calimary
calimary's JournalWell, considering the size of the ego of that pompous ass, you may have pegged it.
That wouldn't surprise me, either. You KNOW there has to be this alpha-male thing going on.
scalia: HEY YOUSE! I'VE been here since reagan! I have seniority! I am the senior partner here. Don't you pipsqueaks ever forget that! Do you NOT realize WHO I AM???? How DARE you overrule me! I am The Man around here! FIRST-Among-Equals-By-Acclamation in the Knuckledragger Club! Who the hell do you think you are, anyway???? You're not fit to kiss my hemline.
roberts: Well, not so fast, fatso. I realize I AM the Stupidest Supreme Court Chief Justice who ever came down the pike, since I couldn't even get the Presidential Oath of Office straight on Obama's inauguration day, even having almost two months advance notice to practice the damn thing. Be that as it may, I'm STILL top dog here whether you like it or not, fat tony, and even a broken clock is right twice a day. You got a problem with that? Go take it up with cheney and his pet dog bush.
Most interesting point. Watching his behavior lately is like watching a five-year-old throwing a
temper tantrum in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. He seems SUPER pissed about something. His ego can't take it when he's unable to steer the court his particular way? Another manifestation of the republi-CON "Sore Loserman"? I don't know.
However, I am pessimistic about pretty much everything that comes out of this court anymore.
Yeah, I know. But this IS kkkarl rove we're talking about. With him, I wouldn't rule ANYTHING out.
But he's very good at it. He's good at not leaving fingerprints. And unfortunately, we don't have enough people on our side who think like he does. That's the only way we can nail him. Think like he does and think around him. Then you might not be caught as flat-footed every time he pulls some new maneuver. His is a devious game. So we have to match him on deviousness in order to contain him and head him off at the pass. I don't think anyone on our side truly understands this. To most, it's - "oh, we CAN'T do THAT!!!! It'd make us just like THEM!" Well, I want to be able to beat them so soundly they don't come back to power for YEARS. That's the only way we have a chance to fix a few things. And our side is full of spineless people who cling to their precious feather dusters when it's time to go face the gun fight.
Actually, EFerrari, I do care about it. What I care about is - can this be used to get rid of him?
In THAT case, I care about it a lot. I care about it as far as it might enable us to stoke flames of opposition against him. Wouldn't it be beautiful if that were to turn his own party against him?
It's like getting Al Capone for income tax evasion. Nobody could touch him on anything else that he did that was FAR more heinous and criminal. He somehow skated away from all of that. It was some side issue that finally sent him to prison. YES you couldn't be more spot-on about all the other shit kkkarl rove has perpetrated. He's got the dirtiest hands in DC. And he needs for justice to be served, several hundred thousand times over. Starting with at least 500 times, for every vote Al Gore got in Florida MORE than george w. bush, and proceeding from there. Whatever the mechanism or fine print or minor detail might be that finally takes him down - THAT'S what I care about. And frankly, I think it's HIGH time somebody on their side gets slimed with sex, BIGTIME. Because I can get firmly behind payback, too. All the others seem to be able to get away with it. Whatever happened to larry "wide stance" craig, for example? Whatever happened to john ensign? ANYTHING???? Besides the usual chorus of crickets chirping, that is? Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it. And I would LOVE to see some of kkkarl rove's own toxic methods turned back around on him. It would be a great service to this country.
I've said it many times before - I'm as machiavellian as the next guy. And I'm not one bit ashamed to admit it. I respect your principled stand on this, but as for me, I don't freakin' care what methods are used to nail one of the bad guys. All I care about is that the bad guy gets nailed!!!! NONE of those other absolutely true crimes you list on kkkarl rove's ignominious ledger have stuck to him. He's skated away from it all - to fame and wealth and tremendous power.
Nobody's luck holds out forever. I am a Democrat too. And I happen to believe we need a few of those demon schemers working FOR us and against the enemy, not against us and benefiting the enemy. I don't think our side does NEARLY enough. And we wind up getting rolled again and again and again. This is politics. It ain't Sunday school. And because we insist on arming ourselves with feather dusters when we're forced into a gun fight, we wind up taking it in the shorts most of the time. These guys are on a roll now. And they HAVE TO be stopped if we love our country and what it stands for and what we all grew up believing in, about our country.
WHATEVER hurts him, hobbles him, or knocks him the fuck OUT of the game and OUT of power and into obscurity and impotence for the rest of his miserable life - I'm all for.
Murky as hell. But then again, you DO have to ask -
WHY did they want secrecy protecting their donors? WHY are they so adamant about keeping that a secret? WHAT are they hiding?
Remember the lessons of Watergate: Follow The Money.
So how could we find out? What kind of digging does this call for?
Well I think this is a GREAT idea! Love you, Malaise!
Some DUers really provide marvelous, informative, and much-needed posts, and it's really lovely to thank them for their efforts!
Love you too, A HERETIC I AM!
Love the Riker clip, btw!
"Empathy" is one word I REALLY want to take back.
It numbs my mind to try to understand why empathy is something bad. Empathy is a bad thing? Seriously? Why? Since when? I dunno. I just can't figure it. Makes no sense to me whatsoever, and it sure wasn't what I was taught that Jesus taught, when I was in Catholic school. It's like being told corporations are people. We're talking about something that's warm, giving, caring, gentle, non-aggressive, generous, open, and kind. Something that's human - you know, the creature with that sanctity of a soft-tissue beating heart to which you anti-choicers always cling with such rigid desperation and shrieking hysteria. Somehow all those things have been rendered subhuman, negative, disgusting, and just plain ol' evil.
But then again, just consider:
The people from the "takes one to know one" crowd who openly sneered at it, scoffed at it, and wiped their figurative muddy track shoes all over it were hideous excuses for human beings such as glenn beck and dick cheney.
Wow. Says it all right there. Exhibit A, may it please the court. We rest our case.
We ALL need to pound this. Pound it home! AGAIN AND AGAIN!
We can't wait for the people who really should be on top of this to do anything about it. So far they seem to get this NOT AT ALL. So WE need to lead.
The bad guys repeat shit, WE repeat facts. They repeat lies, WE repeat truth.
Hate to say it but it's GOT TO be "monkey see monkey do." We HAVE TO answer back. We HAVE TO respond. Every Frickin' Time!
And we HAVE TO hijack a page from their book for ourselves: Step one: MESSAGE. Step two: REPEAT STEP ONE. Step three: REPEAT STEPS ONE AND TWO.
I heard a discussion about this on the radio this morning. A bullying expert was the guest.
He said that, in his opinion, reality TV has a lot to do with the mood of the country these days. That producers and directors encourage anti-social behavior and bad attitudes and acting out and even fisticuffs and other physically-violent encounters because it makes for great TV and great ratings. That may indeed be part of it.
Like, for example, I wonder how many teenage girls assume that if they get knocked up during high school, well, somebody'll just give 'em a reality show and that'll solve everything! And they'll be FAMOUS!!!! And they'll make lots of MONEY!!!! YAY! Just like those pathetic miscreants on there now - I think one of 'em (some creature named Amber I think?) even got sent to jail or something. I do know for a fact that this was indeed something the Octomom assumed. She figured because she had a veritable litter of babies that she'd be able to support them just fine because somebody was surely going to sign her to a reality show! I remember reading this and really getting pissed off about it. She pointed to the whole "Jon and Kate plus Eight" show and figured - "well, I can top THEM! I'm gonna get signed any day now, 'cause if eight is good, 14 is BETTER! Fame and fortune here I come!" And what happened? NOTHING. She's rotting in some cheap suburb out here somewhere and just barely getting by, with all those kids running wild all over the place and poorly supervised and few if any friends or others to help her and she's forced to do porn and stuff to make a few bucks just to be able to go to the grocery store. I feel very sorry for the kids involved, since they never asked for this. But I don't have much sympathy for her. Reality shows are like fairy godmothers. They're not around every corner and very few people actually meet one, much less gain anything from such a meeting. And they don't just magically show up simply because one THINKS one is deserving. That only happens in the movies.
There's so much out there now in society at large that encourages and rewards bad behavior, and stiffs and scorns good behavior. The good guys are usually depicted as nerds or dolts or losers - the ones you laugh and sneer at. The bad guys are the cool hip edgy, even sexy ones who break the rules and cut the corners and beat up on people and terrorize and intimidate others, and get away with stuff. And that's looked on, in general, as something good, positive, admirable, worthy of imitation. I mean, look at Rihanna and how she just still gushes over that Chris Brown asshole - and he's a frickin' BATTERER! But it's so outlaw that it's just cool! And those assholes all grow up to be mitt romney and george w. bush. Except that most of 'em don't have that kind of money so they're just plain ASSHOLES.
Used to be I didn't like seeing the media get blamed every time something went wrong in society. Full disclosure here, I spent all of my career in the media as a reporter, news anchor, interviewer, talk show host, writer, producer, and sometimes engineer. But I no longer feel that way - that the media isn't to blame. It is. Especially since there are so many kinds of media, information brokers and brokerages if you will. Information could be factual or fictitious, print or broadcast or cable or web, news or entertainment, but it's information. Period. It's all input. Input coming at your brain, your eyeballs, your ears, your skin, your mouth, any way in that will cause a reaction or response.
And I think the over-arching messaging that seeps in through the pores is a get-rich-quick, confrontational, gimme-gimme, make-me-an-overnight-star-'cause-I-don't-wanna-have-to-work-that-hard-for-it, in-yer-face, stir something up, bad-is-better, raunchier-is-better, nastier-is-better, meaner-is-better, sneakier-is-better, provoke merely for the sake of provoking, crime does indeed pay - and pay BIGTIME, dumber-is-better, and certainly richer-is-better (and it doesn't matter how you got rich, either!). I think that's delivered via all kinds of in-flow, whether it's "American Idol" or Howard Stern or Chris Brown or "South Park" or the Kardashians or "Girls Gone Wild" or whatever sports bad boy it is this week or "Apprentice" or whatever-the-hell it is, ALL of that pushes it farther down the pop culture sewer pipe. When I was a reporter, I had a supervisor who wanted that envelope pushed until we ripped it up. His day was MADE if he'd driven into work in the morning and heard something used on his local raunchy "Morning Zoo" radio show that turned out to be ours. That was like the proverbial apple a day that kept the doctor away. You were golden all day long if something you'd left overnight for morning drive was used by Howard Stern or any of 'em - now I suppose it'd be Ryan Seacrest also.
It's what turned the cast asshole in any given show from the negative example into the hero. Eddie Haskell was never to be looked up to on "Leave It to Beaver." NOWADAYS? He'd be the freakin' HERO! He'd get his own spin-off series! His own action figure! His own video game! They'd give him a recording contract and a development deal and you name it. Then he'd become like Ryan Seacrest spinning off himself and other rude, nasty, in-yer-face or weasely, sneaky-ass, what-shitty-and-near-criminal-behavior-can-I-get-away-with characters into a host of reality and other shows ad nauseam, and he'd be an obscenely rich man.
That avalanche dumps all over us every day. I think over time it has, and has had, an effect on society in general, the pop culture, and the national zeitgeist if you will. Just my opinion. It's an industry I used to work in, and cover (AND apologize for), and I think it carries a lot of the blame.
Welcome to DU, Rosanna!
Glad you're here! This Anglo Californian thanks you for that perspective.
I'm just glad they understand who's got their back and who doesn't. At least I HOPE they do!
But I remain worried about how effectively all those negative ads can sway people. Especially people who aren't paying much attention and don't think it makes any difference. "Oh they're ALL ALIKE..."
But I'm glad to see this. It will be a cause for many sleepless nights among the bad guys, I hope.
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Oregon
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 81,220
