"A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics

[Beardo]

Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.

Can you link me to the C-span footage of republicans calling democrats Nazis on the house floor.  I must have missed that.

[Brehvolution]

Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.

Can you link me to the C-span footage of republicans calling democrats Nazis on the house floor.  I must have missed that.

Can you link me to footage of democrats calling repubs nazis on the house floor? I missed that too!

[Dickie Dee]

So funny to see Beardo suddenly getting the vapors over this.

[Phoenix Dark]

Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.

Can you link me to the C-span footage of republicans calling democrats Nazis on the house floor.  I must have missed that.

I can't, but I can link to Nazi comparisons coming from the right
http://mediamatters.org/research/201101200037
derp derp

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

as if Rick Santorum didn't have enough negatives already...

that's a bad, bad choice of words there pal.

Well, that's one less contender in 2012.

[Dickie Dee]

This is the problem with modern politics.

Why is a frothy mixture of lubrication and fecal matter even being asked to comment on current affairs??

[Phoenix Dark]

as if Rick Santorum didn't have enough negatives already...

that's a bad, bad choice of words there pal.

Well, that's one less contender in 2012.

That comment seems to have fired up the people it was aimed at. I don't think it'll be much of a problem for him; his theofascist views will be a problem for him.

[Mandark]

It's not really a new meme; pro-lifers have been comparing Roe v Wade to Dred Scott for years now.  I'm sure there are a lot of people who read what Santorum said and think he made a great point.

That said, dude isn't getting anywhere near the Oval Office, unless he wins the Super Bowl or sells the most girl scout cookies.

[Phoenix Dark]

Hmm with him, Gingrich (it's official!), possibly Palin, Pawlenty, and possibly Bachman there's gonna be lots of pure crazy in the GOP primary. I might as well set up romneyface.com right now, I'm sure he'll be displaying some epic "where the fuck am I" frowns

[Dickie Dee]

TPM was speculating whether or not Romney might be setting himself up as the establishment anti-tea party candidate.

[Mr. Gundam]

So Comcast buys NBC Universal and immediately fires Keith Olbermann? Hmmmm....

[Howard Alan Treesong]

[Dickie Dee]

Good article on the thinking of our current Titans, and our whiney entitled bankers.

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/kristol-kalecki-and-a-19th-century-economist-defending-patriarchy-all-on-political-macroeconomics/

Amateur political ideology speculating and ranting time.  Paul Krugman has been wondering about monetary morality lately, and more generally what is causing conservatives, Republicans and indifferent elites to believe Dark Age things about the economy. Some are Austrian economists who have their models and thoughts. But I think we see three general trends in thought that are going to be captured by three different comments:  supply-side myopia, business leader pleading for more control, and the ‘Natural’ part of money.

Good part about Gold Bugs:

A 19th Century Economist Defending Patriarchy

In 1889, Harvard economist Francis A. Walker wrote a book titled Money in Its Relation to Trade and Industry. Among many other things, he argued:

The social effects of a paper-money inflation are so fresh in the mind, through our recollections of our own Greenback Era, that I need not recall the wanton bravery of apparel and equipage; the creation of a countless host of artificial necessities in the family beyond the power of the husband and father to supply without a resort to questionable devices or reckless speculations, or to drafts on the proper business capital or the once sacred family reserve; the humiliating imitation of foreign habits of living, with but the faintest conception of the modes of thought and feeling and the customs of social intercourse which underlie them abroad; the loss of that fit and natural leadership of taste and fashion which is the best protection society can have against sordid material aims, and manners at once gross and effeminate, against democracy without equality or fraternity, and exclusiveness without nobility or pride of character.

Paper money decreases the power of the husband over his wife and the father over his family, loosens the natural leadership that serves as the best protection against “effeminate” manners, and gives us a democracy without nobility.

Which is to say, if you are a person who tends to use a capital N “Natural” to describe your political ideology (“I believe in a Natural Order with a Natural Hierarchy, which I get from my engagement with Natural Rights as observed through Natural Law….”), as many conservatives do, then you are going to be likely to think that the dollar is a Natural Thing too.  Like women wearing pants and voting, any attempt to disrupt the natural order is going to be dangerous.  That the value of a dollar is a social creation, and that if there is excessive demand for money the government should provide extra supply for money, isn’t going to be a convincing argument.

Michael O’Malley has written (h/t matthewstoller) some execellent stuff about this fight from a century ago (“Gold-standard arguments reflected a more generalized concern about and fascination with the insubstantiality of character, race, and value in labor…”).

So if you are a type who believes the government can only do bad, who believes that prosperity flows from how appreciated the business community feels, and who believes strongly in the Natural Order, then you are not going to be in favor of activist monetary and fiscal policy to fix the economy.  You also won’t have any actual coherent view of what is wrong with the economy.

Also, new Avatar get!

[Mandark]

Which is to say, if you are a person who tends to use a capital N “Natural” to describe your political ideology (“I believe in a Natural Order with a Natural Hierarchy, which I get from my engagement with Natural Rights as observed through Natural Law….”), as many conservatives do, then you are going to be likely to think that the dollar is a Natural Thing too.  Like women wearing pants and voting, any attempt to disrupt the natural order is going to be dangerous.  That the value of a dollar is a social creation, and that if there is excessive demand for money the government should provide extra supply for money, isn’t going to be a convincing argument.

FoC and JD dinner for oned.

[Phoenix Dark]

It's not really a new meme; pro-lifers have been comparing Roe v Wade to Dred Scott for years now.  I'm sure there are a lot of people who read what Santorum said and think he made a great point.

That said, dude isn't getting anywhere near the Oval Office, unless he wins the Super Bowl or sells the most girl scout cookies.

[youtube=560,345]iNk54IYr1Ss[/youtube]

[Yeti]

Also, new Avatar get!

I saw your new avatar in a different thread and thought it was from Bioshock Infinities 

 

[Oblivion]

I knew republicans loathe science, but I thought even they could comprehend basic arithmetic (okay, fine I didn't but still):

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/81924/charles-krauthammer-laughs-arithmetic

[Dickie Dee]

Just came across this today 

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Phoenix Dark]

[youtube=560,345]YfkNEq1XioE[/youtube]

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Tim Pawlenty, for people who just find Mitt Rommney too charismatic to elect.

[Brehvolution]

Here is an entertaining read that has already been panned as a leftist hit piece:

The 50 most Loathsome people of 2010

[Oblivion]

So, who's expecting awesome things to come out of the SOTU speech?

[tiesto]

Here is an entertaining read that has already been panned as a leftist hit piece:

The 50 most Loathsome people of 2010

The good ol' Buffalo Beast, great for reading while taking a shit in your college dorm bathroom when they're all out of copies of ARTVOICE.

[Oblivion]

Ma man Chris Matthews eviscerates tea bagger on Michelle Bachmann's lack of knowing anything about history:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#41261376

He went in a lot harder than he normally does.

[Phoenix Dark]

Matthews hit it on the head on this being a scriptural revision of the country's founding. In order to deify the Founding Fathers you have to whitewash slavery, and Beck/tea party has been doing that for the last two years. The early America was one of the most oppressive, liberty-less times in our history. If you weren't white, "American", and a land owner you couldn't vote. If you were an immigrant or Catholic you were subject to discrimination even if you were white.

America as an "idea" is something to marvel at I guess, but there's no denying the founding fathers did not live up to that idea, and it took a civil war for us to even begin the process; and even 100 years after that war people were not treated equally. No wonder republicans continually erase the civil rights era out of history books and replace it with a blurb about MLK being so awesome.

[Mr. Gundam]

There was a constitutional scholar on our local NPR afternoon call-in show a few weeks ago who was talking about how the average American's knowledge of the constitution is from elementary school where it's all sunshine and puppies and anything remotely ugly is glossed over.

edit: That clip from Hardball was epic.

[Phoenix Dark]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/ted_haggard_im_probably_what_the_kids_call_bisexual.php
 

[Mandark]

Here's a very good blog post written by a Canadian on how progressive activists in America going back to Frederick Douglass have framed their causes as fulfilling the original promise of the country's founding.

Definitely worth reading that, then listening to Joe Lieberman's speech on the Senate floor before the repeal of DADT.

Also, sort of a companion piece that Prole hipped me to, about the tendency of conservatives to adopt the tactics and rhetoric of reformers and revolutionaries.

[Mupepe]

That blog post is really awesome.

[Dickie Dee]

Definitely worth reading that, then listening to Joe Lieberman's speech on the Senate floor before the repeal of DADT.

Don't you friggin go making me like Joe Lieberman.

Good speech.

[Phoenix Dark]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/wtf-sarah-palin-thinks-the-ussr-won-the-space-race-video.php?ref=fpb
jesus

Probably one of the better interviews I've seen from her, only because she manages to bang out her talking points efficiently. But her rebuttal to Obama's Sputnik point - one of the eye rollers of his speech imo to be fair - misses the point so badly it's laughable.

I wasn't a fan of the speech, but I'll defend it on this point: it's interesting how the right continually attacks Obama for not glorifying America enough. His AZ speech was quite heavy on the American family concept, and the SOTU was basically "America, fuck yea!" yet I don't hear any conservatives talking about that.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

The right believes that he is bullshitting about that.  That is why.

[Human Snorenado]

The right believes that he is a sekrit Muslin Kenyan Soshilust.  That is why.

fixt lol

Also if you guys think the Bachmann segment on Hardball was hilarious Jiminy Fucking Christmas do yourself a favor and watch her Tea Party approved "response" to the SOTU.  Holy shitballs is all I'll say.  While Obama's speech was pretty crappy, he came out looking like a certified genius and dare I say... President when compared to Bachmann's trainwreck of a rebuttal or even Paul Ryan's whinefest about deficits.

[Phoenix Dark]

Obama is cool and everything, but a lot of his appeal boils down to him being the only grown up in the room. There's gotta be serious "smart" conservatives out there crying at their lack of options, and waking up in the middle of the night realizing they'll have to vote for Obama in 2012 rather than these clowns. They'd primary Ronald Reagan if he ran for governor/senate/etc today

jesus someone make a political version of Fight Night. But instead of Ali v Tyson you can watch Palin mock Goldwater for supporting gayz in the military.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I think the SOTU address was pretty decent for what it was.  A lot of it was waking up to the political reality and a lot of it was campaigning for 2012.  Whether people like it or not, the reality is that Obama for the next two years is going to have to start campaigning.  I don't think anything he did was particularly unrealistic.  The notion of bipartisanship is hilarious because the right will always hate him.  That will never change, even if he changes his whole agenda to what the Republicans want.  The fact that he exists pisses them off and that won't ever change.  The exceptions would be events like Gabrielle Giffords but everyone usually comes together for those events.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

I just realized you're CajoleJuice I always thought you were malek or some shit

[Brehvolution]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html

FOC suiciding

[Mr. Gundam]

So Mubarak shut down the internet and cell towers in Egypt, and now he's getting rid of the entire cabinet except for himself...

How long until someone tries to kill him?

[Mr. Gundam]

I was in Cairo back in 1998, it's totally surreal seeing the places I've been on fire.

Also, what country is next? First Tunisia and now Egypt...

[Mr. Gundam]

What's bizarre is that a lot of people think seem to think this is going to lead to democratic reforms

CNN and MSNBC aren't so sure of that, they keep bringing up the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

[Oblivion]

I know that teabaggers aren't the most rational or coherent people around, but I still have to wonder what these people are thinking when they propose things like this:

Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans' disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans' health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.

"It is really astonishing to see this," he said.

Not only is this not a popular position to take, but it's particularly baffling who this is supposed to appeal to. I mean, yes I know that Republicans wouldn't mind cutting money from soldiers checks, get rid of the VA and things like that. BUT, this isn't the type of shit you say out loud. I would think even most teabaggers would start to question why you'd be trying to punish the troops instead of going after Mexicans and negroes.



Oh, also too:

[Van Cruncheon]

well, why should the gubmint even employ soldiers when we have private competition from xi/blackwater et al

why, those soldiers are just socialist leeches

[Van Cruncheon]

most folks believe 90% of the deficit is lazy black people on the dole driving cadillacs and having kids, because 90% of america is fucking assholes

[Phoenix Dark]

Republicans don't give a shit anymore. Dismantle Medicare/set up voucher system? Sure. Cut education by 80%? Yes we can. Cut vet benefits? Yup

It's a testament to democrat stupidity that they can never capitalize on Teh Crazy

[Van Cruncheon]

it is a testament to american stupidity that crazy cannot be capitalized upon, but is instead fully validated the moment it arrives on the scene

[Oblivion]

It's even stranger that they've discovered this newfound sense of boldness since just a few days ago Boehner (I think it was him or Cantor) said they wanted Obama to outline spending cuts, and that they didn't want to go first.

[Brehvolution]

Seems fitting in the recent context:

[Human Snorenado]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html

WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR GOD NOW, RANDROIDS?  WHERE???

[Oblivion]

Reason #183838939848 why the 'bubububu both sides are equally bad in *insert topic*' is a load:

"Real Time" host Bill Maher asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) a fairly straightforward question: "Do you believe in evolution?" Kingston not only said rejects the foundation of modern biology, he explained it this way: "I believe I came from God, not from a monkey." He added, "If it happened over millions and millions of years, there should be lots of fossil evidence."

Seriously, that's what he said.

Let's pause to appreciate the fact that it's the 21st century -- and Jack Kingston is a 10-term congressman who helps oversee federal funding on the Food and Drug Administration.

As part of the same discussion, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell tried to ask Kingston about the overuse of antibiotics. The far-right congressman had no idea how the question related to evolution.

At one point, Kingston, sarcastically, turned to National Review's Will Cain, part of the same roundtable, and said, "Will, help me out anytime you want, buddy."

The assumption, of course, is that Cain, a conservative, must agree with the confused congressman about modern science. Cain responded, "I'm sorry, I believe in evolution."

Will, you're not the one who should be sorry.

In the larger context, there's a renewed push underway for the United States to value and appreciate science in the 21st century -- our future depends on it. And while this push is underway, Republican leaders are more comfortable walking a bridge to the 18th century.

What an embarrassment.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027759.php


There's a video clip in that link too.


There is no middleground between something like evolution existing and not existing. Same thing applies to climate change. It's a travesty that idiots like these are allowed to sit at the big kids table with real scientists to formulate policy.

[Phoenix Dark]

The fact remains there's very little evidence of the multitude of missing link/inter-species being that would be required to make evolution true. Dare I say evolution is just as faith based as religion

[Akala]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/21/femen.topless.protest/index.html?iref=obinsite

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgmt9s_we-need-a-christian-dictator_news#from=embed

[Beardo]

http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional

The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...

[Phoenix Dark]

So when the SC upholds the mandate to appease their corporate overlords, will Beardo admit he was wrong?

[Van Cruncheon]

http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional

The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...

You mean like the Supreme Court Justices, who will most likely end up ruling on this

who knew that the constitution could be interpreted differently by different experts

it's like the bibleconstitution was a document authored by men and is subject to multiple credible interpretations

[TakingBackSunday]

shit's just toilet paper now anyway.  let's write a new one

[Van Cruncheon]

article 1: abortions for everyone
article 2: cadillacs for poors
article 3: white people get mocked

[Beardo]

http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional

The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...

You mean like the Supreme Court Justices, who will most likely end up ruling on this

who knew that the constitution could be interpreted differently by different experts

it's like the bibleconstitution was a document authored by men and is subject to multiple credible interpretations

Seems pretty clear in limiting the power of the federal government to me. But I guess liberals just make up shit as they go along anyway.

We'll all be having fun in 10 years being forced to buy healthcare from one of the 2 health insurance providers. Can't wait to see how liberals blame conservatives for this one. Should be an lolz-worthy explanation.

[Phoenix Dark]

Maybe that broken system will convince politicians to back a public option, or dare I say single payer system. creepin' socialism

[Beardo]

So when the SC upholds the mandate to appease their corporate overlords, will Beardo admit he was wrong?

What's this supreme court you speak of?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[youtube=560,345]fG0Jpu9geWY[/youtube]

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