Computer, what is the nature of the universe?

Defeat has a way of turning your thoughts inward.  Not getting a promotion or job you thought you deserved, a relationship falling through...

...losing an election.

We've been watching the Right engage in the ritual navelgazing that happens after such a thing.  The Democrats did it in 2000, and did it with more vigor in 2004-6.  We've got the TeaB*ggers, we've got the Ron Paul crowd, and we have the old Country Club Republicans looking at it all and saying, "what".

Today's ten dollar phrase "epistemic closure".  It's working its way all over the echo chamber of the left, and we're all talking about and agreeing that We are better than Them because We allow outside thoughts in and They don't.  And They purge whoever isn't Pure enough.

Dr. Crusher: Computer, what is the nature of the universe?
Computer: The universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter.
-Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Remember Me"

The part of the article that gets the most exposure is the one talking about the Right Wing Bubble and how nothing gets in that doesn't fit the universe.

The part that comes later on, and is expanded later, talks about how the purge really isn't a purge so much as a show put on for the base, or consumers, of the chattering class' product - chatter.  Right now the hot product is how YOU are a REAL AMERICAN™ because YOU haven't SOLD OUT. 

It starts sounding more crazy because people get tired of the same old thing.  So, the "crazies" have to get "crazier".  Discard old, more new.  It's all about the Benjamins, baby.

Now this might make it easy to discard the whole mess as an early "silly season", which usually takes place in August, just before the new products roll out. (we could say it's due to Global Warming and see how folks respond).  People are starting to trim freind lists on FaceBook over that little "joke" of a prayer against the President.  Members of the group gripe that it's only a joke and nobody really means it.  How is one to tell when there really are people in the group posting pictures of people hanging in effigy?

Separating fantasy from reality could get a little more sticky as the early silly season wears on. The Huttaree clan were nicked because they started acting on a false rumor. 

Christian Caryl at Foriegn Policy makes a good case for why we need to start taking conspiracy theories and the "silly" stuff a little more seriously.  That's all well and good, but we're really not going to see the crazy stop until enough of the right people get scared, and start backing away from the "crazy" product producers. 

When the advertisers see there's no market in nuts, they'll pull the plug.

Checking out that Tea B*gger thing...

Man, c-span, you used to be cool. What is it with this awful internet feed?

I loves me some Ray Charles

Looking at the signs: "Less Taxes! More Freedom!"  Well, that might as well read: "Less Services! More Chaos!"

Ha!    "Should you trust the government? Ask an Indian!"

"End the Federal Reserve" and then what?

Wow, already? "Impeach Obama?" He just got here!  Give him some time to really screw up!

Don't know who's speaking now, (James Anderer, Linderhust New York) talking about bankruptcy and oh - his chrysler dealerships being 'stolen' and given to another.  Corporate politics and a compliant government.  "I am an angry american"

Invoking the Founding Fathren, and call & response. 

Obama wants to pass all these changes before we wake up and understand what he's done.

Amens and shouts from the crowd.

Oh no! Our taxes are so high, it's destroying our way of life!  Reps represent special interest groups who give them money! NO! REALLY? You've been too busy making a living and raising your kids to pay attention to this?  I call bullshit.  My parents made aliving and paid attention. I'm doing the same.  Screw you.

Yeah, totalitarianism is only good if your guy's doing it, right.  Please.

Hey, you wanna organize, you wanna vote them out, I'm with you.  Just vote for folks who're gonna acutally do campaign finance reform.

"Vote them out! vote them out!"

Wait, what about the terrorits?  What?

Wow! Actual facts about the mortgage/derivative disaster!  And unelected ppl generating the rules.  Well, hey.  Whaddya know?

Dog wistle!  10th amendment!  Drink!  Oh, damn, no alcohol.

Um, this crowd looks kind of sparse.

Professional video by the American TaxPayers Union.  Introducing Andrew Moylan

Ok, I'm seeing titles of "Government Affairs Director" and "Federal State Head" and stuff like this.  There's a lot more money than people involved in this.  Must look these orgs up later.  "FreedomWorks" indeed.

Oh, NOW you're worried about the deficit.  Right.  Welcome to the party.

Huh. "Take your your cellphone right now and call your congressman"  "Na Na Na Hey Hay Hay, Goodbye" cute.  Straight from the Obama playbook.  Nicely done.

Are they singing on their phones? To congresscritters? I can't tell. Stupid c-span feed.

Tea party Patriots - more dog whistle!

Another national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin

Kellen Giuda Park bench Blog Founder
Talking about New York Tea Parties.  I'm not understanding. Oh.  Tea Bagging is not a Fox news thing because punk rockers are talking about tea parties. Mkay.  They may not be running the engine but they sure provided kindling.  And gasoline now, from what I can tell.

Modern pop culture - we're taking it on!  Rolling Stone Magazine!  They're the establishment! we have our own counter culture now!
We need a pop culture base?  Who knew?

Pop culture is dissing you!  Join the pop culture counter revolution! 

Oh! lost kid!  Good on y'all.  Hope he's ok.

More professional video.

High Caliber? The only conservative hip hop artist? Ok.  Oh, sorry, misspelled:  Hi-Caliber

Vince Venom

Are there any right wing extremists in the house today?

Rap shout out to Rick Perry.  Well, who saw that coming! 

Well, that was cute.

Oh, there's more.  My speakers can't make the words intelligible. I'll have to check it out later.

Oh, please. "where's the birth certificate"

Huh, so it's not that the crowd is sparse, but the area directly in front of the stage is kept pretty clear.

Great, parading the troops as human sheilds so you can stand behind them to critize the president.  Everyone supports the damned troops. What most of us DON'T support is stupid wars.

Dog whistle "blood and treasure"

Hey, I can get behind that "vote out all incumbents" sign

A sign quoting St. Reagan about "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" Except Reagan increased the government, dear.

Checking out trafficland.  I'm not seeing people.  Well ok, people but not crowds.

Deneen Borelli National Center for Public Policy Research, Project 21 Fellow

Oh, again about freedoms being looted by elected officials.  We could have used you eight years ago, dear.

Opposing Obamacare because of principal, not race!  What's the drill? "Pay your taxes? Is Rangel not doing that? Whoops, guess not.  Bad boy

Conyers.  "read the bill". That's your job!  Heh, can't argue with that.

Diane Boxer admires CASTRO!

Waters - nationalize oil companies!

Something about raising the cost of energy so we use less.  CAP & TAX = BALL & CHAIN. Nice meme. I don't buy it, but  I can recognize a good tactic.

Bruce Webster. 
Seldom is liberty lost all at once
Lincoln: america is the last best hope of earth.

Yes, well, again, we could have used you 8 years ago.

Deploying those human sheilds again.

i've got family and had family in the thick of this too. I don't parade them around. Screw you.

"last full measure of devotion" finally remembering you're the party of Lincoln?

Government by the congress?  Fool, it's government of the corporate donors.  Man, I'm gonna be looking up your opensecrets page. Whoops, you're not a pol.  Dude, you're a geek?  Eh, I'll check out your Systems Design stuff, but man, where were you during the Bush years?

On the system design - really? You're just now finding out how laws are written?  I cut my teeth on the "Patriot" Act.  You kind of redeem yourself in part 2.  If you have solutions in Part 3, I'll listen. 

ABC news says 1.5 million people are here.  Hey, you made it*.

ROFLMAO!  TEXT FREEDOM TO ME!  This is going to get you an accurate count?

Well, I've had enough.  Like the peace marches at the conventions, this is mostly harmless. 

I'll pointout: no shock troops, no "freedom areas", no SWAT teams.

Laterz

===========================
*turns out they didn't

How many policiticans does it take to drive a joke off a bridge?

Oh, I have to weep at the sheer number of electrons and pixels that died in the making of this outrage. And by "this outrage" I mean "this fake outrage that the butt of our jokes actually might have laughed at them, now that we know about it".

Go ahead, google "chappaquidick jokes". After the site corrects your spelling, you get multiple tens of thousands of hits of people shocked, yes SHOCKED that he would seek out jokes and maybe even laugh at them. It was if a billion voices cried out the same damn five lines of text and then wouldn't shut up about it.

Now I had a number of feelings and thoughts when I first read about this. The first one was "Well, that's a dumb thing to be coming out now.", then "Jackass move". Then it was, "how do you joke about this thing that is so serious?" I found out quickly enough - after, of course - limiting my searches to articles written before the now infamous Diane Rheme Show*.

http://www.outbursts.org/2006/05/05/kennedy-jokes/

http://web.archive.org/web/20060625220635/http://www.outbursts.org/archive/2005/09/08/chappaquiddick-jokes-never-get-old/

http://garywolff.com/subdir/humor.htm

http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/The_Top_15_Rejected_Christmas_Movies

So they're not unheard of, they're definitely not in good taste, but they do exist.

I don't get the impression that this was an every day thing for him. We heard more about his sailings habit the last few days than anything else. His biographer would be in a position to know what he did and didn't think or do with the jokes. I expect a column/apologia from him any day. It probably will just provide more grist for the mill.

And the mill is the story here. This is just what the mad dogs were looking for - something, anything, to counter the near cannonization going on. No matter how many people he helped, no matter how much goodwill he cultivated over the decades, he is to be ignored, demonized, and deemed worthless because, well, simply because.

Other people have done worse. I can think of one president responsible for far more death and dismemberment than Ted Kennedy - Barack Obama. How many soldiers have died since he took office? And he didn't even start it. It was that one.

This is about who owns history, and therefore the future. Anything, anything that can discredit Kennedy or any other target is fair game. Anything that makes someone not be associated with the target will be pulled out, magnified, dissected and made into fat pies for those hungry to see whatever it is they want to see.

We have to know the messenger. We have to know the message. Everyone who has brought messages of hope and progress has been flawed in some way or another. Martin Luther King, Jr. is believed to have been an adulterer. Does that make the struggle for civil rights any less right? M. Scott Peck had a messy private life, but brought millions peace and insights they'd never had, including me. His message isn't any less right because he couldn't always live up to it.

There are more, far more examples. There always will be. The point is to know what you're following, who you're following, and why. Letting spitballs get in the way of a battleship is always a loser.

Let's keep our eyes on the prize.

=================

* I will forever be amused at the right-minded blogosphere taking "liberal" NPR's broadcasting as gospel. "I read that she heard it from someone who accidentally had NPR on!"

THE SUMMER SMASH!

HEAR how the insurance industry THREATENED helpless Democrats and FORCED them to ACQUIESE to their evil plans!

SEE how Republicans SPOKE AS ONE from a single memo authored by an insurance lobbyist!

WONDER at the easy way former government employees become lobbyists and go right back into the fray as paid shills.

EXPERIENCE the HORROR of executive compensation being directly tied to denying health insurance coverage!

WATCH as a former insurance executive EXPOSES the ugly truth behind the "naked" consumer!

Or just watch the video or read the transcript of a Bill Moyers interview with Wendell Potter.

Ugly stuff.

Health reform starts with campaign finance reform. Money. Is. Not. Speech.

You just lost the game

That's actually a username on some site I go to. I love that name. It's what came to mind when I was reading about Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (Docket No. 08-205). (Background in non-legalese here and here.)

The producers of "Hillary, the Movie" wanted to show their, uh, documentary on television instead of movie theaters. "Well, ok", said the FEC. "But it's not a documentary, it's a hit piece, so you'll have to disclose the people who financed and contributed money to this."

"Aw hell no!" And so the fighting started. And more than a year later, here we are.

See, there was nothing standing in the way of showing this piece, except having to disclose who funded it, and not being able to show it within 30 days of an election, and a few other rules from our almost-got-it-right campaign finance reform McCain Feingold laws.

But the producers wanted to be counted as "news" and "documentary" people, and not have to embarass whoever was really behind them. That's a hell of a tell.

Yes, yes, anonymity is the last defense against tyrrany. There was nothing stopping the producers from running the film in more theaters. Word of mouth, echo-chamber mailing lists and blogs would have gotten a sufficient audience for it...but that was the problem. How to get it to the eyeballs of people who *gasp* didn't agree with them?

Well, since the idea of simply sending a CD to every house in a city hadn't been thought of yet, I guess this was the route to go: claim you've made a documentary and try to show it as news, and then complain about "bias" and "freeeeedom!" when you're told "no". Even the classic R bugaboo Michael Moore doesn't try this nonsense.

Any publicity is good publicity, but I'm not buying it, even if it is listed by Amazon as a documentary.