;)
Monday
Aug202012
The Commentariat -- August 21, 2012
CW: Sorry, another day I have to work on other stuff all morning, but I'll catch up later. I'll also hit Brooks late in the day.
Ari Berman of The Nation: "Franklin County (Columbus, [Ohio]) GOP Chair Doug Preisse gave a surprisingly blunt answer to the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday: 'I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban -- read African-American -- voter-turnout machine.' Preisse is ... the chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio's second-largest county and a close adviser to Ohio Governor John Kasich.... Preisse said publicly what many Republicans believe privately -- keeping turnout down among Obama supporters is the best way for the GOP to win the 2012 election."
Presidential Race
Nicholas Confessore & Derek Willis of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney's cash advantage over President Obama and the Democrats more than doubled in July, as intense Republican fund-raising and heavy spending by Mr. Obama and his allies left Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee with $62 million more in the bank than the Democrats at the end of last month."
Van Jones in Reader Supported News: "Any politician who wants to live in the White House for the next four years needs to start talking about how voters can keep the houses they're living in right now."
Jim Fallows of The Atlantic tears down Niall Ferguson's fact-challanged Newsweek cover story titled "Hit the Road, Barack." Fallows doesn't think Ferguson, who is a Harvard professor, is capable of grading his student's papers. ...
... Matthew O'Brien, also of The Atlantic, does "a full fact check" of "celebrity historian Niall Ferguson's ... counterfactual history of the past four years." ...
... Noah Smith also does a great job. Why does Newsweek publish this crap? It's embarrassing. Via Greg Sargent. ...
... Paul Krugman calls the Ferguson piece "unethical commentary" and says Newsweek should print a correction. ...
... Brad DeLong writes, "Fire his ass from Newsweek, and the Daily Beast. Convene a committee at Harvard to examine whether he has the moral character to teach at a university. There is a limit, somewhere. And Ferguson has gone beyond it."
Just Trust Him. Dana Milbank writes a great column detailing a Romney speech with no details. Milbank's opener -- on a different topic -- is hilarious:
Mitt Romney, returning to New Hampshire on Monday with his new running mate, lasted only about 30 seconds before stumbling right into the issue that has dogged his candidacy like no other. 'Gosh, I feel like I'm almost a New Hampshire resident,' ... Romney said. 'It would save me some tax dollars, I think.' D'oh! Does Mr. Thirteen Percent really want to remind everybody how determined he is to keep his tax returns private?
Robert Costa of the National Review: "In a phone interview this morning, Mitt Romney told National Review Online that Representative Todd Akin’s recent remarks on rape are 'inexcusable.'' Congressman Akin's comments on rape are insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong,' Romney said. 'Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive.'" ...
... Kaili Gray of Daily Kos: "Mitt Romney sleeps on it, decides to be offended.... it only took him 12 hours to think about it, watch the entire country -- including his own party --condemn Akin's statement, and then decide he was offended."
Jon Walker of Firedoglake: "Already the Romney campaign has made multiple statements strongly distancing themselves from Akin. The statements are coming both from the campaign staff and directly from Romney in hasty interviews with the conservative National Review. There must be some worry that Akin's rape/abortion comment could taint Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan. Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin that would have restricted tax payer funds to be used for abortions only if they resulted from 'forcible rape.'" ...
... Oops! "Paul Ryan Changes His Abortion Stance. Trip Gabriel & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "A campaign statement that neither Mitt Romney nor Representative Paul D. Ryan opposes abortion in rape cases contradicts Mr. Ryan's earlier position on the issue.... Mr. Ryan ... has opposed abortion in the case of rape. During his first run for the seat in 1998, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that he opposed abortions in all cases except to save the life of the mother. More recently, Mr. Ryan was a co-sponsor of a House bill last year defining human life as beginning with fertilization and granting 'personhood' rights to embryos, a movement that supporters say will outlaw abortions in all cases, and may also restrict some forms of birth control." ...
... Michael Shear & Trip Gabriel: even as Paul Ryan's "presence continues to animate and enliven Mr. Romney's performance on the stump, Mr. Ryan remains a large new target for President Obama's campaign and his Democratic allies. On Monday, Democrats highlighted Mr. Ryan's history of opposing abortion -- even in cases in which a woman is raped -- after controversial comments from Representative Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri." ...
... Akin & Ryan -- Redefining Rape. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the 'No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,' a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term 'forcible rape.'" ...
... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: in "a 2007 statement ... at a debate..., Romney said he would be 'delighted' to sign a bill banning all abortions, saying it would be 'terrific.' Update Mitt Romney's 2007 'on the issues' page notes he supports exceptions in cases of rape and incest, but also notes that abortion should be a state issue. Update The Obama campaign says in a statement: 'While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are working overtime to distance themselves from Rep. Todd Akin's comments on rape, they are contradicting their own records. Mr. Romney supports the Human Life Amendment, which would ban abortion in all instances, even in the case of rape and incest. In fact, that amendment is a central part of the Republican Party's platform that is being voted on tomorrow [Tuesday].'"
"Rape is rape." President Obama held an unscheduled press conference yesterday afternoon:
... Devin Dwyer & David Muir of ABC News: "Democrats said the presumptive nominee and his running mate have a history of aligning with Akin on 'extreme' positions, including legislation that would have redefined rape, banned abortion in all cases and cut off funding for abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood.... 'Congressman Ryan has already partnered with Akin on a whole host of issues that restrict women's ability to make their own health care decisions,' [DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz] said in an email blast to supporters Sunday night. 'This kind of "leadership" is dangerously wrong for women -- and I can't sit by and watch as these out-of-touch Republicans like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Todd Akin continue to roll back women's rights.'"
Congressional Races
CW: I'll bet Todd Akin always wanted to be famous. Now he is.
Nia-Malika Henderson & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Republican leaders are focused on a Tuesday afternoon deadline, hoping that Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.), the embattled Senate candidate who used the phrase 'legitimate rape' in talking about abortion and pregnancy, will heed their calls to get out of the race and preserve the party's chances to take back the upper house. Akin has said repeatedly that he has no intention of ending his campaign, even as his prospects of winning have likely been diminished with Republican leaders pulling financial support from the contest and denouncing his comments."
Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "As part of his effort to keep his place on the November ballot, Representative Todd Akin, Republican of Missouri, released an ad Tuesday in which he asks for viewers' forgiveness for his comments on Sunday about rape." CW: Good. At least so far, he's staying in the race.
Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Facing a firestorm of criticism over his comments about 'legitimate rape,' Missouri Rep. Todd Akin canceled a scheduled interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on Monday. And in what's becoming something of a trend on cable news, Morgan opened his primetime show with a shot of Akin's empty chair, calling the embattled Republican Senate candidate a 'gutless little twerp' for cancelling the sit-down."
What's the Matter with Missouri? Laura Davis of Yahoo! News: "A poll conducted and released on Monday found that U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, who's under fire for his comments about 'legitimate rape,' still has an edge over Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in Missouri's Senate race. Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina-based Democratic polling firm, has Akin leading McCaskill by one point, 44 percent to 43 percent. "
A Missouri reader sends this video of former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth -- an Episcopalian priest -- expressing dismay at Todd Akin's remarks. Danforth claims "that's not the Republican party." Father Jack's hand-wringing would be a little more credible if he weren't responsible for bringing us Clarence Thomas:
Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress: "Akin's crusade against women's access to medical services fits with his broader worldview, which is heavily influenced by a particularly virulent group of fundamentalist thinkers described as 'Christian supremacists' by the Anti-Defamation League." ...
... Dan Amira of New York: "One study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that over 32,000 pregnancies result from rape every year in the United States." ...
... Amanda Marcotte in the American Prospect: "Akin's comment should serve as a reminder that despite its sentimentality surrounding the fetus, the anti-choice movement is motivated by misogyny and ignorance about human sexuality."
... Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, said today on Mike Huckabee's radio show that he won't drop out of the race in the midst of a firestorm over comments he made this weekend about 'legitimate rape' and pregnancy.... 'We're going to take this thing forward and by the grace of God we're going to win this race,' Akin told Huckabee." CW: yes, because God is totally into Todd Akin. ...
Kaili Gray: "... Todd Akin himself announced ... that he will not be dropping out of the race.... He explained that he meant to say 'forcible rape' instead of 'legitimate rape,' which brings him in line with the rest of the Republican Party, including Paul Ryan. Does the party really intend to force out Paul Ryan and every other Republican who supported redefining rape to close 'loopholes' that victims of not-really-rape have been exploiting...? Republicans would like to force Akin to take the fall for this whole mess so they can go back to completely agreeing with him but without having to say so out loud." ...
... Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic: "Arguments like his have cropped up again and again on the right over the past quarter century and the idea that trauma is a form of birth control continues to be promulgated by anti-abortion forces that seek to outlaw all abortions.... The push for a no-exceptions anti-abortion policy has for decades gone hand in hand with efforts to downplay the frequency with which rape- or incest-related pregnancies occur, and even to deny that they happen, at all." ...
... Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones: "John C. Willke, an anti-abortion doctor, writes on the website Christian Life Resources about how pregnancies resulting from rape are 'extremely rare' because of hormones and stuff."
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The Missouri GOP could replace Akin on the ballot if he voluntarily withdraws from the race, but Akin would need to decide to withdraw very quickly if he wants his party to be able to take advantage of this opportunity. Under Missouri law, Akin must withdraw 'not later than the eleventh Tuesday prior to the general election.' This year, the eleventh Tuesday prior to the general election is the 21st of August." ...
... AND David Taintor of TPM: "Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin's advisers are making preparations to withdraw from the race Tuesday, GOP operative Richard Grenell and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson report. Grenell cited 'GOP sources' in his tweet announcing the withdrawal." ...
... Alexander Burns of Politico: "The conservative outside-spending powerhouse Crossroads GPS is pulling its ads from the Missouri Senate race.... The group had originally booked a new round of ads to start Wednesday but began canceling them earlier today. The decision comes in the wake of comments by Missouri Rep. and GOP Senate nominee Todd Akin...." ...
... Later in the Day. Paul Kane & Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post: "... fearing the Akin controversy may cost them more that just that one race, Romney and Senate GOP leaders urged Akin to step aside and pulled funds from what they once considered a sure pickup. Democrats hope to capitalize on Akin's troubles, but it was the Republican response that brought the most pressure to bear. GOP leaders made the decision early Monday to try to forcefully push Akin out well before next week's national party convention, leaving his campaign in tatters by day's end."
... Peter Hamby of CNN: "Two top officials from the Family Research Council said the Missouri congressman is the target of a Democratic smear campaign and chided those Republicans who have condemned Akin."
... Dan Amira: "For the record, McCaskill does not think the party should try to replace the dim-witted neanderthal whose continued presence in the race gives her the best possible chance of winning. But only because it would upset so many Akin supporters."
Jon Walker: "It appears serious worries about being hurt by Akin also extend beyond people who have a direct connection to him on this issue. Already Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has called for Akin to withdraw based on his statement." (Also linked above under Presidential Race.) ...
... Noah Bierman of the Boston Globe has more on Scott Brown's remarks and Elizabeth Warren's reaction.
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders reprimanded 30 lawmakers last August for antics including drinking and skinny-dipping during a fact-finding trip to Israel, according to published reports. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) scolded the lawmakers -- many of them freshmen -- and senior GOP staffers for a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee. At least one of the lawmakers swam nude, according to a report published Sunday night by Politico. The FBI later inquired about the incident to determine whether there was any impropriety, the report said." Two of the participants whose re-election could be affected are Michael Grimm of Staten Island -- who is already in trouble for possible illegal campaign shenanigans -- & Ben Son-of-Dan Quayle, who is just an unmitigated jerk/chip-off-the-old-block. ...
... According to this New York Times story by Jennifer Steinhauer, both Grimm & Quayle say they went for a swim because of the religious significance of the Sea of Galilee.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The police arrested a professional tennis referee at a Manhattan hotel on Tuesday on a charge of murder in the death of her husband in April. The referee, Lois Ann Goodman, nicknamed Lolo, was in New York to work the United States Open."
AP: "A federal appeals court ruled late Tuesday that Texas can cut off funding for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide health services to low-income women before a trial over a new law that bans state money from going to organizations tied to abortion providers. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans lifted a federal judge's temporary injunction calling for the funding to continue pending an October trial on Planned Parenthood's challenge to the law."
** New York Times: "Even as the Republican establishment continued to call for Representative Todd Akin of Missouri to drop out of his Senate race because of his comments on rape and abortion, Republicans approved platform language on Tuesday calling for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion with no explicit exceptions for cases of rape or incest." CW: Just astounding. ...
... Yahoo! News: "A committee drafting the Republican Party's platform decided not to add support for civil unions for gay couples into its document, according to the leader of a Republican gay rights group." CW: At least they're consistent: discriminate against everybody who isn't a straight male.
Washington Post: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned one of the Obama administration's hallmark air quality rules Tuesday, ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped its authority in curbing pollution from Midwest power plants too sharply. The 2 to 1 ruling by the appeals court represents a major victory for utilities and business groups, who fought the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule on the grounds that it was costly, burdensome and arbitrary."
Washington Post: "The Justice Department has signed off on Virginia’s new voter ID law, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) said Monday night, in a decision that clears the way for the bitterly contested measure to take effect in time for Election Day. Justice officials found that the law, which closes a provision that had allowed Virginians to vote without identification but also expands the types of ID accepted at the polls, does not violate the Voting Rights Act, McDonnell said in a statement."
New York Times: "A discrimination and retaliation lawsuit has embroiled the upper reaches of the federal government's immigration< enforcement agency, contributing to a sense of turmoil in a bureaucracy that has been suffering major labor conflicts between senior officials and employees. The lawsuit, filed by [James T. Hayes, Jr,] a top federal immigration official in New York, alleges that he was shunted out of a high-level position in the agency in favor of a less qualified woman because he was a man."
Washington Post: "Afghan officials say they have launched an expanded effort to spy on their own police and army recruits, an acknowledgment that previous measures designed to reduce insurgent infiltration in the country's security services have failed." ...
... Washington Post: "A plane belonging to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff was apparently attacked by insurgents in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Militants fired rockets at the Bagram Airfield outside Kabul, and shrapnel hit U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey's C-17 military plane, according to NATO officials. Dempsey was not in the plane at the time of the attack. Several members of the maintenance crew sustained minor injuries. A helicopter was also damaged."
AP: "Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's long-time ruler who held tight control over this East African country but was a major U.S counter-terrorism ally, died of an undisclosed illness after not being seen in public for weeks, Ethiopian authorities announced Tuesday. He was 57."
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Reader Comments (17)
Amazing. Dumb republican is caught saying a dumb thing. Big hoo-haw. Other republicans, some dumb and some not but all fearing backlash, dog pile on original dumb republican. Circus Maximus.
It is totally unfair to call Todd Akin "the dim-witted neanderthal" or some such title. He is just a Republican politician.
The nationwide voter suppression movement by the GOP is part of a much larger problem looming over our country's future.
Suppressing the vote of minorities is but a typical temporary band-aid cure for the lethal cancer growing within the party. Just read the facts. Their main voting block, the only one that continually makes them a viable political force, is comprised of old white wacko religious freaks. There just one thing..... a few months ago we discovered that for the first time in history, babies from the minority demographic are from now and ever more the majority of babies being born. Hence, around 2050 or thereabouts, today's minorities will be from then on the collective majority of our country. It's documented that as a whole, minorities generally vote Democratic. As the tea-baggers die in droves in the coming decades (God rest their racist little souls), the Repuglican party will lose their political engine. Massive voter suppression could work for now, but it's a short-sighted venture.
Therefore, one would expect GOP master strategists like Karl Rove to face these facts and lead their party into more inclusive territory, welcoming in these browner folk regardless of their biological inferiorities (heavy sarcasm here, I assure you I'm one of 'them'). But no. Witness the importance of the tea party to their political survival. They're only going farther off the deep end, which, while slightly amusing from a sociological standpoint, is quite frankly fucking terrifying for its effect on our future as a social collective.
The underrepresentation of minorities in this country at all levels is already shameful. Yes, we have an African-American in our highest office, touché. But on a national level, this precedent has to change, and quickly. We can't have a majority "minority" in this country without real political representation. That seems obvious. But thinking about the potential consequences such a profound shift in our society would have on the future generation of the heavily armed white racist bigots who fear ceding their perceived grounds of social dominance to people of, gast, COLOR! With our gun laws only being further deregulated between here and now, we can expect some more deep tears to our social fabric.
Our two-party political system doesn't leave room for one of the parties to get kicked out while they've lost all sense of collective civic responsibility. For the masterminds of the Repuglicains to go all bat shit right-wing extremist crazy on us as a country, they're also setting us up for serious turbulence in the coming decades; turbulence which could have been avoiding had they not fed the beast and doubled-down on their divisive rhetoric all these years.
I can attest that the younger generation (in their 20's) are, in general anyway, more informed and independently-minded than previous generations, mostly due to the democratization of information thanks to Al Gore and the internet. While there is surely a new generation of Rush Limbaughs shitting their diapers and pissing on the toilet seat who will imitate faithfully and take up his mantle, I am convinced that Reason will win the day and these GOP crackpots will have to reorientate their views if they want to keep their cushy jobs, otherwise they'll be getting the electoral boot.
That's of course if we still have a livable planet by then.
Safari-
I do hope you are correct that the younger generation is more savvy and educated than the rest of us. But I think you are excessively hopeful in believing that "reason will win the day!" When has that ever happened in your experience?
I find much of the millennial generation selfish and entitled in a frightening fashion--indulged and over-parented. It is as if their parents have raised them as little hothouse flowers--believing that if they can provide enough fertilizer and sunshine, they will live out their parents' unlived dreams. Sorry if I am bursting your bubble, but I think we have to be realistic about the kind of culture our "empire mentality" has produced. And the overwhelming desire and goal to become part of the 1%! Yikes.
I find educated, thoughtful (and unrich) seniors much more realistic about our sad country and dismal leadership than I do our younger citizens. Unfortunately. I think video games and instant gratification will be part of the undoing of us as a sentient, literate culture. Suffering is not appreciated or acknowledged. "Success" is the holy grail.
Of course, there are exceptions--many--and for that we can all be grateful. But I see America in a quite hopeless decline. A celebrity culture--dominated by the shallow likes of Twitter and Facebook. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the personification of this craziness. I will be heartsick, but not surprised, if they are elected. As I have said before:
WE ARE HOPELESSLY FUCKED BY BIG MONEY!
While I have lived in Ohio for over 50 years, around election time I like to remember that I am FROM New York State. Ohio stole the 2004 election for Bush, with Kenneth Blackwell serving as both Secretary of State and Ohio Bush campaign leader. Now the weasels are at it again. Their direct statements of their reasoning--to keep blacks from voting--is astonishing, proof of either a very strict adherence to truth OR complete moral bankruptcy.
I am impressed and gratified that so many jumped on Niall Ferguson's inaccurate screed––the Cash-Nexus (book he wrote in 2001) nincompoop who is still in love with Empires and big barrels of money. Note: Those who still think anyone from Harvard is brilliant can be sorely disappointed after reading Ferguson's folly followed by all the critiques.
Thank goodness for Akin's stupidity! It brought all the voices from out of the woodwork and it looks like a gift for the Democrats. And voices from the past like our blue-eyed boy backing up Akin is delicious.
I was pondering the other day on how the next wave of right-wing politicians might try to distinguish themselves from the current level of batshittery. Rep. Akin (and all of you in Missouri who elected him should feel the level of pride felt by the child who finishes last in the sack race) has set a new gold standard. However, the question remains of how those like Mr. Akin will be attacked from the right on the NEXT round.
Also of note is that Willard Romney, whose face floats above us in a celestial haze but the position of whose feet remains shrouded in mystery, only took a day to distance himself from Mr. Akin's remarks. I was heartened that he didn't trot out the "not language I would have used" trope that he used to mollify the supine press while pretending that he didn't have to suck up to Rush Limbaugh lo just a few months ago.
Some headlines in the not-so-distant future:
"Bobby Jindal Defunds Louisiana Schools that Teach Louisiana Purchase, Saying Such Teaching Relegates State To Second-Class Status" (subhead: "Jindal Cites Prominent Louisianians Who Signed Declaration of Independence: Jean Lafitte, Huey Long, Jesus")
"Texas Redefines 'Intellectual Crime' as Intellectual Activity"
"Rick Scott Demands New Law Criminalizing Not Shooting Black Kids Who Wander Into Inappropriate Neighborhoods"
"Allen West Accuses Obama of Disloyalty to His White Half"
"Rick Santorum Demands Daily Urine Samples From American Women"
"John Kasich Asks Ohio Legislature to Take Up Nullification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Saying It's Really Difficult Keeping Track of Which Votes To Suppress"
"Linda MacMahon Proposes the Theme Song From the Documentary 'Idiocracy' as New National Anthem, Citing Too Many Words in Current Anthem"
"Rick Perry, Channeling Claytie Williams, Says of Republican Rule: 'Americans Should Just Lay Back and Enjoy It'"
As you can see, it's really difficult to outdo the real thing. If there were no consequences to having these village idiots determine our national policy, it all would be a good laugh, eh?
Jack Mahoney: but let us not forget that those headlines are designed to encourage the interests of a large chunk of our fellow citizens. I would bet that if Akin were running again for his House seat he would be reelected.
Re: "Your womb is my room" new state motto for Misery replacing the old, "The snow me state". Don't you just love it when men say "forcible rape" with a straight faces? Don't the words "rape rape" sound better?
Re: To Pee in the Galilee. We elect representatives that skinny dip for historical reasons? You're right Kate; we're doomed.
R&R: Soul Men.
Bet you didn’t know how hip and subversive these guys really are, didya?
Oh yeah, they dig stuff like Silversun Pickup’s “Panic Switch”, a song about post-modern anxiety and sexual angst, about fear and loathing in a crowd and sleeping with your fingers wrapped around a panic switch. Sounds about right for Romney. But the band didn’t think so. They told Romney to cease and desist.
This has been a pretty common happenstance over the last few years. Republicans, always looking for ways to burnish their image as hipsters and distance themselves (at least in the minds of potential voters) from the picture of them as soldiers of corporate fascism and repression, have sought a way out by boogieing down with rock and roll as their soundtrack. Except the artists whose music they appropriate, usually without permission or payment, have begged to differ.
So Dubya, ripping off Tom Petty’s great rock anthem “Won’t Back Down”, had to do exactly that. So much for image building Georgie. Just stick to lying. It’s what you’re best at.
Sarah Palin tried to scarf some hard rock credibility by using Heart’s “Barracuda”, written as an attack on the sort of corporate evils supported by Palin and her ilk but the Wilson sisters who wrote the song disagreed. Palin continued to use the song anyway, because that’s the kind of person she is.
Reagan famously adopted Bruce Springsteen’s clear-eyed look at the hard life in America for them that don’t have, “Born in the USA”, very likely without ever bothering to listen to what the song was really about. All he heard was “USA, USA, USA” and stupidly thought Bruce was singing about Morning Again in America. Moron.
Bob Dole turned Sam and Dave’s classic song into “Dole Man” until Sam Moore told him to knock it off. He remembered what Republican policies in the south did to black Americans.
Now we hear that Paul Ryan’s fave group is Rage Against the Machine. Seriously? Has he even listened to any of their stuff? How about their cover of “Fuck the Police” originally recorded by Niggaz With Attitude. Think Dr. Dre is as big a fan of Ryan as Ryan claims to be of his song? Hey, why not Public Enemy, If Ryan really wants some street cred? (Can you just see Chuck D at a Romney/Ryan rally???) But of course, he’d have to backpedal furiously after someone pointed out the lyrics to almost any song off “Fear of a Black Planet.”
Anyway, RATM’s Tom Morello made it clear that Ryan’s approbation didn’t mean shit since it was likely a put on to make him seem hip and relevant instead of the fascist, bigoted GOP party apparatchik and poster boy for repression of women and minorities that he really is.
Now the Rage Against the Machine thing was pretty funny but my favorite so far is something I completely missed.
A gay friend sent me a link to the coverage of Ryan's introduction as Romney's VP on that decommissioned (neutered) battleship, the USS Wisconsin (wouldn’t want those nice boys being hurt by any real navy type men with live ammo, now would we?). I hadn’t realized that Romney bounded out onto the deck of the battleship (just like a real person—well, almost) to the strains of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” And if that wasn’t funny enough, I’m pretty sure that neither R&R nor any of their handlers (right wingers being nearly brain dead where any kind of culture not connected to NASCAR races or Ted Nugent screeds, or country bands wearing all red white and blue) had any idea that Copland was gay. Not just gay, but extremely progressive to the point of supporting communist party ideals back in the 30s.
And that particular extravagance got him an invitation to a Spanish Inquisition by Ryan's Wisconsin's precursor, Joe McCarthy. It also got him blacklisted and resulted in a performance of his “Lincoln Portrait” being banned from Eisenhower’s upcoming Inauguration.
So unless R&R are really closeted hipsters who revel in subverting the party of No, I doubt they’d want their big moment being tuned up to the strains of a gay liberal.
All of this demonstrates a couple of disturbing things. First, Republicans know very little about the culture or history of the country they work so feverishly to take over. Second, and more importantly, they don’t really give a shit. They all take a page out of the George Bush playbook which states that reality is what they say it is. History, culture, music, art, community, education, respect for people and for the planet, none of that crap matters to them. So they can claim to be fans of this or that if that particular lie will gain them some kind of credibility. If it backfires, they can make bullshit claims like “Well, I like the band, I just don’t like their lyrics.”
Say what?
Stay truthful and classy, R&R, the world is your oyster. But how 'bout you stick to Pat Boone and Ted Nugent, okay? Next time I hear some Republican puke claim to be a fan of James Brown or John Coltrane I might have to pop someone.
Better yet, learn to play the piano, a la Nixon and just play “Home on the Range” til your fucking fingers fall off.
Regarding l'affaire Akin, two things could and probably will happen. First, he may be elected after all. Many conservatives would vote for a freshly pissed on fire hydrant rather than a Democrat of any stripe, no matter how conservative.
"Justifiable Rape", "If you're raped, make the best of a bad situation", "Corporations are people, my friend." It wouldn't matter if a Republican made claims as completely stupid as "vaccines cause cancer" and "carbon dioxide is perfectly harmless", conservatives would vote for them no matter what. A box of rocks with an (R) after its name could get votes.
So Akin will get plenty of votes. That's a given.
The other thing has already started to happen. Other Republicans will talk about Akin as if he's the most amazingly surprising anomaly since the missing link. The idea here is to convince voters that he's just a bad apple. Nothing to worry about. Just like those few bad apples at Abu Ghraib. One or two bad apples caused the whole problem.
This further encourages voters to disbelieve the evidence right in front of their faces. "Paul Ryan wants to dismantle Medicare?? No, you must be wrong. No one in their right mind would do that. You're lying."
This is why Akin is still tied with McCaskill and why R&R are still within closing distance of Obama.
Just imagine, if you will, how far down the polls any Democrat would be who carried all the baggage, committed all the gaffes, said all the stupid things, refused to open his or her finances to public scrutiny, flip-flopped on an hourly basis and lied with such astonishing frequency as Romney and Ryan?
The election would have been called weeks ago. Even against a talking dog no Democrat with all that baggage would be electable. But that's not the case for Republicans. They've been able to insulate themselves against attacks for things they've actually said and done. Because there will always be millions who will vote for them just to avoid voting for a Democrat.
They can say what they want, do what they want, and pay very little in penalties at the polls because conservative voters never hold them accountable. Neither will the dominant right wing media echo chamber. For anything.
In re Todd Akin (albeit somewhat tangentially): I just checked in over at Charlie Pierce's Esquire blog and found this among the comments to one of his posts on Akin:
"Charles: Off topic. May I suggest that you include a link to the blog Realitychex (www.realitychex.com). Marie Burns is new to the scene (former perennial top commenter on NYT OpEds and current lead columnist for the New York Times Examiner (www.nytexaminer.com)), who has put together a great site and resource, one that links to your stuff on a regular basis. Just a thought. Thanks."
This is from a regular commenter, Jack Mahoney. Thought you should know: the word is spreading, and that's A Good Thing! (Apologies to Martha.)
And (sane people would think oddly) the Party which is trying to distance itself from Akin just approved an anti-abortion plank calling for a Constitutional Amendment that would allow no exceptions for rape or incest. Makes the kind of sense one would expect from those guys. Do wish they would clarify, maybe with full-color illustrations, though, what kind of incest might be "legitimate."
Jack,
Your impression of the vacuous, hazy image of Willard hovering in the air like a malevolent capitalist ghost of takeovers and outsourcing past, coupled with the news that Bain is at it again, prompts another near-future headline:
"Bain, drawing on Romney legacy, quotes Bishop Willard chapter and verse to latest batch of Americans whose jobs have been shipped overseas, running its total up to 45 American companies 'Romnified' and 23,567 losers applying for unemployment benefits in the past two years alone."
@Kate Madison-
No bubbles bursting. I agree our younger generations have a serious complex to overcome if they want to be successful in this diversifying world we live in. Academics are expecting 2/3 of the world's middle class to belong in Asia around 2030. Thanks to the neoliberal policies peddled by our own politicians, (Big Business minions) today's younger generations will have to quickly adapt accordingly if they want to maintain their economic and social positions they are growing up in. Many will fail. Big Money is King in our land.
Our problems are many and the responses few. America's decline is inevitable and it's happening right now. Half of our political system is apparently trying to accelerate it while basking in the fluorescent glow of Patriotism. I remain confident, with history as my guide, that their push to turn back the clock on society's progress will not stand the test of time.
You ask when has Reason prevailed in my experience? Today, all Americans are 5/5 citizens, women have the right to vote, Roe v. Wade exists whether some in the minority like it or not, homosexuals still have a tough road ahead to full equality but the wind has been blowing in their favor despite the frivolous attempts of the homophobes. These Repub demagogues can try as they can, but once the public has earned its freedoms, taking them away is doubly difficult. We're a scrappy bunch if we want to be. None of this progress was earned without a fight, and the fight continues on.
In this argument you can take two perspectives. In Sisyphus's constant labor fighting the laws of nature, he can be considered the Republicans fighting an unwinnable battle, or he can incarnate the populace, constantly burdened under persistent Conservative forces. I choose the former.
@Akhilleus: Dynamite post about music for the morons whose ignorance of such is laughable.
Todd Akin: the Christine O'Donnell/Joe Miller for 2012
Motto: "What'd I say?"