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

Buried in a Grand Rapids Press story about Cornerstone Schools co-founder and Republican Senate candidate Clark Durant's Thursday meeting with a group of college students is a nugget about the nation's wealth gap. In the swing state of Michigan, hit hard by the country's economic woes, this quote is going to raise some eyebrows:

In regards to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Durant said the protesters should "go find a job." In regards to the wealth gap the movement decries, Durant said, "I think it should be wider."

Of course they think it should be wider, they want people to be desperate enough to be happy to be their maids and butlers. Just like in the 1890s. They just want good help!

Looooool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNPXdXbT6Ds

James O'Keefe has been lurking in journalism school hallways across the country in pursuit of his latest bombshell series "To Catch a Journalist." So far, he's blown the lid off the story that some college professors like Barack Obama and that sometimes journalists drink alcohol and use bad words. When O'Keefe attempted to confront Columbia University j-school's dean of students Sree Sreenivasan with these shocking revelations in a pantomime of Mike Wallace, Sreenivasan just laughed at the poor guy.

The ostensible reason for O'Keefe's visit was to get Sreenivasan's response to O'Keefe having "caught" Columbia University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dale Maharidge using bad words in an email. (Those bad words? "Hey shitheads, Check out my comments about you: [Facebook link] Fuck you, man. Bring it on. Dale Maharidge.")

Instead of a comment, O'Keefe got some sniggering questions, like, "Why didn't you dress like you were in some of your other videos?"

"So you stand behind profanity-laced emails?" O'Keefe asked, stupidly. When he left, according to Sreenivasan's Twitter feed, he ran into some trouble with the door.

After he was done with me, I should have kept rolling, because they get to the exit and find they can't open it. He says, "Have they locked us in?" Turns out they were pulling the door instead of pushing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNPXdXbT6Ds

o'keefe really strongly reminds me of dennis reynolds

james o'keefe is the most hilarious person

he's such a geek, i had just assumed he was another breitbartian macho blowhard

... did you not see the ACORN footage

no! lol

ha okay

he was dressed like this in it:

http://2.images.theweek.com/img/dir_0057/28987_article_main/james-okeefe-dressed-as-a-pimp-when-he-appeared-on-fox-in-2009-after-his-acorn-prank-the-hoaxster.jpg

isn't that the blind kid who sings the national anthem before Eagles games?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3600/3367169204_455febd7d5.jpg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-it-comes-to-e-mailed-political-rumors-conservatives-beat-liberals/2011/11/17/gIQAyycZWN_story_1.html

Snopes turned up 46 viral e-mails regarding Bush during his eight years in office. By contrast, in just four years as a candidate and as president, Obama has been the subject of 100 such chain e-mails. The difference is not just in number but in kind: Twenty of the 46 Bush e-mails checked by Snopes turned out to be true, and many of these flattered or praised him. Only 10 e-mails about Obama have been true, and almost every one of them has been negative.

Emery estimates that more than 80 percent of the political e-mails that he’s vetted over the past 10 years were written from a conservative or extremely conservative point of view. “The use of forwarded e-mail to spread [false information] around is overwhelmingly a right-wing phenomenon,” he said.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was a frequent target of chain e-mailers when she was speaker of the House, recalls Snopes founder David Mikkelson. But he can’t recall a single urban myth about her successor, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio). Even former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who inspires apoplexy among liberals, hasn’t rated much on the e-mail circuit since her stint as Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

So are conservatives just more careless and irresponsible in their accusations, or more ruthless about spreading them, than liberals? Do conservative haters just like e-mail more than their liberal counterparts? Is this part of what liberals deride as the “right-wing noise machine”?

“The Internet is a megaphone that spreads conspiracies quickly before there’s anyone to correct the facts,” he says. “There’s no one between your crazy uncle and his address book.”

loooool i just sent that link to my crazy uncle and used that^ as the subject line

But he can’t recall a single urban myth about her successor, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio).

I heard Boehner once had to have his stomach pumped, and it was a gallon of semen that came out.

we should start a "Sarah Palin inspires apoplexy among liberals" chain e-mail.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/police-man-ripped-up-walker-recall-petition-and-drove-off/article_d7244b3e-1168-11e1-81a9-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1e5AeN5Wf

A man who stopped his pickup truck at a site where signatures were being collected Thursday for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker ripped up one of the petitions instead of signing it, Madison police said.

The incident happened at about 10 a.m. in the 800 block of South Midvale Boulevard, said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

The signature gatherers were holding signs and having vehicles pull into a parking lane when a driver in a red pickup stopped. When given a petition to sign, he ripped it up and drove away, DeSpain said.

The destroyed petition had three signatures on it, he said.

Signature takers were able to get the license plate number, but police had not located the man as of Thursday afternoon, DeSpain said.

Falsifying, defacing or destroying a recall petition is a felony punishable by up to three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

hope this d00d goes to prison, yes

No one goes to prison for that kinda stuff though.

Just getting arrested, booked and fingerprinted would be an unpleasant experience. Also, when a crime is elevated to a felony, it's for a reason. If the petitioners really publicize this, including the license plate number, the chances are damned good the police will have to pick him up.

man that story would work better if it wasn't about something with THREE signitures on it. Shit I could get three signitures for a petition right now, and I'm in an empty house.

and now i have the feeling i should have used an 'a' in that word instead of an 'i'.

thanks to ann althouse, i have now been exposed to a truly novel conspiracy theory linking george lucas to obama.

in 2009 when one of the air force one planes was lying low near the statue of liberty (remember that?) they were accompanied by red tails fighter planes from the alabama air national guard.

lucas' girlfriend is a wall streeter type and knows some of obama's inner circle

so the air force one flyby was, after all, some kind of favor to george lucas for his movie, or because he gave money to obama, or just more pro-black propaganda for its own sake, or something

apparently the ur-text for this whole deal is this blog comment:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/04/this-wouldnt-be-happening-if-hillary-were-in-charge.html?cid=6a00d83451b2aa69e201156f632d29970c#comment-6a00d83451b2aa69e201156f632d29970c

searching "red tails" and "air force one" brings up all kinds of shit, but fair warning a lot of is from some seriously ugly zones.

uh actually it's not even clear the accompanying plane was a "red tail," the whole thing is pure sketch

god what has my life become

great post.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/01/rand-paul-detained-tsa-nashville-airport/47721/

Always one to detest the TSA's intrusion on people's privacy, Sen. Rand Paul has been detained himself by officials with the agency at Nashville's airport this morning, according to Paul spokesperson Moira Bagley. As CNN and Politico report, Paul, ever the libertarian, refused to be patted down when asked by airport officials in Nashville. "Paul went through a scanner at the airport and set off an alarm, Bagley said. He wanted to go through the body scan again instead of getting a pat-down, but officers of the Transportation Security Administration refused," says CNN. This isn't the first time Paul's been irked by the TSA's pat-down procedures. The Daily Caller reported in June how Paul criticized TSA head John Pistole for the pat-down of a 6-year-old Kentucky girl, chosen at random per TSA policy. "It makes me think you’re clueless, if you think she’s going to attack our country and you’re not doing your research on the people who want to attack our country," he said in Congress at the time. So presumably, Paul believed he (white, male, U.S. senator) wasn't enough of a threat to be patted down either.

Good ol' Max:

http://gawker.com/5878427/rand-paul-is-so-full-of-shit-about-being-detained-by-the-tsa

...That sound you just heard was my eyes rolling so far back in my head that they fell out. We don't love the TSA security procedures, but if let's please not embarrass ourselves by pretending that Paul did something brave or noble here, or that the TSA reacted in an unexpected or particularly troubling way. Rand Paul wasn't "detained"; the TSA is not Agent Smith; you are not Neo; and if the worst way your civil rights have ever been violated is by having your body touched by a government employee while you wait to board a plane, you are pretty lucky.

Libertarians are a people constantly in search of issues to be self-righteous about. This is the problem of a political movement about "freedom" peopled largely by white men with college degrees and above-average incomes: there's not a lot of freedom they don't already have, and not a lot of situations where their civil rights are being potentially trampled. The TSA is a wonderful thing for contemporary American libertarianism; it's one of not many places where a upper middle class Linux engineer can actually stand off against an invasive government...

haha OTM

now he's claiming the machines might be rigged

or he really wants to investigate to see if it's possible that TSA agents can pull a funny one

"I think was mine probably random, I doubt I was picked on," he said. "But I would like to know: does the screener have the ability to push the button and randomly get someone to set off a screener?"

bonus accurate and then inaccurate use of "random", very 21st century

youre kidding

its kind of odd to me that there isnt a congressional exemption from tsa screenings

tbf rand paul fits the demographic of domestic terrorist pretty well

"But I would like to know: does the screener have the ability to push the button and randomly get someone to set off a screener?"

Definitely speculate to the press about a completely manufactured concern that no one has ever voiced, in order to deflect derisive laughter from/ validate your hysteria about being held equal with other people and subject to the same inconveniences as us norms.

Srsly I don't know how Rand got elected he has no charm or charisma and is kinda thick.

Don't see why bitching about TSA is necessarily right-wingery.

Charles Murray endorses paternalism (lol no really) and... new urbanism?

The [solution] that I have in mind has to be defined in terms of individual American families acting in their own interests and the interests of their children. Doing that in Fishtown requires support from outside. There remains a core of civic virtue and involvement in working-class America that could make headway against its problems if the people who are trying to do the right things get the reinforcement they need—not in the form of government assistance, but in validation of the values and standards they continue to uphold. The best thing that the new upper class can do to provide that reinforcement is to drop its condescending "nonjudgmentalism." Married, educated people who work hard and conscientiously raise their kids shouldn't hesitate to voice their disapproval of those who defy these norms. When it comes to marriage and the work ethic, the new upper class must start preaching what it practices.

Changing life in the SuperZIPs [elite neighborhoods] requires that members of the new upper class rethink their priorities. Here are some propositions that might guide them: Life sequestered from anybody not like yourself tends to be self-limiting. Places to live in which the people around you have no problems that need cooperative solutions tend to be sterile. America outside the enclaves of the new upper class is still a wonderful place, filled with smart, interesting, entertaining people. If you're not part of that America, you've stripped yourself of much of what makes being American special.

am i nuts or is this a kind of "general petraeus" version of conservative culture war? the language feels very much like COIN, "the surge," etc

link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577170733817181646.html?fb_ref=wsj_share_FB&fb_source=profile_multiline

pro-choice rally punchline in max's piece is awesome. also quoted at length in the guardian.

the new upper class must start preaching what it practices

iirc, divorce is just as prevelant among the upper class as anywhere else. And trial marriages or living together before marriage is practised pretty damn widely these days, too. As it was in most centuries you might care to name.

So, which "norms" is this jerk-off talking about anyway? Does he really think that no one is vocally disapproving spousal abuse, child neglect, or any other real problems of that nature? I hate this kind of hand-waving holier-than-thou crap. It is brainless.

I think he's talking about the modern-day equivalent of holding temperance parades through slums.

Aaaaand a response to me posting that bit on FB, from the same chick who's replied to me laughing at Ron Paul before, poste here for your amusement:

Well, I for one am glad that he did what he did. More people should take "a stand"- however the "language" is interpreted. I for one am sick and tired of the government getting crazier and more invasive. Every time we give them an inch they take a mile. This isn't America anymore! The only solution is to get the government out of the airport security entirely and put it in the hands of private airlines. If you want the "pat down/sexual harassment/cancer radiation/takes 5 extra years to board the damn plane/can't even bring your bottle of effing Fiji water with you" airline then fly on that shitty one. The whiny, worried little babies will be "safe" there. If you're not spooked/BRAINWASHED by any of the BS rhetoric then fly the one that doesn't require such stupid measures. Then everyone gets what they want. Libertarianism isn't such an awful thing. It's about choices. Choices are what made America a great nation. People better WAKE UP because our country is turning to absolute shit!

...cancer radiation?

Pretty sure they are doing their own medical safety testing on those machines.

Her grievances are plain enough, but the rest is just parroting empty slogans.

According to e-mail exchanges between T.S.A. employee representatives and Department of Homeland Security officials, airport screeners in Boston and Atlanta were concerned about growing numbers of co-workers “falling victim to various forms of cancer,” which they suspected might be caused by radiation exposure from the machines. The e-mails and other documents were obtained by the privacy center under the Freedom of Information Act as part of its own lawsuit against use of the scanners.

Ginger McCall, the center’s open government counsel, said the documents also showed that the T.S.A. had denied employees’ requests for dosimeters, safety devices that measure radiation exposure. “There is still a need for independent safety testing of these devices and for greater transparency on the part of T.S.A.,” she added.

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/airport-body-scanners-and-health/

Yeah, that's a dosage thing, like with cops getting nut cancer from radar guns. Walking thru a checkpoint won't damage really damage you, presumably, sitting next to it for 40 hours a week has a far better chance of it.

Then again, I don't really know what I'm talking about.

And there's a followup:

With the way the country is going down the toilet abortion is about last on the list of my concerns, Jeremy. The federal government now has the right to detain citizens without a trial and lock them in secret prisons. Every single day read about a new threat to my BASIC rights. WTF, do you really think I care about abortion? It's one of those issues no one will ever agree on. Some people feel it's an act of violence on another human being. Some people feel it's a freedom. The only fair thing to do here is make it a state's decision. Pretty much ALL decisions should be state's decisions: drugs, prostitution, murder, pornography, violence, seat belts- anything. The minute the big federal bureaucracy steps in everything just gets convoluted and 100x's more expensive. The only thing that the federal government should deal with is protecting our LIBERTY and the right for states to make their own decisions on hot topic x, y or z. This is the only way everyone will be happy. That way if you want abortion so bad you can be a Californian. If you don't, move to Texas- everyone wins. For me abortion is a "freedom" that I would never require (only in a case where I might die if I didn't have one and even then I would do everything I could to avoid it) because I take responsibility for my actions. Now, I would like the freedom to bring my goddamned FIJI water with me on the fucking airplane and not be felt up when I'm doing it!

She wants to be oppressed by her state government, bcz the feds make such a cock up of it? Except, imagine if every state had different airport security regulations. Total chaos.

The only thing that the federal government should deal with is protecting our LIBERTY and the right for states to make their own decisions on hot topic x, y or z

Like slavery. And sodomy. And interracial marriage. And so forth.

Federalism is dead, and good fucking riddance, I say.

Legalize it.