The allegations of sexual misconduct against Herman Cain will win him the nomination.
And here's the frame-up: "It's just another instance of racist America's eagerness to condemn a black man for daring to approach a white woman. The Democrats have a shameful history of this, you know. All that Jim Crow stuff was because the Democrats were in charge of things in The South for way too long." (that's in quotes because it's what I expect to hear - not what anybody has actually said)
It doesn't matter what Limbaugh and all the others said about how Clinton's philandering exposed a character flaw that made him unfit to serve - this is the age of Confirmation Bias after all. We can cherry pick the coverage and the analysis, and just choose what we wanna believe.
It just seems so fucking weirdly typical. The leading lights for the Repubs and 'conservatives' do, in fact, display a veiled racism on a pretty consistent basis. Welfare Queens; Barack The Magic Negro; Food Stamp President; etc. But now they've decided to play some kind of intra-race game. They look at Obama, and they see a guy who's done almost exactly what they always say everybody should do. He came from humble beginnings; he dreamed big; he worked hard; and he made it all the way to the White House. He's devoted to his wife and kids; he loves his job; and he wants to serve his country. What have the Repubs been telling us they want in a president that's any different from ANY of that?
Well - here it is: Plenty of people in general (and Repubs in particular) believe the crap about a big chunk of the 'black community' being anti-smart. They're expecting a lot of black people to look at Obama and think, "he needs to back off a little - he's acting too white". Cain fits their frame because he's their anti-intellectual black guy, which makes him the perfect anti-Obama.
Like Ann-The-Man Coulter said: "Our blacks are just so much better than their blacks".
Nov 8, 2011
Nov 7, 2011
Shocker In Ohio
From a local NPR affiliate:
Listening to this, I got the feeling that I was hearing the famous Left-Leaning Bias that 'conservatives' are always carping about. But when I listen to the national shows on NPR (eg: All Things Considered), there's nothing even approaching this. The Repubs have done such a thorough job of brow-beating CPB, nobody has the balls to say anything bold on the air. All we ever get is the notion that every side of every issue is perfectly valid, and oh yeah - "both sides do it".
Am I to understand that some random 3rd string nobody on public radio in Ohio is actually The Liberal Media? And how long before the anti-media harpies swoop in to pluck out his eyes?
Listening to this, I got the feeling that I was hearing the famous Left-Leaning Bias that 'conservatives' are always carping about. But when I listen to the national shows on NPR (eg: All Things Considered), there's nothing even approaching this. The Repubs have done such a thorough job of brow-beating CPB, nobody has the balls to say anything bold on the air. All we ever get is the notion that every side of every issue is perfectly valid, and oh yeah - "both sides do it".
Am I to understand that some random 3rd string nobody on public radio in Ohio is actually The Liberal Media? And how long before the anti-media harpies swoop in to pluck out his eyes?
Nov 6, 2011
John Mayer And Herbie Hancock
I think this is what Weather Report and Brian Auger always had in mind, but could never really make work on a regular basis. This album is a little spotty too, but when it's good, it's really good.
Professional Left Podcast 100
Episode 100 from The Professional Left:
(hacked from Crooks and Liars - how proud my mom would be)
Featured links:
Newt Gingrich lauded by WaPo
Rachel Maddow rips on Paul Wolfowicz
The Pentagon's double-dip on weapons
The Perpetual War Portfolio
Nov 5, 2011
The Late Great Washington Post
The only reasons I go to The Wa Po any more (other than the Sunday crossword - which is usually awesome) is to mock George Will, or to find new ways to call Marc Thiessen an asshole.
James Fallows at The Atlantic has by far the best reason to tell Wa Po to pound sand.
James Fallows at The Atlantic has by far the best reason to tell Wa Po to pound sand.
Headline: "Where job measures go to die"
Subhead: "Another bill fails in Senate"
What actually happened: The bill got a majority in the Senate, 51-49.
But because Mitch McConnell's GOP minority has resolved to filibuster everything the Administration proposes, the measure never came to a vote on the merits. The Democrats, with "only" 53 votes (including 2 Indeps), cannot get 60 votes to break a filibuster, since the Republicans with 47 always-unified pro-filibuster votes, can stop anything they choose.
Nov 4, 2011
American Taliban
This jackass is a sitting judge in Texas who presides over a court that hears a lot of cases involving child abuse. His name is William Adams.
The Daily Mail has a good report.
The Daily Mail has a good report.
Elizabeth Warren Heckled
Everybody gets to say what's on his mind, even if he insists on being a complete asshole about it (speaking from experience here).
Two things I really like about this:
1) Warren quiets the crowd when they start to go after him for calling her "a socialist whore". She's a fighter and as sweet as she sounds, I'm betting she can cut you to ribbons when she feels the need, but she keeps it cool and there's nothing the guy can push back against. Conflict resolved.
2) As is usually the case, the heckler was prob'ly a little nervous about being kinda shitty in public, so he needed to make the statement and then stride purposefully from the room - for dramatic effect. But the door at the front is locked. He tries the opener a couple of times, and then has to walk past the crowd to get out. His body language is defiant and proud, but nobody's paying any attention to him, so again he has nothing to fight. He's just some random dick callin' people names.
(hat tip: Crooks and Liars)
Two things I really like about this:
1) Warren quiets the crowd when they start to go after him for calling her "a socialist whore". She's a fighter and as sweet as she sounds, I'm betting she can cut you to ribbons when she feels the need, but she keeps it cool and there's nothing the guy can push back against. Conflict resolved.
2) As is usually the case, the heckler was prob'ly a little nervous about being kinda shitty in public, so he needed to make the statement and then stride purposefully from the room - for dramatic effect. But the door at the front is locked. He tries the opener a couple of times, and then has to walk past the crowd to get out. His body language is defiant and proud, but nobody's paying any attention to him, so again he has nothing to fight. He's just some random dick callin' people names.
(hat tip: Crooks and Liars)
Nov 3, 2011
Allow Me To Reiterate
Matt Taibbi has written a lot of this before, and practically nothing is being done about it. An awful lot of the people who should be in jail are the ones who keep telling us to keep pushing forward; keep working at it; it'll take a huge effort, but we'll get there if we just keep pluggin' along. I hate the feeling, but some of these pricks had better start gettin' some serious prison time before the OWS hippies lose out to the angry mob.
When enough people find out they have nothing left to lose, it only takes one good leader - somebody who can whip the crowd into a rich creamy lather - and then they simply come to your penthouse and take what they want.
It's a kind of social extortion that's been going on forever. Most people don't begrudge rich people being rich. It's being said more often in the press now, but most Americans are OK with unequal results; even when it's obvious you never worked a day in your life to earn it and you just got lucky and won the birthright lottery. Good on you. Fuck a super model for me. Who knows, maybe I'll get my chance some day and we can fuck one together. But when the game is rigged, and everybody knows it's rigged, and a bunch of Silver Spoon Legacy Pukes are out in the open about trying to make sure it gets even more rigged, then we gotta a problem, son. The unwashed masses will sit still for a lot as long as they believe they have a legitimate shot at makin' it big someday. The economy is Confidence-based in more than just a paper money kind of way. Once that confidence is betrayed, everybody loses everything.
When enough people find out they have nothing left to lose, it only takes one good leader - somebody who can whip the crowd into a rich creamy lather - and then they simply come to your penthouse and take what they want.
It's a kind of social extortion that's been going on forever. Most people don't begrudge rich people being rich. It's being said more often in the press now, but most Americans are OK with unequal results; even when it's obvious you never worked a day in your life to earn it and you just got lucky and won the birthright lottery. Good on you. Fuck a super model for me. Who knows, maybe I'll get my chance some day and we can fuck one together. But when the game is rigged, and everybody knows it's rigged, and a bunch of Silver Spoon Legacy Pukes are out in the open about trying to make sure it gets even more rigged, then we gotta a problem, son. The unwashed masses will sit still for a lot as long as they believe they have a legitimate shot at makin' it big someday. The economy is Confidence-based in more than just a paper money kind of way. Once that confidence is betrayed, everybody loses everything.
The whole game was based on one new innovation: the derivative instruments like CDOs that allowed them to take junk-rated home loans and turn them into AAA-rated instruments. It was not Barney Frank who made it possible for Goldman, Sachs to sell the home loan of an occasionally-employed janitor in Oakland or Detroit as something just as safe as, and more profitable than, a United States Treasury Bill. This was something they cooked up entirely by themselves and developed solely with the aim of making more money.
Read more: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi
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