I remember working early the morning after George W. Bush was re-elected. I was on the copy-desk rim, as they say, and the editor-in-chief was consulting with the design editor over the front-page design. Once upon a time on mornings like this, editors looked over their underlings’ shoulders as the finishing touches were being done on the main story. But by 2004, it was all about design, er, “presentation.”
The presentation that day featured a giant, enormous, sea-to-shining-sea headline that said, simply, W. Only huge:
W.
But a lot bigger. It looked like a propaganda poster, which is sort of what it was.
That was a fairly shitty period in my life — back in Indiana after my magical year in Ann Arbor, working a job I didn’t want, thanks to the very woman who was standing next to my desk cooing over this stupid headline. George W. Bush had been returned to office, even though the war he started was going about as badly as these things can go, having done so in part by painting an actual Vietnam veteran as some sort of hybrid coward/rich punk, which is sort of hilariously ironic when you think about it.
I recall reading the page proofs that morning with a grim, sour cloud hanging over my head. But even though Twitter didn’t exist then, and Facebook was only a kooky toy for those with a harvard.edu email address, I can’t imagine going online and posting some of the histrionics I’ve been reading today.
Please, don’t make me go looking for links. I’ve been dipping in and out all day — Facebook, Twitter, blogs, comments here and there. The country has been delivered into the hands of the Muslim enemy, and the end of freedom is nigh and I hope you all enjoy your free stuff, freeloaders. And so on. I had a few chats through the course of the day that sum up how I feel today, but you probably heard the gist if you paid any attention to the news today.
We’ll see.
I was in Lansing all day working on Bridge’s day-after package, and I am — I know I say this every day lately — a bit wrung out. I’ll be popping in and out with some of the things that came up over the course of this crazy last few weeks for a while, I think. For now, let me share some of the very fine links I saw today, on this day o’ many links.
I think this was the best of the bunch, about how the right-wing echo chamber collapsed in upon itself and created its own reality, which wasn’t, um, reality:
Conservatives were at a disadvantage because Romney supporters like Jennifer Rubin and Hugh Hewitt saw it as their duty to spin constantly for their favored candidate rather than being frank about his strengths and weaknesses. What conservative Washington Post readers got, when they traded in Dave Weigel for Rubin, was a lot more hackery and a lot less informed about the presidential election.
Conservatives were at an information disadvantage because so many right-leaning outlets wasted time on stories the rest of America dismissed as nonsense. WorldNetDaily brought you birtherism. Forbes brought you Kenyan anti-colonialism. National Review obsessed about an imaginary rejection of American exceptionalism, misrepresenting an Obama quote in the process, and Andy McCarthy was interviewed widely about his theory that Obama, aka the Drone Warrior in Chief, allied himself with our Islamist enemies in a “Grand Jihad” against America. Seriously?
Conservatives were at a disadvantage because their information elites pandered in the most cynical, self-defeating ways, treating would-be candidates like Sarah Palin and Herman Cain as if they were plausible presidents rather than national jokes who’d lose worse than George McGovern.
More on the same theme, from Andrew Sullivan, not one of my faves, but he makes some good points here, but note where he pulls out the out-of-context quoting of an Obama statement.
Can we get a little crazy up in here? OK, here’s David Gelernter. Two paragraphs, and he manages to demand we REPLACE OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES NOW. Doesn’t he work for Yale?
Gerrymandering made visible. I live in one of these districts now. It doesn’t make me happy.
But even a clumsy candidate might have beaten Obama if not for a simple factor that could not be overcome: the GOP’s growing extremism. The Republican strategy of making the election a referendum on the president’s handling of the economy was perfectly sound. The problem was that the Republican Party couldn’t pass the credibility test itself. For many voters disenchanted with Obama, it still was not safe to vote for his opponent.
Yeah.
More tomorrow, when I’ve had seven whole hours of sleep. Until then, enjoy drunk Diane Sawyer.
Dexter said on November 8, 2012 at 12:57 am
Oh how well I remember the poisonous 2004 campaign. This YouTube is not about John Kerry, but it is a tribute to the fighting men that were lost some years before Kerry got there. It’s the best six minute tribute to the American fighting man to date. It was made when John Rich and Big Kenny were still a team. It’s the 8th of November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozpdBvB0hek
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 2:23 am
Gelernter is a CS professor at Yale, though I don’t know of anything much recent he’s done in the field. He was also a victim of the Unabomber, though I think he was a nutcase before that.
My Congressional district was drawn to be competitive, at the cost of making nearby districts less competitive. Congressional districts in Washington are drawn by a committee, not by the legislature, so neither party can gerrymander the other out of existence. They still protected incumbents, though; since my Congressman decided to run for Governor, his district got sliced up. The only Republican who ran, though was a Tea Party loon, and he didn’t even win his home county.
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MaryRC said on November 8, 2012 at 3:48 am
Someone at Balloon Juice found this which has to beat even The Donald for Snit of the Day.
I can understand professional attention whores like Trump, Ted Nugent and Victoria Jackson acting out, that’s what they do. But so many others seem to be having a case of the vapors everywhere you look. “America died today!” “America is dead!” Jeez Louise, pass the smelling salts.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 4:36 am
GOPer venom vs. Kerry in ’04 stretched back to Milhous. He couldn’t believe the guy would turn militant on Vietnam. I didn’t go. Dexter did. And I’m thankful as hell Dex and Kerry made it back. And if Shrubco actually won Cuyahoga Co. in ’04 I will eat a trucker hat. Thank God people were watching the assholes this time. And when will the first photoshopped pictures of New Black Panthers intimidating elderly white voters show up? Are there actually any New Black Panthers? WTF is wrong with white people?
MaryRC: I think they are having cases of the vapors. And I tweeted first time, only time to Ted, about Viagra and his pedophilia. I refrained from commenting on his claims of lifelong sobriety. I saw him out of his mind on substances many times at the MC5 house on I believe Gratiot. Ted’s a lying SOS that needs Viagra if the intended is older than 14. Nugent, GTFA. He couldn’t play guitar like this anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtZK5uxun4Q
How about a reality show where Ted hunts scantily clad calipidgeous Kardashinas with a bow. Does he eat their overabundant flesh? God knows. Add in some RMoneys, I might watch for the minute or two it takes them to go down. How is Taggdirt’s fund of funds looking today. That guy is an asshole, and I wish him ill-fortune. That weenie-wagger threatening the President of the USA was the topping on the racist cake. And the obvious fact that he would have had his ass kicked if he got by the Secret Service is even funnier. RMoney’s are weenies. No doubt about it. People that voted weenie, sadly delusional. And who exactly is Victoria Jackson?
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 4:43 am
I’m here to say, we’re taking your guns and sending your redneck asses to hide and practice wargames in Idaho, you racist shitheads. That’s right, a black President for four more years of Oompa Loompa obstructionism. I doubt Boner will survive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QhZ82kl6jw
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 5:06 am
Largely put, by Signe:
http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/wpswi/
I really doubt Boner will survive. He’s a drunk and and asshole,and and we can only hope, the country has passed his sorry ass by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FL7Fas6Y-s&feature=related
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davidkirk said on November 8, 2012 at 6:34 am
Here’s an example of a facebook Chicken Little a saw yesterday. Unbelievable.
“Oh God…..say it isn’t so. Not another four years of a muslim, over spending, military cutting, may not even be an American citizen, gas price raising, socialist.”
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 8, 2012 at 6:51 am
Plouffe redefined “get out the vote” for the next generation — the more I look at election day data, the more I’m in awe of what he accomplished. I may hold to some neanderthal concerns about spending and trend lines and expectations of the government, but I have no trouble saying that the Obama campaign outworked and out-thought and outsmarted and obviously outdid the moribund and creaky GOP team.
What no one saw coming, I think (someone may have a link to prove me wrong), is that “Citizens United” proved to be a poison pill for Republicans. There was an unspoken assumption that this SCOTUS decision “restored parity” in campaign spending against the union dollars, which it did on one level, but the sloshing reservoirs of money — where a general move by the OfA team was perhaps countered by the GOP effort — became somewhat of a net “wash.” Money & TV ads cancelled each other out, and the final effort was about grassroots GOTV, but now less by calling key union halls and working through shop stewards and precinct captains (my earliest childhood memories of retail politics in NW Indiana and Chicago), but by incredibly precision targeted pushes thru smart phone apps, e-mails, and even a certain amount of calling, but mostly door-to-door face-to-face effort.
Republican campaign efforts were never adept in the internet environment in this campaign from what I saw, but OfA was always there, constantly nudging, and the GOP team relied insanely on TV ads and phone banks to do it all. Retail politics, still beyond . . . or beneath them? But it wasn’t there.
For Obama-Biden events, they were merely preludes to then using the names and bodies gathered to promote direct voter contact. Romney-Ryan events were ding-an-sich, things unto themselves, and when over vanished in a puff of smoke to poof into view somewhere else. I did some token things for the Obama campaign largely to keep on their lists to watch their e-mail/call/contact work, and I worked three Romney events pretty much at the fore of things. And I can pull up a truly impressive sequence of e-mail and text and Twitter “touches” by Obama’s team, but other than two or three very nice personal e-mails from Romney staffers, there was precisely *zero* virtual/internet-based follow-up from Romney’s campaign. Nothing.
And arguably, that’s what I should have seen more clearly as determinative of the outcome of this campaign. Plouffe et alia simply were smarter and harder-working than the other team. Their local organizers were all sharp, cheerful, committed, diligent people, on both sides, but the national offices were Day y Noche. The GOP earned this loss, putting their faith in a media strategy, let alone demographics that would have been a winner in 1980, but guaranteed a loss in 2012.
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 7:05 am
The morning after W was re-elected in 2004, I was stunned, I was sitting at a Starbucks in the South Loop area of Chicago and at every table around me people were having conversations about being completely shocked too. I found it unbelievable that as badly as the wars were going a majority actually thought he deserved to continue to be our president. I’m sure I made noises about moving to Canada. I got over the initial shock and of course we all know that things got much, much worse before his second term ended.
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David C. said on November 8, 2012 at 7:08 am
I understand the billionaires who tried to buy the election are having a good cry today. In a sane world, they would be told that if they have hundreds of millions of dollars to allocate to campaign contributions it won’t hurt you too much to reallocate those dollars to paying taxes.
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 7:44 am
The republican strategy of publicly taking a dump on minorities, women, immigrants, labor unions, liberals, moderates, conurbations, the northeast, the coastal west, planned parenthood, the post office, social workers, food stamps the FDA, gays, lesbians, muslims, clouds, the kids on their fucking lawn…
It just left most people wondering what the next target was going to be.
Now the National Review has made it clear the Republicans are going to pack up their belongings and abandon the sodoms of the north and west and move to bible deer camp CSA, and begin the process of secession anew.
We’ve seen an important (though far from decisive) battle in the slow-motion civil war the nation is undergoing: The blue states want to secede not from America but from Americanism. They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor of the European ideal, which has only been government by aristocracy: either an aristocracy of birth or, nowadays, of ruling know-it-alls — of post-religious, globalist intellectuals (a.k.a. PORGIs). As I’ve said before — many others have too — you can’t graduate class after class after class of left-indoctrinated ignoramuses without paying the price. Last night was a down payment.
But we’ve won civil wars and preserved the Union before. We’ll do it again — if we face up to the fact that we need to replace our schools and colleges now; the grace period has lasted a generation, but it’s over. I know we can do it and I’m pretty sure we will do it. Americanism is too strong and brilliant and young to die.
There’s just one hitch that you may have failed to take into account. Your godly south not only hates a more diverse coalition of undesirables than you do, they hate your miserable Yankee ass more than their ex who took up with a nigra and successfully sued for the ranch house and the Denali.
Move on down here, hoss, and I guarantee you won’t be able to walk down the street without the hairs standing up on your pencil neck. I’m not talking about Charleston or Atlanta. I’m talking about that “God’s country” shit you monkeys keep flinging. It’s a fucking vast irredeemable hellhole and you know it.
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beb said on November 8, 2012 at 8:23 am
Jeff, I have to disagree. Yes, the Dems ran an aggressive get out the vote campaign but so did the Reps with all their apocalyptic talk about “four more years.” And looking at the vote totals, there’s less than a percent difference between Obama and Romney. The difference is that the Republicans have been so business alienating wide swathes of America that they are no longer a competitive party.
And the pundits arguing that conservative pundits failed their party by promoting obviously crazy people like Michelle Bachman have it wrong, too. Pundits weren’t pushing these people. They wants Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie. But Pawlenty got kicked to the side even before the first primary because he wasn’t red meat enough for the base. Daniels and Christie looked to the tea leaves and decided there was no future running for president at this time. That left the field open for the dangerous theocrats Santorum and Rick Perry. both of whom proved dumber than a brick wall. That basically left the relentless Romney who was willing to say anything to close the deal. In the end it was Romney or Obama running unopposed. And looking ahead, I think the same story is going to play out in 2016. The party is run by the crazies and will keep nominating crazy, unelectablel candidates.
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 8:27 am
Last night Grant and I went to IPFW (Indiana-Purdue University here in Fort Wayne) for a lecture by Jon Meacham about Thomas Jefferson, which was pretty good stuff. He delivered a lively talk, and despite that (or possibly because) his opinion of TJ is higher than mine, I shall have to read his TJ book. I very much enjoyed his book about Andy Jackson, a year or two ago.
I’m not one of those folks that heads for the microphone at Q&A time, but if I were, I’d have asked him whether he saw a historical parallel between, say, America’s 19th century policy of “Indian removal”, on the one hand, and all this talk about “self deportation”/walls/barbed wire/electric fences, with regard to human beings who are native to the American southwest.
And of course, the great problem for the Republican party of the 21st century is that the vote isn’t limited to male white property owners as it was back then, and lots of people who aren’t male and who have skin of other colors not only DO vote, but also pay attention to these attitudes directed at them by the white Republics (I think I may start working on losing the “an” at the end of “Republican”, dog gone it!), and who cast informed votes.
If the white Republics’ best answer to this challenge is to advocate for the repeal of the 14th Amendment, then they’re already irrelevant.
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 8:38 am
Twenty five writers reflect on their election day, you have to click through but it’s worth it http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/my-election-day-2012#slide-1
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del said on November 8, 2012 at 8:41 am
I’m still thinking about Prospero’s comment suggesting a Ted Nugent reality show in which he hunts callipygian Kardashians with a bow — and pondering his further observation, “I might watch for the minute or two it takes them to go down.”
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alex said on November 8, 2012 at 8:45 am
The party is run by the crazies and will keep nominating crazy, unelectablel candidates.
And they’ll keep the House, regardless.
The GOP co-opted the Tea Party, but I suspect the schism will soon be such that the latter will go off and form its own third party, freeing the Republicans to build a more moderate coalition.
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nancy said on November 8, 2012 at 8:51 am
That’s why the gerrymandering story is so interesting. Someone I read yesterday said that the TP wave couldn’t have come at a worse time for Democrats, because it allowed all these newly right-wing districts to be crafted after the census. This is painfully true in Detroit, where my congressional district — in a densely populated urban area — looks like this:
View Michigan’s 14th Congressional District (113th Congress) in a larger map
I love how the boundary goes out into the lake. We want to make sure all the fish get their voice in Congress, too.
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Mark P said on November 8, 2012 at 8:54 am
It’s embarrassing to be on the same planet and of the same species as some of these nutcases. Although there is at least a slight chance that some of them are not of my species, and almost certainly some of them originated on a different planet.
Listen, old, white guys: the ship has left. The bus is moving on. The crowd is walking away from your little sidewalk show. People are shaking their heads and laughing at you behind your back. Strangers are giving you a wide berth as they pass by. Grocery store baggers are nudging each other when you bring your buggy filled with canned goods to the register. If you don’t come to your senses and join the rest of us in reality land, you’re going to end up all alone, slobbering on your shirt and jabbering to lightposts.
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Suzanne said on November 8, 2012 at 9:30 am
I didn’t see too much chatter on Facebook because during the course of the election, I blocked most of my virilant right wing friends. I did refrain, however, from commenting on something a relative posted about now we have more takers than makers. I’m not sure who she thinks paid for her son to be put up in jail for several years, and his probation officer, and his 3 out-of-wedlock children. But I guess that’s different.
I love that the Super PACs didn’t seem to have made any difference at all. I saw a few of the Crossroads GPS ads and they were just plain strange. But I think those that spend their days in the echo-chamber really have no clue that the rest of the world not only doesn’t spend their days there, but barely knows the echo-chamber exists.
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Joe K said on November 8, 2012 at 9:42 am
Thanks Dexter, ought to mandatory in highschool history class.
Dad was 82nd, his brother was 101st.
Pilot Joe
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Julie Robinson said on November 8, 2012 at 9:42 am
The election has left me with much to be hopeful for and I’m gonna focus on that for a few days instead of the haters. Besides which, it’s November and the sun is shining for the fourth or fifth day in a row, and that’s worth celebrating.
Yesterday I was in a long meeting and then scrambling to complete some financial analysis, so I didn’t get here until very late, but I loved both the post and the comments. I rarely read comments on other blogs or posts since they usually devolve rapidly into personal attacks, or they’re dittoheads. Y’all are great, intelligent, cogent, compassionate, and (mostly!) respectful. Thank you.
And Dorothy, speedy recovery!
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Colleen said on November 8, 2012 at 9:47 am
Davidkirk, do we have the same FB friend? I saw the exact same posting yesterday.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 9:54 am
California, not only passed a measure to raise taxes (for the children, of course), but more importantly, we also gave the Democrats a 2/3’s supermajority in both houses of the state legislature. Now any tax increase can be passed without the Republicans being able to stop it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/us-usa-campaign-california-supermajority-idUSBRE8A617H20121107
I guess people who don’t care about checks and balances or see the need for a loyal opposition will be happy.
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Scout said on November 8, 2012 at 10:05 am
I remember 2004 well, and for that reason I do have a wee bit of sympathy for certain people of the R persuasion; that would be the people who are sad and depressed as opposed to the ones pulling out the white hoods and sharpening pitchforks. 2004 came down to Ohio, with some very questionable hijinks by the Sec of State there. Obama’s re-election victory was an undeniable ass kicking, no matter how much gnashing of teeth by nasty assholes like the jerk in the link above.
Many of you have probably seen this already, but thought I’d share: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/jon-stewart-fox-news-election.php
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 10:10 am
..no matter how much gnashing of teeth by nasty assholes like the jerk in the link above.
Hilarious. Undoubtedly, irony is lost on some.
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4dbirds said on November 8, 2012 at 10:16 am
Takers? People who want stuff? I think they mean rights. Yes I would like some of that. Especially the right to have complete control over my body.
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del said on November 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
Jeff, I think you misconstrue things when you say, “the more I look at the election data, the more I’m in awe of what he [Ploufe] accomplished.” The election is something HE accomplished, really? Again you insinuate that your conclusions are data-driven. Are they, or is this apophenia?
On election day you made an observation suggesting to me that you’d profiled Democrats as shiftless, nonparticipatory types – and Republicans as diligent, civic-minded types, so committed they’d overcome obstacles to vote – both echo chamber stereotypes. After claiming that Romney won OH, you went with this zinger, complete with feigned “surprise:”
“Everyone in the counties is, quite frankly, surprised; there’s been every appearance of a very strong ground game by the Obama/Organizing for American campaign, but they just haven’t gotten people to actually follow-thru, while some of the longest lines, ironically, have been in GOP bellwether counties in Ohio.”
I think you’re drinking the kool aid when you attribute Obama’s victory to some Democratic mastermind. [Karl Rove, on the other hand, well, he was an evil genius. ;)] I learn more about the echo chamber everyday through osmosis.
Yesterday I was with an older attorney who listens to Rush Limbaugh, FOX, etc. On his desk were Heritage Foundation mailings, several Hillsdale college Imprimus magazines and a Muslim Brotherhood pamphlet. He started telling me about blacks voting for Obama to get free cell phones with 250 government paid minutes. Then he showed me a youtube clip of a young black woman with 5 such cell phones in her purse. I’d never heard of this nonsense and so was stunned to see that the clip had about a million views! Obviously, someone’s hearing this “story.”
Checking Snopes I found that a federal program began under Reagan in 1984(I think they called it Lifeline). It expanded under Clinton in 1996 and G.W. Bush in the early 2000’s. It’s not an Obama thing, but hey, I’m in the chamber now and time and space seem to blend — relax your mind. (Cue some psychedelic music, I think Prospero’s got Tommorow Never Knows ready.) It’s almost like there are parallel universes out there.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
And thanks, Scout, for repeating what I said yesterday about the “ass kicking,” acting like it was your own thought and then mis-characterizing my congratulations to you all as a “gnashing of teeth.”
51. Danny said on November 7, 2012 at 10:50 am
Well, THAT was certainly an ass-kicker! Man, I shouldn’t have bothered voting. The only thing I got for my troubles was a sticker and the looming specter of future jury duty.
Congrats to you all on the other side. I hope it all works out, but I am not confident.
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Bitter Scribe said on November 8, 2012 at 10:20 am
Why do I have the feeling that all these wingnuts and “libertarians” who are now screaming about how they’ve had enough, they’re withdrawing from politics, they will write and post no more, they’re moving to Idaho, to Mexico, to Antarctica, etc., will end up staying right where they are and keep right on screaming?
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Charlotte said on November 8, 2012 at 10:24 am
The PACs poured $30 million into the Montana races — for which they lost the Governor’s office to Steve Bullock (of Bullock vs. Citizen’s United), and thanks to the G-ds, lost the Senate race. So Jon Tester goes back to Washington and here’s hoping that Denny Rehberg gets some treatment for what looks like a clear case of closed head injuries (the drunken boat crash, and rumor has it, more than one horse has dumped him). We did lose the AG to the Republicans, but only after the AG candidate (unlike the Gov. candidate) gave back the GOP $$ that are illegal under our current rules. Hill argued he should be able to keep his, and he lost.
We also had a local woman running for our state representative. I think she ran a shitty campaign, but she took the Dem slot, and the GOP guy is one of those fundamentalist culties, so I held my nose. Election day, one of the out-of-state PACs dropped a virulent flyer (not their first) about how she was going to propose a tax just for Livingston. Apparently, it pissed people off enough that they went out and voted for her.
Big turnout here — 75% —
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DellaDash said on November 8, 2012 at 10:29 am
Way to make me cry first thing, Dex. Finally finishing ‘Matterhorn’ by Karl Malantes (on the second attempt – too intense on the first) recently had me walking around for days with a constricted throat. It brought that agent-orange jungle war right inside my discomfort zone. Only one friend was a Viet Nam vet, but his tales of “hitting the fuck-it valve” have been a part of my world view ever since.
A few years ago, I happened to be at the Global Education Center, putting in some volunteer time, when a tophatted Big Kenny (w/entourage but sans Rich) came in to spend several hundred dollars on djembes, participate in a drum circle, and make a fairly fat, much-appreciated donation. He’s a cat who puts his money where his mouth is.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 10:49 am
Why do I have the feeling that all these wingnuts and “libertarians” who are now screaming about how they’ve had enough, they’re withdrawing from politics, they will write and post no more, they’re moving to Idaho, to Mexico, to Antarctica, etc., will end up staying right where they are and keep right on screaming?
Maybe because that is the same thing that happened when people like Alec Baldwin and other loud-mouthed celebrities who confuse fame with wisdom threatened the same and did nothing.
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Scout said on November 8, 2012 at 10:53 am
And Danny, once again, hilariously thinks everyone is talking about His Own Self. I was referring to MaryRC’s link @ #3. Sorry I wasn’t more clear; my bad, indeed.
This whole series is worth a read over there to Esquire, but this one vignette in particular made me cry. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/my-election-day-2012#slide-16
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 11:02 am
Why do Republicans think we Dems care one flying fuck what Alec Baldwin says or does?
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 11:09 am
It would be utterly useless for Republicans to threaten to go anywhere else. Nobody wants them.
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/11/australias-message-to-gop.html
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nancy said on November 8, 2012 at 11:15 am
As I remember so acutely what my own feelings were in 2004, I generally refrain from judging people’s reactions for the first 72 hours or so. If they’re still talking nonsense in a week, then we can smack a few cheeks. Open-handed. “SNAP OUT OF IT!” Like that.
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Maggie Jochild said on November 8, 2012 at 11:26 am
All my Brit friends and esp my gf have been swift to say “We don’t want your nutters!” They are proud of Europe’s ongoing effort to forward socialism, multiculturalism, and secularism. Indeed, as my gf said last night, the best fit for our rigid ranting theocrats would be someplace with sharia law — she suggested UAE.
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LAMary said on November 8, 2012 at 11:37 am
Danny, your income taxes will only go up if you’re making more than 250k and the sales tax is going up one quarter of one percent. I’m ok with both of those if it keeps us from having more teachers laid off and more college classes cancelled. With two kids in public schools/college I know really well how hard they’ve been hit. Right now it’s nearly impossible to finish school in four years as one of the Cal State universities because so many classes have been cancelled. My son stood in line for three days to get English 101, a required class, and even then he was wait listed.
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 11:42 am
1. A stupid (but sincere) question:
Did they really put a big period on the big W banner headline? Wouldn’t a style decision like that be akin to referring to JFK as J.F.K., or NASCAR as N.A.S.C.A.R.?
2. I’m still leaving lots of room for the nutters around the office, but I definitely like the SMACK/’SNAP OUT OF IT’ plan.
3. Danny – I dunno ’bout California, but in Indiana if you have a driver’s license (amongst other things), that’ll get you on the jury duty rolls, too. Just sayin’
4. I am enjoying President Obama’s decisive win very much. I hope he moves swiftly to assert his renewed authority, with regard to the Federal budget and – what the hell – a speeded up exit from Afghanistan.
Then, before the Republics get their sea-legs back (say, in the summer of 2013) maybe a Justice or two from the Supremem Court (Justice Ginsberg, for example) can head off to a well-earned retirement, and some of the shiney new senators can confirm a new one or two
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 11:53 am
B’th’way – I still think that Red Romney’s fate was sealed by that damned marred US flag lapel pin his campaign apparently insisted upon. (Our 8 year old’s class conducted an election, and she referred to him as ‘Red Romney’ – which immediately struck me as funny)
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LAMary said on November 8, 2012 at 11:58 am
Driver’s license gets you jury duty here too. The in house Brit isn’t a citizen so he can’t do jury duty, but he has a license and he’s received jury summons.
As for that W. It was the same, or very similar to the W Hotels font. I think they requested Shrub take it down.
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 12:28 pm
To attribute Obama’s victory to superior tactics and GOTV is to ignore how distasteful Republican policies have become to a large segment of the voting public who aren’t white males. The Republicans lost because they thought they could win an election by relying on the white male vote, but to lock that down, they have pissed off African Americans, women, Latinos, Muslims, and young people who think their attitudes about gay people are neanderthal. Pissed off people vote; yes, the Obama GOTV effort was excellent, but it also fell on fertile ground.
Change is happening; you can’t tell large swathes of the country they aren’t real Americans and then expect them to vote for you because you’ll cut taxes.
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 12:29 pm
See, I’ve come to realize that LAMary casts pearls before swine like me all the time; so I hit Uncle Google and found W hotel’s somewhat strange website –
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/index.html
and then found this bit, about their objections to Bush-43’s use of ‘W’ –
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starwood-preferred-guest/343220-w-hotel-objects-use-w-bush-campaign-merchandisers.html
and got my laugh of the day!
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Danny, the California Republican Party has earned every step of its path into the wilderness, Prop 13 and Prop 187 being the most prominent among them.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Scout, my sincere apologies. Or as Nancy taught me to say many moons ago: You were right, but more importantly, I was wrong.
Mary, the thing I am hearing about Prop 30 is that there are many loopholes for moving the funds around and that the money is more likely to go to shoring up the teachers’ pension fund and to some other general fund black hole. Not so much for the kids.
Prop 30 doesn’t concern me as much as tax increases that the supermajority can now pass with ease. And, IIRC, anyone over $45k a year is already paying 9.3% state income tax. Our CA sales tax will now be 7.5%. Not insignificant in a state that arguably known for budget deficits partial created by wasteful spending and untenable public union pension plans.
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Mark P said on November 8, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Danny, I am not a CA resident, but I thought part of the general budget problem in California is a result of the property tax limits of Prop 13(?). If California operates like my states, the property tax is used almost exclusively for local expenses, like schools, fire/police depts, etc. I don’t know how much Prop 13 hurt state funds. But although I’m sure there was plenty of wasteful spending (someone will have to point out specific examples — as I said, I’m not from there so I don’t know all the details) but is it really fair to blame public union pension plans? After all, if I recall correctly, California started having budget problems before the Republican stock market crash, and I thought it was the precipitous decline in stock values that hit pensions so hard. I think I recall attempts to raid the California university system pension fund a good bit before the market crash. Could political obstructionism on taxes have had anything to do with the budget problems?
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Lex said on November 8, 2012 at 1:22 pm
So, Jennifer Rubin essentially has confessed to saying things in her WaPo writings that she knew at the time were not true.
Yo, Jen? Janet Cooke called. She wants her job back. And I think you’d best give it to her.
And, now, channeling both Charlie Pierce and the Rude Pundit, my Obama speech, which he could’ve used on election night or, with only minor tweaks, could use as his Second Inaugural:
* * *
How you like me NOW, motherfuckers?
When my predecessor “won” his first election — and we all know what REALLY went on there, don’t we? — he got 271 electoral votes. And then he went and governed like he had a mandate from Hermann Fucking Goering. He “won” his second election — and, again, we all know what REALLY went on there, and, yeah, Ken Blackwell, I’m lookin’ at YOU, you lyin’-ass motherfucker — with 286 electoral votes, and he proceeded to let New Orleans drown and tried to get you to pay for the privilege with your Social Security.
So now that we’ve got the concept of a mandate clear in our minds, let me explain where we’re going.
I got three hundred and thirty two electoral votes, motherfuckers. Three. Hundred. Thirty. Two. And not only that, all you jackleg rape groupies in the Tea Party are NOT sitting in the United States Senate come January. There are gonna be SANE people in your places.
I tried for four years to be reasonable with you people. I tried to meet you in the middle. I tried to be postpartisan. And you know what America said on Tuesday night? “Fuck. That.”
So here’s where we’re going, bitches.
JOBS, bitches. And I’m not talking about military contractors, either. I’m talking about busted infrastructure and clean energy (oh, and now that I’m re-elected, FUCK this clean-coal shit) and faster Internet and better education and everything else that will both get people off unemployment NOW and lay the foundation for a more prosperous FUTURE so that China and India don’t eat our goddamn lunch just as fast as Mitt Fucking Romney can shove it into their mouths.
HEALTH CARE, bitches. If an extraterrestrial alien ever lands on this planet I’m gonna have way too much to talk about with it to want to waste any time explaining the concept of a private, for-profit health-insurance company. Americans are hurting, we’re going to help them, and if you try to interfere or profiteer, we are going to JACK. YOU. UP.
The BUDGET, bitches. HELL, NO, you can’t cut Social Security. HELL, NO, you can’t cut Medicare. HELL, NO, you can’t cut Medicaid. We are in this together and we are GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER, and anyone who doesn’t like it can GET THE FUCK OUT. We’ll be nationalizing most of your wealth before you go, of course, but if you want to go Galt, you go right the fuck ahead. There’s plenty of people here who AREN’T assholes who’ll be perfectly happy to hire your employees, treat them like human beings and take care of your customers like THEY are human beings, too. You like free markets so much? Fine. We’ll tax capital gains like regular income, get rid of that “carried interest” bullshit and let the MARKETS decide where the money needs to go. And we’re gonna raise the top marginal rate to the nosebleed levels of the Clinton years. Those of you who need to retire to your fainting couches with your smelling salts, get your asses outta here.
And, finally, REALITY, bitches. You worship Whoever or Whatever you want, and my God will bless you, I think. But when we’re dealing with the physical world — historical or present — we’re going to rely first and foremost on the people who have spent a ton of money and years of their lives becoming experts, and I mean REAL experts, not “experts” like those assholes on Fox that Nate Silver disemboweled the other night. We’re now going to let the PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN RIGHT run things for a while and see if we can’t do better than we’ve been doing.
Shit is BROKEN in this country, and a lot of it was broken on PURPOSE, and a lot of the people who broke it on purpose got their ASSES handed to them Tuesday night. You want a sign from God? Fuck that; how ’bout a sign from Americans?
(And have I mentioned how funny it is that both John Boehner and Eric Cantor got elected? Cantor’s gonna spend every waking moment trying to stab Boehner in the back and Boehner’s gonna spend every waking moment trying to figure out how not to get stabbed. I LOVE that shit.)
Shit is broken, and we are setting out right now to FIX it, so LINE THE FUCK UP OR GET THE HELL OUT. Because I am Barack Hussein Obama, bitches, and I’m the only president you’ve got.
* * *
OK, maybe eating chocolate cake for lunch is not a good idea.
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LAMary said on November 8, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Amen on that, Sherri.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Mark P, there is plenty of blame to go around, for sure, however, Prop 13 is good in some ways. Right now, property values are only assessed in CA if you buy/sell of refinance… which seems fair to me. However, if like many other states, the property value was reassessed automatically by the state at periodic intervals, many people in CA, especially those with fixed or low incomes, would have great difficulty paying their property taxes and might have to move out of homes they had lived in for years. Property values are very, very high in CA.
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Amen, Lex.
And just to add to that, it’s one thing for Romney to dick over lowly employees, but let him work his grift on a few billionaires and they get all upset. Did they really think he was going to behave differently with them?
No one cons like a fucking con.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/08/1158912/-Wealthy-Romney-backers-are-very-very-mad-because-Mitt-s-campaign-staff-told-them-he-would-win
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DellaDash said on November 8, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Go ahead and eat chocolate cake for dinner, too, Lex…
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Scout said on November 8, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Thank you for the apology, Danny.
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 1:44 pm
We’re on the mailing list for the local Republican party so we can watch them wallow in pity (or smear shit on the walls) at moments like these. Here’s todays’ offering, from Bruce Wrenn, of the Person County GOP. Take it away Bruce!
United States of America
Born July 4, 1776
Died November 6, 2012
R.I.P.
Friends:
It became blatantly obvious last night that the America we all grew up in is now gone… and most likely gone for good.
The takers now outnumber the makers. Last night’s election proved that fact.
Nothing short of a miracle will save our country now.
This is how the Roman Empire fell. Everyone worked hard, created wealth and lived the good life. Then, more and more citizens began to ‘sit down’ and gorge at the public trough. Soon there weren’t enough citizens left working to support the others. Subsequently, the economic collapse began and the Roman Empire faded into history.
The insidious and rampant socialism in America today will soon bring us to the same ignoble end.
It was good while it lasted.
Get ready. It’s going to be a rough ride…
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Deggjr said on November 8, 2012 at 1:46 pm
2004, I still cannot believe the Purple Heart band-aids at the Republican National Convention, worn to mock John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. Kerry had been shot at and had killed, unlike the two at the top of the Republican ticket.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 8, 2012 at 1:48 pm
There are days here I feel like Sam Elliott’s “The Stranger” in the bowling alley.
“Just one thing, Dude. D’ya have to use s’many cuss words?”
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/gib_lebowski.html
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Sherri @42: Exactly. These people are disgraceful. I love the would-be speech, Lex. And I’m hoping for more Snakes on a Plane Sam than whattup Denzel. Kick these racist mofos in they ass. And don’t even start with me Danny. Calling out racism is not some perverse sort of racism.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Hey GOPers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PccmJEeIUXg&feature=related
The race-baiting, obstructionist shit should stop now. You claim to be patriots. How do you buy into that GOPer shit about ending jobs for teachers and first responders?
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davidkirk said on November 8, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Colleen, their initials are CM. Sound familiar?
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 2:01 pm
What gets accomplished will be accomplished without GOPers:
http://accesstoinfo.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-system_8.html
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Sue said on November 8, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Wow, the knives are coming out for Karl Rove. All his backers are suddenly furious the Mr. Permanent Republican Majority didn’t come through. At all.
So did someone force these poor folks to pour money by the truckload into Karl’s gaping maw? I mentioned yesterday that I was surprised at how stunned various Republican candidates were that they lost. What exactly did all these people ‘know’ was going to happen, and how was it supposed to come about?
Also, when did the focus change from voter fraud to too many undeserving people voting? I haven’t heard a single white van story, and it’s two days after the election. But I have heard that the only reason I voted was to get some bling or something.
I didn’t know voting would get me things, and even better, stuff. I can’t wait, it feels like Publishers Clearing House day! I hope I get a bouquet of flowers too, and some balloons. They always have those guys showing up with flowers and balloons.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Kommisar Karl loses his mojo. I mean if a fucking turd like W thinks you’re smart, how smart can you be?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/08/whither-karl-rove/?hpid=z2
Extremely well-put Sue. Rove is too disgusting for the thousand cuts, and GOPers have been eating their own for a long time. If turdblossom is left to die of dehydration in the desert of the current GOP, it can’t come soon enough. Sorry excuse for human, and a racist sexist pig.
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Heather said on November 8, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Years ago I interviewed Paul Feig–he helped create “Freaks and Geeks” and directed “Bridesmaids”–and he was talking about how most young nerds grew up to be liberal, because they know what it’s like to be bullied. According to him, Karl Rove was “a geek gone bad.”
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Peter said on November 8, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Prospero, if you’re taking Del’s advice and are cueing up Tomorrow Never Knows, please let it be the 801 Live version!
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Bob (not Greene) said on November 8, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Brain at 40, when you said Red Romney, all I could think of was this, which I like much better anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll21UCUHfZ4
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Bob (not Greene) said on November 8, 2012 at 2:43 pm
*Brian, though you are, no doubt very brainy as well.
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Kim said on November 8, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I shared Lex@47’s suggested speech with a colleague; her hysterical laughter filled the office. Now that she’s calmed down a bit, she offers the following companion poster:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/602470_514151578595263_375513063_n.jpg
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Camped outside my local grocery store are a couple of people with a table full of flyers and a big sign saying “Impeach Obama!” Wow, I thought, that was fast, especially for this blue area. So, I checked them out. They’re LaRouchies! I didn’t know they still existed! I thought they had all converted to Ron Paulites.
They were against the war, the Federal Reserve, and thought Obama was no different than Bush/Cheney. I’m sorry, I’m a bad person, I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw all the LarouchePAC stuff, so they weren’t very happy with me. Told me to enjoy my two corrupt parties!
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nancy said on November 8, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Just the other day I was making fun of Mitch Albom for using the “speech he should have given” columnist’s trope, but Lex’s take just goes to show why it became a trope. I think I need a cigarette.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Peter, I know it’s sacrilegious, but I love the Los Lobos version of that song. Punched out an obnoxious deadhead during it, matter of fact. At Fosboro. Wish it had been Tom “UGGS” Brady, but alas and alack.
And deggj@54.: exactly. Phonies are phonies.
We have that on vinyl Peter, but I think it’s a little too “ambient” for me. VG drumming though. I prefer the Los Lobos cover. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei2i1NelYV0 And Gods they were. David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas. Astounding singing and better guit playing. But the JohnPaulGeorgeRingo original is astounding.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Fifteen minute orgasm, Nancy?
I’ve been considering that, and it sounds like a fatal dose of ECT to me.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 3:00 pm
And Peter, what I think is Fripp’s finest moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA-U5H4VoX8
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Damn good dog.
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Judybusy said on November 8, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Lex, where can I mail you a case of Red Bull? That was great.
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Judybusy said on November 8, 2012 at 3:21 pm
More juvenile election humor. It’s from FB, so hopefully everyone can see it.
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Mindy said on November 8, 2012 at 3:27 pm
I’m still shaken by that enormous W that was on my newspaper when I pulled it out of the paper box eight years ago and am reminded of it far too often. Yesterday I was wondering if there would be an enormous O on my newspaper, but there wasn’t. Looked like a regular newspaper on any given day, only the photo was worse than usual.
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 3:36 pm
My gentle ears and late Victorian sensibilities were offended by this, but I trust that others may hear a wake up call embedded in language I can only describe as Not Safe For Seagoing Work.
H/T Wonkette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoqti0lzAw&feature=youtu.be
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Mindy, we’re always looking for the Big O, too!
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del said on November 8, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Cooze, I love that woman’s passion.
But Jeff and Sam Elliott’s Stranger character at the bowling alley in The Big Lebowski will have some problems with it.
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Lex said on November 8, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Aaiight, if anything I’ve written makes Nance need a cigarette, then my work here is done.
My thanks to the academy.
DellaDash@51: I would, but none left. We got a big vat o’ coq au vin in the fridge. Imma dump a bunch of that over some rice and then do schoolwork.
Prospero@56: Yeah, actually that was probably my Samuel L. Jackson speech. (And, damn, wouldn’t it be fun to watch him run? Or even to watch a movie in which he PLAYS someone running? Or plays HIMSELF running?)
Sue@60: Rove’s PAC burned through $400MM, but even after expenses and taxes, he’s got to be clearing at least $20MM. That was the feature, not the bug. Everything else was just noise. If the GOP wasn’t smart enough to figure that out, well, then, clearly they haven’t been paying attention to him the last 40 years. (It was true of most GOP consultants, by the way. I doubt a damn one of them really thought his candidate could take Obama absent another 9/11. But grifters gonna grift.)
Kim@66: My wife was applying various captions to that very image last night before we went to bed. I’ve emailed her that one. If you can, insert a comma after “eagle” to set off the noun of direct address. If you’re not a grammar Nazi, just trust me on this: It’s funnier with the comma.
Judybusy@73: Never touch the stuff. If, on the other hand, you run across any of the fine products from the good folks at Red Oak Brewing, Natty Greene’s, or Carolina Brewing, find something in the reddish-amber part of the spectrum and just squeeze it through Teh_Intertubez to me. Thanks!
OK, real work to do now. Y’all clean up after yourselves. Nance works hard; she doesn’t need to be sweeping up our mess.
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Kim said on November 8, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Lex, I am a total grammar Nazi. My colleague (also a grammar Nazi) didn’t create that caption but acquired it. As we like to say around our office, “Comma, bitches!” Now I think I’m gonna have me some cake for dinner AND dessert.
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Darn, I missed seeing the drunk Diane Sawyer link, ABC is disallowing it for copyright reasons. Yeah right.
Notice I said “darn”. Watching my language now. I used the F word here already today.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Kim. you had best bring a winebag. It’s gonna get thirsty out there.
Fracking morons. Sam Brownback is chief among idiots for his stupidity. Weh da fuckawee?
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Mark P said on November 8, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Hey,Prosp, I forgot about that! Georgia’s moron in residence, Nathan Deal, was one of those who were expecting Romney to win, so he expected not to have to do anything. So he didn’t. And now he’s going to have to scramble to figure out a way to let his buddies profit from whatever scheme they can come up with. Most experts in the field are not optimistic that a scheme can be come up with this late.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Mark P: They already abandoned that for their specialty. Charter education. Nathan Deal is a porker alright. He’ll be snorfling his way in front of Ayn Ryan and Nikki “Appalachian Trail” Haley. Buncha bimbos.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 5:10 pm
I think days that I don’t post, Nance smokes a ciggy.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Doc Rivers’ election night story:
Rivers spent Tuesday night following election results and watching the film “Argo.” “That was a good night if you’re a supporter of the president, which I am,” Rivers said. “Nerve-racking. I went to a movie in the middle of it because I couldn’t take it anymore. I was getting texts from people and I didn’t believe that, either. I was tuning into Karl Rove, it was unbelievable. Then I got a text in the middle of it that [President Obama] won, so I left, and didn’t see the end [of the movie]. So, that really [makes me mad]. I’ll have to see it twice. Like ‘Titanic’ — you know the ending, but it’s still a good movie.”
Hey Brownback, and Ken Cuccinelli, get a clue you aholes, you lost. And Gramma Turtle McConnell, limit him to two terms now, you disgusting piece of roadkill.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Say Cooze. I guess that redneck never read Robert Graves or heard about Messalina and Nero.
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Maggie Jochild said on November 8, 2012 at 5:44 pm
The glory days of Rome. When slaves knew their place and women weren’t citizens. That’s the Teabagger philosophy, in a nutshell.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 5:53 pm
The glory days of Rome. When slaves knew their place and women weren’t citizens. That’s the Teabagger philosophy, in a nutshell.
Hyperbole much? Really, the fetish that some of you have with demonizing people who have sound disagreements with you about fiscal issues is astounding. Both parties are at fault for the debt and the run away spending. As long as we the people keep distracted by our own daily re-enactments over the Punch and Judy Show, the happier the politicians are… and the can will continue to be kicked down the road.
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The Swiss Army Knife of Visual Effects said on November 8, 2012 at 5:57 pm
I was thinking of the enormous W headlines as well yesterday. I was looking at CNN.com, and they had a huge empty banner headline space across the top of the page, and floating in the middle of all that empty space was a very small “It’s Obama”. I couldn’t help but wonder just how big that ROMNEY!!! would have been if the race had gone the other way.
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 6:01 pm
It’s done in Washington: the opponents to R-74 have conceded, and same-sex marriage will be legal as of Dec. 6. We still don’t have a governor yet, though it seems likely that Jay Inslee will continue the streak of Democratic governors. We count ballots slowly out here.
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Jolene said on November 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Danny, the idea that “sound disagreements about fiscal issues” is all that is at stake is absurd. For a different point of view, check out this piece, especially the passage re Sonia Sotomayor, which I think exactly captures the racial fear that underlies much Republican rhetoric.
Am stopping in late today. Many great comments and links. Lex, we all owe you.
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coozledad said on November 8, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Maggie Jochild: it’s just more of their astonishing ignorance of history at work. one day they’re being fed to the lions, another day, they’re Cicero defending the republic against the dawn of empire.
If they want to get technical about a Roman analogy, they’d be safer with the early Byzantines. I can easily see them as Justinian and Theodora, both heavily made up with white lead face paint, wearing big jeweled crosses and brooding over a writhing fuckparty.
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Maggie Jochild said on November 8, 2012 at 6:11 pm
If fiscal issues actually motivated the Republican base, they wouldn’t rally around/legislate anything but. Here’s my suggestions for a return to fiscal health:
(1) Stop all the wars.
(2) Fund no other war unless we are actually attacked by that country. (Proven).
(3) Close Gitmo.
(4) Return upper level tax rates to where they were in the Eisenhower era.
(5) Have a single-payer health insurance option; make Medicare available to all.
(6) Double the minimum wage.
(7) Pass the DREAM act, all wage parity legislation, all bills funding medical care for troops.
(8) Pass billions of dollars in stimulus acts to rebuild bridges, roads, dams, and all the crumbling infrastructure.
(9) End oil subsidies and instead pour all that money into renewables.
(10) Subsidize free tuition at public colleges which are secular and meet accreditation standards.
(11) Double foodstamps.
This is just off the top of my head. 1-4 would more than pay for all the rest, and working people not drowning in hunger and medical bills would flood our economy with well-distributed income. But then, I don’t characterize brown people as takers (undocumented aliens are pouring millions in Social Security they can never collect) and I don’t aspire to be part of the privileged elite. I believe “Everyone does better when EVERYONE does better”, to quote a rational man with Midwestern values.
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Dorothy said on November 8, 2012 at 6:15 pm
thx julie & brian (brain!) & jeff. i am aching a little but 325 mg perocet is helping. mike is cooking me yummy meals and yet i am thinking i might drop a few lbs since i have to spoon my food left handed. and i am getting full faster! everday will get better. doc sed arthritis was pretty bad. but i already knew that. nice of him to confirm visually for me.
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ROGirl said on November 8, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Some very sad people.
http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Maggie: On closing Gitmo prison camp, this is a NIMBY issue that GOPers block at every opportunity. There is a max security prison in Illinois that the administration intended to move the Gitmo detainees to, but GOPers stood in the way:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443862604578032922960408046.html
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Danny, if GOPers cared abut fiscal issues, they wouldn’t exalt Raygun, and they’d abhor (obscure) W. Oh, wait. They did the latter. ’00 through ’08 didn’t happen. No two illegal invasions, no two occupations. No idiotic and entirely unproductive tax cuts for rich people. Bigtime drubbing says y’all were full of shit and nobody’s buying that snake oil anymore. The economy is on the rebound, without a doubt, if Boner and Gramma Mitch don’t fuck it up just for spite. Read ’em and weep, GOPers.
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Jim Neill said on November 8, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Definately need a comma after “Eagle”. It’s just too disturbing as written.
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Jolene said on November 8, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Jared Loughner, who shot Gabby Giffords and so many others, was sentenced today to life in prison. Her husband, Mark Kelly, issued a powerful–and heartbreaking–statement at the sentencing hearing. Worth a click.
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Prospero said on November 8, 2012 at 7:49 pm
What the future holds.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Maggie, I don’t have time to respond to all of your list, but I do have some agreement with you. One thing I say to people who complain that renewable energy must be subsidized is that if they don’t think we are subsidizing oil, then they don’t know why we are in the Middle East.
During the first Gulf War, there was a memorable quip from a Democratic senator or congressman who was grilling the someone in the DOE.. he said something like this: “Sir, do you think that we would be over there if their main export was, say, filbert nuts.” Great quote.
But here is the thing about renewables… the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow and when they do, they don’t always do so where the power is most needed. Grids must be expanded and battery technology must be improved. Yet, even with all that, for the foreseeable future, we will need base-load provided from fossil, natural gas or nuclear. Believe me, being in the energy industry and having thoroughly explored renewables, I’ve participated in quite a few conferences on the state of the worldwide energy market and the worlds future needs.
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alex said on November 8, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Some very sad people.
And some of ’em make the People of Walmart look relatively normal.
Hyperbole much? Really, the fetish that some of you have with demonizing people who have sound disagreements with you about fiscal issues is astounding.
Well, Danny, to your credit you haven’t regaled us lately with that tired right-wing canard about how the homo rights movement is forcing you talk to your children about sex as if there were a gun to your head. I’m glad you’re mostly confining it to fiscal issues, even if your arguments are no more credible than those you parrot about social ones.
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Jolene said on November 8, 2012 at 8:24 pm
Brian and other R. Maddox admirers, you can catch her on The Colbert Report tonight (or in tomorrow’s reruns).
One more election follow-up: Obama’s speech to the staff at his headquarters in Chicago.
http://www.samefacts.com/2012/11/campaigns/campaign-2012/a-sweet-video-with-president-obama/
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Alex, I don’t go there because I respect you, actually kinda like you and sincerely wish you the best. Consequently, I have no desire to bring up a subject upon which we may never agree and to cause you discomfort. However, since you brought it up, I will say that I really liked how Cardinal George put it when responding to Rahm Emmanuel’s statement that Chick-Fil-A (a restaurant I couldn’t care less about) did not reflect Chicago values.
Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.”
The value in question is espousal of “gender-free marriage.” Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry; and espousing the understanding of marriage that has prevailed among all peoples throughout human history is now, supposedly, outside the American consensus. Are Americans so exceptional that we are free to define “marriage” (or other institutions we did not invent) at will? What are we re-defining?
It might be good to put aside any religious teaching and any state laws and start from scratch, from nature itself, when talking about marriage. Marriage existed before Christ called together his first disciples two thousand years ago and well before the United States of America was formed two hundred and thirty six years ago. Neither Church nor state invented marriage, and neither can change its nature.
Marriage exists because human nature comes in two complementary sexes: male and female. The sexual union of a man and woman is called the marital act because the two become physically one in a way that is impossible between two men or two women. Whatever a homosexual union might be or represent, it is not physically marital. Gender is inextricably bound up with physical sexual identity; and “gender-free marriage” is a contradiction in terms, like a square circle. . .
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Little Bird said on November 8, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Has this been posted yet?
http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/
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beb said on November 8, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Danny wrote “I think days that I don’t post, Nance smokes a ciggy.”
Danny, for the sake of this website — post more often. Stop Nancy from smoking!
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Jolene thanks for the Mark Kelly link. Very moving.
Regarding Danny’s comment about the sun not always shining and the wind not always blowing to warrant solar and wind power. I say malarky to that, the info that is suppressed by the traditional energy companies(oil and coal) is very deceptive. It is amazing how easy it is to power your house with solar and even sell it back to the power companies. Truly, we have many friends who deal with this stuff for a living. As much as the oil companies and coal companies want you to believe it, it is not rocket science. It also isn’t as expensive as they will lead you to believe especially when you amortize it over time. It is a crying shame how much they obfuscate the facts on these issues.
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Sherri said on November 8, 2012 at 8:40 pm
In three weeks, I’ll celebrate 25 years of marriage. I’ve never really liked being lectured to about marriage by Catholic priests.
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alex said on November 8, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Now here’s a little gem. I honestly cannot tell whether this an earnest Republican or a wickedly satirical Democrat.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Deborah, with regard to wind power, you are quite incorrect. It is a very, very technically complex application and it has humbled many of the world’s top scientists and engineers. I know it sounds simple.. wind blows and you put a fan in front of it…. but it is not. And when this big stuff does not work right, the warranty costs are enormous.
United Technologies just sold off their stake in wind because they did not understand what they were getting into. I don’t work for them, but I knew about this and listened to a segment of the conference call when they explained their screwup to investors.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Beb, hilarious.
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Dexter said on November 8, 2012 at 9:37 pm
Our soundtrack for Lex #47:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM
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Deborah said on November 8, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Danny, That’s why I am in favor of solar as opposed to wind for people on an individual basis. We opted to do solar for our place in NM mainly because of the noise and the cost. But when it comes to a large wind farm for a community the cost/efficiencies are greatly more effective. Where are you getting your info?
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Dexter said on November 8, 2012 at 9:54 pm
crazytown…or, justice has been served.
http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2012/11/06/bus-driver-sets-up-sting-for-%E2%80%98idiot%E2%80%99/
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Deborah, it’s one of my areas of expertise.
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MaryRC said on November 8, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Jolene, thank you for posting that link to Gabby Gifford’s husband’s speech. It reduced me to tears. They are so fortunate to have each other.
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Jolene said on November 8, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Check out what the affiliates of the Heritage Foundation have been up to in the past couple of days. I think the music alone will surely help them win the next election.
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Lex said on November 8, 2012 at 10:43 pm
If y’all think I was rude today, then, Danny, you just keep talking about the Clan of the Red Beanie like they’re anything but silk-draped butchers. My opening statement in the imaginary criminal trial of Pope Rat and every other Roman Catholic official who knew about child rape and did not immediately report it to the civil authorities would burn up the trans-Atlantic Internet backbone and kill a metric assload of fish in the process. Trust me on this.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Lex, I’m not Catholic, nor do I defend that church’s reprehensible actions concerning the cover up of child molestation.
That said, there are true Christians within the ranks of every church, including the Catholic church, and Cardinal George, whoever he is (God knows), expressed very well some basic tenets we hold regarding the institution of marriage, both in terms Christian philosophy and Natural Law.
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brian stouder said on November 8, 2012 at 11:08 pm
Dorothy – here’s wishing you all the best, and if you keep that percocet handy, you maybe could guest-host for Uncle Rush the next time he goes on a sex tourism vacation. (and let me say again, your new photo is smokin’!)
Jolene, thanks for the Rachel tip; I’ll watch for it. Honestly, our host here, and Rachel Maddow’s daily show are the two main pillars I utilize, when making sense of current events.
We (my extended family and I) remain in the land of Big Decisions with regard to my mom. Indeed, it seems not so different from the sort of stress I felt during jury duty a few weeks ago (there’s a story there, but we won’t digress just now!)
By way of saying, we’ll steer around internet over-sharing just now, and say that I may disappear now and then – as we all do, when events overtake us
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Mark P said on November 8, 2012 at 11:17 pm
Since I’m posting from my phone I can’t go into detail but I can say that the requirements of wind and solar power are well known and have been since I was in grad school back in the ’80’s. If you pay attention to data that have been collected decades ago on availability of wind and solar power anyone ought to be able to figure out a workable installation. I should also point out that the cheapest, simplest, safest and most effective source of energy is conservation. Jimmy Carter knew that more than 30 years ago but no one wanted to listen because the Great Idiot Ronald Reagan had a fairy tale that sounded better.
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Danny said on November 8, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Godspeed, Brian. Yes, events will overtake us.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 6:08 am
And Danny, regarding marriage equality: way before Europeans came to this country native Americans revered gays, called them two spirit people and had same sex marriages for centuries.
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Lex said on November 9, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Danny, in addition to being the spawn of a family et up with ministers, I spent three years of my life that I will never get back again covering Jim Bakker and PTL, so any tone of sanctimony sent my way with respect to religious institutions (as opposed to religion per se) is a really, REALLY bad idea.
Far as I am concerned, the Roman Catholic “church” can marry or refuse to marry whomever it wants. But when it tries to tell other people in THIS country whom they can and can’t marry, I’m throwing the flag. The lit one. Stuck inside a bottle of gasoline.
Government needs to get out of the marriage business and establish sex-blind civil partnerships. That’s the only approach consistent with both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
Also, let me remind the Roman Catholic Church that Christ’s Second Great Commandment (modern translation) was: Don’t be a dick. Among other things, that means don’t flounce in here pretending that a continuing criminal child-raping enterprise that wants tax exemptions, immunity from criminal prosecutions AND a pass on the Establishment Clause gets to live life free of criticism. As the Republican Party found out on Tuesday, the world has changed.
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