Compare/contrast: “What it means to be a Republican” and “Seventeen Ways to Define a Good Democrat.” I say we win.
Update: See also Mary Pitt, “Talking With a Bush Republican” at Scoop.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
Compare/contrast: “What it means to be a Republican” and “Seventeen Ways to Define a Good Democrat.” I say we win.
Update: See also Mary Pitt, “Talking With a Bush Republican” at Scoop.
maha,
I agree, interesting that the republican critique was supported by events that have actually happened, while the democrat critique seems to be filled with nothing but right wing rush Limbaugh talking points.
I believe that the rethugs will bring fear into the next election cycle and the “terrible” possibility of gay marriage and carry the middle of America once again.
Smart Dems(?) could rebuff gay marraige strategies by pointing out how ineffectual the rethugs actually were in making it illegal…to the point of being impotent even.
Interesting topic on Washington journal this morning (the sell off of control of our ports to U.A.E. companies). I didn’t hear all the listener comments, but the one’s I heard were almost universally negative from both republicans and democrats. Although one republican did say it was hypocritical for liberals to criticize the plan since Al Gore spoke in Saudi Arabia? I think this Topic needs a lot more coverage (i.e. spin) by the MSM to make it acceptable to “normal conservatives.
if you ask me, pledging allegience to either party is unpatriotic.
pledging allegience to either party is unpatriotic.
It’s not a matter of allegience, but of expedience.
Somebody — James McPherson, maybe — noted that the Confederate States of America didn’t last long enough to develop political parties, and that was one of the reasons the government was so disorganized it couldn’t find its own socks, so to speak. There were no coalitions and nobody to watch Jeff Davis’s back when things went wrong. Every politician was just out for himself. Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, played party politics like a virtuoso and made the government in Washington DC work, in spite of considerable opposition to his policies.
The point of which is that political parties are not necessarily a bad thing. We just need to get a party that works for us, that’s all.
What?? A contract awarded to a UAE company based in Dubai to protect 6 of our ports?? Can it get any stranger?
Let’s start by pointing out that Ken Mehlman admitted last August that the Southern Strategy was wrong, as it used racial politics for gain. Rush Limbaugh vigorously dissented, because he recognized what the admission meant–it was an admission that Republicans had catered to white racists for 40 years, with the result their party has become infested with bigots.
Anti-black, anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Moslem–that is a big message for their core.
Anyone who still supports the Republican Party, has to address why the support bigotry as a politcal ploy. And once they admit it, as Mehlman did, nail them with the question of how they are going to get rid of the racists they’ve accumulated as their base, and what they are going to do to get rid of the code language and bigotry during campaigns.
And what makes all this worse is that they are picking on historically disadvantaged minorities. Republicans bully the underdog, and that should be pointed out at every opportunity.
Although one republican did say it was hypocritical for liberals to criticize the plan since Al Gore spoke in Saudi Arabia?
Yes, Al Gore speaking in Saudi Arabia clearly weakens our port security … oh, wait …
Chertoff or is that jerkoff? was just on CNN on program “The Situation Room” defending the agreement to protect our ports with UAE-based firm. When questioned, he said, I can’t disclose or something along that line. Also used the term “classified”. Isn’t the standard reply when questioned?
maha – your comment no 9. Yes, I heard that also, I forget who the Republican is and there was probably more than one, but I know that old Cal Thomas was critical of Gore and said it amounted to “treason”.
When is Bush going to be impeached?
I will take a President who just wants a blowjob over Bush any day. He has absolutely no sex appeal.
Whenever Al Gore speaks our security is obviously compromised. I mean can you imagine the carnage this country would have been forced to endure had he been selected. I’m sure we would have been attacked by terrorists by now, and terrorist training grounds would have expanded into several Arab countries. Not to mention the natural disasters his administration would have surely fumbled. Thank the Lord he is not our president!
Yes it’s classified, who in the hell do you taxpayers think you are? His Boss?
comment no 7 – correction- I should have said “an” UAE company since “U” is a vowel.
Ya, you know these republicans seem very willing to sell off our infrastructure to forign companies. I live in Indiana and our dear Governor Mitch Daniels (used to work for Bush) is selling our toll road (all 170 miles of it) to a french/spanish company. Although Mitch did let the Indiana House vote on it (party line vote, republicans won yea), Georgie Boy seems to have signed this deal on the QT. It will be interesting to see how the rightwing sound machine can put a positive spin on this one. I’m sure the’ll do a good job what with FAUX news and all!
uncledad – WOW – I hadn’t heard/read about that. It must have been hidden into a late-night bill that was approved. I was reared in the Cincinnati-Dayton corridor and know that we would not condone anything like that – not that the voters had a choice in that issue.
oh, my: ‘You have to believe that conservatives telling the truth as best they know it belong in jail…’ 🙂
Britwit
No they sold it right out in the open. Indiana is very red, so anything Mitch says goes. The only significant democratic area is in northwest indiana (south of chicago, which happens to be where the toll road makes 90% of it’s money). They leased the toll road for 75 years for 3.5 billion dollars, Mitch is going to use the money to pay for another toll road from red indianapolis to red evansville.
Who ever started the “Red State” vs “Blue State” spin? Was it Rove?
I remember when Barbara Bush wore what was referred to as “Barbara Bush blue?”.
Unfortunately, I’m a “Blue State” person living in a “Red State”. I feel like I have leprosy.
Update:
Maha, so true. I have several friends that are rabid supporters of Bush, and I often ask them (at least once a week following the latest outrage) what short of a blowjob will make you question this president. I rarely get a serious answer.
uncledad — I’m glad to see you are at least trying to engage the opposition in serious dialogue. 🙂
Yea, well they are not really the opposition; they’re just my politically uniformed republican friends. I don’t recall most of them really hating Bill (although they hated Hill) until that blowjob incident. It seems that cheating on one’s wife really upset their moral sensibilities much more than say: lying a nation into war?
While visiting Germany a couple of years ago my tour included the WW2 labor camp Buchenwald where 100s of thousands of people were murdered and I was struck by the fact that the German guards and their familys lived there separated by only a chain-link fence from this crime againist humanity, Genocide!
Today this unbelievable and immoral callousness for human life is in America! The USA is killing thousands of Iraqi people without any feeling of remorse or guilt, simply because the people being murdered are Islamic. Nazis murdered Jews, Americans are murdering Muslims. WHY? WWJD?
Politically Uniformed Republican=Rabid Bush Supporter. Now that’s a recipe for disaster.
Reply to Comment 23, how Americans can murder thousands of Iraqis and not feel a thing, like the Germans living around Buchenwald in WW2 – it’s because most of our countrymen don’t know about it and could not be bothered.
The media and the Pentagon are very careful to shield our delicate sensibilities from the effects of our leaders and our tax dollars. They dare not show the returning coffins of our service people, much less the mutilated brown bodies of the enemy. Keeping the fear up, objectifying the Iraqis as the enemy instead of people just like us, is part of it. They dare not let us cast our eyes on them, lest we begin to get to know them as people, just like us.
I was in college in the 70s and studied a fair amount of psychology. After WW2, there was an intense interest in the question of “how could they do it?”, in other words, how could the Holocaust happen with the consent and participation of ordinary people. Studies showed that anybody could be turned into a torturer. I don’t know what’s being taught in college today, but I suspect that the interest in this subject has sadly waned dramatically.
re comment no 14 correction – WRONG. I was correct originally with comment no 7 “a UAE” firm.
Mary Matalin, Ken Mehlmann (liver-lipped Republican Chair & vicious person), Laura Ingram just to name a few spew out such venom that you need a yellow pancho to protect yourself.. If you have heard Laura Ingram on the radio, you have heard a loud, screaming program. What a way to earn a living, just creating pure bullshit.
Britwit,
“Mary Matalin, Ken Mehlmann (liver-lipped…………) Laura Ingram just to name a few” “What a way to earn a living, just creating pure bullshit”
Bullshit sells have you watched T.V. lately? There is actually a popular song on country radio that mentions Laura Ingram casually in passing, sort of like Jerry Springer. The republican War machine is very adept at using familiar “popular phrases” to divide the American public. Their corporate sponsors on FAUX, CNN, etc. are quick to oblige. It can be said that the “progressive” media does the same? Remember those liberals don’t have a unifying message. Apparently we / they are just not as good at lying!
Remember the Dixe Chicks?
In answer to # 20….
One big gay blowjob would do it!
Where’s Gannon/ Guckert when ya need him?
uncledad-I sure have. There isn’t a whole lot to watch any more. I look at all of the above as comedians. It’s amazing how they can keep a straight face. Did you ever notice how odd Ken Mehlmann’s lips are? He looks like he has had botox or something.
I’ll have to tune into a country music channel the next time I’m in the car and hope to hear the song that you mentioned. Speaking of country music, remember how Bush gave the Dixie Chicks such a hard time and he actually encouraged his “base” not to buy their music. Another example of his, “if you’re not with me”, then “you are against me”.
Comment on # 4….
It won’t matter, we’ll all be dead anyway!
uncledad – your comment no 29. We were on the same wavelength. The last post was your number 28 and I was typing my post which came in as no. 31. We were both thinking of Dixie Chicks at the same time!
Maha,
We’ll I would just like to say on this president’s day, thank you for your Blog. You link us to information, stimulate thought and lead us into our fog. You post what you can, and reply when you must. You’re a hell of a blogmaster girl. Your writing is kind, your knowledge is good, and you made it Washington journal.
Britwit,
Yes the Dixie Chicks, those evil acoustic instrument purveyors. If they would have been allowed to be heard on country radio, Amerika would have collapsed by now. How dare they question the actions of the government overseas, who did they think they were? Taxpayers?
and you made it ON washington journal.
it’s because most of our countrymen don’t know about it and could not be bothered.
Alyosha— I agree with the second half of your comment, that our countrymen can’t be bothered, but I disagree with the first part. Many Americans, and probably most, know that there have been at least 30,000 Iraqis killed as a result of Bush’s foriegn policy in Iraq. With only a modicum of reason it can be seen that all those people can’t be terrorists who deserved to die because they sought to destroy the United States. We as Americans have chosen to deny through justification and indifference the humanity of our fellow man. We all know what is happening in Iraq, the question is, how do we respond to it.? We can dismiss the deaths of 30,000 Iraqis by saying that more people are killed in car accidents in one year than we have killed in Iraq.We can say Saddam killed more innocent people than we did or we can just claim it’s a regretable condition of war but they are less than human because they cut off peoples heads and they deserve to die.
Like the question posed to the German people about the wholesale slaughter of Jews in WWII.. How could you not know?, We as a nation have an accountibility for the actions of our government, and to say we did not know is unaceptable. We choose to deny our responsibility to humanity. It’s not a case of we don’t know about it, it’s more of a case that we don’t want to look honestly at what our nation is doing.
uncledad – your comment #15 – Today, 2/21, on Washington Journal, a lady phoned in and brought up this issue. She said that it was an Australian/Spanins (Spain) company. She also said that the State Patrol couldn’t monitor the toll road which the C-SPAN1 person questionned as do I.