Multi Medium

Obama’s Secret Weapon Against Mitt Romney: Irony

Yes, Obama’s plan is actually to paint Romney as a phony insincere corporate shill who reverses his position on every issue.

His team really has been studying Karl Rove’s gameplan of attacking opponents with your candidate’s own weaknesses…

Add comment August 10th, 2011 at 07:25am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

The Crazy Taiwanese CGI people give you… The Dark Knight Rises:

I just saved you all $9.  You’re welcome.

Add comment August 8th, 2011 at 11:50am Posted by Eli    Permalink

S&P Report To Be Posted On Bulletin Board Outside SuperCongress’s Locker Room

The congressional reactions sound an awful lot like that of a sports team that’s been dissed and is using it as motivation:

Representative Joe Courtney, Democrat of Connecticut, said he had “read and reread the S. & P. report” several times since it was issued Friday night, and he said it could spur action by Congress. If the 12 members of the committee, to be appointed by Aug. 16 by Congressional leaders of the two parties, could agree on a deficit-reduction package, and if Congress approved it, Mr. Courtney said, “that would surprise a lot of skeptics” and could disprove the company’s criticism of the United States political system.

Representative Blake Farenthold, a freshman Republican from Texas, said the S.&P. report could have a beneficial effect. “Anything that encourages the new committee to get the job done and get us back on a rational fiscal path is a good thing,” Mr. Farenthold said.

Another freshman Republican, Representative Steve Southerland II of Florida, said the credit report created “a sense of urgency for the two parties to come together.” The possibility of a further downgrade “scares me,” Mr. Southerland said.

Go team! Let’s show S&P who’s boss!  By doing everything they tell us to!

Add comment August 8th, 2011 at 07:50am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

This is where it all went wrong.

Add comment August 7th, 2011 at 02:38pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

There’s No One Left To Vote For

Shorter American electorate: WE HATE EVERYBODY.

And really, who can blame them?  Both parties got their shot at running the government, and both parties failed miserably because they cared more about their corporate and wealthy donors than the people they were elected to serve.

There is definitely room for a third party (although it would really be more like a second party at this point), but not if it’s just a corporate “centrist” party positioned between the other two corporate parties.  The only kind of third party that’s going to gain any traction would be a populist one that promises to represent ordinary people instead of corporations and the wealthy.

1 comment August 6th, 2011 at 01:47pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Problem

I agree with a lot of this Peter Daou post, especially about how the right has effectively stepped into and taken advantage of this country’s information and education vacuum, and how the left is hobbled by the lack of any kind of common cause between the progressive movement and the Democratic Party.  But I’m not so sure I buy his diagnosis of the root cause:

On the other side you have the Democratic establishment, political leaders, pollsters and strategists who, by and large, are poll addicts, chronically incapable of taking principled stands, obsessed with appealing to independent voters, hostile to progressive advocates, often just as captive to moneyed interests as their Republican counterparts. Mind-bogglingly, it was the White House and Democratic leadership that worked with BP to ‘disappear’ the Gulf spill, for fear it would harm them in the 2010 midterms. Craven doesn’t begin to describe it.

(…)

As I said previously, faced with a public that holds opposing views, politicians can either change their positions to match the public’s views or change the public’s views to match their positions. Only when Democrats decide to do the latter will America’s rightward shift be halted or reversed.

I believe that Obama and most of the Democrats are actually Republicans masquerading as weak Democrats, and all the poll-driven, center-chasing wimpiness is camouflage to make their pro-corporate policies look like some kind of pragmatic (albeit misguided) centrism rather than the corrupt sellout that they actually are.

On a related note, I think it’s hilarious that the White House keeps complaining that progressives aren’t doing a good enough job of selling the American people on the Satan sandwiches they keep offering up, when the real problem is that we can’t convince the White House to stop making them.

3 comments August 4th, 2011 at 07:53am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

This is pretty awesome, in a rave-y, Venezuelan yogurt commercial kind of way:

Wow.

Add comment August 1st, 2011 at 06:03pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

This Is What Happens When You’re Not Paying Attention

You say clueless, ridiculous things like this:

Republicans will still be able to refuse to raise taxes. But if they do, it won’t matter. The only way they can succeed in keeping taxes from rising is if the Obama administration and the Democrats stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them to extend the Bush tax cuts.

Srsly?  Did you not see what happened last December???

Add comment August 1st, 2011 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Only Winners And Losers Who Really Matter

If you want to understand how Washington thinks and why our government and media are so worthless, just read this repellent column by the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza, toting up “The debt-ceiling deal… winners and losers.”

In the winning column, he lists Mitch McConnell, the Tea Party, Obama, the Congressional Budget Office, Grover Norquist, and – I’m not kidding – David Wu.

In the losing column, he lists Congress, the Gang Of Six, commissions, and liberals.

Missing from either list: The economy or the American people.  Just like they were missing from all the political calculations and posturing by Obama and the Tea Party, who collaborated to produce a terrible deal that will make the country weaker and maybe even increase the debt it was supposed to reduce.

You also have to love this little snippet of DLC-style conventional wisdom:

But remember that Obama’s target constituency in 2012 is not his base but rather independent and moderate voters. And those fence-sitters love compromise in almost any form.

Yep, there’s nothing independents and moderates love more than politicians with no convictions at all (I personally believe Obama is a strong Republican masquerading as a weak Democrat, but the appearance is the same).  And of course they always turn out in droves, not like a motivated Democratic base would.

I understand that most politicians – and much of the media who cover them – are corrupt, shallow, self-centered creatures, and it’s folly to expect them to always put the good of the country first.  But couldn’t they at least think about it a little bit?

Add comment August 1st, 2011 at 07:49am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week’s quote is from Ah-nold’s Last Action Hero:

I’ve killed people smarter and cuter than you.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s… well, watch this first if you haven’t seen it already:

Now watch this:

I literally cannot watch this without cracking up.

1 comment July 29th, 2011 at 09:31am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Real Enemies Of Democracy

As Paul Krugman points out, it’s not the Republican crazies that are destroying the country – it’s all the media enablers who present their insanity as just one, perfectly valid side of the story, or pretend that both sides of the political spectrum are equally unreasonable.

We need less balance and more truth.

1 comment July 27th, 2011 at 09:42am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Okay, this really is kind of awesome…

I would totally watch this movie.

Add comment July 25th, 2011 at 11:25am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Just What We Need

Tom Friedman and Chris Cillizza are absolutely right that there is a palpable hunger for a third-party alternative to the godawful Republicans and Democrats, but I really don’t think that a new corporate-owned party positioned between the two corporate-owned parties that we already have is going to represent our interests any better.

Add comment July 25th, 2011 at 08:05am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Going After The Real Jihadis

Jennifer Rubin follows up her mega-wrong OMG NORWAY JIHAD!!!ONE! post with one explaining that even though this time it wasn’t actually al Qaeda, “[t]here are many more jihadists than blond Norwegians out to kill Americans.”

Which may be true, but it does kinda beg the question: How many terrorist attacks on American soil have been committed by jihadists vs. right-wing Christian conservatives?

If you want to be gung-ho about going after jihadists, at least be consistent about going after all the jihadists, not just the Muslim ones.

And maybe the economic ones, too…

1 comment July 24th, 2011 at 10:59am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Iguana Blogging

This week’s quote that I have absolutely no recollection of is from Bandwagon, with Kevin Corrigan:

And the creepiest thing is knowing that George Washington was only this big!

And, of course, there’ll be other kitties’ iguanas…

That is just ridiculously cute.

Add comment July 22nd, 2011 at 07:33pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Republicans Attack Obama For Caving In To Their Demands

Amazing.  Just amazing.

Almost as amazing as Obama’s apparent belief that cutting Social Security and Medicare without requiring any “shared sacrifice” from the corporations or individuals who can most afford it will somehow improve his prospects for re-election.

Add comment July 22nd, 2011 at 05:58pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

The New Business Model

One of the strange things to me about the whole deficit/austerity debate is the business world’s willingness to go along with the Republicans’ bizarre meme that the economy is slow because all the corporations are spooked by the “uncertainty” of what’s going to happen with the national debt, as opposed to, say, not enough people having enough money to buy stuff.

More specifically, why are corporations standing on the sidelines as both parties strive to constrict spending even more?  Why aren’t they demanding another stimulus or some kind of jobs plan to provide them with more customers?

Do they really buy into the Republican supply-side/austerity hooey, or is their business model so firmly based on deregulation, tax breaks, subsidies, bailouts and union-busting that they no longer care about actually, y’know, selling stuff? Or is their overseas business so lucrative (and tax-free) that they simply don’t need American consumers anymore?

Add comment July 22nd, 2011 at 08:07am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Guardian Reads My Mind

For all of the people speculating about how the phone-hacking scandal could bring down Fox News or Rupert Murdoch, I just don’t see it.  Even if it comes out that Fox hacked the phones of 9/11 victims, Obama and the Democrats just don’t have the guts to take them on, and would fold at the first Republican accusations of “politically-motivated witch hunt!”.

And of course, as the Guardian points out, Republicans would – and have – destroyed liberal organizations for far less, and even for nothing at all (see: ACORN).

Does no one remember all the scandals of the Bush administration, and how each one was going to be the one that finally brought it down?  It never happened.

Add comment July 21st, 2011 at 07:15am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Daily Caller Vs. Bachmann?

Most people I know think the Daily Caller story about Michele Bachmann’s supposedly debilitating migraines is the Republican establishment’s attempt to get her out of the way for the 2012 election, but I think maybe Tucker Carlson is just trying to reassure us that she won’t be trying to wreck the country 24/7.

Add comment July 20th, 2011 at 07:11am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

And for those of you who like great movie threats… there’ll be great movie threats.

Probably not safe for work, unless you’re in the Mafia.

Add comment July 18th, 2011 at 08:08am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Negotiating By Dummies

Here is a truly remarkable Obama quote, via a Jonathan Schwarz post about how Obama took the $1.2 trillion stimulus off the table all by himself with no help from Larry Summers:

MR. HARWOOD: Tomorrow you’re going to give a speech and talk about your economic stimulus package…It looks like it’s going to be at the high end of your range, around $775 billion. If it’s correct that, as your aides have said, the danger is doing too little rather than too much…why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the 1.2 trillion (dollars) that some economists have recommended?

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: …We’ve seen ranges from 800 to 1.3 trillion, and our attitude was that, given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we’ll see how it develops….

That’s the Obama approach to negotiating in a nutshell right there, and the results have been predictably awful.  Look, if someone says they’re going to open with their minimum position and then work their way towards their maximum position, they are either clueless, lying about which direction their max position is… or a Republican on the other side of the table from Obama.

Add comment July 17th, 2011 at 02:24pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Hamster Blogging

This week’s quote is from Despicable Me:

My heart is like a tooth, and it’s got a cavity that can only be filled by children.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s hamsters…

Wow.

Add comment July 15th, 2011 at 11:54am Posted by Eli    Permalink

How To Tell When Your Government’s Corrupt

When it fires investigators for being too competent, I’d say that’s a pretty good tell…

Not that I would expect anything less from a state whose governor is an actual criminal.

Add comment July 15th, 2011 at 07:57am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Eric Cantor Explains It All To You

In case anyone was still confused about what “shared sacrifice” means:

“I think behind this notion of ‘We want shared sacrifice’ that they continue to say means ‘We want to raise taxes,’ ” Cantor told reporters, rejecting a suggestion from Obama that both parties would have to make sacrifices to get a deal done.

Shared sacrifice is great as long as it’s not actually, y’know, shared.

1 comment July 13th, 2011 at 07:48am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

What the.

I can’t make up my mind whether this is creepy or awesome.  Probably both…

1 comment July 11th, 2011 at 11:46am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Republicans Save Obama From Himself… For Now

Even the prospect of cutting Social Security wasn’t enough for Republicans to get over their hatred of taxes.  I guess Obama will just have to offer them up a plan that cuts Social Security and leaves tax loopholes alone now.

I thought it was particularly telling that when offered a deficit reduction plan that raises taxes and cuts Social Security, it was the taxes that the Obama-Wants-To-Kill-Grandma Party publicly objected to.  But I guess if they complain about Social Security cuts, they won’t be able to accept whatever Obama’s safety-net-destroying Grand Bargain turns out to be.

Add comment July 11th, 2011 at 07:43am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity and his brain trust struggle with the project plan for the Creation.

We can fix it in post.

Add comment July 10th, 2011 at 01:20pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

What I’ve Been Saying

I said this over five years ago:

Republicans understand that voters in “the base” turn out if motivated, and the undecideds in the middle do not. Consequently, they tailor their electoral strategy to pumping up their base to maximize that turnout, and they don’t worry about the middle all that much because they’re proportionally less of a factor. The Democrats, on the other hand, repeatedly throw their base under the bus in pursuit of those fickle undecideds who probably aren’t voting anyway.

From Nate Silver’s post on why Republicans are crazy (answer: because unlike the Democrats, they’re playing to their base):

Tell me again why alienating your base in pursuit of independents is a good electoral strategy?

(This is, of course, assuming that this actually is the Democrats’ electoral strategy and not just an excuse for pursuing conservative policy goals on behalf of their corporate benefactors.  But as excuses go, it’s a pretty transparently ridiculous one.)

1 comment July 8th, 2011 at 07:36am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Question Of The Day

Why is it that inexpensive immigrants taking American jobs is some kind of terrible stealth invasion, but inexpensive convicts taking American jobs is a success story?

1 comment July 7th, 2011 at 07:23pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Seriousness, Republican Style

Shorter Thomas Sowell: Why is no one taking this fire seriously?  Stop jabbering and posturing and throw some gasoline on it already!

I also liked the part where he explains that raising taxes on the rich is both a socialist takeover and an ineffective empty gesture.  And where he explains that voting should be a privilege for the educated overclass rather than a right extended to just any peon.

Somehow, I don’t think restricting the electorate to only well-informed people would work out quite the way Sowell pictures.  On the other hand, quizzing voters would be so unwieldy and contentious, so maybe we should use income or net worth as a proxy for knowledge and intelligence, since after all only the smartest and best-educated people get rich, right?

Add comment July 6th, 2011 at 08:11am Posted by Eli    Permalink