Political Theatre category archive

Congressional Division:

Most politicians’ Twitter feeds . . . read as precisely what they are: Some lowly staffer, posing as the boss and dutifully typing talking points. A sample from @MittRomney: “I believe in America & look forward to sharing my vision with the country.’’ And from @TimPawlenty: “Enjoyed talking to the morning anchors this morning about my campaign.’’

At least frankenfurters have popular appeal.

Twitter, the home of twits from all over the world.

Doug J at Balloon Juice is on a roll.

Here’s a bit of his analysis of the punditocracy.

I’ve explained, probably too many times, how I think the modern conservative mind works on most issues, say climate change. It’s not happening, if it is happening it’s not because of human activity, if it is happening because of human activity there’s nothing we can do about it, if there is something we can do about it, that something isn’t what Democrats are proposing. Also too: Al Gore is fat (right-wing blogosphere), climate change doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, civility is more important (Bobo/Chunky Bobo).

With the Village things are slightly different, but much the same. The Democrats caused a huge deficit that is killing us, even if Democrats didn’t cause the deficit, it is killing us, if the deficit isn’t killing us we should still pretend it is so that we can use it as a pretext to make “tough choices”, even if the deficit isn’t killing us and the “tough choices” are all nonsense, it’s what voters believe. Also too, remember Walter Mondale, you don’t want to end up like him, and Greg Mankiw has some wonky stuff that supports something I said about this economically, I think.

Either they are ashamed or they have something to hide. Since their public conduct indicates that they are without shame, that leaves . . . .

Bloomberg:

Last year, Republican groups won the opacity sweepstakes. Conservative groups relying on anonymous funds outspent liberal ones by 7-1, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. One such group, American Action Network, used anonymous contributions to pay for 178 airings of an ad claiming Democratic Representative Ed Perlmutter of Colorado had supported dispensing Viagra to rapists and pedophiles. The claim was false. American Action’s chairman, political veteran Frederick V. Malek, refused to disclose his donors and claimed he was unaware of the “specifics” of the ads his group had produced. Another group, Taxpayer Network, produced attack ads against California Senator Barbara Boxer that falsely accused her of denying health care to wounded veterans.

Follow the link for more.

Picture the effects of the Republican War on Medicare.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Doug J at Balloon Juice muses about war fever, Potomac style:

Rank-and-file Republicans supported Iraq because they like Lee Greenwood, because the W cult of personality is strong, and because Saddam had been effectively Hitlerized, but the strongest and earliest cheerleading for the war came from DC elites.

DC elites like war because they know they know they won’t have to go themselves, because wars are an opportunity to show off how much they know about Kurdish or whatever, and because they see themselves as citizens of the world who should care passionately about the “freedom” of this or that people (that last bit sounds more condescending than I mean it to be, I think).

I think he has a point (though he left out the part about rank-and-file Democrats who also fell for Bush’s lies).

He also left out the part about how beating the drums of war makes old men feel like macho men.

Wars of choice are popular with those who won’t have to fight.

Sarah Palin says she got it right.

“I didn’t mess up,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said this morning on Fox News Sunday. “I answered candidly and I know my American history.”

Frightening is that it is quite certain that she is sincere.

Sincere ignorance is still ignorance.

Addendum, That Afternoon:

In wingnut world, history is what they want it to be. From TPM:

To help her luck, Palin’s supporters have apparently taken to Wikipedia, and are editing the entry on Paul Revere to better fit the former Alaska governor’s account, prompting one user to write that “someone has added false information in an effort to support Sarah Palin’s FALSE claims about Paul Revere.”

On the Media autopsies the made-up death panel furor of the health care reform debate to figure out what it tells us about news coverage. From the website:

When President Obama proposed his new healthcare plan to Congress in 2009, it included a provision for Medicare to pay for visits where patients discussed their “end of life” care with a doctor. That small part of the healthcare bill snowballed into a major controversy when Sarah Palin dubbed it a “death panel.” Louisiana State University Professor Regina Lawrence analyzed media coverage of the phrase and says outlets failed to debunk the false claim.

Follow the link to listen or listen here:

The transcript is to be posted Monday afternoon.

Via The Mudflats.

The U.S. government paid a paltry $2350 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Texas woman who sued the Transportation Security Administration after her breasts were exposed during a vigorous frisking at a Texas airport, records show.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Justice released a copy of the settlement agreement reached earlier this year with Lynsie Murley, the 24-year-old Amarillo woman who sued the TSA for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with the May 2008 incident at the Corpus Christi airport.

Of course there was no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement.

I see that Mitt the Flip has tied the family dog to the roof of the van and hit the campaign trail.

Did someone not see this coming?

First stop: New Hampshire.

Via Tampa Bay Online.

Aside:

As I read somewhere today (I’ve forgotten where and this is a paraphrase), it says something that Republicans seem surprised that folks don’t want access to health care taken away from them so that insurance company executives and Wall Street banksters can have more and better tax cuts and country club memberships.

Image via Bob Cesca.

Via BartBlog.

Via Bob Cesca.

This is the first edition of What Nemski Said (also, the comments).

This is a gross over-reaction to making a little-visited website unavailable for a few hours.

In future, a US president could consider economic sanctions, cyber-retaliation or a military strike if key US computer systems were attacked, officials have said recently.

The planning was given added urgency by a cyber-attack last month on the defence contractor, Lockheed Martin.

It is silly and stupid and betrays fundamental ignorance of networking on a conceptual (as opposed to a technical) level, a lust for perpetual war, or a basis for endless consulting contracts.

I’m betting on one or both of the last two choices.

In which Palin drones:

The Rude One comments. A snippet (the rest is NSFW):

It’ll be like Motley Crue back in the day, except with more oxygen tanks . . . .

(With apologies to the Firesign Theatre.)

Some uncomfortable thoughts on being inured to war and the death it brings, from Balloon Juice.

Via BartBlog.