Glenn Greenwald has an article at the Guardian that is being roundly dissed for its implication that Ron Paul is a stronger supporter of civil liberties than President Obama. Yeah, he really does imply that, toward the end.
Angry Black Lady is all over that, as is Tom Hilton and Matt Osborne. I have nothing else to add.
An editorial in the New York Times asks,
When will the Internal Revenue Service crack down on the secret political money already flooding the 2012 campaign from partisan operatives ludicrously claiming to be “social welfare†activists under the tax law?
Offshoot groups created by partisan gurus — Karl Rove pioneered the practice — claim the 501(c)(4) status as do-gooders that allows them to keep the names of their donors secret, unlike traditional political operations. Democrats are hard at this secret megamoney race, too, with Obama campaign veterans politicking as the supposedly independent and socially minded Priorities USA.
The need for the I.R.S. to curb this abuse is vital, especially with the Federal Election Commission paralyzed by its Republican members.
An interview of Tom Franks at Salon is worth reading.
What Moves Republican Crowds in Iowa? Nothing good.
IMO Peta should leave Manhattan horse-drawn carriage owners alone and go after real abuse and neglect of horses.
Here’s the take-away from Frank’s interview, when asked if the Republicans win, they might deliberately ruin the economy:
“…They see the financial crisis as something we deserve, that we’ve spent beyond our means, and now we have to pay. In their minds, we need a recession to get back on track. They think we’re due for something like the 1930s, so why not make it happen?”
There, now I feel a whole lot better about the New Year, don’t you?
I know that it’s been disproven that lemmings are suicidal.
But these people are nowhere near as intelligent or empathetic as what are basically Nordic voles.
And I don’t believe lemmings think they’re superior to other lemmings based on religion, class, race, sex, age, or sexual orientation. So, they have that on us humans, too.
You can easily loose the forest for the trees in this campaign. The temptation to examine campaign foibles is irresistible, particularly with a group as colorful and inept as this bunch.
The significant number now in the Iowa polls is the number of undecided, with only days left 10% and the number who still may change their mind 28%. Republicans are excited about defeating Obama, but contributions to GOP candidates are down 40% compared to this time in 2007. Rank-and-file Republicans are unexcited by their choices. IMO, the big money doesn’t care – they are giving to PACs. Contributions to PACs are up 30% compared to 2007 with the super-PAC ratfuckers like Rove rolling in dough cranking out lies.
That says something to me about the presidential campaign and tactics. I don’t think the super-PACs will try to rehabilitate the GOP nominee. The Obama who is president is going to be running against the projection of Obama according to the fiction written by the GOP super-PACs.
I think that the election will play out along 3 strategy lines. The GOP will try to suck Obama into the Obama vs Obama race, making the president expend time and money debunking an endless stream of lies.
The second strategy is what the pros will recommend to Obama – go after the weak point of whoever the GOP nominee is. Create the fear in the minds of voters that the republican would be worse. This is OK with the GOP kingmakers if it leaves the Congress intact and deadlocked.
The third strategy is for Obama to run against the Tea Party House. The assumption being that if voters will turn against the Tea Party, the defeat of the republican nominee will follow. IMO, this gambit is essential to getting things done in Obama’s second term because the power of the president is limited by the co-equal legislative branch.
Sorry Barbara, but you’re wrong about the plight of carriage horses. Remember Billy, the NY carriage horse who was sent to Lancaster for his summer “vacation”? Billy had to be rescued from slaughter as he was sold to a kill buyer by the kind Amish farmers. He is now enjoying his time at the Equine sanctuary in NY state. Too bad they only have about 100 horses on premisses.
That has absolutely nothing to do with the claims that the carriage horses are being maltreated while they are working. Please don’t comment here without thinking; it annoys me.
I followed the link to Glenn Greenwald’s article fully expecting it to be misinformed, but after reading it, I can’t say there was much I disagreed with. And reading some of the comments (by Democrats) below the article, seems there are many Democrats who feel the same way.
True, there is plenty wrong with Ron Paul, and he’s hardly my first choice for president. Indeed, I could easily name a dozen other people I’d rather see be president, but none of them are running. Nevertheless, Glenn’s main point that Obama is governing like a centrist Republican rings true. Obama could switch parties and not change any of his policies, and Rush Limbaugh would then support him – that’s how far to the right he’s moved.
Abortion, gay rights, racial politics, etc – that’s not really what matters to Limbaugh, Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, and Grover Norquist. Those issues are just red meat for religious wingnut voters. What the ruling class wants is someone to do Wall Street’s bidding – ie give them a get-out-of-jail-free card while they rape and pillage the middle class. That’s what it’s all about.
I know I’m about to get blasted for saying that sacrilege in this forum. But it’s truly how I feel, and sorry if that won’t make me popular.
Candide — I’m done trying to reason with you. goodbye.
Maha, on the animal news front, I was at the local animal shelter today to get help lined up for an adoption event at a PetSense store nearby and went out to give my favorite 2-year-old mutt, Keisha, a treat. She was in the front run with a buddy dog instead of in the regular runs. Then I went to the store to verify my date and the space I’d have available. When I got home, I called the shelter to finalize with them, and guess what? Keisha had been adopted! After nearly 6 months! I’d encourage everybody to at least visit the local shelter to offer support to the staff and pet some animals to help with socialization. You can let others know what kind of animals are available, and maybe you can donate something the shelter needs.
As far as PETA, I’m guessing publicity has to be a part of it. NYC carriages are pretty high-profile animals. Maybe they think that if they can show that those animals are not fully attended to, then people will develop awareness for potential problems with other animals. Who knows? But I know we can all do something for our local animals. It’s the old “do what you can, with what you have, where you are” that will keep you sane on some issues. At least, it works for me.
P.S. Can you restore my little widget/persona? It disappeared when I did my annual Safari reset. It looks much more like me than the blue gearhead does.
PETA is more interested in publicity than in actually helping animals, IMO. In the case of the carriage horses, I see no point in waging a crusade to “help” horses that are not being abused — and which would most likely be sent to slaughterhouses if they lost their “jobs” — when there is so much real abuse going on. And one of the local characters behind the anti-carriage horse campaign is a real estate developer who wants to get his hands on the property where the stables are.
I can’t do anything about the widgets; they are generated by whatchacallit — gravatar?
Considering that your articles say NY carriage horses go on vacation while in fact they are sold to slaughter, says a lot about how they are truly thought of and handled. You think about that.
You really should do some research from several points of view on the carriage horse industry before getting huffy.
Considering you have no evidence carriage horse owners are sending their horses away to be slaughtered, you must be a drooling idiot. The horses have a higher IQ than you do. Go away.
While Greenwald clearly has an affection for Ron Paul, Ron Paul is a footnote in the article. The main thesis is correct: by adopting moderate conservative ideals, Republicans have to reposition to the right of crazy to differentiate from Obama.
Candide wrote: “What the ruling class wants is someone to do Wall Street’s bidding”
If Obama really wanted to do Wall Street’s bidding, he’d hire folks like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers.
That was essentially Bill Clinton’s strategy, also. He finessed the Right by taking over some of their positions, and thereby got their cooperation on some things. I think Obama was trying to use Clinton’s strategy, but the Right is even more extreme now than it was then, and there’s no working with them.
Glenn’s argument that Obama is a “moderate Republican” relative to what Republicanism has been historically certainly is defensible, but it’s one of those little slices of reality that doesn’t give the whole picture or tell you anything useful. For example, has he adopted policy X because that’s really what he wants or because he thinks it’s the best he can get out of the current Congress? If the latter — which is what I suspect is the case most of the time — then continually crabbing about Obama makes as much sense as complaining that the ocean is too wet. Focus on Congress, not Obama.
Further, the strategies or perspectives or whatever you want to call them that are not working for Obama are characteristic of the Democratic Party across the board. I think Thomas Franks gives a far more nuanced, and useful, analysis in this interview. Obama, and the Democrats, keep trying to replicate the Clinton technocracy of the 1990s. But this is not going to work any more. They’ve all got to change.
I would have to agree wih your point that Obama has been very ineffective in dealing wih congress.
If politics were a poker game, I would argue that Obama “drew” one of the nastiest congresses in history. If FDR had had this Congress, we’d remember him today as an ineffective one-term president.
I know all the kewl kids are blaming Obama for everything, and I agree he’s made mistakes, but there’s a much bigger picture here. Perpetually harping on Obama is missing that picture.
Big-big-big Obama supporter here. Got everybody – friends, family, onto the bandwagon. I now have my tail between my legs. People are really, really disappointed. He’s let us down. he’s a phony. He’s not much different from Mitt Romney. His foreign policies are straight out of Bush/Cheney. His failure to call to account war criminality from the previous administration and Wall Street thieves is worse than Gerald Ford. Obama is an Epic Fail, and it pains me to say that, as I was one of his biggest supporters. We have a BANKRUPT EMPIRE. Obama promised us hope and change. We got ZERO change. (Actually, we did get some change – he doubled-down on Bush-Cheney.) Now we’ve got dick-all Hope.
Dr. Pepper — stop being a knee-jerk, brainwashed idiot and start paying attention to what’s really going on in Washington. And don’t come back.
Concern troll was very, very concerned.
Oh well, at least he named himself after something I wouldn’t drink on a bet.
Now, if he was named Stoli, or Anchor Steam, I might miss him.