June 28, 2008 11:00 AM
Mike's Blog Roundup
Open Left: The corroded corruption at the heart of 'moving to the center.'
cab drollery: Folksier Than Thou
Bark Bark Woof Woof: The genesis of an email smear campaign.
Publius Endures: Religious Right = a 'Leave Us Alone" coalition?
Firedoglake: The Conservative "civility" scam.
The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat reveals: How Iraq descended into chaos, how a plane crash laid for foundations for the national security state, how Oliver Stone poisoned the well of truth about John F. Kennedy and how the Confederacy set out to win the war by other means
Going out with a bang to give McTortured the Presidency:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh
Interestingly, the Obama smear assumes that everyone will just naturally think some one is evil because he/she belongs to a religion that the smearer finds suspect. Now who is the smear aimed at? Answer: the arrogantly ignorant.
Dont'cha hate it when it seems like you dreamed all night
And that they've already entered summer reruns?
The commercials are annoying too.
I wonder when we'll ever get rid of the terms right, left and center. I believe for example in complete health care coverage for everybody from cradle to grave and free education for anybody whenever they want, but that the government shouldn't be involved in a lot of other areas that aren't necessary (promotion of culture, subsidies to farmers or large corporations, investment in projects like biofuels that look good at the time but might not be later on and are generally taken care of better by the free market anyway), and I like the idea of a flat tax. What would that make me then? Something between Estonia and Iceland seems to be ideal.
Kristol: ‘Republicans are much more open to strong women.
If you look at how bad McCain's campaign is going, and you look at how Obama is ruining is brand, it reminds me of 1992.
Clinton stomps Dole. Clinton then becomes the best Republican president since Eisenhower.
Obama, with his FISA move (I don't mind his gun policy, I like guns, all progressives should own an assault rifle, we may need them)
is becoming a good Republican. As time goes on we can expect to see him conform to the corporate sponsored vision of the US
that has been peddled as good politics for the past 40 years. I wanted Obama to be the right guy, he isn't, he will never be. Now
I can quit worrying about him getting killed. He was manufactured for this job by the "big guys". He is safe.
We aren't.
Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these circumstances?
Gore Vidal: Well it's because we no longer have a country. We don't have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they've got rid of the Bill of Rights, they've got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies - the Magna Carta - from the 12th century. All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the constitutional links that made us literally a republic.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=61813§ionid=3510302
Mr. Obama, I want my fourth amendment back!
Alice X @ 8:
How much can you "contribute"?
the msm, and their masters in the corporatocracy, have pulled a masterstroke in owning and defining what the political "center" is. until the people and their representatives in the govt challenge this orwellian "center" we will be mired in anything but centrism, and we will continue to be burdened with policies that strongly favor one small sector of the country. that, to me, is not of the center, but of the few.
Mithridates @ 4:
I could not agree more.
Time and again when the Corporate Media reports on an issue you'll find somewhere in the coverage a statement like: "Liberals thinks this about it, Conservatives think that."
Immediately it becomes trivialized to a Partisan Issue.
And thus ALL politics becomes trivialized and partisan, and you're only allowed one of two opposing views, without consideration of the broad spectrum of possibilities.
This also keeps the nation politically polarized, making us easier to manipulate.
Politics SHOULD be about issues, not about Partisan Politics.
Alice X @ 8:
Yep. He is the one who took it away. The black guy is always the guilty one.
{Deleted, knock off the offensive name calling. SiteMonitor}
I would not be surprised to see Obama warmonger on Iran.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh
The dems want it.
MountainMan23 @ 11:
and this is exactly what both parties want/need
one could call it a duopoly, or--more accurately, imho--a single party with two wings. but, either way, one thing they agree upon is shutting out any outside voices, any independent upstarts, and truly grassroots effort for change.
McCain takes Credit for Jim Webb's GI bill. Typical McCain!
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_takes_credit_for_Gi_bill_0628.html
13 Dr. (Fast Eddie) Matt Says: {Deleted, knock off the offensive name calling. SiteMonitor}
_________________________________________________________________
Dr. Matt called someone a SiteMonitor?
Mithridates @ 4:
Indeed. A group of terms from the 19th Century and a world that was vastly different in both congnitive models and politicosocial models really doesn't mean much in this era. It's not like the French Revolution has much to offer in terms of instruction for political leanings anymore. Monarchism is effectively dead, and the liberals of then have become today's conservatives. I'd also like it if liberal was a dead term for the Left for a different reason than the Right does. In most nations, liberal means center-right. We need a real Left here, goddammit!
As for that book about the CSA, I am not proud of my ancestors who engaged in armed treason against my country, and he's only stating something that's blindingly obvious, namely that segregation and sharecropping were slavery under a different name. Of course, I'm white and my mother's side were white sharecroppers, but then in the Old South, the lot of the poor white and the poor black was pretty damn similar, which makes the hate that the poor whites felt shameful to me. If my poor white ancestors in Georgia had been able to stand together with the blacks under Jim Crow, that whole mess might have been averted. Damn the Confederacy and all she built!
Dr. (Fast Eddie) Matt @ 5:
Aiming for Clinton voters, as long as they stay in the kitchen.
Alice X @ 8:
Don't stop with Obama! Add Pelosi, Hoyer and all the other "Democrats" that want to pass FISA.
Dr. (Fast Eddie) Matt @ 5:
How in Hell does he get away with a damned lie like that? I thought conservatives believed the Bible, especially the part where it says "Do not bear false witness." Scam artists, and they scammed the whole damn nation.
General_Rennenkampf @ 21:
I think he was refering to the ones who dress in leatrher and carry whips.
General_Rennenkampf @ 21:
How does Kristol get away with any of his lies??? Why is he even still punditing? He's been mistaken more times than anyone can count, and yet he keeps getting rewarded for it.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 20:
I also want the 14th Amendment back. Seems that disagreeing with Tsar George I means that you aren't a citizen to the Right. Brand the 14th Amendment into their heads. I also want the Sixth Amendment restored as well. Terrorists should be tried in a fair court, and their guilt should show without having to resort to Civil War-style military tribunals.
I enjoyed the Open Left article on the new media meme that Obama's capitulation to telecoms and the radical right is "moving to the center". The "center" being 30% of the country. Or the same ones who support Bush.
Dr. (Fast Eddie) Matt @ 5:
Yep, they are open to strong women just so long as those strong women only fight for something on the Republicans behalf. When they are confronted by a strong woman though they back down. That is what you usually see from "men" that have no balls.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 23:
xoites defends Constitution @ 22:
Sometimes, I think that the Tsars had the right idea on how to keep information away from people, which helped restrict propaganda. Then I look at 1917-1923 and the USSR and take it all back. That said, an outright scam artist should be taken off the air for unethical behavior. Not for speaking stupidity, else we'd have no people outside the jails all over the world, but for lying and breaching journalistic ethics.
Otay @ 25:
Glenn Greenwald has an excellent essay up about this issue too today. In a nutshell, if Obama is going to move to the "center" to prove how strong he is on national security, then he's showing voters he's too weak to stand by his own beliefs.
General_Rennenkampf @ 21:
kristol is jewish... just sayin'
Otay @ 25:
When the sip of state is listing dramatically to starboard moving toward the center is not a good idea anyway unless you want to help sink the ship.
Samson- @ 29:
Just saying? Or are you pointing out your anti semetism?
Joe O. @ 26:
No, what you used to see from men like that was them standing as a woman burnt at the stake. Nowadays, that's not possible, so they settle for verbal abuse and ostracization instead. If I were a Hillary supporter, I would have been pissed at how she was constantly given treatment that if a sixteenth of it had landed on Obama those people would have been investigated. How they treated Hillary was abominable, and it turned me from being a knee-jerk Southern Hillary-hater to actually liking the gal, and losing all respect for people who hate her.
Samson- @ 29:
What's that supposed to mean?
Samson- @ 29:
So? Talmud and Mishnah say nothing to contradict that.
If you're an anti-Jewish person, go back to Stormfront, this is not a place for your kind.
getalife @ 14:
There's a certain corrupt and sneaky element of our society that would very much want that. I wouldn't say Democrats want it.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 28:
and it makes one wonder (ok, it makes me wonder) just what policies he thinks DO make america safer.
maybe obama has no idea what the root causes of int'l terrorism are. maybe he really does think that "they hate us for our freedom"...
Samson- @ 36:
If you are about to say it is all Israel's fault i beg to differ. Certainly Israel has plenty to do with it, but it is our arogance as a nation that allows us to sweep aside other cultures and the lives of millions to get what we want that is truly at it's root.
General_Rennenkampf @ 34:
I think Samson was just trying to be funny. I got a chuckle Please don't diss him just for using a stereotype.
Samson- @ 36:
International terrorism is motivated by the desires of powerless people to take on the superpower. The UK called it piracy back when the UK was the superpower, and in Tsarist Russia it was called nihilism. It is a weapon of the weak, and to react in fear the way this nation has done is bad indeed.
General_Rennenkampf @ 34:
no, but thanks for giving me the credit. thanks guys.
the poster, General_Rennenkampf@ 21, said "How in Hell does he get away with a damned lie like that? I thought conservatives believed the Bible", to which, thinking he didn't realize it, i just wanted to point out that bill kristol is jewish.
i shouldn't have to apologize. unless informing people of someone's faith is a bad thing. is it?
and those that implied, or said, i am an anti-semite. well, you guys really suck.
Che's Lounge @ 38:
che, thank you
consider me insanely offended
Che's Lounge @ 38:
I didn't find it funny. In fact, I thought it was offensive.
Che's Lounge @ 38:
I've heard too many Christians state that because the Jews have their Rabbinical Laws they are Satanic, as if Karaite Judaism with its focus only on Tanakh is nonexistent, and that Halakha is a tool of Satan to deceive the Jews. So when I post something about Torah and somebody says "He's Jewish," that's the reaction I tend to have because of how I read the tone.
xoites defends Constitution @ 37:
project much?
listen, mr. fussybritches (and i am sad i have to defend myself against your idiotic charges and kneejerk jerkish-ness) what i was getting at is the root cause of terrorism is due to an imperial US foreign policy.
*trying my hardest not to come out blasting*
Samson- @ 40:
I apologize, the statement seemed similar to a lot of reasoning I hear in church about why Jews are bad. I do know Kristol is Jewish, neoconservatism originated when a bunch of Jewish former Marxists walked over to the Right, so thank you for insulting me with what I already know.
Samson- @ 44:
I agree with you, terrorism is a weapon of the weak, and the US has the strongest cultural reach and a military reach that is global. Terrorism tries to stop the US by scaring it, but terrorists themselves are powerless.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 42:
so it is offensive to state the fact that kristol is jewish? is being jewish something that you think people should be ashamed of?
you are pathetic.
Samson- @ 40:
Uh, Jews follow the Bible. In fact, they've been credited with writing the Old Testament or Torah and Jesus was originally Jewish.
Samson- @ 47:
It's not offensive at all, and I get what you were trying to say, now. I just misinterpreted it due to a conjunction that was accidental on my part. I do apologize, I was wrong.
General_Rennenkampf @ 45:
*sighs*
i was not trying to insult you. this has reached a point of absurdity.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 48:
Depends on the Jewish sects. Like a lot of Muslims and the Quran, many Jews have not read Torah themselves, they read Talmud and study Halakha the way most Muslims read Sunnah and study Shariah. Karaite Judaism is a Jewish Protestantism. And yes, Jews wrote the Old Testament. They wrote the New Testament, too. Much of it was written before Nazoreanism and Rabbinicism split.
Samson- @ 50:
Again, I apologize for the misinterpretation, it was my fault, please accept that I will think a couple more seconds before hitting the keys.
Samson- @ 47:
It is irrelevent to what he is saying. It would be like saying, "Obama is black...just saying." You don't see how or why that would be offensive?
I am neither Jewish or black...just saying...
xoites defends Constitution @ 53:
xoites defends Constitution @ 53:
Exactly, thank you Xoites! [My reply went in the wrong place, so repeating it.]
General_Rennenkampf @ 51:
Wow. I don't know the intricate history of religions the way you do. But, generally speaking, Jews do follow the Bible, which they also wrote. So it's absurd to imply that Kristol doesn't follow the Bible's tenants because he's Jewish. And, as Xoites points out, it also has nothing to do with Kristol getting hired by the NY Times and appearing on all the talk shows as a "respected" pundit. Even though Kristol doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and can't even get his facts straight.
Leslie [Hussein] @ 28:
Just read Greenwald's article. Thanks. Seems the Dems have not learned much over the past 20 years, as this is what they keep doing over and over again. Like Charlie Brown with Lucy's football.
I see that HuffPo is repeating the media narrative. Shame on them.
General_Rennenkampf @ 52:
apology accepted.
what i found so sad was that i actually like your and xoites posts...
Samson- @ 58:
Yeah, I oughta try practicing what I preach and thinking before I write something.
I know krystol(nacht) is Jewish.
But one has to remember there are many schools in Judaism.
I feel no discomfort calling him that sobriquet.
Because during WWII, there were groups of Jewish people who cleaned up after the Nazi's.
The Nazi's would invade a ghetto, wipe it out with gunfire, capture people for the death camps, and there were teams of Jews they kept alive basically to clean up afterwards. I'm not sure if they had any special name, and it might be seen as a way to survive, but it could also be seen as capitulation.
xoites defends Constitution @ 53:
Leslie [Hussein] @ 56:
Considering how religion is a key to understanding different cultures, knowing about them is kinda important in post-9/11 US culture.
But yes, Talmud and Mishnah are based on interpretations of Torah, and the 10 commandments are the first in order of Biblical sequences of Torah and also are repeated in Deuteronomy. Of course, Jews and Christians number them differently, but regardless, Kristol would know the Bible. What Samson was trying to do is mention something related to what I was saying, namely that conservatives wrap themselves in the Bible, and hence should know damned well that lying is a sin. I guess he thought I thought that Kristol was a Chriscon, which I knew he was a JuCon.
ysbaddaden @ 60:
Sonderkommando. It was often the only way to survive in Nazi death and work camps, and Halakha does not give Jews the Roman option.
i'm scottish… just sayin’
62 General_Rennenkampf
My dial-up is getting slower and slower.
Sonderkommando is a hard word to find unless you just happen to already know it. I've tried off and on with the internet the past couple of years.
I take it the Roman option is falling on your own sword, like the Iceni Queen Boadicca did, thus earning her the respect of the Romans.
I used to be so fearful, I considered taking my own life
But then I chickened out.
Although the 10 Commandments are considered a part of the Mosaic law, it's my understanding that the Jews, the Catholics and the Protestants all have different versions of them. Some say there are hundreds of laws that could be considered a part of the Jewish commandments.
So it's not some symbol that all people of even only the Abrahamic faiths can agree on. So some southern fried lunkhead, like roy moore, trying to install it in his courthouse would've not just offended the atheist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TAtRCJIqnk
Mike, it's terribly uncivil of you to links that Thers post! ;-)
PUMA founded by Republicans.
ysbaddaden @ 65:
The Jews were the first legalistic (read: fundamentalist) fanatics. Jesus got into trouble for pointing their elevation of law over love. His basic message was; if any religious law contradicts the great law of love, ignore it. The authorities were unhappy about that.
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