CNN:
Jindal described the premise of the question — “Do you want the president to fail?†— as the “latest gotcha game†being perpetrated by Democrats against Republicans.
“Make no mistake: Anything other than an immediate and compliant, ‘Why no sir, I don’t want the president to fail,’ is treated as some sort of act of treason, civil disobedience or political obstructionism,†Jindal said at a political fundraiser attended by 1,200 people. “This is political correctness run amok.â€
Soooo very unhelpful. And embarrassingly unsophisticated, to boot. Which is what happens when you let these religious kooks speak their minds.
Let me learn you something, Bobby: the media is a force of nature. And you simply cannot fight a tornado, or cross a hurricane. That’s not how the game is played.
My advice? Build yourself a nice storm shelter. Then, on those infrequent days when the wind isn’t howling at you, peek your head out for a few seconds and give thanks to Nature for providing you with a brief respite from the storm. Then, back inside you go.
Because the fact is, you must learn to treat the media as you would, say, your batshit crazy idea of an omnipotent God: a simple fact of creation, whose commandments you must follow. So it is written, Bobby. So it is done.
There. Now that’s a good boy…
****
update: As several commenters have pointed out — and I had this thought myself — if Fred presented his desires “correctly” while Rush presented his in a needlessly provocative, unclear way (bracketing that Fred had Rush as an antecedent, whereas Rush had…well, the majority of the GOP pretending they wanted only the best for a man who wished to mainstream Marxism), then how is it that so many people, even on the right, are criticizing Fred, with some going so far as to say he’s treasonous (or worse) for wanting Obama to fail?
Wasn’t precision supposed to clear up this problem?
Because if so, oops!
What, you are calling Jundal a “Boy”?
I thought we worked all that out with the damned dog.
To those who keep arguing that nobody has ever argued why saying this might be valuable, I say wait just a second:
I think this post might be a sort of parable. Or maybe just an extended metaphor.
Plus I used me some irony. Which is almost like a death threat, rhetorically speaking.
Or maybe that’s just another metaphor.
I like my offerings medium rare and in a cast iron pan (I threw that in for even more irony).
You’re just gloating now :)
Good for him, sort of. Little late. And there’s a hunka burnin’ why Jindal is not the guy in even that short quote.
“Political correctness run amok,” “make no mistake,” “gotcha game” — all gratingly lame. Get a voice. And “some sort of act of treason, civil disobedience or political obstructionism” is all kinds of crappy. As treason. Done.
“Sort of?” Don’t weasel into “treason.”
“Civil disobedience” is a dissonant negative usage of a phrase associated with what almost everyone thinks is a good thing — a specific one. Take it or skip it.
“Political obstructionism” is…two words. I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re from a boring editorial or something.
And, especially: There’s a subconsciously conveyed rhythm in a three-item list that makes listeners ignore the first two things in expectation of a strong third. So this one is exactly backwards.
Piddly shit? Yes. And piddly shit matters. The huge “Who’s this fuckin’ beige dweeb?” hurdle in front of him can’t be stumbled over.
No one will say “He did this one rule-of-three list all goofy one time, so fuck that guy,” but they’ll feel it.
BTW, note at LGF Fred Thompson is also “wishing for the President to fail”. But… I thought… Patterico told me that’s the way I’m supposed… careful wording…perfect example…
How long has Jindal been on your payroll!!1! After trolling Patterico’s for all that crazy blog money you’ve now bought politicians to peddle your crazy “theories”!
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.
Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders. We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added. You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we’re in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we’ve got to do something about the unemployed.
I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong. Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
Thank you Jeff.
i was born
in a crossfire hurricane
Another hater posting at Patterico.
Charlie at Tiny Little Balls has now thrown his worthless hat in the ring, eh?
What an insightful guy. I have long admired his white hot contempt for religious belief, but now I see he and Patrico are the solution to all the GOP’s problems. Simply act more like democrats and people will vote for our side instead of theirs. Why?
Because. That’s why.
From that LGF link..
Queeg‘s eaten up with this profound hatred of anything religious meme, isn’t he? LGF’s become a strange, regimented, single-minded site operated under extreme lockdown. Clones are formed there; I visualize Saruman bringing forth his Uruk-Hai fully-grown from membranous sacs. The One Hand carefully examines each for any hint of spirituality; if found, back to the vat!
But isn’t railing against any and all religions also “alienating and losing the support of the vast middle” (alas, if there are any religious people left who vote)? Would Charles Johnson drive from the Republican party the religious voter, and replace them with his carefully selected ‘middle voters’ who then could be counted on for..what, exactly?
Another one who would sell pieces of his soul for votes. No, wait, there’s no soul, right?
So why does anything matter?
Another hater posting at Patterico.
You’re all wet Ronald. The Losers won. This is the era of the Losers. Losers don’t lose because they fail, they lose because they’re victims of the winners. But now that the Losers have an advocate in the White House, Winners will take their rightful place as victims of the Losers.
So go peddle your “liberty and justice for all” some place else. We’re all stocked up here.
I think if they would have moved the camera in closer to Obama’s face for his “I love you, you love me” video for the Mullahs, he’d have gotten a much better reaction. Remember, when you’re a professional facial expression, you’ve got to maximize the effect. No one wants to see a book shelf or some stupid hand-carved pen-holder. Get that camera in close.
Little Green Footballs disagrees with Jeff on this.
I do not disagree the GOP needs a positive message, merely hoping the other side fails is certainly not enough. But that is a false argument of what is being discussed here. What Rush prompted with his use of language is not conceeding an inch to people who are, good faith or not, really causing harm to the country. It is PC run amok to not being able to criticize what is wrong.
Reagan was a master at it. He would take false premise messages from the left and spin it around and use it against them, often with humor, occasionally with contempt.
Does anyone think that “the middle” is reading LGF? How many times has that site been classified as a hate site? What, exactly, has being NIIIIIIICE ever done for LGF?
No all he needed was a light behind his head so it looked like he had a halo. You know like all those magazine covers he kept getting where he had light behind him to give him that messiah look. If only the Iranians had seen him like that it would have changed everything.
Dicentra’s survived the LGF purge(s) (by never mentioning religion, I suppose) and exhorts Charles to read Jeff’s HotAir post. Another poster wants a Jeff – Charles debate.
I don’t think he will..it’s off the beaten meme.
LGF has some of the most extreme commenters ever, so it is to laugh that Charles would take the position he does.
And I’m with Treacher (from Joe’s comment) – Baracky sees a vision of the U.S. that I disagree with. I want that vision to fail.
Plus, he’s a lying fucking bastard. He had the GALL to repeat that bullshit 95% tax cut fucking lie on Tuesday. And all those reporters let him get away with it.
Too boot, some of those “richest among us” have lost their fucking shirts. Not only are they not among the “rich” anymore, but their closing or downsizing their business. But, you know, tax them somemore. I’m sure some poor single mother will appreciate that $13 in their paycheck and the free pass to wait in line for rationed healthcare.
I want Baracky to fail personally. Him and his skeezey woman both. They are shitty people. Trashy as all get out.
They steal shit.
C’mon Carin, he just likes to know what he’s talking about before he dives in. Takes 2 or 3 days. You know, like how many states there are in the union. That’s 36 hours of research right there. Or how his uncle tore the gates off of Aucshwitz and cradled 2 million Jews like babies and carried them to Switzerland.
He’s got a responsibility to get it right, and he takes in seriously. Kinda like that funky salute he does when he steps off the chopper. Have you seen it? Very rhytmic. Very current. None of the stiffness of respect. More flowing. More urbane. It’s a cool salute.
Alp … would you perhaps describe it as a “progressive salute”?
You know, I’m really starting to think that either Obama is actually a socialist like those wacky right-wingers said, or (second option) Baracky has no fucking idea what he’s doing.
Right now, I’m on the fence. it could go either way.
But isn’t railing against any and all religions also “alienating and losing the support of the vast middle†(alas, if there are any religious people left who vote)? Would Charles Johnson drive from the Republican party the religious voter, and replace them with his carefully selected ‘middle voters’ who then could be counted on for..what, exactly?
It isn’t just the religious bloc’s votes that are critical to the GOP, it is that is their only grassroots level machine. All those church buses and volunteer-minded folks are the only thing they have to compete with the union and ACORN type get out the vote machines of the left. You are losing a lot more than just votes when you alienate the Religious Right.
I never bought the argument that the religious right was in control of the Republican party. That was just one of those boogyman smearing tactics used by the left.
I shouldn’t have even called it a salute Carin. I should have called it a hand gesture that says, “You might think I’m saluting, but what I’m really doing is showing how I move like a puma. Languid, confident, you know, puma-like.”
But but Charles listened to [icky xtian] Jindal and he heard, HEARD, I tell you, that the MAIN POINT of Jindal’s talk was “I want Obama to fail.” Nothing more. Nothing more at all.
Hey Charles? NOW I’m mocking you (not trashing)
If you’re not a pussy, you’re going to hate pussies. What % of the pop is that going to be?
all those reporters urge him get away with it. hope and pray that he get’s away with it. after all, they have chosen and they know we know. if he can’t get away with it, they may be next.
53%
Baracky is alienating and losing the support of the vast middle I think. The vast middle of which I am one and Darleen is one and al is one and pretty much everyone here is one but not some fatass terrorist hunting freako couch potato. Shhh. He’s hunting tewwowists.
Good Lord.
Sdferr
I didn’t watch the “news conference” because I just wasn’t up to Obama filibustering, but I’ve now heard snippets and read bits.
He answered only 13 questions in an hour. ONLY 13 and yes, he skirted, obfuscated, engaged in some class warfare and dragged out answers so long that the orginal question got kind of lost and that filibustering limited the questions asked.
Oh yes and a Jumbotron teleprompter at the back of the room.
argh this country is truly fucked if Obama gets his policies through Congress. And what with Rahm controlling the Census from the White House and ACORN getting money to “help” with it, it does not bode well at all.
After eight years of hearing the loony left wanting President Bush’s policies to fail, I can’t help but look at this turnabout with both amusement and contempt for them. Hell, yes, I want President Obama’s policies to fail. What I think will not matter, however, because history has clearly shown the failure of socialism and appeasement, and that is exactly the path he has chosen.
losing the support of
Can’t lose what you never had happy. I still remember the speech in ott-4. Wow! An articulate black guy! This is so fresh and new and this is going to heal the gaping, pus-emmitting wound of racism.
Now that limb is going to have to be amputated.
What’s the bag limit on ACORN workers?
look! I’m on the jumbo-tron!
I bowled a strike
royal order of water buffaloes
my teleprompter denounces me
Is this what I think it is?
Death threat? Ban! BAN IT NOW~!
The colors of a rainbow so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by but that’s no excuse to drag your little country into a fetid dirty socialist abyss I don’t think.
You know, throughout the past few months I’ve often wondered what the hawkish but liberal, religion hating Charles Johnson had to say about the tactics the right should engage in to win back power. I am so relieved now to hear that Johnson and his sycophants are firmly on board the “don’t make them mad” express.
Remember when Barry said that his new stim-stimuli, stim-stimuli, stim stim stiffeee, program was going to get CATERPILLAR to hire back 2500 people – that’s what the big boss said, and then the CEO of CAT said, “I never said that.” And then CAT laid off 2500 people. O’s way of saving towns doesn’t work, unless there’s some financial benefit for a town to have a laughingstock appear.
BUT, there is a way to save any town. Let’s have “FAIL OBAMA” parties in some of these towns like Elkhart and Detroit. We’ll all go and eat their local food, and drink their local drinks, and harrass their local women (optional), and their local economy will soar due to the spendy nature of people who hate Obama.
MMmmmmm, Detroit food.
rainbow bumper stickers are no excuse to drive in drag
Run for office, psycho. You clearly know the keys to accomplishing it.
When has the modern neo-darwinian sythesis been well taught in American public schools? Ever? I left high school in 1970, took Biology there in one of the better (so it was said) county systems in the nation at the time (Fairfax, Va.) and I can assure you that it was not well taught then. Was it taught better in the 1950’s? In the 1940’s? ’30’s? Teens? Not, I think. Perhaps it is better today? Did it get better in the 1990’s?
Despite the poverty of instruction in biology kids have received generally over the last century, the field itself has moved from having no clue what carried the seeds of inheritance in, say, 1907 to the characterization of DNA in 1953 to a generally well mapped human genome of 3 billion basepairs today. What is it that Charles is worried about, I wonder?
Charles has the same sort of problem as Patt. He’s a musician, and nearly all of his friends are lefties. He has to distance himself from “haters” like the European “racists” who fight against Shari’afuckation with unfortunate wording like “white culture”, and as an atheist he finds Creationists icky, and ID advocates dishonest.
And he seems to be systematically driving away anyone who disagrees with him on any detail of it.
#46 The Unknown. We all fear it, Well, almost all.
Andrew Brehm recently wrote about one of the people who deliberately frame our arguments dishonestly. Sorry in advance for the long quote.
“He is simply intellectually dishonest. He is the master of the False Choice (pass the stimulus or do nothing & let the economy “tank”; socialize health care or “stand pat” — he said that last night), the Straw Man (the approach of putting moral “dogma” above “science”), the Scapegoat (those at the “commanding heights of our economy” (preface to his Budget) and the sly Non Sequitur (the breathtaking argument that to revive our economy and control spending, the government must take over health care and energy and expand federal spending on education). He deploys them in every argument he makes.
And did you see his response to the stem cell question he got last night? It was rich. Somebody asked him if he personally “struggled” with the morality of the decision he made. He said, yes, indeed he did. Say what? You just got done lecturing us that it was just a matter of following “science” rather than being slaves to “dogma.” He’s confused about his own moral confusion!”
It’s that medicinal weed he’s using.
That really gets to the point of why I can’t stand listening to him, Mr. Pink. It’s like he is used to talking to stupid people all the time who never call him on this shit.
Which, I have a feeling is the case.
Charlie is different than Mr. Patterico and I will tell you why that is. First of all he hates Christians and gets all sneery about them. And also he hates terrorists. Hates them hates them hates them, but he then he councils circumspection in criticizing the piece of shit in our White House who is bent on accomplishing so so much of what Charlie’s terrorists have so far failed to do.
Also I flat out don’t like his tone.
oh. just *but then he* I meant.
I don’t like his tone either Happy. That’s prolly why I stopped reading LGF … oh, three years ago?
oh. Good point. I don’t mean to imply that I ever had much use for him and that this is like a new thing.
Pretty much the way it goes in most things, not just in wars.
I think LGF was one of the first blogs I ever read. My bil told me about it, so I looked it up and then I found Allah, which found me Ace, which found me PW somehow.
So, I guess I thank LGF, because I guess I couldn’t have found PW w/o ’em.
But, beyond that …
hf, Patt is different as to the details, but the same in that the crowd he works with (lawyers) have a certain mindset. It’s like it comes with the job to think a certain way.
Let me sum up Charles for you.
He’s a hawk, first and foremost. If we weren’t in an existential war, he’d have been championing whomever the Democrats ran in the last two elections.
He is a Democrat otherwise. But because of the critical disconnect on national defense (in general) and islamist terrorism (in specific) he can’t support them. So, he decides that the Republican party is closer to what he needs. But then he hits all of the other tenets of Republicanism that he finds distasteful, and decides that the Republican party must change to suit his beliefs.
I’d imagine that the thing is the same with Patterico.
And that’s why they keep arguing that Republicans need to be more like Democrats if they want to win elections. And the only reason Charles and Patt want Republicans to win is that they don’t trust Democrats on national defense. They support just about every other item on the Democratic agenda.
Quite frankly, I’d rather the Republican party alienate Charles. I don’t like the pandering to the religious set, I think pandering of any kind is unseemly. But really, given the choices, where are either Charles or the religious set going to go? At some point pragmatism will kick in and they’ll vote Republican or stay home.
And with the rousing success of staying home (on account of how scary Snowbilly Sarah was) in the last election, I think at least some of them will decide to cut their losses and vote their self interest.
Because I don’t see Charles voting Democratic just because he doesn’t like Jindal’s beliefs.
My last comment at LGF:
Just wanted to thank everyone for responding to my comment.
Looks like Jindal is out for most everyone here, so you should all get to work nominating someone who can get elected and represent your views.
Good luck with that, as, unlike you folk here, I’d gladly vote for an atheist conservative over a religous liberal as well as a religous conservative over an atheist liberal.
It would be irrational for me to vote for an atheist liberal, regardless of my religous beliefs, because I am conservative.
I’m sorry you people don’t understand the principle and feel the same way.
Disraeli talked of similar themes in his speech where he spoke of how “the programme of the Conservative party is to maintain the Constitution of the country.”
I just don’t get why he has to go out of his way to pick on Governor Jindal who already went out of his way on the national tv to demonstrate just exactly the kittenish happy happy sort of maybe kind of oppositional pansy attitude Charles is advocating.
But then he hits all of the other tenets of Republicanism that he finds distasteful, and decides that the Republican party must change to suit his beliefs.
Which puts him in the same camp as Meghan McCain.
Who is surprised by this?
http://tinyurl.com/c9r54t
Nothing to see there, B Moe. Move along folks.
I think we need a 90% tax on George Soros, B Moe.
The eyes in that picture B Moe are the scariest real eyes I think I’ve seen. I mean, they’re not there.
What, did I miss a kerfluffle?
He is Jagang, after all.
Great movie, was terrified after seeing it on TV as a kid … that chauffeur was creepy as f-ck.
The Ebony reporter offered up the laughable 1 in 50 homeless child turd of a question to Obama in the press conference and wasn’t run from the room in derision. Two days later, with most everyone conceding the guy was way off, I have yet to see a comparably prominent correction, to the effect, “no it’s 1 in 100” or 1 in 75 or whatever the actual measure is. How come?
Sdferr, let me first to denounce you. Today, I mean.
This entire debate has become depressing because we’ve already been where Pat and Charles want us to be.
Remember George Bush and “compassionate conservatism?”
Don’t get me wrong. there is much about the man that I have admired. He is a genuinely “good man” who ran one of the most corruption free administrations on record. How many of his administration had to resign due to financial improprieties? He was stalwart in defense of our country and was willing to take the slings and arrows of horrific criticism to do what he thought was right in the GWOT. He never allowed himself or his administration to get caught up in petty one upsmanship type stuff and comported himself with dignity and honor.
However…
He never really defended himself in the sorts of ways that sought to put his critics on the defensive. He leveraged “compassionate conservatism” as a selfless gesture to his opponents that reflected his “rise above it all” concept of leadership, a concept that proposed government could be at least some things to some people and that some expansion of spending and governmental control would do good and demonstrate to his opponents that he could understand at least some of their concerns. Thus No Child Left Behind, no vetoes of government spending, defensive allotments of billions of dollars to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Katrina and the backing of an immigration bill that all but rewarded lawbreaking.
All done with moderation of speech and an eye to not demonizing his opponents. How did that work out?
Pat and Charles seem to want to continue the Bush Doctrine of country club politeness that resulted in Bush’s leadership being undermined by opponents who simply didn’t care that he was a “good man” and worked very, very hard to portray him as an idiot, fundamentally ideologically rigid and a religious fanatic.
What Jeff (and many others here) has been trying to proclaim is that we need to stand tall for the political principles that we saw being eroded by those who presented themselves as our kinfolk and that we see being summarily trashed by a socialistic administration that cares more for polling and rallies than it does on whether or not the country believes in the agenda.
That is the fundamental problem with Pat’s and Charles’s position. It’s pretty much the same thing Republicans have been doing for the last ten years. The end result is what we have today, a continued concept, as Ric Locke so aptly put, of “Democrat lite: Only Cheaper!”
Not only does the party lose but the country loses as well, a little bit of liberty, one budget and initiative at a time. It’s time to proclaim “enough!, not in a recess insulting way, but in a courageous, blunt declaration of sentiment as to the direction this country is headed.
Say what we mean, mean what we say, and then defend the message to the death. We state our positions and opinions with the expectation of it being parsed and used as media fodder but we fight back without apology or second guessing.
Why is this such a difficult concept to accept when the quivering middle was more than content to listen to bile and insult hurled at our last president and not hold the party responsible at the voting booth? It’s time to be unafraid and bold, not “reasonable.”
BMoe: Obama as “The Dreamwalker?” I like it!
Oh, this is a nice one from E.J Dionne, Jr,
Whattatool.
Dear RNC, Congressional Republicans, Progressive Republicans, Charles, Allah, Patrick, David F., Megan, et al.
In the words of a famous sage, from another age.
The avalanche has already started. It’s too late for the pebbles to vote.
Then how come noone in his administration pays their taxes? Or an even better question, how does O! get off using taxpayer dollars to literally buy votes? Whatever though at least EJ has moved on from writing articles about race so I should take that as a step forward. I did not read that article though and would not be surprised if the word minority or race was in there somewhere.
BMoe: Obama as “The Dreamwalker?†I like it!
I was talking about Soros, look at his eyes in the picture I linked. Obama is more like one of the Sisters of the Dark.
Any Michiganders going to the Tea Party on April 15th? Honestly, I can’t imagine a more appropriate forum for a PW meet-up.
Soros is a creepy socialist fuck.
Do you have a link or an address?
This Obama must fail regardless of what anyone wants, because success is not in him.
He must be voted out in 2012, be turned out into the political wilderness, and then turn what intellect he has to understanding why he failed. If he figures it out and becomes a better man, good for him and for the country. If he sinks into the same old mire of blaming his failure on Evil Whitey, then it will prove that he failed, not because as a callow, unseasoned youth he did not yet have success within him, but because as a man he could never have success in him.
Policies got nothing to do with it.
Well I wanted him to fail as soon as I saw those videos from his church. I guess I am a twisted evil unpatriotic asshole though.
Richard Epstein, wsj:
Or, bend over and kiss your etc….
Main page here so everyone can look theirs up. There is one in Lansing, of course.
I know there are some Michigan Morons as well … although I don’t hang out there too often anymore.
[…] that the success of those policies would transform the very nature of our country. The same way how Jindal would want him to fail, The same way Fred Thompson wants him to fail. Sorry to admit, but this is the time for the right […]
It’s not just that he must fail, McGeehee, failure is inevitable. Obama is arguing that if we squeeze our eyes just right that a twelve will turn into a seven. What I hope happens is not that Obama will fail, but that he will fail quickly and severely, before the entirety of what I love about this country, the commitment to personal liberty and the individual, is put through the meat grinder.
If he doesn’t fail before the tipping point is reached (perhaps it is already too late) I don’t believe that the country can be reset to a point in line with the founder’s intent, the nature of men being what it is. At best, we’ll have to hope for a benign despotism if we abandon the American Experiment. Hope and change, catch the fever.
No Child Left Behind doesn’t offend me, but that’s not BJ’s point. BJ’s point is very compelling, really, and I want to say the same thing but different.
It’s the dirty socialist media what decides who speaks for the party of Rs. This naked twister unity orgy what some want us to contrive empowers that I think. Rush made it very very clear, if only for a moment, that the feckless Michael Steele does not speak for the vast anti-socialist middle what actually loves America unlike Baracky and his skeezey-assed hoochie.
Have you ever had a burrito made out of weiners? Very weird but not bad really. It was in the Ramona’s variety pack NG got me. The Ramona’s factory is sort of close to her zone where she lives. And she picks me up a dozen for like $10 when she goes.
You know, it’s almost as though Patt has never heard of Maureen Dowd.
Mo’s technique of selective quoting means that no matter what we say, they will turn it into what they want the people to believe we said.
Which is why every time anyone who can speak for the right has a microphone put in their face they must start everything with something along the lines of “Why must you lie about what [insert name here] said?”
The fewer words the better. You need to make sure that they know we’re on to them. And you need to make sure (especially with live feeds) that everyone else knows we’re on to them before they can cut away.
Just like the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy’s homeland. Every time Fred finds himself on Fox or CNN or whatever, he needs to hammer this home.
OT RE Soros:
Why is Soros not in jail somewhere, with his income confiscated and donated to something useful, like curing breast-cancer?
I mean, I’d be behind bars if I defrauded my neighbor the way this guy flippantly destroys the financial security of millions.
It is clear that Soros = Maddof: a good state’s AG could make this case to embarrassing effect. If, say, South Carolina’s AG took this international provocateur to task in a U.S. federal court his case could slow down the Europhiles’ steady creep across America, while American communities like Faifax, VA and Miami, FL suckle happily from the culprit’s financial empire in perpetuity.
I mean, isn’t there a municipality somewhere in America whose pension values were halved by Soros’ machinations? There is, and, what with Soros’ windfall profits this quarter, Orange County’s, Pima County’s and the City of Atlanta’s chances of recovering its employees’ pension-losses from this proven financial pirate should be very good.
Given his expressed desire to “help hurting folks out,” I think Obama’d be just the one to get in front and lead this humanitarian effort.
Instead, right now we’re getting that tired, magician’s misdirection: the Democrats are encouraging us to gorge ourselves on our nation’s mid-level bank employees while their party’s multi-gabillionaire, Hungarian benefactor goes skiing unperturbed in Switzerland.
When Obama orders his buses of ACORN protesters to the Alps to picket Soros at his favorite ski-resort, then I’ll know he’s serious about standing up for America’s municipal workers and their pensions.
‘Till then…he’s just goofin’ us.
No Child Left Behind was really a pointless, and ineffective, nod to those who were concerned about education. And, ironically, it has become a target for those who deride Bush’s approach to education. It’s mentioned with sneers.
I’ve got a great idea to improve education. First, take some C4 over to the NEA headquarters in Washington…
Now, isn’t that a nice fancy building? Who would have imagined?
As an aside, I was mentioning to my husband the recent Steyn article in NR hardcopy, and it spoke of how wonderful the public buildings were in Germany, but the private stuff? Not so much. He said I didn’t need to cross the Ocean, ’cause he can see it in Windsor, Onatrio. Two of the nicest, newest buildings (on primo waterfront locations) are for government entities. The shinyiest building? Huge department of child welfare services.
I just woke up, and it seems like morning at PW.
———
“If we are worried about “undecided voters†who get nothing but soundbite news, we must work to change the culture of how news is delivered”
That’s exactly right.
Faint echoes of echoes heard echoing.**
Which is why every time anyone who can speak for the right has a microphone put in their face they must start everything with something along the lines of “Why must you lie about what [insert name here] said?â€
Even better, adopt Insty’s idea of bringing your own camera along, then putting the unedited version on the web.
Flip video recorders are dirt-cheap — a hundred bucks or so — and will produce acceptable video under a wide range of lighting conditions.
#59 Brian
He has this just about right. This would also explain, now that the GWOT is both existentially less severe in Iraq and largely avoided or ignored by the lamestream media, why red-skinned Democrats like Frum, Pattyrico, Charles and the like have become so hostile to actual conservatives or small-L libertarians. Their only excuse for staying nominally in the GOP has been deprecated by current events.
Red-skinned Democrats? Racist! But I couldn’t resist. I think it’s a good description of someone who wants to look red state on the outside yet be blue state inside.
I thought I hadn’t much to add to this thread about intention, but this issue of language is truly far more important than our opponents understand. We have all read comments or punditry about how it’s time to buy ammo, gold and canned food. While that may be satisfying, there will never, ever be another armed insurrection of a national nature in this country. People will not start shooting neighbors, or even strangers in some new civil war. Industrial society here is far too advanced for its people to be willing to discard the material benefits we’re used to. We’ll accept material stagnation, or decline into European standards of living (think Spain or Greece). But I can’t see literally millions of people choosing to live like irregular militia in bivouac instead of clinging to a roof with a few hundred square feet, three squares and cable TV.
Our problem is cultural, not political, in it’s ultimate nature. Academia and pop culture have thoroughly dyed liberalism into the fabric of society. We cannot bleach it out by fondling guns. I say that as someone who thinks concealed carry ought to be a constitutional right. The only weapon we can use to wage this war is language. If we deny ourselves any part of that armory, we are doomed to lose. Jeff is stone dead right; we wouldn’t be having this discussion about where conservatism goes if it were not for someone like Rush or Jindal finally saying the Emperor has no clothes. Jeff and Jindal and Fred and others have explained this in so many ways that it has become tedious. One can only conclude that the crew lecturing us to “be careful about language” simply don’t want to defeat liberalism. Period. And this is where Brian at #59 comes in. Frum and Patty, et al., are not interested in conservatism or classical liberalism. It’s really that simple.
#94
Hell yes. Even cell phone video is good enough to satisfy witnesses, if the damning moment is captured.
Sdferr, re Epstein’s conclusion:
I just read the reply of Rep. McClintock — generally regarded as a rock-solid conservative — to one of his constituents justifying his vote for the targeted tax:
So, I guess the the answer is “No” on the putting the brakes on the descent to the abyss — dangerous precedent by dangerous precedent, so to speak.
McClintock is a pissant fascist thief what has no honor or nuts.
Honestly, I don’t see what’s so ugly about schandenfreude.
Carin I spent a year of my life sustained on schandenfreude and trust me on this it sucks. If the only time you smile during the day was at the misfortune of others, you will turn into a bitter unhappy human being noone wants to be around.
McClintock is a pissant fascist thief what has no honor or nuts.
Don’t forget “quisling.”
happy — does that mean I’m even MORE evil then when I issued my DEATH THREAT?
To George Orwell’s post #95:
Actually, what you’re saying is probably correct, and it’s also probably the case that if Charles was a random commentator on his blog, he’d probably be labeled a moby.
The well-wishing for America subsumed in “I hope he fails” seems to elude McClintock.
Extended to its extremes, McClintocks distaste would extend to Germans who wished Hitler away, or Ukrainians who wished for freedom instead of Soviet Communist domination; he would criticise all those Cambodians who rejected Pol Pots plan to reshape Cambodia after the ideas of Rousseau.
Would he reduce those wishes to Schadenfreude? How does he dismiss objection the dissolution of liberty and confiscation of property and surrender of ideals of self-government as dancing in the streets at the murder of others? HOW?
Dicentra’s survived the LGF purge
I did? ::logs on:: Yup, I did.
I thought that comparing Charles’s PoV to terrorist appeasers would earn a whack from the ban-stick sure as anything.
Guess he’s not THAT crazy. Look, as I said on the previous thread, Charles has been running LGF 24/7 since 9/11 and he’s had to put up with a lot of grief. If he’s reacting strongly to things I can’t say I blame him.
But he’s still dead wrong on this issue.
Queeg’s eaten up with this profound hatred of anything religious meme, isn’t he?
Is that what Gagdad Bob’s calling him these days? Charles has only been battling attempts to get ID and creationism taught in the schools. That’s not the same as hating everything religious. Though I’m sure the debates on LGF get pretty nasty. I’ve never looked at the comments on those threads because I value my sanity.
I am so relieved now to hear that Johnson and his sycophants are firmly on board the “don’t make them mad†express.
That thread didn’t run 1000+ with people agreeing with Charles. There was plenty of dissent from a lot of different people, not just me and Darleen.
Charles has the same sort of problem as Patt. He’s a musician, and nearly all of his friends are lefties.
Can’t rule that out. It’s hard to hang with people who think you’re evil because you call jihad evil. Or because you’ve attracted a readership that comprises lots of religious whackos. Either you lose the offending opinions or you lose the friends. Most people have a hard time negotiating that particular Scylla and Charybis.
and as an atheist he finds Creationists icky, and ID advocates dishones
He’s identified himself as an agnostic. So…
Also I flat out don’t like his tone.
Oh, cowboy up ‘feets and Carin. Tone is irrelevant. Content is everything.
I think LGF was one of the first blogs I ever read.
I found PW through LGF. Which I found through the freepers, which I found through Sean Hannity, whom I was listening to one winter when I was out of work and embroidering some dish towels for my mom’s new house. I don’t do Hannity or the freepers anymore, but I do check LGF every day, especially the spinoff links. I’ve found good stuff that way.
And I like Charles’s music posts.
I find this close to Schandenfreude.
I responded to that comment over yonder.
Those ones are twisted off over there, Jeff. I like it here where people understand the gravity of the situation. Sometimes I get the feeling that it’s uncool to understand the gravity of the situation. I’m ok with that.
Sarah W —
Don’t confuse HF’s #98 with McClintock’s statement. Though equally offensive, they’re not the same.
Well, I tried to make the point that conceding language is what’s losing the battle at LGF. Got my account deleted for my trouble.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have told Charles he isn’t a conservative.
In case anyone from over there reads here, tell Sharmuta that he (she) wouldn’t know cognitive dissonance if it walked up and introduced itself. There’s no dissonance here. The Democratic party regards conservatives and Republicans as ENEMIES. Their goal is to destroy us. They are the ones who started this rhetorical fight. And until we are ready, willing, and able to take the fight back to them on their terms, we will continue to lose.
And if it counts as a ban-worthy meltdown at LGF to say so, then I say who needs LGF?
Your complaints are well-founded, but ultimately pointless. The Media will not understand your complaint or your words. So they will re-write until you’ve said what they want, then go with that.
It’s what they do.
But go ahead, rail away. Pointless does not equate to not worthwhile.
Comment by dicentra on 3/26 @ 11:37 am
Charles has only been battling attempts to get ID and creationism taught in the schools. That’s not the same as hating everything religious. Though I’m sure the debates on LGF get pretty nasty. I’ve never looked at the comments on those threads because I value my sanity.
———————————————–
He’s said enough ugly things about Creationists (or nodded in approval) – simply because they’re creationists – that it’s clear there’s more to it than an opposition to teaching it in schools. The comments tell the tale. He and Zombie tag team.
I respect their contributions, but frankly, they’ve gone kinda nuts. Regardless, tone could be noted as a clue to intent, yes? In that light I think it’s completely relevant.
Hey, that Jindal quote that heads this post was printed second paragraph of the CNN online article.
Doesn’t look twisted to me!
Also I flat out don’t like his tone.
Oh, cowboy up ‘feets and Carin. Tone is irrelevant. Content is everything.
Well, when I stopped reading LGF, it was because the basic content was stuff I saw elsewhere anyway. So, I was left with the comments as to a reason to checkin. But, no thanks. Fetid swamp.
oh. Sorry SarahW. I’m all over the map with the dyspepsia today. Damn wiener burrito.
Comment by mojo on 3/26 @ 11:43 am #
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The media are not invincible. The message will go out, some will hear and understand, and some will open their eyes. Pointless? Anything but.
It is pointless to assume that nothing can be done and that things will always be as they are.
It will be interesting to see if the media is anywhere to be seen on the Tax Day Tea Parties.
Thanks, Jbean. My post was related to the J.S. “schadenfreude” post. Dancing in the streets to celebrate murder isn’t the same thing as hoping America endures, and the requisite conditional that Obama fails.
Or Jbean – more accurate to say “should have been related to JS’ schadenfreude post”
Now I’ve got to go jump the battery on the crap little car Obama will make sure I keep driving.
Also there’s a misapprehension I think of when someone, say me, says they would get a kick out of watching Baracky fall on his dirty socialist America-hating ass, that’s not the same as like yay! this made my day snoopy dance. It’s more a quiet satisfaction I think what you overstate in the comments for effect.
Oh, cowboy up ‘feets and Carin. Tone is irrelevant. Content is everything.
It’s amusing to me to see a defense of LFG that claims that “tone is irrelevant”… Isn’t the relevance of tone the whole point of the LGF jihad on uncouth mongrels like Rush?
Not a slam on you, btw, just an interesting juxtaposition.
So why does anything matter?
Yes! And simply presuming that the “vast middle” is in fact as unreasonable = stupid/”soul-less” as the hypothetical [Progressive] fantasy fetish “Black Man” who thinks every mention of the word “boy” is a disparaging term directed at him is itself as losing a meta-view as can exist – at least for a Classical Liberal, imo. Because then there is nothing to “win”, and no effective way to win this “nothing”, so we might as well become Communist dhimmis – assuming Communists even allow dhimmis.
Patterico denounced Limbaugh for calling the political opposition deranged, deranged meaning looney, crazy, nuts, insane. Where they aren’t looney crazy nuts deranged I tend to agree with the sentiment, that is, where deranged is a rhetorical usage rather than a clinical one. My grounds were that it seems to me that such a usage would reduce that opposition to a position of metaphorical slavery, for if truly crazy, they cannot be supposed capable of ruling themselves can they? Hence it would be up to the sane, defined as “our side” under Limbaugh’s conditional, to rule them. Lincoln’s (paraphrasing) “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. Anything differing from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” came immediately to mind.
But what then has become of two party rule? I noted that Hannah Arendt, in Origins of Totalitarianism, picked up on the question “Why had England, virtually alone among the great European states, escaped some form of fascism or totalitarianism which was sweeping the intellectual precincts in the early 20th C.?” She points to their tradition of two party rule (i.e., not multi-party), a condition with an offstage shadow government awaiting its turn at rule (it’s a complex argument I won’t recap here. See. Part II, Eight: iii. Party and Movement).
Still, once we are put in a position to have to fight off a movement toward totalitarianism, we yet want to be able to turn to another party, not ourselves, should our hypothetical fight prevail to prevent a one-party state, in order that we not find ourselves in victory in possession of one, consisting of ourselves.
That is a problem worth puzzling over. How had it worked so long, so well even ’til today? It worked because of a fundamental agreement, across the political landscape of the United States, I’d suggest, at the centrality of the Declaration, the Constitution and the meaning of our polity. Once we find these abandoned in large measure by our fellows, we are in trouble: not just in trouble with “them”, we will find ourselves in trouble with ourselves.
I’m really disappointed in the GOP. If nothing else good was to come of the Obama presidency, it could have been a comeback for the right, but we’re too busy tearing each other’s gizzards out over who is more ‘mainstream’ to get that far. Time for a new party?
That’s not the same as hating everything religious. Though I’m sure the debates on LGF get pretty nasty. I’ve never looked at the comments on those threads because I value my sanity.
I haven’t read many of them either, but what I have read is enough to know that CJ is trying to split out the so-called “religious-right.”
I’m an Xtian who could give a rat’s petouti about creationism — as I think many of those now banned at LGF have tried to argue — just don’t negate all concepts of Divinity from the equation and all will be cool. Charles apparently believes that anyone who believes in a Divinity is somehow a threat to science. That’s his prerogative, of course, but he’s gotten rather obsessive in that there hasn’t been a day in recent memory when I’ve clicked on a live bookmark to LGF and seen anti-creationist posts — many connected to Jindal — scattered throughout.
As far as splitting out that “religious right” — who else do we have with the facility to mobilize the folks at the grass-roots level? If it weren’t for the Ohio Xtians in ’04, Kerry would have been the man in the oval office, for instance.
Can the RR’s be PIA’s? You bet — Harriet Myers is a primo example. But why alienate them, intentionally, and continuously, in this struggle?
Ask Reagan’s ghost how to handle them — it ain’t by alienation.
#91 Carin: I have to disagree with you on NCLB. When it first began I thought it was a really dumb idea, particularly when I saw the first percentage of student population meeting grade level goals… so low? Geez, how dumb did they think kids were nowadays? And then we didn’t meet the goal. What was it at that time? Something like 41% of students were to meet grade level appropriate standards? It was a wake-up call for me that our students did so poorly, and for the teachers I work with who thought they were doing a such great job and this was a silly pointless waste of their time. It also happened to be a much needed revelation for our admins who didn’t know how lousy so many teachers actually were.
MUCH training/retraining of teachers has taken place. Last year we not only met the standard for 2008, we blew it out of the water.
71%, I believe, or something like that. Same teachers, same student demographics.
Shouldn’t we expect all our students to know level appropriate math, reading, writing, and science facts? Or maybe it’s just me. I love seeing shitty teachers sent to the toolshed til they learn how to actually, you know, teach.
If nothing else good was to come of the Obama presidency, it could have been a comeback for the right, but we’re too busy tearing each other’s gizzards out over who is more ‘mainstream’ to get that far. Time for a new party?
As late as a few months before the 2008 election, fully half of Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton were at the throats of the other half who supported Obama. For months they publicly called each other names, mocked each other in front of large crowds, questioned each others’ competence and sanity, and accused each other of nefariously stealing the nomination.
I don’t think it’s harmful for conservatives, 1-1/2 years before the midterm elections, to start candidly airing, arguing about, and maybe coming to grips with the difference among them.
My sister in law says the fundamentals of NCLB are pretty sound and it needs time to prove itself. I can definitely give her the benefit of the doubt cause logically this sort of reform would take a lot of time to prove its merit or lack of it. But I don’t know nothing for sure, just that it doesn’t bug me very much.
Identical for me except it was Limbaugh not Hannity. Free Republic was my morning stop on firing up the computer, I work nights, and where I first heard of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. I then turned on Fox News and found another plane had hit.
Strangely, I found Limbaugh through a derogatory mention in one of the weekly news mags back in the 90’s. At the time I didn’t listen to AM radio.
It is pointless to assume that nothing can be done and that things will always be as they are.
See? You don’t even need to be a pro to play.
Something I had been mulling but had not yet put in writing. From what I’ve read, the intention of the founders was that the checks and balances codified into the constitution would have uncodified counterparts in the political realm, with the basic result being that each party and special interest group would be so busy tearing at each other’s throats that none could take power long enough to do really serious damage.
Part of that is why the census machinations are more terrifying than the naked power grabs via treasury, the ramifications that one-party rule through gerrymandered census counts could be slipped in under the radar.
Oh by the way, via The Corner, a clarification on the Obama/Irish PM TelePromTer gaffe.
First, there were no cameras present.
Second, it appears that the sequence of events is as follows:
We’ll have to clear this one from our repertoire of “why Oprompta isn’t all that” examples. Sorry, but that’s how it is.
However, that same article provides a link to Top Ten Gaffes by Obama and Slow Joe, so we’re still up by ten.
Oh, so Obama was just doling out some more of his famous self-deprecating humor by way of making fun of the other guy. Got it.
On the burnt offerings thingy, Mt Redoubt blowed up bigtime this morning, ash cloud to 65,000 ft. Pics.
Patterico quotes Andy Levy saying:
We don’t need people doing things like emphasizing Obama’s middle name in a derogatory fashion.
Meanwhile, alppuccino says “I think if they would have moved the camera in closer to Obama’s face for his “I love you, you love me†video for the Mullahs, he’d have gotten a much better reaction”
And Mr. Pink says: “If only the Iranians had seen him like that it would have changed everything.”
Let me attempt to clarify everything. From Forbes:
Just saying…
Somebody Frey agrees with thinks “Hoover” is derogatory? Huzzah! A victory!
Tent-stake at least a day early for any polooza. Just ask any hippie chick, outdoor concert urine always drains towards the back fence.
“His family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma, which means “he is with us,†the magic formula in Majlisi’s tradition.”
In the actual language (Dhuluo) from which the name ‘Obama’ comes, in means ‘bent’ or ‘crooked.’ Yes it does.
Unless its sand. Then you want to dig a hole and bury a big ass washer with a rope through it in the ground. Tent stakes don’t work worth a fuck in sand.
Well, it’s not like he wasn’t warning us.
This is one of the reasons why, no matter how nice he seems, I can never really become close friends with a guy named “Yourasslookssoyummytome.”
NTTATWWT. Just, like, not how I roll. So why chance it?
Comment by dicentra on 3/26 @ 11:37 am #
Dicentra’s survived the LGF purge
I did? ::logs on:: Yup, I did.
I don’t fucking believe this but I got banned from LGF. My account is blocked. I’ve had that account for at least seven fucking years … keerist I covered some moonbat parades in San Diego and sent pics to Charles for his blog and I disagree with him AND I’M BANNED?
What a CHICKENSHIT move.
Darleen: That’s been happening quite a bit over the past few years.
Darleen – join the club. i had two beefs with charles that got me banned – Jindal and his Catholic bashing. The latter hasn’t been picked up by too many people but Charles has a serious Catholic problem.