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....

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.

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. 

Benazir Bhutto: "one of the most slandered politicians of modern time"

Today's not my day to post at BN-Politics, but I wanted to comment both there and here on an exchange I've been having with Charles at Mercury Rising, so will cross-post there tomorrow.   This is just an unsystematic first reaction to what I've learned from Charles, who has called her

I've really been surprised and  distressed by the negativity flowing around Benazir Bhutto.  Normally it takes a few months for the media to "discover" a generally (or so I'd have thought) admired political figure's feet of clay.  What's going on here?

In commenting on the blogger round-up I published at BN-Politics on the Bhutto assassination, Charles pointed to this article, and remarked:

Quote of the Day for 16 May 2007. The Death of Jerry Falwell.

Today, consulting the magic 8-ball (see links on left) for some appropriate valediction to Jerry Falwell,  I found this unimprovable note by compassionate conservative Andrew Sullivan.  Which I---speaking as a small-C Christian and moderate liberal---would like to endorse:

[quote begins from The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan, "Falwell is Dead"]

Since I can think of nothing good to say about him, I'll say nothing. And pray for the repose of his soul.

[quote ends]

Amen.   

Quote for Today: Candidate Mike Gravel. "You Can't Legislate Morality."

[quoted from The Raw Story:  Mike Gravel, "Love between a man and a man is beautiful"].
“If a couple of lesbians or gay men want to get married, and they love each other, they should have the right to do that and enjoy all the legalities in our society that go along with that. I have no problem with that at all. I think that people who create these problems of homophobia and the likes of that do us a disservice. We are all human beings and one of the things that should motivate us, most of all, is love.

Palmetto Politics: Could Such Things Be? Could SC go from Red to Blue? Whatever: I Give Love for the Palmetto State and A Greeting to J. Hodges, Former Governor and Former Classmate.

RESPONSE:   CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC.  But if I  wrote for Wonkette, I'd still  file this under "DEPARTMENT OF "I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT."

Still, it was encouraging and affirming in all sorts of ways for this former South Carolinian to find this article at Politico:  S.C.Sees Its Star Rise for '08.  If I seem skeptical,  I'm not the only one.  The Dems can't believe it either. 

Richardson on Health Care.

I've seen first hand through my work with the local Crisis Center (and in my own experience) what coping with uninsured medical costs can do to families.  For example, one of my friends incurred a bill of $100,000 while her husband was dying in the ICU for a week.  Her insurance picked up 80%, leaving remaining costs equal to half her yearly income as a paralegal.  And I know from personal experience that the cost of paying for medical care of an ill or dying spouse GREATLY increases the pain and stress of bereavement.

IT'S BILL RICHARDSON DAY. A Candidate I Can Get Behind? Bill Richardson on National Security and Foreign Policy.

To the Richardson campaign in re: that ad:  Thanks for reminding me.

I'm starting with foreign policy and national security because  Richardson's emphasis on these---and he plenty of experience to back it up---gives me the sense that he would never lose sight of their importance no matter how dysfunctional we may be at home.

As a former ambassador  to the U.N., he obviously understand how diplomacy works and has gained a DESPERATELY NEEDED global perspective based on the sort of knowledge of other cultures that we are about to need desperately I imagine.  (Nicholas, like most English people, is routinely appalled by American blindness to the rest of the world;  he watches BBC World every single day).  He is also shocked that we have evidently learned so little from Britain's past experience with imperialism and its consequences, both the good and the bad.