Saturday, November 21, 2009

Linda Ronstadt and Bobby Darin - Long Long Time

Warren Zevon - My Shit's Fucked Up

The Late Great Warren Zevon RIP

Sunday, November 15, 2009

How Wingnuts Roll.

Although I think most of the most rabid wingnuts are personal cowards in both the intellectual and physical sense, that is not what’s motivating them with all this oh noes, hand wringing shit. IMHO

I think at this point, it is pure unadulterated tribalism for a party and brand with three legs in it’s grave and the other slipping. Much as they now forget who GWB was, mainly due to him losing all power for their cravings in that regard, they still have center stage and defend his policies. Largely, because they believe in them, but also because what the hell else they going to do. They were spawned by Bush and Cheney and are children of the damned in that regard. Guarding the Alamo with little more than clenched teeth and spittle.

There are other, and somewhat more sensible and sane republicans out there, at least to know when to quit and do something new, or at least repackaged new. This is what’s behind the crazy tea bag shit and the crazier still notion they can sell it outside the wire of the south and a few other places. Desperation doesn’t care about the odds, it is seat pants flying of the cornered with no where else to turn.

The problem for the GOP and right sided people is there are so many of them, and they are well funded by other crazies that have money to keep it going, until all that is left is Bachmann, Steve King, Eric Cantor et al and the Titanic Stringed Quartet.

Then things might get a little better for them when the bottom comes up to hit them in the face.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

State of Health Care Reform

This has been the big error in dems and Obama’s initial rollout of hc reform, but they have corrected in time I think,. Beginning with the Joint Session speech where Obama laid it out better, and more to the point. Most folks are ok with helping out those who can’t get healthcare and from a distance can see problems with the system as a whole. But most have not had the experience of major illness or accident where they have to use the system in a big way.

On paper, their policies look good, but they have no way of knowing what would happen if they had to use it to survive and not go broke. Cases like Lee Benders are testament to this, and more folks are now coming around to the notion that even they with good policies are not secure and cannot depend on a scurrilous insurance institution to do what’s right when the chips are down.

So the numbers of people supporting a PO and all the other reforms have gone up since Obama has taken full time to the bully pulpit, and shot holes in the facade of lies put up by wingnuts and their ignorant mobs. Watching the Senate Markup, I am even more confident, that though it will be messy and tough, we are going to get a decent reform bill passed. Now that the public is starting to realize that nobody is safe with the status quo/

This has been you weekly Stuck See’s A Pony A Coming Through the Rye.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

GOP Odds For 2010

It’s still too close to Bush for there to be a big GOP gain. They will pick up some seats they lost closely in wingnut districts, and if not this cycle, then the next will see the virtual extinction of the white democratic CC’r in the deep south. And I look for Landreux to fall, though she is tough as nails and could well pull it out.

The Senate lineup so favors dems in 2010, it should make up for any punishment by voters on the economy, that likely won’t start creating decent jobs till too late next year for it to matter.

And the pundits have a stake in keeping the numbers balanced to perpetuate the eternal dem/repub street fight. And for someone like Charly Cook to buckle to the rush predicting for dem defeat speaks for itself and the rest of the braintrust punditry. They are not so stupid as pure self interested. Though many are dumb as Turkeys.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Dick Cheney and the Conservative Movement

No. they have always been that way. It’s a pseudo philosophy that intellect or pure ideas can solve the problems of men. Like the free market model governing itself and a country. Pure ideology for success, until it’s put to the test. Then all the human failings and the angst and failure and redemption take hold, and they have no antidote for that. It becomes a disease to them to be shunned and that has thwarted their well thought out designs for harmonious existence.

That is why empathy has become the enemy. Because the day to day fumbling of human imperfect persons always beats the ideological in the end. Dick Cheney is the perfect leader for this cause because he runs on pure ideological thought of action reaction to solve every problem. And the action is always force of will, that too often simplifies itself to physical force of one kind or another.

But all of the work to build a “conservative movement” has itself dissolved in failure, as it was destined to once put to the test. Man is not a creature of predisposition to follow set rules that don’t account for human frailty. They don’t get this simple fact and are even blind to the fact that they also belong to it.

So now we see the aftermath of emotionally arrested people whose blueprint for governing a country that turned out to be a futile attempt to bypass the complexities of life here on planet earth. Nothing is left but resentment and bewilderment on how to proceed. And Cheney reminds them that force is always there to pick up and use one way or another. This is the tea bagging movement. A minority with no sanctioned power generates it’s own with pathetic attempts at intimidation to get their way. Cheney can’t help them, his room in purgatory has been decorated with the lost souls from which his actions turned them out early from this life.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Todays State of the Union

We have two countries IMO, and always have. And they are existing together only for reasons of shared wealth and defense, or potential for shared wealth. They are ideologically disparate and geographically divided which makes overt rebellion more possible.

I do believe the majority are 1st world citizens, but it is not a large majority, and there are enough who can be swayed by bullshit in any given election. It’s just a sense on my part, but I get the feeling that the bond to generate shared wealth is dissolving into concentrated ideology. I hope I’‘m wrong, but right now, doing away with the filibuster would go far in breaking the bond completely. Aggravating as it is.

And I think the founders knew this about the American condition from day one, and why they made the government we have, with shared powers, and means for the minority to participate in the debate and have some favors of their own, by codifying the debate as extended.

It is also why we only change when in genuine crisis, whatever the issue is that’s causing the emergency. No way to run a country, but it’s what we have.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Color of Wingnut

Talking about racial stuff is uncomfortable. And when I do it I feel like I am doing something wrong, and using it as a political weapon blithely. I figured there would be some of it bubbling up from some quarters on the right, but pieces like this Mccain dude and all the birther shit and behaviour at the teabagging parties has surprised this early on.

And now with the speech to students, it seems like whatever coding for it is being rapidly rinsed away and it soon will be more overt than we’ve seen since the 60’s. Even the talking heads like Mathews et al are citing it as fueling the over the top emotion coming from the right. There are legitimate ideological differences present, but the blanket rage and irrational myths being propagated and apparently believed by a large faction on the right can’t be explained away from just political disagreement.

And Obama is not doing anything that wasn’t declared by him during the campaign, and sometimes I wonder if his recent timidity isn’t just a kneejerk reaction to not fan the flames any more than they are. It is going to get uglier and uglier. The subliminal messaging from the right is do what we want or else, It wreaks of entitlement in the extreme, combined with mob hysteria and a complete lack of intellectual engagement toward reasonable compromise.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

The GOP State of Play

What the GOP is doing is nothing less than what they tried to do with Lincoln before the Civil War. To zero in on the most primal core of human fear, or that what is most different and unknown to the prevailing pale skin public.

The cartoons and fearmongering about lending equality to black skinned peoples from exotic lands far away was the only real weapon they had against a man who had bonded with so many. Even in the north, that was basically against slavery, racism of the kind lending to full equality was exploitable by southerners and their sympathizers before

Abe was finally elected and then re-elected, so it didn’t really work, but caused much more unnecessary divisiveness beyond Lincoln’s sole promise to end slavery by whatever means necessary.

Lincoln was never about granting full equality to blacks, just to end the practice of slavery. Notwithstanding efforts of his enemies to portray full equality as what he was secretly after. Sorta the same with Obama on about anything he’s for, it is warped into something false.

Now these same nativist whites who fear a loss of power are playing the same cards of rank skullduggery and loud and persistent fearmongering lies to reach that core of insecurity the majority white folks naturally have. Someone different that they, a person representing at once a chance for many to be free from overt bigotry that they have scratched and clawed out of not all that long ago, but also opening the possibility of sliding back into the paranoid grips of racial anxiety.

This second thing is what the wingnuts are banking on, though disguised with labels of commie, muslim, Nazi. or whatever. It is about race, added onto at least semi-legitimate political ideological disagreements. And what is surprising and what makes it so dangerous, is the Right Wing brain trust actively and passively promoting it, in some desperate hope it will win them back in favor and power from a country that has shown them the door without courtesy, for epic failures of governance.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Allahpundit and The Boss (Malkin)

Allahpundit used to have a functioning brain cell or two, for a winger. He has gone full raving tea bagging fool lately. His latest cause is torture apologist and all the winging wraiths he calls commenters make me wonder if the Death Panel thing might worthy of actual debate.

He and Ed and the rest of Chickenhawk Brigades hide behind layers of wetsuit protected registration blog boards, where no one can question their dedication to turning America into Idi Amin’s wet dream of screaming cell blocks manned by squads of patriotic fingernail pullers. Meanwhile, the The Monster Queen lays egg after egg of hate filled wanking wingnuttery to kept the Mighty Wurlitzer turning.

Fuck em with abandon. They are not my countrymen, regardless of technicalities.

Wingnut Saturday - TK Funeral Edition

Jaysus Christ on a pogo stick. JUst was reading the braintrust over at Protein Wisdom. Jaw dropping concern for the integrity of Teddy’s funeral service and all that, shameless libtards. In between screes of “hope Ted Kennedy burns in hell”. someone mentioned Sarah pimping Trig on anti-abortion politicking and of course that was different. Also.

Then there’s Bush filling the east room with “Snow Flake” babies to justify his culture of life numbnuttery on Embyo Stem Cells. The ones in in-vitro clinics waiting for the dumpster.

All this on a day the WAPO goes all in for the neo-con torture project. And BTW, though I don’t often read Sullivan because he really is a republican on most issues, he is spot on today in rebuttal to the WAPO nonsense. A must read.

The idiocracy never rests, not for a single damn day.

Wingnut Saturday

They are completely insane. Even some of the ones who made an effort to not be, or at least sound that way. They are digging through ancient files of past wingnuttery, and bigotry (see NRO wistfully recollecting it’s segregationist past for a little modern day spit and polish) in efforts to find a new and improved narrative that will pass muster with the intractably crackered core of the GOP. It will take of lot dolling up the facts for prime time, but it’s all a long war anyways. Unless it jumps to the real thing of politics by other means./

Friday, August 28, 2009

What Was Old Is New Again

When you think about it, what route to electoral success does the RW have left. Their economic theories have run the country into a fiscal ditch/ And as older whites die off, the old wedge social issues of gay marriage etc,,,,, are dieing off with them as younger voters take their place with more acceptance,

They have completely screwed themselves with HIspanic’s ,with all the Xenophobic wingnuttery, and blacks have long since slammed the door in their faces, despite the RW intelligentia efforts to make the GOP a more welcoming place for them, only to be undercut by the anti-affirmative action crowd hollering about white mans angst.

Might as well go all in for white power to save their raggitty asses from a permanent minority. I look for more and more desperate devolution to past racial and ethnic roots, and maybe even sectarian anxieties of the white populace. Especially in the south, in an attempt at electoral evening out since white anglo saxons are still the majority in this country.

They will succeed only in paring down the remaining faithful to an even more distilled wingnut, but they will be loud and increasingly more seditious. There is really no other course other than to split the GOP into two separate parties which would further isolate them in a static minority, at least in the short term. They cannot ever coerce the screaming teabaggers into moderation because they currently have the numbers to beat back any effort to do so.

Rock and a hard place for the right, and a damaging course for the country as a whole to have one third of it’s citizens afflicted with the rage virus.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bi-Partisan Time is Up

I don’t really blame Obama for giving it a go at the bipartisan approach. This is the dudes style and who am I to pan it. But it is rapidly coming time to fish or cut bait.

And after Grassely’s nutty endorsement of Palin’s Death Panel shit, it is now time to cast aside any hope of getting a few GOP votes in the Senate. Obama knows and every dem on Capital Hill knows, that the wingnuts were never going to let government touch their precious cash cow we call our Health Care System, at any degree more than it does now with medicare, which they hate with a white hot passion.

Political Kabucki has it’s place, but is not the game. And as surely as repubs won’t vote for govment involvement, there are a plethora of progressive dems in the House who won’t vote for a meaningless bill, with no PO. This die was cast before the curtain even opened. We have heard a lot about the Blue Dogs, but they are only about 50 in number. There are a whole lot more liberal House members.

Obama’s error and dems in the Senate was letting the Senate Finance committee drag out their non-sense and become THE focus of attention. I suspect the corrupt Baucus and his winger pals were more than delighted they could.

But this isn’t an election year, thank Gawd. And when congress returns and hands are forced, we will have something solid to debate and the largely pre ordained drama will play itself out, and it will come down to Senate dems having the gumption to go it alone and do the right thing, or not.

I really don’t think we are going to get a bill without a strong PO. The House liberals, even though they are presently quiet, won’t have it. So it will be either a good bill, or none at all. Opinions are like A-holes, everbody got one. This is mine.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

That Was Then, This Is Now

It isn’t 1970 anymore and moderates and independents are wiser from suffering 15 years of GOP congress control and the past eight of Bushism. No going back to the old race baiting, God, Guns and Gays, at least for the foreseeable future.

Economic destitution wrought by the goopers still trumps faux patriotism wedge plays and hate mongering has permanently turned off NE fiscal conservatives. And young people are having none of the old bullshit. Throw in thoroughly alienated Hispanics from the RW Xenophobes and the gettable vote contracts even more.

The only viable card in the winger deck is spending/deficit concerns that are at least legitimate. But the racial fears, anxiety, and outright hatred are mussing up any message on spending trepidations of the center. Welcome to the GOP entrenched southern base and the blood curdling Rebel Yell serving as political debate for hope and prosperity. You bought it wingnuts, now you own it.

Monday, August 10, 2009

I Call Your Death Panel and Raise a Denial Engine

Sarah says democrats want to establish “Death Panels” to deny health care.


I give Sarah the “Denial Engines” currently being used by private insurers to deny claims when people get sick.


“Denial Engines” exist and are killing people, Government “Death
Panels” do not, nor will they ever. Herein lies a lie versus the truth.
There are many more.



The problem is bound to grow as insurers make use of
sophisticated data tools dubbed “denial engines,” which are touted to
reduce reimbursements by 3 to 10 percent. Bearing brand names like
Ingenix Detection Software and Bloodhound Technologies’ ClaimsGuard,
they search patient records for any signs that claims have strayed
outside company parameters. Weeding out fraud or speeding up processing
is one thing; serving up excuses to deny legitimate coverage is another.

Technology of death.



Saturday, August 1, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

Monday, July 13, 2009

The World of Megan Mcardle

Here is another Mcardle article on how people who don't pay their own medical bills do not add on to the rising cost of healthcare. She uses a graph by AEI to show the level of Veterinary care people pay for their pets is commiserate with the what the country spends on healthcare. both of which rise at same rate.

the graph is a gross total expenditures for pets and people health care and not per capata, or doesn't account for the fact there are more people than in 1984 with steady population growth. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but wouldn't more people also mean more pets and vet visits overall during this time frame and account for the lineal correlation?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Geihtners New Plan Like Old Plan

Seems to me what Obama/Geithner are going for is short term gain for the quickest way to unfreeze credit which greases the wheels of commerce as it is currently designed. Therefore, It is is more a political plan for recovery than a long term plan for economic reconstruction, and actually lessons the immediate political hazard for Obama. The overwhelming percentage of the public does not care much for long term reform and simply wants the good times to roll again. They may be outraged that people who caused the problem, are getting made whole again, but that will be a shallow concern compared with a higher DOW and a return to easy credit and more jobs.

The problem is, that it is setting the stage for another disaster likely worse than this one down the road, unless the business model is changed as the Krugman’s of the world are rightly demanding. Far be it from me to guess accurately what Obama is thinking, but maybe he figures he can reform an economic engine better and with help from congress, if it is actually running and not dead as now. Krugman wants the changes now, but he is not a politician and doesn’t factor in the reality of politics into the equation as a limiting factor on a presidents elbow room for passing legislation.

I will have hope if this plan is followed up with brisk new regulations and necessary structural changes to our econ model, that is if temporary economic improvement doesn’t once again breed complacency.

A layman’s take

Monday, March 16, 2009

Comrade Stuck Ponders the Conservative Mind

Question posed by Comrade Jake -- I struggle to understand their worldview at times, and so I find it interesting when it’s defended intelligently


Comrade Stuck responds

I’m convinced that much of their worldview is a contrived amalgam of contrarian ideas often taken to extreme to set them apart from so called liberals.

Why would they do this? The better question might be what is it that motivates your average wingnut, more than anything. I think it’s a need to control that comes from a kind of systemic innate permeating fear. And what do people who are always afraid about everything do to compensate? They need to control their external world, and if they can pull that off, then they can not be afraid.

We live in a democracy where people vote for their leadership and offer solutions to make people feel secure and well off. So any party or group that wants to strike at that deepest primal need of feeling safe and secure will likely get more people to vote for them. Some of these folks are sincere in their beliefs and longing for a more controlled and ordered society. But many are nothing more than huckster charlatans who covet power.

A large number of us see this onerous tactic for what it is, and will likely never buy in. But there are those who are at times susceptible, and give in to let these people into power, and they do things like wiretap, torture, subvert science and mold the constitution into all sorts of means to further control and to enhance their power.

Up until GWB/Cheney, the country had chosen mostly people on the right who don’t necessarily have this perverted worldview, at least to a significant degree. We made a mistake but luckily have woke up and threw the bastards out of power, but the damage and legacy remains of a party geared to this sort of crap, mostly derived from southern ideology, with leadership and punditry frantically trying to keep it alive. We must not let them and work relentlessly to kill the beast, or at least send it into political oblivion.

End of sanctimonious rant.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Comrade Stuck Disembles On the Douthat Choice

A stream of conciousness rant not meant as too serious.

It’s kind of amusing to me that people parse through these guys who right from the right, searching for a sensible conservative who understands the true meaning, like it was some mystical ancient belief system that needs to be carefully unwrapped from it’s former self, in a simple way we can understand.

I don’t think it’s at all complicated or mystical, it has just been thrown under the bus at least since Bush SR. was presnit. Conservatism by definition is efficient simplicity. But not without the epoxy of responsible to hold it together. Lower taxes, but not so low it threatens the economy and the viability of the government to function. Be ready for war, but don’t go looking for them. Only enough regulation to not overtly kill people with industry, and on and on. There are many nuances to these principles that an opposition party is needed to provide more protection and met needs of average citizens, comes the liberals/progressives.

The problem is, that the GOP has become infected with a virile strain of an atavistic ideological virus that covets authoritarianism and social Darwinism above all else. It has always been present in this country and has raised itself again as current the leadership of the Republican party.

People giving voice to how it should be is a good thing, I suppose. And who does that matters for an influential newspaper, but only action on the ground will change things. If Douthat, or whoever, uses such a position to agitate for a new way, and likely a new party for a decent and truly patriotic party from the right, then I will listen and care. Because we operate without a viable and responsible opposition party at our peril. If it’s just more careful noodling to not offend, then I won’t listen and won’t care.

Question For a Blog Crawl


Has Howard Fineman gone insane? Or is he just funnin’ us?
You decide.

A Turning Tide?

Swimming in the middle, he’s denounced as a socialist by conservatives, criticized as a polite accommodationist by government-is-the-answer liberals, and increasingly, dismissed as being in over his head by technocrats.

Mysterious technocrats? Does he mean bobbleheads on Cable News? Or Malkin’s Magoo Crew?

Luckily for Obama, the public still likes and trusts him, at least judging by the latest polls, including NEWSWEEK’s.But, in ways both large and small, what’s left of the American establishment is taking his measure and, with surprising swiftness, they are finding him lacking.

The American Establishment—Does he mean House Republicans? Chuck Norris? Glenn Beck?

And yet he is by temperament judicious, even judicial. He’d have made a fine judge. But we don’t need a judge. We need a blunt-spoken coach.

Last week Fineman et al were bitching that Obama needed to sweet talk talk us and the markets more about how ever thing is gonna be alright. Instead of all that pooh poohing blunt talk about how bad things are.

If the establishment still has power, it is a three-sided force, churning from inside the Beltway, from Manhattan-based media and from what remains of corporate America. Much of what they are saying is contradictory, but all of it is focused on the president:

The Establishment, or the Three Stooges of brain death.
Medicine, Howard, you need medicine!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Comrade Stuck Responds

Comrade Stuck offers his response to the recent GOP complaints that the left wished for Iraq to fail -- and now justifies their declarations that they Obama Fails/Limbaugh

On the subject of Iraq, for me it wasn’t a matter of wishing, I can honestly say, that from the day it was suggested by Bush, I have not had a single thought that it could succeed. I was happy that the invasion went fairly smoothly with a low casualty count for GI"S, and hoped we would then hi-tail it out of there before the shitted really started to fly. We didn’t, and it did. I came to my conclusion on the utter futility of such a mission from reading something called history, a neo con no no. 1400 hundred years of pretty much non-stop civil sectarian war, punctuated occasionally by failed foreign occupations and iron fisted dictators to keep the lid on, for a while.

That is not the same as "wishing" for Iraq to fail. And notwithstanding the current relative calm, I have no doubt, none, nada, zip, that the shit will fly again when we leave, whether that’s next year, or 10- years from now, or at anytime in between, for that matter.

I think wingnuts know this too, deep in their tiny black hearts. And why they are scrambling to hang their mistake around Obama’s neck.

Glenn Thrush – Politico

A group of 31 House Republicans have introduced a resolution "declaring victory in Iraq," which is bound to evoke images of "Mission Accomplished" and George W. Bush in a flight suit.

The intention of the resolution isn’t actually celebratory. It’s intended to set a political trap by declaring, six weeks into Obama’s presidency, that all responsibility for the six-year conflict, which was initiated by President Bush on flawed evidence and incompetently pursued for much of his presidency, is now Obama’s to lose.

From the article a quote from Ryan Crocker. which I think is true.

The notion that we have already achieved a "victory" in the conflict is disputed by most experts on the conflict, including Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker who recently told author Thomas Ricks, "The events for which the Iraq War will be remembered probably have not yet happened …"

Monday, March 2, 2009

Funouse Musing #108

The only thing that can possibly re-unite the disparate idjit factions of the GOP into a viable electable party is the same thing as last time. Losing elections and a growing hunger for power that becomes so great over time they are willing to sweep their disdain for one another under the rug and hold each others sweaty hand.

And even then, when that occurs years from now, they will be faced with overcoming a growing dem demography of increased minority voters and complete the huge task of wooing back moderate fiscal conservative New Englander’s who have had it up to here with the fundies and southern ideologues, and their hateful social constrictions.

This time, they will have to find and embrace an icon that is truly a compassionate conservative. I’ve never seen one, but then I’ve never seen a Unicorn either.

Of course, the wildcard is always the possibility that dems will fuck things up to such a degree, wingers could win as the default party of desperation. If that happens, there might not be much left to govern anyways.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

FH Musing @107

Comrade Stuck offers a quip in response to George Lakoff 's article on The Obama Code


Remnants of the democrat politics by grace. Rise above those heathen wingnuts and ignore them and everything will work out fine. The American people will recognize their douchebaggery for what it is and choose us.

Though republicans themselves have pretty much screwed themselves with respect to their image with voters, dems like Lakoff miss the point entirely on why it is a good idea to at least call the right wing on their bullshit. I think many AMericans know Liimbaugh and his followers,( which is the bulk of the current GOP when you add in those who hate him but fear him more) are full of shit. The problem is, imo, many voters are more interested in the fact that liberals at least stand up to the wingers, regardless of the content of the argument. Call it the wimp factor they are gauging, and they don’t want wimps representing them.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Funhouse Musing #106

Repartee over tea, in response to Comrade Stuck's essay's on Conservatism and it's pending demise.

I’ve said it before on this blog and others, sometimes mocked a little (not here) that the GOP now under control of southern ideologues are operating out a mindset that says, I don’t accept your liberal constitution and many of it’s basic tenets. Such as separation of church/state, individual civil liberties, and a whole array of notions of fairness and restricting government power. It is often a subtle and maybe even an un conscious (though less so with each passing day it seems) drive toward a type of authoritarianism grounded in centuries of the southern aristocratic lifestyle and ideology thought to be previously conquered with the Civil War and subsequent apartheid era, that only was thwarted 30 or 40 years ago. Read it in the rebellion talk growing on the right, whipping themselves into a state of mind of "hell no we won’t go". Add to that the political Fait Compli of the southern strategy with national elected offices split amongst two parties largely along the old Mason Dixon line and you have a setup for real secession overtones, not just culturally, but throughout our governing bodies at the national level. The bulk of the country has firmly turned against the beliefs and policies of the old south currently embodied in the GOP. And are turning toward the traditional polices of the democratic party, the ones calling for fairness for average people and restoration of the middle class. Only a complete failure of dems to fix the destruction wrought by 30 years of RW policies can change the direction now set. And if that happens, we may be in for the era of guns and knives.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Funhouse Musing #105 Wingnut

*discussions about Ed Morrissey/wingnut

Ed and all the other wingnuts, at least the ones not currently clawing out each others eyes, have slipped into full reactionary mode. This is the GOP in the 50’ and 60’s before they gathered the feuding clans together for the Conservative Movement"—based on limited government, restrained foreign involvements (ie nation building), and deregulation. Reagan tightened up the unholy alliance, and at least paid homage to the core tenets of conservatism movement style. Though in realty, he did raise taxes and grow government, and meddle in foreign countries( Central and South America mostly). But the press and public was to engrossed in his cheerful Americana persona and let those things pass.

Comes along dufus George with his delusions of grandeur and Churchill/Ghandi/and dualing FDR/Hoover lovechild (no regulation with big spending on Med. prescription for big Pharma) fantasies and flushes the Conservative Movement down the shitter. They have nothing left to but spout discredited Burkean bullshit and now hypocritical Buckley high dugeon conservative principle. And of course, watching Obama for anything to criticize, down to his lack of proper dress for the oval office. I expect the new Obama family dog will be vetted accordingly.

Funhouse Musing #104 Dem/Repub

*from conversations with Comrade Stuck


I would agree that ideology of the left and right and the electorate are in a significant flux right now. He forgets the politics of the 60’ and 70’ was a stormy amalgam of an unpopular war with a high draftee death count and a society trying to wrestle free from Victorian age social constraints.

The republican party has mostly been about a disparate group of factions with some similarities but dominated by hatred of the lefts beliefs and equal hatred for being out of power. They still hate the left, now even more, but the need to come together for winning elections is over for now. Overpowered by countervailing interests that have always been there. And now with southern ideology firmly in control.

I don’t think the left is all that much different than it has always been. It has new causes and new tensions between it’s factions, but mild in comparison to the GOP. We remain, imo, a party with factions that fundamentally agrees with one another, save for different emphasis on importance of one issue over another, and the details for dealing with it. Of, course now that the GOP is insane and irrelevant, that fighting dem spirit too often gets turned in on itself and we argue about a 19 month IRaq withdrawal versus 16, or when Obama does a Crazy Ivan left or right, and what that means.

Funhouse Musing #103 Democrats

*from conversations with Comrade Stuck

I agree, and that the shift is primarily back to the long time zone for traditional democratic belief. which boiled down, is a fair shake for the average citizen. That’s why it makes me chuckle with glee when wingnuts screach and run around cawing Porkulus, and socialist and Obama’s numbers keep going up. The country has just awoken from a 30 year wingnut failed experiment and get it. Common sense, a sense of fair play, and someone who so far is looking out for their interests is on the job once again. A democrat like Truman, Kennedy, FDR, and a sometimes Clinton. And BTW, trying to save industry and reform it at the same time is in everyone’s interest.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hannnutty in Full Battle Regalia

Further Musings on Libertarianism

Libertarianism, like Conservatism should be confined to impolite discussions at Dinner Parties and Blogs. Like doctrinaire Conservatism, It also lacks a "program repair function" grounded in pragmatism. And often taken to it’s natural progression in actual situations of governance, starts to resemble anarchy. In comparison, the political concept of true progressivism, the over riding idea is for finding what works and doing it. Until it doesn’t work, then fixing it or trying something new. And I don’t necessarily equate Liberal of Left wing dogma as automatically "progressive". It can be without the dogma part and a "program repair" function based in the pragmatic. And, once upon a time there were creatures that were progressive conservatives. They have long since become extinct and may be buried alongside TR.

Musings on the Conservative Movement and Today's GOP

I look at conservatism more as a personal blueprint for livings ones day to day life. I wonder if the problems of the republican party emanates ultimately from the notion that this personal choice can be institutionalized in a political party for the purpose of being implemented on a national scale for governance. Attempting to do such a thing fly’s in the face of practicality in a country whose founding document was formed toward creating a liberal democracy. That doesn’t mean that rugged individualism, personal responsibility and the other tenants of the so called conservative movement should not be suggested as noble goals for every American, but to force fealty to this by public policy has proven to be a disaster, IE Katrina, Fema and other failed bush management of agencies designed to do things people cannot do for themselves. It is ironic to me, the fact that in many ways as a person who lives their life conservatively on a personal level, approaching minimalism in some respects, is a pretty liberal politicital person on issues of national policy, especially socially and economically.

IMHO> When the GOP realizes this and conservatives begin to accept a role of competent government that can service the country in a positive way, then they can become a party that may be capable of governing this liberal democracy. What that means is developing ideas that may be a kind of conservative philosophy that is frugal in it’s approach but meets the threshold of supporting a government that does stuff people can’t do for themselves. Call it liberal conservatism, though Malkin would not doubt be not impressed with such RIONism heresy. To me it is the only thing that might work to restore the viability of the GOP. I doubt it will happen any time soon though.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Lessons in Fail

Looks like the Gop is shoveling the pooh fast and furious to find that Magic Electoral Pony to win back the House and Senate in 2010. It's the old/new smear and fear though not on National Security this time. Dial back to 1993 when Newt Gingrich took the NO road on Clinton's effort at health care reform , doubling down with money scandals by dems in Congress to paint a picture of big spending al a corrupt democrats should be thrown out.

One problem, actually several problems with this tact in 2009. The republicans have broken all records in scandals that make those by dems in 1993 look like child's play. Plus, running the economy into the ground the past eight years, two costly and largely failed wars, and a nation ready for change not of the kind the GOP provided. So they pull out the old playbook for some Deja Vu and spin the wheel again. Jeanne Cummings expand the trouble with the new conservative comeback using old ideas.

First the take from GOP strategist (cough) Grover NOrquist.

There are two models that Republicans are looking at,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “One is 1990, [President George H.W.] Bush gets together with the Democrats at Andrews Air Force Base, raises taxes and loses the next election,” he explained. “The other is 1993, Democrats have a series of proposals to spend and tax. Republicans vote no and regain the House and Senate.”


Jeanne Cummings from Politco


It’s not 1994 anymore

For one thing, Obama isn’t Clinton.

President Bill Clinton never won a popular majority in his two elections. Obama did. His vote margin exceeded 9 million votes, the largest ever for a nonincumbent presidential contender — including Ronald Reagan’s 1980 win over President Jimmy Carter.

And another thing: Republicans aren’t in the ascendancy as they were in 1994. After two victorious election cycles, the Democrats have puréed the Republicans into their purest conservative caucus.

In a way, that made it easier for Republicans to vote against Obama’s stimulus plan. But a repeat performance on health care could be more complicated.

Health care is a personal issue for many voters. Reforming the current system ranks as the public’s third top priority, according to a January Kaiser Family Foundation poll. And many of those advocates aren’t traditional Democratic constituents.

“We are in a different game, and they are playing by the old rules,” said Stan Greenberg, a Democratic political strategist and former Clinton adviser.

Ordinary families and businesses, big and small, are struggling with health care’s rising costs. Insurance companies and drug makers that stood by Republicans in the last debate are now cozying up to the Obama team, hoping to influence a final reform bill.


Everything old is new again.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Nervouse Wingnuts Postpone Holder Vote

It seems like Senator John Cornyn is on a one man mission to concern troll or make it safe for George Bush and Cheney to retire in this country. Earlier, on the Senate floor Cornyn held up Hillary Clinton's nomination because he was afraid that "future" conflicts of interest could arise between Bill's Global Initiative fundraising and Hillary's duties as Secretary of State, and particulaly with the Middle East. At one point Cornyn went full on Concern Troll, saying he told Hillary, he was blocking things for her own good. LOL.

It struck me as odd for a couple of reasons, first that we heard no such concerns from the GOP about George W. Bush's and his papa George SR. about their deep and intricate financial and personal ties to the Saudi's and others in the region. The infamous and largely secret workings of the Carlyle Group come to mind. And secondly, funny that wingnuts are concerned with problems down the road, when we consider Iraq and other Bush adventures such as the neglect of involvement with the Israel/Palestinian troubles that have led to what we have recently seen.

But the most obvious nervous concern is over the Holder nomination, and Cornyn's and others holding up the vote for a week to get assurances that republicans won't be prosecuted for their crimes during the Bush Administration. All the hand wringing over the Marc Rich pardon and other trivial actions that Holder took that wingers don't approve of, are just a smokescreen for what they really want. A "Get out of Jail Free Card " for republican actions the past 8 years. Especially since Holder has stated flatly that waterboarding is, in fact, torture. By committee rules they can delay it for up to a week, but no longer. I seriously doubt the new Attorney General is going to grant a pardon he's not authorized to grant, before he even gets confirmed. This little Kabbooki dance will be repeated many times the next four years as wingnut convulse themselves into the powerless widjets the American voter has mandated.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Loyal Opposition, NOT

If this is any indication of the tone of the coming GOP "loyal opposition", I wonder what the unloyal kind might sound like.

Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, promised in a new a YouTube message to be Obama's "worst nightmare" and said it would be the party’s mission for the next four years to "expose" the Democrats for what they "want to do to this country."


And this is before Obama has been sworn in as President. Welcome to the land of wingnut civility Obama. It will only get worse as Dawson explains;

"Whether you're the chairman of the state party or the national committee, your job is to hold Democrats accountable in every way," he told CNN. "That doesn't mean you have to do it in a mean tone of voice or in a way that doesn't offer solutions."


Mean is relative, I suppose.