In the wake of the Van Jones resignation, let me make use of the power invested in me as the nation’s preeminent non-twittering 1:30 in the morning liberal blogger from central Iowa and declare this BELABOR DAY and state:
We live in a nation where Republicans have no shame and the Democrats seem to imagine they have something to be ashamed of.
And maybe they do.



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They definitely do. I wish they’d pull their damned socks up.
I’m also a non-twitterer (a non-twit?). Pleased to meet ya.
Greetings from the other side of the political spectrum.
I wandered over here to see how the Van Jones issue was being taken, and I find this site very interesting.
One thing that strikes me immediately – I could take most of the comments that I’ve read, change a name and emphasize slightly different things, and post it on most RW boards and no one would bat an eye. The shared disgust with our major institutions is striking.
Today you twitted, yesterday you ______________. (Love Wonkette!)
Example?
Deep thoughts: when things don’t work out with Olympia,
will Susan Collins come to the dance?
And once Obama has “stared down his party”,
how long will he need to wait for 30 Republicans to sign up for HCR?
They all look like game shoe hosts to me too.
I’m thinking the answer includes the three words “hell,” “freezes” and “over.”
Whadda you think?
How about “after”, “Big” and “Crunch”.
I don’t get the shame some of my fellow Dems feel?
I do not feel shame or guilt. If I ever run into one of these dumb asses out in public I won’t be holding back.
One theory I have is that republicans are genetically agricultureist and Dems are Hunters.
You may say that Republicans hunt much more than Dems but I believe the way that hunt is to clear all competition from fields, for example.
I do not believe that a true hunter would ever cause extension because that would be like killing off themselves.
Just some food for thought.
As the nation’s preeminent non-twittering 1:30 in the morning liberal blogger from San Francisco, I must concur.
Jane’s Veal Pen article is probably one of most revealing and revolting things I’ve read in months. It’s hard enough to be fight the wingnuts when some of the people who are supposed to be on our side sell us out.
We all knew that right wing media weren’t going to go away.
We are trapped in the media stories they create. It’s time for us to force them to fight stories we create. Our progressive institutions aren’t going to fight them, our elected officials aren’t, so we need to. I have a couple of ideas I’m working on now but I’ll bet folks here have others.
We see how the right wing works the media with the town halls and this Van Jones thing. They understand what the MSM wants. Conflict. We can give them conflict too.
I’m tired of playing defense.
Here’s one idea that could lead to a story we could develop and push.
Attack their strengths, force them to own their definitions
They claim they have values. Where do they come from? They will say the bible or their religion. But for those claiming to be Christians or Catholics it’s not coming from their religion. Sean Hannity’s moral views on torture comes from folks like Dick Cheney and John Yoo. Not from the current views of his faith, Catholicism.
So, let’s get Hannity in trouble with the Pope. Hannity’s listeners are RWA (Right Wing Authoritarians) and they see Hannity as an authority. Yet when it comes to matters of morality, who is higher up on the scale, Hannity or the Pope? (I’m expecting you will say, “But what about the Spanish Inquisition!”) The Church has been against torture for a long time now this is the 21st Century.
We ask Hannity how is it possible that he could sit in the same church for 20 years hearing the priests talk about love and compassion and NOT hear it? I mean he believes that Obama was influenced by Rev. Wright, so Hannity must be following the Church’s views, correct?
Hannity’s views on torture is in direct opposition with his proclaimed faith. Now abstractly that might be interesting but how do you turn that into a story?
Couple of ways, depending on who wants to get on board.
Remember how members of the right wanted to deny communion for people who were pro-choice? Can we get someone to suggest denying him communion for being pro-torture? Why not?
This would set the Church up against Hannity. They might not want that. They might not want to challenge the most prominent Catholic broadcaster in America, even if his views on torture are morally repugnant. If the Church hierarchy doesn’t want to get involved there are priests and nuns who have been tortured who might be happy to condemn his views. But they might not be allowed to do that.
However there is an organization called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture that COULD condemn him. They have members from all major faiths including Catholicism. They could challenge his ethics, show that it isn’t based on what his own faith teaches. They could use this challenge as an opportunity to educate his Catholic listeners about the views of their own Church as well as the members of all the other faiths who are part of NRCAT.
That is the key, position it as an “educational challenge” to Hannity. Point out his lack of understanding and offer him the chance to get on the right side of this argument. If he won’t play, then it goes to the media. And the media get to run some quotes from disappointed members of the various faiths. “Sean is such an important communicator and it is so disappointing that he gets his idea of what is right and wrong from people like Dick Cheney.”
We can talk about how the faiths define torture vs. how talk radio hosts do. We can talk about the how talk radio hosts seem to always placing listeners in the seat of the potential torturer with their ticking time bomb scenarios and never in the seat of the person being tortured. And we can talk about definitions and numbers. The Army has admitted that over 100 people have died from “enhanced interrogation”. People were tortured to death. And NOT over 9/11 ticking time bomb stuff. So now we REALLY are in the world of education about torture. And Hannity has to defend his morality against people in his own faith who know about torture.
When Hannity loses the faith/morality argument he will leap into the national security and linguistic arguments. We prepare to have Malcolm Nance on, former SERE trainer and Fox News commenter who wrote the famous blog post. Waterboarding is Torture. Period.
We also line up Jesse Ventura to reinforce Nance. Ventura is one of the few people Hannity will have on who regularly beats him on this issue.
The campaign would both create an X vs. Y conflict story, educate people on an issue, give the media an opportunity to write about right-wing radio where the host looks bad morally, linguistically and militarily. We use Sean’s own words against him and place him in a position where he has to defy his own faith. When he then latches on to his “Great American defend America!” shtick we have Fox analysts and Republican Gov. and Navy Seals Nance and Ventura show he’s wrong there too. Finally to top it all off we get the Dean of West Point, Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, to tell him he’s wrong to get his views of torture from TV. Finnegan is the guy who met with “24″ writers to stop using torture because American soldiers were copying the show’s tactics.
Now I’m not in charge of this campaign. I’m just pointing out one way it could be done. I’ve laid it out. I’ve done stuff like this before. It’s doable. Or we can wait around for their next hissy fit. It’s almost like nobody knows how to play this game. I guess I don’t blame them. What do you get if you win? Fired.
The right wing media is leading the MSM around by their desire for shiny conflict stories. I’m not a rocket scientist, I just play one on TV, but I know something about the media and the right wing media. I’m just a brain in a box, but even I can see that we need to do the work that our elected officials can’t or won’t. Nobody is better positioned or skilled than us when it comes to making the right wing noise machine’s life less profitable, less powerful and more miserable.
Morning all, Looks like Keith Olberman is declaring war on Beck and looking for a little help.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..Glenn-Beck
Good morning, pups. Prof. Krugman is off today, so it’s the Pasty Little Putz and Mr. Cohen. The Pasty Little Putz, in “A More Perfect Death,” says our move toward physician-assisted suicide springs from the same quest that leads us to spend nearly twice as much on health care as any other developed nation. (One thing that the putz neglects to mention is that the person he refers to as “Dr. Emanuel” or “the author” is the brother of Rahm Emanuel.) Mr. Cohen, in “An Egyptian for Unesco,” says talk of naming Egypt’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, to head Unesco raises issues of Arab prejudice and cultural bridge-building.
Here they are.
The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got a full Southern breakfast for y’all. Help yourself to eggs your way, bacon and/or sausage, grits (none of that instant garbage, the real thing), toast or biscuits and your favorite jam. I’m off to have my second cup of tea outside, where it’s a simply gorgeous morning. Happy Labor Day!
May God bless the laboring men and women of America. We’ve got more to do, but today at least, let’s remember we can be strong.
Glenn Beck will now be using Van Jones’ philosophy to achieve his maximum program goals!
Beck really didn’t win, though. Van Jones will still be advising President Obama. He just won’t be paid to do it now.
Maybe the twitterati call us twitless.
IMHO, We keep seeing their arguments as stupid and not worth our time explaining that their stupid until it erupts into a tidal wave. Take the argument that the U.S. can’t safely incarcerate terrorists or death panels or that Kerry wasn’t a war hero. Too ridiculous to counter. Then it becomes the conventional wisdom and it’s too late.
I keep thinking of the line from a tv show that failed. Aaron Sorkin wrote it. Matthew Perry was talking to a Right-winger about why the left and right can’t get along. (Paraphrased)
Matthew Perry: You hate us because you think we think you’re stupid.
Right-winger: Correct. And why do you hate us?
Perry: Because you’re stupid.
Well, if I’m remembering correctly some of President Obama’s harshest critics a few weeks after the Inauguration in January 2009 came from liberals. It hasn’t let up either and so now the right wingers can say, “See? Even the well known lefties are on our side!”. Disgusting. Some here should be ashamed at the slamming they’ve done, because it’s only given the right wingers fodder for their ridiculous notions. Also, listening to what the “anonymous insiders at the White House” say when you read down through an article written by a right wingers shows the stupidity of some! The right wingers are willing to lie, distort, and deceive to bring down the black man, so if they have to….they will make up insiders for their articles to keep the negativity going against President Obama.
Thanks, Marion! (holding out a big plate)
Good morning pups and thanks for the post Attaturk.
As despair deepens and disgust reaches never imagined proportions it becomes more and more difficult to accept that there is even a remote possibility reasonable discourse is achievable.
What has happened here is that a fucking nut job who is bleeding advertisers because they can no longer afford to be associated with a nakedly partisan racist has been allowed to SILENCE a strong, progressive BLACK voice. A modern lynching. Pure and simple. Deep, deep shame on the entire country for allowing this to happen.
As a Veteran it was double difficult to be treated as though I did not have a President becuase I voted D during the bush years. It is truly painfull to be treated the same way by a D President because I am a progressive. Fuck. Me. To. Tears.
Well Mr. Beck,as they say in the hood”what goes around.comes around”.
I believe the correct term is “persona non twitter”.