MSNBC VP Bill Wolff, in the process of denying that his entire network has a psychotic sexual obsession towards Sarah Palin:
“MSNBC does not have a political agenda.”
Here’s why it’s scary: what if this guy actually believes that? Cynical lying we can handle: heck, the media does that every day. But this kind of lack of elementary self-awareness that’s for reals – well, it’s the sort of thing that ends… badly.
Don Surber, on the sudden and frantic call by the glass-jawed Activist Left for civility:
I have been screamed at for 10 years.
It’s my turn now. I am not going to scream back. But I refuse to allow anyone to dictate what I say or how I say it. I refuse to allow the same foul-mouthed, foul-spirited foul people who dumped on me to now try to tell me what I may or may not say.
My free speech matters more than the feelings of anyone on the left. You don’t like what I say? Tough.
As Glenn would – and did – say, read the whole thing. And here’s my personal observation to anybody getting the vapors at being done unto as they earlier did unto others: show some freaking self-respect, already. For your own pride’s sake, assuming that you have any. This sniveling at the first sign of pushback is unseemly.
Hey, if you don’t want the Right to sneer at you for being wimps, don’t be wimps.
Moe Lane
Charlie’s trying to explain to the Democrats – gently – why the usual line of giving out free stuff isn’t working out for them like it usually does:
My theory is that in September of 2008, when the financial crisis was beginning, the world was seeing some scary stuff. Lehman Brothers fell on September 15, 2008, the world’s credit markets seized up, the economy went into cardiac arrest, and the stock market dropped 500 points on one day and 800 points on another.
This had just as much of an impact on the public’s views of economic security as 9/11 had on the public’s views of national security. Consumers have been spending less, saving more, paying down debt, and investing more cautiously. In every respect, they have behaved more conservatively in their personal finances than anytime in recent memory.
…until Obama’s Blue edition, apparently:
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and an outspoken critic of the White House, said liberal anger has less to do with fears of a Clintonian move to the middle by Obama and more with a misreading of the election results by the administration.
“It’s less ‘Oh no, they’re triangulating,’ and more ‘Boy, their political instincts are really stupid,’ ” said Green…
…says the man whose candidate roster went 0 for 95 on Net Neutrality two weeks ago. Then again, if there’s anybody who could recognize a stupid political instinct on sight, it’d be a PCCC guy with a mirror. Sorry: couldn’t resist.
Moe Lane
PS: Read the rest of that Hill article: it’s ripping good fun watching people explain why the issues that progressives ran and got shellacked on should be the issues that Obama adopts.
David Brooks. No, really:
The Democrats’ problem, as some senior officials have mentioned, is that they are so darn captivated by substance, it never occurs to them to look out for their own political self-interest. By [the] way, here’s a fun party game: Get a bottle of vodka and read Peter Baker’s article “The Education of President Obama” from The New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago. Take a shot every time a White House official is quoted blaming Republicans for the Democrats’ political plight. You’ll be unconscious by page three.
Credit where credit is due: that passage is the sort of thing that I would write. And the whole article itself… isn’t so bad, once you get past Brooks’ quiet resentment that the GOP is more likely to listen to the average Tea Partier these days than it is likely to listen to, well, David Brooks.
But keep this kind of snark against the Democrats, David, and maybe we’ll reconsider.
Moe Lane
…the Democrats will counter that the Republicans also suck. And while this is true, it’s not really going to help them. As I pointed out before, both a dog incessantly barking and a zombie apocalypse are things that everyone would agree suck. Yet no one during a zombie apocalypse, while hiding out in a boarded up mall, would turn to the other survivors and say, “We don’t want to kill all the zombies; then we’d have to go back to being woken up at night by that annoying dog next door.” But this is the best argument the Democrats can come up with. “Remember how awful the Republicans and Bush were? You hated them. You don’t want to go back to that.” Yes, why would people want to go back to when 6% unemployment was considered high?
Via Instapundit.
Moe Lane
PS: The fact that Frank J does not have a column in a major newspaper somewhere is the most searing indictment of the mainstream media that I can think of. This entire piece encapsulates the 2010 political scene brilliantly, succinctly, and – above all else – entertainingly. That last bit is important: the New Media types that do get imported into Old Media venues these days are often… not.
Having sons means (among other things) that we can buy things “for” those sons that we might not purchase for ourselves.
This is, of course, self-evident nonsens… oops, just remembered: I need to check the batteries for the Nerf VMG. And see whether there’s any new Matchbox sets when I hit the Target tonight.
I’m not really mocking Tim Cavanaugh of Reason for writing this:
Someday we’ll all raise a glass of Sterno, pour out a 40 for our dead brothers, and remember how we survived the nightmare that was the 2010 midterm election. (For the umpteenth time, people: removing the head or destroying the brain is the only way to put them down permanently.)
…for I myself will be gibbering with relief when this election is finally over. And my side is winning.
Moe Lane
And he’s gone Full Metal Blunt on this one; not that I mind.
In fact, if you look at a Marxist Utopia — say, Cuba — what you’ll see is basically a plantation. At the top, you’ve got the Massa and his family — Fidel, Raul, et al. — followed by various layers of overseers — the Communist Party apparat, the secret police — and House Negroes — e.g., the state-controlled media — all living off the surplus labor of the Field Negroes, whose produce is disposed of not according to their own desires (that would be capitalism!) but according to their betters’. This, we’re told, is for the best, since they aren’t smart enough to make their own decisions anyway, and the Massa looks after them with food, housing, and health care. Slaveholders even defended their system as more humane and less exploitative than atomistic capitalism, conveniently ignoring the role of the lash, just as apologists for Marxism conveniently ignore the role of the gulag.
Because he’s talking about Commies, after all: and Commies Aren’t Cool.
Via Jim Geraghty‘s Morning Jolt comes this observation by Macsmind:
This is astounding that at this point in his presidency the die is already cast, but it is. What’s more astounding is that the press by and large still hasn’t let the cat out of the bag. Obama wasn’t qualified to be president. He didn’t have the experience nor the skill to pull off the job. We wrote about it but no one listened. Now it’s painfully clear.
Indeed, he wasn’t; and indeed, we did. There is actually a temptation to not say ‘I told you so:’ after all, we are told over and over and over again that rubbing people’s noses in something isn’t… nice. And that’s true. At the same time, Macmind also notes that we were more or less here before with Carter, and we didn’t learn anything from the experience, so maybe a little nose-rubbing is actually necessary…
