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About LinkBacksHe may not have been the most talented Monkee but let's show some respect Andy
He may not have been the most talented Monkee but let's show some respect Andy
Last edited by nathansmart; March 1, 2012 at 12:46 PM.
nathan smart!
http://www.nathansmart.com
Well done, God! You got one right for once.
Hey, check me out. I'm a ghost.
He really was a special piece of human excrement.
The highlight of this guy's life was probably highjacking Anthony Weiner's press conference last year like a giddy, gloating fool.
Rest in Agony, you fuck.
Hey jersey...our governor is cooler than your governor!
many tine tanies
Also, I feel like an even bigger, crazier asshole will pop up in breitbarts place...
many tine tanies
Hooray!
I think it's more related that she chucked out a piece of her baby's dick as he left the world.
Hey, check me out. I'm a ghost.
Yeah, the reality is that Breitbart was just the most openly offensive of the celebrity-obsessed, lukewarm, right-wing opportunists who have ridden the public demand for an outlet for White Rage to untold riches. Sadly, his niche will be filled in short order, as he is really just scratching a particularly irritating American itch.Originally Posted by crlygrl
On the upside, he and his ilk have driven everything right of center in the US directly into the ground. Say what you will about Obama's first administration, but by playing the center (which he always said he would) he has left the Breitbarts and Limbaughs without much to grab onto, and his mandate in November of 2012 will actually be more substantial than it was in November of 2008.
What will he do with it is the real question.
A president's "mandate" is how many votes he can wrangle in congress. He won one of the most convincing election victories in twenty years in 08 and the Republicans responded w/ a unified front of obstruction for which they were richly rewarded during the '10 midterms. W. had the least convincing mandate in modern history, what with him having actually lost the election and everything, and even before 9/11 he'd passed his precious tax cut, his top domestic policy initiative. That's not to say that Bush was some kind of mandate-creating wizard or Obama squandered his, but that members of congress and the Senate are subject to incentives that have nothing to do with the perceived popularity of the president. Now, if Obama gets reelected in a landslide that ALSO leads to the Dems retaking congress, that will genuinely increase his leverage. But best case scenario, there's still no way he gets within spitting distance of 60 seats in the Senate, so we're guaranteed another four years of pointless obstruction from the World's Worst Deliberative Body.
Well, there's a congressional "mandate" and a popular "mandate," one based in congressional leverage, the other based on public opinion. My point is simply that Obama will have an overwhelming popular mandate after the November elections -- ie, he will have tremendous popular support for his policy initiatives, even if he lacks favorable congressional numbers to pass them. In a functioning democracy, public support for the president's initiatives would presumably exercise some leverage over obstructing members of congress, as the fear of losing support among their constituents would force them to compromise. We know that this is easier said than done, but having a popular mandate certainly helps.
In other words, Obama will not be free to do as he wishes (transform the White House into a mosque, institute mandatory gay marriages, and dole out reparations for slavery in the form of food stamps), but he will have at least as much power as he had in 2008, now that the public is finally beginning to see the right wings' spots. Much of the power of right-wing obstructionism in the past four years was based on a groundswell of popular support for the ideology of the obstructors. That support has dwindled dramatically in the past two years. And as popular support for the radical right wing has declined, the right wingers have only gotten more radical, essentially hanging themselves. While they have been preparing the noose for the past three years, I think the contraception issue represents the "long drop." All that's left now are the final convulsions.
(which, to complete the analogy, usually ends with rectal prolapsis ... ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign!)
Last edited by bao; March 3, 2012 at 11:22 AM.
No matter how popular Obama is with the public after his likely re-election, he'll be in a less powerful position than he was after '08 for the simple reason that there will be considerably fewer Democrats in the Senate. One thing we've learned time and again is that Senate Republicans are far, far more afraid of their caucus leadership and their base than they are of the President or public opinion. Just look at the Blunt amendment. Guys like Scott Brown were willing to sign on to a horrifically unpopular piece of legislation because Mitch McConnell said so. Now, in the long run, the ultra position might end up alienating enough voters in specific states that the GOP falls below 41 seats, but that's not gonna happen during Obama's term. The only way to really blow up Rep. obstruction in the Senate would be to blow up the filibuster, but the filibuster gives individual Senators so much potential leverage on any given piece of high-stakes legislation that they'll never give it up voluntarily.
Hopefully Obama can just keep using their obstinacy against them like he has w/ the contraception issue. His decision to press for the end of oil subsidies shows that he's definitely on the right track.
Sorry, Santorum winning Ohio would have been "fun," and we know Mitt Romney's stance on that. Dude could turn an orgy into a wake in five seconds.
Last edited by Weinerslave; March 6, 2012 at 9:00 PM.
Luckily, the next primaries are in Mississippi and Alabama. Hard to imagine Romney crushing those, which means we're looking at at least one solid week of Mitt eating a shit sandwich.
Edit: Eh, I'll steer clear of talking politics. The benefits of being Canadian!
Yeah, stay out of this and go vote for a moose or something.
Hey, check me out. I'm a ghost.
A member of my family who I love very much cannot stop posting angry rants about Rick Santorum on Facebook. She responds to every stupid thing he says. I can't stand it. It's worse than hearing right-wing loonies support the guy.
How any intelligent person can waste time ranting about the ravings of someone like Santorum -- Who has ALWAYS been this crazy -- and then dedicate your whole Facebook feed to it... I just don't understand. But I am tired of it and I can't wait for this election to be over. She gets herself all worked up into a tizzy every day about this shit.
many tine tanies
You know you can remain friends with someone and not have to read their feed, right? It's the only way I tolerate anyone from more than 5 years in my past (including family).
Hey, check me out. I'm a ghost.
Yeah but I don't want to ignore her feed all together. I just have to wait it out until after November, hopefully. I wish I could filter out any post with the word "Santorum" in it.
My facebook feed is covered in Santorum.
many tine tanies
It's the Ron Paul people who are driving me crazy on facebook. This primary has made me realize that far too many people I know are stupid libertarians who can't shut up about it.
The good news is that you probably don't have to wait until November. June at the latest, most likely. Then you can enjoy status updates about how Mitt Romney is a robot.
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