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reg - you once said Michael Harrington was a hero of yours….He claimed he felt the Internationale to be stirring despite its temporarily negative connotations. It is a beautiful melody, and for whatever the failures of the Soviet experiment - which Bragg acknowledges in his updated version, the struggle carries on.
Of course not. I think I pointed that out around mayday in the comments here…I was merely posting the Internationale as a response to the graphic Marc posted.
Unrest in Wingerville
Our friends in anti-science land are having a tiff, which simulates actual thought. Look out when that happens. It can lead to reason and there goes the neighborhood. Actually they can’t hold two thoughts at the same time. Anomalies don’t detract from observed realities. The fact is most glaciers are retreating at record levels. Depending on some local conditions, increased precipitation on north facing slopes and so on, a handful can actually grow at the same time as is the case in Iceland. Of course that is fodder the overgeneralizations of idiots like yourselves. You are Soooo unqualifed to even discuss the issue.
“This example, [of a freezer with the door left open a good example indeed] of course, doesn’t say anything about the cause of the warming, which is the main GW controversy,” writes the dissenter Civil Truth in the comment thread.
No, it isn’t a controversy in science. The cause is anthropogenic. The CO2 could come from no place other than our use of fossil fuels. There is no debate about that fact. The fals eargument is the tired cliche that there IS a debate. There isn’t.
“Morons! I have morons on my team.” Strother Martin
Left-wingism in a nutshell. Left-wingers look forward to the day when honest, hard-working laborers are adequately compensated and rewarded by their benificent, socialized masters. The rest of us (and by the rest of us I mean people who don’t entertain retro-fantasies of a working class we can control and benefit) look forward to the day when there are no more laborers. Why should the category of “laborer” even exist?
Answer: because the 19th century model of laborite screwed/ capitalist screwee is, in LeftWingLand, state of the art.
Well the Dem’s have had a bad month in August. Joe Wilson lied, backing Abortion continues to mean you will not win an election, global warming is shot down again, the war against terrorist is has been a success so far, crime is way down with the Republicans in office and I could go on but I’ll close with isn’t it fun to watch liberals continue to lose elections with their strange beliefs.
I take it that Ginger Guy has his tongue firmly in cheeck.
Anyone else here notice what is going on down Mexico way? Yesterday Vicente Fox was prevented from delivering his annual State of the Nation address by angry legislatures who stormed the podium to protest what they are calling massive voter fraud in the recent Presidential Election. And a million have turned out in the strees of the capital. I know this isn’t anything important like JonBenet but, considering the whole question of illegal Mexican immigration don’t you think unrest South of the Border just might be of interest? Naw! Didn’t think so!
“considering the whole question of illegal Mexican immigration don’t you think unrest South of the Border just might be of interest? Naw! Didn’t think so!”
Of course not. Mexico is not a real place and the Mexicans are not real people, just phantoms in our fearful fantasies of foreign invasion, corruption and despoliation.
My only comment on leftwing nostalgia for the days when labor was a growing movement (and I don’t think that was Marc’s point in posting that image, by the way; just a historical reminder of how we got the holiday– on the wrong day) is that a friend of mine who’s in academia asked somebody in the IWW if I could become a Wobbly, as a freelance writer (in advertising and sales videos and that sort of thing).
The answer was, no, since I worked for myself, I was a Boss.
The labor movement, as always right at the forefront of changes in the economy…
Michael Balter: “Of course not. Mexico is not a real place and the Mexicans are not real people, just phantoms in our fearful fantasies of foreign invasion, corruption and despoliation.”
Michael, gotta disagree my friend, the struggle in Mexico is very real for the very real people there. The majority of Mexicans voted for the right of center guy and the left of center guy cries foul and sets up a parrallel government. Regardless of the outcome, the process of violence, if it spreads significantly beyond Oaxaca, there may be a multitude of refugees. Some will come to the US, some to Mexico City/Monterrey/Reynosa/Matamoros, etc. but regardless of where they go, they will be a strain on the local economy as refugee’s always are but may be in real danger if they stay where they are. Do you suppose Obrador really gives a damn?
Actually, the majority didn’t vote for Calderon. A slight plurality (about 243,000 votes, many of which may be legitimately disputed) did and there is a difference.
This speaks to a larger problem in Mexico: the fact that they do not have a runoff between the top two if neither achieves 50% of the vote. Argentina and Mexico are the only countries that do not have any threshold (some have a threshhold of less than 50%). In any event, a majority did not vote for Calderon. Calderon received 35.89% and Lopez Obrador received 35.31%.
Also, the Oaxaca unrest is not related to the presidential election. It started with a teacher’s strike and has escalated to demands for the resignation of the governor who’s a PRI member, not a PAN member.
GM, I was just being ironic as I hope you realize. I also hope that if the right wing guy were protesting election fraud instead of the left wing guy, you would bring the same measure of skepticism to your analysis.
Labor day 2006 is here, and the state of labor is pretty dismal. I had to do a cartoon about the great labor rip-off that is happening to workers today, be it minimum wage, outsourcing, health care, overtime, pensions, job security, you name it, we are taking it in the shorts each and every day. http://www.whatnowtoons.com/#055
They continually rant that we’re getting cheaper good, bullcrap! The prices are set for what the market will bear. Look how cheap these goods are produced, the corporations are making a killing at our expense. The new robber barons are here, with a vengeance. Everything that made America great is being reversed, and the mainstream media is complicit with the reversal. And to top it off, while Congress is in recess, Bush appoints a union buster to the Dept of Labor. Wake up America, before it’s too late.
cartoons with a progressive edge http://www.whatnowtoons.com
Randy: “Actually, the majority didn’t vote for Calderon. A slight plurality (about 243,000 votes, many of which may be legitimately disputed) did and there is a difference.”
No Randy, there is an election law in Mexico that is THEIRs, whether we, you, I like it or not. And by their laws, Calderon won. Don’t talk about fraudulent votes, I’m old enough to remember Chicago in 60 and I’m sure you think Ohio had fraud in ‘04. There are always fraudulent votes somewhere. Too, Clinton won by only 43% in ‘92, should we have then had a run-off? Nope, our election laws provide for electoral college to elect the president. Obrador lost according to their election laws, just as Hamas won in Gaza and wasn’t it you guys who were saying then that you have to be careful about promoting democracy because you might not like the winner? Yeah, I think it was you folk on the left side of the political aisle.
Michael Balter, I knew that and I would I’d like to think. I didn’t like the results in Gaza, but they seem to have won “fair and square” and now the people of Gaza and the West Bank will have to live with it.
You said the majority voted for Calderon and you are wrong on that fact, which is what I pointed out. Own up to it. Surely you know the difference between a majority and a plurality. Since when did 35% constitue a majority? Only in wingnuttery and I thought you were better than that.
Nor did you acknowledge your error regarding Oaxaca.
Of course you rightwingers have a problem dealing with the truth. Two major errors in your comment and you refuse to acknowkedge them. What a surprise.
There were fradulent votes turned up in the spot check. A further check probably would have turned up more. That notwithstanding, as I wrote here, I believe AMLO should give it up.
Randy, you are correct, the Majority did not vote for Calderon, but so what, is the whole point of yours that I chose the wrong word to describe the same outcome? Wow, so precise you are! As to Oaxaca, if you deny the violence there despite the frequency of reports of the same found here and elsewhere then you are in error, not me. There is no doubt that violence is occuring there as I said, of course you leftwingers have a problem dealing with the truth.
I think the point Randy made about Oaxaca was missed here rather remarkably. Also, those links are pretty lame as reliable news sources regarding the level of “violence”, insofar as it’s related to the local political unrest, much less the election. The whole tempest reminds me of the Great San Francisco Vehicular Jihad Case, reported with about a dozen updates on Pajamas Media last week that…well…wasn’t. The right-wing is frothing at the mouth looking for “violence” that substantiates their fantastical scenarios…while ignoring the violence that their…uh…fantastical scenarios routinely unleash. (Actually, they unleash nothing…just act as low-rent enablers and cheerleaders.) Of course, if you check out the GM/Woody Corner, the war doesn’t figure into their blogging much these days. Sarcasm about Max Cleland’s continuing struggle with severely disabling war wounds and attendant trauma, their current Plame Big Lie (v 3.2) claiming that Karl Rove and Lewis Libby are guilty of exactly nothing in the Plame outing, a Lawyerf (no less) attempting to debunk global warming - in fact, serial global warming denial of the most inane sort - blah, blah blah. But the war ? Conveniently forgotten…since everything this element have tried to push on us since Day One has turned out to be fraudulent and/or fantasy.
You’d think they’d have the decency to at least give it a bit of continuing coverage and analysis. Maybe read and review some of the numerous book-length journalism/history that’s been making the rounds. (Too hard to digest?) Or repetition of the Rumsfeld/Cheney talking points. Perhaps a discussion of why so many GOP-types are changing their tune. Maybe even just a little bit of lipstick for their pig of false predictions. Something, anything. I looked at Pajamas for some war reporting today to get their version of the current situation, but nothing after scrolling the entire page. You’d think the death Guess it’s the last thing they want to face or discuss these days. Sad, because it’s not gonna diappear. Sixty-five U.S. military fatalities in August. Eleven more, at least, just over the “holiday” weekend. But the Crazy Right is in a mood where even showing the names and faces of our war dead has been construed as an attack on Cult Leader, G.W. Bush. “Look away…look away.” The more these self-absorbed Blowhardsphere wingnuts rear their heads with their pathetic, hot-and-cold running tripe, the more they disgust me.
The public will not turn against AMLO, at least not his supporters and those who voted for him - and his movement has more popular legitimacy than Calderon, Fox or even much of the old PRI. If some turn against him as the state becomes repressive, more will join him as they see the state as Marcos and him as Aquino.
If it wasn’t clear in the context of that rant, Randy was disputing the reasons for the situation in Oaxaca as having to do with the election as opposed to local disputes. There’s nothing I could find in those “links” - which were bizarrely “thin”, incidentally (News from the Adirondacks?) - that contradicts anything Randy stated.
As for the point about “majorities” vs. “pluralities” (with razor thin margins) - it does matter in longer term politics of any given situation. Of course, probably not to Bush voters, who have engaged in raging trumphalism from Day One on the basis of a “minority plurality”. Even their “Congressional Majority” is, in fact, the result of an electoral system gamed to give advantage to the Incompetence, Denial, Superstition and Greed Coalition of “red” minorities and special interests that have run our country into the gutter for the entirety of the “21st Century.”
I agree with much of reg says, but want to pick up on one point he made just in passing: The Plame case. While I don’t agree with the spin many rightwingers are putting on the Dick Armitage revelations, and said so in an earlier thread, I think we have to admit that the left opened itself up for this spin when it made such a big deal of the Plame case in the first place and indulged in fantasies that heads were going to roll etc etc. When only Libby was indicted, and then only for covering up and not outing Plame, the balloon was pretty much burst and it’s hard to blame the Bushies for continuing to stomp on it until it is entirely flat. The Plame deal, like the Downing Street memo, was always of more interest to the cognoscenti than the average American, and the lesson is this: Best to concentrate on what is of central interest to the average American, like getting his or her sons and daughers blown up in Iraq on entirely false pretences. If the Democrats dare to hammer on that between now and November, and I mean really hammer, they might take back a chamber of two of Congress.
reg, my blog is like my journal, I write what I want when I want. If you want scathing diatribes on the right or on me or woody, get your own blog and go for it. If you don’t like what I write about, don’t go to GM’s Corner. Simple isn’t it?
As for Oaxaca, Mark writes from there and lives there and sees the situation first hand. He says violence, you say not? How very strange of you!
You are more than welcome to ignore the war. I was actually more disturbed that I couldn’t find any commentary on Pajamas - nothing at all like the Great San Francisco Vehicular Jihad post last week -at least last time I looked earlier today. Frankly, it’s a subject better left to people who’ve actually had a clue somewhere along the way…
As for Oaxaca, I can only suggest that you try reading Randy’s comments and mine again. Your responses in both cases are non sequitors. How very strange of you, etc, etc. I don’t know a damned thing about Oaxaca. My comment was a clarification of the issue Randy had actually raised, as opposed to your misdirection. I haven’t said “not”, because the level of violence or unrest asserted had nothing to do with either my comment or Randy’s. (My reaction to the links being “thin” or “lame” wasn’t an attempt to dispute them on any particulars, just to suggest that they weren’t what I would consider reliable journalism. Frankly, there was nothing there to dispute relevant to the issue at hand. Certainly nothing that contradicted Randy’s point.)
Good God, GM, with all due respect, do you have a reading comprehension problem? Here’s what I wrote about Oaxaca:
Also, the Oaxaca unrest is not related to the presidential election. It started with a teacher’s strike and has escalated to demands for the resignation of the governor who’s a PRI member, not a PAN member.
I never wrote that it didn’t exist. I disputed your attempt to link it to those protesting the presidential election.
Regarding my comment on your use of the word majority, it’s not a matter of being “precise”, it’s a matter of being intellectually honest. Both AMLO and Calderon got 35 and a fraction percent.
That speaks to a very evenly divided electorate. Soemtimes I think you and Woody just make things up when you don’t have the facts on your side.
“Best to concentrate on what is of central interest to the average American, like getting his or her sons and daughers blown up in Iraq on entirely false pretences.”
For those who’s common sense is burdened with the baggage of political hatred Michael, it makes perfect sense that the president that stole the election from them would create false pretenses in order to start an unnecessary war, to help him win an election honestly the next time I guess (or whatever. Any theory will work).
For those who are not burdened with hatred, it makes perfect common sense that a president with the responsibility of the security of the country, the primary duty of the executive btw, to decline to run the risk a middle east nut job might pass along to another bigger nut job one of his favorite chemicals, or some of his unneeded radioactive material, for delivery by one of their sub-nuts menions, to Washington, NYC, or LA.
As you can see from Bush’s speeches lately, he is hoping against hope you party takes your advice.
Some in your party believe Bush engineered the 9/11 attack itself in order to help his political career, and they are not on the fringes either.
One has to ask themselves which party is the more unstable, the more radical, the more consumed with irrational beliefs and behaviors…..not to mention dangerously naive.
Yeah, well some in your party believe that Clinton failed to go after UBL. And, of course, that he murdered Vince Foster along with about a dozen other people. That is , when he wasn’t busy raping innocent young virgins. And please name any Democratic officeholders tthat believe Bush was behind it. Not even Cynthia McKinney said that! But Burton of Indiana on Clinton and Foster? I rest my case.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:36 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTMQJi_wDi8
September 1st, 2006 at 7:37 am
this one’s even better - Billy Bragg with newer lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNaFP9o2Xz4
September 1st, 2006 at 8:25 am
Gee, thanks for that “Soviet National Anthem” link, as it’s characterized on Youtube.
“For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions…”
That really worked out well.
September 1st, 2006 at 9:02 am
reg - you once said Michael Harrington was a hero of yours….He claimed he felt the Internationale to be stirring despite its temporarily negative connotations. It is a beautiful melody, and for whatever the failures of the Soviet experiment - which Bragg acknowledges in his updated version, the struggle carries on.
September 1st, 2006 at 9:26 am
Tried again and got “moderation” again.
September 1st, 2006 at 11:22 am
Are we confusing Labor Day with May Day? Not the same at all!
September 1st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Of course not. I think I pointed that out around mayday in the comments here…I was merely posting the Internationale as a response to the graphic Marc posted.
September 1st, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Unrest in Wingerville
Our friends in anti-science land are having a tiff, which simulates actual thought. Look out when that happens. It can lead to reason and there goes the neighborhood. Actually they can’t hold two thoughts at the same time. Anomalies don’t detract from observed realities. The fact is most glaciers are retreating at record levels. Depending on some local conditions, increased precipitation on north facing slopes and so on, a handful can actually grow at the same time as is the case in Iceland. Of course that is fodder the overgeneralizations of idiots like yourselves. You are Soooo unqualifed to even discuss the issue.
“This example, [of a freezer with the door left open a good example indeed] of course, doesn’t say anything about the cause of the warming, which is the main GW controversy,” writes the dissenter Civil Truth in the comment thread.
No, it isn’t a controversy in science. The cause is anthropogenic. The CO2 could come from no place other than our use of fossil fuels. There is no debate about that fact. The fals eargument is the tired cliche that there IS a debate. There isn’t.
“Morons! I have morons on my team.” Strother Martin
September 1st, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Left-wingism in a nutshell. Left-wingers look forward to the day when honest, hard-working laborers are adequately compensated and rewarded by their benificent, socialized masters. The rest of us (and by the rest of us I mean people who don’t entertain retro-fantasies of a working class we can control and benefit) look forward to the day when there are no more laborers. Why should the category of “laborer” even exist?
Answer: because the 19th century model of laborite screwed/ capitalist screwee is, in LeftWingLand, state of the art.
September 2nd, 2006 at 4:57 am
Well the Dem’s have had a bad month in August. Joe Wilson lied, backing Abortion continues to mean you will not win an election, global warming is shot down again, the war against terrorist is has been a success so far, crime is way down with the Republicans in office and I could go on but I’ll close with isn’t it fun to watch liberals continue to lose elections with their strange beliefs.
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:08 am
I take it that Ginger Guy has his tongue firmly in cheeck.
Anyone else here notice what is going on down Mexico way? Yesterday Vicente Fox was prevented from delivering his annual State of the Nation address by angry legislatures who stormed the podium to protest what they are calling massive voter fraud in the recent Presidential Election. And a million have turned out in the strees of the capital. I know this isn’t anything important like JonBenet but, considering the whole question of illegal Mexican immigration don’t you think unrest South of the Border just might be of interest? Naw! Didn’t think so!
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:26 am
“considering the whole question of illegal Mexican immigration don’t you think unrest South of the Border just might be of interest? Naw! Didn’t think so!”
Of course not. Mexico is not a real place and the Mexicans are not real people, just phantoms in our fearful fantasies of foreign invasion, corruption and despoliation.
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:11 am
My only comment on leftwing nostalgia for the days when labor was a growing movement (and I don’t think that was Marc’s point in posting that image, by the way; just a historical reminder of how we got the holiday– on the wrong day) is that a friend of mine who’s in academia asked somebody in the IWW if I could become a Wobbly, as a freelance writer (in advertising and sales videos and that sort of thing).
The answer was, no, since I worked for myself, I was a Boss.
The labor movement, as always right at the forefront of changes in the economy…
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:24 am
“Onegoodman Says”
I see “mark yorkie the terrier” is back
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:32 am
Michael Balter: “Of course not. Mexico is not a real place and the Mexicans are not real people, just phantoms in our fearful fantasies of foreign invasion, corruption and despoliation.”
Michael, gotta disagree my friend, the struggle in Mexico is very real for the very real people there. The majority of Mexicans voted for the right of center guy and the left of center guy cries foul and sets up a parrallel government. Regardless of the outcome, the process of violence, if it spreads significantly beyond Oaxaca, there may be a multitude of refugees. Some will come to the US, some to Mexico City/Monterrey/Reynosa/Matamoros, etc. but regardless of where they go, they will be a strain on the local economy as refugee’s always are but may be in real danger if they stay where they are. Do you suppose Obrador really gives a damn?
September 3rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
GM,
Actually, the majority didn’t vote for Calderon. A slight plurality (about 243,000 votes, many of which may be legitimately disputed) did and there is a difference.
This speaks to a larger problem in Mexico: the fact that they do not have a runoff between the top two if neither achieves 50% of the vote. Argentina and Mexico are the only countries that do not have any threshold (some have a threshhold of less than 50%). In any event, a majority did not vote for Calderon. Calderon received 35.89% and Lopez Obrador received 35.31%.
September 3rd, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Also, the Oaxaca unrest is not related to the presidential election. It started with a teacher’s strike and has escalated to demands for the resignation of the governor who’s a PRI member, not a PAN member.
September 3rd, 2006 at 7:54 pm
To Whom It May Concern:
Our very own host with the most, Marc Cooper, turned in a fine expose on the guy in charge of safeguarding LA’s air quality (see LA Weekly.com news).
Not only does he dish the dirt on the sleazy pol in his usual sardonic style, he also dirties up several other ‘grand poobahs’ in Cali politics.
It’s Cooper at his best: local, unrelenting and always a good read. Check it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 4th, 2006 at 1:56 am
GM, I was just being ironic as I hope you realize. I also hope that if the right wing guy were protesting election fraud instead of the left wing guy, you would bring the same measure of skepticism to your analysis.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:57 am
Labor day 2006 is here, and the state of labor is pretty dismal. I had to do a cartoon about the great labor rip-off that is happening to workers today, be it minimum wage, outsourcing, health care, overtime, pensions, job security, you name it, we are taking it in the shorts each and every day.
http://www.whatnowtoons.com/#055
They continually rant that we’re getting cheaper good, bullcrap! The prices are set for what the market will bear. Look how cheap these goods are produced, the corporations are making a killing at our expense. The new robber barons are here, with a vengeance. Everything that made America great is being reversed, and the mainstream media is complicit with the reversal. And to top it off, while Congress is in recess, Bush appoints a union buster to the Dept of Labor. Wake up America, before it’s too late.
cartoons with a progressive edge http://www.whatnowtoons.com
September 4th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Randy: “Actually, the majority didn’t vote for Calderon. A slight plurality (about 243,000 votes, many of which may be legitimately disputed) did and there is a difference.”
No Randy, there is an election law in Mexico that is THEIRs, whether we, you, I like it or not. And by their laws, Calderon won. Don’t talk about fraudulent votes, I’m old enough to remember Chicago in 60 and I’m sure you think Ohio had fraud in ‘04. There are always fraudulent votes somewhere. Too, Clinton won by only 43% in ‘92, should we have then had a run-off? Nope, our election laws provide for electoral college to elect the president. Obrador lost according to their election laws, just as Hamas won in Gaza and wasn’t it you guys who were saying then that you have to be careful about promoting democracy because you might not like the winner? Yeah, I think it was you folk on the left side of the political aisle.
Michael Balter, I knew that and I would I’d like to think. I didn’t like the results in Gaza, but they seem to have won “fair and square” and now the people of Gaza and the West Bank will have to live with it.
September 4th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
GM,
You said the majority voted for Calderon and you are wrong on that fact, which is what I pointed out. Own up to it. Surely you know the difference between a majority and a plurality. Since when did 35% constitue a majority? Only in wingnuttery and I thought you were better than that.
Nor did you acknowledge your error regarding Oaxaca.
Of course you rightwingers have a problem dealing with the truth. Two major errors in your comment and you refuse to acknowkedge them. What a surprise.
There were fradulent votes turned up in the spot check. A further check probably would have turned up more. That notwithstanding, as I wrote here, I believe AMLO should give it up.
September 4th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
The closest thing to a nonviolent revolution in nearly half a century, and AMLO should give it up?
September 4th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
It’s called cutting one’s losses. The change will not happen this way and sooner or later the public will turn against them.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:15 am
Randy, you are correct, the Majority did not vote for Calderon, but so what, is the whole point of yours that I chose the wrong word to describe the same outcome? Wow, so precise you are! As to Oaxaca, if you deny the violence there despite the frequency of reports of the same found here and elsewhere then you are in error, not me. There is no doubt that violence is occuring there as I said, of course you leftwingers have a problem dealing with the truth.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:19 am
Randy, you might also look here for information on violence in Oaxaca.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:24 am
Or even here
September 5th, 2006 at 7:00 am
I think the point Randy made about Oaxaca was missed here rather remarkably. Also, those links are pretty lame as reliable news sources regarding the level of “violence”, insofar as it’s related to the local political unrest, much less the election. The whole tempest reminds me of the Great San Francisco Vehicular Jihad Case, reported with about a dozen updates on Pajamas Media last week that…well…wasn’t. The right-wing is frothing at the mouth looking for “violence” that substantiates their fantastical scenarios…while ignoring the violence that their…uh…fantastical scenarios routinely unleash. (Actually, they unleash nothing…just act as low-rent enablers and cheerleaders.) Of course, if you check out the GM/Woody Corner, the war doesn’t figure into their blogging much these days. Sarcasm about Max Cleland’s continuing struggle with severely disabling war wounds and attendant trauma, their current Plame Big Lie (v 3.2) claiming that Karl Rove and Lewis Libby are guilty of exactly nothing in the Plame outing, a Lawyerf (no less) attempting to debunk global warming - in fact, serial global warming denial of the most inane sort - blah, blah blah. But the war ? Conveniently forgotten…since everything this element have tried to push on us since Day One has turned out to be fraudulent and/or fantasy.
You’d think they’d have the decency to at least give it a bit of continuing coverage and analysis. Maybe read and review some of the numerous book-length journalism/history that’s been making the rounds. (Too hard to digest?) Or repetition of the Rumsfeld/Cheney talking points. Perhaps a discussion of why so many GOP-types are changing their tune. Maybe even just a little bit of lipstick for their pig of false predictions. Something, anything. I looked at Pajamas for some war reporting today to get their version of the current situation, but nothing after scrolling the entire page. You’d think the death Guess it’s the last thing they want to face or discuss these days. Sad, because it’s not gonna diappear. Sixty-five U.S. military fatalities in August. Eleven more, at least, just over the “holiday” weekend. But the Crazy Right is in a mood where even showing the names and faces of our war dead has been construed as an attack on Cult Leader, G.W. Bush. “Look away…look away.” The more these self-absorbed Blowhardsphere wingnuts rear their heads with their pathetic, hot-and-cold running tripe, the more they disgust me.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:00 am
The public will not turn against AMLO, at least not his supporters and those who voted for him - and his movement has more popular legitimacy than Calderon, Fox or even much of the old PRI. If some turn against him as the state becomes repressive, more will join him as they see the state as Marcos and him as Aquino.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:03 am
Left out “You’d think the deaths of their fellow-Americans - albeit in a 3 & 1/ year-old conflict - would warrant some kind of comment or analysis.”
September 5th, 2006 at 7:32 am
If it wasn’t clear in the context of that rant, Randy was disputing the reasons for the situation in Oaxaca as having to do with the election as opposed to local disputes. There’s nothing I could find in those “links” - which were bizarrely “thin”, incidentally (News from the Adirondacks?) - that contradicts anything Randy stated.
As for the point about “majorities” vs. “pluralities” (with razor thin margins) - it does matter in longer term politics of any given situation. Of course, probably not to Bush voters, who have engaged in raging trumphalism from Day One on the basis of a “minority plurality”. Even their “Congressional Majority” is, in fact, the result of an electoral system gamed to give advantage to the Incompetence, Denial, Superstition and Greed Coalition of “red” minorities and special interests that have run our country into the gutter for the entirety of the “21st Century.”
September 5th, 2006 at 9:28 am
I agree with much of reg says, but want to pick up on one point he made just in passing: The Plame case. While I don’t agree with the spin many rightwingers are putting on the Dick Armitage revelations, and said so in an earlier thread, I think we have to admit that the left opened itself up for this spin when it made such a big deal of the Plame case in the first place and indulged in fantasies that heads were going to roll etc etc. When only Libby was indicted, and then only for covering up and not outing Plame, the balloon was pretty much burst and it’s hard to blame the Bushies for continuing to stomp on it until it is entirely flat. The Plame deal, like the Downing Street memo, was always of more interest to the cognoscenti than the average American, and the lesson is this: Best to concentrate on what is of central interest to the average American, like getting his or her sons and daughers blown up in Iraq on entirely false pretences. If the Democrats dare to hammer on that between now and November, and I mean really hammer, they might take back a chamber of two of Congress.
September 5th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
My comment is awaiting moderation? I said no such thing!
September 5th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
reg, my blog is like my journal, I write what I want when I want. If you want scathing diatribes on the right or on me or woody, get your own blog and go for it. If you don’t like what I write about, don’t go to GM’s Corner. Simple isn’t it?
As for Oaxaca, Mark writes from there and lives there and sees the situation first hand. He says violence, you say not? How very strange of you!
September 5th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
You are more than welcome to ignore the war. I was actually more disturbed that I couldn’t find any commentary on Pajamas - nothing at all like the Great San Francisco Vehicular Jihad post last week -at least last time I looked earlier today. Frankly, it’s a subject better left to people who’ve actually had a clue somewhere along the way…
As for Oaxaca, I can only suggest that you try reading Randy’s comments and mine again. Your responses in both cases are non sequitors. How very strange of you, etc, etc. I don’t know a damned thing about Oaxaca. My comment was a clarification of the issue Randy had actually raised, as opposed to your misdirection. I haven’t said “not”, because the level of violence or unrest asserted had nothing to do with either my comment or Randy’s. (My reaction to the links being “thin” or “lame” wasn’t an attempt to dispute them on any particulars, just to suggest that they weren’t what I would consider reliable journalism. Frankly, there was nothing there to dispute relevant to the issue at hand. Certainly nothing that contradicted Randy’s point.)
September 5th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Good God, GM, with all due respect, do you have a reading comprehension problem? Here’s what I wrote about Oaxaca:
I never wrote that it didn’t exist. I disputed your attempt to link it to those protesting the presidential election.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Regarding my comment on your use of the word majority, it’s not a matter of being “precise”, it’s a matter of being intellectually honest. Both AMLO and Calderon got 35 and a fraction percent.
That speaks to a very evenly divided electorate. Soemtimes I think you and Woody just make things up when you don’t have the facts on your side.
Jcummings: predictions are a fool’s errand.
September 6th, 2006 at 8:25 am
“Best to concentrate on what is of central interest to the average American, like getting his or her sons and daughers blown up in Iraq on entirely false pretences.”
For those who’s common sense is burdened with the baggage of political hatred Michael, it makes perfect sense that the president that stole the election from them would create false pretenses in order to start an unnecessary war, to help him win an election honestly the next time I guess (or whatever. Any theory will work).
For those who are not burdened with hatred, it makes perfect common sense that a president with the responsibility of the security of the country, the primary duty of the executive btw, to decline to run the risk a middle east nut job might pass along to another bigger nut job one of his favorite chemicals, or some of his unneeded radioactive material, for delivery by one of their sub-nuts menions, to Washington, NYC, or LA.
As you can see from Bush’s speeches lately, he is hoping against hope you party takes your advice.
September 6th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Some in your party believe Bush engineered the 9/11 attack itself in order to help his political career, and they are not on the fringes either.
One has to ask themselves which party is the more unstable, the more radical, the more consumed with irrational beliefs and behaviors…..not to mention dangerously naive.
September 6th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Yeah, well some in your party believe that Clinton failed to go after UBL. And, of course, that he murdered Vince Foster along with about a dozen other people. That is , when he wasn’t busy raping innocent young virgins. And please name any Democratic officeholders tthat believe Bush was behind it. Not even Cynthia McKinney said that! But Burton of Indiana on Clinton and Foster? I rest my case.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:23 am
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