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  4. 4

    One of the more cogent comparisons of the false equivalencies drawn between right wing populist anger and the frustration of the left I have read recently. I posted to an older thread, but thought the my fellow progressives would find it an interesting read.

    The anger on the left is focused. There are specific reasons. To give one obvious example, many on the populist left are frustrated that a Democratic administration continues to rationalize denying basic rights to the LGBT community. On the other hand, many on the populist right have paranoid delusions about ostensible losses of rights, none of which are actually taking place. But does anyone seriously question the reaction if those on the right were, as is the LGBT community, actually denied the same basic rights that everyone else enjoys? They brought guns to rallies opposing a very limited expansion in the government’s role in providing access to health care. Imagine if they were denied the right to marry or serve in the military. And some want to equate the behavior of the angry left to that of the angry right? Other examples of anger on the left include issues of war and peace and international human rights or the disastrously inadequate response to what the science tells us about the rapidly developing climate crisis. And these are in some way similar to people freaking out about death panels or socialism or the ostensible family values by which even their heroes don’t abide?

  5. 5

    Wow worf, still reposting the useless Daily Kos garbage again from the other thread? Apparently you didn’t receive the applause you wanted?

    Daily Kos, as useless as their Research2000 polling sources!

    worf you need better sources than the one who foisted Trigg is Bristol’s baby on you fools.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  6. 6

    Obama, Clinton, Biden–that is firepower. Rs have no equivalent. Who would they put on, Bush I, Bush II, and Cheney? Senator Murray has been a great advocate for this state. Dino Rossi has nice hair. He is an empty suit. An airhead. This race should not be close. Washingtonians are smarter than that.

  7. 7

    Who knows what really happened. I’m passing this along in the spirit of “everybody loves a train wreck” and that Mathew Manweller can always be counted on to provide one.

    ELLENSBURG—Two men are headed for a court hearing Wednesday after a public fight that started at the Ellensburg Rodeo Parade and ended a week later in a parking lot.

    Mathew Manweller, 41, and Fred Huber, 55, are charged with disorderly conduct after a verbal dispute at the parade escalated to a fist fight on Sept. 10 outside a local radio station. Both have filed no contact order requests against each other. Manweller was taken to the emergency room and treated for a bitten ear and broken hand after the fight.
    http://www.yakima-herald.com/s.....fisticuffs

  8. 8

    @6

    why does patty the 18 year incumbent need so much “firepower”?

    of course you arent smart enough to ask that question…let alone answer it.

  10. 10

    Great article from the NYT.

    In Colorado, Voters Voice Uncertainty and Anger

    LOVELAND, Colo. — That Americans are angry and anxious heading toward the Nov. 2 elections has become a truism, an assumption built into candidate calculations from the lowest local alderman on up. Plot a voter’s place on the rage scale, and voilà, out pops a prediction of the expected anti-Democrat, or anti-establishment, backlash.
    Crossroads County

    Voters like Daryl Pike have a different word for it: lost.

    “Everything is fractured,” said Mr. Pike, 63, a roofing salesman and lifelong Democrat from this city in northern Colorado.
    ………

    Though Republicans are widely expected to make big national gains, interviews and polls confirm that Americans are not ideologically driven any more now than they were when they made history and elected Barack Obama president in 2008.

    What they want is reassurance — a steady hand holding the helm in a direction that seems sure and true. Anger, people here said, is just insecurity tied in knots.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10......html?_r=1

    I think what they/we want is to be able to sculpt our world into a coherent narrative and we used to get that from our newspapers and our political leaders. That’s a big part of what leaders and leadership does, they create a coherent narrative. This is something that media and political leaders have pretty much given up on. They just throw a bunch of numbers and verbs at us now. This is why its acceptable to have people like Dan Maes, who just sputters gibberish, running for the governors office in Colorado. In a world where reporters simply act as stenographers and have given up on trying to create a coherent narrative any crazy fool can say any crazy fool thing they want.

    Barrak Obama became president, in large part, because he created a coherent narrative, where John McCain could not. Patty Murray will win re-election in large part because she doesn’t have to create a coherent narrative, it’s already there and we already know it.

  11. 11

    @9

    If the Rs take over, can you imagine the ensuing cat fights?

    At least we’ll have fun watching the train wrecks.

  13. 13

    Her signs say “Helping People Solving Problems”

    I think we need to spend more on education. :(

  14. 14

    Worf,

    While the essay at The Great Orange Satan (All Hail Dark Lord Kos!) is quite good, its focus is on the disastrous consequences of conservative policies and the pressing need for liberalism. Perhaps that’s appropriate right before an election, when short-term considerations are a higher priority, but I think the more important long-term issue is why the false-equivalence has been allowed to stand unchallenged for so long.

    It’s clear that the range of acceptable discourse in our media ranges from the extreme right to the center. Anything from the center-left to the extreme left is verboten, and our nation suffers for it.

    By the way, thanks for the DKos link. Their front-pagers are uniformly excellent, and their weekend longer-form pieces are often terrific.

  15. 15

    long-term issue is why the false-equivalence has been allowed to stand unchallenged for so long.

    Concentrated, corporate-owned media.

    A media that is interested in/is allowed to report “the horseraces”, the false equivalences, only allow access to “serious voices”. Have you seen statistics of who appears on just the Sunday talk shows? Overwhelmingly white, male, Rebuplican.

  16. 16

    Concentrated, corporate-owned media.

    Yep. That goes a long way to explaining it. It’s a topic that has been getting attention for decades, but few people know how bad the situation truly is. Hell, “Network” was satire, but it did a damn good job predicting the rise of Fox News (sic)… in 1977.

    Have you seen statistics of who appears on just the Sunday talk shows? Overwhelmingly white, male, Rebuplican.

    Yep again. I particularly love the extraordinary rationalizations the media go through trying to explain why that is. In the early to mid-2000s, it was “Well, the GOP is in power and these are their leaders and, naturally, we want our viewers to hear directly from decision-makers.” Now, it’s “We’re trying to be fair so that Republicans won’t accuse us of being in the tank for Obama.” Of course, they will still be accused of being in the tank for Obama, facts be damned.

  17. 17

    @ #10

    …and what would Dino Rossi’s coherent narrative be? Let’s see,return to the Bush years and all that made them great. Refuse all federal money that might create a job in this state. Build the Berlin Wall South plus rights for women and gays, what’s that? Since I don’t even really like Dino’s hair, what’s left? Is that it?

  18. 18

    Pardon me. “Network” came out in 1976. I keep thinking it was 1977 because that’s when it won most of its awards.

  19. 19

    I used to think that there were worse things than having Republicans in power. After all, they might have bad ideas, but they generally have a conscience and wouldn’t do anything too bad to injure the country, would they? After all, letting them have power for a few years would only prove the bankruptcy of their economic philosophy, right? I mean what’s the worst that could happen?

    Then we found out. George W. Bush, along with a Republican Congress for six years of his Presidency, caused so much damage it might take twenty years to recover. A budget surplus was turned into a trillion-dollar deficit. The American economy lost twenty percent of it’s value, much of it coming from the declining value of our own homes and retirment savings. Yet the rich got richer – not just marginally so, but by orders of magnitude.

    Why anyone would vote for a Republican is beyond me.

  22. 22

    A stunning article from Robert Reich on the demise of democracy.

    It’s a perfect storm. And I’m not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I’m talking about the dangers facing our democracy.

    First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans.

    The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us.

    Contemplate the meaning of those figures. To what end is that vast store of wealth being directed?

    Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates — without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They’re laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Malek, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon’s notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third.

    The Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission made it possible. The Federal Election Commission says only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.
    We’re back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom.

    As all that wealth and power is directed into further exacerbating the disparity in power between the elite and the rest of us, real needs are not just ignored, but denigrated:

    Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings, and even homes are on the line. They need a government that’s working for them, not for the privileged and the powerful.

    Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off. The roads and bridges they count on are crumbling, pipelines are leaking, schools are dilapidated, and public libraries are being shut.

    There’s no jobs bill to speak of. No WPA to hire those who can’t find jobs in the private sector. Unemployment insurance doesn’t reach half of the unemployed.

    Washington says nothing can be done. There’s no money left

    Of course, there is plenty of money – in the hands of those who are destroying democracy.

    There’s plenty of money to help stranded Americans, just not the political will to raise it. And at the rate secret money is flooding our political system, even less political will in the future.

    The perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top; a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy; and a public becoming increasingly angry and cynical about a government that’s raising its taxes, reducing its services, and unable to get it back to work.

    We’re losing our democracy to a different system. It’s called plutocracy.

    A good read.

  23. 23

    @17

    …and what would Dino Rossi’s coherent narrative be?

    He doesn’t have one. There’s no there, there. But, even as newspapers are endorsing Murray their praising him for his good ideas, his finical conservatism, and focus on debit, rather than saying the obvious, which is that Dino’s “got nuthin.”

  24. 24

    22
    Pretty frightening, indeed. Republicans in Congress will fight any proposal for election reform to combat the ills Citizens United has caused. Republicans hate democracy.

  25. 25

    @22,24

    I try not to look. That stuff gives me nightmares and makes me wonder if I should rejoin the ranks of gun owning American’s.

  26. 26

    The economy has remained rather stubborn in it’s recovery attempts, held back in part by the extensive damage done to the average worker’s economy by years of Reaganomics coming to a low point in the economic collapse during the end of Bush’s Presidency.

    Republican obstructionism attempts during the first 1-3/4 years of the Obama administration seems to have been part of a deliberate strategy to keep the economy in the dumps, all in the hopes of blaming the collapse on Obama in subsequent elections.

    But we are seeing some glimmors of hope on the economic front. The aerospace industry is a bell-weather of economic activity. Recent headlines form last Thursday’s Aviation Daily report:

    “Boeing Reports Highest Orders since early 2008”

    “IATA Third-Quarter Survey Reports Airline Business Looking Up”

    “Delta’s 3Q Revenue Jumps on Strong Demand for International Travel”

    “US Airways Posts Record 3Q Profit: CEO Optimistic Trend with Remain”

    “Hawiaan Sees Promising Start for New International Service”

    “International Flying Lifts LAX Traffic, With More to Come”

    Given the rather depressing headlines which I’m used to seeing over the past couple of years, this report really seems to indicate a sea-change.

    But unfortunately, our company only sent one person to attend the Air Cargo Conference in Miami last week, and I’m not the one going. So no chance of sun, surf, and golf, intersperced with a few seminars on the fascinating market for cargo conversions of passenger aircraft, oil prices volitivity, the strategies of cargo operators & their aircraft, etc.

  28. 28

    More good news—for Republicans:

    Monday, October 25, 2010

    With Election Day eight days away, Republican candidates hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, October 24, 2010. It’s the second week in a row the gap between the parties has been that wide.

    Forty-nine percent (49%) of respondents say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 40% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.
    Even more worrisome for Democrats, however, is the finding that among the voters who are most closely following the midterm elections Republicans hold a 56% to 38% lead.

    Note that when ImamObaMao took office, in the same poll Democrats were something like +8.
    A 17-point swing!!
    Same Poll.
    But things are just great.
    You’ve got Democrat House members now lying at the last minute saying they voted for MCCain!

    It’s hysterical.
    Some of the Blue Dog survivors will likely switch parties before 2012.

    Progressivism–Utter freefall collapse.

    TOO DAMN FUNNY!

  29. 29

    @28…

    Bad news for YOU, fuckwad…

    http://www.newsweek.com/2010/1.....ed-up.html

    NEWSWEEK Poll: Obama Approval Rating Jumps, Democrats Close ‘Enthusiasm Gap’
    As the president’s numbers climb sharply, results suggest that Democrats may be succeeding in firing up their base.
    (Page 1 of 2)

    I’ll say it again…real folks are staring to understand just what corporate controlled assholes you rethuglicans are.

    They don’t like it…and they don’y like YOU.

  31. 31

    Rujax is quoting Newsweek!
    It’s Publisher is Evan Thomas..grandson of 6-time Socialist Party Candidate Norman Thomas!!

    Now that is TOO DAMN FUNNY

  33. 33

    The numbers are the numbers shithead.

    You can’t change the results by changing the subject…which is all you fucks have because you DON’T have any ideas.

  35. 35

    Interesting dumb cinder block… Who did they poll? Puddy trusts Gallup (went to school with original Gallup’s grandson) and Rasmussen. Newsweek is well known libtardo. Look at the horse manure from their chief DUMBOCRAT screamer Eleanor Clift.

  36. 36

    rujax,

    A better source than Daily Kurse, Media Morons, or MovedOn.Org

  37. 37

    Newsweek, even though part of the rightwing MSM, is certainly more credible than Rasmussen. Polls, however, are simply polls. They don’t really count. What we know, however, is that Puddy and Cynny have the collective IQ of a half-empty box of rocks. Sorry, gents, I just calls ’em like I sees ’em.

  39. 39

    Did proud leftist actually visit the site? The fool skips over Gallup and rolls to Rasmussen.

    Figures everyone knows who has rocks for brains… The goat abuser proud leftist. Named an award after himself to give to his political opponents.

  40. 40

    DUMBOCRAT voter fraud has begun… Michelle Malkin has it fully outlined with many cross references since Goldy has blocked her site.

  41. 41

    Ah, Puddy, Michelle Malkin. Now, there is a credible person. I wouldn’t believe her if she told me the earth rotates around the sun. She doesn’t know the truth from a cartoon. She’s really stupid on top of it. But, stupidity is not a barrier to wingnuts finding credibility.

  42. 42

    Ahhh proud leftist, truth scares you Puddy sees!

    Malkin is more credible that Markos and his vile bile!

  43. 43

    Newsweek, even though part of the rightwing MSM, is certainly more credible than Rasmussen.

    Man this proud leftist is sooooo funny. If it was right-wing why would Eleanor Clift still be working there?

  44. 44

    Malkin…a right wing harpie.

    Markos…a Gulf War veteran.

    Hmmmmm…only a sick fuck like Puddy would wonder who’s credible.

  45. 45

    rujax shouts from the rooftop “the numbers are the numbers!” in post 33

    yet when judge sanders says the same thing, somehow he is a loon?

    hmmm….logic fail.

  47. 47

    Markos…a Gulf War veteran.

    And you all wonder why Puddy called rujax the DUMB CINDER BLOCK?

    By Markos own account, he “missed deploying to the Gulf War by a hair.”

    So how is he a gulf war veteran again DUMB CINDER BLOCK?

    FAIL!

  48. 48

    @46

    stupid because I figured your dumb ass out long ago, eh….

  49. 49

    Hey proud leftist,

    Look whom else works at Newsweek…

    Yep, it’s progressive libtardo alright!

  51. 51

    Looks like MarkS has that corncob up his ASS again. Puddy don’t drink smoke or do drugs. So why do you partake of all three before posting MarkS?

    Why do you hate blacks MarkS?

    Why do you hate Americans MarkS?

    Why are you so empty headed MarkS?

    Why do you still beat your wife MarkS?

    Why do you still carry business cards when no one cards about your “bidness” MarkS?

  52. 52

    Puddy,
    Time for bed. You know those little pills your doctor told you to take? Take them, Puddy. You can be better than you are (I wouldn’t say that about Cynny, who is hopelessly deluded). Really, Puddy, there is a life awaiting you in the reality-based community, but you must take your prescriptions. For you, for your family, for your community, just take your prescriptions.

  53. 53

    MarkS,

    Proves how much a fool you are… suggesting someone take drugs. Puddy doesn’t take drugs or have any “prescriptions” Seems you do. Ritalin? Prozac? Lexapro? Effexor? Cymbalta? Zoloft? How many anti-depressants do you imbibe at once MarkS? Please don’t pull a Steve Stupid Solution “It’s a Psych 101 thing”. It’s tired and stupid like you.

    Puddy lives in a reality based world. Puddy is black. Reality hits Puddy in the face every day.

  54. 54

    53
    Reality hasn’t hit Puddy in one helluva long time. Sorry, Pud, just calls it like I sees it.

  55. 55

    Puttybutt

    Your cognative ability to remember what my post said means you either are medicated (on your parent’s booze stash) or haven’t taken your meds.

  56. 56

    41. proud leftist spews:

    Ah, Puddy, Michelle Malkin. Now, there is a credible person. I wouldn’t believe her if she told me the earth rotates around the sun. She doesn’t know the truth from a cartoon. She’s really stupid on top of it. But, stupidity is not a barrier to wingnuts finding credibility.

    Puddy–
    Notice how the fool Proud Leftist gives ZERO examples to discredit her. Just lobs out stupid stuff…his specialty. How about a few specific examples of what you are babbling about PL?

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