Talkin’ ’bout Revolution
By DougJ, Head of Infidelity May 10th, 2010
The very serious Heritage Foundation is angry about something. It’s a tweet from Robert Gibbs.
Some guy from Heritage:
Government officials using their position to endorse businesses and products creates very obvious conflicts of interest. Will every business Robert Gibbs walk into now offer him special treatment in the hopes he gives them a shout-out or endorsement? Will Revolution Cycles offer him special treatment for today’s tweet? Did he already receive special treatment from Revolution Cycles, considering his tweet specifically calls out “Ken” who helped him with his bike?
I wonder if Jake Tapper will pick up this important story, too.
Posted in Burkean bells, Good News For Conservatives, Outrage
We have to be fair though, the enormous influence exerted on our government by bicycle shops is a plague.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I’m saddened to see that the billions spent by the vile corporate bike lobby have finally corrupted the Obama administration.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Between this and the inevitable Kagan uproar, today’s going to be a very long day.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Big Bike obviously calls the shots in the Obama administration.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:37 am
I saw that “story” somewhere else on the blogosphere last night. One of the unmentioned bits of hilarity is that the same bike shop made a small amount of news a few years back as being the place that George W. Bush liked to go to for his biking needs.
Also, the fact that the Obama administration patronizes “Revolution Cycles” is clear evidence that they embrace Marxism and are working to bring soshalism to America.
dms
May 10th, 2010 at 8:39 am
@Violet: I think it’s called Big Wheel. According to their spokes person, at least.
Would be more in keeping with how juvenile this attack is in any case.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:39 am
@Bill E Pilgrim:
We have a winner!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:42 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: win.
Gibbs needs to tell Heritage and anybody associated with them to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. He needs to do this from the podium.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Remember, if you try to put any limits on the speech of a person who is handicapped by not having a physical body and merely being a consensual fiction, that’s destroying the constitution. If you allow a person to express opinions on how various businesses help them or not, that’s corruption.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Republican confusion is understandable. They’ve been conditioned to view Tweets and/or Faceyaps as official press releases from their party’s de facto leaders.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Gah! Outta half&half, used heavy cream in my coffee. And to think I teased someone here for misusing cream like that. Two faced? No! Wait! What? Where was I. Oh yeah, drinking coffee..dammit…the cats are not laughing. They are out stalking hummers. Heh heh, learned that from me.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Does anyone else get the feeling that there’s a contest inside the Obama administration to see who can provoke the most absurd reaction from the right wing establishment?
dms
May 10th, 2010 at 8:48 am
What next, the Heritage Foundation complaining that Bo Obama craps on the White House lawn?
May 10th, 2010 at 8:50 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: Ooh, nice double pun!
(Hey, does anyone else use a bent spoke to keep the chain taut on the drive train when you’re trying to refasten it? I think it only works if you can get a really sharp bend in the spoke, as I’ve found it slips out of the links every time. Oh well, I use Masterlink all the time now anyway.)
May 10th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Mark Halperin, Mike Allen, and Howard Kurtz will all have a field day with this story because they are the clown princes of cotton candy fluff journalism.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:50 am
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Bwahahaha. Big Wheel it is!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Be happy that they haven’t figured out yet that it is part of an evil Obama strategy to encourage alternative forms of transportation and destroy the US auto industry and the American way of life in general.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:53 am
@dmsilev: I’m hoping Gibbs comes to the podium wearing a kaffiyeh.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:54 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: Good punning, although I’m surprised that you didn’t latch onto the opportunity to talk about Gibbs giving them special tweetment.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:55 am
funny how stupid shit like a goddamned bicycle at a store is big controversy to this idiots, but Cheney’s secret energy panel, oil spills, revoving door between Wall St and SEC and the stupid fucksticks runniing the economy isn’t.
The discourse in the media is what we the people deserve. Most of us are too preoccupied with surviving, have a “I got mine fuck you” attitude or, are simply too stupid to care.
Fuck it. I need my morning Klonopin. At least I can ignore the idiocy then.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:56 am
@Comrade Mary: Back when I used to ride a lot, I used to break chains on my singlespeed quite frequently – I guess single speed mountain biking is a little rough on the drivetrain – and yeah, I’d use the bent spoke, set up almost like a fishing hook. Worked well enough.
I’m fifty pounds heavier now, shame I can’t ride a bike anymore. I’ll bet I could snap a chain inside of ten minutes.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:03 am
IMPEACH
Kidding. But you know that’s where this is headed.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Who is this so-called “Ken?”
May 10th, 2010 at 9:04 am
@That Other Mike: Believe me that was the restrained version.
I’m of the school that believes that there’s good word play and bad. Whereas some just say “Oh, a pun. Ergo, not funny”.
You were spared the idea that I was tired of the overinflated complaints of these blowhards. For instance.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:04 am
What people don’t understand is this is a secret communication for the black helicopter bicycle force to initiate phase 1.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Seriously, these guys have absolutely fuck-all.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I’m assuming they’ve expressed similar outrage when Obama, or even Bush and Cheney in the past, has described a restaurant they’ve been to. To not do so would be hypocritical and petty, and the Heritage Foundation surely wouldn’t want to be those things.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:06 am
@MikeJ:
And his bike shorts.
@El Cid: The mountain bikes are not laughing.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Because when I want the latest evidence that calls for stricter rules governing the influence private businesses can have on public officials, I turn to the assholes at the fucking Heritage Foundation.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:10 am
@Guster: KEN
May 10th, 2010 at 9:10 am
“What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed
I thought I’d pegged you an idiot’s dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider’s screen
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
May 10th, 2010 at 9:12 am
KEN
May 10th, 2010 at 9:13 am
@Ash Can: No kidding. What strikes me is that they so transparently do things just in the spirit of revenge, as they openly admitted with the whole attempt at “it’s Obama’s Katrina!” which utterly failed.
The problem is that they really do believe that people were just unfairly abusing poor George W Bush for doing perfectly reasonable things, and not that he was actually the complete screwup that he was. Which leads to thinking that they can do the same by just trumping up some charge about absolutely nothing.
There are serious things to criticize Obama about, I’d be the first to stress. We don’t have time for the stupid manufactured stuff.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:13 am
and GOPers, NEVER have any conflict of interest with business, ever…
May 10th, 2010 at 9:17 am
@Guster: I hear he has no genitals!
May 10th, 2010 at 9:24 am
This is really scary stuff. Is it possible that we’re going to invade the Netherlands in order to drum up business for Revolution Cycles?
May 10th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Next thing you know, presidents will be patronizing restaurants in the towns they visit and saying the burgers are good or something equally nefarious!
May 10th, 2010 at 9:30 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: I don’t want to pan yer posts, but you should stop pedaling that nonsense around here. Some attempt to derail; you’re doing it!
May 10th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Obama+bikes+revolution+China deals = Marxist-Leninist-Communista plot for US citizens to lose weight.
THE HORROR
Why would anyone listen to the Heritage Group?????????
May 10th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Oh no! A government official is thanking a private corporate entity!
That he does so using a private corporate communications site isn’t mentioned, since Twitter is the official Republican mode of communication. By the 2012 Convention, the party platform will be 140 characters. The Democratic response will be something along the lines of “LOL” and “ROTFL”, but will include a keyboard cat link.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Didn’t they already have some sort of trumped up tire gauge outrage during the campaign? Which turned on them when it turned out that Obama had been exactly right?
These people need to get another outrage mold for their Vac-U-Form, they’re reusing the same ones over and over.
Only the olds will get that reference, BTW.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:52 am
This is way worse than giving multi-billion dollar contracts to Halliburton without competitive bidding in situations where federal law requires competitive bidding.
@jeffreyw: My sympathies. For my taste (which is just enough cream to change the color) the absolute worst way to mess up coffee is to have it be too light. It’s undrinkable if there’s too much white stuff.
You can get it right with pure cream, but you have to keep your wits about you. I’ve learned this as “Au Bon Pain”, a chain that uses straight cream.
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yep, I remember that. “Ha ha, Obama’s energy plan is to check your tire pressure. He claims that will make major fuel savings”. And Obama was backed up by, as I recall, NASCAR.
It’s basically just a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy. So far I’d say the push for offshore drilling is the worst misjudgement of the Obama administration, but Republicans can’t come out against big oil so they’re kind of stuck making a big deal out of that one.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Actually, honestly, you know what? Maybe he should be more careful. Maybe the White House press secretary should not be tweeting his shopping choices—like when Biden said something like “my family won’t be getting on planes” during the swine flu scare, the folks in the White House occasionally forget the enormity of the microphone into which they forever speak.
AND YET.
GOP, if you have the time and energy to spend on this sort of thing? You have far too much time and energy, and I know of an inner-city preschool that needs some helping hands.
Honestly. What is this fuckery?
May 10th, 2010 at 10:03 am
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I’m afraid I understood you exactly.
Vac-U-form got kind of boring. The toy got a lot more use when we figured out that the cooker also fit Creepy Crawler molds, so we could do mass production of Creepy Crawlers.
I’m feeling very dated this morning. Last night my wife and I stayed up ridiculously late watching Mary Tyler Moore on Hulu, and then an amazing “Best of Ed Sullivan” show. I know there’s great TV these days so I won’t say “those were the days” but my TV watching kind of peaked in the 70s and I don’t even have a cable subscription any more.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:04 am
@jon:
This sounds like a challenge.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:07 am
@Randy P: I spent hours a week or two ago watching Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episodes from the 60s on some site.
Oh so here’s one: One of those kind of shows, not the Twilight Zone because it was longer than a half hour I think, and in it this pilot was downed in the desert, came home, then started to feel weird and ended up going back into the desert into some tomb, where he ran inside and saw that….....
Which is where the reception cut off and I never saw the end. I was going to say the cable cut off, but it was way before cable.
Does anyone know what this was?? I’ve wanted to see the ending ever since I was eight, I think.
It’s not the one where Rod Taylor and his fellow pilots vanish, one by one. Which was always one of my favorites.
I can’t find a trace of it. I can almost see the actor’s face, but not enough to remember who it was.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:13 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: You’re not talking about “Night Gallery” are you? That was Rod Serling’s other show. I grew up with that one and only discovered “Twilight Zone” in reruns.
Night Gallery was a real creative playground for Serling. It had an hour time slot and could be subdivided into stories in any way he chose, that varied from the humorous to the extremely creepy. Sometimes the whole hour was one story, and sometimes a vignette would just be a couple of minutes long (those were usually the funny ones).
I don’t remember your description as a “Night Gallery” episode in particular, but it could have been.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:20 am
@Randy P: No this was before Night Gallery, it was likely the Outer Limits or some other one. But thanks.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:24 am
I don’t remember the Heritage Foundation spending 3 seconds complaining about the in-show placement of the Dunkin’ Donuts cup on GW’s desk.
I realize Dunkin’ is a Heritage Donor, and they are a large corporation that gave a lot to GW and other conservatives but it wasn’t like GW was tweeting thanks. Damn librul media
strikes again… Lucky Strikes again, please…mmm…satisfying and relaxing.May 10th, 2010 at 10:35 am
@ellaesther: I’m sorry but “Getting on a plane? Me? Are you nuts? They’re dangerous!” was an entirely different kettle of fish from “Hey, thanks to the bike shop for fixing my bike, good work guys”
I can actually sort of see why the former might be a bit ill-advised (even though I thought the reaction to that was over the top also) but the latter? Meh. Meh I say.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:37 am
@jon:
That doesn’t seem so hard. Let’s see how much you can pack into a tweet:
Cut taxes. No abortion. Guns for all. War on Terror! War on Drugs! No more illegals. Drill, baby, Drill. Liberals are evil. Vote for us!
I think that fits in pretty much the whole Republican platform, and with 4 characters to spare.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:47 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: Thanks to this discussion, I’m ordering the Night Gallery DVD sets. I didn’t even know they were available. Thanks guys!
May 10th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Revolution, and not Capitol Hill Bikes, City Bikes or The Pro Shop? Snubs of Congress, Mare Fenty, and Italy, respectively…
May 10th, 2010 at 10:51 am
The Revolution Cycles lobby is getting too influential. Just more proof that our democracy is failing. It won’t be so funny when the gubment starts bailing out Revolution Cycles, and taking over the bike industry.
Also, if that a-hole starts pimping New Coke or Clear Pepsi, and those companies bring those shitty products, I will shout “conspiracy” from the rooftops!
May 10th, 2010 at 11:19 am
I think this falls into the lighten up, Francis, category.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Oooh, shiny. Does Revolution Cycles now get to put up a “purveyor to the President” sign?
(In the UK, “purveyor to the Queen” is used.)
May 10th, 2010 at 11:28 am
@MikeJ:
I’m hoping he shows up with a penny farthing bicycle. Also, too he can start giving the reporters numbers rather than names. Tapper can be #6.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:31 am
@Bill E Pilgrim: Apology accepted!
My point was, you will recall, that, regardless: THIS SHOULD NOT BE A BIG DEAL.
That was my point.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:41 am
@Waynski: Or, you know, what Waynski said.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:42 am
i think the heritage foundation is just confused and shocked that a business would provide helpful and excellent service without kickbacks or promises of gov. endorsement/favors.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Holy crap. If I were Gibbs, I would be thinking of new and creative ways to piss off the right just because I’m juvenile like that. Seriously. A tweet about a bike shop? Ken, you better not have granite countertops.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
@Roger Moore:
Just enough room for “God”.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Off-topic, but the funniest part of the entire attempt to portray the oil spill as Obama’s Katrina is that it happened at the exact same time that a major American city was being flooded. Of course, the administration’s response to the Nashville flooding was exemplary, so that comparison doesn’t help the Republicans either.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
@That Other Mike: This is how the Obama machine wins the news cycle without even trying.
And gets included in all the braking news.
Heritage is just re-cycling their talking points.
And spinning the news to fit their old stories.
I fought the LAW and the LAW won.
I couldn’t come up with anything using bicameral.
If only were a photo shop!
May 10th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
@catclub: well if it’s any consolation, the US Congress can’t come up with anything using bicameral either
May 10th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
@twiffer:
Truly. By HF standards, Gibbs is spitting in the face of Capitalism—the heretic!
May 10th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Shhh, nobody remind them about St. Reagan and his fucking jelly beans.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
@Bill E Pilgrim: Pure gold, my friend. :D
And bravo, catclub. You should have some kind of award.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
What the hell, I’ll be that person: I don’t think it’s appropriate for Gibbs to use “An official WH twitter account” to promote a particular business. OTOH, it seems like a harmless mistake and people who didn’t mind the last administration fucking torturing prisoners should STFU already.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I’m sure Dick Cheny and Halliburton are shocked, too.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:53 pm