Had planned a nice conciliatory diary that would've "gently/even-handedly" mulled over the faux pas committed by both sides of the Kill Bill if Bill doesn't reform side & pass as-is debate (& the various temporary GBCWs on both sides), but after the recent spate (read flood) of idiotic witch-hunting (or, is it snipe hunting?) going on against the Hamsher person & any of her suspected "fellow travellers"-I scrapped it.
Yah-sure, Hamsher is a tea-bagger like Obama's an Ayers'-like terrorist. Puh-leeze.
You're upset because many people have lost faith in the president's performance on issues-except in maintaining the status quo-so you go all McCarthy and launch a fun (& ultimately destructive) campaign to tie-in all progressive critics of Obama to palling around with tea-baggers.
Yes, Hamsher acted like an idiot in giving you a way to tie-in, or lie-in, her name with the tea-baggers.
That still leaves us with the question of Obama's performance as the nation's leader.
Sure, hmmm, sure. Hamsher is supposedly a tea-bagger bagged on a snipe hunt because her name is on the bottom of a letter with other liberals & a some nut-job teabagger icons. What? some people associated with her post here? They're tea-baggers, too. WTF, the idiot once posted a pix of Lieberman in black face? Well, she's not only idiotic but a racist also. So are the people who blog here that are connected with her. So are all critics of Obama-even the ones that worked their hearts and souls out to get him elected.
That's the type of gobbledy-gook squatting on top of the rec list & percolating in the comments section last night.
Why not just visit her site & jot all the names of posters there? Cross-reference that with posters here. Then check diaries here for who from there has posted here-& who from here has recommended diaries posted by people from there (I'm confused already). Calculate the # of positive vs. negative comments per person per diary-correlate that with postings from the primaries. Then, when you've finished with that in 2025, you have your list ready to go in front of congress with. Don't show congress the list-just mention the number. Waive your hands in the air for dramatic effect & do the hookey-pookey. Ignore Edward R. Murrow's skepticism-he's a teabagger as well.
Look, personally I don't know no Hamsher from a rat's hamster. Posting Lieberman in blackface was the type of thing racists do. Having her name on that letter is what it is. Purposing an alliance of some type with Libertarians of some ilk ( Markos the libertarian dem?) was just plain stupid in view of the aftermath from her critics (which she should've saw coming) lampooning her & all other progressives that criticize the president as "baggers on the left."
Posted comments nicely rec'd
"The baggers on the left have their own sayings, too. "O-BOMB-er" for one. It's funny. The right says "Obambi" because they see him as weak and apologist. The left calls him O-BOMB-er because they think he's hawkish and a warmonger apologist. It's great. Great stuff."
There are some who did not vote for Obama but pretend they did to get people to think they are moderates or liberals who saw the light and suddenly became racist birthers.
All the praise we were heaping on ourseslves for debating policy amongst ourselves while the baggers were reduced to name calling seems a little premature.
Deoliver, deaniac and now you: my heroes! For exposing this leftwing teabaggery. I knew something was amiss on this, but I thought it was just garden variety trolling. But the mofos were actually teabaggers.
The rightbaggers hate Obama because he's black. The leftbaggers hate him because "they're not heard" or he didn't do all their bidding -- that he wasn't their field hand.
I've been calling them Teagressives for a couple weeks.
I expect a strike soon. And then we'll start seeing crap over at FDL about the birth certificate and other wacky conspiracies
For all I know Hamsher could be a twit, or, a dedicated activist & true progressive. I don't much give an "Alegre HR" about her either way. She's not running this country (& no, she's not running around loose in my head either).
I do care about people here falling into the trap of using her as a scapegoat to deflect criticism that the president's leadership has largely been an epic failure so far-and then trying to lump-in all progressive critics of the president with her.
What's that screaming in my ear? Oh, you say-
he inherited a big-fat s@*t sandwich from George Bush? Crisis that no American president ever had to face before immediately upon entering the White House?
SO WTF WHAT?
WTF do you think leadership is about in a time of crisis?
Leadership proves itself solely by reacting calmly to crisis and taking it incrementally as the ship goes down? The main battle I guess is deciding how best not to kick the deckchairs the obstructionists are sitting in-while at the same time announcing you're clearing the deck chairs away from the aisles.
Or-is it that you think there is no crisis-no "fierce urgency of now" (in the way Dr. King meant it)?
Leadership shows itself by overcoming crisis-by dealing with the seemingly impossible. Not-not-not-by doing what is possible with the senate as it is. That's not leadership-that's sailing along to failure on the waves of the lowest mo-fo common denominator.
THAT'S JUST NOT LEADERSHIP.
Still, Obama is a GOOD president. That's not snark-that's the truth. He holds the job & performs his functions with 1000 times more the wit, intelligence & gravitus that his predecessor the buffoon (I mean George-not Dick) did.
He's good-but right now he's a million miles away from being GREAT. Obama is not a great president. He's fulfilling his role as president with class and dignity-but he's FAILING to rise to greatness by dealing forcefully with the various crisis at hand.
Man, he'd seem great if the economy he inherited was in good shape, we weren't at war, and if the "moran" that served before him had addressed the climate issue. But that ain't leadership-that would just be inheritance.
Leadership means you challenge the powers that be to solve real problems that threaten your people-that often means you make people do what they are resistant to in order to force the change needed for survival.
The people carelessly tossing around the name "left tea-baggers" & "teagressives" for all progressive critics of the president's policyies must realize they're painting themselves as "regressives." That is, fighting a losing battle to redefine progressivism to fit the middle-of-the-mofo-road leadership style of a president who could be great-but who is lost in the wait.
We face over-whelming odds in the senate against real change. We don't really have "60" votes. BlueDogs are in the enemy camp. Imbecilic Lieberman this & Lieberman that.
Look, I admit I don't have a 1-2-3 carved-in-stone prescription guaranteed to overcome that problem right now. Yes, its damn good I wasn't elected president.
SO WTF WHAT?
I'm not the President-the buck don't stop with me. Obama is the president. If he wants to be a great one-that's just one nut he unavoidably must crack.
"The fierce urgency of now" is now-not in the second term (which I'm sure he'll be re-elected to even as merely a "good" president).
This country needs this good president to start being GREAT yesterday.
-& elements of this blog need to stop trying to frame some elements of progressives as being what is keeping the president from being great &/or the cause of long-term national & worldwide problems we face. That's pathetic.
It is not any unrealistic expectations from the '09 election or some group-think of pony collectors-that make the president need to be great-it is the cacaphony of crisis he inherited when he became president.
-& happy holidays to you too dear sisters & brothers....