Reassessing the Clintons

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What a cutout!

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

Tabloids - Haves and have nots

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Here are the have nots via Newsday

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and the Herald

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and here are the haves

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and more

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Being a liberal means never being disgusted

I am old enough to remember when liberal meant fighting for civil rights and helping the disadvantaged, having a just society, and progress in every field.

It stands to reason that in the age of Obama when most “liberals” are silent on torture, gay marriage and right to chose, alternative definitions would be sought.

We have already seen Generation Jones invented by a political strategist – idealist but pragmatic, no longer wanting to change the world

Jonesers are idealistic, Pontell says, but not ideological like boomers. “Boomers were flower children out changing the world. We Jonesers were wide-eyed, not tie-dyed.”

Nicholas Kristoff comes with a sillier, symbolically more accurate definition: nothing can disgust a liberal. And predictably, ends this with how brilliant Obama is…

Not coincidentally, Kristoff starts with the attitude towards authority – the slapping your father experiment which holds the title of this. And the anonymous studies (reminding me of the Family Feud surveys) say:

Studies suggest that conservatives are more often distressed by actions that seem disrespectful of authority, such as slapping Dad. Liberals don’t worry as long as Dad has given permission.

And I think this is the subliminal point Kristoff is driving. Liberals need to check for permission before slapping “Dad”.

Just like the many IQ “studies” we’ve seen before, Kristoff provides fodder for the nature vs nurture political differences

The upshot is that liberals and conservatives don’t just think differently, they also feel differently. This may even be a result, in part, of divergent neural responses.

So, you see boys and girls? Obama would have all his children agree with him, but some are just born differently…

Meanwhile, those born well, are harder to be disgusted

Likewise, conservatives are more likely than liberals to sense contamination or perceive disgust. People who would be disgusted to find that they had accidentally sipped from an acquaintance’s drink are more likely to identify as conservatives.

Liberals can live with military tribunals, torture and discrimination against gay and women – they won’t object especially as “Dad” didn’t give permission to be slapped.

“Obama did not like it and stated it was not helpful to equate me with President Bush”.

What does this mean for activists? Just stop!

Those of you unhappy about gay rights – calm down, Kristoff says

Thus persuasion may be most effective when built on human interactions. Gay rights were probably advanced largely by the public’s growing awareness of friends and family members who were gay.

All you have to do is wait for enough gay people to be born in conservative families and voila!

So, now that we know the answer to “who’s your Daddy”, how will he deal with those children with the wrong neural responses?

Kristoff, who exposed his daddy issues by writing a long admiring piece about W entitled “Reagan’s Son”, is now ’splaining this one as well:

He’ll use persuasion! he’ll make the “special kids” believe he thinks they are “normal”

A corollary is that the most potent way to win over opponents is to accept that they have legitimate concerns, for that triggers an instinct to reciprocate. As it happens, we have a brilliant exemplar of this style of rhetoric in politics right now — Barack Obama.

So, you see kids? Obama only threw women under the bus so conservatives would reciprocate. Just wait for the respect they’ll show to the woman nominated for SCOTUS (without asking her views on the women’s right to choose). It’ll all work out.

Nothing is disgusting to the good children, the “special” ones will come around. And be sure to ask permission from Dad before doing anything untoward.

Jr.jr

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Moral Kombat
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

MISHUN ACCOMPLISHED

and the story

Saturday Night Live - Pelosi/Reid Open

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

All in all a riot. Although someone needs to remind Lorne Michaels that he can use his paid by insurance Viagra and have children all over the place, because the dreaded condoms are out! Hooray!
Besides that, pretty much on the mark.

Schadenfreude

I started this 6 months ago, on the wordpress blog. It's getting more and more fun to keep it up so, I am transferring it here
2008 back stabbers & villains meeting karma
1. Bill Richardson
Bill Richardson’s Star is Falling with a BIG THUD (Not on VP Shortlist, State Legislators FED UP with Him)
sourced here

and a new slap

New Mexico’s governor and former Clinton U.N. ambassador-cum-Energy secretary dearly wanted State. And Obama owed him big-time, both for his primary endorsement and for Richardson’s now-forgotten decision to swing his delegates to Obama during the Iowa caucuses.

final blow after getting Commerce

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico confirmed in a statement released Sunday afternoon that he has withdrawn his name as the commerce secretary nominee, citing a pending “investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico state government

2.JOHN KERRY
You know, the guy who didn’t cry in his tea cup for stolen elections, conceded his victory and asked the media not to count the Florida primaries because “they don’t count? That Kerry!

Royally snarked by AP

John Kerry says Republican John McCain doesn’t have the judgment to be president.

If that’s the case, then it’s probably a good thing McCain rejected overtures from Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, to form a bipartisan ticket and run with Kerry as his candidate for vice president.

and

For the record, Kerry is not among those being mentioned as possible running mates for McCain

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Getting a challenger in the primaries

“FOR THE FIRST time in 24 years, Senator John Kerry faces a Democratic primary challenge. For that, he blames Hillary Clinton.

Lau said that O’Reilly wouldn’t have made the ballot “were it not for John Kerry’s early endorsement” of Obama. O’Reilly said support from unhappy Clinton supporters “was not a huge factor, but it had some bearing.”

And a new slap for John

Kerry’s people say he never had any expectations of being named secretary of State but other Democrats say he made no secret of his Foggy Bottom aspirations. “He’s crushed,” said one Senate aide.

and now WaPo pours salt in that wound with a delicious headline

IT HURTS TO BE JOHN KERRY TODAY

The Massachusetts senator had once been considered the frontrunner to be Obama’s secretary of state. Then suddenly he wasn’t,

Elfing Holiday

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Holidays!

and some mail

THIS IS ALL ABSOLUTE BULLFUCK.
YOU PPL ALL REALLY BELIEVE IN A FUCKIN FLYING DINNER…..
GO DIE MUTHAFUCKERS
-franklin

Unity is not just a Pony

I have been feeling very sad this week about my internet family…I even thought about packing my possessions in a handkerchief, tying it to a stick and walking away to hitch a train yo Solitude land

I stopped packing when I read Heidi Li’s beautiful entry at No Quarter and the Confluence

Especially in the fight against the subjugation of women, men and women must ask themselves these questions, because one of the hardest obstacles to achieving progress toward the good of justice for women is the tendency toward infighting on the one hand and selling out on the other

.

and the closing:

Time is on the side of those who fight for justice, so long as those who fight for justice do so with patience and tenacity, and resist the parallel temptations toward selling out or excessive infighting.

Thank you Heidi Li for the wonderful words of hope.

What had started as an admirable, heartwarming rally to help one of us in a moment of unspeakable tragedy and hardship, is threatening to evolve into a B0botic type loyalty test, with boycotts and lists of naughty and nice.

Let’s please remember what all of us had to escape earlier this year before coming together as PUMAs and not make anything - not even righteous arguments into divisive tests.

I will never change my values or give up my fight. I would dearly love to continue to do it with my dear friends of the past year.

As long as I can do it PUMA way.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Tomorrow at 7:04 AM EST the longest night will end and the sun rising at 7:16 will start getting closer, brighter and warmer. Shining on all, big and small, naughty or nice, no matter what.



This morning solstice and sunrise - sun didn’t show up, but it was magic anyway

The Craven eleven

here I was, enjoying reading the results of a Pew poll on Bush

In a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, respondents were asked to volunteer their assessments of how Bush would be remembered after he leaves office. The most frequent response, from 56 people, was “incompetent,” followed by “idiot,” “arrogant,” “ignorant,” “stupid,” and so on. Nine people volunteered a three-letter synonym for donkey.

After all, this was my wish for him, since his coronation in 2000 - to be covered in ridicule. I’d say, I got my wish

Overall, though, the Pew poll underscored the depth of public disdain for Bush, who now ranks as the most consistently unpopular president since the advent of modern political polling. He has not had the approval of a majority of Americans since the beginning of his second term, and has hovered in the 20s in most approval rankings for more than a year. An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll last week found that eight out of 10 Americans would not miss him once he’s gone.

But then, a funny thing happened. As I got to the devotees, a familiar number surfaced:

“Just 11% said Bush will be remembered as an oustanding or above average president — by far the lowest positive end-of-term rating for any of the past four presidents.”

11%? Where did I hear this very number recently? I check my prior entries:

Only 11% think Obama is clean

Just 11% say it’s not at all likely (connections with Blagojevich) according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey

Ah, yes, that transition without drama - as WaPo calls it seems to have generated an identical low number of unconditional lovers.

I am sure an interesting scientific theory could start from these facts, but I am not a scientist. So, I’ll just enjoy the irony and the symmetry and leave to others to make something of those numbers.

And I am now officially creating a new word:

the “elevenpercenters”. We got W’s and we got B0’s. W ended with them, Obama is starting. His media has their work cut out for them.

Mind you, they are bigger than the minority I was part of after September 11 (another 11?): the “ten percenters” who did NOT believe W suddenly became the bestest POTUS of all because we have been attacked.

Which makes me wonder if “11″ isn’t a result of pollsters adjusting their numbers a bit to avoid saying “90% are against them”. You know, like $4.99 is a better price then $5. Or, 90% were for W after September 11, but we won’t say that now 90% are against him.

That could be a theory explaining the identical numbers. It would explain more than that: Jr and Jr.jr are both equally protected by the opinion makers.

Of tragedies and dogma

Recently one of our PUMAs family was met with unspeakable tragedy. I am sending my best wishes for recovery and justice to them and kudos to all those coming around to support.
The other sort of tragedy - to me - as I feel alienated from my PUMA family - is that the same person seems to be using the leverage of support for excommunicating another PUMA she disagreed with.
From posting private correspondence on her blog to challenging her to post her family story on their site "or else she isn't worthy" - there is a chilling B0botic wind blowing in the PUMAdom.
So, I took refuge on this my other blog - to lick my wounds and decide whether to go alone or stir the shit.

Puppet on string - strings for Caroline

The incomparable Wayne Barett at Village Voice gives us some insight in the blue bloods and rich people coalition that is going to stick us with a brat even more unwilling to work for us than W:

It would be an oversimplification to say that Mike Bloomberg is the main man behind the Caroline Kennedy tsunami that’s hit in the last two days. There are others behind the wave of support, as well. Some, for example, say that Rahm Emanuel has such a need to fill senate seats he’s now calling David Paterson instead of Rod Blagojevich.

Interesting, as Rahm Emanuel ducks reporters these days and NY Times threatened Paterson that not picking the Princess will subject him to speculations of corruption. And Reid is mentioned as well. As for Bloomberg?

Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign and Kennedy’s 2010 campaign will be run out of the same offices at Knickerbocker SKD, where consultant Josh Isay already helped orchestrate the term limits coup for clients Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and where he is now trying to help pull off his second coup in three months by securing the Clinton seat with a resume-reinvention for Ms. Kennedy..

Bloomberg wants Caroline’s name support for his forever mayorship

And we also get some glimpses of that resume reinvention:

The most tawdry part of the Bloomberg cheerleading, however, has been the exaggeration of the Kennedy resume. Aside from Caroline’s books–some of which have been collections of her mother’s favorite poems and other people’s essays–the only significant career accomplishment is the two months she worked part-time at Bloomberg’s Department of Education.

Two months, uh? It didn’t say this in the media blabber. And how much work did she do?

The former Klein aide who would only talk to the Voice anonymously said that he sat near Kennedy’s cubicle and that when she came in, she would “only stay a couple of hours or so.”

NY Post reveals she wasn’t too crazy about voting either.

And then comes credit for other people’s work:

Klein “credited her with bringing in a $51 million gift from Bill Gates’s foundation,” according to a Times piece yesterday, but a top former Klein aide told the Voice that the Gates grant “was totally put together” by Michele Cahill,..


The frequently-cited $65 million for the Academy,is also hype.The Partnership for New York City raised $30 million of it from its own members, and hardly needed any heavy lifting from Kennedy to do so. When Caroline left, Kathy Wylde, the Partnership’s presiden

t, tried to depict Kennedy’s role delicately. “Her stature was absolutely critical”

As for the media? Writes Barett:

Kennedy has so far outdone Sarah Palin by enjoying media adulation virtually without talking to reporters.

Actually, Palin was crucified by the media and talked to plenty of reporters. But the comparison is welcome, seing that experience - or lack of it - was such a major issue with Governor Palin but is completely overlooked for Princess Caroline.

The best part is how she came to work for the awful Klein:

Klein, whose wife went to Radcliffe with Kennedy and was a bridesmaid at her wedding, recruited her at a social gathering in Martha’s Vineyard.

No wonder we are told that

The Senate could end up looking like an American House of Lords.

Joe Biden’s Senate seat may go to his son Beau. Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Obama’s pick for interior secretary, could end up being replaced by his brother, Rep. John Salazar.

And Obama’s own seat could go to the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. – less likely now in light of developments in the R

od Blagojevich scandal – or to the daughter of Illinois’ current House speaker.

The Conscience of the Misogynists - W's gift under the tree

Just the day when Rick Warren was praising Obama on his “courage” to stand up to his base and Jon Favreau became object of jealousy

W finally issued the announced blow to Roe rule designated to

protect health care providers who oppose abortion and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.

Because one should not have to bomb abortion clinics unprotected.



The timing was perfect

The measures announced on Thursday, sometimes described collectively as the “conscience rule,” were issued just in time to take effect before the start of the new administration. They will go into effect 30 days after their publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

Because now

The Bush administration had signaled its intention to issue the measures, which are part of a flurry of regulations it is announcing before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The new president will be able to undo the regulations, and is virtually certain to, given his previous comments on the issue. But undoing them will be a time-consuming process.

Recipients of funds from the Department of Health and Human Services are required to certify their compliance with the rule by October 2009.

So, let’s see who will be willing to consume their time.

W managed to leave the stinker behind while avoiding a red flag issue that would have brought out voters for McCain

I will not hold my breath for the Favreau administration to give a rats ass.

Not Your Sweetie

It's where I am