The Politics of Spite

Paul Krugman on the 'teachable moment' in the wake of the IOC decision to go with Rio's cute little brown bikini-clad behinds instead of Chicago's big shoulders.

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.

So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern(my em).

The only difference now is that the G.O.P. is in a weaker position, having lost control not just of Congress but, to a large extent, of the terms of debate. The public no longer buys conservative ideology the way it used to; the old attacks on Big Government and paeans to the magic of the marketplace have lost their resonance. Yet conservatives retain their belief that they, and only they, should govern.

The result has been a cynical, ends-justify-the-means approach. Hastening the day when the rightful governing party returns to power is all that matters, so the G.O.P. will seize any club at hand with which to beat the current administration.

It’s an ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to understand.

"America’s real problems" are the Repugs and the fringe morons they're scared to antagonize.

Remember the old Service Manager's saying: "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your main objective was to drain the swamp."

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

SARAH PALIN'S 400-PAGE MEMOIR DUE IN NOVEMBER
She says she “can't wait” to read it.

U.S., Cuba Held Secret Talks
Cuban officials met with officials from Mets, Dodgers, White Sox.

Sin Survey: Coastal Areas Greedier, Bible Belt Excels in Envy, Wrath, Lust, Pride
Survey on sloth delayed.

Economy Gets Jolt From 2 New Sectors
Medical marijuana, giant cupcakes lead recovery.

Just a note ...

After being gone so long, I sure as hell don't wanna go to work this morning. Heh ...

Update:

Told ya I still had my head up my ass. I get in to work today and I have to open up. Unlock the dead bolt. Unlock the door. Walk in, walk up to the alarm keypad, and go blank. Totally forgot the code which I've been entering for the last year. By the time I remembered it, the alarms were going off and Nunzio was just pulling up. Kenny the Cop was too. Got laughed at first thing.

Welcome back.

Oh yeah ...

It's Satan's work:

...

Some say people in Utah are vieweing porn more than any other state in the country after a study earlier this year by a Harvard economics professor. Professor Benjamin Edelman tracked subscriptions to online porn sites. He discovered that Utah is number one in the nation in online porn.

...

That's what I love about religions in general. They always have someone handy to blame (Satan) for their 'sins'. If they do something 'wrong', they were under the power of the Devil. Sorry, but "the Devil made me do it" don't fly here. Try taking responsibility for yourselves before you yell and scream about others' moral fiber.

Link thanks to Oliver Willis.

Uppity peasants ...

Nicole goes back and forth with a producer on Little George's Hair; probably to no avail, but at least she wasn't ignored ... at first.

...

Are you surprised that he had no response to that? Nah, me neither. I don't know if it impacted him at all, but I'm hoping that from now on he has a small voice inside his head reminding him that some of his viewers actually think critically and realize how badly he's--and all the rest of the bobblehead media--doing his job.

Honors ...

To most, it's only a hat. To me, it's an honor to receive ...

Sunday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

This 'un goes out ta Fixer's liver. Heh.

Watch the fiddle player. She's a hoot!

Callahan Dylan & The American Pie Band ~ Dooley

Thanks to tommyomiller, Indiana.

Update:

Here's an older version by the original group:

The Dillards (as The Darlings) ~ Dooley

Thanks to AMSOMmp, Mayberry.

Just as an historical note, I smoked a joint with Doug Dillard once, who is one of the best 5-string banjo players in the world. It was the highlight of my showbiz career, overshadowing even my role in The Thing With Two Heads.

Mr. Dillard is a U.S. Navy veteran who spent his hitch flying backwards while staring at the sky as the rear gunner on a TBF Avenger. Some banjo players are born crazy, some are made crazy, but the best ones are both!

The kids ain't 'just saying no' in Texas

Suzanne Ehlers at Common Dreams. Links at site.

When I graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas, I can remember at least two dozen girls (out of a class of 600) pregnant or already with babies. It may seem astonishing now, but it was fairly normal in 1991: so normal, in fact, that our high school had responded with an academic track geared toward expectant and young mothers.

Based on this history, I wasn't totally shocked to learn that President Bush's abstinence-only program led to a 57 percent rise in student pregnancy in the Lone Star state.

What was truly shocking were the recent headlines that some Texas schools are abandoning abstinence-only education! No kidding, guys, what tipped you off that it wasn't working?

Abstinence-only programs were big in Texas. The state received more program funding than any other state in the nation. But the biggest experiment of this idea demonstrated the biggest failures. Classic Texas.

Maybe they could cut down on the teenage pregnancies by teaching the kids to do it like Texas politicians do it to Texans. The 'back door' route, so to speak.

Grayson exposed them

Folks are having a lot of fun customizing this clip. I put it up at Fixer & Gordon with captions about Hitler's choice of motorcycles. Heh. It's gone now due to the copyright holders being a teensy bit pissed off, so watch this now because it probably won't be around long.

We hate Hitler and Nazis of course, but they come in handy sometimes to illustrate a point.

Thanks to skitzostudios, Oregon.

Monkees ...

I've been spending the early morning organizing the 1000-plus pictures I took while we were gone and I came across this one of a baby Barbary Ape on Gibraltar.

Click to make even cuter.

And then this popped into my head.

The Monkees - I'm A Believer

Update:

What the hell, a little more cuteness couldn't hurt. Heh ...

Regarding Polanski and the Rule of Law

A snippet from El Rude-o:

What's fucking funny is that all of these people who write the lie about how squishy liberals want to set Polanski free get into a righteous froth when liberals say that people who committed torture during interrogations should be investigated and brought to justice. This is not some vague analogy. See, some of us believe in principles, not just politics. One of those is that criminals should pay for their crimes, no matter if they're famous movie directors, CIA agents, or Vice Presidents. We can argue about what the punishment should be. But no one should be excused from answering to the law. It's the right that's always too ready to excuse criminals when it suits their ideological purposes.

Please go read the rest.

"California Snow"

Tom Russell is one of the best Texas singer/songwriters (even though he's from L.A. like me) going. He was on Letterman last night singing a song from his new album and I made it a point to catch it. It was very good, symbolic, eclectic, mysterious, a little dark as is his wont, so I thought I'd check and see what was new from him on YouTube and ran across this one.

He's singing about a mountain range 500 miles south of here, but we've got the extra blanket on, been runnin' the heater the last few nights, and the snow level was 4500' last night, considerably lower down the hill than we are. It didn't snow, but we were thinkin' about it.

Tom Russell ~ California Snow

Thanks to AMSDconcerts.

Update:

While I was watchin' this again after I posted it, it ran long enough that my "My Pictures" screensaver came on. Out of hundreds of pictures, the one that came up was of my driveway with about three feet of snow in it. Is someone out there tryin' ta tell me something? Heh.

Update 2:

Here is Tom Russell performing two songs from Blood and Candle Smoke and discussing the concept behind the album.

The Wizard of Beck

On the theory that even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes, that pusillanimous puke David Brooks speaks some sense for once. Unless he's sandbagging us.

So what is the theme of our history lesson? It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness. It is the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party. It is a story as old as “The Wizard of Oz,” of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.

Over the years, I have asked many politicians what happens when Limbaugh and his colleagues attack. The story is always the same. Hundreds of calls come in. The receptionists are miserable. But the numbers back home do not move. There is no effect on the favorability rating or the re-election prospects. In the media world, he is a giant. In the real world, he’s not.

So the myth returns. Just months after the election and the humiliation, everyone is again convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the saddest thing is that even Republican politicians come to believe it. They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist.

They pay more attention to Rush’s imaginary millions than to the real voters down the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it’s more interested in pleasing Rush’s ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because nobody has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer’s niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician’s coalition-building strategy.

The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time.

Man, they sure fall LOUD!

Marching Backwards: The Spectacle of Fear

Truthout

It may be 2009 but the rhetoric is strictly 1950 when a man held up a sheet of paper and declared, "I have here in my hand a list of names ..."

Glenn Beck is not original, nor was Joe McCarthy. [...]

Each time the "red scare" gets trotted out, new laws are passed that ever so gently and ever so patriotically encroach on the integrity of freedom and individual liberties of our citizens. They bear great names like the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Espionage Act, loyalty oaths and investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Patriot Act. Each labels "the enemies of the state" and warns that our government, our very way of life, is in jeopardy of utter collapse unless we act immediately and act strongly against the influences of liberalism corrupting the very fabric of American life. The Constitution is hanging by a thread.

Fear is the root of hate and bigotry and racism. It drives the mob to build internment camps and free speech zones and segregated facilities. It sets fire to books and thoughts and people who would challenge the darkness. It seeks to paralyze the vision seeker and the dreamer. Fear is the flame that ignites war and genocide and collateral damage. But most of all - fear is the tool of demagogues and tyrants who offer themselves up as our red white and blue champions with the promise of salvation for one easy payment of obedient servitude. Fear is never free.

The GOP is nothing more than the recycled fearmongering of a hundred years ago. [...]

During the coal strikes of 1902, mine owner George Baer, when urged to make concessions to the labor unions, wrote, "the rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for - not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country."

Those are familiar words with a familiar sentiment. Is 1902 the same as 2009? The GOP and Glenn Beck and talk radio would have you think so.

Where Franklin Roosevelt took America into his confidence and told us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself, the GOP whispers in the dark, "Be very afraid."

Where JFK inspired us to ask what we could do for America, the GOP warns us that government must be feared.

Where Edward R. Murrow exhorted us to not walk in fear of one another, the GOP promotes suspicion.

Where Dr. King gave us a dream of diversity, the GOP rips us apart with fear of equal belonging.

Everything old is new again.

The GOP clutches fear in its tiny fists because it is all it has. It is the touchstone. It is not even original. Darkness never is.

So, Democrats, tell me again - what exactly are you afraid of?

Start with their shadows and work outwards.

Go Ahead And Die

We mighta posted this a coupla years ago. If so, here it is again. Even more apropos now.

Austin Lounge Lizards ~ Go Ahead And Die! (Pirates Of The Health Care-ibean)

Thanks to lastangelman.

Biting us...Part deux

Following up on Fixer's post:

Bush Administration’s Tourist Visa Policy May Have Cost America The 2016 Olympics

Shorter:

U.S.: Damn furriners. Hoops. Jump. Pay.

Rest of the world: Blow it out yer ass, Yanks. We'll go where we're wanted.

Thanks again, Georgie.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris ~ Never Be Anyone Else But You

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Biting us ...

Right in the ass.

As most of you know, the Mrs. and I go to Europe every year and, having just gotten back, this post from Digby is timely. Most of the passengers aboard Queen Mary 2 are European. Naturally, in the evenings after dinner, many folks get together in one of the bars on the ship and talk inevitably goes to politics and international relations. I was sitting with a Brit, an Aussie, a Welshman, and a German one night last week while the Mrs. was at the Blackjack tables and they all told me the same thing over pints of Spitfire.

Paraphrasing: "We love going to America (and Americans) but it's just too big a pain in the ass anymore."

They cite the visa rules and security protocols enacted after September 11th and would rather go to South America or Southeast Asia to spend their money than deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs. If anyone wonders about the "stunning defeat" we suffered yesterday regarding Chicago's Olympic bid, you can bet those rules have a lot to do with it.

There are a lot of American communities who survive on the tourist dollars Europeans and others bring into this country and as long as we make it so difficult to visit, those bucks will go somewhere else on an increasingly more frequent basis. It's time we realize that treating others like pariahs will not make us safer, just poorer.

If Glenn Beck needs help to cry ...

He doesn't have to go to such lengths. I'd be willing to give him a hand ... across the face.

The Roman Polanski Case in a Nutshell

1. Roman Polanski fed alcohol to a 13-year-old girl
2. Roman Polanski fed a quaalude to a 13-year-old girl
3. Roman Polanski proceeded to penetrate that same child vaginally and anally.
4. Roman Polanski was arrested.
5. Roman Polanski signed a plea agreement admitting sex with that same 13-year-old girl.
6. Roman Polanski fled the U. S. to avoid sentencing based on that plea.
7. Roman Polanski has been arrested 30 years later and awaits extradition to the U.S. to face those charges.

Why is there any discussion about whether Polanski should face justice for this? What is so confusing about this to otherwise intelligent people?

There is no question that he should face the rape charges. There is no question that his plea deal should be worth less than the 30 year old paper it is written on. There is no question that he should also face charges of flight to avoid prosecution. It is up to the justice system and, ideally, a jury to decide the price he must pay for those crimes.

JG.

Cross-posted from here