Pass the Potato

Friday’s Nice Liberal Thought for the Day, from Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly:

President Obama established the Democratic baseline on tax policy quite a while ago — permanent cuts for those making less than $250,000; Clinton-era top rates for the wealthy — and he’s stuck to it for nearly two years, including through the election season. The president appears poised to yield to GOP demands now, which is unfortunate, but is largely a reflection of what transpired on Capitol Hill, where Dems chose to stray from the baseline Obama had already set.

Well, that’s certainly a perfectly reasonable explanation.

So, how’s this for a perfectly reasonable response:

We don’t care.

That is to say, we hold Democrats collectively responsible for the most colossal squandered opportunity of our adult life.

We don’t care whether in a given instance the blame lies with a Haggling-Challenged Democratic Prezit, recalcitrant Blue Dogs in a Democratic House, or spineless leadership in a Democratic Senate.

We only care that Democrats were handed historic control of the Legislative and Executive Branches on a platter two years ago, and all they could do was slip on every banana peel in sight.

Which brings us to another quote making the rounds Friday, this from Martin Luther King Jr.:

Unfortunately, when hope diminishes, the hate is often turned most bitterly toward those who originally built up the hope.

Well, no — at least, no, not if you want to apply it to present circumstances, which is how it came to our attention. The problem isn’t that Obama and the Democrats failed to live up to impossible expectations. The problem is that from the start, even before the Inauguration, they actively did everything they could to undermine our faith in them.

The Enthusiasm Gap was real. And it was no accident. It was the inevitable product of a series of political failures, a collapse of political will.

Folks, we don’t mind losing. Even the Cubs have diehard fans. But if you don’t even try, don’t act surprised when the fans stay home.

97 Comments

Thanks for starting my day off right. I thought this was very good. As you say, it’s the lack of trying, the unwillingness to fight.

BTW. I’m now a Republican. It’s just easier that way.

Barry’s too fucking compromising and trying to act like the GOP isn’t a bunch of asshole brat overgrown babies
Nancy sometimes fights – except talking about impeachment
But Harry Reid would need to buy some balls in order to lose them.

@Benedick:
Are you a “log cabin” type or going to go full GOPer and be the self loathing in the closet homophobe with the pretend family?

@ManchuCandidate: I’m now also straight. Actually, I’ve become engaged to a lovely woman. Phyllis. We have sex together all the time. Life is good.

Eventually, even those of us who are fully convinced of these two things…

1) not voting means someone else’s vote counts double
2) voting for the lesser of two evils is sometimes better than nothing

…actually want the people we vote for to give us a reason to vote FOR them. What’s amazing is that Democrats never seem to understand this. What’s even more disturbing is that many of them seem to operate on the Upton Sinclair principle (they can’t understand it because their jobs depend on them NOT doing so) despite the fact that they are losing voters because of it.

One day I hope to actually vote FOR someone instead of against his opponent.

So is this how the “good Germans” felt after the 1933 elections? What now?

Not to put too fine a point on this, but health care, equal pay for women, and financial reform with consumer protections did pass, DADT repeal will pass, and huge shovel loads of money were distributed to Democratic districts, and to keep public employees on the job and their union coffers filled. So you’ve got that.

And as regards voting – It should be kept in mind that the veto is a pretty powerful tool, and absent a re-elected Black Eagle Pigeon in 2012, it is likely the we will once again be living under One Party Republican Rule. With the Obama validated Bush/Cheney Unitary Executive gestalt still in place.

Just sayin…

It could get worse.

Now I’m totally jonesing to make some twice-baked potatoes for dinner.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: That makes me feel better. I guess.

Sport TJ: Civil War starts in 4 hours in Corvallis. And if South Carolina manages to upset Auburn, then TCU will be in the championship and The Tree could be in the Rose Bowl. (A girl can dream). Oh, and Stanford is playing Notre Dame on Sunday for the women’s soccer national championship.

@SanFranLefty:

“if South Carolina manages to upset Auburn…

It could happen. After Boise blew it against Nevada last week, I’m ready to believe anything.

I continue to hear the cries, lamentations and rending of garments echoing from the left side of the bay (looking South toward the tree from our city on the hill). My Cal buddies had higher expectations for this season than the Stinquers did for the Obama administration. As one of the diehard Cub fans Nojo gratuitously and cruelly invoked in his post, I feel a certain affinity and sympathy for the Cal Alum. Well, at least they’ll have a new field to play in.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: UCLA and USC are playing in the Which Coach Will Be Fired First Bowl today.

@Benedick: I’m too depressed by all this. Please change your goddam avatar.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: yet two of those three lack the teeth they could have had if the White House hadn’t given away the store to start the negotiating process. Even in the midst of historic victories, we’re left wondering what we could have had if someone would have actually practiced some form of basic negotiating skills.

@SanFranLefty: I wouldn’t bet on that Auburn loss outcome. There’s a lot of SEC superiority ish that could have Auburn in the game despite not winning its conference title. (See Nebraska and Oklahoma in years past.) TCU isn’t the lock to move up that an undefeated Boise would have been.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: Of course you’re right. Things could be much much worse. However, I’m enjoying life more as a Republican.

@Benedick:

Been there. Done that.

It’s overrated. No secret handshake or access to big pile of money or anything. Although my spam-catcher e-mail account now has a lot of interesting invitations for dubious investment advice, dire warnings of dark conspiracies, free Ann Coulter books, and suggestions on how to stock your shelter for the inevitable cannibal anarchy to come (these last remarkably similar to some Stinque threads).

Since I am committed to always supporting the losing side, I’ll be switching back to Dem to rebalance the partisan divide after your defection. Probably should stay R for the primaries though, as they’ll be more entertaining.

@SanFranLefty: Elk roast with taters and carrots in the crock pot. Dinner is at six in the dining room with the fire on in the adjacent living room.

So if we’re gonna do this country club Republican thing, I’ll have to take up skeet shooting or sporting clays since I don’t (and won’t) play golf.

Hmmm . . . I’d like to buy American, but people seem to like the Browning Citori over the Ruger Red Label.

http://www.ruger.com/products/redLabel12Gauge/index.html

@Benedick: I’ve always liked Elizabeth Drew, and considered it an atrocity when Tina fired her from the New Yorker. Drew consistently provides the calm answer to “What the fuck just happened?”

@Benedick: Oh. Does that mean I get to pull out my Yoo avatar without getting shouted down? ;-) I’ll look for Tricky Dick instead.

@Benedick: Sample line:

The risk-averse Obama had left it to Congress to write the big bills such as on the economic stimulus and health care (with strong participation by White House aides).

“The risk-averse Obama.” As succinct as it gets.

@Benedick: Now all you have to do is go buy yourself a full-sized Buick, and you’re set.

@Benedick: Okay — something weird is going on. I click on Benedick’s link, and I get sent to a Stanford log on page. Has The Tree commandeered my computer?

@SanFranLefty: My mother — my mother — emailed me the other day, asking me to vote for the Duck multiple times in some online mascot contest.

My mother doesn’t care about these things.

Now, Dad, sure. And Bro. But Mom?

Eugene must be hell right now.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: Argh. I totally owe you an email. Apologies.

Harry Reid: “In what kind of a democracy does a tax cut win with 53 votes, but fail to pass?!!!!”

Oh, I’m sorry. Reid didn’t say that. Wrong universe.

@Signal to Noise: “TCU isn’t the lock to move up that an undefeated Boise would have been.”

But what if TCU and Auburn both lose – The Tree could play the Ducks in the national championship. Fun in the SFL household if that happened..

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: Nyah. Cal alums should be ashamed of their performance v. the Tree. You free for dim sum lunch next week with a few Stinquers?

@blogenfreude: I’m not that kind of Republican. I’m one of the New Breed Republicans. We shoot from the hip. We won’t be pinned down by your librul labels or your LSM. I could buy a Toyota. So long as it’s not made in a union factory I’m cool. My fiancee thinks exactly the same.

@libertarian tool: I like my incompetence and corruption like I like my men out and proud. BTW, where is the birth certificate? Why haven’t we seen it? No answer, huh? Didn’t think so.

@SanFranLefty: I had a really crappy bike ride this morning — I was never good on hills and it doesn’t get better when you’re turning 60 — so I think I’ll head couchwards and watch Ducks v. Beavs and try to finish my Aubrey/Maturin novel. I think I’m on no. 16. Set the t’gallants!

Beavers QB injured, Beavers turn over the ball to Ducks after a near-interception, Ducks fumble on first run and Beavers recover, Ducks then intercept freshman QB’s second throw.

And that was the first two minutes of the game.

@nojo: When will Durbin or Schumer stage a fucking coup on Reid?

@SanFranLefty: That kid Katz has a good arm. But those uniforms and helmet colors — did somebody lose a bet?

@SanFranLefty: No, I still blame the lot of them. “Obstructionist” is meaningless. “Undemocratic”, or something else suitably pointed, has teeth.

Or, since everybody loves sports metaphors: Does the football team with fewer points win?

Note: Beating the spread doesn’t count.

@nojo: Yes, I used that football metaphor during the Democratic primary – it’s not the team with the most yards that wins, it’s the team that scores.

@Dodgerblue: Mr. SFL likes their helmets. I think they’re seizure-inducing. I made him mad when I told him I liked the Beavers’ orange cleats. He went to the market down the street to get beer, he’s so stressed out about Oregon being behind. I told him to spark a bowl to calm down.

@nojo: What’s the spread on the Beavers?

@SanFranLefty: I hope he didn’t see that blocked PAT.

@Dodgerblue: WTF was that?? Nope, but he was back for the interception by the Ducks.

16 point spread.

@SanFranLefty: Acually, I’m not so sure about Tree going to the Championship, or even the Rose Bowl, if the Ducks lose. The computer rankings might take a hit and Wisconsin may vault us if both Auburn and Oregon go down. It may very well be TCU v Wisconsin in the Big One, Oregon v Auburn in the Rose, and Tree in the lower tier bowls if that happens.

And note that having a replay of a game that Oregon already won may not make the Bowl Lords particularly happy.

So if Oregon and Auburn win, status is quo and Tree plays a legit bowl. I’m strangely fine with that.

And now I have out-gravatared all of you … behold!

I shoulda listened to Joe the Plumber. DFP just dropped off an analog TV (made in 2006!), and it seems the converter box coupon program is long dead. I’m boycotting BestBuy and Target, and Wal-Mart is the Devil, but I’ve been without football for too long and it’s time for winter sports. I’m jonesing for The Flying Tomato, Hanah Teter, Lindsey Jacobellis (all is forgiven — that method grab woulda been dope), and Lindsey Vonn.

@JNOV: A Joe the Plumber digital TV reference? I’m impressed.

@JNOV: It is … the man who made Nixon’s ratfuckers look like 3rd graders. Even Karl Rove hasn’t sunk quite as low as Atwater did.

@nojo: Then I will die happy. My work is DONE! :-D

@blogenfreude: Pulling out Lee. Wow. Now I’m impressed.

/seriously — going to Wal-Mart NOW/

@JNOV: Pulling out Lee.

Ahem. I’m much more responsible now.

Well. Ducks 16:7 Beavers at the half, after the missed field goal. I am intrigued.

@chicago bureau: These are college teams? I pay NO attention to college ball.

@blogenfreude: I realized a few years ago that I can’t stand watching the NFL anymore. College FB is so much faster. Fewer steroids.

@blogenfreude: Neither do I. Even if I hold two degrees from one of the colleges in question, played with its behemoth mechanical desk calculators as a child, and suck frequently from the campus teat.

Awkward Saturday imagery: You’re welcome!

As a straight Republican I am naturally fascinated by the Sport. Go Beaver!

@nojo: That’s what she said.

@blogenfreude: I have a 2nd gen TiVo (lifetime service pack, so I’ll never give it up). I need a digital converter for my borrowed analog TV (my dad has been cleaning out his storage locker for, oh, close to three years now. The TV was promised to my NOLA brother, but I get to use it until it goes south in the spring). Wal-Mart doesn’t have them in the store, and I hate RadioShack. Gonna see if Newegg can help me. I’ve been without TV since August, so I guess I can wait a few more days.

@Benedick: Haha! You’d like Beaver College Arcadia University, then. Now that it’s co-ed, I bet you could find some rentboy young lady to carry your luggage, as it were.

@Benedick: God never intended a state with Ducks and Beavers to perform well in Sport. We should have better things to do. Like, drive to Cape Perpetua and enjoy fish & chips in Yachats.

Passing thought: Who overlooked The Mighty Sea Lions? Just imagine the Barking Cheer with each score!

@nojo:

After your “pulling out Lee” and DB asking about “spread beavers” why would “sucking on campus teats” be the awkward Saturday inagery?

Whoa!! Awesome fucking fake on the punt by the Ducks! TD by the Nojos. Balls of steel on Coach Kelly.

@nojo: re Mighty Sea Lions…we once had the San Francisco Seals in beisbol.

@JNOV: As a Republican I am naturally very interested in young ladies. What I want to know is when will the LSM leave Bristol Palin alone? Libruls make me sick. I will now go and play drinking games with my fiancee while watching Sport. Woo tah.

Go Banana Slugs!

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: How many teats does a beaver have? He could be imagining quite a feat as two teats often tax the skills of ordinary men.

@SanFranLefty:

dim sum lunch next week with a few Stinquers?

Sounds good. When? Wednesday’s bad and I may be heading out of town for the weekend on Friday. Otherwise flexible.

@JNOV: We’re talking Duck Teats, actually. Secret lab behind the Millrace.

Just before recess, it’s AUB 21:14 SC. Tough drive by the Cocks to end the half. Head Ball Coach has to get them over the hump, though.

@nojo: I was afraid of that, so I was researching the “what constitutes a teat” issue to see if a duck breast qualifies. It’s not looking good for ducks.

Eric Tiberius Duckman and Mallard Fillmore may have nipples.

Think there was a Duckman parody of The Manchurian Candidate, but I was really fucking high.

@chicago bureau: Check that. Newton Hail Mary is GOOD! AUB 28:14 SC. Dagger!

@chicago bureau:
Actually not. 28:14 on Hail Mary on last play of half. un-fuckin-believable.

Nevermind. I’ve always been too slow for this crew.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: “Just before recess.” It’s called a loophole, son! [/foghornleghorn]

@JNOV: Mallard Fillmore may not have nipples, but he certainly has…

Ummm…

Damn. Have to throw clothes in the dryer. Maybe a punchline will come to me.

…but he certainly sucks!

Hey. Lay off. It’s Saturday.

@nojo: “A dick.”

[loud applause]

“A dick. I think that may have a chance to win the game for you, Stephanie. Let’s see what everyone thinks about that. First to Charles Nelson Reilly…”

Ducks 30:13 Beavers. Down three scores with 12 minutes left? That just might be about it for Oregon State.

@chicago bureau: Fuck. Fine. I’ll take the Lovely Parting Gifts.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: Thursday, noon, Yank Sing on Stevenson Street (not the other one over in the old post office building by the Y). Dodger, Walking Still, and yours truly.

PourMeCoffee on Twitter: “Cocks and Beavers going down right now.”

Shame on all of us.

@Benedick: Woo tah? Macho Sportisms: Yer doing it wrong. But keep practicing–it’s a process.

@nojo: Fuck. Fine. I’ll take the Lovely Parting Gifts.

There’s nothing fine or lovely about coitus interruptUs fuck[ing]. I’m sure Levi Lee would agree.

@nojo: Okay. So “wand erection” is trending. Might have to pull out the Hitachi and fuck up the party.

Actual Senate vote on extending “middle class” tax cuts: 53-36 in favor.

Democratic outcry about eliminating the undemocratic filibuster: Lone voice from Oregon.

Democrats are astonishingly inept.

Did I say astonishingly? So sorry. I meant congenitally.

@Barrington Chadsworth IV: You forgot the margarine. And, really. Margarine‽ That shit’s bad for you. Honey’s too sticky. Whipped cream is old hat but feels nice on teats. Someone needs to invent some tasty beaver spread for special occasions like birthdays and holidays.

USA Today:

Auburn and Oregon are one step away from meeting each in the BCS national championship game. But the Tigers and Ducks face some tough circumstances if they are going to find their way to Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10.

Auburn: 49-17

Oregon: 37-20

Sports reporters are as insightful as political reporters.

Meanwhile, in the local rag:

“I think it starts with the word ‘validation,’” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the UO’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. “That all this investment has led to what has always been seen as the endgame, at least the opportunity to play for a national championship. And just sort of a remarkable culmination of a quarter-century of re-invention for the Oregon football brand.

“All of us who have that context are sitting back and going ‘Wow.’”

Swangard said that being in the title game — and, more so, winning it — will “re-set the bar” for an Oregon athletic department weighted by a $75.3 million operating budget for the current fiscal year.

“I think financially, when you look at other national champions, it helped them reach a new plateau in terms of donor support, licensing revenues and sponsor revenue,” he said. “I think there’s an underlying story here which is that this is really needed (because) this athletic department does not sustain itself under the current minority investment model.

“As you look at the amount of donor support, you look at the licensing revenue, you look at the sponsor revenue, it needs to grow up like the department has, and reaching this point will afford them the opportunity to find those new incremental streams that will be required to sustain this.”

And does the rest of campus benefit? Aside from Phil Knight paying for half the buildings?

@nojo: Cocks always bring a lump to my throat. Sport is awesome.

@nojo: Re Phil Knight – if you were watching the game, you would have heard the announcers going on about the Ducks uniforms this week and how Nike tests out all the fabrics and shoes with a new uniform for the team from head to toe (helmet to cleat?). After Kelly got his ritualistic bath in Gatorade, the sportscaster said, “I can’t wait to see what their uniforms for the championship game will look like.” Cracked me up – the marriage of Sport and Fashion.

A national championship and eight almost perfect seasons (except this one) for UT brought in some major coin.

@Benedick: Practise saying, “Win one for the Gipper” (you’re Gipp now, and he had some sort of throat issue, too). Then work on pluralizing “sport.” After that, you’re pretty well set.

@SanFranLefty: Oh, jeez. I thought you guys were talking about Bobby Knight. I’ll go sit with Ronnie.

@SanFranLefty: if you were watching the game

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Er, sorry.

But those eagle-feather shoulders are fucking stupid. Oregon football coaches have always resented the mascot — Jerry Frei forbade the use of “Ducks”, so for a few years in the Seventies it was “Big Green”.

For those *not* in the midst of celebrating Sport, I give you:

Texas Republican reps decide to take the “Judeo” outta “Judeo-Christian values”

Rep. John Cook gets bonus points for using JESUS as his “one Jewish friend”.

@SanFranLefty: Spoiled Children 13, Bruins 7 late in the second quarter. Bruins had it first and 25 and fumbled. I finished The Commodore and have picked up my book on Chinese history. My wife is watching The Social Network or whatever it’s called downstairs, but I couldn’t care less about some prep school nerd billionaire.

@JNOV: Watching women’s GS and slalom from Aspen. Julie Mancusco 8th, Lindsay was DNF in the GS.

Film TJ: Saw “Fair Game” tonight. Great, but depressing movie. Sean Penn was great. I liked Naomi Watts (rawr), but Mrs RML, who has met Valerie Plame, said there’s no way to capture not only her beauty, but also how smart and deep she is. Plame introduced the local premiere of “Waiting for Superman” a few weeks ago. We saw the movie with the lacrosse coach of one of the Plame-Wilson kids and her husband.

@Dodgerblue: “Get Me to the Greek” was fucking hilarious.

ADD: Linds 7th in slalom after one run. Skiing cautiously to avoid another DNF. No Julie run yet.

@Mistress Cynica: Oh, wow. That could mean so many things from transubstantiation to Saltine and grape juice communion to Christ riding piggyback on a, um, well, a slur.

@redmanlaw: :-( I’m hoping that you’re not in Aspen and that you were watching GS broadcast from Aspen and that you take pity on my analog soul and are just sharing news and not mocking me. Newegg’s search engine already laughed at me today. I can’t take much more. ;-)

@JNOV: Lindsay’s healthy. No. 2 in overall WC standings behind Maria Raisch. Julia is No. 8. Linds was 2d in the DH at Whistler in Canada yesterday. My local paper had the World Cup agate this morning. The slalom and GS on Versus was from earlier this week.

Burned some fingers on the fireplace grate earlier, so I’m down to my thumb only for typing on the RH foe a while.

Lindsay Vonn as Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” for ESPN magazine.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/lindsey-vonn-espn-magazine-_n_786748.html

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