Is it any wonder they keep winning?

This is what a Democrat looks like

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There is another CDS Fest going on over at Ian Welsh’s place:

Gosh , all the partisan BS about Clinton, Hillary and Obama. and ever wonder why the right wing wins ALL the time?

One of my earliest memories was the assassination of JFK – I was only three years old but I remember my mom telling me that our President was dead. Growing up I watched the Vietnam war and the anti-war protests on television.

I remember the Watergate hearings, the Nixon resignation, inflation, oil embargoes, gas lines, terrorism at the Munich Olympics, the Iranian hostage crisis, dead marines in Lebanon, US victories in Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait. I even recall polyester leisure suits, platform shoes and disco.

The Democrats have controlled Congress for most of the fifty years I’ve been alive, but only held the White House for twenty-two of those years, including the first eight.

I recall my thirties as a time of peace and prosperity, a better time than any other period in my life. The guy who was in the White House back then was Bill Clinton. Lots of other people remember those eight years as a positive experience, which is why Bill Clinton still enjoys high approval ratings.

Friday Night Cookout Open Thread

Quesadilla Burger

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My recipe of the week:

Quesadilla Burgers

Quesadillas

o 2 (10 inch) flour tortillas
o Olive oil
o 1/3 cup shredded Monterey jack pepper cheese
o 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
o shredded lettuce
o 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
o 3-4 sliced red onion rings
o 2-4 bacon slices
o southwest seasoned hamburger (recipe follows)

Call me crazy, but . . .

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Unless things change dramatically in the next two years there is a pretty good chance that the question in 2012 won’t be “Will the Republicans win?” but instead will be “Which Republican will win?” It could be very much like 2008 when it was obvious that the Democrats could (and did) nominate an empty suit and win.

So if Obama is running unopposed for reelection and there is a close contest for the Republican nomination, wouldn’t it behoove us to try to affect the outcome of the GOP primary?

Now the conventional wisdom among the creative class types would be to try to ratfuck the Republicans by registering as “GOPers for a Day” and voting for their worst candidate, hoping to make it easy for Obama to win that November.

But if that worst candidate were to win in November, then whose rat got fucked?

Matt Taibbi and the Invisible Americans

Part of my problem as we go forward towards a progressively bleak future, is that back in 2008 some of the best progressive writers exposed themselves as pretty horrible thinkers.

For example here’s Matt Taibbi then:

The New Nixon

Moreover, like Nixon, her “invisible Americans” deal is carefully couched to appeal to the fears of her own version of the silent majority — fears about energy prices, layoffs, health care, terrorism. It’s a conscious decision to contrast her approach to Obama’s hokey-inspirational politics — hence the relentless emphasis on the part of stooges like Penn on her “preparedness” and leadership, as opposed to Obama’s airy “vision” and “hope.”

Was Taibbi serious when he dismisses Hillary’s platform issues (and by implication the depth of her knowledge of those issues) as an appeal to Nixon’s silent majority?  And he goes on throughout the piece quoting virtually every classic distortion regarding  Hillary:

Accountability before Austerity: Talk to the Hand

Collaborators

I have a theory about the so-called Deficit Reduction Commission’s “proposals”, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday, I found this link from USAToday in Paul Krugman’s Mush from the Wimp post at Conscience of a Liberal: Obama to Congress: Stop Shooting Down Deficit Proposals. In it, Obama is lecturing Congress to get on board:

[Barack Obama] said lawmakers in the United States should hold off on comments about his fiscal commission’s proposals to slash the federal budget deficit through spending cuts, ending tax breaks, and a revamping of the Social Security system.

“Before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts,” Obama told reporters.

He added: “If people are, in fact, concerned about spending, debt, deficits and the future of our country, then they’re going to need to be armed with the information about the kinds of choices that are going to be involved, and we can’t just engage in political rhetoric.”

[…]

“We’re going to take it out on senior citizens?” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., one of Pelosi’s appointees to the deficit reduction panel. “I am virulently against that proposal.”

At a news conference in Seoul, Obama said he opposes special spending projects known as earmarks, and wants to eliminate waste from the federal budget — but those alone won’t come close to cutting the national debt now pegged at $13.7 trillion.

“We’re going to have to make some tough choices,” Obama said. “The only way to make those tough choices historically has been if both parties are willing to move forward together.”

This is so bad it’s not even wrong.

It’s Almost the Weekend News

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Good Morning, it’s Friday almost-the Thirteenth! What’s going on with you today?

Check out what almost-First Lady Cindy McCain is up to:

Cindy McCain does video opposing DADT, accuses ‘our government’ of sending signal that bullying is okay – her hubbie is the lead defender of DADT

John McCain is leading the filibuster against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” “repeal” legislation in the Senate (it’s not an actual repeal, but we’ll leave that for another time). Today, Cindy McCain joined a number of celebrities in a video about gay youth suicide and bullying. Mrs. McCain’s part of the video condemned DADT and then accused our government of sending bullies a message that what they do is okay.

The woman basically accused her husband of sharing the blame for gay kids killing themselves.

Just one little quibble there, Mr. Aravosis – the guy YOU helped put in the White House is the lead defender of DADT. As Anglachel put it: He’s Your Son of a Bitch. (I love a good rant)

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Next we have an almost-merger of two almost-respectable magazines.

Observer Exclusive: Newsweek and Daily Beast to Merge

Newsweek and The Daily Beast will announce tomorrow morning that the two publications will merge, a source close to the deal tells The Observer.

It will be a 50-50 merger of the two companies. The editorial staffs will combine under the editorship of Tina Brown, who will again run a high-profile glossy.

I love a good rant Part II

Free circumcisions while you wait

Violet Socks:

This is what you get. It’s exactly what I said you would get. In one of those many, many posts in 2008 I wrote something like, “Obama represents the metastasization of the Republican cancer to the Democratic party.” People called me a racist for saying that. They accused me of being a wingnut racist Republican mole who was flinging mud to besmirch Obama’s name. Funny.

You know what else is funny? Nobody has ever apologized to me. Not that it would make a difference, but still. Not one of those people who accused me of being a racist and secret wingnut has ever said, “You were right about Obama. I’m sorry I called you those names.”

What they do instead is claim that no one could have known how Obama would turn out. He seemed like cream of Jesus on toast, so how could they know? Nobody could know! And as for the uncomfortable fact that a bunch of people, including me, seemed to know exactly how Obama would turn out and were saying so loudly in 2008—well, that was just coincidence. I’m still, according to this logic, a racist unfeminist wingnut on the Republican payroll whose 2008 rantings just happened, by sheer coincidence, to accord precisely with unfolding reality.

There’s more, but you have to go to Violet’s Smoking Lounge to read it.

I love a good rant

No Dave, you're an idiot

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Dave “M-m-m-my” Sirota via Lambert who got it from Avedon Carol:

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[T]his time I can muster only one Cheney-esque response to the whole grotesque kabuki theater surrounding the inane “Future of the Democratic Party” debate: Go fuck yourself.

Evan Bayh and Third Way and The Democratic Strategist and the DLC and all the professional pundits and cable-TV zombies and D.C. spokesholes – all of you soul-raping corpses and shit-eating poindexters paid to appear on my television screen and scream at me about liberals ruining everything, please, I beg you on behalf of the silent irritated majority: Just go fuck yourself.

Can’t he just eat his waffle?

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You know things are running smooth in the Oval Orifice when you see this:

Axelrod says Obama will agree to extend tax cuts for wealthy

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Axelrod Denies Obama Would Concede Tax Cuts

She’s a contender now

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Warning: This is another tedious post is about that annoying Sarah Palin and may induce headaches, nausea, malodorous sweating and/or fecal hemorrhaging in some people. Reader discretion is advised

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The 2012 Presidential election will be between a Republican and a Democrat. Michael Bloomberg can spend every dime of his fortune running as an independent and he still won’t win a single electoral college vote.

Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate unless he decides not to run. While I would love for that to happen I ain’t holding my breath.

Sarah Palin has a good chance of winning the GOP nomination even without the backing of the Republican establishment. Unlike Mitt Romney she can win the fundie votes and she’s already got the Tea Partiers locked up.

Ignoring Sarah Palin won’t make her go away. That might of worked two years ago but the misogynist frat boys on the left just couldn’t let her go.

She owes them a debt of gratitude. Without their efforts she would be a footnote to the 2008 election. She’s a player now.