Mike Tomasky makes the point that the ideologal terms which are being employed to measure the real estate between "liberal" and "centrist" Democrats this election cycle are essentially meaningless. Heath Schuler may have serious homophobia issues, but he didn't get elected because of them — when voters listed their priorities in exit polls this year, "kill the queers" didn't even chart.
And it's not likely to. With Democrats controlling the majority in the House and Senate, it's unlikely that divisive social issues are going to make to the floor. The handy tool that Republicans used to tear apart the Democratic caucus and whip up their own base is gone, and with the country wanting to focus on corruption, war and economic issues, there's small chance anyone is going to put it back in their hands.
So while much ink and hot air has been devoted by Democrats to demonizing the fearsome liberals who need to be chained to the porch lest they run around in the country's flower beds and piss on all the lovely new begonias, I would ask for a definition of what it is, exactly, that vociferous liberal-bashers Schumer, Reid, Emanuel and Tauscher are afraid of when they repeat this core Republican talking point. I know what the wingnuts mean — they fear that Teddy Kennedy is going to raise their taxes so swarthy, shiftless illegals can have free abortions and use the rest to smoke crack, but I have to say I've missed that press release coming out of Kennedy's office. Maybe some of the above would be willing to let us know WTF it is that they're talking about?
No, the things the Democrats seem to be focusing on right now — raising the minimum wage, empowering the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical robber barons, holding hearings into corporate war profiteering, finding a way to get out of Iraq, the things people are hungry for — are, as far as I can tell, respective of values coming out of the philosophically "liberal" wing of the party. If there's been an announcement calling for more draconian bankrupcy laws, lower corporate taxes, business friendly relaxation of environmental standards or any of the other issues that the so-called "centrist" blue dogs use to define themselves, it must be sitting atop Teddy Kennedy's "More Pork for Welfare Queens" manifesto, because I haven't seen that, either.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Oversight!
Hi Jane!
Teddy K!
Loved his victory speech Tuesday night, when he said how nice it was to be surrounded by family, but he didn’t understand why his sister Eunice was missing the party. She’d told him she needed to be in “Cahl-eee-fone-ee-ah.” He’s got Arnold’s accent down.
Liberal and proud of it!
Did they poll on “kill the queers”?
re “liberal”: They keep using that word. I don’t think that word means what they think it means.
“liberal” is just another whizbang stick-on label the so-called centrists and Republicans use to try to marginalize any opposition to their rule.
I am quite certain that if any of them were asked for their definition of “liberal” it would not fit any of us. If they have to recognize that we’re ordinary citizen patriots they couldn’t handle the fear.
Jane, please remember that the pharmaceutical industry employs thousands of hard working scientists dedicated to finding cures for diseases. We’re not all laughing maniacally on the way to the bank. The robber barons are in every industry. You only notice them in the pharmaceutical industry because lives depend on drugs.
The cancer is everywhere. Find out the causes of skyrocketing executive pay in every industry and you will go a long way to figuring out how to solve the drug industry problem.
BTW, someone still has to pay for the research.
Looks like there’s still hope for Darcy Burner.
Big Head Ted and the Monsters…
Is anyone else worried about a wave of McVeigh-style violence now that the extremists on the right see what a loss the Republicans have been handed? There’s already stuff about some loony mailing fake anthrax to celebrities (see e.g. Digby’s writeup).
It may be time to start bomb-proofing abortion clinics and other targets of far-right ire, whether or not “kill the queers” and other divisive social issues were popular election issues.
I say, let them tilt at “liberals” all they want because Democrats took the majority in Congress with help from progressives–rooted in principle and passionate about participating in the process.
Yet another reason for all of us to grab the first out-of-touch Democrat within reach, then drag him/her by the ear to a blog — so they can see what’s actually happening.
Senator Kennedy!
Six more years!
NY Times article on Jon Tester
Fresh off the Farm
Hopefully, the future of campaign financing reform will allow more people like Tester run and serve. That is the big draw for the Arizona Clean Elections law. It levels the playing field, it allows everyday citizens to run for office.
This is truly how they think.
I went to Nebraska several years ago to visit some (conservative) relatives.
Me, being the mischevious,rowdy,drunk bastard I normally am, jokingly told my older cousin
( a nice lady) that I would be in the local paper before I left town. A week later , as I was leaving, we had to go to the Nebraska Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for some long dead relative to be inducted.
As the media was taking our family picture, I leaned over and said to her, ” See, I told you I would make the paper”. I think she’d pretty much had enough of my West Coast wild ass liberal ways. She turned and snarled at me, ” Some body ought to put you on a chain!”.
Good one, Jane!
SamTheLurker said:
Remember that McVeigh and John Allen Muhammed were both veterans from the first Iraq war. There will be many reterning veterans from this war who may have some serious psychological issues. I have much respect for all veterans, but we should not fail them like we failed veterans of previous wars.
LindaR @ 5
I love smiling
- John F. Kennedy
OT, but from something said in the last thread I’ve started a new little ritual. Every time there’s a new thread I click on the Glenn Beck ad just to keep FDL’s servers spinning along. If he wants to advertise here, the very least we can do is pop on over and make him pay some more….
portia.vz @ 7
Most pharmaceutical research is funded by the government, THAT federal government that our hard earned taxes are funding. Most pre-FDA approval studies are performed at US University medical schools and funded by Federal grant money. VERY little research dollars come from Big Pharma. The three industries that have rocked record profits since the BushCo appointment, Big Oil, Big Pharma and Defense Contractors.
Jeffrey Feldman @ 11
Heard the new talking point today on NPR -they were interviewing some wingnut who said- liberals-or they’re twin brother-progressives..(or somethng like that…anyways they are going to try to make them synomous-
dannyM @ 15
This is a good point, and I believe that veterans’ care should be a priority for the new Congress.
However, in the meantime, a lot of right-wing eliminationist rhetoric has been stewing here at home and conceivably kept in check by confidence that the government was now on the side of these “patriots”. I’m guessing that few of the proponents would have the guts to do anything violent, but you never know.
portia.vz @
7
Please explain why any of this means the government shouldn’t be able to negotiate prices in a free market environment. If the pharmaceutical industry is paying lobbyists to make sure they build in profits in a way that does not apply to other industries, they are, by definition, robber barons in the situation.
katymine @ 2:17 pm (#13)
I’ve never been sure what to do about it, but the current system, which makes it extremely difficult for people who are neither career politicians or millionaires, to run for office is a bad one. It should be about your people and organizational skills, not whether you’re willing to suck up to fat cats for the money they’ll give you.
Of course, fat cats probably feel differently …
Having the Fairness Doctrine restored would be a good start, as would some support for debates that can be broadcast by TV, radio, and Internet. Public financing is something I’ve always been of two minds about, but it’s not out of the question.
A grand, expansive joy fills me — a sense of safety and being at home again — knowing that I will no longer be a target of hate speech from the floor of the Senate and the House. Living in America has been a nightmare since 1/20/2001 — we actually fled to Mexico for W’s Installation, only to return several days later when it was clear our kind wasn’t being rounded up.
Congresswoman Pelosi’s first floor speech upon arriving in Washington many years ago was about AIDS — and since then, our nation has gone wrongly way off-track. We have allowed the healthily deviant, the medically disenfranchised and the unknowing unwell to be demonized by those who haven’t a fucking clue.
I hope that
– Ryan White funding won’t require fighting over a same- and under-sized pie
– AIDS drugs will be available to all
– HIV care will be available to all
– needle-exchanges will be legal and required
– communities can craft prevention messages for themselves based on what they know works, not what talibangelistas fear
– all America can accomplish what San Francisco has: every baby born HIV-free
– prevention organizations can once again talk about SEX with sexually active adults.
That’s my Festivus List, Grandma!
Nice to have the humans in charge!
I love Teddy and everything he stands for…
He is a damn good man…
My poker friends say that I’m a left-wing
loonie… when I try to explain they bring
up Clinton and Teddy and their morals…
I just grab another Corona… it’s useless
to argue…
Jack
For those trying to follow the unresolved Congressional races, Superribbie has a good comment over at DKos.
Liberalism
William M. McGovern, from his book From Luther to Hitler, in 1941
Jeffrey Feldman @
11
When they’re tilting at “liberals” I’m quite sure they mean me — progressives who want the party to stand for something, as opposed to those who want to triangulate it into being identity-free. It’s fine to say “they say leopards because what they really mean is cheetahs,” but if at the end of the day all the leopards wind up dead I do not think I will take much consolation in this pirouetting on semantics.
Bay State Librul @ 25
Now the reply can be “So, I guess Mark Foley speaks for you?”.
I can get weary of hearing this from some of the people I see at work, some family members and some folks out and about. I ask them to define “liberal”, please. It does start a conversation and usually I hear the same old raise taxes, grow the government, etc. I then remind them who balanced the budget last and how much the government has grown under the current crew. I’ve made some progress.
It’s frustrating because most of these people agree with our adgenda but have bought into the framing of the Republicans.
I don’t mind trying to change minds but it’s damn demoralizing to hear this crap from leaders in our own party. Why don’t they get this??
Ralphie @ 2:29 pm (#29)
I think that’s because many of the Democratic leaders work for many of the same people the Republican leaders do.
UPDATE: To be clear, the people they work for aren’t any people whose finances and priorities resemble ours.
Bastards, murderers! Why couldn’t Blair/Bush have taken this approach in October 2002?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11…..ref=slogin
You funny, Jane! I love the way you write.
But you know the usual suspects will never, ever let themselves be pinned-down by anything so reality-minded as definitions.
You don’t actually DEFINE a boogeyman. You keep the notion of threat nebulous, the better to scare you with late at night after you turn out the light — when the shape of your own bathrobe on the nearby chair begins to look like a monster in the teensy bit of streetlight coming through the venetian blind slats.
All we have to do is keep the people-power moving in a wave to overcome these dinosaurs who hate progress — and progress WILL come about. The vast majority of the public supports reform and all those bedrock values that used to be considered “conservative” — you know, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, sensible budgets, support for innovative technology and entrepreneurial efforts to solve problems (like we’ve always done here in the USA).
Soon the dinosaurs will keel over of their own ponderous weight.*
* TRex, of course, excluded from that scenario. Our own T-Rex is the very model of adaptability — translating our traditional values of accountability, love of country, and hard work for progress into the needs of a 21st century political landscape. And, like you, using the Sword of Snark as a might weapon in the battle for America.
Progressives need to develop some kind of mechanism to counterbalance the influence of the Schumers in the party, to recruit and support and raise money and attract volunteers for progressive candidates for Congress, beginning early in 2007. We need Howie Klein, but on a grander scale next time.
TSF @24, Here here!! *applause*
Ugh. Lieberliar on with Leslie Blitzer.
Must. change. channel.
a little o/t but great story about ned lamont by tom watson. it makes me crazy that the dc oundits and DLC are trying to take away what we did. http://tomwatson.typepad.com/t…..amont.html
neurophius @ 33
We seemed to do best in two areas: the primaries and the stealth races (those that Emmanuel and Schumer never thought the Dems would win so initially offered no funding and basically left us alone to run our preferred candidates).
TV alert. Do not turn on CNN at the moment unless you want to barf. Liarman is in his element and “The Beard” is shilling that shit.
Worse than that, the Beard is openly speculating that Liarman is going to caucus with the rethugs, and they quote Liarman openly threatening it. This is insane.
Jane(nyc) @ 38
speaking of pharmaceuticals, this is very scary.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..e_behavior
Liberal as defined by JFK in 1960 (appropriate that his brother Teddy is pictured above)
Go read the whole thing. It is a work of art.
You bet I’m liberal and proud of it!
Blub @ 2:42 pm (#40)
Why insane? I’ve been predicting it since the CT primary. It’s in Lieberman’s best interests to negotiate with both sides, and he’s always been about that more than anything else. In another thread, someone suggested that if Sen. Reid were smart, he’d find a Republican he could turn before Lieberman decides. That’s a good idea, assuming there is one.
Guess those idiots like Schumer, Boxer et al are feeling a little queasy right now. How would any of us like to have to kiss up to Liarman?
Only Dubya should have to do that. They have the same level of personal appeal.
Cujo359– Well it won’t be Susan Collins, that’s for sure!
ugh!
Blub @ 39
is anyone surprised? really?
ruffian @
20
Yep. It was a mistake to let them demonize “liberal” without much of a fight. I realize our forebears didn’t realize how much they were conceding, and probably told themselves that they didn’t have to fight about terms because the majority of people still supported their policy positions. We know better now — any attack on ‘progressive’ should be met with “what do you have against progress?” And since they trashed their most effective attack on ‘liberal’ (the “tax and spend” myth) by making ‘conservative’ synonymous with “borrow and spend,” we should move steadily forward on reclaiming that, too.
The “unhinged leftist Trex from the unhinged leftist site Firedoglake” got a mention from Ace of Spades today. Congratulations.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/204984.php
Rudy’s exploratory committee formed (via WaPo Fix):
http://appsext5.dos.state.ny.u…..lts_page=0
Oh, I’m not saying that the prospect is insane.. I believe that traitorman would do it in an instance. I’m just saying this whole situation is insane, and if we don’t have a solution for it, we’re insane. Ughh! To win the senate and then loose it to a turncoat would be insane.
Cujo359 @ 42
Mrs. K8 @ 2:34 pm (#33)
Excellent point. It also serves to make it possible to tag just about anyone with that term.
I’ve always preferred the 16 ton weight of truth, but snark works, too.
Cujo –
Amen!!!
Ever since I saw how the Senate was shaking out I figured our very best bet is turning one of the Republican senators away from the dark side. Then we can all tell Joe Liberliar he can fly a kite, for all we care. [With a set of metal keys attached, during a thunderstorm, would be fine with me. He can rediscover the wonders of electricity.]
Who’s the best prospect? Susan Collins? Olympia Snowe? Are there any more or less sane *male* senators left in the GOP? I doubt Specter would do the flip (although it WOULD take him back to his roots in his early Philly days — he was a Dem before he discovered that being a big fish [GOP] in a small pond [local Philly politics] was much better than being one Democrat among many].
Jane Hamsher @ 28
Oh, I’m 100% sure they mean you–well, all of us, really. But it’s not a pirouetting on semantics that I was attempting. My point was that I don’t see liberalism as the leopards they’re afraid of. What they fear is the groundswell of participation–the fact that it was and is not under their control. So, I see this moment as an opportunity to stand up and voice the definition of progressivism. Before the election the blogs were driving the debate towards progressivism. But this tag-team attack from the Republicans and the Democrats on the progressive grassroots has thrown the terms back to conservative v. liberal. And I can understand why they want that: we were getting really good at rallying people with progressivism, and they must be sure we can control the debate again if it stays on our terms.
I have nothing but respect for the word liberal, but I was really starting to feel grounded in progressive. And I have to say, a good deal of that grounding was right here at FDL.
So what, exactly, were the “consequences” that Reid told us Liberslime would meet with if he continued to tack right? Wow. To be a powerbroker and play both sides to his own advantage. That really worked.
The Democratic leadership played a big part in raising this Frankenstein monster, and now they have to kiss his toes.
Lieberman will caucus with the dems only as long as they continue to toss his salad with such greedy abandon.
Mrs. K8 @ 2:51 pm (#52)
I remember when it seemed like Specter was the only honest Democratic politician in Philadelphia. The good news is that most of his enemies from those days are dead now (Rizzo, Tate, etc.). Specter also has to consider that if he wants to run again, it might be easier from the Democratic side of the political spectrum.
If there’s bad news, it’s that he just might decide this will be his last term, and there’s much less motivation to change sides in that case.
Cujo –
Thanks for the pic you linked at #50.
Reminds me of some of my favorite childhood cartoons — like Wile E. Coyote.
Seeing some of the notoriously corrupt administration officials testifying to Waxman’s committee will feel JUST LIKE watching Wile E. Coyote’s feet flailing for a grip AFTER he’s run off the edge of a cliff. Then the 16 ton weight of truth follows him down to the bottom of the canyon below!
Splaaat!
:-)
Hey, is TRex out there?
Jeepers, dude, I had to ban the kids from the computer. They were fighting over Karma Hunting; one of them boosted the volume up all the way while the other had the headset on, started fisticuffs.
All over Pinker Tones.
Bad, baaad influence.
Heh.
Mrs. K8 @ 51
Been thinking about Arlen too. Poor Arlen, he led Judiciary but really had no power to do the right thing. Wonder what the WH had on him. Every time he started to maybe stand up straight and show a backbone, he was beaten back in short order. He could really redeem himself this time and come home. If he were on our side it wouldn’t matter if he had a backbone or not. Pat Leahy will be in charge of the committee. GO PAT!
I am a “Liberal Rat” according to the neocons (neither new nor conservative). Oh, here’s my cheese, where’s yours?!
RevDeb @ 42
Thanks! I only had that partial quote, and have been trying to find video (probably isn’t any) of that speech; because I want to do a blog on it.
Thanks again
ruffian @
20
That’s right. They’re finally poking around the internet tubes to see what’s happening. But it’s not so easy for them to redefine progressive, right now, because it’s a very fast moving train.
Triangulation to the point of erasure: this is the DLC. In New Orleans, one has the choice of William Jefferson or Karen Carter, both affiliated with the DLC. Perhaps New Orleans will triangulate itself into oblivion. Or perhaps New Orleans Democrats will allow Republicans to do that for them.
Weird use of the world Liberal on wingnut talk radio yesterday. I was listening to Tammy Bruce on KABC interviewing the proprietor of Little Green Footballs. They both said that they were actual liberals “in the classic sense of the word” whatever that means in wingnut-speak. Quickly they devolved in typical hysteria, but I was surprised that the word “liberal” passed their lips.
Is that common usage? I don’t listen to right-wing radio that much — I can’t actually imagine how anybody can listen to commercial radio at all these days, as it’s mostly ads, and what isn’t ads is mostly other kinds of filler.
It was interesting, though, listening to them in the wake of Karmaggeddon. They all seem to think that the problem is that they weren’t conservative enough. Man, I hope they run with that idea.
Today’s donation is for fdl in general. Marcy don’t be sad! I have to help the blog too.
FDL folk: we need to kick in to support the great work here. Let’s just say it isn’t overflowing with profits.
So as soon as the numbers on your credit card stop smoking from last week, please consider hitting the credit card or paypal tab. You do NOT have to have a paypal account.
And there is a snail mail address for checks and money orders. If you truly have to be anonymous the latter is probably the way to go, with a friend signing for you.
I used to have a disclaimer that I don’t even know Jane, Christy, etc. Blown out of the water by one small lunch. Oh well. It’s still a good cause.
john in sacramento @ 60
I used a big chunk of it in my pre-election Sunday sermon. Found it in a book then found it on line so I wouldn’t have to re-type it all.
EVERYONE should read it over and over again, it’s that good.
Egregious: Is there a link?
hi Thad, long time, no see!
randiego @ 67
On the right hand side of our page, near the top, under a couple of ads. For regular donations, the little buttons that stand alone above the Marcy Wheeler book thermometer. Our snail mail is within the Marcy section but I theenk can be used for general fdl donations? [correct me if I’m wrong here??]
Humble plea to the Powers That Be: a slightly larger donation area? Maybe part of the bar at the top?
“Centrist” Ellen Tauscher is supporting Steny Hoyer for Majority Leader. Does that make Jack Murtha a liberal?
Boy, Chimpy sure looks like hell.
Must be the national repudiation in the face of Rove’s assurances to the contrary.
Reality bites, eh Zippy?
-GSD
Cujo –
As an aside:
If you are perchance from Philly or its nearby environs, would you happen to know whatever happened to Clark DeLeon, my early hero of snark in his daily Inky column?
He in fact was the guy who introduced me to Specter at the 1992 Democratic Party celebration of Clinton’s win in a hotel ballroom (Bellevue-Stratford, IIRC) on Broad Street. Arlen was gracious in defeat that year, but I still thought he had a slimy-feeling handshake.
In any event, I can’t locate Clark. Googling him only brings up a book he had published on his way out of Philly (a collection of his best and/or funniest columns).
Tony, Tony, Tony:
maybe I’m squeamish, but will all the violence in Iraq that doesn’t seem like the best analogy…
Louisiana Girl @ 2:58 pm (#63)
You don’t have a preference, then? Carter looks impressive on paper, and as for Jefferson, let’s just say that it’s time to clean out the fridge if you know what I mean and I think you do. But I don’t live there, so I’ll plead ignorance.
Cujo359 @ 74
Not my district, but I would vote for Carter, although she is DLC. Who would vote for Jefferson? There were other candidates, but they did not qualify for the runoff.
Back in 2002, when Moveon.org was fund-raising for Paul Wellstone, their messages referred to him as a moderate, and I thought, Just so! (I sent Wellstone $100, and his plane crashed the next day.)
Haven’t seen such positioning much since, and I miss it.
Adhering to international law is moderate; violating it (eg, by promulgating a war of aggression against a nation that hasn’t attacked us and that the UN Security Council has not affirmed poses an imminent threat) isn’t centrist or moderate, it’s radical!
Censuring George Bush for violating the Constitution isn’t liberal or even progressive; it’s moderate! Cutting him a break is radical.
I proudly count myself a moderate, in the sense Moveon.org used in 2002 to describe Paul Wellstone, but must call myself a progressive, because no one uses “moderate” with precision.
We in the reality-based community are the true moderates, and it’s time we called ourselves that. And I relish the prospect of eviscerating the objections of DLCers and Republicans to our rightful reappropriation of the term.
Egregious – $25 sent
The spectre from Specter’s past:
He briefly represented the “unicorn killer,” Ira Einhorn, who remained at large for years after Specter successfully argued that Einhorn should only pay 10% of his $40,000 bond. Specter dropped Einhorn as a client just before his run for DA.
-GSD
egregious –
Thanks SO much for the info about the snail mail address. I had asked every now and again here in the threads, but never seemed to get an answer.
That’s good news.
Mrs. K8 @ 3:04 pm (#72)
I grew up in the Lehigh Valley, so was somewhat aware of Philly politics, but largely untouched by them. I don’t know what happened to Clark DeLeon.
Right on, Jane!
Egregious,
Check’s in the mail 11-14 & many thanks to the person responsible for the snail mail address.
Are we setting any specific dollar goal?
Jane, Christy sent me to you to ask if it’s appropriate for us commenters to become more active in raising money for FDL from fellow FDL folk.
In particular, is it ok for us to know what the annual costs are, or at least for a couple of us to know that? Then we will know how much we have to raise. Annual/biannual fundraiser, monthly pledges, etc.
I guess the right question is, if you turn the whole thing over to strangers tomorrow, God forbid, you would say Oh by the way you need $xxxxx to keep the doors open.
If email works better here, great, and if this is totally not our business, also fine. Just trying to be pro-active about supporting a growing enterprise. There are a number of people here with finance and accounting expertise.
I remember once early in the Russia program when I said “Oh that’s an easy problem to solve. All we need is money.” Got ludicrous stares from everyone else.
JFK was no angel but he was one of the very greatest presidents. Principled, intelligent, eloquent, and a true patriot. It all derailed with his assassination—that was the real coup d’etat—and ever since we’ve been living under the thumb of Ike’s military industrial complex. Carter was ostracized, not even told where the keys to the washroom were, and Clinton was hounded from day one.
It’s simply wonderful to see the whole rightwing reich teetering from hubris, its pillars rotted out by corruption and rank incompetence.
Let’s give it a good push and free this country! And let Teddy be first in line.
randiego @ 77
Thank you First Responder!
GSD @ 3:07 pm (#78)
Well, that and the Warren Commission. Specter mainly stands out because of his attempts to bring some powerful Philadelphia politicians to justice back in the ’70s. He wasn’t terribly successful, but I suppose a more sensible person wouldn’t have tried in the first place. Give him credit where it’s due – he does seem to have a concept of right and wrong that doesn’t involve his own self-interest. It’s just that experience has taught him that acting on that belief is often futile.
Mrs. K8 @ 79
Other people deserve credit for the snail mail address. I’m glad we have a way for people to participate who don’t want to use either paypal or credit cards.
punaise @
73
Tony,
Y’all keep trying to shovel it, but we aint buying it, anymore
GSD –
Please don’t remind me of that evil bastard, Ira Einhorn. {{{…shudder….}}}
Although I don’t think I ever met him face to face, it’s actually surprising that I didn’t, given that his stomping ground at Penn was La Terasse restaurant.
Judy Wicks (who went on to open and run my favorite restaurant in the world — one that holds “progressive” and community activists’ breakfasts/brunches and is a comfy place for international students to hang out) knew him pretty well from when she was a member of mgmt staff at La Terasse). Just hearing her talk about him would make my blood run cold.
I was at the original Earth Day celebration which he set up on Fairmount Plateau. Einhorn was a very, very dark character masquerading as a progressive activist. In actually, he cultivated some Cointel-Pro-Type intelligence pals. I wonder if the whole story of his connections will EVER be told.
RevDeb @ 58
IIRC, a Club for Growth type (Toomey?) ran against Specter in the primary last time (maybe 2004) and was doing quite well until Bush interceded on Specter’s behalf. In return, Specter had to acknowledge that Bush should get whatever judicial appointments he wanted. A very public humiliation for Specter. (Although he seems to have acquired a taste for such things as you know if you read Glenn Greenwald much.)
Ooops. Forgot to mention the NAME of my fave restaurant in the whole world — The White Dog Cafe (right next door to the affiliated Black Cat Gift Shop).
Some loyal fan I am!
Guess there’s no career for me in p.r.
OT – “I’m worried about bloggers,”
says former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. “(A post) starts as a rumor and within 24 hours it’s repeated as fact.” Miller said blogs “don’t post corrections when they learn that what they have posted is wrong,” but added that she was “glad to welcome them as long as they agree to the standards.” When not helping blogs improve their correction standards, Miller peddled false intelligence from the White House and Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi that helped convince Americans that Iraq had WMD.
MayDaze @ 89
Yes, I get that, but now that W. can’t put a horse’s head in his bed, he could always go I like Jeffords did and sleep nights.
Cujo –
Thanks for your answer. The Lehigh Valley is gorgeous. My niece went to school at Lehigh (sadly on the same dorm floor as the female student who was murdered — whose name I sadly forget).
Judith Miller lecturing bloggers on journalistic ethics is like Jeffrey Dahmer chastising Julia Childs on poor menu choices.
-GSD
LOL GSD!
punaise @
73
Here’s another metaphor that we aren’t buying what you’re selling Tony
The Temptation of St. Anthony
I think some definitions are definitely in order. For instance, I’d love to know why there is a blogger out there who calls herself both a liberal and a progressive, even though she is anti-choice, pro-McCain and supported Bill Frist when he tried to intervene in the Schiavo matter. If people can’t even define themselves accurately, how the hell can they possibly label anyone else?
I don’t like to call myself a liberal, really. I don’t like to call myself anything; maybe uninformed, but I’m working on that.
I certainly don’t like to call other people things; I do, but I don’t like that trait in myself. It’s not nice to call names. In particular, it isn’t nice to marginalize an entire block of humanity by affixing them with a label as if, neatly compartmentalized, they will follow all the presumed rules of the label I have affixed.
This is the realm of Limbaugh, the Drug Addled Gasbag. That’s his stock in trade. He specializes in petitio principii (begging the question) by means of labeling and pigeon holing people. Then, without consideration or proof to his argument, he then uses his own determination to vilify those people ad hominem. It’s disgusting, really; but few ditto heads can be accused of subscribing to classical logic concepts; or any logic at all for that matter. Rush certainly doesn’t, but he has been teh “Water Carrier” at the fore front of the charge to make the term “liberal” a dirty word.
There was a time, I think, when it was ok to be liberal in this country. Those crazy folk ran around espousing nutty ideas like, “Give me liberty, or give me death;” or, one of my personal liberal favs, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” I still get chills remembering those words. I guess I am a liberal because nothing William F. Buckley ever said or wrote ever got a rise out of me like that.
RevDeb @ 92
I agree, don’t know what hold the party has on him. Even worse was Chafee, who (IMO) could have kept his seat easily by simply switching parties earlier this year. You’d think it would be pretty easy for him to just say that the party has changed but he hasn’t.
People were asking for the firedoglake store address:
http://www.cafepress.com/firedoglake
I have no idea if fdl makes any money off the products*, but there is quite the fun selection.
*Does it? **ok if not our business :)
My head is about to explode reading these comments in support of the idea Collins, Snowe or Specter switching party would be a good idea. wtf?
Lieberman and his ilk are the problem (I think most would agree with that statement).
Fighting Leiber problems by inviting facist hard core winger supporters into our fray, imo, only helps him and screws we the progressive pups.
What am I missing?
Walking on the knife’s edge alert…
In the Libby case CIPA graymail department:
Judge Walton has issued a rather momentous opinion today, available here:
http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/op…..-2006.html
Both parties were apparently made aware that he would be ruling this way, last Tuesday, November 7th, in the first day of CIPA Section 2(c) hearings [following six different CIPA Section 2(a) hearings]. Judge Walton has denied without prejudice the government’s proposed substitutions for classified evidence that Walton has ruled (in secret) to be admissible in Libby’s trial.
The good news: the government was allowed to go “back to the drawing board” to try again, with today’s opinion as guidance.
The bad news: the Judge has obviously allowed a good deal of classified evidence into this trial during the CIPA process, and the Intelligence Community has to somehow create substitutions that will meet the Judge’s standard, which their first attempt did not do. If they fail to meet his standard, the pre-trial/trial process just got immensely tenuous and complicated, if not impossible…
Next scheduled (closed-door) CIPA hearing is at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 15th. [Still to come today are response filings in the motions in limine process.]
Spectacular writing, Jane. You sure can turn a phrase.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 101
I understand the skepticism, but I don’t think any of those three are as spiteful or treacherous as JoeLie. If we had one of them, then JoeLie could no longer hold the dems hostage. I could be wrong, but that’s where I’m coming from.
I’m starting to wonder how those in CT who voted for Lie-berman are feeling right now?
http://www.boston.com/news/nat…..caucusing/
…maybe a little sheepish?, for acting like their
furry counterparts and running in lockstep to a
liar intent on pissing down their back?
I hope Lamont remains active in CT politics….*force* Joe to play
straighter, put the thumbscrews on him and
hold him accountable by reporting mercilessly
on his actions…..
I’m not even a resident of CT, and this still
irks me no end…..
twolf1 92: 707 !!!
rev deb- I have so much apreciation for your (and others) view, but seriously, after years of mental screaming at Senator Specter in particular cannot trust that man to do anything close to humane or decent. He needs a lot of spiritual healing, but, not on our political time clock, imo. His votes may or may not be out of spite but are equally dangerous.
Thanks for your response…)
RevDeb –
That’s how I’m thinking, too. We would thus remove the threat of Joe Liarman’s blackmail attempts.
Once one of these people, like Snowe or Collins, would turn their backs on the GOP, it would be burning bridges behind them that they’d never attempt to re-cross.
They are already vilified and ridiculed by the knuckledragger “base” of the Republicans. Their constituents would support such a shift.
It reminds me of Jeffords’ move. He came out and stated he had had enough of the antics of the Bush White House, and that threw the Senate back into our hands (albeit briefly).
So they wouldn’t even need to become “Democrats” — they could officially be “Independent,” but committed to caucusing with us.
Neither Collins nor Snowe, IMO, has been so back-stabbingly hateful to Democrats as Lieberliar.
I don’t really trust Specter, I guess. Must’ve been that sweaty, slimy-seeming handshake he gave me in 1992.
New Thread
My quick and simple litmus test. S. 3930 habeas /torture. Snowe cast no vote. All others fail the test before I need to look further.
I guess its time to look into Snowe a bit more.
JohnSwifty @ 3:28 pm (#99)
Actually, you seem to understand the nature of this debate just fine. It’s really about putting people they don’t like into a box that says “undesirable” and leaving them there. Classifying people and their beliefs can be useful, as long as you realize that those classifications don’t mean much when you’re talking about individuals. Clearly, that isn’t the position of the Limbaughs of the world.
Anyway, from over here, being a liberal looks like a good thing, especially when you see who runs from that label.
funny, i didn’t even know Kenndy was running.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 108
I agree. I thought he was a scumbag 25 years ago. I’ve seen nothing to cause me to change my mind.
here’s what’s going on in talk radio
they are insisting the democrats will “raise taxes” and “broaden social security”
the democrats need to take this bull by the horns;
“bush did NOT lower taxes, he took investments the middle class have acrued over generations and he gave it to his rich friends, the middle class did NOT sse their taxes lowered the wealthy saw middle class money stolen from teh workiing class and put into the wealthiest bank accounts.
we are going to get that money back and put it back in the middle class pockets, the middle class will NOT see a tax increase, and NEITHER WILL THE WEALTHY, THE WEALTHY WILL BE GIVING THE MONEY BACK THAT WAS STOLEN FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS”
that’s the way wee need to frame it, of course what I wrote is a little rough around the edges, but you get the idea
Waccamaw @ 82
Yay Waccamaw! No specific dollar goal at present tho I note with interest that MyDD set a goal of $10,000.
from a lurker @ 84
Kennedy, then Reagan, then President McCain. Cui bono?
Mrs. K8 @
72
Arlen Specter is one of the greatest Liars in American history. Makes LieberLiar look like Geo. Washington…
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/T…..ecter.html
“I would ask for a definition of what it is, exactly, that vociferous liberal-bashers Schumer, Reid, Emanuel and Tauscher are afraid of when they repeat this core Republican talking point. “
I wouldn’t. We progressives know we will be under attack by the likes of the DLC and their right-wing minions; we should be ready to give everytime these corporate whore/Republican wannabees play this game. They should just be content making their corrupt deals with their corporate masters. The funniest was the rodent Carville trying to dump Dean and replace him with Harold Ford; the last time Carville was giving advice of this nature he was suggesting his fellow DLC’er Zell Miller for VP in 2000. What a lump of crap.
Cujo359 @
112
Run away! Run Away! Run Away :)
While all of the issues you mention are important, other issues are important too. The Democrats can score points by restoring the Constitution. They can repeal the Patriot Act, restore habeus corpus, and investigate 9/11 properly. They can provide equality in healthcare and stop Blue Cross Blue Shield’s intrusive limiting of care for spirochetal diseases! ( BCBS is sueing doctors that treat Lyme Disease since BCBS does not BELIEVE in Lyme Disease). Restore real science……. look at global warming. If they lie about stuff like this no wonder Human Beings cannot go to the doctor and get help for what ails em and then buy the meds…..
The Republicans changed our way of life. We the people prefer America….. the Dems need to restore the world to Pre Bush mentality.