Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2: Chewing over the News
537 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 22 Newer→ Last
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
Now, please explain to me the equivalence between some far-left numpty at an anti-Bush rally six years ago who can’t even spell the vulgarisms on his placard and a PAC working on behalf of a woman who, two short years ago, Malkin considered fit to be Vice-President of the United States?
Have I ever told you I love yer work, Craig?
I do (most of the time).
Ok. Enough. On we go.
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Have I ever told you I love yer work, Craig?
I'm sure you have, but don't let me stop you stroking my ego until it starts kicking its legs in the air...
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
As for Kos, how quickly things change. Back in 2008 it was him who was accusing Giffords of selling out the constitution and deserving a bullseye. Glad we all now think that’s not a good thing to be alleging. All accept for Lougher that is.
Good grief, Neil. The actual line that you had to read right down to the bottom of a long blog post to find is: "Not all of these people will get or even deserve primaries, but this vote certainly puts a bulls eye on their district." That's it.
Are you really drawing an equivalence between that and the extraordinary gun-fetish material generated by certain others?
I'd say you were drawing a long bow but you might accuse me of encouraging arrow crime.
-
Lucy Stewart, in reply to
If she (as is hoped for) lives Congresswoman Giffords just might do very well out of these unfortunate events. She is now famous without having pursued of fame, this makes her modest. She has demonstrated courage in the face of credible death threats, this makes her brave. She has been shot in the head and could live, this makes her lucky. These are good qualities, even Presidential qualities.
Why, yes! I'm sure every member of Congress wishes they'd had such good fortune.
Seriously, what do you even mean by this?
-
I guess on the plus side of partisan political news out of the US - De Lay got 3 years prison for blatant purchasing of the Texas elections via that web of PACs he set up (there's a really lame Pacman joke floating in here somewhere). I think the specific charge was a little different, but a prison term is excellent given the way in which he outright purchased the election, boasted about it, amended legislation to reward his business backers and then used his purchased electoral power to redraw the boundaries to cement the thing for a generation.
Without being too coarse, I suspect some in the Republican party may actually appreciate the focus on the symbols on their campaign ad maps, rather than their ACTUAL map drawing. -
Veteran wingnut-watcher Roy Edroso is great value as usual in noting that the response of quite a few people on the political right to Giffords being shot has been to declare they they are the real victims.
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Good grief, Neil. The actual line that you had to read right down to the bottom of a long blog post to find is: “Not all of these people will get or even deserve primaries, but this vote certainly puts a bulls eye on their district.” That’s it.
Now, Neil, I've got a really tough assignment for you. Please find something in the work of some prominent media liberal you can use to excuse this vileness from Rush Limbaugh:
"What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail. He knows what's going on, he knows that...the Democrat party is attempting to find anybody but him to blame. He knows if he plays his cards right, he's just a victim. He's the latest in a never-ending parade of victims brought about by the unfairness of America...this guy clearly understands he's getting all the attention and he understands he's got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything that they can to make sure he's not convicted of murder - but something lesser."
Ugh...
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Veteran wingnut-watcher Roy Edroso is great value as usual in noting that the response of quite a few people on the political right to Giffords being shot has been to declare they they are the real victims.
And it would be kind of amusing how many of these "despicable leftists" are only any such thing in the right-o-sphere's Bizarro World. I don't know if Matthew Yglesias would appreciate the compliment, but he's more of a conservative in many ways than The Walking Brain-Dead.
-
Reading down the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence's incredible Insurrection Timeline of the past two years, it's staggering to ponder that this is merely the haul from one week in November:
November 3, 2010—James Patock, 66, of Pima County, Arizona, is arrested on the National Mall in the District of Columbia after law enforcement authorities find a .223 caliber rifle, a .243 caliber rifle barrel, a .22 caliber rifle, a .357 caliber pistol, several boxes of ammunition, and propane tanks wired to four car batteries in his truck and trailer. Patock former neighbor in Arizona reported that, "He hated the president. He hated everything. He said if he got a chance he would shoot the president." Patock tells authorities he is a member of the National Rifle Association.
November 4, 2010—On his radio show, conservative host Glenn Beck fantasizes about President Obama being decapitated during a trip to India, saying, "If anybody thinks he was a Muslim over here, well God forbid, they think he was a Muslim over there because he left his religion for Christianity, death sentence, behead him.” Beck then tells his listeners that "God forbid" this should happen, as there would be a "New World Order" overnight in the United States.
November 4, 2010—Fox News host Bill O'Reilly fantasizes about killing a Washington Post reporter while on the air, saying, "Does sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?" O'Reilly also tells co-host Megyn Kelly, "I think you and I should go and beat him up."
November 9, 2010—U.S. Representative-Elect Allen West of Florida's 22nd Congressional District hires conservative radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman as his Chief of Staff. On July 3, Kaufman told a crowd of Tea Party supporters, “I am convinced that the most important thing the Founding Fathers did to ensure me my First Amendments rights was they gave me a Second Amendment. And if ballots don’t work, bullets will."
November 9, 2010—Concealed handgun permit holder George Thomas Lee, 69, of Walhalla, South Carolina, is arrested on the town's main street for disseminating and promoting obscenity by bearing signs "laden with expletives and taking aim at U.S. foreign policy, President Barack Obama, blacks in general, Jews and the nation of Israel." Officers also seize literature from Lee that details "the most expedient means of killing law enforcement officers." The November 9 arrest follows an October 19 arrest for assault after Lee kicked and swung his signs at a group of girls between the ages of 12 and 14.
November 10, 2010—Public schools in Broward County, Florida, go into lockdown after an email threat is received by WFTL 850 AM. The email is sent to conservative radio host Joyce Kaufman in response to remarks she made at a Tea Party event in July ("If ballots don't work, bullets will"). The email expresses support for her view of the Second Amendment and says that to further "their cause...something big will happen at a government building in Broward County, maybe a post office maybe even a school." A phone call is then received at the station, allegedly from the emailer's wife, warning that he is preparing to go to a Pembroke Pines school and open fire.
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
. . . the response of quite a few people on the political right to Giffords being shot has been to declare they they are the real victims.
It's become a familiar reflex. I'm pretty sure it was you who noted back at the time of Hurricane Katrina that the howls of outraged sympathy from that quarter were not so much for the victims in New Orleans, but for the unfairly maligned Dubya.
I’d say you were drawing a long bow but you might accuse me of encouraging arrow crime.
Another goshdarned Versarchery liberal.
-
Why, yes! I'm sure every member of Congress wishes they'd had such good fortune.
John McCain was a war hero, he got shot down and captured. John Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam, got a purple heart. GWB demonstrated bravery by turning up (most probably on coke and/or drunk) to a couple of training sessions with the Air National Guard. Al Gore volunteered and went to Vietnam.
3 of those 4 politicians, volunteered to go get potentially shot at.
Seriously, what do you even mean by this?
Americans like politicians who are brave.
-
Meanwhile, NYT columnist David Brooks caps off an epic "move along, nothing to see here" concern troll with a rather unfortunate turn of phrase:
If the evidence continues as it has, the obvious questions are these: How can we more aggressively treat mentally ill people who are becoming increasingly disruptive? How can we prevent them from getting guns? Do we need to make involuntary treatment easier for authorities to invoke?
I have an obvious question for Mr Brooks: Do do think those questions should be asked by someone who can resist calling people he disagrees with "hysterics"?
Does he think labeling someone a paranoid schizophrenic on the basis of a Google search (and no psychiatric expertese I'm aware of) is "a humane mental health policy" or the very "political opportunism" he pretends to disdain?
But hey, just lock up all the scary crazy people - mission accomplished!
-
Professor Reynolds doubles down on the stupid with this fragrant piece of macho posturing (h/t @dailydish via Twitter): TIM PAWLENTY DEMONSTRATES THAT HE’S NOT MAN ENOUGH TO BE PRESIDENT
Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s act of gross effeminacy? Going off script, of course.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty used three media appearances in the past 24 hours to offer a careful criticism of potential 2012 rival Sarah Palin.
“It would not have been my style,” Pawlenty said Tuesday on “Good Morning America,” referring to a map like the one posted last year on the Sarah PAC website showing crosshairs on the district of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other Democratic lawmakers who supported health care reform.
He was quick to add that he sees no link between Palin’s imagery and the shootings Saturday in Tucson that claimed six lives and critically injured Giffords.
But this is what the current GOP and its enablers have become -- no longer a political party but a cult. And like all cults, the heretic must be crushed with even more rigour than the infidel.
-
Lucy Stewart, in reply to
Americans like politicians who are brave.
They like politicians who project an image of bravery, yes. What this has to do with a woman who was tragically shot while going about her everyday work is beyond me. It's also pretty tasteless to be speculating about while she's in a critical condition in hospital. Or, you know, for the foreseeable future.
-
Mental illness expert: We should be asking whether political climate helped trigger shooting.
Money quote:
Dr. Marvin Swartz [psychiatry professor at Duke University who specializes in how environment impacts the behavior of the mentally ill] cautioned that there’s still much we don’t know about Loughner or more generally about the impact of the political climate on the mentally ill. But he asserted that asking how our politics might have impacted Loughner’s behavior was an entirely natural line of questioning.
“We know the manifestation of mental illness is affected by cultural factors,” Dr. Swartz said. “One’s cultural context does effect people’s thinking and particularly their delusions. It gives some content and shape to their delusions. While we don know whether there was a specific relationship between the political climate that he was exposed to and his thinking, it’s a reasonable line of inquiry to explore.”
I think David Brooks just got powned by someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.
-
Going back a wee way
I was fascinated with the notion that a parent should tell their child that anything less than an A is not good enough. Is it possible for everyone in an Asian class to get an A? If not, I guess you see yourself as in a sort of constant fight or competition with those around you. It must be very stressful.
I can't find a link at this time to the number who kill themselves because they don't get good enough marks, but there's this.
-
Rich of Observationz, in reply to
I was told as a kid that if I didn't pass (UK) 'O' level German I would wind up as a dustman. I didn't and haven't.
I'm fairly convinced that the unhappiness caused by being 'pushed' impacted my career prospects much more than any lack of qualifications. Parents, don't do it. If the kid's smart, they'll be able to catch up on qualifications when they need to.
-
It's also pretty tasteless to be speculating about while she's in a critical condition in hospital. Or, you know, for the foreseeable future.
Near instantaneous tasteless speculation is all the rage these days.
-
Sacha, in reply to
If she (as is hoped for) lives Congresswoman Giffords just might do very well out of these unfortunate events. She is now famous without having pursued of fame, this makes her modest. She has demonstrated courage in the face of credible death threats, this makes her brave. She has been shot in the head and could live, this makes her lucky. These are good qualities, even Presidential qualities.
Besides the ickiness of your comment that Lucy has already pointed to (and let's not have any more please), Giffords has just had a traumatic brain injury. I'd say she'll be lucky to speak again let alone do what's needed to be the President. And she already had the qualities you mention.
-
Sacha, in reply to
But hey, just lock up all the scary crazy people
Corporate prisons are probably running out of fresh young black men to keep their musters up, after all.
-
Marcus Turner, in reply to
Sometimes I think it would be easy to see this "Asian" way of pressuring kids as "wrong" and destroying more than it creates. But I haven't seen anything definitive about this.
And I guess that there are numerically more people practicing the Asian methods than ours, and have been for a long time.
I wonder if I'm just looking for ways to demonise something that threatens me? After all, our NZ system(s) of education and parenting don't suit everyone.
-
Hey, folks.
Dodgy webfilter time yet once again. In this case, it's Bluecoat, which runs MacDonald's website filtering in its new but censorious free wifi service inhouse. Anyhow, when they did the same for the Birmingham City Council, an almighty brouhaha arose due to its sectarian censorship filtering, as it blocked atheist and neopagan/alternative religious websites:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/7530519.stm
Craig Y ;( -
This is just wrong. If you look at page 6 alone of this thread prior to your comment you will see, in reverse chronological order, Lucy Stewart noting that US history of political violence amplified the impact of violent rhetoric, Sacha mentioning the Oklahoma City bombing, and Simon Grigg linking to a time line of political violence in the US.
Your citation of the Simon Grigg link is somewhat undermined by it's earliest cited date being June 28th 2008. Which is squarely within the 2-3 year timeframe I've mentioned at least twice.
Otherwise, your point is valid.
this condescension is really annoying. The condescension lies in assuming that an adult human being in full possession of their faculties and speaking the English language would somehow be unaware of the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, and Lincoln, the Oklahoma City bombing, Ruby Ridge, Waco, the militia movement in general, the KKK, etc.
Then we should probably start having a go at Sacha and Lucy for being condescending, too, right?
You do see the irony in getting really quite pissy with me for, as you'd have it, being condescending enough to explicitly mention something as a continuation of an ongoing discussion (rather than assuming it's already at the forefront of everyones mind), while at the same time you're happy to assume a whole bunch of stuff about me and my motivations, to the extent that you're putting words in my mouth I never actually said, to wit:
the really quite offensive implication that we (or the dreaded `some people’) are using this in some kind of sly, underhanded way
leaves me with very little charity.
Accusations like that leave me with very little charity, oddly enough. Still waiting for you to point out where I did that.
As I said then, and to repeat, all those articles, and others, were published within hours of the shooting occurring. All of them laid the blame squarely, and to the exclusion of all other factors, at the door of the tea party and it's rhetoric.
I don't think that's useful, because, as I said before, the overall effect is to drown out nuanced discussion of anything else, like gun control.
It was also quite impossible at such an early stage in proceedings what the cause or motivation was. I would have thought that didn't need pointing out, and in fact, it would be condescending to do so. But apparently not.
-
Sacha, in reply to
to drown out nuanced discussion
Given that seems to be the prime function of Faux News and co, getting in early makes sense for the American left (such as it is). Head honcho Roger Aisles joins the chorus of whining from the blowhard bullies of the right called on their behaviour.
With at least two Fox News personalities taking heat over their perceived role in a mass shooting in Tucson, Ailes sought to defend them in an interview with hip hop mogul Russell Simmons.
“I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually,” he told Simmons. “You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.”
Ignore, for just a moment, the irony of the man who called NPR executives “Nazis” from “the left wing of Nazism” instructing anyone, even Glenn Beck, to drop the bombast and “tone it down.” What’s more interesting is his “I hope the other side does that.
It’s interesting because, according to the official fiction Ailes has put forth since Fox’s founding, Fox isn’t pulling for one team or the other; it only seems that way because every other media institution is so far left.
-
Sacha, in reply to
It was also quite impossible at such an early stage in proceedings what the cause or motivation was.
There had been an ongoing and very public discourse, so I don't believe people had any difficulty at all joining some dots immediately. That's a political judgement, not a legal one (where yes, waiting for evidence and a hearing might make more sense).
Post your response…
This topic is closed.