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TechnoratiThe Right-Wing Politico Cesspool
Politico reporter Mike Allen, formerly of The Washington Post and Time, appeared yesterday on the show of right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher. The two of them guffawed together at how absurd are Scott McCellan's claims that the media was "deferential" to the Bush administration and then Allen said this:
ALLEN: And indeed, Scott does adopt the vocabulary, rhetoric of the left wing haters. Can you believe it in here he says the White House press corps was too deferential to the administration?
Think Progress has the audio, which makes even clearer how eager Mike Allen was "to adopt the vocabulary, rhetoric" of the right-wing operatives which Politico exists to serve. Actually, not even Karl Rove -- who gave Allen and comrades their marching orders earlier this week when he said during an interview with Sean Hannity that McClellan "sounds like a left-wing blogger" -- goes so far as to refer to those critical of the media's war coverage as "left wing haters." But Politico "reporter" Mike Allen does.
After hearing his repugnant comments, I e-mailed Allen last night and asked him several questions, including (full email is here): "Is anyone who believes that the media was too deferential to the Bush administration in the run-up to the war a 'left-wing hater?'" and "Can you give a few examples of the 'left-wing haters' you were referencing?" and "Are there 'right-wing haters'? If so, any examples you can provide?" Allen sent me a completely non-responsive reply that had nothing to do with what I asked. When I emailed him again and emphasized that I was particularly interested in his use of the term "left wing haters," this is the reply he sent me, in full:
Ah, gotcha. No, you can call them "critics" or "skeptics" or "opponents" or whatever. My only point was that McClellan has now validated points of view that the administration had in the past pushed back against -- and that, in fact, have been proven empirically in many cases. For instance, the Larry Lindsey $100-200 billion was once considered heresy by Scott and his colleagues. Now, it looks like a lowball...
When he referred to "left wing haters," he just meant "critics" of the administration -- war "skeptics" and Bush "opponents." That's all synonymous in his mind with "left wing haters" -- interchangeable terms. Thus: "you can call them 'critics' or 'skeptics' or 'opponents'" -- or the phrase I used: "left wing haters" -- "or whatever." So according to Politico's chief political correspondent (the former White House Correspondent of Time), administration critics are, by definition, "left wing haters."
Allen shared his complaint about "left wing haters" while chatting agreeably with Mike Gallagher, who previously said this:
I think we should round up all of these folks. Round up Joy Behar. Round up Matt Damon, who last night on MSNBC attacked George Bush and Dick Cheney. Round up Olbermann. Take the whole bunch of them and put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they're a bunch of traitors.
Allen and Gallagher can't stand those left wing haters.
Allen recently conducted an "interview" with George Bush that was so vapid and sycophantic that the normally polite Dan Froomkin of The Washington Post detailed the "questions" Allen posed and then asked rhetorically: "Has there ever been a more moronic interview of a president of the United States than the one conducted yesterday by Mike Allen?"
Speaking of Politico's sycophantic service to the GOP, Allen's colleague, Daniel Paul Kuhn, today has an article about how gay marriage is going to help McCain win the election and doom Obama among independents and working class voters. Last week, Kuhn wrote an article reporting that GOP operatives were excited about the prospects of McCain winning in a "blowout." Several weeks before that, Kuhn wrote an article about how the Iraq War's growing popularity among Americans would be a huge asset for McCain and doom the Democratic candidate. Not even the most shameless GOP hack makes such absurdly optimistic claims about the GOP's electoral chances -- at least not out in the open. They just have Kuhn and Politico do it for them.
I once thought that Politico would be a pernicious new addition to our rotted media culture. Instead, it actually provides a valuable service by packing every destructive and corrupt journalistic attribute, in its most vivid form, into one single cesspool.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book "How Would a Patriot Act?," a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic Legacy", examines the Bush legacy.
© Salon.com
44 Comments so far
Show Allp.p.p.s if you actually want to help an indigenous person sell your crystals, Sun Bear, and Dreamspell books and give the money to Cultural Survival:
http://www.cs.org/
a group of people who are doing real things on the ground to help threatened cultures maintain their traditions and resist corporate and government exploitation.
p.s. My "mind is made up" because unlike what you may think I KNOW there are truths and falsehoods in this world. In fact we have an accurate testing method for sorting out delusions from objective truth, it's called the scientific method. The things you talk about ALWAYS evaporate when any testing is done in a controlled fashion and are thus harmful delusion, i.e. quite literally insanity.
2+ 2=4 regardless of what some white "shaman" who has ripped off an indigenous culture may say.
p.s. I'd rather be angry than deluded any day of the week for anger is a righteous response to living in the extremely fucked up U.S. This you must be positive all the time bullshit is another problem I have with New Agers. When does being positive stop? Would you have been positive in the USSR or Nazi Germany?
Guess what we are living in a world class criminal regime that has probably killed the 4th most innocent people of ANY society in the world behind China, the USSR and Nazi Germany. IMO it's nothing to be proud of, rather I think any feeling person ought to be upset about it, if you aren't full of rage and sadness about it I suggest you "spirituality" is a deadening palliative much like Valium or Prosac.
Siouxerose I am sorry but I think epistemological errors of the sort you make are EXTREMELY harmful to leftist movements. The only way we will win is by having an accurate map of reality and NOT indulging our insanity and mistaking internal imaginings for external reality which is harmful and I won't shut up about it. I sincerely believe one of the reasons the left hasn't won any victories since the early 70s is the loose ship anything goes attitude, and I for one intend on calling people on it. Thanks for the offer to set me up with Ron too bad I'm not gay, not that there is anything wrong with that...
If someone was talking to themselves at an activist meeting I'd suggest they get help for themselves and if they refused to leave I'd escort them out the door there is only so much activist time you can waste on those who are delusional, I feel the exact same about New Agers and other "spiritual" people stop wasting our time and go join a New Age forum or something where you can all have delusional love fest. I'm sure you'd love a New Age forum it would be more "positive" and "healing" and all dissent would be ruthlessly censored just like on a far right forum like "(un) Free Republic."
Regarding Thomas More's comment 10:36 am
Unlike most USAnians I have actually been outside the USA. Comments such as "Our country is still the best the world has produced by far and if we do decline we will be sorely missed" just serve as an example of why we are hated around the world. The average American cannot conceive that anyone would be proud of THEIR OWN country, and we imagine everyone is incredibly impressed with our own worship of inconsequential celebrity, bling, and our love of surface over substance.
I have met Russians, French, Belgians and even (while our gov were telling me to kill them) Koreans, who all felt that their country was actually sort-of-alright too.
When you next watch a Hollywood film try to imagine what it's like to be someone who's not from America, you'd find it a bit annoying that all the bad guys are "slopes, chinks, damn russkies, 'euro-fags', arab ragheads", or whoever else we'll make our enemy tomorrow.
Shit, I'm amazed we've got away with it for so long.
With an attitude like Tom's, no wonder we need all those bases in all their countries to keep them keen on our American superiority.
Have a peace-pipe... it's free.
VoK
PS There's a guy named RON who posts in this forum, and I'd be happy to set you two up... a match made in heaven (of a sort).
MRRAVEN: This is likely the first and last time I will address you. You are certainly full of intellectual sources to quote; plus your mind is already made up. Your attacks on an area that you do not understand and berate reveals your own poverty of heart and this may explain why the intuitive aspect has never revealed itself to you. I really have no interest in attacking you, but I'd prefer if you just allow me my space to share with those who DO resonate with the ideas I bring to this forum. I, too, am a published author and respected authority in MY field. If you find this zone of inquiry irrelevant, that is your choice. Attacking me is another matter. Frankly, I find your posts filled with hate. You may one day need the very venues you so disparage to find the peace that's decidedly missing from your soul.
See now this is weird now the dupe is gone WTF!!!!
Sorry for the duplicate, the CD editing function is VERY broken I often get a database error under Firefox 3 OS X 10.5.3. And often my edits don't show up until much later and it's hard to know if they were posted or "moderated" or what happened to them. I think it would behoove us all to have a separate forum with a more robust comments section.
Several forum platforms are available that are free and open source.
p.p.s. If you really want to actually help indigenous people in their fight to maintain their traditions and not merely rip them off like New Agers do consider joining the cultural survival e-mail list, they will send you a list of things you can DO to express your dissent against corporate destruction of indigenous lands and cultures:
http://www.cs.org/
For example helping to fund a Guatemalan indigenous language radio station actually helps the survival of Mayan traditional culture unlike the "dreamspell" which only makes money for white pseudo "indians" and does nothing for actual Mayan descendants, the people who gave us the Mayan calender in the first place:
"The Guatemala Radio Project is a partnership between Cultural Survival and 140 community radio stations operating throughout Guatemala. Citizen volunteers, the backbone of these stations, use radio to educate indigenous Maya about their rights and how to engage as responsible citizens in their communities and nation. Together, we're building an independent radio network that will broadcast professional quality news, information, education, and entertainment to Guatemala's to 1.1 million indigenous citizens—in their own languages."
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/radio.cfm
p.s. Even within a "spiritual" "paradigm" dreamspell is a ripping of Native people without their permission and in this case the Mayan elders are pissed about this appropriation:
"Adam Rubel of Saq Be, an organization reflecting indigenous and especially Mayan views
says: ³Regarding the dreamspell and work of Arguelles: It has been made
clear, I think everybody here understands, the need to distinguish this
system from any relation to the Mayan tradition. [Å ] This is the wish
of the elders, that the confusion and misrepresentation cease. ²"
http://lists.topica.com/lists/politics/read/message.html?sort=d&mid=911612682
Capitalist money making by smug rich white people by appropriating and misusing Native culture against their EXPRESS wishes does not impress me.
Mouse Jane your posting reads like a parody. It SCARES me that people who consider themselves to be progressives, leftists, liberal, whatever we are calling ourselves THIS week live so fully in a world of sheer fantasy and mistake it for objective reality. Another good idea Marxists and socialists had was calling out mysticism as a regressive tendency.
http://www.wsws.org/correspo/1998/apr1998/jg-a30.shtml
If you think such hokum is really going to help you get through the hard years ahead, or will help you plan how to fight back against your oppressors you are SERIOUSLY deluded. Every time someone types a response like yours a capitalist oppressor smiles for they know another "leftist" is avoiding the hard work of say ecological science from global warming to the impact of developers on eco-systems to economic analysis of speculation and other fatal flaws of the American system. Go peddle your snake oil somewhere else, IMO.
p.s Thomas Moore do you think you'd get help broken by the side of the road if you were black or Hispanic? Serious question.
Thomas Moore corporate America and Cheney are EXACTLY America, turn on your "mainstream" tee vee and it will tell you so.
p.p.s. If your local people are authentically helpful that's great more power to ya'll, OTH that's different than "America" which is a meaningless symbol of 300 million people blurred together into an abstraction. Like any glittering generality like "freedom.," "patriotism," etc it is ripe for propaganda abuse:
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ct.wg.gg.html
Siouxrose & Locust:
The circle divided by 13 is in fact the sacred wheel of time which has been nearly eradicated by the dominator paradigm in its quest to control and rob us of our natural rights. There are in fact 13 natural moons of 28 days every year, with 1 day left over for celebration and reflection, making a total of 365 days, or 1 solar year. This has been the natural calendar of humanity since the dawn of time in nearly every culture on the planet until quite recently. If you wish to learn more about how to restore your own harmony with the Earth by living in tune with this natural flow of time I highly recommend you investigate the 13 Moon Calendar Change Global Peace Movement (also known as the Dreamspell or erroneously as The Mayan Calendar), which is allowing millions of us around the world to live in synchronous harmony with each other and the cosmos at large by unplugging from the asynchronous and damaging 12 month dominator calendar. This is perhaps one of the most powerful tools available to liberate yourself from the dominator control paradigm. You can learn more at www.lawoftime.org or www.tortuga.com Sorry to be so off topic with the thread but your comments on the number 13 got my mind going in this direction. Yes it works wonders and will absolutely change your life.
BTW I am by no means a doctrinaire Marxist but I think there are a few useful ideas amongest all the bad ones.
I do sometimes wonder, however, if the terrible murderous regime of the USSR was not a Marxism problem but a Russia problem. Russia under the Czar equaled murderous regime with dungeons and tyranny, USSR equals murderous regime with dungeons and tyranny, and post Soviet Russia equals murderous regime with dungeons and tyranny. Something to think about...
No nationalism is not a community, that is a serious error. An authentic community is people I know face to face and can ask for a hand with a garden, or with assistance is in fixing a bike. A nation is reification,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(Marxism)
an abstraction that masquerades as a community to tap into out tribalism the service of unaccountable government and corporate elites.
Even this CD forum is more a community than any nation state because I have at least some feel for who ya'll are as people. Although I'd say a computer forum ultimately fails as a community as well because people in online forums can't give each other day to day assistance that authentic community requires.
If there are 500 flags at least I can choose the one I want and move to that region. The flaw in this idea of course is the fascist republic of Texas, I don't have any idea what they'd do, but at least I wouldn't being paying my taxes to support it. :)
mrraven500 May 31st, 2008 3:00 pm
Well...we'll just agree to disagree on this one. Though you may be right, we won't know for a while.
I have confidence that our country can be taken back from Corporate America, their bought and paid for politicians. there are some good people in both parties working for us. Lots of independents, more each day.
Nationalism is NOT community.
Here I'd say that Nationalism is a community....i.e. America is a huge community of Americans, with lots of sub-groups, but all in the end standing together.
We would have been in a very different place if we had a real President after 9/11. People were together till Cheney had his lap dog bark.
At the same time I'd say there is a very good chance of a modified version of what you are saying, Federalism taking a back seat to States. Less centralized government.
"In such a decentralized society I believe that the flags of nation states will rightly be seen as an anachronism."
If that were the case, you'd be right. Except remember feudalism....every Baron had his own little flag. So don't you think it would be trading one for a bunch?
p.s Locust here is the reality of how it played out. The back to the land people sometimes had sheep that would be preyed upon by Coyotes. There were also Bears and Cougars around, and no cops for 50 miles, the back to the landers that made it thus generally dropped their idealistic opposition to guns if they stayed for than a couple of years and would seek out the militia type gun nuts for training. Meanwhile the militia type people started smoking and growing pot, something the hippies were and are way ahead on. Both hippies and survivalists also exchange ideas on living off the grid, gardening, etc. Regardless of how we feel about such activities like somking pot and having guns that is how friendships and coalitions ACTUALLY happen, not by whining around and calling ourselves "progressives" and mincing words.
p.s. Listening to Art Bell also helped. :)
P.S. Siousrose I HAVE read Herman Hesse books such as Sidhartha and Magister Ludi. I would even go as far as to say that Buddhism is the "spiritual" tradition I respect the most because it does not requite gods or goddesses and is quite simple in it's ideology have comapassion, good show.
OTH I really disagree with: "ONLY transcending the limits of logic gets one to that place where a peace that passeth understanding is gotten."
Accepting a fundamental ontological category error because it's more superficially mentally comfortable is not a good idea for ones basic sanity IMO. Further I'd say no peace without justice, equanimity in the face of oppression does not impress me. Fight back!
Thomas my opinion is, is that nationalism is always a regressive force. In the long run post peak oil we will have to move to a society more organized on a local basis. Whether our model comes Wendell Berry and Kirkpatrick Sale and is called bioregionalism or is more "traditional"/right wing Posse Comitatus/New England town meeting based I think in the long run will matter less than many people think. In the back to the land areas the old hippies and the militia people are far more friendly to each other than the MSM would lead you to believe. My opinion is, is that the whole nation will break up and move to that direction in th long run.
In such a decentralized society I believe that the flags of nation states will rightly be seen as an anachronism. Nationalism is NOT community and it is dangerous category error exploited by demagogues to believe they are equivalent.
mrraven500 May 31st, 2008 2:28 pm
I wasn't advocating waving it mindlessly or saluting it mindlessly. It is simply a symbol of our country and should be respected if you respect America and Americans. If people don't, its their right, but there should be no surprise when they people think they hate Americans and America.
Valid point that Patriotism can be perverted like the Nazi's did. But there seem to be some that feel that patriotism and liberalism are mutually exclusive. My point is thats Horse Feathers.
The flag is simply a symbol that represents America and its citizens. Disrespect for it is reprehensible no matter what because you would be essentially spitting on America and Anericans.
I see the point that neocons try to use these symbols to cover their machinations, but thats no excuse for giving up something important simply because some folks have tried to misuse it.
Siouxsrose "insanity" in fact quite literally comes from mistaking subjective ideas of the mind such as mental vapors like "energies", gods, god, and goddesses for objective reality. Ontological category errors are quite literally the text book definition of insanity. I used to read Starhawk (Fifth Sacred Thing Dreaming the Dark) and Rian Eisler (The Chalice and the Blade ) in the 80s and even through the 90s so I do know what the rap is, I just no longer believe that self delusion is helpful regardless of how good the intentions are of those in delusion. I really don't doubt your good intentions I just think that in order to actually win against regressive forces that we need clarity, groundedness, and an accurate map of reality, YMMV. More Democracy Now, less crystals please.
BTW mrraven500=hootowl in case that isn't perfectly clear.
Locust I couldn't disagree more having lived in northern Michigan, and rural Oregon it was the HARD left revolutionary radical back to the land people who were able to talk to militia people, plaeo-cons and Libertarians. The mushy progressives in town were too afraid of guns to ever have any common ground with Ron Paul supporters and others on the honorable decentralist right. Note by honorable I do NOT mean I agree with all of their positions I think right wingers of any sort ought to be challenged about deforestation, global warming, their atrocious anti abortion stance, homophobia, sexism, racism, etc. OTH I do think there is common ground in opposition to the police state at home, opposition to the Federal Reserve and other globalist tools, and opposition to empire abroad. You might be surprised to know that the more intelligent militia types ARE actually aware that the culture war issues are used by the MSM to keep us divided and from having an uprising.
Instead of shilly shallying around lets be forthright about who we are and let the chips fall where they may. In the long run I find people respect you MORE for being straight up not less. Progressive IMO is a weak avoidance of who we really are.
Thomas Moore flag waving is a substitute for thogut and is employed by all totalitarian regimes. Do you ever notice that photos of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Mao's China always feature many "patri-rot-ic" flags and marches? We will not become more rational by mindlessly saluting the flag regardless of what kind of society it represents.
Siouxrose will your blather about King Arthur and "archetypes"etc help if the goons throw you in a prison camp? Serious question... At that point some up armed grounded secular leftists who do a prison break will probably look pretty good...
Siouxrose May 31st, 2008 1:00 pm
Thanks! Thats interesting. Pyramids or a variation of them are the strongest structure you can build. And I'm glad your friends stopped the Walmart.
They have destroted the commerce in many small towns and then when they close a store up and leave, people really get hurt.
"Should HOOT OWL show up to try to disparage my mystical contentions,"
I pay no further attention to that one. You are right, seems to be bright, but giving me an interesting take on one of my comments at the end turned insulting and vulgar. Two things I don't tolerate.
I locust May 31st, 2008 12:32 pm
"support the use of 'progressive' over 'liberal', 'regressive' over 'conservative'. New paradigm for a new millennium.
Get off the X-axis of left- and right- wing. Y? (geometry humor)."
If a liberal is a progressive then what is the hard left? Most conservatives in my experience aren't regressive, they are close to the middle and many of them are actually liberal or progressive on social problems. And what would you call the hard right? regressive seems a bit to complimentary for them.
Generally I agree with your direction in any case.
Having witnessed the shrill "kill Hill" hysteria, I can no longer dismiss the term "left wing haters". Sadly the left blogosphere and media pundits seem just as irrational, egotistical and bigoted as their right wing counterparts, and just as motivated by prejudice and spite. It's all opinion, emotion and gut feeling, dominated by personal hatred and equally personal ambition to be seen as "influential" and, still better, employable by the corporate media. The system as a whole is broken - and without an honest, rational, objective fourth estate, so is democracy.
How in the world did we get this pseudo-profession of pathetic little ignorant flag-waving egos running the media? THEY are the ones who belong in a detention camp until they develop normal human brains and spines....
Siouxrose,
But, my favorite number is 13 - goes past the closed circle of 12, opens up all the possibilities of every mystery...
FRANK: Good one, made me laugh out loud.
ALIEN SOUP: Very civil discourse. As to why the hatred, it energizes an ancient archetypal principle known to favor, foment and promote war. I term it MARS rules. As for infinite shades of gray, personally, I prefer the circle as symbol. King Arthur sat his knights there, and the Zodiac's 12 signs simulate the same 12 Jesus designated as disciples and Abraham founded as a basis for tribes. Sacred geometry explains the relationships between the 12 positions that sit round the wheel, and these mathematical correspondences explain how specific expressions of human character are intended to be counter-balanced by antithetical (sometimes complementary) traits or expressions. Whenever a society opts for a one size fits all basis for rules (authoritarian), it creates a top-down hierarchy where FEW privileges extend to the many. The circle HAS no sides and represents a form found ubiquitously throughout nature, and in symbolic form signifies that TRUTH that ALL things come full circle. That is the inviolate law of karma. Until we bring the other 11 principles into the same level(s) of expression that's been as co-opted by Mars (ego, aggression, me-first, a war state, anger, road rage, punitive prison sentences, etc) humanity will suffer. My best case for this disproportionate representation in our midst is the US budget and what goes towards war, weapons or the newest designs of armaments in contrast with what is directed towards green technology (sustainable future for citizens), education, health care, etc.
Come to think of it, from which end of the political spectrum does hate actually emanate from?
Mike Allen has been sipping his Kool-Aid from inside the Bush tank for a long time. I recall several years ago on Hardball where he kept referring to Count Karlo with the deferential "Mr. Rove." Even Tweety Bird laughed uproariously at that bit of kneeling to the throne.
Allen's a journalist in the same sense as Jeff Gannon's a journalist, and basically engaged in the same activity as Gannon's former profession. Here's your biscuit, Mikey!
Actually, "liberals" prefer music and/or comedy on the radio - they can't stand being preached to or screamed at by lying boneheads. And they're really bad at believing what they're told to believe. Howard Stern has trumped Limbaugh for over 20 years because he's smart, funny and irreverent, not fat, stupid and ignorant.
And, really, therein lies the division. Think about it - name, say, five great Republican actors, screenwriters, directors, comedians, painters, musicians, etc. Chuck Norris? The Christian Gospel Hour? Dennis Turncoat Miller? O'Reilly? Culturally, artistically, they got nothin. Not even a Jon Stewart among them. Or a Leno, or Letterman, or even a Kimmel. Zip in the art department on every level.
So what's that leave them with? Screaming and lying and obeying combined with serious creative envy and jealousy. No sitcoms, no fiction books, no movies - just a few radio stations and a bunch of "talk" or "news" shows which are all exactly the same with different titles.
Talk RADIO has possibly been a bigger political influence than talking TV.
It's hard to imagine this, really, but audio alone spoken to people while they're working (radio) seems to attract a far more loyal and regular audience than TV shown to people at other moments of their personal day later at home.
Limbaugh trumps Olberman. Liberals were a full decade late catching onto this.
I do have to wonder how real a lot of this rhetoric is. It seems that in America there always has to be the football game of it all, two opposing forces, it's always a neck and neck horse race. I believe it's why we only tolerate 2 political parties. The world is not that black and white, either or, this or that, etc. Anyway, I believe the media we partake in sets the tone of how we view reality. For every progressive thought, here and elsewhere, there will be an equally regressive one to counteract it, and that's how it will be reported. These right wing fanatics (and a few left wing ones, which completely ignores the much larger group of middle wing fanatics) of whatever race, creed, religion will always be given equal time and weight - no matter how destructive and mean spirited the dialog is - to the more common sense, golden rule kind of ideas and dialogs. There has to be this blow by blow contest of titans; but only two. Compromise seems to have been replaced with obliterate the opponent. When did the rules of civil debate and disagreement degenerate into all this name calling and threats of violence to anyone with an idea contrary to ones own, without including any argument for whatever their point or idea is. The whole basis of a "free" society, and supposedly democracy, is the tolerance for opposing viewpoints - agree to disagree and proceed to talk and share ideas and arguments to hopefully reach a compromise that helps out the most people. There was a point in our not too distant past when everything split into two extreme forces/ideologies and we warred against each other - it could happen again (and maybe it already is with all this nastiness and personal attacks replacing reasoned thinking being the opening salvo) unless we start utilizing more of the infinite ideas available between left and right, infinite grays between black and white.
Another great post Glenn!! Keep holding their feet to the fire! Make these media hacks and shills waffle and squirm, trying to justify their revealing rhetorical "mistakes" and continued pandering to the discredited rightwing extremists running our country. Too bad so many seem to have major psychiatric character disorders (Ed Gillespie especially comes to mind).
Let's get these self-congratulatory, proud-to-be-ignorant authoritarians out of Washington DC before they do to Iran even worse than what they've already done to Iraq.
aliensoup May 30th, 2008 2:57 pm
"which completely ignores the much larger group of middle wing fanatics"
Excellent post! Thoughtful. And the "middle wing fanatic" is a new thought for me. And yes, I don't mind admitting I haven't thought of or know everything for certain like some others.
tz May 30th, 2008 7:24 pm
"Come to think of it, from which end of the political spectrum does hate actually emanate from?"
In my opinion it comes from both ends with equal vitriol and lust for power. You'd be hard pressed to tell a neocon from the hard left. Same arrogance, same goal to punish those that don't adhere to their narrow little ideology, the same desire to force people to live the way they think they should.
"pathetic little ignorant flag-waving egos running the media"
I'm wondering exactly what you feel is wrong with waving our flag? Don't disagree with your comment on MSM, but why are you opposed to the flag?
OldBadgertoo May 31st, 2008 6:07 am
Great post. Of course I agree with you so I would think it was great. All kidding aside, almost all the posts so far are thoughtful, reasoned and concerned.
"not fat, stupid and ignorant."
Frank! You've met Limbaugh apparently. I also agree with Siouxrose, it was a good laugh!!
Siouxrose
What about the number 3? And Pisces? Any thoughts?
LOCUST: I like how your mind can work in new hybrids.
WEBWALK: 13 as you may or may not know is the number of DEATH in the tarot. The 12 months of the year each bear a new moon (that means sun and moon, the luminaries, or Divine expressions of Yang and Yin); yet since the new moon interval is 29 days there is often a 13th moon each year. What it is is a DUPLICATE of one of the original 12, as per the template. This past month we have had TWO Scorpio full moons, and Scorpio is the sign of death and resurrection. It dawned on me not only that I have learned of several deaths in close circles, but the ENORMOUS and sudden carnage in China & Myanmar are related to this Scorpio surge.
THOMAS MORE: The number 3, as per the Trinity is a powerful concept indeed. Allow me a short anecdote. A friend of mine was a Yoga instructor in New Paltz, NY and I went to pay him a visit. He had just aligned with a massage therapist and I believe it was a chiropractor as the TRIO took over an old building for their varied holistic services. Across the st either a Home Depot or Wallmart was being planned. Their TRIO was able to block it! As he was explaining it to me, and I intended to go into a bit of a mystical explanation of the POWER OF THREE there across the st (I call this "an omen of agreement") was a Citgo gas station whose logo IS a triangular shape.
If you pile sand it forms a pyramid shape, and The Pyramids have stood up to many tests of time. Ultimately this is the triangle... the mystics saw its pinacle as the DIVINE pouring down to the inhabitants of earth. Elizabeth Haich's important book, INITIATION speaks of the rituals done INSIDE the pyramid. These excelled the soul's urge to be liberated from the body while retaining a state of awareness.
Should HOOT OWL show up to try to disparage my mystical contentions, I had a little insight (intuitively directed) on him... definitely got a strong intellect, but the intellect alone can consign one to a crazy house as the varied angles it's capable of arguing all contradict one another. It reminds me of Herman Hesse's character in Steppenwolf. ONLY transcending the limits of logic gets one to that place where a peace that passeth understanding is gotten.
"The flaw in this idea of course is the fascist republic of Texas"
Gee, I don't think we are fascist's here in Texas.
Think about this, you drive into town, your battery goes dead or you run out of gas and 5 different people stop to help you. Thats community to me and something you don't experience in other countries and in some parts of our country I'm sorry to say.
Our country is still the best the world has produced by far and if we do decline we will be sorely missed. So you can at least hope I'm right even if you think we are going the other way.
And remember, Corporate America and extremists like Cheney and his dogs are NOT America. Never have been.
So lets hope we are not entering the new "dark ages"
BTW I am by no means a doctrinaire Marxist but I think there are a few useful ideas amongest all the bad ones.
Forgot to say good ideas are welcome wherever they come from.
I support the use of 'progressive' over 'liberal', 'regressive' over 'conservative'. New paradigm for a new millennium.
Get off the X-axis of left- and right- wing. Y? (geometry humor).
To follow Siouxrose's circling idea, 'progressive' could circle around to pick up, say, Ron Paul's followers.
The 'left-wing' cannot pick up 'right-wingers' or 'conservatives', but given the choice (our choice) many might prefer to be 'progressive' rather than 'regressive'.
The 'left-wing' does not have the numbers to change things for the better (it can't even change the behavior of the Democratic Party).
Progressives could pick up allies. Progressives could include independents that will not join up with a 'left' wing.
locust, as usual, calls for unity, strength in numbers, and not further division.
per: aliensoup - 'horserace' and other allusions to contests involving 'winners' and 'losers'. Change the paradigm to 'succeeding' instead of 'winning'. 'Succeeding' can include everyone (unity!), rather than dividing, dividing, by producing 'losers'.
Again, locust calls for a united Democratic party, with one candidate, that will succeed in November (which will be better than 'losing' to the regressives yet again).