Weekend Wingnut Roundup

The tension surrounding the question of whether or not the reichweb will suffer massive Internets FAIL Tuesday night is killing me. I hope it will last.

Yes, the Wednesday Wingnut Roundup is going to be the interesting one. And the Wingnut Summit that’s planned for — Thursday?

I’m trying not to think past Tuesday night, so I’ll save those good thoughts for later. But right now it’s looking like we can consign the Reagan Era (1980-2008) to the dustbin of history. We’ll still have the idiots among us, but they’ll be competing for the soul of a soulless party.

I thank you nojo, rptcub, for going where no man should need to go. The sewers of the mind. I would kiss you wherever it would mean most to you. I would even do a certain amount of insucking whilst on my knees if it would get you off make you happy. I’m not sure you would want me to go further: such as latex gloves and/or chains but gimme the chance and I’d do it all over you coz I haz Hope and it is HARD.

Blessings! (Judy Collins singing in the background) . Hippies dancing. Sunset. Splooge. Aaah!

@Lyndon LaDouche: Excuse me? WHO went there? I am about to take my 3rd shower (after the Giants go into halftime).

This post made me shiver.

I can’t decide between Hewitt and Macsmind for the real one. Although Jesus and taxes — intriguing.

@blogenfreude: I certainly don’t have the stamina to cruise all those sites — any given day, I’m quite happy to let Sully pick off the easy ones.

But to my taste, if all goes well, the Great Wingnut Cage Match of 2008 will be the story starting Wednesday. You’ve got the neocons, you’ve got the financiers, you’ve got the Mob, you’ve got old-fashioned conservatives. You’ve got principled (if misguided) types like Sully, you’ve got the NRO crowd scrambling to lead the parade, you’re going to have fingers pointed in all directions.

It’s gonna be fascinating to watch the bloodbath. I’m far from ready to predict a total schism, but I don’t see how they hold it together, either. The leaders have been lying to the fundies for a generation, and now the fundies are feeling their oats. I still think Palin’s toast, but what she represents ain’t going away.

@nojo: I agree – it will never go away. And that’s what keeps me going – I need teh wingnuts to blog, but I can’t stomach them having anything to do with any policies going forward. I need them, but I need them marginalized. Am I making sense here?

@blogenfreude: It’s like the PUMAs — a barrel of laughs, as long as they stay in the corner.

@blogenfreude: Or, to paraphrase Jon Stewart on election night 2004: Please, America, make our job harder.

@nojo: And may I say that Dallas’s 3rd string QB is in against my Giants and he is TEH SUCK. Still – another quarter to go ….

@nojo: It would be such a wonderful world if the hard-core fundies siphon off into their own third party. Palin-Dobson 2012!

Also, at Hatestock yesterday, I started wondering if the Heavenlies could be convinced that a No on 8 vote would best hasten the Rapture. I suspect such an argument made from the stage would encourage plenty of chants of “Praise!”

@Pedonator: I was thinking Palin-Plumber an hour ago…

But you’re right: The whole basis of the infernal Fundie-AIPAC coalition is to speed God’s work towards Armageddon.

And heck, maybe we mistimed our visit: the stadium was packed, but the upper decks got Raptured out just before we arrived.

@blogenfreude: Darling. Whatevs. The physical act don’t mean shit. We’re all in this together. Who went there? nojo, rptcub went there. Kisses on their mommies hinies.

I’m going with Blue Crab for the real one but reading this made my head hurt. I’m gonna have to go on an alcohol run now.

@blogenfreude:
Better you than me.

Just the titles are amusing. For the most part, real life events haven’t been all that kind to these guys. I take predictions and assurances with the same iceberg sized grain of salt that I take when my bosses say “all is well.”

@blogenfreude: And we thank you for your patriotic duty. I will nominate you for the Bronze Anal Pear with Oak Leaf Cluster.

@Lyndon LaDouche: I thank you sincerely, but I think your kneepads should indeed be reserved for Herr Freude.

I’m guessing Macsmind is the real one.

Our cable is on the fritz and I can’t get Fox right now…I can’t miss Treehouse of Horror…ugh! Rupert Murdoch is punishing us for all the No on 8 and Obama signs in our windows.

@Pedonator: This is exactly my hope: It would be such a wonderful world if the hard-core fundies siphon off into their own third party. Palin-Dobson 2012!

@SanFranLefty: Can you believe the Yes on 8 crap on TV? Somebody mortgaged the farm in Utah to pay for this dreck.

@Dodgerblue: You’d think there was a new Dustbowl going on or something.

…and they came in their covered wagons to the promised land of California, only to have their hopes dashed on the rocky shores of sunny San Diego…

@Dodgerblue: It’d be like Canada with its wacky 4-5 political parties in Parliament.

@Dodgerblue: I can’t see the Yes on 8 ads because the teevee is fritzing out – I think the rain and wind knocked our cable wires around a bit. But have you heard DiFi’s No on 8 radio ad? About fucking time. I wish the No on 8 crowd could get the Governator do an ad, since he came out against it this week.

@SanFranLefty: In a subtle message as to Prop 8, Abe Lincoln grabs Homer’s ass.

@SanFranLefty: DiFi has a No on 8 TV ad that is powerful. Isn’t the Gov in Ohio, wanking around w/Goofy McDiapers?

@SanFranLefty: I’m guessing either Michelle Malkin or American Thinker. I’m hedging! And probably still wrong, this is a hard game. I feel like Jodie Foster being told to listen to the screaming lambs every week so I can think like Buffalo Bill.

@blogenfreude: Point of personal privilege – Fucking Broncos.

@Lefty – Treehouse XIX was awesome.

@nojo: Well, as of right now, the pitiful remnant of old fashioned, sane republicans have all endorsed Obama, and thats not something to do lightly, they have to be ready to leave the GOP to do that, they won’t have a choice, and they were all driven to it by Palin.

The neocons, who are truly committed to completely amoral rule, running on whatever it seems the rabble wants, and then just doing whatever they want and lying about it, they were absolutely willing to hitch their star to Palin and the drolling mob. They will always be easy to predict, they will go to bed with anyone for votes, absolutely anyone, and if Palin actually survives this as some kind of fundi-right icon, they will be with her. The National Review will shamelessly turn itself into the Palin Monthly and print her ghost-written policy statements, what with her being a nationally respected energy policy expert and all.

No, the majority of the Republican coalition will remain true believers, remember, they were an opposition party for so long, opposition is all they know how to do, they have no positive agenda, and that was their death, even if it took decades for a majority to see it. They’re good at being a whiny, crazy minority, and they will fall into it naturally, they will be more comfortable at it than they were at ruling. Their hate and anger at Obama and the democratic congress will have them reunited before the inauguration. Next to their superstitious fear and dread of “liberals,” the rifts we are now seeing will be nothing.

The democrats cannot count on the republicans to implode and deeply fracture, won’t happen.

What will be critical will be whether Obama can keep the support of the independants and the significant number of rural, red state, nominal republicans who finally have had enough.

Here’s the bad medicine, to do it, he is gonna have to throw them some bones. If Colin Powell could be in the cabinet, that would be good. If he could get a respected nuetral or sane republican superstar from the financial world to be sec treas, that would be good. He’s gonna have to have a Sister Souljah moment early on. And if he does a tightrope walk on faith based, tightening the rules (no proselytizing at client interface sites, no services actually provided at church sites), and spreading the wealth to moderate, mainstream denominations, hey, this is just a new area for patronage, and patronage has always and will ever be the way to build the most loyal support organizations, people know who butters their bread.

This is gonna piss of doctrinaire progressives, but listen, politics is coalition building, their are not enough of us to win elections by ourselves, we have to convince some of those we disagree with that we can be good for them too. Fact, cold hard fact.

Don’t get all upset about it. Its gonna take a few more elections, and a stable coalition, not just a rebellious populace alarmed at current events, to make this a real tidal shift.

Getting Bin Laden would be a real show-stopper.

And one unknown that could be a factor is just how ugly the raving racist loons get in the next weeks. And, yes, how positive the blacks can be in their response. If the haters show their evil and violence and disloyalty to the idea of One Country, one people, they could set back the southern wing of the republican party for decades, and if the people in this country who have every right to look at thiss as the greatest event of their lives and feel empowered more than ever before and hopeful more than ever before that there is a light at the end of the tunnel of racism, respond positively, if there are no ugly incidents of celebration, that would defuse the demonization of the dark skinned that is the bread and butter of the haters.

Hey, Carter raised hopes. He was a good, intelligent man, southern, even, creating hope that he was an antidote to the Southern Strategy of coded racism that Palin is the heir to. He came in on a wave of revulsion over republican ugliness, war, and recession, oil crisis, many parallels. And four years later he became a joke and an albtaross on the Democratic party.

If I was Obama, I would be studying everything Carter did, and making sure I did not do that.

The financiers,

@Promnight: Obama has an edge on Carter in that he realizes that while he can talk a good game about “change,” he realizes he must know how to play the DC establishment and be pragmatic when it comes to certain things.

@Promnight: Powell at Sec.Def. to fix Iraq and atone for his personal sins. Bloomberg or Buffett at Treasury. Schwarzenegger at Interior or EPA.

Bin Laden dead or alive in February would help greatly.

And while I hope he doesn’t have to do it, I’m afraid his Sister Souljah moment will involve teh gheyz or the blacks.

Carter did a lot of great things. He didn’t foresee Lee Atwater. The Unicorn has already shown he’s ready for the smears.
And as rptrcub points out, Obama knows he needs to work DC/the Hill. Having Biden totally helps on that front, too. Carter, Clinton, and W were total outsiders to DC.

Blogenfreude, Master, begging your pardon. Misunderejermicated the posting from whom. And it was you. You understand I worship and adore your updates and would gladly get on my knees to prove it Sir.

@SanFranLefty: After being abused like this for the past eight years, I welcome even a Hope Disappointment. My eye is on the prize: SCOTUS.

@SanFranLefty: Bin Laden, preferrably dead. Not for the political sake of it necessarily (though it would probably give even more red meat ammunition); I really want to see the man dead. Yes, I’m a neanderthal in my heart. I know it won’t fix the underlying problem.

@SanFranLefty: Arnie should rise no higher than a seat on the Postmaster General’s Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Commission for his role in the last few days of the campaign. Fuck that guy.

@redmanlaw: Agreed. Should be interesting when he runs against Sen. Boxer in two years. He hasn’t had much real opposition here, but Boxer is tough.

I say blue crab boulevard. All the posts are too grammatical, but this one is simple and stupid enough to think even a freeper would get it right.@SanFranLefty: Mondale was as much a DC insider as Biden. Just saying.

Obama must, and we must, recognize that the economy more than anything will make Obama president. Assuming that the republicans will implode is dangerous wishful thinking. This economic situation will not be much better by the time of the 2010 midterms, and thats gonna be the critical date, Obama will not be able to run as change then, even though the reality is it will not have been long enough for his change to take effect. He will need some big achievements by then, and some of them must be inclusive of the convinceable among our enemies.

This is something to keep in mind: although Obama is not experienced in foreign affairs, this might be where he has the greatest opportunities for huge achievement. He has to jump on it. Did you read the Economist endorsement? They were so completely right, Obama gives us credibility again, not just with friends, but with enemies. Worldwide goodwill, a real desire on the part of all foreign nations to see him succeed, will be palpable. Bush after 9-11 had the world’s sympathy and support, and squandered it. Obama will start out with more international political capital than Bush had after 9-11. I pray he has bold and forward looking foreign policy people who can envision the possibilities this opens up. The Berlin rally he did, thats not just PR, thats a sign of a real openness on the part of the rest of the world to embrace this man and trust him and believe that in dealing with him, they are dealing with a new America. His election alone answers and silences so much of the propaganda of our enemies.

He could create agreement and coalitions and do some bold things on the international arena that could really make the difference in the first two years, and its important, becuase, as I say, this economy will just maybe be starting to recover in 2010, and the bad medicine he is gonna have to enact (taxes, spending cuts) will not be popular with anyone.

But he seems hopey, so I will be hopey.

If America elects a black president, anything can happen.

And no matter what, I know it will burn the bitter hearts of all the racist haters every single day they live, and I will find joy and fulfillment in their pain. Schadenfruede city.

It’s Blue Crab Boulevard AND Malkin (could not resist throwing her in) …

@SanFranLefty: And BTW, I would never have thought of taking in Arnie, and some scoff at it, but SFL, thats a brilliant idea. Arnie is only a vague republican, by the haters standards no republican at all, and he’s just an oaf anyway, easily controlled, I would think, in a cabinet post. And he’s box office boffo. Arnie and Obama embracing is worth 10 house seats in 2010. He could also look for some of the more sane libertarians, there are a few, I think. They hate bg government, but I think they hate christian theocracy more, until now they have been more sympathetic to the republican lie of small government, but to turn them against the christianists would be worth a point or two.

For his sister souljah moment, he could put an end to Jessie Jackson’s exortion operation, I don’t think anyone would mind.

@blogenfreude: I know I am late to the game, but Blue Crab was going to be my guess. And I actually know that Malkin has been harping on that privacy thing because I torture myself and go there from time to time. She actually contacted the ACLU about the violations of poor Joe…excuse me, SAM the plumbers’ privacy.

I’m celebrating the election tonight. The last polls are out. There is no tightening at all, Obama is running away. The reports are that Obamas supporters are energized to a frenzy, more volunteers than they need. I have seen the Reverend Wright attack ads, they are confusing and lame. I will not be able to celebrate Tuesday the way I should, to let out 20+ years of frustration and scream and hug and kiss people and jump up and down and do shots and puke and wake up with the best hangover I ever had.

I am up past bedtime and thinking about the future and how we have to play this miracle hand we have been dealt. But I am so hopeful and getting ready and I will not be miserable and self-interested over the necessary compromises that must be made to make this election a real turning point, I am hoping he plays it right, makes the right moves, brings over the big middle for good. Thats how we put the nail in the coffin of Reaganism, not by just hoping it will eat itself, it wont. We have to steal its winning margin, the middle of the road dingbats, and show them that our way is better than the Republican way, so they don’t fall for the lies anymore.

Thats a harder task than winning this election was.

@homofascist: Don’t go there. Malkin is not worth a moment’s thought. Except maybe as the ultimate hatefuck. I know, not hetero, but between her and Coulter, who would you do?

@Promnight: I agree in theory, but there is simply no better place (besides Bloggie’s updates, but I don’t like the idea of him subjecting himself to that) to get a quick reading of the pulse of the right wingnuts than her little corner of the internets.

Coulter (which, speaking of that beeeeeyotch, where the fuck has she been in the run up to this election?) does have the bigger dick.

@Promnight: Fuck Arnie. He could have sat out the last few days:

“He needs to do something about those skinny legs!” Mr. Schwarzenegger shouted. “We’re going to make him do some squats. And then we’re going to give him some biceps to beef up those scrawny arms. If only we could do something about putting some meat on his ideas.” NYT, Oct. 31 report of an Ohio rally.

Here’s an idea: go back to fucking Austria and enjoy the life a pig fucker son of a Nazi.

ADD: As for the Eagle’s ground war, you literally cannot turn your head in Santa Fe without seeing some Obama related swag, signs or stickers. It was almost comical to see a truck pulling a small billboard of O and Joe over by the Valerie Plame Target store when we were out earlier. I also saw that one of out two neighborhood Obama campaign offices expanded into two adjoining store fronts. The office in my hometown has taken over an entire former cantina. And, at the end of a traditional religious ceremony back in the home village on Saturday, my cousin who works at the wal-mart fabric department reminded everyone to vote for Obama.

My brother was having some fun with son of RML at dinner at my folk’s house for All Souls Day. Sample line: Do you know that after Obama’s elected that only gay people will be able to get married?

@nojo: Sully is a witless clown. Saw him arguing on Mayer’s show that the reason for the housing melt-down is that people took out notes they could not afford – as if underwriting quality was their responsibility. Hey, asshole, don’t say stupid shit and if you don’t know how things work, go home and stay there and stay away from bi-directional media. It was one of those GOP talking points that is really veiled racism. At least he didn’t pull out the crap about Congress forcing the banks to drive around poor neighborhoods throwing bags of money at people to buy houses. Only now, like 18 years ago, are we seeing stories of brokers and agents relating how the banks were pressuring them to keep production levels up, even if they had to move paper that was based on fraudulent claims of income. etc.

@FlyingChainSaw: Sully is a witless clown. Saw him arguing on Mayer’s show

That makes two witless clowns.

Sully’s been pretty good about avoiding the talking points the past few months. But, as with his enduring Thatcher/Reagan lurve, the dude does have some gaping blind spots.

@rptrcub: That’s why he has Biden as VP. Arm twsiting and favours called in.

@SanFranLefty: Yes Arnie For EPA. If only for the vehicle emissions strangled by the Auto Lobby. And Possibly also for the (non-nuclear) green energy initiatives.

@Promnight: Sooooo, if the Demorcrat base is out there, energised, and (hopefully voting this time) does this make Democrats the “Silent Majority” (and also responsible for W’s second term?)

@Promnight: I don’t think we’re counting on the Republicans to implode, but there’s going to be plenty of backstabbing this week, and general divisiveness ahead.

Or, in more traditional terms: a power vacuum. And plenty of folks who would love to fill it.

Romney and Giuliani are abject panderers, already rejected by the base. Palin will coast on her celebrity at first, but once she starts speaking in her own words — something we have yet to hear — I think the enthusiasm for her will wane, or at least be contained.

I’m sticking with my bet on Huckabee as the dark horse, biding his time at Fox, looking to build coalitions, yadda yadda. He’s the one Republican emerging from this not smelling like shit.

@CheapBoy: Shrub ran a Fear Factor campaign in 2004 — it was still too close to 9/11, and Iraq wasn’t yet a generally acknowledged quagmire.

More generally, the Nixon Era might be over as well as the Reagan one — our whole post-1968 political language may be moot. Palin threw a wrench into my whole “generational change” enthusiasm, but the demographics still inexorably lead towards a post-Boomer realignment. Even Huckabee — born 1955 — is more a Seventies child than not.

What this realignment will look like, and whether it will be enduring, no telling. But we’re on the cusp of a future that’s going to look a lot different than the past.

@nojo: The whole schtick, being the voice of the party that would stuff him in a gas chamber as soon as look at him is twisted at best.

@nojo: My money is on the Adkisson Brigades and the Talibunny. America’s GOP situation looks a lot like Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out. Like the Taliban their main weapons are rifles and pick-up trucks.

@nojo: The Nixon era is over. Yes, I think it is. I think that’s what this election has proved. Or is proving. Question now is: does that go for the Reagan era, too? God, I hope so! It amazes me that politicians can still talk about ‘trickle-down’ economics and not get stoned. It is perhaps the most offensive tag-line I know. Better to call it ‘what falls off the table’ economics: we will cram the tables of the rich with so much that some will spill and fall on the floor. And you can have that. But only after we piss on it.

As for ’04. I still find it humiliating that Americans were/are so afraid. And you know I’m often the only cheerleader here because I actually can get lost in wonderment at this country but srsly.

Perhaps, as soon as they lose the election (knocking on wood) the same leaders of the party who have been handling Bush all these years will remake Palin. (That’s assuming that Tina F doesn’t first make the movie about her that you know is in development right now.) She’s the same content-free spokesmodel as Bush.

But I’m counting on a Republican implosion. I hope it will be big and messy with much finger-pointing and blaming, although no acceptance of responsibility or shame. That would be too much to hope for. And of course the one tactic that might actually lead somewhere.

@CheapBoy: does this make Democrats the ‘Silent Majority’ (and also responsible for W’s second term?) You had to go there. In 2000 we had vestigial Nader. In ’04 we had… what? I guess nojo’s right: fear. But this year we’ve got Hope! On the one hand I wish I could wake up and have it be over. On the other, I can’t wait for the celebrations that will sweep the country and the world. There certainly does seem to be something in the air. Or water. I find myself in a very emotional state. I can’t let myself get too hopey because it makes me cry. I have to go to NYC Wed morning, I’m curious to see what, if anything, will be going on.

In a strange, to me, coincidence, after maybe 15 years of work I’m just putting the finishing touches to a big new script that is about the America we all loved. How it lost its way and how it might reclaim the energy and openness that once made it special. It’s a hugely expensive show: projected scenery, cast of thousands, etc, and this is of course the perfect time to try and launch such a venture now that everyone’s pockets are overflowing with cash. Well, it’s never a good time to launch anything in the theatre but who knows, maybe this will take fire. You’re all invited to the first night.

Damn. I really do haz Hope.

@Lyndon LaDouche: Yes! Can’t wait until opening night of your show.
I thought of you when I read Roger Cohen’s column last week. Check it out if you haven’t already.

@SanFranLefty: Thanks for that. I didn’t see it. It expresses very much what I’ve found here. I think it’s hard for an American to understand how very emotional we immigrants get when we see aspects of the country we imagined become real.

I remained on a green card for quite some time before finally applying for citizenship. Because of my history with the draft (I once saw my FBI file on the desk of a consul in London and it was that thick) I anticipated problems. But the immigration officials did everything they could to make it easy for me. I received my citizenship papers at an intensely moving ceremony in Brooklyn which was made all the more memorable by one of the immigration officers singing the Star Spangled Banner a capela.

And we must never forget, or take for granted, that Obama’s candidacy would have been unthinkable in any European country and in most other parts of the world. And I think we can be allowed a certain amount of pride in the mere fact of it. Yes, there’s been a lot of ugly talk and uglier behavior. But it’s happening.

I have to stop before I get too maudlin and do something useful. Weeding!

@BRB:
Xcellent metaphor…someone.stop.the.screaming.lambs!

@Lyndon LaDouche:
trickle down economics? the stupidist, blatently insulting thing a pol ever shoved down the throat of the sheeples.
(besides destoying iraq)

and reserve a front row seat for me AND a backstage pass.
break a leg!
as a full time american and part time expat, you make me proud for my native country to have you in our ranks.