I've suspected for some time that conservatives would eventually have serious reservations about where Norm and his mouthpieces are trying to take them. Maybe it's finally dawning on some of them that making a federal case out this election contest risks a long-term disaster for the GOP — one that would completely outweigh the short-term benefits of depriving the Democrats of their 59th vote.
Billmon: Scalia's Nightmare
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April 9, 2009
Billmon: Scalia’s Nightmare
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Fully agree with this assessment. Everything the GOP has done recently has been suicidal. It began with the selection of Palin as McCain´s running mate, continued with self-righteous bail-out comments by precisely those GOP leaders who caused the mess to begin with and reached its zenith with the prospect of Rush Limbaugh´s emerging as the GOP´s spokesman and potential leader. The GOP is thrashing around in the water like a wounded shark.
Posted by: Parviz | Apr 9 2009 7:49 utc | 1
Clearly the wingnuts have gone all dinky-dow lately. On first blush, it would seem this is simply frustration of loosing their majorities and the presidency. But, what’s really eating them is that right on the heels the electoral defeats have come the financial failures, which has ruined their entire ideological paradigm. No longer are they able to pitch the fraudulent notion conflating personal freedom with deregulation of the financials, that was suppose to produce de-facto prosperity as a replacement for political patronage. Now they have nothing left to sell except John Birch retread fear, thinly grounded paranoid fantasies, and the sectarian threats of violence. They’d be a lot better off if they just got behind the Obama Democrats attempts at resurrecting exceptionalism, and after it finally crashes (as it will), blame it all on incompetent execution and corruption. Sort of like the Democratic criticism of the Iraq debacle. Then they might get another chance. Maybe.
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 9 2009 9:08 utc | 2
Now they have nothing left to sell except John Birch retread fear, thinly grounded paranoid fantasies, and the sectarian threats of violence.
I’d say they’re making quite a bit of political profit off of those, at the moment.
A few more Poplawskis in the next year, and we may see full-scale Waco-style confrontations clogging up the news-cycles for the next three years.
Posted by: china_hand2 | Apr 9 2009 13:37 utc | 3
@3: yep. Billmon and team blue should definitely not underestimate the bizarro co-optation of the Alex Jones contingent by weepy G. Beck and the gaggle of groveling opportunists on the right.
if team blue wants to see their time at the trough extended beyond 2012, they should pressure the administration to do things like actively support the employee free choice act. but no, Obama is too busy blowing up Pakistanis and lavishing our money on Wall St. to support one of those campaign promises his corporate taskmasters refuse to ordain.
if Billmon wants to be relevant, maybe he could use his position to bring pressure on Obama. does it really matter what happens in Minnesota? the supreme court angle is interesting, but in the grand scheme of things, wall st’s coup and destabilizing a nuclear-armed country are two issues that seem a bit more pressing than mocking the fractured opposition regrouping with either the complicit or oblivious assistance of a paranoiac with a megaphone.
Posted by: Lizard | Apr 9 2009 14:49 utc | 4
I just changed into my tinfoil hat – super kook to confuse the issue…
Maybe I’m missing the irony of these post but some of the above is as kooky sounding as the nut cases…
Billmon and the rest of america is still confused watching team red play team blue… and both are simply different sides of the same coin that the “owners” flip to suit the times.
“we may see full-scale Waco-style confrontations clogging up the news-cycles for the next three years”
Waco… it was much like Ruby Ridge… and the whole mess was instigated by the government. Didn’t need to happen the way it did, but it served Clinton’s purpose, whether the murder of his former guards or the escalation of the State’s war on individual freedoms the government benefited from this tragedy.
“Billmon and team blue should definitely not underestimate the bizarro co-optation of the Alex Jones contingent by weepy G. Beck and the gaggle of groveling opportunists on the right. “
There are several of us who wear the latest in shiny headgear who feel Alex Jones is nothing more than another government shrill… Him and his fucking megaphone standing on the corner shouting the “end is near, the end is near” while selling DVD’s to dope smoking college students and fringe libertarians; The Twenty- First Century’s version of Billy Graham preaching to the masses and filling his pockets at the same time… Conspiracy is big business these days.
From high on my throne of Reynold’s Wrap I proclaim that watching national politics is about as important as watching a professional sports event. The audience sits engrossed in the game, yelling and arguing over which team is better or if judges make bad calls while the owners sit in their private boxes high above it all, laughing at the suckers and counting their money.
Posted by: DavidS | Apr 9 2009 15:53 utc | 5
David, i agree that both are simply different sides of the same coin that the “owners” flip to suit the times, but as long as intelligent people like Billmon continue limiting their critiques within the almost totally corrupted context of this two party system, appeals to the team players with concepts they can relate to remains a necessary strategy. there are a few kind of progressive dems that are just beginning to peep up and realize how damaging the AfPak escalation will be, and might actually put up a little fight about billions in supplemental spending that could be asked for as early as today (forgot where i read that).
there’s not much but scraps to cling to, but popular support for something like the legislation proposed by Paul/Sanders to force open The Fed to congressional scrutiny could help Obama grow a pair. it’s doubtful, but i’m not averse to smoking a little hopium if it means avoiding paralyzing despair.
Posted by: Lizard | Apr 9 2009 16:53 utc | 6
Where’s the money coming from to bankroll Coleman’s challenges? That’s the place to apply pressure.
Not that I’m suggesting it.
Posted by: vachon | Apr 9 2009 22:36 utc | 7
From AP:
Land of the free sours on capitalism: US poll
Bad news for those fearful of “creeping socialism” in the United States — only 53 percent of Americans now believe capitalism is the better system, according to a new poll Thursday.
Fully 20 percent in the Rasmussen Reports survey said that socialism was their preferred economic system — a startling number that suggests growing disaffection as the “land of the free” fights its worst recession in decades.
Republican critics fret that President Barack Obama’s big-spending recovery policies amount to an un-American “creeping socialism,” but Rasmussen said its findings pointed to suspicion of business and government elites alike.
It noted that in another survey last month, two out of three Americans said that big government and big business often collude to undermine the interests of consumers and investors.
Meanwhile in another Rasmussen survey in late December, as Obama prepared to take power, 70 percent of respondents said they preferred a free-market economy.
“The fact that a ‘free-market economy’ attracts substantially more support than ‘capitalism’ may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets,” the pollsters said.
Rasmussen said its poll question did not define capitalism or socialism. Twenty-seven percent were not sure which is better.
The telephone survey of 1,000 people was conducted April 6-7, and has an error margin of three percentage points.
See what I mean?
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 10 2009 2:00 utc | 8
anna missed –
America isn’t CAPitalist… It’s CRAPitalist: Buying crap with our crappy pay at a crappy big box store on our way home from our crappy job… Our Crapitalist economy is being flushed down history’s toilet by the bastards who have been crapping on us all along.
Oh, crap!
Posted by: DavidS | Apr 10 2009 2:23 utc | 9
anna missed @ 8: your comment shifted from blockquote to regular. strange. still, i don’t see what you mean with this poll; if it’s suppose to relate to someone else’s comment or your own.
DavidS: don’t call my friend ipod crap :}
Posted by: Lizard | Apr 10 2009 2:36 utc | 10
okay, that’s weird. it’s back to blockquotes now. type pad is fucked.
Posted by: Lizard | Apr 10 2009 2:42 utc | 11
Of course the Ipod ain’t crap… not today, but wait a couple of years and someone will change the format music is recorded on and stored and you’ll need to upgrade to the Ahole Icrap 🙂
Posted by: DavidS | Apr 10 2009 2:51 utc | 12
That is weird, its now back to blockquotes again, pretty soon now that it can edit, it’ll start adding text.
Posted the beauty contest poll as it related to #2 post, and how the GOP is loosing its ideological appeal.
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 10 2009 3:27 utc | 13