Finally, ideas are always the most important currency of politics and never more so than after a party loses. The relationship between GOP policymakers and conservative policy thinkers should be strengthened.

Yeah, let’s get Confederate Yankee and David Vitter together. That’s a winning combination we can believe in!

Oh Karl Baby, teach us “Teh Math”

So, I’m sure I’m late to this discussion but is there a reason that the main page of SN! hasn’t updated since the 7th of December. I wouldn’t complain, but that image of Jackie G. is really starting to freak me out.

Is it “fake your own death and go to Bermuda before they catch on”? Because they’ve all heard that one already.

This is going to be my favorite part of the next 10 years – watching the same clueless asses who drove the Republican party into the ditch it’s in now offering and selling their precious advice for how to get things back on track. A decade of the GOP equivalet of the Bob Shrum All-Stars holding conferences and writing op-eds about The Way Forward For Republicans and crowding out any fresh new voices and ideas that might actually work. It’s like a mirror image of the 80s and 90s – I thought only Democrats engaged in this sort of pointless wankery. This is going to take some getting used to.

So, I’m sure I’m late to this discussion but is there a reason that the main page of SN! hasn’t updated since the 7th of December.

The Groundhog Day Bug… I thought it was fixed, and there it was again this morning.

We’re working on it with steamed-up eyeglasses and spinning propeller beanies.

I hate him back then too.

Christ, don’t tell me – “we have to be more conservative to win elections”. Regardless of the facts that a) that’s exactly what America said it doesn’t want, and b) it’s hard to see how they could be “more conservative” bar adopting grand populist ideas such as ending Medicare and letting the elderly drift out to sea on ice floes.

Au contraire, mon Pere:

it’s hard to see how they could be “more conservative” bar adopting grand populist ideas such as ending Medicare and letting the elderly drift out to sea on ice floes.

They just decided to let GM and Chrysler die, just to spite the UAW! It doesn’t get much more conservative than that.

They can always surpass your wildest imaginings. Just give them the chance. McKinley’s America, here we come!

Y’know, self-immolation worked pretty well for the Vietnamese Buddhists.

It’s nice he’s gladdened by Chambliss being reelected in one of the reddest or states and a Republican winning against a Louisiana congressman mired in scandal, but it seems a bit like Pollyanna’s “glad game”: “Republicans didn’t lose every seat they were up for, just a big honking slice of them! YAY US!”

I missed the part in Karl’s article where he suggests that Republicans learn to govern competently. Then again, I just skimmed it. I’m sure it’s in there.

Is that Dan “The Man” Rather in that photo with that nerdy greasy-haired kid?

Karl:

It’s not just conservative think tanks. There are independent scholars, academics, staff in governor’s offices and state legislatures, and knowledgeable people throughout the country who can help make the party’s conservative principles relevant today.

Wait a minute, Karl. I thought the future of the Republican party was safe in the callused and non-elitist hands of Sarah Palin, Joe Sixpack and Joe the Plumber. What do we need with “scholars,” and “academics,” and “knowledgeable people?” The divine Sarah explained that all we need to solve America’s problems are mavericky teams of mavericks with devotion to God, pure hearts and military experience. Are you saying she’s wrong? Let’s see you draw thousands of flag-waving supporters to rallies.

Sorry, Karl. The parade has moved on. The Republican circus has pitched its tents in Sarah Town and the clowns are setting fire to the factories because they don’t like the floor plans. That’ll show the Democrats what we stand for.

FFS, can someone please fix the front page. The top post according to my browser is still “GINGRICH.”

FFS, can someone please fix the front page. The top post according to my browser is still “GINGRICH.”

[sobbing]

Sorry, didn’t see that the problem was already brought up in thread.

Awww, I didn’t mean to do that. It was the coffee.

In another thread some guy was talking about a WordPress plug-in meant to serve up a cached version of particular pages to as not to waste server horsepower regenerating pages. Maybe there’s something not flushing.

Pfffft. Turd Blossom’s WSJ fartings are as the waning desperate shrieks of the Black Knight.

“Come back ‘ere!! I’ll bite yer legs off!”

My favorite video from election night is one of (natch) Fox News. They were on the verge of calling Ohio, and Rove was next to a map, showing how McCain could still win without Ohio. He included a scenario wherein McCain would take California. Then he said that McCain could easily win Ohio anyway.

Sad-faced Hume comes on and says, well, actually, Obama just won Ohio. Whoopsie.

These people have made delusional into a higher art form.

The first win came in Georgia, where Sen. Saxby Chambliss crushed his Democratic opponent by 15 points in a run-off election on Dec. 2. The other wins came in Louisiana congressional races on Saturday. One was in a Republican-leaning district in the state’s northwest corner. Democrats outspent the GOP three to two and still lost. In the other, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao defeated nine-term Democrat William Jefferson in a district where John McCain received 24% of the vote.

1) Congrats. You had to go to a runoff in one of the most reliably red states in the nation. You win teh prize.
2) Congrats. You won in a Republican-leaning district.
3) Congrats. Democratic voters turned on a corrupt Rep. by staying home. You think Cao is going to win that seat in two years? Hell, he even admited on freaking live TV that the only reason he won because of paltry turnout.

So well done. You drove down the field and kicked a FG against the Democratic third-string defense. You still lose, 50-3.

Republican governors emerged from meeting in Miami energized, optimistic and eager for the 38 gubernatorial races in the next two years.

Um, yay?

I’m energized, optimistic and eager to go on a date with Alessandra Ambrosio.

Sixth, new media require attention. Younger voters are increasingly getting their information from the Web — twice as many 18-24 year olds get their news online than from newspapers. Political Web 1.0 was about faster and easier communications and Republicans had the advantage. Political Web 2.0 is about networking and Democrats grabbed the lead. The party that figures out where Web 3.0 goes will grab the decisive high ground in high-tech warfare.

Yep, get the kids looking at The Corner and Instapundit and they’ll love the GOP brand in no time.

Anyway, the rest of that stuff is just generic pap. We’ve got to organize! We’ve got to teach! We’ve got to do good things!

Four years ago, the GOP was supposed to be the most well-oiled leviathan in electoral politics. Wha’ happen?

Rove:

Second, while it’s the responsibility of all, someone must take the lead on training candidates and party leaders and nurturing their focus on ideas. Under its founder, Newt Gingrich, GOPAC once did this. It needs to be revitalized or its original mission taken up by a fresh group.

Look no further than the College Republicans! Or the Young America Foundation! Or some other outfit I’m surely forgetting!

More Rove:

Political Web 1.0 was about faster and easier communications and Republicans had the advantage. Political Web 2.0 is about networking and Democrats grabbed the lead. The party that figures out where Web 3.0 goes will grab the decisive high ground in high-tech warfare.

In the battle to define and control Web 3.0, one man occupies the high ground.

Poor Gavin. I wish I could e-mail you some milk and chocolate-chip cookies.

Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7! Hey, Gavin! Could you fix the site? It still shows December 7!

I thought it was determined that Cushman post stuck at the top was Sadly, No!’s way of doing one of those “Lurkers, introduce yourselves!” posts. We had an “Open Thread” (whatever that is) a couple of weeks ago. Hey, I just noticed today’s Friday. Where’s your Random Ten?

J—,
Tha Chief @ API is completing the downward leg of his parabolic story arc. Coming SOON, smoking hole.

Even the most die hard API believers have sore hands from clapping so hard and long to keep Tinkerbelle alive.

Hey, I just noticed today’s Friday. Where’s your Random Ten?

Ooh! That means tomorrow is Caturday!

Oh, and the site hasn’t updated since the 7th.

Willy: Web 4.0?

I think they need to repackage James Danforth Quayle. But they will have to get Murphy Brown back on the air first.

They just decided to let GM and Chrysler die, just to spite the UAW!

Is it okay if I think GM and Chrysler should die in spite of the UAW? Shit, man, if we have to lose the UAW to get rid of GM, I’m super-cool with that. I’ll gladly go out and help former UAWs find other unions to join; there are lots.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally pro-union.

I’m just totally anti-GM.

Given the number and scope of the crimes GM has committed in nearly a century of fucking over the world to get what it wants, if GM were a natural person instead of a fictive legal person known as a corporation, they’d have long since been put in prison for life with no possibility of parole. Since we can’t do that kind of thing to corporations, I’m in favour of the corporate equivalent of the death penalty. In this case, I’m inclined to think “Hangin’s Decharterin’s too good fer’m…”

J—: When all the sane people (e.g. SCOTUS) won’t listen to you, where do you take your particular brand of crazy? To the web, of course. If it’s on the web, it’s true!

Mighty Morphin’ Power Wingnuts.

Can’t we maybe let GM die a few years from now, when if we’re really blessed we might be clawing our way out of a recession, with some growth, where other jobs might actually be possible? You know? Instead of getting our ‘venge on right now when we’re on the edge of a Depression and losing a few more million jobs and pensions right now might get us there real quicklike?

Can’t we just pretend to be South Korea or somewhere for a while, where the government intervenes to support productive industry all the time?

Two computers on the same network connection . One a desktop with Vista/XP dual boot . The other one a laptop with similar dual boot . I use Opera on all 4 OSes . On desktop I can see the latest post on the main page for XP as well as Vista . On the laptop I’m stuck with Gingrich Cushman on both OSes . I cannot figure out why it should be so because as I said the two computers share the same internet connection . I could have made some sense of it if it showed correctly on , for example , Vista and fucked up on XP ( or vice versa ) .The only explanation I can think of is that becuse the motherboards are different the desktop and the laptop have different network adapter drivers . But I’m darned if I knew why that should matter .

Just to make it clear the network configuration ( for example the DNS server ) is same on all 4 OSes .

Can’t we maybe let GM die a few years from now, when if we’re really blessed we might be clawing our way out of a recession, with some growth, where other jobs might actually be possible?

This.

No money for Ford. They’ve even admitted they’ll be fine.
No money for Chrysler. Their parent company can save them.
Give GM enough money to survive 2009. After that, it’ll be C11 or bust.

To add to the misery for Gavin:

I get the Gingrich page up on Firefox3, but IE 8.0 gets the actual current first page. Same OS (Vista) on same computer.

Oh, and Chrome brings up the Gingrich page too.

I don’t really get why Chrysler is in the fray. They were just bought for pennies on the dollar, (7.4 billion). So they were essentially junk to start with, except for the Jeep brand, which could do fine on its own. Ceberus will get a free loan to buy the company with on our dime?

Dammit, Willy, now all I can hear is “Go Go Power Wingnuts, Mighty Morphin’ Power Wing-Nu-uts!”

D.N. Nation’s long post above is a splendid post-Rove wrap-up.

I would just add this:

“letting the elderly drift out to sea on ice floes.”

Uh, sir? The floes, they’re…well, they’re all melted. Now what do we do?

To add to the misery for Gavin:

I get the Gingrich page up on Firefox3, but IE 8.0 gets the actual current first page. Same OS (Vista) on same computer.
____________________________________________________________

I tried IE on my desktop just now . It goes to Gingrich Cushman page while Opera goes to the current page . FYWP !

Datapoint: getting the current page with IE6/XP Pro and Firefox 3/XP Home; last time I tried Chrome with XP Home it got the Gingrich page.

Ceberus owns fucking GMAC and Crysler. Someone should introduce the executives running each outfit and arrange a play date or something. Why bother though when Congress is talking about saving you from the mean UAW, right?

I use Camino on my Apple ibook. I’ve had no problems at all.
PS: I HATE Safari!

It’s just crazy . I checked in my firewall . For the same ip and port Opera is being sent to the current page while IE forces me to look at Gingrich Cushman .

Rove Redux:
“I know America just rejected our policies – so here’s what we need to do: let’s keep ALL of them & tinker around with the infrasctructure, & maybe NEXT time, nobody will notice that it’s the exact same turd with a different color of ribbon on it!”

Rove’s little spiel is conspicuously lacking in one vital phrase – “Quality Control” … a concept without the ruthless application of which the GOP will continue to be the Runner-Up in the Gong Show that is US politics.

Why I love irony:

Rove’s whole life-goal for the GOP has been the mythological “Permanent Republican Majority” – his primary objective being to smash the normal election-cycle to pieces, permanently. Well, he may very well have finally succeeded – just not quite the way he originally intended. Oopsy-daisies.

I’m predicting that by 2012 or 2016, he’ll be the retro champion of the usual election-cycle … damn – if we could harness the kinetic energy from all the wingnuts doing 180’s, we’d be able to launch space stations to other galaxies by now.

For the same ip and port Opera is being sent to the current page while IE forces me to look at Gingrich Cushman .

I wonder what would happen if you made your browser pretend it was a different one.

Jeepers! GOPmentum! Why, they might even be able to win the Illinois governorship back, if the election was held tomorrow, before 2:30 PM.

@Gavin

[sobbing]

I’m sorry. Unintentionally jerky SN! reader is unintentionally jerky.

I’d happily buy a Unitarian Defense League album to help make up for it.

So, not to add to the pain but I just tried to send you some more Amazon Honor Payments love and apparently, as of yesterday, they no longer do it. So, um, you might want to look into that at some point.

I’ll be slipping back into the lurk now…

Everything’s fine on my computer, Windows XP, Firefox 3.0.4 – Haven’t tried it on the Linux side, but it never touched my box.

Holy crap, is that Joey Sweeney?

As was mentioned on another thread, I found that posting a comment got rid of the Gingrich problem.

I’m not a violent man and I generally hate the “picking on the kid with glasses” reactionary anti-nerd thing and I’m not a bully — but I want to beat the fucking shit out of that nerd talking to Rather.

I want to beat the fucking shit out of that nerd talking to Rather.

Isn’t Rove the way he is because somebody did that back then? IIRC some girl kicked the crap out of him and that would explain a lot.

A hundred girls could kick the crap out of a hundred nerds, and we still wouldn’t wind up with the psychopathic grudge holding of a Karl Rove.

It doesn’t matter what he blames; the kid who cut in line in kindergarten, the style of glasses frames his mother got him, the fact that his father was gay and helped pioneer the Prince Albert… he’s just that kind of guy.

He’s a bully and a hater. No one made him that way. He could, as a grown man, choose not to be that way.

To me, he’ll always be the guy who engineered the biggest Republican losses in thirty years.

He included a scenario wherein McCain would take California

He must have been taking some seriously vault copy narcotics to include that scenario.

When I was in high school (mid-70’s, yes, yes, ancient history), we had a guy who looked just like little Karl, just a bit thinner and just as politically involved, sucking up to get that second spot speaking as a representative of our class at graduation (1976- bicentennial graduates!). He went on to become a wheel in state politics when the wingers were in charge of our state, getting a position that let him trash the environment with abandon. I wish I had acted on my desire to knee that SOB in the nuts when I had the chance.

Classic pic.

Looking at it, don’tcha just wanna smack him and take his lunch money?

Oddly, I still just want to smack him and take his lunch money, but that’s a different story.

preepmtive comb-ober

um

preemptive comb-over.

cur: In fairness to you, it does more resemble a preepmtive comb-ober.

Or, a:
comb preemptive rove
comber peep rev vomit
be covet remover pimp

“Sixth, new media require attention. Younger voters are increasingly getting their information from the Web — twice as many 18-24 year olds get their news online than from newspapers. Political Web 1.0 was about faster and easier communications and Republicans had the advantage. Political Web 2.0 is about networking and Democrats grabbed the lead. The party that figures out where Web 3.0 goes will grab the decisive high ground in high-tech warfare.”

What about Faux News? That isn’t drawing in the kids? Maybe they’ll all tune into Hannity now that the scary Alan Combs is going away.

BTW, what is this Political Web 1.0 crap he’s talking about? Chain email blasts? Their communication strategy was based on spamming everyone?

god that looks like a clip from the old Stanly Milgram Perils of Obedience documentary.

any bets how far karl rove would go on the scale?

Is that Dan “The Man” Rather in that photo with that nerdy greasy-haired kid?

They sure knew how to build sideburns back then.

What’s more frightening to me personally than the fact that I recognize the young Dan Rather is that my 7th-grade boyfriend looked just like the kid in the photo. O.M.G., what narrow escapes we sometimes unbeknownst make.

Damn, he was cute back then. Way kewl! A regular chick magnet! Now, about that “seventies hair”…….

Does’nt he look like “Edna” from the Incredibles?

Every time I see Rove I think of the German phrase The face that begs for a fist in it.