Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop pundit shop.

Warren Zinn talks about war and Joseph Dwyer.

Jeff Jacoby complains that Democrats aren't honoring John McCain's military service like they did John Kerry's. But apparently Jacoby isn't bothered by Republicans who disrespected John Kerry's military service, including Bud Day, who is a member of McCain's "truth squad" and was a member of the discredited Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Glenn L. Carle observes that:

The "Global War on Terror" has conjured the image of terrorists behind every bush, the bushes themselves burning and an angry god inciting its faithful to religious war. We have been called to arms, built fences, and compromised our laws and the practices that define us as a nation. The administration has focused on pursuing terrorists and countering an imminent and terrifying threat. Thousands of Americans have died as a result, as have tens of thousands of foreigners.

And John McCain wants to keep that image alive.

Maureen Dowd continues to waste space at the New York Times. Did you know that Barack Obama doesn’t like ice cream?

R.J. Rummel explains why "Congressional liberals and gullible antiwar protesters" in 1973 were responsible for millions of deaths, civil wars in Angola and Central America, the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the 1983 terrorist bombing in Beruit that killed 241 Marines and September 11th. Busy little bees, weren’t they?

John Sides and Eric Lawrence talk about political blogs. Beware! You are being studied.

Mike Males wants us to stop stigmatizing teenage pregnancy. This mother of two teenage daughters disagrees.

Steve Chapman on gun control, suicide and other ways to kill yourself if you really want to.

•  Abbreviated Pundit Round up is fast becoming

  one of my favorite parts of DKOs!!!

  by CTMET on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:03:14 AM PDT

  •  Agreed

    I love it.

    by AndrewMC on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:13:07 AM PDT

•  Excuse me, Mr. Jacoby

  Let's go back to the 2004 Republican National Convention and the Purple Heart band-aids.  Democrats have never done anything so despicable and disrespectful as that.  I am still completely baffled about how Republicans get away with that kind of stuff.

  by illinifan17 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:05:05 AM PDT

  •  Chutzpah is the short anwer

    Or if you step on my foot you can ignore it, apologize, or start secreaming that I have disrespected your foot. GOP chooses the latter, employing psychological ju jisu so that they sneer at victomhood for geniune victims while all the time moaning about how they are victimized by various people.

    Hey the purple bandaid was a joke and Kerry was a liar about his service and Liberals have no sense of humor and Clark disrepected McCain and why are you picking on Republicans anyway?  Why do you hate America?

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:14:37 AM PDT

    •  really....just spend $1.00, put...

      ...a yellow ribbon sticker on your Hummer that tells everyone you heart the troops, and quit whining.

      Is those below serving those up above

      - Sweeney Todd

      by tinfoilhat on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:51:55 AM PDT

  •  Oh, didn't you see all those Jacoby columns...

    . . . back in '04 where he eviscerates the Bushbots and the Right Wing in general for working overtime to tear-down a decorated Viet Nam vet?

    Yeah, me neither.

    bg
    _____

    by BenGoshi on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:20:53 AM PDT

  •  Well, You Know...

    Lying about one's wartime activities is the same as saying noble wartime activities are not necessarily a reason one should be President.

    Just remember: IOKIYAR. Clearly.

    by markhaverty on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:52:00 AM PDT

    •  Didn't the Swifties make the point in 04

      that combat experience is not necessary to being president and may even be irrelevant when people tried to compare the two candidates' military records?

      When did the rules change? O yeah, the day after the election.

      by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:57:35 AM PDT

  •  Disrespect? IOKIYAR.

    

    by Lashe on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:05:40 AM PDT

    •  Is that her face-lift bandage?

      She IS a Republican woman, so I'm assuming she's had a few.
      /snark

      by tammanycall on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:53:48 AM PDT

      •  Then she should sue

        her plastic surgeon...and her dentist....

        by wonderful world on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:56:15 AM PDT

        •  And her parents.

          by kitebro on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:01:54 AM PDT

  •  Chickenhawk Jeff Jacoby is lecturing

    Max Cleland and George McGovern on proper respect for veterans. What a surprise.

    by Elwood Dowd on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:07:12 AM PDT

•  Jacoby is such an ass.

  Seriously - his columns are SO one-sided and myopic. I wish the Globe would find a conservative that actually makes you think or helps you to look at something in a different light.

  And yes - I believe they exist!

  Lisa :)

  by Boston to Salem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:09:14 AM PDT

  •  Unicorns are more common than sensitive

    reflective thoughtful conservative pundits; I don't know if they take the same bait.

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:15:57 AM PDT

  •  40 years ago i thought William Buckley

    was a thoughtful conservative pundit. Then I read several years of his columns.

    Then I tought the same of George Will, and read several years of his columns.

    Then I thought the same of William Safire, same result.

    A few months ago I thought the same of Amy Holmes, but my track record with this is not very good.

    Every one of the aforementioned had / has some real insights once in a blue moon, but in the main, conservatism attracts shills.

    by Kimball Cross on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:17:15 AM PDT

    •  Agree

      In the case of Buckley and Will, they're articulate shills.  But shills nonetheless.  

      by dotalbon on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:27:56 AM PDT

  •  On the redeeming value of conservative commentary

    ...I remember a while back, the author of an article in Harper's did us the favor of going through reams and reams of it, which doubtless included the work of (relative) luminaries such as Buckley and Will, and the only coherent thesis he could extract from it all was that money ennobles the rich and degrades the poor.

    by vizard on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:48:43 AM PDT

    •  The subtext is always the same

      If you're poor, you didn't try hard enough to be rich, which is obviously a character flaw, and people with character flaws don't deserve to be rich.

      Did the conservatives invent Catch-22, or does it just seem that way?  

      by dotalbon on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:02:48 AM PDT

      •  Even worse...

        If you're poor, you didn't try hard enough to be rich, which is obviously a character flaw, and people with character flaws don't deserve to be rich.

        It almost seems as though the last statement can be strengthened (weakened?) to "people with character flaws don't deserve the chance to improve their lot."

        What really gets me is that this mindset is often rationalized by the assumption that "we're basically hairless apes, the strong survive, the weak perish, and that's that"--even though  the latter flies in the face of some relatively recent work on primatology.  See, for instance, "A Natural History of Peace" by Robert Sapolsky in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, which is freely available online.

        by vizard on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:32:06 AM PDT

•  Isn't it great hearing Republicans

  like Mr. Jacoby complain that Democrats aren't worshiping at the altar of Maverick McSame? There is a word that describes these hypocrites and their faux-outrage: Whiner.

  by beltane on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:10:21 AM PDT

•  Zinn's article is excellent.

  It offers much to discuss on war and how the various actors are affected.

  by turn Virginia blue on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:11:33 AM PDT

•  Obama prefers pie

  No joke either. And fruit or stuff like pumpkin are preferred.

  by Scarce on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:12:02 AM PDT

  •  A natural Kossack.

    by Crashing Vor on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:14:20 AM PDT

  •  Shows very good taste

    Pie is the all-American dessert.  My personal favorites:

    Pecan
    Strawberry-rhubarb
    Banana cream with graham-cracker crust  

    by dotalbon on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:05:02 AM PDT

  •  Bourbon Chocolate/Pecan in a pastry crust

    topped with large mounds of real whipped cream.

    by Nimbus on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:49:12 AM PDT

•  Obama doesn't like ice cream?

  Then explainn this item from the Chicago Tribune:

  "1400 E. 53rd St.
  Though now an empty storefront, this was a Baskin-Robbins store in summer 1989, when Obama finally persuaded Michelle Robinson to join him for an ice cream cone as their first date. "We sat on the curb and ate our cones in the sticky afternoon heat, and I told her about working at Baskin-Robbins when I was a teenager and how it was hard to look cool in a brown apron and cap," he writes in "Audacity of Hope." After the two had exchanged some small talk, Obama writes: "I asked if I could kiss her. It tasted of chocolate."
  "

  by anastasia p on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:12:16 AM PDT

  •  He REALLY liked Michelle!

    by candid psychiatrist on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:20:15 AM PDT

    •  Don't we all?

      by tammanycall on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:54:49 AM PDT

  •  The Obama bus made a stop at Prince

    Puckler's ice cream in Eugene where he got two scoops of ice cream.  The stop wasn't on the agenda so he must really not like ice cream??

    by Molly M on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:37:25 AM PDT

  •  Oh good

    So I didn't hallucinate that part of Audacity of Hope when I was listening to the audiobook. I wonder what Dowd was hallucinating?

    by Omir the Storyteller on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:53:15 AM PDT

  •  She makes shit up?

    Was she making stuff up when in 2000 she claimed that Gore made stuff up? I stopped reading her crap. This is why.

    by kitebro on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:03:51 AM PDT

•  The contrast between

  Frank Rich's column and Maureen Dowd's were the perfect illustration of why we are in such a mess.  Do you think the editors even realized what they were doing by putting those two columns on the same page?

  by Susan S on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:14:20 AM PDT

  •  Amen!

    I will never understand how the NYT decided that Dowd deserved a column on the editorial page.  With all the issues facing this country at this time in history, the last thing I want to see on the editorial page of the Times is a rant that would embarrass even my high school newspaper.

    by kkbmom on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:52:20 AM PDT

•  Question for Rummel:

  How are congressional liberals and antiwar protesters responsible for the Beruit barracks attack?

  Reagan and Cap sent the Marines on that incredibly ill-planned mission.  Reagan and Cap pulled 'em out.  WTF is he talking about?

  by Crashing Vor on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:18:15 AM PDT

•  I wish I didn't like ice cream! n/t

  by candid psychiatrist on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:19:03 AM PDT

  •  Lewis Carroll

    He recounted a story of one of his young female friends telling him she was glad she didn't like ice cream.

    "Why is that?" he asked.

    "Because if I did I should have to eat it more often, and I can't stand it."

    At least I think it was Lewis Carroll. Sounds like him, anyway.

    by Omir the Storyteller on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:56:32 AM PDT

•  And Jacoby's a lying asshole.

  Democrats, and even the more, shall we say, "strident" among us --  including myself  -- go on, and on, and on, and friggin' on about how McCain does deserve credit for weathering, for enduring, the hell of Viet Cong imprisonment.  What Jacoby and his fellow freaks bray incessantly about is that we refuse to allow that that qualifies McCain to be President.  Damn straight it doesn't.

  And, of course, what they also willfully ignore is their rank hypocrisy in holding-up and flogging McCain's captivity -- some 40 years ago -- as testament to his personal honor, but declare "off limits" McCain's unscrupulous dumping of his loyal and dedicated wife for Cindy H Wealthy Eye Candy -- some 28 years ago -- as testament to McCain's personal depravity.

  If only we could harness the spinning of swine and cretins like Jacoby - energy crisis solved.

  bg
  _____

  by BenGoshi on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:19:11 AM PDT

  •  If enduring torture

    Democrats, and even the more, shall we say, "strident" among us --  including myself  -- go on, and on, and on, and friggin' on about how McCain does deserve credit for weathering, for enduring, the hell of Viet Cong imprisonment.  What Jacoby and his fellow freaks bray incessantly about is that we refuse to allow that that qualifies McCain to be President.

    is a qualification for leadership, how many future presidents has Bu$hCo created at Gitmo and Abu Grhaib?

    by drewfromct on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:36:07 AM PDT

  •  No Democrat can say McCain's name without

    referencing their honor for his service.  Is there anyone alive who has been honored more for their service . . . a service that he himself never brings up and doesn't like to talk about?  What a crock!

    by Molly M on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:39:15 AM PDT

  •  It's worse than that.

    Let's take a look at the list of Democrats he takes shots at as "disrespecting military service":

    Rockefeller: No military service (Peace Corps). OK, that fits the stereotype he's playing to...

    McGovern: USAAF WWII, Distinguished Flying Cross. Not so much...

    Bill Gillespie: Army (1984-2007). That one even Jacoby has to admit to. Bronze Star.

    Harkin:  USN (1962-1967).

    Clark: Army (1966-2000). Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. Bronze Star (2)

    Beers: USMC (1964-1968)

    So his claim is what? That Democratic veterans don't honor... veterans?

    by The Polite Liberal on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:34:27 AM PDT

•  Eat the Doughnut

  

  For pundits everywhere, Margaret Carlson's incisive comment which probably should be her epitaph.

  by Scarce on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:20:03 AM PDT

  •  don't get it

    What's the meme behind doughnut-eating?

    To the diarist: you said

    Mike Males wants us to stop stigmatizing teenage pregnancy. This mother of two teenage daughters disagrees.

    Could you elaborate on your disagreement?  The article seems persuasive, if the statements of fact are correct.  Are the facts wrong?  Or his interpretation?  I'm asking to learn, not to challenge.

    Silvio Levy

    by codairem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:55:30 AM PDT

•  Obama '08

  

  by Scarce on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:23:01 AM PDT

•  The pundit who stunned me the most...

  ...this morning has to be Jonathan Alter at Newsweek, suggesting that Senator Obama should dispense with teachers as a part of the traditional Democratic coalition.  Given Alter's closeness to the Obama campaign, is this a major foreshadowing or merely encouragement for another move to the center?

  Here's the gist of it, this header...

  Moderates would respond to a Democrat willing to slip the ideological stranglehold of a liberal interest group.

  And here's the link...

  http://www.newsweek.com/...

  by Larry Bailey on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:27:52 AM PDT

  •  I was particularily fond of

    the "Blogging report" based on data from 2006!!  We might as well "report" on the dietary fads of 1956.  The world is really moving too fast for these guys, isn't it?

    by Granny Doc on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:43:06 AM PDT

    •  I noticed the 2006 date also...

      Come on, how much has the readership of Kos increased since 2006?  

      I expect the numbers of people that regularly read blogs (on both sides) has increased substantially.  

      And who do you know that only reads one blog a day?  A regular day I read at least ten, starting with Kos and usually ending with Kos.  A day when I don't have much to do, I read many more.

      But still, it was an intereting read.  And maybe some of the folks that read the LA Times will come over and take a look, for curiosity sake.

      One of my brothers was in town staying with us, and I showed him Daily Kos last night.  There was that great post on the countries financial problems on the recommended list.  My brother couldn't believe that some "reader" had taken the time it would take to write something that detailed and good.  He was amazed.  And it didn't even have anything to do with politics!  (Directly that is.)

      by JWC on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:34:05 AM PDT

  •  What a crappy article. Blame the teachers.

    Obama claims that he's bold on this topic. But he hasn't been direct enough about reforming NCLB so that it revolves around clear measurements of classroom-teacher effectiveness. Research shows that this is the only variable (not class size or school size) that can close the achievement gap. Give poor kids from broken homes the best teachers, and most learn. Period.

       To get there, Obama should hold a summit of all 50 governors and move them toward national standards and better recruitment, training and evaluation of teachers.

    Research shows that this is the only variable....

    What research? Classroom size doesn't matter so let's give the teachers 100 kids instead of 50.  If the teachers are the "best", it shouldn't be a problem.

    Give poor kids from broken homes the best teachers....

    The best teachers?  That really pins it down.  If only all of our teachers were the "best" teachers, our problems would be solved. Darn teachers.

    Better recruitment, training and evaluation of teachers...

    Maybe instead a look should be taken at why it is difficult to attract and retain teachers.  Most of the teachers I know are treated like crap.  Busting their union will help attract the "best" teachers?  

    The FOXNews mentality of fake easy solutions and blaming someone else.

    by sweeper on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:50:17 AM PDT

    •  classroom size doesn't matter?

      since when?  Dating from 1970 or so, the research has consistently shown that classroom size is one gold standard; ironically, the poorest teachers frequently are stuck with the largest classes.
      I used to tell principals, give me 10 and I will teach anyone, anything, give me 20 and I will teach and meet objectives, give me 30 and I am babysitting, give me 40 and I am keeping them out of the halls. So they assigned me to a study hall my free period with 100!  

      by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:02:51 AM PDT

    •  hey Alter, what about better pay?

      Republicans are all free market until it comes to education where teachers are suppose to be self-sacrificing. You want the best and brightest? Pay for it!

      When my mom went to college women became school teachers or nurses. Now education has to compete with the marketplace for the best talent.

      by batgirl71 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:17:32 AM PDT

      •  School districts are famous for hiring the

        cheapest, i.e. least experienced and educated teachers; for those who don't move on to administration, there comes a day when years of experience and education makes you completely unemployable.

        by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:32:16 AM PDT

        •  exactly. Ask repugs if we can't just outsource

          the whole teacher thing.  We can probably get a dozen Malaysian teachers for the price of one US teacher, yes?  Just think of it - recruit entire villages of teachers from Bangalore!  In fact, just set up teaching data centers IN Bangalore and let kids sit with headphones and do on-line ed.  All the $MONEY$ we could save?  

          < /snark >

          Is those below serving those up above

          - Sweeney Todd

          by tinfoilhat on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:04:09 AM PDT

    •  I have a certain sympathy for him...

      And my standard disclaimer on this --
      I am not a Democrat (nor a Republican), consider myself mostly conservative, although I did march in a Fourth of July parade last weekend in support of a local Green Party candidate, so go figure.

      The thing that troubles me about the close relationshup between any political party and teacher's unions has nothing to do with good or bad teachers.

      In the last couple of years, we took our daughters out of private schools and put them in local public schools.  We are happy with the results and happy with the teachers.

      But...

      The focus in education should be on teaching students, not caring for teachers.  Caring for teachers is important, but it is an instrumentality towards the real goal.  Teachers' Unions, by their nature, have to put teachers' interests first.

      And, yes, yes, yes, I know -- good teachers care about their students.  Otherwise they wouldn't be good teachers.

      by dinotrac on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:33:46 AM PDT

  •  Alter is anti-union

    He's not all bad, but that's a part of him that's not good.

    by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:09:37 AM PDT

  •  Just another shill for the right

    It's a blatant, tired conservative ploy,  tarring unions with the "liberal ideologue" label.  As if working Americans become pinkos when they organize and demand things like a living wage, decent working conditions, and benefits.

    Sadly, not all right-wing wonks are Republicans.  I hope this guy has very little to do with the Obama campaign.  

     

    by dotalbon on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:11:12 AM PDT

•  Just Sent This Email To Jeff Jacoby

  Simply put, the Republican party as a whole did nothing but discredit John Kerry's service to this country. I found the entire sorry spectacle that culminated in the "Swift Boat" nonsense to be a Kafkaesque affair where known facts were being declared as lies all on the say so of bitter, angry and well-funded front men set into motion by Karl Rove - a man who has served his country far less than he has served himself.

  The current situation with McCain shows a nearly reversed dynamic from the GOP. They pump up the record of Senator McCain to near mythic proportions, declaring with zero basis that the simple fact of his captivity gives him all but a wreath of laurels. I have no doubt that this P.R. campaign is run with as many snickers behind the scenes as it is with both stone-faced seriousness and weepy eyes in front of the cameras.

  It's quite an embarrassing display.

  by Splicer on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:30:53 AM PDT

  •  Excellent

    by bumblebums on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:47:45 AM PDT

  •  Problem is McCain's supporters have

    not made the case that combat experience= POTUS capable people. History is mixed as many great presidents have and have not had military experience while the worst have or have not had military experience.
    So it appears to be irrelevent but the editors will never put this fact into print.  

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:05:41 AM PDT

•  Studying Blogs and their commentors?

  I wonder if anyone with a PhD in Anthropology has done this.  Instead of, you know, those with doctorates in Spin who are chained to a lawn peg.

  Might have to break out my ethnography books from college and make myself useful.

  by Arcadian on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:35:29 AM PDT

  •  Afterthought!

    Chained to a lawn peg, and mistake their doghouse for a penthouse.

    Fear my metaphor-fu.

    by Arcadian on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:47:14 AM PDT

•  I bet that sometime this week, the American

  Red Cross will begin to be framed as a "far left fringe" outfit by one of these people.

  :::::

  by nowheredesign on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:39:18 AM PDT

  •  Damn libruls

    Saving lives is unamerican.

    That reminds me, I need to go give blood soon.

    by Arcadian on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:40:21 AM PDT

  •  I think it was

    the International Red Cross that issued the war crimes report...

    by Granny Doc on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:45:00 AM PDT

    •  Yea. Sorry, I mistyped. :)

      by nowheredesign on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:48:28 AM PDT

  •  They are already onto Planned Parenthood

    as making millions each year from abortions. Who needs facts?

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:06:52 AM PDT

•  From the minor leagues

  we have Adam Graham who puts forth the reason we cannot afford to elect Democrats is because the GOP has broken the bank and everyone knows Demcrats spend money while the GOP saves money:

  http://www.renewamerica.us/...

  This guy is an Alan Keyes supporter to give you an idea of his ideology.

  by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:55:35 AM PDT

•  I'm impressed

  Steve Chapman on gun control, suicide and other ways to kill yourself if you really want to.

  What no gun control screed? I thought that Chapman's column would have brought the "gun control" freaks out of the wood work. 8-0 Maybe later.

  by cdembrey on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 06:56:01 AM PDT

  •  Good sign. Eyes on the ball, guys.

    This time around it seems Democrats, including Kossacks, are being smart enough not to get suckered into arguing about guns. With your government drifting into fascism, a no-win war dragging on, the US economy trembling on the brink of bankruptcy, and Climate Change starting to display its nasty teeth, there are plenty of more urgent things to talk about.

    by Canadian Reader on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:09:43 AM PDT

    •  Good strategy!

      The Bad Guys try to distract with, "Why won't THEY talk about this, this, and this?"

      The Good Guys respond with, "Because - quite frankly - this, this, and this is far more important, and you should be ashamed to think otherwise."

      The Bad Guys: "B-b-bu... Next time, Gadget.  NEXT TIME!"

      by Arcadian on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:15:01 AM PDT

•  "bush" or "Bush"?

  "terrorists behind every bush"

  "the bushes themselves burning and an angry god inciting its faithful to religious war"

  by apostrophe on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:00:22 AM PDT

•  And then there's Broder

  Today he is basically angry at Obama because Obama is not giving Republicans the rope from which to hang him.

  by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:02:58 AM PDT

  •  Link? n/t

    by BarbinMD on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:00:22 AM PDT

    •  Here it is

      I gave it below, but here it is again.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

      Shorter Broder:

      In their effort to embarrass him, Republicans ask: Who is the real Barack Obama?....Last week, the Republican National Committee, in a statement cataloguing some half-dozen recent Obama "flip-flops," threw up its hands without offering answers.....I can do no better, and I confess that it is only speculation to suggest that Obama's recent performance is motivated by a desire to confuse the opposition.

      by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:23:28 AM PDT

      •  Thanks

        ...and bleh.  What a tool.

        by BarbinMD on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:24:32 AM PDT

        •  You're welcome

          I remember when you couldn't really tell which party Broder supported.

          That was a long time ago.

          by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:30:10 AM PDT

•  day

  You mean Bud Day, the Medal of Honor Winner? THAT Bud Day??   Pathetic

  by Rick554 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:03:34 AM PDT

•  Is he again wearing that

  denim shirt, with an green/orange/purple tie, and a brown jacket with red pin stripes? On top of that, everything is wrinkled. The guy dresses like a clown.

  by amsel on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:06:54 AM PDT

  •  He=Broder

    by amsel on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:07:12 AM PDT

  •  I don't know

    It's his Washington Post opinion.  He's hiding behind his newsprint.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

    I didn't want to give him any more hits, but oh well.

    by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:13:01 AM PDT

    •  Nevermind,

      I thought he was on Meet the Press. I am on the west coast. I'll watch it in the next hour.

      by amsel on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:14:32 AM PDT

  •  Bud Day, also McCain's divorce lawyer

    which was revealed in the L.A. times article.  I commented on it, 'cause it freaked me out, but I think it went unnoticed.  Still the Swiftboat-McCain connection is interesting.

    by tammanycall on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:00:49 AM PDT

•  I'm not impressde

  Hundreds of thousands in South Vietnam who had trusted America's promises were executed, died in concentration camps, or died at sea as "boat people" trying to flee the Stalinist tyranny Congress imposed upon tens of millions in South Vietnam.

  Stalinist? R.J. Rummel is a historian and he doesn't know that Ho Chi Minh was a communist, but not a Stalinist. Gotta get these damned conservatives out of the universities before they corrupt the minds of students.

  by cdembrey on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:08:23 AM PDT

  •  Rummel has a very good point about

    the "death by government" thing.   Sadly, this ZOMG! COMMIES!! thing is beneath him.  

    by obnoxiotheclown on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:27:09 AM PDT

•  Speaking of pundits. . .

  In the "Never Mind" Dept., I sent Howard Kurtz an email this week referencing the HuffPo story about McCain's Worst Week saying that, while it's natural that the left should complain about the disparity of coverage between McCain and Obama, I'd been hearing more journalists themselves bring up the question.  Would he be looking into the fairness or unfairness of the candidates' coverage?

  Very balanced tone.  No "you guys suck."

  Today on Reliable Sources:  Obama and kids on Access Hollywood.  Has Obama flipflopped on Iraq?  Jesse Jackson!  New Yorker cover!

  ***sigh***

  by Crashing Vor on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:10:22 AM PDT

•  I sure wish I disliked iced cream as much as

  Barack does. I might be 30 pounds thinner.

  by Kimball Cross on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:12:30 AM PDT

  •  Try being lactose intolerant

    Which, who knows, maybe he has become like probably most of the adult world.

    But of course if he said he was lactose intolerant, that would merely reinforce the "orchid" image.

    by NCJan on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:15:27 AM PDT

    •  I believe many people of African heritage are

      lactose intolerant.

      by Virginia mom on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:31:02 AM PDT

•  Rummel, Washington Times, and Mein Kampf

  The whole GOP screed about how the pulic lost Vietnam is straight from Mein Kampf. Hitler wrote a whole chapter about the losss of WW1 that every Republican knows by heart. Read the whole chapter "Causes of the Collapse"   about how the liberal press, pacificists, and school teachers lost the war.

  The answer to this can be very brief: always, when military defeat iS the payment meted out to peoples for their inner rottenness, cowardice, lack of character, in short, unworthiness.

  by bernardpliers on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:12:33 AM PDT

  •  In Vietnam,

    the war itself may have been unworthy.  

    A sufficient base of public support, however obtained, is necessary for military victory.  In this matter, Hitler has a point.   A lack of public support is not always caused by the factors he mentions: rottenness, cowardice, etc.  Sometimes it is caused by things like decency and common sense.

    The end result is the same,  defeat.   Sometimes the consequences of defeat are so bad that one must see an unjust war through to victory.  The current war probably doesn't qualify.

    Just because an asshole says something doesn't mean it can't be at least partially true.  

    by obnoxiotheclown on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:35:14 AM PDT

    •  Wars of Choice

      Well, Germany made the fatal error of attacking their neighbors in WW1 and WW2. People respond more strongly to being attacked and occupied, as the Germans discovered twice. It's harder to get people to support making the attack, especially when the promised swift victory fails to materialize. We had to do it twice also, in Vietnam and Iraq. This is not complicated.

      by bernardpliers on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 11:10:27 AM PDT

•  MoDo is insane <n/t>

  by jds1978 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:16:29 AM PDT

  •  i heart MoDo's insanity n/t

    Is those below serving those up above

    - Sweeney Todd

    by tinfoilhat on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:06:34 AM PDT

•  Good one on Gramm

  by Bob Herbert in NYT:

  During one of the many Republican assaults on Social Security, the issue of cutting back benefits for the elderly came up in the Senate. "They are 80-year-olds," howled Mr. Gramm. "Most people don’t have the luxury of living to be 80 years old, so it’s hard for me to feel sorry for them."

  He also comments on Obamas response:

  Cute. But woefully inadequate. The Democrats, timid as always, should be pounding the populist pavement from one coast to another, explaining how the reckless and deliberately inequitable policies of the past several years have gotten the U.S. into this terrible fix.

  We should be getting chapter and verse about how badly the war in Iraq is hurting us here at home. We should be seeing charts and graphs explaining how ordinary Americans, now the hardest-working people on the planet, have been cheated out of their share of the extraordinary productivity improvements they’ve racked up over the years.

  http://www.nytimes.com/...

  by Mariken on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:21:45 AM PDT

  •  WaPo says Gramm is right

    the economic pain is all in our heads and that the problem is there is an election economy which sucks and a real economy that is robust"

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

    I hope they had to break at least one arm before Amy agreed to write this stuff.

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:38:05 AM PDT

  •  Gramm gets an A+ for being a totally repellant

    creepy mean whiny yucko. So all of you who have lived to be 80, just go sit in the woods and think about how lucky you are to have lived so long. Then just drop dead please. Gramm doesn't care about you.

    by flumptytail on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:39:04 AM PDT

    •  Yes, he must have the coldest heart in the world

      imo.

      by Mariken on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:54:05 AM PDT

      •  And he and McCain have been good buddies

        since they met around 20 years ago, so what does that tell you about McCain? There's no way I could have any kind of friendship with Gramm under any circumstance I can think of.

        by flumptytail on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:02:41 AM PDT

    •  Gramms head is shoved so far up his derriere

      that he eats yesterday's lunch for breakfast. Every time he opens his mouth, I'm forced to ask myself, "What on Earth is wrong with that man?"

      by James Kresnik on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 01:36:19 PM PDT

•  While not exactly from a pundit

  Larry Johnsohn at NQ and his merry band are keeping things very surreal. FDL posted a satire about the Bernie Mac flap with a fake AP story which was posted as factual at NQ.

  LGM and John Cole picked up on the fun situation:

   http://www.balloon-juice.com/...
  for John Cole and it appears now NQ's is trying to spin it around their response to the satire was a satire of the satire or something.

  NQ: almost as correct as Fox?

  by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:30:03 AM PDT

•  Barack Obama doesn’t like ice cream?

  WTF?  Okay, FISA didn't really piss me off all that much.  I know, I know, it might sound lame but I have to admit like a good majority of Americans I just didn't give a flying fuck regardless of how many people told me I really ought to and even though I knew I really ought to.  I tried to care, I did, but I didn't.  So there it is.

  But the ice cream?  DEAL BREAKER.

  by lollydee on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:30:11 AM PDT

•  Best Freudian slip

  ever:

  Glenn L. Carle observes that:

     The "Global War on Terror" has conjured the image of terrorists behind every bush, the bushes themselves

     

  Once more, for emphasis:

  terrorists behind...the bushes themselves

  by drewfromct on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:31:31 AM PDT

  •  I guess I read it as intentional and implied. eom

    by left coast newbie on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:56:38 AM PDT

•  MoDo is a Misogynistic DoDo

  MoDo continues her offensive, crude, primitive and fundamentally misogynistic meme:

  Republican = Man = Strong = Good
  Democrat = Woman = Weak = Bad

  In today's excrescence, she says of Obama:

  "orchid"
  "hothouse flower"
  "finicky, asbtemious"

  While saying of Republican positions that they are "more muscular."

  That sentence is especially revelatory, so let's look at it:

  The Republican game is hilariously transparent: if Obama doesn’t shift to more muscular postures, he’s not a patriot. If he does, he’s a flip-flopper.

  Substitute Maureen Dowd for Republican in that sentence and you have written a perfect critique of Dowd's writing.

  by abrauer on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:32:48 AM PDT

  •  At least dodos had the grace to

    quietly fade into extinction. Dowd lacks the sense of a dodo.

    by entlord1 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:39:47 AM PDT

    •  Dodo's didin't fade into extinction.

      Humans sent them there.

      Now what could be done about this batch of dodos?

      by James Kresnik on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 01:38:22 PM PDT

•  The Interesting Bio of Michael Arnold Males

  http://home.earthlink.net/...

  Mike Males was born in Oklahoma City in 1950 and promptly expelled from second grade. I hitchhiked to California in 1967, attended college, listened to much Doors, Hendrix, and 60s punk, smoked a fairly small amount of dope, and contributed just about nothing to the sexual revolution. I worked in anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements, culminating in arrest and release for blocking the Santa Monica Freeway (with 3,000 protesters) and unheralded participation (with 100,000 others) in the 1969 San Francisco Moratorium. I worked for Portland (Oregon) Recycling as a bottle-breaker and newspaper-bundler in the early 1970s, authoring the city's recycling-alternative proposal. In the late 1970s and 1980s, I worked in youth programs, including wilderness projects for "at risk" youths and the Youth Conservation Corps in Olympic, Yellowstone, and Yosemite National Parks, for 10 years; was a newspaper reporter covering politics, government, and crime, for the Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle; worked as an environmental lobbyist and initiative petition coordinator for the Environmental Information Center, Helena, Montana, in 1979-81; and returned to graduate school at the University of California, Irvine, in 1993 to study youth issues. Upon obtaining my Ph.D. in social ecology in October 1999, I moved to Santa Cruz, California, to be with my own kind (aging Sixties throwbacks) and am finding them as irritating as I am; however, I did enjoy living for 2 months with 25 Gen Yers in the back house of the Cesar Chavez Student Co-op on Beach Hill. I have authored many unconventional articles on youth issues such as crime, drug abuse, pregnancy, and economics,...

  Very dense bio.

  Cutting edge?

  Or, traditional roué?

  by Karen Hedwig Backman on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:37:17 AM PDT

•  Carly Fiorina...

  equates McSame's "Gramm problem" with Obama's "pastor problem".

  What a frackin lunatic she is, no wonder she was fired.

  by lalo456987 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:41:38 AM PDT

  •  Wasn't she fired

    for spying on her employees, iirc?

    by drewfromct on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:43:41 AM PDT

    •  She was fired...

      for that and HP was a clunker financially--until she left.

      by lalo456987 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:46:54 AM PDT

      •  And in interviews since

        she's attempted to claim credit for the rise in HP's stock price after she left.  Something like, "I knew it was going to get better," or some such nonsense.

        Yeah, we all knew it was going to get better after you were gone.  That's why they made you leave.

        by tammanycall on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:25:09 AM PDT

        •  The typical 'Ownership Society' type

          owns everything of value except integrity.

          Yeah, we all knew it was going to get better after you were gone.  That's why they made you leave.

          Giggles.

          by James Kresnik on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 01:44:59 PM PDT

•  Barb, I have decided..

  that the word "Discredited" in reference to any Republican but particularly the SwiftboatLiarsForBush and McBush is just too hard of a word for those Bush supporting Rethuglicans to understand.

  So I decided to look for synonyms:

  Main Entry:   discredited
  Synonyms:
  at a discount, belied, confounded, confuted, contested, deflated, denied, disbelieved, discarded, disgraced, dismissed, disproved, disputed, doubted, exploded, exposed, impugned, in Dutch, in bad, in bad odor, in bad repute, in discredit, in disfavor, in disgrace, in disrepute, invalidated, loaded with shame, mistrusted, moot, negated, negatived, out of countenance, out of favor, overthrown, overturned, punctured, questioned, refuted, rejected, shamed, shown up, suspect, suspected, under a cloud, under suspicion, upset

  Not of those quite do the trick.

  So maybe these words might:

  Lying Bullies.  Liars. Political Hacks.

  Well...I know that intelligent people know that the swifties were discredited.  But maybe we have to dumb it down to basic elementary school level for the rest of the people.

  (No snark at you, barb)

  by Silence is Complicity on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 07:49:35 AM PDT

  •  Ugg smell bad!

    No, Thog smell more bad than Ugg!

    by Arcadian on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:44:07 AM PDT

    •  ...

      "This is Pickens.

      Pickens is a DICKens.

      Pickens likes to pick his facts

      Bad Pickens.

      Pickens picked his nose and forgot to check factcheck.

      Now Pickens made a bad bet.

      He put his money on liars.

      Now Pickens lost his money with that bet.

      But Pickens is a DICKens.

      So he pretended he see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

      And Pickens, the DICKens, walked away and would not pay.  

      Pickens is a DICKens.

      by Silence is Complicity on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:17:19 AM PDT

    •  Funny, that.

      Is to smell bad to stink well?

      by left coast newbie on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:54:11 AM PDT

•  Maureen Dowd has turned into a total ass

  There were two strongly reprehensible things in her article. The first was the section about Obama and ice cream. First of all, who gives a shit whether he likes ice cream or not? I mean, really. Second, her column implies that it was a mistake for Obama to let the girls be interviewed BECAUSE they gave more details about Obama's persnickety tastes - a way of accusing him of being an elitist. She said something to the effect that if he ever does make it to the Rose Garden, he'll be something of an orchid (or some other exotic-type flower) thereby pointing out Obama's essential "otherness." My mother wrote her PhD (Literature written in English)about the fact that many American authors since the inception of our country have portrayed black people as "the other" and used them, not as individual people with individual lives and personal likes and dislikes, but in