or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
August 04, 2007
Technology Allows Us To Better Understand How Much The Democrats Suck
The Senate (and soon, House) cave-in on FISA is distressing. But it also makes me optimistic for the future. In the past, essentially no one would be following something like this closely enough to care. And even for those who did care, just finding the basic information—like who voted for what—would have taken lots of time and effort.
Now we can find out it's going to happen, call our representatives, learn the exact results, and get pretty astute analysis, all within twenty-four hours. The reality we learn about is depressing, but the first step in changing reality is understanding it clearly.
AND: Speaking of Democratic suckitude, many thanks to the emailer who sent me this:
The other day I was invited to attend--as a guest, not a donor--a gazillion-dollar per plate fundraiser for Hillary Clinton taking place August 2nd. On hearing that Bill would be there to shake hands and give a speech I thought immediately of your mid-July post documenting the ludicrous Iraq/Bosnia analogy Bill made before the assembled geniuses at the Aspen ideas festival. Would Clinton be so bold, I wondered, as to say such things in public again, mocking openly the intelligence of southern CTs richest Democrats.Sure enough he did. After a long disquisition on why the '03 war resolution was not, in fact, a war resolution, he brought out the Bosnia comparison and argued for the occupation as life saving--using mostly the same numbers (250,000 bosnian war dead, 300 to 400,000 Iraq war dead, 8 million prospective refugees--of the prospected Iraq dead this time he ventured 1 million). Again it wasn't clear if he was speaking of pre-war Iraq or Iraq post war, sans U.S. occupation.
I did my best to push back, turning to the person next to me and muttering "absurd". But the people's effort failed and Clinton was met with warm applause.
So I'm guessing he makes the comparison all the time--and believes it.
Before the internet, I would never have learned about this or the Aspen "Ideas" Festival, thus badly hampering my understanding of Democratic suckiness. Thanks, technology!
Posted at August 4, 2007 03:16 PM | TrackBackthe first step in changing reality is understanding it clearly
And the next step?
Posted by: Nell at August 4, 2007 06:05 PMmove to another country quickly
Posted by: Susan at August 4, 2007 08:37 PMIt just gets better and better, doesn't it? Check out this http://prorev.com/2007/08/creeping-coup-homeland-stasi-stop.htm
Posted by: cemmcs at August 4, 2007 08:51 PMJon: Correct, our new tool allows us to SPY on our government 24/7/52. WE TAXPAYERS must learn to use it as ruthlessly as a Stalin would. NO MORE PRIVACY FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS. (why should they have privacy when we are not allowed privacy from them?)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at August 4, 2007 10:04 PMI like to poop on cats.
Posted by: Ibod Catooga at August 5, 2007 03:47 AMI wonder why he would be mocking the intelligence of Southern CT's richest Democrats...if there is no intelligence to mock in the first place.
Posted by: En Ming Hee at August 5, 2007 08:08 AMI'm glad all y'all are understanding up a storm here, but I need help. Jon, you have some contacts on the Hill, so maybe you can explain this to me: are the congressional Democrats patsies or stooges?
More and more, I'm thinking they must be stooges. Whether it's on the Iraq war or civil liberties, it's always the same pattern: they propose a halfway-decent bill, the Republicans call them weak and cowardly, and then the Dems collapse utterly. It's as if they didn't know that the Republicans will call them soft on Al-Qaeda, no matter what. In fact, it's almost as if they don't expect to face any real opposition at all. Could they possibly be that stupid? Do they stumble around in shock every morning, surprised that the sun has risen again?
Or is the whole thing just theater? I mean, what was the point in grilling Alberto Gonzales for lying about the warrantless wiretapping program if, in the end, they were just going to legalize the damn thing?
Posted by: Chris E. at August 5, 2007 10:31 AMNow I feel stupid for even asking the question above. The Pentagon budget that the House just passed - overwhelmingly, of course - is almost as bad:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070805/ap_on_go_co/defense_spending
It's $460 billion, up almost $40 billion from last year, and that doesn't even include the cost of the wars. It does have some more money for soldier pay, health care and housing - and we'll need it, because they also want to add 12,000 more soldiers and Marines. With any luck, they'll be trained in time for the next surge. And, as always, there's gobs more money for useless high-tech boondoggles like Star Wars and the F-22.
Here's the punchline:
"The White House criticized Democrats for cutting Bush's request and effectively transfering $3.5 billion of the money to domestic spending programs."
Wow! A whole 3/4 of 1% of the defense budget! Those daring radicals! It reminds me of an obscure editorial cartoon strip from the '80s called Nuke, by a guy named Bert Dodson. In one, he had a Republican and a Democrat come to blows over whether to spend a robust $12,000 per second on defense... or a paltry $11,500 per second.
Posted by: Chris E. at August 5, 2007 11:18 AMPlease, please, does anyone think that BushCo, and all its subsidiaries (the NSA, the CIA, the DIA, the FBI, the ATF) aren't spying on the representatives and senators? MONKEY BUSINESS, MONKEY BUSINESS, MONKEY BUSINESS! As soon as a politican becomes a real threat to the nest of criminals that is our permanent government he is smeared and reduced to a former politician. If gossip doesn't get him or her, there's always other weapons. How many liberal democrats fly their own planes anymore?
Posted by: Bob In Pacifica at August 5, 2007 12:34 PM
