I was always interested in politics, but it was the decision of the House Republicans to impeach President Bill Clinton rather than censure him that really woke me up and turned me into a political junkie. It was the stolen election in 2000 that turned me into an organizer. I think this Benghazi! nonsense is going to wake up a whole new generation of people who weren’t previously very involved in politics.
Public displays of insanity will do that.
I hope you are right. The opposite effect is also possible, and more people will be convinced that politics is stupid and they want nothing to do with it. Much depends on how the Dems respond, and how the media covers it.
Yes, that’s a possibility. The right tends to benefit when people are disengaged from politics.
Although if you think about all the millions of dollars their Royal Highnesses the Koch brothers are pumping into their propaganda machine, people who want nothing to do with it might find it hard to escape.
There really are limits to what money can buy. One reference point is the California governor’s race in 2010, where Meg Whitman poured in all this money and all it got her was that people were sick to fucking death of hearing about her. I don’t know if the Kochs are planning to hype Benghazi or not, but if they do it could back fire in a very big way.
If we’re going to have to endure this circus for the next six months it shouldn’t be hard to get people to the polls. Just tell them that if they vote Democrat, these assholes will shut up and go away.
Shut up and go away? What planet have you lived on this past decade?
Whenever Dems win the right screams more and louder. The only way to actually make it go away is to give them what they want.
I think you’re missing the point. Of course they’ll keep screaming, but it does make a difference whether they control the House or not. Do you think Speaker Pelosi would put up with this nonsense?
Thought you were talking about the Koch boys.
The only way to make them go away is to make them irrelevant. Then they can yap all they want, but it won’t get national coverage.
I do believe things are moving in that direction, but we’ve got some ways to go yet.
hey, don’t knock meg whitman; we did get the demon sheep video out of that.
Actually, the “demon sheep” ad was from Carly Fiorina’s Senate campaign.
I will concede that the confusion is understandable.
thanks for the correction. just shows, the ad did nothing for the candidate, it developed a cult following for itself
What if they held an election and no one came?
A variation the old “What if they threw a war and no one showed up?” lick and its more recent variation “What if they shut down a government and nothing changed?”
Hmmmm…
You write:
Like that would be a bad thing? Short term? If people just decided…realized, actually…that they have been played by an oligarch-owned and operated Permanent Government for over 50 years?
Hmmmm…
Sounds like a good start, to me.
Later…
AG
Really? You think people are paying attention? With all these over-scheduled lives, focus on social networking, hundreds of news outlets, TV channels, etc. to choose from, how does this over-cooked investigation capture the attention of the American public? Will CNN even stop looking for the plane long enough to even cover this topic?
Yeah, I think this freak-show is going to amaze and stagger tens of thousands of people who voted for Obama and then pretty much went on with their lives.
But that was before “pretty much going on with their lives” reached a critical mass of difficulty, Booman. That was before a real general awareness of how deeply the surveillance state has intruded upon innocent people’s lives, before the repeated school and public shootings really caught people’s attention as being the result of a systemic problem, before the economic collapse truly hit them in the pocketbook.
Like I said…be careful what you wish for. The mood in this country has turned fearful and ugly. People are looking for someone to blame. They blamed the Bush II administration in 2004 and in 2008 really weren’t all that sure exactly who to blame. The DemRats can’t blame the Bush II people for what is happening now.
Watch.
AG
“Watch”? Watch what exactly? Rand Paul riding to the rescue on a shining white horse?
I guess it’s hard to be proven wrong when your predictions are totally incoherent.
Watch the Ratpubs…and I do not mean Rand Paul because among other things the media has already written him off, as have you, apparently… watch the RatPublicans pull another Swift Boat/Lewinskygate coup using this topic plus the whole IRS/Lois Lerner brouhaha and the initial Obamacare rollout shit.
Both parties are equally without a clue, Stephen. Both of them. They are just two wings of the UniParty, throwing hot air at each other in an effort to keep the electorate so confused that they won’t see the truth of the matter.
I said “watch.”
This is hard to do with your eyes wide closed and one or the other party’s bullshit talking points reverberating in your brain.
So it goes and WTFU.
AG
Oh come on, have you taken a vow of unintelligibility, or what? Maybe you never took composition, but if you’re going to bother typing out a bunch of words, it’s generally advisable to have some kind of thesis. The closest thing to a thesis in your comment is that there’s no meaningful difference between the parties, which is both false and boring. Beyond that, I have no idea what you think I should be watching for.
You are obviously easily bored, S. S. Here’s something with which to occupy yourself. Prove that it is false. The “differences” simply do not make any real difference over time, They have not done so since Ronald Reagan, actually. Maybe since the JFK coup. It’s been a steady downward progression for all Americans. The so-called “ups?” Just window dressing and hype.
Prove it.
No rhetoric allowed.
Prove it.
I can easily prove that Barack Obama has continued to refine the permanent war footing that the Bush II administration laid down. Read the Snowden stuff for all you need to know on that account. I can also easily prove that almost all Americans are worse off now than they were when Bill Clinton got Lewinskied. Anybody with a wallet and half a brain can prove that.
Have fun…
AG
How about abortion? There is a real and genuine and very obvious difference between the parties there. Go ahead and tell me it isn’t a meaningful one.
I’d add that there is an extraordinarily stark difference between the Parties on voting rights. Oh, and there is that rather intense racism that is expressed in a hundred statements by Republican leaders every year, a racism that embeds itself in numerous GOP policy priorities, including voting rights.
But remember, AG’s prescription for an immediate and successful revolution is that NOBODY votes. Yes, no one should show up to vote, so who cares about the franchise? And of course, a 100% boycotted election would be followed by someone (who? Never mind, AG’s on a roll) appointing all the leaders who in turn would do exactly what AG thinks they should do.
Who can argue with that flawless logic?
yes, to what all 3 of you wrote. Arthur Gilroy’s position boils down to the classic “I’ve got mine, f*** you”
I think the 2000 election, which spawned the Iraq war, Bush tax cuts, Justices Roberts and Alito, and many other curses, should long ago have put to rest the argument that there’s no difference. Then add Obama’s response to the financial crisis – a far cry from the spending cuts R’s wanted. And also the many millions who are or will be benefitting from health care reform. Cynicism is a crutch for lazy thinking.
I think they’re imagining watergate hearings, with ppl glued to teevee. they still aren’t on to internets and social media
Be careful what you wish for.
Word.
AG
The Republicans got nuthin’. Benghazi is a dead horse and they keep flogging it, but the average Joe has filed it under Old News and I can’t imagine anyone caring. The Tea Party is losing its grip, too, and they look more shrill and insane every day.
Since the Democrats can’t rely on the national media to let the new investigation remain irrelevant, the Dems are going to have to continue promoting the Health Care Act and other successful accomplishments until the committee dries up and blows away. The mainstrem media is hoping for some scandal in all of this, because NOOZ! so we know they’ll keep it in the spotlight.
Let’s hope this junk goes away.
I think a good comparison might be the Terri Schiavo affair.
That’s a great comparison. I know many people who aren’t all that political who really got freaked out by the Republicans after the Shivao mess.
I’m thinking that this probably won’t rise to the same level of notoriety. Except on Fox.
The impeachment of a prez over an intern sexcapade and the unprecedented steal…er, selection of a (popular vote-losing) prez by 5 Repub justices are basically about as big as domestic political stories ever get. Certainly Watergate level. They generated wall to wall coverage and these were living stories, proceeding with new developments every day, so actual organic news.
Benghazi! is pretty much a bloated corpse compared to these blockbusters, although I do agree that sensible people will see that Repubs are behaving in a simply crazy manner, inflating a threadbare story into something it is not and this could damage the clown party. Although it does seem that they are impervious to actual political damage.
Having said that, there is a danger is simply allowing a (major) party of demented lunatics with a nationwide Noise Machine to have a national platform for spewing unchallenged lies about a “national security” story for months on end, and in thinking that the hopelessly uninformed prole voter will surely see thru the smoke and mirrors. This reality show will certainly be stage managed for effect, since it is not really a legitimate investigation, but a star chamber.
At a bare minimum I would think the administration witnesses would want a couple sane and friendly questioners to make sure that their testimony actually gets out, and to be there to summarize why the Repub witnesses testimony is full of lies, misstatements, misrepresentations and quarter-truths. There would be value on having a couple clever Dem commenter/observers on the committee to provide mockery and satire and drag the Repub clowns deeper into the elephant shit.
And if the corporate media does decide at some point or another that Circus Benghazi! really is something to start covering, Dems will sorely regret boycotting the proceedings and having to live and react to whatever script of untruths the Repubs present at the hearings.
As Napoleon said, “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”. But the Emperor didn’t also have the Grande Armee throw down its weapons at the same time. Repubs need to have this charade turn into a two-by-four swung into their teeth, and it would best to have some ally under the Big Top to help deliver the crucial blow.
Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi …
During the Clinton impeachment (December 1998), the favorability of the Republican Party hit a new low of 31%. In October 2013 it was 28%.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/09/gallup-gops-favorability-sinks-into-clin
ton-impeachment-territory/
Meanwhile, at the height of the impeachment, Bill Clinton’s favorability, as measured by Gallup, was 73%, the highest favorability of his career.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116584/presidential-approval-ratings-bill-clinton.aspx
I don’t think this clown car’s going anywhere.
The only way I see Benghazi causing that level of disruption would be if it progressed to impeachment of the President or charges against Hillary Clinton. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of representatives no one’s ever heard of sounding angry over some event that happened someplace across the ocean in a place that sounds weird, and what country was that in?