I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Without shrill, conservatives have merely a lack of facts.
Shrill is as shrill does...
Funny how folks like Alter seem afraid of sounding shrill, while folks like Safire, Krathammer, Will, Sullivan, Reynolds, ad nauseum have no worries at all about sounding FUCKING INSANE.
Goldwater was the last conservative in this country. There aren't any more conservatives. Conservativism has been replaced by a new sadistic breed.
Fuck him. This is like playing a game with lemmings-do you not realize that "everyone" wouldn't "know" that certain things were unfit for gentlemanly discussion if you wouldn't en masse march in locktep for the NeoNazis? The reason for this great fear of telling the truth is that you "journalists" are all complicit, and these things would magically start to be discussable as soon as you get over your fake fear of discussion!
Let's not forget or forgive the piles of dead Iraqi children for whom these crises of conscience come too late. All very well for these pieces of shit to suddenly realize now they might have been wrong, but the war could've been stopped if they were not willing accomplices in the destruction.
Wow, two posts for Friday and we're only 25 minutes into it.
Do I smell major turkee gratitude?
Shrill? Fucking shrill? Jesus Christ have they ever listened to themselves?
It isn't even just journalists, or just Bush critics... there's something built into this country (perhaps human nature, I don't travel enough to know) but as soon as someone - in any social situation - starts to "rant" in any way, just watch the people around the ranter turn off. The message doesn't matter, it's all about the tone. Which is pretty damn stupid. Someone could be ranting and come up with a cure for cancer and the people listening to him would just be smiling and nodding, waiting for him to stop talking so they can go back to "polite" conversation.
A,
Link the america coming together blog... it is getting better! http://actforvictory.org/act.php/blog/index
Better shill than shrill, eh?
Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said if all Pelosi could offer is taunting U.S. troops "by saying they are dying needlessly and are risking their lives on a shallow mission, then she should just go back to her pastel-colored condo in San Francisco and keep her views to herself."
A Pelosi spokeswoman said that the congresswoman lives in a red-brick house.
telling the truth=shrill
shreiking at the top of their lungs in favor of the annihilation of hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) on the basis of a laughable nonthreat=the very voice of reason
fuck them
T.K.
You are so right.
I used to know a guy that was brilliant but he pissed everyone off and they didn't think he was brilliant - they just wanted to kick his ass.
Shrill? Fucking shrill? Jesus Christ have they ever listened to themselves?
First thing that came to mind when I read that:
Moronic Brownshirt Pharisee: "That Jesus Christ character is awfully shrill in his unbalanced criticisms of the moneylenders."
Moronic Brownshirt Sadducee: "He's consumed by irrational Sanhedrin hatred."
By the way, Atrios, don't ever stop being shrill.
"It was the moment of truth for Chalabi, and it was literally a moment. It was over almost the minute it happened," said a senior U.S. official who worked with Chalabi and served in the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad. "Compared to [Charles] de Gaulle's march to Paris [to liberate France], Chalabi's march to Baghdad was a stone that went into the water without a splash."
tk-compare that importance of polite conversation to any other violent expansionary power in history. The truth is never polite, and murder beyond a cetain minimum can be banished from reality by its vulgarity.
It's like the classic perpetrator game used by wife beaters and child abusers everywhere: I fuck you over, and if you complain then i shake my head and say what's wrong with you? why are you so angry? why are you so shrill? -Anything to change the topic from their abusive, fucked up, reckless, irresponsible behavior. People learn this shit in familes when they tip-toe around and make excuses for abuse. I've never seen such perpetrator behavior than has been on display by these incompetent, bullying, low-life bastards that have occupied the White House for the last four years.
And just like the battered wife and the fucked over kids--the only thing that works is standing up to them and calling them on what they really are.
Otherwise? You keep getting beaten up and you feel crazy.
Sorry for the rant. I'm just so sick of these people and sick of the chicken-shit tolerance of their behavior. Atrios, thank you for this blog. You are the best.
you can never talk outside the current frame, you can only try to expand its borders. But, frankly, I think these are shrill times.
Exactly. The current frame is, of course, the problem and needs to be stretched all out of where it is now. It is a frame that allows only (well, of course not only, but primarily) for small, provincial, and uncritical journalistic analysis.
Better shill than shrill, eh?
BLT
Right! And I deeply resent his ruminations about why more people can't see what incompetent clowns they are.
Alter, you're part of the problem.
If you want to be called shrill, try defending the concept of "Peak Oil", and especially the end of cheap oil.
Or Global Warming. Let's not forget how SHRILL those scientists are for predicting climactic change...
K&Y, it's because polite conversation doesn't require thought or self-reflection. It's more American to say "I'm never wrong" than to hear someone say something and think, "Wow, that makes a lot of sense."
I did have a point but failed to make it I guess. It does matter how you frame the message and if you come off in an inappropreate way for the forum in which you are operating than your message is lost. Of course the people that control the media don't want their scribes to get too far off the reservation and if people like Alter get sloppy no one wins. I hope that the climate is now favorable for more "wacking". If it sells, it is.
Everyone on the left should be calm and sensible like me.
Alter isn't one to say anything about anything.
http://www.exile.ru/190/
letter_f...om_america.html
Scroll down and look for his name, along with his article in 2001, "Time to Think About Torture".
There aren't any clear thinkers, liberal or conservative or whatever, in the papers. Save Sy Hersh and Paul Krugman.
i'd like to shrill george up the ass. and al his minions.
GOD DAMMIT, I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!
Gumchewer - tone does matter. But we've reached a point in society where tone has almost entirely replaced content. And when someone offers a God-honest liberal opinion, you have 10 conservative pundits shrieking, "You're ranting! You're ranting!"
Reagan killed the word "liberal" and the right has been reaping the benefits ever since...
Funny how folks like Alter seem afraid of sounding shrill, while folks like Safire, Krathammer, Will, Sullivan, Reynolds, ad nauseum have no worries at all about sounding FUCKING INSANE.
You got that right, Thersites.
I'm hoping that if enough people start being really loud and shrill, americans will wake up and start noticing the truth. C'mon journalists, don't be afraid- start screaming cause the sky really is falling.
I've been modifying some changes on some of my plays (Andy Kaufman thinks it's a big deal to take 20 years off, try 388 years!):
first thing we do let's kill all the pundits
you like?
Hee, hee, shrill. I am so strident at times that I can make Bartcop seem shy and retiring...
When they call you "shrill" it means you're REALLY hit a home run.
But chortling along with Commander Codpiece during his Duh, no WMDs here! routine they're smooth as velvet.
The White House Press Corpse, at your his service.
Bill, the pundits in question are willing fifth columnists subverting our country to a destructive, vastly murderous agenda. Nor is this mob hatred. The guy doesn't hold an unpopular opinion or a opinion different than ours. The fuckers were spoiling for a war they will sacrifice not a whit for.
Darn, this Halo doesn't do strikethroughs.
TK, I guess my point is that tone has always mattered. And I would agree that we have reached a point at which we shouldn't worry about such "niceties" as tone when the content is so gravely important but if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.
But as I type this I am reminded of the foaming of the freepers and I just want to say "oh, fuck it".
I'm the editor of a suburban Dallas weekly, and have hit Bush on Iraq again and again since early 2003. (in addition to showing up at downtown Dallas antiwar protests.)
I've been called things besides shrill by some readers. A few have cancelled subscriptions.
But, the managing editor of our newspaper group knows that I show enough business sense to write columns about other topics in between the Iraq ones, so I'm on no big leash.
Hell, our owner was Bob Dole's 1996 Texas campaign treasurer (but no big friend of the Bushes). He doesn't say no.
So fuck Jonathan Alter. Fuck him. If I can go out on a limb for $30K a year in "Bush country" he can sure as fuck do it for $100K in New York.
Fuck him, and Atrios, next time you talk to him in person on radio or whatever, tell him exactly what I'm writing now.
I could e-mail him, I suppose, but he'd give me some bullshit form response.
Better yet, give me his phone number and I'll tell him to get a pair of fucking conejos.
One thing that we step over, and might be a saving grace of this entire discussion, is the fact that the press would be wildly and horribly wrong about the next election.
I live in a very conservative town in upstate NY (don't be fooled, my town could very easily slip into the Carolinas and fit right in), and yet, there is palpable anger toward Bush up here. If he got 25% of the vote in the town, I'd be shocked. The press has been horribly wrong in predicting many elections in the past (Dewey, anyone?) and we might be seeing the same thing right now. But since it's still popular not to be shrill, we might not see the actual anger toward Bush until he garners about 42% (I'm adding 6-7% due to Diebold/Florida miscounting) in the election and loses badly.
I think momentum is moving toward what you describe TK. I hope every day.
...give me his phone number and I'll tell him to get a pair of fucking conejos.
I think this is an extremely good idea.
woot, why is there a picture of kerry with a booby at lucianne.com?
Jon Alter is right; you can't take too big of a step at a time. Remember that about 40% of the public still thinks that Saddam had WMD's, was in bed with al-Quaida, and was a threat to the US.
Nevermind the craziness of these beleifs, that's what a substantial portion of the US public beleives (especially those who rely on FOX as their source of information).
This same percentage also believes a bunch of other crazy stuff, which I won't go into here, but it revolves around a landing pad for jesus.
Which is primarily what this war is about anyway.
What if he doesn't land? What then?
there are so many good writers who post on this board that should have Alter's job, since he doesn't seem to know how to write what he really thinks.
Moronic Brownshirt Pharisee: "That Jesus Christ character is awfully shrill in his unbalanced criticisms of the moneylenders."
sdf, I'm a big fan of those who can effectively use the words of that Shrill Jewish liberal, Jesus.
Meanwhile, Juan Cole tears Silly Sully a new asshole.
Cole also reams that stupid prick Kaus, but that's shooting fish in a barrel.
In any case, the rout's on. Bring a rope...
Yeah Jonathan, don't go all colmes on us now.
Nevermind the craziness of these beleifs, that's what a substantial portion of the US public beleives
yeah, guess we have a moral obligation to let the guy next store think that all gays are child molesters, Jews are weather-controlling vampires, or black people are lazy barbarian half-apes...
if that's what most people think, it must be right, and the last thing to affect public opinion like that would be, say, a factual report from some journalist...
Steve, you should tell him to go fucking BUY a pair with his six-figure salary.
woot, why is there a picture of kerry with a booby at lucianne.com?
Ummm....Anonymous, if that's your name, maybe because its the internet, hmmm, you know, at any point you can like..go.. link..to... something...and... post... it... somewhere.. else..
James Hogan: I can't help but believe, had Alter, et al, been doing their jobs those percentages wouldn't be that high. they got rolled by the Bush war juggernaut and the only reason they make any mew of criticsm at Bush now is that those of us who always knew it was a stupid wrongheaded idea have been proven more right than wrong.
"it" being the entire fucking idea of a George W Bush Presidency.
Alter, thanks for clarifying that you're a chickenshit.
I've lost some business for expressing my opinions. But, I don't regret it. What I regret is that we have scared suckups like yourself in the news business.
Clearly woot, a troll who has always in the past sought to disrupt our discussions with his boobies, and who has never been particularly leftist (or rightist; he's more of a "bothist"), is one of them. This is the only possible explanation, unless lucianne.com had something to do with the right-wing obsession wth the sexual habits of their opponents...
GOD, I MISS NIXON!!!!!
Remember when Republicans were assholes, but at least they were slightly smart assholes?
SHIT, I EVEN MISS REAGAN!!!
Nevermind the craziness of these beleifs, that's what a substantial portion of the US public beleives
if that's what most people think, it must be right, and the last thing to affect public opinion like that would be, say, a factual report from some journalist...
kei & yuri | Email | Homepage | 05.21.04 - 1:57 am | #
I'm just trying to get you to see that some people don't see this the way you do, or that I do. (Most of the people who don't agree with you don't even come here.) Screaming at people, and insulting them, unless you have the facts on your side, isn't going to get you anywhere.
Sooner or later, you will be asked to produce your case. That's all I'm saying here.
had Alter, et al, been doing their jobs those percentages wouldn't be that high. they got rolled by the Bush war juggernaut and the only reason they make any mew of criticsm at Bush now is that those of us who always knew it was a stupid wrongheaded idea have been proven more right than wrong.
Look folks, I agree that most of the media got this war wrong, and I agree that history is going to come down hard on this idiocy. The most important thing right now is to put a stop to the nightmarish Iraq occupation as soon as possible, and I don't give a fuck who is or was right or wrong and certainly don't give a fuck about national prestige or anything else at this point. Right now, I'll take Alter or Will or Brock or anybody who will advance us one more inch out of this ditch that we have driven ourselves into. That some people saw the light later than we did should be the least of our concerns. That too many will see the light toolate should worry us. I don't think that it's too late yet, but time is drawing short.
Sooner or later, you will be asked to produce your case.
Too bad folks like Alter didn't demand Bush make a sane case for war a couple of years ago when it might have mattered.
Speaking of Saffire being fucking insane, y'all see his latest columb wherein he says the recent tablespoon of sarin found in that Iraq shell shows the whole WMD question isn't quite answered? Do fucking what, there, Will? They found about as much sarin - which isn't considered a "weapon of mass destruction", a tired and much-abused phrase if there ever was one - as mayonaise I put in the cole slaw at work. It wasn't exactly a serious threat to the well being of the U.S. of good ol' A.
Tone does mean a lot. I go off on rants all the time. People who know me well know it's time to pay attention, because at the very least, I'm entertaining when The Preacher comes out to play. Others, however, tend to back away slowly. Doesn't impress the chicks, either.
But guys like Krugman or Hersh ain't "shrill"; they've got a point of view they can express intelligently and rationally. If anything, most liberals are too accomidating to the viewpoints of others. The conservative pundit, as a general rule, doesn't like to be questioned. An afternoon of Limbaugh or an evening of O'Reilly will show that. For them, it's less an intellectual journey than grasping tightly to deeply held beliefs.
On a lighter note, my mother - a lifelong Republican (post LBJ, anyway) - told me today she's voting for Kerry. She said it's all too much for her, the lies, the mendacity, the arrogance. She says it hurts her heart to think of what the people in Iraq are having to go through and what the soldiers are having to do. She says she regrets ever thinking the war was justified.
I'm an easy-going sort and fully willing to allow others to admit the error of their ways. It's just highly grating to hear far too many over-paid bloviators hold on desperately to a false prophet.
holy crap, dave, damn right Cole bitch-slapped Sully. His last 2 paragraphs were devastating.
...I take it as a compliment that the Right is so afraid of this observation (the recent fate of the Marsh Arabs is not being discussed anyplace but the much-maligned Guardian) that they feel it necessary to resort to character assassination ("unreliable," "no moral compass") in my regard, in hopes of marginalizing me quick before the observation gains traction.
"Saving" the Iraqi Shiites was maybe the last rationale for their war that hadn't been discredited. Since April 2 they haven't been saving them any more. They have been killing them.
Hogan-having "a different opinion" matters when that opinion is a screeching bloodlust for war.
Holy shit, the Jews control the weather? Far out...someone tell 'em we need rain in Georgia in a bad, bad way.
Dave, thanks for the link. Haven't seen you posting much here lately (maybe it's because there are so many damn (welcome) people here lately. But I've really come to appreciate you, you shrill bastard.
Better yet, give me his phone number and I'll tell him to get a pair of fucking conejos.
You're going to give him two rabbits? Better to give the spineless fuck a pair of testicles, don't you think?
This is just too rich to not share.
To all reading this comment section, please be advised that this is from the editors page at Lucianne.com, referenced earlier. I believe they give new meaning to the words 'insulated speech suppressing fascists' with this laughable pronouncment to "STFU":
"Reminder: Lucianne.com does not allow for the discussion of what is happening on other message boards. We are not interested. Further discussion of that type will result in the loss of posting privileges.
We are extremely tolerant of people's personal opinions and we are happy to offer people a place to express their opinions — however, we want people to stay ON TOPIC and not get into personal debates. To facilitate this, we ask you not to get into conversations with other posters. Do not address your posts to another poster, either by name or by post number.
Use of the term 'STFU' or a similar phrase will not be tolerated - no exceptions"
OT: Oh, and how about the weather? I think I just broke all of those rules! And with that, I'll just say that these people are so lost and that I'm just glad that I am not one of "them!"
You want rain you pay like everyone else. Look at Saudi Arabia, you bastard, get with the program.
James Hogan: I can't help but believe, had Alter, et al, been doing their jobs those percentages wouldn't be that high. they got rolled by the Bush war juggernaut and the only reason they make any mew of criticsm at Bush now is that those of us who always knew it was a stupid wrongheaded idea have been proven more right than wrong.
"it" being the entire fucking idea of a George W Bush Presidency.
Nick Carraway | Email | Homepage | 05.21.04 - 2:01 am | #
I completely agree with you. We should all remember that one of Bush's henchmen remarked that "you don't roll out a new product in August," when they had in mind the war to commence the following March. It was almost like they were selling soap or something.
I do fault all the press for not catching on. They knew full well what was in store--they had the background briefings-- but only a few said something about it. It would be good to remember that the Washington Post was in full war cry about that time, and had all of its editorialists going full tilt to drive it through.
Let me speak a little out of school here: What I say may get me banished from this website, but so be it; it is the truth.
This war was waged for Israeli interests. Everyone knows it. Whether it actually began with "A plan to secure the realm" (The 1996 Likud program) or from something else is irrelevant at this point.
There is not a single thing that any American president could have done that would have tarnished America's image in the Middle East that would have been worse than this escapade.
Except sliming up against Ariel Sharon and telling him that the US supported his plan to exile most of the palestinians to gaza. He did that too.
The only thing worse that that is that GWB is going to be reelected, and will take that as an endorsement of his policies.
He did the politics right, at least for now. Later, another story.
You want rain you pay like everyone else. Look at Saudi Arabia, you bastard, get with the program.
Well, shit...hey, how about just convincing my brother to let me turn the goddamn air conditioning on, then. I swear, my blood's too thick for this climate. I've never been able to explain myself properly...
al jazeera reporter killed in Kerbala.
4 Iraqi police killed in Baquba.
Still early in the day. Reports from the Death Zone to be continued...
y'all see his latest columb wherein he says the recent tablespoon of sarin found in that Iraq shell shows the whole WMD question isn't quite answered?
A teaspoon of sarin
Makes the hegemon go 'round!
Mary Poppins! Mary Poppins!
It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.
-- W, Arlington Heights, Illinois, Oct. 24, 2000, from dubyaspeak.com
I swear, my blood's too thick for this climate. I've never been able to explain myself properly...
Channeling HST are we? No problem, it's necessary this late at night.
A spoonful of Sarin makes the hegemon go round
WMD Found! WMD Found!
An excuse for Miller, but Chalabi goes down
Chalabi goes down Chalabi goes down!
In a most frightful way!
Now, preoccupying ourselves OTishly with our last comment, and taking the presupposition that Bush is not stupid but rather deliberately secreting coded messages, and noting the unmistakable reference to the most parodied of Jack Chick tracts, "Dark Dungeons"...creepy.
Remember that old t-shirt?
ANOTHER SHRILL VOICE FOR CHOICE
I don't believe the idea can be copyrighted, so start printing up as many variations as you like.
I disagree with DeLong in this particular: I don't want a reporter to give me his opinion. I want him to give me a straightforward accounting of the facts, unvarnished and unaltered by embellishment or omission. The problem with the media has been, even more than distortion and regurgitating spin, the failure to fully report all the facts, and the out and out refusal to even look for facts or report on many important stories and issues.
We just want the facts, man.
k&y - I used to just tune Bush out every time I heard him speak, it grated on the ears and sounded like he was dumber than dirt. Over the past year however, I've been listening and watching carefully, as he poises mid-sentence like an awkward, drunken trapeze artist searching for the next...safe...word to carry him through to the next mute pause. And I think I'm now seeing someone stupid like a fox. It's like he's grasping for the least legally entangling phrase. Contemplating the Hague as he pauses, perhaps. Or at least thinking of how Alberto Gonzalez will REALLY scold him this time if he puts his verbal foot wrong.
Backslider - congratulations on your mother! We have to keep doing this one voter at a time, if we have to. But there's something especially heartwarming when it's someone close to you. I'll never forget how I felt when my mom told me, 'you know, I wish I had seen the truth sooner, about Nixon, about Vietnam.' My godfather who just passed away, a guy who once told me in anger 'they should have killed a few more at Kent State' made a remarkable turnaround at the end of the Vietnam War. And before he died he told me what he thought of these current clowns in high places: "They're just a bunch of thugs and thieves in suits."
Wingers continue using Newts dictionary whenever they can't offer reasoned arguements. Best answers from k-draggers on local angry male radio---Why are you being shrill?--You are being hysterical.--That's just being pc. and the best way to explain why you are wrong; you're a liberal. How many generations must we go through to rid ourselves of these mouth-breathing fucks?
Our Chimperor is the Cover Ape on the Time Magazine.
And not in the way he'd like to be.
Oops, that was a mistake (I can admit it) of a link -- although also tragic. Here's our Chimperor Cover Ape
Oops, that was a mistake (I can admit it) of a link -- although also tragic. Here's our Chimperor Cover Ape
Let us not go quiet into that dark night,
Let us fucking rage against the dying of the light.
Didn't this use to be our country?
No, those who say that accusing someone else of being "shrill" regardless of tone, just to kill the messenger with the message, are right. It's similar to the use of mandatory "niceness" to shut particularly women up, in conversations. (That is, when we're not just told we're unfeminine or bitches.)
I mean, c'mon - you think Limbutt isn't *shrill*? Savage *isn't* shrill? All their little local clones aren't effing shrill?
If they're not shrill, but someone who says earnestly that this is a wrong direction *is*, then the word has lost all meaning and is merely a rhetorical bludgeon.
Which is the case, and I will say so without fear of being called shrill, since the trick as Sun Tzu often said of winning in death ground is fighting, but also you should not let yourself get there in the first place: don't let your enemy define the terms of the battle.
We have been letting them do it often enough. Let's turn the tables on them - we see how easy it is to do it, to make Limbutt and his ilk, Goldberg and the rest, gibber and cry by simply mocking them articulately. It's time to damn the torpedoes.
(And for the record, I think that Godwin's Law has contributed to the state we're in, by shutting down all discourse with a "be nice" rule for so long, so that neoNazis were able to build their hives in the woodworked unchecked, because we were too genteel and civilized to admit that they might exist, something so uncouth and icky, like marital rape or lynchings. Orcinus has said much the same in re pro journalism's unwillingness to treat skinhead/militias as a serious threat. From what Europeans I have known have said, that's exactly how they got started/enabled the first time back in the '30s...)
Ya, for press corps, it's all about his reelction, not our countrys honor or dignity.
OMG, attaturk -- I was SURE this was photoshopped until time.com confirmed it.
I have just pissed my pants.
1. Ya know, he's looking just a leetle old and ragged.
2. But also just a little too tan.
And my vote for if I'd recommend it: a total 5.
Spoiler for a Rand book.
Not to sound like an objectivist, but in the novel about the guy with the fountain coming out of his head, there's a character whose newspaper has a lot of influence, but only as long as he keeps it banal and evil (in Rand's terms). As soon as he tries to use his power for good, he gets dumped on his ass.
Maybe they think that'll happen to them if they go over to the "sane" side.
The Chimpster is King of the Hill.
To deny it is silly and shrill.
We must hasten his way
As his horse goes astray,
And he rides toward an ass-breaking spill.
Lime Rickey - Hats off to you! What genius!
As far as being "shrill" is concerned, someone else used the word "hysterical", and I think that's one of the underlying connotations those who call critics "shrill" would like to impute. In its original meaning, from the Greek, referring to a uterus. "They" (wingnuts) are "manly" and "we" (evil liberals) are both "effeminate" (see, we agree with civil rights for gays) and, of course, "decadent." This is stuff straight out of the Apollonian/Dionysian polarity, especially of the Thomas Mann typology. It is, naturally, yet another false dichotomy, with heavy Manicheaen overtones.
Sorry, it's late...I meant to type "Manichaean".
Shorter Washington Times:
What about the SCHOOLS!
Shorter Republican Rep. Peter T. King:
Killing "born" babies is holier than killing "unborn" babies:
"Anyone who knows anything about Catholic theology knows you cannot equate abortion with the war in Iraq," he said. "Abortion is always intrinsically evil but, as for war in Iraq, that involves prudential judgment. You have the moral right to make a decision on what is the best policy to follow."
http://www.washtimes.com/nationa...14559-
7613r.htm
Even Shorter Rep. Peter T. King:
"I'm a Whore"
Well then, Alter and his ilk had better find a way of informing the public of the alarming facts without ranting. One would think a pro could do this.
the underlying reason that atrios has a good point is that middle 'murca thinks Democrats complain too much and don't have their own ideas...this obviously isn't true, but it is their perception that counts, and right now the sheeple want good solutions not complainers!
only the rethug complaint department is accepted by 'murca; not the progressive complaint department - this is simply because our complaints are deep and our solutions are difficult...the sheeple cannot grasp depth and certainly the sheeple do not like difficult and complicated solutions (except when those are warmongering in a racist context)
Bye the Bye,
Digby has a very good article showing Alter's mindset in the Fall of 2001 all as part of an argument that frankly as a nation we are just as intemperate and irrational as others, and often far more immature.
hmmmm he has a short memory.
when we went down a road of phantom scandals and 70 millions dollars of investigations for nothing.
now that was shrill.
Shrill?
Let's be honest with ourselves, there are a lot of Democrats, even on this board, who are uncomfortable with and and can hardly wait to shut up the shrill(truth-tellers) in their own party, in favor of the bland lie-enablers. Dean? Kucinich?
The 'shrill' get mutilated by The System.
"The System" our tight yellow asses! Look, fucking lemmings, the thing you are afraid of is all of you. If you did not willingly act as a collective censor, you would have nothing to fear. There is no other external thing for you to blame.
I live in a very conservative town in upstate NY (don't be fooled, my town could very easily slip into the Carolinas and fit right in), and yet, there is palpable anger toward Bush up here.
TK
I know what you mean... I'm also upstate, my county is so owned by the Rs that we Ds are considered harmless, albeit shrill 
, curiosities. While the capos are still toeing the line, the rank-and-file are going off the reservation en masse. Probably the most common reason I hear is related to VA benefits - (approximate quotes) "When I signed up for Korea, the Army and I made a deal. They can't renege now." Also - "It's shameful that the troops can't even get body armor/armored Humvees/functional small arms." Further - "I voted for Bush the first time, and his dad, and Reagan, but never again. Maybe someday the Republicans will retake the Republican Party." Yet further - "If I keep talking about those shitheads, I really will have a stroke. Ya been up to Newcomb lately?"
No. I don't want us to be shrill. Shrill is what the rightwing has become. We need to find another style: attention-getting, more effective, unrelenting and truthful.
One day there will be a real tipping point to this insanity. If you pile shit high enough it will fall over. I hope I don't hear any "journalists" say the had anything to do with the toppling of these Jesus freak facists, because that would take Nancy Pelosi size balls.
It's a convenient excuse for his earlier blindness as to the true nature of Bush and his administration, but it's true that conversions usually happen slowly, rather than in one fell swoop. We should applaud progress, no matter how slow. Another thing that no one has mentioned on this thread - Alter reportedly mentioned that he is either now, or has recently undergone chemotherapy. I'm sure that a cancer diagnosis not only concentrates the mind on the issue of mortality - it makes having health benefits vital. It would be a bad time for Alter to lose his job.
Trust the folks at the Corner to se no difference at all between AAR Alter and Newsweek Alter. Here's Tim Graham: "Apparently, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter started venting on Air America about how the Bushies are "clowns" and "astonishingly incompetent." The only mistake one can make in assessing these remarks is believing that he ISN'T this opinionated in print."
What an idiot.
Bush/Cheney `04 "Evil Clowns in times of change..."
The age of spin control is over and the age of spinning out of control has begun.
Paraphrasing Mark Twain:
I have a firm opinion
You are emotionally biased
He is shrill
Thirdness is all, says Charles Pierce.
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