A headline from today’s NY Post: “Barack Obama doesn’t fear the enraged, impotent Netroots.”
Yeah, well, whatever.
If that’s the sort of self-soothing that makes the old media and political establishment feel better about their own declining fortunes, they’re free to hide their heads in that particular hole, but personally, I don’t feel all that enraged or impotent. In fact, I’m still a bit amazed at how far we have come in such a short amount of time… and daunted by how far we have yet to go.
This movement we’re part of will take a decade or two to reach full fruition, and we are a lot more patient and pragmatic than most outside observers give us credit for.
The Post ought to ask Elisabeth Dole about how impotent the net roots are.
There are some folks out there in netroots land who apparently thought they were voting for Noam Chomsky who are pulling their hair out over some, maybe most, of Obama’s cabinet and staff selections. They will either get over it and learn to appreciate, as Goldy says, how far we have come or move on to something else. Obama was never the far-out left liberal that the wing nuts tried to paint him. It appears that there are going to be some moves on the economic front that will please the net roots and enrage the far right. Much of this talk of net roots rage is nothing more that filling column inches by writers and pundits with nothing to say.
Goldy, what is it exactly that you would say ya do here?
@3 I can’t speak for Goldy — but I’m a Democratic Party hack and liberal propagandist.
2. Being annoyed that Obama seems hell bent on appointing no one but Clinton re-treads is hardly being disappointed he’s not Norm Chomsky. His early opposition to the war was the main reason a lot of folks supported him, and now he’s not only backed away from that position, but is going to appoint an unapologetic supporter of the Iraq war and someone who’s called for the use of nukes on Iran.
Not sure ‘how far we’ve come’ either. The ‘netroots’ have not been able to mobilize around the issues of voter fraud, offer alternatives to the various bailout packages, spur the investigation of the many crimes of the Bush administration, end the war in Iraq and so on.
On even basic issues they have failed to reframe the debate. For instance, why did Burner use the right wing term “tax relief” on her website? Why are the Dems again set to appoint a Republican as Secretary of War (defense) when that does nothing but buy into the right wing Republican notion that Dems are ‘soft on defense’?
@1…Michael…
Better yet…ask The Darcy.
BTW…had a conversation with her recently – she asked me if I wanted fries with that.
The Piper
The Pooper must be proud he lives in a district where the Limbaugh ratings are actually climbing. His hatred for decent people like Darcy Burner is so telling of his ilk.
Pragmatic yes. Obama is yet another technocratic pragmatist who like Bill Clinton (without the warts) will practice the politics he can rather than the politics many would like.
We of course can continue to make it possible for him if unavoidable to govern progressively. It’s up to us. Alas, no rest for the weary.
So let’s soldier on. There’s an election in two years. We must have Obama’s back and at the same time clear out the deadwood, the Vichy’s who would stab us all in the back.
Let the right wing cling to the few remaining idiots like Reichert as balm for their many wounds. The bleeding will continue.
obama was one of the senators who supported lieberman’s run for ct senate as the “lieberman for lieberman” candidate. so did fellow “liberal” barbara boxer. it’s not just the “netroots” that the dc villagers ignore after they win. it’s almost everyone, including dumbass ny post journamalists. liebs, box, and obie are all villagerz.
@6
Darcy and the net roots took a district that was a gimme for the Republicans and made it competitive. A win would have been better, but that’s not a bad showing.
Roger Rabbit said:
“@3 I can’t speak for Goldy — but I’m a Democratic Party hack and liberal propagandist.”
Man, ain’t that the truth!
BTW, what kind of paybacks are you guys on the extreme left expecting from the Milk Chocolate Messiah and His Merry Ban of Nit-wit Neo-socialist Democrats?
Time is certainly on the side of the bloggers. The trend toward small, mobile, and intelligent (to borrow a phrase) workers is sweeping across all information-based industries.
The people who hold out against this trend at some point will all feel as out of step with history and reality as McCain must have felt on the morning of Nov. 5, 2008.
Some ideologically driven lefties like our friend @ 5 should dust off Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals as well as Markos Moulitsas’ latest to learn some of what drives Obama.
It’s an obsessive focus on dealing with the world AS IT IS. No one can change things unless they hold the reigns of power and even then tread carefully because them thar be dragons. Bill Clinton’s first two years are a significant case in point. The majority of voters are probably not “center right” as the wingnuts love to claim but the vast bulk of corporate money and the top two percent definitely are at least that. Obama has to be their President as well lest that all that money and influence turns on him.
And by the way, the rumor has it that some righties like “The Next Right” crowd are snapping up copies of Alinsky along with other thoughtful tomes penned by righties who unlike sheep like the Pooper are thinking outside the box. Yes, a few of them are capable of that.
Again, it’s up to us to head them off at the pass.
@10 Well, for my part I’m hoping for the Great Troll Roundup, as well as the televised trials and pay-per-view executions*. Of course, we’ll use proceeds from the latter to help pay off the national debt your boys racked up.
Oh, don’t me serious, troll. Like Roger, I occasionally experiment with some of that ultra-far right extremist wing-nut humor. Hmm, I can see why Roger indulges in this. It’s kind of fun.
None of the regular commentators on here are members of the far-left.
@14…Michael…
Coulda fooled me!
The Piper
@15 I’m sure that anybody who doesn’t march lockstep with Poops on every single issue is a far lefty. Conservatives like Kathleen Parker and Chris Buckley are actually sneaky Republican party-infiltrating commies and surely deserve to receive death threats from the party faithful, you know.
Hell, all we want are things like universal health care, which Nixon was in favor of. Clean air to breath, which Nixon helped out with by signing the Clean Air Act and clean water to drink, same as Nixon- he signed the Clean Water Act.
@15
Hey Crackpiper, is Sarah Palin still dead center in the mainstream of middle class American life?
Coulda fooled me!
Half the animals in the zoo are smart enough to fool you.
@15
I doubt you are as ignorant as you seem.
Extreme left would be favoring immediate nationalization of auto sector, all banks, all of wall street.
Bush and the GOP at present only favor a limited, ineffective type socialistic help…..maybe a few strings attached….and the Dems. in Congress aren’t that much different.
Even more extreme leftism would include suppressing your vote and your right to free speech, Mr. Piper.
Very extreme leftism would be rounding you up and jailing or killing you.
Here, in America, there are barely any leftists at all. Giving aid to a sector with strings attached is what governments all over the world do, like Japan, Germany etc. So only in your ignorant worldview, in whicih all of the rest of the industrialized workd is mis-called “socialist,” can you even say that folks on this site are even “socialist.” But even that wouldn’t be extreme leftist.
It’s really clear that you and most right wingers are deliberately lying when you call the kind of mild politics we have in the USA socialistic or extreme leftist. You just can’t credibly claim to e that fucking ignorant.
For example, here in the USA early in this century all parties — Republican, Democratic and socialist–supported the prgoressive income tax.
So unless you want to call the Republican PArty of 1916 socialist, um, you just know you’re an ignorant fool or a callous liar.
We also are very aware that this kind of baiting is often the pretext to destabilization, brownshirts and worse.
It’s a kind of dirty pool the right wing engatges in, because they can, beause we respect freedom of speech.
But my freedom means I can speak to you too and you’re a dirty, shameful lying sack of shit.
Most Bloggers are only the equivalent of lobbyists and nothing more (i.e. They are not Journalists). This particularly includes Goldy.
Lobbying backlash could hit bloggers
http://news.cnet.com/Lobbying-.....51311.html
Stakeholder Meeting Regarding Internet Lobbying
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/home/sta.....er.Mtg.pdf
18 – LMAO!!
19 – Well stated. Especially the last sentence.
@10 I always tell the truth, except about being a rabbit. I’m actually a human pretending to be a rabbit. I do that for literary effect, and because it’s fun, and because Darcy has hugged me twice now!
@15 A lot of things fool you, piper, a lot of things. You’re easily fooled. By just about everyone and everything.
@22: What?! On the Internet, no one knows you’re a rabbit.
@20
By that logic, every editorial writer employed by a newspaper is a lobbyist too. There’s no distinction between what many top bloggers do and what many top reporters do, except for the paychecks.
The “netroots” is the voice of the general public. And it’s starting to be heard.
@25
There is a big difference between news articles and editorials. Goldy editorializes. That also should make the editors of papers who spout nonsense also subject to be lobbyists (not that everything Goldy spews is ‘nonsense). I guess the problem is there is a very big gray area between editorials and news articles as many reporters unintentionally ‘slant’ their writing.
@26
Blogs like HA and Dailykos are no different than magazines like The Nation.
@26: Well, yes of course. News reporters intentionally “slant” their writing also. Whole systems of assumptions and biases are always at work in every act of communication, including assumptions about what it means to be “fair and impartial.”
As Goldy often says, apart from the paycheck, another common difference between bloggers and reporters is that bloggers do not presume or pretend to be impartial brokers of the truth.
@6: “BTW…had a conversation with her recently – she asked me if I wanted fries with that.”
Yeh, I was there. She yelled the order back to you…had to do it three times. At least she counted the change back correctly, but hey, unlike you, I have nothing in particular against fast food workers.
Even left a tip. Hope you got your share.
@6: “BTW…had a conversation with her recently – she asked me if I wanted fries with that.”
Which reflects the essence of the right wingnut elite contempt for people who actually work for a living.
12–How are the netroots going to “head anyone off at the pass” if the idea of getting an alleged progressive like Burner to use a term like ‘tax reform’ instead of the right wing approved ‘tax relief’ is considered to be a pie in the sky left wing fantasy that can’t happen?
The U.W. Huskies preserved their perfect winless season today by losing the Apple Cup to the Cougars in double overtime, 16-13.
@30…PTBAA…
Contempt? Not at all…Some decades ago, I was a fast food worker, and each of my five children worked in fast food at one time or another – it’s a good place to start.
For The Darcy, on the other hand, it’s a good place to learn a little humility as she finally works up to her level.
Yes…up…since she demonstrated zero discernable job skills during the campaign working fast food may prove challenging for her. And she can meet real people, not just HA Happy Hooligans.
She’s a true latter day Harold Stassen. Maybe she and Richard Pope can do coffee together to compare how best to not win elections?
Do coffee, that is, when she’s not asking people if they want fries with that.
The Piper
@32…RR…
You must really identify with this year’s Huskies.
The Piper
OBAME DOES NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF ON THE JOB TRAINING – THE NATION IS SO FUCKED UP, EACH DAY WILL BE IMPORTANT
I APPROVE OF EXPERIENCED APPOINTMENTS, IT THEY DO NOT GET THE JOB DONE, HE CAN REPLACE THEN WITH A WAVE OF HIS LITTLE FINGER
GO PRESIDENT OBAMA, FUCK THE WHINING CHILDREN OF THE IVORY TOWER MIDDLE CLASS
GOLDY, YOU ARE OK, BUT YOU GOT YOUR ASS FRIED BACKING BURNER TO THE POINT OF EMBARASSMENT – AND SHE NEVER HAD A CHANCE IN EITHER RACE
@34 That’s really low, piper. Low. Do you realize you just called me a Republican? Go fuck a goat, piper.
Two people have been shot at Southcenter Mall.
@36…RR…
Takes one to know one…
The Piper
You can fool all of the poopers, all of the time.
@1, Do you mean because of the netroots reaction to the “Godless” adds, or Bob Dole’s Viagra intake?
The engorged & impotent nut roots.
@37 One of the Southcenter Mall shooting victims is now a fatality. But not to worry, this is still America where every punk who wants a gun can own one.
@17: And openness and transparency in government – just like Nixon….ooops, well some things mught be just a little differnt. Maybe no torture, no illegal wiretapping, no inJUstice department filled with ideologiccal cronies, not incompetent heads of FEMA (like Brownie), no AG with no morals but total fealty to the President (like Gonzalez).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/200.....ics2989083
Guess those republicans were lying after all when they said they were against earmarks.
How do you explain why your party can’t keep their snouts out of the trough, Piper?
“Barack Obama doesn’t fear the enraged, impotent Netroots.”
Ok, he also doesn’t fear rampaging, fossilized broccoli, or flying, inflated aardvarks, or (insert present participle verb), (insert adjective) (insert plural noun), either.
Of the many headlines that the Post has come up with to indicate that liberals are some sort of monolithic group that follows one particular philosophy, this is one of the sillier ones.
Some folks on the left are upset that President-elect Obama seems to be looking for pragmatic people that can get things done. Senator Clinton for Secretary of State? Ooooh! She said nasty things about him in the primaries! He must be giving in now.
(Personally, I’m assuming that the two of them had a long discussion, and she indicated that she would follow his lead, and disagreements would be kept behind closed doors.)
Almost every Democrat that knows how to use the White House phone system worked in the Clinton administration. He’s choosing advisors and people that he believes can carry out his policies.
He’s looked at our reputation with other countries, the economy, the state of our justice system, the state of our education system, the state of our military, two wars, etc…
He’s smart enough to know that he has more crisis than any five Presidents combined are usually called upon to solve, even if nothing else comes up. And something else always comes up.
So he’s looking for the best, most experienced help he can get. He’s asking Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians, and pretty much anyone that can come up with a couple of brain cells to rub together to help. Good for him.
As to that very few on the left that are unhappy that Mr. Obama really isn’t some sort of stealth “ultra-liberal”, I can only say that he’s doing exactly what he said he would do. It was the Republican campaign that claimed that he is far left. He has consistently said that he would reach out across party and philosophical lines.
So, when did you folks start believing the Republicans?
Thank you NRA!
Thank god we have freedom of guns in this nation, so that whenever some nut at a mall starts shooting, all those brave law abiding gun carrying golks pull ’em out and shoot him down!
@43…CnR…
Hey! Since when have you ever heard me speak out in favor of the pork barrel?
I say end all earmarks, slash the bejeebers out of non-defense federal spending, and cut taxes across the board.
Then pass the following Constitutional amendment:
The federal government shouldn’t be some silly jobs program or bailout for the greedy or foolish.
The Piper
“the greedy or foolish”
Hmm, sounds like a description of the Republican base. You turning on your own, Poops?
@47…Steve…
The greedy are those who suckle upon the government teat irrespective of party or position in life – cut ’em off! And do it hard.
The foolish – again, irrespective of party – are those who think the government is their salvation such that they can go out and spend like drunk sailors or do stupid, unnatural economic acts fully expecting some nanny state to insulate them from the logical and foreseeable consequences of their actions.
Which are you?
The Piper
Steve @ 13,
I’m not a conservative, but I am anti-socialist. I’d appreciate it if you were to file that fact away in your mind before you start flinging names about who you think I am.
@49 Let’s see, you freely throw out crap like “milk chocolate messiah”, “nit-wit neo-socialist democrats” and now you expect me to do what? I should think twice before flinging names about who I might think you are?? Sure, Bud. Whatever.
@48 “Which are you?”
I’m someone who has held a job since I was thirteen years old and homeless. I first worked as a seven year old mowing lawns in Seattle’s High Point housing project where I spent my early childhood the son of a invalid mother on welfare who died when she was forty and I was ten, leaving me a ward of the state. I worked my way through college working part-time for engineering firms and delivering mail on campus. Today I’m a professional engineer who designs major construction projects, a consultant to nearly every hospital in the region, as well as corporations such as Microsoft and the area’s biotechs. I abhor the thought of ever being on the government dole. I deeply resent those who would scam the system in any way, shape or form.
So you tell me, Piper, which am I? Does the fact that I support the Democratic party shape your opinion? Do you truly mean it when you say, “irrespective of party or position in life”?
@51…Steve…
If you are as you advertise yourself to be, then all the better for you.
Aside from being an engineer, that is. Engineers always lack in the social graces, hence their love affair with machines or other things that don’t require effective emotional interaction.
I spent 25 years placing engineers, so I know.
Still, if that is your history, lifestyle, and attitude toward being on the dole, then you and I have zero in the quarrel department.
It does, however, call into question why you would support Democrat policies, which are themselves dependent upon the creation of dependence upon the government by those who allow themselves to become dependent.
Does this mean you are co-dependent? Per the DSM-IV, probably so.
I like Republican suckling upon the government teat infinitely less than I like Democrat suckling – I hate suckling – Period!
The Piper
LMAO@the Pooper.
Lacking in the “social graces”?
Here’s Wingnut “social graces” – looking the other way and saying NOTHING while rich well-connected Republicans loot the Treasury under the fig-leaf of an endless “Global War on Terror” or “War on Drugs” or other such disasters.
Keepers of the “faith” that some of it will “trickle” on them.
Wow Goldy, that is a long time to sit on the commode before wiping.But, I’m sure you and your marionettes here are worth the wait.