Newt 2.0?

imported from another thread.
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JNS
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I wonder if you are allowed to call someone a liar. If so I wonder why you didn’t call Cantor a liar several times in the article.
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The key, Cantor says, in opposing the stimulus was in offering a credible alternative. “Our members in the House really rallied around a forward-looking, smarter, simpler stimulus plan,” Cantor says.

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This has been repeated time and again by these ass holes but did you actually look into if it was a lie or not? Well supposedly they used a paper by Christine Romer to come up with this lie. I wonder what Ms Romer might have to say on the subject.
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Question: The House claims that based on the research of CEA Chair Christy Romer, their plan would create 6.2 million jobs. Isn’t that a more effective way of jumpstarting the economy?
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Answer: The Republican House analysis is flat wrong in its claim that the House Republican stimulus is more effective. No matter what your analytical assumptions, as long as they are consistent the plan the President supports would result in substantially greater job creation than the House Republican plan.

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And what about the House GOP’s truthiness in general? Well lets check out the “Pelosi Mouse” on the truth o meter, much to Scarborough and Mika’s dismay
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#29347381
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And “wonky”? Eric Cantor hasn’t had an original thought sense he has been in congress. Perhaps you can come up with even ONE situation where he spoke knowledgeably on a subject when he didn’t have talking points on the subject sitting right in front of him. I mean got damn, this is the dumbest phucking jack ass in all of the House but because he “sounds good” he gets labeled wonky? Man let me stop before I frikkin explode.

Taking on the relatively unpopular congressional Democrats is one thing,
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False. See also: “Congressional Democrats have a 48% – 45% approval. Not wildly good, but decent. Congressional Republicans are down at 33% – 59%”.
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Please fix this misleading aspect of your story.

also imported
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cinci
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It makes you wonder if JNS was allowed to read anything other than Rethug talking points for this story. I mean there ARE new polls out judging the Dems and Rethugs in Congress and in just about all of them the Dems are ahead of the jack asses by 15 points or more. But hey as long as you can keep repeating that same old cannard about unpopular Dems in Congress, why rely on facts right?
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http://www.pollingreport.com/cong_dem.htm

Elvis… I hit the same steaming noxious pile of nonsense & had to stop, too. “relatively unpopular congressional Democrats,” my lily-white arsgratiaartis. Not “relative” to the congressional Republicans, that’s for sure!

JNS: Is that your favorite quote because it was the point in the interview when you burst out laughing?
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Sorry, I have nothing constructive to add today.

Cantor unambiguously named Nancy Pelosi’s mean floor speech as the reason for his first vote against the stimulus in a clearly authentic contemporaneous interview > http://bit.ly/aP9iE

Wish you hadn’t left that out, because it’s telling in a way that trumps rehearsed statements.

Eeesh. “He said…they said”. Gosh, I have all of the skills to be a big-time journalist (but none of the ambition, thanks). Then this:

“…Obama’s focus will turn to implementing his campaign agenda, which is by definition more ideological.”

Obama is a Democrat which means his agenda is, by definition, less ideological that the Republican agenda. “Conservatism” is an ideology. Governing is a vocation.

Ugh! And this: “Democrats still hold out hope for bipartisanship because, unlike the rushed stimulus plan, these massive programs will take months to go through the committee process, where minority members can amend the measures.”

Not THIS particular Democrat, JNS. I’m sure there are some, but many others feel burned by the treatment they received from the GOP on these latest issues.

Also, you couldn’t follow up with Cantor on this load of bullpucky? “I feel that my obligation is to be a prudent guardian of taxpayer money.” Natural follow-up question by a non-ideological reporter: “So, that’s a new thing for you, then? Because you apparently haven’t practiced what you’re now preaching over the past few years, have you?”

As a Richmond, VA, resident, I would like to point out that Cantor is either misrepresenting himself or being misrepresented when he is referred to as a “Richmond, VA Republican”. Richmond is in the 3rd Congressional District of Virginia, currently represented by Democrat Bobby Scott. Cantor is the 7th district representative. The 7th district does surround Richmond on three sides, encompassing all of Henrico County to the north and the western half of Chesterfield Country to the southwest, but Richmond itself is grouped with the more Democratic-leaning counties to our east, which are heavily African-American. Meanwhile, Cantor’s district stretches from Chesterfield, its southernmost point, northwest past Fredericksburg and up to Rappahanock County in the northwestern part of the state. It includes no major Virginia cities (it narrowly misses Charlottesville and Fredericksburg as well as Richmond) and is obviously designed to be mostly rural and a Republican stronghold as a district. Cantor can claim Richmond all he wants, but he’s a straight-up rural-district Congressman all the way, and he better be glad of it, because if Richmond was included in his district, we’d throw him out of there in a heartbeat.

Ah JNS: Eric Cantor and cant.

“Natural follow-up question by a non-ideological reporter: “So, that’s a new thing for you, then? Because you apparently haven’t practiced what you’re now preaching over the past few years, have you?”
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Here’s another: So, why do I never tire of interviewing Republican lairs such as yourself and propagating your lies on the pages of Time with complete and utter credulity?”

The huge problem with both parties is where their primary concern is. Which is either to stay in power or to regain it. Good governing takes a backseat to that goal.

“I feel that my obligation is to be a prudent guardian of taxpayer money.”

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So did you ask him, at all, about how much the Iraq War is costing us? Or maybe about those tax cuts for the rich that he wants to keep?
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Ha! Ha! What am I thinking?

Eric Cantor may very well be the Newt Gingrich of his generation. Remember what happened to Newt? The big difference is that Newt was speaking for a party that was actually in power and rising, not the spokesman for a dwindling party that is being blamed for the greatest financial catastrophe in several generations. Cantor’s problem is that he’s stuck in a mindset like the guy in Springsteen’s song Glory Days. He’s remembering the past triumphs of his party’s heyday, not the grim realities of the present. Take his car keys and drive him home. He’s not able to drive.

“The huge problem with both parties is where their primary concern is. Which is either to stay in power or to regain it. Good governing takes a backseat to that goal.”
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Politics is always the choice of the lesser of evils. The difference between the parties is that the Republicans’ organizing principle is that “government is the problem,” so they pretty much take good governing off the table from the outset (making government work undermines their central rationale for giving them power, insanely simplistic and contradictory as it may be). Staying in or regaining power is all they’re about.

JNS, you are obviouslty pleasing your “Time” bosses with this Cantor/GOP fluff piece. The only problem is that most of us unwashed barbarians from outside the village aren’t buying the usual propaganda. As evidence check out some polls or better yet, check out some old media circulation numbers.

I see your point shepherdowong. I’ve never understood the pol who professes to hate government. I wish someone would ask them why they are in politics then.

I wish someone would ask them why they are in politics then.
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He’s in it for the view.
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Here’s a CA politician making news for really trying to stimulate the economy:
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http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/02/legalize_it_ammiano_to_introdu.php

Well, wow, just ditto what you all said. Nothing left of JNS after all that.
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But, this may explain her a bit. Apparently, there is something in the air or water down there. Say what?

Shuster just CRUSHED Congressman Issa over that bullsh*t “Harry Reid train” meme. I mean ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED HIM. I hope someone posts it.

I think there are a couple of reasons why people who profess to hate government are in politics. First, there’s the money factor. You get in government and lobby/do favors for people/special interests that can provide you with sacks of cash later on for a minimal effort. Second, what better way to destroy something than to do it from within where you are actually in a position to wreck the most havoc?

The Borgen Project has some good info on the cost of addressing global poverty.

$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget

“what better way to destroy something than to do it from within where you are actually in a position to wreck the most havoc”?

That is how I have come to explain the W years to myself.

The appropriate cinematic reference here is not Austin Powers and his lost mojo – it’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
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SECOND: VILLAGER: She turned me into a newt!
SIR BEDEVERE: A newt?
SECOND VILLAGER: (after looking at himself for some time) I got better.

“Cantor believes the one lesson the Obama Administration took from his orchestrated opposition was that it must work harder to reach out to the GOP.”
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JNS, is this Cantor’s misconception, or yours?

sgw, are you suggesting that it is possible for reporters to call B$ on repuglican B$? In real time?
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Perish the thought. I think I just heard JNS slip to her fainting couch.

wvng
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Never that! Notice I asked IF she was able to call them liars. I have a strong feeling that she is not allowed to.

Shuster is talking sh*t about Issa on his Twitter.
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http://twitter.com/Shuster1600

The real question I have, is that JNS certainly must have understood the reaction her post would have. Right? Is it remotely possible that she thought it was good work that would pass muster here?
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Or does she do this to amuse herself?

“I’ve never understood the pol who professes to hate government. I wish someone would ask them why they are in politics then.”
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I’ve always likened it to having a job candidate show up and tell me the reason I should hire him is because my company is the problem. That’s why I can’t say much for the people who vote for these people.

GOP sees the light, new era of constructive politics begins under their leadership. NOT http://tinyurl.com/awgkex

“I have a strong feeling that she is not allowed to.”
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Rule #1: The journalist shall not explain the merit or the falseness of the statement of a public official.

Shepherd, I actually conducted an interview with someone that went a bit like that. I was dumfounded. The person involved, needless to say, didn’t get the job – and is still angry about it!

Worried about mainstream news; Check this out:

CBS just named Jeff Ballabon Senior VP of Communications. This is the same guy who has said: “I became convinced that Democrats are inherently bad people and Republicans are fundamentally good people.”

During the 2008 elections he also stated “Obama is incredibly dangerous.”

Think we are going to have trouble with fair news reporting? Apparently CBS has decided that a revolution is in order and they can further the takeover of the US by right wing conservatives by appointing fanatics to senior posts to facilitate anger in order to attempt to overthrow the government.

Or does she do this to amuse herself?
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It’s probably an ongoing bet between her, Scherer, and KT on who can piss us off the most.

newfloridian – not to rain on your parade, but Cincy has been posting that for about a day.

Charlie Cook:
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As polling very clearly shows, congressional Republicans have done nothing to help themselves by almost unanimously opposing the massive stimulus package. Indeed, they look increasingly isolated: a narrow party that is looking inward for sustenance.
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DougJ: I’m sure the pundits will continue to cite some Rasmussen results that show what a genius Eric Cantor is, though. I hate to keep beating this one, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the gap between Villager opinion and public opinion this wide. Not since the Clinton impeachment anyway.

Friar Tuck: not very wise, I can only imagine what “position” The Big Boss has planned for them.

“Our members in the House really rallied around a forward-looking, smarter, simpler stimulus plan,”
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Earth to Cantor – We wouldn’t be in this situation had Republicans been capable of these 3 adjectives, except maybe a forward-looking, smarter, simpler way to destroy the country in 8 years.

Cliff – JN-S & MS are neck-and-neck; KT, not so much.

OK, thank god I’m on my way out the door (pedestrian/train culture in the rain, gotta love it), but am I the only who sees a pattern to recent Swamp-posts? From Joe’s endless linking to neocon nutters to MS-JNS giddy-greek-social insider reporting about what our treasured republican opposition thinks about the (fragmenting) state of the union.
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Do they think that the commenters want this sort of coverage? Isn’t giving these f@ckers a voice, even if you’re mocking or condemning that voice (dishing out safe eunuchisms themselves BTW), well, rather f’ing pointless? Other than a few trolls, who here votes republican? How about giving us some democratic talking pts. God knows you can’t veer left of the DLC, but could we shift the debate between the faux left and the real left? As opposed to this artificial dichotomy: wack-job right vs. blue centrists?
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Huh, could we, you flippin’ punks?

How about giving us some democratic talking pts.
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I don’t want anybody’s talking points. I want truth.
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“It’s time to take the radical step of privileging correct information over incorrect information.” Rachel Maddow, 2/6/2009
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It just isn’t that difficult to do, and yet the msm seems incapable of it.

Shuster crushing Issa starts around 4:35 and all I can say is OUCH!
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29356614#29356614

The Borgen Project (www.borgenproject.org) has some interesting insight into addressing the issues of global poverty, something we can remedy easily and sustainably.

Some interesting figures to ponder:
$30 billion USD: The annual shortfall to end global poverty.
$550 billion USD: The annual US defense budget.

sgw, but notice how Issa keeps coming back to the same point. No line they won’t cross.

wvng
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I swear it sounded like Shuster wanted to take off his belt and spank Issa for bringing that weak sh*t on his show. That was the funniest part to me. Issa was so used to people letting him get away with that sh*t that he really had no comeback. Just like Scarborough this morning about the field mouse.

Reposting cuz I didn’t know there was another thread:
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“Taking on the relatively unpopular congressional Democrats is one thing,”
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SG, I wanted to point out that if the entity ‘taking on’ the ‘relatively unpopular Democrats’ is itself less popular than the ‘relatively unpopular congressional Democrats’ then the above statement comes off as somewhat idiotic, but I knew that would be over her head. I’ll give it a shot now: JNS, Congressional Democrats are relatively unpopular relative to say, Tom Hanks, but since we’re talking about 2 entities, Congressional Republicans and Congressional Democrats, it might behoove you to keep any issues of relativity limited to those 2 entities. See JNS, relative to the Detroit Lions, the Cincinnati Bengals are a great football team, but that doesn’t really matter if the Cincinnati Bengals are playing the Pittsburg Steelers. See? Oh, you were just parroting conventional wisdoms as a way to get out of doing any actual research? Gotcha.
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Also, I prayed for Mark Sanford to get brain cancer in the other thread. FYI.

BTW, not that anybody should be surprised but Mikey Steele has already switched up his rhetoric. This time on gay rights.
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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/23/steele-crazy-civil-unions/

While typing I learned from Tweety the following: the guy from CNBC who’s been wrong about everything for 10 years and the conservative economist he had on in the first 10 minutes don’t like what Obama’s doing and it is DEVASTATING for Obama.

cinci
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I just kinda figured Tweety out for myself today. He knows a lot about political history but he has NO CLUE about current events. Therefore basically if you have a “big name” you can tell him anything and he will believe it and agree with it, especially on economics. If Krugman were to go on tomorrow Tweety would agree with him too. He is just not very smart about today’s news. But when Rethugs come on and make the mistake of saying something about history that is factually wrong or just saying some crazy sh*t he knows how to pounce on them. That is his only redeeming quality but now they are so careful when they go on there that his rants are very few and far in between. Thankfully Shuster is taking up the slack quite nicely.

Joe is being attacked on O’Reilly!

formerly
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What happened?

Please tell… my teevee has been hijacked by a Top Gear fan.

SG, good points re Tweety. Last week he tore Perry Bacon a new one when he went w/ the congress at 20% approval meme and that poll is so old, it would qualify as political history. He really let him have it too, I thought I might have even seen a tear.

“He is just not very smart about today’s news.”
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Plus, as Somerby so ably describes, he’s probably quite insane.

cinci
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Yeah I saw that, but actually I think like a day or two before Tweety was saying the same thing but a guest corrected him. And THAT’S why he was ready for Bacon. I mean if he could get his sh*t together and actually prepare for his shows Tweety knows how to draw a mofo into a box like no other. But I just don’t think he takes it as seriously as he should. Of course I don’t know that he ever did. But if you slip up and give im an in “thats yo ass mr postman”

Somersby is a little nutty himself what with his undying man crush on Al Gore. I swear I can’t take much of him any more either. Its like he lives to biotch and moan but where I am from its easy to criticize but much harder to actually DO something. Somersby provides some very good perspective at times but now his singularity of relating everything to Al Gore is a full blown obsession.

….and when I mean pray for Mark Sanford to get brain cancer, I mean pray to the relatively unpopular Jesus Christ.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/02/22/obama-tops-jesus-in-new-poll-reagan-4th-god-11th/
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SG, Tweety’s like a political Rainman. He doesn’t seem to know jack sh!t outside of political history. It took Chuck Todd apparently, to convey to Tweety that there’s more to it than just playing the game and getting elected…says a lot about the mentality.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/2/22/why-chris-matthews-wont-run-for-senate.html

cinci
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And the guy really thinks he is representative of blue collar dudes when he is making sh*t loads of money. That was the most sickening part of his exchange with that idiot Kramer. Both of them acted like they had some kind of populist rage. At some point they better get that when the torches and pitchforks come they are going to be on the wrong side of the dividing line.

There’s always the possibility that from their point of view making sh!t loads of money is the populist version of blue collar dudes now. Making truckloads of money is the step up for them. They might be looking at us as being so far down in the food chain that we don’t even count. Who expects pets to stage a revolt?

Yeah, Cramer’s just a regular guy…he rolls his sleeves up and everything!
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“At some point they better get that when the torches and pitchforks come they are going to be on the wrong side of the dividing line.”
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The draw bridge ain’t comin’ down for them I assure you….cross the moat or face the mob. What fun we’ll have!

sgwhiteinfla: Sorry it took so long to write y’all back. Joe was mentioned as the guy the evil Brian Williams used to defame Sarah Palin. Williams apparently used Joe’s material to cast doubt on Palin. Joe was immediately marginalized as something along the lines of a typical-liberal-Democrat-in-the-tank-for-Obama. I told my husband, “They’re attacking Joe! I can’t believe it!” Hope you get to see this. We finished eating and the dishes are done. Couldn’t get to you sooner.

JNS getting noticed out in the blogosphere: Fluffing the whip. Good career move?

Was this article intended as a joke? Just asking because some of the passages in it are pretty much a joke. The key to opposing the stimuls bill was offering a credible alternative? But you don’t mention what that alternative could be? I could on, but why waste the time I already lost reading that drivel.

Cramer has made truuuuuck loads of money. He wants to be blue collar, but has no idea of what it is to struggle anymore. His charitable trust is what 100 million or somewhere north of that. Tweety is just a hanger-on, sometimes he scores on hitting the other side hard but so often is busy sucking up to the influencial types like Cramer. He can’t figure if he is one of them or one of us. When the villagers come with pitchforks and torches, he’ll be caught in the middle and become one of the early casualties.
If everything crashes and it might, I’ve guessed a bottom at 6800, but I am not so sure anymore. There may not be a bottom. One day they may have to just shut the stock market down like they did in Russia.

One can’t tell what the villagers might do if it all melts down. I just know I would not want to be one of the CNBC talking heads, a financial industry leader or a Republican in a meltdown.

I don’t know why but this TYT clip has me dying laughing. At least the second half does.
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sg – holy sh!t. Newscorp lost 70% of its value in a year? That is unexpectedly awesome news.
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About JNS on Balloon Juice, here’s what a commenter had to say about her:
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I’ve seen Jay Newton-Small on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal twice now & she’s been one of the dumber guests, very seldom actually answering questions from people calling in.

Okay, so now I think Alan Keyes is kattest123:
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Q: Is watching Team Skippy Obama SCREW UP on every issue — fiscal, foreign, fetting — more like a slow motion train wreck, or the quick sinking of the Titanic?

A: Jimmy Carter.

Anyone else miss the evil Dick Cheney, yet?

I sure as hell do.

= MALAISE ACCOMPLISHED =

More bullsh*t from Politico
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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/02/dangerous_brew.php

I’m reposting this from the previous thread. I opened the “Find on this page” dialogue and searched for sanity!

I knew about the endorsements from some of the business groups for sure, but their obligation is not to the voters and the people of this country like mine is,” Cantor says. “I feel that my obligation is to be a prudent guardian of taxpayer money.”
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After all, who are you going to trust, the NAM and the Chamber of Commerce, or a bunch of rabid Sarah Palin fans? These folks have been lying about taxes for so long, that they’re now incapable of even considering sanity lest they lose their seats in primaries.

They had to scrub a quip that was blatantly false…

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the fact that the Republicans are bucking the NAM (National Association of Manufacturer’s) is huge.
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It means they’ve officially gone off the rails.

this is just atrocious writing:
Taking on the relatively unpopular congressional Democrats is one thing, but flagrantly opposing a wildly popular new President is risky, especially when any payoff could take years.
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the lack of parallel construction (it should have been “relatively less popular”, because the comparison was to Obama’s “popularity”), and mentioning the compared term before the basis of the comparison, are the kinds of thing that would be criticized in a junior high school English composition class.
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And I don’t mind puff profiles so much, but they should start out with some basis in reality. JNS doesn’t mention that Cantor represents a party that is “wildly unpopular” and advocating policies that are “widely discredited” in the public’s perception. That should have been the baseline for this article, but the wholesale rejection of the GOP’s philosophy by the electorate isn’t even mentioned.
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Cantor faces a much tougher job than Newt — Bill Clinton won in 1992 with only 43% of the vote, and despite Clinton’s victory, the GOP picked up 9 seats in the House. Obama not only got 53% of the vote, Democrats picked up 21 house seats in 2008. There was no broad antipathy to the GOP in 1992 like there is today, and all Gingrich had to do was “refine” the GOP message as it acted as an opposition party.
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Cantor has to rely on the notoriously short memory of the electorate for the GOP to succeed in 2010, because nobody is buying what the GOP was selling in 2008, and they haven’t changed their product.

Newt 2.0? Is Cantor going to divorce his first wife as she lies in a hospital ward, marry the woman he was having an afair with, and then later dump her because he was having an affair with yet another woman?
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Because if he’s not willing to do all that stuff Newt did, I don’t see how the media will take him seriously as a champion of family values.

Glenzilla talks about a new poll that shows the public wants Obama to stick to his policies and the Republicans to get their ass on board. In his third update he gives JNS the business lol
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/24/bipartisanship/index.html

Sorry, JNS. I won’t pile on but I don’t think this piece is much good. You may feel you have to do fluff pieces to get access to boobs like Cantor, but please don’t insult our intelligence by flogging them here.

Glenn:
Is it even theoretically possible to have a worse, more deceitful and more moronic press than the one we have.
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No.
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This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

Recent Swampland posts are of the “bits and pieces” variety. While Joe seems to be taking aim at former “colleagues” JNS and MS are doing some apple polishing. I find Shuster’s place interesting because bloggers are being interviwed, and a little bit of myth busting takes place. I try to watch the Twit on Tweety and find it tough going.

Greenwald is right of course.

Honestly JNS, why do you guys write this stupid and shallow? It’s just pathetic.

“why do you guys write [articles] this stupid and shallow?”

… I wish there was an edit function or something.

Seriously, read Greenwald’s article. Then look up Cantor on YouTube for the greatest hits of lying and foolishness.

Here is my thing re fluff pieces
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I don’t much mind a fluff piece as long as its factually correct. Thats why I didn’t mind Scherer’s piece on Gibbs because there weren’t any quotes in there that were verifiably false, nor was there any bullsh*t factually wrong memes inserted about who is popular and who isn’t. Hell fluff to your heart’s content if you want to do a profile, but when the subject makes up sh*t that’s when I think a real journalist would take 5 minutes to fact check their claims. This article was an EPIC FAIL.

Link for buzzorhowl’s remark on Cantor false claim of representing Richmond.
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3rd District (not Kantor’s).
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As to the claim he holds Madison’s district:
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Wiki says that Madison was elected to the 5th district, which was held by the infamous Virgil Goode, defeated by Thomas S. P. Perriello in 2008.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia's_7th_congressional_district
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Madison’s 7th district contemporary was John Page.
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Did he say anything that is true?

Glenzilla talks about a new poll that shows the public wants Obama to stick to his policies and the Republicans to get their ass on board. In his third update he gives JNS the business lol
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the problem is that Glenn finds himself accepting the framing of the villagers in his critique of the media.
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If the election of Obama was about anything other than the rejection of Bush and the GOP, it was about his interest in transcending partisanship. That means being non-partisan… coming up with the best solutions without regard to “party”.
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The media’s insists upon using the term “bi-partisan” rather than “non-partisan” when writing about politics — and this is reflected in the polling that questions. People don’t get asked about “non-partisanship” its “bipartisanship”. And when people like Glenn use the “bipartisan” framing of the media to attack the media’s presentation of politics, it merely reinforces this false frame.
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Obama’s biggest mistake has been in forgetting his promise of “transcendence” (non-partisanship) and focussing on getting votes from the Republican Party. Rather than coming up with the best solution, and then fighting to implement it, he defined the political question in terms of partisanship itself. In doing so, Obama reinforced the destructive “partisan” framing of the Village media.
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The difference between the parties is that the Republicans’ organizing principle is that “government is the problem,”
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Shepherdwong–
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This is incorrect in a very important way. When republicans say that they believe this, they are lying. They do not believe government is the problem. They do not believe in smaller government. they do not believe in less intrusive government. They believe in NOT regulating private operations, yes. But every budget ever proposed by every republican entity in every branch of government is always bigger than the one that was in place the year before. When the Republicans controlled both houses and the presidency, government grew as quickly as it did under LBJ.
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What they believe is that the government’s role is to protect and subsidize and defend from oversight large, oligopolist organizations, like Big Pharma, Agribusiness, health “insurance” companies, defense contractors, money center banks, telecommunications companies, big media etc. A secondary role is to transfer income from the general consuming and taxpaying public to the top decile, with extra bonuses for the top percentile.
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You NEED a big government to do this. Blackwater doesn’t exist without the government. Merck would be a great deal less profitable without the government banning public domain drugs like marijuana and without patent abuse. Defense contractors wouldn’t exist at all. The networks get their broadcast spectrum for free. Abolishing the public domain part of copyright law requires a big government.
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So, as I say, the reason they didn’t care what happened to people after Katrina is not because they don’t like government, don’t like big government. They don’t think the government’s role should be to help people in trouble, unless they are shareholders in money center banks.

As to the claim he holds Madison’s district:
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Cantor is correct. Madison lived in what is now Montpelier Village, which is part of Cantor’s congressional district. The district number is utterly irrelevant.

pluk
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Not that it matters to you but I remember several times then Senator Obama on the campaign trail deriding the republican way of doing things. I don’t even once remember him using the term non partisan. If that had been his platform I imagine he would have run as an independent. Yes he promised to incorporate what works but that doesn’t imply governing as a non partisan. That means governing like a real leader but still with a party tilt. It is what it is.

“Madison lived in what is now Montpelier Village, which is part of Cantor’s congressional district. The district number is utterly irrelevant.”
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Hmmm. By this logic it would be correct to say that Gerry Connolly represents George Washington’s old district, because Mt. Vernon is located in the 11th Congressional District of Virginia, even though Washington never served in the House of Representatives.

It’s sorta telling that the symbol Cantor puts on his wall is not photo of a revered Conservative leader like Hamilton or Reagan, nor a national monument, nor of some civic accomplishment of his, but rather a picture that represents a return to power.
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You have to conclude that it is power for its own sake.

Serious question: why was it your favorite quote not included in the story?

My guess would be because it’s so transparently ridiculous. But if you don’t say so, it leaves open the possibility that it’s because it’s just so darn true. Objectivity doesn’t require that kind of opacity, no matter what your beltway colleagues might think.

Honestly JNS, why do you guys write this stupid and shallow? It’s just pathetic.
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Uh …. Because they are that stupid and that shallow? Until I see evidence to the contrary, I’m going to stick with that.
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Simple answers to simple questions.

“This is incorrect in a very important way. When republicans say that they believe this, they are lying. They do not believe government is the problem. They do not believe in smaller government. they do not believe in less intrusive government.”.
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jayackroyd: Actually, although I assume all professional Republicans are lying to some degree when they say just about anything, there is quite a bit of truth to what they are saying, although not truth they want most people to understand. Republicans believe that “government is the problem” to the degree that it regulates and taxes progressively. The first job of the “conservative,” who is really no more than a corporatist, is to undermine those two essential functions of government. Disaster capitalism’s ability to grow government in regressive and destructive fashion to siphon taxpayer dollars into corporate coffers seems like a latter day invention (at least on this scale) and something of a bonus for corporatists. But I take your point.

“Somersby is a little nutty himself what with his undying man crush on Al Gore.”
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SG: I can’t know but I’m pretty sure that the prospect of a completely different world under a president Gore, in a like million better ways, has him outraged (and perhaps a little deranged) at his former fellow “liberal” colleagues, whom he rightly blames for enabling the corporatist coup of 2000. I understand exactly how he feels.

shepherdwong
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I agree and I understand, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has pretty much gone over the deep in on that account. As much as I wish things had been different, nothing can change that now.

sgwhiteinfla
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Agreed, he’s no longer one of my daily reads for that reason.