IA (the two places I live) is. It's something he would've had to look up, so I'm inclined to lean towards Lee's viewpoint. But you're right in that there's no direct evidence.
Francis @42--if a movement of angry conservatives in a world in which seven progressives have been murdered by four angry conservatives in the past year looks the same as a movement of liberals, with zero murders in the past year look the same to you, well, I don't think anything more needs to be said. Four fatal shootings in one year is not an isolated incident. And that's not even counting the anti-abortion murders of doctors or Eric Rudolph, or others.
Lots of good stuff here (and glad you're doing better, Teresa!), but I want to particularly follow up with Rosa@12, and the rather unpleasant, but most definitely true corollary:
1) Right-wing radicals have spent the last 37 years arguing government can't do anything right.
2) When government *does* do something substantial right, it costs them votes.
This, obviously, creates problems for any political party that wants to stay in power. And it's why they hate Social Security so much. The problem with Social Security isn't that it doesn't work--it's that it does work. Every monthly check, delivered on time, is a reminder that hey, the government can keep people out of poverty, and that, hey, the government does care about me/my parents, and is making sure my parents don't starve. And that COSTS THEM VOTES. Which causes them to lose money. Which causes them to lose power.
It's why the Republicans lie so relentlessly about Katrina, and why they're desperately trying to shove James Lee Witt down the memory hole (Witt was the very capable, very hardworking head of FEMA during the Clinton years who basically turned the agency around from the disaster it was during the Reagan/Bush years.
Every single national disaster that FEMA & James Lee Witt handled well from 1993-2001 was a little reminder: The government can do some things good.
And that costs Republicans votes. Which costs them money. Which costs them power.
I can say this here, in this forum, something I might not say even on dailykos: More Americans die when Republicans get elected. This is the dirty truth that, for a variety of reasons (ADM @ 17 hit on a very important one, complicity & guilt), is not talked about.
According to a recent study (think it was Kaiser), 18,000 Americans die a year due to a lack of health insurance. The Republicans blocked Bill Clinton's health care reform solely for political reasons--to win an election. They had no regard for improving an obviously flawed policy.
1994-2008 = 14 years. 18,000*14=252,000 dead Americans, several of whom would still be alive if Clinton's plan had passed. More would be alive if a single-payer system had passed.
4,159 American soldiers dead in Iraq who would still be alive if the Presidency hadn't been stolen from Gore.
And then there's the matter of Sandy Berger's six-hour briefing to Condi Rice about Al-Qaeda in January of 2001, and Richard Clarke's repeated, unheeded warnings, warnings which would have been heeded by Gore, and the August 4, 2001 quote from Bush, when handed the PDB: "All right. You've covered your ass."
Does anyone for a second believe Gore would have dismissed such a report? Would not have taken SOME sort of action? (I want to make clear I'm not a conspiracy theorist--Al-Qaeda brought those towers down and no one else. But Bush is guilty of criminal negligence, negligence which Al Gore would certainly not have committed. I don't know if the 9/11 attacks were preventable. It is possible they were not. But it is also possible that some form of higher alertness, some form of warnings from a more concerned administration, could have had some kind of impact, and we should not be afraid to acknowledge these possibilities.)
There are words for what the right-wing radical Republicans have done to our country. Certainly "criminal negligence" is a good one. "Evil" might also apply.
So might treason.
God, what repulsive human beings, both of 'em. There's no hope for people like Suprynowicz. None. One can take comfort in two things:
1)his book is so far out of print that the least you can get it for is $35
2) In this case, you really can judge him by the company he keeps--amazon's proposed discussion topics are: "Yikes its [insert anti-semitic slur here]"
and
"Was Adolf Hitler a full-blooded jew?"
Charming.
Thomas@78, as far as I'm concerned, Obama is not obligated to keep whatever "promise" he may or may not have made bcause McCain *is breaking the law.* He's broken it. No two ways about it. Bush's FEC chairman, David Mason, even agrees.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/24/rep-wexler-mccain-broke-the-law-on-campaign-finance/
There's a good summation at firedoglake:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/23/mccain-is-now-a-campaign-finance-criminal/
If your opponent breaks the law, all bets are off.
Will@38, While Johnson was godwaful on Vietnam, I *really* hope you're not claiming Goldwater would've done as well as LBJ did on Civil Rights--working very, very hard to pass both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act--continually lobbying Republicans and recalcitrant Dems, seizing his first major speech after JFK's assassination to say to the nation "WE shall overcome"--directly placing the language of the civil rights movement in the Oval Office. Goldwater voted *against* both bills, so to claim he would have supported them as President strikes me as an extreme stretch. (I'm reading a book about how MLK and LBJ went from wary acquaintances to very close allies to get both major pieces of Civil Rights legislation through Congress, "Judgment Days," by Nick Kotz. It's worth reading if you're not convinced.)
We should absolutely put pressure, continual pressure, on Obama *once he's elected*--as well as primary however many FISA sellout Dems we can--but first he *has to get elected.* We have to *win.* Then we push. The mistake we made in '92 was assuming Clinton would do everything right without us pressuring him. So, yes, by all means, keep the pressure on, and yeah, I'm bothered by the FISA thing, but it's Obama or disaster, guys, it really is. Obama wants us out in 16 months. McCain wants us there for 100 years.
The first two Supreme Court appointments will, I'm guessing, be Stevens and Ginsberg, so there won't even be a chance to push the court back to the center (from its extremist insanity right now), but at least Obama can prevent Republicans from doing more damage). Here's hoping Scalia or Thomas--or both!--decide to just enjoy retirement.
And a friendly reminder about the 2000 election--remember, the Florida lists of who could and could not vote were run by a private company, ChoicePoint, whose CEO had donated over $100,000 to Bush (he was a Bush pioneer.) Investigative reporter Greg Palast turned up a list that included over 300 "future criminals"--voters innocent of any crime who were falsely claimed to have committed crimes in 2007. Thomas Cooper was one of 'em.
That's fraud any way you slice it. (See "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy for more details.)
Teresa: "This administration isn't about ideology. That's for the suckers. It's about making money and securing power. Gutting FEMA was about repurposing the department as a branch of Bush's personal PR machine..."
Amen, and I'd go further. The entire Republican party, with a few exceptions (Chuck Hagel, Ron Paul) is a criminal enterprise devoted to making money and grabbing power.
FEMA, though, was semi-ideologocially related. You see, if your entire political philosophy is based on "government doesn't work," and there's a great Clinton appointee named James Lee Witt running around with FEMA doing good work...well, see, every time there's a natural disaster in a red state, and FEMA shows up, and does good work, that's gonna make it *that much harder* to argue that government doesn't work. So something's got to be done about it.
I want these people behind bars. Every single one.
Apologies if this point has been raised already--posting quickly. My userid at dailykos is 6612. A quick click on my "view all by" should be enough to establish my proud liberal credentials. I'm concerned this video isn't nearly as bad as everyone else seems to think it is. If I were a Republican, or an average Texas independent, I imagine this video would hit all the right notes: "Big John" standing up to those g-damn Washington elitists and outsiders, told in a country song. I wouldn't know about Cornyn's massive corruption or box-turtle idiocy or right-wing troglodye-ness (not a word, I know.) The video's cheesy, sure, but many people are okay with cheesiness. This video is clearly designed to push emotional buttons, something the Republicans are very good at. So, for me, the bigger question is, what are the best *emotional* buttons to push to counter this? Because I think it's more effective, at least with Cornyn's base & leaners (which in Texas, even in 2008, could be enough) than many suspect. Doesn't make Cornyn any less repugnant--it just means he's got a really good media team.
Still around, esb? Repeating darkrose @99's question
"if Buckley wept when he heard about the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, did he also reject the conclusion of the National Review that the bomber "set back the cause of the white people there so dramatically as to raise the question whether in fact the explosion was the act of a provocateur - of a Communist, or of a crazed Negro"?"
Bryan@192:
A book is written that destroys the soul, in discussing it a group of writers are inexplicably drawn to playing strange games where questions as to the plots of literary works are answered in gibberish.
Um, not to be eerie, or anything, but this sounds astonishingly like the plot of Sbhpnhyg'f Craqhyhz. Seriously. Check out the synopsis on amazon.com. If the strange games involve feeding things into a giant, mysterious computer…
Dai@206:"Ruby Ridge did not happen under Dubya…"
Funny that. Ruby Ridge was in July of 1992--under George *H.W.* Bush. George Bush the Elder.
Question for Dai. Did you know that, and were you dishonestly attempting to imply that President Clinton was responsible, or were you just generally ignorant of when Ruby Ridge took place?
2nd question: The use of "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is part and parcel of an argument in bad faith--implying that criticism of what by all accounts is a pretty bad President is illegitimate. I assume you're a Bush supporter. What criticisms from those on the left would you accept as legitimate? (Note the phrasing of the question: no weaseling here with regards to Harriet Miers or immigration. I'm genuinely curious what criticisms from us would *not* cause you throw around dishonest rhetoric.)
I have nothing to offer the war p0rn discussion, but I've begun to imagine all the ROT-13 text as being voiced by the evil space monsters who chase after Spaceman Spiff in Calvin & Hobbes: "Blurrga Wurrga Spiff! Gur trezna cevfbare jub jnf fubja zrepl Spiff!" And they probably sound like the Vogons.
WHEEEE! Apparently I *don't* miss all the fun threads.
"My cadding days with you are over"
(shakes head in delighted disbelief)
Except that you're back, "Chris." You're *back.* You said you were going away forever but now you're *back!* Jesus, Chris, why did you come back? It's starting to look like…well, like
this
to be honest.
"but I shall possibly keep looking for chinks in some other mean-spirited site and post as TN-H to my heart's content."
Identity theft is a crime, but I expect that the only sites which would know who Teresa is would easily recognize you as a fraud, if by nothing than your Australian ISP. Well, that and the fact that Teresa's neither mean nor an idiot.
Oh, and before I forget, here's my favorite Red Dwarf moment, posted because I'm directing a play partially inspired by the episode this comes from ("Thanks for the Memory," season 2.)
IM IN UR THREADS
BEIN A SOCKPUPPIT
BUT NO I IZ ACTUALLY TESTIN YOU!!
I CAN HAZ EBOOKS??
Jesus Christ, I miss all the fun threads.
Congratulations, Patrick!
And since I came here from atrios, it's only appropriate that I should add…
MARS, BITCHES!
i mean
MARS, PATRICK!
There. That's better.
Josh @ 47: Yeah, as someone who read both "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugs," I didn't react violently against Objectivism--okay, you want to be selfish, thass cool. My biggest objection was to the fact that I could have taken a red pencil to the thing, stripped down Rand's turgid sentences and absurdly overly-detailed paragraphs, and created a version of "Atlas Shrugs" that would be, at 200 pages (instead of approximately 1072), a much better book.
Whether or not a shorter, more readable "Atlas Shrugs" would be a good thing for the world is an entirely different question.
Paul, Fade Manley, ethan, mythago@51,52,54, 56: Damn, damn, damn! I was going to be all cultist and cool and be the first person to mention Matt Ruff. I was seven comments too late. Seven comments away from brilliance!
But yes--highly, *highly* recommend both "Sewer Gas Electric" and "Fool on the Hill," which has one of my favorite lines of all time:
As George is onggyvat gur qentba gbjneqf gur raq bs gur obbx, naq nabgure punenpgre fhqqrayl pbzrf gb gur erfphr, the demented story-teller/God Mr. Sunshine yells, "Jung vf guvf?! Jung vf guvf Qrhf Rk Znpuvan penc?!"
On the plus side, I am the first to note that Ruff has a new book out, called "Bad Monkeys." This is news because Ruff only publishes a new book once every seven years.
Matt Ruff's page
Michael @ 111
"Midnight Madness" has now morphed into something called "No Shame" every Friday night, and it's entirely optional (you show up with an original, under-five-minutes piece, and present it to the crowd). I'd love to meet you the next time I'm in NYC!
Nicole @ 68--I misinterpreted your comment and thought the video *was* an elaborate hoax. When the camera shutter noise went off, my thought was "Ha! That's so fake!"… until it turned out to be real.
Astounding bird, really (coughs in an embarrassed manner, looks around).
Having just gotten three bad reviews this summer for a play I wrote, including a scorching one from the Village Voice, I'm astonished at the juvenile mentality that would make one think one is entitled not to get them. Grow the f--- up, already, Pivar. Sympathies to P.Z.
Nicole@425--You may or may not have heard of a wonderful book by a French writer named Georges Perec called "La Disparition," written entirely without the letter E. It was published in 1967.
(cue Hollywood preview voice and drumroll):
It took 25 years to find a translator, but Gilbert Adair unleashed "A Void" on the world in 1994.
I wrote a review of the book and also avoided using the letter E… it's on amazon.
Ajay@382: That's *awful.* (Chortle)
Serge@235: Was that an actual possibility? The timing would have been right, as he hadn't been through "Spartacus" and fled for England and the magical land of final cut yet, at least not when they were choosing directors…
The logical side of my brain is telling me no one deserves to get ripped off, but then I think about how these people are supporting a man who's destroying the Constitution--people who in all likelihood support torture, people who, without being melodramatic, endangered my life & the lives of everyone else in New York City by voting the way they did in 2004, people who think I'm a traitor, and it's hard. I don't know--maybe I'm just very, very angry (possibly suffering from Tom Tomorrow's patented Outrage Overload), but god damnit, if Bush & Cheney & Rove & Gonzales aren't going to prison, it'd be nice to see *somebody* suffer. This is cruel and ugly, I know. But it's how I feel.
This posting reminds me how lucky I am to have parents whose politics, generally speaking, match up to mine (one of my earlier memories is of my dad screaming at the radio when Ollie North was testifying… later memory is of my dad yelling at the radio when the Democrats were botching their questioning of Clarence Thomas.) My problem with my dad, and it's a comparatively minor one; he's lived through the sixties, and seen the rise of both Nixon & Reagan--he was also, from what I gather, one of the only members of his group of friends to take Reagan seriously as a threat, so the experience has left him a "professional prophet of doom." Alas, he doesn't read the blogs, so my job has become one of permanent morale raiser. (He still canvasses and calls, though.)
There is something to be said for confrontation. My grandfather, who was always conservative, used to send around right-wing missives via email. One day I got fed up and replied all (it was a racist comparison of Hurricane Katrina with a snowstorm in North Dakota) with a controlled, but scathing response. He was furious, but he doesn't send around political emails anymore.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 22 |
| 2006 | 7 |
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