Dammned if you do……..
September 19th, 2010 | 
Author: Okay, so now I’m forced, out of grudging respect, to redact all references to the website and controller thereof who is the the subject of this piece, because said individual does not have the courage of “their” convictions and isn’t interested in being held accountable or responsible for “their” beliefs, suppositions or opinions. I am profoundly disappointed in this individual but I’m forced to comply as I never intended to visit harm on “them”. Just like an extreme right wing entity, this extreme left wing entity does not wish to be exposed for “their” contributions to the bile and bullshit “they” contribute and therefore pollute with. How sad.
So, I took it upon myself to leave a special comment at the end. A letter in response to the multiple private emails I received from “they”.
Five or six years ago, long before I birthed brainspank, I only posted my blogs on myspace, after 40,000 reads I decided it was time for my own blog and that’s another story, except that one person I met on myspace had started “their” own blog and invited me to become a featured writer. If memory serves correct, I was “their” very first featured writer. That blog was *************** and I was both thrilled and flattered when asked to contribute. The ******** who masterminds *********** was and is wonderful. “They” would quietly point out spelling and punctuation errors and with restrained discretion, shortcomings of syntax. “They” were my inspiration for brainspank and I’m grateful. I would urge you to visit “their” site often as it has become a cornucopia of all things left.
Anyway, somehow *********** escaped my periphery for a few years. “They” often objected to my rough language and “name calling”, I was respectful despite no one ever entertaining such criticism of brilliants like Matt Taibi, PJ O’Rourke or the Godfather of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson. Trust me when I tell you I’m not by any means equating myself with these rock stars. But it is perhaps for those reasons that I was eventually eclipsed permanently from “their” purview. So be it.
I stumbled on **********just recently and took it upon myself to ask if “they” might still be interested in submissions from me. “They” answered thus:
I’ve had to, out of respect and discretion, remove the actual quote from her letter after “”they” took pains to remind me that there was a privacy disclaimer attached. What “they” said in essence was that “they” weren’t interested in my opinions if I was still a merely a Democrat. “They” stated that “they” were far more interested in viewpoints of a Socialist or Marxist nature and that “they” refused to support any Democrats until they become more left.
“They” also reminded me that “they” always objected to my name calling and that in light of these two conflicts, “they” weren’t interested in posting my pieces. “They” did ad that it wasn’t personal. It pains me to have to redact the actual words of the subject of this piece but I must…….
I began a letter to “them” that I’ve since decided made for a better piece here. “Their” name is ***** and “they” is a dear. Of course, I intend to share this with “them”:
The world swirls in compelling ways and I find it odd to be denied a voice because I’m not far left enough. I respect your stance but respectfully and with no small amount of conviction disagree. Change is what we all desire and need without a doubt, but I fear that those of your stripe fail to understand that no matter what your actions, change will only come incrementally at best.
I’ve often struggled with it and this is the conclusion I’ve come to. Despite endorsing a degree of socialism, I’ve come to understand that it’s not the sum of inaction and a lack of sincerity by the left that somehow manifests the prevailing contemporary malaise, but rather the perversion, vehemence and ignorant vitriol consistently fomented and deliberately foisted by the hard right and the ridiculous left that is the existential threat to freedom and liberty. A phenomenon that’s succeeded in making those very words dirty to any cognizant patriot. You will not ever in your lifetime get another president as well intentioned or as efficacious as Mr. Obama. Trust me, it’s our last, best shot and we are fucking it up. For fuck’s sake, wake the hell up. The way things are trending, your beliefs and the message you seek to propagate are dangerously demagogue congruent with the loony right and they will only continue to fall on ears more and more deaf until they are marginalized into extinction.
Or, such chronic and insidious ideology will rent us asunder.
I’m hoping for the former.
I hate to tell you this, but the sublimation you seek to advance is dead in the water, particularly when the entire American zeitgeist of pendulum is swinging so egregiously opposite of where you are. All it accomplishes is the whacking of the hornet’s nest. Politics, like it or not, is both the science and art of compromise and those of you that insist on staking out the socialist and/or Marxist positions are as deleterious to the advance of America’s progress as your diametric counterparts. In too many ways, extreme right and extreme left serve only to pollute what otherwise might be a vital and viable national discourse. I appreciate the spirit and understand that your intentions are good but you have become as big a component of the problem as the problem itself. You’re not doing anybody any favors and your efforts are naive at best and often more corrosive to a scenario that is rapidly becoming one of worse case.
Yep, I still call them out and I still call them names. I still do that because it’s not far beyond as very much as I can do. A fucktard is a fucktard. An asshole is still an asshole. Forgive me for saying as much but it too seems to be a systemic flaw in how all of our movers and shakers conduct themselves. Polite isn’t about to get shit done. Polite doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t accomplish anything and no one pays attention. It hasn’t for a long time and I’m not sure it ever will again. Sarah Palin is a dipshit. Sharron Angle is an abject idiot. John Boehner is a deliberately disingenuous dickhead, Newt Gingrich is a goddamn lying piece of shit political opportunist, and Christie O’Donell is fucking embarrassing.
Take exception to that.
You know I hope, that I respect you ******, you were one of the very first people to amplify my voice as a featured writer back in the early days of ***********. I have grown and it’s obvious you have too. Sincere congratulations to you. You’re a smart ******** and I can’t help but admire your altruism; I know and understand that you are the real deal. If only there were a million more like you.
But there isn’t, and that is the salient point. The segment of American political society you endeavor to represent barely exists at all. The fight you choose to fight is an honorable one but you do more harm than good. Discretion is after all, the better part of valor. It just doesn’t work the way you wish it would or think it should. When you come from the left with the very word “Marxist”, you inevitably compromise anything and everything.
I would only ask that you allow the more pragmatic among us to lend a voice to what you do. Yes, I’m a Democrat, but my reasons are far more practical than ideological. I want change and I’m willing to bet I want it as bad as you, I honestly think I realize something you don’t. An admitted Socialist/Marxist bent will get you nowhere in this country, particularly in the context of the current racist and rampant phobic fervor. That position, as stated, will automatically guarantee an ignorant, pissed off, recalcitrant reaction.
I honestly think you are blowing it.
The Beverly Hillbillies think we’re all communists and it’s because of you. You overestimate them and they’re scared shitless of you and the rest of us that just want health care and for the wars to end and for us all to have a goddamn job.
I’m not so much about my position as as I am about attacking the other side. Yep, I’m a Democrat, but what I do is tear away at the plutocrats and the corporatists. I loathe them. They disgust me. What you entertain is too far left to ever even aspire for difference. What it is is Utopian and unrealistic.
I am here to tell you that you’re part of the problem, you cannot help or hope to effect change. Throw the words “Marxism” or “Socialism” in front of any group of Americans, any at all, and you lose before you begin.
Good luck with that.
This once great country has become lamentably polarized and it’s the twin engines of the far right and left that supply the horsepower, unless that is mitigated and calmed somehow by those under the aegis of courage to occupy the center for the sake of the greater good, we all lose.
Sometimes it requires bigger balls to fight fire with reason as opposed to more fire.
Drinks for my friends.
THE PROMISED LETTER:
Your words my dear, your words……….
I will not take it down but I will remove all references to you and your blog in a way that I doubt you will view as kind.
I believe I’ve made the necessary redactions. Let me know if they aren’t to your satisfaction.
On a personal note, I am so profoundly disappointed in you. For you to say that Democrats are the same as the Republicans who overtly foment hate and racism and the completely obvious politics of fear and division is an indefensible position for you to take. They hate and actively participate against minorities and women. Hello Islamaphobia. But we’re all the same. Give me a goddamn break. I know you and you are are or were smarter and more compassionate than this. SHAME on you. You have angered me on a number of levels, not the least of which is your paranoia for being held responsible and/or accountable for the political and social positions you so advocate and find so precious. What the fuck is that all about?
I put myself out there because it’s what I think and believe. I say what I think, damn the torpedos and I take all comers.
What are you so afraid of and from whence came your cowardice and intellectual irresponsibility?
Of course both parties are owned and operated by the same corporations. Duh. It’s a plutocracy! It’s been that way for a century or more but you seek to refute all good things Democrats have done despite that and brand them the same as the the carcinogenic efforts of Republicans over the same period of time. Do I need to school you about things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, overtime pay, a forty hour work week and overtime pay? Stem cell research, civil rights etc……. Would you like me to go on? And on and on and on? I could and you know it, just as easily as I could make the case for Democratic sympathy for a socialist agenda.
What happened to you that allows you to believe that somehow the the extreme, hard left has a chance in hell of saving us from anything? Goddamnit ******, nobody is fucking listening to your whiny, elitist, ridiculous, pie in the sky bullshit and none will until you start your own country and then you’ll consume yourselves fighting over what brand of kitty litter is the most ecologically friendly while the entire planet is on fire.
In the meantime, the hard right is gaining momentum by painting us all the same as you
When it’s all said and done I hope your legacy will have more to do with kitty litter than the various wrenches you insist on throwing in the works of progress. Thanks in advance.
I’m a a hardcore lefty but you people are off the charts. There is a game on here and I’m in it. You are not and you clearly have no intention of even watching the score. I have the courage of my convictions and you don’t. You hide. You people sit not on the bench but behind it and you piss and moan about not being taken seriously.
If you really had the courage of your convictions you’d post all of this on your blog. You won’t because you don’t.
It’s like you’re afraid of exactly what you want to say. You’ve lost me.
If you’re going to talk about it, be about it. I can’t believe the hoops I’ve jumped through because you’re so callow. My blog is now scrubbed clean of you and it looks ridiculous. You’re welcome.
I think we’re done here. I might just be as sad as you.
Michael
Posted in Uncategorized
Hey man would you like to write for our website? If so hit me up
Well, can I get a link? Does it pay?
I agree completely. I’ve been saying the same thing from time to time over at my place, because too many on the left are in that “all or nothing” mindset, which is why so many are down on President Obama because he is an incrementalist and not an idealogue. I believe “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” and that is what Obama is all about. And it’s the best we can do with the current atmosphere in this country. That is why I was inspired by The Daily Show’s upcoming “Rally to Restore Sanity” because that is basically what Jon Stewart is saying too. I think I may actually go!
I wish I could go. You’re right, too often the enemy of the good is unreasonable perfection. We can’t make more progress unless we can keep what progress we’ve made. Thanks for reading.
Aaaaah Yaa…, nothing like a little soup nazi, on the blogs of the liberal left. The middle path is often the most direct path to a given destination.
When I look at political idealogy, I look for the attitute of preservation of individuality, and a consciousness of respect and freedom towards all. Set down in a ethnic resteraunt someday; say your served excellent albeit unfamiliar food, by an unfamiliar looking waitperson. The food filled your hunger, your filled with gratitude and delight; that’s progress. Michael you so get it, life and people, the Beverly Hillbillies that we are. It’s all about motivating positive reactions. I mean instead of a dictatorship, where othere attempt to control by subversive means.
The Republicans clearly use xenophobia, and hate of the other. They use a fake Christian God, and hide behind Jesus the way inmates incarcerated for evil doings do. When the ultra liberals want a free for all, with the hard earned money of others, it turns the stomach of people that don’t wish to support poor choices and habits of others. I’ve learned fair competition is best for the human condition in a democracy.
With this in mind, our country needs the Democrat’s, but they need to embrace an idealogy that is clear and not a danger to a healthy working economy.
I believe most people actually covet the middle, they just get so caught up in the bullshit. Until we take money and religion out of politics, nothing really changes.
michael, you are the man. i haven’t read anything since the last thing you posted on the FB page of sarah shit for brains palin. i agree with everything you say. maybe you should replace the expletives with the word “expletive” to make your message more platable to the weak kneed pussies out there. a wider audience wouldn’t hurt you one bit. in fact, it’s exactly what we need. a voice like yours to combat the evil forces of the fox comedy channel.
i was born & have lived overseas. i was in southern france for 9 days in may. socialism is not a dirty word over there. it’s a beautiful place & western europe is not comming unglued at the seams like we are. and that is the strength of socialism: it’s a fair level playing field. but there is so much more. there isn’t the same kind of cultural greed in that part of the world like there is here.
another big part of the problem is that our education sucks. 2% of our federal budget. how pathetic. and what do poorly educated people do? they grow up to be beverly hillbillies as you put it. then they become pathetically dumb conservatives.
later.
Took her longer than I would have anticipated. You should read back, I’ve been busy since then. I would love nothing more than a wider audience because all writers are narcissists.
Education may only be 2% of the budget but our ability to kill people is almost half. I’m not anti capitalism but we could sure use more socialism in this country.
Thanks for reading.
Thank you!
Your welcome 🙂
Hot damn. Finally someone that doesn’t have his head up his idealistic ass!
A salute you sir, and you have my undying gratitude, now that I know there is someone else like me, and can properly express them selves. By which you express me!
If it’s needed, if you want or desire or simply can’t think of a good reason not too, contact me via e-mail or website attached to this reply!
BTW. I call them the Herbal Teabaggers, in that they want the same things as Teabaggers, even though for different reasons. And as such they make an unintentional and unholy alliance with the extremists on the right. And as you know, they will not listen to me any more than the baggers will.
You should read back here, I have a lot to say. I didn’t realize there was a website attached to this reply, please send again. The difference is their intentions are far better informed and altruistic but just as useless.
Yes, this is true. The lefties are much more informed and educated on the issues, and much of what they want I cannot argue with. None the less, bottom line is they wind up should to shoulder with the teabaggers in that they will not support the President or the Democrats. The put ideology before the good of the country in the way that you explained it so well, and this doesn’t help the cause or the country. In their own way they support the President and the Democratic congress in failure, along with the Teapublicans.
As I said, they want the same thing as the baggers, though for different reasons. They will not support what they don’t agree with, even though the only other viable alternative likes to wear funny hats and watches FOX news.
“Yep, I still call them out and I still call them names. I still do that because it’s not far beyond as very much as I can do. A fucktard is a fucktard. An asshole is still an asshole. Forgive me for saying as much but it too seems to be a systemic flaw in how all of our movers and shakers conduct themselves. Polite isn’t about to get shit done. Polite doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t accomplish anything and no one pays attention. It hasn’t for a long time and I’m not sure it ever will again. Sarah Palin is a dipshit. Sharron Angle is an abject idiot. John Boehner is a deliberately disingenuous dickhead, Newt Gingrich is a goddamn lying piece of shit political opportunist, and Christie O’Donell is fucking embarrassing”
Used to be one could count on the old “ten percent rule”, that is that everywhere one went there would be ten percent assholes. Now is that rule expanded or are the ten percent just louder and harsher? They are certainly more frightening, even to an old Veteran like myself.
I have a thing I call “The 1/4 Paradigm”, I posit that 25% of all Americans are incurably stupid. For basic proof I offer that Nixon’s approval rating after he was forced to resign hovered around that number as did did Dumbya’s when he left office. Gotta saw that many right off the top.
Speaking of name calling, mine for you and yours is Obamalamadingdongs: those who have imbibed deeply of the Kool Aid.
This:
You will not ever in your lifetime get another president as well intentioned or as efficacious as Mr. Obama.
is delusional.
Obama is a corporatist, as is clear from the deals he cut with the insurance industry to dump a public option and the drug industry to eliminate negotiation on drug prices. Add to that his unwillingness to apply pressure to Stupak & Nelson on funding abortions (although he has been happy to threaten the Progressive Caucus with withholding campaign funds when they crossed him on war funding).
Since you are so taken with the whole “enemy of the good” horseshit, allow me to point out that continuing rendition, imprisonment without due process and claiming the right to have citizens assassinated on his evidence-free sayso ain’t good.
Also, Mr. The Best We’re Gonna Get continues to have civilians in an ever-expanding group of Muslim countries murdered by drones and soldiers.
Mr. Efficacious is too invested in (owned by) corporations to create a stimulus program that was adequate (by a factor of three) to the debacle Bush created.
Mr. Never the Enemy of the So-Called Good has continued to use the courts to attack civil rights for both detainees and LGBT Americans.
The “ridiculous” left has been displeased with Obama not because he lacks perfection, but because he is doing his best to protect the war criminals of the previous regime; because his economic team is composed of the very people who set up the economic disaster we are in by getting the Glass-Steagall Act thrown out (Robert Rubin & Larry Summers) under Clinton and worked with the banksters to rob the country with fraudulent mortgage instruments (Geithner).
You’re a disingenuous fraud. And the Obamalamadingdongs who believe this crap are ignoramuses.
Have a nice day.
Let’s start here with my own writings about Mr. Obama on this very blog:
http://www.brainspank.org/2010/07/600-days/
http://www.brainspank.org/2010/07/600-days-part-deux-2/
http://www.brainspank.org/2010/07/600-days-tres-hombres-supplemental/
Furthermore, it was the Bush administration that cut the deal to eliminate negotiation on prescription drugs. What deal did he cut to eliminate the public option? I admit I was furious that the process didn’t even begin with it on the table, but what deal?
How did he threaten the progressive caucus by withholding campaign funds over war spending?
And what exactly are you saying here? “Mr. Efficacious is too invested in (owned by) corporations to create a stimulus program that was adequate (by a factor of three) to the debacle Bush created.”
Using the courts to attack detainees maybe, despite advocating for them to be tried in actual courts of law as opposed to military tribunals….it’s a stretch, but the LGBT community? How’s that?
I’m not happy with his economic team and lament the demise of the Glass-Steagall Act too.
Too call me a “disingenuous fraud” really is beside the point. Read my take on this administration and then we’ll talk. In the meantime I will tell you that you’re at least half full of shit because I’m not your problem and because you’re swinging a little too wild here by positing shit that I bet you can’t back up. In fact, you are more your problem than I could ever hope to be.
This is the way it works asshole. Pull your head out. It’s been this way for decades and no one man, unless he’s a goddamn fool, can hope to think he can turn it all around in one or two terms. I’m not happy either but I’m mature enough to understand that. You are demonstrably not. Change WILL be incremental whether you like it or not.
Keep it up, keep pissing and moaning and angry unrealistic jerk offs like you and the goofcock teabaggers will get to enjoy Sarah Palin as your next president.
Is that what you want or do you have a candidate that is electable?
Why don’t you tell us what your answer is?
Good luck with all of that.
imagine if we took just 3% of our military budget & put it towards education. kinda makes your mind spin doesn’t it? think how many fewer brainless conservative zombies we would create if we had an education system(K-high school) like they do in europe. especially down south where they still think the world is only 5,000 years old.
Funny replys here on blog. Socialism works well in some economies, it would and should be up to local polititians and the voting public how government money is spent. I’ve observed places that withstand socialism, without negative impact are where a lot of outside money enters the economy. France is a mega tourist destination, as is Sonoma county “wine country”, and San Francisco. But in area’s such as “Silicon Valley”, I don’t believe that socialistic styled government would stimulate ingenuity or competition.
ahha –there is the rub ..that is this : thinking that Obama is an incrementalist . he is neither an incrementalist nor an idealogue , but rather an oppurtunist and a war criminal . 3 days after he took office he ordered a raid on a Pakistani village killing innocent men and woman . it was right then and there that his middle name was changed from Hussien to W . He is Bush 3 . THE RECORD IS CLEAR .
Time to take the Beverly out of Hillbillies. The buck stops exactly where it chooses to stop, in accordance with what Wall st. and corporate America wants. Did you actually believe that Dumbywa was running our country? Before Bush was supposidly elected I believed that Americans are ignorant shitasstards, and deserved him. I’ts an insult to refer to Obama as a kindergartner. He’s lucky he hasn’t been assasinated, just for having the wrong skin color and name and being president, of the U.S.A.! Wake up! Are you at all aware who the other viable option was, remember it was McCain and Palin. Do you ever wonder what things would be like with them as running the country? Ralph Nader is an enormous hero, but there is a reason he is not president. The governing political machine, won’t allow it. Sarah Palin is the new mass produced Brittany Spears Barbie Doll, that all the kiddies want from Santa.
For a man who is writing about politics, you should be more current:
“Posted: March 16, 2010 12:57 PM
NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option” http://huff.to/bR6ACL
Yes, the Bush regime made sure Medicare Part D had no negotiating on price, but so did the new “health” bill:
“Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.” http://nyti.ms/9sx4Dp
“How did he threaten the progressive caucus …?”
“The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won’t get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.” http://huff.to/9eoL8F
“And what exactly are you saying here? ‘Mr. Efficacious is too invested in (owned by) corporations to create a stimulus program that was adequate (by a factor of three) to the debacle Bush created.'”
This is unclear to you? Simply, his stimulus package needed to be three times as large to effectively bring the economy back AND get people working again: Paul Krugman: Stimulus arithmetic (wonkish but important) http://nyti.ms/9lWvCD
“Using the courts to attack detainees maybe,… but the LGBT community? How’s that?”
Here’s how: “From Judge Kosinski’s November 19 Order:
‘Karen Golinski has been denied a benefit of federal employment because she married a woman rather than a man. I previously determined that violates this court’s guarantee of equal employment opportunity. To avoid a difficult constitutional problem, I harmonized the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), 1 USC §7; the statutes creating the benefit program at issue, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), 5 USC §8901 et seq.; and this court’s commitment to equal employment opportunity.
I then entered [an] order
…
‘No “party or individual aggrieved” by my decision appealed it.
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) complied with my order and submitted Ms. Golinski’s form 2089 to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Servie Benefit Plan, Ms. Golinski’s health insurance carrier. That’s as it should be; the AO is subject to the “supervision and direction” of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 28 USC §604(a), and I exercised authority delegated by the Judicial Conference when I ordered relief. After the AO submitted Ms. golinski’s form, I thought this matter had concluded.
The Executive Branch, acting through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), thought otherwise. It directed the insurance carrier not to process Ms. Golinski’s form 2089, thwarting the relief I had ordered.’ http://bit.ly/8bjGq8
“To call me a ‘disingenuous fraud’ really is beside the point.”
Actually, with the whole song and dance about the “bad left wing web site,” it is very much the point. You and your fellow Obama apologists are either blind or lying. With that whole introduction about the web site for which you were insufficiently left and your “oh-so-reasonable” response and overflowing love for your “friend,” you create a straw man argument with which you oh-so-reasonably demonstrate your correctness.
Whatever else is at the links you post, and your lamentations for the Glass-Steagall Act, what is here, at this post, is propagandistic garbage.
You know soooo much about electability, but you don’t know shit about the man you elected.
You claim not to be my problem (and, BTW, I skimmed your trilogy of complaint, so I see you’re not a complete Obamalamadingdong), but you continue to be naive about not just Obama, but politics: The idea of “electability” is much the same as “pragmatism”: a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you accept the premise, you have already lost. So, yes, you–and people with your self-defeating beliefs–are our problem.
“do you have a candidate that is electable?”
Do you have one worth electing? So far, no.
I’ll get to you but it’s late. I just had to point out that your nomenclature, “Obamalamadingdong” is transparently racist and I believe it makes you an asstard. Forgive me for not taking you seriously.
Link # !
This is compelling stuff and I admit I’d not heard of it but the evidence you bring amounts to hearsay and perhaps that’s why it never gained any traction.
Link #2
Help me out here. I’m not sure what this proves or disproves. It seems to do a lot of both and still seems to be mostly speculation. An 80 billion dollar concession by drug companies is a pretty big deal. Kudos to Obama.
Link #3
What the fuck are you or is this link talking about? This is crap and only relevant because of the headline. I challenge anyone to read this and explain it’s importance or relevance.
Your links and your proof are vapor and I’m not going to wade through the rest of them to continue to convince myself of that. And no shit, we need and needed a stimulus three times the size. Like that was ever gonna be passed by any congress from an alternate universe. You sir, are a dick. You got nothing.
I’m not impressed. Who should we have voted for? Who would you have us us vote for? Who did you vote for?
And then there are Obama’s words vs the actual health care bill http://bit.ly/bBf8hN
My point, Michael, is that Obama is a lying sack of shit and if we don’t ALWAYS hold him accountable he gets away with this shit.
If we pretend that he is something he is not, we encourage the Dems to continue supporting the Rs, as they did from 2006 on under Bush, as they do today with continued “bipartisanship” and not going after the Lap Dogs and Joe Lieberman.
Speaking of Lieberman, if you note the things he stopped from passing, or watering down to the point of uselessness, you will notice that he was Obama’s useful enemy–the one who Obama could point at to take the blame for things Obama himself was pushing for anyway.
Lieberman as a deliberate foil? I’m getting your number. Rather preemptively fond of the conspiracy theory I see. I’ll be back.
I bought a boat. Nothing fancy, just enough to take my wife, my kids and me to Tahiti when the shit hits the fan (which I am becoming more and more convinced will happen).
It has gotten to the point where even my carefully optimistic viewpoint has been thrashed beyond all hope of repair.
What fucking country am I living in? I hardly recognize this place, the attitudes and actions of my “countrymen” are appalling. We’re so polarized (and paralyzed) that we spin our wheels in the neck deep shit the playing field has become.
Extreme Right, Far Left, neo-cons, ultra-liberals… Sometimes I want to give them all the one finger salute. Spouting bile and thinly disguised hatred with nary a solution to be heard. I avoid political discussions in my everyday life like the plague. People seem to have their opinions set in stone; no room for compromise.
Michael, I love your blog. I enjoy your perspective, and share many of your views, but HOLY FUCK it feels like we’re circling the drain! Polishing the brass on the Titanic as it were. Am I wrong to feel this way, do you think? can you give me any solid reasons to be hopeful of my childrens’ future in America? Help me out here because I think I may be drowning in cynicysm…
(and I didn’t really buy a boat.. But I wish I could)
May I refer to her as X Lo? I am familiar with her from myspace & she was always a bit of a snob, but hell, her salad is loaded with excellent material. They want a revolution; Can we blame them? We need a revolution. I think your job is to constantly expose the idiocity and dangers of the Right wing. The likes of the Palinights, and the Christie O’Pee party peeps, dip shits, shitits, or do I say shitards? Forget Lo, the Ho’s like Palin are a serious threat to national security. The Reptards need Palin, she is a shining example of we aren’t just good ole white boys, so they got them some skirts. The general voting public is unaware of what goes on in places like the Hoover Institue, we only see the puppetry and manipulation of the masses. The empire is friend to preciouse few, certainly not me or you.
Oh wow… i know exactly whose blog this is. I believe I’ve got a post or two on there as well. Shh…I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. 🙂
Obamaites are simply sore winners and blameshifters. all of this Palin this and Palin that is nonsense. she , nor the Tea party are not even in power./ but , you got to blame somebody for having a kidnergardner in the white house. you have to blame somebody for his war crimes , his not passing health care for all . the thing is as a dude like me who has lived most of my life in MISSIUORI , we take the words of harry truman seriuosly –the buck stops here. Obama is in power. i did not put there. neither did LO . WE VOTED FOR RALPH NADER. becuase he is not only qaulified , but becuase no one owns him . stop former Alaskan beuaty queens and take the advice of the man you voted for when he said ”hold me accountable ”.
as a featured writer of Dandelion salad , thats right –we want a revolution . anything short of that is just boxing shadows.
Mr. Douglass, calling me a racist is not only spectacularly far-fetched, it is disgusting. That you would stoop so low is impressive, but only serves to confirm my conclusion that you are a disingenuous fraud.
Someone with ethical standards, intelligence and knowledge of his subject would not call someone a racist without justifying it–something you were too sleazy, apparently, to feel necessary.
As for usages that make one a bigot, anything based on “retard,” which is what “asstard” and “fucktard” are, is clearly a bigoted asshole who thinks there is something clever about using that suffix. There isn’t.
As for the conspiracy claim, Obama campaigned for Lieberman in the 2006 primary against a real Democrat, Ned Lamont. Obama, as head of the party, refused to remove Lieberman from his committee chair position and from seniority in the Democratic caucus after Lieberman campaigned against the Democratic ticket in 2008. It doesn’t take a believer in conspiracies to interpret what happened in the health care debates as I do.
Since you seem to be convinced that you are the be-all and end-all of political savviness, I can understand that you would be blind to being the sucker that you are for self-proclaimed pragmatists such as Obama.
I also can see why you would stoop to the vile tactic of calling someone a racist when you can’t best that person with your name-calling ignorance.
You may proclaim yourself the big winner, as I will no longer engage with someone as unethical as you.
Cheers.
Shama Lama Ding Dong -Otis Day and The Knights.
I want you to tell us how I am a “disingenuous fraud”. Is it because I called you a racist? I’m not here to parse but I didn’t call you a racist, I nailed you on racist nomenclature. And it is far more overtly racist than me calling you an asstard. How about this? You’re a whiny conspiracy compromised dick.
Down for the count? Remember that band Incubus? OOhoukK! Libre means free…., But it seems the more freedom individuals are afforded it creates a self centred desire for an even more insular reality. I’d have like to read more of the great works of man and his history, the Guttenberg Bible, some Carl Marx, Plato, Socrates and perhaps Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Debate, as well as the written form of communication is it, it is where man communicates his condition for future generations to be made aware and to learn from. I guess not in this disposable faster than light waves t.v. for the peeps era. Back in the golden age of man; they even referred to the word, as the living word. Implying an almost spiritual connotation. Passive aggression contributes nothing to the evolution nor betterment of mankind.
Box yourselves in, for what purpose? It’s as bad as the jack boots that reign teror on the meeker members of the planet, because they can and nobody will stop them, because nobody bothers to care. The other is always less than. Less than we, in the self centred univers of me.
Reiya, someone who knows who Teliard de Chardin is ? that is progress. rare treat indeed.
I know it’s not much comfort, Michael — but I know how it feels to be “too much” or “too little” of anything and be frowned upon in doing so. As a proud Dem, I don’t see any point in trying to argue positions and views with folks who believe in conformity and constriction opposed to open-mindedness and progress. I, of course, was once told that I was “just too progressive” and that my ideas were just “too liberal” (health care for all, basic college education for all, etc.) and that it would take “50 to 100 years” for this state to catch up. Besides that, it was necessary for me to become more “moderate” to represent the constituents in my district. Hmmm… needless to say, my plight for office was worthless.
As a writer, I know I can sometimes be a little too PC, but I guess that’s just the innate politician in me. LOL…but I don’t condemn a good piece of work when I see it — and you’re work is always great. Don’t let ’em kick you down, that’s what I say; and I see that you’re doing a good job of rising up tall and proud. Love your opeds, Michael – keep up the brilliant work! 🙂
Peace & Light
I’m a little new to being called not liberal enough and more than a little dismayed by the person making the assertion not even having enough courage or conviction to back it up. It’s identical to the cowardice I see on the right.
Thanks for the kind words. I think hard about what I want to say and then I say it. For you to say so makes me smile. Thanks Carol Ann.