Make sure to check out my featured article at Alternet. I hear it is doing very well.
Are you concerned about the Wisconsin recall elections but don’t know how to get involved? Here’s a tool you can use to help drive turnout even if you don’t live in the state.
This is maybe the most unintentionally funny thing ever. BabaBooey!!
Also from Balloon Juice, it looks like George Tierney Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina decided to drop the n-bomb and remove himself from the Twitter. Like that will help.
What’s the stupidest thing you’ve seen today?
Apparently, George Tierney Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina, decided to reappear. See the update.
that’s unfortunate. But, then, I guess the damage is done so why not stick around?
Did you really think that George Tierney Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina, was going to let Tbogg keep him down?
Maybe. Someone ought to talk some sense into him.
after reading the posted interview -assuming it’s not a hoax, as the writer is a satirist- I got the distinct impression that Tierney is mentally ill to some degree.
how does a guy who says he voted for clinton twice, voted for Gore, and objected strongly to GWB’s annointment (as well as his warmongering) turn into a troglodyte that hollers “c*nt” at women he disagrees with?
Then you read how he discovered 9 different cures for cancer, and you start to realize there’s a bit of megalomania going on. And then he gets into his conspiracy theories.
I think the guy has some delusions. I don’t think what he said on Twitter was OK, but I also don’t believe he’s the next Joe the Plumber-type grifter. I think he’s kinda ill in the head, and perhaps prone to psychotic outbursts.
Boo:
You need to close a caption!! Otherwise everything will be in italics.
thx.
I have a Google Rank of 6. I wonder what I’ve have to do to get up to 7?
So are you saying we should prepare for war or what?
I’m not sure how much good just explaining the situation does. Are there really people who go to Alternet who don’t already know this?
By the way, the explanation itself is good.
From the comments section there I would say very few share my view.
When a comments section is that unresponsive to the post, it should just be eliminated IMHO. I only read maybe the first 10 but it was the same Lord of the Flies version one sees in most really large corporate media blogs. Kyrie eleison.
It was a very good post and deserved respectful and thoughtful response.
Yes, the comments were so unresponsive that I didn’t bother to engage with any of them. For example, I never said one word in defense of the Democrats, but I was accused of ignoring the sins of the Democrats. That wasn’t the point.
Ah. Because of certain adblock software I use, I can’t even view comments there.
Well, best useful then. Though it’s the true the Democrats are only “good” because the republicans are actually evil, that doesn’t mean they’re equivalent.
I liked your article at Alternet Booman. I still find Benen’s article disappointing though in that he is so close to the main thesis of Mann and Ornstein both in their WaPo article and their book, yet doesn’t mention them at all. It’s clear Benen is familiar with their work.
I hope you can read Mann and Ornstein’s book and let that percolate in your mind the next time you address this subject. They have some substantive things to say that need better circulation.
One reason Mann and Ornstein “cherry pick” the debt ceiling crisis is that they are focused much more on Congressional TACTICS, PROCESS and METHOD than policy. Benen’s article doesn’t point that idea out. This is important because we aren’t talking about a difference of views that can be excused as a “mere” disagreement about policies. We’re talking about someone manipulating the RULES of government to such extremes that it appears they are using the same tactics Newt used in the House: make a branch of government so dysfunctional it grows and inspires the anti-government crowd to keep the Repubs in power. It’s an abuse of tactics and rules at an unprecedented level to place party above country.
So to M & O, the specifics of the debt crisis discussions matter less. The Repubs crossed an important line on TACTICS – a dangerous, destructive one.
So for example, I am also completely repulsed by the “Fuck Saddam – we’re taking him out.” crap of the previous occupant. But what really took me into despair in the Fall of 2002 was that Democrats couldn’t figure out how to be an opposition party. So sure Bush’s attitude had part in making the Republicans the worst party. But way too many Dems went along – many from progressive states where they had no political down side. This Iraq war history is about POLICY and one in which both parties hold some blame.
Mann and Ornstein are focusing on particular tactical behaviors for particular reasons. Benen lumps it under “the worst thing”. “Thing”? The vagueness of that is almost offensive after reading the scholarship and care that M & O put into their book.
I think that M & O’s focus on tactics and process of the Republicans is an important piece in how Dems could persuade independents to reject the Repubs this Fall. It doesn’t require Indies to think through policy choices and most Americans like to think they believe in “playing fair”. However Dems would profit from the book because they still have plenty to learn about how they failed to respond successfully to Newt’s over the edge tactics in the 90s.