Opera Glasses and Popcorn
went hunting for Iditarod photos (Alaska’s the topic, First Dude is an esquimaux)… but this was too amusing. “Elite Iditarod”…
Someone hand them bigger sharper weapons… 8)
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
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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.
You do find the best pics! lol
Be careful with the hopeychanginess catnip – it can give you wicked acid reflux.
Sad: New Katrina death tally: Half of victims 75 and up
Snicker, giggle, snort.
Oh, I’m just havin’ too much fun here.
2. No doubt. This was like that scene from Aliens.
Too much centrist crap for me!
Apparently in an Amazon poll as to which breed for the WH the Poodle (hair vs fur I would think) won (think IB covered this last thread, but throwing it up again).
I say TWO poodles.
fwiw.. someone at Volokh cnspiracy carried back comments from HillaryCliton.com blog
catnip, please don’t say “toss-up.”
Friday Fun: Got Change?
8. catnip, please don’t say “toss-up.”
Well, that’s literally how my day began.
I wonder how many dead trees it took to make all of those streamers and that confetti last nite. Or perhaps they were petroleum-based products?
Uh-oh. Another one of those Ungrateful old bats looks poised to flee the compound !!
Somebody get Marcotte her smelling salts. Poor baby.
ms_x – Out of mojitos here, more’s the raspberry pureed pity.
I tried to find an apt alternative, but look out (especially you, catnip), ’cause it’s a toss-up:
or
Yurp!
FWIW, Anchorage Daily News story on Vogue shoot (December 07).
Buchanan is sure fired up about the gal – apparently she was a supporter of his preznidential bid in 2000.
They just had a reporter on CNN from the Anchorage Daily News about the Troopergate scandal. When asked if Palin was qualified for the VP slot he said “Dan Quayle was more qualified for the Vice-Presidency than Gov. Palin”. Campbell Brown couldn’t get over to the incredibly scary Bay Buchanan quick enough.
btw, did Bay go to the same plastic surgeon as Matalin because they look like surgery siblings?
They just reported the audiences for the last 3 days of the convention:
Tuesday (Hillary) 26.0 million
Wednesday (Biden) 24.6 million
Thursday (Obama) 38.0 million
No shelter of last resort in New Orleans this time, AP warns.
I had already heard yesterday that NOLA plans to enforce a curfew (to prevent looting) with arrests.
NOW is covering Ward Connerly and the ballot thing in CO to ban affirmative action. Ugh.
Found this at Boing Boing:
Katrina, 3 years later: Banksy throughout New Orleans.
check out the homeless Lincoln Banksy.
I think you guys are underestimating the Palin pick (catching up on the other thread).
Remember, McCain isn’t just running a campaign to sell himself and the Republicans. Given the last 8 years, that’s hard. No, he’s running a campaign to discredit the donks as “change” or different from the last eight years, at which point you should pick the war hero. Palin pick is to stick more holes and doubts into the idea that the donks champion women. She’s there to drive down turnout on the left/young/women. I expect her to go after and bait that Catholic, misogynist fake feminist Biden in their debate, and I fully expect for him to fall for it and say something condescendingly dismissive of her BECAUSE she’s a younger woman.
Remember, the Republicans win by discrediting politics being a force for change. They win by driving down turnout by everybody but those already winning in this culture. She is very attractive, comes across very well on TV and even the corruption thing about the former brother-in-law will endear her to many people (she didn’t do it for money, she did it to get some payback for her sister).
McCain didn’t have a lot of good picks left open to him, but to throw the flatfooted donks off their game he couldn’t do any better. I heard the female Lt. Gov her in WI saying something that was VERY disrespectful of her, because she was a younger woman (always stunning to hear that coming from a woman who has faced the same attacks herself). Much of the donk response (except for the eventual congrats from Obama himself) has been bordering on the ugly misogyny of the attacks on Clinton.
I feel bad that I don’t know Heidegger well enough to engage you on your ideas, lucid. I do see that the championing of a sort of selfish individualism can be turned into a willingness for fascism (here in a town overrun this weekend overwhelmingly by white people on overpriced motorcycles awash with militaristic/fascist symbols, skin covered w/ the same). Watching cops stand by while they ignore/break numerous traffic laws, noise ordinances.
thanks for the reminder madman.
an excellent (my fav!) new orleans pianist and katrina survivor, henry butler, doing professor longhair.
Henry Butler All Star Jam
I think I’ve got one in moderation upthread (about NOLA plans for curfews, and no shelters of last resort).
Jeff Masters at Wunder Blog sez:
19. Much of the donk response (except for the eventual congrats from Obama himself) has been bordering on the ugly misogyny of the attacks on Clinton.
Totally expected. Now they have a new woman to attack. Sigh.
Thanks for the recipes, ms x, but I don’t drink alcohol. Picked the wrong lifetime to quit doing that.
Adolph Reed is making very good points on Moyers about what is wrong w/ Obama. Unfortunately, you also have to listen to Vanden Heuvel blather as well.
I agree with our esteemed MitM. I don’t think so-called progressives should misunderstimate the Palin choice. The wingers may experiencing head explosions today but they did the same thing when McCain won the nomination. They’ll come around. They mostly always do – and then the fight will be on. I mean, c’mon, McSurge basically tied with Obamalama right now? Who’d of thunk it?
Sorry IB
Two of yours out of moderation..
Off to check Spam file…
8)
McSurge basically tied with Obamalama right now? Who’d of thunk it?
well, Obama is a stupid center-right militarist with the corporations jerking him off w/ contributions (over and under the table) who can’t run to the scolding, bruised-knees-from-praying right fast enough. He’s repeating the Gore campaign, picking a neoliberal militarist as a running mate, scolding his base, blaming those with the least for their problems, telling women to shut up, squat down and push out babies (because we ALL agree that doing otherwise is ICKY and evil, right?). Telling GBLT folks that everyone is equal under the law but them, that kids would be educated if their mommies and absent/cheating fathers would turn off the TV. I’m surprised he’s not out-and-out LOSING. He’s chasing voters that won’t vote for him. His giving people desperate for a voice, people who in many cases supported him because they projected onto him that he could BE that voice, the stinkeye and the wagging, lecturing-from-the-pulpit finger. He denies that racism exists, he won’t say the words “the poor” (it is only the middle class that is “suffering”), he can’t wait to promise enough to bomb those muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan and maybe even Iran.
He deserves to lose, and just wait, he’ll make a desperate swing to the left after he fires his advisors in the third week of October JUST LIKE GORE DID, he’ll keep a race he should have won WAY too close, so that the right can suppress the vote and steal another election.
Then he’ll blame leftists/Nader/McKinney for his loss.
They’ve warned New Orleans residents to get out now as Gustav is now feared to hit somewhere along the Gulf Coast about 2 days earlier than they’d thought (i.e., Monday instead of Wednesday). LSU has moved its opening football game against Appalachian State to 11 AM tomorrow morning. The current track has it making landfall just to the west of New Orleans.near someplace called Houma. They are not going to have any kind of emergency shelter this time, the Superdome will be locked up.:
Addendum,
That LSU game is actually going to start at 10 AM local time, I first saw the 11 AM notice on an ESPN news crawl, and forgot about the time zone difference.
McCain tied down his party’s base. And she will play well in rural and in tough border and battlegroundd states. One [approving] observer noted she is happy to cling to guns and religion (with Ob’s preachiness that last bit always stank in the extreme).
But Biden is great, not to worry!
Thanks Marisa.
catnip – the drinks recipes were sort of a joke (and they sounded pretty sickening in their own right, I thought). It turns out Palin disagreed with listing polar bears as threatened species, for fear of hurting Alaska tourism. Hope you’re feeling better, BTW.
I agree with Madman that the Palin pick has already guar-on-teeed the unleashing of Dem misogyny (somebody already posted a fake-out diary at DK, purporting to have found Palin nudie pix at some pr0n link) and obviously the announcement today successfully reduced the number of acceptance speech replays by a few thousand per cent, sucking all the O-xygen out this particular news cycle. What happens next – including how McCain and Palin manage the spotlight together (apparently they had only met once and spoken once on the phone before today) – continues to look like a crapshoot to me.
28. He denies that racism exists, he won’t say the words “the poor” (it is only the middle class that is “suffering”)
That fact really hit me last nite. I didn’t do a word count but he must have used the word “work” or some form of it more than 20 times. I thought that was insulting to the poor who can’t, for whatever reason, work ie. illness etc. Just a continuation (and he said it too) of Clinton’s “work, not welfare” program. But, of course, his faith-based initiatives will take care of those people, right?
He deserves to lose,
No doubt after that. And for all of his bluster, I still sense a weakness in him that I can’t really explain. It’s more than the flip-flops, the running as fast as possible for the center. It’s an uncertainty of sorts that could well run him into the ground if he’s elected.
Ukulele Orchestra of GB – Life on Mars
Just because …
32. catnip – the drinks recipes were sort of a joke (and they sounded pretty sickening in their own right, I thought).
Oh.
I saw the alcohol and didn’t really imagine what they might taste like. And, oops, I thanked ms x instead of you! I must have unleashed a few brain cells with my morning purge. (Like I can afford to do that.)
Palin kind of looks like my sister.
or, for you Kate Bush fans (like myself): Ukulele Orchestra of GB – Wuthering Heights
36 – wow, your sister must be HOT … got any links to pRon sites? /donkeytale
According to someone on This Week, she was in Sedona on Thursday, so I guess that means he met her twice, including the day he offered her the job.
Barack Obama: He Completes Us.
36. rofl…NO…donkeytale will just have to…well, whatever it is he does…umm…eww
well, why did you tease us with your sista’s hotness if you didn’t want to share? /d-tail
btw, just how CLOSE were you and your sister when you were nubile young teens? Inquiring pffters want to know (and see scanned polaroids, if they exists).
Sorry for channeling d-tail … all of the donk responses to Palin rubbed off on me.
when I read “Palin” on CNN this afternoon, for a split second I thought to myself “But he’s not even American, I don’t think”
This is comical, at least.
fwiw via Ambinder
hmm a Alaska state senator (a Dem) on TNH said most of her enemies are Republican.
you have to work “KKK” into thsi somehow Madman.
KKKAtnip is a start.
What an odd creature that one is (donkeytail)…
Perrin: O, Bomb It On The Mountain
Michael Moore on KO dissing McCain: “I don’t even want to hear about Iran.”
I assume he didn’t listen to Obamalama’s speech then?
Speaking of pff, a biggish storm’s a-brewing over there . . . peeder’s talking about making it all go pffft.
PS, A? To whomever it may concern . . . now might be a good time to personally archive any contributions or bullshit of interest.
50 – maybe if KKKAtnip would post some sweet, KKKandy-sticky-sweet pics of her hot, governor-like sister she could save that vital, important activist site!
**** madman slaps himself, googles up some old Ms. Mag articles to purge the evil, scourge that has caused him to sully the honor of beautiful canuck herbs ****
Michael Moore has guzzled the koolaid too.
Btw, I think it’s great that they picked Palin for Veep.
52. If you only knew my sister. She’s one of those very conservative soccer-type moms, which makes this even more hilarious.
50
that’s a novel concept. ban everyone!
PFFpoof!
love the ukes!
54 – which only makes it HOTTER. I bet there is plenty of room in the back of the minivan. Oh, and does she have hot videos we can watch on the little screens on the back of the seats? /d-tail wrests back control.
55 – the only way to deal with the continuing insanity is to embrace absurdity.
maybe if KKKAtnip would post some sweet, KKKandy-sticky-sweet pics of her hot, governor-like sister she could save that vital, important activist site!
Now you’re talkin sense, Madman!
Think about it KKKatnip!
You could return to pff and save the whole blogplanet now – AND release the maple-sirple, hockey-loving hotness of your governor-like Canadian sister!
It’s that or pepper peeder with catnippy comments yourself.
pff needs you!
I really think peeder is missing a big opportunity to blame Nader for the demise of his blog.
John Edwards could take lessons. McC camp put Palin family in an out of the way, ab ti down market motel in Dayton.
Sorry Madman, I don’t disagree with you often but Palin is a disaster. Biden may seem like a Republican to you but he’s not John McCain. He may step in it with her but that will mostly be because he will engage her toughly like an opponent should and the press will crucify him when he does.
The press (Tom Brokaw and their ilk) have already said McCain is off limits because he’s a POW and now his VP can’t be challenged either because she’s a mom. But they can slam the black guy and the man who lost the wife and kid all they want. They are fighting completely uphill with a Right-wing controlled media, just watch it play out.
I think we have a horrible choice and a so-so mediocre choice, so we differ fundamentally.
61 – we’ll see in late October. Don’t worry, I won’t rub in the “I told you so”s tooo much!
The media is what it is. It’s like some southern football team complaining that they can’t win in Chicago in December because it’s snowing in Soldier’s Field. Get over it, fight for something and try to win. Not an excuse. O’Biden’s barely winning/losing in the pols because they don’t stand for anything any different from what we have now, other than that they claim that they’ll do it better. Why bother.
Again, we’ll see later this fall.
#50:
…To whomever it may concern . . . now might be a good time to personally archive any contributions or bullshit of interest…
Ehh… plenty of good stuff there. sabrina, of course. buddy’s impeachment stuff, several others– but if I had to drop everything to archive gems every time a blog was about to go kaput, I’d get even less done IRL than I do now.
Anyway, I chickened out vis-a-vis trying that creamsicle drink. I’m going minimal and just having a screwdriver instead.
Later, ya’ crazies.
pff needs you!
I feel that violent sense of nausea returning.
OTOH…mwahahaha
i was thinking about giving that a whirl and using kefir instead of ice cream.
a soursickle!
Thanks for the pianos and ukes.
In contrast and tribute to all those fluffy canines up top – here’s some Old Blind Dogs, with the Barnyards of Delgaty.
Don’t worry wilfred.. “liberals” are attacking her for joining the ticket after giving birth so recently… and to a special needs child. So if she id off limits for Momism… I am nto seeing it. They are laughing that she was firt elcted to the PTA.
Clyburn ws first out of the box this am
LOL saying she was as lousy as Ferraro A “disaster”… All women are the same, that argumnt. It took Linda DOuglass to clean it all up.
LOL This should go really well.
There have been repeated attacks on mc;s lousy service record (5 crashes), from McGovern, Harkin, Jay Rock and a couple ohers. IF only Democrats had real courage to blow open his POW years (but ehye don’t). There si a ton of information out here from vets of the Vietnam era.
If you thiknk obama is a pinata, in some special way that no one else has been, I really wonder what you are reading. The same cadres of weak older male liberals that sucked up to Kerry (from all nighter at the Franken house forward) are circling round Ob, to swathe and cuddle him… And it ain’t pretty.
As a woman I ‘d like to punch Ob’s lights out. Mealymouthed weak misgoynist. And if I were gay, I’d do it TWICE. I read Direland on McClurkin (january archives) and it ws physically upsetting.
[I can’t type, the right index and the left pinkie ar dying,… tkaes too long to clean up every word)
ooo, thanks for the Old Blind Dogs. Haven’t heard them in a while. Here’s some Gourds covering Snoop in return.
oh Madman, that bastardization of Kate Bush’s masterpiece was almost as bad as hearing Dinah Shore cover Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover!
67 – exactly.
Ugly men running that party, and some ugly women willing to sell out other women to. For power. For the keys to the empire. For spying on citizens and expanded pres powers and sucking up to a corporate media and expanded jingoistic suckling of the world’s oil and resources for as long as we can get away with it, only they claim they’ll be “smarter” about it.
Whining about how damned “unfair” the Republicans and media are when they turn around and use the same fucking tactics themselves, and much of the time they are using their tactics AGAINST THEIR OWN FUCKING BASE.
I’m so done with Obama. I wish I wasn’t. I wish that the fantasies I had about living in a genuinely open country would come true. Why won’t he talk about the poor? Why won’t he talk about the real truth about abortion and gay rights, instead of pandering to superstitious nuts? Why is he so eager to cave on drilling and spying and killing poor people to punish the people who are already killing the poor people?
Why are they so eager to attack the poor, the black, the female … FOR VOTES?!?! Why am I turning on NPR and hearing fucking supposed liberal Democrats spouting misogynistic CRAP to score political points?
I’m just so damned sick of it, all of it.
69 – you know me … nothing is sacred, even things that are sacred TO ME.
Everything must be ridiculed, if only to keep it in perspective.
Though I have to say, I prefer the creepier, less romantic Kate, like Pull Out the Pin and There Goes a Tenner. I could go on, but I’ve already geeked out too much.
Or The Dreaming.
God, no wonder no one takes me seriously. I keep linking to Kate Bush videos!
Marisa, of course there are aspects of the ultra left blogosphere that are just as ignorant as Red State and Tacitus etc., that’s rather obvious as we’ve blasted them together.
When you say ‘liberals’ are attacking Palin for giving birth recently, you are speaking of liberal idiots on a few blogs that will never be heard widely except when Rush highlights them. Otherwise Americans will hear none of that, nor do they need to hear such tripe. But the rest of us will hear the ultra-right’s bullshit presented in the mainstream and that is one big difference.
Our country is so right-leaning I just heard Bill Maher lump American gang members with foreign terrorists as the same thing and no one spoke up, not even the black panel member. Like most American discourse, utter bullshit.
I don’t love Obama, I just don’t hate him which i suppose is a sin? I do loathe McCain and Palin, I’m sick to death of them and their ilk, same racists/homophobes on the R side every election. There is a difference in being disappointed in Obama and loathing the fact that Rove has taken control of the reigns again and this now might as well be the 1996 Republican convention all over again, a most disgusting hatefest that i wish never to see repeated.
Say what you will but the Dem Convention was not a hatefest, but just watch starting on Monday and they will scapegoat the weak and voiceless and prey on anyone they can kick. There is a difference, not enough to suit you or me obviously but to act like these people are exactly the same is mischaracterization. You think they are the same but the fact that gay people can now marry in MA and CA and be recognized in NY is the result of a lot of good people fighting for their rights and many fighting for the rights of others and the overwhelming majority of them come from the same party. Yes it’s not the ideal, far from it but almost anything good politically regarding the environment, peace, gay rights ad nauseum comes from the Dems and the Independents. I just give what little credit is due to those who deserve it.
I love all of those Kate songs, Madman. I just love the rest too.
lol, color me on the outs tonight
don’t know why but the Palin thing just put me over the edge today. I know that kind of disguised racist/homophobe so well and after 8 years of Bush/Cheney just seeing those two sends me into overload. So tired of hateful shits being held up so high as examples of something even approaching goodness. It just gets me down.
kind of disguised racist/homophobe so well
I see it on both sides.
McC Cindy Palin are way too whiffy of white supremacists.
And OB and Biden are SUPREMACISTS… with more than their own whif of selective exclusions.
wilfred
I barely read blogs. Too little time and too little interest in what most of them think (they are so prosaic and DULL). So don’t blame the blogs for my assessments.
Our country is so right-leaning I just heard Bill Maher lump American gang members with foreign terrorists as the same thing and no one spoke up, not even the black panel member. Like most American discourse, utter bullshit.
well Maher is a lot like Marshall, infomred by allegiance to israel and some endless sense of being persecuted. It is a form of racism. And fits in well in USA USA (which by the way has been a chant at Ob rallies since Iowa, a big turn off for me)
If people wh are informed and smart have not figured out that GWoT s all aobut suppression fo the masses, whether s of the border or in the new horrific NO, where ICE runs the day. They pumped in an infusion of illegal latinos, under cut the local population and can exacerbate the situation, anytime they want.
Oh the silent black at the table. Well, epopel want to fit in, esp wiht power.
Don’t worry wilfred..liberals are attacking her for joining the ticket after giving birth so recently and to a special needs child. So if she id off limits for Momism I am nto seeing it. They are laughing that she was firt elcted to the PTA.
You referenced these people without sourcing them. Sorry for assuming they were from blogs.
IOZ sums up the sham that was Denver, and the media “coverage” of same.
luv the gibberish on Moyers that there are no more conservative Democats.
In what universe?
Greenwald on the failings of the convention.
Lithwick on the failings of the convention.
The balsa wood and paper constructed day tripping bus tour of the ”things that are allowed to matter” from the Democrats has not worked for me for a long time. Collaborators.
comment at IOZ (quote is Kerry, pretending he is real)
81 Thanks for the links.
Obama has successfully sucked the air (and money) out of anything that could be a progressive political movement and channelled it back into propping up a failing business (the democratic party).
Plans B Damned: The Quest for Emergency Contraception
Doug Ireland (Direland) on Del Martin and while I was there I looked up his article on McClurkin and the other anti gay gospel groups that performed in the South for Ob. It was in November archives
****
LOL just got a blast email from Pelosi, the congress will recommit to rebuilding NO and the Gulf Coast.
And the failed, but loyal and aligned!, feminist orgs are fundraising off Palin. And that is all they will do for reproductive rights
Ward Connerly on NOW, he got his anti affirmative action ballot measure on in 5 states. You have to laugh, people are going to vote FOR ob (WC discusses R who say, assistance will end with Ob in office, and why not?) and for Connerly’s measures.
84. What a nightmare.
86 – the Confederacy won.
from the rhreality link Shame is the point.
Palin is truly bizarre, the rnc might be funny
never got kate bush, to each their own
at my friends in brooklyn, can hear someone screaming at their kid next door about coming home at 2.30 or something. Never watch tv but saw maher, i thought he said some good things. yelling just stopped thankfully…
Forty-three dollars and change, and an i.d. check later, I am told to move to the side so the pharmacist can discuss the medication with me.
here, no matter what you buy in terms of OTC meds or prescriptions, they ASK if you need the pharmacist advice.
I thought she did a good job of conveying the horror of it w/ humor/scorn. I can’t believe women are still put through this kind of shit.
Well, no … that’s wrong. I can believe it, I’m just disgusted that it’s so.
81. Greenwald was kind of on a roll until he added this:
Seriously?
The whole convention was about not offending swing voters – that genteel breed.
Frankly, I think this “hockey mom” meme Palin is pushing about herself may scare some yanks into thinking she’s a secret Canadian. Heehee
well Greenwald still wants to be invited to the parties. And get his books funded.
I am not really a fan of his, but he is useful.
the multiple meade’s never take the field and do nothing other than concede ground. it’s a copperhead opposition.
No apology necessary. The point I was trying to make and then ended up elucidating further at pffter poofters is still one I carry around in my head. It has been made, to some extent, but never clearly & never in the way I try to make it. It was going to be my dissertation before I decided I’d be a lousy teacher and despised the internal politics of academia.
I think there are many reasons that the left has failed in the west. Some are structural, some are ideological. My point with Heidegger though is simply that the left has embraced many ideas that are antithetical to its history, that continue to undermine the strength of the fundamental value of equality. It doesn’t surprise me that one of the greatest rebellions against ‘identity politics’ was started by a pair of Indian scholars, Hommi Babba and Gayatri Spivak, who both simply pointed out that there is no ‘authentic culture’. There is no ‘pre-colonial’ purity to which anyone can aspire. Our lives, cultures, governments, histories are inextricably linked and always have been. To celebrate difference is precisely to understand the ‘difference’ within our own notion of ‘our culture’ – to acknowledge the hybrid without ignoring the abuses.
As Gandhi once said – India will not have freedom until it purges the idea of untouchability. Our abuses are not always external, nor are our graces. We are Muslim and Hindu. And we rise and fall together.
The only ‘authentic’ idea in the world is that we are equal.
new thread:
LINK
……………………………. 8) …………………………..
I do see a lot of Dem sexism coming our way, though. It’s only going to make the Pumas madder.
Also, I don’t see the Obama operation backing off on the expensive gag-me-with-a-maggot symbolism either. An Obama presidency is going to have to be a four-year campaign of these displays — like Bill Clinton’s tedious “bus trip to Washington” thing (and who remembers that as a watershed historic moment to tell the grandkids? anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller?) and of course the phony town hall meetings. There’s always going to be the sense that the Pumas are lurking out there and that they have to be quashed. Oh joy.
How innocently all the symbolic displays started. With Carter walking from the Capitol to the WH. Then it just metastasized from there. Why do Dems constantly put us through this shit? The Republicans make no excuses or apologies for their lavish displays – in that sense, they’re honest. But the Dems will always gladly buy you six cases of malt liquor and tell you it’s medicine.
They are laughing that she was firt elcted to the PTA.
This can’t go over well among Republican-leaning women in states like Colorado that they need to win.
The PTA is like the entry funnel for political activity for women in the Western states… these women would go on to hold “small town” offices and then get elected to and eventually take over some of these Western state legislatures. That’s their political kingdom out there. Part of it is because legislatures paid poorly in comparison to real-world jobs, and so men didn’t want the jobs and left room for the women to fill up the spaces. I have to imagine that Palin’s selection is wildly popular with any and all women who have any political connections to that sphere. She is like their ultimate product.
The political world of Republican women is not clearly understood by Kossacks and their ilk. It’s not all about anti-abortion and prayer in the schools. It’s about a whole generation of GOP women who have toiled in the town and village governments and the legislatures. We’re looking at Palin as a “female candidate” and not as a Western candidate, and more importantly, not as a small-town GOP candidate. It’s not quite as nutty a choice as people think.
there are a lot of places she will play well. Many aspects of her “story” will play well in rural, ranch and land use issue areas. They just will. Others will play in border and battleground. The husband apparently is a union member, Steelworkers.
Buit not to worry, Tasinis says Biden is great for unions (no really he did)…
She also did something today that I used to wish Obama would do… as they went out in the bus after the Dayton event, when she and McC stopped in shops to meet and greet, she shopped, For her children, as it happened. It sounds hokey to some people, but it played out as real.
I noticed long ago Ob was a piker, even when in large food emporia (an easy place to make purchases when on the raod or ont he way back to a cmapaign office).
Again, I am not FOR Palin, not for McC but alos not for the dolts on the D ticket.
If only the Dems could find NEW ways to lose, it would be less irritating.
Palin isn’t exactly an authentic up-from-the-bootstraps Western GOP political woman — there’s some resentment from the women who have been in the trenches longer; she went from mayor to governor apparently.
However the NYT coverage of her is depressingly sexist (check out the beauty pageant picture, artfully cropped to make her look like she’s nekkid — although I wonder if that was the entire headshot). And her actual political experience is relegated to the final third of the story.
Not going to make me vote for McCain either, but the Dem sexism should plumb new depths. Ugh, I don’t want to watch. Or vote. Lucky for me I can do that here in NY with few guilt trips.
check out the beauty pageant picture, artfully cropped to make her look like she’s nekkid — although I wonder if that was the entire headshot)
she comes from the era of off the shoulder draping shots (I would guess), so they probably just cropped it to her shoulders.. without or without the obligatory pearl necklace… yes i saw the shot. Lots of lambasting her as “beauty queen”.
Pretty obvious the R had a good idea how this would roll out. Few surprises for them.
She bested Murkowski, however it was done… she deabted agaisnt a perennial favorite at Dkos Knowles (one reason I watched I wanted to see if Kos bothered with such lousy Dem candidates as I suspected he did, selling them as “great” to the rubes)… Knowles had been a senator and a governor… AND was basically making successive runs (as I recall it) to regain the public trough.
She did well (I am not for her). He was the all too often Dem type. I dunno maybe a previuos life as a patronage candidate, he was hard to fathom. had he ben down here, I would have thught he was deeply closeted… (and we do have them). ALaska is far away and I did not bother much more.. her name (and bits of bio) began to come up at The Corner a few months ago, but most assumed she would not be interested due to the pregnancy and then birth.
wilfred, #73:
…You think they are the same but the fact that gay people can now marry in MA and CA and be recognized in NY is the result of a lot of good people fighting for their rights and many fighting for the rights of others and the overwhelming majority of them come from the same party…
What exactly have Obama/Biden done to help GLBT folks again ? So far as I can tell, the ticket’s support is limited to taking money from them and looking down at their feet/demurring whenever some asshole Right-wing religious shit starts yelling about how same-sex marriage is destroying Christian America. Exactly how they treat the rest of their base. The only right that takes priority is the right to pony up money and votes and then go away quietly.
3 states out of 50, since DOMA ? Over a decade now of brawling in my own state on the issue of same-sex marriage and the rest, back and forth with no respite, no leadership at the national level. Nobody prominent with the nerve to say that so much of the strife could be cut back at the Federal level, that law-abiding, tax-paying adults have the same rights as other citizens and that right includes the right to marry– end of story. Did Obama get around to saying that once earlier this week ?
It’s almost as if the national leadership wants to keep fanning the flames, so that their base will continue to stay supine and vulnerable. (Not to mention helping straights hang onto yet another precious scapegoat so they continue to stupidly not notice who’s really fucking them over.) Oh, and shelling out, always shelling out. What’s the real difference than between the HRC leadership/structure, that of NARAL and that of the AFL-CIO ? None that I can see. Human ATMs without human rights, at the beck and call of a Democratic leadership that exploits the rank-and-file while not actually giving two shits about them. But, hey, let’s throw another glitzy fundraiser and print some bumper stickers ! That proves we care !
Did I miss something ?
What exactly have Obama/Biden done to help GLBT folks again ? So far as I can tell, the ticket’s support is limited to taking money from them and looking down at their feet/demurring whenever some asshole Right-wing religious shit starts yelling about how same-sex marriage is destroying Christian America.
LOL, and if they were promising anything they would be bashed for making said promises. Putting people in lose-lose situations doesn’t play.
What I hope those two do is not elect a Supreme Court that will negate what those good people have done and veto what they can. It might not be enough for you but it’s a better direction nonetheless than where we are. It’s all speculation at this point, they may be much better and they might be a little better. I personally happen to need movement in a better direction and McCain/Palin is the same terrible direction or even worse now that McCain has lurched farther rightward with this nasty pick.
There will probably be 2 appointments in the next 4 years. I would rather have gay and abortion rights freeze where they are or move marginally toward the left than to see what will happen to them in McCain/Palin’s trigger fingers.
I also want our friends and relatives home from Iraq now and certainly not headed to Iran.
One of the things I want most out of this election is to see Karl Rove stripped of all power and access on a national level. He, Bush and Cheney have been like a cancer on this nation. If I could say that next Jan. 20th it would be a damned good day.
Wilfred – hate to say it but there would be no gay marriage in CA w/out the Republican appointed State Supreme Court Justices who voted for equal rights. Politicians sure didn’t make it happen. Simple fact.
The Federal Court is largely lost already, w/ the exception of a *very few* issues.
Rove’s gopt his Fox gig – think we’llbe hearing from him for a long time. Maybe he can hook up w/ Ollie.
(MM- if you see this, it’s only temp)
Arcturus, If you add up who has done what on gay rights, Dems and independents are responsible for 90+% of what has been done. Whether they are Dem/Indie politicians or Dem/Indie voters who accomplish it let’s give credit where credit is due. And far too little of it has been done by Republicans but when they do, good for them.
and by the way Arcturus, who exactly do you think is leading the referendum against gay marriage in California this November?
One from Arcturus and one from wilfred out of moderation…
sorry for the dealy!
8)
#105:
Wilfred, all that dances around what Obama/Biden have done, which is NOTHING. They ride on the coattails of local activists, who they then treat like ATMs to shove in a closet every time some Fundie sneezes. I may be just a boring old married het myself, but even I can see the connection between local setbacks and the tone NATIONAL LEADERS set. These things don’t happen in isolation. Right-wingers PUSH BACK as hard as they can, and for the DP leadership to whimper about “holding patterns” is unconscionable, no matter who’s rights are at stake. I’m sick of making excuses for them. The fucking truth is that they care about Fundies more than they care about doing what’s right. I would go so far as to say that they themselves, are homophobes who hide behind a less genteel brand of bigot to make themselves look good. Oh, you can have an out comedian at your fundraiser here, an entrenched boot-licker like Barney Frank there, and that’s enough. No need to go so far as letting queers not blessed with lucrative jobs and powerful families feel like they’re human or anything.
Activists, real ones, often Indies as you say, do the hard work and take the risks. If they push an outsider party, the Democrats suppress their access and suppress those who want to vote for them (as in Chicago, for instance). Then the Democratic fat cats like Obama/Biden take credit for shit they never did and would actively oppose, if they weren’t so terrified of losing ready cash and of looking even more bleakly interchangeable with their Right-wing pals across the aisle than they already do.
Also, I see no evidence that Obama is in any rush to leave Iraq or back the fuck off Iran ? Where is this evidence ? Oh, he may whittle back some of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” bullshit. His 72,000 fresh young bits of cannon fodder have to come from somewhere, and queers are good enough to get shot at in the desert, I guess. Just not good enough to marry their sweethearts before they head out.
Shiiiiiiiiiiit.
The good cop/bad cop shit gets tiresome. Personally I’m done with it. Fuck Obama/Biden and fuck the rest.