Nitecap: Romper, Stomper, Bomper, Boo

Tell me, tell me, tell me do

Tell me magic mirror and say,

Did all my unemployed friends and colleagues have any luck today?

I see Lan and Alina, oh and there’s Dominick and Patrick, and David and Tikva.  I see Tom waving and there’s Molly, Scott and Yvette!

I’m sitting here at Rico’s new digs.  Actually, it’s the same digs that Joe used to own.  There’s a long sleek bar of polished wood.  Rico keeps it in good shape with plenty of lemon oil when the bar’s not busy.

I’d like to sit here in a dark corner, nursing my Jamiesons, and talk to my friends, the ones I don’t see anymore.  We used to occasionally go out to happy hour and shoot the breeze and kamikazes, talk about the stupid management decisions we have to live with.  People aren’t really up to partying right now.  But we can all relax here in this bar and take a load off.

We’re in for two more hard years.  We’ll figure it out.  But right now, I’d like some peanuts with my drink.  I just want to sit here and listen to the music.

Another refill Rico.  Put it on my tab.

Oh, Alan — you really think it’s OUR fault? (Still not getting it Part 2)

Alan Grayson’s excuse for losing is . . . .

“In my case, it’s simply a matter of the Democrats not voting,” Grayson, who was defeated by Republican Dan Webster in Florida’s 8th District, said. “We don’t have the final numbers from Election Day yet, but in the early voting, when you compare the vote this time to the vote in 2008, the Republicans dropped about 20 percent, and the Democratic vote dropped 60 percent.”

“That wasn’t just true in my district; it was true all around Florida, and as far as I can tell all around the country, with the possible exception of the West Coast and New England,” he continued. “If Democrats don’t vote, then Democrats can’t win.”

Alan’s one of those guys who makes beautiful speeches supporting grand ideas but, he’s apparently forgotten that voters won’t vote if it doesn’t matter to them.

Why is this such a tough lesson?  Give us something to vote for and we’ll get out and vote.

[Disclaimer :: I voted for several Democrats and no Republicans.]

[UPDATE] MoveOn is apparently starting to wake up:

Progressives Fault Economy, Corporate Sell-Out For Election Wipe-Out

Justin Ruben, the head of MoveOn.org, which fought to protect progressive members, put out a statement Wednesday explaining the devastation.

Democrats who decided to play ball with corporate interests found themselves friendless: not only did voters turn their backs on them, but so did the industries they sought to mollify. From Glenn Nye to Blanche Lincoln, play-it-safe Democrats have been sent packing. Corporate interests and oil billionaires poured unprecedented cash into political attack ads hitting not only front line Democrats, but turning previously safe seats into bitter fights for survival. This means we now have a Republican majority in the House of Representatives that owes its majority to big corporations and a small handful of wealthy donors. And, it suggests that claiming to support Democratic principles while quietly pandering to corporate interests is no longer a winning political strategy.

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I left MoveOn when they threw their support behind Obama in early 2008. But, they’re right about this. Pandering to corporate interests is no longer a winning political strategy.

Mid-day open thread

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The Big Dawg has an editorial in yesterday’s New York Times:

TODAY marks 15 years since an assassin’s bullet killed my friend, Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister. Since his death, not a week has gone by that I have not missed him. I loved him and his wife, Leah, very much. On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, his yahrzeit, the world would do well to remember the lessons of his life: his vision for freedom, tolerance, cooperation, security and peace is as vital now as it was 15 years ago, when he happily spoke and sang for peace at a huge rally in Tel Aviv just before he was killed.

Rabin was utterly without pretense. When David Ben-Gurion sent him as a young man to represent Israel during armistice talks in 1949, he had never before worn a neck tie, so a friend tied it, and showed him how to loosen it so he could preserve the knot for future use. True to form, two weeks before his assassination, he arrived in Washington at a black-tie event without the black tie. We borrowed one for him, and I still smile whenever I think about straightening it for him, just as Hillary does when she remembers how he complained when she made him go out on the Truman Balcony to smoke.

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Politico:

Sarah Palin takes victory lap

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin is out with a new video Thursday touting the victories of her chosen candidates — and brushing aside the many who fell to defeat on Tuesday.

“Across the country, everyday Americans are standing up and they’re speaking out,” Palin says in the video, titled “Together,” which cuts between images of her winning candidates and tea party activists.

“Based on what I’m seeing, there is more than enough reason to have faith in America,” she said. “I’m confident and I am hopeful because this is our movement, this is our moment, this is our morning in America.”

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Check out the Obama Scandals List – 200 of Barack’s greatest hits. It’s historic!

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What else is happening today?

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Thursday: What we’re up against because the “Creative Class” just *had* to have its way

Oh, how bittersweet to know what’s coming but unable to knock any sense at all into the children who got us into this mess.

I noticed yesterday that they seemed unusually quiet.  Well, except for the gits at the Big Cheeto who seem determined to blame all of this on the hicks in the sticks.

No, don’t blame it on an increase in the number of indies going Republican.  The problem is a good chunk of your own team didn’t bother to show up.  It’s that “party unity” thing you bludgeoned us with.  Remember when Nancy Pelosi brought down the gavel like she was late for a plane and the band struck up, “People all over the world, join hands, get on a LOVE train, LOVE train”.   That song is ruined for me. The party was being 1 part sincere and 45 parts mean spirited and contemptuous, rubbing salt in the wounds of everybody in Denver who was sent there to represent a middle class/working class constituency that was desperately looking for a return to peace and prosperity.  Instead, they were railroaded and stuffed in the closet while a small bunch of fanatics took over the party.

Based on the comments I saw on various blogs yesterday, the “creative class” intelligentsia still do. not. get. it.  They now seem receptive to the idea that Obama should be primaried, preferably from the left.  But they keep trying to ignore the only legitimate person in the room who has a shot of doing it.  Desperately, they grasp at names like Elizabeth Warren, who has never run for public office, and Russ Feingold, who just got tossed out of one for, I suspect, being a bit too much of a man of mystery.  Even Anglachel who was a Clintonista backs off from entertaining the possibility:

Lies, damned lies and statistics

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Warning: This is another post is about those awful tea-bagging mad hatters and may induce headaches, nausea, flatulence and/or incontinence in some people. Reader discretion is advised

 

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From MSNBC:

 

Just 32% of Tea Party candidates win

For all the talk of the Tea Party’s strength – and there will certainly be a significant number of their candidates in Congress – just 32% of all Tea Party candidates who ran for Congress won and 61.4% lost this election.

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The first thing that jumped out at me was “MSNBC.”

 

I’m not calling anyone a liar but I wouldn’t trust that outfit to present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on the topic of Tea Partiers any more than I would trust FOX News to be fair and balanced on the same subject.