FrankSpace

2012-02-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/02/05/they-fucking-hate-you/
From John Cole it can't be said too often.

I was a winger for years, and we can discuss that particular psychosis at a later date, but what I can explain to you right now is that they fucking hate you.

They just do.

They hate you because you respect gay people as normal human beings.

They hate you because you respect African-Americans as normal human beings.

They hate you because you respect Asians, Latinos, and everyone else who isn’t a straight white male.

They hate you because you respect a woman’s right to choose.

They hate you because you respect the right of people to be with who they love.

They hate you because you respect the right of anyone to adopt a child.

They hate you because you respect international law.

They hate you because you believe in economic and tax fairness.

They hate you because you respect the right of anyone to worship any way they want.

They hate you because you respect scientists and their collective knowledge.

They hate you because you respect teachers and the work they do educating Americans.

They hate you because you respect the human dignity of every American.

They hate you because you respect the rights of people over corporations.

They hate you because you respect nature and think we have a duty to take care of the environment.

They hate you because you respect your right to vote, and they don’t think you deserve it.

They hate you because you respect the constitution and the rule of law.

They hate you because you respect laws against torture.

In short, they hate you. Period.

They masquerade their bullshit in the words of Jesus and the all-knowing free market, but it is transparent what motivates them. Not love for their fellow man, not love for their fellow citizen, not love for country- what motivates them is hate for the other.

You.

They fucking hate you. They want you, and everyone who speaks for you, and every institution that represents your values, whether it be Planned Parenthood or food banks or ACORN- you name it. They want it destroyed.

I just do not understand why more people do not recognize this. The Republicans have declared total war on America, and people are responding like this is politics as usual. It isn’t. It really isn’t. It’s really all or nothing at this point. We put the birchers/tea party/conservatives back in their place and destroy the current GOP, or we deal with this shit for the next forty-sixty years.

I know I am Godwining this post, but we are at the point where we know who is going to set the Reichstag fire. Are we up to stopping them?

2012-02-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/02/moyers-fail.html

Driftglass hits it out of the park again.

2012-02-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

http://exiledonline.com/we-the-spiteful/

The importance of spite for the American electorate.

2012-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

http://exiledonline.com/conscience-of-a-radical-corey-robin%E2%80%99s-the-reactionary-mind/

A review of Cory Robin's book The Reactionary Mind.

2012-01-27T05:52:00.001-08:00

FrankTrollman
Serious Badass

Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 16711

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:43 pm Post subject:

Gnosticism Is A Hoot wrote:

General question for everyone in the thread (even Tzor) -

What is the deal with George Soros? Conservatives seem to hate him, but my US-Liberal acquaintances don't seem to care about him, and his Wiki page is vaguely positive. What's all the hubbub?

EDIT: To put it another way, his Wiki page lists some pretty impressive achievements, but nothing that I thought would scream OMG LIBERAL ANTICHRIST to the wingnut crowd. So why the screaming?

The reality that conservative "thought" in the modern world is financed by like half a dozen creepy rich dudes is something that periodically causes right wing foot soldiers to have little bits of cognitive dissonance. However, since these guys are masters of projection, they assume that since they pretty much get their marching orders from people paid to write them by Rupert Murdoch or the Koch Brothers that liberals, progressives, and communists must be doing the same with different shadowy billionaires.

So they are constantly looking for evidence that George Soros (or maybe George Clooney) is the creepy mastermind behind Liberal thought in the same way that David Koch basically is the Cato Institute and Americans for Prosperity and the fucking Tea Party. The idea that other political viewpoints are different from them and actually don't slavishly follow talking points generated by shadowy billionaires seems totally foreign to them.

The reason that the right can't shut up about George Soros is not that he has amazing pull in leftist intellectual circles or that leftist commentators get piles of money to reword his latest diatribes or to denounce plans that might cost him money. It's that they are deep down certain that every other field of political thought is just as morally bankrupt as their own. Since their political movement could be destroyed root and branch by assassinating like six dudes, they assume every other political movement works that way too. The idea that OWS is actually leaderless simply does not register with them at all.

-Frank

2012-01-26T06:22:00.001-08:00

Bruce Wilder 01.25.12 at 5:06 pm: Is the Prince, a prince, because the pauper is a pauper?

What bothers me most about about increasing inequality as a concept is its bloodless abstractness. What bothers me about increasing inequality as a phenomenon, is its causal relation to increasing economic predation.

There was a time, when commercial banking and thrift institutions were oriented toward enabling people to own their homes; now, its all a game, oriented to enable a few to make millions or billions, and millions to enjoy the nightmare of foreclosure. There was a time, when state and local governments subsidized their colleges and universities, and wealthy people endowed private institutions, with the aim of enabling young people to get advanced education; now, advanced education is an opportunity to sink millions into debt peonage.

There was a time, when free trade promised higher quality and greater variety of goods, available to the mass of consumers. Now, it is an opportunity to exploit and defraud workers, globally.

The overton window may have shifted a bit to the left, but I’d say Tyler Cowen is still defending well within his own territory, when he doesn’t have to answer for his own parasitic existence as the well-paid apologist of the Koch empire, a complex of enterprises dedicated to depleting the earth’s resources and destoying its climate.

2012-01-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

From Bruce Sterling's state of the world address:

inkwell.vue.430 : Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2012
permalink #54 of 234: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Fri 6 Jan 12 12:48

      *Alex Steffen weighing in here (#28):
"Paradoxically, perhaps, this feels to me like an optimistic development.
Things need to change profoundly, at systemic levels, and systemic breakdowns
 are for the first time in decades putting the design of those systems (from
banking to urbanization to energy to democratic governance) on the table in a
very unavoidable way. Not a guarantee of a positive outcome, by any means, but
at least a situation to which we can imagine a positive outcome of the right scope,
 scale and speed."  *Well, there's something to this assertion, because it's what
 Camillo Cavour wanted when he reunified Italy -- a "vast convulsion" that would
break up the stultified peace of Europe.  Cavour got excellent results by cajoling
 the French into attacking the Austrians on Italian soil.  It was mayhem, but he
 wangled his way through it by some deft leverage.  But this wasn't just a
"systemic breakdown," because Cavour's government had an alternative system
entirely ready to roll.  They had money, guns, the best-trained and best-equipped
 Italian army, a constitution and an industrial revolution, plus more railroads
than everybody else in Italy.  So it wasn't THEIR OWN system that was breaking
down but EVERYBODY ELSE's system that was breaking down, and that was why they
got away with it.  Cavour successfully presented his government as the only
ALTERNATIVE to red revolutionary anarchy -- even though he'd provoked that chaos
 himself.    So it's possible to be paradoxically optimistic about systemic
breakdowns, because there are existence proofs of everything working out for
 the best, or at least for the rather better.  However, I've got objections.
 First and foremost, as a futurist I'm always suspicious of "optimism" and
"pessimism."  I think they're both objectionable attitudes that cloud one's
 understandings of events.  They also cloud the understanding that getting
what you want, or being deprived of what you want, are temporary conditions
and preludes to further complications somewhere down the line. No victory
lasts forever.  And things that are great in one period, like internal
combustion, can be fatal when they're considered always "good."  Also, in our
 own period we've seen and experienced quite a lot of "systemic breakdowns.
" Sometimes they're "velvet revolutions" and they work out okay -- states can
 rather implausibly "fail upward," especially if they get a lot of sympathetic
 foreign help.  However, we also see quite a lot of failed states, global
 guerrilla areas, hollow states, "managed democracies," mogul captures of the
 economy, organized crime zones, failed American military occupations, and other
 unfortunate contemporary conditions.  It's real, real easy to fail downward.
 That's a major historical trend, obviously, but if you follow that kind of
 transition-to-nowhere because you think, "well, this is a wave of change,
so I should surf it," that means abandoning civil rights and the rule of law.
 And for what?   You get a new order maybe, but  quite likely you get a precarious
 life as former citizens reduced to wretchedness.   The logical extension of
domination by the global ultra-wealthy, and/or the local warlords, is for everyday
 people to become their gangster molls and hired henchmen.    This prospect may
 seem like a stretch for Americans who've never witnessed or experienced that life,
 but globally, quite a lot of people do live like this.  Americans solve these
problems with cash and lawsuits.    Other people can't buy their way out of that
 life, and they can't sue their way out of that life.  So, basically, they live
 like the Corleone family in the Godfather movies; that's what a failed-state life
 looks like when Americans do it.        Of course the body count's particularly
high in that movie, because it's a drama.  But life looks like that when the state
 can't provide any equity or justice.  That role gets filled by some canny
tough-guy with his sons and his consigliere.  The don may have a lot of
street-smarts, but his economy isn't gonna work very well, because there's way too
 much personal begging, threatening and knee-bending involved.  It's a sclerotic
 and parasitic means of production and distribution.  I don't think the Tea Party
 or the OWS are any major shivery threats to civilization; they're not like the
 Fascist Black Shirts or the Chinese Red Guard.  However, they both seem to me
like parodic and even goofier versions of their parent organizations, the
and the Democrats.    They're not confronting or resolving the genuine problems
 that the Republicans and Democrats so obviously have in running a competent
 government.  On the contrary, the Tea Party is a kind of slow-motion insurrection
 by people who politically identify with churches and televangelists.  While the
 OWS is a very loose cluster of people who politically identify with flash mobs
 and social networks; there's not an OWS guru around who could get elected
dog-catcher.  So, you know, "paradoxical optimism."  "The worse, the better,"
as Lenin used to cheerily remark.  Yep, the bright side of forest fires is that
 they free up a lot of minerals.  What other attitude makes sense nowadays
I'm inclined to think that paradoxical optimism is a major temperament of
our times.  But I'd cut a little closer to the bone and just call it
"dark euphoria."  Because we're not working out solutions rationally;
we're just spitting for luck, and we're rolling the bones.

2012-01-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2011/11/they-could-not-look-me-in-eye-again.html

Watching some dipstick the other day on Fox News carry on with great certainty about Hillary Clinton and her evil motives -- and I don't think this guy actually spends a lot of time tete a tete with Mrs. Clinton while she reveals her deepest thoughts to him -- I wondered, "Lord, when are these people going to get over it?"

I think the answer is never, because most people have a very hard time forgiving those whom they have deeply wronged. I know that's sort of counterintuitive, but think about some of the bad divorces you have known. When we have done something terrible to someone, we often need to twist it around so it's their fault, not ours.

Great post here.

2012-01-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/2012/01/18/there-is-nothing-you-possess-that-power-cannot-take-away

Outstanding post about the importance of defending your rights.

2012-01-18T14:29:00.000-08:00

The entire GOP debate last night—the ugliness of the crowd and the code-talkers on the stage—is all firmly rooted in putrid soil of Atwater’s legacy. When Gingrich says Food Stamps he means “nigger”. When Perry says states’ rights he means “nigger”. And when Romney says President Obama doesn’t “shares our values” or that the race is about “saving the soul of America” he means “nigger”.

2012-01-17T23:20:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Senator Bernie Sanders on UP. (Joy of insomnia) He is talking out campaign finance reform (about 12min into the second hour on Jan 15) and he is making a lot of sense.

I start wondering if he is looking at the problem the wrong way. One way to see things is that the problem is people believe things they see on tv when really they should know better.

I suppose ultimately it is kind of a right wing thought, but still people should know by now that the people on tv are paid to lie to them.

2012-01-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

Great rant from driftglass here:

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/01/with-all-penetrating-insight.html

2012-01-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6t515_conspiracy-theory-rock_shortfilms

2012-01-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.angrybearblog.com/2012/01/define-rich-v-looking-at-historical.html

Really outstanding article. I've been talking about this for a while now. In the 70's a new volkswagon beetle cost $2,000 which you could earn in a summer at minimum wage. Try to earn enough for a new car at minimum now.

2012-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/arthur_brisbane_and_selective_stenography/singleton/

That is the latest Glen Greenwald post. I think he makes good basic points about the media here. He uses the recent Arthur Brisbane article to launch into a discussion about media stenography in general. Brisbane asked his readers if the New York Times should start calling out lies. (He doesn't use that word though.)

One thing I don't understand about the discussion is why no one seems to be bringing up Al Gore. I'm sure someone must be but none of my regular reads are doing so. The Times and the press in general didn't have any problem calling Al Gore's statements out as lies. Even when they had to alter the statements in question to make them untrue. So really its just Republican lies that receive such deference. Paul Kruman recently wondered if Mitt Romney says anything true in his stump speech http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/untruths-wholly-untrue-and-nothing-but-untruths/?gwh=5A4D3E1A0710E7A1A0CED570625E89D7
Of course that is confined to his blog and not appearing in the Times proper.

2012-01-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Why I'm voting for ron paul.

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/progressives_and_the_ron_paul_fallacies/singleton/

2011-12-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4848.en.html

Cory Doctorow makes a really good point.

2011-12-28T23:51:00.000-08:00

http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/ten-years-after-911-attacks-greatest.html

An award winning post about the lack of investigation on how 9/11 happened.

2011-12-28T19:38:00.001-08:00

Funny video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j-rxe9Ayb8c

2011-12-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/why-is-the-term-financial-repression-taking-hold.html

Must read from naked capitalism.

2011-12-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/12/without-jim.html

Outstanding.

2011-12-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/12/05/careless-people-2/

A taste: I think Republicans see themselves the way Wall Streeters see themselves -- as people to whom nothing really bad could possibly happen, no matter how dire America's problems are. If they get in, push more tax cuts that increase debt, and make spending cuts that worsen unemployment and leave more infrastructure to crumble, they'll just find some scapegoat, sexting or illegal immigrants or Dodd-Frank, to blame everything bad in America on. If that doesn't work, they'll start a war, and make it just controversial enough that Democrats will hesitate to support it, then treason-bait those Democrats for their hesitancy.

2011-11-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003578.html

More about the 7+ trillion.

2011-11-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/28/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-friend

7 Trillion dollars is hard to even conceive of.

2011-11-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

Atrios decides America is over here:

Teach Your Children Well

No expert in this area, but I see a tendency to perceive different countries as being 'corrupt' or 'not corrupt.' The primary difference seems to be not the level of corruption-at-the-top, except perhaps in some extreme cases, but the degree to which corruption is egalitarian. I don't really want to live in a society where every cop and petty bureaucrat needs a bribe, but at some point you're just a sucker if you aren't in on the action. When the assholes at the top are just stealing and looting, the rest of us might as well have our chances too.

2011-11-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

Glen Tomkins 11.29.11 at 1:47 am: “It had already become clear
in October 2009 that the Greek government
had lied about the size of its deficit.”

That’s the part of this story that I keep hearing repeated, but the mechanics of which escape me.

How does a country lie, I mean lie enough to matter, about the size of its deficits, and escape detection from people doing even a cursory due diligence? It’s borrowing to cover its deficits. You know how big its deficit is from how much it’s borrowing.

Surely the total size of all Greek govt borrowing was known. Back when the sovereigns were monarchs rather than republics and not forced to keep public accounts, there was the possibilitily that because they were borrowing from all sorts of sources that you as an individual creditor had no idea existed, you could easily be sending money from whence there would be no hope of return. The sovereign himself might not have a clear idea of his total indebtedness. This is what happened to the Fuggers. Now, insofar as modern sovereigns still do this, borrow on the sly, then anyone who lends to such a sovereign deserves whatever happens to their money, deserves to be thoroughly Fuggered.

If you have that, that all of a sovereign’s borrowing is conducted in public bond auctions, or is otherwise a matter of public record, then you have enough information to judge its ability to meet its obligations. You know how much it’s borrowing every year. Any borrowing that is not directed towards a specific capital improvement, but simply plugs a shortfall in ordinary annual expenditures, should have a particular rationale, such as counter-cyclical stimulus, that has an end date and a plan to make up the deficits in good economic times.

In my experience with banks lending me money, their standard of due diligence is such that they don’t let me lie to them. I’m not allowed to make up an income figure and write it on a piece of paper and that’s that, they accept that I’m “good for it” because I say that I am. They want to see bank statements, and they want pay stubs, and they want tax returns and credit card statements. They want sufficient information about where I get my money and where it goes that they don’t have to rely on any representations I might make about how good I am for it. Bank officers who skipped all that due diligence and let me lie to them would be put in jail for fraud, for failure in their fiduciary responsibility to the people whose money they handed over to me.

There are different, lesser, standards for the people who lend much larger sums of other people’s money to sovereigns? Compared to a sovereign, I am subject to all sorts of coercion—I can be sued—and I am forced to offer the house as collateral before the bank hands over the money. I should get much less scrutiny, not more. That, or sovereigns ought to at least have their math checked, have creditors at least consider the size of what can’t be fudged, the total magnitude of their borrowing, for what that says about their ability to repay.

How did people who knew how much Greece was borrowing imagine that it was good for it all?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I’ve assumed all along, and it seems supported by statements in this review, is that at some point the creditors knew perfectly well that their loans likely wouldn’t be repaid by Greece, but that there would be a bail out. Why worry about boring old due diligence if you get to socialize the risks and privatize the profits?

Nuance is great. But when the story is simple, don’t complicate it needlessly. “Greek lies” were no more responsible for this debacle than Freddie Mac wrong-doing was responsible for the housing bubble in the US.
comment from crooked timber: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/11/28/european-technocracy/#comments

2011-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

How far outside respectability is it to believe in the October Surprise conspiracy, and that Reagan's crew are traitors? Pretty far, I'm guessing.

It would be utterly lunatic to suggest that Reagan and some of his top advisors conspired secretly and illegally with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to break US law, undermine US foreign policy, and help US-hating terrorists in 1980.

Everyone knows they didn't start doing that until, ooh, 1985 or so.

Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11-28-11 8:31 AM

Genius. via unfogged

http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_11772.html

2011-11-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1qKDHTQPzv4#!

4minute clip of Allan Grayson telling it like it is on OWS.

2011-11-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

Glen Greenwald proving that claims of media objectivity a bullshit.

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/24/bob_schieffer_ron_paul_and_journalistic_objectivity/singleton/

2011-11-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/poll-o-day.html

Fox news viewers know less than those who watch no new at all.

2011-11-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/21/its-cleansing-when-it-floods-someone-elses-house/

DougJ at Balloon Juice comments on our glorious overlords.

2011-11-22T18:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/22/i-thought-we-were-winning-but-we-may-be-losing/

Standard issue right-wing scumbaggery.

2011-11-22T16:29:00.001-08:00

As the Occupy movement continues to grow in defiance of the heavy-handed police action determined to squelch it, a natural question emerges: What point will the military be summoned to contain the cascade of popular dissent? And if our nation’s finest are brought into this struggle to stand between the vested authority of the state and the ranks of those who petition them for a redress of grievance, what may we expect the outcome to be?

If history is our guide then we know that story all too well. Behind a thin veil of red, white and blue stands a nation that has used its military might to respond forcefully to any public contempt for the very institutions which bind us in exclusion from the liberty those colors evoke. Just as a training collar keeps a dog in check, a highly militarized police force responds mercilessly, sharply, and without hesitation with an array of chemical warfare and thuggish brutality. And where they fail, divisions of soldiers stand ready to deliver a serious and painful lesson to all who demonstrate their unwillingness to wait for democracy.

This has been the history of democracy in America. The ink on the pages that chronicle the use of state violence towards an unruly citizenry is dry. We cannot rewrite them. We read them in lament. But for each new day history waits; at the dawn of each morning we are presented with the gift of creation. The prevailing thought woven into the fabric of our society today, threaded through both patterns of conservative and liberal ideology, remains the recognition that something is very wrong with the world. Naturally, we form the question: Can we do things differently? Once we animate that thought and present it to society as a question demanding an answer, we begin to sketch out our draft of the world in the pages of history.

I call upon my brothers and sisters in the armed forces to ink their pens and help us write these next few, and most important pages in the history of our social life. Soon, it is quite likely that you will be mobilized to aid the police in their effort to contain or disperse what their bosses see as an imminent threat to the sanctity of their authority. As that day draws near, I remind you of these familiar words:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Those that take this oath seriously are faced with a terrible conflict. You must battle internally between the affirmation that you will place your body between the social contract embedded in the Constitution and those that seek its destruction, while maintaining your loyalty to the government you serve and the orders issued by its officers. Sadly, society has placed a twin tax upon you by asking that you sacrifice both your body and your morality. This tax has been levied solely upon you overseas, and soon they’ll come to collect domestically. Your government in its expression of corporate interests relies upon your tenacity to endure, and your relentless willingness to sacrifice. And so you do.

Now, more than ever we need your sacrifice. But, I’m asking you to soldier in a different way. If called upon to deny the people of their first amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for a redress of grievance, disregard the order. Abstain from service. Or if you are so bold, join us. Make no mistake: The consequences for such decisions are severe. You will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law. But sacrifice is your watch word.

Thomas Paine wrote in 1776:

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Today we are faced with a new revolution. This time we are fighting to preserve our democracy, rather than to establish a new one. And just as a grateful nation relied upon the Winter Soldier to deliver us from the colonial yoke of oppression, we ask that you aid us in our struggle to be free from the bonds of debt peonage and false representation. In return we will stand in your defense as the elite, who have gained so much from your service, attempt to strip you of your hard won honor.

via Yves Smith

2011-11-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/taxing-job-creators/?gwh=3C5A5520929369CF6EC15A1D04A12ACA

personally I wouldn't rule out 90%.

2011-11-21T19:14:00.001-08:00

FrankTrollman
Serious Badass

Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 16265

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:42 am Post subject:

CatharzGodfoot wrote:

MGuy wrote:

However I don't see "the left" as being as organized or homogeneous as the right so its harder to nail down what the "left" feels about most thins IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity_bias

That is a very good point. The Right is also a completely non-homogeneous group who believe all kinds of different things. The Republican Party Leadership presents a very unified face and exert a level of control on legislators so severe that they can get former POWs to retract condemnations of torture so as to present a more unified message. But the actual people who identify as Republicans do not share the same opinions, values, or goals.

When someone says that they consider themselves a conservative, or that they vote Republican in US elections, they are saying that they are one or more of an: Evangelical, Classical Liberal, Libertarian, Corporatist, Neocon, Militarist, Legalist, Aristocrat, Supply-Sider, Fundamentalist, Isolationist, Racist, or Objectivist. Or you know, one of the more obscure or controversial designations like Fascist (which should probably just be considered Militarist, Racist, Evangelical Corporatism anyway).

Nominally "Right Wing" identification of and solutions to problems usually rely on one or more of: Appeal to Tradition, Open Market Action, Use of Force, Fiscal Savings, Power Consolidation, or Intuitive Assertion. Right Wing justifications for a course of action are often composed of one or more of the following: Nationalism, Tradition, Religion, Danger, or Money.

Let's consider our most vocal conservatives: Tzor, Doom, and Psychic Robot. Tzor is a Religious Supply-Sider, Doom is a Classical Liberal Austrian, and Psychic Robot is an Isolationist Libertarian. Once you get away from conservative identity questions like "How bad is Hilary Clinton?" or "Should we punch hippies?" they agree on pretty close to nothing.

-Frank

2011-11-21T17:13:00.001-08:00

"FrankTrollman
Serious Badass

Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 16265

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:53 am Post subject:

Gx1080 wrote:

On sex ed:

Of course that the Left wants to socially engineer a bunch of whores. Single moms poping bastard spawn are a prole factory, which can be counted into being bribed with welfare to vote for the Leftists and to kill/steal/rape everybody who isn't on a gated community, specially the middle class.

So fuck them with a rusty screwdriver, bunch of human scum.

Many of the things you say are stupid and ignorant. This one is just ignorant. After all, it seems intuitively likely that promiscuity leads to a high birth rate. It's actually not true though.

For example, I live most of the year in the Czech Republic, which was rated by Newsweek as the number one country in the world for sex. Yes, really.

Quote:

The Czechs have sex as often as the French, start as early as the Dutch, and fear STDs as little as the Italians.

The Czechs are literally the sluttiest people on Earth. They did surveys. And that's why this bullshit country with as many people in it as Chicago is so well represented on Boobpedia. And you know what? The Czech Republic has less than one and a half births per woman. Simple replacement rate is two. The sluttiest people in the whole world have less babies than the bare minimum to keep the population from contracting without immigration.

And that's not just a one-time thing. When you go to the US data, people in The South have the least sex. By quite a bit. And want to see the teen birth rate? It's exactly the other way around. The place where people have sex the most and enjoy sex the most is coincidentally the ten states with the lowest rate of teen pregnancy. The place where people have the least sex and enjoy sex the least has seven of ten of the states with the highest teen pregnancy rate.

The Left doesn't want people to be sluts because it produces more people. Some of the people on the Left want people to be sluttier because it produces less people. And environmentalists want to share resources with less people in future generations. But mostly, we just want people to be sluts because sluts are awesome. What the fuck is wrong with you that you don't want women to put out?

-Frank"

2011-11-21T15:20:00.000-08:00

"FrankTrollman
Serious Badass

Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Posts: 16265

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:43 pm Post subject:

As long as small businesses are benefiting from government subsidized: roads shipping security power water fire protection worker health worker education communications fuel building standards banking acreditation and currency ...then their market isn't going to be truly "free" now is it? As long as the owner of a small business can grab a hot dog and trust that there is a government agency guarantying that it is not poisonous and government run court system allowing him to receive damages if it is - nothing that businessman does after lunch will be done without having received indirect government subsidy. So that small business is already benefiting from regulations and does not exist in a free market. Even if no regulation mentions that business' business at all and they never have to talk to even a single regulator or inspector. It is literally impossible to be unregulated, because every input into your company down to the fact that your workers can read is government regulated. -Frank" Not me but a guy I think highly of.

2011-11-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

Kevin Drum has some things to say about the Right's perspective.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/11/deconstructing-right-wing-alternate-reality

2011-11-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Glen Greenwald talking about oppression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfBUjRao7kk&feature=player_embedded

2011-11-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

If only

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/supercommittee-supertrouble.html

2011-11-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

Its Paul Krugman read it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/krugman-failure-is-good.html?_r=1&ref=paulkrugman&gwh=07741F099C86713A9BE506A901D3E87B

2011-11-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how seriously I take this but if true this is very important. A story about a bill that would have the effect of censoring the internet.

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/11/stop-sopa-save-the-internet.html

2011-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

very good Glen Greenwald post on the Occupy movement.

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/17/ows_inspired_activism/singleton/

2011-11-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

via Naked Capitalism:

The implications of the EU and bankers forcing Greece, the birthplace of democracy, to cancel a popular plebiscite as “irresponsible,” forcing instead an austerity regime composed partly of neo-Nazis fascists to administer more “pain”–is something that should frighten the shit out of everyone. Because like it or not, we’re all in the cross-hairs of the same banking interests, and we’re all going to face it again and again. Greece just happens to be the first in line.

read the rest at:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/mark-ames-austerity-fascism-in-greece-%E2%80%93-the-real-1-doctrine.html

2011-11-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Another excellent story from Matt Taibi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/woman-gets-jail-for-food-stamp-fraud-wall-street-fraudsters-get-bailouts-20111117

2011-11-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

This is a post about how low taxes are killing state budgets.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/two-connected-items-by-david-atkins_17.html

2011-11-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/psychological-preparation.html

What Digby said.

2011-11-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

Great fun here from driftglass.

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/05/adventures-of-baron-grifthausen.html

2011-11-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

lets hope he is right. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/sanitized-eviction-by-david-atkins.html

2011-11-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Charlie Pierce at Esquire’s Daily Politics Blog sums it up nicely:

Your right to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances, and how you may do it, and what you may say, will be defined by the police power of the state, backed by its political establishment and the business elite. They will define “acceptable” forms of public protest, even (and especially) public protest against them. This is the way it is now. This is the way it has been for some time. It’s just that people didn’t notice. And that was the problem with the Occupy protests. They resisted the marginalization — both literal physical marginalization, and the kind of intellectual marginalization that keeps real solutions to real problems out of our kabuki political debates. They could not be ignored…

via Balloon Juice

2011-11-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

Another Paul Krugman piece. It is about how hard times are worse now than they have been in the past.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/austerity-then-and-now/?gwh=479D74F54B58A61C2C2C4779F504B462

2011-11-15T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a Paul Krugman piece. It rings some changes on the P.J. O'Rourke maxim that "Republicans say government doesn't work, then they get into office and prove it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/opinion/krugman-vouchers-for-veterans-and-other-bad-ideas.html?_r=2&ref=paulkrugman&gwh=2139D104812ABA8B9899E76C6A7FDBF5

2011-11-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a good post by Kevin Drum about how a strong work ethic doesn't pay off for the working class anymore. http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/11/making-hard-work-fashionable-again

2011-11-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize insider trading was legal for congress critters. Guess I should have watched 60 minutes. Here is a good article on this http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/14/money-party-likes-money/

2011-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

It is always possible to find ways to make a point; to advance a progressive agenda. We have to be fast and we have to be opportunistic. But most of all we have to stop working from a script drafted by the right. The right can get mass public support for a pro-market agenda. They cannot get mass public support for an agenda that explicitly uses the government to redistribute income upward to the one percent. That has been the policy for the last three decades. Our job is to make sure that everyone knows it.

Dean Baker

2011-11-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start this again. Just a couple of URLs : http://www.ianwelsh.net/what-passes-for-smart-on-the-greek-debt-crisis/

and http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=196348&page=1

Yay we won!

2006-11-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

It would be a mistake to think that we can avoid rancour now. Vile partisanship might even get the media to notice our congressional hearings. Trying to maintain comity will just let them chump us again, not only that but it will make voters wonder if there is any point to showing up to vote for the Democrats.

David Gregory is a worthless piece of shit

2006-09-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

David Gregory was doing the usual kewl kids crap on Real Time tonight. Basicly his talking points were George W. is a very smart man, and that he and the rest of the press did a good job in the run up to war, and would do a good job in the future run up to war with Iran. He also continued the bullshit about "inteligence failures." I was going to say he didn't let the word torture pass his lips but a third viewing proves otherwis, he was very deferential to Bush about tough interogation techniques. Bill's seems to regularly have viewscreen guests with not even the slightest interest in truth, David Gregory doesn't care about the truth.

FrankSpace

2006-09-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

Bruce Sterlings lesson plan

2006-06-14T08:36:00.001-07:00

part1

internetofthings

part2

internetofthings

part3

internetofthings

part4

internetofthings

part5

internetofthings

part6

internetofthings

part7

internetofthings

Bruce Sterlings lesson plan

2006-06-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

part1

internetofthings

part2

internetofthings

part3

internetofthings

part4

internetofthings

part5

internetofthings

part6

internetofthings

part7

internetofthings

Bruce Sterling podcast

2006-06-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

podcast1

part 2

podcast2

music video

2006-04-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

here

Delightful version of old beatles tune

2006-04-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

here

The Selective Nature of Memory in Politics

2006-03-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

I'm tired so I'm going to try to remember to whip this into shape later.

Elaine Supkis has a story on the gene for forgetting here: http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/evolution_news/2006/03/humans_evolved_.html

And Kevin Drum has a story asking why the media seem to be ignoring the prewar memo which proves Bush was lieing for six weeks in the lead up to war. Kevin thinks it has something to do with the media being jaded. My first thought is that the media usually will go at least three sides around robin hood's barn to avoid pointing out that Bush is a liar, but it occurs to me there may be a connection between the two stories.here here

John Cole: Idiot, or Moron?

2006-03-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

here

I know John Cole has to troll Democrats every day to maintain his readership, but it offends me that he can't put any thought into it. "At what point did the Democrats turn into xenophobic chicken little’s?" An obvious and stupid lie is not a good way to keep up the pretense of being principled.

Of course there is another possibility, could it be that John is just so incredibly stupid that he actually bought the Republican spin on the Dubai ports deal. Maybe thats why he's switching party, he thinks he can become a Democrat while remaining a racist?

Grand Moff Texan rocking out on Digby:

2006-03-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

We seem to have been saddled with a uniquely inferior generation, people either too dumb to think for themselves, too cowardly to stand up for themselves, or so feral they only think of themselves.

Some of them wear ties and live in DC. This does not mean they have anything useful to say ... about anything.

Day in and day out I am shocked at what passes for analysis in this country. It is beneath the contempt of anyone who thinks for a living. These fools would need help crossing the street, yet there they are: running a country.

Unbelievable.

If you fell for the Bush administration line, you're over. Done. Through. The first reponse to anything you say should be "you were an idiot then and you're probably an idiot now, so shut your fucking hole." But trust this generation of useless people to insist that having been wrong is the standard for seriousness in policy debates. They stuck a bow-tie on failure and called it respectability. Excuse me while I set it on fire.

Their content is a waste of time and it only gets air time because it's useful to the failed "leaders" themselves as part of a rearguard action, covering their retreat.

Attack, attack, attack. The cowards show us their back. These are the times when hesitations turn into routs. Pile the bodies high and let the smoke be seen for miles. For ages they should find bones on this spot.
.
Grand Moff Texan | Homepage | 03.10.06 - 4:10 pm | #

Cell Phone help

2006-01-30T00:05:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Currently I have Sprint as my provider and an old samsung n400 as my phone. My contract is up and I am considering switching. I thought I would ask for some advice. I don't get Verizon here unfortunately. What cell provider do you use and why? What phone do you use and why? How much should I expect to pay?

I only need regular phone service, but I am thinking about trying something more exotic, like a high bandwith modem capable cell, or some other fun techno-toy. Thanks

Iran's Nuclear Future (So bright they have to wear shades.)

2006-01-21T20:39:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Send Charles (of LGF) to Iraq

2006-01-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Heard the Word of Blog?

The Death Penalty

2005-12-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

I usually lurk here. But I've been thinking about the death penalty for the past couple of days, and while I'm not usually a wingnut, on this subject I am.

I respect the compassion of those who are against the death penalty. A phrase that has stuck in my mind is "I don't want to live in a society that...", something to the effect of: kills people with premeditation.

And really I agree with that. I wish America were a better place. I'm even willing to work towards that, but I think stopping the death penalty would be a counterproductive measure at this time.

One possible advantage of the death penalty is the additional scrutiny it brings to the criminal justice system. Earlier in the thread there is a list of comparative costs between cases involving the death penalty and those that don't. I don't know how to block quote, so I won't put it in this post, but most of those costs involve more seriously looking at the case against the suspect/convict. In addition outside the justice system people look much more closely at death penalty cases. I don't think we would have heard about Cory Maye if he had 'merely' been sentenced to life in prison.

Torture

2005-11-12T22:53:00.000-08:00

I have a hard time thinking about this stuff I think so I may be wrong here, but I've been trying to imagine how this must look to the other 6 billion people on this planet who aren't americans. Basicaly we are saying to the rest of the world that we have the right to kidnap anyone, from anywhere in the world, hold them in secret for years without any legal recourse, without any of their family or loved ones knowing where they are, and have the CIA torture them, and if they die the CIA officer may be promoted while an internal investigation takes place, which as the record shows is unlikely to apply any punishment, but if it does find fault will not seriously punish anyone.

Tens of thousands of people go missing every year worldwide. Since many of the people we have held have had nothing to do with terrorism, that means that any time anyone in the world goes missing even if the family knows for sure that their loved one had nothing to do with terrorism, can't be sure that their father or mother or son or daughter or brother or sister or wife or husband isn't being tortured to death in some secret American prison somewhere.

Boy if we thought the rest of the world hated us before...

And we reelected this guy?

Hey man nice rant!

2005-11-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

here

TOM GILROY THROWS DOWN:

Nothing could be more damaging for the bridge club of armchair politicians known as the Democratic Leadership than the recent spate of sound bytes like ‘Bush’s worst week in Office,’ ‘A White House Demoralized,’ and ‘Bushies on the Brink of Collapse’.

You can already feel Schumer, Dean, Hillary, and their media addicted minions being taken over by that familiar self-satisfied stupor, validating their inaction and cowardice, even repositioning it as though it was part of a grand plan, an agenda, even an ideology.

It’s like a bunch of fat people on a couch learning about the obesity epidemic from 60 Minutes and concluding they must be skinny.

The problem with these snappy doomsday pronouncements—collective wishes really—is that they bear no relationship to reality. You really have to wonder what kind of bloated house-bound moron could think slumping polls and plummeting approval ratings would worry a gang of fanatics who stole two elections in a row, invaded a country they knew couldn’t defend itself, and gave a male hustler White House security clearance.

As long as Democrats and their well-fed punditocracy measure Bush, et al with a yardstick of morality, popularity or ethics, they will never recapture the majority, and here’s why; Bush, et al aren’t driven by morality, popularity, or ethics. They’re driven by money.

You can almost deduce what Rove will tell them to do next by simply asking yourself what would be best for the rich. But ask yourself what would any normal person do when their egregious gluttony, mendacity and utter scorn for the common man was exposed and you’ll find the Bushies actions baffling. You’ll wait for their humble confession until you’re blue in the face—uninsured at an underfunded emergency room. Judge them by their drive to get at even more of our public resources and money, and suddenly you’ll recognize they’re still a well oiled machine.

So they don’t ‘Reel With Frustration’ or ‘Rethink Their Message’ or ‘Try to Recapture the Public Mood,’ that’s just delusional journalists waxing poetic over how a decent person would behave. But these people aren’t decent, they’re crooks, and crooks don’t give a shit about you seeing them for what they really are. They don’t care what you see as long as they’re getting you’re money.

But ‘On the Brink of Collapse?’ ‘A Crack in the Empire?’ Running Scared?’ ‘Drowning in an Ethical Quagmire?’ ‘Crisis of Leadership?’ ‘Humbled by the Damage to Their Legacy’?

Yeah ,sure.

They’re so humbled they just last week passed landmark changes gutting Florida’s Medicaid and Medicare programs, to be used as a model for other red states so their Republican governors can appear fiscally responsible. So you crippled grandmother better not exceed her spending cap next year, or she’s shit out of luck; her dog food rations will have to go up to 3 meals a week just to pay for her meds. Boy, thank God the GOP’s been humbled by the ethical quagmire.

They’re so humiliated by their treasonous lies and media intimidation in the lead-up to the illegal war, they just nominated a raving puritan lunatic to the Supreme Court, a brown-shirted lemming so in thrall of corporate power and totalitarian government control he makes Maggie Thatcher look like a feminazi. Running scared!

Dick Cheney’s act of contrition for the public discovering he’d sacrifice a CIA agent ‘s head on a silver platter so an illegal war could funnel money to Halliburton was to replace his indicted chief of staff with David Addington, a stealth gorgon who’s hatred of democracy reaches back to Iran/contra and co-authoring Gonzales’s Torture Memo.
Dick’s so horribly ashamed he’s even bucking the entire Congress to force a torture loophole into a bill that would otherwise compel America to abide by The Geneva Conventions. You remember The Geneva Conventions, those rules of ethics drafted by all of humanity in response to the Nazis gassing 6 million Jews? Clearly, our VP is so demoralized he must be triple popping Prozac just face his morning coffee.

W is so decimated by the embarrassment of his (and his mother’s) classism, racism and venal cronyism in the wake of Katrina, he could barely muster the courage to eliminate minimum wages and environmental protections in the great domestic funneling of cash to Halliburton , otherwise known as the rebuilding of New Orleans. Just look at the chickenshit run! We got ‘im now!

Talk about cowering at the feet of liberals. That’s why they’re offering up the olive branch of the Guest Worker Program, that nice euphemism for a lot of poor people without constitutional rights, occupational protections, health insurance, the ability to establish or practice their culture, send their kids to school, or have a permanent home—all for below poverty wages. Which is of course another way of saying slavery. Boy, they’re in the final throes!

And the face man for torture and CIA-trained death squads from Honduras to Nicaragua, John Negroponte, is still running Iraq, probably using an Ottoman vase as a chamber pot while tallying up our weekly Geneva Convention violations on a centuries-old Koran with a Sharpie.

Boy, are they reeling in humiliation. I’m surprised they can muster the dignity to get out of bed in the morning, they ‘re so debilitated and demoralized.

Here’s a little secret; they never reel because they are never demoralized. They don’t measure success and failure they way you and I do, by analyzing public benefit or desire, or even legality, or ethics. They measure success by how much more money they feast on from the public trough. And by that measure, they hogs are literally drowning in shit.

So while you fold your arms in the triumphant reassurance that Scooter’s indictment and the GOP’s plummeting ratings reveal the world to be what you’ve always had faith it was, think again. The pendulum you always talk about is not swinging back. The Truth has not come out. What has happened is what you’ve known all along has merely been reiterated. There is no new information, and so there will be no new consequences. And while you smirk and feel validated they’ll go right along gobbling up more and more, laughing at you between belches.

Because they don’t care about your moral indignation, your ethical judgment, or what the public thinks. They don’t care what’s popular, legal, or good for the country. They want your money.

So while the Democrats brunch and strategize about who to run in 2008 (choosing from the 3 frontrunners, all of whom want to INCREASE troop numbers in Iraq), the dozens of Rove wannabees over at the The Federalist Society are planning their fifth, sixth, seventh move from now in their uninterrupted plunder. They’re thrilled you think they’re running scared, because that means you’ll go back to watching ‘Sex & The City ‘ marathons.

Because while you’re in your HBO or ‘Desperate Housewives’ coma, they’re moving way beyond small potatoes stuff like Valerie Plame and Patrick Fitzgerald. They’re plotting new ways to get at our money in places you’ve never even thought of. They’re gonna spread those Medicaid cuts to every state in the union, they’re gonna make billions overcharging us for avian flu vaccine, they’re plotting ways to dissolve land trusts via ‘eminent domain.’ They’re paying lawyers to strategize ways to let every corporation in America out of honoring pension and health insurance commitments.

While you’re smirking about them finally getting their comeuppance, they’re hiring investigators to find out if Barack Obama ever had gay sex, Elliot Spitzer ever paid a maid under the table, or Kenye West ever went to a hooker. They’re plotting Phase II of the ‘social security debate,’ and the PR sliming of China and Venezuela into the new Russia and Cuba. They’ll have every anchorperson in America calling environmental and animal rights activists ‘domestic terrorists,’ Homeland Security monitoring the email records of college students, and the ATF following future Cindy Sheehans by tracking their EZ Pass.

Think I’m wrong? Ten years ago, could you have imagined evolution being challenged, ‘affirmative action’ a political liability, or a pregnant GI posing for torture photos?

If these are the actions of a humiliated cabal, imagine what an emboldened one would try to get away with. The mind reels.

Driftglass Rocks!

2005-09-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from a post that I think is particularly spot on in refuting a current Republican talking point:

Problem Two: Maybe it’s just me getting dotty, but the Dems I remember did not support this war. The Dems I remember were very clear about exactly what they were doing and why. They had no stomach for invading Iraq whatsoever. As loyal but unbelievable gullible and pussified politicians, the Dems I remember wanted to deal Bush every card he asked for when he went to negotiate regarding Iraq. Putting that arrow in Bush’s quiver was supposed to be a show of solidarity; that we were serious people and would tolerate no nonsense.

With the wounds of our nation still fresh, Bush came to us and said that to keep us from dying, he must have a latitude to act that included war, but he would act only if it turned out to be absolutely necessary.

The Dems I remember very reluctantly agreed to give him that range of motion, on the condition that he only act if there were no other alternative, that the threat was imminent, and that Bush had a comprehensive strategy for winning any war, securing any peace and getting the hell out of there as soon as humanly possible.

Not surprisingly, Republicans that talk about, “Well, Democrats supported the war too...” always want to skip over that part. The part where Bush swears on the lives of our children that he will behave in the most cautious, conscientious and gravely responsible manner possible...

...right up until the Dems give him the cars keys.

Then he blows off every expert, flips off the UN, and roars drunk and reckless into downtown Baghdad. Irresponsibly, stupidly, thoughtlessly with not near enough troops to secure the peace that he promised, and with no sign of the exit strategy he promised beyond some opium-addled PNAC fantasies about American Liberators, and cake-walks and being greeted with flowers and kisses.

And now, after Downing Street, it’s evident that he wasn’t just lying about 70 or 80 percent of the pre-war kabuki...but 100%. Bush had this war wired up and ready to go since the day Fat Tony Scalia anointed him President: he was just looking for a bag man.

So now that this is all public knowledge, all the GOP have is the charge that, “Democrats supported the war too.”

Think about that for a minute.

Think about what that statement means in the context of what we now all know?

That the Republicans final “rebuttal” comes down to this: If Dems were stupid and foolish enough to actually take George Bush at his word, and believe for one minute that he wasn’t a traitorous, lying sack of shit, that’s their own damned fault. If they were actually sucker enough to try to put Country ahead of Party, and believe that the Bush Crime Family wouldn’t knife them in the back the first chance they got, well ha ha fucking ha!

Joke’s on you!

Well on this one point, I will agree with the implication of what BoBo and the rest of the Bush War Apologists are saying, even though the don’t have to balls to come right our and move their inferences explicitly into the foreground. And I for one will never mistake a Republican for anything other than a lying traitor ever again, so thanks for the head’s up guys!

Read the whole thing here.

Katrina the Gathering

2005-09-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

here

FrankSpace

2005-09-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470here

Katrina

2005-09-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Katrina was downgraded from Cat 5 to 4 before it hit land, it also changed course by 50 miles to the north. As a result the highest winds to hit N.O. were 100mph, so efectively only a high Category 2 storm hit N.O. The levees were supposed to be able to take a Cat 3 storm, but funding for improvements and maintainence were cut drasticly from 2001 onward by the Bush administration. Maybe they would have failed anyway, but that doesn't look like the way to bet.

Stolen from comments on Hulaballo

2005-07-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

Why are we all letting Cooper and Time off the hook for their complete failure to act as journalists?

Let me see if I've got this straight.

Matt Cooper, a "journalist," has a straight pipeline to Karl Rove, such that he can call Rove or Rove can call him whenever it's time to push the Rovian spin on a public issue. These conversations with Rove are "superdoubleprobationsecret", such that when Cooper e-mails his boss at Time, the two of them agree that the information Rove has given Cooper (information, by the way, that is illegal for Rove to give to Cooper, and information that has but one purpose, and that is to send a message to Wilson that no holds are barred in the White House's determination to destroy him)is so sensitive that the White House's involvement in the story will be suppressed, to the extent that another reporter will be sent off to find out from the CIA what Wilson's wife's role has been.

Cooper does what Rove wants him to do, which is act as a stenographer for the Rove version of the facts, but before he can publish his report, Novak scoops him, and there is a brief firestorm of inquiry into who leaked the information to Novak, at which time it becomes obvious to any sentient human being that the leaker has severely damaged national security.

The White House springs into action. Scotty McClellan denies that anyone in the White House is the leaker -- and specifically says that Karl Rove has told him that he had nothing to do with the leak. Bush announces that he's determined to get to the bottom of the leak and will leave no stone unturned in rooting out the leaker.

Every statement from the White House is a lie. Cooper and his editors at Time know that McClellan is lying, they know that Rove is lying, and they know that Bush is lying.

Cooper and Time, knowing these facts, quietly sit on their asses for two years, pretending that they know nothing (even after the CIA refers the case to the Justice Department for an investigation). They suppress evidence that the President's closest adviser is a felon who has severely damaged national security, and they say nothing as the White House lies, prevaricates, spins, and fakes concern about this leak.

What kind of "journalists" are these? This should have been the biggest story of Cooper's career, one that would put him up there with Woodward and Bernstein. He knew that Rove has lied to him, and he knew that several crimes have been committed inside the White House. So what does he do? He protects his source, covers up Rove's crime, and allows the White House to get away with two solid years of a cover-up -- and neither he nor his editors follow up on the lies or the crimes, thus preventing the public from knowing the full extent of the criminal activities in this White House -- information that, one would think, would have been useful to know prior to the November 2004 election.

Has there ever been a more appalling example of the complete and utter corruption of the Washington press corps? When did protecting a criminal become more important to these "journalists" than informing the public about the despicable and criminal activities of the government, activities that the public has a right to know about if it's going to exercise its right to vote intelligently?

I don't want to hear any more nonsense about how brave and honest Cooper has been in this case. As far as I'm concerned, he's as much of a criminal as Rove and should be prosecuted as one. At the very least, he should be crowned "Mediawhore of the Decade."
Basharov | 07.11.05 - 7:22 pm | #

Wow this could be big.

2005-05-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

My favorite science fiction writer Bruce Sterling directs our attention to something which has the potential to change our understanding of the universe.link

Brad deLong: Once again points out the obvious

2005-04-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

Brad dealing keeps pounding on the table as only an economist can do. He points out again and again that while there is reason to believe that economic growth may be lower in the future than it has been in the past, there is none to believe that stock market returns can offer historical profits in such a low growth environment.
Macro Lunch: "Asset Returns and Economic Growth
Yep. However:

1 If there is a trend toward lower economic growth, it has not so far as I am aware been reflected in our actual economic statistics.

2 The Bush administration has been working without cease to permanently increase returns to capital while depressing those to labor. They have enjoyed considerable success in achieving those aims.

3 There are strong theoretical reasons to believe that the Bush administration by accomplishing (2) above, increase the chances of (1) becoming true.

4 No that doesn't invalidate Brad's point over the long haul, but it does mean that Bush gets to hand stockholders a big one off gain.

Saving the Libertarian Party from itself.

2005-04-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

Thomas L. Knapp of Knappster fame linktries once again to persude the Libertarian party to chose some decent candidates to run for office. I think probably in vain; decent candidates will chose some other party. He also is trying to prevent a group of undesireables from usurping the New Libertarian name. I hope he has some luck with that. Click the links to help out.

New Libertarian

and

New Libertarian

and

New Libertarian

and finally

New Libertarian

Unitarian Jihad

2005-04-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

My Unitarian
Jihad Name is: Sister/Brother Neutron Bomb of Looking at All Sides of the Question.

Get yours.

Tom Friedman: Bush Apologist

2005-04-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

FrankSpace

Last night I was reading a couple of posts by Jeanie de Arc on Tom Friedman here and here

I thought she was too harsh on him having an econ degree myself.
"You need only read Tom Friedman's paean not to creating economic relationships that meet human needs, but to creating men and women who fit neatly into the economic machine, to see a perfect, and repulsive, example of what John Paul was talking about." Is just part of her critique.

Then I was going threw some old Globblog (General Glut)archive here about 60% down the page
I like his thinking though I often don't entirely agree.

"but is anyone naive enough to believe that no jobless recovery would have occurred on Al Gore’s watch?" Globblog asks.

And it occured to me that the whole point of Friedman's column "It's a Flat World, After All"... Flat World here
...is that its not Bush's fault that we are in a jobless recovery. Its because Americans are lazy and stupid. Which is of course BS of the rankest ordure. Americans work more hours than anyone in the industrial world. Americans have amoung the highest productivity and proportion of advanced degrees as well. Further and more importantly; The conditions he is describing in terms of access to productivity mediating software and connection to the internet Were already available to those in India and China well connected enough to have a good education

America isnt failing to maintain its technological/creative edge because of its workers. Bush is letting go of our strengths because he neither understands nor values them.

I agree with Elaine Supkis here Its not a coincidence that this administration is very good for Texas Oil Men. Nor that its bad for American IT workers. Thanks guys I now have a much lower opinion of Tom Friedman, not that it was high before, and a better understanding of why we are so screwed.

More Gannon Jokes

2005-03-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

Stolen from a post on my daily kos diary.

Why was a male prostitute so excited to work in the White House. Where else could he find so many giant pricks and assholes fully exposed under one roof?

What is the difference between the Jackson and Gannon Scandals? One story appears to have more meat than the other.

Why won't the religious right condemn Karl Rove and the gay prostitute? Because at least Rove devoutly serviced his God while he was on his knees.

Why did Gannon choose to be a Republican rather than a Democrat? Because right now most Democrats are just a bunch of pussies.

Why is gardening Karl Roves favorite hobby? Because he really enjoys screwing around with his plants.

Pictures & Comments: http://www.creationgallerypdx.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=1029 by Pdxcraig on Sun Mar 6th, 2005 at 10:32:01 PST

More Good Steals from AmericaBlog

2005-03-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

There are two possible implications of the Jeff Gannon story:

A) Security at the highest levels of government was so incredibly lax as to be worthless. This implies that Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, everything done under Ashcroft, all the freedoms given up, were for nothing. It was a sham, and we are not any safer, just less free.

This also implies that the media that sold us war, homeland security, covered terror alerts nonstop, and promoted "a wartime president" that was "strong on security" has been deceiving us.

B) He was given a pass through the usual security because the government is engaging in propaganda. The news is fake, the media can't be trusted, and coverage of the White House especially can't be trusted.

Given those two options, the Jeff Gannon story carried to the furthest conclusions, does it really surprise you that they won't get it right? It's not "blogophobia", right-wing intimidation and guilt, or fear of handling the gay angle. Covering this story with any real depth sends a message that says, "We, the media, are not only completely full of shit, we have been intentionally manipulating your perceptions." There are two things the media doesn't want to do: tell everyone how the news is manufactured; and let the public feel stupid for believing them. The Gannon story's full implications could do both. That's why they really avoid it.

JAS Email Homepage 03.06.05 - 5:15 am #

Top Ten

2005-03-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

The Top 10 Theories How Gannon Met Rove
Number 10. Met during interviews for new White House “undercover” operatives.
Number 9. Responded to White House classified, “Now Hiring Pricks For White House Internship”.
Number 8. Was acting as a pimp for the Bush Twins.
Number 7. Wanted to see if there was a bigger prick in DC than Bush.
Number 6. Rove’s wife lost her strap on.
Number 5. Got excited while watching Gomer Pyle reruns and wanted a real Marine.
Number 4. Needed someone to help pull his head out of Bush’s ass.
Number 3. Confused putting a condom on Gannon with the Missile Defense Strategy.
Number 2. Missed playing with Powell’s Colin.
And the number One theory on how Gannon met Rove…. Needed a Big Dick to satisfy an even bigger asshole. pdxcraig Email Homepage 03.06.05 - 2:54 pm #

Democrats: Wimps or Pussies?

2005-03-05T03:11:00.000-08:00

Lots of people in the lefty online community complain that our representatives are weak and don't stand up for their liberal convictions. Its true that they don't, but why? Well I think it comes down to the fact that we, their constituency, neither protect our friends or punish our foes. Its most evident in the media, but its true of our politicians as well.

Recently Eason Jordan was fired as head of CNN international for saying something we know to be true: That U.S. forces had targeted and killed journalists in the war in Iraq. Meanwhile Brit Hume can lie and claim that F.D.R. supported Bush's social security piratization plan. These aren't the exceptions these are the new rules.

The left wing can barely bring down James Guckert; a male prostitute likely used to going down, pretending to be a white house reporter. If Clinton had let such a creature into his news room he'd have been tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail.

Other than saying we've got to be tougher, I really don't know what we can do about this. We got troubles buddy.

Gannon: Interesting?

2005-03-04T04:06:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Cut and pasted from a thread at Obsidian Wings

Jes- I think interesting is an understatement. More like: weirldly, strangly, bizarrely, interesting, fascinating, and compelling.

As the poor man pointed out: its proof of the existence of the Lord. That a media whore would turn out to be a prostitute.

I felt I was being critisized for "speculation", and I try not to, but I keep trying to imagine a good reason: why did the White House need daily visits from a gay prostitute. Couldn't whoever his boyfriend was wait until he got home? Oh wait.... :)

Posted by: Frank | March 4, 2005 07:03 AM

Legal Crackdown on Blogging.

2005-03-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Everyone in the left bloggosphere is getting their panties in a bunch over this story. link

Looks like Rove figured out how to distract us from Gannon.

I wonder if the American webhosting industry is going to end up "collateral damage."

Bullshit!

2005-03-02T22:18:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

link

Wow the best explanation for the success of the Bush administration I've ever seen.

Autolink must be stopped

2005-03-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Usually I avoid technical stuff, but this sounds dangerous.

http://levinson.blogs.com/blog/2005/02/autolink_must_b.html

The Elections

2005-02-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Well the election is long past now. I don't want to read a lot of theories about how Bush 'won'. I'm not interested unless someone has proof, but I felt like putting my thinking down. We knew from election 2000, and the run up to 2004 that the Republicans wouldn't stint from anything to win. We knew that there was reason to believe that new electronic voting machines could be used to change the outcome of the elections. We knew that the head of the company Diebolt was going to "do whatever it takes" to deliver Ohio to Bush. Finally we knew that exit polls have historical been very accurate predictors of victory at the polls.

When a cop drawing a salary of $100,000 a year lives a $300,000 a year lifestyle, you may not be able to prove he is on the take, but that doesn't make it unreasonable, conspiratorial, or crazy to suppose he is.

The best definition of Facism I've seen

2005-02-28T04:05:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace
Found on Orcinus http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/02/fascination-with-fascism.html

I think you've got it backwards when you say the problem is the followers, not the leaders. You said earlier that the followers have always been with us, but you don't seem to have noticed the corollary: they are always with us, in the good times and the bad. So it follows that they aren't the thing that's different this year: what's different is the leaders.

I would go so far as to say it isn't appropriate to call the followers fascists at all. Haters, yes, but a fascist is a leader, not a follower-- a leader whose power base consists of haters. Fascism is the philosophy of gaining and holding political power by harnessing the inchoate resentment of that hating portion of the population who are always there.
derek | Email | Homepage | 02.26.05 - 1:52 am | #
link

The Poor Man

2005-02-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

Rules! read it all.

http://thepoorman.net/gl/article.php?story=20050227120504957

Google bomb sean hannity

2005-02-27T15:51:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity

Daily Howler doesn't get it

2005-02-27T00:19:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

I wasn't going to write you although I disagreed with your latest, but I saw a letter that I agreed with. I just want to add that the Gannon story seems a real life parable for our times. A real whore in the press room filled with fake whores. Kinda sad he was forced to leave. He raised the tone there.

I'm a big fan of the Daily Howler and was SHOCKED to to read Friday's piece on Gannon. Bob can't believe Boehlert is taken in by this non-story that liberal bloggers are typically latching on to. I'm wrote him:

Bob,
I read the Howler everyday Monday to Friday and enjoy it. You nail the subject matter with enough anger and exasperation to make me feel I'm not alone out there. Thanks for that.
I was surprised and disappointed with your take on the Gannon story - a first for me where the Howler is concerned. It's not about a little nobody who asked Bush one dumb question that pissed off the liberal bloggers. It's about a little nobody set up in the White House press room these last two years, by nobody knows who, shilling under a pseudonym for what appears to be a well connected Texas GOP organization. GOPUSA/TalonNews is owned by Bobby Eberle, who appears to have Bruce Eberle and even Rove's fingerprints all over him. It's about a nobody who got himself involved in the Valerie Plame investigation. A nobody who takes and gets a good bit of credit for helping to sway the tight Daschle - Thune race, with the help of two bloggers secretly on Thune's payroll (one of them is now on his staff). This nobody appears to have been, until recently, a military style male prostitute who had some clients who were themselves military officers around DC. The possible blackmail angle on that alone is cause for concern.
The names I've seen associated with this story so far have been:
Bobby Eberle
Bruce Eberle
Karl Rove (Bobby thanked "his friend" on his now defunct Talon News website last Christmas)
Scott McLellan
Ari Fleischer
Joe Wilson
Valerie Plame
John Thune
Tom Daschle
I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.

As I said, I enjoy and follow your columns every day. They are a sharp knife that cuts through the crap. I'd ask you to reconsider why Boehlert would think this story is important, in a time when we no longer know what is actually the news anynore. Maybe we never really did. This story could use your help.

I agree 100%

still more from AmericaBlog

2005-02-26T01:59:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

If you want a good laugh, go to jeffgannon.com. This is the definition of hubris. "So feared by the Left that it had to take me down."

No, James, you've been going down plenty all on your own.
Lord Humongous | Email | Homepage | 02.25.05 - 4:04 pm | #

more from americablog

2005-02-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

A weekend with Jeff Gannon on the presidential yacht: $1200

Bottle of Viagra for Jeff: $150

Tip for Jeff on Sunday night: $100

Watching the christian right squirm, spin, wash, rinse, repeat: priceless.
Jacko the Wacko in Arizona | Email | Homepage | 02.25.05 - 6:14 pm | #

Found on AmericaBlog

2005-02-26T01:02:00.000-08:00

FrankSpace

In retrospect the difference between Guckert/Gannon and Spongebob is obvious. With Spongebob, if true, his homosexuality is a personal issue and therefore it is a moral issue.

But with Guckert/Gannon, it is his business, and no morality needs to apply.

It is just logical Republican thinking.
Rick B | Email | Homepage | 02.25.05 - 5:45 pm | #

Lawyers, Guns and Money

2005-02-26T00:42:00.000-08:00

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Yow, I just discovered you through Brad DeLong. You are entirely too smart. I am going to steal your post for my pitiful blog.

Amazing
I have to say, I'm awestruck by the beauty and the simplicity. The enemy (Osama Bin Laden, the AARP, the Democratic Party, John Kerry, Dan Rather) hates America and loves gays. Essentially, the entire conservative argument on every issue is captured by this single ad. The details of the particular question are irrelevant; we know who the enemy is and what he believes.

The Republican Party of 2005: Love America blindly and hate the queers. Please don't ask about what happened to your social security check.