Posts by Andre Alessi
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I think it's a matter of degrees though, Stephen. Sure the conservatives of Christmas Past were both wrong and often maliciously dishonest on a regular basis, but they were neither as wrong nor as maliciously dishonest as the current crop of conservatives.
It's an interesting question as to how responsible "mainstream" conservatives are for the current excesses we're seeing. The constant buy-in of estalishment Republicans into Tea Party activities in recent months suggests there's more collusion there than they'd like to admit, but at the same time there's a sense that they're following the trends to win elections, rather than actively shaping them.
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It's important to remember that the Tea Party "movement" didn't start out with anything in the way of ideological coherency. It's only in the last year or so (after the health care bill passed) that we've seen a more refined message around lower taxes, increased curbs on immigration, opposition to universal health care, etc
Prior to that, it was very much a movement driven by incoherent anger about "taking back our country" (although they were always vague as to who exactly they were taking back their country from.) There were numerous comical interviews with Tea Partiers who couldn't articulate exactly what they were angry about. There were even attempts to show the Tea Party as being "non-partisan", with both Democrats and independents involved. It's tempting to reduce all this down to the bare bones: people were angry because a black man was elected president, but knew they couldn't say as much. I think it's much more complicated than that, but that was certainly the motivation for a significant minority of those involved.
The recent overt realignment of the Tea Party with the Republican party is ultimately a sign that it's winding down. It was supposed to be a "grass roots" movement, but increasingly noone believes that as the lines between the Tea Party and the Republican party blur. After all, once you start having senior Republicans speaking at Tea Party rallies on a regular basis, you can no longer maintain the pretense that it's an independent movement.
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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.
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So a PolSci major is working for a candidate who thinks the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a mistake, who belongs to a weird conservative doctors' group that questions the link between HIV and AIDS, and who has been regularly discussing the threat of the New World Order on Alex Jones' radio show.
America is fucked.
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. They're lovely people and you could spend hours at their dinner table having the time of your life as long as politics and/or religion wasn't mentioned.
And yet they support the most extreme policies with this terrifyingly clear-eyed fanaticism. That's where the real disconnect occurs, I think-not between "sane Americans" and "insane Americans" but between almost all Americans and their political beliefs.
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Reposting this from elsewhere (just because it's relevant, I guess):
So I have this friend in the US I’ve been chatting to on and off for the last six months maybe? She seemed pretty cool, but kind of uptight (every day she’d be stressed about some minor thing one of her roommates had done.)
I knew that she was a PoliSci major, and was working for a “local political campaign” in Kentucky as some sort of aide, but she never mentioned the name of the campaign or the politician (probably assuming that, as a New Zealander, I wasn’t really up with the play with US politics.) I didn’t ask her too much about it, because I don’t like talking politics with people online except in the most general terms.
Anyway, a couple of days ago we were chatting, and she mentioned she was getting no sleep because of the run up to the congressional elections-she had that many rallies and events and media gigs and whatnot that she was fully booked until like a week after the election. Thinking that I was being awesomely witty and topical, I said, “Oh, geeze, I hope your guy doesn’t have you pencilled in to stomp on any protestors’ heads or anything, you’d have no time to yourself at all!”
So, yeah, turns out “her guy” is Rand Paul. And that the media is so biased (except Fox News) and that foreigners like myself have no right to make judgements on local political events and that that lady’s head totally got itself in the way of a completely innocent stomping motion, etc, etc
Needless to say, I am no longer her favourite person. Eh, what can you do.
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Here's how Obama handles this sort of thing though. He's very good at not seeming confrontational:
President Obama deflected heckling by AIDS protesters during a Saturday rally, suggesting they take up their cause with “the other side” that’s opposed to funding.
A group of people interrupted Obama’s speech before 9,000 in Connecticut chanting “Fund Global AIDS.”
The president was quick to respond to the chorus of protesters saying, “You’ve been appearing at every rally we’ve been doing. And we’re funding global AIDS. And the other side is not. So I don’t know why you think this is a useful strategy to take.”
Obama was in Bridgeport as part of a four-state swing during the final days before the midterm elections, stumping for Rep. Jim Himes, who is in a tight re-election race, and the state attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, who is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Chris Dodd, who is retiring.
“I think it would make a lot more sense for you guys to go to the folks who aren’t interested in funding global AIDS and chant at that rally,” Obama said. “Because we’re trying to focus on figuring out how to finance the things that you want financed, all right?”
That led to chants of “Obama, Obama” as the crowd stirred and the president tried to calm emotions as the protesters were escorted out of the rally.
(via)
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Don't think it would Obama's stock any harm if he had to stand up and say "this is fucking insane, and I'm going to keep vetoing idiotic legislation like this until the GOP stop doing crack in the cloak rooms."
He would get hit with the big old "Obama's not being bi-partisan!" schtick until he caved. I mean, you would never know from the reporting, but this Republican minority has used the most filibusters of any term ever. Yet "Republican obstructionism" is considered business as usual, while Democrats who try to stand up against it and get stuff done are "radical liberals".
And don't get me started on the "angry black man" subtext.
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By the same token, America's liberal left believes he has shirked his mandate and lacked the courage to enact real change (at times the likes of AmericaBlog have pressed this belief to the extent of screaming stupidity). Both sides seem to have an unreasonable idea of what the president can and should do.
That's probably a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, there are the "Obama is worse than Bush!" types out there, particularly on Firedoglake, some quarters of DailyKos, etc but for the most part liberals have been pretty understanding of what Obama has been faced with (see Balloon Juice, Ta Nehisi Coates, Talking Points Memo, Pandagon, etc)
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And off-topic, apparently we have been too mean about our MPs so we are not allowed to know specific details about their travel perks anymore.
But it's OK because a National government would never abuse their powers like Auntie Helen did! Or something.
Anyone know when we're due for our next "Taking Back Democracy" march? Because runaway power grabs, excessive secrecy, PC gone mad, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, etc etc
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Turbine also has the licence for D&D Online... well, the Eberron universe at least.
Yep, they do. However Cryptic is next in line to release a D&D-based game with Neverwinter. since Bill Roper was supposedly tasked to mother that to fruition, and he's now left, I'm not sure how well things will turn out though.