There is a new elephant walking the political path to the graveyard:  the Democratic Alliance.  The headline, and part of the story:

Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks

The group has a goal of raising $200 million — a sum that would inevitably come in part at the expense of more traditional Democratic groups, although alliance officials say donors have committed to maintaining past contribution levels.
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The alliance is the brainchild of longtime Democratic strategist Rob Stein, who spent years studying conservative groups — in particular their success in sustaining GOP politicians and achieving many of their policy goals. Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, is working with Stein and is a leading promoter of his effort.

Two.  Hundred.  Million.  Dollars.  To think, analyze, publish, and promote.  P.T. Barnum would be proud.  Guess we should all drop what we’re doing and get in line:

The Democracy Alliance will act as a financial clearing house. Its staff members and board of directors will develop a lineup of established and proposed groups that they believe will develop and promote ideas on the left. To fulfill their million-dollar pledge, each partner must agree to give $200,000 or more a year for at least five years to alliance-endorsed groups.

||Ivory towers are brittle||
I’ve read a seemingly unending stream of punditry, bullshit-disguised-as-academic-analysis, historical (hysterical) perspectives, and navel-gazing since November ’04.  Written before, the difference between academia and the real world:  “It’s safer in there, it’s freer out here.”  Well said.

Once more for the reality impaired “rich liberals”:  the democratic side of the last presidential election spent a phenomenal 800+ million dollars to come in second behind an idiot savant from Texas.  And one of your many, many, many solutions?  Hire the academics to THINK our way to victory in ’06 and beyond.

Restraint is paramount.  Will.  Not.  Laugh.  Til.  I.  Puke.  Of all the blatantly self-serving, egotistical, blind-deaf-and-dumb, morally reprehensible actions the “loyal opposition” has taken in the past few months, this one rises to the top of the stinking pile of steaming bullshit flung far and wide by those who woefully cannot find their asses with both hands.

Seen on a t-shirt:  When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.  Indeed.  As is the Donkey.

I cannot even fathom that much cash.  It is a mathematical abstract, a nine-digit number having no bearing on my reality.  It is, however, a real number attached to a bankrupt concept being touted as an “answer to the Republican” think tanks that have sprouted like weeds over the last thirty years.

I’m sorry, but at what point did these f*cking idiots agree that the best way to further the interests of the Democratic Party is to slide into an elephant suit?  Just f*cking WHAT???.  “Become one with the gray beast?”  Fine.  Spend the money, it’s obvious you need to do something with it, and it is, after all, your hard-earned cash.  But remember what Marx wrote (Groucho, not Karl):

“Well, art is art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh… Now you tell me what you know.”  

Prescient:  he’s described the type of analysis we can look forward to from the “stink tanks”.  

I started to write a few suggestions, then realized “pragmatic” was not in their vocabulary. For a minute there I confused this group with people who actually give a shit.

[Off on Sunday errands. CYA in awhile].

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