Brain-Dead Liberal on Brain-Dead Liberals

I... I... I, uh, just don't know what to say at this point.

I've only seen a little bit of David Mamet, and then only in film versions. I don't recall reading any of his work, but I must declare this to be his best writing ever.

According to him, he is no longer a brain-dead liberal.

Regarding the government, corporations, and the military:

...Are these groups infallible, free from the possibility of mismanagement, corruption, or crime? No, and neither are you or I. So, taking the tragic view, the question was not "Is everything perfect?" but "How could it be better, at what cost, and according to whose definition?" Put into which form, things appeared to me to be unfolding pretty well.

Do I speak as a member of the "privileged class"? If you will — but classes in the United States are mobile, not static, which is the Marxist view. That is: Immigrants came and continue to come here penniless and can (and do) become rich; the nerd makes a trillion dollars; the single mother, penniless and ignorant of English, sends her two sons to college (my grandmother). On the other hand, the rich and the children of the rich can go belly-up; the hegemony of the railroads is appropriated by the airlines, that of the networks by the Internet; and the individual may and probably will change status more than once within his lifetime.

(Emphasis mine.)

Looks like he's simply American. If any of his writing is that good, I'm just going to need to binge.

More people ought to read Mamet.

That's My Girl

Soucheray often comments on living in “a house divided”. Like the concept of The Look, I suspect most folks understand living in a house divided. With that in mind, you won’t be surprised if I say my wife leans to the left. Oh, she’s come a long way in the past fifteen years, but old habits are hard to break. She’s a far cry from the hard core lefty from before.

In any case, she’s come to regard President and Senator Clinton as the bane of politics and a black eye upon our country. She also has a feeling about Senator Obama. Regarding the Republican contenders she doesn’t yet feel much of anything toward any of them, but she has reservations regarding Senator McCain.

As she left for the caucus she told me she sees no reason at this time to vote for anyone in the campaign… so she intended to vote against the candidate who rankles her most. Senator Hillary Rod-ham Clinton.

Although she is my Dutiful and Beautiful Mrs. Badda, she doesn’t really want to blog… however, her caucus experience entertained the Hell out of me and made me proud. She’s writing down the details… but until they come in, I’m going ahead with the story. With that in mind, this post will get updated.

She brought our son to the DFL caucus. Since she arrived a little late she couldn’t immediately find a parking space. Once inside, she waited in line to find her precinct number and in which room that precinct was meeting. Was it up, was it down? Down the left hall or the right hall? She spent about ten minutes trying to find the damn room. Of course, the boy wasn’t really enjoying himself.

Eventually, one of the city council members (possibly Susan Rosenberg) ran into my wife. Perhaps this woman could help my wife find the right room. Well, my wife told her how frustrated she was with the lack of organization and assistance and that she was almost ready to give up. Oh, no… a woman on the city council (and at a DFL political event) wouldn’t let that happen. Local politics to the rescue! Did my wife need to find her precinct? “No! I already know my precinct number. I simply need to find the right room.”

Oh. I can’t help you. With that, the brave, knowledgeable, enabling, and supportive female city council member turned tail and walked off. See you next Thursday!

My wife’s got some German, Irish, and probably something else feisty and stubborn in her… and that damn council member only annoyed her enough to find that effing room. Of course, she did.

She walked up to a short line to sign in. Ahead of her was a DFL mom with a young son ready to take part in his first presidential election. The kid didn’t know exactly what to do and clearly had some reservations. “Just sign this thing here,” said the impatient DFL mother. The kid said he didn’t know if he even wanted to be there. “Just sign here,” said the loyal DFL helper. The kid still didn’t know if this was right for him. “Just hurry up and sign!” said the DFL mom. Isn’t that considered coercion and harassment?

“Back off,” said my most Dutiful and Beautiful wife. “He said he hasn’t made up his mind.” She then turned to the yout’ (as Joe Pesci would say). “Look, this vote is yours and yours alone and you don’t need to do anything that anyone tells you if you don’t agree.” The kid looked relieved at someone backed him up. The others looked shocked and stunned that anyone, much less a woman and a lone mother, would possibly obstruct the process.

Who wouldn’t be proud? That’s not all.

After the sign-in, she got into the room and took a seat. Now, I suspect it isn’t for nothing that they held this caucus in a junior high school. According to my wife the room was chaotic, unorganized, and full of idiots who wanted to be heard. (Herd?)

Out of such chaos must come order, though… but when? Eventually, they get to the straw poll with proposals to alter the DFL platform by adding, changing, or removing items. Oh, did they have suggestions. Not only that, they want to get “their money’s worth” so they quickly propose them, vote on them, and move on to the next one. Predictable as ever, some hand-wringing socialist demanded Universal Health Care. (What? It isn’t already in the platform??? The devil must be in brand new details.) Very well. All in favor…

Whoa, Trigger. Any chance someone might have a question? (Yeah, that was my wife stopping the show.) “Who is going to pay for all of this?” Stunned silence. Hostile expressions. Daggers from eyes. Looks that kill. She continued by telling the whole room that she works hard for her son and family. For that pleasure, she sees 40-percent of her income goes away to only God know? She tells the room that in spite of what they may think of her, she isn’t rich by any sane standard in this country and that they all should know because they should all come from the same precinct. She says she comes from a family that strongly supports the Democrat party (under varying successes and failures) and married a man with strong conservative principals and questions both sides constantly. Someone will be forced to pay for this… and for every other proposal and goal that you folks desire. There are side-effects and unintended consequences. Think about them.

Silence.

Silence.

All in favor? All but two hands were raised.

All opposed? My son raised his hand. (God, thank you for my son.) That allowed for a slight pause, letting my wife raise her arm a little bit for just a –

Passed!

Regardless of the amount of buffoonery, my wife made her voice heard and my son made his first stand against socialism… all within hours of my wedding anniversary.

I am a rich man, indeed.

Again With the "Turnback"

Just looking at yesterday's subject again... this whole "turning back" threat from Hillary [Rodham] Clinton.

"I have so many opportunities from this country, and I just don't want to see us fall backwards as a nation. This is very personal for me."

Where? What opportunities were granted to you that exclusively came from politicians like you that are threatened by politicians who may run against you or may get the Democrat nomination instead of you?

What exactly are these opportunities? Who made those opportunities possible? What law protected them? Who is threatening those opportunities? Is it a passive threat or an aggressive threat? Are the opponents of your opportunities evil or merely stupid?

Are you talking about champions for women? The poor? Immigrants? Illegal aliens? Blacks? Homosexuals? Who?

We'll never get an answer... however, we might get an answer to our prayer. ;) She not dead yet (ten months is a long time in politics), but you might be able to see a little bit of it from here.

Her Own Worst Enemy?

Amanda Carpenter mentioned a couple of Hillary [Rodham] Clinton's post-Iowa statements.

“I see what’s happening and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game, who is up and whose down, but it’s about our futures and it’s really about all of us together.”

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows the sorrow.

Isn't this exactly the same sense of panic and urgency we hear from politicians in every election? This is especially the kind of nonsense that comes out of the mouths of liberals when they point the finger at their boogieman... conservatives. What does she want to reverse? Troops in Iraq? Tax cuts? The boarder wall? Or is it the work The Man did against the poor, helpless women? Apparently, Liza Minnelli knew something about this some years ago.

Maybe she simply needs to "reverse" the No Job For A Lady... and only she can do it. Certainly not any of the other women involved in American politics... or Lady Thatcher. Or Elizabeth I.

“You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds and we do each one of use because we care about our country and some of us are right and some of us are wrong,” Clinton said.

"Some of us" translation: "Me".
"I care, they don't."
"Some folks out there just aren't smart enough to see how right I am."

“Some of us are ready and some of us are not. Some of us know what we will do on day one and some of us really haven’t thought that through enough.”

"I've been inside the White House! I know where everything goes!"

“And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for really spinning out of control this is one of the most important elections America has ever really faces.”

Yeah. All of those other presidents were not ready either, but they managed well. Okay, President Carter didn't... but the odds are pretty good that you, Senator Hillary [Rodham] Clinton, will fare no better than any of the other potential candidates. To be honest, the only disaster I see waiting to happen is probably Senator Edwards. I'm willing to believe that you'll be a total trainwreck, though.

“So, as tired as I am and I am and as difficult as it is...”

Wasn't G.W. lampooned for suggesting the work was a little tiring? This is a woman who is tired now... long before she even gets into the real fight. What a sissy.

...to keep up what I try to do on the road like occasionally try to exercise and try to eat right, it’s tough when the easiest food is pizza. I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation, so I am going to do everything I can to try to make my case and let the voters decide. Thank you.”

I'm the last guy to say this election is over for Hillary, as her team have apparently always known how to play the long game. That said, you would think that someone from Team Clinton would know how to coach their candidate better... how to more carefully sculpt these moments. Hmmm... maybe they have.

Whatever that means.

Perpetual Political Campaigns... That's Bad, Right?

Maybe this works in our favor... sometimes.

John Hawkins points out where I assume we all agree.

* The Perpetual Campaign: We've gotten to the point that actual governance is being treated as markedly less important than campaigning.

The run at the presidency now features candidates spending a full two years on the campaign trail raising money and campaigning. Over and over again, important legislation is ignored so that symbolic votes on hot issues like the war can be held even though everyone knows that they're meaningless.

Instead of working on key issues like, let's say border security or Social Security reform, Congress looks for bills to attach earmarks to because that's how they believe you get elected, by bringing federal tax dollars back to their district to be used on comically useless Bridges to Nowhere, Liberace Museums, and buildings named after the Congressman who acquired the pork to fund them.

Who disagrees with that? No one, I expect.

However, take one of his other points later in the column (under Lack of Bipartisanship).

Granted, gridlock is generally a good thing in Congress, but it would be nice if the politicians in D.C. were willing to actually try to work together for the good of the country on occasion instead of only cooperating when they want to throw our money away on more pork or help out a lobbyist who has been spreading around a lot of campaign cash.

Government only takes away from the people... and it does so at the point of a gun, or with the threat of such violence. It collects taxes, the fruits of our labor, and in some cases distributes that to others... and if we refuse we'll eventually succumb to the force of government one way or another.

A government, specificially a legislative body, passes laws... and those laws cannot really grant us more freedom. We're already supposed to be free. The government only takes away. Some people reap the rewards of those laws, but it is probably at someone else's expense. Look at this item and this item from the Anti-Strib... is that or is that not a blow to freedom?

That is why I really enjoy a good government shutdown. We still go on, but government stops and creates no new laws (or, new infringements upon our liberty) our freedoms are more secure.

Of course, John is right when he says we want politicians to work on Social Security or boarder enforcement or illegal aliens or national defense. He's also right in regards to politicians making themselves look good by passing legislation that panders to the voters... that's where my idea falls short. When politicians engage in re-election activities we might very well see more bullshit laws than we see a politician simply neglecting his duties (and therefore not passing more laws).

Perhaps I'm looking for the silver lining.

By the way, welcome to 2008.