While alicubi.com undergoes extensive elective surgery, its editors pen somber, Shackletonian missives from their lonely arctic outpost.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
NEW VOICE COLUMN UP...
...about the Benghazi hearings and the inevitable rightblogger judgement that Obama and Hillary Clinton are guilty of murder and/or treason. Imagine how pissed they'll be if Obama isn't impeached! Actually we already have some idea.
The trouble with right-wing-promoted "scandals" like Whitewater and Benghazi is they are so convoluted no one can make any sense of them except the hardcore believers who already see treason in every move a Democrat makes. The rest of us just go "huh"? But they make enough noise to keep the low-information dullards uncertain, which is usually all they need.
The cartoon where Obama responds to the sincere reporters with "George Bush got a DUI" is precious, too. Seems like when it comes to terrorist attacks, Obama could say a hell of a lot more than that, if he chose to go down that road.
At the top of Andrew McCarthy's list of Islamic supremacists within the administration is, natch, Huma Abedin. It was very clever of her to marry a Jewish exhibitionist congressman as cover, but what's her endgame?
"Of course, the real Benghazi hearings last week went nothing like the fictional Saturday Night Live version," said Chambers, So Darrell Issa didn't really call Jody Arias and Ariel Castro as witnesses? I... I don't know what to believe anymore.
Exactly. I have yet to see a coherent, or even an incoherent theory, for what the conspiracy theorists think actually did happen. I don't even think they know. But the purpose of these 'scandals' is to give mostly to give right-wingers a rare chance to nod knowingly when it comes up, as well as give them a conversation piece.
Was that "boss looking pictures of fighter jets" a joke? Did someone even suggest that that problem could have been solved with a fighter jet? If so, we need to get the war hawks a much cheaper set of pacifiers--- like duct tape, or something.
Silly question: shouldn't some other nations' leaders (some Islamic) that took part in Operation Unified Protector and helped bring down Qadhafi (an AP-acceptable spelling in the mid '80s) also be being impeached for Benghazi?
Y'know, I'm on the verge of admitting that I'm fast running out of suitably descriptive adjectives, adverbs and nouns to do justice to the ongoing insanity that is the Barking Mad Caucus of the GOP. I feel as if I've used them all up, and I'm condemned to repeating myself.
And, as for facts? Waste of time. One can make the argument that the general military/political situation in Libya was still frighteningly unstable. One can also make the assumption that there was no way to get the CIA into the country to perform its dark arts, and keep its existence mostly stealthy, without the cover of diplomats and State Dept. presence. Nor is it of much point to note that the various groups in the country vying for political power probably knew much more about what was happening on the ground than the U.S. did. Nor is it worthwhile to observe that increasing security demands in a time of declining State Dept. security budgets inevitably results in insufficiencies in available trained personnel, security planning, etc.
Nor does it do a bit of good to remind the gasbag hordes that attacks such as the one in Benghazi have been almost commonplace since the decision was made three Presidents ago to place the U.S. military in politically sensitive locations in the Middle East, or that there were thirteen similar attacks on U.S. embassies during the reign of George the Second.
None of that matters. No, what matters is that a bunch of wigged-out crackpots with corn flakes for brains gets to dominate the news cycle for yet another week. Another week of explosions of stupid splattered on the teevee screens of the nation. Yet another week of having to hear Col. Ralph Peters which, rightly, ought to be codified in law as cruel and unusual punishment. The situation is so bad that Chris Wallace had to defend his automaton-like recitation of GOP talking points by saying, "I am not a potted plant." (The only proper response to which is, "you're doing a damned good imitation of one, then.")
Gawd, yes, they're drama queens. Lard, yes, they're Pinheads on Political Parade. Yes, indubitably, they have an election agenda in mind with this badly-staged piece of theater. But, why is it that, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, they get to suck up all the available media oxygen? If there's a conspiracy at work in this, it's that we can't turn on the television without seeing a succession of certifiable loonies jabbering on about the nation being in existential peril because of fluoride in the water, or the lack of a Biblical Constitution, or Ohmigod Sharia!, or the Secret Gay Agenda, or "Storm troopers are comin' fer yer gunz," or the Monstrous Commie Environmentalist Plot to Destroy America, or the UN's War On Golf.
That Louie Gohmert has been on television more than just once--in order to satisfy everyone's curiosity about him--ought to adequately prove the point. Allen West, a sadistic one-term goofball with a large handful of screws loose, is still in the news. Who knew that the bread would be crackers and the circus would be teevee?
Couldn't the military just have beamed in, like in Star Trek? I mean, they have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, according to the wingnut press...
I have a difference of opinion with these people. I was trying to think of a good metaphor to explain why, and luckily my friend the Holy Bible came through for me:
"You strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel"
The president we're talking about is one who blatantly and brazenly violated the war powers act with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at and who ordered the execution without trial of an American citizen based on a legal rationale he won't even show us. His refusal to prosecute torture we committed probably violates some of our treaties.
But keep digging guys! Someday you'll find Obama at work on some secret evil that you don't vociferously support!
Honestly? I'm kind of sympathetic to attempts to factually rebut jokes, for two reasons:
1. I'm also tragically unfunny.
2. I think that certain humorously incorrect versions of events like the Twinkie defense or Stella Liebeck spilling McDonald's coffee on herself have changed the public's understanding of the way the world works, and not in a good way.
That all said, "Darrell Issa says it's not a witch hunt" isn't exactly a full-throated factual rebuttal.
Those things became punchlines only after the underlying attitude was reported credulously. They didn't so much change public attitudes as reflect the Right's post-Warren Court success in portraying personal rights, in both criminal and civil cases, as out of control.
At least, in contrast, Benghazi=Joke is grounded in reality.
"Why is it that day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, they get to suck up all the available media oxygen?"
Easy... because when lies are told, Dems in general and Obama in particular won't stand up and refute them point by point, and call out the people who told them by name. They need to take a lesson or three from Amb. Thomas Pickering, who pointed out rather forcefully to Darrell Issa on MTP that Issa was flat out lying when he claimed over and over that Pickering refused to appear before Congress.
"...because "he never served in the military," the night of the Benghazi attack "Obama had command authority and responsibility in his hands, and he froze... "
But, why is it that... they get to suck up all the available media oxygen?
Phaedrus: Why does American media exist?
Simonedes: To make money.
Phaedrus: How do they make money?
Simonedes: By selling advertising time--the opportunity to create an impression--to corporations attempting to sell their products and services.
Phaedrus: What sort of customers are these corporations looking for?
Simonedes: Given that most of them are selling non-essential goods, such as telephones and service plans, lifestyle enhancement pharmaceuticals, absurd trucklike vehicles, and toxic food, one must assume they're interested in people who can't--or won't--think very much.
Phaedrus: But those sorts of people don't make very good decisions.
Simonedes: Exactly.
Phaedrus: A willfully ignorant citizenry cannot sustain a democracy, can it?
Simonedes: Whatever makes you think a corporation cares about democracy?
Hate to play Devil's Advocate here, but: I was under the impression that the 'base theory' about Benghazi was essentially "The Obama administration could have ordered a military intervention to rescue these staffers but didn't because X", where X is "they were asleep at the switch" for more reputable pundits and varyingly paranoid accusations for others. Unless there's a lot more to it that I'm missing, it doesn't strike me as terribly convoluted.
The thing is, though, that the McDonald's coffee thing has never been framed as a joke--it's always framed as an outrage against common sense perpetrated by some sue-happy lady who won't take responsibility for her own actions, rather than McDonald's serving an unsafe product (nearly-boiling-hot coffee) in order to dissuade people from sticking around long enough for a refill. The Twinkie defense, on the other hand, was a misunderstanding by the press of Dan White's defense attorneys arguing that his junk food consumption was a result of, not a cause of, his alleged depression. Neither of these have to do with people relaying SNL sketch sound bites, or Onion posts for that matter, as fact.
We already know that he's got a Founder in his Secret Service detail. Tune in to subspace frequency 3.14159 to hear Alex Jones' special report on Section 31.
"How about if one or two of these showed up?" he argued.
Yes, Obama should have brought in fighter jets to rescue four people trapped by a mob in a building on the ground. They could have..... Done what now? Bombed the whole site? distracted the bad guys with their aerobatic choreography? What exactly?
I think its a two-fold theory. One is that the administration didn't respond immediately with the full force of the US military before knowing what what going on - and the other is that the administration didn't immediately make public statements blaming TERRORISM before knowing what was going on.
For the real facts in the McDonald's case, there's an excellent made for HBO documentary you can watch from Netflix, called Hot Coffee. Essentially it points out the various and sundry ways in which we're all fucked if we come up against a big corporation.
I heard Pickering on All Things Considered say the same thing. When Robt. Seigel asked him if the hearings were useful or "political circus" he rather smoothly (a career diplomat, after all) said, "the latter."
I said this during the '12 election and I'm saying it again: Bait them.
I would love to be paid to concoct scenarios and leave "clues" that seem suspicious/treasonous/sinister solely to distract and be-foam the wingnut ranters, each of which would then be disproved and neutralized by a single fact or document. Let one lead to the next! Wheels within wheels, etc., except all the wheels are attached to a Jean Tinguely-type junk sculpture of a "conspiracy" which, when activated, destroys itself. What could be more fun than that?
...with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at...
This? You wrote this with a straight face? Buddy we need to have a chat.
Starting with a biblical quote, moving quickly to an assumption of facts based on no evidence what-so-ever is not exactly the best way to buttress your argument.
I hang round these here parts for the enjoyment I gain from hanging out with those who are wittier and smarter than me. If I want to go off on a Jeremiad on the crimes of the state and its administration of the National Security apparatus, I can fire up a Diary at Kos, or at any number of personal blogs that I have.
Keep swallowing gnats and tilting at camels if that floats yer boat. ...
The major scandal of the Obama Administration is that they've given the big banks who committed crimes and broke our economy free passes in court, and showered them with money instead.
But the GOP isn't interested in that, they want to compete with the Democrats for the big bank payola.
And of course, our corporate press isn't interested, either.
I have yet to see a coherent, or even an incoherent theory, for what the conspiracy theorists think actually did happen.
Everybody usually does a good job of tiptoeing around politics when I'm visiting my folks, but yesterday my Dad couldn't help but give a very vocal thumbs-up to Kathleen Parker's column in the local rag. And having read said column, I can tell you that the answer to your question is: "WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!"
No, seriously, that's it. The administration edited some talking points a week after the incident, so now it's open season. Did Hillary order the attack to get Christopher Stephens out of the way so she could make a move on his wife? I'm not saying she did, but do you know for sure that she didn't?
IOW, we're back to partying like it's 1998, and once again, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
That Louie Gohmert has been on television more than just once...
Point understood, but to me, the fact that TV appearances by G Reynolds, Son of Erick, PantloadToInfinity, exceed the number of say, those by Digby, Roy, or any hundreds of others...Meritocricy?!?!?!W00T!!11
"With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. 'I oppose it,' Irving replied. 'It subverts meritocracy.' "
I think we might want to come up with a different definition of meritocracy: Noun meaning the "Preservation of the privilege of the scions of landed Gentry with little regard to merit." ...
The major scandal of the Obama Administration is that they've given the big banks who committed crimes and broke our economy free passes in court, and showered them with money instead.
As we pound the bones of the ponies into powder, i think we should store some, for the calcium our children and theirs will need.
I expect to be cooking the bread and performing in the circus' until I personally pull the plug.
You're talking about people who still believe Vince Foster was murdered and there was a giant cover-up because a police officer reporting that he'd found "Vince Foster and his car" was interpreted as "Vince Foster in his car".
No, really: that's the crux of the Vince Foster conspiracy. Hearing what they wanted to hear in a lousy tape recording.
Oh Jesus, chuck. It's fucking congenital. First, in your eternal quest to make sure you conflate Bush and Obama, you make an idiotic comparison. Bush used drones too and abducted American citizens and held them without trail, it's just that we were too busy leveling cities to notice most of that. Obama is no prize! It also doesn't mean that Benghazi is anything -- which is, of course, what the fucking post was about!
Exactly!!! I have spent nearly 20 years trying to hammer this point into the fucking heads of idiots screeching "tort reform" and employing the na na na spilled coffee on her cooch crowd. Now granted this has not been a avocation of mine, simply a default response to any idjit that used that particular case as an example.
"you think it would be funny, if due to a faulty lid or drink carrier your cock and balls were subject to third degree burns requiring skin grafts, and then after only asking for compensatorial remuneration were told to fuck right the fuck off?" "I didn't think so."
That has been my initial response in 10-12 cases...The three who were not chased away were informed of the actual facts and merits of the case.
I think that "bombing another country doesn't constitute hostilites" is as ridiculous as anything Bush ever said. Sorry a guy you like used ridiculous logic to break the law.
The president we're talking about is one who blatantly and brazenly violated the war powers act with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at and who ordered the execution without trial of an American citizen based on a legal rationale he won't even show us.
That's not conflating the two? You literally said Obama is going even farther than Bush ever would. And you didn't mention Benghazi at all.
Jesus you are terminally dishonest. It doesn't matter what persona you are trying to hide behind, you are exactly like another asshole on this forum who happens to have the exact same hobby horses as you. When you are ready man, I can introduce you to your fucking soulmate.
Oh, sorry, I thought it was clear that Benghazi was the gnat the Repblicans are straining at. You know, Christ wasn't congratulating the Pharisees on their awesome gnat-finding skills.
"It's sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces," he said. "The one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm's way, and there just wasn't time to do that."
The ponies have been sold off to large cat food manufacturers in exchange for their buy-in to a public-private partnership whereby they receive tax breaks as long as they engage in "pony-related activity" as judged by pony-commissioners appointed by those same corporations, with an opt-out clause for those who think ponies are the tool of the devil.
Easy... because when lies are told, Dems in general and Obama in particular won't stand up and refute them point by point, and call out the people who told them by name.
I started to wonder why that is, but luckily my anti-purity alarms went off, and now I'm convinced it's somehow the GOP's fault.
Honestly? I'm kind of sympathetic to attempts to factually rebut jokes, for two reasons:
1. I'm also tragically unfunny.
Naivete mixed with a dollop of humorless scold. Natch.
That all said, "Darrell Issa says it's not a witch hunt" isn't exactly a full-throated factual rebuttal.
I am not sure that you would recognize a factual rebuttal if the humorous, yet carnivorous Camel had* your knee in its mouth to the point that you were dangling upside down jousting with the gnats clouding your ever shrinking Horizon.
*Traditionally the joke would end with: bit you in the ass.
Now that you have foot entering the camel's stomach and a thigh in its mouth I wonder if you recognize before you are balls deep into the maw, before you recognize that any tepid defense of Issa might mark you as a mark. ...
Well, yeah, I understand that. I was likely being a tad bit rhetorical. But, Washington really is a fever swamp, and the people who report on the government live there, too. Advertising can't explain it all--the reporters have to be dizzy from swamp gas or malaria or the vapors or something, because there's a fucking trainload of fainting couches in that town and they're all in use.
I swear that the ambition of a lot of white people in D.C. is for it to be just like antebellum Charleston.
I have to chuckle at how Issa actually imagines that people are stupid enough to say, "Oh. Act of Terror? Not Terrorism? Well I guess that's OK then, we're all good."
Of course, there are right wingers who keep screaming "He said Act of Terror, not Terrorism, so that means he hates America!" So I guess the idea of stupid Americans parsing words is not all that farfetched, after all.
I didn't pick that page by accident. Everything there is new, invented in the last fifteen years or so. You and I are both old enough that when we turn on a news program, we expect what will come out to bear some resemblance to news. This is no longer the case. Walter Cronkite and Dan Shorr and Ed Murrow couldn't get jobs emptying Bill O'Reilly's spit bucket, never mind reporting.
The news isn't reported any more. What is up on those screens is closer to interpretive dance than anything else, albeit performed entirely with the face and voice. No more impartial informing the audience of facts and their implications. Nowadays Nancy Grace will tell you exactly how you ought to feel about whatever filthy defendant she thinks needs executing.
They're performers now. (Maybe they always were, but the act has changed.) And like any performer, they're rewarded for pleasing the audience. Outrage sells. Anger sells. Tribalism sells. Rather, all those sell easy, and who has the luxury of taking the time to cultivate a fan base?
To the audience--my fellow citizens, voters, and obstensible adults--whatever's on CNN has to be more interesting than monster truck racing, American Idol, and that Backdoor Teen Mom porno. Apparently the saps go for that shocked-and-astonished wide-eyed gawp as the haircut with the microphone says "The White House has yet to provide evidence that disproves the Republican claims" as though it was somehow fucking diabolical.
"Now, give us convincing evidence that this country is a meritocracy."
Well, of course it's not now. One of them is in the White House, and only because he promised the parasitic 47% of Americans free stuff they don't deserve.
The trouble with right-wing-promoted "scandals" like Whitewater and Benghazi is they are so convoluted no one can make any sense of them except the hardcore believers who already see treason in every move a Democrat makes. The rest of us just go "huh"? But they make enough noise to keep the low-information dullards uncertain, which is usually all they need.
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon where Obama responds to the sincere reporters with "George Bush got a DUI" is precious, too. Seems like when it comes to terrorist attacks, Obama could say a hell of a lot more than that, if he chose to go down that road.
ReplyDeleteAt the top of Andrew McCarthy's list of Islamic supremacists within the administration is, natch, Huma Abedin. It was very clever of her to marry a Jewish exhibitionist congressman as cover, but what's her endgame?
ReplyDelete"Of course, the real Benghazi hearings last week went nothing like the fictional Saturday Night Live version," said Chambers, So Darrell Issa didn't really call Jody Arias and Ariel Castro as witnesses? I... I don't know what to believe anymore.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I have yet to see a coherent, or even an incoherent theory, for what the conspiracy theorists think actually did happen. I don't even think they know. But the purpose of these 'scandals' is to give mostly to give right-wingers a rare chance to nod knowingly when it comes up, as well as give them a conversation piece.
ReplyDeleteWas that "boss looking pictures of fighter jets" a joke? Did someone even suggest that that problem could have been solved with a fighter jet? If so, we need to get the war hawks a much cheaper set of pacifiers--- like duct tape, or something.
ReplyDeleteSilly question: shouldn't some other nations' leaders (some Islamic) that took part in Operation Unified Protector and helped bring down Qadhafi (an AP-acceptable spelling in the mid '80s) also be being impeached for Benghazi?
ReplyDeleteY'know, I'm on the verge of admitting that I'm fast running out of suitably descriptive adjectives, adverbs and nouns to do justice to the ongoing insanity that is the Barking Mad Caucus of the GOP. I feel as if I've used them all up, and I'm condemned to repeating myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as for facts? Waste of time. One can make the argument that the general military/political situation in Libya was still frighteningly unstable. One can also make the assumption that there was no way to get the CIA into the country to perform its dark arts, and keep its existence mostly stealthy, without the cover of diplomats and State Dept. presence. Nor is it of much point to note that the various groups in the country vying for political power probably knew much more about what was happening on the ground than the U.S. did. Nor is it worthwhile to observe that increasing security demands in a time of declining State Dept. security budgets inevitably results in insufficiencies in available trained personnel, security planning, etc.
Nor does it do a bit of good to remind the gasbag hordes that attacks such as the one in Benghazi have been almost commonplace since the decision was made three Presidents ago to place the U.S. military in politically sensitive locations in the Middle East, or that there were thirteen similar attacks on U.S. embassies during the reign of George the Second.
None of that matters. No, what matters is that a bunch of wigged-out crackpots with corn flakes for brains gets to dominate the news cycle for yet another week. Another week of explosions of stupid splattered on the teevee screens of the nation. Yet another week of having to hear Col. Ralph Peters which, rightly, ought to be codified in law as cruel and unusual punishment. The situation is so bad that Chris Wallace had to defend his automaton-like recitation of GOP talking points by saying, "I am not a potted plant." (The only proper response to which is, "you're doing a damned good imitation of one, then.")
Gawd, yes, they're drama queens. Lard, yes, they're Pinheads on Political Parade. Yes, indubitably, they have an election agenda in mind with this badly-staged piece of theater. But, why is it that, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, they get to suck up all the available media oxygen? If there's a conspiracy at work in this, it's that we can't turn on the television without seeing a succession of certifiable loonies jabbering on about the nation being in existential peril because of fluoride in the water, or the lack of a Biblical Constitution, or Ohmigod Sharia!, or the Secret Gay Agenda, or "Storm troopers are comin' fer yer gunz," or the Monstrous Commie Environmentalist Plot to Destroy America, or the UN's War On Golf.
That Louie Gohmert has been on television more than just once--in order to satisfy everyone's curiosity about him--ought to adequately prove the point. Allen West, a sadistic one-term goofball with a large handful of screws loose, is still in the news. Who knew that the bread would be crackers and the circus would be teevee?
Couldn't the military just have beamed in, like in Star Trek? I mean, they have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, according to the wingnut press...
ReplyDeleteI have a difference of opinion with these people. I was trying to think of a good metaphor to explain why, and luckily my friend the Holy Bible came through for me:
ReplyDelete"You strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel"
The president we're talking about is one who blatantly and brazenly violated the war powers act with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at and who ordered the execution without trial of an American citizen based on a legal rationale he won't even show us. His refusal to prosecute torture we committed probably violates some of our treaties.
But keep digging guys! Someday you'll find Obama at work on some secret evil that you don't vociferously support!
Honestly? I'm kind of sympathetic to attempts to factually rebut jokes, for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1. I'm also tragically unfunny.
2. I think that certain humorously incorrect versions of events like the Twinkie defense or Stella Liebeck spilling McDonald's coffee on herself have changed the public's understanding of the way the world works, and not in a good way.
That all said, "Darrell Issa says it's not a witch hunt" isn't exactly a full-throated factual rebuttal.
Blow enough smoke, and there must be fire.
ReplyDeleteThose things became punchlines only after the underlying attitude was reported credulously. They didn't so much change public attitudes as reflect the Right's post-Warren Court success in portraying personal rights, in both criminal and civil cases, as out of control.
ReplyDeleteAt least, in contrast, Benghazi=Joke is grounded in reality.
"Why is it that day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, they get to suck up all the available media oxygen?"
ReplyDeleteEasy... because when lies are told, Dems in general and Obama in particular won't stand up and refute them point by point, and call out the people who told them by name. They need to take a lesson or three from Amb. Thomas Pickering, who pointed out rather forcefully to Darrell Issa on MTP that Issa was flat out lying when he claimed over and over that Pickering refused to appear before Congress.
"...because "he never served in the military," the night of the Benghazi
ReplyDeleteattack "Obama had command authority and responsibility in his hands, and
he froze... "
What? Was Obama reading "My Pet Goat" too?
If you can't pound the law or the facts, pound the table. It's an old shyster trick, in a Congress full of Republican shysters.
ReplyDeleteThere are conservatives who blame SNL for 'making people believe' that Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house.
ReplyDeleteBut, why is it that... they get to suck up all the available media
ReplyDeleteoxygen?
Phaedrus: Why does American media exist?
Simonedes: To make money.
Phaedrus: How do they make money?
Simonedes: By selling advertising time--the opportunity to create an impression--to corporations attempting to sell their products and services.
Phaedrus: What sort of customers are these corporations looking for?
Simonedes: Given that most of them are selling non-essential goods, such as telephones and service plans, lifestyle enhancement pharmaceuticals, absurd trucklike vehicles, and toxic food, one must assume they're interested in people who can't--or won't--think very much.
Phaedrus: But those sorts of people don't make very good decisions.
Simonedes: Exactly.
Phaedrus: A willfully ignorant citizenry cannot sustain a democracy, can it?
Simonedes: Whatever makes you think a corporation cares about democracy?
Actually yes, "Why didn't Obama scramble fighter jets over Libya" is an actual question the Benghazi Brigade claims deserves an answer.
ReplyDeleteHate to play Devil's Advocate here, but: I was under the impression that the 'base theory' about Benghazi was essentially "The Obama administration could have ordered a military intervention to rescue these staffers but didn't because X", where X is "they were asleep at the switch" for more reputable pundits and varyingly paranoid accusations for others. Unless there's a lot more to it that I'm missing, it doesn't strike me as terribly convoluted.
ReplyDeleteFollow the latinum.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, though, that the McDonald's coffee thing has never been framed as a joke--it's always framed as an outrage against common sense perpetrated by some sue-happy lady who won't take responsibility for her own actions, rather than McDonald's serving an unsafe product (nearly-boiling-hot coffee) in order to dissuade people from sticking around long enough for a refill. The Twinkie defense, on the other hand, was a misunderstanding by the press of Dan White's defense attorneys arguing that his junk food consumption was a result of, not a cause of, his alleged depression. Neither of these have to do with people relaying SNL sketch sound bites, or Onion posts for that matter, as fact.
ReplyDeletewhat's her endgame?
ReplyDeleteHumiliating Weiner in his attempt at a political comeback, gay-marrying Hillary, and perpetrating the Islamolesbofascist state.
We already know that he's got a Founder in his Secret Service detail. Tune in to subspace frequency 3.14159 to hear Alex Jones' special report on Section 31.
ReplyDelete"How about if one or two of these showed up?" he argued.
ReplyDeleteYes, Obama should have brought in fighter jets to rescue four people
trapped by a mob in a building on the ground. They could have..... Done what now? Bombed the whole site? distracted the bad guys with their aerobatic choreography? What exactly?
I think its a two-fold theory. One is that the administration didn't respond immediately with the full force of the US military before knowing what what going on - and the other is that the administration didn't immediately make public statements blaming TERRORISM before knowing what was going on.
ReplyDeleteBoth of which are idiotic.
Purity troll alert on Aisle Five!
ReplyDeleteFor the real facts in the McDonald's case, there's an excellent made for HBO documentary you can watch from Netflix, called Hot Coffee.
ReplyDeleteEssentially it points out the various and sundry ways in which we're all fucked if we come up against a big corporation.
I thought it was pretty sinister of her to make the guy call himself Weiner.
ReplyDeleteI heard Pickering on All Things Considered say the same thing. When Robt. Seigel asked him if the hearings were useful or "political circus" he rather smoothly (a career diplomat, after all) said, "the latter."
ReplyDeleteI said this during the '12 election and I'm saying it again: Bait them.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be paid to concoct scenarios and leave "clues" that seem suspicious/treasonous/sinister solely to distract and be-foam the wingnut ranters, each of which would then be disproved and neutralized by a single fact or document. Let one lead to the next! Wheels within wheels, etc., except all the wheels are attached to a Jean Tinguely-type junk sculpture of a "conspiracy" which, when activated, destroys itself. What could be more fun than that?
To be fair, it _is_ a riveting story.
ReplyDelete...with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at...
ReplyDeleteThis? You wrote this with a straight face? Buddy we need to have a chat.
Starting with a biblical quote, moving quickly to an assumption of facts based on no evidence what-so-ever is not exactly the best way to buttress your argument.
I hang round these here parts for the enjoyment I gain from hanging out with those who are wittier and smarter than me. If I want to go off on a Jeremiad on the crimes of the state and its administration of the National Security apparatus, I can fire up a Diary at Kos, or at any number of personal blogs that I have.
Keep swallowing gnats and tilting at camels if that floats yer boat.
...
cui Bono?
ReplyDelete...
The major scandal of the Obama Administration is that they've given the big banks who committed crimes and broke our economy free passes in court, and showered them with money instead.
ReplyDeleteBut the GOP isn't interested in that, they want to compete with the Democrats for the big bank payola.
And of course, our corporate press isn't interested, either.
Enjoy the bread and circuses.
~
I have yet to see a coherent, or even an incoherent theory, for what the conspiracy theorists think actually did happen.
ReplyDeleteEverybody usually does a good job of tiptoeing around politics when I'm visiting my folks, but yesterday my Dad couldn't help but give a very vocal thumbs-up to Kathleen Parker's column in the local rag. And having read said column, I can tell you that the answer to your question is: "WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!"
No, seriously, that's it. The administration edited some talking points a week after the incident, so now it's open season. Did Hillary order the attack to get Christopher Stephens out of the way so she could make a move on his wife? I'm not saying she did, but do you know for sure that she didn't?
IOW, we're back to partying like it's 1998, and once again, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
The Breen are probably behind it, those chilling bastards.
ReplyDeleteThat Louie Gohmert has been on television more than just once...
ReplyDeletePoint understood, but to me, the fact that TV appearances by G Reynolds, Son of Erick, PantloadToInfinity, exceed the number of say, those by Digby, Roy, or any hundreds of others...Meritocricy?!?!?!W00T!!11
"With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he
thought of affirmative action. 'I oppose it,' Irving replied. 'It
subverts meritocracy.' "
I think we might want to come up with a different definition of meritocracy: Noun meaning the "Preservation of the privilege of the scions of landed Gentry with little regard to merit."
...
The major scandal of the Obama Administration is that they've given the
ReplyDeletebig banks who committed crimes and broke our economy free passes in
court, and showered them with money instead.
As we pound the bones of the ponies into powder, i think we should store some, for the calcium our children and theirs will need.
I expect to be cooking the bread and performing in the circus' until I personally pull the plug.
...
You're talking about people who still believe Vince Foster was murdered and there was a giant cover-up because a police officer reporting that he'd found "Vince Foster and his car" was interpreted as "Vince Foster in his car".
ReplyDeleteNo, really: that's the crux of the Vince Foster conspiracy. Hearing what they wanted to hear in a lousy tape recording.
This comment makes me tingle all over.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, mister, that ain't Biblical pi!
ReplyDeleteKardashian ambassador, maybe...
ReplyDeleteHmm... I've obviously been looking at the wrong type of military-based porn all these years...
ReplyDeleteThanks. All she wanted was for them to pay the medical bills for all the skin grafts. The coffee was hot enough to burn through her flesh.
ReplyDeleteOh Jesus, chuck. It's fucking congenital. First, in your eternal quest to make sure you conflate Bush and Obama, you make an idiotic comparison. Bush used drones too and abducted American citizens and held them without trail, it's just that we were too busy leveling cities to notice most of that. Obama is no prize! It also doesn't mean that Benghazi is anything -- which is, of course, what the fucking post was about!
ReplyDeleteYou argue, always, in complete bad faith.
Because never in the history of government bureaucracy has a multi-agency collaboration on a public statement been edited.
ReplyDeleteExactly!!! I have spent nearly 20 years trying to hammer this point into the fucking heads of idiots screeching "tort reform" and employing the na na na spilled coffee on her cooch crowd. Now granted this has not been a avocation of mine, simply a default response to any idjit that used that particular case as an example.
ReplyDelete"you think it would be funny, if due to a faulty lid or drink carrier your cock and balls were subject to third degree burns requiring skin grafts, and then after only asking for compensatorial remuneration were told to fuck right the fuck off?" "I didn't think so."
That has been my initial response in 10-12 cases...The three who were not chased away were informed of the actual facts and merits of the case.
Well, my name's not chuck, I didn't conflate Bush and Obama, and I specifically said that Benghazi isn't anything.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe you were trying to respond to somebody else?
Okay here: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/what-exactly-is-the-war-powers-act-and-is-obama-really-violating-it
ReplyDeleteI think that "bombing another country doesn't constitute hostilites" is as ridiculous as anything Bush ever said. Sorry a guy you like used ridiculous logic to break the law.
The president we're talking about is one who blatantly and brazenly violated the war powers act with a rationale George W. Bush would have laughed at and who ordered the execution without trial of an American citizen based on a legal rationale he won't even show us.
ReplyDeleteThat's not conflating the two? You literally said Obama is going even farther than Bush ever would. And you didn't mention Benghazi at all.
Jesus you are terminally dishonest. It doesn't matter what persona you are trying to hide behind, you are exactly like another asshole on this forum who happens to have the exact same hobby horses as you. When you are ready man, I can introduce you to your fucking soulmate.
And you didn't mention Benghazi at all.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry, I thought it was clear that Benghazi was the gnat the Repblicans are straining at. You know, Christ wasn't congratulating the Pharisees on their awesome gnat-finding skills.
See this.
ReplyDelete"It's sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces," he said. "The one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm's way, and there just wasn't time to do that."
The ponies have been sold off to large cat food manufacturers in exchange for their buy-in to a public-private partnership whereby they receive tax breaks as long as they engage in "pony-related activity" as judged by pony-commissioners appointed by those same corporations, with an opt-out clause for those who think ponies are the tool of the devil.
ReplyDeleteGotcha.
ReplyDeleteEasy... because when lies are told, Dems in general and Obama in particular won't stand up and refute them point by point, and call out the people who told them by name.
ReplyDeleteI started to wonder why that is, but luckily my anti-purity alarms went off, and now I'm convinced it's somehow the GOP's fault.
Yeah, and there's WMD in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteWhen the body count gets to a couple of hundred thou, then we might talk.
The latest is
ReplyDeleteIssa: Obama Covered Up Benghazi Terrorism By Calling It An ‘Act Of Terror’
Not from the onion, no really that's what he's going with
Nice goal post relocation operation you got there friend. Try again.
ReplyDelete...
Honestly? I'm kind of sympathetic to attempts to factually rebut jokes, for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1. I'm also tragically unfunny.
Naivete mixed with a dollop of humorless scold. Natch.
That all said, "Darrell Issa says it's not a witch hunt" isn't exactly a full-throated factual rebuttal.
I am not sure that you would recognize a factual rebuttal if the humorous, yet carnivorous Camel had* your knee in its mouth to the point that you were dangling upside down jousting with the gnats clouding your ever shrinking Horizon.
*Traditionally the joke would end with: bit you in the ass.
Now that you have foot entering the camel's stomach and a thigh in its mouth I wonder if you recognize before you are balls deep into the maw, before you recognize that any tepid defense of Issa might mark you as a mark.
...
Well, yeah, I understand that. I was likely being a tad bit rhetorical. But, Washington really is a fever swamp, and the people who report on the government live there, too. Advertising can't explain it all--the reporters have to be dizzy from swamp gas or malaria or the vapors or something, because there's a fucking trainload of fainting couches in that town and they're all in use.
ReplyDeleteI swear that the ambition of a lot of white people in D.C. is for it to be just like antebellum Charleston.
One master, many hounds.
ReplyDeleteDenny Crane.
ReplyDeleteDropped Chuck Norris on the roof to kick all that a-rab ass, that's what. While singing Bocephus songs and praying to Jebus!
ReplyDeleteCOCKS WITHIN COCKS, PEOPLE
ReplyDeleteI have to chuckle at how Issa actually imagines that people are stupid enough to say, "Oh. Act of Terror? Not Terrorism? Well I guess that's OK then, we're all good."
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are right wingers who keep screaming "He said Act of Terror, not Terrorism, so that means he hates America!" So I guess the idea of stupid Americans parsing words is not all that farfetched, after all.
I'm pretty sure Dr. Breen died when Freeman blew up the Citadel, DA. (INTENTIONAL MISREADING GO)
ReplyDeleteStevens died of smoke inhalation, because he was trapped in a building. I'm not sure how scrambling fighter jets would have helped out with that.
ReplyDeleteIndeed; Obama's slam-dunk sentence against Romney during the debates was "Please proceed, Governor".
ReplyDeleteThen again, if they bait themselves so well, maybe being more masterly baited could lead to at least some circuses of amusement?
Have you ever blown an entire evening over at TV Tropes? Here's a link to their reality-show page:
ReplyDeletehttp://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityTVTropes
I didn't pick that page by accident. Everything there is new, invented in the last fifteen years or so. You and I are both old enough that when we turn on a news program, we expect what will come out to bear some resemblance to news. This is no longer the case. Walter Cronkite and Dan Shorr and Ed Murrow couldn't get jobs emptying Bill O'Reilly's spit bucket, never mind reporting.
The news isn't reported any more. What is up on those screens is closer to interpretive dance than anything else, albeit performed entirely with the face and voice. No more impartial informing the audience of facts and their implications. Nowadays Nancy Grace will tell you exactly how you ought to feel about whatever filthy defendant she thinks needs executing.
They're performers now. (Maybe they always were, but the act has changed.) And like any performer, they're rewarded for pleasing the audience. Outrage sells. Anger sells. Tribalism sells. Rather, all those sell easy, and who has the luxury of taking the time to cultivate a fan base?
To the audience--my fellow citizens, voters, and obstensible adults--whatever's on CNN has to be more interesting than monster truck racing, American Idol, and that Backdoor Teen Mom porno. Apparently the saps go for that shocked-and-astonished wide-eyed gawp as the haircut with the microphone says "The White House has yet to provide evidence that disproves the Republican claims" as though it was somehow fucking diabolical.
Now I need another drink.
and they had been warned about the coffee temperature a considerable number of times (more than 700 over the 10 years prior to the incident)
ReplyDelete"Now, give us convincing evidence that this country is a meritocracy."
ReplyDeleteWell, of course it's not now. One of them is in the White House, and only because he promised the parasitic 47% of Americans free stuff they don't deserve.
maybe being more masterly baited could lead to at least some circuses of amusement?
ReplyDeleteIf there's masterly baiting to be done, the administration needs to hire some cunning linguists.
A cock-a-hoop, even.
ReplyDelete