the Kommisariat's Kontinuing Kronicles: more right-wingery in the USA, 2k11-12

C'mon, look at the election of 1800, this country has been constantly in a state of cold civil war with the exception of 1861-1865. It's called democratic politics.

http://www.alec.org

h/t pareene.

lol my mom's old boss (who on occasion employed a teenage gr8080) is quoted in this article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0714-20110714,0,7101950.column

maybe the wrong thread but w/e

goole:

http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

pretty novel idea, i must admit

instead of running everything you want through the national legislature, just run the same awful shit through the 50 states at the same time! federalism!!

“…I can’t help but be a little bit cynical here. Because we find out the president has a big birthday bash scheduled for August the 3rd, celebrities flying in from all over. And lo and behold, August 2nd is the deadline for getting something done so he can have this massive, the biggest fundraising dinner in history for a birthday celebration. […] Isn’t that amazing? The timing of this?”

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_07/gohmert_heritage_foundation_sh030941.php

That Obama-- trying to finish the debt deal just so he can have a big blowout back in Chicago...

Always disappointed that the commentators have no idea how to match the tone at Pareene's current gig, as opposed to his last two. Say what you will about Gawker or Wonkette, at least their peanut galleries have something akin to self-awareness.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/172431-republicans-approve-cut-cap-and-balance?page=1#comments

Most of these comments...Wow

this started on the NRO thread, but the o.g. article is really something

http://blogs.forbes.com/richardminiter/2011/07/18/why-the-democratic-party-is-doomed/

The Democrats are a coalition, forged in the New Deal, of diverse interests that do not get along well. Imagine the deer-hunting union member sitting down with the vegetarian college professor and the lesbian lawyer and you will begin to see the trouble party leaders have holding the horde together.

Porn Industry. Usually overlooked by analysts, this lucrative industry is a small but important source of campaign cash for Democrats. But the Internet is gutting it. XXX theatres, a fixture of the 1970s are long gone, and the DVD side of the business is dying too. As a 2009 Conde Nast Portfolio magazine article shows, YouPorn.com and other porn sites now offer hours of video content online for free, squeezing Larry Flint’s Hustler, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and their many print rivals. The underground cultural force of these publications is shrinking with their revenues. While porn is here to stay, the Internet has empowered anyone to put up a website and collect revenue from ads or pay-per-view — underpricing the Goliaths that write campaign checks. As for Democrats, organizing tens of thousands of small-business porn stars will prove a difficult and low-margin proposition.

richard miniter would *never* overlook the porn industry

Richard Miniter sure rubs people the wrong way...

Miniter was the editorial page editor and Vice President of Opinion at The Washington Times from March[11] until October 2009.[12] Miniter filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission related to his position at the Times. According to the Washington Post,

The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was "coerced" into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that culminated in a mass wedding conducted by the church's leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.... [Miniter] said in an interview that he "was made to feel there was no choice" but to attend the ceremony if he wanted to keep his job, and that executives "gave me examples of people whose careers at the Times had grown after they converted" to the Unification Church.

In September 2010, the case of Miniter v. Moon et al. and the related EEOC complaint was settled. Miniter refused to disclose the terms, but said "I am very, very happy with the equitable and just result."[13]

In 2007 Miniter and five other conservative authors sued Regnery Press and its parent company Eagle Publishing, claiming that the publisher had sold their books at a steep discount to book club subsidiaries owned by the same parent company, thus depriving the authors of royalties. According to Miniter, "The difference between 10 cents and $4.25 is pretty large when you multiply it by 20,000 to 30,000 books.... It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance."[29]

An attorney representing Eagle and Regnery countered that, "No publisher in America has a more acute marketing sense or successful track record at building promotional platforms for books than Regnery Publishing. These disgruntled authors object to marketing strategies used by all major book publishers that have proved successful time and again as witnessed by dozens of Regnery bestsellers."[29]

On January 30, 2008, a federal judge granted Eagle Publishing's motion to dismiss. The written opinion granting defendant's motion stated that plaintiffs could not join a necessary party, the Regnery subsidiary, because their contracts with Regnery contained mandatory arbitration provisions.[30][31] The authors have subsequently entered into arbitration with the company.[30][32]

pretty tough being a third-stringer in that game huh

As I learnt consulting the 2009 Conde Nast Portfolio magazine article, referring only to that source to inform this article, YouPorn.com and other porn sites, just some other porn sites I guess, now offer hours of video content online for free, squeezing Larry Flint’s Hustler, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and their many print rivals.

that miniter article is the most bizarre combination of decades-old conventional wisdom + complete disconnect from reality

On the flip side of that "democrats are too diverse" thing, I regularly like to imagine William F. Buckley Jr. interviewing Sarah Palin

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/files/original/richard-miniter.jpg

Thing is, I'd be down for a free-market marching towards Capitalist utopia that Conservatives yearn for. But the term 'free market' is just a political tool and the biggest abusers of corporate power seem to not want to play by the same rules as the little guy.

For example if corporations/the oligarchy didn't rely on subsidies and tax breaks and loopholes and other entitlements, I'd be 1000% more likely to believe their line about the little people not needing them either.

Free-market for the poor, socialism for the rich, sort of thing.

Corporations aren't individuals, they're hierarchies of individuals, with the ones at the bottom oftentimes being taken advantage of by those at the top. If tax breaks and incentives really worked, we'd see more sustainable, well-paying jobs at the lower levels and fewer billionaires. Since we're seeing people still underpaid and executives highly compensated, we're just subsidizing the upper echelon of wealthy people.

I have heard folks who majored in business (and dream of being "upper echelon") say those upper echelon people do specialized unique work that benefits the whole company and are deserving therefore of the larger income. I invariably ask why CEO salaries have only rocketed in the past few decades and I suggest that the company's profits and stock value do not suggest that the upper echelon are really deserving of that much more.

I agree that a good CEO is worth his weight in gold

I know that gold prices are going up

That still puts a 200 lb CEO at about $5 million a year

I'd be willing to say they could make double that and I still wouldn't complain!

what on earth does this have to do with the porn industry

It's a degenerate business and obviously has deep ties to the democrats of course

We're concerned about the salaries in that industry and how their reduced levels do not reflect that of other industries, thereby limiting their financial influence for the Dems

Still waiting for the PornAid concert...

"We Do the World"

"It's like they're afraid to recognize that we've had decent ideas and they keep having to dig up Thomas Jefferson to put words in his mouth."

If you read up on some of those crazy right wing Texas school book people are so batshit crazy they are trying to re-write history and take Thomas Jefferson out of it, as even Jefferson doesn't even fit their vision of America.

"The official story defies logic in the following sense as well," said talk show host Michael Savage, "if this lone right-winger hated Muslims, as the New York Times is reporting, then why did he slaughter his own people and not Muslims?"

kinda seems early to disdainfully question the 'official' 'story'

Michael Savage, expert on Norwegian culture and the mind of the lone terrorist

Michael Savage's new memoir, Savage, Michael

this video keeps getting flagged as "inappropriate" every time it gets upped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwdCxV10FwQ&skipcontrinter=1

Wow. WOW. I've staunchly avoided right-wing analysis of what happened in Norway and the spin and talking points and manipulation of the facts there is STUNNING. Wow.

The right wing reaction is something along the lines of "This really is Islamofascist terrorism since the killer, though anti-Muslim, was obviously inspired by al-Queda, who, after all, invented the ideas of shooting people and setting off bombs."

Yes, it's like "this is clearly a reaction to all the anti-Islamic fear we've been stoking and proves we were right to do so, um..."

Just the way in the first sentence the anchor vaguley acknowledges this wasn't Islamic terrorism but then goes on to talk about Islamic terrorism over video of Breivek's destruction is almost artful. (I'm sure this is old news to you veterans of right wing spin but like I said, I generally avoid it and now I'm all amazed.)

joe walsh is my new hero. love it when he's on tv all brazen about the debt

http://www.suntimes.com/6720892-417/tea-party-rep.-joe-walsh-sued-for-100000-in-child-support

Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.

Walsh closed by saying, “You need to be more objective, but I love it, Chris.”

man i miss being able to have cable news on all day

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/28/hardliners-in-debt-talks-have-debt-problems-of-their-own/?iref=storysearch

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/08/01/284011/pam-geller-race-mixing-breivik-right/

Popular hate blogger Pam Geller has received scrutiny in recent days as the public became aware that the right-wing terrorist in Norway, Anders Behring Breivik, had praised her blog and thoroughly cited her writing in his political manifesto. After a number of blogs made the connection, as well as the New York Times, the Atlantic, and other major outlets, Geller became incensed and began lashing out at her critics.
In a post defending herself yesterday, Geller — who has called Obama “President Jihad” and claimed that Arab language classes are a plot to subvert the United States — reached a new low. Geller justifies Breivik’s attack on the Norwegian Labour Party summer youth camp because she says the camp is part of an anti-Israel “indoctrination training center.” She says the victims would have grown up to become “future leaders of the party responsible for flooding Norway with Muslims who refuse to assimilate, who commit major violence against Norwegian natives including violent gang rapes, with impunity, and who live on the dole.”
To get her point across, Geller posts a picture of the youth camp children Breivik targeted. The picture was taken on the Utøya island camp about 24 hours before Breivik killed over 30 children, so it is likely Geller is mocking many of the victims. Under the picture, Geller writes: “Note the faces which are more MIddle [sic] Eastern or mixed than pure Norwegian.” View a screen shot (click to enlarge) of Geller’s blog post below:

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/geller.jpg

Could Geller’s outburst of smears be a distraction against mounting evidence that she might have communicated with Breivik in the past? A post from Geller in 2007 reprints a reader-submitted letter in which an anonymous Norwegian complains of Muslim immigration and boasts that he is “stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment.” In the comment section, Geller claims that she provided anonymity to the reader to protect him from being prosecuted. Although Geller recently deleted the ammunition line from her post, a cached version is available. As Glenn Greenwald notes, “If this were an attack by a Muslim group, and a Muslim had something like this on his/her website, the FBI and multiple other groups would be swarming.”

what a thoroughly vile person

If I heard today that she had been hit and killed by a bus, I'd think, "Boy, it sure is humid out today."

i just automatically assume that people like her had some huge trauma in their childhoods

Connasse!

yeah single-mindedness that deep usually sends up all kinds of red flags for me xp