The updates on Glenn Greenwald’s piece (highlighted earlier by John) about Jeff Rosen’s attack on Sonia Sotomayor are truly fascinating. It turns out that Rosen’s brother-in-law is in line to become Solicitor General if Obama names Elana Kagan to the court. And, predictably, the usual suspects — Marc Ambinder, etc. — have jumped on the Rosen piece as a sign that the “respectable intellectual center” doesn’t want to deal with an uppity Latina on the court.
My first question is this: why did the attacks on Sotomayor from the right-center (Halperin, Cohen, TNR) come so quickly and in such a coordinated way?
My other question is this: is Sully’s take on this accurate?
So I will merely note how interesting it is as a media phenomenon. Washington’s old journalistic guard is not yet fully aware that the pool they operate in now is much larger than it was, and the cozy familiarity of it all – the sustenance of reputation, the quiet hierarchy of the Northwest quadrant – is now history. What might have been sent into the ether as a small provocation, summing up a coterie’s assumptions, will no longer be given credence because of its provenance. It will have to make its case in a brutally frank environment. Or fail to.
What I mean is this: to what extent have GG and others dented the hegemony of TNR-style wankery?
It’s a simple fact that for the last 20 years, the American political media landscape has been dominated by careerist mediocrities who got where they are by sucking off Marty Peretz or Jack Welch or David Bradley.
Will the next 20 years be any different?
harlana pepper
RIP, Sid
I can see the attitude in the second pic. It reveals all. I know that look well. Obviously, a marvelous feline!
hp
harlana pepper
Holy sh*t, I’m getting the “searing soul” stare-down from the evil tortie as we speak. I am trying to train them to not get to me so much. Being home a lot, as I am now, has spoiled them to disturbing levels.
PS, the Furminator helps a bit, but not as much as I’d hoped
asiangrrlMN
I don’t see much change in the incestuous nature of journalism in the near future. I am totally dispirited by this whole preemptive strike on Sonia Sotomayor and by lingering isms in general.
asiangrrlMN
WTF did I say this time? Crap. Stupid moderation.
JK
Marc Ambinder is an execrable and insufferable scumbag. He gave a thumbs up to the tea parties and blasted the DHS report on the threat of right wing extremists.
harlana pepper
my next internets date:
Pizza Party!!!!
harlana pepper
I can’t really comment on the previous since I have bitched about it for years and have hung up my mantle.
Anybody want a beer??
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: I can’t see the pic. Which dating service are you using, may I ask? Maybe we should take it to the Open Thread.
dm
Sullivan has an order of magnitude more readers than TNR. I’d be surprised if Salon in general and Glenn Greenwald in particular don’t rival or surpass TNR’s readership. I suspect more people know about the Rosen piece because Atrios, Sullivan, Yglesias and now the Balloon Juice Juggernaut have linked to it disparagingly than found out about it through any other means.
So, yes, I think the next 20 years will be different, and writers will realize that they have a much more active and critical audience than they’ve had in the past — and that those critics have an audience that rivals their own.
KG
the last 20 years? dude, it’s been a lot longer than that.
harlana pepper
@asiangrrlMN:
it’s http://www.plentyoffish.com
it’s free, only reason I decided to finally join
make sure you get the spelling right or you will be directed to a pr0n site
:)
PS, re: pic, i was talkin about Sid, John’s sister’s cat who passed
PSPS, i hope i haz spellin rite (??) 8)
harlana pepper
Hey guys, my gf and her bf are both trying to get civil contractors jobs in afghanistan so they can come back to the states with big $$$ in their pockets
harlana pepper
I will confess this now since it’s late and not many people are here — i used to be a total blogwhore — now the only sites i visit are bj and crooksandliars and occasionally bagnewsnotes
harlana pepper
i am so fuckin alone on this thread
:)
harlana pepper
i am going to whore this site out of spite
ok, jk, but it rhymed
Johnny Pez
That’s what you think.
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: dat’s because you’re on the wrong thread! Hm. That is the one I use. I have to rewrite my ad to be a bit more specific. thanks.
I am tired of the circle-jerk of the press. Really. Make new friends. Talk to people outside your circle, and THEN report. Gah. I’m also tired of the rampant use of anonymous sources.
harlana pepper
PSPSPS — men from NJ can be nice
Johnny Pez
And as for the actual topic, I like to think of Obama pissing off the Beltway commentariat as a feature, not a bug.
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: Cool. I hope you keep having fun.
@Johnny Pez: Well, considering that the Village seem determined to retire to their swooning couches with the vapors no matter WHAT Obama does or say, yeah, it’s definitely a feature.
harlana pepper
y’know, i just see Andrew Sullivan’s name and i get pissed — i don’t want to hear/read what he has to say — he was an iraq war-whore — anybody out there who can correct me about that, pls do
Joel
I have to admit, I typically find Glenn Greenwald a bit long-winded for my tastes, but that was an excellent piece, and a thorough running-through of that hack Jefferey Rosen.
For the record, the New Republic gets plenty of exposure, especially through Colbert and Stewart, who occasionally disappoint (the latter moreso than the former).
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: He was. Then he wasn’t. He’s still mostly insufferable, though. He’s pretty conservative overall. I used to read him fairly regularly, but now I don’t. Still, he can be cogent and incisive from time to time.
Joel, I like Glenn. I skim as I read, which helps.
harlana pepper
@asiangrrlMN: it’s not fun, it’s nerve-wracking with a little bit of fun interspersed here and there —- i took my pic down b/c i got other shit i need to focus on — i’ll put it back if/when i think it’s appropriate — there are some crazies out there
PeakVT
What I mean is this: to what extent have GG and others dented the hegemony of TNR-style wankery?
Not much. There are now forceful, articulate voices calling BS on the Villagers, but they aren’t being run by or running major print outlets (yet). And my impression is that they don’t get much broadcast media time outside of Air America and MSNBC. Maybe in 10 years, after the GGs move up the ranks, the media will improve. TNR itself will either continue to be TNR – because it’s very purpose is to produce wankery – or finally fold.
It should be noted that as an ex-TNR editor Sullivan is part of the problem.
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: Yes. There are many crazies out there. I stopped my ad, too, because I wasn’t getting the response I wanted.
harlana pepper
@asiangrrlMN: the problem i have w/ people like sullivan or anybody who claims to be “conservative” is that the term “conservative” itself has been bastardized and it seemed, at least during the bush admin, to go w/ the tide of the admin —- conservatives used to not be all hot over imperialism and fucking around with other countries and setting up bases all over the globe (somebody correct me if i’m wrong, pls!), that’s just what gets me —- i guess i need to pick up the newest Webster’s and see what the current definition of “conservative” is now
yes, sullivan criticized the bush admin in the past, but he was late, very late, in doing so — i have somewhat of an unforgiving attitude towards “journalists” who are still considered mainstream when they were wrong about so much that grossly affected our country, and “lib/leftist” journalists were spat upon for so many years, and they ended up being right (npi)
bago
Off to see wolverine. Should have twitteded that.
wasabi gasp
Drunk blogwhore fucking alone and tired of circle jerks seeking similar non-crazies.
harlana pepper
y’know what i love about these sites? everybody says they’re “not into games” — give me a fucking break — love is a game, it’s all in how you play it
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: You pretty much got it right. Sully is still very much pull yourself up by the bootstraps kind of guy. He doesn’t believe in universal health care or progressive taxes. He still buys into the myth that anyone who has a ton of money has worked hard for it, damn it. Meh. I don’t know if the progressive voices will ever outweigh the conservatives, especially not since the traditional media is so firmly entrenched in the GOP mindset. When Tweety, Coop, Wolfie, and the rest of their ilk simply mouth the same platitudes as FOX, only prettied up a bit, well, I don’t hold out much hope.
Well, I just want to have fun, and I’ve specifically said that I want wit and humor. Do I get it? No. I get, “Whassup? Let’s hook up. Word.” Boring!
harlana pepper
no twittering off this thread, i will cut your hand off
harlana pepper
@asiangrrlMN:
hang in there, grrrl, i do think things are shifting, just slowly, and precariously— i’m just standing back, watching to see what happens and take whatev crumbs come my way — don’t lose heart,
listen, when rachel maddow got her own show, i thot that was some kind of milestone, it did not seem like a big deal to other people, but it was to me, not b/c she was gay (to me, personally, that was incidental), but b/c i knew her work and her integrity – it blew me away the way she was eventually grabbed up by msnbc and i was encouraged by that, the fact that she is gay also, i could not give a f**k about, but i really did not expect a major broadcasting/cable network to pick up an openly lesbian journalist who knew her shit and really won’t compromise, it gave me heart
test: who knows their political/news shit better? rachel or tweety?
asiangrrlMN
@wasabi gasp: See, I would answer that one. That’s funny!
harlana pepper. True. Rachel gives me heart. She also gives me the butterflies in my stomach, but that is incidental. You’re right. There is no issue with her sexual identity, and she doesn’t have to hide it. She can pretty much be herself. That helps. Thanks.
Thankovsky
@dm:
Seconding this. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t expect much change in the mainstream media, but these aren’t exactly normal circumstances under which we’re currently living. Major newspapers are dropping like flies, and even the most hard-headed of cable news producers are realizing that they need to change up the formula at least a little bit if they don’t want to lose business to higher-quality reporting and analysis on the internet. I don’t think we’ll see huge changes within the next year or two, but I’m fairly certain that the news industry will look noticeably different five years from now.
@harlana pepper:
I think what makes Sullivan different from most of the other mainstream journalists who beat the war drums for Iraq and so many of Bush’s other disastrous policies, is that Sullivan has been incredibly forthright about how wrong he was. It’s pretty clear that his penitence for supporting Bush is genuine, in my opinion. I think one has to at least applaud him on his intellectual honesty.
Johnny Pez
@harlana pepper:
Disagree. Just read up on the politics of the 1950s. Conservatives have always been douchebags.
harlana pepper
@Johnny Pez: considering they have not done anything substantial, at least in the last 10+ years, to counter that allegation, i cannot disagree w/ you
harlana pepper
@Thankovsky:
I can’t, i just can’t, not until all (or just a few!!–these people did their jobs) the prominent progressive writers/journalist/bloggers who dug and dug to get the real story about how going into to iraq was a complete mistake, get the same amount of respect as sullivan
i don’t mean to sound bitter, i am not (i used to be, horribly, horribly angry and disgusted), that’s just my personal, heartfelt opinion
the anger is pretty much gone, replaced by pure speculative curiosity and amusement at the daily repube fuck-ups
Thankovsky
@Johnny Pez:
Counterpoint: Dwight Eisenhower.
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
Well, believe me, I’m also pretty disgusted that those writers get so little respect. I just don’t think that’s Sully’s fault.
harlana pepper
@Thankovsky: it’s not, it’s just the way things are and have always been for most of this country’s history except for a few burps here and there
harlana pepper
@Thankovsky:
I am not an Eisenhower historian. Fill me in, pls — serious, i have slipped in my research, hah! my genteel way of saying, i don’t know shit and i’m embarrassed to admit it!
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
Yeah, I know. It’s staggering, when one thinks about how deeply-entrenched and long-standing these injustices in our society really are.
Still, I genuinely believe we’re moving in a positive direction. Call me naive, but I really, fervently believe that we’re coming upon an era of opportunities to change our country for the better. :)
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
Serious questions like that deserve a serious answer
Stay tuned for Doug’s upcoming book: Lincoln — The Man, and The Car.
harlana pepper
@Thankovsky: i’m trying to hang with that notion, also. what other choice do we have?
like i was telling my friend today, this “recession” is going to either split some people and/or bring others together towards a common purpose — i think both will happen, but i hope the latter will prevail
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
I was mainly referring to the Little Rock Nine; Wikipedia has a good rundown on it – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Crisis
Also, I’ve always been very impressed by his “Cross of Iron” speech: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9743.htm
“”Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms in not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
Mnemosyne
@harlana pepper:
Back in the old days when I was internet dating, you were still able to find sites where a picture was not required. That was a major relief for me, because I am the opposite of photogenic. I look fine in real life, but hideous in pictures. The only photos of myself that I kind of like are our wedding photos, where we had a professional photographer and a professional did my hair and makeup. Regular pictures? Dog city.
(Yes, wedding photos, which is why my internet dating was back in the old days of almost 10 years ago. He was date #14.)
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: I like being able to see pics, but I hate having to post mine. I, too, am not very photogenic. However, since I am just looking to play, it is nice to see how the other person looks.
P.S. Since people seem to be hanging out here, any song suggestions that will cheer me up?
Thankovsky
@asiangrrlMN:
Anything by Van Morrison. If you’re in a party mood, “Wild Night.” Van Morrison is godly.
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
What kind of cheering up are you looking for? Happy optimistic “I Can See Clearly Now” cheering up or jump up and down work out some rage “Fight the Power” cheering up?
ABBA is still very cheering to me, but I may be showing my age.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: ABBA. I like them. I have the blues. I want to turn that frown upside down.
@Thankovsky: Hm. Van Morrison is moody music to me. Any particular suggestions?
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
I can tell you from experience that, for God’s sake, don’t listen to the Violent Femmes when you’re depressed. It almost made me suicidal after a college breakup.
When I was weepy after my brother announced that he was leaving his wife of 10 years and two small children for his secretary (yes, he was that much of a cliche), Tenacious D helped a lot.
harlana pepper
@Thankovsky: yes, what is wrong with that kind of conservatism, where has it gone?
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: Oh, god not the Femmes. Yeah, I love ’em, but, just no. Wow. Do you still talk to your bro?
Thankovsky
@asiangrrlMN:
“Wild Night” is seriously fun. Good song to play blaring out of your car on a Saturday night on the Las Vegas strip or Rodeo Drive in L.A. “Domino” is also really catchy.
But if you’ve got the blues, listen to some Queen. Seriously. Queen will do the trick.
harlana pepper
Queen for the blues? Are you f****g kidding me? Meth, maybe
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
It still exists, but in a MUCH diminished state. My dad is one of that group, but he voted D for the last three presidential elections anyway. (maybe four; I don’t know if he voted Dole or Bubba)
But yeah, the problem is that the moderate, pragmatic, capable, small-government, non-interventionist brand of conservatism took a bit of a hit when Nixon imploded and Nelson Rockefeller turned out to be a non-starter. There was one last gasp – kind of – with George H.W. Bush, who never really was that comfortable with the Christian Right anyway, but he could never really pull off keeping his base together and appearing moderate at the same time. All in all, he had the same problem that McCain had, minus the tremendous strategic albatross that was Sarah Palin. But that’s how the trend plays out with the GOP: they run a moderate, and if they win, great. If they lose, they go WAY far to the right.
As for Queen and the blues, uh, HELL yeah! Listen to “Radio Ga-Ga” or “Bicycle Race” or “We Are the Champions” or “I Want it All,” and tell me that doesn’t cheer you up. :p
asiangrrlMN
I think I’ll listen to The Wall by Floyd. That should do it, right?
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
Since this was 5 years ago and he and his ex-wife are both re-married, I do talk to him, though I’m still kinda pissed off. But he is my only brother, so I’m stuck with him. I was listening to this song quite a bit during that time.
The funny part was that his ex-wife married a stockbroker she met on JDate within a year of the divorce, so now she’s actually much better off financially than he is. Heh.
Disco is the way to go. Even breakup songs like “I Will Survive” will energize you.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: I love Gloria Gaynor. She rules.
harlana pepper
I suggest a Clash party, instead
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper: @asiangrrlMN:
Please don’t do this. I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan, and I don’t listen to “The Wall” even on good days. ;)
asiangrrlMN
Well. I am going to bed after listening to my current favorite uplifting song. I’ll check out the rest of your links tomorrow. Thanks, guys, and have a good rest of the night.
Thankovsky, well, I’m not listening to it, but only because I prefer the aforementioned song to pep me up.
Night.
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
If by “do it” you mean “induce you to wash a bottle of tranquilizers down with a fifth of scotch,” then, yeah, “The Wall” will do it.
Mnemosyne
@harlana pepper:
I reject your Clash suggestion and substitute my own.
Thankovsky
@asiangrrlMN:
LOL, yikes! You have an interesting definition of “uplifting”! Pleasant dreams…I guess? :p
asiangrrlMN
@Thankovsky: Yeah, I had my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. I have at least one nightmare a night, so song choice doesn’t really matter.
I hope the rest of you sleep well.
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
+5 respect points from me for recommending a truly legendary band.
Good God, the edit feature sucks here.
harlana pepper
whatever moves you
harlana pepper
@Mnemosyne:
Okay, that was really good
But there’s just something about the Tom Snyder and “Outer Fringe of Sex” thing
harlana pepper
i have been up since 4 am, what am i doing here? i am manic, pls shoot me
Thankovsky
@harlana pepper:
Benadryl is your friend.
It’s only midnight where I am, so I have an excuse. But I’m missing valuable “King of the Hill” reruns, so I’m probably gonna check out.
Night, Balloon Juice!
Mnemosyne
@harlana pepper:
The “reject/substitute” language comes from this classic “Mythbusters” moment.
And when I’m looking up 3-second YouTube clips, it’s time for me to go to bed, too. ‘Night, all.
harlana pepper
Except for a few songs, Queen makes me want to stab my eardrums out
so sue me
harlana pepper
oh all these f****ing babies going nite-nite, now!
ya go no stamina!!
;^)
harlana pepper
yall suck, but you know that
Mike D.
I always thought J. Rosen was a largely respectable legal commentator. I’m having trouble getting my mind around what appears to be the case here. His reputation was worth marginally helping his brother-in-law become Sol. Gen.? It seems hard to believe, but even if it isn’t, it’s still amazing that he wouldn’t recognize the clear appearance of it. Just mind-boggling.
Andy K
@asiangrrlMN:
If you’re still awake, or if you wake up and still need it, try this.
Common Sense
Alls I know is these two songs.always put me in a great mood
slightly_peeved
deleted
slightly_peeved
Don’t buy in to the Republican framing. You have plenty of small-government pragmatic conservatives in your country. In fact, they happen to be running it.
Part of the Republican attempt to shift the Overton window right is to paint authoritarianism as conservatism. The people who are actual conservatives they paint as lefty loonballs. The people currently running your country are conservatives, and the people who are out of power are plutocrats and theocrats.
There is an entire political discourse held by other countries that is well left of where the Democratic party stands in US politics. Hopefully, the implosion of the Republican party and the introduction of a public health-care option for all could start to shift the Overton window back to the left. Then your conservatives may actually be able to call themselves conservatives (rather than Democrats) again.
Dennis-SGMM
@slightly_peeved:
Good points. It’s hard to name one elected Dem who’s an unabashed liberal – let alone an unabashed soci4list. The GOP has, as you pointed out, has so assiduously portrayed their plutocratic theocracy as mainstream that decent and pragmatic governance is decried by them as being akin to Stalinism.
Dennis-SGMM
In other news:
From WaPo, reg required so no linky.
MikeJ
heheheh
Also, seems like you don’t need reg if you come into wapo through google news. I know I gave up on browsing the site since I couldn’t read anything. Oddly enough, even with referers turned off I had no trouble via the G.
bago
@78 late? How late?
El Cid
Wait — why just the last 20 years?
Nancy Darling
I don’t know how culpable Eisenhower was in the overthrow of Mossadegh and enthronement of the Shah—he may have been an unwitting shill for the real actors. I admire and respect the guy but I think he was a bit of a dim bulb except for all things military. He redeemed himself with his Cross of Iron speech but nobody seemed to be listening. Truman’s DoJ had an anti-trust suit going against the oil companies which was stopped by the Eisenhower DoJ. The Dulles brothers were both lawyers in an international NY law firm (Sullivan and Cromwell) which had oil companies for clients. John Foster became Secretary of State and Alan became head of the CIA. According to Iranian friends and acquaintances of mine, Iran had a vibrant, multi-party democracy in 1953 which was not being cooperative with a British oil company. We saw the blow back from this intervention in 1979, ongoing to the present time. Also, Eisenhower gave us the inter-state highway system which destroyed the railroads. In the 1940’s you could travel anywhere in the US by rail—even tiny towns had their dogleg lines which fed into larger hubs. The repubs were not bat-shit crazy in the 1950’s, but they were still the party of big business at the expense of what might have been best for the little people. Jonathan Kwitny (a WSJ reporter) had a book published in about 1985 called “Endless Enemies: The Making of an Unfriendly World” which details our foreign policy disasters and the incestuous relationship between the State Department, CIA, etc. and big business interests. And so it goes.
DougJ
That’s how long I’ve been paying attention.
Cat Lady
OT, but Joe Scar actually made it a point to call out Eric Cantor and Boehner for not having any ideas. He said that if they can’t offer any proposals, they should just stay off the stage. Barnicle, tool that he is, made Cantor look like the clueless fuckwit he is. Cantor and Boehner are so self-deluded, they don’t see that they’re demonstrating their own FAIL. We’re seeing the last throes of the clown show.
El Cid
@DougJ: Ah. Well, if you’re ever curious, just go buzzing around Time magazines free online archives, which apparently go back to its founding. Or pay for the capacity to search the New York Times‘ archive back a century or more.
Or, heaven forfend, a library with an archive, to reassure yourself that there was no recent journalistic paradise from which we’ve been cast — there has been an idiot conformist establishment press and a brave and underfunded ‘alternative’ media challenging it at every turn. The former has just gotten more clownish and desperate, and the latter have now become accessible to everyone.
(Today, the My Lai story wouldn’t have to wait a year before the average news interested person knew about it, though it would still likely first be ‘published’ by a tiny alternative news service or blog long before a mainstream paper touches it.)
El Cid
@Nancy Darling: I think you have to bear in mind that at the time (and, really, now as well, but in a different style), no one in the U.S. foreign policy establishment much saw any problem with overthrowing any government they could and replacing it with what they wished.
It was looked on more or less as the natural accoutrements of U.S. power, and if the darkies and wogs would just do what we told them to do, and deal with the unpleasantnesses without giving us so much trouble, we wouldn’t have to do such things.
someguy
@ Slightly Peeved
Thank you! If only people could get it through their thick heads that the ‘liberals’ in Congress and the WH are basically center right at best, and the Republicans are a mere half goose step to the left of the Nazis, they would have a better understanding of how our politics actually operate. Only in an utterly reactionary country could conservatives like Cohen and Ambinder pass for liberals. Russ Feingold is the closest thing to a liberal we have in Congress, and even the supposedly flamethrowing leftists like Sanders are really left centrists at best.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Dispirited is what I’m feeling about it too. There was just such a simultaneous burst of overt sexism/racism/defensiveness about the prospect of anyone other than a white man being considered for the post. It was quite discouraging to me. The more so because it seemed like a conscious effort to paint ANYONE other than a white man as an “affirmative action” choice, as if the possibility that a woman and/or person of color might be (among) the best qualified was simply inconceivable. It’s that sort of thing that perpetuates discrimination in all sectors of employment.
And I was actually a little surprised at how personally I took it – that was part of what felt so discouraging. I can’t quite convey the feeling invoked in me by the assumption on the part of those smug bastards that a woman/person of color could never be assumed to be the best candidate. And that’s me – I’m a quite (educationally, if not economically) privileged white woman, who generally gets taken seriously. I think it would be all the more undermining if I didn’t have those privileges.
BUT, looking on the bright side, I’ve been heartened by how many people across the liberal blogosphere (god I hate that word, but whatever) have recognized these efforts for what they are, and called them out. I don’t know if their critiques will gain as wide a purchase as the ongoing campaign to preserve white men’s prerogatives, but the fact that they were so many, and so forceful, gave me comfort.
Betsy
@Betsy:
And despite this, I recently had the experience of having a middle aged male professor, after I’d gotten done explaining the rules of a course to a lecture hall full of students, say to them, “She may look cute and sweet, but we’re serious about the rules.”
Sob.
Stu
I think Sully’s right, but the process will take years. A good barometer is Richard Cohen. He’s getting shriller and shriller with his columns. They often boil down to: “I am a smart liberal guy. Am so! Am so! Am so!” or: “Everybody knows I’m a liberal, so when I embrace [insert GOP policy here], it means that ‘even liberals’ like it. It doesn’t mean that I’m a Bushie in liberal clothing!! Am not! Am not! Am not!”
‘
Cohen’s blood pressure wouldn’t be so high if bloggers weren’t having an effect.
‘
Probably, though, the rise of well-informed, intelligent, honest pundits will take a generation, as the current bunch dies off. Newspapers will die first.
Gregory
@asiangrrlMN:
Springsteen’s “Rosalita” always puts a smile on my face. YMMV.
Other suggestions: Bob Marley, the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, the Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts, the B-52s, the upbeat songs from Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell (skip the ballads, though), and Louis Prima.
Hang in there, I hope you feel better
cosanostradamus
.
No.
And there’s junk food for babies now. And guns for tweens.
Maybe that’ll change.
.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Mishka, One Tree. If that don’t give your heart a lift, you’re already dead.
August J. Pollak
Forgive me for asking what seems like the painfully obvious, but isn’t the likely reason for the immediate and rapid attacks from the right against Sotomeyer the simple fact that it’s blatantly obvious she’s the most likely choice?
The oppo against Hillary Clinton’s presidential run started in 2005 or so because it was just as painfully obvious she was running and the most likely nominee.
tim
Pretty rich to read Beltway Bushie and Warmonger Sullivan yak about the “old media guard.” hahaha…please, Bareback Andy IS the old guard, try as he may to present himself as part of the new, which is rapidly becoming the new Old, as in the case of most recent sellout Ezra Klein.
And Andrew’s ongoing, endless hysteria over torture strikes me as hollow coming from someone who enabled and cheered on the bombing, strafing, shooting, dismembering, disfiguring, and other general horrors visited upon hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, now dead, alive, and somewhere in between, all in the name of transparently false motivations.
But then, I guess I’m to believe the above listed atrocities are not “torture,” so they’re like, OK.
Wayne T
Republicans are scared of smart girls.
Betsy
@August J. Pollak:
From the right, sure. But why the attacks from all the “liberal” doodz? Matthews, Halperin, Cohen, Rosen. Now granted, I wouldn’t consider most of those to be genuine liberals, but they do self-present that way, no? So how do you explain their swift and deeply-felt vitriol?
Xanthippas
I don’t know if this answers the question, but Brad DeLong says he got an odd email from someone ostensibly at the TNR informing him of Rosen’s article. So, somebody was hyping the story to at least a few bloggers.
JDM
Fuck Rosen’s brother in law. His wife – Christine Stolba Rosen -is a fascist at:
http://www.eppc.org/scholars/scholarID.51/scholar.asp
She writes low rent shit on NRO:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-stolba010303.asp
DougJ
Yeah, me too.
Also “Jackie Wilson Said” (Van Morrison) and the Shonen Knife version of “Top Of the World”.
Hob
Betsy: Because there’s some dim awareness that most people don’t give a crap what Bill Kristol and Sean Hannity say.
Matthews et al. aren’t so closely identified with Fox and the Bush gang, and still have some (undeserved) credibility with non-28%ers. But they’re still right-wingers for all intents and purposes. Their self-professed liberalness never gets in the way of pissing on “the left” (quote marks here referring to whatever’s designated by Republicans as “the left”, not necessarily the actual left). Seriously, have you read anything those guys have written or said in the last 8 years?
And I agree with August that any likely nominee would be getting the same treatment from this crew, unless Obama nominated a set of conjoined twin clones of Alito.
jimvj
What is this Northwest quadrant whereof Sullivan speaks?
Gregory
@DougJ:
Oh, yeah.