Opera Glasses and Popcorn
Florida palmettos… as if it matters. Looks like the “front runners” are gonna lay waste to the South, thru FL (not in contest!, they swear!) then thru the 22 state blow out. Sherman’s March to the sea ain’t got nothin’ on this pair!
oh yum.
********************************
An Opera Glasses and Popcorn view of Politics and the Assembled Multitude...
Marisacat -
- Real independent observations on current events with a particular fondness for the follies of the Big Box Blahgers.
Deflates bloated egos like a champion fencer in a balloon warehouse.
- Alan Smithee
Marisacat -
"...polish on a mud wallow"
- Meteor Blades [May 24 at Mcat]
Marisacat -
"... doyenne of donkle deconstruction"
- Who is IOZ [January 2 2007]
Marisacat -
"... hardened professionals and their primary strength lies in their being completely unconflicted."
"... the primary difference is that on the level of criticizing other blogs and bloggers, they can actually do some damage."
"... Not what I look for in a liberal blog product."
- peeder - MLW, Daily Rant [3.24.07]
Democracy NOW! / Amy Goodman Electronic Intifada / General Content Press TV / Middle East News Press TV McClatchy Headlines The Real News Reuters / Politics
|
on one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.
If you click on La Louche the picture or the words, it leads to the Amazon PayPage, a way to ... oh let's say help with the cat can deliveries.
Thanks to all who made the very kind suggestion.
Dan Abrams made a good point about John Gibson. He’s one step from being Fred Phelps. No, actually he is Fred Phelps. The Chopin funeral march on the organ is something you’d hear when you open a Fred Phelps site.
I don’t know if I want to get into full on liberal outrage mode against Fox News along with Media Matters but Abrams is right.
And it’s worse than Imus in some ways.
I am probably late with this.. I see NYT has endorsed HIllary and McCain.
I see NYT has endorsed HIllary and McCain.
all feels so pre-ordained, don’t it?
if you can’t be “for” anything, be against “pre-ordination”
what it boils down to for me.
Only Ron Paul gets a gold star for the Iraq war answer.
This debate needs some excitement. Streaker!
Look at all of the recs this Kucinich impeachment diary has. Yet it’s already fallen off the list. What bullshit.
In honor of “High Fidelity”, which I just stumbled across on cable:
TOP FIVE REASONS I HATE THE DONKELPHANTS
1 – NAFTA etc
2 – Welfare “reform”
3 – Failure to enact a “peace dividend” after the collapse of the Soviet Union
4 – embrace of religious fundamentalism
5 – Failure to punish and expose Iran/Contra and all of the winger crimes that grow from that subversion of constitutional order.
Kos must be pissed. Minion Trapper John and the Kos Kidz got smacked a lot in that FU goodbye post to Kucinich:
Stardust and UFOs (0 / 0)
He never did go blathering about stardust and UFOs.
The UFO comment was from abook by Shirley MacLaine, a friend of Kucinich’s and discussed an incident years in the past. It was talked about more by everyone else than it was by Kucinich.
Ditto with the stardust. That was from a speech at the Praxis Peace Institute in 2002 where he was waxing “poetical” about the Eagle Nebula, spirituality, and the meaning of life. Yet it gets repeated over and over because people like Kos think it sounds kookier than, say, a story about some knocked-up girl in Israel 2000 years ago.
These kinds of things get collected intooppo web sites and regurgitated over and over. I’m sure they’ll have Obama’s “Reagan” moment and Clinton’s “LBJ trumps MLK” for years, there just won’t be as many people to argue the other side. After all, they’re not as freaky as Kucinich.
It’s hardly his fault that he’s the only candidate talking about universal health care. Nothing’s stopping anyone else from doing it, aside from the big, fat checks they get from people opposed to it. The fact that so many people are willing to toss Kucinich overboard — and even just keep him off the stage — because they’d rather support people with crappy policies who aren’t uncool is the really pathetic thing.
I think there will be a staggering loss of human life out of all proportion to the stakes involved… Sen. George McGovern, March 1965
by darrelplant on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 03:54:56 PM PST
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/24/164210/598/892/442538#c269
McCain to Huck: How exactly did you cook up those squirrels in that popcorn popper? Got a recipe?
I have a question for these asses: Considering what just happened on the border between Gaza and Egypt, what was that shit about a wall on the southern US border again?
How do they plan to pay for all of these tax cuts and what’s Bush using to pay for his so-called stimulus package?
McCain repeats his list of peeps again. “I have people!”
McCain: I was there when the very first US dollar was printed. Top that!
There’s been talk about banning handguns in Canada. I’m sure there’d be riots in the US if that was proposed.
Most boring debate ever.
thanx so much for the darrelplant bit …
Most boring debate ever
wow, you’re actually trying to WATCH it?!?!
The debate of the foutards.
Q: “Mayor Guiliani, Why you the sucky?”
McCain says he’s for keeping Israel “independent”.
I wonder what that’s code for?
Or…Rudy, wtf are you still doing here?
I wonder what that’s code for?
Armageddon?
Ronald Reagan. Drink!
Or…Rudy, wtf are you still doing here?
If Rudy answered honestly it would be:
Look. You people in the media got all hard and wet for me after 9/11 and you built up my ego to the point where I actually thought I could be president. Now I’m beginning to realize I believed my own hype and McCain and Romney and even the Squirrel Eater and Even Ron Paul (who isn’t even getting asked any questions tonight) are kicking my ass all over the country. I guess I’m just going to have to go back to New York and kick a homeless veteran or something to make myself feel better.
Show me the money, Mitt!
Romney’s getting like 99 percent of the air time.
Should I really continue to argue with Denali at PFF? Or should I just call the SPLC?
http://www.politicalfleshfeast.com/showComment.do?commentId=57828
I’m white, 100% pure German. (0.00 / 0)
My father never left the fatherland.
Dr Paul: Why do you hate old people?
The Huckabee aw shucks humor is getting old.
Romney gets more air time.
What $12 trillion that’s “parked offshore”?
29. He’s a lost cause.
What $12 trillion that’s “parked offshore”?
Romney’s yacht?
Change the retirement age to what? 85?
Romney’s yacht?
lol…in which he’ll be riding off into the sunset…
Rudy gets an immigration question.
Come on. THIS IS BORING. Let’s at least have some Castro bashing and some fireworks between Paul and McCain.
Or let’s at least ask Huckabee about the Rapture.
Or something.
The Cuba question.
Wow. They lobbed a softball on Cuba.
“Fleeing Hugo Chavez”.
Uh. Last time I checked the only immigrant fleeing Hugo Chavez was Jorge Poseda.
Pumkinhead just stepped in to bail Rudy out with a softball question on Cuban Immigration.
Mayor Jolly? lol
These guys are even pathetic as fascists. I”m thinking they’ve just thrown in the towel on this one until they can run Petreaus in 2012.
LOL at the NYT on Rudy.
Softball on the NY Times question. They should have quoted Wayne Barrett on what an incompetant fuckup Rudy was on 9/11.
Maybe Michael Moore could streak in front of the cameras with a “Stupid White Men” sign and an arrow pointing at the stage.
You tell ‘em Ron. Your party sucks!
This Republican field is so weak and Hillary seems so certain to win that it’s getting me worried.
Are they planning a terrorist attack and a coup in 2009?
Obama Spam from Michelle:
We expected that Bill Clinton would tout his record from the nineties and talk about Hillary’s role in his past success. That’s a fair approach and a challenge we are prepared to face.
What we didn’t expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we’ve seen recently. We didn’t expect misleading accusations that willfully distort Barack’s record.
Barack Obama isn’t relying on a former President of the United States to campaign for him.
49. What we didn’t expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we’ve seen recently.
Maybe Obama should have a little talk with the Huckster. How could they not have expected this?
I missed that that was from Michelle. So she’s taking Bill on now too? Even more fun but they really need to get off of this “poor me” victim crap.
The Cuba Question? Where’s Cuba?
What kind of 2nd amendment case are the Supremes considering?
It strikes me that Petreaus is a bit like this guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boulanger
Right now both the Democrats and Republicans lack legitimacy in the eyes of the American people. Only the military has fans in both parties. I don’t know if American history and tradition makes it easy for a military coup but if this were another country it would be obvious that’s what was coming.
It’s the classic historical circumstances for a military coup.
Chalmers Johnson said in interview about a year and half ago on C-Span with Brian Lamb that he assumes the mil, members of it, have discussed a coup. As they have in the past, he added – forget the exact wording.
Lamb sorta took it in, asked a couple of low key questions and kept moving. I did see Lamb play it for the wife of Robert Kagen, she is a diplomat to NATO, iirc. She nearly blew a gasket.
Last year, I posted it at the time, Gallup ran a poll about institutions, the mil was the highest approval )out of 16 polled) with the American people.
Might not take long for something to happen, but generals in charge never do all that well. Then again, the whole concept of government and citizenship is utterly fucked. WHo knows. Big holes in their concepts of how you do things outside the Mil but the us human stock is rather devalued these days, it seems to me..
But hey, whatever comes. I really have given up…
There won’t be a coup as long as military leaders are government sockpuppets/spokespuppets and the current bunch of them are definitely that. Bush as the commander-in-chief of any outfit is an obscene joke.
Chalmers Johnson said in interview about a year and half ago on C-Span with Brian Lamb that he assumes the mil, members of it, have discussed a coup.
What would make it difficult is the size of the USA. Also, both parties will essentially give the military what they want anyway and the Consitution’s been effectively repealed.
It seems to me that the historical conditions in the classic Marxist sense are perfect for a coup but the peculiarities of American culture make it unlikely.
Catnip. You can take over the Denali gig on PFF. I’ve given up arguing with him. I wonder where he gets his sheets laundered. That cross residue must be a bitch to get out after burnings.
You can take over the Denali gig on PFF.
No thanks. He keeps insisting he’s not a racist in the same posts that he writes racist crap (not to mention that he’s also bigoted against Muslims). Not going to waste my time with him. What’s the point?
John Aravosis is quite deserving of the honor “Elitist Wanker of the Day.”
Ah, so many wankers, so little time.
thats pretty goddang laughable coming from a frontpager for a site that trivializes past episodes of genuine election fraud.
guess he didn’t examine his illogic all that closely after pulling it out of his ass.
well frankly between military, corporatism, and Israel I feel we have already had it – a coup…. The mil was moved into NO as tho to a war zone.
But I am sure there are a few things a full fledged but not necessarily visible take over would still like to pin down.
Yo uknow The Family, which Sharlet and Clarkson did a diary that it is indefensible that Hillary will nt discuss nor acknowlege her deep ties with thsi organsiation… The Family reveres all mass leaders, including Hitler, and Osama. AND Jesus.
There are entities that want more ocmplete power. That just seems natural, they get it with the right person in power.
Then again I took aspects of Manchurian Candidate very seriously. And disliked that SInatra shut of off from distribution for 40 some odd years. That was highly dramatised, when I read of conspiracies or projections of complex putsch, I just whip out the hottest, most imflammatory stuff and look at the bones.
he gets his sheets laundered in houston texas.
fitting?
A coup isn’t out of the question, but I wouldn’t imagine a military coup with tanks surrounding congress. The image would be too jarring and far too difficult to spin favorably. I think more likely would be a civilian coup (a la Fujimori) resulting from a (fake) constitutional or institutional crisis. I can visualize Cheney “temporarily” expanding surveillance and cancelling the general election to protect its integrity after the “discovery” of a terrorist plot. And the next day you would have Brit Hume with smiling Bill Kristol saying that he doesn’t buy the argument of critics who say the measures are a coup.
I really share HCfM’s concern: who are the Repubs going to field?
Re #62 Who knows,you may be right, for all intents and purposes the coup may have already happened.
60
yeah Aravosis is an asshole. My guess, eh votes for McCain. IIRC his back ground is as an R aide on the hill and of course clearly and opertive.
And a fucking whiner.
Th I don’t think it is a very good package… for different reasons.
John Aravosis is quite deserving of the honor “Elitist Wanker of the Day.”
No doubt. Wow.
65
well that was my old line thru BushCo, we had had a coup… and the Dems were in collapse. “Post coup and post collapse”
I DO feel they go in, one for their own time at the trough for thievery, but also to get some things done, with a different face.
They are desperate to cut all ties to any idea of anti war, war oppsotion. Think it could get a lot bloodier, or set us up for draft and whatever else.
And of course the endgame is privatisation. Cut entitlements to all people, across the board.
#60. agreed. i just read the diatribe. what a classless clown that boyo is.
Northern U.S. politicians call border rules ‘irresponsible’
Chertoff is such a wanker.
well I have read statistics on teh sheer BUSINESS of crossing every day from Canada to the USA.
What a mess.
Meanwhile Europe relaxes borders. Speeds up the flow of people.
What a mess.
It’s a huge mess. I can’t remember the exact percentage but a huge number of Canadians live close to the US border and that means major bucks for both countries in terms of trade and commerce. Every time this issue comes up, the border hawks bring up the Millennium bomber – one guy – years ago. As if that’s the be all and end all of the argument.
Here it is: About three-quarters of Canada’s population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border.
I never go to Americblog… cuz Aravosis is such a shit but I see now he has Chevron ad too, and a banner ad for credit cards.
LOL.
Lotta right wing money runs the [so called] Big Blahgs. And the authoritarian pipsqueaks that front for that money. IMO.
Aravosis:
Gotta laff at that. Aravosis the “gay activist” is complaining about MINORITIES? All of a sudden gays aren’t minorities anymore? Nope not if they’re white males and well-off. Well, Aravosis hit it right there.
75. Maybe he should take a realistic look at how little the Dems have done for minorities and the starving.
“valid causes” – what an asshole. Can he be any more condescending?
Immigration officials detaining, deporting American citizens
Quite the story. And this is the most bizarre part: “Even now, the prison records inaccurately show his current location as “the Soviet Union.”
I guess that prison must be deprived of those “map” things that Miss SC Teen was talking about last year. Such as.
I wonder if she’s campaigning for anyone in her home state. (Please let it be Huckabee.)
That’s because far too often the Democrats don’t give a damn about anybody who isn’t a minority or starving to death (both valid causes to be sure, but are they the ONLY causes out there?).
This is satire right?
A video of Aravosis getting out of his carriage.
Iraq seeks sharp reduction in U.S. military role
Don’t get too excited. It’s not like they’re going home any time soon.
But when NATO countries want to make that shift in Afghanistan, who is it that starts yelling at them again? Oh yeah. The US.
Anyway,
So, that’s what Bush wants to leave the Dems with and I doubt there will be much any of them can (or will) do about it despite their cries of “no permanent bases”.
What a joke:
Just ship the wanker off with a medal somewhere before he screws up more of the world.
Lying Gates
Yeah. That’s the way to think about it in propaganda-speak.
The lie. See above.
Well, apparently the Iraqis seem to know exactly what you want, Gates.
My latest: Permanent Bases in Iraq?
“pfffft” headline of the nite goes to ABC News: GOP Debate: Not Quite a Smoka in Boca.
And to think they actually pay people to come up with shit like that.
3 Bill Clinton hit diaries on the dkos rec list. Popcorn!
dkos debate poll. Guess who’s missing?
They disappeared Ron Paul. Aren’t they the ones who were crying foul over CNN leaving Edwards out of a poll?
YOunge on the hype and the hope…
87.
No need to wonder why Afghanistan is called the forgotten war.
And I’d say it’s the unwillingness not an “inability” of congress that’s the problem.
But I do agree with this:
Which explains why kos can push “winning” without giving much of a damn about the issues. Hollow, hollow “victories”.
liberalcatnip, no. 13,
How do they plan to pay for all of these tax cuts and what’s Bush using to pay for his so-called stimulus package?
With Free Money®, of course! It’s been the center of every GOP economic plan since 1980.
liberalcatnip, no. 53,
I believe the relevant 2nd Amendment case is Washington, DC’s ban on gun ownership.
Jake Tapper… and you have to wonder:
I believe the relevant 2nd Amendment case is Washington, DC’s ban on gun ownership.
Okay. Thanks. I didn’t know that was going to the supreme court.
Yes, Free Money. What a concept.
A Rezko-Clinton Connection?
And a pic for evidence.
Round and round it goes. Where it stops, nobody knows.
Dems in SC: Zogby
Obama: 38%
Clinton: 25%
Edwards: 21%
Edwards up 6 points in the past 2 days. It could still be a horse race.
As for Bill’s shenanigans:
Feingold slams Edwards
McClatchy poll of a couple days ago showed the smallest spread… about 9 pts. Rasmussen and one other had about 15 pt spread.
I am sure that the Clintons feel they are seeing results on the ground for what they are doing.
ANd I don’t see any really effective pushback, certainly not from the OBamas nor from the surrogates. They cannot NOT have speculated this would happen, at some point.
It is interesting to watch, that is for sure…
From the BBC blog
Re Zogby in SC, 38/35/21 – Obama/Clinton/Edwards
Sounds about right to me , no doubt some opportunistic Obam supporters swimmin back to Hill, Edwards support seems over rated but I bet he’s picking up in The White Male component of the Victim Trilogy. LOL. Zogby called Nevada well enough with his day before there.
Re Clintons and Rezco, hell Clintons and Hsu , Clintons and Lerach,
Clintons and ______.
We all agree this is going to be a negative campaign, right?
Aside from the issues, – which afterall is ground rule #1 in American Politics, all issues aside,–Anyways, re Clinton v. McCain, who has higher personal negatives and who is easier to go negative on?? About the only difference the Clintons possess over Kerry or Gore or Dukakis is there willingness to go Negative now….. But actually, in McCain – they have a more difficult target.
If you think you heard Edwards millworkers son shtick alot- become ONE with the McCain Lying in the Hanoi Hilton(c) clip…Insanely, in a nation fucked up and fucked over by economic elites and the political courtesans who serve them, we now face some weird sort of electoral mashup whereby Munchaussen’s meets Stockholm Syndrome in the Battle for Victimology Supremacy.
Clinton seeks to smooth relations with Obama
For now…attack, retreat. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The problem with running against mcCain is that he has built up a huge myth with non-military, with a blubbery sort who like to be patriotic, whatever that is these days – or earlier days for that matter… and the military who see thru him and are sick of him and know how little he has done for them, over the years… won’t speak publicly against him.
GOOD LUCK TO THEM ALL…. LOL
Just stumbled on this, not sure it is has gotten around, Dahr Jamail interview with media bite:
From TPM EC:
The problem with running against McCain is that he has built up a huge myth with non-military, with a blubbery sort …..-mcat
I agree with the appeal to armchair tank commanders and other assorted flounders and “attaboys” hangin around every VFW and Foreign Legion Post in the Country. He’s not a wortwhile protest vote on SO many counts:::: Roe, Iraq, the Zionist and fundie ass kissery, yet he will get a good bit of swing vote…
It is an increasingly Democratic Senate that holds the fate of SCOTUS in their hands, let them do their job….It is Nancy’s House that could have Defunded the War, that could have brought Articles of Impeachment. , let them do their Job…. They’ve done nothing. Fuck ‘em looking for a Hillary vote NOW, a Dem Slate now, so it makes their pork easier to fund. Fuuuuuck them.
That script was written long ago. Just look at the animosity towards the Palestinians.
This in the comments following an EJ Dionne piece on B. Clinton’s pro Reagan gush when running in 92….
Catharsis? LOL. There’s no where to run, pal….
107 just rescued from Spam… Sorry!
just reading it now, oh that comment is a HOOT!~
Thus they fail to understand the Iraqi resistance, and some of the tactics being used against the occupiers.
I think that’s true of Americans’ understanding of the Palestinians’ suffering under Israeli occupation, too.
IOZ
pink satin Everlasts out of the dry cleaners:
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that any long-term military agreement between the US government and Iraq requires the approval of Congress.
“Some Republicans are talking about staying in Iraq for 50 or even 100 years, while President (George W.) Bush wants to cut a deal that will guarantee our presence well past his term,” ending in January 2009, Reid told the National Press Club.
“The president is on notice: he cannot do that unilaterally,” warned the top Democrat in a speech ahead of Bush’s State of the Union address next Tuesday.”
I can’t imagine the last dubya State of the Union. The summary of accomplishments: he changed daylight savings time.
well I would guess that most Americans may not know, and would react badly to being informed, that reisistance to occupation is legal under the Geneva Conventions.
Bombs Away!
As if any of the jokers on offer plan to end the war(s), in any sense of the word. I t jsut moves to a bigger Dirty War.
Keith O is saying that super Tuesday won’t be decisive for the Dems because of the math. Oh noes…how long will this go on?
South Carolina Primary Colors: Black and White? – by Greg Palast
Clinton roils vote dispute in presidential race
Right. Good luck with that.
Noooooooooo Thread:
LINK
Oh noes…how long will this go on?
If Cool Hand Johnny can stick out the fight a while longer, things could get really baroque – as in baroquered convention. Delegates, superdelegates, and brokered conventions … oh my.
Huckabee dorm massacre survivor enjoys rest and repast, hugs Popcorn Tree.
Palm fronds crossed!
argh. Will anyone be able to stand more Bush along about the time he departs. I wonder. Not to override Oliver Stone, LOL… but…
I read somewhere, and I have no idea the projections or expectations, but the three or so recent Iraq War movies have done badly.
argh. Will anyone be able to stand more Bush along about the time he departs. I wonder. Not to override Oliver Stone, LOL… but…
Like taking coals to a smoldering Newscastle, right?
Selling ice to an Eskim – uh-oh . . .
Nuh uh!