Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

December 2024
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Archives

It’s the politics of hope and change — a new kind of politics, a politics for the new millenium that focuses on bringing us together, of intellectualizing problems in order to find solutions, rather than a politics that falls prey to militarism and old school partisan pettiness, to wagon circling and the old outmoded paradigms

…Unless, of course, you cause Obamalot any kind of discomfort, embarrassment, or “outrage” — even if you happen to be completely on the side of the new Messiah. At which point, all bets are off.

From the LA Times blog:

There’s probably no connection whatsoever.

But the New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, whose long, long article on Barack Obama’s early political days in Chicago’s ward politics (available here) was the reason for the magazine’s controversial cover by Barry Blitt depicting Obama as a Muslim, has been barred from traveling with Obama on his foreign field trip this week.

The elitist magazine claimed the cover’s depiction waThe satirical cover of the New Yorker magazine for the issue of 7-21-08s satirical of a Muslim Obama fist-bumping with a militant wife Michelle armed with an AK-47 beneath a portrait of Osama bin Laden while they burn a U.S. flag — in the Oval Office.

Initially, the Obama campaign and John McCain’s spokesman denounced the cover.

Later, a cooler Obama dismissed it as a weak attempt at satire amid much more important things to discuss.

More than 200 media folks applied to fly in Europe with the freshman senator. But, alas, the Obama campaign said it simply was not able to find a seat for Lizza.

Now, that’s Chicago politics.

— And as we all know, Chicago politics is the quintessential politics of hope and change.

Just ask the ghost of John Kennedy, who may never have become a liberal icon and martyr had it not been for Chicago’s commitment to a, well… let’s just call it a “progressive” get out the vote drive.

Remember: hope and change are not about falling in love; they’re about falling in line. Nothing looks more peaceful than a consensus — and what better way to ensure said consensus than to define out, by way of punishment or excommunication, those who don’t or won’t commit to the standardized narrative?

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

83 Replies to “It’s the politics of hope and change — a new kind of politics, a politics for the new millenium that focuses on bringing us together, of intellectualizing problems in order to find solutions, rather than a politics that falls prey to militarism and old school partisan pettiness, to wagon circling and the old outmoded paradigms”

  1. happyfeet says:

    I think Baracky was kind of concerned that the trip might become a media circus is all. He didn’t want to look like he was showboating I don’t think.

  2. Karl says:

    BECAUSE OF THE UNITY!!!

  3. Tim P says:

    Coupled with the news in Karl’s post on the NYT spiking McCain’s response, I suspect that the only lesson that the democrats and their enablers learned from 2000 and 2004 is that they weren’t nasty, underhanded and dishonest enough.

  4. McGehee says:

    I suspect that the only lesson that the democrats and their enablers learned from 2000 and 2004 is that they weren’t nasty, underhanded and dishonest enough.

    Isn’t that what the Kossite nutroots (who, of course, DON’T SPEAK FOR ALL DEMOCRATS) have been saying for the last several years?

    Why, I’d almost be tempted to conclude that those who say the Kossite nutroots DON’T SPEAK FOR ALL DEMOCRATS are, perhaps, incorrect.

  5. Jeff G. says:

    The New York times probably spiked McCain’s piece because they feared losing access to The One.

    Not particularly brave, the Times isn’t these days.

  6. N. O'Brain says:

    ““progressive” get out the vote drive.”

    So, ‘progressive’ is a synonym for ‘zombie’.

    Who knew?

  7. Challeron says:

  8. Aldo says:

    PW commenter Jonas will be very, very happy to see that you read the LAT Blog. I guess the on-line audience is their last desperate hope, so they have to grit their teeth and publish something unflattering about O! there occasionally. As the last non-prog reader of the print edition I feel cheated. Jonas, If I can’t get this kind of juicy stuff in the print edition couldn’t I at least get a promotional coffee cup or something?

  9. Challeron says:

    Not particularly brave, the Times isnÂ’t these days.

    What would you expect? The Times is doing its damndest to destroy itself, it just doesn’t know how it’s going about it.

    (Damn this handheld computer; how I managed my first half-assed comment, I’ll never know — hey! Maybe I could be a Times editor!…)

  10. Aldo says:

    Challerone,

    #7 is a great performance art interpretive dance blog comment on media criticism of Obama.

  11. happyfeet says:

    The Times is doing its damndest to destroy itself, it just doesn’t know how it’s going about it.

    Also people a lot overlooked this blow to their print distribution model.

  12. DarthRove says:

    My grandparents, dead for 12, 10, 9, and 6 years, will be voting for Obama.

    That’s the Chicago way!

    /Sean Connery

  13. BJTex says:

    If this is the case (if Obama’s staff is punishing Lizza) then, irony of ironies, Obama is ripping a page out of the Clinton handbook on press relations.

    It’s to chuckle! There are a bunch of frizzy haired bra burners with their male Bubba idolizing Sensitive New Age Guys© still wailing over how the press turned on the Hildebeast faster than Irina Slutskaya can execute a death spiral. Well after years of battered reporters being slapped around over access, once the inevitable became the problamatic the press smelled blood and took revenge. I’m convinced this is why Bubba lost his mind in SC and elsewear during the primaries. The dirty fact that his disciplined but favored press minions would smack him around (much less Hil) must have caused Billy bob a petit mal seizure that lead to uncontrollable rage and a lovely reddish/pink facial hue.

    Now favored, exalted, bouncing on the Hope Sponge of Change, Baracky grasps the opportunity to send a message to his legion of adoring newshound minions.

    Don’t. F#*k. With. Me. Or. No. Access. For. Thee.

    Thus the circle is unbroken or, more accurately, the press continues to be broken and ridden around the world like a herd of masochistic mustangs. Think of Baracky seated in a “pretty little surrey with the fringe on the top” and the MSM as part of the four team lead, with shortened reins forcing their heads high as they drive the Change Carraige.

    What a joke and a laugh, if true.

  14. Challeron says:

    erm, Aldo, doesn’t PW already have an “interpretive dance” commenter?

    I don’t want to, y’know, step on any toes, or anything…. I might get thrown under the bus….

  15. Sdferr says:

    R. Lizza’s reaction will be? Pick one:

    1)Ritual public self flagellation
    2)Deep bowing in the presence of the Master
    3)Aimless wandering, gibbering, gnashing of teeth, scraping with potsherds
    4)A new article replete with glowing depictions of Obama the Magnificent, the ONE, the TRUE

  16. MarkD says:

    I’ve been thrown out of better places than an Obama campaign.

  17. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    My grandparents, dead for 12, 10, 9, and 6 years, will be voting for Obama.

    I’m pretty sure that Gilgamesh and Enkidu are registered Democrats in Cook County.

  18. BJTex says:

    Hey, no worries, Challeron. The only reason I posted my comment was to have an excuse to type Irina Slutskaya, greatest figure skating name EVAH!

  19. Aldo says:

    #11 hf,

    It’s too bad Starbucks is having trouble. The NYT was probably hoping that Starbucks would buy them out.

  20. Karl says:

    #11 hf:

    Headline:
    “Starbucks shutters 600 stores; Baristas, NYT hardest hit.”

  21. you know, voting in chicago is just a fringe benefit. no need to trouble yourself with going to the polls. the work of voting has already been handled for us. its a real time-saver. assume its just another convenience the messiah will implement for the rest of the country

  22. Ric Locke says:

    #15 Sdferr: 1, 4, 2 in that order.

    Regards,
    Ric

  23. dre says:

    I really think that this whole O! thing was cooked up by unemployed sitcom writers.

  24. dre says:

    Is Mrs. O’Leary still voting in Chicago? How about the cow?

  25. happyfeet says:

    “This partnership brings together two great, well-respected brands, which we believe benefits both Starbucks customers and The New York Times readers,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and chief global strategist. “In fact, the similarities between our customers and New York Times readers make this a value-enhancing proposition for everybody.”

    The New York Times Co was worth over six billion when they signed the initial deal, now it’s worth under two billion, and Starbucks’ brand is indelibly polluted. Kind of sucks for them.

  26. Mikey NTH says:

    They are very brave sheep, the members of the Fourth Estate.

  27. Rusty says:

    #24
    Don’t be silly. Cows can’t vote. But if your cat has two names we can register him.

  28. afall says:

    Huffpo said some 200 news orgs applied for the 41 spots on the plane. That’s a lot of people he’s “barred” for causing ‘discomfort, embarrassment, or “outrage”’

  29. Radish says:

    Shit, I’m voting for O! in Chicago, despite having moved out in 1977. (Had the misfortune of being born there, and not even on an oleomargarine smuggling run.)

  30. mojo says:

    Reporters generally deserve more abuse than they get. Life just ain’t fair.

  31. dicentra says:

    I’m pretty sure that Gilgamesh and Enkidu are registered Democrats in Cook County.

    The beast at Tanagra.
    Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.
    Shaka, when the walls fell.

  32. twolaneflash says:

    When your world is comprised of the Obama garden of hope, the Obama flowers of change, and the Obama palm of peace, every Ship High In Transit utterance from him must seem like Miracle-Gro plant fertilizer. The Audacity of Crap and a Taste for S.H.I.T.!

    The real question is: will Katy Couric jump Obama’s bones in Baghdad?

  33. kelly says:

    “The real question is: will Katy Couric jump Obama’s bones in Baghdad?”

    For his sake, I’d hope not. She probably outweighs him by a couple stone.

  34. TerryH says:

    Given that his moral authority exceeds that of Saint Cindy, why isn’t Europe flying to O! ?

  35. guinsPen says:

    Irina Slutskaya, greatest figure skating name EVAH!

    Agreed.

    The greatest figure skater of all time? Eric Lindros.

  36. psycho... says:

    Maybe the Obamanites stategerized this show better than I thought.

    The cartoon outrage was all fake, obviously, but maybe very smartly so. Everyone’s still all “Cartoon! Cartoon!” — talking like that was real (never mind the 50% or so who internalized the fake outrage and believe that shit; they’re fucking hopeless) — when the guy who’s getting jobbed here had nothing to do with that; he just wrote a slightly unfavorable article (with the tone of a favorable one) about the fuhrer-in-waiting. I’m sure The New Yorker gets the message.

    Enjoy your reassignment to the flower show, unperson. Still-persons, stay on your toes knees.

    Jesus.

  37. SevenEleventy says:

    Eric Heiden!

  38. kelly says:

    Sonia Henne!

  39. dre says:

    “Comment by Rusty on 7/21 @ 3:13 pm #

    #24
    Don’t be silly. Cows can’t vote.”

    Please read “The Audacity of Mrs. O!’s Cow”

  40. Mikey NTH says:

    Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy!

  41. Sdferr says:

    Ease back on the figure skaters guys, as it’s starting to get a little flouncy in here, which, flouncy, that’s just not our Lord Baracky’s style, capisce? Otherwise you can expect to be hitchhiking your way back to the Obama’s Moneywoman thread and it’s promise of ABBA tunes.

  42. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by guinsPen on 7/21 @ 4:04 pm #

    Irina Slutskaya, greatest figure skating name EVAH!

    Agreed.

    The greatest figure skater of all time? Eric Lindros.”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

    Ooofff, I think I gave myself a concusion.

  43. Carin says:

    Where has our interpretive dance commenter been? In his absence, I offer the following:

    ~~///(((((((^
    .

  44. dre says:

    Does anyone think Barry would be a good addition to the Village People?

  45. Mikey NTH says:

    #41 Sdferr – “The blonde chick’s a guy? Oh.” Blades of Glory

  46. urthshu says:

    “Y M C CHANGE!!!!”

    nahhhhhh….

  47. Mikey NTH says:

    “Buddy, I don’t have a feminine side.” – Elvis Stojko, figure skater.

    (No other comment offered by me.)

  48. But if your cat has two names we can register him.

    w007!

  49. RTO Trainer says:

    The only response McCain needs to this is “Which of us should be Commander in Chief? Well if you notice, Senator Obama does what I tell him to…”

  50. Carin says:

    But if your cat has two names we can register him.

    w007!

    Drat. Iggy, Cosmo. Jenny. Hera.

    Perhaps I could combine the four into two?

  51. Aldo says:

    #43 Carin

    Are you sure that isn’t a Hawaiian grass skirt dance? Maybe in honor of THE ONE having been born there?

  52. Sdferr says:

    I count five if you’re including drat.

  53. kelly says:

    I had you down for five as well.

  54. Carin says:

    The beginning did have a bit of “Hawaiian grass skirt” dance in it … but I was mocking the Obamism. Of course, I may have done it wrong. I’m just a fill-in for the missing interpretive commenter.

  55. Carin says:

    “Drat” will be the name(s) of any kittens born to the cat (Jenny) that has decided we’re her family and won’t go away. She may have been in heat last week. DRAT.

    Anyway, the tiny cat is just the funniest thing. Would STARE at us through the windows (going upstairs or downstairs – wherever we went) until my husband finally started sneaking her in behind my back. She lies with my dog (a one-year-old black German shep) on the couch, licking his ears lovingly. It’s too much.

  56. aaaaw, mine just hiss at the dog. but on the plus side, they already have grocery store cards. so where do we register them?

  57. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    Drat Brattinsky. Iggy Pope. Cosmo Factory. Jenny 8675309. Heraldo Rivera.

    Works for me.

  58. YES WE CAN!* says:

    […] *Scream, that is. […]

  59. dre says:

    Is America The Roadrunner and Mr. O!Bama the coyote?

  60. JM Hanes says:

    Funny, but I don’t think the New Yorker’s cover was the real problem. I think the actual aticle Lizza wrote, exposing the new emperor’s clothes, was what got him shunted aside. The whole cover contretemps is what we would call a distraction these days.

  61. Tman says:

    I’m glad that at least the Ole Grey Lady has kept her bias out in the open. They aren’t even pretending anymore.

    McCain wants to respond to the Messiah on our saintly dead trees?

    The answer:
    Fuck him. Hope and change that bitches. Go ask the WSJ.

    Is anyone else beginning to wonder if the last few years have been rather cordial compared to what brotherly hope and change awaits us? Perish the thought.

    CHIMPYMCHITLERBURTONSATANICHENEYNOOOOBLOOODFOROOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

    Ahh. That’s better.

  62. ahem says:

    Stojko is definitely a top.

  63. serr8d says:

    A new documentary, HYPE: The Obama Effect.

    Crowded theaters, ya think?

  64. Swen Swenson says:

    Heheh.

    Ease back on the figure skaters guys, as it’s starting to get a little flouncy in here..

    Somehow, “flouncy” isn’t the term that springs to mind when I think of Eric Lindros.

  65. guinsPen says:

    Somehow, “flouncy” isn’t the term that springs to mind when I think of Eric Lindros.

    How about, “oft-concussed?”

  66. TmjUtah says:

    Ya know, he can be Marxist. He can be ignorant. He can be racist. He can be gormless, empty, devoid of ethic, ethos, or soul…

    … but he’s just damned and gone if he gets tagged as unlikable by the media that is slowly realizing just what kind of trap they are building.

    It’s one of those Rube Goldberg things that start out as a waffle maker, then end up something too hideous to be found in Torquemada’s playroom.

    And the thing is, you never know who will get hurt more… the person in the straps, or those who put him there….

  67. cynn says:

    As an aside, can I note that this was in fact not a cruel and unusual banning but rather a simple apportion of avialable seats? Of course, it’s still an outrage.

  68. cynn says:

    sorry, I am way behind.

  69. David R. Block says:

    Yeah, I know that there weren’t enough seats. Still, does the O! campaign want to even LOOK LIKE they keep score and have paybacks for coverage that they don’t like? And if this had been McCain’s campaign??

    The screams would echo for weeks.

  70. Cincinnatus says:

    “It’s one of those Rube Goldberg things that start out as a waffle maker, then end up something too hideous to be found in Torquemada’s playroom.”

    Dennis Miller? Is that you?

  71. Jeff G. says:

    As an aside, can I note that this was in fact not a cruel and unusual banning but rather a simple apportion of avialable seats? Of course, it’s still an outrage.

    Sure. Purely a coincidence. I mean, The New Yorker magazine? What kind of history does that rag have?

    Complete coincidence. Really. Cynn says it’s so. And why would the LA Times presume to know more about how these things work than cynn?

  72. EasyLiving1 says:

    Hey, wait a minute here.

    Do I smell me some sarcasm?

    With, is that ginger?

  73. Rusty says:

    #5Comment by Carin on 7/21 @ 5:48 pm #

    But if your cat has two names we can register him.

    w007!

    Drat. Iggy, Cosmo. Jenny. Hera.

    Perhaps I could combine the four into two?

    Not a problem.
    What was your mother’s maiden name and was she a registered democrat? Not living? Not a problem. Is she burried in Chicago or Cook County? If we can have the name of cemetary we can register her too.

  74. alppuccino says:

    I thought Ryan got booted because he looks so goddamed good in green. It brings out the highlights in his worshipfulness.

    But alas, just like on American Idol, it was either him or Sanjaya. “We gave it a tremendous amount of thought, and Sanjaya, you’ve made it to the next round. Off you go Ryan.”

  75. […] this story in the context of: excluding from the trip New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, whose Obama profile was the reason for the magazine […]

  76. Education Guy says:

    Andrew Malcolm worked for Laura Bush. Count on that being figured prominently in what we might think of as the rebuttal from the netroots, that is if angry feces throwing monkeys capable of something as low key as rebuttal.

  77. Defenseman Emeritus says:

    guinsPen: figure skaters are more durable than Lindros. That guy is 250 pounds of tissue paper and eggshells.

  78. afall says:

    “Sure. Purely a coincidence. I mean, The New Yorker magazine? What kind of history does that rag have?”

    I’m not a regular reader, but I was surprised to find they’d be on the 40 or so seats that cover these international superstar travels. Seems almost too newsy. I wonder who else got cut.

  79. mojo says:

    Still, pointing to the LA fishwrapper as an authoritative source?

    It is to laugh. Ha Ha.

  80. “Remember: hope and change are not about falling in love; they’re about falling in line.”

    Well, its about the falling in love first and then getting in line.
    I envision a YouTube:
    – Marlene Deitrich’s “Falling in love again” in the bilingual German/English version, which BHO would surely approve as an attempt at teaching American yahoos some Euro-culture, we overlay …
    – the adoring crowds throwing flowers and kisses on the original model for cult politicians Herr Hitler and mix in the soon-to-be adoring crowds in Berlin cheering again with the new cultic leader, the Oba-fuhrer.

    “Falling in line again, what can I do? What can I do … I can’t help it.”

  81. The Lost Dog says:

    Yup.

    Was it Elvis?

    “But I Can’t Help Falling In Line Again”?

  82. Jeff G. says:

    For those who keep citing Lizza’s New Yorker connection, it should be noted that he has also written for the NYT and the New Republic.

    For a Dem presidential candidate, it hardly gets wonkier than TNR.

  83. […] during the Obamaganda and fake interviews of the World Tour: Consider this story in the context of: excluding from the trip New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, whose Obama profile was the reason for the magazine […]

Comments are closed.