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"How Tea Party Organizes Without Leaders"

Jonathan Rauch, National Journal:

But, tea partiers say, if you think moving votes and passing bills are what they are really all about, you have not taken the full measure of their ambition. No, the real point is to change the country’s political culture, bending it back toward the self-reliant, liberty-guarding instincts of the Founders’ era. Winning key congressional seats won’t do that, nor will endorsing candidates. “If you just tell people to vote but you don’t talk about the underlying principles,” Martin says, “you just have to do it again and again and again, in every election.”

What will work, they believe, is education: DVDs on American history; “founding principles” training; online reading lists; constitutional discussion groups; cultural and youth programs. In Tennessee, says Anthony Shreeve, an organizer there, groups are giving courses on the Constitution and “socialism and the different types of isms,” bringing in speakers from around the state. “Our members have gotten more involved and learned about our local government, how it works, and what kind of influence we can have,” Shreeve says. “Education has been the biggest thing.”

Not coincidentally, the educational coordinator is among the Tea Party Patriots’ handful of paid employees. “Our real mission,” says Sally Oljar, a national coordinator, “is education and providing resources to grassroots activists who want to return the country to our founding principles. We recognize that’s going to require a cultural change that will take many years to accomplish.”

Many years? How many? “We have a 40-year plan,” Meckler says. “We don’t want to raise another generation of sheeple.”

One hears again, there, echoes of leftist movements. Raise consciousness. Change hearts, not just votes. Attack corruption in society, not just on Capitol Hill. In America, right-wing movements have tended to focus on taking over politics, left-wing ones on changing the culture. Like its leftist precursors, the Tea Party Patriots thinks of itself as a social movement, not a political one.

Centerless swarms are bad at transactional politics. But they may be pretty good at cultural reform. In any case, the experiment begins.

The times, they are a-changin’…

Oh. And OUTLAW!

0 Replies to “"How Tea Party Organizes Without Leaders"”

  1. Rick says:

    Sounds great. Just might work, and in the nick of time.

    Cordially…

  2. Squid says:

    I support the effort, but I gotta say that the 40-year timeframe is just silly. We’re gonna run out of money long before then, and people are gonna get self-reliant in a hurry.

    Reading the Federalists and de Tocqueville is a great start, but let’s not pretend that we have two generations to sort this out.

  3. cranky-d says:

    It’s probably the only approach that will work. Too many people think they are owed a free ride just because they were born. That attitude must be changed.

  4. cranky-d says:

    Squid, I think it would be presumptuous of them to claim they could have results any sooner. We might be able to get enough people on board in less time to avoid the iceberg that looms right now, but there will be more icebergs down the road, and to avoid them one must change most of the people’s minds, not just some of them. That will take longer.

  5. happyfeet says:

    it says they have youth programs Squid for so future generations can be steeped

    Hey what did you do this summer?

    I went to Tea Party camp it was awesome we learned about the spendings and also, well, some about the taxings too. But mostly the spendings. Also about the Constitution it was so awesome we did skits.

  6. sdferr says:

    Harvey 1 on the moment of surrender. It was in the sixties, a little less than forty years ago.

  7. Joe says:

    I am impressed how much of the current Tea Party and conservative talk radio rhetoric I heard here articulated here first. From Jeff. And how much of what Jeff has been saying is being appropriated by Rush, Levin, and others. Of course, not a lot of credit comes Jeff’s way. A nice slap on the back would be nice. Some acknowledgement. Still, I have noticed.

    Will they maintain it?

    Revolutions, unfortunately, almost always disappoint. Some are more successful and long lasting than others.

    We will see.

  8. Squid says:

    I raised about forty grand to fund youth activities in my neighborhood. Little League, Scouts, after-school reading programs at the local branch library, that sort of thing. I think a guy named Tokesbury or something wrote a book about such behavior a long time ago.

  9. Joe says:

    Reading the Federalists and de Tocqueville is a great start, but let’s not pretend that we have two generations to sort this out.

    True.

    Rand, Heinlien, and Hayek help too.

  10. Squid says:

    Revolutions, unfortunately, almost always disappoint. Some are more successful and long lasting than others.

    The fight for individual liberty has a pretty good pedigree.

  11. Joe says:

    The powers in charge now are starting to freak. On both sides.

  12. Joe says:

    I was thinking the same thing Squid. Still, there has been a lot of erosion damage on that, which needs to be fixed.

  13. happyfeet says:

    Williams told investors that Noble had already been trying to decrease its Gulf of Mexico exposure because of market conditions, to which there had now been added a great deal of political volatility.

    Right now it looks a lot like Venezuela and Nigeria to me. So we will continue to accelerate our strategy of moving rigs out,” he told the Barclays Capital CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York. “The longer this goes, the more rigs we’ll get out.”*

    that didn’t even take 2 years

  14. Abe Froman says:

    Of course, the moron strain in Tea Party conservatism which continually attacks the media and academia instead of producing offspring with the brains to get into good schools and proceed to meaningful jobs sort of assures that this will be a 40 year subculture project.

  15. happyfeet says:

    morons are so stupid

  16. sdferr says:

    The good schools are the ones that are honest about how dumb we are, as opposed to the grade inflators like the Ivies.

  17. Ric Locke says:

    I forgot where I first saw it articulated, but the idea that “gun” revolutions give back a corrupt version of what they putatively overthrow is intuitively correct to my mind. That includes ones in which the guns are metaphorical. Real revolutions happen from the bottom and middle; the striking example is the Industrial Revolution, in which shots were fired to be sure, but that wasn’t what drove it.

    The nice thing about the way the tea parties are (un)organized is that it makes them almost immune to Alinskyite tactics. If nothing can be isolated — the first step — freezing and discrediting doesn’t work.

    Regards,
    Ric

  18. Abe Froman says:

    I tend to think the good schools are the ones that afford someone the most opportunities after graduation, sdferr. But that’s just me.

  19. bh says:

    The best schools do both.

  20. alppuccino says:

    I tend to think the good schools are the ones that afford someone the most opportunities after graduation

    Those are in China, so you’re looking at out of state tuition.

  21. happyfeet says:

    the best schools have catfish fridays

  22. Abe Froman says:

    True that, bh. My point though, is that you topple the establishment by being in it. Gramsci and all that shit. Not by raising a litter of dullards like Sarah Palin seems to be doing.

  23. sdferr says:

    I don’t assume that honesty results in lack of opportunity, but do assume that dishonesty with the ignorant young is bad for them in the long run.

  24. Ric Locke says:

    Pah, Abe. Education per se is near-irrelevant — a person who knows a thousand things, all of which are wrong, will be at a disadvantage relative to a “dullard” who knows one or two things that are correct.

    Regards,
    Ric

  25. cranky-d says:

    The people of this country would have been happy to set up a monarchy after the revolution against Great Britain. People tend to go with what they know.

  26. bh says:

    I’ve often argued the very same thing, Abe. There is definitely something to be said for beating them where they feel safest.

    It’s why I’m always a dick when people use intellectual, academic, urban, East/West Coast or Wall Street as blanket pejoratives rather than just focusing on the leftists.

  27. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The only problem I see with Sarah Palin’s litter is a daughter whose problem was rather lower than her head. Which no one would have a problem with if the leftist charicature of Sarah Palin was applied to anyone other than Sarah Palin.

    Or maybe Michelle Bachmann. Anyone know if Michelle Bachmann has a teenage daughter?

  28. bh says:

    Education per se is near-irrelevant — a person who knows a thousand things, all of which are wrong, will be at a disadvantage relative to a “dullard” who knows one or two things that are correct.

    If you define the educated as those who know incorrect things and the dullard as those who know correct things, you’re right. But only because you reversed the terms.

  29. cranky-d says:

    I’m voting for her, Ernst, but I don’t know much about her except that she makes progressives very upset.

  30. irongrampa says:

    “A person who knows a thousand thing, all of which are wrong, will be at a disadvantage relative to a dullard who knows one or two things that are correct.”

    That. Times 1000.

    Seems you live in the real world, sir.

  31. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Also, usually The Establishment assimilates you before you can topple it.

  32. sdferr says:

    “lower than her head”

    With human beings, it’s hard to see how anything is actually lower than [the functioning or malfunctioning of stuff in] their heads.

  33. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I wish I could vote for her cranky, if only to offset my sister-in-law’s husband’s vote. He works for St. Cloud State, and thinks about as much of her as Abe does of Palin. Probably less.

  34. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    If every old hippie in an ivory tower shits their pants while reading that…is the tower still ivory?

  35. Abe Froman says:

    I’m not talking about education per se, Ric. And I’m certainly not ruminating on the relative value of hedgehogs and foxes. But anyone who argues that academic achievement – starting with where one went to school – does not have a direct bearing on the likelihood of their ever sniffing the commanding heights of politics or culture is deluding themselves.

  36. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I would say it’s a feedback loop sdferr between hormonal secretions and hormonal secretions.

  37. sdferr says:

    Sure Ernst, but I had the impression we have these cut-outs in the form of frontal lobes, which either step in and do their work, or don’t, as the case may be.

  38. happyfeet says:

    Noble hasn’t announced any movings yet I think they’re still negotiating

  39. happyfeet says:

    each rig what leaves is like a nice-sized little company just up and left…

    it’s very sad to see the jobs go away especially since America has a real hard time creating jobs even with spending well over a trillion dollars of borrowed stimulus

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Jesus was a community organizer

    Not in the sense you mean

    Where are [the rigs] going?

    Since we know where they’re not going, I’d say Brazil.

  41. LTC John says:

    #22 – yeah, who needs some more dullard Soldiers coming from families like that, eh? I suppose it will be your children that will hit the recruiting office, right Abe?

  42. LTC John says:

    #42 – and as a follow up, I sure hope I was missing some sort of sarcasm…

  43. Ernst Schreiber says:

    we have these cut-outs in the form of frontal lobes, which either step in and do their work, or don’t,

    short-circuit between the brain and the knees, then?

  44. sdferr says:

    We can think of them as feedback loop interruptors, yeah. Though much of the time they aren’t put to work, they nevertheless have the capacity in potentia.

  45. happyfeet says:

    here is awesomeness! you click and it shows you the videos from the people for so you can see them!

  46. ThomasD says:

    Most need not actually read all of the Federalist papers, but most all actually need the basic education that they were denied by the public schools.

    A simple parsing of the concepts laid out in the Declaration of Independence and their roots would be a good start. Hell, they could even watch Adams on DVD followed by handing out a flyer on his works.

    Also, learning that natural law is not something modern and manufactured by neo-cons, would also prove enlightening.

    For that matter, just let people know this stuff is out there and that history did not start with the New Deal. Let them pick and choose which avenues to explore.

  47. ThomasD says:

    Sorry Abe, but today’s media and academia have far too much in common with the 16th and 17th centuries’ clerics and nobility.

    They need to be questioned and challenged at every turn and will not be solved from within.

  48. bh says:

    The “Palin’s kids” sort of muddies the waters here.

    Valuing education (not education defined as stuffing falsehoods into young minds) makes good sense. And understanding the real world advantage of certain educational backgrounds is just being realistic.

  49. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Of course history doesn’t start with the New Deal Thomas. History starts with Vietnam.

    The New Deal is prehistory man.

  50. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    Education per se is near-irrelevant — a person who knows a thousand things, all of which are wrong, will be at a disadvantage relative to a “dullard” who knows one or two things that are correct.

    Maybe.

    Next time you’re in an argument with the significant other, announce, “Honey, I can’t agree with you because then we’d both be wrong.”

    When that’s over I know a good lawyer.

  51. mcgruder says:

    Abroad in the time of confusion, comes now the Jesus trope.
    It’s true of course, if you define true as having no reference in the bible.
    Which if you think of it is the best sort of history.

  52. ThomasD says:

    Genius on the wrong path only moves more quickly away from the truth.

    That’s a paraphrase of a quote that I cannot locate as of yet.

  53. LTC John says:

    #51 – and it sure is the easiest

  54. LBascom says:

    Gee, I wish I had gone to college so I had a meaningful job. Jesus wasn’t a community organizeer, He was a spiritual guide. Also antiestablishment.

  55. Abe Froman says:

    The “Palin’s kids” sort of muddies the waters here.

    Yeah. It seemed a pertinent example given how this movement (from the top down) seems oblivious to how the world works, but I was mostly being sadistic.

  56. LTC John says:

    # 54 – wasn’t he rather less concerned with Earthly establishments than the Left would like to claim, and then hijack? It was the individual’s belief in the Father, and their behavior that mattered, not trying to get the Senate of Rome to vote a bigger grain dole.

  57. alppuccino says:

    He was a spiritual guide. Also antiestablishment.

    And I bet he would’ve turned the grass clippings into Pineapple Express if he’d thought of it.

  58. sdferr says:

    Boehner’s choice of the half-a-loaf gambit last weekend makes a nice example of another of the spider model’s problems.

  59. ak4mc says:

    Many years? How many? “We have a 40-year plan,” Meckler says. “We don’t want to raise another generation of sheeple.”

    The great thing about the future is, it doesn’t have to happen Right Now.

  60. LBascom says:

    Yes LTC, by establishment I meant the Pharisees.

  61. SDN says:

    #17: Ric, are you arguing that the American Revolution wasn’t a “gun” revolution? Seriously?

    Guns are going to be a part of any successful revolution: you may never fire them, but they have to at least be in conspicuous view, with full magazines seated…. otherwise, your opponent is just going to do what he likes, and let you say whatever you want.

    What I hope you were saying is that revolutions based ONLY on guns will fail — you have to have an underlying idea to appeal to that doesn’t involve just force. Which the American Revolution did…. and the French Revolution didn’t. The French Revolution was not about the idea of a life without masters; it was about changing who the masters were.

  62. SDN says:

    sdferr:

    expert (noun): An ex is a has been, and a spurt is a drip under pressure. I see experts like that around me every day….

  63. happyfeet says:

    here is what I decided after last night’s stunning and shockingly brazen display of Team R cocksuckery

    I think we’re now solidly at the point that the next time that the dirty socialist media wants to anoint a simpering cowardly John McCain-type as the Team R spokesdouche, they will have a lot effectively drawn a ginormous target on their useless RINO ass.

    That is a big step forward. There will be ramifications I think.

  64. bh says:

    The Kling piece is excellent and worth a look.

  65. sdferr says:

    Kling:

    Populists often make the mistake of bashing experts, claiming that the “common man” has just as much knowledge as the trained specialist. However, trained professionals really do have superior knowledge in their areas of expertise, and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise.

    I have faith in experts. Every time I go to the store, I am showing faith in the experts who design, manufacture, and ship products.

    Every time I use the services of an accountant, an attorney, or a dentist, I am showing faith in their expertise. Every time I donate to a charity, I am showing faith in the expertise of the organization to use my contributions effectively.

    In fact, I would say that our dependence on experts has never been greater. It might seem romantic to live without experts and instead to rely solely on your own instinct and know-how, but such a life would be primitive.

    Expertise becomes problematic when it is linked to power. First, it creates a problem for democratic governance. The elected officials who are accountable to voters lack the competence to make well-informed decisions. And, the experts to whom legislators cede authority are unelected. The citizens who are affected by the decisions of these experts have no input into their selection, evaluation, or removal.

  66. happyfeet says:

    experts in behavioural economics are mostly fags

  67. happyfeet says:

    I have links

  68. happyfeet says:

    Pitney Bowes however is the worldwide-recognized expert in business mail and business mail related services.

  69. bh says:

    You’d get a kick out of seeing a list of my undergrad courses, ‘feets. Let’s just say that we thought it was the shit back in the mid-90s.

  70. happyfeet says:

    oops.

    sometimes I make the odd faux pass.

  71. bh says:

    It was an innocent time of grunge and behavioral economic faggotry.

  72. sdferr says:

    Yeah, innocent, sure it was.

  73. bh says:

    Don’t worry, it was just a phase. It seemed like the hot thing and all my friends were into it. Like ska.

  74. Squid says:

    Probably still better off than I, bh. I went into physics, and then they cut the superconducting super collider during my junior year.

    The “peace dividend” was a bitch if you were a rocket scientist. Which, now that I think about it, goes a long way toward explaining the glee I feel at all of these bureaucrats about to get their marching orders. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, BEAN COUNTER? WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?!

  75. sdferr says:

    no worries . . . phase, haze, heck, mid-nineties? I can’t even remember back that far. Matter fact, I can’t find my keys right now but while looking I stumbled on an unfinished bottle of Tullamore.

  76. happyfeet says:

    that was so sad I used to drive through it in Texas all the time when they were building it

  77. ThomasD says:

    American Revolution wasn’t a “gun” revolution? Seriously?

    I can’t speak for Ric.

    But yes, I’ll make that argument.

    The revolution occurred well before the first shots were fired. Hell, much of what constituted the revolution was an affirmation of the principles long established in England, coupled with the demand that those principles be applied equally to the colonists, and barring that that the colonists were then free to go there own way.

    None of which was in any way a guarantee of victory in the war for independence, but it was the revolution that necessitated the war. Even without victory in that war those principles, and their ultimate universality, would still be with us today.

  78. bh says:

    Heh, that sucks, Squid. On the plus side, as a physics major you’re in the fun nerd position of sneering at those of us in “easy” econometrics classes.

    We sort of lucked out back then because it was new. Just took a few cog psych classes and ran a few labs with volunteers. Will they take the cigarette or the money equivalent?!?! Do they recognize the time value of money… in vending machine snacks?!?!? Would have taken something else goofy with those credits anyways, I’m sure.

  79. sdferr says:

    Eroding our way through the mountain of shit built to bury those principles is what we’re about today in fact. It isn’t about guns, kinda like the Palin girl’s pregnancy wasn’t about her genitalia.

  80. Ernst Schreiber says:

    trained professionals really do have superior knowledge in their areas of expertise, and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise [emphasis added]

    Equally dangerous is when experts step outside of their field of expertise and pronounce on things where my layman’s opinion may be equally valid or even more so.

    Although the special kinds of knowledge associated with intellectuals is usually valued more [than general, non-specific knowledge], and those who have such knowledge are usually accorded more prestige, it is by no means certain that the kind of knowledge mastered by intellectuals is necessarily more consequential in its effects in the real world. [….] Many major economic decisions are likewise crucially dependent on the kind of mundane knowledge that intellectuals might disdain to consider to be knowledge in the sense in which they habitually use the word. (Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society, 13)

    I haven’t had a chance to read Kling yet, and Sowell is talking more about people who “think” for a living, than people who “do” for a living, but I wanted to throw that out quick, since I think it’s important to distinguish between admiring experts for their expertise and adoring them for the same.

  81. ThomasD says:

    Something else I wish the TEA party people would spread around.

    It wasn’t just the issues of taxation that so irked the colonists. The colonies were also largely forbidden from any sort of manufacturing. That is, Parliament was smothering the economic potential of a continent in order to maintain political order and pay off their cronies.

    Parallels.

  82. bh says:

    As Kling is coming at this from a Hayekian perspective, it’s probably worth pointing out that expert entails those local actors with a great deal of local knowledge. This expert can be a builder or a butcher as well. He merely needs to know his business (local node) a great deal better than someone at a remove who has to deal with the issue/s in some theoretical aggregate sense.

  83. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Sowell shares the Hayekian perspective as well.

  84. bh says:

    By way of Chicago, I’ll add nonchalantly.

  85. bh says:

    By way of Stigler, I should probably add more completely.

  86. mojo says:

    “You better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone”

  87. happyfeet says:

    and then Sarah Palin probably poop on it

  88. JD says:

    Yelverton is an expert at whacking off onto a cat, but when he sets foot outside of his area of expertise, hilarity ensues.

  89. bh says:

    The Garfield Ambush!

  90. Dave in SoCal says:

    Brace yourself… here’s that exciting news Democrats were all excited about last night.

    Their big announcement? Hold on to your hats… it’s… a new website and… wait for it… a new logo.

    Give it up. It’s over. We’re boned… the GOP is toast now.

  91. JD says:

    That was … less than inspiring, daveinsocal. They really are reaching if that constitutes big or exciting.

    Bh – is that an urbandictionary term?

  92. happyfeet says:

    that logo is very fisherprice with mom appeal

  93. bh says:

    It’s an extension of the Paddington Ambush, JD.

  94. ak4mc says:

    It looks great at the bottom of their homepage though. The Democrats.org “D” right next to the Obama “O.”

    Taken together they spell, “D’oh!”

  95. Abe Froman says:

    Looking at that logo makes me wish I had a gun in my hand.

  96. happyfeet says:

    the Team R logo doesn’t even have an R on it god they’re so stupid

  97. ak4mc says:

    Homer Simpson did not return phone calls seeking comment.

  98. bh says:

    O with a D in it? OD. You know, like on stimulus spending.

  99. Abe Froman says:

    the Team R logo doesn’t even have an R on it god they’re so stupid

    What is that supposed to mean?

  100. bh says:

    Also kinda looks like the Kosher symbol.

  101. happyfeet says:

    Team R has R shame?

  102. Abe Froman says:

    That doesn’t make any more sense than the first statement.

  103. Dave in SoCal says:

    “Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station logo!”

  104. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The “D” centered in the rectacle? Sounds right to me. Remember to exhale before you squeeze.

  105. happyfeet says:

    I’m just saying Team R doesn’t brand the R they brand the pachyderm … while Team D is saying hey maybe we need to move away from our sassy little donkey. And bam Team R’s logo is anachronistic.

  106. Dave in SoCal says:

    Did anyone check to see if one of the signs for the Dusseldorf underground transit system is missing?

  107. Ric Locke says:

    SDN: No, the American Revolution wasn’t a “gun” revolution. The revolution happened when Americans started thinking of themselves as “Americans” rather than “British living out of the country”. Guns were necessary to defend the change, but they weren’t used to impose the change.

    In contrast, the French revolution used weapons to impose the change, primarily by doing away with people who didn’t change — and look how that turned out.

    Regards,
    Ric

  108. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The elephant is traditional and a celebration of a great american artist.

  109. Abe Froman says:

    that’s pretty silly, hf. I know you work in marketing, but not in the same universe as where those sorts of discussions go on.

  110. Ernst Schreiber says:

    That would be a U Dave.

    (My pedant is showing again)

  111. Ric Locke says:

    ThomasD, I don’t see that my version is substantively different from yours. Do you agree?

    Regards,
    Ric

  112. Makewi says:

    Another way to look at the “gun” revolution is that the Constitution was not born out of the War for Independence, that came some 10 years later.

  113. Dave in SoCal says:

    O’Donnell’s fundraising goal keep moving further and further out.

    It’s now up to $750,000… and she’s 79% of the way there.

    All in less than 24 hours, no less.

  114. happyfeet says:

    Mr. Abe Team D wants Team R to look like the past while they look like the future… I don’t see how it’s all that opaque really

  115. sdferr says:

    MKH on Harry’s “pet”. Please check out the “Thanks, Harry” at the end and lemme know where you think it’s coming from.

  116. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The revolution happened when Americans started thinking of themselves as “Americans” rather than “British living out of the country”.

    If I can jump in here:

    The colonists didn’t start thinking of themselves as Americans until the First Continental Congress, called in response the Stamp Act (going from memory here). Ironically, it was their insistence on their rights as “Englishmen,” rights the mothercountry refused to grant to the “colonists” that changed them from Englishmen living out of the country into Americans. Just to paint a portrait with a broad brush –a 6 inch broad brush.

    This isthe book that discusses the topic I just mangled.

  117. Makewi says:

    I think it should be pointed out that the new logo is horrible. So past/future aside, I think people are going to point and laugh.

  118. Old Texas Turkey says:

    Equally dangerous is when experts step outside of their field of expertise and pronounce on things where my layman’s opinion may be equally valid or even more so.

    Sean Penn taking time out from he expert douchebaggery in Hollywood to endorse the Chavista Economic Model or launch leaky boats into the bayou come to mind.

  119. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Mr. Abe Team D wants Team R to look like the past while they look like the future… I don’t see how it’s all that opaque really

    So what you’re saying is the Dem’s think they can put lipstick on the jackass and not come away tasting like New Coke?

  120. sdferr says:

    There is another aspect to expert knowledge which may or may not be relevant here, but which has drawn a great deal of attention over the years, namely the uses of that knowledge to do either intended good or intended harm. See: Hippocratic Oath.

  121. Abe Froman says:

    Mr. Abe Team D wants Team R to look like the past while they look like the future… I don’t see how it’s all that opaque really

    Yeah, well nothing says the future like mid-nineties European design.

  122. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Sean Penn is low hanging fruit. The man pretends for a living.

  123. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Mid-nineties Abe?! Hell, That D is Helvetica! Mid 50s German wirtschaftswunder stuff. Recovery is just around the corner indeed!

  124. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I hope Dewey’s has a Trademark on the D

  125. sdferr says:

    For those who haven’t heard him (apologies B Moe) Limbaugh on Rove.

    Then Rove today.

  126. happyfeet says:

    Rove could not less get it.

  127. sdferr says:

    What did Rove have to say in the last week of the 2000 campaign I wonder?

  128. happyfeet says:

    that people feel they have to warn Team R establishment whores not to snub O’Donnell on September 15 is kinda all you need to know about how not the future Team R establishment whores are…

    you just can’t take them anywhere anymore

  129. sdferr says:

    How about that “Thanks, Harry”?

    I’m still confuzzled.

  130. Abe Froman says:

    LOL at Dewey’s. Yeah Ernst, the type is older than Nancy Pelosi’s yeast infection, but that kind of design treatment is very euro 90’s. But hf can explain to us how an almost retro symbol trumps a classic one while he explains that a failshit party isn’t the future for snubbing an anti-masturbationist. The complexity of marketings and politics what we have to deal with in our dirty socialist little country are overwhelming.

  131. newrouter says:

    “I’m going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He’s my pet. He’s my favorite candidate,” Reid said.

    link

  132. Jeff G. says:

    Typical Obama: the O is bigger than the D and encompasses it.

  133. sdferr says:

    How to negotiate without preconditions:

    The US repeated its demand that Israel extend a 10-month partial freeze on settlement building before it expires later this month. “We think it makes sense to extend the moratorium,” said Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell immediately after the summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

  134. John Bradley says:

    While the larger point remains that a sans-serif font in a simple geometric shape is hardly new (see “The New Typography”, from 1928), I’d just like to point out that the ‘D’ in question is not Helvetica (from the ’50s), but is “Gotham Black” (designed in 2000) — the same font used on all of those “HOPE” and “CHANGE” Obama posters.

    Because knowing this sort of font trivia is important. No, really.

  135. Big Bang Hunter says:

    “….However, trained professionals really do have superior knowledge in their areas of expertise, and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise.”

    – No, actually there are many many examples from real life where all the sheepskins are totally “fail”.

    – Worked as the field engineer for a manufacturers rep back in the stone age. One of our major clients was Procter and Gamble in Cinn., home of Skippy peanut butter. They make the stuff in huge vats, which we instrumented so they would know when it was time to remix a new vat. All the hi-priced experts could not get around the fact that peanut butter sticks to the roof of almost every sort of sensor.

    – They had an old employee who was payed a kings ransom, whose job it was to test the vats with a ballpean hammer. By tapping on the vat wall he could tell how close it was to running out. Bad timing was very expensive. Essentially he got paid 6 digits for knowing the right technique for tapping with a little hammer.

    – Another friend worked at Lewis research center in Cleveland. She, high school only, was one of three people in the world that knew how to finish the micro grinds for space vehicle mating points between assemblies. All the PHD’s were constantly running to her with problems, fearful of losing their prestige and jobs. After she retired they set up a special office for her to continue in her art, training future “average” people in her craft, because none of the learned types could even come close to her quality of work.

    – Some anecdotal examples of Rics Rulz.

  136. happyfeet says:

    ohnoes he hates Israeli jobs too

  137. newrouter says:

    a demorat circle jerk?

  138. Abe Froman says:

    Because knowing this sort of font trivia is important. No, really.

    That is pretty impressive.

  139. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – BTW, I once asked that old guy in Cinn. if he thought it was ok to get paid all that money for tapping a little hammer. He laughed and replied; “I don’t get paid well for tspping the hammer, any over-educated idiot can tap a hammer. I get paid for knowing when and where to tap it correctly.

  140. sdferr says:

    I just watched the Special Report roundtable and have come away spitting mad. I’m increasingly convinced that this anti-O’Donnell business propounded by Krauthammer and to a lesser extent Barnes, with the Weekly Standard otherwise in full-on editorial unity, along with Rove, is a deliberate and we will see, ongoing sabotage of the Delaware race. There is nothing that I can see so far, whether brought up by Rove or by the Standard in its many pieces, that couldn’t have been handled behind the scenes to equal effect where it comes to educating O’Donnell herself. Therefore, I think, it must be that the motive is to expose her faults as much as possible to see to it that her campaign will sink.

    Still spitting mad, but willing to be talked into unloading the gun.

  141. bh says:

    You’re giving examples of trained professionals with extremely clear expertise, BBH.

  142. bh says:

    The hammer dude and the mating points ladies weren’t less expert. They were more expert.

  143. bh says:

    Sorry, lady not ladies.

  144. happyfeet says:

    it’s also a handy way to bitch slap Sarah Palin by proxy

  145. happyfeet says:

    the Weekly Standard is Romney whores, yes?

  146. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – I don’t think it will prove effective sdferr. In fact, thus far in every race where an establishment type ran their campaigns bashing the “common folk” candidate, they were met with an even more resounding defeat. You can’t expect the good ole boy club to go quietly, but so far they’re batting pretty much of a goose egg with that strategy.

  147. happyfeet says:

    I could see them getting really excited about Pawlenty too.

  148. sdferr says:

    I know that and take just as much umbrage to it as I do the closer to hand problem. What the fuck was Mary Katherine Ham saying “Thanks, Harry” for goddamnit?

  149. happyfeet says:

    I will have to watch when I get home

  150. sdferr says:

    know that 150 was at 146

  151. newrouter says:

    that woman from alaska is damaging team r’s owners

  152. bh says:

    I assumed that MKH was saying “Thanks, Harry” because his referencing Coons as “his pet” would easily lend itself to anti-Coons ads.

  153. sdferr says:

    So you didn’t hear any of the “thanks, harry” for making Christine’s job easier that I heard bh? cool. I’d prefer to read it your way entirely, but couldn’t get mine out of my head.

  154. sdferr says:

    That didn’t work at all. Sorry. I’m hearing a snide anti-O’D line in Ham’s wording, is what I meant to put across there, a cynical nasty sort of tone I’d rather not have heard. But as I say, so far I only see editorial unity at the Standard. Any possible favorable tone for O’Donnell there is weasely in the extreme.

  155. bh says:

    I read it as purely anti-Reid.

  156. bh says:

    So much so, I guess, that I didn’t respond to your questions at first because I didn’t understand them.

  157. I’m going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He’s my pet. He’s my favorite candidate.

    And I want him to come to Washington D.C. so we can make sweet sweet Democratic [policy] love together. You want to see a full reach around, you come to my offices after Chris Coons gets sworn in and I get re-elected.

  158. Let me let you in on a little secret.

    Krauthammer, Barnes, and Rove like to watch.

  159. sdferr says:

    I’d blame my problem on a lesion but the Tullamore is closer at the moment. Deranged, that’s what I am, deranged by whiskey sexy democracy.

  160. newrouter says:

    Rove is an adviser to American Crossroads, a competing funding organization to the Republican National Committee headed by Steele. American Crossroads is a Daddy Bushie legacy organization designed to take over the influence buying game and take it away from the Washington outfits. I’ll bet you $5 that American Crossroads was funding Castle to the hilt and making deals to buy his future votes. Gotta think Rove was greasing the skids to buy a US Senator for several K Street clients. That’s why Rove was so bitter that O’Donnell screwed his set-up deal.

    Posted by: captain joe | Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 06:52 PM

    Captain Joe, Rove is not an advisor to AC. He’s one of the founders. He, Ed Gillespie, and Mike Duncan stated the PAC for the sole purpose to undercut the NRC. It’s ironic that these three guys are the very guys who drove the RNC into the ditch to begin with.

    link

  161. happyfeet says:

    Ed Gillespie recently god accoladed here no?

  162. happyfeet says:

    *got* accoladed I mean

  163. bh says:

    Yes, I heart Ed Gillespie.

  164. sdferr says:

    Levin just gave Steve Hayes the back of his hand. Which, good.

  165. bh says:

    This second mention of Tullamore has my liquor cabinet calling to me.

  166. sdferr says:

    See? And you’s think talking tomatoes are odd.

  167. newrouter says:

    i froze alot of tomatoes today must have 30# in he freezer.

  168. newrouter says:

    he freezer is sort like the 2nd chakra or sumthing

  169. Rusty says:

    117
    I disagree. Most of the colonial upper class urban dwellers still thought of themselves as british subjects, but the rest, the yeomanry, those living on the frontier, those who had the least contact with the british authorities, thought of themselves as Americans.Probably had since the French and Indian War.

  170. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – More good news for the Donkeys here and here.

  171. Ric Locke says:

    Rusty: Yup.

    Then the King and Parliament made it clear to the colonial upper class urbanites that they were not considered Englishmen or even British, but cows to be milked without even a schedule or proper feeding. The rest is, as they say, General Science.

    Regards,
    Ric

  172. LTC John says:

    #142 – Why unload? Aim center mass, breathe out and squeeze the trigger. Those knuckleheads keep digging, eh?

  173. LTC John says:

    Tullamore sounds nice….but I don’t have any, so I guess the Appfelkorn will have to do.

  174. geoffb says:

    The logo in #98 looks to me like “Obama-goggles”. Wear at your own risk.

  175. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – So with the talk of Obama appointing Warren to his economics team,it’s pretty clear he’s going to ride the class warfare jackass to the bitter end. It’s also clear in his mind the middle class = the unions, and not the other way around. Quid pro quo writ without shame.

  176. sdferr says:

    Tully’s gone now, though fondly recalled; moving to mojitos as the summer wanes.

  177. newrouter says:

    Michigan Dems launch website attacking Dingell foe
    Sept. 15, 2010, 6:01 p.m. EDT
    Associated Press

    DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Rep. John Dingell is the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, having won re-election 27 times and rarely receiving less than 65 percent of the votes cast.

    On the surface, it wouldn’t seem any different this year since the 84-year-old Democrat is being challenged by a political newcomer. But there are signs that Dingell, who was first elected in 1955 to replace his late father, isn’t having as easy of a race.

    The Michigan Democratic State Central Committee launched a website this week that attacks on a personal level his Republican opponent, Dr. Rob Steele. It calls the 52-year-old Ann Arbor-area cardiologist a “rich doctor” whose “five-car garage isn’t big enough to hold all of his nine luxury cars.”

    Steele, who has spent the past two decades practicing medicine, said the website launch shows that Democrats are concerned for Dingell’s political future.

    “He’s been there 55 years, and why in the world would anybody give me any publicity if they were expecting another blowout,” Steele said Wednesday. “When career politicians are in trouble, they’ll just start saying whatever they want, whether it’s true or not.”

    link

  178. Abe Froman says:

    Dingellberry.com is available. I’m just sayin’.

  179. bh says:

    OT: Don’t remember the links I clicked through to find this but it’s an interesting read.

  180. sdferr says:

    Can’t seem to help getting the heebie-jeebies when I see the compound post-ideological. The wha?

  181. bh says:

    He’s an economist.

    That’s his way of saying that others’ models are needlessly nebulous and have no quantitative grounding.

  182. sdferr says:

    I don’t think the purpose of constitutions is to protect us from popular rule, but rather to protect us from government discretion, which often does not reflect popular rule.

    So much for Madison 10 then.

  183. Ernst Schreiber says:

    …the yeomanry, those living on the frontier, those who had the least contact with the british authorities, thought of themselves as Americans.Probably had since the French and Indian War.

    I did say I was painting over-broadly, didn’ I? There were genuine revolutionaries at the Second Continental Congress, Samuel Adams foremost among them, but for the most part, I think the members were those upper class urbanites (and country gentry). The ties of affection mattered. If Lord North had been willing to compromise with the Colonials, we might very well be a Commonwealth Nation today.

    Anyway, I’m working from memory. I don’t have a copy of the book I linked in front of me, and I’m not going to go digging through my stacks for Ferling, Ellis, or Middlekauff right now. If I’m wrong, I’ll appreciate any corrections anyone cares to offer.

  184. newrouter says:

    on hannity malkin

    “we cannot cede the term moderate”. language plays a part.

  185. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I can’t believe nobody’s been denounced yet for pointing out that Harry Reid keeps pet Coons.

  186. bh says:

    Denounced!

  187. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Thanks for caring bh.

  188. John Bradley says:

    Hopefully Harry won’t call for his pet within earshot of elderly black men… ’cause that’d just be wrong.

  189. newrouter says:

    hole rove greta

  190. sdferr says:

    Ongoing, I’m sayin’. Which only means more to come. The question though, is why? What on earth is the point? What are these detractors hoping to gain? I just can’t see that part.

  191. newrouter says:

    rove got money somewhere. christine took it

  192. ThomasD says:

    Way late, but #112.

    I would not stick so hard on the American vs. British distinction, as it only became a difference once the Crown rejected American assertions of their rights as citizens of Britain.

    An argument common to many of the colonists, and also William Pitt back in England, was that Britain, by subjecting the colonies to taxation by Parliament, while failing to give the colonists a proper voice in Parliament, was directly violating the rights due all British citizens. Everyone at the time recognized this was a principle long since established by the numerous revolts and uprisings of the prior 100 years or so, particularly the Glorious Revolution that led to the (British) Bill of Rights.

    In essence it was this failure of England to give the colonists that which was due any citizens that ‘broke the deal,’ thus allowing the colonists to promulgate the Declaration of Independence (which to me is the denouement of the revolution.)

    Had Britain made any reasonable efforts to afford the colonists proper representation; or just let them continue to tax themselves and send the receipts on the England, as they had done for decades prior, the colonists might have persisted in considering themselves British for quite a while longer.

  193. newrouter says:

    karl rove sucks

  194. newrouter says:

    karl rove asshat

  195. Swen, oversexed heathen black Norwegian says:

    Interesting that Jonathan Rauch could produce such an excellent analysis of the TEA Parties (probably the best I’ve read) without ever using the words “emergence” or “spontaneous organization”.

  196. newrouter says:

    It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. 17
    We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes just don’t know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter—and they are on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They are individuals and families whose taxes support the Government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our national life.

  197. ThomasD says:

    And # 171 is certainly accurate that there were separatists along the frontier, the Wautaugan Association probably being the most organized. But they were neither cohesive, nor particularly engaged with the larger world, being at least twice removed from the international stage. As such they never would have, nor could have represented a defined revolutionary movement, much less fomented a successful armed revolt.

  198. serr8d says:

    Not to be outdone by Slublog…

  199. JD says:

    I am liking this Piper Perabo gal more and more. Not Ines Sainz-esque, but who is?

  200. happyfeet says:

    her little show keeps a sharp lookout for a shark to jump but honestly the kari matchett lady is a lot more interesting than the piper character who by my count speaks 107 languages fluently

  201. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Jonah Goldberg shares an interesting tidbit:

    Last night [….], I heard an interesting tidbit from a couple people I trust. Apparently the House Judiciary Committee’s majority staff approached the minority staff with a seemingly gracious offer: Why don’t we refurbish the digs for the minority staff? They look a bit rundown.

    This was welcome news since the minority staff (i.e., the Republicans) has been asking for a spruce-up for four years but got nothing from the Dems. But now, suddenly, the Democrats are very concerned about the quality of the digs they will have to use if they lose the majority. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and it was all out of the goodness of their hearts.

    One person I talked to said that they heard something about another committee where a similar offer was made, but I couldn’t confirm it.

    Pleasant Dreams

  202. Danger says:

    “…but they have to at least be in conspicuous view, with full magazines seated and aimed downrange

    FTFY SDN ;^)

    Now If I could just get that message to the NSRC.

  203. sdferr says:

    They’ve already revealed themselves as an enemy behind the lines, what with their short burst into the backs of the Delaware conservatives though Danger, despite their having lowered their weapons for the moment and their sheepish protests of innocence. There doesn’t seem to be any going back on the revelation at this point.

  204. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Ain’t clarity grand?

  205. Danger says:

    “There doesn’t seem to be any going back on the revelation at this point.”

    Yup, tough they have hit the target they were aiming at . Unfortunately, it was their foot.

  206. SDN says:

    Danger, there’s not a Clue Bat in Creation big enough for that job……

  207. SDN says:

    Oh, and Ernst, that has been my point for a while: yes, the Founders were conducting a Revolution of ideas, but they were careful to keep street thugs like Sam Adams and his boys on tap, because, to quote Marcus from Babylon 5, “a kind word and a big club get results you can’t get with a kind word.” We apparently need to relearn that lesson.

  208. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – Go ahead, make feets millennium….

    ….and on election day….oh yes on election day, we’ll stand proud by her side, and that great set of hooters.

  209. happyfeet says:

    does ass-fucked trailer park America deserve a trailer park president?

    Sure.

    But maybe we should try the fake it til you make it approach and go with someone respectable.

  210. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – That feets, what a dreamer…..Always worried whether she’ll respect him the morning after.

  211. happyfeet says:

    i just find it alarming Mr. Hunter that precious little sense is prevailing in our little country that now might would be a very good time to raise the bar in terms of pursuing accomplished experienced presidential leadership

  212. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Maybe before we raise the bar, we define what we mean by accomplishment and experience?

  213. happyfeet says:

    ok I define it as Mitch Daniels not as some ditzy hoochie what bailed halfway through her elected position what she took an oath to fulfill to spend her days cashing checks as a notably inarticulate Fox News whore

  214. sdferr says:

    Sallied that one once, Ernst. Didn’t get very far for one reason or another.

  215. Ric Locke says:

    Bah. “Experience” in a politician comes from incumbency. What politicians learn when they’re a long time in office — whether one continuously, or multiple offices over time — is how to game the system to their own aggrandizement and the benefit of their dependents, courtiers, and hangers-on. Beyond a certain point, experience is a negative. Defining that point is difficult because it differs by the personality of the politician, but the break point definitely exists.

    OT: My analysis of the Democrats’ new logo is that it’s perfect as an expression of Democratic Party ideals.

    Regards,
    Ric

  216. happyfeet says:

    then Obama indisputably has more experience than Sarah Palin by that measure Mr. Locke which would suggest she is less strong resume-wise than someone who has actually finished a term of something

    I think we can find more better experienced people

  217. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – I agree with your sentiments feets. She’s a hell of a articulate leader, and one sweet snd smart lady. and Todd’s a lucky guy.

    – Once she gets elected Time magazine can do a piece on her showing her field dressing a moose right in the oval office.

    – Linda Rondstat would make the perfect running mate for Sarah. Linda’s a recycled hippy chic from the 70’s and a Migra of Spanish ancestry, so it would be a match made in heaven.

    – They could compare hemp embroidery and gimmy ganga brownie recipes.

  218. george smiley says:

    She’s charging against the hacks like Rove, because they were exactly like the folks that stood in her way in Alaska, and the Great Hope Christie’s transit department firing someone for something for
    public expression, no matter how misguided, is much more epic fail

  219. happyfeet says:

    and I bet they drink that nasty medium roast fair trade coffee

  220. Rupe says:

    Rove was called a political genius by the Democrats and MSM to cover for their inability to defeat mediocre Republican candidates. I never saw any genius in the man.