Oh the one dimensional world of Lindsey Graham.
As most of you know, I am a resident of one of the most regressive states in the union. One of our Senators is up for re-election this year, and he's under attack from tea partiers for his lack of stridency, shall we say, relative to President Obama. He hasn't been caught on open microphone muttering 'You lie!' every time our President clears his throat or straightens his necktie, though they wholeheartedly believe that Obama lies in even those instances, when no explicit utterance is made.
Accordingly, Graham has been 'running to the right' in every public expression since this campaign began. (And let's be clear: in South Carolina, the only way TO run to the right is to face south, first. Otherwise you run right into the ocean.) There just isn't much 'right' left. And there is nothing wronger in politics than running 'right.' Nothing a clearer indication of LACK of character, of lack of integrity, of lack of civic conscience. Of civic consciousness. Even for a US Senator it is the clearest sign that the person is a follower, not a leader.
More below! But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
|
For those who would run right, the purpose of government couldn't be clearer - to oppose Barack Obama no matter what he tries to do. If he tries to do anything in government, it must be wrong by definition, and must be opposed. If his personal intent can be perceived, that must be opposed and contradicted, as well. If he unzips to go to the bathroom, Republicans must do the opposite and piss their pants. (This they do exceptionally well, in fact. And often!)
I'm writing about Graham because of an ad for his campaign that is running on Daily Kos. (Ads come from a service and are not subject to approval, or, from what I understand, possible refusal.) I choose to not hide ads because I click on them. I click on them all the time because I know it helps raise revenue for the site's important work. I know ads are odious (none more than Lindsey Graham’s), but the thought of them helping to pay to elect Democrats makes it worth it to me.
Here are two of the ads being run by the Graham campaign, as they display to me on Daily Kos. (Never fear, they are images only, and won't take you within dozens of miles of anything really affiliated with the jerk. Too, clicking them will only take you to Photobucket and won't generate any funds for Daily Kos, more's the pity.)
Stupid, misleading ad #1:
Stupid, misleading ad #2:
As you can see, to the question: Should South Carolina Opt Out of Obamacare, there are two buttons: Yes and No.
So it seems to have almost a polling function, right? One can click No and basically tell Team Graham to stick it up their collective patootie, right?!!! Well, no.
There is no polling opportunity. It makes no difference which button you click, you are taken to a petition on Graham’s stupid website indicating SUPPORT for legislation to allow states to opt out of Obamacare, while also offering you the ‘opportunity’ to donate to his campaign. Yeah, right. Even on his website it is posed as a ‘question,’ but something that has only one possible answer isn’t a yes/no question at all. Dishonest framing, huh.
Lindsey Graham is not a man who sees the world in black and white terms, like most simplistic Republicans. He sees it all in one color. And, if you see it differently, he doesn’t give a damn about your opinion. You can click no as much as you like, he isn’t interested. He is (in theory only!) responsible to represent the wishes of the citizens of South Carolina, but he isn’t about to do that, unless you agree with him in every particular. He doesn’t really care what you think, as he has no respect for you. You’re just a stepping stone to power to him. And that’s if you LIKE him.
The truly insidious thing is, South Carolina cannot ‘opt out’ of Obamacare. No state can. It is a sham issue for those who can’t be bothered to THINK. He speaks of sponsoring legislation to allow any state that wishes to to ‘opt out,’ but it isn’t any different from the many votes that have been held to repeal/replace/defund it, and it doesn’t have any better prospects than those cynical, futile, time-wasting initiatives did. It is to make his constituents think he’s doing something, when it is actually worse than doing nothing (which is his actual sole talent). There is nothing he wants to do to make government work better for the people, there is nothing he wants to do to achieve something in government. Never has been.
What a disgusting little cuss. (Feel free to say things about him in the comment threads, yes or no.)
On to tonight's comments! Collated and formatted by my great friend, brillig!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From gravlax:
So, I spend some time creating a diary and mmacdDE crystallizes the whole thing into a few pithy paragraphs that make all my bloviation seem excessive. Love it when that happens.
Aquarius40 flagged this comment by buffan.
R rugosa alba flagged this comment by Radical Moderate.
From BeninSC:
I saw this comment from Crashing Vor this am and made a note of it before I ever began looking after flagging comments. It follows the theme of Jed Lewison's fine diary on Chris Christie finding that Chris Christie committed no wrongdoing.
Flagged by AnnetteK is a comment not posted on Daily Kos, at least until AnnetteK transcribed it for us. Well worth the read, as it wraps up 'Christie-gate" quite remarkably! (So, this links to an AnnetteK comment, but NOT a self-nominated one! ::wink:: )
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 23rd, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) This is eloquent: by CwV — 120
2) I hope she has health insurance by rugbymom — 100
3) oh PUHLEEEEZE - Make this meme go viral! by dagnome — 94
4) I really enjoyed by psychodrew — 86
5) Thanks for the Very Personal Diary, Tonya by JekyllnHyde — 85
6) I am somehow certain that Chase processes by Christy1947 — 76
7) Oops, I read past this: by cai — 76
8) Oh Hai Whoknu! Sekritarmy Is Shocked... by leonard145b — 72
9) Now that's a righteous rant ;) by northsylvania — 67
10) Cool confidence by Amber6541 — 65
11) Now, how to get a Dem leader to say this out loud? by chrississippi — 65
12) And the Noah legend may come from this event by david78209 — 59
13) Oh, the biggest. by Crashing Vor — 58
14) The contortions it would take to maintain... by fToRrEeEsSt — 57
15) sekritarmy brings it's own stereo equipment by kerflooey — 57
16) "Education is not a business to be run. by Hammerhand — 56
17) this must be the same awesome precognition ... by this just in — 54
18) why I gots to get me one of them by annieli — 54
19) See, What Had Happened Waz... by leonard145b — 53
20) Romney again! by JeffW — 53
21) M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-O-S-E by aoeu — 52
22) Just another example of financial incest by NM Ray — 52
23) Too true by The grouch — 51
24) We'z cool! by KrazyKitten — 51
25) Number ONE reason I refuse to buy cable by Horace Boothroyd III — 50
26) Chase is the bank behind the Amazon Card by wilderness voice — 50
27) what's amusing is reading some of the howls by terrypinder — 50
28) Ancient America by Ojibwa — 50
29) Some are slow to learn the power of the internets by kerflooey — 50
30) Nathan Phelps is a HERO. by DeadHead — 50
Top
Pictures for yesterday, March 23rd. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!