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New York, 10:19 PM
Fri Dec 18
54 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/28/09
09/28/09
09/28/09
09/28/09
If anyone thinks that *doesn't* describe the Republicans, and hasn't *always* described the Republicans going back at least to the days of Nixon, then I don't know what word does describe them.
And the only thing that keeps the Democrats from having a "vast left-wing conspiracy" is that they're so inept at working together.
09/28/09
09/27/09
The relentless drumbeat of whispers and "people say" is something I've been dreading about having a Democratic administration. The open-ended investigation of the Clintons lasted nearly his entire presidency and was nothing more than a politically-motivated game of gotcha. The investigations started with Whitewater, then morphed to failed S&L, a defunct law firm, Vince Foster, travel office, Paula Jones, an ultimately Monica. All along Starr was given endless funding and an open book on the Clinton's personal lives. Six years and $40 million taxpayer dollars later all he had was a blue Gap dress.
When I get depressed about politics, I re-watch Frontline's documentary on Watergate. Watching Nixon actively obstruct justice, tamper with evidence, attempt to fire the special prosecutor (Saturday Night Massacre), pay off CIA-goons with unlimited and unrecorded campaign funds, and have an executive privilege stand-off with the Congress and effectively negate the Constitution really puts bullshit like "the birthers" into perspective.
09/27/09
Gregory is a smirking chimp. Clinton was a fine President who left the country a better place than he found it. Belonsky is a person writing things on the Internet, relaying right-wing talking points for Gawker. Because of course, we revere our elders, and whatever a former president says is always bad news for the Democrats, whatever it is.
Uh, the very existence of the endless rightwing attack dogs as profiled on the front of the NYT yesterday, and the very nonstop virulent wackness funded by conservative sources, relayed and echoed on the internet, FOX pumping venom onto the media discourse relentlessly..
Oh yeah, Clinton is the crazy one. There aren't vast resources looking to destroy Obama, there isn't a 24-hour cable channel hating him nonstop. There isn't an array of corporate forces arrayed against health care reform lest their billions evaporate.
Yeah, Clinton is crazy to say that there's a right wing conspiracy to destroy initiatives like they almost destroyed him. That there are powerful forces out to destroy Obama, and his attempts to change the status quo- where the middle class is strapped to hell by health care costs alone.
Yeah, how crazy Clinton is to speak of the fucking truth- corporations have been squeezing the fucking life out of this country, they did try to destroy him, and Obama is their next target to bring down.
How in the fuck is Clinton speaking his mind going to make it worse for the Democrats? Above and beyond the relentless efforts of Obama's enemies, where they've already entertained whether he's the Antichrist?
Everything is always bad for Democrats, people. Always. And everything is always spun as great for Republicans. No matter what it is.
09/27/09
09/27/09
09/27/09
09/27/09
"The Lie Machine" in this month's Rolling Stone.
It's not really an inspirational article and doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it does bring several pieces of the health care debate into perspective and if nothing else, it paints a conspiracy.
07/13/09
democrats talk shit all the time too, but they can never collectively get their story straight. Oh, if only air america hadn't crumbled into dust.
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
I have the feeling that the GOP keeps her around for the same reason they keep Limbaugh -- it riles up the base. The base that probably accepts her byzantine reasons for stepping down as pure gospel. But I can't see the actual leaders of the GOP (ahem, assuming there are any, at this point) seeing her move as anything but bizarre and erratic, and I don't think they'll be taking the chance again of having her on their top ticket.
But, again, that's assuming there's actually someone at the top orchestrating all the Orwellian double-speak. Maybe no one's driving the cart anymore, and the horses are just running how they've been trained.
07/13/09
Glad that worked out for him.
07/14/09
07/13/09
Even so, I'd much rather John McCain be obliviously defending his running mate choice than anywhere near the button as President. Anybody remember that this swaggering buffoon actually led Obama in the RCP national average polls going into mid-September 2008?
07/13/09
There is no silver lining. Sarah Palin is not leaving politics -- which actually confuses me, because I thought one of the points teased out of her incoherent speech was that she was leaving politics. Ah, it must be that mean-ol' media lying to me again.
BTW, this is an entertaining read. Lock up your pets when Sarah's around, folks, and not because she'll shoot them from the air, either!
07/13/09
I'm adoring this inability to course correct on the part of Republicans. They're waist deep in the Big Muddy, and the big fools keep pushing on.
07/13/09
07/12/09
07/13/09
07/12/09
hm.. I dunno, I think there was a lot more shit about him beyond his Palin pick that made his chances an uphill battle. Him being an olde, Bush royally fucking up the image of the Republican party, and the general awesomeness that was Obama are all pretty campaign-crumbling contributors.
07/12/09
07/12/09
07/12/09
07/12/09
I guess what I'm trying to say is it wasn't the Palin pick itself that doomed him, it was his wholesale drinking of the Bill Kristol Kool-Aid that led to the pick that doomed him.
07/13/09
07/13/09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
he U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.[1] The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, the lowest rate since World War II.[2]
The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln.[3] In the four years after Keating's American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.[4] Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money. Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage of this deregulation.[4][5] Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations.[5] Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.[6
.... On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting[4] with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln.[7][11] Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle.[7] The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting.[7] DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent."[13] McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators."[7] The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.[7]
07/13/09
By the way, I don't think I've yet mentioned that it's a pleasure to see you back. I know you've been back for a few weeks now, but it's nice to see Olde Gawker crew around again.
(Which is not meant as a slight to the new bunch, btw)
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
Plus, I think people started to tire of the standard out-of-touch Olde sittin' there with his typewriter and slide-rule running a country full of people who use electronic communication just to say "good morning" to their spouses :[]