Letters to the Editor
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Speaking of the right wing noise machine
This guy is on MSNBC every damn day.
You just wait until 1996, then you'll see a real right-wing tyrant.
-- Pat Buchanan, just before he announced his candidacy for the 1996 presidential election in 1995
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/buchanan.htm
That's "quotes," plural. More at the link.
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Nice work Glenn
The link to the Rocky Mountain News article by Professor Campos was most interesting. After providing a well-reasoned op-ed piece, I was most interested in the comments afterwards from the caucasian warriors. Such vile responses strengthen the article's veracity by providing such a stark contrast. But it is illustrative of the degree of caucasian anger and hatred that is still here in this country. The politically astute conservatives are effective at using key words that utilize this anger and still sound respectable in the process. The less astute such as Instapunk and the hundreds of cyber-commenters out there aren't so astute and provide a valuable window into the soul of conservatism and what lies beneath the facade.
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Outrageous speech is fun
Liberals get so serious about these things.
Conservatives and other right-wing loonies have fun with outrageous statements. Rush Limbaugh is having fun. Ann Coulter is having fun. Pat Buchanan is having fun.
Until liberals can have fun fighting back, until they can have fun making outrageous statements, the right will retain its power. Liberals get so upset if something negative is said about them. Then they pout, "Why did they say those nasty things about me?" Liberals need to fight back, immediately. If a conservative or even the MSM says something negative about them, liberals need to immediately hit back. With a smile they need to say, "Chris Matthews, you are wrong. John McCain is senile." That kind of thing. Do not agree that McCain is a hero, do not say he has a pretty wife, etc.
Liberals need the same kind of snarkiness that characterizes the conservatives. That makes good TV. That makes good reading. That might get MSM attention and get liberal ideas out.
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Trying to keep up and taking action
English_roG: Great post.
Joe Klein's Conscience: Thank you for the Atrios tip. Now I have another blog to praise.
JeannetteD and LWM: I do like to thing time is on the side of reality and reason, which has a well-known liberal bias, but after the swift-boating of Kerry, I am saying "not this time" but looking over my shoulder just the same.
Glenn: I look forward to reading your book. Do you have any coda or call to action about how best to respond to these attacks?
I think the Colbert Report was such a tonic because satire combats self-importance so well (with the added benefit of laughter to diffuse tensions). But perhaps even more inspiring to me was Colbert's White House Correspondents Dinner address, where a liberal viewpoint hit the powers that be head on.
The problems moving forward with a strategy of information and humor is that few are as witty as Colbert, and liberals are almost never have a place at the table to make these kinds of retorts to the noise machines--as Glenn noted in the Charlie Rose post the other day. Our platform of blogs and Media Matters and Factcheck.org aren't deemed significant to MSM. Snark is derided as hate--the classic Rovian I'll-first-accuse-you-of-a-fault-that-I-perpetuate-so-that-you-can't-respond-without-being-a-sissy-that-says-no-you-are.
Oh, hell, maybe we should just start feeding the press bbq. Maybe that will get the truth covered for once.
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re: The Anti-Limbaugh, Mike Malloy!
There is an antidote for Rush Limbaugh! Tell your friends. Call your mother! His name is Mike Malloy, and you can hear him at the Nova M network.
http://www.novamradio.com/
-- Bill Owen
Thanks for the tip, bill.
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To: mountain girl
I think that you'll find that the humorists you cited are having fun because they are being well paid to indulge their hatefulness.
I pray that progressives never handle the important issues facing our nation with such moral abandon.
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RMP etc., Thanks.
@ 7:54 and @ 8:30, Aycharaycha.
RPM. Stop goading with goose feathers.
Aycharaycha. Ask bucky1 for a few bucks?
Oh my day, and hear me, O hear me, I not itch for a buck-kick-goad.
I could Not resist. I use to have a Gold Star and I do honestly recommend one.
Somehow I lost it? The non-Gold-Star user allows you to view the date-section.
I have not used The Date Service yet.... Actually, the Salon advertisements are fun.
There are some cute young seekers on the date-section who No want stinky geezers.
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@ Derbig re: OT NPR Tuesday segment
I listened to Tennessee Va Chaplain Thomas Phillips grapple with the toll of war segment and he is trying to do what Bebop/GC does for us, remember the horror of war and the ultimate sacrifice- death. He gets an daily email listing the latest deaths and has a hard time dealing with the reality of yet another family having to undergo the terrible day that a loved one will never again grace the family with his or her presence. He said that he wished that the names appeared in the corner of the TV screen while we were watching The Price is Right or House and then maybe we would slow down and reflect on war and what it really means to our nation.
Some print media periodically run pictures and PBS NewsHour consistently gives a brief glimpse of the Busheviks latest victims. The Busheviks prohibit coverage of the coffins that return to Dover AFB from Iraq and Afghanistan so that they and the American people will become apathetic about this tragedy.
http://tinyurl.com/2v4yj6
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mountain girl -
i couldn't agree more - the voters of tomorrow watch Colbert and Stewart - there is nobody more effective than bringin down the right wing noise machine.
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mountain girl
You want liberal snark?
You got it..
http://www.balloon-juice.com/
I get more laughs per hour at balloon-juice than anywhere.
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The ultimate media truth
Nobody gets rich touting the interests of the poor and middle class.
Conversely, there's plenty of big bucks to be made for defending the interests of the rich and powerful. There's so much right-wing cash spread around in this regard even the fringiest of the fringe can make a living. Even prospective college kids are on the payroll in a type of GOP farm-club system.
Liberals/progressives have no comparable infrastructure. We are truly amateurs.
As a result, what was considered kook-right stuff 20 years ago is now considered "mainstream."