Political Theatre category archive

I’m not sure I agree completely with Thom. The Supreme Court has from time-to-time been a force for good, not just a force for evil as now. His views are worth a hearing, though.

Excerpt:

There is one way to become above the law. Become a corporation.

He’s taking a stand and sticking to it!

Via Juanita Jean.

The Rally for Peace is a non-partisan rally of individuals, families, and civic organizations that have appeared to advocate that the peaceful interaction of people is a necessity, and ought to be a central tenant in the United States foreign policy. Learn more.

When: 5:30 p. m., Saturday, July 5, 2014, Virginia Beach Town Center, Virginia Beach, VA (map).

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Not much, but there wasn’t much integrity in the deal.

The Democratic state senator in Virginia who recently stepped down and handed Republicans the majority was poised to get a state job with employee benefits, a cell phone and possibly a car, as well as a judgeship for his daughter, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Scott Maxwell:

Did you see where a former porn star is running for the School Board in Palm Beach County? Hmmm. The more you think about it, there are a lot of similarities between porn stars and politicians. Both prostitute themselves for money. Both love to perform for the cameras. And both fake it a lot.

One difference: Porn stars do it on the table, not under it.

Learn more about the planning sessions here.

At Asia Times, Spengler considers why American adventurism in the Middle East was doomed. I can’t say that I agree with all his “they should have done this instead” retrospections; I do think the article contains many accurate observations about what went wrong and why. It is worth a read. Here’s a bit from the introduction:

The United States has misunderstood everyone in the world outside its borders and mismanaged everything. It has done so with a bipartisan consensus so broad and deep that it has no opposition except simple-minded isolationism. America gets unwanted results — most recently in Iraq – because it wants the wrong things in the first place. And there seems to be no way to persuade Americans otherwise. The crumbling of the Iraqi state will provide yet another pretext for mutual recriminations among political parties. The trouble is that both parties wanted the wrong thing to begin with.

Both sides don’t do it. Until the punditocracy addresses this honestly and the polity becomes aware, we will continue to be waist deep in the Big Muddy.

Via Zandar.

Via Delaware Liberal, where cassandra_m quotes this bit:

Carol Leifer: “Vote, and get a free bobblehead!”

Richard Clarke: “We do!”

I am too far away from 7th district to know whether Lee Camp is correct, but I know enough about Cantor’s cant to know that claims that he was not wingnut enough are a load of hooey.

Eric Cantor could give lessons in wingnut.

Vivian Paige, pre-eminent local politics blogger, thinks that the punditocracy and the blogosphere are missing the reason that Eric Cantor lost his primary. She writes in my local rag that it was not immigration nor ideological impurity (though the effects that Thoreau predicts may well come to pass because, as someone once said, “reality is what people think”), but rather something much simpler: Cantor’s own inept politicking.

A nugget:

Cantor lost because he forgot one of the cardinal rules of a successful campaign: All politics is local.

(snip)

There are a few complaints of poor constituent services, but the biggest complaint was that Cantor was never around. This was especially the case in some areas that were added to the district after the 2011 redistricting. While the underfunded Brat put in shoe leather, Cantor mailed it in, running his campaign mostly from the Nation’s Capitol, using his fundraising advantage to run ads and send mail.

Read the rest. It is worth your while.