Balls and Walnuts
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Category Archives: Political rants
Hillary Clinton’s Internet Goon Squad Attacking Daily Kos?
Not everyone spends ridiculous amounts of time perusing the left-wing blogosphere, certainly not me. But since Doug was away in Orlando, I spent some time on Daily Kos, the flagship of internet-savvy left-wingers.
Daily Kos may be the most famous and influential political meta-blog with 200,000-300,000 hits per day. Kossacks care passionately about supporting progressive candidates and aided in the Democratic victories last November. Even if you don’t believe that they exercise significant power, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have 100,000 people contributing time and money in close elections.
That is what makes Hillary Clinton’s idiotic remark last Saturday particularly stupid. In response to persistent questioning on her vote to authorize the Iraq War, according to this NY Times article she stated:
“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,†Mrs. Clinton told an audience in Dover, N.H., in a veiled reference to two rivals for the nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Not surprisingly, the majority of Kossacks took that as an official “fuck off†from the Democratic Senator from New York.
What politician willingly alienates 100,000+ voters?
In all fairness, perhaps she felt that she had nothing to lose. Daily Kos’ diarists routinely criticize Hillary Clinton. They find her cold, calculating, opportunistic, arrogant, etc. In straw polls on that site, she routinely scores at 3-4%, far behind Barack Obama and John Edwards. Still, they would have supported her if she was nominated since they hate Republicans far more than they hate her; well, at least, that USED to be true.
In the flurry of initial postings on Daily Kos over her idiotic remark, a strange pattern emerged. The first 300-400 or so comments were predictably negative. Some mentioned her apparent belief that she already has the Democratic nomination sewn up since she’s raised so much money from corporations and wealthy donors. Others thought she was following the directions of her consultants and trying to withstand the controversy with pig-headed stubbornness like a certain president we all know.
After the initial wave came the Hillary supporters. They dominated the thread with a constant stream of admiration for the strength of her character, how presidential she looked, etc. With quite a bit of repetition, they went on and on like, oh, right-wing talking points? A few even mentioned the positive editorial from the notorious right-winger, David Brooks, which they said showed how Hillary Clinton’s wonderful character has won over even a strident Republican. Excuse me? Politically active Democrats are reading David Brooks and taking his comments seriously? Hell, someone on Shakespeare’s Sister even mentioned Clinton’s strong showing in a Fox News poll.
Is it paranoid to think Clinton would use proxies to stage a counterattack on Daily Kos? On the other hand, perhaps some Republicans would like to see Clinton win the Democratic nomination – and there can be only one reason for that.
They think she’s beatable.
K.
Walnut Has No Underwear…
because the airline lost his luggage. God only knows when the Delta is going to find it. I asked Jake how often they lose our luggage and we estimated about 33% of the time. They have approximately 24 hours to find it before having to cough up some money to replace it so, of course, they dig it up after 23 hours.
It could have been worse, I suppose; he could have booked a flight with JetBlue. To quote from the AP article,
JetBlue is offering refunds and free flights to passengers who were stranded on airplanes [at New York’s JFK airport] for more than three hours during an ice storm. The airline is under heavy criticism for leaving hundreds of passengers on planes for up to 10 hours…Many of the stranded passengers didn’t make it back to the terminal until 6 p.m. Most had boarded their aircraft before 8:10 a.m. Some of those jets were incoming flights that had been on the ground since 10 a.m. Six flights were stranded for more than eight hours.
JetBlue wasn’t the only culprit this time; American Airlines stranded passengers on a Miami flight for more than three hours. And last December, according to this AP report,
A similar incident happened on Dec. 30 [2006], when American Airlines and American Eagle diverted 121 flights found for Dallas to other cities because of thunderstorms. About 5,000 passengers were left sitting on parked aircraft, some for eight hours. One of those advocating for a passengers’ bill of rights, Kate Hanni, a California real estate agent, was stuck for hours on the tarmac on American Flight 1348, with her family.
And before that, according to this USAToday article,
The delay that intensified pressure on airlines in 1999 involved the so-called “prisoners of Northwest” — thousands of passengers who sat grounded in airliners during a winter storm at Detroit Metro Airport. Some planes had no food or water and overflowing toilets.
On Jan. 2, 2002, passengers on dozens of planes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta waited up to 10 hours during a snowstorm. Delta apologized for inconveniencing 50,000 passengers, saying it had underestimated the storm and the time it would take to de-ice planes before departure.
I could probably dig up even more egregious examples of this type but I think the point is made. Of course, the airlines will fight any legislation to regulate their behavior as they did in 1999 when they promised to follow voluntary guidelines (worked really well last Wednesday, right?). So what to do? Rep. Mike Thompson and Sen. Barbara Boxer will be offering legislation on a Passengers’ Bill of Rights. Write and/or email your legislators in support of this bill. If you scroll down on the left, you’ll see the links under Don’t Worry ’bout the Government.
Candle in the swirling dark
Yesterday, Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister announced her resignation from the John Edwards presidential campaign. This followed shortly after Amanda Marcotte’s similar announcement, and, as I understand it, both women stepped down for the same reasons: they were tired of being chum for the irReligious Right’s single-digit-IQ trained barracudas. Read this for background.
The only flickering light in this dark, dismal time is the fact that Melissa and Amanda are now free to fight back. And you can fight back, too.
Visit Melissa’s and Amanda’s blogs. Give ’em some love. Link to them. Join Driftglass, Blue Gal, and the rest of us in our blogswarm. Kick up a fuss.
D.
PS: While we’re at it, how about a Googlebomb for William Donohue? Check my left sidebar Googlebomb category.
PPS: Shakes is keeping track of the blogswarm here. I almost forgot . . . I AM SPARTACUS! Bloody hell you’d better believe it.
Move over, Satan!
In a recent AP-AOL poll asking Americans — AMERICANS — to rate our country’s top villains, Dubya whupped all competitors, including Bin Laden, Kim Jong Il, and Satan. Don’t Floss with Tinsel has the video.
Now, hold on, wait a sec . . . the MoE is plus/minus 3%. That means Bush might have had only 22% of the vote, while Bin Laden, his nearest competitor, might have had 11%.
Nope. It’s still a 2:1 wipeout.
But hot damn. I think Dubya has finally found something he’s really, really good at: villainy.
D.
What is the world coming to? *updated*
I don’t know how Blue Gal does it . . . how she tolerates wading through right wing blogs for Grade A tripe like this (emphasis mine):
There is a new chapter in the story of Yale’s continuing descent into the depths of moral degradation. Two days ago, Jonathan Holloway, the master of Calhoun College at Yale, sent out the following note:
“OK, well THIS is the most awkward college-wide e-mail I’ve ever had to send….
“The college showers are to be used by individuals for hygenic [sic] purposes only. They are not to be used by couples engaged in intimate activity–especially that kind of activity that leaves the showers in a decidedly less hygenic [sic] state.
“Several times since the start of the spring term some Hounies have come across a couple having the time of their lives in a shower stall. Last night the shower flooded and the bathroom could not be used for over 90 minutes. To the as yet unidentified couple, this may be pleasureable [sic] and exciting for you but it is a violation of community standards. Please stop.
“I really don’t want to explore this matter any further as I respect your individual privacy. But such continued brazen public displays of affection will only invite public embarrassment. I beg of you, let’s not go there.”
I can first of all confirm that this is a real memo, not a prank. It is not merely unfortunate but pathetic and disgusting that the Master needed to send such a note to us. I certainly wish that Master Holloway had not had to involve himself, but in the moral vacuum that has been created by Yale intellectuals, students seem to be left without even the most basic guidelines for proper and decent behavior.
Where to begin. The author, Dan Gelernter, strikes me as one of those Angry Virgins: I’m not getting any, but that’s okay because SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE IS EEEEVIL and all those people engaging in intimate congress in the showers are going to burn in H-E-Double-Toothpicks! But that’s an ad hominem argument based on little evidence other than Dan’s tone, his hyperbole (descent into the depths, yata yata), and his uber-fussy paranoia that we not think him capable of spelling errors — hygenic (sic)!
I think it’s fair to ask what sort of person feels the need to post this Puritanical bile-dripping screed. Any sane college student should be pissing his pants over the Administration’s plans for the Middle East. If he wants to vent his moral outrage, he would have ample material in what we as a nation have wrought with respect to Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, the erosion of American civil liberties, the rape of our nation’s wealth, the bastardization of science to serve corporate interests, and so much more.
But no. A couple of students get nasty in the shower and plug it up (Blue Gal’s right. How do you do that? Go through a box of condoms and flush ’em down the drain?) and Dan’s panties are in a wad.
Read the comments to Dan’s post. Lots of lefties are trying to slap some sense into the boy. I doubt it will work, but it’s good fun while it lasts.
UPDATED:
Gotta love this comment from “On higher moral ground,” who leaves his flatulence without any website linkback (so we can’t, you know, show him some love):
Any correlation between the deepening depravity at Yale and the ever increasing 28% Jewish enrollment figures?
People have referred to the Jews as ‘mud people’ for centuries, is there perhaps some truth to this?
As a credit to Dan’s commenters, only one person rose to the bait. Two, if you count me.
D.
PS, aren’t you proud of me? I resisted the urge to title this post, “What is the world cumming to.”
The Talk
The following conversation is entirely fictitious. My son demands I preface my comments with that sentence or else he’ll sue me.
Litigious little not-quite-a-bastard*.
It can be rough trying to raise an independent-minded kid. We give him a steady diet of Stewart, Colbert, Olbermann, and Howard Zinn, and yet we’re up against a huge corporate/governmental propaganda machine. I shouldn’t be surprised some of the brainwashing leaks through.
“I don’t believe it,” he said. “You used drugs in college?”
“It was only pot. And alcohol. A few times. Nothing much, really.”
“Nothing much? Don’t you realize that leads to harder drugs?” The implicit suggestion: Before long, you’ll be a bum in the street lying in your own vomit, and maybe a few other people’s vomit puddles, too.
“You’re kidding me, right? Don’t tell me you actually believe any of that. It’s all government propaganda.”
“So drugs are good.”
Spocko hits the big time
Remember Spocko, the blogger who decided to go after Bay Area hate radio station KSFO for their racist demagoguery? He published the audio clips of the offending DJs’ hate speech on his blog, and he contacted KSFO’s advertisers to inform them that their brands were being associated with this kind of language. To date, Bank of America, Mastercard, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation have pulled their ads. ABC/Disney, the parent corporation which owns KSFO, was not amused. They got Spocko’s ISP to shut down his blog (which has since reopened, hosted by a new ISP: Spocko’s Brain), and soon after, the story hit Daily Kos.
Now, Spocko’s story has been picked up by the New York Times. Last Friday, KSFO preempted their usual programming for three hours to address the controversy. From the sound of it, their apologies were lukewarm at best. “Unrepentant” is, I think, an apt adjective. As for their call-in program, they handpicked their wingnut backers in order to bask in an almost uninterrupted flow of fascist lurve.
Almost uninterrupted. See, they’d invited Kossack Mike Stark (who has championed Spocko’s fight over at Daily Kos) to call in. The NY Times has a great snip:
Mr. Stark: “You’ve spoken of the number of apologies you have tried to make. How many apologies does a professional get before they realize they are an incompetent and move on to another line of work?â€
KSFO’s Lee Rodgers: “Well I haven’t apologized for anything and I am not going to start with you. How the hell do you like that, creep?â€
And Mike Stark has more. He doesn’t want us to get sidetracked by KSFO and their meat puppet DJs; he wants us to keep our eyes on the big prize:
But it really bugs me that Disney – the omnipresent company for those of us with kids – is on the leading edge of the subversive right-wing propaganda campaign that characterizes so much of what we watch, read and hear. As an information company, they are downright dangerous to the ideal of a better society that we are collectively striving for. And they are doing it under one of the most innocent and beloved brand names in America…
So how do we take on The Mouse? After all, Disney has one of the most aggressive legal teams defending its brand. Here’s Mike again:
I just purchased the domain “DisneyHatesYou.com”. I’m building a bulletin board for people to upload photoshops, stories and videos of their bullshit experiences with Disney. From that central repository, I’m encouraging all of you to copy and paste. Copy the photoshops and stories from DisneyHatesYou.com and paste them into the other sites you visit.
Planning a vacation? Spending time at travel discussion sites? Shoot over to DisneyHatesYou and grab a story. Paste it into your comments and tell people why you won’t visit Disney.
The ironic thing is, DisneyHatesYou.com currently runs ads for Disney! Well, that’s gonna change soon. Mike estimates his bulletin board will be up within a week.
H/T to Gaelic Starover for the NY Times story.
D.
PS: I’ll be making a loaf of No-Knead Bread tonight. Bread cooked in a Dutch oven — wild! I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Pescadero Beach, September, 1997
In my mind’s eye, I can see my son as an infant, toddler, eleven-year-old, and everything in between, a smooth continuum. I wonder if it will always be this way. I hope so. I hope, twenty, thirty years from now, that I have the opportunity to think these thoughts.
Last night, Jake asked his mom, “If you had one wish, what would it be?” And good mama that Karen is, she replied, “I would wish you would have the happiest life you can possibly have.”
Sorry. I’m still a bit freaked out over Bush’s saber-rattling tonight vis a vis Iran and Syria; and Chris Matthews just said, “A lot of people are going to go to bed tonight terrified.” My response: Oh, yeah. Terror is a good word for it. We’ve been in Iraq for four years and we’re in the shit deeper than ever. In seven years, Jake will be eighteen. Do any of you doubt that, given enough leash, Bush would want an American military presence in Iraq seven years from now? And when does reality truly set in — when will we see reinstitution of the draft? The man clearly has escalation on his mind, escalation of unconscionable proportions. At some point, he’s going to run out of bodies.
Yes, maybe everything will be hunky-dory in two years when Bush leaves office. But what about the 17- and 18-year-old kids who are in harm’s way now? Also, I don’t doubt Bush’s talent for getting us into a mess so horrific we can’t extricate ourselves in any simple fashion . . . even with a Democrat as president.
Folks keep talking about the Democratic Congress’s wondrous powers of investigation and subpoena. Will investigations prevent Bush from taking pot-shots at Iran and Syria? Will subpoenas bring the troops home?
He’s a danger to our security, to our children, and to the world. Impeachment is the only solution.
D.
Hate speech is not protected speech, bucko
UPDATE: Firedoglake runs with the story.
I spent a good, long time yesterday reading this post and its comment thread (Spocko Rocks ABC! Micky (sic) Mouse Blinks!) over at Daily Kos. Here’s the story, in a nutshell: a blogger with the handle Spocko became concerned over the hate speech excreted by KSFO DJs Melanie Morgan, Lee Rogers, Brian Sussman. He started recording some of the more egregious examples and posted them to his blog, Spockosbrain.
So you’ll know what we’re dealing with — and you won’t have to take my word for it that this is hate speech — here’s Lee Rogers talking about a black man in Lincoln, Nebraska:
“Now you start with the Sear’s Diehard the battery cables connected to his testicles and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off. “
Melanie Morgan on Nancy Pelosi: “We’ve got a bulls-eye painted on her big laughing eyes.” She also called for New York Times editor Bill Keller (and nine editors from other newspapers) to be hanged in public.
Lee Rogers on Indonesia: “Indonesia is really just another enemy Muslim nation. … You keep screwing around with stuff like this we are going to kill a bunch of you. Millions of you. ”
And Brian Sussman, in response to a critical caller, demanded the caller to prove he wasn’t a Muslim: “Say Allah is a wh*re!”
Mind you, not all of these are on the same footing. Recommending the torture/murder of a man in Lincoln, or the assassination/lynching of editors and public officials, clearly crosses the line, while Sussman’s crap may not meet the criteria of hate speech. (Don’t know, not a lawyer.)
Anyway.
KSFO is owned by ABC/Disney. One of their lawyers got Spocko’s ISP to shut him down; Mike Stark at Daily Kos picked up the story, and now we have a blogswarm. Read that link above, though — the tale of how Spocko has gone after KSFO by informing advertisers of all this hate speech is inspirational and edifying.
Today, Mike Stark reports on the Spocko blogswarm. Follow me below the cut.
Nostalgia for Gerald Ford, etc.
The other night, when Karen and I were watching Chevy Chase’s impersonation of Gerald Ford on the old SNL, I said, “Those were the good old days, you know? When the only thing about our president you could make fun of was his clumsiness.”
For a long time now, I’ve wished we had a president whom I could respect. Here’s the Wiki on Jimmy Carter, the last president I liked, a guy my dad still says “was too nice to be president.”
Some heavy-duty insomnia last night, so I may or may not chime in later with something more substantial. I’ll close with two links:
Thanks to Dean* remembering Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, I have tracked down the elusive theme music: Sarah Dash, “Sinner Man.” Amazing that I should have warm thoughts about a disco song, but there you have it.
And here is an interesting link to excerpts from Adam Hochschild’s book, King Leopold’s Ghost, wherein Hochschild speculates on the historic basis for Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz. Here’s a snip:
”The ‘Inner Station’ of Heart of Darkness, the place Marlow looks at through his binoculars only to find Kurtz’s collection of the shrunken heads of African ‘rebels,’ is loosely based on Stanley Falls. In 1895, five years after Conrad visited this post, Leon Rom was station chief there. A British explorer-journalist who passed through Stanley Falls that year described the aftermath of a punitive military expedition against some African rebels: ‘Many women and children were taken, and twenty-one heads were brought to the falls, and have been used by Captain Rom as a decoration round a flower-bed in front of his house!’ If Conrad missed this account, which appeared in the widely read Century Magazine, he almost certainly noticed when The Saturday Review, a magazine he admired and read faithfully, repeated the story in its issue of December 17, 1898. That date was within a few days of when Conrad began writing Heart of Darkness.
Oh how I love the holiday season, tra la la . . .
D.
*Read Dean’s Global Orgasm Day story. Read it now! Much better than anything I have to offer.