Ruh-Roh!

Obama needs to get some advisors from real families and push out the ego heads.

[kaseyKasemVoice]
Yeah man, like, they fails to deliver what they promise!
[/kaseyKasemVoice]

Obama fucked up. So it must be time to bitch slap the professional left again.

Hmmm…the white house and Obama squealing like stuck pigs…

Music to my ears. :o)

Anyone (and Digby, you know who you are. :o) ) who says that progressives have no clout with Obama, is just wrong. He fears us, politically speaking.

Let us justify that fear. :o)

Shorter White House:

Clap Louder!!

Brilliant!

I love the metaphor, Jon.

Oh My Dear God.

Best. Article. Ever!!!!!!!!!!!

I will spread this everywhere. Jon, you are a genius.

LOL!

Yep. It’s all our fault. We shoulda have raved on his superior non-negotiable skills.

I don’t think Obama fears us. I think he does know that the thing Americans fear most is communism (with Islam a close second) and that since there is pretty much no communism left to be scary, liberals are the next best thing to keep those voters too afraid to demand any real change.

I’m guessing he wanted us all in the streets shouting: Go, Stupid! You go, Man! Can’t get any better than this to destroy what is left.

Gimmie an O! Oh, No!

I don’t believe Obama and his hacks cast blame on the lefty blogs because they think the bloggers make their crappy policies fail.

Obama and his hacks blame the lefties because above all the villagers and those all important centrists love to see the dirty fucking hippies get kicked in the teeth.

That’s why they do it. Proves their centrist creds…

more and more my impression of this Administration is that talking to it is like talking to a brick wall, or an active addict.

Did Obama stop smoking?

Well spoken, Jon.

I see the same nonsense over at that massive “liberal” website, we all know the one. Anyone who speaks against the president’s “policies” (and I use the term very loosely) still gets pelted.

The dude still doesn’t get it that you don’t bring an ivory chessboard to an MMA fight and expect to win.

IMO, Obama listens to the advisors he, and his cronies, have chosen, and to the shrill voices from the far right. No one else. He throws out bones on occasion in the form of reassuring “quips” but nothing of substance. Mr. President, “Where’s the Beef?”

I think that we should separate ourselves entirely from the tired spectrum of political descriptions and simply say that we want “humane” policies.

The question is “Smoking what?”

It’s far too easy to see that he has had an insulated existence from the real life of most of us. He probably had intellectual compassionism for those he helped to organize in Chicago, but I doubt he really got what their lives were really about.

Exactly why I say that from now on instead of speaking up for what is right and what is best for this country, we should agree with the republicans. That would cause Obama and the Congressional Dems to do an about face and do the opposite of what we try to promote.

They have slapped me around enough. I’m more than willing to sarcastically support his for appearances only, opposition! If that is what will cause him to support what is right, I’ll play the game. Remember, up is down and right is left.

Would like to see Obama booed and hecled at his dog and pony public appearances.

When all else fails, punch a hippy. I bet Obama blames the weather forecaster for bad weather, too.

But we ARE having an effect. Probably more than we know. They’re having to astroturf, buy off writers (You want W.H. insider stories? Then write about this), all while avoiding forums where they could have to address inconvienent facts.

Obama can’t even let Timmeh take the blame, because he can’t get anyone else confirmed if Timmeh leaves.

And I LOVE the way it meshes with Scooby Doo. Can I be Shaggy?

Boxturtle (Shaggy stole Daphne from Freddy, you know)

thank you

The theory in operation here is the Elmer Fudd Theory of Electoral Victory. Progressives are suspect because they failed to be “vewwy vewwy quiet.”

LOL!

No wabbit today!

‘Tonicus, I think “fear” is the right word. E.G.: He shit green nickels when Faux was going after Sherrod for her “racism”, which is why he had that Ag flunkie call her (twice!) while she was driving and ask her to resign before that evening’s program going after her.

And, he shit them again, when the progressive firestorm started building on his head for playing poodle for the umpteenth time, for the american right. That’s why he backed waaay up and offered Sherrod an apology, sorta/kinda, and another job.

True, he does things like appearing in front of that fatcat dem $30,000 a plate fundraiser, and beating on us like we were a pinata, but every time he does this, the worst thing we can do is back off. If we really go after him then he’s faced with dealing with the people who worked the hardest to put him in the White House, as they turn their backs on him. If you think he’s not afraid of losing his base, then you’re as wrong as two left feet.

If we continue to support him while he trashes us and the progressive agenda, then we ARE “a bunch of fucking retards.”

the thing Americans fear most is communism

If so, he’s a couple decades behind. I haven’t heard anybody refer to communism as a threat since the Soviet breakup. At least, not until Obama got elected. :-)

We’re afraid of Scary Brown Moslems now. And Scary Brown Mexicans. But don’t worry about the Scary White Christians, they don’t represent all of Christianity.

Boxturtle (I worry about Scary Pink Slips)

I’m nonplussed (minused) how some polls show strong support for the Debt Debacle plan from liberals. I guess in my prejudice, I thought us to be smarter than the average bear. Another nail in the Republics coffin.

Zoinks! Geesh, it seems like Obama’s supporters on DKos didn’t get the message…those supportive of Obama on DKos were trying to hang the deal on the Republicans to make them own it but Obama was saying clap louder for this deal that I own. There were a few saying how got it was that Obama was going to cut entitlements, but those were few and far between.

Methinks Obama’s re-election campaign is going to be mighty muddled as people won’t know whether they’re supposed to clap louder over something or blame the Repubicans for it…you’ll have one group of Obama supporters clapping louder and saying Obama owns a deal while you’ll have another group of supporters blaming the Republicans and saying Obama doesn’t own, which will result in mass confusion as people here two diametrically opposed messages.

They haven’t gotten the facts yet. The details of that deal have not been broadcast on the Nooze yet.

Eh? Obama trots out the hippie-punching hatred to vent his spleen at anyone who doesn’t adulate as his vaunted feet. Gimme a break. It’s the oldest distraction in the book; yet another chapter in the Southern Strategy playbook, from which Obama *happily* operates. Cue the Kabuki show.

Go look at rightwing blogs or forwarded emails. They are mostly about getting conservatives to *hate* the so-called “lefties,” all of whom are communists, Islam-lovers or worse.

Obama IS just a big fat POODLE for his super-rich masters. Punching hippies is part of the Southern Strategy, and Obama is only too happy to trot out and bark what his masters order him to do.

Meh.

Cute post, though. Like the analogy. Ruh-roh.

insufficient, ineffective, destructive orand incompetent.

Sums up this White House pretty well.

I know it’s absurd, but I visit some rightwing blogs, as well as blog that showcases rightwing email forwards. You might be surprised at just *how much* the rightwing thinktanks (who gin up this rubbish) use the “reds under the beds” commie-scare tactics.

Many rightwingers refer to blogs, like FDL, as “communist,” and that’s meant as a HUGE slur.

So there is a lot of irrational fear being ginned up over communism, event though it makes no sense, whatsoever. But as we all know, facts and reality often have nothing in common with what conservatives believe and/or with what Fox “reports” in their “nooz” programs.

On edit: the rightwing think tanks definitely gin up a huge amount of hatred towards racial minorities, poor people (all of whom are personally ripping off conservative voters, of course), and special hatred is reserved for the followers of Islam. Yet the pushing of fear about communism definitely runs neck & neck with pushing fear of Islam. This is, of course, anecdotal and just what I’ve observed. No links to prove or disprove my assertions.

And that’s one reason the rabid right wing are always labeling Obama as the most left wing socialist president in the history of the country. When was the last time the left label Republicans right wing fascists? Oh, wait they are but no one ever dares say it.

Yep. Albeit I am starting to see the term facist crop up in such places like letters to the editor of “nooz” papers, and it’s being applied not just to Republicans but the ginormous mess that is our current system of fed govt. I’m happy to see that show up bc it’s true.

I think, though, that’s why rightwing thinktanks have been so strongly pushing the communist meme… to distract the rubes from the facism that is happening right here, right now, in our once-great nation. Just my own thoughts, of course, based on observation.

Sadly, the public is so misinformed and ill-informed and just plain lazy that they don’t know what’s going on and just want to be told which the corporate media and their spokesmodels are more than willing to accommodate.

I thought we were socialists? I’m so confused.

Boxturtle (I always considered myself a capitalist pig, just one that didn’t mind sharing)

What I pick up from this is that Obama still thinks that progressives owe him something for preventing McCain from becoming President. Pretty weak tea, and he and his advisors are deluding themselves if they think any of us owe him anything.

What about terrorists?

Yeah, Republicans are that too. Thus an accurate description of today’s right wing is anti-democratic, authoritarian corporate fascist terrorists.

Market down 156.02 the soft spin on better employment ploy is no longer fooling investors. Next report will have worse employment thanks to Obama’s disastrous economic policies.

The identity thing is getting confusing. I have to remember to be a godless,dirty,fucking,hippie,commie,liberal,terrorist,slacker. Cant change my race or they would have a poster.

I don’t trust most poll data anymore. Poll questions can be asked in a variety of ways to elicit desired responses, plus gawd only knows, but sometimes I think poll data is just made up. I wouldn’t give polls much credibility in this case. What I’m hearing and seeing is that most citizens are not happy at all with either “side” in this Kabuki Show. And frankly, I’ve seen the term “political theatre” used by citizens in letters to the editor. Citizens are waking up a tiny bit. Poll data is bogusly used by the corp-owned media as propoganda.

Socialism is the new communism, but the fear remains the same: somebody is going to take some of mine and give it to some undeserving dark skinned. Liberals are seen by the radical right as the storm troops for that ideology. With absolute media compliance, progressives are thus made easy targets.

Thanks for the report from Great Orange Satan-land.

I haven’t had the required inoculations to venture over there myself. Too afraid of catching the brain-disease that seems rampant there.

The Obama administration is saying to cut Social Security and Medicare so that we can do more war-mongering (actually it sounds like the Obama administration is basically saying what Joe Lieberman said a few days, which shouldn’t come as a surprise…yet people on here continue to be surprised):
http://www.salon.com/news/pentagon/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/08/05/military
The Obama administraiton themselves want to use this deal to cut Social Security rather than this being a Republicans/Military versus Democrats/SS thing as it has been portrayed.

Obama and the Democrats want to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and they want you to clap louder while they’re doing the cutting.

Completely Accurate Description!

the rightwing think tanks definitely gin up a huge amount of hatred towards racial minorities, poor people (all of whom are personally ripping off conservative voters, of course)

I’m re-reading Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia. At the beginning he has a very good description and analysis of the Tea Party folks. He points out how the Kochs, Petersons & all the other funders of this grassroots “movement” utilized the actual FACT that things were being taken away from many of these folks [jobs, for example], but twisted it to make the identity of the “criminal” = minorities, poor people, anyone with brown skin.

This tactic conveniently keeps the focus away from those — e.g., the Kochs, Petersons and their ilk — who ARE actually doing the robbing & looting. One heavy job we face is to bring that fact to their attention and get THEM to turn on the true villains.

PS – if you haven’t read this book, I highly, highly recommend it. Get one from your local library [while it still exists].

Seems King Chaos gets upset when the stupidity of his plan is pointed out to everyone by a common serf. If even the serfs see the folly of his actions can it really be that good. If he is so vain as to disregard 80% of the people then he deserves the criticism he receives. He stupidly surrounded himself with repubs from the last administration, did he really think they were going to help? Some things are forgivable, however what he has now done will not be forgiven or forgotten by the voters.

It doesn’t help either when the president has the personality of Clutch Cargo and the wit of Daffy Duck.

That’s right. The thing the neolibs and neocons fear the most is an “economic left” wing movement. That isn’t communism or even socialism, just a reasonably egalitarian system coupled with a real meritocracy.

Bingo!

The problem with Obama is not that he’s incompetent, it’s that he’s a brilliant conservative ideologue who thinks, when his initial efforts fail, that he just need to push them harder. He doesn’t have the nimbleness of thought, like say FDR, to abandon a failing policy and try something else. If he has only one term, he’ll go down in history as merely an incompetent, two terms, like GW Bush, will label him a disaster.

I doubt the WH really thinks progressive or liberal bloggers are the culprit. What, they are going to accord bloggers that much power? They think folks they have been bashing over and over again would still support them?

They are doing what all unchecked, illegitimate power does. They are attempting to escape blame by trying to lay it at the feet of those far less powerful in the system, just like they do with unions and immigrants.

I was at our 94 year old friend’s BDday Sunday, and I made a comment to another 89er that I voted for Obama last time but that I will not vote for him again.

I guess one of the rethugs there, I know well, thought that meant that I was going to vote for a thug, he walked us to my car and was unusually friendly and talking business like, and then he stunned me by saying that he was beginning to pay attention to mitsy, I about fainted.

I think he actually was giving me some advice for the next election. How rude he was.

I need someone, right now it is not anything in the stew, and it just smells rotten.

Too bad. They took my country down. Can we call it New Somalia?

Sounds about right. You don’t dismiss someone you fear as being “fucking retarded.” If the Obama administration can effectively push this fear-mongered image of liberals, it will be one more reason he will be president in 2012.

But do be afraid of scary Black Christians, especially ones that speak truth to power.

Good point. It is a unique approach to vilify your base, I’ve really never seen it before in American politics to this extent. Blaming us for not supporting Obama’s right wing policies…well, it’s not only stupid, it’s childish. One of the clear vibes I get from Obama and his white house staff is CHILDISH. Finger pointing, name calling, whining, tantrum throwing, yes it’s quite infantile. We thought we were electing FDR and we got Hoover, so what’s to like?
After being called a retard, a child, a moron, the professional left, whatever that means, a jerk, etc. why on earth would I vote for this clown? If he wants support he’s going to have to get it from the right, but ooops they don’t like him either.

Odd that the administration didn’t notice their policies were created in an atmosphere of “go along to get along” with Repunklics who would do anything to cause his admin to crash and burn. So they tried to co-opt “Deficit Reduction” and austerity at the first suggestion by the Repugs. It seemed oblivious that the Pugs only planted that policy to thwart the administration, and they don’t care that the country will suffer for it as long as voters blame the President.

What, the President doesn’t know that the economy needs exactly the opposite approach to begin to turn around? This is the very definition of incompetence. He’s getting played and doesn’t even seem aware. In fact, he’s looking all over to see where the bullets are coming from. As for progressives, we’re shooting blanks and taking flak from the President for not protecting him with our toy guns.

I didn’t realize that we worked for the White House.

The way to counter an idea, a meme, is with a counter idea, an anti-meme.

The true idea that right wingers are basically fascists has been successfully countered with the anti-meme of “Whoever first mentions Hitler loses.” Since we so identify fascism with Nazis this basically has freed the social body of the meme that right wingers are fascists.

The terrible irony is that it was supposedly liberal late night comedians who did the heavy lifting on vacinating the social body with this anti-meme.

Right now we’re still in the struggle of whether the anti-meme of “Whoever first plays the race card loses” will erradicate the meme of “Racism is unacceptable.”

It’s this kind of stuff that should help us to realize that this is a long struggle.

Right. I’m not as sure as you that they don’t blame progs, but I’m convinced that the ultimate motivation in saying they blame us is to divert attention from them to us and give the typical medium information Obamabot a target for their frustration.

Over on HuffPo the anger of the Obamabots towards us is palpable. I dont know how many times I’ve read comments saying the reason all this horrible Republican stuff is happening is because we progs were so critical of Mr. Wonderful that we convinced folk to not vote for his team last year. They are extremely frustrated and the White House has convinced them to be frustrated at us.

I tell them over and over that when the base stays home it’s the fault of the party for not motivating it’s base, not the base. I tell them over and over the folks who stayed home don’t hear all the rhetoric because they don’t read these blogs and watch cable news, that they decide to not vote, often unconsciously, based on what is going on in their real life, not what some prog writing a blog says.

But they can’t hear it because they’re too filled with the noise of their frustration to think outside the rhetoric Mr. Wonderful and his cheerleaders have spoonfed them.

Your argument makes sense unless the Obama administration has made the political calculation that they don’t need liberals to win. Whether or not they do or the relative power of progressive bloggers is irrelevant if such is the WH’s game plan. Then, having decided that liberals are not necessary, they can make some political hay by blaming them for failure and recoup the lost liberal votes by whipping up many center-right voters through fear-mongering.

Or, to play on the Scooby-Doo analogy, when Old Man Crenshaw has his day in court his defense team thoroughly discredits Scooby and pals by playing on the local jury’s fear of drugs and hippies. When shaggy is called to the witness stand, he is too baked and paranoid to put together a single coherent sentance. Scooby sneaks into the judge’s chamber and, overcome by the munchies, eats his lunch, which gets him tazered and locked up for the duration of the trial. And all of Velma’s wit and Fred’s well-dressed good looks aren’t enough to sway the jury. Unsympathetic to our erstwhile heroes, the jury decides in favor of Old Man Crenshaw.

“Over on HuffPo the anger of the Obamabots towards us is palpable. I dont know how many times I’ve read comments saying the reason all this horrible Republican stuff is happening is because we progs were so critical of Mr. Wonderful that we convinced folk to not vote for his team last year. They are extremely frustrated and the White House has convinced them to be frustrated at us.”

Really? I only rarely read HuffPo, so I’ll have to check this out. I did see their coverage of Gifford’s vote the other day and was surprised at the promotion of what to me was a vile and exploitive bit of political theater. The uncritical disconnect between an espoused progressive agenda and applauding the recent debt crisis vote was stunning. The Dem propaganda machine knows just as well as the Reps how to push emotional buttons to great effect. Well, divide and conquer.

The framing by the WH reminds me of hearing Dems tell folks not to vote for Nader for the lesser evil reasons, etc. Scare tactics on par with the Reps. Indeed. If someone has to scare you, threaten you with a boogieman to get you to do what they want, they ain’t got nothing.

face it, the Admin is the B team (Repugs are the F team).
These guys can’t wrap their heads around their own mistakes.
I’ve met guys like this in the business world before.
Half bright; they start with the premise they are GoooD!
And when they come up short, well, nobody could have done better.
Point out their mistakes and you are not a team player.

and the Admin is mostly a boys club.

Good call.

I’ve started calling that lesser evil argument the 3rd Line of Defense.

1st Line of Defense: The stuff Obama is doing is actually good. He’s playing chess while they’re playing checkers.

2nd Line of Defense: Ok, the stuff Obama is doing is pretty bad, BUT he had no choice because we failed him by ____________________. (Some fill in the blank options are: didn’t vote, were too critical, didn’t organize and force him.)

3rd Line of Defense: Ok, it’s pretty bad and it’s not our fault, BUT we’ve got to support the lesser of two evils, after all Michele Bachmann is batshit crazy.

4th Line of Defense: Ok, it’s pretty bad and it’s not our fault and, yeah, there really isn’t much difference between them and the Republicans, BUT we can take over the Democratic Party and make it what we want, look at what the Tea Party did with the Republicans, we just have to get more involved. Of course to be taken seriously we’ve got to support whomever the party actually ends up nominating NOW and actually do GOTV work and volunteer and give our money.

“Point out their mistakes and you are not a team player.”

Too true. What you point out is the typical response of institutionalized managers whose rank within the structure provides them an unchecked and unreflected upon power imbalance. They interpret sympathetic criticism as an act of disloyalty that they can not abide.

Excellent run down.

What all of these lines of defense have in common for those who apply them is the assumption that the political system is basically sound. If just the right tweaks, messaging, experts and leaders can be found, the system can be made to produce results favorable to the greatest public good.

I just don’t see that. I think we are dealing with a sausage machine. And no matter what modifications to the machine or ingredients we dump into the hopper, ever time the handle is cranked out pops another sausage. What those interested in getting shed of Corporatism (I won’t say Fascism, in deference to your reasons above :) ) and the destructive effects and unsustainability of Capitalism–which I suspect quite a few US citizens are interested in, no matter their political stripe–need is a new machine.

OOOH! Dat’s da wast stwaw!

IMHO I think you are right on the mark. I have said that Fascism has always been around in the USA. I think it has been laying low for a while waiting for a chance to rejuvenate. We already have corporate fascism it’s just a short jump to being full blown. The Super Congress is just a first step in that direction. From what I have been reading it’s closer than we think. My 2 cents.

Clap louder, you fools, clap louder, clap louder! Why won’t you clap louder!

A great must read. I would also recommend “The Nazi Hydra in America” it’s an eye opening account of history that will never be taught in schools. We are blind if we think it can’t happen here.

So, who came out looking like fucking retards in the debt deal? Who came out looking like fucking retards in the negotiations last December?

Similarly, the problem for the White House is not that a few hippie bloggers are pointing out the clear and obvious problems with their policies. The problem is that the policies are bad, and their unpopularity is due to the fact that they fails to deliver what they promise.

Ah, you mean the whole “Jane Hamsher singlehandedly made Vic Snyder retire and 29 million 2008 Obama voters stay home in 2010″ nonsense? (And notice that they never ever talk about any of the other FDL writers — it’s always Jane, as if FDL is Jane and Jane alone. Lanny Davis must have emphasized that in the talking points sheets on FDL that he handed out to various Veal Pen members.)

The 4th line of defense is actually almost true. Except that the conservative takeover of the GOP happened in the 1960s; the purging of the Rockefeller social-liberal types started in earnest after Watergate. (They never forgave Lowell Weicker for having enough of a conscience and a backbone to favor impeaching Nixon, and spent fourteen years working to boot him out until they finally succeeded in 1988 by the expedient of backing Joe Lieberman.)

The TEA Party actually did start out as a genuine conservative/libertarian third party, separate from the Republican Party. But then Dick Armey and the Kochs were tasked with assimilating it back into the GOP fold — Republicans only like and support actual third parties when those parties take votes from Democrats, not from Republicans — and that’s what happened; people wishing to run as “tea party” candidates have to do so as Republicans, and honor the GOP party platform, if they want a shot at any of that yummy Koch campaign money. But in the process, the original secular and libertarian parts of the movement got flushed, and were replaced with the Fundie-favoring mindset the Teeps have today. (There are still a lot of old-school “real tea party” groups out there, but their voices are drowned out by the Kochtopus.)

This is the most hilarious thing I have read in years, Jon. I am laughing so hard my entire office wants to know what the hell I’m doing in here. That third paragraph is one of the funniest things I have ever read. James Thurber, Dave Barary, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, would all hand you kudos on this piece.

Yeah that was pretty awesome.

Don’t know whether or not he stopped smoking, but he’s obviously mainlining a combination of Bush/Clinton/Milton Friedman meth.

The con Obama (and really most of our elected Democrats) run is to talk like progressives to the appropriate audiences while actually governing in support of the big money players who donate to their campaigns. Their basic calculation is that liberals will be happy with pretty words about principles and positions, while major campaign contributors (i.e. knowledgeable insiders) pay attention to only policy results. I think Obama knew from very early on that he was extremely well positioned to run this scam.

What these politicians fear is having their little con game exposed to the average voter, who pays very little attention to politics and gets most of their information from a corrupt corporate media that is smart enough to not play up the whole what Democrats say and what they do are two different things angle…

hall of fame post.