January 2010 archive

You can live blog it here! I will be live blogging one next door on WWL.

You have to take a sip of your beverage of choice every time he says “Our Safety” or “Security.”

Make it a long slug if he says “Wall Street” and “Reform” in the same breath without even a touch of a twitch.

Do a shot every time he says “Grow the economy,” or the “Fight.”

A double shot for every time he says “Moving Forward.”

If he mentions that the HCR bill is a good thing in any way, forget the shot glass go ahead and drain half the bottle.

Hit the bong once for any mention of Al CIAduh, and shot gun it to the person on your left if that mention is followed by a “Bin Laden.”

One line of sweet Peruvian Pink if he says ‘Bipartisanship” or “Reaching Across the Aisle.”

Go straight for the mescaline if he saber rattles Iran.

One square of Mr Natural blotter acid if he talks of war in Yemen.

One MDMA if he speaks of “Israel’s Security.”

Tap a vein for street heroine if he claims “Success” in his first year.

If he blames liberals? Just shoot your TV’s.

I figure the live blog will last less than 4 minutes before we all pass out, in desparate need of our stomachs pumped.

The Oracle has Spoken. Be here at 9 for the show. Heh.

Administrations should befriend the locals — they’ll need them in hard times

By Sally Quinn, The Washington Post

Wednesday, January 27, 2010; 9:34 AM

I get asked almost every day how Washington life has changed since the newcomers came to town. The answer is: not at all. In fact, it’s probably duller than it’s ever been. This is nobody’s fault, per se, nor is it necessarily a bad thing. These are difficult times, and it’s just the way it is.

Years ago, the city looked to the White House to set the social tone. Whatever style the president and first lady favored was the style adopted. The Kennedys enthralled the town with their youth, exuberance and glamour. They had round skirted tables at a state dinner, and suddenly everyone had round tables. The Johnsons came in with their down-home Texas barbecues and you couldn’t go out at night without being served ribs and baked beans. It wasn’t until Nixon that people started to do their own thing. He introduced U-shaped tables, like the Russians, and instructed the White House guards to wear imperial hats. Most of those close to the president (except for Henry Kissinger) were distanced from the establishment. Inevitably, hostility toward the White House grew.

…

Indulge me for a moment on the topic of our cultural bellwether, “Avatar.” In the film, the Pandora natives worship the goddess Eywa, who is the spirit that connects them to their planet. If there is such a goddess in Washington, I believe, it is the spirit of community. Those who live here want to welcome new friends. Washingtonians are open and willing to invite newcomers and make them part of their lives. If they can’t do that, there is automatically a distance that is created so that if — no, make that when — the administration gets into trouble, there is too little sympathy or support.

When an administration begins to express hostility to those in the community, the Na’vi pull out their arrows with the poison tips and begin taking aim. The rougher things get, the more members of the administration need to reach out, not withdraw. Nobody has ever been able to master this yet. Consequently everyone suffers — needlessly.

h/t digby

So tonight we find out whether the Democratic Party embraces Populism…….or death.

For eight years We The People were under assault. Tax cuts for the rich made the poor suffer. Rampant deregulated greed on WallSt and in Corporate boardrooms made the middle class suffer. lack of health care made everyone suffer. Two wars, on run with criminal negligence and the other just a complete fuck up on every conceivable level made the world, our troops and our budget suffer. Fascist fearmongering made our Constitutional Rights suffer. And of course……torture. Which makes every feeling person suffer the degradation of regressing to our animal nature.

After eight years of The People suffering, and one year of pretending we weren’t and that Republicans were something other than the downright evil bastards that they have proved themselves to undeniably be….

We find out which side the Dems and Obama are on.

They either need to use this occasion to pick up the populist banner and dedicate themselves to helping The People, or to try to take some middle road, try to…..split the difference.

Split the difference with downright evil.

They can either try half assed measures to ameliorate and mitigate the suffering of The People, which won’t work as the past year has taught us, or they can in effect declare war on the forces that are causing The People to suffer.

One leads to victory in 2010 and a step closer to something resembling an age of political Enlightenment, a rejection of what amounts to an insanity of repetition of failed policies and attitudes.

The other, a de facto embrace of all that is wrong with our government by trying to steer a safe middle path between downright evil and the real needs of The People.

The result of that will just be more of the same obviously corrupt, bankrupt and ineffective “reform” that is being touted as the solution…..and they cannot even do that.

They cannot even pass “reform,” because they continue to try to play on the Republican playing field. A playing field that is built on the premises and framing of the folks that brought us eight years of downright evil.

Only to be replaced by an administration that is trying to ignore that fact…That is trying to split the difference between doing what is right and surrendering to the desires of the very entities and forces that caused the problems that are causing the suffering.

You cannot split the difference with evil and sonmehow come up with good.

The evil, the suffering, the ‘reality’ of the Republicans must be rejected, and the greatest Good for the Greatest Number must be embraced.

Or the Democrats are dead in 2010.

Rejected by The People who have NO choice but to reject those who will not serve them. Under our broken political system, which is a cause and reflection of our broken economic system, broken health care system, broken military and foreign policy system….and broken system of what is now an ex democracy.

Fix it or go home, Democrats. That is the message. And you just are NOT going to fix it by splitting the difference with the Republicans and their Corporate masters….without REAL and ‘radical’ change.

Fix it or go home.