Karl Rove’s memoir was released this week, amazing titled “Courage and Consequence.” In it he humbly fesses up to his biggest blunder: not smearing people who pointed out their lies hard enough. Given that opponents of the war were at one time considered Saddam-fellating Benedict Arnolds by mainstream media commentators, I’m not quite sure what he thinks should have been done.
If only the teabaggers would channel their anger into punk, the world might be a better place.
Be sure to wait for the chainsaw! I do feel sorry for the guitar, though.
Watch out health insurance companies: Obama’s rolling up his shirt sleeves and raising his voice in speeches! Whoever said passing laws was about back room deals, bribes and ideological trench warfare apparently has never listened to a rousing speech by our president. He has the solution for passing the bill: get active!
“I’m kind of fired up,” Obama said at the beginning of his remarks, a variation on his oft-stated 2008 refrain, “Fired up. Ready to go.” And he included an appeal to his audience – many of whom were students – to help in the same ways they might in a campaign. “So I need you to knock on doors. Talk to your neighbors. Pick up the phone,” he urged them.
OK. I’m picking up my phone. It’s picked - I’m holding it in my hand right now! Should I send a mass text urging everyone in my contacts to support passage of the bill? Should I call my grandma? (It’s been too long and I wonder if she’s figured out how to pronounce your name yet.)
Should I knock on my neighbor’s door and gab her ears off about health care reform? She really loves when I wonk out and demand that she call or write her representative immediately. Makes her want to hang out with me more.
I understand the problem now. It’s not Republican obstruction, Democratic weakness, the undemocratic Senate or the fact that corporate interests control both parties. It’s me. I haven’t been knocking on enough doors this past year.
But I’ll do it for health care. Because after all, I still don’t have any. I’ll even write a joke to help persuade the nation. Print it out and leaflet your neighborhood. DO IT.
Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Health care reform.
Health care reform wh– hold on, my phone is ringing. Hello? Yes, health care reform, I know. Some asshole is at my door right now telling me about it. I’ve got people knocking, neighbors coming by, motherfuckers blowing up my phone. I joined a Facebook group about health care reform getting more fans than Nickleback. Guess what? I already support health care reform. Yup, I’m all aboard. Even that shitty thing Obama calls reform will do at this point. So stop bothering me and pass the damn thing so Rush Limbaugh will move out of the fucking country, which is where I might be going to get some health care if you keep this up.
• “ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT MIKHAELA!” by Mikhaela Reid, with foreword by Ted Rall. http://www.lulu.com/content/781402
Join my update list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!
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I pretty much blogged about this cartoon last week in my post about the country going crazy. In a sense, this is Part Two of the “Suspicious Minds” strip about global warming deniers included in that post.
One thing that struck me about that NYT article about tea partiers was the strangeness of this very sweet-sounding retired woman embracing a movement tinged with the threat of armed rebellion. The wholesome-looking woman in the snowman sweater is an attempt to show this disconnect.
The cards have arrived! In time to ship them to you in time for you to send them in time for Earth Day! (April 22).
Order them here:
http://minimumsecurity.net/blog/2010/03/04/earth-day-greeting-cards/
For me, this was the most exciting news all week. The Magnes Zionist describes the scene:
Around five thousand demonstrators protested the eviction of Arab families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and the settlement there of rightwing Jewish extremists. It was the largest Sheikh Jarrah protest and the largest joint Israeli-Palestinian protest so far.
The protest was composed of an interesting mix – Jewish leftwing activists, mostly (but not entirely) young; the Zionist left Meretz-Peace Now crowd, mostly (and entirely) old; Israeli Palestinian activists, and representatives of the evicted families. There were Israeli singers and a Palestinian hip-hop group from Shuafat. Many of the speeches were given in Arabic, both Jerusalem colloquial and standard, and judging from the crowd, more of the younger Israeli Jewish activists understood the speeches than the older generation. The “drummers” and the clowns were there in full force – these are activists who play the drum and dress up as clowns in an attempt both to lighten up the protest, and to drive home the point of non-violent protest.
Sara Benninga’s speech at the protest, “There is a New Left in Town,” is well worth reading in whole (it’s not very long). But here’s a bit of it:
[The New Left] is a partnership between Palestinians, who understand the occupation will not be defeated by missiles and bombs, and Israelis, who understand that the Palestinian struggle is their struggle.
The new Left joins hands with Palestinians in a cloud of tear gas at Bil’in and gets beaten up together with them by settlers at the South Hebron Mountain.
This Left stands by refugees and labor migrants in Tel Aviv and fights against the Wisconsin Plan.
The new Left is us — all of us!
Everyone who came here tonight. Everyone who dared cross the imaginary line between West and East Jerusalem, despite the threats and intimidation.
We are all the new Left that is emerging in Israel and Palestine.
We are not fighting for a peace agreement. We are fighting for justice. But we believe that injustice is the main obstacle to peace.
More: The website of the Sheikh Jarrah protesters is here.
Rabbi Brian attended the protest and reports: 5,000 Protest in Sheikh Jarah
News accounts: the JPost story, Haaretz, and Al Jazeera.
Marc Thiessen defends the “al-Qaeda 7″ attack ad by likening the attorneys who defended detainees in Guantanamo, as well as Jos Pedilla, John Walker Lindh, and others to “mob lawyers” and “drug cartel lawyers.”
Setting aside the obvious point that even mobsters and drug lords deserve representation in a court of law, we should not get sucked into Thiessen’s argument that The Public Has a Right to Know when Justice Department lawyers have experience advocating the rights of the accused. He’s created a false equivalency that would seem to mine new depths in intellectual dishonesty were it not for this next question:
Where was the moral outrage when fine lawyers like John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Jim Haynes, Steve Bradbury and others came under vicious personal attack?
That is the dumbest question I have ever read in the pages of WaPo — a feat, given the other members of the op/ed brain trust over there. But I’ll humor him. Here’s the obvious answer: we were too busy being outraged by the unethical and illegal advice the “fine lawyers” gave to an administration too eager to apply techniques favored by the Khmer Rouge and Augusto Pinochet’s thugs. Besides, it is hard to get too vicious in attacking a guy like John Yoo who can be so cavalier about massacring villagers and crushing little boy’s testicles.
UPDATED to include this excellent riposte by Dahlia Lithwick:
Ten years ago, if some paranoid hysteric accused you of being an al-Qaida sympathizer or a jihadist, you could find a lawyer to help you make the case that you were not. But in the ever-expanding war on the Bill of Rights being waged by Liz Cheney, once you’re designated a terrorist, you lose your Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Because just by representing youeven if you’re acquittedyour lawyers become terrorists, too!
Read the whole thing, cuz Dahlia brings the pain. Also, Glenn Greenwald jumps on Thiessen and takes down Fred Hiatt.
| Originally published at mooreroom. |
Great analogy, Chuck. That’s exactly what college is like.
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Chuck Asay
Creators Syndicate Inc. Mar 8, 2010 |
Starbucks is now allowing customers to pack heat while they wait for their foamed poopalotta. It’s not something I get worked up over one way or the other, but open-carry advocates are really into the idea of letting everyone in every possible location know they have a gun. Probably due to micropenis.
Wednesday: Rove’s Mea Culpa
