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July 10, 2007

All Along the Watchtower: A Compendium of Recent Bloggery.

Damozelheadshotposted by Damozel | Another trip round the blogosphere, this time looking mainly at liberal blogs.  Here are some of the postings by bloggers I regularly read that amused, interested, or astonished me along with related posts  from BNPolitics..... 

 Tricky Dick v. 2:  Impeach him now?....

At E Pluribus Unum, Ara Rubyan is excited that there is majprity support to impeach Cheney. Poll: Majority Support For Impeachment Of Cheney. Ara Rubyan would like for you to call Nancy Pelosi to express your support. Though I can't say I view the prospect of impeachment with any optimism or relish, if we've got to do it, it makes sense to me to start with Cheney.  (Though I imagine that if Cheney were to be impeached, Bush would have the sense to pick someone else to whom Dems are well and truly averse.)

Further to this point, see  the same blog on What The Founders Felt About Abuse Of Pardon Power.   Citing Dan Froomkin, the post argues that we've reached the time in history when impeachment can't be avoided.

Recent Buck Naked Politics posts relating to the issue of impeachment or resignation: 


And here's to you, Mr. Lieberman....

At Obsidian Wings, Publius, in  Fightin' Joe,  discusses Joe ("Still a Democrat") Lieberman's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.  Publius argues that the op-ed vindicates supporters of Lamont during the last election.  "The rise of Lamont was too often described -- and more importantly conceptualized -- as a wild Lefty revolt against a sensible centrist.... As this op-ed indicates, the Lamont/Lieberman battle was a substantive political debate over substantive (indeed, world-historical) issues." Fightin' Joe.

I'm no Lieberman fan, but I was glad to see Publius make the often omitted point that---except for his apparent belief that "war is always the answer"---Lieberman is a Democrat. "It’s true that Lieberman agrees with Dems more times than he disagrees.  Did I mention he fought for civil rights in the 1960s? But it’s important not to undervalue intensity of preferences. Yes, I care about the education issues that Fightin’ Joe seems to be solid on. But I care more about not starting wars."  Fightin' Joe.  For this reason, Publius points out, a list of values just is not instructive; one must consider "intensity of preferences."  Fightin' Joe   True dat.  Lieberman's support for the Iraq war simply outweighs his value to Democrats on other issues. 

But Publius also thinks that Lieberman illustrates "how bankrupt the concept of centrism is."   I don't think Publius should tar all centrists with the Lieberman feather (to quote my favorite malapropism), but I reluctantly concede that finding common ground among people who call themselves "centrist" (as I feel I sort of am) is next to impossible---except that they call themselves "centrist."  Publius thinks a vague conception that centrism is good and ought to be a goal is behind a lot of the media attention that Lieberman is receiving.  Another excellent point.  But the best point of all:  "Lieberman isn’t really a centrist.  He’s gone so far on Iran and Iraq that he’s well to right of most Republicans these days."Fightin' Joe

At News Hounds ("We Watch Fox So You Don't Have To"), Marie Therese is annoyed that Fox News continues to pass off Joe Lieberman as a Democrat even though he is, in fact, an Independent. Warmonger Joe Lieberman Argues for Attack on Iran.  FOX News Continues to ID Him as a Democrat.  "Of course, good old war loving Joe was interviewed because he had just written an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling once again for military action against Iran.  With video. The Connecticut Independent Senator must be really worried that the timetable calling for a new Mideast war this month might go down the drain because so many prominent Republicans are jumping off the Iraq bandwagon."  Joe Lieberman (links in original).

Marie Therese raises a more sinister concern:  the rhetoric respecting Iran is:

sounding more and more like the phony-baloney build-up we all went through before the failed war in Iraq! The same cast of characters, with the names changed. There are the so-called "dissidents" or "refugees" who are making oodles of money painting a horrible picture of life inside Iran. There are Israeli lobbyists throwing tons of money at the Washington establishment and lots of pro-war "experts" crawling out from the dark recesses of conservative think tanks, all sounding alarm bells about the "imminent" nuclear threat. There are certain trusted Senators who can be counted on to fan the flames of war with overheated rhetoric. FOX even included a statement from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that accused Iran and Syria of meddling in Iraqi affairs and blaming both countries for the sectarian violence that has occurred in the past four years.  Joe Lieberman

Recent Posts at Buck Naked Politics relating to Joe Lieberman:

Recent Posts at Buck Naked Politics relating to War Rhetoric

Tell Them, "Drop Dead," Fred.....

At The Reality-Based Community, Mark Kleiman seizes the Fred Thompson bull by the horns. Can He Get Away with It?  He points out that Thompson seems to be edging away from his previous denial that he ever lobbied for an abortion-rights group, which pretty much forces one to ask why---if in fact he never ever did--- he doesn't just say no?  "Thompson is betting that he can get away without ever actually confirming or denying anything, as he seems to have done on the question of his collaboration with Richard Nixon's conspiracy to obstruct justice." 

Kleiman points out that if Thompson were a Dem, there's no question that it would get beaten to death in the media.  Yes, why is that?  "A comparable story about a Democrat would be endlessly repeated within the Drudge/Fox News/Limbaugh echo chamber, which would lead reporters from more respectable media to treat it as part of the ongoing narrative. But there's no equivalent mechanism at work on the other side; bloggers and Media Matters and Olberman simply don't have the weight to keep a story alive if the reporters following a candidate want it to die." (Kleinman)

Again, why?  I like to think it's because we Democrats are (1) largely free of the tribal instinct characteristic of so much of the right; (2) inclined to analyze and question facts, even when to do so won't yield a result in our favor; (3) less fearful and therefore less defensive; and (4) intolerant of boredom, as in the boredom of hearing the same piece of information endlessly recycled.  Kleimann includes in his blog a letter from a right-wing correspondent who is relatively sensible that I can't imagine any of the Democrats I know ever writing.  Interesting. Once more with feeling:  Can He Get Away with It? 

More on Fred Thompson in a post by Phoenix Woman at Mercury Rising. "[M]ay I recommend this amusing story of how, contrary to Fred Thompson’s carefully-cultivated “smart tough guy” image, he was Nixon’s cabana boy whose water-carrying was repaid with contempt by Tricky Dick and his inner circle?"  To read, go to Welcome, Eschaton Readers!

Recent Posts at Buck Naked Politics relating to Fred Thompson:

George W.  Bush's Cunning (and Heartening!) Plan.....
At Angry Bear, PGL is (angrily) amused that Fox's William Kristol has detected in the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence the traces of a "Machiavellian" plan which Kristol find very "heartening" in this video.  According to Think Progress (as PGL points out), Kristol said:

Bill Kristol...suggested the order was timed to provide political cover for the decision by attacking President Clinton.

“Here’s why the president acted the way he did. He knew Bill Clinton was joining Hillary in Iowa on July 4th. No, I’m serious,” Kristol said. “So on July 2d, Ed Gillespie, who’s a very canny Republican operator, said, Let’s pardon Libby. Clinton will rise to the bait, and we could spend the last half of the week debating the unbelievable Clinton pardons against the defensible Bush pardon.”

Kristol concluded, “I regard this as an extremely clever Machiavellian move by the president. It cheers me up about the Bush White House, and I’m really heartened.”  (Think Progress, Kristol: Bush Timed Clemency To Get Political Cover By Attacking Clinton)

PLG does not think the word "Machiavellian" means what William Kristol thinks it means.  "When did Faux News decide to slip truth serum into the coffee served to Bill Kristol?"  (Angry Bear).

Recent Posts at Buck Naked Politics relating to Libby's commutation

"Welcome to the American Gulag Archipelago"....

At Mercury Rising, Charles posts a disturbing note about the fate of those in government who speak truth about power.  (The American Gulag).


Bill O'Reilly, the Roving Gangs of Lesbians, and the Pink 9 mm Glocks....

I am very sad I missed Bill O'Reilly's report of a roving gang of  lesbians flourishing pink pistols (which you can view here at You Tube.   This story from The Southern Poverty Law Center  provides details.  Bizarre details.  Which are seemingly somewhat suspect. 

A "national underground network" of pink pistol-packing lesbians is terrorizing America. "All across the country," they are raping young girls, attacking heterosexual males at random, and forcibly indoctrinating children as young as 10 into the homosexual lifestyle, according to a shocking June 21 segment on the popular Fox News Channel program, "The O'Reilly Factor."...

After this introduction, O'Reilly went to a split-screen live interview with "Fox News crime analyst" Rod Wheeler.

"Tell me what's going on," O'Reilly said.

Nine-millimeter Glocks painted pink? Dykes taking over? More than 150 lesbian gangs in the Washington, D.C., area alone? These claims are, as Wheeler suggested, "very, very interesting." They're also very, very flimsy. Gaithersburg, Md., Detective Patrick Word, president of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, an intelligence-sharing organization of 400 criminal justice professionals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, said there is no evidence whatsoever of a lesbian gang epidemic in his region. "Our membership reports only one lesbian gang," Word told the Intelligence Report.

Sgt. Brett Parson, a member and former commander of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, also questioned Wheeler's numbers. "We have 150 to 175 total gangs in the D.C. area, and out of those only nine where the predominance of members are female," he said. "You simply can't make the jump that they are lesbians. I think it is fair to talk about violence and female gangs. But to sensationalize or marginalize a community by making a statement like that seems irresponsible."...

There have been no media reports at all of lesbian gangs committing violence while armed with pink-painted 9-millimeter pistols or calling themselves, as Wheeler colorfully described it, "the pink pistol-packing group." Several law enforcement officers contacted by the Report found the idea laughable. There is, however, a well-known national organization of gay and lesbian firearms owners called the Pink Pistols. This group has never been implicated in any gang activity. Asked by the Intelligence Report if he'd perhaps confused the Pink Pistols with a criminal organization, Wheeler denied it. "I wasn't referring to their pink pistols," Wheeler said. "These [lesbian] crews, these gangs, they buy a Glock 9-millimeter and you can paint them pink."

Pink Pistols spokesperson Gwen Patton said the pistols the group's members carry are, by and large, not actually colored pink. The Pink Pistols are now demanding an on-air apology from Wheeler, O'Reilly and Fox News. The Southern Poverty Law Center

I learned about it first through Amanda Marcotte's Post at Pandagon:  Or maybe Russ Meyer was just pranking Bill O’Reilly.  Marcotte wondered whether O'Reilly imagined pink pistols "fashioned to look like penises."   So do I, a little.

Marcotte suggests that  "[t]his is another case of right wing insanity percolating into the mainstream, and the point is to drum up hatred against lesbians."    Since it's Fox News, it's perhaps more likely that  the point is more to provide a justification for hating lesbians.  They engage in sexual practices not in general use among Fox viewers and they preempt the manly pursuit of raping and pillaging at (pink) gunpoint.   (Marcotte)

Marcotte considers the potential utility of this strange story to Fox's political agenda. (Marcotte) 

Recent Posts at Buck Naked Politics relating to Bill O'Reilly:


"Misinterpreted by Judicial Activists...."

At Jon Swift, sensible conservative Jon Swift (duh) analyzes the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown versus Board of Education and subsequent jurisprudence, right down to the recent case of Parents Involved v. Seattle School District No. 1.  (Brown v Board of Education's Original Intent)

As Swift informs us, Brown vs. Board , "a decision that has often been misinterpreted by judicial activists," has at last received the clarification that was so desperately needed.  "Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin," [Justice Roberts] wrote of the cruel injustice of white children being told they could not attend the black schools of their choice."

Swift gives props to Justice Roberts for boiling down a 185-page opinion to a single slogan "that could fit on a bumper sticker: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.''" 

In addition to so much else, Swift discusses some of the policy underpinnings of Parents Involved.

"People -- black, white, brown, rich, middle-class, poor, Christian, secular, etc. -- naturally want to be around people like themselves. Why is that such a bad thing?" conservative Rod Dreher recently wrote. He points to a study by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam that shows that "the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone." The recent conservative uprising over immigration legislation was a warning to politicians that conservatives do not want to be forced to listen to salsa music and be subjected to the pungent odors of Mexican cooking in their own neighborhoods, because that will only make them trust their Spanish-speaking neighbors less, especially since they can't understand a word they are saying. (Brown v Board of Education's Original Intent; links in original)

. 

 

Cutting the Corner...

At Sadly, No!  Not a fan of National Review Online?  Mister Leonard Pierce considers the National Review Online's blog, The Corner, and the strange and wonderful effects of a slow news day on its crew of the bestest and brightest right-wing wonks.  On normal days, says MLP,  it's all "[r]ight-wing policy nerds nodding sagely at each other, Jonah Goldberg and John Podhoretz trying to out-geek each other with Dr. Who references, Kathryn Jean Lopez wetting herself over Mitt Romney’s latest photo op, and John Derbyshire wandering in from Planet Zoot to complain about the wimpiness of today’s murder and kidnap victims, can only hold your interest for so long." Never Leave the Cut No More

But on a slow news day,  he continues, "they attain a sort of wingnut perfect-storm, a self-generating auto-feedback loop of douchebaggery that starts rolling like an an avalanche and cannot be stopped. It’s a real wonder to behold, like many great and terrible natural disasters, and when we document it, we feel sort of like those guys who cling to the back of pickups during a tornado just so they can get some compelling video footage of the whole mess. We know that there’s a very strong possibility that we will be hurt, or killed, or at the very least disembrained, by the swirling cyclone of dumb that is NRO’s group blog, but we cannot look away." Never Leave the Cut No More   You'll enjoy MLP's summaries of their slow news day postings.

Also at  Sadly, No!, D. Aristophanes discusses the very special logic by which certain no doubt well-intentioned right-wing bloggers arrive at their very special conspiracy theories.  Enjoy 2 + 2 = Flabberjabber.

 

Posted on July 10, 2007 at 01:34 PM |

Tags: Amanda Marcotte, Ara Rubyan, Bill O'Reilly, Buck Naked Politics, centrist, Cheney, damozel, democrat, E Pluribus Unum, Fox News, GOP, impeachment, Joe Lieberman, LBGT, lesbians, moderate, National Review Online, News Hounds, Obsidian Wings, Pandagon, political bloggers, political blogs, progressive, republican, Sadly No!, The Corner, the Iraq war, The Reality Based Community

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