US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

yeah, i was listening to bbc last night and the entire wikileaks affair coverage concerned the 100+ who were detained with little or no reliable evidence. npr and every other news source i've encountered has solely concerned the release of those believed to be dangerous. quite a contrast. xp.

Silly me expected a more balanced and thorough report from NPR than they gave. Their coverage this morning that I heard was more like a stereotypical local tv news channel short uniformed recitation.

I see that Ezra Klein asked various experts about the Progressive House Caucus budget. In an ideal world it would be as much a part of the equation as the Obama one, the Ryan one, and anything the Gang of 6 are planning

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-house-progressive-budget/2011/04/15/AFJCMrhE_blog.html?hpid=z2

from Qualmsley's link:

If left untouched, in 30 years we will be borrowing $2 for every $1 we spend

I read this as a pretty evocative and slightly erotically charged freeform haiku

If left untouched
in 30 years we will be borrowing $2
for every $1 we spend

Haley Barbour's not gonna run...Oh well

from our own Gorge. URL says it all.

http://michiganmessenger.com/48487/foster-children-would-be-allowed-to-get-clothing-only-from-second-hand-stores

^^^I posted that on my FB the other day, with the comment, "Like, there are apparently people who just sit around thinking, 'Are there new ways that we can think of to further humiliate disadvantaged people?'"

there is an extra level of wtf in the comments on that article

I think the comments are by and large great. "Darn it! I KNEW I should have tried harder to be born to rich parents!"

I take it you didn't get down to the weird story about corrupt CPS social workers who allegedly stole a commenter's grandchildren...?

I mean, I just keep reading more and more details about it and thinking "there isn't a single part of this that doesn't sound like a Lifetime movie"

I did get down to the part where ze was outed as a troll.

I wonder if St@rmak3r666 (or whatever) is the same St@rmak3r who is a well-known Usenet dickhead.

Oh no, I got there, but there are like eddies of wtf in a larger current of reasonable human feeling, I think. I'm grateful for even that much, in Michigan.

in terms of giving something in return, that day will come ten or more years down the road when these kids grown into adults. A little compassion now will help determine the course that's to be followed. It sends the message that they are valued members of a community and can go a long way towards helping these kids (who are already behind the eight ball) to grow into the kind of men and women you'll want living next door.

Do you know how happy it makes me to hear even that much sense? Deliriously.

Knucklehead David Brooks is sad:

Moreover, the two parties are about to run utterly familiar political campaigns. The Democrats are going to promise to raise taxes on the rich to preserve the welfare state, just as they have since 1980. The Republicans are going to vow to cut taxes and introduce market mechanisms to reform the welfare state, just as they have since 1980.

The country is about to be offered the same two products: one from Soviet Production Facility A (the Republicans), and the other from Soviet Production Facility B (the Democrats). It will react just as it always has.

It will react just as it always has.

By applauding when David wins a Pulitzer.

what, another round of soviet robot candidates?!

not AGAIN

Brooks actually not as off the m as usual, for him. I saw that fucker on PBS, CNN and NBC this weekend WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!

does you TV just turn on by itself

mine does

Mine gets hot when Cokie makes an appearance.

Moreover, the two sides are about to run utterly familiar strategies. The Rebels are going to promise to blow up the Death Star and defeat Darth Vader, just as they have since 19 BBY. The Empire is going to vow to crush the resistance in order to ensure galactic trade, just as they have since 19 BBY.

The galaxy is about to be offered the same two products: one from Droid Factory A (the Rebels), and the other from Droid Factory B (the Empire). It will react just as it always has.

in soviet russia, brooks is still stupid

we have a whole class of political writer who doesn't like politics at all.

most of the big names are like that

it wasn't my TV, Snarky Mo

What he left out of his Soviet mini-metaphor is that the Republicans will try to do what they promise, mostly.

in soviet russia, brooks is still stupid

^^^^ our next US Politics thread title

yeah, David Broder didn't really much like politics either. ergo his reflexive "centrism."

friedman! they all hate it

why do people take them seriously?

i guess cause ""people"" hate politics

These people. If they hate politics so much, they can damn well stop participating in 'the conversation' or accepting payment for their involvement.

The problem with Friedman is that he's also accepted as a foreign policy sage.

so we have to endure him on at least six cable news channels.

another problem is that there are at least six cable news channels

(I don't even pay for cable)

Ah, Friedman - the most famous person ever to write for my high school's newspaper.

I assume this was last year

In fairness to the guy, he pays for a scholarship for aspiring journos from my town so he gets mensch points for that.

DJP ty for that

lol damn

LOL Dan.

hate politics? Methinks they dost protest too much. It's a filthy emdeavor, and pundits take to it like pigs to slop.

Well, and besides, the political commenter at Brooks' level of fame assumes an air of detachment: they're the only ones who can see Things As They Are. Which is why Obama will have a lucrative career on television in sixteen months or six years, whichever comes first.

journos and commentators like the "inside baseball" aspects of politics, plus the gossip. politics is showbiz for ugly people, as either frank zappa or jay leno once said. they don't like detailed discussions of policy, partly because they don't understand policy discussions but mainly because that shit is for technocratic geeks (because it's like hard and requires analysis and knowledge).

David Brooks was told there would be no math

but its not that brooks and friedman and (RIP) broder hate policy or numbers! they hate conflict. friedman in particular would love a country run by a council of technocratic geeks

The worst kind of totalitarianism imo.

don't they know that conflict builds character

It's like the scenario in Devo's "Through With Cool."

the brooks/friedman/broder wing just doesn't like that there are different kinds of people in the country, with different desires, ideas, and relative levels of power. none of those guys has shown to have much of a read on the real source of political energy, and can't understand why the whole thing isn't just sorted out by now.