"Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) offered a lengthy criticism of Bush’s record toward the end of Thursday’s hearing, which included a statement that Bush lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq in 2003," writes Susan Davis. "Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) offered an objection on the grounds that Watt’s words were 'unparliamentary' and violated House rules on debate and decorum that forbid personal attacks on Members, the president or vice president."...
"Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) countered that the words were not 'unparliamentary,' which parliamentarians and leadership aides on both sides of the aisle later agreed was the wrong procedural call," she writes.Interesting in and of itself, but what pisses me off...WHAT PISSES ME OFF...is this response from the towering intellects behind What Really Happened:
Cannon and his fellow Republicans then failed in a vote that attempted to 'take down' Watt's words.
But then, this is really no surprise coming from the 110th.WHAT THE FUCK...?
Both parties are truly the war parties, owned by the companies - and certain foreign governments - which fund their campaigns.
A Democrat calls the President a liar. A Republican (from Utah, the last really red state in the nation) objects to the term. Another Democrat rules that it is just fine to call Dubya a liar in parliamentary debate.
How can someone twist this sequence of events into yet another rationale to launch into the Standard Issue Both Parties Are The Same Lecture? (New acronym: The SIBPATS lecture.) Anyone nutty enough to attach that interpretation to what Watts and Sanchez did would also be goofy enough to suggest that Britain, Poland and Germany were equally at fault for starting World War II.
I'm just paranoid enough to suspect that the SIBPATS meme is being covertly pushed by pro-Republican forces to keep losses to a minimum in 2008. The goal is to suppress the vote among the faux-hip and the progressive purists. This sort of thing has happened before. Back in the 1990s, conspiracy-oriented lecturers, when speaking to a mildly progressive or mixed audience, would announce: "Don't vote -- it only encourages them." When doing the pro-militia lecture circuit, the same guys would strongly support the Gingrich "revolution."
I'm instituting a new rule: Anyone offering a SIBPATS lecture is not allowed to comment on this blog, and I don't care how cleverly you phrase your horseshit. Go sit in the tranny corner. Or better still, just get the hell out. This is a pro-Democratic Party blog -- and if you dig that not, bye-bye. As Wagner put it:
Get thee gone and hie thee hence,
and heed these words of Gurnemanz:
Henceforward leave the swans in peace --
the gosling should stay with the geese!
(I haven't tested that translation to see if it's singable, but at least it rhymes.)
6 comments:
surely we can come up with a synonym for 'issue' and turn this into ....
SUBPATS.
unit? whatever... nader is making those running noises again. though i tend to agree with numerous points he makes about corporate power, he so thoroughly misses the big picture, it's sad.
You wouldn't have posted Wagner if you hadn't already known that Mark Twain said Wagner's music is actually better than it sounds, am I right, Joseph?
If I say something later on here about Gen. Wesley Clark's transformation from Republican to Democrat, and also Hillary's in the old days, can I also say something first about the SIBPATS lecture?
If this will be the Democratic blog that you want it to be, maybe you should have a positive, rather than negative mission statement. Asking 'How can we win?' isn't positive enough. Blocking SIBPATS nincompoops means you're wasting your energies that could be used to get us to win.
Back in 2004 we got to see and hear (on C-SPAN for long stretches of Q & A with regular folks) some extraordinary and remarkable people: Elizabeth (of John) Edwards, Gert (of Wesley) Clark, Theresa ( (of John Kerry) Heinz -- plus we read about Howard Dean's stay-at-work physician/surgeon wife. Yeehaw?
Yeah, Hillary's a politician, a pol, with a lawyer's wit and savvy, and she's an unapologetic beggar to get what she wants. I want her to become President of the United States (with a legacy that began with the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon all those years ago). Whatever, I'll support -- meaning work for! -- any Democratic presidential candidate. But I'd rather listen to their spouses.
General Wesley Clark became a Democrat. Hillary they say was a Goldwater Republican before she was free to choose her own beliefs. Theresa Heinz turned into a Democrat. These are the kind of people who can articulate why it sucks to be Republican.
The SIBPATS lecture doesn't include any treatise on Lowell Weicker and Joe Lieberman, 2 Connecticut US flipped Senators, and why is that?*
* "and why is that?" -- Alice Munro, the finest Canadian writer of our time.
--(AitchD as 'Anonymous')
Joe, not paranoid at all.
RW is behind some sites IMO, including 1-2 large ones.
In the ABC mini-series Amerika, the Russians allowed controlled dissent. It was a way of letting folks believe they were accomplishing something, without actually accomplishing something.
Here we are in 2007, still at war, fascism everywhere...
Are we really accomplishing anything?
I suppose the modern definition is "the matrix."
John
SIBPATS or not, I suspect it really wont soon matter...
OK then.
To me the issue is not the similarities or differences between the two elite parties, it is how they have been lowering our bar while shifting their goalposts right. What do we need to do as a people, as a citizenry, to educate our politicians and take back power?
The refusal to examine the nuances of Power and discuss building alternative political movements, SIBPATS notwithstanding, discredits the rest of what you write.
Your myopic and desperate clinging to the Democrats reminds me of certain fundies afraid to let go of Bush for fear of falling into hell.
Moreover, your condescending stance conforms perfectly with the Democrats and the political elite in general.
Anyway, I'm sure I am just another SIBPATS moron, so you go and have fun with Hillary and Wall Street and the Neverending Global War on Terror (NevGWoT).
Adios. Off'a my bookmarks.
Nebraska and Idaho are still pretty red. Just sayin'.
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