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Daily Archives: Monday, November 17, 2008
The Red Army Band backs up The Leningrad Cowboys on Sweet Home Alabama…and you thought you’d seen everything
Posted in Today's music
Gingrich throwing red meat to the base
Newt Gingrich on O’Reilly, Nov 14 re the anti-prop8 protests…
Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact. And, frank — for that matter, if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that these secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they’re the opposite, of what you’re taught in Sunday school.
The spin here on liberty/cohersion is found broadly across conservative movement commentary. Supporters of the right of gays to marry and achieve equality are, the claim is made, forcing their values on everyone else. Gingrich goes the full distance and describe this as fascism.
The ’logic’ of this argument is pretty ugly. For example, it might be used to decry legislation allowing marriage between the races. In fact, that was precisely what happened in an earlier period. In 1940, 31 of 48 states had passed laws banning interracial marriage (such state laws were overturned in 1967 as unconstitutional by Loving v Virginia).
The ”logic” here is as follows - “we do not like interracial marriage (or gay marriage) and do not wish to see it made legal and if you make it legal then you are infringing our liberty to determine that interracial marriage (or gay marriage) cannot be allowed in this country. How dare you, you fascists.”
This will be the key wedge issue the conservative movement pushes as we move forward. They’ll use it to motivate the base and, hopefully, to bring African American and Hispanic religious voters away from the Dem party.
Bonus quote of the day, some people you just know you’d like category
My next-door neighbor is 102 years old. His first vote was for Al Smith in 1928. He saw a country reject a candidate because he was a Catholic. My neighbor’s most recent vote was for Barack Obama. If that doesn’t say how far this country has come, nothing does.
Posted in Today's quote
David Gergen and Peter Hart on the Obama win
Gore carried young voters by two points. Kerry carried them by about nine points. Obama carried them by 34 points.
That is an astounding statistic. And it is deeply encouraging for liberals such as myself in that voters tend to remain aligned with the party they/we support when young. This is a good piece and I hope you find time to read it… http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/24200780/how_obama_won/print
edit: another astounding statistic from this piece…
Of all the seven-year-olds in the country right now, 25% have Hispanic origins.
Thus, if the conservative movement continues it’s rather rabid rhetoric on immigration, that will continue to push the Hispanic vote over to the Dems. Rove and Bush understood this and had made smart moves (in Texas and later) to cater to that vote. But they found themselves unable to push back sufficiently against the red-meat anti-immigrant populism (read bigotry) promoted by Limbaugh and other movement extremists along with the freelance xenophobes like Lou Dobbs of CNN.
Posted in Future of the GOP and conservative movement
Tagged Gergen, Hart, youth vote
Sundays are godly. Saturday nights, not so much.
Red Sex, Blue Sex
Why Do So Many Evangelical Teenagers Become Pregnant?
The New Yorker | November 3, 2008
A handful of social scientists and family-law scholars have recently begun looking closely at this split. Last year, Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, published a startling book called “Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers,” and he is working on a follow-up that includes a section titled “Red Sex, Blue Sex.” His findings are drawn from a national survey that Regnerus and his colleagues conducted of some thirty-four hundred thirteen-to-seventeen-year-olds, and from a comprehensive government study of adolescent health known as Add Health. Regnerus argues that religion is a good indicator of attitudes toward sex, but a poor one of sexual behavior, and that this gap is especially wide among teen-agers who identify themselves as evangelical. The vast majority of white evangelical adolescents–seventy-four per cent–say that they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage. (Only half of mainline Protestants, and a quarter of Jews, say that they believe in abstinence.) Moreover, among the major religious groups, evangelical virgins are the least likely to anticipate that sex will be pleasurable, and the most likely to believe that having sex will cause their partners to lose respect for them. (Jews most often cite pleasure as a reason to have sex, and say that an unplanned pregnancy would be an embarrassment.) But, according to Add Health data, evangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their “sexual début”–to use the festive term of social-science researchers–shortly after turning sixteen. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier.
Another key difference in behavior, Regnerus reports, is that evangelical Protestant teen-agers are significantly less likely than other groups to use contraception… http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2008/red_sex_blue_sex_8275
Quote of the day, he’s got this one right category
Chris Matthews: Who will be the voice of the opposition for the next couple of months, first year of this administration? Will it be a Pawlenty, a Palin, a Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney? Will it be John McCain?
Howard Fineman: It won’t be out of the Hill at all. It’s going to be Rush Limbaugh, and what’s left of the conservative commentariat. They are going to be in charge of this party until the Republicans begin to get their act together.
My only disagreement with Fineman here is the “what’s left of” modifier in sentence one. I’m not sure who out of that crowd he thinks has suddenly disappeared.
h/t Crooks and Liars
The morning knee-slapper (for those whose knees aren’t already occupied with spoon-playin’)
h/t to Digby
Posted in Uncategorized
Fun with electricity
TASER Introduces New Weapons For Crowd Control.
by hgwusew, Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 08:52:54 AM PST
Stun gun manufacturer TASER has introduced the Taser Shockwave, a weapon that promises to “drop everyone in a given area to the ground”.
The new weapon is significantly different from the Tasers currently used by police in that it has six different electrified charges and is designed to target crowds rather than individuals. The cartridges are tethered by 25-foot wires, which can be fired from a distance of up to 300 feet in a 20-degree arc. The “probes” on the end of the cartridges can pierce through clothing and skin, emitting 50,000 volts of electricity in the process.
“Full area coverage is provided to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within that region” Taser explains.
“Multiple Shockwave units can be stacked together (like building blocks) either horizontally or vertically in order to extend area coverage or vertically to allow for multiple salvo engagements.” The product description states.
The weapons can also be vehicle mounted or “daisy chained” according to Taser. Clearly it is anticipated that these things will be used on sizable crowds, meaning an increased likelihood of indiscriminate targeting. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/12/114845/76/236/659815
So, imagine citizens getting to think that maybe this wonderful new product will likely see it’s use mainly in the sphere of political or anti-corporate protest. They decide to make a public display of their concerns and stage a protest to voice those concerns. Just in time, the new Shockwave product is deployed and peace is restored in the country.
More weapons! More war! Hooah
Don’t Believe Spending Cut Rumors
By BERNARD FINEL
Published: 17 November 2008The uniformed services are trying to lock in the next administration… http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3823105&c=FEA&s=COM
Steel-cage death match! Tuesday night! Don’t miss it! The Wasilla Grrrilla vs Nasty Newt!
The former Reagan economic adviser Bruce Bartlett predicted that the Republican nomination contest for the 2012 election would be a “steel-cage death match” between Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/51406/index1.html
Gingrich: Palin won’t be “de facto leader” of GOP
Some conservatives are still enamored of Sarah Palin, and convinced that she’s the future of the Republican Party. Apparently, Newt Gingrich isn’t really a member of that group.
During an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Gingrich didn’t slam Palin, but he also tamped down some of the expectations regarding her role over the next couple years.
“There are a lot of people doing smart things. The natural pattern, in the news media, is going to be, they know how to spell Sarah Palin’s name. They have it locked in their word processor. She’s going to be a much bigger story in the short run,” Gingrich said.
“But, I think, as she goes back to being governor and as she works in Alaska, you’re going to see a group of governors emerge, not just Sarah Palin. And there are 36 governorships up in 2010… I think that she is going to be a significant player. But she’s going to be one of 20 or 30 significant players. She’s not going to be the de facto leader.”
A cynical person might wonder whether Gingrich had personal motives for saying this — motives like, say, a presidential run in 2012. He almost made one this year, but he doesn’t seem to like the idea of dealing with a lot of competition in the primaries. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/
Cruisin’ for more bruisin’
The National Review, an old conservative institution, no longer has Chris Buckley on board but it does still have Kathryn Jean Lopez. This doesn’t represent an upward trajectory.
Here at National Review’s post-election cruise, a group gathered for a weeklong post-mortem on the high seas has Palin on the brain. Palin’s not on ship, but neither her absence nor the McCain loss has dampened enthusiasm for her here… http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTNkNmFjNWFiZDNhZDQxNmM1MWQ3OWU3ZGM1YTg2YmQ=
The Republican Party and conservative movement would benefit greatly from a period detached from political power. It doesn’t have to be a long time. I think a single generation would be sufficient.
Sigh of relief
Obama interviewed on 60 Minutes…
Good piece on the ‘center right?’ discussion
The Center-Right Nation Exits Stage LeftBy Tod Lindberg, Sunday, November 16, 2008; Page B01
Here’s the main thought Republicans are consoling themselves with these days: Notwithstanding President-elect Barack Obama, a nearly filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate and the largest Democratic majority in the House of Representatives since 1993, the United States is still a center-right country. Sure, voters may be angry with Republicans now, but eventually, as the Bush years recede and the GOP modernizes its brand, a basically right-tilting electorate will come back home. Or, in the words of the animated rock band the Gorillaz, “I’m useless, but not for long/The future is comin’ on.”
Thus Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, in Outlook last week: The United States “is indeed, as conservatives have been insisting in recent days, a center-right country.” On election night, former Bush guru Karl Rove opined on Fox News, “Barack Obama understands this is a center-right country, and he smartly and wisely ran a campaign that emphasized it.” And it’s not just conservative pundits and operatives singing this song. Take Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, who wrote an Oct. 27 cover essay entitled “America the Conservative,” which argued that Obama will have to “govern a center-right nation” that “is more instinctively conservative than it is liberal.”
The only problem: It isn’t true… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111303550.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Posted in Center-right nation, Uncategorized
“Working the refs”
Eric Alterman (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Alterman ) on the term “working the refs” and on the strategy of it.
For the past five decades, Republican politicians, writers, television pundits and think tanks have been remarkably successful at convincing the American people of a “liberal bias” in the media. Using the very same media outlets that they complain don’t give their cause a fair shake to lodge their complaints, they know that slamming the other side is little more than a way to get their own ideas across, while drowning out opposing voices. Some have even admitted as much. During the 1992 presidential race, Rich Bond, then chair of the Republican Party, outlined the right’s game plan, saying that “There is some strategy to it [bashing the 'liberal' media]. If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is ‘work the refs.’ Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack on the next one.”
Even William Kristol, undoubtedly the most influential Republican/neoconservative writer and publisher in America today, is on record as saying that the “liberal media” canard is often used by conservatives as an excuse to cover up for conservative failures. Despite this, Kristol’s magazine, The Weekly Standard, joins its colleagues in the conservative media in trotting out the liberal bias canard virtually every chance it gets. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2005/05/b711509.html
And here’s an example from this morning’s New York Times…
Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including the power of subpoena and the threat of punishment against witnesses who lie under oath — he [Dan Rather] has unearthed evidence that would seem to support his assertion that CBS intended its investigation, at least in part, to quell Republican criticism of the network.
Among the materials that money has shaken free for Mr. Rather are internal CBS memorandums turned over to his lawyers, showing that network executives used Republican operatives to vet the names of potential members of a panel that had been billed as independent and charged with investigating the “60 Minutes” segment…
Some of the documents unearthed by his investigation include notes taken at the time by Linda Mason, a vice president of CBS News. According to her notes, one potential panel member, Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, was deemed a less-than-ideal candidate over fears by some that he would not “mollify the right.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Thornburgh, who served as attorney general for both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was named a panelist by CBS, but only after a CBS lobbyist “did some other testing,” in which she was told, according to Ms. Mason’s notes, “T comes back with high marks from G.O.P.”
Another memorandum turned over to Mr. Rather’s lawyers by CBS was a long typed list of conservative commentators apparently receiving some preliminary consideration as panel members, including Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan. At the bottom of that list, someone had scribbled “Roger Ailes,” the founder of Fox News. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1226926823-ZF5qFH2ZBZ4Yv4BKmh2eeg
Posted in Propaganda
Tagged Alterman, CBS, Kristol, media, Propaganda, Rather, working the refs
