I guess I really am a card-carrying liberal now, because I think Paul Krugman gets it exactly right in this perfect summation of the last week:
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).
You might be tempted to say that bloggers make unfounded accusations all the time. But we’re not talking about some obscure fringe. The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
The attack on Graeme’s family was also quickly picked up by Rush Limbaugh, who is so important a player in the right-wing universe that he has had multiple exclusive interviews with Vice President Dick Cheney.
And G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress “were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance” but had “backed off” as the case fell apart.
In fact, however, Republicans had already made their first move: an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts and asked: “Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?”
And the attempt to spin the media worked, to some extent: despite reporting that has thoroughly debunked the smears, a CNN report yesterday suggested that the Democrats had made “a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child,” and closely echoed the language of the e-mail from Mr. McConnell’s office.
All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.
He even addresses the ‘choices’ bullshit that had me ready to scream all week:
I don’t know about you, but I think American children who need medical care should get it, period. Even if you think adults have made bad choices — a baseless smear in the case of the Frosts, but put that on one side — only a truly vicious political movement would respond by punishing their injured children.
Not in the “compassionate conservative” crowd. They are too busy proving to each other what good Christians they are by getting all worked up about gay marriage.
E.J. Dionne lets loose, too.
rachel
Ew. The only people who should get “all worked up about gay marriage” are gays. Everybody else should MYOB.
How much credence should we give the Mitch McConnell thing? The only source I’ve seen for that is Think Progress, and I don’t know much about them. Are they reputable? ‘Cause if so, the “Honorable Gentleman” should be run out of DC on a rail.
Pug
The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
Krugman did make one small omission. Michelle Malkin is not just a frequent guest on Fox News, she is often the guest host of FNC’s most popular show, The O’Reilly Factor. Malkin is hardly a fringe player in the right-wing universe. She is a well established and rising star.
Alan
Don’t sweat your conversion into a liberal. Goldwater died a liberal; at least to those who define conservatism today (social-cons).
Goldwater Liberals, Unite!
Wilfred
Whatever the ultimate relevance of the blogosphere, and I still hold out hope for it becoming a genuine public sphere, it has at least fully exposed the Malkins, Riehls and freaks at LetthekiddieState for what they are – mean-spirited creeps who screech like junior high-school girls – the Heathersphere. Their blogs gave people the chance to see them and their politics for what they are, and act accordingly.
Zifnab
Does that scare the hell out of anybody other than me? I mean, I recognize that cable news and other pundit shows are often the tool of the GOP, but this is like an echo machine straight down the pipe, just white-washed into “non-partisan”.
I don’t think I’ll ever flip on CNN and watch it the same way again. They are now a FOX News organization for all I am concerned.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Only to the pantywaist hippie left would saying a family is affluent be an “attack” on a family (not a “criticism,” mind you — a vicious “attack!”). The only question is, is Krugman just that big a weenie, or is it just intellectual dishonesty for propaganda’s sake? Trick question: it’s A) and B)
And laughably, Cole thinks he’s got it “exactly right.” Jebus, John, did they have to take all the brain cells when they issued your card? Just don’t operate any heavy machinery…
Billy K
A little OT, but not really:
I almost never watch morning TV, but for some reason I turned on GMA this morning and found them reiterating the NASCAR Immunization story Drudge trumpeted yesterday. The “mainstream” really does just feed off the lowest of GOP muckrakers now without a bit of shame.
John S.
Only to the elitist deranged right would saying (falsely) a family is affluent and then encouraging countless others to dig up dirt and hurl smears based on misinformation be considered not an “attack” on a family.
The only question is, is EEEL just that big of an asshole, or is it just intellectual dishonesty for propaganda’s sake? Trick question: it’s A) and B).
And laughably, EEEL thinks he’s got it “exactly right.” Jebus, did they have to take all the brain cells when they issued your Repuplican voter ID card? Just don’t operate any heavy machinery…
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Frost posts — 11
Norman Hsu posts — 0
It’s OK — we all know that you’re only dedicating your site to wall-to-wall Frost because you’re trying to distract us from the victory in Iraq.
Nim, ham hock of liberty
Welcome to the dark side, Mr. Cole.
The transition often happens slowly and painlessly.
One day, you’re cheering the election of George Sr., then 4 years down the road, you’re calling yourself a libertarian, but strangely relieved when Clinton is elected. Because now those creepy fundamentalist authoritarian types aren’t lurking behind the curtain anymore, and maybe the deficit won’t keep ballooning ridiculously. And then the next day you’re wondering why it is that you now associate “Democrat” with “Fiscal responsibility,” and thinking that the only useful role for what used to be your party is making sure that useful social services spending is just kept reasonably in check.
It’s not so painful after all. ^_^
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Imitation is the sincerest etc. etc., but you fell over the first hurdle with your assumption-laced premise. Krugman never mentions that “encouraging countless others” blather — I wonder why?
Blue Jean
This is a bit OT, but it’s sure to ruin EEEL’s morning;
Gore just won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Shrieking Harpy Brigade will commence their Massive Freak Out in three, two, one…
NickM
Wow – watching John become a liberal is a bit like watching a tiny baby being born – beautiful, if you can ignore the all the crying, screaming and blood.
John Cole
No one fucking cares about Hsu.
The authorities will deal with him, and if there is something out of the ordinary, I am sure we will hear about it.
Why don’t you trust the Bush Justice department to deal with it, you silly, worthless wanker?
whippoorwill
Lambchop
That’s a lot of insults crammed into a couple of paragraphs there mutton-head. Don’t you get tired of getting spanked when you post here with garbage like this. It seems every day you make less and less sense. I guess that’s what happens when everything you’ve believed in is crumbling into irrelevance before your eyes. Nothing left to do but attack.
jcricket
From Steve Benen’s site (Carpet Bagger) – in the comment threads:
Actually not related to the S-CHIP debate, but about the voucher issue. However, it’s related here.
There is no public healthcare program these hateful gasbags would support (excepting of course when they need it, and even then, they wouldn’t support funding it). There’s no evidence you could provide that would get them to support a universal “public” healthcare system. Doesn’t matter if you show that single-payer (or the like) is cheaper, provides better outcomes, continuity of care, encourages entrepreneurship, makes big businesses more competitive globally in literally every situation its tried in. The government can never be better at anything.
Doesn’t matter if you show that hundreds or thousands of people on death row are later freed because they were innocent. Or that it’s 100s of thousands of dollars cheaper to just keep people locked up for life. Death penalty’s still A-OK.
Doesn’t matter if Jesus himself came down and said “Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11”, they’d still disagree and justify the invasion of Iraq based on that.
It’s almost a joke now, but the idea that Republicans are no longer part of the reality based community is really accurate.
Elvis Elvisberg
It is, in fact, an insult to call a family affluent, when you’re saying that they applied for benefits they shouldn’t have received.
Duh.
Also, Hsu is a non-story– a guy who donated money to candidates.
If you want a real story, look into Alan Fabian. He’s a major candidate’s national committee co-chairman– not just some donor– who was charged with mail fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice a few weeks back.
Why do you think the Hsu story is a bigger deal than the Fabian story? I don’t think there’s any defensible reason for thinking so.
jcricket
Just as Krugman said, you’re a liberal in a radicalized world. Otherwise you’d most likely be a centrist, or “center left”. In a country with more parties, for example (like Israel or Italy or France).
I actually used to consider myself a moderate. Kind of like Dave Neiwart said in the other thread, I’m a skeptical, evidence based voter. I don’t support most things on a purely ideological basis (there are some exceptions I make principled stands for).
However, I think the idea of evidenciary support and using the scientific method to support one’s political arguments is only being used by one side these days.
I guess that’s what happens when one side is conducting a war on science. Speaking of that, that Mooney guy is probably one more you need to now admit was right :-)
Cyrus
Jesus (NTZYM), I’m starting to think you might be a spoof. Of course calling someone affluent by itself is not a slur(1). And of course falsely calling someone affluent when they have used a government program meant for people who aren’t affluent is a slur. What part of that do you disagree with?
(1) BTW, can someone explain to me the subtle distinction in meaning between “slur,” “smear,” “attack” and “insult”? We should be clear.
Billy K
I think one of the reasons I find this site compelling is that before “W” was elected, I more-or-less considered myself a “Goldwater Liberal.” (Which is actually kinda what Clinton thought himself as – or at least an Eisenhower Conservative) But the reign of W has certainly thrown me towards the left; if nothing else, just as counter-balast.
Point is, I see John treading to where I was pre-W, and I find it interesting to hear someone else’s POV on this.
pharniel
There’s guys who like to be told to…do things to a cupcake and then eat the resulting sticky mass.
I just assumed that lambchop showed up whenever he needed to feel humiliated and degraded.
most affluent men have the good sense to pay a professional for such a thing instead of brining people who didn’t ask for it into the equation, but, y’know, considerate and proper arn’t in the R’s playbook these days.
RSA
A bit off-topic, but I can’t resist posting the last two paragraphs of Krugman’s last column:
chopper
it isn’t just that. saying that they’re too affluent to deserve the health insurance they have based on complete disinformation.
besides, the right wing blog world wasn’t merely saying ‘they are affluent’. i made the mistake of visiting RW blog sites, and EEEL is seriously whitewashing what was actually being said about this family. they were nasty as hell.
The Other Steve
Is “pantywaist hippie left” ad hominem?
The Other Steve
LOL! RSA
Krugman appears to be a Talking Heads fan. Awesome! :-)
Face
Spoofaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
John Cole
TOS- I caught that the other day and forgot to post about it.
Krugman needs to stop making so much sense.
Jake
But when you consider who is doing all the crying and screaming even that becomes a beautiful thing.
Where are the fRighties who occasionally drop by and try to convince John to come back to the fold? Those guys are teh funny.
AkaDad
I think it’s time to move on from this SCHIP controversy. I’m going to look for a different 12 year old to attack…
RSA
Funny. Even a completely factual assertion (which was not the case for the Frosts) can be interpreted as an attack. For example, I might say, “Bush and Cheney are perfectly willing to send soldiers to Iraq, but back in the 1960s they were smart enough to avoid going to Viet Nam.” Floor wax or dessert topping?
jcricket
Have you noticed the not-so-subtle attempts to distance Bush and “conservatism”. Much like those that still cling to the fantasy that the only reason communism doesn’t work is because it was never “truly tried”, conservatism is a bankrupt philosophy now.
I’m not arguing there aren’t things you can be “conservative” about (you can be anti-gun control, not favor bias crime laws, want lower taxes, etc.). But as a political philosophy, when taken as any kind of a whole, conservatism is a massive failure whenever it’s tried.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Who is saying they are “affluent,” besides Cole and Krugman? Malkin hasn’t, AFAIK. Everywhere I’ve seen, the $45K income figure is displayed prominently. To say that the Frosts committed fraud in their SCHIP eligibility would be a slur. But I don’t think anyone (though it’s hard to say “anyone” when we’re dealing with loony blog commenters and such) is doubting that the Frosts meet the program’s income requirements. It is completely legitimate to ask whether the SCHIP program should include asset testing, in order to get help to those most in need.
That said, what isn’t germane in my view are the comments that Halsey is from a very wealthy family, he had all the advantages, and he chooses to be a part-time hobbyist instead of getting a “real job” to support his large family so the taxpayers don’t have to. While this may be true to an extent, once a government decides to undertake a welfare system, everyone has to be prepared to support people who have made poor/selfish/unusual choices in their lives, be they from rich families or destitute ones.
tBone
Using “hippie” in an attempt to insult liberals is so fucking stupid that I frequently include it when I write a spoof post.
So, I’ll be charitable and assume EEEEEL is a spoof.
Protip, Lambchop: it helps to mix things up a little. In your next post, try to work in “commies” somewhere.
RSA
I wonder if he has a big suit in his closet?
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Yes, you have been assimilated.
tBone
I guess you’re right, but it really chaps my ass that those kids chose to get in a car accident and become brain-damaged, and then expect US to support them. Selfish little buggers.
Billy K
Conservatism can not fail – it can only be failed.
They’re just beginning the process of wiping the slate as clean as possible (see post-Nixon years) before launching the next “Contract for America,” “Compassionate Conservatism” or whatever it’ll be next time. Regardless, it’ll be nothing more than a product relaunch with shiny new graphics, yet the same old rotten filth inside. It’s only when the “buyer” finally opens the box do they realize they bought a bunch of crap.
JWeidner
You first.
John Cole
Seriously,
Have you even read me at all over the last five years? My consistent position on campaign finance laws is that I oppose them. I hated mcCain/Feingold. My position is to let people give whatever they want to whoever they want, with one requirement- that it is immediately reported who gave the donation and made available online.
In light of that, why would I care about a bundler, other than the obvious concern for someone breaking existing laws (I may not like the laws, but they are on the books)?
The story just doesn’t motivate me.
Tsulagi
But the Vince Foster truther type set do. They’re big picture seers.
Everyone knows DOJ is riddled with planted covert Fitzgerald-esque subversives denying truth, justice, and the American way. If Hillary is elected, she will activate them all and we will be doomed. Known truth.
CT Voter
Heathersphere
Perfect description. Thanks, whoever coined it.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Heh. The Nobel Peace Prize? Is that thing still around?
Hey, I’m sure the people risking their lives to halt genocide in Darfur are so proud that Al Gore won $1 million dollars…for having a concert about global
warmingclimate change…you know, for peace.Ivan Renko
I got asked the other day, “What– are you some kind of liberal?”
I answered, “Damn right I am. Since the conservative movement has defined anyone to the left of Genghis Fucking Khan and anyone with more than three fucking neurons to rub together as ‘liberal’, that’s exactly what I am.”
Movement conservatism went from hating Negroes to hating brown people to just hating anyone who ain’t one of them.
Renko
John Cole
Not to be confused with the ‘Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine’ that Lambchop’s wingnut buddies were slavering over during the Schiavo affair.
AkaDad
If you’re a liberal on the internets, I think the proper term is dot-commies…
Cyrus
Who is saying that? Gee, I don’t know, maybe the people who are saying
Good for you, for agreeing that those comments aren’t germane.
Tim F.
Shocker, Lambchop accuses someone who disagrees with him of mental illness. Must have reached deep in his bag of trick for that one.
This is more interesting:
So far as I can tell, Lambchop just denied the most obvious smear (Frosts had the resources but chose to freeload instead) and argued that they should have been left alone. Did I just hallucinate a huge rightwing blogswarm centered on the Frosts? It would be great if some Lambchop-approved source (everyone else is crazy, natch) could clue us all in on what exactly Malkin, Riehl and friends spent the last few days jabbering about. Much appreciated in advance.
janine
Oh, this is fun.
What is verifiable: The Frosts own a home in Baltimore purchased for $55,000 16 years ago – and now worth an estimated $300,000. That’s a lot of equity.
Pug
The Schiavo affair was truly a low point for Hannity. And that is saying a lot.
Punchy
It’s now clear that we’ve got to ban children in cars and on sidewalks, cuz their “accidents” are allowing rich people to get richer, and probably helping terrorists on their way to school to boot. His new friend “Alan Kayda”? Uh huh.
Meanwhile, I propose a new law that if you child gets hurt in a car, tractor, space shuttle, or bigwheel, that the gov’t not only doesn’t foot the bill, but that the parents are charged with neglect. Thats the only way to keep these fucking kids from stealing my hard-earned tax dollahs.
tBone
The Nobel committee has just been phoning it in for the last 30 years. I mean, c’mon – Mother Teresa? I’m sure the people who risked their lives to work for peace in the Middle East are so proud that she won the prize . . . for handing out bread to people too lazy to get jobs so they can feed themselves . . . you know, for peace.
Face
I’ll one up you, Punch. Let’s go full-on Darwin. No health insurance for anyone. Survival of the fittest. Wanna see a whole lotta people drive the speed limit and start eating their fruits and veggies? Better believe your son’ll think twice about climbing that tree if he knows he’ll have a bum stem the rest of his life if he falls and breaks his femur…Republicans would be so happy…the slim ones, perhaps. Hospitals are ghost towns. Docs performing surgery on each other, for slaps and tickles. Malkin can then shut her hole about the whole SCHIP thing, as only the weak poor kids die.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Sorry, I missed “affluent” in that sentence.
chopper
oh, the old ‘nobody used the specific word “affluent” in a sentence’ dodge. bravo, sir.
libarbarian
I dont see you posting your home address on DailyKos under the title “This right-wing warmonger tells the Frosts to ‘Suck it Up You Liberal Pukes’“.
You know damn well you would feel “harassed” if someone posted your home address and personal info on a political site where you were portrayed as one of the “bad guys”. You know damn well that you would spend many nights wondering if some crazy oddball would pick that night to decide to come after your family or kids.
Sirkowski
Michelle Malkin is also a contributor to Vdare, a white-supremacist blog. (go figure…)
Parker
John –
It’s not the move to liberalism – it’s the move to ad hominem- filled echo chamber that saddens.
I’m with you on campaign finance, though – I would add that only individual citizens should be able to contribute, and not corporate entities.
jnfr
I believe one of the newspaper articles about them confirmed that both the home and commercial property are mortgaged, so it’s not clear how much equity they actually have.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
I’m not aware that I did that — perhaps you could show me.
Was it when I said:
Oh, no wait — that was you!
Note to future hypocrites: Next time you project your faults on others, like Tim did here, please make me look harder to illustrate it that your Last Fucking Post. Idiot.
chopper
the basic nut of the right’s angry rants about the frost family was that they had an expensive house (because the house down the street sold for a half-mil) and tons of cash to send their two kids to expensive private schools (which are actually on scholarship) and have granite countertops (actually they’re concrete) and thus make too much money and have too much net worth to qualify for schip and are ripping off the system.
did they use the specific word ‘affluent’? no. but its clear that that was the meme. the frosts are too affluent for schip. they have a half million dollar house and granite countertops and spend 40 grand a year on school tuition for just two of their four kids. the rest of us should be so lucky!
anybody who wasn’t living in a cave for the past few days knows this.
chopper
and all this garbage about the rich parents/grandparents is stupid. i can’t count how many people i knew grew up under well-off parents and were left completely on the street when they turned 18 with nothing. paid their own way through college etc etc.
Tim F.
Was it when I said:
Yes indeed, John must have lost his critical faculties when he gave up on the GOP.
Obviously I do it myself when the mood suits, but as you know tu quoque is not in fact an argument.
Jay C
You mean like the clown act whose response to blogger Ezra Klein’s “debate challenge” to Michelle Malkin by was to challenge him to a boxing match ?
I mean, it’s obvious this can be, as Ezra did, laughed off: but where are the guarantees that someone a little less-tightly-wrapped might not want to follow through with the “bout”?
But then, since it’s only the “nutroot Left” who are so “angry”, we “liberals” have nothing to worry about….
spoosmith
I’ve been following this story closely since it broke and am appalled at what I’m reading on conservative blogs. Most of the stuff posted is so breathtakingly heartless, I’m almost hopeful that there is a hell.
On one particular blog – which is actually full of self-righteous, highly “religious” posters, the Malkin article was published. With the exception of myself, every single comment attacked what they saw as a “nanny state” and “why should I have to pay for someone else’s misfortune?”
Keep in mind that there are, on a regular basis, articles and comments calling for the complete ban on abortion – I suppose that’s where I see a staggering level of hyprocrisy. All children are worthy of being born (we MUST protect the unborn!) but then they don’t give a shit about them once they are. Apparently, conservative really do believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.
How can your country be anything but doomed?
Bruce Baugh
John, to my way of thinking, this the CHIP program isn’t the sort of thing that should divide liberals and conservatives, not those on each side who have actual good will and an interes in the general-welfare part of the Constitution’s preamble. I’d expect conservatives with brains and hearts to favor local and private solutions where they’re available, to favor sundown clauses and opportunities for performance renewal and a bunch of other sensible measures, but also to prefer that sick children be treated than not. I’d also expect Republicans outside the current movement conservatism to be able to do the fairly simple cost-benefit analysis that says healthy citizens are a good investment. And of course I expect old-school Republicans to be paying attention to the fiscally sensible and morally responsible administration of services, which is one reason there’d be the money to pay for the thing.
Seriously, one can be a perfectly fine conservative and reluctantly regard CHIP and the like as regrettably apparently necessary responses to genuine needs, support them for now, and get cracking on things that’d make them less necesssary in the future.
Or at least that’s the way it looks from here.
libarbarian
NO WAY!! Let me spell it out for you liberals.
Economic policy based on “Survival of the Fittest” does have its place but it is totally pointless once you already know who the “fittest” are. We ALREADY had “full on Darwin” and guess what….the rich won. The wealth of the Rich is evidence that they have already proven they are the fittest!!! Conversely, the very poverty of the poor confirms their inferiority.
Adopting a “survival of the fittest” attitude now wouldn’t help any more. If anything it would screw things up and pollute the genepools by introducing both the chance that inferior poor-types could get wealthy through pure luck and be mistaken for being one of the “fit” descended from the rightfully wealthy, and that fit people who made a few mistakes and had a tough run of luck could find themselves being mistaken for being “unfit” and denied the lifestyle and benefits which should be rightfully theirs.
The game is over and the rich won. They proved they were the fittest and should now, like the Alpha lion, get to sit back, bask in the sun, and enjoy the perks of being the best without having to keep competing with the pathetic refuse who can’t handle their loss and want the game to keep going until, through sheer luck and happenstance, they manage to take the lead – when they will, of course, call “game over” and act like they won fair and square.
Krista
And believe me, having waded through the cesspools that are Dan Riehl’s site and Michelle Malkin’s site, not to mention the comments section posted from the Baltimore Sun article, there were PLENTY of people calling for an IRS audit on the Frosts.
Dan and Michelle themselves may not have said it, but they have certainly steered the conversation in that direction with their speculation, innuendo and bald-faced lies. No, they’re not solely responsible for all of this crap, but they are pretty emblematic of how ugly things have gotten in America.
magisterludi
janine- you so don’t get it.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Well, it’s an argument when the argument is, “Look how easy it is to show what a self-righteous hypocrite Tim F. is!” When the mood suits.
Seriously, how does a thinking person write your last post calling Republicans “completely fucking insane” in the first line, and then minutes later, criticize me for saying John’s been “assimilated,” which must mean that one has given up one’s capacity to think critically, which must be a sign of mental illness (none of which follows in the least, but you’re not bothered to expound)?
So you’ve struck the trifecta yet again. You’re wrong about me calling John “mentally ill,” and you out yourself as a self-righteous hypocrite, and not a clever one.
Well done!
John S.
In your case EEEL, no.
I just find you to be such an utterly mendacious piece of shit that I won’t waste my time actually penning an original response to you. Therefore, I deem that the only valid response is to treat your posts like a Mad Lib and fill in the blanks.
chopper
but EEEL, tim didn’t use the specific term ‘mental illness’. so he’s hardly a hyprocrite.
rawshark
I’ve been saying for years that conservatives are people who don’t believe all men are created equal. They believe in an aristocracy and a peasant class and that gov’t should work for the aristocracy; some of the people not all the people. Put another way…..
The rich are better, we need to nurture there betterness and ensure no peasants get close to them to corrupt their betterificness. (I love to make up words)
rawshark
You’ve jackaloped this thread. Like you always do.
Well done!
tBone
Technically, Lambchop is right. He didn’t accuse John of being mentally ill. He simply implied that John received a de facto lobotomy along with his Loony Leftist membership card, rendering him too droolingly stupid to function normally:
It’s just part of EEEL’s “semantics are fun when I want to avoid the actual issue!” schtick.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
So much the poorer are we all! Although you misspelled “can’t.”
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Tim jacked it. Whine to him.
Zifnab
Yeah, the pro-life movement has actually been giving them some flak from the right on this, too. Apparently, when Catholics say they are pro-life, they aren’t being flaming hypocrites. Republican elected Reps, not so much. Go figure.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Things are ugly, agreed. Everyone on both sides knows just how brutal it is, especially during an election cycle. Anyone who dips there feet into these waters had better be aware of the sharks, waiting to pounce on any aspect of your sexuality, finances, character, etc.
So, the only logical recourse is to have 12-year-olds read on national radio talking points speeches that you’ve written for them! Nothing unsavory could ever happen from that!
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
there s/b their
your s/b their
I must be hungry.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
For the ball-busting impaired, I think it’s obvious that I understand that John still has the functionality to type… and to post using WordPress.
And that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Zifnab
So, E3L, how about those conservative Catholics? Socialist libtards to a man, right? I mean, who can defend the indefensible, like the SCHIP program?
Face
Because it’s both natural and classy to attack a injured child.
Rick Taylor
Paul Krugman’s been getting it exactly right since before the 2000 elections. You might want to reread his early articles here and see what you think of them now.
The Other Andrew
EEEL–I don’t know if you’re a spoof or not, but you’ve personally converted several wavering conservatives that I’ve linked to this site. You’ve turned them into full-on “reluctant John Cole liberals,” my good man!
John Cole
The craziest thing in all of this is that I am not completely convinced an expansion of the program is really the right thing to do. I think it is quite reasonable to support an expansion in the sense that states that can not fully fund all currently qualifying applicants should receive additional monies, but I am not convinced an expansion is wholly necessary or appropriate. There might be better ways to handle those needs, should they exist.
What has gained my attention and thoroughly repulsed me is the way they have gone after this family, and the knee-jerk need to destroy the messenger in the most nasty manner possible. It is disgusting. The attitudes that were displayed afterwards (NO HELP TILL YOU SELL EVERYTHING and SCREW THE KIDS, YOU HAD YOUR CHOICE AND BLEW IT) are equally abhorrent.
tBone
This in no way precludes mental impairment. Exhibit A: the blogosphere.
Jake
Been a while between loads of red meat.
Well yes Face, that’s what Some Lamb means. Everyone should be aware by now that members of the fRight are so unhinged they will attack their own shadows if no other target is available. (He was dark and he kept following me!!)
Therefore it is the fault of people who offer any provocation, even things reasonable people wouldn’t consider provocation, when the 101st Keyboard Kommandos leap out and start biting ankles. They have given us plenty of warning that there isn’t anything they’ll stick at when they feel threatened and everything makes them feel threatend.
Do you get it yet? It is our responsibility to adjust to the desires of the Republicans because there is no way they’ll ever be able to exercise any self-control. People who don’t want the likes of Malkin swarming over them like fire ants should just keep their heads down, not speak unless spoken to and above all, not make any sudden movements including joining a political movement unless it is the conservative movement and even then be prepared for a period of intense suspicion until the pack accepts you. (Rolling in a dead Democrat helps.)
If you can’t abide by these simple rules and you are confronted by one or several of these creatures … well, just don’t show fear or you’re finished.
over_educated
“So, the only logical recourse is to have 12-year-olds read on national radio talking points speeches that you’ve written for them! Nothing unsavory could ever happen from that!”
Translation: Hey, if you didn’t leave the kid with me, I never would have molested him, so obviously his molestation is entirely YOUR fault! Excuse me while I clean up.
sparky
EEEL:
Can’t make much out of caviling. No wonder you’re hungry.
Tim F.
What a denial! How could anybody possibly get the impression that you dismissed John’s mental faculties?
The Other Steve
But I thought you just said nobody attacked them?
I’m confused. Why should they have anticipated attacks, if it’s true as you say and nobody attacked them?
I notice you tend to avoid all the hard questions. I am trying to make my questions simple for you.
The Other Steve
Yeah, EEEL sure sounds like someone who beats his wife and then screams “Look what you’ve made me do!”
Rick Taylor
And the funny thing is Bush tried to keep this to a debate about that point. He didn’t try to suggest people like the Frost’s were gaming the system or unintitled to benefits; he stresses he wants to continue the program. This time, the right wing took it and ran in the direction of arguing the Frosts didn’t need the program, completely underminding that strategy. I wonder how much of an impact this is making outside of the circuit of political junkies?
John S.
Of course, saying that he has no brain cells left and shouldn’t operate heavy machinery ’twas all in good fun! Again, what an incredible shitbag you are.
For the ball-busting impaired, I think it’s obvious that I understand that EEEL isn’t really a sack filled with excrement.
Krista
No, I’m sorry. I reject that. If human beings want to behave like craven, uncivilized animals, then that is the conscious choice that they make.
By claiming that the Frosts “should have known better” than to expose themselves to that, you are in part enabling and excusing the kind of disgusting behaviour that we’ve seen. A civilized response to the Frosts’ story would have been, “Cute kid, I’m glad that they feel that this program helped them, but I don’t think that this legislation is the right direction to take, and here’s why.”
We are sentient, intelligent beings, and we CHOOSE our behaviour and our actions. If we do not hold “the sharks” responsible for behaving like sharks, and not human beings, then we won’t have a hope in hell.
The Other Steve
Because he never said mental faculties.
Duh
Tax Analyst
I read somewhere that this “Lambchop” character is not tender, juicy, succulent young lamb, but in fact just FAT, OLD GRISTLE-LADEN PORK BUTT!
…and has not a scintilla of real wool on it’s pimply, Porcine Ass, either.
I think we should send a batallion of “Citizen Journalists” to peek in his/her kitchen windows to check it out. It’s what Malkin & Riehl would want done if “Lambchop” happened to approach things from a “Librul” perspective.
But at least I’m not calling your mental state into question. It’s much easier to let your own statements make that case.
Is that “Conservative” enough for ya’?
Tax Analyst
OH…and I forgot to add, “Put that Road-Apple in your Pie-Hole, Pig-Face.”
There, that’s better.
HyperIon
i skipped to the end after i read this….
is that you, DougJ?
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Well, you probably have some weird, not-yet-destroyed hangup about some level of personal responsibility (a concept that also explains most of the folks who are both anti-abortion, but also anti-universal-SCHIP). This hangup makes you a meanie.
Or, you loves you some ciggies.
That’s so over-the-top. What exactly do you find so reprehensible? I haven’t read of anyone trying to “destroy” the Frosts “in the most nasty manner possible.” Let’s not go too dramatic with the rhetoric here. Has someone tried to murder them? Has someone broken into their home? Or are people examining public records of their family finances, and (gasp) looking at their property? Please give an example of what you think “the most nasty manner” is, and who advocated it.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Absolute rubbish. No one is excusing disgusting behaviour (and I’m assuming here that it exists — you guys aren’t long on links on this matter), but let’s not be naive here: Politics is full of reprehensible behaviour from all sides, as you noted before. No, the Frosts shouldn’t have “known better” — this isn’t their game.
The Democrats who wrote little Graeme’s speech and told him, “Read this for us and everything will be just fine” damn well knew better. Of course, the cynical among us will suggest that the Democratic operatives knew about the unusual circumstances of the Frost family, and played McConnell and Malkin, et. al. like a fiddle.
rawshark
The goal is to go roll back the New Deal. Since we’re dealing with people who believe the ends justify the means is it hard to fathom EEEEEEEEELs defenses? The goal is just, how its achieved can and will be forgotten so why hold back?
tBone
I’m sure you inadvertantly left off that last part, because you find intellectual dishonesty so appalling. Right?
tBone
This from the guy who was whining earlier about all of the Frost stories on the front page, which *gasp* contain all kinds of links documenting the bottom-feeding frenzy.
Now I’ll just wait patiently for Lambs to count up the links, selectively quote from one or two, and then dismiss the entire lot as not germane.
mrmobi
Lambchop, the kool-aid is rotting your gray matter. You ignore the salient fact that this kid was speaking about how, in his personal experience, government can actually help families who are in real need.
I know you’d rather that the children of the poor just suck it up and bear the consequences of their parents “bad personal choices.” (Republican code for not being white or rich) You guys have even been trotting out different versions of the old “welfare queen” myth since this kid had the temerity to disagree with Mr. McFlightsuit. I guess I can’t blame you, it’s one of your favorite lies.
Conservatives (and by that I mean authoritarians, like you, Lambchop) really haven’t had an original idea since Grover Norquist and his “shrinking government so small you can drown it in a bathtub” idea. It’s an idiotic idea, but it’s your one accomplishment of the last seven years. You killed government, and now the fucking bridges are falling down, the levees failing, and the Justice Department is anything but. Mission Accomplished, can President Bush leave office early, since he’s done?
Lambchop, I’ve been meaning to ask what you think of the Party of Torture Pretend Presidential Empty Suits™. Is there some candidate in that bunch of throwbacks who you feel would make a good leader? Are you for Fred? I’ve watched more of those “debates” than the Democrats, and frankly, I’m appalled. You guys deserve a recall. I understand that Barry Goldwater’s corpse still looks pretty good, better than Fred Thompson, anyway.
From the Republican debates I learned that: all our social and personal ills can be solved by more and massive tax cuts, a giant fence on our southern border, and making sure all citizens have choices in how not to have health insurance and no choice about who spies on them and when!
Good to know.
NickM
Don’t even waste your time with EEEL – his kitchen countertops are made of freakin’ marble.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
While you lug the Goalposts Of Hypocrisy (yes, I noticed), I’ll just mention that it’s not like I wrote that he was “completely fucking insane” — right, Tim? I mean, only a clueless cretin bereft of real ideas would use such base rhetoric — right, Tim? Right?
I must be the first person in Balloon Juice history to be castigated for questioning someone else’s “mental faculties.” My God, do you ever read this site? How about your own posts? I realize that intellectual consistency isn’t your strong suit, but you must try harder.
But hell, I’m such a good sport that I’ll play to where you’ve placed the goalposts for now. So… is it now an unconscionable slur to suggest that you think someone isn’t using his full “mental faculties,” Tim? If so, you may take out your fainting hanky and proceed to get the vapors. But watch out for that hypocrisy thing!
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Whoops, there goes Tim to the floor again. Get him some smelling salts!
A black family can’t make right choices, right? They’re too dumb, and they have to rely on Big Government for their cheese! You’re an offensive buffoon.
chopper
IOKIYEEEL. remember, when a gooper says it, it’s all about ‘context’.
John S.
Oh my, what has become of this thread…
There are jackalopes running all over the place.
sashal
Nothing wrong to be a true, real liberal, John.
Just don’t go commie on us.
LOL
John S.
EEEL, Dr. Freud would like to see you on his couch. He mumbled something about ‘projection’? I’m not sure what he means, but I’m sure you can take it up with Herr Doctor.
tBone
I hate seeing strawmen sent out to die like that, Lambs. Try harder, please.
whippoorwill
What unusual circumstances, mutton-head? The only thing unusual about the Frost’s is they’ve had to endure the cackling, predatory stalking of drooling Hyena’s like Malkin et al.. and then have had to listen to their apologist idiots [say one mutton-head] trying to wash away the stench of mean-spiritedness.
Why do you think republican lawmakers ie [Mitch McConnell] are so happy now they did not join in with your wingnut blogging cohorts. It’s because the argument Malkinites made and the tactics they used to make it were a complete loser.
Your like the Jap soldier stranded on a Pacific atoll who continued to fight World War 2 until the 1970’s when he died of old age. Face it mutton-head this battle is over and you got your asses properly kicked.
Tim F.
Lambchop, it pleases me that in your own special way you finally acknowledged my point.
The difference between you and me is that I am capable of disagreeing without dismissing someone as mentally unwell, even if I choose to indulge at times. You have one sad little gear. That isn’t to say that you are crazy, just that you dip into the same well every time you put pixels on a screen. In that way you’re predictable like stink after chili.
Bruce Moomaw
“Unusual circumstances”? As Hilzoy pointed out over on “Obsidian Wings” when this started, the anti-Frosties didn’t even bother to ask themselves such elementary questions as whether the Frost kids might have gotten into that school on a scholarship, or whether their house might be mortgaged.
Actually, however, I think the net effect of this has been positive (at least for everyone except the Frosts). There is now NO way that anyone can avoid regarding Malkin as nuttier than a $25 fruitcake.
Bruce Moomaw
“It’s OK —we all know that you’re only dedicating your site to wall-to-wall Frost because you’re trying to distract us from the victory in Iraq.”
Now, THAT’S news. Did they find it under the baked potato, or what? (Incidentally, Victor Davis Hanson’s new column refers to Petraeus’ “near-impossible task”. A pity that Hanson didn’t notice the difficulties involved earlier, during all those years when he was declaring that we didn’t even need any more troops — we just needed to slaughter Iraqi bystanders more indiscriminately with the troops we had.)
Zifnab
So… uh… EEEL, how about those Catholics? I never got a response from you? Is the Pope a moonbat? Does the Catholic Church condone the slow slide into socialism? Really, we’re eager to hear your input.
Chris Johnson
I’m not sure I totally buy all of Krugman’s points but I do agree that the Bush era conservatism goes back quite a ways, back to Reagan and earlier.
The great thing about Nixon was he KNEW he was being a dirtbag. He swore like a sailor and was openly paranoid about his enemies.
This is actually better than where movement conservatism has got to, because where it’s got to is a state of unrelenting, INADMISSIBLE fear.
I got out a lot of foodstuffs from my back room today, because I’d been hoarding food out of insecurity, and a local food shelf was just in a local paper because it was running out of food. I’d used that food shelf, years ago, and it was a Godsend. Now there were pictures of its empty shelves, and that was too distressing to see. I realized that I was still afraid I would go hungry, years later, and that I still kept shelves of food some of which I just didn’t ever eat, six boxes of Earl Grey etc, because subconsciously I was afraid I would stop being able to afford food and would run out.
All that stuff, anything I hadn’t actually opened, anything I didn’t consistently eat for dinner, is now totally covering my (non-granite) kitchen counters because it’s going to that foodshelf on Monday.
If I was a movement conservative, I guess I would be trying to get the food shelf shut down on the grounds that it was a bad idea in the first place and wasn’t even able to run effectively :P
But the REAL reason would be- I would be scared of myself having to go there, and since I wouldn’t be able to admit to myself this fear, I would have to be angry at something in order to not admit I was afraid, and the most obvious candidate would be the thing inspiring my fear.
My ex-wife HATED the food shelf, and she wasn’t even a conservative. She was a tree-hugger liberal, but the idea of having to stand there while a fat lady in cheap clothing said “You may take five items from the grains shelf- you may take eight canned vegetables or fruits- you can only take one jar of peanut butter, everybody wants that”… she just cringed at the idea, and I had to do it. I was weirdly pumped to be doing this humiliating thing to support my family at the time, plus I’m a weirdo anyway and considered it another unusual life experience, but the fact is, there are a lot of people who passionately hate charity because they have associations with it.
You imagine them considering such things and in their minds is somebody yelling “YOU SACK OF SHIT WORTHLESS LEECH! WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT YOU GOODFORNOTHING BUM? GO STARVE!” and it’s a parent or some significant person or ALL their proud-but-poor family, and they freak out and you can’t give anything to them. It’s the kind of person who could STEAL food from the food shelf when they’re starving, but would punch you if you ostentatiously GAVE them food because it was ‘charity’ and they were proud.
So when these people confront issues like this, it’s actually worse when they are themselves needy or p… wups, I’ll get punched. When they themselves have had a TOUGH MONTH in which everything went wrong. THEY’RE not needy! They’re strong, they’re tough, the world is just hard!
Beginning to understand?
Then you’ll understand how you can only change this by reducing the fear and pressure these guys live in every day, especially the astonishing dirt-poor ones who are death on charity. You cannot head-on convince them that people need help and kindness, least of all by reminding them they themselves might need it too. That makes them worse! You have to lower the fear to where they can face it in some way, and then lots of things seem real different.
It’s the kind of person who would rob the food shelf and trash what they didn’t take because they’re so mad about needing it, that we’re talking about. You cannot deal directly with a person who is mad because they won’t admit they’re scared. They have to cool off, and they have to be less scared, before they can even think.
I wonder what Michelle is so scared of that she’s blowing up every few days? It’s really pathological with her, and I have to wonder what is really her problem. Possibly it is being a beautiful but ethnic woman? There are still differences in the opportunities for men vs. women, not to mention ethnic vs. white.
D-Chance.
Wow, this thread broke into a dozen different pieces, so… to do an all-in-one:
Just remember that come 2009, when CNN officially becomes the “Clinton News Network” all over the wingnut world, again.
Not true. Glenn Reynolds has posted a hsunami of hsuperb post over at inhsupundit (ok, the last one was a stretch).
Wha… you don’t think his opening every interview during those few weeks with the question, “why do you want to murder this innocent woman?” wasn’t hard-hitting journalism? For shame!
D-Chance.
Malkin’s still at it???
This time, printing an unsolicited e-mail from a “neighbor” or someone claiming to be a neighbor?
Now, the Frosts have three vehicles, along with their mansion. And, no, Michelle didn’t drive by to see or photograph the three vehicles… she simply posted SHOWROOM shots of brand-new models.
Rome Again
Sorry, hell doesn’t exist anywhere but here on earth. It is not below terra-firma, nor is it in some ethereal fantasy realm, it is here and now and we are all in it.
whippoorwill
The opening sentence from Malkin’s anonymous e-mailer and supposed neighborhood of the Frost’s.
How sweet. I suppose this is an example of a wingnut compliment.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Come now, we both know you have no point. Or you’d say what it is. You’re just terrible at this, bro.
Well, since you assert it, it must be true, even if you can’t come up with a shred of evidence, like I did so easily. Do you really think you’re fooling anyone with this nonsense? Everyone sees you’ve been Pwn3d!
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
“Predatory stalking?” Put an extra Depends by the bed in case you wet through the first one. Michelle Malkin might be stalking you!!! Like a predator!!11!1Uno
So you think the Frosts are a typical SCHIP family? Suuure. I’m certain almost every family on SCHIP is comprised of college-educated couples from a wealthy New York family who choose to have part-time gigs with no insurance to support their family. And most all of them have Democratic activist friends who will get their kid a shot at a national radio address. Yeah, same old story. Heard it a thousand times.
Nothing to see here. Except the Predatory Stalking of someone (gasp) driving past your house!11!1!SixMinusFive! BOO!!!
Ummmm, I guess I should use smaller words for you. I’ve stated several times that I thought it was entirely beside the point to investigate the Frost’s finances, and that once we decided that we want to have some level of a welfare state, we had to accept that we would often be spending our money on advantaged citizens who could support themselves, but through stupidity, laziness, selfishness or bad choices, cannot or will not work to provide for their families. So I thought Malkin was wasting everyone’s time from the get-go.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
I see John has purchased “multiple exclamation point” insurance. Very wise move.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
And I’m still waiting on that example of any attempt to “destroy” the Frosts in the “most nasty manner possible.”
Or can we all concede that it’s all just hissy-fit rhetoric?
Bruce Moomaw
Evidently it’s time to quote Jonathan Cohn’s latest comments on the subject:
“As I’ve long argued, the point isn’t to make health care free. It’s to make health care affordable — in other words, providing insurance at a cost that even people with middle or low incomes can bear. The best way to do that is through some sort of universal coverage plan, so that payments (through some combination of premiums, taxes, and out-of-pocket expenses) are scaled to income — and so that everybody is required, by law, to contribute what they can into the system. This is one reason that conservatives like Bob Bennett of Utah have endorsed serious universal coverage plans: They see it as a way to make people take more responsibility.
“Now, in the absence of such a universal system, programs like S-CHIP are a decent substitute — indeed, the best we have available. Remember, as I pointed out in my original item, most states either charge premiums or impose cost-sharing for higher income families enrolling in the program. Plus there are services that the policies don’t cover. So it’s not giving free health care per se; it’s putting health insurance within their financial reach. That seems like the right balance to me.
“One final, very important note on this. While it is true that some people who could afford insurance voluntarily go without it, that doesn’t mean most people who are uninsured could buy insurance if they just lived more frugally or made wiser decisions. Based on the information I’ve seen — and this is a longer discussion to which I’ll be returning sometime soon — the majority are people for whom buying insurance really would be difficult given their particular situation. In other words, they really do need assistance.”
Bruce Moomaw
“Only to the pantywaist hippie left would saying a family is affluent be an ‘attack’ on a family (not a ‘criticism,’ mind you—a vicious ‘attack!’).”
This guy has GOT to be a spoof.
TenguPhule
Shorter EEEL: If the parents have to choose between feeding and sheltering their kids and heath insurance, obviously they’re ‘advantaged’ people who are either stupid, lazy, selfish or just plain bad parents who weren’t clever enough to be born with a trust fund from big daddy to take care of everything.
We can now confirm that EEEL 1)Lives with their parents 2)Has never balanced a household budget in their life 3)Doesn’t earn a living on their own 4)Hasn’t paid any attention at all to the real world for at least six years
TenguPhule
Shorter EEEL: Until one of Malkin’s fans is actually caught on video killing one of the Frosts, posting their private information for easy access to the nuts is just shits and giggles.
I expect EEEL to shut the fuck up when the tables turn and Right Wingers get probed and examined. After all, the Right has now declared ‘if you go out there in an ad, you’re asking for it!’
The Stranger
Mrs. Frost: Honey, we need insurance for the kids.
Mr. Frost: What we really need is 3 new gas guzzling vehicles that will cost us about $140,000.00.
Mrs. Frost: But we only make about $45,000.00 a year.
Mr. Frost: You dumbass. You can’t possibly believe that.
Mrs. Frost: But that’s what you told the Dems and the media.
Mr. Frost: All we have to do when asked for our financial records is scream Naziism and the MSM will come to our defense.
Mrs. Frost: Oh, OK. I see how it works now. Screw the little bastards. I want a powder blue Volvo SUV.
Mr. Frost: OK, but the new Suburban and the new Ford F-250 are mine.
chopper
Mr. Frost: OK, but the new Suburban and the new Ford F-250 are mine.
wow, malkin puts up pictures of showroom models as if they’re the frosts’ cars and you just lap it right up, don’t you.
whippoorwill
Sweety Mutton-Head.
I wish she would and leave the Frost’s alone. There not used to dealing with wingnut Jackals.
I say it again, slowly so it may get through your kool-aid soaked brain. The Frost’s qualify through the state of Maryland for the original S-CHIP program which was championed by a republican congress led by; Gingrich, Armey, and Lott. You got a complaint talk to them. Otherwise, STFU.
TenguPhule
The Stranger can’t respond right now, he’s too busy sucking on Malkin’s big rubber dick at the moment.
They just keep digging and digging and praying to strike oil. And all they find is manure.
W. Kiernan
EEEL: Well, you probably have some weird, not-yet-destroyed hangup about some level of personal responsibility…
Rubbish, you utterly trashy parasite. I spit on your laughable claim to personal responsibility, hypocrite. Ptui, there!
Deny this, if you dare. You drive on public roads.
Now if you were a real man – as I am, for example, a rugged paragon of what originally made America Great – you’d blaze your own path to the grocery store. But I’ll bet you don’t even have a machete in the house! Instead, daily, you’re slobbering all over the teat of Big Government, shamelessly driving your big plump shiny car across those Federal, state and municipal roads – roads, you can’t be unaware, financed by taxes extorted primarily from your social and economic betters – as though you had some kind of inherent right to do so.
And after this demeaning daily display of cringing acquiescence to an overarching State, you gibber and whine about S-CHIP – a mere increment in state power.
Zuzu
EEEL said: “Who is saying they are ‘affluent,’ besides Cole and Krugman?”
—————————————–
You obviously have not seen their counter tops.
Blue Jean
Yeah, I’m sure that it doesn’t mean anything in your own particular corner of Wingnuttia, but it’s a bit important here on the Planet Earth.
If you bothered to read the Nobel’s statement, you’d see that it doesn’t mention concerts, but rather, Gore’s ongoing effort to warn the world about global warming.
Funny you should mention Darfur. Funny, funny, funny, since as Salon says, “A quick list of trouble spots that climate chaos could ignite would include:
* The Sudan and Darfur — where the ongoing violence, fueled by drought and destitution, might be described as the world’s first global-warming civil war.
* South Asia — where India, China and Pakistan might well go to war over the shrinking snow melt from the Tibetan Plateau.
* The eastern Mediterranean, where Syria, Iraq and Turkey contest the Euphrates.
* The Chinese-Soviet border, where the loss of agricultural lands could force even more of the Chinese population north of the Amur.
* The gradually drying region around the Aral Sea — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan.
* Even Canada, Norway and the Soviet Union, whose governments are beginning to make bellicose noises about control of the suddenly ice-free Arctic.””
In other words, the folks in Darfur are treating one symptom of global warming, while Al Gore is treating the whole disease.
BTW, Gore is donating his prize money to charity to fight global warming. What a selfish bastard, eh?