I Don't Like You Either.

Not You: those Guys.

ABOUT "I Don't Like You Either" (formerly Versus/Reversus)  

Though I've moved on to a much, much bigger---thanks mainly to my cobloggers--- and more resonant blog (Buck Naked Politics),  this was the blog where I first started tracking the ongoing battle between Tweedlered and Tweedleblue.  I went from left to center to left again, as the unspooling of events makes it increasingly clear just how wrong the right had been.

And now here we are:  Campaign 2008.  Could the Dems be more divided?  Could we be getting everything more wrong and misjudging our candidates more egregiously?  Could the process be more divisive?

I decided recently that I'd re-institute this blog as a place where I could (1) vent; and (2) post material of deep interest to me. This is the padded cell where I rid myself of useless political emotions (because it really shouldn't be about emotion). 

It is also the place where I post material that speaks for itself, without needing much comment for me. 

I am grateful to my BN-Politics co-blogger, Teh Nutroots, for the new name, which better expresses my current jaded state of mind.  He may be co-blogging with me here from time to time. 

Jon Swift on the Kos Boycott (My Quote of the Day--Maybe the Year)

Ah, Jon Swift.  You never fail to make me laugh through my gritted teeth.  The piece cited here is one of the great satirist's best ever.   The following is an excerpt, but there is more, lots more (my favorite bit may be his remarks on Lord Kos's so-sensitive response to the frustration and pain of his diarists---to read, click on the link).

What has especially irked Clinton supporters about Obama supporters at the Daily Kos is that Kossacks for Obama have learned what politics is really about. Politics is not about getting someone elected or changing the world, which anyone who has taken a look at the ability of the Daily Kos to actually get people elected should know. Politics is about feeling good about yourself. Who cares if Obama gets beaten in the general election; he will make everyone who voted for him feel really good inside. That's how Ralph Nader made people who voted for him feel in 2000. It didn't matter whether he had a chance to win or not, it only mattered that his supporters didn't feel icky by voting for Al Gore or George Bush....

I don't know what the average age of Kossacks is but judging by the level of their writing, it appears that most of them weren't even born when Bill Clinton was President. But they have studied enough history in school to know how terrible those years of peace and prosperity were since they directly led to the war and economic downturn we are experiencing now and understandably they don't want to go back to that...

In Support of the Kos Boycott

Diarists  at Kos---which I admit I rarely look at---who support Hillary Clinton have decided that enough's enough.  Good for them.  It's about time Clinton supporters start speaking up against the abuse and insults of the Hillary-hating  O-bot contingent of the Obama supporting wing of the Democratic party. 

Here's an excerpt from Allegre's last post, taken from where it's cross-posted at No Quarter----I refuse to link to Kos.

DailyKos is not the site it once was thanks to the abusive nature of certain members of our community. 

I’ve decided to go on "strike" and will refrain from posting here as long as the administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution.  I will not be posting at DailyKos effective immediately.  I will not help drive up traffic or page-hits as long as my candidate – a good and fine DEMOCRAT - is attacked in such a horrid and sexist manner not only by other diarists, but by several of those posting to the front page.

The Clinton Rules versus The Obama Rules

Somebody finally did it----deconstructed the unfair and unbalanced way in which the Obama campaign, its comparatively sane supporters, and the deranged O-bots have managed to tilt the debate over the candidates.

Congratulations to Eriposte at The Left Coaster for articulating:

The Clinton Rules and The Obama Rules

Memeorandum has more here....

The Media & Obama: Good Intentions Paving a Rough Road

by Damozel and D. Cupples  | We've been worried about this for weeks -- a possible backlash from Hillary Clinton's supporters against pro-Obama (anti-Hillary) media outlets and the passive-aggressive bashing of Hillary that appears to be approved by the Obama campaign.

Apparently, the backlash is already gathering hurricane force -- if a recent Pew poll reflects voters' opinions.

Hillary Takes the High Road (Cross-Posted from BN-Politics)

My co-blogger, Teh Nutroots---who gave me the name for this blog---posted this piece at Buck Naked Politics.  I thought I'd cross-post it here:

 by Teh Nutroots | Last night, at an assembly of "more than 200 black community newspapers across the country," Hillary Clinton took a step in the direction of restoring civility to this campaign. She apologized for any offense her campaign may have caused to black voters across the country (Breitbart).

Yeah, I know.  It won't cut any ice with certain of  her political opponents.  Some of them are so crazed with Hillary Derangement Syndrome that they can no longer see any act except through the filter of their Hillary-hatred.  But as a former Obama supporter from early on who got off the merry-go-round when all the Hillary-hating O-bots clambered aboard, I'm really glad she did it.

Obama's Angry Minister? Clinton's Fault (According to TPM)

Remember back when everything was Bill Clinton's fault?  Apparently it's Hillary's  fault that ABC news published a story about Obama's very angry minister and TPM has decided to "tell it like it is."

The simple fact is that we wouldn't be seeing this stuff now if it weren't for the fact that this is the kind of campaign Hillary Clinton's campaign has decided to wage -- often directly and at other times indirectly by not reining it in in her supporters when it crops up on its own. Wright is news today because Ferraro's been news yesterday. Are her comments racist? That's a loaded, too copious, word. And there've been cases where the Clinton team has gotten a bum rap on these matters. What I do know, however, is that Clinton's campaign and her surrogates have injected the subject of Obama's race into this campaign too many times now for it to be credible to believe that it is anything but a conscious strategy.

Lincoln's quote of Matthew 18:7 is instructive here: "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."

It is insufficient to say that Republicans will do this in the fall so there's nothing to be lost in hearing it now from Democrats.

Oh, Josh Marshall. 

Yes,  Hillary has magic powers over/powerful connections with the media.  We've all seen how well the media treats her in comparison to Obama. "Tell it like it is," indeed.

I dreamed initially of a Clinton/Obama ticket that would run for eight years, followed by an Obama/Edwards one that would last for the next eight.   It seemed like the perfect beginning to a new era of Democratic government.

This is BREAKING MY HEART.  I love TPM; I like Hillary; and I'd like Obama if he'd make his 'surrogates'---hate that word---play nice and play fair.

Obama's Earmarks

Once again, the Obama campaign is pressing  Hillary Clinton to reveal information without holding itself to the same standard it requires her to meet.  Here's an article in the AP:

Sen. Barack Obama is open about the pet projects he's tucked into federal legislation, but it's a different story when it comes to the extra spending he added to state budgets while serving in the Illinois Legislature.

Public records reveal some of the projects he sponsored as a state senator, from literacy programs and park improvements to drill team uniforms and jazz-appreciation events. They add up to more than $6 million.

But that covers just two of Obama's nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate. State records don't detail his projects from other years, and his presidential campaign has not responded to repeated requests from The Associated Press for information.

While silent about Obama's spending in Illinois, his campaign has criticized Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for withholding similar information about her years in the U.S. Senate.

Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Thursday that her position should prompt voters to "ask why she doesn't believe they have the right to know she wants to spend their tax dollars."  (AP)

As the article says,   "Since entering the U.S. Senate and launching his presidential campaign, Obama has made a political issue of openness."  Turns out the operative words are "since entering the U.S. Senate and launching his presidential campaign."

Keith Olbermann's Comments on the Clinton Campaign

The title of Larry Johnson's review pretty much sums it up:  Olbermann’s Cheese Slides Off the Plate,.  he recommends that we just boycott MSNBC  Done and done!

We used to be BIG Olbermann fans at Buck Naked Politics, and now we've all pretty much unanimously decided to pull the plug.  It's saddest for D Cupples, for whom Olbermann topped the list of famous people she'd like to have lunch with. 

I just remain amazed that these journalists---or at least, their corporate masters--- don't see the long-term consequences of their blatant lack of objectivity or even-handedness.

Bye, MSNBC.  I won't miss you.   Okay, maybe I'll miss Tweety a little bit---I expected him to bash Hillary, and was kind of used to it, and I love his big blonde bobblehead, his thatchlike hair, and squeaky voice, even when he's saying things that make me want to snatch him bald-headed.  But I suspect him of secretly really fancying Hillary, like the kid in my mother's Depression-era storybooks who dipped the pigtails of the girl he LIKED-liked into the inkwell. 

But Olbermann?  No, there's just no excuse for it.  No excuse, I mean for this (transcript at Crooks and Liars).

I guess MSNBC thinks they have no Hillary supporters in their target audience.  And by now, they're probably right. 

And obviously, Obama's campaign by now has decided he can get elected without the nearly half the party that prefers Hillary. 

Sean Wilentz at TNR: "The Obama campaign has cleverly played...the "race-baiter card"and yet blamed Hillary Clinton."

This piece is a response to the shameful New York Times op-ed 'The Red Phone in Black and White,' which I didn't bother to cover because, like Sean Wilentz, I found it depressing, and because, unlike Sean Wilentz, I don't get paid for my opinons. 

The thirst of 'the Obama camp,' so-called,  to see Hillary Clinton destroyed morally as well as politically is beginning to trouble a lot of Dems who aren't necessarily supporting Hillary.  Is it possible to persuade them to dial it back or is it already too late?

Sean Wilentz goes a lot further than most critics, accusing the Obama campaign of 'race-baiting.'  With respect to Orlando Patterson's op-ed, he says that his reading "required a singularly tortured and biased "close reading.""  And he says a lot more besides: 

A Woman Stuck to the Toilet for Two Years?

It was her boyfriend's toilet and her skin had grown around it.  How in the hell?  Did she take her meals on the toilet?  Sleep there?  No, I know you don't believe it, but here's the story. 

Deputies said a woman in western Kansas sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years, and they're investigating whether she was mistreated....Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

Ferraro Steps Down; Dems Continue Eating Their Own; Kevin Drum Steps Up

Yep, Ferraro's gone.  Across the blogosphere, the Hillary-haters are rubbing their little hands together in unseemly glee.  Well, good for them.  Ferraro really put her foot in it and then---when she had the chance to scrape the muck off her shoe---blamed Obama and his minions for putting it there for her to step in.  Nonsense, nonsense. 

When you say something inexcusable, just shut up and fall on your sword---inexcusable by definition means 'no excuse will be acceptable.' 

All Ferarro ended up doing by making the whole situation was worse was:  make things worse.  Yep, an ugly and unseemly spectacle.   And the pointed fingers and sneers of the Hillary haters aren't making things any prettier.

Camille Paglia's Hillary Hate: Still Going & Going & Going...

Camille Paglia still hates Hillary, though for different (although similar) reasons.  Hillary is still the wrong archetype; always was, always will be, forever and ever world without in amen.

I saw the first Hillary signs going up this week: a thin, white-haired, but very determined elderly lady was trying to wrestle one into the ground near zipping traffic on a county highway. I thought, "Hmm ... Hillary's demographic?" Obama is certainly a darling of youth, the wave of the future. (Salon)

Obama, on the other hand, is a 'dewy and somewhat reserved newcomer,' beloved of the intelligentsia, with 'the patrician elegance of John F. Kennedy.'  Gaaaah.  Also: heh.  According to La Paglia, Hillary's demographic consists of white-haired little old ladies.  All the cool kids---and La Paglia---want Obama.   

Oh, who cares what Camille Paglia says or does about Hillary or Obama? Her area of expertise is the androgyne in art history, art, and literature literature, with a side of Madonna and Keith Richards and their "hieratic assertions of charismatic personality."  Yes, yes, I read her Sexual Personae Book back in the Nineties.  I liked her Sexual Personae book.  I wish she and Salon didn't believe that her literary/artistic take on pop culture qualifies her for political punditry.  She's always trying to blind her readers with jargon. 

Which is why, oh Brad of Sadly, No! ("How Does this Woman Get Paid to Write Again?") I so revere thee:

Jon Swift: Eliot Spitzer & Other Like-Minded Americans

Satirist Jon Swift thinks Eliot Spitzer should stop apologizing and say what he needs to say to save his career.  And what is that, you ask? 

[He] should become the first sitting governor in American history to say the words, "At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is. And so, my truth is that I am a whoremonger-American."....

Many of our founding fathers, men like Benjamin Franklin, for example, were whoremonger-Americans. In more recent times a number of great political men have patronized prostitutes, men like Jerry Springer, Rep. Joe Waggonner, Rep. Allan Howe, Rep. Fred Richmond, Dick Morris and most recently Louisiana Senator David Vitter, and these are just the ones who got caught. Many of these men have been forced to live in shame for who they are and their political careers have been ruined. But is that fair?

Quote O' the Day #1: Paul Krugman on the Progressive Crazies

He writes, and it is a true word:

One measure of how crazy people on at least one side of the Democratic nomination struggle have become: I’ve gotten a number of complaints that the end of my last — entirely non-political — column, “hope is not a plan,” was a swipe at Obama.

Um, guys, it’s a phrase military types use; I started using it a lot when Iraq went pear-shaped. In fact, if you Google it, the first entry that comes up is a book about the Iraq war.

I’m sorry to say that a large part of the progressive movement seems to have lost its sanity. (Krugman)

Were we Dems always like this? 

Oh, shut up. 

The Democratic Campaigns: Too Ugly to Watch Anymore

The Ferraro statement---which she is now trying to defend by accusing the Obama campaign of reverse racism---and the Sinbad nonsense were the final straws for me.  This ridiculous, unseemly, shaming, disgraceful sniping has GOT TO STOP.  With all the surrogates and advocates shooting off their mouths, it's become a spectacle too distasteful for me to comment on.  Read the articles yourselves and marvel at the growing ugliness.  These are Democrats slanging Democrats, mind you. I refuse to watch or read any more of it. 

Yes, Hillary has had a raw deal in the media and particularly on the internet---Kevin Drum is so right. 

The online feeding frenzy against Hillary Clinton is driving me crazy. And that's despite the fact that I support Obama and, all things considered, think Hillary should probably withdraw from the race.

More on that later — maybe — but for now I just want to make one comment: the current attempts to tar Hillary as a racist have gone way, way over the top. They're revolting....

Dr. Laura Blames Spitzer's Wife

Watch Dr. Laura Schlessinger claim that Spitzer's use of prostitutes was all down to his wife's failure to "make him feel like a man"....  What does a man feel like, I wonder, in Dr. Laura's world?   Based on what I've read and heard about her views on men and what they want, she knows some very different ones from the ones I know.  I wouldn't want my husband to be---or feel---like one of those. 

As my friend from Minnesota used to say, "Oh for STUPID."

In the meantime, some source who spoke to The New York Post alleges that Spitzer has had a hooker problem for, like, SIX YEARS.   I'd say his wife clearly has a problem, though not the one Dr. Laura is focusing on.

In both instances, consider the sources.

The Spitzer Sting: More Politicization of the Justice Department

At BN-Politics (link is at the top of the page), I published a much more extended discussion of the Spitzer matter, complete with Jane Hamsher's absolutely legitimate concerns that his prosecution arose out of the Bush Administration's ongoing efforts to bring down powerful Democrats.  Scott Horton at Harper's has more.

At Mercury Rising, Phoenix Woman asks:  Have Either Senators Craig or Vitter Resigned Yet?

No?  Didn’t think so.

Then neither should Governor Spitzer.  That’s my take.

Oh, and guess how Spitzer was brought down? The bankers he’d pissed off were watching his money really closely. Normally they wouldn’t be flagging $5,000 transactions from a man of his wealth (his father is a real estate mogul), but in his case they sure did.

I think this is probably right. 

Not that this excuses the hypocrisy.  I can be saddened and a little disgusted by his hubris and equally disgusted with the relentless, ongoing abuse of the system by Republicans out to destroy the careers of successful political opponents. 

Memeorandum on the Harper's Piece

WORTHWHILE COMMENTARY:

Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft, TPMMuckraker, Salon,  Majikthise, TalkLeft, Slate, Open Left,  DownWithTyranny!, Talking Points Memo, Corrente, Democratic Strategist,  The Carpetbagger Report,  News Hounds,  Hullabaloo, Shakesville,  Attytood

Did Obama Understate the Amount of Cash He Received from Rezko?

I refuse to link to the right wing bloggers who published the story, so I'll just send you to No Quarter. 

No Quarter Compiles a Little List of Obama's NAFTA-gate Statements

I couldn't love No Quarter any more than I do----first, for providing expert information on intelligence and national security issues without requiring me to believe that torture and acts outside the limit of the executive branch's authority are essential to the job; second, for its work on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

Here's the list, courtesy of the indispensable SusanUnPC:

1. 2/27/08 – ‘No conversations have taken place’ with the Canadian government on NAFTA. “Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue.” [CTV, 2/29/08]

2. 2/27/08 – Obama advisor just said ‘hello.’ “Goolsbee: Canada’s consul general in Chicago contacted him ‘at one point to say ‘hello’ because their office is around the corner.” [ABC, 2/29/08]

Spitzer: “I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong." Another Pol Remembers His Moral Values After Being Caught on Tape

Good news for Republicans:  It's not only their guys who are hypocrites, as well as venal. 

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

An affidavit in the federal investigation into a prostitution ring said that a wiretap recording captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

Mr. Spitzer today made a brief public appearance during which he apologized for his behavior, and described it as a “private matter.”  (NYT)

Yeah, he wishes.  Sadly for him, the you'd-think-by-now-obsolete Mann Act makes it a federal crime to transport a woman across state lines for the purposes of prostitution.(NYT)   I guess women still aren't seen as having any volition in the matter.   "The four defendants charged in the case unsealed last week were all charged with that crime, along with several others."(NYT) 

Like certain Republicans I could mention but won't, Mr. Spitzer can be charged with the---to my mind---far more serious moral transgression of hypocrisy.

The Scope of the NSA's Domestic Spying

The Wall Street Journal discusses the role of the National Security Agency in analyzing the data they sweep up via FISA.  Apparently "A number of NSA employees have expressed concerns that the agency may be overstepping its authority by veering into domestic surveillance." (WSJ)  And, points out one expert somberly, the constitutional questions of whether the government can probe the wide array of data it's currently examining without violating reasonable expectations of privacy has never been resolved. (WSJ)  "NSA officials say the agency's own investigations remain focused only on foreign threats, but it's increasingly difficult to distinguish between domestic and international communications in a digital era, so they need to sweep up more information," the article observes.(WSJ)

Do you mind?  Should you mind?  Let's take a look at exactly what they're sweeping up, and in.

The Crybabies: Yet Another Democrat Picks Up His Marbles and Runs Off In Tears

Check out this piece by Seth Grahame-Smith in Huff Post: The Monster: A Loyal Clinton Soldier Turns in His Badge. Poor little thing.  He evidently didn't know that politics is a game, and a fight, and a struggle for dominance.  And he didn't know Hillary was so....mean!  So mean!  She's a monster!  She should just lie down and let Obama take the nomination, even if she thinks he's probably not qualified!

She certainly shouldn't point it out .  That's just mean!

Some 'soldier.'  Also:  some loyal. 

In other words, here's yet another nail in the coffin of my respect for certain of my fellow Democrats----or at least the crybabies and whingers who just can't stand to see Hillary trying to knock the faux halo off Obama's saintly head.  What are they, five?  Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo, Hillary's not a nice mommy who is willing to be a doormat.

You know what's really weird?  I will tell you a secret:  While I don't want Obama as the presidential candidate, I sort of love him----I sort of have a secret crush on him for being beautiful and speaking well.   I really, really want him as VP.  But Obama---in the grip of the massive hubris that his misguided supporters have wished on him---has 'responded with scorn,' reports The Politico, so he and I will just have to agree to disagree.  But I still like him. 

It's just the adolescent contingent of the party (never mind their actual age)  I can't stand.

The State of Play Between the Dems

As expected, Obama won the Wyoming caucuses.  No comment.  Read about it here.

Michael Barone on the state of play between the Dems. Hmmm.

Hillary Clinton appeared confident and vibrant on primary night, while Obama's graceful cadences sounded a little emptier than before. The storyline is changing, too. For the first time in a long campaign cycle, mainstream media have been pursuing stories that reflect badly on Obama: his close ties and property purchase with Chicago political operator Tony Rezko, now on trial in federal court; his chief economic adviser's purported assurance to a Canadian diplomat that Obama doesn't really mean he'll ditch NAFTA, as he was suggesting in trade-wary Ohio; Obama's pastor's recent award to the man Obama refers to as "Minister Farrakhan."...