Last night, Parker asked me to show him some videos of what was going on in Japan. We were sitting on the couch, and I had my laptop handy, so I showed him some of the videos and explained to him what was going on in them.
After getting some concerns off my rest re: the shooting in Tucson, I’ve been reading what everyone else is saying, and I’m kind of amazed at the conservatives attempt at the “Both sides do it,” argument. To be sure, people on both sides do go to extremes, but beyond that it’s a false equivalency. Of course, I’m not the first to point this out.
The point is that there’s room in a democracy for people who ridicule and denounce those who disagree with them; there isn’t any place for eliminationist rhetoric, for suggestions that those on the other side of a debate must be removed from that debate by whatever means necessary.
And it’s the saturation of our political discourse – and especially our airwaves – with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence.
Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.
So, rather than repeat what everyone else has said, I thought I’d do a video timeline.
When it comes to the holiday season, I’m neither a Scrooge nor a fanatic. I enjoy the season for a multitude of reasons. And no, I don’t agree with most people about the “reason for the season,” and that’s O.K. History doesn’t agree with them either, but that’s O.K. too. Human beings have have celebrations and ceremonies around this time of year practically since the beginnings of civilization. It’s meanings are old enough and broad enough for all of us to lay some claim to it.
Besides, “Peace on Earth” and “Goodwill toward men” sound like good ideas to me, after having my head in national these last couple of years. It’s enough to make anyone say “Bah! Humbug!” But recently I heard a familiar holiday song on the radio, and it kinda brought me back to myself.
Ya gotta love Alan Grayson. It’s a shame he’s not going to be in Congress anymore. That’s one less Democrat with the guts to say what desperately needs to be said, though it may be impolitic. Here’s hoping he won’t go quietly.
His latest, “What the Rich Can Do With Their Tax Cuts,” gives me some assurance he won’t.
So, conservative don’t want to give someone like Chrissandra Walker, one of the 2 million unemployed whose unemployment benefit extension the GOP killed in the House, $11,000 a year to keep her head (barely) above water. But they want to give every millionaire a tax cut of $83,000 a year?
I sometimes save things in Google reader that have interesting titles and that I want to read later. “The Wrestler and the Cornflake Girl,” written by a wrestler who fell in love with the music of Tori Amos, is one that I actually did read later. I think it’s because of the the “WTF” factor — my reaction to a wrestler/Tori Amos fan made me realize I was totally stereotyping, something I detest and don’t want to do.
Sure enough, reading proved my stereotyping all wrong. I haven’t listened to much Tori Amos, but I completely understood how deeply Mick Foley was affected by Amos’ song, “Winter.”
Digby confirms a suspicion I’ve held since the Clinton years: part of the method to the right’s maddness is to exhaust their opponents with their insanity. It’s related to what I previously dubbed “The Tyranny of the Tantrum.”
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Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It’s when the right’s ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead — and even scare them a little.
In Clinton’s case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. It was called Clinton Fatigue, the sense that even people who were sympathetic to the president’s political plight and understood that his enemies were rabid and insane, just wanted it to end. Many analysts think it was the reason why Gore had such a hard time even though the economy was roaring — normally the country would have not wanted to rock that boat. It was the prospect of four or eight more years of wingnuts shrieking and howling that made at least few people say “whatever… give it to them … anything to shut them up.”
In Obama’s case it’s this moribund economy vs the outsized expectations that form the substance of the Democratic base’s complaint. And there’s good reason for people to be disappointed and worried. But the exhaustion at defending him, at least some of it, comes from the same place as that Clinton Fatigue. The right’s non-stop attacks eventually just wear people down, sap them of their enthusiasm, make them question their own judgment, especially in the face of a negative and less than hopeful future. You have to be pretty committed to want to wallow in this toxic mud every day and most people have better things to do with their time.
I’m not saying that if the GOP wasn’t relentlessly attacking Obama that this woman would feel good about him. He hasn’t been very successful at addressing her concerns and there are plenty of liberals who are critical of him as well. But even if he were able to allay her concerns about the economy and the future of the country, the exhaustion that comes from battling back these lunatics is what really takes its toll.
Digby confirms a suspicion I’ve held since the Clinton years: part of the method to the right’s maddness is to exhaust their opponents with their insanity. It’s related to what I previously dubbed “The Tyranny of the Tantrum.”
Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It’s when the right’s ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead — and even scare them a little.
In Clinton’s case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. It was called Clinton Fatigue, the sense that even people who were sympathetic to the president’s political plight and understood that his enemies were rabid and insane, just wanted it to end. Many analysts think it was the reason why Gore had such a hard time even though the economy was roaring — normally the country would have not wanted to rock that boat. It was the prospect of four or eight more years of wingnuts shrieking and howling that made at least few people say “whatever… give it to them … anything to shut them up.”
In Obama’s case it’s this moribund economy vs the outsized expectations that form the substance of the Democratic base’s complaint. And there’s good reason for people to be disappointed and worried. But the exhaustion at defending him, at least some of it, comes from the same place as that Clinton Fatigue. The right’s non-stop attacks eventually just wear people down, sap them of their enthusiasm, make them question their own judgment, especially in the face of a negative and less than hopeful future. You have to be pretty committed to want to wallow in this toxic mud every day and most people have better things to do with their time.
I’m not saying that if the GOP wasn’t relentlessly attacking Obama that this woman would feel good about him. He hasn’t been very successful at addressing her concerns and there are plenty of liberals who are critical of him as well. But even if he were able to allay her concerns about the economy and the future of the country, the exhaustion that comes from battling back these lunatics is what really takes its toll.
Digby confirms a suspicion I’ve held since the Clinton years: part of the method to the right’s maddness is to exhaust their opponents with their insanity. It’s related to what I previously dubbed “The Tyranny of the Tantrum.”
Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It’s when the right’s ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead — and even scare them a little.
In Clinton’s case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. It was called Clinton Fatigue, the sense that even people who were sympathetic to the president’s political plight and understood that his enemies were rabid and insane, just wanted it to end. Many analysts think it was the reason why Gore had such a hard time even though the economy was roaring — normally the country would have not wanted to rock that boat. It was the prospect of four or eight more years of wingnuts shrieking and howling that made at least few people say “whatever… give it to them … anything to shut them up.”
In Obama’s case it’s this moribund economy vs the outsized expectations that form the substance of the Democratic base’s complaint. And there’s good reason for people to be disappointed and worried. But the exhaustion at defending him, at least some of it, comes from the same place as that Clinton Fatigue. The right’s non-stop attacks eventually just wear people down, sap them of their enthusiasm, make them question their own judgment, especially in the face of a negative and less than hopeful future. You have to be pretty committed to want to wallow in this toxic mud every day and most people have better things to do with their time.
I’m not saying that if the GOP wasn’t relentlessly attacking Obama that this woman would feel good about him. He hasn’t been very successful at addressing her concerns and there are plenty of liberals who are critical of him as well. But even if he were able to allay her concerns about the economy and the future of the country, the exhaustion that comes from battling back these lunatics is what really takes its toll.
No. Ronald McDonald hasn’t gone on a killing spree. But a commercial by a group of doctors suggest that the fast food hawked by the happy clown kills on a scale that even the worst serial killers would envy.
Farewell, “Dr.” Laura. Alas, we knew you far too well.
Actually, there is just one thing before you go…
I don’t have much to add to this (yet), but I agree with Paul That it’s too good not to share.
I’m assuming the blonde woman in the Prius, with a kid in the back seat, who stopped to ask me for directions Monday morning was safe. But, until they catch this guy I’m not telling anyone else where to go.
A Michigan prosecutor said Tuesday that stabbing attacks in his state that killed five people are linked to similar attacks in Virginia and Ohio.
So far, authorities have reported a total of 20 such attacks in the three states. Genesee County, Michigan, prosecutor David Leyton said on CNN’s "American Morning" that the victims’ description of the attacker and his car are similar.
"We think we have the same perpetrator," he said.
Leyton said police believe the man is responsible for three recent attacks in Leesburg, Virginia, the stabbing deaths of five people and injuries to 11 others in the Flint, Michigan, area and a stabbing Saturday that injured one man in Toledo, Ohio.
Fourteen of the 16 victims in Michigan were African-American, he said, but Flint is also a majority African-American community. In majority white Leesburg, Virginia, two victims were black and one was Hispanic.
Great. On top of the usual day to day stuff, I gotta look out for a serial killer who may be in the metro-D.C. area, and whose favorite victims are apparently people who look like me.
Granted, we’ve all had days on the job where we’ve long to say, “Screw you guys. I’m going home.” But this guy took it to a whole new level.
A JetBlue flight attendant got into an argument with a passenger on a jetliner arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday, cursed the passenger, grabbed a beer from the galley and then deployed an emergency exit slide and fled the plane, authorities said.
Steven D, at Booman, notes that Bill O’Reilly is still attacking Shirley Sherrod.
Bill O’Reilly, the first
entertainerpropagandistnews analyst on Fox News to run the edited, out of context Breitbart clip of Shirley Sherrod, walked back his intense criticism of her today. He framed it as an apology. You decide if that’s what it really was, because frankly I call B*llsh*t on you Mr. O’Reilly for daring to call what you said an apology. Because by God it was worse than if you had done nothing at all:Fox News host Bill O’Reilly offered a rare mea culpa Wednesday, apologizing for airing a controversial tape of a speech given by a black U.S. Dept. of Agriculture official that was edited to make it appear she was racist. […}
“I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context,” he said on "The O’Reilly Factor," adding that his own words had been taken out of context by critics in the past. “I well understand the need for honest reporting.”
Sounds good right? Well until you get to this part:
On Wednesday, the host said that he “did not analyze the entire transcript, and that was not fair.” Still, O’Reilly called her a "longtime liberal activist" and said the language Sherrod used suggested that she “very well may see things through a racial prism." He said she belonged in the private sector, not working for the government.
It gets worse from there. Read the rest of Steven’s post for that.
Meanwhile, I was inspired.
It would be funny, if only it wasn’t reality. That’s what I thought when I came across this while perusing videos on my iPhone recently.
It’s a pretty good compliation of the recent insanity. It’s good political satire. If it was an obvious parody, I could laugh. But it’s not. And as good as it is, the video doesn’t begin to capture the breadth and depth of the present political insanity. (After all, there’s only so much one can cram into three minutes or less.)
I came across this in my work-related news-reading. According to a Bakersfield woman, five police officers — and maybe one bounty hunter — entered her home without consent or a warrant. At least she had the presence of mind to grab a video camera.
“Open the door now!” shouted the official just outside her window.
[Star] Hills grabbed a video camera and recorded Kern County Sheriff’s deputies and at least one unidentified bounty hunter entering her home without her consent.
“Is Mr. Baker in your house?” asked an unidentified sheriff’s deputy.
Deputies and the bounty hunter were looking for Joseph Baker, who was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault on a peace officer. Baker was not at the home, but that did not stop them from continuing their search of Hills’ home.
During the search, Hills repeatedly kept asking to see a warrant and for the names of the deputies and bounty hunter in her home.
“I have a bench warrant,” responded the bounty hunter.
“Where is it?” Hills asked in return.
“Actually, I don’t need a bench warrant … I’m a bail enforcement agent,” responded the bounty hunter.
This was my first experience of Ricky Martin. I didn’t know his name. I’d never seen him before. But by the time he was done, I — like a lot of people — wanted to know “Who is that guy?!”
“Do you really want it?” he sang. And by the time he was done…I did. I really did.
There’s only thing slightly less shocking than the arrest of nine members of the Hutaree Christian militia for plotting to plotting to kill law enforcement officers (with IEDs).
That’s conservative bloggers coming to their defense. Blue Texan at Firedog lake compiles the responses at the preceding link, but this one in particular jumped out at me.
America’s vigilant Anti-Terror Warriors on the right will certainly be relieved and grateful that the FBI nabbed these guys, right?
…Classical Values sees nothing illegal going on.
Last time I looked, wanting to start a civil war (insane as it is) was not a crime.
Huh? That’s not only a defense of the alleged plot, but it smacks of a justification.
So much for “law and order” conservatism, I guess.
I don’t know about anyone else, but this was my favorite image from today’s signing of the health care reform legislation.
You can see the rest of the event here, if you missed it this morning.
For those who don’t know, the kid watching Obama sign the bill is 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who lost her health insurance when she lost her job, and eventually lost her life to pulmonary hypertension. Marcelas became the target of right wing attacks when he took up the cause of health care reform in memory of his mother.
Naturally, his story resonated with president Obama, who said during his remarks: “Today, I’m signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days.”
Oh, and why is it a big deal that the VP was heard to say “This is a big fucking deal”? After all, he’s right. It is a big fucking deal.
Not as big as it might have been or should have been, but big nonetheless.
This is one of those things you just have to see to believe. Chances are you’ve seen it posted elsewhere, but it bears replaying over and over and over again. Here’s the face of conservatism today, for ya — mocking and screaming at a man with Parkinson’s disease.
At an anti health reform rally in Columbus yesterday, Tea Partiers demonstrated why they should be taken seriously as a populist movement by heckling a man who carried a sign claiming he suffers from Parkinson’s.
A video shows the man sitting down in front of a group of protesters. “If you’re looking for a handout, you’re in the wrong part of town! Nothing for free here, you have to work for everything you get!” says one guy. Then, some khaki-clad dick saunters over, flings some money at the protester and smarmily says “I’ll pay for this guy. Here you go. Start a pot.” He circles back around to scream, “I’ll decide when to give you money!” Someone yells something about communism. Someone else screams, “No more handouts!!!”
If only the health bill created some sort of panels where experts could decide if diseased commie scum like this guy are deserving of care …
If you can stomach it, the video clip is after the jump.
Apparently, a Black man can’t wear a hoodie in Congress either. At least he didn’t get shot.
Thank goodness! The John Edwards sex tape — the one he made with his mistress and campaign videographer — will suffer the same fate as Edwards’ political career. It will be destroyed. Let’s hope no copies were made, and that one less of these things will be making the rounds online.
Weird. I haven’t posted anything about Whitney Houston’s death. I have an unfinished post that may go up soon, but that’s it. Still, I just peeked at my stats and discovered this 2008 post about Whitney House and Amy Winehouse got over 2,000 visits this weekend.
I came away from CPAC a little disappointed yesterday, for two reasons:
On the up side, it looks like I may be partying with gay, Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger tonight.
OK. I plead guilty to this When I got my iPhone 4, I gave Parker my old iPhone 3G (with parental controls in place, phone service deactivated, everything restored to factory settings, history wiped clean, and internet access and the App Store on lockdown) to play games on, etc. But does that make me a “Scrooge”? Puh-leeze. An eight-year-old needs the latest iPhone?
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