Political Theatre category archive

Via Down with Tyranny.

Pure political theatre.

Any “big solution to a big problem” conceived in crisis mode is likely to solve nothing.

Nevertheless, I appreciate that President Obama has to play the hand he has been dealt from the bottom of the deck by the three-card monte dealers called the Republican Party.

The good part starts about halfway through, when the subject of Allen West (R., Cyberbully) comes up.

The Stand-Up Economist on how it works:

We don’t have a budget deficit because the left wing believes in mandates, or because the right wing believes in markets. We have a budget deficit because the centrist voters believe in magic!

Via DelawareLiberal.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Oscar the Grouch, that is:

Via Mano Singham.

Which do you prefer?

Via TPM, which has the Republican response, q. v.

John Cole comments on said Republican response:

Wingnuts get very offended when you point out what will happen if their ideas are allowed to become reality.

Via Hanlon, who’s on a roll this week.

Obvious.

As you read this, rich and powerful people in Washington, DC are trying to determine not whether they should cut programs designed to help low and middle-income Americans, but by how much they should cut those programs. The rich and powerful people in DC are making these cuts in order to pay for tax breaks they recently gave to rich people and large corporations. Additionally, the cuts are being made at the behest of the lobby organizations and media operations owned by rich people and large corporations.

If that isn’t a class war, I don’t know what is.

Via Balloon Juice.

Writing at SWVA Today, a small regional website in Southwest Virginia, Robert Cahill takes a common sense look at teabaggery.

His sensible analysis deserves wider currency. A nugget.

I don’t understand some of my fellow Americans these days. This deadlock in Washington has me puzzled completely. Now I basically lean to the Democrat side of things but not 100 percent. Never have and probably never will. I like to think that I and most of my fellow citizens are kind of middle of the road.

That’s why I am so puzzled by the folks calling themselves the Tea Party and their man in Congress, John Boehner. They seem to think they are the average American but they, or at least their leaders, surely have a different vision of being a citizen than I do.

Last year, according to recent news reports, General Electric made over $14 billion.Yet thanks to the large number of tax breaks available to mega-businesses, such as GE, they did not pay any federal taxes. That’s what I read: GE paid none. Apparently Boehner and his buddies think this is just a wonderful arrangement. Me, well I don’t think it’s so fine and dandy.

I seldom have much truck with Bob Barr. I cannot read anything he writes without remembering his disgraceful and cynical championing of the impeachment of President Clinton.

Nevertheless, as my old boss used to say, even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.

His take on TSA’s exploding implants warning seems to be on target:

The timing of TSA’s release of this latest “plot” is suspect, considering the recent and substantial criticism to which TSA has been subject because of its highly questionable tactics; such as repeated pat downs of small children and targeting diapers worn by cancer-ridden octogenarians. No doubt, TSA Administrator John Pistole made sure the “bomb implant” reports were made available quickly to supporters in Congress and the White House.

Even as TSA continues to employ every scare tactic it can muster to justify its existence and large budget, it is extending its reach far beyond the airport checkpoints that have given rise to so many horror stories of invasive pat-downs and naked body scans. At TSA, mission creep has become an art form.

TSA and agents with its parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now consider it their mission to stop private vehicles on highways and search them. They have also begun to search bus and train passengers, sometimes after they exit the carriers; and the feds believe also they have authority to search people at shopping malls and elsewhere, such as sporting events. It is only a short step from such expansive ideas, to the notion that to protect the country, TSA and DHS have to be able enter (sic) private homes and businesses in order to ensure there are no terrorist tools therein.

Conor Friedersdorf, who sometimes subbed for Andrew Sullivan before Sullivan left the Atlantic, checks out the celluloid paean to Sarah Palin, The Undefeated* (Variety’s review is a must-read) in Orange County, California.

He did not have to worry about being disturbed by twits on Twitter, Facebook frolickers, or sexting seniors.

A nugget:

It isn’t strictly accurate to say that I sat through the whole movie alone. Just as the previews started, two young women walked in giggling together and took seats three rows behind me. Afraid that they’d ruined the only story I had at that point — What If Sarah Palin Starred in a Movie and No One Showed Up? — I hoped they’d at least oblige me with an interview, and so they did.

(snip)

“So, um, what made you come out here tonight?”

“We’re going to Disneyland tomorrow,” Jamie said, “but she just got here, so we decided we should go out.”

“We looked online for the latest movie playing,” Jessie added. “But all the Harry Potters were sold out, and then we saw ‘The Undefeated.’ We don’t even actually know what we’re seeing.”

“Well welcome to California,” I said. “You’re about to see a documentary about Sarah Palin.”

“Oh, really?” they said, and started giggling again. I think they were expecting an action flick. When I returned to my seat, I thought maybe I’d talk to them after the movie, and get the perspective of two people who went in with no expectations. But they only lasted 20 minutes before walking out.

Via John Cole, who points out that, in choosing between the witch and the sorcerer, the audience chose the sorcerer.

_____________________

*Quitting is not technically the same as losing.

Peter Bergman waxes poetic on the Masters of the Universe.

Read it or listen to the audio.

Next, Masters of the Universe to wax Peter Bergman.

And none that doesn’t fit:

Via TPM.

Via The Richmonder.

Republican Talibanning of Women:

You can’t make this stuff up.