SoonerBlue

Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.

2009/11/4

I'll loan you my garlic necklace, silver bullets and crucifix

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@ 08:57 AM (20 days, 10 hours ago)

 

I followed last night's election results with great interest...Democrats won a couple and lost a couple. Looks like voters are the most upset about jobs and the economy.

I already knew Republicans would win governorships in NJ and VA. Democrat Jim Corzine ran a lousy campaign based on Karl Rove's dirty tricks and deserved to lose NJ.

We had a sucky candidate who ran a sucky campaign in VA...enough for Republican Bob McDonnell to get by with that thesis he once wrote on keeping women subjugated. He also probably won because he didn't buy into Tea Party ideology and kept Sarah Palin at bay.

So Teabaggers can relax....New Jersey and Virginia are safe from a Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Let's party like it was 1871! The NY-23 Democratic win against the Tea Party Conservative candidate sure helped me sleep a little better. Looks like the traditional wing of the Republican party said "hell, no" to the crazies.

Take that Teabaggers and Birthers! You drink too deeply from the cup of Palin, Beck and Limbaugh.

But don't get too giddy, lefties... this doesn't mean the Teabagger movement is smothered in its crib. They won't give up this easily. But if NY-23 was a trial run for Florida.... if the Republicans don't want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, somebody better rein 'em in.

In a way, I hope no one does...we Dems love to see them run wild.

It was a shame that left-wing zealot Republican Dede Scozzafava got chased off from NY-23 by Glenn Beck and the Teabaggers -- hey, nice name for a rightie rock band -- but the crazies didn't have the smarts to back a moderate who could win in a moderate district by just being moderate.

It was good that Dede threw her lot in with loyal comrade Democrat Bill Owens...and if he isn't up to the job of crushing those capitalist pigs, Chairman Obamovich can always exile him to Siberia...or North Dakota.

Is anybody amused because the Republican Party spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat? Or because the combined votes for Scozzafava and Hoffman would have given them a win? In a district that had been held by the GOP since 1871...when Ulysses S. Grant was President....

The GOP might be better off taking a Hoffman loss, rather than emboldening third parties in 2010. Remember Ralph Nader and Florida in 2000? Third parties are suicide...but the hard-left and hard-right wings often get impatient with the moderates and try it from time to time.

I know the Republican establishment is spineless and out of ideas, but for us to have a decent two-party system, someone needs to save the GOP. It dang sure ain’t gonna be me...but if someone wants to try, I'’ll loan you my garlic necklace, silver bullets, crucifix and wooden stakes....oh, and you might need some pitchforks and torches.

And don't worry, there's not all that many of them...they call themselves the base of the party, but they're just the fringe...the lunatic fringe.

I have a year's supply of popcorn, I'm going to love every minute of the Loony Teabagger Revolution. It's going to make the Goldwater thang look like a walk in the park.

2009/10/12

Dunn gets 'er done

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@ 09:15 AM (1 month, 13 days ago)

 

Something I've noticed about the Obama team -- they don't go looking for fights, but when they lock into one they're very good.

There were a lot mean and silly attacks on the White House from the right this summer. Starting with healthcare reform, which had people actually debating about killing grandmothers. Then came the spiteful complaining about President Obama's addressing schoolchildren...before anyone knew what he was going to say. Then newspapers had rightie politicians complaining about the so-called "32" WH czars...which was flat-out misinformation...because only nine of them were subject to Senate confirmation. The newspapers didn't check the facts.

The WH mostly took the high road - after all, the President had vowed to tamp down the partisan rhetoric - but it took a toll, because the attacks kept knocking them off message.

So, after trying the nonpartisan harmony bit for eight months, looks like the WH is fighting back. Obama started being critical of opinion journalism at the Cronkite memorial, saying how much we need good fact based news.

I have waited so long for the President to put his foot down on the collective absurdity of his opponents...it can only strengthen him.

So now, instead of just giving reporters facts to check, the WH changed their media strategy and decided to become a player. They're starting to issue biting attacks on those pundits, politicians and news outlets that make misleading or false claims. Lies like how healthcare reform would set up new "sex clinics" in schools.

Yesterday White House Communications Director Anita Dunn was on Howard Kurtz's CNN show Reliable Sources. Her job is to shape the news cycle and monitor staff contacts with the press...telling them where to strike back or where to admit error.

Well, she struck back alright, telling Kurtz that Fox News is "more a wing of the Republican Party than an objective news organization"...called it "opinion journalism masquerading as news."

"But let's be realistic here, Howie.  You know, they are widely viewed as ... part of the Republican Party.  Take their talking points, put them on the air.  Take their opposition research, put them on the air and that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is.

She said, "When [President Obama] goes on Fox, he understands he's not going on it really as a news network at this point, he's going on to debate the opposition."[..]~~

I'd sure like to see how Fox denies what is plainly true.

Even I have noticed how Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace does "fact checking" on certain Obama administration officials...but no checking facts on his Republican guests.

Yes, yes...CNN and MSNBC show their bias too...they're just not as 24/7 partisan as Fox. When I'm interested in something political and want the straight dope on it, I start with PBS's The Newshour with Jim Leher...then go to C-Span, which covers all the latest topics on Washington Journal.