BOOKS ARE FOR FAGS

I love the right-wing obsession with manliness, and I love how they’ve married that to anti-intellectualism.

SHEETS.

I love the right-wing obsession with manliness, and I love how they’ve married that to anti-intellectualism.

Yeah, I love the fact that they actually think those two things are connected.

They’re the grown-up version of the middle school jocks who beat up nerds and younger kids in an attempt to show that they were badass… never realizing that when your only source of street cred is beating up people too weak to fight back, that doesn’t prove your a badass. In middle school speak, it proves you’re a pussy.

Ditto anti-intellectualism when you’re a grown up: it’s anti-elitism for chickenshits. Unlike politicians or businessmen, the intellectual “elites” have no recourse other than harshly worded letters, so you’re not risking much by going after them.

Unions “thugs” and civil rights “black racist” marchers taking on Pinkerton firing squads and lynch mobs – that was “manly.” Get back to me when the teabaggers are anywhere close to that.

Yeah! Stupid smart crap is for idiot fags’n’stuff. I can haz column?

They talk all manner of shit about being tough and manly and shit, but they’re SCARED TO FUCKING DEATH OF BLACK PEOPLE.

New Black Panthers, Flash Mobs, and HOLDER IS JUST LETTING THEM DO IT.

Also, too, yeah. Books are SO GAY.

Always. Trust. The. Shorter.™

So that means I don’t have to have babbies because I’ve met childish right wing fucking loons who spit up and POOP all over the place.

I love the right-wing obsession with manliness, and I love how they’ve married that to anti-intellectualism.

It makes perfect sense. The only use a book has is to level the reclining chair.

Except the Bible. That’s holy. Oh, and Glenn Beck’s books. Those are for display next to the Thomas Kincade painting lithograph pitcher Ah cut out uv Sundai’s Prade magazeen

In his defense, at least Cheney nevar shot a book in teh face*.

* while he was in office**.
** Not as in while he was VP, but while he was actually physically located in teh office***.
*** Other than that one time****.
**** But teh book had it coming.

hey, I went from self pity to bliss and all it took was a good t-pshop

Real men don’t need data to make decisions. They use their gut. Some fancy-pants-blouse-wearin’-flower-arranger-pointy-head intellectual asked me some bullshit about a trolley and some people on the tracks. My first question was is there anyway to split the trolley up to hit all 6 people? They need to get their America hatin’ asses offa my track!

Well, in Cheney’s defense, he would have read more in office, but every time he opened that Necronomicon something always popped out to distract him.

britbitter said,
September 7, 2011 at 20:18

I like the cut of your jib, son. Chewin’ tabaccky?

The Bible doesn’t count–it’s like the Constitution. You have a copy, of course, elegantly bound and proudly displayed; you worship it; you demand that it be followed to the letter, and you pretend to be an authority on it. But actually read it? Who does that? I mean, I know it has words and stuff, ‘cuz it’s, like, a book after all, but the words were written by holy men in ancient times, inspired by God hisself, so no one expects you to be able to actually be able to, like, understand it or anything. We have wise and learned men to read it for us, and tell us what it says. The Bible is like that too.

There’s a lot of good stuff at NRO right now.

VDH thinks Obama’s speech should seek to emulate Bangladeshi sweatshop policy.

Derb admits Karl Marx was sometimes right about things. (Actual line: “If you can’t poop with the intellectual eagles, don’t fly with ‘em.”) Commenters’ heads explode.

Jonah Goldberg can’t decide whether he thinks Obama’s foreign policy is good (another war!) or not (no flight suit 🙁). But he starts a lot of sentences with “but.” And with “and.”

Chewin’ tabaccky?

Course, what am I, some slack-jawed faggot? That shit makes me a sexual tyranosaurus.

That shit makes me a sexual tyranosaurus.

Have a chaw, short arms.

Tevi Troy. Name sounds familiar,,,

But he starts a lot of sentences with “but.” And with “and.”

Only confirming that, indeed, Jonah is the “but/and” of the human race.

Tevi Troy.

Sounds Greek. A wet Greek.

Have a chaw, short arms

I make use o’ what I can reach…

The only writer I needed to read was Judith Miller.

From DK-W’s link:

Why would Bunch of Grapes stock Emma Donoghue’s “Room,” a novel Aimee Bender called “truly memorable” and “remarkable,” when they could stock Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism,” a book that the American Conservative says “reads less like an extended argument than as a catalogue of conservative intellectual clichés, often irrelevant to the supposed point of the book”? Liberal bias, that’s why. Liberal fascist bias.

Heh. Indeed.

Liberal bias, that’s why. Liberal fascist bias.

Teabaggers: the first fascist movement to rise to power by accusing their enemies of being fascist.

Looking forward to the debate tonight and all those folk reminiscing ’bout how ol’ Ronnie used to crush Gorbachev at Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots and that summer he taught me how to make love to my wife.

Also note, what did Cheney like to read? War books. That six volume Winston Churchill magnum opus on WW2? Cheney read it whilst applying for five draft deferments.

ol’ Ronnie used to crush Gorbachev at Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots

Oh, um, by the way . . . why did I see an ad for a movie about boxing robots? Why was Hugh Jackman in it?

That six volume Winston Churchill magnum opus on WW2?

Some men read Playboy for the articles. Cheney read Churchill for the pictures.

Cheney was the anti-Churchill.

Churchill spent enormous time and intellectual capital trying to warn Britain about the Very Real dangers posed by Nazi Germany in the hopes a disastrous and costly war might be avoided, while Cheney spent enormous time and anti-intellectual capital (in the form of Doug Feith) being alarmist and ginning up phony intel about the dangers posed by the non-existent threat of Saddam and Iraq so a disastrous war could be started.

why did I see an ad for a movie about boxing robots? Why was Hugh Jackman in it?

You mean Real Steel?

Cuz he needed the money. He’s going to appear on the WWE’s Raw program in two weeks to promote it. That’s all the evidence you’ll need.

“Looking forward to the debate tonight and all those folk reminiscing ’bout how ol’ Ronnie used to crush Gorbachev at Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots and that summer he taught me how to make love to my wife.”

+several

Churchill spent enormous time and intellectual capital trying to warn Britain about the Very Real dangers posed by Nazi Germany in the hopes a disastrous and costly war might be avoided

A stopped watch…if he hadn’t screwed up so royally in World War I…Antwerp and Gallipoli spring to mind…he wouldn’t have had to yell so loudly about the Germans in WW2.

That whole invading Italy thing wasn’t such a great idea either.

Turned out not to be quite the “soft underbelly” he predicted.

Churchill spent enormous time and intellectual capital scotch trying to warn Britain about the Very Real dangers posed by Nazi Germany practically everyone in the hopes of a disastrous and costly war might be avoided

Fixed. Churchill was John McCain, but lucky enough to live at the same time as Hitler.

And what’s with this “Warrior” movie? A movie about 2 brothers who end up beating the shit out of each other? That’s supposed to be uplifting? I could give a shit about the back story. The climax is 2 brothers beathing each other half to death as sport. I can’t believe I have to sit in the same planet with these people. Where my nerds at?

Churchill spent enormous time and intellectual capital trying to warn Britain about the Very Real dangers posed by Nazi Germany in the hopes a disastrous and costly war might be avoided, while Cheney spent enormous time and anti-intellectual capital (in the form of Doug Feith) being alarmist and ginning up phony intel about the dangers posed by the non-existent threat of Saddam and Iraq so a disastrous war could be started.

This.

If the Bush GOP had been in charge of World War Two, we’d have invaded the Soviet Union in 1943. Something about Soviets having nukes or ties to the Japanese or some such.

Seriously, though. Dick “I had other priorities in the 60’s than military service” Cheney’s priorities in teh 60’s included reading 4736 pages about military service.

Churchill was John McCain, but lucky enough to live at the same time as Hitler.

Actually, I love this analogy.

The climax is 2 brothers beathing each other half to death as sport.

It’s a homoerotic paean to Greek mythology.

If the Bush GOP had been in charge of World War Two, we’d have invaded the Soviet Union in 1943. Something about Soviets having nukes or ties to the Japanese or some such.

(hat tip to the Firesign Theatre)

And now, President George W Bush….

My fellow Americans – this mornin’, 6:25 AM Pacific Standard Time, combined elemints of th’ Perial Japanese Navy and Air forces ruthlessly attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands. I have confrensed this morning with th’ congress and the chiefs of staff and Barney in emergency session, we have reached our rendezvous with destiny. It is our unanimous and irrevocable decision that the United States of America …unconditionally surrender. And now my wife and I would like to return with you for the thrilling conclusion of Private Nick Danger, Third Eye.

Real Steel is objectviely a better Fighting Robots movie than Michael Bay’s Transformers. But at its heart it’s a sports movie, so I’ll probably skippit.

It’s a homoerotic paean to Greek mythology.
I wonder how the double y chromasome dudes who are gonna see this would feel about that characterization. I’d kinda like to ask ’em.

I wonder how the double y chromasome dudes who are gonna see this would feel about that characterization. I’d kinda like to ask ‘em.

You might want to mask it a little. Tell them it’s a remake of the Castor and Pollux myth.

You know…the patron Greek demigods of sailors and dicks.

I mean, docks.

Of course, they’ll accuse you of being all “book smart” and “learnt”…

Did the greeks and romans create every story in Hollywood? Well maybe not “Pi”. I saw “The Debt” over labor day and also “Our Idiot Brother”. I feel pretty lucky as I enjoyed both despite their predictability.

Sorry to interrupt all teh Ghey talk with moar Cheney stuff, but man – waht an asshole.

Tevi quotes K-Lo in his piece

(But Cheney provides perhaps an even more important service:) a reminder to read more deeply and more broadly. (A reminder that as we hit the refresh button, there is something more out there.)

What did Cheney read? Well, there’s his love of books about War. This is teh abberation/exception to teh pattern. Otherwise, when he moved to Wyoming he read books about teh mountain men of teh West. When he was a powerline worker, he read books about powerline workers. When he was a congressman, he read books about congressmen. Also too, Tevi points out that Cheney read books “with contemporary policy implications” including two that were written by people he personally knew and just happened to agree with.

I suppose we can count on Cheney expanding his horizons even moar since he’ll probably read his own book.

They’re the grown-up version of the middle school jocks who beat up nerds and younger kids in an attempt to show that they were badass…

I think they’re more like the bully’s toady, standing on the sidelines yelling, “punch him in the nose” while trying to curry favor with the bully.

Liberal fascist bias.

More proof that conservatives are clinically retarded: They insist Obama is a fascist* and a socialist … which is like claiming someone is a Southern Baptist Atheist.

Just pick one and stick to it, you ignorant fucknuggets.

(* The fact fascism is totes anti-liberal — per the guys who created the ideology — will be left for another discussion.)

Hah! The Grover Dill brigade.

Finally, Tevi’s closing line?

But the list of at least some of the outside influences Cheney looked to during his vice presidency was available and out there, both within and outside Cheney’s memoir, if one had chosen to look for them.

1. It’s apparently unfair to review a book without scouring for external reports about teh author.
2. “Outside” influences on Cheney include a list of neocons.
3. To emphasize teh existence of “outside” influences on Cheney – that he wasn’t totes inside some sort of war, bombs, eavesdropping and torture bubble – Tevi names three “obscure outside neocon wingnut circles” books and then states interestingly, President Bush was reported to have read all three of those as well.
4. TEH BUTTOCKS

I think they’re more like the bully’s toady, standing on the sidelines yelling, “punch him in the nose” while trying to curry favor with the bully.

Lemme hold your jacket, Lenny. You’ll wipe the floor with him!

I think they’re more like the bully’s toady, standing on the sidelines yelling, “punch him in the nose” while trying to curry favor with the bully.

Scott Farkas and that little prick he ran around with.

If you don’t know who that is, you have missed one of the best Christmas movies ever made.

FFS, Dick’s interest in “outside” influences?!?! His ghostwriter? His own daughter. And not teh ghey one, but teh “Al Qaeda Seven” one.

Just pick one and stick to it, you ignorant fucknuggets.

LOL JOKES ON YOU! When you’re making up the butthurt and pant-shitting material as you go, you don’t HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT YA LOONEY LIBZ!

W00t!

I remember when Liberal Fascism first came out, and this very site spent a vast amount of electrons over several days thoroughly and utterly fisking the whole shivering shitpile. Doesn’t matter–debunking something with “facts” is meaningless when the most ardent promoters haven’t read the damn book themselves. See “Bible” and “Constitution” noted above. They don’t have read these things–they own them, display them, promote them and defend them because someone they agree with wrote it, and other people they agree with also like it. All they needed to get from it was a catchphrase, preferably of 2 words or fewer, and which was conveniently provided in big letters on the front cover. The entire text could be complete Lorem Ipsum, and it wouldn’t matter to the NRO crowd. Goldberg wrote puked out a book equating the two ideas, and that’s good enough for them.

If you don’t know who that is, you have missed one of the best Christmas movies ever made.

I’m aware of Mr Shepherd’s opus.

The entire text could be complete Lorem Ipsum

Wasn’t she in Bandolero with Dean Martin?

If you don’t know who that is, you have missed one of the best Christmas movies ever made.

As I said, Grover Dill.

The entire text could be complete Lorem Ipsum
That’s them salts I soak my tootses in yes?

1. It’s apparently unfair to review a book without scouring for external reports about teh author

How else are you going to know if you like the book or not?

2. “Outside” influences on Cheney include a list of neocons.

A fair minded, rational group, to be sure.

3. To emphasize teh existence of “outside” influences on Cheney – that he wasn’t totes inside some sort of war, bombs, eavesdropping and torture bubble – Tevi names three “obscure outside neocon wingnut circles” books and then states interestingly, President Bush was reported to have read all three of those as well.

Does it count as reading when Teh Penguin (Cheney) writes it on a hammer and slams it on your forehead/fivehead?

4. TEH BUTTOCKS

Best ending EVAR!

I’m aware of Mr Shepherd’s opus.
In addition to any and all internet traditions at the time of printing.

I just went back and looked at the comments on that Derb post regarding Marx. There are several more now. The number of people who can’t distinguish “Marx was right about x” from “Let’s adopt wholesale Marxism,” or “Marx’s critique y of capitalism was right” from “Let’s become a Communist nation!” is . . . well, it would be astounding if it wasn’t NRO, but since it is NRO it’s about what I expected.

mark f said,

September 7, 2011 at 21:48

They don’t do nuance do they?

LABIA.

They don’t do nuance do they?

You know, I sometimes wonder. I mean, look at the Power Line guys. All three (of the originals) went to a genuine Ivy League university, then went on to highly-regarded law schools. Many of the NRO authors can say basically the same thing. I’m not saying that this necessarily makes them all intelligent–indeed, in many cases they are clearly not–but they certainly have the ability to write coherent sentences, and they’re at least familiar with certain basic political-philosophical arguments and the critiques of same. Many of the conservative writers who don’t share these characteristics have pretensions to them (Jonah Goldberg). Do these people ever get depressed when the comments section reveals their readership to be more buffoonish than the listeners of sports talk radio?

Do these people ever get depressed when the comments section reveals their readership to be more buffoonish than the listeners of sports talk radio?

It’s really hard to hear the comments over the loud flick of counting money…

LABIA.

Her wings are bigger than mom’s!

I mean, D-KW’s mom’s….

Corndog PENIS.

Hello? Preview, Where are you? Come on out little preview, we won’t hurt you. Much.

Do these people ever get depressed when the comments section reveals their readership to be more buffoonish than the listeners of sports talk radio?

They probably get as depressed as some one-hit-wonder guy who gets stuck playing the same fucking song all his life, despite being capable of better.

The reason they write like they dropped out of school just after learning to use a thesaurus is because their audience is a bunch of bulletheads. Would you put a bunch of effort into trying to prove the existence of magic fairies and ghosts and flying saucers? That’s exactly what these pricks are doing–advancing a mythological worldview.

To finish my thought: As a musician, I MUCH rather be a one hit wonder than nobody. I think that’s a fair parallel to the NRO hacks.

Do these people ever get depressed when the comments section reveals their readership to be more buffoonish than the listeners of sports talk radio?
Probably the same way I feel watching Ed Shultz. I love the guy’s ideals and such but his arguments? [Cringe]

They probably get as depressed as some one-hit-wonder guy who gets stuck playing the same fucking song all his life, despite being capable of better.

I sort of see a problem with this analogy…

Books by writers like Marx, Darwin, Dawkins or for that matter Naomi Klein–that is to say, people who might dispute their worldview–are kinda the opposite of Bibles, Constitutions, and books by NRO contributors. They most certainly don’t own them, display them or, heaven forbid, read them; yet the same principle applies. They are experts on these subjects, just as they are about the Bible and the Constitution. They know everything they need to know about these evil, evil works by reading their fave blogs and watching Fox Noose. Anyone who dares to read them, quote them or God Forbid agree with anything written in them is automatically suspect.

I’m not a musician, but I can see the unheralded musician’s beef with the ones who sort-of make it and then bemoan the tribulations of success. On the other hand, I suppose I’d be depressed if all anyone knew about me was that I wrote a song about big butts.

I sort of see a problem with this analogy…

I don’t know–seems like Ivy League educated guys are likely capable of better, they just ended up doing what they’re doing. I would guess that’s a side effect of going to school at a place like Harvard.

seems like Ivy League educated guys are likely capable of better

George Bush: Yale University

On the other hand, I suppose I’d be depressed if all anyone knew about me was that I wrote a song about big butts.

You would still walk into a coffee shop and see a stunningly talented man or woman playing for nobody, while you wrote a song about fucking phone number and made it big. A shitty song, no less.

There is a kid who plays around Spokane. 20 something little dude, who has his sister accompany him on the violin, and a smallish, understated backup band. He is a perfect modern hommage to the late 60’s folk stuff. He is going nowhere and Lady Gaga is tearing up the charts with Madonna covers. Yeah, it burns a little.

Do these people ever get depressed when the comments section reveals their readership to be more buffoonish than the listeners of sports talk radio?

I think it just feeds into their superiority complexes. They think they are influential leaders of men and the noise in the comments section just reinforces that. The sound of a crowd howling for blood sounds superficially similar to the sound of thunderous applause.

George Bush: Yale University

Yeah, maybe you’re right. I couldn’t get through Spokane Falls Community College English 101 without some composition skills and ability to develop a thought. The thoughts were also required to be reality based if represented as such.

Ivy League schools. How do they fucking work?

Probably the same way I feel watching Ed Shultz. I love the guy’s ideals and such but his arguments? [Cringe]

I hear ya. Dude is a toolshed. Rachel destroys him. But then Rachel is easy for the right to ignore, isn’t she? All that pendatry and facts and logic…Puts your average Dancing With the Stars fan straight into a coma.

Feathered PENIS.

I want preview & onandonandon back!

I suppose I’d be depressed if all anyone knew about me was that I wrote a song about big butts.

Are you kidding me? I’d ride that ass ’til the wheels fell off.

What?

Well if you take your taste and amortize it over 5 years and re-invest the remaining taste in stocks and bonds and allow the taste equity to… wait, I’m missing some basic concept here.

Are you kidding me? I’d ride that ass ’til the wheels fell off.

This made me all shivery.

Bear in mind that Big Ed is a macho, huntin’ & fishin’ dude who used to be a right-wing type, but had an epiphany of some sort when he saw how many homeless vets there were at the shelter where his wife/girlfriend volunteered.

Not as if he came to his populist ways by thinking; just a gut-level “Hey, the system doesn’t work & we are fucking over our noble warriors” revelation. Stinking non-rational emo-moron.

“Bend over, I’ll drive you home.”

Why all the Ed hate? Is it because he’s chunky and has a Southern accent? ‘Cuz…that seems like an icky reason to dislike someone.

Honestly, I don’t care how he came to his senses, as long as he did.

If you don’t know who that is, you have missed one of the best Christmas movies ever made.

FTFY.

Why all the Ed hate?

Because he’s a loud mouthed doofus that’s quite often wrong. Loudly wrong.

Not as if he came to his populist ways by thinking; just a gut-level “Hey, the system doesn’t work & we are fucking over our noble warriors” revelation.

I’m not sure this assessment is accurate, given what you posted about what his epiphany was.

(There was also his mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s before Alzheimer’s was a cool Reagan disease, and he went through hell getting treatment approved by insurance)

If I recall, as a conservative, he regularly ragged on the homeless. This attendant introduced him to the homeless in her shelter and he put a human face on them, especially the vets.

It sounds more like he changed his mind as the facts changed. That’s different from, say, David Brock who only switched when he realized how much the GOP rejected gays, or Arianna Huffington, who’s conversion seems even more convenient.

Because he’s a loud mouthed doofus that’s quite often wrong. Loudly wrong.

About what?

I don’t hate the guy. I just prefer to watch Rachel. It’s probably just a visceral reaction to the some of that naked populism. I like it when people are compassionate and passionate. Smart analysis is more enjoyable for me. Now let’s pick up our phones, I wanna know what you think. Do you think bad stuff is bad? or is it good? Text your response to “I wanna give some money to a telecomm company” and we’ll have the results at the end of the show.

I happen to like Ed, but more on the radio show and less on the teevee. He isn’t polished and slick and doesn’t always use the right words, but he’s almost always where he should be on the issue. I find Rachel too schtick. She’s either lecturing repetitively about some ‘unique’ take on politics she’s come up with or she’s giggling and mugging for the audience.

About what?

He did manipulate that video of Rick Perry to make him seem even more of a bigot.

Have to agree about Schultz. Don’t get me wrong: I agree with virtually everything he says, ut the last thing we need is a left-wing Limbaugh, and that’s exactly what hhe’s going for, in a very intentional, methodical way. He even sounds like him. Rachel–Oh, my, Rachel, I would get a sex change operation just so I could become a lesbian and gaymarry her–Now that’s the kind of spokesperson we need more of. Witty, sparkling, beautiful sunny and smiling, yet devastatingly intelligent, and knowledgeable about what she’s talking about. An Beautiful? Did I mention Beautiful? That gorgeous, long swan-neck, I could just…
Be right back

Yanks rule, Belgians drool.

I haven’t watched him in awhile and didn’t know about the video, but I can’t stand shit like that.

The polls are meaningless because the only calls he’s getting are from watchers of the show. So, yeah, inane. But I don’t think that cancels out what’s good about him.

Also, I don’t think that because someone’s sweaty and yelly and that NECESSARILY makes him incapable of deep thought.

But that’s just my deep thought. And I didn’t even sweaty or yelly while writing it.

Yanks rule, Belgians drool

Miserable fat Belgian bastards….don’t they know we are the superior nation????

and that’s exactly what hhe’s going for, in a very intentional, methodical way.

Well, unless we can read his mind, that’s probably not a “fer sure.”

I actually prefer Rachel myself, but that’s not what I’m addressing. I’m addressing the Ed hate. It seems little overwrought to me. Of course, I could misreading things.

So, yeah, inane. But I don’t think that cancels out what’s good about him.

He has the same problem Randi Rhoades has: it’s way to easy to dismiss him as a crackpot.

I love me some Randi…mmmm, Randi…dearly, but there are days I had to tune her out so I could check my blood pressure. Ed hits me in a similar vein.

Just not as shaggably.

Ed’s just not a cool, dispassionate intellect (like I am) is all.

The “I hated poor people & welfare leeches until that attitude affected me or people very much like me negatively” is not a serious basis for destroying society.

And that daily ‘phone poll is straight outta Lou Dobbs.

I actually find Randi pretty loathsome.

But, I think if you’re going to dismiss someone as a crackpot, it should be because they are substantively WRONG about a lot of things. Not just because you feel like you shouldn’t like a person.

Rats, gotta go exercise at the Y. Gotta stay on that transplant list. Y’all have a good evening.

Love or not-love Ed, we can all agree that we hate Peggy Noonan, who’s blathering on MSNBC now.

But, I think if you’re going to dismiss someone as a crackpot, it should be because they are substantively WRONG about a lot of things.

Or, because they’re right for the wrong reasons. That implies they could just as easily be wrong for those reasons.

Love or not-love Ed, we can all agree that we hate Peggy fucking Noonan

FTFY

“kos” having nervous breakdown.

Fucking fascist.

Let me guess. She’s speaking in that stilted, affected, inappropriately-soft voice.

stilted, affected, inappropriately-soft voice

Ooooh, sexy.

I have deep patience for dickishness.

*giggle* Deep, huh?

If you advocate for third party? Zap! This is a Democratic site. Advocating primaries is okay. Advocating third party is not.

Really?

REALLY?

So basically, Kos (another one of my least favorite libs) is suggesting that it’s OK to dissent, so long as you don’t have any option beyond the Dems?

Whoa. And this is the asshat that gets trotted out nightly on the TeeVee to speak for me?

Fuck that, jim.

Yeah, the phone poll thing is painfully ludicrous. “Should we give tax breaks, ponies and blowjobs to billionaires? Text your answer and we’ll discuss the results at the end of the show”. C’mon, Ed, that’s just silly.

I have to say, I’m developing a real fondness for Lawrence O’Donnell. He’s no Keith, but he’s got that same snarky, only-sane-guy-in-the-room vibe going, and I like his analysis.

One thing that goes for all the MSNBC shows: For Godsake, get some new guests already, willya? I’ve never cared all that much what Chris Cilizza, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes or David Schuster think. What? won’t anyone else return an email?

About what?

The aforementioned Rick Perry video incident for one. He also got suspended for calling Laura Ingraham a “Right Wing Slut” — I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I’m not about to find out. I think “Right Wing Idiot” or “Right Wing Tool” or something would’ve been far more effective. Or how ’bout just plain old “fucking stupid”?

And googling “Ed Shultz” now gets you page after page about that incident — almost all from various right-wing sites clamoring to jump all over it as proof of how “the left” is all ebil and such. That’s super helpful.

I just think there’s enough crap on the right to call out and detail, without resorting to being “our side’s” Limbaugh/Beck/whatever.

He also seemed to be the first person to set up the “oh noes, woe is us, we lost so big, waah…” meme about the Wisconsin recalls. Yeah, “we” only gained two seats. Way to turn a victory into defeat, jackass.

People that like that kind of macho crap are going to be the first ones to say “what a wuss” when he’s forced to apologize also too (when do Limbaugh and Beck apologize for being wrong about absolutely everything? NEVAR!!! See, macho). So he ends up alienates the very people he’s trying to appeal to.

TL;DR: I just don’t like the guy.

Kos = douche.

Deep dick. Heh.

Oops: s/alienates/alienating/g

I have to say, I’m developing a real fondness for Lawrence O’Donnell.

I liked him ever since I found out he was a consulting screenwriter on The West Wing.

One thing that goes for all the MSNBC shows: For Godsake, get some new guests already, willya?

I’d volunteer, but I doubt y’all want me speaking on behalf of all liberals. I might say something stupid like “universal healthcare” or “hell yes! Soak the rich!” and then we’ll be back in the bad old days

So as everyone has long gathered, I have deep patience for dickishness. I don’t mind a bit of rough and tumble. Politics is a contact sport, and pPassion and commitment to one’s causes and positions can lead to bruising debate. And let’s be honest, if we decided to ban all dicks, half the site — me included — would be gone. Heck, look at the national scene — tThe dicks are winning all the big battles (including 2010).

WINNING!

Ed is that drunk, scary loud guy sitting on the bar stool next to you while you’re trying to watch the game, making you wish someone would shoot you in the head right now. I’ll bet he’s a Steelers fan.

One thing that goes for all the MSNBC shows: For Godsake, get some new guests already, willya? I’ve never cared all that much what Chris Cilizza, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes or David Schuster think. What? won’t anyone else return an email?

Bear in mind that most (All?) of those clowns are under contract to MSNBC. Especially if they guest host for any of the regulars, or are identified as “MSNBC consultants” or whatever the word is. I could have a much happier life if Mark (‘Dick”) Halperin never darkened my screen again.

Although I think Schuster is now working for or w/ Olbermann.

I’ll bet he’s a Steelers fan.

Vikes, I b’leeve. He is from Fargo, South Dakota or somewhere.

Fargo is North, not South Dakota, although why we need 2 Dakotas has never been clear to me…

”
I’ll bet he’s a Steelers fan.”

Awwww. Dont make me whip out that pic of Dudeskull.

Fargo is North, not South Dakota, although why we need 2 Dakotas has never been clear to me…

We need a third Dakota to make an Axis of Dakota… Dakota Fanning doesn’t count!

Sorry. I knew that. Every time I hear “Dakota,” I think Rapid City, S.D., ’cause of the Kinky Friedman tune.

why we need 2 Dakotas has never been clear to me…

Good point. Maybe we need some state contraction, as suggested for the NBA.

Maybe we need some state contraction, as suggested for the NBA.

On the contrary, some list just named my city the 100th best option for NBA expansion.Bring on 132 teams, motherfuckers.

Agreed. Combine the Virginias, Dakotas and Carolinas, Put Northern Idaho together with Montana, and southern with Utah. Break up Wyoming into Southern Montana and Northern Colorado (not like you’d be changing the population of either of those states by much) Let Texas secede (by force if necessary), and take Arizona and New Mexico with them, if they want.

On the contrary, some list just named my city the 100th best option for NBA expansion.Bring on 132 teams, motherfuckers.

You don’t want that- fuckers will use eminent domain to grab your house in order to build an arena.

You don’t want that- fuckers will use eminent domain to grab your house in order to build an arena.

How my brain saw “… build an enema,” I will never know.
.

If you build it, they will poop.

Agreed. Combine the Virginias, Dakotas and Carolinas, Put Northern Idaho together with Montana, and southern with Utah. Break up Wyoming into Southern Montana and Northern Colorado (not like you’d be changing the population of either of those states by much) Let Texas secede (by force if necessary), and take Arizona and New Mexico with them, if they want.

A bunch of kooks have long wanted to make a State of Jefferson from Southern Oregon and Northern California, which just seems weird. I always figured that the whole West coast would make a decent country, but carving that particular chunk out of those two states is pretty odd. The NorCal and SoOr coasts are both pretty damn liberal (hello? Humboldt county?), and the interior areas are a mix (e.g. Ashland, OR vs. Medford, OR).

A bunch of kooks have long wanted to make a State of Jefferson from Southern Oregon and Northern California, which just seems weird

Named after Jefferson Davis, no doubt.

The interior areas of Northern CA are a mix of right wing and fucking fascist. They do like their drugs, though.

Awwww. Dont make me whip out that pic of Dudeskull.

AWWWW get him a new team. It took about 20,000 bandwagon fans to knock the Cowboys out of their most hated by tsam in the whole world of American football. How about some nice Indianapolis Colts? Da Bears? Falcons? Saints? Ravens since you’re in the neighborhood???? Redskins since you’re in their town? Please? Don’t raise your boy like that, girl.

The interior areas of Northern CA are a mix of right wing and fucking fascist. They do like their drugs, though.

True. I either drive as quickly from Medford down through to Shasta as possible, or head over to the coast via the Redwood Highway at Grant’s Pass and avoid that whole area. Yreka scares teh bejebeers outta me.

Also, I saw Jim Hightower on Lawrence last night. I was more than glad to see that. That’s the one and only cowboy hat I’ve seen in my life that had a brain under it. I’m surprised it doesn’t burst into flames or something.

True. I either drive as quickly from Medford down through to Shasta as possible, or head over to the coast via the Redwood Highway at Grant’s Pass and avoid that whole area. Yreka scares teh bejebeers outta me.

Those psychos all have old hippy blood in them. Our psychos out East here have farm animal, mormon and neo nazi blood. Our psychos would kill and eat your psychos, I think.

Our psychos would kill and eat your psychos, I think.

No argument. I’ve been to Spokane, and have relatives in the Tri Cities…

Oh, and on the topic of Ivy League schools, found this as a link on Linkedin:

From the Harvard Business Review

Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Presenting

Delivering a successful presentation requires preparation and practice. You need to gain the trust of your audience and convey your message clearly. Here are three mistakes you should avoid next time you’re preparing to stand up in front of a crowd:

* Not knowing your audience. Long before you walk into the room, determine who your audience is and what they will do with the information you present.

* Failing to grab your listeners’ attention. Give the audience a reason to care. Hook them by describing the problem you’re trying to solve, or use an anecdote or a counterintuitive fact.

* Using unrelated visual aids. Just because a chart looks good doesn’t mean you need to include it. Your audience may be annoyed and possibly confused if your visual aids aren’t directly related to your message.

Wow, thanks Harvard Business Review, for those absolutely stunningly amazing tips! Whatever would I have done without them. I would like to add a few:

* Don’t drool. At least too much.

* Using words with more than two syllables may frighten and confuse your audience.

* Limit yourself to no more than three (3) racist jokes.

vacuumslayer said,

Let me guess. She’s speaking in that stilted, affected, inappropriately-soft voice.
###
Yeah and that furrowed brow and the pursed lips. The definitive ‘concern troll’ face if there ever was one.

I always figured that the whole West coast would make a decent country

Ab-so-fuggin’-lutely! The Coast is the most ’cause the surfing’s the best.

Let’s get Oregon-ized & do it. Hawai’i can join, Alaska can’t.

Sayonara, loser nation!

The interior areas of Northern CA are a mix of right wing and fucking fascist.

Same deal in the southern parts. The real division is ocean-inland, not North-South.

have relatives in the Tri Cities…

So does Palin. Radioactivity from Hanford doesn’t help any.

Yreka scares teh bejebeers outta me.

While on a cross-country road trip, my fellow travelers and I checked into a motel in Eureka. Damn thing was next to an Indian restaurant, we figured it was a Patel Motel. When we checked in, the clerk looked like an extra in Deliverance, but it was 2AM and there was no other option. The room had a godawful shag carpet, and smelled of horrible fake citrus air “freshener”. I ended up sleeping on the floor in front of the flimsy door, thinking, “They won’t get me unaware, and they won’t get me alive.”

Named after Jefferson Davis, no doubt.

George Jefferson, I think.

No argument. I’ve been to Spokane, and have relatives in the Tri Cities…

Heh–bumper sticker observed here in Spokane Washington:

Welcome to Idaho, now go home!

Mind you, this fucking IDIOT works down the street from me in Washington.

Jefferson Airplane, but not back in the early days, more in the “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” days!

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Grace should have put a stop to that business.

So does Palin. Radioactivity from Hanford doesn’t help any.

My business partner is a distant cousin of Super Sarah. He was NOT thrilled to learn this rather inconvenient and uncomfortable fact.

Ab-so-fuggin’-lutely! The Coast is the most ’cause the surfing’s the best.

Sayonara, loser nation!

Word

Hog it, kill it, wallawallabingbang.

kos” having nervous breakdown.

Fucking fascist.

—————-

If you advocate for third party? Zap! This is a Democratic site. Advocating primaries is okay. Advocating third party is not.

So basically, Kos (another one of my least favorite libs) is suggesting that it’s OK to dissent, so long as you don’t have any option beyond the Dems?

Whoa. And this is the asshat that gets trotted out nightly on the TeeVee to speak for me?

Fuck that

Solidarity.

((Also fuckety-fuck WP for not showing a Preview.))

“AWWWW get him a new team. It took about 20,000 bandwagon fans to knock the Cowboys out of their most hated by tsam in the whole world of American football. How about some nice Indianapolis Colts? Da Bears? Falcons? Saints? Ravens since you’re in the neighborhood???? Redskins since you’re in their town? Please? Don’t raise your boy like that, girl.”

Mr. Slayer’s from the Pittsburg area. The whole fam is obsessed. So, there’s only so much I can do. Me, I’m agnostic.

I like Redding CA. Oh, not for any reason related to Redding, it’s just the eastern terminus of my favoritest road EVAH, CA 36 – quite possibly the best motorcycle road on the planet. There’s some … shall we say interestign folk up in them hills ’round Hayfork.

AWWWW get him a new team.

Packers. Got to be the Packers.

Understood that Ed isn’t Radio Free Berkeley, but Limbaugh is a malignant hate merchant of the highest order and it’s a huge false equivalency to compare Ed to that. Ed does tremendous heavy lifting for OUR side that he wouldn’t be doing if he wasn’t sincere about it. People are capable of changing for the better and we should welcome that change rather than cast doubt upon it. If it took a family member falling on hard times to give Ed a different perspective, then that’s great. Would we rather have someone remain a rightwing asshole despite being touched by personal adversity?

“There’s some … shall we say interestign folk up in them hills ’round Hayfork.”

Make my day and tell me they are inbred hillbilly murderous psychopaths.

What RWW said.

Here are three mistakes you should avoid next time you’re preparing to stand up in front of a crowd:

— Producing an assault rifle from under the desk gains the attention of your audience, but sometimes it distracts them from the focus of your presentation.

Make my day and tell me they are inbred hillbilly murderous psychopaths.

Paddle faster! I hear banjo music!

Pittsburg

Where? Did you mean Pittsburgh perhaps?

Confession: I grew up in the ‘Burgh end of PA, share a surname with a noted Steeler QB, became a football fan in the 70’s when it was easy to be a Steeler’s fan (though I do recall that QB getting booed prretty severely early on). So yeah, I like the Stillers.

Yreka scares teh bejebeers outta me.

Eureka looks like where the last of the hippies met the last of the loggers.

Neat, Pup! Hubby’s from Johnstown.

Mr. Slayer’s from the Pittsburg area. The whole fam is obsessed. So, there’s only so much I can do. Me, I’m agnostic.

I know, but it’s JUST SUCH A TRAGEDY. Steelers BLOW!

And yeah, Packers are allright lately–if they could get rid of that dick Clay Matthews.

Is that the QB who couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the “c” & the “a”?

Or the guy who squirts on women in bars?

(though I do recall that QB getting booed prretty severely early on)

And then going on to win like 4 super bowls? Yeah, it was easy to like them back then.

Now they have a fuckup redneck asshole rapist quarterback and legions of loudmouthed dickhead toothless tweaker bandwagon fans.

Now they have a fuckup redneck asshole rapist quarterback and legions of loudmouthed dickhead toothless tweaker bandwagon fans.

But it’s ok, because he got him lots and lotsa JESUS!

Eureka looks like where the last of the hippies met the last of the loggers.

Which made a very unstable compound.

Well, I am officially a punchline. I chopped up a jalapeño, forgot to wash my hands, used the bathroom, now my lady parts are on fire. I really ought to be supervised while doing…well…anything, really.

Heh. Sorry, I don’t mean to..

Well, yes I do. That’s hilarious!

I’m actually amused. Sometimes being a flighty dumbass…well, I GET GOOD STORIES OUT OF IT.

Also, the Stillers have the unarguably best team song.

NEWT sez Obama is SO committed to class warfare and bureaucratic socialism that…blah blah fucking blah.

Tool.

Is that the QB who couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the “c” & the “a”?

Hell, you could give him all three letters and he’d still struggle. Tricksy, though.

Newt Gingrich is apparently unfamiliar with the concept of a debate.

Just watched 10 mins. or so of the GOP debate.

Can you get radiation poisoning from stupidity?

Just scabies.

IT WAS A GODDAMNED DOUBLE TOUCH!!!11!!

Tea Bag Party Q&A is so fucking pathetic I took a shower several days before scheduled, ‘though the heat & humidity may have influenced that. Now watching recorded Sports Center.

I watched a few minutes.

Brian Williams: Rick Santorum, you say you’re super Catholic. Where’s all the shit about helping the poor.

Rick Santorum: Duh. I threw ’em off welfare. Food stamps next!

Brian Williams: Rick Perry, what would you do about black people being poor compared to white people.

Rick Perry: This country needs an economy! Don’t matter if you’re Hispanic.

RETWEET:

@John Madden,
September 8, 2011 at 2:38

IT WAS A GODDAMNED DOUBLE TOUCH!!!11!!

Brian Williams doesn’t know what a question mark is, apparently.

M. Bouffant, Raider fan said,
September 8, 2011 at 2:46

IT WAS A GODDAMNED DOUBLE TOUCH!!!11!!

Can I interest you fellas in a tuck rule?

Why the fuck is that plane up on blocks behind those fucking assholes, none of whom can give a straight answer to any question?

The gubmint couldn’t find some further use for it? Did the Reagan Lie-berry pay full Blue Book price for It? Talk about waste, fraud & abuse!

Can I interest you fellas in a tuck rule?

I am going to reach through the Internets & horse collar you to the playing field, pal!

Fuck you, Davis.

Hilarious–Madden STILL reflexively throws the flag and calls double touch when anyone is stupid enough to bring that up around him.

Hilarious–Madden STILL reflexively throws the flag and calls double touch when anyone is stupid enough to bring that up around him pokes him with that pointy stick.

THAT’s why it’s hilarious.

(Item 1): if [Churchill] hadn’t screwed up so royally in World War I…Antwerp and Gallipoli spring to mind…he wouldn’t have had to yell so loudly about the Germans in WW2.

————–
(Item 2) That whole invading Italy thing wasn’t such a great idea either.

Turned out not to be quite the “soft underbelly” he predicted.

————–

(Item 3) Churchill was John McCain, but lucky enough to live at the same time as Hitler.

Ed Shultz ain’t the only person comin’ in for serious hatin’ and derision here.

I’ve been on the recieving end of the S,N wurlitzer because I didn’t ‘back up my assertions’ about Yalta being a worse and more long-lasting US international policy disaster than Iraq-Afghanistan. Okay, here’s a chance for the people whose comments appear above to back up their assertions.

I’ll use sources from two historians whose names shoulde be instantly recognizable to anyone who reads military history: Geoffrey Bennett in Naval Battles of the First World War and John Keegan from Six Armies in Normandy.

Item 1: Churchill ‘screwed up’ Gallipoli. The decision was taken by the War Cabinet; Churchill was an advocate, but hardly the only one. The landing was planned by the British Army and Navy. The landing was botched by enormously stupid shore commanders, with no inland exploitation whatsoever, allowing the Turks to in forces and improvise a defense. The decision to reinforce the 29,000 landing to 250,000? Also the War Council.

And as for Churchill’s advocacy, Bennett concludes:

“Churchill was right to press for an assault on the Dardanelles: success would have brought the Allies enormous benefits, not least shortening the war. Unfortunately, neither Admiralty nor the War Office was prepared for this master stroke.”

Item 2: The Italian mainland invasion was also poorly executed and tied down too many Allied forces. It did not yield the advantages that the British hoped for. (Please, don’t pretend the mainland invasion was only Churchill; it was the nearly unanimous recommendation of the War Cabinet and the UK’s highest military command. It was some

Yet Italy nevertheless tied down more German ground forces than the Allies committed. You must also add additional forces reinforcing Yugoslavia out of concern that the Allies might land in the Adriatic, which OKH had to consider once the Allies had the ports in southern Italy.)

And it opened up bases for long-range strategic bombing of Germany. ((Personally, I hate strategic bombing, but it was a reasonable part of the military calculus at time.))

Item 3: Cheap snark and glib snark. Not even worth rebutting.

—————

There seems to be lotsa love for FDR here, doubtlessly for his domestic policies and his vital social-welfare initiative. But FDR was naif in international policy. Whatever his defects–and they were many–at least Churchill read Joe Stalin correctly. Roosevelt didn’t have a fucking clue.

And Roosevelt’s military acumen? From Keegan:

” [Roosevelt suggested the US Army might] ‘assist to a moderate degree in backing up friendly Latin American governments against Nazi-inspired fifth column movements.’ The Second Worl War, General Marshall might have reflected, would not be won in the jungles of Paraguay.”

And of course, it was Roosevelt who insisted on the rigid and counter-productive ‘unconditional surrender’ as the basis for ending the war.

Other Sadlies have written some l-o-n-g comments; I trust, therefore, this one isn’t excessively long

Every time I hear “Dakota,” I think Rapid City, S.D

I think about a WWII transport plane.

“Governor Perry, your state has executed 232 inmates, more than any other state…” [APPLAUSE] “do you…”

Sometimes, just sometimes, I have violent urges.

How about some nice Indianapolis Colts?

No thanks. The most hated team in Baltimore. With the Steelers a close second. (I don’t watch or care about football, btw.)

Sometimes, just sometimes, I don’t have violent urges.

I think about a WWII transport plane.

That’s my second stream of consciousness thought.

Hubby’s from Johnstown.

“Use the spittoons! Remember the Johnstown Flood!”

Is that the QB who couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the “c” & the “a”?

Back when he was still at CBS, I lived at 56th and 9th and my regular bar was Jimmy Armstrong’s at 57th and 10th…which is where the CBS crowd would go. Had beers with him a couple of times. Loudmouth moron, but nice enough.

Re: Churchill and Gallipoli—

It’s unfair to blame Churchill for the disastrous misconduct of the Gallipoli landing. His plan was for the Navy to force the Bosporus (remember he was First Lord of the Admiralty), put Constantinople under their guns and knock Turkey out of the war.

When the first arrived, the Straits were completely undefended. They could have sailed right in and executed the plan in an afternoon. Instead they dithered around until the Bosporus was heavily defended, then tried to enter, got shot at, and decided: “We’ll land the Army out on the end of the Gallipoli peninsula and let them take the city from the rear!”

Again, the Army could have seized the entire peninsula within two hours, but they dithered around until the Turks infiltrated and seized the heights down the middle of it, and then they were basically stuck in the Mule Shoe at Spottsylvania Courthouse until they were finally withdrawn. That was not Churchill’s plan—yes, it was another “soft underbelly” argument, but it would have been one of the most stunning coups in the history of warfare if the Navy had just done what they were ordered to do in the first place.

Roosevelt WAS a naif when it came to the Soviets. There’s no denying that. In that respect at least, Truman came into the White House at the right time (he made other mistakes, but had the Sovs pegged from the start). Doesn’t change the fact that Yalta did little more than recognize officially what Stalin had already won on the ground.

Not sure how I feel about the unconditional surrender. What were the alternatives? There was internal opposition to Hitler, but it had a lot of trouble getting its shit together. Even if it had managed to and we could have negotiated a truce/peace, I can’t say I feel too thrilled about leaving an independent (even weakened) Germany, letting fascism fester on and possibly flaring up again at some point in the future. The policy the Allies adopted had the merit of stamping it out pretty permanently.

I’ll go w/ Chris on this. If the United Snakes hadn’t occupied Japan & western Germany, we probably would have fought WWIII by 1970 or so.

Did a pretty good job of transforming those societies. Too bad U.S. foreign policy hasn’t had any similar successes since.

Roosevelt WAS a naif when it came to the Soviets.

That’s debatable, I think, given the circumstances. Outwardly, the Soviet Union had lost …what?…10 million people in WWII? They weren’t very long off of czar rule, in a constant state of upheaval. It would be easy to have thought of them as a waning power, uninterested in expansion.

Did a pretty good job of transforming those societies. Too bad U.S. foreign policy hasn’t had any similar successes since.

Not every enemy can be transformed that way. In World War Two, the stars aligned and it so happened the Allies were able to completely crush and remake their enemies. More often than not, that’s not the case. France and Britain could never have done that to Germany all by themselves, nor could America have done that to Russia or China (even if you don’t count nuclear weapons). Case in point – we won the Cold War, but Russia’s still around, still a major power, still less-than-favorable towards us, and that’s going to continue being true for the foreseeable future.

It’s a simple fact but one that I don’t think most Americans appreciate: sixty years later, in too many cases, we’re still high on our “OMG Total PWNage” moment in 1945 and wondering why we can’t solve every problem the same way.

That was one of the big disconnects in the Cold War, I think: the crazies like MacArthur or Curtis LeMay, their entire right wing fan club, and much of the public just didn’t understand why we couldn’t just go in and beat Russia and China like we’d beat Germany and Japan (which made it easier for Bircher or McCarthyist conspiracy thinking to take hold). After all, we’d just saved the world, how could we not do it again?

Did a pretty good job of transforming those societies. Too bad U.S. foreign policy hasn’t had any similar successes since.

Too bad we seem unable to now transform our own. Fuck foreign policy – I’d settle for some successful domestic policy.

RE: Stalin and the naifs: The USSR lost 12 million – an awful lot of them were civilians – in the war. Anyone who didn’t forsee that they would try to create a buffer zone to prevent anything like from happening again wasn’t thinking. For that matter, the entire Cold War might have been avoided…ok, well, maybe not avoided but could perhaps have been much less of a big deal…if the West could have looked at Soviet annexation of Eastern European satellite states in this light rather than solely in that of imperial ambition. It probably was that as well, but after what they endured in WWII, I find it hard to blame them for doing what they did after the war.

I want more PENIS and POOP. Please.
.

PizzaENIS.

PizzaENIS.

Prince Albert FAIL.
.

Whoa. You mean, when Darth Cheney was a power-line worker, he read a book about power-line work? MY MIND = TOTALLY BLOWN.

Yeah, sorry, but I’m a lot less interested in what Cheney read than in what he DID … & am not driven with a profound lust to read whatever self serving slush he wrote. Alibis for high treason all begin to sound the same after a while.

Derbyshire defending Karl Marx? Cats living with dogs & up becoming down are surely soon to come.

Gallipoli: oh Jesus what a flaming clusterfuck. The Very Rev. has it on the nose: dithering was the one thing they excelled at in the Shuffleboard Club that was the Allied High Command. More proof that “The Great War” was Germany’s to lose. They had the odd few doofuses in their High Command (like Falkenhayn & the Kaiser himself) but for all its martial cultism the Prussian system was meritocratic, whereas both the French & the British High Commands were infested with crony-appointment dipshits left & right – & Germany had a plan that would have won the war decisively before the end of 1914. Worth noting that Gallipoli also had its own hideous sequel twenty-five or so years later on the beach at Dieppe, courtesy of Batty Lord Mountbatten – the difference being that holding Dieppe (in addition to being a costly proposition) would’ve been mainly a psychological victory like the Doolittle Raid … but taking the Dardanelles would’ve saved many hundreds of thousands of lives by shortening the war.

I think the US gets a raw deal from history due to entering WW1 late (& probably irrelevantly) & committing a few typical n00b screwups … but I bet the brighter Euros took one look at these huge hoards of well-fed young lads mobilized & equipped on short notice, & saw the writing on the wall for their old empires well before Armistice Day.

Churchill? An asshole, but OUR asshole.

Noteworthy: dude needed a fucking World War to win election as PM, & by 1945 a lot of the British already hated his guts: Winnie got stomped when he tried to get Downing Street back based on his wartime political cred.

The USSR lost 12 million – an awful lot of them were civilians – in the war.

?!?!?!?!?

One might also consider that the western part of the USSR was subjected to a scorched-earth policy TWICE … first by Stalin & then by Hitler. Everything from tearing up railway tracks & roads to poisoning wells & burning croplands. The first was key to shutting down the Wehrmacht (who always relied heavily upon captured arms & materiel), the second was good old petulant dickishness. A huge army defending a country in ruins, ruled over by a paranoid megalomaniac, faced with many in the West clamouring to march onward to Moscow to “finish the job” – it’s a miracle that there was no WW3 by 1949.

Fuck foreign policy – I’d settle for some successful domestic policy.

You’ve had a few good ones, but none of them are leading to meaningful improvements anywhere near the wallet (or other vital organs) of the body politic. Sadly, the nutritional content of gay marriage is dubious at best, & ending DADT seems unlikely to create a wave of well-paying jobs.

*HEMP FOR VICTORY* … hey, don’t laugh – it worked in the 40s!

My bad. I knew the 12 million figure but that’s the total for civilians, not all the USSR’s war dead. Basically the higher number of casualties just underlines what I said though about Stalin’s desire for a buffer between the west and the USSR. Viewed through the prism of Soviet deaths in WWII, his expanisionist policy in eastern Europe is perfectly understandable. It’s not like the US wouldn’t have done the same damn thing in those circumstances.

Per the discussion about MSNBC – I like Ed, he’s ok. His heart is in the right place. I like Chris Mathews next followed by Lawrence. I don’t watch Rachel that much. She’s kind of glib and silly and buys into most leftist paranoid fantasies about Dominionism (which doesn’t even exist).

—

Shorter Kos:

tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate
tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate tolerate

EXPLODE! EXPLODE! EXPLODE!

Seems like a piss poor way to run an organization if you ask me. Anyway, Daily Kos was doomed long ago with his stupid rating system that was guaranteed to have exactly the results that plague it now. It’s sort of the liberal version of free market ideology. People are naturally good so if you just let them police themselves the magic hand of the social market will give you unicorns and lollipops.

Daily Kos is riddled with roving gangs of social rejects and assorted nutjobs who imagine they are liberals because they think having sex with dogs is cool. (No, seriously, I even got troll rated because I argued that the dog did not consent so he was abusing the animal). You have not really experienced the insanity that is Daily Kos until they have driven you away because you don’t think that legalized prostitution and bestiality are a good direction for society to take.

“We’ll land the Army out on the end of the Gallipoli peninsula and let them take the city from the rear!”

VBSR

Item 1: Churchill ‘screwed up’ Gallipoli. The decision was taken by the War Cabinet; Churchill was an advocate, but hardly the only one.

OK, I’ll defend my comment however I need attacked you on Yalta, so you’re paying hate forward… 😉

re: Antwerp The World Crisis (new edition), Odhams 1938, p. 323

re: Gallipoli Jenkins Churchill: A Biography p. 282-288

re: Antwerp The World Crisis (new edition), Odhams 1938, p. 323

Of course, you remember the joke at the time: “Have you heard the news? Winston’s written a book about himself and called it The World Crisis!“

The interior areas of Northern CA are a mix of right wing and fucking fascist. They do like their drugs, though.

Protip: do not exceed the speed limit, even by one mile per fucking hour, in or near the city of Weed, CA. If you do, do not try to make a joke with the nice officer about the name of his municipality. Especially if you’re carrying.

the Soviet Union had lost …what?…10 million people in WWII? They weren’t very long off of czar rule, in a constant state of upheaval. It would be easy to have thought of them as a waning power, uninterested in expansion.

Not to mention that, setting Molotov-Ribbentorp aside since it was basically desperation in the face of failures elsewhere, before the war Stalin did a lot of reaching out to the West in the hopes of neutralizing Germany diplomatically. He wasn’t a very militaristic leader before Hitler invaded, even if he did have ideas of eventual hegemony in Finland and the Baltics.

That’s debatable, I think, given the circumstances. Outwardly, the Soviet Union had lost …what?…10 million people in WWII? They weren’t very long off of czar rule, in a constant state of upheaval. It would be easy to have thought of them as a waning power, uninterested in expansion.

As Jennifer points out, it was very predictable that he’d want his buffer zone.

I was mostly thinking of some statements I’d read that he made in private about Stalin that showed a pretty naive outlook on him. Went looking for that this morning, and this is the money one:

“I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of man. Harry [Hopkins] says he’s not and that he doesn’t want anything except security for his own country, and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” (Spoken in 1943, to his former ambassador to Russia).

The interior areas of Northern CA are a mix of right wing and fucking fascist. They do like their drugs, though.

The last time I was at Beale AFB (2001) I was told that Marysville/Yuba City was pretty much the meth capitol of California.

He wasn’t a very militaristic leader before Hitler invaded, even if he did have ideas of eventual hegemony in Finland and the Baltics.

Indeed not.

As I recall, one of the main disagreements between Stalin and Trotsky (aside from the fact they both wanted the crown) was that Trotsky wanted to support communist revolutions worldwide, while Stalin just wanted to stay home and consolidate their own revolution.

(Which is why speaking from self-interest as a non-Russian, I’m actually not all that fussed that Trotsky lost).

Geez, I’m sorry for mentioning Churchill. I certainly didn’t mean to touch off an all WWII all teh time thread.

Imma try make amends.

PENIS.

I remember reading an excerpt of Halberstam’s book on Korea. Before MacArthur got fired he was unwilling to take the advice of anyone but a few handpicked sycophants. Therefore, when scouts and people with other knowledge warned MacArthur that the Chinese were amassing for an invasion, MacArthur dismissed it. It couldn’t be true because he didn’t believe it to be true.

Stalin was sort of the same way regarding Hitler. He knew that Hitler had designs on Eastern Europe and maybe even some Soviet territory, but he always believed Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning. But he kept ignoring the warnings, because Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning when the time comes. Repeat. Reports from scouts at the border? Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning, when the time comes. Germany’s ambassador defects and tells Stalin that Hitler’s about to invade? Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning, when the time comes. And when Germany finally did invade Stalin vanished for about half a week. Supposedly he just sat at his estate and drank and didn’t talk to anyone. He was so out of commission there was talk of a putsch.

The USSR caught up and won thanks to a few things, but none of them were particular strengths of its military or its leadership. It wasn’t unreasonable to believe that it was a bit of a paper tiger outside its home stadium.

Dick Fuckin’ Cheney doesn’t apologize for nothin’. He shoots you in the face, and YOU APOLOGIZE TO HIM for screwing up his canned hunt! You apologize to him for continuing to live and depriving him of a perfectly viable donor heart. You apologize to him for not having more children to provide as cannon fodder for his endless wars. You apologize to him for breathing HIS air.

PENIS.

Sometimes a PENIS is just a CACTUS.

Fuck Dick Cheney and his canned quail hunts. Nicolai Ceausescu at least knew that real mean choose to shoot canned fuckin’ bears.

Hunting stuff in cans seems like pretty poor sport to me. Do they at least roll them down a big hill or something?

Related

Nicolai Ceausescu at least knew that real mean choose to shoot canned fuckin’ bears.

Amateur. One of the nuttier Roman emperors killed canned gladiators.

Of course, you remember the joke at the time: “Have you heard the news? Winston’s written a book about himself and called it The World Crisis!“

Yes, 1938. I remember it only because of the garlic I tied to my belt buckle.

canned fuckin’ bears

Now in the frozen food aisle.

tsam said,

September 8, 2011 at 2:11

Eureka looks like where the last of the hippies met the last of the loggers.

Which made a very unstable compound.

For the record, I said “Yreka” — Eureka is on the coast and is a fucking paradise compared to the shithole that is Yreka, the little town on I-5 near the Oregon border.

Reports from scouts at the border? Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning, when the time comes. Germany’s ambassador defects and tells Stalin that Hitler’s about to invade? Hitler’s plans were far enough out that he could prepare with warning, when the time comes.

Yep. Worst of it being that he didn’t prepare very much at all, even knowing how badly Russia had been whupped in the last war due in part to a chronic lack of preparation. German disinformation tactics notwithstanding, Stalin sure dropped the ball on an epic level – & it didn’t help that he’d developed a cult of personality … & a perfectly legitimate mortal terror of differing with him on any subject whatsoever. Why he continued to assume the best when dealing with a fellow psycho who was fanatically committed to a jihad against Bolshevism beats the hell out of me – maybe it was a moustache thing.

Also no doubt that the Red Army won via oldschool brute force & not brilliant tactical elan – delightful actions like using political prisoners ahead of the main battle force as meat-based minesweepers or literally sending units (some of whom were armed with nothing more than axes & knives) forward into certain death until the Nazis ran out of ammo were SOP. When your enemy is willing to throw away men on that scale & they vastly outnumber you, you either have nukes to eliminate that massive advantage, or you lose.

Nicolai Ceausescu at least knew that real mean choose to shoot canned fuckin’ bears.

I know you meant real men, but I like your version better.