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

doctores of physick are forbade from the cutting of the stone!

I just kinda like the way this guy hand-waves 'duty' as 'slavery'.

randians think any concept of duty IS slavery, that the only duty you have is a kinda masturbatory self development

every once in a while i remember that rand paul's first name is RAND and i go 'oh right'

it's just short for Randall! Total coincidence!

ayn rand paul bremer

i think the more interesting questions for people like paul would have to do with christian charity. ok, so they don't want to be coerced by the government into helping the poor and suffering. but what kind of twisted pseudo-christian justification do they come up with for contriving to be bothered by the resulting continued poverty, and suffering, of the poor and suffering?

'not to be bothered'

even the "moderates" feel the need to pander to Teabag ignoramuses:

Gov. Christie won't say if he believes in evolution or creationism

i read that as the opposite of pandering tbh

i disagree -- if didn't want to pander, he would've just said that he believed in evolution. statewide, there's no disadvantage ... and plenty of advantage ... to taking that position. (not that we don't have Teabags in NJ, just that pandering to them for a statewide office would be a kiss of death.)

and what if he doesn't believe in evolution but doesn't want to ostracize himself from the voters who believe otherwise

like

oh my god, a politician that shuts the fuck up about things that have nothing to do with his office

fuck chris christie, but, oh my god

i see yr point, and it is a "gotcha" question. and odious though Fat Governor is, i'm quite sure that he does believe in evolution.

anyway, i think his answer was intended for a national audience.

it's just short for Randall! Total coincidence!

And here I thought it was short for krugerrand.

and what if he doesn't believe in evolution but doesn't want to ostracize himself from the voters who believe otherwise

like

oh my god, a politician that shuts the fuck up about things that have nothing to do with his office

But he made the remark in the context of whether schools should be permitted to teach creationism, therefore if his own personal belief isn't relevant to the job, it would at least demonstrate that he has some understanding of the basis on which such a decision should be made. Which, clearly, he does not.

anyway, i think his answer was intended for a national audience.

^ding

ayn rand paul ron paul for fucks sake get some more different names

rand paul george ringo

lollll

As if Boehner's ideas weren't bad enough, now McConnell over in the Senate is joining in. Will the Dems give in to this:

In addition to cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, McConnell called for an agreement to reduce spending at federal agencies over the next two years, a move that would defuse a battle over agency appropriations and lessen the risk of a government shutdown before the 2012 election.

McConnell said he also wants to see limits on spending set for 2014 and beyond, although he acknowledged that caps are often breached and are therefore a less reliable tool for debt reduction.

A major rewrite of the tax code, while popular with both parties, “will not be accomplished” as part of the debt-limit debate, nor will Republicans agree to tax increases of any kind, McConnell said. But he said he would not press Obama to reduce spending on Social Security, a major objective for three GOP senators working to draft a separate debt-reduction deal as part of the Gang of Six.

From the W. Post

mr. filibuster has been so helpful throughout the financial crisis

matt taibbi otm

If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?page=1

I don't know how to break this to Matt Taibbi but that's been confirmed for over a hundred years

once the ways of power are identified we should no longer take note of them because they aren't interesting any more. i think foucault wrote that somewhere

you're misreading the foucault. he actually said that next to sex, the ultimate performance and conservation of power occurs within the taste complex and that whomever can out-cynic the next person is actually king hipster for a day.

i thought that was bourdieu, in 'distinction'

good call. here's ur crown

http://frmarkdwhite.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/crown.jpg

i think it's cute in the best way when matt taibbi's post-HST furious-hate shtick spasms into something corny. also he's been doing a terrific job with this whole thing in general and it was rad to see him latch onto something with real force after wandering around for a while post-yeltsin, snapping at things while his style curdled. the Big Issue's really focused him.

not that it makes any difference

i cannot wait for him to cover the new campaigns

i thought he was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally boring about the tea party at first but that last thing he wrote about them (the thesis was that they were a legitimate grassroots movement in response to the crisis/bailouts but were purchased and occupied early by the floundering republican party which massaged all the racist/misogynist social complaints and the vague idea of Big Government and gradually turned the tea partiers' faces away from the banks) i thought was really good, especially from a guy who'd started to slide into the pit of just being furious over sarah palin. and again it's doing all this furious research into the financial crisis that's improved him, the same way he was improved by knowing everything about the flamboyantly corrupt criminal/government/media maze of 90s russia.

taibbi is absolutely one of my favorite journalists - perfect blend of smarts and seething hatred for the things he covers. still recommend his latest book, just finished it yesterday

and it's cool cuz i used to say mean things about him of the i-hope-he-doesn't-burst-a-vein-straining-to-be-hunter-s-thompson type, but with this excellent second phase of his career he probably has more excellent phases than hunter s thompson had.

xxp yes

i really liked Griftopia too but i have to say it's super depressing and if you want to function in any healthy way maybe save it for when you don't need to face the world and smile (thanksgiving might be a perfect time if you're gonna be miserable anyway)

haha yes totally

'griftopia' is good but not 'all the devils are here' good. that is the shit

I like Taibbi a whole lot actually but the rhetoric of "this confirms, once and for all" is so bogus. You "just confirmed, once and for all" something the left has been asserting for a hundred fucking years? heavy generational narcissism there imo, just because you're around to see something doesn't make it more egregious

your kneejerk hostility's obscuring his point. it's not that eternal timeless plutocracy is screwing over the plebes, it's that goldman sachs executives lied to congress under oath, a federal crime. that is a big deal. but this fits a well-known pattern, so why bring it up? well basketball games have happened before, doesn't mean i don't care who wins the heat-bulls series

bulls in 5, btw

would we feel better if taibbi had gone with corroborates

bulls in 5, btw

― reggie (qualmsley

I hope you're right, but I'm thinking Heat in 6

yeah I mean you're right q yr right

key to the series is rebounding. the way bigger and tougher bulls will keep the heat off the boards, then finals time

I like Taibbi but when I forward his columns to relatives and others they think his over-the-top language and rhetoric and use of expletives makes his points less worthy.

just annoying to know that the next time a bunch of far-left crazies are goin "hey this deregulation shit is going to lead to some bad shit" they'll be wasting their breath because nobody cares about projections based on history, they care about punishing bad actors post-mortem

reggie: heat-bulls 2011 eastern conference finals

was way ahead of Taibbi in pegging Chumpbama

btw I have my crown already

Hi guys! What'd I miss?????

talking about taibbi and somehow bringing NBA into things