For the actual post . . .
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This seems about right . . . And also why the same so-called ‘new journalists’ like The Politico are part of the problem. A good example? ‘Analysis’ why Republicans have brand issues. Who else to ask than the same stale ‘Republican’ splinter group operatives?
Nothing about Christian Socialist Authoritarianism, nothing about Imperial crushing of the constitution, nothing about *general incompetence and disregard for the common citizen* — Katrina being only one example. Nothing about astounding radicalism unknown in American political historical memory; nothing about unprecedented use of fear to not only manipulate demos but crush internal deviationism; nothing about contemptuous plutocratic concentration of wealth; nothing about a savage, nihilistic assault on governing institutions like the intelligence community or DoJ or the judicial branch.
And remember, the Stiftung still has the ‘Member in Good Standing’ certificate from the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy tucked away somewhere. This is not the Daily Kos speaking here.
In fact nothing The Politico spews out is anything but more of the same trite inside-the-Beltway projectile pea soup. A regurgitated cocktail of the same old rotting, irrelevant agenda of the HOST body — the Republican Party. ‘We need more technology to compete. We got lazy” and so on.
Naturally, these The Politico younglings, these ‘journalistic’ padawans, don’t even know how lacking they are to even ask the right questions. Even as they are celebrated as brave new pioneers. How unaware they are about what has been gloating at them in the face for the last 8 years. They think and accept at face value it was and is the Republican Party. The true malevolent persona — the parasitic, anti-liberal democratic Movement is not even recognized. They remain oblivious still. And how proud they must be wolfing down yet more morsels of crusty tactical cheese slices. Blind to their recent escape — that they too came within a hair of being crushed along with the rest of us.
If Americans can’t even remember the last 8 years today, or even the last 5, one can only clutch tighter that remaining thin reed. You know, the one we hope is unstained by that wretched liquid Beltway ‘consensus’. Is that reed labeled ‘Yes we can?’ If so, then what? The 20th century proved one thing above all — political ideologies from the top down inevitably fail to change a society. There will be no utopian ‘New [insert adjective] Man/Woman’. (AEI continued delusions aside).
So it remains with American citizenry to restore or even re-imagine their own historical memory. Denver fervor notwithstanding, that effort to us seems as far over the horizon as ever. Concrete focus on posterity (such a quaint notion) and first principles? Not even mesons and baryons in a sea of Labor Day Sales. All we know now is that The Politico et al. emphatically are not a way out. They and their peers in fact reify our current exhausted dissolution.
Perhaps we ask too much of this generation of people and institutions. The tactical is the only known ‘reality’. Texting, blindlingly fast video edits, cortex nullifying imagery are all they remember knowing. New feature additions to Facebook are exciting. Can one honestly criticize historical attention deficits in such contexts?
The Politico staffers themselves do not claim to be and would not know how to be anything more than a gossip rag for their peers. So, with caveat in mind, we will continue to use them while gazing at that horizon.
Comment says
re The NY Sun – Despite disagreeing with its politics – Comment has been a fan of the NY Sun since before it opened and we were on Ira Stoll’s mailing list for his Times criticism..
We though the number of billionaires affiliated with it would allow it to be unprofitible for a long time. We still think they will pare down and muddle thru
But the economics have changed sharply
DrLeoStrauss says
The Sun is setting in NYC . . .
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/09/is_the_new_york_sun_finally_se.html
Anon says
This is sorta funny – Almost subtle enough to play at the GOP convention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RN5xbWtNSU
Anon says
Just saw Bill Bennett bragging about how poorly travelled and unworldly Palin is and how that means she’s a real Murkin.
Bennettt probably hasn’t updated his own ‘how I became a conservative’ creation myth in a whille. So maybe he shoud drop the Harvard detail.
Anon says
Ha we just read Tucker swallowed his bow tie and had to bolt when Ventura went into 9-11 conspiracy mode –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EeZV04Xod4
Anon says
Wither Savimbi burgers?
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/grover_disappoints.php
Anon says
Jesse shows some ’12 leg:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/02/1328026.aspx
Comment says
Just saw a repeat of Maria Bartoroma’s big thumbs up for Palin (mostly over oil in ANWR – which McCain pretended to be against so hacks journos call him a Maverick) on CNBC.
McCain would have been wiser to pick the Money Honey herself – She would have been a true knockout pick.
Comment says
No – missed that Olberman moment. Tweety is feeling the squeeze – At least Tukcker has the presence of mind to start working on his re-branding now as emcee for Ron Paul’s alternative convention.
http://www.rallyfortherepublic.com
On the list of speakers we see Doug Wead – His libertarianism being partly the product of his secret taping of his “good friend” Bush and then being cut out of the fun.
DrLeoStrauss says
Aldershot, giving Morris the benefit of the doubt, after a few cocktails soaking in the adulation from wingers all over the NR boat cruise, he was actually trying to hit on her. “I can make you a movie star . . .”
You’re probably right about the reform strategy as it is on a power point slide in one faction of McCain’s team. The first question is would the strategy even work given McCain lurch into Warlordism after 2003 and her short tenure. And the second is could this crowd even execute a consistent strategy and narrative.
Did anyone else catch Tweety and Olbermann loathing each other as Olbermann covered the hurricane and let Tweety have 20 seconds to say he was in “St. Paul, where events here are more important than any storm.” (One could almost hear Olbermann off camera saying, OK let’s wrap him up. . .’
Comment says
Morriss sometimes has interesting things to say, but it can be of limited value to put stock in what he says or quote him because you never know if he means what he says or says what he means. He makes Kristol look sincere – For years he was pushing Condi to take on his nemesis Hillary – Now he is pretending he doesn’t hate Hillary – That’s less believable than Kristol pretending he doesn’t loath those little towns he flies over from time to time.
Aldershot says
Well, Dick Morris is pumped:
“I had an opportunity to meet and spend half a day with Gov. Palin during a vacation cruise to Alaska sponsored by National Review magazine. The governor invited several of us, including editor Rich Lowry and former UN Ambassador John Bolton, to come see her. There we learned about her crusade against corruption in Alaska, her support for oil drilling there, and the quality of her leadership.
I will always remember taking her aside and telling her she might one day be tapped to be vice president, given her record and the shortage of female political talent in the Republican Party. She will make one hell of a candidate, and hats off to McCain for picking her. Her very presence on the ticket underscores something Obama doesn’t want us to notice: He spent two years stopping a woman from becoming president and now he is about to spend two months stopping one from becoming vice president. Obama could have made history but failed the test. McCain passed with flying colors. That point will not be lost on independent women.”
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/lady_is_a_champ_126833.htm?page=1
It looks like a reform strategy. Taking Obama to task for slithering along in Chicago politics, while at the same time contributing to the over-spending on social programs bankrupting Illinois, coupled with attacks on Biden’s vote for the bankruptcy bill and its ties to his son, and the Greed industry, in general, is not that far-fetched a notion for hurting America to get behind.
Comment says
It’s pretty funny that Kristol always sounds like a communist when he thinks he’s being clever.
Dennis says
SPIVEY
Well, it’s a well-run campaign, midget’n broom’n whatnot.
ECKARD
Devil his due.
SPIVEY
Helluva awgazation.
JUNIOR
Say, I gotten idee.
ECKARD
What sat, Junior?
JUNIOR
We could hire us a little fella even smaller’n Stokes’s.
Pappy whips at him with his hat.
PAPPY
Y’ignorant slope-shouldered sack a guts! Why we’d look like a buncha satchel-ass Johnnie Come-Latelies braggin’ on our own midget! Don’t matter how stumpy! And that’s the g**damn problem right there – people think this Stokes got fresh ideas, he’s oh coorant and we the past.
–O Brother Where Art Thou?
DrLeoStrauss says
Let Palin Be Palin
A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington — the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the countryside, free of taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush Administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain Administration and to govern beyond it. That spectre has a name — Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska chosen John McCain on friday to be his running mate.
William Kristol
Comment says
IMO – the left blogs are underestimating Polin’s political appeal and they are attacking her for being a creationist etc (like a lot of voters). Mistake.
Here’s Digby:
” .. but I think the thing I like the most about this choice is the fact that McCain chose someone from the state which is simultaneously the most oil drenched and the one that is suffering the most dramatically from global warming. Not that the governor cares. She’s far more concerned about saving blastocysts in petrie dishes than saving drowning polar bears.”
Well most people favor humans over Polar Bears no matter how you try to phrase it . This is the kind of thing that annoys people. Also – global warming is a tricky political issue still. If you have to mention it – blame China.
DrLeoStrauss says
Sarah Palin edits her own Wikipedia page?
http://valleywag.com/5043886/sarah-palins-wikipedia-page-scrubbed
Dennis says
Tweety’s leg is twitching away every time he sees that loop of her firing an M16. I bet he can’t remember the last time he had feelings like this for a woman.