Political Theatre category archive

Via Balloon Juice.

Christmas is coming, so Dick Destiny is making a list and checking it twice.

How high-ranking officers move from the war machine to the war lobby.

Heh.

Gov. Christie asked the federal government Wednesday for an additional $7.4 billion for Sandy recovery, bringing the state’s total request to $36.8 billion.

The additional money would be used to reengineer beaches, including additional sand dunes, to protect the shoreline against future storms. Last week, state officials asked for $29.4 billion in federal funds to offset emergency response and repair costs.

Not from the schools.

The schools themselves.

All the cool gazillionaires are doing it.

Lies, damned lies, and Citizens Benighted:

Consider this: If all the election commercials on local stations had aired as one nonstop broadcast, it would have taken almost 11 days to view them – with no breaks for sleep.

(snip)

A Virginian-Pilot analysis of political ad sales to the four Hampton Roads stations found that the commercials amounted to more than 260 hours of air time. That doesn’t include the barrage of nationally broadcast ads bought directly from networks or cable outlets.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

A TPM reader has some thoughts about Republicans and Romney.

Tony Norman remembers the parade of singers and stars who protested the use of their songs by Republicans and wonders why an entire class of potential Republican support was ignored. A snippet:

While the Obama campaign could draw upon an all-star roster of contemporary and classic musicians from Jay-Z to Bruce Springsteen, the Romney/Ryan ticket had to settle for endorsements from a motley crew (no, not the band) that included Pat Boone, Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent, Alabama, Meatloaf, the Oak Ridge Boys, Kid Rock and the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Ironically, there are several fiscally conservative hip-hop stars who probably would have loved to have been approached for their support. Why wasn’t LL Cool J asked to license “Mama Said Knock You Out” for large rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania? And is there a bigger capitalist in all of popular entertainment than longtime George W. Bush groupie 50 Cent? Why didn’t the Republican National Committee seek the support of these outspoken black Republicans? I think the answer is obvious.

Indeed.

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry plants his tongue inside his cheek and urges Republicans, “Enough with the soul-searching!”*

A nugget:

GOP chiefs should ignore anyone who says the bubble is a problem. The party doesn’t need any facts from outside the bubble. The problem with facts is that they are so — how shall we say? — factual.

That Latinos preferred Mr. Obama in the election by a wide margin is a problem for the party, but not as big as advertised. Apparently, Latinos saw punitive steps being taken against illegal immigrants and feared that they would be confused with them. Who knew people could be so thin-skinned?

The remedy is not to cease saying bad things about illegal immigrants — that has given conservatives too much pleasure — but to make room for approved Latinos in the right-wing information bubble or echo chamber.

Another possible remedy is to diversify the party’s enemies so Latinos don’t have to be singled out so much. As you know, fear and loathing of something is absolutely essential to the conservative worldview.

__________________

*Listen carefully to the calls of the soul-searchers, then take out your Audubon and identify the callers.

Republican politicians are not doing any soul-searching, apart from the occasional “we need to stop sounding crazy” sound bite (emphasis on “sounding”). Any soul-searching is being done by members of the right-wing punditocracy, such as David Brooks and the much lighter-weight Joe Scarborough, trying to figure out why their relentless attempts to paint Republicanism as some sort of moral imperative did not carry the day.

Republican pols will just double-down on the crazy.

It’s what their base wants.

Never let it be said that they won’t pander to their base.

Care2 offers some suggestions for avoiding nasty political discussions with your wingnut welatives this Thanksgiving. My favorite:

3. Offer to Do the Dishes

No one likes cleaning up after such a big feast, so no matter how much ire you’ve received based on your leftist views, you’re sure to win back brownie points by taking on the dishwashing. Plus, it’s a good way to excuse yourself from the conversation. If you’re particularly livid at this point in the night, you could also just pull a Paul Ryan and pose for a photo while pretending to wash a dish before booking it altogether.

Via Farnsworth.

The push to privatize public services has had almost uniformly inimical results.

Here’s one. From the website:

The prison industrial complex has continuously increased their profits, and with the expanding number of people behind bars in the US, the price of phone calls from prison has gone up as well. One company is charging $1.13 per minute in a Georgia state prison, and Drew Kukorowski, research associate for Prison Policy Initiative, joins us with more on the phone service in prisons and how the FCC might play a role in controlling rates.

Have you noticed how often vampire capitalists “private equity” turns up in these situations.

The “nocebo” effect.

You can catch it from any green technology I don’t approve of.

Via the Green Miles.

Little Ricky isn’t having any of it. The Commander Guy reports.

Chauncey Devega has an unexpected take on the Petraeus-Broadwell-Allen-Kelley brouhaha.

I haven’t figured out how far up his cheek he had his tongue when he wrote it, but it’s far more plausible than the Republicans’ lame attempts to gin up a link to Libya.

Tony Norman tries to figure out the Neo-Confederates:

Americans love guns and religion, but we’re complete agnostics when it comes to history.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the second year of the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our history, but that doesn’t mean secession should ever be off the table as far as a minority of bitter voters are concerned.

Without any sense of irony that comes with even a cursory reading of history, hundreds of thousands of Americans recently flooded the Obama White House with “We, the People” petitions requesting permission for their states to “amicably secede” from the Union.

Love thy neighbor.

A teenager in northwestern Minnesota was refused the Catholic sacrament of confirmation after he posted an online photo condemning the marriage amendment, according to his family.

Shana Cihak says her 17-year-old son, Lennon, was not allowed to participate in the religious rite of passage at Assumption Church in Barnesville last month after posting a Facebook picture of himself holding a political sign that he changed to oppose the constitutional amendment. The proposed measure to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota was defeated Nov. 6.