Granted, I am all hopped up on pain meds and I am ignoring the news and just icing my shoulder while watching Chuck S2 and Mad Men S1, so maybe I am just imagining this, but left blogistan seems to be a little bit less angry at Obama than the past few weeks, and some even seem downright hopeful.
I’m not sure whether to attribute this to a positive reception of the still black Obama’s speech, or thanks to the reminders from Alito and others what assholes the Republicans are.
Maybe some of both.
El Cid
I am indeed somewhat more hopeful coming out of the SOTU than going into it.
Michael
Its the calm before the Jericho scenario plays out.
Gus
The only thing that keeps me nominally in the Democratic column is the fact that the vast majority of Republicans are such assholes.
mr. whipple
It’s the drugs.
artem1s
little bit of both, I imagine with some hopey/changey icing on top to appease their election withdrawal.
the Repugs looked downright constipational last night with all of their “politing” they were forced into by the GOP leadership. While the speech itself didn’t make me turn cartwheels the faces of Boenher et al did make me giggle just a little.
Dr. I. F. Stone
It sounds as though your higher than a kite and twice as dumb as you are normally. The New York Times along with every legal scholar in the country agrees that Obama got the legal characterization of the Courts decision wrong and that Alioto was absolutely correct in his mouthed comment. What would one expect from a fool such as Obama, someone who has daily demonstrated that he doesn’t have the capacity to manage a shoe shine parlor.
Violet
I’m feeling downright hopey changey today. My inner Obot has re-emerged.
Napoleon
It is the calm before the Peak Wingnut.
General Winfield Stuck
Papa bird fed the sqwalling chicks some fresh red meat.
Ana Gama
Meanwhile, Rudy Guliani proves once again that he lives in another universe…and CNN allows him to get away with it.
“Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani charted this morning on CNN that President “ignored national security” in his State of the Union address last night.
Giuliani (R) said Obama “didn’t talk about the Christmas almost-bomber,” even though Obama did. He said the president didn’t use the word “Islamic terrorism,” though Obama used the word “terrorist” twice and “terrorism” once.”
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/giuliani-wrongly-says-obama-didnt-talk-about-xmas-bomber-video.php?ref=fpblg
djork
Perhaps I’m an idiot, but I really don’t see the big deal with what Alito did. He didn’t say anything outloud or make gestures or anything. It seemed almost reflexive to me, like he was put on the spot, forgot where he was, and whisperedsomething to his neighbor.
I get that the justices are supposed to come across as impartial, but I really think the outrage is misplaced on this one. It certainly wasn’t a “You lie” moment.
And I say that as someone who would love to scrot punch Alito for a few hours.
aimai
I’m not at all surprised. The problem the bloggosphere was having, to the extent that its a problem, is that Obama has tended to work hard and methodically in a very unshowy and uncampaigner-y way. He’s fantastically busy–just looking at his white house flickr page makes me tired because the guy is always working–but in a very real way he’s less available to his supporters/voters than he was on the campaign trail. He’s done less explaining and exhorting than I think they wanted. The reason they wanted him to be more visible is because so much of his policies and our progress was mired in the House and the Senate. People could see that his stated goals–our stated goals–were going down the tubes and they at least wanted some major sign from Obama that he felt their pain and their rage.
That, to me, is the meaning of all the almost pathological tea reading of the white house and its various flotsam and jetsam. Sometimes it seems like a kind of “No Parrots were killed on the M1 today” sort of news as each constituency came out and said “no progress on my issue” or “senate went backwards for me today.” Because Obama is viewed as at the top of a pyramid of power, or at least in a pivotal position between the House (where he works closely with Pelosi) and the Senate where he used to be a member people have a lot of incohate feelings about how he needed to be more involved, more obvious, in saving the failing health care bill.
In other words, I think a lot of people’s expressed feelings of angst were relieved by the SOTU speech because at least Obama got up there and said, more or less directly “yeah, I’m with you all. Just like I’ve always been.” It needed to be said because people needed to hear that.
Myself, I’m pretty pleased with the SOTU because there seemed like a real risk that Obama was going to go backwards, as some of the more idiotic dems did right after the scott brown win. But clearly he’s decided to move forward with this whole president thing pretty aggressively. Yay.
aimai
Brick Oven Bill
Mathematics deniers never win.
Winners never deny Mathematics.
Thus, all truely is well.
Democrats are the real ass-holes. Holden aspired to save the world, catching the children as the wandered towards the cliff on the edge of the field of rye. He eventually went insane. Holden was, of course, the inspiration for Mark David Chapman (modern Left).
Before being cut down by Chapman’s gunpowder and metal, John Lennon (true Liberal) taught us:
You say you’ll change the constitution,
Well, you know…
We all want to change your head.
You tell me it’s the institution,
Well, you know…
You better free your mind instead.
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao,
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.
The parallels between the Hippies and the Teabaggers are becoming clearer. This trend will continue, as an attack on one Liberal Art (Arithmetic, ‘Calculator Abuse’), is an attack on all of the Liberal Arts (to include Music).
danimal
Can’t rule out drugs, but the news has been marginally better the past couple of days.
Comrade Kevin
Ah, we have two people in this thread who are living in an alternate universe.
Shalimar
Last night was Obama’s strength. If he can use that to mobilize people for even moderate reform on health care and jobs, then this year will work out better than it looked like it might a few days ago.
If he was actually willing to beat the crap out of the bankers on a weekly basis between now and November, with some legislative accomplishments to go with it, Dems might not lose control of Congress this cycle. I doubt seriously that someone who picked Rahm, Geithner and Summers for key jobs has the balls to really take on their masters though.
BR
I’m keeping up my calling schedule to my reps / senators.
Except now I’m throwing in a line “like the president said last night, etc.. pass the damn bill”
Darius
@djork:
Yeah, I don’t get what the big deal here is, on either side. Obama was perfectly within his rights to criticize the Court’s decision, and Alito was perfectly within his rights to mouth his disagreement.
SIA
Sure is nice to have you back.
Speaking for myself, I feel calmer and less uncertain about Obama.I’m proud of him. The dem senators, well we’ll see.
But I thoroughly enjoyed the speech last night and got geeked up and unable to sleep just like during the campaign.
Houstonian
Don’t forget to call your Congresspeople today. Being in Texas, it’s useless to call my Senators – although I did once, just on principle (an entertaining conversation with Cornyn’s flunky where I sort of got him to admit that Cornyn doesn’t support Medicare). But I called my Representative’s office again today. The intern and I are rather chummy at this point, as I’ve been calling every day.
Today he told me that they are “waiting on the Senate” and that if I called back next week he could let me talk to one of the Legislative Directors who actually knows something about health care. I asked if this was due to my persistence in calling and we both had a good laugh. As per someone’s suggestion yesterday, calling regularly does have its benefits and perhaps we should keep this up even after something happens with health care (good or bad).
I reiterated my position on health care. Asked him to put it down in some tally column, if he had such a thing. And then he said, “Please keep calling. It makes a difference.”
So please keep calling, everyone! It makes a difference!
General Winfield Stuck
@aimai: so his figure commanded you, cool.
Max
The country always “feels” better when Obama talks to them. He gets shit for “just words” “teleprompter” whatever, but the nation is always a little calmer after he proves again that the adults are back in charge.
This country has daddy issues.
O-bot.
beltane
The left has a tendency to be needy and high maintenance. If the President were to give a SOTU every day, all would be well. Hating on the badly brought up Samuel Alito is also good for morale.
geg6
@Brick Oven Bill:
John Lennon would kick your ass from here into the middle of next week for invoking his name with your teabagging shit. You take his name out of your filthy, disgusting mouth. You and he have exactly no points of agreement in anything. STFU about John Lennon. He would have hated you and everything you stand for.
/ever responding to this asshole. Again. But fuck, way to pull my chain. John Lennon’s name and words coming from a fucking teabagger. Jeebus.
Shalimar
@Brick Oven Bill:
I never read Catcher In The Rye, so I can’t say I ever aspired to be Holden. I was a huge fan of Harlan Ellison though and did aspire to be him at one point (albeit a far less dickish version).
Violet
@aimai:
Agree with everything, especially this. The President had been accused of being “removed” and “distant” from things. This speech has shut down that kind of talk.
Because shit wasn’t getting done, people didn’t know if Obama was still for it, how much he was for it, etc. The speech let people know he was still in their corner. I guess this is the “Coach” part of being President. People were feeling disillusioned and needed a pep talk to get back out on the field and fight. Or something like that.
Da Bomb
@Dr. I. F. Stone: You are such an idiot.
Shoe shine parlor? Really?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Dr. I. F. Stone: It wasn’t the legal characterization that Obama was getting at. It’s now perfectly legal for Citgo and Lenovo to make campaign contributions. The one thing Obama understands that you have obviously missed is that the Supreme Court is ultimately a political court that makes legal decisions: Its interpretation, validation, and rejection of laws written by congress and signed by the president are part of the politics it plays.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Da Bomb: Good catch. I was pissed before I even hit his racial comment.
Sue
Nope, still mad. When I see some actual action/progress, I will again begin to think that well-crafted speeches will get us somewhere.
CDT
It’s not just the drugs. I’ve been as disenchanted with Obama as anyone for the last several months, partly because of policy reversals and partly because he didn’t seem to be standing up for anything he purports to believe in. The feisty parts of last night’s speech accordingly were heartening. We’ll see what happens with follow through.
@Dr. IF Stone: Well, I’m a legal scholar, and I think that Obama’s characterization of the Supreme Court ruling was perfecly fine as a short-hand description. Since 1907 United States’ policy (via legislation) has been to limit corporate contributions to political campaigns. The fact that some of the judicial precedents over-ruled by the Supreme Court were not likewise a centry old — as opposed to thirty or so years — is quibbling. The effect of the ruling is to open the floodgates to corporate intervention in elections in a way that the country has attempted to avoid for a century. Would you have preferred that Obama take five minutes out of the SOTU to get into the gory detail? All sorts of complex issues must be simplified in the context of a speech that touches on many things.
Waynski
@Ana Gama — As someone who lived with Guiliani as Mayor for eight years, I can confirm that he has really lofted himself into outer space. When he was mayor he was cold most of the time, almosy icy. Now, everytime I see him on the teevee he looks hysterical. Perhaps he’s in the later stages of syphilis.
Punchy
Some asshat on DK has a recc’d diary DEMANDING Alito be impeached for moving his head during the speech.
Some of my fellow proggys have jumped the shark, the shark tank, and the factory where the tank is made.
jibeaux
Called my Senator’s office (Hagan, NC). The “bipartisan” answer was already logged in the little balloon juice spreadsheet, but I got the same type of thing. Committed to health care reform and to working not just with the House but across the aisle. Since the people who answer the phone are I’m sure just young people doing a fairly crappy job listening to some nutty people most of the time, I stayed polite and calm and expressed my opinion that the Republicans had not shown any interest in contributing over the last nine months and I kind of doubted they were going to now. The Democrats need to do this, says I nicely. I sincerely hope that the “bipartisan” crap is just something they’re instructed to throw into every phone call to appease nearly whoever is calling. That said, Kay Hagan is not going to be front and center robustly calling for the Senate to commit to making the House’s desired accomodations, so I sure hope someone is. (She’s not worth much, but she sent Liddy Dole back to her preferred home at the Watergate Hotel on the “Elizabus”**.)
** for reals
Michael
Inhofe is callling him a better liar that Bill Clinton, JD Hayworth is wanting the birth certificate, and our incompetent military brain trust sat through the speech like lumps from a Rand romance. So yes, I think we’ll see something stupid soon on a Peak Wingnut front.
I’m picturing either
1) a birther assault on Hawaii’s vital statistics office by a national guard platoon from a wingnut state off on a secret mission; or
2) an attempt by Joe Arpaio’s goon squad to stage an arrest for High Treason while he’s out speaking somewhere, and not necessarily in AZ.
That’ll all be the circus prior to the Jericho scenario. Leading up to Jericho, Fox, Redstate and the FReaks will be outraged at the treatment the plot conspirators receive. When Jericho happens, there will be heavy sighs of wingnut relief, and they’ll welcome the triumphant entry of President Palin and her Regent, Richard the Bruce Cheney into the new capitol at Richmond.
Al Swearengen
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Too bad there’s 200 years of tradition that says Justice Whiny-Ass-Titty-Baby has to put his big-boy face on and shut the fuck up and take it. Him being a “conservative” and all.
I was doing something else at the momen and saw it out of the corner of my eye. I instantly decided I hadn’t seen what I thought, figuring no way in hell would a USSC justice be that big of an immature douche to fucking try to upstage the President during the SOTU. I was wrong.
aimai
Violet
Precisely. Being a cheerleader, an exhorter, an explainer is part of the job of leading. Its not something he had to do because democrats, or his voters, are uniquely demoralized or disorganized. He has to do it because its just part of setting out and defending his agenda and his policies–especially when both are under attack or unrealized.
I’m not excited by a SOTU speech. Its a kind of arbitrary moment. But it came at an important time for his base and for the senate and congress, apparently, so we’ll see if it has some effect other than the merely psychological.
aimai
Brian J
It seemed like several of the women here were about to make their o-faces (and by that, I don’t mean Obama faces…or do I?) as he was making his speech last night. I didn’t have quite that reaction, although since I am usually almost indiffferent to most of these things I am probably not the best example, but I did like it.
Now he needs to follow through. If the health care bill passes and there’s some positive job growth, and he and his team can capitaize on the nine months they have left, he’ll preside over the party not only weathering the midterms but possibly prospering. Well, maybe nor in the House, but perhaps the Senate.
That’s the nice thing about the speed of the cycles in news and politics: as quick as they can turn against you, they can swing back in your favor. Let’s hope that this is the start of the latter.
Elie
John:
Glad that you are feeling better and cruising appropriately on those drugs…
We all seem at any point just inches from a national nervous breakdown and his speech soothed us fractious babies — for a while. Lots of people are just scared and as Max says, desperately need Daddies.
I take a less bland view of Alito’s antics because I believe that the behavior is becoming more prevalent and accepted. kay brought up some good points on one of the other threads about how necessary this might be given a long period of suppression during the Bush years, but I am more suspicious that it has less to do with self expression than the perspective of insurrectionists — “I will not accept your leadership” kinda thing. I think this showboating is spreading and will make its appearance over and over — and it has. Obviously not much else to do but roll with it, but I don’t think its benign at all. (I guess I should take comfort from the comparison to other times in US history when actual duals and fisticuffs ocurred in chambers)
May you continue to heal in blissful comfort and with a rosie glow surrounding all things…
mcd410x
What I see in Obama is a (relatively) young, reluctant leader. He’s used to leading by example.
But he’s learning that one size fits all leadership rarely works, especially when dealing with the ridiculous egos in congress.
Last night he took a step forward: he set not only goals and expectations but also boundaries. We’ll see how the urchins respond.
Shell
Does Brick Oven Bill have one of those “magnetic letters, make your own poems’ kit on his refrigerator? That’s the only way I can think how he comes up with his posts.
eastriver
It’s the drugs.
You're gonna need a bigger boat
Reminds me of the scene from “Jaws” where Quint just got eaten, the “Orca” is sinking and Brody is waiting for the shark to show up again. Here are a few fun plot twists from this week:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/26/right-rebels-palin/
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/28/bachmann-tea-convention/
drew42
Not only did the speech seem to calm a lot of nerves, but apparently (a) it made a lot of independents happy, and (b) has caused a handful of (barely) closeted right-wingers to accidentally expose themselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwwB5JFdQY8
Da Bomb
@Punchy:
Ain’t that the truth!
Paul L.
Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”
which is why my Presidential campaign disabled AVS on my website to allow for Untraceable Donations.
CalD
I was just thinking the pile-on seemed less enthusiastic in general than I’d expect — Milbank and the NYT aside.
Violet
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Really? Have they all been polled? Every single one? I’d love to see citation.
arguingwithsignposts
I was just watching MSNBC earlier, and for a whole hour, I forgot that all of their hosts are white.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@CDT: I haven’t really read much about the case, just too much shit raining down, but last night I caught Colbert’s segment quoting Roberts as saying stare decisis (SP?) didn’t apply because of a “spirited dissent” in a previous case from Scalia. IANAL, but from what I understand from following USSC confirmation hearings, wasn’t that a pretty radical move?
Liddy’s “we like to be spontaneous!” as she followed Arthur Murray dance-school shoe-stickers along the stage has not lived in anything like the infamy, or okay, mockery it deserved and deserves
General Winfield Stuck
@Dr. I. F. Stone: You mean the part on conflating unleashed corporate money to explode our brains with funding insane ads and every kind of dubious shit that money is now no object to, with candidate limits.
The individual candidates soft and hard money limits remain in tact for now, until the upcoming case will pull the plug on that as well. What the wingnut SCOTUS did was establish precedent equating monetary wealth with 1st amendment speech rights. Confirming the age old axiom that money talks.
I see no problem with Obama characterizing the decision as overturning 100 years of campaign finance law. It was the precedent money == speech that did it, or shortly will make his remark fully accurate and fully matured.
aimai
Is there some program I can install that will replace Balloon Juice’s troll “Dr. I.F.Stone” with the nym “Fucking Hitler’s Necrotic Corpse?” I try to stay out of it but it really offends me to see my own grandfather’s name taken in vain by this asshole.
aimai
Chat Noir
@SIA:
Same here. I decompressed after the speech by watching a couple episodes of “thirtysomething” season 2.
I was glad Obama reminded folks that we started the 2000s with a $200 billion surplus and that he took office with a $1 trillion deficit because of the Bush tax cuts, two wars, Medicare Part D drug benefit, all of which Congress neglected to fund.
JenJen
The SOTU surprised me. It was quite the departure from standard, ever-since-LBJ type addresses. I got a bit of a thrill up my leg from that. It was SOTU 2.0. The political junkie in me was astonished that the Executive Branch went after the Judicial Branch so publicly, for one. But it was substantial, and helpful, the way he went after the Congress for scoring short-term political points, while abstaining from leadership. That kind of message is so conducive to the Bully Pulpit, and he used it well. Surprisingly well.
I haven’t read any bloggy reactions, but did watch Morning Joe long enough to understand the Village seems to be circling its wagons around the Halperin-Fournier “Troubled Presidency” meme. I don’t think it matters, but it’s worth noting, if only for kicks.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Brick Oven Bill
Those words from John Lennon accurately express my feelings, and the feelings of many I know geg6. You cannot change them. He wrote them down (Grammar, Rhetoric).
Chapman is one of a long line of individuals who clearly demonstrate that the unstable are on the side of the modern Left (bite off finger, bite off nipple, feed arsenic to children, take out Harvey Milk, Obama’s neighborhood etc., etc., etc.).
The stereotype of Conservatives being assholes is false. Consider now the Indigo Girls and the Lyrics of the excellent song ‘Galileo’:
Galileo’s head was on the block.
His crime was searching for the Truth.
Now consider the Conservative journalist who was just arrested at the office of a Senator of the modern Left and charged with a Felony by the State.
freelancer (itouch)
@arguingwithsignposts:
Your meds must be stronger than Cole’s, in that case!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wish I had some drugs, or at least a pizza
Da Bomb
@Elie: I don’t know if you read my response to your last comment a couple of threads ago, but I wasn’t very clear.
I wanted to reinforce the fact that I know you don’t call the President names. I usually enjoy reading your comments on here and usually I agree with your sentiments.
slag
“Calm” could also be conflated with “resignation”. In general, that is.
Joel
@Dr. I. F. Stone: You shouldn’t besmirch the reputation of the dead.
JenJen
@aimai: I’m not sure (where’s cleek?) but thank you, because I’ll certainly substitute your description if only mentally.
rootless_e
the temporary calming of the poutosphere is, i think, only attributable to a backlash against their HCR debacle – even the firebaggers on DKOS retreated to a “pass this bill” position when the true extent of the catastrophe became clear.
Brian J
@Waynski:
No, I just think he’s going mad because his 9/11 halo wore off a long time ago. That, and he made such a fool of himself running for president.
Da Bomb
@arguingwithsignposts: BWAHAHAHAHA!!
I am in my office right now, and I forgot that everyone else here is white. Also. too.
Chat Noir
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): And that part of his resume reads “Constitutional Law Professor — University of Chicago, 1992 to 2004.”
Ana Gama
@Waynski:
I can buy that theory!
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Max:
That. Exactly. Nailed it.
Tsulagi
Probably.
Seems Obama not speaking in a Negro dialect confuses the hell out of Matthews. And these guys make seven figures.
arguingwithsignposts
@Dr. I. F. Stone: Dude so wants his name back.
Comrade Luke
I’m pleased to the extent that I was surprised at how he went after everyone. It was the most no-holds-barred speech I think I’ve ever seen.
On the other hand, I’m balancing that with the fact that he’s always been a good speaker, yet here we are today with this huge list of things that aren’t getting done, and in the case of HCR appear to be getting back-burnered. He’s been talking about the big bad banksters for months and nothing has been done there either.
I realize there’s only so much he can do, but he also can’t expect to do everything behind the scenes, surface every few weeks to rattle his sabre, and then disappear again without anything actually having been done.
On the third hand (betcha didn’t know I had three hands!), after watching last night I’ve come to the conclusion that he really did believe he was going to come in and change things, and that politicians would respond to that by at least trying to cooperate. The latter part hasn’t happened, and he appears to be ready to deal with it.
We’ll see how it goes. Needless to say, if the next year goes like the last year, no amount of speechifying at the SOTU will help imo.
slag
Also, is anyone else put off by Glenn’s characterization of the world as “Obama-lovers”, “Obama-haters”, and those in the middle? It’s bothering me that, now that we have a Democratic President, he’s been adopting a lot of establishment press framing and techniques. I wonder if he’s always done that and I just never noticed it before.
Anton Sirius
@Shalimar:
A less dickish Harlan? What would be the point of that?
And Catcher in the Rye is possibly the most overrated book of the 20th century.
Tom Hilton
@Violet: considering that the President himself is, in fact, a legal scholar (a professor of constitutional law), I suspect I. F. Stone’s claim about unanimity is slightly exaggerated.
Fergus Wooster
It was great to see him come out (relatively) swinging – I think a lot of us have been so demoralized that any sign of life would be a boost. And drugs help, although I don’t have what John has.
Still, when he went back to “bipartisanship” even as Bohner and Cantor sneered, I threw up in my mouth a little.
@aimai
I forgot you’re Stone’s granddaughter. Aren’t you the one who drove Joe Klein into an apoplectic F-bomb rage?
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
Not to mention those black-robed justices overturning the laws of 24 states, with a ruling that will directly affect state judicial elections.
Obama didn’t mention that, because he’s a consistent liberal with a coherent philosophy, unlike conservatives.
They’re all over the place.
Face
This needs to be a tag for any and all posts judiciary-related.
djork owes me a new bottle of Beam.
arguingwithsignposts
@aimai:
Not sure if the pie filter will replace names, but here’s the link.
Violet
@aimai:
Well, that’s crappy. Isn’t there a filter out there somewhere? Does it not work for nyms as well?
licensed to kill time
Re: Galileo his crime was looking up for truth
Ya scrambled those magnetic words on the fridge.
slag
@aimai: Kick his ass, aimai. You know you want to. It feels good sometimes, even if it’s just a perfunctory kind of satisfaction.
flukebucket
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Obama…..shoe shine parlor….
I see what you did there.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@aimai:
Obama needs to be our national hotdog vendor at the ball-game. Slinging dogs, w/ all the fixings, and keeping peeps fed, happy, and focused on watching the game. But he got busy, the supply of dogs tailed off, so we wandered downstairs hungry and wanted to know: what’s up, Mr. HotDog Man? I’m hungry, where’s my lunch? And then we found the sausage making factory concealed in the basement – and were horrified. My god, do you know what goes into those bratwursts? The horror, the horror…
Elie
@Da Bomb:
No worries…I was a bit ashamed of myself though —
I attribute it to raw nerves and overwork at the job I do to earn some dough.
thanks for catching up with me though to say that. :-)
Corpsicle
It was a decent speech, he said some of the right things, but in the immortal words of some little old lady, “Where’s the beef?”.
While it is certainly nice to have a president who is not a complete embarrassment I’m getting a bit tired of good speeches. I want to see some results.
YellowJournalism
Now there’s a campaign slogan for 2012: “Still black.”
It sure would make things easier for the bigots. Even Tweety wouldn’t get as confused as he seems to when the President demonstrates how articulate he is.
geg6
@Violet:
Yup. Professor Jonathan Turley begs to disagree with the phony, deliberately insultingly named Dr. I.F. Stone.
Da Bomb
@slag: He’s always been that way. It’s that Glenzilla is supposedly on our side that people don’t notice.
The only thing I have read(and that was a feat) his take on how Sotomayor’s reputation was being dragged through the mud by anonymous sources. I agreed with him on that.
I agree with the fact that researches his stuff and can back it up for the most part, but he suffers from the same “ego” issues that some bloggers have.
I can’t read his stuff, he bloviates too much for me. But that’s just my preference.
gypsy howell
I didn’t watch the speech last night, and honestly have no intention of watching all the replays. I don’t want to be buoyed up by nice words or tough talk (though I did love his swack at the Supremes) . I want to be buoyed up by actual progress on some of these issues. That’s all that counts.
And for everyone who says it’s all Congress’ fault, I ask you why FDR gets credit for the New Deal and LBJ gets credit for his Great Society programs if indeed the President has no role in getting these kinds of signature programs enacted. Hell, Bush gets credit for doing all the shit he did (They’re called the the Bush Tax Cuts, not the House-Senate Tax Cuts) It IS his job to lead – to lay out what he wants in terms of legislation, to sell it to the public and then to fight for it through the Congress. And so far, I haven’t seen him actually doing much of that. More tough action please.
Elie
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
LOL!
Woodbuster
Give them time, John. In 24 hours, Hamsher will have given out her new PROGRESSIVE COMBAT RANGERS marching orders, and the hissy fits will begin anew.
geg6
@aimai:
cleek’s pie filter is wonderful.
I feel pain for you every time that asshole shows up here at BJ, aimai. I’m sorry he is such a total jerkoff.
Da Bomb
@flukebucket: Yep, he’s an ass.
General Winfield Stuck
@Dr. I. F. Stone: Shut up you racist piece of shit and stop using as your handle to besmirch the name of a decent human being. Go back to the garbage dumps of Greater Wingnuttia and circle jerk with your perverted dip shit buddies.
** it’s early so my clown cannon is not warmed up yet. When the little sewer trout returns it will be set on rock and roll
Joey Maloney
I’m beginning to think Obama has borrowed a little of Steve Jobs’ RDF mojo.
arguingwithsignposts
@General Winfield Stuck:
dereliction of duty, sir.
Also, not enough gonad kicking in that comment. You’ll have to do better, or we’ll demote you to colonel.
PurpleGirl
@aimai: When I read his comment, my first thought was What is Aimai going to feel/say with this creep using her grandfather’s name and in such a contrary context. I agree there should a way for this troll’s name to be changed.
Violet
@gypsy howell:
As Ash Can posited last night, perhaps this is the beginning of Obama II. I think there could possibly be some truth in this:
I’m hopeful anyway. I think Obama’s default is to be all community organizer-esque and let the messy business of consensus happen. But sometimes you need to knock a few heads together to move things along. He showed last night that he’s not afraid of a fight, at least with words. Let’s hope it happens for real.
scott
John, I think the level of calm and agreeableness you’re sensing in Left Blogistan is simply that those of us who have publicly disagreed with the president in the past haven’t had you around for the past few days telling us all (over and over and over and over and over) what assholes and douchbags we are for wanting our president to keep some of his promises.
Maybe if you take a few more percocets, watch a few more of your shows and have a nice nap by the time you get back we’ll have passed HCR, fixed the budget and all be singing kumbaya together.
Max
Did anyone read Chris Buckley’s piece on the speech.
I think he needed a cigarette after writing it.
I’m glad Obama appeals to his type of republican. Flame me if you want. But, I don’t want Dennis Kucinich as president.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-28/one-hell-of-a-speech/
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Dr. I. F. Stone
Izzy, why should anyone listen to your opinion about the Citizen’s United case when you can’t even spell Alito’s name properly? Alioto was the mayor of San Francisco, oh so many years ago back when I was governor of California. Yeah, as if someone who doesn’t know the difference between an associate justice of the Supreme Court and a prominent San Francisco politician is qualified to issue an opinion on Citizens United or can even name any prominent legal scholars. I mean there were times when I was out of it while I was president (I was so *fucking* high when I made that Bitburg speech. I got the dope from George W. Bush and that was one time he came through for me with some high quality ganja and not the lousy West Texas polio weed that he was always trying to dump on me) but even when I was fucked up on weed, scarfing handfuls of jellybeans and listening to King Crimson on the Oval Office stereo I could still tell the difference between Joe Alioto and Sam Alito and between “your” and “you’re”.
General Winfield Stuck
@arguingwithsignposts: I know, but the Obama win speech has rendered this Obot serene, though I’m sure it won’t last.
Punchy
@Face: Add it to the lexicon, too. Something like: “the desire to physically abuse activist Republican judges (and politicians) who act like pompous shitheads”
georgia pig
It’s clear that Alito and Roberts are just ham-handed political hacks. If you’re a smart judge, you don’t need to get all defensive like that because Obama can’t do shit to you. You’re also an idiot for engaging in politics with a heavy hitter like Obama in his own fucking arena. Maybe Alito realizes in the depths of his reptilian brain they may have fucked up with that “corporation is a person” overreach in the opinion. It looks like pure ends-justifies-the-means sophistry to anyone with two brain cells. A lot of asshole behavior just correlates with being a dumbshit, example being that suckass panel on CNN.
blackwaterdog
The speech was brilliant. Nothing more to add.
Feel better, John.
williamc
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Why is this asshat using Izzy Stone’s name to come here and troll? One of the worse things about wingnuts is that they keep trying to make history fit their pathological stupidity instead of learning from it.
No one cares what “even the liberal New York Times” says about a legal opinion that everyone can understand: corporations can funnel unlimited money to political campaigns because they are individuals, money=speech, and speech by individuals is protected under the first amendment. All the sock-puppet arguments in the world aren’t going to make this simple understanding go away, and to think that I.F. Stone would agitate for a melding of corporation and state is besmirching a good man’s name and reveals your complete lack of understanding of who the man was.
cfaller96
Speaking for myself, what I really wanted to see from President Obama post-Scott Brown was a “Dems plz chill the f–k out and get back to work” attitude. Obama’s calm and steady demeanor really could have settled the chickens down a bit, and reassured not just Dems but Americans that he’s still part of getting the job done.
Instead I saw a “surprised and frustrated” Obama that “got caught in a buzzsaw” who then announced a spending freeze in the middle of a recession, but then also said that it wasn’t really much of a spending freeze after all. Yeah, I was angry that the No Drama Obama guy I voted for seemed to disappear and been replaced with School Uniforms Clinton. F————-k!
But No Drama Obama seems back, at least with the rhetoric in the SOTU. So I’m a little less angry today, but I’m still in a wait and see mode. Just my $.02.
Northern Observer
BOB,
You are not seeing reality. You are waring some sort of emotional ideology glasses that reverse everything on you. The most basic observations, red light green light, good bad, aggressive friendly, are reversed by these tinted shades. You need to deprogram yourself. Since you do not seem motivated to do so I suppose my effort on you is lost. But believe me BOB you can regain your sanity, your clarity of vision, your humanity. All it takes is a honest effort to measure the evidence and read for the facts rather than for the feelings.
A good place to start would be Rick Pearlstein’s Nixonland. It clearly explains how political America became what we see today. Then measure this book against any of Shaffley’s books or Greerson or Goldberg. Take the reality test.
slag
@Da Bomb: Interesting. I’ve regularly agreed with Greenwald–in fact, if not in tone. During Bush, I sometimes agreed in tone as well. But now (I can’t remember who here named the syndrome) I, too, am suffering “outrage fatigue”.
Even when I’m agreeing with Greenwald, the desperate tone he uses has become unbearable to me. It gives me the sense that even when we’ve won we’ve lost. And when you get that sense, what’s the point of trying to win at all?
I guess I’m just not understanding the logic behind his passion. As weird as that sounds.
arguingwithsignposts
In other news, Touchdown Jesus has a fan page for his Super Bowl ad. I can’t figure out how to be an “unfan.”
Paul in KY
I’ve never read ‘Catcher in the Rye’. None of my HS English classes had it as a reading assignment.
I’d like to get a copy, just to see what all the hullabaloo is.
Mr. Salinger himself seems like a bit of a dick (reading about him).
John, glad your cruising on the vicotrain. Watch the alcohol drinking.
Sentient Puddle
I agree with the notion that Obama speaking helped everyone chill the fuck out. Seems to be this way whenever he gives a big speech, and for good reason. These speeches are damn good.
One other thing I’d note: the people in the media who are making the assessments on the speech and reading these poll numbers that say Obama’s appearance was reassuring are the same morons who constantly question whether or not Obama is over-exposed. Morons.
PurpleGirl
@gypsy howell: Because FDR, Johnson and Bush either came up with the ideas so enacted in legislation and/or they pushed and wheeled and dealed for the legislation.
The Supreme Court can feel dissed when (or if) Obama tries to pack the court the way FDR did after a couple of New Deal programs were ruled unconstitutional.
eemom
@gypsy howell:
excellent. I agree completely, and that is why I didn’t watch the speech either, and won’t. Tired of words.
eemom
On an entirely different note………RIP JD Salinger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html?hp
I kind of thought he’d live forever.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@cfaller96:
I don’t think this is a byproduct of the MA special election – I think this has been on the agenda for a long time. Obama and his key people on economics really, truly are old-school Eisenhower fiscal conservatives. This has been concealed up to this point on account of the Keynsian demands imposed by the deflation he inherited, but I think one of the things they are watching most carefully for in the WH is for the sign that the time has come to ease up on fiscal stimulus. Personally, I think they are far more likely to fall into an FDR in 1937 style deflationary trap than to wait too long before easing up, but it has been clear since even before his inauguration that the deficit-hawking Rubinistas are back in the saddle again, in Obama’s WH.
Xenos
I guess this is why there is so much liberal-bashing on the right. One solid diss on Scalito and I am ready to let Obama do whatever he likes for at least six months.
Brick Oven Bill
Again note the modern Left supporting violence against a man of Judgment and Principle. Punching his crotch.
This one is hereby defined as ‘Hate Exhibit 624,907x1b’.
As another Hate Exhibit, let us now recall this very web-site’s comments regarding Rush Limbaugh:
“That’s why I want him to stroke out but live. Between him sitting for hours at a time in his own feces and urine, feeling the drool rolling down his chin, and knowing that Obama got re-elected and there’s nothing he can say about that…pretty epic carmic justice.”
Teabaggers are thus not the ones with anger-management issues, Northern Observer. They are much more aligned with Peace, Love, and Harmony. Thus:
Teabagger = The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences = John Lennon
Modern Left = Mathematics Denier = Unstable
Shalimar
@Anton Sirius: I guess it’s better to say the same dickishness to the people in power who deserve it, without all the random dickishness to people who have pissed him off for silly reasons. Mostly I just wanted the brilliant mind and writing ability though.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
@Paul L.:
If you had bothered to read the article Paul you might have seen this sentence.
I wouldn’t have had a problem with this except that someone donated to his campaign in my name. I found out about it because Ho Chi Minh told me. Someone had told him that a donation had been made to McCain’s campaign in his name and he was offended because he thought that John McCain was a lousy pilot and a punk-ass bitch and didn’t want to have his name sullied by having it associated with the McCain campaign. I was pissed because I met McCain and even someone like me, a career politician and Hollywood bullshit artist, could see what a phony he was, especially compared to Barry Goldwater. And then he made things even worse by selecting that useless twat from Alaska as his VP. I can’t tell you how drunk me, Barry, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerry Ford got when he did that and Dick Nixon called us to say that he didn’t want to hear any more shit about selecting Spiro Agnew as his VP.
Joey Maloney
@Shalimar:
I was a huge fan of Harlan Ellison though and did aspire to be him at one point (albeit a far less dickish version).
Oxymoron.
@Comrade Luke:
I’ve come to the conclusion that he really did believe he was going to come in and change things, and that politicians would respond to that by at least trying to cooperate.
That’s a really interesting thought. Maybe, having been inside the Senate where it’s all collegiality this and my good friend that, he mistakenly thought he would still have access to that once he left for the Executive.
eemom
@Paul in KY:
Read “Nine Stories.” “Catcher” is one thing, but “Nine Stories” is truly a masterpiece.
Michael
Somebody break out the smelling salts – Erick Ericksdottir has gone all hysterical and is apt to pass out shortly.
*************************
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/01/28/a-declaration-of-war/
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Thursday, January 28th at 5:00AM EST
61 Comments
—
After reflection on Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, I am left with one overarching conclusion: while boring, preachy, dull, overly serious, then flipping to overly jocular tones while trying to balance pandering to the middle class with holding his base — Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was a declaration of war on the free market.****************
I’d tell people to scrot punch the slimy little bitch repeatedly, however, I think that the real estate in that vicinity is vacant.
This sort of hysterical fucking bullshit WILL get somebody hurt at some point.
Tom Hilton
@Michael:
Why to wingnuts always use phrases like “the free market” when what they really mean is “the Aryan race”?
geg6
@Paul in KY:
Then that’s all you need to know. If there is more stupid book in the “classic” American literature pantheon than Catcher in the Rye, I can’t imagine what it would be. And if there is a bigger asshole as the hero in literature than Holden Caufield, I’m glad I haven’t read about him yet.
Okay, wait. I take that back. The above paragraph is only true if you take away anything written by Ayn Rand.
Tom Hilton
By the way, it looks like the DADT announcement wasn’t just words.
(Yes, Congress still has to repeal the law, but the Pentagon is already working on an implementation plan for the change.)
maye
I too am ready for action rather than words.
However, words are important, and the effective use of them is necessary to stay ahead of the GOP propaganda machine. Obama can’t do it alone. He needs a better communications team to back him up. He needs a real media strategy and smart, capable people to implement it.
I fear this has been lacking the last year, and particularly on health care reform, the prapagandists have won. They’ve got to get out ahead of this shit, and stay ahead.
dr. bloor
@Ronald Wilson Reagan:
I’ve always heard Cap Weinberger’s air imitation of Tony Levin playing the Chapman Stick was something to behold.
Michael
Because they know they can’t say “the President’s a n*****, goddammit” *BONG* in authentic frontier gibberish without alienating the middle tier of voters that they’re so dependent on in order to obtain office.
Dee Loralei
@Fucking Hitler’s Necrotic Corpse:
HA! Amai’s right, a much better name for you!
dr. bloor
@Michael:
Ignore Erik. That’s just the rebound effect from having the snot beaten out of him by his betters on CNN last night.
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill: Is this supposed to be a tribute to the late J. D Salinger? What are you talking about?
MBunge
1. I think people are forgetting the main point in the Obama/Alito thing. It doesn’t matter if Obama was 100% accurate or lying out his ass, Supreme Court Justices are not supposed to get in public disputes with political figures.
2. I liked “Catcher in the Rye”, but even as a kid I thought Holden Caulfied was a whiny loser.
Mike
Ronald Wilson Reagan
@dr. bloor:
It was, if we’d only had Guitar Hero back in those days. You know who else was really awesome? George Schultz. Seriously, the reason I bought him on board as Secretary of State wasn’t just because Al Haig was a megalomaniacal, narcissistic nutcase, it was because he did this completely awesome, to the point of being uncanny, Geddy Lee impersonation. I actually had the Secret Service check to see if he still had his testicles because I didn’t believe that a normal man could hit some of those notes, but he could and did and after a few bong hits could belt out “We are the priests, of the Temples of Syrinx” so well that you’d think you were front row center at a Rush concert.
AnotherBruce
@Punchy:
Clearly, impeachment for Alito is ridiculous.
But cock-punching is not out of the question.
SIA
@Chat Noir: Hey Black Cat! I made a brilliant reply and then Word Press shut me down and I’m too tired to re-create it. Anyway, basically it was, yeah, I agree with you. :)
Da Bomb
@slag: You actually describe my sentiments better than I did.
That’s it.
Brick Oven Bill
Upon reflection, I think it is Chad N Freude. I read that book twice as a kid. Perhaps the lesson is that there are limits to idealism, and if you go beyond those limits, that you run a higher risk of biting off someone’s finger, or nipple.
Now I have to go and practice bowling as tonight we compete.
Blue Raven
@Brick Oven Bill:
This is why they carry signs with misspelled racist messages and misused Holocaust imagery while shouting down people who have family members who died because they lack health insurance.
How Orwellian. Someone get me a thorazine gun; I think I need to go delusion-hunting.
Sentient Puddle
I liked Catcher in the Rye back in the day, but when I stop to consider it today, I don’t think I would take to it nearly as well. You read it in high school, and it works as…well, I don’t want to say as a coming of age story, because it’s hardly that…but it just seems to resonate when you’re a teenager.
So yeah, I can’t really hate on it. I’m not sure if it’s worth it to read if you’re out of college, though.
eemom
@geg6:
That’s a little harsh. Sure, some people hate “Catcher,” and yes, you could call Holden a whiny little rich kid, but you can’t just dismiss a book that has had the enormous impact that that one has on generations of young people.
And comparing Salinger to Rand?!? PLEASE. That’s just ridiculous.
As noted above, read “Nine Stories.”
And if we excluded from the pantheon of great authors, artists, musicians, and even political leaders, everyone who was “a little bit of a dick,” there’d be nobody there.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Tom Hilton: What you don’t here is the ending – “of slaves” – that they say under their breath.
aimai
I don’t get the continued invocation of the term “community organizer” to mean someone who thinks that everyone, on all sides of an issue, can work together? I mean, I get that someone with Obama’s community organizing background should be able to create a grassroots movement and work with democrats and progressives and centrist republicans to forge a working coalition. But it is usually the case that in their experience of community organizing most CO’s come into contact with some horrendously bad actors: large corporations, criminal organizations, both simultaneously that simply can’t always be worked *with* but who must be worked around or gotten rid of.
The Republicans in congress are not like gang members who can be reclaimed, or neighbors with different ideas about how we can use the local greenspace. They are more like…what’s the word? Oh, right: the enemy. I don’t think there’s much Obama can do to change the electoral imperative for the Republicans. Its a see saw, or a zero sum game for them: every single good thing Obama manages to do for the economy or the country is going to destroy them. Every thing they can do to destroy him and his agenda is going to be good for them electorally (or so they think.).
What is the new strategy, going forward, for working around these guys? That’s the CO strategy I want to see.
aimai
Oh, and thank’s for the kind words you all. Sorry I lost my cool. Its just really, really, really creepy to identity theft like that every few days. I’ll check out cleek’s pie filter and see if that works.
dr. bloor
OT:
Link
They’re going to spend a long time in jail unless they get theirselves a lawyer who understands the definition of “wiretap.”
Chad N Freude
@Brick Oven Bill: THIS is a spoof, you clever spoofer.
Xantar
I’m still new here, so I have a question: where can I get those drugs that Brick Oven Bill is on?
Seanly
I don’t know if you’ve already seen it, but watch the first season of Breaking Bad from AMC. Best. Show. Evah. especially in your chemically enhanced position.
Great acting, great writing, good directing. Comic, dark, tragic & poignant – I think of it as a non-wealthy Sopranos. Not a poor man’s Sopranos, but one examining the underbelly of America from a lower middle class POV.
I couldn’t netfliz the 3 DVD’s fast enough. The wife and I watched each DVD of the strike-shortened first season in evening, threw it back in the mail the next day & did a pee dance waiting the 2 days for the next one to arrive. Then after we finished it, we wished that Dish offered AMC in HD so we could watch season two.
I don’t buy series on DVD, but I might get season two when it comes out just so I don’t have to wait for netflix to get it.
geg6
Completely OT, but since the tag is “blogospheric navel gazing,” I’m gonna say this post belongs here.
Was anyone watching Shuster’s show on MSNBC this afternoon? I haven’t yet found video of this, but Breitbart must have been something today, according TPM:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/01/that_was_entertaining.php?ref=fpblg
WaterGirl
@maye: I believe that’s one of the reasons why David Plouffe is being brought back in – to help with messaging. I do wonder whether David Plouffe had any input into the speech last night.
Blue Raven
@MBunge:
Agreed. Complete shit. Him and the lead in Camus’ L’Etranger, only I think Camus wanted us to see his idiot as a role model. Both of those books came across to me as well-crafted means of presenting people I’d sooner cross the street to avoid.
Da Bomb
OT: Seems as if Hillbilly Barbie came up with a new word on Sean Hannity last night after Barack Obama’s speech:
What the hell is mandation?
The stupid is strong with that one.
http://www.themudflats.net/2010/01/28/a-whole-lotta-nuthin-palin-on-the-state-of-the-union/
And on top of all that stoopid, she winked.
EPIC. FAIL.
Michael
geg, there’s a clip of that segment over at FReakville.
geg6
@eemom:
Well, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not nearly harsh enough. I was assigned that book in a Modern Novel class in high school and I never read such crap in my life. Nor have I hated, hated, hated a protagonist so much, ever. And that was my take as a high school kid of all of about 15. Nope, won’t be reading any Salinger any time soon. Turned me off him forever and reading about the kind of person he was just cements it for me. YMMV.
Fergus Wooster
@Seanly:
Season 2 is even better – the stakes get higher quickly, and the body count rises. Plus Hank has some great moments.
Best episode ever is when Jesse leaves the keys in the ignition during a 48-hour cooking session and they’re stuck in the desert.
“C’mon, you’re a scientist, do something scientific! Make a robot, or a battery or something to get us out of here!”
Molly
@Paul L.: Disabling AVS isn’t necessarily uncommon, though it’s bad practices for security. If the admins were getting errors they couldn’t resolve, they may have just said “screw it” and turned it off. They had a very high throughput, and had they tried to resolve errors, they’d have slowed down or stopped who knows how many transactions and how much cash flow. If you were working on a B2B or B2C site, they’d do the same thing, believe me.
As long as they’ve doing validation of these transactions of some sort that can pass audit, they’re fine, legally. AVS is a service, not a requirement. The lack of it makes it harder on the campaign.
Unless you believe in Obama’s black helicopter brigade that descends upon anyone who could potentially oppose his nefarious schemes. If so, I can’t do nothin’ for ya, man.
AkaDad
Those tax cuts for business were just the first shot.
Elie
@maye:
I agree — words AND action…
I am hoping that he learned a lot this first year – REALLY learned it and with Plouffe rejoining his team actively, maybe we can rock and roll a bit better. I also hope that some behind the scenes adjustments also took place on his political team that keeps him abreast and intervening early to avoid future destabalizing debacles such as Massachusetts.
I sure hope so, anyway. I want the right wing screech o-meter pegged at 20 (on a ten point scale!). Since they like to screech, lets give ’em something to screech about!
geg6
@Molly:
Apparently you’ve never met Paul L. before.
He’s the fucking squadron commander of the black helicopter brigade.
mcd410x
@Ronald Wilson Reagan: holy shit that was awesome, nicely done
Da Bomb
OT again because the craziness ensues:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/tea_party_fundraising_email_shows_obama_as_pimp.php
***SIGH***
Chad N Freude
@MBunge: @geg6:
Maybe that’s why I liked the book: Identification with the main character.
MikeF
Wow, Greenwald really needs to dial it down a bit. He makes it sound as if Alito got up, threw a bushel of rotting fruit at the President and pissed all over his lectern. Relax: he moved his lips silently for a split second in response to a direct diss of questionable accuracy.
dr. bloor
@Da Bomb:
Typical of the Teabugging scum, but Goddamn, Obama makes anything look good, doesn’t he?
Randy P
Obama is a cat herder of the first rank and even seems to enjoy the cacophany that is the Democratic party. But herding cats it is. As a cat owner, you should be well aware that “calm” is always deceptive. Probably just before your cat leaps up, makes an unexplained dash across the room and breaks an expensive vase.
Nevertheless, I am feeling hopeful. I was kind of getting there by the end of last week, but I think he really has fired up the congressional and rank-and-file Democrats. The hysteria and cries of “he’s just like McCain” have been silenced.
For 5 minutes. Till we all remember our respective catnip mouses.
David Hunt
Well, yes. However, that was the point of getting these ultra-Conservatives on the USSC. The Bush Administration, and the Rs that put up Scalia and Thomas had a really good idea what their actual views were and knew that they’d try to push them forward if they had the chance. The bit that’s confusing you is that you seem to have given some credit to Roberts’ and Alito’s testimony where they talk about reassuring stuff like “stare decisis” and “balls and strikes.” They were well prepped to be deceptively reassuring. Hell, Roberts’ first job in the Reagan Administration was prepping judicial candidates to get through Senate Confirmations (without saying something about their judicial views that would let the Judiciary Committee know that they they’d prefer Alfred E. Newman to this particular bum as judge). I’m not the least bit surprised that Roberts (especially) and Alito now seem surprisingly activist to people who based their opinions of them on their confirmation hearings instead of their histories as jurist before their nominations.
Ash Can
I’d say that, after several weeks of left-wing blogistan getting its collective pants in a bunch over rumors, implications, and exaggerations, a ridiculous number of people honestly expected Obama to slap them all under the bus. The fact that he didn’t do this probably pleasantly surprised them, and shut them up for at least a few days, anyway.
@Dr. I. F. Stone: LOL! OK, come on, you’re really DougJ, aren’t you? Seriously, you should collect all of your “I.F. Stone” stuff for your book as well, and have it printed side-by-side with some of the real stuff, taken from Red State or Free Republic or someplace like that. It’d be a riot.
@djork: The folks in DC are all protocol-happy, which is a big reason behind so many of them getting the vapors over Alito’s actions. The deeper meaning, however, is far more important and far more troubling. Think about it — what would the reaction of a truly impartial and disinterested arbiter be? A little bit of a shrug, maybe, because he/she would be thinking, “Hey, I just calls ’em like I sees ’em. If you’re not happy, fine; then it’s up to you guys to change the laws so that we call the case differently next time.” But that wasn’t his reaction. He reacted on a personal level. He got defensive. That’s what really set off alarms in people’s heads.
@Punchy: …And then there’s this. Yeah, I saw that too. Proof positive that there are folks on the left who shouldn’t be allowed to run around on the loose either.
AkaDad
John shouldn’t have to suffer alone, so I’m gonna take pain killers every day as show of solidarity.
Da Bomb
@dr. bloor: Yes he does.
ppcli
I don’t see what the fuss is about Alito acting as he did. From the second he set foot on the court, he’s been an obviously partisan ideologue who perverts judicial reasoning to get the desired Republican-friendly conclusion every time. I’m glad that in his behavior he comes right out and displays his partisan hackishness openly, instead of the cloaking it in the false modesty of Chief Justice Ballsandstrikes or the “charm” of Scalia.
kay
@dr. bloor:
I sort of liked it, too. He doesn’t look bad in an evil villain’s mustache.
I’m glad they’re going to images, in any event. For some reason, they can’t manage to spell anything correctly. It’s distracting.
mr. whipple
This.
dr. bloor
@Da Bomb:
He really should grow one of those moustaches. The sound of wingnut heads exploding would rival the volume level at Omaha Beach on D-Day.
kay
@ppcli:
He was really touchy at his confirmation hearings. He’s a little thin-skinned.
Not like my gal Sotomayor, who was a rock. Serene. Unflappable.
I’m sure he’s darn proud of that decision. I don’t know why they’re all rushing out in droves to defend it.
Don’t you think it speaks for itself?
R-Jud
@Xantar:
I think it’s some sort of fungus in his homegrown potatoes. Or possibly in his pizza oven.
General Winfield Stuck
@aimai: It’s politics and perception in politics is at least half the game. All the actors are vying for approval for biggest shares of the audience in a never ending play for favor of the general public.
And as president, Obama has all of the audience to play for favor (approval). It’s called the bully pulpit and trumps any single member of congress and that favor is the main coin of the realm. It is democracy and the show never stops.
Presidential power, mostly over congress, that he needs to pass the laws he wants, is subdued by their own fears of losing favor with it’s voters if it goes along with a president that is unpopular.
Doesn’t mean Obama or any presnit should simply look at polls to tell them all of what they should do. But it is a part of it, of governing with initiative whilst keeping as much political capital as possible on hand.
Obama, like all first year presidents, has not always calculated the optimal balance of gauging his individual need to lead decisively with the pol capital he has on hand. It is a learning curve, and he had to spend a lot of it rescuing key elements of our economy just to keep it alive.
This was obviously unpopular with the general public, and often was done, IMO, and still is done lesser so, ham handedly by Obama and his econ team that I never liked nor trusted. But he seems to be getting this and recalibrating by listening to other folks like Volcker, that I do trust more. But it is still a big pol problem for Obama and has cost him.
As for HCR, given the volatile nature of the issue and powerful moneyed forces present that has kept reform from happening with repeated efforts for 60 years or so, I don’t think he has done that bad, given the political realities every president has faced in trying to pass reform legislation plus Joe Lieberman. Certainly not perfect have been his decisions, but you cannot deny that HCR has gone much farther than any previous effort. And Mass was just a tough break all around just before the end game. But it isn’t dead, yet, so we shall see.
This is why playing the game of bipartisanship, or at least the effort at it is important. And your earlier statements on there not being a swing vote center is not correct, just isn’t, and every politician that is successful knows this and deals with it in their own way. Look how the Rove 50+1 strategy worked out for the wingnuts. Their star burned bright for a short while, then went supernova and the rest is history.
Obama is learning, and his speech proves that. He needs to step up the necessary fear inducement directed toward congress in the proper amount to re-balance the stick and carrot see saw. and a little bit of piss and vinegar directed at the Robed Ones doesn’t hurt either.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Max:
I’m with you on that, Max.
lizzy
Everyone wants to be nice so as not to upset you. It’s just love, love, love all around today………… for you ;)
Ash Can
Whoops. OK, DougJ, forget what I said. You’d better ditch that pseudonym altogether. Just stick with Flugelhorn and BoB.
Da Bomb
@dr. bloor: And also just to add insult to injury, he should carry one of those Radio Raheem “Do the Right Thing” radio boomboxes.
That way he can blast “It’s hard out thar for a pimp” by Three 6 Mafia. Also it would help remind Chris Matthews that he is indeed black and likes to watch, Hustle and Flow. Cause that how Obama rolls.
Just a thought.
Mark S.
@geg6:
Here’s the vid.
Midnight Marauder
@Ash Can:
Everyone knows that it’s actually Joe Klein engaging in his favorite activity when he’s not working on those deadlines for Time.
fraught
@geg6: Jeez. You must have seen a lot of yourself in HC to have such a monumental reaction to him. How long ago was this?
jenniebee
@CDT: question: last night Colbert brought up a point that I hadn’t heard mentioned about the SCOTUS ruling, specifically that the Roberts court has contended that stari decisis doesn’t apply if the precedent-setting decision was coupled with a “spirited dissent.” Is that true?
If so, Jesus H. Christ, these guys aren’t trying to undo everything since 1789, they’re trying to roll it back to before the Magna Carta. I would not be more shocked by that development than I would be if Scalia wrote a decision knocking down Title IX by citing Salic law (with Souter noting in his own decision that Henry V raised a “spirited dissent” to same).
geg6
Okay, here is the video of the Shuster/Breitbart shoutfest:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/breitbart-and-shuster-battle-on-air-over-okeefe.php?ref=fpb
Damn. I’ve never seen Breitbart before. What a weenie. I think Shuster made a mistake here. He should have just let Breitbart spout the crazy shit he was spouting. I mean, I don’t spend a second of my time on wingnut or teabagger sites, but are they serious with this “ACORN was starting prostitution rings with 14-year-olds in their offices” stuff? Really?
Elie
@R-Jud:
No, I think from under his fingernails. He inoculates his pizza and potatoes to make a really strong and intense hallucinogenic substance. Paradoxically, it blows one pupil (his right one) and makes his left nostril drain
maye
For example, last August when Baucus did not deliver a bill and Congress went into recess, they could have turned the White House rose garden into a 24/7 vigil for people who have been harmed by our current healthcare system. People could have either come in person to the WH or sent in a video telling their particular health care horror story. Later, when when the Town Hall screamers got going, the media would have had to cover both theatrical phenomena. In addition to the vigil at the White House, they could have had regional (west coast, etc.) places for people to come and speak into the microphone with their stories.
Robert Gibbs was fine for the campaign, but he’s out of his league going against FOX, et. al. To quote “Gypsy”: “You gotta have a gimmick.” And, you’ve got to keep thinking up new ones.
It never stops.
General Winfield Stuck
@Da Bomb: LOL
geg6
@fraught:
Me? And Holden Caufield? Having anything whatsoever in common?
First, I’m a woman. At the time, I was a girl of 15 or so. The time was 1973.
Second, my father was a steelworker and my mother gave birth to six children, worked two part-time jobs, and eventually finished her bachelor degree at age 41, at which time she took a full-time job as a newspaper reporter. No prep schools, no rich family, and no stay at home mom for me.
Third, I finished my public high school, went to public university for my bachelor’s degree, and then went to another public university for my master’s. All of which I worked my way through since my family couldn’t afford to pay for it.
Gee, maybe it’s because I’m the exact opposite of Holden Caufield that I detest him and people like him. Maybe it’s because my life has seen actual, real, true hard times (even as a small child and teenager) that I had and have no patience or sympathy for whining, self-centered, entitled assholes like Holden Caufield and his ilk.
danimal
@jenniebee: The Magna Carta has never been approved by a U.S. Court of Law, therefore it has no precedence.
/snark
(the court will never make this argument while a Dem is in the White House)
CDT
@ Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“@CDT: I haven’t really read much about the case, just too much shit raining down, but last night I caught Colbert’s segment quoting Roberts as saying stare decisis (SP?) didn’t apply because of a “spirited dissent” in a previous case from Scalia. IANAL, but from what I understand from following USSC confirmation hearings, wasn’t that a pretty radical move?”
I didn’t see Colbert, but I’m not sure that fully captures the stare decisis argument in Justice Roberts’ concurrence (which you can get on findlaw, among other places). In the course of deciding Citizens United, the majority overruled the 1990 case of Austin, which had allowed political speech to be restricted based on the corporate identity of the speaker. Justice Roberts devoted three pages to the stare decisis issue.
Stare decisis is a doctrine that basically means that the Court should leave well enough alone with regard to past decisions, absent “special justification.” Justice Roberts concluded that stare decisis didn’t compel following Austin because Austin was an “aberration” that had departed from prior cases. He also said it had the potential to be “uniquely destabilizing” in a broad area of first amendment law.
The “spirited dissent” point came up in the course of another argument, to the basic effect that Austin had already displayed limited value as precedent because it had been controverisal from day one and its rationale had never been fully accepted thereafter.
Robert wrote: “The simple fact that one of our decisions remains controversial is, of course, insufficient to justify overruling it, but it does undermine the precedent’s ability to contribute to the stable and orderly development of the law. In such circumstances, it is entirely appropriate for the Court — which in this case is squarely asked to reconsider Austin’s validity for the first time — to address the matter with a greater willingness to consider new approaches capable of restoring our doctrine to sounder footing.”
In short, he said that Austin, while fairly recent, was an outlier that deserved to be abandoned. In short, agree with him or not, Justice Roberts made a reasonaed and mainstream stare decisis argument.
Sorry for the long post. My reason for originally commenting was to point out that it was absurd for Fucking Hitler’s Necrotic Corpse to call Obama a liar for failing to capture all of the legal nuances in a 5-4 decision with four separate opinions covering some 65 pages. The same would be true for anyone who wants to complain about Colbert’s digesting of Roberts’ argument. The ruling and its supporting logic portend a dramatic shift in the historic practice of placing some limits, legislatively and as allowed by the Court’s first amendment jurisdprudence, on corporate participation in elections. That historic practice dates back a century, and it was entirely reasonable for the president to describe Citizens United as he did.
Mark S.
@geg6:
It wasn’t as good as I hoped, but I loved Breitbart saying “You convicted him on Twitter.”
Elie
@maye:
Maye:
I somehow don’t think that they are incapable of conceiving of such a campaign. I would imagine such an approach may have been nixed for either not believing that it would really be effective. Who knows? But I dont think its because no one thought of it or that Gibbs alone would be driving it. He is the Press secretary but I am pretty sure he would not be developing the communications policy …
It will take a while to get the real skinny and thinking for what went on during this period.
Tom Hilton
Um…never mind.
jenniebee
Shorter BOB: Socrates wept.
Ash Can
@Midnight Marauder: I’ll be convinced it’s not a spoof if he/she persists in posting using the “I.F. Stone” handle after what aimai said. And if/when that happens I’ll happily break the rules and feed the troll, with both barrels and a tire iron. There’s no excuse for flouting a personal request like aimai’s.
I read Catcher In the Rye in high school and it bored me to tears. I could understand and appreciate what Salinger was doing with his characters, but it just wasn’t my scene. It was dated and heavy-handed and the story just went nowhere.
ETA: Pretty much what geg6 @#188 said. My situation was very similar. While my reaction was more one of disinterest rather than visceral animosity, there was, by definitin, no way I could possibly identify with a Holden Caulfield.
General Winfield Stuck
@jenniebee: Nah, I think their shooting for a few years earlier when the Spanish Inquisition was given the green light.
jenniebee
@CDT: Excellent and informative long post. Could you give us a little more on how often SCOTUS does this sort of thing and whether you think it’s likely to be the beginning of a trend?
CDT
@jennibee/183:
With regard to stare decisis, see my response to Jim at post No. 190. Roberts mentioned that in passing, but it certainly wasn’t the entireity of his argument. The decisions may or may not have dramatic and unfortunate consequences, but I’m a bit ambivalent about it and didn’t think the stare decisis argument was beyond the pale by any means.
As for the goal of movement conservativism, I did used to think it was simply to reverse the New Deal. Now, like you, it seems to me that the goal is to reverse the Enlightenment as well.
fraught
@geg6: Oh.
Nellcote
The supreme court decision was not unanimous. Prez. Obama just condensed the minority dissent in his speech. So obviously some legal mucky-mucks agreed with him! Colbert was brilliant in explaining the decision last night. Well worth looking up the vid.
Brietbart was truly unhinged with Shuster this morning.
arguingwithsignposts
@Ronald Wilson Reagan:
I am liking this Ronnie better than the real one. With a mouth like Hunter Thompson.
arguingwithsignposts
@geg6:
Moby Dick? That book can DIAF.
arguingwithsignposts
FYWP. Because I have a new cookie all my comments are in moderation hell.
eemom
the level of vituperation directed at a fictional character strikes me as a little odd.
fwiw, I also came from a modest background and worked hard all the way through school. By working hard I managed to get into an “elitist” university where for the first time I encountered actual preppies and rich kids.
I don’t have much use for their ilk either — but fer chrissake, that really isn’t what the goddamn book is ABOUT. Among other things, it reveals the emptiness of that kind of life. Does a rich kid not have the right to be fucked up and depressed like any other kid?
I never exactly loved “Catcher” like I have other books, but my point still stands that you can’t — intelligently — dismiss as a piece of shit a book that has had that great an impact on so many people over so many years, and still does.
And again — WTF is there to get so angry about?
SIA
I did like the salinger story – was it Franny & Zoey, about the coed going on a date and having a quiet spiritual crisis. Something in it about the Jesus prayer “Jesus Christ, son of FSM, have mercy upon me, a sinner”. Those loose and illiterate sounding remnants have remained with me from many years ago.
Sanka
Yeah. Only douches in the executive branch call out the judiciary in front of the nation.
“Let’s pass legislation to stop the ruling of the Supreme Court”.
Here I was thinking only Republicans used the Constitution to wipe their arse.
Xenos
@Ash Can: My grandfather was a bit of a racist authoritarian and it would still piss me off enormously to have this troll use his name as a handle.
At the risk of sounding like the PC posse, I hereby appeal to John to banish this twerp until he agrees to not use a nym that is designed as harassment of a fellow commenter. This is too personal, crosses a line that should not be crossed. It feels like a particularly mean-spirited form of bullying.
Could you pass the word, please, Dougj?
General Winfield Stuck
I first read Catcher in the Rye in the mid eighties at the behest of a friend. I liked it but it took a couple more readings to understand it a little more.
Sure Holden was a smart ass punk teenager, as were a lot of us. It’s been so long since I read it that I don’t remember many details, but I did relate to his angst and desire to rebel. which i suspect was why my friend wanted me to read it, as I was in my early thirties and still rebelling and very angry at most of the world. It might have helped save my arrogant ass back then.
Though the book was published in 1951, so any comparison to todays youth is shaky at best. Those were days when puritan ethic and norms were in full force and going against them much more serious a proposition and much more lonely
It would have been nice if Salinger had not quit writing and updated Caulfield’s life thru the 60’s and beyond..
arguingwithsignposts
@Sanka:
Hmm. I thought that was the way the constitution worked. 3 co-equal branches.
idiot.
arguingwithsignposts
@Nellcote:
fixed. It’s not a Shuster thing.
nepat
@slag:
Greenwald’s growing superiority complex bugs the crap out of me. He’s like Squidward in SpongeBob.
Nellcote
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ve only seen him elsewhere on the Mahr show where he gets to spout his bs uninterupted. I guess the difference is Shuster was trying to get him to actually answer a question.
David in NY
On Holden C. —
I read it twice, once in high school unassigned, the other in middle age. First time I had no clue why the book had the reputation it did, and Holden (like my indigent criminal clients to this day) seemed just his own boring worst enemy. The second time, I joined the “Why should I care about this spoiled rich kid?” faction.
Chad N Freude
@geg6: I was going to ask your opinion of F Scott Fitzgerald, but then I decided I’d better not.
eemom
@General Winfield Stuck:
I’m hoping he’s kept writing over the years and there will soon be stuff published posthumously (did I spell that right?)
eemom
@Chad N Freude:
heh — I was thinking the same thing.
Did anyone ever read John Marquand? Also wrote of the upper classes, in the ’40s and ’50s. Largely forgotten now but some of his novels are really good.
General Winfield Stuck
@eemom: LOL
Don’t think I’m the optimal person to ask that question to.:)
That would be cool if he did keep writing, just as a recluse. Interesting that when he was young all he wanted was to be famous, till he became that.
Catsy
@aimai: You might be able to tweak cleek’s disemvoweler Greasemonkey script for this purpose.
Edited: except everyone else already mentioned it. S’what I get for replying as I go.
Xenos
I read CITR as a young preppie back in 1981. He seemed ridiculously self-centered, and morally narcissistic to me. I guess my generation had internalized the coolness of the hipsters and hippies by then, because that sort of public admission of vulnerability was just way too uncool.
It was also the 80s, in a school of 50% upper-middle class kids like me and 50% of kids with fathers and grandfathers whose names I recognized even then. We did not mix much, and if the kids who had serious money had that sort of moral and emotional crisis they had plenty of money for good bud to deaden the pain.
Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” seemed much more relevant to what I saw kids going through.
CDT
@jennibee:
I am confident that a hundred law review articles are now being written about the Roberts Court’s increasing rejection of precedent. I can’t put my finger on a current one that is publicly available. I am confident that a study would demonstrate that the Roberts Court has been a bit more aggressive in overruling precedent than its predecessors. It’s also probably true that this trend goes further back. And part of it may just be that the curernt set of justices is less inclined to pretend that they’re not overruling precedent than were previous ones.
Less frequently noticed but arguably more indicative of right-wing judicial activism is the frequency with which the Roberts Court decides to take on big constitutional issues that arguably need not be decided. That runs afoul of a different doctrine that courts should not jump into such issues unless absolutely necesary.
The most frequently cited example of prior precedent being dramatically rejected is the 1954 overruling in Brown v. Board of Education of the 1897 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which had upheld “separate but equal” education. Obviously a lot of time passed between those two cases, compared to the 19 years between the Austin ruling on campaign speech and its rejection in Citizens United this week.
On the other hand, the Rehnquist Court did something similar in 2003 when it ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that state sodomy statutes violate the constitutional right to privacy. That overruled the Bowers v. Hardwick ruling of 1986, pretty recent by constitutional standards.
This article is a bit dated and doesn’t address the frequency of precedent rejection, but it’s a good primer on the doctrine and can be read free:
http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/subsites/gmulawreview/files/14-2/documents/SINCLAIR.pdf
Again, this is all a bunch of legal nuance that doesn’t excuse the idiotic comments earlier of Hitler’s Necrotic Corpse, fka Dr. I.F. Stone.
rikyrah
I loved him calling out the Supreme Court. BEST moment of the whole speech.
Jim Once
@Ash Can:
A. Fucking. Men. I had no idea that this extraordinary, brilliant, noble man was her grandfather. That this commenter should so violently misuse his name in this fashion is appalling. Here’s an idea: How about we all post all over the conservative blogosphere in the name of Ronald Reagan, trashing his ideas wherever we can? How would that sit with you, “I.F.”?
Hob
@Jim Once: The asshole troll is not new, and people have been pointing out the offensiveness of his name — and the fact that we have one of Stone’s family here — since asshole first showed up. So yeah, he’s not a spoof, he’s just an asshole. He’s trying to start shit and make people feel bad, and succeeding.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
@Jim Once:
Actually all you have to do over in the conservative blogosphere to trash my name would be to point out that as in my second year as governor of California I signed the largest state tax increase in the history of California or any other state into law.
Sure, I reduced taxes in 1981 by signing Kemp Roth into law. But I had to raise them a year later, in fact the TEFRA increase was the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. I also signed the Highway Revenue Act of 1982, which more than doubled gasoline excise taxes, increasing it from 4 to 9 cents per gallon. In 1986 I signed the Tax Reform Act, which simplified the tax system but Jesus, it turned the AMT into a fucking nightmare.
Then there’s my spending, boy did I screw up with that. I was “Mister Balance the Budget” but during my two terms in office the national debt increased from 700 billion to 3 trillion dollars. In eight years my administration ran up more debt than every administration in American history combined. I condemned tax and spend liberals and in doing so created a generation of borrow and spend Republicans.
Of course if you try to go to any conservative blog and point these facts out you’ll end up being banned. And don’t even think of pointing that it was the conservatives in my administration, many of whom were involved in the planning and execution of Dubya’s excellent adventure in Iraq (of all of George and Barbara’s idiot loin spawn for that one to become President…) who were against my peace overtures to Mr. Gorbachev and tried to derail them. Oh, and there’s also the Afghanistan situation. Man, did we screw up there. In retrospect who cared if the Soviet Union took over Afghanistan? “Oooooh look, aren’t you special? You just took over a country full of goat herders and truculent religious fanatics. Yeah, that’s really going to enhance your empire. Hope you have better luck than the British.” But we were so fixated on fucking with the Soviets that we blinded ourselves to the fact that arming a bunch of goat-herding truculent religious fanatics and Wahabi fuckheads like Osama bin Laden might have serious consequences later on.
So you don’t have to mock me, just point out what I did. Not that conservatives care, they’ve turned me into Jesus, and let me tell you, I saw Jesus the other day and he was seriously pissed off about this.
Little Dreamer
@Max:
That’s because big brother keeps trying to take over.
@John:
Haven’t seen Chuck, Mad Men S1 and S2 were so good I wish I could erase watching them and do it the first time all over again. I love that show!
I feel calmer, Obama needs to make more time to connect with the people (I realize he’s a very busy man, but informing the masses on what he’s doing is more important than it has ever been, since we have about a quarter of the electorate wanting to just smash and grab and leave this country for dead).
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Ronald Wilson Reagan:
Best fucking material I have seen around here in a long time.
Apparently, Alzheimer’s hasn’t dulled your writing.
Good work, whoever you are.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Nah, no covert racism in that trollblurb. Much.
A shoe shine parlor? Really? Why not “doesn’t have the capacity to be a sharecropper?”
Go away, your spooftroll fu is weak.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio:
Well I’m dead now, so the Alzheimer’s isn’t a problem any more. Oh, and do you want to know what cruel irony is: During my administration we whipped those right-to-life dumbasses into a frenzy and got them to support us. Since they’re dumbasses they ignored the fact that one of my first acts as governor of California was to sign a law that made getting an abortion easier. All that I had to do was say “I’ve changed my mind about this” and then I jingled my car keys and said “look, shiny thing” and they completely forgot about what I did in 1967. Of course we never did anything about Roe v. Wade during my administration because I had about as much desire to actually do something about Roe as I did to get into a threesome with Barbara and George Bush, which Babs would inevitably offer up after she finished her second bottle of gin. But we whipped the pro-life dumbasses into a frenzy real good, so good that years later, when I was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, they were able to ban fetal stem-cell research, which might have offered a treatment for the disease that affected me. Man did that bite me in the ass or what?
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Ronald Wilson Reagan:
Absolutely. You wuz robbed.
Keep up the good work.
The Raven
I think we’re just hoarse, personally. Um. Do ravens get hoarse?
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@The Raven:
Nevermore.
Paul in KY
eemom, thank’s for recommend of ‘Nine Stories’. Will check it out.
Paul in KY
Midnight Marauder, you might be one to something. Maybe the asshole posting as ‘Dr I.F. Stone’ is Joke Line?
I heard Aimai handed him his ass at a party several months ago. He’s smart enough, or has enough staffers, to figure out who she is & he could be coming in here to fuck with her.
That would be about his speed, IMO.