Wednesday Reads: Pelosi, SOTU, and a Bucket of KFF
Posted: January 25, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, Banksters, Barack Obama, Congress, Drone Warfare, fetus fetishists, fundamentalist Christians, Mitt Romney, morning reads, Newt Gingrich, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, Political Affective Disorder, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican presidential politics, SOTU, U.S. Politics | Tags: Fetuses...it's what's for dinner., Glenn Beck, Kentucky Fried Fetus, Preppers, Sen. Ralph Shortey 45 Comments
Good Morning!
I completely forgot that today was my day to write the morning reads. So this post is being written on the fly…
We had a live blog on Obama’s SOTU last night. Twitter was very busy. It was the first speech I have seen discussed on the Twitterverse and I had a good time reading these quick jabs throughout the night. It reminded me of being in my college history class…and some of us would make funny comments about Janet Leigh’s pointy viking brassiere as we watched The Viking or quoting from Monty Python’s Holy Grail while Charlton Heston defended his castle in The Warlord.
Charles Krauthammer had this to say about Obama’s speech:
Following the State Of The Union address, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer commended President Obama for delivering a speech “that struck the right tone.” “It was less partisan than I would have expected,” Krauthammer observed.
“There were a couple of illusions to Republican obstruction, but I think he struck the right tone for the State of the Union address and didn’t open up to attacks,” Krauthammer — who is often thought of as President Obama’s chief critic — continued.
“The one area where he spoke forcibly and I think dramatically was on raising the taxes on the rich,” Krauthammer added. “That was sort of the only strong aspect of the speech but in other respects, but that’s just a repeat of the decade of debate over the Bush tax cuts. Other than that, it’s hard to say what exactly does he want for the country in the next year and in the next term and that I think he hasn’t answered. He’ll do that when he starts his swing around the swing states tomorrow.”
I thought Obama spoke a bit different last night…like he has had some help with his delivery. I liked it a lot better than when he channels MLK, the King cadence and way of speaking just does not seem to fit him.
I also thought starting with Osama and ending with Osama was smart…reminding all those GOP folks that he did what Bush couldn’t. He may have pulled the troops out of Iraq on Bush’s terms, but he sure as hell iced Osama on his own watch.
For other articles on the speech:
A re-election speech in State of the Union clothing – Political Hotsheet – CBS New
Focus group suggests State of the Union speech was well-received – latimes.com
Obama State of the Union Address Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness – NYTimes.com
I will post more reactions to the speech in the comments below….
Last night Nancy Pelosi once again threw out another threat…Newt will never be president. You may remember her comment about this late last year. Well, she said it again…Pelosi On A Gingrich Presidency: “That Will Never Happen”
John King, CNN: “You make your case there passionately for President Obama. But also understand that this is a tough reelection climate for any president, Democrat or Republican in this economy. Because of your history with Speaker Gingrich, what goes through your mind when you think of the possibility, which is more real today than it was a week or a month ago, that he would be the Republican nominee and that you could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “Let me just say this. That will never happen.”
King: “Why?”
Pelosi: “He’s not going to be President of the United States. That’s not going to happen. Let me just make my prediction and stand by it, it isn’t going to happen.”
King: “Why are you so sure?”
Pelosi: “There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that’s their prerogative. I don’t even think that’s going to happen.”
Hmmm, you would think that Pelosi would want Gingrich as the GOP candidate, since he would be an easier defeat than Romney. I wonder, what could she possibly know that would hurt Gingrich with his mad batshit crazy supporters? If open marriage and lies about lobbying and ethics charges didn’t do it…what will?
It can’t have anything to do with men’s rooms in major US airports…that’s been done before. Could it be some sort of diaper fetish with hookers? Oh…nope, ditto on that one too. Was Newt formally Newtina? That would be a new one on the GOP hypocrites…But seriously, it must be some pretty bad shit if all the other crap Gingrich has done hasn’t frazzled the Christian Right wingnuts.
(Sorry for the language. I think these GOP candidates bring out the “juicy” words in me.) PAD Political Affected Disorder, has that affect…
Continuing with Newt for a moment longer. Got Medieval, one of my favorite blogs, wrote a post on Gingrich. Newt Gingrich: History’s Greatest Team — Got Medieval
You’ve got to admire the Romney folks for putting out that memo listing the various historical figures that Newt Gingrich has compared himself to over the years. It’s a pretty nifty dig at an opponent, even if it didn’t net Mitt a win in South Carolina.
Now, I know Newt and I have had words before about his historical comparisons, but I’m prepared to let bygones be bygones. Both he and I are Georgians, after all, and when I was but a wee lad I even lived in his district, so you could say we go way back. I’m prepared to take him at his word that these really are the people he sees himself in.
Well, to say I’m “prepared” is sort of revisionist history on my part.* I have to admit, I originally planned this post as a point-by-point analysis of Newt’s self-declared historical analogues, but where would that get us? Who knows what Newt thinks these people are famous for, much less what he thinks he shares with them? I surely don’t. Here’s a guy who thinks Braveheart planted a flag in the ground and yelled “Charge!”, rather than “Steady. Hold. Hold! HOLD! NOOOOW!!”–what Mel Gibson says when I play my DVD.** If Newt buys his history books at the same place that sells these special Reverse Director’s Cuts,*** his Henry Clay may turn out to be the inventor of calculus and his Pericles the first discoverer of America.
Check out those footnotes, they are awesome, but they sure as hell don’t beat the photo of Newt in full regalia.
So I’m not quite prepared to take him at his word, more just resigned to it. In lieu of my fisking out historical ripostes, please accept this, my artist’s rendering of Newt’s professed self-image:****
All hail our next president, the Viking Duke Dr. President Prime Minister Rabbi Speaker Ronald Woodrow Abraham Margaret William Wilbur Henry Moses Pericles Orville Wallace Thatcher Clay Wellington Wilson Wright Reagan Lincoln de Gaulle, PhD. Long may they reign.
Gotta love the Bonzo reference. Hey Newt, what ya got under that kilt? Ugh…did I just say that?
And as far as Mittens goes, Mitt Romney’s tax information sits uneasily with Florida voters
‘Get a real job,’ suggests one voter after learning of the candidate’s high income. Others are bothered that he equivocated before releasing the information.
Do you all remember that comment about being unemployed while he was in the Tampa Bay area last year?
I think some of those Florida long-term unemployed take exception to Romney’s wealth.
Even before Tuesday, Mitt Romney was struggling to connect to average voters, suffering from impromptu remarks — proffering a $10,000 wager in a debate, suggesting $375,000 in speaking fees was small change — that gave off a whiff of privilege.
Then came Romney’s release of tax returns showing that in 2010 he claimed $21.6 million in income, with an effective tax rate of less than 14%, far less than many middle-class families pay. He also estimated $20.9 million in income for 2011, with a rate of just over 15%.
Jeanne Johnson, a political independent and owner of the Lake Alfred Barber Shop, said that when she heard the news of Romney’s taxes on TV, “I thought I was going to throw up.”
And this isn’t going to help things either: Romney, sinking in polls, says ‘banks aren’t bad people’
Before a crowd of several hundred curious onlookers, drawn to the event by local TV news coverage on an unseasonably hot January afternoon, the former Massachusetts governor tried to draw attention to the housing sector’s continuing drag on the country’s struggle to bounce back from the worst recession since the 1930s.
Romney did not offer any specific prescriptions of his own. Instead, he fingered Obama for blame, along with new regulations designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse.
He said the Dodd-Frank legislation package had smothered banks with regulations that made it harder for them to help struggling homeowners dig out from mortgages that in many case are larger than the value of their homes.
“Now, the banks aren’t bad people. They’re just overwhelmed right now,” Romney said. “They’re overwhelmed with a lot of things. One is a lot of homes coming in, that are in foreclosure or in trouble, and the other is with a massive new pile of regulations.”
What was it that barber said up top? I think I’m going to throw up…
Which brings me to this link from Wall Street Journal: Stephens: The GOP Deserves to Lose
Let’s just say right now what voters will be saying in November, once Barack Obama has been re-elected: Republicans deserve to lose.
It doesn’t matter that Mr. Obama can’t get the economy out of second gear. It doesn’t matter that he cynically betrayed his core promise as a candidate to be a unifying president. It doesn’t matter that he keeps blaming Bush. It doesn’t matter that he thinks ATMs are weapons of employment destruction. It doesn’t matter that Tim Geithner remains secretary of Treasury. It doesn’t matter that the result of his “reset” with Russia is Moscow selling fighter jets to Damascus. It doesn’t matter that the Obama name is synonymous with the most unpopular law in memory. It doesn’t matter that his wife thinks America doesn’t deserve him. It doesn’t matter that the Evel Knievel theory of fiscal stimulus isn’t going to make it over the Snake River Canyon of debt.
Above all, it doesn’t matter that Americans are generally eager to send Mr. Obama packing. All they need is to be reasonably sure that the alternative won’t be another fiasco. But they can’t be reasonably sure, so it’s going to be four more years of the disappointment you already know.
As for the current GOP field, it’s like confronting a terminal diagnosis. There may be an apparent range of treatments: conventional (Romney), experimental (Gingrich), homeopathic (Paul) or prayerful (Santorum). But none will avail you in the end. Just try to exit laughing.
Read the rest of Bret Stephens post at the link…and remember this dude is writing from a Republican point of view.
What should readers who despair of a second Obama term make of all this? Hope ObamaCare is repealed by the High Court, the Iranian bomb is repealed by the Israeli Air Force, and the Senate switches hands, giving America a healthy spell of Hippocratic government.
All perfectly plausible. And the U.S. will surely survive four more years. Who knows? By then maybe Republicans will have figured out that if they don’t want to lose, they shouldn’t run with losers.
Alright, that is enough of the GOP primary crap.
For those of you who are depressed, and the first part of this post did not help matters…rejoice! Magic mushroom trips point to new depression drugs
The brains of people tripping on magic mushrooms have given the best picture yet of how psychedelic drugs work and British scientists say the findings suggest such drugs could be used to treat depression.
Two separate studies into the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, showed that contrary to scientists’ expectations, it does not increase but rather suppresses activity in areas of the brain that are also dampened with other anti-depressant treatments.
Sign me up for the test trials…I want a magic mushroom.
There are a group of people in the US that may need large doses of depressants, and I am sure they are stocking up. Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization’s collapse
When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.
“In an instant, anything can happen,” she told Reuters. “And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared.”
Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as “preppers.” Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.
They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.
Preppers, though are, worried about no government.
Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a “survival center,” complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.
My best friend in the world is one of these Preppers. She lives out in Iowa, among the corn fields and republicans…I worry about her a lot. She is a huge Glenn Beck fan, and at times I think the nature of being a Beck follower causes people to forget what and who they are.
Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck seems to preach preppers’ message when he tells listeners: “It’s never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.”
“Unfortunately, given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse are increasing year after year,” said author James Wesley Rawles, whose Survival Blog is considered the guiding light of the prepper movement.
A former Army intelligence officer, Rawles has written fiction and non-fiction books on end-of-civilization topics, including “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It,” which is also known as the preppers’ Bible.
“We could see a cascade of higher interest rates, margin calls, stock market collapses, bank runs, currency revaluations, mass street protests, and riots,” he told Reuters. “The worst-case end result would be a Third World War, mass inflation, currency collapses, and long term power grid failures.”
Those of you who are reading or have read Charles P Pierce’s book Idiot America will find this next bit intriguing.
Many of today’s preppers receive inspiration from the Internet, devouring information posted on websites like that run by attorney Michael T. Snider, who writes The Economic Collapse blog out of his home in northern Idaho.
“Modern preppers are much different from the survivalists of the old days,” he said. “You could be living next door to a prepper and never even know it. Many suburbanites are turning spare rooms into food pantries and are going for survival training on the weekends.”
Like other preppers, Snider is worried about the end of a functioning U.S. economy. He points out that tens of millions of Americans are on food stamps and that many U.S. children are living in poverty.
“Most people have a gut feeling that something has gone terribly wrong, but that doesn’t mean that they understand what is happening,” he said. “A lot of Americans sense that a massive economic storm is coming and they want to be prepared for it.”
Yeah, the Gut…as Pierce writes:
In the place of expertise, we have elevated the Gut, and the Gut is a moron, as anyone who has ever tossed a golf club, punched a wall, or kicked an errant lawn mower knows. We occasionally dress up the Gut by calling it “common sense.” The president’s former advisor on medical ethics regularly refers to the “yuck factor.” The Gut is common. It is democratic. It is the roiling repository of dark and ancient fears. Worst of all, the Gut is faith-based.
It’s a dishonest phrase for a dishonest time, “faith-based,” a cheap huckster’s phony term of art. It sounds like an additive, an artificial flavoring to make crude biases taste of bread and wine. It’s a word for people without the courage to say they are religious, and it is beloved not only by politicians too cowardly to debate something as substantial as faith but also by Idiot America, which is too lazy to do it.
After all, faith is about the heart and soul and about transcendence. Anything calling itself faith-based is admitting that it is secular and profane. In the way that it relies on the Gut to determine its science, its politics, and even the way it sends its people to war, Idiot America is not a country of faith; it’s a faith-based country, fashioning itself in the world, which is not the place where faith is best fashioned.
Hofstadter saw this one coming. “Intellect is pitted against feeling,” he wrote, “on the ground that it is somehow inconsistent with warm emotion. It is pitted against character, because it is widely believed that intellect stands for mere cleverness, which transmutes easily into the sly or the diabolical.”
The Gut is the basis for the Great Premises of Idiot America. We hold these truths to be self-evident:
1) Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.
2) Anything can be true if somebody says it on television.
3) Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.
Throwing up and the Gut…Where the hell are we going to? Lean forward, push back…it all just makes me confused and unhappy.
Hey, let’s end with something a little funny?
The Most Badass Excerpt From Barney Frank’s Interview With The NY Times
Interviewer: You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed?
Barney Frank: No.
Interviewer: Why not?
Barney Frank: Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?
Interviewer: I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it.
Barney Frank: Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion?
Hey…that must be it! That is the big secret Pelosi is referring to…Newt has had an abortion!
Oh, heaven preserve us! He has had an abortion and satisfied his gluttony for food as well. Perhaps it would be the only thing the PLUB GOP could find offensive enough?
A Republican state senator from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food, despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.
Freshman Sen. Ralph Shortey said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary and prompted him to offer the bill aimed at raising “public awareness” and giving an “ultimatum to companies” that might consider such a policy.
Somebody get that Shortey dude some magic mushrooms! Oh wait, it looks like he has been on them for an extended period of time.
What are you all reading and writing about…I’ll be seeing you in the comments after I get finished with this KFF (Kentucky Fried Fetus) bucket of fetuses made with seven herbs and spices. Mmmmm, I just love that Original Recipe!
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Morning…here are some links to SOTU items that were published after this post was written.
Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address | The White House
Obama’s State of the Union speech: Confrontation wrapped in Kumbaya – The Washington Post
Boehner: Politics President Obama is running on ‘almost un-American’ – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs
Gov. Daniels: Obama is ‘pro-poverty’ – The Hill’s Video
Herman Cain: ‘Mr. President, some of us aren’t stupid’ – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room
EXCLUSIVE: Obama To Announce Mortgage Crisis Unit Chaired By New York Attorney General Schneiderman
That should keep you busy for awhile. 😉
One more for you: The State of the Union: What Obama Doesn’t Get About America – Conor Friedersdorf – Politics – The Atlantic
Pro-poverty? They have taken ‘CHRIST’ out of Christian. Today, they would call for the riot police: Yes, there is a man, with long hair, wearing a dress, with what seems to be 12 Occupy Wall Street types, about to feed hundreds if not thousands of people at the local park, HURRY and bring pepper spray!
Being Homeless is a Crime in Sacramento Daily the shelters turn away 50 women and children…
Thanks WV – the case of homelessness in California is reaching an all time high, due to the fact that inmates are being released back into communities, and they knew this was going to happen, and did nothing to prepare for the upheaval in our communities.
That reminds me of one more thing I signed up to do, a resource book for the NAACP… I am so behind and I keep telling younger people to join, as us older people are to spread out and the heartbreak is also hard. Yes, the counties can’t get any funding for re-entry into the community and they are tied via the last Census data, so only two tinnie tiny cities are getting special funding but even with that they are over whelmed.
So, they locked them up, some for petty theft, lost in the system and now being dropped off in their communities with a crew of people scattering about trying to solve years of issues on the spot. The only thing about the older people is that they (people in need) see we are worn out and try to help…which keeps us going. The for profit PRISON system is the same system of NEOCONS that promote WARS, while people here in the US don’t have housing or basic health care.
Oh, and Gingrich had an interesting comment yesterday: Newt Gingrich: Latinos, Blacks Don’t Understand ‘Key To Future Wealth,’ But Asians Do
Just the title of that post made me laugh like hell.
If Nancy Pelosi has more dirt on Gingrich then she owes it to the rest of us to reveal it before he is sworn into office come January 2013.
At one time I would have laughed at the thought but like you I have read Pierce’s book and agree that the electorate can be idiots.
By holding out we are forced to listen to this evildoer continue a journey based on bigotry, hate, and discrimination which appeals to so many out there who once listened avidily to anything Glenn Beck had to say and who still tune into Rush for their marching orders.
With all due respect, it is working judging by the voters in SC who scream “family values” but were willling to issue a victory for a man whose moral compass was always AWOL.
Since we already know what a sleazy man he is, it is head scratching to consder just what else is left out there that has not been revealed. Short of “dating” Barney Frank, I can’t imagine what else would make a difference.
Unless he fathered Khloe Kardashian his lack of scruples is on full display.
I also feel that Gingrich could take the nomination and the election, Pelosi needs to speak up, however I am sure Newt has dirt on her as well.
“before he’s sworn into office”, hell before the primaries
It is as if he has a pecking order in his head about cultures, minorities, almost as it speaking of breeds of animals…SCARY! Reminds me of the color experiments. New Gingrich is an example of what power does to people who SHOULD NEVER HAVE IT!
The more that comes out about his ‘history’ mind the SCARIER he looks.
“The Angry Eye” | part 1 | Brown Eye-Blue Eye Experiment
When you come down to it, Glen Ford is right: Newt Gingrich: King Cracker | Black Agenda Report
It makes me wonder if Newt admires the work of Carl Schmitt, the Nazi political philosopher, who infamously stated that “Not every being with a human face is human.” In “The Concept of the Political”, Schmitt argues that in politics, a primary distinction is created between “the friend” and “the enemy”. This distinction is not an individual, personal differentation but a collective, political one which can be based on class, culture, ethnicity, language, religion, etc. It serves as a mark of collective identity which causes people to associate with one group and disassociate with another group ( “the enemy” ). In the most extreme cases, “the enemy” ceases to be identified as human and can justifiably be killed on moral grounds.
A good book on the subject is Claudia Koontz’ “The Nazi Conscience”.
Wow, like some of those in this video…………..we all, particularly throughout our lives makes mistakes, we all do. Newt tried as this young teary eyed girl does, to say I am in pain.
In his case, it was the media that caused his pain. Then he throws it out, that everyone in the room knows his pain.
I can’t help but ask, how can a husband be so insensivtive to his wife/wives? Insensitive to their medical concerns. Insensitive to the poor, to poverty, to racism, to employment, to aches of a child with a hungry belly, to the death of those who do not received health services. How does someone like him become president? With his delibrate lying of all the issues. How is it that the one who stood in judgement, and led a crude campaign against Bill Clinton, was at the same time doing the same thing, and the people want to let him be president?
Like this video, he does not understand human needs, human pains, and will never give you one inch of human rights.
Oh, I figured it out, ask BB to tell you. The clue is in that photo you posted and Romney knows what it is too! I will give you a clue….Newt Gingrich only sees his pain, sees himself as a victim not that he has caused others pain…major clue was in debate when asked about him targeting the poor and minorities in particular.
Sad, but I could see some hard case followers thinking he had been set up, despite reality looking them in the face. Oh, well, they had better start the courtship all over again with the other three.
I guess I had just thought he was a royal ars, frat boy who never grew up, mean bully, cheater and self absorbed…but missed it. I wonder how they will let the information loose… Remember the Ryan fiasco…that information was obtained.
OK, keep two boxes of popcorn at the ready, that is going to be some disclosure when it is dropped. AYE!
Today is also the anniversary of the January 25th revolt in Egypt. Egypt Live Blog | Al Jazeera Blogs
There is one thing I find myself in agreement with Obama and that is this country is truly divided. Anything south of the Mason/Dixon line is replete with people still fighting the Civil War.
I apologize to those liberals who reside in this demographic but these people from the Tea Party to the current GOP politicians do nothing to hide their biases and bigotry and Newt has become their perfect vehicle as he expresses it better than most.
Food stamp president. Lazy black children. Kenyan colonialism. All code words for the hatred toward a biracial president whose policies are the least of it.
Some of the western states have conclaves of white supremicists who find themselves active in the same cause when they refer to “taking our country back” which is nothing more than code for “taking it back from the black guy”.
It’s this language that allows Newt to soar in the polls since I don’t think it is in Mitt’s nature to stoop that low no matter how dull he may be. He has enough on his plate fighting back the “Christians” who refuse to accept his religion.
Those mega churches are packed every week with intolerant whites who fear minorities, gays, and reproductive rights, who listen to the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who follow Fox News, and who prefer to let others think for them out of fear and hatred.
Not exactly what we once would have considered “backward” but pretty close. Standing in the way of science and stem cell research, it is not a far reach.
I accept your qualifier – apologies to anyone liberal in the southern demographic – but I still think your opinion is a bit skewed and based on gross stereotyping. There are plenty of conservatives in the west and midwest as well. And some of those western states carry lopsided influence for their size.
I live in a small suburb of Atlanta. The metro counties vote democratic due to the high concentration of AA here, but also many LGBT liberals, Hispanic and just plain urban lefties like me and former snowbirds who moved here.
Granted – there’s loads of wingnuts, but that is not confined to the south by any stretch.
I grew up in the Northeast, and there are plenty of bigots there too. The divisions in this country are not limited to state or regional borders.
I grew up in the deep delta………I know what you are saying, and I understand. Alot of people left, only to return with a new found direction, and to give back, and they aren’t all of that mind set.
Sadly, I’ve found your observation about southerners still fighting the Civil War too true, Pat. I’m a Yankee transplant to the Buckle of the Bible Belt and frankly I never gave ‘the War Between the States’ much thought beyond history class. But depending on what region you live in the War is alive and well and the generational memory is all too vivid. I mean hell, we still have snake handlers living up in the mountains!
I don’t think any reasonable person can dismiss what Gingrich called forth in South Carolina with his not so subtle comments about the Food Stamp President, etc. I’m hardly an apologist for Barack Obama but the Gingrich schtick went way too far. It’s evil and calculating to tear open the wounds of the past. But the Gingrich types are more than willing to do just that.
Just like President Obama, it’s all about winning. At any cost.
I’m sorry but I’m finding your observations about southerners offensive. Please don’t lump us into a “them” category. I’m sure I can come up with negative stereotypes about northerners.
“Fetuses – it’s what’s for breakfast!”
Oh, Minx, you are priceless. Thanks for the laughs!
“There were a couple of illusions to Republican obstruction…”
That’s kind of funny. Krauthammer meant “allusions,” but whoever transcribed it used the wrong word.
What an a$$ he is though.
Minx, I’m glad you wrote about the fetus thing. I was so nauseated when I read about it a couple of days ago that I just couldn’t think what to write. All I know is that OK need to get a psychiatrist on staff at the state house ASAP, becuase I think they have some severely delusional paranoid schizophrenics in their state legislature. They need some antipsychotics–STAT!
Thanks Minx for something “on the fly” this is great!
I’m glad Romney released his tax returns as it shows how crazy our laws are – he’s done nothing wrong – he’s dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s yet the way the laws are structured he only had to pay under 15% – how can people possibly vote for the Rs when they are eager to lower taxes on the wealthy after seeing this?
Someone mentioned that southern voters want to retain their “values” and that’s why Gingrich won in SC – the man has no values of any consequence – clearly those who voted for him don’t understand what ethics means or how he was the stumbling block to Clinton achieving even more for our country.
Charles P Pierce hits another one out of the park.
The State of the Union and the Would-Be 1% Nominee
The last 4 years have sure taught us that talk is cheap.
Without OWS we wouldn’t have even heard it and that’s the point.
Yeah. But still, it’s disheartening to keep hearing the right things and watching actions that belie the words.
By the way, I don’t remember any time when talk wasn’t cheap.
Really? Sounded like an Obama 2008 stump speech to me. Maybe he mentioned “1% and 99%” because of OWS co-opting that terminology and spreading it, Otherwise the themes were all the same,
Not even close.
Obama, Taxing the wealthy, 6/29/2008
http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-would-shift-tax-burden-to-wealthy/62908/
“For decades, we’ve seen successful strategies to ride anti-tax sentiment in this country toward tax cuts that favor wealth, not work,” Mr. Obama said in a 20-minute address organized by the Tax Policy Center. “And for decades, we’ve seen the gaps in wealth in this country grow wider, while the costs to working people are greater.”
The language last night was a little more fiery, but he has not changed his campaign themes. He is a faux populist who only finds his populism during election season. He loses it afterwards.
I’m only bringing this up because I believe it was a very skillful speech that dressed up old BS in new shiny clothes, with a slight flavor of Occupy to attract all of us liberal/lefty types.
I think that speech will fool a lot of people into voting for him again, and it makes me sad that they might hope he will actually keep his promises this time, perhaps because of a group like Occupy. Obama couldn’t care less about Occupy. If he is re-elected, he will have no reason to do anything he doesn’t want to do, or be responsive to anyone he doesn’t want to be responsive to. He won’t need our votes any more, so he will be the full-on authoritarian corporatist he has always been – with no one to say him nay.
And no, I’m not voting for Romney. The whole “choice” makes me sick.
I’ll just quote Charlie’s last paragraph since I have no interest in relitigating ’08 any longer.
He simply will not be able to run another substance less campaign.
Occupy Response: Movement Issues Rebuttal To State Of The Union Address
SOTU rebuttal from Occupy DC
YEA!
The Angry Eye” Brown Eye-Blue Eye Experiment
that women is doing nothing that teaching discrimination and racism
i think she should be FIRED and she preaching pure ignorance
and minx anyone useing the cracker when refering to whhite people is no better that anyone useing the N word when referring
to black people
and those who when of the referencing to people is the south using code is a nothing more ? the pepole filled with white guilt if it a code is a bunch i live in the south and I have blues eyes i guess i must have not been there that day when the passed out the codebooks on top of that i was born in Germany so i guess that makes me a nazi right
I do not think it is fair to say the word cracker is the white man’s nigger…Cracker comes from the term Florida Cracker. The pioneers that settled in Florida.
Yes, Ford is using it in a derogatory way, however the term “cracker”does not come anywhere near to the painful connotations the N word carries with it.
When I lived in Tampa, I participated in the State Fairs Cracker Country for years and years. In this world of Political Correctness overload, would Cracker Country ever be a name for a history exhibit? Do you think a living history of slaves could be called “Nigger Country?” Hell no! The N word has no equal in our vocabulary.
I am a descendant of Spanish, Cuban and Italian heritage…the term Spic or Wop is used as derogatory expressions towards Spanish, Latins and Italians. They are words of ethnic racism…and they are hurtful.
However, those terms still do not come close to being emotionally connected to such a painful and hateful word as the N word. And in all honesty, no person who is not Black or African-American can truly understand what that word actually means to the Black community.
Your opinion on the word Cracker is your own, however, there is no way it could be considered a white persons equivalent to the N word.
Welcome to Cracker Country
Who were Florida Crackers?
What’s a Cracker?
Great Southern Cracker Roadshow
Minx call i what u what is the same BS you know it .
Well, I will say this…any and all derogatory terms and phrases are hurtful to whoever they are addressed to. That also goes for “retards” and “fags”…you know it is not limited to ethnic variations. As far as Cracker/N word being the same BS…that is something we just disagree on.
However, those terms still do not come close to being emotionally connected to such a painful and hateful word as the N word. And in all honesty, no person who is not Black or African-American can truly understand what that word actually means to the Black community.
newsflash it works both ways nobody who is not white or can truley can truly understand what the word Cracker actually means to the white community
Yup, know quite a bit about the pioneers from Cracker’s Neck, Ms.
American hostage in Somalia rescued by US Navy SEALs in overnight raid
Good works.
“the results suggest psilocybin could be useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy.”
Psilocybe semilanceata, P cyanescens, P. stuntzii are several of the LBJ (“little brown jobs”) that grow well up in the usually mild Pacific Northwest. Hunters adopt a characteristic “psilocybe stoop” when scouring the meadows and fields for it. Dosing, alas, is rather problematic.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3u-DyDXgQiEC&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=Psilocybe+Liniformans+Var+Americana&source=bl&ots=koNLjh59zj&sig=hVGzpQoqJFFobP-EIoaAdzmoFN0&hl=en&ei=378kSq3-N6fEtAOU0rmPBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=Psilocybe%20Liniformans%20Var%20Americana&f=false