The GOP winces? Wow. Looks like those Republican-booster blogs have some explaining to do. From The Washington Post:
[…] “Political people always tell their candidates to stay away from controversy,” said Ryan, 40. “They say, ‘Don’t propose anything new or bold because the other side will use it against you.’ ”
While he does not name the “political people,” they no doubt include many Republican colleagues, who, even as they praise Ryan for his doggedness, privately consider the Roadmap a path to electoral disaster. Unlike most politicians of either party, he doesn’t speak generically about reducing spending, but he does acknowledge the very real cuts in popular programs that will be required to bring down the debt.
His ideas are provocative, to say the least. They include putting Medicare and Medicaid recipients in private insurance plans that could cost the government less but potentially offer fewer benefits; gradually raising the retirement age to 70; and reducing future Social Security benefits for wealthy retirees.
Of the 178 Republicans in the House, 13 have signed on with Ryan as co-sponsors.
Ryan’s proposals have created a bind for GOP leaders, who spent much of last year attacking the Democrats’ health-care legislation for its measures to trim Medicare costs. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has alternately praised Ryan and emphasized that his ideas are not those of the party.Ryan has not helped to make it easy for his leaders. He is a loyal Republican, but he is also perhaps the GOP’s leading intellectual in Congress and occasionally seems to forget that he is a politician himself.
At a recent appearance touting the Roadmap at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, someone asked Ryan why more conservatives weren’t behind his budget plan. “They’re talking to their pollsters,” Ryan answered, “and their pollsters are saying, ‘Stay away from this. We’re going to win an election.’ “
Yeah. For some reason, I feel a certain kinship to this guy.
I guess I’ll know for sure that we’re soul mates after he gets attacked from the right for saying something “unhelpful” to the GOP’s chances for an election victory — and return to a leadership role in which they do precisely no leading, and nothing gets rolled back or undone (with the possible exception of estate tax penalties, which rich Democrats are secretly all for revoking anyway, provided they can appear to be outvoted on the issue).
Until then, I’m remaining emotionally guarded.
who are the 13 R ones what aren’t cowards and whores I wonder
The hostage to fortune he has delivered is not just to the Dems and the MSM. When the collegial bedwetters of the GOP fuck up their chance of a lifetime to smash the progs, they can, and will, turn round and blame Ryan.
Oh, and Breitbart and Palin and the Tea Party as well.
There they are.
Rome.
Blackburn in particular is a wacky wacky lifeydoodle and I heart her more than strawberry cupcakes.
I checked Ryan’s Road Map site and found no sign of the co-sponsors there. That seems like a remediable oversight.
If leaders lead and that’s how we can spot them most easily, I think this phrasing reverses the actual relationship.
(Btw, as to a Ryan/JG parallel? It might read as a joke but the underlying dynamic really is the same.)
Candidates need to show some balls. If controlling spending is too controversial, well then you might as well leave the Dems in charge. I hope Ryan has enough common sense to tell them, “Go Fuck Yourself.”
For all the Dems saying Sarah Palin is such a dumbass, she seems to have figured out that concept. Then again, Obama almost abandoned health care reform until Pelosi told him to go for it (unlike the rest of them, she is never going to alienate San Francisco voters by being too liberal or too spendy).
I was thinking the same thing, bh. Ryan is the leader, not the dem lite retreads.
Speaking of the co-sponsors, Nunes has an “Energy Roadmap“(summary .pdf), co-sponsored by Ryan.
he is also perhaps the GOP’s leading intellectual in Congress and occasionally seems to forget that he is a politician himself.
That’s a downside?
I don’t see Jason Chaffetz on that list. That’s worrying.
Who the fuck is Perry Bacon Jr. anyhow?
as far as I know there’s but one prospective Team R presidential candidate what has spoken our favorably about the roadmap and he doesn’t have tits and a twang
The GOP suffers from a terrible “normalcy bias,” not realizing that the entire paradigm has changed and that which was risky or unpopular in 2008 is not it 2010.
And that the Dems are in “revolution mode” and are not above upending the whole system while the GOP deducts style points from Ryan’s roadmap because he used the wrong font.
“. . . slips easily into academic jargon. . .”
Bullshit. His ability to account for his designs in plain English language is nearly unparalleled among the ranks of Republicans.
Oh boy, hf with the Palin obsession again.
she’s your frontrunner, Team R person
IIRC, Trollhammer is Firefox only, yes? Drat.
haters don’t be hatin it’s a very salient point I think that Mr. Ryan’s roadmap is a roadmap to nowheres without a president on board what is willing to seek a mandate for its implementation.
You are correct about TrollHammer™, LTC John.
Yeah, I know Palin isn’t mentioned in this post at all, but I have an insane desire to mention her and her cumslutty ways every chance I get. It’s because I’m the staunchest.
Well, I like Mitch Daniels a great deal myself but we need to be fair here. Sarah Palin has made positive noises about Ryan and his ideas.
actually that’s not really an indication that she supports the roadmap I don’t think
maybe she thinks he’d take votes from Romney… she’s a very conniving person
For a better link here‘s the relevant transcript:
She says she can name a whole lot of people, but she only mentioned him and in pretty glowing terms.
“Mentioned by the former VP candidate as a rising star in the GOP who might be considered a front runner for the 2012 presidential race.”
I think we need to persuade Americans to understand the debasement of the Presidency as it gains power over their lives. Somehow or other, the damned thing has gotten a reputation of a position of honor it doesn’t warrant.
But that jacks up the threadjack, bh.
that was very nice of Sarah to say
Folks need only to hold the office in some relationship with its inhabitants, sdferr. As Keystone is to cops. That’ll lower their expectations.
As monkeys are to extraterrestrial polar fly-overs, maybe.
I’m not sure I get your meaning there JHo.
*actually that’s not really an indication that she supports the roadmap I don’t think*
What’s your indication she doesn’t support the road map? Or are you just assuming based on personal bias? It stands to reason if her favorite presidential candidate at the present time is the ya know, author of the roadmap, and its a big part of his campaign, then maybe, just maybe possibly, she thinks its a good idea.
When business as usual is attacked, those who are invested in those businesses tend to get a little jumpy
So to speak.
Matt I just meant she didn’t specifically endorse the roadmap. She just says Mr. Ryan is in possession of “commonsense solutions” what might could get us “on the right road.”
Which, that wasn’t the question, was it? No he actually asked her about something altogether unrelated.
She’s still so not ready for primetime.
Do you think she could explain or defend the roadmap if pressed? Do you think she could understand it in her head?
I don’t.
Maybe if Mr. Ryan made a filmstrip.
#20 happyfeet:
“haters don’t be hatin…”
Pot this kettle. Check your hue.
Over.
Well, gauging the office by Ogabe tends to diminish its status — we already have some rough correlation. Since congressmen in 2010 are to congress what the three stooges were to opera, maybe the same thing will happen concerning the presidency.
I’m more serious than that sounds: There’ll be far fewer expecting Hope & Change in the next presidential election than any time in the nation’s history, I’d wager.
The word “unhelpful” is unhelpful. I don’t like it. When I hear it or see it, I smell ignorance, parochialism, pettiness and turf-protecting.
the president is not someone to “believe in” for starters I think
I put “unhelpful” in the same category as the phrase, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” I think they are short-hand for “shut up and do as I do.”
Last week, I saw Glenn Reynolds link to news of a particularly depressing O!bamadministration dictum with the phrase, “This isn’t HOPE, so it must be CHANGE.”
It wrung some wry laughter from me, because sometimes you have to laugh or you’ll cry. Or drink more. Or both.
What I had in mind was that Ryan is not impressive because he “might” be a credible candidate for the office of the Presidency, but is impressive or honorable because he works hard to understand and then to propose serious solutions to the nation’s needs. Palin doesn’t link him to the Presidency at all, let alone directly, which the AP story lied about.
Fuck the *so and so is/might run for President, therefore so and so is worthy of respect or awe by dint of being mentioned in proximity to the office.* The Presidency is a suckass but necessary job, the more so as it gains greater power over people’s lives. Folks ought to learn to value it in the inverse of its grabs for power.
The question was who she thought was the front runner- she answered it – “I don’t know” (which already shows she’s learning). I definately think if, in the event, she became one of the bigger proponents of both Ryan and the roadmap, then she’d be able to articulate what the roadmap is about. I guess that’s one of our primary agreements about Palin- you think she’s stupid, I don’t think she is. Ryan, from what I’ve seen, is a smart guy with a head for numbers- if your argument is Ryan is far better to promote the roadmap then Palin, well you betcha I’d agree with you on that. Is Ryan a better candidate? I don’t know at this point in the 2012 forecasting but I definately want a guy that understands the job of a chief executive (hint its not “Campaigning” and understands finance and economics well enough to help this country make a full recovery. If its Ryan, so be it.
The “Palin is an idiot” memme is something cooked up by the press to demonize her.
Mikey and Matt y’all ohnoes don’t be hating on Palin people remind me of my sister who tweeters with a bunch of playmates and d-listers and such and one time she was in vegas she saw one of them and she says “Madison! I love your purse is that the one you got from wherever?” And she said it with such confident familiarity in a way that M was taken back and seriously stopped and said do I know you I can’t remember your name. And my sister was like … no I’m just an insane crazy person sorry.
In the same way that you can’t be instant bffs with Miss November 2009 you can’t “hate” on prospective presidents of the rat-fucked united states of broke-ass america. It’s simply impossible. They are not of your world. They are less people than they are current events. This is a corollary I think to the idea that presidents ought not be vested overmuch with fraughtness and meanings. Any and all hate of the kind what is expressed in blog comments sluices off these ones and dissolves into a sea foamy insignificance what matters only in juxtaposition with the very real possibility of this or that particular one not being commented upon at all.
I genuinely believe in my heart that one Sarah Louise Palin is a failshit demagogue celebritard what threatens to severely damage both America and the opposition to the dirty socialists and to say as much is not hate rather it is a sincere expression of a love of country at it’s most pure I think. I would be grossly remiss if I did not speak up in fact, but I can no more hate on Sarah Palin than I can hate on the oil spill or LiLo’s trip to rehab.
A head for numbers is too narrow a description I think though Matt. It’s good that he can handle whatever mathematics he needs to handle, but the key, from where I stand, is his ability to integrate his grasp of budgetary matters (narrow focused small picture) with political philosophical principle and aim (broad focus wide picture) and to persuasively bring people along with him on that path.
That’s kinda schizo, ‘feets…
at *its* most pure I think
it probably is a lot schizo but it’s how i think
I’ve been listening to a PJM podcast, originally aired on Sirius. People making a living from this. And me not a part of it.
What could have been.
Jeff, you should be on the right side of that equation. Surely there are ways.
For one who claims to hate “celebritards” – you’ve sure swallowed the MFM/Hollywood kool aid regarding Palin.
How many people actually listen to / watch PJM podcasts and videos? The whole thing has always seemed to be little more than a boondoggle.
Let’s get off of the Palin roller coaster for once. I believe she would support the Roadmap as it is pretty much in line with what she has said in the past. That in and of itself doesn’t make her ready for prime time … yet.
As for Ryan and the Roadmap it is entirely (and depressingly) too familiar to hear spongey R politicians paying lip service to what is the only comprehensive spending and budgetary idea to deal head on with the calamitous bloating. Either they fall into the Princess Lindsay school of bi-partisan hand wringers or they are having drinks with Tom Delay and the K Street movers because we can’t have a spending plan that doesn’t include, you know, enriching our favorite businesses and territories.
Yea, happyfeet gets a little obsessive crazy with jumping on certain members of team R but guess what? I’m with him that the cowardly glad-handers who want to forget what happened to the Contract for America and not piss too many people off by actually telling the truth about our government … (deep breath) … are far more deserving of my rage and derision than the entire Obama administration. The reason is simple: This administration is exactly what anybody with a bright eye and a clear head expected. Those very same people also know that Team R, by dint of their unwillingness to not tackle the difficult issues of entitlements and earmarks and spendings in general (indeed, having enthusiastically supported the expansion of government by ramming through No Child Left Behind, Prescription Drugs and the McCain/Finegold Campaign To Build A Pile of Monkey Crap) were nothing less than aiding and abetting the looming economic apocalypse.
If Jeff is on board than so am I. Either step up and tell the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth as to where we are going and what the difficult, painful, horrifically challenging things have to be done to turn the ship of state from the debt reefs or … get the fuck out of the way. In other words, the Chris Christie Test of Steely Truthiness, wherein kow-towing to some wimpy version of independents to get elected is replaced by plain talk based up[on a common sense plan… period.
Anybody else want to go along for this bumpy ride?
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/2 @ 12:17 pm #
How about what could be. Without PJM.
“. . . and what the difficult, painful, horrifically challenging things have to be done to turn the ship of state from the debt reefs . . . ”
The better path, I believe sincerely, offers not simply pain and horrors, but many good things we often fail to articulate, since these good things are necessarily projective and unseen. It isn’t easy to make plain, but liberty joins with unstoppable industry to improve human life.
I genuinely believe in my heart that one Sarah Louise Palin is a failshit demagogue celebritard what threatens to severely damage both America and the opposition to the dirty socialists and to say as much is not hate rather it is a sincere expression of a love of country at it’s most pure I think.Celebritard? Yep, I’d say calling someone you disagree with derogatory names is the purest love of country there is. So, to show how pure my love for America is, I’m gonna call you a narcissistic asshat, ‘feets. ‘Cause that’s what you act like.
I can elaborate. Maybe add a few more curse words to it, if you so desire. ‘Cause, you know, my love is pure.
we just don’t have much time anymore
Mr. Kresh last presidential cycle I gave Sarah Palin my heart but the very next day she gave it away so in two or so years to save me from tears I’ll give it to someone special I think if you don’t mind
#44: Palinoia.
All hate, all the time.
Postscript: The fact that Jeff G. doesn’t run a site easily pigeon-holed into some convenient political ideology is not a bug. It is, along with his writings and the commentariat, the reason why I’m here.
In other words, I don’t give a rat’s ass whether or not Obama or Bush or any other politician is a “good man.” It is irrelevant to the task at hand.
#53 BJ:
Okay.
I will.
“. . .or any other politician is a “good man.” It is irrelevant to the task at hand.”
I disagree, it matters a great deal, I think. It matters that the politician be good for a truth. Bad men, who only appear to be good will get everyone into a great deal of trouble.
I tried several times. I just don’t have the technical know how, nor the budget.
Listening to Ed Driscoll ask questions in his best NPR tones makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
It made me put down the headphones, then wonder what else I could find with less content.
But Ed Driscoll has a purple fedora! Fear the fedora.
*I genuinely believe in my heart that one Sarah Louise Palin is a failshit demagogue celebritard what threatens to severely damage both America and the opposition to the dirty socialists*
Still not sure why this is your position. She’s said the occasional dumb thing is she’s probably not ready to be president. Ok, lets agree on that. But she thrust into this “celebritard” status, by the MSM, who’s entire mission is to destroy her politically. By buying into what the MSM is selling, you’re simply siding with the enemy against a potential ally, even when you know that enemy is lying to you for very purposes of doing what you protest against- destroying america one brick at a time. Palin’s managed to be at the center of responding to many scurilous charges made against the republicans and the tea party – now while your mileage may vary on the substance of her responses, she is one of the few people who is actively doing battle with the lies of the left, which sad to say, has been the republicans biggest flaw for years and years. I think palin can only get away with it because she doesn’t necessarily aspire to high office- oh sure she’d run but I have not gotten the impression Salin Palin’s agenda is all about Sarah Palin.
He’s sort of a skinny Chris Christie.
BJ- I don’t disagree with much of what you said, except about the people hf hates on – there’s plenty of decent people he seems to despise, who again, are our allies in the fight. The enemy is on the other side of the bridge and they’re firing with both barrels in our direction – meanwhile, the republicans sit on this side of the bridge and take shots at each other because one person disagrees about how important abortion is in the national election.
And yeah, you’ll get no argument from me either on the idiocy of the Bush spending programs- my consolation there is I think he leveraged that compassionate conservatism BS in exchange for an easier time getting war funding.
Holy shit, he needs some web design help. WTF?
Matt – Sarah Palin, if she were to become the Team R nominee, is a sure and certain ticket to a second term for Barack the Defiler and so ill-conceived would this candidacy be that it would even threaten the gains Team R makes in 2010. We must do all we can to dissuade her for much is at stake and the hour of our doom draws near.
Glad to have you aboard, Mikey NTH. The keg is in the back room.
sdferr:
Let me qualify: The “good person” metric only works for me if it is buttressed with a reasonable history of telling the truth and the ideas to back up the truth telling. Looking at a guys family and hearing him say a few words is not enough.
Think he spent the money here instead, Pablo.
OK, here it is. 13 cosponsors of H.R.4529:
Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [MD-6] – 1/27/2010
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] – 1/27/2010
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] – 1/27/2010
Rep Campbell, John [CA-48] – 1/27/2010
Rep Flake, Jeff [AZ-6] – 2/23/2010
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] – 3/10/2010
Rep Hensarling, Jeb [TX-5] – 1/27/2010
Rep Inglis, Bob [SC-4] – 3/2/2010
Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [WY] – 2/4/2010
Rep Miller, Jeff [FL-1] – 7/14/2010
Rep Myrick, Sue Wilkins [NC-9] – 2/4/2010
Rep Nunes, Devin [CA-21] – 1/27/2010
Rep Price, Tom [GA-6] – 1/27/2010
I tried to send an e-mail from the sendusane-mail function (very bottom of page) at his Road Map website but it wouldn’t go through, spitting back an error message repeatedly. Gist of the text was “Add a co-sponsors link to your webpage here”. Anyone else want to give it a try?
No, seriously, he’s got to do something about that website. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan. But that site blows as a marketing tool.
#71 – Recent polls suggest otherwise.
Sdferr, try this address from your normal email account: budget.republicans@mail.house.gov
I got through, sdferr.
Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, Pablo. Noticed it myself previously.
Mr. Ryan had a more better website at one point but I think Nancy took away the keys
oh wait that’s a new one not the old one
oh. which bh already found sorry NG is here we are going to lunch she looks very tired and she is worried cause there is a blood transfusion later but it’s a very very common thing for preemies and I think she’s starting to relax about it after looking at stuff we found on the internet
can you imagine life before internets and stuff?
The fear of Sarah Palin is a wonderful tool for Team to have in it’s box. I think she doesn’t run, but I think there’s no harm at all in having her played as the frontrunner for as long as she can before the rubber hits the road.
Here’s something funny: Sarah Palin, “Mama Grizzlies,” Carl Jung, and the Power of Archetypes
Thanks bh, done.
I’m pretty sure every one of the prominent early bloggers — both left and right — have gotten some sort of paying gig, either for publications or as part of some network.
Except I think, me. And maybe Bill Quick — though he was already a heavily published sci-fi writer.
So you see? I appeal to no one. On a general level.
Which now that I think about it is really a kind of cool accomplishment.
Look save your anger, for the ‘two bit pirate and greenmailer’ that is Stockman, who rises from the briny
depths like Ctluth, the eviled tentacled god, to smote republicans. Are you perfect feets, are you without
sin and/or fault. You’re willingness to play ‘clean toga’ against Breitbart and Palin, nd any number of folks on our side, not realizing the same blunderbuss can be turned on one of your favorites, is quite
revolting
Think back to 450 to 399 BC. Who got paid, and who didn’t?
Jeff, Pam Geller is selling a book.
You know why? Because she wrote one.
Stockman is a tool I saw his oped thing I think it was at HuffPo but I didn’t read the whole thing cause what I did read was very specious and gay
I think the contract to write the book came first, Pablo.
Are you saying that Jeff has been corrupting the minds of the Athenian youth, sdferr?
No, the blogging her ass off came first. And the “vlogging” with the boobies and whatnot. Relentless self promotion first, then book contract later.
That pays in hemlock, btw. Kind of a shitty deal if you ask me.
I keep saying this is going to be an election against incumbency itself. First we clean out the Dems so the country can survive, then we clean out the GOP so the country can thrive.
#72: You may regret telling me that.
#84: That is one of paradoxes of politics. Real political junkies get worked up on policy differences, platforms, and position papers.
The reality of politics is that much of it is emotional through symbolism, gross generalizations, and argument by every fallacy from anecdote to strawman. The political junkies cannot stand that, and all of their protests will never make that go away.
So what do we do with it? I mean, that is the way it works, ever since old Andy Jackson. How do we political junkie types work our limited brains around that which is essentially visceral reactions?
#86: Generally speaking, that’s right! You get to hang out with the freaks and weirdos like bh, sdferr and Pablo with occaisional normal like me dropping by!
Given that the path was well trod and well understood bh, hemlock was proven subsequently to be an avoidable fate. That art, however, I’ve heard rumored to have been lost somewhere around Goethe’s lifetime.
I guess the nearly 10-years and the radio shows and the CJ Report, etc., wasn’t enough.
My bad.
“[Y]ou can’t “hate” on prospective presidents…. It’s simply impossible. […] This is a corollary … to the idea that presidents ought not be vested overmuch with fraughtness and meanings.
“I genuinely believe in my heart that one Sarah Louise Palin is a … demagogue celebritard what threatens to severely damage both America and the opposition to the dirty socialists and to say as much is not hate rather it is a sincere expression of a love of country at it’s most pure I think[emph. added].”
“[L]ast presidential cycle I gave Sarah Palin my heart but the very next day she gave it away so in two or so years to save me from tears I’ll give it to someone special I think if you don’t mind [sic]”
I find your lack of boundaries disturbing. There’s no love so pure as love turned to hate. It’s that “torch” you carry for “Palin” (or whomever “Palin” represents in the coming years, as that politician inevitably does something so politic as to render him or her unworthy of the burning flame-like purity of your love), that some Thulsa Doom-like demagogue is going to use to convince you that “the purging is … at hand,[that] all that is evil, all that have lied, you’re [elders], you’re leaders, those who would call themselves you judges, those who have lied and corrupted the earth, they shall all be cleansed[,]” that this flame you’re carrying is “[the[ light[,] the gleam in the eye of [Staunchiestest],” and with it you’ll “…burn away the darkness, burn you the way to Paradise!”
You’re our own little Ismaili assassin wannabe, high on cupcakes.
You’re the anti-Huckabee, happyfeet.
It’s not enough to win in November, they have to have a mandate to cut spending. Win or lose with Ryan’s plan, or win and then accomplish nothing with the current rallying cry of “We’re not Obama!”.
What about the Bloggingheads group, do they pay?
The radio shows? When was the last one? The CJ report? Outstanding stuff. Would sell like a motherfucker. When was the last one? How many were there?
I fully understand your motivation to take yourself off the burner from time to time, but whenever you aren’t pushing yourself into the marketplace, you’re taking yourself out of it. And when you’re on the sidelines, people are passing you by. Which is fine if that doesn’t conflict with your goals. But not if it does.
You’ve got the talent, Jeff. What’s your taste for producing the product and selling it is the question I think.
I take your point, sdferr. Just heard “pays in hemlock” in my head and I needed to type it. Possible second brain lesion.
Yes, this.
Dave Bolotin once suggested to me that I consider the possibility that at 72 the old guy was tired and found his tolerance used up, so, secretly, never saying a word to anyone, ever, not even hinting, took the easy way out. I’m still considering.
Comment by Ernst Schreiber on 8/2 @ 1:32 pm #
Wow…I am a bit awestruck by that…
Jeff,
Self publish? I’d buy, and I think there are enough of us who would buy to cover your costs, at least – then flog the thing for all it is worth!
Comment by Ernst Schreiber on 8/2 @ 1:32 pm #
I think we could just say that putting too much hope and worship on the back of any politician isn’t wise behavior, because being human they will always fail us in some way.
But yes – what LTC John said.
Being an anti-Huckabee is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it seems to be a quite good thing.
Oh hell yeah. I’d go in on it, as much as I could afford.
And I’d buy copies for my like-minded friends. We could start a letter-writing campaign to get you on Glenn Beck’s show (and/or Jerry Doyle’s, who’s a bit more of an Outlaw! anyway).
That idea rang an odd, half-remembered bell with me, sdferr. In one way, the notion runs parallel to The Problem of Socrates in Twilight of the Idols, wherein his patience is lost with reason rather than the Athenians.*
Hey!
I wonder on whose side Obama is on?
Yeah, that too, though I don’t think it requires buying into Friedy’s nutty “symptomatic of degeneration” scheme of things in the least. He overdraws them so to take a poke at Hegel and his times, I’m thinking.
Actually Mikey she’s said it before, on more than one occasion
*I wonder on whose side Obama is on?*
I sincerely doubt you do, Joe.
That thought hadn’t occurred to me, sdferr. Interesting point.
Comment by Matt on 8/2 @ 2:20 pm #
Well duh – his.
All that means is I spend too much time watching movies. JD’s right about the Huckabee point, and Mikey said all that needed to be said and did it succinctly. Logorrhea is just a much a form of incontinence as excessive belief in would-be political messiahs.
I’m not comfortably up on the background, but suffice for now to say that the concept/word nihilism was invented around 1820s or so I think.
Comment by george smiley on 8/2 @ 2:17 pm #
“Actually Mikey she’s said it before, on more than one occasion”
I did not know that. Funny how so many who claim that they are intellectuals do not get that. I guess the easiest people to scam are those who think they are too smart to be scammed.
And racism followed shortly thereafter.
Of course the failure to you know, edit properly renders the whole thing slightly ridiculous anyways.
Still playing with the firetalics Ernst? You’ve got some clanking cojones fella.
Actually it was in a Turgenev novel around 1870
Comment by george smiley on 8/2 @ 2:36 pm #
“Actually it was in a Turgenev novel around 1870”
I did not know that either.
“Actually it was in a Turgenev novel around 1870”
No, that was it’s popularization, it had been around awhile.
hi Ernst I didn’t really understand that very well I don’t think we should burn anybody necessarily
See for instance
Kierkegaard and Bakunin, right, but the parlance really came into being later.
Dude, get your head out
That’s your problem right there; acting like a woman. HOLD OFF ON TO THE HATE, I’M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS. See, Women have this thing where they decide they like, or even love someone, without getting all the facts first. It’s an emotional reaction to stimuli. It’s natural and there’s nothing wrong with it. Men don’t think that way, and men shouldn’t think that way. That’s your problem, you got all swooney (like a woman) before you got all the facts. Women go emotion first, then apply logic. Men are the other way around. That’s why the rest of us aren’t all hatey on her; we didn’t give our heart to her. We like her, we admire her, and we recognize that she’s not perfect, but we still think she’s a good person with good ideas and a good head on her shoulders. We don’t love her or think she’s the next incarnation of Captain Awesome. You did. Then you found out she was just Captain Better-Than-Normal and that wasn’t enough. Blame your projection, not the object of your former affection.
She’s Sarah Palin. She’s not perfect, but she’s miles above and beyond the dipsticks that are running our country right now. She’s real hope, ‘feets. Hope that enough Americans get it, hope that the conservative base can be galvanized into action, and hope that we’ve actually got something to fight for. Hope isn’t perfect, ‘feets, hope just is what it is. Hope is what we make of it.
Stop being whiny. Sarah Palin didn’t fool you, you fooled yourself. Now you’re bitter about it.
what are you even talking about I was just having fun with an extraordinarily cheesy wham song
I feel kinda bad you went to all that trouble.
Entirely true. Enter co-bloggers…hopefully of a caliber greater than my bleatings. But the point is that whenever you aren’t pushing, you’re backing up.
You work fulltime at a job to get jack. You work fulltime on your own jazz to get jack. You work double-time on your own stuff to maybe get something. But you never get anything without being good at it — which you are, JG — and having at it 16 hours a day in one fashion or another. Especially under this regime.
The guys in Wham! think like women though, that’s pretty clear.
Yeah Mr. Michael will show how he thinks like a woman in the public restroom of your choice apparently.
he won like a kajillion grammies you know how many grammies do you have yeah that’s what I thought
I say ‘ Fuckem’, and we start our internet TV station!Who’s with me?!!!
OK then.
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR:
Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, FY2004 Foreign Operations Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Flood Insurance Reauthorization , Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Debt Limit Increase, Fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening, Patriot Act extention.
Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST:
Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations, Withdrawing U.S. Soldiers from Afghanistan.
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her unconstitutional votes at :
http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2009/09/tn-congressman-marsha-blackburn-votes.html
Mickey
that Marsha sure is a handful but she supports the roadmap so she’s okey dokey in my book
plus I think the Peru Free Trade Agreement is awesome our Peru friends have all these different kinds of potatoes what are different flavors and colors – it’s neat! sometimes you find them in the barrio where they are very authentic but you can get them at Whole Foods too I think
Mickey is an ass. I’ve seen him around before, hating on Marsha Blackburn.
Again, Mickey, you can blow me.
If only I worked harder.
you’re looking backwards Mr. Jeff and you know what all that stuff you see there is? Prelude. You have to look forward with your eyes set upon the horizon with a steely gaze cause that’s the direction the future’s coming from. Your future. And it’s pretty goddamn exciting when you think about it like that I think.
Which now that I think about it is really a kind of cool accomplishment.
Get your Groucho on, Jeff.
With the italics the other way around.
You have enormous output, Jeff. It needs all that other crap added to it and then it’s still a risk. I don’t know what else to say.
Yea Cynthia Lummis! I was hoping she’d be on that too-short list and I’m betting she really means it. She’s in her first term and hasn’t been in Washington long enough to be too corrupted.
I’m not surprised that there are only 13 co-sponsors to Ryan’s bill and I think Rasmussen’s recent poll explains why. They found that only 28% of voters believe increased government spending is good for the economy while 67% of the political class think increased government spending would be good for the economy. And there’s our problem. While a few Republicans might be serious about cutting government spending, most just want to get their hands on the checkbook. That’s why the Contract With America failed so dismally in 1994 and that’s why I’m not so sure that we’ll see much improvement in run-away government spending if the Repubs gain control of one or both branches of Congress.
I agree that we’ve got to tie a can to the Democrats’ tail come November, but I’m skeptical that it will have the desired effect. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve a feeling we’re screwed. The only way these ass clowns are going to cut back on spending is if they really, finally run out of Other Peoples’ Money.
Interesting times we live in….
I agree I think Michael Steele’s Team R is pretty fucking hopeless or it wouldn’t be Michael Steele’s Team R would it? No.
cupcake racist
Cornyn and Sesssions, your fellow paisans, have been more disappointing, yet their failures are less pronounced Having failed in how many primaries, and 2/12 respectively
If slewfoot’s aboard, I respectfully decline.
And tone, not tenor is one of the beeves.
Damn comma punks.
c’mon it’ll be fun
Stop being whiny. Sarah Palin didn’t fool you, you fooled yourself. Now you’re bitter about it.
Well said, Kresh.
And, once again I say, God bless Troll Hammer™ this thread is actually readable without happyputz laying down his hate so often and so thick.
One of your barrages would certainly be sweet, though.
Not even aboard Virginia City.
I love trollhammer but is it really working if the users are even whinier after they install it?
Jergens Lotion does the trick for his hands.
ode to Crist?
The fourth group of pictures in the above link claims, “Clockwise from top left: Society scribe Lucius Beebe and Maury Paul (Cholly Knickerbocker) clubbing.”
Looks more to me like they’re dining in Super Chief’s Turquoise Room; breakfast would be one guess because of everybody’s fresh flora and the silver service. Then again who’s to say when’s breakfast?
For those of you keeping score at home.
Then again, commas did my mama.
Yo, ‘feets! I realize that you were banned at the place, but something there caught my (well, YOURS, if you would just admit it) attention.
***ah. ahh.. ahhh… pickachu***
God bless you.
New Ferguson hits the page.
guinsPen #152:
I’ll take anybody on board who wants to concentrate on the principles outlined; eyes fixed on the budgets and the economies and the taxes and the freedoms, so to speak. I think that ‘feets is half merry griefer and half liberty pissed at lifeydoodlers and gay marriage bashers. Yea, at times, it pisses me off and the obsessive nature of some of his rants is off-putting. That having been said I’d still have him stand with me on those principles as long as I could retain mine without taking a load of crap. We still need to hold Republicans’ feet to the fire with regards to bi-partisanship and truth telling on budgets and the like.
He can help if he can focus, ‘feets-san. Won’t you come help too, guinsPen?
we can all help together!
All I ask, ‘feets, is that you don’t start singing the dance version of “We Are The World.”
not til the dirty socialist tide breaks on the shoals of liberty and her minions flee our shores only then will we sing
You’re just tempting fate, then again oil fortune beneficiary Arianna does backhandedly admit that she has what the Greeks called ‘tharhountes’. Menawhile just poking with a stick
http://www.counterpunch.org/wilkins08022010.html
\
No the woman is a genuine demagogue possessed of notably sub-par intellect. What Allah misses is that there’s no qualitative difference between drooling American hopenchangers what voted for airy fairy bumblefuck and slackjawed American commonsensers what vote for tits and a twang.
They’re both signs that our once-awesome little country is passionately embracing mediocrity like a leg-humping dachshund.
You know feets If I didn’t know you better, I would suspect you were saying the same thing as Sir Golfsalot’s federal pipeline coordinator, comparing her to Evita Peron, the irony is overwhelming.
considering who he signed on with
I don’t think Evita is apt more like Harper Valley PTA
[slewfoot] is half merry griefer and half liberty pissed at lifeydoodles and gay marriage bashers
One of my principles is to never stand with griefers, half merry or otherwise. If you’re comfortable with pointless troublemakers aboard your train, please don’t bother reserving accomodations for me.
We still need to hold Republicans feet to the fire.
Exactly.
He can help if he can focus
And to me, he’s proven forty friggin times he won’t.
ok so we don’t need to seal the well we have to “truly seal” the well.
that’s not really very sciencey, is it?
Remember they are ‘restoring science to it’s rightful place,’ along with alchemy, and dowsing, and reading
of entrails
I don’t know about the sciencey but it sounds to me like he doesn’t want to come right out and say how afeared they all are about the condition of the casing above the reservoir.
oh. the sly “or ensure it is done” part is key I think… it’s a complete contradiction of his “truly sealed” nonsense and admits that the well could indeed be truly sealed without the completion of the relief wells…
the Reuters whores are constructing this such that the fag-ass Coast Guard piece of shit looks like the voice of responsibility while BP wants to cut corners.
It’s disgusting. This spill would never have happened if the incompetent U.S. Coast Guard hadn’t ineptly botched their duty to ensure that appropriate expertise and resources were brought to bear on fighting the fire on the rig.
Well isn’t Coast Guard part of Homeland now, and who runs that but Janet “man made disasters’ Incompetano
yes and bumblefuck has either slashed its budget all to hell or is trying to I would have to look it up
REPUBLICAN Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) has characterized the teabaggers in an article:
“poisonous, tea party-driven demagoguery that will undermine the GOP’s long-term credibility” …recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance.
He has, or at least tried to, not that we need the CG, specially in an area that was clobbered by two hurricanes, five years ago
if he endorses the roadmap that’s good enough for me Mr. Fox… even Mr. Ryan voted for ganking the AIG executives… I think he apologized later for being a dickwad.
Hmmm. New name, non sequitur, no link, no blockquote.
That reminds me of someone. Hide your cats.
Yep.
This is just too easy.
Right Inglis who thought a new carbon tax was a good idea, who still hasn’t learned his lesson, since he gave Cholly Rangel, just a little slap in the ethic committee, the brainslug is buried deep in the cerebellum in this one
HuffPo ran a post on Inglis today?
William, seriously, fuck off and hunker down at your “tolerant” site that is not the least bit tolerant of conservatives, classical liberals or the religious.
Not to mention totally devoid of any critical thinking whatsoever.
Don’t know if Willie found it there or not, sdferr. He linked to Mother Jones but so did the HuffPo.
After reading the Corn article, I can’t help but come away with an impression of Inglis as a somewhat dense sort of fellow. In which case I’d have to say, the Tea Party people who forced him from the scene seem to have been pretty well clued-in.
Via NRO, here is another article on Ryan:
Boehner remains more interested in power than policy. Yay!
(Apologies if this was linked before.)
And, yes, that’s my read on Inglis myself, sdferr.
“Boehner remains more interested in power than policy.”
I can construe a reading under which Boehner may agree with Ryan as to the policy while insisting that foregrounding that policy results in defeat at the polls. The difference between them then, isn’t so much a case of power for power’s sake necessarily, as one of taking the voters as too immature to properly weigh their own interests, which position Ryan refuses.
Boehner may be wrong about the voting public, but at the moment, Obama puts the weight on Boehner’s side of the scale.
That’s a reasonable analysis, sdferr. However, it requires Boehner to lie and say he has a policy disagreement rather than a political/tactical disagreement with Ryan.
Those who lie about their policy positions in order to gain mandateless power? Possibly fooling themselves along with the electorate.
I can’t help but agree bh. I’m far more in Ryan’s camp than Boehner’s. It seems to me that if we want a polity based on trust, we’ve got to start acting as a polity based on trust. If we will have voters who are politically mature, they must be treated as voters who are politically mature. Boehner’s path, it seems to me, can’t possibly get us there.
Very much agree.
It’s very hard to tell what Boehner’s differences on policy as such are, if any, from the NYT article though, since he doesn’t express anything of substance. It is perhaps too easy then, by the conscious design of the NYT writer, to read the procedural difference as at the root. Boehner could put the lie to that, if it isn’t true, simply by speaking out, if he offered unquoted substantive examples of policy difference elided for a private purpose on the part of the NYT.
Boehner could at least acknowledge that the roadmap is a responsible policy response what is completely unmatched in comprehensiveness and seriousness by anything the dirty socialists have offered and is far less hostile to economic growth than anything bumblefuck’s faggy bipartisan budget commission is going to produce.
“bipartisan”
I’d bet that he was intentionally vague and would have pretended he was late for a meeting if pressed for any specifics.
I think he’s such a chickenshit he won’t hf.
Sad it is to think that he’s in leadership at a time when it’s highly unlikely the GOP won’t have substantial gains at the polls, no matter what strategic course Boehner may have in mind, and that as a result, he will be reconfirmed – nay – rewarded with the Speakership even. It’s a bummer.
yes… you back up your people you don’t treat your people like they’re threats to your power or they talk shit about you and don’t invite along when they go out for tasty carnitas
don’t invite *you* along I mean
Would have killed Boehner to respond along the lines that Ryan’s plan may not be a whole solution but it certainly represents a foundational framework for that which must be done?
This is my problem with Team R in a nutshell. The leadership is spending too much time contemplating strategies against the usual polls and focus groups without considering taking the leadership reins and putting together a plan that is, first and foremost, directed to tell voters the plain truth of our economic malaise. Of course, Ryan’s call to privatize Medicare and chunks of Social Security are fraught with peril. But it has to be done because it’s the only thing that has any chance of avoiding the upcoming collapse of both entitlements. This concept of forcing voters to face the grim realities flies in the face of Team R’s attitudes and allows them to duck their heads against the whole victimization and policy by anecdote strategies that Dems have, in the past, used without shame or reflection.
This is a question not only of courage but of responsibility, to the country and to the American people. Until Team R grows a set and stands for something and embraces the “righter” portions of the party just as Democrats embraced their lefters we will be stuck on this flabby merry-go-round … right up until it sinks into the earth, awash in debt and failure.
“The leadership is spending too much time contemplating strategies against the usual polls and focus groups without considering taking the leadership reins and putting together a plan that is, first and foremost, directed to tell voters the plain truth of our economic malaise.”
Seems to me BJTexs, of a piece with what I take to be the theme o’ the day, namely, how to ask the right question.
It’s the spendings, stupid? Or … is that the answer?
Ha! I’m of a mind to think that the answer to the question “how to ask the right question” is never going to be easy, nor short, nor narrow. To borrow a modernism, it strikes me as necessarily entailing a holistic stance which can keep to mind the end (or the whole) while turning away from that end yet carrying it along to examine the tiny details, like the spendings, only to coherently reintegrate the details with the bigger picture in the background. Ryan, it appears to me, has this rare capacity. Boehner does not.
While Ryan has this rare capacity, I think most anyone could mimic it with a simple mental algorithm. Take either maximum individual liberty or minimum government (two sides of the same coin, yes) and then consider what specifics follow by natural consequence.
Surely even Boehner could manage this task.
I have often linked to Eastern Flight 401 story as an example of asking the wrong question. I could point today to the story I linked day before yesterday about the crashed balcony.
As they lay on the ground, the survivors were no doubt asking themselves, “how did we get here?”
I’d submit that part of the answer is that they asked the wrong question as they stepped onto the balcony in the first place.
That is to say, if you can properly conceive of a northern pine forest, you should be able to recognize that a palm tree or an orchid doesn’t fit.
None of which is useful unless you not only have the capacity to ask the question but also the courage to clearly state the problem. Most voters, I fear, are reluctant to answer the important question when asked thus the questioner has to be prepared to gently but firmly provide the answer. That answer, by its very nature, will cause many voters to wince or worse which is when the followup of “It is what it is and no amount of heartache or denial can make it different,” becomes necessary.
You are right in that it will take a rare politician, a combination of smarts, intellect, (yes, Virginia, there is a difference) courage, and persistence along with a sizable dollop of likability. We know, at this point, that this is a combination that Chris Christie seems to have in spades. The national test is yet to come but those are the qualities that I’ll be looking for. It’s a long shot but hope springs eternal.
“. . . the courage to clearly state the problem.”
Can’t get there to begin with unless you’ve got the right question. That’s one of those begging the question deals.
Chicken and egg delio, sdferr?
How about stating the spending/budgetary/debt problem and make the key question, “So, are we going to face the problem and make the difficult choices or will we ignore it just as we have done for the last 20 years until the whole country sinks into a roiling sea of red ink and shattered entitlements? Hm?”
Plain facts seem to be working quite well for that Christie fellow in a blue state.
BJTexs, it seems to me that “spending/budgetary/debt” is already too narrow a position from which to view the whole. I’m not joking about the whole. I mean by the whole the whole. Think Eisenhower’s notion of “have a problem? Make it bigger.” times infinity.
I’m OK with that except for how to frame the bigger problem (limited government, taxes, individual liberty bracketed by onerous regulation and nanny statism)into a coherent whole without losing people. My strategy would be to make my triumvirate the starting point whilst expanding the others as subsets off of that meme, once you have everybody’s attention and they are nodding their heads. My point is that you can get everything to flow off of the three originals. Most people understand that over spending and too much debt is bad. It becomes a natural progression to move towards individual liberty, opportunity, overarching economic policies, regulation and, from there to Defense and foreign policy to end at the proper and Constitutional role of government in our lives.
It also forces a clear line of sight to bounce off of the Dem’s position, which is rooted in the “spend until you recover and, by the way, get more ‘free’ shit!” mentality. The courage comes in when you tell people that “we can’t spend out way out of this anymore.” If it resonates and if you’ve managed to intelligently answer the inevitable misery pimpage of the Dems (“You don’t care about the childrenses!) then you’ve clearly delineated your responsibility as a legislator or a governor or a President.
Then the key question becomes, “Do you really want more of the same and do you see that as a way to solve our big problems?” It’s harder for Team R but necessary and responsible.
“. . .into a coherent whole without losing people. . .”
In some sense, the effort is as much or more to avoid losing oneself (or if you prefer, one’s grasp of the truth) than other people, though in the end one wouldn’t want to lose them either.
Say this if you’d like: if your tacit starting point is good (your triumvirate posit), then you will no doubt arrive there again as you make your way from the whole to the particulars. If, on the other hand, something has been overlooked, which being found would alter your view of that tacit triumvirate in whatever measure, such a discovery would stand the assumptions in better stead.
It’s a crazy amount of work though, isn’t it? I think it is. And it isn’t going to be done lightly or ad hoc either. Takes damned near a lifetime of steady practice to get even close to right, and even that can’t be taken for granted, so we start all over again, moving back to the beginning and proceeding again.
Two-faced hypocrites
Fuck you, willie the racist cousin-fucking hilljack skin flute player.
Just so we are clear, you are a cowardly lying fucking douchenozzle whose douchenozzlery is immediately recognizable due to the sheer volume of mendoucheity you produce. So, William Yelverton of MTSU, professor of skin lute playing, you are a lying fuck what buggers underage goats and other assorted small farm animals. Your arrogance is exceeded only by your abject stupidity and lack of self-awareness. You are a small small small small small man, both physically and metaphorically.
I once heard that if you cannot say anything nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Since all of the above is true true true true true, anything else would not be nice, so this is me not saying anything.
It’s like being pecked by a demented miniature woodpecker. It does no damage and makes no sense but there is a passing annoyance.