I Don't Like You Either

Bill Maher's New Rules for 11-7: Republicans Must Not Spend the Next Four Years Plotting to Bring Down Obama

by Nicholas | A great post-election wind-up at Real Time.

Crooks and Liars has the complete transcript.  Best line:

The hard core Republican base is like a stalker. Rejection just makes them crazier.

Well, there's this:

Compassionate Conservatism & the Katrina Victims: How Dare Those People Lose Everything They Own?

from Nicholas  |  Always keen to explore what’s out there, to seek out new blogs and new civilisations, I boldly went today to a blog called Five Feet Of Fury.    Fury is right.  It’s one of those angry right wing blogs written by someone who is seemingly consumed with loathing for anyone who is not exactly like her.  The conservative blogosphere is like that – they seem perpetually angry, always wanting to make life as miserable as possible for everyone else. Go have a look, if you’re not trying to digest something.

Warning: Sour Grapes May Make You Bitter

from Nicholas |  There's a rather sad article in today edition of London's  Mail On Sunday  by that well-known life-loving pixie, Peter Hitchens, entitled "The night we waved goodbye to America..."  in which he postulates (nice word, that: I don't think I have ever used it before) that the USA is now fallen into the hands of a left-wing dictator totally incapable of running the country.  It's difficult to know exactly how to describe the main thrust of this article, although the words "drivel", "mindless" and "a load of" do spring to mind. 

Dinosaurs Still Walk The Earth

from Nicholas | Here's a quote from the excellent blog Orcinus:

A Midland [Michigan] man told police that his walking on the sidewalk in full Knights of Ku Klux Klan regalia while toting a handgun had nothing to do with Barack Obama winning the presidency.

Later, however, he admitted that Obama's victory was the catalyst for his display.

Some people, it seems, have forgotten nothing and learned nothing.
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Election Night Hilarity at BBC News: Gore Vidal vs. Anchor David Dimbleby

by Nicholas | "Mad as a box of frogs," said the bloke who posted it, and he didn't mean Dimbleby.  I cannot improve on this as a summary.

Hell's Bimbo

by Nicholas  |  OMFG!!  It looks as though John McCain’s dignified concession speech is about as good as it gets as far as the Republicans are concerned.  Of course, any losing side in an election will hold an inquest, examine where its weaknesses were and generally make plans to do better next time.  One or two sacrificial heads may roll -- that is to be expected -- but in general it’s always a good thing to keep recriminations as restrained as possible

Things in the Republican camp may be a bit more vigorous than that right now.  If we are to believe what we read and hear (And why shouldn’t we?  The meltdown is delicious!) there is a  vast build-up of latent hostility between the McCain camp and the Palin camp that is about erupt into a bout of name calling , finger pointing and backstabbing .  And Sarah herself it seems, is not the adorable bimbo everyone thought she was.  Okay, she was a bimbo, but not adorable (Well, some people thought she was adorable. I always found her repulsive).  We all know that she had no idea what the function of the Vice President is, and that she seemed to think that the First Amendment existed to protect her from the probing questions of reporters.  Now it appears that she didn’t know which countries were included in NAFTA.  And she thought that Africa was a country, not an entire continent.  Yes, she could always be advised about these facts but surely, someone who wanted to understudy the presidency, who has reached the age of 44 and who has been through university, should already know these things.  These aren’t arcane details of something outside the mainstream -- these are essential facts.

Have a look at this page from the Huffington Post and make sure you play the clip from The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News network, which isn’t exactly known for its love of the Democrats.  Tantrums?  Paper throwing?  Making her staff weep?  So much for adorable.  America had a narrow escape last Tuesday. 

Former Python John Cleese: Michael is No Longer the Funniest Palin

by Nicholas | 

Bonus Pythonage below, for those who wish to learn or reminisce:

Gwen Ifill: "Palin Blew Me Off" in Veep Debate

by Nicholas | We all noticed it, of course. Ifill---who was preemptively accused by the desperate, increasingly shrill far right contingent of being too partisan to moderate fairly---withheld comment and even any hint of an eye-roll when Palin ignored the questions and stuck to her script.  I was personally offended that Ifill never really called her on this, even while understanding the reason.

But now, on Meet the Press, Ifill had this to say (via Think Progress):

Robert Schlesinger Sums Up Palin's Response to the Bailout Question

by Nicholas | Via Eunomia, this quote from Robert Schlesinger:

It’s like a talking points machine gone out of control. Or magnetic poetry that you have on your fridge—in fact, you can try it at home. String together key words and phrases like “shore up the economy,” “reduce tax rates,” “healthcare reform,” and “trade” and see what kind of Palinisms you can create.

It'll give you something to do while civilisation crumbles round your ears.

More Palinisation: The Second Part of Her Interview

by Nicholas |  I covered the first part here.  Here's more.  And, as Glenn Greenwald noted earlier today, it's really rather sad.

Via Ambinder, this partial transcript:

Greed & Incompetence: How Bad Can It Get?

by Nicholas | A friend of mine read somewhere, and passed on to me, the notion that whatever people may say, the USA is not a truly capitalist society (i.e. one where the creation of goods and services itself generates wealth) but merely a sort of predatory corporatism, where a false, inflated wealth is created simply by moving money around.  As Gordon Gekko said, “I create nothing.”   These days, the creation of tangible goods takes place elsewhere, and we have to import them, and pay out money to foreign companies in return.  More and more companies inside the US are getting better and better at creating nothing – or so we thought.  Recent events have shown that maybe they are not even good at that.

So why, then, do the people in charge still reward themselves to such an obscene level?   Well, because they’re greedy, that’s why.  And the belief that if the rich are happy then somehow everyone else will be happy still prevails, even, amazingly, among some people who grog along doing three jobs in order to maintain a hand to mouth existence.  Here’s an interesting statistic.  I read it in Vincent Bugliosi’s excellent book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. 

I don’t mean to rehash here the main arguments of this book (which, incidentally, I completely agree with) but simply to bring to your attention a fact quoted in the last chapter.  Now, everyone will agree that company CEOs deserve to be paid more than the people who work for them.   J. P. Morgan, one of the most successful American capitalists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, said that it was not unreasonable for a CEO to be paid twenty times the average salary of his employees. 

That seems perfectly fair.  In some countries today the average ratio is even lower: in Japan it is 10 to 1, Germany 11 to 1, and in France 16 to 1.  In Britain it is higher:  25 to 1.  In the USA, though, it is a staggering 531 to 1.  Does anything say Greed in mile high letters more than this?   Isn’t it time to understand that doing something about this sort of greed, which represents all that is bad and exploitative in an unmanaged economy, will not actually bring about the fall of the Republic, and will probably do it some good?.

McCain on Spain: Yet Another Gaffe from the Old Gaffer or Another 180? You Be the Judge!

by Nicholas | The tally of things Mr Experience seems to be confused about is mounting up.  As BBC News put it, "US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has raised suspicions in Spain that he thinks the country's prime minister is Latin American."  Else he was posturing in a manner guaranteed to offend a NATO ally---which seems to be his campaign's spin on the matter.  In any event, Spain is 'puzzled." (BBC News)

Speculation is rife about the intention behind these remarks. Did he get  Zapatero mixed up with some other bloke---or affiliation of blokes?  Or is this another of his recent reversals as he tacks to the right?

The Obama Campaign: Afflicted with Hubris or Pursuing a Cunning Plan?

by Nicholas | Interesting.  According to The Telegraph, senior Democratic advisers are concerned that the Obama campaign doesn't have the political know-how to make "No McCain Nohow" a reality.

A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They're the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won't accept that they are losing and they won't listen."  (The Telegraph)

Damozel has recently raised this point.  Is hubris blinding Obama's handlers to their candidate's interests?

Palin as Governor: A Premium on "Secrecy and Loyalty"

by Nicholas | I suppose everyone who reads it is going to be struck by one part of this New York Times article or another.   Let me see. Secrecy...loyalty...cronyism...hmmm.  Who does that remind me of?  It's on the tip of my tongue.  Let's see....Louche?....Douche?....no, that's not quite it.  But close.

For what it's worth, here's one Brit's pick:

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show. 

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said. (NYT)