Political Theatre category archive

. . . and no one talks about it, did it happen?

Addendum:

Farnsworth.

Via C&L.

Dick Polman explains the fascination:

But here’s the main thing: Huckabee’s inclusion would be great news for Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and other party establishment candidates.

With Huckabee in the mix, the likeliest scenario is that he and his rightward rivals would divvy up the evangelical electorate – essentially cancelling each other out, in terms of vote percentage. That would make it easier for a center-right guy like Bush to finish on top – not in Iowa, but in the subsequent big-state primaries, where the GOP’s center-right electorate is considerably more sizeable.

One quibble: There is no such thing as a “center right.” There are the racist right, the culture-warrior right, and the business right (often the three overlap), and there’s nothing center about a one of them.

The only thing “center” about the “center right” is that it knows not to be overtly racist and misogynistic in public. It uses code words instead.

More at the link.

Tommy Christopher covers the news coverage.

”

Via Job’s Anger.

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*Title shamelessly stolen from Rex Stout.

Shaun Mullen.

Just read it.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Cavett emptor.

Remember, a Libertarian is a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.

Take the quiz.

Werner Herzog’s Bear expects an interesting year. He is not optimistic.

The American government is facing even worse gridlock at the top, while right wing revolutionaries are aggressively using state and local institutions to advance their radical agenda. There is so much disgust and anger with the status quo, and those feelings are being answered by people who want to not only preserve it, but advance it even more. . . . At the same time, corporate earnings have never been higher, while the middle class is being squeezed out of existence and economic class warfare is being perpetuated on the working class. This is all happening in a political climate where even supposed liberals are too chickenshit to propose any changes aimed at improving economic equality. Something has to give. In 2015, something will give. Change will come, or the heavy boot of reaction will come down harder than we’ve seen since the days of J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO.

Read the disquieting rest.

Death panels, Republican style:

A federal judge Wednesday declared Florida’s healthcare system for needy and disabled children to be in violation of several federal laws, handing a stunning victory to doctors and children’s advocates who have fought for almost a decade to force the state to pay pediatricians enough money to ensure impoverished children can receive adequate care.

In his 153-page ruling, U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan said lawmakers had for years set the state’s Medicaid budget at an artificially low level, causing pediatricians and other specialists for children to opt out of the insurance program for the needy. In some areas of the state, parents had to travel long distances to see specialists.

The low spending plans, which forced Medicaid providers for needy children to be paid far below what private insurers would spend — and well below what doctors were paid in the Medicare program for a more powerful group, elders — amounted to rationing of care, the order said.

The state of Florida says the ruling is in error, this never happened, no one saw a thing, it was that other state over there, and, besides, it was a long time ago.

Here’s a bit of what Dick Polman had to say about this:

Meet the Press is frequently lumped under the general heading of “liberal media,” but we’d be wise to ditch that canard and call the show what it is, a product of the “corporate media.” It’s a safe, centrist environ for people in power (and people who once had it), opining without fear of being seriously fact-checked, for a TV audience comprised mostly of affluent insiders who are coveted by corporate advertisers. That’s really the “balance” of which Todd speaks. It’s just one more reason why citizens outside the Washington bubble are so cynical.

Foxy twits.

Ari Cohen:

In response to all the police are good/police are bad business lately, I’ve noticed a lot of people saying things like, “You have no right to comment on this; you’ve never been a police officer.”

I noticed the same thing when people wrote about soldiers and war around Veterans Day. And Memorial Day.

And when I wrote some critical pieces about Israel over the summer, I was told I shouldn’t say anything because I didn’t live there.

Basically what I’m saying is that this is a popular move to end a discussion.

It’s an old tactic: When you got nothing, change the subject.

Follow the link for the rest of his post.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Kenneth Worthy tries to understand Republican denial of climate change. He finds a confluence of authoritarianism, short-term economic self-interest, and social dominance.

The U.S. Republican party stands alone in the developed, industrialized world as the only major political party to fail to acknowledge that global climate change is real, is damaging (not just to nature but to people and the economy), and requires us to change the way we do business. Not that other U.S. politicians have rallied vigorously enough to lead the nation to significantly reduce fossil-fuel and other emissions that cause climate change. But the Republican party, with all of its denial that the problem even exists, presents perhaps the greatest obstacle to action against climate change, particularly now that they will control both houses.

Despite an annoying overuse of jargon and acronyms, it’s worth a read.

Debra J. Saunders, writing at SFGate.com, has qualms and the resurfacing of Carly Fiorina as “Presidential hopeful.”

So maybe it isn’t totally crazy that Fiorina is running for president even if she’s never won an election. But it is totally crazy that Fiorina is running for the White House when, according to federal election reports, her 2010 campaign still owes $486,418 to creditors. Who wants a deadbeat for president?

Christmas carols for a contemporary citizenry.