How I learned to stop worrying and love the tea bag
So Obama is now supporting a spending freeze in the middle of a recession.
You know? Whatever. I’ve stopped really giving a shit. I live in Massachusetts. We already have universal health care, gay marriage and the best public education in the country. If the Tea Party crowd were to tear down the federal government and implement a federalist states’ rights program*, I would probably be pretty happy with it. If the rest of the country doesn’t want to have health care, hey, not my damn problem.
*The tragic thing is that they won’t do anything like that. The minute these guys retake power they’ll be back to setting up K Street Projects that will result in an even larger government that’s run by our Corporate Masters. Oh, and the wars. Can’t forget about starting more wars. Somebody get me a powdered wig and a tricorner hat.
The trouble with these polls that show ‘Tea Party’ ahead of ‘Republican Party’ is that we all know the two things are exactly the same thing, and saying you are a ‘Tea Party’ supporter is a shorthand way of telling pollsters you’re going to vote Republican but hope this time they don’t bother with NCLB or anything like that. Consequently, out here in the rest of the world, we’re a bit concerned about the ‘Palin 2012’ drift that seems to be taking place.
“Consequently, out here in the rest of the world, we’re a bit concerned about the ‘Palin 2012? drift that seems to be taking place.”
If it makes you feel any better, most of America will be in anarchy by then and to distracted to effectively start wars.
But not Massachusetts! We’ve got our shit together. Rest of the country, y’all can eat it.
As long as we’re hunkered down in our own arbitrary political entities, clutching muskets, can’t we just get rid of the South? Letting Texas secede, leaving it to its inevitable fate of being overrun by Mexican drug gangs, would tip the balance of power in the US in potentially interesting ways.
Letting Texas secede, leaving it to its inevitable fate of being overrun by Mexican drug gangs, would tip the balance of power in the US in potentially interesting ways.
Yes. I’m all about that. If these guys want the federal government to leave them alone, then they should be willing to fight the drug gangs themselves without our help.
Boy, that Proposition 13 sure did put the federal government in a tight spot.
But not Massachusetts! We’ve got our shit together.
Considering we just elected Senator Centerfold McTruckdriver, giving the Dems the excuse they were looking for, we have no reason to be smug any more.
As a Canuckistani I totally appreciate where you’re coming from. In fact, I’m a bit jealous since Massachusetts doesn’t have rich oil sands or vast hibernia oil fields and is thus less likely to be liberated from their despotic tyrants.
Considering we just elected Senator Centerfold McTruckdriver, giving the Dems the excuse they were looking for, we have no reason to be smug any more.
Sure we do. We got ours, baby! Scott Brown is the Ultimate Middle Finger to the rest of the country!
Whattaya mean, let TX secede? We can’t wait for them to get off their collective ass. Boot ’em out now.
Remember, folks, Ann Richards and Molly Ivins came from Texas. They’re not all whackaloons.
We’ll need a refugee program.
Palin/Brown 2012!! WOOT!!!
They’re not all whackaloons.
Not trying to say that everyone from other states is lame. Trying more to say that our national discourse is so broken that the country is ungovernable in its current form.
Rest assure, Brad, if the Baggers take any amount of control, you can expect MA to be ‘liberated’ from those pesky good things, so you can join the rest of us in the corporate-owned swamp.
Dog help us, we’re getting the government we deserve.
Maybe finally Andrew Mellon will get the credit he deserved, and we need to see if the Democrats can reach out to Calvin Coolidge for a bipartisan spending plan.
I was more referring to the “let Texas Secede” thing…..
Rest assure, Brad, if the Baggers take any amount of control, you can expect MA to be ‘liberated’ from those pesky good things, so you can join the rest of us in the corporate-owned swamp.
You’ll have to take my universal health care from my cold, dead hands!
The Dems fuck up the stimulus. I get angry, but pull myself back from the brink.
The Dems fuck up health care reform. I’m blind with rage, but eventually I pull myself out of that, too.
The Dems freeze spending in the midst of the worst recession in American history.
You know what it is that really makes me angry? Stupidity. Watching the Democrats fail again and again and again to comprehend the basic strategic calculus- that they could lock in their power for the next hundred years if they would just fight, rather than cave.
If the Village is really so thoroughly wired for Republican control that even in the face of the Wingularity the Dems can’t even question right-wing frames let alone actually take them down- we really are fucked.
And thus sets in a new generation of total voter apathy. Except this one may be the last for this country.
You’ll have to take my universal health care from my cold, dead hands!
I think that’s kind of the broad outline of the plan…
All that’s left for Obama to do is to bomb the shit out of some country we haven’t bombed yet.
Last time I checked, the only province which has rich oil sands happens to be the very home of our current Canuckistan despotic tyrants…
But not Massachusetts! We’ve got our shit together. Rest of the country, y’all can eat it.
You sneaky motherfuckers, you only get to say this because you sent Scott Brown to the Senate. You voted for Senator Trucknutz so you could moon the rest of us with your universally pampered asses.
You totally rule the 50-dimensional game of interstate chess.
In fact, I’m a bit jealous since Massachusetts doesn’t have rich oil sands or vast hibernia oil fields and is thus less likely to be liberated from their despotic tyrants.
You left out your water – we’ll liberate that as well.
…the only province which has rich oil sands…
I keep hoping that not being in Alberta or Newfoundland will protect me from the Freedom bombs. Didn’t work out so well for the residents of Haditha, but maybe the liberation forces will want to build new pipelines that totally avoid Canada’s manufacturing centres.
Not trying to say that everyone from other states is lame. Trying more to say that our national discourse is so broken that the country is ungovernable in its current form.
Yes you are so! You are totally saying that, Mr. so-called Man! You’re saying everyone from other states is completely lame, and you’re saying it with words, which are the devil’s plaything. Word are like dildos: rubbery and PENIS-shaped. HEARTLAND!!!!
As someone stuck in California for 20 years, watching the state lumber downwards and to the right, the opposite of what Kennedy’s head did in that movie, I’ve given up on the idea that states can handle their shit individually. This state is supposed to have what, the 6th largest economy in the world? If it was like a country and whatnot. But it’s being run by a bunch of paralytic reactionaries that couldn’t run a nylon stocking, let alone a gigantic, rapidly changing region of the United States. So it’s falling apart. And this is a state with massive natural advantages.
As goes California… We’ll probably see the Southern states folding up, and further extortion for special privileges and monies will be handed out to the obstructionists in House and Senate in return for their agreement to go slightly less hard on Obammy’s policies, if he comes up with any. One genuinely bankrupt state that can’t leverage its assets could pull down an entire region.
And that’s cool. But sweet muscular Jesus, where does it end? The nation i going to have to break up, at this rate, just to save money.
If the Village is really so thoroughly wired for Republican control that even in the face of the Wingularity the Dems can’t even question right-wing frames let alone actually take them down- we really are fucked.
Yup. It’s the motherfucking ghost of Reagan, man.
fucking ghosts.
Brad? Stop worrying?
ROFLCOPTER!
“The freeze would not apply to defense spending or spending on intelligence, homeland security or veterans. ”
Thank heavens the black budget, with its annual outlay of $[redacted] per annum, is yet again recession-proof. Plainly, the answer is to include all social safety-net items in the aforementioned black budget – just reclassify them as “Domestic Insurgency Prevention” & voila, problem solved!
I have had similar feelings. As a blue-stater (who currently lives in Sweden, nyah nyah nyah, how’s that for I’ve-got-mine) sometimes I feel that states ought to just take more into their own hands, allowing the blue states to have nice things like health care and marriage equality and, oh, science taught in schools, and letting the red states just self-destruct. After we relocate any weapons of mass destruction stored in them. No, this is not a serious proposal, just a fantasy. Where’s my unicorn?
Ugh. DESPAIR.
Time to go look at CuteOverload.
Bookmark this, libs.
It seems almost fitting that California is well into it’s inevitable decline, since after all, Reagan first had his way with CA before he took his state-as-a-beaten-spouse ways to DC and blessed the rest of the country with them. As goes CA, the rest of us go, but at a slightly later date.
It sucks too; CA is a nice place, good looking, etc, but the politics went to shit the moment Prop 13 won, though some effects have taken longer than others.
It’s amazing how much of this stuff is like some basic structural problem with the US that goes back to before the Civil War. I think Lincoln should have just waved the retarded half of the country bye bye.
Fine. You won’t mind if a few million of us move in with you while the rest of the place goes to hell.
We’ll be by in time for dinner next Wednesday.
I’ve been trying to get WA to be annexed by Canada, but no luck so far. I guess it’s time to apply for citizenship. Fookin’ Idiocracy.
Meanwhile, in the White House situation room:
Rahm: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn’t that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Bernanke: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Geithner: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
Bookmark it libs!
What you actually don’t have, Brad, is an NFL organization worth saving anymore.
The toilet. Welcome to it, Pats.
“…the Dems can’t even question right-wing frames let alone actually take them down”
What would they replace them with? You have to have ideas to replace the faulty ones of your opponents but the Dems got nothing. What died in the financial collapse was Milton Friedman’s neoliberal ideology but there has been nothing laying around to replace it with. Economics is a form of religion and you need people to clap their hands and believe, otherwise it doesn’t work.
I see this as a failure of the Left. There should have been something of substance on the shelf ready to be pulled down when we needed it but all we got was water downed cold Keynesian pablum. It’s the inability to imagine what comes after, the inability to conceive of a radically different way of living, that is the problem.
Instead, the gibbering hoard will engulf us. People on Medicare protest government health care. Michelle Bachmann will probably run for governor of Minnesota and say hellooooo to president Palin!
It was the jobs, it was always the jobs. All Obama had to do was hire Americans to dig a hole and fill it in but noooooo, he hired the Chinese to get on a boat, come over here, drive a truck into the desert and use their own shovel to dig a hole and then charge us for it. Fookin’ eeedeeeots.
I am all about pulling a reverse teabag when the Republicans take back Congress in 2010 and the White House in 2012. I’m already Photoshopping a Hitler mustache onto President-elect Romney’s face.
You called?
The negativity in this party sucks. FDR isn’t walking through that door.
JK47, putting Hitler mustaches on Republican politicians will be declared high super-treason.
I see this as a failure of the Left. There should have been something of substance on the shelf ready to be pulled down when we needed it but all we got was water downed cold Keynesian pablum. It’s the inability to imagine what comes after, the inability to conceive of a radically different way of living, that is the problem.
Huh? Why would we need to think of new ideas when we have workable ones? Maybe we should have rebranded Keynesianism, but it basically worked for decades of widely shared prosperity.
If you’re talking about some grander vision of a post-carbon world of one piece unitards and so forth, I think the ideas are out there, but since they all involve less conspicuous consumption, I’m not sure how we sell that. “We all need to have a little less today so we don’t have a lot less tomorrow” is probably true, but Reagan v Carter proved that “morning in America” was more popular than “put on a sweater.”
“I am all about pulling a reverse teabag when the Republicans take back Congress in 2010”
President Sarah will have none of your treasonous lies. She won’t sit back and smile wryly at the goofy libs. There are good old fashioned Stalinist purges in our future.
Not wanting to ditch Texas because they produced Milly Ivins is a bit like missing the USSR because they produced Andrei Sakharov.
OT but if only
If I’m more positive and more cheerful and more avowedly declare my support for the President and the party, exactly what does that get me?
The average potential voter already knows that activist and highly political types tend to vote and vote for their party.
What? I’ve got to be magic and convince potential voters how they ought to see things and how they ought to vote?
Yeah. How effective do you think that will be?
I know FDR isn’t walking through that door to give the STOTU. I’d be happy with Hubert Humphrey at this point…
All Obama had to do was hire Americans to dig a hole and fill it in
So, that’d be…uh…cold Keynesian pablum, then?
Digging holes and filling them in worked last time. Cripes, the WPA had federally-sponsored PLAYS. Could you imagine that now?
The negativity in this party sucks. FDR isn’t walking through that door.
Hey, you want Hoover, you just say so.
“All that’s left for Obama to do is to bomb the shit out of some country we haven’t bombed yet.”
The POTUS is powerful, but he can’t just make up fantastical countries willy nilly!
Cold Keynesian pablum is delicious with a side of coleslaw.
,
See, this is why they want Texas to secede. Big enough to hit easily, near by, nothing valuable to destroy in it….
Cripes, the WPA had federally-sponsored PLAYS. Could you imagine that now?
I can imagine it, in much the way I can imagine robot tarantulas, laser-powered luchadores, dinosaur ninjas, and Scarlett Johannson sending me love letters. It would be impossibly, gloriously awesome, and we’ll never see anything so wonderful in our lives.
even in the face of the Wingularity
WIN.
Actually it was the CWA (Civil Works Administration) that did the “make work” jobs, and it was an emergency measure to get through the first Winter. the WPA and PWA (and the CCC) did useful works, building roads, schools, parks, courthouses, etc. And yes, they also set up programs for authors and artists. Thanks to these programs the National Archives now has hundreds of recordings of oral histories from elderly ex-slaves that would have otherwise been lost.
the WPA (1935-1943) hired over 8 million people and built or improved over 100,000 public buildings including schools and libraries. With that one program alone, FDR did more to help his country than everything Reagan, Bush I and Bus II did combined…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lt_gov_don_t_help_the_poor
A Republican politician weighs in on the poor. And somehow, I think there’s a particular kind of poor person and/or person on welfare that he’s targeting. I know, call me crazy.
Cripes, the WPA had federally-sponsored PLAYS. Could you imagine that now?
Federally sponsored furry slashfic to save the economy!
A Republican politician weighs in on the poor. And somehow, I think there’s a particular kind of poor person and/or person on welfare that he’s targeting.
*ashamedly raises hand*
Yep, that’s our Lieutenant Guvn’r. Who is evidently now backpedaling and saying, in finest Republican tradition, he didn’t actually mean what he said. I believe he’s now claiming “it was an analogy, not a metaphor”.
“Why would we need to think of new ideas when we have workable ones?”
No one believes in them, so Tinkerbell dies.
“it basically worked for decades of widely shared prosperity.”
Only because people believed. It isn’t a science where we can say what does or doesn’t work.
Reagan v Carter proved that “morning in America” was more popular than “put on a sweater.”
Yeah, that’s what I mean. It’s a failure of imagining a way to make putting on a sweater the hawtest thang evar! There are other reasons for Carter’s failure. He was an intelligent but weak leader who didn’t understand the nature of power and how to use it. A lot like Obama.
And since I’m bashing Dems I might as well point out they don’t seem to fight for the institutions and their procedures that keep them alive. Prop 13 killed California and the Democratic party yet they don’t seem to give a fuck. They don’t fight as if they’re fighting for their lives, which they are. The Senate rules on the filibuster are doing on the national level what prop 13 did for Calif. but again it doesn’t seem like the Dems give a shit.
This stuff didn’t just happen. The GOP saw our demographic shift coming a generation ago and planned accordingly. Putting in place rules and procedures that allow for a minority to rule over a vastly larger majority. They are completely willing to destroy democracy if it means keeping the darkies out and the Dems blithely go on treating them as if they are the loyal opposition and are continually shocked when they are betrayed…. and then they go right back for more. It’s insanity.
New England should merge with the Maritime Provinces now to create ‘Atlantica’ before it is too late.
With that one program alone, FDR did more to help his country than everything Reagan, Bush I and Bus II did combined…
Every time a dog licks his own balls, he has done more to help his country than those three combined.
“There are other reasons for Carter’s failure. He was an intelligent but weak leader who didn’t understand the nature of power and how to use it. A lot like Obama.”
He was also an evangelical Christian leader who was naive enough to think that the emerging moral majority in America actually cared about Christianity as a set of values and not just as a way of saying “We’re better than them fags and commies and darkies over there.”
“What? I’ve got to be magic and convince potential voters how they ought to see things and how they ought to vote?”
Yeah, you kinda do. It’s what elections are all about.
“Yeah. How effective do you think that will be?”
Very effective. Besides, there isn’t any other way. This is how the world works.
the WPA (1935-1943) hired over 8 million people and built or improved over 100,000 public buildings including schools and libraries. With that one program alone, FDR did more to help his country than everything Reagan, Bush I and Bus II did combined…
They’re also some of the most beautiful buildings in the country, because the WPA was sensible enough to hire skilled craftsmen and get them to do their thing. The WPA courthouses look like COURTHOUSES. More modern courthouses look like…well, rooms, with a drop ceiling and off-white walls and industrial carpeting.
Only because people believed. It isn’t a science where we can say what does or doesn’t work.
No, I don’t buy this. If this was true, tax cuts and trickle down would have had the same effect. People were clapping as hard as they could for these. The only result was bloody hands and a few people became able to join the Yacht of the Month club.
It isn’t a science like physics, but it isn’t just a bunch of bullshit that only works because Rahm acts to make our own reality. It’s a social science, and subject to the problem of people being really really difficult to figure out, but still some things do work, and others do not.
Cripes, the WPA had federally-sponsored PLAYS. Could you imagine that now?
Federally sponsored furry slashfic to save the economy!
I disagree with every word you say but will die for my right to be first in line to purchase…
What?
Not wanting to ditch Texas because they produced Milly Ivins
Please, woodrow; I didn’t say that.
I SAID, we need to save some of them first; refugee program, you know.
So, anybody have a nice alternative country to propose?
More modern courthouses look like…well, rooms, with a drop ceiling and off-white walls and industrial carpeting.
Then ya ain’t been to Federal courthouses here in Chicago. Thems some fine walnut walls an ‘spensive lighting. Jury seats are soft but the gallery seating is churchy.
“So, anybody have a nice alternative country to propose?”
How about Israel for a change?
What about hooking up with the gLibertarians and moving with them to Libertopia or Seaworld or whatever they’re calling it?
It’d be a small matter to depose them and institute a proper iron-fisted Socialist utopia once everyone’s settled.
It’d be a small matter to depose them and institute a proper iron-fisted Socialist utopia once everyone’s settled.
This is the almost certain outcome of any attempt to create a libertopian state. The combination of a very small military, small government and a massive population grinding in poverty under the heel of malefactors of great wealth guarantee a rapid transition to an orderly system of guillotines and pitchforks.
“It isn’t a science like physics, but it isn’t just a bunch of bullshit that only works because Rahm acts to make our own reality. It’s a social science, and subject to the problem of people being really really difficult to figure out, but still some things do work, and others do not.”
Well sure, but the gap between what works and what doesn’t is huge. And the social sciences work differently than the physical sciences. Mainly because with people, acting to create your own reality really does create reality.
So say we all, therefore it exists. Otherwise we’re just a troop of primates scratching in the dirt for grubs.
I don’t think we’re as far apart as I first thought. Friedmanism doesn’t work no matter who believes in it, and Keynesianism does some good even if people don’t believe in it, but between these extremes, it certainly helps if people think “this could work, and maybe I can afford that next month”
The combination of a very small military, small government and a massive population grinding in poverty under the heel of malefactors of great wealth guarantee a rapid transition to an orderly system of guillotines and pitchforks.
but but but Galt’s Gulch!!!
and stuff!!1!1
“All that’s left for Obama to do is to bomb the shit out of some country we haven’t bombed yet.”
The President & War Machine are eyeing Venezuela. I read they’re building a US military base on border in Colombia. I also read yesterday that Venezuela is sitting on the World’s Largest Oil Reserve. And it’s “ruled” by a COMMIE!
How long before missile drones start attacking “terrorist camps” there?
What died in the financial collapse was Milton Friedman’s neoliberal ideology but there has been nothing laying around to replace it with.
I’m afraid its death will be a long, drawn-out process marked by fits and spasms and shouts about not wanting to go gentle. That shit has been hammered into too many heads for too many years for it to suffer the quick dismissal it deserves.
Now that’s cold!
Dennis Prager writes an open letter to Charles Johnson. He finds out about Robert Stacy McCain, Vlaams Belang and Pamela Geller.
“In any event, what do any of these groups have to do with mainstream American right institutions such the Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute; or with mainstream conservative publications and websites such as the National Review, the Weekly Standard, Townhall.com or Commentary; or with mainstream American conservatives such as Bill Kristol, Thomas Sowell, Hugh Hewitt, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, as well as Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh?”
Hilarity ensues.
I think we all made a mistake assuming that just because we were battling a Great Depression, the Democratic response would be a New New Deal.
There were a number of severe depressions over the decades before 1929 that did not lead to anything but yet more “screw the poor” policies as the stranglehold of the wealthy did not ease on the policy making appartus. As Krugman wrote in Conscience of a Liberal, the one time a populist Democrat got the Democratic nomination, Bryan in 1896, the malefactors of great wealth ran the best financed election campaign ever (and that includes 2008) to defeat him.
Even Wilson’s lucky break in taking the WH with a strong Democratic majority didn’t exactly bring the ponies.
Maybe we should have let the banks fail. Risky but in retrospect, what we did left them in charge and things will be worse the next time they fuck everything up in 5-10 years.
I read Creed is totally underrated. It must be true because I read it.
“There were a number of severe depressions over the decades before 1929 that did not lead to anything but yet more “screw the poor” policies as the stranglehold of the wealthy did not ease on the policy making appartus. As Krugman wrote in Conscience of a Liberal, the one time a populist Democrat got the Democratic nomination, Bryan in 1896, the malefactors of great wealth ran the best financed election campaign ever (and that includes 2008) to defeat him.”
In other words, the problem during the Progressive Era is that people weren’t deep enough in the shit. It took the Great Depression, lasting three years under a Republican president, before the people would finally defer to the Democrats – and luckily, a populist Democratic president who knew what he was doing (just imagine if Al Smith had won instead).
FDR isn’t walking through that door.
At this point I’d settle for Zombie Nixon, who would be several steps to the left of what we’ve got.
mainstream conservative publications and websites such as the National Review
Does that mean we can indeed cut to the chase, take a page from Tbogg, and call the Republicans “America’s Shittiest Party”?
Brad, I have to agree. The thing I just woke up to over this whole debacle is that Marx was right: It is us versus them. As much as it pains me to associate myself with a bunch of pinheaded, racist proto-thugs, I have to admit that I have a lot more in common with them class- and resource-wise that I do with Barack Obama, who at this point is looking more and more like an apologist for the political class in this country.
And before people start screaming “concern troll”, you all should be aware of how heartbreaking it is to admit that.
MMMMmmmmmm. Good. What goes with grubs? Shiraz?
FDR isn’t walking through that door.
Or perhaps he has. That is, the FDR of 1937.
I have to admit that I have a lot more in common with them class- and resource-wise that I do with Barack Obama, who at this point is looking more and more like an apologist for the political class in this country.
After mentally debating the healthcare bill for days and days, I thought to myself, “Holy shit! We’ve been What’s the Matter with Kansased!” I don’t know when or how it happened, but it happened!
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
We’ve always been at War with Deficitiana.
All that’s left for Obama to do is to bomb the shit out of some country we haven’t bombed yet.
The President & War Machine are eyeing Venezuela.
I was guessing Yemen, simply because (1) there’s a pretext; (2) it’s too weak to put up much of a fight, and (3) there’s a strategic benefit to having better access to that strait (not Hormuz, the other one). Who knows, though? Might be easier to get the Saudis to (continue to) do that while we focus our attention elsewhere.
I think TPM reader “MS” is on to something here:
“I think I get what Obama and the congressional Dems are up to…. Their plan is to become the minority in Congress again. That approach worked very well for them circa 2005…. they really found their stride. Then from that base they can regain the Congress and really implement some inspiring changes.”
I wonder if the Washington Establishment will still believe 41 is greater than 59 when its the Dems at 41?
Then from that base they can regain the Congress and really implement some inspiring changes.”
Because of course that’s EXACTLY what happened after the elections of ’06 and ’08.
(Or did I miss the sarcasm?)
I SAID, we need to save some of them first; refugee program, you know.
Fair enough. I have a futon in the basement so I can take 2, non-smokers please..
Of course, many of the tea-baggers, especially if they come from small towns, were probably educated in a school built by the WPA, got their wedding licenses in a courthouse built by the WPA, went on picnics in parks built by the CCC, went to college on the GI Bill, live on their Social Security, have their bank accounts protected by the FICA, etc, etc, and then they nod and say “hell yeah” when Beck or Limbaugh denounce FDR as a socialist-fascist-commie!
party liberals would likely bridle at baselining a wide array of popular domestic spending programs
this statement in the article is highly suppositious
there’s hardly any indication as of yet as to exactly which programs they intend to propose cutting
i refuse to object or approve until i hear details
You can’t win this game by playing it. When the game is this rigged against you, you throw the board up and start screaming bloody murder. Or shooting. I think I’d prefer the shooting right about now.
Jay @ 20:06. Lets be honest. Creed wasn’t a good band. However, you would think that they were three howler monkeys banging on pots and pans for the way people talk about them. In the sense that their singer is not tone-deaf and the band is capable of playing their instruments well enough not to get laughed off stage, they simply have to be underrated. It is just not possible for a band to be as bad as people like to pretend they were.
Clearly you have not seen Creed shred.
courthouse built by the WPA, went on picnics in parks built by the CCC, went to college on the GI Bill, live on their Social Security, have their bank accounts protected by the FICA
this is covered under that devastating application of
occam’slimbaugh’s razor known as “oh – but that’s different!”Creed wasn’t a good band. However, you would think that they were three howler monkeys banging on pots and pans for the way people talk about them.
If it comes down to howler monkeys vs. Scott Stapp, I’m going with the monkeys every time.
Butt Monkey, I just can’t buy that. I don’t think that there’s a ton of difference between the more unsavory elements of the “political class” and the Teabaggers. They believe the same shit, have the same ideological blind spots, share the same rabid resistance to anything that even resembles socialism. I may hate the big boys for doing the fleecing, and I may hate the baggers for letting themselves get fleeced, but at the end of the day, I don’t see how distinguishing between the two makes any difference. You think the Teabaggers respect people like us, are willing to look at our stories, recognize the similarities, and work together? I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, fuck ’em, they’re just as much a part of the problem.
If it comes down to howler monkeys vs. Scott Stapp, I’m going with the monkeys every time.
At least howler monkeys are cute.
Discretionary spending is the hammer-smashed hamster of neoliberal fascism.
Howler monkeys’ diet consists mostly of fruit and nuts.
So Obama is now supporting a spending freeze in the middle of a recession.
Just don’t call it a hatchet.
I may hate the big boys for doing the fleecing, and I may hate the baggers for letting themselves get fleeced, but at the end of the day, I don’t see how distinguishing between the two makes any difference.
‘Cause we’re getting fleeced too–it’s just that we’re more aware of it. Now, I’m not at all optimistic about getting the fleecees to understand that they’re being fleeced (that never works), but we do have some things in common. One way or another, we’re all wondering what the fuck we’re going to do about this gargantuan deficit. One way or another, we’re pissed off that everyone we elect, regardless of party, seems to end up spending boatloads of money and giving handouts to corporations. I don’t know if it’s possible to make common cause with any of these guys because, y’know, socialism and faggots and all that, but there are points of agreement.
As much as it pains me to associate myself with a bunch of pinheaded, racist proto-thugs, I have to admit that I have a lot more in common with them class- and resource-wise that I do with Barack Obama
but what about functioning brain- and morality-wise?
points of agreement
um, wingnuts think that poor children should not be granted handouts to help them eat and get medical care because this would only encourage more children to choose their parents unwisely, whereas multinational corporations are our precious and delicate national heritage that need to be coddled as much as possible, especially by being exempted from vile and degrading public obligations such as taxes and regulations
points of agreement?
Guess who’s back, Jack? That’s right, it’s Da Cool Coach, back in action in Gainesville and surfing the SPREAD WAVE straight back to Washington, where the Terrific Teabaggers and Super Sarah, the Power Palin, will unleash their awesome army of conservatism over America once again! Badoodle-boo-yeah! Do you see that SPREAD coming for you, loony libs? You sweatin yet? Ya better believe that Da Cool Coach knows that your time is over and out, and you can take THAT to the bank and smoke it! Ding dong dilly!
Urban out. You can’t even deal, loony libs.
Good point, Monk, and well taken. My only caveat is that in ten years when the gap between rich and poor has widened to Chilean standards, who do you think that most of us will be standing with- the Harry Reids and the Rupert Murdochs, or with the cosplay rejects? The one thing- possibly the only thing- that the Teabagers have right is that this is a class struggle.
I think it might be possible to co-opt that movement. They may loathe us, but there is a basic need that they share with us: the desire to rid this government of big-money influence and bring it, after two-hundred and some-odd years, back under the control of the citizenry.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves- with the recent Supreme Court decision to sell democracy to the highest bidder, we are going to enter a new gilded age or worse- we are going to fall into a falang-style government. We need to use any tool available, and let’s face it: teabag parties are full of tools.
You can’t even deal, loony libs.
Nor can Jesus Christ Boy QB, apparently.
the only thing- that the Teabagers have right is that this is a class struggle
the only class consciousness i have ever seen in teabaggers is the consciousness that they really hated that nerdy know it all that they are conscious of having beat up in high school algebra class who is now a software engineer
seriously, tebaggers are not interested in class struggle – they are interested in becoming the ruling class
I agree with Felonious Monk. The teabaggers are just as much a part of the problem as the status quo people in Washington – and to some extent, they’re the reason the status quo people exist. At least part of the reason Obama and company as being as moderate as they are is because so many independents rallied to the teabaggers early last summer.
And I also agree with Tacitus about the working brains and sense of morality. Class-wise, resource-wise and in terms of opposing the status quo, I also had more in common with the SS of Hitler’s Germany than I did with the garbled, parliamentary clusterfuck that was the French government – but I think you can guess which of the two I’d have sided with, and not just for patriotic reasons. Never lose sight of the fact that just because they hate the status quo too, doesn’t mean they want to replace it with something better.
The one thing- possibly the only thing- that the Teabagers have right is that this is a class struggle.
See, no. I don’t think they think that. They are “populist” in the sense that they see their struggle as being against powered elites–but the “powered elites” in their minds are liberals and educated people who want to take their money and redistribute it to the poor. Say what you will about Republicans, but they’re amazing at taking right-wing populism and morphing it into some weird pro-corporate stance based on racial fears and working-class/lower middle class resentment.
seriously, tebaggers are not interested in class struggle – they are interested in becoming the ruling class
Exactly. If they were right-wing populists (as everyone seems to insist they are), they wouldn’t be quite as repellent. Sure, they would still be racist, but at least they would be trying to subvert the system, not build it up. They’re not populists–they’re whiny, self-involved, ignorant authoritarians who are afraid of losing the only form of dominance they’ve ever had.
“the only class consciousness i have ever seen in teabaggers is the consciousness that they really hated that nerdy know it all that they are conscious of having beat up in high school algebra class who is now a software engineer
seriously, tebaggers are not interested in class struggle – they are interested in becoming the ruling class”
Exactly. It’s not class consciousness, it’s the insecurity of the schoolyard bullies beating up the nerds because they know they’ll never amount to as much. They don’t resent people for being rich or powerful and they certainly don’t resent people for screwing them over, they resent people for refusing to go along with their fantasy world, whether it’s the media reporting facts, scientific institutions refusing to bow to political agendas, random foreigners telling them what UHC is actually like in real life, even soldiers and intelligence professionals telling the truth about the Iraq war. They may use the language of class warfare, but there’s nothing class conscious about any of it.
I think it is a class struggle, at least in part. Except, they’ve managed to convince themselves that they’re the upper class, who could only be brought down, instead of up, if the country were more egalitarian.
“However, you would think that they were three howler monkeys banging on pots and pans for the way people talk about them. In the sense that their singer is not tone-deaf and the band is capable of playing their instruments well enough not to get laughed off stage, they simply have to be underrated.”
Geez. I skipped over some comments and thought that was about the Teabaggers.
Agreed, agreed and agreed. Now, if they would throw Dick Fucking Armey under the bus, it might be different. It would also be funny.
Palin/Brown 2012!! WOOT!!!
The “Still got it, at least for a while… considering Botox soon” ticket
Letting Texas secede, leaving it to its inevitable fate…
Yeah, how’s Rhodesia doing these days? Oh, right.
TIA, bru. TIA.