I honestly don’t know who I find more annoying:
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she is “disappointed in the use of that imagery” with regards to a controversial fundraising email sent by Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson that compared the tea party to the Ku Klux Klan.
“Obviously I am disappointed in the use of that imagery. Both sides need to dial back that kind of rhetoric and look to bring more civility into politics,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
However, Wasserman Schultz stopped short of calling upon Grayson (D-Fla.) to discontinue to use the email, which was sent Monday to supporters and included a burning cross depticting the “T” in Tea Party.
Alan Grayson has a safer district now, so he can probably get away with this hyper-polarizing shit, unlike in his first stint in office when he was crushed like a helpless bug in one of the biggest routs in congressional history. He couldn’t even crack 40% as an incumbent in his own district because he had all the political instincts of Donald Trump.
And then there is DWS who can’t bring herself to denounce the email but also can’t refrain from criticizing a colleague. Here’s some advice: choose one. Either call for civility or point out that, if the Tea Party doesn’t want to be compared to the Ku Klux Klan, then they can stop waving the Confederate Flag on Sasha and Malia’s front lawn.
DWS, so quick with the false equivalency. How lazy and weak is that?
My guess is that if it wasn’t for the last five years of the proud and in-your-face public racism conducted by almost the entire spectrum of the GOP, no one would be giving a minutes thought about such a flea-shit, dead and obsolete operation like the effing KKK.
There is only one reason that the KKK even comes up in our politics. It is because one of our two parties is infected with the politics of the KKK and, through their actually policies and proposals, pines for those better days of yesteryear, when people simply “knew their places”.
“I honestly don’t know who I find more annoying?”
Yes.
One side is “annoying” because they are uncloseted racists. And stupid besides, if of course that is not simply a statement regarding both sides of the same counterfeit coin.
The other side…Grayson et al…is annoying because…
Because why, exactly?
Because it…Grayson, the Pauls, etc…refuse to play the PermaGov/Centrist /Neo-Liberal game.
Once again…Ron Paul on what is eventually going to happen in this totally fucked, UniParty/PermaGov political system:
“WAKE THE FUCK UP” IS BEGINNING TO SOUND LIKE THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE HERE.
WTFU.
AG
He couldn’t even crack 40% as an incumbent in his own district because he had all the political instincts of Donald Trump.
And how much did his district change due to redistricting?
None. He ran in the 8th district and won in 2008 and they ran and lost in 2010.
He was elected to the entirely different 9th district in 2012.
So he went from a 52-48 to a 38-56? What did the 8th include, besides part of Orlando? Curious because that’s an awful big dropoff. You can blame it on Grayson labeling “Taliban” Dan Wesbter correctly, if you want. There has to be something more at work.
Yeah, there was a lot more at work. He won in a conservative district because the GOP had failed on an epic scale. Then he acted like he’d won a seat to represent the Upper West Side. He spent no time talking to his constituents and all his time talking shit on cable television or the House floor. End result? The worst ass-kicking I’ve ever seen for an incumbent who wasn’t under indictment.
As I predicted, by the way.
Go ahead and wallow in your superiority. Do you know that he didn’t hold any “town halls” at all? Do you ever partake in, or even know of, any of Gerlach’s “tele-town halls”?
That a Congressman who talks like a progressive blogger should become popular with progressive bloggers doesn’t surprise me.
Yeah. There is “something more at work.” Grayson told the truth in a situation where the PermaGov wanted a “politic” lie.
And Booman be mad at him?
Follow the money.
When they say it’s not about the money?
It’s about the money.
Bet on it.
AG
Notice something about these numbers?
2008:
Democratic Alan Grayson 172,854 52.0%
Republican Ric Keller 159,490 48.0%
Total 332,244 100.00%
2010:
Democratic Alan Grayson 84,036 38%
Republican Daniel Webster 123,464 56%
TEA Peg Dunmire 8,324 4%
Independent George Metcalfe 4,140 2%
Totals 219,964 100%
Yeah, a few things.
That’s just plain nasty.
You call yourself a progressive, right? Grayson’s voting record and statements establish that he is most definitely a “progressive.” Does his political style bother you? It has worked fairly we for him other than a couple of defeats, right? I mean…he’s in office again, isn’t he?
So what exactly did he do to earn your disrespect on a “Looks like a rented mule” level?
Really.
Let us know. Unless of course…it’s “personal.”
And if it is personal? Keep it to yourself. He is one of the few truly progressive…as opposed to
neo-liberalprogressive…Democrats holding national office.Where’s the beef?
AG
First of all, since when do you care about progressives. First you pimped Hillary Clinton and then Ron Paul.
Even today, you are more interested in Rand Paul than any progressive in the country.
Secondly, it isn’t personal, but I am still angry that Grayson pissed away a seat in Congress because he was a terrible congressman and politician.
You know, one thing I think you deserve credit for is really seeing the fraud behind John Edwards when a lot of people were blind. Just because a politician says some things that you agree with and that you think aren’t said often enough, or strongly enough, doesn’t mean that that politician deserves your trust.
The three progressive politicians I put in that category progressives are Dennis Kucinich, Anthony Weiner, and Alan Grayson. I never trusted the character of any of them, and I truly believe that all of them will let the people who believe in them down.
You are familiar with gut-calls of this type. You should respect my judgment even if you don’t share it.
You are right.
I am not “interested in ‘progressives.’ ” I am, however, interested in people who wish to change this awful excuse for a democracy in which we are now living. It is often said that talk is cheap. Well…labels are even cheaper.
For example…your website is callled “Booman Tribune-A Progressive Community,” yet you support suspect, compromising neoliberals like Barack Obama because they are “winners” and attack people like Alan Grayson because he lost while sticking to his principles.
I use the word “suspect,” and I mean it. Obama has done more to turn this country into a corporate-owned, surveillance-controlled, techno-operated dictatorship than anybody could have imagined when he first appeared on the scene yet you continue traipsing right along behind him, picking up the crumbs and leftovers.
Change the name of your website, Booman.
Truth in advertising.
What a concept!!!
AG
P.S. I did not “pimp” Hillary Clinton, I simply thought that if it was inevitable that the U.S. was going to be run by an insider/centrist/neoliberal, it might as well be one who:
1-Had actual knowledge and experience on “the inside.” Someone who knew where the bodies are buried and how to manipulate the bureaucracy effectively.
and also
2-Had a real enmity towards the movers and shakers of the whole “right-wing conspiracy” that honey-trapped her husband and embarrassed her entire family in the process. Considering how badly she was portrayed in the corporate-owned media, I suggest that the media fix was tilted towards Obama in the primaries for just those reasons. They did not want an effective president. Too risky. And they got just what they wanted.
Lemme ask you a question.
It’s standard political boilerplate, but I will ask it anyway.
Are you…are we…better off than we were when Obama was elected?
We have a murder rampage going on in this country. Unbalanced people by the droves are shooting their supposed enemies for no other reason than that they themselves have been driven viciously mad by the contradictions of this culture. Other, equally unbalanced sons of bitches are trying to close the government down, and yet others are still looting the economic system of billions by the week.
Meanwhile, here you are pissing and moaning about someone…someone in a position of national attention, not some lame ass blogger… who actually said the following:
Now there’s some truth in advertising!!!
You?
Not so much.
Sorry, Charlie.
AG has never played that game.
Our murder rate is unforgivably high, but much less so than in the recent past. Let’s look at your city.
Wiki
But you look at things the wrong way.
You should wake up each morning, as I do, and think about where we’d be if McCain and Palin had won.
Oh bullshit, Booman.
Those two tomato cans were set up to lose, just as was Romney.
Give me a break!!!
My own city?
It is now largely a corporate mall surrounded by layers of worker bees organized in descending order of wealth the further away they are forced to live from Corporate City Central. Decreasing crime? Of what sort? The crimes of the poor? Sure…they’ve been forced out into the crumbling rust belt-like cities and the remnants of what were once middle-class suburbs. White collar types and the cultural/techno/academic workers who have taken their place have less need for criminality number one and number two if they are criminals they do their thieving on computers.
You’re “shadow boxing the apocalypse,” alright. Heavy on the “shadow” part.
Get real
AG
I have to agree, even though I think the Pauls are bullshit artists the same way pseudo-progressives are bullshit artists.
That said, real progressivism isn’t always going to be pretty. Speaking truth to power is almost never pretty, and can usually result in bad things happening to the truth-speaker.
Grayson may not be the most bestiest Congressman at playing politics, but holy shit is it nice to hear someone actually say things that are true.
Republicans DO want you to hurry the fuck up and die, like Grayson said.
Go watch the 2012 debates with Ron Paul and the crowd’s reaction to someone without insurance in the hospital.
I’m pretty much a radical who can most easily explain my political stance as Progressive in the sense that it is the most possible political movement at the moment. I also consider a lot of progressives to be far to my right. Radical, I know.
AG is right on a lot of stuff, although I really don’t trust the Paul cartel. There really is a permagov. It really doesn’t give a fuck about the needs of the people that it pretends to care about.
I’d vote for Grayson in a heartbeat. There are another 400+ Representatives I can listen to who will bray the same tired centrist/right garbage over and over.
I do not necessarily “trust” the Pauls, n1cholas. I have simply mistrusted…on more than plentiful evidence…all of the other candidates for higher office over the past 20 years or so. The Paulist evidence is simply not in, so I feel obliged to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all….if one’s eyes are even partially open to what is up here, there is absolutely no doubt about how bad things have become in the U.S.A.
There are lots of anti-Paulist projections…mostly from people who will lose power, position and wealth if Paulists were to win…about how rotten the results would be, but looka here!!! How much worse can it get than what is happening in this country at present? I ran into an 20-years-ago friend from Finland this week…someone whose work situation pretty much resembles what I do…and we got to talking about our relative positions in the culture. All he could do was shake his head and say “Yes. Things are pretty difficult here now.” A true example of Finnish understatement.
Things are almost totally fucked here.
Bet on it.
Almost anybody with a new set of ideas is welcome to step up to the plate as far as I am concerned.
How?
Why?
This bullshit ain’t working.
What’s next?
So nu?
AG
This is the kind of things I support. I could care less what party someone who agrees with these things puts themselves in, and I’d guess that liberal/progressive would be the closest.
I just really, really hate a government that has been totally captured by the oligarchs, which is our government.
I guess the closest I can come to a political label would be an Anarcho-Syndicalist. Which makes me very unserious.
Why all the pearl-clutching? What Grayson said was 100% accurate. You really should be worried about the job DWS is doing as DNC chair.
Bingo. It seems every human population has a portion of people we can politely call “authoritarian followers”, though they go by other names depending on the situation. They have the same characteristics – fearful of change – hatred of “outsiders” – anger and their predominant emotion in reaction to outside news – total lack of empathy for anyone or any situation outside their sphere of experience.
Sometimes they band together and give themselves a name with a positive connotation – “Silent Majority” – “Patriots” – “People of Faith” – and, most commonly, “REAL <whatever nationality or ethnicity they are>”.
Probably due to genetics they aren’t likely to be a majority of the population under normal conditions, but in situations where the population self-selects for one reason or another the can gain the majority. In these situations they tend to take control and slow progress to a crawl.
Although naturally a minority they are a sizable enough sector of the population that in democracies they often become a target of the ultra-rich part of the population that needs votes en masse to gain power. While their votes usually are not enough to gain pure majorities they can provide enough votes to make elections close enough for the ultra-rich to gain power through electoral manipulations. Current examples include the governments of Canada and the UK – both which gained power with less than 40% of the vote. Past examples are numerous, and if cited in detail will cause this post to invoke one of the internet’s oldest “laws”.
I’m not sure if it helps because the media and their feckless enablers like DWS love themselves a good example for both sides doing it and Grayson should therefore know better.
Still, number one, “if the hood fits…” Second, I lol’d when I heard that.
You know who is just as annoying? Democrats like Dick Durbin apparently making shit up when we have the real examples of neoconfederates stomping around the WH. Or did the WH not wanna play mean and back up Durbin?
As I’ve been under the weather for 3 days, what has Durbin said that the WH didn’t want to back up?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-on-durbin-s-quote-it-did-not-happen
Durbin stands by it:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/durbin-stands-by-his-anecdote
So why do you think Durban lied?
Look, of course the WH denied it. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – the Obama administration, despite the recent display of backbone, still prefers the “can’t we all just get along” model of governance.
And that kind of statement has been made way too many times by elected GOPers for us to think that it’s impossible, even to the face of the President. Remember how “You Lie!” is still celebrated today amongst wingnuts.
I don’t think he lied. When I made that comment I also didn’t see he stood behind his comment tho.
It doesn’t advance Obama’s long term strategy of fracturing the GOP to affirm the remark,. No need to interfere in the GOP process of fracturing itself.
Dubin will take no hit from playing a little politics. Just like Grayson will pay no price for his wonderful definition of T. Politics demand you kick the enemy when they are down. At this time and place, bomb throwing is good. Sit back and enjoy.
Or did the WH not wanna play mean and back up Durbin?
Someone claimed on Twitter today that it did indeed happen and that Cantor was the culprit.
The problem with the Democratic Party cannot be solved by being prissy about imagery. Nor can it really be solved by unstrategic bombast throwing.
Democrats are too hung up on message and missing organization and policy.
Neither of these statements will matter one whit if the DNC helps orchestrate the recruitment of strong candidates for all Congressional districts and Senate races–and an strong GOTV organization in all states and districts. Nor will Grayson’s statement matter if he has as strong GOTV operation.
I had no idea that I had Klan mentality.
Here I thought that the Tea Party at its’ base was about
Fiscal Responsibility
Constitutionally Limited Government
Free Market
That’s all I’m looking for.
I guess I’ll have to turn into a racist and start bullying people to fit into Grayson’s mold.
How do I tell my wife that I have to divorce her after 18 1/2 years. Not sure what I’m going to tell my friends and relatives not that I can’t hang out with many of them.
Oh look who’s back!
with a new phantasy about himself
Hey it’s you!
So you “have black friends”?
AlexM, ahhh, then you just made a little mistake. You want the Democratic party. Glad to be of help.
(You know, the Confederate battle flags really should have been a warning sign for you!)
Plenty of great friends that are like minded and of differing viewpoints than myself on both sides of the Party aisles.
I was speaking in terms of color of skin and religion as much of the clan mentality is to hate any that don’t look like me or pray like me.
I don’t know Grayson much. Seen him on TV a couple of times. I just think this type of thinking is dangerous. (Labeling that is).
Grayson’s more annoying. He’s the fifth-richest Congressman. Let him pay for his own mouth, however entertaining it may be — and he’s very good with the quotable quip.
Just don’t hire students to call me from Florida at 10 p.m. in an off-year begging for money — I’m not in the mood. Money is not what Alan Grayson needs.
I think the best thing to do is to keep minding their own business rather than criticizing a colleague and not be strong about it. I guess sometimes they just want some attention just to spice things up a bit.
_____
physical therapy services
Don’t like what Wasserman does with the DCCC. She’s closer to some Repubs than Dems, and he DCCC doesn’t put much money behind progs.
What I find annoying is that it was basically ripped off from (one of) my favorite bloggers, Driftglass.
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2013/10/alan-grayson.html
Booman, you need to get DG a guest blogging spot over at your other home. His photoshops are great, but his writing is brilliant. Poetry in prose form.