Former Republican House majority leader Dick Armey demonstrates what passes for reasoned debate among Republicans these days:
"Income redistribution!"
"Give it a rest!"
"I'm glad I'm not your husband!"
Etc.
This is why your party got their asses kicked, Dick. No ideas, no attempt to persuade either the viewer or your opponent, just smugness, condescension and assholery from grouchy old farts who don't even realize how far behind the curve of history they've slipped.
But do keep it up. Remind us of why your kind should never again hold power in this country.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Concern Troll Is Concerned
From the Pilot Letters Section:
I do not usually read Dusty Rhoades in The Pilot, but I did see the Jan. 18 column on Sarah Palin.
Even President Obama would not endorse this pathetic, backward and small-minded-thinking article using the Beverly Hillbillies to project a point about Palin. Perhaps a column like this sells newspapers to a select few, but it certainly detracts from a positive attitude when Obama is working so hard to bring all Americans together, regardless of their political choice.
Rhoades should contain his self-appointed lofty ego and be more focused on uniting our country.
.Jack Duvall
Pinehurst
In Internet-speak, a "concern troll" is one who pretends to be on the side you're on, but who, in reality, is just trying to silence criticism of his actual position by expressing his "concern" over "tone" or, in this case, lack of a "positive attitude."
However, there's usually a "tell" that gives them away. Can you spot the "tell" in Jack's letter that lets us know he really isn't sincerely behind the Obama message of bringing people together?
I do not usually read Dusty Rhoades in The Pilot, but I did see the Jan. 18 column on Sarah Palin.
Even President Obama would not endorse this pathetic, backward and small-minded-thinking article using the Beverly Hillbillies to project a point about Palin. Perhaps a column like this sells newspapers to a select few, but it certainly detracts from a positive attitude when Obama is working so hard to bring all Americans together, regardless of their political choice.
Rhoades should contain his self-appointed lofty ego and be more focused on uniting our country.
.Jack Duvall
Pinehurst
In Internet-speak, a "concern troll" is one who pretends to be on the side you're on, but who, in reality, is just trying to silence criticism of his actual position by expressing his "concern" over "tone" or, in this case, lack of a "positive attitude."
However, there's usually a "tell" that gives them away. Can you spot the "tell" in Jack's letter that lets us know he really isn't sincerely behind the Obama message of bringing people together?
Quote of the Day
At some point—it might actually coincided with the election of George W. Bush—conservatism ceased to be a philosophy that traced its roots back to Edmund Burke and became nothing more than a "f*** you, liberal bastards" attitude.
-Lev, commenting at Balloon Juice
If anyone on the McCain campaign chose Palin because she would drive liberals crazy, my hat is off to him!
-Ann Coulter
-Lev, commenting at Balloon Juice
If anyone on the McCain campaign chose Palin because she would drive liberals crazy, my hat is off to him!
-Ann Coulter
Sunday, January 25, 2009
MEMENTO Republicans: Is Conservatism a Form of Brain Damage?
Latest Newspaper Column:
Well, the Obama inauguration has come and gone, and the transfer of power, as always, went peacefully -- if, that is, you define "peacefully" as "there were not actual tanks in the street, unless you count the great rolling behemoth that is the new presidential limo."
It was a happy day for many, but it was a real field day for the people I call the "Memento Republicans."
In case you'd forgotten, the "Memento Republicans" can't seem to remember relatively recent events and particularly what positions they've taken from one day to the next. The name is a reference to the award-winning movie Memento, which is about a man with a brain injury that leaves him unable to remember what happened yesterday. This makes his quest to find his wife's killer rather interesting.
A "Memento Republican" can serenely and without shame level a blistering criticism against a Democrat one day for something they'd ignored or even praised before.
Among the most prominent sufferers from Memento syndrome is radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh recently told his listeners that he'd been asked by "a major American print publication" to offer a 400-word statement explaining his "hope for the Obama presidency." Limbaugh said he needed only four: "I hope he fails."
Apparently the Oxycontin Limbaugh admits to abusing has eaten the part of his brain that holds his memories of Bush presidency and the many times he railed against critics of Dubbya as people who were "rooting for America to fail."
In those days, wanting the president to fail and wanting America to fail were one and the same, and they were wrong. Now, in Limbaugh's memory-impaired state, it's patriotic to want Obama to crash and burn.
A symptom of Memento syndrome that appears frequently among Republicans is the recurring delusion that George W. Bush was a great president because only one multi-victim terrorist attack occurred on U.S. soil during his presidency.
This indicates a severe failure of memory. After all, shortly after 9/11, we experienced an actual biological attack on our soil via anthrax. We also experienced a series of terrorist attacks in 2002 by D.C. sniper John Allan Muhammad and his underage protégé Lee Boyd Malvo. At least "terrorist attack" is what the Virginia Supreme Court called Muhammad and Malvo's well-planned killing spree.
Then there was the case of Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a Muslim who drove his SUV into a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in his words, to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world." Taheri-Azar wrote in a letter that he "was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers" and that "people who fight in the cause of Allah are not guilty."
Sure sounds like a terrorist to me. If you've forgotten the anthrax attackers, John Allen Muhammad and Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, and still claim Dubbya kept terrorist attacks from occurring on U.S. soil, you may be a Memento Republican.
Perhaps the most advanced case of Memento syndrome is that suffered by columnist, author, and frequent Fox News commentator Ann Coulter, who was absolutely shocked -- shocked I tell you -- at the "disrespect" shown to departing President George W. Bush.
She decried the spectators as the "Hope-and-Change crowd," which moments earlier had showered Bush with boos when he walked onto the stage. "That must be the new tone we've been hearing so much about," she said. "We're not the ones who booed a departing president." Liberals, Coulter went on to say, "are the ones booing, heckling and publicly fantasizing about the assassination of those who disagree with them on policy matters."
No, Ms. Coulter, you're the ones -- or, more correctly you're the one -- who publicly mused whether it would be better to "impeach or assassinate" a sitting president, namely Bill Clinton. You're the one who referred to a former senator who disagreed with you on policy matters as a "faggot."
And, Ms. Coulter, as for your frequent whining about the "liberal media" -- well, a few bloggers on the Web may have said some unkind things about Bush, and a few people in the inauguration crowd may have booed him, but I don't recall any of them being invited onto the "liberal media" over and over, as you have. But I guess, being one of those Memento Republicans, you've forgotten that you've sowed the wind, and now you're surprised to reap a whirlwind.
Either that or you're a cynical con artist who thinks your audience is so dumb they won't remember the things you've previously written and said, so long as you keep dishing out the big bloody chunks of red meat to throw them.
But I'll be charitable, as I am to all Memento Republicans, and put your problems down to some form of brain damage, because I'm a compassionate guy.
Well, the Obama inauguration has come and gone, and the transfer of power, as always, went peacefully -- if, that is, you define "peacefully" as "there were not actual tanks in the street, unless you count the great rolling behemoth that is the new presidential limo."
It was a happy day for many, but it was a real field day for the people I call the "Memento Republicans."
In case you'd forgotten, the "Memento Republicans" can't seem to remember relatively recent events and particularly what positions they've taken from one day to the next. The name is a reference to the award-winning movie Memento, which is about a man with a brain injury that leaves him unable to remember what happened yesterday. This makes his quest to find his wife's killer rather interesting.
A "Memento Republican" can serenely and without shame level a blistering criticism against a Democrat one day for something they'd ignored or even praised before.
Among the most prominent sufferers from Memento syndrome is radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh recently told his listeners that he'd been asked by "a major American print publication" to offer a 400-word statement explaining his "hope for the Obama presidency." Limbaugh said he needed only four: "I hope he fails."
Apparently the Oxycontin Limbaugh admits to abusing has eaten the part of his brain that holds his memories of Bush presidency and the many times he railed against critics of Dubbya as people who were "rooting for America to fail."
In those days, wanting the president to fail and wanting America to fail were one and the same, and they were wrong. Now, in Limbaugh's memory-impaired state, it's patriotic to want Obama to crash and burn.
A symptom of Memento syndrome that appears frequently among Republicans is the recurring delusion that George W. Bush was a great president because only one multi-victim terrorist attack occurred on U.S. soil during his presidency.
This indicates a severe failure of memory. After all, shortly after 9/11, we experienced an actual biological attack on our soil via anthrax. We also experienced a series of terrorist attacks in 2002 by D.C. sniper John Allan Muhammad and his underage protégé Lee Boyd Malvo. At least "terrorist attack" is what the Virginia Supreme Court called Muhammad and Malvo's well-planned killing spree.
Then there was the case of Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a Muslim who drove his SUV into a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in his words, to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world." Taheri-Azar wrote in a letter that he "was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers" and that "people who fight in the cause of Allah are not guilty."
Sure sounds like a terrorist to me. If you've forgotten the anthrax attackers, John Allen Muhammad and Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, and still claim Dubbya kept terrorist attacks from occurring on U.S. soil, you may be a Memento Republican.
Perhaps the most advanced case of Memento syndrome is that suffered by columnist, author, and frequent Fox News commentator Ann Coulter, who was absolutely shocked -- shocked I tell you -- at the "disrespect" shown to departing President George W. Bush.
She decried the spectators as the "Hope-and-Change crowd," which moments earlier had showered Bush with boos when he walked onto the stage. "That must be the new tone we've been hearing so much about," she said. "We're not the ones who booed a departing president." Liberals, Coulter went on to say, "are the ones booing, heckling and publicly fantasizing about the assassination of those who disagree with them on policy matters."
No, Ms. Coulter, you're the ones -- or, more correctly you're the one -- who publicly mused whether it would be better to "impeach or assassinate" a sitting president, namely Bill Clinton. You're the one who referred to a former senator who disagreed with you on policy matters as a "faggot."
And, Ms. Coulter, as for your frequent whining about the "liberal media" -- well, a few bloggers on the Web may have said some unkind things about Bush, and a few people in the inauguration crowd may have booed him, but I don't recall any of them being invited onto the "liberal media" over and over, as you have. But I guess, being one of those Memento Republicans, you've forgotten that you've sowed the wind, and now you're surprised to reap a whirlwind.
Either that or you're a cynical con artist who thinks your audience is so dumb they won't remember the things you've previously written and said, so long as you keep dishing out the big bloody chunks of red meat to throw them.
But I'll be charitable, as I am to all Memento Republicans, and put your problems down to some form of brain damage, because I'm a compassionate guy.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Boot's On the Other Foot Now
From The Volokh Conspiracy:
Just A Reminder, for the folks who thought that President Bush had the power to arrest anyone in the United States and detain them as "enemy combatants" without any hearing as part of his Commander-in-Chief power, that this power is now enjoyed by Barack Hussein Obama. That's right: A liberal with the middle name "Hussein" who pals around with terrorists and is adored in Paris now has all that Commander-in-Chief power. And if he decides that you're a threat to the nation, he can order you seized and locked up indefinitely. Congress can't get in B. Hussein Obama's way: As the FISA Court of Review emphasized back in 2002, Congress "could not encroach on the President’s constitutional power." And that meddling Supreme Court can't stop "The One," either. Or at least that's your view of things.
Just A Reminder, for the folks who thought that President Bush had the power to arrest anyone in the United States and detain them as "enemy combatants" without any hearing as part of his Commander-in-Chief power, that this power is now enjoyed by Barack Hussein Obama. That's right: A liberal with the middle name "Hussein" who pals around with terrorists and is adored in Paris now has all that Commander-in-Chief power. And if he decides that you're a threat to the nation, he can order you seized and locked up indefinitely. Congress can't get in B. Hussein Obama's way: As the FISA Court of Review emphasized back in 2002, Congress "could not encroach on the President’s constitutional power." And that meddling Supreme Court can't stop "The One," either. Or at least that's your view of things.
Heh. I've been saying something similar for years to the Bushistas who loudly insist that the Commander in Chief's powers in time of war are unlimited, and that he can lock up, torture, or "render"anyone he wants, just by taking the Magic Wand of Presidentness out of his flight suit, waving it about, and shouting "I declare thee an Enemy Combatant! BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!"
Well, wingnuts, having pissed away your support and screwed a whole kennel full of pooches so badly that your white-haired boy and his egregious sidekick got thier asses kicked worse than the bastard son at a family reunion, what's your position on "plenary authority" and the "Unitary Executive" now?
Of course, late conversions into believers of checks and balances are more than welcome.
Of course, late conversions into believers of checks and balances are more than welcome.
Only if they stand in the corner with the dunce cap on their heads for a while.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Oh, Happy Day.
Goodbye to this:
And hello to this:
Okay, maybe not as many laughs when Obama speaks, but I'll deal with it.
And hello to this:
Okay, maybe not as many laughs when Obama speaks, but I'll deal with it.
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