Let the Republican bloodbath begin
By David Neiwert Thursday Nov 06, 2008 4:02pm
Well, Republicans were saying before the election that if Obama/Biden won and McCain/Palin lost, things were going to get ugly:
Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy".
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?"
RedState is pleased to announce it is engaging in a special project: Operation Leper.
We're tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.
We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you'll see us go to war against those candidates.
It is our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.
Robert Farley has it about right:
I expect that the effort will make Palin more toxic to anyone who's not in the Republican base, but won't touch her position within the base. Sarah Palin is too big to fail. Bill Kristol has staked his prestige on Palin's future, and the simple fact that she thought Africa was a country isn't going to make he and his back down. He's too deeply invested in her, and everyone else in the conservative punditariat is too deeply invested in him. If she crashes, everyone goes down. I foresee two possible futures; in one, Kristol starts walking everyone back from the brink in a year or two, and Palin's future Presidential candidacy goes down the memory tube. In the other, we get Sarah! 2012, and a Goldwater style annihilation next time around. I'm guessing door #2.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.
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More the better if the Republicans want to run an ignoramus like Failin' Palin in 2012...she should be easier to beat than anyone who actually had half a brain. The only thing stupider than MCSame actually selecting her for a VP running mate is the thought of her as president.
Frist!
Oh please you give Frist to much credit. I live in TN. Can't stand this bunch of idiots. Talk about being a fish out of water. There are very few dems where I live. But I am not afraid to express myself.
After weeks of attempting to bash Obama...it's only fitting that the real news about McFailin' come to the light. However,President Obama and his crew are continuing to show us just what a great choice he was. These guys are amazing! They already have a president-elect website up and running detailing what can be expected throughout this transition process. It's strikingly similar to the Barack Obama website that helped make his campaign an online success.
Sarah Palin Takes a Call From the ‘President of Africa’
Palin is dead in the water. I predict a nervous breakdown - not just the often terrible shock of the let down after a peak experience, but an ongoing inability to accept reality in her world as she goes back to her life. She's set for a big fall in some way. Although I have no time for her, I do feel for her - she fell for the story - and what a Cinderella story it was!!
The knives will be out for her big time. This is the tip of the iceberg. William the Bloody can go and bloody well...
How dumb does a person need to be NOT to know she isn't qualified to be VP, possibly President of the United States when she is so lacking in basic knowledge of the world? I'm a helluva lot smarter than this lady, and I would never feel qualified for such a position. So, though I don't think she is the reason McCain lost, and his staff is pretty chickenshit to be trying to hang it all on her, she was the author of a lot of her own grief. She wasn't smart enough to know that she wasn't smart enough.
I think you grossly underestimate the degree of self-assuredness, self-adoration, and self-righteousness in this woman. There will be no breakdown. Like any good Republican, she can go on denying reality until her very last breath. Don't cry for her, Argentina.
Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush, dismissed Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy".
Really? The guy's name is Nutso? That's fantastic!
DeLay, Doolittle, Colin, Bush, Boner (yeah, sure that's not how it's pronounced) and Nutso. I love it.
Good one, Karen!
I see a new party about to be created from the ooze of the old party.
the Peter Principle. She was promoted to her level of incompetency. Bill Kristol is the perfect person to get ther there. He will never be able to admit that he made an error in judgement by promoting her for VP. And so, she will either get a run at the presidential nomination, or more than likely, cooler heads will prevail and she will be given some other "job" by the Republicans that moves her to the side, to a spot where she can do less harm. They'll make her a big fund-raiser, or get some sympathetic Republican media organization to give her her own program on TV, where she will be the darling of the Wal-Mart set for a year or two.
Kristol has never been right about anything. So I saw Kristol keep up the good work. Goldwater didn't support the extreme nut jobs. He supported roe v wade. The party of Palin is the religious right and god forbid if they win again. People have dismissed her party over, and over. Palin's party are the party of idiots. There are good republicans but they were smart and don't fall for this kind of idiots.
but the Peter Principle should have kicked in when she was elected as Mayor of Wasilla.
I do think she the gift that will keep on giving to the Democrats for a long long time.
just how shallow the AK Talent Pool is.
said, "I found my level, and I'm living it."
They eat their wounded!!!!
I'd be more than happy to provide the GOP with torches and pitchforks at below cost.
I hope they go after all the Palin detractors with all the vigor they can muster.
The GOP has sent a lawyer to Alaska to retrieve "some" of Palin's clothes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/06/gop-...
This is better than a soap opera.
Palin is dead in the water. I predict a nervous breakdown - not just the often terrible shock of the let down after a peak experience, but an ongoing inability to accept reality in her world as she goes back to her life.
well...she could always go on a shopping spree to make herself feel better.
oh wait, she ALREADY did that.
Keep eating your own, Thugs. It gives me an ENORMOUS amount of pleasure.
I just about laughed out loud when I read: "Bill Kristol has staked his prestige on Palin's future." What prestige is that? Assuming he ever actually had any, didn't he already gamble it away on Iraq and Bush?
J.C.:
Oh, that's easy. He wants an emphatically perfect record.
He's not satisfied being wrong on everything. He wants to be FUCKING WRONG on everything. :)
Bill Kristol has prestige?
It's a pleasure to see.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
Napoleon Bonaparte
wow your either with us or against us........the republican battle cry. the people that voted for mccain/palin should hear the drama in the mccain camp. cocktail party conservatives got the last laugh.
i give brooks,parker,hitchens and noonan credit for speaking the truth. credit is also due to this site
and the community.
According to the story, loyalty to Palin will be "the litmus test" of Republican loyalty. Goes to show that to Republicans, loyalty is more important than good judgement.
Nuzzo has delusions of grandeur. RedState is a bunch of lunatics. Bill Kristol is delusional.
Palin is toast. Crispy. Kaput. She'll be lucky to get her old job back in Wasilla.
So please feel free to excommunicate Frum, Brooks, Noonan et al. Because as clueless as they can be, they've proved to be the smartest people in your room -- at least for the time being.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
Never Underestimate The Power of a Farce... or the Cult of Charisma.
Palin is down, but her far right conservative brethren have tied their collective asses to the rocks in her head while simultaneously trying to swim to shore. They may be sinking, but this is no time to let up on the attacks.
Their strategy is going to be as it always has been. Make the people afraid of the right choice, make them afraid of the harder road that needs to be taken. The sociopathic economists are already claiming that Obama has caused the recent drop in Dow prices (nevermind the fact that they've been falling steadily for the past 2 months already). They think its because no one trusts Obama (yeah, that's why he got elected President). The reality remains that no one trusts these sociopathic, conservative economists anymore and, honestly, who the fuck would?
They may be clowns all but they are still extremely dangerous. Except Palin. Palin has been completely exposed as a political light weight -- an empty (albeit Escada) suit. Even though she still has star appeal for the Jesus freaks and true believers, the traditional GOP power brokers will never forget her free-lancing, lack of political sophistication and inability to take direction.
Remember, Palin is still the subject of multiple ongoing investigations. Her Alaska approval ratings have cratered too. When they boot her out in 2010 (and they will), she'll be hard-pressed to make a case as to why she'd make a viable presidential candidate.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
Stick a fork () in Caribou Barbie, the Whore from Wasilla.
She's done.
Don't cry for me Argentina.. I had no idea you weren't in Nafta.
Would you like some ketchup to go with that neocon?
They are out of power amd will STAY THAT WAY.
you guys run with that.
Palin will disappear, believe me. no one likes a loser..
or a stupid one.
Purge, baby! Purge!
Purge, baby! Purge!
Purge, baby! Purge!
It'll never be Palin in 2012. When she is allowed to be Palin, the press will make her into a laughing stock; she makes every one of the many loons that were nominally trying for the GOP nod this year look like Einstein. And, in the bare-knuckled GOP debates, she would quickly become moose nuggets.
That's what they are.
doesn't it, republican losers.
Popcorn, please! This is so much fun to watch.
I LOVE to see these guys eating their own.... AND each other.
Its the same stupidity every corporation goes through when they come across bad times. Trim the fat, but leave the fatheads who got them into this predicament in the first place alone.
Historically, it leads to the same place. Isolation, desperation and desolation.
Don't cry for me....Republican base.
The truth is I never left you.
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance.
And steer them into the abyss. They were dangerous when they had a coalition with moderate republicans. Let this be a lesson, the extremists don't get that way by admitting flaws.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9UBmSjsX5Q
that movie, ysbad. Campy and interesting!
It's based on the legends of Erzebet Bathory, a Hungarian Countess who apparently had hundreds of virgins killed so she could bathe in their blood. Supposedly she drank some too.
But recent scholars think that was myth; she was a cannibal.
and watch the implosion.
Sarah Palin is the Tanya Harding of the Republican party.
Tanya Harding is still on some dorky late-night "world's dumbest videos" on one of the minor networks.
Please, the only TV Palin should ever be on is Wasilla public access.
Wasilla Public Access?
Sounds kinda socialist. So, you're probably right.
Oh gosh, I saw that show. It's stunning! Tanya still has her wall-o-bangs.
Let's just hope Palin doesn't attack anyone with a hubcap, or they'll have her hosting Meet The Press.
washed-up actors I can't remember. Not bad to watch while waiting to pass out at 3AM.
I look forward to the possibility of watching Palin hawk quilts and exercise bicycles on late-night cable in the year 2013. I want her around as long as possible on a low flame just so the rightwing can focus all its affection on her. Keeps 'em occupied while the adults try to rebuild our country.
Also, it has Leif Garrett. I had a poster.
She could be the new ShamWow girl!
I think I see where they are tryng to go with Palin. The Republican party is going for a strictly social conservative ideology and nothing more. For them, it will make no difference if the candidate has any foreign policy or economic experience. I've never seen something so wreckless and foolish in my entire life.
"The American Taliban Party".
I looked at the picture accompanying this post and all of a sudden, I was hearing,
"Everybody run!
The Homecoming Queen's got a gun!
Everybody run!
The Home. Coming. Queen has gah'ot a gun!"
And continuing with the Evita theme:
"Don't cry for me, Grand Old Party!
The truth is,
I never liked you --
All through my wild days,
My mad shop-ing sprees.
I kept my promise
To stir up bigots.
I kept my promise . . ."
Perfect.
Remember the beginning of the real song says "dressed to the nines".
Well, that should finally be the end of Billy KKK.
----
It won't be unless we all write in to the NYT and tell them we support their decision not to renew his contract.
I've never seen an entire political party occupied by the most clueless and cowardly people to be found in the U.S. but it looks like that will be the case.
Love the photo. She really did think she was the American Evita didn't she.
She's not looking so good these days without the high end clothes and the stylist.
Her Cinderella story has ended badly.
not just VP.
She cried on election night, not for McCain, but for her. I LOVE that she felt she needed to speak to the American people and the campaign nixed it.
What a maroon.
that was sweet!
There's no doubt that the depth of this depravity was available for publication throughout the campaign, however the MSM held most of it back from the American people. They did nibble at the edges though. That so much was held back during the campaign to me is the real story behind these stories.
How important the republicans think the POTUS is. They like a figurehead, someone they can control and lead around by the nose. They don't want someone that will make decisions on their own. They don't like someone that can think for themselves.
They're afraid because Bush-Cheney gave the Executive Branch a lot of power and set a precedent. They created a Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was the creater; his monster was nameless.
...and of several different age groups.
And possibly several different species.
I reread Frankenstein, Dracula and the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence every year.
I'm currently rereading Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. Besides getting his parts from charnel houses, tombs, and from executed prisoners, he also took parts from slaughter houses.
So thats how Cheney does it. I figured as much. No wonder Cheney loves wars and torture.
Can we make a haggis?
I just threw up a little with that suggestion.
We could use it! The chunky bits, anyway...
This'll help you keep it down:
http://www.thehotzoneonline.com/wp-content/up...
This was pretty funny:
"P.S. - Did I ever tell you how RedState was able to stock Gov. Palin's campaign plane with twenty of these. We were glad to. And we were glad not to mention it at the time. We are rooting for Sarah Palin."
While I was expecting them to be shotguns, These turned out to be nothing more than $12 Redshit coffee cups!
How generous! How PUSSY...
these guys are all wack...
go there around xmas time....and be prepared to really laugh
but dont even try to register or comment...you will be gone
posted by someone before (maybe here), but never any farther. I don't trust my anti-virus...Glad to hear they're so accepting of contrary views like so many Rethugs...
... and was immediately banned.
Reason?
I wrote complete sentences with multi-syllabic words detailing the utter and abject failure of Republicanism and conservatism.
After cleaning their noses with their shotguns, they banned me.
and use of multi-syllabic words, independent of subject. That alone probably proved you were not one of them.
The killing will begin and those left standing will eat the remains.
?
Don't cry for me, Nome, Alaska.
The truth is I never left you.
All through my shopping in Neiman Marcus,
I kept my rifle.
Hand me a parka.
More like hand me a Prada
(or a Kate Spade)
Prestige? He's kidding right?
Bill's got to stick with Palin, otherwise he would threaten his record of being wrong about everything every time. When you've got a perfect record (even if it's being zero for a vigintillion), you've got to protect it. So, Bill will be with Palin until Ms.Titanic is on the bottom of the sea.
see to it that she's who democrats run against next time, then beat her up, she's a gift.
Publishers are telling Bush "Thanks, but no thanks" on his proposal to write his memoirs. Too funny.
a ghost writer then! I think MANY here would love that opportunity...
Well boosh has plenty of ghosts to choose from coming home from Iraq.
Well said.
There is a French movie called J'Accuse made in the late 30's. I think I may have seen clips of it in documentaries, but I can't seem to get my hands on a copy. It was an anti-war film set as a horror story. It has a creepy mad scientist with his experiments with the dead. But toward the conclusion the dead veterans rise from their graves to protest war, and you have such scenes as skeletons wearing leathern helmets and googles flying bombers. The director Abel Gance hired real World War I permanently disabled veterans to play various corpses.
.
wasn't likely to be a big seller?
asshats are being too cruel on Sarah. Palin singlehandedly made me fall in love with Tina Fey all over again, and for that I am fore'er in her debt.
But about her general lack of intellectual curiosity and her complete disdain for any sort of diversity at all, sure, you guys are spot on.
if she wasn't as mean as the day is long.
Now that's a ticket I could get behind regardless of the presidential candidate.
-AF
{Deleted, I'm sorry Anarcher. But please stop spamming the site with every comment you make. Every once and awhile is ok. But not everytime.
Normally I don't allow any blogwhoring or spamming of someone elses site. So Please knock it off. SiteMonitor.
Consider me spanked.
-AF
If you look at any nation, group, or organization around the world that holds an ideology as its base they all at least have some idea about what is going on around them. If they didn't, they wouldn't be around for long. Heck, even Al Qaeda has an experienced leadership. The Republican party though, throws experience and knowledge out the window and is looking to run on pure ideology alone. That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
Not to mention the fact that they PRIDE themselves on being the party of anti-intellectuals--a party where being reasoned and knowledgeable is viewed with suspicion, derision, even open verbal aggression.
Notice I didn't say "being smart"? It's OK to be smart, as long as you use it in underhanded, devious, secretive maneuvers that heaps rage on your opponents and controls your allies through fear.
Tom Delay, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Ted Stevens, Richard effing Nixon.
Yep, if you hate, if you spread smear and fear, if you encourage (or participate in) chants of "YOO-ESS-AY" as a threat, there's a place for you--in today's Republican party.
Actually I don't like intellectuals either, too stuffy.
I would rather kick back with Lewis Wilson as Batman than watch some foreign movie,
Unless it's Nosferatu Eine Symphonie des Grauens, Das Kabinett Des Doktor Caligari, Faust, Der Golem, Dr. Mabuse Der Spieler, Hexen, Das Vampyr, Metropolis, M, Les Diabolique, Le Belle et la Bete, Les Ypres Sans Visage, and Alexander Nevsky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxlLbKspcQQ
So the republicans are going to turn on and start devouring each other? The wealthy controlling string-pullers and the ingorant thugs who provided the masses to keep them in power? Popcorn, check! Sodas, check! Comfy couch, check! Lllllllllet's get ready to rrrrrrumblllllllle! Round one: DING!
Aberlour...check
Joyous screamshoutoutloud for joy...waited eight years...check!
... check!
contributions and HOPE, priceless...
Good to see these folks have Country First on their minds and are not distracted by "waging a war" on their own intellectuals...
I don't see why it is so hard to accept that a political organization that thinks Intelligent Design is science would think that an adherent of Intelligent Design should be preznit.
They, like Alice, believe several impossible things every morning before breakfast.
i believe that the wingnuts will make it possible for the dems to hold power for the next 40 years
oh, and the rnc has sent a team of lawyers to alaska take back palin's wardrobe that she said wasnt bought for her
when she showed up in alaska yesterday, she was walking on 5 inch fuck me pumps
this has been the most entertaining election cycle in my lifetime
kudos to john mccain
and you know who else is happy? the hustler empire....i now see a series of nailin pailin vids....
Go ahead - fracture your party even more. Do you think that's going to help your cause? I suspect that by the time 2012 rolls around Caribou Barbie will be so remarkably damaged by HER OWN mistakes - it won't matter in the least how many people you blackball on her behalf.
She has ethics problems, she's full of herself - by all accounts a real prima donna (NOT a Diva) - she has a problem spending public monies responsibly, and she's remarkably uninformed - almost stupid.
Remember - the reason you wanted her to begin with was because she had a vagina - you thought all the other vaginas would vote for her. THAT didn't work out. Now you want her because most re-Thuglics have a penis. By itself - THAT's not going to work either.
Tear yourselves up - see if we care.
*
For the past couple of months, I have believed that the Republicans threw McCain to the wolves -- it's not the first time they've screwed him over. They had no interest in winning this election. Every move they made throughout the campaign season just reinforced this for me. It's like they said, "It's your turn now, John. Go on. You earned this..." knowing that it was going to turn into snowballing CF. I don't think they wanted to clean up the mess they made. If they had, I believe they would have run the guy they really wanted -- and I really think they wanted Romney.
Despite being thrilled that Obama won -- oh man, did I cry -- it's really really hard for me to believe that the Republicans couldn't have had this if they had wanted it. It's hard for me to believe that they didn't throw it on purpose. Their mistakes were so catastrophic. Their pick was so wrong. Their VP pick was just a complete outrage. And now that the race is over, we are learning that the outrage is even more glaring. They put on a good show, but they threw it.
I guess what's going on in my mind -- and I would love to be set straight, please -- is that these people got away with so much evil (Stolen elections, torture, signing statements, wiretapping, Katrina... I don't have to spell it all out for the choir.). They got away with it. I really feel that there is not a damn thing they couldn't get away with if they wanted to. And so I also feel that they have the power to turn Obama's presidency into a disaster, so that they can swoop in and fix it.
I have no reservations about saying that they are praying for (and when I put my tinfoil hat on, I'd say orchestrating) some horror. These are people who would nuke the eastern seaboard. Yes, I realize I sound like the nuts on the API messageboard (if you haven't been over there, don't go).
What I want to know (and believe) is that this really happened, that we made it happen. That we really did say "no" to Palin, and it stuck, for real. That it was an honest race and that the people spoke.
I think it's a beautiful thing that Obama ran on HOPE, because it kept reminding me to hold that sentiment close to my heart.
still have a couple of months to screw things up royally.
you forgot the biggest evil of all. It was to steal MONEY. Once you figure that in, everything else makes sense, to me anyway...
Yeah, I mean, that's the bottom line, so to speak. All the evil leads to more money (war profiteering, right?). So this whole Democracy thing is just an impediment, and they're going to let us have our little Democracy, and then they're going to explode it.
I do hope you guys will forgive me for splaying out my whole neurosis here.
If this was in fact a fair and honest fight, I realize that we still have to be vigilant -- this is just the beginning of the fight. But it it was a "throw," then I'm really afraid of what they have in mind.
We had such an enormous turnout! That is enormous! They couldn't have orchestrated that. But they could certainly have orchestrated a complete failure for themselves.
the huge turnout was more than the expected. Of course, large numbers of people still could be held at bay with the weapons and private militias the powers have at hand. I guess I just don't worry too much about it. I'm only marginally employed these days, and times are VERY lean.
I survive with hope, cigarettes, stockpiled water, some food, and lots of ammo. I will not go quietly!
I must disagree. You forget the HUGE opportunity the repubs have now missed: Their chance to stack the Supreme Court with far right-wingers for a generation. Several ageing "liberal" justices are almost certain to retire this term, and had a republican won, he could have replaced them with young right-wingers to ensure a majority, and the republicans have been DESPERATE to do this for decades. And now it will not happen. I suspect every "liberal" justice under 60 will retire this term so to be certain to be replaced by a democratic appointee. And this will hold the status quo for many years. And thank the risen Lord for that.
I suspect the repugs will be playing on the illegal immigration issue. Obama's not likely to do anything about it, too many Hispanics were among his support and there's the legal status of an aunt involved.
So expect illegal immigration, and it's "impact" on the economy to play a part in the election cycle of 2012.
Nonsense. The immigration issue played a big role in the 2008 election.
It was primarily responsible for the massive Latino turnout for Obama.
He will be doing something about immigration, indeed -- he'll be fixing our broken system. At least, that's what he promised, and I expect it will be a promise he'll keep.
The right no doubt will only further embrace its nativist wing in the process.
And as we saw in election after election, that embrace turns off moderate white voters. So it will mean their further marginalization.
Palin's the Republicans' Kerry.
Oh, you must elaborate on this...
I've spent time with Kerry. For all of his faults, John Kerry is a thoughtful, intelligent and kind man. The same cannot be said of Palin.
-AF
{ Deleted, Read your last comment. SiteMonitor}
Like Kerry, Palin was hyped as the one who'd stop whatever inevitable losses her own side faced, and she blew it-and probably for the same reason, too: She wasn't willing to challenge her own party machine and try to reach out to the voters whom she most needed to win.
the keep getting smaller. I hope they keep it up.
I know it's easy to lose in the overwhelming wash of glee about how they plan to do a circular firing squad, and I know it's easy to forget that political commentators at least attempt to maintain a thin veneer of neutrality...
But I find it amusing that they've admitted outright that they plan to do their next round of political analysis as revenge-motivated smears because somebody spilled a drink on their cheerleader girlfriend.*
Can I get a "Country First"?
*Some context may have been invented.
Just one suggested edit, make that "runner-up cheerleader girlfriend".
I've annoyed a lot of liberals over the years by telling them just how politically stupid and self defeating they are. I am now happy to report that conservatives are in the same type of self-destructive spiral that Rush Limbaugh exploited twenty years ago to give him vast swaths of undeserved credibility at the expense of liberals.
Back around 1990 you were a racists if you didn't believe that Tawana Brawley was raped by four law-enforcement officers over a very wet and cold Thanksgiving day weekend when they were actually with their families. You were a rape apologist if you didn't think that there was a national epidemic of Multiple Personality Disorder due to father/daughter incest and that tens of thousands of women belonged to Satanic cults where many acted as high priestesses without ever being consciously aware of it. (Seriously. I was taught this in college!) When asked why liberalism had suddenly gone out of style, Sen. Patrick Moynihan offered, "If you keep excommunicating people, pretty soon you're surrounded by protestants."
Well, now it's the Republicans' turn. Like liberals in the late 80s and early 90s they're fanatically ostracizing people for not believing in absurd BS. After agonizingly watching liberals ruin themselves for years I can now sit back and watch Republicans enter their abusive loser phase.
This is going to be good.
Hieronymus, I almost agree with you about the Tawana Brawyly episode, except for the part where it becomes the defining episode of the entire Democratic movement. Sadly, it became a defining moment for racism, and it was fantastic tabloid, and it utterly ruined Sharpton as a serious public figure -- sucks for him. But there have been many horrible abuses of power and violent, debased, shockingly bigoted episodes since then -- none of which had any impact on politics.
If Brawley is the best you can come up with as an analogy for the hole the Republicans have to dig themselves out of now, then either we really did win this thing fair and square or we really will lose the eastern seaboard, as per my worst nightmare.
ilsita,
Al Sharpton not only falsely accused those men of rape, he was successfully sued in court for slander. You complain that the Brawley episode "ruined" him as a public figure like that's unfair or something. Well, it should have. It isn't like this was a fleetingly rare moment of jackassery for Sharpton. He kept it up for months and insists to this day that Brawley was raped. I don't know how old you are, ilsita, but the racial atmosphere in NYC in 1988 was charged to a degree that's difficult to describe, thanks to the Right Rev's ministrations. Sharpton whipped up anger and resentment to an extent that I remain surprised to this day that no serious violence occurred. There was certainly plenty of anger and screaming and recrimination coming from people who were utterly, utterly wrong.
And, of course, the Brawley episode didn't "ruin" him. If only it had. He was a speaker at the 2004 DNC, fer chrissake and enjoyed a nice highly-publicized presidential run financed by Republican Dirty Trickster Roger Stone (see Village Voice and Joe Conason). Believe me, Sweetheart, I had my ear bent by more than one former liberal guy over that one.
And, you know what? Though the Tawana Brawley rape hoax wasn't THE defining episode It certainly was A defining episode. Demanding the people believe absurd BS and then calling them vile names for not believing in absurd BS is a great way to end up in the political wilderness regardless of the amount of actual damage done. Liberals love to complain that white men don't support them. Well, if you support a racist fat head like Al Sharpton, what do you expect? If liberals support feminists who seem dead set on stereotyping men as violent oppressors (see the Duke lacrosse case for only the most recent example of a long, long line of boneheaded accusations) what do you expect? I know I keep harping on this but, Jeebus folks, it's important.
My point is, of course, excruciatingly obvious. This will not, of course, stop tons of liberals from not getting it.
Hiery, I wasn't complaining about Sharpton's ruin. I think he's an enormous ass, and he rightly earned the reputation he has. How the heck did you tease a lament for Sharpton out of my post?
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I get what you're saying, which actually does make complete, obvious sense (simply: be inclusive and don't be crazy, right?) -- until I get to the part where you seem to be equating feminism and the civil rights movement to stupid shit like intelligent design... And your proof for how BS these efforts have been is Tawana Brawley and the Duke case? That's right were you kind of head right off the rails and straight into coo-coo town, which is not a good place to be when you're yelling at people about peddling absurd BS.
OK, I misread the part about sharpton. My apologies.
You seem confused by the fact that I have limited my examples with the concept that they are the only available examples I can produce. For instance, when I was a young pup feminists were getting all worked up over snuff films and claiming that they proved men hated women and wanted to rape them. They were really quite incensed about this. (A snuff film for any innocents reading this is defined as a film in which the female star is literally murdered on screen for the entertainment of the audience.) Only problem is that no one has actually ever been able to find so much as one genuine snuff movie. Then there was the Super Bowl Sunday domestic violence hoax and...well I could go on but I have stuff to attend to. Try to imagine what people would think of me if I ran around saying that Jews loved to watch movies in which christian children were killed and I think you'll get the idea. Feminists did endorse a literal witch hunt when they embraced the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria. If that isn't crazy man-hating shit what is?
In any case ilsita, I kind of get the impression that you, like so many liberals, are getting the laudible goal of gender equality confused with feminism as it's actually practiced. As Orwell so sagely noted, just because people endorse a laudible goal doesn't mean their not being immense jerks about it. Feminists prove my point when they complain that only a small minority of women are willing to call themselves feminists when a majority of women agree with their goals. Frankly, based on my own observation, that's exactly what I'd expect. The mere fact that you choose to dismiss my examples and imply that I'm "into coo-coo town" shows that even liberals like you who claim to get it in the end don't really get it.
and why we dont need the fairness doctrine back
here is a quote from el druggo
“You like literary people, you like people who write well, you like intellectuals, well why don’t you go over there and join them!”
that was rush talking to moderate repugs
tonite, on la station kabc, house negro larry elder was in a battle of words with fellow wingnutter doug macintyre (who has the morning show) elder charged that macintyre (who is a conservative) was really a closet liberal.
this is brilliant theater
right now, they are trashing palin and the religious right...although they keep saying that dems cant lead unless they govern from the center
i still scratch my head at this...
Tired of those harrowing close elections, Michelle? Here's the job for you! You can be the Reichwing Ideological Puritymeister, (R.I.P., for short) where you can use your proposed loyalty test on your own
pack of imbecilesparty! What a nice way to test run your magnificent theory before taking it national to the great unwashed masses! And you are assured of success since the initial test market is composed of dolts and morons! They aren't smart enough to be disloyal!Go for it Michelle! The Reich is counting on you to use your political enema test to flush out all impurities that compromise the Vaterland!
In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican party to form the short lived Bull Moose Party- Expect something similar in 2012.
Moderate Republicans see the radical right wing Christain zealots like cockroaches that have infested their party- and cost them the election.
The radical right sees the moderates ass too liberal, too tolerant..
These two sides of the Republican Party will NEVER see eye to eye-
Either the moderates-or the Christian fringe will break away and form a third party....
I hope the Christian right takes over and dominates the Republican party- as that will destoy their chances of winning the whitehouse any time soon...
What do you think? Will the moderates or Christian fringe make the republican Party their own?
Many moderate Republicans have already abandoned the Republican party to become Independents- byt will they try and take back their Republican Party and kick out the religious nuts?
I don't think this will happen because it would split the conservative vote and neither party would win another national election. The Democratic Party won't split because it is an inclusive movement and less dogmatic. The Republican Party is filled with inflexible ideologues who would eat their young to win an election. They'll find a way to keep the party together out of a need for self-preservation.
Me thinks the rethugs will spend more than 40 years in the wilderness. And, when they emerge, they will have split into 2 factions - the moderates and the wingnuts. We, as progressives, need to bring the moderates into our fold. The wingnuts? Let them self-immolate themselves as they continue to alienate a larger and larger portion of the American public.
I am enjoying watching evolution in action. The Republicans are engaged in the survival of the fittest game and it's going to take them a few years to find out who that will be.
I think Palin will fall into the Neaderthal category.
I say again - -
Stevens gets re-elected.
Senate ousts him
Gov Palin appoints replacement (guess who ?)
Tina Fey becomes the Senator from NBC/SNL
It's Palin who is the leper now. Sure she has a hand full of one-issue fundie voters who think she's the second coming (and Bill Kristol who hasn't been right about anything, ever) and a big f-ing ego that will make her run in 2012. But she won't get past the first couple of primaries before she self destructs and then we'll be rid of her for good.
The Republican Party is in the process of ditching Sarah Palin faster than a jamaican sprinter. Ultimately, she and the conservative pundits like Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes who pitched her to the RNC, will forever be associated with one of the worst electoral defeats the Party has ever suffered. Few would argue that a more qualified running-mate might have completely changed the complexion of this election by giving John McCain the ability to hit harder at the experience issue. Choosing Palin precluded him from doing that. More importantly, McCain's decision to choose Palin reflected terribly on his judgment and made him look like a typical politician doing whatever was necessary to get elected rather than what was best for the country. It was Palin's hubris that motivated her to ignore her more experienced handlers, and her ignorance of national and global affairs that exposed McCain's mistake. She came off as a strident liar who couldn't put two complete sentences together without having a teleprompter in front of her. With each passing day, she will become less and less a part of the news and our daily lives. It will be interesting to see if she now becomes more active in the Alaskan Independence Movement. She's dumb enough to do that if she figures out that she has no future in national politics.
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