I guess I should feel special that I always get a terror alert around my birthday, and that David Brooks always blesses the week of my birth by such gregarious oral and written flatulence.

Um, panda67?

A McCain Lieberman party – damn, those “centrists” sure can boogie down …

Ah yes, McCain-Lieberman. They would fit nicely in the huge swatch of
political space between the right-wing uberhawks and sanctimonious gasbags.

Pure political dynamite.

Screw the SHORTER David Brooks. Can we get a SMARTER David Brooks? Cuz that I would buy.

Blogenfreude- Don’t write those two words together again… jsut reading them made me nod off.

maybe off the point, but…

I just linked to the Roy Moore bio.

the “pre-judicial” section was priceless.

and then I realized one of you guys musta written it. didn’t you?

you didn’t? you mean that’s real?!

“Fruit Salad” Moore.

That’s effin great. I’m using that from now on.

Was Moore really a kickboxer? Oh please please please let that be true.

From the Wiki Moore Bio:

He was then sent to Vietnam, where he saw combat as a company commander and so feared being fragged (due to “being a stickler for constant salutes and regulation haircuts in the midst of war”[1]) that he recalls in his autobiography sleeping on sandbags to avoid a grenade or bomb being tossed under his cot.

Hmm, let’s see. What’s the best course of action for me to take to make certain that the troops under my command (a) respect me and follow my orders, (b) are a cohesive unit that is aggressive in action and takes care of each other, and (c) is unlikely to kill me at night in the field? Ok, I could be a stickler for salutes (huh?) and haircuts (riiiigght) along with a whole bunch of stateside military bearing and discipline bullshit, making sure at any given time at least 50% of my men are under some kind of disciplinary action, OR I could be a good combat leader in the field, giving my men some slack and encouraging them to believe in something greater than themselves and the rulebook, namely taking care of, protecting and helping each other through it while getting the mission done.

Now, pretty much every Ell Tee and Captain has had to figure out the intelligent compromises one needs to make in order to lead men in battle. The ones that can’t figure it out should not be out there – the get their men killed and generally screw shit up…

mikey

Did somebody say Judge Rudy Ray Moore, aka Dolemite, Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil’s Son in Law and Disco Godfather?

All kneel before Dolemite, you rat-soup eating motha-fuckas!

oh lord. roy moore. on behalf of the people of alabama, my lovely home state:

WE’RE SORRY!!!

nobody i know voted for him, thank god.

And the award for Being the One Pundit Who Can Make Even Patrick Buchanan Sound Reasonable goes to David Brooks.

Buchanan on Joe’s third-partyness in TownHall:

the transparent conclusion is that his independent campaign is simply about Joe’s unwillingness to accept the verdict of his party and give up his cherished Senate seat.>/i>

If most of the country is against the war how can anyone paint the likes of McCain, Liberman, and Hillary as “moderates”? I have only heard one person asking this question (I think it was on hardball). Needless to say Brooks was not challenged with this question on NPR yesterday.

Timne for a solo on the one-string harp!

The American Two-Party system will never be fixed on election day, since a simple plurality vote count will always result in additional parties stealing votes from parties with the most similar ideology.

Because the constitution makes voting a state’s rights issue, the easiest way to change this is at a local and state level, by spending the time between elections pushing for Alternative single-winner voting methods at the state level.

Voting for a third party on election day merely reduces the number of votes needed for the sole wingnut on the ballot to get a seat.

End of recital. You may now throw roses and tomatoes.

I’ve had it with these mother fucking italics on this mother fucking plane!

That’s better.

Since I don’t subscribe to NY Times Select, I couldn’t read Brook’s latest ruminations. I don’t really care, but I’m a little curious, so here’s a little poll for my fellow Sadly, No! commenters: Is there any NY Times columnist you would pay a dime to read? Dowd? Krugman? Friedman? Brooks? It is seriously a Murderers’ Row of banal tripe.

No, no, no and no to the four columnists mentioned. But Frank Rich is sometimes worth a look.

Alright, I’m perfectly comfortable admitting that I do not have the education that most of the denizens of Sadly, No! have. I did not go to college. They found other ways to occupy me, then I spent the next couple of decades trying to finish the job. So I often don’t understand what makes an author, poet or pundit better or worse in you guys’ eyes.

I like Krugman. I like what he has to say, how he says it, and how he connects it to my life. Obviously I’m missing something, because smart people here are indicating he’s a crank. But when NYT put up the wall, he’s the only thing I missed…

mikey

mikey- I think Krugman is the absolute man. I don’t know why other people are down on him.

I like Krugman, as well.

PHEW! Cool, I’m not a dork after all. Maybe we can get one of the PK bashers to tell us what the problem with a respected professional economist pointing out the flaws in the administrations economic policies is. Man, that is a poorly constructed sentence. Deal with it, bitchezz…

mikey

I don’t have a big problem with Krugman, so I don’t think I qualify as a PK basher, but at the same time he doesn’t do much for me. In an opinion columnist, I’m looking for someone who’s A) rationally correct, B) articulate, C) entertaining, and D) forceful. I think Krugman is both A and B, but C and D? Not so much. Of course part of the problem with C is the nature of his topic — yeah, I know economics is an important field but still, I get a little yawny reading about it. So that’s more about me than Krugman. But point D is the kicker: he spends so much time being an ethical arguer that he pretty much argues the opposing point of view as well as he argues his own point of view. He tends to bury his thesis underneath lots of concessions and qualifiers. Makes him a good guy, probably, but not someone whose writing inspires me on a regular basis.

I’ve had it with these mother fucking italics on this mother fucking plane!

LMAO.

can I belatedly concur with whoever suggested that we just go with an all-italics format?

Damn, that unedumacated Mikey beat me to it with the Moore fragging bit. If he even gets out of the frist week of the primaries, there’s a goldmine to be made in t-shirts and bumper stickers about that. “Ray Moore: His unit wanted to frag him. Is this the man to lead our country?” etc.

LiberalSouth, no apologies needed but as long as we’re begging for S,N! forgiveness, this proud, lifelong Californian apologizes a million times over for

Ronnie Raygun (from Illinois, of course)
Pete Wilson (hmmmm….also from Illinois)–pushed through the law that helped lead to the energy fiasco with Enron
The Gropenfuhrer (Linz, Austria), going to win again *sigh*

Oh gawd, I’ve spent too much time in the Atrios comments section. I’m a professional secretary and I typed “if he even gets out of the FRIST week of the primaries…” The shame….

Frist week. Is that when all the candidates need to watch a brief video clip of something with which they are utterly unfamiliar and then offer a hands-on professional opinion? Or is it the week when the candidates need to sponsor legislation that would financially benefit their own family-owned business ventures?

“Krugman spends so much time being an ethical arguer that he pretty much argues the opposing point of view as well as he argues his own point of view. ”

Like when he called the people running our country “childish”???

Henry. I’m making an asparagus pizza. I want to share it with you. Thank you, my friend…

mikey

I’m using CANADIAN Bacon. Just sayin…

mikey

Thanks, Kathleen

I don’t know. I’m not saying every single writer on the NY Times stinks, but I sure as hell wouldn’t pay $70 (or whatever it is) to read them when I can get better political opinion elsewhere.

Ooh, ooh…

It’s so rare that folks from my adoptive state get to pull political rank. But here goes…

The rational people of the great Sooner State of Oklahoma hereby apologize for:

1) Sen. Jim Inhofe

2) Sen. Tom Coburn

3) Our entire Congressional delegation (and, yes, that includes “Democrat” Dan Boren).

4) Our state legislature (in which roughly 1/4 of the Dems voted for a bill that would allow teachers to preach, er, teach intelligent design creationism).

5) Twister (the better known one with Helen Hunt. The earlier film with Harry Dean Stanton and Crispin Glover is actually fine…but it takes place in Kansas).

I could go on…

5) Twister

Well, I don’t really blame Oklahoma for that, but that was a crappy movie.

How about

6) The Boz

Am I the only one looking at Mistah Brooks and going “hands, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes”?

Reducing political wonks to primary school-level singalongs. My work is never done.

6) The Boz.

At least have the decency of linking to him wearing the Crimson and Cream.

and let’s not forget…

7) Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown

Hey, if we’re atoning:

As an official representative and lifelong resident of wisconsin, Cheeseheads would like to apologize for:

1. Tommy Thompson

2. McCarthy

3. James Sensenbrenner

4. Jeffrey Dahmer & Ed Gein

5. The Wisconsin Dells

I am originally from Massachusetts, and we have nothing to apologize for. So nyaaaah!

I’ll go ahead and throw out a quick apology for Ahh Nold, our craptacular governator…

mikey

The Canadian Government has apologized for Bryan Adams on numerous occasions!

The Socialist Republic of Glasgow formally apologises for Niall Ferguson.

(Although we’re not sorry we’re rid of him)

Currently a Washingtonian, so I apologize for Jim West and Slade Gorton.

Formerly a Michigander, so please forgive me for Ted Nugent.

1. I’m from Connecticut. So I apologize for Joe Lieberman.
2. I now live in Missouri. So I apologize for Kit Bond, Jim Talent, Roy Blunt, and all the other GOP asshats the Show Me state elects to public office (there are FAR too many to name individually).

BTW, it’s NEVER time for David Brooks, shortened or otherwise.

“Krugman spends so much time being an ethical arguer that he pretty much argues the opposing point of view as well as he argues his own point of view. �

That’s what attracted me to him in the first place. Unlike other pundits on the right and the left (mostly on the right), Krugman does not attack straw men. He does exactly what we were taught to do in Forensics; he articulates his opponent’s argument as logically and persuasively as possible, then demolishes it.

By the way, in today’s (Friday’s) column, he takes Brooks head on, just barely not naming him (which is probably against some Times house rule): “Many of those lamenting Mr. Lieberman’s defeat claim that they fear a takeover of our political parties by extremists [a pretty accurate paraphrase of Brooks’s entire column]. But if political polarization were really their main concern, they’d be as exercised about the challenge from the right facing Lincoln Chafee as they are about Mr. Lieberman’s woes. In fact, however, the sound of national commentary on the Rhode Island race is that of crickets chirping.”

I’ve apologized on S,N! before for Iowa’s horrendous embarrassment, Steve King… but I’d also like to apologize for Chuck Grassley. We had Fred Grandy, too, of Love Boat and Congress fame…
Raygun lived here for a while and was a broadcaster in Des Moines.
Nixon lived in Ottumwa for a bit and wife Pitter Patter was a bank teller there.
And of course, the winner: Herbert Hoover.