I really thought I could get through a day without writing about this, not even tangentially. Surely, the world does not need my two cents tossed on the towering pile of all that glitters. Wild horses couldn’t drag me into this, but domestic elephants. . . .
Try as I might to escape it, those darn Republicans keep dragging me back in! So, be forewarned, I am going to do it—I am going to write about Michael Jackson.
A little, anyway.
Actually, I really want to talk about Representative Bob Bishop (R-UT), and it is he who has dragged the late King of Pop into my political news. . . and so he will drag me into this news unicycle—curse you, Bobby!
As you can see in the video (h/t Think Progress), Bishop, who seems to be using one of MJ’s signature white gloves as a hair piece, thought it would be fun and hip to compare the tragedy of Jackson’s death with the likely passage of “ACES,” the Waxman-Markey energy and climate control legislation (the bill narrowly passed earlier this evening):
[FOX anchor David] ASMAN: Congressman Bishop is there any chance at all that this thing won’t pass tomorrow?
BISHOP: Well there’s hope, we’ll see if — I mean you guys covered a national tragedy today, let’s hope we don’t give you a tragedy tomorrow as well.
National tragedy? In either case? Well, if one goes by the amount of coverage each item has received in the establishment media, it is sure clear that the passage of Waxman-Markey is not; Jackson’s death? The tragedy here is that protests and reprisals in Iran, bombings and mayhem in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and another Republican sex scandal have all been almost completely buried by non-stop psychobabble and supposition. . . and a whole lot of clips of Thriller.
Though the energy/climate/jobs bill is far too filled with big payoffs to Big Coal and other hydrocarbon-intensive industries, and its goals for cutting greenhouse gases are nowhere near what they need to be, the passage of ACES is still significant in that it recognizes that we have a hydrocarbon problem, and that only we can fix it. The American Clean Energy and Security Act can, with proper enforcement, be an important first step toward a post-hydrocarbon economy. My fear—and I fear my fear is a very valid fear—is that in a time of checkbox politics, Congress and the President just checked off global warming. . . and will not again revisit the issue to make the upgrades and changes necessary to seriously address the coming crisis.
But that’s not the Republicans fault, really—not this time. It was a Democratic administration and Congress that wrote in the weak cap and the generous gifts to “old energy” in an attempt to. . . what? Win Republican support? Provide cover for the Blue Dogs? Because only nine Republicans voted for Waxman-Markey, and most of the Blue Dogs still voted against it.
No, that suckitude is a wholly owned subsidiary of the donkey Majority. My weekly elephant-induced ire is much simpler: they made me write about Michael.
Dare I say, if you can’t beat it, join it?
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
I have to hand it to you: you skipped over the obvious topic (Sanford). Nice work.
Wait, you mean the dancing zombies weren’t protesting a rigged election?
So much legislation is getting watered down in pursuit of votes that don’t come its way. I wonder what kind of laws we’d have from the Democratic Congress if they would simply ignore the GOP entirely?
I object to the phrase “King of Pop”.
Actually, I just object to “pop”.
Even if they ignore the Thugs, will they (be able to) ignore the Thugs’ Blue Dog buddies?
So who’s the Crown Prince of Pop?
i’m getting e-mails from the teabaggers. don’t know what i did to deserve that. they want to know do I want to immediately take to the streets (like the Iranians, ya know?) to protest having cap-and-tax shoved down my throat.
Recommended response:
“Hey, turkeys, guess which finger I’m holding up?”
Since “pop”, 999.9999999999/1000 is absolute trash, I would say the Crown Prince would have to be someone of substance, panache, and gravitas. I nominate Nick Carter.
Can someone please help me pull my tongue from my cheek? :)
There is absolutely nothing that the Republicans will not politicize.
Good ones.
What’s yer poison?
handing ya a popcycle stick to help pry that tongue from your cheek
I was gonna offer, but I mighta just ripped it out.
;~P
They don’t seem very keen on politicizing their own corruption.
I think the perception that Dems are watering bills down to attract moderate or conservative votes is intended to provide them with plausible deniability.
The truth is there are precious few actual progressives on The Hill and when Congress passes legislation that serves corporate interests more than the American people, that is exactly what they intended.
they are very fond of do as i say not as i do
That is why they have to politicize everything else, to draw attention away from their primary agenda, looting the public treasury.
It’s called “fiscal responsibility.”
I think you are largely correct, but if they simply ignored the Republicans they would stand exposed and just might consider doing the right thing for the American people for a change.
The fundamental problem is that at heart conservatives do not believe in the “public good.” They honestly believe that there can only be private benefit and assume that everybody is engaged in a competitive spoils system designed to line the pockets of themselves and their friends.
Funny how many of them seem not to be doing what they say, innit?
I agree that they would stand exposed and have to accept responsibility for the consequences (good or bad) of the legislation they passed. I still consider the possibility that they would do the right thing for the American people rather remote.
It’s interesting how you can bring everything back to projection with these guys. They seem to have no concept of somebody who is not like them.
Sure they do, people not like them are the enemy. It is the Dems who don’t seem to grasp the nature of the opposition. Just because Obama plays nice and does not investigate or prosecute Bush officials does not mean the next Republican administration will extend him the same courtesy. They won’t.
Well, they actually think that they are normal.
I’m starting to think that they may be the normal ones & us bleeding hearts are the kooks. There are so many of them and so few of us.
I’m starting to think that you are correct — boy the world via internet is scary.
It can seem that way, but if you consider the US and Europe as a set, you start to realize that it isn’t so much that we’re abnormal as it is that the gene pool over here has been messed with severely.
If normal is to be indifferent to human suffering, I prefer to be abnormal.
Actually, I’m probably abnormal by most standards. When I was three my older brother asked our mother why I was so weird. She told him I marched to a different drummer.
I’m fading out, so I’m going to take my leave. Peace out, y’all!
G’nite, EDP. Think I will head out too. Sweet dreams to all.
Oh, yes. Far better to be us, IMHO. And as far as marching to a different drummer, the minute I heard that line, I knew it was me.
See, I’m right, we are the odd man out. Self-admitted.
Nite. Sleep well.
Night, EDP & rf.
Think I will also take off. Take care all.
Nite, DrD.
Ya know, they only reason the elephants even GET a parade is because of the old-media PARADE WATCHERS!
What’s needed is continual mocking and subsumption/replacement of the old media by the new. Keep rocking!
Hello!
Well hello back!
Elephants are definitely fascinating beasts to watch. Quite unlike the jackass Ds.
waving g’nite to the leaving sleepy pups
This is true, but you should be thankful.
Stealing billions year in and year out is their way to stop government from getting too big.
Know in game theory as a positive sum game. They get the loot and we get a smaller govt. /s
I’m watching the rebroadcast of Larry King, and he has Liza Minelli on to talk about MJ.
Has she had some ‘work’ done?
Concur.
The calculus I can’t conceive of yet, is the true impetus it’s going to take to either transform the Dems into some sort of spinal entity, or the energy required (and the losses acceptable over what time period) to create a
3rdnew party and make the goons go away.Which month were you referring to?
Well, I missed the other pair o’ docs, but there is a doctor back in the house. Howdy folks.
This will be a bit of a drive-by, as I’m fading fast. And I apologize if this has already been linked, but I looked around and haven’t seen it yet.
Following up on Peterr’s post the other night about Jenny Sanford’s “dog whistle” comments to the fundamentalist crowd. She’s done another interview, and boy howdy, has she ever thrown her philandering hubby under that Trailways bus!
That sounds like a threat! And she certainly wasn’t expecting to read TMZ reports from an Argentine bartender that Markie and Maria were canoodling on Father’s Day, at the start of his 10-day trip.
At least if he’s going to be a lying, hypocritical ass, his wife isn’t being complicit and he’s totally getting busted for it.
Well, there’s yer problem right there — “heart” and “conservative” never belong in the same sentence.
Ever.
They’ll turn in their own mother like a pop bottle if she’d get ‘em 10 cents.
The total collapse of the GOoP into a minor party will drive both of the remaining so-called moderate Republicans into forming a new Center-Right party with the BlueDogs. Their departure from the Democratic party will leave it a Center-Left party.
If we really wanted to fix American politics we’d pass a constitutional amendment that required the Single Transferable Vote system for all Federal offices.
I knew someone here would appreciate me teeing that one up!
One of my nieces thinks the Rs are gonna disappear and the Ds will split. However, when pressed, she admitted that maybe the right side of the D split will call themselves Rs, which would be precious little different from the current situation, except now the D-Rs have the cover of not being in the party of W. So I can’t imagine why they would abandon their current advantage. Can be Rs without any of the downside.
Jenny’s certainly outsanctimonying Markie.
See my 53. The Blue Dogs are better off where they are. In addition to what I already said, their other advantage is that they can be subversive.
I get the base part of what you’re saying; but to me, it translates more into a “beyond 2 parties” system.
Let the fringes be fringe, and irrelevant. The big thing is that the press needs to be the actual press as idealized in the Constitution, not the “entertainment” and “political” press we have today. Look at the health care polls and immigration polls for reference.
Once the question is forthrightly and intelligently asked, you get an intelligent and forthright electoral response.
Which is exactly the problem; we have nothing resembling anything forthright or intelligent as regards our press, nor our elected leaders, and I think everybody knows that. Thus the resulting apathy cum frustration.
Kind of amazing that the public still “gets it” in the polls, regardless of all the propaganda to the contrary that they’re being fed. That is, on pocketbook issues. The public is easily fooled by propaganda in foreign policy issues.
As demi said earlier, he’s got huuuge ones!
Walks away from his wife (who we now know told him not to see her anymore), his sons (on freaking Father’s Day no less!), and his job as governor, to go hit it again for five days.
(I guess he should get credit he didn’t stay the ten days he originally planned, huh?)
Then comes back, admits it all, but says “Okay folks, let’s get back to work.” like nothing happened.
He should need a wheelbarrow to carry the ones he’s sportin’.
Sue,
Sanford’s problem is that he’s in love. Deep, crazy, self-destructive puppy-dog love. I’m going to hazard a guess here that the Sanford marriage was a political marriage of convenience.
Jenny Sanford hinted at exactly that in her written statement when she referred to love as a choice, and in her view Mark chose poorly. When you read his e-mails to Maria of Buenos Aires, it’s easy to see that he’s completely infatuated with her. This may be the first time in his life (or at least his adult life) that he’s felt this way.
It’s powerful. Love is a drug, not that Republicans would recognize it. In evolutionary terms, that drug is intended to form a pair-bond that will last long enough to wean the infant. There is a reason that around the world, divorces (or the local equivalent) peak at 4 years. That’s long enough to get the baby born, weaned and mostly self-mobile. Then there is some additional time to figure out that you really, really, really dislike the other parent of your child. And it’s splitsville.
It makes perfect sense in evolutionary terms. And we’ve even identified some of the drugs that are involved. One of the biggies is oxytocin, but endorphins (naturally occurring opioids) are also involved.
I think it’s an open question exactly what Jenny Sanford will do at this point. If she is in fact what she has claimed to be culturally, then she’s supposed to smile, bake him a plate of cookies and welcome him back. But I’m not convinced that she is what she has claimed to be culturally.
Going down to Buenos Aires was probably the worst mistake he could make. I’ve said since the truth started coming out that going down to BA to tell her, “it’s over, baby” made absolutely no sense at all. And clearly it doesn’t make any sense to Jenny Sanford either.
Lordy. :
IMO, it’s because the public “lives” the domestic policy, while the public pretty much “imagines” the foreign policy.
The problem is the blurring of the two that has happened over the years.
Ding ding ding.
However, when addition strikes as an adult, you seek professional help. Least that’s what I did that last time it struck me, and I knew it was nuts, but couldn’t help my emotions.
good evening everyone…..
I’m tired of MJ….. I was tired of the coverage at 3:39pm yesterday when I got up from my nap…… ya think it will continue all weekend?
Hi, Katymine!
How’s bayou today?
FunnyWheelieDiva
Except I don’t think he went to tell her “it’s over, baby”.
He could’ve done that over the phone, then gone out to Father’s Day brunch.
No, he went to hit it.
Again and again.
Over and over.
For five days.
And if the inmates break out of jail while he’s out of the country, oh well — someone will handle it.
That’s exactly what the STV system does.
It enables minor parties to draw off the radical vote without enabling a win without effective majority backing. Under an STV system, libertarians could have voted for Ron Paul as their first choice and McCain as their second choice. Radical liberals could have voted for Nader first and Obama second.
Under a first past the post system (what we have now), a minority party can easily game an election by clandestine support for a candidate to the extreme side of their opponent. This draws votes away from the majority party, while the minority block remains intact. They win an election with 45% or so of the votes cast.
It’s an effective strategy, and it’s the reason both major party do their best to marginalize minor parties. Minor parties are dangerous in that they potentially break up the major party blocs.
Two other reforms are desperately needed. One is public campaign financing, and the other is nonpartisan redistricting.
Yeeeeeahhhhh…
Didn’t Hillary Clinton get a lot of flak for staying with President Bill?
Or am I just mis-remembering the 90’s?
IOKIYAR, of course.
FunnyWheelieDiva
Yes, the public can’t be fooled about the economy, which is the sum & substance of domestic policy.
I spent a quarter century as a Wall St. economist, forecasting the U.S. economy, which is most dependent on the U.S. consumer. Consumer sentiment, measured by U. Mich and the Conference Board, are good leading indicators. They are volative, because as circumstances change, consumers change their mind (a sign of intelligence). But the consumer sentiments surveys are always revealing.
Hillary stuck by Billary because that was her best route to power. Nothing more, nothing less.
So, are there countries where STV already works? Outside of a Parliamentary system?
FunnyWheelieDiva
So? LOTS of male politicians have built and maintained careers on their wives’ capital and connections.
I just think I remember HRC taking Sh*t from the Right for not kicking his ass to the curb. Or was that us feminists on the Left? I forget.
FWDiva
This raises interesting questions. Obviously, in the traditional “good wife” role, she does as you say. However, I think she’s done well in carving out some space for herself under the “good mother” role, whereby it’s arguable she’s doing her sons a disservice by staying with their useless father.
The conservative audience — if Mrs. Sanford really cares that much what they think, depending on her future plans, with or without the Mr. — may well cut her slack either way, especially since his actions have obviously sunk to the level of justifiable “kicking him to the curb.”
I agree with you, btw, that the poor sap finally found true love. Then again, adults — especially those with obligations to, say, children, wife and the freakin’ governorship of an American state! — might be expected to handle that responsibly. Either set that true love aside and honor the earlier commitments, or step up and tell the truth that his feelings have changed and here’s the new love of his life.
It’s nothing short of fascinating, at any rate, on a variety of levels. (Admittedly, many of them soap-opera-esque!)
Yeah, but if you went through the usual hurts as an adolescent and young adult, when it smacks you between the eyes as an adult and you’ve got 15 year marriage or something on the line, you know it for what it is (infatuation) and you get help. A professional, or a really good friend who understands the emotional side of things is what you need.
Men have a bigger problem with that than women do, because we’re not necessarily really comfortable talking about that emotional stuff. When I was processing the aftermath of my divorce, it took almost four months before I trusted the pshrink enough to really let my hair down and tell him what I really felt. He told me four or five sessions later that he thought we were done, call him if I needed to.
But I’m not sure Sanford learned those lessons as a kid, and when infatuation smacked him between the eyes he didn’t know what it was, but he liked it. He really, really liked it. It appears to me that he’s going to have to learn this lesson the hardest way of all.
Some Asman gossip. His adopted son was in my son’s class at a fancy NYC prep school. Asman covered Nicaragua for some news org other than Fox and married a Nicagaraguan woman with 2 children, one of whom was in my son’s class. He enlisted in the U.S. military even though he wasn’t a citizen (legal process in progress) and was shipped to Iraq. Upon the end of his 4 year term, he exited (then having become a citizen), married a woman with 2 children who was several years older than him, and, last I heard, was a cook somewhere like VA.
No value judgement, just a litany of the facts as I understand them.
PS – Even the conservatives’ fave, Dr. Laura, sez bailing on a marriage is acceptable in the case of the “3 As”: addiction, abuse and adultery.
Jenny’s holding ALL the cards — including financial, right? — in choosing for herself and her children. And she could publicly punish Markie as much as she pleases, as long as she does it with some bit of decorum.
I almost feel sorry for the fool.
she has made the offer of reconciliation. if he does not stop his sinning and work on their marriage, she will be free to pursue her life without him.
that is the way it was explained to me by our pastor when my fundy husband was cheating on me with a fellow churchgoer (and our next door neighbor).
my pastor (a fundy church) told me that he knew i had tried but the ex’s continuing to see the neighbor left me with no other choice. i suffered no slurs and the pastor’s wife helped me move out.
the fundy and neighbor found the church too ‘judgemental’ and moved onto a different fundy church. she dumped him a year later on his birthday.
It’s clear to me that Sanford is really really really repressed, no self awareness (could read only one or two of the emails, lest I regurgitate my coffee). So of course he took the self-destructive route rather than the sensible one.
What eCAHN said. The Clintons do love each other in their way, but their marriage is another one of political convenience.
Hillary has always struck me as a political opportunist. When she and Bill married, there wasn’t much space in US politics for an ambitious woman. She hitched her star to a rising star, and she grabbed the brass ring in doing it. But there was a price attached to that marriage. The Big Dog really is a big dog, and he’s going to stray.
Oh dear, I’m sorry.
I agree with you, especially that part about your agreeing with me. *g*
Hi!
Yeah the thing about Parliamentary System for me was that (however attractive it seems today) in our current state of affairs it seems to me that that system would just overload and shut down more often than not.
While that is what is really pretty much what’s going on, what with all the deal-making on health care for instance, there’s a certain “grind forward” in the system that we do have. Even though it’s inadequate.
That is why I previously made my “calculus” statement @56.
Ouch, Suzanne. Sorry to hear that. At least it sounds like you had support as you went through it.
Wow – you’ve totally had the ut with those folks, but lived to tell the tale. Good for you!
I vote “wreak havoc on the bastards.”
What Laura says isn’t my understanding of the fundagelical quiverfull position on the matter. That doesn’t mean squat, though.
Jenny Sanford is in fact holding aces over kings, maybe better, if she chooses to play the game that way. A lot of how things will play out will depend on how she’s handled her trust fund income.
The trust itself is her sole-and-separate property, but if she commingled the income in joint accounts then it becomes joint income. That would adversely affect child support computations. I doubt that any court would award her separate maintenance. She holds a couple of college degrees, has worked and been successful. The court will likely require her to work (if she wants to — there is the trust fund) as a price of freedom.
Or wreak kindness on them. In my tsoris, that drove my introlocutors much more crazy than if I were mean to them.
The emails are exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to read from your 18- 22 or so year old boy who is separated from his sweetheart at college (or at home for the summer).
I wrote some of the same sort of drivel, but fortunately e-mail didn’t exist and I put it on paper and mailed it instead. With any sort of decent fortune, the women I sent those things to have destroyed them.
OT. TCM running “Fiddler on the Roof.” I used to listen to the soundtrack endlessly on 8-track with my beloved grandfather. Then I got to play the 2nd daughter, Hodel, in our high school production when I was in 10th grade. (And I got to kiss the smart, cute boy who played Perchik, the student revolutionary!)
Havoc is as havoc does. :)
Oh, I definitely agree with you about Laura’s message not aligning with the fundy scriptural interpretation. But her views are often adopted by / reflective of her audience, and my hunch is that views along these lines would buy her lots of leeway in what she chooses to do.
I burned all my written material of such a nature (my parents had found it, and it was before email, which lives forever, so burning was complete in those days). When I had similar feelings in my early 60s, became quite embarrassed, comitted nothing to pen & paper not even & epaper, but went directly to my prior therapist. Sanford’s emails were creepily reminiscent.
Looking at it from afar, I suspect that the worst thing that could happen to Mark Sanford is for him to give up Maria de BA and go back to Jenny. I suspect that he’ll be forgiven at least daily for his transgressions.
I can tell you from experience that it’s horrible being married to someone who reminds you on a regular basis of every time you’ve fallen short of the mark.
As PeterR said, forgiveness is a gift. It’s releasing the offender in order to release yourself from bondage. You’re saying, “I’m not going to allow your past actions to continue poisoning my life.” That gift of forgiveness doesn’t mean that everything will be as it was, it may be that there are great changes that must be made. But you aren’t going to allow that ancient fact to control your actions today and in the future.
Age does impart wisdom, eCAHN.
Interestingly, my introlocutors, the grown sons of my husband’s first marriage, never poisoned their children (actually only 1/3 had children) against me. I recently met with one of my step-grandchildren, she is delightful, and I anticipate similar meetings with her two siblings. They’re the only “grandchildren” I’ll probably have since my 28 year old son (bday today) shows no signs of having any relationship.
Not always, in my case. But it did in that particular circumstance.
Hi… doing housework but what stopped me was trying too figure out what the billing dept of Mayo statement to match what my explanation of benefits from my insurance….currently the bill says $9+k but I know there are a ton that have never been processed…… looks like Monday will be a call day….
Good point. Jenny could still find a change of heart and the ability to forgive, but based on what she’s said thus far, it sounds like that ain’t happening anytime soon. He’s got to know that’s some big-time anger, and it would take some serious commitment (and courage?!) on his part to wade back in.
It also doesn’t help that 5 months after she found out about the affair, he planned a 10-day visit and was busted kissing & hand-holding in an Argentine pub.
I think that the Sanfords’ problems have little to do with foregiveness or anything else that is rational. Strikes me that their cleft is extremely deep and anticipate that they will go out of their way to diss each other. Jenny’s already clearly on that track. Mark seems a bit at sea, but trending toward a rationale that he’s back on the straight & narrow, without a snowball’s evidence that is true.
I fall solidly in the nurture over nature camp. They’re your grandkids even if they don’t have 1/4 or so of your genes.
We have a near infinite capacity for self-delusion. People like Sanford who appear to lack even a shred of self-awareness and insight are going have a tough time figuring out that the path they’re on isn’t the straight-and-narrow.
They’re allegedly delightful young adults, unlike my biological son, who is a shithead. The one I’ve met evidences the tales I’ve heard about how nice they are. They want to know about their grandfather. I’m happy to communicate what I know. Why not? These young adults had nothing to do with the acrimony, and why should I make them partisan players in a long-gone drama. (Revenge is not my thing.)
He’s dead meat, and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the final outcome of all of this is a divorce and Maria de BA telling him it’s over.
I don’t believe that he told her it was over when he was down there, I think she found out in his improvised presser. There are no good ways to get dumped, but there are bad ways and worse ways. I suspect that is one of the worse ways.
See my 93. More evidence :-)
My anti-religious prejudice sez that no deeply religious person has any self-awareness. (Ducking under computer stand while relgious commenters hurl brimbats at me.)
OT: I’m watching Fiddler on the Roof on TCM (thanks for the heads up). Listening to Topol do If I Were a Rich Man makes me wish I could hear Zero Mostel do it.
I’ve known a few. But only rarely do they come from fundamentalist/authoritarian camp. The whole idea of that gang is that you can figure out proper behavior by looking at the book, whatever the book might be. That doesn’t lead to self-insight.
What leads to self-insight is f***ing up, and being able to figure out what you did that caused the problem, and what was out of your control that helped you down the road to the f*** up.
But here’s the thing. The fundies f-up just as much as the rest of us. Only we look to our own failings, and how we might adjust them, as a way of avoiding making the same mistake again. The fundies look to scripture, specifically sections that excuse their faux pas (Sanford re David) and escape without any introspection.
I about did a spit take when I first understood Sanford compared himself to THAT David! (My first reaction was Vitter. Heh.)
You have a collection of fingers? OMG! Where did ya get ‘em?
What a treat that would be.
Part of my pleasure is all the happy associations, so Topol’s performance is like listening to a favorite uncle, even if there are things you overlook. *g*
Interesting connection between Freeh, Saudis, and bogus confessions that Iran instead of al Quada was responsible for Kobhar bombing.
Dems have been in that position on everything this year. It’s just that some bills scare the Blue Dogs or delegations from a state with car companies or financial industry firms. They’ve won everything in the House because of their huge numbers advantage. But, as we see on C&T a bunch jumped ship.
Health care is possibly as tough since the Senate Dems are a bit more conservative than in the House. We’ll need 50+ votes and there might be that many who want to walk away.
The trick is making the bill excellent and paid for, so they have no reason to walk away. Who knows, with a bit of luck we’ll get a Repub.
Oh, Topol does a fine job in the role. But I know too much history, I know the role was written for Zero.
Okey dokey. Time to retire. Nite all.
An accountant for when “addition strikes”?
:-)
G’nite eCAHN. I’m out, too….