I am a right-winger.
At least, so says a DU hate-spewer -- no, I will not link to him -- who calls me anti-progressive. As indeed I am, although I did not turn against that movement until it turned against the Democratic party.
These days are so crazy that an Edwards supporter can be considered "right-wing" -- while many a "progressive" supports Ron Paul, a man who wants an end to Social Security. One may even call oneself a progressive while asking Paul to mount a third party run -- a move which would siphon votes away from the Democrat and thereby elect Giuliani.
(Better Giuliani than Hillary, you see. She's too much the Republican -- and a replay of the 1992-2000 era would be a fate worse than death.)
My great sin, it seems, was to mention (two posts down) that Iran's Sunburn missiles can take out the Fifth Fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf. The critic construes my post as an argument favoring an attack on Iran. That's a little like saying that Spike Lee intended Malcolm X as an argument in favor of white supremacy.
I've been listening to the audiobook version of Al Franken's The Truth (With Jokes), which is very funny, and very true. He describes a race in Alabama won in a squeaker by a Democrat, despite an ugly Rove-engineered smear campaign accusing the candidate of pedophilia. Franken quotes an insider who lets slip that Rove used students at a conservative-leaning school to spread the bogus claims.
All of which leads me to wonder: If we could track the Dem-hate messages filling our "progressive" web sites back to their authors, how many of the addresses would end in .edu?
I'm not convinced of this theory, yet I offer it seriously. Take a look, for example, at the constant stream of messages from "progressives" insisting that we can never, ever forgive the pre-Iraq war votes by Hillary Clinton or John Kerry. These attacks smell like the stuff we use to get from right-wingers. They are short, incendiary spasms of hate, filled with dubious claims and dubious spellings -- and they never stop. Progressiveland is being carpet-bombed.
Back to Al Franken. He probably would not support Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich, probably considers Nancy Pelosi the most liberal House Speaker in history (which, in fact, she is), probably does not favor impeachment, and probably feels (as I do) that Reid's horse-trade on Mukasey was irksome but justifiable. Worst of all, Franken does not think that bombs-in-da-buildings brought down the Twin Towers -- and he spends many pages defending that taser-loving fiend, John Kerry.
All of which means that Franken, like me, now must stand condemned as a right-winger and an enemy of the progressive movement, as those terms are currently defined. Shun him, my friends. Number 6 is Un-Mutual.
I would not be surprised to see a DU poster ask for contributions to the Norman Coleman campaign.
(By the way, Franken accepts as a given the thesis that Bush received prompting via radio during the debates. That meme was my small contribution to the 2004 conversation.)
17 comments:
Well, I just received a comment agreeing with the premise outlined above. Unfortunately, I had to delete the message because it went on to spew crap about the Pentagon being hit by something other than a jet.
Sometimes I think that I have no non-insane readers left.
Then I go to other sites -- even TPM -- and see that the same nuttiness has become an epidemic
I don't care for Al Franken, I think he's an elitist snob who assumes no one else knows how to read. But I hope he wins and is as fast a learner as he thinks he is. He isn't funny or cool, in fact he's like me in that respect -- we only think we're funny and cool.
Someone hijacked the once-fine political term 'Progressive', it doesn't work anymore, so it's best to leave it alone. You can't deny that FDR's administration was extremely progressive, as was LBJ's. Paul Krugman identifies his politics as "progressive", and we know you like his politics and economic analyses. Clinton (1993-2000) wasn't progressive; his administration was reactionary and conservative. You may disagree, but I shook conservative Democrat Henry Scoop Jackson's hand when he was campaigning for president (it was in the hallway, he was looking for the men's room, and his Secret Service detail couldn't catch up to him), and my girlfriend stood very close to Bill Clinton in 1992 when he gave a speech ("He's a HANDSOME man. And he's big"), my point being I'm not qualified to argue or debate the issue. The SOCIAL and ECONOMIC things you want, which have been stalled or have been disappearing, are things that only progressive thinkers want. In POLITICS, because we have a written Constitution and permanent institutions derived from it, a Democrat or Republican would favor the status quo; a reactionary or a revolutionary would seek to change or abolish it.
I should probably check out those suspect 'progressive' kvetchers you keep wasting your time reading and writing about, but instead I'll agree with you by default because I trust you, and I picture them as knock-offs of those two women hitch-hiking kooks in Five Easy Pieces who were on their way to Alaska when Bobby and Rayette picked them up. Hmm, I wonder how The Mosquito Coast holds up 25 years later (I'm a sucker for Sophoclean tragic irony).
You don't tell me why I don't get Franken, and I won't post what Twain said about Wagner. Deal?
(This* is worth watching again, more worthwhile for a first time. It's the first program in James Burke's first series of Connections, titled The Trigger, from 1978. It conceivably inspired the 9/11 attacks on 9/11 rather than some other date, and you'll see why in one specific instance. It wouldn't have freaked anyone out in 1978 or even in 1998, but it's a mindfucker today.)
*
http://video.google.com/
videoplay?docid=-2010590024183774407
If you weren't referring to my comment, ignore this one. If you were, recall that I spoke in metaphorical terms about the fabled Pentagon generator which wasn't hit, but which spewed an incredible amount of smoke for hours afterwards. I never said anything about a jet not hitting the Pentagon. I said the official story is bullshit. I used the metaphor of smoke to indicate my belief that we may never know what happened.
So as I wrote long ago, you apparently believe the official story, and will not entertain anything else. Cool. Your blog, your choice.
Joseph you need to stop letting everything get to you. You've spent so much time this last year railing against the comments of the deluded and mentally ill.
Before you go off like this just stop and ask yourself "am I arguing with an idiot or nutjob?" and "does anyone pay attention to the person that I'm arguing with?".
colbert gravel kucinich paul nader carter [conyers?] united for truth elicit fear smear blacklist.
honesty compassion intelligence guts...
Right, Ryan. My evil Illuminati masters have paid me to smear Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Carter and Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich. Why, this blog is just FILLED with smears directed against them.
Nader gave you Bush, and he has made no secret of the fact that he intended to do just that. Therefore, you are a Bush fan.
As for Paul -- hey, listen, kid, have you told your parents or grandparents yet that you favor the end of Social Security? I'm wondering what they thought about that. Some middle aged folks get a might queasy at the idea of working into their 80s. Also, try running that idea by someone on disability.
Ron Paul. HE'S a progressive. Surrrrrre.
Hey, didn't Bush use fake statistics in his attempt to "privatize" social security? And didn't he work from a plan drawn up by the Libertarian Cato Institute?
Libertarian. Just like Ron Paul...
Again, you sound like a Bush supporter. Economically, W and Paul were on the same page.
So, why on earth would you seek impeachment? The Bush presidency is precisely what Ralph Nader explicitly WANTED!
I can't believe it. I'm a Democrat and and Edwards supporter. Yet I am now considered a right-winger. And Ron Paul is considered a progressive hero.
HAS THE ENTIRE LEFT GONE NUTS?
Joe;
Be frosty.
I think there is a bit of good in Edwards.
Truth will be truth.
Big storm on the way.
Fear is a bad thing.
2carter anderson 2perot 2nader
My votes were earned.
I sleep ok.
NEVER dem or rep - all indie!
Long time disabled usn vet.
No more history re do.
Multinational corps.
Vote honesty (as you see it).
911 will not be like jfk.
pat for rudy wtf
Our navy IS in great danger.
Time will tell all.
STATUS QUO VADIS
Cannon, you write and act like the Democratic Party is just fine as is. There are those of us that want reform and we want it NOW! Later is too late..the Armageddon clock is ticking..can't you hear it?
When we demand reform or else, we are insisting they (Dem leaders and cheer leaders) stop their pussyfooting around that huge fat elephant in the smoke and elephant shit filled living room, and leave the room entirely amd find a clean space to reorganize.
We need a fresh smell and a star spangled donkey again like Rooseveltadorned, to fight the domestic and international fascists
(multi national corporations) that are hell bent on enslaving this entire globe for their work force and consumption gluttons.
If that is considered too Progressive or "Purist" so be it but it is the truth. Is that irrational? Is that unsavory? Is that impolitic? Is that fanatic and narrow minded? We do not have time to split the hairs on that fat assed elephant. We need change NOW!
Joseph, I laregly agree with you about progressive purists. Not progressives or liberals in general, mind you, just the rigid purists. I also am of the opinion that many of the idiot comments on blogs and such actually don't come from leftward leaning folks at all but are right wing plant comments designed to undermine an ascendant left. That said there is one point I would like to make regarding the Mukasey confirmation. It is dangerous territory when the sitting Attorney General, the "top cop", hedges about the legality of torture. This is no minor point but an important line not to be crossed in my opinion. At the very least they should have held out for the promise of an independant special prosecutor to look into the use of torture under the Bush II administration. The steady erosion of civil rights and liberties, not to mention congressional oversight, needs to be halted. New and ugly precedents are being left standing unchallenged and that has me very worried for the future relationship btween the government and the governed in our country. In Pakistan martial law was declared overnight. What I fear here is more akin to a slow motion creeping martial law coming into effect over America. We are not there yet but it is getting scary.
Well, Counterpunch a while back was
criticising Franken's downplaying of the Israeli Lobby's part in the push to war and his lack of criticism of Israel's oppression of Palestinians. Perhaps this has changed,but it is easy to see why Franken was also tolerant on Mukasey from this vantage.
Ken...read. I did not say that Franken was tolerant of Mukasey. As far as I know, he has made no comment on the matter. I said he probably would consider Reid's horse trade worth it.
The horse trade being directed to the larger goal of defunding the Iraq, Allowing the execrable Mukasey through can fairly be subordinate to that goal, especially since the next candidate would likely be just as bad or worse, and the present situation is just as bad or worse. Better to de-fang the argument that Congress won't fund the military in a time of war. That attack must be countered before any attempt can be made to cut off the money for Iraq.
I don't expect you to understand it. My readers tend to be the kind of chess players who can see only the next move.
lone changer: I never said that the Democratic Party is just fine as it is. I will say -- and I know more history than you -- that it hasn't been this good since the 1960s.
My main point is that guys like you are, objectively speaking, working for the election of Rudolf Giuliani.
Or you are directly working for the election of Ron Paul, who wants an end to Social Security.
You say the Armegeddon clock is ticking. Progressives like you have advanced it. Scroll down and take a look at that cartoon I did of Rudy nuking Tehran. When will creeps like you start taking some responsibility? Objectively speaking, PROGRESSIVES ARE REPUBLICANS.
ryan: You say your conscience is clear. You say our Navy is in danger, as it is. You also say you voted for nader twice, which means you voted for Bush. Which means you voted for the ideology that now puts the Fifth Fleet in danger of frying in the Persian Gulf.
You say you are a disabled vet. That is the only thing stopping me from telling you what I think.
Did I ever have ANY non-insane readers?
By the way, Ken -- Counterpunch has published out-and-out anti-Semites of the Holocaust denial variety, and the execreble Alexander Cockburn (as discussed in a long-ago post) has taken pay-off money from the Saudis. Franken has always been pretty good on Middle East issues. And none of that has anything to do with Mukasey.
I'll speak up on Al Franken, Since as a Minnesotan, I actually get to vote for or against him.
Their is no way any large group of Democratic Farm Labor Minnesotans are going to confuse a former Air America radio Show host as Conservative, particularly given that Norm Coleman has been sucking from the bush teet for years. Oh not to mention when Senator Coleman was mayor of Saint Paul, He was elected as Democrat, who switched parties. Saint Paul won't forget that anytime soon.
Didn't Norm Coleman have a election record until recently that was something like 98% party line (bushco teet).
And yes we learned our lesson with Jesse Ventura and repugnican values of Tim "no new Taxes" Pawlenty. This man narrowly won over a successful State AG who called a reporter a republican whore about 2 weeks before the election.
AitchD, Al Franken cares about people, and he definitely isn't as funny as stephanie miller, but he is popular in MN.
Now if we could just get rid of that freak show Michelle Bachman!
You support Al Franken, clayton?
Welcome aboard, my fellow "right-winger"! I take appreciative note of your reactionary tendencies.
Joseph, just a note to let you know you do have at least one commentor that is sane...me. I am a long-time liberal, but I also call myself a progressive. I'm a yellow-dog democrat that thinks we need not just more democrats but better democrats.
One thing I agree with is that it seems to me that we are getting more and more comments that have a RW meme. I haven't made up my mind whether its lefties that are buying into it or righties trying to start trouble. IMO it could be either one.
I'll check in more often and leave a message so you won't feel so alone. If you support Edwards you're my kind of progressive.
I'm a fan of this blog based on empirical evidence including the Wilkes case, a tour de force, and your early call on the Susan Lindauer indictment, noting that the two Iraqis listed with her had nothing to do with her case. Nobody else noted this until Judge Mukasey made it clear in September 2006.
Labels are over, Democrat, Republican, Progressive (which was originally associated with Republicans), liberal, conservative.
Here's my take on the new politics - a rigorous enterprise that the people will drive not the "leaders."
The Money Party - The Essence of our Political Troubles
The Money Party - Why We Get Such Lousy Leaders
I don't care what label they take or what label is given to me, my allegiance is based on results. The Republicans are a nightmare, the Democrats need a vastly superior candidate to convince people that problems will be addressed with the vigor and intensity that the current circumstances warrant (e.g., Al Gore).
Third parties are a losing proposition every time. I hope we get more choices than those we have now.
Very soon events will drive politics and these concerns will vanish along with most of the current public figures. People will want some serious payback for being lied to about the immediacy of climate change, the extent of atrocities and torture in Iraq and elsewhere, and much more. The question will be "What did they know and when did they know it."
It will be empirically based;)
Sorry but Counterpunch might have published a holocaust revisionist-even Arno Mayer could be said to be one of those since he took a non-exterminationist position in "Why Did The Heavens Not Darken?-but "denial?"---who?
Questioning the "official" stats and methodology doesn't make one an anti-semite no more than being a LIHOPPER makes one a MIHOPPER.
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