Friday, June 20

Is The Wilderness Always This Cold In Mid-June?

OKAY, it's a great day to be an American, especially one who owns a telecom company, or a presumptive Democratic nominee with a $half-billion of expected IOUs in your pocket and the remarkable ability to spin 180ยบ and still get kissed by your supporters.

Otherwise, maybe not.

I have no problem with Democrats playing hardball. In fact I've tried to encourage it for years, but the only time Democrats have played hardball over the past three decades it was in order to cover up how little they were actually doing for their constituencies. And I think the Obama campaign probably made the correct decision wrt Federal financing, but they sure made it rather abruptly, and on a day when the Senator could have been fighting for real, important change in Washington. As it is, I've begun to wonder just how often we're going to hear "the system is broken" as an excuse. This particular system has been broken since the day it was implemented, and I don't recall Senator Obama proposing much in the way of a fix. Or, you know, ever talking about a "broken system" before yesterday. But never mind. Though I can't say I see a whole helluva lot of difference between a man with $500 M in lobbyist money in his pocket and one who got it $100 at a time, at least in terms of which one I'd want to go bowling with. Exxon-Mobil and McDonald's take it in in small doses, too, and doesn't appear to have made 'em all that moral.

And I go to Kos, I go to TPM, I check out the Usual A-List Suspects, last night and this morning, to find that a) word of the FISA "compromise" has not reached the Internet yet, or else everyone was too busy chasing down rumors that John McCain once said he didn't love America, and anyway it's all Steny Hoyer's fault; and b) money in politics is now evil only when Republicans have all of it. (The latter might possibly have been true, temporarily, but you wouldn't have heard me say so.) As a bonus I got not one, not two, but three lectures about how of course Obama supporters realize their man isn't Perfect, and how of course they welcome constructive criticism as long as it doesn't hold them, or him, accountable. Is it just me, or did those beards all grow longer overnite?

And these are, I remind you, semi-professional observers of politics who began insisting the weekend before New Hampshire that Hillary Clinton drop out of the race so their man wouldn't be burdened by having to take, or defend, public positions.

But the extra-special bonus was this Pre-"Compromise" thunderbolt hurled from Mount Moulitsas:
A warning to pro-capitulation House Dems
by kos
Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 12:52:12 PM PDT
When we started this "netroots" thing, we worked to get "more and better Democrats" elected. At first, we focused on the "more" part. This year, we're focusing a bit more on the "better" part. And in 2010, we'll have enough Democrats in the House to exclusively focus on the "better" part.
That means primary challenges. And as we decide who to take on, let it be known that this FISA vote will loom large. Voting to give telecommunication companies retroactive immunity may not guarantee a primary challenge, but it will definitely loom large.
We kicked Joe Lieberman out of the caucus. We got rid of Al Wynn this year. Those were test runs, so to speak. We've got a lot more of that ready to unleash in 2010.
Ah, well, he's young. Maybe there's still time to drown him.

And here's the thing, America: sure, I'm just some crackpot in a rocking chair on a screened-in porch, but you're the ones who selflessly stood in line for days waiting to give blood to 9/11 survivors who sadly did not exist, while the blood banks go begging every summer. You sent so much money in in the wake of Katrina that charities had no choice except to abuse it. You can stop giving your time, your attention, and your money to these people for as long as it takes to get the real fucking concerns of real fucking people addressed. And I'm sure you'd consider it, except for John McCain being old.


[Corexion: Kagro X was on the FISA story at Kos, calling for Senator Obama to use his Strength of Ten Men to transfer some of that money he's keeping to where his mouth used to be. My mistake. And we want to exempt Yglesias from the Usuals, for actually mentioning Obama's FISA disappearing act and then making it worse by saying: "Meanwhile, I guess I hope President Obama uses his powers responsibly, but on some level I'm sort of rooting for massive abuses so the right can get what they've been asking for." He's still young.]

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i guess i'll just buy ammunition with my stimulus check.

Unknown said...

Christ, you're more of a sanctimonious codger that this 53-year-old. Do you never want to get revenge?

Anonymous said...

But, but, but, isn't this where John Coffey is supposed to put his hand on the balls of the body politic and hork up a load of brown nastiness?

D. Sidhe said...

The problems with revenge are that A) it's never limited to the fuckers who were asking for it, and B) it never looks like revenge, it always just looks like more gratuitous nastiness, and then you get fallout and more revenge enacted upon you.

It's like saying "I told you so". You're better off not. They know you told them so, just as they know you owe them some serious evil. If you don't make it explicit, they do it to themselves while waiting for you to do it.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the advice d. sidhe, but you have obviously not met my family. They don't do anything to themselves while waiting for me. And even if I give them some serious evil, they play the "well, we feel like we're walking on eggshells." So, actually, I think your response is BS.

Jaye Ramsey Sutter said...

Don't get me started on the Man of Steel, Obama, Obama, Obama. He is not Velcro, that is fer sure. He can say anything he wants and dobecause he obviously has the ability to cloud men's minds.

He is post-racial except when he says, they are going to try to play the race card. McCain has a black child. Does anyone really think that he is going to play that race card? No but Obama said he would so he gets to beat the stray man of race by making the non issue THE issue. He did that throughout the primaries and he will do it now.

He is above it all and right in the middle of it, too.

Anonymous said...

actually atrios gave obama his wanker of the day.

Anonymous said...

You are probably entirely correct. And yet, I will not vote for McCain.

Anonymous said...

McCain is just more of the same flag waving fear mongering BS as Bush/Cheney Co. All politicians are on the take in one way or the other. It's a matter of voting for the lesser of two evils. Too bad we don't have a third or fourth choice of evil to choose from.

Anonymous said...

One thing I can do this election season is save myself a lot of money by not giving it to any politicians.
I believe Obama skeptics like me and some of you will not be thanked for pointing out the flaws in this princeling. Somehow, this whole debacle in the making will become Our Fault.