Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Unreasonable people vote

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  • Petra,

    Was Rosemary McLeod "Felicity Ferret" at one time?

    Rotorua • Since Mar 2007 • 317 posts Report Reply

  • Petra,

    Unless the issue is "what do fatuous codgers think about modern life?"

    lol. Zing!

    Rotorua • Since Mar 2007 • 317 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Ah, but not as zingy as some of those 100 Best Signs At The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear (thanks, Russell).
    Personally tickled by #17, 25, 35, 43, 57, 58, 59, 84, 89

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Amy Gale,

    The worst thing is: these are not bad people. They're not stupid. They're not spending hours each day burning crosses on their neighbours' lawns. They're not uneducated or ignorant of history.

    I'm right there with you, up to that last clause. A lot of Americans ARE very ignorant of history and the ignorance matters, it matters a lot.
    If the public doesn't know the answer to questions like "how did Iran come to be an 'islamic republic'?" or "where did the Taliban get all those weapons anyway?", we're all going to ride to "doomed to repeat it" in the same handbasket.

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report Reply

  • James Bremner,

    It is surprising to read that so many in the US and overseas don't seem to understand why the Dems are looking like taking a bit of a flogging tomorrow. This article gets the economic side of things quite well.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama_s-economists-missed-what-voters-plainly-saw-1378071-106341568.html\

    Is it really extreme to be worried about trillion dollar deficits and the consequent rapidly accumulating debt as far as the eye can see? Hardly. Add to that Obama's policies have created so much uncertainty that it has really cramped job creation, keeping unemployment high. How can companies invest when you don't know what their tax rates, healthcare costs or energy costs are going to be?

    To that you can add that Obama hasn't been the president that he said he was going to be. Nothing worse than being sold a bill of goods. He was going to be a post partisan president, and yet he told the Repubs "I won" when they wanted to talk about the stimulus package. Much like Cullen's "we won, you lost eat it' comment. Obama said he was going to bring a new kind of politics to Washington, but the Dems' healthcare bill was rammed through against the expressed wishes of the Americans in the worst of corrupt old political ways. He was going to "review every line of expenditure" and he rammed through a pork stuffed stimulus package that was more a payoff to his union buddies than a genuine stimulus package, and it hasn't worked as promised.

    After all that it would be amazing if the Dems weren't going to get a stuffing tomorrow, and if the American people were okay with all of the above, then American would be truly fucked. That they are rejecting it is cause for optimism.

    NOLA • Since Nov 2006 • 353 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    To that you can add that Obama hasn't been the president that he said he was going to be. Nothing worse than being sold a bill of goods. He was going to be a post partisan president, and yet he told the Repubs "I won" when they wanted to talk about the stimulus package.

    It's such fun when you stop by and bring the talking points, James.

    Here's a report of the meeting where Obama said "I won". It was a cross-party meeting with senior Democrat and Republican reps, in which Obama is reported to have favourably received a one-page list of Republican stimulus proposals.

    The line you quote came in this context:

    Mr. Obama did voice opinion on some differences on the issue of whether the lowest individual tax rates should be cut from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent.

    As the president, he had told Kyl after the Arizonan raised objections to the notion of a tax credit for people who don't pay income taxes, Obama told Cantor this morning that "on some of these issues we're just going to have ideological differences."

    The president added, "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."

    So, they talked at length and he acknowledged their differences.

    How on earth is that your evidence of Obama refusing to talk about the stimulus?

    It's this sort of fantasy world logic that is blighting American political debate.

    Ironically, the big objection raised afterwards by John Boehner was to a Medicaid family planning initiative. The economy's going down a hole and the Republicans are fretting about condoms.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    It is surprising to read that so many in the US and overseas don't seem to understand why the Dems are looking like taking a bit of a flogging tomorrow. This article gets the economic side of things quite well.

    No it doesn't. It's a thin, partisan effort that holds that Tea Party folk wisdom trumped the work of national economic advisors, without actually offering any evidence that that is the case.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Put it this way, without feminism the only women who get into politics and public life are the ones who manage to contort themselves into the tiny window of acceptable public femaleness under patriarchy.

    Oh come on... even if you think Margaret Thatcher is the anti-Christette, you've got to grant she was in no way "acceptable" to the Tory grandees -- she was a "pushy" little daughter of trade who'd was a (barely) acceptable place holder until someone better came along.

    It's not so much absurd to dump on your own gender, as inevitable in a world where feminist successes are incomplete. Uncle Tom is the equivalent term in a racist society.

    I think I'm going to back away from this thread before Emma, Megan and Danielle smell the "bad feminist" troll-bait...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    He was going to "review every line of expenditure" and he rammed through a pork stuffed stimulus package that was more a payoff to his union buddies than a genuine stimulus package, and it hasn't worked as promised.

    Oh please, James... First, you're being rather disingenuous (or flat out ignorant) about how the Congress works. The President doesn't get to "ram though" as much as a take out order from Starbucks; the GOP did a pretty damn good job at larding up the stimulus bill with pork all along the line. But I guess I keep forgetting that the GOP is now the Party of Palin: Lie about your record (the biggest expansion of the federal government since LBJ), re-write you history and show an infantile disdain for taking any responsibility for your own actions.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Eade,

    Emma, Megan and Danielle smell the "bad feminist" troll-bait...

    Smell it, you just wrote it, although it is a very bad summation of the point being made. Maggie Thatcher worked in a male-dominated party in the seventies, they would still freak out today but she hardly can be seen as a role model for female equality and she was a horrible politicain who played on the worst aspects of Englands many egos.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Smell it, you just wrote it, although it is a very bad summation of the point being made.

    @Jeremy: If I ever engage in ideological slut-shaming, I fully expect to get slapped and hard - 'cause that's just how the PAS Women's XV rolls. And, boy, if B. Jones is going to call anyone an 'Uncle Tom' (however passive-aggressive s/he is about it) I'm the last person who is going to be applauding as I order a muffin basket.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Craig's right. Thatcher was very much an outsider in her own party. She wasn't one of the chaps, at all.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Just to lighten the mood:

    Jon Stewart auto-tuned!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • B Jones,

    Whoa, not trying to call anyone an Uncle Tom. All I was trying to say is that there's a concise word when you're talking about racism that means roughly what we're talking about here in the context of sexism - someone from the discriminated-against group who gets a dispensation from being discriminated against because they join in discriminating against the rest of the group. Pejoratives aside, it's a thing, and it can coexist in a weird sort of way with taking advantage of the anti-discrimination movement. See Sarah Palin.

    I don't know a lot about Thatcher, and I can readily believe she had to fight a lot to get accepted into her role. But I still think it would have been easier for a staunch conservative Iron Lady slipping into a sort of Elizabethan exception role, than it would have been for one of the more feminist types in that era.

    In short, conservatism for women can be a shortcut to joining the privilege club without the messy business of having to do something about the unfair distribution of privilege. Doesn't mean you get a permanent exemption (see sexist attacks against Sarah Palin, Thatcher etc), but it gets you past the manhating socialist feminist lesbian epithets.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Maggie Thatcher worked in a male-dominated party in the seventies

    And it took her over a decade to (narrowly) win selection for a winnable seat -- despite the unusually high profile she won as the youngest Conservative candidate in the 1950 election, where she actually did a pretty good job of cutting the incumbent's majority by over 6,000 in a safe Labour seat.

    And if you ever think Thatcher was ever "one of the boys", I'd recommend John Campbell's rather astute two-volume biography. You don't have to like her politics to cringe at the bingo cards you could fill on every page. And its hard not to come to the conclusion that the contempt was entirely mutual.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Megan Wegan,

    It's not so much absurd to dump on your own gender, as inevitable in a world where feminist successes are incomplete. Uncle Tom is the equivalent term in a racist society.

    Yeah, cos dudes _never_ do that. I've never seen a column in which a man said another man was doing an awful job of something. OH WAIT.

    I reserve the right, as a chick, to behave as as much of a twatcock as the next person. Not because I want to get on Bill O'Reilly, but because I'm entitled to my opinion, however idiotic it is. You can think I am wrong, but it'd be really nice if you didn't suggest that cos I am a woman, my voice is meant to be all 'maternal' and 'empathetic' and mother-earthy. It actually tends to be relatively enraged and full of profanity.

    Craig can probably give you a good idea of how my voice sounds, actually...

    If I ever engage in ideological slut-shaming, I fully expect to get slapped and hard - 'cause that's just how the PAS Women's XV rolls.

    Honey, I've told you before, it doesn't count if we know you like it.

    Welly • Since Jul 2008 • 1275 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Craig can probably give you a good idea of how my voice sounds, actually...

    A pound of butter wrapped in velvet.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Bridge building and other spanners...

    The economy's going down a hole and the Republicans are fretting about condoms.

    If it's all about gaming the system, of course they are gonna be fretting about rubbers - best of three (or five) anyone?


    Broad generalisations...

    Put it this way, without feminism the only women who get into politics and public life are the ones who manage to contort themselves into the tiny window of acceptable public femaleness under patriarchy.

    Benazir Bhutto, Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi - where do they fit in that theory?
    Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    But seriously James, if you're still here, are you not even a little bit concerned about the Tea Party pushing a complete fruitloop like Sharron Angle into your party's nomination?

    She wants to abolish the US Dept of Education, withdraw the US from the United Nations, claimed (baselessly) that the 9/11 hijackers entered the US via Canada, encouraged the formation of armed militias "if we don't win at the ballot box", doesn't believe the Constitution requires separation of church and state, and recently appeared to indicate that she believes autism is an imaginary condition.

    She refuses to talk to either local or national news media.

    She has a record of using her position to assist the Church of Scientology, and introduce its "therapies" to Nevada prisons.

    She's batfuck flaming crazy, and will probably beat Harry Reid and enter the Senate.

    You're comfortable with that?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • David Hood,

    I don't know a lot about Thatcher, and I can readily believe she had to fight a lot to get accepted into her role. But I still think it would have been easier for a staunch conservative Iron Lady slipping into a sort of Elizabethan exception role, than it would have been for one of the more feminist types in that era.

    Well it is certainly easier for a conservative woman to become head of a conservative political party than a liberal woman.

    Dunedin • Since May 2007 • 1445 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg,

    I think it's interesting to note that the fury the Tea Party brings to the, umm, party is similar, but completely opposite to what the protests and strikes in France are about.

    Europe and the US really are very different places.

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • Andre Alessi,

    Major cost cutting for the NZ Defence Force announced.

    That's another difference between here and the US-even suggesting that defence spending needs to be reigned in over there would have you banished from public office for life. The military component of American culture has become an economic and ideological distortion, where people sign up for the benefits, both financial and social, that service grants them. It makes going to war far too easy as a result, and turns military service from a vocation into a kind of Department of Social Welfare with guns.

    Devonport, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 864 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn,

    @Petra:

    Those vids are great. Do you have a library of them by any chance?

    Please change them

    Jeremy, please feel free to change your role models yourself:))

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    But I still think it would have been easier for a staunch conservative Iron Lady slipping into a sort of Elizabethan exception role, than it would have been for one of the more feminist types in that era.

    Oh, please... Thatcher became opposition leader a few months before Barbara Castle was sacked from Cabinet by James Callaghan. Castle later claimed he told her she had to go because he "wanted someone younger" in his Cabinet. She said the hardest thing she ever did in her life was biting back the urge to reply "Why not start with you, James?" (He was the oldest Prime Minister since Churchill.) I wouldn't confuse Made in Dagenham with a documentary, but the relentless bullshit women on both sides of the House had to swallow isn't actually exaggerated by much. If anything, it's probably toned down.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Angus Robertson,

    I think it's interesting to note that the fury the Tea Party brings to the, umm, party is similar, but completely opposite to what the protests and strikes in France are about.

    I think you've got that wrong. In Europe there are strikes and riots and the odd lynching. In America there are protest gatherings and political reorganisation in the opposition party. The fury is not similar.

    Auckland • Since May 2007 • 984 posts Report Reply

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