I Don't Like You Either.

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...

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....

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. 

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]

Al Gore: Too Valuable to Waste in the 2008 Election?

I've always been up front about my love and admiration for Al Gore, whom I admired even when he wasn't cool and nobody gave a damn about global warming.  Maybe because I'm southern, I always regarded him as attractive and genuine.  Because I'm intelligent myself, I was never put off by the fact that he spoke in sentences and not in sound bites.  And I always thought he had immense authority, passion, and gravity (which is different from the glamour that surrounds Obama like a haze).  It was a sad day for this county when we lost him.  But it was obvious then and after that the media didn't love Gore; he was consistently cast as awkward, inflexible, unappealing, "wooden." 

So now  he's  trendy and  charismatic and  rubs elbows with rock stars and moguls and heads of state. Now that he's getting the same swoony treatment from Time as Bush got back when he was still cool,   .I'm the last to gainsay the reporters and pundits who have suddenly discovered that they (and their corporate backers) had him all wrong.   And I am grateful for, and deeply impressed by, the excerpt from his book, The Assault on Reason. 

After reading the article, I've almost come to the conclusion that Gore is too valuable to waste in politics.  Why should he risk the work he's done so well by jumping into the ugliness of a political campaign in which the press and the opposing campaign will seek to discredit his beliefs and humiliate him the way they did John Kerry?  Since he won the 2000 campaign, Gore has gone a long, long way in a completely different direction.  Why spend the goodwill and influence he's earned battling for the presidency?  I don't want to see his mission attacked or his credibility threatened by the sort of disgusting tactic that's become known as "swiftboating."   If he remains out of the fray, he can be useful regardless of who wins. 

In any ideal world, my ideal ticket would be Gore and Richardson (because I think the two are ideally suited to deal with the precise problems facing this country).  But this is not an ideal world:  this is 21st century America, where the least civically aware or globally savvy people need to feel an emotional connection to the president.  And as Gore's book (and film) show, he has learned to use emotional arguments to appeal to people's reason.  I hope his book helps to create a movement to restore it to its proper role in decisions that affect the life and future of the nation. 

As much as I admire him, I think he is most valuable on the sidelines where the frightened because ignorant knee jerk right winger can't touch him or his causes.   It's a sad comment on the state of the system when the best man for the job  and the highest office in the land is too good and to useful to waste on it.   I signed the petitions at the Gore netroots sites....but if I could, after reading that article, I'd withdraw it.

(Don't let him do it, Tipper!)

A Richardson Ad from the New Mexico Gubernatorial Race.

At the Canadian blog, National Post, I found this ad from the New Mexico gubernatorial race. 

[quote begins from  The National Post]

In any other year, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson would be considered a serious contender.  But with high-profile names like Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama sucking up all the money, the former U.S. Secretary of Energy and ambassador to the United Nations, and current New Mexico governor, has had to resort to the televised equivalent of a "situation wanted" ad just to get noticed. It turns out the ads are pretty damn funny, and they do a fine job of building up his image as a loveable underdog...  What we want to know is, why can't Canadian political ads be this good?
[quote ends]

And will Democrats come to their senses enough to understand how highly critical it is this time around to get exactly the right candidate?  And not just to stay in power but because so much hangs in the balance?

No one, and especially not someone as qualified as Bill Richardson, should be ruled out this early in the game.  Making the wrong choice this time around means a lot more than just an end to some politician's dreams of power.

Bill Richardson on Jay Leno. "We Don't Practice Diplomacy Enough."

Leno asks him if he's discouraged at being outshone by "the rock stars"?  That is a phrase I am already getting sick of.  Leno---"right, right, right"--- was kind of irritating.  But I always find him kind of irritating, so nothing new there.

 

  Richardson:  "I know how to get out of Iraq."  He also has an energy plan through a shift through renewable technology but also ask every American to practice being green.  Interesting.  Leno points out that each candidate flew to the debates in his own private jet.  Richardson flew Southwest.

Leno introduced him as  "the most qualified presidential candidate you have never heard of."

Presenting the BILL RICHARDSON Controversial Campaign Ad Controversy. ...

....because I REALLY LIKE HIM but I keep forgetting he's running for pres.  UNTIL NOW:

Wonkette:

[quote begins from Wonkette, Wait; What?  Bill Richardson's Comedy Campaign Commercials]
Is it good? Bad? We can’t tell! We mean, yes, it’s good — it’s pretty good TV comedy: Richardson as

Remembering Vietnam. The Age of Aquarius and the Flesh Failures. Two Music Videos from YouTube.

I stumbled on these clips at YouTube.  It nearly broke my heart to see them again.  It's been years, but when I was a teenager, I used to turn on the record player (it was a record player) in my room and sing along with Hair at the top of my voice.  It was all true, and all false.

These scenes are from the film Hair.  Many people consider it inferior to the play, but I think it was a brilliant rethinking of it.  Every American should see it.  I've put the two scenes in reverse order, because these are backwards times.  Ask yourself:  are there worse things than free love and drugs and a spirit that still believes in the words "free" and "love"?    Let the sun shine in the flesh failures!

How it really was.  Watch it to the very end and tell me you're not affected, even if you didn't see the film and don't know why Treat Williams was shit-scared and John Savage overwhelmed with remorse.  Never mind the Swift Boat gang; this is the piece that's missing from the Iraq War. 

I lost two friends in Vietnam.   The war memorial isn't enough. This musical was part of my personal memorial; how did I forget about this scene for all these years? 

What we had hoped it would become.  This is really what it was like sometimes and how it felt.  It's what we thought it would be like always.   Listen to this and tell me you don't want to step into the film and join in the dance.  This is the peace and the movement that's missing now.  Would today's children dance outside the White House gates with such verve and certainty and conviction?  And it wasn't like that all the time, obviously, but to experience even one minute would be enough.

I was too young to do anything that important (it was.  It was).   But here's to the dawning of the Age that died being born, the film "Hair" (which captures very well the joy, despair, hope, and sorrow of that time), and to new dawnings.  I wish we could recover some of the joy and hope of those days to mitigate the despair, sorrow, and cynicism.

Quote O' the Day 2 for 26 April 2007. Bill Moyers on The Press as Enabler.

I haven't seen it yet, but I have seen the Washington Post article by Tom Shales.   "Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes use alarming evidence and an array of respected journalists to make the case that, in the rage that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the media abandoned their role as watchdog and became a lapdog instead." 

Gee, you think?  I posted this note---Read all about it!  "Amazing"  "Revelations"- way back in 2005, when the mainstream press suddenly "discovered" all the things about the Bush Administration that the fearless warriors of Salon and the Huffington Post, and a few (a very few) real journalists from the mainstream press had been telling the doubters and skeptics among the population ALL ALONG. 

You know, you get the feeling sometimes that the mainstream press really IS just beginning to work this out.

[quote begins from Shales, The Washington Post, A Media Role in Selling the War?  No Question]
The show asks: Did the Bush administration benefit from having an effective collection of accomplished dupers -- a contingent that Washington Post investigative reporter Walter Pincus calls "the marketing group" -- or did the outrage of 9/11 made the press more vulnerable to being duped?

Pressures subtle and blatant were brought to bear. Phil Donahue's nightly MSNBC talk show was virtually the only program of its type that gave antiwar voices a chance to be heard. Donahue was canceled 22 days before the invasion of Iraq, Moyers says. The reason was supposedly low ratings, but the New York Times intercepted an in-house memo in which a network executive complained: "Donahue represents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. At the same time, our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

Dissent was deemed not only unpatriotic, Donahue recalls, but -- perhaps even worse -- "not good for business." Most of Moyers's report involves serious, respected journalists who let themselves be swept up in war fever and who were manipulated by the administration sources who had cozied up to them. Instead of investigating administration claims about al-Qaeda and WMDs and such, cable news offered up hours and hours of talking-head television.

[quote ends]

You know, turning the news into a money-making venture for big corporations really hasn't worked out too well for either journalists or the public.  I wonder if anything now will change.  I'm not sure it has.  There's not any great courage required to attack the president at this point. 

And if you think about it, we really should NOT have been overflowing with gratitude toward people who were "bold" enough to criticize the Administration during Katrina.  Isn't that what they're for?

Commentary from "Eat the Press" at The Huffington Post is here.