A woman once went up to Calvin Coolidge at a dinner party and said, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you."
His famous reply: "Fuck You."
(Source: America: The Book)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Appropriate Venue Edition
I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.
— Jimmy Carter, 1976, in an interview with Playboy magazine.
Majority of the Majority
The FISA vote makes me think we need a "Majority of the Majority" rule in the House — never bring a bill to the floor unless it has the support of a majority of the majority party. The Republicans used to run the House this way and it worked pretty well for them.
Of course, the whole fucking leadership voted for the bill, so whatever. I can't understand it. Oh, wait.
Of course, the whole fucking leadership voted for the bill, so whatever. I can't understand it. Oh, wait.
Obama and FISA
I can't think of many Democrats who really want George W. Bush to have all that Civil Liberties Destroying Power in the FISA capitulation. But can you think of any reason why Barack Obama might want The President of the United States to be granted a whole lot more power just in time for 2009?
The Republicans voting for this bill are very very stupid men.
The Republicans voting for this bill are very very stupid men.
Renegade v. Phoenix
McCain's Secret Service Code Name is, according to a source who knows, 'Phoenix.'It took McCain a while to take Secret Service protection — unlike Obama, who took it earlier than any previous candidate, McCain waited until after he had the nomination sewn up. Crazy macho bastard.
It was McCain's choice. Associations: rising from the ashes. Arizona. Etc.
Cindy McCain has also picked a code name. It probably also begins with a 'P'.
As has been previously and extensively reported, Barack Obama is 'Renegade.' His wife Michelle is 'Renaissance.'
No comment from the McCain campaign.
In case you're curious, the Clintons were Eagle and Evergreen.
Update: Bill is Eagle, Hillary is Evergreen.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Bob Dole Says Bob Dole Edition
"There they are, see no evil, hear no evil and ... evil."
— Bob Dole in 1993, commenting on the ex-president line-up of Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.
Europe is waiting
We will live to see these motherfuckers rot in jail.
Travel Advisory: "Viewed in this light, the Bush Administration figures involved in the formation of torture policy face no immediate threat of prosecution for war crimes. But Colin Powell's chief of staff, Colonel Larry Wilkerson, nails it: 'Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzales and--at the apex--Addington, should never travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In the future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court.' Augusto Pinochet made a trip to London, and his life was never the same afterwards.Call it the "Kissinger Klub".
The Bush administration officials who pushed torture will need to be careful about their travel plans."
Obama would have voted for the war?
Also yesterday, my slightly less crazy right wing uncle advanced the notion that had Barack Obama been in the Senate at the time of the war vote, he would have voted for it. This, despite his speech of the same time:
My father, during the primaries, was able to come up with one similarity Obama has with war-supporting Senators. Since the 2002 vote, every Senator that has run for President voted for the war. Therefore, the logic goes, if Obama had been in the Senate, he would have voted for the war. Blarg!
The actual arrow of causation points in the other direction. Every overly ambitious asshole who wanted to be President voted for the war, some from actual love of war (Clinton, Lieberman), some from misguided belief that it was politically necessary (Kerry, Edwards). Only fringe characters voted against the war, which is why the Democratic party has elevated a backbencher to the nomination this year. The Democratic Party is anti-war, and wanted to nominate an anti-war candidate, so aside from crazies like Kucinich, we had to pick someone inexperienced on the national level. Every asshole that just wanted to be President voted for the war. But Obama was opposed to the war, which marks him as a non-asshole, which is why he gets to be President.
In addition, I think the willful blindness to plain truth represents a deeper psychological urge. Both my father and my uncle were supporters of the war in the beginning, and now regret that support. I put to you three different beliefs about the war:
1. Every right-thinking person supported the war.
2. I supported the war.
3. Barack Obama opposed the war.
If all three of these are true, then a crazy person is about to become President. I didn't support the war, of course, so I don't agree with the first two. But since Barack Obama is obviously not a crazy person, these three beliefs create problems for people who share 1 & 2. I suspect that most Americans who don't follow politics closely, will simply cease to believe 2 — while majorities of Americans said they favored the war, that support was always soft and has evaporated rather quickly over the past few years. People are surprisingly revisionist in recollecting their own mental histories. Honest people can cease to believe 1, and just admit they were wrong, and the anti-war side was right. This, too, will be relatively easy for most people.
But for people who consider themselves to be smart and well-informed, 1 and 2 are incredibly difficult to give up. So in order to make sense of the current situation, it is necessary to disbelieve 3.
Having the next President of the United States on the right side of the Iraq issue is a terrible psychological blow for formerly pro-war people who think they generally have good opinions, as it highlights just how wrong they were. It's much easier to have been on the wrong side of Iraq if we were all fooled. Barack Obama's public awareness of America's folly calls into question the entire elite consensus. So it must not be true. Otherwise, they might have to listen to the dirty fucking hippies in the future.
I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.That is, to say the least, not giving the President the benefit of the doubt. But Obama's critique goes beyond the notion of Iraq being stupid — by calling out the neoconservative cabal behind the pre-war propaganda effort, Obama's critique of the rush to war is actually to the left of Paul Wellstone. Obama's opposition to the war was derided by Clinton during the primary as "just a speech", but it was a hell of an insightful speech, and about the best he could do given where he was at the time. He also ran on opposition to the war in the 2004 Senate race, and has generally voted with the half of the Democratic caucus that opposed the war in 2002. So by any honest measure, it's insane to suppose that Obama would have voted for the war if he'd been in the Senate at the time.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.
That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
My father, during the primaries, was able to come up with one similarity Obama has with war-supporting Senators. Since the 2002 vote, every Senator that has run for President voted for the war. Therefore, the logic goes, if Obama had been in the Senate, he would have voted for the war. Blarg!
The actual arrow of causation points in the other direction. Every overly ambitious asshole who wanted to be President voted for the war, some from actual love of war (Clinton, Lieberman), some from misguided belief that it was politically necessary (Kerry, Edwards). Only fringe characters voted against the war, which is why the Democratic party has elevated a backbencher to the nomination this year. The Democratic Party is anti-war, and wanted to nominate an anti-war candidate, so aside from crazies like Kucinich, we had to pick someone inexperienced on the national level. Every asshole that just wanted to be President voted for the war. But Obama was opposed to the war, which marks him as a non-asshole, which is why he gets to be President.
In addition, I think the willful blindness to plain truth represents a deeper psychological urge. Both my father and my uncle were supporters of the war in the beginning, and now regret that support. I put to you three different beliefs about the war:
1. Every right-thinking person supported the war.
2. I supported the war.
3. Barack Obama opposed the war.
If all three of these are true, then a crazy person is about to become President. I didn't support the war, of course, so I don't agree with the first two. But since Barack Obama is obviously not a crazy person, these three beliefs create problems for people who share 1 & 2. I suspect that most Americans who don't follow politics closely, will simply cease to believe 2 — while majorities of Americans said they favored the war, that support was always soft and has evaporated rather quickly over the past few years. People are surprisingly revisionist in recollecting their own mental histories. Honest people can cease to believe 1, and just admit they were wrong, and the anti-war side was right. This, too, will be relatively easy for most people.
But for people who consider themselves to be smart and well-informed, 1 and 2 are incredibly difficult to give up. So in order to make sense of the current situation, it is necessary to disbelieve 3.
Having the next President of the United States on the right side of the Iraq issue is a terrible psychological blow for formerly pro-war people who think they generally have good opinions, as it highlights just how wrong they were. It's much easier to have been on the wrong side of Iraq if we were all fooled. Barack Obama's public awareness of America's folly calls into question the entire elite consensus. So it must not be true. Otherwise, they might have to listen to the dirty fucking hippies in the future.
Iraq War Revisionism
I went to a family gathering yesterday, and had a couple of chats with my Republican relatives. My hardcore right-wing uncle kept insisting that the major reason we went to war with Iraq was to create a stable and democratic Iraq. He, of course, insists that it's working out fine and victory is right around the corner, but that's just garden variety crazy.
How far down the memory hole have Weapons of Mass Destruction (or WMDs, as we called 'em back in the day) gone? Does anybody else remember this?
We did go to war with Iraq because they had super scary weapons and wouldn't disarm, right?
I mean, I remember the plan was to let 'em vote and stuff after we blew the place up, but the main goal was weapons, right? Democracy was a post hoc justification after we couldn't find any of the weapons.
What's that, Bushie?
How far down the memory hole have Weapons of Mass Destruction (or WMDs, as we called 'em back in the day) gone? Does anybody else remember this?
We did go to war with Iraq because they had super scary weapons and wouldn't disarm, right?
I mean, I remember the plan was to let 'em vote and stuff after we blew the place up, but the main goal was weapons, right? Democracy was a post hoc justification after we couldn't find any of the weapons.
What's that, Bushie?
THE PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.Ok, so the crazy right-wingers that were wrong about everything are still wrong about everything. Good to know.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
GREAT QUOTES IN POLITICAL HISTORY: Civil War Edition
Well, I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.
— Abraham Lincoln, responding to criticism of General Grant's drinking habits.
Queer as a three dollar bill
Quinnipiac: Obama Leads in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania...
Obama could afford to lose Florida. McCain can't. And now Obama is sporting a four point lead. Maybe McCain should pick Crist as his running mate and just park him down in Florida for the duration of the election.
Obama could afford to lose Florida. McCain can't. And now Obama is sporting a four point lead. Maybe McCain should pick Crist as his running mate and just park him down in Florida for the duration of the election.
Read Matt Taibbi
Go on now, go!
Full Metal McCain : Rolling Stone: "But the idea that John McCain is kicking off his trek to the White House by fleeing at top-end speed from the faltering Republican brand is the kind of absurdly facile misperception that only the American campaign press could swallow whole. The reality is that the once independent-thinking McCain has by now completely remade himself into a prototypical, dumbed-down Republican Party stooge — one who plans to rely on the same GOP strategy that has been winning elections ever since Pat Buchanan and Dick Nixon cooked up a plan for cleaving the South back in 1968. Rather than serving up the 'straight talk' he promises, McCain is enthusiastically jumping aboard with every low-rent, fearmongering, cock-sucking presidential aspirant who's ever traveled the Lee Atwater/William Safire highway."
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