Political Theatre category archive

Documenting the distortions:

A nugget:

It is clear that those that question the methods have a problem with the message.

At the Guardian, Joshua Clover explains the threat from the Occupy Movement. A nugget:

A spectre is haunting the United States – the spectre of tents. Apparently, they are the greatest threat to order, to education, and perhaps to capitalism, in a generation or more.

The sin of the Occupy Movement has been to exist.

Freedom of speech exercised against what in my younger days was called “the Establishment” is tolerated as long as it stays in the backwaters (sort of like this blog). Once persons start actually to notice it, the tear gas, or, these days, the pepper spray and tasers come out.

Click for a larger image.

Via Some Guy with a Website, whose comments on the cartoon are worth reading.

Newt the Gingrinch wants to steal your Christmas and give it to Wall Street Banksters.

Incidents with poor citizens of Mexico clearly no longer count as incidents, but incidents with wealthy citizens of predominantly white, northern European countries may turn out to be something altogether different.

Afterthought:

I’m certain that Alabama never expected its law to apply to white folks and the only reason this is news is because someone did apply it to a white folk.

Your reaction, when you read the story (admit it, you thought, “Gosh, they arrested a white folk”) is sufficient evidence of the law’s origin in bigotry and of its immorality.

On this week’s episode of Wait! Wait!, someone joked that, whereas the Democratic Party might want to undo the last 30 years of Republican ascendancy, Republican goals are much loftier: Undoing the Enlightenment.

Actually, it’s too true to be funny. From the Concord, New Hampshire, Monitor (registration may be required):

A bunch of our representatives really do want to take us all back to the carefree, constitutionally correct days of the 1780s.

They are members of a committee set up earlier this year to study the impact of federal aid and programs in New Hampshire. A few weeks ago they made their report, and it’s a doozy. It is not a sober, serious analysis, replete with facts, expert testimony and sophisticated analysis.

Instead – as my incredulous lawyer husband noted after reading it – it’s more of an incoherent manifesto that might emerge from a late-night college dorm bull session. One fueled by several six-packs of beer. In this case, the kids are tossing out, willy-nilly, a grab bag of ideas of how governments should be run. Or, more to the point, not run.

Via Atrios.

Pick the next film star:

Alabama’s fear of persons who look different is playing out with unintended (by Alabama), but not unexpected (except by Alabama) consequences:

The Booman assesses Alabama’s attempt once again to enshrine bigotry in law.

More about the video here.

I have finally figured out the current fascination with zombies.

It was preparation for the Republican face for the nomination.

Via Raw Story.

In the Chicago Trib, Steve Chapman considers the ascendency of Newt Gingrich. Mr. Chapman does not believe that Newtmentum has staying power.

A nugget:

Still, it’s hard to believe his campaign will survive extended scrutiny. One reason is his know-it-all personality. George W. Bush was the guy you’d like to have a beer with. Gingrich is the guy you wouldn’t want to be stuck next to on a long flight.

Aside from style, there is the problem of substance. Some Republicans are turning to him out of aversion to Romney’s notorious flip-flopping, forgetting Gingrich’s own amazing flexibility.

At Kiko’s Place, Shaun Mullen quotes John McWhorter (my emphasis; follow the link and read the entire piece):

“Gingrich’s patterns of speech are largely analytically acute, and sometimes aesthetically interesting, but substantively, they are very often lacking. Language is supposed to be a package that carries substance, but Gingrich is sometimes so pleased with his uninterrupted stream of words, that he mistakes it for an actual flow of ideas.“

And, now, a blast from the past:

Thoreau:

The law, in its majesty, bars the individual and the corporation alike from camping out while assembling for redress of grievances.

The law, in its majesty, allows the individual and the corporation alike to spend money on political ads.

From the description (emphasis added):

Since parts of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law, H.B. 56, took effect, many families have been fleeing the state in fear.

Cineo Gonzales, an Alabama resident and a father of two, talks here about those who left in a hurry, including families with children who are American citizens.

“Their children are U.S. citizens and they are running away in their own country,” said Gonzales, a taxi driver who has been receiving calls from many panicked families.

Via Raw Story.

The Republican Party: the party of “I’ve got mine.”

More here.

Peter Bergman:

I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.

Shaun Mullen dissects the Republican Party’s continuing allegiance to its odious “Southern strategy.”

It’s a must-read. (If you don’t have time to read it, the pictures tell the story.)

A nugget:

Anyone hoping that the election of the first African-American president in 2008 would usher in a post-racial era, putting our sordid racial past behind us once and for all, is bound to be bitterly disappointed. I happen to have known better, but it still is jarring when you consider how race is playing such a large role in the comical, ugly and tragic scrum known as the sprint to the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but when the Republican Party effectively abandoned its outreach to blacks and extended a beefy hand to Southern whites who once had reliably voted Democratic, the die was cast.

There’s no there, there, not anywhere.

Via C&L.