Political Theatre category archive
No Way Out 0
Bill Maher:
If Bachmann and Palin get in, that’s two bimbos.
And then there’s Mitt Romney, the millionaire, and Newt Gingrich, a professor.
We just need a skipper and a buddy and we’ve got ‘Gilligan’s Island.’
Twits on Twitter 0
From OhMyGov:
Chi and Yang, using the 111th Congress as their model, are seeking to determine whether the relative success of a veteran tweeter (think Barack Obama, who has been online since 2007) has influenced others to join up, and in turn led those newer tweeters to gain followers and inspire yet another wave. This is a classic domino effect theory in some ways, except it is strictly limited to 140 characters and somehow involves Michelle Bachmann and Dennis Kucinich.
Twits, indeed.
Death Panels, Texas Style 0
A state Senate subcommittee on Medicaid spending is offering its own final solution:
Let people die.
Our very own death panel voted last week against adding $23 million in lifesaving medications for poor Texans with HIV, essentially turning away the 2,000 new patients who will need help in the next two years.
It is difficult to comprehend to callousness of the Republican Party–so difficult that most avert their eyes, refusing to notice that their talk of “fiscal responsibility” masks abandoning the concept of the public good in every way possible.
Follow the link.
Geography Lessons 1
One of the folks who frequents the Linux Questions forums has this in his signature:
War is how Americans learn geography.
Which leads into Clarence Page’s comments on the rebellion in the Ivory Coast, where the newly elected president is being prevented from taking office by his predecessor:
Unlike the situation in Libya, Ouattara has had a fairly disciplined rebel force on his side, waging a war to unseat Gbagbo at a cost of at least 400 lives and as many as a million refugees.But that’s not enough for the Ivory Coast to get much news coverage or attention in the United States. It is the Ivory Coast’s misfortune to have little strategic value to America or our allies, except perhaps as the world’s top cocoa producer.
Follow the link to find out what’s going on there and why, even though the Ivory Coast does not pump oil, it’s important.
What Happens When a Congressman Tries To Tell the Truth? 0
This has been simmering all week.
A teabagging Wisconsin Congressman admitted in front of a town hall meeting that his $174,000 Congressional salary doesn’t go very far, even with allowances. He’s not independently wealthy; his pay his all he has.
I believe him and can’t bring myself to throw snark at him.
Congresspersons generally maintain two residences (some of them sleep on the floors of their offices in Washington) and Washington is an expensive city. It was expensive when I lived in Northern Virginia and is many times worse now.
But honesty has no place in politics.
The Wisconsin Republican Party has spent all week trying to censor the news of his statement (that link leads to more links so you can walk backwards through the events).
Driving while Brown 0
Earlier this week, I linked to a Chicago Tribune story police in McHenry County, Illinois, falsely classify Hispanic drivers stopped for traffic violations are “white”; the implication was that this was done to avoid charges of profiling.
Today the Tribune has more. A nugget:
There is another twist to this story. McHenry houses one of two county jails in Illinois under contract with the federal government to hold immigrant detainees, at a rate of $85 a night. Up to 300 detainees, most from other counties, are housed nightly in the McHenry jail, and the federal contract is worth some $$10.5 million a year to the county. Hispanics arrested in McHenry for a traffic violation and who are subsequently held in jail as immigration detainees have become an important source of income for the sheriff’s office.
Interesting. From traffic to trafficking.
Taking the profit motive out of incarceration is essential.
The impetus for incarceration really should not be based on a balance sheet.
The agency–state, federal, or local–that imprisons someone should be directly responsible for providing and paying for the imprisonment, without involving third parties; criminal justice is a function of government, not an engine of economic growth.
We have seen what putting profit first does to justice.
Lines of Koch, Reprise 0
“those poor, thin-skinned billionaires . . .”
Weakening Tea? 0
Shaun Mullen thinks the tea bags are going limp.
Look no further than Michele Bachmann to understand why.
The wingnut from Minnesota is likely to be the Tea Party’s standard bearer through the early 2012 primaries, stealing attention from serious candidates with her attention-grabbing obfuscations and conspiracy theories.
When Bachmann brands Democrats as being anti-American, Obama an Islamofascist socialist and that the Serve America Act will lead to reeducation camps many of us roll our eyes, but it is talk like this that makes her so popular with the loony toon brigade in the sort of all-important Iowa primary if unpalatable to voters at large.
Follow the link to follow his reasoning.
The Republicans’ Bully Platform 0
A Colorado Republican considers the condition of her party and is disturbed. It is actually a pretty good description of the difference between today’s Republican Party and yesterdays.
She concludes that Republicans have become bullies. A nugget (emphasis added):
Instead of serving as the party that embraced fiscal restraint, limited government, and personal responsibility, Republicans morphed into the party that pointed fingers at wide swaths of the population, squinted our eyes, and put our hands on our hips, and said, as if in the schoolyard, “We don’t like you.”
And Colorado Republicans may be the biggest playground bullies of all.
Are you pro-life? Are you pro-sanctity of marriage? Are you pro-death penalty? Do you support the deportation of an estimated 12 million illegal aliens? If the answer to any of these questions is no or is nuanced, you are a RINO — a Republican in name only.
The bully theory, the party of “my way or I won’t play,” seems to be consistent with their behavior.
I recommend the column, particularly for those who consider themselves Republican because they’ve been life-long Republicans, by gum.
When All You Have Is a Hammer, Everthing Looks like a Nail 0
American foreign policy, via Comically Vintage.
Libya 0
I was talking with my brother the other day about Libya.
Neither one of it thinks much of the US shouldering its way into another country, though probably not for the same reasons. We did not discuss our personal reasons and neither one of us pretends to be a foreign policy expert steeped in the tortuous ways of realpolitik, international version–I don’t even play one on the internet; I’m just a loudmouth with a website.
We did agree that this has more to do with pulling other countries’ chestnuts out of the fire than it does with direct US interests, specifically, chestnuts belonging to France, the UK, and the members of the Arab League.
Consequently, I find Noz’s thoughts interesting, since he knows much more than I on this topic. A nugget:
Bonus Link:
His take on “doctrine’s” is a hoot. Accurate, also.
When doctrinificating becomes
to every President there is a doctrine,
turn, turn, turn.
it has achieved silliness.
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . . ? 0
Freedom of speech means the freedom to speak the party line.
Free market place of ideas indeed. Can’t have that.
Wingnut thought police. Only wingnut thoughts are permitted.
History Lessons 3
There’s an old joke, likely apocryphal, from the WWII era which claims that Winston Churchill, when asked, “Will Americans ever have fascism?” responded, “Of course, but they will call it anti-Fascism.”
Which is a lead in to recommending this post by True Blue Texan, which also recalls the WWII era.
Dreams Denied 0
I can’t say I’m as gloomy as Shaun.
But it wouldn’t take much more to get me there.
An excerpt:
It is suffocating its middle class, turning its back on newcomers and giving corporations and fat-cat financiers obscene tax breaks.
It is ignorant of its own history, core values and virtues, and many of us, if shown a copy of the Bill of Rights, would believe it to be a subversive document.
It has an unbreakable addiction to foreign oil, values clean air and water only when they don’t get in the way of profit making, and cares little that its infrastructure is crumbling one bridge at a time.
The Galt and the Lamers 0
Bob Cesca shows why he is Han Solo.
