Ok, I’ll do it.. Fitz!

Jane, you are unrelenting. ;) Thank goodness!

Stephen Colbert nailed Klein’s ilk last night.

Upton Sinclair nailed Klein’s ilk decades ago:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Why is criticizing your government considered “hating America”? That makes absolutely no sense.

If we, as a nation (either in foreign policy, domestic policy, whatever), do something wrong, you’re called unpatriotic or un-American for saying so. That is ridiculous. I can’t believe this passes for “civil” political discourse.

Joke Klein, WATB.

And how lovely and civil that the only candidate he managed to civilly reference in that civil sentence was Mitt Romney.

I hear we had a war here once that was civil. It changed thing too – although not, perhaps, from the middle out.

BTW – just where is that civil center (and does it resemble nougat?) so we know when we’re at the center of the maze and can start working our way out (or consuming whipped caloric temptation). Is it that “non-toxic foreign policy” espoused by Bomb the Babies Lieberman (who also comes with a universal healthcare reform program that involves sticking the traumatized in a cab and sending them from hospital to hospital until they get one to treat them)?

Non?

BTW – those coalitions? Is Joke the coalition builder? Does he suggest we use his line of “how much do you hate America today” as the icebreaker at the coalition party or woul a kegger and stripper work better?

Politics is confusing.

(If I were running – I hire Matt at MDD, TRex and Wesgpc)

Hi Jane- I have been tormenting you with emails re: mayday! mayday! Latest includes another obnoxious jokeline quote. Hope you will blog mayday! mayday!

The review in Huffington post of Klein’s new book was enlightening. After reading it I think he is an aging hipster. Once was cutting edgey, and worldly wise cynical in a knowing way, who could see the flip side with refreshing candor and call BS on establishment (at that time meaing liberal) holy cows. OK, that was more than a little puffy for Mr. JK, but I am being optimistic here. Now he is an aging ex-hipster whose once edgey cynicism and candor has become a tired one-joke act and an empty pose.

So I am not sure he *knows* he is a cynical sell out, and if he doesn’t know it, maybe he ain’t.

See, I always look for the bright side, after emptying my political spleen. Maybe, just maybe, there is hope for ol’ Joe. If he can see what happened and wants to reform, maybe there is hope.

Then comes the hard part -getting him to crack a book once in awhile so he has some facts to go along with his “reporting.” He could start with evidence that he cracked one book or article and got one actual relevant reality type real world fact or figure or statistic or coherent historical narrative on one aspect of the story. Just one. We could start there.

(yeah, right, maybe when I learn how to proof read and spell!)

I think JokeLine is entering the male equivalent of menopause and we get to view his hot flashes in writing.

But if he stars wearing a bow-tie, well, then its hopeless IMHO.

I heard him the other day on Fresh Air, and he did say some kind of nice things about Feingold. But he also said nice things about Romney, so go figure.

4 Matt O. says:

April 30th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Why is criticizing your government considered “hating America� That makes absolutely no sense.

Especially when the criticism involves the executive branch breaking the laws instead of enforcing them as they are charged to do by the Constitution. It seems if a Repug lies, cheats and steals it’s okay, but if you object to these abuses of power you “hate America.” It’s not rational!

the (a)hole joke klein “hating America” thing that you speak of Matt O. is, as you clearly point out, completely ridiculous.

I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and not the administration I did not vote for. Had I voted for them and had they failed me at every turn so miserably, I would be screaming equally vociferously.

Dammit, I thought this was America.

moe99- I beg to differ- this is a guy who has not moved beyond an unrewarding male adolescence and is still stuck jerking off by means of his hand in his trouser pocket while sitting in study hall fantasizing about getting a big score.

Hate America?

All I see at FDL is a group of hundreds of Americans who love America with a painful passion.

I wonder if he knows people here call him Joke Line, and if that makes him cry a little. Or, on the other hand, maybe he thinks we’re all dirty little fever-swamp bloggers who’ll end up in Freedom Camps, wailing and clanging our Liberty Chains, soon enough.

Oh dear… I see that Matt O. may be reading. I have just tarnished my image beyond hope.

There’s Joe Klein’s mug shot again, at the top of the post. What was he busted for this time–phony liberalism, or impersonating a journalist?

there goes wesgpc knocking bow-ties again.

Greetings folks. What a busy weekend news-wise! On Klien, I went to a link for his Time article….he kept referring to the “angry left” and so forth. That’s incorrect.
I’ve always admitted that I’m a bit more “moderate” (or whatever) on some issues in comparison to many here at FDL….but “angry”? Nope.
Has he ever read this blog, or a few others known to be “liberal”? There can be some indignation, sure, but it always is directed at some policy. His calling, in one fell swoop, everyone “the angry left” just reminds me of other ugliness from American history…all blacks are whatever…all women are whatever…etc etc. I’m concluding that this guy is….lost. He’s just lost.
Ghostman

Oh, crap…It’s after midnight! That means it’s officially Loyalty Day! Quick! Stop the disloyalty! Stop it! Put on your neckerchiefs and armbands!

wesgpc No. 8 said,

“I think he is an aging hipster. Once was cutting edgey”

Thirty years of cocktail weenies can be pretty hard on a hipster.

wesgpc – I read that twice as “empty nose” instead of empty pose. I thought you knew far too much about his nasal passages, but I realize now I was wrong.

In the category of “on the brighter side” I have been in touch with several JokeLines and Republicans like Mitt and apparently they don’t have the same problems with nuts that Schumer has – all you have to do is mention cashyou-s and they are very happy to see you.

Unfortunately, I’m a macadamia.

cleter

Time zone differences are sometimes an advantage here on the West Coast. I’m still not bound by the official proclaimation to be loyal.

Actually, it’s only past midnight here on the east coast. You people out west can go on about your treason for a couple more hours.

Ghostman – we are going to leave him a trail of nuts and see if he can follow it out of the forest. Starting with the pissedatyohos

Ghostman 20

So, are you and Hillary Clinton part of the “angry middle”?

VG # 14– bet he’s still eating boogers too– check out his eyes in the picture; left, right– anybody looking? safe…

knew a kid in grade school just like that. i see them all grown up in cars now, thinking they are invisible within their SUV’s. SOS, never grew up or listened to hygiene matters from their parents.

ET #19: Bow tie used to be respectable. As a musician in school, I wore basic black bow ties when playing concerts. But bow ties outside of the concert hall? I dunno. Something went wrong with that. I think it started with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and went downhill from there. When I see one now, I brace myself. But I try to keep an open mind.

Re Joe Klein -I was serious about what I said above. I think he was a smart ass hipster who might have had some interesting insights awhile back, but wasn’t much on self awareness or self-critical thinking. A lot of them hipsters have a reactionary side that can grow out of the cynicism take over. Green cynicism + no self reflection + unexamined mental innards + mushy idealism = volatile political weirdness) IMHO. I’m serious, I’m trying to find hope for ol’ Joe. Of course, if we could reform him, he just might find himself out of his cushy “house liberal” post soon. Or at least demoted. That is my cynical side showing.

26: that cracked me up
27: well no….I really do not like Hillary. I’m progressive on most of the things discussed here. Tere’s far more issues here with which I agree than which I disagree on.
Ghostman

I’d really rather not think about Hillary’s angry middle, neurophius, if you don’t mind.

Is this the first offical Loyalty Day, by the way? Is there anything special we have to do? Do I need to go cut down a Loyalty Tree, or something?

ok….I give up. What is loyalty day? What have I missed?
Ghostman

cleter– I think we follow Colbert and piss on the Loyalty tree/shrub/mesquite bush thingie.

When do you get to call yourself purple — even if you are white or brown — and have the mainstream media continue the fiction, calling you ‘purple’ just because you said so?

So if you call yourself a “Democrat” then the media consider you a Democrat (a la Klein) — even if you disparage Democrats at every turn and consider the accomplishments of Republicans (ie, Mitt Romney) to be the pinnacle of all achievements. Even if Klein insists that Democrats who oppose the actions of a President who deserves to be impeached must be “hating America” — he still gets called a Democratic/liberal writer by the MSM.

And if you call yourself a “compassionate Conservative who upholds the Constitution above all else” (a la George Bush), then the media consider you a compassionate, Constitution-focused conservative — even if you decide (without benefit of a Supreme Court decision) that 750 laws are ‘unconstitutional’ and do not apply to you. Even if Bush breaks all the laws and defies the Constitution, the MSM insist he is acting in our best interest.

Joe Klein speaks above of “entitlement reform.” That’s a new one to me. What does it mean–screw the poor, the disabled and the old folks? I guess you would want to include veterans in that, too…

Joe Klein’s empty nose and H. Clintons angry middel. Yikes. This is a Bolshy blog going out of bounds. Happy Loyalty Day, everyone.

angie, contained myself not to spew on flatscreen after reading your comment, but I may be in danger after further reflection. And, we all relate to real life events… in your case, the booger eating guy.. in my case, the guy who sat next to me in… well, it wasn’t actually study hall, it was HS Economics.

Bush officially proclaimed May 1 to be Loyalty day. I’m not making that up.

Ghostman– read wiki wrt Loyalty Day: tis real:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day

Are you sure about:
Green cynicism + no self reflection + unexamined mental innards + mushy idealism = volatile political weirdness

I would have bet money on “recipe for new Coke” oer “volatile political weirdness.” ???

I heard that here Loyalty Day is being co-sponsored by the Humane Society.

They have an “adopt a dog and you get a free spay or neuter” program (the Humane Society – at least I think). Apparently they make flag lapel pins for places other than lapels.

wesgpc- how out of bounds do you think we have to get before Jane steps in and gives us a “civility lecture”?

“I pledge allegiance to the unified executive of America, and to the preznitzy in which he stands, one Decider, Oh my God, invincible, with rendition and torture for all.”

Is that good enough?

So….I guess Bush is advertising this as a sort of “face slap” to the planned boycott tomorrow? Doesn’t this man have better things to do? Oh…nevermind. We know the answer.
Ghostman

Angie
I’ll be darned. I thought it was some sort of crazy-ass thing Bush made up. I had no idea Eisenhower was in on it.
Maybe in commemoration of Loyalty Day, Feingold can get Eisenhower’s farewell address–the one where he warns about the military-industrial complex–read into the Congressional Record. And then propose Truman Commissiion hearings.

” inviting the people of the United States to observe Loyalty Day with appropriate ceremonies in schools and other suitable places.”

36 U.S.C. 115

Do you think an impeachment rally in front of the White House would be “appropriate”?

MS 34 – are you implying that if I call myself Princess, not everyone will go along with it?

Betcha a cashyou they will. *g*

44: ha! Or, read into the record those words that guy Matt O wrote the other day…about wearing lapel pins and all…priceless.
Ghostman

Please feel free to ridicule the naivete of the following question, but –

Just how the hell do these fuckers sleep?
Are they so unconscious because of their complete socialization into the Beltway crowd that it really is all just a game for them, and they can’t see what damage they’ve done to the country? Or are they really just amoral and figure screw everybody else and screw the damage I’ve done to the name my ancestors gave me, I’ve got mine?

You are a Princess in my book, Mary.

Can I have a pistachio now?

Valley Girl 41
I think we’d have to start throwing *f* bombs around, pre-emptively and without provocation. Or start uttering profanity-laden disloyalties.

VG #41: This blog is going over my poor ol’ countryside head again. I’m need to sleep a lot tonight, in consideration of loyalty day. A good night sleep strikes me as a loyal thing to do. Happy loyalty day, FDLers.

well 48….you’ve about summed it up! he can do these things because….he hears the voices.
Ghostman

V.G. #17

Haha, you’re a patriot in my eyes.

As for the branding of the “blame America first crowd” and “hate America” – let me say something real quick. I bleed and sweat the red, white and blue, so when people point fingers at me and call me a traitor or un-American because I value my rights and my liberties more than this administration, it makes my blood boil.

Say what they will, history will not look so favorably upon them.

Mary: Apparently they make flag lapel pins for places other than lapels.

And where, to the best of your recollection, might those places be? If you don’t remember, just say “I don’t remember”. And if you do remember, but are hesitant to speak, consider that this is a court of law, and we hear all kinds of nasty talk, so please don’t be embarassed.

I hate people who, in all their phony civilty, end up hating America.

Hi Matt O.- I am so glad you weren’t shocked, or at least didn’t admit so. Nite all, sometime soon.

Question: If we are the “blame America first crowd,” does that make them the “Constant Denial Crowd”?

V.G.

Is using one’s hand a bad thing? What are you, an evangelical?

And just how will our newly democratized Afghans and Iraqis and soldiers be celebrating Loyalty Day?

I wonder.

goodnite Valley Girl– I am still laughing deep down in my belly. This place is so sane. :>)

I’m going to go get some Loyalty Sleep.

Mary 6

BTW – just where is that civil center (and does it resemble nougat?) so we know when we’re at the center of the maze and can start working our way out…

nougat: the chewy center

so those labyrinthes cut from corn fields: are those maizes?

There are going to be bowls full of pistachios at the impeachment party neurophius. I’ll put your name on one.

Feingold has so much on his plate, but wouldn’t he be perfect to call for a War Profiteering Commission? Of course, we already know how it would go. All contracts have been removed from the files and classified. The amounts paid are classified and will only be available from the VP’s office, who mentioned something about: “how many eons do you think global warming will add to ‘when hell freezes over’?” The Department of Justice is busily pursuing charges against anyone who asked for information on the spending, as they have now moved from a)giving up classified info (like how tax dollars are spent) is a violation of the espionage act, to b) receiving such infomation is a violation of state secrets, to c)suing someone else for giving away all of your personal information is another violation of state secrets, to d)filing a FOIA request for information is a violation of the “how dare you question the Executive Branch” act.

Soon to be released in their new, streamlined ‘we don’t need no stinkin Consitution’ program is: e) thinking that you might be unhappy is a violation of the Loyalty Day proclamation. Sacrifices to be held at sundown. BYOB(and nuts).

Hating America is neocon speak for being against the Iraq invasion and the future bombing of Iran. They can’t help the slime.

As I watched Maria Bartoromo {The Bug eyed girl on CNBC} walk into the Hilton last night. I thought ,”We got people dying over seas to defend this ?”

There was one hell of a barn burner of a panel on C-SPAN 2’s Book TV today, followed by another one with two Iraq vets with books. My guess is that “The Angry Left” may be the least of Joe’s worries. It’s angry Americans. To paraphrase Brando:
Q..”What are you angry about ?”
A..”Whata you got ?”
I’m gonna go get those Book TV links.

VG – my best recollections don’t involve lapel pins *g* so I’m sticking with, “I don’t recall.”

Matt O.- shocked! simply shocked at your reply. In my day, a fine young man of your tender years would not have thought such, and certainly would not have given public voice to such disgrace if woefully (god save him) he had had such an errant thought. We shall talk no further of this matter.

V.G. #65

Haha! Tender years, oh you know me so well.

punaise – I’m amaized you knew that, but yes they are and if anyone questions you on it, just tell them I said soy.

yeah, punaise, I think they are maizes, but cob-bled together!

I never heard of Loyalty Day. That must explain why my neighbor has a Am. flag hanging on the porch.

Ghostman 20
…he kept referring to the “angry leftâ€

angry? damn straight. I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it any more. sorry, feeling a bit fever-swamp-ish.

(ties in to Matt O. @ 53)

a cooperative non-toxic foreign policy—will come is through coalitions built from the center out. – Joe Klein

So, how can the political system reform itself? How can we reestablish checks, balances, countervailing power, and a sense of public purpose? How can we get modern economic predation back under control, restoring the possibilities not only for progressive social action but also—just as important—for honest private economic activity? Until we can answer those questions, the predators will run wild.

James K. Galbraith teaches economics at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. He previously served in several positions on the staff of the U.S. Congress, including executive director of the Joint Economic Committee.
-James K. Galbraith

RIP

http://www.motherjones.com/com…..state.html

Memo to Joe Klein:
It won’t be built from the center out, there is going to be a clash, as Professor Galbraith so eloquently pointed out before he passed away.

The “real reform” is coming from the bottom up.

A plea to all who believe in the United States; don’t just settle for the lesser of two evils, if you don’t have a good, honest person of character running for office in your community or state, go out and find one! I personally do not care how long it takes to fix this joke of a two party system. It has to be fixed.

This “Loyalty Day” thingy — it tells me Karl Rove has decided there are more votes in Swift Boating Latinos than in courting them. Or maybe the Swift Boating now, followed by a suck up later.

Either way, this shows just how desperate they are — Bush Loyalty Day is red meat for the red necks, which means they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Somewhere upthread I have a comment awaiting moderation. I think I’ll duck out now and see if I can escape moderation before Joe Klein sees me and reaches for my middle. Nite

Loyal Tea? I’m more of a coffee guy.

I’m a SoBe Green Tea kinda guy — at night, anyway . . .

Mary 67, dana 68:

who’s stalking whom? I’m all ears.

David Corn’s ilk.

Shucks, punaise. Don’t scare me this late at night.

or the children of the corn.

don’t hold back this time – tell us how you really feel, d r i f t g l a s s :
…Why do I mention this?

Because this morning the sepulchral quiet of the Belt was like unto the roar you’d find sticking your head inside a jet engine compared to this morning’s silence across the whole of the Mouse Circus that accompanied the absolute embargo on any mention of Steven Colbert’s 15-round, cockpunching tour de force of every Beltway sacred bovine gonad last night.

Holy Christ. Watching the Whores of Pennsylvania Avenue, and their retainers and lackeys in the MSM being fed, nipples first, through the Colbert Woodchipper it felt – for a moment – like a free country again….
…

dana – let’s not get in a row over this.

David Corn’s ilk..

Put that in your corncob pipe and smoke it…..

You are brilliant, punaise.

sponsered by archer daniels midling:
their core nature
(corn ate your)

punaise 61

You never cease to amaize me

angie – silk purse out of a sow’s ear?

moe99 9 — now that is hilarious

why are we riffing on corn, again? ah, yes: Joe Klein – pop goes the weasel.

uh- huh, pone-aise!

punaise #85, not a kernel of truth in it.

sorry Punaise that was really too corny-I shouldn’t have said it. Besides, Mary beat me to it.

I’m sweet on Maize & Blue ;)

The Driftglass link is hilarious–she does a great sum of Condi’s several appearances on Sunday talk shows. Where does Condi find the time?

angie – pone-aise : heh heh
dana – tell it to the colonel
shez – huh?

But there is not a colonel of truth in what the generals have to say about Rummy.

Isn’t Munky back with Korn?

Pardon me if I’m butting into a deep and dirty discussion amongst a couple of people who are at each others doctor wiggams.

I just wanted to put in my two and a half or so cents about Joe Klein. He is repulsive, dishonest and possibly even…insane. I wish he had chosen to be a baseball player instead of a dishonest shill. If he had done so he would have been put out to pasture by now. Funny how it is just as obvious that he has lost his bat speed, so to speak, as an op/ed person as he would have lost his bat speed in a literal way if he were a major league baseball player, but his cronies don’t know how to, or choose to, send him away.

Joe Klein…go away. You stink like a pissing in his pants old man. Go away.

Teddy Roosevelt in 1918:

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Stephen Colbert is a loyal American.

Joe Klein is a traitor.

More in re: comedians telling more truth than the news: Tonite’s Family Guy had Mayor Adam West consult his list of political diversions:
Outlaw Flag Burning
Use Escape Pod
Scapegoat the Jews
Commit Suicide
Scapegoat the Blacks
Scapegoat the French
Scapegoat the Jews Again (Call Them New Yorkers)
Start a War
Jingle Keys

go.to.bed.angie

Kitt– if Joke was a baseball player, he would be Joke Klein on steroids… worser? better? who knows?

Joke needs to retire with Deadeye and clean shotguns.

angie 99

“Joke Klein on steroids”

Lots of luck getting to sleep with that image in your mind, angie.

if Joe Klein were a baseball player he’d be a mediocre second baseman batting .217 for the Double A DC Wingnuts.

We wouldn’t have to worry about him being out in left field.

He’d probably accuse the left fielder of hating baseball.

dana 92 – d r i f t g l a s s is a he.

punaise, U of M
although around these parts I’m supposed to root for MI State. Heh

Joe Klein would be the kind of second baseman for whom the infield fly rule was created: you know, runners on base (in force-out situation) – batter hits a shallow pop-up, runners have to hold. Instead of catching the fly ball for an out, the infielder lets it fall, creating a duoble play opportunity. No honor in that.

Go tell it to Cap Anson.

neurophius # 100– in my poor tired head, i’m thinking the church lady with the ‘we’re here to pump you up’ guys on SNL… combined!!!!!!!!!!!!

JK and Balco.

Joey Balco.
>>>>>>

Video Hans: Believe me now, and hear me later: it is people like you that are smelly trash, and are pitiful!

Video Franz: Yeah, yeah! Believe me, my friend, when a pathetic loser walks into the room, they know. They know, because they can smell him!

Video Hans: Ya! Because he smells like a…

Hans: That’s right! You just get out of our face, and have another bowl of Haagen-Daaz!

Franz: If you don’t work out, someone’s gonna grab you by your jockstrap and give you the wedgie of your life!

Hans: Ya! You fat, bloody pigs, you know that!

Franz: Ya!

Hans: We don’t want you!

Franz: Ya! Get out of our face!

Hans: Ya! We don’t need you!

Franz: People like you!

Hans: That’s right..!

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/87/87ahansfranz.phtml

neurophius, #103 lol.
punaise, ooh, that’s right. forgot.

goodnight and sleep well, princes and princesses of FDL.

Shez – got it.

I went to C-SPAN to look for a link for Book TV, and got diverted. They always have links of recent programs up for a few days. There’s nothing there on the White House Dinner. The current article left up at the Times is only about the “New Bush Twins”.

Steven Colbert is the Leon Trotsky of the 21st century, he never gave that speech. I’ll say one thing, these guys work faster than Stalin.

I got stock up on tin foil.

Sez he:

If the Iranians persist in crazy talk about wiping Israel, or New York, off the face of the earth, it isn’t a bad idea if we hint that we can get crazy, too. One can easily imagine the unthinkable: a suitcase nuclear weapon, acquired from the former Soviet Union by Iranian agents, detonated in New York, London or Tel Aviv. A nuclear response certainly would have to be on the table then — and the military would be negligent if it weren’t studying all possible nuclear scenarios.

Hint? Joke, you had me at “Hello”. I don’t even know where to begin with these sentences. Its like he’s nailed a triple conflation with a single half twist.

Zero respect for his readers. Probably born of zero respect for himself. Come on Joe. We know you are lurking. Can’t have a civil discussion if you insist on sniping from the safety of the green zone.

i don’t get it. is there something wrong with being angry. it is very true that i am angry. i am very angry. very often. it seems like an appropriate response in the circumstances. so what exactly is being said when this “angry left” meme is trotted out?

another succint driftglassism:

…since the Gang that Couldn’t Loot Straight rolled into town.

buenos nachos, todos.

*ztiF*

Gyro, right now it escapes me but about a month ago there was something we all watched on C-Span one day live, but the clip remained missing too, bugged the hell out of me at the time. Long live Crooks and Liars.com

Angie 107

It’s been a long time since high school gym class, but, um, technically, I don’t think you can give a wedgie with a jockstrap…

With a Joke strap, maybe…

Gyro Gear Lo*se– sometimes CSPAN has the schedule wrong– m’kay during the news week when things MAY be hopping, but absolutely NO excuse on the weekends with booktv on 2 and so many other things on the other 2 channels. Last nite it was advertised after the replay of the Correspondant’s din- din at ca 1230 am, that it would be replayed again at 1230 pm today. I sent that info to my good bud in AK and guess what? The schedule was wrong, wrong, wrong all day until it played at 1230 pm ET. Methinks something is stinking at our dear CSPAN… shivers and shivs.

“Steven Colbert is the Leon Trotsky of the 21st century”…but Bush got the ice pick.

Colbert buried it in so deep they’ll never get it out.

Speaking of which, is Joe Klein trying to use his left-wing-Democrats-hate-America allegation as a wedgie issue?

neurophius– #116– you are correct, of course.

Butt, if you put it on backwards? Methinks all bets are off…

just saying.

ROTFLMAO to sleep now.

Digby has a good Jokeline skewering this evening:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Ooo, and Billmon gives us his take on last nights Colbert performance.

http://billmon.org/archives/002417.html

Loyalty day sounds so Stalinist it deserves a Russian name. The word for loyalty is predannost’ – not sure how to turn that into loyalty day.

brkily 112…Nothing wrong with being angry. It IS the appropriate feeling for all the wrong that’s going on now.
It’s simply an attempt to denigrate people who have decent reactions to the wrong-doing we see, and done in our name as Americans.
They can call me “angry left.” I call them “Good Germans.” Fuck’em.

thanks for your response, margot. gonna hit the sack, now, dream of better days coming. yall hold down the fort!

JWR — oh the new Billmon is good:

Colbert’s routine was designed to draw blood — as good political satire should. It seemed obvious, at least to me, that he didn’t just despise his audience, he hated it. While that hardly merits comment here in Left Blogostan, White House elites clearly aren’t used to having such contempt thrown in their faces at one of their most cherished self-congratulatory events. So it’s no surprise the scribes have tried hard to expunge it from the semi-official record — as Peter Daou notes over at the Huffington Post.

Yeah it was good for me.

I’m listening to a replay of Randy Rhodes and she mentions seeing Jokeline on TV. Says she doesn’t really know who he is, but that she’s gonna get his book, that what he had to say about where politics needs to go in this country sounded about right. Anyone here on her message board? I think she needs to start reading FDL, Digby, Atrios, etc.

Colbert was like a champion boxer… jabbing and jabbing in rhythm before delivering several knockout combinations. It was also a stunning follow-up to Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire. The fact that Colbert stood there looking into Bush’s eyes while delivering that performance makes it simply epic.

It seems to be almost universally agreed upon (from what I’ve read online) that his video presentation with Helen Thomas went on too long, but I think you have to consider that it wasn’t for us at home. He made the President of the United States and all those chumps in their tuxedos sit there watching him fumble around for his keys over and over after cutting their guts out. That is pure genius.

Jane – Billmon’s next graf opened equally devastatingly:

“Colbert used satire the way it’s used in more openly authoritarian societies: as a political weapon, a device for raising issues that can’t be addressed directly.”

I want my boring old country back!

Colbert reaming Bush ranks with the all-time great public rebukes — Bentsen squelching Quayle, or Welch repudiating McCarthy.

The latter encounter between Army chief counsel Joesph Nye Welch and Sen Joe McCarthy at the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings was epochal.

Colbert’s satiric Prez pillorying has an epochal feel to me. Finally somebody got right in the face of the trad-media elites and said hell no the emperor has no clothes quit lyin’…

It’s been a long time since high school gym class, but, um, technically, I don’t think you can give a wedgie with a jockstrap…

Sure you can. It’s all in the wrist.

Joe tells me he remembered what he really thought after bumping into Viveka at Starbuck’s.
Lay off the guy you foaming left wing loon’s!

‘ The government that govern’s best governs not at all ‘

Thoureau

It Takes ‘Two’

Happy Mayday everyone. That is to say, happy Labor day, since in every country but this land of the insanely greedy and of unbridled exploitation, this is Labor day.

I wonder if Joe Klein’s beard will fall out when he’s suffering from radiation sickness during the post-Iran nuclear war, you know, the one where the rest of the world’s nuclear powers decide that they don’t need us “acting crazy” as a way of gaining control of the world’s oil? You know, after our first strike against a non-nuclear power destroys the world’s economy and makes us the new Nazis? ‘Cause I’m thinking I wouldn’t even recognize him without the beard, his face all swollen and bruised as he bleeds from the inside out…I doubt he’ll be reflecting on the bad manners of liberals while all of *that* is going down.

This from the man who penned “Primary Colors”! What kind of credibility does he still have? He pandered to the right with his regurgitating of the Arkansas Project’s “black baby” story, and now he would dare to claim the center? No, Mr Klein, neither you nor Mr O’Reilly are centrists. You are both, to various extents, right-wing blowhards.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who thinks that even the mention of Impeachment, and investigation of the possible crimes of George W. Bush (you see, liberals can be fair…), is somewhat deranged, does not believe that the Constitution of the United States has any value. That implies to me that they are akin to the British Ultra-Royalists of the early 20th century, who believed that Democracy was nothing but a weakness and that the Magna Carta should be abolished. Those are the very same people who supported Adolf Hitler when he first came to power in Germany.

Mary at 23, macadamian, is that a Scottish professor?

rcauthen at 48, how do they sleep? I know some of them…only a few are completely amoral. Most people in and around government feel that things are going pretty well, with some problems that will need to be addressed. They just don’t think things are that bad. Some have glimpses into the dark side, but can’t speak up because they have families to feed. There are many people who -have- spoken out that you will never hear about, and they are almost universally punished.

3:55am, clearly I don’t sleep. Sigh.

http://tinyurl.com/nya44

Three in a week? And they were coordinated? Yeah, by the Bush league.

Joe Klein needs a reality check. In his 4/28/2006 quotation, he says that Mitt Romney “enacted” the Massachusetts health care insurance plan. Romney had next to nothing to do with it. It was enacted by the state legislature, which doesn’t have nearly enough Republicans to over-ride a veto. Romney signed most of it. He vetoed a couple of provisions (MA provides for line item veto), which veto will probably be over-ridden.

OT: CNN’s American Morning just played a 5 minute clip of Chimpy and Steve Bridges from the correspondents’ dinner. Mo mention of Colbert whatsoever.

for that matter: May First as Labor Day is originally American from the late 1800s. It was adopted after the Haymarket Riot in Chicago as the push for the 8-hour workday. We won that battle in the 1930s with Roosevelt! It was such a good idea that the left wordwide picked it up and made it Labor Day everywhere. In the US, conservative labor leaders declared a separate holiday in September to counter the power of the ‘radicals’ and their May 1st.
Loyalty Day and Law Day were established in the 1950s during the Cold War to counter the giant worldwide left celebrations, parades and marches.

Apparently, Mr. Klein does not understand that there is a reason diplomats speak this way. He probably thinks it is some 17th century holdover.

The instant you refuse to rule out nukes when asked, is the instant the NPT gets broken. In another “quaint” convention, countries that signed the NPT believe there is an implicit deal they won’t be attacked with nuclear weapons. This is really the only good motivation for being in the NPT today. The official deal–that the existing nuclear states would disarm–is now laughable.

Diplomats talk this way because a deal made implicitly can easily be broken. The wrong words are being taken as a signal of abrogation of the implicit deal.

I’m sure Mr. Klein thinks he’s being a plainspoken, straight-talkin’ Joe by saying this. But mainly it reveals his ignorance of the details of the most important policy issue facing the nation right now. Not a person I want trying to be an “opinion leader” on the subject.

And I have to admit, I was much happier when I thought Loyalty Day was a joke from some thread I had missed earlier. It was crushing to read the Wikipedia article.

May Day from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day
fuck Law Day and Loyalty Day !

Upton Sinclair said decades ago …

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.â€

That my friends is Joe-mentum Klein in a nut shell.

new thread – old spin

!ztiF

EPU’d Zone is open. Post what ever you want ’cause nobody is likely to read it.

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Well, there goes the old news cycle as SCOTUS gives former Playboy centerfold a victory in her claim. I guess nobody will be covering a million immigrants (of hazy legal status) in the streets now.

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just started reading this thread. can’t go past #20 or so without screaming “JERK LINE WAS NEVER, EVEN IN HIS MOST FEVERED BRAIN-MOMENT, A HIPSTER!!!!!!!!” not possible. A dweeb maybe, whatever …………
now i’ll go back and read more, oh, except to say first:

Mary (#6), you nailed it, baby. let’s do lunch. i’ll meet you at the cedar tavern, or if that’s the wrong time zone, in front of “city lights” book store……. tomorrow at 2…….

wesgpc (#29, etc):

Hunter S. Thompson was a hipster. He stayed a hipster. Robert Mitchum was a hipster. Christopher Walken and Jennifer Tilly are hipsters. The guy you refer to as a one-time hipster should never even be mentioned in the same breath as hipster.

Well then there’s Dennis Hopper, fahrender. One-time hipster — now full-time neo-fascist.