All Politics is Personal

pettyfog · Jan 10, 2010

I haven't been posting a lot on here because things are going great from a big picture standpoint.

- There's actually a chance that a conservative {NE style, think McCain but smarter} will take Kennedy's Senate Seat.

- The UN Global Warming IPCC honcho is about to be exposed as the biggest UN crook {in a long series of crooks} since the Oil-For Food scandal. Watch for it in the next few weeks.

- racial politics has reached the point where the slander term no longer holds any weight. Thanks Harry Reid, {and you too, unnamed Colorado Democrat, for that shoeshine picture.}

The Natives are getting restless. Already Hillary Democrats are seeing Rahm Emmanuel for what he always been: A crook and a Thug.

And they are frekain FURIOUS at what the Democrats are doing to the country.

The RNC has finally figured out how to do politics in this season.. stand back and let the process work, while deflecting attention to the inbred beltway idiot-savants.

Spring Tea Parties are about to get a WHOLE LOT bigger and more inclusive of everyone. EXCEPT for those already in power.
-Chris Matthews has done a great job of promoting them by saying that everyone in them is white.

To me... it's important that the Dems keep sticking fingers in the dike until the pressure gets to the point the whole mess destructs. Looks like that will happen. Already they say if Brown wins in MA, they'll push the HCR vote through by delaying him taking the seat.

And then, Ladies and Gentlemen and kids of all ages, the Educated, Informed, Intellectual Money and Power machine, especially the Democratic Party, self-destructs into a million billion pieces!

Yes, God DOES indeed give us the government we NEED, at a given time.
All politics is personal.

Former House Majority Leader Thomas “Tip” O’Neill purportedly said: “All politics is local.”

I disagree. That’s not putting a fine enough point on it. Truth is: All politics is personal.

.......
The engineers and designers in the ivory tower may think that their genius makes the product great, but the woman who buys doesn’t even care about the things that make their hearts thump. She buys for her own personal, peculiar reasons, and the ivory tower boys don’t even know it. They’re playing in a kind of fantasy sports league that sounds weird to her. Yet they go on raking in the dough by convincing others that they know.

What if the experts are wrong? What if the past only teaches us the value of self-fulfilling prophecy? What if the plummeting voter turnout numbers in local elections are the most potent political statement the voter makes? What if the basic calculus in the voting booth comes down to “Which candidate seems most like me?” If there isn’t one like me, then I’ll vote against the one who seems least like me. If all are too distant from that gold standard, I’ll bypass the polling station and head straight for real life at home, or at work.
Click to expand...

But I dont think that is going to happen in 2010. Not if the current government keeps doing what they are doing.

pettyfog · Jan 13, 2010

Spencer that's just about the most incoherent post you've made on politics.

Well, since you blamed the GOP for Dede's nosedive in NY 23. And of course, YOU and the MSM continue to insist she was a moderate but you cant make any case for that.
Let's just call Brown 'Romney-esque'. Try to find Rush complaining he was too moderate when he was running for Governor.

Let me refresh you on Limbaugh's view:

"You dont win by running from the middle." Now consider the venue, in light of the thread title.
Consider that Palin made no comments on Brown's race. So maddening to the Dems that THEY had to try to make a connection.

Consider this:
Union worker admits being paid by Coakley camp…but he’ll vote for Brown

Not a bit surprising.. because 'Politics is Personal'. Too bad the guy was caught on video and he's gonna pay a price.

Answer this:
Who just raised 1.3 million by an on-line GOTV campaign and who just got about the same amount from a big PAC and is getting a fundraiser by beltway lobbyists and fat cats?

Who is Big Corp backing?

Some of those answers, here
notable:

Of the 22 names on the host committee–meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley–17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there’s also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation.

All the leading drug companies have lobbyists on Coakley’s host committee: Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Astra-Zeneca, and more. On the insurance side of things, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, HealthSouth, and United Health all are represented on the host committee.
Click to expand...

Compare that to an email -supposedly- sent by John Kerry to his registered supporters:

Hello Donot,

Not a lot of time left, so here are the three quick reasons why I need you to dig deep and help Martha Coakley in these final crucial days in her slugfest down to the wire battle against the national Republican Party and the powerful special interest bankrolling his campaign:

1. It's not the Massachusetts way to see the seat Ted Kennedy served in for 47 years handed off to someone who has pledged again and again to destroy Ted's life's work - health care reform.

2. It's wrong to allow Republican money to pour into Massachusetts at the last moment to distort, deceive, and divide the way to a Republican win. But the anonymously funded, shadowy right wing groups *are blanketing the air with ads attacking Martha Coakley. they're counting on you taking a pass on this race.

3. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month under George W Bush, and Martha Coakley's opponent didn't stand up and fight. Now he says he'll be "independent." Where was he when people were hurting the most? Martha will fight for jobs inMassachusetts and across the country - and she'll do what she's done as Attorney General: stand up to the scam artists and the sub-prime mortgage pushers and all those who drove our economy into the ditch. **We need her in the Senate to fight alongside us.
Click to expand...

That powerful special interest being the taxpayer?

* I suppose he means teaparty?

** She's investigating Barney Frank?

pettyfog · Jan 31, 2010

Our Reagan is Us

Remember you saw that here, first

Our Reagan is Us

I think I can pretty much reflect the mood and optimism of the yokels:

We dont NEED a central leader. No party will guide us, we will guide the parties.
We'll put up our OWN BIG tent, thank you very much. You may loan us one if you want, and help haul the tent stakes if you want.

Otherwise stay the f**k out'a the way.

And dont tell us what the f**k to think. Or what we think. You apparently dont have a clue.
Or else you think you can get by with giving us careless wit while supporting your 'Feeding at the Trough' Ass-Buddies.
You are the problem. Not us.

Here's more on that from what you might call someone with a finger on the pulse of an Army of Davids.

A combination of influences appear to be giving rise to an age in American politics in which the American people can finally be heard - and heard without the filter of the mainstream media. It's that voice that ultimately may be giving orders as we approach the elections of 2010 and 2012 - and perhaps for some years to follow.
Click to expand...

HatterDon · Jan 31, 2010

wait, wait ... you still believe that the Tea Parties are spontaneous non-partisan events?

How about the Easter Bunny?

this is hilarious. Thanks, after yesterday morning, I needed a good laugh.

pettyfog · Jan 31, 2010

Spontaneous? No. Astroturfed like unions and Progressives, no.

And BTW, the lid may blow off this week and tea party triple:

Read this and comment Don. Who was it didnt 'exchange notes'?

HatterDon · Jan 31, 2010

Wow, you guys STILL think that Ayn Rand hung the moon? You are such a caricature of yourself.

andypalmer · Feb 1, 2010

Don. I have some friends who have participated in tea parties. In some of the cases, a group of disgruntled friends got together and wanted to "parrot" what had been done (but for the same reasons). In one case they did call the local GOP office to find out if one was already planned and ended up being asked to help organized one.

So yeah, there's GOP involvement, at least most of the time, but at least from the word I'm getting, much of the initiative is not coming from them. Also, yes, it is getting support from Independents.

Or, to put it another way, given the current state of the GOP, I think you're giving them far too much credit.

HatterDon · Feb 1, 2010

I'm not crediting the GOP, andypalmer, although even in their current state they're ten times more organized and luced than the Democrats. "Tea Parties USA" is a mini-series conceived, produced, and directed by Fox News. It provides them a ton of programming, and the video can be [and is] used ad nauseum.

pettyfog · Feb 1, 2010

That's bullshit! It could only be made sense of if Fox News somehow coerced people into watching them. You tell me how viewer polling finds 30 % of Dem stated allegiance watches FNN.

Maybe you ought ot read up.. I told you before that Tea Party doesnt trust the GOP, either. Figger out why Tea Party disdains the 'litmus tests'.
You guys SAID YOU WANTED GOP to get more moderate, now you got it and claim it's some sort of Fox conspiracy.
You're allowed your opinion. You aint allowed a 'different truth'.

andypalmer · Feb 1, 2010

Don. Considering that Fox News anchors in some markets made the same kind of lurid comments about "tea bagging" that those of other networks did, I would find it highly unlikely that Fox set the whole thing up. Benefited? Certainly. They know what kind of news will sell to their audience in many markets and like any good marketing, er... News agency, will produce the product that their consumers want to consume.

HatterDon · Feb 1, 2010

andypalmer, Glen Beck has been cheerleading this from the beginning as have the whole crew of "Fox and Friends." Their initial wall-to-wall coverage resulted in a lot of copycat events, and while the first event or two were omnidirectional in their scorn of "Washington SOP," all we see now is Obama Fascist, Where's the Certificate, Kill Obamacare, etc. etc. There's no more criticism of the previous administration, of the effect of 12 years of Republican dominated congress, or of the first bailout.

Now people who are interviewed will tell you, "We're not partisan. We just want to be heard." But all the signs you'll see and all the chanting that is done is anti-Obama. Tea Parties are the essense of partisan. And, because they are "news events," Fox News gets to orchestrate them for maximum coverage.

Fog:

1. "Forced people to watch them?" Nobody forces people to watch "American Idol," but Fox produces that show to get viewers. They produce, direct, and stage manage the Tea Parties for the same reason.

2. Tea partiers -- at least those featured on Fox News cut-ins are NOT moderate anything, never mind moderate Republicans.

pettyfog · Feb 1, 2010

Just keep on the old familiar Don, we hardly recognize ye otherwise...

I Do find it strange that the core constituency for the tea parties strongly agree with your 'fiscal views' of just more than a year ago. Something which you seem to be pretty silent on, now.

Oh, you'll reaffirm that but now there's scant chance of doing anything near term to fix it, the revenues have dropped so far and fast.
I mean WHO KNEW that just scattering money hither and yon without much regard to actually creating REAL jobs, rather than promise NEW GREEN JOBS... yet another faux distant promise.. there ARE and WILL BE no 'new green jobs'. The ones to do those are now just out of work.

the focus is pretty evident though...

But it is not enough for the organizer to be in solidarity with the people. He must also, said Alinsky, cultivate unity against a clearly identifiable enemy; he must specifically name this foe, and “singl[e] out”[44] precisely who is to blame for the “particular evil” that is the source of the people’s angst.[45] In other words, there must be a face associated with the people’s discontent. That face, Alinsky taught, “must be a personification, not something general and abstract like a corporation or City Hall.”[46] Rather, it should be an individual such as a CEO, a mayor, or a president.

Alinsky summarized it this way: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it…. [T]here is no point to tactics unless one has a target upon which to center the attacks.”[47] He held that the organizer’s task was to cultivate in people’s hearts a negative, visceral emotional response to the face of the enemy. “The organizer who forgets the significance of personal identification,” said Alinsky, “will attempt to answer all objections on the basis of logic and merit. With few exceptions this is a futile procedure.”[48]

Alinsky also advised organizers to focus their attention on a small number of selected, strategic targets. Spreading an organization’s passions too thinly was a recipe for certain failure, he warned.[49]

Alinsky advised the radical activist to avoid the temptation to concede that his opponent was not “100 per cent devil,” or that he possessed certain admirable qualities such as being “a good churchgoing man, generous to charity, and a good husband.” Such qualifying remarks, Alinsky said, “dilut[e] the impact of the attack” and amount to sheer “political idiocy.”[50]
Click to expand...

HatterDon · Feb 1, 2010

I still think both bailouts were ill advised and too rushed. I'm pretty sure I posted that upon both of them occurring. I do know that the banks have pretty much paid all of their TARP money back -- something neither you nor I thought would happen ever, never mind in a year -- and the spending on infrastructure and one-off events like cash-for-clunkers has had some effect on businesses. And, despite the fact that Fox always says that the market will cringe with every Obama announcement, the opposite has pretty much been the case every time.

Your problem -- at least this iteration of your problem -- is that because I criticize Faux News I must love everything Obama says and does. This is not the fact. I think he's done a terrible job in his first year, and I didn't want him nominated or elected in the first place. It seems to me that YOU posted that you thought a single-term Obama presidency might be best for the long run, and you did everything you could to echo the geek chorus that McCain wasn't a REAL conservative.

So, how do you like the last 13 months of Obama 1 rather than McCain 1? I don't like it a whole lot, and I have never said I do. That doesn't mean that I have to applaued Fox News and their orchestrated "grass-roots movement."

pettyfog · Feb 1, 2010

Except they didnt orchestrate the 'grass roots movement'. Beck didnt, believe me... I got a pretty good feel for his audience.. LOT of whack jobs but he's entertaining as hell. And has a lot of good points to think about. But I no more want him to 'lead' anything than I want Ron Paul, who also makes some good points, to lead anything.
Limbaugh might have inspired it indirectly.

It's real.

andypalmer · Feb 1, 2010

Don. Sorry, I've gotta agree with 'fog here. Beck didn't start the movement, though he certainly jumped on the bandwagon. Fox doesn't orchestrate them, but they certainly up their production for them. I do agree that the tone has turned from anti-government status quo to more anti-Obama, but really, the health care proposal was really really bad.

To cover my bases, I don't watch Fox news; I'm more of a CNN/BBC type of guy. I am Mormon though and have lots of conservative friends, so I'm pretty up to speed on Glenn Beck (who I'm not a huge fan of but I like him better than any of the others, though the times are few and far between when I listen/read his stuff).

Clevelandmo · Feb 1, 2010

I havent watched Fox news in a long time, but I dont recall them ever being as crude or disrespectful as the rest of the media has been about the tea parties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_protests,_2009

specifically, I'm referring to the "teabagging controversy"

The double meaning of the phrase drew criticism and mockery from MSNBC's David Shuster who on April 13, accused the protesters of "going nuts for it" and "whip[ping] out the festivities"; wanting to "give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending." He argued that "the people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right wing financiers and lobbyists." and that "the Fox News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves." He concluded, saying that "If you are planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey."[67] On April 13,[68] 14,[69] and 15,[70] MSNBC's Rachel Maddow made similar remarks. On April 14[71] and 15,[72] MSNBC's Keith Olbermann made remarks in the same vein, and on April 15, CNN's Anderson Cooper said "It's hard to talk when you're teabagging."[73][74]

On the April 16 edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart observed, "So, in our new world order, Fox are the hippies [for promoting anti-government protests] and CNN is The Man. What does that make MSNBC?" He then played a montage of clips of MSNBC anchors using the "teabagging" terminology and concluded, "Hours of scrotum-based humor. Oh my God! MSNBC is us! They're The Daily Show! Well what the fuck am I supposed to do?"[75]
Click to expand...

Oh and I heard a guest commentator on NPR's the Diane Rheam Show use the phrase in the same way when commenting on the movement.

While I'm sure there have been some tea party protestors who have gone too far with Obama Facism and other comparisons, I'm equally sure their numbers are exaggerated. If the tea party protestors are doing something illegal, dishonest, immoral, dangerous, racist or whatever just report the facts and let them speak for themselves. The major news networks are pathetic these days - I hardly see how Fox stands out in that regard but then maybe I should start watching it as much as Don apparently does.

[/quote]

pettyfog · Feb 19, 2010

Hatch Speaks. embarrasses self

SLTrib: 'Tea Party movement threatening to tear GOP apart'

Sen. Orrin Hatch has a message for the Tea Party movement: Work with the GOP or see conservatives lose more ground.

"If we fractionalize the Republican Party, we are going to see more liberals elected," Hatch warned a crowd of 300 at a town meeting at American Fork Junior High School on Wednesday night, amid jeers from Tea Party supporters.
Hatch blamed extreme conservatives for the 2008 defeat of Sen. Gordon Smith, a politically moderate but fiscally conservative Republican from Oregon.

Hatch said if the Tea Party had not backed a constitutionalist candidate in that race, Smith wouldn't have lost to Democrat Jeff Merkley, whom Hatch described as "the most liberal senator," by 45,000 votes.
Click to expand...

Except that the 'Tea Party' didnt exist in 2008. Those 'extreme conservatives' were well entrenched and equating them smacks of the NY Conservative Party in the NY 23 race.

A done deal by the time national tea party took notice and no matter what the media says, it was Republicans lost that one... not conservatives.

That's why almost everyone says the TP cannot indulge in 3rd party hubris.

Forum	Title	Date
Miscellaneous	Politics, yeeeech	Jun 6, 2010
Miscellaneous	Faith and Politics	Aug 1, 2008
Miscellaneous	Soccer & Politics meet in SLC	Jun 11, 2007
Miscellaneous	AlGore: 'too good for politics'	Jun 3, 2007
Miscellaneous	My Matchnight 'Politics and News' Parting Shot	Mar 23, 2007

All Politics is Personal

pettyfog Well-Known Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

andypalmer Active Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

andypalmer Active Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

andypalmer Active Member

Clevelandmo Active Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

Share This Page

About Us

League Standings

Useful Searches

All Politics is Personal

pettyfog Well-Known Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

andypalmer Active Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

andypalmer Active Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

HatterDon Moderator

pettyfog Well-Known Member

andypalmer Active Member

Clevelandmo Active Member

pettyfog Well-Known Member

Share This Page